Seattle-Geekly.Com » Boardgames

Monday News Roundup 08/16

Matt — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:36:33 +0000

What with the ridiculous heat and competition from Dragonflight, attendance at our Game Day at Wayward was somewhat lighter than it was last month but we still got in some good games. We played a couple round of Poo, which we have mentioned and played before, and we tried a couple of games that were new to our rotation as well.

Shannon tried out Revolution from Steve Jackson Games at Gamestorm earlier this year but it was completely new to the rest of us at the table. Revolution is a bidding game in which the players are trying to gain enough influence to take over a city. You gain influence by winning the support of various town officials and the areas they control in the town. The officials are “persuaded” to support you each turn through force, blackmail or bribery. It was very quick to learn, a grand total of maybe 10 minutes, but as the game progressed it turned out to have a pretty good depth of strategy. All of the players bid secretly and bids are all revealed simultaneously, certain officials are immune to one or more methods of persuasion and you have to balance the short term goals of acquiring more force, blackmail and bribery tokens with the long term goal of building influence in the various areas of the town. Over all it was a lot of fun.

Next up was a few rounds of Zombie Dice also from Steve Jackson Games. Zombie Dice is a super fast paced dice game in which each of the players is a zombie trying to be the first to eat thirteen brains. The thirteen dice that come with the game can either show a brain, footprints (meaning your human victim escaped) or a shotgun blast (meaning your human victim was armed and dangerous) and there are three types of dice; green (mostly brains with few shotguns), yellow (evenly split between brains and shotguns) and red (mostly shotguns with few brains). You have to balance trying to get as many brains as you can before you roll a total of three shotgun blasts which ends your turn and prevents you from adding any brains you may have rolled to your score. This is a great game for filling short time periods or for large groups, since any number of people can play. Unsurprisingly, Zombie Dice has been turned in to an iPhone app which I can just about guarantee Shannon is going to be getting as soon as she reads this.

There isn’t going to be a Seattle Geekly game day at Wayward next month because we are going to be at the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (which is where all of you should be that weekend as well) but keep an eye on the Event Calendar for future dates.

Your Monday News is under the fold

Anime

Anime News Network is now streaming all 43 episodes of the second series of Fist of the North Star dubbed in English. Fist of the North Star 2 originally ran in Japan from 1987 – 88 and has been difficult to find in the U.S. If you don’t care to watch the streaming episodes, Discotek Media announced late last year that they have licensed the entire Fist of the North Star TV series and that they plan to release the 109 episode first season and the 43 episode second season in a total of four box sets the first of which was released in July.

Internet

Not sure how this managed to fly under our radar but a new web show, Otaku: The Series, premiered last month. It follows the adventures of Coco, Chike and Ron and the members of their college anime club. The first episode shows some promise.

MMO

Aeria Games is bringing Dynasty Warriors Online to the U.S. The game, based on the tactical action video game franchise by Omega Force and Koei, promises “unique tactical combat”, “Multifaceted leveling” and the opportunity to “Battle live opponents in the world of Dynasty Warriors”. Beta applications are already being accepted and there is a game trailer!

Video Games

Gamescom 2010 kicks off this week in Cologne, Germany and they have announced the nominees for the gamescom award. The nominees include:
- Best of Gamescom
  - Gran Turismo 5
  - Portal 2
  - Crysis 2
  - Star Wars: The Old Republic
  - Civilization 5
- Console Game
  - Mafia II
  - Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
  - Fallout: New Vegas
  - FIFA 11
  - Kirby’s Epic Yarn
    Gran Turismo 5
- PC Game
  - Civilization 5
  - Portal 2
  - Crysis 2
- Online Game
  - Guild Wars 2
  - Poisonville
  - Black Prophecy
  - Star Wars: The Old Republic
  - World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
The full list of nominees is up at the official GamesCom site.

The first official game trailer for Bioshock Infinite has hit the web and really there is only one thing I can say about it. HOLY CRAP! AIRSHIPS!

Monday News Roundup – 07/19

Matt — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:12:58 +0000

This week, of course, marks the run up to San Diego Comic Con. Somewhere on the order of 125,000 people are expected to attend the con which has been sold out since March. We mentioned in the podcast last week, and on our Event Calendar, that Dark Horse is hosting #NotAtComicCon events at 55 stores around the country on July 24 for those who can’t make it to the con itself. Comics Dungeon in Seattle is one of the participating stores and we are planning on being there!

In more Comic Con related news, it has been known for some time that Comic Con International’s contract with the San Diego Convention Center expires in 2012 and that the cities of Anaheim and Los Angeles have been vigorously trying to lure the con away from San Diego. A decision by the CCI board of directors regarding possible relocation has been expected since April and they were hoping to be able to make an announcement at the convention. Now it looks like the decision has been delayed yet again and will not be made until sometime after this weekend.

Finally, this video came through our in-box and I think it does a fine job of captruing the spirit of the con. Enjoy!

Your Monday News is under the fold

Boardgames

Steve Jackson Games has announced the latest expansion for thier Illuminati card game, Illuminati: Mutual Assured Distraction. The expansion will introduce the New World Order mechanic from the collectible card game version of Illuminati to the stand alone version with cards like Supermajority, Health Reform, Bank Collapse, Superpatriot Act and Economic Stimulus. NWO cards add effects that influence all players, not just the one who laid the card down. Mutual Assured Distraction will contain 18 NWO cards and 5 “special cards to trigger, add, or remove NWO effects”. The suggested retail price is $6.99 and it will be in stores soon.

Quicksand by Erik Oosterwal has received the first ever ICE Award for best fan-designed Icehouse pyramid game. The original Icehouse was a turnless abstract strategy game conceived by Andrew Looney and designed by John Cooper that used nested pyramidal pieces. The pieces are still sold by Looney Labs in their Treehouse game and fans continue to design new games using Icehouse pieces. Currently there are more than 300 variants listed on the Icehouse wiki. The ICE award will be given annually for the best variant designed in the previous year.

Books

The nominees for the 2010 Endeavour Award have been announced. The Endeavour is given out “for a distinguished SCIENCE FICTION or FANTASY BOOK written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year”. The nominees are:
- City Without End by Kay Kenyon
- Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight by Cat Rambo
- Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
- Mind Over Ship by David Marusek
- Push of the Sky by Camille Alexa
The winner will be announced at this year’s OryCon in November.

Comics

PvP Online creator Scott Kurtz is ending his publishing relationship with Image Comics and will be self-publishing the latest PvP collection. Kurtz explained his decision in an interview with Comic Book Resources

Over the last three years our business has shifted. Sales through brick-and-mortar stores are declining and online sales are increasing. Readers who discovered PvP in comic shops have shifted from monthly readers to online readers, and their buying habits have changed. The monthly floppy is selling less and the trade paperbacks are selling more.

The previous PvP collections will still be available through Image.

TV

The second season of the BBC series Being Human premiers on BBC America this week. the first season of the show, which follows the lives of a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire living as roommates, was something of a surprise hit for th BBC and the show has already been renewed for a third season. The U.S. premiere of season 2 is this Saturday at 10pm on BBC America, right after the season finale of Dr. Who.

Video Games

Plants Vs. Zombies is finally making it over to XBox Live Arcade and the list of achievements you can earn has been leaked. From the list it looks like the XBLA version will have co-op Wall Nut bowling, straight co-op and a versus mode. No official release date or price has been announced.

The long awaited Starcraft II comes out next Tuesday but the system requirements have been released now, just in case you need to upgrade the apparatus before then.
Starcraft II will also require the use of Blizzard’s Battle.net service, the “Real ID” portion of which was the center of controversy when Blizzard announced that it would be requiring Real ID (that is, a user’s real first and last name) to post on official forums, a decision which they have since reversed. Real ID will still display your real name to people on your Battle.net friends list but Blizzard has said that they are working on an “opt out” for those who want to prevent thier names from being displayed to friends-of-friends as well. According to the Real ID FAQ, the friends-of-friends opt out should be available “shortly after release”. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Blizzard spent around $100 million just on development of Star Craft II which sounds like a lot until you hear that they are expecting to make at least $500 million and possibly as much as $1 billion from the game.

Game “Night” 07/18

Shannon and Matt — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:06:28 +0000

Okay, so really it was more of a “game afternoon” but who wants to be out all night on a Sunday? The return of the Seattle Geekly game night was a huge success, mostly thanks to the kindness of the great people at Wizards of the Coast who provided us with some awesome door prizes including a gargantuan Orcus “mini”.

We’re going to be doing these on the third Sunday of the month at Wayward Coffeehouse. The next night will be August 15, again from 1 – 5pm. There won’t be a game night in September because we’re going to be at the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival that weekend but keep an eye on our Event Calendar for dates in October and beyond.

Tonight, the group was large enough that we broke into two. One group played an epic game of Super-Vampire-Pirate Munchkin followed by a round of Tsuro and Kill Doctor Lucky. The other group played a ton of Magic: the Gathering including two rounds using the new Archenemy rules.

Archenemy is a four player, 3 vs 1 game with one player taking the role of the Archenemy. Archenemies start with forty life instead of the usual twenty and have access to a twenty card deck of over sized “scheme” cards in addition to a regular 60 card deck of standard Magic cards. At the beginning of each turn the Archenemy gets to put a new scheme in motion by drawing one of the over sized cards and it is from these cards that they get the extra boost needed to be a challenge for the three opposing players to bring down.

Click to enlarge

There were some truly vicious schemes in the two decks we played (Trample Civilization Underfoot and Assemble the Doomsday Machine). The Archenemy won one of the games and the players won the other, but both games were surprisingly close.

Since the three players opposing the Archenemy play cooperatively, these rules are ideal for teaching new players the game and it is also an excellent variant to throw in on experienced players looking for something a little different.

There are currently four Archenemy decks available. the decks come with a 60 card pre-constructed Magic deck and a 20 card pre-constructed scheme deck. They retail for around $20.

Monday News Roundup 07/12

Matt — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:22:57 +0000

This week marks the end of our two week hiatus and the return of the Seattle Geekly podcast. July is going to be all about women in geekdom and this Thursday we’ll have interviews with authors Adrian Phoenix, Marjorie M. Liu, Jennifer Brozek, Seanan McGuire and Mira Grant (*wink, wink*). Stay tuned for shows later this month with women comic creators and women geek musicians!

Another podcast is also celebrating it’s return this month. We discovered James Durham’s podcast audio drama FETIDUS not long after we started doing our podcast and have been huge fans ever since. We were dismayed when it seemed like James had stopped releasing new episodes but much to our relief he has not vanished from the internet. Here is word from the man himself;

It is time!

FETIDUS is relaunching under the cover of the smoldering, humid night of July 9th, 2010. I’m thrilled to bring you FETIDUS: The Damned Heir, starting with a revised Episode 1, with one episode every week, until the grand finale.

Yes, FETIDUS is back. All the episodes have been recorded, even the finale.

Join us from the beginning. Starting July 9th, 2010, every Friday is FETIDUS Day until the thrilling conclusion. Begin with Episode 1, bring your friends, and join Art Blanchard in the fetid back streets of post-apocalyptic Washington DC at FETIDUS.org.

If you hadn’t been listening to FETIDUS previously, this is the perfect opportunity to start. You can also hear our interview with James back in Episode #12 of our podcast.

Your Monday News is under the fold

Boardgames

Avalon Hill’s Betrayal at House on the Hill has been one of our favorite games since it’s release and we have never hesitated to recommend it in spite of the fact that it has been out of print for years. We mentioned briefly the announcement that it was coming back in to print and now it finally has an official release date. The game will be back in stores October 5, just in time for Halloween! The new version of the game will include an updated haunt book with eight new haunts – some of which feature a new “hidden traitor” game mechanic, several new items, completely redsigned game play tokens, and new artwork.

Comics

The announcement that Marvel Comics had acquired the rights to Marvelman (previously known as Miracleman in the U.S. when the rights were not owned by Marvel) was one of the biggest pieces of news to come out of last year’s San Diego ComiCon. Since then there have been rumors but not much activity with either republishing the old stories or creating new ones. The good news is that finally, just this month, the first issue of “Marvelman Family’s Finest” will be hitting stands. The bad news that this ISN’T going to be reprints of what everyone wanted to see, the Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman stories from the 1980s. Instead this will be a chronological reprinting of the ORIGINAL Marvelman stories written by Mick Anglo in the 1950s. One can only hope that reprints of the Moore/Gaiman stories will be forthcoming.

Nominations for this year’s Harvey Awards have been announced. Nominees include
- BEST WRITER
  - Jason Aaron, “SCALPED”, Vertigo/DC Comics
  - Geoff Johns, “BLACKEST NIGHT”, DC Comics
  - Robert Kirkman, “THE WALKING DEAD”, Image Comics
  - Jeff Kinney, “DIARY OF A WIMPY KID #3: THE LAST STRAW”, Amulet Books
  - Mark Waid, “IRREDEEMABLE”, BOOM! Studios
- BEST ARTIST
  - Robert Crumb, “BOOK OF GENESIS”, W.W. Norton
  - Guy Davis, “BPRD: BLACK GODDESS”, Dark Horse Comics
  - Brian Fies, “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW?”, Abrams ComicArts
  - David Petersen, “MOUSE GUARD : WINTER 1152″, Archaia Studios Press
  - Frank Quitely, “BATMAN AND ROBIN”, DC Comics
  - JH Williams III, “DETECTIVE COMICS”, DC Comics
- BEST NEW TALENT
  - Kevin Cannon, “FAR ARDEN”, Top Shelf
  - Rob Guillory, “CHEW”, Image Comics
  - Reinhard Kleist,”JOHNNY CASH: I SEE A DARKNESS”, Abrams ComicArts
  - Nathan Schreiber, “ACT-I-VATE: POWER OUT”, http://act-i-vate.com
  - Matthew Weldon, “NEW BRIGHTON ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY”, Image Comics
- BEST NEW SERIES
  - “BATMAN AND ROBIN”, DC Comics
  - “CHEW”, Image Comics
  - “IRREDEEMABLE”, BOOM! Studios
  - “SWEET TOOTH”, Vertigo/DC Comics
  - “UNWRITTEN”, Vertigo/DC Comics
- BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES
  - “BEASTS OF BURDEN”, Dark Horse Comics
  - “DIARY OF A WIMPY KID”, Amulet Books
  - “GANGES”, Fantagraphics Books
  - “INVINCIBLE”, Image Comics
  - “SCALPED”, Vertigo/DC Comics
  - “THE WALKING DEAD”, Image Comics
- BEST ON-LINE COMICS WORK
  - “HARK! A VAGRANT”, by Kate Beaton, http://harkavagrant.com
  - “HIGH MOON”, by Steve Ellis, David Gallaher and Scott O. Brown, http://www.zudacomics.com/high_moon
  - “POWER OUT”, by Nathan Schreiber, http://act-i-vate.com
  - “PVP”, by Scott Kurtz, http://www.pvponline.com
  - “SIN TITULO”, by Cameron Stewart, http://www.sintitulocomic.com
The complete list of nominees is available at Bleeding Cool

Internet

Season 4 of The Guild starts tomorrow! The season 4 trailer is below. Enjoy!

MMO

Those who have been eagerly anticipating the release of Bioware’s MMORPG Star War the Old Republic will be delighted to hear that beta testing of the game started this weekend. ToR was announced in 2008 and Bioware started accepting beta applications in 2009 so this has been a long time coming. Coinciding with the start of beta testing is an interview by CVG with Old Republic lead writer Daniel Erickson who says, among other things, that The Old Republic is the “dream game” for Bioware fans, especially fans of its Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. I, for one, am waiting impatiently.

In other MMO beta news, Shannon was selected to play in the World of Warcraft Cataclysm beta. She will be keeping those of use who were not so fortunate updated on the chages and new content she encounters right here on Seattle-Geekly.com. The first of these updates is up now.

TV

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominees for the 62nd annual Emmy Awards. Nominations relevant to the geek set include;
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold
  - Music Composition for a Series, Original Dramatic Score (Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael Jelenic, and James Tucker for “Mayhem of the Music Meister)
- The Big Bang Theory
  - Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series (“The Gothowitz Deviation” and “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency”)
  - Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special, Non-Prosthetic (“The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation”)
  - Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper)
  - Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (Christine Baranski as Beverly Hofstadter in “The Maternal Congruence”)
  - Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series (“The Adhesive Duck Deficiency”)
- Caprica
  - Special Visual Effects for a Series (“There is Another Sky”)
- Chuck
  - Stunt Coordination (Merritt Yohnka for “Chuck vs. the Tic Tac”)
- FlashForward
  - Cinematography for a One Hour Series (“No More Good Days”)
  - Music Composition for a Series, Original Dramatic Score (Ramin Djawadi for “No More Good Days”)
  - Stunt Coordination (Danny Weselis for “No More Good Days”)
- Fringe
  - Sound Editing for a Series (“White Tulip”)
- Heroes
  - Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series (“Brave New World”)
- Lost
  - Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series (“Ab Aeterno”)
  - Directing for a Drama Series (Jack Bender for “The End”)
  - Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (Stephen Semel, Mark J. Goldman, Christopher Nelson, and Henk Van Eeghan for “The End”)
  - Music Composition for a Series, Original Dramatic Score (Michael Giacchino for “The End”)
  - Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard)
  - Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Terry O’Quinn as John Locke)
  - Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Michael Emerson as Ben Linus)
  - Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke in “The End”)
  - Drama Series
  - Sound Editing for a Series (“The End”)
  - Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series, One Hour (“The End”)
  - Writing for a Drama Series (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for “The End”)
- The Prisoner
  - Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie (“Checkmate”)
  - Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Ian McKellen as Two)
- Robot Chicken
  - Voice-Over Performance (Seth Green as various characters in “Cannot Be Erased, So Sorry”)
  - Short-format Animated Program (“Full-Assed Christmas Special”)
- Star Wars: Uncut
  - Creative Achievement in Interactive Media—Fiction
- Stargate Universe
  - Special Visual Effects for a Series (“Air”)
  - Special Visual Effects for a Series (“Space”)
- True Blood
  - Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series (“Never Let Me Go”, “I Will Rise Up”, and “Frenzy”)
  - Casting for a Drama Series
  - Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special (“Scratches”)
  - Drama Series
  - Sound Editing for a Series (“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”)
- V
  - Special Visual Effects for a Series (“Pilot”)
- Warehouse 13
  - Original Main Title Theme Music (Edward Rogers)

Monday News Roundup 07/05

Matt — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:33:20 +0000

Hopefully everyone survived the Fourth of July weekend with all their fingers, toes and eyebrows intact. There were a couple of big news items of special interest to geeks in our fair city this weekend in addition to the usual crop of geeky happenings.

First off, it seems that 4,233 people did NOT survive the weekend. That is the number of “registered zombies” that turned up for the Red White and Dead zombie walk in Fremont on Saturday. KOMO news is reporting that this number unofficially reclaims the Largest Zombie Walk title for Seattle, easily topping the previous record of 4,026. The record still has to be officially verified which will most likely happen sometime early this week. The KOMO video of the event even made it as far as CNN’s website. Enjoy!

In non-undead news, SF Site is reporting that the Seattle Westercon Organizing Committee has won their bid to host Westercon in Seattle in 2012!

Westercon, the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference, has been held annually since 1948 in the western half of North America as a less travel intensive alternative to Worldcon for west coast fans. Westercon 65 will run from July 5-8, 2012 and will be chaired by Bobby DuFault.

The rest of your Monday News is under the fold

Anime

If you were not among those lucky enough to see the world premier of the Trigun movie Trigun Badlands Rumble at SakuraCon this April you are in luck. Anime News Network is reporting that distributor Funimation is planning on releasing it in theaters. No release date was given but it would almost certainly not be before sometime next year at the earliest.

We mentioned the film Karigurashi No Arrietty (The Borrower Arrietty) back in February when the first teaser trailer came out and we’re mentioning it again now that a full trailer has been released. The movie was written and produced by Hayao Miyazaki, based on Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers and will be directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi who worked as a key animator on Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

Boardgames

Fans of Dominion may want to keep an eye out for Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, the new deck building game from publisher Gary Games. The game was designed by Magic: The Gathering pro-tour veterans Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty and Brian Kibler. The full rules haven’t been posted but there is some information on the Ascension Facebook page. The game is for 2-4 players and “features multiple factions, demons, heroes, and constructs from different planes in a battle to determine which player will ascend to godhood”. It will be debuting at Gen Con this August.

Comics

DC has officially pulled the plug on their webcomic site Zuda Comics. The site stopped their popular webcomics competition in April and now the site will be closing down entirely. This appears to be a consequence of DC’s move to digital distribution through the iPad, iPhone and PSN. Issues of former Zuda titles High Moon and Bayou are already available on Comixology, and will soon be joined by Black Cherry Bombshells, Azure, Bottle of Awesome, Supertron, and Lily of the Valley, with each installment priced at 99 cents. DC Creative Services VP Ron Perezza made a post announcing the closure on the Zuda blog.

Monday News Roundup 06/07

Matt — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:44:37 +0000

We’re talking about the future on this week’s podcast. We met with two local futurists for a discussion about what Seattle will look like in the world of tomorrow as well as what futurists are and what they do. It’s a little more cerebral than our usual topics but it should be an interesting listen.

Our topic for today, though, is not the future but current events. Before we get into the news there is one, kind of odd story I wanted to share with everyone. Those reading this may or may not be aware of UVB-76, the call sign of a mysterious shortwave radio station that since 1982 has been broadcasting a short, repeating buzzing tone from somewhere inside the former Soviet Union. The signal’s purpose has been a topic of speculation among cranks and conspiracy theorists for decades. Recently, though, it seems that the signal has suddenly stopped. Now without knowing precisely what the danger is, I would say it’s time for our listeners to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside.

Your Monday news is under the fold.

Anime

Anime streaming site Crunchyroll has announced that they will begin simulcasting Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo’s television anime Bleach. The simulcast starts tomorrow with episode 266 and will continue up to the latest episode, 274. Information regarding the broadcast schedule for older episopdes will be coming “at a later date”.

Boardgames

German developers TheCodingMonkeys have released a version of Carcassonne for the iPhone! The app costs $4.99 and supports local multiplayer over bluetooth and wi-fi and “Internet Multiplayer with Push Notifications” as well as a “Unique Solitaire mode”. The app is available now through the iTunes store. The current version is compatible with the Apple iPad and free iPad specific update will be released later in 2010.

Comics

Can’t get enough Torchwood? Well you’re in luck. Comic Mix is reporting that Titan Publishing, the company behind the Torchwood magazine, is launching a new comic based on the Dr. Who spinoff series. The first issue will feature a one-shot story co-written by John “Captain Jack Harkness” Barrowman and the beginning of a five-part story written by Torchwood script editor Gary Russel. The comic will supposedly be in stores this August.

MMO

Lord of the Rings Online is the latest MMORPG to switch from subscriptions to free-to-play. Following a similar model as Dungeons and Dragons Online, the basic game of LoTRO will be free with additional content available through the LoTR store. The free content will include about 800 quests up to a character level of 50 according to an interview with Turbine staff on Massively. Content available for purchase will include both cosmetic and “convenience items” as well as additional content packs, optional quests, mounts and additional character slots.

Toys

Scott Pilgrim artist Bryan Lee O’Malley gave the world a peak at a new Scott Pilgrim plush dolls via Twitter on Friday. The dolls, which are being manufactured by Mezco Toys, will be in stores this July just ahead of the release of the Scott Pilgrim movie in August.

Video Games

Pop Cap spokesperson Cathy Orr has confirmed that Plants vs Zombies will be coming to XBox Live Arcade in a statement to European gaming site The Sixth Axis. No release date was mentioned but as soon as it comes out we’ll be getting it!

Monday News Roundup 05/17

Matt — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:21:10 +0000

So it turns out that one of my favorite movies from last year has been out on DVD and Blu-ray since January and I totally missed it. Bad geek. No biscuit. We saw Pontypool at Crypticon last year and it blew me away. Alert listeners will know that I am the “not really a horror fan” in the Seattle Geekly team and with that in mind the fact that I absolutely loved this movie is even more surprising. It does the one thing that I think is really missing from the overwhelming majority of horror films; creating tension and suspense without resorting to just splattering gore at the screen. I have always been of the opinion that things you don’t (or can’t) see are much more frightening than anything that gets shown graphically in slasher and torture-porn movies and Pontypool takes full advantage of that. The movie is available on Netflix (and is even on the list of instant streaming titles) and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Speaking of Crypticon and horror movies, this Friday is our monthly trivia night at Neptune Coffee. By sheer coincidence, the topic is going to be horror movies and it is being co-hosted by Crypticon! The Crypticon peeps are providing some really cool prizes including at least one weekend pass to the con which we’ll be giving away as door prize, no trivia knowledge needed!

Your Monday news is under the fold

Boardgames

We mentioned the forthcoming Back to the Future cardgame in the news section of Episode #60 and now Loony Labs has released a few more details.

Now you can jump into the action of the Back to the Future movies, with this ingenious new time travel card game! Play as the descendants of Marty McFly, Biff Tannen, Doc Brown and others, as you travel back to the events depicted in the movies. Your mission is to make sure pivotal events are not changed by other time travelers before time travel itself gets un-invented. Using a unique, patented game mechanic for simulating time travel, Andrew Looney now puts you in the driver’s seat of the famous DeLorean!

Back to the Future: The Card Game will use the same mechanic as Loony Labs’ Chrononauts card game and is scheduled to be in stores this September.

Books

2010 Nebula Awards winners were announced in a ceremony on Saturday. The winners are;

In keeping with Cory Doctorow’s support of the philosophy of Creative Commons, he is making his latest book, For the Win, available as a free download. The book may be downloaded in a number of formats and is DRM-free. If it is not available in the format of your choice, Cory Doctorow is also inviting fans to convert the text to whatever format they want to see it in and send the files to him.

TV

The Fall TV schedule is starting to shake out. The fate of genre shows has been mixed. Shows that have been cancelled include Flash Forward, Better Off Ted and Heroes. Renewed shows include V and Chuck. There are a raft of new genre shows on the horizon as well. NBC has a new superhero soap opera called The Cape and a conspiracy thriller called The Event, Fox will have a far-future time travel epic called Terra Nova and plenty more shows are rumored. Stay tuned as the summer progresses for more on Fall TV.

There is finally a trailer for season three of HBO’s True Blood. Enjoy!

Monday News Roundup 03/15

Matt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:52:23 +0000

We went wild at Emerald City! It was a great convention and an amazing weekend. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who showed up for our two meetups (the Saturday night group is pictured above). There were WAY more people there than I had anticipated, especially for the one on Sunday morning. We’ll be kicking off our wrap-up coverage this Thursday in Episode #54 of the podcast. We got a ton of interviews with some big names, some new names and we checked in with a few friends from last year as well. It’s good stuff and you’ll want to tune in and listen!

Our next stop in the Big Month of Conventions™ is going to be Gamestorm down in Vancouver, WA and there is an announcement for people planning on attending the con. The much-anticipated game sign-ups are now open! If you want to guarantee yourself a spot in that one game you are just dying to play at Gamestorm this is your chance to nail it down. In order to access the system, you must have purchased a membership, and have an OpenID account with a profile. Early sign-ups are available until March 18.

Your Monday News is under the fold

Boardgames

A couple tidbits from publisher Mayfair Games in the news. First, Mayfair announced back at the New York Toy Fair that the next addition to their Catan line would be Settlers of America: Trails to Rails. Now they have released a few more details about the game. Settlers of America: Trails to Rails will keep the familiar Catan hex-tile grid to present a map of the United States. Players collect and trade resources in order to purchase, migrate and build settlements, forge railroads and acquire locomotives. Railroads are used to distribute goods to the interconnected cities. As westward locations are settled, old sources of resources deplete. The addition of gold adds to the depth of play and increases options for the players. The game should be out this June.
Mayfair Games has also announced that they are launching a new volunteer program and is searching for gamers who want to demo games at the Origins Game Fair in June 2010 and Gen Con in August 2010. If you aren’t going to be attending either of those two cons you may want to apply anyway. In the press release, Bill Fogarty, director of marketing for Mayfair, stated that they will “be looking for volunteers to demo games at other conventions and game stores”. Interested games can e-mail Bill Fogarty to request more information or an application.

Comics

Good news for Browncoats, as Dark Horse comics has announced an original hardcover graphic novel titled Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale. The Shepard’s Tale, obviously, will explore the origin and back story of Sheppard Book and is being written by Zack Whedon from a detailed scene-by-scene outline by his brother Joss. Editor Scott Allie, quoted by Comic Book Resources had this to say about Zack’s writing.

It was Joss’ idea, late last year, to bring Zack on for this, and we jumped at it, because by then I think he’d already written his first issue of ‘Terminator.’ So we knew he could nail this. There’s a scene, early on in ‘Shepherd’s Tale,’ where you see most the cast of ‘Serenity’ back together, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like the show’s back. Sometimes with just one line – Wash – Zack perfectly recreates these characters. I can’t wait for people to read it.

Look for Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale this November.

TV

The *shudder* SyFy network has announced an air date for the premiere of their latest adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld books. The 4-hour Sunday night television movie will show on April 18 from 7-11 p.m. and stars Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica/Dollhouse), Laura Vandervoort (V/Smallville) and Alan Cumming (Tin Man). The synopsis from the press release:

Matt Ellman (Penikett) is an American war zone reporter who has witnessed the worst of humanity first-hand, yet still grasps on to an optimistic spirit. When a suicide bomber kills both Matt and his fiancé Jessie (Vandervoort), they awaken separated in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth seems to have been “reborn” along the banks of a seemingly endless river. Determined to locate Jessie, Matt joins forces with a 13th century female samurai warrior named Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen) and American novelist Sam ‘Mark Twain’ Clemens (Mark Deklin). Together they sail upriver in search of its source, and to discover where they are and who put them there. Cumming guest stars as the mysterious ‘Caretaker.’

Video Games

The action RPG Torchlight from Runic Games continues to win praise and awards. As reported on the Runic website, their game won Game Industry News’ RPG Game of the Year Award and the Game Developer’s Conference Choice Award for Best Debut. This news comes as Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer let slip that Runic is in negotiations with “multiple partners” to bring Torchlight to the realm of console gaming.

Monday News Roundup 02/15

Matt — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:41:13 +0000

To start off the news today I wanted to run with a story from the “Joss Whedon Is My Master Now” department. Browncoats who follow the official NASA twitter feed were delighted to see the following tweet from February 12.

Shuttle crew awoke @4:14pET to theme song from “Firefly.” The Ballad of Serenity, performed by Sonny Rhodes, was played for Bob Behnken.
1:18 PM Feb 12th from web

Robert Behnken is a mission specialist on the current shuttle mission and, it seems, a Firefly fan. You really can’t stop the signal!

If you’re looking for some geek eye-candy, Toy Fair happened in New York this weekend. On display were new figures from Bioshock 2, Gears of War, Jonah Hex and lots more. Pulse Figures, Comics Beat, Slash Film, and Collider have great photo galleries up.

Anime

Funimation has announced that it will be re-releasing the Trigun anime series on DVD and Blu-Ray. Press release below –

FUNimation Entertainment today announced that it has acquired home entertainment, theatrical, broadcast, digital and merchandise rights to the 26 episode action comedy space western “Trigun” from Flying Dog, Inc.

Based on the manga series created by Yasuhiro Nightow, the anime is directed by Satoshi Nishimura.

FUNimation Entertainment will release the series on DVD in Fall 2010.

Trigun was originally released on DVD in 2000-2001 but distribution was halted in 2007.

Boardgames

WizKids/NECA will be bringing Wacthmen to their collectible super hero boardgame HeroClix in the form of a collector set of figures and a 14 inch Dr. Manhattan Colossal Figure. The boxed set will contain a complete set of the 25 Watchmen HeroClix figures including Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre. The collector set and the colossal Dr. Manhattan will both be debuting at ComiCon in San Diego and will be in stores this summer. No word on whether or not either of the Dr. Manhattan figures will be anatomically correct.

Comics

British internet TV station Watch and Titan comics, producers of the regular Torchwood strip in the official Torchwood magazine have teamed up and produced an exclusive on-line Torchwood webcomic by artist Brian Williamson (Marvel, Dark Horse, 2000AD, Titan & Tundra) and Doctor Who story writer Oli Smith.

Pontyvale Golf Club’s post-Christmas reopening hasn’t gone well thanks to some grisly killings… The site has been closed off, and Torchwood’s Captain Jack, Gwen and Lanto investigate. But they soon come face to face with the cause of the killings – and it’s not pretty!

The comic was produced in honor of Watch’s “Alien Invasion” week and is available through a reader on their site

Monday News Roundup 02/07

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:36:37 +0000

Last week was another busy one here at the Geekly Factory. First up, we were interviewed for AnotherPassion.com, a blog “created to inspire and motivate creative professionals and those seeking to make a living following their passion”. We were incredibly flattered, not only to be thought of as worth interviewing but also to be associated even peripherally with the words “creative” and “professional”. In addition to being a top notch blogger Rasmus Rasmussen, the man behind Another Passion, is an accomplished photographer and snapped a few pictures of us to accompany the interview. Check it out at AnotherPassion.com.

On Sunday we hit up Mourning Market and ran into a number of goth friends and other superbowl-dodgers including Dmitri from Tormented Artifacts who clued us in on his latest creation; steampunk playing cards. The art on the cards is amazing and I just wanted to share the coolness.

There is a lot of local/follow-up news as well before we get into the official roundup.

Alert listeners will remember our interview with Leo from Geeky Cookies in Episode #47. At the time of the interview the Geeky Cookies website was undergoing a major revamp and was down. It is now all done and available to handle all your sugary snack needs. OMNOMNOM!

Next in the follow-up section, way back in Episode #21 we talked about chiptuners I Fight Dragons as part of our Geek Music 2 show. The big news from them is that they have been signed to a major label! They will be recording and releasing their first full length album for Photo Finish / Atlantic Records and playing live shows around the country as part of the MTV “Too Fast For Love” tour.

Finally, some news for those going to Emerald City ComiCon who want to get something signed by Stan Lee. Obviously Stan Lee is going to be a huge draw, he is only at the convention for Saturday and only doing one autograph session so to help regulate the crowd the con is going to require tickets to get items signed. Here is the word, straight from the ECCC website –

Autograph ticket for Stan Lee’s SATURDAY ONLY signing are now on sale through Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets are $40.00 and each ticket entitles you to one (1) autograph from Stan “The Man” Lee – there is a limit of three (3) tickets per person. Here is the direct link:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/98792

After purchase, you will be e-mailed a confirmation and ticket number. Print this out and bring it along with your matching photo ID to booth #1105 and there you will receive your on-site autograph ticket.

You will be assigned a time slot for signing – this time will be e-mailed to you in advance so you can plan ahead and know when to show up for your autographs. You can show up for later signings, but not earlier ones, and your ticket will still be honored. This ensures that there is a set number of people per signing and everyone gets a chance to get their items signed in an orderly fashion. There will be no photos available during the signing times, there will be a separate photo opportunity with Stan Lee at the show.

All information will be e-mailed by March 7th.

Monday News is under the fold

Boardgames

Boardgame News has a few details on a future expansion coming for the wildly popular Dominion to be titled Dominion: Alchemy. Dominion: Alchemy will include 12 new Kingdom cards (instead of the 25/26 in the previous releases), along with a new type of Treasury card called “Potion”. The box will include 16 Potions, all of which will be on the table available for purchase no matter how many players are in the game. The official announcement of the expansion is expected at Toy Fair Nuremberg which starts tomorrow.

Books

Author K.W. Jeter, who coined the word “steampunk”, has signed with publisher Angry Robot, a division of Harper Collins. The short term results of the signing will be the re-release of Jeter’s book Infernal Devices, generally credited with starting the steampunk genre, which has been out of print since the early ’80s. Angry Robot will also be re-releasing Jeter’s Morlock Night, described as “a wild sequel to Wells’ The Time Machine“. Both are planned to be out in the U.S. in December of this year.

Comics

Shannon Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man, has a new book from BOOM! Studios. Official press release below:

BOOM! Town, a new imprint of BOOM! Studios, announced today I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE FUNNIER, a collection of rejected cartoons submitted to The New Yorker by cartoonist Shannon Wheeler.

“This is some of the best work I’ve ever done,” says Wheeler.

Please note, Wheeler has also had many cartoons accepted by The New Yorker.

I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE FUNNIER comes in a 8.75” x 8.75” softcover format, priced at $19.99.

You can also find Shannon Wheeler’s work on his occasional webcomic How to Be Happy

Movies

There are not one, but two documentaries on the horizon that may be of interest to the geek community. First, premiering South by Southwest next month, The People vs George Lucas “a no-holds-barred cultural examination of the conflicted dynamic between George Lucas and his fans over the past three decades” featuring interviews with Lucas supporters such as David “Darth Vader” Prowse and detractors like, well, just about anyone who saw The Phantom Menace.
Next, premiering at ComiCon in San Diego, a new documentary from director Jeffrey Blitz and producer Sean Welch on the history of DC Comics. Blitz and Welch are the team behind the 2002 documentary Spellbound about eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.

TV

In what has the potential to be one of the coolest guest-writer spots of all time, British science fiction magazine SFX has confirmed that Neil Gaiman has written an episode of Dr. Who. Unfortunately the episode will not be airing until sometime next year “NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that”. No further details were available.