Following up on the “Summer of Arcade” that featured awesome downloadable games like Limbo, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light, Xbox Live Arcade is planning another month-long set of four A-list games, all of which look just as wildly creative and original as the summer titles. Here’s a full breakdown of all four games, complete with screenshots.
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for a full gallery of screenshots from all four games!
Hydrophobia
A third-person adventure/shooter with amazing graphics where the big selling point is the ultra-realistic w
If you’re a fan of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody then you’re in for a treat with this remake of the song based around Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3.
The song, renamed Midichlorian Rhapsody relies on footage from those films with all new words and an actually decent vocal recording, although not quite as good as Queen’s original version.
The song features such brilliant lyrics and by brilliant I mean funny as “Mama Shmi-oh let me go” and covers the span of the prequel films.
Here’s the song synced up to the movies:
What did you think about Midicholrian Rhapsody? It could have done with a unique made from scratch parody video in my opinion, but the lyrics weren’t awful and it actually seemed to fit the editing job that was done for the song.
For many an adult, the Etch A Sketch is probably one of their most memorable childhood toys. Would you believe that this now ubiquitous toy was ignored in its early days? It was developed by Frenchman André Cassagnes in the 1950s and was initially ignored by the Ohio Art Company when it was displayed at the Internationl Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. Back then, the toy went by the French name L’Ecran Magique. After their second encounter with the toy, the Ohio Art Company decided to take it on – as a risk. The rest is history. Today, practically everyone knows about Etch A Sketch.
Understandably, most people see the device as a mere toy for children. There are those, however, who see potential in the most inane things. George Vlosich III is one of them. He took the Etch A Sketch to new heights by using it as the main medium for his works of art.
If you find it hard to imagine how one can create “acceptable” pieces of art using an Etch A Sketch, take a look at some samples from GV’s gallery. I’m not a LeBron James fan, but this is pretty impressive.
No one can deny the talent of the late King of Pop, just as no one can deny the talent behind th
Disney Interactive has released the full, 7-minute cinematic for Epic Mickey that opens the game. This Wii exclusive game finds Mickey Mouse in a dark, twisted version of the Magic Kingdom where old Disney characters go when they’re forgotten. Mickey must use paint and thinner to bring life back to this unique realm.
The cinematic above shows the basic backstory that lands Mickey in this predicament. Epic Mickey is due in November, and it’s one of the most buzzed-about games of the year, because it’s being designed and crafted by acclaimed creator Warren Spector (best known for System Shock and Deus Ex).
The International Space Station is used as a hub for medical research, various space based sciences and as a means for international cooperation, it’s also a pretty cool place to Earth gaze, as was demonstrated by ISS crew member Don Pettit.
Pettit took a bunch of footage from one of the stations windows that face earth and then placed those images into a time-lapse demonstration of earth.
Notice the northern lights, over electrified cities and other odd changes to the earth as it rotates through space.
Here’s the video:
The movie goes by quickly, but damn New York City, Japan and most of China, how about turning down the neon lights a little bit.
The Hugo Awards for the year’s best in science fiction were handed out over the weekend at Aussiecon 4 in Australia. The Hugo Awards celebrate the best science fiction writing, art, film, and television, and though they’re based entirely on fan voting, the Hugos are considered one of the most prestigious awards in all of science fiction.
And the winners were (along with helpful links so you can check out the winners for yourself)…
Since the existence of Twitter the online media landscape has changed a lot. We now get breaking news faster through Twitter then traditional media. Celebrities are made, traditional celebrities complain about the paparazzi, information is exchanged and we get a good dose of funny tweets on all subjects.
Brooklyn based artist Kiersten Essenpreis and journalist/writer David K. Israel decided to select the most fun tweets and create illustrations of them. David is in charge of selecting the tweets while Kiersten illustrates them, together they present the most hilarious illustrations that make the original tweet even more funnier.
At Twaggies you can enjoy an average of 7 illustrations a month like these ones:
This is so true, I do it myself, I will notice it’s raining a bit outside and instead of getting up and taking a good look outside the windows I’ll check the weather website to make sure.
We all do this or when my streamline just won’t deliver something interesting I’ll start looking for other people to follow and see if they come up with something interesting.
Recently I’ve been watching an older anime called “Stellvia of The Universe”, produced by XEBEC and released in 2003. In the anime, human civilization was nearly wiped out in the year 2167 AD when the shockwave from a nearby star going supernova reaches the Earth. Nearly two centuries later, in the year 2356 AD, humanity has recovered from the first shockwave and has banded together to carry out “The Great Mission”, a plot to shield the Sol system from a second shockwave. The story follows a young girl by the name of Shima Katase (nicknamed Shipon) as she struggles though an intense program designed to train pilots for The Great Mission. The training takes place onboard the Stellvia (a large space colony), which is where the anime gets its name from.
While Stellvia of The Universe is categorized as a sci-fi anime, it’s really more of a drama (think BSG). Most of the show is focused on the ups and downs of relationships between friends, family, and lovers. That’s not to say that there isn’t much action, as bitter rivalries between the pilots leads to a few violent space battles.
The characters are really varied and have certain traits that escalate the tension in the anime. Shima starts out as a ditzy character that fails in nearly everything she does, but then rises through the ranks to become the top pilot in her class, bringing about the envy of many others. One such person was Ayaka Machida, one of the four top pilots on the Stellvia and a very proud character. Ayaka sees anyone that gets close to her in terms of skill as an enemy and would do anything to dispose of them. Other characters include Arisa, Shima’s best friend and supporter; Kouta, the best pilot on the Stellvia but hides his talent by performing poorly during
As the whole world knows, Pixar is the holy grail of animated film. They can do no wrong. Every film they’ve made has been a #1 hit, and an instant classic.
But because they have such a reputation for excellence, we never hear about their failures. But as every genius will tell you, brilliance is achieved only on the backs of countless failures. One of Pixar’s failures is a movie called Newt.
Newt was announced a few years back as being one of Pixar’s many movies in the pipeline, but since then it’s been canceled for unknown reasons. (My theory: Pixar simply couldn’t make the story live up to its standards, and rather than release something subpar, they scrapped it.) The story was to involve the last two animals of their kind — a male and a female newt — who scientists needed to get to mate to save their species, but who can’t stand each other. Cue adorable romantic hijinks.
Anyhoo, Newt’s been canceled for whatever reason, but Pixar today posted 30 concept images from the film. And as with all things Pixar, the concept art alone is gorgeous, sweet, and utterly amazing. Check out the full gallery on Pixar’s Facebook page.
The rumors were true! Gearbox Software has taken over development of Duke Nukem Forever on behalf of Take 2 Interactive, and hope to have the game out sometime in 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The news was officially announced at PAX, the open-to-the-public gaming expo which is taking place as I write this.
Reportedly, Gearbox has been working on Duke Nukem Forever since 2009, after 3D Realms shut down and Take 2 acquired the rights. They’re using all the existing code and assets created by 3D Realms — and some of 3DR’s former employees — and simply finishing it so that it can finally reach players. As the Wall Street Journalreports, Gearbox looks at what its developers are doing as putting together the pieces that 3DR began. “It’s the game it was meant to be,” they say in the article.
Early reports from the show floor at PAX, where a playable demo is available, are extremely positive. I’m eagerly hoping Take 2 will share some official artwork and/or
I took to thinking not so very long ago that the epic (but exactly highest quality) DC vs Marvel could do with another sequel. Both companies have moved on in their continuities quite dramatically, even if Marvel has returned to something approximating the original status quo.
We have seen the spirit of it in the very-definitely epic JLA vs Avengers, and it would be nice to see a sequel to that. (Lawyers take note here.) One could of course say that Kurt Busieks Trinity was indeed that sequel, but that only looked at one side of the dimensional/commercial divide. Personally, I think Access (or more to the point Dark Access) has a lot of potential in the hands of the correct writers, especially if the space is given for a good story to develop.
Take for instance the aforementioned sequel Trinity, a timeline in and of itself (briefly), and one as deserving of longevity as that of The Kingdom. Mirroring that is the House Of M, how indeed was the battle between to two great Brothers fought in those timelines? Darkseid is returning (it appears) in the current issues of the Legion Of Super-Heroes, despite his very final, never coming back, he is definitely dead this time death in Final Crisis. Who better to resurrect him than his corrupted future self of Axel Asher?
Infinite Crisis resurrected the multiverse, where did that leave Kismet of the Superman/Dominus stories? M-Day that wiped the vast majority of mutants from the mainstream timeline and according to Forge and the Beast, all neighbouring realities as well (even if it did not seem to affect the Exiles all that much), was an event that could have been felt by the Red Brother himself. Plus we saw that interdi
I’ve always maintained that Facebook can help boost productivity, contrary to many companies’ policies. Then again, not everyone works in a set up like the one we have here at FG. Today, I ran across the site called Unclutterer, courtesy of a friend on Facebook. The post that got me distracted all day is about lists of things that you won’t do again.
You know how some people have bucket lists? Well, I’d like to call this the Geek Frak List – things that I will not do again in relation to gadgets, toys, and other geeky stuff. I have been sitting here for hours thinking about items to put on the list (not continuously, of course), and here is what I have come up with. It’s not as long as I would like it to be, but this should do for now.
Settle for the next best thing when it comes to gadgets.
I have absolutely no EQ when it comes to buying “toys.” For some reason, though, there are times when I would hold back and not get what I want because it’s too expensive. The classic example is the iPhone. Ever since that came many years ago, I have wanted one. Each time I would have a chance to buy it, I’d end up buying some other phone that “works just as well.” Several years – and many gadgets – later, I am still lusting after the iPhone.
Torture yourself by visiting stores to play with toys that you have no way of buying then and there.
Reading that sentence again, I realize that I will probably struggle with
So check it out, I’m a bit confused as to what the new Mega Man Universe is suppose to be all about, I would expect that in our day of advanced gaming we would see some cool 3D graphics, more in depth worlds to explore and a new look and feel to the franchise, instead, hell I’d even be happy with some more advanced loading and level screens, instead the game looks eerily like the Mega Man of old.
On the one hand, this is a lot better than the Mega Man Universe teaser that was released earlier and features 8-bit Mega Man, NES Mega Man and Ryu from Street Fighter among other characters that appeared to have nothing to do with the teaser, on the other hand, it’s still confusing enough to watch that the games creator Keiji Inafune had to come out and intro it.
The 
Recently I’ve been watching an older anime called “Stellvia of The Universe”, produced by XEBEC and released in 2003. In the anime, human civilization was nearly wiped out in the year 2167 AD when the shockwave from a nearby star going supernova reaches the Earth. Nearly two centuries later, in the year 2356 AD, humanity has recovered from the first shockwave and has banded together to carry out “The Great Mission”, a plot to shield the Sol system from a second shockwave. The story follows a young girl by the name of Shima Katase (nicknamed Shipon) as she struggles though an intense program designed to train pilots for The Great Mission. The training takes place onboard the Stellvia (a large space colony), which is where the anime gets its name from.
I took to thinking not so very long ago that the epic (but exactly highest quality) DC vs Marvel could do with another sequel. Both companies have moved on in their continuities quite dramatically, even if Marvel has returned to something approximating the original status quo.
