The GTA4 Marketing Train Commences....

Less than a week till the whole world stops for Grand Theft Auto IV and the marketing train has commenced here at the U.S. We seen the European ads and even hear about reported leaks at various spots of the world (Australia and some spots in Europe), and the billboards have started to rollout. These sets of billboards are nearby my neck of the woods at Downtown Los Angeles while other billboards have surfaced at other spots. What's interesting about these billboards is that they are not advertising both PS3 and 360 versions (I think this Downtown LA one is for the 360 while I have seen other ones promoting the PS3 version). Then again, these ads have somewhat in question with Fox News trying to ban them at Chicago. I'm still curious how much baggage this will carry with the government being how controversial it is in the past, but I think it won't cause any problems unless something questionable is seen and noted to make them pissed off. It is only a matter of time when the leakage of footage spreads among the interwebs, and Rockstar has been on tight lockdown on anyone who uploads some of it as well as playing it early to be recognized in PSN and XBL servers. To me, it's still amazing that we are a week away for gaming nirvana with GTA IV.

Super Mario Fusion = Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

A name change later and we have now Mushroom Kingdom Fusion, previously Super Mario Fusion (blogged about it last month). YouTube user JudgeSpear2 has added a couple more members to his team to make this game better and better, which is still in a beta. I'm looking forward towards their new beta soon with some new additions and changes as he noted in these YouTube clips.

Other than Megaman Mario and more levels in the Mega Man world and now some levels in the Sonic universe (Labrinyth Zone for example from Sonic 1), more playable characters will be added, which is the major reason for the name change. Luigi is introduced and the gameplay differences are definitely noticeable as expected in Nintendo's Mario games with his SMB2 jump and Smash Bros. style fireballs, which I approve. Mario has some new additions as well with the Spin Jump from Mario World and more hopefully. This new beta seems improved drastically with some animation fixes and other gameplay changes with the Spartan suit power-up acting like Halo-like rechargeable shields now. This fan-made game is still ways off from complete, and hopefully it will deliver.

Music Roundup for 4/22/08

Time for a blog about today's world of music...

We'll start with what I have been listening to lately, which is mainly the new Atmosphere album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That S*** Gold, a cool name for an album I would say. Anyway, Atmosphere is pretty much one of the more known underground hip-hop / rap artists around even though the first time I knew about this album coming out was that it was on the pre-order section of the iTunes Music Store (that cover above is not the retail cover). Other than that, it is a pretty chill album to listen to with the fellas rapping and such with the chill beats compared to all the mainstream hits out there (most of them being crap, but still catchy). Atmosphere, to me, is about the rapping first, beats and melodies second, and it shows in their latest album. Basically, this is underground hip-hop and rap at its finest, and if you're looking for a chill album to listen to escape such songs as Ray J & Yung Berg's Sexy Can I and Lil Wayne's Lollipop, Atmosphere's latest is worth checking out.

I also happened to listen to a little bit of Madonna's new album, Hard Candy, which is out next week. I guess some of the tracks I downloaded weren't the real versions, so I have to go back and try again on that. If you like her last album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, it is basically a familiar vibe with Hard Candy. The productions actually do take center stage themselves rather than Madonna herself so far with the album divided up to productions from two of the best producers now, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams. Of course, you have your first single and current club banger, "4 Minutes", with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, but then u listen to other songs like "Give It to Me," her newest single, and it is surprisingly good for what it is (that is produced by Pharrell). There's also a song called The Beat Goes On with Kanye West, but it is not as good it could be especially with someone like Kanye. If you're into new banging productions from Timbo and Pharrell, Madonna's Hard Candy is worth a listen even though Madonna herself is not that as worth it. Plus, I rather listen to this than Mariah Carey's E=MC2 album, which is odd for my tastes.

Okay, this is a little related to games with Judas Priest's album, Screaming for Vengeance, out on Rock Band today. This is not bad for a first album to choose to start up the albums for Rock Band, with such hits as "Electric Eye" and "You Got Another Thing Coming." Most of the songs have ridiculous solos, specifically the title track, "Screaming for Vengeance" (Notechart video below thanks to YouTube user Npaeen), and I barely passed that (good thing I had Overdrive ready for it just in case). Overall, the whole album is worth the download (15 bucks or 1200 Microsoft Points) for the challenge and accepting the fact that albums finally made it to Rock Band.

Lastly, this pic above may seem weird at first, but yeah that's Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park together. I first read about this mash-up or collaboration at IGN which is basically Busta's first single called "We Made It" for his new album, Blessed. I happened to like Linkin Park's mash-up with Jay-Z a lot with Collision Course with "Numb/Encore" being the smash hit it is and the fact the mash-up actually worked. I don't know if this Busta / LP song will work since I haven't listened to it, but it is interesting to say at least.

That's it for My Music Roundup for this week, maybe more next week, who knows if there's something good worth mentioning.

Is This Madden NFL 09??

Today on GameStop's Blog, yeah the game retail giant has a blog too apparently, they are continuing their Monday series of blogs revealing some features in this year's Madden along with this screenshot above of a snow game since today's post was about the weather effects. This pic has raised some eyebrows of whether or not it is real or fake as they did a comparison of shots to Madden 08's snow effects. Then again, this is getting closer to what EA showed that target video before the Xbox 360 even came out. I have a feeling EA is ready to blow out a cover athlete and the major gameplay improvement (if there is) at this weekend's NFL Draft, but as history says, last year was the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare reveal and that shook the gaming world for a week. I also have a fetish of buying the new Madden every year since 2003 being a cultural phenomenon it is now, so I will still give 09 a shot whether if it sucks or not.

Clip of the Day (4/21/08) - The Presidential Candidates on tonight's WWE RAW

To prepare for tonight's WWE RAW featuring the return of King of the Ring, our presidential candidates for this year's election have decided to make an appearance. Here's their promo for the night, but be prepared for a horrible spoof in the actual ring like what WWE tried to do with the feud between Rosie and Donald Trump last year. This upcoming segment has Botchmania material all over it as if Mike Adamle's horrible announcing from last week's ECW was enough. Anyway, enjoy Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, and John McCain try to make their own versions of past WWE superstars' catch phrases.

Racing Games for 2008 (My Picks to Watch Out For)

So the racing game genre has been doing well this year with Burnout Paradise and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, but the remainder of the year for these games seem good so far (I'm not counting Mario Kart Wii even though it is a racing game). Here are my top picks of racing games to watch out for the rest of the year (I may repeat this post again to remind y'all of this).

WipeOut HD - I already went crazy about this one in an earlier post so read that and watch some awesome footage while you're at it. It is still one of my reasons to get a PS3 now for its June release or maybe even next month.

Race Driver GRID - (pictured above and below) After the success of DiRT, Codemasters is at it again with GRID, their current-gen take on their TOCA Race Driver series, and changes are abound if you're played the previous TOCA games before with this one being more arcade-focused than simulation. This is also one of the best looking racing games so far even though it is based from screenshots and limited trailers. If this is running at 60 frames per second (I think it is 30 for now, but steady), this could be another sleeper hit like DiRT was last year along with the DiRT style navigation menus maybe making a return to this one and proper online multiplayer. I'm hoping for a demo of GRID before its June release (also pictured below). If u want more info on GRID, check out this recent IGN preview.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles - (pictured on the right) I was a fan of the last two Midnight Club games with 2 being a challenging, but fun racer and DUB Edition being a little easier along with the addition of licensed cars. With this new one, but set only in Los Angeles (previously seen in Midnight Club 2), so far it looks like the same old Midnight Club game adding along elements seen in 2006's sleeper racer, Test Drive Unlimited. Cockpit views are also added in this game as well. The release date was announced today for MC: LA which is September 9th and I can't wait to go back to Rockstar's successful racing series even though not a lot of features have been finalized yet or any footage despite a recent showing at an Auto Show. As long as it is done right, I'm happy (also pictured below).
Well's that my top 3 picks for racing games to watch out for this year (still not counting Mario Kart Wii). Even though it is still April, there's still more racing games to be announced like another Need for Speed game that EA is promising a return to the series' roots and the inevitable F-Zero game for the Wii along with others I won't even mention. The racing genre is not usually as consistent as the constant flow of first / third-person shooters, but the limited number of them are great quality, which goes along to the whole quality over quantity thing. Also, factor in more downloadable support for Burnout Paradise, last year's Forza 2, and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and we will have another good year for racing games.

Tekken 6 Tournament at Super Arcade

Unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness the craziness of a Tekken 6 tourney in Super Arcade at Walnut yesterday, but thanks to YouTube user SuperArcadeBox, u can watch the matches that took place. Even if I showed up there and entered, I would likely get my ass whooped so it was better to watch anyway since I have faced most of the guys that are in it and they're pretty good. Here's one of many that took place.