Bad News: Major Nelson announced this morning that subscription costs for Xbox Live for One, Three, and Twelve month terms are going up. Major Nelson, for the uninformed, is the alias of Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live Director of Programming. You can read the details of the pricing here. Basically a one year subscription was $50, will now be $60.

The $50 annual cost has been in effect since 2002 when the service launched

Here is the good news: Price change doesn’t go effective until November 1, 2010. You have plenty of time to renew or go buy a subscription card at the current rate. As a matter of fact, as of the time of this writing, a one year card is a little less than $40 on Amazon. Heck, if you’re already an active subscriber, Microsoft themselves will renew you for $39.99 via a Price Lock Loyalty program.

Before we all go nuts, some things to keep in perspective: The price increase is $0.83 a month, which is far less than inflation. This price change comes into effect 5 years after this generation’s game systems jumped from $50 to $60 priced new games. Nintendo and Sony may offer free alternatives with online play, but it would be hard to argue that Microsoft hasn’t set the standard and has a far more robust service.

AMC has released the teaser they showed to ComiCon in HD. Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic will premiere appropriately on Halloween, October 31, 2010.

Halo 3 had a pretty great ad campaign, including a short film by District 9 director Neil Blomkamp showing the “Landfall” of Master Chief after the events of Halo 2. Halo 3 ODST followed suit last fall. Then this spring there was a Halo Reach beta test commerical. Yes, an ad for the beta.

But this one takes the cake. Not as deep on story, but its full of action. Its not hard to imagine a Halo movie now after all this.

You can see more abstract shorts on Remember Reach.

Preordr HALO REACH on Amazon to get a $20 store credit on your next game!

Plastic Man is a figure based on on the DC Universe character. He was available at San Diego ComiCon and then only in limited numbers on MattyCollector.com.

While his limited availability makes him hard to come by, the completely unique mold and originality of the features makes him a highly collectible figure. If you can find him, he’s worth any reasonable price.

War For Cybertron Optimus Prime is a hotly anticipated figure. A classic character from a great new video game?

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Ok, so this didn’t turn out as good as we hoped. They can’t all be great can they?
Just so you don’t feel ripped off, here is a REAL video about a REALLY GOOD toy: DCUC Plastic Man!

Last week Ted Leo suggested a “paradigm shift” would be coming today, and sure enough here it is.
“The Brutalist Bricks” as a Broadway musical, with Paul F Tompkins and John Hodgman also appearing. The video is directed by WMFU’s Tom Scharpling.

In order to justify the purchase of a keytar, you’re going to need some pretty good songs.

Rock Band 3 is coming October 26, and this is full list of every song you’ll have available in the box. From Amy Winehouse to Yes, there is a lot of variety.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Nintendo has tried live action commercials for Metroid games in the past, and usually the effects are so corny they’re a disservice to the games. With spots for Halo raising the bar, I’m happy to see Metroid has a 60 second spot worthy of the franchise.

Wow, two great Metroid trailers in one week!

Preorder Metroid: Other M from Amazon by August 30 and get a $20 credit toward your next game purchase!