“Here we are again with another cash cow being brought out to graze.   Is it a bad thing?”

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In the opening sequence of Madden 10, John Madden himself promises you “I’ve seen a lot of games, but I have a feeling that this one is gonna be special.”
Big words, for a franchise that has come under quite a lot of fire the past few years for not being innovative or special whatsoever. Gone were the days when 2k and EA pushed themselves to their creative limits and brought about many of the staples now found in almost every football game (I remember the first year of the hit stick; it was EPPIIICC). Many critical sports gamers have, like John, seen a lot of games since EA’s exclusive deal with the NFL went down - and many of them feel that all of those games were far too similar to merit a yearly $60 investment into nothing more than a glorified roster redux. 2010, though, promises to be anything but more of the same, packed to the brim with new features galore. Does the game deliver on the promise put down by its namesake; is 2010 special? Find out after the jump
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According to EA Active, this video may just be the pinnacle of exercise. READ ON TO SEE WHY!

Last week, I gave my background story on why I picked up EA Sports Active, and gave some initial measurements of my fatness. So, how did I fare this week with Active? Did I lose any weight? Did I decide to just hop on a treadmill? Did I realize being fat is awesome in this day and age of triple-bypass surgeries and just binge on doughnuts and whole milk?

…now I want a doughnut… Read more

Rhythm Heaven, a new release for the wildly popular Nintendo DS series of handhelds, is a mini-game compilation that tests your ability to stay on beat through a variety of challenges.  While the idea of another series of mini-games may have hardcore gamers groaning, Nintendo has thrown a PR blitz behind the title, giving out free copies of the game to GDC attendees and actually hiring a real celebrity to star in its commercial.  So, does Rhythm Heaven have hardcore appeal, or is it just another mini-game cash-in?

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Welcome to another Weekly Emanata, the MEGATONik review of comics. As these are a combination of readerly reaction and critical examination, expect spoilers. I’m going to write as if you, the reader, has some passing knowledge of comics, but feel free to post questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

Due to excessive real-life attempts to graduate and get a life in order, the Emanata will be coming every couple weeks for the next month or so. On the plus side of things, this means that we’ll be bringing you the best of two weeks of comics in every installment.

Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers
by Boody Rogers

Fantagraphics publishes such a wide array of books that it’s a little hard to believe that they can bring their focus intensely to bear on any one thing. However, they have, for years, put out beautiful reprints of comic strips such as Krazy Kat and The Peanuts; they’ve recently branched out into Golden Age comics, spearheaded by the amazing volume on Fletcher Hanks and followed up by this absolutely insane book collecting numerous stories by Boody Rogers. Rogers is not really a guy that people talk about; no one would mention him in breaths full of Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman. I’m not going to make a case for doing that, but I would definitely make a case for reading this book no matter what sort of comics you like. These stories, mostly about Babe, “the amazon of the Ozarks,” and Sparky Watts, a unique sort of superman that mostly bums around with his friends until his body runs out of cosmic rays, at which point he shrinks to insect size. These shorts are always funny, and not in an ironic or “so bad it’s good” way. The situations are set up in an admirably mechanic way, the pieces introduced in serious fashion until they all click together in a mad mess of an ending. Each panel is packed with visual gags, creating a strange dissonance with the characters, each of whom sees nothing wrong with the situation he or she is in.

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Along with all the perks of Easter — Easter egg hunts, free chocolate, half price Indian buffets — comes the most delightful moment of all. Watching the Doctor Who Easter special! Technically, it came out Saturday night, but for everyone in America, it’s probably up today.  Spoilers for all of Doctor Who are fair game, plus theories about the upcoming few episodes. Brace yourself.

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Jonathan Carroll novels are things that I look forward to the way some people look forward to meals at their favorite restaurants or concerts by a favorite musician.  I like to savor it, take it slow, let it breathe, take it all in.  Carroll has a singular talent for establishing an utterly attractive and believable world — usually with plots revolving around relationships, the good kind and the bad kind –- and then, when the reader is content and safe to live in that world, he brings the weird.  And in that sense, The Ghost in Love is somewhat different from his other work.  Carroll brings the weird from page one.

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I’m a glutton for RPGs. Also, I have a decidedly unhealthy habit of gaming in chunks of approximately 8-10 hours at a time. Having heard of the time suck that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion presented, I opted not to hop on board at the 2006 release for the sake of my social life and my GPA. This year, I said “Fuck it.” Despite my arrival three years late, Oblivion is among the best games I’ve ever gotten my RPG whorish hands on, both within the genre and in general. So if you also passed up Oblivion, or even if you have played and have let it collect dust on your shelf lately, here’s why you should consider putting your social and academic life on hold for a while.

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Welcome to another Weekly Emanata, the MEGATONik review of comics. As these are a combination of readerly reaction and critical examination, expect spoilers. I’m going to write as if you, the reader, has some passing knowledge of comics, but feel free to post questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

This week is International Outreach here at the Emanata. Cinebook sent me three volumes from their line of translated European comics and I read a couple great manga, so enjoy.

Pandora’s Box: Pride
written by Alcante
art by Didier Pagot

The first Cinebook I read, Pride reads like an episode of the original Twilight Zone. One of the good episodes. It’s a short, tight political drama with some sci-fi overtones, but the science is pretty hard and doesn’t intrude. The basic setup draws inspiration from the myth of Narcissus, starting with a man who’s extremely concerned with himself. Regular enough, but the man is America’s president, up for reelection in days, and when the opposing party assigns a journalist to dig up some dirt, things get crazy. What begins as a possible mistress with a possible baby spirals out into the edges of human ethics.

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Welcome to another Weekly Emanata, the MEGATONik review of comics. As these are a combination of readerly reaction and critical examination, expect spoilers. I’m going to write as if you, the reader, has some passing knowledge of comics, but feel free to post questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

We’re running a little late again, but that is entirely due to some site problems last night.

Air #7
written by G Willow Wilson
art by MK Perker

This is one of the freshest books coming out of a mainstream comic company and I look forward to every issue, but I’m going to try not to gush about it since I’ve done so in previous columns. I have had a few small problems with the series, which I think is normal for nearly everything I read, but I’m featuring this issue this week because it specifically deals with one of my biggest stumbling blocks in the book so far: the plot has moved along so fast that some of the characters have gotten short shrift.

Issue seven deals with this problem in a unique way that snaps right in to the weird mythology that Wilson and Perker have been developing. The protagonist, through means that I won’t go into detail here, ends up in the body of her mysterious lover… when he was ten years old. In living the key moments of his life, the whole “mysterious lover” cliche is dissolved in a way that also adds a unique aspect to the future of the characters’ relationship. What’s it going to mean if your girlfriend has seen all the important choices you’ve made from your own point of view?

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