Hey there, it’s time for a brand new episode of the occasional series The Flickcast. That’s right, we’re excited too.

On this week’s episode Chris and Joe discuss a bunch of stuff including Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Alien: Covenant, Wonder Woman, Blade Runner: 2049, American Gods and angry men on the internet. Plus, the usual even more. 

No beer selections again this week (it’s early in the AM0. But if you do drink, try to buy local. Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the movie Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Joe’s pick of both the movie and the soundtrack. Yes, both.

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 shoot us an email.

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Guardians of the Galaxy is the summer blockbuster I’ve been waiting for for longer than I can remember.

The usual adjectives of effusive praise are appropriate: funny, clever, touching, and, of course, fun. While Marvel Studios has certainly found the formula for successful films, they’ve been progressively more and more serious and, worse, self-important. Guardians has the good sense to mock itself and its concept, which is likely due in large part to its star, Parks & Recreation‘s Chris Pratt, and writer/director James Gunn (Slither), and perhaps almost as large a part being that it’s relatively free of the Marvel Universe around which every other film it’s made snugly revolves. I doubt we’d see even Tony Stark using a space-rat as a make-believe microphone, especially in the first two minutes.

So Gunn and Pratt bring a delightfully refreshing sense of self deprecation to their film, Pratt playing the somewhat well-known Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, intergalactic swashbuckler. The promotional writeups describe him as a mix of Han Solo and Marty McFly, but I think Indiana Jones may be more appropriate, since they’re both adept at getting into and out of particularly sticky situations.

This time Star-Lord has snatched an orb of potentially unimaginable power, which puts him in the sights of nearly everyone across the galaxy, from assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to planetary ravager Ronan (Lee Pace) to Yondu (Michael Rooker), Star-Lord’s kind-of adopted father, to genetically modified raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his Ent-ian-ish pal Groot (Vin Diesel). After a three-way battle on the universal capital planet, the four are imprisoned and…blah, blah, blah. They team up, everyone tries to kill them, and so on.

In 1977, at the age of 8, I sat in a theater and experienced the awe and wonder that was Star Wars. At the time, no one had any idea what kind of cultural significance it would have or what it would mean for cinema in general and science-fiction films in particular. Though there have been many books, essays and college theses that have attempted to quantify and examine those impacts over the years, at age 8 I didn’t really care about such things.

If I’m being completely honest I should admit that I still don’t, I just remember sitting in the darkened theater being completely pulled into a new and completely realized new universe of awe and wonder and being completely captivated and immeasurably entertained by it. Thanks to James Gunn and Guardians of the Galaxy, that feeling has returned 37 years later.

It’s 2014 and Chris and Joe kick things off correct with a brand new episode of The Flickcast. Yes, even though the holiday hangovers are still in full effect, the boys found time to get together, find a barn (or something) and have a show.

Topics this week include holiday movies, upcoming TV shows for 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy, Man of Steel 2, Lex Luthor casting, beer, flying cars, jetpacks, erectile disfunction and a whole lot more.

Did we mention all the more! Well, there’s a lot of it, as usual. This is a long one.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the novel Wired by Douglas E. Richards and Joe’s pick of the book The Naked Brewer, by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune (aka The Beer Chicks).

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.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Rick tells Daryl and Merle about the deal on the table to trade Michonne to The Governor in return for peace. Rick had decided to do it, but Merle knows he doesn’t have the guts. Rick tells him they have until noon to make the trade.

Carol asks Merle is he is with them or not. He says that he is with his brother. Carol reminds him that his brother is with them. Merle comments on Carol’s new attitude, and how she isn’t afraid anymore. He calls her a late bloomer, and Carol suggests that maybe Merle is a late bloomer himself.

Merle tells Daryl that he is in, but he knows Rick will back out. Merle thinks that he needs to be kept around to be the bad guy, doing the dirty work that no one else could live with themselves for doing. He says that Daryl and Rick are no better than him if they are going to trade Michonne to save the rest.

Been wondering exactly what happened to the Dixon brothers before meeting up with Rick Grimes in Atlanta? Well with The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct being tied into the AMC series, you’ll get some of those answers and you can get those answers today. Out today for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and the Wii U is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. If you take a look below, you get a better idea of what to expect from this stealth FPS experience.

It is fair to say that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct has its work cut out for it. And not even because of anything that has been seen from the game before today. It is because it will inevitably be compared to Telltale’s The Walking Dead adventure game. Despite being different in almost every way from the art style to gameplay style and the continuity it chooses to follow, parallels will undoubtedly be drawn.

The hardest part will be people giving the game a fair shake and taking it for what it is doing which is trying to give a new experience by trying to combine stealth and FPS gameplay together while putting people in the world of the TV series they have become so invested in. (Hopefully Andrea doesn’t show up until the absolute end.)

Herschel, Rick, and Daryl are investigating a seemingly random location. Rick goes into an old barn and The Governor comes out of the shadows. Martinez, Milton, and Andrea show up, and Andrea is surprised to learn The Governor is already inside with Rick.

Andrea has set this up so that the two sides can establish a truce. Rick wants to split the land on either side of the river, but The Governor refuses. He wants Rick and his crew to surrender.

The Governor tells Rick that Andrea has no authority to make any truces, and makes her leave so he and Rick can talk privately. As Rick sits down at the table, it appears that he some kind of gun taped under the table pointing at the other chair.

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.

Daryl and Merle are in the circle pit, and The Governor tells everyone that they will fight to the death, with the winner being free. Merle starts beating on Daryl, and Daryl tries to fight back.

Merle tells Daryl to go with it, and they eventually manage to push the “walkers-on-sticks” into the crowd and make a break for it. Rick and the others provide cover, and Merle and Daryl are able to escape. As they are leaving Woodbury, the gate is slightly open, and some walkers start entering the town.

While Rick’s group is out saving Daryl, the remaining members (Herschel, Carl, Carol, and Beth), try to make peace with Tyreese and his group. But, Herschel warns them, the final decision lies with Rick, not him.

Don’t worry. We aren’t giving any more awards to Angry Birds. At least not today. But we do have four more games for the best of 2012. If you haven’t seen the previous two days awards, click here for Monday’s and here for Tuesday’s awards. Make sure to check back tomorrow for our final specialty awards and then again on Friday for the ultimate award from The Flickcast and Bitcast teams, the Game of the Year.

New IP With the Most Potential – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

With writing from R. A. Salvatore and art design by Todd McFarlane, many would have thought that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would have the makings of a surefire hit. With over 300,000 units sold by March of 2012, Reckoning gave a good showing for a brand new IP and had many people talking about it. Unfortunately due to financial problems with a loan from the state of Rhodes Island, 38 Studios was forced to close and with it went the possible future of the Kingdoms of Amalur series.

Despite coming from a brand new studio, Reckoning had all the makings of a hit game. Beautiful design, interesting and complex story with tons of back matter and, the most important, incredibly fun combat and gameplay. It was a huge world with tons to do that players could get lost in. Whether or not they even cared about the narrative, there were unending areas to explore and enemies to vanquish. Now, one can only hope that someone else picks up this IP and gives it a second chance to continue giving more people the chance to explore its epic world.

It’s the announcement that pretty much everyone knew was coming. With a second game based on The Walking Dead (this time off of the hit AMC TV series) due out in 2013 and being based on the characters of Daryl and Merle Dixon, it’d be downright silly of Activision to put out this game without the duo of Normal Reedus and Michael Rooker lending their likenesses and voices to The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. Activision knows this as their PR has stated that “Their addition is central to developer Terminal Reality’s commitment to delivering an engrossing, original experience that stays authentic to the characters, tone and storyline of the series.” Rooker actually recently lent his vocal talents to a little game called Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

In the game, players assume the role of the mysterious, crossbow-wielding survivor Daryl Dixon. This first-person survival title takes place within the universe of “The Walking Dead” and before the events of the AMC show, following Daryl and his brother Merle on a gruesome journey to reach the supposed safety of Atlanta as the world around them ends. Reedus and Rooker will bring life to their characters’ desperate, unforgiving struggle against limited resources, the nightmarish walkers and, perhaps, their fellow survivors…

Zombies are awesome. Be they in movies, comics, novels, video games or TV shows, we just can’t get enough of those undead sons of bitches. Obviously, that means AMC’s The Waking Dead is one of our favorite shows, especially because of the zombies but also because it’s a damn fine program.

With AMC’s panel at Comic-Con set for tomorrow, it makes sense that the network is releasing some brand new images from the second season of the series to get fans even more excited. In fact, we’ve got 9 new ones for your viewing enjoinment.

OF the images we see the usually suspects in the usual kind of danger but we also see that time and constant threat of being eaten has taken a bit of a tole on our characters. They just seem a bit more haggard this time around.

Although, if you were constantly under the threat of being eaten alive you might look a bit haggard too. Think about it.

The only other question we have is when is Rick going to finally ditch the uniform? There’s not more society dude and you’re not a deputy anymore. Just let it go. . .

The Walking Dead returns to AMC in October. Check out the rest of the photos after the jump.