MGS4 is out - Anyone have it??

The PS3's saving grace has finally arrived with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and yes it is amazing. This is perhaps the only time I wished I had a PS3 now to witness Kojima's greatness and an end of an era with Snake. My thing with the MGS games like most people that never played the series is that I like to watch it, but not play it. With the refined controls that I experienced at E for All last year, I would give it a chance and perhaps it is the hardcore "Game of the Forever" as NeoGAF peeps would say (they thought SSBB would be it, guess not - same thing for GTA IV). I don't care if I skipped the first three if I want to play through 4, I think it is the closest thing to a summer movie and yet this game's storyline is likely better than most of this year's summer blockbusters anyway. I read and watched some reviews this morning and it seems it is definitely flawed, but still a must-play for any gamer out there. It does solve everything that the series had set up in the previous games into one giant cluster.

With the 360 having another great Fall this year, who knows if I would still buy a PS3 for this game and Tekken 6 (my only two reasons). 

Its Capcom's 25th Anniversary

Its been 25 years since Capcom entered the gaming world as a publisher and remains as one of the premier third-party gaming companies especially at Japan. Its consistency throughout the years giving us legendary franchises like Street Fighter, Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and recent hits like Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Sure there are some misses along the way, but Capcom continues to be a major player in the gaming industry today being perhaps the only Japanese-driven publisher to have some efforts in delivering original IPs (the upcoming Dark Void as an example) while being the major ambassador delivering downloadable games with all those HD remakes (giving the old-school a new look) like today's release of Commando 3, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and the highly anticipated Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Lately, Capcom is trying to bring back what was awesome back in the day to a new generation of gamers with Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 5 while continuing to think of original franchises for the future. Then there are the sleeper hits and mistakes they recently went through with the Clover folks leaving (Viewitiful Joe, God Hand, Okami), who are now Platinum Games. Capcom is here to stay for another 25 years in the gaming industry and shows no signs of slowing down making great games for the fans that sticked by them throughout their existence.

An International Teaser for The Transporter 3

Yeah, the subtitles are in French, but The Transporter 3 is coming soon starring everyone's favorite Euro badass Jason Staham. Expect more of the same in this one with some crazy plot that is an excuse for Staham to kick more ass in this film (There's an another new female lead in this one).

Speaking of movies, a new trailer is up for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is at Yahoo now.

Music Video Roundup (6/11/08)

The Music Roundup this week is another set of new videos or stuff I'm feeling or hating now...


We start off with the new song from the late 80s / early 90s boy band New Kids on the Block called "Summertime." I don't know if this comeback is worth it and this song seems straight out from the boy band age in the late 90s and early 2000s. I'm totally not feeling this one, but good try on the comeback boys or I should say men who are like in their late 30s.

The Offspring's comeback is something I can get behind for with their video for "Hammerhead." This one is very weird with the band not in it all and a story is trying to be told in it. I'm not really a fan of the song, but I'm interested in their new album since The Offspring is still cool I guess.

Madonna's "Give It to Me" is her new video off the Hard Candy album with this song produced by the one and only Pharrell. It is definitely another dance hit to add to the plethora of other dance hits Madonna has done during the years ("Ray of Light," "Music," "Sorry,"and recently "4 Minutes" as examples).

Lloyd aka "Get It Shawty" is back in a new video for "Girls Around the World" with Lil Wayne (the hottest rapper alive - aka overrated to me). It definitely feels like another Lloyd hit and a chill song to bust out at the clubs I guess.

So The Carter III is out this week and as mentioned, I'm not a Lil Weezy fan and if it does a million on the billboard charts next week, that would be crazy.

A Good Tekken 6 Match Gets Me in the Mood..

I haven't played Tekken 6 in a month and I have been craving to play it now since the summer is ahead for me. All that GTA IV and Ninja Gaiden II is pretty much over for now, so it is a good time to go back to the arcade. Then again, I feel like going on a rental spree with The Bourne Conspiracy, DBZ Burst Limit, and GRID. At least I'm going to buy one of the XBLA games this week, which is Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3. I'm skipping Frogger 2, since I wasn't feeling old school Frogger when it was out in 2006 on XBLA and plus paying 10 bucks for a Frogger game is maybe a bit too much. Commando 3 on the other hand is another Capcom game I'm willing to support (At least I think it will be better than Rocketmen). Perhaps the main reason for buying this is playing the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix online beta which will be up at the end of the month. I also need to play demos of Civilization Revolution and Battlefield Bad Company since NG2 got in the way of that.

Expect two reviews in the weekend (NG2 and Commando 3) and hopefully another trip to Super Arcade playing Tekken 6 (Hopefully I can win some games for once).

Ninja Gaiden II Review Later This Week

Now I just beaten Ninja Gaiden II on Path of the Warrior, so expect a review later this week or the weekend pending on how finals go for me. Let's just say I had a great time with this game despite being a technical nightmare.

Here's the stats according to the NG2 leaderboards...

Current Rank - 581 (that's good I guess for now, probably be in the thousands as more people beat it on Warrior).

Karma = 21,474,038

Time = 9 hours, 54 minutes, 2 seconds

I probably try Path of the Mentor soon or maybe mess with the New Game+ to get two more Crystal Skulls.

My Favorite Show of 2008 is Back Again....

America's Best Dance Crew is already on its second season and the audition special was on yesterday (reruns throughout the week as expected on MTV). The first season definitely set the bar with my boys, the Jabbawockeez (pictured above) winning it and becoming superstars now being everywhere from Vegas clubs to Laker games. With this second season, its pretty clear that MTV wants more variety and originality since I don't think they don't want any crews that have a similar style (SoRealCrew is like Kaba Modern in a way) and not going overboard with races as well (Which I think why Team Millenia didn't get in the final ten - Even though they're pretty good (Fullerton!!!!), there are already like two full Asian/Filipino crews in the final ten and it may seen like overkill for MTV (There are almost as many Asians/Filipinos on this show than on TFC, which is crazy).

Overall, I'm happy with the top ten having enough variety and originality that MTV wants to have. The West Coast teams are too good and stacked, no wonder Team Millenia didn't make it (Fanny Pak definitely have that variety and originality that wasn't in the first season with their whole 80s attitude). My picks this season are:

SuperCrew (My #1 pick) - They're basically the b-boy group for this season and their moves are just insane. I just hope that they don't be one-dimensional with just those moves when they tackle the challenges. 

Supreme Soul (My #2 pick) - These guys have a rivalry with the Jabbawockeez at other dance competitions and they're no joke too. I expect them to do well with the challenges provided throughout the season. Then again, I don't think these two crews would both be in the final two, so it has to maybe one or the other.
I would also watch out for SoRealCrew (the Asian crew from Texas having that Kaba-like style), A.S.I.I.D. from Detroit (with the deaf guy that is pretty good), and Boogie Bots (from D.C. and another full Asian crew) this season. I also expect Sass x 7 (the cheerleader crew) to be first out this season when the show truly begins.

The judges are the same this season with Shane "You smashed it" Sparks, Lil Mama aka "This is season 2 yo, step it up," and J.C. Chasez, the voice of reason. Mario Lopez still hosts along with G4's Layla (The Feed) doing the backstage interviews. Honestly, Randy Jackson should keep this show going and stop being a judge in American Idol.