The Flickcast

Preview: ‘Defense Grid: The Awakening’ for XBLA

Posted on September 2, 2009

DefenseGrid_ArcadeBox_sm As we had done with the Summer of Arcade, The Flickcast has done its best to keep you abreast of the latest downloadable releases for XBox Live Arcade. (Keep an eye out for special download code giveaways for XBLA games in the near future). To help with that, we recently got some time with today’s XBLA release, Defense Grid: The Awakening . By the time of this posting, it should be available for download with a trial and the full game for 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00) on the XBox Marketplace.

For those who are unfamiliar with the title, Defense Grid: The Awakening is originally a PC tower defense game. With the popularity of the up and coming genre from simple Flash-based games, it has recently made its way to handhelds and consoles with titles like Pixel Junk Monsters and Crystal Defenders. Developer Hidden Path set out with the goal to make the definitive tower defense game by looking at what they considered the 84 best tower defense games, such as like Vector TD .

For their efforts, Defense Grid: The Awakening received numerous PC game awards such as PC Gamer Editor’s Choice, one of IGN’s Top 10 “2008 Games You May Have Overlooked”, and Gameindustry.com’s 2008 Game of the Year: Puzzle. We got the chance to sit down with Hidden Path developer Jeff Pobst who talked with us about the process of creating a tower defense game. In their research they found out there were two main types of tower games.

The Flickcast – Episode 23: Finding Namor

Posted on September 2, 2009

This week on The Flickcast Chris, Matt and Christina talk about a whole bunch of new topics including the Disney/Marvel deal, Rob Zombie making a new Blob movie, Star Wars comics on the iPhone, the remake of the classic film Heathers as a TV show, Summer Glau heading to the Dollhouse, Apple’s latest OS Snow Leopard, Avatar tickets already on sale and much, much more.

The team also made some great picks again this week including Christina’s pick of The Simpsons Season 12, Matt’s pick of the sci-fi thriller Cube and Chris’ pick of Dollhouse Season One.

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

Thanks for listening.

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New ‘Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony’ Trailer

Posted on September 2, 2009

Grand Theft Auto is without a doubt one of the most infamous names in video games today. Ever since the debut of Grand Theft Auto III where players could pick up a prostitute and then get a “refund” by killing her, it has been at the top of the media by pushing the envelope further and further. With Grand Theft Auto IV as one of the most popular games of 2008, Microsoft saw the opportunity to further their lead in the console war with Sony by commissioning two exclusive episodes of downloadable content for the game for a hefty price tag.

The first, “The Lost and the Damned” reintroduced players to a minor character from Nico’s Grand Theft Auto IV campaign as he fought his way to the top of the food chain to become leader of The Lost biker gang. With the changes in gameplay and the engrossing story, many people felt “The Lost and the Damned” was better than the core GTA IV experience. Now, Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive hopes to catch lightning in the bottle a second time with “The Ballad of Gay Tony”, the second and final exclusive episode for the XBox 360.

“The Ballad of Gay Tony” revolves around, shocker, a character named Gay Tony who is the owner of the most popular straight club and gay club in Liberty City and what he has to do to keep that from being taken away from him. As far as pushing the envelope further, it’s pretty safe to say that anything could be on the table for this episode as “The Lost and the Damned” featured a full frontal shot in it (and no, it wasn’t female.) With virtually no limits to what they can’t do and an epic landscape like Liberty City, take a look at the first trailer of Grand Theft Auto “The Ballad of Gay Tony” after the jump.

Marvel Unveils New ‘Spider-Woman’ MOCO Ep 2 Trailer

Posted on September 2, 2009

SpiderWoman_MotionComic_NowOniTunes Previously, we brought you news of this motion comic (MOCO) and told you that Episode One was one of the fastest selling videos on iTunes. In addition, we were able to bring you a trailer for another new Marvel MOCO yesterday that we’re all pretty excited about: Astonishing X-Men: Gifted. Now, courtesy of the folks at Marvel, we’ve got a preview of Episode Two of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. to share with you this morning.

And, as is often the case with these types of Marvel goodies, they’ve got something to say about the video.

Marvel is proud to unveil new footage from the critically acclaimed Spider-Woman motion comic! The New York Times Best-Selling team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (Halo Uprising) continue Marvel’s first ever original motion comic as Spider-Woman finds herself at odds with the law in Madripoor and that may spell the end of her mission as an Agent of S.W.O.R.D.! Spider-Woman Episode 2 hits iTunes on September 2 and no True Believer can afford to miss it! Discover more at www.marvel.com/motioncomics

So far, this Spider-Woman MOCO is pretty awesome and we can’t wait to see Episode 2 in its entirety. Until then, be sure to click through and check out this brand new trailer for it right here.

New on DVD This Week

Posted on September 1, 2009

Movies

Gladiator [Blu-ray] ~ Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, and Oliver Reed (Blu-ray – 2009)

Braveheart [Blu-ray] ~ Mel Gibson (Blu-ray – 2009)

State of Play ~ Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams (DVD – 2009)

Sin Nombre ~ Paulina Gaitan, Marco Antonio Aguirre, and Leonardo Alonso (DVD – 2009)

M*A*S*H [Blu-ray] ~ Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, and Kim Atwood (Blu-ray – 2009)

Bring it On: Fight to the Finish ~ Christina Milian, David Starzyk, Nicki SooHoo, and Gabrielle Dennis (DVD – 2009)

The Girl Next Door (Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray] ~ Timothy Bottoms, James Remar, Christopher Marquette, and Donna Bullock (Blu-ray – 2009)

Monster (2003) [Blu-ray] ~ Charlize Theron, et al. (Blu-ray – 2009)

Fire and Ice [Blu-ray] ~ Leo Gordon, Hans Howes, Alan Koss, and Cynthia Leake (Blu-ray – 2009)

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Science Fiction (2001 A Space Odyssey / Soylent Green / Forbidden Planet / The Time Machine 1960) ~ Keir Dullea, Charlton Heston, Walter Pidgeon, and Rod Taylor (DVD – 2009)

High Crimes [Blu-ray] ~ Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, James Caviezel, and Amanda Peet (Blu-ray – 2009)

Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season ~ Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, and Misha Collins (DVD – 2009)

Heroes – Season Three ~ Jack Coleman, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Hayden Panettiere, and Milo Ventimiglia (DVD – 2009)

Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fifth Season ~ Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Eva Longoria Parker (DVD – 2009)

Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Third Season ~ Calisita Flockhart, Sally Fields, Rob Lowe, and Rachel Griffiths (DVD – 2009)

Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season ~ Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones (DVD – 2009)

C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation: The Complete Ninth Season ~ Marg Helgenberger, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle, and Eric Szmanda (DVD – 2009)

Rescue Me: Season 5, Vol. 1 ~ Denis Leary, Mike Lombardi, Steven Pasquale, and Daniel Sunjata (DVD – 2009)

The Game: The First Season ~ Tia Mowry Hardrict, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Brittany Daniel (DVD – 2009)

Degrassi: The Next Generation – Season 8 ~ Miriam McDonald, Shane Kippel, Cassie Steele, and Stefan Brogren (DVD – 2009)

Ben 10: Alien Force, Vol. 4 (DVD – 2009)

Sesame Street: Elmo’s World – All About Faces ~ Fred Newman (DVD – 2009)

braveheart Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic and not-so-classic movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies like Braveheart, Gladiator and M*A*S*H as well as the latest season of Heroes — season 3 if you’re wondering — also on Blu-ray.

Check them out.

Movies

Braveheart ~ Mel Gibson (Blu-ray)

Bring it On: Fight to the Finish ~ Christina Milian, David Starzyk, Nicki SooHoo, and Gabrielle Dennis (DVD)

Fire and Ice ~ Leo Gordon, Hans Howes, Alan Koss, and Cynthia Leake (Blu-ray)

The Girl Next Door (Unrated Edition) ~ Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant (Blu-ray)

Gladiator ~ Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, and Oliver Reed (Blu-ray)

‘Teen Wolf’ Pilot Coming to MTV

Posted on September 1, 2009

With their Hills and Tila Tequilas, MTV has never really been considered a leading network when it comes to scripted TV shows. But they’re trying because back in January it was announced that the music network was putting together a reboot of the 1980s classic Teen Wolf for the small screen, and we’re even closer as the pilot is on it’s way.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series will be a direct remake of the 1985 film starring Michael J. Fox about a teenager who learns that he comes from a long line of werewolves.

“It has a fresh take and is very different from the original,” said Liz Gateley, senior vp MTV series development. “It has more of an ‘American Werewolf in London’ feel to it. It’s a dramatic thriller with two best friends in the center who provide a great comedy element: They are two very relatable characters on the outer circles of popular cliques.”

The series will be written by Jeff Davis, who created the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. The show will be produced by the individually successful team of Marty Adelstein (Prison Break) and Rene Echevarria (Castle). No word on casting yet, but with MTV behind the pilot, you can expect to see a hot new name riding the roof of a van and getting covered in fur.

On top of Teen Wolf, MTV is expanding their scripted TV department with a remake of the popular-yet-raunchy U.K. series Skins about a group of teens growing up and living life tot he fullest. Somehow, the latter show sounds more like MTV’s style than a teenage werewolf.

How ‘Twilight’ Should Have Ended?

Posted on September 1, 2009

With the ultimate success of both the Twilight book franchise and it’s film counterpart, it was inevitable that fans would eventually backlash against it. While it’s teen romance theme and sparkly vampires leaves it open for ridicule, there are still plenty of anti-Twilight troops out there on the web, and some of them know Photoshop pretty well.

Earlier today, one non-fan in particular felt that the end of the first Twilight film was missing something. A certain vampire hunter needed to be brought into the fray, taking down the sparkly Edward and saving Bella from, well, herself.

Check out the image after the break, and maybe this will inspire some non-fans who are precision film editors as well.

First Look at ‘The Smurfs’ Movie

Posted on September 1, 2009

With Hollywood scooping up as many franchises and rebooting them as possible these days, each of us are bound to see our favorite childhood TV show turned into a multi-million dollar film. For fans of The Smurfs, especially all the members of the Official Smurf Fan Club, that dream is finally coming true.

A few months back, Columbia Pictures announced that they were retooling the 1980s cartoon for not only the big screen, but in 3D as well. Now that some time has passed, the first poster has been revealed, showing us what the new-and-improved smurfs will look like, and if anyone has ever collected the Smurf figures, they know what to expect.

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