Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Just a quick little trailer from E3 for a multiplatform game called I Am Alive. The cool, intriguing part of the trailer is that there’s no mention of just what destroyed Chicago and word from Ubisoft is that the game will actually be character development and problem solving oriented. I hope they deliver on this neat concept with a great game, cause I’m already down for it based on the trailer. ...

It’s time for a blast to the past today with a Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest (hereafter abbreviated as NNW). #40 on the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies top movie list, it’s held in high regard as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best and also is credited with being “the first James Bond film,” by some due to its spy plot, dashing leading man, and daring (at the time) action sequences. Now, I may be a bit more critical of this movie after having recently seen Casino Royale and the trailer for Quantum of Solace, but that’s mainly because I feel this movie would be much better served if it were created in the modern day instead of limited by the constraints of late 1950s film. ...

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. As you all know by now, I love Chrono Trigger. The prospect of this new port of the SNES classic to the DS has me positively salivating at the thought. It all sounds super cool that I’ll be able to own another cart of this fantastic game and that it will have those nifty little improvements made to it. ...

It’s time for the moment many of you have been waiting for: my review of Hideo Kojima’s epic masterpiece: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain story spoilers. Read at your own risk! Operating mostly on the basis of a promised beautiful, cinematic, amazing future of games, the PS3 launched back in November of 2006 with many of its purchasers anxiously awaiting the arrival of one specific game: Metal Gear Solid 4. Arriving quite some time later, is this the game to finally make the PS3 a worthwhile purchase? Let’s have a look. ...

You’ve probably heard the saying that hindsight is 20/20 on Monday morning, so just imagine how well I can call ’em two days later on Wednesday. That’s right, it’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Having spent a good portion of this last week away from televisions, I don’t have much to say regarding the sports world, so here’s a few different quick things: Marlins are still a game back in the NL East, tied with the Mets behind the Phillies. The Mets and Phillies are playing each other in a series, which the Marlins can hopefully capitalize on by not losing to the Braves again tonight. ...

Two days ago I found myself at the Smithsonian museum checking out the NEW exhibit they created dedicated to Jim Henson. With exhibits showcasing every aspect of his work, from his early commercials to his work on Sam & Friends, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street, it was actually a really neat showcase of the professional life of a very gifted entertainer. The Smithsonian did have a Henson exhibit before, but it was just a corner in the American History museum and not wholly impressive. This new showcase is in another gallery (the American History museum is being renovated) and it spans about three rooms complete with drawings, projection screens showing Henson’s work, and display cases filled with felt muppets. ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Went and saw “Play! A Video Game Symphony” at the end of the last week and I have to say it was pretty cool. Some of the music didn’t do much for me :cough: Super Shinobi :cough:, but a lot of the stuff, even games I didn’t care about, was pretty awesome. There was one disappointment with the end of the Metal Gear Solid piece. I’ve seen these other symphony programs do better and not leave out the last, heroic guitar part at the end. Granted, it’s only about ten seconds of music, but it’s an awesome ten seconds. Check out the legit MGS version that I was hoping for: ...

It seems that one of my favorite PC games from way back when is about to make a return with The Humans: Meet the Ancestors. A Lemmings-style game in which you guide a tribe of cavemen to the goal, trying to have them not die, The Humans provided hours of fun for me back on our junky Packard Bell until we lost the anti-piracy copy card. I can’t say that I like the new Humans art style. Here’s a peek at the way the old game looked from some foreign TV station: ...

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. I’ve talked about how dedicated Capcom is to the old-school aesthetic of Mega Man 9, but just how dedicated are they? Below is the “boxart” for the DLC game: See More Mega Man 9 Box Art at IGN.com If you remember back to my 8-Bit All-Stars post, you might remember me talking about the Mega Man 2 boxart as being nonsensical for the anime-cutesy style of the game. This is such a return to the old school that it makes me kind of pumped for this game. ...

Yoshinori Kitase has huge shoes to fill. As the producer of Final Fantasy XIII he’s looking at doing a job last held by Horonobu Sakaguchi in Final Fantasy X. Ok, Sakachuchi was technically the executive producer of that game, but with no other producers announced for XIII, I’m gonna come out and call him the EP. Kitase had this to say ( in this IGN article) about the new game and directions they’re taking: ...