Mario G's Precious Little Blog Post

Have you ever heard of Scott Pilgrim? Because it's freaking awesome. I've been meaning to write about this for the longest time now but I just didn't do it. Not even when the opportunity was there to talk about a new trailer. Which there have been 3 of! Oh well, I'm writing about it now.

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels about this guy Scott Pilgrim. He's 23 and in a band. Then he meets this chick Ramona and he has to defeat her seven evil exes. I know, you're already captivated. So then he fights them and there's character development and drama and it's filled to the brim with geeky humor. It's sweet as hell. I first heard of it when I told a friend of mine that I was trying to get into reading comics. So he recommended Scott Pilgrim and Y: The Last Man, I think. With Christmas right around the corner I gave my mom the book names and told her to buy off Amazon because it was so much cheaper. Incidentally, she buys off Amazon every year. Who knew?

I was about to read the books knowing very little of what it was like. I didn't ask anybody for any impressions and there still hadn't been any film trailers. I was going in with the mindset that there was a probability of me not liking it. Then I actually read the books. Holy crap. I fell in love instantly and read all 5 books back-to-back. They lasted me about 4 days because I was trying to savor them as I knew I'd be sad when I was finished. I was right. I finished them and a new chapter in my life had begun. As soon as I got out of winter break I told all of my friends about these incredibly funny and stylish romance/action books. Most of them would come to love it too.

Then the first film trailer was released. What a day that was. Like the books, the film is overflowing with wit and personality. It is a perfect comic-book to film transition. Maintaining the exaggerated fighting and even the flashes of text appearing mid-air for every woosh, bonk, and boom! A few weeks after that the title, cover and street date for the 6th and final book were revealed. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour being released July 20th was my new reason to live. With the film coming out August 13th, this was quickly becoming my summer of Pilgrim.

Hey, there's even a videogame coming out! I'm looking forward to filling in Scott's shoes and bashing in Gideon's face with 3 of my SP fan friends! The trifecta of geekiness is complete and this series has every part of it nailed down to perfection.

Scott Pilgrim is my hero and it will stay that way for the rest of my life. Or at least until something better comes along.

Authors Note: I don't understand video embeds I'm sorry!

Edit: Fixed it. Embeds now fit the page.

*sniff* That was awesome.

I saw Toy Story 3 on Saturday. Everyones tweets and facebook statuses were about how the movie was an emotion train-wreck and pretty much everyone cried. Knowing this, I thought to myself: Man, people were probably just sad because it's over and everyone got nostalgic and junk. Pssh, I'll be fine.

Nope.

I cried. I would've cried a lot more if I didn't hold it back. I always do. There's only one film I've ever seen where I was fucking having a fit. I still think it's because I was expecting a comedy but halfway through turns into the most heartfelt drama I never saw coming. Whatever, that's a different story.

So yeah, Toy Story 3 is really dark and emotional. I was laughing, I was wtf'ing and I was crying. It was a great movie. But do we really ever expect any different from Pixar? No. We don't.

It's Like I Was A Real Wizard!

Last Friday I went to the public opening for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. It was awesome. Except for all the lines. There was a lot of waiting. Like, 3 hours of it. And that is considering the fact that I skipped a shitload of people in the line inside of the park after the line to get into the park to get into the Harry Potter part of the park. I may have single-handedly been the person to skip the most people that day. Maybe in the history of the world. Maybe.

But oh man, when we got inside. It was incredible. The snow-covered rooftops of Hogsmeade hung over my heads and blocked out any sights from the rest of the park. It was jaw-dropping. They had the Hogwarts Express popping out of a tunnel and billowing smoke. I was so excited, I had to start doing stuff!

First, I went inside of Zonkos and Honeydukes which is to your immediate left when you enter the area. It was pretty cool, the decorations were awesome but nothing really caught my eye in that I had to stop everything to buy it. So we left. Then we saw the new entrance to what used to be Dueling Dragons, now called Dragon Challenge. The line was only a 5 minute wait, so we sprung at the opportunity. The ride was exactly the same but holy crap the stuff in the line leading up to the ride. Support Potter signs galore! The Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard cup, those egg things you have to, listen to underwater! Even the resting quarters for the Triwizard champion before their big event! I was in heaven. The ride was as awesome as always. When we got out we knew we had to do all the rides immediately.

Then there it was, hanging over the park, it was Hogwarts. We ran to the entrance and started making the line. It was about an hour but it seemed like nothing. We were inside Hogwarts! Moving staircases! Talking portraits! Dumbledores office! And the ride! Oh man, the ride... It is now and will forever be my favorite ride ever. Pretty much you're flying around the school with Harry and getting into wacky adventures. I don't want to give anything away, but the ride was scary as shit. I had so much fun the entire way through. It mixes real sets with animatronics and then moves onto huge screens to simulate flying. It was simply incredible.

Then we made an hour and a half wait to get into Ollivanders where the wand chooses you! Some lucky chick was the one chosen to have the store-keep choose her wand personally. Everyone else went into the next room and told them their birthday and was given a wand. Mine has a skull on it! The store with all the wands in it was the Owl Post. That store is directly connected to Dervish and Banges which is stuffed with clothes. I bought a tie, Gryffindor robes and a quibbler. Ran me quite a pretty penny. We couldn't wait after that. We had to eat. So off the Three Broomsticks we were! I had a huge turkey leg. I felt manly. After that we went home. I was tired from not sleeping for over 24 hours. I did miss out on the chance, however, to buy the marauders map. Ah well, next time.

As we left, Hedwig's theme danced over our heads and I felt so complete. It was the most magical experience I've had in a while.

P.S. The Butterbeer was good.

No iPhone 4 Me

So, Apples and AT&T's servers went to total shit as soon as iPhone 4 pre-orders went up. No surprise there. I just kept trying to put in my info, always ending in an error message. No biggie. I'll wait for it to tide over a bit.

Later on in the afternoon, still wouldn't work. Ok umm, I'm getting a little anxious here.

Even later on, iPhone 4 pre-orders are over and done with... n-no more iPhones?

This can't be happening! But it totally is happening! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!

I'm not the only one. People all over the country have been getting screwed. Even people that went into stores had to wait for everything to processed by pen and paper. What is this shit? However, 600,000 lucky assholes are gonna get their grubby little fingers on what is rightfully mine! First, I was out of the friggin state for iPad and now they drop this bullshit one me?! I'm pissed, guys.

Then I saw a video of a guy with no arms or legs and he was happy. I have all my limbs. I should be happy too. Right? Right?

Also, I'm leaving for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in about half an hour. Yipee! Life is good but it also sucks on a very small level.

E3: Day 2- Well. that was weird...

Certainly not as weird as Ubisoft's conference.

Let's get this out of the way. I know this is really late and I shouldn't make excuses but really, not much happened. But I just couldn't very well live with myself if I didn't see this through. Konami was the final conference. It was on Tuesday at 9 p.m. but the news got out the next day (see, I'm not that late!). I don't really get it.

Anyway, lemme break it down for ya.

There was dancing. Japanese men who can't speak english well. Dancing that is somehow more than just dancing. An extreeeeeeeeme sequel to Ninety Nine Nights with an engine that holds ONE MIRRION TWOOPS who apparently will suck you.

A new Silent Hill coming to consoles next year. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and this new 3rd person shooter called NeverDead. Your limbs fall off but you can just put 'em on again! No worries!

They also played the same trailer we already saw from the MS conference and Kojima wasn't even there.

I'm sorry this is disappointing. Here, have a picture of Miyamoto eyeballing the competition.


Well, that's it for E3. Everything else is showfloor stuff. Anything worthy of mention has already been seen. But if something really catches my attention. I'll go into more deets about it.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as little as I enjoyed writing it. We're all growing together here. Let's make the best of it.

E3: Day 2- Move Along, Microsoft

Sony's conference had some huge ups and downs. Seriously, it started off kinda slow, picked up and then just dragged itself to boring crap and then holy god nobody can stop them this is incredible!

I'm pretty sure everyone shit when they saw this.

PORTAL 2 FOR PS3! Not only has Gabe Newell trash-talked the PS3 so hard in the past to make this moment so savory for all the PS fanboys but he also said that it will be the best way to play Portal 2 on any console! That is some serious shit. The PS3 is also getting integrated Steam community features. The first for any console.

We also got to see the second half of the Dead Space 2 demoing. It was more focused on large-scale cinematic fights. Pretty sweet. Can't wait to see more from this game.

For a moment I thought they weren't gonna show it but right towards they end we got a new trailer for Infamous 2. Cole is looking pretty snazzy with his new haircut. Apparently, he has some new powers now. Glass? Ice? Only time will tell. From the looks of it there are going to be some huge battles this time around.

There was a new Twisted Metal demoed. Looks crazy.

Sony announced what some saw for a long time coming. There is a new premium online service on the way. It will feature early demoes and game trails. Exclusive themes, videos and more. It lands at $50 a year or $18 for 3 months. I know I'm gonna get it.

Sony definitely played the 3D card very strongly. Makes me want to get a huge 3D tv for my room now. I personally love 3D so this is great for me, but I know a lot of people hate it. All this push forward for 3D technologies must really getting some nerves.

We saw some new stuff for Move. There was this cool game called Sorcery where you take control of a young wizad and cast spells as you run around dungeons. The tracking was really impressive. Both the Move and Kinect are impressive forms of technology. And Dead Space: Extraction is confirmed to come with the Dead Space 2 Limited Edition packaging. It will work with Move and is exclusive to PS3. So no Kinect support. Buttons are probably the reason.

And then there was the PlayStation Move. Now let me tell you why the Move is better than Kinect. Microsoft is apparently riding their entire industry on this one device and is just gonna blow off what the majority of their base cares about. They have spent years building themselves up to be the ultimate platform for hardcore fans of shooter games and detailing all their online service to just give it up and make the sudden transition to wanting to be the new Nintendo. The new family console. At this point, that's probably not gonna go down. Sony made the Move with the idea of integrating it into their already existing devices and games. They have crafted original ideas, games and concepts made for the Move and have played them out favorably as well as bringing functionality back to some already released software. This increases the possible success rate for Move because there is an audience that will find practicality in it. Microsofts audience will either not be interested in something that strays away from games heavy in online competition or will already own Wiis. Microsoft just did not change anything enough for people to leave their Wii's to buy something that costs almost as much as the system and they might not even own a 360. They blatantly ripped off all the gimmicks they possibly could. And it's not like the Kintec doesn't have possibility! It has amazing tracking and voice recognition. I'm not saying the Move is an original concept either. It obviously isn't. One look at it and a Wii remote comes to mind. But they are trying to make it their own and prepare it for a new pillar of gaming in the companies future.

We did also get some mention of KH: Birth by Sleep, Patapon 3 (still gotta play 2) and a new God of War: Ghost of Sparta trailer. There's some cool stuff coming out for PSP.

We had a nice surprise appearance by Kevin Butler who made an epic speech. He spoke of how in the end it doesn't matter what you play. We all serve one god: Gaming.

Good show. Despite the slow parts with all of Sonys montages, we had some big shockers and fun reveals. Sony definitely lands 2nd in my E3 contest for now.

E3: Day 2- NINTENDO, YOU WON!

Dear lord, where to start! Nintendo has totally killed E3 so far. They opened up with the new Zelda titled The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The gameplay that was shown was a little unflattering, mostly due to some wireless communication issues. Think back to when the iPhone 4 wasn't loading. Yeah, it was awkward. One of the things I did notice was a much more streamlined pull-out and use of items and I was really digging the art style. It's like a cross between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. As predicted, it also uses Wii Motion-Plus for 1:1 tracking which plays heavily into the sword, shield and other items like the crossbow and whip. More cartoonish than TP but not going as far as WW for a perfect blend of fun-to-look-at landscapes. Anyway, it's a new Zelda and I am excited.

Nintendo proceeded to get the casual junk out of the way right quick. They unveiled Wii Party-- a collection of mini-games a la Mario Party-- and Just Dance 2. Not much to say there. Oh and more Mario sports games. Looks like fun if you're into that sort of thing.

Fortunately, the rest of the show was Nintendo just unveiling awesome games. On the Wii side of things, we get a new Donkey Kong game which is going back to it's roots. Donkey Kong Country Returns. Sure, the title is iffy but damn does it look fun. Hopefully the inclusion of Diddy Kong means two player madness.

They also showed off a new Kirby game for the Wii. Kirby: Epic Yarn-- again, weird title-- is this an incredibly stylistic 2.5-D side-scroller. It's like when they first released Paper Mario on the N64. It takes advantage of string elements and warps the environments around it. Really neat stuff, you gotta see it yourself.

We finally got to see some gameplay for Epic Mickey. I was glad to find out that it is a platformer and has some side-scrolling portions too. One of the major game mechanics is being able to destroy and recreate the world around you by using pain and thinner. This plays into what is apparently the usual be the good or bad guy morality system. I hope they're not riding too heavily on that.

And finally with a release date to go with it, Metroid: Other M is coming August 31st. I've been really excited for this game and this new gameplay trailer just pushed me to the edge. It is such a sweet mix of retro style Metroid exploration elements and newer next-gen shooters and platformers. Looking forward to that.

That is an awesome line-up! I thought they were almost done but then they dropped the bomb and revealed the new 3DS! Complete with a widescreen up-top and a touch pad down be low. With the top screen featuring full-on 3D without the need of glasses. I have been really skeptical of how great 3D could be but the reaction from people who have seen it for themselves sound amazed. Also, it has an analog stick! Woot! It has a had a huge graphic overhaul falling short of what the Gamecube was possible of. Maybe even on par with-it on some instances.

Just as impressive as the system was the games being released for it. I seriously freaking lost it when Nintendo announced a new Kid Icarus game for the 3DS! I'm not sure what to gather from it except that it has so much packed into it for a portable game and looks like buckets of joy. Not to mention, Nintendo has deals with several popular developers to release new games on the 3DS including Metal Gear Solid, Professor Layton, Resident Evil and KINGDOM HEARTS! Holy crap! Such great franchises and it's going to be in this tantalizing 3D and THE GRAPHICS ARE SO GOOD NOW! It totally changes on what I can expect from a DS game. It's such a widened field for bigger and better games.

The show finished off with a goofy little video of how immersive the 3DS is by showing, Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto getting sucked into the games and then Reggie got his face burnt off by Bowser. It was awesome and hilarious. It also effectively revealed that they have Mario, DK and Zelda games in the works for the 3DS. Also, Nintendo has contracts with certain movie publishers to display full 3D films on the new system.

I will never doubt Nintendo again. They're listening to their fans. Even right now...

E3: Day 1- And the Day Ends On A High Note

So, Ubisoft totally surprised me by having the most entertaining conference today. It started off on a dark stage, with an anonymous figure raising his hands in the air. The screen above lights up to display what can only be described as a gorgeous medley of lights and sounds. He is apparently using his hands to guide his way through this world of pixelated beauty. This goes on for a few minutes. The lights turn on and the man is revealed to be the creator of Rez who is now releasing Child of Eden for Kinect. See! This is the kind of stuff I wish Microsoft would focus on. At least maybe 3rd party developers will take care of it so it won't be such a bad thing after all. What's this... Child of Eden is also coming out for PlayStation Move. Oh well, sorry Microsoft.

Seriously though, great opening Ubisoft. I wonder what you have planned next. Surely not laser guns that in no way have anything to do with videogames. Ahaha... what? WAIT, NO! I WAS JUST KIDDING! IT WAS A JOOOOOOKE!

At least it can't get any wor- ohmygod... A VITALITY SENSOR?! BREATHING EXCERCISE VIDEOGAME?! COME ON! These aren't games! Why? What the fuck! You are taking a shit on what is already one of the most ridiculous points in gaming history! Ok... gotta calm down here. I can't believe they pulled this shit.

Besides that totally ridiculous display of um... I don't even know, the Ubisoft conference had some pretty solid stuff for the most part. They showed off the new Assassins Creed game. *gasp* Nobody saw that coming. I will never understand why people love AC so much and yet I am bound to hate it. Isn't it supposed to be a stealth game? Where's the stealth, bro? I'm always tempted to play when I see it in the hands of a developer. They know the game so well and they make it looks so right. Put that controller in my hands and gold immediately turns to crap. Maybe it's my fault. Even if it is, shouldn't be that way.

There's a new Driver game. The cinematic was cool but the game was just alright. There's this weird coma thing where apparently non of it's real or something- Idunno. A lot of things get lost through the language barriers. The Ubisoft conference is probably the most French moment of the rest of my year.

There was more fitness. It was literally the same fitness display from the MS conference.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I have heard of the series before, but I don't really know anything about it. It first struck me like some generic super-soldiers going apeshit a broken world with a bleak future. And it is. But it's totally awesome! The stealth mechanic is what really got me. I hope it's varied enough throughout the game. Gotta keep my eye on that one.

In Rayman news!: There's a new 2D Rayman game in the works. It's coming straight to XBLA and PSN and it looks like a lot of fun. I'm personally not a huge Rayman fan but I know that the 2D ones are the best and this is a pretty big deal. Right? There's also another Rabbids game. At this point, the Rabbids are only there for marketing purposes on commercials and the such. The quality of the games or the games themselves don't even matter that much anymore. Hopefully it's good, though.

There was also a new Shaun White skateboarding game. I was totally like meh but then I saw gameplay and I was like "Is he fucking flying a rail in the skies?!" Yeah, the game is basically bringing down the man and bringing the color and style back to the world. Because that what's skateboarding is about. They're all artists and deserve to be commended.

This game called Dust was teased. Looks interesting. I'm getting sort of a Sim's type of vibe from it. Dunno. You couldn't tell much from the trailer.

Then there was community shit with Trackmania where people are given tools to makes games- I've heard this shit a million times before i.e. LBP and Microsoft had it last year but I think it was scrapped. That's probably what eventually became Kinect.

Then people danced to Michael Jackon's Beat It. They didn't specify it at all but there is a game attached to it. I don't get it either.

All in all, it was fun. And it was all hosted by Joel McHale. Which I have to say I found funny throughout but he was reaching for it sometimes. Ah well, I love Community and the Soup so he gets a pass with me.

So this was our first night of E3. I hope people are reading this...

P.S. Nintendo is totes going to kill Ubisoft over that vitality sensor.

E3: Day 1- Guns and Monsters in Steroscopic 3D!

I found EA's conference more successful than Microsoft's in the sense that they showed off games that people care about for most of the show. They showed off 10 games from 10 different developers that are some of EA's biggest money-makers.

I started off with some trailers and a demo of the new Need for Speed game and eventually they drifted onto an unnecessarily long sports segment before things picked up again. There was also this one bit for the Sims 3 heading to consoles and they serious derailed to some deep philosophy and neuroscience. It was interesting but it was way too melodramatic for E3.

Then we some new gameplay footage from Dead Space 2. The area that was demoed was really heavy on action and less atmospheric, really just an opportunity to show off some new weapons and enemies. Isaac was just chilling in a church of Unitology-- the cult-like religion from the first game-- when a giant quick-time tentacle mosnter had to come in and ruin everything. When he finished it off with some pro hits, little Smeagol-like creatures started crawling in. I didn't think much of it at the time but I'm now realizing Isaac wasn't just shooting tiny monsters, they were children that were killed and taken over by the parasite. That's pretty awesome. So yeah, he puched off their heads. He also had this new long range weapon that nailed enemies to a wall with one shot, similar to the weapons in Half-Life 2 and Bio-Shock. Then there was some scenery moments showing off the city the game takes place in but then some ship attacks, Isaac falls opens an escape hatch and falls through having escaped near-death to be attacked by a giant necromoroph. Right now it's just more of the same but hopefully they show off some new stuff during the second half at the Sony conference tomorrow. I really want to see those rocket shoes in action.

The other noteworthy games were also packed with testosterone. There was Bulletstorm from Epic Games and it has this really bad-ass, kill everything "who gives a shit" personality to it. Not to mention the gameplay is freaking awesome. You get rewarded in the game for comign up with creative ways to complete rip the baddies a new one. You rack up points from kills and you put those points towards more kick-ass weaponry to get more points for shredding everything in your sight. It's like if Borderlands and MadWorld had a baby.

Crysis 2 was showcased. I don't know much about the first one but that it's supposed to have like the beast graffix evar! In which case this game holds true. The game looks great and while from the demo it seemed a little generic, it could be a lot of fun since it's supposed to be able to play out in hundreds of different way. I won't trust anything till I try for myself. It wouldn't be the first time devlopers promise it won't ever be the same game twice. It's gonna be the first game this holiday to be playable in stereoscopic 3D. It kinda gives me an idea at what I want for Christmas... I mean a 3D tv if you didn't get the hint. (Mom, if you read this blog I would have this space telling which TV to get.)

The show was finished off with a cinematic for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Which I didn't get because they said "Everything you see here will be available for you in game." So I thought it was gonna be game-play, but it was this epic battle with quick-cuts and swordplay. I'm telling you now, you sure as shit can't do anything in the game that was shown in that trailer. (Watch, I'm gonna be wrong.) Anyways, I'm not really big on Star Wars -I'm really more of a Trekkie, myself- but that left me pretty impressed. I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for some actual footage from the game.

Alright, so Ubisoft is all that's left for the day. I'm not really getting my hopes up for anything cool here. They're probably gonna talk about Assassins Creed sequels and more sports/fitness games. [sarcasm]Everyone's gotta cash in on that money train.[/sarcasm]

E3: Day 1- So Many Casualties

As excepted, Microsoft spent the grand majority of their conference going over Nata-- whoops, I mean Kinect. Also as expected, all of the Kinect games seem like straight up shots at Nintendo with sport, racing and even yoga games. It's like 2006 all over again. Oh yeah, and there were tigers jumping rope, too.

I guess I can't really speak for everyone as I don't own an Xbox but this was pretty unimpressive. Mostly because it's stuff we've all soon before and everyone knows it. Kinect has some really incredible motion tracking but instead of applying to several practical uses they tacked on to mini games that caters to a market that's already owned by Nintendo. I don't see the people who love those games on the Wii shelling out much more money for a similar experience that doesn't even come bundled with the console. I feel like they just struck out with the demographic they're trying to reach. I had about 5 seconds of excitement where I felt I needed it before it passed and I realized it does nothing for me and my life can stay Xbox-less for the time being. Perhaps the coolest part about Kintek was when they used it to enhance features that were already a part of the Xbox. Like pausing and starting music, movies and more with vocal recognition and physical gestures. which like I said are really sharp on Kintek.

To go along with their new device, Microsft revealed the remodeled 360. It comes with built-in wifi, has 250 GB HDD and it's noticeably smaller. Now this I really considered getting since the reason I sold my xbox was because I bought the arcade to save money but then when I realized that I had to buy a $100 wfi connector to acess the Internet, well, I was pretty screwed. I just never used the thing. So built in wifi was something that immediately popped out at me. But it's being released at the same price for the current 360 at $300 and not a new low price. Sucks. It's really just not enough for me to make the purchase this late in the game. Especially when it clashes with my Apple product lifestyle. I guess I'll mooch off my friends.

As far as non-Kintek related games go, they also demoed Call of Duty: Black Ops, Gears of War 3 and Halo Reach. All the big "blockbuster" titles for their hardcore shooter crowd. Not really the sort of thing I'm into. Although, Gears of War has always impressed me stylistically. But wait-- they also showed gameplay from MGS: Rising! Raiden was cutting up his foes like nobodies business. It's seriously kick-ass. At one point he's chopping up a dude in slow-motion whilst mid-air. Then he cut up a watermelon. Classic Kojima humor. And they changed it from Tactial Espionage Action to Lighting Bolt Action. That's pretty funny.

So we still have EA and Ubisoft conferences left today. Then tomorrow we really get to the good stuff!

Update: There is going to be an Xbox/Kinect bundle and GameStop has priced it at $400.

It's that time again!

E3 starts tomorrow! It's just the Microsoft conference though, and since I don't own a 360 anymore all the exciting stuff for me really starts on Tuesday with Sony and Nintendo. It's still fun to see all the latest developments though. Especially when it's ridiculous at which point I click away to my forum of preference and share a hearty laugh with my pals.

So this post is really to make it known that I will be loading this page with my thoughts on the conferences. In fact, some stuff has already leaked. Look, Microsoft made an ugly console!

Isn't that weird? Ha, yeah it is.

Anyways, some of the stuff I'm looking forward to the most is the new Zelda, the 3DS-- which you've most likely seen countless mock-ups and rumors of-- and hopefully we get something on the Last Guardian if we're lucky. E3 is always a cool time but I have a feeling we'll see some especially cool stuff this year, mostly from Nintendo's side I'd imagine.

A mock-up on the 3DS based around specs from various sources.

P.S. There has been some serious evidence further pointing to the fact that the new Kingdom Hearts is a DS up-port of the Japan-only cellphone game "KH: Coded"... why? Why?!

P.P.S. The ugly Microsoft console is a re-modeling of the 360 and not something new entirely. Also, they renamed Natal to Kinect. What the hell is that?

woohoo

Yep, it's summer time. I'll try to keep things consistent around here. I now have loads of free time but I need that time to achieve my dreams.

List of dreams (in order from most to least likely):

1. Succesfully plan a trip this week to Orlando for Harry Potter park.
2. Popularize my blog.
3. Start a web-series.
4. Gain superpowers.
5. Get a girlfriend.

I can do this!

Intelligent Programming? On My Music Television?!

Boy, do I love celebrities. Which is why I get so pumped every time MTV does their annual movie awards. So many awesome celebrities just hanging out and being famous with each other. God, I want that life so bad. Anyways, this year was the funniest, craziest and at the same time stupidest MTV Movie Award that I've seen. We had Aziz Ansari hosting,- which was hilariously awesome- there was a Scott Pilgrim preview- awesomely hilarious- and Katy Perry danced in an outfit that emphasized her breasts- that was just hot. After all the nonsense was over, MTV debuted their new comedy series "The Hard Times of RJ Berger". This was the best part.

This show is pretty awesome. I knew I was gonna love it because the main character is a geek and I love anything where I can personify myself with the main character. RJ Berger is this kid who isn't cool but one day he has to fill in for another kid during a basketball game. His shorts fall, everyone sees he has the biggest penis in the school, hilarity ensues. The vague character description you just read should already be enough to have made your brain poop. What the heck is MTV doing airing a show where the main cast isn't incredibly suntanned, drenched in alcohol and all having sex together? Well, apparently MTV is trying to get it together and rake in a broader audience.

This was becoming aware to me when they were only recently airing this show called "My Life as Liz". It was about a hipster chick who hates popular kids so they hate her back and it's so cool to be different, guys, but it also sucks and nobody gets me why am I so alone?! Ahem. Even though the show had good intentions by trying to bridge gaps between the popular girl and the indie chick by having them realize that they can still be friends, the show was still incredibly hollow, superficial and dumb. At least they were trying. Now we have RJ Berger which isn't shallow!

I think was really makes RJ Berger is the sexual theme that surrounds the show. It's just like a real teenagers life, vulgar as fuck. So now that his secret is out, RJ is on his way of becoming awesome. He shows up his bully and totally flirts with the girl of his dreams. It's pretty rad.

I'm just glad MTV made a funny show about geeks without completely exploiting it for the common stereotype as the channel has a bad wrap for generalizing the crap out of their audience and pretty much just making everyone look bad.

I hope there is more of this to come. Maybe MTV will become a place for all walks of life to come together and celebrate our differences and accept each other. Or the show could get cancelled because Jersey Shore's audience just thought the show was too gay for their taste.

Even Better the Second Time Around

If you're as obsessed with the world of tech as I am, then surely you heard of the recent incident between Gizmodo and Apple. So basically, this guy that works for Apple got drunk left the prototype of the new iPhone at a bar. Yeah. So after some crafty bartering, the prototype anonymously fell into the laps of the cool kids over at Gizmodo. Then the shit seriously hit the fan and the police broke into the house of one of the editors and the drunk guy is getting fired and drama drama drama.

Anyways, Apple announced the iPhone 4 today.

Say hello to the phone with the most detailed and vivid screen ever put on a mobile device, some of the finest multi-touch technology, video-conferencing, multi-tasking and the ability to record video in 720p at smooth 30 frames-per-second. I know what you're thinking. Do want.

Everyone and their brother saw this coming. However, I did not expect to be able to pick this up as soon as it would be available. This thing is out June 24th and pre-order start the 15th. That's 17 days! Virtually nothing when you're a geek having to face months of trivial nothingness while your next favorite movie, game and/or book is being readied.

Fortunately for me, I am right smack-dab in the middle of the 18-20 month contract period that qualifies me for an insane discount on upgrading my current 3G iPhone to the latest model. I now only have to pay 18 dollars along with a renewal of my 2 year contract with AT&T, as opposed to the 200 FREAKING DOLLARS that gets tacked on to your sorry ass for wanting to upgrade early. However, AT&T extended the upgrade discount eligibility by six months so that everyone that matters can get the new iPhone. Hooray!

I'm pretty stoked here guys. I'm looking forward to using this as my main source for taking pics, since I've been yearning for a camera for a while now. This really steps up the game in photography for phones. I just can't believe how little I have to wait! This summer is gonna be so boss.

Some Things You Can't Unsee

I went to see Splice with a bunch of my friends this weekend and the reactions were... mixed.

*SPOILERS WITHIN*

In case you didn't know, Splice is a sci-fi film about two of the worlds worst scientists who create a new species by splicing human and animal DNA. The experiment is meant to yield breakthroughs in the medical field but instead they become attached to the specimen and fuck everyone over.

This film is unique in the sense that it jumps bridges that most films nowadays are too scared to lose an audience over. Like the scene where Clyde (the male lead scientist played by Adrien Brody) has sex with the goddamned specimen. That's right, they do it. As I was watching this perfectly disturbing and yet convincingly understandable turn of events my thoughts were: Holy shit, this movie is fucking fantastic.

My friends thoughts were more along the lines of: Oh dear lord, what the hell man? WHAT THE HELL?!

After watching this movie, I started thinking about what made me see this film differently from everyone else. We all left realizing the things we had seen were surely fucked but only myself and one other friend left in appreciation. Everyone else was filled with disgust and just plain shocked. I was eventually able to convince everyone that their broken state of mind was proof that even though the film may not have been to their liking, it was effective and therefore successful.

My friend and I are definitely the bigger movie buffs of the group and we have both seen our fair share of the abnormal, grotesque and flat-out bat-shit crazy. So it's possible that we've become desensitized to dismissing a film as mediocre when it makes our brains sad.

I totally understand why my friends found this to be crappy maybe even funny-- in a really perverse way-- that doesn't mean I agree. This is a movie that crosses too many lines of morality to be counted here and it's amazing for it. Yet this film still holds truth to why Hollywood studios are afraid to take risks with their movies. This was a great sci-fi film and yet it's made $7.4 million as far as this weekend goes. That's a total bomb. At least it will most likely live on in the hearts of many sci-fi geeks and film enthusiasts as a cult-classic.

Possible sequels are being planned and as this usually goes, they'll probably be straight-to-DVD. Now that's really gross.

ohmygodmygodohmygod

The new issue of Game Informer has this quote from Tetsuya Nomura:

"This particular game came into existence because we wanted to do something for the North American fans, so we'll be announcing it at E3."

The game in question is Kingdom Hearts! With the release of 358/2 Days serving as a side-story and Birth By Sleep being released this September being a prequel, I think we can safely assume that they ARE GOING TO ANNOUNCE KINGDOM HEARTS III!

It is due time for the main series to continue and it fits nicely within the 4 year gap that Squeenix usually takes to release their games. I can't wait to hear more details about my new favorite game ever!

They could always make another spin-off though. Please, please don't let it be another spin-off.