In what has become an annual tradition around Verbal Brew HQ, we sit down to take a look back at the things we’ve played, read and watched over the last year. We nominate our favorites of the year and reflect back on some of the other things that were a little less favorable.
We look back at a number of games from the past year including Batman: Arkham City, Rochard, Sanctum, Minecraft, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dead Pixels, Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
Television (24:56 – 35:41)
We also look back a number of TV shows from the past year including Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Torchwood and Episodes.
Movies (35:55 – 54:47)
We wrap up our year in review by discussing some of the year’s films that we enjoyed (and some of those that we didn’t) including The Muppets, X-Men First Class, Drive, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Cowboys Vs Aliens, Thor and Captain America.
On this week’s podcast we take a look at the latest Marvel DVD release Thor: Tales of Asgard, along with a new downloadable game for the Xbox 360, Outland.
Thor: Tales of Asgard is the latest straight to DVD release from Marvel. In this story, a young Thor accompanied by his brother Loki, head off on a journey to find the lost Sword of Surtur.
Outland (15:24 – 38:49)
Developed by Housemarque and published by Ubisoft, Outland is a 2D platformer that sees you switch between red and blue colors in order to combat enemies and avoid traps. The game is only available via download for the Xbox 360 but it will also soon be available on the PSN network.
Hector: Badge of Carnage is an episodic point-and-click adventure game brought to us by Telltale Games. You play as Hector, a detective acting as a negotiator during a hostage crisis. The first episode, We Negotiate with Terrorists, is available now for Mac and PC with the second and third episode scheduled for release this fall.
Thor (16:06 – 40:26)
Thor is the latest Marvel comic to get the big screen treatment as they get ready for next year’s release of The Avengers. The story sees Thor banished from his home on Asgard by his father Odin to Earth. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the film has a large ensemble cast including Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins.
It’s been awhile since we’ve stopped by the old trailer-park but we’ve got three new ones to look at this week. We’ve got the second official trailer for Thor, the announcement of the game Dead Island and the trailer for the new film Girl Walks into a Bar.
Thor – Trailer # 2
Marvel’s released the second official trailer for Thor this week. This trailer shows a lot of new material and a good mix of scenes between Earth and Asgard. I’d really be happy is this turns out to be an amazing film to keep up with the standard of some other Marvel properties. However I have a feeling this might be more Iron Man 2 than Iron Man 1. As long as it’s not Fantastic Four bad. The film comes out on May 6.
Dead Island
A lot of fuss has been made about this one this week. Don’t get me wrong, I think as a stand alone trailer it’s fantastic. But without seeing any in-game footage it’s impossible to tell if the game itself will live up to all the hype. And I enjoy removing zombie heads with an ax as much as the next guy but I’m officially zombied out.
Girl Walks into a Bar
Given the cast of this film and the multiple story threads that we see in the trailer, this looks somewhat interesting on it’s own. But what’s different about this film is that it won’t be at your local cineplex but will be shown for free exclusively on YouTube. Lexus has signed on as a sponsor which presumably help with the cost but no word yet if there will be any other associated advertising with the film. The film’s writer/director, Sebastian Gutierrez, hopes to prove that the web can be a viable distribution model for smaller indie films with lower budgets. The film will be available on YouTube March 11.
