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.