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

Gary Oldman doesn’t seem like the usual geek icon. He’s well known by film fans and critics as one of the great actors of this generation, but he’s not what you’d call a movie star in the way Will Smith is.

Still he’s had some really impressive roles both in fiction and as historical figures. Its also amazing how weirdly different he looks in all these movies. While by no means a comprehensive list, I’ll spotlight some of my favorite faces of Gary Oldman. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Encore/Black Ops entertainment are no less than geniuses. By tapping into America’s post-9/11 desire to kill Osama Bin Laden and assorted other brown and black people, Fugitive Hunter deserves a special place in every PS2/PS3 owner’s collection. Playing as Jake Seaver, a former Navy Seal turned bounty hunter, you pursue the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives throughout the world. You run through various global hotspots blasting at anything that gets in your way. When you get to the target in question, the game switches to a side by side fighting game in order to take down the criminal ALIVE. That’s right folks, although you’ll blast dozens of his henchmen to pieces, the game teaches humanitarian values and civil rights by having players beat their opponent down with kung fu moves and bring them in alive! No matter who you’re facing, all the bosses seem to know the same style of Kung Fu, even Bin laden!

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Stephen Titilo and N’Gai Croal — who make up the gaming duo extraordinaire of “Kotaku and Croal” — held a fascinating panel about their “scientific” method for determining the top 10 games of all time, starting with a metacritic list, and passing it through the hands of many of the industry’s well-knowns to: 1) do nothing to the list, 2) swap two existing items in the list, or 3) replace any item with a more deserving game.

Here is the starting list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Grand Theft Auto IV
4. Super Mario World
5. Metroid Prime
6. Soul Calibur
7. Orange Box
8. Uncharted 2
9. Super Metroid
10. Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color)

Follow us to find out where it ended up, and what you can do to continue it!

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

In the summer of 1993, a wondrous new phenomenon began with Mighy Morphin’ Power Rangers. This is a show which, in a way, continues today in vastly inferior shows also carrying the name “Power Rangers”. Here I will be discussing only “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers”, which is what the show was called for it’s first 3 seasons, when the Power Rangers wore the first iconic uniforms they did. This spans the era of the Dinozords, the Thunderzords and finally the Ninja Zords, which includes the first movie. It stops when Power Rangers Zeo starts, but it’s best not to dwell on such things…

The concept of the show was simple. When the Earth is threatened, 5 teenagers are given the ability to metamorphosise or “Morph” into … well teenagers in spandex of the same colour as the only colour they have in their wardrobe, which gives them the incredible power of dinosaurs and weapons which they use to fight their enemies. They use these to protect the city of Angel Grove, which is always the target of attacks. Each week consists of them dealing with some life problem, facing off against a monster, good guys morph, bad guy is grown, good guys call giant dinosaur robots, good guys win. Rinse, repeat.

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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One of my favorite toy lines as a kid was M.U.S.C.L.E., which stood for Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere! Unfortunately, there was little to no story given to these bizarre two inch figures. One must look to its Japanese origins from the series Kinnikuman (literally ‘muscle man’) to really understand what M.U.S.C.L.E. was all about. That is why today is K for Kinnikuman.
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I totally missed all of the announcements for JoeConCobraCon 2010, in addition to the Collectors’ Club updates. After a little reconnaissance, I’m happy to report back with my findings!

Intelligence can be found after the jump!
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