Slacker and The Man

The Dark Knight deals some rough justice to a henchman in this pic from the upcoming Batman: Arkham City, which is a sequel to the highly rated video game Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Batman: Arkham City takes place one year after Arkham Asylum. Quincy Sharp, who was the asylum warden in the first game, was given credit for taking the Joker down. With his new found notoriety and influence, Sharp has secured a section of Gotham slums and turned it into Arkham City. Here the patients and prisoners (from Blackgate) are allowed to roam free so long as they do not attempt to escape. Psychiatrist Hugo Strange is put in charge of Arkham City. Batman does regular patrols of Arkham City, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Want to win a signed copy of The Zombie Survival Guide? Listen to our latest podcast to find out how:

Been a while since I actually wrote a blog that wasn't something anti-Chris Evans or something directly for the show. I'm going to try and do this more often.

Other than the show and work, Call of Duty Black Ops has been soaking up most of my free time. I've never been a big online gamer. I had some less than fun experiences with Halo on the OG X-Box that kind of turned me off of online gaming all together. Which is why it's taken me so long to hook up X-Box Live (and by extention to get netflix).

But after deciding to give online gaming another go, I'm glad I did. Black Ops is an awesome time online. Sure there are better players than me, and every now and then I still have a 10 kills to 30 deaths situation, but for the most part I now find myself finishing in the top of the pack after each match.

I'm not going to go into a full blown review here, the game's been out long enough that others have already done it. But I will tell you what works for me. After playing around with almost every gun on the game, the AK74u in the SMG category works best for me. It's almost the perfect hybrid between an SMG and an assault rifle. It's got the range and rate of fire I like, and with the rapid fire mod I'm able to dominate in close quarters combat.

As for perks, Tier One I use Scavenger. with it I never run out of ammo, rockets, or grenades. Tier Two is Sleight Of Hand, which with the AK74u I can reload in the blink of an eye. Tier Three goes to Second Chance, the main reason for it is that I do get an extra kill before I keel over every now and then, and now that I have Second Chance Pro I can be revived by my teammates.

One of the best things about playing this online though has been playing with the listeners. It's a neat interaction different from anything else we've done. Next time you're on, add satm podcast and let's play!

The "Black Ops" Man

On this episode of Slacker And The Man Podcast, the guys and Ana Aesthetic talk about 80's night at Winner's Circle in Lakeland, review ThanksKilling and The Green Hornet, talk about an awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan film called "Fight The Foot", Ana reviews Steampunk Palin, they discuss some geek news including the exclusion of J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man reboot and Captain America: The First Avenger becoming a communist movie, lament the closing of Wizard and Toyfare magazines, and they discuss Boba Fett Vs Master Chief in Deadliest Geek Warrior.

There's one more week to enter to win a signed copy of The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. To win paste this link http://goo.gl/uwSgE on Facebook or Twitter with something creative in front of it. Point it out to us on Facebook or Twitter. The most creative one by Feb 1 gets the signed copy. And there's no limit to how many submissions you can make. Some of the ones that caught our attention were things like: Brett Farve sexting Michelle Obama http://goo.gl/uwSgE or Christina Hendricks topless pics http://goo.gl/uwSgE So make it creative!

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On this episode of Slacker And The Man, the guys review Killer Clowns From Outer Space and Comic Book Villain, discuss the recently revealed pics of Chris Evans in his Captain America costume and Andrew Garfield in his Spider-Man outfit, answer some listener emails, assign power rings to the individual members of the show, reveal an aborted Batman animated series, find out that George Lucas is a conspiracy theory nut, and Dobbs takes a spelling quiz. The Man also reveals how you can win a signed copy of The Zombie Survival Guide.

To win the signed copy of The Zombie Survival Guide written by Max Brooks, paste this link http://goo.gl/DnCXj on Facebook or Twitter with something creative in front of it. Point it out to us on Facebook or Twitter. The most creative one by Feb 1 gets the autographed copy. And there's no limit to how many submissions you can make. Some of the ones that caught our attention were things like: Brett Farve sexting Michelle Obama http://goo.gl/DnCXj or Christina Hendricks topless pics http://goo.gl/DnCXj So make it creative!

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Earlier this week Entertainment Weekly gave us our first look at Chris Evans in full World War II Captain America costume from the upcoming Joe Johnston directed Captain America: The First Avenger.

A stunt man wearing this costume was revealed a few months ago. I railed against it then. It looks cheesey and horrible. Not to mention it looks nothing like WWII era clothing. I was told "That's just the stunt costume, the one Evans is going to wear will look better." It's the same exact costume folks, painted on muscles and all.

Not to mention the robots/armored soldiers behind him that look like something from a B alien invasion movie from the 80's.

Now the LA Times is giving us our first look at Chris Evans in action as Captain America.

The costume doesn't look any better in action than it does with Evans standing around with his thumb up his ass. I guess they look okay if Evans is going to play paintball and then do so some shots with some frat boys.

Add these pictures with the fact that Director Joe Johnston has stated in recent interviews that his Captain America won't be a patriotic film and that his Cap won't stand for American ideals and you have a steaming pile of crap from a film. How anyone can be impressed with these production stills and what we've learned of the film so far is beyond me.

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On this episode of Slacker And The Man Podcast, Dobbs is out but Ana Aesthetic is back. She and the guys discuss a drunken night of gaming in the stink studio, review the pilot episode of NBC's The Cape, give some details on the upcoming Star Trek Convention Vulcan Events, go over the supposedly leaked plot for Captain America: The First Avenger, ponder what would have happened if Darth Vader had been redeemed and survived at the end of Return of the Jedi, what would have happened if Qui Gon hadn't been killed in The Phantom Menace, the celebrity line up at MegaCon, and how to act around girls if you have a boner.

Go to www.vulcanevents.com for more information about that event.

Nominate Slacker and The Man for a social media award in the Shorty Awards

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Last year Slacker and myself made our way to Tampa for our first Vulcan Events convention. Before we even walked into the convention, we got to meet and talk to Christopher Lloyd.

And the convention only got better from there. We met and talked with other celebrities, Sci-Fried played a show that night, and KSV got his dogtags live on stage at the Sci-Fried show.

Vulcan Events is gearing up to put on another great convention this February. They're boasting an impressive celebrity guest list including:

J.G. Hertzler: Best known for his role as Klingon General Martok on Star Trek.

Robert O'Rielly : Best known as Chancellor Gowron on Star Trek.

Both of the above will be available one day of the convention in full Klingon makeup for photo ops.

Steven Culp: Known for his roles on Desperate House Wives and as the MACOs Commander on Enterprise.

Lee Arenberg: Best known for his role as Pintel, one of Captain Barbossa's crew of miscreants, in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

Martin Klebba: Has acted in various productions, most notably Pirates of the Caribbean as "Marty", one of Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl crew, in all three of the Pirates films.

Peter David: Notable Sci-Fi author who has penned several Star Trek novels.

Along with the celebrities, there is going to be a Klingon Feast on the Saturday night of the convention. Even better than a Klingon Feast (which includes Klingon and more traditional dishes) is a Klingon Feast with celebrities. Several of the celebrities will be in attendance of the Feast.

On top of all that there's going to be a costume contest, writers workshop, celebrity photo ops, panels, auctions, dance party, and Extreme Makeover: Klingon Edition.

So clear your calendar for February 25-27 2011 and head over to the Double Tree Hotel Tampa Westshore Airport and rock out with your Spock out!

Please visit http://www.vulcanevents.com for more info.

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A listener just sent in an unconfirmed report detailing the plot of the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger film starring frat boy douche and comic hater Chris Evans. There's even more unnecessary changes to the world of Captain America than we feared.

The following is what the unconfirmed source sent me word for word, spelling and grammar are the source's, not mine:

Edit, as per the comment at the bottom of the page, looks like the listener who sent us this did get it from another site. You can check out the original article on comicbookmovie.com

In the latest issue of French magazine L'Ecran Fantastique Captain America production designer Rick Heinrichs goes into some very spoilerific detail about much of the plot of Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger. You have been warned!.

Apparently the info comes courtesy of a set visit and more interviews, pics etc are to follow. For now here are those pretty detailed spoilers. Its translated from French but seems to flow pretty well aside from a bit of grammatical confusion.

Again, read only if you don't mind early knowledge of the film's plot/set pieces..

Past and Future: 90% of the film takes place during the period 1939-1945, but the beginning and end of the feature film takes place today ...

The first scene of the film: As an introduction, so today, we see an exploration team discovered the remains of a giant bomber, under the snows of the Arctic. Flashback (true beginning of the film): attack on a village in Norway (Hansberg) by troops from Hydra. Johann Scmidt is present (Skull): a passion for Nordic mythology, it looks for an object, the cube [cosmic course! Undoubtedly, this scene will continue with the excerpt aired at Comic Con: the discovery of the cube in a castle on Earth Asgardian ...].

The character of the[Red] Skull: former Nazi party member, he left to found the Hydra. The vehicle of the wicked will be most impressive is the "cut" is a car nine feet long, shielded and armed ... Its secret base is located in the Alps, and he worked on controlling the energy of the cube. The object is able to open a portal to "other dimensions of space-time [?]. His face "human" is just a mask hiding his true appearance: Red Skull.

Before Captain Steve Rogers: A young man puny victim of mockery by thugs in Brooklyn. The body of actor Chris Evans will be digitally processed to give it that. Steve is already friends with Bucky Barnes [his sidekick, future Winter Soldier]. Unlike Steve, he was accepted into the army and he was preparing to leave.

The return of Stark: The two friends visit an exhibition in New York, "The world of tomorrow." Among the exhibitors? Howard Stark (Tony's father)! There has anti-gravity boots ... Furthermore, it has a fraction of the energy of the cube. It is he who will create the shield of Cap.

The debut of Captain America: After its transformation [all this, we already know: experience in a laboratory hidden in an antique shop, the projesseur Erskine, his murder shortly after the operation by a Nazi spy, his flight submarine], Steve Rogers is used as a mascot, cinema, theater, performing in a music hall! He became a celebrity and down to earth once sent to Europe, where he learns that Bucky was captured in a weapons factory in the Hydra. During this first mission, he frees a group that will become the Invaders [there must be an error, the Invaders are a group of superheroes helping the Cape, but absent from the film. Probably an inversion with the real name of this group: the Howling Commandos).

The final scene [?]: The purpose of the Skull is to build a huge bomber, containing planes carrying bombs, which are destined for London and U.S. cities ... There will be a great battle between the Red Skull and Captain America in the plane [and if the photo of the magazine empire was after this scene?], Which eventually crashed in the Arctic.

Captain America 2: Heinrichs evokes the possibility [that is his personal opinion, nothing official] a film blending the past and the present [as the current Ed Brubaker stories]. Especially at a time of the interview, he speaks of the Hydra as an organization still in existence, as Nick Fury fighting [he is well aware !].

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On this episode of Slacker And The Man, the guys bring in 2011 by discussing their new years eve and new years day adventures, The Man and Dobbs review True Grit, debate Luke Skywalker Vs Alan Scott in Deadliest Geek Warrior, a drawing sent to them of Thor as a Green Lantern, and Nerdbot reads several listener emails ranging from love advice to how to become a super villian.

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The Tomb Raider and Lara Croft brand of video games is getting a reboot. Developer Crystal Dynamics is billing the new game as a "action survival" game. The game is set to start with a young 21 year old Lara Croft.

We do know so far that her weapons will be a shotgun, bow, and pistols. We also know that the lock on targeting system from the previous games has been replaced with a free aim system. Changing weather conditions, Lara's physical evolution and influence on the island itself are intended to keep locations fresh when revisited. As the game unfolds, Lara will scavenge new tools and gear that augment her abilities. Lara's athletic prowess will also evolve. Some areas begin inaccessible due to physical limitations or scarce supplies. With the right skills and gear, however, the island is Lara's for the taking.

Tomb Raider will be rated M for Mature.

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