'District 9' will be a Awesome! (Take a Break and Watch This)

My friend was right. 'District 9' may be our generation's 'Blade Runner'. It looks to be a great movie.

Battlefield 1943 Tips by Tsquared

Video Game - E3 2009 - X-Play

Young Anakin Skywalker all grown up (Take a Break and Watch This)

'Tron Legacy' Trailer Screened at Comic-Con '09 (Take a Break and Watch This)

It was originally shown at Comic-Con '08 (I believe), but this is the trailer for the 'Tron' sequel titled 'Tron Legacy'. It looks like it will be awesome!

WOW addicts to receive in-game counseling

courtesy of gamespot

Back in the summer of 2005, an Internet addiction clinic opened in China, and by the following summer a clinic opened in Amsterdam to treat video game addicts. Later in 2006, a British study concluded that one in nine massively multiplayer online gamers is addicted to their online hobby. Now, UK-daily The Telegraph reports that therapists plan to go beyond the clinic and venture into the game world of the tremendously popular online game World of Warcraft.

Dr. Richard Graham, a psychiatrist at London's Tavistock Center, said he plans to provide in-game therapy services for young gamers who have become addicted to the 11-million-strong massively multiplayer online role-playing game. He claims to have had clients who've played the game 14 and 16 hours a day.

Psychiatrist Dr. Richard Graham plans to reach overly-devoted gamers by sending therapists into the wildly popular MMORPG by the end of the year.

"We will be launching this project by the end of the year. I think it’s already clear that psychiatrists will have to stay within the parameters of the game. They certainly wouldn’t be wandering around the game in white coats and would have to use the same characters available to other players," Graham said, asking Blizzard to waive or discount the game's $15 monthly fee for therapists. "Of course one problem we’re going to have to overcome is that while a psychiatrist may excel in what they do in the real world, they’re probably not going to be very good at playing World of Warcraft."

Graham said his proposed in-game measures were necessary because the game addicts can be more easily found online than in person. The newspaper's article comes after a related story it published in February, headlined "World of Warcraft 'more addictive than cocaine'." Blizzard could not be reached for comment as of press time.

EA blasted over questionable marketing stunt

courtesy of Ben Silverman of Yahoo

Games maker EA has incited a wave of backlash over the latest marketing ploy for their upcoming action game, Dante's Inferno.

In an effort to promote the title at last week's San Diego Comic-Con event, EA decided to run a contest asking showgoers to "commit acts of lust" with any models working at the convention's myriad booths. They were then instructed to submit photos via social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. The winner would receive "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty," while five runners-up would have to make do with a copy of the game, a $240 gift card and assorted game merchandise.

Of course, EA gave themselves an out, noting on the official rules page that "...judges reserve the right, in their sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any Submissions that are inappropriate for any reason, including without limitation, for depicting or mentioning sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and/or inappropriate language." In other words, don't get crazy while you commit your "acts of lust."

Unfortunately for EA, the gaming community hasn’t responded well. Twitter posts about the marketing effort have been largely negative; tweets to #EAfail have spiked, with many accusing the company of being tasteless, immature and sexist. In turn, those responsible have issued a respectful if unapologetic tweet right back:

"'Commit acts of lust' is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps," it reads. "Also, a ‘Night of Lust’ means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes."

It's just the latest EA marketing stunt to go awry. Back in April, the company got in hot water for sending journalists illegal brass knuckles to promote their game based on The Godfather II. And at the E3 trade show in early June, EA angered Christian groups after making waves with a viral marketing campaign for -- you guessed it -- Dante's Inferno, this time featuring fake protesters.

Dante himself never had this much trouble.

*just a little recap.

April '09: EA sent brass knuckles to journalists (which is illegal).

June '09: EA caused a christian protest outside of E3 for their upcoming game Dante's Inferno (which was discovered was staged by an advertising agency hired by EA).

July '09: EA has promotional "Acts of Lust" contest at Comic-Con (which was deemed juvenile and immature by videogamers everywhere).

Seems like EA needs to hire some new advertising "experts". The current ones don't seem to be helping things.

No One Will Keep Us Out

This is a funny picture.

'Wolfenstein' Remake to Release August 18

A new Wolfenstein game has been in development for quite a while now, but it wasn't until recently that I realized how close it was to completion and also how much it was going to be like one of my favorite games of all time - Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Wolfenstein 3D was the first first person shooter (FPS) ever released by id Software. People were impressed by it's 3D engine but it wasn't until id Software released Doom that people truly took notice and the FPS genre began to take the world by storm. Well, fast forward a few years through the various Dooms and Quakes and then you will see id Software going back to the Wolfenstein series by releasing another game. They updated the graphics, created a new storyline, and gave it the name Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RtCW).

It was a success and the public's interest in the Wolfenstein brand was renewed, but what truly placed RtCW apart from the other FPS's of the time was it's innovative multiplayer. When playing online, the maps were not just battlefields where the side with the most bodycounts at the end of the match won. Instead there were objectives to each map and your team had a "mission" to perform. Also, players could choose between 4 different roles that had different impacts on the game. A medic could heal other players, a lieutenant could drop ammo supplies and call in air strikes, an engineer could set explosives, and a soldier could use a rocket launcher. It was only made better on Xbox Live with voice communication.

In RtCW, one of the favorites of players (and my favorite) was the beach map *picture below* where the objective was for the Allied players to assault the Nazi fortification (ala Normandy Beach style) and steal some documents then run to the radio room to transmit them. The Nazi's of course were there to do everything they could to stop them. The strategy of having multiple routes to enter the fortification as well as the multiple classes the multiplayer mode offered meant many, many hours of online gaming was enjoyed by this blogger and his friends.



This is not all good news though. Since RtCW, a lot of FPS's have tried to incorporate a "class system" within their game and all have been met with limited success. The Wolfenstein series itself released a follow up to RtCW called Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (W:ET) for free but only on the PC. It was praised by the gaming community but it was not really known about outside of the PC market. So, then id Software decided to develop a true multiplayer-only experience following in the steps of RtCW and W:ET by releasing Quake Wars: Enemy Territories. This was also praised by gaming critics everywhere, but it didn't appear to take the online world by storm the way that I remember RtCW doing so. (I'm sure this may have had something to do with the game being released around the same time as Halo 3.) Looks like the new Wolfenstein game is going to be their next attempt to recapture the RtCW audience.

The bottom line... I think that everyone will enjoy having another Wolfenstein multiplayer game for the current generation of consoles. The problem is that the videogame industry is a different world now. There are already many games out there that offer a RtCW "feel" and unless they find a way to balance the classes (which many current games appear to be incapable of), then the new Wolfenstein will just be another game that failed to live up to the nostalgic expectations of RtCW. Most "class based" online FPS games find themselves with one class that is over powered and everyone ends up playing that particular class (ala rifleman in Battlefield 1943). All the support classes sort of "fall to the wayside". Then again, you never know. Maybe the new Wolfenstein can fix the problems that plague the current crop of RtCW games. Either way, we will soon find out.

Wolfenstein is scheduled to be released August 18, 2009.

Videos for the new Wolfenstein can be found here.

'Splinter Cell' pushed back to 2010

courtesy of Brett Molina of USAToday

Add Splinter Cell: Conviction to the list of games in 2010.

In a report of its first-half fiscal year sales, publisher Ubisoft revealed the long-awaited stealth action game will arrive in the fourth quarter, which falls in early 2010.

"We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft," says CEO Yves Guillemot in a press release.

The publisher is also pushing back the release of Nintendo Wii action game Red Steel 2 to early 2010.

Splinter Cell becomes the latest significant release postponed until next year. Recently, the publishers representing Bayonetta, BioShock 2 and Heavy Rain revealed those titles would move to a stacked 2010 video game lineup.

Halo Anime?

Microsoft has announced plans to create a series of anime short films based on the Halo universe. Halo Legends will be produced by Microsoft's 343 Industries and is expected to feature "creative direction" from anime pioneer Shinji Aramaki of Appleseed EX Machina fame and Mamoru Oshii, director of the Ghost in the Shell movies.

Read more here and here.

Battlefield 1943 Hits 600,000 Mark in 2 weeks

courtesy of gamasutra.com

Electronic Arts' DICE-developed Battlefield 1943 has sold over 600,000 copies digitally via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network since its July 8th launch, the company announced today.

According to EA, this makes the game the fastest selling day one and week one download-only game worldwide on Xbox Live Marketplace, and also the fastest selling day one and week one download-only game on the PlayStation Network in North America.

Set in World War II, multiplayer first-person shooter Battlefield 1943 allows for up to 24 players o compete across four different battlefield maps: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and the recently-unlocked Coral Sea, all inspired by predecessor Battlefield 1942 and redesigned with DICE's Frostbite engine.

The Xbox Live community unlocked Coral Sea by reaching the goal of 43 million kills in 5 days, while the PlayStation Network community achieved it in 8 days.

"We are honored by the reception that the game has received so far," says producer Gordon Van Dyke. "Watching and participating in this non-stop multiplayer action has been a real treat for us and we can’t believe how fast our fans reached 43 million kills."

The game is priced at $15 on both services - which amounts to 1600 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live. Demand was so strong for the title that there were notable online server problems in its first few days on sale.

Portable Xbox is on the way!

courtesy of Brian Heater via pcmag.com

The portable Xbox is coming: That much, it seems, is no longer up for debate. The question is when such a device will arrive. In an interview posted today by gaming site Kikizo, Shane Kim, a Microsoft corporate VP, confirmed perpetual rumors that the company's popular console will finally be getting a handheld counterpart.

"For us, it's a matter of focusing on 'when'," Kim told the site, "because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like instant-on 1080p HD, Facebook, Twitter, Project Natal ... And so we've chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we're building a service in Live that will... extend to other platforms. No question about it."

Kim added that, for a portable system, Xbox Live would be the "connective tissue." Plenty of questions remain, the VP added, including whether such a device would also function as a phone (via Windows Mobile) a la the iPhone.

Apple Working on a 4G iPhone

Upset because you bought an iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G instead of waiting for iPhone 3G S? Well, don't feel bad because soon (probably next year around June) Apple will be releasing a new iPhone possibly called the iPhone 4G. It's been speculated recently on several blogs, but no details or confirmations ever truly came to light... until now.

A newspaper in China reported that a research worker for Foxconn (iPhone manufacturer) committed suicide after a prototype iPhone that he was responsible for went missing. It is reportedly only one of sixteen prototypes, but the damage this could cause for Apple is tremendous. Cell phone manufacturer's could use the information to suppress and minimize Apple's (extremely large) market share. You can read the article here.

It's ashame what happened to the guy, but this is proof (sort of) that Apple has every intention of making as many iterations of iPhone as people have iPods.

Sam Raimi to Direct "WOW" Movie

courtesy of wow.com

Ain't It Cool News has uncovered one helluva juicy tidbit; one that has more or less came out of nowhere.

Sam Raimi is set to direct the World of Warcraft movie.

This news is coming out right before the San Diego ComicCon, which begins this week. According to Ain't It Cool News, the story should be hitting the trades later this week or next (Trades are daily papers in Hollywood about the latest goings on, more business than gossip news).

Raimi is best known for directing all the recent Spiderman works and cult horror films. This likely means that a movie announcement is not far off – perhaps BlizzCon?

Funny Moon Landing Comic Strip

"The Dark Tower" will be coming to Theatre's

The creators and writers of LOST have bought the rights to the Stephen King "Dark Tower" series for $19.00 (supposedly the number 19 has something to do with the series).

They claim that they will not start working on it after they are completely finished with LOST. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it since they have done such an excellent job with LOST.

"The Hobbit" Movie may never be Released

courtesy of comicbookmovies.com

Unpaid royalties may be the beginning of the end for "The Hobbit" movies!

40 years ago, J.R.R Tolkien sold the right's to his "Lord of the Rings" novels for 7.5 per cent of the future take the movies would make. Three films and over six billion dollars later, the heirs of Tolkien’s estate haven't seen a cent.

The lawsuit, now filed by the heirs against Time Warner, will be seen in the courts come October and may threaten the two "Hobbit" films into non-existence.

''Usually it's not outright thievery by the studios, but death by contract,'' said Pierce O'Donnell, the Los Angeles-based lawyer who represented the late columnist Art Buchwald in a successful case against Viacom's Paramount Pictures in 1988. ''It's an esoteric world where black doesn't mean black, and white doesn't necessarily mean white.''

Tolkien's family and the charity "The Tolkien Trust", seek over $220 million in compensation. They also wish to have the option to terminate further rights to the author's work, as the original contract lets them in the event of a breach.

Not a good sign for the fans.

Kevin Smith takes Care of Heckler at Comic-Con 2008 (Take a Break and Watch This)

It would be funny if they had presenters at BabelCon that were as funny (and famous) as Kevin Smith. This is what a real convention is all about.


EMBED-Kevin Smith Owns Jerk At Comic Con - Watch more free videos

Star Trek Confusion (Take a Break and Watch This)

via videosift.com

'Heroes' is getting desperate for Viewers

courtesy of examiner.com

Hayden Panettiere going gay on 'Heroes'

Several overseas media outlets are reporting that Hayden Panettiere's character Claire Bennett (the Cheerleader) on NBC's Heroes will go gay next season.

A source told the UK's Daily Star that Claire will share a same-sex kiss with her college roommate. “It’s just girly fun at first. But it might progress into a more serious relationship. It depends on how viewers respond."

The 19 year-old actress dated her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia (Peter) in real life for several months, but the two allegedly had a nasty break-up that made working together on set difficult.

The show could certainly use some help after two lackluster seasons and plummeting ratings. If you want to see a hot lesbian relationship on network TV, make sure to tune in to Heroes and send the producers your messages of support!

Best FREE iPhone Games!

Xplay covers the best free iPhone games. *video below* I wouldn't normally talk much about something like this (because not EVERYONE has an iPhone), but I have friends who think that the iPhone has "won the war" when it comes to cell phones. Although Apple has a large foothold on the market, any educated person would wait and see what happens with the Palm Pre before making any final conclusions. But... to each his own.

Doctor Doom tells Jokes at Comedy Club

I think it's safe to say that Doctor Doom doesn't like the Fantastic Four.

Cowboy Bebop Live Action Movie in the Works

Even though the live action version of Akira was scrapped, it seems the live action version of Cowboy Bebop will get the green light. And guess who will be playing the main character. None other than Keanu Reeves.

Top VideoGame Manufacturers Threaten to Abandon Making Games for the PS3 if Sony doesn't Drop Price

courtesy of GameSpot

Ever since the PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006, third-party publishers have been grumbling that it is too expensive. That dissatisfaction came to a head last month, when the world's largest third-party publisher publicly threatened to discontinue support of the costly-to-develop-for platform, which lags behind the rival Wii and Xbox 360 in terms of market share.

Sir Howard Stringer brings the noise.

"They have to cut the price because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony….When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console--and the PSP."

Today, Sony Corp. CEO Sir Howard Stringer responded directly--and dismissively--to Kotick's comments. "He likes to make a lot of noise," the Welsh-born executive told Reuters at a tech conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, which Kotick is also attending. "He's putting pressure on me, and I'm putting pressure on him. That's the nature of business. … [But] I lose money on every PlayStation I make--how's that for logic?"

Speaking of the PS3, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton deflected questions that a widely rumored reduction in the console's cost could come as early as next month. "We feel that we're sacrificing the short term to pay dividends in the long term," he told Silicon Valley magazine Fast Company. "People are having short-term thinking--the platform is not even three years old…. It costs a lot to invest in rolling out new technology, and if the consumer walks away before the life cycle is over--you can talk about the install base of hardware, but how many of those machines are still active, how many people are still playing them?"

Tretton also said he hoped 2008 was the nadir of the worldwide economic recession, which has slowed the game industry in general and sales of the $399/$499 PS3 in particular. Still, he pointed to an increase in the console's market share last year as a sign of progress.

"In 2008, we had a 38 percent increase in sales and we hit our 10-million-units-worldwide goal for PS3 sales," he explained. "We had $6.4 billion in revenue in US alone on the PlayStation brand, and a 116 percent increase in software sales. At the worst possible time, if you're hitting numbers and delivering success... my hope is that as our production efficiencies improve and more great games come to market, the horizon has got to be better for 2009 and 2010."

Google to Release a Free Operating System titled "Chrome OS"

Ever heard of Microsoft Windows? How about Linux? These are operating systems, also known as OS's, that the computer needs in order to accept input (keyboard, mouse) from the user (you) to manipulate the hardware (computer components) to run programs and output them to an interface that you can see (monitor). In other words, an OS is one of the essential components of a working computer. That is why Microsoft is constantly battling anti-trust and monopoly lawsuits from countries (and losing some of them).

Another way to look at it is if you wanted to build a computer, then you can use any central processing unit (CPU) from Intel, AMD, or Cyrix. You can use any motherboard (mobo) from Gigabyte, MSI, etc. When you look at all the components that make up a working PC (in the sense that we are familiar with), the list goes on and on. You can use any graphics card, monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc from any manufacturer and they would all work the same, BUT you can only use one OS. Microsoft Windows. That is how Bill Gates became the richest person in the world and Linux was such a threat back in the late 90's. (Linux was a free OS that ran well on low-end computers and offered many of the same features as Microsoft Windows but didn't have the help and support needed at the consumer level... which is why it was ultimately unsuccessful with dethroning Microsoft from King of the Hill.)

Well, guess who is coming out with an OS now? Google is releasing their free Chrome OS this August (actually, only the source code) and computers will supposedly be shipping with it in the second half of 2010. Even though Linux still has it's place among internet servers and databases, it was suppose to be the OS that knocked Microsoft after it's perch, but (as mentioned above) eventually failed. Maybe Google's Chrome OS will be the one to finally place Microsoft into the fair realm of free enterprise.

Rare Videogame sells for $17,500

courtesy of Mike Smith of Yahoo

Would you pay $17,500 for this?

Think $60 video games are too expensive? You won't hear any argument from us, but you might from JJ Hendricks, a collector who just paid a clinically insane $17,500 for an obscure NES game from 1990.

The game in question is an ultra-rare, gold-colored version of Nintendo World Championships, a cartridge specially produced for use in a Nintendo-sponsored gaming contest. According to Wikipedia only 26 were created, and Hendricks calls it the "Holy Grail" of video game collectors.

The game itself has a time limit of just 6 minutes and 21 seconds and consists of three short segments from other NES games: Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer. Players are scored according to their performance in each game, and their scores are totaled once the time limit expires. Doesn't sound too riveting to us, but then somehow we doubt Hendricks is in it for the gameplay.

And while $17,500 might seem a bit much for a collection of ones and zeroes, Hendricks actually got a bargain: the game was originally listed on eBay for a cool $25,000.

StarCraft II may not support LAN!

courtesy of Mike Smith of Yahoo

Although Starcraft is one of the most-played competitive games in the world, its developers revealed in an interview this week that its sequel will lose a particularly valued multiplayer feature -- and the game's millions of fans are not pleased.

At issue is whether the game should support computer-to-computer connections (known as LAN networks) without also having to be connected to the developers' servers via the Internet. The original Starcraft could -- and, partly as a result, became the game of choice for gatherings that ranged from a few friends to stadium-filling, championship tournaments.

LAN parties a thing of the Starcraft past?

Starcraft II, developer Blizzard revealed this week, will need to "check in" with remote servers, so if you're not online, there's no multiplayer for you. This is expected to make the game much harder for contest organizers, net cafes, and gaming parties to embrace, and many longtime fans have sworn to boycott the sequel unless Blizzard backs down.

Twitter remains abuzz at the news, with fans variously describing Blizzard's surprise move as "totally insane," "just...wrong," and, worst of all, "EPIC FAIL." An online petition has amassed over 25,000 signatures so far.

Although Blizzard's keen to emphasize the features of their online service -- which will track player stats and provide rich community functions -- it's seen as a preemptive strike against potential Starcraft II pirates, as those with illegal copies of the game would be banned from connecting to Blizzard's servers. A somewhat similar move by EA last year resulted in its massive hit Spore racking up thousands of one-star reviews on Amazon, and being slapped with a class-action lawsuit. It remains to be seen how (or if) Blizzard will address this controversy.