Hey, wasn’t this series supposed to end with the third installment? I guess Capcom either forgot, or wasn’t done milking it yet. Either way, I’m not complaining. This is one of the greatest franchises of last generation, and it’s always great to see another installment of Capcom’s demon-killing samurai saga rather than another Street Fighter 2 remake. It also takes the formula and makes some nice changes to it, while still keeping what makes the series so enjoyable to begin with.
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From the LA Times

I never thought I’d see the day. Tony Hawk, Transformers, Spider-Man, and especially Guitar Hero have propelled Activision into the top slot among the highly competitive world of third party game publishers.

It won’t last of course: EA will launch Skate to takes sales from Tony Hawk, a new Medal Of Honor to go against Call of Duty, and Rock Band may be the upstart to finally slow sales on Guitar Hero. Oh yeah, and EA Sports will have Madden on shelves and Peter Moore at the helm this fall.

Well, its good to know that there is another contender for the top slot.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Mainframe’s TV classic CG animated series ReBoot will be brought back as a trilogy of feature films.

Mainframe was acquired by Rainmaker Animation last year, and they will produce the movies in house.

The story isn’t finalized yet, its something that will be up to fans. Zeroes2Heroes will be putting up pitches and samples from 5 writing teams on July 26th and fans will choose which direction the new ReBoot will take.

Something that isn’t clear in the article is if this will be a sequel, another story set in the same universe, or a flat out remake. Rainmaker seems to have some respect for the fans, so hopefully the tone will remain true to the original, and the original voice talent will be brought back on to reprise their roles.

With Nintendo’s Wii and DS, the features that make them standout (the stylus and motion sensing control) also turn out to be their biggest liabilities. Developers often feel obligated to make use of them regardless of how well it can be implemented. As a result, we end up with games with mediocre playability due to the fact that the developers shoehorned Wiimote/stylus functionality into what would have worked just as fine (if not better) without it. This is why we should be thankful for games such as Mega Man DX, as it proves that DS and Wii games don’t necessarily have to make extensive use of fancy new features to be good.
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In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

Yes, I did a review for this game several months back, but it’s such a solid title that it’s worth looking at again. Sierra’s alternate look at a world where Tony Montana escaped the big shoot out at the movie’s end makes for a compelling set up. Not only that, it’s one of the few good games to make use of Grand Theft Auto’s style of open-world gameplay. It does a good job of putting you in the shoes of Tony Montana, excessive cursing, extravagant spending, and all. You have to make your way back to the top by making drug deals and waging war upon your rivals. You’ll visit all the familiar locations in the movie such as the Babylon Club, Freedom Town, and the Sun Ray Motel. Some repetition sets in with the drug deals, but the sheer fun of cursing out people and going into a blind rage make up for it. So for a $20 spot*, you can get what is a faithful tribute to one of the greatest movies of all time.

*Or you can spend a $50 spot and get the Wii version with new motion control actions.

A couple weeks ago I found a beat up second-generation Camaro on craigslist, and was sorely tempted to drop $3 grand on a car worth turning into Bumblebee. Due to the amount of work needed, I had to pass. However, another chance to own a Transformer has just come up.

Edmunds reports that Monroe Truck Equipment in Monroe, WI has teamed with Hasbro to customize GMC TopKick 6500 pickups to the specs seen on Ironhide in Transformers. Complete with the big-rig stacks and the 20 inch wheels paired with 40 inch tires. Oh, and the Autobot logo is molded into the back tailgate, just as in the movie. This truck may not turn into an actual Autobot, but it will transform your wallet to empty: Retail price is $75,000.

Additional reporting from The Monroe Times. Powet.TV world headquarters is mere minutes away from this shop, so we’ll do our best to be on the scene when the first Ironhide rolls off the lot.

I couldn’t have been more satisfied with Transformers (review on the way), but few will disagree that the mysterious trailer for a movie without a title stole the audiences attention for those few moments before Peter Cullen’s voice took hold of the theater sound system.

But what IS this movie? IMDB refers to it strictly as Untitled J.J. Abrams Project, the website , which is simply the release date www.1-18-08.com, shows a single still image. Thankfully, there is SOME information on Wikipedia…

The film is scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on January 18th, 2008. The premise is a giant alien known as “The Parasite” invades Earth and it is filmed entirely with handheld cameras. Also known is that the movie isn’t even done filming and the trailer was filmed before the movie was finished. Not much is known about the movie, and it has been widely regarded as a secret movie and Cloverfield may be a temporary working title .

More info as we get it. Between this, I Am Legend, the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers remake and the already released Transformers, were really set for alien invasion movies. Hollywood reaction to immigration reform or just another excuse to blow something up? You decide! Leave a comment below.

The trailer itself isn’t online officially, though low quality bootlegs appear on youtube with some frequency. The best way to see it is just going to Transformers.

Over this past weekend, a milestone was hit when Sonic the Hedgehog officially turned 16 years old. Sega’s mascot has been a teenager for some time now, but still has quite a rich reputation that he’s brought to the table in the gaming world, along with bringing a few friends with him for the ride on the gaming rollarcoaster.

What does this mean in terms of what is going to happen in the future for the blue speed-demon? Well, lets first recap on our beloved hedgehog’s life thus far.
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