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Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 21, 2013 in Fandom, Hobbies and Collections 
Sure, it’s not street-legal, but still! A crazy LEGO fan from Romania, Raul Oaida, along with a entrepreneur, Steve Sammartino, built a life-size LEGO car that actually can be driven. It’s powered by air and pneumatic LEGO parts, which is the most crazy part. It doesn’t go very fast, but it’s still quite the engineering feat, using 256 LEGO pistons. Overall, it uses just over 500,000 LEGO bricks total, and can reach speeds of 20-30km, according to their YouTube page. What an insane project! Maybe they could make a car that’s street-legal next? Read more…
Tags: Lego
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 21, 2013 in Videogames 
It’s the time of the year, when everyone gathers around the warmth of the computer screen and buys games for cheap on Steam. The holiday sale has started now and will run until January 3rd. There’s a lot of really great games on sale, so be sure to check out the full list for everything. Konami also has the PC port of Metal Gear Rising up for pre-order… and on sale! Jump on that ASAP if you’re interested. In other Steam-related news, you can get items for your favorite free-to-play games by participating in the sale. And, as part of that, Team Fortress 2 has just gotten a holiday update that adds new Smissmas-themed items and more! Read more…
Tags: sales, Steam, Team Fortress
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 20, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Get excited, Ant-Man fans! Variety is reporting that the rumors that have been swirling for months are true: Paul Rudd will star in Ant-Man, Edgar Wright’s adaptation of the Marvel comic book. Paul Rudd is a great actor, and given the more comedic angle Wright will be taking (presumably) I think it’s a great fit. I really hope they still integrate it with the other Marvel films too. In the end, I’d love to see Ant-Man join up with the Avengers in their third film, but who knows how Marvel will handle that right now. Below the jump I’ve embedded the FIRST footage of the film, which is TOTALLY LEGIT. I’m serious! Read more…
Tags: edgar wright, Marvel, paul rudd
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 20, 2013 in Uncategorized 
It looks like her role in Super Mario 3D World has gotten Rosalina, the princess from Super Mario Galaxy, some more work! Her two most recent cameos seems to be cementing her position as a stable Mario character. First up, she’s a playable character in Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS, along with her Luma star pal. They seem to have a bit of a 2-player vibe going on, too! Then, she’ll also be appearing in Mario Kart 8 as a racer, but given her appearance in the previous Mario Kart, that’s not as surprising, but it’s nice to see her sticking around. I’m cool with Rosalina being a new Mario mainstay, as we need to female characters in our video games. Check out the Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. trailers below! Read more…
Tags: Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros.
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 9, 2013 in Videogames 
Also at the VGX Awards, Tim Schafer showed up and braved the dark world of Joel McHale and demoed Broken Age. The Kickstarter game has become quite the project now, and also has a star cast of Jack Black, Wil Wheaton, and Pendleton Ward. The big announcement for the VGXs? Elijah Wood will be voicing one of the two main characters, Shay. Rather than being the “big Hollywood actor” though, he actually fits the role perfectly and definitely brings something to the part. Check out the trailer below and then watch the demo footage here (part 1 & part 2). Read more…
Tags: Broken Age, double fine
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 9, 2013 in Videogames 
The other day, the VGX awards were pretty lame. That said, there were a few bright spots, and No Man’s Sky was one of those. HelloGames, developers of games like Joe Danger, have begun work on an insanely ambitious sci-fi exploration game where everything is procedurally generated. You can hop in your ship and take off into space and then fly to another planet — all seamlessly and without any loading screens. And it’s online. It seems like a huge project for a team of four people to tackle, but given how cool this first trailer looked, I have high hopes! Read more…
Tags: HelloGames, No Man's Sky
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 8, 2013 in Videogames 
Cross another game off your spring release list! Destiny, Bungie’s upcoming massive online shooter, was originally scheduled for spring of 2014. Now, they’ve announced the official release date, but it’s a bit further back than you might’ve expected: September 9th, 2014. The beta that was supposed to start soon has also been pushed back. It sounds like Bungie wanted more time to work on the game, and given that they’re Bungie, Activision was perfectly willing to make changes. The wait might be a bit longer, but at least you’ll have plenty of other games to keep you preoccupied in the meantime! Read more…
Tags: Bungie, Destiny
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 8, 2013 in Cinema 
All hail the mighty corporate conglomerate, Disney! On their way to own everything, Disney took a quick stop and snatched up Indiana Jones yesterday. Now, they already technically got ownership rights when it bought Lucasfilm, but now with their agreement with Paramount they’ve gained distribution and marketing rights for all future films. Paramount will continue to handle distribution of the previous four films, so Disney won’t be involved there. The thing is, this news basically means Disney is saying “we want to make another one of these.” So brace yourselves for the inevitable! The biggest thing I’m wondering is how they’ll handle Jones himself. Will Harrison Ford really come back? Or will we have a James Bond situation in which different actors could take on the role? Read more…
Tags: Disney, Indiana Jones
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 7, 2013 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
If you have the cash, that is. An auction is currently going on in which you can bid on the original blaster used by Harrison Ford during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Granted, the starting bid is $200,000, so this probably relegates it to the realm of hardcore and wealthy fans, but it is still an impressive piece of movie history to see. The auction description notes that this was probably the blaster used in the scene in which Vader force-pulls Solo’s blaster out of his hand, due to it being the lighter resin model and not the heavier live-fire gun used for close-ups. It’s got signs of wear from being used heavily in filming, but isn’t the lived-in aesthetic that made things feel much more real in the original trilogy, anyway? Check out the auction here and the images below. Read more…
Tags: Han Solo, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 7, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
The upcoming film X-Men: Days of Future Past isn’t even out yet and already Bryan Singer is announcing the next one: X-Men: Apocalypse! In fact, it has gotten a release date too: May 27th, 2016. Guys, I get that you need to make an X-Men film every few years to keep the rights, but calm down. At least wait to find out if we all hate or love Days of Future Past first! I have high hopes for it like most, but let’s not jump to conclusions here. Oh well, at least fans will be happy to hear that Apocalypse will finally be showing up and wreaking havoc. I expect next week we’ll hear the announcement of the NEXT X-Men film, scheduled for release in 2018. Read more…
Tags: X-Men
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 6, 2013 in Cinema 
Looks like the next 300 film, Rise of an Empire, will have a lot of action taking place on the sea! Eva Green and Lena Headey are leading around more Greeks as they head for revenge against King Xerxes — who is still abnormally large and likes to slowly rise out of golden pools. I’ll be honest, this film just looks completely forgettable on the surface. I suppose there’s always a chance it could be good, but you won’t be seeing me at the theater either way. Another thing I noticed: the poor director, Noam Murro, doesn’t even get his name in the trailer until the credits splash at the end (which you can barely read)! It must suck to be overshadowed by Zack Snyder. Read more…
Tags: 300
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 6, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
After teasing fans with posters of the villains and even releasing a teaser trailer for a trailer, the actual honest-to-god Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer is out. It features lots of footage of the Green Goblin, and a surprisingly tame amount of Electro. I thought he was supposed to be the main villain, but apparently we really are getting three baddies in the film. I hope they’re thought this through, as the last Spider-Man film with three villains didn’t really go so well. It definitely feels a bit cheesier to me, oozing a bit more “comic bookyness” that the first one. Spider-Man is one of my favorite superheroes, so I’d really like for this to be good… although I’m not counting on it. Read more…
Tags: Marvel, The Amazing Spider-Man
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 2, 2013 in Hobbies and Collections 
Here’s a cool new card game I recently heard about: Superfight! The basic gist is as follows: a white card is drawn featuring the villain (Nickleback) and two weaknesses and powers (can clone self and wall-crawler). Then, you make a hero from your cards, and then argue to see who’ll win! The judge then picks their winner out of the various heroes and you begin again. It seems like a unique twist on the Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity style of card game, and it already features a bunch of expansion packs with extra cards. Check out the trailer below or order it online here! Read more…
Tags: card games
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 2, 2013 in Videogames 
Well, Valve’s Saxxy Awards are over! All the votes have been tallied and the winner is… Lil’ Guardian Pyro! It’s an adorable short film feature a Pyro doll defending a sentry from a Spy doll. It’s really well done, but so were most of the nominees this year. Valve’s Saxxy Awards always bring out the best Source Filmmaker artists, directors, and animators out there, so be sure to browse the full site and watch them all. I really enjoyed Disruption, Crackpot, and Chinatown Getaway as well as the overall winner. Check it out below. Read more…
Tags: Saxxy Awards, Team Fortress, Valve
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 1, 2013 in Star Wars, Videogames 
According to job postings on EA Canada’s Vancouver studio, it seems like the company is working on an open-world Star Wars game. This is obviously super-early, but I wonder if there’s anything that could be salvaged from the open-world game Lucasarts was supposedly working on before they shut down. EA signed a 10-year deal with Disney and Lucasfilm, so they’ve got exclusive rights to make Star Wars games right now, so you’d better believe they’re going to milk it for all it’s worth. Hopefully we’ll hear some more details about EA’s plans in the next year. Read more…
Tags: EA
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 1, 2013 in Hobbies and Collections, Videogames 
The previous Nendoroid of Isabelle from Animal Crossing was so popular (and so adorable) that they’re bringing another one out, in her winter outfit! It includes a new “smug” face, star-shaped effects, “hands on hips” arms, and arms in a stretched out pose. Apparently, it also comes with these new arms in “summer” versions, so if you own the existing Isabelle Nendoroid, you can spiff her up too. She’s available for pre-order now, but won’t arrive until April next year. You can pre-order her on AmiAmi, HLJ, Hobby Search, or CD Japan. More images below! Read more…
Tags: Animal Crossing
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 30, 2013 in Comic Books, Fandom 
What does into making a really good cosplay? A costume you’ve slaved over making? Finding the right tool or piece to bring it altogether? What about some make-up and latex prosthetics? If you’re going to make your lower jaw look like Judge Dredd’s lower jaw… then go all the way, like these guys did. It’s an amazing combination of latex and clever make-up that eerily replicates the distinctive shape of Dredd’s face. Combine that with a pitch-perfect helmet and the rest of the costume, and you’ve got one of the best Judge Dredd costume’s I’ve ever seen. I’ve included a video below of the process behind making it. Read more…
Tags: cosplay, Judge Dredd
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 30, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
We’ve known about Electro being in Amazing Spider-Man 2 for a while now, and we’ve seen set photos of The Rhino, but one other certain villain that might show up in the film has popped up on a new poster. If you’ve been paying attention to various reports, leaks, and set photos it’s not too big of a surprise, but I wasn’t sure they’d really bring a third villain into the film. Hopefully it can avoid the mess that was Spider-Man 3! If you don’t want the third villain spoiled for you, don’t click through. Otherwise, bombs away! Read more…
Tags: The Amazing Spider-Man
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 29, 2013 in Videogames 
It’s that time of the year again! Gabe Newell and co. are coming for your wallet, and there are tons of great deals on Steam for this year’s Autumn Steam Sale. This time, the items on sale didn’t leak early, so each day is going to be a surprise! Already there have been great deals on games like Gone Home, Papers Please, Skyrim, and The Walking Dead. And don’t worry if you miss something one day, because all daily deals stick around until the following day, and at the end of the sale an encore occurs, giving you the chance to grab popular titles you might’ve missed. Check out everything here. Read more…
Tags: Steam
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 29, 2013 in Cinema 
Not just ANY celebrities though: Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, two of the the coolest buddies ever, are the ones wishing you a happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, it’s Friday now. I don’t care. You need to see this picture, because it’s adorable. Also, Gary Oldman also wants to wish you a happy Thanksgiving, but he’s a bit more profane… and violent about it. He seems a bit frustrated over the whole thing anyway, so I’m sure once he gets it out of his system he’ll be fine. Check out his rampage below the jump. Read more…
Tags: Gary Oldman, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 25, 2013 in Science 
Not everyone will be able to see an aurora borealis this easily in real life, but thanks to photographer Göran Strand you can view it in your browser anytime you want. Strand used a Nikon D3s to shoot over 2400 images with a spherical lense and then merged them together into a timelapse. Put together in a browser, you can spin the view around and catch every detail in a 360 degree panorama. It’s really impressive work. I’d love to see more of this kind of thing, where people take nature and landmarks not everyone can visit and make them freely available online. And once the technology improves enough, can you imagine looking at this stuff through an Oculus Rift? I bet it’d be stunning. Click here to visit the web page or watch the video below. Read more…
Tags: Photography
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 25, 2013 in Videogames 
It was a buffet of Persona news as Atlus announced Persona games for everything. Ever. First up, they announced the much anticipated Persona 5 for PS3 next holiday. No other details aside from the announcement itself came out, though. Persona 4: Dancing All Night, on the other hand, is an unexpected Persona dancing game for PS Vita. Then Atlus also revealed Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth on 3DS, a dungeon crawler directed by Daisuke Kaneda (Etrian Odyssey 4). Lastly, they also listed a sequel to their Persona 4 fighting game spinoff, called Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold for PS3, which will arrive Summer 2014. Whew! Talk about a lot of Persona! Read more…
Tags: Atlus, Persona 4
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 24, 2013 in Videogames 
An era is over! John Carmack, one of the original founders of id Software, who was the lead programmer and helped create many iconic video games such as Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake, has officially left that company. This is not particularly surprising, as in August he stepped down into a more distance supervisor role and join Oculus VR as their CTO. This was just the final step, as now he has changed his focus from games to hardware. It sounds like he finds the possibilities of the Oculus Rift very exciting (as do I) and wants to devote his full time to it. It’ll be interesting to see where id Software goes from here, as they haven’t really put out anything exciting in the past several years. Carmack will certainly find success wherever he goes, though! Read more…
Tags: id Software, john carmack
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 24, 2013 in Dr. Who 
Everyone is celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary… even Google! The search engine’s latest Google Doodle is a retro-styled game that takes place in their header and lets you play as any of the various Doctors. You can click to move your character around the screen,solve simple puzzles, avoid Daleks, and collect all the letters of the Google logo (obviously). It’s nothing too complex, but like most Google Doodles, it’s a heartfelt and creative little diversion. Check it out on Google’s homepage, or if you’re looking at this page in the far future and have missed it, hope over to Google’s Doodle archive where it should be archived. Read more…
Tags: Doctor Who, Google, The Internet
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