If I had a million dollars....

So, I didn't really get around to seeing either the Longest Yard or Madagascar this weekend, but I'll probably catch them a little later in the week. In the meantime, I'd like to talk about the first Xbox game I've been really excited about in awhile-Advent Rising. Pretty much the easiest way to describe it is if you put Halo & The Matrix in a blender, this would be the most likely result (the lead character even bears an eerie resemblance to Keanu Reeves, if he says "whoa", or "I know Kung Fu" at any point in the game, the Wachowskis should sue). You play one of the few remaining humans in the universe, so long forgotten that most regard humanity itself as a myth. From the previews it's sort of unclear why or how, but you get imbued with special powers to take on a race of aliens known as The Seekers. But this promises to be more than a mishmash of two popular franchises, as the story is written by Orson Scott Card, who is probably most famous for writing the cult classic Ender's Game. And to sweeten the pot, the first 500,000 who buy the game (and have Xbox live) have a chance to win one million dollars by finding special easter eggs hidden throughout the game that are downloaded through Xbox live. Granted, I'm not really expecting to get the million, but it's way better odds than the lottery and a man can dream! I know most people would probably buy a bunch of stuff with it, but as I previously stated, I'm fairly frugal, so I'd probably just get a decent apartment in an inexpensive city where I could get a nice gaming setup and just hoard the rest like a little old miser. I might also change my name given all the bad stories I've read about people who win big money.

Coming back to reality, we finally have some not exactly earth-shattering confirmations by J. Allard (who, thanks to the guys at Penny Arcade, I will from now on refer to as Microsoft's offical pirate, cause they are right, he looks like one with that bald head and cheesy earring) about the Xbox 360. First up, he said it would deinfitely be in the "neighborhood" of $300. While this makes a 299 price point unlikely, it's probably going to be $330, but almost definitely won't be more than $350. Not a huge suprise, but it's nice to hear it definitely won't be something outrageous like $400. And he confirmed it will launch in mid-november, again not a huge surprise, but it's nice to have a good idea of when it will be out for sure. Now if we can just get confirmation that next gen games will definitely not be 59.99 as most sites have been listing, I can die a happy gamer (uh, not before the 360 comes out, though...)

"The PS3 is not a game machine"

That's more words of wisdom from Ken Kutaragi in his latest interview, Sony's Emperor (uh, I mean President). I'm seriously starting to think Sony has become the arrogant ass Nintendo used to be when they ruled the console world, truly believing they can do no wrong. Now, to be completely fair, they had the best overall showing at E3. No one can deny the awesomeness of the PS3 videos we saw, real or not, and they showed very strong support for the PS2, with plenty of games I am very interested in (even if most are out next year). But they keep shooting themselves in the foot with their strategies or lack thereof. First up, they claim that they see the PS2 as having a ten-year life cycle. Well, if that's the case, then why the hell should I ditch my PS2 if it still has a few good years left? We know that the Xbox & GC have max 1 year left, so there's not really much of a reason to hold onto those systems much longer, Sony is in effect competing against itself in this way, and as impressive as those videos were, we know what we saw for the 360 is going to look BETTER at launch because the games were running on underpowered test units. Odds are that the PS3 games are going to look worse (but hey, if I'm wrong I'll gladly pick up a PS3 as soon as there's a quality rpg on it, just like I did with PS2).

Secondly, and probably Sony's biggest mistake is their online strategy, or lack thereof. In a recent interview, a top Sony rep stated that they don't really plan on changing their current online plan of letting the game publishers do all the work. So, there's an immediate slight advantage in that in a sense, Sony's online service for the PS3 will be completely free like it is for the PS2. The problem? The system sucks right now. It's complete and utter chaos when you compare it to Microsoft's slick and fairly inexpensive setup ($50 a year isn't much to ask, folks) that allows for a fairly universal interface, not to mention ONE username and password for most games (I think EA has a seperate setup, but that's one more reason to hate EA), whereas if you play games online with the PS3, you'll theoretically have different user names, passwords and friends lists (assuming they even have those) for EVERY SINGLE GAME! That's just massive insanity keeping all that crap straight. This pretty much garauntees I will not be playing any online games for the PS3 because it's just an incredibly clumsy and lame setup. And, while online gaming isn't currently the monster Microsoft claims it to be, it will get there in a couple of years and this will hurt Sony in the long run when people actually start caring about a simple, easy to use online system.

And then there's Katarugi's latest. The PS3 isn't a gaming machine? Well, I and millions of others gamers get news for you Kenny, WE WANT A FUCKING GAMING MACHINE!!! Microsoft may offer different types of entertainment on their upcoming console, but they made one thing perfectly clear: it's mainly a gaming machine that can do other stuff, not some machine that can play games. I know that may not sound different, but the bottom line is that if the PS3 isn't optimized to mainly play games, we won't get the best games possible out of that system now matter how many numbers you throw at us. That's why most people buy consoles and not computers to play games, especially in this next generation, where the difference between a high-end game console and a decent computer isn't much in terms of price. Pretty much the only smart thing to come out of anyone from Sony is that they are reportedly saying the PS3 will be around $370, still a bit high for my tastes, but if the 360 is truly going to be around $350 or even $400 as some early reports are saying, I wouldn't blame anyone for choosing a PS3 if it's only a little more or especially if it's less.

Moving on, this weekend we have two somewhat interesting selections for movie goers. First up, is Madagascar, the latest generic CG film from Dreamworks. I'm sure it will be fun for kids, but aside from the psychotic penguins, this seems to be yet another tepid "safe" film for kids much in the vein of Robots. I like the the film is obviously more focused on visual style than pure technical prowess, but the previews and reviews seem to point to another fairly bland movie that you can take the whole family to, but only kids will really enjoy.
And then there's The Longest Yard, from the critics' favorite whipping boy, Adam Sandler. Now, Sandler has done some true stinkers the last few years (Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Eight Crazy Nights, 50 First Dates), and although it was good, no one really went to see Spanglish because it wasn't his usual frat boy antics. I think it actually looks like stupid fun, like Sandler's best films, and I expect to go in and just have a good dumb time at a good dumb movie, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and play my GAMING MACHINE.....

I find your lack of faith disturbing...

A lot of this past week was about faith. Not religious, of course, better described a faith of the geeks. Faith that Lucas would finally deliver a movie at least somewhat worthy of the massive legion of fans his films have created of the past 28 years, and depending on what camp you were in (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo), faith to deliver one hell of a knockout blow to doubters and competition at this week's Electronic Entertainment expo. In some aspects, that faith in all respects was probably shaken, or certainly not given any sort of renewed zeal.

In the case of Epsiode III, it was more of keeping faith that Lucas hadn't totally lost it. It was far, far better than the pathetic hack jobs that Episodes I & II were, but a the same time, many lines of dialogue and wooden acting nearly sunk the movie. And we have to fault Lucas, becasue we've all seen this fine ensemble cast do some great acting in other films. Plus, I think many fans complaints that the Jedi are painted as somewhat weak in the movie is pretty damn valid (I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen yet, so I won't elaborate on it). Yet, I'd still rank it as pretty good and the third best movie in the series (behind IV & V, I'm really not a big fan of VI). So ultimately, enough of my faith (and apparently most others from the most reactions so far) was restored that I am overall satisfied and am interested in the new Star Wars series coming soon to TV.

In the case of E3, I think faith was lessened on all sides. From what I've seen and read, it was a good show, no doubt, but way more downs than ups. Despite Sony's extremely impressive video conference, it would appear that nothing that was suppossed to be PS3 was actually running on PS3 hardware, just a suppossed approximation of what the PS3 is supposedly capable of. Suddenly we harken back to when Sony debuted the PS2 and promised "Toy Story" quality graphics, on which they didn't deliver. Then there's the design aspects. Not only does the PS3 system look pretty damn hideous (and that may not matter to some, but when everyone is touting how "sexy" their stuff is these days, it matters a lot in the eyes of your average consumer who is concerned with how this system would look in an entertainment center). The controllers look like Batarangs, so hopefully, that'll change before launch. And there are very strong rumors that the PS3 will retail for about $460, which they may feel justified since they claim their system knocks the others out of the park in technology, but I think that's above a lot of people's price thresholds. Plus, my fellow GUG'er Charred has come up with a pretty good comparison that shows the PS3 isn't really all it's cracked up to be when you really break the specs down. There were several games I was very interested in for the PS2 (Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII, Okami & Phantasy Star Universe), but they are all way off, possibly next year.

As where Sony just seemed to keep going down, Microsoft had a lot of ground to make up. I tried to defend it eariler, but Microsoft blowing their wad so early was a horrible move in hindsight of what Sony had to show everyone. Whether or not PS3 could actually do this stuff is irrelevant at this point, Sony showed us a bunch of cool stuff we haven't seen before from franchises we love (Metal Gear, Devil May Cry, Tekken, Final Fantasy, etc.) as well as some new things. It was all new. Most of Microsoft's stuff had been leaked way earlier or shown at the pathetic infomercial on MTV prior to the event. Plus, Perfect Dark Zero, Microsoft's big gun, failed to impress with some really bad screenshots. Luckily, they did make up some ground-According to everyone who actually saw the game behind closed doors, Perfect Dark Zero actually looks and plays pretty damn good, but then why didn't us gamers get to see any of this? But if Perfect Dark Zero didn't take away gamers' collective breaths, Gears of War did. Plus the LONG delayaed Kameo (which was originally suppossed to be on the N64) was actually looking better and better with each new movie I saw. Plus, I think people are geniunely confused about the new levels of xbox live service, exactly what Xbox titles will work (what exactly would be the cutoff point for "best-selling"?), and if the 20 gig hard drive actually comes with every system or will be an add-on. The final verdict? I've reserved my 360 with an initial $50 down payment, but I'm ready to pull it immediately if I feel the price is too high ($350 is pretty much my price threshold) or the software isn't up to snuff. As far as current Xbox titles, I can say that I'll probably be getting X-Men Legends II, but that'll be available for all systems, so once again not much to look foward to.

And Nintendo continues to march to it's own drummer. I think they definitely have the right attitude about the console wars no longer being a pissing contest in terms of pure power, but they had a pretty quiet and just plain weird showing otherwise. Aside from Zelda, there was nothing noteworthy for the Gamecube (maybe Fire Emblem, that's about it). Do we really need a Game Boy that's roughly the size of an Ipod shuffle? It's too small for anyone over age 8 and I can see anyone that age a younger losing something like that quite easily. And then there's Nintendogs. Is everybody at Nintendo fucking high? I was hoping that I had seen the last of that whole "virtual pet" thing. I mean that's really the whole thing. You get a pet dog, and you pet it, feed it, clean up after it and eventually make it fat enough to sell to a Asian restauraunt for their "puppy chow" special (at least if I have anything to say about the game, that'll be in there). It's the same huge problem I have with the Sims games as well. You don't really play these games, they play you.

Overall, what all three companies really failed to do was make you think that your current system sucks ass and you need to upgrade, which they were all able to accomplish last time. I hold high hopes for the next generation, but also no rush to jump into it (my 360 reservation notwithstanding, I will definitely wait on PS3 and probably not buy the Revolution right off the bat either unless it's unexpectedly cheap, which may end up being the case).

And I thought I'd end with my thoughts on some odd but possibly very inpsired casting choices. Kelsey Grammar as the blue furball Beast in the new X-Men movie is a stroke of genius. Sure, he obviously can't do anything physically required of the part, but he's perfect to play the voice of the most intelligent mutant in comic book history. It will be interesting to see how they blend him into what will obviously be a mostly CGI character, but if they pull it off, it'll be great to see. Then there's Topher Grace in the new Spider-Man flick. The only comment is that he will play an unspecified villain. Grace is a great actor, but I just can't honestly think of a noteworthy Spidey villain he could pull off. He's obviously too small to play Venom, and if they are going to do the Green Goblin, it has to be James Franco since he is Osbourne's son. And to be honest, most of the other Spider-Man villains are far too hokey for me to think about (maybe Mysterio, but he was a pretty lame villain, so I hope they don't use him). Until next time...

The next generation, Round 1-Draw?

Well, the first salvos have been fired, and I'm not really sure who's come out on top. All the systems look really slick, but there's been some major missteps on everybody's part. But I will say at the same time, unless something major changes, I plan all getting all 3 (just not necessarily at launch). The Big N arguably has the coolest straight out design, but we already know their system is the least powerful for the next round(easy math, Revolution is 2 or 3 times more powerful, 360 is 13 times more powerful & PS3 is 35 times more powerful) and there was no gameplay footage shown whatsoever and nothing about a general release date(but they will also probably be significantly cheaper than 360 or PS3, which will help). Honestly the only cool thing to come out of their preliminary press conference was the new trailer for the latest Zelda game for the GC-where a lot of incredible gameplay footage was shown, including Link turning into a wolf that is ridden by a mysterious character. It'll be probably just enough reason to hold on to my GC a little longer, but that seems to be Nintendo's specialty, giving you just enough and not even a bit more (i.e. though not shown, Nintendo's official asskicker, Reggie Fills-Aime mentioned that Smash Bros. will be on the Revolution and will have Wi Fi capability, that's really all I need).

Microsoft, having already blown their load early, showed several upcoming games and talked about how their console will be everything to everyone. That's great, but I want my console to play videogames, not be some ridiculously overpriced media center. And while some titles looked pretty damn cool (Morrowind IV), Most looked skecthy at best. And what was suppossed to be the premier title, Perfect Dark Zero, was a no show. Even more troubling was Bill Gates recent statement that Sony would definitely be going up against Halo 3 when they launch(which is officially next Spring), but no footage of Halo 3 was shown either. But what officially got me onboard is that they will have Final Fantasy XI, which I didn't even consider a realistic possibility, and there will be limited backwards compatability (big selling titles like Halo 2 will work for sure, but I probably won't be playing Worms 3D or Phantom Dust on the system). Also, not one upcoming Xbox title has got me excited, at least not any exclusives.

And then there's Sony. I will officially say that the video for Killzone 2 (check it out at Gametrailers) had me saying "holy shit!" out loud several times. But given that the last Killzone was an incredible graphical feat, but sorely lacked in gameplay, it's not enough to make me want the system. Plus, not one other title really gave any good impressions. They gave a vague launch date of Spring 2006 (and I still say that's a bad time to launch any system). And given that they easily will have the most powerful console (and feel they can do no wrong), their system may be significantly costlier than others. Add that in with Sony's tradition of extremely buggy hardware, and they actually come out not looking any better than Microsoft. And aside from Kingdom Hearts II, I can't honestly say there's many PS2 games on the horizon I'm looking foward to.

Now, there's still a few days left, but considering how much the last generation blew us away, this isn't a great start. I'm not saying I'm not geniunely excited about these new systems, but not with the level of pure awe and glee I felt the last time. And to lessen that glee, EB games has officially started accepting preorders on Xbox 360 games at 59.99. While it's not official, it's damn likely, which means I'll be a lot more finicky about my next gen purchases.

Kicking it Old School....

I really intended to do a big summer preivew, but I've just honestly been tired this weekend and there isn't a real comprehensive list of what's coming out and when for the next 3 months (especially if I wanted to include smaller releases), so I apologize to anybody who was expecting one.

Moving on, I saw Unleashed on friday, and it was pretty damn good. Jet Li won't be stealing any oscars soon, but he gave a surpsingly good dramatic turn and the story was told very well which is incredibly rare for any action film, but especially a martial arts one. My only complaint would be that his female co-star was like an annoyingly bratty 12-year old you just hoped would die the whole film, but luckily the other elements make up for that fact.

Ok, I have now had Xbox live for about 3 months, and I love it, but there's one thing I think is badly missing: Old School arcade games! I know what some of you will say, xbox live already offers a service that provides old school style games. But the fact is that the only worthwhile game they offer is Ms. Pacman.which comes free with the starter disc. The others are fairly bad and overpriced knockoffs (it'a roughly $10 a game, which is ridiculous for something that can be made over a weekend). And hey, I'm enough of an old school nut that I'd pay $10 for the right titles, but how about offering ones that are actually old school favorites: Dig Dug, Gauntlet, Altered Beast, River City Ransom, Joust. They offer lots of these in nifty little compilations, there's reason they couldn't offer online versions (like they did with the Street Fighter Anniversary collection). I think that's exactly what would help get even more casual people int Xbox and xbox live (not online "chess" as Peter Moore has suggested). There's very minimal investment and all the old school gamers it would attract would be a no-brainer, so hopefully they'll do it soon since the basic technology is already in place. That's just my thoughts on the subject. Until next time....

360 degrees of HOLY ^%$#@

Ok, so I watched the MTV half hour special, and quite frankly, was less than impressed. They were very sketchy about ANY details, the celebs obviously had no clue (except maybe Elijah Wood, as he has a reputation as a gamer), and while Perfect Dark Zero sounded incredibly awesome, we barely got to really see any of it (and none of the others games showed anything that would qualify as impressive gameplay graphics). In essence, it was like any other MTV "special" full of flash and completely lacking in any sort of actual substance. It was smart of MS to appeal to the mainstream like that, so I don't fault them for going to MTV and using a bunch of celebrities that couldn't tell an Xbox from a toaster oven, but that isn't going to sell me, the hardcore gamer who if you get his attention will sell blood and undergo experiments if that's what it takes to be able to afford a system.
But what did really get me excited was IGN's very detailed 6 page article devoted to all the ins and outs of the Xbox 360. I'm not much of a techhead, so things like processor power won't actually mean anything to me until I actually see what it can do in actual gameplay, but all the nifty little bits got me very excited. Although it's almost assured there will be multiple versions of xbox available, the core unit itself will most definitely come with a massive hard drive, and most are expecting a base price point of $300 for that system. The ones fully decked out will probably be significantly more, but If 300 is all I'm paying and it plays games and my dvds, I'll be extremely pleased. The features I like most are that I can just transfer over my xbox live service with no problem and I can upload tracks from my ipod (which is something I have badly wanted to do since I got my shuffle).

But there are still some issues. While I obviously see the convienence of wireless controllers, depending on battery life, keeping those suckers powered could easily eat up a lot of money very quickly. I'm hoping there's some sort of alternative option at launch if not soon after.

Backwards compatibility also hasn't been answered one way or the other. I think at this point it would be a wise idea since that would instantly give us gamers a good variety of Xbox live games if nothing else, because we really don't know what launch titles will be available.

Which leads me to my next issue-Launch games. Aside from the obvious sports titles, nothing has been officially tagged, not even Perfect Dark Zero (although if that doesn't launch with the system, it may be lacking a much needed killer app, so it's 99.9% likely), and none of the the current generation of consoles had a particularly solid launch lineup. It was usually one really good game and it took awhile for all the systems before solid games started coming out at a regular rate (and it never really happened for Gamecube, there's really only one good game every 6 months for that system).

So, while I'm not officially on the Xbox bandwagon, I will probably be eating Cup O' Noodles for the next 7 months so I can have enough to splurge if I really want to....

Coming Full Circle

I bought my Epsiode III ticket yesterday. I tried not to be optimistic given the last two, but the early critical buz is actually pretty good and the each new preview looks better, so I'm officially extremely pumped for the final movie installment. Not so pumped that I'll be going to a midnight showing or waiting hours in line, but I'm officially excited to see the film.

I also saw Kingdom of Heaven over the weekend, and it was pretty entertaining. Not as good as Gladiator, but far better than Troy. Ridley Scott knows how to make awesome battle scenes. So see in it the theatres, as it will definitely lose something on the small screen.

Tommorow at 9 on MTV, the Xbox 360(the most likely name for MS' new console) is finally going to be officially unveiled to the public(thereby giving me actual reason to watch the channel). Now, pictures have supposedly leaked to several gaming sites already, but I tend not to really trust those sort of things until I see them with my own eyes. And of course, all sort of implications come with this. Console pricing, backwards compatability, etc. The most important aspect being game pricing, as there is an ongoing debate whether or not we are likely to see games rise above the magic $50 barrier they have been at for over a decade to $60 or even $70. On some level, I can see the reasoning behind this, as games are getting more and more costly to produce, but the game industry should take a REAL close look at both the music & movie industry, both of which after a few steady years of rising prices, have suffered some severe backlash, with profits way down. And with games being even more expensive, all but the hardcore will balk at significantly higher prices. I am considered a fairly hardcore gamer, but I'm fairly picky about what I actually buy, it probably only averages out to about 20 games a year out of out the hundreds that come out all year. I'd expect that to drop significantly if the price goes up and the same will probably go for most gamers, especially the casual ones that all companies are vying for. One solution that I think is viable is offering premium downloadable content, but that may also lead to greedy companies not even selling finished gamess & then charging you just so you can get the last few levels. And as far as the next generation blowing us all away, I've seen "footage" of several games so far (Madden 2006, Dark Sector, Alan Wake) and they either look like cheesy tech demos or lacking any sense of artistic creativity. But nothing's really official until E3 next week, so I'll hold off on any real opinions until we see what is actually going on.

Several interesting choices are coming out in theatres this weekend. The one I'm most interested in seeing is Unleashed with Jet Li & Morgan Freeman. Li hasn't really made a good transition into American films, but this looks very promising with lots of good action and an actual story to boot. Kicking & Screaming is Will Ferrel's latest, and while a terrible coach taking over a bad team is hardly anything new, Ferrel is worth seeing in just about anything. Mindhunters, a thriller about a group of profilers trapped by a serial killer who may be one of them seems intruiging, but it was also supposed to be out last summer and got pushed back for some unknown reason. This usually screams bad film.
And finally there is Monster-in-Law, with Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda and Michael Vartan (Alias). While I see some potential here, it seems pretty obvious that this relies far too much on the mother being a complete whackjob, which means this is another thing that would probably be funny as a short sketch but not enough filler for a feature film. Plus, the last good film Lope did was The Cell, which I think was way back in 99'. But I can honestly say I have at least some interest in seeing every major release this weekend, which is a huge change from the last 5 or 6 months.

Ok, that's really all for today, but I intend to be back on Friday with a BIG summer movie preview in addition to my usual thoughts on daily happenings.

Attack of the Sequels Part XXVVVIIIIXXXIIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

Sequels are of course the bread and butter of the entertainment industry, and while most rightfully decry sequels as creatively bankrupt factory-assembled money machines, I also have to play devil's advocate as someone who enjoys seeing the new adventures of characters I enjoy spending a couple of hours with. I'm hopeful about the upcoming Shrek films (word is there's going to be at least two more) because the first two were damn enetertaining. I'm hopeful about the reported 4 upcoming Spider-Man films (Sony wants a total of six and Director Ted Raimi sees no problem with making that many as long as he's still invested in doing them, whatever that means).
But now we are getting sequels nobody wants from marginally succesful or just plain horrid movies or long dead franchises we no longer care about at a increasingly alarming rate. In addition to recent pure crap sequels like Ring 2, Miss Congeniality 2 & XXX: State of the Union, sooner or later we are going to see follow ups to Mrs. Doubtfire, Cheaper By The Dozen, Basic Instinct, Conan, House of The Dead, Resident Evil, The Grudge, Jurassic Park, Meet The Parents, Austin Powers, Fast and the Furious, Die Hard, Independence Day, Jumanji, The Mummy, Night of the Living Dead, The Punisher, Scary Movie, Scooby Doo, Garfield, Saw, Terminator and many, many others. It's obviously overkill when you are making sequels to movies that no one cares about anymore or didn't even care about in the first place. Is it any wonder ticket revenues keep going down even though ticket prices keep going up? It's really hard to justify spending any amount of money to see these sequels either because you know 99.9% of them are going to be inferior to the previous film which in most cases was not even worht seeing to begin with. The real problem is that studio execs obviously don't see the long term consequences of this practice. It may not even be anytime relatively soon, but eventually either the moviegoing crowd gets tired of it or the stars get tired of it or just too old to do it anymore and suddenly, the studio is screwed since they were too busy developing sequels in order to develop any original properties. Now if you'll excuse me I have to start developing my script for Howard The Duck 2....

I'm gonna party like it's 1199...

Marking his 5 billionth appearance in some film about an epic war, Orlando Bloom's latest periodic war epic-Kingdom of Heaven opens this friday. It's hardly the first movie about the crusades Although I've certainly had my fill of overblown war epics lately, the fact that Ridley Scott (Gladiator) directed this one gives me some hope, and it's certainly a much more appealing option than House of Wax, which is yet another remake of a remake (there should be a law against more than one remake of a film) of a craptacular horror film with yet another cast of disposable young "actors" (Elisa Cuthbert has yet to prove she can act to me, and she's the best of the motley crew of WB rejects in this film). I mean seriously, when your biggest star is literally Paris Hilton, I'd rather see something with a bunch of rejects from the Pauly Shore acting academy (no that doesn't actually exist. yet.)

The Epsiode III video game is out this week, which is an interesting move since you know it has to be filled with spoilers, yet it's out a full two weeks before the movie. As if that wasn't enough , all of the action-based Star Wars games so far have been disturbingly mediocre at best, so I'm not sure whether to be hyped about this game or not. Also out for Xbox is Pariah, the latest me-too shooter, which seems decent enough but I honestly think no one will be puting away Halo 2 until Half-Life 2 finally surfaces later this summer.

That's really all I have for today, news and releases have sort of slowed to a crawl until E3 happens and the summer season really starts kicking off, but I'll hold off talking about those until we get closer to the actual dates, but I'll definitely be back this weeknd with something else. Until then...

Damn the broccoli, damn you and damn the wright brothers!

That is one of the many gems from Stewie, the baby with a giant head who wants to tale over the world and kill his mother. And if you have no clue what I'm talking about, get off your ass and go pick up the first 3 seasons of Family Guy on DVD RIGHT NOW. Go ahead. I'll wait till you come back....

Ok, that was long enough. In case you don't know, Family Guy was initially concieved as a ill-fated Simpsons wannabe (and still may be considered such by some hardcore fans), and like many high quality shows, it never got the proper promotion or any real chance to grow by its moronic network (FOX) but yet held on a few seasons till Fox finally canned it. But, proving that cancellation means nothing, it became a humongous hit on dvd and the cartoon network, and amazingly, Fox has ressurected it and new episodes begin airing this Sunday, essentially giving some ray of hope to all campaigns for shows that were canceled before their time (maybe I'll start a campaign for new Adventures of Brisco County Jr.! I loved that show!). But my hunch is that FOX knows the Simpsons is on it's last legs and they are looking for anything that can possibly take the reigns of their biggest remaining non-reality show.

Speaking of ressurected shows, There is a new muppet tv show in production in England, and I pray to god we get to see it over here, because the muppets are always absolute gold. I still watch old episodes of the various tv shows and the older movies on ocassion. They should have a constant presence on TV until the end of time.

And finally, Kevin Smith (AKA Silent Bob) has seen Episode III and posted a review up at his website-viewaskew.com. It's supposedly full of spoilers, so I haven't bothered reading it, but he apparently was extremely impressed with it, which is a good sign considering how much of a fanatic he is of the franchise. That's really all I have for today, be sure to check out Family Guy tonight on Fox so they don't cancel it again!