The Aliens are Coming...

It might be a few days away, but the leaking of Superbowl commercials is already starting. The first one I have for you is for the upcoming Tom Cruise, sci-fi epic, War of the Worlds. It may be a short teaser, but it certainly gets you excited.

War of the Worlds Teaser

While on the sci-fi thread of thought, I also have to say that I'm glad that Enterprise is finally canceled. The franchise has simply gone down hill since DS9. In fact, most of the DS9 seasons sucked, as well, but I did love those last two seasons. Maybe now, Paramount can take some time to rethink things and bring us back a series that we can be proud. The big test is to see if my wife likes it. She's definitely not a Star Trek fan, but watched the entire run of ST:TNG with me on DVD. That's definitely saying something for Picard and the gang. If a new series can capture her attention, then you are golden. Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, go out and rent Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It's a fun movie with a very neat visual style to it.



Building upon my hatred of Uwe Boll and his amazingly bad videogame-based movies, I just had to post this behind-the-scenes story on "Alone in the Dark". I think that after you read it, you'll understand why he's such a bad, bad man and should never make movies again.

On the technology front, it's amazing what people are doing with VR now. Here's a very strange clip of a virtual car interacting with objects in the real world. Not only is it an impressive achievement, but it hints at what the future may hold for videogames. Check it out here. You'll need Real Player or Real Alternative to watch it, though.

As I fade out for today, there's just one last bit of info I wanted to share with you. Did you know that roughly 80% of the employees at Microsoft's Washington HQ own portable MP3 players? That, in itself, isn't interesting, but when you throw in the fact that 80% of those owners have iPods, one can start to see the irony. I bet you Bill Gates isn't a happy camper right now, especially when he finds out that the Apple store nearby the MS campus can barely keep up with the demand. :-)

Oops, I almost forgot one last thing. If this new trailer is any indication, than Episode III might well end up being awesome. Enjoy!

A Whole Lot of Monkey Business

While news of it was released last night, it wasn't until this morning that Take Two officialy announced their deal with the MLBA, making its third-party control of baseball games complete. Effective from the Spring of 2006 until an unspecified time(most people are predicting 7-8 years), Take Two will be the only third-part developer able to make baseball games that use the official players, teams, arenas, logos, etc. This deal does not affect Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft's abilities to release a baseball title, though. In fact, Nintendo just recently announced that it is preparing a baseball title for release in April and I bet you it's going to be pretty good.



Nobody is saying anything yet, but I bet you that some heated negotiations are going on for the rights to the NBA, NHL and anything else that's available. With so many companies desperate for a piece of the exclusive sports pie, one wouldn't be surprised to see the return of XFL or, even, Slamball products. The most interesting thing about all this is that T2 seems to want to alter the normal pattern of sports games and possibly release multiple titles throughout the year. One has to wonder if this idea is based off of the success of EA's "Street" games.



Like I've said in previous posts, this is just the beginning and the entire sports-based videogame market is never going to be the same. It's hard to say right how it's all going to end up, but let's hope that all these companies still manage to put a lot of time and energy into making these games better and better each year.

Before I head off into the sunset in order to join my wife (and pets) for a nice dinner, I thought it would be best for me to throw a couple of links your way. So, here they are... "Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush."

BloodRayne Trailer - The games were somewhat decent, but this movie definitely looks like it's going to suck - no pun intended. Uwe Boll has got to be stopped. After "House of the Dead" and "Alone in the Dark", this guy is going to kill the videogame-based movie. I can't even imagine how "FarCry" and "Hunter: The Reckoning" are going to end up.



Monkey See, Monkey Do - It appears that men and monkeys really do share a lot of things in common, one of which is the willingness to pay to see naked pictures.

Science Is Amazing - It must have taken years and millions of dollars to perfect, but the world is now graced with... an M&M sorter?!!