ROCK BAND Coming to the Wii - CONFIRMED

IGN got the inside scoop from EA, turns out all our hopes and dreams were right, Rock Band is coming to the Wii. Oh yeah! I knew my waiting (not so patiently) would pay off.

The article:
Rock Band Confirmed for Wii
EA's CEO mentions the game's 'coming launch' during a conference call.
by Ryan Geddes

January 31, 2008 - In a third-quarter conference call today, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed that a Wii version of Rock band is forthcoming.

Riccitiello mentioned the game at the end of the call's question-and-answer session. There was no release date given, but Riccitiello referred to the "coming launch" of a Wii version of the game.

There's been speculation about a Wii installment of Rock Band's since the game was announced. In April 2007, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said a Wii-specific version of the title would be coming out in the future.

"We will, at some time, bring Rock Band to every [important] platform," Rigopulos said at the time, adding that Harmonix would optimize future versions of Rock Band to fit the strengths of the platform. "I think the Wiimote is something that holds enormous promise."

Despite Rigopulos' strong statements, no official announcement had been made about a Wii version of Rock Band until Riccitiello's off-hand statement in today's conference call.

After the call, we contacted an EA rep for more details, but all we got was a confirmation that, indeed, a Wii version of Rock Band is coming.

There's still no release date (let alone any word on instruments or how additional song content might work on the Wii), but we'll let you know as soon as more info presents itself.

Lost Season 4 Premiere ... Anyone?

So the Lost Season 4 premiere event is tonight at 8:00 PM. Is anyone aside from my wife and I going to be watching it? Perhaps we could have a Lost hangout watching party. Anyone, anyone? We'd be more than willing to have a few people over if they were interested in doing so. Food will be provided. =D

ConceptArt.org is AMAZING

These are, I kid you not, 3 hour speed paintings done by an amateur on the Conceptart.org forums. Prepare yourself, these are incredible. The second I saw them my jaw hit the floor and I just about screamed when I read that they were speed paintings that he did on his SPARE TIME. Check out the forum here, and the thread here. Here's an entire thread 150 pages long full of nothing but speed paintings.

*EDIT* Okay it turns out that Blogger is stupid and won't resize to allow the full width of these pictures to be seen so I'll just link them here.

Colossus, Beast, Iceman
Carnage (seriously, holy crap on this one)
Thor, Iron Man
Venom (DANG!!)
Wolverine VS Hulk (scary, but so awesome!)

Neat Lost ARG

Observe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcmm_QXbFiY
Then go to http://flyoceanicair.com/
Then go to http://www.find815.com/

If you're a Lost fan like I am. The new video on Find815.com will make you very nearly soil yourself. Seriously, the connections are NUTS. I can't wait until tomorrow!

PAX Registration and Hotel - Alright Dudes Let's Make Some Decisions

Some as was previously mentioned, PAX early-bird registration has opened to the public. The PAX site has finally opened and the news and forums posts have begun a-flowing. You've got until March 31st to reserve your pass for only $40 so let's go on it.

But, who's going? Let's get a running total going, or at least 5 confirmed dudes so we can get a room reserved before they're gone. Last year it was a matter of weeks before the first hotel was booked solid. Looks like the average PAX rate for the three hotels is $169 a night, which is $340 if we stay Friday and Saturday night. Divide that by five dudes per room and that's $68 per dude. That's a pretty good deal!

I'm also interested in taking the train up to Seattle this year instead of giving my first of kin to simply park. If anyone else is interested in utilizing public transit, let me know. We can work something out.

Here's some the hotel info:

Sheraton
($169 for singles or doubles)
1400 6th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101
Phone: (206) 621-9000

* Pay wireless Internet ($10/day)
* In-room safe
* Coffee Maker
* Mini fridge
* Rollaway beds available for $25

Book online now!

The Grand Hyatt
($169 for singles or doubles, $179 for corner suites)
721 Pine St
Seattle, Washington 98101
Phone: 1.800.233.1234

Online Instructions:

1. Go to www.grandseattle.hyatt.com
2. Enter discount code "G-PENN" into the group/corporate # field.

The Roosevelt Hotel
($165 for singles or doubles)
1531 Seventh Avenue (Pine)
Seattle, Washington 98101
Phone: (800)716-6199 (ask for group number "ROS-GF151")

* Pay wireless Internet ($10/day)
* Rollaway beds available for $10/night

Online Instructions:

1. Go to https://www.coasthotels.com/rates?selectHotel=ROS
2. Use discount code ROS-GF151 in "group" box.

Joystiq Has HUGE SMBB Spoilerage! They will amaze and excite you!

There is so much to here that I'm simply going to provide a link to the article. The spoilers are amazing and make me REALLY excited about the potential this game has. Observe the article here.

Also, a few pictures to wet your appetite.

Advent Rising team Making Ender's Game game

Your favorite author has teamed up with some game creators to create a game based on the Battle Room from Ender's Game. Is this Awesome? I say maybe.

According to this press release Chair Entertainment Group and Orson Scott Card are teaming up to release this potentially mind bogglingly awesome game across all current generation consoles, including handhelds and PC. All versions will be made available in downloadable versions. What this means for the DS version I have absolutely no idea.

Card himself has given the company his blessing, saying, "From the moment I started working with Donald Mustard and his team at Chair, I knew that these were the guys I wanted to do the first Ender's Game video game,...It's not enough to slap the Ender's Game name on just any game--it has to be exciting, memorable, and endlessly replayable. Chair shares my understanding of this and I am looking forward to working with them to ensure the game is as authentically Enderish as possible."

I'm cautiously optimistic about this project, but I'm curious how they're going to pull it off. Also, which 'Battle Room' do you think they're talking about? The one with a bunch of kids in a giant cube with zero gravity? Or the one in Command School where they're controlling entire armadas and blowing the crap out of buggers? Either choice could potentially be amazing. Here's hoping they do a good job, Ender's Game is still one of my all time favorite books.

Super Smash Bros Brawl Intro Movie Leaked - Spoilers Ahoy

This post has been tagged SPOILERIFIC.

So after watching the drool-tastic video above, you probably noticed a few "unannounced" characters jumping around. Namely, Marth and Ness. Needless to say, I'm excited about both. I like the idea of having multiple characters from the same franchise fighting against each other.

Another little spoiler that's not in this particular video that some of you may not know about. Iwata has been doing an "Iwata Asks" with one of the creators of Smash Bros. It's an incredibly interesting read to say the least and they've released a few intriguing little spoilers as well. In this case, that there are several versions of Link available to play as. There's the obvious Twilight Princess model. And there's the shorter, more awesome, Wind Waker Link.

Also, the story mode in SMBB is actually written by non other than Kazushige Nojima. For those who don't recognize the name, this is the genius behind the storyline of Final Fantasy VII. (Yeah, THAT guy!)

Unfortunately all of this pre-release excitement is soon to end, seeing as how Japan will be getting their grubby little hands on Smash Bros at the end of the week. I'm sure we'll all be pouring over YouTube like a pack of hungry wolves searching for those "elusive" videos of Lucario and Jigglypuff going at it. ;)

Crazy Video of The Day: Hyper Parsnip Bitches!

Seriously, this video... is insane. I don't know if it's an actual game or if it's just some hilarious video mockery of side scrollers. Either way, it's absolutely hilarious. Enjoy!

Small word of caution. There's some mild language and some mild use of cartoonish violence.

Ahem...

The Khoo has struck again! Early Bird Pre-Registration is live. the link can be found Here. Have fun.

~Nephirij~

Battlestar Galactica Season 4... Also Soon To Come

Coming in April, drooling fans will finally get to see the stunning conclusion to Battlestar Galactica. This dark, space epic is a must-see for any self-professed lover of science fiction. This show is amazing and the end to season 3 was on heck of cliff hanger. With a nearly 9 month hiatus, fans are salivating at any mention of season 4 and what will be the ultimate fate of the human race.

I recently remembered that I have access to Hulu, which is still in beta and is actually getting quite good. Here's one of the final episodes from season 3. For any who have yet to catch up to the show, this is an awesome episode. And for those who have yet to catch up... enjoy this mind blowing, 'WHAT THE CRAP?!' inducing episode. ;) Enjoy

Countdown To Lost Season 4 Premiere

Oh baby oh baby six days to go for the premiere of Lost Season 4. It's been almost a year since we've seen any new Lost and, as a desperate fan of the show, it's been too long. This season promises to pick up where the last season left off and, if TV Guide is to be believed, the wait was worth it.

I just watched through season 3 once more to refresh myself and here are some questions that are still yet to be answered (Warning, spoilers are afoot)

-What was the DHARMA initiative doing on the island?
-What are those freaky smoke monsters up to and how the crap did they get there?
-Why do women who get pregnant on the island die?
-Why can Desmond see the future?
-Why did Naomi's boat show up?
-Does she work for Penny? What is Penny really up to?
-Why is Ben TERRIFIED of these people?
-Polar bears? The Black Rock?
-What the CRAP was that purple light?
-Why is Locke special?
-Who are The Others.. REALLY?
-WHO THE CRAP IS JACOB AND WHAT THE CRAP WAS ALL THAT BUSINESS?
-Did they really leave the island?

My wife and I will definitely be tuning in next Thursday to watch two hour season premiere. Anyone who wants to join is most certainly welcome to join us. Also, feel free to speculate on any number of these questions. I know I have plenty of theories. Mwa haha!

Also, a sneak peak at the season premiere. Woo hoo!

The Force Unleashed == Shaping Up To Look Amazing

Final Fantasy: Adiemus -- A Musical Montage

Yeah, I know these are done all the time. But I'm a huge Final Fantasy nerd and I really love this song. On top of it all, the clips shown are some of the most memorable from the best of the games. The only one missing is Aeris' death from VII. Oh well, what's a nerd to do? Anyway, enjoy.

Last.fm Just Got That Much More Awesome

Last.fm has just announced that, starting today, you will be able to play entire tracks and albums for free through the Last.fm website. Believe it or not they actually got all four major record labels to sign on the deal and participate.

For those of you who are just now tuning in, or are currently having a hard time soaking this in: this is a big deal. This is a huge change for the music industry, one that hasn't been seen since we were introduced to iTunes.

Right now it's going into public beta. You can listen to a track up to three times for free before the notification comes up that you'll need to sign up for the new subscription service they will be introducing. The new subscription service will allow you to listen to any track unlimited times and some "other useful things". Details on the subscription service are a little sketchy at the moment, but I'm sure the brains over at Last.fm will let us know soon.

Another interesting aspect of this is that they will be paying the artists directly. This is great news for independent artists who are looking for their big break. Now, not only can you submit your music to be play on Last.fm, but you get paid per play. Think of it as Google Adsense for music.

All in all, I'm pretty stoked that this is coming out. DRM is all but gone and the mediums currently available for music distribution are getting more interesting and more innovative everyday. Who knows, maybe soon we'll be able to get music planted directly into our brain. The iChip. Yeah, that could be cool. Except for the part where we all turn into iRobots controlled by iSteveJobs. That's pretty iScary. DANGIT!

Drumming to Super Mario 2

Alright so this is kind of a cop out, "I found this on Digg", post. But, to my defense, this is stupid awesome. This guy is apparently some sort of big shot drummer over in France. I've never heard of him, but I can say that this definitely proves that everything is improved with a good round of percussion. Also, his drum set alone is pretty amazing. Not to mention the fact that he definitely knows how to use them.

Was Cloverfield Awesome?... Why Yes, Yes It Was

'Nuff said. Also, Flickr update.

BREAKING: Penny Arcade Forum Finds Brawl Character Reveal Hidden in Video

Official Japanese Brawl Video

Forumites on the Penny Arcade thread for SSBB spotted clear evidence of previously unconfirmed characters hidden inside the official video linked above. At 4:21 there are some frames that show a couple stickers selected. At the bottom right of the screen the game displays little icons for the playable characters the sticker buffs in the one player game.




This is where we find some familiar likenesses including highly suspected brawlers including the returning Jigglypuff and Ness(!) and newcomer Lucario!!! Okay so I barely know who Lucario is other than he's one of the Pokemon that can say more than his name in Pokemon movies. But hey, way to go Penny Arcade forum people!

UPDATE: Wow, this completely confirms Nintendo slipped up: they've edited the video! Now the sections of the screen that showed the stats for the stickers are totally blank! Way to totally confirm things Nintendo!

DANGEREUX! New Penny Arcade Gameplay Footage

Game Trailers released some new footage of the actual gameplay of the upcoming Penny Arcade game; On The Rainslick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1. No 'fruit friend' in this video, but we get a first hand look at the fighting system. From the looks of it, it's a modified version of the ATB (active time battle) system.

My only issue with this clip is that it looks like battles are not going to be particularly quick affairs; they're going to be long and drawn out. Hopefully there won't be dozens upon dozens right after one another. Aside from that though, the game is looking really good with it's new polish. The cell shaded avatars look really good and definitely look like something Tycho and Gabe would pump out. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Enjoy the clip.

Adam Phillips Flash Genius!

While beating Fancy Pants 2, see Austen's post below, I collected all of the trophies. And back on the title screen, I went to the trophy room, and started looking at them. Then I double jumped the second one, who the creator of Fancy Pants is a big fan of and found this guy is a flash genius! His name is Adam Phillips, to save you the trouble of finding the trophies, his site is here: Bitey Castle . His Brackenwood series, as its called, is fantastic! I love his character Bitey, he is a goat-man-thing of sorts, but also happens to be a huge jackass, just for the sake of being a jackass. He has even rumored to do a feature length flash film, personally I am looking forward to this. All of the art and animation is done by himself, with a little outside help for particle effects and scripting. He uses Adobe Flash CS3 to pull this all off. I have yet to read his stories, but I assume they are every good as the animation is, as its all based off his writings. Bye for now!

Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2

Alright I still have yet to play Fancy Pants Adventre: World 1. But if it's anything like it's successor it's probably amazing. I actually found this fun little game on complete accident. But what I came to find is that it is probably one of the best animated sidescrolling platformer I've ever played in my life! And it's a simple flash based adventure! The music is oddly catchy and even as I write this post I have it stuck in my head.

This game isn't the next Mario. But if you find yourself with a little free time on the computer, this game is definitely worth a look-see. Enjoy!

Just Got Back From Cloverfield.....

So my wife and I just got back from Cloverfield. I have no doubt that a lot of people who won't see it until this weekend will be asking what this movie is about, so I figured this merited it's own post.

First of all, The Monster. Honestly, I fully understand why a lot of reviewers have a hard time explaining it. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's like.. kind of pale and yet... scaly. But also kinda slimy. It's HUGE and holy freaking CRAP it's scary. Seriously, everytime this thing is on screen, everyone in the theater literally screamed. Both my wife and the random lady sitting on my other side visibly gasped and grasped their chair arms every single time. The damage this thing does to New York... it's unbelievable.

Let me make this absolutely, 100% clear. THIS IS NOT GODZILLA. Not even remotely close. This monster would kick Godzilla's gargantuan butt.

Another thing, Cloverfield is remarkably intense. You absolutely feel the full weight of the devastation and absolute horror that is happening to these people. And believe me, these people go through quite a bit.

The movie itself is short. It's just shy of 90 minutes, but I promise your knuckles will be white from grabbing the arm rest, you'll have to remind yourself to blink and you'll need to wipe off your chin because your mouth will be hanging open in absolute awe and horror the entire 84 minutes.

Also, I don't know where these actors came from, I didn't recognize any of them. But, I'll remember their faces forever. Hud especially is one of the coolest characters in a movie ever. Which is strange because he gets a grand total of MAYBE 3 minutes of actual SCREEN time throughout the movie, because he's the one behind the camera. I swear to you, this guy is hilarious. I swear though, he says EXACTLY what I would be saying in this situation though. A quote. "'What the HELL is THAT?!' 'Oh that? That's a huge terrible something.' 'OH MY GOD! What was THAT?!''Oh that? A smaller something. Also terrible.'" (Critter I kid you not, that is a direct quote. Even the 'ALSO'. Seriously, this guy is ME!.)

A WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE YET TO SEE IT!! If you ever get any kind of motion sickness, I HIGHLY suggest you take some Dramamine before this movie. The ENTIRE movie is shot with a hands-on camera. It's very shaky at times due to running away from a GIANT MONSTER, among other things... You have been warned.

Oh, and one last note before I go to bed; this movie... It is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's not your typical movie. If there has ever been a 'redefining of a genre', this is it. And dang, it's done well.

.... Also the Star Trek trailer was abso-freakinglutely amazing. I heard a lot of people poo poo it. But dang, anyone who's a fan of Star Trek in any kinda way, you're going to be excited to see it. The trailer isn't long and doesn't show much. But what it does show... man it's gonna be good.

The Last Cloverfield Post I'll make .... Until After I See It

Okay, so if it's not clear that I'm excited about Cloverfield by now, you probably aren't aware of who I am, or who you are for that matter. This movie excites for more reasons than I can count. A lot of them are different than what you'd expect though. Yes, it's a monster movie, a J.J. Abrams film, a total guy movie, and YES it has the Star Trek trailer attached to it. Those are all awesome. But I'm more excited about the movies that could potentially spawn from this movie doing well.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, or if it's just me, but the movie going experience these past few years have been absolutely flooded with sequels and prequels and trilogies and out-n-out garbage. It's getting pretty ridiculous and I, for one, am tired of it. I miss original movies that had a cool story, good story telling and actual creativity attached. This is why I've grown so attached to a lot of J.J. Abrams work. Everything he does is so original and ingenious.

Lost. My god, Lost is a breath of fresh air amongst the Sea of Stagnant television that has been this past decade. It's completely original, it's unimaginably engaging. It's smart. And most of all it's creative. Every character is interesting and has an intriguing back story and when a character dies, they die for a reason. Their death MEANS something to you and often sucks REALLY bad. But at the same time it just makes you want more.

This brings me back to Cloverfield. I have no doubt that this movie is going to be more of this creative breath of fresh air to a movie industry that has needed it for some time. I've read a lot of reviews and even the naysayers have to admit that this movie is wholly different than movies we've come to know. I can't help but wonder if the reason it's getting some of the bad reviews it's getting isn't because we've been so over saturated with ridiculously bad plot lines and meaningless characters that we've forgotten about the wonder and mystery that movies are supposed instill.

Anyway, I could go on for a long time about why I'm excited about this movie. But, long story short, I'm excited that if a lot of people like this movie. The big wigs might start to realize that making fresh, creative new movies are a good thing and hopefully we'll see some more in the coming years. Along with that, I came across this little gem of a review. Don't worry, there are no major spoilers. But this guy's perspective on the movie is enlightening and exciting. Check it out here.

More Smash Bros Brawl Footage to Hold You Over

Here's some extra footage to hold you over until March. Please don't kill yourself for yet another hold up and the year's best game!

I AM GOING TO START KILLING PEOPLE....

Well it seems the trend lately is to announce a product, and then just before its release, OOPS SORRY were pushing it back another month. First it was Rock Band, then Brawl, then Brawl again, and yet Brawl again it seems... Well now its YET ANOTHER Rock Band related push back. All the instruments that were scheduled to pop up on February 4th are pushed back to March 4th. I can't say I blame them, with all the failures at launch, I'm surprised they just didn't cave in and make a deal with Red Octane. Hopefully they have tightened up things at the China plant, so these faults don't reoccur. We already know the REV2 guitar was great, so hopefully the wireless REV will be that much better. Only time will tell....

Also: Hopes and Dreams Crushed

As a continuation of my PAX posts, PRD recently posted Here that there will be no open call for Enforcers this year, as almost all of last years Enforcers and those from previous years are staying on. Here's hoping I can be an Enforcer in '09.

~Nephirij~

PAX Registration to Open Soon

I know that this is not a very big story, as compared to MacWorld or a Smash Bros delay, but I figured I'd get the ball rolling on my soon to be plethora of PAX posts. Robert Khoo recently posted in this thread that pax early bird registration would be opening within two weeks of his posting. That was five days ago. This is a good thread to watch, because he also states that before they officially announce pre-registration opening on the main Penny-Arcade.com page, he is going to post a link to the pre-registration form, to give us a chance to "Beta test" the form. I can't wait.

~Nephirij~

MacWorld 2008 Begins - Keynote to Insight Hemmoraging amongst Apple Fans

So I'm excited, are you excited?! I'M SO EXCITED!!! Soon, Steve Jobs will don his black turtle neck and begin speaking to his loyal worshipers of the Apple. What shall the Mac Gods bestow upon us today? Insanely skinny multi-touch tablets? 80GB iPod Touch? The iHouse? iChips directly connected to my iBrain?! We shall find out soon. Stay tuned, I'll update this post with all the juicy details as they're released.

UPDATE: Steve announces Time Machine compliment: Time Capsule. Basically Time Machine is great for desktop machines, but horrible for laptops. Time Capsule is essentially the same thing, but done wirelessly. Neat.

It's actually a wireless hard drive. It looks like an Airport Extreme but with more ports in the back. Two models: 500GB and 1TB. (GEEZ!) $299, $499.

UPDATE: New iPhone features:
Maps with locations, webclips, customizable home screens, SMS multiple people at once, chapters, subtitles, and language support in video, and lyrics support in audio.

iPhone SDK to be released in February. HOLY CRAP!

Tons of other features for the iPhones, cool stuff. Rearranging icons. Maps demo now -- page curls up, search and directions buttons now -- if you've seen the 1.1.3 demo vids, this is exactly it. "Schoom. And there we are." as it locates Steve in the Moscone. "I can flip right into directions, and it uses my current location to start..." calculating the route back.

Really super accurate GPS. Customizable Home Screen.

UPDATE: iTunes. Movie Rentals, including HD. $2.99 for old movies, $3.99 for new movies. Also, Apple TV getting a bit of an update. Rent directly from AppleTV only a dollar more. No computer needed anymore. Pretty cool.

Movies stream directly to you so the movies you rent you can watch IMMEDIATELY.

HD Podcasts. Also HD Music Videos. Steve's very excited about the amount of HD stuff they've got.

AppleTV reduced to $229. Effective today.

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. THE MACBOOK AIR. It's tiny. REALLY tiny. It's the thinnest, lightest laptop in the world. Seriously, HOLY CRAP. This thing is TINY. At it's widest point it's .76 inches thick. At it's thinnest point... .16 INCHES!! It's so thin you can fit it inside a vanilla envelope. He puts it in it!



BRAIN SPLODE!!! It’s an LED backlit display that’s instant-on. It also has a built-in iSight camera, and a full-sized keyboard. Backlit too, with a trackpad and multi-touch gesture support on the trackpad.

Intel Core 2 Duo Inside, 1.6 GHz standard, with a 1.8GHz upgrade available. Apple asked Intel to shrink their Core 2 Duo processors down to a package 60% smaller in order to fit it inside the MacBook Air. And here’s Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini to talk about it.



While browsing the web, the battery has about a 5 hour life. It has a solid state hard drive. No optical drive whatsoever. But it has the Time Capsule, Movie Rentals and even has a special new feature called Remote Drive. It can literally borrow the optical drive of another computer on the same wireless network and install things that requite an optical drive, remotely. Impressive.

$1799. Ships in two weeks, you can pre-order it now.

Smash Bros Brawl Delayed Again

Now we have to wait until March 9. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is all.

HUGE Cloverfield Monster Details

Okay, so Slashfilm just got the skinny on a treasure trove of info on the Cloverfield monster. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please come out from the rock you're living under and turn on the interwebs.

Anyway, it's big. This article is chock full of info. It has some small insights into the storytelling of the movie itself, and HUGE insights into the monster. I'm just going to provide a link to the article for those who want to read it, so no spoilers will be had in this post, but I will tell you this: This movie is going to be scary. I mean REALLY scary. You may not get that impression when you first read this article. But take into consideration the last paragraph of this article. Now think about who's producing this, who's writing it, and who's directing it. These guys are not amateurs. They make intense shows and a lot of them are intense for a multitude of reasons, not just BOO!, something scary just popped out. Plan on a ton of emotional drama mixed and tainted with unbelievable horror and terrifying things.

All in all, after this article. Any amount of skepticism I may have had about seeing this movie is gone. See you at the movies!

THE ARTICLE OF DOOOOM!!!

UPDATE: It seems there's a review too, this guy didn't just like the movie, he RAVES about it. Seriously, I've never read a more excited review of a movie... ever. Listen to what this guy says. Check it out here. Small warning, this guy has a pretty bad mouth, but this guy is excited. Read with caution.

CES: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed MORE DETAILS

I found this little gem amongst Arstechnica's little archive. Prepare to freak out. Seriously, I think I peed a little when I read this stuff. Enjoy!


"So should we show him Grim Fandango 2?" That's the question I'm asked as I walk into Lucasart's suite at CES, and everyone laughs. I don't laugh, because that joke IS NOT FUNNY; it's like they showed me a kitten and then killed it. But we are going to see Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and in terms of impressive use of Force effects, this is above and beyond anything we've seen in previous games.

"Every time you hit that face button, we want you to feel that power," I'm told as I watch one of the Lucasarts employees show off Force Unleashed. I'm not allowed to do a full preview, but I can say that the game is fast and mean; the force powers do some crazy things, and the play is impacted by the physics in amazing ways.

You try to pick up a StormTrooper and he grabs onto a crate while screaming. You yank up on him with the Force again, and both the 'Trooper and the crate fly into the air. The force powers and the physics get even crazier; if you force push a metal door, it twists and deforms realistically. Some of the other things that stood out:

* The main character, the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, is played by Sam Witwer, BattleStar Galactica's Crashdown
* He holds his lightsaber behind his back in a way that looks very unorthodox but pleasingly menacing, and also allows players to see the entire lightsaber since the camera is always behind the player.
* Boss bottles will be huge in scope, including a Rancor fight. There will be God of War-like button-tapping sections at the end of the battle, but it will only be for more points; you won't lose a battle by missing a button press
* There will be character and lightsaber customization, although you won't be able to dual-wield or have dual-bladed lightsabers
* The Wii version of the game will include a two-player duel mode where you can show off your lightsaber skills against a friend in the same room.
* The PSP version will contain classic scenes from other Star Wars movies with the more over-the-top force powers of Unleashed

I was very impressed by the game; it looked great and the Force powers really brought home the idea of this evil, dominating character. The game is currently in alpha and planned for a summer release.

Via ArsTechnica

Worlds Fastest DDR Player

So jealous of those moves!

Two Rock Band Drum Kits + One Man + One Song = DAAAAAAANG!

This guy has many awesome drumming videos but this one really highlights his ingenuity and skills. By connecting two Rock Band drum kits to his computer and using the program DTXmania he was able to use them both to play one song! I salute you sir!

Darth Vader and Yoda Set to Appear in Soul Caliber IV, Chuck Norris Still Unconfirmed

Looks like fighting games are making a big comeback of late. The ever hot Smash Bros. Brawl and newly announced Street Fighter IV are now joined by the news that Soul Caliber IV will include two of fiction's most famous saber wielders. That's right, Darth Vader and Yoda are confirmed playable! The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny is so close you can feel it. It feels like... fighting spirit... or maybe a warm couch?