Forgive me if this is old information, somehow I’ve yet to see this as a big announcement and thought I would inform others in case it slipped under anyone else’s radar.

Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Pencils and Cover by TOMMY LEE EDWARDS
World War II. America needs a super soldier. Only one man possesses the formula to create the perfect fighting machine from volunteer Steve Rogers. But when a deadly bullet kills Dr. Erskine along with his bodyguard, M.P. Ben Parker, Steve’s destiny—and that of the Marvel Universe—is changed forever.
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So often these Gundam games turn out to be not good.
But if you like Gundam, you probably won’t care too much right now, since at least the trailers are cool.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire will be released on PlayStation 3 next year.

wait… another Gundam game? Oh yeah, theres a completely different one for Xbox 360. Mobile Ops: The One Year War thats also being shown at Tokyo Game Show this week.

Both games are about Gundams and shooting. I can’t imagine anything really revolutionary. I think we’d all be happy if it controlled well, had decent AI, and a story/voice acting that didn’t make me want to take my own life.

Here comes another shot at Sony for their criticism that the 360 wasn’t truly “high-def”.  Just as they’re announcing that many of their games have been bumped down to 720p, Microsoft announces that they’re going to start supporting 1080p.  The best news is that is that there is no new hardware to buy, it’s all supported within the console itself via the Fall update.

Update:  According to this afternoon’s article at Gamespot, Microsoft is claiming that ALL existing Xbox 360 games will support 1080p after the update.  Needless to say, that’s pretty impressive.

The Walking Dead #31
Written by Robert Kirkman, art by Charlie Adlard

It’s no mystery why Robert Kirkman’s star has risen so quickly. Just a little while ago, his only two books were this and Invincible, and if you’re new and your name’s only going to be on two things, you better be sure they’re of this kind of quality. Invincible’s a story for another week though, as tomorrow we’re getting a new issue of The Walking Dead.

The quick ‘n dirty setup – Rick is a cop (now, a former cop) who wakes up in a hospital, only to find that just about everyone’s been turned into zombies. He quickly fought his way to his wife and son, and joined up with a whole crew of survivors. Things are constantly going to hell in their little handbasket, and while they’re not losing people left and right any more, the stakes are still just as high.

Currently, Rick’s been captured by a small town of survivors that have set up a Colosseum-type environment where they have people fighting the zombies for sport. It’s really quite grisly, and Adlard’s black and white art is the perfect moodsetter every single time.

I just checked out the 5 page preview at PopCultureShock, and I’m more excited than ever to see what comes next. A 6 page preview would’ve been far less effective, I’m thinking. If you check it out, you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, I mostly checked it out to be sure, and now I can say it with confidence – Kirkman isn’t just writing a fantastic, well-crafted story, he’s also successfully bringing you up to speed within the first pages, and doing it all perfectly organically within the story.

Do yourself a favor – Get your shop to start setting you aside a copy of this book. It’s one of my absolute favorite comic books, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be enjoying it just as much as I am.

Follow the Japanese and North American press conferences held in the past 24 hours Nintendo’s official Wii website has launched providing some great video coverage of features, information on games and technical specifications of the system too boring to be detailed at a press conference.

Movies featuring a user interaction with a number of features of the Wii channel give a good insight into what the menus and such will look like. The fact that wide screen displays are used in all these shows great promise for the possibility of widescreen support for many titles. This page gives a nice explanation of many of the services offered.

We get a nice rundown of some choice games. Wii Sports, Zelda, Wario Ware, Excite Truck, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Mario Strikers, Big Brain Academy and Batalion Wars are featured. There’s also another 42 games listed to be released by March 2007.

The Japanese version of the page features a great video combining clips of many games and some bozos playing them.

Now some noteable things about the Wii’s hardware.

– It’s tiny
– Wireless capable out of the box using a wireless 802.11 b or g
– Can be networked using a USB 2.0 LAN adapter which I figure is something you plug into one of the USB slots to accept an ethernet cable that does not seem to be included with the system
– Backwards compatible with Gamecube games, 4 controllers and 2 memory cards (which will hopefully support the Microphone peripherals)
– Stadard DVD sized discs for games
– 4 Wii remote capacity
– SD memory card slot
– AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video which, if as described is a single port, is not the same port we’ve seen on the SNES, N64 and Gamecube alike. Great to see them supporting component video again after removing it from later models of the Gamecube
– Blu-Ray

Captain America #21
written by Ed Brubaker, art by Steve Epting

If you haven’t heard the praises of this book yet, you’ve been living under a freaking rock. Basically, since issue 1 the Winter Soldier’s been running around, making Cap’s life into off-the-walls hell, initially by fighting him, and then later with the revelation that he’s actually Bucky. But now that Bucky’s memories are coming back together, he’s been going after the people that’ve brainwashed him and made him into a killing machine for the last few decades. At the very end of last issue, that trail FINALLY crossed with Cap’s, bringing the two of them to the same place at the same time.

Even though this is supposed to be part 3 of 4 in the storyarc, this should be a big issue, because Cap and Bucky haven’t yet had a chance to speak to one another – at least, not since Bucky’s mind started really healing, and it looks like they’re about to get a chance to at least fight side-by-side, if nothing else.

Basically, the Winter Soldier is badass, Brubaker writes a fantastic Cap, Brubaker also writes intelligent and excellent stories, and Epting sells these guys in the serious situations and makes the costumes work damn well. As much as I dig Ultimate Cap’s outfit, Epting makes normal Marvel U’s Cap look just as believeable.

Last but not least – We’re not being dragged down with Civil War crossovers, keeping the book from being published during the delay months, or taking us away from the wonderful, hard-hitting stories they’re telling month after month. I suppose eventually the registration issues will catch up to us, but for now, the book is keeping on steady course for awesomeness.

Holy Hannah, there is a crapload of Marvel news overflowing the news sites from all the info blabbed at Baltimore’s Retailer Summit. Let me cut straight to the talking points, most linked to full-length articles of their own. There are some serious whoppers (Thor! Whedon! Mary-Jane’s tombstone! Last of the Mohicans?) in here, all the way to the end, so please please please read through, at least until you reach Marvel’s Guiding Light crossover. (Am I kidding? You’re dying to know, aren’t you. Because I’m probably not. Read on after the jump.)

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This week’s $20 GOTY and lost classics segments focus on the eventual re-emergence of the brawler.  Ever since the golden age of titles such as Final Fight and Double Dragon, arcade and console gamers have enjoyed bashing thier way to the other side of the screen using an assortment of moves.  However, after the 16-bit generation, the popularity of true brawlers has waned, due in fact to developer’s instance of making games in 3-d, including our belover beat-em-ups.  In recent years however, there has been a resurgance of intrest in the brawler, mostly due to the fact that developers have managed to do it the right way.  Lets take a look at two such games, one you may have missed, and the other being more recent.  BTW, starting this week, or whenever I stop being lazy, I’m moving this back to the weekend.  (Will’s week-in gaming.  Get it?)

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