Def Jam Icon Demo on LIVE.

Yesterday morning EA Chicago unleashed the demo for Def Jam Icons on Xbox Live. The free demo is on the small side, under 500mb as compared to some of the whopping 1.5gb ones that have been out lately. The download may be small, but the demo is excellent and shows off the game well.



EA Chicago has crafted a game with the same game-set as the popular Fight Night Round 3. The screen is not cluttered with health bars and weapon meters, or even a score for that matter, you get the game in all its glory filling up the screen. Damage is displayed on the characters themselves. The character models are very detailed and the motion capture is spot-on. Damage shows up as bruises, cuts, blood, even the clothes degrade with damage.



The backgrounds are very interactive and everything looks animated and alive. Gas pumps explode, fire flys and even the background buildings shake during explosions. The whole demo takes place in the gas station arena, but it more than enough to show off what it can do. Controls took a little time to get used to. Left stick moves the player and punches are mapped to the face buttons, more moves are mapped to the right stick (ala FNR3) as well as the grab. After the grab the d-pad pulls off another move such as throws and hits. Blocking is mapped to the the triggers, again like FNR3. One of the cool new features is the way that the game moves along to the music soundtrack and your control over it. Environments move and explosions blow in time with the beat. In the demo case it is to the song Kryptonite. With the use of the left trigger and the 2 sticks you can "re-mix" the song at certain times to trigger explosions and other events. Say if you throw the CPU into the gas pumps, back away quickly and pull L trigger and use the 2 sticks like turntables to change the music beat and make the explosions go off on CPU character.

The demo is very short. After a few minutes of fighting you are throw to the white info screen and the demo starts over. the only problem I saw was some clipping occurring with the characters. I am sure this will all be fixed prior to the official game release. This looks to be a very promising game for fight fans and a big jump from the Def Jam wrestling of past games in the series.

Spider-Man 3 FirstLook

National CineMedia has posted its FirstLook piece online. It shows some new scenes that we have not seen yet, but still no good Venom shots. Also we get a look at Harry Osborn/Goblin 2's new snowboard inspired jet-sled. You can view the FirstLook segment here.

Congrats To The COLTS

Another Super Bowl is in the books and the Indianapolis Colts are the Champs. Being a split household we had lots of cheering going on, especially after the first 20 sec run back. It was a good, close game. And it would have been a lot better if the Bears had remembered to bring a quarterback to the game with them.

How much up-chuck could a woodchuck up-chuck if a woodchuck could up-chuck .

OK, a friend sent me a link to this Family Guy snippet. It pretty much explains itself. Don't eat while watching. You have been warned.

Dinosaur On Film.

This short clip is from Japan and shows a very rare Frilled Shark that wandered into the shallows off the coast. This is truly an amazing looking sea creature. Looks like a lost link in the evolutionary ladder. Very creepy. Could be the next challenge for Godzilla or its already being served as expensive sushi in Tokyo.

Accident On Invasion Set.

On all the news channels this morning is the news of the accident that occurred on the set of the new movie Invasion starring Nicole Kidman. As can be seen in the video, the rig truck hauling the car set-piece looses control and strikes a light pole. Now everyone has been talking about poor Nicole and how shook up she was. she went to the hospital to be checked and was released with no injuries. I really feel sorry for the actors clinging to the outside of the vehicle. If you watch the video you see 2 of them fly about 15-20 feet after the impact, what about them ?? Nicole was safe inside the vehicle, it wasn't that bad of an impact for someone inside. I am sure the Director saw dollar signs flying out the window after that impact until he knew she was ok.

Ninja Warrior or How I spent My Down Time.

I had about a 4 week down time during my last surgery that I spent in bed or in my lazy boy. So in between marathon Xbox sessions I was able to catch up on some TV shows and movies I have had lying around. One about midnight I was flipping channels and stumbled across a Japanese show on G4 called Ninja Warrior. After about 30 minutes I was hooked. Unlike a few other Japanese shows on US TV, this was a serious competition. the contestants ranged from Olympic athletes, wrestlers and gymnasts to regular working men. Truly some amazing feats of strenght, agility and speed are shown off thru the competition which starts out with 100 men. Through the coarse of the 4 events the men are whittled away. The goal is to reach the 4th and final stage and the grand prize. The day I watched all 100 dropped out on the 3rd stage. Below is a video of Makoto Nagano, only the 2nd man to ever complete all 4 stages and win. I think I could make it over the first jump on the first stage, then just fall to the ground and lay there for a couple days.

Book Review : The Road

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

Knopf Publishing 2006

241 pages Hardcover

Sometimes I am very bad with jockeying books around on my reading list. Some move to the top and others continually move up and down but don't get read. I am sorry to say that the later happened to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I received the book in with about 3 others and it sat on the self and was passed over many times as new books piled in around it. Last month it started appearing on several lists as the top book of 2006, so I dug out my copy. Not reading this book right away was the biggest mistake I could make.

McCarthy's book is unlike anything I have ever read. McCarthy has written some dark , dreary books in the past, and this one follows suit. But the mood is what makes the story and just drags you along page by page through its sparse prose storytelling.

McCarthy has written a story that doesn't bog you down with tons of back-story and character development. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, this we know. What has exactly happened and why is never revealed. The landscapes is often described as gray and dead, ash falling like rain, no animals, no trees. We follow the travels and trials of a father and his son. No names, no ages and only small hints of thier past is ever revealed. This is actually a good thing. You find yourself totally engrossed by the characters only referred to as The Man and The Boy. You are thrust into thier world of hardship from the first page and it never lets up. Your spirits raise when they stumble upon good fortune and your nerves jump when they come across the horrors that this new world has spawned. It is a tight and hard-written story that keeps you on edge till the end, and I challenge the strongest reader not to slump into thier chair during the last chapter, which you know is coming but spend the entire story hoping it won't.

Cormac McCarthy has made a new american masterpiece which in my opinion should be on everyones reading list for years to come.

On to the Superbowl !

Now isn't this a interesting situation. 2 teams that I want to root for are together in the Superbowl. Being a south-side Chicago boy pulls at my very roots to cheer on the Bears, while my Indy transplanted side wants the Colts. I have to say that both games yesterday where a thrill to watch and had their ups and downs. Payton only managed to give us only a few minor heart attacks thru the coarse of the game.

So who to root for. Mrs. G will wear her old Bears Superbowl Shuffle shirt and cheer the Bears , and I will cheer on the good ol Colts. So whoever wins, we have a winning team.

Time keeps on slipping............

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post. Sorry for the long absence. After some a lot of work at home, a engagement announcement, a surgery and now a long recovery,,,,I am finally going to try and start up posting again.

I you are a past reader checking in, then welcome back. If you are a new reader, stop back often and you might just catch something that interests you.

Christmas List Item.

Well I have added the first official item to my Christmas list for this year.

Samsung has announced the production of a new "Ultimate" LCD TV. This LCD is a whopping 70 inches of true 1080p goodness. It also boasts a complete 180 degree conical viewing angle, which is great when you have a lot of people sitting around the TV. The signal is reproduced at 120Hz, compared to the wimpy 60Hz that a normal HD LCD outputs.

In laymens terms,,this is a rocking set. The set is set to go into production in the first half of 2007, so reserve yours now. Price has yet to be announced and the Asian show-model is not included.

Amazing Screw-On Head Pilot.

If you missed the premier on Sunday at 11pm, you can watch the entire pilot for The Amazing Screw-On Head on SciFi.com . This new animated series is based on the comic by Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and features the voices of Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce and Molly Shannon.

The pilot is great, with a nice mix of horror, sci-fi and comedy. It is like watching a moving Mignola comic book. The art style is perfectly matched and catches all the little quarks that Mignola piles into his art.

I don't think that the late Sunday time spot is the best choice for this series tho, it should be in a Sat or Fri night spot to catch the target audience.

Wizard World Chicago

This past weekend was the 10th Annual Wizard World Chicago Convention at the old Rosemont Convention Center. Once again wizard pulled out all the stops and presented a great show for fans of all genres.

I am in the process of getting some pictures together and some notes of the day (we attended Friday, and it was Little G's first convention) and will post a large post later.

Also on a quick note I would like to give a shout out my friend Scott Licina. Scott's name has popped up several time son this blog and was most recently attached to the cool horror comic GRAVE Grrrls. Well, GRAVE Grrrls is now more and Scott has moved on to bigger and better things. On Thursday the 27th, Scott was announced as the new head of Fangoria Comics, branching off the huge Fangoria Entertainment. The first book out of the gates will be Strangeland Disciple, based on the upcoming movie and character created by Dee Snider. Scott knows his horror and will not let any of us down on this new project. Congrats Scott.

New Spider-Man 3 Trailer........NOT.

This video has been making the rounds online. It is toted as a new trailer, but has not been officially released by Sony. I appears that it is a "fan-made" trailer because of the old scenes mixed in with the new and some of the special effects seem pre-production. If you really look at it you can see that the Goblin scenes are from the first movie ,but the Goblin costume color has been changed. Also the JJJ scene is the one from the first movie, with the publicity still of Sandman on the cover of the paper. It is a good job, and will be cool if Venom does look that good. I could also swear that one of the Venom scenes is super-imposed over a Pumpkinhead scene.
Spider Man 3

AAHHHH,,,Make It Stop !!!!!

I knew when we purchased a 100 yr old Victorian home that there would be a lot of work involved in getting it back into shape. Over the years it had been changed around and odd little things added. So we started our quest to restore the home back to its original grandeur. First the orange carpet was trashed to reveal oak floors, which in the coarse of a few days where refinished and now are beautiful. Next was the 2 month odyssey of tearing down the main stairway (which had changed directions several time over the years) and putting it back where it belonged and replacing add-ons with oak and original pieces we found in storage in the crawl-space. It turned out grand.We completed other little nips and tucks here and there, slowly but surly making it our home.

So the most recent project, that has taken up the last 2 weeks, was the kitchen. I thought it would be a simple 1 week job, but as usual nothing goes as planned. In a nutshell we redid the ceiling and walls (plaster), installed new crown and blocks, re-painted, tore up 3 layers of linoleum, put down new sub-floor and then new tile and then re-touched up the paint again. Now all that is left is the new counter tops and I can finally cross that job off the list.

Finally I can take a rest. (Never thought I would be happy to return to work after a vacation, but I need the rest after a working vacation) next project coming up will stretch from fall to spring. That will be restoring the original front porch. Over the years metal railing and posts where put up and the old wood beams and railing where put in the crawl-space. So the fall/winter months will be me stripping years of paint off the surviving pieces and then frabricating new pieces to replace those missing and then in the spring I can hopefully get the porch put back together.

If my sanity holds out that long.

Headbutt Heard Around The World.

The whole world cup incident between Zindane and Materazzi has been worn out on the news and all over the net. But this video is just hilarious....Enjoy.

Zinedine Zidane headbutt montage

Big Movies on the "Really" Little Screen.

Little G picked out a new toy a few months back after graduation. The item was a very cool PSP, otherwise known as a Playstation Portable. I had never seen one of these in person and wasn't sure what to expect from a $250.00 mutated gameboy. I have to admit that I was surprised and now wish I had one of these little babies for myself. You can of coarse play games, which there are quite a few to choose from and listen to music ala MP3 or WM. What I didn't know at first is that you can even surf the internet with it. Just find a wireless signal and it will jump right on and a surfing you can go. Another nice this is that you can watch movies on the system using the UMD disc format, and the full color widescreen screen looks great. Now most of the movie companies where releasing movies on UMD at the same time as DVD, but now it has been announced that the UMD format is going to be dropped. This kind of made me upset, thinking that we just buy one, and now it won't support movies anymore.

A solution to this problem was pointed out to me via a company called SlySoft (SlySoft.com). This company offers a program called Clone DVD Mobile. Now before I dive into this please be aware that you should never violate copyright law and illegally copy or sell copyrighted material. But, fairuse law states you can make a copy of a movie that you own for your own personal use to preserve the original copy. Now back to the program. This little thing lets you take any DVD from your collection and shrink it down to a file-size and type that will fit on a memory-pro duo card and play flawlessly in your PSP. I don't know all the technical aspects of the how the program works, but the file you create is perfect and looks great on the PSP, with no artifact or jumping. On a 1GB you can fit about 3 full length movies. This method falls into the gray area, but is a good solution to help bypass the UMD system that is being discontinued.

This program can also convert movies to play on IPod Video, Creative Labs ZEN and other portable devices. It also support and converts to DivX, Xvid, AVI, MP4 and more.

They also have a program call AnyDVD that, among other wonderful features it allows you to watch various region coded dvds on your computer. So if you have a R2 (UK) DVD you can now watch it on your computer without having to worry about resetting your region code. This is very helpful when you have a lot of overseas DVDs in your collection like I have.

Doctor Who,,,A Rose By Any Other Name.

On July 8th, the BBC aired a episode of Doctor Who that marked the last appearance of Rose Tyler as the Doctors' companion. Billie Piper played Rose next to David Ecclestons' 9th Doctor in Season 27 and David Tennants' 10th Doctor in Season 28. Rose helped revitalize the series and brought a "humaness" and closeness never before seen between a Doctor and his companion. She will be missed.

The Doctor is never long without a companion, and that new open space will be filled by Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman starting in the 19th Season after the Christmas Special. Freema also appeared in a season 27 episode where she was killed by the Cybermen. She has some pretty big shoes to fill following Billie.

I located this fan-made video on YouTube. It is a great tribute to Rose and The Doctor.

Doctor Who - Who knew?

Some Movie Catch-Up

It's been so long since I posted that I thought I would do a little movie catch-up first.

Super-Man Returns : Went to see this with my boy at the local theater for the first showing on the release day. I was surprised to find the theater only half full. When we saw X-men it was packed to the gills. Superman is much more iconic than the X-Men, but I guess movie goers don't see it the same way as me. I have waited a long time to see this movie, and when it started I had that same feeling of when I saw the original star Wars, or even the 1st Super-man movie. As soon as that S symbol appears on the screen and titles start. It was like going back to being a kid again. This movie takes place 5 years after Superman has left earth to search out Krypton and now returns to a world that has learned to live without him. This movie really had it all. Action, comedy and the little heart-string pulls. Just like Batman Begins revived that franchise, Superman returns does the same for the big blue boyscout. We had more fun watching Superman than we did at X-men.

Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest : When the first Pirates movie came out it was unique. We hadn't seen a true pirate move in a long time, and add the amazing performance by Keith Richards,,,,oops,,I mean Johnny Depp, and you had a blockbuster. Pirates 2 is again a winner. It is rare when a sequel can be matched up to the original, but this movie does it. The action is stepped up several notches and the special effects, especially those for Davey Jones's organic crew are truly amazing. Once again Jack is in trouble and his (so-called) friends turn up to help and hinder. This was another 1st showing when the theater was only half filled, but with the record breaking opening it had (beat spider-man's record), the overall show-up was great. Many people in the theater where disappointed with the ending, but just remember that the next installment, At Worlds End is already made and only months away.

On the Trailer front, 2 stand at the top of the heap.

Transformers is set for release on 7/4/2007 and the teaser trailer has now been released. We don't get to see any actual robots in disguise, but after all it is just a teaser for a movie still 1 year away. The coolest part of the trailer is the transforming titles at the end. It is interesting that Michael bay already came forward and said that none of the footage from the teaser is in the movie, it was shot exclusively for the teaser film. You can view the trailer here.

Probably the biggest and most talked about trailer has been the one for Spider-Man 3. This trailer really touches upon all the questions that fans have been asking for months, and still doesn't really clear anything up for us. Yes we see Spidey in the black costume and even get to see the symboite in motion (whether it will be an alien or earthbound creature is not yet known), a great shot of Sandman is shown and a very quick look at Topher Grace who is reported to be Venom. The trailer is very fast paced with shots of the main and several supporting characters. The 2 scenes of the new Green Goblin are very quick and even slowed down it is hard to make out what the costume looks like. Sam Raimi has yet to disappoint us with his Spidey movies. The trailer can be seen here in several different formats.

A Long Strange Trip...................

It has been awhile since this blog has been updated. A lot has been going on in the past months that has kept me busy, and I must admit to a certain degree of laziness also. One of the major developments has been that my little girl (I guess 20 is not little, but she will always be my little girl) has gotten engaged and is set to be married next year. You never realize how much has to be done to plan a wedding, even 1 year before the date. That along with some honey-do projects and assorted Holiday/Vacations, has kept me away from my keyboard and updates. By now I am sure that my readership has been reduced to zero (loosing that 1 steady reader has been a blow). So updates start again today and I plan on branching out into some other topics than just the movies and TV that have dominated. Sure there will be movie items still, especially with Spidey 3, Transformers, Ghost Rider and others on the horizon. But hopefully I can break it up a little, a little more personal ramblings and maybe even get my 1 reader back.

(Rob,,,,,you don't count as my 1 reader)