Ahahahahah Fuck You Jack Thompson!

Yeah, I had to post this: JACK THOMPSON IS DISBARRED! PERMANENTLY! And he has to reimburse the courts legal fees! And yes he can appeal, but only through another lawyer in good standing with the Florida Courts (yeah I can see tons of lawyers just lining up for this one)! Granted, this probably will be far from the last we hear of Thompson. Stopping him from being a bat-shit crazy lawyer doesn't stop him from being able to protest stuff in moronic ways (and even if it does, I'm sure the occasional slow gaming news day will have a "where is he now" story), but as a lawyer, the guy has & could've still caused serious headaches for the industry as a whole, now he's just another loon with no real weight. Ok, back to sabbatical....

Sabbatical

I think it's time for a break. It's just that I've basically been doing this blog for a few years non-stop and it is like a second job sometimes. And honestly as long as it was fun, I didn't mind, but with increased hours & responsibilities at my real job in addition to trying to have some sort of life outside of work on occasion, it's become more & more like a job I have to do rather than a job I enjoy, so rather than infrequent updates whenever I actually have the time and energy to write something, I'd just take a chunk of time off, recharge the creative batteries, and revisit this sometime in the future and see if it's still something I want to do. I'll most likely be back, just need to take some time & a little distance.

The Force is not strong in this one...

So, the Force Unleashed hit today, and after months of hype and hope it would be the one thing salvaging Star Wars while Lucas seems to making it his personal mission to sully everything good about it. But alas, possibly due to the hype, reviews have indicated it's just another average, flawed action title, just with the Star Wars brand behind it. Being that I made a goddamned video for the game, I'm fairly dissapointed, but if it's one less game to buy among all the others this holiday season, I'll gladly keep my wallet a little heavier.


OMG. SONIC. 2. IN HD., granted it's only a tech demo, but still awesome.

Miracle of miracles? EA has officially backed down from the seemingly inevitable and has decided to stop trying to buy Take 2. I'm sure your average EA-hating fanboy sees this as a blessed miracle, but the fact of the matter is that Take 2 isn't a healthy company and heavy infusions of cash will probably be needed at some point, inviting a takeover from somebody far less stellar than EA (think Sammy buying out Sega).

That's really all I have for today, but I should be posting at least one more time before Sunday, until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Four Christmases

It's Horrible to be free

Unless of course I'm talking about Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog! Courtesy of Hulu!. If some insane reason you haven't caught the best thing ever on the web, watch it now! And buy the DVD whenever it finally comes out.

Of course, that's nothing compared to today's release of arguably the biggest PC game since WOW, Spore. Potentially limitless gameplay sure sounds damn appealing, too bad my laptop can't even run the thing, so I'll probably just wait for the eventual console versions that are supposedly maybe on the way...

Like Zombies? Like Free stuff? Well check out The Zombie Chronicles. I admittedly have just found about this so I have no idea if it's any good, but I'll probably start checking it out as I've hoping for another decent zombie novel after finishing Stephen King's "Cell" awhile ago.
"
Due to my schedule this week, I probably won't be able to do another update til at least Wednesday, so I want to put in a plug for the rather deranged and excellent season 3 DVD release of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Tuesday. If you haven't experienced the awesomeness of this show, check out some prime examples on why it's one of the best comedies out there ever:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Whedon's Civil War

There are arguably no fans more diehard than the fans of the Whedonverse. But what happens when you pit one of his beloved properties against another? Unfortunately, this isn't some awesome fighting game with River taking on Kennedy. You may remember sometime ago, that there was news that a Firefly MMO was being worked on. Well now, in a move sure to excite some Whedon fans & infuriate others, that same company has effectively killed any development on the Firefly MMO in order to make a Buffy MMO. Now granted, Buffy (and by expansion Angel) has a longer established history and arguably a bigger overall fanbase (not mention appeal to possibly more casual fans). Also, there is the distinct possibility of any attempt to do a Firefly MMO turning into a complete disaster like EVE. Now, being a fan of both series I am excited by the prospect of either as an continual online universe, but I do think there is more potential in a property like Firefly, whereas Buffy could easily turn into WOW with Slayers and probably missing a key component of what made all of Whedon's properties so good-the writing. That's what made Buffy rise above your standard high school/college drama and your average sci-fi show. With that element absent, it's basically crappy fan fiction with grinding thrown in. Which also raises the question of how it'll even work. Can you be a Watcher like Giles or a souped-army grunt like Riley? Or will it pretty much be limited to Slayers & Vamps/Demons? Cause that already sounds dull. I would hope that this is a property they won't completely trash, but this could easily turn out to be a bigger disaster than Star Wars Galaxies is.

That's pretty much all I feel like writing about today, but I will try and be back of Friday with another update. In the mean time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Sukiyaki Western Django

You can't play games at PAX

Sorry about no pre-Pax post, but I naively tried to do a mad dash finish for Persona 3 because though I'm somewhat close to the end of the game, I thought I was much closer. Suffice it to say, still not done. PAX '08 was a lot of fun though. Got to meet and get my picture taken with Felicia Day, which was definitely a highlight. Though I wasn't there for his actual concert, after seeing a few youtube posts of his perfomance. I've now become a giant Jonathon Coulton Fan and must have all his music ever. The panels were fun, got a lot of free stuff, and it was just cool to walk the exhibit show floor where all the games were on display but the crowd more than doubled from last year, which meant lines for big games like Left 4 Dead, Fable 2, Little Big Planet, Gears of War, Spore & Fallout 3 were akin to waiting in line at Disneyland on their busiest weekend. And when most of these games will be available in the next couple of months, I'm not to tempted to wait anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours just to get a few minutes of play time. Hell even games no one gives a damn about like Gauntlet for DS actually had plenty of people playing it because everything else was really occupied. That's not to say I didn't get to play anything. Sonic Chronicles & Valkyrie Chronicles look awesome, Champions Online shows a lot of promise, and Resistance 2 looks like utter crap. PAX is bound to be even bigger next year, so rather than try and balance anything or try to just play games on Sunday when the crowds are smallest (which they were again this year, but still too big for the major titles), I'll probably just grab some schwag, enjoy walking the exhibit floor, and prioritize fun-looking panels & events rather than waste my time standing in line after line after line. The only upside gaming-wise of PAX is I got some much overdue time in on Tactics Advance 2.

One other thing I really wanted to touch on was Castle Crashers. Oh god is this game going to eat up my time if I let it. It's a lot like Guardian Heroes (the Saturn version, not the horrid portable version) with a lot of great humor involved. This may easily be my most played 360 title, arcade or console until Fallout 3/Fable 2 drops. And I'll probably pick it up again when I'm done with those two. This seems like it might be the last high-quality release for a little while though after a slew of really good ones as aside from episode II of Penny Arcade, there doesn't seem to be much on the horizon (at least for the near future, there were lots of interesting titles set for Live Arcade at PAX, just with no solid release dates). In some ways, this may be a good thing, as I'm sure most gamers will want to devote their time & especially their money to the bigget titles out this fall, and if something along the same lines as say Braid, which definitely needed a window where there was really nothing to overshadow it, were released, it would almost certainly be ignored and be a massive failure which of course leads to less of companies trying something new & innovative and daring which is why we have 400 billion versions of card games on Live but only a few daring originals.

That's really all I have for today, but I plan (key word being "plan") to be back on Monday with another post as I have at least one specific topic I really want to discuss. In the meantime enjoy this awesome video from PAX (which I did not film, which is good, because I am a horrible cameraman) of Jonathon Coulton & Felicia Day singing "Still Alive"

The best Halloween movie about Christmas ever

Oh this is potentially a very ,very expensive week. Not only is PAX just a few scant days away, not only are two highly anticipated rpgs, Tales of Vesperia & Disgaea 3 hitting the 360 & the PS3 respectively, but we also have very awesome shows getting their latest seasons released on DVD-The Shield, Entourage & Heroes all are hitting stores tomorrow, along with one of my favorite movies of all time-IN BLU-RAY! THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Jack Skellington in hi-def will hopefully be an extremely memorable experience and not a rushed cash-in (I'm looking at you T2!). I'm probably going to at first play it safe, trade in a few games for Disgaea 3 and just pick up "Nightmare". Depending on how much I blow on PAX, I may pick up a lot more next week (though there's more stuff to empty wallets next week as well).

Ok, I've got a really early morning tomorrow (and the next day), so that's really all I got time to post today, but I'll definitely do a nice long post about Castle Crashers, PAX and possibly a few other things on Wednesday evening. In the mean time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: REPO! The Genetic Opera

R.I.P. Lord Bowler

Julius Carry has passed away of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. The name may not be that familiar unless you are awesome enough to have watched either Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon or more recently the awesome but short-lived Adventures of Brisco County Jr. He always added a lot to any show he was on and always seemed involved in my favorite stuff. His presence will be sorely missed. I'll be back tomorrow with a regular post but for now enjoy some of his greatness:

A Taste of the Dark Side

So I did not pick up Too Human. As I said, it was ok if the game didn't live up to the lofty expectations placed on it, but pretty much every review panned the hell out of it; with the last straw being the game's creator, Dennis Dyack, coming out and pulling an M. Night Shamalahaimekahinieho, claiming that anybody who didn't like the game, just "didn't get it". Well Mr. Dyack, I'm happy to not "get it" and spend my hard-earned money instead on something I do "get", such as Disgaea 3 which lands next week.

The very short but incredibly awesome demo for The Force Unleashed hit Xbox Live & PS3 today. I honestly still had some fears as there has yet to be a good Star Wars action game, but this demo pretty much put those fears to rest. I may play through it a few more times before the game finally gets unleashed itself on Sept 19th.

Here's my estimation of this week's movies: They suck. I still haven't seen Tropic Thunder, so I'll probably check that out sometime this week. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Body of Lies

Only Human

Well, this week, finally, a game that has taken the length of a couple of console generations to develop finally lands with a wide mix of dissapointment and hope. Too Human finally comes out on Tuesday, and the question on everyone's minds is of course was all that development time worth it? Will it show in the final product?

The simple answer is hell no. This was originally being planned for the PLAYSTATION. It's not like they had spent all this time thinking it would be made for The 360, especially since back then people laughed at the idea of Microsoft even making a console. Hell it was pegged for both the Nintendo 64 & the Gamecube when Silicon Knights was under Nintendo's control. So should all that constant console switching excuse a bad game? Of course not, but when the negative comments I hear about the game are along the lines of "It's merely a good game, for this long in development it should be a great game." It makes me wonder what the hell was everybody expecting? Luckily the release of the demo right as E3 hit seemed to at least alleviate much of the feeling that it would surefire flop everyone was claiming it would be last year. I thought the demo was quite awesome, so I fully intend to pick it up come Tuesday and will probably give you my impressions on Wednesday. Until then, spend some time with the FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Anika's Odyssey

Down to the old pub instead

One of Xbox live's releases this week is sort of an odd beast. Fable II Pub Games is a small sample of Peter Molyneaux's latest fantasy world, with the added incentive of using money that you earn in these games to use in Fable II when it actually hits. But these games are in the game when you buy it, and you even get a code to download for free beforehand if you pre-order the title. So apparently the $10 is for fleecing complete idiots. I mean c'mon, if everyone who buys the game gets it free anyways, it should either be only available to those who pre-order, or a completely free download for everyone.

Luckily Live's (and PSN's) other release this week proves a much meatier experience for the same price in Bionic Commando Rearmed. Admittedly, the next-gen remake looks ready to sour all the great memories of the beloved NES classic, but this IS the NES classic, just with a fresh paint job, so it will definitely be worth your while and a good edition to what's starting to finally be a solid library of downloadable titles for both PSN & Xbox live.

And finally, let's talk about how brilliant Tropical Thunder looks. Ben Stiller playing to his strengths as an obnoxious jackass. Robert Downey Jr. in black face. Tom Cruise in an insanely hilarious cameo. Jack Black. Yeah, this has all the tools to be incredibly hilarious, and so far the reviews are saying it actually makes use of them. I am very excited to check this comedy out.

That's really it for today as I got plenty of work to do over at the new gorillamask board over the next day or two, but I should be back Thursday with another update.

The best Xbox live game ever...

Is Braid. Have you played it yet? I'm not going to be like everyone else and try and shame you into buying it. Sure, you've probably wasted more than $15 on something you didn't even use more than once or regretted buying immediately after. But at least download the demo and give it a try. It's probably the best independent title besides Portal that has come along in quite awhile.

Wiiware owners also finally get another reason to clear out some hard drive space in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. I admittedly haven't followed Homestar Runner at all, so I'll probably try & see what it's all about before I decide to download it, but the word is that any fans of the site will enjoy it tremendously.

All hyped for Too Human next week (which I'll talk about in more detail when we get a little closer to release)? Then you'll definitely be interested in these pretty awesome new themes up on live. I normally don't post this crap, but it's rare I see good themes for a good game that you can actually get a good look at before you download.

That's really what I have for today, but I 100% guarantee I will be doing another post tomorrow covering among other things Tropic Thunder & Bionic Commando Rearmed. Until then, check out the TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Yes Man

The Top Six Downloadable titles I'm actually looking forward to

So I saw the only movie I care to talk about opening this week, that being Pineapple Express. It's a surprisingly entertaining stoner comedy (this coming from a guy who generally doesn't think highly of most stoner comedies), but they also tried to shove an action movie in there and a very poorly done one at that, so it dilutes the overall experience. But still, if you are looking for a good dumb time at the movies, I definitely reccomend it.

Moving onto today's topic, it seems like downloadable games are finally getting a little respect, as we are finally starting to see titles that aren't just poorly rushed rehashes of old classics, generic me-too shooters, or crappy casual party games. Leading the charge is today's Xbox Live release Braid, which I tried out today and found quite fun and refreshing. It's definitely got a premium price tag at $15, but seems worth it, especially if supporting it will get more titles in the same league. So here's six others you should be looking forward to (and yes, there's something for every system):

6.

Mega Man has sucked for many years, but by going back to its roots, (way, way back) this latest edition cuts out a lot of the crap and boils down to what made Mega Man so great to begin with-Defeating robots and getting their powers to use on other robots. This will be a treat for the old-schoolers (and maybe some newer gamers looking for a real hardcore challenge, which was definitely what the Mega Man games were about back in the day. And it's coming to all 3 downloadable services so everybody can experience it.

5.

Granted, this has gotten some undue attention from moronic feminists with too much time on their hands, but ignoring all that there is a really solid-looking strategy title here that may have actually slipped completely under the radar had it not been for the morons protesting it. Good going morons!

4.

The Dishwasher is easily the highlight of Microsoft's XNA experiment so far. Featuring tremendous style, a promising story and brutally good action make it one of those titles to really keep an eye on.

3.

Granted, it's been available on PC for awhile, but really, the insanity of Sam & Max on a console seems worth the wait. Anybody craving the old school point & click adventure titles with a huge helping of psychotic humor should download this day it hits either your Wii or Xbox 360.

2.

Bionic Commando is easily one of the all time NES titles, and while I don't hold a lot of hope for the next-gen makeover, this update to the classic seems like a retread well worth buying into, especially for the seemingly right price of $10.

1.

The hype may have grown too much at this point, but Castle Crashers seems like the definitive live game, offering an extremely deep and fun game along with 4-player co-op. Hopefully it's really, really, REALLY long development cycle will pay off.

That's it for today, but I'll definitely be back this weekend with another post.

VIDEO DAY: The Top 5 Looney Tunes shorts

Ok, don't really have anything to talk about today, but wanted to do a post, so thought everyone would enjoy some old school Looney Tunes skits, these being my personal faves:

Wabbit Season



Rabbit of Seville



Robin Hood Daffy



DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24 1/2 CENTURY



And my all time favorite, DUCK AMUCK

No one wants to believe...

I didn't really feel like talking about a desperate resurrection of a franchise that was clearly better off dead (and given the movie's paltry opening weekend, everyone seems to agree). So I just thought I'd wait til today to do an update. Now, speaking of franchises that I would gladly like to see resurrected, check out this apparent bootleg trailer of TRON 2!!!.

I did pick up Final Fantasy IV. But honestly, I probably won't dive into it until I got done with Tactics. I've got no less than 6 ds rpgs, so I figure I should beat at least a couple of the ones I already own before moving onto some new thing.

Despite everyone saying what an absolute waste E3 was this year, the ESA is going to give it at least one more try. I hope they are able to regain some of the brilliance & excitement of the last couple of years, but I'm very doubtful.

That's really all I got for today, but to make up for it, here's 5 awesomely NSFW minigames!

The future of E3/Batman

So, two major events went down last week, but both have a left many questions in their wake. I'll deal with E3 first, because it pretty much boils down to one question, is E3 dying? Probably; at least as we used to know it. As much as everyone was bitching about how much of a headache E3 was in its flashy years, now everyone is whining and moaning about it's seeming lack of importance. Lots of big names pulled out and there wasn't much of anything new or surprising in an event that used to be known for that kind of stuff. Maybe Nintendo summed it up best when they just full on admitted that they weren't using E3 to target core gamers because as much as MS & Sony may want to pretend otherwise, they used a majority of their presentations for things most certainly not geared towards core gamers in the first place either (i.e. Netflix integration). Maybe dying is a stretch, but E3 used to be THE show. It was where most of the big announcements for the next year or so were made. Now it's at best just another show, especially when most companies are putting together their own press events that are cheaper, less of a hassle, and let the spotlight be on them rather than shared with others. E3 may never completely die, but if it wants to retain any real relevance, a major revamp is in order. Just keep non-essential people (i.e. the brother of some gamestop manager) from going and that should keep the excess under control.

Now, onto the greatest movie ever! (I may be exaggerating, but not by much). Lots of questions, probably firstly, who should be the next Batman villain(s)? I think there's lots of good options. Even a resurrected Ra's Al Ghul or Two-Face (because Eckhart did a great job, just overshadowed by Ledge) seems like a decent idea. To be honest, what I'd really like to see is the Joker & Harley Quinn, but Ledger put such a definitive stamp on that character in Nolan's universe that if they were to re-cast the Joker (which I believe they should eventually) that you'd probably wait until at least a 4th film (if indeed that even happens, but I see Batman like Bond, make 10 films if you want as long as the rules of the Nolan-verse are strictly adhered to) to give some distance. Riddler & Penguin seem like poor choices. Catwoman would be good to include, but not as the primary villain. So I think the best possibilities would be either Poison Ivy (especially with Catwoman, make it sort of a love triangle) or Mr. Freeze. If for no other reason, to erase the horrible memory of these great characters being butchered by Joel Schumaker. Also, I would like to eventually see Robin included, as he's such an essential part of the Batman mythos. I even have pretty much the perfect actor for him, Emile Hirsch. But regardless, the future of this franchise overall looks incredibly bright, so I'd hate to see it only have one more film with so many good directions it can go.

Ok, I had planned to do this whole post yesterday, but inspiration struck as it often does at random times, prompting me to make this kickass new video for The Force Unleashed:



And I'll most likely post again on Wednesday with my initial thoughts on the Final Fantasy IV remake for DS as well as anything else that pops up. Until then, keep yourself busy with the FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Space Ranger

New year, same shit

Well, E3's out of the way, and honestly, we got the same song and dance that we did last year. Microsoft is trying to please everybody, stretching themselves too thin, Nintendo isn't trying to please anybody, which since it's working it's kind of hard to hate on them for it, but leaves us longtime gamers in the cold, and Sony once again seems poised to have a great year next year. Pretty much the only surprising things about the show were that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the 360 (and it's always fun to see irrational PS3 fanboys react to that) and that Too Human might not suck (seriously, if you have Live, download the demo). Lots of cool games to look at, but nothing we really hadn't heard a ton about.

And of course many people are right now watching the movie event of the year, the Dark Knight. Admittedly, I've been in Batman overload, watching movies and tv shows (even the new Gotham Knight, which honestly kind of sucked). I'm think I'm over midnight showings for the most part, but I've already purchased a ticket for the earliest showing at a nearby theatre.

I'm honestly feeling kind of crappy so that's all I'm going to post today, but next time I will expand upon my E3 thoughts and The Dark Knight along with anything else that pops up. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Watchmen

Better off dead

I did manage to see Hellboy II over the weekend, and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't up there with the likes of Iron Man or probably what Dark Knight will end up being, but it was a lot of fun, and the characters are what make it more than anything else.

Now onto today's main topic. While I would hardly say that Buffy as a franchise would really be considered dead (especially with a rather excellent comic book going on right now as "season 8"), I think we can safely say that it is a franchise in its twilight and not likely to ever get back into the mainstream consciousness again. So it seems odd at best that a game company is picking this of all franchises (which has a very dedicated and somewhat scary fanbase) for a video game release, much less a DS video game release. I want to believe that because there's no impending movie or other quick cash-in, it's something the company will take their time & make an awesome product out of. But the cynic in me wants to say it's a desperate attempt to grab some money from a fanbase so rabid they will buy even bad products in support. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but early screen shots seem to point at something that looks like a pathetic licensed cash grab rather than a real treat for the fans.

That's really all I have for today, but E3, the biggest game conference of the year, starts Tuesday, so I'll definitely be updating plenty for that along with the biggest movie this year should make for a very fun week. In the meantime, enjoy your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Chronicles of the Slayer

The Big Red Machine

Any other year, a movie like Hellboy II would seem like the easy mark for the big comic book movie of the Summer. The original, while not a mega-hit, was well received and has a healthy following, and the sequel seems to follow suit. But in a summer where you've got the somewhat surprise success of Iron Man, the revitalization of the Hulk and what many are already calling the greatest superhero movie ever in The Dark Knight, Hellboy seems to have almost been forgotten. Luckily it doesn't really have much direct competition this weekend, with another failure of an Eddie Murphy vehicle and a merely decent-looking Brendan Fraser special effects heavy film not having anything to do with mummies. But I can see it having a huge drop-off next weekend for obvious reasons, so they better make this one count.

And while anybody should be happy with the idea of Jack Thompson getting a decade-long ban from practicing law, how about a lifetime ban? Because that's what's apparently being recommended . I gotta tell you, it's stuff like this that makes me actually believe evil soulless jackasses will eventually be punished for all the crap they do.

That's really all I got for today, but I'll leave you with the TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Max Payne

Back to the future

Ok, in case you have no idea why I was so excited about a ticking clock in my last post, the reason is because it was a teaser site for CHRONO TRIGGER ON THE DS. If that still doesn't get you excited, get out of my sight, you disgust me. But seriously, The mere thought of of my favorite game ever on the go makes me tingly all over, and it's awesome that it is coming this holiday season as usually we have to wait quite awhile between the Japanese release of something like this and the US port.

Is the wait for what is already the greatest movie ever made unbearable? Two big releases this week should tide you over pretty well until next Friday: The blu-ray release of Batman Begins, and Gotham Knight, a collection of animated shorts by different acclaimed directors. I was pretty keen on Gotham Knight initially, especially since Bruce Timm, who is basically responsible for all the great DC animated shows over the last decade or so was involved and they had gotten Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in the animated series to star, but word is it's an interesting but forgettable collection of stories that aren't really connected to either of the movies and really do nothing to expand the Batman universe, so it sounds like a rental to me at this point.

And finally, to get all pumped up for the start of season 3 of the absolutely brilliant Psych, season 2 is out on DVD, so to get you pumped, here's a cool fanvid I found on youtube:

Sony giveth and Sony taketh away

Sony's long-awaited 2.4 firmware update that was to include long overdue features like in-game achievement trophies and in-game XMB. But the update was unceremoniously pulled a few short hours later due to "limited issues"/ In reality, it looks like another big black eye just after Sony had started to heal from the last one for delaying Killzone 2 til next year. Hopefully 2.4 comes back in full force, but if Sony ever wants a real chance at even giving the 360 a real run for their money, stupid mistakes like this need to stop happening.

So over the last few days, I saw both Wall-E & Wanted, and I can pretty much recommend both. Wall-E is great like most Pixar films, and Wanted, though a little silly, is a very fun over-the-top action flick.

Of course the big movie out this week has Will Smith once again pretty much owning July 4th with Hancock. The reviews seem to range from so-so to so terrible, but you could probably put Will Smith just grinning and saying "Aw hell naw" for 90 minutes and it would still make $100 million dollars. And it's nothing against Smith, he's a very talented guy (even the worst reviews seem to be praising his performance as one of the few highlights). I might see it, as I've mostly heard from friends that it's a decent matinee flick, but nothing I'd pay full price for.

And finally, OH MY GOD!!!!!

Son of number 5?

Granted kids (hell probably anyone under 25) won't remember, but I'm sure that for a lot of us that are starting to enter out not so young adult years, Pixar's annual instant classic, Wall-E, has a main character that bears a very, very strong resemblance to a rather cheesy yet fondly remembered character named "Johnny 5" from a movie called Short Circuit.



Definitely not a rip-off, but arguably a slight homage. I fully intend to be one of the many checking out Wall E this weekend as it seems like another brilliant movie.

I'm also very tempted to check out Wanted. Granted, it looks like a pretty direct Matrix rip-off, but a pretty well done one, and admittedly, Angelina Jolie is enough to get me to see almost anything.

That's really it for today, but I spent most of the early AM hours making a new video for the highly anticipated DS remake of Final Fantasy IV, so check it out:

HYPNOTOAD COMMANDS YOU TO BUY THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS! ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD!

Goodbye George

Not a lot of stuff really gets to me, but I just read that one of the great comedy legends, George Carlin, has passed away. This guy has always been nothing short of brilliant and the world is a lot stupider for having lost him. We'll miss you you miserable but hilarious bastard. I'm just going to post one of my personal favorite bits and probably do a regular post tomorrow:

Stupid Love

Ah, another weekend of two underwhelming (and possibly migrain-generating) summer "comedies". Mike Myers is back in front of the camera in his first live-action film in quite a few years, which seems to basically be Austin Powers 4, just without the swinging 60s references. It's a shame because reportedly he spent a lot of time fine-tuning his character in comedy clubs. This is reportedly already an early contender for worst movie of the year (and being that 10,000 B.C. has already come out, that's saying quite a bit).

And then there's Steve Carrell in his latest attempt to go from small screen god to big screen star in Get Smart. Granted, if you have to do a movie version, Steve Carell seems like the obvious choice, but the reviews seem to say much like Evan Almighty, this plays it a little too safe to in fact be as smart as it's legacy.

So what to do? Give Incredible Hulk a chance. I caught it on Tuesday and was pleasantly surprised. It has some weak points (mainly Liv Tyler), and it's a very different feel from Iron Man, but I think it's about as good a flick you can really do with that source material, because Hulk is a hard character to make a film for in the first place. I hope this one holds up strong, because they definitely planted lots of seeds for a sequel (not to mention possible tie-ins to other Marvel films) which I would like to see come to fruition.

In game news, Sega is starting to make me believe in Sonic again with their new trailer for Sonic Unleashed. But I'm warily optimistic, given how many times they've tried to re-launch the blue blur. This video seems like an awfully good start, however...



TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Death Race

Links, everybody loves links...

I'm directly ripping that header off from some gaming mag, either EGM or Game Informer, really the only two I read, but can't remember which. Anyways, not a whole ton of news since my last post, so I've just got a few cool links and a video or two for everyone to check out:

First up, everybody loves free games, and while one a week is pretty awesome, I've got a total of 60 in the two links I've got here, both from Gamesradar: For you old school shooter fans: The Top Ten Free Shoot-em-ups, and then for those looking for more variety, also from Gamesradar, The Top 50 free games. Obviously these aren't going to be on the scale of something like Mass Effect, but there are plenty of great little gems in there, especially if you are a fan of the old school point & click Sierra/Lucasarts titles.

And yet one more link from Gamesradar (I've plugged these guys so much they should be giving me free ad space at this point), the top 7 games that don't deserve nostalgia. There are few lists I agree with more wholeheartedly than this one. Pretty much every single game on there has not aged well or wasn't good to begin with and is nowhere near worthy of the ridiculous pedestal its put upon to this day. Final Fantasy VII being so worthy because of the insane level of praise it gets. Yeah, it was good, but it had plenty of flaws too, and those would probably be a lot more evident if a remake with nothing but a graphical overhaul was actually made like the fans keep clamoring for. If you doubt that, take a look at the mostly horrible crap spin-off material that has spewed from FFVII since it's release, most notably Advent Children.

And just a few videos to finish off the day, first up, The Philosophy of Billy Mitchell. If you thought he was a giant ass when you watched King of Kong (and if you haven't watched that, go out and buy/rent it immediately), you'll think even less of him now:



And a fake, but hilarious trailer for King of Kong 2:



Finally, since I probably won;t update again til at least Tuesday, check out this pretty cool fan trailer for what is for my money, the best action show on TV, Burn Notice, which the first season of comes out on Tuesday, so check it out before the second season premiere in July.

Hey waiter, there's some Iron Man in my Incredible Hulk!

Marvel is really pulling out every stop they can to try and give people a reason to see their second big hero movie out this year, The Incredible Hulk, casting some serious actors like Ed Norton and Tim Roth, trying to make it look nothing like Ang Lee's disastrous effort several years ago, and even blatantly showing that it has some tenuous connection to Iron Man since that has been a success well beyond anyone's expectations. And by all accounts, it is a much better effort, but I'm not sure the same interest is there, if for no other reason than Hulk, at least is in his movie incarnation, isn't a good guy superhero, he's just a big guy who likes to smash stuff. And there is some appeal in that, but not the same across the board appeal you get to make something a big hit like Iron Man or Spider-Man or Batman (only now am I realizing how utterly uncreative these superhero names are), and Marvel is very much banking on this film to be up there with Iron Man in order to try and legitimize themselves as a studio powerhouse capable of mostly doing their own movies for their properties. I want it to be good, and most reviews are very positive, so I'll probably check it out, but not opening weekend.

And as far as the other movie opening this weekend, The Happening, I've more or less made my thoughts on this giant waste of celluloid well known, so instead of wasting more energy and hate just go ahead and enjoy the FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Skywire

Snake Eyes

So yeah, the PS3's supposed salvation comes tomorrow in the form of Metal Gear Solid 4. But this declaration seems like a desperate fanboy thing. Yeah, The Metal Gear Series has a pretty solid legion of followers, but it's nowhere near Halo or GTA or FF numbers. It's never had to be a system seller, and now it's in the unique position of trying to be a game that legitimizes the PS3 as something more than a blu-ray player with a couple of games. Personally, I pretty much lost interest after the incomprehensible mess I considered both 2 & 3 to be. Pure weirdness aside, the dialogue was always laughable and the plots never made the slightest bit of sense. Fans will defend that as a positive trait, but great games with totally insane plots (i.e. No More Heroes) at least make sense in their own twisted universe, Metal Gear as of late has stuck to no such rule. It's actually good to hear Gabe & Tycho spew their vitriol on the series because I seemed to be alone in my... hatred is too strong a word, but indifference fits pretty well. I'm sort of intrigued to try it out just to see if maybe, much like GTA IV, this really turns my opinion around on the series (and so I have an actual PS3 game to play on my PS3), but quite frankly, I'm a little too busy currently enjoying Persona 3 (another example of a great game with a crazy story that makes sense in its own universe) to just go out and buy much of anything else right now.

That's really all I got for today, but I'll definitely be back tommorrow with my thoughts on this weekend's releases. Until then, here is your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Babylon A.D.

Hit the road, Jack.

This is it, this should be the nail in the coffin for psycho anti-gaming lawyer Jack Thompson, as he's been recommended for a 10-year disbarment. Not helping matters is that he walked out of the hearing, claiming the judge didn't have the authority to oversee the case. You know, at some point this guy went from intelligent yet soulless ambulance chaser to just plain nuts and I'm wondering what triggered it. Oh no, wait he was always fucking nuts, nevermind.


Lots of big games out this week, but with Bourne Conspiracy seeming to be just another mediocre action title and Ninja Gaiden II being a follow-up to a game so frustrating I nearly broke my original Xbox, the only one I had my eye one was Lego Indiana Jones. I really enjoyed Star Wars being Legoized so I thought Indy would be just as fun. For the most part it is, but there are some camera & A.I. issues (along with a lack of online play) that make this seem like an effort that doesn't really make the most of the license. Hopefully these problems will be resolved when Lego Batman hits or I won't be nearly as kind.

I love a good animated film, and word on Kung Fu Panda is extremely solid (which is surprising, given that it's an animated movie not made by Pixar). So I will most likely be checking that out this week.

Gamer on an extremely tight budget? Not to worry, there are plenty of awesome new budget games that don't suck coming out this year. Just check out GameRadar's list of games coming out this year that cost $20 or less (I really can't wait for Castle Crashers to finally get done).

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Finding Amanda

BEYOND GOODER & EVILER

The header is a slight reference to the brilliantly awful subtitle of Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Anyways, not really much of an update today, but I just had to post about the best announcement ever: Beyond Good and Evil, one of the best games literally ever, is getting a sequel. It's sort of a shock because like many awesome, daring & critically acclaimed titles of that same era (The Oddworld games, Metal Arms, Psychonauts, etc.), the game sold very poorly. This could only come out on a $100,000 arcade cabinet and I would probably save up until I could afford it. I'll probably try and track down a copy of the original so I can beat it again before the new one comes out (though my guess is that won;t be til '09, so I have awhile).

Pretty much the only other thing I wanted to post today is an awesome youtube video by a guy who pretty much lays out the whole sex & videogames debate in the most intelligent way possible (which of course means no one will take him seriously):



But I do also have your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Eagle Eye

VIDEO DAY: MY Top Ten Scrubs Moments

Ok, Let's quickly sum up my feelings on the two things that came out this week: Penny Arcade Episode I: Good value for fans of the comic, the wit is there and the battle system is top notch, though I don't know that I'd pay $20 more for the same 8 hours of the same gameplay in slightly different settings. Indiana Jones: Good, not great. I think most of the people bitching about it had way too much expectation built up. If this was the new Mummy film or anything but Indiana Jones they probably would've enjoyed it more. It some great moments and some horrible ones, but it was a solid flick overall. And yeah, since I had nothing else to really talk about, in honor of Scrubs official resurrection on ABC this fall, I thought it would be fun to post my top ten moments (at least out of what hasn't been yanked off the internet yet). Except for #1, these are pretty much in random order:

#10: Turk's Airband Audition



#9: Over The Rainbow



#8: Turk Gets Schooled on Rap



#7: What A Difference A Day Makes



#6: Perry's Perspective



#5: The Todd vs. an Old Lady-WHO YA GOT?!?



#4: Kung-Fu Fighting



#3: Overkill



#2: JD gives his Cox impression



#1: COX PUNCHES KELSO



And here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: EXTREME TANK WARS

M. Night Shamalayandandong is the best fucking director ever. Just ask him.

Ever Since Signs, I haven't thought much of Mr. M. Night as a director. But that's fine, there are plenty of awful directors who still get to make movies all the time. But this week, he's veers into Uwe Boll territory with his ridiculous comments about his latest movie (which has already been trashed in a few early reviews), The Happening:

If something happens during the movie and you think, ‘That’s dumb,’ it’ll be because whatever happened was actually too amazing for you to fully understand, or possibly a metaphor for something really crazy and cool

Oh just go fuck yourself. If Happening makes more than $45 mil it's entire theatrical run I will be shocked. You're a goddamn one-trick (ok maybe two-trick because I actually like Unbreakable) pony and you've shown it repeatedly over your last several "films". I really hope this is the film that finally makes Hollywood accept that you're not worth employing for an Old Navy Commercial, much less any more films.

But here's some news that should make everybody happy: JACK THOMPSON IS GOING TO JAIL! Ok, probably not, as I don't think anything he did will get him serious jail time, but this officially makes him a joke and certainly his bar certification being revoked can't be far behind. Oh Jack, how I will miss your crazy legal antics. But I'm sure Fox News will hire you as an "expert" or something.

Finally, Wii Fit is out this week. I'm sure it will be a huge hit with the non-gamer audience Nintendo is supposedly trying to reach, but isn't this yet another exercise fad that will be hot for a couple of months and then no one will remember it? There are supposed to be actual games in the pipeline for the balance board, so if those actually turn out good, I may invest in it, but for now, I'll get my exercise in much cheaper ways, like walking.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

More like Chronicles of Blahrnia

I don't really get why I have absolutely no interest in this weekend's big release, Prince Caspian. I enjoyed the original, it's a big fantasy epic, which I usually love, and it's getting very solid reviews. But the ads & trailers just don't really excite me. Doesn't mean I'll avoid it like the plague or anything, but I'm probably not making any real plans to check it out either.

Two very interesting articles about the future of Scrubs are up at IGN. The first is a fairly candid interview with creator Bill Lawrence about the new direction for the eighth and possibly final season. I say "possibly" because the second article brings up the possibility of Scrubs getting at least one more season at its new home on ABC if it does reasonably. I'd love to see it go 10 just because so very few shows have done that and really none that have lasted that long (or certain shows that have lasted longer and are still on the air) have retained the consistent level of brilliance Scrubs puts out every week.

That's really it for today, but I'll probably have another post up on Sunday. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Chronotron

A Leaf on the Wind

So, Wii's Wii Ware service launched this morning. I downloaded both Lostwinds & My Life as King, which turned out to be worthwhile purchases. I may even spring for some of the donwloadable content for MLK. The other titles seem to be the sort that I fear may ruin the potential of the service if too many just get shoved online and little gems get lost in the shuffle. Defend Your Castle is fun, but it's something you can play for free on your computer. TV Show King sounds like a decent family trivia title, but those things tend to get old quick. And Pop is just one of those weird oddities that you wonder how anybody justified this being anything more than a free game at Newgrounds. But it's a promising start. Now if between Wii Ware & VC updates, if there aren't at least a couple of quality downloadable titles a month, there's something seriously wrong.

But that isn't even the biggest problem. With Wii Ware out, those miniscule Wii hard rives are going to really start being pressed for space. Granted, an inexpensive SD will take care of it the storage problem itself, but you can't load games directly from an SD card, so every time you wanted to play something you have to move shit around. Ridiculous. Nintendo either needs to make a hard drive expansion, or the ability to play from SD cards (and the ability to use SDHC cards in a future update wouldn't be a bad idea either).

I also took some time to try out the Haze demo on PS3. What I played was fairly entertaining, but if you're still playing COD4, this isn't going to make you stop playing.

And I'm going to end the night with some awesome TV news: Reaper has been picked up for a second season, which is great because it's definitely one of the smartest shows on TV right now. Just too bad we have to wait til February for the new season.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: X-FILES: I Want To Believe

Reflections from a lapsed Comic Nerd

I've been a video game and movie nerd all my life, but in my early years I was also pretty big into comics, Spider-Man was certainly my favorite, but I had a pretty wide range of comics from every brand. But I eventually got less & less interested, and the Clone Wars saga pretty much sealed it for that I was done. I've retained a somewhat sparse interest, reading the occasional mini series or graphic novel. So, going to this year's Emerald City Comic Con, which was the first such Con I've been to in well over a decade, I felt completely lost and out of place. I barely recognized any of the titles, most of the "name" artists were people I've never heard of, and there just wasn't much I was interested in. Oh it was great to get my photo taken with Jame Bamber and Julie Benz (you check out those photos and some others here, and it was fun to see a fair amount of people in costumes, but I think the most surprising thing is that it was nothing compared to the scale of something like Sakuracon or PAX. It was actually a rather subdued affair, more like a trade show than a communal gathering. I mean sure, vendors are there to mostly hock wares, but it seems like people were also mainly there to buy those wares rather than enjoy the chance to bond with fellow geeks about a mutual hobby. I did have fun overall, but my attendance next year is questionable, probably completely depending on what celebs I might be able to get a photo with, whereas with something like PAX, you could even have Gabe & Tycho not attend and no one there would care because it's much more of a general gamer community thing.

Moving on, the big game news for this week is that the Wii's Xbox Live Arcade-esque service, Wii Ware, is launching this Monday. How does the line-up look so far? It's your usual mix of one or two very promising titles standing out from what looks like complete rubbish. I certainly plan on downloading LostWinds, but I'll wait for reviews of My Life as King, the other titles I don't even care about, but there are already some promising titles on the horizon like Eternity's Child. I really hope this turns into what I hoped Xbox Live Arcade would be, a real great device for fantastic original independent titles. Of course we'll have to wait and see, but the fact that that there will be games launch day that you won't or can't see on other systems is very promising.

Ludicrous Speed

Even though many people my age love Speed Racer in all of its ridiculous camp and bad dubbing, I never got into the show either during my youth or my current adult years. It just seemed a little too stupid. Though at the very least this seems to be a movie that's fine for the kids while not completely alienating the grown-ups who are still fans.

The success of Iron Man has Marvel already talking about there next several films, aside from the obvious sequel, Captain America & Thor are on the slate. Thor will no doubt be hard, but I think Jensen Ackles would be perfect for Cap.

In other movie news, a Bioshock movie has been announced, with Gore Verbinski as the director. Sounds like a winning combination, but I think a prequel showing how Rapture went all to hell would be much better than what might end up being a crappy sci-fi slasher because Verbinski hasn't shown any talent for horror (yes, I'm saying The Ring sucked).

That's all for today, but I am going to the Emerald City Comic Con on Saturday, so I'll certainly be back on Sunday with plenty of pictures of nerds in disturbing costumes (and probably a few of celebs there such as Jamie Barber). Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Rock Paper Scissors Extreme Death Match

Timing is everything

So yeah, Iron Man was pretty goddamn awesome. I felt the finale came a little too suddenly, but the casting was perfect, and it was a lot of fun. This sets the Summer movie bar tremendously high.

Between this week and last week, I'm really starting to question Nintendo's judgement on scheduling their titles. I mean, the shadow of GTA IV is still looming large and probably will be for a couple more weeks, but the Summer schedule is looking extremely light. Titles like Mario Kart & Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox (in stores now, which I honestly didn't remember even though I've been really interested in the title), which are getting high praise, but little attention are inevitably buried. There's virtually nothing out over the next few months in terms of games, and Nintendo could've easily owned the Summer between Wii Fit, Wii Ware, Mario Kart & other cool quirky titles like Boom Blox. Though maybe it's for the best, as I'm definitely planning to use these lean upcoming months to catch up on my game library. I've still got Metroid Prime 3 sitting, barely played even though it's a fantastic title and quite a few portable titles to get through. Though there may be a big sleeper hit in a little title called Operation Darkness much like Overlord was a very pleasant surprise last Summer.

Stride is the best gum ever. I don;t even really chew gum, but Stride has pledged to give free gum to everybody who signs to anti-Uwe Boll petition if it reaches 1 million by May 14. Bless you, Stride. Maybe some other company will get in on this and up the ante, like free Burger King fries or something (maybe we could even make a t-shirt that says "I stopped Uwe Boll!").

And finally, in place of the usual trailer of the week, I'd like to remind you that this Thursday is the last ever episode of Scrubs on NBC. Now don't fret too much, as it is a virtual lock to be on ABC next season, but the finale looks to be a blast, so check out these awesome clips to get yourself pumped:

Tony Stark vs. Niko Belic-WHO YA GOT?

The biggest box office battle to date isn't between to movies, but two different entertainment mediums colliding this weekend in the battle of GTA IV vs. Iron Man, many analysts are predicting that GTA may affect Iron Man's box office as people choose to stay home and play rather than take two hours to watch arguably the biggest film this year not called Indiana Jones. Sounds a little silly to me. For one, most people will probably look forward to a slight break from all the time they are putting in. Secondly, despite morons like Jack Thompson claiming that 10-year olds are snapping up the game, GTA is still rated M, which means plenty of youngsters will not have their hands on it leaving them free to go see the awesome PG-13 rated goodness. People blamed Halo 3 for a poor box office the week it came out, but none of the releases that week were particularly enticing, so it's hardly a fair comparison. Yes, some people will probably still stay home and enjoy their weekend in Liberty City, but hardly enough to really put a dent in Iron Man's opening salvo.

So yes, I have played a few scant hours of the new GTA. MY impressions? This is GTA as I always thought it should be on some levels. I've never been a big fan of the series as a whole because despite it's stronger points like a gigantic city being your virtual playground, lots of huge issues that people just seemed to completely ignore that drove me nuts. The crap auto-aiming. The clumsy fighting. The repetitiveness of the missions. The weak & disjointed story. But most importantly-The supposed ability to do anything and everything boiled down to driving around and shooting people until the cops stopped you, which to me was only fun for a couple of hours. This new GTA addresses the biggest issue, as you can actually do lots of different things that are mostly entertaining-like bowl, watch TV, catch a show, etc.

But some problems still remain. The driving is horrendous. The camera is problematic at best. The combat still sucks. The story missions are fairly repetitive. But everything else works so well and creates a living, breathing metropolis that is amazing to just walk around in, much less drive. So even if you haven't been crazy about the GTA games in the past, give this one a shot because I really think it's the open-sandbox game that they've always strived for, and one of those games that finally shows us what next-gen hardware is capable of aside from a pure graphical upgrade.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Hamlet 2

Zoom Zoom Zoom!!!!

YES. MARIO KART IS HERE. There are really few titles that have the true replay value of the Mario Kart series as a whole. I have been playing the DS version off and on since it came out, and still play the occasional N64 version on my Wii every now and again. Now, some hardcore fans have leveled complaints that this newer version suffers from Nintendo's "Blue Ocean" strategy of trying to appeal to everyone with a cheesy, basically pointless wheel add-on, even more power-ups that make wins more based on luck than skill and the simplification of powersliding, but that's missing the point. Mario Kart has, much like Smash Bros., been all about just getting together with friends (or now online) and having a good time, regardless of who has how many wins.

But of course it may have been a wise idea to put out this Kart racer out either well before or well after the juggernaut that is GTA IV. As much as the two titles appeal to different audiences, anyone who has to choose one is wisely choosing GTA as it's a more complete experience, and in any other week this year, Mario Kart would get all the press & hype (and possibly even slightly better reviews), but stacked up against GTA, it almost seems like an afterthought. I know I'll be racing Karts like mad until Tuesday, but then GTA may become my only obsession if it's as tremendous as the reviews have been claiming.

That's it for today, as I really do have to get back to racing. For those Wii-deprived, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK to kill some time until GTA: Broken Wings

EA: Masters of Irony

EA is making a Monopoly game. Yup. Let that just sink in there. I'm not even sure I need to expand on this, except to ask why they even think there's a demand for a $50 electronic version of an old board game you can pick up for less than half that (hell I've had several free electronic versions throughout the years).

I am admittedly considering going to see the new Harold & Kumar movie just for Neil Patrick Harris, anyone who watches How I Met Your Mother should an enormous fan just like me, but I'm not sure if that'll translate into box office dollars.

Is the GTA series really that original, clever and innovative? I think to a certain extent gamers have looked at this series through rose-colored glasses, remembering only the good stuff. Luckily there was more than enough great stuff, but to remind us that GTA has had it share of issues, Games Radar has posted a great article questioning how exactly we forgot about this crap.

That's pretty much it for today and possibly until late Tuesday as the gaming blitz of The World Ends With You, Mario Kart Wii & GTA IV is upon us. May Miyamoto help us all...

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Pineapple Express

WORST. IDEA. EVER.

This is not a joke, this fall, you can finally answer the question of who would win between Batman & Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung & Super Man, Goro & Robin! I have a better question? Whose lame ass fanboy fiction idea was this in the first place? I don't think either camp of fanboys is particularly enticed by this "dream" match-up, as evidenced by this complete douche on youtube (warning, you will lose a dangerous amount of brain cells if you watch the whole vid):



But the pathetic moron has a point. No one wants to see these characters fight each other, and to make it even worse, you can't even mutilate Aquaman in various creative ways, because there will be NO FATALITIES. Whose bone-headed idea was this? I mean, the MK series has sucked for years, but at least you could some enjoyment out of mutilating your opponents. That's really all the series ever had going for it, and now that's gone. I'm sort of surprised that they aren't putting any effort into a Marvel vs. DC game, I mean hell, they've teamed up in the comics many times over the years, so it's not like they are bitter rivals.

What's the greatest invention in the history of mankind? One that combines four classic consoles into one awesome mega-console! Check out the Super Genintari (yes, it really works):



I WANT ONE!

That's pretty much it for today, but Wii fans should remember that finally the Virtual Console has some value again as River City Ransom, one of the greatest side-scrolling fighters ever, will be available on Monday.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Spirit



FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Beat the boss

BARF!

No, I'm not sick. Finally, after a long period of too many solid shooters and other forgettable classic titles, we get one of those true classics that made us really excited about the Virtual Console in the first place, as RIVER CITY RANSOM finally hits this Monday. I don't think asking for one true classic a month is too much, so hopefully this starts a trend.

Hey, we finally have a weekend with some seemingly worthwhile movies to check out. I'm extremely excited to check out Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I absolutely adore both Kristen Bell and Jason Segel, and though I had worries that maybe comedy wunderkind Judd Apatow was going to the raunch comedy well once too often without taking a break, but the reviews suggest this may actually be his best work and he shows no real signs of slowing down with Pineapple Express & Step Brothers also hitting this year.

From more of a pure fanboy standpoint, I also want to check out Forbidden Kingdom, because Jet Li & Jackie Chan in a movie together is closest thing to a modern equivalent of Sly Stallone & Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing in a picture together when their film stock was still worth something (which sadly never happened). It's honestly probably a decent movie at best, but this is the kind of film where you just go in and let your brain check out for the duration.

As awesome as the Iron Man movie is virtually assured to be, the cash-in game is almost assuredly not. But we can find out if this is indeed the case for at least the 360 version as a demo hits live tomorrow. From what I've seen on the trailers, it has some real potential.

More awesome casting news for Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's triumphant return to TV. Amy Acker will be joining the cast. The more Whedonverse alums, the merrier. Maybe we can get Alan Tudyk in as a regular guest star.

Finally, though I hadn't paid really any attention to it, reviews have started cropping up for SquareEnix's latest DS title, The World Ends With You. And they have been overwhelmingly positive, so now of course I'm giddy with excitement and ordered it off Amazon. In fact, I'm giddy enough that I made a video for it, so check it out, and I'll be most likely back on Sunday with another post:

If it is broke, maybe it shouldn't be fixed anyways

Later this week, just after the Playstation store launches with a revamped look that hopefully won't completely suck like it does now, there will be a patch released that will "fix" the biggest complaint about the massive pile of crap that is Lair. Sony just really can't let this one go, apparently. Of course the controls are a big contributer to the failure, but there were other factors as well (awful camera, horrid lock-on, wretched ground combat, etc.). Time to accept it as the failed experiment it is and move on.

As a rule, movies based on games suck. A huge part of that reason is Uwe Boll. The German "director" has snatched up rights to many properties that if handled correctly, could be decent movies. There's a slight chance to stop him though. He has claimed that if 1 million sign this petition, he will stop making movies. Granted, the chance that he will actually stop is slim to none, to but hey, anything's worth a shot if it might stop this jackass.

That's mostly it for today, but I did want to remind everybody that Okami is out this week for the Wii. If for some reason you aren't thinking of picking up this wonderful title, you suck and you can blame yourselves when the Wii is filled with nothing but waggle mini-game collections. But if you still need some more encouragement, check out 10 reasons Okami is a mad masterpiece, 5 reasons you suck if you don't play Okami, and my fairly decent music video to promote the release:



FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Sprinster

Microsoft is Original

No, this isn't a late April Fools joke. Microsoft is indeed trying to get in on the waggle craze that Nintendo started. Clearly, this is Microsoft's latest in what so far has been a long string of unsuccessful attempts (Scene It?, anyone? to tap into the casual/non-gamer crowd that Nintendo has a virtual stranglehold on. Dear god is this a horrible idea. MS is seen as the gamer's console of choice, this will strictly be seen as a lame attempt to cash in on Nintendo's success, and quite frankly, MS doesn't have a third of the development magic that makes Nintendo the gaming equivalent of Pixar. And even with a Wii-like remote, MS is forgetting the main thing that really attracts developers to Wii-it's much, much cheaper to make games. Nearly every game made on a 360 or a PS3 is a massive investment (at least the ones that aren't complete trash), Nintendo offers a much lower risk.

Ready to see Jaynestown in hi-def? Fox has just confirmed the awesome news that we are getting FIREFLY IN BLU-RAY! Unfortunately, it's merely in the planning stages as of now, so it probably won;t be out until Christmas time (BUT I WANT IT NOW!).

We as a society love nothing more than to see a celebrity rise to mega-stardom very quickly. And then to see them spectacularly spin into a seemingly never-ending descent just as quckly. It's no different for gaming as Gamesradar presents a in-depth look at the gaming industry's equivalent of Britney Spears-The rise, fall and deafening crash of Sonic the Hedgehog. Granted, we thankfully haven't been subject to to a reality show starring Sonic and his pro-bestiality princess, but the career paths are eerily similar nonetheless. I mean seriously, Sonic's last real hope is having all control taken away from him (and by him I mean the morons at Sonic Team who have made nearly all the Sonic titles up til now) and letting someone else make his decisions for him (that'd be Bioware). All he needs is a knocked up younger sibling and we're there.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: War, Inc.

Video Day: BSG is finally frakking back edition

Sorry for two video day posts in a row, but aside from the ridiculously awesome news of Sam & Max coming to Wii (but not until fall), nothing's really going on right now, so here's some awesome BSG vids to enjoy while we wait for the season premiere tonight:

BSG Top 10 List



What the Frak is going on with BSG



Battlestar Galatica Revealed: Part I



Part II



Part III



The Phenomenon: Part I



Part II



Part III