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Weekly News Roundup: 04/29/2007

Games

"Good news, dudes! People want to hit you in the face with sticks again!"

  • Taiko Drum Master is heading to the DS in Japan. There are no details on how you will actually play the game, but we'll likely hear broken DS stories due to intense drumming sessions. The game features many Japanese pop and folk songs, along with the Super Mario Bros. theme. The PS2 original didn't see that well in the US, but the series continued in Japan with multiple releases on the PS2 and PSP. Perhaps the popularity of the DS is enough to bring it to our shores. If not, you can always import.

  • The Turrican games are some of the most loved of the under-loved of 2-D action games. Factor 5 revealed to Gamasutra that they are making some concepts for bringing back Turrican and name-drop Metroid Prime as an example of what they're looking at. 

  • A new Gundam game will be appearing on Japanese cell phones. What's different about this one is that players will have to crazily swipe the phone like an energy sword to defeat enemy mobile suits. The game uses the phones camera to sense the motion of the phone. So how many cell phones will be destroyed in Gundam related incidents?

  • Wait, there's also another a new Gundam game. No surprise there, but this Gundam is coming to the Wii. Titled Gundam 0079, the game will feature appearances of characters from Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam 0080, The 08th MS Team, and Gundam: Blue Destiny.

  • Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will be novelized. The latest chapter in the long-running RTS series will be written by Keith R. A. DiCandido and published by Del Rey. Let's hope that the other games in the series eventually get the same treatment, if the novel turns out to be good, that is.

  • The father of all things PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, is retiring this June. It seems he will go on to pursue his network vision. What's his network vision? We don't know, but we're sure it's something huge. Kutaragi's PlayStation consoles changed video games, perhaps he is aiming to change networking as well.

  • In the future, the ancient texts of William Shakespeare will be stolen. Humanity will have to send an elite pilot to fly a starfighter to shoot the thieves down and take back the texts by force. 'Speare is a top-down shooter that combines the genre with Shakespeare and a Flash demo is available at Apollo Games.

  • The first Robotech game for cell phones should be out the first week in May. Robotech: The New Generation (based in the time of the third Robotech series) is a top-down shooter and will initially begin its availability on Cingular.

DVD

Movies

TV

  • If you liked Band of Brothers, then HBO has some more intense WWII drama for you called The Pacific, this time from the Pacific conflict (duh). This is actually a companion piece to Band of Brothers, so hopefully we can expect the same high quality and realistic look at war.

- Shawn / Paul - 04/29/07

Weekly News Roundup: 04/22/2007

Games

"You are lucky these breasts are blocking my path, Scorpion."

  • Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon stated in an interview with Computer and Video Games, that the next Mortal Kombat will be more serious and less of a joke. Mortal Kombat VIII (for those of you keeping track of the numbers) will be built form the ground up, be realistic-looking, grittier, and dirtier. Hopefully it will also be better. This is good news because ever since babalities were introduced the series became kind of silly. The come-and-go weapon-based fighting and alternate fighting styles of the 3-D MKs may not return, either. For us, we don't see how Mortal Kombat can get grittier or dirtier than 1998's Mortal Kombat Conquest series. 

  • The success of Capcom's Phoenix Wright games on the DS has lead to the announcement of a Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law game using the Phoenix Wright game style. The Birdman games will be for the PS2 and PSP not the DS, which seems odd, but I guess the DS can't be given all the great case-solving games. Now how about some new Harvey Birdman episodes, Adult Swim?

  • Namco's website for Beautiful Katamari went live this weekend with new images of craziness and introduced a new cousin for the Prince. The game has been slated for later this year on the Xbox Live and PLAYSTATION Network. It will feature HD visuals and have online play so you can roll up complete strangers to your heart's content.

  • The Haloid video of Samus versus Spartan 458 (obviously it's not Halo's Master Chief with all the fancy fighting moves) worked its way through the internet during the week. It starts cool, gets weird, gets ridiculous, then gets WTFulous. I don't remember Samus ever having a lightsaber. I also didn't know Samus was into girls, but am not surprised that Spartan 458 is. The joke of Spartan 458 first seeing Samus in her Zero suit is just disturbing considering that 458 is actually a girl. Love it or hate it it's a good watch. 

  • Hideo Kojima and president of Grasshopper Manufacture, Suda-51, have revealed that they are working on a series of projects based of off Kojima's game Snatcher. The first project will be a radio drama. Snatcher was never released in the US, so hopefully these projects will prompt the right people to finally bring it over somehow.

  • Downloadable PS One games from the PLAYSTATION Store can now be played on the PS3... as soon as the games on the store are updated in May, that is. Of course if you really want to play PS One games on your PS3, you can always find the actual game on eBay for cheap.

  • Rumors indicate that a new Lost Planet game, titled Lost Planet Wars, will be heading to the 360 and PS3. What kind of game is it? Nobody knows for sure just yet, except maybe EGM's Quarterman who mentioned a Lost Planet RTS in the newest EGM. It's good to see Capcom doing more with a new franchise.

  • Viz is bringing over the Mega Man Star Force series for all you Mega Man anime fans. The series contains a highly complicated and almost unintelligible plot involving aliens, invisible electromagnetic waves, and FM viruses. The probability of it sucking is pretty high considering the other Mega Man cartoons / anime were awful.

Movies

  • Laurence Fishburne is going to be the voice of the Silver Surfer in the new Fantastic Four movie. Here's hoping he doesn't sound exactly like Morpheus. Galactus, who was originally going to be voiced by Fishburne, is rumored to be some sort of space cloud. Before you get your nerd panties in a bundle, think about it. Do you think a big purple man would work in a live action film? No, it wouldn't.

  • There's a rumor going around that the Hulk will be grey in his new film. I'm not ready to put the nerd freak out on just yet. The most burning question in my mind is will the general public understand that the Hulk is not always green? Probably not.

Comics

  • The upcoming Halo comic has been synopsis-ized at Marvel.com. What's interesting is that the comic is not an ongoing series as we were lead to believe, but a four issue mini series.

  • Spider-man is going to be on Broadway. If that isn't weird enough for you, then let me hit you with this: U2 members Bono and The Edge are writing music and lyrics for it. It might be more exciting to see this for nerds as opposed to Rent, but to suffer through music from U2? That's a tough call.

Miscellaneous

- Shawn / Paul - 04/22/07

Weekly News Roundup: 04/15/2007

Games

Even Ryu can barely handle his own fireballs with super 1080p turbo remix visuals.

  • The DS will receive its own Namco Museum collection. A Namco Museum is nothing new, hell there are about fifty of them, but this one has something that the others don't: Pac-Man VS. This multiplayer version of Pac-Man has one player as Pac-Man and the others as ghosts. This was a great version that didn't get enough love because it was previously only available with a couple of Namco's mediocre GameCube games. Having Pac-Man VS. in the collection makes it well worth buying another Namco Museum.

  • The shooter and RTS genres are combining with Glory Days 2: Brotherhood of Men. Adrian Clews, The marketing Exec for the game said it will be "...combining the best elements of classics such as Choplifter, Silkworm, and Advanced Wars [sic]..." It will feature touch screen control, wi-fi multiplayer, and 3-D glasses. Sounds like an intriguing little title, especially the grossly under-used 3-D glasses.

  • The 20-gig PS3 model is officially cancelled. The model will no longer be available in the North America. That's fine, having two PS3 models wasn't a great idea to being with. Why didn't this happen with the 360?

  • Taito Legends 2 is coming for the PS2 with nearly forty classic and not-so-classic games. There looks to be some great shooters on this disc with Ray Storm, Darius Gaiden and G-Darius. Why are there only two Darius games, though? Granted, they are two of the best ones, but there needs to be more.

  • Quarterman has a rumor in this month's issue of EGM on another Halo game that isn't the Halo Wars RTS or the Peter Jackson episodic games.

Movies

  • There's a possible Green Arrow movie in the works... sort of. Writer David Goyer's Flash film idea was rejected by Warner Brothers, but his Green Arrow idea may have been picked up. In his film, Green Arrow gets arrested and goes to a prison for super villains. He's got to deal with the worst of the worst super bad asses and try to escape. Sounds okay at first, but how is this a superhero film if everyone is in prison orange? Besides, I saw this and liked this the first time I saw this... on an episode of the Venture Bros.

  • The Prince of Persia movie has found a director. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has picked... Michael Bay! Wow, that's a real team of shit right there. The Bay/Bruckheimer duo has brought you such fantastic films like Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, and Armageddon... I don't know how this could go wrong!

- Shawn / Paul - 04/15/07

Weekly News Roundup: 04/08/2007

Games

"They sold my voice, Prime! I will not be bought or sold!"

"We were sold out back in '86, Megatron. Blame Ultra Magnus!"

  • Capcom has put up a site for Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles with a teaser trailer. The game is an on-rails shooter with locations from Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, and 3, yet in the trailer it says, "Witness the end of Umbrella." If it's going to be the end of Umbrella, why have gameplay sequences from past games? Many old characters are returning and it might be cool to see the end of Umbrella, but making such an important piece of the story a simple point and shoot game seems like a bad idea. Also, Resident Evil 4 is coming to the Wii with new Wii controls.

  • More info on the new NiGHTS game was revealed this week. Three masks can be used with varying effects on NiGHTS. A dragon mask turns him into a dragon resistant to wind. The dolphin mask turns him into a dolphin for underwater exploration and the rocket mask turns NiGHTS into a rocket to travel a supersonic speeds. More interesting is the fact that the game will use the Wii weather channel to change the weather in the game.

  • A second 2-D shooter will be coming to the PS3 via the PLAYSTATION Store. Super Stardust HD will resurrect the old Stardust game from the ancient Amiga. The game looks to be similar to Geometry Wars and Blast Factor, but will have you shooting in space above planets instead of other weird stuff.

  • A Nintendo Museum was set up in the Hankyu Department Store in Osaka, Japan. The even only lasted for six days and displayed Nintendo products that were produced well before Nintendo ever got into the video game business. Also, check out the video tour by GovernerWatts. 

  • We all know the shooter / fighter hybrid Senko no Ronde is coming to the Xbox 360, but now the game will be called Battle Storm: Senko no Ronde for absolutely no reason.

  • Microsoft has enhanced the Xbox 360 warranty again. Now they have added free shipping, and extended warranty after the console is repaired, consumers should be getting their original systems back, and they should receive them in only five days. This is all good news for 360 owners and potential buyers, but maybe Microsoft should make the 360 so it doesn't need to be sent in for repair.

  • The PSP has dropped to $169.99. The price drop, along with the upcoming titles Final Fantasy Tactics and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, has made buying a PSP much more desirable.

  • Uber-geek Wil Wheaton has an article about his childhood acquisition of a NES on Suicide Girls. It's a great read and when you're done you can check out some Suicide Girls galleries.

  • LucasArts might be creating a future civil war game where the nation will be divided between nano-machines or genetic enhancement.

  • The PS3's Warhawk was previously announced as download only, but now it will be available as download and as a PS3 Blu-Ray. Sony hasn't announced any differences or pricing between the two yet. We'd still like to see that single-player mode, though. 

Movies

Comics

- Shawn / Paul - 04/08/07

Weekly News Roundup: 04/01/2007

Comics

After Spawn dies he'll be reincarnated as a bear to steal evil's honey into oblivion.

  • Prepare for The Death of Spawn. "Where do you go once you’ve destroyed the entire world? Once you’ve brought your hero to the height of his power as the savior of an entire planet, and revealed his darkest shame? To me, the only logical step was to destroy the hero himself," said Todd McFarlane about killing off his main man. The Death of Spawn story arc will not begin in August with issue #172. What this means for the comic after Spawn's death is a complete redo of Spawn as a bear. At least everyone has a long enough warning unlike the needless death of Captain America. (Editor's note: This was an April Fool's joke but in our defense the "story" was posted two days before April Fool's which voids the foolness of this joke.)

Games

  • Long time rival mascots Mario and Sonic will finally be in a game together. Sega announced Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii and DS to be released later this year. The game will take place in events from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Well, we can already predict how this will turn out. Knuckles will punch Luigi while Sonic wins all the running events. Yoshi will eat Tails with Mario winning all the jumping events. So the game will really come down to the shot-put and table tennis.

  • Back at E3 2004 Tomonobu Itagaki said he would support the Nintendo DS. Now, three years later in an interview with 1up, he finally talks about his recently revealed Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS.

  • Rockstar games unveiled the trailer for IV (there is no mention of Grand Theft Auto). It looks like the game will be back in Liberty City with an Eastern European protagonist, or antagonist depending how you look at it.  

  • Bungie keeps their franchise going strong with two new maps for Halo 2, Tombstone and Desolation. These maps are remakes of the Hang 'em High and Derelict. It will be only $4.00 for the maps and they can be played on an original Xbox or a 360.

  • A talented gamer was rewarded with a web address for achieving a 999,999 hit combo in God of War II. The Island of Rhodes site is counting down to something, but no one knows what. We'll take a wild guess and say it's a Kratos cart racer, a game where cart racing has never been so epic and bloody.

  • In a crime-ridden area in Mexico, police are offering Xbox's for guns in a way to stop the violence. They have already received guns for the trade and seems like a good idea at first, but then you turn the corner and someone else who did not trade-in their Magnum shoots you for the Xbox. 

  • Microsoft admitted this week what everyone already thought or knew about the black 360. The Xbox 360 Elite is true and will hit retail shelves on April 29th. If you already own a 360 what will you do? Upgrade to the new one or keep your original? Or, now that the Elite specs are out and you are still debating on whether to get a 360 or PS3, 1up has a handy comparison chart.

  • Traveller's Tales officially announced Lego Batman: The Videogame. Now Batman will be able to fight crime in Gotham City by building crazy new Bat-themed vehicles on the fly.

  • A child suffered a grand mal seizure while playing the 2002 PS2 game Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. The mother is now suing Sony, Vivendi, Sierra and the closed-up rental store she got the game from. It is truly unfortunate for the child, but there are seizure warnings in every game manual, which are there for a reason.

Movies

  • CNN.com recently ran a top 10 best and worst film battle scenes list. Starship Troopers finally got some loving and made it into the top ten. The Star Wars series got hit pretty hard though, with two of the films making it into the worst list. The reasons for their inclusion are pretty good, but where's the Empire Strikes Back Hoth battle in the top ten? Lame. Pearl Harbor makes the worst list, but wasn't the battle part the best part of the movie? (and the only reason to watch it?) Also, they're making the list to honor the ultimate battle movie 300, but if it is the ultimate, then why isn't it #1?

Miscellaneous

  • Everyone you know and love is dead! Just kidding! April Fools! ROFL!!!1

- Shawn / Paul - 04/01/07

 

 

 

            

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