Nokia eats Jellybeans for breakfast, will ride the sugar rush during today’s event

Nokia is pumping themselves up for the Nokia World event that is about to start in less than an hour. Instead of talking to themselves in the mirror like a movie character would, the Finnish company took to Twitter and posted photos like this one:

There’s comment accompanying the photo – “Breakfast in New York on a big day for us! Today we dine on Jellybeans”. Fighting words from the Finns, considering the enormous lead Android army has on Windows Phone.

However, as stated by the Nokia calendar, things will change.

Well, we have to say we like Nokia’s attitude. Now, let’s hope their event will be able to cash the checks those bold words wrote – we’ll be covering the New York event live, so stay with us to find out if Nokia truly has some Jelly Bean killer or if it’s just blowing hot air.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Faster than a speeding right cross: Hands-on with Injustice Gods Among Us

Even though Injustice: Gods Among Us comes to us from the developer that brought us Mortal Kombat, this DC character-based fighter has its own bag of tricks.

Fighting games all have a unique fingerprint. When a developer designs a fighting game, that game takes on the characteristics of the developer, regardless of what the content is. A perfect example of this can be seen with Capcom. A fan of Street Fighter can pick up any of the Capcom fighting games and feel comfortable with the controls. Those games all have a specific style and gameplay that is unique to them. So when NetherRealm Studios announced that it was making Injustice: Gods Among Us, a fighting game using a cast of characters from the DC Comics universe, it was an understandable assumption that the game would mimic the style of Mortal Kombat. But we were wrong.

Injustice does feel like Mortal Kombat in some ways, but it is also its own game. The move list is similar to that of Mortal Komabt, but beyond that, it acts and responds in a different way. One specific difference is the change in the way you block. The Mortal Kombat games are well known for using a block button. While that sounds innocuous enough, it changed the fighting mechanics and the way gamers approached the gameplay. Injustice does not have a block button, instead you hold back to block. The buttons are different as well, and rather than two punch and two kick, or strong and weak attacks, there are three attack buttons and a button that unleashes an attack specific to the character you are using. For a character like Flash, it will activate his powers, and the opponent will slow down to represent you moving at super speed, while Nightwing will combine his escrima sticks into a staff, which opens up a new moves set. Each character is different.  

Each character also has a special attack that is powered up during the fight. Once it is filled, pressing the trigger buttons together begins an incredibly powerful attack. Solomon Grundy takes knives and hatchets out of his back to slice his opponents in a cinematic, the Flash takes a running start around the world and hits his foe, Wonder Woman slashes her opponent with help from her Amazonian brethren. Each character has his or her own cinematic attack. It can be dodged, but it is difficult. It’s similar to the new Mortal Kombat x-ray attack, but less gory and more in line with comic books flair.

The levels will also have a bit of Mortal Kombat flair. They are all modeled on DC locations and will be steeped in lore. Of the two that have been announced, the Batcave and the Fortress of Solitude, both are filled with background items that fans will love. The Batcave will feature a computer running villain profiles, while the Fortress is chalk full of Superman history. Doomsday is clearly seen in the background, just feet from the bottled city of Kandor, and Superman’s zoo is also featured. All levels will also have multiple sections to them, and punching an opponent in the right spot can send them crashing through a wall – or the Phantom Zone as the case may be — to an new area. The levels will also feature environmental items that can be used as weapons. A hanging display, for example, can thrown at an enemy.

So far only nine characters have been revealed, but there will be over 20, and maybe even many more. The exact number has yet to be released, but the characters currently on display are: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Solomon Grundy, and Nightwing (developer Ed Boon’s favorite character). The remaining fighters will be unveiled over the next few months, but there are some you can certainly expect like the Joker, Green Lantern, and more of the more familiar faces.

The characters will also fill certain roles. Superman is a heavy bruiser, slow and powerful, while Flash is a faster character that can make up for weaker attacks with quantity. All of the characters are also broken up into one of two groups, those with powers and those with gadgets. Superman and Wonder Woman are obviously power characters, while Batman and Catwoman are gadget characters, to name a few.

Now, if you are a fan of DC comics, you may wonder how Wonder Woman could go head to head with Harley Quinn and not pulverize her skull with a single punch. Longtime comic fans could probably make an argument that Batman could take Superman with careful planning, but it seems doubtful that it would make for a good 2D fighting game. NetherRealm Studios is promising that there will be a legitimate reason for this that will be part of the storyline.

There is one minor edition to the gameplay that could have a huge effect on the course of the fights. When you are forced into a corner, on each level there will be a button (or something similar that you can interact with) that you can press. When you do, it will unleash an environmental attack on your opponent. The level will dictate the attack – it could be missiles from the Batmobile or a boom tube that allows you to warp behind your opponent and hit them — but it will give people that find themselves under constant attack a way to get out.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is shaping up nicely. The game still has the distinctive feel of Mortal Kombat in some ways, but it is more like cousin than a clone. The fighter feel appropriately different from one another, and it will be interesting to see what other characters make the cut and end up in the game. NetherRealm and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment haven’t given a release date yet other than 2013, but fighting fans and DC comics fans alike should keep an eye out for this one.

 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Hulk meets janitor in deleted Avengers scene

Thanks to the upcoming Blu-ray release of The Avengers, you can watch the Hulk discuss existential problems with a famous character actor.

Those of you who have seen The Avengers will likely recall a scene in which Loki attempts to kill off The Hulk by dropping him off of the SHIELD helicarrier. Obviously this doesn’t work, and in the film he simply crashes into an abandoned building, creates a huge pile of rubble, then turns back into mild-mannered doctor Bruce Banner. As he struggles to regain consciousness he is confronted by a janitor, played by legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton, who asks Bruce if he knows what he really is.

Now, in the version of the film you all originally saw the interaction was only a few seconds long, but in earlier cuts this scene was longer and featured more candid banter between the janitor and the naked guy who just crushed his building by falling through it. It’s a cute scene and would have fit into the tone and spirit of The Avengers nicely, but it does seem a bit superfluous and was thus deleted. Fortunately, since The Avengers was a massive success, Marvel Studios is packing everything it can into the film’s September 25 Blu-ray release, including half a dozen separate scenes that were filmed for the movie but cut before it hit theaters. 

But you’re not here to listen to tales of all the neat things that are going to be on The Avengers’ Blu-ray release, right? No, you’re here because you want to watch nearly a minute of Mark Ruffalo and Harry Dean Stanton discussing the inner turmoil of Bruce Banner in an empty, decrepit warehouse. Honestly that’s a bit odd, but we’ve embedded the full version of this deleted scene at the bottom of this text, so have at it. 

One point we’d like to make though: Why save these kinds of scenes for the Blu-ray release? The Avengers was a huge smash hit, and we’d be willing to bet that if Marvel Studios was to re-release the film with all of its deleted scenes put back in as some kind of special “extended edition” that people would line up to see the thing one more time. Granted, that’s arguably an underhanded marketing tactic, but Hollywood does underhanded quite well.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com