So it's looking like Sony's most highly anticipated games -- Heavenly Sword and Lair -- are going to be a bust. They're not out for retail yet, but retailers and the press have near-finished copies, and the initial reviews are not good: IGN gave Heavenly Sword a 7/10; Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Lair an abysmal 55/100.

The chief complaint with Heavenly Sword is the gameplay. Apparently it's shallow and repetitive (a particular disappointment considering Sony promised the opposite). The main complaint with Lair is that the controls are almost broken -- you're forced to use the notoriously obtuse Sixaxis to control your dragon, and the serious inaccuracy kills the overall gameplay experience.

I canceled my pre-order for Lair, but I'll still pick up Heavenly Sword. The up side is both look absolutely gorgeous, and Heavenly Sword is supposed to have not only a good soundtrack, but by far the largest ever at 10GB. It's also supposed to be the first game that utilizes most of the PS3's potential.

My Xbox broke, but I actually find it hilarious because I've seen so many online complaints that people are on their third 360; I just knew mine would break sooner or later. At least I can use my brother's while mine's being fixed.

What happened was for about four days the screen would intermittently flicker green, blue, and red, and the color would stay kind of distorted for a while. Now, though, there's just no video at all. I plugged it in to different outputs, a different TV, used component non-HD cables, bought new HD cables -- and nothing. I went to the Microsoft support forums, and it seems this is a very common issue.

My brother's here visiting from Davis, but his girlfriend is coming down here this weekend, so she'll bring down his Xbox and I can resume AwesomeShock.

Behold Big Daddy. Or as I call him, Little Big Daddy! I'm thoroughly satisfied with the Bioshock Limited Edition.

This week, starting August 14th with the wildly popular Madden Football series, begins the rush of releases of the year's most promising video games. Nearly every week from now until December there will be a release of at least one highly anticipated game -- an avalanche of next-gen releases not ever seen before. Start planning here!

If you have the Wii check out Paper Mario and Shining Force on the VC. They got solid reviews.

Plus, Nintendo's new character franchise!

Core model price will fall $20 to $279.99, while the price of the Elite will drop $30 to $449.99. The Core model is the one without the hard drive, and the Elite model is the black one. The Pro will drop $50 to 349.99. Look for them in mid-August. Or better yet, wait until the new 65nm CPU drives come out -- they're less noisy, generate less heat, and less prone to breaking.

I'm 80% sure this will be enjoyable to everyone. If you don't read comic books, go to a comic store and pick up the past two issues of your favorite superhero(s). Like me, I believe you will be hooked.

For about a year now I've been thinking about reading a comic book or two. I bought a Conan graphic novel, but I can't even finish it because it's pretty boring. But the past two weeks I've been really wanting to pick up a Batman and Wolverine comic book, and after watching Batman Begins for the second time I did exactly that today. Besides Batman and Wolverine, I also picked up Batman Confidential, which is a re-telling of the original stories (a remake of the old Batman comics). I read two of the Batman books and one of the Wolverine books. And I'm hooked :-) I thoroughly enjoyed them. My only complaint now is they only come out once a month.

So I have one more interview to go before I'm (possibly) hired at EA, and I'll be working at their World Headquarters! From what I've been hearing, it's almost on par with Google as far as amenities and perks -- they even have a flag football league that plays on site,for example.I'll have to take Dae-Ho out to a nice dinner if I get the job; he's pretty much the one who got me in the door. Thanks, Dae-Ho!

I wanted to do video game testing, but there was only one opening in the industry. Instead I'll be doing a kind of customer service. Here's how I convinced myself for forgoe testing.

Video Game Testing:
Minus--A lot of over time.
Minus--The one opening is in Foster City, which is a really far commute.

Customer Service at EA:
+EA amenities and perks (free snacks andcaffeine, on-campus gym, sports facilities on-campus, super discount on all EA games with a on-campus store, etc.)
+90% of customer service duties are via e-mail only.
+ Problems I'll be solving are cake--like having customer update their Java.

Should be fun (and most importantly, easy). Let's see if I get it.

COWBOY BEBOP -- Probably one of the best television shows of all time. It's an anime that first aired around 1998, but it appeals to those who don't watch anime (like me) and still feels fresh despite it's age. Plus, it's only about 26 complete episodes long. Definitely worth your time: if you do only one thing with your summer, rent and watch Cowboy Bebop.