It’s not a secret. A good percentage of the Machinima world is created using Halo or one of its sequels. The reason for that may lie in the most popular and successful Machinima series Red vs. Blue.

With its first episode posted by the folks at Rooster Teeth just under seven years ago, Red vs. Blue has a loyal following with some of the most iconic and entertaining characters in Machinima. Subtitled “The Blood Gulch Chronicals”, Red vs. Blue follows the tales of two armies stuck in the box canyon of Blood Gulch.

Each team starts off with only a few members but quickly grows to reveal the eight main personalities that drive the series. These include Red’s miserable leader Sarge and his personal brownnoser Simmons as well as Blue’s lovable Caboose.

Over the show’s five seasons and an astounding ninety-eight episodes, the teams venture in to other worlds and encounter some unreal scenarios such as a never-ending game of Capture the Flag and a love struck tank named Sheila.

Much like Halo on XBox Live, the language of the series isn’t kid friendly. The characters go to great lengths to combine various expletives together in never before seen and incredibly funny ways.

Continue Reading →

Anthologies can often be either one of the best ways to explore a concept if executed properly. The idea explored here is Halo and the mythology surrounding it. For the first time, one work tries to take from all other source material like the Halo games, novels and comics in an effort to fully explain the world of Halo. In the process, it also helps actually add new substantial concepts to this much applauded franchise that show that the fight isn’t really over for Master Chief and the Spartans.

As seen before with Batman: Gotham Knight and The Animatrix, Halo Legends is an anthology of seven distinct and separate stories about the characters and ideas of Halo as seen through the eyes of various anime heavyweights. With writers and directors who had worked on everything from Cowboy Bebop to Bubblegum Crisis and MASK to Dragon Ball Z, the spectrum of top talent in this field was pieced together to put together Halo Legends.

The first story, “Origins”, comes in two pieces and may easily be the most important of the seven parts to the greater Halo universe. For the first time in full detail, the audience is given a look at exactly what happened to the Forerunners that caused them to disappear with the creation of the Halo rings. Most interesting about this feature comes from the revelation of what the Forerunners looked like and how they became revered as the gods of the Covenant.

Continue Reading →

Starting this week, The Flickcast will be taking our love of Machinima and turning it in to a weekly feature. For those who don’t know, Machinima is real time 3D rendering of graphics to generate computer animation. What that means is people take different video games and their associated mods and create different short films or series based off of them.

This week, we will be taking a look at Phil from Black Light Productions. Named after its main character and created using Halo 3, Phil revolves around a Halo newbie as he learns his way around the XBox Live world with the accompaniment of the standoffish Zack and overly nice and naive Wally. Unlike some Machinima which has the players reacting as if the events of the game are “real life”, Phil, Zack and Wally acknowledge that they are playing Halo 3 and communicating over Live.

Following them through the series’ thirteen episodes, we get to see some of the biggest faults in online gaming portrayed in a very humorous way. Everything gets covered through the series from trash talkers, glitchers, griefers, competition and clans… and even a little bit of romance.

Continue Reading →

At E3 2009, the world was given a brief teaser showing a planet from space erupting in war.  With “Halo: Reach” being displayed, the hardcore fanboys knew what it meant. This was the big battle we had heard about. This was the last stand of the Spartans. At the Spike Video Game Awards,  we were treated to a peek at just what the game looked like with an in-engine cut scene. And as I talked about on this past week’s Flickcast, Halo: Reach is one of my personally most anticipated games of the year.

Now, the Halo fanbase has just gotten their fill of new information about Noble team, one of the squads on Reach, and specifically Noble 6, the Spartan players will be stepping in to the boots of in a story that takes place before the events of Master Chief and Halo: Combat Evolved. In the Halo: Reach developer vidoc “Once More Unto the Breach”, more footage and information than ever before has been revealed about what we can look forward to seeing during the fall of Reach.

Hearing, “We are rebuilding everything from the ground up,” is a staggering revelation when looking at the technological achievements of past Halo games. From totally redesigned enemies, environments and Spartans, Halo: Reach looks to be the new quintessential Halo story. With a tale meant to focus on characters, Noble team may even surpass Master Chief as the favorite characters of the franchise.

Take a peek below the fold at the massive amount of screen shots we were able to get from X10 as well as the amazing ViDoc. Keep your eyes peeled to the Flickcast as we further cover Halo: Reach.

Continue Reading →

This past weekend, Spike gave its annual salute to the video game world with their Video Game Awards show. Featuring performers such as Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg, the show has grown in to a larger spectacle each year to award the best in the video game industry. Along with all that hype has come exclusive trailers for the biggest premieres in the video game industry.

Some we knew were coming like the prequel to the Halo trilogy with Halo: Reach’s first in game footage while others were merely rumored and mired in PR confusion like Green Day: Rock Band.

Even more exciting were the surprise announcements like that of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 which had predecessors that dominated the video game charts of the past year. Take a look below at all of the trailers and let us know which ones get you most excited.

We already are placing our bets over in the Flickcast offices about which games are going to make the biggest splash in 2010. Take a look at some of our favorite trailers after the jump.

Continue Reading →

It’s no secret that we all get giddy for LEGOS around the Flickcast office. Whether it’s playing Lego Batman in our spare time, reviewing Lego Rock Band for the site or watching “8-Bit Trip” for Fan Film Fridays, Legos hold a special place in our hearts. It’s also no secret that we love ourselves some video games here and it is impossible to say you love video games if you don’t love Halo.

Now, six years in the making comes a trailer combining two things we love the most. No, Traveller’s Tales and Bungie are not pairing up to release Lego Halo for the XBox 360 but we are getting the next best thing. Using the magic of stop motion animation, a lot of free time and a passion for the two properties, Alex Kobbs has created a twenty-five minute long homage to his two most beloved properties with “Battle of the Brick: Built for Combat”.

Continue Reading →

For those of us who are a fan of the franchise, we all know the headache that comes with waiting for a live action Halo movie. From Peter Jackson to Steven Spielberg, the film has gone through so many rumors and incarnations, there’s no way of knowing if we’ll ever get to see the Spartans fragging aliens on the big screen. With that in mind, we have to take pleasures in the smaller things.

In promoting Microsoft’s Halo 3: ODST, out later this month, they produced a TV spot in which we see the life, and death, of an ODST Spartan. The team just released the uncut version, which is about a minute longer. It has a very strong Battlestar Galactica vibe, which works, because BSG can very easily meld with the Halo universe.

The video shows everything we’d expect to see from a Halo film trailer: the Spartan masks, a Covenant brute, explosions, and lots of yelling. Check out the uncut trailer after the jump, and pick up your copy of Halo 3: ODST on September 22.

Continue Reading →

Don’t forget to check out the review of the “Pull of the Week” Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter, 28 Days Later and Batman and Robin on yesterday’s The Pull List

Dark Reign: Elektra #5 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 7.5

“If I had wronged them, I would simply kill them all.” That quote pretty much sums up what is so cool about Elektra. If only the makers of the Jennifer Gardner movie had figured that out. Dark Reign: Elektra #5 concludes the series as Elektra, having been returned from her Skrull and subsequent Norman Osborn imprisonment, tries to find out just who has put a price on her head. After having been attacked by agent Nico and Bullseye, Elektra is by Wolverine (the good one, not the Dark Avengers one). Wolverine takes Elektra somewhere safe and lets her know the whereabouts of where he tracked Nico to.

Elektra, wanting to find out what happened that these people want to kill her that was caused by her Skrull impersonator, tracks down the agents. When she gets to the Nico and Hammer Agent Brothers, she finds out that they blame her for the death of so many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents when she and the Hand has crashed the helicarrier. At the same time, Norman Osborn has found out through his interrogations of Skrull captives just when Elektra was abducted and what the Skrulls found out from her.

Writer Zeb Wells and artist Clay Mann are a great time to work on an Elektra story. Zeb gets what makes Elektra intriguing as she lives her life in shades of gray while Clay does a great job of bringing it to the page. The only character who doesn’t fit in strongly with this story is Norman Osborn as it seems he was forced in as a main component because of the “Dark Reign” banner. It feels like it should have been more of a post-Secret Invasion tie-in instead of putting so much focus on the storytelling on Norman who has been plastered in literally every corner of the Marvel U.

Continue Reading →

There are a few types of Summer blockbusters out there these days. Of course, you’ll have the big “tent pole” films that cost $200 million and make triple that. You’ll also get the ones that cost a fortune and fizzle out fairly quickly. But every once in a while you’ll also get a film that comes virtually out of nowhere and leaves your mouth agape. District 9 is that film.

District 9 takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, where aliens landed nearly 30 years ago. Since then, they have been subjected to living in slums while their defunct mothership hovers above the city. On the macro level, the world is split between people who wish to embrace the differences of the aliens and people who discriminate against them and wish to kill them. On a micro level, an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA, making him neither human nor alien.

At it’s core, this film is many things. It’s not just a sci-fi action film. It has some serious undertones from oppression and bigotry to the evil things that man is capable of. It is many things, but if one were to stand out, it would be “smart.” From the first moments of the film where a collection of news and documentary footage helps introduce us to this world where aliens are real and have been inhabiting the planet for some time all the way to the conclusion, this film delivers.

Continue Reading →

Halo fans who have been patiently waiting for a movie version of their beloved video game — especially after the previous version was killed a few years ago — might have a reason to celebrate in the near future. The folks over at IESB have reliable sources saying Steven Spielberg is currently in active negotiations to develop the Halo feature film adaptation.

Spielberg was reportedly blown away by writer Stuart Beattie’s script, Halo: The Fall of Reach, and is himself a huge gaming fan. Since the Dreamworks umbrella is currently looking for a tent pole to help launch their newly independent studio, this rumor could have some real legs.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for the latest news on the Halo project.

In an article detailing the growing influence of game publishers in Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times scooped the San Diego Comic-Con news that Microsoft will be producing a series of short films based around the popular Halo game, without involvement from Hollywood.

The seven short films entitled Halo Legends will be created in the anime style and will be produced by 343 Industries. Five production houses in Japan will be handling the physical animation, however Microsoft’s creative staff will approve all major visual and storytelling decisions.

Warner Bros. has been tapped to distribute Halo Legends on DVD and digital platforms in early 2010.

The full article can be read here.

Sony Pictures has released three new viral videos for Neil Blomkamp’s upcoming sci-fi drama District 9. The film, which is Exec. Produced by Peter Jackson, is one of the upcoming releases we’re really looking forward to here at The Flickcast. In these new videos, we’re given some more information about the aliens who inhabit the quarantined sector of District 9 and the men and women who keep watch on them to protect humanity.

I particularly like the fact that these videos are so well done and obviously indicate the care and attention being paid to the film by the filmmakers and the marketing team at Sony. They obviously feel they’ve got a winner on their hands — and I do to. Actually, I think District 9 will be this years Cloverfield and maybe even better. There, I said it.

Of course, I was one of the people who was skeptical when Peter Jackson initially thought Blomkamp was the right choice to direct the Halo movie, which as we know ended up going nowhere — at least not yet. Who knows, if District 9 does end up a huge success, we may see the Halo movie project resurrected.

Check out the three videos after the jump, courtesy of the folks at Trailer Addict. District 9 hits theaters on August 14.

Continue Reading →