Pop-culture

Ok, Penn & Teller: Bulls**t! is not exactly the highest on my list of shows to watch, but when it does it right, few shows on television or cable are better at pointing out the absurdity of most of today's cultural issues.

This particular episode covers videogame violence—rampant videogame violence if you listen to the likes of Jack Thompson or Hilary Clinton. Penn & Teller: Bulls**t! looks at the industry, the violent games and does a really good job of putting a sane face on some of the madness.

And thanks to YouTube, we are all able to watch what foolish Showtime subscribers pay to see. That is, until Showtime discovers that its content is available for free. So hurry up and watch it before it gets taken down.

Btw, this video is totally NSFW!

Fans of G4TV's Olivia Munn that just can not get enough of the sultry looks she gives into the camera, her flagrant use of double entendres and propensity to don costumes taken out of every teenage boy's cosplay fantasies can finally see her in all her glory—if glory is another word for bikini.

Yes, Ms. Munn is giving her massive following another thrill as she poses again in Playboy and graces the cover in a skimpy red bikini.

The issue went on sale this Thursday, June 19th. Below is the reveal so you know what to look for.

Viewers really need to support Conan's Tonight Show. He is such a refreshing change from Jay Leno.

This goes up on the cool wall.

Game-Artist got some computer artists together for a competition to see who could come up with the most authentic, real-time environment from a movie. The winning entries were from Bladerunner (seen above), Steven Spielberg's Hook, Aliens, X-Men 2 and I am Legend.

I won't spoil who won—you can probably figure it out though—because you really have to see more of these recreations for yourself.

"...there is a kegger down the hall. We can go as soon as I desecrate this corpse. I'm sorry Marge, where are my manners? Did you want to taunt my kill also? Press the "X" button."  - Homer Simpson

If you're like me, on the one hand you're thrilled to see The Simpsons parodying videogames... outside of its own videogames (The Simpsons Hit & Run and The Simpsons Game). On the other hand, you sigh sadly with the realization that the masses are seeing one of the less savory sides of interactive play. Why couldn't the writers lampoon Shadow of the Colossus or Flower? Ah well, it was a pretty funny clip.

You're an X-ray Technician, you're bored and you love gaming... what do you do? You scan all of your gaming equipment from the NES Zapper Light Gun to the PlayStation 3 (80GB), of course!

We all know we'd do it too if we could. Growing up I had an intense urge to take apart my Atari 2600, NES, SNES and N64, but about all I could muster was the courage to open up my SNES controller. And that was largely because it was not working right.

Reinier van der Ende, the X-ray Technician, did what we wished we could but also managed to spare our warranties while giving us something really cool to look at.

I recently reached the difficult decision that it was time to sell my beloved Sega Saturn kiosk; difficult because, on the one hand, it's probably the most unique and interesting piece of video game memorabilia that I have, while on the other hand, it's heavy (read hard to move) and takes up a lot of space. I'm not really a video game collector. Sure, I have a few obscure video game-related things, but nothing on the order of my enormous Sega kiosk.

When I spotted it a few years ago on Craigslist, I'd never seen one before. I had never even owned a Saturn for that matter. My last Sega system was the 32X. (Hey, it made sense to me at the time.) But for some reason, something clicked (snapped?) when I saw that shiny kiosk on Craigslist, complete with Sonic's large blue face staring at me, and I just knew I had to have it. It's tough to explain because it's one of those things where you either get it or you don't. If you thinks it's ridiculous, you probably think it's really ridiculous. If you think it's awesome, you probably thinks it's really, really awesome. For me, it just had the right mix of coolness factor, uniqueness, apparent rarity, and suitableness as a shrine to all things Sega.

It was great!

It was okay.

It was terrible.

Legend of what...?

I plan to see it.

I will never see this thing.

Freezepop, a synth-pop group most commonly known for their fan-favorite contributions to several music-genre games such as Rock Band, Guitar Hero, FreQuency, Dance Dance Revolution (and others) were kind enough to take a few minutes out of their day to talk with me in support of their most recent full-length CD release, Future Future Future Perfect.

For those not familiar with the band, Freezepop consists of Jussi Gamache (aka Liz Enthusiasm, vocals), Kasson Crooker (aka the Duke of Pannekoeken, vocals, synths) and Sean Drinkwater (aka The Other Sean T. Drinkwater, vocals, synths).

There are two things I wish I covered more of here at the site: videogames and comic books. I try to cover games as much as I can, but comics are just stretching myself too thin (despite the fact that I love comics enough to have actually spent a good chunk of 2007 working in a comic shop…)

Despite that, occasionally something comic-related comes along and I’ve got to post about it despite my lack of comic coverage. This news from Wildstorm about a Resident Evil 5 prequel falls squarely into that category.

The guys over at STYD uncovered news that Wildstorm will be releasing a six issue Resident Evil 5 prequel that looks at what brings lead character Chris Redfield to Africa and what “dark burden” haunts him. Rick Sanchez will handle the writing duties with Kevin Sharpe and Jim Clark providing the artwork.

You’ll find Resident Evil 5 at your local comic shop come March 11th. The game hits stores on March 13th.