The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 59 : Mortal Kombat! (with guest host Simon Haynes!)

The Book Was Better is the podcast where we inexplicably read the rushed, tie-in novelizations of your favourite and not-so-favourite films!

This week we compete in the deadliest tournament of all as we read the book based on the film based on the video game... Mortal Kombat! I’m joined by staunch opponent Simon as we hurl supernatural projectiles, barbs, and bicycle kicks at each other in the gruesome fight for Mortal Kombat supremacy! Join us for what is surely the literary equivalent of Johnny Cage punch to the nuts! This book was so bad I could barely FINISH HIM!

You can download it right now from the official site!

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STGCC13: Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention

Well, it took a little while, but we finally got here! Being away from your home computer does seriously cramp your blogging ability. But not to worry! I am home from the wilds of Singapore and ready to deliver to you Part 1 of my STGCC coverage. Wait, Part 1? There's going to be MORE?

Consider this your con overview, while in later posts I will delve deeper into some of the companies who were showcasing their goods over the weekend. You've probably already seen some of the Iron Man stuff, right? No way I was fitting all that in one post!

Join me below the cut for my Asian con adventure.

Kickstart the Week: General Chaos II: Sons of Chaos

I was more of a Nintendo kid growing up than anything else, but my brother decided he wanted a Sega Genesis so he could play Sonic the Hedgehog. I didn't play a ton of Genesis games when it was all said and done, but I did have three favorites: Toe Jam & Earl, NHL 94 (the best entry in the series to this day), and a somewhat bizarre game that I don't think ever got old for me: General Chaos.

General Chaos was basically a simple console starter for your wargame-type experience. You had classes of soldiers and effectively had to take territory and blow up the opposition. It was a deceptively simple game with a lot of moving parts, and my brother and I must have spent a ridiculous amount of time playing this game over the years. I pulled it out again a while back and it largely holds up, too. Total nostalgia trip.

I learned that the creator of General Chaos has turned to Kickstarter to fund a sequel/remake of the classic game. They're planning a bunch of cool stuff, including some new weaponry, updated gameplay, internet battles, more maps and levels (an absolute must at this point) and so on. I'm really hoping to scrap together $20 to help make this a reality, because this is really the game I always wanted to see remade and never realized.

FPcast! The Fruitless Pursuits Podcast for September 9th! Darth Cumberbatch!

This week Luke and Jacinta tackle the Benedict Cumberbatch Star Wars rumours, Fifty Shades of Grey, Transformers 4 and the Robocop reboot! Plus Jacinta gives a full report on Singapore Toy Game, and Comic Convention and fruitlessly attempts to explain Fantasy Football to Luke. Put it in your pretty face! (Via the ears preferably).

Download here! (Click to stream, right-click to save).

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Review: LEGO Minifigures Series 11 (Part One!)

It's that time again! Series 11 of LEGO's insanely popular series of blind-packaged collectible minifigures has hit the shelves. Eager opportunists across the world are furtively squeezing at bags, their highly-attuned digits attempting to discern between an evil mech's helmet and grandmother's basket. Gone are those halcyon days of tell-all barcodes and bump-codes. This is the wilds where we are at the mercy of our senses. And this time around there are a lot of new figures that are worthy of the hunt!...

Apparently some plucky, time-rich individual spent three hours squeezing packets and cleared out a lot of these before me. But I did manage to pick up SEVEN unique figures and I think that's enough to get us started. Find out which ones I got, and what I think of them... after the jump!

Friday Night Movie Reviews: September

It's that time once again! No, I'm not talking about the start of the NFL season, I'm talking about our Friday Night Movie Reviews! We dish up mini nugget movie reviews for you, dear reader, on the first weekend of each and every month.

Join us below the cut to find out what Luke, Courtney and first-time Friday Night Movie Reviewer Vanessa have been watching this month!

Big Brother Power Rankings: Double Eviction 2: Eviction Boogaloo

I love Double Eviction Night so much. This one was less dramatic in terms of results, but definitely moreso given the craziness that lead up to it and the fact that so many people were hoodwinked along the way. With two weeks to go in the game, we may as well dive right in.

Spoilers for the new Head of Household are within.

Review: Riddick!

Watching Riddick I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to 2012’s Dredd, another ultra-violent, small-scale sci-fi film - with an uncompromising testosterone-fuelled lead character - that managed to squeeze a lot of value out of its budget. Riddick isn’t as consistently engaging as Dredd, but rest assured it has its share of gleefully messed up moments as meat-heap Vin Diesel sends the title character hurtling back to his savage roots. Much like Dredd, I entered with low expectations but wound up surprisingly entertained.

I’ll tell you why I’m a convert... after the jump!

Thursday Threesome: Three Fall Television Debuts I'm Excited About (That Aren't Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

With Continuum done until spring, and Bunheads cancelled unceremoniously, there's a few gaps in my fall television schedule to fill. Obviously, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at the top of my list, but I've honestly been less than impressed by the fall slate. This doesn't mean there aren't a few shows coming up that I'm fairly excited about, though:

Review: Hot Toys Hulk 1/6th Scale Collectible Figure! (The Avengers!)

So after fourteen long months of assembling, I finally have my complete Hot Toys Avengers team together, thanks to today's arrival of the gigantic Hulk. His box looked like it should have had a refrigerator in it.

I hope this photo isn't too dark. I was scared to adjust the gamma. HAHAHAHAbecauseBruceBannerwasaffectedbygammaraysandthat'saphotoshopjokeand... forget it.

I hadn't been looking forward to the prospect of paying a premium for a huge, green near-naked action figure with very few accessories, but the completist in me meant that Hot Toys had me over a barrel with this one. I was worried that he'd look and feel like one of those big rotocast rubbery toys that you find in a Kmart on the release of a new Hulk movie. So consider me very pleasantly surprised.

ME LIKE HULK! HULK BIG AWESOME! YOU LEARN WHY... after the jump!