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Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 26, 2015 in Videogames 
If you’re looking to replay Homeworld, things just got good: Gearbox has announced the release date for the Homeworld Remastered Collection as February 25th. The package with feature redone versions of the space-themed strategy games Homeworld and Homeworld 2, as well as their original versions. This will also feature access into a multiplayer beta, as the multiplayer aspect is still under construction, apparently due to the difficulty in getting old code updated. You can pre-order the collection now on Steam for a discounted $29.74. On February 25th, it’ll launch and go up to its normal price of $34.99. Check out the trailer below! Read more…
Tags: Gearbox, homeworld
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 25, 2015 in Videogames 
The first expansion for Guild Wars 2 has been announced at PAX South and titled Heart of Thorns. While there’s no release date yet, they have listed a bunch of the new features that the expansion will add, such as: a new region (Maguuma Jungle), a new profession (Revenant), guild halls, a new PvP game mode titled Stronghold, and a new WvW map called Borderlands. It appears to be a pretty hefty chunk of new content, especially for hardcore fans of the game. If you want to jump into Guild Wars 2, they’re making it extra easy for you, as right now the game is on sale for $9.99. That’s a pretty nice price, especially with no monthly MMO fees! Check out the Heart of Thorns trailer below. Read more…
Tags: guild wars, MMORPG
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 25, 2015 in Hobbies and Collections 
If you pay attention to the Lego community, you probably know that Scooby-Doo sets had been rumored for the past few months. Now, as the London Toy Fair wraps up, Lego has officially announced that yes, they’re real. There are currently four sets listed: a Mystery Machine, Mystery Mansion, Mummy Museum Mystery, and Haunted Lighthouse. The minifigures for these sets look really nice! They’ve definitely captured the characters well. It appears there will be definitely versions of Scooby as well. As of right now we only have images of the Mystery Machine and the mansion. Check it out below! Read more…
Tags: Lego, Scooby Doo
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 24, 2015 in Videogames 
Some new footage has come out of Pokkén Tournament, Nintendo and Bandai Namco’s Pokémon fighting game. As far as we know, it’s still exclusive to arcades, but I’m still betting on an eventual Wii U release. The new trailer shows off more playable Pokémon, as well as new support characters.They also streamed some matches and it… definitely looks like a fighting game. Pikachu looks a little odd fighting against some of these larger Pokémon with his little punches and kicks — plus that crossed-arms pose at the end gives the impression that Pikachu is hardcore. He’ll mess you up! Check out more videos here and more images here. Read more…
Tags: Pokémon
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 24, 2015 in Animation 
Things aren’t looking so hot for Dreamworks Animation right now. Their last couple films haven’t exactly performed well, so a lot of folks were expecting layoffs, however, I don’t think anyone thought they’d be quite so expansive. And closing the PDI studio is definitely sad to see happen as well. Apparently some artists are being offered a chance to work at the remaining Dreamworks Animation studio, but that’s small comfort when 500 people have just been laid off. They have now trimmed down their future releases, instead putting priority on their upcoming sequels like How To Train Your Dragon 3, The Croods 2, and Kung Fu Panda 3. A full list of upcoming films is below. Read more…
Tags: Dreamworks
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 23, 2015 in Star Wars 
We’re getting a clearer picture of Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spinoff film! Last we heard, it was rumored to be a bounty hunter-themed heist film focusing on several of them stealing the plans for the Death Star. Now, we’re getting word that the lead role is female and several actresses are already testing for it. On the list we have several great names, like Kate Mara (House of Cards), her sister Rooney Mara (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, pictured above), and Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything). As of yet there’s no word on who might be pulling ahead, aside from that Jones may have to drop out due to prior obligations to Ron Howard’s Inferno. I imagine a Star Wars film, even if it’s a spinoff, is still a pretty big draw, though… Read more…
Tags: Gareth Edwards
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 23, 2015 in Star Trek 
In a curious turn of events, it appears that one of the actors in Star Trek will help write the next installment. Simon Pegg has been signed on to co-write Star Trek 3 along with Doug Jung. The third installment in the Star Trek series has had some minor issues as it searched for a director and a solid script. Now with Justin Lin on board and an upgraded scripting crew, perhaps now the film will really get rolling. Pegg is obviously talented a writing, having helped Edgar Wright script all three of the Cornetto trilogy films. Will this turn the film into Star Trek 3: Scotty’s Adventure? Read more…
Tags: Simon Pegg
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 22, 2015 in Videogames 
Playing fighting games is great, even if I’m merely competent. But watching the pros at the EVO Championship Series every July is another thing entirely. The back and forth is actually exciting, with massive levels of “hype” to savor. This year’s EVO is being held July 17-19 at the Bally’s/Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, and the main tournaments have been announced. The games are: Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Tekken 7. I’m sad my personal fave BlazBlue isn’t in there, but it’s understandable when two other Arc System Works games are in there. What’s more annoying is the lack of King of Fighters XIII, easily one of the most exciting tournaments in previous years. I’d rather have that in there than two Smash Bros. tournaments, but I guess Nintendo wanted to show off their newest game while allowing hardcore players to play their tournament classic. Read more…
Tags: Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Persona 4, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 22, 2015 in Comic Books 
Remember how Marvel was teasing its next crossover event Secret Wars — a revival of their original 80s crossover — with ads for previous popular storylines, many of them alternate worlds? Well, they’ve clarified what’s going on, and though they won’t call it a reboot, it’s basically a soft reboot. Once Secret Wars #1 is out, “there’s no Marvel universe, there’s no Ultimate universe. It’s all Battleworld,” a world made up of countries formed from all the different Marvel universes. That means alternate realities like Age of Apocalypse will be mixing with 2099. The main focus will be on the main Marvel-616 universe colliding with the Ultimate universe, as the latter has been winding down as of late. Read more…
Tags: Marvel
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 21, 2015 in Cinema, Fandom 
Now that all three films are out, let’s just say what we all knew from the start: The Hobbit did not need to be stretched out over three movies. Not only is there so much filler and weaker subplots about ancillary characters, it all distracts from Bilbo’s charming tale of adventure. And just as was expected, fans are stepping in to fix the problems of the “trilogy.” The first new cut, The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit, is from “tolkieneditor” and comes in at 4 hours (or 4.5 hours with the credits). His goal was to try to make the movie resemble J.R.R. Tolkien’s original book, so things like the investigation of Dol Guldor, the Tauriel-Legolas-Kili love triangle, a lot of filler moments or filler action scenes, and much of the Pale Orc (Azog) subplot and Laketown scenes are all gone. Read more…
Tags: The Hobbit
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 21, 2015 in Star Wars, Videogames 
Disney isn’t just sitting on the games made by LucasArts as many feared when they bought LucasFilm. They’ve made a deal with GOG.com to sell six old Star Wars games, three of which aren’t available on Steam. Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds are now available to buy, while Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Wars: Dark Forces, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords have been brought from Steam. These follow a few even older Star Wars games being rereleased last fall. And enticingly, GOG is promising another six LucasArts games over the next ten days. Maybe a few non-Star Wars games, please? Read more…
Tags: LucasArts, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 20, 2015 in Television 
Rumors have swirled about an upcoming Game of Thrones special airing on HBO on February 8. Called “A Day in the Life,” fans speculated about what it could be. Now it’s been revealed that it’s a half-hour documentary about one day of production of season 5. The special is set to highlight “the epic sets, renowned cast and global scale of Thrones, as well as the more intimate and individual challenges of our subjects.” Viewers will see one day of production at three different locations around the globe: Belfast, Northern Ireland; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Sevilla and Osuna; Spain. Besides showing how they pull off such a complex show, it may give hints to the fifth season, which won’t air until April, which is a great reason to watch. Read more…
Tags: Game of Thrones
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 20, 2015 in Fandom, Videogames 
I’d say that Konami has gone off the deep end when it comes to most of their games. The company seems horribly mismanaged, and it shows in classic series like Silent Hill that seem to have no direction in mind. But while we haven’t seen much of the next entry Silent Hills, Silent Hill: Alchemilla, a fan-mod of Half-Life 2‘s Source engine, seems more true to Silent Hill than anything Konami has put out recently. It’s in first-person and doesn’t feature combat, instead basing itself on an adventure game template. But it absolutely nails the look and atmosphere of the haunted town. Alchemilla available now for free on PC, with Mac and Linux versions on the way, provided Konami doesn’t C&D the whole thing.
Read more…
Tags: Fan Art, Silent Hill
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 19, 2015 in Videogames 
At Nintendo’s last Nintendo Direct, the Japanese Direct snuck in a little downloadable game announcement that went unnoticed by many: Hakoboy! It’s an eShop game by Kirby developer HAL Laboratory, and features a tiny box-like character called… are you ready for this? …Cubey. Essentially, it’s a puzzle-platformer in which Cubey can create blocks from his square body to make bridges, stairs, walls, or just hold down a button. It looks very simple to pick up, but I imagine it’ll get deviously clever very quick. Also: it looks incredibly easy to localize. You better bring this over here, Nintendo of America! Check out the trailer below! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 19, 2015 in Cinema 
I don’t have anything against reboots per se, but when so many films coming out are reboots or sequels, it feels like losing one isn’t too big of a deal. Screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith had been attached to a Gremlins reboot a while back, and since then we’ve heard just about zero. Seth said, “I think we just ran out of steam.” Hmm, maybe its for the best? He continues, mentioning Steven Spielberg and director Chris Columbus: “It’s something I would love to come back to, but right now Steven’s making two movies back to back and Chris Columbus is busy. We’re all taking a five-minute break on that.” That’s ok! I think we’ll make do in the meantime. Read more…
Tags: gremlins
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 18, 2015 in Star Wars 
A young boy from Georgia, Liam Porter, born without an arm, recently was given quite the surprise. He wanted a cool-looking Star Wars-themed Clone Trooper prosthetic arm… so what happened? The 501st Legion hooked up with the man 3D printing it and set up a whole event to give it to Liam. This involved several troopers being present and giving him his own helmet to wear too! This is really awesome. From The Augusta Chronicle article: “‘They want it to look as superhero-ish or as robotic as possible,’ Peterson said. ‘To them, it is just cool. And it actually frees us up a lot because now we can feel free to try to experiment and do different things. Like, hey, why not put a clamp on a hand? It’s just a tool anyway.'” Amazing work! Check out a video of the event below. Read more…
Tags: 501st Legion
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 18, 2015 in Television 
Top Gear and Lego bricks are one of the more unlikely combinations I thought I’d see, but here we are! Lego has a new line of licensed cars toys titled Speed Champions. It features car brands like Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, and others. To promote it, they created a CGI trailer for the new season of Top Gear, featuring the crew messing around backstage as they try to put the Stig back together. The new cars themselves are nice looking, but feature lots of stickers, which makes the Lego fan in me go “blegh!” This isn’t too awful of a crossover, though! I wonder if we’ll ever see official Top Gear Lego sets? Read more…
Tags: Lego, Top Gear
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 17, 2015 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
Wow, talk about impressive. Lego fan Aaron Fiskum has put together a detailed and quite large X-34 Landspeeder, styled similarly to the highly collectable Lego UCS series of Star Wars sets. It measures about two feet long and features almost 3000 pieces! I’m really blown away by the amount of care put into this, and according to The Brothers Brick, this is Fiskum’s second model he’s made. Wow! I love the curves on the engines and nose of the speeder. Plus, that cockpit looks pretty roomy too! Check out more images below, then stop by his Flickr page to see the entire gallery. Read more…
Tags: Lego
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 17, 2015 in Television 
Game of Thrones in coming to the big screen… the biggest screen, actually. Starting January 29th, for one week Imax theaters will have several Game of Thrones showings, which will be episodes 9 and 10 of season 4, followed by a new trailer for season 5. These two episodes (“The Watchers on the Wall” and “The Children”) are some of the biggest showpieces for Game of Thrones, and will probably be pretty neat to see on the big screen. Obviously this is really meant for the hardcore fans, and as such they’ll also be giving out two posters at the screenings: one (“The Watchers on the Wall”) at all AMC theaters, and another (“The Children”) at all other theaters. I’ve included the posters below, but be warned: they feature major spoilers! Tickets are on sale now here. Read more…
Tags: Game of Thrones, IMAX
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 16, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Rumors are fun! You also can’t always take them seriously. But this one has some heft behind it: over the past month or two we’ve seen tons of leaked Sony emails and an abundance of rumors that all point to Sony being in talks with Marvel. They want to do something with Spider-Man… but as usual with giant corporations, they’re getting hung up on all the little details. However, Da7e from Latino Review is reporting that according to their sources, the Marvel and Sony deal has gone through, and Spider-Man will feature in Avengers: Infinity War Part 1. It will not feature Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Still, it’s hard to really believe this until we see it, because hey: it still sounds almost impossible for the two behemoths to agree. But I sure do hope that this all works out in the end! Read more…
Tags: Marvel, Sony, Spider-man
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 16, 2015 in Cinema 
Don’t lie, dear readers: I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seat waiting to see which films get snubbed this year! Which of your favorite films will be totally ignored, or related to a simple Best Sound Mixing nomination?! Well, I’ve included the full list below, but there are a few curious choices here. One omission of note is the lack of The LEGO Movie in the Best Animated Picture category (although Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya did thankfully get a nod). Another surprise is the number of noms for American Sniper, which is probably at the top of my list titled “Films I Couldn’t Care Less About.” Check out some salient tweets and the full list below! Read more…
Tags: Academy Awards, The Oscars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 15, 2015 in Anime, Cinema 
Disney has first pass at releasing Studio Ghibli’s films, but lately it seems that if Hayao Miyazaki isn’t directing, they’re not as interested. GKIDS stepped in to release From Up on Poppy Hill and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. It seems they’re doing it one more time for When Marnie Was There, the most recent and possibly last film from the famed anime studio. GKIDS is planning a spring 2015 theatrical release and the usual award submissions; the distributor also purchased the home video and TV rights, so expect a Blu-ray release later this year. Read more…
Tags: GKIDS, Studio Ghibli
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 15, 2015 in Videogames 
Nintendo held their first Nintendo Direct of the year, announcing their upcoming games for the first half of the year. Sadly, there wasn’t much Wii U news, but that’s because of the 3DS focus, since there is a new piece of hardware. After an annoyingly long wait and well past the holiday shopping season, Nintendo is finally bringing the New 3DS to America after Japan (and strangely Australia) got to enjoy it. The system has improved head-tracking 3D, more power under the hood, a faster OS, Amiibo/NFC support, two more shoulder buttons, and a c-stick (right stick) nub. (An Amiibo adapter is expected for older 3DS models.) Read more…
Tags: Amiibo, New 3DS, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct, Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 14, 2015 in Anime, Cinema, Videogames 
The theatrical adaptation of Persona 3 continues with Persona 3 The Movie #3: Falling Down. The anime movie will be released in Japan on April 4, only a few months from now. It’s not yet clear whether there will be a fourth film or if Falling Down is the final film in the series, but judging by this new teaser, we’re getting close to the end. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on a Western release for the second movie in the series, Midsummer Knight’s Dream. Seeing as it will be out on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan on March 11, I predict a release later this year. Read more…
Tags: Atlus, Persona 3
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