In a move designed to avoid a situation like The X-Files(went on too long) or Alias (too short), TV Week reports that the producers of Lost are in negotiations with ABC to determine an end date for the series.

Lost has been very successful in its first 2 and a half years on air, but fans and critics worry the show may be wearing too thin or may pile on more mysteries than it can solve. A definitive end date would push writers toward a finish line they know when they’re supposed to cross. Its been suggested they go to 100 episodes or 2 more seasons, which may be a comprimise between those who want to end it before it wears out its welcome and those that might want to keep it on air until its dry.

Whatever the case, the good news for fans is February 7, 2007 is the date the show returns from hiatus; now over 70 days from the crash. ABC.com is running short clips until then.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Apocalypto, the Mel Gibson directed epic about a Mayan tribesman who is captured and seperated from his family. This was perhaps the most graphic and violent movie I’d seen in some time, and the fact that it was presented as historically accurate it shook me more than the same level of graphic violence does nightly in various video games.

I felt that same shaken feeling after Children Of Men. [Read the rest of this entry…]

There are 2 major motion pictures in production both by giant directors and both are called Avatar.

James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator 2) finally ends month of silences on the secret filming he’s been doing on sound stages as he announces his “Avatar.” Its set for a 2009 release, and will feature humans at war with aliens in robot bodies. I think its human robots, but there might be alien robots too. And its the future. I can’t make sense of this, except it has nothing to do with that damn boat so I’ll take it. Harry Knowles spoke with Jim, but that interview was cut short when Malibu caught fire.

M. Night Shyamalan is decreasing in popularity the last few years, but I’m still a fan. Night’s “Avatar?”

I am not kidding. He’s adapting the faux-anime Nickelodeon series into a live action movie. I’m barely familiar with this series, so I took a look at Wikipedia and it doesn’t look like his usual fare. Well its got some supernatural elements, but its pretty far removed from “I see dead people” or “those we don’t speak of.”

Night’s not betraying his roots because he actually wrote the adapted screenplay for “Stuart Little” which is a movie I shamelessly admit to liking and have seen several times.

Now, the battle royale: Who gets to keep the title? Cameron’s management and Nickelodeon both claim to have had their names registered with the MPAA. Nick’s cartoon has been on the air for about 2 years, Cameron has had a script for 12 years, but has only been filming for 4 months. I predict Cameron will have to bend, since he’s not working with an established franchise.

The #1 reason people were still buying Playstation 2 this fall is coming to Xbox 360. Guitar Hero II will sport a classy white guitar based on the Gibson Explorer and will likely feature online functionality like song downloads (starting with the entire original Guitar Hero song list). Theres a press photo on the left of the box and guitar as well as the sticker sheet.

This much we know. But at CES yesterday, Kotaku’s Micheal McWhertor not only played it, but found out some of the new songs. Team Xbox also dig up some info. from those 2 links I’ve culled 8 of the 10 new songs:

“Surrender” – Cheap Trick {Correction: Reader Matthew points out that this track is already in the PS2 version of the game.}
“Billion Dollar Babies” -Alice Cooper
“Dead!”- My Chemical Romance
“Hush” – Deep Purple
“Life Wasted” – Pearl Jam
“Rock N Roll Hoochie Koo” – Rick Derringer
“Possum Kingdom” – Toadies
“Salvation” – Rancid

Those worried that GHII had a little too much metal can rest easy and this is a generous helping of classic and modern rock.
While I understand that online co-op is impossible, online leaderboards is going to inspire some really dedicated players in ways YouTube can’t provide. And I’ll happily shell out for some, if not all of the original Guitar Hero tracks, especially if they’re enhanced for GHII’s co-op multiplayer.

Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 is slated for a March release in North America and Europe.

A few days ago, engadget.com ran with a story that there was somewhere out there an Xbox 360 with an HDMI port on it. The above video provided by Xbox-scene shows a devkit 360 being plugged into an HDMI-DVI converter and then booting to Kameo on the monitor.

This may be more than a running upgrade. Running under the codename “Zephyr,” rumours point to a new 120 GB hard drive and smaller, cooler chips. The smaller chipset would reduce the cost of manufacture, and the larger hard drive would be a boon to anyone who has caught on with the Live Marketplace downloads and is running low on space.

This is of course all coming out just after a week where 3 Powet staff members (including myself) bought 360s….

You’ve probably seen the trailer by now. What you might not have seen is the Japanese version of the trailer. It contains mere seconds of additional footage, padded out with Speilberg and Bay introducing the movie to Japanese audiences. Check it out.

For those of us who wanted to see more than the back of Prime’s head in the trailer, he stands tall on the cover of Empire in the UK (see left)

And of course we have more toys. Barricade, Starscream, Bumblebee, Brawl, and Ratchet all in deluxe mode. Theres also some prototypes for tiny Barricade, Prime, and Megatron….
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Lets start the first day of the first month off right… with a song about the number One.

Yesterday’s weekly update on Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console saw the release of Super Mario Bros. This is considered by some to be the most important game of all time, and odds are you already own a copy of it. Maybe 2 copies. Probably 5. You might as well get it again so you can play with that sweet VC controller, and maybe work on your speed running.

Just to add a little value to your 500 Wii Point purchase, try going to the Negative world. This hidden glitch was covered up in many of the remakes and re-releases of the game, but is intact on the Wii since its the original NES code faithfully emulated. You’ve probably seen this trick before, in world 1-2 you break the bricks above the pipe at the end of the underwold (as seen at left) and then carefully jump backwards to the right without breaking the brick, so you slide off to the right and enter a warp pipe that takes you to a weird underwater world.

A top story on digg right now announces “How to Get to the Illusive Negative World in SMB!” but the link to the World -2, -3, and -4 is completely fake. Amazing that 21 years after the release of Super Mario Bros, players can still be falling for bogus tips like slackjawed schoolyard simpletons.