Today one of the most anticipated video games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, is launching on the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3, with launch events being held in numerous locations and the game being released early this morning at mid-night. As mentioned this is one of the most anticipated games this year, great graphics, great storyline and a large online community helps extend the gameplay of the title. I, myself will be copping this today as well and shortly after I will be hibernating for the rest of Fall, Winter and possibly the Spring. Check the trailers below.

Designer Stephane Perruchon had die-hard Playstation fans in mind when he came up with the Dualshock Coffee Table.  Although, its a cool concept in the making, I’m wondering about the allocation of the buttons to of the remote stands.  As seen in the gallery below, the triangle, circle, square and x button on both remotes face each other.  With that in mind, even the layman can call this concept out as a misrepresentation of the Sony Playstation remote.  Hopefully things will be cleared up should this reach production.

Image Source: Tech Shout

Being that I collect urban vinyl, its natural to peek into other limited edition goods.  Recently Zippo Lighters has partnered up with Namco Bandai to produce a limited run of lighters to celebrate Pac Man’s 30th anniversary.  The arcade classics include Xevious, Pac Man, Dig Dug and Galaxian.  At $93 a pop, these are a bit pricey, but well worth it for any fan.

Image Source: Destructoid.com via GameSetWatch

Here’s a nifty Youtube clip from an animator named PersonaSama commissioned by Syke energy drink.  The drink itself may be questionable as a real product, but the video was definitely entertaining to watch.  In short, our animated hero gets sucked into a video game world where familiar scenaries from the likes of Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog are borrowered.  After several views, wishful thinking would be for a flash based game in the near future.

Source: Infendo via Persona’s Animations

The above NES cartridge emulator console leaves me speechless.  I love how this home brewed emulator has the portable media player and controls flushed into the cartridge so flawlessly.  Watch the above video to see the system in action.  The video is a reminder for me to go out and buy the pocket retro game emulator asap.  But I am curious to see if the owner of this unit has accepted any commission work to reproduce the cartridge handheld.

via Geekologie

Along with the Japanese release date of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan and the Tokyo Game Show 2009, Sony will also be releasing a special edition FFXII PS3 Slim.  The system boasts a 250 gig hard drive and features the protagonist, Lightning.  The Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Edition PS3 slim will be available on December 17th for roughly $450.  Sadly, we probably won’t see this special edition console on our shores.

Image Source: alafista.com via Gigazine

Over the weekend, I caught a glimpse of an upcoming Square Enix game entitled, Nier Replicant.  Even without much info given, you can pretty much bet this will be a win.  The release is any quarter 2010, but with Square Enix being perfectionist, December 2010 alone may be wishful thinking.  One interesting tidbit I found interesting was Nier Replicant is exclusive to PS3, while, Microsoft receives another Nier title called Nier Gestalt.  Hopefully, we’ll see more info soon.

Source: alafista.com

Over the weekend, my cousin brought up some older movies he was getting into lately.  One such movie happened to be the original live action adaptation to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Considering, we’ve gotten so many comments on the elusive Bioworld Merchandise fitteds.  And with a previous post involving fan made Ninja Munnys, we should’ve paid homage to creation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird a bit sooner.

I don’t think I have to delve too much into background of the 4 mutant reptilian ninja brothers.  But upon digging up the above pic, I recently discovered in the original comic, Splinter was actually just a rat that could mimic his master, Hamoto Yoshi’s moves and mentored the Turtles.  In the 80’s cartoon series, Splinter was a mutated Hamoto Yoshi.  Thanks to the quick wikipedia’ing I did, I now have the urge to rent the latest Wii adaptation of TMNT.  Happy Thursday all.

This past weekend we were graciously invited to attend the EA NBA Live 2010 tournament going down in Los Angeles, unfortunately we couldn’t make it. Haha, but thanks to Kristen, she broke us off with some pictures of the event. The event basically hosted aritsts matched up against one another tournament style, participants included Murs, Xzibit, DJ Quik, B.o.B, DJ Babu, Troublemaker and many many more. At the end of the day DJ Quik and his son took top prize, which was a Playstation 3.

We have been introduced to interactive gaming by Nintendo’s Wii.  And many of us are excited for MicroSoft’s Project Natal.  But here’s a revamp of an arcade classic.  Sportpong is a new take on the arcade hit by switching up the single paddle found in the original 8-bit game with reflectors on the players feet.  The goal is still to get the ball pass your opponents walls, but with Sportpong’s approach, the game has never been more competitive.  Check out the video.

I couldn’t help but watch this trailer over and over again.  Without a doubt, Frontier Aja’s pc based platform game, Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony is inspired by Castlevania.  Flying axes, candles filled with goods and the undead among other good things.  Check the trailer and should you have time to kill, download the trial here.  Should you have watched the trailer in its entirety, you’ll find the last few seconds quite useful once playing the game.

Source: Infendo via Frontier Aja

I’ve been lightly following the news and/or rumors of a slimmer PS3 which also boasts a significantly lower price tag.  The rumor is no more, Sony does in fact plan to drop a slim 120 gig PS3 with a price tag of $299.  Overall, I’m feeling the slimmer look and matte appearance.  Even better news is the new slim Ps3 consumes roughly one-third less energy than previous models.  Expect the new and slimmer PS3 to arrive in stores sometime next month.

Image Source: Joystiq

This past weekend marked one of the year’s biggest events in terms of pop culture and entertainment. Comic-Con 2009 closed the books yesterday evening and like so many years previous, people will be talking about it for a while. I posted a few interesting things to come out of the convention a few days ago, but now that the event is over I can point out some of the biggest news that people will be following.

First up, James Cameron’s Avatar. This was probably one of the most anticipated panels / talks of the year where Cameron would screen some footage of his upcoming IMAX release Avatar. Movie fans have been buzzing about this project for over a year and Cameron didn’t disappoint. It’s impossible to show footage of his presentation because the web could never do justice due to the sheer size of the project. Just know that Cameron’s Avatar will be making huge news throughout the next calendar year.

Next was the public screening of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. After a lot of talk, rumors, leaked photos and random forum news, Disney finally released the trailer for the upcoming Wonderland adventure. You can check the trailer below:

Fans camped out the night before to get a good seat and a glimpse of the next big thing to come out of the Twilight Saga. New Moon premiered the latest public footage. Check the clips below and please disregard the screaming camera woman.

John Favreau brought up the entire cast of Iron Man 2 and showed 5 minutes of footage. Unfortunately Marvel hasn’t released the footage to the web, but you can check out a clip of the panel here:

There was TONS of news that dropped throughout the 4 day event and trying to wrap all of it up in one post would be criminal. If you’re interested in something specific, leave a comment and I’ll post more.

As some followers might have already guessed, The Bloated Penguin is kind of the resident nerd here in the Killahbee-hive. I blog about most things geek from comics and movies to video games and TV shows so this weekend marks one of the biggest global events for someone like me. That event of course is the 2009 San Diego Comic-con. Although I am not physically attending this year’s event, I’ll do my best to update everyone on what’s coming out of San Diego this weekend.

First up, some highlights in the schedule of panel speakers and presentations for Thursday. If you’ve never been to a panel presentation then you’re surely missing out as you get to see producers, actors, creators and artists in their natural form without a camera in their face all of the time.

Summit Entertainment Presents: Astroboy – A sneak peak at the fully animated CG adventure feature film based on the popular cartoon from the early 80’s. Panel will include Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore and David Bowers.

Disney: 3D Panel – Disney will be showing unseen footage from their upcoming flicks A Christmas Carol, Alice In Wonderland and Tron and live guests include Robert Zemeckis and Tim Burton and moderator Patton Oswalt.

Spotlight on Kevin Eastman – Comic-con brings legendary comic creator Kevin Eastman to fans in a talk about his early works, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and some of his future projects.

Summit Entertainment Presents: New Moon – A sneak peak at the latest footage from the Twilight saga featuring some surprise cast members.

20th Century FOX and James Cameron Present: Avatar – Probably one of the most anticapted panels of the entire convention, James Cameron will reveal information and a few scenes from his upcoming project Avatar

Kick-Ass – Mark Millar’s popular comic Kick-Ass comes to screen with a sneak peak at early footage. Panel includes Matt Vaughn and Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Green Lantern: First Flight Premier – Fans get a fist look at the full screening of the Green Lantern animated feature from DC

That’s it for today, but check back tomorrow for a wrap-up and preview of the weekend’s ongoing.

One of the most anticipated games this year is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which is scheduled to be released on November 10th. The game of course is packed with a great storyline, graphics, multiplayer, but it also boasts something that no other game is offering. Night vision googles. Yeah you read that correctly. Activision will be offering a “Prestige Edition” which will include a fully-functioning pair of night vision googles all yours for $150.00.

Below is the video of the un-boxing.

Call JJ Hendricks a madman if you like, but he’s quite passionate about Nintendo World Championships Gold.  So much that he bought 1 of the 26 copies floating around the world for $17,500.  The original asking price was $25k on the ‘Bay’ and Henricks went through an emotional roller coaster to get his.  A lot of us like to collect things due to its exclusiveness.  But do you think his purchase was justified?  Or can the joy he received for owning the holy grail of o8-bit NES games even be quantitated?

Image Source: VGPC

When it comes to playing any console or handheld video games, I’ve always found it easier on the eyes to play the omniscient or bird’s eye view.  So being that FPS are out of the question, games like Halo, Bioshock or Call of Duty just wouldn’t make it in my rotation.  Here’s an entertaining mockumentary about a guy named Gene who’s motor skills are limited to those of an FPS character.  Despite this video is purely for entertainment value, I am curious if anyone has slipped and made FPS-like swapping gestures in the kitchen.

Source: IGN

I’m not a huge fan of the more recent console versions of Ninja Gaiden, but this papercraft resurrection of the original game really hits the heart.  Not sure if Dave remembers this, but we used to spend countless quarters at the local bowling alley playing the original Ninja Gaiden (or at least I did).  The controls were sluggish, but it was definitely one of the best games of its time.  As far as the papercraft piece goes, its comprised of 13 pieces ranging from the actual stage itself to props like the neon “Coke” sign.  For more nostalgic value, the bottom of the base reveals the intro cut scene and the designer, MisterManalo.

Grab the Ninja Gaiden diorama here!

Image Source: THE PAPER CITY

I’ve been waiting for the new Ghostbusters video game to come out for a very long time now. There’s just something fun about blasting away at specters with a proton pack and trapping them into those little boxes. Well, the game finally hit this Tuesday for the PS3 and other next gen systems and I’ve been playing consistently for a few days now. After some initial hiccups, I think I’m able to provide a review, so here we go:

My favorite part of the game is how closely related it is to the source material. Dan Akroyd, who wrote the game script, actually places the game in 1991 – 2 years after the second film. I knew this going in so I made sure to pop in the old DVD’s and catch up. On a side note, the second film shouldn’t be mentioned in the same conversation as the first. Back to the game. The cars, the dialogue and all of the art produced to create a 1991 NYC is spot on so for that I give Atari a lot of credit. It’s one thing to make a period piece from colonial times, but to create a world from only about 15 years ago is pretty damn cool. The characters are also pretty accurate as I’m sure Akroyd wanted it to be. As a new recruit (in single player mode) you get to watch / hear all of the original Ghostbusters interact. This includes Akroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Raimis.

The game-play takes some getting to used to. Unlike traditional first person shooters, the regular weapon is a stream rather than a shot. This means instead of precision aim, players can fire and find the enemy. The other awkward part in the beginning was learning how to trap ghosts. This takes a bit of time to get used to as you first have to weaken the ghost, then wrangle it in with a secondary fire, then throw the trap, then angle the ghost into the trap’s area. Sounds like a lot, but Akroyd’s character actually walks you through it quite nicely. Now that I’ve been playing for a while, it’s not that difficult.

One of the things that the Ghostbusters video game doesn’t do well is focus. Maybe this was Atari’s intention, but I feel as though this game was made for kids suffering from extreme ADD. Ghosts are flying in and round you from all directions, Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd are screaming at you constantly, there are usually 3 other streams on the screen at a time and amidst all of this you’re supposed to catch ghosts. I’m still having trouble figuring out exactly what’s going on at all times.

The multi-player options are actually kind of cool – they act like a completely separate game. In coop mode, instead of playing through the single player story line with more than one person, your team is given a map and the computer randomly chooses 4 of 8 things to do. These could be tasks like protecting something, capturing as many ghosts as you can or simply to stay alive through waves of enemies. The coop mode makes you and your team complete the missions, but the competitive mode pits you against your teammates. The missions are essentially the same, but each Ghostbuster is competing to get the best scores for each level.

I’d give the Ghostbusters video game a solid 7 out of 10 Penguins. Great story and attention to detail, but definitely confusing at times.

Milton aka DoctorM64 noted that Gameboys weren’t common in Argentina back in the 90s.  So what does he do?  He goes and creates a PC based version of Metroid 2.  The project started back in January 2008.  But as you can see in the above trailer, Milton’s efforts are paying off.  Thanks to Infendo, I’ll be checking up on the Project AM2R blog for a finished product.

Via Infendo
Image Source: Project AM2r