Category Archives: Video Games
World of Warcraft Needs to Go Into Animation
In the build-up to the next expansion, Warlords of Draenor, the good people at Blizzard created a series of five webisodes detailing the back stories of the titular Warlords. Any fans of Warcraft lore like me will find a lot to love in this videos. They’re expertly animated and voice-acted, as we have come to expect from Blizzard. And they go a long way to selling the potential awesomeness for this expansion.
Though they’re not talking pandas…
For those who don’t yet know, the Warlords are all of the evil orc characters from the first and second Warcraft games, given a new lease on life in World of Warcraft through time travel. The whole thing is a little wonky, but like I said, I’m a huge lore fan, and I really dig this stuff.
Check’em out and immerse yourself in some amazing lore!
Kargath Bladefist
Grom Hellscream
Durotan
Kilrogg Deadeye
Maraad
I still haven’t decided whether or not I’ll be buying Warlords of Draenor. I haven’t played WoW for awhile now, and I’m kind of broke these days, but maybe I’ll give it a shot. I’m definitely eager to see the new, updated character models.
Any of you henchies going to snatch this game up on the day of release?
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Dorkly is Doing Cartoons Again!
Anybody else visit Dorkly, the one-stop shop for all things dork? It’s a pretty neat website, and they’ve finally started doing original cartoon shorts again!
Dorkly, in association with College Humor, made some of the funniest geeky and video game-themed video shorts a few years ago. They’re some of the best you’ll find on the web. But they stopped, and a light went out in my life. Now it seems they’re back! And on Youtube, so I can share! Let’s make this sort of thing go the viral. Kids are still saying that, right? Or at least ad execs are?
Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Looks Badass
When it comes to video game storytelling, Blizzard has always had the best cinematics. Even going all the way back to Starcraft and Warcraft III, they blow me away each and every time. So, of course, the cinematic for the next World of Warcraft expansion looks dazzling!
Even if the expansion itself – Warlords of Draenor – is kind of insane.
Instead of expanding the known world like other expansions, this new one is instead about time travel. The villainous Garrosh Hellscream has opened a new portal and traveled back in time to when the orcs were living on the planet Draenor, prior to the events of the very first Warcraft game. At that time, the orcs, led by his father, Grom Hellscream, drank demon blood and became the green-skinned monsters that they’ve been all this time. But now, in the new expansion, the time-traveling Garrosh stops his father from drinking the demon blood, giving rise to the Iron Horde.
See it for yourself.
The story is absolutely insane, but at least the cinematic is gorgeous. I’m not entirely sure how time travel and alternate realities are going to impact World of Warcraft, but it’s not like they can just introduce new islands and new species every time they need another expansion. I’m confident they can pull this off.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to give it a try. I’m definitely going to spend at least a month in the new game, because I want to see the updated character models. That alone would be worth the price of admission…or at least the $15 it would cost for one month of playtime. We’ll see!
6 Best Ninja Turtle Knock-Offs
After serious contemplation, I think my favorite cartoon growing up in the 80s was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There were a lot of cartoons to choose from, but the Turtles were my favorite. They were great characters, their show was just a lot of fun, and I loved the toyline, which had even more awesome mutants. I loved that there was this endless supply of funny, cool, and radical mutants to collect.
So I’m pretty excited to see the new live action Ninja Turtle movie, even if it threatens to be as soulless as Michael Bay’s Transformers.
Be brave, old friends; you will get through this
But there’s a dark side to my love for the Turtles as well, and that is my love for all of their crappy knock-offs too. Like all successful franchises, the Ninja Turtles spawned more than their fair share of crappy rip-offs. But whereas other companies can’t steal the Transformers without being obvious, it wasn’t that hard to make an action cartoon about anthropomorphic animal superheroes.
Join me after the jump for the best (or crappiest, depending on your point of view) Ninja Turtle knock-offs!
Robin and Red Hood All But Confirmed for Batman: Arkham Knight
There’s no official confirmation as of yet, but based on a myriad of clues that have leaked online – or are on display right now at San Diego Comic-Con – we can almost be guaranteed that Robin and Red Hood will both be appearing in next year’s Batman: Arkham Knight! Red Hood will actually be playable too, according to information about a leaked DLC from Gamestop.
First clue is this video made of pictures from a toy booth at Comic-Con, showing off a Red Hood action figure and a Robin prototype figure. Robin, as Tim Drake, appeared in Arkham City, and was the star of his own follow-up DLC. So he’s a pretty major character. And I was hoping he’d be back in Arkham Knight. So that’s awesome.
Red Hood is probably Jason Todd. He’s got a pretty cool costume in the game.
If you don’t believe that video – or don’t have the time or energy to watch it, then check out these pictures.
Boom, Robin!
Believe my joy
And what was that about the Red Hood being a Gamestop exclusive? Boom! Eat that!
Curse you, Gamestop!
Neither of these is an official announcement, sure, but c’mon! Look at that evidence! This game just gets better and better. Now I just need to buy a better graphics card so I can get the PC version…which wouldn’t allow me to play the Red Hood DLC. Life is unfair.
Henchman-4-Hire 