Looks like Uwe Boll didn’t learn from his last screw ups regarding the BloodRayne movie franchise. A new movie, titles “BloodRayne 2: Deliverence” began production in January of 2007 with a grand budget of $10 million, and is set to release straight to DVD as of later this month.

This movie is supposed to take place in the wild west with vampire cowboys and Billy the Kid being their ringleader. Actress Kristanna Loken has thankfully not reprised her role from the first movie, and instead actress Natassia Malthe has taken her place as the bombshell dhampire huntress. Actor Zack Ward will be playing the role as Billy the Kid, which somewhat depresses me as I believe him to be better than something going straight-to-video, but that’s just me. Kinda hard to feel any kind of positive for the sequel of a movie that was considered one of the worst game-based films in existance.

Trailers can be seen both at the official website and at Bloody Disgusting.

There have been many consoles that people would consider “god systems”, that pack convinience and multitasking into one console. Well, another one has recently hit the market, in the form of a console that plays *both* 8-bit NES and 16-bit SNES games! Whodathunkit?!

The FC Twin Video Game System was released on November of 2006 by the manufacturer known as “Yobo”, but only has recently become any kind of known in the gaming world. This system has separate circuitry and separate slots to play both Nintendo and Super Nintendo cartridges, which can be switched between the two types with a double throw power switch to toggle back and forth. It also utilizes two SNES compatible controllers, which can also map to NES controller inputs. (B maps to Y, A maps to B).

Sounds like the perfect grab for anyone whose current retro systems are failing, and don’t want to shell out for the two separate systems, right? Well, there are a few drawbacks. one being that the system can’t handle the NES zapper lightgun for games like Duck Hunt. Another downside is that a few certain games made for either system will not play for the FC Twin, such as Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse – one of the reasons I actually bought the system in the first place…. *mumble*. See wikipedia’s entry for a list of the games for both NES and SNES that cannot play on the Twin. Also, some sounds for the NES may not sound exactly like their originals, but SNES sounds seem to work fine. And don’t even think about trying to use Super Famicom games.

Despite the downsides, the FC Twin system itself is a neat toy for any gaming enthusiast, and comes at the eye-catching price of around $40-$50, which would make it generally less than buying clean copies of both original systems that it emulates. So if you’re looking for a good backup system for either of your original Nintendo consoles, like I did, then picking up the FC Twin might be a decent investment.

Botcon.com has posted the fourth figure in the Botcon 2007 exclusive box set of five. Bugbite is a straight repaint of Classics Bumblebee. He is another Decepticon and supposedly the leader of the pack. Bugbite is actually not a new character. Similar to Sunstorm, the Bugbite character originates from an E-Hobby Exclusive repaint of the Generation 1 book-format reissues. In the reissue set, six minibots were included with Bumblebee featuring a retooled, cartoon accurate face (see post banner). This set’s E-Hobby exclusive counterpart featured repainted versions of the six minibots with new names and some new alliegances. It is also worth mentioning that the names given to the repaints were all former Go-Bot names with similar alt modes (Pathfinder, Smallfoot, Bug Bite, Treads, Bad Boy, and Road Ranger).

 

Bug Bite photos from Botcon.com
Bug Bite E-Hobby Exclusive face picture from tfu.info.

Check it out here

The sequel to 2005’s Fantastic Four looks to be better than the original, but the transition of Galactus from Purple-Helmeted World Devourer to gaseous nebula is disturbing. I was really hoping the creators would go all out and adhere to canon, but I suppose the mainstream ticket holder might be a bit put off by a corporeal Galactus.

Perhaps I’m jumping the gun. Maybe, just maybe, the destroyer of worlds will show up in the third act and and silence the jaded critic inside me.

Regardless, the Surfer looks great!

Rockstar Games history is the kind of tale you’d expect to hear about an up and coming band, complete with pitfalls and successes on the way to making it big. The name really does fit them.

WIRED‘s Dave Kushner takes a deeper look into the rise and fall of Rockstar this month. It might seem ludicrous to claim the company is sliding now unless you consider the last 3 games they’ve release have sold poorly, and they’re in such financial trouble even a million selling Manhunt 2 on Wii may not save them. Hot Coffee can still be enjoyed, but backdated stock options could close the doors for good.

Whatever the case, its a good read about a group of developers who got more than they bargained for when they wanted to turn games into controversial social commentary. Read on…

The new title from Petroglyph Games is looking better and better, especially after seeing the new screens posted at jeuxfrance.com. Published by Sega, and developed by RTS veterans from the former Westwood Studios,“Universe at War: Earth Assault”, puts the player in the middle of a galactic conflict between three warring factions. This title will be Petroglyph’s first original Real Time Strategy IP and is scheduled to release sometime in 2007.

Petroglyph’s first foray into the PC market was Star Wars: Empire at War

Check out the new screens here.

New Avengers/Transformers #1 may come out in July, but the first glimpse of the interiors has just been made available for your viewing pleasure – just click on the thumbnail on your left. It’s the pencilwork for page 19 (of the 32-page book), as drawn by Tyler Kirkham.

I realize it’s not much, but at least we’re getting an idea of what the interiors will look like. And hey, we even get to see a glimpse of the two groups standing face to face. More or less. I kind of hope this isn’t the first meeting though – otherwise, what are the first 18 pages being spent on? I guess if that’s mostly Doctor Doom and Decepticons running around together, I could live with that. Personally, I’m loving that Doom is the Marvel equivalent to ALL of the Decepticons. That’s a lot of sneaky bastardliness to fit in one human being.

As previously announced, the book goes on sale Thursday July 5th (not on Wednesday the 4th as it’s a little local holiday) and will cost $2.99.

Out of no where comes the announcement of four new maps for Gears coming this Thursday.  The maps are priced at 800 MS points ($10), but will become free downloads starting September 3rd.  The new maps include:

• Bullet Marsh – In this Kryll-infested swamp, an old generator still powers the area lights. A few stray bullets could easily knock out the generator, leaving combatants to fend for themselves against the Kryll.
• Garden – This overgrown and crumbling conservatory still has a working fertilization and pesticide system. This system can pose a serious hazard to anyone who ventures into the greenhouse without first venting the air.
• Process – Teams must fight for control of this subterranean Imulsion processing plant, still active despite the cessation of the Pendulum wars.
• Subway – Timgad’s Central Subway station used to serve as a central hub for commuters. Now the tunnels are crawling with Locust.

Compared to the last map pack, which was rather dull, these new maps sound really exciting.   Especially if they offer more environmental threats, which many of the default maps were lacking, this could wind up being a really worthwhile download.