Saturday, June 2, 2012

Brace Yourselves; E3 is Coming

Hey, I'm already making Game of Thrones references and I haven't even started watching it yet. Welcome to the week (Well, couple of days now) before E3. There's been interesting rumors going on and even some announcements already. Sometimes either the industry can't wait, have something bigger things up their sleeve or they really have nothing else to present at the conferences next week. Lets just hope for bigger things. Nintendo has been quiet this year. In the past things have either been leaked, but this time they have been air tight. Well, almost. All we know so far is that they may be announcing a new Mario game and their new console will debut later this year. Let's also hope for a new 3DS design.

  • One of the more interesting rumors which is now officially an announcement, was a proposed new Star Wars game. Everyone was hoping for a new Battlefront. I know I was. Instead we got something a little different. Well, way different. What was announced recently was a new Mature Star Wars game. Which could be interesting? I mean I know I've come up in a conversation before were what if Star Wars had more mature themes? We kinda got our answer in form of a book in which Stormtroopers are tortured, which came with mixed results. The game sounds interesting though, which I think stars Boba Fett. Hopefully it will be better than what Force Unleashed was supposed to be.


  • Not really interested in this next game. I mean it looks nice. What this game is essentially is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe without Mortal Kombat. Well I mean it could be good, but when you see Batman punch Solomon Grundy through a roof, I think something may be off. I mean I just played a game playing as Batman trying to fight Solomon Grundy. And I had few problems just trying to get near him. Unless they explain Batman has super powers somehow, this game probably shouldn't be taken seriously. Also some of the costume designs are strange.



  •  Dead Space 3 seems to have been officially announced. And apparently with co-op. Issac Clarke looks to be in it. I think. Because of his everyman face, it could be anyone. It's most likely him though, just with some new facial hair. Looks like Ellie is out of the picture too giving us a new male protagonist. They probably want to make it less similar to Resident Evil 5 anyway. Lets just hope the co-op is better than Resident Evil 5. I expect it to be more interesting and creepy on Xbox Live. Now the concept going on in my head sounds awesome. Oh, yeah and this one will take place on an ice planet. Similar to Hoth. And environments similar to The Thing. here are a few pictures of the co-op play: http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2012/05/dead-space-3.html



  •  Another assassin is making its way to the 360 and PS3. Its been a while, but another Hitman game is coming. While it looks beautiful the story is, well, weird. Like if its straight out of a Kill Bill movie. Has it always been like this? No, idea. It's looking really good though. And supposedly we will be getting huge crowds of people to hide in the game. More than any other game. I find it funny that the trailer takes a jab at Assassins Creed.



  • It may not be the game we wanted, but if anyone loved Bayonetta, you will love this:



    • Lets see, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron will be on PC, a new Gears of War was announced, and PS Vita will get a female assassin for the Assassins Creed series, just to get that news out of the way. Now onto Blu-ray news.  Looks like we will be getting a better ET cover. With a steelbook for some reason. Not sure what warrants a steelbook these days (Jaws is getting one too, for which I like the artwork more honestly): 

    •  Not only has the Avengers Blu-ray been announced, but a huge Ultimate set is coming as well. It comes with Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and finally The Avengers. The packaging will most likely be revealed at Comic-Con or a little before then. It looks like it will be packaged in the Tesseract briefcase though. Note the announcement picture:

    Friday, May 18, 2012

    Blade of Thrones

    Well, looks like schools over for me for the summer. I look forward to a good amount of things this summer as well. Got three movies on my watch list that I cannot wait to see. I also saw Avengers, I didn't get to talk about that a lot and you probably won't see me do that here. Ok, I lied; Avengers was fantastic. And that's it. I think we have heard enough of The Avengers already. I saw it twice, second time was ok. Unfortunately the IMAX 3D hurt my eyes for a while and gave me a migraine. Not fun. Not to say the movie wasn't though. Just never do converted 3D, even if it is for a movie like that.

    • As a shout-out to a comrade, Happy two days belated Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones day! I don't exactly remember what I thought of the film when I first saw it. I remember I liked Jango Fett, start of the Clone Wars on Geonosis, Yoda doing his CGI thing (kinda), and a bunch of other foreshadowing moments. I don't know about the Anakin and Padme thing though. It probably always creeped me out. One thing I do remember was the rumors about the movie title. I speculated with my cousin on potential movie titles. All probably being more terrible than Attack of the Clones. The Clone Wars should have just been the definitive title. Instead we got a TV show doing everything awesome the movie didn't do. I think we also speculated on the First movie's title probably thinking of titles way better than The Phantom Menace. But with Revenge of the Sith it was a nice homage to Return of the Jedi, which was almost Revenge of the Jedi to you non-Star Wars geeks out there (A time before Lucas' mind lapsed). We didn't find anything wrong with that one.
    •  Blade Runner has officially gotten a sequel. How I feel about this; well, no idea. Ridley Scott is back as well as the original writer. I guess there's nothing really to worry about then. Prometheus is looking pretty promising, even if I know most of the plot by now. You have to hate the internet sometimes. While we are on that note: Please avoid the international trailer. Even in those circumstances, I am really glad its gotten an R rating like it was fully intended. If this movie lives up to Ridley's Sci-fi legacy we have been waiting to see return on screen for years, then I'm sure the Blade Runner sequel will be an equally welcoming return. I just hope Ridley can make some new things after this. I'm sure Ridley was more movies on mind related that he has been wanting to try for years. Also on a related note: Bring back Vangelis.
    •  I've recently gotten hold of the first season of  the Game of Thrones. Which are video files, but still in HD and completely legal this time. Well, mostly. Anyway, no idea where this will go. Haven't really seen a premium cable show since Dexter and only seen the first season. Which will be my only season. There's reasons. Back to Game of Thrones. I saw about maybe 10 minutes and it looked pretty good. I plan to see it all during summer along with a ton of other shows. 
    • E3 is around the corner, while I didn't get my ticket I still plan to cover most of the important things that come out of the conferences. I think probably the thing I don't want to be announced are Next-gen consoles. We don't really need them. It was pretty expensive to get the consoles we have now. Although, Nintendo desperately needs a new console now. I really don't blame them. I barely touch mine and I am kinda embarrassed to admit so. I actually want to play games on a Nintendo console more than an Xbox or PlayStation. I miss the Nintendo experience. I also plan to get myself a 3DS soon as I miss playing portable Nintendo games as well. I never look forward to anything PlayStation has to offer anyways. I always watch each year in anticipation for a new Kingdom Hearts game, a sequel this time, or news on the next Team ICO game. I especially don't want to watch for that stupid Smash Bros. clone. It may be just Xbox and Nintendo this year. Here's hoping to some good surprises and just a good E3 overall.

    Friday, April 6, 2012

    Lupin III: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna Premiere Review


    Not a bad opening to the new Lupin III series. Its taken quite a more serious tone this time. The show is very stylized which make the characters seem more serious. Lupin is still the same thief he has always been. This isn’t Castle of Cagliostro, so no worries there. While were on the Castle of Cagliostro comparison; this anime is far from that. Taking on some more adult themes (Fujiko is naked throughout the intro as well as topless throughout most of the first episode) Lupin is not only looking good, but more mature as well. Maybe not the title character so much, but just the look of the series can tell you that.

    There were some concerns about the show from the beginning that Lupin won’t be the main focus of the show, but will be about when Lupin and Fujiko Mine first met and how it would be centered around her. I also heard rumors how the show would have gratuitous nudity and may be either harem or ecchi. I’m not a fan of either and do know some people share that same quality. I can tell you right now though, there's a lot of nudity. Well, Fujiko is topless throughout most of the first episode. It's supposed to show her strong personality. Although, not everyone will see it the same way.

    While the show has slight ecchi it shouldn’t be a major problem. Fujiko is depicted in a very strong female role and you don’t see that very often. She’s shown as manipulative, sexy, and cunning; all of which make her a perfect rival and sometimes perfect match for Lupin. To be honest, I’m not sure where the show is going. Either way I am glad to see Lupin back in action.

    By the way, here's a trailer for the show with a bit of split second NSFW: