The machinima team over at the Sims team have recreated the latest Twilight: New Moon trailer using The Sims 3. For machinima I’ve seen around the net, this looks really good. I mean, the lead actress has more different facial expressions and better acting skills than Kristen Stewart. (boom. face.)

It’s that time again, time to review some of my cherry picked smaller stories of the week for those that might have missed them. This time round we’ve got an Adobe Flash update that doesn’t suck. OK, sucks a little less. Flash 10.1 beta was unleashed to the willing public with GPU video acceleration for certain Nvidia cards on Windows, but perhaps more importantly reduced CPU usage across all platforms. What does this mean? YouTube that doesn’t make your Mac or PC red-line that’s what. A step in the right direction Adobe, maybe Flash isn’t a lost cause after all. I’ve certainly seen some improvements on my netbook and Mac. (more…)

Santa has finally got around to creating his own Twitter account. But, it seems as though he is truly micro-blogging all his most inner thoughts and feelings this season. Apparently, he doesn’t give a flying fuck if you get coal or nothing at all. If you’ve asked for anything nice this year and you’ve done your very best to be a good person, you’re still screwed because Santa could care less about the list.

[via Twitter]

The creative LEGO minds over at Brickforge are auctioning off a full set of custom Halo LEGO minifigs for the Toys for Tots charity. These minifigs are custom made meaning LEGO doesn’t make these.  (But they should!) As of this posting, the auction the bidding is at $150 with 1 day and 4 hours left. If you want you own custom made full set of these bad boys, head on over to the auction page.

[via model building secrets via Bricklink]

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Supernatural

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AmberGround exists in eternal twilight, lit only by its artificial sun and its inhabitants scattered cities. In this darkness roam countless mechanical insects, named Gaichuu, keeping the population imprisoned and isolated within the safe confines of the cities. There are a few brave souls that will venture into these wastelands; chief among them, the Letter Bees. A Letter Bee is a mixture of adventurer, cartographer and postman. their duty is to deliver letters between cities in AmberGround, as well as map out new routes in attempts to reconnect cities.

Gauche Suede is our first introduction to a Letter Bee in this series. His first “letter” to be delivered is actually a young boy named Lag Seeing. Lag is quite hesitant to be shipped off to his aunt’s home in the far off city of Cambel Litus. His mother was taken from him and sent into Akatsuki, the capital city of AmberGround, which is off limits to anyone not invited to enter. Gauche’s sidekick, called a Dingo in this world, is named Roda. Roda is some doglike creature and serves and a decoy and early warning system for Gauche versus the Gaichuu.

Gauche explains his weapon of choice against the Gaichuu, a Shindanjuu or “heart gun.” This gun amplifies the users will into a powerful bullet that will destroy the mechanical beasts. While holding the gun Lag accidently activates it, due to his special gemstone eye (hidden under his hair 99% of the time) and nearly dies from the effort. This in turn draws more Gaichuu to them, leaving Gauche and Roda to battle for hours on end. At one point soon after, Lag steals Gauche’s Shindanjuu and strikes off to find his lost mother, nearly getting Gauche killed in the process of saving him from a rather crafty Gaichuu.

Lag drags the nearly dead Gauche through the gates of Cambel Litus and after getting to know him as a friend, decides that he too will become a Letter Bee. He does this in hopes of gaining access to Akatsuki and finding his mother again. At this point the series fast-forwards 5 years to Lag at 12 years old, ready to start his journey.

This series has a bit of a slow start, but due to seeing a few clips ahead in the series, I can say that there is a LOT of great stuff coming! They took two episodes to complete the back-story and I feel they did it more than sufficient justice. This would have easily earned an A if they would have gotten to the point faster. The concept is solid and there are enough mysteries to keep me coming back.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Watch episode one via Crunchyroll after the break!

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Well it’s certainly a chilly evening here in San Diego. Though everyone’s out in full force for New Moon!! My Wife, myself, Nelson and Jessica are currently waiting in line for the 12:01am showing. Well we have plenty of pictures to show the fans support for the latest addition to the Twilight Saga. Be sure to check out the gallery after the break.

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Battlecry prizes have arrived, and rather swiftly after we “exposed” their failure to remit any type of information.  I guess even your large gaming corporations just need a kick in the pants every now and then!  Above is the license plate holder, properly sporting the Horde emblem upon it, as well as the allusion that my other ride is, in fact, quite sweeter and faster than the one this will be strapped to…  Also arriving in the prize package was… (more…)

You’re the proud owner of an Original or iPhone 3G, but you just can’t help but ogle your mates 3GS ever since he got it. With it’s fancy new compass, voice recognition and video recording, your Original/3G is starting to look a bit tired. Problem is, you’ve got at least another couple of months on your contract left and the networks are charging extortionate amounts for early upgrade. You could try buying a PAYG iPhone 3GS and sell your old and busted iPhone taking the hit on the difference, but that’s probably just as much as the early termination/upgrade fee O2/AT&T wants from you. So for the time being you’re stuck with an iPhone 3G.

OK, it’s not like that’s the end of the world, it’s still an incredibly capable device, plays some great games and can use almost all the apps that the 3GS can. But what about those features that set the 3GS apart? Well with a few apps and tweaks you too can get your 3G to do almost all of the new tricks the 3GS has and give your old trusty an extra burst of life. (more…)

American fans of the Monster Hunter franchise will soon be once again turned loose upon an unsuspecting population of exotic prey.

Capcom previewed its new soon-to-be-imported Monster Hunter Tri on Tuesday, November 17^th. Pheonix Wright: Ace Attourney for the Wii was also on display, as was Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. The event was set up like a mock class/school, and allowed attendees to test the battle demo with a series of pre-generated characters.  It was well-attended, although for the most part the development team of the game could not attend.

The latest entry in the popular hack-’n-slash knows where the bread and butter of its gameplay remains: beating the life out of powerful quarries with a variety of interesting weapons. This hearty fare is garnished with a wide range of new additions, from online and split-screen multiplayer to what producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, who spoke at the press event, promises is the franchise’s most robust single-player story system to date, accompanied by an NPC companion named “Cha-Cha.” (more…)

The holidays are just around the corner, and with this tough economy its hard to figure out what to give your loves ones. What’s a geek to do?! (dum DUM DUM!!!!)

Well, do not fear, Jessica is here! I am here to provide you with a list of geeky gift ideas to give to your geeky love ones. A list of 5 things that are inexpensive and expensive.

Literally, I come bearing gifts!

$1 – 10: Get the Hint Mini Sticky Notes (ThinkGeek & Urban Outfitters) $4.99-$6.00

Fuck Post-Its! this will communicate a strong message to yourself and others. Sometimes we cannot find the right words to communicate how we feel. We’ll these sticky suckers will do the trick!

For more gift ideas, READ AFTER THE BREAK!

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