Category Archives: Video Games
The 6 Best of Hercules in Pop Culture
Hercules! Hercules! Hercules! That’s still a reference people get, right? Good. The Rock’s big Hercules movie comes out at the end of this month, and that’s reason enough to celebrate as far as I’m concerned! He’s the Rock! Doing Hercules! It’s kind of perfect, actually.
I’m torn as to whether or not the word ‘smackdown’ should be in this movie
I am a huge fan of Greek myths. I can still remember the Big Book of Greek Myths I used to devour from my middle school library. So seeing a big budget Hercules movie (that isn’t that earlier big budget Hercules movie from January) is kind of a treat. It’s the Rock fighting all the great Greek monsters. That alone should be pretty cool. And you know what else is pretty cool: the idea that people have been playing Hercules for centuries. This is a character that has existed since before the Roman Empire. How cool is it that we, as a society, are still telling the story of Hercules?
And why can we do that? Because nobody owns the rights to Hercules! Anybody can make a Hercules movie or cartoon or video game or comic book…and they have! Join me after the jump to check out the 6 greatest pop culture appearances of the Lion of Greece!
4 Reasons I Don’t Believe in Destiny
Destiny.
It’s been on the lips of game retailers and gaming journalists for the past two years. After the Halo franchise, Bungie Entertainment split from Microsoft Studios and set off on an intergalactic course that would take them to this game’s September release. This is going to be the video game release of the fall season on next-generation consoles. Crafted by the original creators of Halo, one of recent history’s most popular games, co-created by Activision, who’s responsible for the bestselling Call of Duty franchise, this game will be nothing short of revolutionary.
I wrote this because this isn’t the first time the gaming industry has brought such hype to a major release. Video games are a nearly $70 billion-a-year industry, and fortunes are at stake during this fall gaming season. Make no mistake, lines will form at stores when the game comes out, and reviewers will gush about how amazing it is. I, however, am jaded. I’ll be waiting at home when this game is released, with no intention whatsoever of buying it until I hear a word-of-mouth review. Here’s why:
Let’s Start the Day With a Little Batman!
The video game convention E3 is in full swing this week, with all sorts of trailers and previews and announcements. I bet it’s just a bunch of fun to be there. Unfortunately, I am not cool enough to get to go, so I’m stuck back here just watching the trailers on Youtube. C’est la vie.
But one of those trailers is a whole mess of gameplay footage for Batman: Arkham Knight!
Just look at the scope of that game! That cityscape is huge! Or maybe it’s just the fact that driving around on the streets in the Batmobile makes it look bigger than when we’re zipping around on rooftops in previous games. Either way, that part looked great. And the Batmobile looks cool…except it instantly made me think of any Grand Theft Auto game, where the moment you start driving around at high speeds is the moment you’re going to cause a ton of collateral damage. The game employee who managed to make turns and drive mostly straight might be good, but the rest of us are going to crash into everything around us. So I guess it’s a good idea to remove pedestrians.
Still, the game looks pretty darn sweet. It’s not enough to convince me to plop down several hundred dollars on a new console, but maybe I’ll get a better graphics card for my computer at least…
I Hear They’re Going to Make Another Mortal Kombat Game
New Flash: There are probably going to be new Mario games in the future too. The new one – Mortal Kombat X – was announced today with a fancy pants teaser trailer.
Everybody expects to get more information at this year’s E3 conference, so we’ll wait until then. For now, I will giggle to myself at how proud someone must have been to come up with that title. But then I’ll be disappointed that it’s not a crossover game with the X-Men, because we don’t yet live in a world where that can come true.
Personally, I still don’t own a next gen console, so this game is probably going to be out of my reach. But that’s not going to stop me from hoping Smoke is a playable character.
Blue Shell Blues
Looks like at least Nintendo WiiU (Wii2?) understands the power of the wacky Internet thing. They commissioned a song from the Brett Domino Trio to commemorate the new Mario Kart.
But seeing as how I barely have a Wii at my place, I won’t be playing. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a wacky Internet song. Maybe ‘Blue Shell Blues’ will become the new ‘Ironic’.
Henchman-4-Hire 