Yearly Archives: 2013

Gas Powered Games Cancels Wildman Kickstarter

Last Friday, we mentioned how it was looking as though the Kickstarter fundraiser for Gas Powered Games’ upcoming action RPG / RTS hybrid Wildman wasn’t going to succeed. On Monday, it seems as though GPG came to the same conclusion as the company cancelled the Kickstarter meaning none of the funds pledged will be paid out.

With four days left on the clock, only $504,000 of the $1.1 million goal had been raised which amounted to about 46% of the target. Even though anecdotal evidence suggests that some campaigns pick up steam in their final days, GPG decided to cut their losses and shut it down early.

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Posted in Games

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Tags: Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games, Kickstarter, Wildman

NBC Will Officially Kill G4 in April to Launch The Esquire Network

Feb 12

Posted by Steve Murray

Rather than believe in the old adage that the geek shall inherit the earth, NBC Universal has decided to officially announce that they are killing off G4. Okay, we all knew that this has been coming for a while seeing as they’ve been slowly axing G4 anchor shows like Attack of the Show and X-Play. However, now it’s official that G4 will cease to exist and NBC will launch The Esquire Network in its place on April 22.

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Posted in TV/Movies

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Tags: Esquire, G4, NBC

Super Hexagon Gets Recreated in LittleBigPlanet 2

I’m not sure what surprises me more about that headline: That there is still a strong community of level builders two years after LBP2’s release, that it was possible to recreate Super Hexagon in the level creation tools or that someone would actually be crazy enough to do this.

Anyway, your favourite nausea inducing, optical nerve frying iOS port has an unofficial new version in LBP2. It might be a little slower and easier on the eyes than the original but it doesn’t look too much easier to play. Not that that’s a bad thing. Super Hexagon still gives me nightmares.

Posted on February 12, 2013 | Video

This Week in PBS Documentaries: Superheroes

PBS recently released a documentary that’s near and dear to every geek’s heart. It’s a feature-length documentary about the golden age of superheroes on television. The film looks back on the great TV superheroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk and more through interviews with the stars of the shows.

Posted on February 11, 2013 | Video

Geek Links of the Week

Feb 8

Posted by Steve Murray

The fourth and final volume of Animaniacs was released on DVD this week. Animaniacs creator Tom Ruegger and lead voice actor Rob Paulsen go over the final episodes and share some memories. [Mental Floss]

This week’s Sport on TV on With Leather could only be about the greatest sports moments on Community. [With Leather]

Games Workshop has called in the lawyers to protect its copyright of “space marines.” Who gets to impose copyright restrictions on something that’s so common in sci-fi? [io9]

Speaking of people hiding behind the law, a company called Personal Audio is suing high-profile podcasters for use of its vague patent about podcast distribution. What the hell is wrong with people? [EFF]

BioWare doesn’t want you to call ME4 Mass Effect 4. That probably has something to do with the fact that it sounds like they aren’t quite sure what ME4 is all about. [Eurogamer]

Posted in Links of the Week

Now on IndieGoGo: The Firefly MMO (Now with Fox’s Blessing)

Feb 8

Posted by Steve Murray

After initially being announced in June of 2011, the Firefly-based MMO Firefly Universe Online has been given Fox’s blessing and can now go ahead with funding the project. Tuesday morning, DarkCryo launched their fundraising campaign to fund the development an MMO based on the cult classic TV series.

Back in 2006, developer Multiverse announced that they won the rights to develop a Firefly MMO but went bankrupt at the start of last year. Now DarkCryo has stepped up to work on the game and are looking for $135,000 from IndieGoGo by March 20th to make it happen.

While we haven’t really seen the game in action, there’s no doubt that what Dark Cryo is doing looks impressive.

Posted in Games

It’s Not Looking Good For Gas Powered Games and Wildman

Feb 8

Posted by Steve Murray

With one week to go in the Kickstarter fundraising campaign for its in-progress Wildman, it’s not looking good for Gas Powered Games and boss Chris Taylor. The Kickstarter has a fundraising goal of $1.1 million, an astronomical number for a Kickstarter campaign goal, and it looks like they will fall well short of the mark.

With only around $450,000 pledged against the $1.1 million target (amounting to 41% funded) as of last night, it looks as though the Kickstarter will fail and GPG will receive none of the money pledged as a result of Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing fundraising policy. With out that funding to complete the game, it appears as though Gas Powered Games will be forced to close its doors.

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Posted in Games

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Tags: Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games, Kickstarter, Wildman

PBS Examines the Rise of Competitive Gaming and eSports

How do we know that competitive gaming is a bit of a big thing now? PBS made a brief documentary about eSports. It looks at the growth of competitive gaming from small events in arcades to massive events watched live by thousands of fans and streamed online by hundreds of thousands more.

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Video

A Look Back At 38 Studios’ Bankruptcy

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was released one year ago today. While the game was generally well received by critics, the game sold very poorly. In its first month of release, Reckoning sold an estimated 330,000 units with only an estimated 1.5 million units sold by the end of 2012. That ended in the very public bankruptcy of developer 38 Studios, founded by former baseball star Curt Schilling.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the release of 38 Studios’ only game, here’s a look back at the failure of 38 Studios.

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Video

Building Concensus: Dead Space 3

Feb 6

Posted by Steve Murray

Seeing as metareviews, frankenreviews or whatever other term you prefer for the aggregation of reviews from major outlets on major (read: triple-A) releases are reasonably popular, I thought I’d launch one of our own for big releases that I’m not reviewing.

Today, we look at what some of the big publications thought of Dead Space 3. Does the new co-op campaign kill the game or can it live up to the first two games of the trilogy. Read the rest of this entry →