Really the only reason I had kids was so I could go see kid’s movies at the cinema without everyone suspecting I was a creepy child kidnapper. Because despite being a big, hairy, monstrously ugly thirty three year old, I never miss a Pixar film on the big screen and watch Adventure Time just about every day. And I make no apologies; my inner child needs to be well fed with entertainment. Cartoons are the secret to reversing the aging process people.

So I’m super excited for Wreck it Raplh, an animated film set in a universe populated by video game characters about a coin up game villain that yearns for another life. Trailer looks brilliant.

The Wii U will be arriving to stores on the 18 November. That’s the good news. Not for the crappy news, or should we say the expected news. Despite the Aussie dollar currently out trading the US dollar Australians will be paying more for a Wii-U as much as 29% more (or 18% if you factor out GST).

The Wii U will be sold in two models Basic and Premium, the white basic model has 8GB of storage, the black Premium model will have 32GB internal storage. In the US these consoles are RPP $299.99 and $349.95 respectively in USD, in Australia they’re $349.95 and $429.95 respectively in AUD. That’s an over $70 mark up for the premium consoles in Australia. And we’re not taking into account mark ups on peripherals such as the almost mandatory extra controllers.

Objectively, it’s a pretty good price, on par the Australian release price for the Wii of $400 so many years ago. There’s a good chance I’ll grudgingly buy one in the lead up to Christmas. But we’re long overdue a close scrutiny of the prices Australian’s are charged compared to the rest of the world. Our economy is stronger than ever, its past time consumers were benefiting from this strength.

Dragon Age 3 has now been officially announced by Bioware with the subtitle, as suggested by leaked marketing research materials a few weeks back, Inquisition.

Normally I'd not be super psyched at the news after Dragon Age 2, a game that while initially interesting, soured a lot of people on the franchise and has looked even worse in the hindsight of some of the other RPG games that have followed it like Skyrim and Amalur. Well Bioware have heeded the complaints and worked to make Dragon Age 3 a contender. How are they going to do that? How about a more open world game with any reused environments, the kind that so marred Dragon Age 2. That's all I needed to know but there's more. Bioware have also pledged to majorly expand on the customization options so you're character options will be more like Origins and less like the female or Male Hawke character of DA2. Players will also have a far greater contol over their identity and the adventures they take rather than being dragged into a bunch of preordained scenarios... just as they were in, you guessed, it Dragon Age 2. The game will also be running on the improved Frostbite Engine and promises to be the best looking Dragon Age game so far.

The plot centers around a war between the various religous factions and magic users that has been bubbling over the last few games, and as your role as an Inquisitor you may be either choosing sides or working to end the fighting all together. Sure hard and fast details are scarce, but Bioware sound like they've been pretty responsive to the series past criticisms and are focused on giving the people what they want, another big ass, rich and exciting fantasy world to storm through. Bring it on.

New trailer for Hitman Absolution. Can't wait for some follicle challenged assassinations! Wooo!

In the last few years I’ve become a sceptic about all the fantastical things I used to read and watch as a younger man. Tales of Bigfoot, Nessie and Yeti’s delighted me. Off course you reach a point where you realise that almost every claimed witness account of something paranormal phenomena is either drunk, mentally unbalanced or is planning a theme restaurant dedicated to the phenomena.

But aliens... aliens bug me. Unlike all the other crazy crap people claim the logical evidence for aliens is pretty strong. Statistically the chances of intelligent life on other planets is almost definitely in the positive. And yet we remain alone and unprobed, our imaginations and rectums crying out for alien intervention. Stop teasing us with cattle mutilations and just reveal yourselves!

In case you’re not a believer, check out this excellent interactive formula based on the one concocted by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961 which makes a fairly reasoned statistical arguement as to whether or not we’re alone in the universe.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120821-how-many-alien-worlds-exist

Incidentally, Drake’s also one of the founders of SETI and the creator of the Arecibo Message (read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Drake), if anyone can talk with authority of aliens, this is the man.

And finally, here’s a round up of the unusually high number of UFO videos in August. Did, the Curiosity rover incite them to visit? Is it a fly by to honour the passing of fellow space traveller Neil Armstrong? Men in Black 3 promotional activities? Or were there just quite a lot of weather balloons out in August?

First episode of the iOS game The Avengers Initiative debutedy for, I think, a relatively hefty $6.95. The first game episode features the Hulk in his new space pants smashing things. Each following episode will introduce a new character with the next slated instalments to feature Captain America, Thor and Ironman. The gameplay seems very reminiscent of Infinity Blade so far, I've got the game because I’m a sad fanboy with little will power so expect a review sometime very soon.

After their successful Kickstarter campaign wrapped, capping at 1.8 million, Harebrained studios have revealed some early assets for their new take on the Shadowrun franchise with some concept art and level designs. The game is looking pretty swish so far.

See more images after the jump...

So, Boston Dynamics have now developed their four legged Cheetah robot to the point where it’s top speed surpasses that of current fastest human being Usain Bolt. Don’t these people read science fiction? Watch movies? Even catch the odd episode of Futurama? They are DOOMING us with these inventions. Want to see the mechanical monster that will chase down your grand children in the bombed out ruins of our civilisation post Judgement Day?

Behold!

Developer Insomniac, they of Resistance and Ratchet and Clank, have teased and taunted about their next game Fuse for a while now. Well we've finally got a trailer and it's shaping up to be a pretty cool looking shooter game.

The curious thing is, there’s some crazy parallels between this game and the four player coop shooter Overstrike that Insomniac unveiled and then canned, or at least stopped talking about, last year. But Ted Price, Insomniac boss, has kept mum on the two games relationship. Judging on screenshots of Overstrike from a year ago and screenshots of this game I think it's safe to say they're probably the same game. Plus the spec ops team in this game is called the Overstrike team. So, duh.

Clocking in at 3 hours would be considered a good innings for most movies, let alone a summer blockbuster about a comic book character who dresses like a furry animal. But there are rumblings all along the internet that Dark Knight Rises may have a directors cut Bluray featuring scenes that could extend the film by as much as 30 minutes. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “30 minutes!” as the amount of time added to a film in a directors cut (LotR exception clause) so I immediately say bullshit to that aspect of the story. But on the whole it’s not unprecedented. We know from reliable sources there’s a whole bunch of Bane origin story scenes that were cut from the film and there are also rumours of more Ras al Ghul scenes with Liam Neeson yet to be seen.

The only problem with this rumour is director Christopher Nolan, a meticulous film maker who always has final edit on everything he makes and tends to put everything he wants up on screen. While the additional footage could break the flow of such a perfectly paced film, I’d love to see me some Bane in the League of Shadows origin stuff.