Some Trailers to End the Day courtesy of GameTrailers TV

The full episode is not yet up on the interwebs (I'll check it out in the morning), but the trailers are out from this weekend's episode of GameTrailers TV. One of them is the new clip for UFC 2009 Undisputed, which is in the previous blog post about the weekend for UFC.



First up is the debut trailer for the Lord of the Rings Conquest, developed by Pandemic (Star Wars Battlefront games) and published by EA. Being a Battlefront game with the LOTR skin, I'm curious about how this one turns out and hopefully be worth it. The last significant LOTR game is the MMORPG LOTR Online and its expansion packs, so at least whoever is handling the LOTR universe is doing a good job of spacing the games out. Hopefully it is another multiplayer game that is fun and interesting to separate themselves from the pack.



Next up is a short teaser for Call of Duty: World at War. The newest COD game is developed by Treyarch (COD3) instead of Infinity Ward (COD4: Modern Warfare) and everyone is already putting this one down because it is indeed a return to World War II except on the Pacific setting, a first for the franchise I think. With co-op for the first time and some more time with the project, maybe Treyarch can shut the haters up this fall.



Lastly, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the CGI flick out on August 15) is coming to the Wii with the sole focus on lightsaber combat via the Wiimote and Nunchuk. This is the lightsaber game LucasArts has promised ever since they first announced their plans for the Wii as if Force Unleashed is enough. With likely a direct relation to the movie with every major fight, expect this one to be a straight-forward action game based on a license, but maybe the lightsaber stuff might be good enough to wow Star Wars fans and Wii fans as well.

Get Hyped for a weekend of UFC!!

THQ officially announced UFC 2009 as the new UFC game with Yukes developing it. For those who don't know, they do the WWE Smackdown games and with new graphics and gameplay engines, I have high hopes for this game. Actually I had high hopes with that trailer shown at E3 last year. Lots of fighters will be in this game (Rampage Jackson and Forest Griffin shown in these pics) along with online play and downloadable content that they promised when it comes out next year.

Speaking of Rampage and Forest, tomorrow is the Ultimate Fighter finale of their latest season on SpikeTV and even though I haven't really watched this season at all, the finales are always entertaining to watch with worthy fights and maybe Rampage and Forrest will get it on in this thing (I'm not sure if it is confirmed, but I'm looking forward to that if it happens). With that disappointing primetime EliteXC event on CBS earlier this month (blame the overhype of Kimbo Slice), tomorrow's UFC show better be good with better anounncers and production. Maybe I'll write up something about it on Sunday, so we'll see about that.

Halo 3 gets Chilly...

Another map pack for Halo 3 is coming soon and one of them are revealed which is Cold Storage, a remake of Chillout from Halo 1. Since Halo 1 maps are now a blur to me, I don't remember Chillout as much as previous remade maps (Sidewinder, Wizard, Blood Gulch, Battle Creek) into Halo 2 and 3. At least it is a reason to go back to Halo 3 again like the Legendary Map Pack back at April. NeoGAF peeps are predicting a free release of this map only on Bungie Day which is on July 7th, which I can see happening if Bungie is down to it.

ABDC Season 2 Episode 1 Recap

Season 2 of America's Best Dance Crew premiered last night on MTV and it started with a bang with some crews bringing the heat while others not showing at all, who don't deserve to be in the top 10. Let's go through the show in the order of performances... (Photos from MTV.com)

So Real Crew started it off and they delivered pretty well. Lil Mama does compare them to Season 1's Kaba Modern (Irvine!!!) while Shane Sparks is already claiming them to be top 2 if they keep being consistent like last night. I happen to agree with Shane with that statement because I have So Real on my top 3 now.


Supreme Soul (My #2 pick before this episode) were next and the performance was a bit disappointing considering how good they were on the live auditions. The judges slammed them for not using the whole stage and other parts needed to be cleaned up. They can do way better than this one, so I expect them to come back strong next week.


Xtreme Dance Force flat out sucked in their performance as Shane blasts them hard and they deserve it because it was truly wack. As Shoryuken calls them "Xtreme Douche Force," I expect them to be bottom 2 next week unless their looks are good enough to keep them around.


A.S.I.I.D. came out and delivered a great performance (the night's second one that was good). As with the judges, the walk the dog move was pretty crazy and they can be top 3 if they keep being consistent. They were in my top 5 last week, but they really impressed me this week.


Boogie Bots were next (in my top 5 last week) and delivered a solid performance. The judges did mention that they can be better with their potential as a top contender. I do like these boys to go far into the competition, but I don't know after this week. That was the top 5 according to America's voting and I don't know why Xtreme Dance Force was on that top 5 (I guess the girls love their boy band-ish looks) while SuperCrew being in the bottom 5 was a WTH on America's part.


Speaking of SuperCrew, they delivered the night's best performance being ninjas. This tower sequence was pretty sick while their b-boy moves are still awesome. They lit up the crowd pretty well and I expect them to not be in the bottom next week after that. They're still my #1 pick after this and I love Shane's quote "Y'all just S*** on everybody." (Its true!!!)


Phresh Select surprisingly impressed me the most in this episode delivering a solid routine. Maybe it was the old-school flavor that attracted the judges and that ending flip move was pretty good. Lil Mama started to notice that some of these bottom 5 teams should not be in the bottom.


Sass x7, who didn't deserve to be in the top 10, were up next and their performance is another reason why they shouldn't be there. They're trying to separate themselves from their cheerleader image, but they didn't. I guess the votes were enough this week because of their image, but I expect them to be bottom 2 next week and hopefully be out. That leaves Fanny Pak and Distorted X as the bottom 2, which sucked because both of them are pretty good.


Fanny Pak went first and showed why they should be top 5. I love their originality and style being unique, which I mentioned why they were picked over Team Millenia. The judges agreed with me with their unique style and I guess America's votes didn't like the 80s vibe they bring, but they're serious and they should stick around for a while (LA!!!)


Distorted X went up and delivered a solid performance. Like the judges, them and Fanny Pak should be not bottom 2 and America is crazy for the looks > skill style of voting for some crews. Instead, Distorted X got the boot while the judges kept Fanny Pak, which is a good choice out of the two and clearly Distorted X are disappointed they're out already (more like pissed). The judges are a little pissed as well with the voting this week, but it is still America voting and they better vote right next week. Here's my current standings below.

1. SuperCrew
2. So Real Crew
3. A.S.I.I.D.
4. Fanny Pak
5. Phresh Select
6. Supreme Soul
7. Boogie Bots
8. Sass x7
9. Xtreme Dance Force

With Distorted X's elimination, Sass x7 and Xtreme Dance Force should be in the bottom two next week if America gets it right. Next week is the music video challenge (The first two weeks of Season 1 started the same way) and I'm a little worried of some crews not delivering on this challenge while others will shine next week. We'll see what happens. (Vote for SuperCrew!!!!)

Today in the World of Guitar Hero... (6/19/08)

Tons of Guitar Hero related business today...

We'll start with a preview of World Tour by IGN which is about the peripherals, music creator, the modes, and confirmed tracks so far (below).

Sublime - "Santeria"

Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"

Foo Fighters - "Everlong" (Yes!!!!!)

Blink 182 - "Damnit"

Lenny Kravitz -  "Are You Gonna Go My Way"

At first, I was skeptical about buying another full band game with Rock Band, but the soundtrack for World Tour with an unannounced Linkin Park song along with Van Halen is making me consider spending at least 180 bucks again. Eventually, I'll have no room for all these damn plastic instruments in my own bedroom, which is nuts. With custom songs and a weekly DLC schedule, World Tour is looking to have some more legs than Rock Band being that Neversoft learning Harmonix's mistakes.

The Coldplay DLC came out today on Guitar Hero III and as expected, they're pretty easy songs on Expert (Easy FCs), but those pesky GRB and RYO chords might ruin a FC run if you're not good nailing those consistently like me. "Violet Hill" is the easiest of the three and "God Put A Smile On Your Face" is my best of them while "Yellow" (above) is still pretty good. As mentioned so many times, these songs are perfect for Rock Band and GH World Tour rather than now, but I guess they had to put this one out to coincide with the new album release.

Next week is the releases of On Tour for DS and Aerosmith and videos are starting to surface for Aerosmith charts with "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way" (below). I'm still on the fence on buying it, but I should probably do it and put up a review after some hours with it.

More Offspring in Rock Band after all...

Looks my wishlist is getting right with more of The Offspring in Rock Band. (Confirmed at the band's website and other gaming sites like 1up and Kotaku).

"Come Out and Play"

"Self-Esteem"

"Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)"

"The Kids Aren't Allright"

"All I Want"

"Gone Away"

No specific date is announced yet and I think it will be closer to their new album release next month or August. This is a pretty big pack of songs in terms of the band and amazing songs, so fans are pretty happy like me.

Off-topic but related to music: Even though I'm not a fan, but congrats to Lil Wayne for selling a million albums for The Carter III in its first week. It is pretty rare that someone had platinum sales of an album in these days of music filled with downloads and whatnot, but good for him.

Let's Meet The Sniper...

The newest Meet the... trailer is out for Team Fortress 2, which is the Sniper. Once again, Valve does it again with these trailers delivering humor and character at the same time. Plus, TF2 is still in heavy rotation among multiplayer first-person shooters on the PC, while not on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The Pyro update is expected to be out next week and it is still a question whether or not these character updates will be in the console versions in the future. I actually liked TF2 for the time I played Orange Box for its class-based system and pure teamwork compared to something like Halo 3. Sure, Halo 3 is the more popular game, but I'm ready to claim that TF2 > Halo 3 MP. There's just something special about TF2, which is arguably the personality of the characters (the cartoony graphics style) and the pure team-based gameplay that separates itself from the rest of the pack. It remains to be seen if Battlefield Heroes will replicate that personality, but TF2 is truly an under-played gem in this generation of consoles from the time I played it.

Off-topic = Congrats to the Celtics for winning the NBA Finals against the Lakers. They truly deserved it and played way better than the Lake Show throughout this whole series. It is about damn time Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen win a ring along with Doc Rivers, who out-coached the Zen Master, Phil Jackson, in nearly every way. Boston showed up and play compared to the Lakers who really needed Andrew Bynum in this series because Gasol and Odom didn't do jack. Kobe tried to do everything, but it wasn't enough. I'm pretty sure these two teams will meet again in next year's NBA Finals to continue this rivalry.