I had very high expectations for Skyrim: Dawnguard.

How could I not? Creator Bethesda touted it as the type of DLC that would feel like an expansion pack, a nice chunk of crazy new content for RPG fans to dig their dragon-weary paws into. And of course, Skyrim was one of last year's best video games. I spent some 80 hours exploring and inhabiting its massive, secret-filled world.

So when I popped in Dawnguard, I expected it to wow me. I expected amazing new environments, crazy new plot lines, whole new cities to see and slaughter. I expected to be utterly blown away.

That didn't happen.

Here's what you should know about Dawnguard, which Bethesda released earlier this week for Xbox 360 (and will release later for PC and PlayStation 3): It adds two divergent faction lines to the game. One has you allying with a castle full of vampires; the other has you hunting down and killing those vampires. Both stories task you with acquiring a MacGuffin or three, which means you'll have to run around the world map through locations both new and old, mashing your trigger buttons and sniffing through caves on your quest to Save The World Again.

Dawnguard also fills Skyrim with a handful of other quests, tasks, and random scenarios. As a vampire, I found myself constantly accosted by the eponymous vamp-slaying Dawnguard, who would suddenly pop up in every city I visited, tracking me down like I had an iPhone. This protagonist-detecting ESP seems limited to the computer. While playing as a Dawnguard, you are instead just chased by psychic vampires (some of whom will apparently kill random NPCs everywhere you go).

Because of this DLC's nature, I should admit that I definitely haven't seen everything it has to offer. Although I finished the vampire side of Dawnguard's main story and saw a few of its new sidequests, I did not scour every location in the game in search of new content, and therefore it's very possible that I missed some awesome features. But what I did experience—and what your average new player will experience—was nothing short of underwhelming.

The new quests are underwhelming: other than a few cool new concepts—like murdering a civilian while wearing Dawnguard armor so everybody thinks the Dawnguard did it—you've seen everything here before. Go here; find this; kill him; get that. There's nothing here as unabashedly awesome as, say, a certain quest at the end of the original game's Dark Brotherhood plot line.

The new areas are underwhelming: one, Soul Cairn, is just a soul-stuffed clone of Skyrim's Blackreach. It's big, purple, and completely empty. To finish its quests, you'll have to spend a lot of time walking through vast stretches of sheer nothingness. You'll have to fight a mini-boss, walk ten minutes through nothingness, fight another mini-boss, walk another ten minutes through nothingness, and so forth. This is not particularly fun, interesting, or emotionally engaging. Neither is the part where somebody asks you to hunt down ten pieces of paper and you just groan, wondering if you've accidentally stumbled into an MMORPG.

The new vampire powers are underwhelming: you can't use potions or spells while in Vampire Mode, and worst of all, you're stuck in third-person perspective. Teleporting around as a swarm of bats and draining enemies' life is cool, but completely impractical for regular use. To use items, open chests, and get through some doors, you'll have to switch back to human form, which means you'll have to sit through a long, laggy animation sequence before you can do anything. This is very irritating.

Even the bugs are underwhelming: other than this ridiculous moment toward the beginning of the game, Dawnguard's many bugs and glitches couldn't even get me to crack a smile. Particularly unfunny was the part where my follower suddenly disappeared and I had to replay an hour of progress because I couldn't activate the next quest trigger.

The sheer lack of creativity here makes it almost hard to believe that the same team worked on both Skyrim and Dawnguard. Keen-eyed Bethesda fans might notice that some of the game's new features draw from the Skyrim game jam that Todd Howard discussed at DICE earlier this year, and indeed, interesting mechanics like water currents, dark dungeons, and skeletal mounts are all in there. But they're all minor moments. The game jam itself was far more interesting than any of Dawnguard's new content.

If I had to summarize Dawnguard in two words, it would be this: more Skyrim. For many people, that's enough—and if you're in that boat, you should most definitely get your hands on this DLC. But if you wanted something special, something unique, something that could give you that feeling of giddiness you got the first time you entered Bethesda's hulking role-playing game and started exploring its caves and cities, then you might want to look elsewhere. Or at least wait for Skyrim: Game of the Year Edition.

I bet the folks that do public relations and marketing for innovative and thoughtful games like From Dust and Journey spend days and days brainstorming inventive ways to communicate complex ideas in ways that appeal to the consumer. Meanwhile The Amazing Spider-Man UK marketing team nipped off early after putting in an order for footy pajamas.

While the marketing team is down the pub having some crisps, Spider-Man is up the street waving and having his picture taken, the man inside the suit no doubt counting his blessings for being the right size for the costume. He stopped by the Oxford Street GAME store and spent the morning puttering about.

Spidey was spotted taking in the busy tourist sites early this morning, including Big Ben and St Pauls, mingling with commuters on Westminster Bridge and making calls from a London phone box.

Spider-Man created cutting-edge web-shooters featuring a chemical compound unlike anything humanity has ever seen, yet he has no cell phone.

Tomorrow the Spider-Man model will be playing hide-and-seek, traveling from GAME location to GAME location, standing around being Spider-Man. UK fans will be able to follow his being driven from place-to-place on Facebook.

Somewhere in America a marketing specialist is passed out at her desk, blotter stained with tears of frustration having spent all night trying to figure out how to push a video game that explores the wonders of the human psyche through tower defense. Where is her Spider-Man?

This last weekend Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey was released in theaters across Japan. It is the second film in a trilogy planned to adapt the first story arc of popular Japanese manga Berserk.

I previously reviewed the first film in the series Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King. Simply put, it wasn't very good. However, that does make it the perfect comparison piece for this film because for every problem present in The Egg of the King, The Battle for Doldrey shows at least some improvement.

Good — It's Still Berserk

As with The Egg of the King this film is a faithful adaptation of the Berserk manga. Unlike in the previous film, however, the abridgment helps the story instead of hindering it. Everything is just more focused and the characters, especially Casca, get a lot of much needed development. The supporting members of the Band of the Hawk manage to break free of being little more than named extras and have much more of an impact on the story as well.

Good — Something New

One of the biggest complaints I had with the first Berserk film was its lack of anything new. I wondered what reason there was for watching it instead of the 1997 anime—especially as the series told the story in far more depth. The Battle for Doldrey, on the other hand, embraced the lack of network censors in the theatrical environment and is built around one connecting—not to mention unsettling—theme: Rape. We have rape for lust, statutory rape, homosexual rape, sexual domination, and more than one attempted sexual assult; the theme of rape is explored more than anyone ever wanted. It is actually the thread that binds several of the characters—both heroes and villains—together. The fact that the film makers chose to focus on this theme from the manga is suprising to say the least—especially given it's taboo nature.

The theater environment also allowed for the final portion of the movie, namely Griffith's breakdown, to be shown in a far more disturbing way than either the manga or anime. Also the fact that we, the audience, know so little about the inner workings of Griffith in the movie makes this scene so much more unsettling. Also, somewhat surprisingly it involves sex that is, while hate-filled, not quite rape. Still, by the end of the film, it's enough to make you wonder if sex is ever a consensual, pleasurable experience in the world of Berserk.

Good — A Competently Built Movie

Unlike the last film, Battle for Doldrey embraces atypical three-act structure—making it a far better piece of cinema than The Egg of the King. In fact, the three acts are so distinct, they could almost be broken into episodes at each thirty-minute mark. The general pacing is much better as well, and everything is very tightly written for maximum effect. The only issue I really have with how the movie is built is the ending. While it doesn't end suddenly like the last film, it does drag on a bit, passing the obvious cliffhanger and several other logical conclusion points until finally choosing one. But this is an admittedly minor gripe when set next to the marked improvement of the rest of the film.

Good — Cameos and Backwards Nostalgia

As a fan of the manga, I was pleased at the cameos strung throughout the movie. Of course, these are all cameos of people that Guts has not met yet, reminding savvy audience members of what the future has in store for our hero. Yet while in most series, this would be a wink to the audience saying "the best is yet to come," in Berserk we're pretty much at the highpoint of Guts' life; it's all downhill from here. It's a kind of twisted nostalgia to remember just how bad it's going to get and how much better these people's lives were before meeting Guts.

Mixed — The 3D Models Still Look Terrible, But Are Far Better Utilized

Let me stress this right away: the 3D models used intermittently throughout the movie still look terrible. However, I finally figured out just what exactly makes the 3D models so atrocious: the faces. They barely emote and lips and wrinkles are just the stretching and pinching of the overlaying texture. It seems that the creators understand this weakness in the animation as well and took active steps to combat it. In this second film, 3D models are used almost exclusively on people whose faces are covered—or when the action is at such a high speed, no one would notice anyway. And when 3D models are necessary for an action scene where a main character is helmet-less, the face is usually done in 2D animation that has been placed over the 3D animation. Moreover, the motion capture for the 3D animation has been greatly improved as well, making most of it watchable—if not enjoyable.
But most importantly, the scene in which Guts went berserk for the first time proved the necessity for the 3D animation. I honestly don't see how such a scene could have been animated without the 3D models or a far bigger budget. So while it still pulled me out of the movie whenever the 3D models appeared, compared to how they were used in the last movie, this was a staggering improvement.

Final Thoughts

Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey was a great improvement over The Egg of the King in every conceivable way. And while I hesitate to call it a good movie, I certainly don't feel like I wasted time or money in seeing it. It still covers identical territory to the 1997 anime, but the way the last third of the movie is done is far more graphic, disturbing, and downright powerful. So now with my hopes mostly restored, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to the third movie, Berserk Golden Age Arc III: Decent, which is scheduled to come to theaters this fall.

Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey was released in Japanese theaters on June 23, 2012. There is currently no word on an international release (though the first movie has been licensed for an international release later this year).

Earlier this week, workers rioted in China's Shaxi, a manufacturing town in Guangdong province. Before that, there were reports of riots at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu. Make no mistake, China doesn't appear to be near a tipping point; however, there seems to be something in the air. While certainly not widespread, some people do seem uneasy.

With that in the back of your mind, this weapon is freakin' scary. You are looking at 7.62 mm Gatling machine gun, which can fire from 2,500 to 6,000 rounds per minute. It's not for the military. And it's not for hunting Predator.

As China Digital Times pointed out, it's supposedly for the cops and appeared at this year's China Police Expo at the Beijing International Convention Center.

"This is a fucking policeman's machine gun," wrote one Chinese blogger. "Who are the police going to mow down with this gun?" asked one Chinese social networking site user. "The American imperialists or the Japanese devils? Who are they selling this thing to?" The cops, it seems, the cops.

Machine Guns: Not Just for Soldiers Anymore [China Digital Times]

With the Xbox Live version of Minecraft, anime fans thought now would be as good a time as any for this.

What's this? This is anime Haiyore! Nyaruko-san mashed with Minecraft. The original light novel and anime stars a Cthulhu deity named Nyaruko and the title refers to "crawling" or "creeping".

Fittingly, the mash-up is titled Haiyore! Creeper-san.

Compare with the anime's opening.

【Minecraft】匠曰く爆ぜよハウス(HD) [YouTube]

Guild01 isn't like Professor Layton, Dragon Quest IX or any other of Level-5's recent big-named titles. Rather it's a budget anthology title sporting not one but four different—and completely unrelated—games by three famous developers (and one comedian). But despite that selling point, Guild01 has completely failed to capture the interest of the Japanese market, selling a mere 20,000 copies in its opening month. But does that accurately reflect the quality of the title or is Guild01 an enjoyable collection that just somehow missed connecting with the popular audience? Let's break the collection down game by game to find out.

Liberation Girl

Liberation Girl is a 3D shooter much like Nintendo's Kid Icarus: Uprising. Written and directed by Suda51 (Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes), Liberation Girl follows the president of Japan as she (in her mech suit) attempts to single-handedly defeat the monsters invading Japan.

The Good
There is a lot to like about Liberation Girl. It's got great music, fun voice acting, and the anime cutscenes are top notch. The best thing about it, though, is the gameplay. Armed with only two weapons—missiles and a beam cannon—the game is fun and flashy despite its relatively simple controls. Most of the strategy in the game comes from the fact that your weapons use the same energy as your shields, so you must time your attacks correctly or risk dying in a single hit.

The Bad
While the controls are simple, they are also awkward. The 3DS must be held solely in the left hand—while the thumbstick controls movement and the left bumper, strafing. This quickly leads to hand cramps for anyone who doesn't have Kid Icarus' special stand. The only other negative is the shortness of the game—it can be beaten in under an hour. However, there is a fair amount of replay value and each of the game's five stages have hidden sub-missions for anyone willing to seek them out.

Aero Porter

From Yoot Saito, the creator of Seaman and SimTower, comes Aero Porter. This is a classic style puzzle game where you take control of an airport's baggage system, trying to put the correct baggage on the correct flights.

The Good
Aero Porter is quite simple to pick up and play but is exceptionally difficult to master. You only use two buttons in the game, one to redirect all the conveyer belts to the next level down and one to redirect them all to the next level up. The goal is simply to get the correct bags on the correct conveyer belt layer and load them onto the plane. It's fun and more than a little addictive.

The Bad
Sadly, that's really all there is to the game. It just gets more and more complex by adding conveyer belt levels. The only other thing that's a bit annoying is how perfect your timing has to be if you are trying to separate bags that are close together. One mistake and you have to wait a good ten seconds for the conveyer belt to make another revolution before you can try to fix it.

Crimson Shroud

Crimson Shroud is the newest title by RPG legend Yasumi Matsuno (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story). The game itself is set up as a group of friends playing a tabletop RPG (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons).

The Good
The tabletop RPG framing device is a clever way of delivering an interesting story. The other players talk as you play while the game master serves as the narrator. The characters you see on screen even look like the kind of miniatures you use when playing these types of games. The battle system is a highpoint as well. It is far more complex than most other turn-based RPGs and lets each character perform both main and sub actions during his or her turn.

The Bad
Crimson Shroud is all tell, no show. The graphics are, at most, static pictures of the character miniatures in the dungeon environment. Most of the time, even these pictures are obscured by a wall of text coming from either the game master or one of the other players. While it is true that in tabletop RPGs you have to use your imagination to experience the adventure, the strength of video games is that they can actually show that adventure to you. Ignoring this strength of the video game medium is definitely the low point of the game.

Omasse's Rental Weapon Shop

Ever wonder what happened to all those shop owners you encountered over your RPG travels? Well thanks to Omasse's Rental Weapon Shop you need to wonder no longer. You take over the role of a young black smith in this comedy/rhythm-based RPG and cater to everything from knights to Samurai as they pass through on their adventures.

The Good
When you hire a comedian—in this case America Manzai's Yoshiyuki Hirai—to make your game, the final product better bring the funny. And for the most part, Omasse's Rental Weapon Shop does. After you sell the adventurers their weapons, you are able to watch their (mis)adventures through your crystal ball. And let me say, nothing is quite as satisfying as watching Grandma get ambushed by the Big Bad Wolf only to see her whoop out the +1 Naginata I made for her and finish him right there.

The actual weapon-making process is done in the form of a rhythm minigame where you must hit the iron in the right place with the beat of the music—while keeping the temperature up at the same time. It's generally enjoyable, as far as minigames go.

The Bad
Unfortunately, as often as you'll be making weapons, it's a shame there aren't more songs to pound away to. None of the tracks are bad, but they do get old rather quickly. The only other annoying bit about the game is waiting for the heroes to return from their adventures—or wait for new ones to come in, as the case may be. You can kill time by just forging for the hell of it, but once you have one of every weapon and have repaired those the adventurers have used, there's nothing to do but wait and watch the crystal ball.

Final Thoughts

Guild01 is a game aimed at gamers: gamers who know who these game creators are and are excited to see their newest projects. I suspect the everyday public had no idea what to make of Guild01 as in one commercial it appeared to be a 3D shooter and in the next it was an RPG. But even if you couldn't care less about who the creators of Guild01 are, it is still a solid little collection of games that is well worth its budget price (if you have a Japanese 3DS). The games inside are all very unique and each is enjoyable in its own way. So if you like shooters, RPGs, or puzzle games, there is something for you in Guild01.

Guild01 was released on May 31, 2012, in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS. There is currently no word on a Western release.

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The Three Game Creators (And One Comedian) Behind Guild01

Level-5's newest game, Guild01, isn't really one game, but rather four games in one. Each of these games was created by a different director and have nothing in common other than the cartridge they come on.
But what is most interesting about these games are the men behind them. More »

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Four Games, One Cartridge. See Guild01 in Action

Level-5's newest title, Guild01, is four games in one. Each of the four was made by a famous game creator (or in one case a comedian) and are completely unrelated in every way.
The first is Liberation Girl (Kaiho Shojou), a 3D shooter designed by Suda51 that falls along the same lines of Kid... More »

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In the wake of this week's Germany vs. Italy Euro 2012 match-up, there's one image that's making the rounds online in Japan: two of Italy's biggest fans cheering on their team.

Italy defeated Germany 2-1, and we're left mesmerized by the GIF below, courtesy of SB Nation.

Pipe Dream: Super Mario Bros. Fans Rally Italy To Victory [SB Nation]

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This year, a Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers) parody series called Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger launched in Japan along with the new "official" series Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.

For decades now, young Japanese boys have grown up with Power Rangers, which gets a new incarnation every year. Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger is from the folks who make the official Super Sentai shows, but it's a tongue and cheek take on Power Rangers that knowingly pokes fun at so much about the series. Like what? Like a porn star villainess.

Unlike regular Super Sentai shows, which broadcast in the morning and are aimed at kids, Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger runs late at night and is aimed at adults who grew up on Super Sentai. It follows three otaku (geeks) who protect Tokyo's nerd haven Akihabara from evil.

Super Sentai often features pin-up models as the female villains. While the show is aimed at kids and the female villains aren't exactly prancing about in bikinis, their inclusion means that the show could have appeal with fathers. Likewise, the show often features young, hunky dudes that can appeal to mothers.

Occasionally, adult video actresses—inconceivable for a kiddy show in some countries even if the show features only PG type content—play the female villains.

With Super Sentai's porn star history, it's only natural that the Akibaranger parody features a former porn star as the female baddie. Honoka, star of movies like Lascivious Nurse and Obscene MAX, stars as ©Na (or Malseena), the evil jackboot leader who wants to take over Akihabara.

In Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger, there are loads on Super Sentai in-jokes about genre tropes as well as gags about Japanese geek culture, regarding things like cosplay, figurines, hug pillows, pin-ups, etc. That, of course, is the point, because this is a parody! The humor is subversive—and smart. Check out these screencaps (here and here) for an idea of the show's humor.

For more info about ©Na, check out the character's wikia or her Tumblr appreciation pages (here and here).

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Earlier this month, we took an in-depth look at Square Enix's trading card-based, RTS arcade game, Lord of Vermillion. While arguably the most popular game of this type, it is far from the only one—or the first one, for that matter. Collectible trading card arcade games have covered everything from real world sports to Gundam since 2005 and take up a large amount of floor space in Japanese arcades to this day.

Check out the gallery above to read a bit about some of the most popular of these and see how they play in action.

Baseball Heroes

Ever wished that all those baseball cards you had collected as a kid could be used in a video game but figured it's just an impossible dream? Well, kids raised on Baseball Heroes will never encounter that problem.

As you collect the cards for Baseball Heroes, you are able to build your dream team lineup from among the vast majority of players currently playing baseball in Japan. In the game itself, you call the pitches and manage your team's positioning and strategy. Outside of their games, you can also take a hand in their training as well.

In addition to the player cards, you are able to play event or item cards that can tip the scales in your favor if used at just the right moment.

Check out the video above to see the final round of this last year's Konami Arcade Championship. (Gameplay starts at 5:45.)

Gundam 0083 Card Builder

If the fact that the Japanese government is currently looking into the idea of building an honest-to-god Gundam isn't enough to tell you how popular Gundam is in Japan, I don't know what is. So back in 2005 when card based arcades were just becoming popular, Banpresto released Gundam 0079 Card Builder (which has since been updated to 0083).

Set in the U.C. Gundam universe, this game lets you choose not only your Gundam but also its pilot and equipment via your cards. To play, you simply move your unit's card on the playing field to make it move on the screen. To attack, all you need to do is to turn it toward the enemy. If you're in range, you will automatically attack.

Interestingly in this game, each battle you win or lose affects the overall war between the Earth Federation and Zeon. Of course, so do the battles of everyone else who plays the game—making it a meta-war among the players of each side on top of everything else.

WORLD CLUB Champion Football Intercontinental Clubs 2010-2011

Baseball isn't the only sport to get a trading card arcade. WORLD CLUB Champion Football brings soccer into the fray as well. The game sports the rosters of ten of the greatest pro soccer teams in the world—which you can mix and match to make your dream team if you have the cards.

You set up your formation by placing your cards on the field (and you can change your position at any time just by moving your players' cards). After setting up your players in the areas where they play the best, you then use the buttons to the side of the field to control the general flow of where you want your team to take the ball and when you want them to shoot it. Outside of matches, there's a ton of back end team management as well.

Sengoku Taisen

Sangokushi Taisen was the original breakout star of the trading card arcade genre. Set in the three kingdom era of Chinese history, this game allows you to direct armies with the goal of unifying the country. Each card is the leader of a different army and you control their entire armies on the screen. Different cards have different kinds of armies—spear, bow, sword, mounted, etc.—and the area in which they attack varies as well.

Anyone who's played Dynasty Warriors will recognize many of these faces as they share the same cast of historical figures. Currently, the most popular version of this game is the spinoff, Sengoku Taisen (see the video above)—which is basically the same game but set in feudal Japan instead of China.

Starting today, Tokyo's Grand Pacific Le Daiba hotel has three Gundam themed hotel rooms for the Amuro Ray in all of us.

Earlier this year, a life-sized Gundam was erected in Tokyo's Odaiba (again!), and the hotel is hoping to capitalize on the increased Gundam tourism.

Rates start at ¥27,000 (US$340), and the above video provides a tour of two rooms, including showing off the complementary amenities. Guests should free to dream of life-sized Gundam. Japanese politicians already are.

'Gundam' characters grace guest rooms at Grand Pacific Le Daiba [The Japan Times]