(Skyrim) Todd Howard Keynote – February 8, 2012 – 6:30-7:30p Pacific

(Arkham City) Sefton Hill Session – February 9, 2012 – 10-10:30a Pacific

(Twisted Metal) David Jaffe Session – February 9, 2012 – 11:45a-12:15p Pacific

15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards – February 9, 2012 – 7:30p-10p Pacific

If you happen to catch any of these sessions, please share your thoughts on them…and also rate the speakers outfits on a scale of one to five (no halves!).

Howdy guys and dolls! I’m off to Las Vegas for DICE 2012. As many of you know, this is my favorite gaming-industry event by a Queens Blvd. mile (country miles are meh). I’m looking forward to some excellent networking, catching some outstanding panels, attending the Interactive Achievement Awards, and chatting with some of the most creative people in gaming. Also…video poker!

I’ll be checking on the site between sessions and drinks networking. I’ll also be posting pictures on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. It’ll be just like attending with me (minus the hangover)!

There are a handful of interesting videogame releases this week. Leading the way is Kingdom of Amalur: The Reckoning, the debut title from Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios. The game combines the formidable talents of Ken Rolston (lead designer of several games in The Elder Scrolls series), R.A. Salvatore (renowned Forgotten Realms author and creator of Drizz’t), and Todd McFarlane (buyer of expensive baseballs). Fans of dark and gritty comics looking for a dark and gritty comic-book game will want to check out The Darkness II. Lastly, Resident Evil: Revelations brings Capcom’s famous survival-horror franchise to the Nintendo 3DS.

Any of you picking up new games this week?

Hundreds of millions of Super Bowl advertising dollars have come and gone. A few of you mentioned being underwhelmed with Super Bowl XLVI’s commercials and I mostly agree with that sentiment. Having said that, there were several spots that caught my eye. Here are my 10 favorite Super Bowl XLVI commercials. After you’ve gobbled them up, please let me know which ads were your favorite.

1) The Avengers Teaser — Earth’s mightiest heroes (and also Hawkeye)! Scarlett Johansson in her remarkably tight Black Widow costume! I’m totally geeked out for this movie.

2) MetLife — Any commercial that brings together Voltron, Charlie Brown, Marvin the Martian, Mr. Magoo, etc. is pure win.

3) Kia — I will absolutely buy that men dream about Adriana Lima and dozens of other women in bikinis. I think it’s hilarious that Kia thinks men dream about old bands (Motley Crue) and old MMA fighters (Chuck Lidell).

4) Audi — Making fun of vampires is always a good thing.

5) Chevy Silverado — This was a cute and clever spot. Combining Barry Manilow, a post-apocalyptic world, and Twinkies is borderline genius.

6) Teleflora — More Adriana Lima! This time she shows off her body and her sexy Brazilian
accent.

7) Volkswagen — I’m a geek. This commercial features the Mos Eisley cantina. Of course I loved it!

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Teaser — The action looks slick and I’m a homer for movies starring The Rock.

9) Time Warner Cable — I’m really unhappy with my Time Warner Cable television and Internet service, but I have to give the company props for this commercial with Rick Gervais.

10) Fiat 500 Abarth — Sexy Italian woman dropping frothed milk on her breasts? Yes, you have my attention Fiat.

When last you heard from him, Justin Leeper (author of the book Still Man Fights) rapped about the Occupy movement. This time he’s gone in a totally different direction, melding Final Fantasy VI and Pat Benatar. Check out the song above and official description below:

I felt these two songs — “Love is a Battlefield” and “Decisive Battle” — would go well together, so I set out to mix them. I wrote some additional lyrics, got my wife to sing, and made a video using gameplay from one of my favorite games of all-time, Square’s Final Fantasy VI (FF III in the US on SNES).

The music is “Decisive Battle,” from the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack. Both It and the game’s likenesses are owned by Square Enix.

“Love is a Battlefield” was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight, and was made famous by Pat Benatar.

My wife Kate did the singing on this video. I did rap and additional lyrics.

As always, Justin is looking for feedback on his work. So please leave a comment here or on his YouTube page.

The outstanding Dropbox cloud-storage service is giving users up to 5GB of free space for some beta testing. The latest build of Dropbox features automatic photo and video uploading. The more photos and videos you upload, the more free space you get. Here are the specifics from the Dropbox Forums:

For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500MB space bonus, up to 4.5GB total. [Update: To clarify, you can get up to 5GB of free space with this feature, if you count the initial 500MB space for the first photo import].

I know a lot of you are big Dropbox fans and I encourage you to take advantage of this offer. That said, you should back up your Dropbox folder before you get started. This is beta software we’re talking about, after all.

Dropbox beta 1.3.12 is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.

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It’s almost game time boys and girls! You’ve shared your initial Super Bowl XLVI picks. Now it’s time for your final answer. How do you think it will play out? Is the team you’re rooting for the same as the team you think will actually win? Please share your pick and the spread in the comments section.

Based off a message I sent in the More-or-Less-Official RPad.TV Google+ Chat Room, I’ve been thinking a lot about materia. You know, those lovely magical balls (mind out of the gutter!) used in the world of Final Fantasy VII. If you could have one materia, what would it be and why? Would you go offensive? Maybe you’d like to summon Bahamut for afternoon tea chats? Or perhaps you’d like to heal you friends and family with restorative materia like Curaga or Esuna. Give it some thought and let me know your dream materia (please!).

Yuffie is a Materia Girl.

As for me, I’m stuck on a pair of materia from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Initially I was thinking that Costly Punch would be the way to go; it would pretty much let me win any fight in a cheap and annoying way that would mentally scar my opponents. However, I’m more of a thief than a fighter. Mug materia would be much more useful to me. Being able to steal and hit at the same time would rule! In my head, Mug would work with friendly slaps too. My victims would lose valuable possessions (or more likely, Pez dispensers) after innocent pats on the back thanks to the deceptively awesome power of Mug!

So how about it? If you have one materia, what would it be and why?

This weekend will be evenly split between my PlayStation 3 and my iPad 2. On the console side, I’ll be playing Final Fantasy XIII-2. My gaming-biz friends are all over the place with their opinions on the game. As a Final Fantasy homer, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. On the iPad side, I’ll be playing WinPokerHD. I’m headed to Las Vegas next week for DICE and I’ve randomly caught the video-poker bug. WinPokerHD is a fantastic training program that lets you practice, learn optimal play, and avoid mistakes. I used it a ton on my PC during my semi-pro gambling phase of 2001. Since video poker is played on a touchscreen, the game is even better on the iPad.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

My friends Seamus Blackley (co-creator of the Xbox) and Vanessa Burnham (author of Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984) have revealed their next project: Innovative Leisure. The company reunites the incredible talent behind numerous Atari arcade classics and brings them under one roof to create iOS games. Here’s an excerpt from an excellent story by VentureBeat’s ”Dancing” Dean Takahashi:

“We are looking at the new arcade, and 99 cents on the iPhone is the new quarter,” Blackley (pictured above), president of the startup Innovative Leisure, said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “People are playing on all these new devices and are finding the joy of the arcade games.”

The “Jedi Council” team includes Ed Rotberg, creator of the classic Atari game Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Tim Skelly, the only non-Atari veteran arcade game designer who worked for Cinematronics and created games such as Rip-Off; and Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow.

Innovative Leisure is so full of awesome that my head is on the verge of exploding. You can (but shouldn’t) ignore my personal biases for Seamus and Van; I adore both of them, so I’m obviously excited about their startup. You can’t ignore the talent and influence of the game creators working with them. This is the videogame equivalent of The Rat Pack getting back together to show the world their classic talents on a new medium. (Geeking out again.)

I’d love to hear what you think of Innovative Leisure. Are you excited by old-school Atari creators taking their talents to South Beach the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch?

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