8/26/2008

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

8/25/2008

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:





8/22/2008

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

8/18/2008

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

8/13/2008

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.

8/12/2008

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

8/07/2008

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.

8/05/2008

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