I just got home from watching Avatar a few hours ago and I have to say that was one of the most impressive movies that I have ever seen. Everything about it was top notch, from the acting, plot, visuals, ect. This is one of those movies that you will watch with your mouth wide open in awe of what you are seeing on screen during every second of the film. It is really incredible that a film like this is even possible. The attention to detail in every little aspect of the world, and the state of the art CG is so mind-blowing that I fully expect Avatar to be the benchmark for quality CG in movies for years to come. I don’t think anyone has ever pulled off such extensive CG and live action in such a seamless way before. Also, it’s not overdone and never gets in the way or takes the place of solid storytelling. It is simply a tool to make this incredible world that James Cameron had in his head come to life for all to see. You really get sucked into this world, and become completely unaware that what you are seeing isn’t real. If you can, you absolutely must see the film on 3D, preferably in IMAX. This is one of those movies that you must see in theaters. Go out and see it while they still can!

Absolutely amazing.

10/10

Like before, Volume 3 of the Angry Video Game Nerd has been released. You have seen his videos before, but now its time to experience them in much higher quality on a more permanent format. Websites come and go, but you can keep these DVDs in your collection forever.

Get it at the ScrewAttack Store.

The DVD includes:

• All the episodes from 2008. (from Zelda Timeline to Bible Games 2)
  No movie review of The Wizard. The Mario 3 game review is there in its full glory, except for The Wizard portion. As done on the previous DVDs, we are omitting any copyrighted movie footage. I decided it was better to leave that part out, than to try and patch it together with stills and illustrations, making a second-rate hack job out of it.
• 3 of the episodes have been updated with some additional content. Ill let them be surprises.
• Bonus features: Fan Art, Fan Songs, Nerd Room Tour 2009, Outtakes, Top 10 Nerd Moments 2008.
• Total running time from all 3 discs (including videos and bonus content) is approximately 5 hours, 40 minutes. Thats a lot of videos!
• Just like the last 2 volumes, the image is clear, way better than seeing them online.
• Bible Games 2 was the only Nerd video shot on HD, as an experiment. However, this is a standard DVD. Not Blu-Ray. (The price would have probably been frightening.) Though you wont notice much benefit from the image sharpness, its the only video in 16:9 widescreen. I played it on my PS3 and it filled the TV nicely.
• Region free, ships internationally.

Price is $23.98

Bungie has released some footage of Halo Reach, the next game in the Halo Universe. The clip is from the first cinematic in the game, so it doesn’t show any game footage. It does however give some hints on the storyline and shows off the new engine that will power Halo Reach. The footage is entirely done in the game engine, and overall is pretty impressive. The lighting effects in the sky at the end of the video were particularly impressive.

The game is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, taking place during Halo: The Fall of Reach and the beginning of Halo: First Strike when there are many Spartan-IIs still in action, though it is currently unknown how closely it will tie into the novels. In the history of Halo, Reach, humanity’s largest military production and command planet, was destroyed by a Covenant fleet. The new trailer shows a Spartan joining a squad of other Spartans who are heading to their next mission with the Lieutenant as their new “6″.

BT, one of my favorite musicians, is releasing a new album on February 2nd. His music is often groundbreaking and always unique, so I cannot wait to hear what he has for us this time.

Internationally renowned artist, visionary producer, film composer and technologist BT is back with These Hopeful Machines, a double-disc opus that carries listeners through 2 hours of sweeping orchestral arrangements, pulsating electronic beats, heartfelt vocal melodies and even simple acoustic guitar. Out February 2 (Nettwerk), These Hopeful Machines embodies BT’s ability to weave both his technical prowess and compositional mastery that reminds listeners why he is the composer that all other composers and producers study.

These Hopeful Machines is the follow up to 2006’s This Binary Universe, an album that created an entirely new genre of evocative electro-acoustic music. Keyboard Magazine wrote in a review, “In a hundred years, it could well be studied as the first major work of the new millennium. It’s that good.” These Hopeful Machines continues to evolve BT’s distinct technical, lyrical and compositional vision and execution, but his usual melodic complexity and bleeding-edge electronic techniques permeate the album from start to finish.

Album opener and first official single “Suddenly” (out January 12) opens to a minute’s worth of glitchy breakbeats made using BT’s own software, Breaktweaker, before morphing into a powerful, guitar-driven anthem that is among the album’s most memorable songs. The track “The Emergency,” is instantly a classic BT dance hit designed to linger long after the song ends. The album even features BT’s first cover, a reinterpretation of “The Ghost in You” by The Psychedelic Furs. The song was recorded on tape, giving it a familiar and sentimental feeling while maintaining BT’s distinctive style. There are also multiple collaborators on These Hopeful Machines, like Rob Dickinson vocals on “Always” and “The Unbreakable,” Jes, (formerly of Motorcyle) on “Every Other Way” and “The Light In Things,” and The Police’s Stewart Copeland who lends a drum breakdown to “Every Other Way.”

From an early age, BT, born Brian Transeau, demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for playing and understanding classical music. He was heavily influenced by avant-garde and romantic composers such as Stravinsky, Bartok, Debussy and Rachmaninov. His biggest influences, however, were from everyday sounds that most would take for granted, from noticing the meter of the grandfather clock in the foyer to the micro-rhythms of crickets and cicadas to the ambience of passing trains at night.

“When examining my creation process, it makes perfect sense why I am a forced technologist,” he explains. ”I frequently face the fact that the tools I need to compose music simply don’t exist. It is like being an architect without bricks or mortar. I routinely create my own bricks and connective tissue as the diving off point to the compositional process.”

The drive to actualize the tools BT envisions has led to his evolution as one of the most cutting-edge programmers and technologists in music today. He has expanded this reach into a visionary software venture, Sonik Architects which launched its critically- and commercially-acclaimed iPhone application, Sonifi™, last fall.

Says BT, “My ultimate goal is to keep the emotional counterpoint and the integrity of the song intact, even when pushing the envelope with style and technique. The faster things get, the less people are willing to take in a body of creative work. There are so few things now that will engage us. The intent of consuming music is usually to have an awareness or a feeling, to have a truly, empathic connection to others. My hope is to create something that makes people feel that they have consumed something that completes a void. I want to create something lasting.”

These Hopeful Machines track listing:

Disc 1

1. Suddenly
2. The Emergency
3. Every Other Way
4. The Light Of Things
5. Rose Of Jericho
6. Forget Me

Disc 2

1. A Million Stars
2. Love Can Kill You
3. Always
4. Le Nocturne De Lumiere
5. The Unbreakable
6. The Ghost In You

Hear one minute of Suddenly, the first single off BT’s new album These Hopeful Machines here.

Black Mesa, the Half-Life remake on the source engine, has released an update. The mod was previously scheduled for a 2009 release, but it appears that it is going to be delayed. This isn’t the first time that it has failed to meet deadlines, but the game looks so good that I honestly don’t care when it comes out, just that it does come out. There are far too many mod projects that never see the light of day, and mods that look this professional are too few.

Hello Black Mesa fans!

We come to you once again with an update. It’s now the end of 2009, and we know many of you have literally counted the days down until this fateful month. We are floored by the level of support you have given us and are very excited we’re so close to reaching our goal.

Unfortunately, to our great disappointment, Black Mesa will not make a 2009 release.

Cynics may now rejoice, bets may be collected, and I think a mod team member has to eat his shoe, but we hope our loyal fans will forgive us and realize that the delay will translate into a better final product that’s (hopefully) more easily available to everyone.

Once again we apologize for what has to be very disappointing news. We placed a 2009 deadline on ourselves to motivate us and bring this 6 year project to a close. And while we didn’t quite make it, we have come very close, and you can expect a complete, polished game to hit your hard drives in the near future. We’ll be sure and update if anything changes. Until then, hang tight, it’s coming!

If you missed the incredible trailer they released last year, it can be viewed here.