Newest SSX Trailer

Here's the newest trailer for the up coming SSX. And the game just keeps looking better and better! I have actually been playing SSX3 alot lately in anticipation of the January release. Check out the fresh faces, locals and powder in this uber hype inducing trailer.



And enjoy these screen shots....they're all amazing but some show that the game is still a work in progress more than others.

Terra Nova Series Premiere review

Terra Nova premiered last night and after the 120 minutes were over I can say this show was seriously over-hyped! I loved the Blade Runneresqe cityscape of the future....that's pretty much it. I sympathized with the father when the authorities found his third child hidden behind the ventilation panel and I would've done the same thing. Unfortunately I found too many things in the show totally illogical....perhaps I missed some crucial bit of dialog to explain these aspects that confounded me, I'll have to fire up the DVR and give it a second viewing.
The thing's that had me scratching my head and saying what the f*ck were where was the TSA? Where was the security??Ok there was a few rent a cops on the catwalk but seriously....I wish JFK was this easy to get thru! Next I couln't stand the emo son, Josh Shannon! I wanted to reach through the screen and choke the shit out of him! How the F can you be angry with your father for trying to defend his family???
Third and most puzzling....the technology in the med lab is straight up left overs from the Avatar set YET when we pop out on the other side of the worm hole or whatever we have to trek thru the forest of endor? No safe transport to get to Terra Nova?And why is the Terra Nova commune walls built with logs?? I get the whole humanity f*cked up and this our second chance thing but in my opinion Lincoln Logs don't make the best defense against 6ers and carnivorous dinosaurs. Get some fricken laser beams that'll cauterize shit up or at least a moat with sharks with lasers!
And what is up with the only fatality being a black man and then the only injuries going to a young black boy and young black girl?
The next thing that I couldn't get past was Stephen Lang as Commander Nathaniel Taylor...I don't know why I don't like him, perhaps it's because every time he was on the screen I saw Colonel Miles Quaritch, and honestly his bravado just seems ridiculous and often times completely unbelievable. I did however like the character Mira (Christine Adams), her character came across as powerful, intelligent and multidimensional. 
In the end I felt like I was watching Time Cop meets Jurassic Park meets Swiss Family Robinson, the show didn't leave me very enthusiastic to see the next episode. 

TGS 11 Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailers

TGS 11 once again had some great updates to the industries best developers, games, and tech updates. Below are two new trailers for FFXIII-2. The first one is for the PS3 version for Japan only, the second trailer is for the PS3 & Xbox 360 everywhere else.

Fringe S4 E1: Neither Here Nor There

A fantastic start to the fourth season of the best show on  television!
I need to re watch episode 3.22 "The Day we Died" I could swear the Observer August says to Observer September that Peter Bishop never existed.
Season 4 episode 1 "Neither here Nor There" begins a week after Peter Bishop unites the two warring universes and seemingly vanishes from existence, Lincoln Lee and his partner chase a man into a warehouse Lee's partner is killed by a mysterious translucent man. Olivia informs agent Lee that she will be taking over the investigation, Lee refuses but Olivia pulls rank...a rank Lee is totally unaware of and drives off. Not satisfied Lee tracks Dunham to the Lab at Harvard where he meets the Fringe team. Just as Olivia is about to rip agent Lee a new one she gets a call of another incident this time involving a female driver.
Meanwhile Observer September is tasked with ensuring all of Peter Bishop's existence is totally erased. He visits an antique shop to collect the parts he needs to build a device that will erase Peter Bishop forever. Once completed he sits outside the Harvard lab with the device concealed in a briefcase, September pauses then shuts the briefcase and walks off in the night.
Dunham and Lee eventually track down the translucent mans hideout Dunham kills one but Lee realizes there's a second and tracks it down and kills it. Afterwards Olivia decides to bring Agent Lee up to speed and takes him to the hangar where the machine is.
"Neither Here Nor There" was a great episode that effectively shows effects of Peters decision in the final episode in season 3. There are new threats to our universe, but are they from Walternate or a newly created threat resulting from Peter Bishops decision? Also Peter has not been completely erased from existence because he is seen by us the viewers for a fraction of a second and apparently Walter has seen him but doesn't recognize him...or doesn't recognize peter as an adult. Walter does mutter something  about seeing the one you love die twice. Is one of the effects of Peters decision that in this timeline both Peters die? I think the effect of Peters choice is that he now exists in a third universe.

Fringe Season 4 Premiere Tonight!

Season 4 premiere of Fringe is tonight 9/8c!
Nothing compares to this show! I cannot wait for tonight's episode! I have read some great theories on the fringe boards the interwebs will be inundated with awesome speculation....mine included.

TGS 2011 Gravity Daze Trailer

I first heard of Gravity Daze for the PS Vita from E3 this year, the Vita looks poised to take a huge chunk of the market share away from Nintendo's 3DS, and games like Gravity Daze looks to help propel the PS Vita! The game boasts some very cool game play features, and looks to take advantage of all the Vita's features. The game looks good enough to be a PS3 yet it's on a handheld! I cannot wait to get my hands on a PS Vita! Enjoy the TGS11 official trailer for Gravity Daze and some gameplay video below!

TGS11 PSP Vita Trailer

TGS 2011 SFXT Pandora Trailer

What the Deuce! This trailer is so full of win it's insane! We get Rolento and Ibuki reveals, Heihatchi and Kuma reveals, and Lili reveal! New gameplay modes! 2 v 2 battles, scramble mode, breifing mode; 2 player simulaneus training mode and Pandora! A team mate can sacrafice themseves to give the other a huge power boost and go into "rage mode"
This trailer has convinced me that SFXT is gonna be epic and a must have game...please get the netcode right on this one capcom!

The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest Review

The final chapter of the Dragon tattoo trilogy begins with Lisbeth and her father, hospialized after their bloody reunion. With her half brother, Neiderman, still on the loose and now a new threat emerges from a shadowy government agency intent on silencing Alexander Zalachenko and anyone associated with him...
While hospitalized Lisbeth befriends a young doctor who protects her privacy as long as possible while Mikael requests that his sister, Annika, defend Lisbeth in her upcoming murder trial of her former state appointed guardian Nils Bjurman.
While Annika visits Lisbeth in the hospital a member of the secret government agency goes to the hospital and assassinates Alexander Zalachenko but is unsuccessful at eliminating Lisbeth.
After Lisbeth recovers from her near fatal wounds in the hospital she is transferred to a prison to await her court date but before that she is able to get a message to Mikael that his sister can use the "home video" she shot in the first film while in Bjurmans apartment.
After the failed assasination attempt the members of the secret "section" devise a plan to silence Lisbeth by proving she is unfit to stand trial and needs to be re committed to St. Stephans, the same institution she was committed to as a child after attempting to burn her father alive.
While recovering in the hospital Lisbeth documents all the events in her life from her "happy" (read as miserable) childhood, her time in St Peters under the supervision of Dr, Teleborian, to her rape at the hands of  Nils Bjurman and sends it to Mikael who takes her story and plans a huge cover story of Lisbeth's life. Soon the team at Millenium begin receiving threat's via Email. The threat's escalate to attacks on their home in the form of vandalism and breaking and entering. Mikael is now pressured to delay the publication of the Lisbeth Salander story by fellow co workers, in a cafe Mikael meets Erika Berger Milleniums' chief editor to discuss her recent attack and the threats to her and the others when two hired hitmen enter the cafe and attempt to kill them.
Meanwhile Mikael's sister, Annika recieves Lisbeths's laptop and the copy of the rape video. Horrified by what she see's she finally understand's Lisbeth better and is determined to prove Lisbeth is not only mentally capable of standing trial but is also innocent of the crimes she is accused of.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest culminates in the court room where Dr. Teleborian tells the court the reasons Lisbeth Salander was institutionalized as a child and how she is delusional and made up the rape story. Teleborian's testimony is all part of the Sections plan to silence Salander and keep their secrets from being revealed.
Throughout the film every time Teleborian attempted to "evaluate" Lisbeth she remained silent, once the trial began though she dissected every question of Teleborian and detective Ekstrom brilliantly and methodically proving not only that she was mentally capable of standing trial but much more intelligent than the prosecution had ever realized. Watching this was so enjoyable, it was reminiscent to seeing the metamorphosis of the Ellen Ripley character in Alien and Aliens. In the first film Lisbeth is a victim that overcomes her adversary, in the second film she confronts her father but things don't go as planned which brings us to the final film where Lisbeth is forced to defend herself against another of her childhood nightmares and she proves to much more than her persona gives away. Watching Mikael's sister, Annika, also bait the prosecution into a false sense of victory then drop the bombshell piece of silicon evidence was so gratifying and then turning the table's by providing the judge with proof of over eight thousand pictures of child porn on Teleborian's laptop was just sweet justice that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Lisbeth was innocent.
Oh and what happens to Niederman???Well lets just say having congenital analgesia has it's negatives also....
Each of the three films in this trilogy are good on their own but as a trilogy they are fantastic and has one of the best character driven stories I've seen in a long long time!
I highly recommend watching these Dragon Tattoo films directed by Director Daniel Alfredson, I have a feeling they will stand up very well against the David Fincher versions coming later this year.
A-

    

The Girl who played with Fire Review

The second film in the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, focuses much more on Lisbeth Salander than the first film. After hacking into Nils Bjurman's computer she returns to Sweden to ensure the terms of their agreement are honored. While there Lisbeth purchases a new apartment and meets up with her friend Miriam Wu and offers her her old apartment. Meantime Millennium Magazine interviews a potential new journalist, Dag Svensson who's been working on a story involving kidnapping , prostitution and sex trafficking in Sweden alongside his girlfriend Mia. With only a few contacts left to speak with Mikael Blomkvist welcomes Dag to the Millenium team. But Dag's employment at Millenium is short lived due to a slight case of death. The murder weapon is traced to  Nils Bjurman...who is also found dead and guess who's prints are on the gun??? So now the authorities are searching for Lisbeth Salander, Blomkvist uses the knowledge of Lisbeth's computer skills to tell her he believes she's innocent. Through the course of the film we learn more of Lisbeth's childhood which explains why she has a state appointed guardian and we get a clearer understanding of her. As the two do their separate investigations into the crimes the threat begins to manifest itself to Lisbeth as a monster from her past but unbeknownst to her that very same threat to her is also a threat to the the government, thus she now finds herself the focal point of to opposing forces. The second film concludes with Lisbeth tracking down the the mysterious "Zala" and facing the monster responsible for her being suspected of multiple homocide and many other injustices she's had to live thru in her life. Much like the way she came to Mikaels rescue at the end of the first film, he finds her in a desparate fight for survival at the end of The Girl who Played with Fire! 

I really enjoyed this film, the scope of events truly multiplies from a beginning that ties into events from the first film to a point where Lisbeth's life is threatened by secret agencies within her government to those closest to her. It is very cloak and dagger stuff that had my intently focused from begining to end! My wife and I went straight to the third film to see what happens next, it's not a cliffhanger per se but there is enough going on to make you want to see what happens next.

By this point in the trilogy the characters are so well developed that little more back story is required and the third chapter really takes off with the dangers to Lisbeth, Mikael and the team at Millenium all around them yet invisible!

B+

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Review

With the release of the US version of theDragon Tattoo Trilogy series coming in about three months, I decided to rent the Swedish films and see what the craze was all about ahead of time. I admit the David Fincher trailer definitely got my attention a few months back when I saw X Men First Class...and now after watching the three films I can say the trailer for the US version does a fantastic job of grabbing the audiences attention but it is extremely misleading! It's interesting how the US trailer is spliced together, I think alot of people are gonna walk out of the theater this December wondering how they're anticipations were so different from what they just watched.



The other reason I rented these films was to see Noomi Rapace as she has been cast in Ridley Scott's up-coming Sci Fi film Prometheus. And I can say she has a very bright future ahead of her.
Ok so I enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I cannot imagine certain scenes in the US version being as vivid and controversial as the Swedish films, those who've seen it or read the novels know what I'm refering to.
There were a number of factors that kept me glued to the TV, the foreign locales, I'm actually tired of overhead camera angle over US cities, the panning shots of the Manhattan/LA/Boston/Chicago skylines and the overall over exposure of US landmarks like The Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and the Hollywood sign, so the scenes in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were a refreshing change of scenery.
Another factor that kept my interest was my unfamiliararity with the  actors and actresses, not having a pre conceived notion of the types of characters an actor plays helps support the mystery. I liked not having the slightest idea what each actor was known for, like I mentioned it helped keep the villains less obvious to me.
There are a great many significant characters that encompass the trilogy and if you don't pay attention you may get slightly derailed, first there's Mikael Blomkvist a journalist for a small publication named Millenium. He is hired by Henrik Vanger, a member of the wealthy and powerful Vanger family to investigate the murder of his neice Harriet who vanished in 1944 after the Swedish Children's Day Holiday.
Lisbeth Salander a strong willed yet very private young woman hired to investigate Blomkvist who is also a skilled hacker, her state appointed guardian has a stroke and is replaced by Nils Bjurman.
Henrik Vanger supplies Mikael with all the evidence collected over the years by inspector Morell and a brief history of the Vanger family including Henriks brothers Harald, and Gottfried. 
Mikael Blomkvist discovers that Lisbeth Salander has been hacking his computer, tracks her down and convinces her to assist him with his investigation. The two uncover that there is more to Harriets murder than originally thought and their investigation unravels a nightmarish story of abduction, rape, torture and murder. 


The first film really focus's more on the character of Mikael Blomkvist and his investigation of Harriet Vangers disappearance and eventual partnership with Lisbeth Salander. 
There are events in this film involving Lisbeth  that lead to the events that take place in the second and third films, the Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest that make Lisbeth Zalachecnko Salander.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was good mystery with some honestly disturbing and unnerving scenes that I cannot imagine will be as graphic in the David Fincher versions coming later this year.
For more on Stieg Larsson's Dragon Tattoo trilogy head over to http://dragontattoofilm.com/
B+
  

TGS 11: Lord of Apocalypse Trailer

Hey kid wanna be a monster hunter, but you're just not sure if ya got the right stuff? And but stuff I mean synth items...well here try this! Lord of Arcana Apocalypse will be SquareEnix's second attempt at a monster hunteresque style game for the Sony handhelds....I find this very perplexing that Square is somehow unable to make a superior "monster-hunter" game over Capcom! Umm they are the house that built Final Fantasy.....