HALO 3 REVEALED.

Despite a stern warning from Bungie, the first scans from swedish game magazine “Level” have appeared online. All details, screenshots, etc are taken from Bungie’s first ever Multiplayer test of Halo 3 with the media. EGM already promised a full cover story for their next issue, but thatwon’t be in the mail for another week or so.

Video Games Blogger has published the scans and compiled translated info from members of the NeoGAF Surround yourself in the hype!

Some of my favorite bulletpoints:

• 4 Disc Collectors Editon, filled with documentaries, Red VS Blue, and HD cut scenes from all 3 games
• Valhalla is the new name for Blood Gulch
• 3 new weapons: Spartan Laser, Spiker, and Nail Grenade
• Weapons not in use will be visibly strapped to the players back. No more hiding the sword or Rocket Launcher!
• Two words: MAN CANNON

UPDATE: Bungie Weekly Update says they successfully test Halo 3 Matchmaking last night online with real testers on the regular internet. Wheee! They also mention the movie is going forward, and that EGM will publish more info and hi-res screens will be on 1UP and Bungie very very soon. so no need for me to go mirroring this swedish magazine photo.

UPDATE AGAIN: 1up.com has their Halo 3 mini site up and will be updating 3 times a week starting November 6.

UPDATE ONCE AGAIN: Looks like we’ve got some high res scans of this Swedish magazine right here and a more thorough translation of the article over at Geezer Gamers. These maps look incredible. – Ernie

In a follow up to Thursday’s early reports of the series cancelation Spike TV has confirmed that Blade: The Series will not be renewed for a second season.

As is fully expected for any series of any popularity or quality getting canceled before or after it’s prime the hordes of fans are launching a futile campain to save the show.

There is also mention that there will be a DVD release though no details were announced to that extent.

Blade star Jill Wagner, who plays Krista in the series, posted a bulletin using her MySpace page with the following message:

Thanks for all your support

Just wanted to say thanks again to all of you who supported me and Blade the Series. I was just informed today that there will be NO 2nd season of Blade the Series. I really enjoyed playing Krista and i hope that i did her justice at least for one season! However, that is not the end of Jill Wagner’s acting career. I will keep you guys posted on what’s next for me. Again i say thanks for the support. Hey, there is always the DVD right????
Jill Wagner

This was posted on September 28th. Due to the nature of MySpace bulletins I can’t link to this since it’s something that’s sent to people on her MySpace friends list.

This is sad news to see after Kirk “Sticky” Jones had earlier mentioned in an interview that there would likely be a second season.

Still no official word from the people at Spike TV.

Thanks to Corvus from the heads up.

Tonight Spike TV‘s Blade the Series concludes it’s first season. There’s been no confirmation of whether or not the show is being renewed. When asked about the possibility of having a second season the show’s star Kirk “Sticky” Jones was quoted to say in an interview with MediaBlvd Magazine that “I’ve been told, unofficially, that it will. I’ve got the inside scoop.”. The show did quite well with it’s pilot episode with ground breaking ratings for Spike TV. Though ratings dropped for the rest of the season the show still had a good deal of success.

This season really didn’t pull any punches. With some pretty graphic violent scenes and sexual content it’s nice to see something like this on TV where in the past you’d be hard pressed to find it in theatres.

I think the show so far has been excellent. The story has been quite gripping and I find the characters to be very well fleshed out with tons of personality. One problem as I see it is they’re spending so much time giving the vampire vilains great personality that in contrast the hero Blade and his gimp sidekick seem boring. Though one shouldn’t fault the writters and actors for outshinning them. It’s just that the concept of having a very solitary broody character like Blade makes it difficult to give him much depth. Going against this wouldn’t really be good for the series. Still I find they do a great job of compensating for this with the other characters. You can’t really have a series who’s heroes are villains so Blade just sort of needs to be there.

The cast has done a great job. Kirk “Sticky” Jones is great as the stoic bad ass Blade. He’s not Wesley Snipes but he fills his shoes and brings more than just emulating. The stylish and cool Marcus, protrayed by Neil Jackson plays both a very civilised and clean cut business man and viscious and capable adversary to Blade. Jessica Gower who plays Chase plays a wonderfull bitch. Whether that’s her natural demeaner or not doesn’t affect the fact that she delivers a sweet performance who’s hotness is superceeded only by the smokin’ hot Jill Wagner as Krista, Blade’s mole/love interest/antagonist/whatever! The character of Shen by Nelson Lee hasn’t had an excessive amount of screen time. He’s no Whistler but then it would be pretty lame if his character was just like him. My favourite performance of the season by far had to be Emily Hirst as the incredibly creepy Charlotte, the young pure blood vampire who verbally chastises otherwise intimidating characters and shows a disturbing preference for the blood of newborn babies. I wouldn’t have thought that a child could give such a performance as to make me believe that she was really a few hundred years old but here we are. I was starting to worry about how they’d deal with a vampire character who’s actress was so young that she would in time show clear signs of aging. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with her…

Hats off to a great season filled with action packed excitement and a slew of powerfull scenes that made me cringe and look away more than once. In a time with a lot of crap on TV here’s hoping we get a lot more of this great show.

Links:
Spike TV’s official site
Official forum
Blade: The Series Myspace page
Series page at IMDB
Blade: The Series on Wikipedia
A popular fan site
Original powet.tv post about Blade: The Series premiere

Like the lower price-point game consoles you can get at Gamestop, Star Trek (the original series) is getting refurbished.

You can read the entire article here, at StarTrek.com (from yesterday), but the rundown is that the original episodes are going to be re-mastered, namely in the special effects department, but also in the music. Among the things to be re-done are the show’s opening, backgrounds from on-planet moments, exterior shots of the vessel, and viewscreen shots. Expect a lotta CGI work to go down.

Oddly, instead of heading directly to DVD, it’s going to air on TV first, with the first episode dropping on September 16th. Didn’t anybody tell these guys all the cool kids are on DVD sets? And besides, what channel is it going to be on? All news reports are telling me to check my local listings, but my local listings don’t go out that far. Will it be on CBS? UPN? I’m assuming it won’t be on G4 or SpikeTV. Or at least, it won’t be for a good 10 years.

Interestingly, there was a fan doing work on this already, who put in a bid for this project. Obviously, without the vast resources of a visual effects company, he couldn’t compete, but on the upside, a clip of what he made is available on YouTube. You can find it under the title Trek Refurbished.

It’s an interesting look at what we might be seeing when this hits. His site can be found at TrekEnhanced.com, where the most interesting draw right now is his talk about this new development, where he discusses his bid, and how he actually pitched this three years ago in 2003.

Its now being hailed at the most anticipated movie of 2007, and its production has been a long time in the making and the subject of much fan speculation, cheer, and frustration.

I have read John Roger’s script, “Pime Directive.” I am going to let you know right now I am a Transformers fan. I’ve read virtually every issue of every comic series, spent thousands on toys, and can recite the 1986 movie word for word. But I’m also a movie fan, and would rather have no new Transformer movie than another terrible summer action movie, and I recognize how even the best adaptations end up shattered promises, failing to deliver on the origins of a great source.

New elements do not puzzle or needlessly change the history of the franchise, but enhance the narrative, allowing the introduction and origin to be told in a more accesible way. The military presence in the movie is felt throughout, and not only does it work, it makes me wonder why the army never took up arms against Transformers before. This does not take away, this does not change, this adds to the story.

Not to say its perfect. In fact, theres 2 characters I don’t really care for at all and could be taken out completely and even losing their expository dialog we’d still have a functional plot and movie. But I do like what I have read. It will not win any academy awards, but it will satisfy a summer movie audience.

Weighing in at 112 pages, this would make the movie, if shot directly from the page, a little less than 2 hours. Fans might not like that it takes a while to really get any Autobots, but the first half of Spiderman and Batman Begins are decidedly without the title hero, so its not that big a deal. It is felt right away this is a movie for Michael Bay when action sequences come with little down time within minutes of the films start. This will be a spectacle film, and I have high hopes the fights suggested on the page translate into elaborate brawls and firefights.

I’m also happy to report the new characters Blackout and Barricade are really cool. Blackout (called “Vortex” in script) is a military attack helicopter, and one of the largest Decepticons. He’s involved very early on in the film, and is interesting enough to make you wonder why any helicopter Transformers of the past had been this well utilized. Barricade (script name “Brawl”) is a high powered police car, and while theres no corny “bad cop” stuff in his dialog or actions, it all really works when put together.

Thats really a ringing endorsement if there ever was one. This movie is not corny. It is not Scooby Doo. Its not Spy Kids. It takes itself seriously whenever possible. The Bumblebee & Spike stuff is bordering on stupid, but Shia LaBeouf is a good comedic actor and he may be able to pull this off. Everyone involved openly says they want to start a new movie franchise, and Michael Bay is anxious to direct a movie kids and parents can both enjoy. I’ve got to have faith they’re not interested in ruining it for the existing fans, and really trying to make new ones.

Continue on for a spoiler-enhanced review.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Tonight Spike TV premiered Blade: The Series in a 2 hour “limited commercial interruption” event following UFC 937 or someting.

The premier holds much promise for this series which follows the style of the world of Blade as we see it in the movie so well that it almost seemed as if they were reusing some of the sets. The action is certainly there and is helped by effects, while understandeably not of a the calibre of a high budget Hollywood movie, are great for a tv series.

The story appears solid though it remains to be seen if it can keep us interested for weeks to come. Blade’s backstory is the same as the one we already know with some minor changes. It’s unclear where this movie takes place with respect to the movies though I get the impression it starts off around the same point as the first movie did and will evolved differently. The premier story, which is setting the scene for the TV series, centers around the character of Krista, played by smokin’ hot newcommer Jill Wagner, who in tracking down the death of her brother gets caught up in the world of Vampires.

Most of the cast including the star, rapper Sticky Fingaz, is composed of relatively unknown actors with the obscure exception of screen legend Randy Quaid as Professor Melvin Caylo. The cast delivers a solid performance and shows that you don’t need big names to get a good story across.

A preview for next week’s episode as well as things to come in the future of the series were shown. The only other star I reckognised from the bunch was The Big Hit star Bokeem Woodbine. It’s looking like the rest of the season will offer the same fun action packed story and amazing visual style we’ve gotten a taste of. I’d certainly recommend checking this series out if you have a chance.

The premier episode will be rerunning this Saturday, July 1st, at 4pm. The show’s regular timeslot is Wednesday night at 10pm.

I’d have to say that “Blade: The Series” is surely the best comic based motion picture to be released on June 28th 2006.

Last night on Spike’s GameHead, Mega64 showed off a new segment lampooning the gravely salesman from Resident Evil 4.
The new Mega64 DVD will be out July 20th, with a longer version of the skit.