Recently in hackenslash TV Category

HACKENSLASH/INQUIRER.NET reporter Alex Villafania, INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla and I caught up with Level Up! International Gameboss Ben Colayco on the first day of Level Up! Live at the World Trade Center. Here's Alex interviewing Ben, who shared that the company will launch at least four new games in the Philippines next year through Level Up! Inc. Ben also said the Philippines remains their biggest and most important market. Level Up! International has offices in the Philippines, Brazil and India. Video taken by Erika. For more videos from INQUIRER.net and our partners, go to iVDO.

HERE'S hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania interviewing Level Up! CEO Jane Walker during the first day of Level Up! Live at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Video taken by INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla. Want more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners? Visit iVDO.

WAS at the World Trade Center this afternoon with hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania and our new multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla to cover Level Up! Live. One of the treats for attendees was the chance to play around with the early beta version of Ragnarok Online 2, the much-anticipated sequel to the title that launched the online gaming craze in the Philippines. We asked Level Up! Inc. Ragnarok product manager Carlo Ople to give a demo of RO2 while Erika interviewed him and took video footage, and Carlo was more than happy to oblige. So here's a taste of RO2. Want more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners? Visit iVDO.

CHECK out this Animax Fashion-Ability promo trailer from our partner Animax and find out how you can get the chance to make it big in the fashion industry. Go to www.hackenslash.net/fashion-ability for more details and to send your submissions. And visit iVDO for more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners.

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. With the promise of NW5 pushing through, Layug said their next fear was over their sponsors, participants and attendees. Come Oct. 27, people came in trickles that slowly became a continuous flow of fans and curiosity-seekers. “Everyone is here,” Layug said, referring to the members of the New Worlds Alliance, an umbrella organization of science fiction and fantasy literature, movies and TV shows. NWA is composed of about two dozen other sci-fi and fantasy organizations, which include Ann Rice Philippines (fans of the vampire novelist), Cosplay.ph (site for costume play aficionados), Battlestar Galactica Philippines, Pinoy Harry Potter, Highlander Society, Cybertron.ph (fans of the Transformers series), Star Wars Philippines, and the Philippine Order of Narnians (fans of the C.S. Lewis novels), among others. Newly-formed groups from more recent fantasy flicks are also part of NWA, such as Heroes Philippines (devotees of the hit TV series "Heroes") and Lost in the Philippines (of the TV series "Lost"). With the success of NW5, the group is already preparing for their next set of activities, such as the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards on Oct. 31 and the Philippine Speculative Fiction Anthology Volume 3 launch in December, as well as the return of famed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman in November.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net ABS-CBN’s online gaming division Amped Games recently treated reporters to a few rounds of its first casual game GetAmped, which is primarily a combat game that feels almost the same as Nintendo's extremely popular Super Smash Brothers series. GetAmped was developed by Japanese firm Cyberstep and will be the first Japanese online game to be made available in the Philippines. It just started its closed beta testing but an open beta test is scheduled for another month, allowing more players to try out the game. For those who have played SSB for the GameCube and the much older Nintendo 64, getting into GetAmped will be easy: a player would have to first create an account to log in. Next, the player will be able to create an in-game character from six different base characters, each having a different color palette. The base characters are Fighter, Military, Superman, ESPer, Spy and Armor. They have unique character attributes such as strength, technique, speed, jump and defense and the player would have to choose wisely what type of style he or she would be employing. Weapons can also be bought from the item shop and these would vary in strength and type. There are melee weapons such as baseball bats, 4x4 sticks or golf clubs while there are long-range weapons such as guns, cannons and missile launchers. These items would have to be bought using an in-game currency called Gs. The player can also make changes in their characters in two ways, either by buying character palettes from the item shop or by creating their own. Through the latter, a player can upload any bitmap file photo that will be used as a skin for the character, thus broadening the creativity of the player to customize their in-game character. In fact, more creative players can make their in-game characters look like them or their favorite person or item. The game's customization option uses a sort of vector-mapping application that allows the player to design their characters according to specifications they want, from thickness, length and height. The actual gameplay is indeed somewhat similar to the Smash Brothers series as up to eight players can duke it out in a melee-style fight. The only keypads needed are the four-way arrow keys for movement, Z for the targeting reticule, X for the strong attack, C for the short attack and the V for the jump. There as special key combinations that will produce different types of attacks or blocks, though the methods, strength and speed of attacks may differ from one character to another. However, it may take some getting used to with the controls, which are quite difficult for newbie players. Incidentally, the developers have put in an option for attaching USB controllers, similar to those used for the PlayStation console. In addition, the button configurations can still be assigned based on player preference. Most maps are fairly small ones where players can fight until only one character remains, but there are variations in the game mode to break the monotony of simple deathmatches. There are also sports-like game modes such as basketball, football and capture-the-flag. Players can team up to four and play against an equal number of players from a different team. But unlike traditional sports games, players in GetAmped can deliver cheap shots against other players to prevent them from scoring. By the looks of it, it could get confusing especially when a player is trying to draw a ball away from the enemy while avoid getting struck at the same time. So far, the game is doing pretty well. It's targeted at younger people who may want to play a cute combat game rather than the more serious fighting games currently available from other publishers.

INTRODUCTION of the participating teams in the RAN Global Tournament held on Oct. 7 at the Esplanade mall in Bangkok, Thailand for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game RAN Online. The Philippine team, composed of team captain Benito Carlo David S. Brosas (Ben), Ronnuel R. Florida (RR), Adrian Justin N. Magtoto (AJ) and Zulius Czar C. Apostol (Dookie), placed second in the tournament. For more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners, visit iVDO.

I WAS in Bangkok last week to cover the RAN Global Tournament -- the Philippine team placed second in that online gaming tournament. Here's a video of one of the contestants in the RAN Gang Zaa RAN Girls competition held on Oct. 7 at the Esplanade mall dancing during the talent portion. This video clip is courtesy of fellow journalist Carlo Suerte Felipe. The contest was part of the festivities for the 1st RAN Global Tournament online gaming competition and the second anniversary of RAN Thailand. For more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners, visit iVDO. For more babes, visit our Babe Republic blog.

HERE are the video clips of the match between the Philippines and Indonesia in the RAN Global Tournament held on Oct. 7 at the Esplanade mall in Bangkok. The Philippines defeated Indonesia, 2-0, in their best-of-three match. Here's Game 1. And here's Game 2. The Philippine team, composed of team captain Benito Carlo David S. Brosas (Ben), Ronnuel R. Florida (RR), Adrian Justin N. Magtoto (AJ) and Zulius Czar C. Apostol (Dookie), eventually placed second in the tournament after a hard-fought 1-2 loss to Thailand in the last match. Congratulations to Team Philippines!

FILIPINO band Callalily performs "Pasan," the official song and music video for the massively multiplayer online game Lineage II in Southeast Asia. Video provided by AsianMedia, the Manila-based regional distributor of Lineage II. For more videos, visit iVDO, INQUIRER.net's online video channel in partnership with Yahoo!