By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

THE NEXT two days will be a pretty long vacation for most Filipinos who will be visiting their dead during All Saints Day and All Souls’ Day. It’s going to be a four-day long weekend and for most, it will be a time to relax and catch up on some oft-put-off activities. For some giddy gamers, though, four days of doing nothing other than praying for the souls of their dead could be boring and it may be time for them to catch up on the video games they missed for the past few years.

Just to stick to the season, here’s a list of video games you could play during Halloween. Basically, all of the games listed here are in the horror-thriller genre so if you’re easily frightened by the idea of ghosts and goblins, better play something else.

Resident Evil 4 (GC, PS2, Wii)

Of course, the big daddy of all survival-horror games would be on top of the list and its latest incarnation is perhaps the best. RE4 has been modified from the original gameplay but it has sincerely kept the goal of getting past and surviving undead and frightfully malevolent creatures. RE4 is a cross between a third-person shooter and an adventure game. You play Leon Kennedy, one of the survivors of the Raccoon City incident that created zombies. His goal is to save the daughter of the US president somewhere in Europe. The storyline, while very basic, is still engrossing as it mixes up some elements of drama and romance (between Leon and another character, Ada Wong).

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

DESPITE the explosion that rocked the Glorietta 2 mall in Makati City, fantasy fans could not pass up the chance to meet their fellows to celebrate the fifth New Worlds Philippines Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. Luckily, the Glorietta mall was open last Saturday and the members of the different science fiction and fantasy communities were there to ensure it was a success.

The event was held at the Activity Center of Glorietta, well within the visual range of the now-closed Glorietta 2 section. Nevertheless, the site — and the smell of burnt stuff — did not bother the participants who came in with their treasured toys and costumes.

Rej Layug, one of the organizers of NW5. said they were afraid the event would be postponed due to the explosion that rocked the mall on Oct. 18. “But the mall administrators promised us that the Activity Center will be open on that day.”

Here’s a video of Rej giving an overview of the event while in full costume as a Star Wars scout trooper.

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By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

THE ATENEO de Manila University here hopes to soon offer a full-blown degree program in game development, school officials have said.

In the past few years, the university has been offering a variety of programming courses and other subjects related to game development. But come 2009, the university hopes to “string them together” into one degree program, said Ma. Mercedes Rodrigo, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) of the university’s School of Science and Engineering.

Rodrigo said Ateneo is working closely with local game development houses, who, in turn, are giving them ideas about the technical and non-technical skills required by the industry.

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By Erin Chupeco, hackenslash Contributor
INQUIRER.net

PICTURE this: you are a recently orphaned student who has just enrolled into Gekkoukan High — a prestigious establishment that seems normal by all outward appearances — that is, until the stroke of midnight, when the world literally changes. People are transformed into “coffins,” to protect them from hordes of enemies called Shadows that patrol the area, seeking fresh meat to feed upon. Fortunately — or perhaps unfortunately — you are one of the chosen few with the ability to summon Personas; entities that are a part of your character’s psyche, that can be used to combat these Shadows. You are, however, the only one in the student body to switch and use multiple Personas in combat, granting you leadership of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, formed to defeat the Shadows once and for all. And it only gets weirder.

In terms of storytelling and plot concepts, Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is a revolutionary breakthrough, playing and telling its story like no other franchise to date. While players do not need to be aware of previous Persona installments to understand the game, fans will find a few similarities in the game with its predecessors.

Optimism, rainbows, puppy dogs, and general happiness; these are not necessarily things that you will find while playing Persona 3. The game presents different complex concepts, raising issues like the psychological implications of sanity, paradigm shifts, and even mock “suicides” — most of the characters for instance, can only manifest their Persona during battle by pointing an Evoker (a gun-like weapon made to force Persona out of one’s soul) to their heads and pulling the trigger.

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By Hiroko Tabuchi
Associated Press

TOKYO, Japan–Fresh off bumper earnings, Nintendo Co. ruled out a price cut for its smash hit Wii video game console Friday and announced the company will being selling the Wii in China next year.

Profits at Nintendo have surged on the runaway success of the Wii and the portable Nintendo DS machine in North America, Europe and Japan, forcing rivals Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. to slash console prices in a desperate catch-up bid ahead of the holiday season.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the company was struggling to meet demand of the Wii and a price cut was out of the question. The Wii sells for $249.99 in North America, €249.00 in Europe and 25,000 yen in Japan — all less than Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

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