In an interesting marketing move, Microsoft recently sent emails to fans at the Halo Waypoint forums entitled “Your piece of the Halo 4 puzzle.” In all, 32 pieces were collected and assembled to reveal what will likely become the box art for the November 6th release.
Needless to say, this is going to be a long, long summer for Halo fans.
(Waypoint forums via Coming Soon via Geekosystem)
Korean gamer Yoshichan has elevated his status in the gaming world after he beat Diablo 3 in a mind-blowing 12 hours and 29 minutes with “368 Lifetime Kills, 412 Elite Kills and 168,481 gold as a Barbarian on normal difficulty”.
Obviously, this has opened the doors for new competition, and according to reports, a group of Korean and Chinese gamers have already conquered the game in 7 hours on normal difficulty.
(via Geekologie)
Disney XD recently released a new trailer for their new TRON: Uprising animated series, which will debut June 7 on the Disney XD network. The series is set between the original TRON and the Legacy sequel, and focuses on Tron’s training of a young program called “Beck”, which will act as a successor to take his place defending the The Grid from Clu 2.
The new series features character design work by Robert Valley, storyboards by Eric Canete, and music by Daft Punk collaborator Joseph Trapanese. The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Nate Corddry, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), Reginald VelJohnson and Bruce Boxleitner.
It also looks fantastic. Check out the trailer after the break.
Microsoft has teamed up with Machinima to produce a live-action Halo web series entitled Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn that will launch on Machinima and Halo Waypoint in the weeks leading up to Halo 4‘s release on Nov. 6. The series will consist of five weekly, 15-minute episodes that will focus on Master Chief serving as a source of inspiration for a young cadet.
“[We want] to make Halo accessible for people who haven’t played the games,” 343 Industries, the game’s new development company, rep Matt McCloskey said. “We wanted to do something unique from a narrative standpoint that’s big in scale.”
McCloskey also reports that if the shorts are well received, it could open the door for more live action development. Whether this culminates in the long awaited Halo movie remains to be seen.
Fox recently announced that in 2013, Malachai and Ethan Nicolle’s popular webcomic “Axe Cop” will become a TV series for the network’s upcoming late night Saturday night animation block. Nick Weidenfeld, who’s the head of Animation Domination HD, stated:
“It’s rare that you find something that feels both so new in its tone and content but also so fully formed,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, adding “To me it was very clear that ‘Axe Cop’ has potential to be a larger franchise.”
Fox is in the process of seeking a writer to adapt the series into six 15-minute pilot episodes, and hopes to launch the Saturday night Animation Domination block in the first quarter of 2013.
(via CA)
A new exhibition featuring LEGO adaptations of 11 iconic buildings is currently running at the National Building Museum in Washington DC through September 3. Entitled Lego Architecture: Towering Ambition, the collection is made up of 15.5 million LEGO bricks, and includes adaptations of the Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers, and the Empire State Building – all of which were created by architect Adam Reed Tucker, who is also one of only 11 LEGO Certified Professionals on earth.
Hit the jump to check out additional pics.
Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic Akira has no doubt inspired innumerable fantasies about flying down the road on Kaneda’s motorcycle. Not satisfied with the prospect of having the machine exist only in the pages of a book, Masashi Teshima invested seven years and 10 million yen (about $121,000) to build his example of the bike, which is so badass that it is the only such project to earn Otomo’s official stamp of approval.
If that’s not cool enough, Teshima is currently taking the bike on a cross-country ride with the goal of raising money for autism research. Once he reaches Tokyo, the bike will be displayed at an “art of Katsuhiro Otomo” exhibition.
Check out additional photos and videos after the break.
Disney has released a short press release which officially confirms the Captain America sequel while providing a few words about the film’s premise:
Marvel Studios’ sequel to the blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger… the second installment will pick-up where the highly anticipated Marvel’s The Avengers (May 4, 2012) leaves off, as Steve Rogers continues his affiliation with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D and struggles to embrace his role in the modern world.
Although the film doesn’t currently have a director, it deos have a release date: April 4, 2014. Mark your calendars.
(via BC)
The intense criticism from fans relating to the ending of Mass Effect 3 prompted EA to announce that an “Extended Cut” DLC will be released for free sometime this summer. The goal of the content is to provide “additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes,” resulting in “further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3″ and “deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes.”
Needless to say, that’s going to be a tall order.
Although no additional details are available, studio co-founder Ray Muzyka states that “with the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision for the end of this story arc.”
After its initial release, the extended cut will remain available until April 12, 2014.
(via Joystiq)
There’s a new development in the ongoing saga of Detroit’s proposed Robocop statue with project organizer Jerry Paffendorf’s announcement that the statue is about to be cast in bronze. A 1:1 replica of RoboCop, recently completed by Hollywood-based robot replica builder Fred Barton, is currently at Across the Board Creations in Canada, where it is being 3D scanned and scaled up to a 10 foot tall foam form. Upon completion, the statue will be cast at Venus Bronze Works in Detroit. A location for the statue has not yet been selected, but it’s “definitely coming”.
