Comic Con is around the corner and even though it is primary an entertainment convention filled with comic books, anime, industry panels, it won't stop video game companies to come and show what they got. Microsoft is coming to comic con to show off upcoming games as well as holding some panels at the event. Here is the schedule they put it out so far thanks to Gameinformer:

Xbox Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel 

Legends Room – Hard Rock Hotel 

207 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 

Thursday, July 12 – Sunday, July 15, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Get an early taste of the upcoming Xbox 360 blockbusters and Xbox LIVE Arcade titles with us. Be sure to stop by the Xbox Lounge at the Hard Rock to play highly anticipated games like “Forza Horizon,” “Fable: The Journey,” “Dance Central 3,” “Assassin’s Creed III,” “Resident Evil 6,” “Borderlands 2,” “Hitman: Absolution,” “Sleeping Dogs,” “Deadlight,” “Wreckateer,” and more. And, after you try some of the new games, check out the HBO GO and Crackle apps on Xbox LIVE.

Xbox 360 at NERD HQ 

Block No 16 Union and Spirits 

344 7th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 

Thursday, July 12 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Friday, July 13 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; 

Saturday, July 14, 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Sunday, July 15, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Xbox 360 is joining forces with Zac Levi’s Nerd Machine again this year as the official console of NERD HQ, a four-day offsite experience exhibiting the best of technology, gaming and entertainment at Comic-Con. Check out blockbuster titles including the intense and reborn Lara Croft in “Tomb Raider,” a brand-new map from “Gears of War: Judgment,” “Hitman: Absolution,” and more playable titles. 

Xbox Panels:

The Fiction of “Halo 4” 

Room 6BCF, San Diego Convention Center 

Thursday, July 12, 4:45pm – 5:45pm

“Halo 4” heralds the return of one of gaming’s most iconic heroes, the Master Chief, in a new, epic sci-fi saga. Expanding and enriching the narrative, 343 Industries, with very special guests, will share how the development of stories across the Greg Bear Forerunner saga, the Karen Traviss Kilo-Five trilogy, “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn,” “Halo 4” Campaign and “Halo Infinity Multiplayer” have become connective tissue for “Halo 4.” Don’t miss the exciting premiere of the “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” trailer as well as Q&A with our special guests! Panelists: Brian Reed, Franchise Writer, Armando Troisi, Narrative Director, 343 Industries, and “Forward Unto Dawn’s” director, cinematic director and writers (to be announced). Moderated by: Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director, 343 Industries.

“Gears of War”: Past, Present & Future 

Room 6BCF, San Diego Convention Center 

Friday, July 13, 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

G4 TV Host Morgan Webb, will serve as moderator as legendary video game developer Epic Games comes together to discuss the past, present and future of the “Gears of War” franchise. The creative and technical minds behind one of the most successful game franchises in history will be on hand to share experiences with attendees. Panelists include: Epic Games’ Design Director Cliff Bleszinski and Director of Production Rod Fergusson, writers Tom Bissell and Rob Auten, and the voice of Baird, Fred Tatasciore. This panel will feature an extended Q&A session.

“Halo 4”: A New Campaign and “Halo Infinity Multiplayer” 

Room 6DE, San Diego Convention Center 

Saturday, July 14, 3:15pm – 4:15pm

“Halo 4” marks the beginning of a new saga in the blockbuster franchise that has shaped entertainment history and defined a generation of gamers. Developed by 343 Industries, get a glimpse at how they have taken “Halo 4” in new directions, introducing an ancient threat and the Master Chief’s greatest challenge, as well as an innovative and fresh new take on multiplayer in War Games and Spartan Ops. Panelists: Kiki Wolfkill, Executive Producer, Josh Holmes, Creative Director and Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director and others to be announce soon.

So if your going to Comic Con this year and want to check out Halo 4 or other Microsoft related games, go check them out if you can!

-Anthony Beanes
sources:http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/06/28/microsoft-39-s-san-diego-comic-con-schedule.aspx

Lord of Shadows developer recently did an interview with VG247 and described how they felts about Lord of Shadow games. "I know there's going to be pressure on us to do another Castlevania game, but I don't want to rise to that pressure," Cox told VG247. "I want to do something else. I love Contra. I'd love to do Contra. At MercurySteam we've got an original idea that I think is really awesome. We'd love to bring that idea to market and I'm hoping that the success of Lords of Shadow 2 will allow us to do that."

The Lord of Shadows games have done well and is the best 3D Castlevania game to date compared to previous attempts at making Castelvania in 3D. I am pretty excited to see the developer to work on a remake of Contra. I loved the Contra series for how hard it was, and the same time fun to play. The Contra rumor started at the Video Game Awards last year and showed off a short teaser trailer of Contra. With Comic Con around the corner we might see more information about this game very soon.

-Anthony Beanes
sources: http://www.shacknews.com/article/74564/lords-of-shadow-dev-wants-to-reboot-contra

Valve continues to support their five year old game, Team Fortress 2, by giving it another update with new weapons, items, and the last Meet the Team video of the series. Its been five years since Team Fortress 2 has been released to everyone on Steam and multiple platforms. Today marked the end of the Meet the Team series with Meet the Pryo. Like previous videos it was very well animated and very funny. In this update you get a slew of new weapons for the Scout, Solider, Sniper, and of course the Pryo. Including an item for every class who plays from now until July 5th will get vintage Pryo goggles upon playing everyday until July 5.

For past three days Valve has been releasing new content for Team Fortress 2 for the Pryo update. A new map, shown above, was released on Monday as a celebration of the start of the Pryo update week called, Pyromania. In this new map is like some of the others, but they added a space rocket in this map to mix things up with Team Fortress 2 players. And in the last update today was the release of two things. One, the last video of the Meet the Team series with Meet the Pryo and the Source Film Maker. All the movies that Valve has created with every cast member of Meet the Team has put out a video editor for everyone to use. In this video editor you can animate and create videos that Valve has put out for each video they created for people to use to create their own. So you can also create videos like Meet the Team or any other idea you might have. For more information about the Filmmaker the link can be found here http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/

Valve continues to support their franchises long after the release. Of course everyone is begging for Half Life 3 or Episode 3, but Valve has continued to show support franchises that have been established with Valve weather it be Team Fortress 2 for 5 years to Counter Strike Global Offensive for 10 years.

-Anthony Beanes
sources: http://www.teamfortress.com/pyromania/

So a Microsoft document had popped up on Scribd that had claimed that the new Xbox 720 will be released in 2013 with a price tag of $299 and also a new version of Kinect!

Doom 3 the BFG Edition will have a release this year on October 13th. This will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $40 and $30 for the PC. This edition will include remastered version of the 2004 game, the Lost Mission, the 2005 Resurrection of Evil and also a new seven mission pack. 
this game is getting a face lift with 5.1 support surround sound, new HD lighting and rendering of the game, stereoscopic 3D support and you can get achievements and trophy's for your skills. Plenty of killing and first person shooter that you can enjoy.
Check out the trailer for the BFG Edition below!

Source: G4 and Gamespot
By Clinton (a.k.a. SamShio)

The movie From Up on Poppy Hill with the screen play of Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Goro Miyazaki that was released last year, 2011, will be produced by a company other than Disney for release in the United States. The company GKids will release the Blu-ray and DVD of this film in March 2013 to the United States and will seam to handle the theatrical release in the next month of March. Oddly enough Studio Ghibli will be handling the English Dub of the film. It makes me wonder if there will be those big name actors that manage to get to voice the characters in this film that Disney manages to get. This is the first time Disney is not handling a Ghibli Film since Princess Mononoke back in 2001 by Miramax Films.

Check out the trailer for the film down below!

Sources: Animenewsnetwork, MTV Geek and Wikipedia
By Clinton (a.k.a. SamShio)

On Wednesday Blum posted a picture displaying a certificate from Guinness World Records. It recognized him as the "most prolific videogame actor" in the world. He has 261 credited appearances as of May 10, 2012. Most people know of him as voice of the Spike from the Cobow Bebop dub, and most revently Amon from Lengend of Korra.

My personal favorite voice? Wolverine baby.

-Sean Chapman

Source:
AnimeNewNetwork

Funimation announced the English cast of the upcoming move Fafner - Heaven and Earth.

A 26-episode series that  originally aired in Japan in 2004, Fafner:

The majority of Earth is laid to ruin by an alien race known as the Festum; however an isolated Japanese island community of Tatsumiyajim is oblivious to the fact. Eventually, the whereabouts of Tatsumiyajim is discovered by the Festum and the inhabitants of the island must stave off invasion using powerful mechs known as "Fafners."  

The series originally was licensed by Geneon in 2005, and had  a manga release after, which  had story and art done by Mikami Akitsu. t is based of the story from a light novel by Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble, (Le Chevalier d'Eon).

The movie debuted in Japanese movie theaters in December 2010, the story of the movie takes place two years after the conclusion of the TV series.

Here is the cast listing:

Being called Call of Duty: Black Ops declassified, the game was announced at E3 for the Vita, though Sony didn't actually say very much about it at the conference.

It's due for release later this year.

-Sean Chapman

For those going to Anime Expo this year, many people are both excited, worried, and wondering about how ESPN's X Games will work with Anime Expo. This year Anime Expo and ESPN's X-Games are going on at the same time this weekend in the same area around the convention center. Many have question how that will affect Anime Expo. In a recent video interview on the youtube show AX Live, talk to the person in charge of Anime Expo about these questions. The one thing I took away from watching the interview is that it seems Anime Expo will be limited to just the convention center, and another hotel near by. Last year Anime Expo was using not only the convention center but also, the staples center, the Nokia theater, and other buildings surrounding the convention center. The Nokia theater was used last year for the rave as well as other big events like the Masquerade. This looks to hinder Anime Expo to a huge degree. Will this change people's mind from going, or actually make it more fun to go to AX but also at the same time watch a bit of X-Games? We will find out soon enough at the end of month.

Interview is at 0:14:00

-Anthony Beanes
Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf6qIdPCkP8#t=777s