April 30, 2005
Seduced by The Dark Side of the Forza.
Do you know how you can tell when a video game is going to be a winner before it's released? You can gauge this by how much attention the various game sites devote to it. IGN has some great side-by-side videos comparing GT4 vs Forza. You can really tell how jaggy GT4's graphics are compared to Forza. I think Forza is gonna rule--not only on the graphics but on the XBox Live integration with the car clubs and car trading. Check out the pimpage, my droogies:
IGN Forza Masterbit theater, New York City is at the end
IGN Forza vs GT4 Nurburgring
IGN Forza vs GT4 at Laguna Seca
IGN Forza XBox Live Developer Interview
Team XBox Forza Friday 2, look Mitsubishi video
Forza Get Started Guide at webquad.com
Listing of Forza cars by Region
Who We Are
Because no one demanded it, here's the lowdown on the gang of idiots behind Photon Torpedoes! Let's start by mentioning our reviews and surfers, in chronological order of their date of birth.
Cousin Dick was born in the 1961 and witnessed the birth of Marvel Comics first hand. He remembers the good old days before the Crisis--before the gawl danged communists took over the DCU. A frequent letter writer back in the good ol' days, you would have found Cousin appearing in the letter columns for US1, The Badger, Peter Parker Spider-Man, and Amazing Heroes. He thinks the greatest comic series ever written and drawn was US1 by one Al "Super-Star" Milgrom and the greatest song ever written was "Dang Me" by Roger Miller. Don't disagree with him or he'll run you over in his semi-truck on the way to Wal-Mart. He lives in Butte County in a secret hillside fortress secured against the coming liberal invasion. He reviews comics for us while consuming a twelve-pack or Miller beer. Don’t try that at home, kids!
Kid Flash was born in 1971, next to Three Mile Island and a PW Market that carried all the DC 100 page giants for 50 cents, which makes him our expert on the Golden Age and Silver Age. A qualified liberal, Kid balances out the Ying of Cousin with a dollop of Yang--meaning that he only drinks Napa Valley Cabernet wines. Kid's favorite comics are the Spirit and all of the 80s work by Alan Moore: Swamp Thing, MiracleMan, and Watchmen. He lives for entertainment and plays so many video games, watches so many television shows, and reads so many books that he barely has time to go to the bathroom. His favorite music includes the soundtracks to The Matrix, SSX 3, and Need For Speed Underground 2. Kid lives somewhere in the Bay Area of California.
Warlock was born in 1981 in a London flat and is rumored to be the illegitimate love child of Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Raised by a kindly old butler named Alfred, he was given liberal quantities of comics and Atari video games in an effort to stop him from asking, “What’s my Daddy doing in China?” Despite this, Warlock has many liberal tendencies. He loves Guinness, Star Wars, First Person Shooters, and his favorite musical group is The Human League (Mirror Man must be listened to while reading "Rogues War" in the Flash). Warlock thinks that Jim Shooter’s Secret Wars and John Byrne’s Man of Steel are just peachy keen, although he does seem to be the only person on staff who likes Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. Suffice to say that Warlock is quirky, independent, and often contradictory!
April 29, 2005
Nerdy News for Friday, April 28, 2005
The top story today is that Marvel comics had Brian Bendis and Dan Jurgens do a special issue of New Avengers for our troops in Iraq. Sheesh, I thought we were trying to keep moral up high! I think those boys would really enjoy Frank Cho's Shanna more than anything else. Over at Newsarama, there's a fascinating interview with Mark Millar about Wolverine, which I cannot read yet as I am waiting for the hardcover to arrive. At that same site, you can see why Marvel's head honcho likes Brandon Routh and why Supreme Power may feature less blood in upcoming months. JoBlo reports that we can see more black and white poll dancing in not one but two sequels to Sin City. Comics Continuum has some interesting bits about the Fantastic Four movie trailer appearing with Revenge of the Sith, and when to expect the new FF animated series. Moving to video games, Gamespot has some great info on what The Sims 2 will be like on the XBox and PS2. Finally, let's finish off Friday with a little lesbian fantasy about Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)April 28, 2005
Forza Anticipation
I don't own Gran Turismo. I played it once, it was too damn hard to even get a Class C license. I love racing games and I thought I could whip it, but it whipped me. I swore that I would never buy Forza Motorsport because of the same issues--it's too realistic. But now I read Che Chou's preview article on 1up and I also read another article on total video games by Jon Wilcox. Damn it, both of them make me want to buy this game! My XBox Live account is hungry for more Live-aware games, feed me, feed me!
Posted by Kid Flash at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)Old Devil Connery is back as Bond
Over at Gamespot, they have this neat preview of From Russia With Love. This is even more retro cool that I first thought. I love all the Connery movies and it's quite a coup that they snagged him to do the voice work--but I bet it cost EA a pretty penny. The graphics look great, I have to wonder if this XBox or XBox 360. What if this is one of the better movie adaptions and it is done 40 years after the fact?
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)Nerdy News for Thursday, April 28, 2005
Newsrama has the lowdown on the excellent return of the Green Lantern Corps by interviewing Dave Gibbons, the writer of the series. He had a great run as an artist back in the 80s--he was paired with Len Wein and they turned in some solid Lantern stories. Let's hope Mojo also returns to the Corps. Over at Moviehole, they've heard more rumors about Kevin Smith's involvement with a Star Wars TV series--he's said to be writing and directing three episodes. He can't be a showrunner, can he, and still do films? Smith is also gaga over Revenge of the Sith, saying it's as good as Empire and maybe darker. I can't wait to see the Emperor kick Yoda's ass. Finally, we've got new online trailers that have premiered, check out the Serenity trailer as well as the Batman Begins full trailer. Nuff Said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)Liefield returns to Hawk and Dove, Teen Titans
Newsarama reports that Rob Liefield is still a big Titans fan. He's returning for 2 issues to do a story featuring Hawk and Dove. This does make sense. Liefield was the artist on the Hawk and the Dove mini-series back in the late eighties and early nineties. It was his first major work and it was pretty good at that time.
Did you know: Liefield also came close to doing a Titans spin-off called Team Titans? I think he dropped out to do Youngblood and the series went to Kevin Maguire, who did a beautiful job on the first 5 issues and then dropped out. The series lasted only 20 issues or so.
Judging from the screenshots, Liefield's Titans don't look like teens to me. Wonder Girl looks like she's about as busty as Pam Anderson and ready to climb a poll. Robin looks 30 and he's taller than Kobe Bryant. Kid Flash...well, he messed up my namesake, now didn't he?
Update: Liefield talks about his new Titans work at Newsarama.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)April 27, 2005
Krypto the Super-Lab!
Gee willikers, look at this cute dog (click to expand) dressed up as Superman's best pal. I took this from the fellers over at AICN, who say this dog belongs to one of the writers of Superman Returns. I'd pay big bucks to see this pup fly around. I bet his secret identity consists of being a mild mannered dog so clumsy that he can't even play fetch.
April 25, 2005
Warren Ellis and Butch Guice on JLA:Classified
Newsarama has a preview of Warren Ellis' upcoming JLA:Classified arc with 5 incredible pages of Butch Guice artwork, click here for the review. I think Guice has lost nothing since CrossGen folded. I have been down on Ellis' mainstream work lately but this shows promise, and it's interesting to see him tackle JLA so many years after his ground-breaking Authority run.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)April 20, 2005
XBox 360 to include WebTV?
Rumors are swirling around the next version of XBox, commonly referred to as "XBox 360". There are currently 2 different models of the next gaming platform, to be revealed in May on MTV and then at the E3 gaming convention. The latest rumor says the higher priced model will include a hard drive and Microsoft's WebTV software, for surfing the Internet while scaring Fritos on your barcalounger. Read the details here at GameIndustry.biz.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
