The Daily Bleven --April 24

The PS Vita will be getting Skype video and voice calling later today along with the regularly scheduled PSN update. I don't think that's going to sell any systems for Sony, but I guess it's a nice feature for people who already have or plan to get a PS Vita.

I used to be a big reader of Top Cow comics back in the day, so when I found the Artifacts miniseries on sale, I jumped on it, because it was supposed to be a good jumping-on point for new or lapsed readers. Here's the deal: it is bad. The art isn't great, the writing is so-so, and the whole story is just a thinly veiled universe reboot. The worst part has to be the editing, though. The editor is supposed to look over a story, make sure it makes sense, and make sure it flows. Comics are a visual medium, and by all rights, you should be able to look at only the art, and get a decent idea of what's going on. Not nearly the case with Artifacts, because the artist makes nearly everyone look identical. I actually had to re-read pages once I realized that there were two separate characters talking. I don't know, maybe what came after Artifacts was great, but Artifacts itself was terrible.

A new G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer hit the web today, and it still looks good, but there is little chance that I'll see it in a theater since the last movie stank so bad. Maybe some good reviews will change my mind.

There's apparently an 8th Avengers clip online, and I have no idea how that looks because I refuse to view it. I'm all for advertising a movie, but 8 clips and 5 trailers just spoil too much in my opinion. That said, I'll be first in line to see the actual movie.

Speaking of trailers and the Avengers, there will supposedly be a new Dark Knight Rises trailer playing in front of the Avengers. Seeing as how I've only seen one other trailer for the new Batman movie, I approve watching this new one.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has started filming. Awesome.

James Cameron and Google execs are backing a company called Planetary Resources located in Bellevue, Washington. This company plans to start mining FRIGGIN ASTEROIDS in as little as four years. Where do I sign up?

Sony released a new trailer for Sorcery today, and that game continues to look good. On May 22nd, it looks like I'll finally have a use for the peripheral that I bought a year ago. Speaking of which, since Move is required, I wonder if Sorcery will have a major impact on Moves sold. For Sony's sake, I hope so.

The Daily Bleven -- April 23

What the crap? I go on vacation for one lousy week, and they decide to announce a new God Of War game that very week? I'd better go read up on God Of War: Ascension...

The chairman of Walt Disney Studios resigned just before the release of The Avengers, and just after the failure of John Carter. Damn the critics, I liked John Carter.

In other news, an angry 4 year old in Saudi Arabia shot and killed his father because he came home without buying the boy a PlayStation. No way they can blame this one on violent video games, because the kid doesn't have any games. Of course, the news will never report that the lack of games causes violence. Levity aside, my heart goes out to this family.

Batman: Arkham City will be getting a Harley Quinn DLC mission next week on the PSN and XBL. Harley Quinn's Revenge is supposed to take place after the events of the main game. Seeing how Arkham City ended, I can understand that she'd want a little payback.

The Daily Bleven -- April 13

The PS Vita sales in Japan continue to nosedive. So much so, that the PSP outsold it in March (PSP moved 14k units, and Vita only moved 8k). A price cut can't be far away, but will they also cut the prices of the games? And will that inevitable price drop be enough to get me to buy one?

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (the movie) has finally been officially announced. The first Sin City movie was awesome, so this is welcome news to me.

A new job listing from Valve looking for hardware designers and engineers is fanning the flames of speculation on a possible Steam console. I think it's more likely that this is just R&D for something waaaay in the future, but what if it's for an add-on to the next generation of consoles (specifically, PS Orbis and MS Durango)?

I finally preordered Starhawk. Hells yeah.

There is another Avengers clip online that I COMPLETELY REFUSE TO VIEW.

The Daily Bleven -- April 12

Sony confirmed that it's cutting 10,000 jobs! That's a lot of friggin jobs -- that's bigger than many entire companies. Kris D said that Kaz is breaking things down...I just hope he has a plan to build things back up. And, to those who are losing their jobs, I'm really sorry, and I wish you the best of luck.

Skyrim will soon have voice controls via Kinect. Why don't more games have voice controls? Didn't Sony prove the concept back in 2002 with SOCOM? How awesome would it be to build and battle in Starhawk with voice commands? Then again, the voice controls for Tom Clancy's End War sucked hard...

For their 25 year anniversary celebration, Fox is going to re-air the Married...With Children pilot. Man, I love me some Al Bundy. Hell, I think I just may BE Al Bundy.

Director Marc Webb (surely, there is a pun intended) plans to unfold the origin of Spider-Man over a few movies. Also, there will be no wrestling match for Spidey to win, get gypped of his winnings, and no robber for him to let get away to kill Uncle Ben. Sounds like in addition to decompressing the Spidey origin like Bendis did in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, Webb (seriously?) is screwing with some of the origin itself. Not sure how I feel about that, but I'll revisit this after I see the movie.

The Daily Bleven - April 11

Apparently, Nathan Drake (of the Uncharted series) kills a lot of people, and everyone in the game press seems to bring that up as a bad thing. Listen, everyone Drake kills had it coming. These are people who have tried to kill him and his friends, but failed and had to pay the price. You know who else kills a lot of people? Master Chief (of Halo fame). That friggin guy ends entire civilizations, and no one seems to mind.

I think it's time to dust off my PlayStation Move so I can get it in order to play Sorcery. Makes me wonder why I even bought a Move before Sorcery came out. Buying a peripheral on the mere promise of there being a game in the future makes me a jackass.

Dammit! More Avengers clips to avoid!!!