Hensleigh

1) Guitar Hero Aerosmith will rock this way in July. Unsurprisingly, Guitar Hero IV: [insert superfluous rock subtitle here] is out in Rocktober. As previously reported by the internet, Guitar Hero On Tour is out in June. There is a fourth title (as previously reported by EGM) that is "an action-packed Guitar Hero experience like no other" or, in English, it is different from the other Guitar Heroes. Also, those universally loved boss battles are returning.
2) Facebreaker will KOing in Soctober/Blovember. These months are followed by Deckcember and Jabuary.
3) Sony's will be launching a greatest hits line for PS3 soon with Resistance, Warhawk, and Motorstorm to start.
4) A cast member from a long-running Fox soap about Los Angeles is/was dating someone from a Los Angeles game studio.
5) What is your favorite film of all-time?
Raising Arizona
6) Microsoft thinks that a sequel is worth paying for the exclusivity of despite knowing nothing about it (aside from the title) and team behind the original is not really doing the sequel. Apparently, Microsoft has some wisdom. Maybe not.
7) Prior to THQ shutting down their acquired automotive franchises, Stuntman: Demolition and a Juiced game were in the works for the Wii, via Locomotive Games and Juiced Games, respectively. Both were said to be the best incarnations in their respective franchises, but the series were not too great so that claim does not carry much weight.
8) SuperVillian's PSP fl0w is simply astounding (like thatgamecompany's version), hopefully the game will actually come out this month (it is about two months late already). The first must-have downloadable title for PSP, unless it gets pushed back again.
9) At least one 360 SKU with built-in WiFi will be out later this year.

Also, Over Her Dead Body is absolutely terrible. Just go watch the extremely underrated Just Like Heaven again (it still holds up after eleven viewings).

Maybe it's just the whole world is like central casting. They got it all rigged before you ever show up.

1) Facebreaker is the successor to Fight Night (it did start as a Fight Night Round 4/Fight Night 08, but evolved into something more unique), but do not fear as it is does not disregard the strong gameplay of its predecessor. Unlike the terrible Prizefighter, all people who have made significant contributions to Facebreaker are actually getting paid and are credited.
2) Resistance 2 trailer next month quite soon, as well seeing the game (which looks amazing) in action in non-trailer form.
3) Epicenter Studios is working on a WiiWare title for release later this year.

UPDATE: Fight Night is not going anywhere, despite gameplay similarities between FN and Facebreaker.

There is no postmortem.

I'll start off with the words of John's speech today:

Thank you all very much. We're very proud to be back here.

During the spring of 2006, I had the extraordinary experience of bringing 700 college kids here to New Orleans to work. These are kids who gave up their spring break to come to New Orleans to work, to rehabilitate houses, because of their commitment as Americans, because they believed in what was possible, and because they cared about their country.

I began my presidential campaign here to remind the country that we, as citizens and as a government, have a moral responsibility to each other, and what we do together matters. We must do better, if we want to live up to the great promise of this country that we all love so much.

It is appropriate that I come here today. It's time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path. We do not know who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic Party will make history. We will be strong, we will be unified, and with our convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November and we'll create hope and opportunity for this country.

This journey of ours began right here in New Orleans. It was a December morning in the Lower Ninth Ward when people went to work, not just me, but lots of others went to work with shovels and hammers to help restore a house that had been destroyed by the storm.

We joined together in a city that had been abandoned by our government and had been forgotten, but not by us. We knew that they still mourned the dead, that they were still stunned by the destruction, and that they wondered when all those cement steps in all those vacant lots would once again lead to a door, to a home, and to a dream.

We came here to the Lower Ninth Ward to rebuild. And we're going to rebuild today and work today, and we will continue to come back. We will never forget the heartache and we'll always be here to bring them hope, so that someday, one day, the trumpets will sound in Musicians' Village, where we are today, play loud across Lake Ponchartrain, so that working people can come marching in and those steps once again can lead to a family living out the dream in America.

We sat with poultry workers in Mississippi, janitors in Florida, nurses in California.

We listened as child after child told us about their worry about whether we would preserve the planet.

We listened to worker after worker say "the economy is tearing my family apart."

We walked the streets of Cleveland, where house after house was in foreclosure.

And we said, "We're better than this. And economic justice in America is our cause."

And we spent a day, a summer day, in Wise, Virginia, with a man named James Lowe, who told us the story of having been born with a cleft palate. He had no health care coverage. His family couldn't afford to fix it. And finally some good Samaritan came along and paid for his cleft palate to be fixed, which allowed him to speak for the first time. But they did it when he was 50 years old. His amazing story, though, gave this campaign voice: universal health care for every man, woman and child in America. That is our cause.

And we do this -- we do this for each other in America. We don't turn away from a neighbor in their time of need. Because every one of us knows that what -- but for the grace of God, there goes us. The American people have never stopped doing this, even when their government walked away, and walked away it has from hardworking people, and, yes, from the poor, those who live in poverty in this country.

For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn't register in political polls, they didn't get us votes and so we stopped talking about it. I don't know how it started. I don't know when our party began to turn away from the cause of working people, from the fathers who were working three jobs literally just to pay the rent, mothers sending their kids to bed wrapped up in their clothes and in coats because they couldn't afford to pay for heat.

We know that our brothers and sisters have been bullied into believing that they can't organize and can't put a union in the workplace. Well, in this campaign, we didn't turn our heads. We looked them square in the eye and we said, "We see you, we hear you, and we are with you. And we will never forget you." And I have a feeling that if the leaders of our great Democratic Party continue to hear the voices of working people, a proud progressive will occupy the White House.

Now, I've spoken to both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. They have both pledged to me and more importantly through me to America, that they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency.

And more importantly, they have pledged to me that as President of the United States they will make ending poverty and economic inequality central to their Presidency. This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment to engage in this cause.

And I want to say to everyone here, on the way here today, we passed under a bridge that carried the interstate where 100 to 200 homeless Americans sleep every night. And we stopped, we got out, we went in and spoke to them.

There was a minister there who comes every morning and feeds the homeless out of her own pocket. She said she has no money left in her bank account, she struggles to be able to do it, but she knows it's the moral, just and right thing to do. And I spoke to some of the people who were there and as I was leaving, one woman said to me, "You won't forget us, will you? Promise me you won't forget us." Well, I say to her and I say to all of those who are struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you.

But I want to say this -- I want to say this because it's important. With all of the injustice that we've seen, I can say this, America's hour of transformation is upon us. It may be hard to believe when we have bullets flying in Baghdad and it may be hard to believe when it costs $58 to fill your car up with gas. It may be hard to believe when your school doesn't have the right books for your kids. It's hard to speak out for change when you feel like your voice is not being heard.

But I do hear it. We hear it. This Democratic Party hears you. We hear you, once again. And we will lift you up with our dream of what's possible.

One America, one America that works for everybody.

One America where struggling towns and factories come back to life because we finally transformed our economy by ending our dependence on oil.

One America where the men who work the late shift and the women who get up at dawn to drive a two-hour commute and the young person who closes the store to save for college. They will be honored for that work.

One America where no child will go to bed hungry because we will finally end the moral shame of 37 million people living in poverty.

One America where every single man, woman and child in this country has health care.

One America with one public school system that works for all of our children.

One America that finally brings this war in Iraq to an end. And brings our service members home with the hero's welcome that they have earned and that they deserve.

Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.

But I want to say this to everyone: with Elizabeth, with my family, with my friends, with all of you and all of your support, this son of a millworker's gonna be just fine. Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine.

And I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard – all those who have volunteered, my dedicated campaign staff who have worked absolutely tirelessly in this campaign.

And I want to say a personal word to those I've seen literally in the last few days – those I saw in Oklahoma yesterday, in Missouri, last night in Minnesota – who came to me and said don't forget us. Speak for us. We need your voice. I want you to know that you almost changed my mind, because I hear your voice, I feel you, and your cause is our cause. Your country needs you – every single one of you.

All of you who have been involved in this campaign and this movement for change and this cause, we need you. It is in our hour of need that your country needs you. Don't turn away, because we have not just a city of New Orleans to rebuild. We have an American house to rebuild.

This work goes on. It goes on right here in Musicians' Village. There are homes to build here, and in neighborhoods all along the Gulf. The work goes on for the students in crumbling schools just yearning for a chance to get ahead. It goes on for day care workers, for steel workers risking their lives in cities all across this country. And the work goes on for two hundred thousand men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America, proud veterans, who go to sleep every night under bridges, or in shelters, or on grates, just as the people we saw on the way here today. Their cause is our cause.

Their struggle is our struggle. Their dreams are our dreams.

Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible, because it's time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two Americas one.

Thank you. God bless you, and let's go to work. Thank you all very much.

Who am I going to vote for in the primary? I already voted for John, there is a thing called absentee ballots.

John was first out of the gate with an actual platform at a time when the other candidates had nothing more than nebulous trailers promising a better experience than the last entry in the president franchise. As time went on and the other candidates released their own platforms, they assumed quite a bit of what John spoke about months ago as there own, although, their drab mix of plagiarism and hesitancy was tangibly different from John's progressive populism that hearkened back to that of Teddy Roosevelt.

Will I remove the banners now? Not at the moment, just because the campaign is over should not mean the principles that it stands on should be too. Whoever gets John's endorsement and promise to continue on John's work must be checked to ensure that they are committed to the principles of his campaign.

Lastly, we don't need another Clinton, so when voting in the primary, do not select "Hillary Clinton."

The Obligatory Son of Rambow Update

Trailer time:


In case you forgot, this star of I hype stuff astronomically volume one is the one that the boyfriend calls "the best movie ever."

Zomoskepsis

1) Retro's next title is a Zelda spin-off, announcement could come around E3.
2) What's the worst game you have seen lately
That XBLA moose game, the Bullwinkle one.
3) The forthcoming Tron follow-up TRON (yes, both movies share the same name, although the new one is all caps) will be released in 3D (in addition to the normal release).
4) Where is Super Smash Bros. DS?
There was a prototype made ages ago, response was rather tepid, never went any further.
5) What is the best game coming out this year that you have played not from EA?
LittleBigPlanet

Disaster: You Guerrillas Have Created a Drainzone

Take it away, friendo:

remember this story? that figure was actually €21 million ($30 million) and it has only gone up from there (by gone up i mean it has doubled to €42 million/$60 million). by the time killzone 2 comes out it will dethrone shenmue as the most expensive video game ever made. the game should have cost the former figure but guerrilla's managerial lacks any sort of financial or work allocation skills, the studio has high turnover and a few other things. because of this incapacity a nice portion of the team at studio cambridge is assisting in development. to top this off the game may be pretty but it's barely mediocre and past the point of no return. the september release date floating around will without doubt be missed if guerrilla sticks to their intention of not releasing the game until its done which will be early next year.

To add to this, over at Insomniac, there is a general feeling of sharp resent towards Guerrilla and Killzone, as they believe that Guerrilla is imbibing the currency whilst they are delivering. In far less time and with less people, Insomniac have a far better title that is further along in development. This resent seems justified.

UPDATE: Hola amigos de Sony en San Diego, Amsterdam, Londres, Cambridge, Tokio y Foster City, entre otros. Also, I shouldn't be consider the definitive source if queried about how someone feels about me, that someone is the definitive source, but if the feelings are not amicable and there is a fairly close relationship, that source will likely not be truthful. It's essential logic.

UPDATE TWO: From le comments:

Shouldn't this be expected from Guerrilla Games? Their entire history is them conning people to throw money at them. Shellshock was "the definitive media representation of the Vietnam War, it is a very visceral, moving experience that will define that medium as a whole" and Killzone was "the Halo-killer." Haha. They are like Gizmondo Netherlands.

I remember the preview I wrote for the first Killzone, I think I mentioned that it was a "Halo-killer" five times. The fun of being a games journo.

I was over at Guerrilla on a SCEE press tour when the original Killzone was being shown. There were actually printouts on the graphics artists desk from SCEE's producer stating that the they have to get the internal problems of Guerrilla solved and the morale up as the game was finally coming together... the vibe's never been very good at Guerrillas cramped and secluded office. One of their real problems is the lack of really experienced producers.