Sunday, June 30, 2013

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - Batman Themed Home Movie Theater Man Cave








Check out the photos up above & please be sure to click on them for larger HD versions. This is a special room in my new house. I recently remodeled my basement into a Bat-Cave & I gotta say it looks pretty awesome!! OK, this is NOT my house but a man can dream, right?
Basically, it's a Super Batman-Themed Home Movie Theater, or... the Ultimate Man Cave! One nice feature is a Set of Fake Bookcases that slide open by remote to reveal another room next to this one that has a Tumbler Batmobile (Replica) Garage!
There are also some some amazing Life-Size Batman Statues, a Bat-Computer Set-Up, Gothic-Style Lighting, Custom Railing with Film Bat-Symbol Logos, and then just look at the screen itself... AMAZING!! Oh man, how much did this cost? LOL!! Now, I'm not really sure what company did all this but they did an incredible job. One thing I can say though is that the special Leather Chairs were supplied by ELITE Home Theater Seating. OK, I'm just going to go cry now.

Vojin's BATMAN AND JOKER TATTOO ART Photo!



WOW! I woke-up this morning and got an email from a Batman Fan who lives all the way in Serbia, Belgrade! His name is Vojin and he sent a photo of his cool BATMAN and JOKER Tattoo. He also included the original art source that was the inspiration, shown down below. ( Thank You Vojin! )




Saturday, June 29, 2013

SW Rumor Mill Claims ‘Knights Of The Old Republic’ Flick Might Be in the Works


knights-of-the-old-republic




Before we begin, let’s go over what is CONFIRMED regarding future Star Wars live-action films:
They will be made. Episode VII will be one of them (likely the first). J.J. Abrams will direct Episode VII.



That’s ALL! Anything else, thus far, is rumor, conjecture, supposition, and fanboy wish-fulfillment.



Are we all on the same page? Cool.



Rumors of additional SW film projects have included standalone features based around Han Solo and Boba Fett (fairly likely), Yoda (whom I can’t see carrying an entire movie–but that’s just me), and–if Ewan MacGregor has his way, Obi-Wan Kenobi (pipe dream).



Now we can add the popular RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to the list of Nerd Media whisperings. The rumor seems to originate from Ain’t It Cool News (which was enough to raise this writer’s skeptical eyebrow–and even they’re not giving it much credit). The idea apparently entered the minds of SW fans when KOTOR writer (and author of five Expanded Universe novels)Drew Karpyshyn left video game developer Bioware to pursue a career as a Hollywood screenwriter, and posted this comment on his personal website:



I don't have any produced or sold screenplays yet. I have one script that's nearly complete, and I will be looking for an agent soon to help me market it to major Hollywood studios.



This cryptic statement is undated, and thus could have dick to do with a Star Wars project, but it was enough to fuel the imaginations of KOTOR fans.



We DO know that SW Producer Lawrence Kasdan has stated that he has no intention of using the EU as source material for any upcoming spinoffs or sequels–which is enough for me to put this theory to bed.



Enjoy your weekends, folks: No doubt I’ll be back soon to report on the rumored standalone Jaxxon flick.



Source: /Film








Wizard World Portland CC – Day 2


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EDITORS NOTE: These are the voyages of a Wizard World newbie; a first hand recap of one of our nations most popular cons.



Today was the day that I was supposed to get an interview with one of my personal heroes, Chris Claremont. Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned. Claremont was swarmed (and rightly so) by hordes of fans and I was unable to make my approach (sad face). So instead, I decided to hit up some panels and see what the con had to offer on this Saturday, the busiest of its three days. Check out the full scoop after the jump.





Most of the panels I went to today involved learning a bit more about my chosen profession – fiction writing. I entered Storytelling with Michael Golden, Science Fiction Writers: Imagining Our Future and Developing Fantasy Worlds, w/D&D legend Keith Baker. All-in-all, not a bad set of panels, though most of them preferred to talk about what they were working on as opposed to offering up advice on how to make your own writing better.



In between the "educational" panels, I jumped quickly on the empty seats in the main room. I ended up having to sit through a Q&A with Amy and Matt Roloff, concerning their reality TV show Little People, Big World. Personally, I'd never heard of it (I don’t watch much TV), but they were actually two very entertaining guests, so it was worth the time.



The main reason I hit this one up, however, is because I wanted to get a good seat for the Stan Lee Q&A. I ended up in the 8th row, so I was pretty pleased. But most everything Stan had to say I'd already heard in other interviews or documentaries. He answered dumb questions from predictable audience members about things like his favorite super hero, the most powerful super villain and what super power he'd have if he could (it was "super luck", btw). Still, it was good to see the guy in person. AND, the entire audience was awarded a complementary "No Prize", so suck it world.



My original plan was to jump into The Walking Dead Q&A, but man, that fucker was even more packed than the Stan Lee panel! I arrived 45 mins early to find a line that was easily twice the number of people that could even get into the main room. So, alas, I was left without.



On the floor, I found myself entering into some strange sort of zen-anger. People were thick and movement was difficult and I hate crowds already so it was made even worse. But I did learn a few things about the convention world today:



1) When navigating the floor, the acceptable movement pattern appears to be – stop without warning to block traffic, move in random directions to confuse the person behind you and, if someone is coming your direction, charge at them full speed without side-stepping.



2) Humans are willing to wait in line for crazy amounts of time and pay ridiculous amounts of money to get pictures with people that they have never met simply because those people are celebrities that they feel they know. As much as I like Stan Lee's work, there's no way I'd drop $80 and sit in line for three hours to get a picture with him. Do you know how much beer $80 will buy?



3) People in panels are much like people on the bus. They talk under their breath about the things that are going on around them, make strange noises over and over to disturb whoever happens to be near them and when forced to speak will ask some seriously dumb-ass questions.



4) Anyone with black and red cloth can make a Harley Quinn costume. And no two Harley Quinn costumes ever turn out alike



5) Anyone with the right jacket and a bow tie is instantly The Doctor (regardless of sex). Fez is optional.



6) Cosplay models now annoy me. Sitting in the lobby for the entire con posing for pictures seems a strange way to spend the day. These same professional cosplay models also tend to choose whatever costume shows the most butt-crack. Or, in the case of today's Vampirella (who I think was also yesterday's landing strip lady), proudly display their pubic five o'clock shadow.



One more day to the con and I don't know if my endurance is going to hold up. Between getting up hours before I'm used to, the bad coffee and the dense crowds, I may surely snap and start attacking people with my pixilated Minecraft sword.



Tune in tomorrow to see if I'm still alive! Oh, and check out the picture gallery below.



Thanks on the photos for today to Meeps of ‘Meeps' Opinion’. I seriously couldn't have done it without her. Check out her blog (including some LoTR cosplay advice) here.


Friday, June 28, 2013

Halo Terminal Secret codes revealed?


The Input Device
The Halo Terminal Codes cracked?

"This is the input device. The input device grants access to the Terminals when a correct code is entered. The input device allows codes to be 1 to 10 characters long. We know 10 codes which are each 5 characters long and were found at the end each one of the Terminals. Entering all of them successfully granted access to a secret 11th Terminal. This proves that there is a possibility of additional Terminals."
Source

The supposed Terminal Codes....

In order of 1st to 10th, the terminal codes read:

343GS
HALO4
SPARK
BLOOD
EARTH
DEMON
RINGS
ARRAY
HUMAN
HAVEN



And Forward Unto Dawn has been up to some tricks.....






signal interruption detected.initiating amplification protocols//
protocols ineffective.UNIDENTIFIED INTRUSION//
recording for archival purposes.entry #03012012343/25122011//



intrusion ceased.reasons unknown//
initiating stability protocols.analyzing entry #03012012343/25122011 transcript//
source of intrusion cannot be identified.running firewall diagnostics//






DATABASE ALERT //
permissions compromised.unknown agent/s detected//


cannot.shut.the.door//Info sources:


One
Two
Three

Wanna read Halo: Primordium's first chapter?



Enjoy this delicious excerpt from the upcoming Halo: Primordium, out January 3.

Chapter 2 is available at Halo Waypoint.

HALO/SHIELD ALLIANCE 631

Record of communications with Autonomous Mechanical Intelligence (Forerunner Monitor).

SCIENCE TEAM ANALYSIS: Appears to be severely damaged duplicate (?) of device previously reported lost/destroyed (File Ref. Dekagram- 721- 64- 91.)

Machine language records attached as holographic les. Incomplete and failed translation attempts deleted for brevity.

TRANSLATION STYLE: LOCALIZED. Some words and phrases remain obscure.

First successful AI translation: RESPONSE STREAM

#1351 [DATE REDACTED] 1621 hours (Repeated every 64 seconds.)

What am I, really?

A long time ago, I was a living, breathing human being. I went mad. I served my enemies. They became my only friends.

Since then, I've traveled back and forth across this galaxy, and out to the spaces between galaxies-a greater reach than any human before me.

You have asked me to tell you about that time. Since you are the true Reclaimers, I must obey. Are you recording? Good. Because my memory is failing rapidly. I doubt I'll be able to nish the story.

Once, on my birth-world, a world I knew as Erde-Tyrene, and which now is called Earth, my name was Chakas. . . .

Multiple data streams detected. COVENANT LANGUAGE STREAM identi ed.

SCIENCE TEAM ANALYSIS: Prior contact with Covenant likely.

Break for recalibration of AI translator.

SCIENCE TEAM LEADER to MONITOR: "We realize the dif culty of accessing all parts of your vast store of knowledge, and we'd like to help you in any way we can, including making necessary repairs . . . if we can be made to understand how you actually work.

"What we're having dif culty with is your contention that you were once a human being-over a thousand centuries ago. But rather than waste time with a full discussion of these matters, we've decided to proceed directly to your narrative. Our team has a dual focus for its questions.

"First question: When did you last have contact with the Forerunner known as the Didact, and under what circumstances did you part ways?

"Second question: What goals did Forerunners hope to achieve in their ancient relations with humans? . . ."

RESPONSE STREAM #1352 [DATE REDACTED] 2350 hours ( rst portion lost, nonrepeating):

ONE

. . . LOOKED ACROSS THE deck of the star boat at the Didact-a massive, gray- black shadow with the face of a warrior god. He was impassive, as usual. Far below, at the center of a great gulf of night filled with many ships, lay a planet under siege-the quarantined prison world of the San'Shyuum.

"What will happen to us?" I asked.

"They will punish," Riser said gloomily. "We're not supposed to be here!"

I turned to my small companion, reached to touch the long, dry fingers of his outstretched hand, and shot an angry glance at Bornstellar, the young Manipular that Riser and I had guided to Djamonkin Crater. He would not meet my eyes.

Then, faster than thought or reflex, something cold and bright and awful carved up the distance between us, split-ting us apart in blue- white silence. War sphinxes with passionless faces moved in and scooped us up in transparent bubbles. I saw the Didact and Bornstellar packed away in their own bubbles like trophies. . . .

The Didact seemed composed, prepared-Bornstellar, as frightened as I was.

The bubble sucked in around me. I was caught in sudden stillness, my ears stuffed, my eyes darkened.

This is how a dead man feels.

For a time, surrounded by senseless dark or flashes of nothing I could understand, I believed I was about to be ferried across the western water to the far grasslands where I would await judgment under the hungry gaze of sabertooths, hyenas, buzzards, and the great-winged eagles. I tried to prepare myself by listing my weaknesses, that I might appear humble before the judgment of Abada the Rhinoceros; that Abada might fend off the predators, and especially the hyenas; and that his old friend the Great Elephant might re-member me and nudge my bones from the dirt, back to life, before the time that ends all.

(For so I have seen in the sacred caves.)

But the stillness and silence continued. I felt a small itch in the pit of my arm, and in my ear, and then on my back where only a friend can reach. . . . The dead do not itch.

Slowly, with a flickering rhythm, like the waving of a fan, the stiff blue silence lifted, scattering visions between shadows of blankness and misery. I saw Riser wrapped in another bubble not far from me, and Bornstellar beside him. The Didact was not with us.

My ears seemed to pop-a painful, muffled echo in my head. Now I heard distant words . . . and listened closely. We had been taken prisoner by a powerful Forerunner called the Master Builder. The Didact and the Master Builder had long opposed each other. I learned as well that Riser and I were prizes to be stolen from the Didact. We would not be destroyed right away; we had value, for the Librarian had imprinted us at birth with ancient memories that might prove useful.

For a time, I wondered if we were about to be introduced to the hideous Captive-the one my ancient ancestors had locked away for so many thousands of years, the one re-leased by the Master Builder's ignorant testing of his new weapon-toy, a gigantic ring called Halo. . . .

Then I felt another presence in my head. I had felt this before, first while walking over the ruins at Charum Hakkor, and then later, witnessing the plight of humanity's old al-lies, the once beautiful and sensuous San'Shyuum, in their quarantined system. Old memories seemed to be traveling across great distances to reassemble, like members of a tribe long lost to each other . . . struggling to retrieve one personality, not my own.

In my boredom, thinking this was merely a strange sort of dream, I reached out as if to touch the jittering pieces. . . .

And was back on Charum Hakkor, walking the parapet above the pit, where the Captive had been imprisoned for more than ten thousand years. My dream-body-oft-wounded, plagued with aches and motivated by a festering hatred- approached the railing and looked down upon the thick-domed timelock.

The lock had been split wide like the casing of a great bomb.

Something that smelled like thunder loomed behind me. It cast a shimmering green shadow-a shadow with far too many arms! I tried to turn and could not. . . .

Nor could I hear myself scream.

Soon enough I lapsed back into a void filled with prickly irritations: itching but unable to scratch, thirsty but without water, muscles both frozen and restless. . . . Viscera trying to writhe. Hungry and nauseated at the same time. This long, weightless suspension was suddenly interrupted by violent shaking. I was falling.

Through the filters of my Forerunner armor, my skin sensed heat, and I glimpsed blossoms of fire, searing blasts of energy trying but failing to reach in and cook me-then, more buffeting, accompanied by the gut-wrenching shudder of distant explosions.

Came a final slamming impact. My jaw snapped up and my teeth almost bit through my tongue.

Still, at first there was no pain. Fog filled me. Now I knew I was dead and felt some relief. Perhaps I had already been punished sufficiently and would be spared the attentions of hyenas and buzzards and eagles. I anticipated joining my ancestors, my grandmother and grandfather, and if my mother had died in my absence, her as well. They would cross rich green prairies to greet me, floating over the ground, smiling and filled with love, and beside them would pad the jaguar that snarls at the sabertooth, and slither the great crocodile that darts from the mud to put to flight the ravenous buzzards-in that place where all hatred is finally extinguished. There, my good family spirits would welcome me, and my troubles would be over.

(For so I had seen in the sacred caves.)

I was not at all happy when I realized yet again that this darkness was not death, but another kind of sleep. My eyes were closed. I opened them. Light flooded in on me, not very bright, but after the long darkness, it seemed blinding. It was not a spiritual light.

Blurry shapes moved around me. My tongue decided to hurt horribly. I felt hands tugging and fumbling at my arms and legs, and smelled something foul-my own scat. Very bad. Spirits don't stink.

I tried to raise my hand, but someone held it down and there was another struggle. More hands forcibly bent my arms and legs at painful angles. Slowly I puzzled this out. I was still wearing the broken Forerunner armor the Didact had given me on his ship. Stooped and bent shapes were pulling me from that stinking shell.

When they had finished, I was laid out flat on a hard surface. Water poured cool and sweet over my face. The crusted salt of my upper lip stung my tongue. I fully opened my puffy eyes and blinked up at a roof made of woven reeds thatched with leaves and branches. Sprawled on the cold, gritty platform, I was no better than a newborn: naked, twitching, bleary-eyed, mute from shock. Cool, careful fingers wiped my face clean, then rubbed grassy juice under my nose. The smell was sharp and wakeful. I drank more water-muddy, earthy, inexpressibly sweet.

Against flickering orange light I could now make out a single figure-black as night, slender as a young tree- rubbing its fingers beside its own broad nose, over its wide, rounded cheeks, then combing them through the hair on its scalp. It rubbed this soothing skin-oil on my chapped, cracked lips.

I wondered if I was again being visited, as I was at birth, by the supreme Lifeshaper whom the Didact claimed was his wife-the Librarian. But the figure that hovered over me was smaller, darker-not a beautiful memory but solid flesh. I smelled a woman. A young woman. That scent brought an extraordinary change to my outlook. Then I heard others murmuring, followed by sad, desperate laughter, followed by words I barely understood . . . words from ancient languages I had never heard spoken on Erde-Tyrene.

How then could I understand them at all? What kind of beings were these? They looked human in outline-several kinds of human, perhaps. Slowly, I reengaged the old memories within me, like digging out the roots of a fossil tree . . . and found the necessary knowledge.

Long ago, thousands of years before I was born, humans had used such words. The assembled shadows around me were commenting on my chances of recovery. Some were doubtful. Others expressed leering admiration for the female. A few grinding voices discussed whether the strongest man in the village would take her. The tree-slender girl said nothing, merely giving me more water.

Finally, I tried to speak, but my tongue wouldn't work properly. Even without being half- bitten through, it was not yet trained to form the old words.

"Welcome back," the girl said. Her voice was husky but musical. Gradually my vision cleared. Her face was round and so black it was almost purple. "Your mouth is full of blood. Don't talk. Just rest."

I closed my eyes again. If I could only make myself speak, the Librarian's imprint from ancient human warriors might prove useful after all.

"He came in armor, like a crab," said a low, grumbling male voice. So many of these voices sounded frightened, furtive-cruel and desperate. "He fell after the brightness and burning in the sky, but he's not one of the Forerunners."

"The Forerunners died. He did not," the girl said.

"Then they'll come hunting him. Maybe he killed them," another voice said. "He's no use to us. He could be a danger. Put him out in the grass for the ants."

"How could he kill the Forerunners?" the girl asked. "He was in a jar. The jar fell and cracked open when it hit the ground. He lay in the grass for an entire night while we cowered in our huts, but the ants did not bite him."

"If he stays, there will be less food for the rest of us. And if Forerunners lost him, then they will come looking for him and punish us."

I listened to these suppositions with mild interest. I knew less about such matters than the shadows did.

"Why?" the dark girl asked. "They kept him in the jar. We saved him. We took him out of the heat. We will feed him and he will live. Besides, they punish us no matter what we do."

"They haven't come for many days to take any of us away," said another voice, more calm or more resigned. "After the fires in the sky, the city and the forest and the plain are quiet. We no longer hear their sky boats. Maybe they're all gone."

The voices from the milling circle dulled and faded. None of what they said made much sense. I had no idea where I might be. I was too tired to care.

I don't know how long I slept. When I opened my eyes again, I looked to one side, then the other. I was lying inside a wide meeting house with log walls. I was naked but for two pieces of worn, dirty cloth. The meeting house was empty, but at my groan, the dark girl came through the reed-covered doorway and kneeled down beside me. She was younger than me. Little more than a girl-not quite a woman. Her eyes were large and reddish brown, and her hair was a wild tangle the color of water-soaked rye grass.

"Where am I?" I asked clumsily, using the old words as best I could.

"Maybe you can tell us. What's your name?"

"Chakas," I said.

"I don't know that name," the girl said. "Is it a secret name?"

"No." I focused on her, ignoring the silhouettes of others as they filed back in through the door and stood around me. Other than the tree-slender female, most of them kept well back, in a wide circle. One of the old men stepped forward and tried to pluck at the girl's shoulder. She shrugged his hand away, and he cackled and danced off.

"Where do you come from?" she asked me.

"Erde-Tyrene," I said.

"I don't know that place." She spoke to the others. No one else had heard of it.

"He's no good to us," an older man said, one of the shrill, argumentative voices from earlier. He was heavy of shoulder and low of forehead and smacked his thick lips in disapproval. All different types of human being were here, as I had guessed-but none as small as Riser. I missed Riser and wondered where he had ended up.

"This one fell from the sky in a jar," the older man repeated, as if the story was already legend. "The jar landed in the dry short grass and cracked and broke, and not even the ants thought he was worth eating."

Another man picked up the tale. "Someone high above lost him. The flying shadows dropped him. He'll just bring them back sooner, and this time they'll take us all to the Palace of Pain."

I did not like the sound of that. "Are we on a planet?" I asked the girl. The words I chose meant "big home," "broad land," "all- under- sky."

The girl shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Is it a great star boat, then?"

"Be quiet and rest. Your mouth is bleeding." She gave me more water and wiped my lips.

"You'll have to choose soon," the old, cackling one said. "Your Gamelpar can't protect you now!"

Then the others went away.

I rolled over.

Later, she shook me awake. "You've slept long enough," she said. "Your tongue isn't bleeding now. Can you tell me what it's like where you come from? Up in the sky? Try to speak slowly."

I moved lips, tongue, jaw. All were sore, but I could talk easily enough. I propped myself up on my elbow. "Are you all human?"

She hummed through her nose and leaned forward to wipe my eyes. "We're the Tudejsa, if that's what you're asking." Later I would put this word in context and understand that it meant the People from Here, or just the People.

"And this isn't Erde-Tyrene."

"I doubt it. Where we are is a place between other places. Where we came from, we will never see again. Where we are going, we do not want to be. So we live here and wait. Some-times Forerunners take us away."

"Forerunners . . . ?"

"The gray ones. The blue ones. The black ones. Or their machines."

"I know some of them," I said.

She looked dubious. "They don't like us. We're happy they haven't come for many days. Even before the sky be-came bright and filled with fi re-"

"Where do they come from-these People?" I waved my arm at the silhouettes still coming and going through the door, some smacking their lips in judgment and making disapproving sounds.

"Some of us come from the old city. That's where I was born. Others have gathered from across the plain, from river and jungle, from the long grass. Some walked here five sleeps ago, after they saw you fall from the sky in your jar. One fellow tries to make people pay to see you."

I heard a scuffle outside, a yelp, and then three burly gawkers shuffled in, keeping well back from us.

"The cackling bastard who fancies you?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Another fool. He wants more food. They just knock him down and kick him aside."

She didn't seem to like many of the People.

"Valley, jungle, river . . . city, prairie. Sounds like home," I said.

"It isn't." She swept her gaze around the gawkers with pinched disappointment. "We are not friends, and no one is willing to be family. When we are taken away, it brings too much pain."

I raised myself on my arm. "Am I strong enough to go outside?"

She pressed me back down. Then she pushed the gawkers out, looked back, and stepped through the hanging grass door. When she returned, she carried a roughly carved wooden bowl. With her fingers she spooned some of the contents into my mouth: bland mush, ground- up grass seed. It didn't taste very good-what I could taste of it-but what I swallowed stayed in my stomach.

Soon I felt stronger.

Then she said, "Time to go outside, before someone decides to kill you." She helped me to my feet and pushed aside the door- hanging. A slanting burst of bluish white glare dazzled me. When I saw the color of that light, a feeling of dread, of not wanting to be where I was, came on me fierce. It was not a good light.

But she persisted and pulled me out under the purple- blue sky. Shielding my eyes, I finally located the horizon- rising up like a distant wall. Turning slowly, swiveling my neck despite the pain, I tracked that far wall until it began to curve upward, ever so gently. I swung around. The horizon curved upward to both sides. Not good, not right. Horizons do not curve up.

I followed the gradually rising sweep higher and higher. The land kept climbing like the slope of a mountain- climbing but narrowing, until I could see both sides of a great, wide band filled with grassland, rocky fields . . . mountains. Some distance away, a foreshortened and irregular dark blue smear crossed almost the entire width of the band, flanked and interrupted by the nearest of those mountains-possibly a large body of water. And everywhere out there on the band-clouds in puffs and swirls and spreading white shreds, like streamers of fleece in a cleansing river.

Weather.

Higher and higher . . .

I leaned my head back as far as I could without falling over-until the rising band crossed into shadow and slimmed to a skinny, perfect ribbon that cut the sky in half and just hung there-a dark blue, overarching sky bridge. At an angle about two-thirds of the way up one side of the bridge, perched just above the edge, was the source of the intense, purple-blue light: a small, brilliant sun.

Turning around again, cupping my hand over the blue sun, I studied the opposite horizon. The wall on that side was too far away to see. But I guessed that both sides of the great ribbon were flanked by walls. Definitely not a planet.

My hopes fell to zero. My situation had not improved in any way. I was not home. I was very far from any home. I had been deposited on one of the great, ring-shaped weapons that had so entranced and divided my Forerunner captors.

I was marooned on a Halo.

Halo: Primordium copyright 2012 Microsoft Corporation

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Keeping abreast of Elizabeth in Bioshock: Infinite



According to Ken Levine, whose team at Irrational Games are developing the new Bioshock Infinite game, fan boys are way too obessessed with main character Elizabeth's breast size. He recently talked to OXM and revealed this thought about the mammary issue "in terms of her body type, I think certainly people on the Internet have spent way more time thinking about Elizabeth's chest than I have. It's something I've barely thought about."

Note he said barely. Which is an interesting choice of word if you think about it. He also thus admits he DID at least think about Elizabeth's breast size.

I bet the designers put a lot of thought into their size though. You can imagine them going "Not too much.... a good hand full at least, be tasteful but titillate...."

Levine said "It's disappointing when appearance becomes a focus for conversation, because that was never my intent and it's sort of a disincentive. I'd much rather talk about what she's going through as a person, but whatever. They have the right to shout out whatever they want."

This amuses me greatly as the championing a female character's assets has become the thing to do in the gaming industry. Cortana from Halo, Miranda and co from Mass Effect, Bayonetta and a whole host of other female leads have their boobs emphasised. Not to forget a whole legion of characters from the Final Fantasy series.

Beauty is where you find it and Levine has this to say:

"To me, the most important thing with Elizabeth was just honestly her eyes because, you know, they're somewhat exaggerated and the reason for that is because there's so much expression you can do there, with her eyes, and you see her often at a great distance".

Stop digging bro, stop digging.

What Ryan Seacrest should have asked Steve Ballmer at CES



In a puff piece on Microsoft during this week's CES, Venture beat noted the following:

"Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said tonight that the Xbox 360 video game console has sold more than 66 million units since it was launched in 2005. In his final keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show, Ballmer said that the Xbox Live online gaming and entertainment service now has more than 40 million users, and he said Microsoft has sold more than 18 million Kinect motion-sensing systems."

It immediately amused me as I'm on to my third Xbox and not by choice! Three red rings of death later, I'm not the happiest Xbox buyer*

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest was on hosting duties for the CES event. He should have asked Steve Ballmer how many Xboxes were bought to replace those bricked xboxes? Does that number include Xboxes bricked by the Red Ring of Death?

I'd also get Ryan to ask Steve, just how many consumers were unaware of their rights as consumers for free repairs and replacements? I recall some years ago when RROD first occurred and how I was sooooostonewalled by Xbox Customer Support - it was until I quoted the Consumer Guarantees Act at a manager did I get my repair free.

I would have been intrigued by Steve's answers.

It would appear however that Microsoft has successfully left that bullshit behind.them when they admitted the problem and got to work on the newer slimmer version of the Xbox.

Now only if a decent Kinect game or application were to be released - cos let's face it - you only said 'throw grenade' once in your Halo Anniversary run through right?

* I still LOVE the Xbox though! (It's like you are a battered wife that won't leave her deadbeat husband? - Ed)

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

How does your Halo garden Bloom?


Tied the Leader took training to heart

Tied the Leader is one of the more battle harden Halo fan sites (and clans?) out there. They think about Halo and they think about Halo and they think about Halo and then they come up with this study of Halo Reach's boom.

Here's their conclusion but read the whole article for context on how bloom works:

We can draw some conclusions right away from this chart. First, at short range, spamming will win a majority of the time in either setting. But the orange box is much higher than the blue box, meaning that 85% significantly increases the winning percentage for pacing.

Second, at medium range, it is clear that pacing will now win a majority of the time in either setting. But again, the orange box is higher than the blue box, meaning 85% once again improves the odds of pacing beating spamming.

Third, at long range, the orange box is slightly lower than the blue box, meaning that pacing win percentage is slightly lower in 85% than 100%. Does this mean 85% encourages spamming at long range? Definitely not. Look how high up the chart both the blue and orange boxes are at long range! Spamming is extremely unlikely to win in either bloom setting at long range, so the slight reduction in 85% will not be that noticeable in real world outcomes.

Freddie Prinze Jr to voice James Vega in ME3


Mr Prinze
It was announced this week that a fairly famous Hollwood actor has been drafted in to voice the new mass Effect 3 character, James Vega. Whilst no relation to Vince Vega, he's sure to have a massive role in the game's campaign, and Freddie Prinze has got the roll of voice actor.

Freddie Prinze is no stranger to acting and games - does any body remember Wing Commander?

Freddie joins other famous actors, Seth Green (playing Joker), Tricia Helfer as EDI and of course Martin Sheen who plays the mysterious Illusive Man who I'm sure will have it out with Commander Sheppard in the game.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Stand and deliver your virtual goods and money!




I spied this story about the real world harassment of a young RuneScape player to make them drop their in game loot.
"The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the theft conviction of a youth who stole another boy's possessions in the popular online fantasy game RuneScape. Judges ordered the offender to perform 144 hours of community service.
The suspect's lawyer had argued the amulet and mask "were neither tangible nor material and, unlike for example electricity, had no economic value." Yet the punk held a knife to the kid and made him drop his loot in-game.
These 'virtual world' economies are nothing new in the digital sense, people often trade money in the real world for items in the digital realm.
The story did make me think about Bungie's new game, Destiny. Mooted to be set in world where players can come and go, it's been hinted that it will have some kind of in game economy (this was through a job advertisment's call for persons with experience in virtual economies).
One can only image what will happen if Destiny is the success we all want it to be. Given the stories that have abound such as kids shooting because they took their Halo away, or people travelling miles across the country to beat up someone who has offended them in game, there's likely to be ample room for such shennaigans to result from taking part in Destiny.
While there's no doubt Bungie is tuned into these problems of in game scammers and loot stealers and the like and they will make Destiny's economy a robust one, let's hope their Federal Reserve is a strong one.

Jessica Chobot / Diana Allers ME3 Wallpaper

 jessica chobot mass effect breasts



In one of the more blatant moves to get the fan boys on board, the Mass Effect 3 producers have seen fit to to add IGN pinup call, Jessica Chobot a role in the ME3 game. She's to play reporter Diana Allers in the campaign, along with a host of movie actors such as Freddie, Seth and Tricia. Here's some wallpaper, I'm sure it will sell well!

If you needed a reason to order Mass Effect from Amazon, this was it!

diana allers mass effect 3



Sunday, June 23, 2013

ME3 to have a... dragon?





New ME3 trailer featuring a host of new characters and enemies... and a dragon.

Cammy White from Street Fighter as cosplay

cammy white streetfighter sexy




Cammy White, is a popular character from the hugely sucessful Street Fighter arcade game series. Cammy made her first appearance Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers and was the second female added to the franchise - the famous Chun Li was of course the first female.

cammy white streetfighter cosplay




Given Cammy's assets, she's a natural target for the cosplayer family and here's some pretty hot photos of what the cosplay gods have deemed 'camtastic'.

babe cammy street fighter


Just chillin'

cammy white streetfighter breasts


What you staring at?

cammy white streetfighter costume


Cammy and Chun Li cosplayers joing forces






Not to be confused with Pippy Longstocking!

cammy white streetfighter hot


You can call me Ms Cammy White....



Saturday, June 22, 2013

Avengers Cosplay Pictures

sexy captain america girl


Play time for Captain America

Here's some cosplay pictures of the heroes that can be found in the Avengers movie and comics - Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and the hammer man himself, Thor.


Iron Man and his bikini loving Ironettes


Cute couple?

black widow


Black Widow sure loves her leather


Where's the Hulk?


Hawkeye and The Black Widow


Nick Fury and some red heads


Wide eyed Thor


An effective trio


Nick Fury and War Machine


Beer o'clock and double vision for this Captain America!


You wouldn't like him when he's angry

ME3 saved games a cloudy issue


John 117 managed to save himself into the cloud
Electronic arts has warned Xbox 360 gamers that their Mass Effect 2 saved games won't import into ME3 if they're stored in the 360's data cloud.

EA have said this can cause it to not recognize save files that have been transferred via cloud to a device other than the one where they originated. Therefore, the following scenarios will result in no import functionality.

  1. Moving your save file from the hard drive disc to the cloud.
  2. Moving your save file to another X360 system via the cloud (instead of a memory card or other device).
There are however two fixes for the issue.Solution to scenario 1:
  1. Move your save file from the cloud back onto the hard drive from which it originated, i.e. the X360 you originally created the save file on.
Solution to scenario 2:
  1. Move your save file from the cloud back onto the hard drive from which it originated, i.e. the X360 you originally created the save file on.
  2. Using a memory card, USB stick, or Xbox 360 HDD transfer cable, transfer the save file to the new X360.
But there's also a big freaking tragedy for those players who have the following scenario. "Currently there is one scenario in which you cannot salvage the save file: if you have ever moved your save file to the cloud and the original system is not available to transfer it back to. We understand this may be a great setback to those impacted who have been following the Mass Effect franchise over the years."EA then blithely finised off their release with "We thank you for your patience." I wonder how many people this will be an issue for?

Friday, June 21, 2013

Assassins Creed III leaked details



Did you know that the great bard William Shakespeare invented the word assassin to describe what an assassin actually does? I think I learned that in high school. I also hope that's actually true so that I can surmise what would William have thought about his made up word being the feature of one the the more recently popular franchise games, Assassins Creed.

And what would he have thought of the third game in the series being set during the American Civil war? And indeed what would he have actually thought of the war itself?

As a copyright holder himself he probably wouldn't have been too happy with the recent leaks about Assassins Creed III. And what was the detail of those leaks?


Here's the box art:




And what of the plot?

"The new hero of the story is Connor, a half English and half Mohawk Indian young man who dedicates himself to eradicating tyranny and injustice after white colonists set fire to his home village. Some of the game's experience follows Connor as his lives out his childhood on the Frontier, which is 1.5 times more expansive than the whole of Assasin's Creed: Brotherhood. Connor will interact largely with the wilderness itself, scaling cliffs and climbing trees.

Events take place from 1753-1783, around Boston and New York. Players will meet George Washington, who assumes a major role in the game, along with Ben Franklin and another character named Charles Lee, who historically was a talented American military leader in the War for Independence."



There will be adventures of hunting down deer with a bow and arrow and it also looks like you'll get to take down some Red Coats, last of the Mohican style with tomahawk axes to the face:






Red Coats on the march

A key detail that's been confirmed is that Assassin's Creed III will have an October release date.
This third game in the mega selling franchise will introduced some new elements, such as a leveling system similar to that of an RPG (only with a finite amount to obtain), a replacement for aligned factions, a different notoriety system, and more generous fast travel.

The character of Connor will use weapons more suitable to the time period, such as a tomahawk, knife, and a one-shot pistol as a secondary maneuver. He can also defend himself with human shields and kill while sprinting, an ability that has been tweaked for the game.
Combat will apparently feature the following elements:
  • The tomahawk and knife are a "constant presence" in battle. They let you do double counters and multiple takedowns, as well as chain kills.
  • There's no more target locking. Counter/defense are the same button to prevent defensive turtling.
  • You can use human shields and other context sensitive moves.
  • There are lots of secondary attacks like the one shot pistol on the Y button.
  • There's a new dynamic camera to track the action and make it look as cinematic as possible.
  • There is a new sprinting system also, so you can hold the button to instantly turn around and start fleeing from combat. They also let you kill people while still moving so you can keep chasing a target.

Want a job at 343 Industries?

Want a job at 343 Industries? Even if you don't this video might interest for it's music. Is it Halo 4 related? You tell me!!!!! Pretty sure there wasn't any sneaky references to H4 in there......



Thursday, June 20, 2013

Donna Troy Cosplay

donna troy cosplay



Here's some sweet Dona Troy cosplay action from Gillykins. Donna Troy, Wonder Girl and Teen Titan is gonna hog tie you!

This is what EDI looks like in ME3

In ME2, EDI looked like this:



In ME3, EDI looks like this:



and this:



We all know in real life she looks like this:


Tricia
It's no wonder Joker has a massive crush on EDI then eh?