Video Game Preview: MLB 2K8

MLB 2k8Every calendar year sports titles roll out their latest entries, mostly consisting of updated rosters, one new gameplay feature (that gets nixed the following year) and slight tweaks in the graphic department (high-resolution goatees).

2K Sports, the company that handles MLB exclusively, is well aware of this, and has reevaluated their franchise, rebuilding it from the ground up.

I recently played a test demo of the upcoming Major League Baseball 2K8, scheduled for release next Tuesday - and the changes this year are more than cosmetic.

For starters, the gameplay that was marred with inconsistencies last year (shoddy errors and bugs galore) has been completely revamped. Most controls, whether pitching, fielding or batting, utilize the right analog stick this time around (I played the XBox 360 version; the PS3 uses the same control scheme).

For pitching, buttons have gone by the wayside, with different combinations of analog stick movement determining what pitch you throw and how accurate; batting controls require a back-and-forth upswing to make contact. Throwing to each base is also done with the analog control. Read More »

The Dark Knight: 6 Minute Preview

“The Dark Knight” Six-Minute Teaser Review (Spoiler Alert)

Batman: the Dark Knight posterEarlier this evening I was invited to a hush-hush, six-minute teaser of The Dark Knight at AMC Loews Lincoln Center in New York.

Being the nice guy that I am, I’ll break down the not-so-breaking details (the six minutes of Dark Knight glory have been previously shown at various locales throughout the week) of the entire affair.

Spoilers start here:

After an opening shot of Gotham City in the daytime, the pace picks up with clown-masked robbers in the midst of a major bank heist. The Killer Clowns bust through the bank’s doors, creating chaos out of order as they take control of the room, save for one unnamed employee (William Fichtner) keeping his cool, plotting against his newly-made adversaries.

Emerging from his desk Fichtner wields a shotgun, shattering the glass around him and emptying shots on the clowns, who safely duck behind a service area. “Do you really know what you’re getting into?” he says, hinting towards the bank being controlled by the mafia. After he runs out of ammo one clown jumps up and shoots his side, dropping him.

Throughout the hail of bullets in the bank lobby the other clowns in the operation, knee-deep in cash, are double and triple-crossing each other. With loads of money on the line, each clown’s motive is to kill the guy they’re next to, hoping to flee with all the earnings. Read More »