This weekend movie theaters everywhere will be running the trailer for the final act of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. The trailer is intended to play before screenings of The Avengers, so if you’re out for one of the biggest comic adaptations of the year, you’ll get a taste of the other.

But as you can see by this post, Warner Bros has graciously gone ahead and posted the trailer online for us to watch on our computer monitors and cell phones. I haven’t watched it yet, trying to save it for the theater. If I crack today and look at it, I’ll post in the comments all my thoughts and reactions.

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So this is one of those rare non-gaming Lost Classics, but it’s justified since there are plenty of games based on the WWF (or WWE as it’s called now), and there are plenty of games featuring hip hop music.
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I have been attending Transformers conventions for over a decade now. I not only own all of the convention exclusive sets offered over that time, I have experienced the convention and its prevailing atmosphere each year. I wanted to make a list of the five best Botcon exclusive sets, not just based on the toys, but on much more than that. Innovation. Character Selection. Overall theme. Fan Demand. I made this list with all of these things in mind to bring forth the most cohesive and synergistic sets to date. Have a look through each of my selections and let us know what you think in the comments.

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I don’t recall Roadblock ever leading the Joes except for a maybe a couple of missions, but with Dwayne Johnson in the roll, Marvin Hinton is running the show.

As we learned from the previous trailer, Zartan disguised as the US President has ordered the entire GIJOE team executed, with only Roadblock, Flint, and Lady Jaye surviving. All three are new characters to the movie series, and although we see Channing Tatum reprise his roll as Duke, we’re left to assume he’s dead.

You’ll spot a little more of Cobra Commander, some HISS Tanks rolling up to the US Capitol, and of course a bit more of Bruce Willis as Joe Colton. If the first Joe movie lacked star power, the sequel isn’t wanting for it.

In what should have been a forgotten series, Brad Bird and J.J. Abrams breathe new life and maybe too many laughs in the languishing franchise. To be fair the current trend in action films is lean more towards the comic relief, but there are series that are entrenched in a legacy that transcends current fads. Consider for a moment, if you remember a lot of knee-slappers in the Bourne legacy or if indeed James Bond left you in stitches with his drink order. The Mission Impossible franchise, the films at least, were following this very paradigm; but to a detriment. By the time the third film came out the word of mouth informed many a casual fan that if you barely followed the plot of the sequel don’t bother to finish out the third installment. In a rare feat of cinematic resuscitation the brains behind the latest iteration of the Mission Impossible franchise has moved the series in the right direction.

To say the film moves at a break-neck speed is a disservice to the thought and careful plotting behind all of the action and exposition. Basically it looks great with smart gadgets and a plot that is within the viewers grasp. The first twenty minutes of the film are tightly plotted and paced to really reach in and grab the viewer. The best part of the opening of the film is that it has struck the correct balance of showcasing the beloved parts of the series as well as showcasing the stylistic and comedic flares that Bird and Abrams bring to the series.

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Anyone who has visited this site within the past few months knows that I am a huge proponent of the Independent Gaming scene. Heck, I listed it as one of the 5 reasons that it’s cool to be a gamer this past weekend, and four out of my last five $20 GOTWS have centered around independent games. This week’s $20 GOTW isn’t a game per se, but it’s a downloading client. Tiggit can best be described as Steam, but exclusively for freeware independent games. Installing games is as easy as a click, and you can try out demos of games that are available as retail such as Crayon Physics Deluxe and Darwinia. Currently there are close to 300 games including favorites such as Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden and Cave Story, and the database is updated frequently. Download it from tiggit.net.

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