Famed videogame composer Nobuo Uematsu is an awesome guy to talk to and hang out with. Seriously, meeting with him was one of the highlights of my writing/blogging career. The guy that made Final Fantasy sound like Final Fantasy is coming to a Boston-based anime convention in April.

Uematsu will attend as an invited guest to Anime Boston 2010, set to go down on April 2-4th at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel. Go with your copy of Lost Odyssey in hand and be prepared to elbow your way through the crowd.

Also in attendance, and in the same category of game music, is Video Game Orchestra. The Boston-based group will be there to perform game tunes, this year appearing with a 90-person ensemble.

Any of you in the Boston area thinking of going? I would.

Anime Boston 2010 Books Nobuo Uematsu and the Video Game Orchestra [OSV]

Man, I feel terrible for Blake Griffin. First, he gets drafted by the perennially hapless, possibly cursed Los Angeles Clippers. Then, before he even plays a single NBA game, the Clippers reveal that he has a stress fracture in his left kneecap; the injury sidelines him for the entire 2009-10 season. And now, it appears that he will go down as the last cover athlete in EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball series.

In a fiscal report earlier today, Electronic Arts laid out its slate of planned releases for the rest of its fiscal year 2010. The expected EA Sports games were there -- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, NCAA Football 11, Madden NFL 11, NBA Live 11, NBA Jam, NHL 11, FIFA 11, and EA Sports MMA -- but NCAA Basketball 11 was nowhere to be found. As pastapadre.com points out, this isn’t all that surprising considering the poor sales of the NCAA Basketball games in recent years and a nagging collegiate licensing issue.

EA hasn’t officially announced that NCAA Basketball is canceled, but that’s essentially a foregone conclusion at this point. I guess they’ll transfer those folks to the NBA Live 11 team, which is going to need all the help it can get now that Mike Wang has gone back to Visual Concepts under 2K Sports.

EA Fiscal Report Indicates Cancellation of NCAA Basketball and New Fighting Title [Pastapadre]

It's not much of a secret that EA has enjoyed solid Dragon Age: Origins sales, but we didn't have a number on it until this afternoon. In a press release blasted after the jarring EA conference call, it was revealed the old-school RPG has sold over 3.2 million units according to EA estimates. That's, uh, a lot by most standards.

EA and BioWare are releasing a full-featured expansion for Origins this March and apparently whipping out some sort of new DA title in fiscal 2011. We'll try to figure out what the latter is while also taking stabs at what made so many people want to buy Origins. We're guessing it was Manson. Or the fact that the game rocked. Either way, we're happy.

This latest trailer explains the close combat in Aliens vs. Predator. Ironically, the video only tells you the Xbox 360 controls, which already has a control layout in the demo. The demo that really needs help with the controls, the PC version, has been left high and dry. You're just going to have to guess the keys for that one. 

Anyway, if you've been getting hacked to pieces too many times, this video will show you how to deal with a close encounter. It's all about the block button. Yes, we didn't know there was one either until someone outside of the demo pointed it out to us. 

People are starting to get the hang of counters and blocking in the demo, which is starting to annoy me as it's getting harder to win matches. I don't like being challenged, least of all by smartass Predators who think they're cool just because they look like insectoid Bob Marleys.

As part of a concentrated effort to keep second-hand sales low, EA plans to continue dropping unique content delivery services -- like the ones present in Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 -- into its games through fiscal 2011.

Speaking during the recent financial conference call, EA CFO Eric Brown said as much, adding that these services "benefit" original purchasers: "In fiscal 11, we will continue to introduce new service and product features that benefit the unique registered purchasers on PC and console games. Our most recent example is the Cerberus content network introduced with Mass Effect 2."

Later in the call, EA COO John Schappert said that all of EA's fiscal 2011 titles will "have an online component, both downloadable content and online play." We'll take this to mean you'll probably want to steer clear of the "Used" aisle in order to access the full EA.com sign-in experience.

Assuming you're still hooked into the Cerberus Network, you can look forward to some free downloadable content for Mass Effect 2 tomorrow. Both the Xbox 360 and PC versions are getting "Cerberus Assault Armor" and the "M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun."

As far as stats are concerned, the armor increases heavy weapon ammo capacity, shields, and health by ten percent. As is the case with all of Shepard's outfits, I'm going to pass so long as the helmet stays on at all times. I'd never want to miss seeing his wide range of facial expressions.

The shotgun is supposed to pierce armor and be effective even at longer ranges. What else can be said? It's a gun; you point it at people that you aren't particularly fond of. Personally, I'd rather do one-hit kills from far away with a sniper rifle than risk running up close with a shotgun for a similar effect.

Still, free content is free!

The winter of 2011 will see more than a few big EA releases, including the sequel to horror-title Dead Space, another Need for Speed, as well as that Epic Studios shooter we've been hearing so much about. But here's a surprising tidbit: expect something "far-reaching" from the Mass Effect series (or team?).

Towards the middle of the riveting EA conference call, COO John Schappert busted out the news of something Mass Effect -- something "far-reaching" -- is set to hit in fiscal 2011.

"Winter of 2011 marks the chilling return of Dead Space, a highly rated, fully-owned franchise," Shappert said. "Another big driving simulation from Need from Speed, a new shooter being developing by Epic Studios and co-published by EA, and finally something far-reaching from Mass Effect."

Could this be a traditional, full-featured expansion across both platforms? Or is this another game based in the universe? Surely, it's not Mass Effect 3.

If cheering wasn't your thing, you might want to consider All Star Karate by THQ. It's the publisher's new title in the "All Star" franchise, following the popular (no, really) All Star Cheer Squad.

The Wii title puts players in the role of a young martial artist in training who, in an attempt to save an old man from a group of ninjas, has to fight head-to-head against a karate master. What... the... ? Yeah, so in a Karate Kid inspired "twist," you're trained by the elderly karate master in an effort to earn a black belt. The game will feature full support fo the Wii MotionPlus (if you choose), and will let you use your choice of the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combo or two Wii Remotes.

All Star Karate is scheduled to ship this spring, so you might want to wait before starting sh*t with any neighborhood ninjas. Because, you know, this game is gonna make a man out of you. Or a tough pre-teen. Or something.

It's already been confirmed that Burnout developer Criterion has its hands in the Need for Speed franchise. But if Burnout's fast pace and twisted steel isn't your thing, don't worry -- Electronic Arts has confirmed that it has not one but two Need for Speed titles in the works. 

Holiday of 2010 will see the release of Criterion's Need for Speed title, referred to by EA Chief Operating Officer John Schappert on today's financial call as an action title. Early 2011 (January-March) will see the release of a second Need for Speed title, this one a simulation title, possibly a follow up to last year's Need for Speed: SHIFT.

You can can play both titles, no one's stopping you. But if you had to choose, what would you prefer? A Need for Speed simulation title or a Need for Speed action title?

Some may claim that the Aliens and Predator franchises are dead, but the apparent success of the Aliens vs. Predator demo seems to indicate that there are a lot of fans left in the world. According to Rebellion, AvP has been downloaded 14,000 times on Xbox Live alone, which is pretty decent, considering it's not had a lot of major coverage. 

I'm legitimately surprised by this, however. I've barely been able to find a match on the 360, and when I have, it's usually some bullsh*t like a one-on-one round. The PC has a lot of healthy, full matches going, but I figured nobody was playing the 360 version at all. Still, those that are playing it seem to like it. Rebellion proudly notes that the game has a Live approval rating of 4.5/5 right now, and I know all about 4.5s!

In any case, AvP is out this month, and the first review from Game Informer gave it a 5.75. I expect quite a few reviews will treat the game poorly, while a small handful will "get" what the game is really about and love it. From my demo experience, I appear be among the brave and the few. We'll get our review out there as soon as we get the game and can enjoy all the multiplayer modes.

Aliens vs Predator demo hits 14k downloads on Live [CVG]

If you're an avid Electronic Arts fan and just have to have everything they own, you might want to tighten your belt for the next year. There's a lot of games, and in the publisher's fiscal earnings details released today, release windows for some major games were revealed.

Of note, Visceral's Dead Space 2 is confirmed for an early 2011 release, along with a new Spore title, the Epic Games/People Can Fly shooter, a new Dragon Age game, and an unannounced action title. Yes, I meant to write a new Dragon Age.

Hit the jump for a full breakdown of EA's key titles for its fiscal year 2011 (via Shacknews).

[These posts on No More Heroes 2 are purely speculation. I have no idea what the team at Grasshopper Manufacture intended for the game to mean; I can only speak to what I've taken away from it, so if you don't enjoy potentially bullsh*t interpretations of the meaning of a videogame, then stay away from this post. --Jonathan]

Here it is, the second and final post from me about the bosses of No More Heroes 2. Honestly, I'm worried that it's sort of stupid to put these posts out so quickly after the game's release, as I feel that I'm far from really figuring it all out. I've already had a few new ideas about the first nine bosses that I wish I'd written in the other NMH2 boss analysis post, and since I'm about to dive into writing this next post, I'm still trying to figure out what the last nine bosses mean to me.

These next nine are especially hard to describe, because they rely on atmosphere and context a lot more than dialogue or physicality to get their messages across. I better not starting thinking about that now, though, or I'll run the risk of getting a sudden case of writer's block and never finishing this thing.

I'm just going to jump into it, figure it out as I go along, and hope it makes sense to somebody. That's probably what Suda51 would do, and it seems to be working for him. So hit the jump and see what I poop out. Oh, and watch out for spoilers and stuff.

You might have heard that the BioShock 2 ending is up on YouTube. No,  I'm not going to link to it. That's a dick thing to do, and is almost as bad as putting it up in the first place. I did, however, point it out to 2K. Of course, they already knew about it, and as you'd expect, were not impressed in the slightest.

"We know that we can only control that so much."

"It's been [up] a couple of times, said 2K Marin's Creative Director Jordan Thomas. We've already had our legal guys take it down a few times. It's inevitable. In a couple of days, it won't matter anymore anyway."

I said that I intended to "play the sh*t out of it" to prevent spoilage, and was told that this would be "a smart move."

"We just have to trust that people have individual disciplines," said Thomas. "If they're going to look at the ending of a game they haven't played yet, we can't do much to stop them."

Not to worry too much if you did accidentally see it, though:

"People have no context at all for what's going on, really, so it really won't make much sense."

I tend to be immune to just about everything. But some how I wasn't immune to H1N1. We have a very tight budget this 1st quarter and found that no one would be willing to work for Game Juice. So we had no choice but to Outsource PAD to a Indian Villager named Neranjan Venom from Sholingur. I think his name means Orange.

I really feel it's a wonderful opportunity! A real gift, and a chance to teach another culture about our greatest American Gift EA's Madden Bowl! So join Orange as he learns about our strange new ways in this bizarre new world with central A.C.

Learnings things about our culture and about our Madden.