Tim.cullings

Actor Robin Williams was found dead from an apparent suicide in his Tiburon, California home earlier today. He was 63.

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Imagine being that close to something that crazy.

Look, I know they're the baddest of the badasses, but still I didn't even start to understand just how cool the Blue Angel pilots are when they're midflight just a foot away from wing touching canopy. Holy s*** this is awesome. That's actually not even worth censoring: Holy shit this is awesome. Just keep this in mind while the Blue Angels are buzzing around Seafair this weekend!



KICK ASS!

:E GREGR

Activision may be reviving the Sierra Entertainment brand, the developer and publisher best known for games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Gabriel Knight and Phantasmagoria, based on a teaser website and video that recently went online.

In what capacity Activision plans to exploit the Sierra brand is unclear. The teaser website features only a modernized Sierra logo, a cinematic of an explorer running toward a mountain shaped like the Sierra logo and a hint that more information will be revealed at Gamescom 2014, which takes place Aug. 13-17 in Cologne, Germany. Polygon will be reporting live from Gamescom next week.

Sierra joined Activision in 2008 when Sierra parent company Vivendi Games merged with Activision to become Activision...

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Social and mobile games giant Zynga has announced a new series called Zynga Sports 365.

The company is developing mobile games for football and golf and has signed former EA-icon Tiger Woods for a game to be released later this year. Tiger Woods was the brand name for Electronic Arts' PGA Tour golf games from 1998 through to 2013, when he was dropped by the publisher.

Zynga has also signed a deal with the National Football League and with the NFL Players Inc., adding that its games will feature pro players and their likenesses.  NFL Showdown went live this morning "in select markets" according to the company. The game is a management simulation allowing players to take on the roles of coach, general manager and owner.

Electronic Arts...

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By now everyone and their cousin has surely seen Marvel’s new film, Guardians of the Galaxy. The reviews for the film have been unanimous in their praise and it’s certainly well-deserved. For me personally, I haven’t had this much fun watching an adventurous space film since Star Wars was last on the big screen — The Phantom Menace 3D for anyone counting.

It’s no surprise that the film would remind people of our favorite galaxy far, far away. James Gunn went out of his way to make the film like Star Wars, telling Den of Geek, “This was intentionally my version of Star Wars. When I was first considering doing the movie, the chance to make something like that was one of the things that got me on board. Not just Star Wars, but Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and other movies like that. The stuff I loved as a kid. I wanted to make a movie that made people feel the way they made me feel.

“And it’s not that I wanted to make it actively resemble something that already exists, but all of them were all in the mix. It’s forward-looking. That’s what it shares with those movies more than anything else. Raiders and Star Wars and the like were updates of the 1930s serials, and my hope with Guardians is that we’ve done something similar, looking back at those movies while making something new.”

That’s exactly what this column is all about, tracing the DNA of films that led into Star Wars, and in some cases the films we love that father a new generation of filmmakers and their films. In an interview with NPR, Gunn further confesses, “I grew up loving big budget spectacle films — I mean, Star Wars changed my life as a kid. You know, the most relevant films today are truly spectacle films. Those are the films that people go to see in the theaters today.”

The similarities between the films are mainly in structure and tone. In both, we’re given glimpses of worlds we can barely process before our heroes are off to the next place. And, like most Star Wars films, the final battle plays out in a variety of arenas: ship-to-ship combat, personal combat between family members, a ground battle. And this all culminates in the potential destruction of an entire planet. Chris Pratt’s character, Star-Lord, is very much in the Han Solo mold, a guy out for no one but himself and finds that deep down he’s really an okay guy. And let’s be honest, would Rocket Raccoon ever have been possible on screen without the vicious but adorable Ewoks paving the way? And the fact that Rocket gets a Chewbacca-like sidekick in Groot? Perfection. And don’t even get me started on the George Lucas inspired post-credits scene.

More than anything, Guardians of the Galaxy is fun. Perhaps the biggest influence Star Wars seems to have had on it was that they condensed every funny moment from the saga and delivered it to us in concentrated doses.

But things don’t end there, and that doesn’t mean Guardians of the Galaxy won’t end up influencing Star Wars still. Gary Whitta, one of the screenwriters working on a Star Wars stand alone film has been tweeting about his love of James Gunn’s film all weekend, calling it, “Everything I love about going to the movies. It was like having a fun and escapism catheter inserted. In a good way.”

But until we find out if Guardians of the Galaxy continues to influence Star Wars as much as Star Wars influenced it, we have an incredibly fun space adventure in the cinemas to go see. And we have Star Wars fan James Gunn to thank for it.

Bryan Young is an author, a filmmaker, journalist, and the editor in chief of Big Shiny Robot! He’s also the co-host of the Star Wars podcast, Full of Sith. You should follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

The upcoming Terminator movie has wrapped shooting, and to celebrate, star Arnold Schwarzenegger treated fans to a photo featuring the film's full name: Terminator Genisys.

Schwarzenegger posted the photo, which features the actor sitting in a chair monogrammed with the title, on Instagram.

"I can't wait to see our finished project and I know we'll remind the fans why they fell in love with the Terminator," he added.

Genisys is expected to hit theaters next summer on July 1. Schwarzenegger will reprise his role as a terminator. Sarah Connor will be played by Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), while Jason Clarke (The Chicago Code) is John Connor.

The fourth installment in the Terminator franchise, Terminator Salvation, was released...

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A technician has discovered an unreleased Duke Nukem game in the archives of the Library of Congress.

Duke Nukem: Critical Mass was developed for the Nintendo DS by Frontline Studios. The PSP version, however, was never released. David Gibson, a moving image technician at the Library of Congress, discovered the original source disc in the Library's collection not long ago.

"Since 2006," Gibson writes, "the Moving Image section of the Library of Congress has served as the custodial unit for video games. In this capacity, we receive roughly 400 video games per year through the Copyright registration process."

"Several months ago, while performing an inventory of recently acquired video games, I happened upon a DVD-R labeled Duke Nukem:...

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Board and card game publisher Fantasy Flight Games has partnered with Firaxis Games to bring the hit game XCOM: Enemy Unknown to life as a board game. XCOM The Board Game, which was announced today, will be demonstrated next week at GenCon 2014 in Indianapolis, Indiana for the first time in public.

XCOM The Board Game is a hybrid digital game that requires a companion app to keep track of play.

"The app's primary function," reads the game description, "is to coordinate the escalating alien invasion, randomly selecting from one of five different invasion plans. Each invasion plan represents a general outline that the alien commanders will use to coordinate the arrival of new UFOs, plan strikes against your base, and respond to your...

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New Comic: The Talk, By Amy T. Falcone

Gabe: First I was gone for San Diego Comic Con and then I had to take off again for Spokane. I’ve been out of the office for weeks and I’m just now back for real. I would like to give a huge thank you to the incredibly talented artists who have been holding down the fort while Tycho and I take a bit of a vacation. This is our 16th year making Penny Arcade and I can tell you that we’ve never had a guest series run this long. I sat down and made a list of all the artists I wanted to reach out to for guest comics assuming I’d get maybe half of them. When they all said they were in, I realised…

At San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, attendees could pilot a mech from Pacific Rim, explore the mind of the X-Men's telepathic leader Charles Xavier, be decapitated by the Headless Horseman and be swept away by a tornado. It was all thanks to the Oculus Rift, which brought big (virtual) experiences to small spaces in a cramped convention hall.

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Street Harassment: Sidewalk Sleazebags and Metro Molesters:

Jen Corey was crowned Miss DC in 2009 and made it to the top 10 of the Miss America Pageant in 2010. A tall and striking blonde, Jen has battled with overzea…

Hello Games' procedurally generated exploration game No Man's Sky will also come to PC, with the game's PlayStation 4 exclusivity within a timed window, according to the latest issue of Edge magazine.

IGN reports that in an interview with Hello Games managing director Sean Murray in the September issue of Edge, the developer reveals No Man's Sky will hit PC after the PS4 version.

"I actually got in a bit of trouble for saying that we wanted the game to feel really console-y," Murray said. "We've always had PC in mind but in my head (console-y) means solid frame rate and immediate controls. I think a PC game can be 'console-y' and it's intended as a compliment, but I get in trouble for saying it."

No Man's Sky was announced last...

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2 Nerd Guys Shut Down The 'Fake Geek Girl' Myth With The Kind Of Logic Spock Would Be Proud Of:

Just because booth babes are paid to dress up doesn’t mean lady cosplayers are “faking it”…

Terminator 2 and the world’s biggest spoiler:

James Cameron put a lot of thought into constructing the beginning of Terminator 2 as one long fake-out. The film’s marketing campaign …

Microsoft today released a preview for a free browser-based version of tabletop game Settlers of Catan that will work across any online device with a modern browser regardless of operating system.

Catan Anytime was built using the latest HTML 5 web standards with the help of the original creators of Catan, Mayfair Games and Bontom Games as part of Microsoft's Rethink "experiences."

The beta version of the game, which is live now, supports four-player games, turn-based asynchronous gameplay with auto-trade and auto-roll features and the ability to keep up-to-date on your game via email.

The Microsoft plans to release the full game, which will offer complete parity with the tabletop version, in August during Gamescom, according to...

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A threesome fanfiction involving Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Pratt, by Chris Pratt.

Language School Blogger Fired for Writing About Homophones:

A social media specialist for a Utah language school that teaches English to non-native speakers says he was fired for writing a blog post about homophones—words that sound the same, but carry different meanings—because his boss was afraid readers would think it was about “gay sex.”

More than 4.6 million people played the beta for Bungie's Destiny, publisher Activision announced today.

The beta began July 17 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, then kicked off July 22 on Xbox 360 and Xbox One before concluding on the night of July 27. Across those four platforms, a total of 4,638,937 unique players explored the beta.

That player base makes the Destiny beta the biggest one in this console generation so far, as well as "the largest console beta ever for a new video game IP," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in a press release today. As a comparison, Respawn Entertainment's beta for Titanfall in mid-February brought in approximately 2 million players, although it was available only on Windows PC and...

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unamusedsloth:

If Daenerys went to Starbucks… [via]

Warner Bros. Entertainment is ensuring we will see more of Harry Potter, according to Variety — a lot more.

The studio has assembled a creative and business strike squad called the Harry Potter Global Franchise Development team. Based in London and Burbank, the group will control the vision for Harry Potter — "and its ancillary brands" —moving forward.

The move to expand upon Harry Potter is part of Warner Bros.' creative partnership with author J.K. Rowling, the fruits of which were most recently seen in Diagon Alley, an expansion to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida.

According to Variety, the team will oversee development for "new film series in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'; the Warner...

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moviepostertrash:

Sweet 9/11 poster.

Watch This Gas Station Clerk And 5-Time MMA Champion Destroy Robbers:

Mayura Dissanyake is a gas station clerk at a Fuel Depot in Houston, Texas. He also just happens to be a five-time Sri Lankan Mixed Martial Arts national champion. So when a bunch of guys tried to rob his co-worker right in front of him, he made them suffer.

29 Phrases People With Anxiety Are Tired Of Hearing:

"Just think about something else."

Don't panic! Just hang this cross stitch on your wall to understand what other people are saying to you. In the universe of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel Fish is an incredibly useful yet entirely natural object that translates speech:

The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier, but from those around it. It absorbs all unconcious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

Etsy seller Jen made this cross stitch piece illustrating the internal composition of the wondrous animal. You can buy her pattern here.

343 Industries revealed first footage of Halo: Nightfall, the Ridley Scott-produced live action series coming to Xbox this November, at San Diego Comic-Con today. If you weren't present at the panel, it's now available for everyone to watch.

Halo: Nightfall tells the origin story of Jameson Locke, a "a legendary manhunter and agent with the Office of Naval Intelligence." Locke is also the playable co-star of next year's Halo 5: Guardians and will be played by actor Mike Colter.

The live action series is set between the events of Halo 4 and Halo 5. For more on Nightfall, read our recap of the Halo: Nightfall Comic-Con panel.

Bodie Lee has had an idea since he was a child — a strange, fantasy world where playing with time is just a part of every day life. Now Lee is bringing that idea into reality in the form of a gorgeous, exploration-heavy action-adventure game.

We already knew that a live-action The Last of Us movie was in the works at Screen Gems, but additional details surrounding the project have been announced today at San Diego Comic-Con.

Game co-director and writer Neil Druckmann is writing the script for the adaptation and Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) is producing. A director hasn't been named yet -- that role will be chosen by Druckmann -- but they've talked with Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones' Arya Stark) about playing Ellie. Raimi also said they'd find a place in the film for Bruce Campbell.

The current plan is for the movie to primarily focus on the relationship between protagonists Joel and Ellie. While obviously not every scene from the lengthy game can make it over,  it's expected to be true to the source material, for the most part (though the ending might be different).

This is all still years out, of course -- but uh, now we've got a teaser poster. As some of you mentioned last time, Hugh Jackman (Prisoners) as Joel: do it.

Comic-Con: Screen Gems Panel Live Blog [ComingSoon.net]