Entertainment

Assassin's Creed series turned into epic slasher movie saga

Some people take cut scenes in a video game for granted, skipping mercilessly past eye-popping visuals and compelling -- or sometimes forgettable -- dialogue.

With more than 55 million copies sold, the Assassin's Creed series holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers, but Indiana astronomy tutor Andy Gilleand took things to a new level. Gilleand carefully created movies out of the cut scenes and gameplay from the five main titles in the series. In total, the movies collectively span over 16 hours and average about 3 hours each. … Read more

HBO's Kenny Powers mocks iPhone, loves HTC One?

The iPhone is fragile.

Oh, I don't mean in the marketplace. Necessarily. No, it seems that if a stripper sits on it, Apple's fine machine might break.

I say this not from personal experience, but from the evidence apparently presented by Kenny Powers on Twitter.

In what seemed like a nifty piece of ribald marketing, Powers -- star of HBO's "Eastbound and Down" -- used Twitter to declare his iPhone only marginally operable after being crumpled by a stripper's behind.… Read more

XCOM shooter rebranded as The Bureau, arrives in August

We first got a taste of the XCOM shooter back in 2010 and even got to see it in action at E3 2011. Unfortunately, the game got delayed numerous times and eventually went dark. In fact, it got lapped by XCOM: Enemy Unknown -- its turn-based-strategy counterpart -- which turned out to be one of 2012's best titles of the year.

2K Games is ready to lift the curtain on XCOM once again, complete with a live-action trailer, a trio of screenshots, and best of all a release date. Newly titled and packaged, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is set … Read more

New GTA V trailers arriving April 30

Rockstar certainly knows how to draw out a bit of PR for the fullest effect.

Today, the above image arrived in our inbox with no additional info except to confirm that the trailers are coming on April 30.

There aren't many companies and not many games that could get away with this, but when you're talking about the next Grand Theft Auto, all bets are off.

As a quick reminder before these new trailers arrive next week, here are a few things that we already know about GTA V: … Read more

The great Twitter 'text-your-parents-you're-a-drug-dealer' experiment

Twitter might well be a repository for half-truths, halfwits, and even the half cut, but sometimes it has its uses.

One consists of trying to get your followers to provide some entertainment.

How can one not commend Nathan Fielder, star of Comedy Central's "Nathan For You," for creating art in action with the help merely of his followers, their phones, and their parents?

He took to Twitter and made a very simple request. He asked his followers to text their parents accidentally that they had drugs for sale and to screenshoot their reactions.

The text they were to send read: "Got 2 grams for $40." A price not to be sniffed at. They were then to offer an oopsie that the text had gone to the wrong recipient.… Read more

The 404 1,257: Where we're blank on the inside (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Virgin America flights allow mile-high flirting.

- Nintendo: Don't expect a big event at E3 this year.

- Next Xbox: Microsoft sets big reveal for May 21.

- Wii outsells Wii U.… Read more

Free Software Foundation attacks DRM in HTML video

The Free Software Foundation, never a friend to digital rights management, has taken issue with its arrival in the Web standards world.

In a letter from the FSF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, and other allied groups yesterday, the group called on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to keep DRM out of the standards it defines.

"We write to implore the World Wide Web Consortium and its member organizations to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal," the groups said. "DRM restricts the public's freedom, even beyond what overzealous copyright law requires, to the perceived … Read more

'Star Trek' Wikia fan portal warps into cyberspace

A new enterprise was born today. The Trek Initiative brings together wiki host company Wikia and Roddenberry Entertainment, the creators of "Star Trek," in a brave new Web site dedicated to offering fans a home planet on the Internet. It offers communities for fan interaction, fan fiction, fan films, and rare images from the Roddenberry Entertainment archives.

Hard-core Trekkies will particularly enjoy a 55-minute audio clip of Gene Roddenberry discussing his motivations for "Star Trek" and his views on the future of humanity. The "Star Trek" franchise is currently under the ownership of CBS, publisher of CNET.… Read more

Nintendo: Don't expect a big event at E3 this year

Unlike previous years, Nintendo will not make a major splash at the E3 gaming expo in June.

Speaking to shareholders on Thursday, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata confirmed that his company will not hold a major showcase at E3. Instead, his company will focus on smaller presentations centered around its many software titles.

"First, we decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past," Iwata told investors. "Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller … Read more