Tag Archive: ray carsillo


Fable III “Traitor’s Keep” DLC Review

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March 10, 2011

Originally Published: March 9, 2011, on PlayerAffinity.com

One of the most compelling concepts of Fable III was the fact that you not only had to breath life into a revolution, but then serve as king (or queen) and try to make sure Albion flourished after completing your main quest. But what would happen if someone else tried to start a revolution to dethrone YOU?

That’s the question that the new “Traitor’s Keep” DLC asks. Another one of your brother Logan’s nasty secrets rears its head when while going through your daily duties an assassin makes an attempt on your life right in the throne room! After dispatching the would be killer, you get word from some of your soldiers that an unknown ship is approaching the harbor.

What you initially thought was another threat is revealed to be soldiers that are actually loyal to the crown aboard the ship and you uncover that Logan had a secret prison full of people who would not bend to his will. You decide to board the ship and inspect this keep full of political prisoners yourself and give a verdict on its fate. Unfortunately, upon your arrival to Ravenscar Keep you find there has been a massive prison break and realize that not all of the prisoners were there simply because of their politics.
After quelling the riot, the keep’s commander brings to your attention that the three most nefarious prisoners kept at the keep are no longer in their cells and one of them had nothing on his mind beyond dissolving the crown for good. I hope you were itching for some action because you’ve got yourself a good old-fashioned manhunt on your hands now!

The “Traitor’s Keep” DLC features three brand new locations for you to explore as you begin your search for the prisoners and learn just how deep the roots of your brother’s corruption go. From the keep itself to the brand new Clockwork Island, the home of the man who was in charge of Reaver Industries before Reaver’s infamous takeover, and the Godwin Estate, a private mansion on an island between Aurora and Albion, you’ll have your hands full as you explore these new areas under Albion rule and try to restore order before a new uprising begins to throw you off the throne.

Clockwork Island will also introduce you to the new clockwork enemies, once peaceful creations that were supposed to help bring a new technological age to Albion, but now simply serve the twisted Inventor once again now that he has escaped his cell. Godwin Estate will also see something unusual to diehards of Fable as Balverines, Hollow Men, and Hobbes all work together…and against you. Explore this now dilapidated plantation as you hunt down Witchcraft Mary, the former owner of the estate and practitioner of the dark arts to find out why.

Along with four new quests and three new areas to explore, the “Traitor’s Keep” DLC also features two brand new costumes, the prisoner and Logan’s soldier outfit, as well as 10 new achievements for 250 Gamerscore, nine of which tie directly into the new DLC.

Although this extension of your Fable III adventure is well worth the price of 560 Microsoft points ($7) in terms of length, since it should take you four to five hours to find every item and beat every quest, the question you have to ask yourself is just how much of a fan you are of Fable III.

If you weren’t a huge fan of the main game, then you probably won’t enjoy the DLC since it is a lot more of the same thing. The dialogue has that cheeky British humor still throughout and the combat is exactly the same, so the only new feature is that the world you were originally set in is now much larger than it was before. If you were a fan of Fable III though, then this DLC is more of the same quality RPG action that you got used to with the main game. Clearly, this is whom the DLC is tailored to. It won’t bring in any new fans, but with all these extra quests, costumes, and locales, pre-existing fans should be more than pleased after dropping their Microsoft points on this one.

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From My Mom’s Basement – Vol. 2 Ep. 2 – Vampire Hunter

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March 9, 2011

Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on youtube.com/RCars4885

I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review Batman Beyond #3 from DC Comics and MLB 11 The Show for the PS3. My hot chick pick of the week is Jayonna Fabro and this week’s theme is The Ice Titan theme from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra.

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Yakuza 4 – SEGA Spring Showcase

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March 8, 2011

Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com

I had a chance at the 2011 Sega Spring Showcase to check out some of the PS3 exclusive Yakuza 4. Fans of Japanese culture will go absolutely nuts with this fourth installment of the series. On top of this, the series returns to the more urban Japan landscape of the first two games and sees a return of the Hostess Clubs. One new change for the series is that now there are four stories in one as many new characters are introduced in this latest chapter of the series. Yakuza 4 will hit store shelves March 15, 2011.

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Conduit 2 – SEGA Spring Showcase

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Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com

At the 2011 SEGA Spring Showcase, I had a chance to talk with David Pellas, the Design Director from High Voltage Software and SEGA’s Conduit 2. David and I talked about the massive facelift given to the franchise and what fans can expect from this go around with Mr. Ford and the ASE. New weapons, more locales, and huge bosses just scratch the surface of what was talked about in anticipation of this Wii-exclusive’s April 19, 2011, release.

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Super Monkey Ball 3D – SEGA Spring Showcase

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Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com

I had a chance to head to the Sega Spring Showcase this year in New York City and got a hands on preview of Super Monkey Ball 3D. Classic Monkey Ball action will find itself as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS on March 27, 2011, and will feature brand new multiplayer modes as well as utilize all of the 3DS’s new social features.

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Total War: Shogun 2 – SEGA Spring Showcase

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Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com

I had a chance to go and get a first hand look at some of the new titles being launched this spring from SEGA. The next title that I looked at is the PC exclusive Total War: Shogun 2, a real-time and turn-based strategy games based in feudal Japan. Shogun 2 adds a lot of brand new features on top of the first Shogun including new clans, provinces, and naval battles and will be available March 15, 2011.

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Virtua Tennis 4 – SEGA Spring Showcase

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Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com

I had a chance to catch up with some of the folks from SEGA and get my hands on several titles at their annual Sega Spring Showcase in New York City. The first of the titles that I had a chance to look at was Virtua Tennis 4. I went hands on with the PS3 3D version, but it will also be available for Xbox 360 Kinect, Nintendo Wii, and PC on May 10, 2011.

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Comics to Video Games: Green Arrow

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Originally Published: March 8, 2011, on Comicvine.com

This summer is going to see some iconic heroes make their way to the big screen for the first time and with that comes corresponding video games. Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern will star in their own movies and video games, but unfortunately when a game is based off a movie that was based off a comic book, by the time it reaches video game form it becomes watered down in quality. So we’re going to try to beat them to the punch and give our ideas for some heroes that could have a video game made about them.

Today, I’m going to highlight the Emerald Archer and see how we can bring Green Arrow into the video game world.

My inspiration for this was the Justice League Heroes action RPG from the last generation of consoles. Although not playable from the start, Green Arrow was your first unlockable character and simply dominated my gameplay from that point onward. At first, I was thinking that we could make this a first-person shooter similar to the Turok games for the N64, but realized that would limit a lot of what we could do with Green Arrow in terms of acrobatics and melee combat and so this game would have to be done from the third-person perspective in a sandbox similar to Spider-Man 2, but take combat elements from Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Set in the urban landscape of Star City, you would have a basic compliment of abilities to start the game, but would of course unlock new arrows and learn new abilities as the game goes on. You’d start with some basic punch and kick combos and an unlimited amount of regular arrows and grappling hook arrows for offense and to get around, but could unlock electric, glue, exploding, and knockout gas arrows as the game progresses as well as combo extending maneuvers and even Ollie’s sword.

Now the interesting part of this game would be to help get across Ollie’s new anti-hero willingness to put down his enemies for good. So I would institute two bars into the game besides your standard health bar. The first bar would be a focus bar that fills up as Ollie defeats enemies and when activated would allow Ollie to do some bullet time arrow shots and pick off enemies with his archer’s precision. Being a hero still, most of the time Ollie will only be allowed to use incapacitating shots in this mode (shots to the limbs) or pin foes against walls with some extra precise shots (bonus xp awarded for those to spend on upgrades).

Green Arrow has an infamous temper though and so he’ll also have a rage bar that fills up as he defeats enemies or takes damage. When this is activated, the Emerald Archer may see red and could let a couple arrows slip…right into a thug’s throat. It wouldn’t be the first time Green Arrow has killed someone, but it could set up some really sweet effects combining the focus bar with the rage bar.

There would be your basic gameplay elements, but what about the story? The game will be broken down into five acts, with a boss battle set up at the end of each one. Green Arrow is known for trying to keep the streets of Star City clean and it looks like drugs and guns are becoming abundant again so it’ll be up to the Emerald Archer to figure out just who is making a move and to try to clean it up again.

Taking a lot of influence from more recent storylines, the final boss and mastermind of the gun and drug running will be crime lord Brick (Act 5). Along the way, you’ll have to take down Brick’s hired help in Constantine Drakon (Act 1) and Deathstroke (Act 4). In between, crazed stalker Cupid (Act 2) and classic Green Arrow nemesis Merlyn (Act 3) will cause trouble for the Emerald Archer.

And to help make the boss battles worth it, you’ll earn special attributes and weapons while each one will have special twists to them. For example, against Drakon, you can’t use your arrows because Drakon will simply catch them all and throw them back at you. Thus, you’ll have to use your fists and feet and at the end you’ll learn a new combo. Or Deathstroke’s battle can end in a swordfight that has you unlock Ollie’s sword.

On top of all this, the game will feature a local co-op mode that allows you to take over as Roy Harper, Speedy or Black Canary and lend a hand, but this will primarily be a single player oriented game.

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Never Rub Another Man’s Rhubarb (or I Just LOOOOVE Purple)

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March 4, 2011

Originally Published: March 4, 2011, on Comicvine.com

Batman: Arkham City is probably one of the most anticipated video games of 2011, but it will also mark the end of an era as Mark Hamill, the quintessential Clown Prince of Crime for the past two decades, has said that he will officially walk away from doing the voice of the Joker after this project. With this comes the difficult choice for casting directors of deciding who will take over as the vocal chords behind that infamous rictus grin.

This got me thinking that maybe I could lend Andrea Romano and other casting directors a hand. Romano, the DC Animation casting director who of course introduced us to Hamill as the Joker, will probably have the biggest hand in selecting a replacement for most projects involving the Joker. So with that, here is a comprehensive list I made of possible candidates for a new Ace of Knaves.

Kevin Michael Richardson

An extremely accomplished voice actor, Kevin Michael Richardson has been doing the voices of various comic book and video game characters now for almost 20 years. Bishop, Tombstone, Lucius Fox, Mammoth, Trigon and many others from both the Marvel and DC Universe, Richardson is a possible front-runner for the role after serving as the Joker for the entire five season run of The Batman in the mid-2000s.

Richardson’s Joker was part of a push for a more realistic Batman as a supplement building up to Batman Begins in 2005 and thus was forced to play a bit more of an urban thieving jester than the genius psychopath with a sadistic sense of humor. Preferring a straight jacket with torn sleeves, bare feet, and dreadlocks to the more traditional custom tailored suit and slicked up hair, Richardson’s Joker still got across that most basic of dynamics, that the Joker must be the yang to Batman’s yin. Throw in a sinister cackle cross bred with a hyena for his laugh and Kevin Michael Richardson did something that you want to see from whatever actor takes the role, he worked with it and tried to make it his own. Add in his experience already working with Andrea Romano on several projects to put him a little higher than a lot of the competition.

John DiMaggio

Another top of the line voice talent, John DiMaggio is best known as Bender from Futurama and Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. He also got at least one shot as the Joker when he voiced the Harlequin of Hate for the recent Batman: Under the Red Hood straight to DVD movie from DC Animation.

Strongly criticized for his portrayal of the Joker, I actually enjoyed his performance except for the fact that he didn’t make it his own. It seemed more like he was trying to blend Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight with Mark Hamill’s vision of the Joker instead of bringing something unique to the table. If he should land the role, I hope that whoever the casting director is works with him on trying to make the character more his own instead of trying to give fans what they expect from the character because he definitely has the chops to reach greatness. John also has the advantage of having worked with Andrea Romano as he also portrayed Aquaman and Gorilla Grodd in episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Jeff Bennett

Another 20-year veteran of the voiceover business, Jeff Bennett is playing the most active version of the Joker at the moment in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. The cartoon is a campier version of Batman and his rogues gallery that harkens back to the original run of the comic series of the same name from the 1950s, and so Bennett’s Joker is not nearly as sadistic or sinister as we’ve become more accustomed to. There are some episodes that have shown that he maintains his obsession with Batman, but the overall tone of the show prevents Bennett from ever showing that real dark side that fans have come to expect from the Joker. Not to say he couldn’t do it, but if Bennett were to become to the number one candidate, he’d have to show that he has the range to take the character where the fans want to see it go if it would be a permanent fix.

Being the Brave and the Bold Joker has afforded Bennett the chance to work with Andrea Romano, but it’s more likely that the campy scripts of Brave and the Bold have written off his chance of becoming the Joker full-time. Not to mention, he seems to be just imitating other campy voice versions of the Joker from decades earlier and hasn’t made the character his own at all.

Scott Cleverdon

Not many people may know of Scott Cleverdon, but when sitting down to make my list, he was one of the first names for me to come to mind of people who have never played the Joker. Comic book fans may know Scott best for his portrayal of Carnage in the mid-1990s Spider-Man cartoon as well as his brief stint in Batman Beyond as Jack of the Royal Flush Gang.

It is his experience as Carnage that really piqued my interest because there are few maniac villains who could come close to the seeming randomness of the Joker’s ways, but Carnage is definitely one. Carnage kills because he loves to kill and that easily could transition into the Joker. The Joker and Carnage are seen as so similar that they even teamed up in a 1995 one-shot crossover versus Spider-Man and Batman. Obviously, Cleverdon would need a bit more control with the Joker to get that calculating nature across if he were to become a candidate, but his high-pitched hyena giggle that he used with Carnage could work very well with the Joker. He has never worked with Andrea Romano and bringing the two of them together could also lead to an interesting exploration of the character.

Michael Nicolosi

Another candidate who has never played the Joker, but is familiar with sadistic clowns is Michael Nicolosi. He may not have the voiceover experience as some of the others on this list, but he did do a fantastic job as the Clown form of the Violator in the late-1990s HBO Spawn animated series. Obviously, in terms of language used, the Joker will be much more toned down than the script used on a premium channel, but Nicolosi provided that perfect calm before the storm. As Violator, he had a cool demeanor that put enough unease in you to know without seeing it that there was a monster just bubbling below the surface, which is literally the case in Violator.

Michael Nicolosi hasn’t worked with Andrea Romano either, but if he can flick that special switch on and off with the Joker like he did a decade ago with Violator, then he might be someone who should be given a look for those really dark storylines involving the Clown Prince of Crime.

Frank Welker

This candidate is probably the biggest wild card (pun intended, pun always intended), but is also easily the most experienced voice actor on this list with more than 40 years under his belt. Frank Welker played the campiest version of the Joker on this list when he played him as a part of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians in 1985. He has also played nearly every character imaginable and if you saw the list, you’d understand why I think he has the range where, if no others rose to the challenge, Frank could steal the title for himself and provide us whatever version of the Joker we want. Whether a dark, sadistic murderer, an aloof thief and eternal foil to the Dark Knight, or a campy jester prancing around with exploding whoopee cushions, Welker could get the job done.

Andrea Romano and Frank Welker worked together on the 1980s Jonny Quest and several other cartoons so these wily two veterans are probably very well acquainted with one another, which makes you think that if Welker hasn’t been used before for some other projects involving the Joker, then maybe he doesn’t have it in him to play the more serious Ace of Knaves.

Jack Nicholson

Here’s the long shot, and I know how much of a long shot this is, but hear me out on why this could work and why DC Animation should pursue Jack. The reason why this came to mind is I just moved and was looking through my video games and I came across my copy of From Russia With Love from the last generation of consoles and thought how great it was for Sean Connery to reprise his role as James Bond more than four decades after he shot the corresponding film. It’s not like he had a lot on his plate though due to the natural ageism that comes in Hollywood. There are simply less roles out there for older actors.

So here is an opening for the Joker, a role that Jack Nicholson defined for many people back in 1989. Movie roles are starting to dry up a bit for him. I’m sure he could find time in the basketball off-season to head over to a recording studio and reprise a role that many still see him as being the best live action version of. Even if he only does it for one movie or one video game, the appeal for all of us Batman fans out there to hear Jack do the Joker again would make it one of the best selling DVDs or games of that year. Gimmicky yes, but gimmicks sell and you can’t tell me you wouldn’t be curious.

Me, Ray Carsillo

Ok, honestly, this has been a dream of mine for years and at this point it’s probably the best way to get my name out there. If somehow Andrea Romano sees this, then maybe I’ll have a chance because I love the Joker so much I even have my own set of razor blade playing cards.

My name is Ray Carsillo and yes, I have done voiceover work before. Not a lot, but I have a radio/TV background and voiced a couple PSAs and commercials. You would have to trust me on this until you heard it, but I have the most maniacal laugh of anyone you’ll meet and can change my demeanor on a dime if necessary. I think I’ve shown my passion and more than any of these others guys on the list, I come cheap (I used that same line on the folks at Comicvine). All I’m asking for is a tryout…and if you would like a sniff of my flower?

-Ray “StrongProtector” Carsillo

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X-Force Isn’t Finished with Apocalypse Yet

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March 3, 2011

Originally Published: March 3, 2011, on Comicvine.com

It looks like the members of Uncanny X-Force have been shaken to their core after completing their first mission. Many are questioning their role and the moral implications in the killing of a child who was to grow up into one of their greatest villains, Apocalypse. So what does a team of some of the most badass mutants in the world do when the going gets tough? ROAD TRIP!

With this being pushed as The Year of the X-Men, Uncanny X-Force looks to be really thrown into the limelight, as they will be sent on a mission that will take them to Earth- 295. That’s right, X-Force may be done with their universe’s Apocalypse, but they may be seeing him, or at least some of his cronies, a little sooner than they thought in the Age of Apocalypse universe. But just why is X-Force leaving Earth-616? I doubt this is some kind of therapy session to validate the killing (for now) of their universe’s Apocalypse so they can get their heads back in the game.

For those of you who need a quick history lesson, back in 1995 Marvel introduced us to an alternate universe where Charles Xavier’s illegitimate son Legion traveled back in time to kill Magneto, which he thought would allow his dad’s dream of human/mutant equality come to light. Instead, he accidentally kills his dad and creates a branching universe where Magneto, in honor of his good friend, takes up his creed and becomes the fighting de facto leader of mutantkind. Seeing all this take place, Apocalypse, who doesn’t attack for another 10 years in the 616, feels that this is the perfect time to strike and basically conquers North America and lays waste to much of the rest of the world.

In Age of Apocalypse, we saw some radically different takes on classic X-Men characters. Some heroes were villains, like Dark Beast who found his way to the 616 and continues to haunt this universe’s X-Men. Some villains were heroes, like Sabretooth who was a member of the Age of Apocalypse’s X-Men. And some characters were just turned on their heads and we saw mirror images of them, like Nightcrawler who is much more violent and prone to offense than his 616 version and also hates churches, which is in direct contrast to the 616’s Nightcrawler who was very religious.

The first major milestone of this event is that even though mutants from Age of Apocalypse have traveled to the 616 (again, see Dark Beast), this marks the first time that mutants from the 616 will be heading to the Age of Apocalypse. This continues to beg the question though: why? Something to take note of is that in this teaser image, we see Archangel is not present.

“Archangel is not there for a reason, and it’s a reason you don’t expect,” said X-Force writer Rick Remender at the press conference Marvel had to talk about the future of the X-Men family of books. An obvious answer would be that the rest of X-Force fears Archangel not being able to handle possibly seeing Apocalypse again, in any iteration, or he himself fears it and doesn’t want to put any further strain on his special relationship with Psylocke. But if it’s something we don’t expect and since X-Force are the ones doing the time hopping, maybe they’re searching for something, or someone? Maybe to get some answers from some folks more accustomed to dealing with Apocalypse on a daily basis to get some help for their psychologically troubled metal winged friend?

Aside from this little rift in the team lineup, there will be two things that draw a lot of people’s attention from this arc. The first will be how this affects the current members of X-Force who are actually going and mutantkind possibly as a whole. We know nothing phases Fantomex and that he will do whatever necessary to get the job done, which if anything, makes him a character to keep an even closer eye on to see if his cool exterior finally cracks. But the characters we know that should have a reaction is the remainder of the team and it should be interesting to see how it plays out.

How will Wolverine react to seeing these different versions of Jean Grey, the love he could never obtain, Nightcrawler, one of his best friends, and be forced to maybe work alongside his greatest nemesis, Sabretooth, again (AoA Sabretooth is officially missing after his work with the Exiles, but this could bring him back)?

How will Psylocke react to possibly seeing herself? Although not part of the original Age of Apocalypse, she made her presence felt in the 2005 limited series and we learned she was similar to her 616 counterpart, but more ninja-like. I sense an awesome catfight waiting to happen there.

And finally, how will Deadpool react to his AoA counterpart, Dead Man Wade, a special assassin for Apocalypse in the AoA, actually being killed by AoA Nightcrawler? If the other characters meet their counterparts, it would be out of Deadpool’s character to not openly make a fuss in finding out what happened to his other self. Of course, seeing Deadpool as the most shaken of the group after killing the child Apocalypse and the revelation that he never cashed any of Archangel’s checks could be the base to start seeing a bit more mature Deadpool and a little less of the joking maniac we have become accustomed to so we may not see this touched upon as deeply as we would like.

The other big aspect is that Remender also talked about naturally expanding the X- Force roster and about Dark Beast being a major character again in this arc. Could he be the catalyst that propels our heroes to Earth-295? Could Dark Beast be the reason why Archangel is not present with the rest of X-Force or that the team will land in the AoA universe 10 years after the events of the 2005 limited series? Dark Beast could also be a perfect fit for the darker, seedier missions that X-Force usually has to take on so could he actually find himself as a new member of the team?

There are also a lot of characters that weren’t even mentioned. What characters from the AoA would you like to see be prominently featured in the new AoA arc and maybe even possibly join the X-Force roster? Comment below and weigh in on all these questions and let us know what you think! We’ll start to get our answers to what is shaping up to be a huge shake-up with Uncanny X-Force #11 in June.

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