Leave your consoles home when flying

I've gotten into the habit of bringing handhelds or game consoles with me on a trip, short one day trips seeing as I value the idea of getting away from gaming on longer vacations. However, I can understand someone bringing their consoles with them, but you might wanna consider leaving any console you have home.

Seems that technology as "advanced" as the Xbox 360 is a flight risk, until they take it apart.

Apparently airport security takes apart things to find CPU sized explosives hiding in game consoles, and decided to rip out components of the noted Xbox 360. As much as that is drawing the line of paranoia, those security guards seem to make quicker work of the 360 than the Texas repair center does. (Okay, bad joke.)

So, as a warning to gamers out there. If you plan on flying and desire to take your gaming devices with you, do as Kotaku columnist Luke Plunkett says in this article. Carry on luggage only.

So you could fit a Nintendo Wii in your carry on, maybe your Xbox if you don't even have carry on luggage. I think that might raise a red flag to security though, and a "fat" PS3 certainly isn't going to fit in there.

Rock Band Network Goes into Open Beta

Rock Band Network has just went into open beta, meaning that we now get to see all of the songs that are being released, and if we had the proper tools, we'd be able to upload our own. Anybody with an XNA account, an Xbox Live Gold account, and a free account on the Rock Band Network website can now do peer reviewing and auditioning on newly submitted Rock Band Network songs. And if you have all that, a license to use reaper, and a free copy of Magma, you'll be able to upload your own songs for peer review!

That's right, in order to audition any songs, you'll need an XNA membership. Kind of disappointing to me, since i'd love to preview and rate some songs before I decide to download them or not, but (provided you're logged in to the site with your free account) at least we can still see all of the songs on the website (complete with audio previews) at this link here.

Currently, my favorite song on the network has to be "White Heat" by Cetan Clawson and the Soul Side, just based on the previews I listened to.

At the time of this writing, there's 38 songs approved in total with more on the way in the coming months. Currently, the songs have not been published to any sort of store, all of that's being saved for the full-launch of the network. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time that happens, we'd have over 200 songs already on the service! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

Arc vs Natal

The motion control wars was supposed to start this spring with the Sony motion controller getting a 6 month or more head start over Natal with Arc. Arc is a suggested decision on the name of Sony's motion controller if you didn't already know.

Well I was curious to see what people would say about Arc, but Brutal Gamer brought to my attention that this has changed.

“We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users." -Kaz Hirai

While I don't agree with Brutal Gamer's article that this kills any chance for Sony to outdo Natal, it is a loss of a good head start for them.

Speaking of Natal, Brutal Gamer also lets us know about a possible November 2010 release (early birthday present 4 me?). They also speculate on this article from MCV about the supposed price and shipping details.

so after sifting through all those articles, i've let it sink in. 50-80 dollars for Natal?! Holy crap, what a good price. Almost a dirt cheap price when you think about it, and if it's just a little better than it was at E3 those 5 million units will disappear FAST!

So now you will have to decide if you have both consoles which to buy first, and single console owners will have yet another piece of hardware for the fanboy flame wars.

Aliens vs Predator: Kill Moves Trailer

Gore Gore Gore!

If the multiplayer has the same level of carnage, I am literally going to be exhausted after playing this game. I'm still debating over getting this game, but jeez it looks fun.

Green Lantern: First Flight Review

Although this movie came out last year, First Flight had it's Cartoon Network premiere today. With the Green Lantern movie finally on its way into production, I wanted to get a general idea of Green Lantern as a super hero.

Well, Green Lantern First Flight is not a rich story per-say. It has Green Lantern material in it, but the dialogue suggests this movie was going for attitude instead of being deep. That's fine, I enjoyed it. I do recommend this movie because its good for fans of Green Lantern and people new to the Green Lantern story like myself. Having Christopher Meloni voice Hal Jordan was an interesting step, Meloni has a great diversity in acting.

As a whole the movie is decent, even earning a chuckle or two. If there is one thing I hoped for, it was seeing what the order of the Green Lantern does with it's rings. Hal Jordan earned a few chuckles out of me with what he created to fight a bug race at one point. In a way its simple-minded of Jordan and also insulting to bugs that can shoot your damn head off.

One scene in particular reminded me of the alien death scene in Alien: Resurrection when Jordan was making his way through the ship to Kanjar Ro. I hate that i'm thinking about that mediocre movie, but the similarity is quite noticeable.

If there was one scene that was powerful, it was seeing rings fall from the sky of dying Green Lanterns who had the misfortune of needing their powers to breathe. Such an impact that has on you, as helpless dying scenarios always seem to.

One of the Green Lanterns, Boodikka, seemed like the typical feminine character that sympathizes with the under-appreciated hero AKA Hal Jordan. Then, she suddenly has a good reason for doing that. It basically surprised the hell out of me and made her seem less one dimensional, although it came a bit too sudden it was welcomed by me.

If there was one thing I could nitpick about, it would be Hal Jordan's super form. Not going to elaborate but when you see it, it doesn't seem as imposing as it should and hardly any thought into the "transformation" process.

Oh well, that's a small disappointment. But I enjoyed Green Lantern: First Flight and give it a 3/5.

Ghostbusters 3 gets a director

We all heard that Ghostbusters 3 was happening, the writers of The Office were taking on the challenge of writing the script. Really now, the video game released this year had a story with funny dialogue. So why can't Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis write Ghostbusters 3?

Oh well, now we get the news of who is directing the third installment courtesy of Spill.com. Ivan Reitman!

Seems to be a good move considering he directed the other Ghostbuster movies, but Gametab's forums offer interesting points

Ivan Reitman's movies haven't really stood out

My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Evolution
Six Days Seven Nights
Father's Day
Junior

I haven't bothered to see any of these, and they don't sound that good. I do know that the supposed writers wrote Year One, which is BAD in addition to the uneasiness with Ivan Reitman.

I'm sure plenty of people will go out to see this movie, and I can hope they do a good job. It's been over 20 years since the last movie, a sequel isn't a bad idea.

Fallen Earth First Impressions

I recently had a chance to check out Fallen Earth, a relatively new MMO from developer Icarus Studios. By "relatively new" I mean it came out last year, September 2009.

The game is set in the post-apocalyptic year of 2154, and the gameplay feels a lot like Fallout 1 or 2. However, the tone is not so much 50's-style. Instead it's got more of a Road Warrior vibe to it. This isn't bad however, and it works to the game's advantage.

As far as gameplay goes, you've got some standard MMO features in there. The skillbar at the bottom of your screen, mapped to the number keys. An inventory, Stat building, etc. However, the thing that sets this game apart is it's intuitive use of shooter controls. Instead of clicking on an enemy and waiting for your skills to re-charge so you can attack again, you simply equip a weapon, or multiple weapons (which you can switch between by holding ctrl and using the number keys), and attack with the left-click for primary attacks, and right-click for secondary attacks. The game also sets itself apart by allowing you to zoom all the way in, and go into a first-person mode. This turns the game into more of an action game than an MMO.

As far as social aspects go, I didn't see many people once I got out of the tutorial. I might of not been in a big hub world, or maybe the game just isn't very active. However, I do like the emotes they give you.

The big problem with the game is it's polish. The game isn't polished whatsoever, the shooting feels really bad, with the camera changing when you start shooting and changing again when you stop. It feels very shaky, but it's definitely not intentional, and doesn't feel as smooth as other first-person or third-person shooters.

I guess it might be a little unfair to compare it to other shooters, but even compared to other MMOs, the game seems a bit too glitchy, I almost got stuck in one part where I had to sneak past some irradiated creatures, and by stuck I mean stuck in the wall. If they just took 6 months to put a nice layer of polish onto the game, I think it would have turned out much better, but as it is I'm not currently interested in playing anymore of it.