The Game Developers Conference is right around the corner, and with it the industry’s awards ceremony. Unlike embarassing Spike and G4 Productions, the GDCA’s academy is made up only of developers and not 13 year olds with access to the internet.

With that in mind, a lot of the same names are still garnering praise, with Okami and Oblivion each earning 4 nominations, including best game. Gears Of War, Twilight Princess, and Wii Sports round out the list. Tim Schafer, the mad genius behind Psychonauts, will host the event along with performances from MC Chris and Mega 64. Why can’t they televise this show?

Visit the GDCA site for the full list of nominees. The awards will be presented on March 7th at the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

The legendary 1959 Cadillac ambulance that became the vehicle for the Ghostbusters is on the auction block.

Hemmings, an automotive auctioneer and marketplace, has the car listed as on sale starting at a reasonable $149,998(with no money down!). Currently residing in Volo, Illinois at the Volo Auto Museum, this car is not the actual car used in the filming of Ghostbusters or its sequel. This is the beat up vehicle Dan Akroyd’s character Ray purchases early in the first film and comically lists its shortcomings. It was simply leased for that scene to be filmed, and only after production of the movie had been completed did the studio go back and fund the conversion of the classic Miller-Meteor to the specifications of the ECTO-1.

Listing says everything inside is completely restored with leather seats, vintage air conditioning, and all the lights and the distinctive siren heard in the movie are working.

So… who wants to co-sign a car loan for me? I’m totally good for it.

Probably not. Like 99% probably not and that’s me being optimistic. Regardless this unreliable source is reporting that there is an English live action Sailor Moon movie in the works and that “one of the major movie studios” is trying to get Joss Whedon to direct. The article goes on to reveal the most absurb cast including a mix of people who are too good for such a role to people I’ve never even heard of. This cast sounds just like any other random idiot’s “Who would you cast in a live action Sailor Moon movie?” list which I must admit I’ve read and written far too many of.

This is not the first rumour of a live action Sailor Moon movie. About 10 years ago you couldn’t go long before hearing about Geena Davis‘s Sailor Moon movie she was set to star in as Queen Beryl. Since then such rumours occasionally resurface in one form or another.

So why am I telling you this? Because someone said it. Because it’s probably fake but it’s of interest. Because when they first announced the Japanese live action series I was 99+% sure it was fake.

I guess now we just have to wait for some idiot to ask Joss Whedon about this before that < 1% bit of doubt is put to rest.

The internet has gone absolutely crazy with toys leaks in the past couple weeks, but I won’t waste your time with all of them. Instead, I’ll cherry pick the best, and relevant news, and leave TFW2005 to gobble up every scrap.

First up the comics: The Movie “prequel,” which will be a 4 issue series set before the events of the live action movie. TFarchive has a nice review of the book, which is due on February 21st.

Cover B is something special, showcasing non-movie characters, Arcee, Inferno, and Shockwave (at least one of the hundred one-eye bots HAS to be Shockwave). Don Figueroa is handling the pencils, so it should be pretty interesting to see how the fans’ favorite artist handles some of the fans’ least favorite designs.

Speaking of designs, its about time Dreamworks, ILM, Paramount, or Michael Bay himself fired somebody. Not because the designs are bad (I personally like the fresh approach), but because we have even more spec sheets. This has to be the worst kept secret in Hollywood.
Here are Starscream, Frenzy, Bonecrusher, and Ironhide.

Ok, enough of this concept art, its time for merchandise. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #1 (of 4)
story and art by Jeff Smith

What’s that? Can’t read the title of the post? Well, thank God you’ve got your handy dandy Secret Decoder! What’s that? You don’t? Oh. Well, thank God I’ve got a spare!

This is the kind of effort that Jeff Smith (known for his career-defining work on Bone) is putting into this book. He’s been providing regular updates on his blog, using the code-speak as an added treat, and he says it’ll even be handy when you’re actually reading the book. For example, take a quick glance HERE, and see not only his mindset about putting Talking Tawny in the book, but also the process of creating the art for the page. And hell, you even get another chance to use the decoder. Interested? Don’t even know who Captain Marvel is? Want some preview pages? Well, read on for more!
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Goyer’s dismissal, the Hollywood Reporter brings us news of the new director – Shawn Levy. So, what’s the man done before to warrant helming such a film? Well, according to IMDb, his most recent movies are: Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther, Cheaper By The Dozen, Just Married, and Big Fat Liar.

Holy. Crap. What an unimpressive list of action-movie/comic-movie credentials. Now, don’t get me wrong – I thoroughly enjoyed Night at the Museum, but I know some here at Powet cringe at its mention, and that’s not even touching the rest of the movies on that list. To be fair though, Levy did direct one episode of the short-lived Birds Of Prey show. And maybe it was a really well-directed episode. I’m pretty sure no one ever bothered to watch it, so it’s hard to say.

In the end, it’s only fair to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, especially until we find out a lot more (like, say, the writer). But this doesn’t exactly strike me as a step in the right direction.

First of all, pay no attention to the low scores given by other media outlets. This game is the best game to make use of the Spawn license (besides his appearance in the Xbox version of SoulCalibur 2). Surprisingly, it was a third-person shooter made by Capcom. The gameplay is a fusion of Quake 3: Arena and Powerstone. Players select from 37 characters (most of which are unlockable and 12 being available at the start), each with their own array of weapons and powers, and blast their way through several stages in either arcade or story modes. You can also play the standard multiplayer modes for up to 4 players in stages with variable environmental settings. The character selection included nearly everyone from the Spawn mythos, even Cagliostro, Sam, Twitch, and a few alternate versions of Spawn himself. It’s a shame that the game engine was used in only one other game, Heavy Metal Geomatrix. It would have interesting to see more shooters by Capcom done in this style.

This is not a new discovery. This has been a known piece of information since before I came upon the subject, but someone was nice enough to capture it on video for us, and that is new. For your trivial pleasure, we have Totaka’s Song and how to find it in “Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.” Some English spellings of the title will differ, but it literally translates to “For the Frog the Bell Tolls.” Whatever you call it, the game was a Japan-exclusive release for the original Game Boy: