The GTA V trailer that went live yesterday definitely raised eyebrows as people painstakingly extrapolated information frame by frame to get an idea of what features and details we could expect from the game. Although we weren’t given the identity of the protagonist, nor were we explicitly told who the protagonist in the trailer was, there was some wild speculation about the trailer’s voice-over being done by Ray Liotta, the guy who also voiced Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Liotta’s reps officially denied the rumor stating that Ray wasn’t involved at all with the production of the GTA V trailer, but some people think that just means that Vercetti still might be the main character, except voiced by someone else.

For some reason the hints that the protagonist is middle-aged, graying, and is voiced by someone who vaguely sounds like Ray Liotta are making people think that Vercetti is coming back. Except Vercetti will be 60 years old if he does, taking into consideration that this game will be set somewhere between 2010 and 2010. Rockstar Games would be really pushing the lines of believability if they want to sell us on the notion that a 60 year old retiree can outrun cops, lug around rocket launchers, beat up people of all ages and sizes, and do other feats that need strong physical and mental conditioning.

Furthermore, Rockstar decided that the third GTA era (III through San Andreas) was over with GTA IV and didn’t include any cameos or direct references to characters from the previous games. With the exceptions of some Easter eggs and the re-appearance of media personalities and commercial brands, GTA IV was devoid of any former characters. Bringing Vercetti back would not only break that change, but it would force Rockstar to bring back many of the third era characters in some way, either by cameo or by reference. Considering the rich pool of new characters in GTA IV, which Rockstar will definitely tap into for cameos and references, bringing third era characters into the mix would just over-complicate and dilute the game.

Of course, Rockstar isn’t one to turn down a challenge, so they very well may bring back Vercetti in the starring role and bring back some old beloved characters as well. The chance that this will happen is quite slim. The probability of there being multiple main characters or playable characters, however, is quite high.

Master Chief from Halo makes a cameo appearance in Duke Nukem Forever. Well, his armor does. A Earth Defense Force soldier offers it to Duke Nukem and Duke has something to say about it. Check the video for the clip.

Apple disappointed the world today with its terribly named new product the iPad. With all the hype surrounding it and Apple promising that it will bring some revolutionary ways of interaction, I was expecting some Project Natal-like tech to be used in controlling this thing. But we were graced with an oversized iPod Touch and I don’t see crowds forming outside the Apple Stores nationwide for this thing. And no, I won’t tell any iPad tampon jokes since the web has exploded with them! However, I do want to touch upon an observation I made about the iPad. It’s taken me all day since its unveiling to put this to words cause it’s a bit of an abstract idea but I’ll do my best (hell, I even dictated my thoughts and recorded them to my iPhone in order to piece them all together!).

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater of the iPad. It’s just not something I’d go get and not something “magical and revolutionary” as Steve Jobs proclaimed. It does however shed some light on a potential gaming revolution that could be on the horizon. Now no gamer is gonna go snag one of these because it’s a gaming machine. But one cannot help but to think of the door that this device has opened for the industry. Imagine the next generation handheld gaming devices. What do you envision?

What if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft jumped onto the iPad concept and took it to a whole new level when it comes to gaming. Imagine a Microsoft iPad-esque product that has a front Natal camera. Just set the device on your lap and use your hands as guns or a steerig wheel and see the results in front of you. Imagine using gestures to go between screens, similar to Minority Report or Gamer. Juice up a thing like this with the appropriate hardware and you can be looking at a whole new gaming experience. Imagine bringing the device home only to transfer what’s happening on it’s screen to your console/TV in real time!

Apple’s focus with the iPad isn’t gaming but it does help provide inspiration and innovation into what the next generation of handheld gaming devices could be like. Sort of how mini-PCs were ahead of their time yet provided the groundwork for netbooks, the Apple iPad could be laying the groundwork for the PSP 3 or the DSi 2.

The recent “official” announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic, formerly speculated to be KOTOR Online, got me all nostalgic about Star Wars Galaxies. So I went ahead and reactivated my long dead account. I was expecting to find all my houses gone and my characters deleted. But everything was still in tact, even though there was a housing packup purge a few months back. I guess they had a feeling I’d be back after so many years so they decided to leave my stuff alone…

I’m back on Wanderhome, and to my surprise a handful of old friends still play. I’m keeping things simple. I’m back in SWG to revisit the past in a way, so it is fitting that I’m choosing my two original professions from back when I first started playing 5 years ago: Commando and Tailor. My main will be my Commando using his trusty Gnosis flamethrower from 2003 (Gnosis was the best Weaponsmith on the server back in the day. His weapons were godly, and this flamethrower was considered to be the second best the server had ever seen. Obviously all weapons were reworked with the CU and NGE, but the sentimental and historical value it carries still makes it my weapon of choice). My alt will take over my tailoring. Aparently Wanderhome was bitching about the lack of tailors for Halloween, so I came back just in time!

Place your bets on how long I’ll last before I quit. Minimum time frame is 1 week!

So Real Soccer 2009 is by far the best game ever released for the iPhone….ever. Who could have ever thought that the power of FIFA ’08 could be harnessed into a measly little application for a touch screen, non-gaming handheld device? About 200 teams, real players, real stadiums, real everything. And the controls are ridiculously simple. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is grab my iPhone, crawl back into bed, and play two matches of RS09. My team of choice? Atheniakos, which is the unlicensed version of the Greek A-League team Panathinaikos. And of course, my morning is not a good one unless one of those two matches is Atheniakos vs Piraeus (the unlicenesed version of Greek A-League team and Panathinaikos rival, Olympiakos) and I demolish them 4-0 and get at least one red card taking out that bastard midfielder of theirs Djordjevic.

What’s really neat about this game is that you have a variety of Cups to compete in, including the European Cup, the UEFA Cup, the World Cup, the American Cup, the Asian Cup, and the African Cup. And if you don’t want to do those cups, they have league championships such as the English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian leagues. The sound quality is pretty good, considering it’s on an iPhone. You can even hear those screaming loud soccer chants coming from fans in the stadium. Gameplay is very easy however the controls could be a bit more responsive. I found it hard to control when quick reflexes and near-instantaneous changes in player direction were needed. If Gameloft could increase the sensetivity of the D-Pad to allow for more fluid and quicker control of the player, it would be greatly appreciated. Real Soccer 2009 is by far the best $9.99 deal out there right now. If you don’t have an iPhone, it’s available for Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC, Wii, and N-Gage. Everyone knows that FIFA ’08 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 sucked major donkey balls. RS09 definitely is better than them. It will definitely keep me good company until FIFA ’09 comes out, which supposedly has less suck than FIFA 08.

Yes, we all thought this year’s April Fool’s jokes by Blizzard (the Bard class and Molten Core) were funny. What we didn’t find funny was Blizzard’s realm downtimes today. I had 3 hours to kill between classes, I was thinking of leveling up my Warlock. I had it all planned out. See, here was my plan:

1. Get out of International Marketing
2. Buy textbooks
3. Eat
4. LOG ON TO WORLD OF WARCRAFT AND LEVEL UP MY WARLOCK
5. Go to Effective Business Communication

Steps 1-3 went as planned. I was about to start step 4 when I saw that all servers were down and they were going up one by one very slowly. Blizzard stated in its in-game message that all servers should be up by 2:00pm PST. It’s 5:30pm CST, meaning 3:30pm PST and most are still not up. Oh, look, they updated the message. Now servers should be up by 4:00pm PST. God dammit Blizzard, NOT FUNNY!

This. Is. HUGE! It’s been over 10 years since I played Star Wars: Dark Forces. I remember trying to install it about 6 years ago but it wouldn’t work. Today for some weird reason I decided to see if I could successfully install it. I did a bit of research and lo and behold, I finally got it to work! I can either run it using VDM Sound or using Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. I’m gonna be up all night…..

…rich fanboys. Why spend $4000 on a Crystal-iced Wii when you can get a first class blow job from Ashley Alexandra Dupré? Eliot Spitzer did it…