Yesterday was our monthly Game Night at Green Lake Games. We busted out a classic of the adventure game genre, Talisman (currently published by Fantasy Flight). We played with the Frostmarch and The Reaper expansions and it took pretty much the whole four hours. Fantasy Flight’s fourth edition is just as fun as the original and the expansions have not run into the balance issues that plagued some of the expansions in previous editions. It can be quite a time commitment to play, although a couple of the “alternate endings” included with the Frostmarch expansion can potentially cut down on the end-game. The rules are moderately complex at first but Talisman is definitely one of those games that is extremely easy to pick up once you get into it.

If you missed our game night this month, keep an eye on our Game Night Page for next month’s date.

Before getting into the news, I wanted to pass on one quick announcement from the fine folks at Norwescon. Tickets are now on sale for the Guest of Honor Banquet which will be the Thursday of Norwescon, April 1st, from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM. Tickets are $30 and the night includes a talk by Guest of Honor Vernor Vinge, the presentation of several awards and scholarship donations, and you may win a prize! There is a PDF of the banquet registration form on the Norwescon site and of course you must be registered for the convention as well.

Credit where credit is due department: the strip at the top of the page is from one of my favorite webcomics Garfield Minus Garfield which is pretty much a must-read.

Your Monday news is under the fold

Books

• Titan Books will be publishing a collection of short stories set in the Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity universe. i09 is reporting that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica writer Jane Espenson will be writing a new 2,000-word story featuring Kaylee and Wash that will be included in the anthology. There is no word on other writers or a release date as yet.

  

• The Phillip K. Dick award nominees have been announced. The Philip K. Dick Award and Special Citation are presented annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States and are given out at Norwescon each year. The nominees are:
  • Bitter Angels by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
  • The Prisoner by Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
  • The Repossesion Mambo by Eric Garcia (Harper)
  • The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
  • Cyberbad Days by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
  • Centuries Ago And Very Fast by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
  • Prophets by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books)

Comics

• Writer Matt Fraction is bringing back the character of Kitty Pryde this March in Uncanny X-Men #522. Kitty has been missing in action since the end of Joss Whedon’s run writing Astonishing X-Men back in 2008. The folks at Marvel are so excited about it they’ve released a trailer for the event.

  

• In more Marvel news, April will see the end of all the Avengers titles currently being published. That month will mark the series finales of The New Avengers, Dark Avengers, The Mighty Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative. The Avengers line will be wrapped up with a 64-page one-shot called New Avengers: Finale by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Bryan Hitch. Comic Book Resources has a few more details.

Movies

• The Golden Globe Awards were given out last night. Winners included
  • Best Director: James Cameron for “Avatar.”
  • Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for “Inglourious Basterds.”
  • Best Animated Film: “Up.”
  • Best Series, Drama: “Mad Men,” AMC.
  • Best Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall, “Dexter.”
  • Best Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: John Lithgow, “Dexter.”
  • Best Motion Picture Drama: “Avatar”

  The full list of winners is up at the HFPA site.

  

• Geek Tyrant is reporting that Jurassic Park III director Joe Johnston has confirmed that not only will there be a 4th Jurassic Park movie but that it may possibly be the first of a brand new trilogy. The original movie came out in 1993 and spawned two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). According to the article the confirmed fourth movie and its proposed sequels would follow a completely different storyline than the first three.

TV

• The series finale of Fox’s Dollhouse, originally scheduled for Jan. 22, will be bumped a week to accommodate the Haiti telethon, airing on many broadcast and cable networks; “Epitaph Two: Return” will instead air on Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. In further Dollhouse news, Joss Whedon recently told Comic Book Resources that the series finale will, in fact, be the end of the Dollhouse story and that he has no plans to continue it as a comic (or anything else for that matter) as he did with Buffy the Vampire Slayer;
  

  I don’t think it’s a comic. It’s a TV show…apparently not a Fox show, but it is a TV show. There are themes in it and ideas that could work in a comic, but for me to spend the amount of time it would take keeping the comic true to what’s already out there when I’m already doing that with ‘Buffy’ would be a ridiculous waste of my time. And ultimately that would net me a piece of something that belongs to Fox. It just makes no sense to do a comic with ‘Dollhouse.’ I don’t get it, and I’m not sure I’d read it.

Video Games

• PlayFirst is celebrating five years of their casual video game franchise Diner Dash with a special edition of the latest title Diner Dash 5: BOOM! The special Collector’s Edition will include:
  • 5 Advanced levels of exclusive Diner Dash 5: BOOM! game play
  • Strategy Guide Walkthrough to reach expert level
  • Behind the Scenes Digital Art Book (sketch art and production concepts)
  • Animated Screensaver and Wallpapers
  • “Flo Over Time” Historical Retrospective

  Diner Dash 5: BOOM! The Collector’s Edition is launching February 16th on PlayFirst.com with a PC and Mac version for $19.99. The standard edition of Diner Dash 5: BOOM! for PC and Mac will launch approximately 2 weeks later on PlayFirst.com for $6.99.