Score: 6.5 – Nintendo Wii – $29.99

Now, I know what you are thinking. Another collection of minigames on the Nintendo Wii. Afterall, it is the defining “genre” of the system right? At San Diego Comic Con, we got the chance to sit down with Hudson and get a first peek at Deca Sports 2.  The followup to their million seller, Deca Sports, Hudson didn’t set out in hopes of improving the ten sports of the original. They looked to put out ten new sports that could only be made as fun as possible through the unique control of the Nintendo Wii.

Gameplay:

Gameplay in Deca Sports 2 is going to inevitably going to be compared to WiiSports and WiiSports Resort. Both franchises are collections of sports games, although the original WiiSports has shown it is more of a tech demo than anything else in terms of actual being a “game.” Deca Sports 2 must also overcome the stigma already attached to it from the lack of WiiMotion Plus.

Not because they didn’t wish to include it, Hudson simply didn’t have enough time after the release of WiiMotion Plus to include the new technology in the game and still keep it on schedule for its recent release. Should Deca Sports 2 have the same level of success, it is highly likely that the third in the series would include WiiMotion Plus.

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Things looked pretty bleak a week or so ago when lenders to Metro Goldywn Meyer seemed ready to plunge the studio into bankruptcy. Facing over 3 billion dollars in debt and struggling with a recent slate of films that just weren’t bringing in audiences, MGM seemed like a lost cause. Worse, had it gone under two of its biggest properties, The Hobbit and James Bond, would have gone with it (or at least to the highest bidder).

Fortunately, MGM has received a reprive for the time being. While not technically a “bailout,” the studio has reached an interim agreement with lenders to forgo investment payments until mid-December:

“MGM is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a forbearance agreement with its lender group. The Company is appreciative of its lenders’ ongoing support. Under the terms of the agreement, MGM’s lender group has agreed not to enforce its rights or remedies arising as a result of the Company’s request to not currently pay interest due on September 30, October 31, and November 30, 2009. This agreement, which expires December 15, 2009, provides MGM with additional liquidity as discussions continue regarding the development of an optimal capital structure in support of the Company’s long-term business plan.”

This deal only buys some  time but will afford MGM the opportunity to coordinate efforts to turn the company around.  I say that with some skepticism considering the studio’s upcoming films: Cabin in the Woods, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Zookeeper, and the remake of Red Dawn.

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Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows like Trick ‘r Treat (pictured above with Anna Paquin), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Chinatown, Bones Season 4 and the complete Stargate: Atlantis series.

Check them out.

Movies

Anvil: The Story of Anvil ~ Robb Reiner  (DVD)

Assassination of a High School President ~ Kathryn Morris, Michael Rapaport, Bruce Willis (DVD and Blu-ray)

Chinatown ~ Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston (DVD)

Contact ~ Jodie Foster (Blu-ray)

Dance Flick ~ Damon Wayans (DVD and Blu-ray)

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It’s October already, and that means another batch of tv shows are premiering! Cortney’s TV Digest is here with everything worth tuning in for while you’re carving your pumpkins and perfecting your Halloween costumes.

South Park – Premieres October 7th, 10/9c on Comedy Central

Some shows never cease to entertain, shock, or antagonize audiences. South Park is certainly one of those shows, and has been doing so for thirteen seasons. Earlier this season, we saw Kanye West debut his newest single, “Fishsticks”, Cartman made his pirate dreams a reality, and Ike saw some dead people. After a midseason break, South Park returns on Wednesday night.

30 Rock – Premieres October 15th, 9:30/8:30c on NBC

Just after winning its third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, 30 Rock returns for its fourth season on NBC. The antics are sure to continue behind the scenes of The Girly Show, and whether you’re a long time fan or checking the show out for the first time, 30 Rock, featuring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski, is sure to keep you laughing until it hurts.

Ugly Betty – Premieres October 16th, 8/7c on ABC

Ugly Betty is on its fourth season, and this is sure to be a dramatic one after the climactic ending of the third season. In the premiere episode, Betty starts her new job as associate features editor and deals with resentful co-workers while she tries to run her own Mode photo shoot.

Southland – Premieres October 23rd, 9/8c on NBC

Returning for its second season, Southland centers around Los Angeles and the members of the LAPD. The OC’s Ben Mackenzie plays rookie Officer Ben Sherman, and while the first season only had a seven-episode run, the show made enough of an impression that NBC renewed it for another season.

Be sure to check back with The Flickcast each month for Cortney’s TV Digest, with the scoop on all the shows you know and love, plus the latest and greatest tv that you need to check out.

John Cho has become quite the name in the world of geeks and fanboys over the past few years. From helping to rejuvenate the career of Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle to coining the term M.I.L.F. for millions of teens to sweat over.

Let’s also not forget that he’s the pilot of one of the most important fictional ships in American Sci-Fi history, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Cho has now found a new home on ABC’s FlashForward, the newest action mystery series done in the same vain as LOST. In the show, everybody in the world blacks out and gets flashes of images that happen 6 months in the future. The mystery only unravels from there, as more gets revealed week after week.

We recently got a chance to speak with John about his role on FlashForward, as well as a future for Harold and Kumar and even what genre he may like to take on next. Check out the interview after the jump. Be sure to catch FlashForward on ABC every Thursday at 8pm/7pm Central.

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Television network ABC has effectively staked their claim to rule Thursday nights, if the return numbers from The Hollywood Reporter are any indication. But instead of trying to make sense of those numbers, let’s break it down in a more digestible format, and what you really need to know is that ABC crushed the competition.

Both Grey’s Anatomy and the season premiere of Private Practice won their respective time slots while FlashForward tied with CBS’ Survivor in theirs, translating to an almost clean sweep. While most of the other shows couldn’t produce the same viewership, they managed to stay the course and not drop too much. CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and The Mentalist, Fox’s Bones and Fringe and The CW’s Vampire Diaries and Supernatural all enjoyed different levels of success.

Left in the cold, however, is NBC and their sinking line-up of programming. Parks and Recreation, Community and SNL Weekend Update Thursday managed to produce poor numbers. Even fan-favorite The Office only managed to do “average,” leading to the former home of “Must See Thursday” placing fourth among the top-tiered networks.

EA has teamed up with 20th Century Fox to turn their popular creature creator game, Spore, into a motion picture, Variety reports. Writing the Spore script will be Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, the team behind Disney’s upcoming “The Princess and the Frog” and directing will be Chris Wedge, director of Ice Age and Robots.

“I’m always looking for unique worlds to go to in animation,” Wedge said. “From every perspective — visually, thematically and comedically — the world of ‘Spore’ provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen.”

Released in 2008, Spore allows players to create and evolve a species from its earliest stages to its development as an intelligent and social creature by mixing role playing, action, and strategy. EA Entertainment’s Patrick O’Brien will produce “Spore” with Lucy Bradshaw, VP of Maxis Studio, the studio that developed the game with Will Wright, creator of “Sim City” and “The Sims” franchises for EA.

“With more than 100 million unique creatures uploaded to our website, it’s clear that people are passionate about the game, and it will be exciting to offer a powerful medium like film in order to expand their experience with ‘Spore,’ ” said Bradshaw.

Video game-to-film adaptations are pretty commonplace these days, especially if a game has a unique plot or premise. Which is why EA’s Spore looks to be an interesting but curious movie. What’s unique about Spore isn’t its plot or premise. It’s the gameplay. Gamers are able to customize their creatures in hundreds of ways, who interact with other gamer’s unique creations. How this will translate from the computer screen to the big screen remains to be seen.

EA also has plans for film adaptations of other popular franchises like The Sims, Army of Two, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space, and Mass Effect.

Those of us who have been following the BBC series Doctor Who since it’s reboot back in 2005 know that the series has always been about change, going back to it’s roots in 1963. Once in a while, the show will change it’s lead actor, writing in a “regeneration” for the good Doctor. It’s happened 10 times in the past 50 years, and it’s about to happen again.

It was announced earlier this year that British actor Matt Smith would be taking over the role as the 11th Doctor when the series starts up again in 2010, after Davin Tennant resigns from his 4 year position in December. We now get word that not only will the main protagonist be “regenerating”, but we’ll be getting a brand new logo as well.

Steven Moffat, new head writer for the show, even had some new things to say about the branding change.

“A new logo. The eleventh logo for the eleventh Doctor – those grand old words, Doctor Who, suddenly looking newer than ever.  And look at that, something really new – an insignia!   DW in TARDIS form!  Simple and beautiful, and most important of all, a completely irresistible doodle.  I apologize to school notebooks everywhere, because in 2010 that’s what they’re going to be wearing.”

Check out the reveal video after the jump, and the new series of Doctor Who will premiere in spring 2010. The final three episodes featuring David Tennant will be broadcast later this year on BBC and BBC America.

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Score: 6.0 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)

Twenty years ago, a little system called the TurboGrafx-16 entered the console wars with Nintendo and Sega. Though it ultimately didn’t survive the long haul, it did produce a few games that have been remembered by its faithful followers. One of these was Military Madness. One of the original turn based strategy games released, it would go on to eventually be rereleased on the PSone years later before going dormant once again. That is, until this week’s XBLA release of Military Madness: Nectaris from Hudson on the XBox 360.

Gameplay:

Military Madness: Nectaris is a futuristic military Turn Based Strategy game on a hexagon based grid. Units consist of various Infantry, Artillery, Tanks, Planes, Mechs and other specialized units each with their unique playstyle and abilities. A new unit, the Commander, has also been introduced to multiplayer component of the series. The Commander is based on customizing its abilities in order to boost attack and defense of other units, attack air unit or various other tactical uses. Units cannot be produced at any time butthe player can “capture” enemy units if they were in wait in factories. Units can be repaired by returning them to factories present on the map.

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This past Thursday night actor Ryan Reynolds dropped by Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to discuss, among other things, his involvement in the upcoming Green Lantern and Deadpool projects. According to MTV’s Splash Page, Reynolds dropped a tantalizing nugget of information when he told Fallon “I’m 4-5 months away from beginning shooting,” Green Lantern.

But why does it seem like the soon-to-be 33 year-old is constantly looking over his shoulder? “It’s crazy, it’s the only job I’ve ever had that I’m not allowed to really talk about. I think there’s like a representative from Warner Brothers who I’m sure is following me around ready to blow-dart me if I say a single word.”

All threats aside, while Reynolds didn’t have anything new to offer on Deadpool, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off, he did confirm that he’d be reprising his role as the “Merc With a Mouth,” Wade Wilson. Does he feel any pressure knowing that countless comics fans are watching his every move? “At this point [playing both roles] makes you just like an Internet hero, nothing really more than that.”

Okay, let me get this out of the way first, with a name like Skarsgard how could you not be in Marvel‘s upcoming Thor movie? Apparently the answer is, you can’t. To that end, Stellan Skarsgard is joining the cast of Thor.

While Skarsgard could not comment on what role he would be playing he did speak of the hurdles committing to the project, “They wanted me to sign without reading the script. That I refused to do. Then they sent one to me that was so coded that I could only print one copy.” Considering the nature of Marvel properties it’s not surprising they would want to keep things hush hush.

If you don’t recognize Skarsgard’s name you would remember him in such films as Angels & Demons, Mamma Mia!, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Interestingly enough Skarsgard’s son, Alexander (True Blood), was rumored to be up for the leading role of Thor himself, but that ultimately went to Star Trek’s Chris Hemsworth.

Alongside Skarsgard, Thor stars Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Kenneth Branagh Thor is set to hit theaters May 20, 2011.

Its Monday so that means it time to share with you all the great comics that will be coming out from one of our favorite comic publishes this week. So, following is a list of comics and trades from Marvel that will hit store this Wednesday.

Some of the titles that look pretty interesting to us include a new The Torch, a new Cable, issue #2 of Strange Tales and a brand new issue of Astonishing X-Men. As always, be sure to check out all of the bigger cover art after the jump and stay tuned later this week for a brand new installment of The Pull List comics reviews.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #608

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #608 DJURDJEVIC 70TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT

ASTONISHING X-MEN #31 WRAPAROUND COVER

ASTONISHING X-MEN #31 CHAREST VARIANT

ASTONISHING X-MEN #31 SKETCH VARIANT

BLACK PANTHER #9

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