Jabbawockeez and Kaba Modern at the Asian Excellence Awards...

Okay, not the greatest quality and I missed this last week, but the Asian Excellence Awards had the Jabbawockeez, winners of America's Best Dance Crew on MTV, and Kaba Modern (Shout out to Irvine!!!), who were 3rd on the show, perform their dance numbers. These performances are quite similar if u followed the first season of the show (second season begins next month) with Jabba doing their "Pill" routine while Kaba did their thing if they were in the top 2 even though it was a mix mash of old and new moves they did throughout the show. Jabba actually won an award that night for Best Reality Stars and that's cool. At least these two crews are still getting recognized for their greatness after the show and hopefully more big things are yet to come for them.

Rolling Stone selling out??

The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine is now out at newsstands and bookstores, but is this cover an indication of them selling out? As you see, the cover story is about the popular MTV show, The Hills, featuring the main girls Lauren, Heidi, Audrina, and Whitney. Honestly, it is a guilty pleasure show I watch every Monday night to see some reality drama (Yes, I admit it). I took a look at it today at a Target and this cover article is surprisingly a good read if you follow the show (Of course, this show is just an example of MTV being crap now). From what I read, it focuses on the high and low points of the show, the beef between Lauren and Heidi (I'm on Lauren's side for this fight). Heidi and her douche boyfriend, Spencer, how Los Angeles is beautifully portrayed with those crazy camera shots thanks to the crew, Lauren defending the show, how Audrina at first wasn't in the show in the first place, and the big question of whether or not the show is scripted and fake. Sure, some of the stuff seem real, but maybe some of it is not. I'm pretty sure the creators do a good job (or not) of dividing the fine line to develop the storylines. Even Lauren herself admits that Justin Timberlake was right at last year's MTV Video Music Awards of MTV needing to be a music channel again showing more videos, but at the same time was blasted since Justin kind of targeted them when he said that infamous quote (Lauren wants none of those crappy dating shows like Next anymore). Anyway, some of the cover story is here if you're curious and especially read the comments because most of the Rolling Stone fans sure hate this issue being a departure from the music direction they are always known for that they desperately need a reality show to be on their cover to sell some copies. Personally, I don't read Rolling Stone regularly, but this is just another example of the magazine focusing more on what's hot in general pop culture today than the music.

Clip of the Day (5/6/08) Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge is DICE's next game after Battlefield: Bad Company which is an original first-person action-adventure starring some chick. From this new footage that was released today during Sony's European Gamer's Day, it definitely looks promising so far for a 2009 release date (maybe late this year). The visual style is pretty slick and it is rare these days to find a first-person game that crazy. (Too many FPS I would say) This could be something special if DICE nails the concept they're approaching from what we seen of this trailer.

A "Good Week" for Rock Band / Guitar Hero III DLC

So Rock Band tomorrow is getting "It Hurts" by Angels & Airwaves, "Date with the Night" by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and "This Ain't A Scene, But An Arms Race" by Fall Out Boy as a 3-song pack for the usual 440 MS Points as well as being available separately. Pretty decent pack this week considering more of today's stuff in this game with FOB being my pick for the week because it is a popular song and people who don't play Rock Band normally looking for awesome music will get a kick out of it like 30 Seconds to Mars and All-American Rejects on Christmas Day. Then again, that Yeah Yeah Yeahs song is pretty good too and of course, Harmonix could of picked a better Angels & Airwaves song (I would pick "The Adventure," but that's the obvious choice). The FOB song is going to be funny on vocals when I have RB parties.

UPDATE - Post now updated with a "This Ain't A Scene..." Expert Guitar run

UPDATE 2 - Now updated with "Stockholm Syndrome" FC Expert run

Guitar Hero III this Thursday gets a 3-song pack of Muse songs (Yes!!!!) with "Stockholm Syndrome" headlining the pack. The other two songs are from their last album, Black Holes & Revelations, "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Exo-Politics." For once, Activision and Red Octane may have won this round putting out a Muse pack, but obviously the potential these songs have on Rock Band is crazy and better. At least, the DLC for both games this week is a good break from the masterpiece that is GTA IV (review later this month).

Even though more Muse is in GHIII, Rock Band soon will get Muse with one of their breakthrough hits, "Hysteria," for the European release next month (or the end of this month) and this song rules. If I was Harmonix putting out their own Muse pack to counter GHIII's song choices, I would pick "Hysteria" obviously since that's confirmed now, "Time is Running Out." and "Starlight." These songs are perfectly fit for Rock Band I think with the available instruments, so make it happen Harmonix!!

The Best Defense = A Good Offense (Bourne Conspiracy Demo Impressions)

The demo for The Bourne Conspiracy came out today on Xbox Live Marketplace (this Thursday on Playstation Network) and for what they offered, it can be pretty cool. It looks good on motion, but playing it might not be the same feeling. The developers definitely nailed Jason Bourne well in this game being a killing machine of crazy counters and gun skills. The first part of the demo for me was a little trial and error since u couldn't really beat up the guards with the guns leading towards deaths. Most of the action feels scripted with instant enemy encounters being led to takedowns and then hand-to-hand combat. The melee combat for me is the star of this game even though you have to set up your enemy with weak and strong punches and kicks before kicking in the takedowns / counters due to the adrenaline meter. The gun play is solid with cover mechanics similar to GTA4 and Gears of stop and pop combat. I think the enemies do take some punishment before being killed if you're not using takedowns (hence the title of this post). Health is rechargeable like Halo and the driving is a little loose (that is not the focal point of the game, but it is not frustrating). Every hand-to-hand fight is just filled with cinematic intensity when the takedowns are done, which make it feel like the Bourne movies, especially that boss fight in the plane. With most of the action being scripted of Point A to Point B stuff, there are lots of quicktime events with button presses during cutscenes and when a boss is about to attack ready to be countered. The checkpoint system is pretty good not being that spread out in various spots. Graphically, it looks okay, but not great (Unreal Engine 3??).

The Bourne Conspiracy could be a pretty good license-based game maintaining the feel of the books and movies accurately after playing the demo. Sure, the gameplay might get repetitive in the final game (who knows), but I think it will be fresh enough to be worth playing with all those takedown animations at various spots (using what's around or the scenery to your advantage). The shooting is okay enough, but not special as well as the driving. At least this game will be better than some of the upcoming movie-based games this summer (Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, and maybe The Incredible Hulk). It is definitely worth a download to try out to decide whether to buy the game or not. For now, it is a pretty good rental if the game is going to be less than ten hours long to beat.

Little off-topic, but expect my Mario Kart Wii review this weekend (need to play Battle Mode and more online before typing it) unless GTA4 gets in the way obviously.

Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark (spoilers ahead)

I watched Iron Man today and it was an awesome movie. To me, it is definitely the best superhero movie since Batman Begins (one of my top 3 superhero movies now) because it is that good. I was amazed how perfect Robert Downey Jr. is being Tony Stark as it was a great casting choice. The supporting cast was also pretty good with Terrence Howard being Tony's good friend and eventually hinting to himself he'll be War Machine soon. I was very impressed with Gwyneth Paltrow's role as Pepper because I thought she would be another generic love interest for the hero (not a fan of Kristen Dunst being Mary Jane in the Spider-Man flicks) and I was wrong. Jeff Bridges is okay as the villain of the movie even though I would of wanted a villain from the comic books in this one, but there will probably be one in the sequel. The action scenes are amazing as the CG folks nailed Iron Man pretty well with the suit, weaponry (The Uni Beam is there = Yes!!), and the flying. While I wished the Proton Cannon would make an appearance (a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 reference), the amount of source material is very faithful to the Iron Man character.

I also definitely stayed after the credits for the bonus scene and that was funny with Samuel L. Jackson being Nick Fury from SHIELD telling Tony about the Avengers intiative. I'm curious how this special scene will play out with the sequel (Live-action Avengers movie??). The humor is handled very well throughout the whole movie as well as the one-liners when Downey Jr. being Iron Man was toned down.  This is definitely one of my favorite movies this year already (even though I haven't watched that much movies this year) and a great start for the summer movie season especially with the box office numbers being 100 million in its first weekend, which is crazy. Iron Man has set the bar for superhero movies (both Marvel and DC) in terms of high-quality movie magic even though The Dark Knight (new trailer is sick!!) is going to be pretty good and I'm not a fan of the new Incredible Hulk movie yet, but I would still watch anyway. I'll probably watch Speed Racer next weekend despite being too colorful to me.

A Day in the Life of Liberty City (Part 2) - Spoilers ahead

Okay, I'm currently 32% done with Grand Theft Auto 4. Story-wise, I'm about to start the Playboy X missions over at the second island. Actually, I accomplished my goal for the weekend of at least getting to the second island and hopefully getting a safe house around that area soon. Other than that, it is still an amazing story of betrayal, loyalty, and randomness. As with most people, Brucie is such a standout character and really weird that Niko just wants to make fun of him every time. Little Jacob is pretty cool too and helpful when getting guns and armor from him. I actually did a lot of side jobs as well for achievement points with Jacob's package escorting and Brucie's exotic car pickups. I also started some of the races too since the first mission with Playboy X is pretty long. I knew Dimitri will eventually screw you and it happened so quick for me and was surprised Michelle being undercover for the government. I think the series has always put together a diverse cast of people raging from pure mafia-type leader, to a steroid-driven dude, to a fat chick that sniffs up coke.

Performance so far has been good, but pop-in being in their usual spots, especially that bridge to Bohan where it can be pretty bad at times. Good thing I'm at the point where things pick up requiring more firepower and armor being a necessity for the upcoming missions. Then again, the funny and obscure missions like the online dating one is crazy stuff. In addition, I been managing my relationships well with Roman, Little Jacob, and Brucie (Michelle doesn't count now). I tried out Qubed and didn't know what goes on with that mini-game and Darts is hella easy to get bulls eye nearly every turn. I haven't tried Pool yet and I should soon.

Well that's it for now, more GTA IV in a later time.