Niche, hardcore, fighting game enthusiasts this one is for you! With the next iteration of the insane Japanese fighting game "BlazBlue:Continuum Shift" set to release on July 27th, we figured it was only right to highlight some hit cosplays from the BlazBlu universe. Thank god for us, this game is overflowing with hot characters.

Surprisingly enough, BlazBlue:Continuum Shift cosplays are all over! After browsing tons of cosplays of multiple characters, we found one truly worth our readers' time. Behold cosplayer JuliaIsaNinja's hot creation of Litchi Faye Ling:

JuliaIsaNinja caught our attention thanks to her very well tailored, custom costume and uncanny resemblance to the true character herself. 

While BlazBlue:Continuum Shift may not be as mainstream as other fighters such as Tekken or Street Fighter, if you haven't seen it already make sure to check it out, the game may just melt your brain. A classic, 2D fighter to the core, the game is filled with over the top speed, combos, specials, etc. that will make even the hardest of fighting game veterans' thumbs bleed. 

Congrats juliaisaninja! Hopefully if I ever get competent enough at BlazBlue I can challenge you to a match and do my best not to stare. 

Photo's courtesy of Kiraigo.smugmug.com

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Dragon Quest IX is finally out! With the release of the latest of the beloved Dragon Quest series now gracing Nintendo DS's across North America, we here at the Kartel are pumped to get our hardcore JRPG on! Though many American gamers are still wary of  JRPG titles like Dragon Quest, we still wanted to kick off the launch of the epic game by highlighting some amazing Dragon Quest cosplays that all types of gamers can appreciate.

After digging through Dragon Quest forums and the usual cosplay sites, we came down to a tough decision regarding which character to feature from the Dragon Quest series: Beloved Jessica from Dragon Quest VIII or Gothic looking Fleurette from Dragon Quest Swords?

 Even though a Fleurette cosplay is daunting with its amount of detail and fine, lacy craftsmanship, we found three epic, and hot cosplayers worth featuring for the "Hot Cosplay of the Week." 

First of the three impressive cosplays that are highlighted this week is LuChan87 from Italy. Check out her myspace for even more insane cosplay creations ranging from Death Note to Resident Evil:

Next up, we have shirokumapan from Japan. We found this Fleurette cosplay on shirokumapan's cosplay.com profile, along with other impressive creations including Final Fantasy and Tales of Hearts (she loves her RPGS):

But now for the real jaw dropper. My personal favorite has to be clo**, a Japanese cosplayer who frankly is just a perfect fit in terms of looks and style. That, and she's effing smokin. Heartbreakingly enough, she also had the least amount of photos and no other info! For once, after searching diligently I actually returned empty handed about her other cosplays and additional galleries:

While there was some firm support for the character Jessica when we started writing this week's cosplay article, in the end Fleurette won out...mostly because her outfit is way more complex and way hotter. All three Fleurette cosplayers equally have great, detailed costumes, plus the body and seductive "bad girl" vibe to compliment them. Well done ladies!

Woo! It's the month of StarCraft II's release. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last decade or so, you've probably heard of the game StarCraft. With the impending destruction of social lives thanks to the release of "StarCraft II" finally within sight, the Kartel decided to give some cosplay love to one of the world's most infamous titles. Without anymore delay, please enjoy some hot StarCraft cosplay

Allow me to preface this cosplay with the week with this quick expletive: D@MN! StarCraft cosplay is hard to find!

Regardless, after hunting through multiple cosplay forums I managed to find cosplayer Alechan's website. Though completely in Spanish, thanks to Google translator I did indeed find none-other than a decked out, hot, detailed StarCraft Ghost (talk about niche!) cosplay. Take a look:

With such a worldwide following, I figured it'd be a cinch to find some impressive Space Marines or Kerrigan cosplays out there. To my great surprise and dismay it took me incredibly long until I found Alechan's pics, which were finally worthy for our readers. I suppose StarCraft cosplays are quite a daunting task, I mean you could spend a year trying to make a cool Protoss cosplay and still look like a total idiot if it weren't done perfectly.

And it lights up! A key factor for stealth

Congrats Alechan! Hopefully with the release of StarCraft II and the growing popularity of cosplaying conventions we will see more ambitious and badass StarCraft hotties. Until then, be proud! You're the queen of StarCraft cosplays.

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If you've ever been to a cosplay convention, you'll know that the majority of costumes come from Japanese games and cartoons. Still, it's this very fact that makes me proud of the global success and fame of "Avatar: The Last Airbender," an American cartoon. With the release of the movie "The Last Airbender", plus a feature game soon to be out, The Kartel did it's best to find you the best Last Airbender cosplay we could dig up! 

While I did manage to find a good number of Last Airbender cosplays from various conventions, the general following and cosplayers of the show didn't have that "zing" of front page material. Ironically, I managed to find this  acparadise.com profile of a gorgeous and almost life-like "Katara" from The Last Airbender

Look familiar? Well after digging a little deeper it turns out that this cosplayer is none other than IchigoKitty, a hardcore, cosplay enthusiast who we have featured before! IchigoKitty was featured for her spot on "Rosalina" cosplay from Mario Galaxy just a little while ago on The Kartel. D@mn, she is good!

Congrats IchigoKitty, again! You're our first repeat cosplay highlight. Not only that, but the fact that the Kartel found your next cosplay completely independently of your last one and didn't realize it was you until later makes it all the more impressive. Keep up the good (and hot) work.

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With E3 wrapped up, The Kartel can finally get back to what truly matters in this world: hot cosplay of course. Okay okay, while you may not care as much as me, The Kartel decided to dedicate our weekly hot cosplay to the company that stood out the most to us at E3. No, it isn't Activision, Nintendo, EA, etc. Surprisingly the company booth that shall truly be burned into my mind was Nexon, creators of Maple Story, Dungeon Fighter, and other free-to-play (f2p) MMOs. Fortunately these games also have a ton of hot cosplays!

I'm sure our choice to highlight Nexon is raising some eyebrows, so allow me to explain. Nexon is a rapidly growing f2p MMORPG gaming company and the 2010 E3 was actually the company's first appearance EVER at E3. With our writer RaptuousBob offering a review of their newest release "Dungeon Fighter" a mmo/beat-em up hybrid, we figured we'd show some love to Dungeon Fighter, which in fact has 197 MILLION registered users.

While Nexon's games are interesting (and free) and overall look quite entertaining, it was truly their booth that set them apart in the Kartel's mind and warranted this plug. Literally offering the most coveted swag at E3 (some bizarre furry hats...strange I know) Nexon is directly responsible for convention hilarity and madness.

The Nexon Spirit Hood, apparently it casts 6 berserk on the wearer and 40 insanity on the viewer.

Their swag hand-out sessions got to the point of mass-riots, with security having to pull people apart who were literally FIGHTING to get these hats. At one point Nexon staff had to scream into the crowd of grabbing, zombie like hands that there was no swag left and to disperse before they shut down their booth.

Congrats Dungeon Fighter, despite scarring my swag experience of E3 and encouraging the worst in human nature, you definitely earned a spot in our E3 memories and Kartel Hot Cosplay history. The game itself actually was quite fun, maybe I'll go play it after I bathe away the dirty memories of that Nexon booth swag insanity (their hands were everywhere!)

For the record, I didn't even get one of those d@mn Nexon hats. I kid you not, somebody actually ripped my swag out of my hands and ran.

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After Nintendo’s glitchy presentation of the new Zelda: Skyward Sword, many gamers out there questioned whether the new Zelda is worth the hype and whether Miyamoto lost his touch. After some exclusive hands on time, I can assure all of you wannabe heroes of time can that this game will be Miyamoto’s next masterpiece.

The embarrassing control problems that Miyamoto faced while demoing the game was watched by millions of viewers. While I earnestly believed that there was interference (Nintendo would never show off a headline product at E3 unless they were certain of its performance capabilities) the controls themselves were better than I could’ve imagined. Skyward Sword is something that needs to be experienced to truly understand how good the Wii controls feel for a Zelda game. I for one was always apprehensive regarding motion controls, especially for platforming titles.

While Twilight Princess did implement a pseudo Wii control scheme, ultimately the game played just as well if not better with a conventional controller. My Nintendo representative agreed with this point, but made it clear that the Skyward Sword was designed from the ground up based around the Wii MotionPlus.

The MotionPlus is required to play, so this title definitely isn’t another motion control afterthought. Navigating Link was a breeze with the analogue stick, yet the sword slashes still felt quick and responsive. A thrust was a thrust, a vertical slash was a vertical slash. Within five minutes of my play time I was already targeting, dodging, and doing precision slashes on enemies without breaking a sweat, killing a boss and ready to play more. Before I knew it, Kim was wrapping up our slotted time. I had entered this preview thinking I would be dethatched and carefully making critical notes on the flaws of the controls, but instead I was so caught up in just sheer “fun” that I was out of time right when I wanted to do more.

Overall, to all of those who think Miyamoto has lost his touch or that Nintendo’s new Zelda: Skyward Sword is destined to be played with GameCube controllers or be forgotten all together, all I can say is trust the mastermind Miyamoto. Heck, all it took was 10 minutes to completely change a pessimistic reporter's opinion.

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Today at EA's exclusive E3 2010 booth, I was fortunate to sit down and a get a private screening of the new Dead Space 2 following our favorite, limb severing protagonist Isaac Clarke. We were lucky enough to be ushered into EA's Dead Space 2 demo "church" which had not only some of the coolest gameplay footage of the expo, but also one of the coolest demo rooms we've ever seen.  

Allow me just to be blunt since I'm sure many of you at this point are hotly debating whether the sequel can even come close to the original game: Dead Space 2 looks amazing. The graphics, the sound, the art direction, etc. everything looks fantastic and frantically terrifying.

Being a big fan of the first Dead Space title, I can tell you that previous fans will feel right at home with the style of gameplay and rich, isolating, dreadful atmosphere. The same elements are there from the Dead Space original that will make the game instantly a hit. Still, vets of the series will feel something completely new and exciting from the urban decay in the new setting of the "Sprawl" and the Gothic inspired "Church of Unitology," which gives the game a whole new flavor. Avoiding the mistake that BioShock 2 made of sucking the originality out of Rapture, Dead Space seems fresh all over again.

That being said, new comers will likely get a kick out of the classic gameplay mechanics shown to us, like the severing of necromorph limbs using new, creative mining tools as weapons such as the new 'Javelin Gun.'

Still no matter how good and exciting the Dead Space 2 gameplay may have been, what really impressed me was the demo booth itself. The Dead Space 2 booth was one to behold: it was dark, cool, and lit by candles to create a creepy "Church of Unitology" vibe. 

Unfortunately for EA, the dark, cool, quiet, and candle lit room actually served to be one of the most comfortable booths I've ever sat in, and halfway through the Dead Space 2 presentation I found myself dosing off on my neighbor's shoulder. After waking up at 5 am to get to a series of back-to-back press conferences this morning, by the time I had made it to my EA tour, it had already been an over 12 hour long day of a sleep deprived, physically active day. So thanks for not only an epic presentation EA, but also an epic power nap.

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E3 is such a whirlwind of energy that game companies are so excited to showcase their goods, they accidentally reveal things they say they shouldn't. Take Fable III as an example, and how local co-op has been confirmed by someone who works on the game.  

Thanks to a private interview with a Lionhead studios' project leader who worked on all three Fable games, it has been leaked that Fable III is indeed destined for local co-op. While Fable II did have co-op, it was implemented in a way that felt like an afterthought.  Albie assured us this wasn't the case for the new game.

After a lengthy discussion and consensus regarding the great fun of local multiplayer co-op LAN parties of old (Diablo 2 and Baulder's Gate anybody?) the developer indicated that local co-op is going to be a fully baked feature, but it simply wasn't ready to show at E3 yet. 

Naturally, we at the Kartel are already salivating with RPG excitement. While there has been no official release by Microsoft or Lionhead regarding the subject, everybody is eager to see what the studio's next move is regarding local multiplayer.

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With Sony's big press conference wrapping up, we walk away impressed. There were some hard hitting "oomph,"  filled with intentionally and unintentionally awesome, ballsy, and hilarious quotes from Sony and 3rd party execs alike.  Here are the best 7 quotes from Sony's major press event held for E3 2010.

1. "Exclusive has become my new favorite word" -Jack Tretton, describing the new exclusive 3rd party partnerships with Sony

Nobody believed him when Tretton kept emphasizing it, but wow, Sony finally is getting some awesome exclusive content. Twisted Metal anybody?

2. "The result was any kind of game you can imagine" Alex Evans, Developer for Media Molecule discussing the tools for user creation for Little Big Planet 2 

For those who were worried that Little Big Planet 2 would be more of the same, fear not. A promise to deliver and solid examples ranging from fighting games to shooters were shown.

3. "Our games have boxers with important features like arms, and necks" - Kevin Butler, promoting the Sony lineup

While totally scripted, Butler's jabs at Wii boxing were pretty d@mn funny

4 ."There's also unlockable beards, I unlocked mine 20 minutes ago."- Greg Goodrich, Exec. Producer of Medal of Honor.

I swear Goodrich read my mind, as the whole speech I couldn't stop comparing his beard to the Medal of Honor character's beard.

5. "We have one king, one master. And his name is 'Gaming,' and forever may he reign!" -  Kevin Butler, giving an epic monologue.

This literally got a standing ovation. Well said Butler, well said

6. "I've been pretty outspoken in my comments about consoles, so thank you Sony for having me and not repeatedly punching me in the face" -Gabe Newell, introducing Portal 2 on PS3

A very humble and hilarious way to start perhaps some of the biggest Sony news of E3. 

7. "The PS3 version of Portal will be the best version on any console" - Gabe Newell, promoting Portal 2 on PS3

At this point, Sony launched a live pig across the room for dramatic effect. Okay, they didn't really, but they might as well have.

We gotta hand it to Sony, way to end the big 3 press conferences with swagger! While we set out believing Sony had used all its trump cards, we were really pleased with the Sony presentation. Gamers all over the world will excitedly wait to see if Sony can live up to its promises regarding all the new exclusives, services, etc. but until then, at least we can quote them on it!

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E3 is truly the celebration of the gaming industry and gamer culture as a whole. With every big company imaginable fighting for gamers' love and attention, one can't help but feel a bit special looking at how far our industry has come. As actual video game "arcades" being all but things in gaming history, the irony of stumbling across this rustic but surprisingly crowded arcade on our way to a E3 press event was naturally one we couldn't ignore. Seriously, when was the last time you've been to a true arcade?

Located in a heavily Latino area of downtown Los Angeles, this Arcade was a truly a bizarre find and a unique gem in this day and age.  I stumbled upon the joint when looking for a bathroom at the Ubisoft event just next door. I literally had to ask twice to make sure I heard the employee right when she said "There's a bathroom in the video game arcade next door!"

The arcade itself was filled with Spanish speaking locals playing legit fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, classic shooters like Silent Scope, and even some hardcore Japanese titles we didn't recognize, making this Arcade felt like an awesome mash up of cultures and arcade gaming golden years. 

The irony at being at attending the largest gaming expo in the world then coincidentally finding a remnant of the forgotten past was a strange moment of gamer reflection. New generations of gamers may never know the arcade era!

No matter how much more convenient and accessible home consoles may have made the gaming industry, nothing will ever replace the satisfaction of beating the reigning Street Fighter champ of an arcade with a crowd of cheering people watching you and wanting the next round. 

Right around Broadway and 8th, make sure to check it out next time you're in the area and show some love to our roots.

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