God of War: Ghost of Sparta Teaser

Sony had a great panel at the San Diego Comic con. A lot of big announcements but I was most excited to see some footage of the new PSP God of War game. You can check it out here.

Street Fighter III

What a year it is turning out to be for fighting fans! Capcom has also announced that Street Fighter III will be heading to consoles soon with some great online features. Check out the story here.

Batman #701

Grant Morrison gives us the missing story between RIP and Final Crisis. I should say "one of the missing stories" because Final Crisis was so convoluted and crummy that I have to assume that Grant Morrison had a myriad of great ideas that made sense but the big, bad editors at DC overruled his creative control.

When he writes a comic book, Morrison either gives us a fantastic story or nonsensical garbage and the jury is still out on this storyline. Part one is interesting enough that you want to read part two, and Grant Morrison writes a great Batman.

I would also mention that Tony Daniel does a great job with the pencils. He has come a very long way from his early Image days and his style really fits Gotham City.

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $3

Length: 20 minutes.

Is it worth yet?: Yes, but that could all change with part 2...

Street Fighter X Tekken

Huge announcement from Capcom at San Diego! There will be a pari of cross over games between the world warriors of Street Fighter and the tournament champions of Tekken. Check out more here.

Superman #701

Issue 701 marks the start of J. Michael Straczynski's "Grounded" storyline. The basic concept is that Superman is walking across America to reconnect with the people. The story has some elements of Neil Adams and Denny O'Neil's Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories from the 1970's.

It is an interesting idea, and while I picked up the issue with some trepidation, I must admit that it is off to a good start. Superman does some interesting things just walking around and talking to people. Helping out the average person with day to day problems that are not the normal alien trying to take over the world type stuff.

The problem with JMS is that his stories can be great, but sometime they are pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble that is convoluted and boring. This story could go either way. Still, issue 701 makes me want to read issue 702, and Eddy Barrows draws a great Superman.

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $3

Length: 20 minutes.

Is it worth yet?: Yes, but only if you are interested in seeing where this goes. 

Marvel Vs Capcom 3: New Characters

Another video out on the net shows the Super Skrull, Chun Li, Trish, and Dr. Doom. DOOOOOOOM!

Doom is great, but normally he isn't very good in the MVC games. Hopefully he'll have a better showing. My excitement for this game is continually growing.

The folks at That Video Game Blog have the video posted here.

Amazing Spider-Man #637, Grim Hunt Part 4

And so another potentially good story ends on a lackluster note. Warning: there will be spoilers.

So apparently the death of Kaine and Mattie Franklin drive Spider-Man to the point where he is ready to kill. He even rips off a woman's face. You read that right, Spider-Man uses his sticky fingers to pull the skin off of Mrs. Kraven's face. He doesn't kill her though. He does almost kill Kraven, but the new Madame Web (previously Spider-Woman II) talks him out of it.

Yes. Having the Kingpin order a hit that almost kills Aunt May doesn't cause Spidey to kill, but seeing his evil clone die sends him into a psychotic rage. On occasion I wonder if the writers have ever read another Spider-Man book before.

The art is inconsistent, as the regular artists needed an assist (again the problem of having a book out almost every week).

This is a great example of how the story could have really built up over the last 4 months. Instead we got it in a single month. I would only pick up this book if you have already invested in the first 3 parts.

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $4

Length: 20 minutes.

Is it worth it?: Um. Sort of? Unless you bought parts 1-3 just read the wikipedia entry. 

Gran Turismo 5 Trailer

You can view the E3 trailer to Gran Turismo 5 here.  I am a big fan of racing games, and GT5 looks pretty sweet. I should mention that the Gran Turismo series are designed to be racing simulators, so speed, turns, and damage are are accurate to real life.

If you only like cart racers where you can shoot someone in the back with a missile this will not be the game for you, but the gaming community has been waiting for this ever since the poor showing of GT4 on the PS2. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue just whetted our appetite, and on November 2nd we get the real thing.

I don't know what this is...

...but it looks awesome. Check this out.

Capcom fans rejoice.

Superman #700

Reaching 700 issues is quite a milestone, and one would expect the 700th issue of Superman to be an epic event. Sadly, this issue left a lot to be desired. There are three stories and some of them work better than others. Robinson and Chang give us an epilogue to the 100 minute war where we get to see Lois and Superman reunite. A pretty good story that gives a nod to the Superman Movie.

The second story has Dan Jurgens tell us about an early meeting between the Dick Grayson Robin and Superman. The story is solid and the best in the book, but it does have the advantage of not needing to follow modern continuity.

The final story is a prologue to JMS's Grounded storyline. Eddy Barrows does a great job as penciller. He has a pseudo-Bryan Hitch feel to his work, and the detail works really well for a Superman story. I am not too excited about Grounded. It kind of feels like the pretentious babble that JMS sometimes comes up with.

Shame on DC for trying to promote the rest of the Super-Books in the back of the issue. This could have been another feature, or some pinups, or something, but instead is was self promotion for the less popular books. The issue is all over the place, and even Superman fans will find this issue unsatisfying.

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $5

Length: 20 minutes

Is it worth it?: No. With 71 years of history Superman has a lot of great issues, but this isn't one of them. 

Prepare yourself for Mortal Kombat

Any fan of fighting games knows and loves Mortal Kombat. Wait, back that up: any fan of fighting games knows and loves Mortal Kombat 1-3, after which the series became Krappy.

Warner Brothers interactive is bringing back MK by issuing a new title in 2011. The story will be a re-telling of 1-3 and will include 24 of your favourite fighters with more available post launch via download.

All new fatalities and a new x-ray system will bring back the over the top gore that made the series famous, but the solid juggle system looks like it has made a return as well.

Check out the trailer here.

Amazing Spider-Man #636: Grim Hunt Part 3

A great Spider-Man story continues on, but the stress of producing a book 3 times a month is starting to show. Joe Kelly gets some help from Zeb Wells on the writing duties, and the art team is different for pages 1-18 and pages 19-22. This does nothing to help the flow of the story. Is it too much to ask that the same artist does all parts of a 4 part story?

Anyway, Kraven has returned and we see a fantastic twist with Kaine. I am looking forward to the final chapter, but I feel that this would have been more suspenseful if I had to wait 4 months until the end (instead of 6 weeks or whatever).

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $4

Length: 20 minutes.

Is it worth it?: Still yes, although the change in artist is disappointing. 

Daigo the Beast!

EVO 2010 has come and gone and Daigo "The Beast" Umehara has once again defeated the best in the world to become the Street Fighter Champion.

Amazing Spider-Man #635: Grim Hunt Part 2

Joe Kelly and the artist duo of Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano give us another solid page turner in the second installment of the Grim Hunt. Spider-Man and the rest of the "spiders" (those with spider-powers) continue their fight against the family of Kraven the Hunter.

I won't reveal too much, but I will say that this is the best Kaine issue ever made. Great to see Mysterio involved as well, but Diablo is mysteriously missing. It makes me wonder if Mysterio was supposed to be in the first part of this story.

Some okay back-up material as well, but I am not sure how well Stan Lee's 2 page per issue story is working. You don't really get a sense of what is going on with only 2 pages.

All that being said this is Spider-Man how it should be, but with the thrice monthly publishing it will be over before you know it.

Tale of the Tape

Cost: $4

Length: 20 minutes. 

Is it worth it?: Yes. This was a great comic book story. A bit dark for Spider-Man but then again so was Kraven's Last Hunt. 

Weird Stuff from Diamond Previews

This month's issue of Previews has a bunch of Halloween costumes. As you can imagine they are embarrassing for all involved. The picture above is from page 383 and is the G.I. Joe: Cobra Sassy Deluxe Costume.

I have seen many G.I. Joe episodes and read many G.I. Joe comics and I do not remember any such Cobra Troops.

Modnation Getting a New Patch

The folks over at That VideoGame Blog have reported that a hefty patch is coming for Modnation Racers. Sony has heard the outcry of fans and the patch will include new mods, levels, but most importantly a lower difficulty level.

I am a fan of racing games but the rubber-band AI is brutally hard at times. Sure, you can still beat the game with perseverance and tenacity but there should be an easy mode option for the casual gamer. The other problem with the current high level of difficulty is that beating the computer AI is necessary for unlocking different mods.

Thus, unless you are good at the game you cannot really create or share very well with only a few options. No word on when this patch hits, but it will be a welcome addition to a potentially great game. Still no word on the load times though.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Gameplay Trailer

Marvel.com has a series of trailers showing some of the gameplay for the upcoming title. It looks quite good and I was surprised to see some variation on the classic finishers like Iron Man's Photon Cannon.

Any character with a gun  (Dante, Deadpool, Chris) looks like they have a pretty similar moveset, so I will be interested to see if the characters play differently.

This is my most anticipated release of 2011 and it should be yours as well.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day readers! To celebrate check out the official website of Captain Canuck here. The good Captain was the first Canadian superhero. In the (then) future of 1993 Canada is the most powerful country in the world and Captain Canuck works for CSIS.

Just like what really happened in 1993.