Going into Metal Gear Rising Revengance at the Tokyo Game Show 2012, I was sure I knew what I was in for. After all, I have played (and liked) plenty of Platinum's previous titles—i.e. Bayonetta, Madworld, and Anarchy Reigns. Yet, my time with Rising was plagued with a major issue stemming from the game's incredibly counterintuitive controls. Simply put, I could not figure out how to block, dodge, or counter.

The only way I was able to not get hit was to sprint away. However, that was hardly a possibility in most instances as sprinting does not interrupt combos and takes a good solid second to initialize.

While fighting normal soldiers, not being able to block/dodge isn't too much of a problem as ripping out an enemy spine restores you to full life. However, while fighting metal gears and robotic dogs—which take much more than one slash to kill—there is no quick way to heal. Moreover, they strike hard enough to kill you in only two or three hits.

Sure I was missing something, I even went back for a second turn at Rising. I studied the controller layout sheet and, sure enough, there was no dodge, block, or counter button.

Finally, after asking many different people, I found one person able to explain to me that while there is still no dodge, you are, in fact, able to block. To block, you must do a weak attack at just the right moment—something I never would have guessed.

So while many of the controls are exactly what you would expect from a hack and slash action game—with weak attacks, strong attacks, and jumping exactly where you'd expect them to be—other parts of Rising, like blocking are counterintuitive at best. And frankly, blocking is certainly important in a game where you fight a hyperactive dog with a chainsaw for a tail.

OK, I think we've all had just about enough of this Gangnam Style business. So let's tie it all off neatly with what really should have been the first video game parody of the lot: Grand Theft Auto IV's.

GTA IV - GANGNAM STYLE [YouTube, via Rockstar]

Experience the big-screen in private. That's the sales pitch for head-mounted displays. One would think that the only real areas for technological advancement would be in the screen resolution and the actual weight of the device. Introducing the Prototype-SR (Substitutional Reality), a new take on the head-mounted display.

Based on Sony's HMZ personal 3D viewer head-mounted display, the Prototype-SR mixes real-time video with prerecorded video to create what Sony hopes is a unique new entertainment experience. The Prototype-SR is currently on display at the Tokyo Game Show 2012, and I had a chance for some hands-on time with the device in an interactive demo. This is a prototype, and there are currently no plans to launch it. Can you put a release date on the future?

The demo took place in a sterile white room with a chair, the Prototype-SR and a real female guide. The guide set up the device on my head and the demonstration began. She directed me to look left and right to show what I was looking at as a real-time image of the room was being fed to the display monitors via the camera on the front of the Prototype-SR. Then, I was shown a two minute movie trailer for Resident Evil: Retribution.

After the trailer, the screen returned to the video feed of the room where the guide proceeded with the demonstration. At this point, the lights in the room suddenly began to flicker, and the guide seemingly grew ill and collapsed. While I knew this portion was a pre-recorded sequence featuring the same guide, I was able to suspend my disbelief. The ability to move my head an look around made the whole thing all the more real. The guide then rose again as a zombie and lunged at me, causing me to jump. What can I say, it was a good scare. The display went black and I once again returns to a live feed of the room with the real guide.

The prerecorded sequence of the zombie guide was filmed from 360 degrees which allows for 3D viewing from all angles and leads to a frighteningly real experience. In further demonstrations, the guide continued to show a sequence of mixtures of live and prerecorded images, all of which was visually fascinating to see (At one point, the guide reached out her hand for me to touch to show that she was really there). By blending both the live and prerecorded 3D images, the whole sequence was like a highly immersive AR game.

The technology itself is for promotional use only, and in its current form has obvious limitations. As the prerecorded sequences were taken from the view of someone sitting in a chair, standing up can potentially break the visual effect. Audio is another limiting factor which can only really be overcome through the use of noise cancelling headphones. Another drawback is that while prerecorded sequences can be viewed from different angles, because they are prerecorded, they can be shown on top of live images, but not behind, so while you can reach out and see your hand in a live feed, your hand will not appear in a prerecorded sequence.

Nevertheless, even the with current restrictions, the possibilities are astounding. I'd never seen anything like it. There were moments during the demonstration where I literally could not tell what was real and what was not.

As for the HMZ itself, the OLED screens led to a beautiful picture, though the head-mounted display has the standard flaws. Depending on the shape of the head of the user, it can be difficult to comfortably wear the device, and many people find the dual-screen setup to be disorienting.Kotaku had reporters at the Tokyo Game Show 2012 Sony booth, playing Metal Gear Rising Revengeance on a regular HMZ and there were complaints of lingering headaches. At the demonstration at the Prototype-SR booth, however, the staff went to painstaking efforts to ensure the best, most immersive experience with the Substitutional Reality System and that is indeed what was delivered.

The Prototype-SR is very much an experimental prototype (hence the name). As mentioned above, according to a Sony spokesperson, the purpose for its development is to showcase the potential of the HMZ and that there currently are no definite plans to market the Prototype-SR.

Still, the concept is quite intriguing, and the experience itself was a lot of fun. Private home-use would most definitely be restricted by the visual development side rather than the hardware itself, so logically, something along the lines of an amusement park attraction would probably be more feasible as a foreseeable use of this technology. Strictly promotional or not, however they end up using it, it will awesome to see, zombies and all.

With Hollywood flick Resident Evil: Retribution now in theaters, the cast doesn't need those fancy outfits anymore! Today at the Tokyo Game Show, the costumes from the movie were on display, headless statues and all.

There's Alice's skin tight body suit, Ada Wong's dress, Carlos Olivera's gear, and the outfit worn by Japanese popstar Mika Nakashima, who plays one of the infected victims. Have a look.

Click the image to expand to full size.

Capcom today announced the first major expansion for its RPG Dragon's Dogma, called Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

It'll be out next year on 360 and PS3. I'd tell you more, but at the moment there's not much more to tell other than what's in the trailer up top!

UPDATE - Still no info on the expansion, but Capcom says that two "substantial, free" updates are coming to the core game, in the form of a "speedrun" mode and a "hard" mode.

Rapper DMX is, by some accounts, a handy guy with a knife, a gun, drugs and a mic. Before you go proclaiming him some renaissance man, however, watch him try and use a computer.

Note that he's not being asked to render something in 3D Studio Max, or code a web page. Or even using Source Filmmaker. He's just being shown how to use a computer.

Laugh at him if you want, but this is actually kind of cool. Humanity survived for quite some time without being able to use a computer. It's nice seeing somebody today who lives outside that particular social grid. Especially when he's such a sport about it.

Plus, he's kinda right. There are too many things on a desktop!

Watch DMX Struggle Mightily to Use a Computer [Power 105, via Motherboard]

We'll have more on Halo 4's campaign mode later in the day, but for now, here's a collection of screenshots from the game, some in first-person, others not, all of them looking very purple.

Good to see 343 have at least stayed faithful to that Bungie legacy.

We'll have more on Halo 4's campaign mode later in the day, but for now, here's a collection of screenshots from the game, some in first-person, others not, all of them looking very purple.

Good to see 343 have at least stayed faithful to that particular aspect of the Bungie legacy.

EX Troopers is an anime take on the world of Lost Planet. There's a 3DS version and a PS3 version. Today, I played both.

EX Troopers offers run-and-gun gaming against giant monsters (the Akrids from Lost Planet) and robots (again, the Vital Suits from Lost Planet) with the occasional bandits (guess where they're from!). You may even call it a dash-and-gun game, considering that's your only dodging maneuver available (in the demo). You will be dodging. A lot.

Players will be able to wield two weapons, light and heavy, per mission. You can also melee but I don't recommend punching and kicking giant tentacle monsters when you could be shooting them, especially as reloading your weapon with your seemingly endless cache of ammo only takes a moment.

You have the ability to use special attacks of two kinds: by yourself, or with your teammates. The latter dealing more damage than the former. The downside to the team-attack is that all players must activate it while next to their teammates. By the way, while you are waiting for your friend to activate it, you'll be immobile and susceptible to damage. Thank god there was no friendly fire.

Going back to the weapons, the demo only supplied me with simple guns, like submachine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers and such. The most unique weapon on the list was a laser blaster that required charging before each shot. With the auto-lock system, aiming is basically obsolete and the only reason the game can be challenging is because the Akrids are simply humongous, with an abnormal amount of health, making you feel like you're chipping at a wall of concrete with a toothpick.

An interesting (but not exactly positive) thing about the game was the number of maximum players you can play with: three players total including yourself. Why Capcom chose three, instead of the magical gaming number of four, I don't know. They did not mention anything about online services, either.

The unique aesthetics of the game's comic panels and anime effects can only be seen in the cutscenes, making the actual gameplay very bland. They do force in the comic panels effect while fighting, but it's disorienting suddenly having your main character's face zoom in randomly, then going back into game for no apparent reason.

There were no true flaws to the game, but nothing to make it stand out from all the others.

If you are getting EX Troopers, do yourself a favor and get the 3DS version over the PS3. The graphics were essentially the same (save for that sheen of PS3 HD polish) and the game content seemed to be the exact same. The controls were similar, too—save for the obvious hardware differences.

So get the 3DS version—unless, of course, you simply can't play games unless they're on a 60-inch HDTV.

Wow, Linden Labs, what gives. You're meant to be that place responsible for Second Life and all the weirdness that comes with it, not cool and interesting games like Patterns and Creatoverse.

We showed you Patterns yesterday, but it's one of two games Linden is currently working on. The other is Creatoverse, an iPad game... experience... thing that looks like Scibblenauts and Draw Something got together and made downloadable babies.

I was going to say something here about how refreshing it is that neither of these games will feature dragons being ridden by enormous dildos, but I guess this would technically allow that (so long as you could draw it), so I won't.