New Discoveries in Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus is without a doubt my favorite video game ever made. It's the only game that I bothered playing countless hours just to get new items and reach new places that don't even do anything. I spent probably 2 hours or more trying to get to the top of the temple just to see the secret garden, and then just ran around it as long as possible. That being said, I don't go to the extreme lengths many people do to find secrets in games they love, but I'll always be glad that there are people out there that do. The few that spend insane amounts of time trying to glitch through walls or hack roms of the game have my highest praise. They provide us with amazing finds like this one. My mind is filled with wonderment as I imagine the game we would have if Team Ico had put all of these extra things in. It makes me want to go play through SotC again, and I think I just might do that.

Batman Was Silly. Part 3: Batman-In-Space!

It's that time of the week again. This weeks answers the question of how Batman will be able to fight crime in the future. And how to reach him.

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After finally capturing Joker's seventh clone on Uranus, Batman and Robin get a spotlight signal on the moon from Earth!

Upcoming 2009 Movie Trailers

Last year there weren't nearly as many movies for us to sink our teeth into as a result of the writers strike. It remains to be seen if this year will pan out the same way, but from the looks of it there are already numerous movies that I can't wait for. Here's a collection of trailers for upcoming films that I hope are amazing. I'll leave the big ones out of it. We all know about Terminator, Watchmen, X-Men Origins and all of those.


Tokyo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1qzGPOXjQk

I have no clue what this one is about but that trailer certainly tickles my fancy. Michel Gondry is a brilliant director, I'm not familiar with the other two but he's reason enough to give this movie a shot.

Gigantic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rngoGb00Rto

I seem to remember talk of this movie coming out of the film festivals was only so so, and it does look like its going to be a typical romantic comedy structure, but its got three things going for it that have me sold. 1. Paul Dano. All it took was Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood for everyone to start watching this guy for what comes next. I don't know if his acting in this will amaze, but he's definitely a great actor no matter what he's in. 2. Zooey Deschanel. I'm not sure how great her acting really is but she's a beautiful singer in She & Him and cute as a button. Hopefully my wife doesn't read that. 3. Zach Galifianakis plays a creepy bum who is constantly in the background staring at Paul Dano for no reason. I love that premise. Keep an eye out for a brief glimpse of him in the trailer.

500 Days of Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWbbf4qLDtE

This trailer is pretty bad, but the buzz for this coming out of Sundance is very positive and well... read the Gigantic description for more on why I want to see this. The next Little Miss Sunshine or Juno? We'll see.

Inglourious Basterds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pel3GE97evA

Just the name Tarantino will make people flock to theaters for this. I just hope the dialogue isn't as coma inducing as Death Proof's. Typing those words with those spellings makes me cringe.

S. Darko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOI-fxVG7sA

A straight to dvd sequel to Donnie Darko? This will probably be bad, still, I can't shake the excitement for it. Hopefully it won't dissapoint too badly.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYXNk-qZAs

I've seen very few of Gilliam's films apart from the Monty Python related ones, but this teaser still manages to make me excited. Of course the majority of attention that it gets will be from people looking to see Heath Ledger's truly final performance.

Watchmen Widget

Batman Was Silly. Part 2: Crime fighters go Penny-farthing

So I came across some really great old school Batman comic covers and decided to make it a weekly post where every week is a new cover (until I run out). Enjoy!

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I bet this was Robin's idea.

Oscar Predictions

We here at A Ragtag Group of Mediaphiles feel that not enough people will be making snarky comments about the oscar nominees, or incorrectly predicting the winners and then blaming it on the fact that the academy is so out of touch. Therefore we thought we'd make use of this thing called the internet to have our wrong predictions reach as many people as possible rather then just staying within our own living rooms. We'll narrow it down to a select few categories because let's face it, anyone who actually cares who the winner of the Sound Mixing category will be is either the sound mixer or their mother.

Actor, Leading

Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor"

Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon"

Sean Penn in "Milk"

Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"

Alex - Mickey Rourke

Dan - Mickey Rourke

Actor, Supporting

Josh Brolin in "Milk"

Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder"

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt"

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road"

Alex - Heath Ledger

Dan - Heath Ledger

Actress, Leading

Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married"

Angelina Jolie in "The Changeling"

Melissa Leo in "Frozen River"

Meryl Streep in "Doubt"

Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

Alex - Meryl Streep

Dan - Anne Hathaway

Actress, Supporting

Amy Adams in "Doubt"

Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Viola Davis in "Doubt"

Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler"

Alex - Taraji P. Henson

Dan - Amy Adams

Directing

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

Alex - Slumdog Millionaire

Dan - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Picture

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

Alex - Slumdog Millionaire

Dan - Slumdog Millionaire

Batman Was Silly. Part 1: The Return of the Bat-hound.

So I came across some really great old school Batman comic covers and decided to make it a weekly post where every week is a new cover (until I run out). Enjoy!

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Their LSD Manufacturing Cave's guard dog wasn't too effective.

Obama Throws Snow

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The kid had it coming though. He kept calling him "Obara."

Courtesy of collegehumor.com

here is something i found just this morning. i am not quite sure i agree with all the man says, but it's definitively something to think about, and try to see where you stand.

Retro Gaming Gadgets

The Generation NEX

The NES is quite possibly the worst designed system ever built. It's toaster like style of loading game cartridges leads to frequent breaking. It is also the system with quite possibly the best lineup of games ever. This means that even after more then 20 years, I still want to play my NES games, and to do that I had to frequently buy new 72 pin connectors to repair it. It was growing very tiresome, but it was the only way I knew of.

I believe I read about the NEX in a holiday gift guide from a past issue of EGM, I promptly bought one as well as the set of wireless controllers. 20 years had passed since Nintendo patented the NES design, since they never renewed it, it had expired. This meant the fine folks at Messiah Entertainment could come along and make a brand new NES, one that could actually play games without breaking. The NEX is exactly that, a dependable NES system.

Not only can it finally play your games without having to blow into the cartridge or hit the reset numerous times, it plays famicom (the Japanese NES) games via a port on the top, has support for all the original NES controllers, and has wireless support for up to 2 controllers. Combined with the 2 wired controller ports this means 4 person play on games like Ninja Turtles Arcade Game. Plus it comes with a price guide for every single NES game ever made so that you don't get screwed over on ebay while hunting down the classics.

There are downsides of course. The games go in pretty tight and can be hard to pull out sometimes, and not every game is compatible. Games that have extra chips and such in them like Castlevania 3 don't work, they have a compatibility list so that you can be sure of everything before your purchase. Also there have been some claims on the Internet that the system incorrectly wires the cartridge port in a way that could potentially damage NES carts played in the system as well as the system itself, though no one has yet to report this scenario ever taking place.

I've had no trouble with it and wouldn't have a problem recommending it, but if you are worried then you might not want to buy one, its definitely been worth it for me though. As of late, however, Messiah's website hasn't been working for me. I'm not sure if this means they have closed down or are just having problems. I put the links up anyway in case they come back up. For now though, you can easily find the NEX on Amazon by searching Generation NEX or Messiah Entertainment. Hopefully they haven't gone under because I'm looking forward to seeing what they came up with next.