This is the first in a two part episode. Originally this was supposed to be one episode but it was just too amibtious to cram it all into one. The second half is forthcoming.

Show Notes after the jump
For Part Two of this feature, go here.
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David Goyer, most recently known for his work writing Batman Begins, is going to be putting his pen to work on a movie called “Super Max.” This seems to be a name of a supervillain jail, but the movie is focusing on one specific prisoner – a fella named Oliver Queen. (You may know him better as the Green Arrow.) The premise sounds awesome, but don’t take my word for it. Here’s Goyer’s description:

He’s Green Arrow for the first 10 minutes of the movie, and then he’s arrested and his secret identity is revealed … They shave his goatee and they take his costume and send him to prison for life, and he has to escape. It’s like ‘Alcatraz,’ and he has to team up with, in some cases, some of the very same villains he is responsible for incarcerating in order to get out and clear his name. Of course, tons of people try to kill him while he’s in there. We’ve populated the prison with all sorts of B and C villains from the DC Universe. For the fans, there will be all sorts of characters the hardcore comic book junkies will know, but they’re all going to be there under their human names and no one is wearing a costume, but there will be a lot of characters with powers and things like that.

Sounds like a fantastic premise for a movie, an excellent use of the DC Universe, and an interesting application of the character. Can’t you just imagine Ollie use a sharpened plastic fork and elastic from his underwear to impale a man 2,000 yards away?

This is not Morgan Webb. This is not Adam Sessler.

X-play is the gold standard. Its still the most popular show on G4 and was one of the most popular on its previous home TechTV. Why not? When gamers turn off their boxes, they often turn to game news in magazines and on the internet, so its only appropriate they be able to see games on TV too.

But its hardly without competition, and it many cases its surpassed. If you’re still watching X-Play religiously because you think its the only show on TV talking about games (G4’s clusterhump “Attack Of The Show” does not count), you’d be missing out on more informative, more balanced, and in some cases, funnier shows. Allow me to focus on some of X-Play’s direct competitors, shows with similar production values and connections to the industry.
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This is actually the second game in what is know in Japan as the “Rushing Beat” series. It’s the sequel to what is known over here as “Rival Turf” and the predecessor to what is known over here as the Peacekeepers. Lousy names aside, the Rushing Beat games added their own small but innovative spin to the side-scrolling brawler formula popularized in games such as Final Fight. Rival Turf featured a secret code that allowed players to rename the game’s characters and enemies while Peacekeepers would feature exploration elements. Brawl Brothers little quirk was that at the start of the game, you selected two characters to start with. The main villain Dieter would kidnap the other three, clone them, and force you to rescue them throughout the game’s 4 levels. They tried to work in some exploration elements, but players would find themselves stuck if they didn’t follow the right path. Other than that, nothing stood out in the game, but there was no glaring weakness either. Just a nice game which you can play with a friend. their is also a one on one versus mode for when players wanted a diversion from the main game.

Oh yeah, as an added bonus, the original Japanese version is hidden on the cart as well, accessible by a code (repeatedly press BAXY in that order before the Jaleco logo appears) It removes the exploration elements, changes the character names, and adds in a new Time Attack multiplayer mode. This is probably one of the nicer easter eggs hidden in the game.

In 1996, Midway released Mortal Kombat Trilogy, a “special edition” version of Mortal Kombat 3 for Playstation and Nintendo 64 which included all the characters and most of the backgrounds from all of the games up to that point. It was to serve as the final chapter of the current storyline before the series received an overhaul of sorts with MK 4. Since then, the series experienced a fair share of ups and downs, until 2002’s MK Deadly Alliance completely revitalized the series. The franchise continued right along with 2004’s MK Deception, which included a plethora of new gaming modes, including an expanded version of conquest, puzzle kombat, and what was a first for 3-d fighting games, online play. Last fall, Midway re-upped again with Armageddon, which serves as the last game of the current storyline and the last game on current generation systems.
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This video (leaked from GameSpot) shows off some of the new features coming our way, and even mentions a date of May 7th. Marketplace will get its own blade, integrating Friend lists with Windows Live Messenger, and new download options are on the way.

Bungie’s weekly update is upon us with the usual shocking revelations and totally ordinary and expected announcements.

Halo innovated in a lot of ways over the very cookie-cutter FPS genre. One way they very clearly did not innovate was the exploding barrel. The Bungie Weekly Update confirms that newer, prettier “fusion cores” will be present in Halo 3, along with newer, prettier explosions when you shoot them.

Good News! Theres an auto-update coming soon to Halo 2 that will enhance Banhammer functionality to dispatch cheaters quicker. This will pave the way for the new maps on April 17th! Matchmaking playlists will be updated to include the new maps on April 24th!
Bad News! Rankings will be set back to ZERO with the update. Sorry, Sean, you’re going to have to work your way up Rumble Pit all over again. This reset will make matchmaking easier with the smaller, but still dedicated player base. I feel less bad about dropping from a 23 to a 20 in Team Slayer a couple weeks ago, but the last time stuff was reset there it was pretty quick to rank up, so I’m not sweating this too much.

Public Beta still hasn’t been dated, but a new video documentary should hit Xbox Live before it starts.

This week there was also a re-release of Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx in paperback.

Hugo Weaving may have landed the role of Megatron in the 2007 Transformers movie, but the video game adaptation will feature Frank Welker. This will be the first time Frank Welker has voiced Megatron in over 20 years, last seen in Transformers The Movie in 1986. According to GameSpot, Welker will be joined by Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. GameSpot also has an interview with Frank Welker, and one with Peter Cullen.

GameSpot also released 3 new screenshots from the game, shown here. All three feature Bumblebee fighting Decepticons.

Update! The rub with posting stuff like this in the morning is that by the evening all the press-releases are out and I gotta update the post. So, check out the new game site, http://www.transformersgame.com/. Make sure you’ve got your flash up to date and you’ll get more screen shots from the game , the developers’ blog, and, even a poll to name some of the new Transformers that appear in the game. Coolest of all is a new interview with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. Just click through to the videos section for that. Bonus: watching Welker talk and hearing Fred from Scooby Doo.