You would Love to play this game

Love. the indie, procedural MMORPG, is offering a free weekend of the game, from today until Monday. I know some of you may be having your freedom yanked next week, on your way back to school. So with that in mind, you might want to go to the Love official site and enjoy some sweet, sweet freedom.

Technology company Apple Inc. will be holding their annual music event announcement tomorrow (which should be chock full of tech-gadgets we all drool over) and the fine folks at Hard Candy Cases have given us a glimpse at what the day will hold, literally. We Got Pics!

They (Hard Candy) call it an iTouch, the world knows it as the iPod Touch and there have been many rumors going around about how the iPod Touch was going to get a much needed upgrade which would be revealed tomorrow during the event. They were even nice enough to send along a couple of pictures of their new Street Skin case for iTouch 4G. Pictured below the iTouch 4G case looks like the standard rubber/silicone guard-type case for your iDevice and will set you back about $29.95 according to Hard Candy.

The case itself looks pretty rugged, but as you can see from the images below there is definitely a spot for a camera on the back. Take a look and tell us what you think. You planning on getting one?

Or are you going to hold out for that other rumor?

The biggest thing about Playstation Plus is that there is a lot of value packed into the service.  From the moment you download it, with the discounts and free games that are available to you, the money spent on the service can almost immediately be accounted for if not exceeded.  While they haven’t quite offered Metal Gear Solid 4 for free just yet, the games that they have offered are at least worth a try.  As for the discounts, games have had some decent discounts so far and add-ons, themes and avatars have been offered for anywhere from half-off to free.  With all of this value, one could easily dive right in and make up the value of the purchase of the service rather quickly.

Another feature that has been impressive thus far is the extended demo service that they’ve offered for some of the major games they’ve put up for download.  So far it’s been Infamous and Red Faction: Guerilla that have been offered up this way.  Basically, you get to play the game real game for an hour to get a good taste of what that game is all about.  What’s even better about this demo is that it’s free to subscribers of Playstation Plus.  One final neat thing that you get as a subscriber is a little plus sign next to your name.  When friends are scrolling down their list, they’ll be able to tell that you have Playstation Plus.

While these things are all well and good, there are certainly additions that may make the service better.  One of the most obvious of these would be cross-game chatting.  It appeared on the survey, so Sony definitely has the feature in mind, at this point we’re just waiting to find out if they’re going to include it with their new service or try to offer it free of charge.  At this point, I would be perfectly fine with paying for the ability to chat.  Xbox 360 owners pay for that privilege and I can understand that the extra bandwidth required to let people do this might need to cost a little.

Another feature that would further improve the service, on the note of demos, would be allowing you to do a short trial of downloadable games as on Xbox Live.  It’s hard to know whether you’ll like a game sometimes just by the description and a couple of screenshots and it can sometimes take weeks or months for a demo to come out, if it comes out at all.

One last feature I would love to see would be cloud game saves.  I’ve had to reformat my PS3 a number of times and sometimes the saves that I’ve had were blocked from being moved onto my thumb drive.  It would be pretty awesome to have those files safe up on a server on the off chance that something happened to my PS3.

Playstation Plus thus far is a good service and you can find the value in there rather quickly if you look for it.  I know Sony is testing the waters right now and seeing how people react to it, so I’m very excited to see how the service continues to evolve throughout its lifespan.

It's not dead, it just in a Supercoma

PlayStation 3 owners, remember when we used to laugh and laugh at our buddies who had the dreaded "Red Ring of Death?" Well, that was all hilarious until word of the Yellow Light of Death arrived.

Does this look familiar to some of you? The YLOD is not impossible to fix on your own, as long as you have the proper tools. The most popular amateur method is the "reflow method" which involves a heat gun and a new coat of thermal paste.

I'll save you, PS3-kun!

It's a dismantling that no average Joe/Jane wants to do, because there are so many damned screws and parts you have to separate before you get to the juicy motherboard center. I successfully reflowed the PS3, but my Blu-ray drive was still not taking in disks properly; then the worst happened.

The PS3 completely died out. No more YLOD for me, because no lights came on at all! So now my power supply, the heart of the ps3 gave out after I successfully got its brain working. Just dandy.

This is a view of the PS3 that you NEVER want to see.

When I put all the parts together, everything was just fine, until my PS3 decided to have this heart attack. You know a movie where someone dies suddenly, and all the friends think it's all a joke- until they realize the terrible truth? That's me in a nutshell. I have never experienced this before, and I think that very few PS3 users have.

It's in perfect(ly broken) condition!

The last savior of my console is a new power supply. Until then it's me and my PC. Ahh, my PC. Even though I neglect it as a gaming machine, it does so much for me. Don't you die on me too, PC!

Pandalicious kicks off the show talking about her PS3 Netflix experience, then segues into an anime OVA (Le Petite Cossette)she watched with ESHmom that left them both saying WTF? before finally ending on the brilliance that is the hilarious Brit-Com, The IT Crowd. Extended ESH family member Xenocore joins the sistah's on this episode of the podcast to talk freebie goodness Alien Swarm and make the case for watching the anime series Heroman. NinJaSistah finishes out the show with a rundown of the official RockBand 3 set-list as well as the DJ Hero 2 song list. It's an exciting time for rhythm game enthusiasts for sure. Sounds good, right? Need more reasons to listen to this episode? Check out some of the titles we came up with, but didn't use.

• Your Pr0n Should Not Be On Your Desktop
• Here's Where Things Get Really F'd Up
• It's the Worst Anime Ever!
• Panda's Next Discovery: American Idol
• How Do You Say "It's Clobberin' Time" In Japanese?
• and finally
• Videogames Killed the Radio Star

Grab that first cup of whatever gets you going and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 212: New For 2011 - It's the Chevrolet D'eon

Altman be praised, was a phrase you have heard quite a bit if you’ve played EA’s hit space horror game Dead Space, but who the heck is Altman and why are these crazy people praising him?  This is the question that writer B. K. Evenson seeks to answer in Dead Space: Martyr.  It chronicles Michael Altman, the famed founder of the Unitology religion from the aforementioned series and tells the tale of the discovery of the original marker.  While the story is a little predictable, as prequels often can be, and it is not as action-packed as it could have been, I did enjoy it.

One of the best parts, in my opinion, of Dead Space was listening to and reading the wealth of backstory that they gave you through the audio logs and text logs.  With the motion comic series backing that up as well, there was more than just a little bit of thought put into how that whole mess went down.  One of the most interesting, and integral, parts of the story was the Church of Unitology.  B. K. Evenson, being no stranger to the horror genre having written several award-horror novels, took grand advantage of all that was there for him.  The book was chock full of references that either made me feel like I understood the fiction a lot better, or just facepalm.

Without ruining the whole thing for all of you fine people out there, the way everything turned out actually made me extremely excited to see what Dead Space 2 has in store for us early next year.  All of the big things that needed to be there made an appearance: People being driven mad, a giant twisty obelisk, hallucinations of dead people, necromorphs and even the plasma cutter made its debut.  There were however, a few things in there that either confused me, or simply made me shake my head.  I noticed throughout the story that I was hearing quite a few familiar names floating around.  Hammond and Ishimura were both scientists in the book, but were a key character and the name of the ship in the game.  Probably the biggest one that made me raise an eyebrow was a dream sequence at one point where the main character is very obviously dreaming about Isaac Clarke walking through the halls of the Ishimura.  While it’s not quite as bad as the first-person shooting sequence in the Doom movie, it’s still a little on the nose for me.

The action of the Dead Space game drops you into the fray in a matter of minutes and is a frantic gory ride from then on.  If you were hoping that this book was going to be the same, then it may not be the right one for you.  While the story is incredibly tense the entire time and is full of government coverups and double-crosses galore, the dismemberment action doesn’t start until about three-quarters of the way through the book.  If you loved going through the logs and watching the motion-comics, then you will likely enjoy this book.  If it is mainly the chopping and stomping action that brought you to the bloody halls of the Ishimura, then perhaps get a synopsis from a buddy.

When I started reading this book, one of the first things that I noticed was that it was separated into named parts.  Having been thrilled by the awesome first letter of every chapter reveal from Dead Space, I thought that surely there would be a nod in the form of some kind of message in the book.  Unfortunately, unless PCNDCHE means something that I’m just not catching, there is no message here.

For my official verdict on the book I am going to say: Rent it.

Since it is a book, I suppose this means that you should head out to your local library and see if they’ve got a copy of it in.  Or you could borrow it from a buddy.  While it was certainly worth it to me to purchase the book, it is not going to be for everybody, but may at least be worth a try.  Well, time for me to get cracking on Dead Space: Extraction.  Altman be praised!

Pandalicious experienced the final piece of her Scott Pilgrim vs. The World experience trilogy by seeing the movie this week and shares her reactions to the film, thoughts on the comic to movie adaptation and experience with the game on the PS3 and then NinJaSistah wraps up the show with her knee-jerk reaction to the casting news of the upcoming X-Men

Need a little push to grab this episode? Here are some of the titles we came up with:

• Touch Someone Every Day (Yeah, You're Dirty Like That)
• Beware Aloof Amazon.com Delivery Girls
• I Went to a Fight and a Musical Broke Out
• And Portraying the Japanese Twins? Actual Japanese Twins
• The Crew Was On Vacation the Day of the Megascott Battle
• Chicken's Not Vegan -- The Buckets All Have Colonel Sanders' Face
• Panda's Exes Number In the Fractions
• You're Never Going to See a Grand Theft Auto Based In Toronto
• and finally
• Converting Microsoft Points Is Like Turning Fahrenheit Into Celsius

So grab that first cup of the day and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 211: We're Cumming Out With More Sexual Puns

I've been a fan of Moyashimon (or Moyasimon, depending on which company spells it) for almost three years now. I've watched the entire anime series, read the manga and even own an A. oryzae plushie. When I heard that there were plans to do a live-action version I was stoked, and then when I read that FUNimation was to stream the show soon after each episode airs I got excited. Then I watched the show. Needless to say it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

Moyashimon follows the life of Tadayasu (Nakamura Yuichi), a student at an agricultural college with a unique gift: he can see microbes and bacteria with a naked eye. His ability catches the ear of Professor Itsuki (Kurosawa Toshio) and his grad student partner Hasegawa (Kato Natsuki), who use Tadayasu to help in their studies. Unfortunately it also reaches the ears of Takuma (Kimura Akihito) and Misato (Nishida Kato), who use their knowledge of bacteria to try to turn a buck; and as soon as they meet Tadayasu they (forcefully) bring him into their schemes. Female students Hazuki (Haneyuri) and Aoi (Chisun) also catch wind of Tadayasu's abilities, and soon come to respect and befriend him. All goes well, until a childhood friend (Okamoto Azusa) appears...

When it comes to adapting manga or anime into live-action J-DRAMA, the same issue always arises: condensing the material to fit the show's scheduled timeline. Surprisingly Moyashimon manages to to do that well, focusing on the main aspects of the original source without having to slice off anything important. Unfortunately this leads to one of the main characters to be left out of the series until the end of the fourth episode (unlike in the manga and anime, where the character appears in the first chapter/episode). Granted it helps to keep the character hidden until then so as to not spoil the surprise (which I will not tell you, so as to make you actually watch the show), but there could've been at least a flashback or two to showcase the character in the first episode.

Each episode connects to one another, and the plotlines are well-written. I can't talk about the writing without having to mention Episode Five ("Love Potion"), which features some of the best and funniest moments on any TV series from around the globe. The reactions and outcomes to the characters after talking the aphrodisiac is too priceless for words, and can be compared easily to the most recent of Todd Phillips movies. I would be lying if I said it didn't make me laugh uncontrollably, and the added commentary from the microbes brought a strong sarcastic wit to the series.

Speaking of the microbes, props must be given to the people who had to animate them. Not only do they look fantastic, but the work to put them into the scenes is as spot-on as the most recent Hollywood blockbusters. One scene where this is done perfectly is in the first episode, where Tadayasu is brought into the now-destroyed sake containment room. When Takuma and Misato open the containers the microbes swirl around Tadayasu as he tries to brush them off. The camerawork showcases a one-shot where in one moment we see the microbes from Tadayasu's point-of-view to that of the other two students (i.e.: them being invisible). Whoever edited that one scene together should seriously be considered for a good-paying editing job for the next big Japanese action flick. Of course we can't forget about the voice acting of the microbes, which easily manages to outshine the acting of the real human actors. (Sadly, I couldn't find out who does it here, but it's strongly possible that it's the same people who voiced them in the anime.)

This, sadly, leads us to the weakest part of the live-action Moyashimon: the acting. While in the similar vein of such classic J-DRAMAs as Great Teacher Onizuka and Gokusen the acting here sometimes doesn't work. The blend of realism and laughably-bad acting got annoying in parts, especially in regards to the UFO Club in Episode 3. Whoever taught these four people how to act should be stripped of their credentials, as the UFO Club was eye-gouchingly bad. (It does lead to a funny moment involving Professor Itsuki, but they still got on my nerves.) The other characters bring forth many hit-and-miss moments, and at times they, too, got bothersome. That said sometimes these sorts of reactions manage well in Moyashimon, whereas other times they don't.

If you can get past some of the acting, however, Moyashimon can be a real treat to watch. In fact it's also quite educational, especially when the microbes come onto the screen to introduce themselves. If one were to splice these moments together they would have quite the handy educational video for microbiology classes in high school and college. Not to mention the show can be very humorous. I do advise, however, that you view only an episode at a time, as the acting probably will get to you if you marathon it.

*** (out of five)

By the way, if you don't believe the part about me owning a Moyashimon plushie, I advise you to look below.

Let's brew!

Let’s get this out there right away, the trailer for Bioshock Infinite is pretty freaking awesome.  In fact, it was so awesome that I had to go back and revisit both of the other trailers from the previous games.  What I found is that while they each have a very distinct structure and feeling to them, they are different in their own wonderful way.

The original Bioshock trailer opens by diving into the sea and revealing the great undersea city of Rapture.  Even after spending an entire game walking through the city, it still gives me goosebumps to see that initial reveal.  After a pan through o the underwater metropolis, we cut to our protagonist and quickly snap to a first-person view.  What follows is a scene that very appropriately gives you a good idea of how afraid of the behemoth Big Daddies you should be.  The sense of desperation very accurately depicts the way my stomach churned every time I heard that whale-like groan echo though the halls of Rapture.

The trailer for Bioshock 2 starts much the same way that the first does, once again taking us straight to the depths of Rapture.  In stark contrast to the original trailer however, the roll is reversed and desperation is replaced by being a freaking badass.  As the original Big Daddy, you tear through splicers as though they were cheap toilet paper.  The major focus of the second game was its fun gameplay and this trailer exhibited that quite well.

Last, but certainly not least, is Bioshock Infinite.  Just like the last two, it starts deep in the sea.  Or does it?  We’re already in the first-person and with our head shoved in a giant aquarium.  After being thrust out a window by some sort of creature, you find that you’re not exactly under the sea anymore.  Desperation makes a grand return this trailer as you spend the majority of it falling from the sky.  A sense of wonderment not felt since that initial reveal of Rapture is present in this trailer with our first look at Columbia as you are clutching onto the side of a zeppelin.  Also showcased is the powers of a mysterious female character as she attempts to save you from your fall with roses that make you levitate.  This video is much more like the first than it is the second, with our hero meeting his demise at the end.

I haven’t seen such a wonderful trilogy of video since the original three Alien movies.  Okay, so maybe I’m being a little dramatic there, but it is certainly worth going back and watching each of them in succession in order to appreciate their similarities and differences, much like the aforementioned sci-fi horror series.  At the very least, if you haven’t seen the Bioshock Infinite trailer yet, crawl out from underneath your rock and watch it!  It’s awesome and you won’t regret it.

Ahoy, matey (and all that other stuff landlubbers think is funny about pirate-speak) it's Monkey Island! PC gamers from way back may know this game inside and out. For people who can claim the PS3 as their first console, they're in the dark. Now adventure games are back, and they continue to invade the PC.

Unfortunately, I think that this is not a great transition. You don't have to do much in games like Sam and Max and Monkey Island; hand-eye coordination is not a factor. Still, I feel like the controls were made for PC and little consideration was made in tweaking the controls so the movements are more smooth using your analog controller.

I hope that made any sense. The game itself is good. Just like Sam and Max, Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter1 involves finding items and using them to solve puzzles, and occasionally combining items. Also, it's funny. Not as funny as Sam and Max, though. Another thumbs down goes to the voice actor of Guybrush Threepwood.

I have never played a Tales of Monkey Island game, so I don't know if this guy is the original actor, but he's not very good.  In addition to that the female lead, Elaine, is much funnier than he is and is played by a more competent voice actor. Upstatged! That will not stop you from enjoying this adventure game, though. Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 is a good demo.

At first it was hard to love Planet Minigolf.

When I first played the game, I liked the menu design better than the game itself. That's not good.

As I played more and more, I realized that the game wasn't so bad, once you got the hang of it. The game feels a bit stiff. The behavior of the ball is irksome, and the way you swing your club is not my cup of tea. Power-ups are fun, but I would like to have a little more control over where my ball goes, not the funny ways I can send my ball towards the hole.

What sports games might learn from Planet Minigolf is customization. If you're a solo sport, especially, I think being able to outfit your character or give them accessories is fun. I wished customization extended to  changing the voice of the announcer. He is highly aggravating and loses his charm after the first time you hear him. Planet Minigolf is a good demo, but I don't would hesitate in recommending a purchase of the full version of this game.

NinJaSistah starts off the show chatting about the forthcoming Ninja Theory developed Namco-Bandai title Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and how it's not Dragon Ball Z and her thoughts and experience watching Video Games Live on PBS. Then Pandalicious jumps in to talk about the movie rental service NetFlix including using the instant queue and streaming on both the computer and Xbox 360. Finally, Pandalicious explains (or at least tries to explain) exactly what is going on in the anime series Chance Pop Session.

Need some encouragement to go ahead and grab this episode? Check out some of the titles we came up with but didn't use for this episode:

• Twing Twang Only Sounds Dirty
• By Popular Demand, It's Post-Apocalyptic Earth!
• The Headband of Doom Is This Season's Fashion Faux-Pas
• If Balls Were Involved, I Would Have Mentioned It
• Zeus Had It Coming
• It Was Promised Land, Land Promised, Something Like That
• It's Like Paula Abdul Without the Drugs
• and finally
• He's Such a Nice Guy, You Know He Wants to Bone Her

Enough of the chitter-chatter, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 210: One Sister, Two Sister, Three Sister Bunch! Daylight Come and Me Wanna Go Home

Your thumbs will be sore, you'll be screaming at the TV when the Continue Screen appears, and you'll be thinking for days on a proper strategy on how to defeat the bosses. Is Scott Pilgrim VS The World worth all this anguish? To put it bluntly: hell yes!

Based off the beloved graphic novel series by Brian Lee O'Malley (as well as the recently-released film from Edgar Wright) Scott Pilgrim VS The World follows the classic Canadian love story of our title character and Ramona Flowers. However an evil force is upon the couple, as it is revealed that if they wish to live happily ever after Mr. Pilgrim will have to defeat Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends. (Technically it's six ex-boyfriends and one ex-girlfriend, but that seems a bit too long to explain, now doesn't it?) Players will have the chance to play as Scott, Ramona, Stephen Stills (no relation) and Kim Pine as they battle the likes of ninjas, dinosaurs, punk-ass kids and annoying little pipsqueaks with glasses. Sounds easy, right? Ha ha, fat chance!

Scott Pilgrim VS The World is perhaps one of the most frustratingly hard games that I have ever come across to in my lifetime. There are times where you'll be forced to fend off almost fifteen baddies at the same time, which makes it nearly impossible to even get a single strike in on an opponent. Yet as I played I couldn't help but feel like I did when I was younger; inserting quarter after quarter into such classic side-scroller beat-em-ups as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons. It's a tough road to walk on, yes, but it gets your adrenaline pumping in a good way.

As you maneuver throughout the world players can sneak into shops to help regenerate their energy and level up to an extreme epicness that only one dreams of. (Believe me: when you get to Level 14 and unlock a certain maneuver you'll be breathing a huge sigh of relief.) Hidden areas will also bring you to the Subspace Portals, where Scott can skip through some areas of the levels and grab some more coin to buy food and items to continue your journey. You'll have to look really carefully to find these places, as they are sometimes difficult to find. (Once in a while the entrance will stick out like a sore thumb, though.)

Once you reach the end of the level you'll be faced head-on with one of the evil ex-boyfriends, and are these battles tough! Todd Ingram's arm will shoot out in a Tetsuo-like freakish manner, throwing objects at you that you sometimes can't avoid. Roxie Ritcher will attempt a shadow-clone jutsu (no Naruto reference necessary) and attack you from all four sides. Lucas Lee will speed on his skateboard and do everything he can to run you over. Still with the right strategy you can defeat the evil exes (HINT: jumping helps!). However an issue arises when you run out of lives. Once you die and press Continue, you will be forced to start the entire level over again! (Here's an idea Ubisoft: instead of making it more difficult for us to play this game, why don't you subtract a sum amount of the cash that we earned in the level and let us continue on from the exact spot of the level we were on?) Which is why I say it's better to play this first time around with a group of friends.

You and three pals can play at the same time, and the key term for gameplay is teamwork. If you and your friends work together to play Scott Pilgrim VS The World you will have no problem beating them. Not only that but it lets players rock out with an ultimate team combo that has all four players, well, rocking out. No, there is no online play, as there shouldn't be. This game was meant to be played with people in the same room as you, as if you and your friends were crammed together in a small arcade booth. You'll laugh, groan and scream together as you embrace the nostalgia that Scott Pilgrim VS The World breathes into you.

Speaking of nostalgia, you can't talk about this game without talking about the 8-bit graphics here. While I imagined the game to be more in the vein of cel-shaded this style certainly fits the gameplay entirely well. It's as if I was playing something off of my NES, only in much-better high-definition. Of course we won't leave out the soundtrack, written and performed by Anamanaguchi. The rock band from New York City wrote 30 tracks for Scott Pilgrim VS The World, each one as hard-rocking as the last. Pray the soundtrack becomes available soon, as it will be on almost every gamer's wishlist.

Playing the game alone may take you days to accomplish, but having the right amount of friends over will make this a quick game to get through (probably a few hours). However the replay value of this title is huge, as you will want to try and unlock all the features. (The Survival Horror mode, where you battle zombies, may be an old cliché by now, but it's still tons of fun.) With all this and more (can't spoil all the secrets, can I?) Scott Pilgrim VS The World is one of the finest, if not difficult, games to add to your collection.

PROS:

• Faithful adaptation of the original comic series
• Great retro graphics and soundtrack
• Solid control scheme

CONS:

• Unapologetically hard
• Continue screen has you start from the beginning of the level
• If you don't have any friends to play this with, you're out of luck

FINAL THOUGHTS:

While Scott Pilgrim VS The World may be one of the most difficult games to play (even more difficult than, dare I say, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts) it's also one of the most fun. Granted your fingers will be sore for days after hours of game play, but to be able to play as your favorite characters from the Scott Pilgrim universe is nothing short of sweet. It may not be the best downloadable title of the year, but it's pretty damn close.

FINAL GRADE: 8.9 (out of ten)

The new DLC “Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution” is going to deal with that Claptrap’s rise to sentience and the uprising he is stirring up with his Claptrap brethren. The vault hunters (that’s you, the players) will be hired by the Hyperion Corporation (albeit reluctantly, as they want you dead just like everyone else in the game) to put down this revolt for the good of Pandora. Throughout the new missions you will fight old enemies with a new twist. Skags, bandits, rakk, and more have all been outfitted with Claptrap parts to make them even stronger for you. Not to mention the hordes of angry, oppressed claptraps. Even old bosses will be making appearances with a new “Claptrap-ified” look.

Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution is set to hit the market in September. It boasts 20 new missions, as well as 10 earnable skill points, and 3 more backpack upgrades in total. This will be a chunk of content that is not to be missed and will retail at $9.99 on PSN and PC, or 800 points in the XBLA

“A year ago Borderlands was an untested brand that through hard work and a lot of passion, turned out to be one of the best-selling, claptastic and skagtacular games we have ever created,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “A year later, we are releasing our fourth DLC installment, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution, which illustrates our enthusiasm for creating highly entertaining content that enhances a franchise. In addition to serving as the perfect bookend to the original game, what gamer doesn’t love a kung-fu-wielding Ninja Assassin Claptrap with nunchuck skills?”

The mention of it being a “bookend” makes me think this will be the last installment in the Borderlands DLC packs. I myself will be the first in line for Borderlands 2 when it inevitably hits shelves sometime in the future.

Ted Stevens is gone, but his tubes yet remain. Pictured here are the tubes that exclusively carried MP3 audio files.

You didn't think we would let Ted Stevens off easy, did you? Anyone who could speak the immortal lines that the internet is a series of tubes (not a big truck!) deserves a parting shot.

In case you hadn't heard, Stevens, a former U.S. senator from Alaska, died in an airplane crash last night. He is most famous among tech geeks for the words he spoke in 2006 on the Senate floor in criticism of an amendment to an internet bill before Congress. Stevens, speaking on behalf of providers such as Verizon and AT&T, defended his opposition to net neutrality, saying:

Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially....

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Well, Ted is gone now, and will likely get loaded into his own tube and carried on a big truck to be buried in some little section of the oil-saturated frozen tundra next to a moose that was shot from a helicopter by Sarah Palin.

At least I didn't mention that Bridge to Nowhere.

The Backlog:

We’ve all got them, the games that have been gathering dust on our shelves for months, or occasionally years, just waiting for you to dive right in.  Now is a perfect time to give them the attention they crave.  Personally, I have a good five or six that not only haven’t been played, but are still shrink-wrapped.  Slow times like these are a great excuse to pull off the wrapping and get going on those forgotten classics.  In addition, if you’ve got some extra cash laying around, take a gander at your local game retailer.  You never know how much the game you’d been meaning to play but never picked up has dropped in price.

The Downloadables:

Despite the fact that Nintendo’s virtual console is barely throwing us crumbs nowadays, there are plenty of fun and affordable times to be had with downloadable games.  Limbo is a prime example of an incredibly fun title that is only available via download.  The price of said games is another good reason to consider this option.  Even if you’re looking for something to tide you over for a very long time, you can get awesome stuff like Grandia or one of the Final Fantasy games as a PSOne Classic.

The Completionist:

Even when you’ve played through everything you own, with trophies and achievements, there is always more to do.  With the recent Dead Space kick I’ve been going through, I went back and got my platinum medal and it was honestly a blast.  Going for that one-hundred percent in a game can be rewarding in many ways.  Sure, you get that wonderful notch on your TV stand, but it also helps you to explore areas of the game you hadn’t considered.  I highly recommend doing it at least once, perhaps with one of your favorites.

It will not be long before the hits start coming faster than you can open your wallet, but take this time and enjoy your games.  Perhaps you can even pull off a triple-threat by getting a one-hundred percent complete on one of the downloadable games in your backlog.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a backlog on my Nintendo 64, so I need to get cracking.

Hulu's offering of anime.

It upsets me that I end up missing out on all the free & legal anime that's out there. Funimation is probably the best at offering free streaming video of their titles, and Hulu plays them as well. With that in mind, I took a moment to see what I can get for the best price of all.

Here's what's new on Hulu:

Eden of the East

Blessing of the Campanella

Trigun

I's

Girls Bravo

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan

My Bride is a Mermaid

Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Claymore

Sengoku Basra

Black Butler

Cross Game

Hero Tales

Strike Witches

Birdy the Mighty: Decode

Okamisan

Moyashimon

STOP!

There is so much more on Hulu than that. To be a bit more specific, there are 100+ titles you can watch through Hulu. I think that's more than enough to fill any holes in your leisure time.

At the time I was also rabidly watching Star Trek every chance I got, to the point where the end credits would roll and I'd press play again. I'm a crazy insane Karl Urban fan and have been ever since his Caesar/Cupid days on Hercules/Xena. As I type this, I just finished watching 'Pathfinder' and my background image is of Vaako from the Chronicles of Riddick, so you can guess how nuts about him I am. I'm also a huge Zachary Quintos fan, so Star Trek XI is like visual crack for me.

Star Trek mixed with the idea of making a fanvid in my head and this is what popped out...

WARNING - THE SONG IS UNCENSORED AND NOT WORK FRIENDLY

"Gonna Go Far" - Star Trek XI (2009) - "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" by The Offspring

Do you like action video games? Do you like creepy jack-in-the-boxes? You do? Well if you have all of that and $99.99 you too can pre-order the collector's edition of Ubisoft's forthcoming Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Ubisoft announced today that the collector's edition of their upcoming November title release Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is available from Gamestop for pre-order. The bundle contains the following:

• The Harlequin Jack-in-the-Box Collectible or The Doctor Jack-in-the-Box Collectible
• Two Exclusive In-Game Single Player Maps
• Hard Copy Strategy Map of Rome
• Exclusive Art Book
• Bonus Disc
  • Exclusive Making-of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Video
  • Digital Sneak Peak at the Assassin’s Creed Comic
  • Trailers
  • Game Soundtrack

Available for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 system, the version with the Harlequin jack-in-the-box is only available to those who pre-order the package through Gamestop while the bundle with the Doctor jack-in-the-box will be available through all vendors. Hit one of the links below to check out your options.

Remember, you heard it here first... you know, in case you want to pick up a copy for someone else as well. (subtle hint... I'm a huge Ezio Auditore fan.)

Gamestop pre-order

Amazon pre-order

Ubisoft's Pre-order Info

The topics for this week? We start with Pandalicious kicks off the show with the glory that is her new Xbox 360 slim and comparisons to her old XB-Phatty. NinJa interjects with her experiences with a new anime series called Samurai Harem and Ubisoft's Just Dance: Kids announcement at the 2010 BlogHer Conference in New York last week. Then it's into Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and the new ESH obsession Fable 3.

Need more reasons to check out this week's episode? Here are a couple of titles we came up with but didn't use:

• I Feel Like a Fat Kid in a Pool of Ice Cream
• I'm Coming down With Kinectivitis November 4th
• It's Like Kidzbop with Even Less Bop
• and finally,
• It Has a Great Hijinks-to-Poignance Ratio

It's that time folks. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 209: I Have No Beaver In My Library (That' Bieber!)

The Peanuts gang have been around for a wonderful sixty years, and during that time we have been given classic comics, TV shows, movies and video games. This past June the folks over at Smart Bomb Interactive released the fourteenth Peanuts-based game in its sixty-year history: Snoopy Flying Ace. Needless to say, for a Charlie Brown game, I came out of this dogfight with eyes wide and jaws dropped. How is it possible that a Snoopy title, of all things, might turn out to be the best XBOX Live release of the year?

In Snoopy Flying Ace players take control of the world's most beloved beagle as he battles it out throughout Europe in World War I. Your missions include taking down the Red Baron, protecting precious landmarks and just all-out shooting down planes in glorious mayhem. When you feel like you're ready you can take on the world in a multi-player battle that includes the choices of Dogfight, Capture the Flag and Pigskin.

Controlling the game takes some getting used to, as you might be confused at first by the flight controls. Some might need to switch to inverted mode to feel more at ease with the flying techniques, while other won't. (It mostly depends on how many other flying games you've played in your lifetime.) Once you've got the flying down patch that when you can try performing barrel rolls or other evasive attacks to avoid enemy fire. When it comes to weapon control the designers at Smart Bomb Interactive made sure that firing your guns or launching your missiles were as easy as can be. It will take a bit of time to figure out how to aim precisely (hint: it deals with guessing your enemy's next position), but once you've got that down pat playing this game with be both simple and fun.

Graphics in Snoopy Flying Ace excel in what a Peanuts game should look like. Its blend of cartoonish worlds and characters mixed with realistic explosions and battles make this one of the best-looking games on XBOX Live. In fact, given the era of our times, this could easily be seen as a fine example of what a CGI Peanuts film could look like (though some may argue, correctly, that Charlie Brown and Snoopy need only stay in a cel-shaded world). Also bringing a realm of realism to the game is its sound effects, with the bangs 'n' booms of real-life dogfighting combat reigning supreme in this download title. (Hearing Snoopy's trademark cackle when you shoot down a plane always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.) The soundtrack, while fitting to the WWI era and motif, gets kind of old, and should've maybe had a few more compositions to it.

When it comes to the gameplay, Snoopy Flying Ace just might be the first great air combat shooter of the decade. Battling it out in the game's vivid story mode is extremely fun, and its variety of tasks (i.e.: shooting down planes, blowing up blimps, protecting the Sphinx) add a whole lot to love to this Peanuts title. However it's when you dive into online multi-player mode where the fun really starts, where you can play as all your favorite Peanuts characters (and even your XBOX Avatar). You have the choice of doing Dogfight, which you either fight for your own life or with a team, Capture the Flag (solo or team) and Pigskin. I've got to say that Pigskin is widely creative and fun, where you and your teammates practically play a game of football in the sky. Just be warned: there are already a bunch of skilled players online, and it might take you a few hours to get your first kill.

One real question still remains: would Charles Schulz be happy with Snoopy: Flying Ace? While there is a lot of action and violent mayhem in this game there are no real fatalities. (When you shoot down a plane the pilot parachutes down to safety.) On top of that there is still a sort of Peanuts-like funny innocence to the game, and when you get enough "kills" in a row in multi-player you will be able to fly on Snoopy's trademark doghouse. Plus it's all fun and games, and even has the feel and humor of the classic Charlie Brown TV series, specials and movies. If Schulz were alive today I believe deeply that he would give Snoopy Flying Ace a nod of approval.

PROS:

• One of the finest flight simulators on any current console
• Simple weapons controls
• The most exciting multi-player modes on XBOX Live

CONS:

• Flying techniques may take a bit to learn
• Game music can be a bit repetitive

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I cannot believe I am about to say this, but Snoopy Flying Ace just might be the best download title on XBOX Live this year, and will leave both PS3 and Wii owners clamoring for a port of this game for their own. Flying has never been this much fun in ages, and the online multi-player mode gets everything done right. What more can I say except download this title now, and for only 800 XBOX Points it's practically a steal. I guess it's true what they say: happiness is a warm puppy, especially one flying in his Sopwith Camel.

Another set of games comes to mind when I think about improper comparisons.  The software in question is Infamous and Prototype.  When they were released, the two games were touted as practically the same game.  While in both games you played as a  person who recently attains superpowers and wants to get to the bottom of said abilities by traversing a sandbox style city, when playing the two games you will find that they have a very different feel to them.  Similarly, with Limbo and Braid, you are playing as a man/boy looking for their princess/sister by walking through an atmospheric platforming world.  On the face of it, yeah you could blindly say that the games seem fairly similar.  The more you delve into the specifics however, the more you can see how different the two really are.

Let’s start with the gameplay of each.  In Braid, there is a much larger focus on the puzzle aspect of the game.  If you really wanted to, you could blast past everything rather easily, but you wouldn’t have beaten the game until you’ve collected all the puzzle pieces.  Limbo, on the other hand, is the polar opposite.  The entire crux of the game is progressing forward.  While you may need to go back for a missed crate every once in a while, it’s always about progressing and not about collecting.  In addition, there is a much greater sense of danger in the gameplay, which actually figures into my next point which is atmosphere.

Both games have a fantastic atmosphere.  Braid has a feeling of wonderment and despair that does a great job of sinking in while you play.  Limbo, in contrast, has a similar feeling or curious wonderment, but it is accompanied by sheer terror.  While Braid has its own dangers associated with the world you’re in, none of them seem quite as dangerous as those in Limbo.  This feeling is because not only can you die, but you can be mutilated.  Quite often did I find myself being dismembered, disemboweled and many other horrifyingly gory deaths.  This instills a sense of dread that is just not present in Braid.

While the games are just not similar enough to be compared too closely, there is one thing that they have very definitively in common.  They are both fantastic games that deserve to be played by anyone that has the cash and the time.  If you haven’t picked up Braid by now, and you enjoy puzzle-based platform games, then I highly recommend it.  If you haven’t played Limbo just yet, then what are you waiting for?  It’s fantastic fun and worth every penny.  Now I will leave you with one last compare and contrast.  While the games both have five letters in their title, Limbo has two syllables instead of one.  Do the Limbo!

Ninja brings up the Sony 3.41 firmware issue which is causing some unfortunate souls who do the update to end up with malfunctioning PS3 and then moves on to Amazon's new Kindle announcement.

Pandalicious chimes in with her thoughts on the the finally released Alan Wake DLC The Signal as well as her theories about the ending of the game in general. Both sisters have been playing some Crackdown 2 this week and Panda gives you the newbie review of the game as well as thoughts on Crackdown/Gears of War comparisons.

Games and gadgets and then games again, this episode of the podcast is wall to wall fun. Need more convincing? Here are some of the titles we came up with but didn't use:

• The Nook E-Reader Just Sounds Dirty
• Thank You, YouTube, for Sucking Even Less
• Return to the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very Very Nervous
• If You Fall In Love In Silent Hill, Bring Along a Tether Strap
• He Carried His Big Stick Proudly
• What? No Cryogenics for Carmine
• and finally
• We Compare Videogames with the Menu at Burger King

So grab a cup of your favorite whatever and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 208: It's the Sonypocalypse - DUN! DUN! DUN!

The Trauma Center series for DS and Wii has always brought a unique experience in the video gaming world, what with its surgery gameplay and storytelling. Some have complained, however, that the series has become too predictable in regards to its style. Fortunately the folks at Atlus have created a new way of taking on this world thanks to the new Wii game Trauma Team.

Players take on the role of six characters in the game: the mysterious prisoner CR-SO1 (surgeon), the Hugh Laurie-inspired Gabriel Cunningham (the diagnostician), the superhero-in-disguise Hank Freebird (orthopedic surgeon), the "Corpse Whisperer" Naomi Kimishima (forensics examiner), the fiery-spirited Maria Torres (EMT) and the honorable Tomoe Tachibana (endoscopy surgeon). These six characters' plotlines interline with one another's, helping to arc one big story over six people in similar fields. While telling the story players have to take on tasks such as ridding bodies of tumors and hemorrhages, mending broken bones, guessing patients' illnesses and discovering whodunit in a murder case.

Gameplay consists of various types of stages, ranging from stitching up wounds and adding plates to broken bones to sucking up blood clots and discovering hidden clues from crime scenes. Depending on which character you play you'll be taking on many surgical and CSI tasks. The ones I was having most fun with, however, were the Cunningham levels; and not just because he had a House-like quality to his attitude, but it felt like I was actually learning something about these symptoms, diseases and cancers. The surgery-based levels were great, too, and it gave you something of a real look at how surgery is done.

Graphics in this game are the same as in the past Wii Trauma Center games, and while there seems to be no visual improvement that doesn't mean the game is bad in anyway. The cut-scenes, however, could've been fully animated and not storybook-pictured. Its animesque look could hopefully build itself up to a full-fledged TV series depending on the popularity of this video game in Japan, thanks in part to a lovable cast of characters (especially Hank Freebird, whose superhero alter-ego Captain Eagle brings in some good laughs to a game that knows when to bring an appropriate chuckle out).

While the graphics aren't up to par with the more recent Wii games the way you control Trauma Team adds a whole realm of realism to the game's world. The controls are quite precise, so much are they that the slight of hand could cost you a few points if you're not carefully maneuvering your Wiimote. I would say that having a Wii Motion Plus option would've been nice, but had it been implemented in the actual game I think I would've wound up killing more patients than saving them. That said there are still some areas where an accidental flinch would cause more damage to the patient than good, so timing and careful precision is everything in this game. (I've found it most difficult to maneuver around the endoscopy-based levels, as I've hit the inner walls of the body a couple times to give my patients critical conditions. I must remember to show patience with my patients.)

As of this review I am about six hours into Trauma Team, and from what I have left it seems like I have another good sixteen hours to complete the game. Each level may take from as little as three minutes to as long as two hours to complete (the Corpse Whisperer stories might even take you a day to figure out wholly). And with a wide variety of different ways to sew, cut, bolt, pin and discover within the game you'll leave Trauma Team feeling like you've experienced six different good video games instead of just the one.

PROS:

• A wide range of different ways to perform surgery, diagnostics and forensics
• Solid storylines for all six characters
• Excellent controls, but...

CONS:

• ...one slip of the Wiimote and you'll cause more damage than good
• Graphics aren't too great
• Can we have some animated cut-scenes next time? Seriously?!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Trauma Team is perhaps one of the best video games to come out on the Wii this year. While it doesn't look as pretty as most of the other recent games out there the gameplay and excellent stories make up for it in a huge way. On top of that there's a sort of realism to it that makes Trauma Team the sort of video game that medical schools should take into consideration when teaching their doctors-to-be. Just don't expect to be a top surgeon if you S-Class the entire game. You really should bone up on the medical field before you put someone's life in your hands.

FINAL GRADE: 9 (out of 10)