FTL and the Lonely, Lonely Journey

You are not a soldier of anarchy. You have no ill will towards the Federation stretched across the vastness of space. On the contrary, you and your loyal crew have a mission to save the Federation from a terrible rebel threat. And light years of deep, dangerous black stands between you and delivering your intel on the rebel flagship. As the cold of the void presses against your ship's hull, you accept the loneliness of your mission for the greater good. You captain a vessel in the unknown reaches of FTL: Faster Than Light.

FTL, a spaceship simulation designed by Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, charges you with a single mission and the care of a single ship. Overcoming hazards, buying weapons, managing fuel, and hiring a crew occupy every second of your time as rebel forces bear down upon you. Despite the exotic aliens that offer you wares and the passing travelers you meet along the way, your time in space is spent in spectacular isolation. FTL is a game of loneliness.

Once you shove off from the hangar, your ship drifts through empty backdrops for the remainder of your journey. That’s not to say the backgrounds lack detail; far from it. They glitter with the colors of strange worlds. But they lack life. The only company you have is that of your crew members marching about your ship's interior.

The actual play in FTL reinforces the importance of your crew and your attachment to them. You can name them, and command them to man various stations aboard your ship. Their skill grows with experience, and increases your chances of survival. Losing a crew member inflicts a tremendous blow against your progress, and fills your ship with the hurt of emptiness. One stray missile and your wizened pilot is suddenly gone forever.

The rare friendly face you come across during the trip, a soothing voice over the comm or an outpost willing to shelter you, exists only in text. The absence of other friendly character sprites enhances the importance of the officers aboard your vessel -- they shield you from the otherwise crippling lifelessness of space.

But the core of FTL's loneliness is powered by composer Ben Prunty's astounding soundtrack. It hums, whirs, and sings with a perfect ache all too fitting for your course through unfamiliar galaxies. Whether it's the ethereal, haunting blips in "MilkyWay (Explore)" or the music box lilts of the Engi, Prunty's work pulls at the heart. It's both beautiful and sad, and makes every jump through space a stirring, desperate affair that reflects the science-fiction setting of FTL just as much as its 8-bit aesthetic.

Fortunately, this pervading loneliness works to FTL's advantage. Rather than serving to discourage or upset, it’s a necessary counterweight to all the beneficial items and opportunities that affect you throughout the story. Say, for example, you encounter a vicious slave trader on the fringe of civilization. A well-fought battle might reward you with a new crew member liberated from the trader's space-faring prison. Or perhaps the good will of a passing traveler will grace you with fuel when your ship is running on fumes. These moments of good fortune taste sweeter after the bitter loneliness you and your crew know so well.

That loneliness also weighs upon you with each decision you make. Do you send one of your valuable crew members, a friend and rare ally, into an abandoned station in search of supplies? Or do you avoid the risk and sacrifice any possibility of reward? As captain, you face this delightful agony with every challenge.

In the world of FTL, there are no checkpoints or restarts. You have one chance to make it to your Federation comrades, and you cradle the fate of your ship -- and your crew -- in your hands. The loneliness in every song, backdrop, and string of text works in bittersweet harmony with this responsibility. And in those flashes of time when your ship and crew are in danger, you'll do anything in your power to save them.

It's strange that a game that instills such challenging emotions in you can still reward and entertain in the same instant. But some say that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." As you jump to an empty beacon with nothing but your tireless crew to stand with you in the dark, that phrase sounds particularly apt -- especially out in the starlight.

Ryan Clements writes for IGN. Despite the tone of this article, he's actually not a lonely person. He's happily engaged! Follow him on Twitter at @PwamCider.

Source : ign[dot]com

Hanks and Zemeckis to Launch Major Matt Mason

Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis are now moving forward on the long-gestating space feature Major Matt Mason, which would have Hanks set to star with Zemeckis directing.

"I started tinkering with the story after Larry Crowne," said Hanks, who co-wrote the astronaut screenplay alongside Graham Yost (Speed).

Based on a toy from 1966 (prior to the moon landing), Major Matt Mason takes place on the moon and follows a team of people based at a space station. Said Yost of the film, "There's no bad guys. There are no aliens. Nothing like that. It's just, can you survive?"

The project will mark a reunion for Hanks and Zemeckis, who have teamed on a number of movies including Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

The A-Z of Doctor Who

The Doctor is a traveler, a wanderer in the fourth dimension of space and time. He’s also an alien from the planet Gallifrey, and a hero dedicated to fighting evil wherever it occurs.

Accompanied by his TARDIS, his sonic screwdriver and his companions, the Doctor has fought horrors both on Earth and farther afield, and sent children of all ages hiding behind the sofa for almost half a century.

And since half a century is a long time, we thought we’d provide newcomers to the show with an overview of the story so far…

A is for Amy Pond

More than just the Doctor’s longest running companion since the series returned 2005, Amy Pond is also one of the few to have travelled with him for over a decade (the only others being her husband Rory and daughter River, of course).

Part of the first married couple to travel in the TARDIS, Amy is also the Doctor’s mother-in-law, a position which has not exactly been loaded with perks. From being cloned, having her memory erased, her baby kidnapped and her daughter grow up to become the Doctor’s murderer-slash-wife, poor old Amy really has had a tough time aboard the TARDIS. With her departure rapidly approaching we’re wondering if it might all be getting a little too much.

See: The Eleventh Hour, Let’s Kill Hitler, The Angels Take Manhattan

B is for Bandrils

[FOR IGN REFERENCE http://www.shadowlocked.com/images/stories/whoreviews/colin_baker/timelash/timelash_bandril.jpg]

With seemingly every sci-fi publication imaginable taking polls on viewers’ favorite Doctor Who monsters of all time, spare a thought for the critters that are best left forgotten. Languishing at the bottom of any Who fan’s scariest monster list, past mutant bubble-wrap arms and burping wheelie bins, are the Bandrils.

These barely animated glove puppets wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of the Muppet Show’s Trek-spoof “Pigs in Space”. At least there you’d be able to laugh at the Bandril’s high-pitched threats of world obliteration without feeling guilty.

See: Timelash, The Muppet Show

C is for Cybermen

Before the Borg, there were the Cybermen- human beings whose humanity had been taken away, their emotions removed, their bodies replaced with machine parts and weird... jug handles, I guess?

Initially from Earth’s long lost twin planet Mondas, the Cybermen used to be grim reflections of ourselves, but over time their emotionless exteriors became increasingly less convincing until they were stomping around shouting “Excellent!” and being ridiculously allergic to gold.

Is it any wonder, then, that when Russell T Davies brought these villains back he wiped the slate clean by giving us a new origin story about an alternate universe Earth driven crazy by mobile-phone ear-plugs?

See: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel

D is for the Doctor

Now twelve-hundred years old, the Doctor has come a long way from his days as a bohemian adventurer pottering about the universe with his granddaughter and a pair of school teachers. He’s lived through eleven bodies, been exiled to Earth, become president of the Time Lords, was put on trial by them (twice), wiped out the Daleks (almost), fought in a time war, ended a time war, turned human and got married.

Never cruel and never cowardly, the Doctor has always been a relentless force for the good in a universe of terrors. With him around it’s safe to be scared.

See: Doctor Who - all of it

E is for Extended Universe

It’s a testament to the core structure of Doctor Who that the Doctor’s stories translate so well to other media and with a show as long-running as this it’s unsurprising just how many tie-ins to the show there are.

Let’s start with Doctor Who Magazine, the longest running TV tie-in magazine ever, whose comic strip served as a proving ground for such luminaries as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons- creators of Watchmen. Then there are the vast quantities of novels that kept Doctor Who alive during its dark days of cancellation in the 90s. Big Finish Production’s audio adventures also served a similar function, bringing back classic Doctors to record missing adventures with former companions- a range that continues to this day.

And those are just the tip of the ice-berg; how could you forget the charming 60’s Dalek movies featuring Peter Cushing, or the Doctor’s recent forays into the world of video games? Doctor Who is truly a universe too big for just the small screen.

See: Doctor Who Magazine

F is for Frightening

For a children’s show, Doctor Who has never been one to shy away from terrifying moments, particularly during the gothic horror era of Tom Baker’s early series which notably featured a particularly violent cliffhanger involving the Doctor’s head being held underwater.

Nowadays the show steers clear of realistic violence, preferring instead to explore more psychological or fantastical scares. Children should be able to hide behind the sofa without worrying about the dangers the Doctor faces happening to them.

See: The Deadly Assassin

G is for Gallifrey

Gallifrey is the Doctor’s home world. Situated in the constellation of Kasterborous, its burnt orange landscape houses the the citadel of the Time Lords. This wise and ancient race, whose powers are fueled by a huge black hole beneath the planet’s surface, regarded themselves as superior to the other inhabitants of the universe. This was until the Dalek Empire came knocking.

In the Time War that followed, Gallifrey was lost, trapped out of time by the Doctor in a last ditch attempt to prevent the horrors of the war leaking out into the rest of the universe. For all we know it remains there still, doomed to live the final days of the war for the rest of eternity.

See: The Deadly Assassin, The End of Time Part 1 & 2

H is for Heroes

It’s only natural that we consider the Doctor the hero of his own show, but spare a thought for those he travels with.

When the Doctor actually chooses his companions (something that happens surprisingly rarely) he prides himself on taking only the very best. Usually these people are dissatisfied with their lives, aware that they are destined for greater things and the Doctor’s skill is to take this people and let them grow and flourish; transforming an ordinary shop worker in a goddess who can wield the power of the time vortex, or a London Temp into a human-Time Lord capable of destroying an entire Dalek empire.

From Captain Jack to Rose to Martha to Sarah Jane Smith- these people are just like us. And if he’ll take them, he could come back for you.

See: The Stolen Earth & Journey’s End

I is for “I am the Doctor!”

Possibly the greatest piece of Doctor Who merchandise ever devised- the Third Doctor himself, Jon Pertwee, talk-singing over the Doctor Who theme.

Released in 1972 ‘Who is the Doctor’ was the first time the Doctor Who theme had been given lyrics and is something that must be heard to be believed.

Whilst you’re at it, check out the poignant (and non-Who related) B-side to the original single that recounted the fortunes a faded stage magician, entitled ‘Pure Mystery’.

See: Who is the Doctor?

J is for Jelly Babies

The Doctor’s favorite food- jelly babies have been considered a delicacy by the Doctor ever since his second incarnation, however it was Tom Baker’s Doctor that made them iconic. Brandished his little paper bag wherever he went, the fourth Doctor used them regularly to break the ice, once prevented a man committing suicide and even threatened a gang of savage natives by holding a “deadly jelly baby” to a fellow tribesman’s neck.

Nowadays jelly babies have been replaced by the more biscuity jammy dodger as the Doctor’s confectionary of choice, a far more impractical treat in our opinion- think of the crumbs!

See: The Face of Evil, The Sun Makers, Doctor Who (TV movie)

K is for K-9

The ultimate pet/portable turret/smarmy computer/chess opponent, K-9 was actually the property of another doctor- Professor Marius- who felt a bit guilty about trying to infect our Doctor with an alien virus whilst possessed so gave him K-9 as a way of apologizing.

There have actually been a number of different versions of K-9 over the course of the Doctor’s travels; the first being left in a parallel universe with his companion Romana, the second on Gallifrey with Leela, whilst Sarah Jane Smith managed to get through two models all by herself (which isn’t that surprising considering how often the tin dog would break down).

K-9 has also starred in his own spin-off series, but we don’t like to talk about.

See: The Invisible Enemy, Warriors’ Gate, School Reunion

L is for Legends

There are many legends about the Doctor throughout the series, but most of the time they are entirely fictional. Oncoming Storms, Predators and Sainted Physicians are all very well, but the ultimate crossover reference came in the 1989 story Battlefield.

When a group of space age knights from a parallel universe invade a sleepy English village on the hunt for a demon, they immediately recognize its protector- the Doctor - as their wise and ancient advisor; the wizard Merlin.

See: Battlefield

M is for Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat is Doctor Who’s current lead writer and executive producer. After winning BAFTAs for his timey-wimey scripts for the Tenth Doctor it was only natural that Steven would take over the mantle of the show from previous incumbent Russell T Davies upon the Doctor’s regeneration.

Steven hasn’t just been busy with Doctor Who however, and any fan of the show would surely be missing out if they didn’t check out his revamping of another British icon, Sherlock Holmes, in a series he co-created with fellow Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss.

See: Sherlock

N is for Nemesis

The Master is a rival Time Lord; the Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes. He arrived on Earth intent on destruction during the Third Doctor’s exile and since then the two of them have brawled across the stars.

Over time we’ve learned that the Doctor and the Master used to be childhood friends, and that the Master was driven insane by the Time Lord president Rassilon who planted a drumbeat in the young boy’s head as a means to escape the horrors of the Time War. This insanity, the Doctor believes, is the root cause of the Master’s transformation into a being of pure evil.

Most of the time though he was just a bit naff - his pantomime plans to humiliate the Doctor becoming so convoluted and contrived that at one point the only way he could have planned his next revenge on the Doctor was by assuming his first dastardly plot would fail.

See: Terror of the Autons, Castrovalva, The Sound of Drums & Last of the Time Lords

O is for Oswin

This year the Christmas special will be even more special than usual as it brings with it the gift of a new companion in the shape of former Emmerdale actress Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Little is known about how she will be introduced, however Steven Moffat has offered us a tantalizing glimpse of what she’ll be like in the first episode of this series- Asylum of the Daleks- in which she played Oswin Oswald, an astronaut converted into one of the Doctor’s tin-pot foes. Could she be a relative of the Oswin who will end up travelling with the Doctor? Or is Moffat up to his timey-wimey tricks again?

See: Asylum of the Daleks

P is for Paris

With Doctor Who filming in both Spain and the US this season alone, it’s hard to believe that it took 9 years for the show to be filmed abroad.

Doctor Who’s first ever overseas shoot was in Paris for the 1972 story City of Death. Written by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it involved the theft of the Mona Lisa by an alien that had been splintered throughout different eras of history, a plot which took a back seat to copious shots of Tom Baker and Lalla Ward running through Paris hand in hand- a genuine treat and all-time highlight for Doctor Who.

See: City of Death

Q is for the Quest for the Key to Time

Nowadays we’re all familiar with Doctor Who’s series-arcs. From Bad Wolf to Torchwood, Saxon and Silence Falling, each meme serves to frame the Doctor’s exploits in a larger context whilst giving observant fans tantalizing clues to drive each other mad over the internet.

But it wasn’t always this way and, until 1976 when the White Guardian charged the Doctor with tracking down the six segments of the Key to Time, the classic series had never dealt with tale so epic that it spanned an entire season.

Each adventure revolved around the Doctor and his Time Lady companion Romana acquiring a new segment (unhelpfully disguised as either a planet, a princess or some kind of fancy jewelry) and as the series progressed the stakes were raised to universe-threatening levels as the Doctor became a pawn in the battle between the fundamental forces of good and evil.

See: The Key to Time series

R is for Russell T Davies

The man who brought Doctor Who back, Russell T Davies was already a hugely established scriptwriter and producer long before he got his hands on the Time Lord.

His breakthrough work was the series Queer as Folk, a drama focusing on the lives of gay clubbers in Manchester and including Vince, a Doctor Who fan who watched old Tom Baker episodes after a night out a received a radio controlled K-9 for his birthday.

Russell would then go on to write the one-off mini-series The Second Coming (starring future 9th Doctor Christopher Eccleston) and Casanova- which featured a fresh-faced David Tennant as the eponymous hero.

See: Queer as Folk, The Second Coming, Casanova

S is for Sonic Screwdriver

Whilst companions come and go, this little whirring tool remains the Doctor’s most faithful of partners. Doesn’t kill, doesn’t wound, doesn’t maim, it also doesn’t work on wood which is a bit of an oversight on the Doctor’s part.

Introduced during the Patrick Troughton’s tenure, it was destroyed during the Peter Davison’s over fears that it was becoming too much of a crutch for the Time Lord. Aside from a brief cameo it was only resurrected when Doctor Who returned in 2005. Now apparently grown by the TARDIS, it has proven itself even more capable than before, both in the show and as a range ridiculously popular of children’s toys- including a universal remote.

See: Fury from the Deep, the Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Universal Remote Control

T is for the TARDIS

Time And Relative Dimension In Space- The TARDIS is the Doctor’s home, its vast interior housing laboratories, living quarters, wardrobes, a swimming pool, a library and seemingly infinite, identical corridors. All while its modest exterior is stuck in the shape of a 1950s London police box.

More than simply a portal to adventure, the TARDIS is occasionally the subject (or cause) of adventures all its own, including sucking planet Earth through its power core, imbuing Rose with all the power of the time vortex, and turning into a woman.

See: Doctor Who (TV Movie), The Parting of the Ways, The Doctor’s Wife

U is for UNIT

The UNified Intelligence Taskforce- formerly the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce- was founded in the 60s or 70s depending on which Doctor Who story you happen to be watching. Lead by the Doctor’s oldest friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (and currently headed up by his daughter) it existed to combat the large spike in alien invasions of the home counties that happened to coincide with the third Doctor’s exile to that exact same location.

The Doctor has worked with UNIT in all but two of his incarnations, watching them grow from a cuddly band of vaguely inept soldiers to a sinister, highly mobile and well equipped fighting force complete with Captain Scarlet-style cloud-bases.

See: The Invasion, Spearhead from Space, The Power of Three

V is for Verity Lambert

Verity Lambert is widely regarded as the mother of Doctor Who. The first ever female producer at the BBC (and one of the first female television producers full stop) she oversaw the creation of the show that would tragically outlive her.

In 2002 Verity was awarded an OBE in recognition of her contribution to film and television and continued to work as a producer until the day she died in 2007. In the episode ‘Human Nature’, broadcast the year she died, the Doctor paid tribute to her legacy by revealing his parents to be named after both her and Sydney Newman - the head of drama at the BBC when Doctor Who was first commissioned.

See: Human Nature & The Family of Blood

W is for Weeping Angels

The most enduring and popular new monsters since Doctor Who’s return in 2005, the Weeping Angels have even beaten the Daleks to the top of recent ‘scariest villain of all time’ polls.

Nicknamed ‘the lonely assassins’ due to their quantum-locked nature, the Weeping Angels appear as stone statues whenever they are observed by another living thing. But as soon as you look away, as soon as you blink- they strike; zapping you back in time so they can feed off the energy of the days you might have had in the future.

Each time the Weeping Angels return we’ve seen them gain new, even more deadly abilities- including the ability to manifest from security footage and possess those that look into its eyes. With the epic climax of Amy and Rory’s decade with the Doctor set to feature the Weeping Angels in New York, it’s anybody’s guess what tricks they might still be hiding up their sleeves.

See: Blink, The Time of Angels & Flesh and Stone, The Angels Take Manhattan

X is for Exterminate

The Daleks! The Doctor’s oldest and deadliest foes. Their terrifying rubber plungers were the first aliens the Doctor ever met on-screen and since then they’ve dogged the Time Lord throughout all his incarnations- becoming pop-culture icons in the process.

The mutated survivors of a nuclear war, the Daleks were created by Davros, a crippled and insane scientist who taught them to hate anything different to themselves (including him as it turns out). This hatred has proven to be the perfect survival mechanism however, as the Daleks continue to rebuild their empire in the wake of their conflict with the Time Lords. After being defeated by the Doctor in so many battles, it appears these little pepper-pots may have won the war...

See: Genesis of the Daleks, Dalek, Asylum of the Daleks

Y is for 50 Years

That’s right, come November of next year this little show about a madman in a box will have been around half a century. That’ll be 33 series, 238 stories, 11 leading actors and a host of pop-culture icons for all you number fans out there.

As the longest running science fiction series in history, it’s astonishing to see the show exist today almost completely unchanged from its original format with an unwavering appeal that spans generations. The Doctor is truly a man out of time.

See: An Unearthly Child

Z is for Zygons

It’s fortunate that one of the few Doctor Who monsters to begin with Z is also one of the ones we most want to see return in the new series!

The Zygons are a lumpy orange race of shape-shifters whose whispery voice hints at a sinister past of chain-smoking and laryngitis. The Doctor discovered them hiding at the bottom of Loch Ness preparing to unleash a giant glove-puppet dinosaur on London. Aside from the glove-puppet part, these creatures were terrifying, and their prosthetics so convincing that the new production team wouldn’t even need to update them!

See: Terror of the Zygons

Source : ign[dot]com

Street Fighter vs. Tekken vs. Mortal Kombat

Fighting games have bruised our fingers and battered our egos for decades. In the competitive gaming space, no genre does it quite like the fighter. They pound gamers over the head with mind-numbing combos and split-second timing. They take the spotlight in living rooms and Las Vegas tournaments. They're everywhere. And considering the rabid communities that spring up around these franchises, you can expect that the fighting game greats get compared to each other now and then.

The Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken franchises have been brawling since the other 90s. We decided to pull out a few numbers and see how each series compares. We don't have any money on this fight. No legs will be broken. We just love the thrill of the game.

Brian Altano throws things together for IGN with enough class to impress this guy. Follow him on Twitter.

Ryan Clements writes for IGN and helped Altano stay positive today. He also ate a banana. Follow him here on IGN or over on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Neo Geo Reborn as Neo Geo X Gold

Are you a Neo Geo fan with way too much money and extra closet space? Well then, good news! Tommo Inc has partnered with SNK Playmore to celebrate the Neo Geo's 20th anniversary and create the Neo Geo X Gold - a revamped Neo Geo handheld that's releasing internationally this December.

The Neo Geo X Gold isn't just a handheld, but a handheld that comes with massive plastic joystick and a console station that you can plug your handheld into so you can play hits from 1995 on your television.

The handheld has a 4.3" LCD display, game card slot, speakers and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The station has HDMI and A/V out. The joystick has buttons.

“

…Much more affordable and convenient...

The Neo Geo also comes with 20 pre-loaded games, including such hits as:

• Fatal Fury
• Fatal Fury Special
• King of Fighters '95
• World Heroes Perfect

All this for just $200! Wait, what?

"Great game consoles don't die; they're just reborn in much more affordable and convenient packages," said Tommo CEO Jonathan Wan, apparently unironically.

For more information on all things Neo Geo, you can check out NeoGeoX.com, or keep checking out IGN.

Nic Vargus is the Editor of IGN Tech. He loves technology almost as much as Cinnabons, Boyz II Men, and freeze tag. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Space Punisher #2 Review

You have to love a series whose title so elegantly sums up everything about it. Space Punisher is all about Frank Castle heading into the cosmos to deal out his particular brand of justice. Squid monsters and four-armed Hulks replace the usual drug dealers and mob bosses, but the basics remain the same. It's as if Lobo chewed up a bunch of Fear Agent and Cosmic Marvel comics and barfed the mixture onto a drawing board. Only prettier.

Frank Tieri dials up the zaniness a few notches in issue #2 as Frank battles Sabretooth, Deadpool, and The Leader. It isn't long before Hulk is thrown into the mix as well. Half the fun of this series is in seeing the entire Marvel Universe reflected though Tieri's goofy sci-fi mirror. It isn't just familiar Punisher players who are given the space treatment, but all corners of the Marvel U. In truth, the sci-fi re-imagining of Barracuda is the weakest one in the series so far, as there's really nothing whatsoever to tie this character to the traditional version.

There's not a great deal of subtlety in Tieri's handling of Frank. It's a very old school take on the character and his quest for vengeance. But nothing about this series is or should be subtle. Tieri embraces the zaniness of the concept and runs with it. I only wish we could see more of Frank's enemies in the Six-Fingered Hand. His clashes with them in this issue are fairly well glossed over.

Mark Texeira strikes the perfect visual tone with his painted artwork. His characters look like they crawled out of a sci-fi B-movie poster with their massive physiques, dramatic faces, and generally larger than-life presence. The painted approach provides a much-needed smooth, almost sterile look that Texeira's scratchier penciled style wouldn't have allowed for.

This is the sort of book that Marvel supposedly doesn't publish anymore -- off-the-wall, out of continuity, and delightfully bizarre. The least Punisher fans can do is give it a chance.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and various other IGN channels. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Madden 13 Pre-Orders Surge

EA has announced big pre-order numbers for Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 and Madden NFL 13. According to a first quarter earnings call today, pre-orders of Dead Space 3 “are tracking almost five-times higher than Dead Space 2 in the same timeframe in 2010.” Crysis 3 pre-orders, meanwhile, “are roughly three-times what they were for Crysis 2 at this time in 2010” and Madden NFL 13 pre-orders “are up 25% versus last year.”

Elsewhere in the call, EA reported continued success for Battlefield 3 Premium, which has boosted its financials in the wake of disappointing subscriber numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Looking ahead, the publisher also commented that it’s keeping a close eye on Wii U.

Overall, EA lost $130 million this quarter, with revenue of $491 million that fell just short of its $500 million forecast. EA announced this morning that it will hire former Yahoo! exec Blake Jorgensen as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. The publisher called the quarter “solid” overall and CEO John Riccitiello referred to the company’s plans as “a strategic balance that none of our peers can duplicate.”

EA also commented on the results of a recent lawsuit over sports exclusivity, noting that it’s “not out of the NCAA football business” but that it won’t hold the exclusive rights moving forward. “We’re very bullish on our NCAA product going forward and we welcome the competition,” Riccitiello said, in addition to discussing Star Wars: The Old Republic's recently-announced transition to free-to-play.

EA’s upcoming release slate includes NHL 13 in September in addition to Madden NFL 13 in August and both Medal of Honor Warfighter and  Need for Speed Most Wanted in October. Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3 will hit stores in early 2013, along with Sim City in February.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com