E3 is nearly here and God forbid itsa repeat of last year's E3. So here you have it, my, not yours, MY list of what I think should appear:

Bioshock 2, perhaps some gameplay footage and a somewhat solid release date. Lets hope for Christmas 09! I garuntee and appearence of some sort. Multiplayer seems strange and was hardly warranted for in Bioshock, but if anyone can do it, those talented guys can. I'm guessing 2K might talk a bit about that.

Modern Warfare 2: According to GI, Infinity Ward is doing quite a number on this sequel to a sequel, it should be interesting to see what direction multiplayer will be taking to be unique from CoD4 and the re-skinned WaW.

Mass Effect 2: I for one cannot wait to see something about this beast; the teaser was so vague and intruiging, details probably will and must be shed!

Dragon Age: Another Bioware game, this one should be awesome, considering Bioware has a whole universe already crafted for Dragon Age, storytelling is one again a big thing.

The Old Republic: Its a Bioware extravaganza! Sequel, prequel, spin-off, or whatever to the Knights of the Old Republic series only in MMO form! Well, it has to be better than Star Wars Galaxies anyway. Details are NEEDED, I mean, its freaking Star Wars!

Useless casual crap: Nintendo will announce more casual bullhunky; who needs it?

Useful Zelda DS 2 info: Ah, much better, Zeeellldaaa... Its like dipping your feet, worn from the rocky roads of Wii shovelware into a bliss that is a hot tub... Trains are an intersting way for our hero to navigate, and I bet my two front teeth Nintendo will talk about it.

Something big from MS: They are pretty tightlipped, maybe Bungie will confirm Onyx (ask me if your interested in what "Onyx" is or may be or never will be, but could be), Gears 3, or some raging new exclusive with production values and promises enough to match the juggernaut that is Halo.

That motion control thingy from MS: Eh, don't really care, but due to the leak they will have to shed some light on this new peripheral.

God of War 3: Honestly, if Sony just put a new trailer or some new gameplay on a constant loop the entire conference, I'd be happy.

As for the missing link...

BS. I label it BS, and I call shenanigans. So they give us a mutated squirrel monkey in prefect condition (somehow, after, what, millions of years underneath what they said to be a lethal pool of water?), and this is what will be the "proof" of evolution and end the theory of creationism and religion all together? And stabilized with concrete proof of the oh-so "accurate" carbon dating and analyzing of scientists?

Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwMzAsmXJZ8&feature=related

Trailer 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eg7ICKJrhg&feature=related

What it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuQXMbafZOw&annotation_id=annotation_161446&feature=iv

Even if you believe this crap, I mean, how disappointing is that? The second trailer was practically refering to aliens! For all we know scientists could have found out the matrix is real, but instead, we get an ancient, 50 million year old lemur monkey. I would like to know where said squirrel thing came from anyways? What did it evolve from? Thus, I do:

*Facepalm*

I'm no Trekkie. Thats for sure. However, I do know the characters from the original series fairly well, so this isn't coming from a total Trek noob.

J.J. definately found a sweetspot to take advantage of in movie-goer audiences in the modern age for this Star Trek reboot. Its different, and yet, eerily familiar. The first and perhaps best part about Star Trek is the action, so lets talk about that. Firstly, I'm glad beyond belief that there's none of that ridiculous "shaky camera" effect, whichI have really grown to hate. You always have a clear, exciting view of the action on-screen, so hats off to J.J. for not masking crappy special effects with a camera man on a high. While it may not seem so from the commercials, Star Trek's action isn't ridiculous and too over-the-top (aka, Zulu in a sword fight). Its all fitting and actually pretty epic. The special effects and CGI and all that are top-notch, and I like how they made the random blinky lights on instruments in the Enterprise more believable.

The characters in this new Trek are all what you remember, and they very much resemble their counter-parts. The original Spock is even in here, and not just as a cameo, which is obviously awesome. The characters areall slightly less mature, but they seem so much the same its actually kind of funny. I always laugh when McCoy acts all serious with his,"God-dammit, man!". The new characters are also cool, but there really isn't a whole lot.

As for the story, Trek falls a bit. Its certainly not bad and by no means the mess that was Star Wars Episodes One and Two, but the whole alternate reality and mending the way of time and such is quite confusing. Star Trek is also much less about actual exploration, and everything is around something familiar. I can't blame them too much for this though, because for exploration to happen requires a co-operative team, which the crew of the Enterprise -up until the end- is not. It did what needed to be done though, which is setting up all the character's orgins and done well. I do hope that the following films will focus on exploration a bit more. The dialogue is pretty cool, and the characters all enter their own occassional comic relief, which is quite funny, so much as to be a worthy competitor toIron Man, half of which was made up oflaugh-out-loud (I just couldn't use LOL)one-liners.

So overall, anyone interested in sci-fi or looking for a fun adventure need look no further than Star Trek. Yes, its way better than what you thought it would be.

Well, its only been a few days, but hey, I can blog as often as I like! On topic, I think I shall start reviewing things on a weekly basis every Monday, either books, movies, or video games (I have some decent reviews for games if you wanna check that out). Reviews will be scored out of 10, as seen on game scores on pretty much every game related website. So today, I review The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (the book), because, well, I love it. Let me tell you why...

Return of the King is very different from most books, in that it doesn't follow the standard, beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, reslolution, but rather has a path that branches up down and all around, which is strange, but fitting and necassary. There are what I determine to be three climaxes, and two resolutions, and the action and tension is all over the place.

The first portion of the book is dedicated to Aragorn and company, as well as Pippin, Merry, and Gandalf. Aragorn and his fellows must conquer the Paths of the Dead, Merry rides with Rohan to Gondor's aid, and Gandalf and Pippin ride to and later defend Minas Tirith from a huge orc invasion. All these come together for one final battle at the Black Gate in order to distract Sauron and his forces and give Frodo and Sam a shot at disposing the Ring. Lives are lost, hearts broken and healed, drama and action is to be had, but thats only the half of it.

At the same time, Frodo and Sam begin their journey into the heart Mordor after Sam makes a daring rescue to save Frodo from being held longer by his orc captives at Cirith Ungol, an orc outpost at the border or Mordor, for what I assume to guard this less popular path into the Sauron's realm. This half of the story is also a bit of a survival story, but not in half-baked way; Frodo and Sam are starving and deyhdrated within this land of heat and ash, and are constantly on the lookout for any water. This doesn't detract at all from the main focus of getting to Mount Doom, but its a nice touch. It was probably done so well because of Tolkien's war experiences. By the end Frodo and Sam are crawling up the slopes where flaming rocks are smashing into the ashy earth around them, nearer and nearer to death. I won't continue, because I don't want to spoil everything, but trust me when I say it doesn't end at Mt. Doom.

This book is really about Sam and Aragorn. Aragorn is obviously the king of which the title refers,but Sam is a bit less profound. Sam is the bravest, strongest at heart, but the ending really showcases it was Sam's story all along. This book was the most exciting of the lot, and I swear I didn't breath once when Sam and Frodo were at the Cracks of Doom. Ieven got teary eyed once or twice.

Just like the other LotRs and The Hobbit, this book is chock full of dialogue and vivid details of the amazing wonders of Middle-earth, and Tolkien does well in creating this other realm within your head. RotK is far darker than any of the other LotRs, but in the unlikliest corners is hope to be found for our heroes. The characters are also extremely unique and show the better or worse of their traits on these hours of depair, and by the end you'll slog through the ennormous Appendices just to find out what happens next to all of them. They all devolop relationships that you understand so very clearly; Other books can't even hope to achieve this level of empathy for the sakes of others friendships.

There isn't a whole lot to say because there really isn't any bad... at all. So, if you're into fantasy and haven't read LotR (if so, what is wrong with you?) grab the whole set at the library or Barnes and Nobles, or any other book retailer.

10/10

Honestly, is life as boring for me as it is for others? I am faced with an endless portal of boredom lacking much of a life. Perhaps the most exciting thing was er... continuing to write my ongoing (is that a word?) novel which you were previewed a while back. Scratch that, playing Galaga and Chrono Cross with my sister on my old PS1 at my parents house was funnest. I hate being 19. You can't hang with the senior high school kids, I can't hang with the lame kids at my catholic college, nor my real friends who are busy with schoolwork at their "un-lame" colleges, therefore, I just crash at the 'rents house and chill with my sister, who is quite awesome. I would just hang with my cousin (with whom I am roommates), but he has things to do, like deal with his band, work, his girlfriend, so he doesn't usually come back till' 10 or later. Often we'll play late night gaming marathons but not this week, oh no, its his first real "gig" with his band, so every waking moment of his is dedicated to practicing. Honestly, his band is just a bunch of Slipknot wannabes that try to hard, but other people like them, soooo... Isn't my life just so amazing? No girlfriend (why did she dump me the week before Valentines Day?!), crappy job (being a Starbucks cashier isn't as fun as it sounds), and the only friend I have right now is a ten-year old sister, and even she's not around much anymore, because of her friends (despite her epic game skills, she, unlike I was, is quite popular and has a life). I'm pathetic.

Just returned from a vacation in Florida, pretty sweet. Now, I'm back in freezing Illinois, Gawd it sucks. Happy early Easter (only 364 days left!) and hmmmm what else? Going to get some new games (rebuy SSBM, RE4, maybe Ninja Gaiden, Hitman Blood Moneyand Splinter Cell DA) tomorrow. I finished all the LotR books and let me just say the franchise brought me to tears a second time (the first being the end of RotK film). My only complaint is that Homeward Bound was a bit unneeded and The Scouring of the Shire should have been shortened, as both kind of screwed up the emotional flow. I'm no book critic however, so don't mind me. Other than that, everyone in the universe should be required to read them. Now I have to finish the Hobbit and find the Silmarillion somewhere. I deleted the two parts of the Ninja v. Pirate story, its really a waste of space, but never fear, as I'm still writing it! Thats it, hope you all are doing fine, and again happy early Easter.