This will be in a sort of liveblog fashion. First off, let me state that I hope we’ll get a NL win this year, I’m so tired of seeing the NL lose to those AL jerks… Lineup announcements: Slight cheering in the NL until they reach Mets players, then booing. How great is that? In AL, booing at the Red Sox players. Yankees fans can do something right, I guess? If only I can get them to boo the Yankees too. ...

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. Way back on the 7th of May I published a blog post with my predictions on the way the MLB season would unfold (along with a recap of my mechanical bull and bowling experiences). How well did I do? Were the predictions spot on? Let’s take a look at the state of the league and compare it with what I thought. ...

There’s one huge fact about the Xbox 360 avatar system that makes me want to tell Microsoft to shove it: having to pay for stuff to outfit your avatar. Not content with milking money from users in every other way, Microsoft has decided that avatar customization will not be a free affair. What utter crap.

It’s one of the most anticipated trailers of the year, the Japanese trailer of FF XIII. Note that the blog category is Sony and doesn’t include M$, but this is because this is the Japanese trailer, a region where FF XIII will not see a 360 release. Behold the trailer of the game Square Enix is calling flashier than than the Final Fantasy games that preceded it. It starts out in typical Final Fantasy fashion, but definitely flashes it up when the combat starts to show up. I’m definitely excited about the new direction and new protagonist. ...

Many a developer has come out saying that console exclusives just don’t make any sense in this new, expensive game development environment. That being said, I’m pretty sure no one on earth outside of Square Enix could possibly have predicted that Final Fantasy XIII will be simultaneously launching on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America and Europe (whenever the game launches). To help give this mind-blowing announcement some perspective, the last main series Final Fantasy game (that wasn’t a remake or port) to be released on a non-Sony platform was Final Fantasy VI for the SNES back in 1994. ...

E3 started yesterday and the amazing Rock Band 2 tracklist was announced in a press conference. I could gush about a ton of these songs in massive detail, but instead I’ll just post the list and let the tracks speak for themselves (list borrowed from this IGN article): # Artists Song Title Decade 1. AC/DC Let There Be Rock 1970s 2. AFI Girl’s Gone Grey 2000s 3. Alanis Morissette You Oughta Know 1990s 4. Alice in Chains Man in the Box 1990s 5. Allman Brothers Ramblin’ Man 1970s 6. Avenged Sevenfold Almost Easy 2000s 7. Bad Company Shooting Star 1970s 8. Beastie Boys So Whatcha Want 1990s 9. Beck E-Pro 2000s 10. Bikini Kill Rebel Girl 1990s 11. Billy Idol White Wedding Pt. I 1980s 12. Blondie One Way or Another 1970s 13. Bob Dylan Tangled Up in Blue 1970s 14. Bon Jovi Livin’ on a Prayer 1980s 15. Cheap Trick Hello There 1970s 16. Devo Uncontrollable Urge 1980s 17. Dinosaur Jr. Feel the Pain 1990s 18. Disturbed Down with the Sickness 2000s 19. Dream Theater Panic Attack 2000s 20. Duran Duran Hungry Like the Wolf 1980s 21. Elvis Costello Pump It Up 1970s 22. Fleetwood Mac Go Your Own Way 1970s 23. Foo Fighters Everlong 1990s 24. Guns N’ Roses Shackler’s Revenge 2000s 25. Interpol PDA 2000s 26. Jane’s Addiction Mountain Song 1980s 27. Jethro Tull Aqualung 1970s 28. Jimmy Eat World The Middle 2000s 29. Joan Jett Bad Reputation 1980s 30. Journey Anyway You Want It 1970s 31. Judas Priest Painkiller 1990s 32. Kansas Carry On Wayward Son 1970s 33. L7 Pretend We’re Dead 1990s 34. Lacuna Coil Our Truth 2000s 35. Linkin Park One Step Closer 2000s 36. Lit My Own Worst Enemy 1990s 37. Lush De-Luxe 1990s 38. Mastodon Colony of Birchmen 2000s 39. Megadeth Peace Sells 1980s 40. Metallica Battery 1980s 41. Mighty Mighty Bosstones Where’d You Go 1990s 42. Modest Mouse Float On 2000s 43. Motorhead Ace of Spades 1980s 44. Nirvana Drain You 1990s 45. Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky 1960s 46. Panic at the Disco Nine in the Afternoon 2000s 47. Paramore That’s What You Get 2000s 48. Pearl Jam Alive 1990s 49. Presidents of the USA Lump 1990s 50. Rage Against the Machine Testify 1990s 51. Ratt Round & Round 1980s 52. Red Hot Chili Peppers Give it Away 1990s 53. Rise Against Give it All 2000s 54. Rush The Trees 1970s 55. Silversun Pickups Lazy Eye 2000s 56. Smashing Pumpkins Today 1990s 57. Social Distortion I Was Wrong 1990s 58. Sonic Youth Teenage Riot 1980s 59. Soundgarden Spoonman 1990s 60. Squeeze Cool for Cats 1970s 61. Steely Dan Bodhitsattya 1970s 62. Steve Miller Band Rock’n Me 1970s 63. Survivor Eye of the Tiger 1980s 64. System of a Down Chop Suey 2000s 65. Talking Heads Psycho Killer 1970s 66. Tenacious D Master Exploder 2000s 67. Testament Souls of Black 1990s 68. The Donnas New Kid in School 2000s 69. The Go-Go’s We Got the Beat 1980s 70. The Grateful Dead Alabama Getaway 1980s 71. The Guess Who American Woman 1970s 72. The Muffs Kids in America 1990s 73. The Offspring Come Out & Play (Keep ’em Separated) 1990s 74. The Replacements Alex Chilton 1980s 75. The Who Pinball Wizard 1960s Bonus Tracks 76. Abnormality Visions 2000s 77. Anarchy Club Get Clean 2000s 78. Bang Camaro Night Lies 2000s 79. Breaking Wheel Shoulder to the Plow 2000s 80. The Libyans Neighborhood 2000s 81. The Main Drag A Jagged Gorgeous Winter 2000s 82. Speck Conventional Lover 2000s 83. The Sterns Supreme Girl 2000s 84. That Handsome Devil Rob the Prez-O-Dent 2000s ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. As someone who is in the market for a decent new coffee table, I couldn’t help but wish that this one in particular would be the best possible choice for a guy like me. Best part about it is, it actually functions as an NES controller. If only it were commercially manufactured…

If you read my 8-bit All-Stars feature you know I love me some Mega Man 2. There was just something sublimely perfect about that game with its polished level design and great boss battles. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a real sequel to a Mega Man game. The last canonical MM game was MM 8 for the PSX in 1997, with the X series taking over with about eight installments that have also stopped coming out. ...

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. It’s that time of year again, E3 season. Come next week the nonsense will begin yet again in California, but in the same diminished capacity it showed up in last year. The relevance of the show was really tested last year with the new format which eschewed the old convention hall, complete with flashy lights, long lines, and booth babes in favor of smaller company-run events in separate hotels. ...

SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain story spoilers. Read at your own risk! Sakaguchi’s new company Mistwalker has had its share of problems. For very perplexing reasons they chose to chiefly develop for the Xbox 360 with side development on the Nintendo DS. As a result, nothing they make for the home console, no matter how good, will ever sell all that well in their home country. His first 360 game, Blue Dragon, sold 200,000 copies in Japan, which may sound good at first, but when you look at Final Fantasy XII’s two million sales in Japan, a whole order of magnitude more, it suddenly doesn’t seem like Sakaguchi is getting a fair shake. In fact, both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are no better or worse than a typical Square Enix game, but their sales are typically much lower, with Lost Odyssey only selling around 100,000 in the Land of the Rising Sun. ...