People who feel burnt out by Electronic Arts’s monopolizing of football may soon have another alternative to turn to this November. Nerjyzed, an African-American owned gaming company, is bringing the Historically Black College and University football (possibly the only football league besides the Canadian Football League that has yet to be bought out by EA Sports in an exclusive contract) experience home to PC this November with the aptly titled Black College Football Xperience. Seeking to introduce gamers to the atmosphere of this severely overlooked part of football, the developers are featuring over 40 official HBCU teams, mascots, marching bands, and their fight songs (in fact, a halftime mini game will allow players to take control of the drum major and participate in the halftime battle of the bands). The game will also include ragdoll physics, online play, and commentary by Donal Ware and Jonathan Coachman. The game will be the first sports title to make use of Unreal Engine 3. The developers hope to both revolutionize football gaming and create good games that can shed light on other cultures without reinforcing negative stereotypes. A huge goal to set, but if they can get the gameplay right, then it can become an easily obtainable goal. At the very least, with the proper marketing, it can become the alternative to Madden that All Pro football was supposed to be.

At last, another installment in my favorite stop motion video game action figure internet series!

If you missed out on the first 2 parts, enjoy them after the break, but if you’re up to speed watch the new video above.
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Michael Caine says Heath Ledger as The Joker is “one of the scariest performances I’ve ever seen.” He said this, of course, caught off guard doing press for another movie to MTV Movies Blog.

Bold words, but Batman Begins had some bold performances as well. I’m not ashamed to admit, I freaked out a couple times during the Scarecrow/gas stuff. Christopher Nolan is a great director of suspense more than action.

Then again, Caine and other actors have been very positive about Ledger, and even if he’s great, I can’t help but suspect some studio damage control is going on.

When I heard Nintendo was sending out free Wii Jackets, I anxiously hit up their site to see what I could add to my winter ensemble. Unfortunately, these jackets won’t keep the cold out on those long Wisconsin winter nights, but rather another measure to keep that white baton from launching out of my sweaty gaming hands.

Click here to request a new slip cover for your Wii remote. The picture on the right makes the whole thing look kinda abnormally shaped and goofy, but I’ll save further criticism until I actually get one in my hands. Speaking of hands, Nintendo has some of the most exquisite hand models I’ve ever seen. They bring back the elegance and class of Ray McKigney.

ID software, the fathers of the first person shooter, had three major franchises in the genre; Wolfenstein 3-d, Doom, and Quake. There was also a fourth series that, while it wasn’t was well known as the other three, managed to provide some unique twists on the FPS genre all on its own. Even though it was developed by Raven Software, it maintained the innovation that had been present in ID’s other franchises. The Serpent Riders Trilogy, better known as Heretic, Hexen, and Hexen 2, followed the player’s quest the save the world from three ancient demons. While most shooters of the time placed players in a science fiction setting, Heretic and its sequels placed gamers in a fantasy realm. This was a first at the time, and it was an experience which few FPS games have managed to replicate. Even today, you’ll be hard pressed to find a first person shooter game willing to deviate from the norm this drastically.
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Apparently not too long ago, some guy on the IGN boards started a rumor about a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics fighting game in the works, citing an “inside source” as his feed. People dismissed it as false, and moved on about their business.

Now it seems the rumor is getting more hype. TRMK.org, one of the more prominent and informed MK sites on the net, has a recent article that analyzes the rumor a bit more.

As incredulous as this rumor has sounded ever since it first made the rounds more than ten years ago, TRMK has confirmed from our own sources that the next Mortal Kombat game for the current generation of consoles – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – will indeed be a “Versus” style game.

While we were unable to confirm the DC Comics angle proposed by the IGN Boards message, we do know that the game will feature another well-known established intellectual property. It seems unlikely that the DC Comics license will appear along side a franchise known for its gruesome fatalities; however, the MK Team did state that they were intent on “reinventing everything from the ground up” in order to “wipe the slate clean”. Therefore, the idea that the game will not feature fatalities in the traditional Mortal Kombat style is not as far fetched as it initially sounds.

The original rumor on the IGN boards had been picked up by a user of MKOnline forums, which enticed the guys of TRMK.org to do their own digging, and it seems they got a little more than just hearsay. It seems everyone from the staff of the fansites to the fans themselves are skeptical, and with good reason. Mortal Kombat became famous for it’s gruesome Fatalities and gobs of bloodshed and violence, and has not deviated from that road since it’s conception. With DC, despite being darker, leaning more towards the anti-violence side of things, it just seem farfetched to believe this 100%.

Not alot of DC fans would be too keen on seeing Batman having his spine ripped out, or Green Lantern having his head eaten off. On the other side, MK fans would not want to see Scorpion *not* impaling someone with his spear, or Sub-Zero *not* freezing his enemy and smashing them to bits. But, I guess we’ll see.

TFW2005 reported a couple days ago on a few pictures that popped up on a Japanese toy board. The pictures appear to be of two packaging samples with the figures inside. One package is a two-pack featuring Classics Jetfire and Classics Grimlock. The other package is another two-pack featuring Classics Optimus Prime and Classics Ultra Magnus. Both feature Classics packaging with a pop-up display of each character in robot mode. I have attached the pictures because I’m sure my description is severely lacking, but they speak for themselves.

This will be a great chance for people who missed out on figures, particularly the Target exclusive Ultra Magnus, that was available only with Classics Skywarp.

 

We’re a bit late this week due to the outage, but we’re back. I’m gonna give you the $20 GOTW and the Lost Classics at the same time this week, as to not to overshadow aDam’s Mexican Independence day. One of this week’s featured games is one of the all time greats of the RTS genre, while the other is one of the few good movie based games of the 16-bit era. So, lets waste no further time in getting started. Click the jump and come ride with me to your local video game dealers bargain bin.
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