ALMOST MONUMENTAL

Earlier today I had the pleasure of chatting with Nifflas, one of the finest game designers in the indie gaming community. He's mostly known for his 2D platform-adventure game Knytt, which was inspired by such games as ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. His games are free, awesome, and available for download right here, so definitely check them out. He's currently working on a new project with a working title of Night Game.

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Production I.G, the wonderful studio behind such works as Ghost in the Shell and FLCL, are currently working on a new, original anime TV series called Real Drive.

Here's Production I.G's overview of the new futuristic sci-fi anime:

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Check out this week's releases for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service...

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Super Mario Galaxy is coming out very soon, so I figure a Mario related GIF would be a good choice.

Now let's review this week's news. Some good TV shows made it to DVD last Tuesday. Capcom and Sony announced that they're working on a CG animated Resident Evil film. An amazing lateral play occurred in a game of college football last week. A stage builder mode was announced for Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. The creator of Katamari Damacy is designing a playground in the UK. Ruairi Robinson is rumored to be directing the live-action remake of Akira. Halloween was this past week, and a new picture of The Joker in The Dark Knight was revealed. Bruno wrote a positive review of Ridley Scott's new film, American Gangster. Stephen Colbert's presidential run abruptly ended this week. And Fisher-Price is (not really) Nintendo's latest rival. Go to the home page and here to check out the rest of this week's posts, or here to see what DVDs are being released this upcoming Tuesday.

This week's releases are pretty, pretty, pretty good. Some great TV shows are getting released this week on DVD in huge sets. Seinfeld: The Complete Series is a 33-disc set which includes all 180 episodes of the classic Larry David sitcom. Also being released is a 61-disc Ultimate Collection set of The X-Files, which includes all nine seasons of the show and the film. The complete series of The King of Queens is also being released in a 27-disc set. If you love everything 007, you'll also love the James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set. The 41-disc set includes every Bond film to date and another 21 discs full of bonus features.

The first season of the HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords is also being released this week. Disney/Pixar's latest computer animated treat, Ratatouille, is also being released on DVD and Blu-ray. A Pixar short films collection is also being released, and that includes 13 of their short films with a total runtime of 54 minutes. Sicko, Michael Moore's documentary on the American healthcare system, is being released. Finally, Stephen Colbert's show on Comedy Central gets some love as The Best Of The Colbert Report also makes its way to DVD on Tuesday, November 6th. You can check out last month's releases over here.

If you've ordered anything Nintendo Wii related from Amazon.com, there is a decent chance you might have recently received a promotional e-mail from them. But no, it's not advertising Super Mario Galaxy or any other upcoming Wii product. It's advertising this:

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Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation came out about 2 weeks ago for the Xbox 360 in North America, but it was released just a few days ago in Japan (and got some good reviews; Famitsu gave it 36/40). The game is not supposed to be a joke at all (it's definitely serious business), but look how they're advertising it over there...

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Contra 4 is being released for the Nintendo DS in two weeks, so in preparation Konami have finally revealed the game's official site. Even if you're not a fan of the 2D run-and-gun series, I suggest checking it out due to its hilarious '80s influenced vibe. Everything there, from the cheesy music to the explosions that occur every time you move to a new page, is simply amazing. The game was originally going to have a 4 player cooperative mode, but they downsized it to a 2 player mode. That's a little disappointing. Word on the street is that the game is still ridiculously hard, but I expect the famous Konami code to be in the game to help players out. Contra 4's art is so rawesome even though the art style hasn't changed a bit since the first one. And with that, I leave you with this:

A few weeks back Stephen Colbert announced that he was going to run for President of the United States of America. He wanted to appear on South Carolina's ballot, but was rejected because the Democratic party didn't think he was a good choice. The two rules that seemed to bug them was that 1) he was not a national candidate (he campaigned only in South Carolina) and 2) he wasn't even present in South Carolina. So basically they realized it was a joke and he wasn't taking it seriously. Here's a clip from The Colbert Report with the news:

A few more screenshots of Suda 51's upcoming action/adventure game for the Nintendo Wii, No More Heroes, have been released. From the screens it now appears that you can collect and/or watch video tapes which hold music videos. In the first screenshot, we see Travis Touchdown watching the PV for "Heavenly Star" by Genki Rockets. Interesting choice.

The other two screens show more of the highly-stylized action we'd expect from Grasshopper Manufacture and the man behind Killer7.

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Playscope has some new screenshots of Devil May Cry 4, Capcom's upcoming action game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Here are a few of my favorite new shots of the game:

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Oh how I want to see this movie.  In my humble opinion, I think it looks like something Stanley Kubrick could have done.  And oh, Stanley Kubrick was just so damn awesome.  If you haven't heard of this film yet, its directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who brought us Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love.  It stars Daniel Day-Lewis who just kicks an unholy amount of ass and Paul Dano who is a very interesting emerging talent.  It is based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!

Click here to watch the trailer in beautiful high-def quicktime. 

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe

I just got back from watching the 12:01 opening of American Gangster, and let me tell you it was worth the $12 and the sacrificed hours of sleep. Hell, it was better than any dreams I would have had in that time. This isn't to say it's a perfect film, by any means, but I walked in expecting goodness and walked out feeling good. Let me break it down for you.

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Another image of the Joker has been revealed through whysoserious, the site that first revealed a clear image of Heath Ledger as Joker. A lot of people were speculating that the image, which was being slowly revealed as Halloween neared, would be of Two-Face, who has been confirmed to be in the film by Aaron Eckhart, the actor that will be playing him. That wasn't the case though, as the new image ended up being another one of Ledger as the Joker:

The first image we saw of him was definitely cooler:

It looks like another little campaign is on the way, and you can find the details on it over here. The movie is set to come out July 18, 2008. I didn't think Batman Begins was incredible, but I think this one has a lot more potential to be great: The Joker's a better nemesis than Scarecrow, Two-Face is better than Ra's al Ghul, Maggie Gyllenhaal is better than Katie Holmes, etc.