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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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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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.

• It looks like Bryan Singer’s upcoming Battlestar Galactica movie is becoming more of a reality as Universal is seconds away from inking a deal with a writer.

• In more “things that need to be made” news, Sony has green lit an Assassin’s Creed film. Let’s hope 90% of it is just building-jumping

• Speaking of games-soon-to-be-movies, here is 6 minutes of Harrison Ford playing Uncharted 3. Why? Because why not.

• For a simple $50, you too can own an exclusive Chewbacca statue made purely of chewing tobacco (Chewbacco?). The only question left is: why would you?

• What happens when the Sin City trailer is set to a cast of characters from the Disney universe? Pure amazement.

• Love The Walking Dead? Then you’ll love The Walken Dead about a billion times more. Trust us.

• Speaking of things we love, what would happen if Joss Whedon’s The Avengers trailer only had a budget of $16? This is the product of that question.

• Nerdy, cuddly things are kind of the best. At least, that’s how we’re able to justify a plush version of Portal’s turret gun.

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How often do you speculate and daydream on what your favorite video game characters would look like if they had their day and got a live action movie adaptation? What would Drake from Uncharted look like or how tall would Kratos from God of War be in comparison to other folks? Well that’s where this brand new commercial from Sony helps us out.

This new commercial to promote the PS3 has literally dozens of characters from your favorite PlayStation games giving thanks to us, the gamer, for always being there and getting them out of those tough binds. YouTube user shikhargautam broke down which characters we can see in order of when they appear.

All characters, as they appear: 0:47 Nathan Drake (Uncharted 3), Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII) 0:56 Cole (inFamous) with a Helghast (Killzone) behind 1:00 Isaac Clarke (Dead Space), Ghost (CoD: MW2), Agent 47 (Hitman) 1:06 Solid Snake (MGS4) 1:15 Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal), Chell (Portal) 1:18 Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet) 1:20 Athena and Kratos (God of War) 1:23 Paul (Tekken) 1:38Little Sister (BioShock) 1:46 Ezio (Assassin’s Creed 2) 1:50 ISA soldier (Killzone)1:52 Chimera Hybrid (Resistance)

There may even be a few that he missed, so check out the commercial after the jump.

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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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“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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Welcome to this week’s 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 this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• Remember that awesome trailer mash up between The Matrix and Scott Pilgrim? Here’s an even better one featuring The Big Liebowski.

• A new trailer for Jedi Junkies hits the web, and while it may feature Olivia Munn, we still think it’s pretty cool.

• You’ve heard the rumor for a while, but now it’s here. Introducing Target’s Facebook gift cards.

• We love Chris Klein and we hated The Legend of Chun-Li so this video of every line he has in the film is pretty damned hilarious.

• In conjunction with the rising popularity (not population) of Zombies, who isn’t surprised to see Zombie Jerky make it’s way to the US?

• They may not be for sale, but these Portal book ends are already on our office Christmas list.

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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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So E3 starts tomorrow officially while today is the Microsoft Press conference. As you have already seen, we have gotten some advanced notice on some of the happenings going on at the event.  A few changes will be happening with our coverage of the event compared to last year.

This year we won’t be giving a fully detailed recap of the BIG 3 Press Conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as a formal post. We will, however, be posting our thoughts and coverage on the big announcements and trailers as well as give a full indepth discussion with Matt Raub, Chris Ulrich and myself on this week’s episode of the podcast.

We have also gotten official word from various industry sources on what companies will be showing at the event. These have come from various press releases, other industry insiders and various leaks from the LA Convention Center itself regarding the event.

There has also been tremendous speculation around the event. Some of those rumors will be examined below as well. Finally, some of my own personal E3 2010 theories and predictions will be put out there too.

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If you’re a Mac user and also love to game, today is your lucky day. Why? Well, Valve has decided to release its Steam platform officially for the Mac today and also will be bringing two of their best games along with it.

The first games is the awesomely simple Portal where you solve puzzles by teleporting from place to place using the “portal gun.” The best part, the better you do the more you get rewards in the form of cake. And who doesn’t love cake?

The next game coming out is Runic Game’s Torchlight which is a hack and slash in the tradition of Diablo where you explore dungeons and search for treasure. It’s also a great game and will probably do well mostly because, like Portal, its simple.

Steam, which has around 25 million users, was launched in 2004, allowing PC owners to buy and download games to play on their computer. The library of games soon expanded, and there are now more than 1,000 titles available. Even though its taken a few years, I’m glad to see the platform is finally available for the Mac. Thanks Valve, its about time.