GROOVENET president Greg Kittelson (right) and GrooveNet member, FHM babe and girl gamer Sofie Garrucho posing with (l-r) Brian Mathew Ligsay, Alex Villafania, me, Pocholo Gonzales and Ed Geronia Jr. Photo by Jayvee Fernandez.

Greg and Sofie talked about social networking, virtual worlds and alter egos in hackenslash: the podcast, Episode 3: “Groove is in the Heart.”

Episode hosted by me, Jayvee Fernandez, Claire Chan and Alex Villafania, with T3 associate editor and former GamesMaster Philippines editor in chief Ed Geronia Jr. as guest host.

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OK, so our plastic swords didn’t scare IP e-Games president Steve Tsao, but what the heck, we had fun, heh. That’s (l-r) me, Steve and hackenslash reporter Alex Villafania. Photo by Jayvee Fernandez.

So, was there a sword fight? Not really, but what the hell, we all had fun coming up with hackenslash: the podcast, Episode 2: “Granado Plastic Espada.”

We tried our best to spring a surprise on the big boss of IP e-Games, but our little plastic swords couldn’t get the job done.

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ON JANUARY 16, I got my hands on a copy of The Burning Crusade, the expansion to the world’s most popular online computer game, World of Warcraft, and I haven’t slept as much as I used to since.

The expansion treats subscribers of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game to an increase in the level cap of player characters to 70 from 60; new spells for each class; new races; a new profession; and a new continent with its own unique set of quests, dungeons, monsters, and items.

So for the eight million that pay about $15 a month to play WoW, is Burning Crusade going to be worth their while? Well, for the active gamers, racing to level 70 will be a wonderful exercise, while for the more casual gamers there will certainly be lots to do in terms of quests, although instances might be difficult to get to unless you have close friends or “guildies” that will go along with you. The looking for group system that Blizzard introduced in December is still a flop, and if you’re one of those leveling up either an Alliance Draenei or a Horde Blood Elf, then you’ll be more reliant on higher-level players to help you out.

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IT’S alive! hackenslash: the podcast, the first podcast from INQUIRER.net, is now online. That’s me and Luna Cruz, producer of Anino Games. Photo taken by Jayvee Fernandez.

The first episode is co-hosted by me; INQUIRER.net executive editor and Infotech editor Leo Magno (who also happens to be the “Father of hackenslash”) and Jayvee, who is the b5media technology channel editor, the guy behind abuggedlife.com and the interactive media consultant of INQUIRER.net.

We’re proud to have Luna as our first guest. Also, listen to the podcast to find out why hackenslash reporter Alex Villafania was missing in action in Episode 1.

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FILIPINO mobile game development firm Anino Mobile bagged a major award in the recently held International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) in Barcelona, Spain on February 15, becoming one of the six top winners in the prestigious competition.

The company’s game Anima Wars won IMGA’s Best Use of Connectivity Award, as well as a corresponding $5,000 in cash. The event was featured on the IMGA website.

Anima Wars is a turn-based battle strategy game based on the classic board game Risk. The main goal is for players to use their armies to take over the stronghold of their enemies. What gave the victory to Anima Wars in the category is its unique “ghosting system,” which is a wireless connection capability that allows four other players to cooperate and fight another four players in a battle.

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