As everyone expected, the mod community is having a heck of time with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the same way they did with the past open worlds of the Elder Scrolls series. With the official launch of the Skyrim Creation Kit through the Steam Workshop, players are able to build and distribute mods through the support of Bethesda and Steam which allows the community to come together and let each other know what the best and most promising mods are.

Instead of just being a free for all, this community allows players a piece of mind that they are downloading actual content and not a hack or virus that could harm their system. The first of these mods which every player should snag is the High Resolution Texture Pack which will greatly improve the visuals for most players.

The next piece of content any player with a sense of humor that also isn’t too hung up on silly things like continuity is Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1. Created with the help of Valve, Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1 brings Portal 2′s third favorite A.I. core to the medieval world of Skyrim.

To celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim, Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring you the Portal 2 Space Core mod, which will let the aggressively space-centric little robot tag along on your adventures in Tamriel.

Also, since Skyrim was the only major release of 2011 without Nolan North in it, you should consider this mod a patch to fix that problem. You can now feel free to include Skyrim in the “Nolan North” section of your video game library, which is to say, your video game library.

Check out a video preview of the Space Core in action and stick to the Flickcast for more Skyrim and Portal news and all things gaming.

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This is it. It’s the big one! Right before the New Year, we posted our awards for the best of gaming in 2011. But there was one all important award that we needed some extra time to deliberate on… The Game of the Year.

In this episode, JC and WallE forgo the usual format of the Bitcast and engage in a conversation where they, along with some input from Flickcasters Matt Raub and Cortney Zamm, decide on what game earns the coveted title of Game of the Year.

And The Nominees Are:

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2011 was one heck of a year for gaming. Once again, the Call of Duty franchise set records for the largest entertainment launch in history. A game that was only in Beta was able to sell millions of copies and spawn an ungodly large community to the point they had a convention before the game was officially released. There were tons of critical darlings encouraging developers to rethink how they create games.
Take a look this week at the awards The Flickcast (along with The Bitcast team) are proud to present for gaming in 2011

Think Outside the Box Game: Portal 2

While many may argue that Minecraft may be the most deserving of this award, they need to remember one thing. In Minecraft, there are no rules. The expanses of the box are too extreme to find the outer boundaries of. Within Portal 2, players are asked to explore new viewpoints of physics, matter and… well, portals. The puzzles in Portal 2 completely overtake the complexity and creativity of the original, which in itself was groundbreaking. With additional toys at their disposal and the introduction of a cooperative mode, the team at Valve came up with a game that redefined both the puzzle solving and FPS genres all at once.

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Anyone who follows The Flickcast knows I’m not the film guy by any means. I’m the video game guy. It is a rare feat to find a strong combination of the two. Portal: No Escape is one of those rare exceptions.

The world of Portal is filled with mystery and though some questions were answered in Portal 2 through the oral history of Aperture Science being explained by the recordings of Cave Johnson, many more questions remained. As a result, the world of Portal is ripe for fan fiction to fill in its many blanks.

That’s where director and editor Dan Trachtenberg’s fan film Portal: No Escape comes in. Though it doesn’t provide any new insight into the world of Portal, it gives a different perspective to its inhabitants. As seen by the events of Portal and Portal 2, the subjects who are used for testing “in the name of science” are not there of their own free will and do whatever they feel they must to escape.

Portal: No Escape follows one of these attempts. With music from Inception trailer composer Mike Zarin,  and vision from director Dan Trachtenberg, this fan film is incredibly tense and compelling and can be appreciated by those who are fans of the series or those who may have never seen it before.

Give Portal: No Escape a watch after the jump and make sure to let us know here at the Flickcast what you think of it.

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Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Want to learn how to have the body of Spider-Man and the creepiness of a grown man in tights hanging out with kids? This instructional workout video hosted by Spider-Man himself should help!

• Homemade puppets aren’t usually a collection that one brags about, but this homemade Wheatley puppet from Portal 2 is definitely one to show all of your friends as they drool with envy.

• The very first episode of Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite animated series has made it online before it hits TV. Bring on the animated exploitation!

• The folks at Sesame Street feel like enough is enough and have decided to come forward with an official statement about whether Bert & Ernie are actually gay or not.

• What do Kanye West, Jay-Z, Aziz Ansari and Spike Jonze all have in common? They all came together to bring us the official music video for “Otis” and it’s pretty awesome.

• Hot off of his Oscar win for the Social Network score, get your first taste of what Trent Reznor is bringing to the table in the score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back to doing what they do best: working alone and without a net. Not only that but, as usual, they discuss and debate all manner of new and returning topics.

This week those include HBO’s Game of Thrones, The Avengers, Smallville and Lex Luthor’s return. In addition, they talked about the Thor movies (yes, both of them), Portal 2, a brand new, exciting product from Apple called the HumancentiPad and pretty much whatever the hell ‘else they want to talk about..

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Matinee and Chris’ pick of the returning HBO series Treme.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

“How do you expand on Portal?” “How many different test rooms can you come up with using gravity and portal physics?” “What can be created to make the sequel a full retail game instead of being a part of a value packed disc like the Orange Box?”

These were all questions people came up with when they heard about Portal 2 as they were likely to be the same questions that the developers at Valve knew would be thrown their way.

After creating a completely original and satisfying experience with the original Portal, there was tons of pressure on the developers to bring back the magic that made the original Portal so special and at the same time bring about new experiences to prove the value of making the sequel. The result is a satisfying puzzle experience that builds on what Portal set out to do but continues innovating in the way gamers must think and play in order to progress either in the solo or cooperative modes.

Gameplay:

Broken down to its most basic sense, Portal 2 has players using a special gun from a first person perspective that shoots entry portals on select surfaces. Players can use these portals to instantaneously travel from one location to the next by walking, jumping or falling through them.

In addition, players can use these portals to transport items like the weighted Companion Cube or the Redirection Cube around test chambers as well. Various new gameplay elements such as Excursion Funnels (tractor beams), Hard Light Bridges, Repulsion gel, Propulsion gel and Conversion Gel can also be transported through the portals.

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This week marked one of the biggest decision making events in recent geek history, as both NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat reboot and Valve’s sequel to the hit game Portal both hit gaming stores on the same day!

Needless to say, this made quite a quandary for most gamers that couldn’t afford $120 for both games. Both have an intense single player and online multiplayer aspect, so there’s the possibility of missing out on what your friends are playing either way.

What is one to do? Buy Mortal Kombat and listen to all of his friends gush about GLADOS and all of her issues in Portal 2? Or pick up the latter and miss out on bone-crunching action and braggability rights when whupping your online pals in a deathmatch?

Well, rather than solve the problem, the guys over at The Game Station offered a third alternative…Portal Kombat!

Check out what we’re talking about after the jump, and pick up either Portal 2 or Mortal Kombat (or both!) in stores today.

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If you’ve got a movie directed by J.J. Abrams, Produced by Steven Spielberg that features some kids who team up and try to save a town from a misunderstood monster, you’re probably going to appeal to a geek audience. However, with all the movies, games and more available for geeks (and others) these days how can you be sure to reach the audience you need to?

How about putting an easter egg trailer for your upcoming film inside a newly released video game? That’s just what Paramount did with J.J. Abrams upcoming Super 8 and the brand new Portal 2 game.

The interactive trailer, which we have for you here, transfers the action to videogame graphics and puts you inside the train car that crashes and unleashes the alien. Sadly, while you can’t really do all that much in the level, it is a pretty cool way to make sure your target audience is fully invested in seeing the movie — not that Paramount really has to worry about that.

Check out the teaser after the jump. Portal 2 is available now. Super 8 hits theaters on June 10th.

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Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Getting ready to wrestle with the Gods this May in Thor? This Behind-the-scenes featurette should help you get ready for battle.

• As if we needed another reason to pick up Portal 2 next week, we can now spend an extra to get some sweet gear upgrades, like special boots that won’t let you die!

• Remember ElfQuest? We kind of do, too. A few die-hard hotties decided to stop waiting for a film and make their own by prancing in the woods wearing very little clothing and tons of makeup. We approve.

• This one has been surfing around the net all week, and is proof that given the chance, the next generation of kids will, in fact, choose the Dark Side.

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On my second day of the Penny Arcade Expo up in Boston, I took to the show floor to check out the booths of what I considered the three biggest and most anticipated games at the convention. One of these games is a follow-up two amazing titles for the Xbox 360. One is the sequel to the best first-person puzzle-platform of our time.

And the third is a game that most, if not all of us, never expected to see released. Gears of War 3, Portal 2, and Duke Nukem Forever were all booths that never ceased to cause lines and buzz all throughout the weekend.

Check out my favorites after the jump.

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One of the best “surprises” of E3 came during the Sony press conference. When it looked like things were winding down, the hyper passive aggressive voice of GLaDOS sounded through the arena. With GLaDOS’s voice came the trailer for Portal 2.

Seen below, years have passed since the escape from Aperture Science where players thought they had killed GLaDOS. Even though there was no cake at the end of the road as promised, players were thrilled to make it out alive.

Now, player’s return to Aperture Science and find themselves in wholly new uncovered and converted sections of the facility. Still using the Aperture Science Hand-held Portal Device (or simply the portal gun), players must endure an ever increasingly difficult series of puzzles based on physics, timing and sometimes plain luck to make it back out alive… and hopefully finally get the cake.

As you will see in the videos below, they have introduced a series of new physics items to help and hinder the progress through the levels of the game. All of these objects can be sent through the portals created by the portal gun as well. The Excursion Funnel acts as a tractor beam to push and pull objects and people through a level. Ariel Faith Plate is a fancy name for a trampoline which launches players in predetermined directions.

The Thermal Discouragement Beam is a bright red laser that can be used both as a weapon through the use of reflective blocks and as a key to open exits to levels. Pneumatic Diversity Vent is kind of like the tubes you see at drive up banks and pharmacies that suck everything up and spit them out at the other end.

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