Name one superhero (who hasn’t already had their own movie) you would like to see on the big screen. How would you make their story compelling?
Superhero Database http://www.superherodb.com/class/
Gaming/Games/Console
SWTOR – The Adventures of FennShea week 3: 1.1 patch gets rolled out and all of the Rebels die. Plus, Matt rolls two alts (Sith Inquisitor & Rebuplic Jedi Knight) and the grinding slows to a crawl.
As in movies, music is a key but often times overlooked part of video games. Music is what sets the mood for us and helps the storytelling process along. And if a video game soundtrack is well crafted, it can be enjoyed many times over outside of the confines of the game.So now it is time to announce the Game Room’s winners of the 2011 video game music of year.
Best Video Game Song – Winner:
“Now I Only Want You Gone” by Jonathan Coulton
This category has only has one nominee as the writer and performer of this song nailed it and hit it out of the park.
Best Video Game Soundtrack – Nominees:
“Batman: Arkham City” by Nick Arundel and Ron Fish
“Battlefield 3” by Johan Skugge and Jukka Rintamaki
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” by Brian Tyler
“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” by Jeremy Soule
“Star Wars: The Old Republic” by Mark Griskey and Company
Best Video Game Soundtrack – Winner:
(Tie) “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic”
Now before you scream, “Cop-out,” this was a tough decision to try and pick which one was better. Both soundtracks provided hours of thematic music. “The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim” provided a rich Nordic chorus that pushed the player along their Dragonborn quest. “Star Wars: The Old Republic” used, but didn’t rely too much on, familiar music cues. The various songwriters came up with new themes that blossomed within the Star Wars framework.
As of the posting date of this article, both of the full soundtracks are only available bundled with the collector’s editions of their respective video game releases. Here’s hoping that at some point in the near future, they will be made available for digital retail.
Steven Spielberg discusses his next project, an adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s book:
“”It’s a movie about a global war between man and machine. I had a great time creating the future on Minority Report, and it’s a future that is coming true faster than any of us thought it would. ‘Robopocalypse’ takes place in 15 or 20 years, so it’ll be another future we can relate to. It’s about the consequences of creating technologies which make our lives easier, and what happens when that technology becomes smarter than we are. It’s not the newest theme, it’s been done throughout science fiction, but it’s a theme that becomes more relevant every year.”"
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Steven Spielberg discusses his next project, an adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s book:
“It’s a movie about a global war between man and machine. I had a great time creating the future on Minority Report, and it’s a future that is coming true faster than any of us thought it would. ‘Robopocalypse’ takes place in 15 or 20 years, so it’ll be another future we can relate to. It’s about the consequences of creating technologies which make our lives easier, and what happens when that technology becomes smarter than we are. It’s not the newest theme, it’s been done throughout science fiction, but it’s a theme that becomes more relevant every year.”
“Star Wars: Underworld” is reportedly the working title for the live action series. Producer Rick McCallum dropped hints that the series will deal with the the hive of scum and villainy that takes place between Episode 4 and Episode 5.
Katie (Starbuck) Sackhoff voiced a character on Clone Wars
“All Hail the King of Video Games” by Matt Davenport
To say that the “Call of Duty” franchise has made Activision money is like saying the Grand Canyon is kind of big. It is a sentence using sarcasm to state the obvious. “Modern Warfare 3” is the third in the wildly successful first person shooter series by Infinity Ward (this time with assistance from Sledgehammer Games) which includes “Modern Warfare 2” and “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.” For the purposes of this review, we will split it up and talk about the single player and the multi-player campaigns.
This bird is down*
Single Player: The single player campaign picks up right after the events of “Modern Warfare 2.” After killing General Shepard, what’s left of the now disavowed Task Force 141 make their way to a safehouse to regroup. Captain John Price is hauling a critically injured Captain John “Soap” MacTavish to safety. Meanwhile, World War 3 is unfolding all around them as Russian forces are being repelled from Manhattan. From there, the player is transported around the globe to various flash points in the storyline to twart the plans of the main antagonist, the Russian rogue Vladamir Makarov, as he attempts to get the nuclear launch codes from the Russian President. With of the military hardware being bandied about as superpowers collide, “Modern Warfare 3” is able to bring the focus to the single soldier level. The story is linear and involves a lot of “fight your way from point A to point B to point C,” but the developers throw in spectacular set pieces and create a few “Oh wow!” moments. Composer Brian Tyler picks up right where Hanz Zimmer left off and does a superb job of capturing the right tone and mood for the music of the game. Not much new is added to the various global missions. You’ll shoot bad guys, operate mounted weapons, provide overwatch support, infiltrate a villain’s diamond mine underground lair and smoke a cigar. After the success of “Modern Warfare 2,” you don’t want to change too much for fear of alienating your core players. The single player campaign didn’t carry the same weight as the first two parts of the story but it did provide about six hours of an action-fueled conclusion to this “Call of Duty” trilogy.
Single Player Score: 7 out of 10
Coming this fall to the CW*
Multi-player: This is where the “Call of Duty” franchise earns its stripes. This is why the game is a popular as it is. The developers have taken everything that works from the prior games and add a few tweeks. Multi-player in the “Call of Duty” world involves the player being rewarded for their time and skill playing the game. The more you play, the better you get and the more options you have for your online soldier. Along with leveling up your character, you can now level up your weapons. The more you use a particular weapon, the more options you have to outfit it with. Killstreaks are another way the developers have tweeked the online play. You now have the option of Assault killstreaks or Support killstreaks. Assault killstreaks work like before, your kills add up until you are killed and then reset. The Support killstreaks don’t reset when you die and (aptly named) the rewards are meant to support your team in objective based games. Along with the multi-player games of Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination and Sabotage, the developers have added a new mode called Kill Confirmed. Kill Confirmed is a team based mode where when you kill an opposing team member, dog tags appear over the body. Pick those up and your team is rewarded, but if an opposing team member picks up the tags before you do, it denies your team the points. Another new addition to the multi-player experience is Survival mode. This compliments the Co-op mode with a game format that sends wave after wave of enemy troops at you. As you survive the waves, you are able to purchase upgrades, ammo and support.
Multi-player Score: 8 out of 10
I have you now!*
Final Word: Action movie single-player, lots of re-playability in multi-player. What “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” does it does well and deserves its crown as the King of Video Games.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” is available for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC and Nintendo Wii. This review was played on the Xbox 360 with a review unit provided by Activision.
The Game Room Review scoring system is based on the 1 through 10 model with 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest.
*Screenshots were taken from the PC version of the game.
According to the official Call of Duty Facebook page and the OneofSwords.com blog, the mobile app for the Call of Duty: Elite service will be released on Tuesday, January 10. This release will be for iOS devices with an Android version to be released the following week. This will be a scaled down version of what you can do on the Elite website but it will allow you to keep connected to the Call of Duty universe while you’re on the go.
One of the key features of the app will be the ability to create new loadouts and push them to your character. This will be the primary way that I’ll utilize the app as I’m the type of player who only changes my loadouts in the thirty second intermission between matches.
Reading the responses to Infinity Ward’s announcement, there are a lot of ungrateful and torqued people out there. From complaining to the delay of the app to the Apple/Android fanboy flame war, just calm down. I guess I just don’t understand how life changing this app will be to understand all of the complaints. You know, since it will be a FREE app. I don’t mind being in the minority of people to say, “Thank you,” to Infinity Ward and the developers for their hard work.
If it’s been a while since you put on those leg warmers or that Members Only jacket (with the sleeves pushed up), rejoice! On January 10th, Rock Band will release the Hall and Oates Pack. This pack contains three solid gold classics, “Private Eyes,” “Maneater,” and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).”
You can buy the songs individually or in a pack. Mustache not included.
In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something happened. The great stone city R’lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse. But memory never died, and the high-priests said that the city would rise again when the stars were right.
– The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft
Welcome to the year 2012 and once again Hollywood is going to miss a golden opportunity to tap into the general populaces mindset and make money off the paranoia, angst of one of the best years in the Gregorian Calendar since 2000.
The Year 2012 has created more buzz and articles about itself that would make any viral marketing campaign look like a kids lemonade stand on a corner. This is the year that the legendary Mayan Calendar predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012 as that is the date the calendar stops. This is the year of the Apocalypse, end of times, the great snuff on the earth with ideas as wacky as:
Mysterious Planet X is going to ram us
Alignment with the exact center of the Milky Way and bombarded by cosmic rays
The earth sheds its skin and folds the continental plates upon themselves.
And Hollywood is doing nothing! Where are the doomsday movies? Where is the final big budget production of some of the greatest opportunities to scare the crap out of an audience that is constantly being bombarded by the mental zeitgeist that the world could end before their holiday bonus!
Hollywood, please, please, please get your act together. This is the year you should “greenlight” Del Toro’s version of H.P. Lovecrafts “The Mountains of Madness” done with the expertise that Del Toro has of the dark and the macabre you would have a glorious release date all set up for yourselves. Find the talent to make good disaster movies as you will have the whole year as people get more and more chocked with predictions, wild revelations and psychics yelling “Dooooooooooommmmeeeed”
I’ve been playing around with Blender recently and I decided to model a picture of the Captain’s chair from Star Trek, just to see if I could do it. I couldn’t just stop at the chair though, so I added in a little something extra for the captain. I suspect Kirk was fond of Mochas but kept them hidden from the camera. Everyone needs a quad shot mocha to keep them alert on watch.
Back on Blender. This software is simply amazing. For something that is free, it’s incredibly powerful. You can model, animate, composite, run simulations, and even create games using Blender. Some of the newest features include camera tracking, an ocean simulator, and new improved render engine called cycles. The artwork and videos I’ve seen people produce is just simply amazing.
If you want to check it out, download a copy and check out some of these great tutorial sites to get you started.
This is a little game that I play in the newsroom. When a law enforcement agency sends the newsroom a booking photo (mug shot), I try to guess the charge (or charges) that the person is facing. More times than naught, I fail. Sometimes I hit the nail on the head. Either way it passes the time. Why don’t you give it a try.
Let’s start off with 35-year-old Teejay Carter of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Highlight the (nearly) invisible text below to see if you are correct.
Misdemeanor fighting.
All persons are considered innocent until proven guilty.
