It is a crazy good time for sequels right now, and so because of that, Pedro and Joey V felt it prudent to start talking about how cool or uncool these sequels are getting.  Are findings?

1. StarCraft II is awesome, and finally has a good system of matching up players of close skill.
2. Madden 11 is fun, but it seems really easy now and boring.  They need something to spice that franchise up.
3. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is an amazing precursor to what is shaping up to be a hugely popular game.  A $5 full game with achievements and a full storyline.  Sign us up!

After that, the guys decide to give a little bit of a preview of one of their upcoming Convention panels, as they talk about the decline of the Japanese RPG, and how Western Developers (Bethesda and Bioware in particular) are designing the new rules of how RPG’s should be played and made.

Overall it’s a great little hour of your life and we hope that you will take a listen and enjoy.

Podcast Download

Welcome back everyone, to another installment of g33kWatch podcasts!  We took a little bit of a vacation from the website and now we are back and raring to go.

In this week’s podcast, our team of friends have been getting ready for our live Fantasy Football Draft BBQ and we got to thinking, “Is Fantasy Football geeky?”  As we looked at the complexities and also the amount of math and strategy that can be involved in the game, Joey V and Pedro discover that, Fantasy Football is pretty geeky.

Oh and Gabe from Penny-Arcade does it so that’s good enough for us.

The rest of the podcast is spent with getting some updates on how our past G33K of the W33K winners are up to now.  We will be back to picking new winners starting next week.

Until then though enjoy the podcast and finally …

In the first few minutes we mention that we are looking for someone to make a Logo for the site.  We are dead serious, we need your help.  We will pimp your site, interview you, buy you a drink at a convention, or even just flat out pay you a small amount.  Bottom line is though, we need your help!

So if you want to help us with making a logo, send an e-mail to jvalenti57@gmail.com or info@g33kwatch.com

Podcast Download

Yes!  Our answer would have to be yes!

Isaiah Mustafa is indeed the actor who has been entertaining television audiences and convincing them that while you can’t look as good as him, you can smell like him with Old Spice.

While those commercials are extremely entertaining, that doesn’t necessarily make him a grand representative of the geek community.  So what qualifies Isaiah to be this week’s G33K of the W33K?

Well as I flipped channels yesterday, I saw that Isaiah was on Attack of the Show on G4 TV.  Well that’s a good indication that he has some geek cred, but also he wanted to start a new petition that I feel like is a viable quest.

Isaiah is a huge comic book junkie as he told us, and he has one request for what he would want to do for one of his upcoming acting gigs.  Namely, he wants to play Luke Cage in a movie.  Seriously … that is brilliant.  I mean just look at the similarities!

I honestly like the idea!

So while we can’t look like Isaiah Mustafa, we here at g33kWatch are pleased to be able to make him our G33K of the W33K!  Be sure to get on Twitter, follow him @isaiahmustafa and trend the topic of #isaiahmustafa4lukecage.  Also, enjoy his Old Spice Commercials below.  Congrats Isaiah!

Links

• Isaiah Mustafa IMDB
• Isaiah Mustafa Twitter
• Old Spice Commercials

We want to set the record straight and give everyone out there that is on the fence about the movie a reason to go out and see it.  To give you an idea, Mr. Khon is someone that lives and breathes the movie industry.  He liked the movie and was entertained.  I’m Joey V, and I hate more movies than I can count.  I enjoyed The Last Airbender.  Was it the best movie ever?  No of course not, but it was a fun summer movie.

We think you should go see the movie, because the potential in further sequels could be great.  In order to get there though, it needs to make some money and needs to get to the #2 position at the box office (because it can’t beat the new Twilight movie).

Our review takes on the form of a podcast that we hope you will enjoy.

Show Notes

• The Mel Gibson Incident that we referred to
• A side by side comparison of the animated characters, and their specific actor
• Last Airbender has had a low of 6% and a high of 10%
• Jurassic Park III is at 49%.  Seriously people, this movie was terrible
• Yes my wife Katie was playing LEGO Harry Potter the entire podcast.  It’s a lot of fun.  =)

Podcast Download

This past week at E3, all three major gaming companies (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony) all gave their yearly press conferences, and attempted to win the hard earned dollars of perspective customers.  Microsoft did so by trying to convince you a hand’s free controller will be worth the large investment.  Nintendo did it by giving us a brand new 3D portable system and trotting out all new games in almost all of their major franchises.  Sony on the other hand, brought out Kevin Butler and told everyone how Sony was the best choice no matter what you were looking for from your gaming console.

You want 3D?  How about motion gaming?  Hot new franchises?  Yeah, they got it all, or so they claim.  When you listen to Kevin Butler tell you about it, you feel compelled to believe every word he has to say.

I could sit here and pontificate on how funny and fantastic Kevin Butler is, but ultimately, I don’t have the vocabulary to pull off such a monumental feat.  So I will do the next best thing … I will show you!

Dead pan delivery like that is why we love Kevin Butler.  Hell I don’t even own a PS3 and I love the man.  He does make you want to go out and support Sony.

Do you want to learn more?  Fantastic!  You can follow Kevin on Twitter, and there is a fantastic blog out there that is compiling all of Kevin’s commercials for you.  In addition, there is Kevin’s E3 presentation below which should have you rolling in the aisles.

Kevin Butler’s Twitter
http://twitter.com/TheKevinButler

Kevin Butler’s Commercials
YouTube Page

Kevin Butler’s E3 Speech

Topics covered in this podcast includes Microsoft’s Kinect product, including its impact on your household and your wallet.  In addition we also talk about how boring Ubisoft makes their conferences and the solid performance of EA.

When you are done listening to the podcast, please feel free to see many of the game trailers mentioned in it below.

E3 Day 1 Recap Podcast

Podcast Download

Kinectimals Trailer

Dance Central

Star Wars: The Old Republic Cinematic Trailer

Bulletstorm Trailer

Rayman Origins Trailer

Medal of Honor Multiplayer Trailer

Child of Eden Trailer

Of course what we have to say about arcades, is not the same that my sibilings would have to say.  They remember the even more ancient days of Pacman and Asteroids.  For us, it’s more about X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat 1.

None the less, this podcast talks about some of our favorite moments from the old arcade days.  We do this in honor of our G33K of the W33K Steve Wiebe, and because of this week’s gaming spectacle of E3.

We hope you enjoy and will comment with your own arcade memories down below.  Also would like to thank our good friend Mike the Stuttering Man who did a great job on his very first podcast ever!

Other than that go take a listen and remember your favorite old games!

Final show notes – Opening song is Blackout City by Anamanaguchi.  Closing song is Let’s All Go To Tokyo by Statikz (featuring J. Arthur Keenes)

Podcast Download

King of Kong is approprately all about the classic arcade game Donkey Kong, specifically, about the on-going competition to see who has the highest possible score recorded.  The movie goes through the origins of the original record holder Billy Mitchell, and the story of teacher and musician Steve Wiebe who attempts to break the record playing on an arcade cabinet in his garage.

For two hours, I watched as Wiebe memorized barrel and spring patterns, and played Donkey Kong hours on end trying to rack up more and more points.  Every jump, hammer, and life became crucial as he made his way to the “Kill Screen”, in which the game runs out of memory and unofficially ends.  You wouldn’t think that it was a compelling story, but it most certainly was!

What made Steve’s story so fantastic and compelling, is that there was this guy who was just a normal person like the rest of us.  He had a job, a loving family, and he liked to play video games.  By starting on this quest to become the record holder in Donkey Kong, he got swept up into a whole competition that I don’t think anyone was prepared for how serious and ludicrous it would get.

The ending of the King of Kong shows Wiebe finally trumphing and getting the highest score of Donkey Kong recorded at the time.  Since the movie’s release though, Wiebe has been dethroned, by Billy Mitchell and by current record holder Hank Chien.  Steve also has been known to play Donkey Kong Jr competitively as well, and while he gained the top spot in February 2010, he has lost out on that record as well when Mark Kiehl regained the top spot in April.

Despite losing out on his records, Steve Wiebe is a fun loving guy who is constantly striving to squeeze out just a few more points out of his favorite classic games, and competes many times on stage in front of hundreds of gaming fans.  The staff here at g33kWatch even watched his live attempts to get the Donkey Kong record last year at E3 and were riveted at every moment.  Our very own Joey V screamed out in shock when the power at E3 went out and ruined Steve’s third attempt.

With E3 coming up next week, and the one year anniversary of the ghost of Billy Mitchell shorting out the power live on the E3 stage, we here at g33kWatch felt it was appropriate to recognize a complete class act in the competitive classic gaming scene.  Steve Wiebe, we are happy to make you this week’s G33K of the W33K and look forward to seeing you break more high scores in the future!

Current High Scores
Donkey Kong :: 1,049,100 – 3rd in the World
Donkey Kong Jr. :: 1,190,400 – 2nd in the World
Stampede :: 2,193 – 20th in the World

Official Website
http://www.stevewiebe.com/

Twin Galaxies Profile
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=29305

This week we tackle many different topics with not one, but two guests!  Joining us in the studio this week was g33kWatch’s very own Mr. Khon, who you may remember giving us the great Steampunk World’s Fair review.  We also have the privelage of talking to Phil Wells, who was the writer of our G33K of the W33K entry Dudesong.

Mr. Khon was able to go to the Get Him to the Greek premiere and hang out with Jonah Hill, along with going to a True Blood Season 3 special event, that he goes into greater detail about.  We then get the opportunity to interview Phil about why he wrote Dudesong and even convince him to give us a reading from the epic poem.

Oh, and Pedro and I are lame and talk about Warhammer 40,000 campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons 4.0 sessions.  Just trying to give you listeners a little bit of everything!

Please give the podcast a listen and be sure to e-mail or tweet us with questions or topics for next week’s podcast!  Until then though, stay geeky America.

Podcast Download

In this, our second week of our G33K of the W33K spotlight, we are very happy to present to you Dudesong: a retelling of the movie The Big Lebowski done in the style of an epic poem.

Yup, I’m really serious.  The amount of awesome that Dudesong contains is almost unfathomable.  I will attempt to describe to you how this came into existence without gushing too much.  I assure you, this will be a very difficult task.

Dudesong is the creation of actor and writer Phil Wells from Bergen County, New Jersey.  Phil explains on his website that he started writing Dudesong while he was working as a lobby attendant in New York City.  What started off as a simple hobby and way to pass the time though, turned into something much more.  After more than year of working on the epic poem, Phil ended up with 231 pages, and more than 5200 lines of rhyming couplets in complete iambic pentameter.

I could of course sit here and talk more about why Dudesong is so great, but I think it might be more effective to let you read a small snippet of the epic poem about Nihilists, Walter and of course, The Dude.

Take heed before our minstrels start to play;

Some thoughts about the city of L.A.

The angels, this metropolis their home,

Kick tumbleweeds around the streets they roam.

From far across the desert sweaty slog

They trudge and bear across their backs the smog.

The stars above in absence dim the mood

Of all th’angelic stars in Hollywood;

Their lack reflects th’ambitions of our Dude.

Alas this cowboy finds himself ahead

Of this here story’s glorious nar’tive thread.

“The Dude” was not thus by his parents called,

But “Jeff Lebowski” was they name they ‘nstalled.

And this Lebowski, with peculiar taste,

Discarded “Jeff” and left “Dude” in its place.

You mustn’t ask this cowboy why he’d switch

Aside to say it keeps my stories rich.

The Dude, this city, both to me so strange,

Afford this poem a home out on the range.

Before 2000 turned our hard drives back,

And Bush the Senior clobbered through Iraq

(And then his son decided to go back),

The Dude was set upon by happenstance,

And found himself a hurricane by chance.

And if the Fates had luck enough to lend,

They bet The Dude he’d live to see the end.

Be stupefied as I begin to tell

Just how The Dude precipitously fell

And played the hero climbin’ outta Hell.

The only thing that makes a hero great

Is how he plays the hand he’s dealt by Fate.

The Dude, it seemed, fit right into his time;

Los Angeles in decade number nine.

His laziness was not a factor when

The open door of life let chaos in.

When duty calls sometimes there is a man,

And ’twas The Dude who had become this man…

Aw Hell. I rambled on for much too long.

This introduction’s over; here’s the song.

Pretty cool eh?  And that’s just the beginning!  Please do yourself a favor and go check out the full 231 page PDF at the official Dudesong website, or follow them on Twitter where you get a new couplet every few hours.

Also we are pleased to say that we are going to have Dudesong’s creator Phil Wells on the very next g33kWatch podcast that is being taped this weekend.  He will be on to talk about how he got inspiration to start this project, and what his favorite part to write was.

Dudesong Official Site
http://www.dudesong.com/

Dudesong Twitter
http://twitter.com/dudesong