Video games will always be the a constant go-to when it comes to geeks. There are geeks that follow comics and movies, but almost all of them still consider classic video games as their source of geekdom. So when we get a fantastic fan film tribute to Time Crisis starring Spartacus: Blood & Sand’s Andy Whitfield, there’s plenty of reason to celebrate.

The film comes from Youtube special effects guru Freddie Wong who has given us some great experiments with CG effects and pulled off great videos like Jedi A-Holes, Skydiving Out My Front Door, and a great stop motion video titled Light Warfare.

Now, Wong has teamed up with legendary TV action star Andy Whitfield to give us a great sendup to the classic arcade game Time Crisis. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to those who haven’t played the game, but for the rest, even the rapid-fire trigger technique towards the end brings back memories.

Check out the video after the jump, and here’s to hoping that Freddie Wong turns up in some credits from great upcoming films.

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With Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds still months away, Capcom is slowly but surely releasing tidbit by tidbit of information about the title. After our hands-on time with the title,  we have gotten more and more excited with each new character announcement.

Gamescom brought with it the official announcement of two characters new to the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise.

Viewtiful Joe, the titular character in his own game made his Capcom vs. debut in the recent Wii title Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. After the hype of this classic Capcom character being brought back, it must have been a no brainer for him to be tossed in to Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

A not so surprising addition comes in Dormammu from the Marvel Universe. Not because of the popularity of the character but because people began suspecting him with the first teaser trailers of the game were released. From the ending of the teasers, it looked as though Dormammu may be the new big bad that threatened the two worlds but now it looks like this is not the case as Dormammu has been brought down to size with the rest of the game’s cast.

Take a peek at all the new screen shots below and stick to the Flickcast for more news on Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds as it becomes available.

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The moment I started up this crazy column, people have been asking me when I would write up The Wild Bunch.  It’s not my intention to snub Sam Peckinpah (though he has been poorly represented here) at all. When I started this column, it was meant to inspire discussion of older films, and encourage people to seek out classics they hadn’t seen.  With online streaming, it’s easier to do than ever, and I tried to focus on films that were on Netflix or Hulu because the format removed any excuses you had not to watch The Searchers or Stagecoach.

The past few installments haven’t been on Netflix Instant due to the luck of the draw — if The Great Silence or Hannie Caulder arrives in the mail, how can I not write it up? — and time constraints. One of the reasons I had put off The Wild Bunch was that I was hoping it, like The Searchers, Stagecoach, and much of Sergio Leone, would pop up on Instant Watch.  But it hasn’t.  Instead, it played on TCM.  A more savvy writer may have timed this piece to go up prior to its airing.  Oh well.  Chances are, this is a film you’ve seen. But it’s always a film worth talking about.

The Wild Bunch is a significant Western, obviously. It’s the first American western to get as down, dirty, and violent as they had in Italy.  (Vera Cruz paved the way though, remember?)  Sergio Leone considered Sam Peckinpah his only rival in the genre. That said, it’s not one of my favorites — I prefer a cool flip of the serape to scorpions being eaten alive, because I like my cathartic violence to be a little more stylish. But that’s just me.

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At Comic Con, we had the opportunity to speak with Associate Producer Dan Sutton from volition inc, the developers behind Red Faction: Armageddon and get footage of a developer walk through of one of the levels. Dan told us that what they enjoyed working on with Red Faction: Armageddon was that they were able to take the base premise of destroying everything that was established by Red Faction: Guerilla and improving upon it.

While Red Faction: Guerilla was fairly open world, Red Faction: Armageddon will be a more linear experience with much more focus on story. This time with a longer development cycle to play with the engine they built for the previous game, volition was able to design a world completely around this wholly destructible premise.

As you will see below, there has been a focus on not just having destruction but taking that destruction and using it to encourage creative gameplay. One such example of this is the new magnet gun. A simple premise, point and shoot at two objects and they will go cascading into each other. This can be done with enemies, buildings, objects or any combination of them.

They have also taken the idea of destruction and turned it on its head with the Reconstructor, part of the nanoboard that the main character Darius wears on his arm. Any object you destroy can be re-targeted and pieced back together. A great example of this comes from blowing a hole in the side of a building while being chased and sealing that hole behind you to provide a much more secure escape route.

Some weapons they discussed with us that we haven’t seen include a black hole gun. This is what it sounds like where a miniature black hole is shot into an area and it begins to suck up everything around it and spit it back out at a player. Because the story of Red Faction: Armageddon takes place fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla, the team was able to take some of people’s favorite weapons from Guerilla and enhance them.

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Sometimes, a video demands explanation or context in order to be understood. Other times, it’s best to just shut up and let it play. This is one of those times. That second one I mean.

Presented without (much) comment is a video from Funny or Die wherein the cast of the upcoming Piranha 3D make their pitches for Oscar consideration. Yes, that’s right, Oscar consideration.

Crap, I said I wasn’t going to comment. Okay, here’s the video after the jump. Enjoy. Look for these Oscar-worthy performances in theaters this Friday.

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If you’re a fan of Sony’s PS3 console but have sometimes felt something was missing or, shall we say, a little inadequate, this post is for you. This week Sony announced three new PS3 models with updated storage capacities.

The announcement came at the Gamescom event currently taking place ion Cologne, Germany. The newly announced 160 GB PS3 Slim will retail for $299 and should be on sale in a matter of weeks.  A second model, which can be purchased in the Move Bundle, comes with a 320 GB PlayStation 3 console, Sony’s Move controller, PlayStation Eye camera, and the Sports Champions game.

The Move Bundle should arrive on store shelves in mid-September and will retail for $399. In addition to the hardware announcements, also revealed at the show were software trailers  and demos for games including Resistance 3, inFAMOUS 2, Medal of Honor, MAG, Killzone 3, Gran Turismo 5, Virtua Tennis 4, and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.  Of course, we will bring you any important news and info about these games as it comes.

In the meantime, be happy that Sony is releasing larger capacity PS3 consoles to hold all your media nd such. Although, it begs the question, do any of you actually use your PS3 console for that purpose or do you do what most of us here at The Flickcast do and just use it for games, as a Blu-ray player and to stream content from another souce in the house like a media server computer?

It’s Children’s Hospital week here at The Flickcast! Monday, we brought you an exclusive one on one with series star Ken Marino, and yesterday Paul Scheer gave us some info on the upcoming series that starts this Sunday on Adult Swim.

Today, it’s a little bit different, and a lot prettier, as we discuss the upcoming story arcs with series regular Lake Bell. Many know Lake from her work on Boston Legal or even her roles in 2008′s What Happens In Vegas or Over Her Dead Body.

Now Lake can be seen week-to-week on Adult Swim’s Children’s Hospital as well as the HBO series How To Make It In America. Many fans of genre television may even remember Lake from her leading role on ABC’s Surface.

Check out our full interview with her after the jump, and be sure to catch the second season premiere of Children’s Hospital this Sunday, August 22, at 10:30PM, only on Adult Swim.

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The tablet “wars” are getting even more interesting as, according to our friends at Download Squad, Google is apparently set to launch a new Chrome OS powered tablet device with Verizon as early as November of this year. According to a source close to the device, the tablet is indeed real, is built by HTC and will be powered by Google’s other operating system, Chrome.

In addition, the table will be offered by Verizon and will, as they do with other Netbook devices, have it available for a substantially reduced price with a data contract. In fact, the price may be so reduced that the table may actually end up being completely free.

The new tablet will reportedly launch on November 26th (aka ‘Black Friday” in the U.S.) to capitalize on the holiday shopping frenzy that usually commences at that time. And, of course, to compete with Apple’s very popular iPad.

Speculation has also been made about the tablets internal specs. According to DLS, it will most likely be powered by NVidia’s Tegra 2 platform and sport a 1280×720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G connectivity, GPS, webcam, and possibly expandable storage via a multi-card reader.

Although this tablet does sound cool (especially the free part) I have to wonder why Google didn’t just go with Android to power this device? After all, that OS is doing pretty well for itself and has already found its way into at least one tablet already on the market: the Dell Streak. So, I wonder at Google’s motivation in going with Chrome.

I guess they must know what they’re doing. Looking forward to checking these out when they arrive. How about you guys?

It’s been quite a week for director Matthew Vaughn and the team on Fox’s upcoming X-Men: First Class. Not only has Oliver Platt joined the cast as the “Man in Black”, but Rose Byrne has also joined the project as Professor Xavier’s Scottish love interest Moira MacTaggert.

But even with the new additions, other changes are also being made to the cast with one actor leaving and another taking her place. What am I talking about? January Jones has been added to the cast and will take the place of Alice Eve as The White Queen, Emma Frost.

While initial reports about Eve signing for the role were legitimate, it turns out the deal was not completely done and January Jones will officially fill the role for Vaughn. Most people know Jones as Betty Francis, the recently divorced wife of Don Draper on AMC’s Mad Men.

Jones has found quite a home for herself back in the 60′s, so it will be interesting to see how she can take on playing a British school teacher. Jones joins an already packed cast consisting of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Zoe Kravitz, and Kevin Bacon.

Principal photography for the film begins in London next week, and we can expect to see more news develop soon as X-Men: First Class makes it’s way to theaters on June 3, 2011.

Well gang, it’s official. Syfy has decided to give Eureka, everyone’s favorite show about a town of misfit geniuses, a fifth season. The news was announced by Mark Stern, Exec. VP of original programming for the network. Said Stern: “Eureka remains a steadfast performer for Syfy with its superb cast and perfect blend of drama, comedy and eye candy.”

In case you’re not familiar with the show and are wondering what all the fuss is about, here’s some info from our friends at Syfy: “Eureka seems like any other cozy, Pacific Northwest town, but is actually a secret community of geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research. What they’ve unwittingly created is a place where anything imaginable can happen… and does.”

Currently, Eureka features a diverse and talented cast including Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston, Niall Matter and James Callis. It is currently enjoying good ratings in its fourth season and also has several interesting twists and stunts planned including a crossover episode with Syfy’s Warehouse 13, guest stars including Ming-Na, Jaime Ray Newman, Ed Quinn, Wil Wheaton, Jamie Kennedy, Chris Parnell, Matt Frewer and Felicia Day and a recently announced holiday episode slated to air in December.

As fans of he show we couldn’t be happier about this development. It’s great to see original sci-fi programming getting the recognition and treatment it deserves. Now if only Syfy would give a second season to Caprica and bring back Battlestar Galactica. Hey, we can dream, can’t we?

Eureka airs Friday nights at 9:00PM ET/PT on Syfy.

A new teaser trailer for the highly anticipated film Black Swan has been released and is up over at Apple Trailers. Aronofsky will direct a primarily female cast that includes Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder.

I’ll admit that I thought a psychological thriller set in the world of competitive ballet seemed pretty silly, but this trailer has me sold. Portman plays Nina, a ballet dancer who has been chosen to replace the principal dancer in Swan Lake. Just as she is settling into her new role a new dancer, played by Mila Kunis, shows up and lots of eerie things start unfolding.

The film plot has been tightly guarded, so that is about all I can tell you. What do you suppose is going on with the whole skin condition? How does that factor in? We’ll have to wait until December 1st to find out. The film will make a few festival stops at the Toronto Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival prior to its official release.

I find the career trajectory of Darren Aronofsky so interesting. He is one director who is never going to be pigeon-holed into one genre. His filmography is amazing. He started with Pi, which blew my mind, then moved on to Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and now Swan Lake.

He’s a great talent, and he has yet to commit a career misstep, so I can’t wait to see what he does with this one. Check out the new teaser after the break.

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One of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows has been Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is only fitting that only days before the show begins its third season, players will get the chance to jump in on Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.  On September 15th, players will be able to begin their unique online Star Wars experience. And on Friday the 17th, the newest season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars begins.

At Comic Con, we got the chance to speak with Sony Online Entertainment about the upcoming title and get a walkthrough of some of the features in the game including both the Star Fighter and Lightsaber Duel minigames, both seen in the video below.

We were told that the main goal of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures was to make the player feel as though they are a part of the Star Wars: Clone Wars universe with iconic characters to interact with and environments to explore. Unlike Star Wars: Galaxies, players are intended on being able to get instant gratification in this rather than grinding their way through levels in order to unlock upper tier content.

This also closely works in favor of the game’s younger target market. Right from the start, players can go up and talk to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Rex. These characters help introduce players to the minigames.

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