The best Halloween movie about Christmas ever

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

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

R.I.P. Lord Bowler

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

A Taste of the Dark Side

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

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

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

Only Human

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

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

Down to the old pub instead

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

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

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

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

The best Xbox live game ever...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6.

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

5.

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

4.

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

3.

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

2.

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

1.

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

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

VIDEO DAY: The Top 5 Looney Tunes shorts

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

Wabbit Season



Rabbit of Seville



Robin Hood Daffy



DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24 1/2 CENTURY



And my all time favorite, DUCK AMUCK

No one wants to believe...

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

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

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

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

The future of E3/Batman

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

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

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



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

New year, same shit

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

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

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

Better off dead

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

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

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

The Big Red Machine

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

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

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

Back to the future

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

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

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

Sony giveth and Sony taketh away

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

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

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

And finally, OH MY GOD!!!!!

Son of number 5?

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



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

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

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

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

Goodbye George

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

Stupid Love

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

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

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

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



TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Death Race

Links, everybody loves links...

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

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

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

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



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



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