Sometimes expectations can kill a game. When Super Mario 64 was not only hailed as one of the greatest games of all time, but actually created the 3D platformer genre, people expected great things for Mario. But they were forced to wait through an entire console generation – six whopping years – before Mario would arrive again. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, it’s no wonder people were disappointed.

In addition to a long delay, there are two problems with Sunshine. First, the camera control was awful. Half of the challenge came from having to fight the camera, trying to get even a decent view of the action. Also, the setting – Isle Delfino – did not lead to much diversity. Every level looked like a tropical island because, well, the game took place on a giant tropical island. For all the complaining we do about mine carts and fire levels, a little old school level design would have gone a long way in Sunshine.

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No, really! I’m quite serious! The CHINESE–you know, the guys who just banned horror movies in their entirety from the country–have created an MMO, and by all accounts, it’s not half bad. Called Secret Online, it’s just recently launched a North American branch. Described as a “free-to-play massive multiplayer online adventure”, Secret Online takes players into Chinese mythology, around the Qin dynasty by all indications, it features two hundred static maps and an infinite quest generator.

Also of interest is that Secret Online also has something called a “persistent realm history” in which players can permanently affect the time line and events that take place on a particular server. Other gamers who enter in after these events will find that their storyline would have been much different had certain elements remained unaltered, or were altered differently.

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There have been rumors circling in the movie world that McG’s Terminator 4, alternately titled Terminator: The Return of the Terminator and Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, is on the rocks. Apparently, it all goes back to a post on Ugo claiming that a “source” had overheard a crew member talking about production shutting down; not the most reliable source in the world, unless you’re the sort of person who often purchases diet pills from radio infomercials. Nevertheless, the rumor got around – and most people aren’t buying it.

In direct contradiction to the rumor, The Hollywood reporter announced a few days later that a new cast member was in final talks to star. Moon Bloodgood, known for her starring role in the short-lived NBC series Journeyman, is set to play a “no-nonsense and battle-hardened member of the resistance.”

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Terminator 4 canceled?? Whoa! When did that happen?! Wasn’t this sucker chugging along, with cast announcements on a regular basis and everybody and his mother saying this was going to be great? Now where does word come down that this is going to be canceled?

An unnamed crew member, already a pretty fair sign that this rumor is just that, a rumor, told UGO sometime last week that Terminator 4 was being shut down. Never mind that the film had a serious cast and a solid release date (May 22, 2008), but that was the word out of Terminator 4. Of course, it didn’t look good for this rumor when, merely two days later, Moon BloodGood was announced as cast in Terminator 4. So how can a movie be dead when they’re ADDING to the cast?

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You know what we don’t have enough of in this world? Harry Potter.

I’m kidding, of course. Harry Potter is so overexposed that, even in my sheltered childhood, I was able to get my hands on a library copy of the first book. When my mom saw it, she wanted to make sure that “it doesn’t have good witches in it, does it?” But then she read it, and was hooked. One more potential book-burner converted, thanks to J.K. Rowling.

Now that the saga has officially ended – on the book front, anyway – we’re all free to focus on the production of the films and on all the creative marketing that’s going on. The latest effort from Warner Brothers is, naturally enough, a museum exhibit.

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