David Hayter Not Returning for Metal Gear Solid V?

David Hayter, voice-actor and screenwriter has announced that he will not be reprising the role of Big Boss or Solid Snake in the next Metal Gear Solid installment.  This comes as tragic news to fans as David Hayter has been the voice of the leading character for over a decade.  Starting with Metal Gear Solid in 1998, Hayter has voiced Solid Snake, Naked Snake, or Big Boss in eight titles if you count the Gamecube remake and Super Smash Bros.

Hayter said recently that he never was approached for the role, and has been informed that he isn't needed.  As a fan of Metal Gear Solid, and Hideo Kojima in general, this news might not be taken for face value.  Kojima has a record of tricking everyone until the last minutes.  For those of you who do not know, Metal Gear Solid 2 was advertised with Solid Snake as the main character, but it turns out he is only the make character for the first part of the game, then you are in control of a totally new character never mentioned before.

The speculation doesn't stop there, in February 2012 Konami announced their next Metal Gear Solid title, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.  All Kojima would say about the game was that it will feature Big Boss and serve as a prologue to another title.

Fast forward ten months to December.  A game called Phantom Pains in announced.  While being made by a Swedish developer, Moby Dick Studio, the protagonist resembled Big Boss.  The similarities do not stop there.  Two weeks before the announcement, a domain name was registered for the game called "Joakim", which is clearly an anagram for Konami.  Kojima also said he was impressed by the game, and it clearly drew inspiration from Metal Gear.

Konami has announced that these two games are one in the same.  Not many details are known besides this lengthy trailer.

Now there is always a chance Hayter isn't returning because Big Boss really won't be in much of the game right?  Well they hired back the Japanese voice actor for Snake, just not Hayter.  There is still a lot of speculation around this, but I highly doubt that David Hayter will not be returning is there is a "snake" in the game.  I guess we'll find out!

David Hayter is voice actor and screenwriter, now turned movie director, who has voice multiple characters in the Metal Gear series as well as Captain America on various TV and video games opportunities.  He is also an established screenwriter, working on X-Men, X2, Watchmen, and the Scorpion King.  His directorial debut, Wolves, is being released sometime this year.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, and more Adult Swim now on Netflix!

Finally!  Since I got Netflix a few years back, I have been patiently waiting for some Adult Swim.  Literally the only thing I miss about cable is Adult Swim and its mid commercial break messages.  While this doesn't exactly fill that gap, I've still got a bunch of shows to watch again!

Aqua Teen Hunger Force (1 Season)

Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad are finally here.  While only the first season, it's nice to relive it.  I forgot they actually tried to have them be detective for a few episodes.  Ha.  Also the narrations are hilarious and seem so out of place now!  Even if you have seen this season in the past, watch it again.  It's great.

Aqua Teen Hunger force on Netflix

Robot Chicken (1 Season)

In case you didn't know, this show is a critically acclaimed stop-go animation show.  While most of the show is done with eighties action figures, some of it is custom clay-mation among other things.  The show consists of poop joke and eighties movie and TV references at first, but it really has a deeper, more intelligent blend of humor once you really start paying attention.  The detail that goes into this show is unbelievable.

Robot Chicken on Netflix

Squidbillies (2 Seasons)

This show is well, different.  As the title kind of implies, this show is about squids who are hillbillies.  Their daily life consists of chewing tobacco, making moonshine, hunting, and getting out of trouble with the local police.  It so very strange, and sometimes honestly too much for me, but I haven't seen at episode that didn't make me laugh.

Squidbillies on Netflix

Why You Should Try South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!

South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play is an Xbox Live Arcade title.  The game is obviously a tower defense game, but there is a slight spin on it.  You control one of the four main characters: Stan, Cartman, Kyle, or Kenny.  Each character is capable of building towers, and they all throw snow balls which deal damage to the advancing enemies.  In addition, each character also has a special move which I'll get to later.

The first few levels start out very basic, but it does get fairly difficult.  As you kill enemies, they drop money that you need to pick of to build and upgrade towers.  The towers are all fairly South Park themed, ranging from "normal" things like baseball shooters to tied up cats that "cheese" the advancing foes.

The story advances after each completed level.  It is told through stylized anime like sequences, with full voice acting from the few original actors that do most the voices.  Something terrible has happened in South Park, and now waves and waves of all sorts of people and creatures are stopping at nothing to get through!

As you progress through the story mode, you go to many South Park inspired locations.  The school, sixth grade hangout, junkyard, even the top of a mountain for an epic confrontation with the half man, half bear, half pig itself.

DC Injustice: Gods Among Us Demo Now Available + Character List

I wasn't tremendously excited for this game, but I'm very excited for the toyline (more on that here), and the comic leading up to it is great so far.  I like fighting games, but I never can really get into them.  I play for a round or two, and then I do something else.  Well today, the demo for Injustice: Gods Among Us was released!

It plays like you would expect, it's a DC heroes and villains based fighting game.  It's one on one just like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.  It plays a lot like Mortal Kombat VS DCU, which is no surprise.  It is on a two dimensional playing field like the most recent Mortal Kombat was though, which in my opinion is nice.

The demo features three playable characters and one non-playable character.  It includes Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday as a boss.  I tried what I would call "classic" mode.  Here is it called Battle, but you just fight everyone until you reach the top, being the boss.

Gameplay mechanics are what you would expect, but they still feel fresh.  It's game has rounds like any other fighting game, but they are done a little differently.  Each character has two health bars, kind of like one made of armor and one made of health.  After your armor is depleted, the game kind of takes few second pause while the enemy gets up, then the battle continues.  There isn't any text that says round two or anything like that, it is seamless.  Furthermore, health doesn't respawn between rounds.  For example, when I was playing at Batman, Wonder Woman drained half my armor, then I finished off her armor.  When she stood back up with just her health bar left, I still had half my armor left.  It makes it seem like one big battle instead of multiple rounds, which is nice.

Toys R Us True Legends Orcs Pack

Today I finally opened my True Legends Orcs pack.  I knew these figures wouldn't be great, but I am pleasantly surprised by them.

Articulation is obviously not great, but for $10, these are great.  They are in perfect scale with all my figures, and I could see myself buying more for this price.  I need an army worthy of Mordor after all.

This set came with four figures and five weapons, plus a baby dragon of some kind.  Not a wonderful assortment, but they are all unique and I wouldn't mind multiples of any of them.

Directory of the Dead 1: Zombi 2

Now that The Walking Dead is done for another season, what are all you zombie lovers going to watch?  It just happens that flesh-eating zombie movies have been around for almost fifty years, so we are far from a shortage of zombie carnage to enjoy.

Today movie is the spotlight is the 1979 Italian movie, Zombi 2.

What about Zombi 1?

Zombi 2 is known as about 47 different things around the world.  There are  multiple reasons for this, but one reason in particular is fairly interesting.  Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978 and boosted the zombie genre to fame.  Night of the Living Dead started it, but there wasn't a major movie until Dawn came out, then it boomed!  At the same time George A. Romero was making Dawn of the Dead, Italian director Lucio Fulci was creating his own zombie film set on a island.  Dawn of the Dead was released as Zombi in Italy and much of Europe.  After the huge success of Zombi, the title of this film was changed to Zombi 2, to give the impression it was a sequel.

In the United States, there never was a film called Zombi, as it was Dawn of the Dead, so in the United States, Zombi 2 was released as Zombi.

Why is Zombi 2 important?

Zombi 2 was the first one many, and I mean many, Italian zombie films.  While not solely responsible for the boom in zombie films, Italian film makers kept the genre populated for years.  This movie spawned a sequel, Zombi 3, and two other films stealing the title Zombi that are not actually related.  Also, this movie has a zombie fight a shark.  For real.

What's it about?

The plot is fairly simple.  A boat drift into the New York Harbor, a couple harbor patrolmen board, and they find a zombie in it.  The zombie kills one officer, then falls off the boat into the harbor.  A woman is brought into the station because her father owned the boat.  At the same time, a reporter is assigned to investigate this boat.  The reporter and daughter meet on the boat and find a note saying her father is on an island with a horrible disease.  They go to find him, and I bet you can guess the disease!  Dead Island kind of has a Zombi 2 feel.  I wouldn't say they are the same, but there are some similarities.

What are the zombies like?

The zombie in Zombi 2 are similar to classic Romero zombies.  They crave flesh, are dead, walk slowly, and their bites are fatal.  The main difference here is apparently anyone on this island is infected.  At one point, some Spanish Conquistadors from a LONG TIME ago raise through their burial and do same damage.  Don't let that turn you off, this movie is great.

What to look forward to in this movie?

Well, there is a zombie that fights a shark!  Besides that, there is a great scene where somebody face is pulled into some splintered wood, and the person gets a good size piece to the eye.  There is also a scene with some people holding out in a church, it's very cool and very dramatic, but count the number of rafters that fall from the ceiling in this scene.  It is so much more than the building could possible have, and it would have to collapse after the first few fell anyway!  All the special effects in this movie are gory and great.  It was part of the UKs Video Nasties.

Zombie Kill of the Week?

Zombi 2 Streaming Options

Bad Game Reviews - The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

Activision's The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is the newest cash grab based on this zombie fad.  Unlike the Telltale Game series, which is great, this is based directly on the television show.  Now everyone has heard how horrible this is, and I'm not going to repeat everything everyone else has said.  I think this game has some wonderful mechanics, but wasn't executed properly.  I want anyone who is interested in the game to give it a rental, you might be surprised how much you like it!  I personally want more zombie games like this, but maybe the general public does not.

In the game, you play as this lovely former saint from Boston.  He is a character created  completely for the show, and while this is not a bad thing, it initially turned me off from the show.  I watched the first season, wasn't particularly impressed, and I didn't watch the second season until about a month ago, and now I'm hooked!  It got so much better.  Anyway, you play as Darrell Dixon at the beginning of the outbreak.