Michael Bay's movie adaptation of Angry Birds

Angry Birds: The Movie

Finally, a Michael Bay picture worth seeing!

Ode To Action

Let Your Imagination Run Amok

This is a tribute to some of our favorite action films and video games.

Dead Space: Downfall

The nightmare returns...

Dead Space 2 is out. Experience the terror of the animated tale "Downfall."

[Source: Wikipedia] The film revolves around the mining ship Ishimura as it arrives in the vicinity of an alien world. The crew of the Ishimura discover an object, which is referred to as the "Marker". It is brought aboard by order of Captain Mathius and Dr. Kyne. A week passes and a rash of violent attacks between the miners and other crew begin to rise in numbers. Hostilities begin to break out as members of the religious group, the "Unitologists", beg for a glimpse of the Marker, a key icon in their belief.
 

Meanwhile, on the planet, two miners check an outpost that has gone silent while the Ishimura brings up a chunk of the planet to mine. The men discover something amiss and one goes in search of his girlfriend, while his partner vanishes during a blackout. In the girlfriend's room, the man watches in shock as his beloved commits suicide. As the man flees the facility, he is unaware of an alien presence attaching itself to his deceased lover.

Onboard the Ishimura, Alissa Vincent, head of security, demands that Mathius allow an investigation of the recent outbreak of violence. But Mathius remains firm in the belief that nothing is amiss. The vessel piloted by the surviving miner crashes into the hangar just as he cuts communication and is killed by his mutated girlfriend. Vincent and her team are dispatched to contain the situation but discover nothing aboard the small ship, then depart to find out what caused the crash. Kyne suggest they call for help, but Mathius says that Aegis VII is a restricted area and they are not supposed to be there.

Down in the sickbay, a man awakes to discover alien creatures mutating the various corpses in the morgue, only to be killed. The situation turns grim all through the ship as the chaos and body count rise, as Mathius demands order. Kyne says that the Marker is responsible, but Mathius is in denial because he would have to put the Marker back and face court martial if the government knew they were in the restricted system. A confrontation between Mathius and Kyne leads to Mathius being accidentally killed by Kyne, who then flees. Vincent and her team arrive at the morgue where a Necromorph kills a teammate before being dispatched.

Things become chaotic as Vincent and her team struggle to make their way back to safety, but are confronted by a horde of Necromorphs. When it looks like conventional weapons are useless, an engineer named Samuel Irons arrives on the scene with a mining tool and cuts down the creatures. A member of the team named Hanson goes insane and murders fellow teammate Shen, after which Hanson and Vincent have a brief fight ending with Hanson being shot in the head by Ramirez. Returning to the deck, Vincent, Irons, and remaining member Ramirez discover that Kyne is planning to crash the ship into the planet below.

On their way to confront Kyne, Vincent and the others discover survivors being attacked by Necromorphs and go to save them. Using himself as bait, Irons buys time for Vincent and Ramirez to extract the scared crew members before being killed and turned into a Necromorph himself. The survivors are overwhelmed by more Necromorphs and Ramirez sacrifices himself to give Vincent a head start for the control room where Kyne is hiding. Vincent confronts Kyne who claims what he has done was necessary and steals her weapon as she tries to save the ship.

Vincent finds herself surrounded by numerous Necromorphs. She then discovers that the creatures cannot come into close proximity with the artifact, but Vincent doesn't care and breaks down. Spurred on by a brief vision of Ramirez, Vincent leaves a video log that details the entire events up until now. She downloads the video log she made into the distress beacon and opens the airlock and activates the distress beacon on a downed shuttle just a few feet from the marker. The distress beacon then fires outwards into space and along with it, several of the Necromorphs and herself.

As the film draws to a close, Vincent's body drifts into the darkness as the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" plays. The story ends just as the Kellion arrives and prepares to dock on the Ishimura, the beginning of Dead Space.

Xbox Girls Get Revenge

"Where's my sammich!"

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

WARNING: Not Safe For Work - NSFW (Adult Humor)

Umineko Video Game

Umineko (thematically connected to Higurashi - When They Cry) is getting a new fighting game.

Revisioned Tomb Raider

 Pre-Teen Raider

In commemoration of the 10 years of Tomb Raider, GameTap did a special celebration to coincide with the release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Along with several interviews and a feature documentary, GameTap also hired renowned talented artists to develop an animated series of 10 episodes inspired on Lara Croft's adventures. Minnie Driver, famed English actress, is the voice actress of Lara Croft in this series.

Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden

 New Dragon Ball game for the DS

Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Fighting
Origin: Japan
Release: February 3, 2011

Bandai Namco announced Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden, a new Dragon Ball fighting game for the DS, which will be released in Japan on February 3, 2011.

Anime and Manga are Banned

 Tokyo Ban on "Virtual Crimes" Passes

Tokyo’s ban on anime, manga and games featuring “virtual crimes” or which are “likely to interfere with the healthy development of youth” has passed after the DPJ agreed to support it.

The DPJ’s only addition to the critical portion of the law was a short rider which requests “prudent application of the law in light of any artistic, social, scientific or satirical merits the work might express” – it does not however add any legal obligation to consider these, or establish any clear or indepdently enforced criteria for judging whether a work can be declared “harmful” or not.

Even more bizarrely, the final draft actually removed a passage that imposed “a duty not to possess [photographic] child pornography” on Tokyo residents, whilst leaving the section banning erotic manga and anime (and explicitly excluding photographic materials) all but unchanged – that the bill is intended exclusively as an “anti-otaku” law seems to be beyond doubt.

It is very difficult to objectively assess the scope of the law – along with vague and subjective terms like “interfere with the healthy development of youth,” the law also includes “etc.” on the end of most of its examples, leaving it quite unclear, for example, whether the “improper glorification of illegal sexual activity, etc.” applies to only virtual sex crimes, or all crimes in general – presumably the interpretation adopted will be whichever is convenient to censors.

Similarly, the ban’s mention of “rape and other sexual acts which violate societal norms” seems inevitably to point to a ban on depictions of homosexuality, considering who was behind the law.

The generally expected form the law will take is that of a “amakudari” (a pervasive system of sinecures for retired bureaucrats) body which will inspect all anime, manga and games, with only those titles receiving approval as “healthy” able to be sold regularly in Tokyo shops – the rest will be relegated to the “adult corner.”

The most immediate and direct effect of the law will almost certainly be to see ecchi manga such as To Love-Ru, bishoujo titles such as Champion Red and most BL manga, as well as any seinen manga with especially mature themes, banned from general sales – presumably most will then be cancelled due to a lack of suitable magazine or tankobon distribution channels, with a few perhaps being resurrected as 18+ ero-manga.

As has already been seen, publishers will also likely be purging future anime, manga and games of any content liable to fall foul of the law, and removing older titles from distribution.

The law probably also spells the end of most late night anime in Tokyo (and by extension, everywhere else), which it would appear to ban under its distribution clause; given the vague wording of the current season alone it seems Ore no Imouto, Panty & Stocking, Yosuga, Sora no Otoshimono, Milky Holmes and others would all fall foul of its various stipulations.

There is also some doubt as to whether Comiket will be able to be held under the new regulations – if not, its cancellation or removal to another prefecture seems likely, although a lack of sufficiently large spaces may severely complicate this.

The law is expected to be signed into law on the 15th after an additional vote and then come into effect in July of 2011, so with magazine, tankobon, anime and game release schedules being what they are, it seems likely its effects will be felt much sooner; in a genuinely democratic state there might be scope to overturn it before then, but from what has been seen so far it seems unlikely publishers have the guts or savvy to do anything about it. [Source: Sankaku Complex]

The Best Video Games Available Now

Fall is here and the weather is slowly getting colder. What does that mean? It's time to stay inside, get warm and play some video games. Here are the best video games available right now.

Read more...

Blade Kitten (PSN) Trailer

Blade Kitten invites players into the world of Hollow Wish where they take on the role of Kit Ballard, one of the best bounty hunters in the business. With her pink hair and tail, Kit is part cat, part girl and fully lethal. As one of the last of her species, Kit commands her unique Darque Blade hovering sword to defeat enemies. Also along for the ride is Skiffy, Kits laid-back sidekick who lends a hand in collecting items, solving puzzles, and when needed, serves as Kits protector. 

 

DC Universe Online Trailer

Starcraft II: What's the big deal?

[Source: Yahoo Video Games] With its July 27 launch date fast approaching, Blizzard's behemoth StarCraft II is about to give gamers a perfectly good reason to avoid that evil summer sun in favor of the warming glow of a computer monitor. The heavily-anticipated game is the biggest of the summer -- and we don't just mean in terms of expected sales.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Blizzard's parent company Activision has spent over $100 million developing the strategy sequel. And that doesn't include whatever extra they'll spend marketing it over the next few months.

The good news for Blizzard? Other games to feature that kind of insane budget -- specifically, Rockstar's twin hits Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption -- went on to massive success. Perhaps the more you spend, you more you make, after all.

So on the off-chance that terms like "build order" and "Zerg rush" mean nothing to you, do yourself a favor and check out the handy video below to find out why everyone is in a tizzy over this epic real-time strategy game.

King of Fighters Promo Trailer

Puzzle Agent: the animated horror game

[Source: SciFi.com] I love the above animated short by artist Graham Annable. The pacing. The long shots. The anatomically correct dog. The closing scream. The borderline inappropriate choice of music. Annable is a frequent collaborator with Telltale Games. If The Hidden People is any indication of the tone of their upcoming game Puzzle Agent, I'm sold. I'm ready for an animated horror game that isn't played for laughs.

Puzzle Agent is a Professor Layton style adventure game consisting of puzzles and cutscenes inspired by Annable's Grickle series of comics. In this promo video, Telltale designer and writer Mark Darin describes Puzzle Agent as Fargo meets Twin Peaks and X-Files. But Annable characterizes it as "a lot of Kubrick, maybe a little Lynch in there".

A recent viral website for the game suggests that Hidden People is the basis for the first episode of Puzzle Agent. The press release linking to the site -- mysteriously minus any reference to Puzzle Agent or Telltale, but sent out by Telltale's PR agency, so you do the math -- promises more specifics this Friday.

Studio Ghibli's new PS3 game trailer

Studio Ghibli Designs Games

Ninokuni: The Another World is the collaborative effort of Studio Ghibli and Level-5, and this is the first trailer. 

Developed for the DS, Ninokuni: The Another World is a role playing game with all the visual bells and whistles of a Studio Ghibli film.

 Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions - IGN Live E3 2010

 The Last Airbender Game Trailer - E3 2010

Discover your bending powers.

The Jedi Civil War

 Star Wars: The Old Republic E3 2010 Trailer