7/11/2006

Bill Gates & The Argonauts

Well, it's somewhat official. Microsoft is coming out with some kind of portable device named the Argo (after Jason's ship from Jason & The Argonauts) that will play music, games and movies, pretty much just like the PSP. Of curse, the article is still pretty damn vague. Will it play a whole new format like UMDs? It uses wifi capability, but to what extent? Will it get a big line of exclusive titles, or will the games be afterthoughts like on a cell phone? And finally, does Microsoft even know how to make something small enough to actually be considered portable? My guess is it's primary function will really be as a direct competitor to the Ipod, but potentially speaking it could wage war on both fronts.

Well apparently, Pirates>Superman, Spider-Man or just about any other blockbuster film ever, with the biggest opening day and opening weekend numbers in history. What did I think of the film? I enjoyed it, and it had some great fight scenes (the wheel fight near the end in particular) but it was also pretty damn long and with the focus mostly on Depp's character, you really felt like Bloom & Knightley, who were the crux of the first film, were little more than distractions. That being said, I'm anxiously awaiting the third one and I just pray they don't pull a "Matrix" on us.

And finally, the past couple months have been fairly bleak for gamers in general, but 360 owners finally have something to look forward to, with no less than 3 big titles out this week. RTS fans are basically left out in the cold on consoles, but no longer with Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. Though EA is obviously milking the franchise beyond what they should at this point, by all accounts it's the first RTS on console that's really done right, and should hopefully pave the way for more of its ilk in the future.

Then there's Prey, which is sort of what I would imagine would happen if Tony Hillerman ever made a video game, as you are a Cherokee with special spiritual powers that has to save earth from an alien invasion. Not the most original setup, but word is it's a more than solid shooter that should satisfy most FPS fans.

Then there's Chromehounds. Disguise it with hip marketing buzz words all you like (like naming mechs "HOUNDS"), but this smacks of yet another slow, clumsy and awkward mech title. I understand the appeal of fighting with heavily armed giant robot suits, but when they are ridiculously slow and almost impossible to handle effectively (which is true of 99% of the games in the genre), why would anyone even bother? I'll just wait for the next Mech Warrior game, thanks.

That's it for today, so here's your SCRUBS CLIP OF THE WEEK:

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