Among the People of the Land, there is a saying that goes "Be careful, Heavenly Demon may be hiding in your shadow." It is both a warning and a sign that one of the most feared black clans may have already infiltrated every inch of their society.

In the MMORPG 9 Dragons, The Heavenly Demon clan was founded by a cruel warrior who sought to usurp the emperor and thus declared himself as The Emperor Heavenly Demon. Some believe that this name may have been derived either from the rumors that he was possessed by demons as a child, or from his ferocity and bloodthirst in battle. Either way, people who have followed this warrior's leadership are those who already have such a deep stain in their karma that no White Clan would accept them.

Even after the Emperor Heavenly Demon was rumored to have been slain in the War of Nine Dragons, many have passed on his legacy and continued the carnage in his name, some in the hope of his return, while others with the ambition that they may someday take that name for their own.

The disciples of this clan live and breathe by the philosophy “A land governed by the depraved must be conquered through depraved justice, only through fire may it be cleansed!”, and thus hold a deep resentment towards the Emperor himself, as well as the White Clans who remain loyal to the empire. Thus, each warrior is trained in the arts that are actually techniques that have been stolen from other disciplines and then twisted into perversion. Members of this clan are feared for their skill with the saber, as well as dark spells that can cause madness, confusion, and many others which can siphon the vitality from their enemies. The most feared technique though will be the Bloody Hands technique which is the most deadly combat system that has been conceived.

Because of the clan's secretive ways, their influence and territory remain unknown. Some believe that they may even be posing as members of rival clans. The fact that they have caused other clans to doubt even their own members, and the fact that their actual movements are unknown, makes them a force to be feared all the more as they can strike from the shadows at any given time.

Now here's the release of NCSoft and ArenaNet's third campaign in the Guild Wars series. Guild Wars Nightfall has been in development since October 2005 and is set to be released in the final quarter of 2006. However, the pre-release bonus pack, which has been announced, will be available starting September 15. This will not include the full version of the game.

The video previews the settings and new characters in the third series. Nightfall will be set on the continent of Elona and has a north-African theme. The game also includes two professions - the Dervish (a sort of holy warrior, wields a scythe and uses many different enchantments to support themselves) and the Paragon (a support class that throws spears and is capable of helping teammates using shouts and chants affecting all allies nearby).

Little is known about the storyline except that Elona is has fallen under the shadow of an evil, outcast god. With these tidbits about the game, we can't wait to get our hands on the full version of the game.

Download: [Guild Wars Nightfall In-Game Cinematic Video]

The D80 is the latest high-performance interchangeable-lens digital SLR camera from Nikon. It has a handsome black casing that boasts of sleek, ergonomical design and a large new 2.5-inch 230,000-dot high-resolution LCD. It also has an RGB display, which helps in assessing exposures with greater precision. The layout of all buttons and controls ensures efficiency both in handling and operations.

And we're just getting started.

Its i-TTL flash control is incorporated in the system for greater precision in flash exposure evaluation to better attain automatic flash balance. This flash control also has a Repeating flash function, which greatly aids in the assessment of overall lighting and shadow conditions even before the shot is taken.

The versatility of the D80 is made even more captivating by the superb technology nestled within its sophisticated design. One of the primary highlights is the new Multiple Exposure shooting option that creates a single image within the camera from up to three (3) consecutive exposures, producing an effect automatically that resembles multiple exposure techniques used with film.

The camera also guarantees immediate response and fast performance. Its power-up is in a near-instant 0.18 seconds, which allows photographers to not miss any shutter opportunities. And with shutter speeds ranging from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds or bulb setting, full creative control is accorded to the artist behind the lens.

For image editing and effects, the new Retouch menu makes it possible to enhance the picture even without having to connect to a computer. Under this menu, features such as D-Lighting, Red-Eye Correction, Monochrome and Filter Effects can be found to aid the photographer in enhancing details, treating those red-eye effects caused by flash and color modes and balance.

With all these features, the Nikon D80 is bound to hold captive the attention of photographers who are set on capturing those moments.

Just earlier today, we had a ton of screenshots for you of the next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog game for the PS3 and 360. Well, Sega really know how to tickle our craving bone and has released even MORE screenshots! Sega must really love us, huh? Actually, if they loved us they'd do away with whoever this "Silver the Hedgehog" guy is and give us back some Tails and Knuckles!

The game seems to be shaping up well, aside from the generic new hedgehog and the fact that Shadow is yet again sporting vehicles and guns... Hopefully it's not as bad as the last hedgehog game, Shadow the Hedgehog or even the last 3D Sonic outing, Sonic Heroes.

   

    

Today Sega released a whole new batch of screens for the upcoming next-gen release of Sonic The Hedgehog for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you check out the screenshots it looks like they included new details inside without announcing anything such as the return of Shadow in hi-def glory. There is also one screen in particular where Shadow is being carried by a Bald Eagle which is very reminiscent to Mario 64's owl.

Also the screens showcase that the "Sonic Grind" that came from the Sonic Adventure games is in full force with the Blue Blur speeding through a random forest. The game is scheduled to be released on November 17th for both system so until then, go ahead and check out the new screenshots by clicking on the thumbnails below.

     
     
     
   

Movies and TV shows have spawned some pretty weird fashion trends. Just ask your mom about her Annie Hall clothes. Sure, she'll deny it but they're somewhere at the back of her closet. Then there's your Dad's Miami Vice pastel wardrobe. It's the one he wore with his five o' clock shadow. If your folks used to turn to the big and small screens for fashion cues, guess where you will be looking? In your video games!

EA and fashion street wear brand 55DSL are teaming up to create fashion wear inspired by the upcoming Need for Speed Carbon (out this November). The game will feature characters wearing clothes and items designed by 55DDSL exclusively for the game. They didn't say what kind of street wear will be available for fashion-conscious gamers but you can get them only through local EA events and pre-order campaigns.

Andrea Rosso, creative director of 55DSL says, "I'm a gamer and I'm going to play this game for sure so to see characters wearing our exclusively designed t-shirts and other items, is really amazing for me." According to EA, wearing the NDS: Carbon clothes will bring players closer to the action.

SephZero and Team Shadow have released another update to SimpleAmp, a very slick-looking music player for the PSP. This is certainly one of the best MP3 players to for the PSP with the great GUI, the professional design and amount of features. It works at 333 Mhz, supporting MP3 files with bitrates from 128 up to 320. Skin features are also included if you want to personalize your player!

The new version is called Simple Amp: Reborn, and here's the changelog:


- id3 v2 skipping (to avoid header read errors)
- .mp3 songs buffering
- clock work frequency reduced to 266 to enhance battery duration
- new audio functions: NORMAL, SHUFFLE and REPEAT
- improved graphic visualisations: EQUALIZER, OSCILLOSCOPE and BOTH
- Audio Gain Volume
- Fast rewind / Fast forward
- main graphical restyling
- enhanced graphical core
- various bugs fixed

Thanks to SephZero of Team Shadow for letting us know about the new release!

Download: [SimpleAmp: Reborn]

Sammy Fatnassi has emailed us with a new release today, PSP Kanji. This is the first release of PSP Kanji, a Japanese Kanji learning tool for the PSP. For those of you that don't know what Kanji is, it's a form of Japanese character writing, originally derived from Chinese. So if you fancy learning a bit of Japanese writing, or you just want to brush up on an old skill, feel free to try this out!

This version is quite good as it splits different forms of Kanji into different Japanese grades associated with them. Although this is pretty basic, Sammy Fatnassi plans to add many new features for future releases, including quizzes and other learning tools to make Kanji learning even more fun - as if it isn't already! Also, Sammy plans to release the source code when he is satisfied with it, allowing all you budding Kanji masters to write your own version of this one or modify it.

Features:

• Prototype version, got some nicely animated windows, displaying Kanjis information.
• Ground work mostly completed

To do list:

• Add different quiz mode
• Add ability let user create their own kanji list for quiz
• Add support for french
• Work on GUI
• Add shadow to fonts

Sammy would also like to thank James Green for his Kanjis compilation Kanjidic, which inspired Sammy in writing PSP kanji.

Download: [PSP Kanji v1.0]

SephZero from Team Shadow is best known in the community as the person responsible for crafting one of the most engaging MP3 player for the PSP both in function and aesthetics - the SimpleAmp. This has been tested with audio files at 128, 160, 192, 256 and 320 bitrate.

And get a load of this, SephZero just revealed to us that he tried playing a song about 70MB checked as corrupted data in the Sony dashboard, but played effortlessly in SimpleAmp. Even an audio file as big as 222MB played smoothly in this application.

A lot of people would probably remember the player most of all because of it's wonderfully crafted user interface. SephZero, has created another delightful interface for the SimpleAmp. Your curiosity on the new GUI will only be heightened by these interface screens that was posted in the website. The tagline says, "Like a phoenix rebirth from his own ashes" which proves to be true for the SimpleAmp.

For many of us PSPVBA is synonymous to Zx-81. but it's very nice to know that there are new blood that get inspired by the work that other people do (perhaps a result of homebrew going mainstream?). Tommydanger's PSPVBA is based on Zx-81's creation. It may be based on his work, but Tommy made sure that his version will not be engulfed in the shadow of Zx-81's work. He decided to add more features in his release instead of making it run faster.

New features:

• improved rom browser
• displays rom size
• marks roms red that are incompatible
• ability to delete roms in the rom browser
• multiple rom settings
• autoload last played rom at startup

However, even if he says that he didn't focus on making it faster a lot of those that have downloaded and tried the program found that games run smoother and the sound is better. A lot of them attribute it to its 1.2.1 engine.

Those that are already familiar to ZX-81's work on the PSPVBA will not find it hard to use Tommy's work, but those that are going to use it the first time, a complete How-to is included in the Read Me file.

To give credit where credit is due, Tommy would like to thank Zx-81 for being both a nice guy and coder. Also Shadow, for his beautiful icons and backgrounds.

Download: [Tommy's PSPVBA v0.1]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]