Obviously, the Avengers has just been exploding in theaters everywhere, with the film already grossing just over a cool $1 billion dollars. All of the main Avengers in the movie have their own individual series, but what about a certain founding member of the Avengers that wasn’t included in the movie? Well, every dog (in this case, ant) gets his day. In a recent podcast with Empire, director Edgar Wright talked about filming the Ant-Man movie.

In the podcast, Wright states:

“Things are happening, and other things are happening on other things as well. There’s some interesting plates spinning and I ideally hope I’ll be shooting this year…”

“So as not to jinx things, I am going to remain spectacularly vague on this. Let’s just say I hope to shoot some Ant-man & World’s End this year”

If he does in fact want to start filming by the end of the year, all of the casting and pre-production would have to start from now. There has been no word yet on anyone that has tried out for the part, much less any casting done whatsoever. So far though, director Joe Cornish has already turned in a draft of the script and Edgar Wright has been teasing fans on his Twitter with a possible upcoming Ant-Man poster.

Source: /Film

Earlier today, Capcom finally managed to get around to implementing a patch for Street Fighter x Tekken that fixed a lot of glitches, while also addressing some crucial balances changes, such as the various infinites (nothing effecting gems though, which produce another set of game breaking material). Unfortunately, it seems they added something else that’s potentially worse than all of the items they just fixed.

As the video above demonstrates, if Rolento’s knife attack now connects with any other kind of projectile, the game will freeze up on the spot. Not just a simple slow down. We’re talking a complete dead stop. The only way to fix this is to turn off your console.

Obviously there are a lot of questions that can be raised from this sudden glitch. Did Capcom bother testing the patched version before sending it out? Did it sneak in during the patching process? And how long will it take for them to patch this one out if it took them two months just to address the last batch of issues?

One thing is for certain, I think we know which character is going to be banned at EVO.

Now that The Avengers has been released, all of the characters will now be getting back to their own story arcs in preparation for 2015′s Avengers 2. So far there has already been much news and speculation of Iron Man 3′s plot, but not much of Thor, Captain America or the Hulk. Well now we have a bit more info about Thor 2. Idris Elba recently sat down with Collider and confirmed that he will be returning to Asgard as the all-seeing guardian Heimdall.

In the interview, Elba stated:

“I’d just like to get to know him a bit more. Who is Heimdall? He guards the gate. Okay. Is there anything else? I don’t know what is in the script because I haven’t read it yet. But, the audience has responded to Asgard and wants to know more about who lives there and what it’s about. I’m sure, if they do that, Heimdall will be featured more.”

He also said that he’s taken a look at a rough outline of the story and it seems that he will play a larger role as opposed to what he had in the original Thor. I hope he does, as he is an excellent actor and I believe can add a lot to the movie as well as the series as a whole. Thor 2 doesn’t start filming until August, but you can catch Idris Elba in this summer’s upcoming sci-fi blockbuster, Prometheus, which is due out on June 8th.

Source: Collider

Toonami fans, you rallied, and you even created an anthem, and your work was not in vain. Hopefully this isn’t the biggest troll that Adult Swim has ever done (I doubt that would win over fans), but according to Adultswim.com, Toonami has been listed as being back on the network.

Adultswim posted on their Twitter “Attention Toonami Faithful: We heard you. On 05.26.12 #ToonamisBackBitches,” and even made a website for this allowing you to tweet the message.

May 26th, 2012, is only 10 days away, meaning that it’s going to air on Saturdays. So, maybe my prediction was correct that it will be the new anime block with Zorak and Brak helming the classics on Fridays.

Either way, keep your eyes peeled on the Adult Swim website for more information as it comes. They teased, you made your voices heard, and they listened. More companies should do the same.

Dungeon Defenders, the online action-rpg, is getting its third DLC update for The Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards series. In it you’ll find many new things: a boss (the Johnny Depp fear-inducing Kraken), three missions, the “Riddle of the Deep” challenge mission, “Shipwreck Graveyard” pvp battleground, 10 new themed weapons, and a new pet with special abilities. Players who take the plunge will be exploring the underwater metropolis of Aquanos.

This latest DLC is available on PC (Steam), PS3 and Xbox 360 for $3.99. The original game is $14.99.

Check out the trailer for The Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards: Part 3

Thanks to Wicked Audio and Fox Home Video for sponsoring our NR Superhero Contest. It was a tough one, but I’ve chosen the winners. One lucky winner gets the Chronicle DVD and the other gets the Wicked Audio Hero headphones. There was a slight confusion for the rules of the contest, so I decided to get rid of the camcorder portion. Ultimately, the winners that I’ve chosen made me chuckle the most. So for future reference, if you want to win, make me laugh.

Here are the runner ups:

tamar

I’d be invisible and take funny videos to put on YouTube of people doing silly things not realizing how ridiculous they look.

alienxphile

I would love to have the ability to make people fall head over heels in love with me. The strongest magic ever is love (thank you Once Upon a Time!). If someone is in love with you, you can make them bow down to your every whim! You can get away with anything and get anything your heart desires. I would have the Khardashians jump off the Empire State Building, have the Queen of England crown me King and have the execs over at 20th Century Fox green light The X-Files 3 already!

Danielle

I have to go with teleportation… but i wouldnt video tape it. How else would i get away with zapping into bank vaults, or disneyland after part hours or other slightly less than legal things? cant have that little super power known!

Diane Baum

I would have the power to take money out of people’s pockets without them being aware and 1,000 of get out of jail free monoply cards

Winner for the Chronicle DVD:

Michael Jean-Francois

I’d like to be an Omega level Telepath. I could just use my powers to
“suggest” that you crown me the winner, but I’m the good guy. See, I’d actually do good… Or try. First, I’d prove myself as a REAL telepath. Then I’d get the real answers from ALL prisoners, who is really guilty or innocent. Then I’d get Nerd reactors staff dates w/ whomever they wanted.
Find if Tupac is dead or not, and/or solve his and biggies murder,
and… I’m kidding. I’d figure out really… How many licks DOES IT
take, to get to the center of a Totsie Pop. Then the other stuff.

Winner for the Wicked Audio Hero headphones:

Loki

I would have the ability to put people into hypnotic, suggestive states with my boobs. I think that would be AWESOME.

Alright Loki and Michael, send me an email.

Can they do that? They can create their own days? Not that I’m complaining. The arcades are mostly dead around here, and this could be a great substitute. Nintendo has even set up a website where users can create their own meetups so we’re not all just wandering around in public shouting, “Multiplayer Battle Day!? Nintendo said it was today! Guys!?” Although if you want to do that and put it on Youtube, I’d definitely watch.

Okay, so you’re definitely going to want to battle this upcoming Saturday, and now all you need is the game (did we skip a step?). The first battle before your multiplayer battles is going to be “operation trick girlfriend into believing you need Kid Icarus: Uprising for 3DS”. It’s not going to be easy, but it’ll be worth it. Good luck.

With the casting of James Badge Dale as Eric Savin announced, it may be a possibility that we’ll be seeing cyborg-action in Iron Man 3. In the Marvel comics, Eric Savin was turned into the cyborg Coldblood-7 after stepping on a land mine.

We’re not sure if Eric Savin will ultimately become Coldblood, but it has fans thinking whether they want another tech vs. tech movie. We’ve had tech villains like Iron Monger and Whiplash in Iron Man 1 & 2. Many were hoping that Iron Man 3 would deviate from that and focus on a different type of villain by the name of The Mandarin. Director Shane Black mentioned that The Mandarin is a racist caricature. Then again, there were reports that The Mandarin could be an organization, and not a singular man.

Source: Deadline

Serious Sam 3 was good. Damn good. In fact, it was goddamn brilliant, what Duke Nukem Forever should have been.  And apparently console gamers have been wanting in on the experience as well. Well, you guys are getting your wish, as Devolver Digital and Croteam announced that Serious Sam 3: BFE will finally be making the trek to the Xbox 360.

“Serious Sam fans have been asking for Serious Sam 3: BFE to come to Xbox LIVE Arcade and we’re very excited to launch on the platform this fall,” Croteam CEO Roman Ribaric said in a press release. “All the high-octane action and over-the-top violence will be intact so Xbox LIVE Arcade gamers will get the full Serious Sam 3: BFE experience!”

Accompanying SS3 will also be the 2D spin-off title Serious Sam Double D, retooled and renamed Serious Sam Double D XXL, in case there weren’t enough letters in the name already for you. This version will come with tons of new features such as new missions, local campaign co-op, and gunstacking upgrades for those who want to be able to stack five rocket launchers on top of each other. Both SSDDXXL and SS3 be available for download off of XBLA this coming fall.

For those who want a bit more chaos to fill in the time gap (and aren’t already preoccupied with Diablo III), Croteam also released a new DLC package for Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter for the PC. With three new campaign missions, three new multiplayer maps, and a new survival map, it should quench your thirst for mass destruction until them. Check the trailer for it below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can always count on Metacritic users to create a storm when they’re not pleased with how a certain game is. Mass Effect 3 was attacked by Metacritic users mainly for the ending and DLC content.

Next up we have Diablo III and its requirement for you to stay online to play the game, whether you’re playing by yourself or with others. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem, but on launch, many were left not being able to play because the servers were down. I usually think the attacks on the game are silly because to me it seems unreasonable. In the case of Diablo III, I’ll have to agree with the users, since if you’re paying for a product, you should be able to use the product. Makes sense, right?

Okay, let’s take a look at some of the Diablo III comments from the users:

koroshiya_ichi

A huge disappointment, and an unworthy sequel. – Charater customization was so confusing, so they removed it (no more skill points to distribute, no more attribute points to distribute, skills unlock automatically as you level up) – Legalized gold selling, pay-to-win auction houses – Scripted scenes EVERYWHERE 0Bland, one dimensional, WoW inspired skills -World PvP removed and the only PvP options is a WoW-clone arena (REMOVED TILL LATER, LOL) -Voice acting is HORIBBLE compared to D2 -Timed log-outs in a game which its gameplay is based on being fast-paced (even on hardcore mode) -FREQUENT CHECKPOINTS that revive you from where you are left off (how much more casual can they make a diablo game I wonder) -region lock, DRM that requires you to be constanly online -blizzard ‘promising’ not to put any items in the RMAH Gee, I **** wonder what’s gonna happen -LEVEL 60 CAP Surely to be raised to 70,80,90 and so on with yearly expansions that consists of cut content for only another $60!

Cevn

Absurd how badly blizzard screwed this up. There isn’t even an offline mode. What kind of Diablo doesn’t have offline gameplay? Other than this the game itself is very fun and plays smoothly, even on my macbook air. The only problem is, I can’t even play because of all the damn connectivity issues on Blizzard’s end. Did they not know how many people were going to buy the game?

JohnnyTurbo

I’ve been wronged by Blizzard. They promised me a sequel to Diablo 2 one of the titles that holds a place in the pantheon of skilfully crafted games. This installment, Diablo 3 is nothing but a cookie cutter title with the Diablo franchise stapled onto its hide. 0/10 I’m extremely unsatisfied.

Amargosa

Always online-DRM and then no capcity to handle all pre-orders and known retail and digital sales? Buying a product you can’t use. Last time I bought a Blizzard product or EA game.

hcuta

12:01 AM PST was the official start of my licensed time to play the game. Despite the fact that things will undoubtedly get better with time, I am unable to play the game because Blizzard has failed to uphold their end of the contract. Not only have I wasted my money tonight on an unplayable product, I have also wasted my time.

spinpixy

Diablo 3 is so boring you would have more fun at a bingo hall. Also the connection problems at launch are awful and show how incompetent Blizzard is. The graphics in game are also not close to what a Diablo game should look like.

Verizon has released a new viral Prometheus video for their Verizon Home Monitoring and Control system. In the video, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) pleads with Peter Weyland via video messages to let her lead an expedition to outer space to find out the mystery of man’s origin. She’s been sending these videos to him over and over again, hoping for him to respond. Judging from the trailer, I think he agrees.

If you watch near the end, a Yutani logo appears in front of Shaw’s face. In the Alien series, Weyland-Yutani is a megacorporation behind many of the incidents that happened in the movie. During Prometheus, Weyland and Yutani haven’t yet merged. Very interesting indeed.

Prometheus hits theaters June 8th.

US Fans have something to cheer about with the first domestic Kingdom Hearts Limited Edition set. The “Mark of Mastery” edition will include a KH branded 3DS case, 12 art cards and 5 AR cards from more Dream Eaters (so 7 all together since when you pre-order you receive 2).

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance releases July 31st, 2012 for $39.99, or for $54.99 you get all the extra goodies plus the game.

Its about time we got a limited edition set, I can imagine my friends going crazy for this right now. So might as well check out your local game store and get these while they last

Remember all the disappointed fans out there when Mark Hamill said that Batman: Arkham City was going to be his last time voicing the Joker?

He tweeted, “This will be my last, there’s no question about that. But it’s the last hurrah.”

With that tweet it looked like it was true, and fans started to ask if it really was his last. He replied with, “I only said Arkham Asylum would be hard to top, not that I was quitting.”

Thank goodness that it’s not his last, since I think he’s the best Joker ever. Now we can celebrate Mark Hamill’s return as the Clown Prince of Crime in the upcoming DC Universe Online DLC, The Last Laugh, which was announced by Sony Online Entertainment.

Fans of Arleen Sorkin’s Harley Quinn also have reason to celebrate, because she is returning as the voice of Harley Quinn. She was missed in Batman: Arkham City when Tara Strong took over as the voice of Harley Quinn. Strong still did a good job, but Sorkin is the Harley Quinn we all know and love. Adam Baldwin will be voicing Superman.

The Last Laugh will include an all-new weapon, hours of multiplayer gameplay in the Safe Houses and Headquarters, and new Legends PvP characters:

• The Shield – Players can unleash this vicious new weapon to bash their opponents, or hurl it to take them down from a distance.
• Safe House Battles – No one is safe now that heroes and villains can invade each other’s Safe Houses in these four on four battles:
  -Graviton Technology Recovery – Players will be tasked with unscrambling teleporter codes that The Joker has mixed into fragments. Located at the Watchtower or Hall of Doom, players must retrieve eight code fragments to successfully rebuild useable teleporter codes.
  -The Rescue – Heroes must rescue hostages, while Villains will be freeing arrested criminals from opposing Safe Houses.
  -Bomb Disposal – Thanks to The Joker, the encryption on the email terminals have changed and can only be bypassed by the robot he provided. Players must gain control of the robot and either upload the data to their HQ or add new encryption to keep their enemies and The Joker away from it.
• Headquarter Battles – In this two-part crusade, 16 players — eight heroes and eight villains — will face off for the ultimate player reward. At the request of Superman, heroes must take over the Hall of Doom, while villains, egged on by The Joker, will breach the Watchtower in order to create chaos.
• Legends Characters – Combat illuminates with the introduction of the first light-powered Legends for multiplayer combat. Players will soon have access to Kilowog, a Green Lantern, and Amon Sur, a member of the Sinestro Corps.

The Last Laugh DLC for DC Universe Online will be free for Legendary members and will be available for purchase for free and premium users. You can get it in June for PC and PlayStation 3.

The Last of Us has a story that takes place in a world where it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. The scene shown in this latest trailer is of Joel and Ellie being ambushed by a group of humans, one who pretends to be hurt. Whether they’re cannibals or just ruthless thieves, their existence gives us a small example of the harsh environment that Naughty Dog is building in their latest game.

Youtube trailer courtesy of IGN.

So, you can’t go to E3 this year because it’s not open to the public? You may just have a great alternative in The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses tour, as it has a show on the second day of E3 (June 6th at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles). From what I’ve heard of it, the arrangements are absolutely phenomenal. The concert series covers a multitude of Zelda games, and it pays particular attention to Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and (excitement explosion incoming) A Link to the Past, one of the greatest games of all time (no bias here, really).

I had a telephone interview with Jason Michael Paul recently. He’s the producer of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, the 25th Anniversary Legend of Zelda, and of course the new The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert series whose tour dates can be found, here.

Me: So, Jason, you might be one of the pioneers, or maybe the pioneer in bringing video game concerts to North America.

J: Well, that’s definitely, uh, I appreciate it. Um, but yeah, I pretty much started this thing in 2004 when I created the Dear Friends concert series for the Final Fantasy franchise, and I haven’t really stopped since then. So now we’re on to Zelda, and it’s one of the finest projects that I’ve been a part of.

Me: So, you were in Japan and you were working with Pavarotti, and you had the opportunity to speak with Square-Enix (which lead to “Dear Friends”)?

J: Yeah, I had a relationship dating back to the Playstation days when, you know, Squaresoft was working with Sony for Playstation platform. So I had been working with them for quite some time with Kingdom Hearts and other various games as far as product launches, and game launches, and things like that. I had the privilege of working with Luciano Pavarotti and The Three Tenors and putting together his concert tours. So anyway, I had already kind of warmed up the executives in the US office at Square-Enix. They were instrumental in facilitating further introduction to the folks in Japan while I was over there doing the farewell tour with Pavarotti. So I was able to invite them to kind of give them the idea of what I was thinking, in terms of creating a video game music concert with Final Fantasy.

Me: So, would you say, like, you were the driving force for creating that, or was it more like they came to you about the idea?

J: Definitely, I was the one who was pushing for it.

Me: Did they seem hesitant, as if they thought the North American audience wouldn’t accept it?

J: It was really a matter of timing, I think. That was the year that Enix and Squaresoft merged.

Me: Mmm hm.

So it was really kind of the emergence of Square-Enix as a company as a whole kind of dominating the RPG genre. And I think, you know, Uematsu San was really pushing for the idea of a concert, you know. And uh, it was just really timing. You know, Walt Disney concert hall had just opened, and the LA Phil was available. So, all the stars aligned.

(I laugh again. At this point I start asking him about guests who appear at his concerts. He’s had Koji Kondo, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Zelda Williams, the daughter of Robin Williams. He wants fans to focus on the music itself, and from what I’ve heard of it, it’s fantastic. At this point, I also gush about how good the concert music is, which he appreciates.)

Me: So, umm, I did pull a quote from the internet, and I don’t know how accurate it is, but you described your “Play!” series as being a straightforward music program designed to keep the arts alive in a way that is classy. So, can you tell me a little bit about that?

J: Yeah, of course. Umm, well, my background obviously is presenting opera like Luciano Pavarotti and The Three Tenors. The idea is to create a show that is true to the symphony format. We’re not a rock and roll show per se. It’s more or less just a straightforward music program with visual accompaniment. With this particular show, The Legend of Zelda, which is different from Play!, we’ve streamlined the whole process. We’ve streamlined the whole show to where it’s all on click. So the orchestra is playing along with the click track, and the conductor is on click, and so everything’s fully in synch with the video. And it’s just a more seamless production. It’s just wonderful. But again, there’s no playback. You know, it’s all live. It’s not a rock and roll show, like, some people would say that the VGL (Video Games Live) show is a little bit more theatrical, but our show is just more straightforward.

Me: Does the video playback for the Zelda concert series differ from the Play! series?

J: It does only because we don’t operate on a click for Play! All of the video direction and everything is live (for the Zelda series), between the gameplay footage, the full-motion video, the graphics to the live camera feed. They go back and forth. The Zelda show is on a click. So there’s really, there is the same kind of interplay between the video, but there’s also the camerawork with the orchestra as well. But everything is on a timeline, kinda’ like how we would do a Hollywood score. We do it in the same fashion, which has really never been done before.

Me: So the video that accompanies the music, how is that developed?

J: My team and I have worked very closely with Nintendo, capturing hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage, you know, from their earliest games to some of the new games. We don’t have skyward Sword in this particular concert, but the game is still obviously being sold. It’s still kind of fresh (laughs a bit). We didn’t really want to pursue that. But um, yeah, I mean, it’s just been a total collaboration between Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Canada, and Nintendo of Japan. And we’ve worked very closely with Koji Kondo and his music team in developing the arrangements, and then of course with the video team as well.

Me: I’m just a little curious about this, but I know that you run a coffee shop, and I was wondering if you would ever cross video game culture with a restaurant or a coffee shop.

J: Well, you know, it’s funny you say that. I’ve been asked that question before. Yeah, I’ve done things. I used to host a game night at our place where we would actually set up an old NES and we would have certain games projected on a screen, you know, like Duck Hunt. So, yeah, definitely, um, it’s just like anything else. If the business model makes sense, and the numbers make sense, and it’s something that people would want, then I’m totally game for it, because I think it would be great. It would be great to combine those two elements, you know?

Me: Are there any other game companies that you might be working with in the future?

J: I work with all of them. You know, obviously Nintendo takes up the major bulk of my time right now. I’ve recently been working to add the music of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to Play!. That’s debuting in Calgary next week. So, I definitely have my hands full in working with other companies.

(He’s adding Skyrim, everyone! Seeing as how the concert is somewhat of a more formal affair, I definitely wouldn’t recommend that the crowd accompany the music with simultaneous shouts of FUS RO DAH.)

Thanks for the interview, Jason. We appreciate it.