See that mysterious promotional poster there? The one with two wings, as opposed to Dragon Age’s traditional one-winged side view. Well, that has some people thinking that BioWare will be gracing us with a Dragon Age sequel a mere 15 months after the first critically acclaimed installation in the franchise. That does coincide with the Q1 release window of the To Be Announced Dragon Age title listed on EA’s most recent financial projections, but many people had assumed that would be a new expansion. But hey, games take less and less time to make these days, so it certainly seems conceivable that BioWare could be dishing out some more RPG goodness February 1st, 2011. At least I hope they are. Oh, and here’s another trailer for Dragon Age: Orgins – Awakening.

So far, I have to say that I like the direction Fable III is taking, even if Peter Molyneux says it’s going to be more action-adventure than RPG. The Fable franchise has always been pretty light on RPG mechanics anyways, so as long as it retains the series’ signature feel, I don’t mind a more stream-lined and accessible interface. Oh, and John Cleese of Monty Python fame will be voicing your butler in the game. Yeah, you totally get a butler in Fable III. Maybe you’ll be able t slap him using Natal whenever he’s been unsatisfactory. I know it’d make me happy.

Could someone please explain to me how this isn’t Modern Warfare?

Hey, remember when they remade The Secret of Monkey Island with updated graphics and audio and released it on Xbox Live Arcade? Well, they’re doing that for LeChuck’s Revenge now. The Monkey Island 2 remake will have all the same features as last summer’s Special Edition, but with an improved hint system, the ability to directly control Guybrush (no more point-and-click for me!), and in-game audio commentary for those of you who want to listen in on the developers’ insights. Pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but it will be coming to XBLA, PSN, and PC this summer. I imagine it’ll be about the same price as the first remake.

Monkey Island 2 SE takes LeChuck’s Revenge on consoles, PC this summer [GameSpot]

Yup. No pricing or gameplay details yet, but it has been confirmed that the DLC is a timed Xbox 360 exclusive. No word on when the PS3 and PC versions will be coming, but I’d bet it won’t be too long. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

I’m just going to go ahead and link the story so you can brush up on what exactly OnLive is and get the details on your own. But pretty much, the video game streaming service is coming to PCs and Macs June 17th for $15 a month. That doesn’t count the games you have to rent or buy, which will supposedly sell for lower than retail prices. The OnLive micro-console that allows for direct streaming to TVs won’t be arriving until sometime later this year, and the launch is only for the continental U.S. at this point. 2011 will see the service provide 1080p, 60fps streaming and the possibility of an international launch. I’m not entirely clear on what service will run at when it launches, but it seems unwise to rush this thing to market when it can’t yet compete with traditional gaming consoles on a technical basis. And charging $15 a month, plus games? That’s $180 a year. The price advantage on consoles seems to disappear pretty quickly considering how long console generations seem to last. But yeah, the concept is cool in theory.

I’m really starting to think that the Japanese need to be stopped. There’s just something morally wrong with that.

If that masterful sampling of the English language doesn’t already have you excited for Sony’s imitation answer to the Wii-mote, then the radtacular trailer above surely will get your jets going! And Kotaku’s reporting that the Move will come in three SKUs–by itself, with the PlayStation Eye, which it will work in conjunction with, and in a special PS3 bundle. The PlayStation Eye pack is said to be priced under $100. Sony has also revealed a crap-ton of games specifically made for the Move, as well as more traditional games like Little Big Planet that will be able to utilize the motion controller.

But good Lord, does anybody honestly care about this thing? I fear that the already over-commercialized gaming industry is heading down a very dark road that opens up into fields and fields of casual Facebook games that your mother likes to play because of the “intuitive” motion controls. And we’ll never have to stop and think about a game’s message if a constant stream of achievements tells us how effing great we are. Oh, but if motion controls aren’t your thing, you can always buy the DLC that allows you to play the old, crappy way. And don’t forget that power-fantasy template where we get to kill our boss without ever actually confronting him and mucking up the machine…Can somebody please save gaming?

At several points during tonight’s episode I was on the verge of calling it the worst of the season, but by the end of it, they managed to handle everything in such a way that I’d probably label it the best of Season 6 so far. Michael Emerson is clearly one of the most talented actors on this show and it’s always great to see a character-driven episode with him in it.

I suppose we’ll start at the beginning, with Mr. Linus escaping the Temple and finding, for lack of a better term, his friends. If we actually stop to think about what the group gained out of their trip from the beach to the Temple and back, it becomes possible that Miles really could be important after all. He’s the only thing they got out of the whole ordeal. I think that might be setting him up for a bigger role down the road. Or, the whole trek could have been a plot device to get the truth behind Jacob’s death to Illana and the gang. But that’d be rather contrived and weak, so let’s hope Miles matters.

While we’re on the subject of contrived and weak things, how about the way they wrote Ben’s character as a total spineless and selfish weasel for the majority of this episode. Sure, it played well against the end, but it was sort of a slap in the face to all of the complex character development Ben’s gone through over the past few seasons.

But our favorite killer wasn’t just citing the unreliability of psychics and bribing people on the Island, he was plotting on taking over the high-school with John Locke and Artz in the tangent-universe off the Island. But a man doesn’t scheme evil for no good reason, he needs to have a conversation with his sick father about how much of a loser he’s turned out to be first! Roger Linus’ revelation that he and his son had in fact been on the Island before and then left seems pretty significant in the structure of the tangent universe. In my eyes, it seems to indicate that young Ben was always shot by time-traveling Sayid Jarrah, and that the hydrogen bomb (the incident) always went off. It was at that point that the universe bifurcated, creating the world we’ve always known, where the Losties are blown into the present are are dealing with this whole recruitment/war fiasco, as well as the world where none of them ever come to the Island. In the world we know, Ben murders his father and becomes an Other. In the tangent-universe, young Ben’s brush with death and the incident likely convinced Roger Linus to take his son off the Island, where he’d go on to become a history teacher.

But this is all assumption on my part, and it fails to account for Richard saying that Ben would become one of them (the Others) if he was healed at the Temple. Actually, now that I think of it, we saw Desmond on the plane in the tangent-universe, meaning he wasn’t pushing a button every 108 minutes to save the world. So maybe there was no incident at all in this universe. Maybe there were no time-traveling Losties. Maybe Roger just left because he didn’t want to be a workman.

So after drawing no real conclusions there, let us gander at the phenomenon of tangent-Alex. How that happened I have no idea. She is using her mother’s last name in the TU, but what are the chances of Daniel Rousseau raising her child in the same school-district as Ben Linus? Now I suppose you’re thinking that’s a stupid question considering Mr. Locke is subbing at said school as well, and to you I say, “Shut up.”

Essentially, all of this cross-universe lunacy presents Ben with the same decision at the end–does he selfishly make a play for power, or does he sympathize with how his actions affect those around him? In the TU he could have ruled the school to his liking (very interesting that John Locke was the one who originally put the idea in his head) but at the cost of his favorite student’s (Alex’s) educational future. He ultimately decided that she was more important to him than any sort of shallow power (which Artz so brilliantly summed up into a parking space). In the MU, after Focke released him he had the chance to escape and join Esau’s cause, all the while securing himself a comfy throne of power. Ben did run for it, but I don’t think he ever intended to kill Illana and defect out of a heart-felt belief in Focke. Instead, I think he planned to do just what he did. Upon reaching the rifle that was hidden in the bushes, he had the opportunity to kill Illana but all he wanted was a chance to explain himself.

Here he confessed how he selfishly killed Jacob in order to retain his power (that part was a little unclear to me, but I’m assuming he thought that Focke was the new boss in town and that he needed to be on the winning side if he was going to retain any power) and that it was wrong. I still don’t know if believes that Jacob didn’t deserve to die, as he does partially blame him for Alex’s death, but he does seem to admit that the reason he murdered Jacob for was wrong.

After pouring his soul out to Illana, he only asks that she let him go because Focke is the only person who will have him. They could have had him be a man and accept Illana’s judgment, but that would have been out of character for Ben, so it worked out well. Luckily, Illana believes in his sincerity and welcomes him to her side, where he can help Sun with tarps to his heart’s content.

So all of that essentially proves what I’ve been saying all along–Ben is not a perfect guy by any stretch, but in his heart, there is good. He recognizes that Alex means more to him than anything in the world, even if she’s dead. And with that recognition comes the realization that he doesn’t want to be the leader of the Island (at least that’s what I’m inferring). If something matters to you more than the Island, than you’re simply not fit to lead it. That certainly seems to go along with the theme of Esau’s recruits. Jacob’s guys on the other hand, particularly Jack and his suicidal story-time session with Richard seem to be proper candidates to protect the Island. Hurley’s love for cheese curds most likely takes him out of the running.

But yeah, how ’bout that? Here we were, thinking that Richard had become some eye-liner wearing clown who hides in the bushes when he just needed someone to restore his faith. And logically, that man is Jack. I see those two crazy kids going far together. And before I move on to the end of the episode, I’d just like to say that I’m betting that scene in the Black Rock is as close to a Richard-centric episode as we’re going to get. They pretty much confirmed that he was a slave on the ship and that Jacob gave him his gift/curse of immortality. I’d like to find a Biblical analogy here, but I’m drawing a blank right now. But yeah, I don’t think they need to explain how the Black Rock got to the middle of the Island, and Richard’s character seems to be in a pretty satisfying place right now.

Then of course, there was the end, which heavily mirrored Season 3 when Jack, Kate, and Juliet (I think they came together) arrived at the beach after escaping the Hydra Island. Is Richard the new Juliet, what with his awkward standing in the background while everybody else hugs Jack? If he is, then “ooh, la, la!” And the dirty old man being all voyeuristic down in the submarine makes it even more risque! That dirty old man is Charles Widmore, of course. Terrible submarine-vision aside, that was a very nice cliff-hanger to end on.

So now we have dead Jacob, Jack, Illana, Richard, Hurley, Sun, Ben, Lepidus, and Miles, lined up against Focke, Sawyer, Sayid, Kate, Claire, Jin, and the Others. I’m not going to bother matching people up against nemeses at this point since I’m too lazy, but I will wager that Sun goes over to Esau to be with Jin and get off the Island, which brings the count to 8 vs. 7 (if we don’t count the nameless Others), and we can then assume that Widmore will be joining Esau to make it and even 8 vs. 8. Those are my thoughts at least. Maybe Desmond really will be special when he comes in.

As for my theories, this whole episode was pretty much dedicated to my Redemption Theory, and I think Bleeding Universe Theory has taken on a new meaning. During the past couple episodes, events in one universe seem to be having greater and greater effects on the other universe, which could be interpreted as them bleeding together. Overall, this episode really restored my faith in the show, even if it didn’t really answer any questions. Can’t wait ’til next week.

Oh, and for the record, I’m sticking to the idea that the final episode will be all about the Losties’ kids and how their lives pan out as a result of their parents’ actions. The whole “sins of the father” thing seems to fit in with the vibe right now.

It’s going to “innovate and revolutionize the music genre” all over again. Sure…