With the recent release of Blizzard’s latest cash cow, Diablo 3, BioWare hopes to rekindle gamers’ interest in their Star Wars MMORPG, The Old Republic by announcing another free pass weekend.  The move is designed to bolster their subscriptions, following a sharp decline in users from 1.7 million to 1.3 in the last two months alone. Needless to say, that news alone doesn’t bode too well for the fledgling title. That said, EA has suggested in the past that the game could remain profitable with as low as 500,000 subscribers, and seem convinced that the recent declines consist primarily of casual gamers, and not their hardcore MMO base. I’m not as easily convinced — but then again, I don’t play MMORPGs either, so I’m not sure I can offer an informed opinion on the matter. That said, the numbers alone don’t lie. If you want to try The Old Republic for free this weekend, I’ve included details after the jump.

The free trial will commence from Thursday morning at 12 AM CDT, to 2 AM CDT on Monday. You won’t need a credit card to take part, but this gives you about four full days to explore the game free of charge. Like the last time they had one of these trials, you’ll be capped at level 15, but purchasing a subscription will let you keep your character and continue to level them up. Unfortunately, it’s only open to new accounts, not previously-closed ones. If you participated in the last free-preview weekend, you can’t use that account either, so again, new accounts only.

For more details, including how to sign up and the additional limitations associated with the trial, check the official site by clicking here.

It’s true, NBC’s Community has been picked up for a fourth season. I suppose I should just be happy the show is even coming back, especially considering NBC’s penchant for cancelling their programming at the drop of a hat, but there’s something bittersweet about the whole thing. First there’s the reduced order of thirteen episodes. While it shares that fate with 30 Rock’s final season, both The Office and Parks & Recreation will be receiving 22 episodes this fall. This either implies the show will also be coming to an end, or that a mid-season pickup will be contingent on it doing well — which brings us to the next problem. NBC has decided to move Community to Friday nights — traditionally known as “the place television shows go to die.”

When reached for comment, all NBC would point to was their faith in the show’s fans to keep watching, no matter what. Sadly, that’s probably not going to happen. Most fans might be able to make the switch, but building an audience on Friday nights would be quite a challenge. Couple that with the show’s typical demographic — you know, the kind of people who have lives and enjoy partying on weekends — and that hill just gets steeper.

Ironically, I think the show’s new time put it in direct competition with its star, Joel McHale’s The Soup, which airs on E! the same night. Let’s just hope enough people tune in to the three episode season finale airing tomorrow night to make them rethink the move — that’s right, they’re airing three episodes in a row to close out the season. Again, NBC is insane.

If Vader’s trip to Bespin has taught us anything, it’s that not every station in the galaxy comes designed with Stormtroopers in mind. In response to recent increase in low-hanging-corridor-related concussions, the Imperial Safety Administration has launched a new campaign in an effort to improve occupational safety amongst its troops! Featuring a design by R-evolution GFX, this awesome shirt is currently available on TeeFury for the rest of the evening for just $10 plus shipping. If by chance you miss out but still want it at a later date, or, if you just want to browse some of R-Evolution GFX’s other designs, you can find more of their shirts available via Red Bubble.

Square Enix has released a preview trailer for their upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2 Lightning Prologue DLC Requiem of the Goddess. If you’re on the fence about whether or not it’s worth your time, you’ll probably want to watch the clip and decide for yourself. On the other hand, it might be a bit spoileriffic for others — fortunately, the dialog you’ll hear during this trailer is in Japanese, without English subtitles. Other than that, the most it might spoil is an actual in-game battle sequence between Lightning and Caius, complete with cut-scenes.  Personally, I think it looks pretty awesome. Let’s just hope the new chapter actually provide more answers than questions. At this point, I think fans deserve a proper ending. I’ve included some screens from the trailer after the break.

[via andriasang]

Disney XD’s upcoming TRON animated series TRON: Uprising, won’t be airing until June 7th, but for those of you who don’t want to wait, you can catch the entire first episode online. Although it’s not a live-action sequel, the animated series seems promising enough. It certainly has  everything you’d expect from a TRON series, from Light Cycles and Identity Discs to spandex outfits, so its about as close as you’ll get to a sequel — at least, for the time being. They even managed to snag decent stars for the voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, and Pee-wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens.

Taking place between the events of the original film and TRON: Legacy, Uprising centers around a young mechanic named Beck, who lives in the occupied Argon City. After losing his best friend to the occupying force, Beck begins a revolution that ultimately captures the attention of Tron himself.

Instant kills are a common thing in games, and they’re blast when you’re the one executing them. However when you’re on the receiving end, they can be pretty frustrating. Corridor Digital combined many of the most well-known insta-kill attacks into one silly video, excellent for your weekend entertainment. Everyone from Master Chief, to the Spy, to a Combine officer hop into the battle and Corridor Digital does a great job re-creating them in live-action. Great work!

Want your own Iron Man outfit? Anthony Le did, so he did what any cosplayer would do: he made his own. With working flaps, mask, and lights – which are probably more features than the outfit for the film. Too bad you can purchase a suit like this… I’d probably just end up wearing it around the house, using it to mess up everything. Iron Man better watch out for that creeper in the background, though!

This latest featurette on Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus really gives a good look at how big and detailed the sets they made really are. Especially that impressive-looking chair that Michael Fassbender settles down into – it makes me sad that there’s less and less of that happening. I hope this shows studios that traditional sets still have a place in sci-fi films. The recent R rating news also gives me some hope that Scott was given free reign with the entirety of the film, which is always good. This short video gives a glimpse into the amount of work put into Prometheus, but it might be a little spoiler-y for some people, so beware!

The arguments over piracy are never-ending. From the legality to the methods, people will continue to argue over downloading copyrighted content till winter comes (and then some). The debate just got a boost recently, when news started making the rounds singling out Game of Thrones as the most-pirated show this year. In fact, the April 30th episode received 2.5 million downloads in the first day it was up. Erik Kain called out HBO themselves, saying “they have only themselves to blame.” In addition, HBO co-president Eric Kessler’s quote from November has been brought back up, where he stated that “cord-cutting” is a fad and that customers will flock back to cable once the economy settles.

This, at first, seems to demonstrate a complete lack of touch with the world on Kessler’s part. Who hasn’t seen the huge amount of customers flocking to streaming services? Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and even smaller niche services like Crunchyroll are growing in the landscape of content delivery. Streaming is certainly going to be here to stay (until something better comes along, anyway). But Kessler probably cannot say anything else – not publicly anyway. Why would he want to send his biggest supporters (the cable companies) the message HBO might hop on this new-fangled internet thing? Well, they already have, in a way.

HBO Go, while a solid service, still requires a cable subscription – and it’s up for being blocked depending on which internet and cable service provider combination you’re using. Basically, they’re making it incredibly difficult for customers to use their product unless they have the exact circumstances. There’s an excellent quote from Valve CEO Gabe Newell in regards to this whole issue: “Piracy is almost always a service problem.” If you offer a service better than piracy, 99% of the time people will give you money. I know I’d pay for an HBO streaming service, especially if I can watch it on any or most of my devices.

In the end, these piracy numbers show one thing, to me: these are people who want Game of Thrones. HBO could be making a killing serving up Game of Thrones to all these downloaders, but the legal red tape and money involved with keeping HBO content within cable provider’s fenced-in garden will prevent that from happening in the near future. To move forward we need to realize people can already get their content fast and for free, thanks to the internet. But paid services can beat that: just look at Valve and their success with Steam, or Netflix’s excellent service. What companies like HBO need to do is realize that piraters aren’t lost sales – they’re potential customers.

Rant over!

The Minecraft money train keeps on rolling: on Wednesday, Minecraft released for the Xbox 360. Pretty cool, right? Especially for Notch and Microsoft as the game has already sold more than any other digital game on Xbox Live Arcade, in just the first 24 hours. Notch reported that the game has already become profitable, which is no surprise. It isn’t even updated to the same version as the PC game (it’s based on a year-old update of Minecraft and will be getting the other content later in updates), which just goes to show how popular Minecraft still is. 400,000 players popular, that is.

Seen via NeoGAF.

I’m not a huge Assassin’s Creed fan – I always had a hard time getting into the series. This trailer for Assassin’s Creed III, though, has me intrigued. The new animation engine for the game looks great as the main character, Connor, dashes about enemies and skewers them with ease. I’m also interested in escaping through buildings and ditching pursuers, as shown in the trailer. Can you do this with almost any house, or are they specific events? Oh, and fix some of those tree branches, Ubisoft: they’re much too straight.

Earlier today, Collider posted the latest teaser for Hasbro’s Star Trek Kre-O playsets to be released next year. No doubt, their release will be timed to help promote the release of J.J. Abram’s Star Trek 2, set to hit theaters in May 2013. While this new teaser pic is far more detailed than the concept image that had been floating around the next since February (see below), I can’t help but feel that Kirk’s chiseled jaw actually resembles a young Shatner more than Pine. Obviously that’s not suppose to be the case as the figures are wearing the sporty active wear uniforms seen in the recent film. Nevertheless, these are looking better and better and I can’t wait to see what they come up with when the sets are ready for store shelves next year.

I’ve always been a proponent of digital comics, so I’m pleased whenever a major publisher decides to embrace the new medium. Don’t get me wrong, I love mom & pop comic shops as well, but I’ll be perfectly honest — I have enough clutter as it is. I’d just rather keep my comic collection both clutter-free and portable at the same time. As if they read my mind, Marvel Comics recently launched their brand new digital comic store. I know what you’re saying, “Didn’t they already launch one of these last year?” Well, they did, but this one’s better, and here’s why:

Previously, Marvel’s digital selection was limited in terms of device and format, and while they’ve grown their digital catalog over the past few years to include huge arcs like Marvel’s Civil War, the X-Men:  The Dark Phoenix Saga, and House of M as well as the latest releases from popular series like Avengers vs X-Men, or The Amazing Spider-Man, having your comics spread out over various platforms made purchasing and collecting digital comics a hassle. Now, thanks to their latest digital store, fans can easily share their collections between multiple platforms. More importantly, this now includes seamless support for your Android devices. If you’ve made previous purchases through the Chrome store, or Marvel’s previous web-store, those should also transfer over. In short, it’s worth your time to check out. You can access the digital store by clicking here.

Square Enix’s latest set of downloadable content for Final Fantasy XIII-2 is set for release on May 15th. The long awaited Lightening chapter is said to be included, along with a 16 piece costume set for your moogle, Serah’s stylish White Mage outfit, as well as Noel’s matching Black Mage set. They’ll also be releasing the Snow & Valfodr arena battle on the same day. Like with the previous arena battles, gamers will have a chance to capture and use Snow or Valfodr as in place of their usual monster slot during battles. Although the news was leaked by Playstation Taiwan along with price points for each item, the North American prices will likely differ slightly, so I didn’t bother listing them for you. That said, I imagine the prices will be on par with the previous DLC sets that’ve been released thus far.

It’s true,  production on Star Trek 2 has finally wrapped, and while I think the film would have fit nicely under my tree this holiday season, we’re all stuck waiting for its May 2013 release date. I can’t imagine what kind of schedule allowed for the film to be shot in just under four months, but Abrams managed to pull it off. Ironic, considering the length of time it took to get the ball rolling on the sequel in the first place. It’s killing me that they plan to spend an entire year on post-production work, but I’m sure it’ll pay off in the end. After all, it’s not like it’ll take them the whole year just to add a few lens flares — right? 

[news via TrekMovie]

It’s a question I’ve wrestled with all day. Do I spend the extra cash to witness Whedon’s superhero extravaganza, The Avengers in 3D, iMAX or just settle for the normal 2D experience. After a bit of research, it seems apparent that the film was shot with only 2D cameras, with no iMAX or 3D cameras in sight. This means any 3D or iMAX versions of the film were converted entirely in post. Generally speaking, these conversions are never perfect, and should be treated as such — but that doesn’t mean they can’t be good either.

After wading trough reviews from fans who’ve sported enough cash to catch the multiple versions of the film, the consensus seems to be that each experience is about the same. Kind of odd considering the amount of special effects they’ve laid throughout the film. In short, if you’re a fan of 3D films, you might have enough of a reason to drop a few extra dollars but fans who don’t really buy the 3D hype won’t be missing out by settling for a 2D experience. While most accounts claim the conversion is definitely better than the one performed on Marvel’s Thor, you won’t be experiencing the kind of 3D magic we saw with Avatar.

Want to weigh in? Be sure to let us know how you enjoyed your own showing of Marvel’s The Avengers on FaceBook so others know what to expect — just don’t spoil it, please. Marvel does that enough as it is.

When Darth Maul made his debut in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,  I had high hopes for the character. He certainly seemed menacing enough for a Sith, and wielding a dual-bladed lightsaber made him slightly more endearing, at least as far as a villain could go. But, those hopes were dashed the moment he met his maker at the hands of Obi-wan having only uttered five lines, at most, during the course of the film. That being the case, I found him incredibly one-dimensional — his one saving grace being his fantastic look. Hence why every collectible statue I’ve seen so far has looked amazing, and Sideshow Collectibles’ latest offering is no exception.

The 1:5th scale Darth Maul Star Wars Mythos Statue weighs a hefty 12 pounds, and stands 18″ tall. Inspired by Maul’s appearance in the Star Wars 8-page comic short, “Nameless,” his pose and outfit bare a slight resemblance to that of a Ronin warrior.  You can swap out his our-reached arm for either a a hand capable of wielding a wooden staff, or an open palm. His head is also interchangeable, allowing you to swap between a calm menacing look, or one bearing his clenched teeth.

As you can seem from the photos, the statue is incredibly detailed. Unfortunately, it has a price tag to match. Sideshow is currently accepting pre-orders, but it’ll still set you back $250. If you have the cash, head over to Sideshow’s website and place your pre-order today. The figure is estimated to ship this October.

I’m not entirely sure I’m responsible enough to own any real firearms, but I think I could settle for LEGO replicas. Introducing LEGO Heavy Weapons: Build Working Replicas of Four of the World’s Most Impressive Guns. Its 17-year-old author, Jack Streat, delivers a complete guide to building 1:1 scale replicas of several well-known firearms, such as a SPAS shotgun, or Desert Eagle handgun with realistic built-in blow-back. Despite the subtitle’s claim of allowing you to build “working” replicas, I seriously doubt you’ll ever get one of these to fire live ammunition. At least, I hope so. Also, isn’t it terrifying to know there’s a 17-year-old kid out there who can design a replica AKS-74U assault rifle using LEGO bricks?

The guide goes on sale later this month, and while you can’t pre-order it, you’ll be able to pick it up via the NoStarchPress website so be sure to check each week, or alternatively, you can sign up for their newsletter to be notified. If you’re interested in building one of these replicas, you’ll probably need access to some special bricks — thankfully, included in this  350+ page guide is a detailed list of each piece you’ll need so you can special order bricks if necessary.  The guide itself will cost you ~$25. You can preview a few pages below.

I love how papercraft has been really picking up steam and becoming popular. It’s really incredible to see some of the things people make, and not all of it is the traditional boxy models. Cameron Garland has made a “papersculpt,” which is layers of paper laid on top of one another to give a dimensional feel to the creation. This Zelda: Twilight Princess set of weapons and items he created are super-detailed – they almost looked like drawings to me at first. It was on sale for $300, but it looks like someone has already gotten to it. Now this is giving me the urge to get out my X-acto knife and try doing it myself!

Seen via Destructoid.

If you polled kids and asked them about their favorite fictional characters, I’m gonna guess Darth Vader and Batman would be pretty high up on the list. Now if you combine the two? You get the Darth Knight, an amazingly detailed custom action figure by John Harmon at Mint Condition Customs. This model stands 6 inches tall and would probably eat your other action figures for breakfast. If you were wanting to get your hands on this figure, though, you’re out of luck, as he’s already been sold. Better get cracking on making your own!

Seen via Tomopop.

Here’s a great weekend-capper: Rickonami on YouTube has recreated the Star Fox intro using CGI. Yup, the whole thing, and he’s done an excellent job with it! This single video has made me more nostalgic for Star Fox than the recent Star Fox 64 3DS remake, so that’s saying something. I do like that he included the slightly-creepy-but-still-endearing puppets of the Star Fox crew as the profile images – it adds to the awesome factor. I hope to see more fantastic work from Rickonami in the future… he’s got talent!

I’ll be honest, I’m still a little pessimistic about the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man film. But this trailer has gone a long way to give me something to look forward to. The cinematography in particular is really great, and seeing Spidey swing through the streets of New York with such style makes me happy. At least we’ll get some good eye candy out of this. The Amazing Spider-Man releases on July 3rd, this summer.

For the 30th anniversary of Macross this year, what better way to celebrate than with a life-size, 1/1 scale VF-25 Valkyrie? Yup, that’s right – and it looks amazing too, as if could actually lift off from that room. This elaborate model is on show in Ikebukuro, Tokyo till May 6th, and then in Nagoya June 1st to 3rd, along with the rest of a huge Macross exhibit. Full-size statues of Lynn Minmay, Sheryl Nome, and Ranka Lee are also featured. You can get your photo taken in the hand of the Valkyrie, but sadly I don’t believe you can sit in the cockpit. Still, it’s an impressive model and the exhibit seems packed with content!

Images from Kotaku Japan and ANN.

After much guessing, Game Informer’s exclusive cover story for their upcoming issue is none other than the heavily-rumored Elder Scrolls Online, a new MMO set in the expansive Elder Scrolls world. The MMO will encompass all of Tamriel, such as Elsweyr, Skyrim, and beyond. The setting, however, is a millenium before the events of the last Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, allowing for plenty of new and different settings.  I’m interested in how this will play out, as I’m not sure an Elder Scrolls MMO is necessarily the next step. The game is set for 2013 on both PC and Mac.