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Last Ranker and Arc Rise Fantasia developer Imageepooch is tired of people thinking that the Japanese roleplaying genre is dead. In fact, it has begun an initiative to prove that the JRPG isn’t old fashioned and ready for retirement with a brand new site. 

JRPG 2nd Stage sees the Tokyo-based studio fighting in the corner of a genre that many have started to write off, thanks in part to a string of formulaic, uninspired, cookie-cutter games. It’s a noble goal, and Imageepooch is going to have to put its money where its mouth is, but if they can bring some dignity back to the JRPG, then may they have the very best of luck. 

The studio will be announcing a number of JRPG titles in the near future. I’m very eager to see what they do. 

Imageepoch Asks “Is JRPG Old Fashioned?” [Siliconera]

Spike TV has revealed the nominees for the Spike TV Video Game Awards 2010 today. BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 looks like a big winner this year, with ten nominations. Red Dead Redemption trails behind with nine, and Halo Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops each have seven.

The full list of nominations can be found after the jump, and our comments section is for complaining and such. Full disclosure: I’m on a panel of the VGA judges this year, and played my part by submitting my own list of nominees late last month. But please note, that doesn’t mean I handpicked all of these games; some of the choices are quite surprising and a bit confusing for me as well.

Game of the Year

• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• God of War III
• Halo: Reach
• Mass Effect 2
• Red Dead Redemption

Studio of the Year

• BioWare
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Bungie Studios
• Rockstar San Diego

Best Xbox 360 Game

• Alan Wake
• Fable III
• Halo: Reach
• Mass Effect 2

Best PS3 Game

• God of War 3
• Heavy Rain
• Modnation Racers
• Red Dead Redemption

Best Wii Game

• Donkey Kong Country Returns
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn
• Metroid Other M
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best PC Game

• Fallout: New Vegas
• Mass Effect 2
• Sid Meier’s Civilization V
• Starcraft II Wings of Liberty

Best Handheld Game

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
• Super Scribblenauts

Best Shooter

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• BioShock 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Halo: Reach

Best Action Adventure Game

• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
• God of War III
• Red Dead Redemption
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best RPG

• Fable III
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Mass Effect 2

Best Multi-player

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Halo: Reach
• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Best Individual Sports Game

• EA Sports MMA
• Shaun White Skateboarding
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
• UFC Undisputed 2010

Best Team Sports Game

• FIFA Soccer 11
• Madden NFL 11
• NBA 2K11
• MLB 10: The Show

Best Driving Game

• Blur
• Modnation Racers
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Split/Second

Best Music Game

• Dance Central
• DJ Hero 2
• Def Jam Rapstar
• Rock Band 3

Best Soundtrack

• Def Jam Rapstar
• DJ Hero 2
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
• Rock Band 3

Best Song in a Game

• “Basket Case”
• “Black Rain”
• “Far Away”
• “GoldenEye”
• “Won’t Back Down”
• “Replay/Rude Boy Mashup”

Best Original Score

• God of War III
• Halo: Reach
• Mass Effect 2
• Red Dead Redemption

Best Graphics

• God of War III
• Heavy Rain
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn
• Red Dead Redemption

Best Adapted Video Game

• Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
• Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Transformers: The War for Cybertron

Best Performance By A Human Male

• Daniel Craig as James Bond (Blood Stone 007)
• Gary Oldman as Sgt. Reznov (Call of Duty Black Ops)
• John Cleese as Jasper (Fable III)
• Martin Sheen as Illusive Man (Mass Effect 2)
• Nathan Fillion as Sergeant Edward Buck (Halo Reach)
• Neil Pattrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions)
• Rob Wiethoff as John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
• Sam Worthington as Alex Mason (Call of Duty Black Ops)

Best Performance by a Human Female

• Dame Judi Dench as M (Blood Stone 007)
• Danica Patrick as Danica Patrick (Blur)
• Emmanuelle Chriqui as The Numbers Lady (Call of Duty Back Ops)
• Felicia Day as Veronica (Fallout New Vegas)
• Jennifer Hale as Commander Sheppard (Mass Effect 2)
• Kristin Bell as Lucy Stillman (Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood)
• Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrican (Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty)
• Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson (Mass Effect 2)

Best Downloadable Game

• Costume Quest
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
• Monday Night Combat
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Best DLC

• BioShock 2 “Minerva’s Den”
• Borderlands “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx”
• Mass Effect 2 “Lair of the Shadow Broker”
• Red Dead Redemption “Undead Nightmare”

Best Independent Game

• Joe Danger
• Limbo
• Super Meat Boy
• The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom

Most Anticipated Game

• Batman: Arkham City
• BioShock: Infinite
• Gears of War 3
• Portal 2

The business end of this DIY Kinect stand for the top of your thin televisions is ugly. It’s a good thing that it hides behind your set, where no one will see it. Instructables user Riffraff67 has created this little shelf out of some unlikely parts: a metal plate, PVC pipe and velcro. Joystiq says that it costs about $10 and requires about 15 minutes of labor. The alternative is a licensed mount that costs $40. Ouch.

Why not just put the Kinect sensor on the floor? The instructions for this project state that you could get as much as much as an additional foot of virtual floor space to flail around on by putting the Kinect sensor up above your television. You may need that extra foot with the suggested 8 feet of floor space they ask for. Yes, it’s ugly, but this stand could get you there for only $10. 

Bethesda has just announced that “Dead Money” will be the first downloadable expansion for Fallout: New Vegas.

The content finds the player on the wrong end of a deal, having to work with  three other wastelanders to recover the illustrious treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino. Bethesda is promising that the content will offer up new areas to explore, as well as fresh enemies to kill.

It’s exclusive to the Xbox 360, and will be available on December 21 for 800 MS Points.

On-demand movie service VUDU is set to launch on PlayStation Network in the United States on November 23. Sony would like you to know that at this time the PS3 will be the only gaming console to have this service. You’ll be able to stream in true 1080p HD format and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound through an application. 

Here’s their rundown of the service:

Using the VUDU streaming movie service, PS3 owners will be able to conveniently and instantly access more than 4,000 HD movies from all major Hollywood studios on-demand, including new releases available the same day they are released to DVD or Blu-ray Disc. The VUDU streaming movie service also offers great value to PS3 households, with an enormous collection of titles available for only $2 for a two night rental.

On launch day you’ll download the VUDU application in the “Media” category on PlayStation Store and then access it under the “Video” icon on the XMB menu. New VUDU customers receive a $5.99 credit, so you’ll get your first movie for free.

I think this is pretty great for movie fans. Lots of people use their PS3 as a home media hub, and this just expands its functionality. Me? I bought this thing to play games on. 

Anyone who’s played a Monster Hunter game for a while would know that one of the series’ great joys is to go on cooperative hunts with other players. There’s an awkward charm to seeing yourself and several other strangers tumble and dive around the legs of a gigantic monster, gesticulating wildly and trying to time all those over-the-top weapon animations just right to inflict the most damage to whichever bits of monster you want to injure hardest.

Capcom knows that, and seems to be taking a few hints from another one of its co-op-focused games for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. But no, the game they’re taking from isn’t Resident Evil 5, but Lost Planet 2. Which makes sense, given that Lost Planet 2 borrowed a lot from the Monster Hunter experience as well.

It might not have been the greatest game on earth, but one of the best missions in that game was one where the team operated a humongous train cannon to take on an even more humongous Akrid creature. With the right team, it was almost magical, evoking the kind of fun one might have playing the now-ancient Air Buccaneers mod for Unreal Tournament.

Now, a new mission has monster hunters crewing a sand ship in pursuit of the Jhen Moran, another giant sand-swimmer. The mission plays out a lot like the Lost Planet 2 version, but in this case players can also climb onto the monster’s back to attack and, er, gather minerals. So yeah, mining in the middle of a fight. Sounds like Monster Hunter, alright.

Are you stoked for some Portable 3rd, or are you still busy sinking hundreds of hours into Portable 2nd G or -Tri?

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: Jehn Moran [Andriasang]

We’ve been talking a lot about Maijin and the Forsaken Kingdom lately. Namco-Bandai’s new game has been compared to a lot of AAA art titles like Shadow of the Colossus, so we’re very excited to get some early copies and play it all weekend — and you’re invited! We’ll be playing the game live from 12pm PST for eight hours this Saturday and will be giving away four Xbox 360 and four PS3 copies of the game to our community.  Tune in and find out how to win your copy by testing your knowledge or desecrating your dignity in some way.

Are you in the San Francisco area?  Join our Dtoid SF group to get invited to this and future local shenanigans.  It’s going to be silly.

Watch live video from publicaccessdestructoid on Justin.tv

A lot of things happen on Tuesdays … to be honest, I cant think of anything that really happens on Tuesdays. However, here at Public Access Destructoid Tuesday is no regular day — its “Trademark Tuesday”, where we will be playing all the big new releases (that we can find). Today on PAD Live we got our double jointed fingers on EA Create. Don’t call it Little Big Planet Jr, its more than that! Its a game that makes creating as easy as pushing a bunch of buttons, but we’re not exactly sure how this works.  We have some velociraptors, textures, and fireworks, but I think we’ll need you in the chat to figure this out.

Don’t fo’get Public Access Destructoid Live, our interactive gaming show on Justin.TV, has been moved to a new evening schedule. This week we’ll be streaming live at 6pm PST / 9pm EST.  Tonight at 8pm we have a special guest stopping by: the guys from Grasshopper!  So stay tuned.

We’re always applauding open-ended games that allow players to be victorious without resorting to violence, but this level in Call of Duty: Black Ops doesn’t count. It is, however, quite entertaining — in a totally non-entertaining way. That’ll make sense once you watch this video.

In it, YouTube user T2DMrBungle completes the first mission of Black Ops on Hardened difficulty without really doing anything productive. If there was ever a doubt as to whether or not these games can run on autoplay, this should clear everything right up.

Also, the part in the plane. What.

How scripted is the action in COD: Black Ops? You can play the entire Cuba level without firing your gun [Reddit]