Fan Art

Check out this nifty TGO fan art from elbubojr, imagining what the show's characters might look like if it were animated (or if I had a higher costume budget and/or more actors):

Love it.

He also did color versions of NecroThinker, PyroThinker, CryoThinker, RetroThinker and both forms of The Anti-Thinker, after the jump:

 Awesome. I especially like "Antiverse Form" Anti-Thinker as a plus-size bruiser, and his design of NecroThinker actually nails the "Kirby/Starlin Cosmic Villain" look I was going for overall better than the actual costume does, IMO.

Good stuff, either way - actually got re-invigorated by this to go out and start pricing-out props for the two (so far) new character's who'll be showing up once the NecroThinker story concludes. I won't say who/what they are, but one of them will mark the first time I've had to wear a wig on the show. (There would've been one already, but I ultimately decided to spare you a one-off character called "UberThinker, who was German and... yeah, that was kind of the whole joke.)

Sony's "Smash Bros." Clone Looks Like a "Smash Bros." Clone

People have been referring to the rumored "Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale" as a Playstation-centric version of "Super Smash Bros" since it was first mentioned, but I doubt anyone was expecting it would be almost exactly the same game:

EPISODE 69: "AfterMass"

Sick of talking/hearing about "Mass Effect?" Me too. But newsworthy is newsworthy, and the next "big" gaming story (in terms of news or even a discussionworthy new release) has yet to rear it's head. So one more round - especially in light of how dramatically the Bioware/Re-Take thing evolved after the last episode. And even if that's not really your bag, this one also has zombies, gunfights, the return of The OverSword and a much bigger helping of Ivan the Intern:



This episode evolved along strange lines. The topic I initially wanted to cover wasn't quite coming up adequate at the script-level (I think I've since cracked it, or at least gotten closer); and eventually it made more sense to do a "sequel" of sorts to "Crass Effect" - especially since the framing-story action in this sort of mirrors the previous episode already i.e. both revolving around "game company under attack" visual sequences. Also, the aforementioned "troublesome script" goes MUCH better with the action in the next episode (which more-directly involves NecroThinker.)

What I'm more curious to see than anything is how having Ivan pop in with added commentary in the "main" part of the show "plays" for people. The day after I recorded the audio, I was thinking it sounded overly-confrontational and wanted to add in some levity and qualifiers; and "interupting myself" in Ivan's persona felt like a better way to pull off those additions. Also, Ivan really does seem to be the "breakout character" of the supporting cast - something that continues to pleasantly-surprise me - so you can maybe consider this a "trial run" at maybe giving him a bigger presence in the show and possibly beyond that.

JOY

There may come a day when Nintendo's monetization of nostalgia becomes so completely predictable that something as relatively simple as ressurecting power-ups from Super Mario Bros. 3 is no longer sufficient to settle anything that could be bothering me at any given moment, leaving me in a blissful near-stupor of psychological comfort.

Today is not that day:

Image is one of a handful of just-released snaps of "New Super Mario Bros. 2;" a 2D sidescroller previously announced for the 3DS, now revealed and dated for August. Also announced right around the same time (but with fewer details) is a 20th Anniversary "Kirby Collection" compilation coming for Wii. No world yet on which games it would include (presumably the NES/SNES ones I imagine, hoping the GameBoy/GBA/DS and maybe even N64 ones too.)

Nintendo also supposedly registed a "Super Mario 4" domain name, which could mean nothing. However, a yet-unidentified WiiU Mario game (launch title!?) is supposed to be announced at E3. I'm obviously psyched for this stuff because... y'know, I just AM; but I'm also glad that the new-generation fans who got introduced to 2D Mario via "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" (which is still killing, sales-wise) will have more to look forward to than my generation's leftovers.

I wonder... is it perhaps too much to hope that the Frog and Hammer suits will make a comeback here as well?

Episode 69 Announcement!

"Episode 69: AfterMass" will be viewable by all audiences on Wednesday, April 25th. ScrewAttack Advantage members can get an early look at this link NOW.

COD Elite Has Pro-Hitler Staff Pick

Accident of internet-algorithims gone unchecked? Probably. Classic Kotaku sensationalism? Definitely. Darkly amusing, given the game(s) in question? You betcha.

The "Staff Picks" linked to a Call of Duty Elite user account - troublingly named "GhostOfTheReich," incidentally - include a YouTube video for a White Supremacist rock group called "Final War." Activision has yet to comment on the issue, which is at this point about three days old.

Badass Digest Out-Geeks "Re-Take," Again

Episode 69 is in the can and awaiting a release date (you'll find out right after I do), but it's not a spoiler to reveal that I'm going one more round with "Re-Take Mass Effect" in light of EA/BioWare's decision to attempt placating them* with "story-expanding" free DLC. I'm glad I finished it up last night, because I probably would've felt compelled to scrap my plans in a fit of "what else can I POSSIBLY add after this!?" envy and defeat after reading today's piece by Badass Digest's Devin Faraci. B.A.D. should be a daily stop for geeks and film buffs anyway, but this was a real (if SPOILER-Y!) treat.

The argument itself isn't necessarily "new;" Devin mostly laments the degradation of fandom from loving a work(s) of fiction so much that lore-obsessing and continuity gaffe "a-ha!-ing" became a fun communal game into the obsession=ownership entitlement mentality that leads people to treat - without a HINT of irony! - an ending you didn't like as a consumer-rights issue.

What I like best is that he grounds his opinion in proper historical context; not only via a pretty terrific uber-geeky Tolkien reference but with heavy reference to fanboy founding-father Philip Jose Farmer, who's not only one of the more interesting scifi/fantasy authors largely forgotten by modern audiences but also more-or-less the inventor of Professional Fan-Fiction. That kind of broad perspective is sorely lacking in a lot of the games-as-art discussion, and one of the reasons for the curious phenomenon that so much interesting games journalism pieces recently have come from folks who usually write/work in different mediums.

For some reason I've never comprehended (this is expanded upon in Episode 69, incidentally) it's considered verboten in some gaming circles to draw critical or artistic paralells between games and any other media - as though the fact that some cursory interactivity and/or player-input renders video games so incomprehensibly different from movies, books, etc that the comparison is utterly unwarranted.

In any case, read the column. Agree or disagree, I think it's an important addition to the discussion.



*Speaking of "placating," if you haven't see "Cabin In The Woods" yet, you're missing out on probably the most brutally honest piece of commentary about the fandom/creator relationship to be filmmed in a good long while. I won't say anything beyond that, other than that you really do need to see that movie - it's AMAZING.