Migoy Plays Dark Souls 2

Here we go. Dark Souls 2. My first entry into the Souls series. I decided to record my first hour into the game while at the same time, livestreaming it on our twitch channel, because of what I've heard regarding the Souls series. With a marketing quote being "GO BEYOND DEATH!", of course I'd be expecting to die a lot.

Here's the highlight reel of my first hour into the game. I won't be doing a Let's Play of this on our youtube channel but I have been playing a lot of it on our livestream channel so follow us there if you want to get notified when we go live.

If you want to see the full video, check it out below.

Heroes of the Storm officially launching in four South East Asia countries

Blizzard's upcoming MOBA Heroes of the Storm is officially coming to South East Asia. Asiasoft in partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, Inc will be in charge of operating and marketing the game in Thailand and Singapore while Asiasoft's subsidiaries, CiB Net Station, will handle the game in Malaysia. For the Philippines, well, we have Level Up! in charge of the game's operations...great. 

So what does that mean? Nothing is clear at this point, we have yet to hear the details on what makes it different from  officially launching the game in respected countries rather than simply logging in through Battle.net through their Asian servers once the game goes live. But official releases in South East Asia for highly anticipated games are always welcomed.

As of this posting, distribution of Heroes of the Storm is still download-only. We'll have to wait to see what are the launch plans for each country.

"Heroes of the Storm will bring together many of the most popular heroes and villains from more than 20 years of Blizzard games," said Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard Entertainment. "Our focus on team combat and map-based objectives make the game accessible to new players, while offering depth for competitive gamers as well. We believe gamers in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines will love playing Heroes of the Storm."

With the sudden rise of the MOBA(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre, it's only fitting to have Blizzard finally entering the fray. It's currently crowded thanks to games like League of Legends, Dota 2, and Smite, but from what we see in the early stages of the game's beta, their sole aim is to retain the team-play aspect while providing something completely new.

Heroes of the Storm is currently on Alpha testing and no release date has been given. For the mean time, watch Raynor battle Diablo, while Kerrigan dog fights Tyrael in the air in this trailer. God those cinematics...

McDonalds Happy Meal - Super Mario Toys

So McDonalds just got a new set of Happy Meal toys that made a few of us go gaga over. The toys in question are of the titular Nintendo mascot, Mario from the Super Mario franchise.

From a question block that plays the coin sound effects, to Mario popping out of a pipe, and even a Fire Mario that slings cardboard cutouts of fireballs, these toys looks great for display while adding a bit of play value that I did not expect them to have.

I only got my hands on two toys from the series.

Mario with ? Block

Mario with Pipe

Official stores break street date for Final Fantasy X/X-2 on Vita?

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes gets released early here, now this? Final Fantasy X/X-2 is now officially available on Datablitz and Games One Gadget for the PS3, but the Vita version of the game is meant for release tomorrow. So what do retail stores do? They break the street date for the Vita version and release it together with the PS3 version. Nice.

Officially, the PS3 version's release date is today, and it seems the PS Vita version's release date is tomorrow. Apparently other offical retailers released it today, forcing Games One Gadget Store to release it as well.

You might be thinking- It's just a day, no big deal. But if only one store is selling copies of the game, how about the others? Of course the flock would go to who's selling earlier and that's a big deal.  There's a reason street dates exists. Oh, and the source of these products won't be happy with this kind of move.

We are also being told that Sony PH is requesting retail stores to stop selling the PS Vita version and wait for tomorrow. We are waiting for confirmation  to confirm this information.

Why is this a concern? Because why break street dates? Just to get ahead? These retail stores will get sanctioned for doing this and in the end we'll be affected by their sudden moves. I'm all for getting a game as early as possible, but if it results in creating a bad reputation for the community here between publishers and gaming companies, it's better to just stay true to the planned release.

Based on PlayStation Asia, the official release for the Vita version is on the 19th.

This is the second time within a month. What do you think about stores breaking street dates?

Source: Game One Gadget Store FB

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes released early in the Philippines

Just like the previous Metal Gear Solid games, we go bonkers when it's close to release day. The prequel to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is planned for a March 18 release but folks over in the Philippines was able to get the game as early as March 14. Why? Heck, if only I had the answer to that one. 

On March 14, Datablitz, considered as the go-to place to get your original video games, announced on their Facebook that Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was now available for purchase.

While everybody was ecstatic that the latest Metal Gear Solid game is now out, we wondered how it was released almost a week before release.

Games One Gadget, or also known as iTech, also announced the game is now on sale in their branches on the same day.

WHATS THE BIG DEAL??

I'm sure you're wondering at this point what's the big deal? Yes, it's a good thing we get the game a week earlier than the rest of the world, but did they  really break the street date(Release date)? That's not good for the game industry taking the Philippines seriously.

Products always have marketing strategies and they have a reason a specific product will be released on a given date. Let's say Konami isn't happy with official retails breaking release dates, they wouldn't be that excited to do any future business here. This isn't the first time, and it probably won't be that big of a deal, but this would provide a bad image for the community here. If they do have permission to release a game that early from the publishers and developers, awesome, but what if they didn't? These kinds of moves from retailers can ruin the possibility of having video game developers or publishers ever considering the Philippines a possible location to market their games locally. Simply giving them problems like breaking street dates won't make us good friends with them in the long run. Wouldn't it be awesome to have launch parties from the developers/publishers or proper pre-order incentives, yes?

Maybe it was done to maximize sales -  Releasing the product before any official review of the game was released would provide a higher payout since everybody's purchase decision is based on the publisher's marketing and their love of the franchise, not from first-hand experience from other players/reviewers.

Another point is -- It's very erratic on how video games are released in the Philippines. We sometimes get games earlier than others, sometimes a week late, or we get it on the said date with the rest of the world. So where can we get definite information? Release date was the best reference point, but it looks like that can't be the definite source now thanks to this.

When the game was available(March 14) in official stores, no review of the game was released, the game is not even released in Japan and the rest of the world, and the digital copy of the game is not yet available on Xbox Live and PSN. You can't even use the online features or redeem your DLC code because it's not even out. Kotaku just reported that the game was even delayed in Austrailia and New Zealand.

Datablitz's Facebook post on their pre-orders even promotes the known release date.

There's no definite answer to how Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released. We asked Datablitz through Facebook but it was a longshot since I doubt their community manager would bother giving an answer. Worth a try.

That, and I asked  when the Xbox 360 version will be available because it is currently only available on PS3 and PS4.

Nothing to worry about? This is a game that's only around 2 hours long anyways.  Or do you have a theory to why we we're special enough to get the game before the rest of the world?  Sound off on the comments below.