We were so jealous when we found out that record-breaking Gold-medal U.S. swimmer, Michael Phelps, got an early copy of Call of Duty: World at War a few months early, that any gamer watching likely spit out most of whatever they were eating at an unsuspecting television in front of them.

MTV got to the bottom of the story recently to let us know that, in fact, Mr. Phelps received nothing but an EMPTY box. The game, apparently, hasn’t even gone gold yet! Now, the swimmer only has his share of gold medals AND records to gloat about in our faces. No wonder he seemed unfazed at the end of the following video, he knew he was being lied to all along!

Watch CBS Videos Online

All hating aside, though, Activision did promise to send him a copy of the game, free of charge, when it’s actually released.

Via MTV Multiplayer Blog (found through Kotaku)

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: call, Copy, didn, Duty, game, gamer, Gold, Gold-medal, Medalist, Michael Phelps, Mr. Phelps, MTV, Shit, swimmer, time, US, War, world

Surprised by our own persistence and dedication to keeping a podcast up and running on a weekly basis, we bring you Show 3 of “R3match Radio.”

The word from the site:

After ONE show co-hostin’ with Jason and Carlos last week, Juan took a quick vacation out…somewhere in the East Coast. But the show must go on and the super-duo brought it this week with some Mercenaries 2 talk, Xbox 360 motion-control rumor-mongering, as well as “Red Ring of Death” reminiscing.

Pictorial Discussion: Halo Wars Box Art

We threw in the following song, from our favorite ad at the moment, for some added affect:

‘Mercenaries 2′ Ad Lyrics

Oh, nooo…
Oh, nooo…
Oh, nooo…

Yo, yo, yo.

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Sucka try to play me,
But you never paid me,
Never,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Payback is a-comin’,
You will be runnin’ for-e-ver,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Until I get my vengeance,
I will never end this may-hem,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

I’m a mercenary,
You ain’t got a prayer,
You owe meeee

Feel free to download the show here:

R3match Radio Podcast - Show #3

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: basis, Carlos, dedication, didn, East Coast, Jason, Juan, Mercenaries, nooo, persistence, podcast, radio, show, site, Surprised, Talk, vacation, Week, word

Some of the younglings out there probably don’t know much about gaming in 1987, but for those of us who were there, it was really a sweet year in gaming. It’s tough to pick out 10 awesome games from one particular year, but 1987 was real easy. I was ten years old at the time and owned most of the game systems available on the market. Back in early 1987, I was the only kid in the neighborhood with a Sega Master System and probably the only person who didn’t have a Nintendo Entertainment System. This worked out well for me because I could play Sega games any time I wanted and just go to any of my friends’ houses to play NES games. I eventually landed a NES at the end of that year in a trade that involved me giving up the Millenium Falcon and a 1985 Donruss Dwight Gooden rookie card for the console and a couple games. It turns out giving up the Millenium Falcon may have been a bad idea, but Dwight Gooden turned out to be a crack head, so the value of the card dwindled over the years.

With that said, my picks for the “Top Ten Video Games of 1987″ follow. These are selections from games I have played thoroughly. If an awesome game from 1987 didn’t make the list, it’s probably because I didn’t play it or because I didn’t think it was that awesome.

Continue reading »

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Arcade, D. The, Defense, didn, Double Dragon, Driller, Dungeon, Dungeon Master, Dwight Gooden, Fighter, game, gaming, Head Over Heels, Ken, Legend of Zelda, Maniac Mansion, master, Mega Man, Missile, Missile Defense 3D, R-Type, Sega, Street, Street-Fighter, time, video, year

The following are some of the chart-topping movies of the summer. Most are good, one is bad (we’re looking at you, “Hancock!”), but we’re glad its been a good year for summer movie watching and hope Hollywood entertains just as well next year.

#1 The Dark Knight - $471.1 Million

Heath Ledger’s swan song performance and serving to elevate Christian Bale’s popularity — apparently, the movie industry had yet to see his acting in “Empire of the Sun” and “Henry V” — “The Dark Knight” has been blowing up the box office this summer. Viewers have taken so much to the film that many are speculating it will break 1997’s “Titanic” $600 Million U.S. lifetime earnings (the highest grossing film of all time).

#2 Iron Man - $317.1 Million

Re-energizing Robert Downey Jr.’s career might be “Iron Man”’s biggest accomplishment, but it hasn’t done too shabby considering its earnings this summer. It’s easily one of the better comic book adaptations out there and if you haven’t watched it yet, shame on you.

#3 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $315.1 Million

Proving that 80s franchises are still all the rage (and that Hollywood is still fresh out of ideas) has put “Indiana Jones” at #3, just narrowly missing to top “Iron Man” by a couple of million dollars. Actually…once written, that’s a LOT of money.

#4 Hancock - $225 Million

Wow. Sure, Will Smith’s latest might have provided a few chuckles and light entertainment for some but it easily beats all the other movies on this list to the “summer fluff and crap” title. Poor “WALL-E.” “Hancock” didn’t deserve to make more money than you.

#5 WALL-E - $214.1 Million

It’s a little surprising that “WALL-E” didn’t top a couple of the movies on this list (it should have taken down “Hancock,” at least!), but it was still hugely successful. The film showed a great maturation for Pixar as they took on touchy subjects while maintaining that high level of movie magic the studio is known for. One of the few movies this summer that entertained both kids and adults, alike.

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Christian Bale, couple, Crystal Skull, dark, didn, Film, Hancock, Henry, Hollywood, Indiana, Iron, Jones, Knight, list, man, money, movie, Robert Downey Jr, summer, US, WALL-E, year

It took a while for us to compile a list of the 100 greatest video games of all-time, but it’s finally done. Starting today, we’ll be publishing the list one game at a time until we get to #1. #100 was a tricky choice, considering there were hundreds of games that deserved the spot but didn’t make it. After careful consideration, we went with ‘Shadow Hearts: Covenant’ from the Sony PS2.

The game was developed by Nautilus and published by Midway in 2004. It was a direct continuation of Shadow Hearts and the second official game in the series. While it wasn’t the longest RPG, it still provided you with about 35-50 hours of gameplay.

What really gained my attention with this game was the nearly flawless and addictive battle system. That combined with an interesting group of characters, good visuals and a great soundtrack, it made for one hell of a game. While the game could have been improved in some minor areas, it was certainly one of the best RPGs released for the PS2. Let us know what you think about this game!

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: All, choice, consideration, Covenant, didn, game, list, make, Shadow, spot, time, Today, Top, video, while

The Lost Boys is perhaps my favorite vampire film of all-time.  With that said, the film did NOT need a sequel.  It especially didn’t need a terrible sequel.  The one positive thing that resulted from ‘The Tribe’ is reassurance that Joel Schumacher’s original was all we needed.

‘Lost Boys: The Tribe’ is an obvious attempt to sucker fans of the original for one final time.  Here’s the basic recipe they used to create ‘The Tribe’:

• Replace believable cast with a wretched group of actors.
• Replace epic soundtrack with one of the worst soundtracks ever created.
• Replace good visuals with tacky amateurish ones.
• Stick to the original story, but throw in just enough annoying characters to make it new.

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Angus, Angus Sutherland, Chris, cliche, didn, Edgar Frog, Feldman, Film, Joel Schumacher, Luna, movie, Nicole, Nicole Emerson, NOT, original, P.J. Pesce, Replace, sequel, sex, Shane, sister, Tad Hilgenbrink, Till Dawn, time, town, Tribe, Uwe Boll, vampire

I recently received this strange email encouraging me to check out the KKK website.  I guess they didn’t realize I was Catholic.  I’m also open-minded and love all people, so they certainly aren’t using targeted marketing techniques. Out of curiosity, I checked out their softheaded website that looks like a 8 year-old designed it.  I came across some links where they sell various products such as hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers and more.  While most of the hat logos are racist, a few are actually clever and some are simply disturbing.  One claims the KKK is “the last hope for America”.  If that band of mental defects are our last hope, we might as well pack our bags and give up now.  The most clever hat states that KKK members are the “Original Boyz N The Hood”.  I suppose they are.  If you want to check out the other ball caps Klan members are sporting, I dropped a gallery below of all the images.  Just please tell me you aren’t going to order any of them!

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: America, are, aren, ball, bumper, Caps, Catholic, curiosity, didn, email, gallery, hat, Hood, hope, KKK, marketing, N The, Website

“I don’t think the investors give a sh*t about our quality. They care about our earnings per share. They wait for it to happen. We had three years where we didn’t make our expectations. If I were an investor, I would wait and see. That’s fine with me.” - Electronic Art’s CEO, John Riccitiello

While some people may not believe Riccitiello’s statement, I certainly do.  It’s sad that video games have gotten so mainstream that quality may no longer be a primary concern for the companies.  I see the gaming industry becoming more and more like the Hollywood movie machine every day.

Quote via GoNintendo

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Art, CEO, Concern, didn, Don, Electronic, fine, gaming, Hollywood, industry, investor, mainstream, make, quality, Riccitiello, share, statement, video

Canadian police constables round up strippers after their shifts at the club and bring them back to the constable lounge for drinks after hours. Evidently, the lounge has vending machines filled with liquor and beer. No stripper pole was mentioned.

Wow. This wouldn’t happen in the US, as it is highly unimaginable any police department would have vending machines with liquor in them. Our liquor laws generally wouldn’t allow it. But DAMN CANADA! Mad props. I didn’t know you had it in you.

Via CBC

written by Jennifer Leftwich \\ tags: beer, Bring, Canada, club, DAMN, Department, didn, Edmonton, Jail, liquor, lounge, pole, police, Private Performances, stripper, Strippers, US, Via

This week we see more than a few good games (didn’t game companies get the memo that summer is drought time?) with the release of Unreal Tournament 3 for Xbox 360 (sans the ability to add mods like the PS3 version) and the PC port of Dante’s latest adventures with Devil May Cry 4. Mandatory plug: DMC4 review by yours truly. Tsk, tsk…shameless.

Besides that, Civilization Revolution also drops which marks the first Civ game Sid Meier’s actively programmed for since he created the original in 1991. You can try out the turn-based strategy game for yourself by downloading the demo readily available on PSN and Xbox Live.

Check out the full list of games dropping this week after the break…

Continue reading »

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Amusement Park, Beijing, Civilization, Cry, Dante, Devil, didn, Features, game, July, May, Metascore, Revolution, Sid Meier, Tournament, tsk, Unrated, Unreal, Venice, Week, Xbox