Clone Wars Recap S4 E19: Massacre!

Clone Wars begins its epic final four-part arc for this season (the arc that will culminate in the return of a robo-crotched Maul) and holy crap was it a good one! This was one of the darkest, trippy, unforgiving episodes ever, as an invading fleet of tanks and droids got caught up in a world of creepy women and witchcraft. Bathed in blood red and acid green, this episode was seriously like Star Wars meets Suspiria. And I loved it!

Once you've watched it, join me after the jump where our jaws will drop in astonishment together!

Nunchucks

Here's a trailer for a Bruce Lee martial arts inspired film called "Nunchucks"

The film tells the story of a martial arts expert who suffers a breakdown in his quest for success and finds peace when he returns to his family.

Directed by and starring Dragon Chen, a martial arts practitioner skilled in Jeet Kune Do, Tae Kwon Do and Wing Chun as well as an experienced action choreographer.

Judging by the trailer it's missing a bit of polish and it looks like it was shot a lot like what Japanese filmmakers have been doing the last couple of years (lo grade digital filming). That said the film had me at "Nunchucks" so I'm looking forward to checking this one out

via Twitch

Mega64: DLC The Game

So as you may have heard due to an xbox live mistake Mass effect 3 revealed it already has dlc pretty much there on release date that you can only have if you bought the now rare collectors edition or you have to pay for it after already paying full price for a new game.

Mega64 has done a pretty funny video about DLC as you can see here:

Now I don't really think DLC is that bad say compared to subscription fees.  I thought the dlc was a nice addition to Little Big Planet and I bought some outfits for my sackboy. Then there was the Undead DLC for Red Dead Redemption which was a whole new game that took the main storyline in a left field direction.

Day 1 dlc however is not cool. If I was to buy ME3 on day 1 just the standard edition I'd be paying (bullshit Australian priced) $99 and as soon as I log on to my psn (or is it soe now?) shop and see that this (bullshit Australian priced) $99 game is not complete that I still have to spend more money ($10 was what it was priced on Live marketplace) to have the complete Mass effect experience....

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Now there are quite a few people who were upset by this so there was a response given on the Bioware forums. Basically what was said was "it's only an optional thing, you're still getting the full ME3 experience" ... "but you really want this dlc so pony up the extra $".

As one commenter said. "It's in their rights to do that, welcome to the free market"

hahahaha free market hahaha ha haha ha

Anyway I did download the ME3 demo the other day and I played it. I felt the cutscene acting was a bit off like thier bodies were moving but their faces were very still and for some reason (I don't know if anyone else experienced this) whenever the shot would change characters would be missing for the first few frames and then pop on. I also felt Sheppard's run was a little weird and it felt a bit slow, but maybe I'm just not used to it yet. I do plan on getting this game as I want to see the end of Saul Tigh Sheppards story but with this dlc thing and those few little bugs in the demo I might wait awhile. 

I suffered the wiped saved game glitch (Gahh Jack Bauer Sheppard's 24hours were up!!) and suffered the horrible trying not to fall through the ground in the Shadow brokers section of ME2 so I did plan on waiting until the first "make the game not suck" patch is released which I'm glad that is not paid dlc 

Dead Gary Busey Transforms into a Pomeranian Called Quigley.

When I watched last year's Celebrity Apprentice, I found myself (often) wondering, just what the hell happened to once nominated actor Gary Busey? He used to be pretty great on the screen, and while his charming, eccentric, batshit insane antics are still incredibly entertaining, it was making me very sad that we probably wouldn't ever get to see him star in a feature film again. Then I just found about Quigley.

Made in 2003, Quigley is a film about a detestable old billionare (Busey) who dies with unfinished business so he is reincarnated as a pomeranian dog. But the film flashes between shots of the dog, and the actual Gary Busey who is on all fours and wearing a dog collar. It also involves a "video game" on a CD-ROM with graphics that look like they were scribbled by a child. But please, don't take my word for it. Watch the trailer and be shocked and awed. I guarantee that it is many times worse than you are currently imagining:

Holy crap! Did that confuse you as much as it did me? The great Gary Busey staring with Booger from Revenge of the Nerds in a film that was shot on a home video camera and features a Heaven set that is someone's loungeroom draped in white sheets and a smoke machine? And it's not even a parody. This is an actual, serious film.

Why does such a movie even exist? Join me after the jump and I'll share some Quigley facts, as well as some - shudder - Quigley OUTTAKES!!

Follow Friday: Steve Carell Starts It Off With A Bang

He's only 5 tweets in to his brand new account... but if he keeps this up, I'll be following him for sure. 

#FF http://twitter.com/SteveCarell

Holy BATPOOP!

Do you remember when I almost crapped my pants a while back over the 1:6th Scale Tumbler that Sideshow was importing from Hot Toys and had made available for Pre-Order on their website?

Do you remember me whining like a bitch about how old I am and how all my responsibilities suck and how I can't really afford toys anymore and how expensive all this crap is now but how cool all this new 1:6th Scale stuff is and how it just keeps getting awesomer and awesomer?

Do you remember the Barbie jokes?

No?

Well, EAT ME...because it is time for ROUND TWO.

The Final "Wheel of Time" Volume Gets a Release Date

This might be old news for those who follow a lot of book stuff, but Tor and Brandon Sanderson announced the release date of the final installment of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. For those not in the know, the Wheel of Time is a 14-volume epic fantasy story started by Robert Jordan, who unfortunately passed away before completing it. He did, however, leave copious notes, allowing his wife to find someone to finish the series for him. That person is the incredible Brandon Sanderson, a personal favorite author of mine even before he got picked up to finish one of the wider-known fantasy series. We still have to wait 11 months for the final installment, but the wait is nearly complete.

But now for my nerd shame - I've never read them. Don't get me wrong - I own the first 9 volumes, 5 of them in hardcover. I did read the first 100 pages or so in high school of the first book, but recall nearly nothing. So hey - why not start now?

So here's my thought. I read a ton of books anyway, so this is not a difficult task for me on a whole, but anyone who wants to join in - I'm going to begin an epic readthrough of the entire Wheel of Time series, with the intention of being finished around the time the 14th and final book comes out. This means finishing each installment every three weeks from the first of March through the end of the year. Coming into this a) having read a ton of fantasy while b) having next-to-no knowledge of The Wheel of Time itself, and noting that c) there are a number of people who would probably try to waive me off on this one...I'm gonna do it. It should be fun.

So I guess check back sometime in March - I'll post my progress, my thoughts, my complaints, and maybe we can get a fun little Fruitless Pursuits countdown going.

Confirmed! Darth Maul has Mechanical Legs!

We had a lot of theories about what would be happening with Darth Maul's lower half when he returned on the Clone Wars. Originally I hoped his severed bottom half would be replaced by a squeaky mop bucket on wheels, and then I was beginning to hope that his new bottom half would be an upside down facsimile of his top half so that he resembled a menacing playing card. And that he would constantly yell, "IT'S A JACK ATTACK, BABY!"

Well thanks to this new epic trailer for his four-part return, we now definitively know that he has robot legs. He also has a smooth, featureless robot crotch, which might explain why he's so damn angry all the time.

But don't take my ridiculous word for it. Press play and watch it for yourself!

Symphony of Science "Humble" Bundle

Remember watching Carl Sagan on PBS when you were a kid and how he would unravel the mysteries of science for you by explaining it in just as complex terms as he would use to describe to his colleagues? Remember how you always thought it would be much better if he was auto-tuned and put to music? Science has finally caught up with us and has done so in the form of Symphony of Science and is now available for download in high quality audio only format!

Carry on after the break for more, brave young scientists

The World of Pixel Lincoln

It's been a little while since we looked at my upcoming Nintendo DS game, Pixel Lincoln. Here's a look into the world that we created for the game. Note: All screenshots are from the Beta version of the game.

Originally posted at http://www.islandofficials.com. For more developer blogs on Pixel Lincoln and other games in-progress, visit http://www.islandofficials.com.

The world of Pixel Lincoln is ever-changing. One day you might be hanging out in present day New York City (1987 of course), and the next you may be in the Mesozoic Era climbing Mount Everest. Which just happened to be a volcano back then. Remember?

More after the jump.

Celebrity Apprentice Recaps: Episode One!

I am obsessed with reality TV competitions. I love the pettiness, the desperation, the delusion, the back-stabbing. The unfaltering urge to conquer and crush all opposition and rise to the top by any means necessary. And nobody does it better than America! American competitors have a killer instinct that in disappointingly lacking in my own lethargic corner of the world. There’s nothing I enjoy more than a headstrong, loud, arrogant contestant who believes in all their heart that they are the best at everything they do, only to repeatedly fail in front of a large audience. And then STILL claim they’re the best while they’re being kicked out, “I wouldn’t change a thing! All y’all are just jealous!” I. LOVE. IT.

So Donald The Maniac Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice is reality TV amplified. It’s the most pumped up format available thanks to the delicious added ingredient of waning celebrities, determined to take that last shot at glory. Delusion is rife, gargantuan ego’s clash, and dignity is never, ever an option. Who will melt down? Threaten physical violence? Who will drown in their own tears and sweat? And one plucky C-lebrity is going to beat the odds and rise the top!

It’s humiliation versus jubilation, and we’re going to find out exactly what episode one was all about... after the jump!

The Video Game System I Trashpicked From 1977, Or “Why Didn’t I Sell This On eBay?”

This post was written by our brand new contributor, Tom Keiser. Tom is from South Jersey and also writes for NetworkAwesome.com and TheAwl.com. You may recognize him as Joe Flacco's high school mascot.

I consider myself a pretty good trashpicker. Over the years I procured dozens of VHS boxing tapes and hundreds of old Reader’s Digests at a time. The recession of the last few years has not been kind to the art, although people are starting to throw out better things as the economy improves. But looking back, I did not fully appreciate my greatest coup until after it was gone.

It was the winter of 2006, and I was walking through an affluent Philadelphia suburb, where I see a box full of RCA memorabilia. This isn’t too rare, as RCA was one of southern New Jersey’s leading employers into the 1980’s and 90’s. What was more intriguing, among the Zippo lighters and travel bags and RCA employee uniforms, was a Studio II video game system, built in Deptford, NJ (where a Sam’s Club currently stands, if I’m not mistaken), complete with at least a dozen cartridges in an old plastic shopping bag.

The RCA Studio II was introduced in early 1977, and even then it was practically obsolete. The Fairchild Channel F, which made its debut the previous year, already had color graphics and relatively better sound quality. By the end of the year, Atari would destroy both systems and corner the market until the Video Game Crash of 1983. 

What's Out? 22nd of February 2012

New comics and sundries are arriving in the stores today! Let's take a look at them:

Worf gets no love

Seriously why is everybody hating on Worf?

No respect from his boss, his peers or even the ladies. Poor dude.

Probably the real reason he moved over to the Deep Space 9... why do I know this???

SWEET!

Gone. Then back. Gone. Then back.

Guess what?

Now I'm back. Here to stay. For now. Mwuhahahahahaha!

My kid seems to be leveling off. He had almost become feral there for a while. Werewolfian in nature. It was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Bennett.

I gotta tell you...being a Special Needs Dad can suck it sometimes. But? And there is always a but...it can also bring you intense amounts of joy, teach you shitloads about the kind of man you are, and show you what you are actually made of.

Though I am not recommending you run out and try it, by any means, all I am saying is that there is, like any slice of Hell's Pizza, something to be said for at least having something to EAT that is yummy, delicious...and really, really bad for you.

I don't expect anybody to understand that. I just like talking about food.

The Book Was Better Episode 12 TEASER!

Find out what terrible, terrible movie you have to watch this week to fully appreciate the pain we went through to record episode 12 of The Book Was Better, our podcast about movie novelisations! Psst: this one's SUPER DIRTY.

Nerd History: Our Nerdy Presidents

This is not photoshopped. This is actually President Obama with a lightsaber

A lot of ink has been spilled about Barack Obama's nerd credentials. He collects comic books, poses like Superman, was featured not only in a Spider-man comic, but also an Archie series and his own series, Barack the Barbarian. Politics aside, I'd hope we all can agree that, yeah, the President might be one of us. But is he the only one? Let's celebrate President's Day 24 hours late and find out!

Tuesday Bounty! Glorious Bounty Gets Villainous!

It's Tuesday and that always means a brand new page of ongoing webcomic series Glorious Bounty, drawn by the notoriously hairy Edward J. Grug III, and written by me.

When we last left the Bounty crew, they were sent to rub out a mysterious new target in order to pay off the expensive reconstruction of Bruce and Deevis' exploded heads. Trapped in new model PK robot bodies, Bruce and Deevis join fellow crewmates Funf and shitty old PK robot, PK, to murder some guy they haven't even seen yet. READ ON...

Click to enlarge or view it at the official site...

And I say this every week but do you damn kids listen? No! So I'm going to keep on saying it until it leaves an impression. It's never too late to start reading Glorious Bounty right from the very beginning. You can do that RIGHT HERE. Do it now, so you and I don't have a problem!

Vegeta Will Always love you

I love what youtube has done to Dragon Ball Z

Mannn that point at the end haha!

A funny comment on this vid "This is too soon... I am still getting over Vegeta's death."

Oh if you haven't, check out the Dragon Ball Z abridged series done by teamfourstar. Those guys made Vegeta awesome. Here's my favourite episode (that I hope I haven't already posted before)

Henry & Aaron - IT'S A SNAP!

Would you like to study where I did? Watch this informative video by Henry and Aaron

 

Good times... good times

Stryder's Favourite Comics - Release Date 2/15/2012 PART II

Happy Family Day everybody!*  I haven't got a family, so in lieu of whatever I'm supposed to be doing on this recently invented holiday, I read more comics!  Shocking!!

If you haven't read part I of this week's comics yet, you can find it HERE.  Ok right to it then?

Wonder Woman #6 - Wonder Woman continues to face problems within her newly discovered divine family.  Normal day-to-day concerns tend to seem inconsequential when stuck in the middle of a power struggle between the gods!  Poseidon, Hades and Hera all get involved as Wonder Woman struggles through both fight and parley to protect young Zola, the girl carrying Zeus' newest, unborn son.

Diana is a clever cookie....with the help of Hermes the messenger and her recently-found half-brother Lennox, she almost manages to outmanoeuvre the gods!  She certainly gives Hera a hard time!  Unfortunately for both Diana and Zola, Hades isn't quite so easily fooled.

Once again we had fill-in artist Tony Akins on pencils.  Next month apparently Chiang is back and I'll be happier, although I do look forward to seeing more work from Akins.  Preferably something where he gets to draw in his OWN style more. 

Overall Run: 

Pros:
-I know almost nothing about Wonder Woman, and this story, to me at least, is riveting! 
-Plot and dialogue combine to create something that is both very informative and deep while also being very exciting visually with a lot of action!  This book seems to have found the perfect balance between fighting and talking...rare in comics!

Cons:
-Even though I enjoyed the fill-in penciller, I still hate that they have to have one so soon into a run, particularly with a character like Wonder Woman who should be as big as Batman or Superman if they would just give her her due... 

Score: 4 out of 5 decapitated horse monsters!!  I would have given her 4.5 if Chiang had done the whole run....

As always, more after the JUMP!!

Batman Shouts at People in Toronto

MY PARENTS ARE DEAAAAD!

ABCinema

ABCinema from Evan Seitz on Vimeo.

Here's an animation featuring one movie for each letter of the alphabet.
(I got 19 out of 26)

Kickstart the Week: The Star Wars Filming Locations of the U.S. by Adam R. Parr

Did you know that there are parts of the Star Wars universe right here in the US?

Like the Dune Sea area around Jabba's Palace, and the Endor Forest?

Cancel your plane tickets to Tunisia and pledge for this book instead and you can visit far, far, away locations right in your own backyard (kind of).

Click through the jump for more details and info.

My Playing Card Project 2012.

If you don't know, I dabble in photography and have decided to create a giant but wonderful headache for myself and attempt to photograph 54 different models (2 jokers) within 54 weeks and produce a set of actual casino-quality (probably) playing cards. I had the idea Monday and now, I've shot two in the last two days with plenty more on the way. Everything is subject to change, but here's a taste of what I've got so far (click to embiggen).

Models are Lottie Last Chance (left) and Tegan (right). Only 52 to go! Expect updates sporadically...