The Dark Knight delves deeper into the "Dark Knight Returns" lore.

 

Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" was the first Batman comic I ever read.

Enchanted by the grime, horror infested streets of Miller's Gotham, it is fair to say the comic changed my view of Batman. No longer was he merely the brooding vigilante seen in Tim Burton's Batman films, he was much more.

The Dark Knight Returns was made so great, in my opinion, by Miller portraying Batman as a man who is no longer loved by his city, once a saviour now a menace. There were hints of this in Batman Begins, however it seems that characters who complained about Batman were more confused than hateful, however the latest piece of viral marketing suggests that this hatred has grown into something much worse, and thus has stimulated an underground group to form. The "Nycticeius Underground" (Nycticeius being a type of bat) seems to be the name of a forum that /Film was contacted about unfortunately it's password protected.

I think it is obvious from the trailers that we'll be seeing a thread in the movie which sees Batman doubting whether he is needed and if he is crossing the moral line of being a vigilante who no longer has the support of Gotham. The evidence appears everywhere, from the introduction of Harvey Dent, to Christian Bale looking rather despondent in trailer. However the greatest piece  of evidence is the appearance of this forum, a seemingly pro-batman group which is underground is rather reminiscent of the "Sons of Batman" in The Dark Knight Returns.

I'm not a big fan of viral campaigns, however I must say that this one has certainly kept me interested and built hype for this film. The fact Christopher Nolan seems to be able to insert all of these aspects that would keep a your hardcore Batman fan happy, whilst subtly inserting them so that the film is not bogged down by it is amazing.

Mr Dent, you such a tease!

No Spoilers here.

This short video has just been released teasing Harvey Dent. Is this for The Dark Knight or Batman 3? I don't know. Is this fucking awesome? Hell yeah

Why there was no Spring Update

Rumours are currently coming out regarding an"avatar" system coming to Xbox Live.

Ever since it was announced that there would be no Spring Update this year there was speculation that Xbox Live would be getting a massive overhaul come Fall, and here it is.

Ever since the announcement of the Playstation Home it was always thought that Microsoft would respond with something similar, however as shown by the picture this more a response to the Wii's "Mii's", pair this with news of a "Newton" motion-sensitive controller and it seems that Microsoft wants a piece of Nintendo's casual cake.

Is this the right decision?

Although in terms of business it seems blindingly obvious, and it seems that both Microsoft and Sony are going after the casual market, yet I feel that with over 500,000 Wii's selling in May that it's too little too late. Of course from Microsoft's perspective it makes sense : go after a space you've been chasing after but have failed horribly at (see - "Scene It"), with what seems to be the new craze. The systems are already under the TV, why not let the whole finally get in on the Xbox action?

Details are scarce but it will be interesting to see what they say about it at E3, thus giving us a hint at who it will be marketed to.

Innovation, screw you.

While I've been burying my head into various books and files I am sure you faithful "Shinty Club" followers ( all 3 of you) have been awaiting my return, and that I have.

I have returned on the back end of what has been an exciting seven days. The Microsoft Gamers Day in San Francisco showed MS essentially diversifying their portfolio, and with a really nice looking Banjo game announced and more Gears of War 2 screenshots released, 2008 is shaping up to be a really nice year for me and my 360.

When the Gears of War trailer was released last Friday, I must admit I was a tad dissapointed. I don't know what I was expecting; some massive overhaul in gameplay. No. Some great change in art style. No. Yet I did feel as though it lacked the surge of adrenaline that I got the first time I played Gears on my 360.

However on deeper thought I was happy, as long as they make little changes I would not mind if Gears of War 2 was simply refined. I felt that Gears of War needed more immersive gameplay, with maybe more large scale battles, and an improvement in the storyline; all of which seems to be being delivered. On the multiplayer front as long as it has a coherent party system I'm more than content.

The announcement of this game brought something up for me that crops up in all mediums, the fact that people expect and want constant innvoation .The thing that annoys me is innovation for innovation sake. I know for example that when I watch Iron Man it will not do something I won't have seen before and that is not a bad thing, when people complain that "its the same game" or "Game X 1.5" it really hits a nerve.

Why should something change? Yes innovation in areas where its needed but refinement is a greater art, how to refine a game without making it repetitive takes more skill than to simply introduce a new aspect that, rather than being fresh or introducing a new aspect to a genre, is there simply to be another bullet point on the feature list.

The developers of LOTR : Conquest. IGN reccently interviewed the developers and they had no problem with saying

"The high-level pitch is this is basically fantasy Battlefront."

This is the first line of the interview with IGN, and I'm not complaining LOTR:"Battlefront" seems an excellent idea for a game and I believe this sort of fan service is exactly what the industry needs sometimes.

People reaction's to innovation vary. The industry has seen mass market success wtih the Wii, which had a creative inital concept ( ie. executing motion controlling) yet as really failed to innovate since, with only a hand full of games doing something useful with the remote rather than using it as a gimmick.

I feel that even sports games such as Pro Evolution Soccer have lost there sheen as the developers simply add something new to sell a new copy, rather than actually catering to what the fans what. The feel of the game was perfected in Pro Evolution Soccer 5, yet three years on we still don't have fully licensed teams.

This all stems from the fact that people demand innovation, and developers automatically go for it, sometimes a game doesn't have to be a piece of art or wholly different, sometimes it's better off just taking a mechanic and putting different (see: Middle Earth) textures.

You tried Ed, you tried.

MK8 - Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe - Trailer

Uploaded by paulcdf

As you can probably see in the post below, the announcement of Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe is one of epic proportions, and as you can probably se below I soon realized that it was too good to be true.

Since then a teaser trailer and interview with creator Ed Boon has come out, and as much as I want to like it, I can't and here's why.

• Art Style : Simply the art style they've employed seems too abstract, too saturday morning TV. I appreciate MK for it's funny yet mature stylings, yet the way that Batman looks is very old-school 1960 and maybe with the stylings of McFarlane (see long, flowing cape), and to see a Batman with a very different art style is disheartening.

• Power Explanation - Rather surprisingly I like the way Boon and co. have tackled this hurdle, rather than have a storyline that actually attempts to make sense, he left us with the simple :
  

"A cataclysmic event causes the DCU and MK universe to start merging"

However I was less than impressed with how there is going to be an explanation that Superman can't fly, heat ray etc. Something about Superman's abilities having been paired down. Now why would they even meddle with DC canon, simply put you either give him full abilities, or paired down ones yet there is no need for a justification for this, I personally see this as an assault on the character.

It's not all doom and gloom however, reports that there would be "little or no blood" seem to be unfounded, as seen below.

I know it's bad to judge this so early however I feel that even though I love both of the univeresi that it could be amazing. However I still have alot of faith in Ed Boon who seems really animated and enthusiastic about the project that I just hope it turns out good.

Orgasmic Mash-ups.

The counter over at noob.com is finally down to 00:00:00 and I was extremely dissapointed to find that no new info was released. The site is ran by Mortal Kombat producer Ed Boon so speculation was that a new MK game would be announced.

However, my dissapointment was short lived, no sooner had the timer ran out that GiantBomb.com released some rumour and speculation, that Microsoft would most definitley not comment on.

But there’s already a healthy amount of speculation out there about the next MK, with most of the juiciest rumors pegging the game as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics. Apparently GamesRadar ran (and quickly removed) some sort of header image on its site called “MKDC blog–article_image” and it has a silhouette in it that looks very Superman-like.

Now Jeff Gerstmann's super sleuthing has got me very excited, if not a tad wary. the mere concept of two amazing things coming together to be one is absolutely mindblowing, however upon deeper thought and put within context of a game it all falls to pieces.

First of all, where does the camera sit. Now I am one of the belief that if superheroes are going to fight it should be in a War of the Monsters fashion, a mass, all-out, city-encompassing affair; after all these people are superheroes. This however would be totally impossible with Mortal Kombat characters. How could Liu Kang travel at the rate of Superman, a man who can bicycle-kick against a man "who can leap building in a single bound".

Now I think common sense would dictate for Mortal Kombat to go either the Street Fighter "3D but not really" look or the Virtua Fighter "total 3D" look. This of course presents another problem, how do you explain that a man who can fly, or a man who can can shapeshift is staying confined to one arena.

Another problem is roster selection, I would hope that all of the Mortal Kombat classics characters would remain; as for DC would they go as far as choosing Vertigo characters such as Hellblazer, they have to choose both marketable characters and stay away from some DC's *ahem* less than stellar personas.

So, I suppose my initial excitement may be wearing off, but I still think it's cool that sometime in the next two years Batman will be fighting Raiden; unless Boon pulls a UMK3 on us.

PS: DC ths is how it's done.

Marvel vs capcom 2 Ryu Vicks
Uploaded by Makoto_Shishio

Altogether now; PROTON CANNON

4 -year-old football management sims for the win?

Recently, my life has been taken over by the supreme Championship Manager 4. I have now been sacked from Liverpool and am currently scouting teams such as Port Vale and Ipswich for a job. Sims aren't really my thing, like RTS' their something I absolutely adore the idea of but the simple thing is my shot attention span cannot host these games for long. CM4 is totally different though, it's so engaging and becuase it's four years old you see players who are famous now starting out.

I saw Dawn Of The Dead (2004) and I was really impressed, it didn't take itself too seriously whilst still being serious enough to laugh at ( I have never seen Ving Rhames excel at anything than playing such a stereotypical badass). Even though there completely different genres it gives me hope for the Watchmen movie. Here are some shots below:



These are pretty cool, but still kind of boring. However the set shots from The Spirit are absolutely enthralling. Have you ever seen Samuel L. look cooler.




On that note I leave you.

PS. Red Dragons are murdering me on Ninja Gaiden