40 things you didn’t know about Superman

Link: Movies.go.com

2. He couldn’t fly, either. Right. Though he did possess super-strong legs that allowed him to “leap tall buildings in a single bound.” His ability to fly was added in the early 1940s.

This is something most people never realized. It’s evident if you’ve ever watched the old Superman cartoons from the 40s (my son absolutely loves them — go figure). Lots of other interesting tidbits in that link.

Blogged with Flock

It’s Superman Week!

In honor of the highly-anticipated Superman Returns movie official public release on this coming Wednesday, I've changed things up here a bit. I added a Superman-themed banner and the RSS feeds down on the bottom-right are from Google News and a highlight of WordPress posts tagged Superman.

I'll be posting various Superman-related bits of news and info and try to link to some nifty-looking Superman websites. I'll still post the usual tech, internet, and gaming-related newsdata at various times, as well, for those of you into that content around here. Things aren't changing permanently, but I want to do my part to help promote the biggest thing to happen in the film industry in the past couple decades.

Don't forget that I will be posting my full (spoiler-free) review of Superman Returns sometime later today over at the Zoinks! blog, so be on the lookout for that (I'll link it from here).

Oh, hey — what's that? 

Ubisoft’s ‘Red Steel’ to get control changes

Link: IGN Wii

In a brief chat with French press outlet JeuxFrance, Ubisoft expressed that changes to the E3 2006 build were already being implemented, specifically in the swordplay department. In fact, as far as gameplay goes the sword combat was the least impressive part of Red Steel at E3, so we're happy to report that some much-needed gameplay issues may in fact be ironed out in the few months before launch.

Yay! From the mixed bag of reports I've heard tricking out since E3, this is definitely good news.

Blogged with Flock

Need for Speed in development for the Wii

Link: IGN Wii

Whether fighting for control of the city or careening around banks of sedimentary rock, you’ll once again sit behind the wheel of a ride you’ve customized to your liking. The new Need for Speed uses a “ground-breaking” Autosculpt system for vehicle tweaking.

As this is EA, Need for Speed Racing is in development for every imaginable platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PSP, the PC, and even mobile phones. Look for the game to launch this fall.

Good to hear that EA is throwing so much support towards the Wii. Of course, with development teams concentrating on every imaginable iteration of gaming system, that potentially means that every single version of the title could be merely “meh”. But I’m willing to hold judgement until I understand how EA will make use of the Wii control scheme.

Blogged with Flock

Exclusive Zoinks! ‘Superman Returns’ Review on Monday

Link: Zoinks! Magazine Blog

For those interested is such movies as Superman Returns, I'll be posting a full review about the movie over at the Zoinks! blog sometime on Monday.

Courtesy of my splendid connections, I'll be attending the invitation-only Des Moines premiere of the upcoming Warner Bros. 'Superman Returns' movie this coming Sunday night. So what should you expect come Monday? A full exclusive review right here on the Zoinks! blog from yours truly. I'll be laying out my (spoiler-free!) impressions of the flick days prior to public release.

Curious to see how this highly-anticipated, much-vaunted movie fares? Stop by the blog sometime on Monday (likely early-mid afternoon, at the earliest) to see what I have to say. I promise not to swear.

Much.

Be there, or risk becoming trapezoidal.

Blogged with Flock

Unofficial Wii Launch Title Lineup

Link: Evil Avatar

UPDATE: from a comment in the Evil Avatar thread I linked:

For everyone freaking out over there being only 6 launch titles. The list comes from a response to a letter in the pulse section of Nintendo power. Here is the relevant text:

"Nintendo hasn't released an official list yet, but the following titles have all been announced for launch: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Red Steel, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and Rayman: Raving Rabbids. And we expect that's just the tip of the iceberg. So as much as we'd love to see Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl at launch, there will be plent of other top-notch titles to keep us busy."

So, I guess it's not the gloom-and-doom report we had originally thought. Guess that's what I get for trusting something posted on the internets. The below original text has been updated.

Here's a list of some expected Wii launch titles (unofficial):

  • Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors – Square Enix
  • Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – Nintendo
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – Nintendo
  • Rayman Raving Rabbits – Ubisoft
  • Red Steel – Ubisoft
  • Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz – Sega

The US getting a DQ game before Japan is certainly fantastic news, and this is definitely enough game to keep me busy for a couple months, but I can't help feeling a bit underwhelmed by this expected launch offering. Hopefully more games come out very quickly. I can't wait for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Blogged with Flock

Phil Harrison outlines Sony plans

Link: 1up.com

And he doesn't really do a very convincing job of it.

Imagine Gran Turismo shipping on a disc with one car and one track. And then you can browse, online, a dynamic circuit of vehicles that's growing every day because either the car manufacturers are adding new vehicles or we're adding new vehicles. And you can see a specific-type car that's being called up and say, "I think I'll play with that one. Let me download and play it." Maybe the business model allows you to play it for a day; maybe the business model allows you to own it forever. But that content is now yours on your hard drive. Or [maybe you could download] new tracks, new music, whole games.

So, basically the difference between Sony and Microsoft's microtransaction business models is that Microsoft wants you to pay full price for a complete game and allow you to purchase add-ons to increase your enjoyment of the game and provide continued replayability, whereas Sony wants you to pay full price for an incomplete game and force you to pay money to add all the features you should have gotten in the first place back into the game.

How did this company become so popular again?

Blogged with Flock

Could the Wii get an IM service called !!M?

Link: IGN Wii

Nintendo registered some new trademarks this week, including this interesting name.

!!M: Could this be something to do with the messaging service patent? How the heck are we supposed to pronounce that?

This rumor is flying around the Nintendo blogosphere with absolutely no information whatsoever to back it up. But it’s a fun rumor to talk about.

The next discussion is: how do we pronounce it? My suggestion would be: EEM.  Yours?

Blogged with Flock