Since most of the major Marvel Universe players have found their way already into the Minimates line, ArtAsylum is now able to give some spotlight to some of the heroes, villains and storylines from the past. This time in the 43rd wave of the Minimates line, which also marks the ten year anniversary of the product, the Marvel Minimates will focus on the “Death of Jean Dewolff” storyline.

Back in the mid 80’s when comics were beginning to mature in both artistic merit and story themes, editor on the Spectacular Spider-Man Jim Owsley gave writer Peter David the task of knocking off detective Jean DeWolff. The character of Sin-Eater was created as a way to kill DeWolff. Interestingly enough, the biggest impact of this story is the indirect creation of Venom as Eddie Brock claimed to have found out who the real Sin Eater was, only to be disproven by Spider-Man catching the real killer and costing Brock his job.

You can check out Art Asylum’s interview with creator Peter David here on their site and check out the full gallery of the collection after the jump.

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.

JC and WallE are back with the 7th epic edition of the Bitcast. In the News of the Week, the two discuss the announcement of the PlayStation 3 Smash Brothers inspired brawler Title Fight and the characters that may be coming to it. They also talk about a recent study that links violent video games to slower brain activity. Finally, they look at how Angry Birds developer Rovio passed on a $2.25 billion dollar offer from social media games developer Zynga who incidentally lost almost a million players in their game Mafia Wars 2 in just one month.

In the second edition of The Long Grind featuring The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, JC discusses the story (spoiler free) and the open world adventuring aspects of the game.

In this week’s Topic of the Week, social media in gaming such as Facebook integration and community sites like Raptr are brought up. Finally, in Now Playing, JC gives some more insight into his longer than expected play sessions on Saints Row: The Third and WallE discusses his review of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Make sure to subscribe to The Flickcast iTunes feed to get each weekly episode of the Bitcast downloaded right to your iOS device.

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This week we kick off a brand new podcast here at The Flickcast. This one revolves around the world of gaming and features our video game guru John Carle and co-host Jonathan “Wall-E” Weilbaecher who will talk about all things newsworthy in the video game world.

This week, John and Wall-E talk about September’s video game sales as well as the upcoming Warner Bros. lineup including a new Lego Batman. In their topic of the week, the new dynamic duo of the Flickcast introduce themselves and their gaming preferences and continue the age old (five year) debate of XBox 360 vs. PlayStation 3.

And in their Now Playing lists, the two talk Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as well as the titles John had the opportunity to check out last weekend at New York Comic Con from Activision and Capcom.

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 or via email.

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At New York Comic Con, we were able to get a booth tour from Capcom which got us some hands on time with three of their much anticipated titles. The first of which was the upcoming rerelease of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Back at Comic Con in San Diego, after announcing the first set of new characters being added to the game, there was a massive leak which revealed the full roster. Now, Capcom has gone official with all but a few of these characters and had them available for us to play as at the Con.

We demoed the game on a traditional controller for the XBox 360. As there was an all day tournament going on, the wait for even press to play using the fight sticks was outrageous and considering most households would use a regular controller anyway, we felt like this would give us a good idea of what to expect from the game. Focusing our teams on the newer characters, we had to learn on the fly just what kind of play styles to use with them.

Vergil was the most reminiscent of Dante from the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3 focusing on using his sword for a majority of his attacks. Firebrand from Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins ended up being surprisingly fun to play with as we didn’t really have any idea what to expect from him. Nova and Ghost Rider felt like the badasses we expected them to be but sadly Rocket Raccoon was not an option for us yet.

The most surprisingly fun character was Phoenix Wright. The best character comparison we could make was him being like Dan from Street Fighter. His attacks may look horribly wimpy as he throws paperwork at opponents but he is perfect for luring opponents into a false sense of security.

Today, Marvel.com revealed the next iteration of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with the stereotypical Capcom naming motif with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game will feature six new characters from each of the companies as well as the much requested Spectator Mode during online matches and the correction of various balancing issues.

The Marvel roster is going to be beefed up with heavy hitter Ghost Rider and fan favorite, Hawkeye. Not Ronin, not Bullseye dressed as Hawkeye, not the Young Avenger Hawkeye chick. But Clint Barton, the real Hawkeye. (Although I probably just accidently named off all three of the alternate costumes.) Capcom will be adding Marvel vs. Capcom’s most requested legacy character Strider as well as series newcomer Firebrand, the little red demon thing from Ghost ‘n Goblins.

Additionally, some screens have leaked online featuring both the character artwork and screen shots of the remaining eight unrevealed characters. Here are what we have found across the internet.

Way back in November, Capcom already announced the first batch of DLC coming for Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath would be on their way to the roster. Last week, coinciding with the game’s actual release, Capcom announced another set of DLC. This time, much in the vein of Super Street Fighter IV, it is new costumes. Now we know what you are thinking. Why would you care about a different colored pair of jeans on Haggar or an alternate paint job on the Sentinel. Well there we would agree with you.

But this isn’t just any set of alternate costumes. Six characters will receive new attire. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Chris, Ryu and Dante. Instead of just being fresh coats of paint on existing templates, these are entirely new costumes being added to the game.

Captain America will be given what Marvel fans have affectionately coined the Captain Steve outfit. As the world’s new top cop, Steve Rogers Super Soldier doesn’t hide behind the mask anymore. Instead he has a more modern costume. Interestingly enough, Capcom chose to give him the classic Cap shield though instead of his current comic weapon, a light disk shield.

A year and a half ago, we came home from San Diego Comic Con and were given the chance to review the XBox Live Arcade rerelease of one of our top games of the previous decade with Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  The game was an instant hit and was quickly brought over to the PlayStation 3 as well.

It’s not surprising that soon after, seeing the game’s tremendous success, that Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With a super stylized trailer, the hype hasn’t died down. Even last week at release, it was almost impossible for players to get a hold of the Special Edition of the game, a problem not usually seen in retail anymore.

As we have talked about with our previous hands-on experience, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 brings the series’ classic feel and action back with a shiny new coat of graphical paint and effects that players expect and demand.

Gameplay:

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds doesn’t change the formula that brought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 so much success. The game relies on single round matches between two 3 on 3 teams. Players have three basic attacks of increasing strength, their special attack button, and two assist buttons. These assist buttons can be used to either call in teammates for a quick attack or to switch the character the player is in control of for the fight.

As players throw more attacks and successfully defend against their opponents, they increase their combo meter which builds at the bottom of the screen to unleash Hyper Combos. These hyper combos are special moves that can deal tremendous damage if successful.

This simple control scheme allows for all levels of players to enjoy the game. Expert players will learn advanced combos, juggling and snap backs to eliminate their opponents while newer players will be able to feel like they are setting off tremendous attacks even by just button mashing.

It is an interesting dynamic compared to other fighting games where experience will almost always prevail. While it may be frustrating for an “expert” to get beaten by a lucky combination from a “newbie”, it also makes the game more exciting that outcomes aren’t always so predetermined in multiplayer.

Finally, the Devourer of Worlds makes his way to the world of Marvel vs. Capcom as the final boss in MvC 3: The Fate of Two Worlds. In the original Marvel vs. Capcom, the villain that tore apart the Marvel Universe, Onslaught was brought in as the game’s big bad.

In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, a new evil was created called Abyss. Now, one of the most powerful forces in the galaxy takes aim at earth and it is up to the Marvel and Capcom heroes and villains to take him down.

Take a peek below at Galactus in action. It is going to be very interesting to see what kind of tactics it is going to take down a being of near limitless power like Galactus. Make sure to stay tuned to the Flickcast for our review of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds next week!