In a world of constantly evolving tech, SyFy’s Eureka stays ahead of the game. The writers seem to have an unending amount of innovations up their sleeves. Between the giant robot spiders, A.I. in the house of tomorrow, and cloud sculpting devices, the scientists at Global Dynamics are kept pretty busy.
That makes double for their new director, Douglas Fargo, played with an affable, geeky charm by Neil Grayston. Just like Fargo, Neil is curiouser than a cat when it comes to gadgets.
The Flickcast: What do you think of the future technology on Eureka that has actually come to pass?
Neil Grayston: I’m always blown away. Sometimes it’s funny if you look back at the first season, some of our “high-tech gadgets” have already been surpassed in the real world a billion times over. It’s like we were really on top of that, someone was really thinking back there. I like looking back and seeing what we maybe thought of before hand and then what the real world was actually leaps and bounds (developing). It’s kinda cool knowing what real scientists are doing and what they’re actually making up.
FC: Do you ever have trouble with the highly scientific, technical lines on the show?
NG: Those are the lines that I usually will…like sometimes I’m going to admit, I cheat, I have my little sides and I cut out just the little technical lines and I make them as small as possible and I hide them in my wardrobe so that you won’t see anything. And then just before a take I’ll just look them over.
I’m fine with the dialogue and the back and forth, but am I going to say a pulsating ionsphere photostar or is it a photographic pulsar ionsphere? You know it’s those little things that I can look up on Wikipedia forever and forever. Fortunately, the Wikipedia entries are written by people who know what those things mean.
At Comic Con, the folks at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gave us a walk through of their new family friendly Lord of the Rings title, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. Rated E10+, Aragorn’s Quest takes a drastically different tone and gameplay style from the recently revealed The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.
Shown on the Wii, Aragorn’s Quest has players listen to the tales of Samwise Gamgee as he explains to his children the events of The Lord of the Rings, focusing on the tale of the current king Aragorn. Over the course of eight chapters, players are then given the opportunity to take the role of Aragorn on a series of quest that follow the events of the three films. Each quest contains smaller side quests players can embark on.
Having Samwise voiced by Sean Astin and Gimlee voiced by John Rhys-Davies is meant to keep an older audience into the game as they help younger players through it. Unfortunately during our walk through, the noise of the convention prevented us from experiencing the voice acting.
The game has a simple visual style that strays away from the dark overtones of the film and previous game titles. There is no blood or any other effects that would go against the game’s family friendly image. Using the WiiMote, players hack and slash their way through hordes of goblins, orcs, spiders and trolls in an effort to escort Frodo to the peak of Mount Doom to destroy the one ring. Different motions result in different strikes. During combat, directional prompts will appear to perform specific actions and finishing blows. Players will also have a chance to switch between ranged and melee combat as well.
With Scribblenautsbeing one of our favorite games of 2009, it is no surprise we were excited to get some hands on time with its sequel at San Diego Comic Con this year. In the E3 Trailer for Super Scribblenauts, we found out that not only would the game receive a control upgrade where players would be able to finally control Maxwell with the D-Pad instead of the sometimes unreliable stylus but they would also be given the option of using adjectives in creating their objects.
These adjectives would influence the color, behavior and abilities of the items created in Super Scribblenauts. In the first game if a player wanted to create a flying pig, they’d have to type “Pig” and then “Wings” and attach the wings to the pig. Now, by simply typing “flying pig”, the game intuitively combines the two into one hovering swine.
At the Con, we got a walkthrough of some of the game’s levels. Super Scribblenauts will feature 120 new levels which Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment described as “deeper, more linear and require a little more thought process”. With the upgraded controls also comes more action oriented levels. While many levels are still focused on problem solving, there are now stronger action elements to the title.
The classic stylus controls are still there but for “twitch” style action levels, the d-pad with the ability to control when Maxwell jumps greatly improves upon what most consider the only flaw of the original game. While Maxwell isn’t going to be as tight control-wise as Mario would be, he is much easier to properly maneuver, saving accidental deaths and aggravating level failures.
Back at Comic-Con, we got the chance to play some hands on with the 2010 reboot of Medal of Honor multiplayer Beta which went live for those who had signed up for it on July 20th. The Beta is exclusive to the PC and PlayStation 3. The multiplayer for Medal of Honor is being developed by EA Digital Illusions CE while the single player campaign is coming to us from Danger Close. The single player campaign will follow a group of Tier One Operators (the top .01% most elite in the US Armed Forces) in the early parts of the war with Afghanistan.
The first thing that stood out to us during the demo was the use of the AMD technology Ifinity which allows players to use a three monitor setup to play the game in super wide screen. The game looks so great that this is definitely the way the game was meant to be experienced. To its credit because this will be the game it is most likely compared to, Medal of Honor is a more visually impressive experience than the latest iteration of the Call of Duty franchise. The levels look more realistic with an insane level of detail in them. The lighting also makes everything pop out to you just a little more as well.
The control of Medal of Honor is top notch. In the first person genre, control is everything and Medal of Honor hits it perfectly. As expected from a veteran franchise that has had time to refine its control and move with the trends without being forced to put out a yearly iteration, Medal of Honor feels like a fresh game when playing it even though most of what is seen in the multiplayer has been done before. After our hands on time with it, it is a game we know we want to spend some more time with in the near future.
Comic-Con doesn’t just mean comics as we are sure you have noticed. It means TV, movies and toys as well. Someone very familiar with this is the WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment has relaunched their action figure line under Mattel over the past year and as a result had a huge presence at SDCC.
And it wasn’t just toys that were being shown off. Unlike He-Man, the characters in the WWE action figure line are real people and they came to show themselves off at San Diego.
One of the most dominant men in the WWE over the past decade has been Kane. The Big Red Monster holds records in the WWE’s Royal Rumble match, garners multiple WrestleMania showcase matches under his belt and has been a multi-time champion with an impressive 16 title reigns, including a staggering 9 reigns in the tag team division and a WWE Championship.
Most recently, Kane won SmackDown’s Money in the Bank Ladder match at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View. In doing so, he was able to cash in his Money in the Bank title match and defeat Rey Mysterio later that night to start his first reign as World Heavyweight Champion.
At Comic-Con, we had some time to spend talking with the developers and getting some more hands on exposure to DC Universe Online. In addition to talking to Executive Creative Director on the game Jim Lee, we also got to talk to some of the more hands on members of the team.
Up until this point, the focus of the DC Universe Online message has been your own character’s adventure with interaction with the iconic characters. What they are looking to do now is have a mentor method where to learn from the Iconic characters such as Batman, players must experience what it’s like to be them.
The result is the competitive versus mode that allows for players to take on the role of characters like Batman or the Joker and go up against other players in order to advance as characters. The theory is that by playing as these characters, players will better understand their strengths and weaknesses, their strategies and their tactics. These matches go from 2 vs. 2 to up to 16 vs. 16. The game modes will include territories, capture the flag and sabotage.
It also allows for quick jump in and jump out gameplay for a player who only has a few minutes to play and doesn’t have the time to complete a full thirty or more minute quest in the game. Players gain PvP points that can be spent later on unlocking other characters or their character’s raid suit.
At release, Robin and Harley will be available for players for the heroes and villains sides respectively. Gaining currency, players can then unlock Nightwing, Bane and Huntress, eventually unlocking the Joker at the highest levels. As a bonus to people pre-ordering the game, Batman will be available to them from the start.
Now that San Diego Comic-Con 2010 is officially behind us, we thought it would be fun to put together a montage at some of the stuff we did and people we talked to during the show. Some of it you’ve seen, and some of it you may have to wait to see, but it’s all here in one finished package.
At Comic Con, we got to take a peek at the PlayStation Move in action. One of the showcase games we got to try was Sports Champions. Just the fact that they didn’t call it Move Sports right off the back gave us a little hope that the game wouldn’t just feel like Wii Sports 2.0. Going with the Wii started trend of having a sports game compilation paired with motion controls, Sports Champions is a collection of various non-traditional games such as Archery, Gladiator Duel, Table Tennis, Bocce, Beach Volleyball and others. Using only motion controls, players progress through challenges, unlocking harder play modes as they progress.
The first game we got to try out was Archery. Archery itself was a very cut and dry experience. Reach back with one hand, grab the arrow by pressing a button, line up the “arrow” hand with your bow hand, pull back, release button to shoot arrow. It is hard not to compare it to WiiSports Resort as Archery is one of the games present in it as well. While we only had a short time to play with it, the aim and motion felt more precise than the WiiMotion Plus controls do. There is also something to be said for the tangible feedback that is missing from Microsoft’s Kinect. Actually holding a “bow” in your hand as opposed to dangling your hand in mid-air do feel like completely different experiences.
The Gladiator Duel was one of the shining spots of Sports Champions. Since seeing the stage demo of the Move on E3 2009’s Sony Press Conference, people have been yearning for a quality sword fighting experience on a motion control game. While Kinect looks to bring an on-rails lightsaber game and the sword fight in Wii Sports Resort has proven simple enough that my five year old cousin has mastered it by flailing his arms back and forth in a near seisure like motion, Sports Champions’ Gladiator Duel brings players an almost Soul Caliber-like fighting experience.
At Comic-Con, we got the chance to catch up with the Bella Twins, WWE’s first and only pair ever of twin Divas. We had the pleasure of talking to Brie back in April about her and Nikki’s experience with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and their first WrestleMania.
This time, we got not one but both of the lovely ladies to sit down and talk to us at the Con. Having lived in San Diego for some time, this was the twins’ first time attending Comic-Con so we made sure to get their thoughts on all the things they had seen. We also talked about what the twins see for themselves moving forward as the special celebrity guests have ceased on Monday Night Raw as they had been officially the assistants each week for these guests.
Brie (on the left) and Nikki (on the right) give us some insight on their dream matches moving forward as well as intentions on the Diva’s Championship. The girls discuss with us wrestling inspirations and even let us know where they’d like to see themselves at the upcoming WrestleMania.
Make sure to watch the full interview after the jump.
At Comic Con, we got the chance to talk to DC Comics Editor-In-Chief and the Executive Creator Director of DC Universe Online, Jim Lee about the game that everyone around the offices has been clamoring to get a hold of. As you’ll see in the’s interview after the jump, Jim explains what it takes to create such an expansive MMO game. Jim also discusses the newly announced two vs. two simulator mode which allows players the chance to step out of the boots of their own created character and instead play as the iconic heroes of the DC Universe such as Batman or Martian Manhunter.
Lee also discusses the Geoff Johns announcement from the Con for a Suicide Squad video game. Lee describes it was a Dirty Dozen style grittier than your average super hero game. For those who aren’t aware, the Suicide Squad is a team of villains who were put together on a mission where they knew everyone wouldn’t be coming back. It is definitely a darker take on the super hero genre which, if Batman: Arkham Asylum has shown us anything, looks like it is coming out at the right time in this industry.
What you don’t get to see on camera was when Jim mentions to us just how the trailer for the game comes into play. For those who have seen it, the trailer sets up the back-story of why a Luthor from the future comes back and talks to DC’s Trinity pleading for their help. The shockwave he sends on the planet sets forth an explosion of new powers, explaining logically why all these new heroes and villains are created. This ties in directly with the upcoming comics miniseries which will show how these new found powers affect the lives of average citizens who have now been transformed into powered beings.
Check out our interview in its entirety after the jump and stick with us for all things DC Universe Online as the Beta kicks into gear this month.
In a world of constantly evolving tech, SyFy’s Eureka stays ahead of the game. The writers seem to have an unending amount of innovations up their sleeves. Between the giant robot spiders, A.I. in the house of tomorrow, and cloud sculpting devices, the scientists at Global Dynamics are kept pretty busy.
