My vices share a family resemblance: Video games, anime, manga, comic books, toys, etc. That resemblance is "Poster Child for Toys R Us Big Spender", or "Awesome Dude".
Depends on the day.
Last weekend was Comic-Con, the biggest yearly comic book convention in the world, and a haven for comic book fanboys, toy collectors, Japanese fetishists (let's call anime what its, Boys), and -- yes -- video games.
I didn't go to San Diego this year, but my epiphany was that I'm an idiot for not going. So, next year me and a buddy plan to go. Plan. As much as one can plan a year in advance. I really don't even know what tomorrow is going to be like. And it's almost tomorrow as I finish this.
Summary of Comic-Con video game happenings:
- The Darkness -- Top Cow Production Inc.'s stylish cult comic is coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2007. Developed by StarBreeze Studios (the brilliant folks behind Xbox sleeper hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) and published by 2K Games, (Prey, BioShock, Morrowind IV: Oblivion), this game looks to rock. The conference saw the release of new screen shots for the game.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- Warner Bros. is releasing a new, feature length CGI TMNT movie, and Ubisoft (every game Tom Clancy) is doing the video game (bring back the glory of the coin-op, version, Ubinauts!). During the convention, Ubisoft released a "making of trailer" for the video game. Back to the movie, series creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are writing this time around, and will hopefully take the comic premise to its gritty originality, which is what made the franchise work (it wasn't Vanilla Ice, baby!).
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance -- This game is going to take the excellent X-Men Legends RPG workings Raven Software built to a new level, to new next-gen platforms, and will let me play as Captain America. Oh, and it let me audition to be Prince Namor. A lot of movement during Comic-Con on this title, with 3 days of on-site auditions for Namor and Jean Gray for the game and hi-def trailers for Iceman, Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and a new general game trailer.
- Justice League Heroes -- Not to be outdone (or maybe motivated by) all of the MUA collateral) and timed with the convention and the character's 50th anniversary, Snowblind Studios (Baldur's Gate) released a game video showcasing The Flash's RPG prowess from the upcoming game.
- Iron Man -- And a little late for Comic-Con, Activision, who had previously extended their Marvel Comics publishing agreement through 2009 and was slated to release an oft-delayed Iron Man title, rumored lately to coincide with the May 2, 2008 film, said they "no longer retain said rights". Huh. Odd, but I expect an updated announcement this fall.
- Halo -- Confident in the success of their just-shipped Halo: The Graphic Novel, Marvel Comics and Bungie have announced Halo as a comic book title will go monthly in 2007. Logically, I suspect, to hype the Halo 3 game, and bridge the game to the movie in 2008. Now it's becoming a franchise.
- Spider-Man 3: Not really video game related, but Sony took advantage of Comic-Con timing to reveal the first picture of Spider-Man 3's Venom.
- PSP -- Surprisingly, Sony had a showing for the PSP at the convention, showcasing the lifestyle side of the PSP (not that there's anything wrong with that).
So that's it for the Comic-Con summary. I'm happy.
Note about Blogger.com heartburn
By the way, apologies for the blogging weirdness the last few days -- Something's wonky with Blogger.com -- it's not me. Only 2 of my of my 5 "July 26" acting blog posts were actually supposed to be July 26th -- the rest were published July 24th or 25th, and took a day or two to show up on the Website.
And my July 24th post to my video game blog -- which has my biggest site readership -- showed up today. Nice. Glad I look current to the gaming public.
Glad Blogger's free, or I'd be more pissed. Might be time to roll over to the Movable Type blog I've been playing with.
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