Commerical: Clearasil – Baby Pictures

 

One of the better commercials I’ve witnessed recently. Admit it, it turned you on (if you’re a guy).

And So It Begins…

…the epic battle between homework and Master Chief.

My impressions on the game coming soon.

Penny Arcade = The Truth

via Penny Arcade
(click for a bigger view)

“We have no plans to do so in the standard controller that ships with PlayStation 3. I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did. Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature; it’s not the next-generation feature. I think motion sensitivity is. And we don’t see the need to do that. Having said that, there will be specific game function controllers, potentially like steering wheels that do include vibration or feedback function—not from us but from third parties.“

– Phil Harrison tells GameDaily BIZ

No one calls someone out for BS like the guys over at PA!

What Sucks About Online Smash

So last week Sakurai eased the hearts of millions of Smash fans by announcing Wi-Fi multiplayer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The announcement was quite soothing considering the fact that Reggie refrained from mentioning Smash as one of the many games that will be utilizing Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Sweet. Awesome. Great news. What sucks is that the online mode is a bit on the dry side (from what we know at the moment) in terms of features and capabilities. Actually, it’s pretty weaksauce in my opinion. Here’s why.

• No Voice Chat. Instead we’re left with messages that are triggers with taunts via the +Control pad. Damn it Nintendo, you can put voice chat on the DS yet you can’t pull it off on the Wii? Unacceptable. It’s not as if it’s new technology or anything. When I’m spiking noobs with Samus over the interwebs I want to rub it in with some good old fashioned verbal abuse! Text just doesn’t cut it sometimes.

  

• Friend Codes. The annoyance with these is self-explanatory, especially if you’re bad at memorizing numbers like me.

  

• Anonymous Brawls Suck – You’ll have the option to fight against friends or random strangers. Fighting with friends gives you a wider range of options available. When fighting against strangers you won’t be able to view the other person’s name or information. When I say anonymous, I mean it. You won’t be able to gain ranking points when fighting strangers either. Wow.
• Weak Long Distance Connections – “The more distant you are, the worse your connection becomes, and the slower it feels. I apologize, but I hope you understand.” – Sakurai. Ugh.

Smashbros.com mentions that more game modes will be reveals as we get closer to Dec 3rd, but I doubt they will right the many wrongs that Nintendo has chosen when implementing Wi-Fi play in Smash. Could these be fixed via software updates post-launch? Could Nintendo develop a headset to accompany Smash this fall? Who knows? Either way, Nintendo can’t afford to fudge a game with huge online potential. Smash is guaranteed to become a hit this fall but an great online mode would make its replay value something only Halo can match. Super Smash Bros. is one of the greatest multiplayer experiences of our time, and I want to see statement carried out in the future.

My friends and I still play Melee regularly till this day, yet it came out back in 2001. How long do you think hardcore Smash brothers would keep Brawl alive with a great online mode?

Don’t mess this up Nintendo. Please

Iron Man Trailer

I don’t know how this trailer slipped by me. But yeah, Iron Man comes out May 2, 2008 and it looks pretty good actually. I’m quite surprised.

 

Pretty good humor here and there, wouldn’t you say?

LOL: Halo Advert Remake

Here’s the original Halo 3 Commercial

  And here’s the remix. Hilarious.

August NPD in Two Words: “Nintendo” and “Madden”

The August sales numbers came in a little bit early this month.

via NPD, GamedailyBIZ & Joystiq

• Nintendo Wii: 403.6K (4 million total)
• Nintendo DS: 383.3K (12.7 million total)
• Microsoft Xbox 360: 276.7K (6.3 million)
• Sony PlayStation 2: 202K (39.1 million total)
• Sony PSP: 151.2K (8.3 million total)
• Sony PlayStation 3: 130.6K (1.75 million total)

Nintendo is still calling the shots with Wii and DS stealing the top spots. Microsoft made some smart moves by dropping the price of the 360 simultaneously with the release of Madden ‘08, which definitely paid off considering they outsold the PS3 by 2-to-1. The PS2 is still kicking it’s younger brother’s ass

Now for the software. Just like I predicted, the month’s numbers prove the obvious: America loves American Football. Madden ‘08 dominates the charts. I’m glad to see Bioshock is doing very well at roughly half a million units in its first month. Wii Play is still selling well for some weird reason. Metroid Prime 3 moved over 200K units which is pretty good since it was released only four days before the end of the month.

01. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) – 896,600
02. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) – 643,600
03. BioShock (Xbox 360) – 490,900
04. Madden NFL 08 (PS3) – 336,200
05. Wii Play (Wii) – 256,800
06. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) – 218,100
07. Mario Strikers Charged (Wii) – 147,400
08. Guitar Hero II (PS2) – 145,400
09. Mario Party 8 (Wii) – 138,300
10. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2) – 127,100

Music Video of the Week #4

Abba – Money, Money, Money

I dunno, man. Something about this video was so epic. Like the epic zoom-in’s…the epic close-up lips. Just epic man.

Because Guns Solve Everything: ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’

So I saw Shoot ‘Em Up the other day, and…I really don’t know what to say. People ask me whether it was good or bad and I simply reply “It was entertaining…for guys.” That’s the best way I can describe it. Pure man-tainment. This ain’t your girlfriend’s movie. Clive Owen, doing his best impersonation of his role in Sin City, plays “Smith”, an angry British sharpshooter caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He witnesses a pregnant woman being chased by a thug and decides to help her out. This leads him into a two-hour gunfight of a movie between him, a notorious hitman and his goons. The baby that gets born is obviously important since everybody wants it dead. Smith takes it as his personal responsibility to protect the baby and find out why everyone is after it. Oh, and he has a lactating prostitute (Monica Bellucci) by his side throughout the film to keep the baby well fed.

That’s all you need to know really, because the rest of the movie is just Clive Owen forcing caps up peoples asses and stabbing them in the face with carrots. Yes, you heard me, carrots. There is some variety though, as he shoots people while having sex, he shoots people as he’s vaulted through a car windshield, and even while he jumps out of an airplane. Hence the name “Shoot ‘Em Up.”

But seriously, you’ll enjoy this flick if your a fan of outrageous action and people using guns to solve their problems. Helping a woman give birth but don’t have a sterile knife to cut the umbilical cord? Why not use a gun? No, I’m serious, he actually cut an umbilical cord by shooting it in like in the first ten minutes of the film. I sh*t you not. That’s when you realize these people are taking the name of the movie seriously.

Even though this movie was kinda crazy at times, I still enjoyed it. I wasn’t a big fan of the large amount of one-liners; they were a bit hit-or-miss (mostly miss) and unnecessary at times. If you’re in the mood for some serious adrenaline or just some Monica Bellucci cleavage-action, go see it. If not, skip it. Go watch Bourne Ultimatum again.

Bang.

Kanye vs. 50: Even If One Loses, They Both Win In the End

So tomorrow is Judgement Day in the sales war between Kanye West and 50 Cent as they are about to release their new albums. I’m slightly annoyed that this tussle of words, which started off by Mr. Cent claiming he would retire from rapping if West outsold him, has blown up with some serious media attention. Only slightly annoyed, because I see 50 Cent as outdated fad, kinda like baggy jeans. Seriously, I almost thought 50 Cent was actually dead because had zero affect on my life after the Get Rich or Die Tryin days of my junior year in high school. But I have to hand it to Fiddy; give the man a lemon and he’ll make you some lemonade. He’s just done something smart; by causing this conflict with West, 50 will obviously sell more CD’s than he would have if he didn’t make such a stupid bet. Rapper or marketing wiz kid?

The pseudo-beef between the two rappers has increased their publicity and has given their fans even more reason to buy their album instead of downloading them for free over the internet. I go to school in RIT, a school notorious illegal media sharing and officially recognized by the RIAA, and I know plenty people who are willing the shell out dough for ‘Graduation’ or ‘Curtis,’ and these people rarely (by rarely, I mean never) ever buy CD’s. People will buy Kanye’s album to ensure 50 retirement (please!), and 50 fans will buy his to let people know that 50 is still the man to beat. It’s simple.

Who do I think is gonna win? I really don’t know. Kanye has been riding a recent wave of great pubicity in mags like Newsweek (or Time, not too sure) but then again, 50 knows how to sell. It’s gonna be close. I’m a Kanye fan at heart because he’s been that unique rapper (well his beats aren’t so unique I guess) for me in recent times, rapping about things other than rims and what-not. I’ve heard ‘Graduation’ already (Go RIT!) and I love it, especially ‘Homecoming’ with Chris Martin from Coldplay. It might just be his best album yet but I won’t be too quick to say that.

But I REALLY want Kanye to win just to see if 50 will actually retire. Wouldn’t that just be hi-LAR-ious?

Yes. It would be funny.