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.
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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: