Pulse!n Radio Presents: Let's Play Mega Man III

Josh from Pulse!n Radio sat down and fired up one of his favorite games of all time and an all around classic, Mega Man III.

What was used to record the video was Camtasia Studio 7, a JNES Emultaor and the input was a USB NES Controller. We regret that there is no audio commentary as for whatever reason, recording audio at the same time as video caused a lot of lag. We're guessing it had something to do with Camtasia... or that Josh needs a new PC! (Probably both!).

However, he does provide some commentary in the video descriptions. The entire series can be viewed at the following links:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP8grJcL9_4

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOuy5Ko-DUU

Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF2nwGAGyLg

Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWC2BxXXtio

Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDaYW-iPYNg

Part 6 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-JLabyuHIA

Part 7 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOszBYJjeAw

Part 8 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1BpPrqXVcE

Part 9 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2dza3EFiPA

North American Anime & Manga Releases for May 20-26

First off, sincere apologies for missing this for the week. I knew I was forgetting something. Nevertheless, here you go!

Anime

01) Castle in the Sky - Buena Vista Home Entertainment - $39.99

02) Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Image Entertainment - #9.98

03) Dragon Ball Z Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and BD - FUNimation - DVDs are $49.98 each and BDs are $54.98 each

04) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood OVA Collection DVD/BD Combo - FUNimation - $29.98

05) Planzet BD/DVD- Sentai Filmworks - BD $39.98 / DVD $29.98

06) The Secret World of Arietty DVD and DVD/BD Combo - Buena Vista Home Entertainment - DVD $29.99 / DVD/BD Combo $39.99

07) Whisper of the Heart DVD/BD Combo - Buena Vista Home Entertainment - $39.99

Manga

01) Genshiken Omnibus 1

02) NonNonBa Omnibus

03) The Wallflower Vol 28

That's going to do it for the week! This will return next week in audio form when Pulse!n Season 2 begins!

Taking A Pulse: Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is the new release from Rockstar Games. Max Payne started as a series developed by Finnish studio, Remedy, makers of Alan Wake, has now been taken under the wings of the popular GTA and Red Dead Redemption developer, and make no mistake, this is a Rockstar Game.

Max is still shooting and dodging, and it is glorious.

One of the staple trademarks of the Max Payne series, is the comic-book noir style storytelling, and with the new direction that style is gone. Traded for a Man on Fire style story, with nice camera effects to mirror, Max's descent into his own self-destruction.. and boy, Max is self-destrutive. The years of gunshot and popping pain-killers have started to catch up to Max. He's older, bigger, and was pretty much ran out of his home-state of New Jersey by the mob. Max is in living in Brazil and working in private security for a rich, well to do family, and of course... because this is Max Payne, everything pretty much goes sideways from the word go. And Max finds himself wrapped into a story full of deceit, murder, drugs, gangs violence, kidnapping, and Max's disdain for almost everyone.

So while the storytelling has changed, everything else has stayed the same. “Shoot-dodging” or Bullet-time is here and with a press of a button, Max will go into a slow-motion dive as bullets wi by him and allows a tactical advantage to line up headshots,Also by clicking in the Right Stick will trigger the slow down effect. The bullet-time mechanic is well rendered in this game, every bullet is modeled and bullet trails whiz past Max as he dives from corner to corner. Though one change in the combat is that, Max is restricted in the amount of gun that he can carry. More exact, 2 one handed guns, one two handed weapons, and dual wield your one handed guns. In Max Payne 1 and 2, Max had the ability to carry an entire arsenal, in line with Rockstar's changes Max carries fewer weapons, but honestly it is a non-complaint, you always have an option, even in the toughest gunfights.

One of these guys wont be in Max Payne 4. I wonder who?

And while the gunfights, aren't tough in the terms to strategy, but tough in the fact that Max is fragile. And you will die, over, over, over, and over. Easily making some of the more intense firefights, the most frustrating parts of the game. Having to survive firefights in small rooms, with little to no cover, an be a nightmare if you don't take advantage of Max's bullet-time. A new mechanic of a last stand mode has been implemented in Max Payne 3, where upon receiving a fatal blow, if Max has any painkillers, time will show down, giving a chance for Max to kill that person, if the player is able to kill, he will take a painkiller and stay on the ground. While this mode is fun, and clutch in key situations, there has been many occasions where an enemy that killed me was too far for me to get a bead on, or behind Max, and the time it takes for Max to spin around, he will have either ran out of bullets or not get around in time.

But while the combat can be tough, it still is fun. It's fun to go into slow-motion and dive around, and it still has that Matrix-like style of bullet-time and John Woo inspired diving through windows and down steps and whatever my heart wanted to.

The story of Max Payne take shim to sunny Sao Paolo, Brazil. Max is working for a wealthy family providing private security. And stuff goes down, and you an pretty much piece it together from there. And Max's trip takes him through a personal, emotional, and physical journey. With Rockstar's trademark gravitas Max's story just seems to hit harder. He is at the bottom of the barrel. At this point, there is no barrel and he is dirt. Max has hit rock bottom HARD! Taken over by the grief of losing his wife and kid, along with the heavy drinking and abuse of painkillers, has caught up with Max. At the end of day, it's not uncommon for Max to drug himself to sleep with a bottle of painkillers with a whiskey chaser. But while the story is more serious, Max still has time to toss out one-liners, with a nice jab at himself or the situations around him.

Max is mad... and drunk, but mostly mad.

Rockstar has decided to take a more cinematic approach tho Max Payne 3. With camera cuts, and and text in the environments to emphasis certain scenes and moods. . Make it seems you are watching a movie, and not playing a game. The game transition with full 3D cut-scenes, a change from Max Payne 1 and 2's comic book style, with setting up freeze frames for scene chances. One of the more interesting of style change is that Max's personal distortion is met with the picture fuzzing, or discoloration, which is reminiscent of Kane and Lynch 2's hand-held camera style presentation.

One of the bigger surprises to Max Payne 3 is the Multi-player. The gameplay is pretty much unchanged from single player. You fight on the same maps, you use character that are featured in the game, you can trigger the same, but limited, version of bullet time, which only effect player's in the direct line of sight of the triggering player. The standard modes are here: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and control point game modes. The mode, Gang Wars, has you complete different objective and Payne Killer, a mode that has players going against 2 players, but the two players are playing as Max Payne and Raul Passos.

It still has your XP for levels and you get cash to unlock different characters and items to customize your load-outs.

Max Payne 3, is a Rockstar game, the storytelling is top notch, the graphics are amazing, the game-play is tight, and there is an attention to detail that only Rockstar can create. But as a Max Payne game, it is a dramatic step, lacking the more lighter tone of Max and doing away with the dream sequences, there is very little that makes Max Payne 3 stand out from Grand Theft Auto 4. But the touched of Max Payne's trademarks establish a good enough identity to keep the line, while thin, are prominent.  

Max Payne 3

4.5/5

Diablo 3 (Spoiler free review)

 With Diablo 3 having been out for almost a week now, and most of the apparent issues that the game has suffered from being (relatively) solved, many of us have been able to focus on the game that we have so craved for nearly a decade.

 Error 37: The now famous error message presented to players as a result of untold numbers of players trying to access the servers at once. I've heard the flood of logins actually caused Blizzard's Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft servers to shutdown temporarily as well. Yes, it took Blizzard a few days to really get that one ironed out, and yes, I know Blizzard could have setup additional server space to accommodate the literal flood of users trying to access the game at once, but from a business perspective, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to spend the extra money for server space that would only be needed for about a week or so until things balance out.

 That said, I believe this seriously supports the arguement that requiring players to be online, even to play by themselves, might not be a sound idea. Even if this is to fight piracy. Pirates will always find a way, so I feel that this only really hurts the honest players in the end.

 Now, with my opinion out of the way, we'll move forward. Diablo 3 really is a solid game, but it isn't perfect. The game has been simplified, which makes sense, again, from a business perspective because it draws more potential players. At first, I was unsure how I would like this, but to be honest, I enjoy the rune system with the skills. Each skill has a variety of runes that can change that skill in very exciting and unique ways. Visually, the game doesn't look too bad either. Blizzard said long ago that they wanted to make the game playable on most computers, and from what I can tell, they've been able to accomplish that. Granted, it's not as visually pleasing as most current generation big budget titles, but it's far from an ugly game.

 It is unfortunate to see that the game was shipped minus the player versus player mode that so many were looking forward to trying. Blizzard has said that the game wasn't being shipped with PvP because they felt that ironing out the kinks would extend the release date further yet, and they didn't want players to have to wait. PvP is being delivered at a later time. At first, I felt that this would allow me to focus more on the game itself, but to be honest, I find myself wanting to take my barbarian or monk against my friends to see how I do. I waited a decade for this game, so I really don't think a few more months would have killed me, or anyone else. Furthermore, I'm still undecided on how I really feel about the Real Money Auction House. Personally, I have never wanted to play a game to make money. Blizzard has always fought those who profited from their game, but this time, it's different because Blizzard itself gets a cut from these transactions. Personally, I'm not fond of the idea.

 That said, the game is still a wonderful thing to play. It's still just as fun to explore an entire area to find hidden quests or dungeons. It's still fun to see blue and yellow quality items drop, hoping they might be a massive upgrade. I'm even fond of the crafting system, even if it does screw me when I'm trying to craft a piece of gear for myself. The storyline keeps you wanting more, with a few exciting twists just to keep things really interesting. Hopefully, Blizzard will continue to deliver new content to keep this long-awaited title fresh to the players.

Pulse!n Will Be at Florida Anime Experience

As the title, suggests, Pulse!n Radio will be present at the Florida Anime Experience in Orlando, Florida from May 25-27, 2012. However, not Josh, CJ, nor Nick will be there. So if the hosts of the show are not going, then just who the hell is?

Well, since day one of Pulse!n, you may have see a fourth staff member on our Cast page. The guy who works in the background, Pulse!n's Director of Marketing, Andrew Pierson, will be the one in attendance! He will be there handing out Pulse!n business cards and he will be bringing along a tape recorder as well!

If you happen to spot Andrew there, say hi, get a business card, and continue to support Pulse!n Radio!

Anime and Manga Releases for May 13-19

Since we're in the middle of a 2 week break to set up Season 2 as well as our new partnership, I thought I would give you guys your weekly dose of Anime and Manga releases! I have no background music to cue up, so just hum something to yourself as you read this!

Anime Releases

01) The Book of Bantorra - DVD Collection 1 - Sentai Filmworks - $59.98
02) Asobi ni Iku Yo! - DVD/BD Complete Series - FUNimation - $69.98
03) D.Gray-man - Season 2 Complete Set - FUNimation - $29.98
04) The Fantastic Adventures of Unico - DVD - Disctech Media - $19.95
05) Squid Girl - Season 1 BD - Media Blasters - $59.99

Manga Releases

01) Bride of the Water God - Vol. 11
02) FLCL - Omnibus
03) Saturn Apartments - Vol. 5

That's it.. another very short list this week! More announcements to follow in the coming days so keep checking back here to see what's going to be going down!

Episode 11 - We Need A Brazzers Plug Counter

You can grab it here! Pulse!n Episode 11

The Season 1 Finale of Pulse!n Radio!

On the show, CJ is missing so it's just Nick and Josh handling things.

In Geek Culture we talk One Piece, Naruto Shippuden Movie 5: Blood Prison and a look at the Samsung Galaxy S3

In the Gaming Segment we have your news along with our E3 2012 Predictions

This plus excessive drops of the name Brazzers.

Also, we ask if you can head over to facebook and Like our new partner, Radio Under the Influence! You can find their page over at http://www.facebook.com/RadionInfluence

Quick Pulse for May 11, 2012

What's up Geek-U-Verse? With Episode 10 released and it being very close to the weekend, it's time to give you guys the preview for Episode 11 .

First off, I want to let you all know that Episode 11 is the Season 1 Finale of Pulse!n. That's right! We made it through one complete season! I know 11 is an arbitrary number to end a season on, but Episode 0 is also included in this block so that does make a nice and even 12 episode season!

We will have a couple of big announcements on the season finale as to what to expect in the coming weeks. As we said on episode 10, we have a partnership with Ken Konarzewski and Radio Under the Influence. We will provide you more details on that partnership.

Also, to let you know in advance, Pulse!n will be taking a two week break after Episode 11 to prepare for Season 2. This also coincides with the new partnership as well and we will not only fill you in on the details, but also what you can expect from us. Just because there won't be a podcast, doesn't mean we're not going to give you content. We have some things planned and we will share that with you all as well on Ep. 11.

In addition to all the big announcements, we're also going to give you a review of Naruto Shippuuden 5: The Blood Prison, some E3 Predictions (Which is only the beginning of our E3 Coverage), A Preview of the 2012 Summer Anime Season, your Weekly Releases and News and I'm sure more witty banter that only two black men and a 1/2 pretend Mexican can bring you.

So stay tuned because Pulse!n is going to be coming at you harder than ever!

Also, we're asking for some feedback on what you've heard so far. What did you like? What didn't you like? What would you like to hear us cover in the future? Do you want more reviews, more news, less of it, anything missing that we should be covering? This isn't just our podcast, it's yours as well and we'd like to know what you want to see out of it for Season 2! Send all of your feedback to pulseinradio@gmail.com

Pulse!n Episode 10: The Augmented Dead

Sup Geek-U-Verse. Episode 10 of Pulse is fresh out of the oven and ready to be served up to you guys, the hungry viewers.

So... I'm not CJ or Josh and I dont have time stamps, but I can go over what is on the show this week.

In the Geek Culture Segment: 

Yuh-Gi-Oh officiall sells for $10 Million\

Revision3 Bought out by Discovery

Microsoft reminds us of Windows Mobile Marketplace’s Demise 

Windows 8 Won’t Play DVDs Unless you Pay

Long-Running Manga, Claymore, Ends

And in the, "What’s the Hype?"

Google Glasses – Could Augmented Reality be the future of human-technology interaction?

In the Video Game Segment

The Elder Scrolls MMO is Announced 

Blizzard taking 15%  of  Diablo III Real-Money Auction Houses

Nintendo Wii U Starting Line Up Spoiled?

Thegamecompany on Looking for Publishers for Next Title

EA Reports their Q4 and confirm future Need for Speed and Dead Space titles.

Clinton and Nick review Telltale Games' 'The Walking Dead'

And the, "What's the Hype"

Can Tera be the World of Warcraft Killer it claims to be?

During the break, Josh runs down the Anime and Manga releases, and we close the show out with, “Make or Break” by Hanaeryca from The World Ends With You

Pulse!n Episode 10: The Augmented Dead can be found here:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/pulseinradio/pulsenepisode10.mp3

(image credit: Telltale Games)

 Let me begin by thanking the crew at Pulse!n for welcoming me to their ranks, even if it's to throw down some text and ask you all to read it. A small introduction, I think, is in order. My name is James Steele, and I am a gamer. At 27 years old, I remember back to when I was five when my father brought home an NES and started me into this hobby turned lifestyle. Since then, I have made it my passion and my mission to keep myself updated with the latest the gaming industry could throw at me. From the ill-fated Nintendo Virtual Boy to the industry changing shift into photorealistic gaming, I've seen the bad times and the good times.

 I have plenty of ideas that I hope to share with you all one day, so sit down, strap in, and in the words of one of the wisest elders from our generation, "Stay a while and listen."

Pulse!n Welcomes James Steele to Staff!

We here at Pulse!n would like to extend a warm welcome to James Steele who will be joining the Pulse!n team as our newest columnist/blogger. He will be our first columnist outside of the hosts here at Pulse!n. We hope that you look forward to all of his future content!

Welcome aboard James!

Quick Pulse for May 7, 2012

What's up everyone!

If you thought hitting the 50 likes was a good milestone for us, I'd like to say that between Facebook and Twitter, we now have 93 unique followers of Pulse!n!

The Geek-U-Verse is certainly growing and would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support!


Of course, we won't just stop here!  Be sure that if you know anyone who is into geek culture to direct them over to pulseinradio.com or here on Facebook or even to our Twitter (@pulsein) and give us a try!

I want to assure everyone that growth is happening and even more is coming in the near future!  

We have some exciting things planned for Pulse!n over the next month or so as many pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.  Now is the best time to become a part of us as we continue on this exciting journey!

Also, we're getting set to tape Episode 10 tonight (Monday) so if you want to get in on any type of interaction, just send us your questions, feedback, or anything you'd like to have addressed on air to pulseinradio@gmail.com by tonight!

Again, thank you for your continued support and we look forward to more exciting times with the show!

-Josh Piedra

The Quick Pulse for May 5, 2012

What's up members of the pulse!n Geek-U-Verse?


Giving you guys a heads up as to what you can expect from next week's edition of pulse!n as we are gearing up to tape it this weekend!


In Geek Culture we're going to be looking at 4Kids selling off Yuh-Gi-Oh for $10 Million and whether or not it's actually a done deal or not... we'll be taking a look at Revision3 being bought out by discovery, and in the What's the Hype segment, we will ask whether or not augmented reality devices like the new Google Glasses are really the future of human technology interaction.


In the Gaming Segment, we'll take a look at Bethesda's announcement concerning The Elder Scrolls Online as well as a review of the game The Walking Dead, plus in the What's the Hype segment, we'll see if Tera will be the WoW Killer they are hyping themselves up to be!


This plus your news and releases for the week!



Remember, you too can be part of the action.  Send us an email at pulseinradio@gmail.com!  Give us your thoughts, your feedback, your suggestions, and your questions if you'd like to have them answered on air!



Stay safe and have a great weekend everyone!

Pulse!n Episode 9: The Major League Legend

Credit to: http://budgie.deviantart.com

Nicholas Gray has returned! We've gone from a trio...to a duo...to a trio. That's a thing. But you know what another thing is? Timestamps. Here's your time stamps for the show.

(05:20) Geek Culture News, including Toonami's former producer getting a promotion within Cartoon Network and a $1000 dollar Video Card?!

(22:37) What's The Hype: Taking a look at the first two episodes of Nickelodeon's "The Legend of Korra"

(28:04) Weekly Anime/Manga Releases (We promise...more video games.)

(29:50) Gaming News, including Lenovo's Kinect powered console straight out of China, Silent Hill's
glitches getting patched and Nintendo's voyage into full scale Digital Distribution.

(39:17) What's The Hype: Should Nintendo's IPs be moved to other platforms?

(52:17) MLB 12 The Show Review

(65:01) Episode 10 Preview!

Shout outs to FT Island for our song of the Week, "Hit the Sands," as well as The Vanguards for "Sweet Sticky Funk" from the EA Sports NBA Jam Soundtrack!


Like us on Facebook: Pulse!n Radio on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter: @pulsein
Send Us an e-mail: Pulse!n Email


Listen To This Week's Episode: Episode 9

Taking A Pulse: Skullgirls Review

Skullgirls is a really good fighting game. The mechanics are a mix of Capcom Vs series, features beatufil 2-D art, fun jazz-music, GGPO netcode for almost lag-less online play, and features a cast of 8 characters.

Skullgirls' signature grappler, Cerebella

Yes 8. While this number is crazy for this generation of fighting games which sports rosters with around 30+ characters, Skullgirls does a good job at making 8 unique and different character. In both look and play. Big, hulking Cerebella, uses grabs and armor moves and deals a large ammount of damage, and moves slowly, plays miles differently than Valentine, the nurse/ninja (Ninja Nurse? NinNurse?) As she is able to dash across the screen, air glide, and uses projectiles. While the characters look and act differently, th art style overall is...a more love it or hate it.

While everyone is unique some of the characters have a 1950's style pin-up Betty Boop style of art. Characters will large heads, small waist, big thighs, and large chest are here and an put off some people. But people who can look past the art style are treated to a well animated game, partnered with a art-deco style on th emenus and smooth jazz in the background, Skullgirls does a lot to create an identity of its own.

As while a game like Street Fighter can... inflate their rosters with multiple characters with the same or similar moves (Shotos...), Skullgirls creates a rosters, that is worth to learn what these characters can and can't do. And learn their match-ups, while it is nothing new to experienced players, but is a new way to figure out things for newer players.

Meet Valentine; the sexy, swift, and deadly Nurse/Ninja.

And the amount of information that you need to look up is staggering... like... how about the move-list. Yes, the most crucial part of information is not in this game, and while that feature has ben promised via patch, it is still an inexcusible for fighting game released in 2012. And Skullgirls is a package that sems very light. online lobbies are only restricted to 2 players only, with no ability to spectate player matches. And for $15 dollars, that is quite the omission from this game, when compared to Stret Fighter 3: 3rd Strike Online Edition which while the online play was spotty at times, still features, large player lobbies, spectating, and a full-featured tournament mode. The training mode allows you to put hit-boxes on your characters and see where your characters hit on their moves, but the lack of "placing" the training dummy in certain situations (Jumping, ducking, high/low blocking) or record certain moves in order to learn counters and such.

The actual fighting is fluid and well thought-out. By relying more on button pressses than complex stick motions, the game opens itself up by letter players freestyle combos. Compared to the Capcom counterparts, this is a nice breath of fresh air. Just having to worry about button taps leads to be able to do combos more reliably and help novice players focus on execution. And that is the part of Skullgirls, that wins it a place at the fighting game table. While higher level players will still wipe the floor with novice players, the mechanics are easy enough for new players to learn what is going on. The tutortial is deep and teaches players different terms and techniques. Know what 'Punishing' means? “Hit-Confirming”? “Mix-up”?

No.

The tutorial teaches you what to look for and how to react to you. Knowing what to look for and how to react is one of the pillars of figthing games, that more established games never seem to flesh out.

Skullgirls is a fighting game that plays to an odd crowd. The mechanics are familiar enough to people who play fighting games, but there is enough in the game to teach newer players, but to call this game for casual players seems like an odd choice, the omission of in-game movesets, a barebones, but almost flawless, online mode, and a small roster, seems like a lot missing for the $15 price tag. If you want a new fighting game to add to your rotation, then by all means, try thi s game out and have fun, if your on the fence, its worth waiting for updates and seeing what the futurre holds for Skullgirls. 

Skullgirls: 3.5/5