For reasons which only the great universal spirit can answer, Battlestar Galactica keeps getting on the receiving end of some of the weirdest supposedly-coincidental commercial timing known to man. This has happened before way back during the Razor TV movie, and just as BSG’s own mythology keeps telling us, it shall all happen again.
Two things to consider before hitting play on this clip: first, this is pretty damn spoilerific material we’re dealing with here, so tread lightly if you’re following the show but haven’t yet caught last week’s midseason premiere. Second, watch the whole scene or the comedy value of the ad placement will fly right over your head. With all that in mind, enjoy.
Wrath of Khan was the best of the Star Trek movies. Not a very controversial statement I know, but it just so happens to be true. Revenge plots. Mindworms. Submarine-style starship duels. The lack of a 10-minute drydock flyby sequence. I shouldn’t have to keep counting the reasons, but now we can add hilarious action figures to the list. Take that, Search For Spock!
According to TrekMovie, the upcoming figure will be a Toys R’ Us exclusive standing about 7″ tall, which is just enough to adequately project William Shatner’s unbridled rage towards all who share its company, figures and humans alike. No word yet on a Final Frontier Spock figure with Wile E. Coyote rocket boots, but maybe we’ll see that soon after the new Captain Picard with patented facepalm action.
Norm Coleman SAYS he could wrestle the Gorn on Cestus III, but is he telling the truth? Vote Franken.
In tight elections like this one, you need all the votes you can get. Sometimes they come from fictional characters or real people who just happen to currently reside in cemeteries, but now and then mythical creatures will rise from legend to make their political views known. Since Izanagi and Izanami are technically foreigners, that leaves the hotly contended Minnesota senate race up to the lizard people.
This puts Al Franken roughly 130 votes ahead of Norm Coleman now that wacky write-in votes like these are starting to swing his way. I have no doubt that the stand-up comedian and former SNL writer appreciates the humour in this otherwise dry and depressing electoral mess. If that weren’t enough, David Icke must be jumping up and down in his heavily-fortified shack somewhere in the English countryside shouting “I told you so!”
The last time I posted about hockey, we were right in the middle of the Sundin sweepstakes. Vancouver was the leading team back then as well – at least in terms of cold, hard cash – yet as the current season rapidly approached with no decisions made, it felt like the drama surrounding the guy had finally screeched to a halt. This lead me to the conclusion that Sundin would soon retire rather than hitch his trailer to another wagon, an assessment which was thrown out the window earlier this afternoon.
This is kind of a strange place for long-time followers of the Canucks. With only a handful of blockbuster trades and signings in our nearly 40-year history, which includes positive-yet-ineffective additions like Alexander Mogilny and outright disasters such as Mark Messier, to suddenly find ourselves winning a major contract race after six months of silence leaves me excited, but also strongly cautious. With any luck, this might only last as long as Roberto Luongo’s groin injury. Can anyone remember the last time the Canucks were this solid on both ends of the ice?
Former Leafs captain Mats Sundin probably won’t hit the ice as a Canuck until sometime after Christmas and only time will tell how his presence will affect the club’s fortunes. Still, it’s nice to have questions like these floating up in the air again.
Not long after the Sega Dreamcast launched back in September 1999, I had my first taste of Soul Calibur. Until then I had absolutely no experience with 3D fighters other than a quick Tekken demo on the original Playstation, which I promptly shrugged at before returning to my umpteenth replay of Final Fantasy VII. To me, Street Fighter or oddities like Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle still represented all that fighting games were or could ever become.
That perception didn’t last very long. Somewhere around my 39th or 40th consecutive victory as Mitsurugi over my somewhat less-obsessive buddies, a switch went off in my head: now this is a fighting game. Finally I had found a weapons-based fighter with the ease-of-entry of the old 2D pioneers and the strategic depth of the much more sim-heavy Bushido Blade, without the intense learning curve. Enough of the brawlers and wrestlers and black belts! From that point on, if I couldn’t parry a battleaxe with a katana and knock an opponent twice my size off a raft, I wouldn’t have any part of it.
Soul Calibur IV carries that tradition onto modern consoles without losing too much of the finely-tuned mechanics and balance which captured my imagination in the first place. While there are certainly missteps along the way, some of them more jarring and head-scratching than those which have come before, too much is done right for any of the weird little mistakes to snowball into major demerits. In many ways, it’s just like slipping back into a pair of old shoes. read more…
