BTW, in case the cave you’ve been living in doesn’t have TV/internet/print news access, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo III.  I’ve never been a Diablo fan (I respect the game, but I guess it just wasn’t my thing at the time), but this one might pique my interest.

Video Game News

• Blizzard Authenticator for WoW accounts
• Warcraft Operator Dominates Chinese Supercomputing List
• First “DC Universe Online” Art Unveiled - I didn’t even know this was being developed.
• Inside Neopets Creators’ Ambitious New MMO
• Wii Fit: 64% of Japanese gamers already giving up

Gaming

• Critical Hits has great coverage of Origins last weekend.  Don’t forget to checkout the Origins Awards winners.
• D&D 4E Player’s Handbook 2 is currently planned for a March 2009 release according to WotC’s D&D 2009 Products Listing
• Has Open Gaming Been a Success? (opinion)

Board Games

• Days of Wonder will new exclusively distribute with Alliance Game Distributors and Diamond Comic Distributors in the Americas and Asia
• ‘Halo Board Game’ in September
• Vikings Played Board Games in Death. No Seriously.

Comics/Animation

• Kodansha Heading Stateside
• Wonder Woman Direct-to-DVD in 2009
• Warren Ellis Writing G.I. Joe Cartoon!
• Lawrence Kasdan Adapting ‘Robotech’ - <sigh> I guess the “Macross” brand will remain in Japan.  Then again, if this movie sucks, I’ll be glad they didn’t use the Macross name.

Other Geek Stuff

• Kellogg’s, LEGO team up to train kids to choke - For LEGO lovin’ adults, however, this is way cool! (assuming THEY don’t mix it up with real LEGO)
• USC Lab Creates 3-D Holographic Displays, Brings TIE Fighters to Life
• Dabels to Adapt ‘Wheel of Time’

Comic book artist/writer/creator/publisher Michael Turner passed away last Friday June 27th, 10:42 Pacific Daylight Time, at the Santa Monica Hospital in California due to complications from his long battle with bone cancer. He co-created Witchblade and was the creator of Fathom and Soulfire.

Personally, Micheal Turner had one of the most recognizable comic artistic styles, one look at “Superman/Batman” or his work in Supergirl and you know it’s him.

I was actually expecting him to come-up with more new stuff in the coming years, not knowing until now that he’s been battling with bone cancer for a long time.

Rest well, and thank you for the distict artistic style you have left for us.

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I was browsing for new stuff at a nearby National Bookstore and was considering purchasing “The Complete Illustrated Works of Edgar Allan Poe” (the review in Amazon said the book itself was bad, but since it was pretty cheap, I might be willing to sacrifice book binding issues for Poe’s complete work) when I happened on the humor section to chance upon any new Beerkada issue.

Lo and behold! Beerkada #8 was there!  I picked-up a copy, walked past Poe with the slightest passing glance (I might be back for him later), paid for the goods, bought a take-out dinner, and promptly walked home to get my night in order.

Apparently, the book has been out since April.  Why the frikkin’ hell did it take so long for me to find it?!  I go to National Frikkin’ Bookstore every frikkin’ week!  Fer cryin’ out loud!

Anyway, the important thing is that I have it now. 

If you’re having trouble finding it, Beerkada’s official website has a Store Finder (which is hopefully updated).

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Happy Independence Day, Philippines!

To slowly ease out on the D&D wagon, today’s collection are geek and gaming related.

Somewhat Recent Gaming News

• Magic: The Gathering Duel Decks for November - Unlike the new MtG Theme Decks, this one will be complete 60 card decks.  Probably like the Elves vs Goblins thing they released a while back.
• Alpha Point: Designing the HeroClix Alpha Rules System
• Cthulhu Dice Now Unlimited!
• The Gamer Dome: Community Game Design Projects
• Rubik’s Cube Algorithm Cut Again, Down To 23 Moves

Gaming Features

• The Evil That Designers Do
• Gencon Bankruptcy Filing– Guess Who They Owe Money to?

Movies/TV/Animation

• Grayskull: Masters of the Universe Script Review - Hmmm. Ok, it could work.  I just hope they don’t start thinking that a hip-n-edgy “My Little Pony” would work too.
• Interview: Dave Gibbons talks Watchmen and more…
• Pinoy animators form ‘holy alliance’
• HBO turns ‘Fire’ into fantasy series
• 10 year old cartoonist, Alexa Kitchen, signs with Hyperion/Disney

Misc. Geek Stuff

• Podcast Interview with H.P. Lovecraft Scholar, S.T. Joshi
• 7 Super Heroes We Can Live Without
• McFarlane, Portacio on ‘Spawn’ - Haven’t heard about anything from those guys in a while.  I wonder how Whilce’s art style would look on Spawn?

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“On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One“…
… whoa! That was a mouthful! Let’s try that again with an acronym…

OtRSPoD:E1 is an episodic game based on Penny Arcade, one of the best/most infamous webcomics to come out of the web. Is the game any good? I have yet to find out. While I try to get my hands on the demo in order to find out the level of suckage, here are some links to help you check-it out for yourself:

• OtRSPoD:E1 official site
• Penny Arcade ponders on wisdom of their video game venture
• Prequel comic and demo downloads here
• Critical-Hits’ review here
• Trailers and wallpapers here
• Penny Arcade promotes their game with flamebait from their biggest critic - lol

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 Special Note:

• Happy Mother’s Day!  Here’s a video game recommendation for every type of mom!
• Tubataha Reefs is now #8!  Help push it into the New 7 Wonders of the World!

Geek News:

• Speed Racer bombs in the box office (still beaten by Iron - Man).  I’ve been leery of the concept from the beginning, and although I would’ve wanted to see it for myself over the weekend before passing judgment, Ijust couldn’t bring myself to try the film out. 
• Marvel Super Hero Squad - If the animation art will be like the ones on the box, it’s gonna be a tough sell for me ‘coz I’m not a fan of the style.
• Destro from the new G.I. Joe film sucks - No metallic mask?  Then I’ll have to agree.
• ‘Batmanime’ Is a Blast in Batman: Gotham Knight - The stills have a slight Aeon-Flux slant to it, which I’m not always hot about.  Still, it will boil down to the animation and story quality.  Looking forward to this.

Tech News:

• Flaw turns Gmail into spamming machine (more here)
• IFPI Advises Kids to Use LimeWire and Kazaa
• 25 year old BSD bug fixed!
• Next generation of business software could get more fun
• Once shunned by academics, Wikipedia now a teaching tool
• MySQL reverses original musing on closing some of it’s source.
• Data recovered from Seagate drive in Columbia shuttle disaster - You’ll be amazed at how they could’ve actually gotten anything when you see the pic of the hard-drive.
• TorrentSpy ordered to pay $110 million in damages to MPAA
• MSI HAS shown off its new, Shuttle-esque mini PC
• Syllable, SkyOS, ReactOS Move Forward
• MySpace Embraces DataPortability, Partners With Yahoo, Ebay And Twitter
• Google denies staff ‘brain drain’
• Just when you thought it was overwhelming enough to upgrade a PC with all the parts involved, ASUS creates upgradeable graphics cards.
• Windows-based EeePC cheaper than Linux one - Talk about aggressive marketing.

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It was actually the comic above from xkcd that finally got me to stop mulling it over and actually start trying Python. I’m sure glad I did! It’s been a long time since I got this excited about a programming language.

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