Geek vs Life

Hey guys,

So the local crew is sitting here downtown, and I’ve been Twittering bits of the day, and we realized we’ve neglected to announce a couple things here on the main site.

We have a twitter account!  Add us!  www.twitter.com/gvl  Also, as you can see over on the sidebar to the right under the “What I’m doing…” we have our twitter fed into here.

Also, we’re spending the next few days at the Casual Connect Seattle.  We’ll be doing more of the coverage after the event, so Jon and I have enough time to compile our thoughts.  In the meantime, I’m running around with my phone putting up bits here and there.

And like any event that we attend, the swag search has commenced between Jon and Elise.  And we’ll be puting up some of the riches for grabs in contest form.

Keep with us, and we’ll give you the scoops!

Behold! The return of the this week in games! Your disposable income now has no place to hide bwa hahaha!

But there’s only one game that really matters:

Buy it now.… and no, not Nancy Drew.

(07.21.08)
Final Fantasy IV (DS)
City Life 2008 Edition (PC)
Baseball Mogul 2009 (PC)
Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Wii)

(07.22.08)
Ubersoldier 2: The End of Hitler (PC)
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns (DS)
Order Up! (Wii)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (PS2, Wii, DS)
New International Track & Field (DS)
Kidz Sports: Crazy Golf (Wii)

(07.23.08)
Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Clue Bender Society (DS)
Puzzle Quest: Revenge of the Plague Lord (XBLA)

(07.24.08)
1942: Joint Strike (PS3, X360)

$158,411,483. That’s a lot of Happy Meals. That still will only buy you under 200 copies of Detective Comics #27 (CGC 9.4 value of $800,000). Holy fuck wad of cash Batman.

So not only did The Dark Knight smash the record established last year by Spider-Man 3 for opening weekend grosses, it also now holds the title of most money earned on opening day, <$67,165,092. It probably helped that the movie was also released on more screens than any other movie, ever: 4,366.

Check out the list of the top ten movie grosses for opening weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

Months ago I was reading various eulogies and “in memory of” type articles on Heath Ledger after his apparent suicide in January 08. The writers would remember such roles as Patrick Verona in 10 Things I Hate About You, Sir William Thatcher in A Knight’s Tale or Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. It’s unfortunate that one of the best roles that the actor has ever played was one that only shone after he had expired: The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Calling the movie “Heath Ledger’s Dark Knight,” wouldn’t have been too far fetched. As clowns often do, The Joker stole the show. Highly regarded as Batman’s greatest nemesis in the DCU, The Joker does what he is does best: chaos, mayhem and wanton destruction but always with a smile.

Personally, I have never been too fond of fighter games. Not my thing. I do have to say though, Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe (MK vs DC for short), looks pretty kick ass.

The game is written by comic vets Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. To keep up with the realism style that the MK series has always preferred over the cartoony look of the Street Fighter series, MK vs DC will be powered by the Unreal 3 engine.

The list of characters is still under wraps for now, but we were able to confirm Batman, Flash, Catwoman, Captain Marvel and Superman on the DC side as well as Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Shang Tsung and Sonya Blade for MK.

Step one: Watch the trailer below.

Step Two: Read comics till November 17th (release date).

Despite being turned away in April, the highly acclaimed game Portal will be make it’s way onto Xbox Live in the near future under the semi new name Portal Still Alive.

The story will remain the same as the original, but there will be additional puzzles, levels, achievements and cake. No word yet on the possibility of the game also seeing life on PS3 or PC.

Fans and GlaDOS can now have their cake and eat it too.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
Ok, so those are really really long term plans. But, for the time being I can live vicariously through things like Soon I Will Be Invincible, and new GVL favorite, Joss Whedon’s internet musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. We haven’t watched anything this entertaining since the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire slayer…go figure.

Neil Patrick Harris portrays the part Dr. Horrible, who holds a Ph.D. in horribleness, who’s attempts to both rule the world and win the heart of a fellow laundromat patron are continually thwarted by Captain Hammer. The role of Captain Hammer, the brash insensitive prick of a superhero, is played by Nathan Fillion, who fills the part very well. And the last of the main characters is Penny, played by Filicia Day, who’s sweet demeanor and quiet hope balance out the cast.

As you have probably noticed, GvL has un-reverted from the previous design to the current design. There was a technical problem with the design that had been custom designed for GvL, and I finally fixed it!

Yay for progress!

As an added benefit, there is a little secret that I have coded into the new site. Can you guess? (Here’s a hint, it has to do with web comics.) The aforementioned secret isn’t complete yet, but it is useable.

In any case, no background yet. (Joe hated the original one, and the last one was too girly.)

So, let’s have a contest! Email your background image to dan.spacemonkeys@gmail.com, and the winner will be obvious

Because you can never have too much Vestibules in your diet. THAT’S why.

Ahem… what is this?

I mean seriously though. WTF?

Stay tuned for the CROTCH ZOOM!

This one is straight off Kotaku:

Shigeru Miyamoto has announced a new Pikmin. No loud flashy displays or shows, just words uttered during an E3 2008 Nintendo Developer Roundtable.

“We’re making Pikmin.”

Linky here.

Are you a fan of City of Heroes/ Villains but the double XP weekends are not doing it for you anymore?

Lookie here! Champions Online by the same makers as COH/V, is on the horizon to fulfill all your not so kinky spandex fantasies!

Seriously, look!

Sad new: you’ll have to wait till Spring ‘09

That’s right, the PS3 exclusivity of Final Fantasy XIII is no more. Why? Speculation abound that it could be that there is about a million more Xbox360 in the US. So the possibility of more sales is quite eminent and evident. It is becoming much harder for companies to keep exclusivity in the gaming market, where every sale counts.

Do you hear that? Those are the tears of Sony Entertainment of America, Japanese Xbox 360
owners and people who bought a PS3 figuring that it was the only way to get FFXIII. My condolences.

OH! Game trailer, sweet!