Wednesday, 6:00 PM EST: I noticed one thing above all others as I stepped off the plane at New York’s JFK Airport – It was cold. Really, really cold. Memories of Missouri winters flashed back into my head as I spotted snow and ice on the ground – and so, in twelve degrees of icy-goodness, began the epic adventure that would be my first ever trip to New York – and likewise, to the New York Comic-con!

As the first day of NYCC comes to a close, our community team has the scoop on all things SEGA! Kellie will be writing in with more news tomorrow, and you can check out all of our Friday coverage below!

9:00 AM – The calm before the storm…

The morning started off fairly slow, with press and gaming sites showing up first. We had four MadWorld Booths, four The Conduit booths, and two House of the Dead: Overkill and Sonic and the Black Knight booths – so twelve people could be playing a game at any given time. With the crowds we were about to see, and the amazing positive response we’d get from them, we were all really glad to have so many booths, even if it meant keeping an eye on them all. Then, early in the afternoon, the doors opened to the public – and in they came!

Gallia, we cosplay for thee.

This awesome Welkin cosplayer was our first Valkyria fan to arrive in costume, and he scored himself a free Collector’s Valkyria Artbook!  Props to you, and to the other Welkin cosplayer who arrived a little bit later. Will we see more Valkyria cosplayers tomorrow? (I certainly hope so!)

See? I have the knack.

Talking with fellow Phantasy Star fans just makes me happy.  I posted around that if any Phantasy Star players could find me at Comic-con and knew the answers to a trivia question or two, I’d hook them up with free collector’s merch – these two guys above did just that, and were the first to arrive. Rock on, guys! Mad props to you both for being the first – special shout outs to all the guys in the Shin team, to Pac Man, and to Cell from the PSU forums and fansite PSO-World! It was awesome meeting you all!

MadWorld developers Platinum Games were also on-hand for some exclusive autograph action, and will be back tomorrow!

Talking with people as they played the games was also great fun – seeing someone’s jaw drop and eyes widen as they chainsawed some poor chump in half and impaled them with a CAUTION sign in MadWorld, or listened to some of the language in The House of the Dead: Overkill – everywhere, I think gamers could feel that the things that made many SEGA games great in the early 90′s – games that are edgy, cool to see, and most of all: fun to play, were at long last returning.

The air around our booths was filled with Ooohs, Aaahs, My God, that is awesome, and the occasional crowd cheering – both for special SEGA merch and, for one group, at how sweet they thought the finishing moves in MadWorld were! It was enough to keep me smiling the whole day through. To top it all off, we gave anyone that played all of our games a free MadWorld Caution sign T-shirt!

Check out our SEGA Flickr feed for all the pictures from today, and keep your eyes to the blogs on Saturday and Sunday as we continue our coverage of all things Comic-con!

House of the Dead Overkill is nearly here and we’re already seeing some really great reviews.  Both IGN and Eurogamer have reviews up to help scratch that itchy trigger finger before Tuesday’s launch. Both reviews are in the 8 Range, but the beauty is in the details.  Check out both text reviews, or watch IGN’s video review if you need a quick fix.

IGN

Eurogamer

House of the Dead is a Mature title, so please use discretion when viewing offsite content.

If you’re a SEGA fan in or near New York City, this February is going to be off to a very nice start. Both Kellie and myself are going to be at the NY Comic-Con this Feb 6-8, and SEGA will be bringing four of our upcoming titles for everyone to play! The line-up includes:

#4: MadWorld

Ah, MadWorld. One of the most anticipated Wii games of the year will be playable at the SEGA booth, present in all of its groundbreaking and most-definitely-M-rated glory.

#3: The House of the Dead: Overkill

Zombies are pretty much awesome any time of the year, and now you can get in on the B-movie fun – we’ll let you blast away in the upcoming House of the Dead: Overkill, just as long as you don’t shoot any real-life zombies that will also be on the scene. (I mean, we realize you want to, but the paperwork would be a total mess.)

#2: The Conduit

By far one of the most promising looking FPS games for the Wii, The Conduit will be on the floor and guests will get to check it out in full force!

#1: Sonic and the Black Knight

Surprise! Previously unmentioned in our last community blasts, we’d like to announce that Sonic and the Black Knight is also going to be making a showing at next month’s event! This will be one of the first times the public has actually seen the game, so if you’re a Sonic fan or want to see how the game is looking, you can swing by the SEGA booth to see it firsthand!

Finally, I’m going to be bringing along some Phantasy Star goodies to celebrate the upcoming release of Phantasy Star Portable and newly-announced Phantasy Star Zero! If you can find me at the event and know the answer to either of these trivia questions, I’ll hook you up with some exclusive Phantasy Star swag!

February is going to be an exciting month, and we’re looking forward to meeting up with everyone at the event! Hope to see you there!

When you’re one of the living dead, whether the closest holiday is Halloween or Christmas really makes little difference – as our community team found out a couple weeks ago, it’s all about the Braaaiiiiiinnnns.

Don’t worry, it’s completely organic.

SEGA was on the move and off to talk about The House of the Dead: Overkill at both 1UP and IGN, and what better way to do so than with your own Zombies to greet the press? I got to tag along and take some pictures from our outing, which you’ll spot posted all around this blog – and even more located here on our flickr page.

1UP was first off on the list, and we arrived with Mike Schmitt (Brand Manager, House of the Dead: OverKill) for an interview on the 1UP Show Podcast. While the Zombies were admittedly not the most eloquent of speakers, you can still hear their grunts and groans – and the full interview – here at the 1UP website!

No Zombie Press Tour is complete without said Zombies harassing the local office workers – so of course, we had to let the Zombies roam free among the 1UP building for just a few minutes on their quest for human flesh.

Before heading to our next stop, it was time for some lunch. Running around San Francisco with two of the undead is pretty sweet, and we got some awesome looks as we walked down the street and into the restaurant. Even Zombies need to eat…

After lunch it was off to IGN, where the Zombies got to play The House of the Dead: Overkill themselves!  For some reason, the entire concept of shooting zombies seemed to enrage our pair of bloodied friends – though nothing was worse than the moment they realized they were out of lives.

During their IGN interview, the Zombies opened up and explained to the world what it is that truly makes them sad in life. After singing kumbaya and holding hands under a giant rainbow – well, that may or may not have actually happened – the zombies drowned their sorrows by feasting on human body parts, which I suppose is what most zombies also tired of the not-so-afterlife tend to do.

After a surprise attack on the unsuspecting IGN cameraman, the Zombies roamed the offices once more, and then finally found their way to an Ultracade, which is essentially an arcade machine with more oldschool games than you could ever beat in a year, unless you have too much free time, happen to be a zombie, or are a mix of the two.

The day came to an end and our Zombies left in search of their next meal. But keep your eyes out (not literally): when The House of the Dead is around, you never know when some real life zombies might just show up again…

For some special behind the scenes pictures – where our zombies discover a photocopier, a soda machine, a blackberry, and more – check out our full House of the Dead: Overkill – Zombie Day Flickr set!

Happy Holidays, Zombie fans!

Recently, Sega of America confirmed a US arrival of the pre-order bonus also going on in Europe – the (also-M-rated) Limited Edition House of the Dead Graphic Comic, which is a prequel to the OVERKILL storyline and gives you a closer look at Agent G’s first partner, the hard boiled detective Washington. Anyone who pre-orders the game in either the US or UK will get their hands on this special comic, so if you’re a house of the dead fan (or a member of the undead), it’s definitely something to add to your collection.

We’ve got even more House of the Dead: OVERKILL news headed your way soon – including a special behind the scenes look at what happens when two zombies from HotD visit 1UP and IGN. Laughs, gore, and braiiiiins ensue -  we’ll have it here on the SEGA Blog!

Zombies, Brains, and Halloween – three great tastes that go great together… (If you’re one of the undead, anyway.)

This Halloween, we’ve got a special treat for all you House of the Dead Fans – a brand new video for House of the Dead: Overkill has just gone live at GameTrailers! Check it out and add a little fright to your day here!

Happy Halloween everyone! (And especially to you, Agent. G.)

Big news today for Sonic Unleashed and House of the Dead: Overkill, our two teams are headed over to Gamespot to talk about the games and show off some gameplay! The segment starts at 4:00pm PST and will both games will appear sometime during the segment.

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/

If you can’t make the show, don’t worry, Gamespot runs a viewable version after the show has been run live!