Clip of the Day (5/28/08) - TNT vs. ESPN

An oldie but a goodie is this postgame bit on Inside the NBA last year with TNT's Reggie Miller issuing the challenge of TNT analysts vs. ESPN analysts (former players). If this ever happened, TNT would win... If I had to pick the teams, it would be (way similar to Reggie's picks)

TNT: Doug Collins as the coach

• Ernie Johnson
• Charles Barkley
• Kenny Smith
• Reggie Miller
• Chris Webber / Magic Johnson

ESPN: Hubie Brown as the coach (or Jeff)

• Dan Patrick (Yeah, no longer w/ ESPN - Mike Trico as the alternate I guess)
• Tim Legler / Jon Barry
• Mark Anthony
• Marc Jackson
• Jamal Mashburn

Yeah the TNT folks would win in a pickup game against ESPN (both on the court and off it based on the quality of their shows).

New Guitar Hero Ads = Ugh!!!!

I stumbled upon these ads for Guitar Hero and I'm like why are doing this?

First up we have "Risky Business" ads with the two American Idol 7 finalists David Cook (the winner!!!) and David Archuleta (the loser!!!). At least the Cook version I can deal with since he is a rocker, but the Archuleta version doesn't make sense to me as it doesn't fit his persona at all. Then again, these being Guitar Hero ads is bad enough and since the brand is so popular, ads like these are bound to happen anyway. It is just sad how the GH property is being treated these days.

This new video for the upcoming DS game is just a new low for me. I feel like puking after seeing this one especially who knows if this idea will work at all. Then again, it will sell a million copies because of the deadly combination of the GH name and the Nintendo DS alone. Just rather play the console ones instead and this is just a waste of time.

Now this trailer is something I can agree with, which is for World Tour aka GH4. This video that was out last week showcases the new drum kit. The folks of Neversoft are getting help from Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Travis Barker (Plus 44, Blink 182), and Stewart Copeland (The Police) to make the best drums possible for GH World Tour even though I don't want to pony up for the full band bundle (refer to my previous post on the possible death nail of the rhythm genre). Then again, if Blink 182's "Damnit" is in the game, I might as well jump in since that song one of Blink's best (also fun to sing too).

So the two GH ads = Ugh!!! The GH4 Drum Kit = Yes!!!

Trailers at Ubidays 08

The curtain is finally pulled for Ubisoft to show some stuff at their Paris press event...

The big bombshell from the event is the announcement of Beyond Good & Evil 2 along with a teaser of the game. This has been heavily rumored for a while and it is finally official since the first one of the forgotten critical darlings last generation (it didn't sell that well). This is likely a 2009 release and I'm curious how better it can be than the original.

Next up is the new Prince of Persia game and this trailer is CG or pre-rendered even though the game itself will look cel-shaded. This is the reboot to the franchise with a new look for the Prince and a female partner going along for the ride. I didn't play the trilogy of PoP games that were out last generation, but I did play PoP Classic for XBLA and it was good. The release is this fall and hopefully this new direction can be a good thing for the franchise.

Ubi finally enters the extreme sports game arena with Shaun White Snowboarding starring the Flying Tomato himself (or Senor Blanco). Finally a new snowboarding game to care about and the approach from the developers is "Assassins Creed and Snowboarding combined together," which is interesting. I hope this game is pretty good because I need to play a good snowboarding game again (Amped 3 was pretty cool). This remind me, where's next-gen SSX EA?

Next up is a new trailer for Tom Clancy's EndWar, which is indeed another Tom Clancy game, but a RTS. I'm not really a fan of this one since probably I realized I don't have time for RTS games (LOTR BFME II was okay and C&C3 I didn't play much of). With that and H.A.W.X., what else can Ubi whore out the Tom Clancy name to?

If you're wandering why Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur IV is at Ubidays showcasing the two Star Wars characters Darth Vader on PS3 and Yoda on 360, Ubi is publishing it at the European countries so there. In this new trailer as well, there is some new antagonist and the armor breaking is finally showcased along with the Critical Finishes. Who knows if the online will be good, but we may find out soon enough on its July 29 release at the States.

Lastly is Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, the long awaited and perhaps the last great World War II FPS. A different trailer showed up on XBL Marketplace today with this new one here being more story-driven. I don't know about the graphics yet for this game, but the gameplay still shines being it is Gearbox developing it. I don't expect myself to play this unless a demo is happening for it, so we'll see.

So that's it for Ubidays stuff with no Splinter Cell Conviction (likely delayed to 2009) and Assassins Creed 2 (probably announced at E3 with a brief teaser shown). I didn't put up some Wii stuff here like Rayman Raving Rabbids 3 and the Dogz sequel because I don't care for them with Rabbids 3 having Balance Board support. The next big press event is Capcom's CAPTIVATE which is going on now I think, but the embargo will be up sometime next week with some big guns.