Plastic Piranha recently launched a new site for its upcoming game Rekoil. This first-person shooter aims to blend modern graphics and gameplay with old-school sensibilities. What I mean by that, specifically, is an atypical emphasis on LAN play and modding. On the LAN side, the developers are emphasizing competitive multiplayer and eSport functionality. On the mod front, the developers appear to be aggressively fostering a community to extend the game. The whole thing feels more 1999 than 2012…and I mean that in the best possible way.

In the immortal words of Jim Lampley, here are the official particulars on Rekoil:

• 10 maps on launch
• Over 40 weapons
• 10 game types currently under development
• 5 customizable classes
• Highly customizable server setups and game play
• Dedicated servers & public server files
• A focus on providing the best execution of core shooter game play to date
• Full modification support and promotion from Plastic Piranha
• Full E-Sports support and promotion from Plastic Piranha
• Developed for PC

Do you guys and gals miss the days when shooters were king? You know, when Quake and Unreal ruled the PC landscape? Do you think that Rekoil can bring back those glory days, as well as all-new features? Check out the Rekoil site and let me know what you think (please)!

There’s a trio of interesting games coming out this week. First up is Resistance: Burning Skies, which brings one of Sony’s most popular PS3 franchises to the PlayStation Vita. One of the best games of 2011 gets repackaged with loads of great DLC in Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition. Lastly, a long-running and unusual JRPG franchise gets another release in Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland.

Any of you picking up new games this week? Also, be sure to check out Amazon’s all-day Gold Box videogame deals (please)!

A lot of the talk going into E3 2012 is about what’s not going to be there. The word on the street is that Microsoft and Sony won’t be showing off next-gen consoles. Irrational Games has said that BioShock Infinite will not be at this year’s show. It’s looking like the next game from Bungie and the first game from Respawn will not be at this E3 either. Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Half-Life 3 are reported to be missing in action. Let’s forget about all of that and focus on the glass half-full.

What E3 2012 games or products are you looking forward to? Are you intrigued by the (supposedly) vastly improved Wii U? Are there several sequels you’re looking forward to? Perhaps you’re jazzed about the second round of PlayStation Vita games? Maybe you’re interested in trends like the proliferation of mobile gaming or Skype integration with Kinect? Whatever has you jazzed, please leave a comment below and talk about your most-wanted games/products of E3 2012.

This will be my last weekend before E3 stuff starts and my last weekend with secret game. It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on. Thankfully, I’ve had to review Minecraft for Xbox 360 for another site. It’s just as addictive as the PC and mobile versions of the game — just a little tougher to navigate the menus. Of course Diablo III is on my to-do list this weekend. The question of course is demon hunter or monk?!?

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

By now you’ve seen (and probably made fun of) Google Glass. This pie-in-the-sky project has a chance to be some truly transformative tech or a tremendous punchline. For now, I want to know which nerd tech it most resembles in your mind. Is Google Glass the precursor to Borg implants from Star Trek? Or is it a knockoff of Saiyan scouter technology from Dragon Ball Z? Please vote in today’s poll and discuss in the comments section!

GameStop is inviting gamers to register for the “first-ever” GameStop Expo. Part of the company’s yearly conference, the expo day takes place on August 29, 2012 in San Antonio, TX. The date is just before the hugely popular PAX Prime, which kicks off on August 31, 2012 in Seattle. Here’s more from the GameStop Expo site:

For the first time ever, PowerUp Rewards members are invited to attend the annual GameStop conference for a one-day sneak peek at upcoming new video games before they’re ever available to the general public. Get your ticket now for this fantastic opportunity to see more than 200,000 square feet of this year’s hottest video games from the industry’s top publishers, such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Activision, EA and dozens more!

In this five-hour EXPO, you’ll experience the hottest new video games months before they’re released, check out and play your favorite games, enter for chances to win great prizes in drawings from your favorite video game publishers, and enjoy special celebrity appearances and autograph signings.

I’m looking for some enterprising nerds to put together an awesome road trip that combines GameStop Expo and PAX Prime. That would be cool. Aside from that uber-geek road-trip, the timing of the event is curious. PAX Prime is established and popular; will many gamers be interested in attending a smaller and newer show that only lasts for five hours? Any of you interested in attending GameStop Expo?

Source

Despite thousands (millions?) of Filipinos faking their IP addresses and using VoIP solutions to vote for Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips won the 11th American Idol. P-Squared’s victory continues the streak of AI winners that can be described as white guys with guitars (WGWG). Teenagers and housewives love WGWGs, so I wasn’t surprised that Phillips became the fifth WGWG to win. What did surprise (and delight) me was that #WGWG5 was a trending topic on Twitter last night. That was awesome.

Congrats to WGWG5 Phillip Phillips!

At the Kapow comic-book convention, DC Comics senior vice president Dan DiDio revealed that the company will rewrite one of its established heroes as gay. Fanboys have been feverishly speculating about the identity of the homosexual hero or heroine. Will it be a man? Will it be a woman? How “major” is the character? Today I’d love to hear your reactions and predictions on DC’s gay superhero. Before you offer your thoughts on the matter, let’s take a look at some modern comic-book characters that are gay.

For a long time, Northstar (Alpha Flight/X-Men) was the only openly gay superhero in mainstream comics. Marvel recently announced — on The View of all places — that Northstar will be getting married. X-Force’s Shatterstar and Rictor were an item back in 2009. The latest version of Batwoman is a lesbian. One of the newest and youngest gay superheroes is Bunker of the Teen Titans. The most badass couple in comics — straight or gay — has to be Apollo and Midnighter from The Authority/Stormwatch.

As you can see, there are a number of gay superheroes in both DC and Marvel. DiDio implied that a major character will be rewritten as gay, but how major are we talking? Several of my nerd friends think that Wonder Woman is most likely. Along with Batman and Superman, she’s one of the three pillars of the DC Universe. It doesn’t get more major than that. A few of my friends pointed out that she grew up on an island of women, so it would be natural for her to be attracted to other women. For various reasons, the mainstream media seems more comfortable with gay women than gay men, so Wonder Woman could be a “safe” choice.

A couple of my friends voted for Aquaman, simply because of his costume. I’m not getting that at all. When did orange become a gay color?!? Besides, dude is married.

As for my pick, I’m going with Red Hood. I have doubts about how big a character DC will go with. With that in mind, I can see the company claiming that Jason Todd is a major character. DC can point to Todd formerly being Robin, as well as being a key part in one of the company’s biggest crossover successes. At the same time, Red Hood is still a relatively new character and safer to play with than someone like Flash or Green Lantern.

How do you feel about DC making one of its major characters gay? Which DC Comics hero or heroine will be rewritten as gay? Please share your thoughts in the comments section!

Incident Technologies’ gTar is a cool Kickstarter project that has been getting a ton of attention this week. This combination of an electric guitar and an iPhone app teaches people how to play guitar. Things start off easy, with prospective Joe Satrianis only needing to hit the right string. Naturally, more advanced learning requires users to hit the proper frets and strings at the proper time. gTar is compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Here’s a clip from the product’s Kickstarter page:

The gTar is a fully digital guitar that makes it easy for anybody to play music, regardless of experience. All you have to do is dock your iPhone in the body, load up the gTar app, and an array of interactive LEDs along the fretboard will show you how to play.

You may be asking yourself what it means for a guitar to be “digital.” While most guitars have pickups to amplify the sound of vibrating strings, the gTar has none — instead, we’ve designed the gTar with sensors that detect exactly what you’re playing in real-time and relay each note to your iPhone, which then produces the actual sound. This makes it possible for us to do all kinds of exciting things.

Judging from the product description and the video above, gTar looks like a pretty sweet product. It looks like it will be a fantastic educational tool beginners, but it also has tremendous creative possibilities for advanced players. Additional apps by Incident and other developers could make the gTar a wonderfully diverse digital guitar. As a longtime (and not very good) guitar player, I usually judge a guitar by its wood, craftsmanship, etc., but the digital nature of the gTar has me geeking over a six-string in a whole different way. This is some very cool tech and I’m happy to see that Incident has already blown past its Kickstarter goal.

Any thoughts on the gTar by Incident Technologies?

I really enjoyed you guys and gals talking about your favorite beat-’em-up games yesterday. Today I’d love to hear about your favorite run-and-gun shooters. Another staple of 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade gaming, these shooters all had the same concept: run and shoot. Differences in level design, character design, and weapons made the best run-and-gun shooters distinct. From Ikari Warriors to Commando to Rambo to Rush’n Attack, these games sucked up countless quarters in arcades and consumed millions of hours on home consoles. Which games in this genre did you like best?

As for me, I have to go with Contra on the NES. The Konami code. The spread gun. The awesome multiplayer. Jumping so high that your partner perishes. Contra is just an amazing classic. I have so many fond memories of this game and I’m sure many of you feel similarly. Playing this game with my brother and my friend Alex Morgan…ah, the good old days.

Now it’s your turn! What are some of your favorite run-and-gun shooters?