As featured on our game night two weeks ago!

Probably the second highest selling PC game ever, (The Sims being the first) it’s also one of the best real time stretegy games ever made. Player scan battle through an intensive single player campaign with three different factions (each with their own different abilities), play free online games on Blizzard’s Battle.net, or even create their own levels in the Campaign editor. This game is especially popular in South Korea, where players compete in televised gaming leagues! Even though this series has only 1 game and an expansion pack, (and a canceled third person spin-off) it rivals the entire Command and Conquer series in RTS action. With this special box set, you get Starcraft, it’s Expansion (Brood War), two strategy guides, a skill development chart, and even a free 14 day trial to Blizzard’s other big game, World of Warcraft.

So what makes Starcraft so special? For one, it’s gameplay is different. Instead of simply building units and hoping to overrun your opponent by creating as many as possible, players have to take into account the abilities and limitations of the units that are produced by their race. For instance, the Terran units each have advantages and disadvantages against different units, so creating a mix of different units is a key to a good offense. The Zerg however, are weak alone, but are cheap enough to be produced in massive quantities. Resource management is also a key factor, as you constantly need units to gather gas and minerals, while keeping an eye on their depletion levels. Between levels, a sci-fi plot complete with cinematics will keep you on the edge of your seat. With Starcraft 2 having just been announced, now is a good time to check out the original. Oh yeah, this game was also ported to the Nintendo 64 in 2000.

System Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 95 or later (including Vista)/Mas OS 7.6 or higher Power PC
Processor: Pentium 90, equivalent, or greater
RAM: 16 MB (32 MB RAM for multiplayer on MAC)
Storage: 100 MB Hard Disk space/80 MB for Mac
At least 2x CD ROM drive (4x for cinematics)
Video Card: Local Bus SVGA, Direct X compatible
Sound Card: DirextX compatible soundcard for audio

I had planned on doing a segment on this a while ago, but never got around to it. Back in April, the touring video game orchestral event known as Video Games Live visited Yale University for one of the performances on their list. Usually the tour brings it’s own large orchestra and choir to perform massive feats of gaming music awesomeness all over the USA and Europe, and often accompany it with video segments from games shown behind the orchestra/choir on a huge theatre-like screen. Kind of like a living game music video.

This time around, however, things were a bit different and more special.
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KidsWB released a promo image for the Spider-Man cartoon debuting this fall. The show was previously going to be called The Amazing Spider-Man, but with the Spidey comic line getting stripped down to that one title, the cartoon’s name was just changed to Spectacular Spider-Man. I imagine there’ll be a comic book tie-in to the show of the same name, which would explain the change of the show’s name. Not like they’re about to change the book’s name, right?

Also, Wizard took a bunch of pictures at the New York Licensing Show which – while it doesn’t sound very interesting – resulted in some impressive shots. We’ve got a select few mirrored below – and be sure to keep an eye out for an old Amazing Spider-Man cartoon poster:

Sticky floors, overpriced snacks, pre-pubesant pukes yakkin’ it up…It may all be a thing of the past, and Michael Bay’s “Transformers” is leading the charge!

Check out this tasty tidbit from Uberpulse.com

For an entry fee of $49, you could be watching Transformers… on opening day… in your undies with a cold beer on Pay-Per-View. Incredible news, and well overdue in my opinion. If theatre managers can’t foster a clean, quiet atmosphere for viewing a film, an alternative would be created that could. As expected, movie theatre insiders are up in arms, but as Galvatron said in the original Transformers: The Movie, “We all must die sometime.”

Update: Michael Bay’s site Shoot For The Edit has squashed this as completely false. In Bay’s own words: “Total Bullshit”

Update 2: Curses! Foiled Again! – Chozoman

It would seem I haven’t been keeping up on my gaming news as much as I should. Madhouse animation studio had been pumping out trailers for the new Devil May Cry animated series well before it’s June 14th debut in Japan on the WOWOW network.

Based on the popular action/sci-fi gaming series by Capcom, the anime series will focus on Dante’s exploits between the storylines of the games. It would appear that the series takes place somewhere after DMC1, as Trish and Lady both are slated to make appearances as well as some new characters not seen in the games.

Thus far, the artistic styles used for the animation look top notch and the character designs are dead-on in terms of looking like their gaming counterparts. Twelve episodes have been announced to comprise the series, making it short, but that’s probably a good thing considering you don’t want the story of the anime to get too over-involved to where it seems unrealistic to the story of the games. I suppose that’s why they have Bingo Morihashi as a writer, since he was also the writer for the second, third and fourth games.

Here’s the teaser trailer that was released on the Japanese website.

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that the dream team casting for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man has just gotten sweeter. Shooting a cameo appearance is the Academy Award nominated star of Pulp Fiction, Samuel L Jackson in the role of Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD.

The hot rumor is the role will be expanded upon in future marvel movies (Incredible Hulk, Captain America) and eventually lead to the full on Avengers movie. Wow, what a great idea of getting casting now for a role years down the road.

This casting is of course as perfect as casting gets, as Ultimate Marvel Nick Fury was completely based on Samuel L Jackson, and Sam has said in the past he wanted the role.

Well, I for one thought that the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy was enough of a sendoff for a great collection of movies, but it seems Johnny Depp and Geoffery Rush disagree. According to Cinema Blend, both have signed on for a 4th Pirates movie, which had only been rumors up until this point.

Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have, as expected, denied signing on for another Pirates movie. The new movie would be focusing on Jack Sparrow and his past anyway, so I suppose that’s all well and good regardless. The plot rumors also state that the adventures of Cap’n Jack will steer towards a more sci-fi/fantasy theme, in the same vein that the other movies only had a light dusting of. Could this reflect what the ending of the 3rd movie hinted to? That of course, remains to be seen.

Between last weekend’s conventions in Philadelphia, PA and Charlotte, NC – not to mention the books that hit the stands this week – there’s been a veritable onslaught of comics news. To get your rundowns on the news from the cons, from details on the “Messiah CompleX” X-Men crossover, to the new writer on JLA (hint: try the mastermind behind the JLU animated series), to your quick ‘n dirty recap of what insanity has happened to The Flash, continue on after the jump.
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