This Would Be Cool

Question: Will this be the blow that Microsoft needs to take over the video game console market from Sony?

Comment: EA and their partnership with ESPN recently announced that their upcoming game "NBA Live 07" for the Xbox 360 would be more heavily integrated with ESPN content. Currently EA sports games give you the option of streaming news content from the real world on a ticker at the bottom of the game screen. Now the game publisher is claiming soon we'll be able to receive streaming internet radio content from ESPN Radio shows and even EOE (ESPN Original Entertainment) such as the always great PTI. The flood gates could certainly open as more developers integrate features like this into other games. And Microsoft, with a larger harddrive add-on, could make a hi-def internet movie rental service a reality for their mighty machine. It could be too much for Sony's PS3 to overcome if the big 'M' can get it done.

Snide Remark: "The greatest inventions of mankind (the airplane, the car, the internet) says little about his inteligence but speaks volumes about his laziness."

Mass Effect

Sony got the ball rolling in what is sure to be a long debate over whether games are art or not when they announced their "emotion engine" graphics chip thing for PS2, claiming the games will look so good players will be sucked into characters feelings and the games story in the same way movies and books do. That never happened. But over the span of the last generation of gaming boxes we did see graphics improve to, what we thought at the time, was near life-like representations of real life. Now with the Xbox 360 we're going even further down that path. And while this isn't the only key to gaining respect and "art" status for games, it does play an important role.

Later this year Bioware, makers of the smash hit "Knights of the Old Republic," will release their next RPG entitled "Mass Effect." The visuals do, at this point, offer, what seems to be, unparalleled realism, and the team making the game says they've gone to great lengths to create a dialogue system that rivals movies in dramatic effect. So...

Question: Will "Mass Effect" be the game that comes the closest or completely bridges the gap between games and dramatic art?

Comment: From my perspective, games have already achieved art status. To me, the team behind a game creates a world and a visceral experience that a user/player can only experience with a game, as opposed to a static view of a world in a book, play, or movie. The gaming world can be experienced in any number of ways, but the world also doesn't change. It's up to the user to choose how they interact, which makes gaming somewhat more exhilarating than watching even the best movie. Exalting this experience to a level that truly rivals other forms of media in the technical categories (plot, narrative, acting, etc.) is what we're really talking about here.

Snide Remark: If the game blows, "Mass Effect" may be the cinematic equivalent to "Heaven's Gate," with Bioware playing the part of United Artists.

Street Fighter II on Live Arcade

On the first Wednesday of August Microsoft will make the 90s fighting game phenom "Street Fighter II" available for download on Xbox Live Arcade.

Question: Will this be the killer app for Live Arcade? Will the online play not suffer? Will all the fighting mechanics and precise timing, etc., hold up?

Comment: "SFII" should finally ween people off "Geometry Wars" regardless of how good or bad it plays, which is kind of unsettling. If it plays well enough online, one can only expect the game to beat all or most next-gen games in sales for the month of August.

Snide Remark: The $400 dollar, most powerful console on the market, Xbox 360 being used to play a game that wasn't even cutting edge on the Super Nintendo... how the mighty have fallen.

Snakes on a Plane

Question: We can't help but assume that this film will probably be one of the biggest disappointments of 2006. There's no way it can possibly live up to the hype. So the obvious question here would be: what if it does?

Comment: There's a very, very, very small chance this thing will live up to the colossal internet hype surrounding it. If it does, it will probably become one of the highest grossing movies of the past few years. Samuel L. Jackson will be cast in every movie Hollywood makes until his untimely death due to bad ass-edness. And the academy will have no choice but to nominate it, and only it, for every single one of their awards at the Oscars in 2007.

Snide Remark: Yeah, the comment part kind of took care of this snide remark part, but come on; Snakes on a Plane?!

Is Bryce Dallas Howard hot?

Who? You know, the blind chick from the movie The Village. I can't tell what to think of her. Part of me sees a fair skinned, slender, red head. That's good. But part of me can't help but pick out the features of Howard blood line.
You may know her father Opie, er, Ron Howard. He's a director now, with such classics under his belt like The Da Vincie Code and Willow. He won an Oscar or something too.
But who cares, because the most interesting family relation has to be her alien of an unclie Clint. How about them genes. That's bad.