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2013-06-18 17:25:33 (33 comments, 1 reshares, 33 +1s)

Last Friday, I checked 4 different local video game stores and they were all SOLD OUT of hard copies of Naughty Dog's hugely popular game The Last of Us. 

Dammit, now I REALLY want to see what the hype is about. If I can't have something, I want it more!

So I picked this up instead ($20) and played Bayonetta over the weekend. I was prepared for a cheesy T&A-fest geared towards hormonal virgin teenage boys, so I was completely taken by surprise when from the opening cutscene, this game had me gripped, and I basically fell in love. For an older game (circa 2010), the graphics appear to be showing her age, but the hardcore game play, cheeky cut scenes, groovy music plus cool character designs hit all my sweet spots. This is definitely not a game for the uninitiated gamer, I had difficulty passing some chapters in normal mode because some of the baddies hit... more »

2013-06-16 20:19:08 (16 comments, 2 reshares, 49 +1s)

Here's a video clip featuring some highlights of the displays at anime north 2013 a few weeks go in Toronto. I'm featured first in the lineup in my makise Kurisu cosplay from steins gate. I'm actually moving! :-) But as you can see, it was super windy that day T-T. The cosplays get better and better every year, and I think that's thanks to the power of the Internet and the amount of free and tutorials for making your own cosplays.

Enjoy!

2013-06-12 19:20:18 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

Hello friends. Your wallet doesn't like having money in it, right? Well Future Shop's current pre-order promotion lets you save UP TO $20 per game you pre-order (when you pre-order at least 3 games). This includes PS4 and XBOX One titles, as well as PS3, XBox 360, Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita, Nintendo Wii U and PC games. Get the hottest games on release day for less than full price! I can't see anything wrong with this, except that I may need a second job. XD Promo ends June 13th!

Pre-order just one game and save $10 off the usual $59.99 retail price. Not bad!

2013-06-11 04:33:59 (20 comments, 2 reshares, 17 +1s)

If this year doesn't put Square Enix back in the black, I don't know what will.

Via +wara zashi 

2013-06-11 03:30:40 (32 comments, 1 reshares, 32 +1s)

Wow, what a year coming up for gamers. While Nintendo still has announcements to do tomorrow at E3, I already have SO much to be excited for. Game titles like Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV, Transistor, Ryse, Assassin's Creed 4, Mirror's Edge 2, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, The Division plus others have all got my heart pounding with excitement, I can't wait to get my hands on these games! 

I think I nearly exploded when Sony announced the PS4 was $100 below the XBox One. Though the two consoles look eerily similar, the specs on the PS4 definitely look better, and at $399, it's even cheaper than my smart phone! 

I think I enjoyed Ubisoft's presentation the most. It was the smoothest and most entertaining, all the announcements were super exciting and visually captivating. Sony was also quite good but they started late and encountered some glitches, plust... more »

2013-06-11 02:48:34 (31 comments, 5 reshares, 32 +1s)

Playstation has fired shots at Microsoft by deliberately announcing their DRM-free games to allow game owners to lend their games to friends, or rent and resell. Unlike Microsoft, who dodged any mention of their controversial always-online "features" and the attached Kinect camera, Sony confirms they allow gamers to play their games for over 24 hours without requiring signing into some big-brother-like online authentication service. I think Sony just won. 

2013-06-11 02:26:03 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Oooo, embarrassing moment for Sony when the Assassin's Creed 4 gameplay froze and stuttered during the presentation while playing on the PS4. I hope that's not going to be an issue with the PS4...

2013-06-11 02:21:12 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 33 +1s)

Square Enix presents Final Fantasy XV and KH3 for Playstation!!! Be still, my heart~~~

2013-06-10 23:58:31 (12 comments, 2 reshares, 41 +1s)

While I'm waiting for sony's E3 presentation to start, I'm having a dinner of home made sticky rice. I made my first one yesterday, wrapping bamboo leaves around a filling of glutinous rice, egg yolk, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage and chestnuts. They're very filling and delicious!

2013-06-10 23:39:09 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

I really believe +Ubisoft is the BEST at making captivating game trailers to introduce their newest original IP. Tom Clancy's The Division is  presented in this awesome new game trailer, imagining what the world would be like if the economy collapsed and a pandemic broke out. 

For gameplay footage, check out this video: Tom Clancy's The Divisioin - E3 gameplay reveal [North America]

2013-06-11 00:05:30 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

+Ubisoft  just presented their latest trailer for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, and it looks AWESOME! 

I think they dropped the ball for ACIII in terms of story telling and gameplay (both was pretty repetitive after about 5 hours or so), so I hope they redeem themselves with AC4, which looks and sounds stunning. Check out that soundtrack, every single piece of music in this trailer has me hooked, and I'd love the soundtrack for this. If you want to talk about what gives me nerd chills, we can talk about the mysterious nameless protagonist of which I know nothing about, except that he looks totally hot.

2013-06-10 22:08:27 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

STOP TRYING TO MAKE GIRLWOOD HAPPEN AISHA, IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. NO.

2013-06-10 21:12:05 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

EA announces the new Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare game! Forget Battlefield and sports games, this is the shooter for me! Even if I do feel a little bit dirtier every time I give money to EA........>.<

Also, I loved how the super smart "strategy" for winning UFC fights, according to the UFC pro on stage at the EA presentation, was that "I knew the other guy wanted to beat me, so I beat him first". Genius.

Also, anyone have a release date for Mirror's Edge 2?

#e32013  

2013-06-10 05:03:07 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

In less than 12 hours, the frenzy of E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) gaming announcements will commence. I'm using this website to keep track of when and where to watch all the announcements from +Sony, +Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Is anyone interested in joining me in a G+ hangout to mock/laugh/cry/express extreme nerd rage/nerd chills from the various presentations happening tomorrow? Who wants to place bets on how many times Aisha Tyler will say "lady wood" at +Ubisoft's announcement tomorrow?

#e32013  

2013-06-10 03:20:38 (10 comments, 2 reshares, 23 +1s)

THE PROTECTION OF MODELS UNDER 18 WORKING IN NEW YORK - June 9th, 2013

Today was a very important day for models who work in the fashion capital of New York. Today New York Senator Klein and Senator Savino along with The Model Alliance announced new legislature likely to pass this week that will finally include under age print and runway models in the labor laws that already protect other child performers like actors, singers and dancers. This was something I've been speaking publicly about for the last 4 years so it is particularly thrilling for me to see this issue finally gain the attention it deserves. I'm very thankful I was invited to speak on my personal experiences as a model in New York City. Below is a transcript of my speech:

"Hello - My name is Coco Rocha and I'm a model based here in New York. I'd like to thank Senator Klein, Senator Savino and the... more »

2013-06-10 02:11:23 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

I'm going to call my mom "mhysa" from now on and make her all confused.

Excellent bloody season finale to game of thrones tonight. Every season, the mother of dragons levels up. I can't wait to see her final form.

2013-06-10 00:47:21 (32 comments, 3 reshares, 64 +1s)

Hello friends!

This past week, I've been seeing a HUGE number of new people add me to their circles. I'm very grateful for your adds, but I wonder how everyone found me? Regardless, thank you to everyone who takes the time to look at my posts and engage with me here on G+,  you make my time here so enjoyable!

Here's a new photo from the shoot I did with the very talented Alex from electricheart.ca featuring Gloomth clothing. Gloomth.com will have this new dress for sale soon, which I absolutely loved wearing because it fit so well. The workmanship on the dress was great and the print was so pretty and feminine. I hope I was able to convey the wonderful feeling of having this dress on.

2013-06-09 23:36:23 (16 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

I saw someone using this while I was on the bus...

You know, there comes a certain point when you should really just let go of your iProduct, no matter how much you love them. 

Edit: I added text. Fancy.

2013-06-09 04:43:58 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

If you've heard of the rise of major league gaming or Starcraft 2 but don't really know what either is, try this stream of the WCS Starcraft 2 finals with excellent English commentary, played by the best players in the world. The game is fast paced and exciting, pitting the creativity, cunning and reflexes of the players against one another for prizes of up to $100,000. The games are streaming from Soeul, Korea, home to a disproportionately large population of Starcraft 2 champions.

I've just started to play the campaigns in SC2: Wings of Liberty, and while the game mechanics are fun and exciting, the story is fairly insipid and the characters were cliché and sometimes cheesy. You can tell the storyline was written by a bunch of guys. Also, donny vermillion is an ass.

2013-06-07 15:36:29 (6 comments, 6 reshares, 14 +1s)

Game of Thrones 

This, this is amazing! So pitch perfect! I do not even like Rap but.. this is brilliant! 

Thanks to a friend who is not on G+ for the tip! 

I got Dragons, Bitch!

#GoT   #gameofthrones  

2013-06-05 04:58:00 (31 comments, 6 reshares, 30 +1s)

Oh, and the superfecta is complete.  Presented with no further comment: RWBY's Yellow.

Previously: http://goo.gl/iltrh

Black: RWBY "Black" Trailer: http://goo.gl/iltrh
White: RWBY "White" Trailer: http://goo.gl/OFOjT
Red: RWBY "Red" Trailer: http://goo.gl/PV22z
Haloid: http://goo.gl/B8Pdx
Dead Fantasy: http://goo.gl/pHAcQ

Series premiere in early June July.  I called this trailer to debut in mid May, off by a few weeks :P

Via +Doug Johnson , +Samuel Johnson 

2013-06-03 01:50:45 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Nooooooooooooooooo, by the old gods and the new, I can't take this. WHY GRRMARTIN? WHYYYYYYYYY

2013-06-02 23:10:12 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 35 +1s)

Found new panda snacks! These pandas all have different facial expressions, very cute. They taste like the choco filled koala bear cookies most people have had. Yummy!

Excited for game of thrones tonight! Woooo~~~

2013-06-02 18:12:16 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 32 +1s)

More photos from the shoot with Alex from electricheart.ca featuring clothing by Gloomth. Styling and makeup by Gloomth's designer, the wonderful Taeden! The girls put so much work into this shot and we trudged through up-and-down weather (including bouts of hail!) to get these shots, but I'm so happy with how these turned out.

This was only look 1 of the shoot we did that day. The look was inspired by the "mori girl" concept, a Japanese aesthetic reminiscent of a simple peasant girl living in the woods. We worked with fewer fleas and wild animals though.

2013-06-02 03:49:05 (12 comments, 3 reshares, 58 +1s)

I received a set of photos back today from the super talented and fun photographer Alex of electricheart.ca! This was a shoot for local clothing label Gloomth. The designer, Taeden, hand made the white dress I had on and styled the whole look and did makeup and everything, she's super talented too! This was a really difficult day to do outdoor shoots since it went from sunny to cloudy to rainy to hail-y really quickly. Yes, we worked through the hail!

We were going for a "mori girl" look, a type of japanese aesthetic that is reminiscent of simple peasant girls living in a cottage in the woods. Think snow white while she was with the seven dwarves, but with a lot more layers and free spirit.

Check out more of Alex's work at electricheart.ca, and see Gloomth alternative designs at gloomth.com!

More photos to come!

2013-05-28 09:04:06 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 56 +1s)

Photo dump of the rest of my Anime North 2013 photos. Some are edited, some are not. If you know or recognize some of the people in this set, feel free to let me know so I can tag them or send them a copy of their pic. I wasn't able to identify every character being cosplayed here, so I left some of the captions blank.

Okay, that's enough convention spam for now. :)

2013-05-28 07:29:04 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

I just wanted to share this particular pic from Anime North 2013. These must be the cutest bronies...EVER. Their wings were made from craft foam and wires, it was very well done.

2013-05-27 20:46:54 (31 comments, 2 reshares, 100 +1s)

Mean people are made into meals for Nagini here.  ;) I got some mad respect from people around me when I held this sweetheart, who was calm as can be, it was quite the confidence booster.

The Hamilton Ball Pythons group was here again at Anime North, letting people touch and hold their pythons at a booth at Anime North. These people operate around Toronto so if you want a python or need python information, they're the pros to contact!

Edit: So it appears this snake is actually an anaconda. Thanks to R Balzer for the update!

2013-05-27 18:14:48 (13 comments, 1 reshares, 59 +1s)

Aisaka Taiga cosplayer! So cute!!

2013-05-27 18:10:03 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 43 +1s)

Met the tallest Batman EVERRRR! For reference, I'm 5'3". This is me in heels, on tippy toes. Wow.

2013-05-27 04:20:19 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 47 +1s)

Anime north 2013 is officially over! My legs are sore, my throat is hoarse, my wallet is light and my heart is full to the brim. I've met many new friends, received many kind compliments on my cosplay and took many pictures I can't wait to go home to review and edit. Every year, the cosplays seem to get increasingly epic. The most common cosplays this year seemed to be from League of Legends, Madoka, Naruto and D-gray Man.

I think the highlight of my weekend was mostly being able to enjoy the company of friends, new and old. Anime north unites people from near and far and sometimes it's the only time I get to see certain friends. It's great to be able to turn to anyone and be able to find some common (usually nerdy) topic to talk about really quickly. Dinner talk centered around computer builds, animes watched, games played, movies viewed and Internet memes. Being in costume seem... more »

2013-05-26 23:59:18 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 37 +1s)

This is my second time encountering pythons, i had photos taken with pythons last year at AN as well. These guys feel soooo good on the skin! Like smooth liquid armor, and they're as tame as can be, since they're handled every day.

2013-05-26 20:35:37 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 37 +1s)

How do you know you're at an anime convention?

When groups of people suddenly burst into song singing the opening theme of Pokemon.

When strangers can go up to other strangers and say "I'm supposed to kill you because I'm sasuke and you're naruto!"

When you suddenly walk into a wall of stench because someone didn't shower the entire weekend.

When badass aperture cosplayers can stand safely beside turrets without being lasered to death. XD

2013-05-26 19:47:18 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 62 +1s)

You can't tell me what to do!

2013-05-26 19:06:08 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 20 +1s)

This is new. Are they going to get the cosplay police to throw people into cosplay jail for posing infractions? XD

At anime north, Toronto, where you're weird for wearing just jeans and a t-shirt, hehe.

2013-05-26 18:15:26 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Anime convention loot! Starring overpriced imported japanese sweets, locally made jewellery, and an Assassins Creed tumbler. Awww yissss.

2013-05-26 18:07:14 (10 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

I picked up this little baby today. :-) Thats the mark of the assassins from ubisoft's Assassins Creed franchise. Classy, neh?

2013-05-26 18:15:53 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 28 +1s)

So it's 13°c here at Anime North....

... I commend these girls for their brrr-avery. I guess they're cosplaying vocaloid, swimsuit edition, heh.

2013-05-26 14:39:04 (32 comments, 2 reshares, 93 +1s)

Just a low-key outfit of the day.~ Looking forward to nerding out later today!

2013-05-26 14:30:37 (16 comments, 2 reshares, 84 +1s)

Nekomimi...

Day 3 of Anime North, start!

2013-05-26 05:25:03 (19 comments, 3 reshares, 79 +1s)

I leave here for the day with one last picture someone took for me with their iPhone. I'm soooo tired, I had two Photoshoots and met so many cool new people, it sucks that tomorrow is going to be the last day of the greatest anime convention in Canada. Anyways, I can't wait for the photos to come back, I worked really hard in them and I want to show everyone!

By the way, if I dropped a contact lens on the hotel room floor but flushed it with copious amounts of lens solution, is it still Ok to wear them? Anyone know? XD

Anime North 2013 banzai!

2013-05-26 01:25:27 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 52 +1s)

I'm not sure what these girls are cosplaying, i think one is a sailor scout cat girl gogo dancer, and the other is just a cute cat girl, hehe. They must've been cold walking outside, today was seriously windy!

I had a great day today, had a couple of photoshoots, met nice people, overspent in the dealer's room, all good stuff. :-) my G+ notifications aren't working though so I haven't been able to see comments yet, sorry!

2013-05-26 01:15:24 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 36 +1s)

A cosplayer from the video game, Journey. Very well done craftsmanship!

2013-05-26 00:25:23 (10 comments, 1 reshares, 45 +1s)

That is a badass gun. At Anime north 2013 in beautiful sunny (but chilly!) Toronto!

2013-05-26 00:25:00 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 28 +1s)

Cute character from Odin Sphere. This is my friend, Manz, who is part of the cosplay group, Cosmeko.

2013-05-25 22:04:20 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 20 +1s)

Anime North, day 2, go! Here's a really good borderlands group.

2013-05-25 02:53:52 (13 comments, 3 reshares, 81 +1s)

Here's my cosplay of the day, actually I'm kind of glad I'm not wearing the Panty outfit today, it's way too cold!! My legs were numb just walking around in the cold Canadian air, i think it was about 6°c today, ugh.

I'm cosplaying Makise Kurisu from Steins Gate, a great anime about time travel, romance, and a little but of murder, hehe.

2013-05-28 08:12:00 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Crazy anime cosplay from the convention earlier today! Can anyone identify the character?

What a cold day to be out, I can barely feel my legs! My phone died, the battery couldn't keep up T-T. Today is really full of nonsense fails, but I still had a good time. Being at conventions bring together the best of anime fans everywhere, it's so easy to talk to anybody and say "I love your cosplay!" and meet new people.

2013-05-24 21:30:30 (28 comments, 0 reshares, 72 +1s)

Makise Kurisu with a bad haircut reporting in! I overslept this morning since I stayed up all night trying to finish a fail Panty cosplay, but now I'm on my way to an anime convention!

2013-05-23 20:55:44 (26 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

Anime North, Canada's best and biggest anime convention, starts tomorrow and runs all weekend.

And I ain't done my cosplay. I do this every year, procrastinate and finish on the Friday day of with no sleep. Why do I do this to myself, I can't take it anymore, this is my face right now. I should just chicken out and buy my cosplays. 

Full panic mode activate.

Well anyways, is there anything you want me to post from the convention? I'll be there with my trusty camera phone. :D