FANBOY FEASTING

You’ve probably been hiding under a rock if you haven’t seen or heard anything about this week’s big comic movie release (on Christmas). If you’ve seen the trailers (one of which is posted above), you get the idea that you have a bad guy named the Octopus (who apparently has eight of everything), pretty girls (according to b newbie Wes Case ) and a dreamy masked hero known by most as “The Spirit.”

Unfortunate for the franchise, it seems as though most people (including myself, even in all my fanboy glory) only essentially know the limited information revealed in some of the various trailers and teasers. Because of my own ignorance, I went out looking for answers. Read the rest of this entry »

home cooking ROUGH START TO ‘HOME’ BETA

“Home,” the social network for PlayStation 3 users, has finally arrived — at least in part. Sony has begun an open beta test for anyone with a PlayStation Network account, so if you have an Internet-connected PS3, you’ve probably been invited to join.

Unfortunately, unlocking “Home” wasn’t easy for a lot of gamers, many of whom got connection error messages when they clicked on the “Home” icon that had materialized on their PS3 toolbar.

So far, the world of “Home” fairly desolate, which is disappointing considering that it’s been under development for three years. Still, this is a beta version — so let’s hope that “Home” lives up to Sony’s lofty promises. {AP}

brutal truths GAMING INDUSTRY NOT-SO BULLETPROOF

Forget everything you’ve heard about the video-game industry being recession-proof. Even the mighty Electronic Arts is hurting, and has announced that disappointing sales this year will lead to cuts in its scheduled releases for 2009.

After delivering that grim news, though, EA turned around and announced something truly wonderful: It has picked up “Brutal Legend,” the Jack Black-starring heavy-metal epic from “Psychonauts” mastermind Tim Schafer. “Brutal Legend” was dumped by Activision earlier this year, but Schafer now says, “I think it’s clear that this game, like metal itself, cannot be killed!” {AP}

black diamond 2008 VIDEO GAME AWARDS RECAP

Speaking of Jack Black, he hosted Spike TV’s Video Game Awards this year. Amid the usual gratuitous female pulchritude, stilted comedy skits and irrelevant musical performances, Spike did manage to anoint a game of the year: Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

The 2008 VGAs were probably more notable for a bevy of new trailers for games like Sony’s “God of War III” and “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.” And Electronic Arts made news with the previously announced “Dante’s Inferno.” The teaser didn’t show much, but we need more games based on 14th century poetry. {AP}

Fanboy Feasting

With the December 5 release of “Punisher: War Zone” quickly approaching, I have to ask myself this question: “Will the new ‘Punisher’ movie blow as hard as the first one?” Read the rest of this entry »

Fanboy FeastingIt’s good to be the king, er … prince. Or, at least in the case of this year’s holiday gaming season, simply a pre-order holder for Ubisoft’s upcoming Prince of Persia series refresher.The cel-shaded (and subsequently re-imagined) “Prince of Persia” has gone gold from preorders and appears to be on track for the game’s Dec. 2, 2008 release date on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. According to the publisher, gamers that pre-order the game will apparently receive the Limited Edition at no extra cost (Yay!), which includes:

You can check out the rest of the press release below:

PRINCE OF PERSIA GOES GOLDSAN FRANCISCO – November 21, 2008 – Today, Ubisoft announced that Prince of Persia has gone gold for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and PC. The game will ship December 2, 2008 and has an ESRB of “T” for Teen.About Prince of PersiaSet in a land rooted in ancient Persian mythology, the Prince finds himself caught in an epic battle between the primal forces of light and darkness: the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the destructive God of Darkness. The Prince arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life – an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. Manifested in the form of the Corruption, a dark substance that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the Prince must partner with Elika, a deadly companion, to heal the world from the evil Corruption.Prince of Persia will be available at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $59.99 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3, and $49.99 for the PC. 

FANBOY FEASTING

If you’ve seen the trailers (above) for Electronic Arts’ new first-person action-adventure game “Mirror’s Edge” (Xbox360, PS3) you’ve probably come to expect a stunningly pristine environment, but probably don’t know much else.

“Mirror’s Edge,” despite all its innovation in the presentation of free running/parkour , at its core is a dressed-up, modern version of the good ol’ fashioned platformer, in which you’re meant to play and replay (sometimes annoyingly so) sequences of jumps, grabs, slides and wall scaling until you get them perfect, or at least perfect enough to continue (a fancy, more kid friendly term for “survive”). Read the rest of this entry »

Fanboy Feasting [I’m stopping with the whole number system:P ]

Whether you’re into gaming or not, or a console elitist and don’t touch anything at all closely related to a PC for gaming, you’ve probably still heard of a little thing called the “World of Warcraft.”

Well, there are about to be a few substantial changes to this world that some of you might care about. For those of you who care and want a refreshingly quick sum up of the “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion, read the last few paragraphs of this post. If you’re like the most of the folks around the b newsroom, keep reading — you might realize how possible and incredibly plausible it is that this game affects someone you know/close to you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fanboy Feasting No. 22

I’m sure a healthy portion of the fanboys out there, myself included, wet their pants when they heard about the new fantasy-themed series entering the syndicated TV landscape. Unfortunately, for those seeking an experience comparable to the level of “Xena” and “Hercules,” “Legend of the Seeker” disappoints.

Fans of the show’s source material, “The Sword of Truth” book series, might find some things to like, but so far this series doesn’t seem to live up to the epic nature of the story — dare I say epic fail?

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Fanboy Feasting No. 21

Imagine a world 200 years after a devastating nuclear war — buildings and major landmarks are now shells of their former selves, the air is stale and in conceivably every corner you turn there’s someone or something waiting to kill you. This is an utter wasteland of desperation, danger and ever-present violence. This is the world of Fallout 3.

If you’re familiar with the cult game and series you know this world. Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 36 years after the events of Fallout 2 and, damn, this world (despite being completely run down and void of any safe corner) looks good.

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Fanboy Feasting No. 20

Take a hugely creative social community and mash it up with the game’s unlimited potential for platform level design (both designer and user created) and you’ve got hours of fun, freakin’ cute game play.

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Fanboy Feasting No. 19

So over the weekend I picked up a Wii and a little game I’ve heard some chatter about called “de Blob.”

The story is plainly simple: A nasty corporation of ink people have essentially sucked all the color out of the now-monochrome city, and it’s your job as de Blob to paint the town red, along with a host of other colors based on various objectives and competitions.

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