I like free things. The lack of monetary investment in something greatly drives my enthusiasm for it, but when it happens to have a decent amount of quality behind its construction, I can't help but enjoy it. When Valve, developer of many amazing game series (Portal, Half-Life, Team Fortress) announced that they would be releasing a new title, Alien Swarm, to the public for free via their digital download system, Steam, I was sceptical. However, learning the story behind the game eased that feeling quite a bit.

Originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, Alien Swarm plays very much like Valve's Left 4 Dead series, albeit from a top-down perspective. The mod's original team, Black Cat Games, was brought into Valve's fold during this version's development, and work was finished in between work on Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2. I'd say those credentials gives the team a bit of credibility, no?

In the game, a squad of four marines from the The Insterstellar Armed Forces (IAF) must investigate the possibility that a polar base has been infested and overrun by aliens. These aliens, much like the bugs from the Starship Troopers franchise, are ravenous, infectious and master predators. The marines must work together to clear stages and kill waves of aliens using a variety of different weapons. Players can choose from one of four classes, each with their own abilities, like access to healing or heavy weapons and the ability to weld/hack doors to keep the horde at bay.

On paper, this seems quite fun: take the concept behind successful horror movies like the Alien franchise and put the control in the player's hands. Like Left 4 Dead before it, Alien Swarm gives players the chance to spend that hard-earned experience that they've learned from watching those movies. Tactics like not wandering off alone or guarding key points of the map work extremely well, and at higher difficulties strategy is something that must come before mindlessly running into battle.

Controls are quite simple, with the WASD keys controlling movement. The mouse aims a laser sight, which serves as your reticule from the top-down perspective. Players are given a motion sensor, which pings every couple of seconds and plots moving aliens as red dots. Reloading takes a page from Gears of Wars' playbook by letting players hit the key again during the reloading process: if the player does while the reloading process meter is within a specific white portion, the gun will instantly reload. Hitting the reload key outside the area will incur a time penalty. Interestingly enough, rounds not used in a clip will be discarded, requiring players to conserve their ammo.

The game plays extremely well, especially when you have three friends with microphones enabled, letting communication happen more easily. At the moment, there's only one campaign (the aforementioned winter base), but, interestingly enough, Valve also released a full software development kit for the game, allowing for modification. It's a tile-based system, like the map editors for the Warcraft and Starcraft series, which should allow for people to mess around with it to a great extent.

Ultimately, this game definitely gets a pass from me. It's worth the Steam download (if you don't have it already) and will give you something to mess around with with friends, or at LAN parties. It's a good intro into what the Source engine is capable of, and gives seasoned players something different without a huge monetary investment. If you're still curious, check out me playing the first level in the video I've posted. It'll give you a better idea of the carnage that's present in an average game.

Enjoy! Play in 1080p for best viewing!

Let it be known there are major spoilers for Brightest Day: Birds of Prey issues one, two and three.

As a fan of Gail Simone's first run on "Birds of Prey," I can say that I was a bit annoyed when DC decided to give it the axe. It just seemed like there were too many plot points that needed to be addressed: Black Canary's impending marriage, Oracle's infection with the Brainiac virus and subsequent regaining of toe function, Lady Blackhawk's prowl for men... all good story threads, I assure you.

What annoyed me was that with over 125 issues under its belt, the title had really come into its own as a place for a lot of the second-tier characters in DC to mingle and congregate between Crisis #504897. As Dick Grayson has ties to nearly everyone in the DCU, the Birds had ties to him; that gave them an immense supporting cast, even without having to create their own.

The characters Simone did come up with, like ex-Spetznas Creote and his unrequited lover Savant, actually acted like real people, instead of caricatures of cartoon villains. Characters from the JSA and JLA would show up from time to time to help out on missions, Lady Shiva would kick the crap out of Black Canary every once and awhile, and every so often we'd see the glimmering romance between a certain wheelchair-bound hacker and a dashing vigilante.

Wait. I mean... boobs. And butts. Boobs and butts.

I think DC realized that killing "Birds" would hurt their universe as a whole; Simone, god help her, kind of got shoehorned into writing anything with a positive female lead. From all her work tying Wonder Woman to the delightful team book Secret Six, Gail's put her heart and soul into what she does. This results in genuine characters who, again, act like real people. With "Birds" being her first major project, it comforted me to know that when the company decided to resurrect the series under its "Brightest Day" imprint, Gail would be at the helm.

And then things got confusing.

I've picked up the first three issues, and at the moment I can't tell what exactly is going on. It's almost like DC hired someone else that was named Gail Simone, gave her a week to catch up on plot points, then set her loose. So far, we have:

• A surreal sequence where The Penguin fantasizes about each of the different Birds. There's no setup for this, so for the first few pages of issue three, we think they're going to jump his avian bones.
• Hawk being added to the previously-all-girl team, providing as much depth as he usually does: smashing things and being used like Lieutenant Worf (read: getting his butt handed to him) when a threat needs to be established.
• A clusterfuck of a storyline that's trying to establish that someone is trying to use the Birds' weaknesses and ties to the hero community against them.
• A "White Canary" showing up, who can harm Hawk's invulnerable body, fight Black Canary to a standstill and who (as of issue three) wants to "void her bladder" on Black Canary's family's corpses.
• Savant and Creote committing suicide in the second issue, cursing Oracle with their dying breath, and going against their previously established characters of being... not idiots.
• Savant and Creote being resurrected during the next issue, saying it was all a fake-out and Savant claiming responsibility for said clusterfuck. They then kidnap Oracle at gunpoint and lead her into a car.

Here's my problem with this: it's all happening too fast. I know that Simone probably wants to take us on a "rollercoaster ride of a series" and all that promotional jazz, but readers need time to catch their breath.

At the moment, we're juggling some beloved characters almost-dying in issue two, a new team, the Gotham PD chasing our heroines, The Penguin being under their charge, the supposedly-dead characters NOT being dead and acting completely different from years of stories, a hostage situation featuring a main character, a villain who's a rare physical challenge for Canary and the possibility that White Canary is Black Canary's long-lost-daughter, Sin, from the previous series. Who was artificially aged. Or something.

These plot points are all ongoing, and frankly, when I need to make a list in order to keep track of them all, it should be a sign that it's a bit overwhelming.

I'd like to close by saying that my predictions for the series is that it eventually will get better, as soon as Gail gets back into her groove.

I don't believe Savant and Creote are the big bad guys, as they have no motive for all of a sudden wanting vengeance after years of amicable partnership with the Birds. It's almost like Simone forgot who she was writing, and that the two badguys-who-almost-were have backed up the Birds time and time again. If we're going to sacrifice established characters for their use in a creepy "kidnap and overtly misogynistic torture" scene that will probably just end in their imprisonment, I will have lost a little bit of hope in the Simone magic.

Here's hoping Nightwing/Batman doesn't get dragged into this.

Even geeks have bad weeks.

After a phenomenal birthday weekend in lovely Wasaga Beach, ON, I had come home to a bit of a problem: technology, in my absense, decided to shun me. While it couldn't physically prevent me from turning it on, it was going to make damned sure I didn't enjoy it.

It started with the loss of my iPod Classic. In my refusal to rely on a touchscreen device, I picked up the 160GB version as a bit of overkill: I would never, ever fill that much space up. It kept me sane at work (through copious amounts of downloaded Top Gear) and provided otherwise-dull car rides with tunes that radio just couldn't provide.

But, as John Mayer says, you don't know what you got 'till it's gone. My Classic decided to either jump in a friend's bag this past weekend, or was stolen.

Problems escalated when I turned on my PC at home to find that Windows would not boot. It would run checkdisk and get stuck on the same error every time. In what was turning into boiling frustration, I decided to say "screw it" and reinstall Windows, wiping my hard drive clean in the process. Confident that I had everything I needed safely stuck on a 500GB external hard drive, I deleted and formatted my hard drive.

While the installation process took an abnormally long time, I decided to play a little football on my Xbox 360. With 30 seconds in the final quarter of the championship game, an error popped up saying my disk was unreadable. Twice.

Suddenly my suspicions were becoming more plausible.

Three hours later when Windows 7 decided to bless me with a working install, I looked at my external with disbelief: in my hubris, I had cut, not copied my files over. My music and pictures were gone. The files were blank. There would be no disk images to recover from, or USB key backups. Gone.

Thankfully, these were not huge losses: I am neither a composer or an artist. My music collection is very modest (at about 15GB of tunes) and my pictures, while plentiful, could be replaced. Any photography that was important to me was already online, so there was a bit of a sentimental save. Fortunately my Documents folder was untouched, leaving me with all my resumes, short stories and columns. You know, the important stuff.

Nevertheless, I sat in my computer chair moping. Not only would I have to replace a $300 music player out of my own pocket, the feeling that I had been irresponsible enough to lose it in the first place ate at me a little. No one likes to be kicked when they're down; unfortunately enough, we can be our own harshest critic.

But then it dawned on me: what I had in front of me here (wasting of money aside) was an opportunity. Like so many movies where the hero gets a second chance at the life they never had, I was presented with a blank slate of a PC. I would have a chance to do things right this time. No more, would I have single MP3s cluttering up my music folder, or some photography folders sorted by date, while others had tags. I would be able to have each artist and album in its own folder, easily searchable and accessible. By no means am I OCD, but man, even I like things clean.

So I suppose this should be taken as a word of caution: back up your files. Multiple times. In a cloud, even.

The more time you spend preparing for a disastrous 24 hours like the one I had, the less pain it will cause you in the long run. Learn from my pain, damn it.

Professional wrestling has been somewhat of a boomerang hobby in my life. While I was a big fan in my early teens, I've just started to get back into it with the help of a couple of message boards online. While I'm far from calling myself a connoisseur, I am finding that there are few things funnier than watching an episode of WWE RAW with an IRC channel full of disgruntled fans. Each episode and pay-per-view becomes an extended episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, with routine calling-outs of bullshit moves and horrible booking decisions. In typical Internet faction, rumours are discussed heavily, wrestlers are insulted and everyone yearns for that magical night when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson might grace us with his magical presense.

However, attending a live show wasn't on my list of things to do. Part of the fun of watching an event on TV was hearing the sometimes-inane chatter of the announcers. Taking a shot every time the much-reviled Michael Cole proclaimed a move as "Vintage (insert wrestler here)" became a hilarious pastime. That changed this past weekend, when I went to see indie promotion Ring of Honor's "Death by Dishonor VIII" pay-per-view here in Toronto.

I was kind of unsure of what to expect going into it. Twenty of my dollars had gone towards the ticket, so the monetary investment was nothing to scoff at. However, I had a blast both with the wrestling and observing this new nerd ecosystem that was on display before me. Independent fans tend to be "smart", or wise to the wrestling charade; this led to some interesting gear shifts when one minute fans would be bashing a performer for his ability to sell attacks, while the next they would be suspending disbelief in order to cheer him on.

It's a polarity issue: imagine if comic books or TV shows were predictable until the last five minutes. You wouldn't know the whole story, but you would have a good idea of what was coming. The good guys would fight the bad guys, a twist would happen, momentum would shift, and then the big finish. However, that predictability almost works to the wrestlers advantage: if they can figure out what the audience might be predicting, they can work in something unexpected.

Again, over-analysis aside, I had a great time (partly due to accompaniment by the amazing Meryle Trouble) and came away with some tips that could help those who aren't sure what to expect from their first indie show.

Prepare to yell. A lot

I will warn you right now: you will not have any fun if you are concerned about your dignity. Regardless of whether you know any of the wrestlers performing, it is encouraged to get into their chants, regardless of your allegiance to the "good" or "bad" guys. When all else fails, cheer for whoever looks cool. A good quote to describe this would be "you bought a ticket, you can cheer for whoever you like."

Get good seats

Seems like a no-brainer, right? I learned this the hard way after we got seats right in front of the only way in and out of the behind-the-boards seating and the rink floor. People were passing by us constantly, and leaving the door open behind them. Annoying, to say the least, but fixable with mountains of patience.

A good seat will both have a nice view of the ring but won't be too low to see fighting if it spills outside. If you're feeling adventurous and want a little more interaction with the show, sit as close as you can: from throwing streamers during wrestler's entrances to passing a hubcap you brought yourself to a wrestler during a hardcore match, a closer seat can be an exhilarating experience.

Props to those guys who brought the hubcap, by the way.

Dress light

The arena was a sweatbox during the event, and really, I'm not sure if a different venue would change that. On top of the wrestlers doing their thing, you have a couple hundred to over a thousand people cheering, jumping around, reacting and travelling through different lanes of foot traffic. A couple of people had the good idea of bringing hand fans, which stifled the heat a bit. Do the same, or be prepared to pay high prices for cold drinks or beer.

Support the company

While you might have already spent some cash getting in, it's important to remember that independent companies thrive on DVD and merch sales. Like any good band, these revenue streams are a great way to show support, and frankly, tend to be worth the money they're charging. If companies like ROH put out a crappy product, their fans would call them on it: they have nothing to gain from "gaming" the fans out of their cash, so their DVDs are actually quite good. I dropped $15 on a "Best of" DVD and haven't regretted it yet.

Anyways, that's all I have for you. Hopefully this was helpful; if you decide to go, enjoy yourself, and don't be on the receiving end of a Brainbustaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

Yes, that was spelled correctly.

Moving home for summer has been a bit hectic; packing up my room in Toronto and then moving back home to Hamilton was both a lesson in organization and patience. When I finally finished unloading everything and taking inventory of the things I'd misplaced, another unique problem presented itself: where would I get my comics?

In Toronto I had a good deal, with indie-friendly shop The Beguiling right down the street from my Annex dwelling. If I wanted something a little more fantastical, uber-store The Silver Snail was only a streetcar away. If the weather was nice, it only took me a twenty-minute walk from Queen West back to Bathurst. The trip tended to be worth it.

Home in Hamilton is a bit different. While I have the advantage of a car, stores here are a bit lower key than their Toronto brethren, which in turn make them harder to stay afloat. However, for the summer I would have to make due.

Interior photo of Silver Snail Comics, Toronto, ON

While making my rounds to figure out which place would be worth my continued patronage, I kept in mind a few guidelines to make the experience easier. Within these guidelines are a series of questions you can consider, and will hopefully make for a clearer decision. I made my decision by asking myself these questions while walking through a store on a typically "average" day; I figured that would best represent what I could expect from a visit.

Stock

I was tempted to put the location of the store as coming first in any line of reasoning, but that's not necessarily true: I mean, if you have a store that's right beside you, but doesn't have any of the titles you're interested in, what's the point?

An ideal store will have the titles that you're looking for at decent prices, and will order enough copies of new issues to accommodate your schedule. While you're scoping out your prospective stores, look around for the "new releases" section - what day of the week is it? Are there empty spaces? Are the new titles clearly marked? Does the store give complimentary bags?

Does the store have other merchandise (besides comics) that interests you? Longboxes? Shirts? Statues? Cards? Are they quality products? Is there a refund/warranty policy on more expensive items?

Location

The location of the store can be paramount to your enjoyment. Depending on your schedule, you will be visiting your store multiple times a month: those who wish to prey on new releases can count on showing up at least once a week.

This brings a couple new problems to the table. Is the store reachable by public transit? Walking? Car? Is there parking available? Is it in a shady neighborhood? Are there banks nearby, in the case that your prospective store does not accept cash or credit?

Also included in the location is the physical layout of the store: is it comfortable to move around in? Is there enough elbow room to browse the shelves without knocking anything over? Is the stock laid out in an understandable fashion? Will you be able to find what you need?

Staff

Last, but certainly not least is how you feel in the store. While this might sound a bit farfetched, I believe every store has a "soul" in the sense that a different vibe is emitted from each one. This vibe is important because ideally, you would like to feel comfortable when you visit your store.

A comic shop is not merely a brick and mortar emporium; it is a place that fosters a hobby that is (hopefully) important to you. The time you spend within it is not to be squandered or dismissed: from talking to the clerks about new developments or spending a rainy afternoon browsing the shelves, it is meant to be a place where you can be you.

With that, you should ask yourself: are the staff friendly? Do they seem like the type who read comics themselves? Do they engage in conversations with customers? Are they knowledgable in their stock, and where it's located around the store? Does the store have a loyalty program, or have features like pull lists? Are you proud of being part of its community?

I'm not saying that your store should encompass every single question mentioned in this article. Ultimately, there's going to be some give and take as to what you're willing to put up with. However, you should remember this: your store is your nerd haven - your mecca. It's not a decision to be taken lightly.

Good luck!

The mission is supposed to be silent. Get in, get the intel, get out. No casualties, no evidence I was there. All weapons and ammo are procure-on-sight. I am supposed to be silent - the shadows should be my home.

I guess alarms going off every which way are a bad thing.

While the Metal Gear games have taught me that I'm just plain bad at stealth, a new title from SEGA called Alpha Protocol had given me renewed hope. Just like every time I decide that I'm going to man up and try to learn how to drive manual transmission in racing games, I would man up and learn the hard way how to manipulate my enemies to my every whim and sneak by like I was never there.

And just like every time I try to drive stick, I was left spinning in circles, just barely dodging death.

Alpha Protocol is a unique entry into the spy genre in that it claims to be "The Espionage RPG". Your main character can choose different dialogue options when dealing with handlers, as well as receiving XP and leveling up. You can form relationships with the people you talk to and your Ability points can be spent on active and passive skills. Sounds pretty standard.

Aside from these RPG features, the game plays as a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter. Players can choose from a number of different weapon play styles (pistol, shotgun, SMG and assault rifle), hack consoles, use gadgets and move from cover to cover with a button press. Of course, stealth can be used as well, with different clothing options and weapon upgrades enhancing damage, inventory slots or deafen the sound of your steps.

Ironically, combat is a major problem in this game: unless you pump a bunch of points into a single gun, there's little hope of using them effectively. The guns are simply too inaccurate until major time and in-game money is spent building them up - only being able to bring two along with you on a mission seems annoying as well.

I wanted to play my character as a spy who was suave and subtle, but wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty: however, when it came to the inevitable firefight, my agent was left scrambling for cover, hoping that his SMG was going to reach all the way to that guard tower - his pistol sure as hell wasn't going to.

And shaking off those guards seems to be a difficult task, as well. In other stealth games I've played, the guards will reset (or at least go into a less-active "caution" mode) when you manage to stay out of sight after detection. In Alpha Protocol, being spotted once puts the whole base on alert until you reach a checkpoint or next area. This, coupled with the lack of indication where enemies are, can lead to unintentional alerts and guards shooting your poor spy in the head.

I mean, I'm not looking to get my hand held here, but when the "detection" ability (which comes after upgrading your "stealth" skill) only shows enemies in your immediate vicinity and takes two minutes to cool down, I'm significantly less inclined to use that method of playstyle. I mean, it's just plain inaccessible.

While playing Alpha Protocol I couldn't help but feel a huge case of deja vu. It felt like playing like a cheap knock-off of Mass Effect, straight down to the radial menus used for conversation.

The choices of how to talk to people (modelled after James Bond, Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne, respectively) tend to make it too easy to just stick to one style of superspy. In order to manipulate each contact with their preferred style of conversation, you must read through their dossier; getting an accurate report on the person also requires you to fill that dossier through in-game conversation, which might lead to inaccurate information in the meantime.

I'm at a point in the game where I'm just starting to make these relationships count, and I'm starting to feel punished every time I choose the wrong initial tone I assume with a new contact. I mean, I can only do so much to prepare myself, and I'd like to be rewarded on how I read the character I'm speaking to instead of being punished for guessing wrong.

The game makes up for these shortcomings with good voice work; however, the graphics and controls can leave a little bit to be desired. I've seen comments that liken Alpha Protocol to a game that by all means should still be in beta, and I agree with that: if the shooting controls, enemy AI and balancing issues were tightened up in a patch, I would be more than happy to give it another go.

Props to Obsidian Entertainment and publisher SEGA for taking a chance on an unproven genre. While a character-driven spy story isn't anything new, Alpha Protocol gives us the chance to influence how our character interacts with the world around him and actually make some choices on how he wishes to proceed. I'd say it's a bit of a departure from blowing up walking tanks and killing your genetically modified brother(s) and their army of freak soldiers, but in this case that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I was introduced to Pendulum by a stoner friend back in the good old days of high school. Drum and Bass wasn't exactly my bag, per se, but I was exiting a techno phase and they seemed to be a good bridge between the trance tunes I had obsessed over for two years and something with a little bit more edge to it.

At that time, the only thing that was available was their debut release, Hold Your Color. This is regarded by Pendulum purists as the closest thing to traditional Drum and Bass that the band has ever produced, and it's true: their style has evolved into something of a speedy techno-rock hybrid.

Fast-forwarding to the present, the boys from Australia have released their newest offering, Immersion, which lets them settle into their new sound after 2008's In Silico. The sound hasn't changed much between the two albums. If anything, they've fit more into the niche they've carved for themselves; however, it's amusing that this niche still has yet to be classified. Interesting YouTube comments on leaked tracks include requests for the band to finally name their genre, so "old school" fans and critics alike can stop trying to classify them.

In Silico's tracks were featured on a number of racing video game soundtracks. Heck, even Hold Your Color's "Slam" was one of the primary tracks on the PS3 exclusive Motorstorm. I would know, as I worked in a Wal-Mart electronics section where that song played in the demo cabinet around fifty times a day. The songs lend themselves well to fast-paced scenes: one of the best fan-made music videos I've ever seen takes Pendulum's "Granite" and matches it with the race scenes in Speed Racer.

That's what a lot of Immersion's songs feel like: a race. Not in the sense that they're quick to finish, but rather that they're adrenaline-pumping, blisteringly fast. It's not hard to picture yourself behind the wheel of a car while you're listening to certain songs ("Salt in the Wounds", "Watercolor", "Crush"), racing at way-too-fast speeds, dodging traffic.

Keeping with the tradition of In Silico, the speedy tracks don't dominate the record. There are slower, more lyrical songs which serve as a platform for vocalist Rob Swire to strut his auto-tuned self. Though this would normally be a chastised point, auto-tune fits right in with an electronica record - who would have thought?

All in all, the album is very solid, but I found it difficult to listen to all the way through. I consider this is a requirement for any record I listen to, especially in cases like this where the album is a concept. At 67 minutes long, that much techno starts to give me a slight throbbing in my temple that I'd rather not have. However, it's ultimately up to your tastes: you can take Immersion in bite-sized doses, or all at once in an assault on your ears.

Whichever you're brave enough for, good luck.

So today I picked up Rockstar's newest offering to the "open world shenanigans" genre, Red Dead Redemption. I'm kind of a sucker for the Old West, even though I don't have much experience with the film genre; yeah, it's a little hypocritical, but it lends itself very well to the video game medium. I mean, hey, you've got an open world and a time period where the law was a little more... relaxed. Win-win, right?

Well, in RDR, the time period is a little closer than we'd think. It's set in 1911, which allows for slightly more advanced weaponry, and the addition of motor cars. I've only played about a couple hours so far, so I can't exactly give my impressions on that. However, I'm really excited to see what the game's going to give me in the future - I'm guessing there will be at least one Wild West car chase.

There's something to be said about how much there is to do in this game; like Assassin's Creed, the side quests, which give you fame and money, are plentiful. So far, I've tracked down cattle rustlers, worked on getting a new outfit, looted some bandit corpses, and killed and skinned various wild animals. Each of these things contributes to my overall legend in the Wild West, and that latter activity is definitely not PETA-friendly.

The controls are slick, but I think playing Assassin's Creed has spoiled me; no longer can I make a grab at a ledge mid-fall like I can with Ezio. Marston is an agile polecat, though, and benefits from having limitless stamina: Rockstar neglected to put in a sprint meter, so travelling the wide-open expanse is a little more forgiving on foot. Gunplay gives me a great sense of reward, as you can really feel the power behind each bullet. Shooting bandits in different parts of the body yield awesome results: I dropped a horse thief with a shot to the chest that knocked him clean off the animal. Awesome.

But still, your horse is available at a whistle, and comes running up loyally. He has a stamina bar, however, and too much start-and-stop or top-speed running will quickly drain it. The horse handles pretty well; a bit less realistic than Shadow of the Colossus, but it allows for a greater sense of control. The same properties apply to driving stagecoaches, which, strangely, can reverse.

I've dabbled a little in the multiplayer as well, but only enough to shoot some guys' heads off in the free-roam lobby. I got an achievement for killing "A Rockstar" or someone who had already; I really enjoy it when they spread virally like that. I haven't had the chance to get in a posse or anything more organized, however: all my friends seemed to have picked up the PS3 edition. Lame.

Anyway, check out Red Dead Redemption if you're looking for your Wild West fix and need something that will keep you entertained for awhile. Rockstar's going to be adding some new multiplayer DLC free of cost in the next little while, which should entice people to a healthily-populated ecosystem.

Happy trails.

This past weekend was a bit of a nerd fest for me: first I went to see Iron Man 2 with a couple buddies (and had a rip-roaring good time) while Saturday I went to my third-ever comics convention, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Held in Toronto's reference library, the TCAF is a little piece of nerd heaven, as it promotes much of the things we hold dear to our hearts: indie comics, gaming, community and a non-existent entrance fee. The place was packed, probably partly due to the rainy weather inside; it ushered everyone indoors and ensured that there was little wiggle room throughout the library's two floors.

I've never been one to stand overly long lines at the conventions I've been to, and the guests there have rarely justified the photo or autograph fees. However, when I heard that a lot of my favourite webcomic creators were going to be there the possibilities of being able to meet them face-to-face became very real. Though there were a lot of people there, the lines never really went beyond a ten minute wait. I'm kind of glad that I saw Jeph Jacques when I did, though: his Questionable Content table filled up with a huge line as soon as I'd left.

It's weird to see these people out in the open. I follow their comics every day, and have, in some cases, for years. Seeing the personas that are behind the pencil and pens is a very... sobering experience? It definitely makes them seem more real, and not just producers of my entertainment. It was hard meeting some of these people (Danielle Corsetto was so nice!) and not buying whatever merch I could; money's a bit tight this month.

The actual show floor wasn't exactly my cup of tea because I wasn't familiar with a lot of the titles that were there. I think that's a little bit of a barrier to these kinds of displays: you can't dive into people's work without a little bit of a monetary investment, but because you're unfamiliar, you're less likely to want to spend that money. I think that's what works so well about webcomics; they offer their initial work for free, so when a t-shirt or book comes out, you're already attached to the product itself.

Sadly, I had little time to spare for panels, too; this year's TCAF had the novel idea of holding several in The Pilot Tavern, which was well-received by many of the artists, along with Canada's cuisine of choice. Following the Twitters of several American artists left me feeling a little bit of pride that they had fun in our country. Is that weird?

All in all, Toronto nerds have little to lose by going to TCAF unless your palate doesn't include indie titles. You aren't going to find DC or Marvel at this convention, nor would I expect you to in the future. TCAF is happy to provide a little step back from the big business of comics and bring its guests back to a place where characters don't have to wear tights to be heroes.

So by now we've all seen the stills of the Thor movie, and a collective fanboy/girl "I SAY THEE YAY!" was heard across the Internet. Thor, like Iron Man and Captain America before him, was one of those characters that inspired many a debate over who would portray the character in a movie.

Marvel chose a winner with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and have gone out on a limb with Chris Evans as Captain America. Now it's been announced that Star Trek's Chris Hemsworth will be portraying everyone's favourite man-with-a-mystical-hammer. From the pictures that have been leaked, the Internet knows that they've at least got the costume right - but how about the rest of the movie?

I'm skeptical about the Thor movie for a few reasons, but most prominently is this: Thor, as a character, does not fare well on his own. He is a god of thunder from a mystical age where it was still acceptable to sack a monastery once and awhile. He wields a hammer and has wings on his helmet. In downtown New York, he's going to stand out.

While this can be said of all superheroes, Thor's origins don't lend well to a movie formula. If the movie focuses on his human side, Dr. Donald Blake, the focus on fantasy will be lost. Conversely, if the film focuses too much on Thor, there is little opportunity for the viewer to relate to the character.

Thor's origin lends little to a big-screen first installment: all right, he's a thunder-god who was sent to live as a mortal as punishment. In illustrating that to the viewer, the director (and the viewer) lose out on the whole "smiting frost giants in Jötunheimr" thing, as, well, it doesn't take place on Earth.

But how would we fill the time between the origin explanation and the showdown with the Destroyer/Loki? Unless we want to set a fish-out-of-water scene to "Walking on Sunshine" or give Donald Blake a love interest, Thor works best when he's supplemented by a rich supporting cast.

I mean, you've got the Warriors Three, each representing different levels of the jovial/serious dichotomy, Odin, who provides the "wise old man" stereotype, Loki, who's just an asshole, and most importantly, the rest of the Avengers, who while powerful, are dwarfed by Thor's power.

Just as it's supposed to be

Thor runs the risk of turning into a second "Dark Knight" (or 1989's "Batman") in the sense that the movie could end up becoming more about Loki than Thor. Unless we want to throw in long periods of introspection (which we know audiences can only take in small doses), Thor might just be a flash in the pan.

Gamers and comics fans alike are rejoicing over the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which was long thought lost to the rigours of development hell. No, true believers, MvC3 would not rot beside the Duke Nukem Forevers of this world, and finally see light.

From the teaser trailer, we know that there are six confirmed characters: from Marvel we have Wolverine, Iron Man and the Hulk, while Ryu from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers' Morrigan and Resident Evil's Chris Redfield represent Capcom. There looks to be roughly 30 spots open for other characters, however, and I thought I might take the opportunity to give four more of my fantasy picks, and why they should be there - two from Capcom, two from Marvel.

All right, if we're going to have a fighting game, we may as well have someone who's good at fighting. Iron Fist's modus operandi is to beat the stuffing out of things, and if the game developers are feeling particularly creative, they can have his punches be stronger than his kicks due to the apparently metallic nature of his hands.

Danny Rand will be able to flip around all agile-like, use his chi powers to throw the odd fireball and summon the power of Shou-Lao the undying for an ultimate attack. Add in some sweet combos and some "stances" a la Street Fighter's Gen, and you've got yourself a hell of a powerhouse.

Frank's seen his share of action lately, jumping into the spotlight of two of Capcom's bigger games. Appearing first as a secret character in the Lost Planet sequel and again in another Capcom fighting game (this time versus anime company Tatsunoko), Frank's no stranger to combat.

Really, his character's worked in a fighting game before as somewhat of a joke character. The sheer amount of hammerspace-produced weapons, along with zombie-based attacks leaves Frank a quirky, yet playable character.

Plus, he's covered wars, y'know.

While a little out of left field, I have a good reason for wanting Strange in a Marvel vs. Capcom game: so they can finally have a hero-villain counterpart to the tentacle monster Shuma-Gorath, who has been part of the fighting game series since 1995's Marvel Super Heroes.

A great frustration of mine is when people don't know the origin of the monster; by leaving Strange out, you don't get that explanation. His character wouldn't be hard: a projectile-heavy player who benefits from hanging back and throwing around energy. Hey, Strange has been known to throw a punch or two in his time as well; give him some spotlight!

All right, I know what you're thinking: how would they fit two Ryus on the roster? While that might be a roadblock that Capcom couldn't overcome, I think the Breath of Fire series has been largely cast to the wayside in the legacy of kick-ass RPGs. While licenced for release in the USA by Squaresoft, Breath of Fire 1 was a Capcom production.

True to the story, Ryu is part dragon. A natural swordsman, have one of his ultimates make him shape shift to his dragon form for a little bit. Maybe even give him a fire breath attack or something. You know, because of the title of the game and all.

Ultimately we're just going to have to wait and see what Capcom has in store for us. Hopefully they give us what I and many other comic fans crave: equal representation from the obscure and mainstream characters.

It's been a while since I've been able to get addicted to a game. In my youth I was able to plop down in front of a console/PC and waste months at a time playing the same game. Sure, the game was most likely an RPG, which are designed for distractions, but the fact was I was attacking the same game consistently.

Then came my time with World of Warcraft. With WoW being the ultimate distraction-producing game, I played it with a fervor, and burned myself out to the point of swearing it off completely. Each time I've readopted the game into my life (with my fourth time ending in September) I've thrown myself into it with gusto, only to find my playtime dwindle as time goes on. What started with hours-long sessions devolved into hopping online for a second to check my mail, and then logging off to find something else to do.

This crossed over to the rest of my gaming habits; even if I had a huge chunk of free time, I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to dive back in. If I did devote an afternoon to grinding before a particularly hard boss, that game would gather dust, sometimes for months at a time.

I ran across indie game Minecraft at the recommendation of many people online. An offshoot of another indie title, Infiniminer, Minecraft puts you in a block-based world where you're free to build and shape the world how you please. At the moment, without paying money, the average user can access three modes: single and multiplayer free build modes, and a single player survival mode.

Free build modes let you explore your landscape and build with a variety of different blocks. For all intents and purposes, your character is invincible, and can fall from great heights. On the flip side, survival puts you in the position of having to defend yourself from spawning monsters; armed with nothing besides a melee attack and 20 arrows (which can be fired with the TAB key), you get points for slaying monsters and surviving. Minecraft takes a page from Zelda in this mode, and gives your character a life bar that's represented by hearts. They can be refilling by finding mushrooms that are scattered amongst the world, and often found underground.

However, the real fun in Minecraft starts when you pay for it. At 9.99 Euros, the cost of getting access to the "indev"(elopment) mode is pretty cheap - it works out to about $13 CAD. In this game type, your character can craft whatever he needs to survive; from tools to armor to workbenches and chests, your goal is, again, to survive monster attacks while eking out your lot in life on the randomly-generated maps.

Variable difficulties and map sizes allow for a myriad of replayability - similar to another indie game, Dwarf Fortress, losing can sometimes be as fun as winning. You learn a bit every time you play a game, and with every generated level, the player becomes more proficient in ensuring his survival. There is the ability to save your level and progress, though - sometimes, especially after putting a lot of time into a playthrough, it's not worth it to just start over.

What made this game worth my money was the vast amount of replayability; it is a sandbox with all the features I was looking for. There's challenge, adventure and most importantly the capacity for creativity - you will experience something new every time you play this game. Ultimately, gaming needs more of that.

Minecraft is still in an in-development stage at the moment, but is constantly being updated and worked on. Its developer has expressed interest in a multiplayer version of the paid-for survival mode; it'll be interesting to see if denizens of the Internet will be able to work together to push back zombie hordes and cultivate food, or if they're just going to make giant penises out of stone.

It's hard to believe that Blackest Night has been going since June. It seems just yesterday that Hal burst out of his giant space coffin, making a legion of Kyle Rayner-hating Green Lantern fans laud Geoff Johns and their new lord and saviour.

Blackest Night was one of those crossover events that grew on me; both Marvel and DC had put out great "space opera" events (Annihilation and Sinestro Corps War) in the past, so I didn't have a doubt that Geoff Johns could product great work. However, my first impression of the series was met with one cynical thought: "Oh great, Space Zombies."

The coming of the Black Lanterns is deeply entrenched in the Green Lantern mythos, thanks to bearded deity Alan Moore. DC decides, "Okay, let's tackle that hanging thread." and hands it off to the guy who's been helming the Green Lantern franchise for the greater part of the last decade, Geoff Johns.

He decides, "Alright, let's introduce a bunch of other Lantern Corps, each representing a part of the emotional spectrum." I decide "Fine, can deal with that. It sounds cool. Giant space battles abound, good guys versus bad, and Guy Gardner gets to blow some crap up"

I'd like to think Geoff's idea for the whole "dead rising" thing set off a spark in the minds of DC's editors. Blackest Night then morphed into a giant staging ground for numerous killed-off characters to come back and plague the characters of the DCU, literally playing off the emotions of heroes, ripping out their hearts to gain power.

When it's put this way, it seems almost awesome. Then came the things that made no sense. In honour of Blackest Night finally resting in peace, I thought I'd mention some of the things that had me scratching my head.

Another Hawkman Retcon: Was the death of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (in BN's first issue) only to serve the singular purpose of bringing back the "original" Shiera? I know character death is often used as a vehicle for retcon, but I was just starting to like Hawkgirl. She grew on me with JSA and found a place within Justice League of America kicking ass and flirting with Red Arrow. I guess it's back to the Silver Age we go.

White Lantern Sinestro: Say what you will about the guy, but everyone's favourite pink despot got developed a hell of a lot during this "war of the light" stuff. We got to find out his first name, about his previous relationship with Abin Sur and even his lost love. He then finally gets to move on from being Hal Jordan's nemesis and seize the power of the White Lantern in Blackest Night #7... only to have it stripped from him two issues (I'm including the Green Lantern tie-in) later.

And then guess who gets to wield it? That's right, Hal.

I maintain that the whole point of books crossing over is to expose audiences to characters they might not normally see. This really doesn't seem to be the case with DC books, who either must have Hal Jordan ride in on a construct unicorn to save the day, or Superman hit something really, really hard. It doesn't do well to build new characters, and just leaves me thinking "Well, what was the point of that?"

Barry Allen's Induction into the Blue Lantern Corps, and the whole "Deputies" thing. I have a sneaking suspicion that this was Johns' excuse to get Barry to wax philosophical when he normally wouldn't. Instead of expanding on one of the already established Blue Lanterns, Johns just stuck a ring on Barry and had him be everything he needed to be.

Then he remembered that Superman had to be involved somehow with the giant crossover, and threw a white ring on him. For one page. Because he simply "wanted to live". Again, with the whole "building new characters" thing.

Also what was the point of inducting Scarecrow into the Sinestro Corps, only to have his powers stripped away by Lex Luthor literally one issue later? Why was he included in the cover of Blackest Night #8 when he didn't appear in it? Everyone was happy with Crane finally getting his shot where he belonged (I mean, look at his power set) and then it was ripped away before he could do anything with it? Lame.

Max Lord Gets Resurrected, but Not Ted Kord. Let's let that sink in, for a second. Lord, not Kord. Max, not Ted. Out of all the people Infinite Crisis killed, we had to bring back the one person who wasted all their villain potential at once. Max won't be able to go back to his businessman shenanigans, nor will he be able to be "the mind control villain." I mean, we have Despero for that: he's got a lot more history with the League. Hell, we don't even have a Blue Beetle series for him anymore.

If this doesn't lead to Booster resurrecting Ted, then kicking his ass, I will be very disappointed.

So all in all, Blackest Night wasn't the worst. It left some plot holes and kicked its secondary characters to the curb, like all crossovers seem to do, but that seems to be the trend lately. Hopefully Siege will try to avoid this as it ends later this month; look for a similar post to this when that happens.

It's always interesting to see what the Internet can come up with when they're left to their own devices. In some cases, people aren't just content to enjoy things like video games the way they're meant to be. Even in the age of ludicrous achievements, some nerds enjoy placing harder handicaps than what the game has to offer.

Enter the Nuzlocke challenge. Masterminded by an obviously bored member of a certain video game forum, it seeks to make the Pokemon games harder by imposing certain limits on the way one can play. These rules run from sort-of-challenging ones, like not using items outside of battles, to maniacally hard ones, like not being able to heal period unless it's a Pokemon Centre, only healing once per centre total, and perhaps the most heinous of all: you must nickname your newfound party members in order to gain an attachment to them, and then release them if they faint even once. If they fall in battle, they are effectively "dead".

I'm not sure whether to applaud Nuzlocke and the numerous people trying out his rules; I mean, on one hand, you've got a hell of a challenge. On the other, you're telling people that they should risk hours of hard work with every fight they get into. That's just cold, man.

Players who started using the rules have been chronicling their travels in this new, "Hardcore mode" world, producing comics and sometimes memoriams for those who have fallen. It's heart-wrenching to see someone's team go through so much, then lose half their ranks to a lucky crit or careless mistake. Maybe Nuzlocke's rules serve to add another layer of story to the game's plot; it allows the player to role play a little bit more, crafting personalities and interactions where there might not have been before.

It might also serve to get players to take the game more seriously. Every time I've played through an iteration of Pokemon, it's been easy to just level my starting monster, leading to a ludicrously one-sided affair. Even if that one were to faint, I'd have a team of sacrifices, allowing myself to revive that powerhouse and switch him back in. Through Nuzlocke, we're forced to think a little bit more. Players have to plan out type coverage and effective strategies; no longer will one spot on your team of six be used as a "HM Slave". I mean, we wouldn't want to have to bury our team, would we?

Anyone interested can view the obnoxiously large flowchart below. Within are different sets of rules for the hardcore and dabbling trainer, allowing people to mix and match. Try at your own risk.