This Week

With plenty of Geek genres to choose from, here are the highlights of this week’s releases.

Wanna see how big of an actor Liam Neeson is? Well you can certainly tell from the two movies he’s in this week. Watch him take on wolves in the snow with The Grey, or aliens on the high seas with Battleship. There’s plenty of Neeson to go around…

In the digital realm, the much anticipated Diablo 3 makes it’s way to both Mac and PC.

Meanwhile in comics Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga continues with its third issue, recommended by the crew from Comic Issues.

See anything missing you would like mentioned? Feel free to drop us a line, this is a community and we love all the input. Email: social@pixelatedgeek.com.

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Bethesda Softworks’s upcoming title Dishonored will be available in  North America on October 9 and Europe on October 12, 2012, as announced today.

Dishonored tells the story of Corvo, the titular dishonored former bodyguard turned infamous assassin. An open-world title set in a coastal city dominated by fantastic steampunk technology, Dishonored will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Games For Windows.

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Whether you love or hate the game, the musical score for LucasArts’ Kinect Star Wars is impressive.

And, before anyone says anything, I’m talking about the actual orchestrated pieces, not that infamous “I’m Han Solo” song.  With a musical feel that evokes the feeling of the films themselves, you’d probably be surprised to learn that the tracks were not composed by Star Wars composer John Williams.

Recently, I had the chance to talk to the composers of Kinect Star Wars, Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster, about their history in composing music, their inspiration for the Kinect Star Wars score, and their love of the Star Wars franchise.

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Though Sega has thus far refused to comment, rumors are flying suggesting an (unannounced) sequel to racy spectacle fighter Bayonetta may have been canceled.

Sega’s recently announced it would scrap several unnamed games as part of a company restructuring, and a source for SPOnG “familiar with the situation” claims a sequel for Bayonetta was among them. Neither Bayonetta’s creator Hideaki Kamiya (at the time of publication) nor Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba have confirmed that a Bayonetta 2 was among the casualties, especially seeing as there hasn’t even been a formal announcement for any such game to begin with.

Inaba mentioned the rumor in a humorous tweet, along with a mocked-up image.

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It shall come to pass that in the year 2013 AD an Elder Scroll MMO will arrive for PCs and Macs.

“We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted,” said Matt Firor, the game director for The Elder Scrolls Online. “It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.” That team is the crew at ZeniMax Online Studios, developing the game.

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Sony has released new details for their upcoming title God of War: Ascension. So far, it looks like more of the same.

Set six months after Kratos’ murder of his family, Ascension covers our favorite psychopath’s attempt to escape from a Titan-constructed prison and his own blood oath to Ares, battling some of the darkest creatures of Greek myth. The theme of the game’s plot is evidently (once again) Kratos’ quest for redemption – “unlike previous releases, we’re providinga deeper look into Kratos’ tormented past and psyche that fans have not seen before,” according to director Todd Papy.

And – and here’s the weird kicker – it’ll have four-to-eight-person multiplayer.

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This year at PAX East, Rooster Teeth Productions, the team behind hit machinima webseries Red vs. Blue, unveiled the teaser trailer to the upcoming season of the show. And, for those of us that weren’t actually in attendance, we’ve had to wait patiently to see just what Rooster Teeth has in store.

Wait no longer. Rooster Teeth has finally released a revamped version of the PAX East teaser trailer for Red vs. Blue Season 10.

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You’ve probably heard about George Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, even if only because of Star Wars. Campbell argued that the myths that have survived for thousands of years share a common, evocative pattern: a “monomyth” that speaks to deep human needs.

As a cultural theory, the monomyth’s attracted its share of criticisms, but whether or not it’s correct it’s had an enormous influence on modern pop culture. And in a month that’s seen the (re-)release of classic-style JRPGs like Tales of Graces F and Xenoblade Chronicles, it got me thinking about our pop culture’s central tropes and myths.

Making fun of JRPG convention is one of the safest ways for one section of gamers to feel superior to the other. So if everyone supposedly hates the stuff, why are they still made – and why do so many of us continue to buy them? Is it because of their indifference to others’ mockery?

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When you sit back and think about it, April is a pretty terrible month for well-known tragedies.  The world just finished commemorating the 100th year anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking on the 15th, President Lincoln was assassinated on the eve of the 15th as well, and the Oklahoma City Bombings happened 17  years ago on the 19th.  The Virginia Tech Shootings also took place on a fateful April morning.

Today, Colorado also remembers one of their worst tragedies.  One that arguably impacted our schooling and how we view bullying, gun control and teenage counter-culture.  April 20th marks the 13th year anniversary since the Columbine School Shootings occurred.  And now, with the trial of Anders Behring Breivik — the man allegedly responsible for the 2011 Norway Attacks —  a common argument is starting to appear again very closely related to Columbine.  That argument is — just how responsible are video games for the violence terrorists inflict upon others?

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Last evening, the Blizzard team working on Diablo III announced that starting at noon Pacific Standard Time today beta testing would be open to any U.S. player that has a Battle.net account.  Their goal is to put the new Diablo III servers under a “stress test” to make sure that they are ready for the release of the actual game.  All Battle.net account members can log onto the Battle.net site and download the beta client for Diablo III for free, no matter if you have pre-ordered the game or not.  The client is available for both Windows and Mac users.

The beta will be open from noon PST on April 20th until 10 PM April 23rd.  Players can play with others and use the five hero classes up to level 13.  Diablo III is scheduled for the official release date of May 15th.

[via Diablo III Official Blog]