It’s been year since the release of a quality X-Men title. Not since X-Men Legends and its sequel has there really been a game that captured the essence of Marvel’s band of merry mutants, especially with the pitiful movie tie-in titles that have been released.

When X-Men: Destiny was announced by Activision and Silicon Knights, the makers of Too Human, players hoped their prayers would be answered as they would get to experience what it was like for an emerging mutant caught between the turmoil of the X-Men, Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants and the humans who seek to end the “mutant menace”.

Instead, what they got was a half handed execution that feels like a franchise cash-in rushed out in order to hit the holiday game season before the larger releases like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

At Comic Con, the Flickcast got our first hands on with X-Men: Destiny to mixed reviews from the team. While the game is still some time away, there lies a lot of potential for the game to take a turn for the better or the worse. When we had the chance to talk to Denis Dyack, who also headed up past projects such as Too Human, it helped sooth some of our concerns. Now, with PAX this weekend, the team at Silicon Knights gives us some further insight into the game with its new Powers trailer and a host of new screen shots.

In the new X-Men: Destiny screens, our main characters Aimi, Grant and Adrian can be seen in costumes different from their original character designs. The most notable are Grant fighting alongside the Juggernaut in similar wardrobe and Aimi who is wearing what looks like a New Mutants style uniform. This could be a sign that over the course of gameplay, certain decisions will not only change the world in front of the characters but the appearance of the characters themselves.

In the Powers trailer below, all three power sets that can be chosen by any of the game’s three characters are seen in action. At Comic Con, we chose the Density Control which used close by rock and asphalt to create a melee focused set, giving players an experience similar to that of the X-Man Rockslide. Energy Projection looks to be more of a sniper class where players will have the opportunity to take out enemies from a distance, playing more like Cyclops. Shadow Matter looks like it combines a mix of the two giving players some distance attacks and other close up enhancements.

Take a look at the trailer and screens below. As always, stick to the Flickcast for more on X-Men: Destiny as it approaches its September 27th release for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Recently, we got the chance to get hands on with X-Men: Destiny for the first time. In our demo we got to check out the first level of the game where we had the opportunity to choose between the game’s three possible protagonists Aimi, Grant and Adrian. When a massive Purifier attack hits downtown San Francisco, the player must also decide on the spot which of the three power sets they would like to equip their character with.

The early level surprisingly has a lot of conversation within it as players meet members of both the X-Men and Brotherhood who are both fighting against the Purifiers. Because of the noise in the Activision event, we couldn’t really hear the dialogue at the time but the gist we got was that both sides were already actively beginning to recruit this new mutant to their side.

X-Men: Destiny plays much like a standard 3D street brawler with the added bonus of mutant powers. There are your basic light, heavy, special and grab attacks along with blocking and dodging mechanics as expected. The gameplay itself was fun but the story possibilities are definitely the most intriguing part for us.

It’s gearing up to be an X-Man-y type of summer. First with the release of X-Men: First Class (there’s an awesome review of the film here) and then the release of the game  ­X-Men: Destiny this fall

The game puts players into the role of a newly minted member of the X-Men in a detailed storyline that forces them to make choices that ultimately decide the destiny of their character.

But September is a long way off, so to tide you over, here’s two trailers that offer a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the game, featuring two of its voice talents, Milo Ventimiglia and Jamie Chung, as well as offering a glimpse of the game’s universe and story. Take a peek after the fold.

X-Men: Destiny hits shelves September 27^th for PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.

I caught (that verb seems appropriate) director Xavier Gens’ new film The Divide as a midnight screener at the Ritz theatre. By far the best thing I can say about the experience is that the volunteers running the show just let us in instead of making us wait in line and thus subjecting us to the depraved drunken antics of 6th Street on St. Patrick’s Day.

Of the two dozen films I saw at SXSW, this is easily the worst (beating out even the agonizing ponderousness of Silver Bullets—that at least had some laughs and exhibitionistic women). It starts out impressively enough, with a cold open that throws you straight into the onset of a nuclear apocalypse, with big, loud explosions, screaming viscera, panicking droves, and the like before slapping you in the face with the title screen.

But after that it settles in to devolving into a bargain-basement “people stuck in a shelter” psychological thriller, which is to say populated by the usual clichés—the crazy veteran (Michael Biehn), the flighty mother (Roseanna Arquette), the coward (Ivan Gonzalez), the budding psycho (Milo Ventimiglia)—and a host of others whose sole purpose is to scream and make stupid decisions—and yes, there’s a screamy child, too.

And oh, what stupid decisions they make: failing to attack the psycho when they have the chance; attacking the wrong guy when they do work up the “nerve”; neutralizing the only person who displays any sort of competence; killing the black guy first, and all other head-slapping tropes you can imagine. My father once criticized The Dark Knight because he reasoned that someone just should’ve shot the Joker.

One of our favorite comic book companies will be showcasing a whole bunch of stuff during next week’s San Diego Comic-Con. Top Cow, probably most well known for Wanted, will be bringing lots of exclusives and their talent to the show so we can all meet and enjoy.

Here’s all the info you could want on this from the official press release from the company.

TOP COW UNVEILS 2010 SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON EXCLUSIVES

LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 14, 2010 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. is proud to announce their exclusive offerings at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, which includes an exclusive wraparound cover variant to the publisher’s most ambitious project-to-date, Artifacts.

Attendees of the convention have a chance to grab the following exclusives at the Top Cow booth #2629:

ARTIFACTS #1 WRAPAROUND SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON VARIANT
Exclusive SDCC variant cover art by Michael Broussard and Sunny Gho of IFS
(W) Ron Marz (A) Michael Broussard (I) Rick Basaldua, Sal Regla (C) Sunny Gho of IFS
Price: $10

Thirteen mystical Artifacts, including the Witchblade, the Darkness and others, guide the fate of the Top Cow Universe. For centuries, it’s been whispered that bringing together all 13 Artifacts would herald mankind’s destruction. But a mysterious figure has been manipulating events, laying plans to put Armageddon into motion.

It’s official. NBC has canceled the struggling superhero drama Heroes after some internal debate about bringing it back for a shortened final season to wrap up the serialized show. In the end, given the show’s high cost, its consistently low ratings and the number of new hour dramas coming to the network next season, the decision was made to pull the plug.

However, according to reports, the network may bring the show back with a finale special or TV movie sometime next season. If so, that would be a nice gesture on the part of NBC. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath for it to happen.

The show simply went astray after the first season, characters and plotlines were introduced without resolution for existent ones. In short, the whole show just got more and more convoluted and in the end, nobody cared what happened. It really seemed the writers didn’t know what to do with the world they had created so they were just stalling for time.

Perhaps the show would have been better served by continuing the alternative timeline where Peter has a scarred face and the characters actually use their powers and fight each other? That was a more interesting story with plenty of conflict. Perhaps that was just too expensive to continue.

Another big problem with the show was that you had all these super powered beings and they never really did anything. Most of them never really used their powers very much and they never really wanted to. I don’t know about you but if I had super powers I would use them all the time and wouldn’t sit around and worry about being “normal.” Who wants to be normal anyway? Oh well, so long Heroes.

As we previously reported, NBC has given new season order for 30 Rock, The Office and Community while, according to a recent interview with NBC network president Angela Bromstad, a fifth season of the beleaguered Heroes is still undetermined. In addition, the CW has ordered a 10th season for Smallville.

Now, Fox has officially renewed the J.J. Abrams sci-fi procedural Fringe for a third season. The show had perfoemed reasonably well but was not a ratings powerhouse. Still, it’s hard to believe it wouldn’t get renewed, especially given its J.J. Abrams connection and the fact that Lost is ending this season.

Two big reasons for Fox to keep it around for another year. Plus, any show with the great John Noble, the hot Anna Torv and the cool Leonard Nimoy should be on the air as long as it wants to be.

The fate of Jack Bauer and the CTU team of 24 is still up in the air due to falling ratings and the show’s considerable expense to produce. Fox president Kevin Reilly recently told The Live Feed:

“It’s a very tough call. It’s a huge part of our legacy, and there’s not a lot of shows that could do a 9 share against the Olympics. Tremendous sales asset for us still; a show we’re so very proud of creatively. So it’s not an easy call.”

Well, if our own Shannon Hood has anything to say about it, that call should be an easy one.

Our friends at Top Cow have sent us their list of comic solicitations for May, 2010 and because we know you are comics fans and also enjoy some Top Cow titles, we’ve included them for your advanced planning needs. And we’ve also got some cool cover images for you as well. Be sure to check those out after the jump.

Meantime, take a look at the comics coming in May from the official press release:

VELOCITY is off to the races!

MAY 2010 CHECKLIST

Velocity #1 Ron Marz/Kenneth Rocafort $3.99
Angelus #5 Ron Marz/Stjepan Sejic $2.99
Pilot Season: Stellar #1 Signed Robert Kirkman/Marc Silvestri/Bernard Chang $19.99
Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box #4 Rob Levin/Bryan Edward Hill/Alessandro Vitti/Tommy Lee Edwards $3.99
Pilot Season: Hardcore #1 Signed Robert Kirkman/Marc Silvestri/Brian Stelfreeze $19.99
The Darkness #85 Phil Hester/Sheldon Mitchell/Aaron Campbell $2.99

NBC’s Heroes has had quite a run. Some of it was great, some of it was met with some negative response, but the producers have tried to stay true since the first episode, and now that could all be coming to an end.

There hasn’t been much news from the NBC camp whether Hereos will get a fifth season, but you can imagine that many fans won’t be behind the idea. This season has brought in many elements familiar to comic fans, and even got comic veteran Mark Verheiden to write a few episodes, so there’s still hope for more super powered action in the future. But will it be enough?

This Monday marks the finale of the fourth season, and looks to be quite an ending and could probably even serve as a fitting series finale if necessary. From NBC:

In the climactic season finale, everyone bands together in an effort to stop Samuel (Robert Knepper) from taking the lives of thousands. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) joins forces with his most unexpected ally to save Emma (guest star Deanne Bray). Meanwhile, H.R.G.’s (Jack Coleman) life hangs in the balance as he and Claire (Hayden Panettiere) find themselves trapped underground with oxygen quickly running out. Elsewhere, Hiro (Masi Oka) starts to come to grips with the decisions he has made and is called into action to help stop a disaster.

Check out four new clips from the season finale after the jump, and be sure to catch Heroes next Monday at 9/8C on NBC.