UCD Gateway Unveiled!!!!

International award wining architect Christoph Ingenhoven from Dusseldorf, Germany, has been selected as architect for the massive 13 hectare Gateway project on the UCD campus at Belfield, Dublin. Ingenhoven Architects were chosen after an international competition that drew interest from 62 firms from across the globe. The winning design was viewed and approved by the university’s Governing Authority.

The firm is best known for its new headquarters for Lufthansa in Frankfurt and the new European Investment Bank headquarters which is currently under construction in Luxemburg.

“We are delighted with the outcome of the competition,” said UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady. “The creativity of the design from Christoph Ingenhoven’s team meets the vision we set out to create a precinct of modern beauty which blends with the natural landscape of the campus and surpasses environmental standards for energy usage.

The winning design has proposed a new building edge on to the N11 frontage of UCD, which in turn will enclose a revitalised green oasis at the heart of the university. These circular green spaces will be bounded by a tree-lined belt walk. The newly laid out open space will be traversed by pathways creating stronger linkages between the various campus buildings. To help form the centre circles, the architects propose reducing the size of the existing lake and softening its edges.


(Pictured viewing winning Gateway architectural model: Architect, Christoph Ingenhoven and UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady)

Access to the green space and the wider campus will be through a dramatic new Gateway building. The new building forms are softened by echoing the curved theme of the landscape design. The buildings in the Gateway are linked at the centre by a 6 storey open air glass-covered roof over a new pedestrian plaza around which many new amenities will be clustered. The design takes Belfield’s geographical position into account with the mountains and prevailing winds to the south west and the elevation over the sea to the east.

Within the Gateway will be a mix of uses including: a culture and exhibition centre, cinema, hotel, student residences, office and retail facilities, crèche and medical centre. “The campus environment will be greatly enhanced by providing a cultural/entertainment centre for students which will also attract the local community and visitors from further afield,” said Dr Brady. “The new facilities will enable the university to expand its academic and non-academic conference provision and increase the out-of-term usage of the campus.” The central plaza will offer a dynamic and vibrant space for students, staff and visitors to the campus. The plan is to include 1,000 residences in the Gateway to augment the current student on-campus accommodation.

The extent of the Gateway will cover 13 hectares of the 132 hectare Belfield campus. Fronting onto the N11 it reaches south as far as Merville House, the UCD Innovation Park and incorporates the current location of the running track – which is being relocated to the sports section of the campus and the recently restored Belfield House. To the west, it allows for existing buildings including the engineering centre and those along the pedestrian spine stretching from the Quinn Business School to the science centre. To the north it includes O’Reilly Hall and links the veterinary hospital.



Ingenhoven architects are known for their innovative high-tech approach to sustainable building design and the proposal includes many innovative ideas in this regard.

The design – which is subject to planning permission – includes a proposed light weight arch extension to the N11 flyover. The new bridge design will provide a safer pedestrian environment at the entrance to the campus where people will be given priority over vehicles. The current surface carparks beside O’Reilly Hall and the engineering complex will be replaced with multi-storey and underground parking. This reclaimed land will become part of Gateway as green space in the beltwalk parks.

Green building design is central to the work of Ingenhoven Architects. The new Gateway complex integrates low energy and building control systems to reduce total energy consumption. Intelligent facades provide for insulation, natural ventilation and maximum daylight. Efficient lighting systems, solar and geothermal-backed conditioning systems and “non stand-by” technologies will also reduce energy demand.

The design is due to go on display in the university. The project will be self-funding and the university is currently in the process of inviting expressions of interest from developers with a view to forming a partnership. Until such time as this process is completed the university is not in a position to put a value on the cost of the project. The design allows for phased development and after planning approval, is expected to take several years to complete.

-Courtesy of UCD.ie

~The Damo

AVGN - Bart Vs The Nerd

A nice long 13 minute vid here from the Nerd, the Independence Day thing was just for his American fans.

Enjoy:


Now it's back to hell...I mean Wicklow for me....

~The Damo

Grinds My Gears!! - Issue 7

Yes I know it's been a long time, what with the AVGN posts and the Greatest of All Time and all that stuff, but now the time has come for the next round of GMG reports.

This particular one though has been boiling away for a while, slowly churning my insides, waiting to erupt in a spectacular explosion of rage, ruthless aggression, pimples, styrofoam cups and all inanimate objects I am willing to hit so long as I won't regret my actions moments later. For months I have been unable to express my rage and disgust at certain things but last Sunday the little ticker timer in my brain reached zero.

Who do I thank for finally letting me explode......

Well....more RTE SPORT to be precise, but the only RTE sport logo I could find was too small, and didn't give the dramatic impact of such a large logo that I wanted!

Anyway.... So what's my beef with RTE sport? Their coverage and broadcasting rights? No. Their dedication to every sport they can get their hands on? No. Their commentators and sports analysts? No. Wait. YES!! That's the one.

I'll start way back when this particular beefing was a mere cocktail sausage (don't fuck with me over the fact that a sausage is in fact pork and not beef alright!). Let me take you back to the summer of 2006. A fairly warm summer if I do remember, though definitely an infinite amount of times better than this summer. Yes weather, I will have a good grinding over you in time... What happened in the summer of 2006? My leaving cert? Yes. My last Gaeltacht? Yes. The happiest moment of my life? Yes. A solar eclipse? No. The Germany World Cup? YES!

Ah, the Germany World Cup. I was routing for Germany you know, even bought a jersey there when I was over for the Ireland match after the World Cup. In fact I'm wearing it right now as of 16:54 on July 17th 2007. Ah memories.

Anyways, the World Cup. Of course RTE had coverage rights to broadcast all the testosterone filled action right here to our own TV sets. But what pissed me off most? Bill O'Herlihy (sp?), John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady and co. What was wrong you ask? Well perhaps it was the fact that no team in the entire tournament was playing good enough. Yes that's right. At the end of every match, with the exception of the Final obviously, the lads were keen to mention how every team was playing poorly, below par football and what else. For me, this spoiled the enjoyment of the games as this would piss me off greatly.

But my disatisfaction with the lads didn't end there. Bring on the 2006/2007 Premiership title race. The contenders; Manchester United and Chelsea. What were the two key things this panel was concerned with? United's Cristiano Ronaldo and Chelsea's summer purchases bonanza. And who won the title and played the best football all year? Why Manchester United of course. Did the panel think that? Oh no. Chelsea were the best team, because they spent the most money buying players who ironically had no impact, if any, on the teams performance during the season. Cristiano Ronaldo was obvious the most overrated player of the year, and yet not only managed to win both PFA Young Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year, but also scored more goals than the entire Manchester City team scored at home. The lads never once acknowledged any of this fact, because they are anti-United.

Don't think for one second however that it stops there. Enter the world of GAA. And this my friends is the very reason I just had to write this blog. If the soccer panel is anti-United, then the GAA panel is most certainly anti-Dublin.

Last Sunday, the Dubs cruised home with a thrilling performance beating Laois in the Leinster Final. Dublin's third succesive Leinster crown I might add. What could be criticised about the Dublin performance? Well perhaps the bried period of about 5-10 minutes in the second half where the Dublin forwards went to sleep for a bit, but what did Pat Spilane suggest? That Dublin were the one team in the country that was the main example of the aggressive nature of the game. Two words stuck into one Pat, bullshit. The particular incidents he was referring to was Mark Vaughan throwing his fists in the air in front of a Laois player after scoring Dublin's first goal and Alan Brogan waving goodbye in front of the Laois goalkeepers face and then raising his fists in the air at the crowd.

What isn't mentioned is how these two incidents were provoked. The first, right after Vaughan scores, the offending Laois back tried to reef him as he was running away to celebrate the goal. The second instance was where two Laois players squared up to Brogan, and rather do the stupid thing of throwing a punch, Brogan did the slight less stupid thing of pissing them off further. This was also to the same Laois keeper that on two occasions cheated on the kick out when the referee's back was turned by taking the kick further away not on the required spot, which allowed for short unmarked kick outs which wouldn't happen under normal circumstances. These things can't be avoided, but actions like Brogan's and Vaughan's are brought out from the intensity of the game. To suggest that Dublin are the only team responsible is ludicrous. Remind me which two teams fought it out in the tunnel before the match....that would be Cork and Clare. And on which team did one player punch another much younger player to the ground during training? That would be Meath. Which team deliberately started their warm-up in front of Hill 16 in last years All Ireland Semi Final against Dublin? That would be Mayo.

See RTE, you're just pissing people off, if it wasn't for Tommy Lyons (former Dublin manager) in the Studio last Sunday, then all the country folk would have had a great lashing at the Dubs and their intimidating.

God it was good to get that off my chest!!

~The Damo

Greatest Games of All Time!! - Issue 4

This is going to be a slightly different blog. You see the first thing that is different about this one is that I'm going to review a collective series of games, the reason for this will be explained later as I go on. Secondly, the is the first of possibly 3 sets of games that I will be adding to the 'Greatest of All Time' list as honourary members, as these games have only come out in recent years and their respective series' are not yet complete.

Anyway, onto todays one, I'll be inducting into the Greatest Games of All Time Hall of Fame, the "Dragonball Z: Budokai" and "Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi" series.

If you haven't watched the anime, this might be a little heavy for you, so I'll do my best here. I'll be keeping out of events in the actual anime story as best as possible.

Dragonball Z: Budokai

Console: Playstation2 and Gamecube
Released: 2002 and 2003

The first game in the series was in Japanese only. The developers were unsure how the game would sell in the American and European market, so as a cheaper option, they added English subtitles for those editions in case they didn't sell well. However, they did. Resulting in every single sequel bearing the original English voice actors.

Story Mode
The Story Mode consists of 3D cutscenes adapted from the series (though more close to the manga than the anime). Unlike later Budokai games, the story mode is similar to most other fighting games (in which cutscenes occur between battles).

The story mode covers 3 Sagas - Saiyan, Namek, Android - and the player automatically collects capsules (or sometimes Dragon Balls) at the end of each battle. Depending on which episode is being played, the playable characters are Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta. At the end of every saga there are bonus what if episodes, and one plays as the main villain of that saga; Vegeta, Freeza and Cell respectively.

In Vegeta's storyline, Vegeta: Saiyan Prince, Vegeta and Goku then duel, and Vegeta defeats him with minimum effort, driven by the desire to avenge Nappa. Then Krillin and Gohan turn up, and Vegeta beats them separately. After the battle, Vegeta speaks to himself for a minute while Yajirobe sneaks up behind him. Vegeta hears Yajirobe, and, impressed by Yajirobe's bravery, offers him to become his next pupil. Yajirobe refuses, stating that he doesn't want to end up like Nappa. Enraged at being reminded of Nappa's death, Vegeta screams in anger, and becomes a Super Saiyan. The episode ends.

In Freeza's storyline, Freeza's Rage, Freeza successfully beats Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan in battle. He then succeeds in wishing for immortality. Blowing up Namek, Freeza returns to his spaceship, deciding to destroy Earth next. The episode ends.

In Cell's storyline, A Cold-Blooded Assassin, Cell attempts to absorb 17 and 18, and successfully beats 16 in battle. He then absorbs 17, but while attempting to absorb 18 Krillin jumps in the way, causing Cell to accidentally absorb Kuririn and lose a lot of power. Yamcha and Tien then show up to challenge the weakened Cell. He just manages to beat Yamcha, but he is then killed by Tien. The real Cell then wakes up in the middle of the Cell Ring, realising that it was a dream. The episode ends.

Gameplay
The gameplay present in Budokai was far faster than any similar fighting games of its time (and to date). No Dragonball Z game would be complete without the signiture moves from the anime, so all of these were incorporated into the game. The most basic combos such as Square, Square, Square, Square, Square, Circle would yield the basic signiture moves like the Kamehameha or Death Beam. Other combos like Square, Square, Triangle, Triangle, Circle would give the more powerful moves like Final Flash. Then the finishing moves were more complicated which I'm not going to try and spell out. There was also "burst mode" where two characters would simultaneously try to knock the other back, resulting in a fast paced close combat punchout.

All in all a good game, but much to be improved as was the case in it's sequel.....

Dragonball Z: Budokai 2

Console: Playstation 2 and Gamecube
Released: 2003 and 2004

This time, the game featured the English voice actors, but also utilised the cel-shading graphics, to make the game look more like the anime. In games like XIII, the cel-shaded graphics were used quite poorly IMHO, but the Budokai games improved and refined this flawless graphic engine.

Where Budokai 1 had characters up to the Android Saga, Budokai 2 has characters up to the Kid Buu Saga. It also removed 4 characters, Zarbon, Dodoria, Kid Gohan, and Android 19. Other differences are that Frieza and Cell no longer need to charge up to their most powerful forms as they are already in those forms. Unlike the previous Budokai game Goku and Vegeta can now charge up to their highest forms used in Dragon Ball Z. There are also new characters such as Tiencha, Gokule, and Kuriza (although Kuriza is just a costume for Frieza in the Japanese version of the game). These characters are achieved through fusion, a concept introduced in the anime during the Majin Buu saga and hence translated over into the game.

Story Mode
Story mode in Budokai 2 consists of a board game-like adventure called Dragon World. In this mode, you play as Goku and along with one or more allies, travel around the 9 different levels defeating enemies, and collecting items such as money, capsules or Dragon Balls. After you complete the game, if you have collected all seven Dragon Balls, you are able to make a "wish" which lets you choose one from three special capsules, which include Breakthrough capsules (these allow a player to use all of a character's moves and abilities at once), Fusion capsules, and Bulma costumes.

This story mode received harsh criticism. Whilst it was in some ways more enjoyable than its predecessor, it was very long, repetitive having to fight the same person and broadly unfaithful to the anime storyline.

Gameplay
The game maintained the impressive fast pace of its predecessor, but added in some nifty new features. The health bar was overhauled. In the previous game characters had 3 health bars, green, yellow, red, which got progressively worse the more damage you received. The problem with this was that all characters had the same health. To counter this, in Budokai 2, they introduced more health bars above the green one, blue, purple and silver I think. So in combat, if you were fighting a tougher opponent, he would have more health than you.

Unfortunately because of the story mode blunder and the exhausting habit of spinning the right analog stick, improvements still had to be made. Thankfully, this came in the shape that was the blessed Budokai 3, the epiphany of the Budokai series.

Dragonball Z: Budokai 3

Console: Playstation 2
Released: 2004

Story Mode
Story mode in Budokai 3 consists of a world map called Dragon Universe. In this mode, you play as 11 characters, travelling around the Earth or Namek in Dragonball Z's four main sagas: Saiyan, Freeza, Cell, and Majin Buu, and collecting items such as money, capsules or Dragon Balls. After you complete the game, if you have collected all seven Dragon Balls, you are able to make a "wish" which lets you choose one from three special capsules, which include Breakthrough capsules (these allow a player to use all of a character's moves and abilities at once), "Memories of ... Capsules", and Equipment Capsules.
The various characters are each unlocked by completing a required task within Dragon Universe. Example: Dr. Gero is unlocked by defeating Dr. Gero with Yamcha in the Android Saga.
The stories in the Dragonball Z universe change after the first time they are played.

Gameplay
Where Budokai 1 had characters up to the Android Saga and Budokai 2 had characters up to the Kid Buu Saga, Budokai 3 has characters from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z movie such as Cooler, Broly, Bardock, Super Saiyan 4 Goku, Gogeta, Kid Goku, Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta, Uub and Omega Shenron.

New mechanics
Ki (energy) - The Ki system is completely revamped from the past two Budokai games. Each character now has a base Ki level, Ki will increase/decrease slowly until it is at base Ki level. If Ki is higher than the base Ki, then a bonus in attack is acquired, and defense is decreased the further it goes below the base Ki. Transformations, now instead of draining Ki slowly, can increase base Ki, increase base attack power, and exaggerate said increases/decreases in stats when above/below base Ki. Additionally, auras have been redone, and now look very close to the auras seen on the anime.

Transformation - In the previous two games, a transformation gradually drained ki, and being knocked down with less than the ki level needed to transform would revert the transformation. In Budokai 3, a transformation will instead increase the base ki level, and is only reverted if a character is hit with less than one ki gauge, or if they allow hyper mode to run out. Additionally, some transformations (like Cell, Broly and Freeza's) are irreversible.

Fatigue - A new fatigue meter is added to the HUD, it increases during battle. It's most important during an ultimate attack, but if fatigue is maxed out, a character will become exhausted if knocked down with less than one Ki gauge full.

Dodging - By pressing guard just before being attacked, the character will dodge the attack completely, at the cost of a little ki

Teleport Counters - Before any attack connects, a character can teleport behind the attacking character and counter-attack at the cost of 3 ki bars.

Items - Item capsules can be equipped and used in battle. Items can only be used once, and have various effects ranging from increasing health to granting temporary Ki blast immunity. If a character is interrupted while trying to use an item, the item is lost.

Beam Struggle - If two beam attacks collide, instead of canceling each other out, a beam struggle is activated. The two characters rotate control sticks in order to push the two beams to one character or the other.

Hyper Mode - By pressing (L2), a character enters Hyper Mode. They turn red, and their Ki slowly decreases, as they lose the ability to block. In Hyper Mode, a character is immune to most weak melee attacks, if Hyper Mode is allowed to run out, the character is fatigued and loses any applicable transformations. Hyper Mode is necessary to start Dragon Rushes and Ultimate Attacks. Hyper Mode is rather wildly reviled by veteran players due to the constant drain, the fact that the user slows down, and how easy they become to avoid until they are out of Ki and left helpless by fatigue

Dragon Rush - If a character knocks another character away while in Hyper Mode, that character can start a Dragon Rush. A Dragon Rush is a three part game of chance, where both characters choose one of the four buttons. If the defender can pick the same button as the attacker, the Dragon Rush is ended, however, after each part, the number of buttons is decreased. If all three parts connect, the attacking character launches a powerful finisher

Ultimate Attacks - When in Hyper Mode, characters can launch powerful (and quite cinematic) ultimate attacks. Players use timing to stop a gauge just before it fills up. Depending on the results, the attack can have its power reduced, miss, or be sent back to the attacker. Fusion is also executed in the same way, but the mechanics for fusion are the same as they are in Budokai 2.

Fusion - While still performed the same way, and still providing infinite Ki, dance fusion now instantly ends when the timer runs down to zero (whereas in the previous game, dance fusion was only reverted when your character falls over after the timer runs out). Fusion is also executed in Hyper Mode, just like an ultimate attack.

Super Saiyan 4 - Goku and Vegeta can now transform to the Super Saiyan 4 level, changing their Kamahemeha and Galick Gun attacks into 10X Kamehameha and Final Shine, respectively. These attacks are also 72% stronger than their basic versions.

"Free Flight" - By holding up or down while doing a backward dash, characters can ascend and descend, where in the past, a player had to be hit into the sky. This is a helpful feature as larger characters have an easier time hitting smaller characters while others simply fight less effectively in the air.

This game was so well received because the developers went about improving the gameplay, as opposed to just improving the graphics and adding more characters. The video below is a review by some dude who works for gamespot I found on youtube, but he get's the point across well, and the moving visual aids will explain better in words what I've been trying to do for the rest of this blog.



And this one, though by some nobody, explains the whole transformation deal.




Moving on then beyond the Budokai series.....

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

Console: Playstation 2
Released: 2005

The game is not considered a part of the Budokai series of games, despite its misleading title. In addition to a completely different game engine, the game was developed by an entirely different company (Spike as opposed to Dimps). The game is also titled differently from the rest of the Budokai series in Japan. Were it a true Budokai game, it would have been Dragon Ball Z 4 in Japan. Speculation on the English re-title is that Atari chose to market the game as part of the Budokai series in order to capitalize on a pre-existing market of fans already familiar with said game series. The English version also uses a great deal of sound effects and background music made for the Budokai series.

Gameplay
The game is quite different from the often-compared Budokai series; it uses a "behind-the-back" camera perspective. Many fans say that the game feels like a combination of the Budokai series and the game engine from Idainaru Doragonbôru Densetsu for Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Although the engine is more like a typical third-person shooter, it doesn't take to long to master.

Also different from the Budokai series (and more of a throw-back to games from the Super Famicom era), there are no "in-game transformations." Instead, each form is treated as its own character, with varying stats, movesets and fighting styles, similar to Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors while free roam is similar to Dragon Ball Z Sagas.

This game also introduced new game modes:

Z Battle Gate (Story Mode)
The story mode of the game, Z Battle Gate, progresses similar to the story modes in previous games. Players can select battles from different sagas and proceed through the story of Dragon Ball Z. The battles are bookended with players are given an objective to accomplish (such as finishing the battle with a certain special move, or within a certain amount of time). The story mode branches out, allowing for a few battles that were not originally in the story. Dragon Balls can be found inside the destructible environment. After clearing some gates, an extra fight may or may not be unlocked. It also shows two new stories when the movie and Dragon Ball GT villains fight the Z-Fighters and a tournament which involves Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z characters.

The only problem with this story mode was that display was incredibly boring, and in some battle gates there were FAR too many individual fights.

Ultimate Battle
This new mode pits whichever fighter the player chooses against 100 characters. There are winning points and ranks in this mode. Depending on how the battle went, players get positive or negative winning points. However, if the player ends up with no winning points, the game is over and the player must start back at Rank 100 (the game starts off at Rank 100). Occasionally, a different fighter (always secret characters) will "break in" (interrupt the fight before it begins). Players get more winning points for defeating them, but lose more than usual if they do not defeat them. Also, if the player wins five straight normal fights, someone five ranks ahead will offer a challenge. Completion of this challenge moves the player five ranks up.

Playable Characters
Despite not being a part of the series, the vast majority of characters from the Budokai series once again make an appearance. Additional villains such as Zarbon and Dodoria from the first Budokai game (but not present in the two sequels) appear in the game's roster (though not present from the Budokai series are Supreme Kai, Uub, and Omega Shenron). Some of the characters making their first-ever playable appearances are Janemba, the Oozaru, Baby-Vegeta, and Super #17.

There are various classes of characters with special abilities that alter the battle:

Artificial Humans or Androids - Will not show on radar unless locked on to. Cannot charge ki (unless ki gauge is full, then may charge as normal to enter Max Power mode). Energy absorption models gain ki by absorbing incoming energy attacks. Unlimited energy models constantly replenish ki at a consistent rate. The gauge can also be filled as normal by landing successful melee attacks, just like any other character.

Large Characters (ex: Broly) - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks. The characters that have this "Brick wall" effect are Broly, Bojack, Super Saiyan 3rd Grade Trunks, Oozaru, Oozaru Vegeta and Android 16.

Oozaru (Great Ape) - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks, and cannot be thrown or hit with a Dragon Dash-type finishing move.

Scouter (ex: Bardock) - Can lock onto an opponent from anywhere using the scouter, however it takes a few moment for them to turn the scouter on and then begin looking around, but the scouter is broken when the character takes a certain amount of damage. The characters that have scouters include: Raditz, Nappa, Scouter Vegeta, Dodoria, Zarbon, Guldo, Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Captain Ginyu and Bardock.

Mr. Satan (Hercule in the edited FUNimation dub) - None of the other characters "flinch" when hit by his melee attacks. (not even another Mr. Satan)

In the game, a base character can have multiple "forms" to choose from on the character select screen (for example, Perfect Cell is a different "form" from 1st-form Cell, but they are both selected from the base Cell character). In total, there are 56 different "characters," with 90 different "forms" in total. The game had the largest roster of playable character in the franchise's history until Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Though this game was far more enjoyable than any of its predecessors, the problems with the story mode as well as not being able to transform (which was a key part of its predecessors) meant that improvements could be made.

Thus we had....

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

Console: Playstation 2 and Nintendo Wii
Released: 2006

Gameplay
There are 129 playable characters in most versions of the game and 135 in the Japanese and PAL Wii versions. All characters featured in the previous game are available in this game as well.

Battles can now involve up to ten characters fighting one at a time on the battle field, with one teammate coming in after the other has been knocked out or when the player wishes to switch to another fighter. This is referring to Free Battle options.

Most versions of the game have 16 large arenas (11 of which are taken from the previous Budokai Tenkaichi game). The Japanese and PAL Wii versions have 17 with the inclusion of a new space level, and 9 game modes.

The game also features in game transformations, in addition to being able to choose to play in a transformed state from the start. In order to transform, you must press R3 (1 on Wii) and Left/Up/Right to select the form you want. One may also press Down + R3 (Down + 1) to revert back to their original state (Only transformations that have shown that they can be undone in the anime can do this).

Fusions can be performed in-battle as well, and it is performed the same way as tag teams and transformations except that you have to press L2 (Z). Fusion can only be done in Tag battles and Free battles, and the player must have the suitable character as a Tag partner. For example, base Goku and Vegeta (second form) to form Vegito. If that fused character has a second or third form, you can press R3 + L2 + Up (Z + 1 + Up) or Right to transform into that different form. A customizer has been made to change the characters.

The Dueling Mode features a 'Battle Settings' option, where you can adjust the dueling time, COM difficulty level, and set the In-Game Transformations on or off during gameplay.

The Wii version of the game features a unique control scheme using the Wii Remote. Using the motion-sensing controller, players are able to control their fighters by carrying a Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination and mimicking moves from the series. Players are able to choose whether they wish to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, or a Nintendo GameCube controller.

Dragon Adventure is the main mode of the game which covers Dragon Ball Z to Dragon Ball GT, also including many of the movies. The outcome of the battles in the mode changes the course of the story. In this mode, new powers, characters, and "what-if" type scenes, similar to the ones in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai are unlocked. The player uses a character around Earth and Namek looking for Dragon Balls, skill capsules and opponents. (Much like Budokai 3)

The Ultimate Battle Z mode uses a system in which the player selects a type of battle and progresses up a pillar, similar to the system used by games in the Mortal Kombat franchise. Each pillar has a specific theme and condition. By beating a pillar, the player earns a score, items, and more pillars.

Here are two videos of the gameplay involved in Tenkaichi 2:




And....



So, with all that said can you guess what's coming up next??? Hmmm.....

Could it be Tenkaichi 3????

Yes, November this year see's the release of what has been described by Atari as the penultimate of the series.

Phew....

~The Damo

Metal Gear Solid 4 News

Sadly, we recently learned at E3 2007 that MGS4 has been put back from its late 2007 release date to now early 2008 date, no later than 31st of March....hmmmm.....perhaps my birthday!!!

HOWEVER......as we well know, Hideo Kojima and his team never disappoint at E3, so instead they showed us the first ENGLISH trailer of the game (see below). We also get to see more of Raiden in action as the cyborg ninja and the return of a fiendishly immortal character from Metal Gear Solid 2. Anyone order some blood???




The other great news is that it is
still PS3 exclusive!!! Take that Microsoft!

Some quick PS3 news then. The price of PS3's will be dropping significantly soon. After the cataclysmic failure of loads of Xbox 360's worldwide, Sony has announced that the PS3 price will drop. Maybe to dominate the market....hmmm....who knows....

~The Damo

New Seven Wonders of the World

A few weeks back I wrote a short blog about the voting on the new list for the Seven Wonders of the World. The results were announced on the 7th of July so here are our new wonders:

Chichen Itza
Yucatán, Mexico

Christ the Redeemer
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Great Wall of China
China

Machu Picchu
Cuzco, Perú

Petra
Jordan

Roman Colosseum
Rome, Italy

Taj Mahal
Agra, India

Great Pyramid of Giza(Honorary Candidate)

Cairo, Egypt

~The Damo

AVGN - Independence Day!!!

The Nerd's first Playstation review!!! YAY!!!!




Now we need a bowl of steam, the glass hammer and some elbow grease!

~The Damo

Genius!!

Saw this video on Ebaumsworld and thought it was the greatest thing ever, sad I know but you gotta love it!



~The Damo