Halloween redux...

Just got back from Halloween sneak preview. Um yeah, I haven't seen any of the other Rob Zombie movies and now I may know why. This should have been titled white trash Halloween, I mean no wonder Michael started killing all these people. His mother is a pole dancer, step dad's a crippled bum, and older sister is a slut. This family seems really out of place in Haddonfield Illinois, unless it's a lot closer to Alabama than I remember. I guess it's somewhat faithful to the original (story lines) although there is a lot more deaths, and nudity in this one. We do get a lot more of Michael's back story here, where probably the first 30-45 minutes of the movie deal with him at age 10. It's okay **1/2, do I still prefer the original? Definitely.

I took my son (he's 17 and I debated a while before I let him go) although I know I started watching R rated features when I was probably around 15. What I don't get was the stupid sh*ts that took their freaking 5-6 year old kids, what's up with that? :( Do you not know what the movie is about? or you just don't care is that it?

Airborne, Labor Day sale, movies, and so much more...

Medal of Honor : Airborne (from now on MoHA) has been on my 'anticipation' radar for a while now. I've seen some video coverage, and listened to some podcast (GamerTag Radio, and Achievement Junkie) where they talked about the game. It sounded like a great experience, not having to follow a preset path through the missions. By parachuting in you basically could create your own 'spawn' location anywhere on the map, and then go through the mission however you wanted.

I was eagerly awaiting the demo on Xbox LIVE so I could give it a try, and see if it fulfilled by expectations. The demo finally hit last week (amongst an onslaught of demo goodness) after a snag at Microsoft certification, while the PC demo had hit early in the week I almost grabbed it unsure of when the 360 version would hit.

Unfortunately my expectations were too high, while I did enjoy the demo, I got frustrated by the fact that no matter where I started I ended up in the same alley (getting killed) while trying to get to one of the objectives. I'm hoping I just wasn't grasping the parachute mechanic because no matter what I did, I always ended up in one of four areas of the center of the map. I had envisioned being able to pinpoint where I wanted to go anywhere in the level and proceeding from there, but that wasn't the case.

I also didn't feel that the guns did enough damage. I started with a basic payload (machine gun, rifle, and pistol) for the mission, and could freely swap between them. It would take multiple rounds even from the machine gun, and I couldn't even pull off head shots with 1 round from the rifle (I realize some may be my lack of skill, but come on). I did however like the fact that focusing on a weapon, after using it a while you are granted 'upgrades' to that specific weapon. All in all after about an hour with the demo I was pretty jaded about the whole experience and it had sunk on my must buy list. Then imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Godfree @ Gamertag Radio saying that I had won a copy of MoHA in their contest from episode #109. :) I'm again looking forward to playing, and hoping that maybe the tutorial will give some insight on the play mechanics or at least I'll be able to go through the manual. As an added bonus it looks like EA/Microsoft are giving away a bunch of MoHA prizes in Operation LIVE Jump the weekend after release, playing against some of the developers, and PMS Clan.

It seems Microsoft is having a little Labor Day Sale on Xbox LIVE Arcade titles. Four titles will be on sale for 1/2 price for 48 hours (7pm Saturday-6:59pm Monday doodah time) these include Zuma Deluxe, and Small Arms for 400 points ($5 regularly $10) and Gauntlet, and Dig Dug for 200 points ($2.50 regularly $5). I'm definitely down for Zuma Deluxe, and probably Gauntlet (played the heck out of it in the arcade). I'm going to have to read up on Small Arms again but I think the reviews were pretty decent when it came out.

Decided to go to a movie this afternoon so I went to see Invasion starring Daniel Craig, and Nicole Kidman. I had caught the preview for it a while back and forgot that it started a couple weeks ago. According to IMDB this was originally under the working title Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and was finished in early 2006. The studio didn't like the finished cut, so in 2007 it "underwent massive re-shooting" with the Wachowski brothers (Matrix ring a bell) to do script rewrites. What were left with isn't a bad movie, but it's not great either, I had the feeling I was watching an X-Files episode without Mulder & Scully. It's a body snatchers movie, but how many of them do we need? **1/2

I'm going to a sneak of Halloween tonight so I'm hoping the Rob Zombie remake fares a little better.

Change of venue, BioShocked!, and locked underachievements...

I changed work venues this week, still working for the same company just a different location. All in all it wasn't a bad move, more money (always nice), just a bit farther to drive, and I knew (or had at least talked to) most of the staff before. I've been used to somewhat of more organized location, so it will take a while to adjust, or hopefully achieve a happy medium.

Have you picked up BioShock yet? The game is amazing, if you haven't already heard me mention that. I assume not quite half way through yet, but with the job shuffle my days off were early this week so unfortunately I haven't had much time to play the last couple evenings. It seems to be selling really well, and a lot of people have been asking about it since Tuesday.

Wow, was my first reaction. Splitreason.com has introduced a '360'centric pair of women's underwear. Would the unlocked version been too sluty?


Achievement Locked underwear design @ © SplitReason.com

More TV previews, and BioShock roxerz!

I got around to watching the first episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles which is a 'flashback' if you will into the Terminator franchise unfolding after the events of Terminator 2 while John is a teenager. I had watched the panel discussion from Comic Con on the LIVE marketplace so I knew what to expect, Sarah and John are always on the run trying to stay one step ahead of a government agent (sent after her escape from the looney bin), and terminators sent back to destroy John. Along the way they get help from Cameron another terminator unit sent back to protect John, but find they didn't successfully stop SkyNet (in T2). I wasn't 'hooked' as with Pushing Daisies or Reaper, maybe because it was really late, but I'll still tune in at least the first couple episodes to see if I like it more.

There was a big 'teaser' over the weekend that the premiere BioShock trailer would be aired exclusively on SPIKE during the Kill Point episode last night. Then they added that there would be a 'special announcement' immediately after the trailer, which had the forums buzzing. As most everyone suspected it was the release of a demo on the LIVE marketplace @ 8:45pm (doodah time). I fired up the console, and when I checked around 11pm I was at 25%. :( I finally gave up and went to bed hoping that it would be done by this morning. Luckily it was, and about 1 hour and half later I had played through the demo. It is amazing! If you have any interest in FPS games download it now and try it out, it has some RPG type elements to it as well. The art style, and graphics are amazing (the water effects are phenomenal) as is the storyline so far. Garnett had 'gushed' about the game on the last 1UPYours podcast, and I thought maybe he was laying it on a little thick, but no. I was already hyped for this game, but the demo sealed it I can't wait until the 21st now.

The fall TV season is like a torrent upon us, yo.

I just got done watching the series premieres of Pushing Daisies, and Reaper (man, sometimes you got to love the Internet).

I was pretty psyched for PD anyway just from the previews, and the content from Comic Con 2007 that was up on Xbox LIVE. It plays like a cross between Dead Like Me, and I even gather a bit of Tru Calling set in a Dr. Seuss colored world. Ned can touch dead people and bring them back to life, but only for a minute otherwise someone else has to take their place, and if he touches them again they die forever. It plays pretty much as I expected with it's glossy candy coating saturating Ned's world, it looks really distinct, but I could do with a little less of the voice over narration. I will be tuning in to catch it again on ABC this fall.

In the other corner was Reaper which I've only recently found out about via an article in the Eagle. Sam just turned 21, and finds his parents made a pact with the devil before he was born for his soul on his 21st birthday. Now he's officially a 'bounty hunter' for Satan charged with returning escaped souls back to hell. Billed as a horror-comedy it plays like Shaun of the Dead, and should not be surprising as it's directed by Kevin Smith it was funny as hell.

Next up will be The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and The Bionic Woman premieres, so stay tuned!

Listen to my Ultimatum.

Just got back from The Bourne Ultimatum movie. It was just what I expected, since I've seen the other two films, and it pretty neatly tied up his search for his identity.

While the action scenes were good I felt there was a little too much 'hand-held' action footage. I realize it was supposed to quick paced, and frantic but a little goes a long way. I like to be able to focus on the action in the scene, but when the camera is bobbing all over the place that makes it extremely difficult to follow.

I enjoyed the story (and resolution) though I would highly recommend watching The Bourne Supremacy right before going to see this. It played as more of a straight continuation of the story line, rather than a stand alone chapter. There are a lot of flashbacks to the other films, and I don't believe a person that hadn't seen either of the other two would be able to follow the story very well.

All in all, as a fan of the franchise it was very good, and watching the series back-to-back would be exceptional. On it's own merit though, I'm still giving my nod to Die Hard, Live Free as the best action flick so far this year.

I did get around to trying the demo for Stranglehold last night (despite the freaky thunderstorm) and was pretty impressed. The action sequences, and visuals were awesome, though I wonder if it would get too repetitive over the course of the game? I was particularly taken with using stuff in the enviroment to take out bad guys, weather it was blowing up a propane tank, or dropping a neon sign on their head. The amount of interactivity from the crates, fruit, or tables that liter the first level was great too. I don't know if I would be willing to pay full retail for this considering it comes out along side Blue Dragon, Stuntman Ignition, and Tiger Woods 08. If anything it really made me want to watch Hard Boiled.

Superbad, and random thoughts abound.

I just got back from a sneak for Superbad a teenage (sex) comedy where a trio of friends are trying to make their last couple weeks of high school the best ever. It was co-wrote by Seth Rogen (Ben from Knocked Up, and Cal from 40 Year Old Virgin) so you pretty much know what your in for.
I caught Ebert & Roeper's review segment last week, and was a bit shocked that they both gave it 'thumbs up'. A teen sex comedy just doesn't seem like it would be a big hit with the critics, and this movie pulls no punches. It's rated R for a variety of reasons including "pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image - all involving teens". That's all in there but a appalling lack nudity (unless you consider numerous drawings of the male unit nudity) except for a picture on the cover of a smut mag at the local convenience store. It brought back a flood of memories of such great films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's, and most recently the American Pie franchise.
I don't know if it would make a good date movie (definitely not a first date), but the girls in the audience seemed to be laughing just as much as the guys were.

I gather that the Stranglehold demo has graced the LIVE marketplace today so I'm off to download it (maybe, it's lightning outside a lot and sounds like its pouring now) but looking forward to trying it out. I still need to give the Blue Dragon demo a spin too before it comes out.

Microsoft announced price cuts today (ha, didn't see it coming did you?) $50 on the premium, $20 on the core, and $30 on the Elite. They also announced pricing for the Halo 3 edition ($399.99) which is basically a premium with a paint job, HDMI port, and a color coordinated play & charge kit. I'm sure it will sell okay, but nothing there excites me.

Release sink hole, podcast, and the Simpson's.

Today wasn't a good day for 360 owners Achievement Junkie has a post showing that not 1, or 2, but 3 Holiday titles were slipping from their ship dates. Medal of Honor: Airborne wasn't too bad losing just over a week (August 28-September 4), Blacksite Area 51 wasn't as lucky dropping almost 2 months (September 4-November 4), and finally Grand Theft Auto IV slipped from October till sometime in "second fiscal quarter 2008" which puts it February-April 2008. :(

Speaking of which I've been trying out some new podcast thanks to this post over at DVDTalk. The HotSpot by GameSpot plays a little like 1UpYours, Gamers with Jobs another roundtable group but so far I like it a little more than HotSpot. A great side note is they both fall earlier in the week so now I have something to listen to before Friday's 1UpYours show. I also have been enjoying Achievement Junkie, and although 360 specific (primarily) it is a daily show 15-25 minutes every weekday. Now all I need is a little better way to get them to my Zune. I'm currently using Doppler but it has some problems with redirect.mp3 files (never sees a new episode since they're all named redirect.mp3). I can work around it, but it would be nice to just hit update and snag all the new stuff.

I finally caught the the Simpson's Movie yesterday afternoon. I really enjoyed it, I've always been a Simpson's fan and the movie didn't disappoint me. I will agree with some of people I've talked to that the first 30-40 were hilarious, it does wain a little towards the end, but overall it still gets a big thumbs up!

360 bringing it home (again), a new memory trend, and more!

Microsoft is 'bringing it home' yet again, this time from Comic-Con 2007 July 26-29 in San Diego.

Xbox LIVE® has partnered with Warner Bros. to bring home Comic-Con to you on Xbox LIVE. Go to Xbox LIVE Marketplace and watch the panel discussions, see the footage, and download exclusive themes and trailers, all for a limited time.

So hopefully there will be some cool trailers, and new demos in the next couple days to see. Xbox360fanboy has already had a press release that show attendees that go to the 300 screening will be entered to win one of 10 exclusive 300 themed Elite consoles, this I'm sure to tie in with the release next Tuesday of 300 on HD DVD/Blu-ray/DVD (it sure looks sweet, but I'm still holding out hope for that yellow one).

Charlie Oscar Delta, the website for the new Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare game has a opinion poll going where you get to state which of the 5 'concept' covers you prefer for the new game. The interesting thing about this is all of the covers all include a new icon between the ESRB rating, and the developer logo.

There is a rumor going around that there will be a new 'Core' bundle soon that will add a 64MB memory card in the package, maybe this is helping fuel that speculation? I was thinking this was something new, but after some 'googling' (I know its a word, but my spell checker doesn't) I found that Football Manager 2006 (a European release) required the hard drive, as did Final Fantasy XI of course. I recalled reading an article where Rockstar development mentioned that putting GTA IV on the 360 was a challenge because of DVD based media, and no guarantee of a hard drive. So if a game developer can require the hard drive, why not GTA IV? Hell everyone with a core would be snatching them up.

I forgot to mention last time that I had found Sarcastic Gamer site, where they have put up some great parody songs focusing on gaming culture. I highly recommend I hate this ... (Wii Song), and No freaking games (PS3 Song). The Johnny Cash Red ring of fire knockoff was pretty funny too (only because it hasn't happened to me (knock on wood)).

I just found eBay auction for the first (in the wild) Simpson's 360, already at $1,900 and the auction doesn't end until the 30th.

The Hollywood Reporter has a story (rumor?) up, that Microsoft plans to announce a $50 price cut coming in August on the 360. They were unsure if it was across the board (Core, Premium, and Elite) or just on select models, and of course MS denied the claim. It would make some sense right before the barrage of AAA titles start hitting the middle of August.

Moore's new tattoo, reved up new demos, and Rockstar bullying the 360!

Well it seems as E3 2007 was the last we'll see of Peter Moore speaking for Microsoft he stepped down Tuesday to become President of EA Sports. No clue if that Halo 2, and Grand Theft Auto IV tattoos will do him any good in his new position.

Two new demos screeched onto the marketplace today, the first Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights a honker weighing in a just over 1 GB. I don't know what to think on one hand the graphics were alright, wet neon soaked streets that had neat glow to them although all of spectators felt 2D (a problem in the first Juiced I seem to recall). On the other controlling the car felt lame, it wasn't hard to drive it just didn't feel like you were doing anything. There is no sense of speed what-so-ever even when nitro boosting it never felt like my car was moving.

On the European LIVE marketplace they got a FlatOut Ultimate Carnage demo, and since you can create a Euro account, just like a Japanese one I downloaded it to give it a spin. It has three available levels including 2 race modes, and a 'destruction derby' mode each with one available vehicle. The graphics were easily a step ahead of Juiced:HIN although I don't know if I would rate them above Burnout Revenge on the 360. I guess the game has already been available in Europe since the end of June (with really decent reviews I might add), and is kin to FlatOut 2 which explains why I remembered playing the first race level, because it was on the Xbox version of 2. The first FlatOut game, while it included racing, seemed to be more of a physics demonstration with the human darts , bowling, and distance throwing. This version really seems to melded more with the 'Burnout' type game play in the racing which by no means is a bad thing, but I'm so jazzed for Burnout Paradise it felt like a weak imitation. It seemed to be a lot tougher than 'Burnout' where I can easily finish races (not always in first, but finish at least) here I couldn't keep up with the checkpoints to even finish the race. The shining part of the demo though was the 'destruction derby' mode which was a cramped supermarket parking lot, I enjoyed it a lot and judging from the amount of people that ask for demolition derby games I think it will be a big hit. when it ships in the U.S. in September.

According to IGN Stranglehold blog they have finished a demo and sent it off to Microsoft for approval. Hopefully that means we will get to try it out real soon.

Take 2 and Rockstar announced today that they were releasing Bully: Scholarship Edition on the Xbox 360 and Wii. It will contain everything from the PS2 version of Bully and have new additional content, unfortunately no release date was given.

Buzz Krusty Squishee'os... Movie bonanza, and Clyde R.I.P?

I got my Simpson's paraphernalia from Kwik-E-Mart. If you remember 11 of the 7-Eleven stores nationwide transformed into Kwik-E-Mart for the month of July to promote the the Simpson's movie opening this month. My boss was taking a trip to Denver so I had him go by and grab me some Simpson's themed goodies. I'm now in possession of a 6-pack of Buzz cola, one box of Krusty O's, and a squishee cup. :) Too bad they couldn't find anyone to bottle some Duff beer.

I was bored yesterday so I decided to hit the theater and catch up on some flicks. First off I went to License to Wed which for some reason I was thinking was Chuck & Larry then it started and I realized it was the one with Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and John Krasinski. This was alright since I had seen the preview, and thought it looked funny (even though I was associating a completely different movie with the title). Basic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl story that you've seen over and over again. They fall in love decide to get married and find that they have to complete Reverend Frank's (Williams) 'marriage course' to make sure they are truly compatible. There is enough laughs sprinkled throughout to elevate it to 'romantic comedy' and a touching if not predictable ending.

I then decided to switch gears and watch 1408 which I've meant to see, and heard mostly positive word of mouth. I really enjoy John Cusack and would venture to say as he is one of my favorite actors which started with Sure Thing, and Better off Dead followed by Say Anything, Grosse Point Blank, Serendipity, and Identity as most of my favorites. 1408 is based off of a Stephen King short story and follows the 'adventures' of a writer Mike Enslin who travels to paranormal spots and writes about them. He is really hardened and has lost faith in spiritual and supernatural occurrences, when he gets an anonymous dare to stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin hotel in New York. The hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) does his best to persuade Mike not to stay, but loses out because he needs the last chapter for his latest book. It turns into more of a supernatural ghost story later in the movie, and while the there are some decent 'jump' and shiver scenes overall at the end I felt let down. It's not that its a bad movie by any means, but it did not propel itself past okay.

I was thinking the Simpson's Play & Win contest went from July 2ND - July 19Th, but after putting in my daily entry today I realized it was through the 17Th of July. So I can now officially quit playing Clyde everyday, winners won't be announced till after July 29Th so my fingers are crossed! On a related note, those of you on my friends list will see my new homemade gamer pic. I found a great shot of the pink frosted donut from the movie and took a picture of it with my LIVE vision cam. :)

E3 conferences uncorked, and giddy WoW happiness!

Well E3 2007 officially kicked off Wed. in Santa Monica, but Microsoft shot out early holding their press conference Tuesday evening at 10:30pm (doodah time), 8:30pm in Cali.

For the first time G4TV was going to televise the big 3 live, so I hurried home Tuesday evening and got ready for the show. It started off pretty good a musical act (that went on a little too long) and then the introduction of Peter Moore. He came out and started his spiel then G4 cut to a commercial break. I was like WTF? I thought well maybe they were just setting up a tape delay and would pick it back up when we came back, nope didn't happy. We instead come back to see the Mass Effect logo on the big screen with a voice over saying "Welcome back to the live Microsoft E3 conference where they just showed a new Mass Effect trailer!" Great rub it in, bitch. I proceeded to watch the hour and half presentation (of which I probably missed 10-15 minutes because I was watching G4's shitty commercials. Not to mention that evidently they didn't teach the camera op how to zoom in, because when they would start a montage on the screen the shot was from the very back of the venue with the big screen taking up a 1/4 of my screen. I didn't think they could go down any further until about the end of the show when they started showing a new Halo 3 trailer and cut out 15 seconds into it. :( I fired off an angry e-mail after the travesty, and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to watch the Nintendo, and SONY conferences since I had to work.

It seems that overall (after reading up on the other two yesterday) that for the first time none of the companies went to far out on a limb to show big titles that were scheduled later than the end of 2007. Microsoft announced at the very beginning that everything they showed would be out by the end the year (and later let that rule slide so they could show the Resident Evil 5 trailer). Probably the biggest shock (although it was meet with a timid audience response) they announced a Halo 3 edition 360 that looks to be 'gunmetal' green with brass highlights, and a matching controller. The specs on the Xbox.com site show it has a HDMI port, but only a 20GB hard drive and the normal 'premium' compliments, no word on price yet.

The SONY conference big highlight was the announcement of a 'new' redesigned PSP hitting in September/October of this year. Slimmer, lighter, faster, longer battery life and new colors, including a Star Wars bundle with a white shell and Darth Vader silhouette on the back. I've also heard that the Killzone 2, and Metal Gear Solid 4 trailers are really good, but I haven't got around to watching them yet.

After a couple days of questing, and killing I finally had enough gold to buy my World of Warcraft mount! Yes indeed I hit level 43, and passed the 90 gold threshold about the same time. I'm now broke again, but I have a horse. :)

PS3 price cut, no, yes, maybe? and it gets phat!

Well as I posted a couple days ago it looks like the PS3 price drop is indeed true, although SONY initially denied the claim. Now according to an AP story on KOTV not only is the 60GB dropping to $499.99, but

Sony Corp. announced a revised PlayStation 3 console Monday with a bigger hard drive for storing downloaded content such as video games and high-definition movies.

The new $599 PS3 increases the system's storage capacity from 60 to 80 gigabytes and also includes a retail copy of the online racing title ``MotorStorm,'' a company spokesman said.

Starting Monday, the current 60 gigabyte model will cost $499 _ a $100 price drop.

So we're getting a $100 off the 60GB, but for $100 more you get 20GB of extra storage and a $60 game? It seems like their taking Microsoft's pricing structure into effect $40 for 20GB of space, plus full price for a game? Umm, yeah no thanks.


I have been thinking over the $500 price point on the 60GB mainly as a Blu-ray player (I love my HD movies), and that would open up a bunch of other studios (Disney, Lionsgate, and Sony/Columbia that don't support HD DVD right now). Plus it would really puff up my queue on Netflix, with all the additional movies I'd like to see, and combined with the 5 free Blu-ray disc offer I would be set. Since I already own Resistance Fall of Man and both Pirates of the Caribbean movies, it's only a matter of time before I pick one up...

My 360 is safe (again), Simpsons no love & Kwik-E-Mart, plus the PS3 plumetts

Microsoft issued a press release today that upgraded the 1 year warranty (at launch was a 90 days, then last year was upped to 1 year) to 3 years on all Xbox 360 consoles. The 3 year only covers the 3 flashing red lights of death, but still makes me feel a little more comfortable knowing that my launch unit will be protected until November 2008. Since the red ring of death is the major problem with most systems I'm happy. :)

The Simpsons movie is coming, and the cross marketing is in full swing. I was ecstatic to see that Microsoft had announced a contest to giveaway 5 of those lovely yellow Xbox 360's that I posted a while back. The only catch is to get entered you have to play Cloning Clyde, and after digesting the official rules I found that you had to play a multiplayer match on Xbox Live to get entered (once per day, for 17 days).

This wouldn't be a problem since I have live, and plunked down the 800 points for Clyde (which isn't a bad little platform game) the first day of the contest. My problem came when I started playing and found that no multiplayer games existed on LIVE, evidently it turns out that Clyde (which hit the LIVE arcade 7/19/06) is somewhat of a has been. I logged on about 4 times that first night in the span of ~5 hours, and finally about 12am our time found 1 ranked game, I got stomped rather quickly but got my entry anyway. Yesterday afternoon I actually found a couple games going where both participants knew about the contest so word is spreading. I have added about 4 new friends to my list so hopefully someone will be on to play with everyday to get my entry.

20th Century fox also enlisted at least 11 of the nations 7-Eleven stores to 'transform' into real life versions of the Kwik-E-Mart. My boss sent me this link which goes to a flickr gallery of the new Kwik-E-Marts. Unfortunately the closest ones are Denver or Dallas, although since I know someone going to Denver next week I *expect* a six pack of Buzz cola, and a box of Krusty O's. :)

In other big news today Kotaku picked up on Speedy1961's DVDTalk weekly ad posting for Circuit City which eluded to a $100 price cut on the 60GB PS3 system. Then later this afternoon Gamedaily posted 'retail' confirmation of the price drop on 7/12/07, this coupled with the Blu-ray promotion where you get 5 free BR movies with player purchase (PS3 counts!) makes it an appealing deal.

The 'official' word from SONY will most likely come on July 11th when they hold their E3 press conference. Which reminds me that Microsoft is also 'Bringing it Home' again this year through Xbox LIVE we'll be able to get demos, videos, and other goodies from E3.

Summer movies more than meets the eye...

I went and saw Transformers last night and must say it was explosive. :) It definitely was a Michal Bay film, not a lot of character development just enough to move the story to the next action sequence. I'm not saying that as a bad thing.

There seem to be a lot of people that dislike Michael Bay films, they are all flash and no substance, a popcorn flick. I can say that I have liked all of his directorial efforts including Bad Boys 1&2, the Island, and especially The Rock to name a few. As long as you know what your going to get going in how could you be disappointed? I know that it's not going to be the next Oscar winning drama with a deep intertwined story with rich character development, shit is going to blow up, a lot.

First Live Free, Die Hard, and now this I thought this summer might fizzle after Spiderman 3 but luckily things have taken a 360 degree turn. I haven't seen Pirates 3 yet, but I heard it was good also so maybe just Spidey was the bad apple? I still have Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Rush Hour 3 to look forward to before the end of August. Summer '07 is shaping up pretty nicely.

KC with Dave, Furniture, Cheesecake, Books and more.

Since I had the time off, we (a couple friends, my wife and daughter were available the same day) planned a outing to KC last Thursday. We went up that morning, and stopped by JCPenny Outlet (always a favorite stop), and the Oak Park Mall (which we commented is a really nice mall noting that the leather chairs would be so torn up at Towne East/West). Lunch was at Dave & Busters, and then we went over to Nebraska Furniture Mart (I still love that place), and my friend wanted to stop by the Cheesecake Factory (since he enjoyed it so much in Denver) before we came home (this time I had the Carmel Apple Streusel). It was around 6pm so we hit the dinner rush although we didn't have to wait very long, as the KC location seems to seat a lot of people. We've never ate a meal there (just desert both times) and while the prices seemed a little high, the portions we seen other people with were huge. It was rainy and overcast all day, but we had fun.

Since I hadn't been to work last week I hadn't been up Rock Road, and when I went by Friday I was surprised to see that the Macaroni Grill building was a pile of rubble in the span of 2 days. I found out that Barnes & Noble is building a new supposedly really large building there that will replace both 29th & Rock, and Kellogg & Rock locations eventually.

I caught Nancy Drew last week (my daughter wanted to go) and it wasn't too bad. It actually had a decent mystery although it felt like a TV special rather than a full feature film, at least you wouldn't be totally bored as an adult. I'm looking forward to Transformers, and hopefully will see it tonight so I'll report back then.

Doctor, we have a pulse he's waking up...

Wow. Did not realize it had been that long since my last post, thought about posting 2-3 times but kept putting it off, or something else would come up.

I've updated my sidebar with my 'summertime' TV viewing (although Monk, and Psych are still a couple weeks away) habits. I caught a preview of Burn Notice that starts this week on USA, and looks pretty good so I'll give it a shot.

Some of those missed post I talked about above were movie updates for Surf's Up (good), Shrek the Third (so-so), and Knocked Up (really good). Today though I saw Live Free, Die Hard, and I must say fanfreakintastic! It easily elevated itself towards the top of 'my favorite' list, I'm a big Die Hard franchise fan mostly, I really liked the first two, three was okay but didn't grab me the same way as the first two (not to say I haven't seen it quite a few times though). I don't even know if WOW can cover it, this movie has some of the best stunts and action sequences I've ever seen. I laughed when I seen the trailer originally because I felt that Bruce was getting a little to old to play boyscout (particularly since he was so convincing as a washed up has been in 16 Blocks (another excellent flick)) and seeing they were trying to mix in some younger blood with Justin Long (Accepted, Jeepers Creepers, and Galaxy Quest) I thought maybe John McClane wouldn't be all of the focus, but I'm happy to say he is, and I bought every part of it. I've seen Hollywood take a fancy with Hong Kong style 'acrobatic' action pieces like the opening crane scene in Casino Royale, and Live Free has two sandwiched close to the beginning, and the end. Which in my book is a good thing as both reminded me of watching older Jackie Chan movies.

The previews on Live Free were also added to the experience, War, starring Jet Li and Jason Statham both of which are great action stars. Rush Hour 3, and Simpsons the movie both look great too although I've seen the trailers before. I also caught the trailer for Hitman, now I've played a little bit of the games, but the trailer just didn't grab me.

On the 360 front this was actually a pretty big release week (although 3 of the titles were movie adaptions) Darkness looks really good, but they pushed the demo back until after the game ships and I'd really like to try it first. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually kinda like the Harry Potter game, we got to play it early at work on the Wii and I enjoyed it. I started playing the 360 version today, and I can say that I *really* enjoy casting with the 360 controller rather than the Wiimote. Certain spells I just couldn't get the Wiimotion down on and it frustrated me pretty quickly. Speaking of which I tried out Call of Juarez the other day and either I was missing something or the level design was really unforgiving. It would tell me not to do something (say avoid these people) then 10 seconds later it would happen. It looked really good, but I got frustrated really quick I didn't get a chance to try the multiplayer so maybe it wasn't all bad. Everybody seems to hate Vampire Rain the weird Splinter Cell/Resident Evil hybrid, but I really enjoyed the couple levels I played in the demo. It's actually on my list of things to pick up, especially if I could find a good deal on it.

I had to force some days off this week otherwise I would have lost some vacation days, so I'm heading to KC for a day. Dave & Busters for lunch, and a stroll through Nebraska Furniture Mart, plus some tooling around KC. I'll report back.

360 gettin' Dirt(y), and Halo man cannon goodness.

According to this blog entry the demo for Dirt is supposed to be up on the marketplace tomorrow morning. Although the post states it's for European users, Xbox360fanboy believes it will show up on the US marketplace as well. I'm really looking forward to this, as all of the screenshots, and videos I've seen thus far look freaking gorgeous. It will still probably land in the pile of racers I suck at, but anyway.

I've played a little more of the Halo 3 beta, and while still getting my ass kicked in matches I do enjoy it. Other FPS shooters I can usually hold my own various PC Half-Life titles, Unreal, Quake, and even some console shooters like Lost Planet, and Fear I end up being in the middle of the pack. I'm not the best, but certainly not the worst player in the match. All the Halo titles have been the opposite though I'm always hovering towards the bottom of leader board. I would think it's just PC versus console controls, but since I don't suck at every console shooter I don't know what it is.

If you haven't had enough of the beta Bungie put the Halo 3 multiplayer beta shirt (the one that shows the man cannon) up on the website, so you can be stylin' if you want.

Halo 3 ... finally, 28 Week's Later, and the end is near.

Well I got up yesterday promptly at 6:55 a.m. before my alarm went off, and started my wondrous adventure into the land of Beta software, and fairy tales. Went downstairs popped in my Crackdown gateway disc only to be greeted by the same 'greyed' out option as always.

The first update came on the Bungie.net homepage at 5:22 a.m. Pacific (7:22 a.m. doodah time) acknowledging the problem, and saying they had notified Live and were working on a solution. The next update on the Bungie.net homepage was at 3:55 p.m. Pacific, sure there had been some updates here and there in the forums section, but who wanted to trudge through 10 pages an hour of fanboy hate, and commentary? For a while it seriously looked like it would be 24 hours late, and not hit until 7 a.m. Thursday morning. When the 3:55 p.m. update was posted it said they had figured out a solution and were 'testing' it, and it would be implemented in 3-6 hours.

It finally hit Live evidently about 9:05 p.m. (doodah time), but I was busy watching C.S.I. New York. I was trying every commercial break but couldn't get Crackdown to update, after the show ended I did some more net reading and found that clearing the update cache on the 360 HD was working for people. About 10:10 p.m. (15 hours later than planned...) I finally started downloading the Halo 3 beta. Luckily my download went pretty quick, and didn't have any of the problems that some people were having. Right after 11 p.m. (watched Lost during the download) I started my beta experience. :)

It didn't take long for me to realize that it's been a long time since I played a Halo game. I pretty much suck online, although I did manage to pull off a couple kills in the 2+ hours I spent with it. I also got to play all 3 of the beta maps, and 5-6 different game variations (still like slayer (plan ol' death match) the best, and territory (sp?) not so much). I'm still undecided about the matchmaking setup, it seems to take a little bit to find a game then fill it with players, but it seems like you can 'tag' a group of players and you will move from game to game together. Because of the snafu with the download, Bungie/Microsoft have extended the beta till June 10th now, so a few extra days of Halo goodness.

I had some free time Tuesday after work (didn't work Wednesday (see big plans above)), so I went and saw 28 Weeks Later. I had seen the first one 28 Days Later before it hit theaters here. It was a European release and was already available on DVD over there before it played theatrically here. I had read so many good things about it that I went ahead and imported the DVD, and even watched it again at the theaters thinking maybe I missed something. It was supposed to be a 're-imagining' of the zombie movie (or at least that's what I gathered), but what I got wasn't ... that. It was okay, nothing real special. I thought the story moved kind of slow, and I don't remember it as being action filled.

Anywho I caught the preview for the new one about a month ago, and it showed promise plus I figured it had to be better than the first one. Overall it was much more enjoyable than the first, although it had it's problems. I didn't like the fast action soft focus cuts, that felt like a montage of still photos. I also didn't see that they tied it to the first movie at all (other than basic premise), but there is some grey area there as I know the DVD version had at least one, if not two, alternate endings, and I can't remember what the ending of the theatrical cut was. I think I'm remembering an alternate, and not the real one (damn, now I need to go back and watch it again...). Weeks is definitely a step in the right direction, and the ending poised this one for another follow up, maybe the third time will be a charm.

Seems like just yesterday the fall tv season was upon us, and now some of my favorite shows have already had their cliff hangers, while others have another week to go. Now that the cable channels seem to make their own seasons, at least I can take comfort in the fact that other favorites will be coming back in the upcoming weeks to take the vacant slots. On a side note I noticed Cox has added TNT HD to my box, so something new to watch, oooh maybe The Closer in HD this summer. :)

Even more 360 goodness oozing out...

Got home from work to find there was another demo up on marketplace today, Midway released a 'demo teaser' for the upcoming FPS BlackSite Area 51. What's a 'demo teaser' you might ask? Well it seems that in encompasses about ~5 minutes of game play, just a teeny taste to get you hooked.

I enjoy first person shooters a lot, and had seen some screen shots (and a video I believe) from this a while back so I was eager to give it a shot. I wasn't too far in when judging from the controller setup, I seen words that sent shivers down my spine, squad commands. As much as I like FPS games, squad based games and me just don't jive. I'm lucky to keep myself alive without having to worry about 2-4 other dinks running around. Once I got into the game it wasn't as bad as I feared, you only have the one button for squad commands, and depending on what your cursor is targeting that decides what they'll do when you hit the button. For example if you target a door they will breach the door, if you just target a position on the ground they will move to that location, etc. It reminded me of the mechanic used in Star Wars Republic Commando on the original Xbox. I've haven't spent much time with it yet, but I'm going to mess with it some more tonight.

There's a site called Livecard.net which offers custom gamertags for Live, and over at Cheapassgamer LinkinPrime has a bunch of his custom creations that you can see. I really like the 'super deformed Venom' card and was going to use it in the sidebar to the left, but it's too big so I'll just post it here...

I guess Microsoft let a press release spurt out about a new live arcade title, called Aegis Wing described as a four-player "2-D side-scrolling space shooter that combines epic space combat with fantastic visuals... set to a rich symphonic soundtrack.". The other highlight of the press release was it's free, and supposed to be available next week on May 16th. As of now the press release has been pulled, and replaced with info about next week's actual (overpriced $10 bucks??) title Soltrio Solitaire. You can see the full post that someone managed to copy and paste before it was vaporized via Kotaku.