Abraham Lincoln Zombie Hunter

Custom Minimate figure created by Bob Harris, based on the book (and awesome trailer) by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Next-Gen Game Demakes: Because 8-Bit Anything is Awesome

Forum user junkboy at Way of the Pixel has taken a whole mess of next-gen games and given them the demake treatment. Gone are the flawless 3D renders and sprawling environments that have a life of their own, instead replaced with pixelated 8/16-bit sprites and static backgrounds.

Beauty in games is an eye of the beholder thing. I happen to be crazy for the antique sprite graphics and chiptune music that we're missing in games these days. If the choice came down to paying $60 for a beautiful, hi-tech piece of gaming art, or $15 for pixels and bleep-boops, if they were the same game, with the same story, I'd probably go the $15 dollar route. That is a testament to two things: 1) the quality of many of today's games and developers, who think they can slap hypnotizing graphics over a five hour adventure with a shitty storyline, and 2) classic games never go out of style. I'll always support a developer that caters to the old school gamer in me, even if they do it to market an upcoming movie.

Unfortunately, junkboy's brilliant demakes are images only. Oh what I would do to actually play these games.. 

Attached below are Soul Calibur, Bayoneta, Killzone, and Red Dead Redemption. See the rest here.

Battleblock Theater: Militarism, Slavery, Coliseum Battles, Cats

The guys who brought you Alien Hominid HD, Castle Crashers, and Newgrounds, are hard at work on an online arena brawler that could only originate from the twisted minds at The Behemoth.

The premise seems to be this; you're a little man with an oddly shaped head who shipwrecked on a strange island. You're betrayed and sold into slavery by your close friend and fellow shipwreckee, Hatty. Your slavers, gigantic militant cats, have locked you and your fellow prisoners in a multi-platformed arena filled with environmental hazards and man-made maiming-devices. The object? Kill or be killed, alone or as a team, to satisfy the evil pussies' desire to see blood spilled. Slavery, betrayal, murder, Icarus wings, giant cats, platforming on crack. I know, right?!

I liked Alien Hominid. I loved Castle Crashers. Logical progression leads me to believe I will soil my pants in an amorous fit when this game releases. We'll give you more information on this title as it comes, but after watching the trailer, it looks to be a lock that The Behemoth has done it again.

Warning! Fatal doses of epic lie ahead.

Hot Toys' 1/6 Bruce Lee Enters the Awesome

Toy enthusiast that I am, I can't say I own any Hot Toys' figures. Not because they don't make quality figures, they clearly do, it's just due to the fact that I have a hard time coming to terms with dropping over a hundred dollars on a figure. Even if it is a superbly sculpted, amazingly articulated piece of work. But, you know, I got bills, and my day job doesn't pay me enough. I may just have to buck that trend though.

Hot Toys' Enter the Dragon Bruce Lee could be one of the greatest non-custom toy creation I have ever laid my eyes upon. I'm not saying that because Bruce is one of the most fascinating people in human history, nor because Enter the Dragon is one of my favorite movies. Look at the pain-staking detail in this figure! Brilliantly executed, Hot Toys. Do want.

Not only does this guy look amazing, but he comes with a cornucopia of goodies and extras to justify what will probably be the $300 price tag. 

Click through to see all the packaged accessories. 

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Otaku Get Gangsta

In Kaneohe Hawaii, a few teenagers were at gaming lounge/internet cafe PC Gamerz, minding their own business, being geeks. Three masked men busted into the establishment and began threatening the only employee on duty, who refused to cooperate with the criminals and was swiftly Falcon Punched. 

The patrons quietly handed their valuables to the robbers, but one dude wasn't having it. Asked to surrender his Nintendo DS, Dylan Hayes declined politely by throwing a flurry of jabs. You're gonna have to take that portable gaming system from his cold dead hands! Dylan's stand inspired sole employee Devin Wolery to fight back as well, getting as far as pinning one of the assailants onto the ground. Gaming lounge brawl! 

Shocked, surprised, and probably ashamed that they just got their asses kicked by a bunch of geeks, the thieves fled the scene only to be apprehended by police a block away. Robbery fail. The geeks of PC Gamerz, WIN! Congratulations gentlemen, for defending your turf, your belongings, and your pride all while being geeks of the highest degree. You have captured the true essence of Otaku But Gangsta, and we salute you for your actions.

via Kotaku

Rockstar Wises Up, Halts Self-Fellation

Rockstar Games has developed many solid titles during it's run and rise to prominence as one of the industries standouts. Whether you love them or feel they're all glorified GTA clones, their games are continually regarded amongst the best yearly releases. That establishes quite a fan base for the gaming powerhouse, but how disposable is said fan base's income?

It was reported last month that Rockstar was planning to release an art collection spanning three hard cover books to celebrate their 10-year anniversary. Good idea. They planned to charge $450 for it. Bad idea. Some concept drawings and a DVD of exclusive footage in a pretty package, or an Xbox 360, PS3, and a copy of Red Dead Redemption for each? Hell, I might sooner spend my four-point-five bills on two copies of the gaudy Crysis Collectors Edition. I'd even have a cool fiddy left over to wipe my ass with, which is what I might as well do instead of burning my money on some art books.

Thankfully, Rockstar has decided to cut their loses early and scrap the art book project.

Honest question; really? You didn't see anything wrong with releasing a three-piece set of art books priced at $450? Shame on you.

What The Hell is Sucker Punch?

I feel like I've been talking about Sucker Punch a lot recently. Only because I've been complaining that they're clueless when it comes to designing a protagonist. That Sucker Punch is a game developer. This Sucker Punch is an omgwtf looking movie. 

Cute girls in skimpy clothing with semi-automatic guns and katanas, soulless samurai with chain guns, fire-breathing dragons, the Hindenburg, and even outer space. That's close to my prescribed dose of insane visuals. Christ, what does this movie not have? A story? Guess we'll see.

It's too bad we're going to have to wait until March of next year for Sucker Punch. I hope Zack Snyder doesn't let us down. In the meantime, I'll just watch Inception once a month to tide me over. 

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up on this one.

DC Universe Online Gets An Epic Trailer

DC Universe Online aka Operation Mind Fuck.

After teasing us with a minute long trailer, which made me go wild with speculation, Sony has now released a full six minute trailer which expands upon their original teaser. DCU Online is giving The Old Republic's CG trailers a run for their money in the epic department.

So, my original guess of alternate realities in DCU Online was way off. It's cool though, there's no more need for guesswork and speculation because this six minutes of awesome pretty much establishes DCU Online's story, and does so in the most mind-bending ways possible. 

Who do you trust?

Street Fighter X Tekken; Capcom Stepping Their Game Up

Capcom is really putting in work lately. The clever way they're handing the Dead Rising 2 demo, the frantic, combo driven pace of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the head-spinning cross-series gameplay of Mega Man Universe, and the downloadable, online play enabled version of Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Capcom is doing big things! 

Biggest of all may be the Capcom and Namco powered fighter, Street Fighter X Tekken. Many rumors were building toward this, but now we have solid confirmation from Capcom themselves. We've been told that Street Fighter X Tekken will play and look similar to SFIV, and while Capcom works on that title, Namco will be working on the separate title of Tekken X Street Fighter, which will play like the Tekken series. The two developers will NOT work with each other for these titles. I'm sensing there's a bit of a friendly rivalry to see who will make the better game. Which sounds more appealing, the fireballs and over-the-top ultra moves of Street Fighter, or the grounded, combo-heavy realism of Tekken? 

So far we've only seen the respective series' poster boys, Ryu and Kazuya, go at it in the Street Fighter X Tekken engine. And interestingly enough, there seems to be some sort of tag or assist mechanic, with Ryu calling on Chun Li during his super combo, and Kazuya summoning Nina. We're still in the dark about many of the game's details, understandably so, since Capcom states Street Fighter X Tekken is still a good two years from release. Ano who knows when we'll get any solid details or media on Tekken X Street Fighter. In the meantime, enjoy the two videos below; a CG trailer done in SFIV's brush stroke art style, and shaky-cam footage of Ryu vs. Kazuya. Watch 'em! Also here are some dope stills from Capcom-Unity.

Update on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 8:30AM by Ernie

Figures a day after I post a story about how Capcom is doing their thing and other developers need to take notice, Kotaku reports Capcom's profits fell nearly 91% in the last quarter. 

Fast As Lightning, Redesigned Cole Emerges

 

That was fast, Sucker Punch. A little too fast, maybe. The stylistically challenged Infamous 2 developers have released a quick sketch of Cole's new design, which they said wouldn't suck. Now I'm pretty convinced that Sucker Punch needs to fire their character design team and start from scratch. I'm not one for belittling someone's hard work, but honestly, I could probably design a better character. 

The proposed new Cole looks eerily similar to the old Cole, which wouldn't be a bad thing if the old Cole didn't look so plain and boring. While I did like his racing jacket/cargo pants/utility bag clothing combo, the Jason Statham face wasn't doing it for me. If this new sketch is any indication, they're sticking with something close to his old duds, instead of the muscle tee and black-and-white-Eddy-Gordo-pants look. They've also modeled his face to look more like David Beckham. 

What do you guys think, new Cole or old Cole?