The Day Before the Battle Begins - Two Interesting Announcements

Those who were lucky enough to see Paul McCartney live at Coachella a few months ago, may have been keen-eyed enough to get a glimpse of the new Beatles Rock Band game (the footage was projected onto the screen playing behind him, skip to ~1:20). Well, we now have a full trailer for the game that we've all been waiting for. I love the fact that the Beatles' catalog is being remastered and re-released on the same day that the game drops. It's amazing to think that some youngsters will be hearing the Fab Four for the first time! This decision also illustrates how massively important music games are to artists' financial bottom-line. Who would have guessed that ringtones, videogames, and digital downloads would be the future of the music industry (for better or worse)?


Also, keeping up with my never-ending fascination with the Metal Gear series, it was announced today that a new game in the series is heading to the much beloved Xbox360. Hideo Kojima had set up a viral site designed to tease the life out of us Metal Gear fans. What started as a looping Shockwave image of a stormy sky, gave way to two countdown timers, an image of Big Boss, and lastly a link to the E3 website!? Finally, the truth comes out. The game is called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The kicker is that the main character of the game is Raiden! The previously annoying girly-man from MGS2, turned up in MGS4 as a half-cyborg/half-human, 100% badass, who rescues Solid Snake (his mentor)! Sadly, we never got to play as him in MGS4. Well, now we will. The trailer for the game is below as well.


That's all for now. I have to recharge my camera, watch Conan O'Brien's debut at Jay Leno's old time slot (he's got Pearl Jam on!), and most of all get some rest. Until tomorrow!