Greetings humans, Monki here yet again spreading Christmas cheer via video game news.
So, I think Harry hates me. See the following in the rules/regulations post about the upcoming BNAT:
Right from the get go - I have a strict - NO ELECTRONICS ADMISSION POLICY. Nothing that lights up or goes beep... This means - no Palms, No PSPs, No Portable DVD players.
I don't know about you kids, but I was ready to bust out with some DS action between movies. A little 4 player New Super Mario minigames perhaps, but noooo. I guess I will just have to settle for a line-up of insanely cool movies for 24 hours instead of relying on video games to keep my head buzzing. I hope I can manage.
Harry's lack of Monki-love has inspired me to offer up my own alternative to BNAT for those of you that can't make it to the Austin original. But I'll get to that in a bit. Off to the news we go!
Press Releases of the Week!
So we have ourselves a TV-theme PRotW this week. It seems there is some writer named "Joss Whedon" that apparently wrote a TV show about some vampire cheerleaders or something. Well, that show did kinda well and he went on to write another show. Something about cowboys in space. Ever hear of them? It seems the space cowboy show didn't get picked up by mainstream audiences and eventually died off on the teevee. A movie was then created to extend the story out a bit more. That movie didn't do terribly hot either.
Fans of the show are still rabid for it, so, what is next. A Massively Multiplayer Online game of course!! From Wired:
Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.
Now that's shiny.
Multiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it's struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online.
The "Browncoats," as Firefly's most devoted fans are known, have been campaigning to bring the show back almost since the moment it was canceled in late 2002. Now they'll get their wish, albeit in a new form.
...
The universe of Firefly and its spinoff film, Serenity, featured everything from Old West-style towns to futuristic urban environments, gritty spaceships and pastoral retreats -- freedom fighters, oppressive government agents, smugglers, outlaws, mercenaries, trader, townsfolk, futuristic geishas and a race of corrupted humans known as the Reavers.
Bringing those environments and character types to life as an online game will be a challenge: Multiverse is not a game developer, but rather a platform provider whose product is still in beta. Instead of making the game itself, the company will hire a development team that will craft the virtual galaxy using Multiverse tools.
"We want to find someone who wants to do something unique and fun and interesting, not just a re-skin of World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies," Bridges says.
Because the underlying technology is already in place, "I feel confident that we'll see something the public can play sometime in 2008," he adds.
...
Do I hear Herc scrambling to upgrade his PC to make sure he can run this game? What do you guys think? It seems that TV-MMOs are becoming the next big thing; Star Trek has one coming as well. I do like the "...not just a re-skin of World of Warcraft..." line though. Offer gamers something different. Variety is a good thing.
Speaking of Star Trek, we received an email from a reader about Star Trek:TOS Special Edition episodes being available on XBox Live Marketplace:
Hey Harry,
Been a fan of the site for many, many years and I finally have something to contribute, as I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere yet.
Was on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace last night and discovered something very cool. In addition to the standard def, non special edition Star Trek episodes, they now have several of the special edition episodes available in brilliant 720p HD. They are 4:3 (not 16:9) and go for about $3 an episode. Unlike the 42 minute SE episodes currently airing in Standard def, these are the COMPLETE and UNEDITED 50 minute versions. Here are the ones available:
- Balance Of Terror
- Devil In The Dark
- City On The Edge Of Forever
- Space Seed
- Miri
- Arena
- The Naked Time
I've already watched Balance Of Terror and Space Seed and both look simply beautiful. You can really see why they are re-doing the effects as the original ones would have looked horrible in HD! Time for the High-Def Trekkers to hit the store and pick up an Xbox 360!
Thanks for all the good work to you and all of your co-horts (especially Herc!).
Much love
you can call me Scaramanga!
Thanks for the heads up Scaramanga. Much Herc love going out today. Sheesh.
Okay, I realize now that neither of those were press releases. My bad.
Pretty Images of the Week!
Did you really think Quint would let me get away without posting this one?
A high-res version is also available.
I just gotta say...wow. Gotta love these trailers that get your heart pumping for a game that isn't coming out for almost a whole year.
Here is a debate topic for all of y'all. Are the kids in the opening of that trailer CGI or live-action? I could have sworn I read somewhere that the trailer would be part live-action but most of my friends are convinced it is entirely CGI. I don't really care a whole lot, but it would be nice to see if anyone else thought that it was live-action too.
An At-Home Video-Game-Centric BNAT For You And Your Dumb Friends of the Week!
So on Saturday morning just before Harry heads off to the Alamo Drafthouse to kick off the ultimate film festival known as Butt-Numb-a-Thon, he posts a list of movies for readers to watch in a row that reflect the line-up of BNAT. A home game version, if you will.
In keeping with that idea, I, Monki, offer up the first annual VIDEO GAME BNAT LIST! That's right folks, you too can suffer through half a day's worth of ass numbness to watch some awesome (and sometimes terrible) video game movies.
To kick off the festival we start with a blast from the past. One of the first, and one of the worst video-game based movies out there. I speak of the classic, DOUBLE DRAGON.
No better way to start off a fest than with the ass-kicking Lee brothers played by Scott Wolf and Mark Dacascos! Did you know Paul Dini has a writing credit on this one? Good times.
We follow up Double Dragon with another fighter-based movie starring one of the best immortal actors out there, Christopher Lambert in...
Morrrrrtaaallllllll Kooommmmmmmmmbbbbbbaaaattttt!!!!!!!
I had the biggest crush on Sonya Blade. (Who ended up staring as Adam Sandler's teacher in Bill Madison. Rawr.)
We approach the halfway point with a classic video-game related piece from the early 80s. Perhaps Joe Don Baker's best movie ever.
I've had the honor of watching this twice at the Alamo Drafthouse. I can't express how perfect of a movie this is. King Vidiot is one of the best movie villains of all time. Also, the arcade love scene is one for the recordbooks when it comes to hottest usage of arcade machines, candles and two naked women.
God I love 80's movies.
By now you are about 5 hours into the festival, so it is time for you to watch something with some oomph. For that not-so-fresh feeling I prescribe a dose of The Rock and Karl Urban.
Almost worth it to watch the first-person scene, but still pretty bad overall. Personally I liked Doom 2 better than Doom. But I'm a double-barrel shotgun kind of guy.
We now approach the last stretch of our mini-festival so why not throw in some lovely ladies to oogle?
(Yes, I know that isn't the USA poster.) This one actually comes out today (Friday), so you'll have to leave your house and actually go to a movie theater to catch this one. Of course, it isn't showing in Austin, but IMDB has it listed as releasing today. So I guess I'll be driving to another city to catch it. I can't wait to zusammen my unwiderstehlich while watching Jamie Pressley. Mmmmmmm.
Last but most certainly not least we have the masterpiece of video game filmmaking. I speak of Fred Savage's masterpiece.
