When Disney released The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe back in 2005 my anticipation stemmed from a deep love of the books by C.S. Lewis. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read those books! The film was visually beautiful and well crafted, but to me and many other Narnia lovers, it was lacking something we couldn’t quite put a finger on.

Unlike the movie industry, summertime for gamers is usually the slow period as most companies hold onto their big guns until he fall/Christmas season in order to get at those holiday dollars. However, if you ask me, the summer and fall of 2008 is shaping up to be quite the killer combo for gamers. Here's a list of just some of the madness that will be coming our way:

Before becoming the eccentric solo artist which we know and love today, Ryan Adams fronted Whiskeytown, a group who called North Carolina home. Their 1997 release Strangers Almanac was the group's major label debut after their independent record Faithless Street drummed up a fair amount of attention from labels and fans alike.

Jim Ward is probably best known as a former member of At The Drive In and current member of Sparta. Ward's group Sleepercar allows him the opportunity to branch out into terrain covering alternative country (Fences Down) as well as grandiose U2-inspired tracks like the climatic Wednesday Nights and Kings and Compromises.

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Gunter glieben glauchen globen; the boys from Sheffield, England are back with their ninth studio record. Def Leppard skillfully pull off staying remarkably current in terms of their sound while not completely turning their backs on the sound that brought them their fortune and fame.

If you can imagine a singer-songwriter who combines the folk-country feel of Blue Rodeo with Neil Young while adding touches of pop sensibilities from artists like Ron Sexsmith, you've got the gist of what Justin Rutledge is about.

You might already know this band as the group behind the theme song to the teen melodrama that was The OC. But on their fourth album, Phantom Planet quite capably proves they're not destined for the same status which The Rembrandts met after their Friends theme song hit the charts.

Who hasn't said, "Boy, if I knew then what I know now ..."?

I'm calling it my Vegas weekend, having seen What Happens in Vegas and playing blackjack at the Halifax Casino in two consecutive nights. I didn't win big in either case, but I don't feel ripped off either. I like to imagine that if this movie was out getting liquored and betting its paycheck on nickel-slots it would neither hit the jackpot nor bottom out, but would pretty much break even.

Everyone's familiar with mad scientists and their diabolical plots to take over or destroy the world. It's a common theme in comic books and other science fiction media. Devouring nanotech, genetically splicing human and shark DNA, captured alien technologies and other bizarre deviousness. At the end of the day, the question is: Who cleans up the mess?