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.

We're less than three weeks away from getting our sweaty reptilian hands on the Turtles in Time remake for Xbox Live Arcade and there still hasn't been a ton of high fidelity footage shown.

Does this video offer glimpse of how the pizza dudes will fare in glorious high definition?



I still cant decide on whether this remake does the original justice.

Decide for yourself. Here is the same level from the original game.



I'll shell out my final verdict on Turtles in Time Re-Shelled in my review in just a couple of weeks.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the epitome of celluloid crap. A movie that is so safe, so creatively impotent and inherently lame that it is certain to be a product of stockholder movie-making.

We pick up where we were last left off with this dreadful cast of prehistoric bores. The same focus-tested and downright unpleasant characters from the last two films are back, and are as irritating and depressing as ever.

Ray Romano manages to be even more of a downer than his sitcom counterpart as the “hero” in this animated family feature. Queen Latifah resumes her role as mastodon Raymond’s lover, the only female character with a speaking role. Unfortunately she never has anything interesting to say but an occasional sassy quip, rendering the character more of a 21st Century mammy than leading lady. Dennis Leary is back as the crestfallen sabertooth who is the movie’s security force. Anytime the other pathetic characters are threatened by temperamental toons, Leary’s cat sweeps in to save the day. This is the full extent of the character. Sulk. Rescue. Sulk. Rescue. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The list of useless, disposable characters goes on. How could I forget the creepy pedo-sloth voiced by career movie pest John Leguizamo. Don’t forget the two weasel brothers, whose lines are always bookended by exclamations of “Dude!”, “Awesome!”, and “Totally!” You know, stuff that cartoon characters said 17 years ago. Ninja Turtles don’t even talk like this anymore.

And as if this series didn’t have enough characters, they added another furry tuft of dread to the stuffed animal heap. I can see the CEO of Fox sitting in on the story meetings: “Could we work in Johnny Depp’s character from the pirate pictures?” They couldn’t afford Jack Sparrow so they settled on Shaun of the Dead. Simon Pegg lends his voice to the casts third weasel character: a mad frontiersman who leads the other characters through the movies mundane “save our friend that we really don’t even like that much” plot. This character reaches new heights of being annoyingly in your face: anytime Pegg’s character says anything that’s supposed to be funny or important, the camera crash zooms in on his ugly one-eyed mug.

I don’t mention the names of the characters in this movie because I don’t remember them. Characters from Pixar movies (and occasionally Dreamworks) stick with you. You remember their charm, quirks and names. The only memorable character in the Ice Age universe is Scrat, a saber-toothed squirrel whose life ambition revolves around catching a stray acorn.


As in the past two movies, his dialogue free screen time is limited to vignettes here and there that proceed when the writers hit a brick wall. Scrat is relatable and actually, ahem…funny. A character that channels the sadness of Chaplin and the slapstick grace of Buster Keaton.

Scrat’s misadventures clearly display that the talents behind Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are capable of crafting an endearing and thoroughly enjoyable movie experience, if only the stockholders allowed them.

Oppo, an American based manufacturer of dvd players, has made the availability of their latest product nation wide. It's the Oppo BDP-83. That's right it's a Bluray disc player! This should come as excellent news to anyone who's familiar with their top of the line players. Their DVD players were considered among the best. I wonder how this one will stack up. Apparently it's supposed be compatible with all blurays. Nice. It's a little pricey though. Punching your wallet in the heart, it's priced at 500$.

What could it be? Word is we'll have to wait until after EVO. But, I'm guessing it's a joystick of some sort. TvC maybe? Dunno. For now nobody's spilling the beans with the exception of a few photos. Hmmm...All this after I bought two new SFIV sticks this summer. Better get a second job, I hear this surprise is going to be extremely limited.

Via capcom blog

On the eve of the world's farewell to the king of pop I thought I'd take a look at MJ's arcade. Anyone can, there's a virtual tour of his enormous arcade.

DDR of course. Is that an MK I machine I spot?
Street Fighter II. Nice.
OMG Sega RX360!!! And for those of you who don't know what that is...
Again, nice. Marvel Versus Capcom.
Han Solo Frozen in carbonite. Mike has a super Star Wars collection. That Artoo looks awesome.
I remember that T2 cab.

This is pretty much my dream basement. Of course it's not exactly the same setup that I would want but the sheer amount of fun included here, makes me lust after it. Here's to you Mike! You sure knew how to have fun!

I recently downloaded and used the Hulu Desktop Beta. And right off the bat I want to mention how sleek the interface is. Cable companies take notice. It's easy to cycle through movies and television shows, but the bast part is the full screen capabilities and its functionality with the mac remote. I watched a bit of Field of Dreams, which didn't hold up that well, and a bit of a newer HD episode of the Simpsons which was very comparable to DVD quality. Say what you will about Hulu's selection, but it is nice to be able to catch recent episodes from the couch. Internet TV's on its way in.

Battle Fantasia, the delightful little fighting game from Arc Systems (of Guilty Gear and Blaze Blue fame) is set for release on the Playstation 3 via PSN this fall.

The game was made available for XBOX 360 exclusively last year in retail form, leaving PS3 2D fighting enthusiasts out of the loop, until now. Details regarding the price of this digital download release have not been mentioned, but I'm guessing that it will come in around the $20, which would be a total steal considering how good this game is.

I own both the imported PS3 disc of Battle Fantasia and the U.S. XBOX 360 version. I cant recommend this game enough to people who are interested in a light, easy to pick up and play fighting game, with a simple (and very forgiving) controls. Battle Fantasia is also gorgeous to look at. The art style is reminiscent of Hayou Miyasaki's European-fused anime works, and the cell-shaded 3D characters look more cartoon-like than Street Fighter 4's roster.

Keep you eyes peeled for Battle Fantasia on the Playstation Network this fall. It'll be the perfect game to play between white-knuckle matches of Street Fighter 4, King of Fighters XII and Blaze Blue.

The documentary I Got Next details life within the Street Fighter tournament community. Which, niche as it may be, is an ever-growing community, especially with the release of street fighter 4. It was screened live on UFRAG last week and has since been released to watch. It's not the full version but is still pretty lengthy. It's neat to see these personalities interacting on such a small scale since they've been enlarged to such mythic proportion.