One of gaming's best kept secrets is the Atlus-developed Trauma Center series for the Nintendo DS and Wii. The perfect blend of surgical-themed arcade action, left-field sci-fi plot twists, and daytime soaps quality story and characters set the franchise apart from the droves of ho-hum titles littering the Big N's software aisles.

Atlus looks to trump past Trauma Center titles with a medical breakthrough.

Gametrailers.com has a behind the scenes look at Trauma Team, the latest entry in the Trauma Center saga.

The positive buzz surrounding next week's XBOX Live Arcade release of 'Splosion Man got me thinking "hey, what about that other exploding-guy 2.5D platformer that was announced around the same time?".

After a bit of net-detective work I found it. Explodemon is the name, and not much is known about this other explosive action-platformer other than it's being developed by curve studios and that it's "a loving parody of badly translated (Japanese) action games and everything that they embody"

Explodemon is scheduled for release on Playstation Network (PS3), PC, and WiiWare (Wii) sometime this year.

Here is footage from what I'm guessing is the PS3 or PC build.



Will the mock-Mega Man motif be enough to set this apart from 'Spolsion Man? Hopefully we'll find out sooner rather than later.

We're really rollin' now. And with our recent inclusion to iTunes we have all the more reason to record lots of podcasts. This week the gang and I discuss the controversial new film Bruno as well as a spoiler free discussion of the new Harry Potter and some sentiments on M.Night Shyamalan. Hopefully we'll be doing this more often.




Listen on iTunes.

Before the fifteen-minute mark in Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen treats us to a slapstick sex montage evolving the movie’s main protagonist and his gay lover. You’d be shocked if it wasn't so ridiculous and cartoon-like in nature. Bruno spins and contorts his lover around like something out of Cirque du Soleil. Various gags evolving phallic gadgetry ensue: Neither character seems to particularly enjoy the carnal activities. No, the filmmaker's goal was not to create a fair portrayal of homosexual intimacy, but rather a cruel joke at the expense of the matter. This kind of makes you wonder, in 2009, how does a movie billed as a summer blockbuster comedy contain such unadulterated trash?

Perhaps western popular culture has hit a new low. Undoubtedly jaded by the Bush Years, Filmmakers like Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles prey on what they consider the destroyers of modern civilization. The vain, the stupid, the predominantly American. You know, the same people they burned down in their 2007 smash hit Borat.

The formula from their last quarter-of-a-billion-dollar outing is employed here with Bruno. I’ll let you in on Cohen’s secret for box office success. Create a despicably offensive stereotype of a character based on a kind of person that you despise (in Cohen’s case, a anti-Semitic Eastern European in Borat, and narcissistic Aryan male model in Bruno). Use said character, which within it’s own right, is offensive, to prod at real life people who you yourself, find offensive (in Cohen’s case, dimwitted Americans from California and Alabama, with the occasional Middle eastern Muslim thrown into the mix).

The people behind Bruno’s 10-million plus marketing campaign would have you believe that this movie is nothing more than a naughty shuck-fest aimed to take your mind off the ugly realities outside of the Cineplex. If only. Bruno is nothing more than a collection of ugly realities, lead by a disgusting ringleader who dances around the flames with a crooked smile.

In Bruno, Cohen cements himself as the clown prince of leftist elite prejudice, and if you find yourself laughing at his brand of ugly, cynical humor you’re either in his company or at the butt of the sick and twisted joke that is his mainstream Hollywood success.

Some of you might not know this, but FOX's tv show The Simpsons has been on the air and watched by millions for almost 20 years now. More specifically, the first episode was aired on Dec. 17th 1989. Wow! FOX is celebrating this anniversary with a new tv special to be aired next year. I'm not sure about any of the particulars on what this documentary will cover, maybe the shows history, or its cultural impact, or both. Whatever it is I'm sure I'll be fascinated.
The director of said special will be Mr. Morgan Spurlock, director and star of the hit documentary Supersize Me. Lets hope he's a fan of the series so he can make sure to do an exceptionally good job. You can check out The Simpsons 2oth Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice, on January 14th 2010.
I'm excited!

Wow! It's been a long time guys but we're back. In this episode Shane and I discuss the future of Internet Television and the bargain bin Blu ray player. Please excuse any audio issues; I recorded my half in a space ship.













Listen here.

Or listen on iTunes.

This is a blog after all. It's been a slow news week. No celebrities passed so there's no reason for huge retrospectives or top ten lists. So, what to do? You guessed it, more random thoughts from yours truly.

The Promise of the Internet.
I remember watching a quirky not-very-funny PBS special about HDTV. It was called Digital TV: A Cringley Crash Course and it was released late last century (1998). It was a awkward little documentary with a host who bounced around the screen touting the amazing possibilities of digital TV. While digital television is indeed amazing, it never quite reached the realization that Cringley, among others, predicted. For example, during the show he visits every one's favorite chef Julia Childs (she couldn't possibly care less about HDTV mind you) to discuss the interactive possibilities of DTV as well as prepare a delicious salad. The idea is that while your watching a cooking show, there would be an option to click a button and an onscreen menu would display the recipe; A baseball game, stats. etc.
But this never really happened. I'm sure there's some technical reason this feature never developed. But the fact that I've never seen or heard of anything remotely like this ever being implemented is pretty amazing. Were we just day dreaming? Anyway, I've emailed Cringley to see if he could shed a light on the subject.
Speaking of stealing bandwidth (and T.V.s for that matter.) The issue of DTV multi channel bandwidth image degradation was just brought to my attention. Previously over the air broadcast were the best way to get high quality broadcast because of the minimal amount of compression. Now, because of the DTV transition, many networks have split there broadcasts into two or three channels which basically stretches the bandwidth reducing overall picture quality. Satellite might be the best option in this situation

Bravia with Netflix Sony finally landed Netflix, though not on their prized media box game console. Instead new Bravia's will be able to stream flicks
directly from Netflix. It would work similar to the Xbox service, that is, you would queue it on your computer and watch it on your TV. I've watched Netflix from my computer on my TV before and my only complaint is the picture quality. It's at best sub DVD and at worst choppy VCD. Though, it's really dependent on your connection. It's really to bad that the PS3 didn't get any love. But net incorporation is a smart move on Sony's part. Here's to the future.

Sub 100 Blu-ray Player: Finally, the news last week was that Wal-Mart planned on "rolling back" the price of their cheapest BRD player to 98$. Which could possibly increase adoption. But I'm curious to see how this affects Sony's "hold your ground" price point. These race to the bottom just officially started. But with average consumers as well as enthusiasts still baffled over profile types, I don't think sales will soar immediately.


And finally, I've played about 200 rounds of SF4 this week and as a monument to that absurdity I thought i post a video of some character swaps from the PC version. Enjoy.