Ok, so maybe I jumped the gun. E3!!!!!

Clearly me wanting to update all the time was a pipe dream.  But a bit of rare 'me' time and this week's E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) announcements have me too excited to not write a bit.

WII

With the announcement of the Wii U (more on that later), it looks like releases for the Wii will slow down this year, but there are still a few games to get excited about.  One of these, of course, will be the new Zelda game, Skyward Sword.  Others include Mario Party 9, a new 4-player Kirby game, Fortune Street (a board game made by Nintendo and Square-Enix that is basically Mario Party + Monopoly with Dragon Quest and Mario characters), and a new Wii Play that uses MotionPlus.

Some points I want to make about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  It has been confirmed that the game takes place before Ocarina of Time, and clearly this is meant to be an origin story for the Master Sword, perhaps even showing us how the sword got into the Temple of Time.   There are however, a few more tidbits that caught my attention.

In the latest trailer we got to see a big flying whale with teeth that seems to swallow up Zelda (who may or may not be a Princess in this game).  One of the main things I loved about Ocarina of Time was nods to other games in the series and a sense of 'interconnectedness' (that word borrowed from Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series).  When I first saw Jabu Jabu in the Zora area in Ocarina, I immediately got excited and thought "Holy mackeral!  That's the WIND FISH!!!!"

The Wind Fish is the mysterious being who is responsible for the Game Boy Zelda game, Link's Awakening.  He is a giant whale who hatches from a Yoshi egg at the end of the game and flies away.  We have now seen multiple forms of this guy, and if Skyward Sword offers more info about this magical creature, I would squee like a 16 year old girl at Anime North.   I firmly believe the Wind Fish was Jabu Jabu, and therefore Jabun from Zelda: The Wind Waker.  And now we are seeing him as a force in Skyward Sword, and flying, so perhaps he will be called the Wind Fish again.

The other piece of interconnectedness I've noticed, that I don't see anyone else on the internet talking about, is the fact that the new bad guy in Skyward Sword looks like a purple-wearing magic wizard that serves Ganon called Lord Ghirahim.  Well shiver my timbers!  While this guy at first was rumoured to be Vaati from the Minish Cap and Four Swords games, it seems to me like we have seen a purple-wearing magic wizard that served Ganon before!  His name was Agahnim, the Ganon-possessed wizard from A Link To The Past.  


Gee, those names seem to be similar...   as an aside, the word Ghira is an Arabic word meaning self-respect, jealousy and it is a feeling of fury with great anger when one's honour and prestige is challenged or injured.


WII U

So, Nintendo announced the successor to the Wii.  It is due to release in 2012, and seems to be more focused on providing games for ALL gamers, both hardcore and casual.  It is more powerful than the X-Box 360 and PS3, and comes with a tablet controller.  Picture an iPad with a camera that faces you, a microphone, and all the buttons of a traditional controller, two joysticks, and with the same sense of tilt and motion as a Wii Remote.  It is capable of receiving images from the Wii U console, so you can keep playing your games when someone else wants to use the TV.  The second screen is also great for keeping the main screen clear of clutter, so your game map, radar, weapon selection, score, timers, etc. can be glanced at right in front of you.


Many franchises normally associated with non-Wii consoles, like Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Battlefield, Batman: Arkham City, etc. have been announced for the Wii U, so mature/hardcore/dedicated players should have no fear that the Wii U will be lacking in 3rd-party support.  While the Wii ended up being mostly known for 'family' and 'casual' games, Wii U seems to be targeted at a wider audience.  


If you see any games you think look great on your PS3 or X-Box 360, rest assured that the Wii U will provide games looking at least as good, if not significantly better.  The Wii U will show games in HD up to full 1080p, and games shown at E3 while rushed and built on incomplete hardware already look just as good as games on the PS3 and 360.  And to put even more fears to rest, Nintendo brought out the head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, during the Nintendo press conference, to tell everyone how excited EA is to start working on Wii U sports games and shooters, as well as more traditionally 'Wii' games like the fitness games, The Sims, etc.


Nintendo also hosted a developer roundtable for UbiSoft, one of the other huge 3rd-Party publishers to talk more about games planned for the Wii U like the Tom Clancy series (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, etc), Rayman (and the Rabbids), Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and a new First Person Shooter franchise exclusive to Wii U called Killer Freaks From Outerspace.


While the design of the console is not 100% finalized, early builds look like a sleeker, rounded-edged, sexier Wii.  The Wii U will also be fully compatible with all current generation Wii games and controllers.  Their online services also look to be improved.  Friend Codes are no longer involved, and the Wii U controller was shown being used for video chatting with friends.


Nintendo themselves said they are working on a new Smash Brothers game, possibly a Pikmin game, and are publishing LEGO: City Stories (basically a LEGO Grand Theft Auto game).  They showed tech-demos (NOT official games) at E3 that included a New Super Mario Bros. game that uses your Mii characters alongside Mario and Luigi.  Lots of other cool ones that would take too long to explain right now, but stay tuned.




3DS


As proof that Nintendo is working to improve their online infrastructure, the 3DS got its first major update this week as well.  The Nintendo eShop is now available, and instead of Wii Points, all prices for games are listed as Dollars.


All the upcoming 3DS games shown at E3 have 3D preview videos available for free, included the new Super Mario game (which looks like a 3D Super Mario Bros. 3, Tanooki suit and all), the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, Star Fox, Kid Icarus: Uprising, a new Animal Crossing, a new Luigi's Mansion, a new Paper Mario, and TWO new Resident Evil games (one of which is based on the Mercenaries mode from RE:4 and 5, and the other is a full new RE game that IGN.com is already called 'too good to just be on a handheld').


So, I'm SO glad I have a 3DS!!     The eShop also is giving everyone a free copy of a new 3D Pokedex for Pokemon Black and White which will let you add Pokemon to the 'Dex either by trading with friends over StreetPass, straight from Nintendo with SpotPass, or using special Pokemon AR Cards.  Its a pretty full-featured Pokedex from my first look at it, although I wish it just read my Pokemon White game and gave me all the Pokemon I already found.  But for free software, I'm not complaining.


Everyone for the next month also gets the first game in the Virtual Console 3D Classics series:  Excitebike.  So, another FREE game.  This 3D Classics series basically takes old Virtual Console games from the NES (and maybe other systems) and adds 3D effects to it.  A 3D Super Mario Bros. should be coming soon as well.  So, Excitebike is the same game from the NES, but you can now see it in 3D, which looks great and is fully adjustable for your eyes.


The eShop also is starting to offer old Game Boy and Game Boy Color games for sale.  You can get Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (and meet the Wind Fish yourself!), which is a Must-Buy.  Lots of original content is for sale too, like Plants vs. Zombies, Cave Story, and other great indie PC games.  Casual games like Scrabble, Sudoku, Word Searches, Hangman, etc are there too for as little as $1.99 CDN.

All in all, the eShop is very well organized and fun to browse, and I hope there is a steady stream of releases for it.  Looks like Nintendo is going to keep giving us free games and demos every once in a while too, so there's never been a better time to go get a 3DS.




X-BOX 360/ PS3

I'm not doing a full PS3 write-up because I don't own one, but most of the games I'm excited about on the 360 are on the PS3 as well, and vice-versa.  Sony showed off their next handheld, called Vita instead of PSP2.  If you enjoyed the PSP, you will like this, and if you never cared about PSP, feel free to keep not caring.  They added a touch pad to the back so you can finger it while you play, which is kinda cool, and it looks like it will probably handle Uncharted and Little Big Planet pretty well, so there you go.


Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim looks amazing, and after all the fun I had with Oblivion, I'm sure I'll be picking this one up.  Batman: Arkham City is also making me drool, especially since it's been announced you can play as Catwoman, but now that I know it's coming to Wii U next year, I might try to wait until then.  We shall see how successful I am at THAT.


They announced a remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, which has me intrigued since I loved the first one but never owned it, and they also announced Halo 4!  It's supposed to kick off a new trilogy, so they might change the '4' to a subtitle at some point, but I can't say i'm not interested.


I've never been a Call of Duty player (Sorry Jess!) but they keep looking amazing and now there will be a Call of Duty subscription service you can buy that will allow you to get ALL expansions as they come out for any game in the series from now until the end of time, so it's probably worth it for those of you who buy each game.  Lots of extra content and ways to interact with other Call of Duty players will be included.  Then again, aren't you already paying for X-Box LIVE?  Hmmmm.... decisions....

And every game Microsoft showed off had some form of Kinect play included, plus an announcement from UbiSoft that ALL future Tom Clancy games for X-Box will include Kinect support, I guess it's a BIG part of X-Box plans from here on out.  They want EVERY X-Box owner to have one, just like Nintendo wants everyone to have a Wii MotionPlus, so start saving up!


There's a lot more little announcements that Microsoft made but nothing earth-shattering or as exciting as say, WII U!  so for now I'll sign off.








Let me know in the comments section if you have any  questions about stuff, I've read enough info and seen enough videos that I'd love an excuse to make another post about this stuff, and it'll save you a trip to IGN.


FREE TETRIS is not on the 3DS, but it is, right here on my blog!  Enjoy!

Just some thoughts today.

I'm doing some cleanup on my computer.  Sorting things into folders, keeping pictures together, you know, the usual.  While this is going on, I had some random news updates to share with you all, in case these slipped you by.

-Chris Jericho is going to be on the next Dancing With The Stars.

-Lil' Jon is going to be on the next Celebrity Apprentice

-Micheal Rosenbaum is going to play Lex Luthor in the series finale of Smallville

-The US Government has ACCIDENTALLY secured steps toward Net Neutrality for everyone, while writing up the terms for Comcast buying NBC-Universal.  Basically - Comcast is not allowed to block Netflix on its pipes, and it must agree to license NBC content to third parties like iTunes even if they are competitors.  This will be the most concrete rule ever put into US legislation that says ISPs can't configure their networks so that their own content runs fine while content from competitors is kept running jittery and laggy.

-I've got my 3DS pre-ordered.  Do you?  When I get it, expect pictures and reviews of whatever I can get my hands on, right here - same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

-On a related note, if you have any Pokemon games and would like to help me catch 'em all, please let me know.  I'm getting Pokemon White very soon.

-Australia has BANNED the new Mortal Kombat game, because their rating system is completely insane.  They have no ratings above what we would call 14A, for video games.  Which means anything we get that is rated 'M for Mature' (17+), has to be either toned down to make it suitable for 14 year olds, or it can't be sold.  What a strange land down under...

-Christian Bale and Natalie Portman are now Oscar winners.

-I haven't been on World of Warcraft in a while, I don't really know why other than the fact that the rest of life seems more interesting right now.  I feel kind of bad about it, but at the same time, I have no idea when I will play again.

Random pic of the week #2

This is Heath Ledger behind the scenes on The Dark Knight, skateboarding on his downtime.  The Batman is indeed Christian Bale.  Good times!

Upcoming comic book movies

Mike and I have been talking a lot about the new batch of comic book movies coming out this year. I still don't know which one I'm looking forward to the most, but I hope by the end of writing today that I'll come to a conclusion.

The movies I'm talking about are 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Green Lantern.

By looking at the directors of each, maybe something will jump out at me as proof of the merits of each film.


Captain America:  Directed by Joe Johnston.  A former Oscar winner for the visual effects on Raiders Of The Lost Ark, he has directed some decent-to-terrible movies in the past.  None really stand out as great cinema classics, although some of his films have a special place in the hearts of 90's kids.
His past movies include:

• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
• Jumanji
• The Pagemaster
• The Rocketeer
• Jurassic Park 3
• October Sky
• Hidalgo
• The Wolfman

Now, looking at this list, it would be easy to assume he will do a great job with Captain America.  After all, Captain America is a movie based on a comic book, which already puts kids and teens in the target audience.  But this Captain America movie is based in World War 2, and so ideally it would be a war story first, and a kids superhero story second or third.

Thor:  Directed by Professor Lockhart.  Or is it Dr. Frankenstein?  Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Kenneth Branagh!

Known more as an actor than a director, Branagh is a master at classic Shakesperean stories.  He is best known in Europe for his work in stage theatre, but his knack for casting himself in the lead in movies he directs makes it a surprise that he isn't strapping on the winged helmet and hammer for Thor.

His past movies include:

• Henry V
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Frankenstein
• Hamlet
• As You Like It

See the pattern?   Thor, being very close in tone to other ancient stories, seems to be a good fit.  The movie is about a Norse god's fall from Asgard, and his journey of redemption for his father's love, and fighting against his evil brother.  Sounds like Shakespeare to me!  My main concern is that Thor is also part of the larger Marvel family of movies, like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America.  So this will be Branagh's first attempt at a real summer blockbuster kind of action movie.  I'm sure I'll like it if the movie is all character examination in vaguely European accents, but I also want to see great fight scenes of the God of Thunder kicking ass with his legendary hammer, Mjolnir!

Green Lantern:  Directed by Martin Campbell.  Now, this is a guy that knows his action movies.  He has directed not only some great ones, but ones that launched careers of the actors involved.  Maybe he can do the same for Ryan Reynolds, who always seems to be on the cusp of real  fame.  The problem is, for every great movie he does, he also has a flop.

His previous movies include:

• Goldeneye (yes, that Goldeneye)
• The Mask of Zorro (and its forgotten sequel The Legend of Zorro)
• Casino Royale (yes, that Casino Royale)
• Vertical Limit (the movie with a familiar title but no one seems to remember why)
• Edge of Darkness (that 2010 Mel Gibson movie no one watched)

So, the problem here is, will he bring his 'A' game?  Or his 'Legend of Zorro' game?  Green Lantern IS supposed to be a fun action movie full of technology (like a Bond movie) and attractive male leads (although most women seem to agree Reynolds is no Antonio Banderas).  But this is NOT a Bond movie OR a swashbuckling period piece.  This is SUPPOSED to be a sci-fi space cop movie full of aliens.  It seems like a better fit for the director of Men In Black or Titan A.E.!  But from the trailer, it DOES look like it hits the right tone, and this IS the first DC Comics movie since The Dark Knight, so I'm cautiously optimistic that everyone will be trying their best on this one.  

So, in the end, I think Thor is actually going to turn out the best.  I have full faith in Kenneth Branagh to give the characters as much focus as the the story deserves, and while I'm a bit worried about him handling big CGI-filled blockbuster style action, the trailers showing the big metal destroyer robot, and some of the Asgardian creatures, gives me some reassurance.  

All three movies look like they could be great, but I'm officially the most excited for Thor.

And also 2012's Amazing Spider-Man ;)

Those poor poor bad guys!

I feel sorry for bad guys sometimes.  I mean, Bowser has to provide for 7 kids in a single-parent home, and the only income he has is ransom money for kidnapping Peach.  And those Mushroom Kingdom bigwigs never pay! Just because Mario got into the trades at a young age and makes a decent living for himself, doesn't give him the right to trash Bowser's dungeons and throw his kids into lava.  That's barbaric.

It seems many authors are also identifying with the bad guy these days.

I'm sure most of you remember the Wicked series of books, which became a hit Broadway show.  It turns the evil Wicked Witch of the West from Oz, into a flawed but sympathetic character full of hopes and dreams.  And it seems like the Wicked Witch isn't the only villain we have been unfairly treating, my pretties.

A new movie is in development, called "Oz The Great And Terrible", starring James Franco as a young Wizard of Oz.  The original is known as a jerk and a coward - forcing Dorothy and company to travel all the way to the Emerald City just to refuse their wishes.  It was revealed that the Wizard had no powers at all, and was lying to the entire world of Oz for YEARS.  But now, we get to find out why we should not only forgive the Wiz (actually, "The Wiz" is unforgivable!), but hail him as the hero he was all along!

There's a new book out from Russia called "The Last Ringbearer" that re-tells the story of The Lord of the Rings from the unexplored perspective of Mordor and their great leader Sauron.  A translation into English of this um, novel novel, is available as a free download HERE, for those who wish to read it.

So, once again, it is time to feel sorry for those we once hated.  Like the Wicked Witch, the misguided Wizard of Oz, Smallville's Lex Luthor, and Spider-Man's Venom, it is time to embrace Sauron as a true victim of injustice, and reward him for his undying heroism!

What other villains have gotten a bad rap?  Commence commenting!

From the article linked above:

"In Yeskov's retelling, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science "destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men!" He's in cahoots with the elves, who aim to become "masters of the world," and turn Middle-earth into a "bad copy" of their magical homeland across the sea.   Aragorn is depicted as a ruthless Machiavellian schemer who is ultimately the puppet of his wife, the elf Arwen.  Barad-dur, also known as the Dark Tower and Sauron's citadel, is, by contrast, described as "that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic."

Update - WWE Elimination Chamber results

So, I was right for some, and wrong for others.

Match 1:  Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston

It WASN'T a title match for the Intercontinental Championship like I thought.  Just a normal match.  Alberto won.   3 Stars.

Match 2:  Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship

Edge retained after surviving all 5 other men.  Big Show came in to replace Dolph Ziggler.  Also - Teddy Long re-hired Kelly Kelly, which I'm sure made Drew McIntyre happy.  Rey Mysterio had most of the highlights, but Drew McIntyre had the hardest hits, throwing people through the glass left and right.  4 Stars.

Match 3:  Tag Championship Match, Santino/Koslov vs. Slater/Gabriel

We have new tag champs!  The Corre members are now 2-time tag champions after a pretty decent match.  Ezekial Jackson from the Corre helped run interference from outside.  3 Stars.

Match 4:  WWE Championship match, The Miz vs. Jerry 'The King' Lawler

Lawler did much better than I thought a guy his age could go, but lost to Miz even after Alex Riley was banned from ringside.  Micheal Cole got Miz thrown into him by The King, and his reactions were great even without a headset.  2 Stars.

Match 5:  Number One Contender match for RAW's Elimination Chamber

As I predicted, Cena won, Orton was mostly concerned with Punk, and Morrison was AWESOME.  Sheamus and Morrison spent most of the match on each other, but Morrison came out on top between the two of them.  CM Punk got stuck in a malfunctioning pod, and while stuck, Orton beat the heck out of him leading to an immediate RKO and Punk being eliminated first, but the RAW GM said that wasn't fair and let Punk go back in his pod.  Later on, CM Punk came out again and this time finished Orton off.  Final 3 were Cena, Morrison, and Punk.  Morrison was great but hurt his knee quite a bit doing some great aerial maneuvers, and Punk finished him off, just before being caught by Cena's Attitude Adjustment for the win.  5 Stars.

Overall, a solid 4 Star event.  Can't wait for Mania.

WWE Elimination Chamber Preview

As some of you may know, I watch pro wrestling, specifically the WWE.  Tonight is the last pay-per-view before WRESTLEMANIA!

WWE Presents:  Elimination Chamber 2011

Matches announced:

• WWE Tag Team Championship match
• Tag Champions Santino Marella (the funny Italian guy) and Vladimir Koslov (the big mean Russian guy)
  vs. 
• two members of The Corre, Heath Slater (the guy who looks like Wendy from the restaurant) and Justin Gabriel (the high flying South African guy who is too attractive to be a badguy
  
  My prediction:  The Corre has been trying to dominate Smackdown recently, and Slater/Gabriel are former tag champs from 2010 when they were part of the old Nexus group.  I think the Corre is going to get some gold here.
• Intercontinental Championship match
• Champion Kofi Kingston (the used-to-be-Jamaican-but-now-is-from-Africa guy)
  vs.
• Royal Rumble winner Alberto Del Rio (the guy with his own Spanish ring announcer)
  
  My prediction:  It's been a decent feud, but Del Rio is on his way to a World Championship match at Wrestlemania in April, so I don't think he will win this one.
• WWE Championship match
• WWE Champion The Miz (the former Real World star who says he is AWESOME guy)
  vs.
• Jerry 'The King' Lawler (the retired wrestler who works as a colour commentator on RAW guy who is back for 'one more run' at a championship he never got a chance to win before)
  
  My prediction:  The star of this match will actually be the other announcer for RAW, Micheal Cole.  He is a big fan of The Miz, and has costed Lawler the championship before.  Lawler has never won the WWE title, but also he has never had a match at Wrestlemania.  I see Miz winning thanks to Cole, and leading to Lawler vs. Cole in a battle of announcers at Mania.
• World Heavyweight Championship match - inside the ELIMINATION CHAMBER
• World Heavyweight Champion EDGE (the Canadian Rated-R Superstar guy)
  vs
• Kane (the brother of the Undertaker guy), Rey Mysterio (the Mexican masked luchador guy), Wade Barrett (the leader of The Corre even though he says there's no leader guy), Drew McIntyre (the Scottish guy in a ponytail who has a crush on Kelly Kelly), and one unannounced 6th man (which used to be Dolph Ziggler before Ziggles won the Championship for a whole hour before losing it back to Edge and being fired by Smackdown GM Teddy Long)
  
  My prediction:  Edge will keep his 11th World Championship, leading to Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio at Wrestlemania.  Dolph may return in a surprise way to fill that 6th spot, but if anyone other than Dolph gets that spot, that person will have the best shot at winning other than Edge.
• Number One Contender's Match - inside the ELIMINATION CHAMBER
• John Cena (your girlfriend's favourite wrestler guy)
  vs.
• John Morrison (also your girlfriend's favourite wrestler guy who can literally grate cheese with his abs), R-Truth (the guy who raps his own entrance music but isn't John Cena), Randy Orton (also your girlfriend's favourite wrestler guy who is more badass than all the guys who have played Batman combined), Sheamus (the extremely pale Irish Celtic Warrior guy), and CM Punk (the straight-edge leader of the Nexus guy who is basically a cult leader that eats tofu instead of animal hearts in his rituals)
  
  My prediction:  The winner gets to fight the WWE Champion (currently The Miz) in the main event of Wrestlemania.  I see this going to John Cena, because Cena has not won a single match yet in 2011 and he is due for one.  Also, I think Randy Orton is more concerned with destroying CM Punk and the Nexus than worrying about the championship, R-Truth isn't good enough, John Morrison already had a title shot at the Miz and lost even though he is awesome, and Sheamus is so pale the cameras at Wrestlemania wouldn't be able to pick him up.

So there you have it - tonight's show starts at 8pm on pay-per-view or at the movie theatre, and it will lead us right into Wrestlemania on April 3rd.

Oh and by the way - THE ROCK is back :)