Meat Bun

That’s right! We’re going back to GR2 this weekend to help present another glorious night of video gaming at Game Night 5. Our next gathering, a joint effort with our friends at Giant Robot, Attract Mode and Angry Bananas, will feature two upcoming indie greats, Reverge Labs Skullgirls and Haunted Temple Games Skulls of the Shogun.

As a bonus/side effect, there will be some serious Nintendo 3DS StreetPassing going on. So bring your 3DS!

We may even have some new Meat Bun stuff for sale. Maybe!

It all happens this Saturday, June 25 2011, from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Be there!

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Man, where the hell have we been lately? Oh right! E3 2011 and ReveLAtions! That sure took a toll on the Meat Bun collective energy levels, but we’re back, well rested after watching some great fighting game tournaments and ready to roll. Thanks to the wonderful Freddie Wong and his latest video jam, “Arcade Dominator,” we’re more fired up than ever.

What else have we been doing besides attending convention centers, hotel meeting rooms and grand ballrooms? Playing Dark Souls, for one. We might go far enough to call it Meat Bun’s game of E3 2011. We just might.

We also got to play a little Skullgirls, which the LA Weekly and everyone else seems to be gushing over.

A few things we didn’t get to play–but desperately want to, hopefully at Tokyo Game Show–include Dragon’s Crown, the latest fan service fest from Vanillaware.

:3

Err yeah! There are more reasons that anatomically astounding warrior women for wanting to play this gorgeous PlayStation 3 and PS Vita game. Maybe you should watch the trailer to see why!

Also on the list of interesting Japanese curiosities is a Neon Genesis Evangelion game that might actually be a good Neon Genesis Evangelion game. That would be Rhythm Evangelion: 3nd Impact, a PSP game being made by Grasshopper Manufacture and musically touched by the great Akira Yamaoka.

The special edition(s) look fantastic.

Finally, I’ll cop to having a strong desire to play Dancing Eyes, the most unexpected entry in the Namco Generations line of HD recreations of classic (well…) Namco games. Have a look…

Whew! Anyway, please give us a follow on Twitter and/or Facebook so you can stay up to date!

E3 is the battle ground where the big three fall all over themselves vying for the top slot in your lil’ gaming heart. It’s beautifully ridiculous. Last year Microsoft handed out free Xbox 360 Slims like sample teriyaki chicken on a tooth pick to all conference attendees.

Seems Sony knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This year they called in a fleet of LA’s best gourmet food trucks, and parked the caravan around a large open bar. I was gorging myself like that scene in Defending Your Life where you could eat whatever you like, as much as you like, and it all tasted great. Dim sum, Cajun gumbo, spicy shrimp tacos… even had a dessert course or two. But somehow Subway got mixed into the picture. Yes, I know not everyone is going to partake of free, delicious tuna sushi hand rolls — but that’s what the corn dog and tater tot stands were for! Watching chumps eat prefabricated lukewarm turkey 6″ subs just because it was handed to them by a professional Nathan Drake cosplayer earned a scornful glance as I finished my gourmet tamarind/chili popsicle.

Now that I was thoroughly wined and dined, I was curious to see where this evening was headed. Kevin Butler was a no-show, and the mood took on an understandably humble and contrite tone in light of the massive network outages. Oh, no! I was hoping for something a little more fun and… titillating… like the Bioshock: Infinite trailer. After more than enough talk about AT&T partnerships *groan* and demos of first person shooters, things became a little more exciting.

Jane’s Addiction fit the bill nicely, though I had to force myself not to calculate how long ago I last saw them at the original Lollapalooza. The juxtaposition of hearing Perry Farrell singing Mountain Song and then chatting about Congressman Wiener tweeting his wiener proved to be a little surreal, but I am in no way complaining. Thank you, Sony. You have my number.

Happy E3 everyone! To celebrate a great week of video games (and to make room for all the new stuff we have coming to the store), everything in the Meat Bun shop has been marked down to 50% off! O_O!!!

There are limited sizes and colors available right now, but if you’ve been waiting for things to get super cheap before investing in, say, a Snack Attack tee or that Eggplant Wiz shirt you’ve been eyeing for a very very long time, now’s your chance. Seriously, stock is in the single digits on everything here, so don’t wait!

Tons of new stuff is coming after E3, so stay tuned!

Things have been very, very busy here at Meat Bun HQ. We’re prepping for all kinds of things, like visits to E3 2011, Tournament Legacy’s ReveLAtions upcoming event and this year’s EVO 2K. Yes, we’ll be heading back to Las Vegas this year, stuffed with new tees, posters and much much more. But we’ll have more to talk about soon. In the meantime, let’s catch up on things.

As Darkstalkers collectibles go, a Lord Raptor statue sounds like a good investment. Still, $300! That’s a lot of scratch. Let’s hope this is Capcom testing the waters for a Darkstalkers return.

Absolutely returning is Demon’s Souls in the form of Dark Souls, undeniably a very familiar sequel with a few new gameplay elements and a fantastic URL.

Pixel maestro Paul Robertson did his part for a Minecraft documentary, cranking out some inspired player skins (while also creating the most amazing, most NSFW Pokemon-inspired animated GIF ever).

If we’re going to vote for alt Chun Li costumes, this cyber-version will be at the top of the list. Hey, if Akuma can be mechanized, why not Chun Li?

Finally, the soul still burns in the upcoming Soulcalibur V, which seems to be going about a sequel in all the right ways. Smaller character roster, half of it new and 17 years in the future. Yes, we’re quite curious to see what a 49-year-old Ivy is looking like too…

We visited graphic designer extraordinaire and mega-hyper-clever artist Olly Moss’ art show at Gallery 1988 on Melrose, a show dedicated to silhouette portraits ranging from Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters to Team Fortress 2 classes to Judge Dredd to Andre the Giant. It was packed, pieces sold out immediately and we’re fortunate enough to have amazing video from Olly’s show, thanks to Threadless. Next time, we’ll make sure to line up hours in advance. Maybe days.