All About Super SFIV’s Hakan

Super Street Fighter IV (X360) Final world warrior sells cooking oil and loves his family.

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All About Super SFIV’s Hakan

Games Provide Comfort to Chilean Woman Pulling Through Quake [Feel Good]

A Chilean woman coping with the devastation wrought by last week’s earthquake has looked to games to provide some comfort and normalcy, and a fragile World of Warcraft collectible that somehow managed to survive is her symbol of hope. Karen, the gamer, was not near the worst of the shaking – she’s in Santiago, some 200 miles north of Concepcíon, the epicenter. It was still bad enough to toss fragile keepsakes and glasses and shatter them on the floor of her home. Except for that stein, a World of Warcraft “Blood of the Horde” collectible that only suffered some light damage to its flip top. Karen figured, if that piece of ceramic was tough enough to make it through, then perhaps her friends and family further to the south also hung in there and pulled through. “Only the top is a little mess up but everything its fine,” Karen said (in broken English) in a cathartic thank-you email to the stein’s maker, Taverncraft “I know its stupid but it was like … a little breath for me … we joke about it and the stein help us to relax in that moment …” She continued: All i wanna say that you made a good product and little stein give me hope, and have family in Concepcion and the other region that are the most affected for the earthquake and when I see the stein without a scratch for me was like … yeah maybe my family made it too… that day I couldn’t sleep… and only yesterday i have news all my family from the south are alive The MMO site ZAM contacted Karen and found she was playing Guitar Hero: Metallica with friends when the quake hit past 3 a.m. local time. In addition to her Warcraft gaming (she’s an Orc enhancement shaman, name of Taoren) she also plays Starcraft, and has organized FIFA 10 and Left 4 Dead gaming nights for her friends this weekend, to help keep everyone’s mind off the disaster, if only for a couple of hours. World of Warcraft Player Digs Out of Chilean Quake [ZAM. Image via ZAM.]

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Games Provide Comfort to Chilean Woman Pulling Through Quake [Feel Good]

An Insider’s Guide to Portal 2 [Portal 2]

Today’s Game Informer cover unveiling is just the latest in a year and a half’s worth of Portal 2 news that has been steadily leaking about the Valve game since 2008. The cover hints at a chance to leave the labs, and GLADOS, behind, but we’ve known plenty more than that for quite awhile. Be warned, if you proceed through our Insider’s Guide to Portal 2 surprises, plot-lines, characters will be SPOILED. Cave Johnson, the boss of Apeture who was dead in Portal, will be the principle antagonist of this sequel. How? We’ll get to that. In the game, Johnson, described as an amiable self-made billionaire who refuses to accept the responsibility of his power, starts off as a sort of sidekick to the player but then he starts to lose his grip on humanity as the story progresses. According to an open casting call we received in 2008 , at some point in the game, after Johnson has isolated himself from the people around him and lost touch with reality, he becomes the main bad guy. But how does a dead man get a leading role in Portal 2? Enter our second major Portal 2 scoop of 2008: Leaked script samples . Turns out that Johnson will be portrayed in the game as a simulated computer version of himself. Resurrected inside a computer, Johnson will urge the player to continue testing as he discusses his take on the afterlife. We also get a bit of insight into Johnson through this week’s Valve update of Portal which included plenty of buried hints all of which led to some fantastic quotes from Johnson: “Science isn’t about why, it’s about why not. You ask: Why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: Why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won’t hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired.” “Plus, in the event of your death, I personally guarantee that, thanks to the form you were required to sign this morning, your family will not suffer the indignities of a prolonged and costly legal battle against Aperture Science. Trust me, I am rich, and it is a burden I would not wish on anyone.” So we’ve got an unhinged, debodied billionaire acting as friend and protagonist. We’ve got all of the tech of Aperture Science, like that spiffy Portal gun and maybe some new toys. And what else? The final piece of the puzzle may be revealed on the Game Informer cover, which seems to hint at the possibility of the game leaving the stark confines of the lab and going abroad. So when is this dark comedy coming out? This coming holiday season, according to Steam’s announcement today, just like Plunkett guessed in 2008 . One final clue? Why are there certain letters underlined in the official Portal 2 announcement? Here are the underlined letters, and one number: drattmannh0nee. What now?

Originally posted here:
An Insider’s Guide to Portal 2 [Portal 2]

Valve’s Portal Puzzle So Far: The Files Recovered From Aperture Science [Valve]

Yesterday, Valve issued an update to its 2007 first-person puzzle game Portal, adding exactly one new Steam achievement and 26 audio transmissions that players could listen to via in-game radios. So started an impressive puzzle. Instead of listening to those transmissions in-game, members of various web forums, including the Steam , Facepunch and Something Awful forums —who we credit with the following discoveries—accessed them through more standard file system digging. Some were easily identifiable Morse Code recordings while the majority were SSTV (or slow-scan television) encoded transmissions. The Morse code audio files included the following information. 1. interior transmission active external data line active message digest active 5. 9e107d9d372bb6821bd91d3542a419d6 12. system data dump active user backup active password backup active 17. beep beeeep beep beep beeeep beeeep beeeep beep beeeep beep beep File 5 is a doubly encoded, the MD5 encrypted string “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” File 17 was Morse Code for Morse Code for “LOL.” Good times. The remaining sound files were translated from audio to a series of 22 images, which had the appearance of stills from security cameras installed at Aperture Science, the setting of the original Portal. Many of those images contained shots of numbers and letters from keyboards, chalkboards and whiteboards, as well as the odd equation or formula, requiring the mob of puzzle solvers to tap into their calculus and engineering backgrounds. Click for super huge size The mob eventually put those characters together to form the string 9459C6CAC8C203B8128B7CC63068D4FD which itself was an encoded phone number for a Bulletin Board Service. That meant dusting off a few modems, dialing up Valve’s BBS, logging in and letting a mix of ASCII art and text files stream. That text dump may offer some of our first low-fidelity peeks at the next Portal and gives us a bit of insight into Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson. First, the artwork, which contains (here’s the word again) encoded visuals that may be familiar to the Portal player. In the above image, we get a peek at an ASCII version of GlaDOS, a few shots of the research facility and what appears to be two robots holding hands. There’s also a confidential document detailing “Low Risk” Human Resource Acquisitions, including hobos, orphans, psychiatric patients and senior citizens. The above features another peek at GlaDOS, a trio of diagrams and a heart shaped “anomalous emotional response” detection warning. Finally, two recognizable Portal items, GlaDOS (again) and a pair of automated turrets, among other things, plus a few memorandums from Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson. CJohnson writes: “…remind you that APerture Science is built on three pillars. Pillar one: Science without results is just witchcraft. Pillar two: Get results or you’re fired. Pillar three: if you suspect a coworker of bin’ a witch, report them immediately. I cannot stress that enough. Witchcraft will not be tolerated.” “A lot of you have been raising concerns about the so-called “dangers” of what we’re all doing here. The beancounters told me to tell you that as of today, testing will no longer be as mandatory or as dangerous. That’s not gonna happen and here’s the reason.” “Science isn’t about why, it’s about why not. You ask: Why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: Why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won’t hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired.” “Plus, in the event of your death, I personally guarantee that, thanks to the form you were required to sign this morning, your family will not suffer the indignities of a prolonged and costly legal battle against Aperture Science. Trust me, I am rich, and it is a burden I would not wish on anyone.” One theory being bandied about by forumgoers is the version of GlaDOS responding from the BBS, which is 3.11, is a reference to March 11, the date that Valve will supposedly reveal more about what this Portal puzzle is all about. It’s also the date the Valve founder Gabe Newell will receive his Pioneer Award at this year’s Game Developers Conference Awards. There may be more, so let us know if we missed anything in this summary.

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Valve’s Portal Puzzle So Far: The Files Recovered From Aperture Science [Valve]

The Exotic Locales of Japan Now With More Yakuza 3 Fighting [Clips]

Due to hit stores in the U.S. March 9, sans ancient Japanese history and hostess bars, Yakuza 3 isn’t just about beating people up, there’s also sightseeing. You will, according to this video, get to relax in Okinawa, spend time with the family, take the short trip to Tokyo, hit the streets and go shopping, enjoy an evening with friends. Annnnnd beat people up. That’s like our annual trips to Tokyo Game Show, accept with more fisticuffs.

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The Exotic Locales of Japan Now With More Yakuza 3 Fighting [Clips]

The Toys That Amazed Me [Toy Safari]

Gaming tends to take over things. We get video games molding movies, video games infesting Facebook. At Toy Fair 2010, I expected to see gaming infecting and influencing toys. I did. But I also saw so many other delightful things. See, you go to a Toy Fair in New York City’s cavernous Jacob Javits center, where big and small toy companies are showing their hot next things, and you expect to see LEGO sculptures, maybe promoting an upcoming sequel to a famous movie. You get to see the next Atlantis Lego set, the final Bionicle set and one of the first Lego board games. Elsewhere you’ve got your people making purple sand. They’re near the people shilling for the next Rubik’s Slide, an electronic toy vaguely related to the Rubik’s Cube in that you hold it with two hands and shift chunky pieces of plastic to line up squares. Trust me — or see our pals’ impressions — vaguely R. Cube-related. Maybe an electronic Rubik’s toy is a sign of gaming’s creep into the toy world. Maybe all those Halo toys and Prince of Persia toys I saw are too. I think I know what spurred many of the makers in the row of booths showcasing electronic toy guitar instruments. But wander over into the Gund area, and you’re in a zone free of video game influence. All you can see are bears. Or ride up the right/wrong escalator to Toy Fair’s top floor and see a wall of little girls’ ballerina dresses… A perfect accompaniment to a haul of toy rifles. The big gaming trade show E3 used to have a basement space called Kentia Hall where gorillas Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would never exhibit but the people with the goofy and maybe just brilliant ideas hatched in their dreams and hustled into programming code, would hang out. Toy Fair’s got its share of Kentia, which, really is the best stuff. You can have your stash of Pokemon plushies at the Pokemon booth, located below a giant inflatable Pikachu. My head is turned by the people from Uncle Skunkle Toys making a crazy, destructive multiplayer wooden blocks game: Who but the cold-hearted wouldn’t cheer for the nice lady on the other side of this show from the Mattells and LEGOs (Hasbro was in a whole other building!) who wanted to tell me all about Pancake Pupppies, which are plush dogs that have stacks of pancakes for bodies? Down some aisles of Toy Fair, you have people selling the staples of toy stores: The paper airplane kits, the tricycles, and those little tent houses you can set up in the family room for the child who wants to get away from it all without getting away from the house. You have people selling purple sand, which apparently is an old idea. DC Comics has a $300 Joker statue to sell. The Razor people have scooters and some little vehicle that a girl almost ran me over in. It is common, I learned, to create products that re-invent how people play catch, usually involving some new form of paddle connected to nylon and/or Velcro. The people who make the iPong show up at Toy Fair, introducing people like me to the entire field of devices that will automatically serve you Ping-Pong balls. (I don’t know if the iPong is the only one that looks kind of like an Xbox 360 Elite). There are, of course, the toys that are hard to get, but interesting to be shown, like this one, which is explained with the aid of an impressive stack of paper. Video games may have their Spore to teach a version of evolution. Toy Fair 2010 had Evolvems, “evolutionary transforming plush.” Watch this video and you’ll learn something, I promise: Was there a trend at Toy Fair 2010, a trend other than people making inflatable dreadlocks or people making marshmallow guns ? (Neither was a trend, actually, because each was done by only one exhibitor, I believe). Well, maybe this was a trend, or at least my favorite concept of the show: Toys made from garbage. I found two companies, among the many showing off that they were eco-friendly (hey, that’s the trend!) that were showing toys that were improved with garbage. Near the Lego booth, there was the Uberstix people, whose linked toys are designed to connect to cups and bottles and other stuff that might make the boats float or the planes drift in the sky. Even cooler was Makedo, a company that sells you joints and pins and other connectors and gives you tips how to use them to bolt some cardboard boxes together and wind up with a robot or a house or a dog. (Click the thumbnails to see these bigger.) Maybe these are the kind of toys that only work well at trade shows, not unlike all those toys I saw on TV when I was a kid that seemed so much more fun in commercials than they were when I played with them. They seem like a noble effort, at least, which I guess is the sales pitch. Toys from junk… why not? I can report to you that there were many entertaining things at this Toy Fair 2010. Video gaming’s got its spot in the show, but it hasn’t taken over the designs of most of what I saw. Then again, how could games compete with the toys like the ones in possibly the best video I’ve ever shot in my years as a reporter? Oh, and let’s hear it for fun mirrors. That’s what I’ll leave you with. My toy expedition is complete.

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The Toys That Amazed Me [Toy Safari]

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review: A Muddled Mess [Review]

Turns out that Percy Jackson isn’t a trouble maker with dyslexia and ADHD, he’s just the son of Poseidon, and you know how those demigods are. Movie Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lighting Thief shows what happened when a 12-year-old is thrust into a training camp for the children of gods and soon after runs off on his first epic adventure. Jackson has to come to terms with his mythological father, discover his own powers and prove he hasn’t swiped Zeus’ lightning bolt in a two hour movie that seeks to tap into the growing popularity of mythology and Harry Potter. Loved Classic Tale: Mythology seems to be all of the rage these days, at least in video games. This movie lands neatly between the release of Dante’s Inferno and God of War III, both of which deliver classic stories in mythological settings. Percy’s story of three challenges, a quick trip to hell and a damsel in distress also works off the same Greek and Roman template that gave wing to similar adventures of Hercules, Orpheus and Hermes. And it works. The warrior’s descent into and return from the underworld is rife with literary possibilities, many of which the movie ably taps into. The Challenges: Before finding his way into the underworld, Percy, like Hercules before him, has to face three challenges. These are the moments, both in their depiction and the clever way they modernize ancient lore, where the movie is most triumphant. Depictions of the Underworld: While the concept of a journey to hell and back isn’t new, The Lightning Thief’s vision of hell is a remarkable take on something often overblown or undersold in movies and games. In this movie, the underworld is literally a place of lost dreams, and the way that is depicted is one of the more powerful scenes in the story. Special Effects: Despite its novel source material, this is a movie you’ll only really want to see because of the special effects. Those glorious CGI effects are the only part of the Lightning Thief that shines from beginning to end. And there are some truly memorable moments. Strong ending: The first third of the movie is a rushed and muddled creation, more confusing than entertaining. But the final act of The Lightning Thief is almost worth the wait… almost. While it’s not possible for it to pull together the many loose plot lines and characters spilled across the picture’s opening, it does an admirable job of picking the most important parts and doing something interesting with them. Hated Awkward Opening: The movie so rushes its opening that you don’t have time to come to grips with Percy as a troubled child, his parental problems or why you should care about any of his friends, new found or old. The movie wants to get you to the good stuff, the special effects, the monsters, the gods, but it does so at the expense of plot and character. No Flow: Even after The Lightning Thief settles into its special effects and mythological challenges, the movie skips and jumps across the plot. The threads holding together the movie’s challenges and its culminating battle and aftermath are so flimsy that the movie feels more like a series of shorts rather than a cohesive effort. Emotional Void: Perhaps my biggest complaint about Percy Jackson is Percy Jackson and his friends, his family, his enemies. They rush through the opening moments of the movie result in characters that never fully develop. You don’t know enough about Percy, besides the whole son of a god thing, to really care about him. And if you don’t care about Percy why would you care about his friends, teachers and family? I don’t know if the lack of character depth is the result of bad writing, bad directing, bad acting, or all three, but the end result is a series of clichéd, flat characters that never develop, never even seem to show emotion besides the sorts you might find in a sitcom. And the experience of the film doesn’t change them, but a lack of growth characters lacking depth shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose. One could fall back on the excuse that this is a kids movie. But Harry Potter, and an entire industry of children’s movies, prove that something created for a child can also be deep, meaningful and entertaining to watch by adults. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief uses special effects and interesting settings to prove that the book franchise has potential, but this first effort is a muddled mess. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief was directed and produced by Chris Columbus and released on Feb. 11. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review: A Muddled Mess [Review]

Dante’s Inferno’s Japanese Marketing Includes a Racial Twist [Ea]

“Look how EA is promoting its game Dante’s Inferno in Japan,” a tipster wrote. If only it was that simple. The gentleman in the Dante outfit is named…Dante. Dante Carver , actually. EA Japan roping in Dante Carver, a well known TV “talent”, to appear at this promotional event for Dante’s Inferno is quite clever. In Japan, television commercials are a big deal. You can tell how popular a celebrity is by the number and types of commercials they appear in. So take fashion model Yuri Ebihara. A few years back she was in ads constantly. Now, she seems to have vanished. So whether it be popstar Takuya Kimura or actress Yukie Nakama, celebrities stay in the public eye by selling products. There is even a magazine in Japan devoted to covering commercials. While Carver appeared at this Dante’s Inferno event and even in a Konami stage show at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, this kind of work is small potatoes for him. His big break came in 2006 when he began appearing in a series of ads for mobile phone carrier SoftBank. The series of ads to promote SoftBank’s “White Plan” discount. As game translator and author Matt Alt points out, “white” is a word all Japanese know and it has pure connotations. The ads have been running for years and center around “The White Family”. There’s the mother (played by elegant actress wife of Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi, Kanako Higuchi), the daughter (played by extremely popular actress Aya Ueto), the older brother (played by the previously mentioned Carver) and the father (played by a white dog). Carver is the yosougai (unforeseen) element in the ad. In Japan, the ads have been a hit. And recently, American film director Quentin Tarantino appeared as the kooky uncle . Tarantino’s appearance got me thinking — subconsciously, maybe, about one of the most controversial films about American racism during the 1980s. A film that was viewed as being so risky, that it was shelved by the studio Paramount Pictures. That film was White Dog . White Dog, released in 1982 in France where director Samuel Fuller was adored by critics and filmmakers, told the story of a white dog that had been trained by its master to attack black people. Scored by Ennio Morricone and co-written by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), White Dog was director Samuel Fuller’s look at how racism is breed. But before the film was even released, the buzz was that White Dog was racist. Paramount blinked and then refused to release the picture in the U.S. The irony being of course that White Dog is not a racist film. Samuel Fuller was one of Hollywood’s most progressive directors, unafraid of tackling everything from war to prostitution to, yes, racism in the US. Before coming to Hollywood, Fuller had worked as a crime reporter, a political cartoonist and even landed at D-Day as part of the U.S. infantry. Tarantino was and still is a great admirer of Fuller’s films, and during the late 1990s when I was working for Tarantino’s distribution company, I saw a 35mm print of White Dog, one of the rare times the film had been screened for the American public. It’s no accident Fuller picked a dog for his film. Dogs and African-Americans have a long, checkered history. Dogs were used to track escaped slaves. Fire hoses were sprayed at and doges were sicced on blacks during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This imagery exists. Fuller used a white dog as an obvious metaphor to show how racism is taught. And yet, here in Japan, we have The White Family, consisting of a white dog father and a black son. Of course, the breeds are totally different — the movie has a white German Shepherd, while the SoftBank ads have a white Hokkaido Ken. Does this mean the producers of the SoftBank ad were aware of this? Of course, not. This film, while a significant entry into Fuller’s filmography because it marks the last Hollywood film he did, is certainly not a major film in Japan. (It did get a release there in 1990.) Most likely, the producers, the stars and even Carver himself are oblivious to White Dog — and that is fine. However, I would be surprised if Tarantino did not make the connection between the ad and White Dog in his mind at least, even if it is a superficial connection. The connection exits, though while it may be interesting to point out, it is tenuous at best. These White Family ads are actually a breath of fresh air. Even though, the idea of a white dog having a black son might not fly in the US, the series of ads are welcomed in Japan. Here’s why: While the White Family clearly does not look like a normal family, they act like a normal family. Carver’s brother character is just a regular brother-type character. The ads do not bring up his nationality or color, and he does not play up the kooky foreigner angle that dominates so much of Japanese mass media. He’s just a normal guy! (With a dog father.) Just like White Dog before it, these White Family ads examine race — though the SoftBank ads do not directly deal with racism. Instead, by indirectly commenting on racism, the ads shine a light to stereotyping elsewhere in the country’s media. As American-born Japanese TV talent Dave Spector once pointed out, the Japanese often view foreigners on TV as like a panda bear. They’re cute and interesting and fun to throw marshmallows at, but that’s about it. Carver’s character in the White Family is a baby step beyond that. For those who are interested, the White Family ads with English subtitles can be viewed here . [ Pic , Pic , Pic , Pic ]

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Dante’s Inferno’s Japanese Marketing Includes a Racial Twist [Ea]

Race And Nationality: More Than Promoting Dante’s Inferno In Japan [Ea]

“Look how EA is promoting its game Dante’s Inferno in Japan,” a tipster wrote. If only it was that simple. The gentleman in the Dante outfit is named…Dante. Dante Carver , actually. EA Japan roping in Dante Carver, a well known TV “talent”, to appear at this promotional event for Dante’s Inferno is quite clever. In Japan, television commercials are a big deal. You can tell how popular a celebrity is by the number and types of commercials they appear in. So take fashion model Yuri Ebihara. A few years back she was in ads constantly. Now, she seems to have vanished. So whether it be popstar Takuya Kimura or actress Yukie Nakama, celebrities stay in the public eye by selling products. There is even a magazine in Japan devoted to covering commercials. While Carver appeared at this Dante’s Inferno event and even in a Konami stage show at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, this kind of work is small potatoes for him. His big break came in 2006 when he began appearing in a series of ads for mobile phone carrier SoftBank. The series of ads to promote SoftBank’s “White Plan” discount. As game translator and author Matt Alt points out, “white” is a word all Japanese know and it has pure connotations. The ads have been running for years and center around “The White Family”. There’s the mother (played by elegant actress wife of Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi, Kanako Higuchi), the daughter (played by extremely popular actress Aya Ueto), the older brother (played by the previously mentioned Carver) and the father (played by a white dog). Carver is the yosougai (unforeseen) element in the ad. In Japan, the ads have been a hit. And recently, American film director Quentin Tarantino appeared as the kooky uncle . Tarantino’s appearance got me thinking — subconsciously, maybe, about one of the most controversial films about American racism during the 1980s. A film that was viewed as being so risky, that it was shelved by the studio Paramount Pictures. That film was White Dog . White Dog, released in 1982 in France where Fuller was adored by critics and filmmakers, told the story of a white dog that had been trained by its master to attack black people. Scored by Ennio Morricone and co-written by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), White Dog was director Samuel Fuller’s look at how racism is breed. But before the film was even released, the buzz was that White Dog was racist. Paramount blinked and then refused to release the picture in the U.S. The irony being of course that White Dog is not a racist film. Samuel Fuller was one of Hollywood’s most progressive directors, unafraid of tackling everything from war to prostitution to, yes, racism in the US. Before coming to Hollywood, Fuller had worked as a crime reporter, a political cartoonist and even landed at D-Day as part of the U.S. infantry. Tarantino was and still is a great admirer of Fuller’s films, and during the late 1990s when I was working for Tarantino’s distribution company, I saw a 35mm print of White Dog, one of the rare times the film had been screened for the American public. It’s no accident Fuller picked a dog for his film. Dogs and African-Americans have a long, checkered history. Dogs were used to track escaped slaves. Fire hoses were sprayed at and doges were sicced on blacks during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This imagery exists. Fuller used a white dog as an obvious metaphor to show how racism is taught. And yet, here in Japan, we have The White Family, consisting of a white dog father and a black son. Of course, the breeds are totally different — the movie has a white German Shepherd, while the SoftBank ads have a white Hokkaido Ken. Does this mean the producers of the SoftBank ad were aware of this? Of course, not. This film, while a significant entry into Fuller’s filmography because it marks the last Hollywood film he did, is certainly not a major film in Japan. (It did get a release there in 1990.) Most likely, the producers, the stars and even Carver himself are oblivious to White Dog — and that is fine. However, I would be surprised if Tarantino did not make the connection between the ad and White Dog in his mind at least, even if it is a superficial connection. The connection exits, though while it may be interesting to point out, it is tenuous at best. These White Family ads are actually a breath of fresh air. Even though, the idea of a white dog having a black son might not fly in the US, the series of ads are welcomed in Japan. Here’s why: While the White Family clearly does not look like a normal family, they act like a normal family. Carver’s brother character is just a regular brother-type character. The ads do not bring up his nationality or color, and he does not play up the kooky foreigner angle that dominates so much of Japanese mass media. He’s just a normal guy! (With a dog father.) Just like White Dog before it, these White Family ads examine race — though the SoftBank ads do not directly deal with racism. Instead, by indirectly commenting on racism, the ads shine a light to stereotyping elsewhere in the country’s media. As American-born Japanese TV talent Dave Spector once pointed out, the Japanese often view foreigners on TV as like a panda bear. They’re cute and interesting and fun to throw marshmallows at, but that’s about it. Carver’s character in the White Family is a baby step beyond that. For those who are interested, the White Family ads with English subtitles can be viewed here . [ Pic , Pic , Pic , Pic ]

More:
Race And Nationality: More Than Promoting Dante’s Inferno In Japan [Ea]

What Can Wii Owners Expect From BlazBlue Developer? [Clips]

This spring, Arc System Works, best known for its Guilty Gear and BlazBlue arcade fighting games, will be releasing…a bass fishing game…for the Nintendo Wii. Yeah. Arc System Works has released a handful of games for the Wii like Family Pirate Party and Family Glide Hockey. Bass Fishing Wii World Tournament will be out this April in Japan and take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus. アークシステムワークスさんより釣りゲーのPRを頼まれました。 [オレ的ゲーム速報＠刃]

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What Can Wii Owners Expect From BlazBlue Developer? [Clips]

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