DARK SOULS Theme

Do you want the free Dark Souls Theme on your PS3.
Unfortunately, it is only available with a Japanese account.
But wait, you can create your very own Japanese account!
I've added a couple links to walk you through the steps.


Create an account:
How to create a Japanese Account


Now, get those Dark Souls themes
Steps to get Dark Souls theme




Enjoy!


Happy Holidays

I SOMETIMES FELT LIKE THIS PLAYING "DEMON SOULS"

"Dead Island" Guide

Dead Island Weapons/Mods Location Guide

Dead Island has hundreds of weapons at your disposal. You might struggle locating them all. Here's a weapons/mods location guide to help you during your exploration through Dead Island. 

Included is a Dead Island weapon list.

This is not a complete list, just one to get you started and help you on your way.

List of Weapon Types:

• Gray Color Weapons -  Common
• Green Color Weapons -  Uncommon
• Blue Color Weapons - Rare
• Purple Color Weapons - Epic
• Orange Color Weapons - Legendary

See the full weapons/mods guide after the break.

Clubs

• Baseball Bat - Complete "A Piece Of Cake" or "Make Yourself At Home" Mission Location: Resort
• Police Baton - Complete "Imprisoned For Life" Side Mission: Location: Police Station
• Big Baseball Bat -
• Metal Baseball Bat
• Stick
• Wooden Baton
• Tonfa
• Heavy Baton
• Metal Baton
• Cudgel
• Flanged Mace
• Exotic Mace
• Heavy Morning Star
• Italian Plumber
• Kanabo
• Metal Kanabo
• Pickaxe
• Crowbar
• Hanbo
• Home Run
• Blunt Speaker
• Bouncer's Pal
• Wrench - Complete "A Ray Of Hope" Side Mission Location: Resort

Hammer

• Hammer
• Nail Hammer - Complete "Light My Fire" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Heavy Hammer
• Sledgehammer
• Construction Hammer
• Maul
• Ban
• M.C.
• Pick of Destiny
• Gabriel's Sledgehammer - Complete "Bury The Dead" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby

Blade

• Sickle - Complete "Life In The Bag" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Wicked Sickle - Complete "Six Feet Under" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Machete
• Homemade Machete - Complete "Family Matters" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Bolo Machete - Complete "Faith Will Move Mountains" Main Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Axe
• Big Splitting Axe - Complete "Radio Ga Ga" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Homemade Cleaver - Complete "Exodus" Main Mission Location: Resort
• Two-Handed Axe
• Wakizashi
• Katana
• Double Blade - Complete "Bloody Valentine Side Mission Location: Resort
• Reaper
• Tanto
• Homemade Knife
• Knife
• Kitchen Knife
• Wicked Knife
• Military Knife
• Diving Knife
• Cane Knife
• Sugar Cane Knife
• Exotic Cane Knife
• Slicer - Complete "My Precious" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Zed's Demise
• The Machete
• Master Chef
• Viking of the South
• Bushmaster
• Banisher
• Eviscerator
• Assassin's Greed

Guns

• Pistol - Complete "The Second Head Of Cerberus" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Heavy Pistol - Complete "In Cold Blood" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Dangerous Pistol
• Revolver - Complete "Omar Escort" Side Mission Location: Resort
• McCall's 9mm
• Auto Rifle - Complete "Chasing Shadows" Main Mission Location: Jungle or Police Station
• Shotgun
• Short Shotgun
• Crowd Pleaser
  

Bombs

• Meat Bait
• Molotov - Complete "Ashes To Ashes" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Deo-Bomb

Weapon Mods

• Deo-Bomb - Complete "Tell Me Where It Hurts" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Molotov
• Nuts & Bolts Mod - Complete "Toy Story" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Barbed Wire Mod
• Pistol Ammo
• Torch Mod - Complete "Counsel of Despair" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Nail'd Mod - Complete "Passport To Life" Main Mission Location: Resort
• Weighted Mod
• Heavy Mod - Complete "Two Hearts" Side Mission Location: Resort
• Shock Mod - Complete "Black Hawk Down" Main Mission Location: Resort
• Toxic Mod
• High Voltage Mod
• Sticky Bomb Mod - Complete "Drowned Hope" Main Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Impact Mod - Complete "Last Chance On The Wall" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Shock Gun Mod
• Paralyzing Strike Mod - Complete "Picture of Bliss" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Piranha Mod - Complete "The Third Head of Cerberus" Side Mission Location: City of Moresby
• Magic Wand Mod - Location: City Hall Part 2, In The Center of City Hall
• Pride Shotgun Mod - Location: Police Station, In the security room.

This list is a Modification. Original provided by G4TV.COM.

Interview: Producing Dark Souls Means Getting Out Of The Way

Interview: Producing Dark Souls Means Getting Out Of The Way 
by Christian Nutt

Daisuke Uchiyama and Kei Hirono, producers on Dark Souls for Namco Bandai, are quick to point out that it's not a sequel toDemon's Souls -- despite it sharing a team and gameplay concept with that surprisingly successful and well-loved title.

"We placed this game as a brand new game, not a sequel toDemon's Souls. We call it a spiritual successor of Demon's Souls," said Hirono, speaking to Gamasutra about the game. 

"Again, this is not a sequel to Demon's Souls," added Uchiyama, later on in the interview. But surely he and the development team at From Software are aware that the game will inevitably be compared to it? "Yes, we are aware of it," he replied, laconically. 

"Yes, we admit that we are working with the exact same dev team of Demon's Souls, so the game might look alike, and the concept behind it is maybe the same," Hirono offered. So: yes. They get it.

And in fact, the game is under the careful creative control of lead director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who also helmed the original. "He's very confident about this game. He has a lot of stories going on in only his head. He can write a book about it," Hirono joked. 

"We completely trust Miyazaki-san, and I want him to create what he's confident in," said Uchiyama. 

And the signature challenge of the original is not disappearing, thankfully, said Hirono. "We are bringing this game to a new stage, making this game more difficult and having people feel more of a sense of achievement or accomplishment."

Strange to hear about a publisher advising its developer to make a game more challenging in this day and age, isn't it?

"Actually, we wanted people to feel the sense of achievement or accomplishment -- a 'Yes!' feeling. That was the reason why we increased the difficulty level. And I believe that this is the only game that people can feel that much sense of achievement," said Hirono. 

"We don't really tell them to adjust the game balance or difficulty level," said Uchiyama. Is it because you trust the team that you just get out of the way and let them do their job? "That's exactly how it is." 

The new game is also building on original game's quirky online mode, which didn't allow for direct co-op. "People worldwide play," said Uchiyama. "and they are having so much fun. So we are sure in Dark Souls, everyone will like it, worldwide."

Of course, it's not 100 percent radio silence from the publisher side, Hirono admitted. "You know, since we're doing PR and marketing in our territories, we will provide them our feedback, and they will take that as much as possible." 

However, said Uchiyama, they don't offer much feedback. "In the beginning, yes, we did. It's about basic stuff, though." The "details" have been left to the developers. 

"I probably would not be here doing this," said Hirono, if From Software didn't want to bring the game to the U.S. and Europe. "Actually, the team was surprised about the success of Demon's Souls, obviously. Now it gives us pressure for Dark Souls; we have to have success with this game."

From Software will publish the game itself in Japan. Working with Namco Bandai has also helped in another regard, though: "They wanted to bring more games to Europe and America -- so, that's why we are bringing this game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the same time," said Hirono. But he agreed with Uchiyama: "in terms of gameplay, we're relying on From Software to develop what they think is the best." 

Again: it's in the hands of Miyazaki. "What we are doing is to respect his vision of this game, and what we are doing is to create an environment where he can focus on creating what he exactly wants to create. He always says, 'I cannot make the game from marketing.' I guess, in a way, he's a creative type of guy. He's that type of guy," said Uchiyama. 


Uchiyama and Hirono actually come from the Bandai half of the Namco Bandai equation. Bandai, after all, much more frequently worked with external developers, and has the production capacity to handle it. 

"It's not unusual for us to collaborate with other developers or publishers," said Hirono. "With Bandai people, we used to cooperate with other developers, so it's kind of a Bandai game. And we're from Bandai."

Of course, their bread and butter was games based on anime licenses like Dragon Ball Z -- a series which Uchiyama has produced for in the past. "We didn't really care if it's an IP or a non-IP," he said. "We just thought that it's best to work with From Software to produce this game in North America and Europe, and having From Software publish the game in Japan."

"We're very excited work with From Software to actually publish this great game," said Hirono. "ForDark Souls, fortunately, they chose us and we chose them. So, we will do our best to do marketing and PR to maximize their sales numbers."

Anonymous, LulzSec Respond To FBI Arrests Of Suspected Hackers

Hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec have issued a joint statement in response to recent FBI arrests of suspected Anonymous members thought to have carried out a cyberattack against PayPal in 2010.

In their release, the hackers addressed a statement made to NPR by Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant FBI director. "We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable," Chabinsky told NPR. "[Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts."

The hacker collectives responded with a list of what they define as "unacceptable" practices:

* Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

* Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil.

* Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change.

With regards to the arrests of alleged members of Anonymous by the FBI, the hackers wrote, "Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. [...] [T]here is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop."

According to the AP, the FBI on Tuesday arrested 14 people across the United States and confiscated computers in connection with the PayPal attack. Another two were arrested for unrelated activities. In addition, Britain's Scotland Yard took into custody one person, and the Dutch National Police Agency arrested four.

Seemingly undeterred, Anonymous on Thursday claimed to have bypassed NATO's online security and swiped "restricted" files. According to a tweet from @AnonymousIRC, "We are sitting on about one Gigabyte of data from NATO now, most of which we cannot publish as it would be irresponsible. But Oh NATO...."

Assistant New York University professor Gabriella Coleman, who has been studying the Anonymous hackers, recently told The Huffington Post that these arrests would not stop the hacktivists' efforts. "Some people surely will get scared off," said Coleman. "Others will feel more emboldened to fight the fight [...] But I don't think at the moment it's going to slow things down."

More Than a Dozen Suspected 'Anonymous' Hackers Arrested in Nationwide Sweep

More Than a Dozen Suspected 'Anonymous' Hackers Arrested in Nationwide Sweep

More than a dozen suspected members of "Anonymous" were arrested this morning in states including Florida, New Jersey and California, in what appears to be a nationwide takedown of the notorious hacking group, FoxNews.com has exclusively learned.

The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation into Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for numerous cyberattacks against a variety of websites including Visa and MasterCard.

July 19, 2011: FBI agents execute a search warrant at the Long Island, NY, home of a suspected member of notorious hacking group Anonymous.

Some of the arrests were out of the San Francisco field office, sources said, activity that followed searches earlier in the day in the New York area at residences believed to be associated with members of the hacking collective, FoxNews.com has learned.

“I can confirm that we’re conducting law enforcement actions relating to a criminal investigation,” said Alicia Sensibaugh, a spokeswoman for FBI’s San Francisco office, out of which sources said multiple search warrants were executed Tuesday morning.

Sources said the California searches, which were carried out at 6 a.m. PDT, are connected to allegations that a national network of hackers carried out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against numerous companies and their websites.

Earlier in the day, the FBI executed search warrants at the New York homes -- two in Long Island, N.Y., and one in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- of three suspected members of Anonymous, FoxNews.com reported.

More than 10 FBI agents arrived at the Baldwin, N.Y., home of Giordani Jordan with a search warrant for computers and computer-related accessories, removing at least one laptop from the premises.

 The Anonymous group is a loose collection of cybersavvy activists inspired by WikiLeaks and its flamboyant head Julian Assange to fight for "Internet freedom" -- along the way defacing websites, shutting down servers, and scrawling messages across screens web-wide.

The Anonymous vigilante group recently turned its efforts to the Arizona police department, posting personal information of law officers and hacking and defacing websites in response, the group claims, to the state's controversial SB1070 immigration law.

While Anonymous is largely a politically motivated organization, splinter group LulzSec -- which dominated headlines in the spring for a similar streak of cyberattacks -- was largely in it for the thrills.

The metropolitan police in London arrested the first alleged member of the LulzSec group on June 20, a 19-year-old teen named Ryan Cleary. Subsequent sweeps through Italy and Switzerland in early July led to the arrests of 15 more people -- all between the ages of 15 and 28 years old.

The two groups are responsible for a broad spate of digital break-ins targeting governments and large corporations, including Japanese technology giant Sony, the U.S. Senate, telecommunications giant AT&T, Fox.com, and other government and private entities.

LulzSec Admirers Claim Attack On DISA

Taking its cue from LulzSec and Anonymous, hacker group strikes U.S. military agency network as protest against U.S. involvement in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.

By Elizabeth Montalbano InformationWeek
July 18, 2011 01:45 PM

A group apparently taking a page out of the LulzSec playbook claims to have broken into the network of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and stolen sensitive information it plans to post online.

The Crazies--which like Anonymous, AntiSec, and the now-defunct LulzSec hacking groups--said it is politically motivated to act against the federal government. It posted online SSL certificate revocation lists (CRLs) it claims are in its possession as a result of an intrusion into DISA's network.

"We're fully supporting you and supporting any others who wants to get those carnivores that lives on sucking the civilians' blood as far as we saw that happening in Libya ... and before that in Iraq and Afghanistan and many others," according to the notes. "We'll expose them because we had enough of their thoughts and calls for fake freedom."

On the document-sharing site Pastebin, the group also voiced its support for those hacktivist groups in notes about its activity, which it said was inspired by U.S. military engagement in the Middle East.

Crazies didn't go into detail about what's contained in the files it claims to have lifted from DISA's network, but said it will post them online in less than a week.

Reached via telephone, Lily Cofield from the DISA public affairs office said the agency is currently checking with the Department of Defense's U.S. Cyber Command, which keeps track of intrusions into .gov websites, to see if the group's claim is legitimate. Until then, DISA can't confirm it's been hacked, she said.

Crazies could be aspiring to be the next big politically motivated hacktivist outfit. Until it announced it was ceasing operations near the end of June, LulzSec went on a 50-day hacking spree, targets of which included the Navy, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the CIA.

Following LulzSec's self-enforced demise, AntiSec--which includes members of Anonymous and LulzSec--picked up where the latter left off in an international hacking spree as part of an "Operation Anti Security" campaign targeting government corruption around the world.

Anonymous Launches HackerLeaks: WikiLeaks For Stolen Data

A new website called HackerLeaks, reportedly launched last week by members of hacker-activist collective Anonymous, invites users to submit hacked data for analysis and publication.

Similar to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, HackerLeaks operatives “receive documents through anonymous submission channel, analyze them, and then distribute them to the press,” Forbes's Andy Greenberg reported on Thursday.

The organization’s official mission statement, available on the HackerLeaks website (here), reads,

“In both security as well as overall strategy, HackerLeaks is closely modeled on WikiLeaks. Our first priority is to provide a safe, secure - and anonymous way for hackers to disclose sensitive information. Our team of analysts first carefully screens each submission for any possible trace of the senders identity. Our second commitment is to ensure that each and every leak receives the maximum exposure possible in order to achieve the most profound political impact for the risks taken by those submitting material. To that end, we work with media outlets all over the world.”

Amidst recent Internet security breaches, independent hackers have been utilizing sites such asPastebin to release compromised data. HackerLeaks, on the other hand, claims to provide an added incentive, offering “maximum exposure and political impact” as a result of such "leaks".

“We just wanted to make our own offering, compete in the disclosure marketplace and maybe fill a unique role if we can,” says a HackerLeaks representative who spoke to Greenberg over instant message.

As of this writing, there has been one anonymous submission to HackerLeaks –– a leak containing personal information of Orlando officials. Time will tell whether or not more hackers will utilize HackerLeaks in order to publicize the data that they’ve taken.

Anonymous has reportedly launched a "war" against the city of Orlando to voice disapproval over the arrests of non-profit workers who distribute food to the homeless without obtaining permits from the city. The group claimed that it will target "city web assets," and apparently downed the Orlando Florida Guide soon thereafter.

Homeland Security Vs Anonymous vs Orlando Florida

WASHINGTON -- Businesses facing a growing threat of cyberattacks against their websites will now have more tools to protect themselves and harden their Internet sites against hackers.

The Homeland Security Department will help small companies and nonprofit groups avoid programming problems that allow hackers to get into the businesses' websites.

The government's latest cybersecurity effort follows a series of high-profile hacking attacks against corporate and federal websites, including one that shut down the CIA's site for several hours last week.

The new program was developed with the Mitre Corp. and is an effort to shore up known weaknesses in programming that give hackers a backdoor into websites. The effort began well before the recent website attacks.

It includes a list of top 25 technical software problems that hackers exploit and sets up a way to rank software so that customers can see whether it meets necessary standards.

Right now, when owners of small businesses buy software or hire a firm to build a website, it is difficult to know whether the programs are secure or not, said Alan Paller, director of research at SANS Institute, a computer-security organization.

He said the information, which has been compiled on a special website that the public can view, will tell people what to look for in setting up a secure website and how to judge potential programming errors. It also sets up a scorecard, so that companies looking for a firm to set up a website can check their security score.

The effort is aimed at the more than 1 million computer programmers and other high-tech professionals who write code, build websites and develop software. It lays out known software weaknesses and how to fix them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Meanwhile Anonymous Declares War on Orlando Florida

Orlando, Florida: home of Disneyworld, and newest target of hacker group Anonymous.

The Washington Post reports that Anonymous has apparently posted a new release threatening to take down websites belonging or relating to the city of Orlando.

This new effort comes as a response to the arrests of Food Not Bombs non-profit workers who have been distributing food to the homeless without permits. The group's compliance with city ordinances has, in the past, caused tension between workers and the city government. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has allegedly referred to Food Not Bombs members "food terrorists," according to a quote in the Orlando Sentinel.

"This is a declaration of war," read the supposed Anonymous release, which TechCrunch has posted in full. "Henceforth there will be no more cease fires, no more attempts to get you to resolve this issue with human decency. We will now treat you like the human rights abusers that you are."

The release also contained a warning that "Anonymous will now begin a massive campaign against you and your city web assets. Everyday we will launch a new DDoS attack on a different Target."

The authors of the release went on to say that Anonymous planned to take down the Orlando Florida Guide at 10 AM today and leave it down until 6 PM. At the time of this writing, the site is down.

Anonymous is tweeting out its actions at the handle @oporlando2011.

Aimi Eguchi, Of Japan's AKB48 Pop Idols, Has A Secret: She's Not Human

And She only takes up 150 Gigs of Memory!

Only 15 seconds in the limelight and she’d already created an overnight buzz. She was the newest member of the very popular all-girl Japanese idol group AKB 48. Upon seeing the new face appear on a candy commercial, the band’s faithful took to the message boards: Who is Aimi Eguchi?

This past Sunday, Ezaki Glico, the candy company which aired the commercial,confirmed what many of AKB 48’s fans had come to suspect: Aimi Eguchi wasn’t real. The new group member, it turns out, was a computer-generated composite of the real band members. Her pretty face was actually made up of the “best features” of six other members: her eyes, nose, mouth, hair/body, face outline and eyebrows were not flesh-and-blood, but cut-and-paste.

Not everyone was so quick to catch on, however, and Aimi had already formed a fan base of her own. “The video shocked fans of Eguchi,” reports ChannelNews Asia, “who were convinced that her features were more the result of good genes than the skillful use of computer graphics.

But why the suspicion in the first place? A quick search and fans found Aimi’s AKB 48 profile, discovered she was sixteen years old, that she competed in track and field, and that she was from Saitama, a prefecture on the island of Honshu. They would have also discovered that Aimi had debuted in a photoshoot for Shueisha’s Weekly Playboy magazine.

Conspiracy theorists who gave it more thought, however, would have found it a suspicious coincidence that the letters of the new member’s name could be derived from the name of the candy company, the theme song in the commercial, and the name of the candy being advertised. They would have also found it suspicious that Aimi’s birthday, February 11, was coincidentally the date Ezaki Glico was founded, and that the company’s slogan “Hitotsubu 300 meter,” sounded all too much like Aimi’s favorite sport (I guess). Not to mention Aimi bore a striking resemblance to six other members.

A lot of work was invested in creating Aimi Eguchi. In addition to the commercial–which still has fans completely fooled–they released a video in which Aimi makes a statement. Take a look at this video showing how she was composited off of the LIVE band members. It’s a damn good job.