What's the Scoop on Adult Swim's Black Dynamite?

Following in the footsteps of its live-action feature source material, Adult Swim’s new animated series Black Dynamite centers on its title character (played by Michael Jai White), a funky government agent-turned-assassin who is hellbent on stopping “the man,” while also protecting his eclectic family of pimps, prostitutes and orphans. While most of the original film’s cast and creative team have returned for the new show, The Boondocks creator Carl Jones has also come aboard as executive producer.

IGN recently spoke to some of the cast and crew to talk about the new series and how they worked to adapt the movie into a half-hour animated series. Jones recalled that it all started after he saw the Black Dynamite film, which White had written and created.

“As soon as I saw [the movie], the first thing that came to my mind was that this would make an amazing animated series,” said Jones. “Coincidentally, a week later, my manager called me and told me that the production company that did the movie was trying to reach out to me about developing a cartoon. So we met with Mike, started kicking around some ideas and then we took it to Adult Swim.”

During production, the new series quickly took on a life of its own, deviating from the low-budget, B movie look of the 2009 blaxploitation film and focusing instead on a slick and stylized aesthetic. “There are advantages in cartoons,” Jones continued. “You can do things that you can’t do in live-action. It actually opened up a lot more doors for us to explore. Just like the movie, we do film parodies. But now we can do a film parody of King Kong and then actually have Black Dynamite fighting a giant albino gorilla on top of the Watts Towers.”

However, White noted that there are still many similarities to the movie, particularly with the characters. “The essence of the characters is still there. That strange family unit is still evident in the cartoon. It’s not all that different, character-wise.”

Byron Minns, who reprises his role as Bullhorn on the show, felt that the series opened up new doors, allowing the characters to really flesh out their storylines. “The thing that makes the animated series special is that we’re able to delve into the characters in full,” he said. “In the series we have ten movies, and each episode is about a different character. We get to really see who these people are in different situations, how they interact as a family. In that way, it takes the movie so much further.”

Not unlike The Boondocks, Black Dynamite explores its mature themes through the use of comedy, offering entertainment for older and younger viewers alike. “I love the adult cartoons,” said White. “When a kid and an adult can watch it and get different things out of it -- this is one of those things where I think a teenager and an older adult will get different layers out of it. This is the kind of stuff that I would watch.”

Added Jones, “The interesting thing is, we have a whore house in the show, but you never actually ever see them whoring. I made it a point; you won’t ever actually see Black Dynamite being a pimp, and you won’t ever see the whores actually whoring because that’s not what [the show] is about. It’s just a way to give the world a texture that actually existed in that era, but the stories actually have nothing to do with it.”

Although the series is set in the 1970s, Jones said that the show is very modern in the way its presented. “The music of that time period, the colors, the styles, the fashions -- these are things that I think younger people can get out of it because the point of view is very young and fresh, but it’s also set in a world very familiar to people that are 30, 40, 50 years old. To me, it plays on so many different platforms and levels. You have a whole audience of fans that love animated action and fighting, stuff like that. Then you’ll get the Dave Chappelle, Boondocks social commentary and that type of comedy. There are so many ingredients that I think make it palatable for just about everybody.”

Black Dynamite also aims for a unique vision that really utilizes the animated medium while also taking advantage of its distinct period setting. “These people come from a particular slice of life,” said Minns. “They all have different backgrounds. You have a lead character, an ex-CIA assassin who goes back to the neighborhood and takes care of these prostitutes and orphans -- and in his world, that’s noble.

“We have ten crazy episodes that will explore almost any ‘70s icon that we can come up with, and that’s the beauty of animation," he continued. "We can have these people as guest stars on our show. We can bring back Elvis, we can see little Michael Jackson.”

As Kym Whitley, the voice of Honeybee, concluded, “I believe it’s going to be a hit because when I watched it I enjoyed the animation, the story -- it moved. I liked the characters, and it was something I’d not seen before on Adult Swim.”

Black Dynamite premieres Sunday, July 15 on Adult Swim.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: SimCity preview

Heading into E3, the big news surrounding SimCity was the new multiplayer feature.  Up until now, SimCity had only been a single-player experience. Cities, however, are always part of something bigger, and that was EA’s goal with the latest installment to the long-running, popular franchise.  They wanted to make it bigger, and they wanted players to interact with other town’s mayors — trade resources, work together for common goals, and thrive off of each other’s cities — like real cities should do.

In our E3 preview, we were shown a few separate, but very distinct towns working together to create an airport, one of several major buildings that can benefit everyone.  The distinct cities, which included a friendly neighborhood, thriving metropolis, and a booming but rundown coal town, each provided the necessary resources to build this airport.  The goal was for each of them to benefit in some way from it being built.

Outside of them benefiting from the airport, each town relied on the neighbors in some form.  Some of the examples showed to us include one city providing electricity to the other. The multiplayer spreads beyond just providing resources.  The cities relied on neighbors in other ways.  For instance, the metropolis was looking to expand its commerce and retail, but it needed people to run the businesses.  Therefore, it relied on the neighborhood which needed to increase its population to provide the necessary workforce.

Here is where the airport enters.  In addition to the extra people it would bring in to the newly built stadium, it could help people arrive in the neighborhood suburb.  The airport also allowed goods and resources to be flown in for the coal town.  It may sound complex, but SimCity simplifies everything.

From electricity to water pipes to public transit, SimCity says goodbye to spreadsheet numbers and introduces color-coded or other useful symbols to convey the message.  They showed us building an above-ground electrical railcar, and instead of just building tracks, a colorful line showed where traffic would be heavy for the railcar.  Green was good, yellow was medium, and red is heavy.

Multiplayer isn’t the only addition, however.  EA showed off SimCity’s new Glassbox Engine which literally simulates everything going on in the city.  From the street lamps turning on to the street lights switching from red to green, Glassbox simulates everything going on in the city and presents it as if it were real life.  Individual lighting for buildings, cars’ headlights, street lamps, and more are all present in the game.  It doesn’t only simulate lights either.  It simulates sims’ actions.  In our preview, the devs showed us a bank robbery play out as a result to crime from the neighboring city pouring in.

Neighboring cities don’t only help your town, but can also harm it. The coal city focused heavily on production and business, but lacked the necessary police stations. Because of that, the city was littered with graffiti and crime began spreading into adjoining towns. Unfortunately, that friendly neighborhood we saw was right next to the coal town.  As a result, crime began spilling into the streets and the aforementioned bank robbery occurred.

SimCity was already a fun game, but this added multiplayer component just adds a whole new level of interesting gameplay.  You can choose to help or harm friends’ cities.  And it’s not like everyone’s city is the same.  You can choose to make the city you desire.  If you want a bustling city, create it.  Just remember, you need people to work there and that is where the fun begins. There’s an all-new aspect to , and EA has done a remarkable job incorporating multiplayer.

Source : gamezone[dot]com

The Best New School Boss Battles

Nearly one year ago I wrote a feature for IGN that said the traditional boss fight is a relic of a bygone era. My argument was that while technological and creative advancements within the games industry have resulted in modern games that are more cinematic and immersive than ever before, these advances have not extended to how many developers shape the conclusion of their games. As a result, many games end in a traditional boss fight.

Even the most casual gamer is familiar with boss fight clichés - a closed arena, glowing weak-points, increasingly exaggerated transformations, and the rule of three. It is because of this familiarity that the traditional boss fight lives on in modern games. Boss fights span genres, existing as a common narrative shorthand. The repetitive mechanics make them feel as comfortable as a well-worn pair of slippers. And quite frankly, most gamers demand and expect them.

The classic boss battle mentality. And no, we're not dissing Mario - this is iconic stuff!

For me, this familiarity breeds contempt. Without developers who innovate and push the boundaries of what games can accomplish, gamers would be left with the Frankenstein’s monster that was Deus Ex: Human Revolution – a game whose bland boss fights were outsourced and poorly grafted onto an otherwise pretty stellar game. But let’s not dwell on games that are stuck in an 8-bit mentality. Let’s celebrate games that eschew tradition - and are all the better for it.

To start, I have highlighted two games that delivered stunning conclusions without choosing the easy way out. Then, I have highlighted two sequels that vastly improved upon their predecessors by mixing up the boss battle formula.

ATTENTION: MASSIVE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW - TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED RED DEAD REDEMPTION OR BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY. DON'T SAY WE DIDN'T WARN YOU.

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar San Diego’s take on the Western (and semi-sequel to Red Dead Revolver) tells the tale of John Marston. Having years earlier retired from an outlaw gang to marry and raise a family, John is tasked by the government to bring his former gang-mates to justice in return for his continued freedom. This personal journey is supported by a beautifully realised world populated with interesting, well-written characters. In short, it is engaging on nearly all levels.

For me, Red Dead Redemption’s conclusion solidified it as one this generation’s great games. After completing his mission, John settles back into farm life and rebuilds the tattered bonds he shares with his wife and son.  John’s well-earned peace is ended when government troops lay siege to his property, gunning for him - their final target. A shootout ensues. Knowing he is out-numbered, John helps his family escape before taking his last stand. As John steps out into the firing-line, time slows – a mechanism employed throughout the game to enable the player to precisely line up a number of shots. John and, by extension, the player are left with a gun full of bullets, precious few seconds, and an insurmountable enemy. This segment firmly puts players in John’s doomed shoes and he desperately fights for survival, and loses.

Not all conflicts and climaxes lend themselves to traditional boss fights – a trap that many developers fall into. Rockstar San Diego recognised this and chose to be daring rather than fall back on tired, old tropes. The studio was able to present an unforgettable conclusion to its game simply by using a key gameplay concept in a new context. The team deserve all the praise they can get.

RDR had one of the best conclusions in recent years.

Bastion

Bastion, a downloadable game for PC and XBLA, is probably most famous for its use of a gruff, dynamic narrator describing the player’s actions. Beyond this (pretty cool) gimmick, Bastion is predominantly an action game with RPG elements. The brilliance of Bastion’s design lies in its tight gameplay focus: simplistic, but incredibly fun and customisable weapons-based combat, while the backstory of Bastion’s floating, post-apocalyptic landscape is delivered piecemeal throughout the experience. By the time the game’s climax is reached, players are a lean, mean killing machine. Instead of presenting a traditional boss fight, Bastion offers two key moral choices. The game ties together its loose narrative threads and delivers a hefty emotional punch – all without using a boss fight. It is the type of ending that sticks with you long after you have finished the game.

Batman: Arkham City

I have previously been vocal about my dislike of the Joker boss fight at the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum (http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1166802p1.html). With that in mind I approached Batman: Arkham City with some trepidation. Arkham City contained a number of new villains but the backbone of both Arkham games has been the relationship between Batman and Joker. While Arkham Asylum totally dropped the ball in relation to offering any sort of fitting (if only temporary) conclusion to their dynamic, Arkham City does something more interesting.

During the game’s climax, Batman discovers that Joker had recruited Clayface to be his stand-in for much of the game. Clayface attacks Batman while the real Joker looks on. Cue a fairly traditional boss fight.  Fortunately, the game doesn’t end with Clayface’s inevitable defeat. What follows is a compelling set of cutscenes that perfectly encapsulates the Batman/Joker dynamic and a pitch perfect conclusion to Batman’s ordeal.

Sure, the Joker/Clayface switcheroo could have come across as cheap, but instead it allows the game to have its bat-cake and eat it too: a big dramatic boss fight, followed by quiet character reflection. Boss fights and fitting closures are not mutually exclusive, but many games – Arkham Asylumn included – are evidence that a lot of developers will often pick the former over the later.

Uncharted 3

While not reaching the same heights as Arkham City’s conclusion, the climactic fight in Uncharted 3 also greatly improves upon its predecessors’. Uncharted, and especially Uncharted 2, ended with fairly lame, traditional boss fights in lieu of a climax and resolution best fitting their narrative and game styles.

In its opening scene Uncharted 3 showed off its improved melee combat system in a chaotic bar-brawl. This scene is bookended by the game’s final boss fight – a bad-arse fist/knife fight amidst crumbling ruins. This fight might not revolutionise boss battles, but it’s a big improvement over the previous game, where a hulked up man whose weakness was glowing resin chased you around a ravine. Uncharted 3’s fight feels more visceral and personal while also feeling like a natural extension of the gameplay preceding it.

So many incredible sequences, yet the end still stood tall.

And now it is over to you. Hit up the comments section to tell us what your favourite game endings are – and how they used or avoided boss fight clichés.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/21/the-best-new-school-boss-battles

Dark Shadows Review

Director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp reunite for their eighth collaboration in this feature film adaptation of Dark Shadows, the 1966-71 cult classic supernatural soap opera they loved as kids.

In this version, scripted by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith, Depp portrays Barnabas Collins, the heir to a prosperous fishing family who leave England to settle in the New World. In 1752, Barnabas is cursed by the witch Angelique (Eva Green) after breaking her heart and falling for his one true love, Josette (Bella Heathcote). Angelique's spell leads to Josette's death and turns Barnabas into a vampire. She chains Barnabas inside a coffin and buries him "alive" for the next two centuries.





After being unintentionally released from his grave, Barnabas finds himself in the strange, perplexing world of 1972. He returns to his family estate, Collinwood, where he passes himself off to his descendants -- matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her troubled children Susan and David (Chloe Grace Moretz and Gulliver McGrath), Elizabeth's shady brother Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller), as well as the family's live-in psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) and caretaker Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) -- as a distant relative from England back to help the struggling dynasty return to prosperity and prominence. His true nature will remain a secret to most of them ... for now.

But the Collins aren't the only ones he finds in the namesake town of Collinsport. Barnabas meets Victoria Winters (Heathcote), David Collins' new governess and the spitting image of his beloved Josette. He also discovers that Angelique is still very much alive and well, having thrived in the ensuing centuries to become a successful businesswoman and the Collins' biggest rival. Her lusty obsession for Barnabas remains, and she's grown powerful enough to destroy him and the newfound family he's vowed to help.

- Warner Bros.

The characters are played by one of Burton's best ensemble casts yet, but only Depp's Barnabas has anything remotely resembling an arc or development. Pfeiffer is commanding as the Collins' matriarch, but we never get to see her do much more than sit at the head of the dining table or at her desk. Moretz's Susan is the character most radically altered from her small screen counterpart as she's about a decade younger and more akin to Winona Ryder's moody teen in Beetlejuice than the young woman from previous incarnations of the show.

There's an element to Susan that's introduced late in the story, that comes out of left field and is completely arbitrary. Why even introduce it if it's not going to truly be explored? McGrath is a very likable child actor whose arc here as David is, like Susan's, underexplored and underwhelming in the end. For a kid whose problems have brought not one, but two different people (Dr. Hoffman and Victoria) to Collinwood to care for him, there's practically no time spent showing them doing anything with or for him. It's all just exposition to nowhere

Haley has a dopey appeal as the family's oft-drunk handyman and Barnabas' mind-controlled servant, while Miller's self-centered Roger is all upper crust smugness. But, outside of Barnabas, the women are the true protagonists of Dark Shadows and besides Pfeiffer the real standouts among them are Carter as the bitter, besotted shrink and Green as the obsessed enchantress whose spurned love for Barnabas and disdain for the Collins knows no bounds. Green and Carter clearly enjoy sinking their teeth into their roles and have fun with them even when the script seems to forget about them. The most inexplicably neglected character is Heathcote's Victoria, who begins the movie as the protagonist and eyes of the audience only to almost literally disappear from the narrative once Barnabas takes center stage. Their romantic subplot is completely shoe-horned in and woefully undeveloped.

 But this movie is, as expected, The Johnny Depp Show where everyone else is just a guest star. Both Depp and Burton show a degree of restraint here (well, for them at least), finding the pathos in Barnabas' plight even as they have fun with the fish out of water and anachronistic elements. Yes, there are times when Depp seems like Captain Jack Vampire, but there's more vigor and palpable interest from him in this character than there's been in any of his performances in the Pirates sequels. Depp keeps you interested in Barnabas even after it's become clear the movie is in a rush to nowhere during its homestretch.

Like the cult classic TV series it's based on, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is oddly charming despite being a mess that never reaches its full potential. There are strange characters galore, almost none of whom ever develop into anything more than an image of an interesting character. Commercially, one can't help but suspect that Dark Shadows may prove a disappointment despite the usually powerhouse coupling of Depp and Burton. The film's not horrific enough to be scary, funny enough to truly be recommended as a comedy, and about as dark and Gothic as a Hot Topic t-shirt. And yet, like the original TV show, there's just something about Dark Shadows that keeps you watching to see how things play out. It's just all so damn … peculiar.


Source : http://movies.ign.com/articles/122/1223999p1.html