Cosplay
The Cosplay of NYCC (Part 1)
This Blue Dragon 'Shu' Mascot Is Really Creepy
The Cosplay of NYCC (Part Two)

Culture
Square-Enix Brings Toys, Not Games, To NYCC
Michael Buffer Gives A Wii To The Best "Rumbler"
Now Is Not The Time To Be Selling $1000 Halo Costumes
The Gaming Swag of NYCC
Activision's Green Screen A Hit At Comic-Con
A Look At The Gaming Booths From Comic-Con
The Best Way To Play F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
This Is Entirely Way Too Much Pac-Man Stuff, Namco

News
New Wolfenstein Features Otherworld

Previews
Prototype Preview: Slick, But Not A Stand Out
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Preview: A Bloody Good Time
Battlefield 1943: Pacific Preview: A Much Needed Upgrade
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Preview: Don't Cross The Streams
inFamous Preview: Ride The Lightning
Sonic And The Black Knight Preview: It's Probably Not For You
Velvet Assassin Preview: Metal Gear Lite
Red Faction: Guerrilla Preview: Search And Destroy
A Quick Look At Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao
A Quick Look At Bomberman Ultra
90 Minutes With GTA: Chinatown Wars

We got a look at this contraption a few weeks ago at a Gamestop in NYC, but now we're finally able to see everything.

The chair gives you real-time feedback on your heart rate and something the rep on hand said was a "tension meter" that somehow is able to determine how tense you are while playing.

Namco brought, well, everything from their Club Namco online store to the show. I really, really wanted one of those Pac-Man plushy hats, but it turns out I have to eat this week. Bummer. I also saw some glorious looking Katamari shirts as well.

My favorite pieces were the ice sculpture Slimer and the Ready 2 Rumble Revolution min-ring. Thank you, Atari, for spending some money on the show! The rest of the publishers mainly just had boring, ordinary looking kiosks set up. EA, of course, had the biggest space and the most playable games, meanwhile Hudson had like 15 feet of one wall.

Before being photographed you would select from five different backgrounds, four from Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and one from X-Men Origins: Wolverine (pictured after the jump). After striking your pose, you were then given a card with a unique code and two url's on the back that you'd go to and enter online to see your photo.

I also got my picture taken, but I'm still having trouble figuring out where to go online to redeem my photo. The websites on the back just direct you to the game's official web page, and I see nowhere to enter my code. If anyone else did this, let me know because I want to see mine!

While there wasn't the amount of free gaming crap that you can find at, say, E3 or TGS, there was still plenty of stuff to fill your bag. Rockstar Games had the most, with stickers, flyers, and t-shirts for Chinatown Wars. Sega had shirts for The Conduit, Mad World, and House of the Dead: Overkill. EA even put up the cash and gave everyone a cardboard poster carrier with a strap!

But my favorite piece of swag has to be the autographed Mad World game cover by Shigenori Nishikawa and Atsushi Inaba from Platinum Games. Closeup after the jump!

What Is it?
It's the same Bomberman Live game that was released for XBLA, but now for PSN and with all the extra download packs included.

What we saw?
The demo they had featured a few different selectable maps for anyone to come up and jump right into. There were Hudson staff on hand to help out anyone who was confused about why people were supposed to blow each other up.

How Far Along Is it?
The game is done and comes out at the end of February.

What Needs Improvement?
Well...: At this point in Bomberman's life cycle, it's hard to fine ways to make the game even better.

What Should Stay The Same?
Customization: The say you can customize your own Bomberman with over 150,000 possible combinations. I couldn't examine the extent of the customization at the demo, however.

Pick-Up and Play Approach: The game is really easy to jump right into. I noticed several people, mainly kids, just come up and pick up a controller and get right into it.

Final Thoughts
Uh, it's Bomerman. I can't say I've experienced the multiplayer before in a way that people would be jumping in and out. It was quite fun. I could see this maybe making an excellent party game just to have out.

What Is it?
That's what I wanted to know, too. You play as Han Tao and you're looking to reclaim you Star of Destiny. It's a 2D brawler where main objective is to battle waves of enemies before moving onto the next stage. It takes after those 70's Kung-Fu flicks, so it's purposely very campy in that way. There's even a film grain overlay (which is hard to see) which gives it a bit more authenticity. It's suppose to be over-the-top in not only their moves, but their actions and animations.

What We Saw
Namco Bandai was showing off two early stages on at their booth for the XBox 360. The demo took about 10 minutes to complete.

How Far Along Is it?
I'm told it is "close to beta," but the expected release date is this Summer.

What Needs Improvement?
Inside Levels: For now it seems most of the time you're either fighting outside or inside this cave area, but not inside any temples or places of worship.

Trophies?: What is with developers not being able to confirm trophy support? There will be achievements, but trophies? Namco Bandai still doesn't know. How hard is it to simply take the Achievements and move them over to PSN for Trophies?

Co-op?: Still not confirmed, but I imagine some type of multiplayer will be added.

What Should Stay The Same?
Tight/responsive controls: The controls feel good. Real good.

Level interactivity: Han Tao can interact with the level by swinging on tree branches or picking up barrels. These are all indicated by turning a faint red when standing nearby.

Final Thoughts
It's a fun little game. It would be even more fun with your buddies. The difficulty is what I'm mainly interested since the demo was a little on the easy side.

Click the jump for the rest of the batch!

Here's a run down of the posts filed so far from the event:

Prototype Preview: Slick, But Not A Stand Out
New Wolfenstein Features Otherworld
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Preview: A Bloody Good Time
Battlefield 1943: Pacific Preview: A Much Needed Upgrade
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Preview: Don't Cross The Streams
Square-Enix Brings Toys, Not Games, To NYCC
inFamous Preview: Ride The Lightning
The Cosplay of NYCC (Part 1)
This Blue Dragon 'Shu' Mascot Is Really Creepy
Sonic And The Black Knight Preview: It's Probably Not For You
Michael Buffer Gives A Wii To The Best "Rumbler"
Velvet Assassin Preview: Metal Gear Lite
Now Is Not The Time To Be Selling $1000 Halo Costumes
Red Faction: Guerrilla Preview: Search And Destroy

Check back tomorrow for the remainder of his coverage.

What Is It?
Red Faction: Guerrilla is the third game in the series from Volition. This is a somewhat substantial change to the series has the first two games have been from the first-person perspective. The story takes place about 50 years after Red Faction 1 and 2, and takes place completely on the surface of Mars. Not in the mines. It's more of an open-world game where you can walk or drive anywhere at anytime. The big hook in this PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game is that every single building and environment piece can be destroyed.

What We Saw
I timed 10-minute single player demo on the New York Comic Con show floor.

How Far Along Is it?
The demo was in alpha form with the full gaming coming this June to the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

What Needs Improvement?
Emptiness inside you: Since all the buildings are destructible, they aren't really filled up with anything. Most of the rooms are completely empty of furniture. In fact everything I noticed that can be blown up is basically hollow.

No Digging: Unlike previous games in the series where you could burrow a hole for seemingly ever and ever, Guerrilla makes it so you can't get down and dirty.

Jumping: While the controls in general are fine, I found the jumping to be just a little wonky, especially when going up alongside a steep incline.

What Should Stay The Same?
Geo Mod 2.0 – The level of destruction is just awesome. Nothing really implodes the same way twice. Ever. I spent most of my time simply throwing remote mines on different areas of structures and detonating them to see the varying result.

Stay down!: What I love probably more than anything else about this game is that anything you blow up stays so the entire game. The only buildings that reform after time are story-based ones. But everything else stays in pieces.

Graphics – You might not notice it right away, but the look of this game is really crisp and colorful. Volition did a great job with this.

Final Thoughts
Probably my surprise game of the show, if I had to pick one. I like the changes they did to the series and it seems like I could spent a lot of time blowing stuff up! Oh, there's a pretty good game here, too. I really hope Volition decides to do a demo before its release.

I saw plenty of homemade Master Chief costumes this weekend that looked just as good and at probably 1/10 of the cost.

I just hope none of you actually bought one of these.

What Is it?
Velvet Assassin is a third-person heavily stealth focused PC and Xbox 360 game from Reply Studios. The story follows Violette Summer, a World War II spy who's actually in a coma in a hospital. You're sort of re-living her past events in her mind trying to piece her story back together.

What We Saw
The first two introductory levels for the Xbox 360 on the New York Comic-Con floor. The demo itself took between 15 and 20 minutes to complete.

How Far Along Is it?
The demo was from an alpha build. The game is coming out April 14th for the Xbox 360 and PC.

What Needs Improvement
Gunplay: Aiming and shooting can be a hassle. While I was told they're still making some tweaks for the final game, it seems like it should be an entire overhaul. Violette aims slower than a jar of molasses and it's very hard to aim specific areas of enemies.

Stealth Positions: For a stealth game, there sure aren't a whole lot of options. Violette can only crouch and crouch-run. You can't lie down fully, hug walls, or even crawl.

What Should Stay The Same?
Glow: Violette will have an outer blue-ish glow emit from her as she nears cover. This adds a nice visual touch and will help stop you from constantly thinking if you're in someone's detection line.

Realism: You will die. A lot. You only get a few hits before you drop and most close-range attacks kill you instantly. Don't expect to charge at the enemy and live.

Environments: The environments in this early demo were really full and lush looking. Lots of great color and dynamic lighting can be seen through each area.

Final Thoughts?
There aren't a ton of heavy stealth focus games made anymore. The Velvet Assassin levels I played weren't very complex and more pretty straightforward. Hopefully the final game sees more variety in the way you can approach sneaking around and taking out enemy guards rather than being forced down one path.

Atari reps screened over 100 applicants and thankfully only picked the 10 best to go head-to-head in front of the crowd. As you can imagine, they were all really terrible. I'd say maybe one or two even had voice, while the rest just went up there and screamed into the mic. The winner, a guy from Brooklyn with the words "I Drop Hot Shit" on the back of his shirt, received a Nintendo Wii, a copy of Ready 2 Rumble Revolution, and two tickets to see an upcoming fight at Madison Square Garden.

Pictures after the jump!

What Is It
Sonic and the Black Knight is a fast-action Wii game that mixes going really really fast with some action mixed in. It's basically an on-rails shooter where you have to mix acceleration with dodging and attacking. The story picks up after Sonic and the Secret Rings.

What We Saw
I played the first level of the game on the show floor of the New York Comic Con. The demo was from the final build and the total time to complete the stage was around 5 minutes.

How Far Along Is it?
The game is done. Gold, actually, and comes out this March.

What Needs Improvement?
Difficulty: Maybe I'm just really good at video games, but I never ran into an issue with dying. I don't even think I even played very well. I didn't get a good handle on the controls and was running into almost everything and still managed to take out the end boss without dying once.

Stage variety: There's 13 cities, each with three or four levels. Will they play differently? There will be new obstacles to dodge, such as spikes, shooting lava, and rocks, but what else?

What Should Stay The Same?
Sense of Speed: Sonic goes really fast in this game, and luckily so does everything else. The framerate is quick and up to snuff.

Controls: There's not a ton of waggle movement going on here. A simple swipe slashes your sword to thwart upcoming traffic. Since it's mostly on rails, you only really need to hold up. Very simple.

Final Thoughts
I obviously would have loved to play this more. The demos they were running didn't last very long. It's clear from not only playing this, but talking to the Sega people as well that this game, and series, is for a different, younger generation of Sonic fans.

I'm not sure what it is about "life-like" Anime mascots. Maybe it's the blank stare or the irregular combination of human and cartoon anatomy, but I can't help but feel weirded out all the time.

I actually challenge the Shu-wannabe to a game (which I knew nothing about), but it turns out the person inside the constume doesn't know how to play either. Shame.

I have a few favorites. I like the Wreck-Gar mask for the fact that it's Wreck-Gar. Probably one of the most unpopular Transformers ever. I also liked the guy dressed up as Hulk walking on stilts. Speaking of things I dislike, you know how many Keyblades I saw over the weekend? Far too many!

Click the jump for the first batch.

At least these were new toys. On display were action figures and statues from Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core, Star Ocean, and of course, Kingdom Hearts. Although, I bet most of these are already available in Japan. You don't even want to know how many times I heard "Oh My God! Final Fantasy!" while standing there.

What It Is
Battlefield 1943: Pacific is a download only, multiplayer game for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The game, while new, is essentially a high-def remake of Battlefield 1942, and focuses more on pickup and play style gameplay. This is the first public demo available for fans to play.

What We Saw
One multiplayer map on the New York Comic-Con show floor at the EA booth. Gordon Van Dyke, associate producer at Dice, was on hand to first show me through some of the new features for the game before I messed around with it.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is scheduled for release this summer with an expected price point between $15 to $20. The download size of the game will be around 350MB

What Needs Improvement
Unlike previous Battlefield games, Pacific only has three unit classes: Infantry, Riflemen, and Scout. Gone are the Medics and Heavy weapons classes. Van dyke explained they wanted every class to be able to fight in every situation. Every class has weapons to fight against the biggest tanks and armor. I would like to have seen more classes with varied abilities and risks.

Also, players have auto-health and unlimited ammo. I find auto-health to be too simple and easy and unlimited ammo means players will be firing without thinking. That will probably mean no more knife fights.

What Should Stay The Same
The destructible environments were a breath of fresh air for me. As someone who played a ton of the original 1942, nothing was more infuriating that driving into a tree and getting stuck. Now, I can run them all over and blow chunks of buildings away. Van Dyke said the game has about the same amount of destruction depth as Bad Company.

I also liked the upgraded graphics. While the original 1942 was fine graphically, 1943 Pacific adds more detail, physics, shadowing, and overall effects. It's very clean looking and stays true to the original maps.

Final Thoughts
I really had no idea what to expect from this game. I was presently surprised to see my favorite online game ever get a much-needed upgrade. The one concern I have is that this won't seem like a completely new, full Battlefield game. There won't be as many maps in the final game and the focus on casual play has me worried. Van Dyke wouldn't specify, but he said if this Battlefield gets a good reaction from fans, Dice might consider adding more and more content down the road.

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