It’s been a little while since we heard definitive information concerning Midway’s upcoming game, “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe”, but just recently some new info and new sights have helped quell some of the unrest the game originally set with its fans.

For starters, series head Ed Boon has gone on the record stating that, yes, there WILL be Fatalities in the game, however not every character will have them.

All of the MK characters and all of the DC villains will have fatalities. The DC heroes who don’t kill that often will have brutalities that will function just like fatalities but don’t actually kill the opponent.

Boon stated in an interview with Gamespot he was quiet shocked seeing fan uproar about a possible lack of Fatalities in the game, when no official statement had been made, and also went on to say how pleased he was that so many MK fans were up in arms about the ordeal. He also made mention of an E3 demo that will be available with only 4 characters and 2 stages to be shown. It seems that even the publicity of E3 will not stave the MK team from keeping key details of the game hush-hush.

Thus far the confirmed line-up for the game includes previously seen Batman, Superman, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and has recently revealed that Flash and Sonya Blade will also be included. Despite speculation, no others have yet to be confirmed by the MK team, though there will be 20 in all.

The master of special effects and make-up arts Stan Winston died yesterday in his Malibu home at the age of 62, after battling for years with multiple myeloma. (a type of cancer of the plasma cells)

Winston was the wizard behind the visual effects and an Oscar winner for his ground-breaking work on blockbuster’s such as Jurassic Park, Aliens, and the Terminator series, was well as Edward Scissorhands, Pumpkinhead, as well as one of this summer’s hit movies – Iron Man.

It is yet unknown if the 4th Terminator movie was finished before Winston’s death, as he was slated as working on it for some time. He was also noted for working on a 4th Jurassic Park movie, and a future “The Suffering” movie based on the game of the same name.

Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.

A couple of months ago, I managed to sit down and have a nice talk with the creator of The Zombie Hunters webcomic, and it went pretty well. Thusly, I’ve decided to make sort of a small series out of it. (if other webcomic artists will have as such, that is….fickle bunch)

This time around I managed to snag an interview with Katie Tiedrich, who runs “Awkward Zombie“, and get some info out of her as to the details of her comic and beyond.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

It was revealed earlier today by Namco Bandai that a third Star Wars character will be making an appearance in the upcoming Soul Calibur IV game, due out in July, in the form of Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice from the game Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

“The Secret Apprentice is a great fit for Soulcalibur, a franchise known for its over-the-top characters and frenzied fighting action,” said Haden Blackman, project lead for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed at LucasArts. “We’re extremely proud to give fighting fans a sneak peek at one of the most intriguing new Star Wars videogame characters in a long time.”

Along with Darth Vader himself, exclusive to the Playstation 3 version of the game, and Yoda, exclusive to the 360 version, the “Starkiller” will be available for both versions. For those of you who are out of the loop, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a next-gen Star Wars video game that takes place between the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books due out in September of 2008.

It would seem like the recent revelations of “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe” isn’t the only oddly-matched versus title in the works. In an interesting twist, “Tatsunoko vs. CAPCOM: Cross Generation of Heroes” is in development for an arcade release in Japan in winter of this year. A article in the upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu Magazine will reveal more tidbits about the game.

For those who might not be anime buffs, Tatsunoko is an anime production studio famous for classic animes such as Speed Racer, Gatchaman (Battle of Planets), and also provided animation work on Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Whether Capcom means to include a lineup similar to it’s “Marvel vs.” games or not has yet to be confirmed, but one can simply imagine the thought of Speed attempting to beat Ryu senseless with a tire iron. Or maybe that’s just me. Regardless, it’s hard not to think that such a game isn’t grasping at straws in terms of good versus material, but given the aforementioned MK vs. DC game, I suppose nothing is out of the question for game developers these days.

Well, it’s been confirmed by several accounts, including Konami’s official website that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was indeed the game that featured screenshots that were leaked some time ago. Slated for a fall release, Order of Ecclesia features newcomer protagonist Shanoa as a member of the elusive Order, who has been trained as an agent to be used against Dracula’s forces when the Belmont family mysteriously vanishes. New tidbits featured are, as mentioned, a female main character, which is a first since IGA took over the series and eliminated Gameboy’s Castlevania Legends from canon for the same reason. The other new feature is a glyph system of fighting, which is mentioned as akin to Aria of Sorrow’s tactical-soul system.
An interview with series producer IGA maps out these new fighting systems and a few other interesting aspects of the new game, including new artwork not of the anime-genre of Dawn of Sorrow or Portrait of Ruin, but neither from series’ usual artist Ayami Kojima.

Another interesting bit of Castlevania news has been rumored as to the next Castlevania game after Ecclesia, which has been confirmed as being for a console. The title “Castlevania: Judgment” has been registered by Konami almost right on the heels of Ecclesia, and whispers from Japan hint that the console of choice very well might be the Nintendo Wii. The real reason this is interesting is because IGA had stated long ago that he was frowning at the idea of having a Castlevania on the Wii due to obvious gimmicks that would be associated with the Wiimote and a whip-weapon system. Only time will tell if these rumors, like the ones for Ecclesia, prove to be true.

We’ve got the newest trailer from “Batman: Dark Knight”, coming this summer. This one seems to be the longest of the trailers we’ve seen thus far, and has a couple of perhaps spoilerific hints as to some of the more hush-hush details of the flick, including some prelude shots that reveal the ‘grittier’ details of Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent.

The scenes are oh-so delicious. This movie will be well worth the wait.

Something that made my heart flutter happened to be smack dab on the cover of June’s EGM issue – it would appear that Namco’s cult-classic horror game Splatterhouse will be getting a well-deserved updating and makeover. Given that there have been a recent string of “retro-revivals” lately, including a new Golden Axe game (squee!!), this is a welcome addition to that list.

Splatterhouse should be name that pops up in the minds of survival-horror fans, as it was the progenitor of the genre itself. Released in 1988 for the TurboGrafx-16, the original game was quite gorey and violent for something coming out before the likes of Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat, which are well known for both, and was the first game ever to receive the parental advisory disclaimer. Just to exemplify, the American version of the game had to be censored due to depictions of an inverted cross with severed heads as a boss, less blood and gruesome sound FX coming from enemies when they’re smashed against walls, and less graphic death scenes of bosses. The game came out for the Virtual Console in 2007, but unfortunately featured the toned-down western version. Check out The West Mansion for more information on the series and games.