Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Laputa is an island castle which floats in the sky. These days it’s most commonly thought of as the castle from the movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, but originally the story of Laputa was told as a minor part of the classic novel Gulliver’s Travels in which a similarly floating island carries the same name. There are similarities and differences between the two, both of which I’ll look at to try to give a complete picture of what Laputa really means.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

So what is Gulliver’s Travels? It’s a fictional novel by Jonathan Swift from 1726, told in a narrative as if it were a retelling of real events from the travels of one Lemuel Gulliver. This story has been told time and time again, the most iconic image from it being that of a seemingly giant Gulliver being surrounded by the tiny people of Lilliput. Among the many places that Gulliver travels to in the book is the floating city of Laputa.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

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Every once in a while, a game comes along that challenges gamers to think. Not just in a problem solving way, but a way to really think about the message that the game is trying to convey. Braid is one of those games. On the surface, the game resembles other platformers, specifically Super Mario Brothers. Even the plot seems like something you’ve seen before: the princess has been kidnapped by a monster, and you make your way through different worlds, only to be told again and again that the princess is in another castle. However, the game’s method of story telling, art style, and mechanics turn the whole thing over on its head.
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Not fighting Aliens. Well, they do fight aliens if you consider the humans on a world not their own are technically aliens.
Also, Robert Rodriguez, famous for directing Shorts and Spy Kids, is not the director of this movie. His name is all over it because you’ve never heard of Nimród Antal.
I’m not sure this series needed a reboot. If anything, I was kinda hoping the AvP series would go direct to video and we’d start seeing some rubber suits and Gary Busey in a new one. Leave it to sci-fi horror fans to take stuff too seriously…

Playstation Moves, Mac gets Steamed, Superman flies again, and Activision does what Atari used to do.

Direct Link: Powetcast Episode 29: Infinity Wardfare

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(What do you think about the current Activision dustup? Is anyone in the right? Leave a comment below!)

Show notes after the jump!

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I’m a little late with this one, but its pretty great.

Out of all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy IX is perhaps my least favorite, although for old school fans, it’s perhaps the most memorable. While VII and VIII took the series in new directions with more futuristic settings and new gameplay mechanics, FF IX put an old school spin to the series modern look. While the game’s plotline seems more slapstick and cartoonish than the previous FF titles (and this is the main gripe I had with it), it’s still a good dedication to FF fans who may have felt alienated by the more recent entries in the series. With FF XIII hitting stores this past week, what better time to flashback to this blast from the past.
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This is your monthly reminder, collectors! On sale today is MOTUC Moss Man. Both versions of Moss Man will be on sale, but I think the version with the flocked ears will be limited in quantity since those were from before the running change to remove the flock from the ears as fans demanded. Reissue Stratos will also be available for sale. MOTUC collectors finally get a fairly light month with just that figure and reissue.

Also on sale will be DCUC Wave 12 as a set. This is the wave with Darksied as the Collect ‘n Connect figure. The Dark Knight Movie Masters Scarecrow is also up for purchase.

Pictures of each of the products after the jump.
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Updated: The content has been restored!
It appears that last month, Activision closed down Luxoflux Studios. Luxoflux were the developers of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Game. As of the writing of this article, it appears that the downloadable content has been removed from the XBox Live Marketplace without notice and can no longer be purchased. I cannot verify if this is also the case on the Playstation Network.

The DLC was first made available August 27, 2009. That means it was available for less than 8 months before being pulled. The content featured 11 new playable characters, 3 new maps, a new expert difficulty level and all new achievements. We posted a trailer of the DLC here.

As a fan who only recently got an XBox 360 with this as his first game, you can imagine my disappointment that I now cannot have the chance to play this new content that I am more than willing to spend money on. Hopefully Activision can find a way to put the pack back up for a limited time for those who had not gotten it yet. [Read the rest of this entry…]