Chris and Joe are back once again this week with a brand new episode of The Flickcast. That’s right, four in a row! Amazing again and again. Speaking of amazing, this week’s episode (as they often do) includes lots of amazing topics covering all things geek.
Some of these include the new, awesome trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the fact that Tom Cruise isn’t such a bad guy, their predictions for the end of The Walking Dead and their love for craft beer.
Speaking of craft beer, Chris and Joe both picked the same thing this week. Shocking, right? That’s right, the guys both picked the show Brew Dogs, which airs on the Esquire Network. Check it out, it’s fun.
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, Google+ or via email.
Sadly, Comic-Con 2013 is over, but luckily I survived. And that’s not just some cheesy metaphor. Every year there seems to be some fluke accident or Hall H pencil stabbing that occurs so there is always that off chance things might go awry.
For me, it could have happened when I went through The Walking Dead Escape. As we have mentioned in the past, The Walking Dead Escapeis a zombie run combined with a pretty intense obstacle course which left my palms scarred since SDCC 2012. This year though I was determined to be a survivor and I had a plan.
Most importantly was that this time I wasn’t alone. Joining me on the course this time were The Flickcast’sWallE and our own social media ninja Marissa (sadly a social media ninja’s main powerset revolves around social media and not the art of ninjitsu but we made due).
Even with Comic-Con fast approaching, we were able to get some time with Liam Brenner, the producer behind The Walking Dead Escape. For those who didn’t experience it last year, The Walking Dead Escape is an obstacle course built through the levels of Petco Park with a zombie invasion taking hold. Stay tuned to the Flickcast during Comic Con to get our video coverage of the event.
The Flickcast: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us about The Walking Dead Escape. How does one go about becoming the producer of an event like The Walking Dead Escape? Do you have any previous experience with the zombie world?
Liam Brenner: Yes, I’ve narrowly escaped many times and last year’s Escape event was no exception. We know the hospital in San Diego has been abandoned and is now overrun with walkers. We will be setting up the parameter around PetCo Park shortly and Survivors will only have one way out.
Last year, players got to experience a Walking Dead experience that rivaled the comics with Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Sticking to a traditional point and click adventure style of storytelling rather than an action game or shooter (like AMC’s The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct).
Last week on Tuesday for PSN users and Friday for XBLA users, Telltale released a special episode for The Walking Dead. Meant to act as a bridge between season 1 and the upcoming season 2, there is a departure from part of what people loved so much of the first season for. But, the new aspects of the game and its storytelling keeps the hook there for players for the next season.
The Long
The first thing players will note in The Walking Dead: 400 Days is the separation from the main characters in the first season. Where there is an appearance from some periphery characters, the majority of those seen in the game are new to both the game and the comics. There is also a group of six characters players take the role of (five characters with their own chapter and then one epilogue) as opposed to only playing for Lee in the previous title.
This is where things start to feel starkly different. Part of what was so addictive in the first season of The Walking Dead was following the relationship between Lee and Clementine. In 400 Days though, before you can get too invested in a single character, you move onto the next. The long term results of these actions also remain to be seen as to how these characters will play a role in the second season alongside those who made it through the first.
This is cool. Although, if you don’t want to know how the magic is done and take a look behind the curtain, you may not want to watch. For the rest of you, here’s a video look from visual effects company Stargate Studios at their work on the latest season of The Walking Dead.
In addition to all the great zombie smashing and blood splattering, we also love what they did with the prison and how they made it look way more impressive, and messed up, than it actually is.
In short, these folks are pretty great at what they do. Enjoy the video after the break and be impressed.
The Governor is setting up a back room with restraints and tools that are most likely going to be used for torture. Martinez is gathering artillery and men to follow The Governor to his meeting with Rick. The Governor wants options.
Milton tries to talk The Governor out of attacking Rick’s crew, to just let it go. The Governor will not forgive them for what happened to his walker daughter. Milton goes to Andrea and tells her everything. Her idea is to just kill Rick. Milton won’t let her, saying that all that will do is put Martinez in charge and nothing will be fixed.
While Andrea and Milton are talking above The Governor’s “dungeon”, he arrives. Andrea has a perfect shot to take him out, but Milton stops her. Andrea tells Milton she has to go back to prison, and wants to bring him. Milton says that he belongs at Woodbury.
Rick is gathering material on one of the ramps above the prison. He is keeping eyes on Michonne, when he sees the woman in white down by the graveyard. He goes down to see her, but she disappears. She is now outside of the gates, and this time when Rick follows her, we do see that it is Lori. Lori is caressing Rick’s face, and we see a shot of Michonne looking at Rick, and he is just standing there by himself.
The Governor goes to see Andrea, commending her on her speech that rallied the townspeople. He tells Andrea that he is not going to retaliate against Rick’s crew, so long as they stay away. He says that he screwed up Woodbury, and is not fit to lead. But Andrea is. He needs some time to get himself together, and wants Andrea to fill in for him. At this point, I am wondering how naïve can Andrea actually be.
In 2011, there was an incredibly close race between Batman: Arkham City and Portal 2 between team Bitcast for the Game of the Year award with Portal 2coming out on top. This year, the conversation went a lot smoother.
While there were lots of games that got our attention to be nominated, there was one game that stood out amongst the crowd as the clear favorite on The Flickcast. Dishonored, Far Cry 3, Journey, Unfinished Swan, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Slender were all great innovations in gaming in 2012 and all garnered huge followings. But there is one game that proved it was special to people on so many levels that when it came time to cast the final ballot on game of the year, it was a no brainer for the both of us.
Almost a week has passed since The Walking Dead season 3 reached its midseason finale. On that night, Twitter and Facebook were filled with posts of people asking what to do with their Sunday nights now that they are forced to wait until February for the show to return. Well, there’s no reason for fans of The Walking Dead to be stuck watching the previous seasons (or doing something really crazy like going outside) as Robert Kirkman and the rest of the team behind The Walking Dead have put out tons of other materials that both set up the story and characters of the show and/or went off in their own directions.
The Walking Dead Vol. 1 – 17
It’s where it all started. Over the course of 102 issues, The Walking Dead has taken readers through a rollercoaster of emotions. They have seen Rick and his ever changing band of survivors try to deal with a world that can never go back to what it once was.
While viewers of the show may witness some similar instances, they will also see how two different stories have been able to be told about the same essential concept. One of the things that keeps drawing readers back is the idea that really no one is safe and characters that they fall in love with end up becoming the biggest tragedies.
There’s a new preview for the third season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, which kicks off on October 14th. We’re presenting it here without much comment, other than this: We. Can’t. Wait.
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