The King (of Pop) is dead; long live the king. Some feel that Michael Bay’s career should suffer the same fate, given poor critical reviews of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. And yet it’s breaking or tying box office records left and right. Who is correct? Find out on this week’s Powetcast

(How do you feel about the slew of celebrity demises in the last two weeks? Or do you just want to weigh in on the latest summer blockbuster? Leave a comment below!)

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Direct Link: Powetcast Episode 13: Cinema and The King Are Dead

Show notes after the jump!
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As was reported on some time ago, Midway Games is in the midst of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as well as the possibility of having Warner Bros. buy them out. Well, you know what they say. When it rains it pours. Now it appears, since money is being thrown around, the producer of the two Mortal Kombat movies and owner of Threshold Entertainment – Larry Kasanoff – is now suing Midway to hold onto his IP rights over the movies and copyrights associated, as reported by GamePolitics.com

Kasanoff has stepped forward, claiming that not only were his movies and TV shows the main reason why Mortal Kombat became as widely known as it did back in the 90’s, but also that Threshold was responsible for turning game big-names like Lui Kang and Scorpion into the icons they are today with all the media it produced. Kasanoff’s suit also moves to block Midway’s proposed sale to Warner Bros.

So remember kids, if your ego is big enough and money’s involved, you can pretty much make up any bullshit story you want to in order to protect your “interests”. Lets all get out the rulers and measure just how big Mr. Kasanoff’s reach is.

Throughout its limited lifespan, the Dreamcast didn’t have too many RPGs that made it over to American shores. However, the few it did have were classics. Grandia II was definitely one of them, and even after the premature death of Sega’s system it lived on through PC and Playstation 2 ports (although those two were a bit rough around the edges with the PC version containing several bugs and glitches). While it’s your standard Japanese RPG for the most part, Grandia II’s story, gameplay, and monsters help set this game apart from its peers. While it’s no Final Fantasy 7, genre fans will want to add this game to their collection.
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Show Notes after the cut.
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Bioshock is one of those games that you can’t pigeonhole into one category. Is it an FPS? While you play it from the first person viewpoint, and there are guns to shoot, you would be doing this game a great disservice if you write it off as a simple Halo-style blastfest. Is it an RPG? Well, the stat upgrade and skill development systems are almost as complex as any RPG skill tree. Is it a survival horror game? Well, there are things that are just as gripping and disturbing as any Silent Hill game. Considered a spiritual successor to Irrational games’ System Shock 2, BioShock is a blend of several different genres that features a powerful narrative, unique gameplay mechanics, and a breathtaking underwater setting.
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Remember the old days of the FPS genre? You know, Doom, Wolfenstein 3-d, Duke Nukem and such. This was back when you developers didn’t have to reinvent the genre with some fancy graphics engine, Havok physics, or even complex AI. No sir, all you needed was a gun and a bunch of enemies to shoot. Rise of the Triad is a lesser known relic from that era. Created by a subsection of Apogee developers known as the Developers of Incredible power, Rise of the triad was another fun early FPS blast fest. It also added a few unique tricks of its own to make it all the more enjoyable. I’m shocked that no one developed a console version of this game as they did with Doom and Wolfenstein.
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