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

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: