The name Halo has become synonymous with Xbox. Ever since Halo 2’s non-ending, fans have waited for 3 years straight for Bungie to finish the fight, and this sequel does not disappoint. Taking strides forward in both single player and multiplayer, Halo 3 closes out the trilogy in style and it gave players plenty of reasons to keep it in thier consoles long after they are finished with the campaign. Well, at least until Reach came out.
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Brave New Films, a progressive viral film site born out of the 2008 election, has taken a sharp stab at conservative pundits. Unfortunately they did so by slandering a classic video game character in the process.

An email sent out of subscribers and an update on their home page shows a headline “Pac Man vs Palin? You Betcha!” paired with an image that depicts the Namco owned character chasing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin like one of the enemy ghosts. In the text they refer to him as “Progressive Against Conservative” Man though there is little mistaking the character, right down to the basic yellow pie shape.

The game itself is identical to the original Pac Man, with a purple maze instead of blue, and the ghosts replaced with Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Bill O’Reilly. When a player eats a power pellet and then eliminates an enemy ghost, an audio clip from one of the conservative pundits plays. Likewise, when a pundit catches Pac Man, a clip taunting the player also runs.

Parody and satire are well and good, and fair use laws when paired with non profits are generous and fair. However, it cannot be mistaken by my eyes that Brave New Films and its founder Robert Greenwald are guilty of stealing Pac Man for their own gain. There are millions of unique or even similar flash games available and plenty of like-minded developers who could’ve made a game for Brave New Films. Instead they took an existing idea and willfully modified the visuals and audio. The core game mechanic, the very thing that makes Pac Man an arcade classic, is completely unchanged.

Brave New Films did not respond to requests for comment, we will update if they do. The game is currently still available at http://bravenewpacman.com/

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Only missing Halloween by a week, but in honest, for some of us Halloween doesn’t end with a date. There a very special subgenre on geek that specializes in the supernatural, the arcane, and the frightening and everything in between. The horror geek, or “Shriek Geek” as I am dubbing them (and myself, in essence) leans toward media and realms that deal with the freakish, the ghoulish, and the downright creepy and chilling.

And you can tell there’s a fair amount of Shriek Geeks out there, since zombie movies are so prolific these days, along with supernatural thriller and survival horror games such as Resident Evil, Clock Tower, Silent Hill and so on. Then there’s a certain side of the Shriek Geeks that go for horror with a bit more of a gross and physically terrifying side to it, such as Clive Barker’s Jericho and Dead Space. But before those games came about, one gaming series in particular stood out for its freakish themes and chilling visuals and violence: Splatterhouse.
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Zack Snyder, director of 300, Watchmen, and soon Superman, will release his next film on March 25, 2011.

The official movie synopsis says its about a girl trying to escape a lobotomy in a mental institution, but the imagery in these trailers is so gonzo its hard to tell if I’m reading about the right movie. Sucker Punch does appear to be a dazzling experiment in fan service, though not quite as exploitative of females as men were on display in 300.

Songs used in the trailer are “When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zepplin and “Panic Switch” by Silversun Pickups. Early reports about the soundtrack suggest a film closer to Moulin Rouge, where existing music and dance choreography is inserted within the films narrative.

Full HD variation can be downloaded from Apple.

Powet Robots looks at the flying pie plate robots from * (asterisk) batteries not included. This movie about old people and Hispanic stereotypes also has a bit of sci-fi thrown in for fun.

Check out the forum for behind the scenes images of making the robots I used for this video.

Time to work off all that Halloween sugar and welcome in November with a fresh new list of releases. There’s a lot this week, but the biggest is probably Kinect for the 360 and its associated games. Have a look for yourself after the jump!

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