This week marks the second anniversary of our popular $20 Game of the week column. We’ve certainly come a long way, yet it seems like only yesterday I started this thing off by raving about Outlaw Tennis. Now it’s two years later, and we’re still here. So what better way to commemorate my second anniversary than with one of gaming’s most prolific companies? Read on after the jump to learn about one of the great masters of 2-d fighting, SNK. Or rather, SNK Playmore as they are known as these days.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Building upon this post from a few months ago, it would appear that the traveling orchestral videogame concert known as Video Games Live has seen fit to release a full album of their greatest performances from various past shows. “Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One” will feature various medleys of well-known tunes from gaming series such as Zelda, Sonic, Mario, Halo and many others, all done in their usual orchestral setting. The album was created by tour head Tommy Tallarico, along with Jack Wall and features the talents of Slovak National Orchestra as well as the Crouch End Chorus and the Martin “The Video Game Pianist” Leung.

Seeing as how this is “Volume One”, it’s only fair to assume that other volumes with additional music will be included in the future. They certainly have enough material to work with. The album will see a release date of October 15th and will more than likely be available on the VGL website.

Cinematical has the details for the DVD release on October 16.

Basically there will be a regular edition DVD, a special 2-disc DVD edition and then a special 2 disc HD-DVD edition.

Boxart for the sets has been posted here.

I have copy and pasted the press release after the jump for the full details.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Not exactly recent news, but for those not in the know: “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto, the man behind Sylar, has been cast as the new Spock in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek flick.

Now SciFi.com has a video interview with the man who would be a Vulcan, where he reveals he’s been working with Leonard Nimoy to understand the mind (and heart?) of this classic character.

He certainly looks the part, doesn’t he? Especially the nose. They did everything they could in Heroes to make him look like Clark Kent, juxtaposing his Sylar’s boogeyman nature. But forget all that; what about the fact that one of Hiro’s heroes is being portrayed by the big Heroes villain?

Do you like this choice? Who could possibly fill the Starfleet-issue boots of the other two “big” roles? Let us know what you think! I agree with Zac (our Zac, that is) that Gary Sinise would make a great Leonard McCoy.

The Doctor Who BBC Website reports that Doctor Who will indeed be continuing into its fifth year in 2010.

2010? Wait, let’s do a little math….

Series 3 just wrapped up this spring, with a Christmas Special to follow in December. Series 4 begins in spring of 2008 with much the same formula as this and the previous two years. So what’s going on in 2009?

Doctor Who is going “part-time” after Series 4 with three television specials starring current Doctor, David Tennant. Even with Who on semi-break, spin-offs such as Torchwood should be going in full force. But what’s the reason for this decision? Is Tennant on his way out after four years?

Additionally, 2008 is Doctor Who’s 45th anniversary. In the past, these anniversary years have seen multiple-Doctor specials. Here’s hoping we see Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston (or even Peter Davison!) reprising their roles, as well as Paul McGann in his first BBC Who appearance.

A fan can dream, can’t he?

2007 has been a big year for Doctor Who. Take a look back at January when we broke the oncoming Doctor Who Explosion news. Also, Series 3 is currently just past the mid-point in its run on the Sci Fi Channel — check it out!

As we encroach closer to the October season, you can already notice a few things in the air that signals the coming of the macabre time of the year: numerous Halloween stores popping up at local malls; candy be piled onto shelves at local WalMart and Target stores; and talk of horror movies being remade and receiving long-awaited sequels.

The latter is the cause with Rob Zombie’s remake of the Horror cult classic, Halloween. For quite a while, it was the talk of the horror culture underground, and the most anticipated remake of the genre. Zombie has a small reputation for creating twisted sounds, and equally twisted screenplays, as can be evidenced by his take on “The Devil’s Rejects“. However, it seems criticism is being thrown on heavy in the cause of his touching upon the Halloween series. Zombie takes the original story of Michael Myers, and gives light to the serial killer’s background and childhood, and a look into what made him into the resurrecting homicidal maniac we all know today. Apparently some were not too thrilled with this interpretation of how the story show look, however. I’ve heard some rather good thing from people who have gone to see this flick thus far, but the higher-ups of the horror circuit seem to look down upon the telling of this tale – citing it as “failing because of one simple reason- it’s not scary“, as put by the review of the film on Creature Corner. This seems to be an experience that will be determined on a person-by-person basis. Your either like it, or you don’t.

In the way of sequels, beyond the atrocity that will be released in the form of “Resident Evil: Extinction”, it would seem a second installment of another cult classic in the horror genre is in the works as we speak – The Lost Boys. Twenty years after the first movie hit the screens, and introduced a while new level of modern vampire films, it seems that many of the cast from the original movie are finally coming together for a sequel. Both Corey Feldman and Corey Heim are slated for return, though Sci-Fi reports Heim is having immigration problems that are holding up his arrival on the Canadian set of the proposed sequel film. It would also seem that Keifer Sutherland’s half-brother Angus is ironically being slated as the movie villain role. Whether or not this all hopes to be a grand reunion, or a hopeless flop will as of yet remain to be seen. Either way, it should prove amusing.

Yeah, I’m gonna catch some heat for this, but I don’t care. This game is underrated in the fighting game arena. It had a solid fighting system, excellent graphics, and cool characters. It also went a long way to proving that Nintendo’s systems weren’t just for kids. Developed by Rare using Nintendo’s ‘Ultra 64’ hardware, and published in the arcades by Midway, this game would serve as a demonstration of the technology that would make up then unreleased Nintendo 64. It borrowed parts of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and made them into something totally different. It may not be the greatest fighting game ever, but it set itself apart from other 2-d fighters of the period.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

On Monday September 3rd, starting at 8:30pm Eastern Time, the Powet.tv gaming community will be having a Pokémon Diamond and Pearl game night. What this basically means is that all Powet.tv members can go online at one time and engage in battles and trades with each other. With the large group we have there should be an oppurtunity to have constant battling at a time when you know people in your friend list will be available to battle. To participate please do the following:

1) Get a friend code! Post it in the Pokémon Diamond/Pearl Friend Codes thread or as a comment to this post.

2) At 8:00pm EST or later, add all the friend codes from the list at the end of this post, also available in this thread, to your Pal Pad. Feel free to start adding them earlier but to avoid having late comers left out of potential battles please remember to update your friend codes before starting to play.

3) Assemble your team of 6 non Legendary Pokémon, go to the basement of a Pokémon Center and talk to the girl on the left to go online.

4) Accept an invitation to a battle or chose “Invite” to challenge someone who’s online to a “Single Battle” or “Double Battle”. Please select a “Lv. 50 Single” or “Lv. 50 Double” which will take whatever 6 Pokémon you have in your team and set their level to 50 for the match. They will keep whatever moves they have but their stats will be what they would have at level 50, so competition should be more even.

Before you openly make fun of your competitor please keep in mind that voice chat is active during battles so when you speak into the mic in your DS, the opponent will hear you.

Trading is encouraged. Talk about what you’d like to trade while battling, and then change your team, reestablish your Wi-Fi connection, and trade accordingly.

For more information and discussion drop by the forum and check out this thread.

Thanks to Captain Genius for the spiffy banner.

Please keep reading for a list of what are considered to be restricted Legendary Pokémon and friend codes.

[Read the rest of this entry…]