I’m a Green Lantern fan; it’s probably my favorite of the DC properties, I love the concept of being able to make your will manifest through a ring, the space cop, space opera, and cosmic weirdness. All greatly appeal to me; I think Geoff Johns has done a fantastic job, expanding the Green Lantern concept, while showing respect to all that have come before.

I’ve been a long time fan of the original Colin McRae rally games. After his death, the game franchise was renamed to Colin McRae: Dirt, because that really is what rallying is about. Sure some of it happens on tarmac, but the real fun is in the dirt, the snow, and the mud. In the 3rd installment of Dirt, they’ve dropped McRae’s name altogether. The first Dirt introduced a variety of off-road types of racing — buggies, stadium trucks, and Pike’s Peak hillclimb events.

I played the original Dirt on the Xbox, missed Dirt 2, and this time around I got DiRT 3 on the Playstation 3.

The hillclimb events have been renamed to Trailblazers, and there aren’t so many hills to be seen. They’re similar vehicles, but on normal rally tracks. In a way I miss the hillclimbs, but this is fine. Imagine driving a Forumla 1 car on an off-road dirt track, sliding sideways as often as you’re going in a straight line. It’s some intense shit, and while it’s tough, it still stays true to the nature of the rally racing core of the game.

This is gymkhana.

The new addition to DiRT 3, however, doesn’t. Gymkhana. Some boy racer, riceboy, wannabe trick racing crap. Ken Block, the guy who allegedly invented Gymkhana is talking and doing some of the introductions, so the only reasons I can see that it’s included in a rally game is that he’s related to somebody important at Codemasters, or there were some sexual favours in the contract somewhere.

Or maybe he paid them vast sums of money. But if that was the case, then he should have been able to fund a separate gymkhana game, not have it inserted where it doesn’t belong. It really, REALLY doesn’t belong in a rally game. And to make matters worse, you need to complete the events and pass them all before you’re allowed to continue your rally career.

So what exactly is gymkhana you ask? It incorporates drifting, jumping, doing donuts, spins, and jumps into one an annoying, difficult, cock-blocking racing event. It might not be so tough for those of you who play street racers, and do drifting and donuts and all that shit, but I’m here to play a rally game. Gymkhana is a completely different discipline. But the fuckers at Codemasters have designed DiRT 3 in such a way that I can’t finish the career mode without being at least mediocre at gymkhana.

Sadly for me and the money I spent on the game, this isn’t the case. I can’t get past the fourth series until I complete two gymkhana events. So I’m 20% through the game, and I’m stuck with single player mode. I guess I could try playing online multiplayer, but playing these games from New Zealand usually results in crappy latency, combined with my crappy wireless that keeps dying on me (the wired part of the broadband connection isn’t in my apartment), and the fact that half of the people I’ve encountered gaming online (on console games anyway) have a combined mental age of 12.

It’s not all bad. I’m just raging at the moment because that’s cheaper than smashing my controller through my TV screen.

The graphics are spectacular.

The graphics are stunning. The attention to detail is amazing. Everything down to spectators and photographers dashing across the track when they spot you coming round the corner. The scenery, the cars, everything is spot on.

However, on the flip side, the one majorly annoying thing about the menus and the race intros is that you can’t click past them. There are several “cut-scenes” — pure audio, mind you, nothing as fancy as video here — and you have to listen to them in their entirety. They add absolutely nothing to the game. They’re basically your racing team announcing what’s coming up, or that they’ve “talked to the sponsors” and allowed you to run a new race when you unlock something new. It’s not as self-congratulatory as all the animations on every single damn menu and trophy win on Gran Turismo, but it’s close.

Developers: please, please, for the love of bacon, let me press X to get past your menus, animations, and cut scenes. I know you’ve put a lot of effort into them and I know they’re pretty, but I don’t want to have to sit through them every fucking time.

Oh, and the music choice is complete arse. There’s no way to customise your playlist and remove tracks you dislike. It’s all or nothing. I chose the latter.

Right. So the actual playability — the driving and controlling the cars is very smooth and responsive. It feels great to play. DiRT 3 doesn’t have the over-the-top physics that Sega Rally did — you know, the mud that splattered on your car and weighed it down, making it handle differently, or the way you’d cut ruts into the track for successive laps that if you didn’t hold exact the same line next time around, you’d end up with slower lap times — none of that. DiRT 3 has found that sweet spot between an arcade racer and a simulator. The game engine, EGO 2.0, is probably the best I’ve ever played.

See, this is rally driving.

I think this’d make a great multiplayer rally game for when friends are over, and single player one-off races as I’ve mentioned, but that has limited appeal. To me, the inclusion of the gymkhana events is the single biggest letdown. It’s killed the single player career mode for me. Boy racer games certainly have their appeal in their demographic, but unless you’re a fan of both styles of racing, then this probably won’t be your cup of tea. You’d be better off getting the original Colin McRae: Dirt if you don’t have it already.

Games that include odd modes of play just for the sake of being different, or so that they can stand out in a crowded market are all well and good. But when they force those game modes on you, to the point where you can’t continue without doing them, then that’s when I draw the line.

Gymkhana is clearly a big part of this game. The car on the cover is a gymkhana car, not a rally car. I just wish I’d read some reviews before buying it — but hindsight is about as useful as tits on a screwdriver.

You have seen the movie now here’s the comic, the other big motive behind the DC reboot.

The recent announcement of a rebooting and renumbered post Flashpoint DC universe, has brought a mix of emotions from cautious interest to outright rage. To me this represents a last desperate throw of the dice from Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, Diane Nelson, Geoff Jones and many of the DC brain trust. To increase DC’s market share and make the vital leap from number two to number one superhero comic company.

There are a variety of factors that have contributed to the reboot — one area I want to touch on with this article is that the seeds of the reboot were planted unwittingly in the mid-1990s. How you may ask? Read on.

For the last decade and a half Marvel has become the dominant United States superhero comic company. Part of this is through sheer volume of product, and part is strong TV and film projects. But what has kept it dominant can mostly be boiled down to the characters and the rich emotional investment that has been cultivated through months (and many years) of reading.

Ask any long-time comics fans especially those in the 1980s and 1990s. When did you see your first superhero? And the answer could well likely be in the movies or on TV.

For myself personally, while it was the Superman movie that made me aware of the superhero and then later comic book hero. This was also how I found out about X-Men and its mid-90s animated series that led me to take the plunge into comic collecting and reading.

But what has this to do with the DC reboot you may be saying? It’s simply this: for the past decade and a half DC’s neglect and inability to use its vast media resources, to create a movie, a TV series or anything that could attract potential new readers, has allowed the company to fall rapidly behind Marvel. Something that it is only now realising — notice that the two key characters in this relaunch, the ones with perhaps the most books are being pushed heavily are Green Lantern and Batman. Ironically it was Batman that benefited the most from the gateway TV show/movie such as the Batman animated series and the Christopher Nolan movies. And now a similar process is happening with Green Lantern.

The equation seems very simple. I see Batman or TV, I notice Batman comic, I read Batman comic, and before you know it I am a Batman fan. Why has it taken DC until now to see this trend, part of it goes back between the difference between Marvel and DC, at the time of the mid-90s when the X-Men and Batman TV series were broadcasting. While both shows were created for entertainment, the situation both companies were in was very different. Batman the animated series was a labour of love for Bruce Timm and the others involved in its creation. There was also a chance to rehabilitate the character and make people forget about the awful Batman and Robin. DC had a healthy line of titles and were cruising along at a respectable number two — it had critical acclaim with its Vertigo titles and much mainstream exposure from the death and return of Superman.

X-Men, when it was broadcast, was raced to production — in fact the first episode wasn’t even finished when it was broadcast. Part of this was due to anticipation, the other was to get the show out as quickly as possible. Marvel at this time was fighting for its very life. Over-reliance on gimmicks, and over printing combined with bad management, and an unwise attempt to create its own distributor without the proper infrastructural support. The company was bankrupt, and subject to a fierce takeover battle. Marvel had to exploit every avenue to get its product out or it very literally faced the possibility of ceasing to exist.

DC on the other hand could have gone for the jugular and bought out Marvel. DC could have outmatched it with more movies and TV shows — DC had the resources and advantage of its own global reaching media company and its parent, Time Warner. While being part of Time Warner provided a great strength, it also created a great weakness — to Time Warner, DC was just another facet of its publishing arm, a potential source for movies, TV shows and merchandise. Time Warner did not realise what it had.

DC’s failure in the multimedia world would not become apparent to itself until the dawn of the new decade. Marvel was bought out by the toy company Toy Biz — its finances and ownership stabilised and Marvel began to aggressively develop its properties for movies and TV. It finally hit mainstream film success with the first X-Men movie, they then followed it up with Spider-man and other projects, building a cinematic Marvel universe and making the public more and more aware of its properties and characters. This helped them become a major entertainment powerhouse ultimately resulting in its billion-dollar buyout by Disney.

During 2009 Time Warner suddenly realised what it had in DC and quickly began to bridge the gap appointing Diane Nelson as president of the new DC Entertainment, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee as co-publishers, and Geoff Jones as chief creative officer. The new DC Entertainment would be a quicker leaner company with a film and TV division in Los Angeles and publishing arm in the traditional publishing home of American comics New York, able to synergise and create new DC-based properties and make use of a vast library of DC characters and stories.

The reboot of the DCnU is the result of this new synergy — an easy way to sell and resell the characters and appeal to the person that has seen the new DC TV show or movie, has stumbled across the DC comic, and before you know it is hopefully a new DC Fan. If the formula still works, however, will remain to be seen.

The full list of 52 relaunched DC titles has been announced.

I’m of two minds about this relaunch. Even the term relaunch doesn’t seem to be wholly appropriate. This really appears to be a reboot in a lot of ways. I would hope that reboot is a dirty word among media companies, but the constant rebooting of movies and TV shows over the last decade are testament to the fact that it’s more of a buzzword than a dirty word. And DC Comics is owned by Time Warner, so I would have expected them to embrace the term.

It could be I’m missing something (other than the obvious), so we’ll wait and see. There was talk of continuing some of the Batman story lines but I really don’t see that happening. At least not in the previous continuity. They’ll take ideas like the multiple Batmen and reseed those into the reboot relaunch.

A large part of me (which is a fair amount) really wants to ignore this whole thing. I’ve been a Marvel kid since, well, since I was a kid, and after a rocky relationship in the 90s and again in the early 2000s, I’m pretty much all-in now. But there were times when I flirted with the other team. And, no, not in the gay way you’re thinking thank-you-very-much. I have a few Batman comics, I have fewer Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, Catwoman, and Wonder Woman comics, but it’s enough to know that there are some DC characters I quite like.

But the fanboy part of me, the part that dresses up as Harley Quinn and makes gay porno for… ahem, what I meant to say was, the fanboy part of me sees an entire new line that I can get invested in right from the start. I don’t have to know about which universe we’re playing in, retconned or otherwise, and I don’t have to feel like guy who looks in the window, but never goes into the shop to make a purchase.

On the flip side, however, is the fear of what DC will do to the new universe. Now there’s a trip down memory lane. Remember Marvel’s New Universe? shudder. Yeah, so things could go badly. Even worse, Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics was their version of breathing new life into their characters, and they were bad. Really, really fucking bad. I bought an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man featuring the Green Goblin once, and it was so mind-rapingly horrendous, that I tore the comic up. And anyone who knows me will attest that if sombody so much as looks at one of my comics wrong, I threaten them with violence. So me tearing up a comic will tell you about the depths of my nerdrage.

The cover to Deathstroke #1

Based on historical evidence, DC’s reboot is enough to make me very afraid. But I’m trying to hold my eyeballs in because I know that most of my rage has been induced by Marvel, and the things we love the most tend to make us unhappy when things don’t go our way. So petulance aside, I’ve managed to read the list of titles spewing forth from DC’s bowels and I have to admit, things don’t look so horrible. In fact, shit like this is giving me a serious fucking broner. I really want that on a poster DC. Full fucking size. As big as my door.

The first thing I realise, without any surprise, is that there are 50 bat-books. Why don’t they just make one title and make it weekly? Why separate the titles out? Given that story arcs tend to be 6 issues, getting each story over in a month and a half strikes me as better than waiting six months for a resolution.

If I jump into this, and this is still up in the air, then the following will probably be staples of the collection: Justice League, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Batman, and Catwoman.

Now that JMS’ name is nowhere to be seen, I’m very thankful. And Judd Winick on Catwoman is a very pleasing thing. While Winick is also writing Batwing which features what looks to be a second Batman — or some bastard hybrid between Batman and Nightwing. I’m not seeing that, but maybe this is an intro into a Batman Corps as the previous DCU made headway into. DC are calling him the Batman of Africa. It’s like they’re trying too hard to promote race diversity. This is the 21st century. Race shouldn’t be an issue any more. He’s just another guy. Either way, no interest there.

Some other titles that I might get depending on my financial situation are: The Fury of Firestorm, The Savage Hawkman, Justice League International, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Detective Comics, Batman: Dark Knight, Birds of Prey, Swamp Thing, Demon Knights, Legion Lost, Legion of Super-heroes, Blackhawks, Justice League Dark, and Deathstroke. I may even consider Superman, but that has sucked for a very long time. The girly TV show Smallville really killed him, and the comics seemed to turn him into an uninteresting and uninspiring pansy at about the same time.

Titles I haven’t read for a long time include Firestorm — I have a few from the 80s and maybe 90s, mostly bought as back issues, but always had other higher priorities for my money. A new take on him could pique my interest. The original Swamp Thing series was awesome. The recent (-ish) relaunch was fairly mediocre. I must have lasted about 20 or so issues before giving up on it, but I’m still keen to see what a complete reboot will do.

Hawkman I’ve never read before, but this marketing fluff looks fairly interesting. An archaeological discovery leads to a possible alien plague in New York apparently. I’m all for alien plagues. Alien Plagues for Presidente!

I have no idea what Demon Knights and Blackhawks are, but they do look appealing. Demon Knights is set in the middle ages around Camelot. Allegedly it will mix swords, sorcery, and super-heroes. Could be worse. Could be swords, sorcery, and transvestite alien hookers. That never goes well.

The cover to Blackhawks #1

And Blackhawks looks to be some super-hero spec-ops team. From the unknowns, this is my pick.

One thing on a few people’s minds is whether this will last. Will this be completely retconned a couple of years down the track? Will DC go back to their old numbering if they see this isn’t selling as well as expected? Will they just go back just for the sake of next year’s marketing gimmick?

Honestly I don’t know. I’m hoping it doesn’t, but I won’t be entirely surprised if it does. As a comic fanboy who has a Marvel bias, the DC reboot is a good thing. Well, it’s a good thing now. Those people jumping on it two or three or ten years time will still be in the same boat as far as historical continuity goes. There will always be somebody new, for whom the history is unknown. As the old saying goes, every comic is somebody’s first (I’m not sure who first said that, but credit has been applied to everyone from Stan Lee to John Byrne to Chuck Dixon). Comics seem to have lost sight of that (especially obvious when you look at all the long multipart story arcs), but that very same adage is also very restrictive for storytellers.

Is this really a reboot?

DC have already renounced the term. They’re very specifically and vocally calling it a relaunch. In this interview with Judd Winick, he uses the term “fresh start.” So that makes me think that the origins of most of the characters is going to remain relatively intact. The idea seems to be that DC want to make the bulk of the characters more youthful to appeal to younger audiences. This, for all outward appearances, seems to be just a slightly more advanced version of Marvel’s Point One initiative.

Perhaps a better question is “What will change?” Of that, as far as I can see, mostly it’s just costume changes and a bit of rewinding. Bruce Wayne is Batman again, while Dick Grayson has gone back to being Nightwing. The Batman Incorporated thing will apparently kick back off in 2012 so there will be an organisation of Batmen all around the world. Barbara Gordon is going to be Batgirl again. Gone is the wheelchair and Oracle, and she’ll be back on the streets. Much to the annoyance of many readers.

I suspect that the legal battle over the rights to Superman will result in several changes to his origin. Of course, that’s just speculation on my part, but it’ll depend on how much money they want to pay for royalties. Personally, I think this’d be a great time to dump him completely. But he is a big old American rah-rah wankfest, and Americans like that sort of thing. They eat it up with their weetbix and their bibles in the morning. Chuck him out I say. Introduce a new international hero. Someone who stands for the people of Earth. Like ROM the fucking Spaceknight. Awwww yeaaahhhh.

“There are those who believe… that life here… began out there. Far across the universe. With tribes of humans… who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians… or the Toltecs… or the Mayans… that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids… or the lost civilizations of Lemuria… or Atlantis… Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man… who even now fight to survive… somewhere beyond the heavens.”

This article appeared in issue 2 of Level One magazine, back in Jun/Jul 2005. It covers the first season of BSG, but still should provide you with an insightful background into the show.

Your memory might be a bit hazy when I ask you to cast it back to 1978 to the release of a sci-fi television show called Battlestar Galactica. Some of you will have fond memories of Colonial warriors battling the dreaded Cylons — robots hell-bent on the destruction of the human race.

Others will have deluded yourselves into painful memories of this show. The rest of you will have completely forgotten about it.

Created by Glen A. Larson, who also brought us magical shows like Knight Rider and One West Waikiki, it told the story of a rag-tag fleet of survivors who sought out a mythical 13th colony — Earth. After the Cylons had completely destroyed all the worlds that the twelve colonies resided on, the survivors began their journey to find a new home.

The pilgrimage is often slowed by Cylon attacks, and sees the Colonial survivors visiting several planets to try and refuel, or to find out more about their legendary ancestors.

Always action-packed, the original series which lasted one season, was followed up in 1980 by a ten episode flop titled Galactica 1980. In this series, the refugees had found Earth, but it didn’t welcome them with open arms as they had expected.

Richard Hatch (Apollo in the original series) has been fighting for the revival of Battlestar Galactica for decades. In that time, he has written seven novels, and produced a four minute trailer in 1998 to show TV execs his vision for the future of the show. This trailer was called The Second Coming, and you’ll probably never see it. If you do, though, email that sucker to me.

The future of the show requires one to disregard Galactica 1980, as he prefers the Colonial refugees to continue their search for Earth. Perhaps he’s right. Once they reach Earth, it could be game over. Of course, the Cylons followed the humans to Earth, but it didn’t take them long to wipe out twelve worlds. Why would Earth be so special?

The future of the show is for them to never find Earth.

Whether the latest Battlestar Galactica is the product of Hatch’s labour to get it back on air, or if it is the result of a TV exec wanting to find yet another show/movie to “re-imagine” to save them thinking up a new concept themselves, the only thing that matters is that it is back on TV.

At first, I was quite concerned. Boomer is an Asian chick, not a black dude with an afro. Starbuck is a blonde chick who smoked cigars and played poker, not a suave womaniser who smoked cigars and played poker. There is no Daggit called Muffy. The Cylons look like humans.

That was the biggest dagger through my heart. The Cylons were fucking awesome in their hey-day. Silver machines with a red eye that flashed across their faces making that sweet wom-wom sound. OK, so they were led by a tossy looking git called the Imperious Leader, but the fact that they looked completely alien allowed us to root for the good guys. Blowing up a machine won’t keep anyone awake at night. But now…

What the hell are they? In the new Galactica, the Cylons were the product of human science. We created them, they started feeling oppressed, they left the human worlds, and populated their own worlds. Over the years, they apparently had no human contact and somehow miraculously have produced replicas of humans that are so precise, that even sleeping with one wouldn’t give them away. They breathe like we do, they bleed like we do, they think like we do.

That, perhaps, is the scariest concept of all.

The Cylons want our blood and by the Lords of Kobol, they’re going to get it. But like lesbians who hate men, I can’t help wondering that if they hate us so much, why do so many of them look like us?

All of this was combined into a package that I was genuinely worried about. As a rule, I hate re-imaginings — I’ve spoken of them before, and no doubt I’ll speak of them until the earth is a dried up husk that resembles a crack whore who’s been out in the sun too long — but sometimes, even the naysayers have to step back and say “I was wrong about this one.”

So here I am officially tell you that I was wrong about this one.

First came the mini-series which still left me confused, but when the series proper was released, there was no way I would miss it.

I watched the series from start to finish and although it does tend to be decompressed as a lot of TV shows and comics are today — it doesn’t suffer from this decompression. And that’s important. I can’t imagine having watched this week-on-week as television owning humans would have had to, because the pace is so quick in most of the episodes that the hour just passes before you feel like you’ve blinked.

Oddly, although this show was produced by the Sci-Fi Channel in the States, it played in the UK first. And thankfully each episode was pirated within minutes of having been on air. Downloads were available on eDonkey promptly afterward. So once the lot had come down, I sat and watched the whole season over the period of a week.

That really is the way to watch it. I tend to watch all my favourite shows on DVD in order, at the pace I want. Except when they’re not available yet — I’m downloading Deadwood at the moment, but I’m on dial-up, so it’s been months.

There are so many reasons to like the new Battlestar Galactica. The first is the cool new ships. The new Vipers and the new Galactica look absolutely astounding. The Cylon raiders are a bit odd as they have this giant dorky looking “original” Cylon head as the center piece. These ships, as we learn but guessed anyway, are “alive.” They are just a different model of Cylon warriors which happen to be able to fly in space. The head is what gave it away, but removing the head and making it look like a standard ship would have served two purposes. One, they wouldn’t look as gay; and two, nobody would have guessed that they were live warriors until the Colonial warriors discovered it.

Baltar’s mind being twisted like a piece of liquorice is amusing to watch. Because the Hot Cyclon Chick(TM) can only be seen by those she chooses, she plays such mind games with Baltar that even he doesn’t know where his mind is at half the time.

And although she’s a skinny piece of crap, there are more than enough guys out there who would cut off their left arms, right testicles, and several toes to slip their cocks into her bony hole. Gaius, sadly, is one of them.

That the fate of humanity rests on one man who takes instructions from the wrong head is not lost on me. Christians and Catholics around the world know that the fate of mankind is at the whim of females. The religious fraternity know that the ability for the female to command absolutely anything she desires just by offering access to her flesh will be the downfall of humankind.

Which is probably why religious leaders are renowned for raping boys, and is probably why feminism has been so rampant and outright vicious.

The Cylons know and understand the basic human desire of the flesh and have exploited it to their advantage. I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how they did this with no human contact, but that just makes them that much scarier.

But good on them, I say.

A heavy theme, which may not have been noticed in its original incarnation, is the theology. The Cylons believe in one God and the soul and that is part of their motivation for wanting to kill the human race.

It’s amusing to see how a concept which seems to borrow so heavily from Mormonism, that one would almost say promoted it, can be twisted to show the irony of human devotion to omniscient being(s). What links to Mormonism are there, I hear you cry?

The Quorum of Twelve is what the high council of the Latter-day Saints are called.

Also, in the Battlestar Galactica mythos, Kobol is a place where the Gods are said to live. A place of the divine. The Lords of Kobol are the Gods which most Colonials believe in. It could possibly be a coincidence that by shuffling around some of the letters, we come up with Kolob — which according to Mormon scripture means “the first creation.” It is the name of the planet which is nearest to God.

On top of all this, the Cylons seem to be following our own sordid religious history. They want to wipe out the polytheistic humans because their monotheistic doctrines have no tolerance for those who believe otherwise.

It’s ironic that in this instance, all of humankind are effectively pagans and the alien invaders think the same way as our popular religions do — reminiscent of Christianity’s or Islam’s zero tolerance policy toward other human beings who are of a different faith.

As a die-hard fan of the original, this new series sits well with me. While a lot of creative license has been taken and a fair amount has changed, the spirit of Battlestar Galactica lives on. And for those of you itching for some action-packed sci-fi that includes nothing more than a thin layer of political intrigue, then this is your puppy.

It would have been really nice if they could keep their cameras steady or if the original score had been redone. That was one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

The second season started in the States on July 15th [2005]. Nobody knows when it will show up here in New Zealand, but I’ve already got them downloading as they air.

Another announcement has been made about DC Comics‘ big reboot in September. As we’ve mentioned, the entire DC Universe is being rebooted and started again with #1 issues across the board.

The motivation seems to be the desire for a multipass into the 21st century. As well as releasing dead tree and digital copies of all their comics, DC are going a step further and releasing combo packs. The one thing that immediately strikes me is that they’re going back to their US$3.99 price point for the comics. I’m pretty sure they had promised to move all the main titles to $2.99, but that’s the thing about reboots. You kind of start again.

I’m of two minds of how they’re approaching their pricing structure. Digital comics will have the same cover price as the print editions. That’s right, $3.99. But… after four weeks, the digital versions will drop to $1.99. So a person like me who currently orders online, and typically has to wait a month before seeing his comics anyway… well, this is no undie-ripper. Add to that my three month old stack of unread comics (and the fourth should be here next week), and I’m not always in a hurry to read my stuff. I can wait a month for the price to drop.

Oversized digital issues are stated as starting at $3.99 and dropping to $2.99 after four weeks, which makes me think there’s a misprint in their announcement. Either the regular sized digitals are going to be $2.99 or the oversized will be $4.99. Or maybe it is as stated, both start at $3.99 and drop to different price points after the month.

This is what I suspect are the real numbers for the digital comics:

Regular: $2.99 -> $1.99
Oversized: $3.99 -> $2.99

The combo packs will cost US$4.99 and will be polybagged versions of the print comics. Packed into the bag will be an individual code so you can download the digital. Doesn’t seem like a completely stupid idea, but with comics are people really going to want both? One to collect and one to read?

Or is this enough to change attitudes? I’m a collector and only tend to read issues once or twice. And I fully expect to read all of them again when I retire. I have shifted away from DC comics and just stuck with Marvel comics because I simply don’t earn enough for everything I want. I already spend several hundred dollars a month on comics. But maybe the lower digital pricing will be enough for me to primarily be a “reader” of DC comics.

Update: Not really worthy of a full post, but DC have announced their first 11 titles, along with cover art.

Rocksteady Studios, the developers of Batman: Arkham City, have released a new trailer for the game. This video shows off Catwoman as a playable character. The aim is to allow players to walk down the darker side of Gotham, as Catwoman isn’t a goody two-shoes like old Bats.

After seeing the original trailer, I was sold. Although I’ve never played the prequel Arkham Asylum, I went around hunting for it today. It’s gone Platinum, but every single store in the city has sold out. If the original trailer didn’t make you want to drop your pants, this one certainly will.

Arkham City is due in NZ stores on the 19th of October 2011.

The game that has taken over 14 years in development may finally see the light of day within the next two weeks. Release dates are between June 10 and 14 depending on where in the world you are. Of course, I won’t believe it until I see a copy in my hands. I’m not that frakkin gullible.

But I do have many fond memories of LAN sessions with Duke 3D. So I’m psyched nonetheless.

On June 28, 2008, the official announcement for Diablo III was made by Blizzard.

In a few weeks time, we will celebrate the 3rd anniversary of this announcement. No, not the release of the game. The announcement.

Hello? I sincerely hope Blizzard aren’t trying to outdo Duke Nukem’s vapourware precedent.

We’ve put the band back together.

This little magazine started out as a dead tree edition released in Wellington, New Zealand for the first time in 2004 or 2005 (I can’t remember exactly — it was a long time ago and my brain is getting a bit dilapidated). After running for about 18 months, and 8 issues, we tried to migrate to the web without the success of the paper edition.

So now a few years later, I have decided to make a proper go at it. And I’d like to be able to repay the kindness of those wonderful geeks who helped contribute articles with actual money. The printed publication was running at a severe loss, because I chose to go down the fanzine route and had no ads whatsoever. But on the web, punters can install ad blockers if they’re offended by that stuff.

It is intended that this incarnation of Level One will be ad-supported, both so that I can pay for my hosting, and so that I can pay the nice people who are going to write articles for you.

I’ll post up a few of the original articles as well, or you can check out the old version of Level One on the Wayback Machine.

Stick around, the best is yet to come.