The demise of Vibe

With today's announcement that Vibe magazine is ending publication, I have begun to wonder if anyone is still reading magazines? However, I quickly realized that it's not that people aren't reading magazines, it's that they're not buying them.

Despite cutting circulation, workdays and staff, Vibe magazine has become the latest casualty of the recession.

For the uninformed, Vibe was a urban publication that focused on hip-hop and r&b and became popular in the 90s when hip-hop became the most listened to music on the planet. It also frequently covered issues important to the African-American community, like race relations, hip-hop controversies and problems facing Black families.

Vibe was famous for its covers, which often featured the hottest artists of the moment, usually before they hit Rolling Stone or Blender.

Vibe was also known for its interviews, where subjects would say things that they would never say to more mainstream magazines. Many of today's biggest stars like Lil Wayne and T.I. were discovered in the pages of Vibe.

The demise of Vibe is not just a blow to the media industry, it is a huge hit to African-Americans.

The voice of a community has been silenced. We can only hope that when the economy recovers Vibe will be able to bounce back, stronger than ever.

Box office Monday

Welcome to a new feature here at Inscape'd. Each Monday we'll look at the box office numbers and do some analysis.

The big news of this past weekend was the release of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Everyone was expecting this to do huge numbers, even with some seriously lousy reviews. It has a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 159 negative reviews and only 40 positive reviews (Armond White, please stand up!).

Including its Tuesday night showings the grand total of box office receipts for "Transformers" came out to a little more than $200 million domestically with another $200 million overseas. Huge, huge numbers.

But, not a record. For just the weekend, "Transformers" came in seventh for all time best weekend numbers. "The Dark Knight" holds that record.

For five day grosses, "Transformers" clocked in at No. 2, behind "The Dark Knight."

And for Midnight screenings? "Transformers" made $16 million, falling behind "Revenge of the Sith" in second and... guess what in No. 1? "The Dark Knight."

Another big thing happened over the weekend, we have a new No. 1 film of the year. If you remember "Paul Blart Mall Cop" held that title for many weeks before being knocked off by "Monsters vs. Aliens." Then "Star Trek" came along and blew everything out of the water by becoming the first film of the year to pass $200 million. Well, this weekend, "UP" dethroned "Star Trek." But, I suspect the reign will be shortlived as "Transformers" will undoubtably take the title in a few short weeks, maybe days.

The only way it won't would be a catostrophic drop in second week viewings, I'm talking like a 85-90 percent drop. Right now the biggest drop in recorded history is 86.4 for the movie "Undiscovered." Thanks to Box Office Mojo for that little bit of history.

Stay tuned for more analysis in the next "Wanna See It?"

Editor's note

Yesterday was a long, sad day in the world of entertainment. Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died.

I emailed Stephanie, who is still on vacation, and when she gets back from Atlanta we'll really go into detail about what happened today. More than likely on the next episode of "Viewpoints On..." which is aiming to be out on Friday.

I'm sure there will also be a post or two in this location in the next week.

Getting ready for Comic-Con early

Stephanie and I will be headed down to Comic-Con at the end of July to brave the masses to cover the giant pop culture event. Usually the program for the event is released about two weeks prior to the opening night.

Well, word has begun to leak out about some television show panels that will be held during the show. And two of them have me getting REALLY excited.

Both "Psych" and "Burn Notice" will have panels of some kind! Two of my favorite shows, I couldn't be any more excited. I was telling Stephanie when we heard about "Psych" being there that if I only went to one panel, that would be my choice.

Now I have to amend my original statement to two shows.

Some other shows that have been somewhat announced that I might be interested in: "24," "Bones," "Dollhouse," "Fringe" and "Smallville."

Wait... "Smallville?" Yes, because there are rumors floating around that the CW and the producers are going to announce some kind of "Smallville" movie. Don't know if it's a television movie or a movie-movie.

I want to be there for the big scoop.

Also, be on the lookout for us announcing some things in this space coming up. We are putting together plans on our coverage now and hope to have some exciting things to do.

Breaking news! SHOCKING!

http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2009/20090624.html

Yes, that's right, this next Academy Awards will feature TEN nominees for Best Picture! That is an increase of five from the normal five nominees each year.

Wow, the implications of this announcement are huge!

One of the big things that should come out of this are more commercially successful and publicly popular films will get a chance to be nominated now. This would have been great this year with movies like "The Dark Knight" and "Wall*E" both were hugely successful and popular with critics and audiences alike.

This is also a turn in the right direction for the Academy. I think they recognize that the Oscars are old and somewhat boring. It is time to spice things up a bit and throw a curve ball that will get people talking.

With ten nominees there, more than likely, be a nominee that each person can be happy with and root for.

If you take into account box office receipts (to show popularity) and critical acclaim (top ratings on RottenTomatoes.com) the two leading films this year are "Up" and "Star Trek." "Up" has grossed $250 million worldwide and has a 97 percent rating. "Star Trek" has grossed $363 million worldwide and has a 95 percent rating.

The last Best Picture winner "Slumdog Millionaire" had a 94 percent rating.

We will continue to follow this story, with probable predictions and speculation as the time to the Oscars gets closer.

Academy Awards nominations will be released on Feb. 2 with the awards show being held March 7.

Today, I feel really old

There is a Web site that I go to every day, io9.com, which covers fantasy and science fiction. This week it had a huge story about how Tim Burton's "Batman" film turns 20 years old today.

I vividly remember seeing it in theaters.

Yes, I am somewhat dating myself here too.

I can't believe it has been 20 years already. I had the T-shirts, all the toys, even Batman Converse shoes! I remember children at school making fun of me for liking "Batman" so much.

So, 20 years later, does the movie hold up to today?

I think so. It nowhere compares to the Chris Nolan versions, but still is much, much better than the Schumacher films (I'll still go on record and say "Batman and Robin" is one of the worst movies ever made).

What else will make me feel really, really old soon?

'Sha na na na, sha na na na...'

If true, then there is a 0.000 percent chance of me watching ever again:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41490

The 100 greatest episodes: Tim's edition

I'm going to do something a bit different, in two parts. Rather than list my top ten, I am going to make two lists. One is my agreements with episodes I believe belong in TV Guide's list. The second will be a non-ranked list of my own.

TV Guide List:

84. "Alias" - "The Telling" - A great, great episode where Sydney finds out that her best friend Francie is an evil spy (the real Francie was murdered) and they duke it out. The episode also ended in a cliffhanger with Sydney waking up in Hong Kong and realizing she is missing two years of her life. I remember it clearly because we all thought "What the heck? Where are they going to go now?"

68. "Heroes" - "Company Man" - I've gone on record many times saying this is probably "Heroes" best episode ever.

47. "CSI" - "Grave Danger" - The Quentin Tarantino directed episode with Nick being buried alive. Just a fantastic episode.

38. "The Shield" - "Possible Kill Screen" - I would include this in my second list as well. This is where Mackey finally admits to every illegal and horrible thing he has done since the pilot episode... and the list is massive. Kudos also to Laurie Holden for her reaction to hearing all of this spewing from Mackie.

36. "Star Trek: TNG" - "Best of Both Worlds" - Picard as a borg and Riker takes command and outsmarts Borg Picard. Great cliffhanger and also good for affecting the franchise for years to come.

19. "The Office" - "Diversity Day" - My favorite "Office" episode, would go on my second list too. Best part was Dwight trying to guess Pam's card.

10. "24" - "Season 1 finale" - Devastating. I watched from day one and that ending punched you in the gut.

My favorite episodes that SHOULD have been on the list:

"ER" - "All in the Family" - Also known as the episode where Lucy Knight dies. Some of the best acting ever on that show. Best part was normal a-hole Dr. Romano's reaction to Lucy dying. YouTube it.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - "The Body" - The best episode of "Buffy" EVER. "Once More With Feeling" might have been funny and everyone loves "Hush" but this episode rocked the "Buffy" universe and was totally amazing.

"South Park" - The "World of Warcraft" episode was comedic genius and deserves to be on the list ahead of "Trapped in the Closet."

Got Kleenex?

Was about to post my response to Stephanie's post about the top television episodes (will post them on Monday), then I saw this story.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show

This story hit me hard. It is extremely uplifting (no pun intended), but at the same time very, very sad. I'll fully admit that I teared up reading it.

A couple of notes about the article. One, Pixar is one heck of a company. You never, ever, hear a bad thing about them. Their employees are happy, they put out an excellent product and they do things like this (and then don't comment on the article, which makes it a little classier too).

Second, if you have seen the movie or heard about it, the parallels between the movie's plot and what happened to this little girl are so similar it's a little sad.

And the reporter who wrote the story ended it PERFECTLY. Exactly how I would have ended it.

The 100 greatest episodes: Stephanie's edition

In the latest issue of TV Guide they published a list of what they think are the 100 greatest episodes of TV ever.

While I agree with a lot of their choices I have to take issue with some of the top ten. It isn't the shows they've chosen that bother me, it's the episodes. I chose a lot of the same shows as them, but very different episodes.

I decided to list their top ten and my top ten and let the audience (and Tim) decide whose list is better.

TV Guide

1. "Seinfeld"-"The Contest"
2. "The Sopranos"-"College"
3. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"-"Chuckles Bites the Dust"
4. "I Love Lucy"-"Lucy Does a TV Commercial"
5. "Lost"-"Pilot"
6. "ER"-"Love's Labor Lost"
7. "The Honeymooners"-"Better Living Through TV"
8. "Mad Men"-"Nixon vs. Kennedy"
9. "All in the Family"-"Cousin Maude's Visit"
10. "24"-"Day 1: 11 PM-12 AM"

Stephanie

1. "The Andy Griffith Show"-"Opie the Birdman" TV Guide's no. 18
2. "I Love Lucy"-"Lucy Does a TV Commercial" TV Guide's no. 4
3. "ER"-"Love's Labor Lost" TV Guide's no. 6
4. "Star Trek: The Next Generation"-Best of Both Worlds Part 1" Tv Guide's no. 36
5. "The Cosby Show"-"Happy Anniversary"
6. "Battlestar Galactica"-"Exodus"
7. "24"-"Day 1: 11 PM-12 AM" TV Guide's no. 10
8. "The West Wing"-"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen"
9. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"-"Hush"
10. "Moonlighting"-"Atomic Shakespeare" TV Guide's no. 48

I know some of my choices are based on personal preference but, I think it is also a more well-rounded list than TV Guide, who chose to cater to more popular, safe choices.

Pick up the current issue of TV Guide for the full list.

A good way to explain the 'Star Trek' alternate timeline

Cryptic Studios is currently working on a massively multi-player online roleplaying game for the "Star Trek" franchise that takes place more than 30 years after the last episode of "Voyager."

Part of the making the game includes keeping the timeline that "Star Trek" has made. So everything that happened in the original series, next generation, etc. happened in this game.

As well as Nero's home planet of Romulus being destroyed.

As we, tried to, explain in a previous episode of "Viewpoints On..." Nero and Spock didn't go back in time to alter the original timeline. They went back in time AND into an alternate universe.

Well, the makers of the game made a nice, fancy chart to fully explain things a lot better than Stephanie or I could.

http://www.startrekonline.com/startrek_xi

Breaking news (potentially geek worthy)

Forbes, last night, ran a story that could potentially have giant ramifications on the geek world.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/06/14/afx6541803.html

Now on the surface it just looks like a story about movie companies merging. Companies merge all the time Tim, what makes this so special?

Let's take a look at this. Paramount Pictures, which will no doubt have a great summer with "Star Trek" and "Transformers 2" is looking to merge with another studio, like Sony or Universal.

For geeks, this is earth shattering because Marvel Comics has a deal in place with Paramount to make and distribute a lot of their movies. This is different than the other deals Marvel made with other companies like Fox, because Marvel is intimately involved in the making of these films. Their first two films made together "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" were both great movies that stayed true to the comics.

What Marvel and Paramount did was lay the foundation of creating a Marvel universe within the films, where characters from different movies will interact. Like Robert Downey Jr. showing up in "The Incredible Hulk." Marvel and Paramount have a blueprint to make other films like "Thor" and "Capt. America" in the same way that will all lead up to 2012 where we will see all of the characters combine into one giant film "The Avengers."

OK Tim, that is nice and all but what does it have to do with mergers.

Well, something huge.

Sony Pictures owns the rights to two Marvel properties: "Spiderman" and "Ghost Rider."

You with me yet?

If this merger is done with Sony in the next year (as the article states) then there is a good possibility that Spiderman could be joining Iron Man, Capt. America and Thor in "The Avengers." Or at least the possibility of cross promotion and opening up the world of Spiderman to the rest of Marvel properties.

Luke Cage appearing in the next "Spiderman" movie? Could happen. Or a team up with Dr. Strange? Might be interesting.

Merging with Universal would bring nothing to the table as Universal owns nothing from Marvel.

OK, you can geek out now.

A new summer movie box office record

"Wolverine," "Star Trek," "Angels & Demons," "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Up."

All of these are the first No. 1 films of the summer season. And they all held the No. 1 spot for exactly ONE week before being dethroned by the next big blockbuster.

But, now we have the first film to stay atop the box office for two straight weeks: "The Hangover" or how its known now "The little comedy that could."

Granted the first weekend for "The Hangover" was close, it only beat "Up" by $841,053 which is extremely close by box office standards. But the history books won't remember how close it was, only that "The Hangover" was No. 1.

This last weekend it repeated by fending off "Up" yet again as well as new films "The Taking of Pelham 123" and "Imagine That." This time there was a $2 million dollar difference between No. 1 and No. 2 ("The Hangover" and "Up").

As of today (Monday afternoon) "The Hangover" has grossed over $104 million dollars! And if you take into account the budget of the film ($35 million) it is making pure profit every single day.

And yes, they are already writing the sequel.

New episode up...

'Land of the Lost' a mis-marketed mess

We have our first big "bomb" of the summer movie season and the numbers tell us that the honor goes to the Will Ferrell children's television show remake of "Land of the Lost."

How bad did it bomb?

Well, the reported budget on Box Office Mojo was $100 million.

Its first weekend, its gross was around $18 million. Yes, in Hollywood a movie grossing that much is considered a "bomb." Especially considering the budget.

That begs the question, why did it bomb so badly?

The original show, from the '70s, was very popular and has a cult-like following. You would think that would be a built in audience right there.

No, this movie has identity issues. Is it a sci-fi movie? Is it a children's movie? Is it a gross out comedy?

No one could tell. The trailers showed off the great visual effects with some comedy thrown in. I had heard of some inappropriate jokes (sex, drugs) in the film and was going to tell my sister not to take my niece to see it. She had wanted to.

It was too late, they had already seen it.

Here is my niece's response to my question of "How was the movie?"

"I could tell why it was a PG-13 movie, it had a lot of bad things in there like the hairy boy touching the girl's booby the entire movie and other stuff."

Yes, it's my sister's fault for not recognizing the PG-13 rating. But, the movie should have made the inappropriate humor more clear.

E3 2009: Hands-on 'Super Mario Bros.' Wii

At this year's E3, Nintendo unveiled its latest console Mario effort -- "Super Mario Bros. Wii." The latest Mario outing comes in the form of a four-player co-op experience, not unlike Media Molecule's 2008 hit, "LittleBigPlanet."

At E3, I had the chance to play a couple of the game's levels. I wasn't blown away, but I did walk away looking forward to getting my hands on the full game.

"Super Mario Bros. Wii," as its title implies, is a 2D sidescroller for the Wii. However, considering that up to four can play together simultaneously, this installment plays a little differently than past Mario Bros. games. The best way to describe the game is that it feels very similar to "LittleBigPlanet" -- only it's a Mario game.

On hand at E3 were 10 different stages. Not all of them employed significant co-op elements, but some did. For instance, in one stage, some players traverse an underwater cave while one player uses a search light to illuminate the area. The level is infested with enemies, so without the light, players won't last long. Obviously, the level requires that players work together to complete it.

However, in other levels, very little co-operative play is required to progress. In these stages, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" feels just like any other Mario Bros. game -- only there are four characters running around. Both in levels where playing cooperatively and levels where there's very little cooperation required, it's often more fun to work against your team mates. While the game is oriented around working together, it definitely has a competitive component to it. After all, the player with the most points at the end of the stage is declared the winner.

As a result, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" features a chaotic but fun combination of cooperative and competitive gameplay. For instance, at one point during my hands-on time with the game, I helped one of my team mates respawn by freeing them from a bubble, only to have that player immediately betray me. While I was jumping over a chasm, he jumped on my head, sending me straight into the pit. Why did he do that? No particular reason, other than it was funny (for him).
While Nintendo's latest Mario Bros. game is admittedly a fun four-player experience, at least some of the Mario Bros. experience doesn't translate to multiplayer. For me, at least part of what made past Mario Bros. games so much fun was trying to speed through levels as quickly as possible. However, that's not something you can really do in "Super Mario Bros. Wii." The Wii version is fundamentally slower, thanks to the addition of other players.

From my playtime with the game, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" seems to be an enjoyable and considerably unique addition to the Mario Bros. series. Essentially, it's a "LittleBigPlanet-style" refresh to the series, and while it's not really a very impressive game, it's hard not to have fun playing the game. I definitely look forward to playing more when it hits store shelves this fall.

Why I love Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Last night on Jimmy Fallon, Mark-Paul Gosselaar was a guest. Since I spent my teen years completely engrossed in "Saved by the Bell," I've never stopped loving Gosselar. I thought he was great on "NYPD Blue" and his current show "Raising the Bar" is just beginning its second season.

I, like most, assumed that Gosselaar would come out, talk about his new show and answer Fallon's questions about the "Bell" reunion Fallon's been trying to get together.

However, Gosselaar surprised all by doing the whole interview as his "Bell" character Zack Morris. He had an awesome blond wig, wore cuffed jeans and made lots of references to classic episodes. At one point he even took a call on his ginormous, early model cell phone and confirmed not only himself, but Elizabeth Berkley for the reunion.

I fell even more in love with Gosselaar when it turned out that he was such a good sport and doesn't take himself too seriously.

The interview is available for viewing at NBC.com and I highly recommend it to anyone who spent at least one Saturday morning hanging out at The Max with the crew from Bayside.

What you missed on The Tonys

I know that outside of New York the only people who care about the Tonys are theater geeks like myself. However, last night's show had enough entertainment and surprises to make the most hardened non-musical fan get up and dance.

The show opened with a number that featured all the nominated shows performing together in the biggest, most expensive opening number ever. With big stars like Sir Elton John, Dolly Parton and Liza Minelli.

Host Neil Patrick Harris was a perfect fit, mixing Broadway showmanship with his hilarious brand of humor.

Highlights included Broadway legend Angela Lansbury winning her fifth Tony and the three young actors who play Billy Elliot winning for lead actor in a musical.

Revivals of "West Side Story" and "Hair" made a big splash with fantastic performances that must've helped Broadway's struggling box office.

The night's big winner was "Billy Elliot" which took home 10 awards including best musical. "Hair" was named best revival of a musical.

The Tonys are always a great commercial for why theater is so timeless, unfortunately, the ratings are never what they should be for a show this entertaining.

e3

I'd like to first apologize for the late update! But I promise to make it up with some rewarding pictures and information straight from the Electronic Entertainment Expo...

Beginning with one of my personal most anticipated releases is Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. From the same company who brought us Portal and Half Life, Valve will have the sequel out later this year. The initial, as well as shocking, difference players will recognize is the bright atmosphere and colorful visuals. Unlike the eerie, dark city-scape of the first Left 4 Dead - L4D 2 is set in the sweltering south of New Orleans... and in the daylight. Along with the new environment, new characters have also been introduced: Nick, Ellis, Coach and Rochelle. A new elite zombie, "charger" who runs into players at full speed to knock them apart, has also made an appearance. Despite the dramatic changes, Left 4 Dead 2 remains loyal to its specialty as a cooperative four-player game.




Halo 3: ODST which was formerly named Halo 3: Recon is Halo 3's standalone expansion that is scheduled to release this September allows the player to play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) instead of the enhanced super soldier, Master Chief. It features the same story line, but offers a all-new perspective on a subplot. Players cannot jump as high or run as fast as in previous Halo games which offers a more "human" type of outlook.



I'd like to turn your attention towards some less corporate products now: Pluff. Pluff is a fuzzy stuffed... thing. Pluff introduces innovative thinking to virtual pets and Pluff features sensors that are wired to react with players on the screen. Though Pluff was connected by a wire at the convention, he is normally wireless. Pluff reacts when you pet or tickle him, cover his eyes, and turn him on his back or tummy. Someone had unfortunately punched Pluff prior to my visit and harmed the sensors involved with his eyes and tickling - but I was still able to pet him and witness his tricks as I turned him on his head. Since Pluff does not rely on motors, speakers, or batteries which involve clunky hard parts, he is completely plushy and great for smaller kids. Pluff and his maker are part of the indie game convention.



While we are in the area of virtual pets, let's briefly take a look at a fun little game called ant nation for Wii. You, as the player, look over an ant colony. You have a lot of choices like giving and then leading the ants to a delicios piece of cake or cheese or stomping on them or lighting them on fire with a magnifying glass. The ants even have "levels" and the vague objective of the game seems to be to "train" the ants.



E3 consisted of three jammed pack days of walking, looking, lights, and of course: game play. Three days is certainly not enough time to wait in all the lines and play all the games. I hope that you've enjoyed the few highlights this blog has offered - I have included an assortment of photos from inside the convention.

Day 3 of E3

Hey this is Adrian again here for the last and hardest day of E3. It was mostly hard due to the fact all the games Tim wanted me to check out were over an hour wait to play, with lines that wrapped around the back. So the games I really wanted to check out like "Rock Band: Beatles" were out of my reach. Although it speaks volumes about a game when you've got people waiting over an hour in front of a facade of the "Abbey Road" recording studio where the Beatles use to make their record hits. I tried to hit up as many booths as possible, trying to take in as much as I could while playing as much as I could, but in the end there was simply too much see, and way too much to do.

Anyway, moving on, I really got to let loose on the games at the booths today. A few games in particular struck my interests, "R.U.S.E" by Ubisoft was one of those games.

"R.U.S.E." is a real time strategy (RTS) game that is World War II based. I don't know if this is true of the actual game, but during the demo the demonstrator was using a 40 in. plasma screen placed on a table, the game was played on a touch screen like the way a commander would see the battlefield. You would think this would make the game more difficult to play, but what if it was played with a touch screen and moved your units like you were able to move chess pieces giving the meaning of real time strategy a whole new meaning. If you find that impressive, then the fact that in "R.U.S.E." you have over 1 billion polygons to make each map will just be a drop in the bucket for you. "R.U.S.E" uses a series of tatics called 'ruses' in order to help find out or hide from your enemy in order to give you the upper hand. This game will include a multi player mode, where you can, hopefully, use your 'ruse' tatics to outsmart your opponent.

While on the subject of RTS games, one that I found highly impressive was "Order of War" by, of all people, Square Enix. The people that brought you "Final Fantasy" now bring you a World War II based game, but more historically accurate than any game of this kind that I've ever seen. When the game was made developers went to WWII history to brush up on their history so as not miss a detail. They got everything, leaving nothing to chance, they even put down the weight of the bullet cartridges. Gamers get the privledge of playing historically accurate missions that let you see their battles like movies. In "cinema mode" you are able watch as you send exchange blows with German soldiers. At times it can get a little confusing because of how the map is set up, but other than that, a solid game. I swear that watching a man blow up, has never looked so good, because even after your men die, their remains still occupy the battlefield.

A first person shooter to look for to this year is "Mag" for the PS3. A massive Multi-Player online otherwise known as MMO (i.e. World of Warcraft). The twist is that you're allowed to fight in almost city sized maps in deathmatches with players from all over the country.

A game I thought was fun for the whole family was "Super Mario Bros." for the Wii. It has a 4 player mode and (from what I saw in the demo) 10 playable levels. Although the game doesn't give you all the classic "Mario Bros." characters, like the Princess or toad, it makes up for in game play. You are allowed to play in a co-op/competition type mode where you are allowed to mess with your friends by using them as weapons and throwing them at your enemies, but if you want to, you can always play nice.

And finally the game I thought was one of the best of E3 was a title by Sega called "Bayonetta." "Bayonetta" is about a witch who has lost her memories in the witch hunts 500 years ago, but it was 20 years after present time that she sets out to recover them. The game is extremely action packed and filled with plenty of "Devil may Cry" type action. You fight off hoards of enemies using plenty of combinations of your sword and bullets, using controls that are easy to use and easy to understand after a few minutes of game play. Hack, slash, and (on many occasions) shoot your way through demonic/angelic beings that are sent to stand in your way. This is definitely a game for hardcore action fan gamers.

There are so many games to look forward to this year, that if I kept blogging I would need another hour to write it all. The games of this year look extremely impressive, for those of you who don't own an X-BOX 360 or a PS3 you need to invest in one immediately.

This concludes the last day of E3. Bye for now!!!1

E3

Hey everyone! This is Roxann updating with photos from the Electronic Entertainment Expo... E3!

Just click the thumbnails for a full-scale picture.

e3

Hey this is Adrian reporting today from the first day of E3 at the Los Angles Convention Center. I spent most of the looking around, but spent a little time playing games also. Well ok so I spent a lot of times playing video games, but man was it worth it.

A few that I felt were really strong were "Wet" and "Rouge Warrior" both titles games from a company called Bethesda. First one up was "Wet," a free form fighting game based on a hot chick with guns and a samurai sword. To sum up what free form fighting is think of putting "Kill Bill," "Dynasty Warriors," "Devil may Cry," and "The Matrix" all in one package and you have the game. To put it simply, you get all of the strengths and none of the drawbacks, you use acrobatics, slow mo and use your ability to pull the trigger as fast as you can. The guns at your hips, and the sword on your back are only small part, the entire environment is your weapon, if you can jump it slide on it, climb it or run off of it, use it to your disposal.

"Wet" is the story about Rubi a gun for hire who takes on dirty jobs loads of cash. Specializing in "wet" jobs (jobs that get your hands wet... with blood), she uses all her athletic abilities to either put a bullet in the enemy or put that sword to good use by taking the enemy apart limb from limb (no seriously, limb from limb). If she gets pissed enough, Rubi enters "Rage" mode, after that all bets are off, she enters an animation mode where red is the main theme color and all you see are silhouette of white that become blood smears on the wall.

Next up is "Rouge Warrior."

"Rouge Warrior" is set in the cold warrior era of 1986 based on a book by Dick Marcinko. Marcinko is the personality of the game and the director. Specializing in counter-terrorism and a former navy seal all of Marcinko's tatics and training are in this one game. A first person shooter (FPS) that let's you feel what it was like to be the one a real one man army. You use stealth moves that kill your enemies instantly called kill moves. It's not exactly for children as the use of strong language and the fact that watching a knife go through a man's head isn't something you want a child to see. Other than that real time sneaking mission based on real counter-terrorist tatics. For those hardcore "Metal Gear" fans this one is for you, but if you just like being a trigger man don't hold back. "Rouge Warrior" is all about being able to the trigger as it is a FPS. If stealth isn't your style be loud about it, watch enemy after enemy pour in, be ready to pull the trigger and watch them fall at your feet.

That concludes Day one see you tomorrow.

The 2009 MTV Movie Awards Recap

Last night the 2009 MTV Movie Awards aired and in what has to be the biggest non-surprise in the show's short history, "Twilight" won everything.

I get that the MTV audience is the perfect age for the movie, but seriously, everything.

First of all, we all know that "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man" were the two best films of the year. "Twilight" can't even begin to touch them. However, because the show is really a glorified popularity contest, it was able to win.

Also Kristen Stewart won best female performance over Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Angelina Jolie.

My real problem with all these wins is that most of the cast seemed like they had better things to do. Stewart and co-star Robert Pattinson won best kiss and were completely underwhelmed by the honor.

Also the non-stop screaming every time someone mentioned "Twilight" or "New Moon" got old very quick.

The show was hosted by Andy Samberg of "Saturday Night Live" and The Lonely Island. While he was funny and did a few of his signature digital shorts, he started out nervous and seemed to warmup as the show went along.

The big story is the stunt featuring Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno and Eminem. Cohen, in character, was flying in from the ceiling with angel wings and his butt hanging out when he suddenly dropped and landed in Eminem's lap.

Eminem's entourage forced Cohen off of him and batted him around as Eminem angrily stormed off.

There are questions this morning of whether or not Eminem was in on the stunt. Because he has a new CD out and the way the stunt happened, it seems to point to him being in on it. However, MTV did have Eminem perform very early in the show, which makes me think that they knew what his reaction would be.

All in all it was an underwhelming, lackluster show, unless you love "Twilight" then it was the greatest night ever.