The Beat’s temporary slowdown on blogging is not, as might be expected, because of the arrival of Grand Theft Auto IV, which will probably be the biggest grosser of the year, movie, book or game. However it must be said that the complete cultural victory by the geek/nerd/video game set is now assured. Admit it, did you ever in a kajillion years think you would see a glowing front-page review of a FREAKING VIDEO GAME in the New York Times?

Published by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.

Niko Bellic is the player-controlled protagonist this time, and he is one of the most fully realized characters video games have yet produced. A veteran of the Balkan wars and a former human trafficker in the Adriatic, he arrives in Liberty City’s rendition of Brighton Beach at the start of the game to move in with his affable if naïve cousin Roman. Niko expects to find fortune and, just maybe, track down someone who betrayed him long ago. Over the course of the story line he discovers that revenge is not always what one expects.

It’s like those old timers who believed that attending a show by Eva Tanguay at the Odeon was the apotheosis of cultural delight and refused to go over to the new Victrola are now standing in line for the new model.

The long in development Marvel MMO (massive multiplayer online game) which was being made by Marvel and Cryptic Studios (Dity of Heroes) will never be. Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Games Studios, explains why:

“I don’t think it’s necessarily a case of what went wrong,” Kim told me. “I don’t know that that’s the right way to put it. For us we look at our priorities and all of the things we have to do. It’s a tough space. It’s a very competitive space. And it’s a space that’s changing quite a bit. …When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of ‘Marvel Universe Online,’ we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success. And then you have to look [and say]: ‘Can we change the business model for that? Is that really viable given how far we are in development? And so forth. Does Marvel want to do that?’ There’s a whole bunch of factors.”

[Thanks to Abel for the link.}

Or only the second greatest?

Tyrian for Mac!

In related news, we are old and busted and need some time in the shop. It’s the quiet time of year anyway, and everyone has better things to do than sit in front of the computer, anyway, unless it’s to buy holiday presents. Which is the only reason we sit in front of the computer any more.

Much online chatter that the long-planned Marvel online role playing game has foundered on rocky shoals. This follows a bunch of moves involving City of Heroes:

Last week, NCSoft announced it had acquired the City of Heroes IP from Cryptic Studios. Additionally, the staff behind the franchise — approximately 15% of Cryptic — was moving to Mountain View, CA and opening a new studio to operate within the NCSoft umbrella. During and following the announcement, no comment was made about the status of Marvel Universe Online. Curious, then, when we heard the game’s status was in danger and contacted Microsoft for an update on the game’s progress. Given there’s been nothing new about Marvel Universe Online (outside of bringing comics writer John Layman on board in July) since an October 2006 interview with IGN, it’s not exactly a bizarre question.

“We have nothing new to share about Marvel Universe Online,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. Pressed further about whether the changes within Cryptic had affected the game, Microsoft was no more forthcoming. “Cryptic’s recent sale of the City of Heroes IP to NCSoft has no bearing on the development of “Marvel Universe Online,” continued the spokesperson.

Hm…our Spidey sense– based on nothing more than guesswor–is that delays don’t mean never. But it does make that whole lawsuit against CoH look pretty pointless now, doesn’t it?browse archive movie celebrityasswatcher movies freeof movie women whipped beingbus movies bang jessicamovies porn childrenmovies masturbatingsample hentai moviemovie studio grill Map

HOW TO CONNECT A RAZR V3xx TO ISYNC: It was high time for a cell phone, and because we refuse to buy a 1st Gen iPhone, we got something to hold us for a while, namely a Razr V3xx, which is 3g and unlike the original Razr you can hear people on it, so that’s an improvement right off the bat. Unfortunately, it is not supported by Mac. Luckily, intelligent people who do not work for Motorola or Apple have come to the rescue. The guy who created Python had to get a hack off an Italian board. We cannot speak to how to connect it in Leopard, but in Tiger, you go here, download the driver, and then put THE WHOLE FOLDER in your Library folder. Reboot. Connect via bluetooth as you would normally and tell it to Sync up. You will transfer contacts (although not all of them on our computer but that was probably our fault) BUT NOT CALENDAR INFO. Why? Because. Because there’s an iPhone out there somewhere.

RINGTONES: We like to make our own with Audion (Try anything from The Rites of Spring for an edgy feel), but you can get lots of free ringtones at Zedge, including the old school phone rings, which we prefer, and lots of dumb shit which will horrify people. Of course you could also just download this Bubble Bobble Ringtone and everyone will live happily ever after.

There’s a whoopie-do tonight at the Nokia store for the new Heroes game — which ends in time for the season premiere tonight.

Playing video games erases the spatial acuity gap between men and women at least according to one study where men and women participated in an “off Man Out” game in which men scored much better than women. However, then video games entered the picture.

They asked some of their volunteers to spend ten hours playing an action-packed, shoot-’em-up video game, called “Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault”. As a control, other volunteers were asked to play a decidedly non-action-packed puzzle game, called “Ballance”, for a similar time. Both sets were then asked to do the odd-man-out test again.

Among the Ballancers, there was no change in the ability to pick out the unusual. Among those who had played “Medal of Honour”, both sexes improved their performances.

That is not surprising, given the different natures of the games. However, the improvement in the women was greater than the improvement in the men—so much so that there was no longer a significant difference between the two. Moreover, that absence of difference was long-lived. When the volunteers were tested again after five months, both the improvement and the lack of difference between the sexes remained. Though it is too early to be sure, it looks likely that the change in spatial acuity—and the abolition of any sex difference in that acuity—induced by playing “Medal of Honour” is permanent.

§ The LA times looks at the practice of “slabbing which despite what you think, is not a preference you can check on Suicide Girls.

“It’s changed the nature of the hobby, it’s turned comic books into a medium of exchange instead of a medium of entertainment,” groaned James Friel, who works at Comic Relief, the longtime landmark store in Berkeley. To Friel, who has been collecting comics since 1958, “it makes these books a sealed-up commodity. You can’t read them. It makes me sad. Some of these books will be sealed up forever.”

§ Neil Gaiman reviews the final issue of the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS:

So I picked up the final copy today, because I was passing a cash register and it was the last one after all. Even allowing for the probability that it was filled with articles they’d commissioned and hadn’t run because they weren’t very good, or that they were reprints, it… well, the whole tone of the thing felt wrong. The articles were just silly. It wasn’t story logic any longer. A baby gets delivered in an avocado because the sperm donation got mixed with avocado sushi… There wasn’t the feeling reading it that anyone could have believed it. Not children, not the stupid, not someone who’d been born and raised on Mars and this was the only thing they’d read. It was like the joke had become nobody could believe this stuff. And now nobody was buying it. It had a Sergio Aragones drawing though, and some comics…

§ Indian tech writer has the score on DC vs Marvelas he analyses proposed video game team-ups:

The two belong to different universes, but most comic book veterans would agree that they are both excellent leaders, strong, skilled, as well as resourceful. Playing co-op with these two would be a great experience. Captain America boasts of superhuman strength and agility; and as for Batman, he is the most skilled mortal ever. One can demolish a tank with his bare hands, and the other can form a battle strategy to defeat an army within minutes. Maybe he should have had 300 Spartans behind him, no offense to King Leonidas. I believe this would be the ultimate combination of strength and intelligence in a game.

§ The Escapist examines the myths and realities of the fanboy stereotype vis a vis gamers:

The gaming community’s perception of the stereotypical fanboy neatly mirrors the public perception of the stereotypical gamer, generally described as a male aged 13-16, whose potent mix of adolescent hormones and insecurity cause him to lash out against slights both real and imagined. Obviously not every identified fanboy conforms to this rather unflattering stereotype, and as with the exaggerated “comic book guy,” this teenage straw man is probably inaccurate more often than not. image However, if we set aside questions about the accuracy of the imagery and explore why the stereotype exists, we can identify how the unique characteristics of the game industry shaped the fanboy into who he is today.

§Speaking of video games, game designer/guru Ken Rolston points out some fundamental truths about storytelling and human nature:

He explains that linear forms like film and novels are better at telling stories than games—something that’s looking to be flat-out true at the moment—and concluded that inference (such as the ruins in Morrowin) is the best way for gamers to experience compelling narrative which can, at peak, invoke an intangible melancholy.

In the Renaissance, melancholy was a sign of genius. We don’t think he was necessarily referring to that interpretation.

“Intangible melancholy” is truly the greatest result of art. Kotaku has a longer transcript and it’s absorbing reading.

Another massive multiplayer online role playing game is in the works, this one based on the Indian-based Ramayan universe published by Virgin Comics. The Kama Sutra has GOT to figure in there somehow.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced it is teaming up with Virgin comics to create an MMORPG based on the Indian-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe.

“The deal was announced today by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.

“Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told,” said Deepak Chopra. “The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE’s game development team, is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators who will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation.”

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According to Kotaku, gay-themed gaming site GayGamer has been knocked offline by a hate-crime spammer.

Flynn De Marco, the site’s owner and Kotaku weekend editor, said small waves of denial of service attacks started Wednesday morning, causing occasional timeouts on the site. By Friday the site, working with their host, was able to block the IPs where the DOS attacks seemed to be coming from. Then Friday evening someone began flooding the site’s forums and chat room with hate speech, including some death threats, and over-sized images meant to bog down the site, De Marco said. The flood of messages and images all originated from the same IP in Philidelphia, he added.

Frankly, that sucks.

You’ll probably like LEGO Indiana Jones.

See the trailer here.

Posted by Mark Coale

Now that Harry Potter is passed, what’s the next thing for Nerd Nation over which to obsess over? How about CLOVERFIELD aka 1-18-08, the new film project headed up by ALIAS/LOST maestro J.J. Abrams?

You’ve already seen the trailer. You’ve been to the website. What’s next?

Well, this week’s “Entertainment Weekly” (Harry Potter cover) has the first look at the movie’s one-sheet, but it seems to raise just as many questions as it might answer.

And in today’s “Washington Post,” there’s a story about the project and how it relates to Alternate Reality Games.

Abrams was supposed to be a late afternoon panel today at Comic-Con possibly revealing more about the movie. If word does filter out, we’ll throw the details in here.

Edit: At the panel, JJ said that it’s not called “Monstrous” and that he always wanted to make a monster movie.

Posted by Mark Coale

38 Studios (www.38studios.com), a pioneering entertainment force delivering a broad spectrum of immersive products, today announced its participation in the annual San Diego Comic-Con 2007. The company is comprised of luminaries from multiple industries including Boston Red Sox pitcher and game visionary Curt Schilling, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, New York Times best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, and video game industry leader Brett Close. 38 Studios will be introducing the company, senior staff, and artistic and storytelling visionaries McFarlane and Salvatore at this year’s event, July 25-29, 2007, at the San Diego Convention Center, Hall C, Booth #2601.

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DC had to WoW license for toys, so this isn’t much of a stretch, but it is a potentially very popular franchise.

DC Comics, the world’s largest English language comic book publisher and home to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman announced plans today to publish a new comic book series based on World of Warcraft®, Blizzard Entertainment®’s popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Preview art from the series will debut at Comic-Con International, held in San Diego, CA from July 26–29. The World of Warcraft comic book will be published through DC’s WildStorm imprint and debut this fall.

The ongoing monthly series will be written by industry veteran Walter Simonson (Thor, Orion) and feature art by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope. The first six issues of the World of Warcraft comic series will each feature two covers, one by superstar comic book artist Jim Lee and a second by Blizzard Entertainment Senior Art Director Samwise Didier.

The Warcraft® series has been a pillar of gaming culture for over a decade, with multiple #1-selling titles. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft MMORPG allows thousands of players to explore the rich, war-torn setting of the franchise together, and has attracted more than 8.5 million subscribers worldwide. The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to World of Warcraft, recently shattered PC game sales records by selling more than 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours of release and approximately 3.5 million in its first month.

The first storyline of the new ongoing series begins when a human is found unconscious on the shores of Kalimdor, with no memory of who he is or how he arrived there. Enslaved by an orc shaman, the man must fight for survival against members of both the Alliance and the Horde. He strikes uneasy relationships with other races in his quest to find the secrets of his past.

We know what you’ve been asking yourselves all this time. What is REALLY GOING ON with John Layman’s career? Well, for one thing, he’s joined Cryptic Studios to work on the Marvel MMO:

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Apparently this:

“Eternal Sonata of the Spotless Mind [for the Xbox 360] follows the adventures of famed composer Frederic Chopin as he travels through his own dream world filled with colorful characters and stunning locales. In a land where music influences both combat and exploration, Chopin sets out on a journey not only of self-discovery, but also one of redemption.”

More.

Did you know E3 the yearly gaming confab is going on? It is, but it’s vewy vewy quiet. Unlike past AV extravaganzas, which made San Diego seam like a Seurat painting, E3 has been downsized to a series of media presentations in a large hangar in Santa Monica. Joystiq has all the news. We don’t follow the gaming industry closely enough to know what’s the big scoop, but this kinder gentler E3 is an interesting model — if it works, as we’ve speculated before, maybe someday movie studios will go back to a quieter ShoWest-like presentation for their movies, instead of the public spectacle of San Diego. Frankly, that and the hotel room shortage are the only things that can possibly bring Comic-Con back into Earth’s orbit.

§ Dave Astor has several reports from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists’s 50th Anniversary convention:
Can editorial cartoons survive?

Before audience members came up with the suggestions, the problem was described by editorial cartoonist Paul Fell — one of the session leaders. “Part of the reason the AAEC was founded was a concern about the dimimishing number of editorial cartoon positions in the U.S.,” said Fell, a Nebraska-based creator syndicated by Artizans. “Here we are 50 years later and we’re facing the same problem — only now there’s roughly 25% of the staff positions [about 80]compared to 1957.”

Plus: Tooners on blogging
• Comments from Beat hero Helen Thomas.
• 3 cartoonists honored
• Various issues regarding the Mohammed Cartoons.

§ Phil Yeh talks literacy: as always.

Troubled by the fact that so many Americans were functionally illiterate, he organized a group called Cartoonists Across America to encourage kids to dive into books. Beginning with a cross country tour to 34 states and two Canadian provinces, Yeh (pronounced, “Yay”) and his cohorts appeared at schools, shopping malls, and other public spots to paint murals, enlist literacy tutors, and give away original comic books with a reading-is-fun theme.

§ Minnie Driver is the new Lara Croft in Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider, a new animated series from GameTap, Turner Broadcasting’s video-game-themed broadband network.

§ Jack Black, ‘tooner.

“I’ve been a big fan of cartoons, and I actually got in there and did some animating when I was in high school,” he says. “I won a prize. I won a Rocky & Bullwinkle for my don’t-drink-and-drive cartoon.”

The Wired blog reports that Telltale Games is reprinting Surfin’ The Highway: The Collected Sam & Max. The book includes both the priceless originals and more recent bonus material.

The original printing is super-rare these days, fetching between $150-200 through Amazon used book sellers. Pretty pricey for a trade paperback!

Telltale is also prepping a two-disc Sam and Max Episode 1 soundtrack release, which of course everyone is excited about. Everyone.

Telltale has been producing Sam & Max videogames of late, and you can see a whole line of fine products at their website, which promise, “The Summer of Sam & Max.”

If you’ve ever read Purcell’s unique madness, you know how good this is. If you haven’t, well you’re in for a treat. Or you can read the Eisner-nominated webcomic here, but be forwarned it’s in some kind of lofi animation so you have to hold your cursor over the panels to read the dialog.

More info.

§ Over at his MySpace blog, director Jon Favreau reports on the completion of photography for Iron Man:

Principal photography ended with a huge bang as we filmed the final scenes of Iron Man in Caesar’s Palace. As many of you already know, gambling is a casino’s top priority. A production can not interfere with their cash cow. As a result, movies must shoot during the dead hours, no matter if it’s Swingers or Rain Man. We were given a window of midnight to one the next afternoon to do all of our work. Part of our strategy to prepare for these ungodly hours was to stay up as late as possible the night before and sleep as late as possible. I did half the plan. The wrong half. I stayed out until 7AM and then woke up four hours later. After motoring through the delerium of a sleepless shooting marathon, I am proud to report that we have handily completed our movie on time and on budget. What a great way to end.

Above is a cast photo: Terence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges.

§ Paramount has optioned FOUNDATION by John Rozum and Kody Chamberlain, which is published by BOOM Studios:

Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie, founders and owners of Boom, are producing the adaptation for Par. Boom publishes comicbooks and graphic novels.

“Foundation,” a five-issue miniseries created by Kody Chamberlain, revolves around efforts to stop the unpublished prophecies of Nostradamus from coming to pass.

Boom title is the third to which Cosby and Richie have sold the film rights; rights to “Talent” and “Tag” went to Universal. Boom was launched 18 months ago.

Cosby also co-created the series “Eureka” on the Sci Fi Channel.

Is Boom winning the comics-are-cheap-IP derby in Hollywood?

§ Meanwhile, Rogue Pictures is prepping LOST SQUAD, based on Chris Kirby’s comic for Devil’s Due.

Rogue Pictures’ “Lost Squad” has found its writer and director in Stephen St. Leger and James Mather.

The Irish duo, best known for directing commercials as the team of Saint and Mather, will tackle the bigscreen adaptation of Chris Kirby’s comicbook, published by Devil’s Due.

Project revolves around the adventures of a ragtag unit of Allied soldiers who fight Hitler’s occult agents and other supernatural threats during World War II.

Idea is to overstylize the action in the vein of Warner’s recent graphic novel-based hit “300.”

Danial Alter and josh Blaylock also have production credits of various types.

§ The Darkness Video Game is out for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

Set in the dark and seedy underbelly of New York City and the ethereal realm of The Darkness, players assume the role of mafia hitman Jackie Estacado, heir to “The Darkness,” an ancient power that awakens within him on his 21st birthday.

Jackie must use traditional weapons as well as learn to command his terrible new powers to seek revenge on his own crime family. The Darkness is based on the best-selling comic book series of the same name, published by Top Cow Productions and created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. “The Darkness” comic book launched in 1996 and is currently published in 19 different languages around the world.

Into the Pixel is a display of concept art for video games. The other day we were railing against work for hire, but as many people pointed out, there is a time and place for it, such as paying very talented people decent sums of money to sit down and imagine. The result is sometimes what you see here, some very evocative and impressive art. Click on the link for the complete gallery of the jury selections.

The Into the Pixel exhibit will feature 16 exemplary works of video game art, selected by a panel of jurors from a field of submissions gleaned from artists around the world. The exhibition offers an opportunity for published video and computer game artists to be reviewed and recognized by the public and by their peers in both the art and video game milieu.

[snip] The 2007 Into the Pixel Art Exhibition will premiere at Creative Artists Agency in June. The framed art will be unveiled in July at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Santa Monica, California. The Exhibition will open to the public at the new E for All Expo at the LA Convention Center, October 18-21, 2007.

[Above, part of “City 17″ by Jeremy Bennett for Half-Life 2 Episode 2]

Speaking of Todd McFarlane, he has designed Halo 3-themed controllers for GamStop:

Halo 3 is poised as potentially the biggest Xbox 360 game of 2007, and Microsoft is making sure that everyone will join in on the craze once the game hits on September 25. Currently, the Xbox 360 controllers come in the conservative shades of black and white, but the peripheral will be getting an extreme makeover a few weeks before Halo 3’s release.

Spotted on GameStop’s online store for preorder are two wireless controllers and a headset in Halo 3 motif. The two wireless controllers come in either MasterChief or Covenant themes with artwork by Spawn comic book master Todd McFarlane (pictured above). The controllers will also come with an exclusive Halo 3 figurine from McFarlane Toys. To Halo 3 wireless controllers are priced at $59.99, representing a $10 premium over the more pedestrian black and white controllers.

Red Mile Entertainment, Inc. (OTCBB: RDML), a worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced it has entered into a multi-year, worldwide license agreement to develop and to publish video games based on the Sin City series of graphic novels by writer/artist and film director Frank Miller. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The winner of multiple awards in its original comic-book and graphic-novel forms, the Sin City property achieved even greater public awareness with the 2005 release of the successful Frank Miller’s Sin City live-action theatrical feature film.

“Sin City enjoys a broad and devoted following. Its crime noir settings, richly detailed characters, hyper-real action sequences, and engaging stories provide an outstanding groundwork for video games,” said Chester Aldridge, CEO of Red Mile Entertainment. “Red Mile is enthusiastic about working with Frank Miller to create a franchise that is worthy of this great property.”

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Go to the jump for the names of all the coics folk who are re-envisioning Lara.

GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), announced today the launch of a new GameTap Retrospective series and a new original animated series, “Re\Visioned,” that pays homage to one of the game industry’s top franchises of all time – Tomb Raider.

“10 Years of Tomb Raider – A GameTap Retrospective” profiles the creators, the games, the live-action models, and the fans who have collectively made Tomb Raider a pop culture phenomenon. The documentary will be available for free for all fans to view at www.gametap.com/tombraider and new segments will be added each week through June 7th.

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