Andrew Machado

Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift drops for the Playstation 3 next week.  It is the sequel to the extremly popular racing game Motorstorm.  Check out this video involving no stuntmen or adobe after effects.  This is pure raw footage.

Wanted was dubbed as the new Matrix and I have to agree.  The special effects, camera work and action scenes were top notch.  Luckily it is now officially coming to Blu-ray and DVD.  The specifications of the Blu-ray are off the hook.

Tech specs for the BD-50 dual-layer presentation enjoy 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video, a DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (48kHz/16-bit), and additional Dolby Digital and subtitle offerings in English, French, and Spanish.  I am really excited to see that this film is DTS-HD Lossless as that ensures every bass thump and word uttered from Jolie’s lips will be captured perfectly.

Extras will feature a suite of making-of featurettes ( “Cast and Characters,” “Stunts on the L Train,” “Special Effects: The Art of the Impossible,” “Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination to Execution,” “The Origins of Wanted: Bringing the Graphic Novel to Life,” “Through the Eyes of Visionary Director Timur Bekmambetov,” “Wanted: Motion Comics”), deleted scenes, an alternate opening, and the “Making of Wanted: The Game” interactive feature.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray will be four U-Control extras including picture-in-picture, a scene explorer, motion comics, and assassin profiles. BD-Live features boast My Chat, MyScenes Sharing, and a “My Wanted” commentary maker.

Little Big Planet Reviews are starting to trickle in. IGN just gave the game a 9.5. Here is the video.

My thoughts just about mimic their’s. This weekend I played the game with my girlfriend and her family and we had such a great time. Anyone can pick this game up, have fun, decorate their guy and just hop into the level and have fun. I’ll have more later on Little Big Planet as launch day get’s closer.

Want to spend $50 on a t-shirt (Male XL only), battery charger, key chain and (Guitar Hero) guitar case? Yeah, neither do I, but that’s what Red Octane is offering with the $240 Guitar Hero World Tour Deluxe Band Bundle.

The rest of the bundles are a bit more reasonable, though the price tag won’t seem so appealing to Rock Band owners who can buy the backward-compatible sequel for only $60. With that in mind, here are the prices for World Tour.

* $190 for the full band kit on PS3.
* $180 for the full band kit on PS2.
* $100 for the guitar/game bundle on PS3.
* $90 for the guitar/game bundle on PS2.

I can’t get over how much people are willing to spend on fake plastic instruments.

In a press release today Apple Computer denied that their founder and acting CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack. Today’s false news about Steve Jobs made me think should the healthy of executives in publicly traded companies be made public? If I am going to invest in a company I want to know as much as possible about the management and the business, but at what point do you draw the line and say that every human being has a right to privacy.

Can you imagine being a CEO, going to the doctor to find out you have diabetes then having your PR department issue a press release about it? I personally on some level think this is absurd, but if I am investing my own hard earned money I want to know that the company wont go belly up cause the CEO is sick and keeping it private. Anyone else have an opinion?

As Ryan Spoon detailed in his blog, Widgetbox has launched 29 network channels for users to join to share blog entries via widgets.  There are channels ranging from Fitness to Women, how it works is you register your blog in one of the channels and place a customized widget featuring stories from that channel on your blog.  This creates a viral circle of content between your blog and other blogs included in the channel, it is very slick and extremely easy to join.  So how does Yardbarker and the Yardbarker Network fit in?

Yardbarker is the exclusive provider for Widgetbox’s Sports channel.  Yardbarker’s network of blogs currently stands at over 600+ providing well over 10 million unique visitors monthly allowing Widgetbox to really broaden its reach into the sports category specifically young men 18 to 34.  Launching this Friday officially will be a gambit of widgets targeted specifically at sports including widgets by teams like the Boston Red Sox or by Sport.  I am very excited about this opportunity to get Yardbarker’s unique network out to the millions of Widgetbox users and feel confident that Widgetbox’s delivery system for widgets is the best on the web.  An example is below for the Red Sox.

Build your own here.

It looks like Apple is not resting on its laurels after iPhone Software Update 2.1.  iPhone Software Update 2.2 is just around the corner and has a few welcome tweaks for the user.

Safari Changes

Safari is getting a few slight tweaks.  For one the Title of the page you are on is much more legible.  The big change though is in the relocation of the google search box to be inline with the URL of the page you are on.  This resolves the issue of a user having to click on the address bar to run a google search.

App Store Updates

The app store is going to get bigger icons when browsing pages.  I think this is a much needed visual tweak that could result in a lot less wrong clicks on menu items.  One thing Apple really has to grasp is that people want to be able to quickly browse around their phones and with 10 menu items on a screen it becomes very difficult.

Canon recently announced their new 5D Mark II 21 mega pixel camera and it the first camera in 5 years people should get excited over.  For the first time a user can shoot FULL HD video with a camera.  All 1920 x 1080 lines of 1080p resolution can be shot at 30 frames per second.  This can be done for 12 minutes straight before the camera will need to record the file…I’m sure that will improve over time as all technology does.  Now that in itself is pretty cool because as we all knew video cameras were becoming obsolete by camera phones with video mode and movie mode on most standard point and shoot cameras.  Well with this Canon you can use all of your lenses which means much better low light performance than video cameras.  You ever shot at night with a video camera?  The video quality is terrible, with spots in your video and lots of grain.  Hopefully Canon solves this problem with the 5D Mark II.

How much is it?  The body is only $2700 which to me seems cheap for what it does.  If you want the body with a lenses for $3500 Canon will throw in a 24-105mm kit lens.  You will see this camera on shelves in November and get ready Hollywood because it looks like the days of using huge video camera to film could be over.

Little Big Planet is a little over one month away, but the lid has been blown off as to what the trophies in the game are. There are a total of 40 trophies in the game including 5 secret trophies.

Bronze Trophies
The Gardens
Complete all levels in The Gardens

The Savannah
Complete all levels in The Savannah

The Wedding
Complete all levels in The Wedding

The Canyons
Complete all levels in The Canyons

The Metropolis
Complete all levels in The Metropolis

The Islands
Complete all levels in The Islands

The Temples
Complete all levels in The Temples

Expert Creator
Complete all levels in the Tutorials

Artist
Place a sticker

Homemaker
Place 10 stickers or decorations in your pod

Fashion Sense
Choose a costume for your sackperson with at least one item on your head, at least one item on your body, and a material

Forager
Collect 25% of the prize bubbles on the story levels

Sticky Fingers
Collect 50% of the prize bubbles on the story levels

Treasure Hunter
Collect 75% of the prize bubbles on the story levels

2X Multiplier!
Get a 2X Multiplier

8X Multiplier!
Get an 8X Multiplier

Incredible Speed!
Travel at incredible speed

Incredible Height!
Travel to an incredible height

Friendly
Complete a level with more than one player

Party Person
Complete a level online with 3 other players who are on your friends list

Socialite
Complete a level online with 3 other players who are not on your friends list

Top of the class
Win a 4-player game

Traveller
Complete a community leve

FIRST!
Be among the first 10 people to complete a community level

Opinionated
Tag a community level

Neighbourhood
Watch Heart 5 community levels

Networking
Heart 3 authors

Talkative
Post a comment on a community level

Creator
Build and save a level with the thermometer more than 30% full

Team Creator
Build and save a level with more than one player with the thermometer more than 30% full

Publisher
Publish a level

Look what I made!
A level you published was played by 5 or more people

Silver Trophies
Just Beginning
Complete all the main path story levels

20X Multiplier!
Get a 20X Multiplier

Hi Score
Collect 1,000,000 points over all levels you have played

Booty Master
Collect all the prize bubbles on the story levels

Dr Frankenstein
Create a living creature with at least 2 eyes, 2 legs or wheels, and a brain

Crowd Pleaser
A level you published was played by 50 or more people

Feel the love
A level you published was hearted by 10 or more people

Celebrity
You were hearted by 5 or more people as a player

Gold Trophies

Play
Complete all story levels without dying, with the exception of those levels that only end when you die

Create
A level you published was hearted by 50 or more people and you were hearted by 30 or more people

Share
Play 150 community levels, tag 50 community levels and heart 10 community levels

100% Complete
Earn all LittleBigPlanet trophies to unlock this platinum trophy
 
Secret Trophies

Trendsetter
Place a sticker or a decoration on another player’s sackperson

Cranium Collector
Kill 100 Creatures across all levels

Secret Stickerist
Unlock the race in First Steps

Sackbird
Spend 8 seconds or more in the air

The gaming world is pretty excited for Little Big Planet to release on October 21st. What blows my mind is Sony is going to be as equally innovative with the preorder goodies for the title. Usually a company gives away one virtual goodie with a game launch, but with a game as customizable as Little Big Planet they have decided that nearly every big retailer will have something special.

If you play the game within the first week you can download this Space Suit costume for your character.

If that wasnt enough you can download a “I Was There Week 1″ Tshirt for your character.

Now what about those people like myself who want to preorder the game ensuring on day 1 they are enjoying the greatness of Sackboy? Well if you preorder from Best Buy you can get a Nariko Sackgirl from Heavenly Sword.

For those of you who want something a little more manly head over to Gamestop for the Kratos Sackboy Costume.

If you head on over to Amazon you will get an exclusive game creator mini guide which I think is highly undervalued with a title like this. With so many options and limitless possibilities for level creation and character design a product like this would be helpful.

Finally here is the latest video I could dig up on the game. October 21st can not come soon enough.