Archive for June, 2010

Johnny Depp’s ‘Rango’ Gets a Proper Trailer

Jun 30th

Posted by Joe Utichi in All

"In the shadow of Pixar" could be the tagline attached to any number of animation houses whose work of the last fifteen years has been eclipsed by the stellar offerings of John Lasseter's Emeryville all-stars. They're not responsible for every great animated film of that timeframe though their successes have become the de facto yardstick for the art form and the company shows little signs of slipping even as it beds in with Disney.

For so many Pixar projects, a simple and elegant hook has been the launching pad for such cinematic brilliance. What if your toys came alive when you weren't in the room? What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot? What if a rat wanted to be a chef?

Rango isn't a Pixar film. In fact, it's being made by Nickelodeon, whose last attempt at CG animation was the unforgivably-awful Barnyard. But there's something so inherently Pixar about Rango's hook as to suggest there's something to this utterly curious new feature. What if a chameleon had an identity crisis?

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Shyamalan Rants About ‘Airbender’ and Racism

Jun 29th

Posted by Monika Bartyzel in All

The Last Airbender might be able to bend air, but he can't fend off the waves of racial criticism thrown at M. Night Shyamalan's latest film. As Eugene outlined earlier this year, it started when the casting notices started to pour in and the lead roles were given to white actors. It continued when Dev Patel was cast, and "any other ethnicity" was listed as an alternative to caucasian in casting calls. Then came the extras casting call, where The Daily Pennsylvanian's Lisa Zhu was on-hand for the event, as hopefuls were told: "If you're Korean, wear a kimono. If you're from Belgium, wear lederhosen."

All the backlash led Shyamalan to comment in March about the ambiguity of anime, as "an intentional mix of all features." But as the film prepares to hit screens this week, he's getting a bit peeved and outspoken about the controversy.

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Preview: The Agency’s Player vs Player mode

Jun 28th

Posted by Ben Gilbert in All

For me, the selling point of MMOs is the huge, open world; a world full of other actual human beings who I can interact with and who can interact with me (almost like real life!). So when I snuck in some time with The Agency at Sony Online Entertainment's E3 booth this year, it was hard for me to shake the feeling that I was playing an Unreal Tournament-style, Ijji.com shooter (one powered by a modified Unreal Engine 3, no less) rather than an MMO. Sure, the Deathmatch trappings of my demo didn't help, but neither did lead designer Rory McGuire's explanation of how the game's Player vs Player works.

Essentially, interactions with other players are instanced into online multiplayer matches (30 players max), as seen here. The results of these battles are said to be reflected in the game's hub world -- locations can be taken by "U.N.I.T.E." or "Paragon" in multiplayer and those locations will show up as belonging to one of the game's two factions. From what I played, however, I'm not confident that what I've come to expect from an MMO -- the feeling of being in one huge world with other human beings -- is present in The Agency.

Gallery: The Agency

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JoystiqPreview: The Agency's Player vs Player mode originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown arcade machine is Twitter-enabled

Jun 27th

Posted by Griffin McElroy in All

Sega recently announced a surprising feature for the Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown arcade installations which will soon populate Japanese arcades. According to Versus City's translation of the announcement, players will be able to link their VF.net profiles to their Twitter accounts, which will allow the Final Showdown machines to automatically Tweet their accomplishments. Players will also be able to search for their recent adversaries on VF.net, and begin following their linked Twitter account.

The game's director, Daiichi Katagiri, gave a few examples of updates which the machine will generate, including "DK's Lau has put together a 10 game win streak at Club Sega Shinjuku #VF5FS" and "DK's Lau has earned the "Dragon Wing" item from a Basic Capsule (Rare) #VF5FS." We think this feature could really turn the American arcade industry around, though we're not crazy about the idea of broadcasting messages such as "I just sprained my ankle and humiliated myself in public again #DDRSuperNova2."

JoystiqVirtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown arcade machine is Twitter-enabled originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Preview: NBA 2K11

Jun 26th

Posted by David Hinkle in All

There's a lot riding on NBA 2K11. Not only did 2K Games secure Michael Jordan -- a huge get -- but with EA looking to revitalize its basketball game with NBA Elite 11, there's more pressure on the NBA2K franchise than ever before. Being the top-selling basketball game across all platforms last year doesn't mean that NBA 2K11 can secure Jordan and then "rest on its laurels and call it a day," a 2K rep told me.

Gallery: NBA 2K11

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JoystiqPreview: NBA 2K11 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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