Sexy Hermione Cosplay from Harry Potter

Hermione Granger inspired cosplay, built around the classic Hogwarts uniform look: tie, wand, school colours, and that unmistakable wizarding-world silhouette.

Hermione Granger Cosplay and the Hogwarts Uniform Look

So what is the best thing to have come to the world’s attention since Harry Potter took it by storm? The millions of children and adults who bonded over stories of friendship, courage, school houses, monsters, spells, and suspiciously dangerous school years? The increased reading habits of a generation? J.K. Rowling’s enormous cultural footprint? All fair answers.

But for cosplay purposes, one of the biggest gifts was Hermione Granger. And by extension, Emma Watson, whose performance helped turn Hermione into one of the most beloved characters in modern fantasy film.

Hermione is one of the most popular Harry Potter cosplay choices because the character is instantly readable without needing a giant creature suit or complicated armour build. A Hogwarts uniform, a wand, the right house colours, a bookish pose, and the whole reference clicks. She is intelligence, nerve, loyalty, impatience, rule-following, rule-breaking, and absolute confidence that she has already read the relevant chapter.

Cosplay note: Hermione works because the costume is simple, but the character is strong. The uniform gets the audience to Hogwarts. The attitude sells Hermione.

Why Hermione Became a Cosplay Favourite

Hermione cosplay sits in a sweet spot. It is accessible, recognisable, and flexible. Some fans go for film-accurate Hogwarts robes. Some keep it casual with a shirt, tie, skirt, and wand. Some lean into Yule Ball elegance. Others build older, fan-styled, convention-ready versions of the character.

The key is that Hermione is not just a costume template. She is a personality. She is the person in the room who actually knows what is going on. She is the student who does the reading, corrects the pronunciation, saves the boys more often than they deserve, and grows into one of the central moral engines of the whole story.

That is why the best Hermione cosplay does not need to overdo anything. Give the costume a wand, a sharp look, and the sense that someone is about to explain why your plan is reckless, and the character is already there.

Are you a Muggle? A classic Hermione-inspired look only needs a few sharp cues before the Harry Potter reference lands.

Duke Nukem Forever Pre-orders from Game Stop still accepted

I borrowed this from Game Informer. They won't mind.

Retailer GameStop tells old Duke Nukem Forever pre-order holdouts: "Your money is still good here!" Anyone who's been holding the pre-order torch for Duke Nukem Forever back in the day is in luck – your pre-orders are still valid after all these years.

Of course, we hope you saved your receipt, as GameStop clerks aren't just going to take your word on it.

In a statement posted by IGN, the company said: "With a long-anticipated release like Duke Nukem Forever, we encourage customers who pre-ordered more than a year ago to verify their reservation with their local store prior to launch. Provided the customer has a receipt, we will honor even those pre-orders taken long ago." Old school pre-orders will even get Duke's Big Package, the pre-order bonus that features Big Head mode, in-game t-shirts, and other extras.

Start digging through your desk. That receipt has to be in there somewhere.

Speaking of hunting out receipts. Did you ever see this one from Game Stop? - it's from 2001!!

Slash000 is indeed a patient man! Slash00, where ever you, I hope you get your game. Bless.

Didn't Pre order 10 years ago? Order DNF at Amazon now.

Halo Film Score

This has been sitting in my drafts for ages waiting for me to turn in into to a story. Can't remind where I borrowed it from. Enjoy. 


Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell has created some of the most memorable video game scores around for the Halo franchise. After five different Halo games, however, Bungie has moved on and that means O'Donnell will most likely never score Halo again... unless filmmakers ask him to. 

The idea of a Halo movie has been in the works for some time now, but legal issues and other problems have prevented Master Chief from hitting the silver screen so far. Microsoft remains interested, so fans shouldn't give up hope. But if it does happen, who will create the music? O'Donnell sure wouldn't mind the opportunity.

Speaking with IndustryGamers recently, O'Donnell commented, "I would love to score the Halomovie. No doubt about it. I think that would be great."

Image courtesy of GameInformer

But he also remains skeptical about his chances to land the job. "I would be surprised," he continued. "I feel like, knowing Hollywood just a little bit, they would most likely say, 'We have to have a tried and true Hollywood composer' and 'These themes are appropriate for games but not appropriate for movies.' Or something like that. That's sort of what I'm expecting. I have a hard time believing that they wouldn't hint at some theme that I wrote at some point in the movie. But I would certainly answer the phone if somebody called - Spielberg or whoever it might be."

It's ironic that Hollywood would favor a "proven" composer, since scoring for video games in many ways presents a greater challenge than movies or television.

"I came from the linear media and I took some scores out of Chicago and did tons of commercials and had a whole other career. I think artistically and aesthetically scoring for games is harder," O'Donnell added. "It's technically harder. In my opinion, you have to have all the same chops that you have for linear media and then you have this other added technical and artistic vision to make it adaptive and interactive and all the rest. So I think it's actually harder, more complex, more interesting. I love music for games and I love what people have done with music for games and it just keeps getting better and better all the time.

"And - I might be wrong about this - but I think in the general public, in the populous, the respect for music for games has risen to a really nice, high level. I think Hollywood is sort of an insular place and their friends hire their friends and people that they're comfortable with. If they're spending $200 million dollars on some giant blockbuster film, you're going to get a big name person usually. The exception to that rule I think is when Brad Bird hired Michael Giacchino to do The Incredibles. Michael had done a lot of TV work and some game work. Brad, I think, is one of those spectacularly cool, creative 'unHollywood' guys."

Continuing the comparison of scoring a potential Halo movie to The Incredibles scenario, O'Donnell noted, "I've actually spoken to Michael and Brad about this and Brad said people were suspicious of, 'Why are you hiring this no name guy from the game industry to do music for The Incredibles?' He said, 'Because I love his music and he can do this.' And then Michael won the Academy Award for music last year. That's just a thrill for guys like me to see. You would hope the respect would somehow translate around into the rest, but the film composing community is really tiny. It's not very big, so I don't know who is willing to take risks on an unknown."

Lancer Assault Rifle Training Poster to download for wallpaper

Gamers who took part in the Gears of War 3 Beta last month have been given a lil thank you nod from Microsoft in the form of this sweet poster:

You should think about downloading this to use as some sweet wallpaper for your screen!

Microsoft also let loose some statistics about the Gears Beta that may excite the Lizard part of your brain:

• Total Participants: 1.29 Million
• Total Countries Playing the Beta: 145
• Total Kills: 927 Million
• Total Executions: 127 Million
• Total Deaths by Chainsaw bar oil: 23 Million
• Total Bullets Fired: 23 Billion
• Total Match Time Played: 249 Years
• Jimmy Jangle's personal contribution to these numbers. Zip.

Corpse Bride Cosplay

Victor and his Bride

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride movie was a classic Burton design effort - his drawing and design talents are unique - think Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas so it's nice surprise that Corpse Bride has been the subject of some cosplay action - and indeed, it's some fan love of a pretty high standard!

Here's an original movie poster for comparison.

This is Louis Wu

Louis Wu*

This is Louis Wu. He's what I would call a bloody good chap. He runs the 2nd best halo site in the universe** HBO. He's a bloody good chap because he gets Halo. He appears to live it and to breathe it. He is insightful and has his finger on the pulse. And he kindly links out to Gears of Halo every so often:

A Noble Hunt  / Are You a Halo Fan or A HALO fan? / Halo Concept Art.

Anyways, enough self promotion - this week Mr Wu hosted a Lan Party - such is his street cred, even some of the boys from Bungie turned up - Urk wrote up how awesome it was to take part in the LAN party in the Bungie Weekly Update (which has by definition not updated us on ANYTHING SINCE REACH CAME OUT).

As I write, I actually just remembered why I started writing this post of homage to Mr Wu - I found this awesome Halo website Age of Gratitude which has Blue Ninja praising HBO and he reference LAN parties... and then there was Wu's Write Up I saw on HBO that there was a lan party.... and well ... yes I'm a mess ...  I found (on HBO) these other write ups of the Lan Party  - hellmitre, Nof chimes in with some reminiscing too. Mig mentions stuff. Check out the four different picture galleries here. Worst. Paragraph.Structure.Ever.

If you are reading this page chances are you are nearly half as big a Halo fan as Louis Wu and GrimBrother One are - so why don't you submit your Halo story to Age of Gratitude? I'm going to asap!

I note Louis is wearing one of those awesome Bungie Destiny T-shirts that caused such a such a stir last week. I bet Urk updated Wu and co on what's going on with Destiny too. Lucky Bastards!`

This is what makes gaming awesome. This is what makes gaming a legit past time. This is what our wives will never understand.....

* Not his real name
** That's right, I said it.

Bioshock Infinite Promotional Posters and more

A promotional poster for the Rolston Reciprocating Repeater 

So as E3 draws closer, the producers of games seek to cash in on promoting their new games - and Irrational as taken the chance to give Bioshock: Infinite some good old fashion promotion by releasing some posters, wallpaper and a 10 minute game demo.

Here's what Irrational had to say on their official blog:

"Last week, we held a pre-E3 press event to show BioShock Infinite--you may have noticed the slew of BioShock Infinite previews and interviews hitting the web. Our preview location was plastered with ads for Columbia's various products as well as Founder propaganda. Those posters will reappear in our E3 booth and will find their way into BioShock Infinite itself.

Until then, we figured our online audience might be interested in taking a peek. Enjoy these ads for the Bucking Bronco vigor and the Rolston Reciprocating Repeater -- both usable by the player in combat. There's also a piece of Founder propaganda warning Vox Populi insurgents about the threat of the Songbird, Elizabeth's guardian and jailer previously known only as "Him.""

Here's a propaganda picture of the Songbird aka Him designed Irrational artist Jorge Lacera




Here's a picture of the Bucking Bronco Vigor, a trick up your sleeve in game. This advertisement poster and the one at the top of the post for the Rolston Reciprocating Repeater was designed by Irrational artist Mike Swiderek.

Bucking Bronco vigor

Here's some 'fan art' produced by Trailer Park which shows one of the main characters, Elizabeth with the above mentioned Songbird. It's nice to see everyone playing happy families... for now...

Elizabeth and Songbird

And finally here's a picture of a dead horse. If you're wondering why, you better check out this game play video of Bioshock: Infinite

Star Trek Cosplay Babes Pictures

Bianca Beauchamp

Star Trek babes doing cosplay 

Star Trek.

They say it is the final frontier, where men go where men have never gone before.

Or humankind these days...

Well every cosplayer goes to Star Trek at sometime in their lives. Look at babe Bianca Beauchamp above doing her best redshirt impersonation, between this and her Supergirl picture, she's got the sci-fi icons covered.

The rest of us, have to make do with putting on the blue body paint and pointy ears as we strive to dress up as out favourite Star Trek characters...

When I'm feeling blue....

When I'm feeling green....

Did you just shoot me in the boob? Hey you're a red shirt, you're supposed to get shot!

These guys are definitely not Star tTek babes doing cos play. I've put them in here to soften you up for the babelicious Seven From Nine: Jeri Ryan, eat your heart out.

Oh wait. That's not right...

Seven of Nine

Space Cadets

It aint easy being a green babe cosplayer....

Want to see more awesome cos play pictures? Check out these nude star trek fans riding bikes.....

Destiny News Wrap Up

I believe it was my beautiful Grandmother that taught me that good things come to those who wait. Well hands up who is sick of waiting for Bungie to announce their new IP. But things are slowly leaking out of the bucket which are giving us some clues.

Last year their was news of Bungie Aerospace being trade marked. This came out and we had to ask out selves what a Grognok was.

Then a disgruntled Bungie contractor grunted that Bungie's MMO was named Destiny and the internet pretty much went ape shit over that and Bungie basically was forced to say NO COMMMENT.  Then news came that Bungie had trade marked the word Crimson - possibly for some kind of software that could be downloaded to a hand held device.

So then Bungie did something with Penny Arcade and before you could say GNOP! Bungie staffer Jonty Barnes was spied wearing this T-shirt:

Jonty B with Destiny Logo on T-shirt

Now, is that the famous Sage behind Jonty but sans famous beard?

This opened a few eyes which lead to this piece of detective work happening and as it's totally copy and paste worthy: Hitmonchan writes at HBO:

Tracing the paper trails of Bungie employees, I discovered Podophobia Entertainment*, a company formed by Harold Ryan and Martin O'Donnell. And wouldn't you know it, a quick company trademark search revealed a listing for "Destiny."

Does that name sound familiar? It's the title an ex-Bungie contractor leaked to Kotaku after he was fired. He also said the game blends together first-person shooter, MMO and sci-fi elements.

The trademark describes the game as "[c]omputer game software downloadable from a global computer network."

NeoGAF member Willeth noticed strange symbols on a Bungie employee's shirt in a recent video from Penny Arcade. The small symbol on his left shoulder matches the logo in the listing.

According to Trademarkia, the trademark was filed July 20, 2009, and it was granted a second extension on March 7.

Podophobia Entertainment goes back to May 8, 2006, according to the Delaware Division of Corporations. It is now listed as inactive.

The company has a second trademark filed, "Be Brave," which was also granted a second extension on Feb. 24. The description for the trademark is nearly identical to the one for "Destiny.

But wait! Here's the logo which is possibly for the Seven Seraphs:

Destiny?

Like the guy who found two rainbows, what does this all mean? I don't know, I haven't taken enough drugs this weekend to even get close BUT some other dudes at Daily Joypad have more speculation / rumours to share:

"It’s not the first time that Bungie trademarks have been uncovered that seem to point to this IP. Early last year, trademarks for ‘Seven Seraphs’, ‘New Monarchy’, ‘Osiris’ and ‘Dead Orbit’ were found but never substantiated. The Daily Joypad, however, now has evidence to suspect that these four names are in fact factions in a persistent online world.

A prominent Bungie employee showed four different “simple and geometric” symbols to our source that would match each of these trademarks, each in a different colour, one of which was a match for the larger symbol on Barnes’ chest in the Penny Arcade video and would seem to bear a close resemblance to a ‘Seven Seraphs’ logo. Our source, who wishes to remain anonymous and does not work for Bungie himself, says that it was intimated to him that the logos were representative of “factions of some sort”, that would match each of the four names above, with each group having their own “base to reside upon.” It’s also alleged by our source that these ‘bases’ would be distinct communities to allow each faction to discuss tactics privately."

Really? A Bungie employee revealed details to a 'source'? I'm putting this in the MAYBE pile but the speculation sounds pretty good, right? Team tactics? FUCK ME - I just wanna shoot some bad guys - if this is the new War Craft and I have to make play dates with internet buddies, I'm gonna be slightly grumpy. I'm a Lone Wolf these days - I don't talk to people as I got sick of the freaking kids who's voices haven't broken talking about how fat your momma was and how she was so fat when she jumped through the first Halo she got stuck.

NE ways, there's still more things to think about Destiny wise:

Here's some website names that Neogaf think should give us something to think about:

MansDestiny.com
PlayDestiny.com
DestinyUniverse.com
DestinyGame.com
DestinytheGame.com


The WHO IS looks ups don't really provide anything useful...

*Extra for Experts: Podophobia is the fear of feet. 

Cosplay Twins. Or Two Leias Making Out

Two Leias making out

What's better than one awesome cosplay costume?

Two awesome cosplay costumes!

Check out these photo's of twins doing their best cosplay of their favourite characters. Usually we leave the best till last, but today we just had to bring you this above picture of two hot Princess Leias making out.

Heck we could probably end this post there but we'll continue for the sake of completion...

Here's two sexy World of Warcraft babes, doing their best twins impersonation for us:

Obviously, Princess Leia is hot so two twin Princess Leia's in bikinis washing a car must be doubly hot right?

Double Leia

 I know what you're thinking about this next picture. They're not twins! No, but they are both booth babes for Duke Nukem and they are both wearing white shirts so I say close enough...

Next up is some Wonder Woman twins. You can tell they are cosplay twins as they are exactly the same height...

Oh look! more cosplay elf twins! This time with sexy blue hair for all the Avatar fans out there.

Cosplay fake boob fail

Tanya Tate in a Green Lantern inspired cosplay look at Wizard World Anaheim. A bold costume choice, and very much part of the larger convention-floor spectacle.

Tanya Tate’s Green Lantern Cosplay at Wizard World Anaheim

Convention cosplay has always had room for polished armour builds, homemade chaos, screen-accurate costumes, playful mashups, and outfits designed mainly to get a reaction. Tanya Tate’s Green Lantern inspired look from Wizard World Anaheim sits firmly in that last category.

The original joke around this image was a bit rough, so let’s be kinder. This is not a costume trying to be a serious Green Lantern Corps uniform. It is a convention showpiece built around the symbol, the colour, and the attention-grabbing side of cosplay culture. Subtle? No. Memorable? Definitely.

Cosplay note: Green Lantern works best when the costume carries the ring, symbol, and green energy. Everything else depends on whether the cosplayer is going for comic accuracy, playful parody, or pure convention-floor impact.

Green Lantern Is Harder Than It Looks

A good Green Lantern costume has to do more than put someone in green. The character’s whole identity is built around willpower, cosmic scale, energy constructs, the ring, and the Lantern Corps symbol. Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Jessica Cruz, and the wider Corps all share the same visual foundation, but each version has its own personality.

That is why Green Lantern cosplay can go in several directions. It can be sleek and comic-accurate. It can be military and practical. It can be alien and strange. It can be heroic, funny, glamorous, or deliberately over-the-top. This version is clearly leaning into the showier end of the spectrum.

And honestly, that is part of convention culture too. Not every cosplay is trying to win a craftsmanship award. Some are there to be photographed, laughed about, remembered, and folded into the strange visual carnival that makes these old convention galleries worth preserving.

Wizard World Anaheim and the Cosplay Mix

Wizard World Anaheim had plenty of costume variety, and this image is only one slice of the floor. For every attention-grabbing outfit, there are usually dozens of fans doing careful character builds, funny mashups, group costumes, superhero looks, game references, and handmade tributes to whatever corner of pop culture owns their brain that week.

That is the real charm of these galleries. They are messy, uneven, funny, sometimes strange, sometimes brilliant, and always very human. Cosplay is not only about perfection. It is also about showing up.

For more from the same event, check out these fans doing some awesome Wizard World Anaheim cosplay.

ME3: No new love interest, just bitchiness

Miranda cosplay

According the Mass Effect series' executive producer Casey Hudson, the third installment of the space sage will not introduce any new romantic character options. Rather, Commander Sheppard will have to manage love interests from the first two games.

"In this one, we don’t really have new characters that are part of the romance stuff in the way that we did in Mass Effect 2, where we introduced a lot of characters...But we also have some interesting things happening, where you’ve got Ashley and Kaiden from the first game, you’ve got Liara, and there’s sort of a love triangle there. And then we gave people a bunch of new characters. People said “Well, I just want my Mass Effect 1 characters, and I’m not interested in any of these characters.” But then a lot of people had romances with those characters, and now the fun is bringing back some of those characters from Mass Effect 1 and putting them back in the mix, and looking at what you did in Mass Effect 2 and bringing some… interesting scenarios around those things."

What does this mean? There's gonna be one helluva cat fight on the Normandy at some stage in ME3!

Update: all is not as it seems. stupid internet.

Transformers Cosplay Pictures Autobots and Decepticons

Fearless Autobot Leader, Mr Optimus Prime

People who stalk me will know I'm a big Transformers fan, so they shouldn't be surprised I've turned to the Autobots and Decepticons for some cosplay inspiration. Clearly I'm not the only Transformers fan in town - check out these pictures of cosplayers in their best robot costumes as they hit the various conventions.

Animated robot hereos

  Here's another photo of the first Prime featured, I love the quality of the image. And that fact Prime is ready to kick some Decepticon ass!

Autobot Leader Optimus Prime

Below is Arcee, the first female robot to grace the Autobot line up. Arcee debuted in the original animated movie and was a briefly spied in Revenge of the Fallen before she got smashed to bits. Well, one of her anyway.

The sexy Arcee. Have you met her cousin Bellatron?

What's in a sign?

HBO alerts us all to this really cool post on the signs that can be found in Halo: Reach. Remember Halo Combat Evolved's Lost Cat Jonesy? Here's what Sean Hass has to say about the quality of signage found in Halo: Reach..

"That's why upon first booting and playing Halo: Reach, I was not surprised to see more of the same level of dedication and attention to detail. Nonetheless, as I have been in the past by previous Halo outings, I became enthralled and interested with the smaller touches, the almost unnoticeable strokes of world building that an average player might stroll right by. Like these amazing posters for instance."

Check out the full article here and why not check in on Stephen's sign collection as well: