The Flickcast

PAX East 2011: Bioware Shows Off ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ with New Developer’s Walk-Through

Posted on March 17, 2011

The Flickcast’s very own Cortney Zamm has been covering the amazing video game previews and news hot from the show floor at PAX East 2011 like nobody’s business. And yet, there is one game in particular that I felt deserved a bit of extra coverage.

That game is BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, a story-driven MMO developed in conjunction with LucasArts. There’s a whole lot of anticipation for this game and with good reason: SWTOR will be the WoW of the Star Wars Universe. And the story will be deeper and more personal to each character. If you’re familiar with BioWare’s previous titles, you know how important story is to their game developers.

I’ve been following the developer’s blogs and various updates on this soon-to-be released title and recently, I was excited to hear that Bioware made a big showing at PAX East 2011 in Boston, offering fans a few new glimpses at this ambitious project.

Be sure to hit the jump to watch the developer’s walk-through video showcasing some of SWTOR’s flash-points with tons of developer commentary and some amazing in-game footage.

HTC ThunderBolt On Sale For Verizon Wireless Today

Posted on March 17, 2011

For those of you lamenting the lack of cool 4G smartphone offerings available for the Verizon Wireless network, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. Verizon Wireless’ first LTE handset, the HTC ThunderBolt, is now available on store shelves and online, ready to push the boundaries of wireless access.

If you plan on being one of the very first consumers to acquire the 4G handset, you have options as to where to pick it up. Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, and several others will be selling the handset for $250 with a two year contract.

However, if you don’t mind waiting for the device to be shipped to you, Wirefly will be selling it for $199.99. In addition, Amazon Wireless has it priced at $179.99. Plus, unless you live in certain areas of the country, no sales tax if you purchase at Amazon. Who doesn’t love that?

In case you’re not familiar with this 4G powerhouse, here’s a few stats to help get you excited:

• Powered by Android 2.2
• Latest version of the HTC Sense UI
• Support for Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, YouTube and Android Market
• 4G LTE optimized apps such as EA’s Rock Band, Gameloft’s Let’s Golf, Tunewiki and Bitbop
• 4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage area
• 4.3” WVGA display
• 8- megapixel rear facing camera and HD (720p) video recording

New Gameplay Footage Revealed For ‘Batman: Arkham City’

Posted on March 17, 2011

Probably one of the most anticipated games of 2011, any kind of footage or information for Batman: Arkham Asylum is getting gobbled up by fans the moment it hits the web. A few months ago, we got the first trailer for the game, which didn’t show us much. Now we’re finally getting some gameplay.

In this new trailer, we see not only some new villains make an appearance, such as Catwoman, Two Face, Hugo Strange, and Joker, but some great new features in what looks to be an almost open-world style game. Basically, what would Grand Theft Auto be like if you were Batman.

Some great new features have been added that we can pick up on, including the ability to practically fly through Gotham City with the use of the grappling gun and Batman’s cape-gliding skills, and some advanced combat skills.

Sadly, still no word on whether local or online multiplayer will be added in this sequel, but we still have a solid 6 months before the game is released on October 18th.

Check out the all-new extended trailer after the jump, and let us know what you think!

SXSW Film Review: ‘Tabloid’

Posted on March 17, 2011

Of the three films I’ve been most excited to see at SXSW, two of them were documentaries, and the two documentaries that pretty much everyone else has been the most excited to see: Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Errol Morris’s Tabloid.

Of the two, the one I was a little unsure of was Morris’s. I know Morris to be somewhat of an acquired taste, and I find his films to lag some, but his is a master of interview and editing: No line of dialogue, no word, uttered by a subject in a Morris documentary, is uninteresting.

And Tabloid is no exception—in fact, it may well be the best introduction to Morris and is certainly his funniest.

The story was new to me: Joyce McKinney is a former beauty queen who fell in love with a man who took up with the Mormon faith and left her to perform his required mission trip in London. Joyce tracked him down, supposedly kidnapped him, and further supposedly spirited him away to a cottage in Devon where she (even further) supposedly chained him to a bed and had her way with him.

That’s not the whole story, of course, and one of the best jokes of Tabloid is just how far the story of Joyce McKinney, the tabloid Joyce McKinney keeps going, and going, and going, and shows no intent of slowing down, right up to the now.

The Flickcast – Episode 91: Welcome to Earth!

Posted on March 16, 2011

That’s right this week bring an all new episode of The Flickcast. On this week’s show Chris and Matt take on another bunch of new and recurring topics to amuse, entertain and try to keep you awake for at least thirty to forty minutes.

Some of the things discussed this week include Battle: Los Angeles versus Independence Day, Super 8, X-Men: First Class, Paul, PAX East, Super, SXSW, proper movie marketing and a whole lot more. And this week, virtually no Charlie Sheen. You’re welcome.

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including some great things you’re just going to have to listen to to find out. Sorry, we sometimes like to have our secrets.

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.

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SXSW Announces 2011 Film Award Winners

Posted on March 16, 2011

It seems like only yesterday when our planes were touching down, we were packing into our roach-heavy hotels, and ordering that first pint at the Alamo Drafthouse, eager to welcome SXSW 2011, but those days are long gone, and the Film Festival’s award-winners have now been announced.

Of course, those days really aren’t long gone, because there’s still plenty more films to see…and plenty more reviews for us to write up.

But as far as the awards go, it looks like Tristan Patterson’s skater-drug-love documentary Dragonslayer and Robbie Pickering’s Natural Selection, about a housewife’s quest to reunite her husband’s illegitimate son with his father. Take a look at the full winner list in a press release, after the jump.

Russian ‘X-Men: First Class’ Trailer Shows Us More Mutants

Posted on March 16, 2011

As blown away as we were when Fox released the very first trailer for X-Men: First Class about a month ago, we didn’t get to see as much as we wanted. Thankfully, we’re getting more and more as we get closer to the release date, and now in the form of a Russian trailer.

Sure, the dialogue and titles are in a backwards demon language, but we get a more in-depth look at Beast’s transformation, more young Magneto, and a few great shots of the Hellfire Club.

The film is set to take place long before the events of 2000’s X-Men, when both Professor Charles Xavier and Eric “Magneto” Lensherr meet for the first time and decide to help their fellow mutants by forming a school and a covert team.

The film stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, and a whole slew of young stars as the very first generation of the X-Men.

Check out the new trailer after the jump, and see X-Men: First Class in theaters on June 3rd.

PAX East 2011: Boston Indie Showcase: ‘Snapshot’

Posted on March 16, 2011

The third and final game I checked out at this past weekend’s PAX East independent game showcase was an amazing little game called Snapshot, on its way to PC, Mac, and some consoles, sometime very soon. PAX East is the first time in awhile that Snapshot has been available for demo, so I felt really lucky to get a chance to sit down and spend some time with this title.

Snapshot reminded me of Braid right off the bat, and this observation wasn’t far off. Playing as this cute little robot dude navigating some brilliantly designed, beautifully animated levels, players use a camera to solve puzzles. Boxes can be moved, platforms can be relocated, and obstacles can be removed, as the player takes a picture of an object and places that photo over the environment to continue through the level.

It’s not always as easy as it sounds, though, as the objects aren’t always friendly, or aren’t always easily captured with the camera.

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