New York Comic-Con is going on right now and for the rest of the weekend and of course Capcom is there revealing more characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. On the Capcom side, the new fighters announced are Nathan Spencer from "the new" Bionic Commando game and Arthur from the Ghouls n' Ghosts franchise. Yay at new Capcom characters finally making debuts in the fighting genre especially Arthur since its been a while for him appearing in an actual game. On the Marvel side, is the return of Magneto (Playtime has ended!!!!) and a surprise addition that is M.O.D.O.K. All the trailers for the new characters are below.
Oh I should mention that Marvel announced the Konami X-Men Arcade game for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network for a release likely next year, so yay at more old-school beat-em-ups!
Kanye West performed on SNL tonight and killed it as expected with "Power" and "Runaway." Yup, it feels good to be a Kanye fan lately with "Power" brainwashed in my mind because of The Social Network, still delivering on G.O.O.D. Fridays despite all the leaks, and the hype for his new album increases as its gets closer to release.
I watched "The Social Network" last night and boy did it lived up to the expectations and the positive buzz. Like most people, I was not really excited for it at first because well it is a Facebook movie and who in the world wants to see that? I was totally wrong when I found out who were behind it, which are David Fincher (director) and Aaron Sorkin (screenwriter) considering their pedigree of movies they worked on. Its also worth mentioning that the cast is pretty good for the most part as I didn't have any glaring issues with them. Anyway, it is based by a book called "The Accidental Billionaires," so it is pretty much a loose tale of how Facebook was born and became what it is today. It does seem crazy that the popular site had a bumpy road before getting 500 million friends and eventually became a movie, but the movie-ish part actually worked out after all. Who of thought that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook creator played by Jesse Eisenberg was that really a jerk yet a genius at the same time. He does seem like one of those guys that are all that intellectually and yet he has a tough time being a person with a heart. It seems to be the case where his mindset is the company first and everyone else second betraying those he trusted the most, which is his best friend, Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, to get where he is today being the youngest billionaire out there. The theme pretty much fits the movie as you can't get 500 million friends without making a few enemies.
Making something as successful as Facebook does come with a price, which is the case how "The Social Network" is all about. It is actually cool to see the whole process go down of how Facebook was able to be the juggernaut it is today from the dorm room to its offices at Palo Alto, California. What makes the movie that good though is how nicely put together it was from the pacing, the tone, how the setting was perfectly nailed down (being that it took place in 2003-2004) and more. IGN actually said it right that this movie is very Rashomon-y (shout out to my philosophy friends with that reference) in terms of how scenes played out going back and forth between the past and present of that movie. In other words, when the legal discussions were rolling out between Zuckerberg, Saverin, and the Winklevoss brothers, they go back and forth telling the stories on how it all went down. It is also pretty crazy how prior experience from a company that used to have it all to have a big role on the rise of Facebook with Sean Parker (co-creator of Napster played by Justin Timberlake). Actually, I gotta hand it to Justin as this is his biggest acting role yet and handled it pretty well. I didn't expect him to be great of an actor, but he proved me wrong. It is also worth mentioning Rashida Jones (the main chick from I Love You Man) and Brenda Song (yeah that Brenda Song) are also in this movie as they played their parts well for the most part. In addition, the theatrical score is also one of the best things in this movie by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross as the movie gets all moody at times and Nine Inch Nails-like music is spot on for it.
In a nutshell, "The Social Network" is that good of a movie from every end. Fincher and Sorkin pretty much nailed the Facebook story at all angles (of course not all of it is true being based on a book that also told the tale loosely) making as movie-ish as they can to make it feel like a movie that has protagonists, antagonists, and whatnot. The college lifestyle at the time the movie was taking place was also spot-on being 2003 and 2004 as I noticed little details that made me laugh and smile. There are also funny moments in this film as Zuckerberg had some funny lines, but the Winklevoss brothers had most of those moments being that they were twins too. I highly recommend watching this film as soon as possible as it is one of my favorite movies of the year and highly up in the ranks with "Inception." In the meantime, let's do the "Power clap" since that Kanye song is also perfect in the commercials for this movie.
Nintendo has been busy this week announcing their Japanese launch plans for the 3DS, but I'll start off with some Kirby's Epic Yarn stuff as new videos surfaced online since the game is getting closer to its October 17 release here at the States. I already mentioned how great Epic Yarn is a while back and yet it still looks very impressive to be another top-notch title for the Wii this holiday season. Then again, this game screams "sleeper hit" as well because only Nintendo fans will appreciate it and Kirby is not really their most popular mascot like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, which is unfortunate and considering what Wario Land: Shake It went through, I feel like Epic Yarn may suffer the same fate as being another under-appreciated title among mainstream Nintendo consumers. Also, factor in Wii Party likely having better success sales-wise as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby may be left in the dust as gamers would be missing out on an unique take on one of Nintendo's lesser known franchises.
The 3DS has been the center of attention among the gaming world this week as Nintendo finally revealed their launch details at Japan for their new handheld, which is to come out February 26 over there while a March release for the U.S. and other territories. Now I have a day to soak all the info in, it is nice that the 3DS exists and people are excited for it, but the lineup revealed so far looks like something Sony would think of for the PSP as console games being shrunk down to be playable on handheld. Nintendo is once again retreading what was awesome back then can still be awesome with remakes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 along with their new Kid Icarus game. Third parties so far are migrating their popular franchises to the handheld from Capcom's Resident Evil games, Mega Man Legends 3, and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (Will the AE changes be in place for this iteration?), Tecmo/Koei with Dead or Alive Dimensions, Konami with their MGS3: Snake Eater remake, and more. I know its still early and the thing is not even out, but where in the world is the originality? The original DS capitalized on that aspect even though it took some time for that to kick in and I expect the same for the 3DS too as developers have more time with the system figuring what is capable to do in that thing. There's also the 3DS Virtual Console announcement as well with Game Boy games (GBC/GBA/even the Virtual Boy as well) being downloadable, which is cool along with DSiWare games being transferable, but I'm still wandering where are the new games? Nostalgia is nice and all, but I hope Nintendo will turn things around unlike how Sony handled the PSP. Of course, the steep price is going to question many consumers' minds considering it is currently at 250-300 bucks now. Despite my worries, I know people will still buy the 3DS because Nintendo apparently still knows what's up, but we'll see how things play out in the months to come closer to its Japanese launch.
Another mega music roundup - but with more hip-hop this time around...
We start off at the westside with Ice Cube's latest, I Am the West. This is simply West Coast gangsta rap at its finest as Cube sticks to what he knows and made him famous while not trying to be someone else with that auto-tune. The lead off single "I Rep That West," fits the album description perfectly and proof that West Coast rap is here to stay in hip-hop. If you want to rep California the right way (well the OG way), Cube's latest will fill that void for you as 20+ years into the game and he's still got it. The last thing I'll say about this one is Cube is right, "Is this too West Coast for you ************? So what..."
Even though Weezy is still in prison serving his sentence, he still has a new EP out called I'm Not A Human Being." After the disappointing Rebirth album that was basically an experiment for him adding more rock to his raps, I'm Not A Human Being is a return to form production-wise for "the best rapper alive" sticking to his guns delivering banger after banger. While the rock is still in like the title track (video above), it is not as distracting from everything else which is pretty much another example where hip-hop is today. Along with cameos with his Young Money crew, Drizzy, and Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne is not staying quiet while in prison spitting out new songs as his new EP makes hip-hop fans excited for his official return to the game with The Carter IV as his next highly anticipated album. Then again, I'm not as big of a Weezy fan than I thought I would be and everyone else that loves that music... its probably his damn voice.
Next is up is Jeremih (aka Mr. "Birthday Sex") with already his sophomore album, All About You. I always felt like he's just another R&B one-hit wonder with the song I mentioned previously that made him big last year and I think it is the case with his new stuff. There's only a couple songs I like from this one such as "I Like" featuring Ludacris and the club banger, "Down on Me" featuring 50 Cent (that song is just one of those songs at the clubs and I'll leave it at that). Other than that, its your typical R&B album by another dude and who knows if he will have another mega hit soon because I don't see him lasting that long in the music game.
Last, but not least is Bruno Mars's debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which is out next week. Yeah, the Bruno Mars that sings everyone's favorite song, "Just The Way Are" as if they're trying to impress some chick (like all those YouTube videos by random boys, oh wait that's the official video too!). Of course, the ladies love the song and its overplayed on the radio too much which does not stop the men trying to be Bruno. Anyway, the rest of the album is more of the same if you love "Just The Way Are" which is good if you love that song too much from "Grenade," "Marry You," and "Talking to the Moon." When he's away from trying to serenade the ladies, his more fast-tempo songs (like that "Billionaire" song - oh that everyone else's favorite song too) are also good for the most part especially "Liquor Store Blues" with Damian Marley. The last two songs in his short album are from his Its Better If You Don't Understand EP with "Count on Me" and "The Other Side" featuring Cee-Lo and B.o.B. which are also great songs. As a whole, Doo-Wops & Hooligans is a great debut album by Bruno Mars and you can't underestimate how popular he is now in the world of mainstream music especially with the #1 song in the country (well not #1 in iTunes anymore) because he is that good and definitely lived up to expectations. With that out of the way, bring on the Facebook statuses of how awesome his album is in the coming days.
That's it for the music roundup this week... till next time.
This week on the PSN Demo Showcase features EA's first foray into MMA and the glorious return of a long storied franchise...
First up is EA Sports MMA, EA's attempt to compete with THQ's UFC Undisputed franchise. In case you don't know, EA's MMA game features pretty much every other mixed martial artist that is not in UFC (Randy Couture being an exception however) from the likes of Fedor, Jake Shields (actually now in the UFC too), and others from Strikeforce. The mindset behind this game compared to the recent UFC games is how we can implement Fight Night-like controls into MMA? That is truly the case with the Total Strike Control with various strikes by flicking around with the right stick. Modifiers are on the L and R buttons as clinching, sprawling, and taking opponents down are on the face buttons. On paper, it seems like this can totally work, but the execution seems flat and it ends up being slower to the UFC Undisputed games. In other words, something doesn't feel right with EA Sports MMA compared to its competition. Maybe I'm still not used to the new control scheme even though the classic controls option allows the game to play like UFC, but that even with those controls, it is still not as fluid as I hoped. The fighters that are in this demo are Allstair Overeem, Bobby Lashley (yes, that Bobby Lashley who was in WWE), Jake Shields, and that guy from MTV's Bully Beatdown show. Plus, there's Big John McCarthy doing the fighter introductions as well, so you know the presentation aspect will be good knowing EA Sports. Back to the gameplay though, I had a tough time knocking guys out standing up as the ground game is way too easy. The ground game is more simplistic than UFC, but it allows for more easier situations to knock them out by ground & pound and submissions. There are some neat ideas how EA handles the ground game like various mini-games with the submissions where you have to rotate the right stick around to find the sweet spot by the indication of the rumble to choke someone out and a simple button pressing mechanic by timing them using your stamina meter. My experience with EA Sports MMA has not been that great, which is pretty telling for the game's quality as it doesn't feel as fluid as UFC Undisputed 2010, so it ends up as a sloppy attempt even though there's still potential.
On the flipside, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is out next week as the demo has been out at Europe for Playstation Plus owners for a week, but its out for everyone else there today (Yeah, I had to set up an UK account to get this one). This is the franchise's glorious return to 3D as early reviews for the game so far have been mostly positive. This is also more than just Castlevania being another "God of War" clone for the current generation of consoles as it is actually a solid action game all around from what I played in the demo. Yeah, the game controls like most other action games, but the story and longer length does separate itself from the others. In addition, it is arguably is the most "Castlevania-less" Castlevania because of the setting and the lack of Dracula (for now, who knows later on in the game )even though there's still a whip and you're playing as a Belmont. The Kojima Productions style of polish is also intact in this game as it looks pretty good for an action game and lots of long cutscenes as if you're playing a Metal Gear Solid game, but this game having that style of production is for the best which is why Lords of Shadow is as some people claimed to be "the Arkham Asylum of the franchise." Personally, I wouldn't call it that, but it does bring back the franchise into the right direction after so many disappointments last generation. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow does have that "sleeper hit" mentality out of everything else that is out this holiday season, so its worth a playthrough if you're a Castlevania fan and need another epic action game to bust through.
That's it for the PSN Demo Showcase this week... There's another demo for Vanquish on the Japanese Playstation Store as well which is the challenge mode that will appear in the final game, but I haven't put much time into it, so I might talk about that in a later time. I also played another demo for some new WRC game (UK Store only for now) and that's pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully I can get a DJ Hero 2 Demo stream going soon because I don't have a turntable to play that.
