ClumpRoll

After nearly 2 months of previews and cover articles in print magazines around the world, and interview/sneak-peek features at gaming websites, NCsoft and ArenaNet have finally announced release details for the first (and probably only) expansion pack for Guild Wars as we know it: Eye of the North hits store shelves on August 31, at $39.99. That's the price for North America, while it'll be €34.99 for those in Europe. It will also be available through the PlayNC online store system as a download that day.

While the expansion covers the already-known continent of Tyria that was first introduced in the original Guild Wars game (the "Prophecies" campaign, as fans know it), Eye of the North will focus its eye on the northern part of that continent (durr. i couldn't help myself, my first pun-in-a-post) -- an area that will introduce 150 new skills, and of course more dungeons, items and weapons. And don't forget the 4 new races in the storyline, some of which should be playable in GW2.

If you haven't been keeping track, the game is the only way for (More)

An internet comic sensation that vaulted the career of manhwa-ka (that's "comic writer/artist" in Korean) Kang Doha in the mainstream pop-culture of Korea a couple of years ago, The Great Catsby (위대한 캣츠비, weedayhan Catsby) is finally coming to TV as a drama. The first episode will be broadcast July 4th on the Korean cable channel TVN.

The comic that touched upon the coming-of-age trials and tribulations of twenty-somethings in a rundown part of Seoul was unique for a few reasons:

1. all the main characters are drawn as anthropomorphic animals, usually cats or dogs
2. their stories were brutally honest and real, able to reach out to and transcend an age-gap of readers who ranged from teens in high-school to even 30-40 year olds.
3. the drawing style is simple yet realistic, with many of the comic panels taking on the visual qualities of cinema and at times paying attention to fine details. (as the first in a trilogy of titles by Kang, that visual language gets perfected as he moves onto his next projects, read on.)

In any case, it's been a favorite read of mine. Then again I don't read too many comics, but trust me, this one's a keeper. If you don't believe me, its popularity is vetted by the 5 million views it got when it was serialized on Korean portal sites, over 200,000 books sold, and winning the 2005 Grand Comic Award in Korea. The title was turned into a musical last March, and after the drama's run will be made into a movie as well. For now, it is available free to view and translated to English at NetComics.com, who also publishes the manhwa - in full color, natch - and many other titles in book-form as well.

Any way, after all this success, the comic is now a drama. The cast was only announced in May and includes singer(DJ)-turned-actor MC Mong as Catsby, Park Ye-Jin as Persu, and Kang Kyung-Joon as Houndu (left-to-right in the above 'human' picture).



Manhwa-ka Kang Doha said of the drama,

"Although there isn't a chance for the writer to squeeze in the drama-making system, I'm happy just to be able to see the process of restructuring and making it anew with on-screen magic while retaining the framework of the source material."

read on for more info on the plot, drama director and comic creator's reaction to the first episode.

 (More)

If there's anything that gets me back to gaming, it's wacky and charming games like Katamari Damacy. Ever since its first release three years ago, it has turned into a series, milked by Namco (now Namco Bandai) with 2 sequels, both of which I have played. Admittedly, while I go against creator Keita Takahashi's wishes of keeping the game contained to one fling, I join many fans that think it's just too good of a thing to pass on more Katamari.

So after the rumors and musings have been gone around on the wires for some time, Silconera posted a company fact sheet apparently confirming that the latest game in the series, Beautiful Katamari, will be an Xbox 360 exclusive title. This is more info that seems to be in line with what N'Gai Croal of Newsweek mentioned only a day before.

In any case, I can only hope that it is not true. Main reason being that I don't have an Xbox 360. (collective gasps in horror)

Yes, it's true, no Xbox 360 in my game room. Maybe this will finally be the last straw -- it's been hard enough holding out on Guitar Hero II with the 360's downloadable tracks and all. Now there's a game with a big enough difference between platforms, albeit a bit unfair in console age(PS2 versus 360).

Hello, all you drifters of the interwebs!
I hope to bring you (or at least wish you) good fortune and interesting news from this day onward.

Let's get started!

ClumpRoll.com