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

Video Day: The Mario Paint Edition

Ok, not much going this week so far, so I'm just going to post my Top 5 Mario Paint vids. In case you don't know, it's an old Super NES game that some more creative nerds have used to re-create popular songs & themes. So here's 5 of the better ones I've seen:

Still Alive (From Portal)



The theme from "The Office"



The Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme



Mike Tyson's Punch Out!



And finally, CHRONO TRIGGER!



And I'll end the whole thing with the FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Tangerine Panic

A Crisis in Midgard

Christ, sorry for now posts until now, but I had an incredibly hectic week at my real job in addition to moving to a new apartment that thankfully is much closer to my work and just had no energy.

So, Britney Spears' guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother was this past Monday, and it was surprisingly subtle. She was completely innocuous, and there were surprisingly no obvious jokes about her or her troubled life. She was even funny. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing her on the show in a recurring role if they do continue to go to back to the office where Ted's new love interest (the always amazing Sarah Chalke) works. And, as a awesome bonus, the best of Barney!



Final Fantasy VII came out way back in '97, and yet many a rpg fan will still tell you that it's the best rpg ever, and many will also claim it's the best game ever. I am far from in that camp. It's a very good game, and was certainly groundbreaking when it came out, but there are better rpgs that came before it (like Chrono Trigger), better rpgs that have come since (like KOTOR, Mass Effect & Kingdom Hearts), and better games in the FF series itself (personally I liked VI & IX better, with IX still being my personal favorite in the series. But more than really any other game, fans have cried out for Square to do either a direct sequel or at least a remake. Oddly, Square has done everything but that, releasing a wretched straight-to-video movie and a mediocre shooter spin-off starring a secondary character. But now, they may have finally made something that will actually please the fans somewhat in Crisis Core, which acts as a prequel, taking place 7 years before the events in VII. I picked it up today and have played a couple of hours. I will say that the combat is a little stiff, but very engaging and fun, and the camera could use some work, but the presentation and sheer fan service makes it more than a worthwhile purchase if you enjoyed your last big adventure in Midgard, and a damn good excuse to pick up a PSP if for some insane reason FF Tactics and Chains of Olympus weren't already enough of a reason.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Meet Dave

FRAKKIN CYLONS!

Granted, the Season 4 premiere is still a little over 2 painfully long weeks away, but you can ease the pain a bit by refreshing yourself on one of the best shows, with the season 3 release of Battlestar Galactica. And for a quick general recap, check out this video:



And yeah, that's really it for things to actually talk about today, but I do have two other very cool videos to leave you with. Firstly, the Dark Knight Trailer nicely matched up with the '89 Batman that starred Keaton & Nicholson:



And the second is this fairly kickass music video that I made for GTA IV (normally I'm a little more humble, but I'm pretty damn pleased with it):



And as awesome as all this is, I'll throw in the FREE GAME OF THE WEEK as well: Family Restaurant

EA will soon own the Universe, continued...

EA took their attempt to own Take 2 up a level by officially trying for a hostile takeover. Take 2 is asking shareholders to not accept, but I wouldn't be surprised if their pleas fell on deaf ears. EA will pretty much have all the major American gaming franchises if this does go through. Hopefully, in spite of all this, EA head John Riticello's recent comments about a commitment to a higher quality of game won't be forgotten.

Pretty much the only movie worth mentioning at all for this weekend is the latest Dr. Suess adaptation, Horton Hears a Who. The history of Suess on the screen is certainly a muddled one, but this latest has the best reviews since the original animated Grinch way back in 1966. Seems like a solid film to take the kids to that won't liquefy your brain, but I'll probably take the opportunity to check out The Bank Job since that's gotten really positive reviews and seems like a fun time.

Looking for user created content for Brawl? Check out IGN's Super Smash Bros. World. You can check out user-created stages or upload your own. I may try and throw something together, though I admittedly never seem to have enough of an attention span when it comes to level editors.

And finally, The Hulk trailer is here! How is it? I'll post it for yourself to judge. I'm not completely sure I buy Edward Norton as Bruce Banner (even though the Ang Lee adaptation was horrendous, Eric Bana was well cast and did a great job), and the CGI does look a little iffy, but I do see potential. As long as it can avoid the seemingly obvious pitfalls of the disastrous previous film (like say, having a giant electric ghost as the final villain), it should be a decent film. Check out the trailer for yourself and judge:

BEST. NEWS. EVER.

Before it was just rumor, but now it's been confirmed by none other than Dr. Cox himself, John C. McGinley, that Scrubs is indeed coming back for another full 18 episodes on ABC next fall. This is beyond awesome. I personally hope it becomes the mega-hit on ABC it has deserved to be for so long, possibly resulting in even more seasons. This show has managed to stay fresh this long, Bill Lawrence can probably keep coming up with good ideas for at least a couple more years.

And in just plain bizarre news, former singer & current waste of humanity Britney Spears will be doing a guest spot on another one of my favorite sitcoms, How I met Your Mother (which you can read about in the article I linked about Scrubs new season). I really don't understand the reasoning behind this at all. The woman is a complete disaster area. It might've been one thing if she was still a pop idol, but if you're going to have washed up strung out psychotics barely hanging on to their careers be on your show, take a page from Scrubs and have Gary Busey do a cameo.

I'll post it next time I update, but tomorrow, the long-awaited trailer for The Incredible Hulk should pop up online. Why should we be excited when the last Hulk film was a giant atrocity? Because Edward Norton has one hell of a track record and this is a film that will not act like the rest of the Marvel universe doesn't exist, which is pretty awesome.

Finally, though I'm sure all of you Wii owners are still madly playing Smash Bros, you can't take it everywhere, so if your looking for a good new portable experience, you should probably check out Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles-Ring of Fates comes out for the Nintendo DS and fixes the issues with the Gamecube original-namely not needing an ultra-expensive setup just to play with your friends. I want to pick this up, but I ignore my portable systems enough as it is, this may wait till I beat some more games and can prioritize playing them at home.

FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Drunken Masters

The Sky is falling

Ugh. I think I'm Smashed Bros. out for a day or two. I spent basically the whole weekend unlocking characters & beating the Subspace Emissary mode, which was just a chore and not much fun. The good news is that the core fighting element is extremely fun still, and online actually works fairly well once it gets going, even if the setup is rough (much easier for friends than with someone anonymous). I've unlocked all but two characters-Wolf and Jigglypuff, and I don't mind waiting on either of them. I would definitely say the new characters are al pretty good and fun to use, my personal fave probably being Meta-Knight. This is the multi-player party game for the Wii. It's too bad they don;t have a smooth online setup or games like this, Strikers & Mario Kart could make the Wii the online system of choice by a long shot.

10,000 B.C. was horrible. Plain & simple. I'm actually sort of shocked that a movie this big can fail on so many fundamental levels, but credit to Roland Emmerich, the Uwe Boll on non-video game pieces of utter crap.

360 owners have something to be excited about this week, as the first downloadable content for Mass Effect is out at a pretty reasonable $5. Again, the price seems very reasonable, but I might just wait for more content and some kind of bargain all-in-one pack for around $20 or so, just doesn't seem like enough as it is.

That's really it for today as I've got an early start at work tomorrow. But here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Step Brothers

Historical Accuracy is for losers

This weekend's biggest release is Roland Emmerich's "historical" epic 10,000 B.C. and it's not getting too kind praise from critics, nearly all of them bashing it for it's historical inaccuracy. Really? That's what people are bashing a dumb action flick for, whether it got all the facts right? Is the movie critic industry just filled with failed geographers & anthropologists? Because historical accuracy doesn't mean jack squat to me unless I'm watching a documentary or reading a historical textbook. That's like bashing 300 for not being historically accurate when it was based on a loose comic book interpretation of historic events in the first place. It's a movie people, not a college course, lighten up! Of course, if the movie sucks on other fundamental levels, I'll revile it as much as the next cinephile, but given most of even the bad reviews praise the action & effects I think it'll be a fun dumb experience just like it's supposed to be.

Another movie based in loose historical accuracy opens this weekend with The Bank Job, your seemingly run-of-the-mill heist film with the big twist being that it is based on actual events. I'm admittedly a little tired of heist films in general, but I'm also a huge Jason Statham fan and this is actually a well-reviewed heist film so it will probably be a good way to kill some time on Saturday before a certain mega-title hits at midnight.

And yes, I have a rare weekend (in fact a 4-day weekend) off, so I will most definitely be grabbing my copy of Smash Bros. Brawl at midnight on Saturday and probably not sleeping for the next 48 hours. Assuming I can tear myself away at some point I will give some hands-on opinions and my friend code for the game on Sunday or Monday.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Street Kings

Is the PSP actually good now?

We all remember how this little portable war started. The DS came out with it's unimpressive lineup and weird dual screen/touch screen setup that nobody really got and it was thought to be a failed experiment by Nintendo much like the Virtual Boy. Surely, the PSP, which was superior graphically and had many multimedia functions right out of the box would easily dominate the handheld market. But I think by now everybody knows better than to scoff at anything Nintendo does. The DS is the hottest system in the world, with a plethora of great games that really appeal to all audiences, while the PSP, while generally selling well, can't ever hope to catch up. A big part of the reason was that while the DS started off slow with a poor library, that was remedied quickly. And the PSP's lineup of good games has always been few and far between. But now, that seems to finally starting to be remedied. The last few months of 07 saw quite a few worthwhile games such as FF Tactics, Castlevania & Disgaea. And this month, we have two more titles actually worth checking out, the portable adventures of everybody's favorite murderous servant of the gods, Kratos, in Chains of Olympus, being the first. Between this and Crisis Core coming later this month, I may have to actually pick up my PSP every now and again. Hell, maybe I'll go nuts and trade in my crappy old used one for a nice new slim one.

FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Wulfgar

Will Ferrel gives me a semi

I can't really explain it, by all rights, I should not be a big Will Ferrell fan. He's basically played the same character doing the same thing for the last several years, just in different arenas. From Anchorman to Talladega Nights to Blades of Glory to this week's biggest movie, Semi-Pro, he's rarely tried something different. And yet I'm more than willing to pay good money to watch it over again. Maybe eventually I'll get tired of his shtick, but for now I'll just enjoy it and not try to think too much about why.

What's the best possible news ever? That Scrubs 7th and final season may actually not be it's last. ABC, who actually owns the show, has been rumored to be trying to get at least one more season of this fantastic show. NBC is rightly pissed, but they also treated the show like crap for the whole time it's been on NBC despite it being the only worthwhile sitcom on the entire network until The Office & 30 Rock came along.

That's really it for today, but your Trailer of the week is a new kickass trailer for IRON MAN (god this is gonna be awesome):

EA will soon own the universe

Sorry about not updating Friday, I had planned to do something about the Oscars, but then I realized that any awards show that would completely pass over King of Kong for even a nomination in best documentary doesn't deserve any sort of write-up. I am watching the show as I'm writing this, but it's pretty much because there's really nothing else on (and because John Stewart can make just about anything tolerable).

Before I get onto today's main topic, though I did not get around to seeing Be Kind Rewind, but there are 2 other worthwhile movies I did check out. Charlie Bartlett certainly has some issues, and I'm not just talking about the film's protagonist. It's a mostly clever concept somewhat tainted by almost completely collapsing into ridiculousness in the final third of the film. But it is amusing and charming and star Anton Yelchin puts on a great performance that is very worth paying good money to see.

The other film just came out on DVD and I highly recommend renting it ASAP. Gone Baby Gone certainly sounds like a recipe for disaster. Quickly fading movie star Ben Affleck, who hasn't directed a feature film before, directing a movie with THAT title (certainly doesn't sound like a serious drama), and casting his younger, mostly untested brother, Casey, in the starring role. What we get instead is easily one of the best dramas I've seen in quite awhile. Masterfully crafted with great performances by everybody, Gone Baby Gone is a fantastic mystery thriller about those real grey areas that fall in-between right and wrong, without falling into the preachy, melodramatic & predictable traps that so many films that try for the same ideal fall into. I've always believed Ben Affleck was a talented guy who just made some bad (ok, REALLY BAD) choices in scripts. It turns out his best work may be behind the camera, so hopefully with this great film under his belt, we'll get to see more from him.

In case you haven't heard by now, EA, obviously threatened by the creation of uber-publisher Activision-Blizzard, has tried to acquire GTA publisher Take Two. Now Take Two did reject the offer, but only because they think the offer will be significantly higher after GTA IV comes out, so it only seems like a matter of time; and the 2 billion (that's right, BILLION) initial offering makes the Bioware/Pandemic buyout seem like small time stuff. Now, most will decry this as sure ruination of the GTA franchise, but there is one thing that gives me a little hope. John Riticello, head of EA has apparently noticed the declining scores on sites like metacritic, and isn;t happy about it. He's actually even promised to do something to increase those scores. Granted, that could end up being an empty promise, but given that companies these days do things like get critics fired for giving a bad review, someone at Riticello's level actually even brining up poor scores and making a promise to try and improve those is something noteworthy, and hopefully that is exactly what acquiring talent like Bioware, Pandemic & Take Two is going towards.

FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Music in Motion

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! (is that a good thing?)

So, ever taken a look at an game (especially on Xbox Live Arcade) and said to yourself "I can make something better than this trash!". Well then smart guy, it's time to put your money where your mouth is, because Microsoft is finally making XNA tools not only available to the public, but will post your stuff on Xbox Live if it passes muster. While I'm sure some will liken this to a golden age of indie games, I more feel that it'll mostly be like Newgrounds is now-an occasional gem, but mostly giant piles of steaming crap that you'd have to pay me to play for more than a minute. There are a few demos on Live now that you can check out, but most are evidence that this is really something best left to pros.

Well, it's been awhile, but there's finally some movies worth discussing out this weekend. Sadly, one of them is apparently not Vantage Point, since it has one hell of a cast, but really bad reviews.

But there two very interesting films out this weekend. One is Charlie Bartlett, which is a more modern take on films like Ferris Bueller. Granted, there have been many, many attempts over the years to do a modern take on that film and most have them have turned out pretty terrible, but Bartlett has mostly solid reviews to back it up, so I'll definitely try and check it out.

The other is one I've been excited about for quite awhile-Be Kind Rewind, from Michael Gondry, who brought us the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This seems like more of a straight-forward goofball comedy, but it also looks like a lot of fun and I really enjoy both Mos Def & Jack Black so I'll be making this one a priority.

That's all for today but I definitely plan on updating tomorrow & Sunday, so see you then.

It's just so obvious....

Some things seem so freaking natural, you can't imagine how they weren't come up with before now, especially given all the more out there ideas that seem to come down the pipeline. Just look at Okami. Given it's premise of painting stuff on screen, the Wii seemed like such a natural fit, and that's happening in about a month. Now, look at Dragonquest Swords, coming out this week. The Wii obviously can't do an epic free-roaming rpg quite like Oblivion, but Dragonquest seems like an ideal way to do something similar. Instead, what is Dragonquest swords? An on-rail light gun game with swords. Whoopdeedo. And hey, maybe it's not eve that bad an idea, but it just seems like such wasted potential. I guess I'll just hope that Square Enix sees the light and makes a worthy Dragonquest epic in the near future, because lord knows the Wii is seriously hurting for rpgs of any kind at this point.

And has Fox news learned to not poke the bear yet? Every time they have attacked video games, they come off looking like complete morons. After the tragedy at NIU earlier this week, who, despite being already massively discredited as an expert on anything except being a fucking moron, took the first opportunity to promote himself with Fox's full backing? Jackass Thompson of course. Now he's a "school shooting expert"? What exactly qualifies him as that? His psych degree? Oh wait, he doesn't have that. Years in the field? Nope. Any experience in anything except being a complete ass? Nope. Take Two completely destroying Thompson in court will hopefully make other companies aware that they really don't have to put up with this crap.

FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Adventures of Gyro Adams

A Blue Odyssey

So, the first (and for quite awhile, only) rpg of '08 hits this week in Lost Odyssey. To be honest, even though it has quite the pedigree, I hadn't had much interest, as it seemed like a very bland, traditional rpg. But oddly enough, it was Blue Dragon, which I have gone through a little odyssey of my own with, that may be having me changed my mind. Blue Dragon is a very, VERY traditional Japanese RPG. It was more a victim of bad timing than anything else. Literally the day I brought it home was the day my 360 decided to crap out on me. So it sat there for 5 weeks with no way for me to play it, and by the time I got my 360 back, you get the insane trifecta of Halo 3, Mass Effect & Orange Box just on 360. Nevermind that there was also a couple of other titles like Mario Galaxy & Uncharted also getting most of my attention. So it basically sat on my gaming shelf. But, about a week ago, convinced I would find it dull like the less kind reviews have been saying. And suddenly nearly 30 hours in, I'm really digging the old school vibe. Yeah, it's turn-based (which RPGs seem to be moving away from these days) and Marumaro is one of the most annoying characters in a long time, but there is plenty of enjoyement to be had for those of us who grew up on these kind of rpgs and still enjoy the occasional one. And while I won't pick up Lost Odyssey right away since I want to actually finish Blue Dragon first, I'll be likely to pick it up as soon as that's done (which should actually be in the next week). And for those wondering, Devil May Cry 4 is still sitting unwrapped in my table...

The long-awaited Will Wright epic Spore finally has a release date of Sept. 7th. That is a ways off, so hopefully it's a date that can be kept, as this was one of those games people were betting would be stuck in development hell for all of eternity.

What's the best post-strike news? That Scrubs, come hell or high water will be given a proper finish. Granted, theoretically I'd want the show to keep going forever, but 7 years is an incredible run for any show, and it's good that they end it while the show is still top notch rather than waiting until it's a shell of it's former self (I'm looking at you, Simpsons).

Finally, I'd like to give a cheap plug out to my buddy Warden, fellow game enthusiast with a pretty solid blog of his own. Also a good source for more in-depth reviews rather than the usual quick snippets you see on here.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK: CJ7