NBA 2K9 has their coverboy already

Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics is the coverboy for NBA 2K9, which is an obvious choice with Boston in the NBA Finals and quickly turning the franchise from a disaster to the best team in the Eastern Conference (along with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce).

They're losing right now being halftime in Game 1 against the Lakers (so far an entertaining game I guess).

Music Roundup for 6/4/08

This week's Music Roundup is another biggie with three "hyped up" albums in the mainstream world. (Note: I'm skipping Weezer's new album for now, supposedly it is not that good compared to their previous efforts. Also not giving Ashanti's The Declaration a shot yet, likely passing on her new one too. With that out of the way, let's do the roundup of what I have been listening to.

Coldplay's long awaited album, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends, is already leaked out to the interwebs and it is pretty good. It is better than X&Y at least and I think they took more chances to come up with a different sound, but still have their signature style and it came out great. This new sound definitely shows in their singles "Violet Hill" and "Vida La Vida" with the different instruments and whatnot. I do wish it was longer since it id only ten tracks in the whole album (unless you want to count the bonus acoustic tracks) being less than a hour long (it probably needed more tracks, but then it would be probably be filler stuff I guess). Obviously the hit songs are pretty good ("Viva La Vida" perhaps the best Coldplay song since most of their Rush of Blood to the Head stuff like "Clocks."), but you can probably find another favorite of these ten tracks like maybe "Lost!" This album is truly worth the wait for Coldplay fans and I think it lived up to the hype if there was any hype for it.

N.E.R.D's Seeing Sounds is another highly anticipated album of mine and I am liking it so far. All the songs in the album definitely feel like Neptunes songs with Pharrell singing the whole time. "Everyone Nose" is definitely that weird club banger I would listen to (The remix is amazing!!!!). "Spazz" is another cool song even though it is getting annoying to hear that in those Zune commercials now. This N.E.R.D. album is at least better than Fly or Die when more catchy songs, but of course In Search Of... is still their best album with "Lapdance," "Rock Star," and "Provider." Did I mention "Everyone Nose Remix" is awesome with Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T from the Clipse - this song took over "The Finer Things" as my new banger.

I actually made myself to check out the new Disturbed album, Indestructible, and sometimes I feel like listening to some nu metal with this album fitting that bill for me. Thanks to Rock Band, this album is not that bad with the title track being a great head start towards another head banging album from the guys. "Inside the Fire" is their first single for the album and my favorite of the bunch (The music video for the song does some sort of parental warning because someone commits suicide). Everything else in the album just felt the same, which is okay especially not being that much of a metal fan. This one definitely is for the fans that want more Disturbed (Ohh Wah Wah!!!) and good nu metal.

That's it for this week - Gotta go watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Lakers and Celtics.

Today in the World of Guitar Hero....

Guitar Hero is in the news again and everywhere!! Honestly, it is just sad to me that once upon a time Guitar Hero was the underground hotness in 2005 and now it has turned to a mainstream moneyhat thanks to Activision's "let's Tony Hawk the franchise with more games every year" mentality.

Let's start with another FC of "Through the Fire and Flames" which is always remarkable and amazing to see. Yeah, I would curse after doing that...

Next up is a preview clip of the God of War song being exclusive DLC for the PS3 version of Guitar Hero III, which is out tomorrow and free. Yeah, the 360 version got that Halo song and now it is Sony's turn to get their exclusive song and it is actually pretty good (probably better than that Halo song - well I have to see the full notechart).

Okay, this is when I feel like ranting a bit. Kotaku has a story about Coldplay being in Guitar Hero III as DLC in a week or two. It is not yet confirmed in other sites, but I can see this being true with "Violet Hill" confirmed as one song. Who knows if there are two more to go along with like the #1 song on iTunes, "Viva La Vida" (Yeah, that song is pretty good), but once again if this was Guitar Hero World Tour, then I would say yes, but Rock Band is a better game for them so you can do your best Chris Martin impression when signing. In addition, expect these songs to be hella easy (as if Disturbed songs on Rock Band are challenging enough). I'm pretty sure some would flip out if they have to play piano parts with the guitar. I appreciate the variety if this Coldplay DLC is true, but sometimes some bands are not meant with Guitar Hero or even Rock Band.

Now this is when it is getting overboard. We have Miley Cyrus trying to be a true rockstar for the kids of smashing GH guitars in her new music video, which is more like another plug to me that Activision is pulling off here unless they're pissed their products are getting smashed.

I still wished Guitar Hero stayed underground, but maybe I should accept the fact it is a mainstream monster that can't be stopped at this point if people continue to buy them. It is just lame to witness the madness with all the band exclusivity talk, peripheral support, smack talk, and GH World Tour still being a Rock Band ripoff for now in the past year.

Okay, one more Miley pic for the kids....

DMC4 "Special Edition" is Coming (not on PS3 or 360)

The PC version of Devil May Cry 4 is getting closer towards release (a demo of the 2nd mission with Berial, and the Frosts is expected to be up for download tomorrow) and I think the feature set this version is offering is the definitive version of DMC4, which makes me wonder if this "new content" will show up as DLC on PS3 and 360 or as an auto-update of sorts. It gets the GFW Live treatment (achievements, etc.) and requires a beefy machine to run perfectly. The new Turbo mode is there along with a harder mode called Dark Knight Legendary. This legendary mode increases the enemy count to a staggering amount of dudes in one screen (This is I guess the PC advantage compared to the previous versions with better hardware to pull it off). The framerate is also ramped up as expected (Mass Effect PC runs pretty smoothly and I wished the 360 version had that smooth framerate) and supports those big monitors. I won't mind trying out this Legendary Mode, but I'm wandering if it applies to all difficulties (Devil Hunter, Son of Sparda, etc.) with the hoard of enemies on one screen and the only difference is just the enemy A.I. and how much damage they can deal and take. Capcom has been stepping up on the PC side with this and Lost Planet Colonies (Street Fighter 4, Bionic Commando, and Dark Void are also coming to PC) making them perhaps the only Japanese 3rd party that gives a damn about the success of the PC.

Off-topic - The other big action game, Ninja Gaiden II, is pretty awesome so far (Review next week for now).

The Final Trailer for Wanted

All I have to say is that this movie is my pick for the month to watch at the theater (Sorry Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, and Get Smart).

CAPTIVATE 08 Trailers...

The embargo is finally lifted for people to show what happened at Capcom's press event last week. The expected suspects were there, but nothing really surprising... wait till E3.

You know this trailer, but I'm putting it up now because it is too good. I'm already a fan of Sheva, the new chick in RE5 / partner (Capcom says wait till E3 for more on that). It is already a GOTY 2009 contender assuming it is coming out in Winter 09 instead of a late Holiday 08 release.

Resident Evil 5 wasn't the only big gun there and Street Fighter 4 continues to impress. Some are worried about how little content there is (only 17 characters confirmed I think at this moment with console exclusive characters planned, not a lot of stages), but I expect the gameplay to shine as it is the backbone of fighting games (If the gameplay sucks, why bother). The other Street Fighter game was there as well (SSF2T HD Remix) with Dee Jay and Akuma playable along with more stages. Message boards peeps are starting to get impatient for this game's release as it should be done already and out before SF4, but I'll give them all the time they have to make this game as good as they can (The art is fine with me compared to others - Okay that Akuma face looks a little goofy). Some have suggested HD Remix to be bundled with SF4 along with the downloadable release and I won't mind that along with others saying SF4 will be bundled with a new arcade stick.

Dark Void is also there and hopefully it will be another original IP success for Capcom this generation (they're on a roll with Dead Rising and Lost Planet). The vertical cover idea seems cool and the fact the Crimson Skies folks are making this leaves high hopes for both fans and the press.

That's the big 3 games Capcom showed there. There's Bionic Commando (revealing a multiplayer mode) and Rearmed, 1942: Joint Strike, and Commando 3 along with a Wii game called Spyborgs, but they're not in my mind now compared to the big three. Well the downloadable games are announced to be out in the coming summer months (predicting Commando 3 this month, Bionic Commando Rearmed next month, and 1942: Joint Strike in August) and I can't wait to play those to continue supporting Capcom's greatness.

Looking at my Top 10 Most Wanted list, three are in the top 5 and it is safe to say that Capcom is doing more things right than wrong (Sure DMC4 received a mixed reception among its fanbase, but is still pretty good). I don't expect RE5 and SF4 to be disappointments in the future.

Ooh Wah Wah!!! (Disturbed Rock Band DLC Impressions)

Well I bought half of this week's Rock Band DLC (The Disturbed Pack) - didn't care for the Jimmy Buffett songs. No Ooh Wah Wah!!! in these songs (This game seriously needs "Down With the Sickness" so I could do my best impression of it).

First up is "Indestructible" and it is a typical Disturbed song to play if u played "Stricken" in Guitar Hero III (Actually all these songs have a similar style of note patterns, so yeah). I think this is their first single from their new album that is out today and it definitely sounds like one hearing and playing it for the first time in its entirety. (Thanks to YouTube user Npaeen for being the trooper on YouTube to show these songs before people can buy them when they wake up every Tuesday - If there's FC runs, I'll put them up instead later like before).

Next up is "Inside the Fire" which personally is the easiest of the three (still watch out for the solo and Overdrive ready just in case). Actually I like this song better than "Indestructible" for Rock Band since those verse patterns are surprisingly fun to play.

Last up is "Perfect Insanity" which has one of the nastiest solos I seen in Rock Band and it comes quickly, so have Overdrive ready just in case because that can quickly lead to failure if u can't handle it.

The Disturbed Pack for Rock Band is great for fans of the group and those who want a new challenge to FC some hard songs. Drums look like fun as well according to various message boards (notice I put up Guitar Videos than Drums because I suck with drums). Vocals on the other hand, good luck trying to be like that Disturbed singer.

To remind why Rock Band needs "Down With the Sickness," here's their music video.

Ooh Wah Wah!!!!