This year for Comic Con we’re cooking up an extra-special cosplay wardrobe, with a little help from clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel, pop-culture designers and event planners Bubble Punch, and our fave Sunset Strip geek emporium, Meltdown Comics.
Comic chic chicks Chubby Bunny and Yume Ninja of Bubble Punch have designed three different sexy cosplay themed outfits for our ladies to wear while they man our Comic-Con booth. Each of the outfits was made using basics available at your local American Apparel store. The ladies at bubble punch have shot a series of “How To” videos with Milloux and Ackley Suicide, the first of which, showcasing our Stormtrooper outfits can be seen above.
Watch this space for two more videos in our “How To” Comic Con cosplay series.
The costumes will be debuted live at a special pre-Comic Con party to be held at Meltdown Comics on July 7th (starting at 7 PM).
You can also catch our ladies in their cosplay outfits at booth #1730 of Comic Con San Diego 2012. If you’re planning on attending the convention on more than one day, be sure to come back and visit us again, since our team of sexy booth girls will be cosplaying new outfits each day!
If you haven’t finished the game stop reading now…unless you’re like me and you don’t mind a spoiler here and there. Although, with the amount of news surrounding the Mass Effect 3 ending, I can’t imagine the size of the rock you’d have to live under to avoid spoiling it. But, if you haven’t seen the new DLC, don’t worry I’m not going to give anything away. It’s a free download. So, I recommend taking a peek if you’ve finished ME3. Even if you hate it, you can just delete it from your hard drive. A word of warning though, just like the original ending, you can’t delete it from your brain.
In case you missed it, here is my review of the original ending to ME 3*:
Unfortunately, the new download doesn’t change the ending in any major way, it merely adds more dialogue to it in the hopes that it will “explain” it more. Herein lies the problem: sure the ending sucked and the cut scene was pretty lame, but the real issue isn’t the “unanswered questions” – it’s the game play and the overall storyline.
As a stand-alone vignette, the ending cut scene was “fine.” I don’t care that Shepard died. I don’t care that I didn’t get to see what happened to Joker and EDI. I don’t even worry about what the universe is going to do now that the mass relays are destroyed. They’ll figure it out. There are TONS of franchises out there than have open-ended endings that allow the viewer to imagine the real conclusion to the story. And, not all of them are as bad as the ending to The Sopranos. Remember how Milo and Otis just walked off into the wild blue yonder. Well half of you imagined them making it back to the farm and the other half imagined aliens beaming down and a mutant bear attacking…both are fine endings. And, therein lies the joy of a properly structured open-ended ending.
The problem lies in the whole structure of the final mission. It’s a complete departure from the complex character interaction and unique choice model found throughout the rest of the series.
For some reason, I really thought the download would include a change in the final mission’s gameplay. I’m not sure if I read that somewhere, it’s more likely that I just imagined that all my prayers would be answered. ‘Cause, honestly, that’s the only way it would fix it for me. That’s where they dropped the ball.
But, the lack of a change in gameplay highlights just what we’ve come to expect from what was recently voted the worst company in the US by Consumerist readers. I wholeheartedly support placing the blame on the shoulders of game publishers EA. Honestly, you can blame them for anything bad that happens this year. It makes life SO much easier.
This is EA’s fix. It’s like putting a Band Aid on a gangrenous wound.
You still lost the leg.
You’ll never get those hours of game play back. You’re still left with the feeling that the choices you made didn’t matter and all of the wonderful gaming experience built up by 1 and 2 was dashed in a second by some star child’s really shitty logic. Logic, which includes pears of exposition like, “You wouldn’t know them.” Thanks.
But, at the end of the day, the download is better than the original ending. Something is better than nothing. And, Canadian developers BioWare should be lauded for their ability to listen and respond to the fans in a way that no other company has dared to do. Dragon Age 2 aside, they’ve been at the forefront of game development; churning out some of top games and revolutionizing the gaming experience. Combining that with the unique desire to please their fanbase – a desire typically only found on Kickstarter these days – makes this a company I want to love and support.
They’ve provided a compromise and they did it for free. BioWare has opened a door and hopefully, other developers will dare to walk through it. For the amount of testing and surveying that goes on before launch, hopefully BioWare has set a precedent for continued feedback after launch.
So, in the hopes for this new future, I’ll take what I can get. I’ll love this new download for what it is and what I hope it’ll be: a game-changing (pun-intended) step toward a new dynamic between developer and gamer. I’ll appreciate that complaints were heard and an unprecedented attempt to change was made. I’ll love my fellow gamers for speaking up and taking a passionate stand about the level of quality we expect and deserve!
After all, if we can combine all organic and synthetic life, we can certainly find a way to get along.
*If you don’t want to take my word re the ME3 ending, take Hitlers:
E3 came and went with none of the real excitement that we’re used to. No new consoles, most of the major franchises were absent, nothing to really look forward to. Don’t get me wrong, there were several games that looked promising. But, with many of these announcements, looks can be deceiving…
I know I sound cynical and, to be honest, I really AM cynical. But it’s not my fault. I blame the marketing departments of every game I’ve ever been excited about but ultimately let down by when it fails to meet the advertised expectations. Now, I know that’s a pretty long list of people to shake my fist at, but stick with me, I promise this will make sense.
I’m tired of the bait-and-switch that occurs between the premiere teaser trailer announcement and the actual delivery of the game. I’m tried of getting excited about a game that looks awesome but which turns out to be a mindless button masher with terrible graphics or something that’s been rushed through to retail that has terrible development bugs.
For example, let’s look at Dead Island, which was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. It’s not to say it wasn’t a good game, but it retains little of what’s depicted in the teaser video short beyond the fact that there is an island and the people on it happen to be dead — and zombies. What Techland created was a great game open-world, action-rpg that answered gamers’ first-person prayers when Dead Rising couldn’t. But, Deep Silver’s Dead Island announcement trailer was moving, gritty, and harrowing; a vignette into the human drama of a no-win situation.
And, while Deep Silver said the trailer was supposed to capture the game’s “solemn tone and setting,” I definitely didn’t get any sense of the gravity of the situation that was evident in the trailer while playing the game. But, I’m sure everyone was feeling that deep solemnity when they found porno-zombie Nenja Samejon.
With Dead Island I basically got excited over a game that doesn’t exist. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the game they made, but I’m still waiting for a game I’ll never get.
While the Deep Silver trailer was a major marketing success – inspiring people to deconstruct, reconstruct, post and repost it, resulting in a large amount of media buzz –– it ultimately did just as much to alienate a core base of gamers like me who felt cheated. Some even went so far as to call it “false advertising.” And, at this point, I’m not inclined to disagree.
So, when I see an announcement like Beyond: Two Souls, I’m tentatively excited. I loved Quantic Dream’s earlier Heavy Rain. It was a wonderful new and innovative gaming experience. I yelled and raged for a sequel until my voice was hoarse. And, from the looks of the trailer, Beyond: Two Souls appears to be the kind of quality gaming experience that I’ve come to know, obsess about, and expect from the Parisian developers.
But, rather disappointingly, the announcement trailer didn’t show any real action on the part of the main character. It didn’t show any emotionally moving moments that were so important in Heavy Rain and in Deep Silver’s Dead Island trailer, and it didn’t show any important dialogue to properly showcase the actor’s abilities (unless you count the eff word).
Does this mean the more emotionally-charged aspects of the game are not worth displaying because they’re not on-par? ‘Cause it’s evident from the Deep Silver trailer that emotionally agonizing is marketing gold. Why wouldn’t Quantic Dream founder and Beyond: Two Souls creator David Cage use any of that in the E3 preview? He said the game was “about death…separation…[and] mourning.” Set it to melancholy music and you’ve got the Dead Island announcement trailer –– but with the gamplay to back it up!
So, is this another bait-and-switch? I don’t want to get my hopes up – I’ve been burned before.
Milloux is from Los Angeles and is our newest Staff Photographer. She’s been a Suicide Girl since 2009, and has shot 9 sets as a model and 10 as a photographer.
How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?
I became involved with SuicideGirls when I was 18. I applied to become one a week after my 18th birthday. After many years lurking the SG Myspace page with friends, I wasted no time!
What’s your background photography-wise?
I studied film and cinematography in school but didn’t really start shooting photography until a few years ago. Since then I’ve taken many classes and spent a lot more time shooting on my own, and shooting myself if I can’t grab a hold of a anyone else.
The first photos I had published was the first set SuicideGirls bought from me: Callioppe’s “Grey Scale.”
How would you describe your style?
I’d say my style is very personal with a dreamy feel.
What gear do you use?
I have a Canon 60D equipped with either a 50m 1/4 or 85m 1.8 lens, and a reflector equipped with a cute lady to hold it for me! I use a couple of simple soft boxes in some cases.
How important is Photoshop in your final images?
I’d say Photoshop is pretty important. I come from a background in post production, so I believe heavily in using post-tools to accentuate the beauty of a particular work.
What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing sets?
I am inspired by everything! Everywhere I go and everything I see, inspires me to shoot. I am obsessed with capturing moments because my memory isn’t the best. When I’m in a new place, or meet a new person or creature, I instantly think of photographing it/him/her in a way that expresses the way our encounter made me feel.
Tell us why it’s your fave and how you achieved it?
I simply had Kurosune sort of “dance” as she jumped from side to side while stretching her arms and throwing her hair back and forth. As she did that, I laid on the floor and shot up her continuously until the moment was perfect.
Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven’t?
I would love to shoot Nemesis. That’s would be an utter dream. I might have actually already had a dream about shooting her.
Q:Ok, so I have this problem. I am friends with this girl who I now have a lot of feelings for. I would like to take our relationship to the next level and try dating. I have asked her about it and she says that she doesn’t want to mess up our friendship right now. When we are hanging out with my friends and her friends, they all tell me that she really likes me. I don’t know what to do about it.
A: Well, maybe you don’t need to do anything about it. Remember she said she doesn’t want to mess up your friendship “right now” – this doesn’t mean that a relationship is completely out of the question. Just not a likelihood at this point. She knows that you have feelings for her, and you know that she has feelings for you. You’ve obviously discussed this and she’s given you her opinion. With everything out in the open, all there’s really left to do is wait.
The basis of any great relationship is the ability to put the other person’s feelings above your own, so I think it’d be wise to respect her decision. If both parties or one party aren’t ready for the next step, pushing it only leads to resentment in the long run.
Instead, right now focus on nurturing what you already have. If more comes of it, great but, if not, that’s fine too. Take the time to really consider what it is that you want. A good friendship doesn’t necessarily translate into a good relationship. Dating is a completely different ballgame.
Also consider the effect it’ll have on your friendship if this relationship goes south. Make sure it’s worth the risk. You’d be very wise to consider all the implications of your choices before you make them because there’s really no going back.
Dating your friend is sometimes a lot harder than dating a stranger. You don’t get a clean slate and you only get one shot. Make sure that, when the time comes, you’re ready and you do it right. Love is hard to find and you don’t want to ruin something that had the potential to be amazing.
Best of luck, whatever your final decision may be. I wish you both all the happiness in the world.
This Sunday (June 24th at 10 PM PST) on SuicideGirls Radio, in celebration of Pride month we welcome three guests who have enlightened views on what it means to love. Filmmaker Cassie Jaye (Daddy I Do and Right To Love) and inspirational speaker and lifestyle coach Jesse Brune will be joining SG radio host Nicole Powers (SG’s Managing Ed) and co-hosts Darrah de jour (SG’s Red, White & Femme post-feminist sex & sensuality columnist) and Moxie Suicide (SG model and self proclaimed sexpert) live in studio. Acclaimed author Inga Muscio (Rose: Llove in Violent Times and Cunt: A Declaration of Independence) will also be joining us by phone.
Listen to the world’s leading naked radio show live on Sunday nights from 10 PM til Midnight on suicidegirlsradio.indie1031.com/
(Hit the top right “listen Live” button!)
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WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: It’s an amazing place to share tips, gain support or challenge others. It’s so much fun to see how people progress as they take on a new healthy lifestyle or fitness regime. It’s great to have one place with food and nutrition threads too!
DISCUSSION TIP: Take your aggression out at the gym, not on opinionated members.
BEST RANDOM QUOTE: On how to get healthy for cheap: “Seduce a gym instructor. And/or a fruit-and-vegetable vendor.”
WHO’S WELCOME TO JOIN?: Anyone who could use a shot of endorphins, needs a recipe for an edible protein shake or needs to share their best gym jock pet peeve.
