Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 31, 2010 in Videogames
It’s always neat to see prototypes or early versions of video games and looking at how they differ from the final release. Shadow of the Colossus had a bunch of colossi cut from the game before release, for example. But it’s not just recent games; Lost Levels got their hands on a prototype for the original NES Legend of Zelda, and they discovered that the game was actually made more difficult for its retail release. In the prototype, it was easier to acquire rupees, dungeons had less enemies clustered together, and the enemies come in less-threatening combinations. I guess it isn’t just confirmation bias that makes me think that NES games are just flat-out harder than other games. They did it on purpose! Read more…
Marvel’s been dropping cameos of their lesser-known heroes into their movies ever since they took charge of their film universe. Anyone who saw Iron Man or its sequel caught glimpses of heroes like Nick Fury or gear belonging to Thor or Captain America; it’s all part of an effort to unify the film universe and make it easy to introduce new characters. It appears that 2011’s Thor will be no exception to this rule — rumor has it that one of the stars of the upcoming Avengers movie will be making a cameo. And that Avenger is none other than Hawkeye! It’s just a rumor, for now, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense than the other recent rumor that Demi Lovato snagged an Avengers role. Read more…
Back in November, Kotobukiya decided to take a few photos of their Star Wars ArtFX statues while attempting to recreate some memorable scenes from the holy trilogy. Given that they only had Darth Vader, some Stormtroopers, and Boba Fett to work with at the time, I’d say they did pretty well for themselves. The statues are incredibly detailed, and thankfully lack the need for finer details like facial features, etc. No doubt that would have made their job a little more difficult.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 30, 2010 in Videogames
You can snag yourself a free episode of Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game, that is, if you want to wait until February to play it. The deal has been going on for awhile now, but Telltale Games — the guys behind the recent Sam & Max, and Monkey Island titles — are giving away that first episode to anyone who registers via this site. Of course, if you’d rather just buy the game outright, you can download it right away and start playing. So far, it’s recieved mostly rave reviews, so I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to wait. Still, pretty awesome of Telltale to just hand out the first episode for free. Read more…
I’m kidding, actually. I use my iPad all the time — I just wish it was more than a glorified ebook reader. Sure, I have a few apps that I use all the time, but aside from watching videos on services like Hulu, Netflix, or streamed over my Air Video server, reading books and playing a few games pretty much covers it. I’m not sure Apple will ever add functionality for the device — at least, not this generation — so I’ll take my added functionality wherever I can get it. In this case, it comes in the form of an HDMI adapter.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 29, 2010 in Videogames
Check out this amazing video of Hironobu Sakaguchi’s The Last Story for Nintendo’s Wii. The battle system looks fantastic and seems to mix a number of popular elements. In addition to the classic menu-based combat we’ve seen in his previous titles, we’re given a bit of action-oriented stealth gameplay as well, and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately, the game will be a Wii exclusive, so it might lack the visual polish that we’ve come to expect in modern roleplaying games, but to be honest, none of that really matters to me so long as I actually enjoy playing it. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 28, 2010 in Comic Books
This is the upcoming cover of Batman: Europa #3 which will be released in March 2011 by DC Comics. What blew me away about the cover painting by Spanish artist Diego Latorre isn’t just the high quality of his craftsmanship — but the fact that building Batman out of Eiffel Towers is a brilliant editorial touch. Now I won’t say if this is the best Batman cover I’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly up there.
Like most viewers, I found Deep Space Nine far more entertaining than Star Trek Voyager, and a worthy successor to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately, the series never really gained much ground in the litterary world — at least, in comparison to The Next Generation, or the Original Series. As a result, Pocket Books relaunched the series in order to bring Deep Space Nine in line with the current Trek timeline, as established by the Next Generation and Titan novels.
I always assumed the Empire owned stock in Starbucks, but I guess I was wrong about that. Instead, they apparently grow their own blend. ThinkGeek claims these unique beans as being hand-roasted by Stormtroopers, but let’s be honest, when has the Empire ever employed stormtroopers for manual labor? All kidding aside, I’m not sure what’s worse, the fact that this coffee has been branded so shamelessly, or the fact that I really want to try some. These beans actually come from Africa and Indonesia and are an officially licensed Star Wars product, for what that’s worth. Take a risk and dabble in the dark side for only $15 a bag.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 27, 2010 in Comic Books
I think one of the more interesting comic book series I’ve been following has been The Wizard of Oz which is illustrated by Skottie Young. This is the cover for the Oz Primer which will be released in March, 2011 by Marvel Comics. I really love how Skottie has liberated his artwork from the 1936 MGM film and reinvented the characters to make them his own.
This spectacular Terminator T-800 bust sculpture was constructed out of Lego bricks by the talented Martin Latta. It’s a remake of a previous project that martin did, although this version features LED eyes: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 27, 2010 in Star Trek, Tech
Apple has just filed a patent to make their logo on mobile devices double as an antenna — but what surprised me about this concept is that it’s taken directly from the Starfleet communicator badge that’s been around since Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 80s. I’m frankly surprised that Apple’s competition isn’t mining old sci fi series for other product development ideas like visors for the blind and holodeck theme parks. To be fair Apple is in a unique position to exploit these ideas because they really do a great job of combining hardware and software to create “magical devices”. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 26, 2010 in Star Trek
Look William Shatner survived the long lean years when nobody cared about Star Trek, so he’s entitled to do whatever he likes (including cash in) — because he’s earned the fanboy seal of approval. But as for you Scott Bakula: Shame on you! You sully your Starfleet rank when you engage in a comedy series about middle aged men who are search of their lost youth. Damn it man you should be out there flying starships instead of hanging out with a collection of antiques! Scott I beg of you — get your command back before you become an antique…Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 26, 2010 in Television
Is there anything more Christmasy than gingerbread spaceships? Probably. But for geeks? No way! This confectionary replica of Firefly’s signature starship, Serenity, is sure to put a smile on the face of any self-respecting sci-fi geek, and you have Kristoffer Gressil to thank for it. Check out more of his photos of the festive freighter on Kristoffer’s Facebook. Read more…
Venture Bros. is probably one of the best shows on television, animated or not, and I felt a little sad when its fourth-season finale aired. It felt like a series finale! And showrunners Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have stated several times that creating seasons of the hit show is incredibly taxing, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume as much. But there’s good news! Publick announced on Christmas Eve via LiveJournal that the show would indeed be coming back, with more details forthcoming. Go Team Venture! Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 25, 2010 in Star Trek
Ah, Christmas. If you watched TV in the 90s, you probably remember Hallmark’s relentless commercials for new commemorative ornaments around this time of year. They had one for everything! I had a little light-up space shuttle ornament with opening loading bays, even. What space shuttles have to do with Christmas, I have no idea. Speaking of shuttles, though, check out this Christmas miracle — a video of Leonard Nimoy appearing in a 1992 Hallmark ad for a Star Trek shuttlecraft ornament. If you thought his trademark Vulcan greeting meant “live long and prosper,” well, you might learn a little something today. Read more…
Back when David Lynch released his film version of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi classic Dune, Marvel Comics adapted it in comic form. It was penned by Ralph Macchio (no, not that Ralph Macchio) and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz. And it was pretty cool! You can see for yourself by checking out Joe Bloke’s scanned edition of the whole darn thing, sprawling Arrakian vistas and gaping sandworm maws included. At least until it inevitably gets taken down, anyway. Read more…
2008 was a rough year for releasing a game based on an original IP — sorry, Mirror’s Edge — but EA took a big gamble on the excellent sci-fi horror excursion Dead Space. And it paid off! Dead Space sold pretty well for a new IP, and nowadays you can snag it for $20 as part of the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits collection, or get the spinoff Dead Space: Extraction for the Wii. Now, if you’re already familiar with how awesome the original was, you’ll probably be very interested to know that a playable demo of Dead Space 2 has just hit Xbox Live and PSN, letting you unleash Isaac’s mighty boot once again. So go get it! And if you haven’t played the original yet, go do that too! Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 23, 2010 in Videogames
You don’t have to be a card carrying member of the NRA to appreciate a wide selection of projectile weaponry. In fact, anyone who has spent enough time playing first-person shooters would tell you that nothing beats having options and that’s exactly what you get when you play Borderlands. The title reportedly contains close to 17,000,000 weapons — though, arguably they’re mostly variants. The game hit consoles late last year and garnered plenty of positive reviews, so I have to wonder why they’ve waited so long to make the game avaialble for download via PSN or Xbox Live!
I spend so much of my time online these days that it’s no wonder I’ve forgotten how much fun it can be to take a camping trip. While I have to admit the notion of being away from my precious array of electronic devices scares the hell out of me, it wouldn’t hurt to unplug every once in awhile. Though I wouldn’t be able to bring along my copy of Family Guy: It’s a Trap, or my new LED TV, I can keep the Star Wars spirit alive with this awesome Tauntaun sleeping bag. As you’ll note from the picture above, the bag itself features a Tauntaun-head for a pillow. It also comes with a lightsaber shaped zipper so you can attempt your best Han Solo impression. Don’t worry, it probably won’t smell as bad — that is, unless you refuse to bathe or you’re camping on Dagobah. They usually retail for $99, but you can snag one for 20% if you order yours from ThinkGeek today.
I hate to admit this as a long time anime fanboy, but the computer animators from Taiwan are doing some very timely funny work on a shoestring budget! Their latest epic is a recreation of the Spiderman disaster on Broadway — and the best thing about this clip is that it includes an appearance by Bono. The last time I’ve seen an animated show react this fast to events in the news is when South park was at the high point of their game. Read more…
The Warriors was a brilliant low budget sci fi horror film set in a future New York City dominated by gangs. Recently Tony Scott announced that he’d be doing a remake of the film, although it looks like Hello Kitty has beaten him to the punch with this t-shirt showing our cute feline armed with a baseball bat. Can you dig it?Read more…
I’m surprised we haven’t really brought this up yet, but I imagine some of you haven’t already heard about the upcoming Level-5/Studio Ghibli collaboration, Ni no Kuni. You can expect the classic art and animation we’ve come to expect from Ghibli, looking very much like your standard Miyazaki fare, and Level 5’s previous titles have proven the studios ability to seamlessly blend animation and 3D using beautifully rendered cell-shaded visuals.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 22, 2010 in Japanese TV
I adore Hikaru Utada. She’s perhaps the most recognizable Japanese pop icon in recent years. In fact, I’m pretty sure she still holds a record or two for selling over 8 million copies of her debut album in Japan alone. That’s a lot by our industry’s standards, and even moreso by their own. That aside, she’s got a lovely voice and a natrual beauty to compliment it, which is why I fall head over heels in love every time she does a commercial. This latest ad has her singing “Can’t Wait ‘Til Christmas,” which was included on the recently released Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 while leaning on a giant bottle of Pepsi Nex Zero — a drink I personally find delicious. It’s a shame you have to fly to the Japan to try it, though. Read more…
