The temperature is dropping, which means it’s probably a good time to stay inside and peruse Worth Reading, your guide to the week’s best games writing.

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MASTER OF NONE Trailer

My new Netflix series Master of None premieres November 6th. Here’s the trailer. Hope you like it!

I’m afraid a Super Mario Maker stage is about to crush my soul.

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Today at the New York Comic Con, LEGO officially pulled the curtain from their newest line, Nexo Knights. A cross between Space and Castle, Nexo Knights features knights in robotic power armor riding mechanical hovering horses and driving giant vehicles. The Nexo Knights theme will be accompanied by a companion app titled Merlok 2.0, as well as a 20-episode television series chronicling the adventures of the knights. It airs in December.

While many of our viewers will no doubt be having flashbacks to Knights Kingdom II right about now, it looks like these sets will at the least feature a lot of new parts great for Space and Mecha builders. We also still haven’t seen the full set lineup, so keep your eyes out for the rest of the sets.

Read the full press release after the jump.

LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Catapults Into Action

NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2015
The LEGO Group today announced LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS,™ a new, original LEGO property depicting a medieval kingdom set in a futuristic world where five young, brave knights “download” special powers to their shields in order to battle the royal court’s evil Jestro and a cast of monsters to restore peace. The story comes to life through LEGO building sets, an episodic television and a digital gaming app that fuels story-driven gameplay. The property launches later this year, with products available starting January 1, 2016. LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS characters, story, app experience and two iconic building sets from the collection will be previewed to New York Comic Con attendees, Thursday, October 8 through Sunday, October 11 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

“Inspired by insights to meet the emerging needs of today’s kids, LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS juxtaposes a timeless world of medieval knights with a futuristic twist in a captivating story that invites children to explore LEGO play in a whole new way,” said Casper Thingholm of the LEGO Group. “LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS offers children the rewarding building experiences they know and love, amplified by digital enhancements that merge what today’s kids love: self-expression, strong characters, deep content-driven story and digital gaming.”

Story
Set in the futuristic, high-tech world of the Kingdom of Knighton, LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS follows five young knights in their quest to battle Jestro, his sidekick, the Book of Monsters, and their Lava Monster Army. Heroic knight, Clay Moorington, leads the band of knights, including alpha superstar Lance Richmond, hipster Aaron Fox, Macy Halbert, a princess who would rather be a knight, and Axl, the giant. Together, under the tutelage of Knights’ Academy mentor and Great Digital Wizard, Merlok 2.0, they join forces to defeat the enemy.

Building Sets and Consumer Products
Fourteen richly detailed building sets will be available in January 2016, ranging in price from $9.99 to $99.99. Additional building sets will launch in August 2016. The first two sets are being revealed at New York Comic Con. Consumer products partners across key categories are also engaged in creating a merchandise program dedicated to LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS, such as publishing and soft goods.

LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS: MERLOK 2.0 App
To extend the story and increase playing fun, more than 150 unique LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS powers – represented as shields – have been scattered across the kingdom of Knighton. The powers can be found in building sets, online, in print and directly in the television content. Existing in both physical and digital form, children can discover, scan and collect varied powers using the LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS: MERLOK 2.0 app. Once added to a digital power collection, children can creatively and continuously find new ways to join the knights to defeat the enemy, in their gaming experience.
Available in late December 2015, the LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS: MERLOK 2.0 app will be available as a free download via App Store, Google Play, Samsung Apps and Amazon Appstore.

Television Series
LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS, a 20-episode, animated adventure comedy series, will debut on select global broadcast television networks as soon as late December 2015 and air throughout 2016. The core means by which children follow the story and get to know the characters, the series follows the constant adventures of LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS heroes and villains. Children will also be able to scan new LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS powers directly from their content viewing screen into their app games, further connecting their play experience.

via Brickfan.

hellotailor:

Why geek movie franchises have a director problem.

October is the month I watch horror movies the way kids eat candy. For years, my wife and I came up with a list of movies and named the whole thing Shocktober. A while ago, we started sharing the list, and that’s what I’m here to do today. If you’re new to horror, check back tomorrow for a different list!

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Thanks to Super Mario Maker (and Giant Bomb “editor”) Dan Ryckert, I was forced to commit a horrible act to finish this stage (5330-0000-0071-CCBE). Watch me play the whole thing here.

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etsycult:

A Witch Bows to No Man

well I love this

LEGO Dimensions is finally available for purchase. If you’ve been excited to have LEGO versions of Portal, Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, DC Superheroes, Back to the Future, Wizard of Oz, and tons of other themes all interacting together (or maybe you just want the physical minifigs) then there’s no need to wait any longer. Hop over to your local store and pick it up now, or hit the Amazon link below to support The Brothers Brick.

Photo courtesy of AC Pin.

Welcome to the 1000th recipe on smittenkitchen.com. One. Thou. Sandth. Didn’t I just start this thing? Wasn’t it only supposed to last six months? How did we let things get so out of hand? Wait, do I finally have an answer to the ever-present question “What do you do all day?” that’s not “Read The Awl and try to figure out what it means that most of my life goals look like this?” Hm, probably not.

... Read the rest of the perfect manhattan on smittenkitchen.com

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© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to the perfect manhattan | 169 comments to date | see more: Bourbon, Drinks, Fall, Photo

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time speedrunner Cosmo Wright has constructed one of the trickiest stages I’ve played so far, a level that’s more puzzle and maze than platformer, and I refuse to give up.

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While there’s not enough alcohol in the world to forget this scene, it’s my journalistic duty to remind you it exists.

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Here’s a video of one of the panels I was on at FanExpoCanada 2015. I can’t remember if I said anything insightful about the future of Digital Storytelling but I do remember at one point imploring the audience to not fall prey to “society’s fake ideas about success”. Which I stand by.

Most have Labor Day to thank for a shorter week, but that doesn’t mean Worth Reading, our weekly collection of the best games writing, is taking a break.

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'Inside Amy Schumer' writer Kurt Metzger harasses Twitter personality @literalporn:

sadydoyle:

You know, sometimes when a guy mentions and/or tells flat-out lies about and/or screams “cunt” about you in literally every interview he’s ever done for the past three years (I have Googled – it’s always there) you can start to take it personally. 

You shouldn’t. Because the harassment has kept going, with a growing list of targets, for those three years. Here’s the latest, and a new round-up of the victims. 

I would love to believe that Amy Schumer will fire this guy eventually, if not because it’s the right thing to do, then because it’s expedient. I mean, aside from the whole confessing-to-beating-up-a-girlfriend-on-Facebook thing, aside from claiming that rape culture doesn’t exist, that feminists lie about how often rape happens, and that some women deserve to be beaten by their boyfriends, and aside from the part where, due to coke or booze or Adderall or Mommy not breast-feeding or whatever is actually wrong with him… I mean, the bit where he’s been seeking out feminist writers on the Internet, since at least 2011, and leaving 27-comment Facebook threads shrieking slurs at them, just isn’t great for her rep.

(Of all the people you could target for your weird compulsion, too. What kind of idiot confesses to a crime on Facebook and then feels mortally wounded when people see him as a criminal? The kind of idiot who specifically prefers to harass journalists and then gets shocked when it makes the news. This guy might be awful, but he’s also just really, really stupid.)  

This is, I am at great pains to point out, not an “I hope this guy gets fired for writing bad jokes” thing. I mean, people get fired for being bad at their jobs, but I’m proud to say I’ve never knowingly watched Kurt Metzger make jokes in my life. If he made horrible jokes and left people alone, the most he’d deserve is a bad review. I’ve never gone out and boycotted Dane Cook or Bill Burr, and they seem fucking horrible. They also seem to confine being horrible to the stage. This is an “I hope he gets fired for his activities of violence and emotional abuse, which are not jokes, they are actual things he does in real life that no feminist should enable or support” thing. 

But no matter what he does, it won’t happen. One of the sadder things about Amy Schumer is that her specific comedy background is rooted in radio shock-jock crap. There are lots of different comedy lineages: Schumer’s just happens to have its roots in a really toxic varietal that sprung up in New York in the mid-’00s, and is largely based on saying violently sexist and other -ist things to prove that people are prudes. This isn’t “comedy” in the way you probably think of it, unless you live to turn over rocks and get nauseated by the things living underneath them. It’s the stuff that gets linked on R/RedPill with “Jim Norton DESTROYS the feminist lie of rape culture” or “PATRICE O’NEAL: The bitch of any animal is weaker (PLUS: Hear how a lie led to O’Neal being convicted of rape).”* It’s stuff where the white male host says, on air, that black people are criminals, fantasizes out loud about raping a black woman and “punching her all in the fuckin’ face,” and spends hours screaming at one specific black woman, and when he gets fired, people are angry at the crime against free speech. 

I mean: There are three degrees of separation between Amy Schumer and Andrew Dice Clay. (You remember him. The guy who was so famously misogynist and anti-gay that Roger Ebert compared watching his concert documentary to seeing a fascist rally in progress.) Jim Norton gets his start opening for his buddy, the Diceman. Amy Schumer gets her start through her mentor, Opie & Anthony co-host Jim Norton. Voila: Amy Schumer, a female comic who lives in that pseudo-Imus world of crap, and can hack it. And I guess I know now why she’d be interested in sneaking in feminist messages, and how she got as far as she did – getting these guys to leave you alone because you’re “one of them” must be a benefit that a lot of other women in the business never experience – but I think it explains why she lets that world infiltrate her comedy, and why “I said a racist thing” is a punchline in her world same as it is in theirs. It explains why she let Kurt Metzger, another weird, poisonous fungal growth that bloomed in that post-Dice-Clay swamp of misogyny, ride her coattails, and why she won’t cut him loose. 

So yeah, you probably can’t get Schumer to get rid of the guy. And sad as it is to say, some parts of the comedy world will probably always be a lost cause. But it’s both sad and validating to know that he’s done exactly the same thing in exactly the same way for years – it means that no woman anywhere can claim that this was “her fault,” because abusers gonna abuse, and projecting blame on you is just another gaslighting tactic – and it might provide a sad but necessary look at how your feminist-comedy-viral-clip sausage gets made.

– 

* I am aware that a lot of people love Patrice O’Neal, and that he said some really smart stuff. He also said “I don’t like what women are,” but whatever: I don’t know enough about him to know what I really think. The point is, he’s become an MRA/PUA hero since his death, in a way that might horrify even him. And it’s that specific type of “comedy fan,” that circle, that I’m describing. 

I really love this samurai-inspired print series by Conor Nolan. “The Lilypad Seven” includes seven 5″ x 5″ giclees (each with an edition of 300) for £60 (or £10 each). Visit Black Dragon Press.

The post “The Lilypad Seven” Art Print Series by Conor Nolan appeared first on OMG Posters!.

Monkey Island turned 25 years old earlier this week, and designer Ron Gilbert used his blog to share some truly interesting (and bizarre!) stories about the game’s development.

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The seventh entry in Ryan Duggan’s “Treasury of Shitting Dogs” takes on an upcoming summer holiday. “Labor Day BBQ (With Shitting Dog)” is a 16″ x 20″ screenprint, has an edition of 45, and costs $45. Visit his shop.

The post “Labor Day BBQ (With Shitting Dog)” Art Print by Ryan Duggan appeared first on OMG Posters!.

And rather than just taking photos of cosplayers at PAX, I decided to join them.

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My wife and I fell for one another while drinking crappy beer and watching horror movies of questionable quality. This last week has been a repeat of that experience, but rather than watching a movie, we’ve been cackling our way through a video game.

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Boston police arrested two heavily armed men they say posed a "real, serious threat" to attendees of this weekend's Pokémon World Championships.

Antler Gallery will release a new art print by Josh Keyes next week. “A Whole New World” is an 18″ x 34″ giclee, has an edition of 200, and will cost $275. It goes up Tuesday, August 25th at 11am Pacific Time. Visit AntlerPDX.com.

Click the image to see it larger:

The post “A Whole New World” Art Print by Josh Keyes (Onsale Info) appeared first on OMG Posters!.

You’ll get a shot at three new concert posters by Ken Taylor tomorrow. The info for each is listed below. These go up tomorrow (Friday, August 21st) at 2pm Central Time. Visit Postersandtoys.com.

The Avett Brothers

18″ x 24″ Screenprint, Edition of 77, $35:

Heartless Bastards

12″ x 36″ Screenprint, Edition of 52, $30:

Conor Oberst 

18″ x 24″ Screenprint, Edition of 148, $30:

The post Three New Concert Posters by Ken Taylor (Onsale Info) appeared first on OMG Posters!.

It’d be really nice if it was Friday, right? You’re in luck! Not only is it Friday, but that means another installment of Worth Reading, our weekly roundup of the best games writing around.

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We're pretty sure these were discovered behind the sofa on Jabba the Hutt's pleasure barge ...

Kyler Wilson has built a series of wickedly cool minifig-scale arcade machines. I love the different genres you can pick out from the machine styles and the simple graphics on the screens. I think these would look fantastic in a future Modular set of an 80’s-style arcade.

Rick Grimes' attempts at reasoning are no match for the Merc With a Mouth.

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a "pika!"

I’m not sure how to describe the last 20 minutes of my life, in which I played Sonic Dreams Collection, a compilation of “lost” (read: fake) Sonic the Hedgehog games that go to some truly messed up places.

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For those of you craving a classic Metroidvania style game, you’re in luck. Brazilian game developer JoyMasher recently released Odallus The Dark Call last month. This game is a shout-out to the beloved Castlevania and Metroid series on the NES. It also blends deliciously well elements from Ghosts ‘n Goblins. For example, the map gives you this 80s Capcom feel.

This game is a worthy successor to the by-gone era of the NES platformer. JoyMasher, who doesn’t have many games under its belt, has picked up the tourch from Konami by recreating a classic video-game in a genre they helped make famous. We’ve been dying for a proper Metroid platformer for ages now.

Getting back on track, we delve into all the details that can make or break Odallus, just down below in our GameSniped Review. Does our protagonist have what it takes to stand with the likes of Simon Belmont?

Odallus The Dark Call Plot Synopsis

You are Haggis, a badass hunter whose son has been kidnapped by demons. His entire village was burnt to a crisp, and his beloved Gods seem to have abandoned him. What can a man do when he’s facing the Devil all by himself?

Haggis is a much more grounded heroe. He just wants to kill all the demons who have wrecked his life, and get back his son.

The story is told through the opening cutscene, and ensuing cutscenes following boss fights throughout the whole game. You advance the story by collecting hidden runes, boss dialogues, and the ending cutscene. Grammar takes a hit, and you’ll wonder what Haggis actually meant by what he was saying. I suppose the localization team will get a good whipping, but everything is pretty intelligible, and only slightly confusing. There’s no need for you Grammar Nazis to sharpen your pitchforks right away.

It’s a pretty straightforward story with no unpredictable plot-twists, and no shocking reappearances of characters you thought were dead.

Odallus The Dark Call Gameplay Mechanics

Staying true to its roots but also incorporating some more modern platformer elements, Odallus will feel like a nostalgia hit.

On his journey to brandish an iron sword to the one who took his blood and flesh away, Haggis can equip himself with sub-weapons like axes, spears, and torches. Axes are wielded in a straight line. Torches work similar to Simon Belmont’s holy water and throwing knives – torches ignite the ground in front of you.

It’s a good thing that you can equip Haggis with sub-weapons, because you wouldn’t last a minute with the stock sword. It’s rather weak when comparing with your sub-weapons. There are certain enemies which require you to use your head and switch to the appropriate sub-weapon.

Sub-weapons can be found in various chests across the realm, or at shops. They can be bartered with collectable orbs that enemies drop when they die.

Beware, there is a merchant in the game, and whenever you buy something from him, his prices go up. Prices don’t lower once you defeat a boss, clear a stage, or whatever. They will remain high-up forever.

You keep all of your weapons in a bag, which can be upgraded to be able to hold more demon-slaying tools. Also, you can upgrade your health, sword, and armor by searching for upgrades which are hidden in near-impossible to reach places.

You have three lives. If you run out of them, you need to restart the entire level (not just the checkpoint). Odallus has 8 stages. Each one has its secrets and a boss. You can replay levels how many times you want, and whenever you want. But, once a boss has been defeated, he will stay vanquished.

Haggis starts with the ability to jump, and swing his weapon at enemies. If you get hit by a foe, you’ll be slightly knocked back. There are no insta-kills, nor are there death-pits like in Castlevania. Haggis also has the ability to grab ledges, and shimmy himself which makes for some quite entertaining strategies and puzzles.

As you play, you’ll be able to unlock the ability to double-jump, dash, and other actions that will make clearing a stage feel like a summer’s breeze – but those will most likely be available in late game.

Bosses in general have a predictable pattern, and they are easily beaten. The last one though, is totally random, and it will require a little bit more thinking on your part, but not something infuriating.

Bosses are exquisite - in both their lore to how they act and look. More so, JoyMasher fits everything in a dark, and gritty medium that doesn’t dwell in the absurd. It stays true to the Castlevania games by featuring a plethora of burning villages, and dark forests.

Odallus The Dark Call Verdict

90 out of 100 points

Odallus isn’t a huge time-waster. If you’re accustomed to the genre, you’ll clear it in no-more than 5 hours. If you want to take Odallus The Dark Call full on, and complete everything - as in everything collected, and every secret revealed - it will probably take about 10 hours max.

Our Odallus The Dark Call Review found this Metroidvania game to be quite entertaining, although a little bit easy for us die-hard fans. Developer JoyMasher notes that a harder mode will be available pretty soon for veterans.

If this has sparked your curiosity, you can get the game right now for a low $15: Odallus The Dark Call Download!

This review was based on the Odallus The Dark Call PC version. At this moment, the PC is the only platform it was released on. Fans around the world are trying to convince JoyMasher to release it on 3DS also. Personally, I think this game would be incredible on the Retro VGS.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3