To say there is going to be “some gunplay” in Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive, The Agency, would be an understatement. As you will see in the E3 trailer below, there is going to be a lot… let me reemphasize this… a LOT of shooting going on here.

When players begin, they are given two options for which faction they wish to be a part of. The first is United Network of Intelligence and Tactical Experts (U.N.I.T.E) who consider themselves the top secret agents in the world. On the other side is the Paramilitary Global Operations Network (ParaGON) who is the world’s largest privately run army. Depending on which side they choose, players will receive different missions as they progress through the game.

Players will create a personal avatar for this MMO Shooter which can be played in both the first and third person perspectives. Instead of focusing on building a “stealthy” character or “heavy assault” character, players can instead switch gear to accommodate the play style they wish to pursue in their current mission. Missions can run anywhere from fifteen minutes in length during the game’s “short missions” to an hour during “set pieces.”

Continue Reading →

The original 2D sidescrolling Rayman game was one of the reasons that made me purchase a Playstation console. The incredibly fun gameplay coupled with the gorgeously animated for its time graphics really made me fall in love with the franchise. However, its 3D successors never managed to capture the greatness that was the original game. Which is why it’s incredibly exciting that, at Ubisoft’s E3 conference yesterday, a brand-new Rayman game was announced, Rayman Origins.

The first true 2D successor to Rayman, Rayman Origins certainly retains the gameplay, animation, and humor of the original game. It seems that this game will deal with where Rayman comes from as well as a new character, dubbed Rayman’s “double” or “blood-brother”. Together, as the trailer explains, they apparently will share their taste in dance and music, as well as their conception of life in polite society. No idea what this means, but it sounds hilarious, and awesome.

While there is no official release date for Rayman Origins, we do know it’ll be available on Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and the iPad. The game will be released in episodes, allowing for reasonable pricing and a longer, more developed game. We’ll keep you posted on this as well as any other games being announced at E3 during the coming days. You can watch the trailer for Rayman Origins after the jump.

Continue Reading →

This marks the first in a series of articles looking at the films of John Huston, one of the most celebrated filmmakers of the 20^th Century and a fascinating man himself.

It seems sensible to start at the beginning, and an impressive beginning at that, with his first film, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon. So much has been written before on this film, so I’ll confine myself to some observations I had on this most recent rewatching and a few points I haven’t yet seen anyone else touch on.

Perhaps most surprising is that this was Huston’s directorial debut. Prior to Falcon he’d written screenplays, among them High Sierra, the film widely regarded as Bogart’s first big picture.

Knowing that, it’s surprising how established the film is, in that it doesn’t look like a director’s first film. Bogie’s Sam Spade is well crafted and believable, but it’s when the camera pans down to the silhouette of “Spade and Archer” that you know this is no amateur.

There are more than a few transitions like this—the spinning tire of the police car also comes to mind—but it never feels overdone. Many first-time directors would be too eager to show off, often to the detriment of the film, but while Falcon certainly has its share of complicated shots, they’re all made to serve the scene rather than the filmmaker.

So many mysteries inhabit the film, and they all come from the characters. Each one harbors a sordid past that’s only suggested. For all the questions surrounding it, we know much more about the flacon itself than we do the people surrounding it.

Continue Reading →

With Sprint’s new, shiny and huge HTC EVO 4G and the upcoming iPhone 4 hogging the smartphone spotlight, the focus is off of Verizon and their lineup of Android phones. But not for long.

Next week on June 23rd, a day before the iPhone 4 is released, Verizon, Motorola, and Adobe will be holding a press conference. That press conference, we hear, will be to introduce the world to their two newest Android devices, the Droid X (formerly known as the Droid Shadow) and the Droid 2.

The Droid X seems to be the closest competitor to the HTC EVO 4G, with a 4.4 inch screen, an 8 MP camera capable of shooting 720p video, and a 1GHz ARMv7 processor. It also comes packed with a built-in HDMI port, 8GB of storage, a multi-touch keyboard, and Android 2.1 with some form of Motoblur, Motorola’s social networking software.

The familiar touch sensitive shortcut buttons from the original Droid have also been replaced with real buttons. The device looks monstrous next to the iPhone and HTC EVO, but is also said to be rather skinny  From everything we’ve heard, this phone is going to be snappy, snazzy, and sweet, and a top player in the smartphone battle for dominance.

Continue Reading →

To say the single player campaign of Assassin’s Creed II left players wanting more is an understatement. And that doesn’t mean the gameplay experience was lacking. It was the complete opposite. Ubisoft had crafted such an enthralling experience that when gamers were left with a cliffhanger ending that introduced a whole lot of information regarding Ezio and his ties to Desmond and the Templars, they needed to find out where it was going.

Luckily, this year will introduce Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood which further explores the adventures of Ezio and his fellow assassins. In the first trailer below, you’ll witness the power that a group of assassins working together has that Ezio never would have had a chance of pulling off on his own.

While Ezio may look to take the role of the leader of this group, it’s going to be a whole new ball game in multiplayer. Instead of a simple death match where players will be running around shooting guns off in a constant chaos as they often play out, players will be hunting each other down in a horrific fashion, using the different assassination techniques that have made previous titles so fun. From blending in with their surroundings to using their hidden weapons, players will get the chance to take out their friends in competitive multiplayer like never before. Players will fight off in what looks to be a populated world where anyone could potentially be another assassin ready to take aim at them as their search for their prey.

Check out the trailers after the jump and stick to the Flickcast for more information on the sequel to our Best Action Platformer of 2009, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Continue Reading →

In this economy, it’s tough to beat free. Were you aware that Marvel releases a batch of new free comics every week via their popular iPad app? Did I mention that the app is free too? It doesn’t get much better than free comics, folks.

What titles did Marvel make available this week? I’m glad you asked. Let’s check out what sort of comic-goodness we can score for free, shall we?

Runaways (2003) #1: Six couples meet up every year for a party and each year each couple brings their child. This year, the children decide to find out what is so special about this annual party, only to find the parents are committing murder!

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #20: The title of this issue is simply “I, Lucifer!” ’nuff said! Also featuring: The untold story of how Professor X lost the use of his legs!

Fantastic Four (1997) #547: The Wizard has come all the way to Saturn’s moon, Titan, to get revenge on his greatest enemy, but Reed Richards is more concerned with the message encoded in a strange artifact from 700 light years away.

X-Men (2004) #182: When his people need him the most, he shall return! Lord Apocalypse is here to lead mutant-kind into the future of the earth and only the strongest can survive! Plus, just wait until you see his new Horsemen! Even we were surprised!

So what’re you waiting for? Go get ‘em! ’nuff said!

In place of my usual witty wordage, I’ve done an interview on Marvel, DC, Image, and Boom! (among others) comic book artist Dan Panosian in beautiful, living color. His artwork encompasses Captain America, The Flash, Spider-Man, X-Men, Prophet, Wolverine, Green Lantern, Irredeemable, and a couple issues of the fondly remembered Marvel Swimsuit Special, so you can be sure there was a lot to talk about.

His current book, X-Factor Forever is on shelves now. If the interview just wasn’t enough for you, check out his website at DanPanosian.com and his bountiful blog, the Urban Barbarian. If you’re in the LA area, you can see him and a smattering of other artists boozin’ and sketchin’ during a clandestine meeting of the infamous Drink N’ Draw Social Club held every Thursday night at Casey’s in Downtown LA.

But for now, press play on the video after the jump and be profoundly amused by his words of wisdom.

Continue Reading →

“I will become the next legend.” That sums up pretty much every heroic fantasy that anyone who has ever picked up a comic book and wondered what it’d be like to save the world has ever thought in one simple phrase. Allowing that to happen is the goal of Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming title for the PC and PlayStation 3, DC Universe Online.  We’ve been closely following DCUO since its initial announcement in anticipation for its release.

At E3, Sony Online Entertainment has released a new trailer and set of screen shots for the game. Plus, we’ve got some exclusive video of some of the gameplay from the show as well. While we had heard that players may choose either the side of heroics or villainy, this trailer is the first to give a true impression of the thought process of what a player will be going through when making this decision.

Seeing this unnamed hero/villain standing alongside and fighting against some of DC’s most famous and infamous faces makes a person wonder just which path they will choose when they turn on the game for the first time.

Take a peek after the jump at the new trailer, screen shots and gameplay footage for DC Universe Online and make sure to give us your impressions on them and give us a hint at just what kind of hero or villain you plan on becoming when the game is released.

(We had to remove the screenshots temporarily but they will be back soon. Sorry. – Ed)

Continue Reading →

Another day at E3 brought even more interesting stuff including a visit to the Sony and Nintendo booths to check out the new Playstation Move and the Nintendo 3DS. Both were pretty amazing devices and promise to take gaming as we know it into new and different directions.

We also managed to see a few of the notorious booth babes here at the show but, as one of my colleagues in the press observed, their weren’t as many this year as they would have liked. I won’t make a value judgement on the quantity or the quality of booth babes in attendance this year except to say that they were all lovely and willing to be photographed. What more could you ask for?

We also visited the G4 booth and managed to snag a pic of X-Play’s Morgan Webb hard at work. Those guys sure know how to put on a show. Check out all the pics after the jump.

Continue Reading →

The world of internet pornography is certainly a gigantic one. It’s…entertained millions, if not trillions of consumers across the globe for nearly two decades, and even helped usher in a new world of digital consumerism. Where did it all get started? Well, the newest film Middle Men gives you the answers.

From writer/director George Gallo (Bad Boys, The Whole Ten Yards) comes this near biopic about the men who brought adult entertainment to the world wide web. The film stars Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Gabriel Macht (The Spirit), with some pretty great cameos along the way including Kelsey Grammer, James Caan, Martin Kove, and Kevin Pollack.

Check out the newest trailer for the film, which has the brilliantly simple tagline “getting in is easy, getting out is hard”, after the jump, and be sure to keep an eye out for Middle Men when it hits theaters on August 6th.

Continue Reading →

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed came to a pretty definitive conclusion (depending on the path you chose at the end of the game). No one knew exactly how the game would be able to have a sequel, especially since Starkiller never appears or is mentioned in the events of Star Wars which followed this game. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II may have been the one instance where the cloning on Kamino actually paid off as it has given another opportunity to play as this rouge Sith.

After being condemned by his former mentor, Starkiller escapes a detention block by ripping his way through Stormtroopers and droids alike. The series has taken a notably more brutal turn as Stormtroopers don’t just fall down after being hit by a lightsaber. They are actually ripped to pieces. It will be interesting to see if this carries over to gameplay or if it will just be used in the game’s cinematics. As seen in the original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, droids and objects in the environment were often split to pieces. There is certainly a chance they could do the same with people in this game. The force powers also look to have been given a violent upgrade as one looks like it literally vaporizes enemies.

Stick close to the Flickcast for more trailers and news from E3 and check out the new “Betrayal” trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Nintendo certainly surprised us with the announcement of several sequels to their most popular franchises this year at E3. One of the most exciting (and adorable) games they introduced to us at their press conference on Tuesday was Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the first Kirby game in 7 years that is on its way to the Wii.

I could not contain my excitement as Nintendo announced this new game, which features a cloth textured art-style, as well as a yarn-like Kirby turning into objects like a car, a balloon, and a UFO. The coolest thing about the cloth look to the game is the way that Kirby seems to interact with the environment. At one point during the game trailer, Kirby started ripping into the stitching of a building using a whip, folding it over and revealing an entirely new area inside.

Not only is Kirby’s Epic Yarn a highly anticipated sequel to one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises, but it also looks like a beautifully designed game with some unique gameplay in store for its players. Kirby’s Epic Yarn will be available sometime this fall for the Nintendo Wii. You can watch a gameplay trailer for the game after the jump.

Continue Reading →