It's that time of the year again...

Prepare your body for the first ever BOOTY awards on Installed Base. Since the site has been revamped, so have the awards. This year, I'll be breaking it down into "The 5 Or Less Best" in addition to the zany awards you've come to know and love. In the end, only five games will be ranked into the overall Best Offerings Of The Year. Now I've just got to play the rest of the games in this large stack...

Ring in the Apocalypse with this Majora's Mask fan album

You need to listen to this. Like, right now. You survived the end times, now celebrate with this fantastic tribute album to Majora's Mask. There's ten excellent arrangements to be found here, but Theophany, the album's creator, intends to adapt the whole soundtrack eventually. Give it a listen below. You can download it for free, but why would you not support this with a Christmas donation?

STEALER

Here's one to look out for.

Quiz Time: New Super Mario Bros U vs Kirby

Can you identify this level?

I noticed something unusual with all the recent coverage for New Super Mario Bros U. For some reason, Nintendo has decided to adopt the Kirby naming scheme for all the game's areas. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would't be able to tell them apart. Do you know better? Can you identify which of the following words are from New Super Mario Bros and not Kirby?

Water Worlds
A) Orange Ocean
B) Float Islands
C) Sparkling Waters
D) Ice Cream Island

Sky Worlds
A) Meringue Clouds
B) Bubbly Clouds
D) Cloudy Park
E) Rainbow Resort

Grass Worlds
A) Vegetable Valley
B) Acorn Plains
C) Cookie Country
D) Peanut Plains

How about this one?

Sand Worlds
A) Yogurt Yard
B) Layer-Cake Desert
C) Sand Canyon
D) Raisin Ruins

Ice Worlds
A) Frosted Glacier
B) White Wafers
C) Ice Island
D) Peppermint Palace

Forest Worlds
A) Jam Jungle
B) Big Forest
C) Onion Garden
D) Soda Jungle

Underground Worlds
A) Cabbage Cavern
B) Cocoa Cave
C) Rock Candy Mines
D) Radish Ruins

Highlight below for answer key!
C, A, B, B, A, D, C

Return to Morrowind

Well, sort of.

What's Happening: November 2012

Novembers are always nuts. But this year? This year? Completely bonkers. Let's take a look at all the good stuff going down.

Right now: Wreck-it Ralph is now in theaters! It's totally awesome and you should totally see it. What could be more great than a video game movie made by Disney? Not much.

Hello again

You may recall that nearly five years ago I morphed GameWeb into Installation 04. Now I'm doing it again! As it turns out, there was too much bagage for me to continue with Installation 04 in its current form. I had really grown accustomed to the name, but now it just reminds me of days long past. I think that the only way forward is to make a change. So I did. Installation 04 is now Installed Base. Same content, new title under the flagship of me. No more fancy domains and no more trying to be something. It's just for me. That's the way I want it. I also want it with no sidebar, as you can see. I think it works. What do you think?

Behold Halo 4's multiplyer suite!

Halo Fourge

Below, you'll find all the details you need on Halo 4's Forge maps and features. It's looking really great.  Certain Affinity knocks it out of the park again! Maybe in Halo 5 we'll get terrain and weather editors.

Forward Unto Dawn Episode 1

Halo's new live action series started yesterday. It's both longer and better than I thought it would be based on the trailers I'd seen for it. If you're a Halo fan, then you need to stop what you're doing and watch this right now!

Halo Month: Now through November 6th!

Weapons! Maps! Enemies! Music! Impressions! It's over four weeks of Halo 4! Can you handle it?

Take advantage of this attractive offer by visiting your local Installation 04 dealer before time runs out!

Impressions From The Future: Lost Planet 3

Nothing but the frozen wastes and a giant robot to keep you company.

A few weeks ago, I ventured into a portal that transported forward in time and to Seattle. There, I played a bunch of upcoming games and have returned to the present with impressions! Today: Lost Planet 3.

Rebirth

Installation 04 lives again! Originally, I was hoping maybe I could get the old team back together. Now I realize that's not going to happen so I am moving forward as a one-man operation. From now on, Installation 04 is the one and only blog of me, Fuzunga. It'll have a mix of great stuff written by me ranging from analyses of video games, to top ten lists, to original fiction. I've decided to stop waiting and start up the machine once again. So prepare for the best era of I04 yet!

As you can see, there's been some reorganization. The menu at the top of the site will filter posts into pretty much every basic category, while the informational page navigation has been moved to the sidebar. At the moment, the Blogger page gadget seems to be borked. I have worked around this. The menu up top functions just fine, but doesn't look as nice and fancy (meaning it won't highlight what page you're on). I'll change this as soon as the problem is resolved to get it looking spiffy! Anyway, I hope the new layout is of use and keep a lookout for regular new content!

Korra picked up for 26 more episodes

Probably your reaction right now.

The latest news out of Comicon is that Nickelodeon has picked up Korra for another 26 episodes, bringing the total up to 56. For reference, the original Avatar series ran for 61 episodes. Confusingly, Nick is referring to the show in terms of two "seasons", while the creators split things into four "books". Here's how it break down:

Season 1: 26 episodes
- Book 1: 12 episodes
- Book 2: 14 episodes

Season 2: 26 episodes
- Book 3: 13 episodes
- Book 4: 13 episodes

The story of Korra's production has been pretty all over the place, but here's the condensed version for those of you who are curious:

The Legend of Korra was originally intended to be a 12 episode miniseries, but Nick ordered another 14 episodes halfway through production for an even 26 episode season. However, the show's creators (Mike DiMartion and Bryan Konietzko) wanted to do things in smaller arcs and intended to make them in bunches of 12 instead of 20 (as with the original series). But Nick changed the plan and wanted an industry-standard 26 episode season and ordered 14 more episodes in the middle of production. This time around, they ordered a second batch of 26 episodes enough in advance that the arcs can be split evenly. Since I might not be explaining this clearly, let me use another example.

Last year, Comedy Central picked up Futurama for another production season of 26 episodes. However, those episodes are split into two 13-episode television seasons aired a year apart. That's what's happening now, except the team got late notice with the first season.

Anyway, this presents an interesting opportunity. The first book had an air of finality about it because it was intended to be final. But now, since books three and four have been ordered in advance, Mike and Bryan have an opportunity to create deeper, interlocking story arcs. I wasn't a fan of the "everything started is completed ended" approach of book one, but I think the new production schedule will eliminate that with the next 44 episodes. It's unfortunate that book one happens to be the shortest, because it easily could have spanned a full season length. I do hope the future books leave room for more interconnectivity, and I really hope Mike and Bryan hire some real writers.

Playlist: Yesterday Today

A followup to yesterday's playlist using the lastest music from each of those (amazingly still around) artists. The stuff you don't hear on the radio.

Yesterday Today from Fuzunga on 8tracks.

Playlist: Back in my day...

When they used to play good stuff on the radio.

Back in my day... from Fuzunga on 8tracks.

Check out Halo 4's Forge and a new map!

I cannot believe how good this game looks.

You know my favorite types of Halo maps? The snowy ones. Sidewinder, Containment, and even Solitary, the icy remake of Prisoner, are some of my favorites. But not Snowbound or Avalanche. Halo 3 was a bad game for snow maps. Halo 4, however, is looking like a great game for snow maps! Longbow was revealed back at E3, but now you can see it in action for the first time in the competitive match posted after the break! Plus, new and improved Forge mode developed by Certain Affinity, the dudes behind the many Halo 2 and Halo Reach map packs! The improvements made so far look great, but what I really want is an environmental editor. Here's hoping it'll be announced closer to release!

Impressions: Kingdom Hearts 3D

Kingdom Hearts has always been a little bit crazy, but Kingdom Hearts 3D ups the crazy ante in suitably crazy ways. The story, of course, has become even more convoluted (Or has it...? It probably has.) this time involving Sora and Riku ridding dream worlds of dream eaters so they can pass their Mark of Mastery exam and become keyblade masters. Still with me? Good. The game's new set of enemies are crazy neon animals that come in both "nightmare" and "spirit" forms. Nightmares are bad, but spirits will fight with you, replacing Donald and Goofy. And that's just the most minor difference.

Check This Out: Pokewalls

I've been sitting on this one for a while and I don't know why. This chick by the name of MapleRose makes these incredible minimalist Pokemon wallpapers. She's been putting out one a day since January 2011, and she ain't generation biased either. If you've got a favorite Pokemon, she's got a wallpaper of it... or she will. She takes requests! Go grab a sweet new background right now!

Impressions: Heroes of Ruin

If I could describe my experience with Heroes of Ruin in two words, it would be "pretty good". Heroes of Ruin won't revolutionize dungeon crawlers forever, but that doesn't mean it's not pretty good. The game has four character classes, and so is tailored for four-player co-op. The demo let me try out the warrior (lion man) and the ranger (hood man). I assume the other classes are a tank and some sort of mage. Anyway, since it's inevitable to compare this to similar games, Heroes of Ruin is definitely better than the last dungeon crawler I played. Nope, not Diablo 3. Crimson Alliance on the Xbox Arcade. Compared to that, this is amazing. It's a much deeper, more traditional dungeon crawl experience, only handheld. And it is indeed fully featured, with both local and online play with voice chat. 

Game Talk: Limbo

The game is this cheerful all the time!

Limbo had a lot of hype behind it when it was released. I remember hearing about it here and there and basically everywhere, but I never payed it much mind. Then, of course, the reviews came out and Limbo was receiving a ridiculous amount of praise, maintaining a 90 on Metacritic. So I figured I had to check it out. I downloaded the trail version of the game which was actually pretty engrossing. Good enough to show off to all of my friends, at least. As the game starts off, you are a young boy lying in the woods. Continuously mashing any button wakes the boy up and then you're on your way. That's it. No explanation. Apparently, he's out to find his sister or something. Immediately I was sucked into the atmosphere and style of the game. It's all grayscale with a kind of grainy old film filter on top of it with a vignette effect that blurs out the edges. To add to the atmosphere, there really is no music in Limbo. For the most part it's all ambient noise, except for a few occasions where a couple of eerie chords sneak in. So the game was able to suck me in. Good.

Welcome to the 21st Century

On this, the 900th post, I bring news of changes. No, the changes are not staff oriented. Yes, I'm still all alone. But maybe not for long. You see, I've finally brought the comments system into the 21st century by unleashing all the power Disqus has to offer. I've dabbled with Disqus during my previous endeavors and it has proven to be a very competent and featuretastic commenting system. In fact, tt was recently overhauled and improved! You can login with a variety of services, rate and share posts right from the comment widget, subscribe to comment threads, tag people in comments, link to individual comments, vote comments up and down, follow commenters, and more! I'm hoping this will actually get people to speak up.

Also now available are the Installation Fourms, not tied to the comments via single login because that was causing me problems (plus that comment system was kinda blah). You can access it in the menu bar. As a social experiment, the forums are totally free-for-all and users can post anything and everything. They're not too fancy, but have a decent amount of features including rich text editing, image uploads, sharing features, and the ability to login through several common accounts.

E3 2012: The Final Grades

E3 is over, but the discussion sure ain't. So how'd everything go? More importantly, how accurate were my predictions? Find out inside.

I04 Picks: Highlights of E3 2012

|Assassin's Creed 3| I'm Not a fan of the Assassin's Creed series. I bought the first game and it didn't impress me. I found the repetition boring and the setting even more boring. Plus, the main "plot twist" was revealed at the very beginning. The whole "epic assassin game throughout periods of history" was ruined by it, well, not being that. It's just a dude hooked up to a machine who's "reliving" the history of his ancestors who are apparently all assassins. Yes, Desmond has one of the most multiculturally diverse family trees in the history of... ever. And while it doesn't necessarily make sense for Desmond to be Syrian/Italian/British/Native American, I really do like where they took the series. See, I foolishly bought Assassin's Creed 2 because the word on the street was that the sequel was much improved. It didn't do much for me either. Maybe it's because I've been taking Latin since high school, but I found the Italian Renaissance setting to be even less historically interesting than The Crusades. And those goofy Italian accents... And then they made that game into its own trilogy. When it concluded last year, I (and everyone else, no doubt) wondered where the series would go from there. Rumors pointed to the American Revolution. This instantly piqued my interest. It was uncharted territory for video games, and a really interesting creative decision. The more I learned about the game, the more I liked it. Then E3 happened and I got to see it. Oh my, does this look great.

First, there's that lovely CG trailer, which is one of the things the series has always done best. They're always extremely well done and hype-inducing. But more importantly, three gameplay demos came out of the show. There was the infiltration of a Redcoat compound in the snowy wilderness that was shown at the Ubi press conference. It looked fantastic. Leagues above the previous games. And the setting was gorgeous. But then Sony had the exclusive reveal of naval combat. What!? At this point I was double sold. Finally, I saw a floor demo of Boston. It had moving haystacks. Day one purchase. DAY ONE.

Epic sale is epic

I don't usually post about video games sales here on the site (that's something I leave for Facebook), but this "Dads & Grads" sale from Amazon is an epic exception. The selection here is really, truly fantastic and the prices are equally great. Below are some of the highlights. Keep in mind, these prices are for new copies.

• Borderlands GOTY Edition: $20
• Rage: $10
• Battlefield 3: $37
• Starcraft 2: $40
• MGS HD Collection: $30
• Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition: $15
• Arkham City: $20
• Saints Row The Third: $40
• Modern Warfare 2: $20
• Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning: $40
• Twisted Metal: $40
• MK vs DCU: $15
• Mortal Kombat: $20 (console or Vita) or Komplete Edition: $40
• The Darkness 2: $20
• Codblops: $20
• Street Fighter X Tekken: $40
• FEAR 3: $15
• BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend: $30 (console or Vita)
• Bit.Trip Saga (3DS): $16
• Bit.Trip Complete (Wii): $20

Halo 4 gameplay! (updated)

There are so many things... just come back tonight for the daily wrap and find them all in one place. In the mean time, here is some Halo 4. Now with two more minutes of footage after the break! Snow map confirmed!

The Pre-E3 Post 2012 Edition

It's nearly here. E3 time. Gamer Christmas. No matter who wins it this year, us gamers all win. But I bet you want to know who's going to win anyway, don't you? Well then click on, my friend!

The Wii U Info Dump Post

This post will be continually updated as new information becomes available!

Don't ask.

E3 Day -1

Nintendo's got a special Wii U event today... and that's about it. Check back starting at 6pm EST!

E3 Day -2

The vampires in Dawnguard are pretty kickass.

The Calm before the storm. Not a whole lot today, but a few good tidbits nonetheless, including how you can get Dawnguard for free! Plus, now it looks like you'll only have to wait till tomorrow afternoon for some sweet, sweet Wii U information!

|News| Nintendo to reveal more Wii U details prior to E3

|News| Limited Edition announced for The Last Story

|News| Game Genie is back!

|News| Marathon Trilogy now on iOS for free

|News| Xbox owners can sign up for the Skyrim: Dawnguard beta and get the expansion for free!

|News| Penny Arcade Adventures dated for July 10th

|News| Transformers: Fall of Cybertron coming to PC

|News| Tomba coming to PSN June 19th

|Rumor| Wii U gets HBO Go

|Rumor| Vita getting Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation

|Rumors| Wii U getting Kingdom Hearts HD Collection, Diablo 3, and Sonic Racing.

|Rumor| Wii U will have achievements, social networking, and more.

|Rumor| Sony partnering with Gaikai for streaming PS2 backlog

Watch a new trailer for Ni No Kuni after the break!

|E3| Gears of War Judgement outed by GI

You killed all the Locust in Gears of War 3... now kill them again in Gears of War Judgement! GameInformer officially revealed the covers today of this Xbox exclusive, due to be shown off at the Microsoft press conference Monday. The game is believed to be a prequel because look at how young Cole and Baird are. It's also been confirmed that the game will have a multiplayer mode and that Epic-owned People Can Fly (developer of Bulletstorm) is "involved" in some capacity. We'll keep you updated!

E3 Day -3

Konami starts the day off with a bang! Click on to see the first trailer of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, a brand new trailer for Dishonored and more!

|E3 2012| Blurry Halo 4 Gameplay

Below, you can see some blurry multiplayer footage of Halo 4 on the map Wraparound. It could be better, but it's not the most terrible quality I've ever seen. Anyway, it shows off some new guns as well as instant respawn. Check out that crazy grenade launching pistol thing at the end! (Video window kept small for quality reasons)

E3 Day -4

E3 has begun... four days early! Every day through the end of E3, Installation 04 will be posting all the latest news (plus rumors, leading up to the show) and videos, updated all day long! Today, there's some particularly good stuff. We've got the the first trailer of Skyrim's Dawnguard expansion, screens of Dead Space 3, and a pretty sweet new fighting game from the studio behind Mortal Kombat. Plus more!

Installed Base 02: The Xbox Sucks

This week on the show, I sat down with my old pal Battsman to play some video games and hilarity ensued. We've also got The Korra Korner, releases of the week, and a message to Toonami fans everywhere. Plus, some awesome music from Richie Branson.

Toonami is back, but it still needs your help

Yes, Toonami returns to the airwaves this Saturday night with an all-new lineup. But that doesn't mean you can just sit back and feel satisfied with yourself just yet. See, the budget for Toonami is very, very small. The April Fools' airing was meant as a one-time thing, but fan feedback and support was so overwhelmingly positive that the network decided to bring it back only nine weeks later. But now we have to prove that we meant it. Jason DeMarco, producer of Toonami for all 11 years of its previous run, is back behind the wheel and imploring fans to follow through. If they have the ratings, they'll get a bigger budget and this will literally build a better cartoon show, so to speak. So, what's in store for the star of this so called "experiment"?

Check This Out: Zelda on banjo and saw

These two country dudes play a variety of Zelda tunes with a banjo, saw, and a variety of weird keyboards. It works surprisingly well.

STOP THE EVERYTHING, TOONAMI IS BACK

THEY DID IT. OR WE DID IT. I DON'T KNOW. BUT I DO KNOW ONE THING AND THAT IS TOONAMI IS COMING BACK. IT IS ALIVE. REALLY. MAY 26TH. FUCK.

Kingdom Hearts 3D trailer now in ENGLISH!

So you can sort of understand what's going on. Well, you can understand the words coming out of their mouths at least.

Installed Base 01: The Phantom Mayonaise

Episode one is online now! Listen below and remember you'll be able to easily access all episodes and supplementary material at the Installed Base page.

Check This Out: Video game collage art

Somebody has given Waluigi some love!

A man by the name of Chris Lange has has created a variety of game-themed collage artwork, something you don't see every day or even associate with video games. It's good stuff, and pretty old school with mostly Punch-Out and Nintendo inspired creations. You can check out some of my favorites after the break, or view the whole gallery at his site.

Check This Out: Animal Crossing ALL the time!

Some dude by the name of Brian Lee made a website that plays Animal Crossing's hourly music and refreshes the song every hour. This is amazing. Now my everyday life can be as relaxing as Animal Crossing! Oh, by the way, it's music from the first game, which makes it automatically 10x better. Check it out!

Edit: Apparently, you can now switch between the music of the original and that of City Folk. Nice addition.

Introducing Installed Base Podcast!

Installed Base Podcast is a one-man podcast hosted by Fuzunga and currently entering into production. The first episode should be up by May 14th. For more information and future updates, see the Installed Base page that can be found all the way to the right of the menu bar. You'll be the first to know when episode one goes live!

Installed Base

It is coming. Prepare yourself.

The Mac version of Dusforce is broken... but you should still buy it

I picked up the just released Mac version of Dustforce today, the indie platformer about the war on filth. Unfortunately, the game is completely unplayable. It loads up and the sound works but... that's it. Apparently, I'm not alone with this problem and the devs say they're working on it. In the mean time, head on over to the Steam forums and give them your info if you're having the same problem. If you don't have the game but are interested in the Mac version, I suggest you pick it up anyway because it's part of Steam's midweek sale for the next two days. You might as well grab it while it's $5 and wait for the patch. Both versions were updated today with a new level editor.

There is a new RollerCoaster Tycoon coming May 22nd

Did you used to play the hell out of RollerCoaster Tycoon as a kid? Have you been missing the good 'ol days, wishing Atari would put out a new one? Well do I have news for you! RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D is slated for release on the 3DS May 22nd. The game has gotten zero publicity and that release date may not even stick, but it's good to know the franchise isn't forgotten. I personally loved these games and I'll probably pick this one up too to relive my childhood. It's being developed by n-Space currently working on Heroes of Ruin for the 3DS, and best known for their crazy experimental GameCube FPS Geist.

Go Right

Strangely beautiful and moving. Who says video games can't be art?



"Hey guys, what if... what if we went left?"
"..."
"Oh God, nope, this was a terrible idea!"

Check This Out: Project M Demo 2.0

Smash Brothers fans can agree that Brawl was a good game, but not a good Super Smash game. Luckily, there's a dedicated group of individuals out there who aim to fix that. Enter the Smashmods community. These groups of modders have fixed up Brawl in a variety of flavors, free of charge. There's something for everyone depending on the amount of disappointment you hold towards the game. The best part? You don't even have to mod your console or void any warranties. It's free, easy, and legal to have the sequel to Melee you've always wanted. Of these mods, the biggest revamp comes in the form of Project M. Project M overhauls the gameplay almost completely. As the name would imply, Project M aims to make Brawl into Melee 2.0. I have to say that, for the most part, it absolutely succeeds. When you boot up the mod, you'll see that all the menus have received a custom makeover, stages have been swapped, and only 29 characters are available. Now, these 29 characters aren't indicative of the final roster (all the characters) but they are the furthest along in their revisions.

New footage of Chasing Aurora is lovely

There are 30 minutes left of PAX Prime 2011. My friend and I saw this awesome indie game days before and said we'd come back later to play it. With little time left, we determine to make make it our final game. We wait in line watch a few game. The game is beautiful and looks fun. It was a four player mode in which players chase after the fourth, who holds a magical glowing ball called "aurora". The objective is to steal it and hold on to it as long as you can. It's finally our turn. We sit on the couch of the most comfortable booth a PAX, grab our PS3 controllers, and... technical error. We didn't have enough time to wait for it to be fixed. Mission failed.

This new trailer is the first look at the game's single player mode, which I wasn't even aware of. Chasing Aurora looks even more beautiful than it did all those months ago!

Earthworm Jim coming to DVD... if you want it bad enough

Recently announced: Earthworm Jim the complete series from Visual Entertainment Inc. It'll be available July 10th for $25. That is, if interest is proven high enough. Obviously, VEI wouldn't even attempt to put out EWJ on DVD if there wasn't some demand for it, however the company has a weird policy in place. Basically, they've got these sets all ready to go but they won't actually be produced if there aren't enough preorders. If you're interested, make sure you preorder. You can even save $8 if you buy from Amazon.

On an Earthworm Jim related note, Mezco currently has a pretty sweet Jim figure up for preorder. It'll run you $17 and also ships in July. I used to have a really crappy Earthworm Jim action figure as a kid. I loved that thing to death but it's battered and broken now. I will definitely be picking this one up to relive the glory days of my childhood... by sitting it carefully on my shelf. Past the break, you'll find a comparison of Jim from then and now.

New Saturday night Fox animation block shows major potential

Fox just announced a new Saturday night animation block set to launch in early 2013. It's called Animation Domination HD (I bet the execs stayed up late to come up with a title that brilliant) and it's headed by Nick Weidenfeld, who used to head up Adult Swim. Except, based on the info currently available, it looks like ADHD will kick AS in the ass. Why, you ask? The first confirmed show is Axe Cop: The Animated Series. You read that correctly. It's been greenlit for six 15-minute episodes, with the intention to expand the show to a half hour. But that's not all! Erin "Egoraptor" Hanson has also been hired to create a series of shorts for the block! Now let's just hope the block stays on for more than two weeks. This is Fox we're talking about here.

Adventure is ready. It's Gomez Time!

Today is your lucky day! Go buy FEZ!

Installation 04 @ PAX EAST 2012

So I was at PAX East last weekend and I played some great games. Not as many games as I wanted to play, but I played some cool stuff nonetheless. What did this year's show have to offer? Impressions lie within, including a spcial preview of Party of Sin.

Looper

You ought to be aware of this movie, because it looks awesome.

Kingdom Hearts 3 goes multiplatform

E3 is fast approaching, as you are well aware, and publishers have already begun preparation for the show. A little digging around the Square-Enix site by some avid fans has lead to the discovery of a page intended for launch during the show. Apparently, Squenix is prepping an announcement for Kingdom Hearts 3! There really aren't many details to be had here as the page is simply a splash page meant to house the announcement trailer. But the coding does reveil the above image, the game's logo, as well as one very important detail. The page lists the game for both PS3 and Wii U. This isn't particularly surprising to me, considering how many Kingdom Hearts games have been on Nintendo handhelds. Personally, I think this is great news and I think it'll work out well for everyone, especially Nintendo. The fine print lists a target release of fiscal year 2014, which could be any time between October 2013 and September 2014. I would count on later rather than sooner, but the rumor paired with this news story mentions KH3 is quite far along and names the secret development of this game as the reason for Versus XIII being pushed back for ever and ever. You can read the full story, including the html files, at this NeoGAF thread.

Did you catch Toonami last night?

Last midnight, instead of running their usual Saturday night anime block, Adult Swim aired Toonami. Not a collection of old this and that, either. It was the first brand new broadcast since September 2008. Below, you can catch the complete collection of bumps if you missed it. When you're done, please take a moment to write Cartoon Network and let them know how much you enjoyed this (seemingly) one time deal. They even have a specific Toonami category listed (I wonder why...) on their feedback page.

Movie Reviews: Tron²

Back when Tron Legacy released, I had huge interest in it. All I knew was it was the sequel to a cult hit from almost 30 years ago. I was determined, though, to watch the original first. Unfortunately, Netflix didn't have it for rent so I saved it for later. Months went by and it all of a sudden appeared in the mailbox. I'm glad I saw Tron before Tron Legacy. I don't think it's necessary, but it certainly added a lot the sequel.

The List: Zelda Overworld Themes

And when I say that, I mean themes that aren't the Zelda series theme or a variation on that theme. Believe it or not, that's used in a ton of the games: The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past (though not the Dark World), Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons and Ages, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap. The other seven games are fair play!

Sword & Sworcery LP goes old school

Sword & Sworcery LP: The Ballad of the Space Babies is the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed Sword & Sworcery EP. The album's been available to download from composer Jim Guthrie's Bandcamp page for quite some time now for. If you want to kick it old school, there's a $30 vinyl edition available for sale that comes with a digital download as well as an original art print (pictured right) by Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. This batch is limited to 1,000 copies and started shipping earlier this month. But lots of things come in vinyl nowadays. After all, it's retro chic. But there was also something I wasn't expecting.

Korra premier is April 14th... at 11am?

There's good news and there's wtf news. The good news is that The Legend of Korra is set to premier on April 14th. That's soon! Real soon. Also, they've dropped both "Avatar" and "The Last Airbender" from the title. A fine compromise, in my opinion. The wtf news is that the show will air Saturdays at 11am. Who's idea was this? Eleven in the morning? For one, the majority of their audience will probably not be awake to see it. And it always seemed like a prime time show to me. I mean, Avatar aired nightly so why not Korra? In any case, thank goodness for DVR.

Speaking of videos, I've got two for your viewing pleasure! I believe all the major characters are present, including what is basically our first look at Amon, the show's protagonist. He's voiced by Steve Blum, carrying on the tradition of villains with awesome voice actors. The first video is below and the second one is after the break!

More FEZ!

I know you want more FEZ footage, so here it is! Over six minutes of gameplay from the game's demo. FEZ was in development for over four years before it was finally finished a few months back. It's currently being certified by Microsoft for release on the Xbox Live Arcade and should be out in the next couple of months. All that development time has really paid off in my opinion. The level of polish is immediately apparent. Theres's tons of little details everywhere, like the streams of sunlight in the sky, the shadows of the clouds on the ground, and the way the music becomes muffled when Gomez is behind part of the level. If you'd like to see for yourself how much time they've spent tweaking things, check past the break for another gameplay video from only a year ago showing some of the same locations sporting more simplified looks.

Quick Impressions of the PlayStation Vita

*UPDATE* I got some hands on time with the back touch panel while trying out Little Deviants. It was... disorienting. It's a cool idea in theory, but I get the feeling it won't be used to its full potential. In the game I had to slide my fingers across the back in order o raise the ground and roll around this little round monster, collecting items and solving puzzles. It's sounds cool in theory, but I found it really difficult to judge where my touch on the back would register on the front. Just hearing about it, it may not seem like much of a task, but trust me when I say it's really awkward. You have to get used to holding the system so that your fingertips touch the back and I can tell it'll take a lot of getting used to before gamers can adjust to the idea of interacting with a touch screen they can't see. Imagine playing Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja, except having to touch the back of your phone to play. It sounds difficult, right?

I had the chance to play around with a Vita the other day and I was surprisingly impressed by it. I noticed two things immediately: the thing is f'in huge, and it's also f'in light. Even with a huge wired security brick latched on to the bottom, the thing felt like it was mostly hollow. I don't know how they did it, but I sure was impressed. The screen takes up most of the space on the front of the system and for good reason. It's fantastic. So big and sharp and touchy and wonderful. Also wonderful: ergonomics. It's the perfect size and shape to fit comfortably in the hand. Fingers fall in just the right places on this one!

BOOTY Awards: 2011 Edition

Last year was nuts. Tons of quality games came out and there was no way I could play them all. There was also no way I could play the ones I had as much as I wanted. Also, this is going up way later than I wanted. Having said that, it's finally time for the BOOTY Awards!

Fresh, new FEZ trailer!

Jam packed with standing, rotation, and awesome music by Disasterpeace.

The first real look at Halo 4!

The good news: You can has Halo 4 footage!

The bad news: Frank O'Connor says no beta! Sucks.



Click below for the gameplay only trailer!

Movie Review: Super 8

There's not much to say about Super 8. Personally, I found Super 8 to be super great. As a result, this movie review will end up being on the short side. If there's one word to describe the film it's "nice". By the end of it, you just end up feeling good. The film certainly has it's dark moments, though, and starts with the death of the main character's mother. The story, you see, focuses on a group of kids trying to film a zombie movie to enter a film festival with a Super 8 camera. That's the only mention of the title in the entire movie, and it's irrelevant other than that. They could have called this movie anything, really. Anyway, after sneaking out one night to film by a train station the kids witness the most extreme train crash in the history of film. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I'd say Super 8 is worth seeing for that moment alone. After the crash, the children and their families get wrapped up in some crazy government conspiracy involving the mysterious train cargo. There's not even a whole lot I can talk about without ruining things, but I can say that this movie has been compared to Spielberg's sci-fi classic E.T. (he produced Super 8). That's a fair comparison, I'd say, as this is reminiscent of it. It also reminded me of District 9. If you've seen D9 then you'll probably understand what I mean while watching Super 8.

AC 3 details? How'd you like the whole damn article?

Long Kindgoms Hearts 3D Trailer is Long

Nearly 10 minutes! Make sure to activate the subtitles. Not only will you be able to understand what's being said, but it'll identify the speaking characters for you which comes in handy considering KH has about 200 major characters. Also, they used the themes from Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2! What does it mean!?

Teen Titans return March 3rd!

They're back! The new programming block on Cartoon Network for DC cartoons, DC Nation, will be airing an all new series of Teen Titans shorts featuring the original cast. Can't wait! Maybe if it's popular enough they'll consider a full revival.

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning: Worth Playing?

Faeblades are really awesome!

My first impression of Kingdoms of Amalur were based on about 90 minutes of gameplay. I've since played for 10 hours and I've realized that this is a game far too massive to do a single writeup for. Instead, the review will come in parts. In this first installment, I'll explain what Amalur is and is not as well as commenting on what works and doesn't at this point in the game.

Early Impressions: Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning

Don't let this picture fool you: Reckoning is full of color!

I've been anticipating this game since the day it was announced. Every piece of information they shared, every screen shot and video they released, make it look like my dream RPG. Action combat! Open world! Color! Now that I've finally gotten a chance to play it... well, it's not quite the perfection I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, I think it'll be a solid game and a great new IP but it's not the ultimate RPG I was hoping for based on what I played.

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but late last year a new Dragon Ball Project started headed by Bandai, V-Jump and Saikyo Jump. It's called Dragon Ball SSSS, for Saikyo Super Saiyan Secret. Anyway, this is relevant because it's resulting in new Dragon Ball media. The first piece to be released is "Episode of Bardock", an "alternate" take on Bardock's story. I put alternate in quotes because it could very easily be worked into cannon. And when I say Bardock's story, I mean after Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta. The three-chapter manga ran from June to August and flew completely under the radar. It was adapted into a 20 minute anime special released at the end of December under the DB SSSS banner. I just discovered this the other day and now I want to spred the news. It's pretty great. Much more satisfying than the last new piece of animation from 2008. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll just say that the villain in it was designed by Toriyama himself (though he looks slightly goofy in my opinion).

A Wealth of New Korra Footage!

The floodgates have opened! Watch as Korra battles thugs, metalbending police, firebenders, and has a heartfelt conversation with (HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOLIARZ!) Katara.

Halo: Helljumper is here!

Remember that fan-made Halo miniseries I mentioned earlier? The first episode was released today. It's pretty good! Not the best fan film I've ever seen, but definitely not the worst. Check it out:

Slightly New Things

As you can clearly see (unless you're bling... but then what are you doing on the internet?) I've created a well-deserved custom font for I04. Also changed the font for the post headers. Also, new stuff should be posted soon. I'm pretty busy, but I think it's lame when people say "YES, I WILL DO THIS THING" and then it never happens and you never find out why. While my mind's on it, The Daily Awesome... it turns out that's a bit more a hassle than I thought. I might just go back to the whole posting interesting tidbits to FB and G+ which you can find in the sidebar thing. That post I did a while ago about what I'm posting soon? Turns out that by soon I meant probably within the next six months. Of course as I go along, that might turn out to be an outline for most of 2012. You can scratch the 3DS review off that, obviously, as well as the Tower of Heaven thing. You can access "life in teh real world" (a secondary blog) from the menu up top now. I update that when I remember. Next on the agenda is a preview for Kingdoms of Amalur, followed by the BOOTYs. I promise to have that done before the month is over and it becomes irrelevant. I've got a pice on Gurren Lagann planned for soon, too, while it's still fresh in my mind. Other things will come when they come. I'm just letting everyone know because I believe in transparency.

The NEW new review policy

I've been doing some thinking, as often tend to do, and I have finally come to a conclusion: Installation 04 will no longer be reviewing games. Well, not in the traditional sense. I've decided to scrap our new review system completely, optioning instead for a new system that's not really a system at all. Our new "reviews" aim to answer one question: "Worth playing?" What will result is a review that focuses more on the important aspect of how the parts of the game work together as a whole. Is the game a fun and engaging experience? As I said before, readers often skip right to the end, so the answer to that all important question comes right at the start. Within the first paragraph, you will know if the game is worth playing, and you can read on for a more detailed look as to why if you wish. There are no sections. There are no colors. Just a straight discussion of how the game may or may not work. The idea actually came from what I was doing before with reviewing shows, a thing I called "worth watching".  We hope you find it... refreshing.

Review: Tower of Heaven

The GameBoy graphics are simple, yet strangely effective.

How did I miss Tower of Heaven when it came out two years ago? How did I miss it again when it was ported to flash with extra content last year? I may be late to the party, but this party is so damn good that I don't care. A lot of us here missed this gem, so the logical conclusion is that it flew under many a radar. Well, I'm here to introduce you. This is Tower of Heaven, and he is a work of art.

Nintendo 3DS: Worth Buying?

The Nintendo 3DS: the point of a lot of discussion and controversy this last year. It had a rocky start and some thought it would never make it. The terrible launch lineup, no eShop, and $250 price made it a tough sell in early 2011. Then came word that this year would bring Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Star Fox and Kid Icarus along with the launch of the eShop. Unfortunately, two of those were remakes, two more wouldn't be out until the year's end, and Kid Icarus would be pushed to a release almost a year after the system's launch. The eShop didn't have much going for it early on either, with no original games and only Super Mario Land worth buying. No one expected what would happen next. The surprise $80 price cut was like cutting the weight off a balloon. Sales jumped 260% and by the end of the year and the system ended up selling over 4 million units in the US alone in 2011. Nintendo didn't stop there with the craziness. They threw in 20 free games for early adopters, and soon announced the circle pad pro which adds a second c-pad. It's been one crazy first year for the machine.

If you didn't pick one up at launch, after the price cut, or for the holidays, you may be asking yourself if it's worth getting considering the PSVita is right around the corner (though it's having similar launch troubles in Japan). Read on to (hopefully) reach a verdict.