Geek vs Life

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!

With E3 going right now, the amounts of news that we can post is enormous. More on that later. Right now, important news: the Rock Band 2 set list.

Scheduled to be released on September 14 2008, Rock Band 2 looks like it will not be a reinvention of itself, but rather just an update to fix the kinks that had lodged itself in the original one. For example, your character will no longer be limited to playing one instrument anymore, your corset wearing goth chick can be singing lead vocals one track and slapping the strings on bass for the next song. World Tour Online will be greatly improved as well. The finally got rid of the Band Leader crap which pretty much forced someone to ALWAYS be on drums. Mostly, that was Joe.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking Jefferee Star? Who’s Lo kidding? But music, like video games, can’t all be serious. Sometimes you have to shake it up and just push play.

That’s exactly what you should do with Plastic Surgery Slumber Party. I like music that doesn’t take itself too seriously. That’s not to say I don’t like music that’s not serious. The problem I have is way too many artists take themselves far too serious when they shouldn’t.

“Plastic Surgery Slumber Party” is an amazingly sarcastic yet oddly delightful song. It’s easy to dance to and full of bitch goddess sass. It’s easy to see why Jefferee chose this to name the whole Ep with.

I just returned home tonight, on the Fourth of July, from my local fireworks show in downtown Edmonds. I have to say, I’m not very impressed. Yes, some things are personal preference, such as the change in bands from the band they’ve had every year since I remember, but others…

How about the cops doing flagging flagging everyone DEEPER into downtown when you’re trying to leave? And ignoring the people right down the street illegally lighting off fireworks (fireworks of any kind are illegal in Edmonds. Apparently, even those little party poppers bottle thingies are). Oh, and let’s not even mention the fireworks from the show running across the ground into the crowd, and no emergency response in sight. Oh, they went out, of course, since the screams of terror didn’t last long.

I most likely won’t be returning.