Superheroes swarmed the geek news again this last week with several major announcements from all sides. Warner Bros kicked the week off revealing Laurence Fishburne would be playing the role of Perry White in Man of Steel. Shortly thereafter, they released the first look at Henry Cavill as Superman. Despite the recent script problems, Superman is set to fly back into theaters on June 14, 2013.
Warner Bros didn’t stop there. The first official photo of Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises was released soon after the Superman photo. The outfit pays some homage to the more ‘tactical’ look of the comic books, but gives absolutely no feline resemblance. This has only fueled the theory that Hathaway will actually be playing the role as Selina Kyle, and may not become Catwoman at all.
Strange things are happening over at Marvel Comics as a Doctor Strange movie is in motion. Marvel Studios already exploited their rights to most of the mainstream heroes, and, as they look toward the studio’s future, they’re going to have to start pulling from the lesser known source material. It looks like Doctor Strange is going to be the first of them, tentatively seeing a 2013 release date.
Hello again, fellow gamers! This month I’d like to bring you a variety of very different games, ranging from cute to badass. I’ve spent a lot of time this month neglecting WoW but playing some extremely fun games nonetheless. Here’s a selection of the best games I’ve played recently:
Most gamers have some sort of guilty pleasure game they enjoy. For me it’s pet simulation games. Sadly there aren’t many good free ones available. That’s why I was delighted to discover Touch Cats! It’s a basic pet game: you feed, groom and play with the cats you adopt to increase their happiness bar. You can check in on the game once a week or many times a day, though, with the game’s daily goals, checking in a couple of times a day has its rewards. There’s a lot about the game that makes me recommend it. At the top of the list are the missions you can send your cats on. Your cats can regularly search your virtual home for coins and items, and the items can be used for detective and rescue missions the animals can go on to collect rewards (generally clothing items and coins). Connected to this is another plus: the social aspect of the game. You can complete these missions solo or recruit friends and random users to help you. Once you’ve added friends you can also send your cats to visit other kitties in your neighborhood. All in all, Touch Cats is a simple yet adorable and addictive game.
It was the comic world that ruled geek news this last week as San Diego Comic Con was in full swing. Major players from all realms of nerdom gathered to share their latest updates. With such a huge event, I can’t possibly cover all the announcements, but here’s a full recap for your convenience.
Out of all the videos released at this year’s Comic Con, the trailer for The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra was one of the most anticipated (see above). The brand new video gives just over a minute’s look at the world of Avatar some 70 years after Aang.
Muggles made Hollywood magic last weekend as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 took the weekend box office, and made box office history. Deathly Hallows had the largest midnight release ever, with $43.5 million earned that night, shattering The Twilight Saga: Eclipse‘s previous record of $30 million. Sparkly vampires suffered further at the hands of the wizarding world as Deathly Hallows also broke The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s opening day record, raking in $92.1 million in the US. It doesn’t stop there; Harry Potter nabbed the opening weekend record from The Dark Knight with $168 million. The entire world showed its approval as it collectively shelled out $475.5 million to see the Harry Potter series – putting it one-sixth of the way to James Cameron’s Avatar lifetime gross record in just one weekend!
A study which purported to highlight the equality among the sexes when it comes to computer gaming was recently published in the uber-reliable Daily Mail. The survey was funded by the scientifically-minded, and above-bias team at Doritos, which lends further credence to the findings.
That’s right, Doritos. Now why would the chip company — known philanthropically funding scientific discovery in key areas such as how to make ranch “cooler” — waste it’s time researching women’s interest in computer games when it could be curing cancer, you say? Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with the recent launch of their own online computer game: Doritos Dip Desperado. No sir.
I’m honestly surprised that the survey didn’t find that “women say that computer games taste great and are less filling than the leading chip brand,” it’s that blatantly obvious this is a sad marketing ploy. But what the press release of an article did say was:
That while 50 per cent of men readily admit to frequent online gaming, a surprising 49 per cent of women confess that they too are addicted to Internet games.
And while men spend 22.3 per cent of their time online playing games, women trump them, whiling away 23.2 per cent of their time online playing games.
Revealingly, the study showed that not only are women just as keen on gaming as men — but that the majority would rather spend time playing on their gadgets than having sex.
After fourteen years, the Harry Potter series is coming to an end. The first book was published in 1997, and with the release of the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the journey comes to a close. Deathly Hallows premiered in London on July 7, and then in New York City on July 11. The internet has all but blown up since as fans avidly await the world wide release on July 15. The film is currently holding a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and shows no signs of falling. The video game by the same name and the official film soundtrack were released on July 12, 2011.
Harry Potter might be the biggest news of the week, but it wasn’t the only news. Yesterday, the first teaser poster for the Dark Knight was revealed. But that was only the second most exciting news surrounding the Caped Crusader in the past 7 days, as it was announced that Adam West will have a cameo in the upcoming film.
