It feels like just yesterday that we were just getting to know Kirby Krackle. Introduced to us at the last New York Comic Con; Kirby Krackle’s self-titled debut album was nothing short of a plethora of nerdy references which were then sprinkled diligently with catchy melodies and sweet guitar riffs. I was instantly a fan. Plus, these dudes rule!

Now fully equipped with Kirby Krackle’s new CD titled “E For Everyone”; I have to say that I’m entirely pleased with what this album has to offer. Their writing and musical style has only improved since the last installment. The lyrics remain as clever as ever, earning more than a few chuckles and smirks as a song progresses. The music seems to always hook me from the get-go, and I get the feel for the song immediately. The new tunes reference characters as obscure as Uatu, to mainstreamers such as Mega Man and the Thundercats.

The band has also tested the waters of some new musical territory this time around. The track “Roll Over” features GMK the Great, a rapper on the rise. GMK breaks the song down with a rap about all the fictional honeys he’s involved with at the club. This part turns out to be a ton of fun to listen to. It’s great that they’re welcome to collaborating and trying new things while instantly succeeding.

This is precisely the direction Kirby Krackle should be going in, and I think you should check this CD out. Sample it on Kirby Krackle’s site. On the left sidebar, you’ll find the music player along with their upcoming events and shows. Keep tabs on the band by following the Kirby Krackle twitter as well.

Their next event is the Emerald City Comic Con. Catch up with the guys and say hi! They’ll respond by rocking your socks off.

In these modern times, it’s tough to stumble upon a game that doesn’t involve some type of aggression. Whether you’re dog fighting against enemy pilots, dealing with a serial killer, fighting off waves of ninjas (more like nonjas…), or slaying the undead – most games deal with a conflict of some sort that can only be decided through battle. It’s not exactly surprising; part of the reason we play video games is to do exactly what we can’t (or wouldn’t) in real life. Who doesn’t fantasize about using their super powers to save the day, or high-level military training to stop the bad guys? Personally, I start to look for variety very quickly. I find myself to be in the mood to play a game, but not necessarily in the mood to kill something. Enter games like Rock Band. Here, we have a game where we get to be a rock star! You’re not killing anything at all. No, no, “slaying the crowd” is just a saying (you big silly)! Also, there exists a plethora of puzzle games with which to curb our violent rage. There is something missing here – all we’ve got is one extreme and a neutral “gray” area. Where’s the other extreme in this mix?

Games that appeal to our peaceful urges often get ignored because of their lack of interesting content. Casual gamers usually get the most out of these games. In the absence of twitch gameplay, we’d explore a bit of our creativity. Some of the best examples are the following:

The Sims – in which you manage and plan out the lives of characters who each have different personality types and life goals. You advance by meeting these goals.

Harvest Moon – where you maintain a farm and sell your crops to advance.

Animal Crossing – where you advance by becoming an active part of a society of an ever-changing and personality driven cast.

My personal favorite peaceful game is Harvest Moon. There’s nothing better than planning out a farm layout, and then watching my crops grow into some serious dough! Plus, it’s a lot of fun raising chickens so I can sell their eggs. What drives you to play a peaceful video game? Share your favorites down below.

Well, it’s that time again. Time for RPG gamers to forget about making any social plans for the next few months, time for the casual gamer to become a little more than casual; it’s time for the release of Final Fantasy XIII. The game is finally being released in the US on Tuesday, March 9th. It has been a while, hasn’t it? Coveted as the most anticipated Final Fantasy to date, this one in particular is going to be very important for the series as a whole. This is the first full installment of a Final Fantasy game in this generation of major consoles. The last (numbered) Final Fantasy was on the PS2. In this absence, many RPGs have come up and really kept us busy. Games like the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age: Origins, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the Mario & Luigi RPGs on the DS have each picked up the slack while FFXIII was being developed.

However, Final Fantasy had been starting to lose its luster by the time FFXII came out. People seemed to become less enthusiastic about the games as the series kept adding installments. Most gamers would consider Final Fantasy X-2 to be the low point of the entire Final Fantasy franchise. While I do know people who enjoy the game; it just doesn’t feel like a Final Fantasy; it feels closer to a Hannah Montana RPG with the pop singing spells. Square Enix brought it back to good by using the world of Final Fantasy Tactics as the setting for FFXII, but there was still something missing. Gamers are looking for the next Final Fantasy VII. We need to be able to stop looking back 12 years for what most consider to be the best Final Fantasy game ever! It’s time for Square Enix to blow away the competition and retake their throne as the best RPG developers around. Do you think Final Fantasy XIII is going to live up to the hype and impress us like Final Fantasy VII did? Better yet, are you ready to let go of the past and embrace what could be the best Final Fantasy to date?

It seems that two of the most popular superheroes are getting something of a fresh start in their next cinematic outings. Both Spider-Man and Superman are officially getting new movies. However, neither movie will be directly related to their previous installments.

It has been recently announced that Spider-Man’s next movie will be a reboot, bringing Peter Parker back to his high school days – a retelling of his origin story. This isn’t exactly surprising given the scorn that Spider-Man 3 received. Many people (yours truly included) felt that the storyline was over-saturated. Comparing to the feel of Spider-Man 1 and 2, Spider-Man 3’s villains didn’t hold the same ’super villain-ey’ intrigue. The Green Goblin and Doc Ock just felt more threatening on their own. Also, I don’t recall the black suit making Peter Parker prance through the streets like a Backstreet Boy in the comics.

The new Superman movie is going to be made with Chris Nolan (insert schoolgirl squealing here) overlooking the process. It also will not be an origin story; we’re getting a straight up Superman flick, featuring Brainiac and Lex Luthor as our public enemies. Superman Returns was something of an epilogue to Christoper Reeve’s interpretation of the DC icon. The casting was based more around the looks of today’s actors to be similar to those who had parts in the previous Superman movies. That being said, I think Kevin Spacey did a great job as Lex Luthor. Actors aside, this sequel was also part origin story. It’s subtle, but it’s there; the flashback Clark has while hanging out at his home in Smallville is your clearest evidence.

Is it a huge cop-out that these stories are getting reboots so soon? Did the old storylines really deserve to get ditched on the curb?

4chan founder Christopher Poole made an extremely rare public appearance at this years’ TED (technology, entertainment, design) expo. Some background: 4chan is a website where users can post anything they want anonymously. Content posted ranges from pornography to Rick Rolling. It is the birthplace of many internet jokes and gags. If you’re online more than the average person, you know about 4chan.

Until recently, Poole went by nothing more than his alias, ‘moot’. Taking into consideration the fact that he created a website based on anonymous posting, it isn’t at all surprising that it took him 7 years to decide he should make his true identity as founder of 4chan publicly known. In an interview with CNN, Poole went on to discuss how most people’s online presence is now no different than their real life identity. Everyone shares a wealth of information on multiple social networking websites these days, leaving many intimate details out in the open. While this is not new, it is more widespread than ever. Chris Poole refers to it as a “persistent user identity.”

Poole’s biggest concern? Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) has recently stated that user privacy is becoming less of a priority moving forward. Imagine Facebook being programmed to exploit even more of your information. Granted, this information would have to be provided by the user in the first place; but I know more people who post everything on Facebook than people who keep most of it (if not all) under wraps. Moot went on to state that the idea of being anonymous is dying off on the internet. I always considered anonymity to be a staple that the internet should never forfeit, but it looks like we aren’t going to have much say in how things go. Do you think this is the direction the web should go in? Is a more public internet a good idea?

Time travel is used in many of our favorite stories. Classics such as Back To The Future, leading right up to modern hits such as the new Star Trek movie all include time travel as huge parts of the story. With this, temporal displacement is not far from the comic book realm either. Everyone from Bishop to the Time Trapper have jumped backwards and forwards through history.

**Minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Marvel’s “Captain America: Reborn” arc. The Batman stuff is still in the works, not released.**

The concern here is not time travel, but how it is being used in some recent and huge story arcs in both Marvel and DC’s universes. Batman and Captain America (Steve Rogers, duh) have met their demise. These heroes finally met their matches in their own respective ways, and their allies had no choice but to watch in horror as it all happened. Captain America’s death even made page 1 of New York newspapers (yes, real ones) – it caused quite a buzz. Batman’s death sparked a new story arc that helped decide who’d wear his cowl moving forward. I’d be foolish to let myself believe that these guys would stay dead forever; they make too much money for their respective owners. However, I do expect some kind of creativity for their revival. Not one, but both of these characters’ revival involves some weird inconsistency with time travel. As if there was a glitch in the time stream? I don’t want to think about it too much, it gives me a headache. Did Marvel and DC jump the shark here? How do you feel about how Marvel and DC’s heavy-hitters have been revived?

After sitting with MAG late night upon late night, I’ve finally got something constructive to say about this epic multiplayer first person shooter. Briefly speaking, MAG is a Playstation 3 exclusive that is online-only; developed by Zipper Media. While the gameplay mechanics are similar, the biggest perk MAG has on Modern Warfare 2 is the amount of people you can have in one match – 256! The player must be a member of one of three factions. Each faction has their own aesthetic and strategic appeal, so you better do your homework before you pick yours. As you progress and win matches, you earn levels and skill points. Skill points will allow you to unlock more weapons and give you advantages with certain weapon types. Oh, and of course, MAG is “Massive Action Game” for short. I guess coming up with a better meaning for the acronym wasn’t in their budget.

Before it came out, the general consensus was that this game would have too many people in one match. A battle that can get 256 people large would have that first impression, but thankfully the developers knew what they were doing in this regard. The maps are great sizes, and the multiplayer matches rely on most of the team being constructive together. It’s not like two crazies running around with their knives out are going to win the match for their whole team. The focus is on your strategic moves. If you try securing a capture point in a 2 v 10 situation, it’s not going to work. You need to work with your team to get somewhere.

In summary, don’t be intimidated by the multiplayer experience you’ll have with MAG. The game doesn’t throw you directly into the mess, either – you have to go through smaller training matches with other members of your faction before you head off to the big fights. The level system will give you the drive that any level system does, and should keep you interested for a while. Plus, it’s ridiculous fun to tear up a team of 128 people with your own team of 128 people!

Games come in all flavors of win and fail. You’ll have the “don’t even rent this game” game, the rental, the great multiplayer game; and finally – the masterpiece of a single player experience. As it may go without saying, a small amount of games fall into that last category. 2K Games achieved this badge for the original Bioshock. When it was released in 2007, Bioshock made a lasting impression on reviewers and gamers alike. It stood out with its perfect blend of first-person shooting and RPG gameplay. On top of the game mechanics being perfect, the story really carried this game home. Without spoiling anything, I can personally say that the twists in Bioshock had me compelled up until the final boss fight. The city of Rapture really set the dark and ominous mood as well. Bioshock is a near perfect game, and the story ended pretty conclusively. All loose ends were tied up, and the fates of our characters were all basically given to us. At least I had no questions about what would happen next, because the ending pretty much told me. Yet here we are; almost 3 years later, and Bioshock 2 is released.

The game was originally rumored to be a prequel – which I was extremely excited for. What would be better than exploring and fighting in an underwater city filled with mutants and biomechanical monsters? The answer: seeing how this underwater city became filled with mutants and biomechanical monsters, of course! Later we’d learn that Bioshock 2 takes place in 1968 – eight years after the original Bioshock. There is no continuity from the original storyline; you play as an entirely new main character. The player is to assume the role of Subject Delta – the original “Big Daddy”. While some characters from the original game were worked into the new story, it seems clear that Bioshock was never intended to be a series. The story almost comes off as a spin-off rather than a sequel. Most of the formula remains the same, aside from some new abilities and the use of a gigantic arm-drill; but is the magic of the first game once again captured, or is 2K just trying to squeeze this franchise dry?

Apple has been everything but direct with information about their new tablet device up to this point. Later today, we will know everything we want to know about the mysterious device; but a few things have already been confirmed: it will use an operating system similar to the iPhone, and it may or may not have a 10 inch screen. It’s already off to a great start.

One thing that should be taken into account here is that Apple is releasing the first “tablet” style device. Whether it will compare more with a netbook or an e-reader remains to be seen, but my assumption is that Apple is looking to cover both arenas with their invention.

On the business side of things, book publishers will likely have a new prospect to consider – selling e-books on iTunes. This would bring e-reading to the forefront of digital media, and Apple’s Tablet would be at the wheel. The question remains, is this device going to be popularly compared to e-readers, netbooks, or both?

We’re not breaking new ground here, people – attractive girls in video games simply help sell more copies. There are just enough people who enjoy watching the artful physics that are applied to the way these ladies move. Am I the only one who thinks that it can get a little awkward? I mean, the lovely ladies in the Dead Or Alive series are clearly unaware that sports bras exist. Alas, objectifying women in video games (as stated previously) is just a common practice that is hardly discouraged. Sex sells, no matter the medium. In any case, this is only the base of my point.

Recently, I played the Bayonetta demo on Davy’s (fellow nerdpundit) Playstation 3. In order, these were my initial thoughts on the game:

1. Wow, Bayonetta’s clothes come off as you use magic.
2. Is she really standing like that?
3. Holy moley, the environments are gorgeous!
4. This game is a ton of fun, the gameplay is awesome!

There’s a great game hidden under all those sexual overtones! Here we have a game that can compare to (if not excel beyond) games like the Devil May Cry series or the Ninja Gaiden series. Yet, it was nearly overlooked by me because of how off-putting it can be to have the main character moan when she summons a hair demon to devour her enemies. Now, don’t get me wrong, eye-candy is always welcome; I’d just like to see the following combination: a great game with a female lead and just as many sexual references as we’d see with a male lead. RPGs where you can pick the gender of your main character don’t count. Do you feel as though games like Bayonetta lose some quality appeal because of how the characters are depicted?