This big-budget blockbuster lives up to all the hype and sets the bar high for all future sci-fi fantasy action adventures. Much of the credit for the “Superhero Team-Up of a Lifetime” goes to director and co-writer Joss Whedon. Whedon, a comic book fan, adds energy, enthusiasm and style to a familiar blueprint dating back to the classic screen Westerns. The enlisted All-Star heroic champions are the costumed good guys sans the customary white hats. The boo-hiss villain clothed in black garments poses the threat to peace and tranquility.

The story picks up in a blurred timeline post ‘Thor’ the movie and ‘Captain America’s’ resurrection – either way, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor’s younger adopted brother, craves power and vengeance and plans to use the magical cube called the called the ‘Tessaract’ and harness it’s energy to open a portal in space from which an invading alien army can descend upon our planet.

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), mostly seen thus far in the post credit scenes, who is the director of the international peacekeeping agency S.H.I. E. L.D., recruits a group of superheroes dubbed the Avengers-comprised of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)-to retrieve the Tesseract. Their ultimate mission is to battle Loki and a mysterious extraterrestrial force.

While the plot was clean and got me hooked, my only quip was the predictability and lack of surprises and twists – but hey! I’m not complaining. It truly was a comic book fans’ dream come true! Overall, I would think the movie is very well done, great cast, great-ish story line, eye candy visuals and Scarlet Johanson. For the most part of it, it looked like a Hulk and Iron Man team up. Probably, hero’s like Thor, Captain America and Hawkeye didn’t get as much screen time as I would have liked; but who knows how that would turn out. The only real complaint I had, was the long ride before jaws drop and the eyeball caressing spectacle of The Avengers clicks into high gear, but when it does the sight is something to behold, and more so in 3D.

In closing – Best super hero movie so far? – It’s right up there amongst the best. No doubt about it. I’d watch it a 100 times more just for the visual treat in the last 10 minutes…and also the fun one-liners but really, just go watch it already if you haven’t! and if you have..comment away!

Overall, we at The Game Druid give the movie:  9/10

For a sense of how much for the forces of Heaven and the Burning Hells really hate each check out Wrath, courtesy of Blizzard, director Peter Chung and animation studio Titmouse.

With Max Payne ready to retun the the gaming scene, Rockstar recently revealed the PC requirements to run this game. From what we’ve seen, the game looks stunning and the requirements…well, judge for yourself.

Operating System:
Windows 7 32/64 Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 32/64 Service Pack 2, Windows XP 32/64 Service Pack 3

Processor:
Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHZ -  i7 3930K 6 Core  x 3.06 GHZ / AMD Dual Core 2.6 GHZ – FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHZ

RAM:
2GB – 16GB

Video Card:
NVIDIA® 8600 GT 512MB VRAM – NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 2GB VRAM / Radeon HD 3400 512MB VRAM – Radeon HD 7970 3GB VRAM

Sound Card:
100% Direct X 9.0 compatible – Direct X 9.0 compatible supporting Dolby Digital Live

HDD Space:
35 GB

From all that above, it looks like you’ll really need to max out your hardware to get something brilliant. From what we’ve known in the past, Rockstar games for the PC, usually come in a less than desired optimized state. So I’d take the above with a pinch of salt. I would think, if you’re rocking a Core i5 with a 6870 and atleast 8 gigs of RAM, you should be good.

Here’s a look at some of the latest PC only screenshots in full detail.

Prince of Persia, the game, has always fascinated like none other. It wrote the story of a young prince trying to save the princess by escaping a  devious dungeon devised  by the dangerous Vizier. What stood it apart was the fact that it created such a compelling and engaging gameplay, the likes of which we had never seen to date.

The game designer Jordan Mechner originally designed the game and released it on the Apple II, way back in 1989. Since then it has seen 2 sets of trilogies – Prince of Persia, Prince 2: Shadow & the Flame, Prince of Persia 3D and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Apart from that, a reboot of the franchise, a block buster movie and a spin off game from the movie.

Join us in this 3 part series that talks about  Jordan Mechner – his vision, his original claim to fame and the story of Prince of Persia and where it’s at today.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

video credit: All Your History Are Belong To Us

Everyone’s talking about it and BioWare has been listening. According to an article by Tom’s Hardware:

There certainly has been plenty of topics over the past few weeks concerning complaints over the ending of Mass Effect 3. In fact, we recently posted an article about a petition asking BioWare to provide additional endings for all three Mass Effect games. Even more, the angst against the latest installment’s conclusion has gotten so bad that one disgruntled gamer actually filed a false advertising complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

“After reading through the list of promises about the ending of the game [EA] made in their advertising campaign and PR interviews, it was clear that the product we got did not live up to any of those claims,” said Bioware Forum user El_Spiko. “[Filing a complaint was] not something I was happy to do, but after the terrible ending that was in no way the product that had been advertised to me and the lack of any kind of response from Bioware/EA to address this, I felt it was one of my only recourses. I’ll be returning my copy of the game before the end of my 30 day return policy if the ending still hasn’t been addressed by then.”

Meanwhile as reports surfaced that BioWare was considering an alternate ending, Mass Effect 3 Exec Producer Casey Hudson came out of the woodwork and defended the game’s ending, adding that fans should look forward to compelling new content over the next year.

“We always intended that the scale of the conflict and the underlying theme of sacrifice would lead to a bittersweet ending—to do otherwise would betray the agonizing decisions Shepard had to make along the way,” he said in a lengthy post. “Still, we wanted to give players the chance to experience an inspiring and uplifting ending; in a story where you face a hopeless struggle for basic survival, we see the final moments and imagery as offering victory and hope in the context of sacrifice and reflection.”

But now the whole Mass Effect 3 ending controversy has brought forth BioWare’s co-founder and GM himself, Dr. Ray Muzyka. Based on his super-long letter to the BioWare community, a little “clarity” will be added to the trilogy’s ending.

“Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey,” he promised. “We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received.”

“This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue,” he added.

Muzyka pointed out that most fans appear to agree that the game as a whole is exceptional, with more than 75 critics giving it a perfect review score and a review average in the mid-90s. The fuss is stemming from some of BioWare’s “most ardent fans” who are “passionately expressing their displeasure about how their game concluded.” Both Muzyka and Hudson refer in their posts about how the ending reflects the gamer’s decisions throughout the journey, seemingly painting a “your actions cause consequences” scenario.

Still, BioWare seems intent on making everyone happy which technically is impossible. “I’m proud of the team, but we can and must always strive to do better,” he said.

Apple sold 3 million new iPads since the tablet launched on Friday, March 16, the company announced today. This marks the “strongest iPad launch” to date, according to the technology giant.

The new iPad was revealed at an Apple event in San Francisco earlier this month. It starts at $500 and boasts 4G network support, a new retina display, a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 1080p video, and battery life of up to 10 hours.

Apple also cut the price of the iPad 2 from $500 to $400 for introductory models this month.

Diablo III has finally got a release date! Blizzard has announced Diablo III will launch on May 15, 2012. You can pre-purchase the game now through Battle.net.
Diablo III is one of two products expected from Blizzard in 2012. The developer is also working on Heart of the Swarm, the next version of StarCraft II, and Mists of Pandaria, an expansion to its popular MMO World of Warcraft, and has not clarified which will launch in 2012.

In recent months Blizzard has announced that a few features had to be trimmed to make this launch date, including the PvP mode and Mystic artisan. Blizzard’s current plan is to patch the PvP mode in at a later date.

Gamers will be able to explore the flying steampunk city of Columbia in October of this year, 2K Games confirmed today. BioShock: Infinite, Irrational Games’ first full game since the launch of the original BioShock in 2007, will be in shops on October 16 in the United States and on October 19 “internationally,” according to 2K.

BioShock Infinite was officially unveiled in August of 2010 and confirmed for a 2012 release. The game has similarities to the original BioShock but is not a sequel per se, the firm has said. It is a first-person shooter set in Columbia, a flying city in an early alternate 20th century where utopian ideals have given way to chaos in a sea of weaponry, plasmid-like powers, and political upheaval.

Into this mess steps the game’s protagonist, Booker DeWitt, a former member of the feared Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was America’s largest security company in the late 19th century. According to the latest preview, DeWitt will enter a world where steampunk robots have replaced horses and people, and where crazed citizens foment revolution with strange powers–and lots of guns.

BioShock: Infinite is due for release on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. A BioShock game is also in development for the PlayStation Vita, though as recently as October last year this was said to only be in the “paper design stage.” In August last year, one analyst suggested the game would be a significant financial boon for 2K’s parent firm, Take Two, saying it could ship 4.9 million copies. For more, check out the gameplay trailer below.

The New Assassin's Creed 3 Box Art. Click to view a larger image

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations wrapped up Ezio’s story, indicating the franchise would shift its focus to a new protagonist in Assassin’s Creed III. Assassin’s Creed III will be set in Colonial America, according to purported promotional material for the game.

Adding credibility to Best Buy’s leaked art, the GameStop-owned Game Informer magazine also reportedly leaked similar-looking art for Assassin’s Creed III. Toastervision grabbed an image of a hub for Assassin’s Creed III (which has since been pulled), showing the hooded character alongside the first United States president, George Washington.

The Best Buy tipster also indicated that Assassin’s Creed III will be unveiled officially on March 5, with preorder bonuses also detailed on that day. A reveal on March 5 coincides with the 2012 Game Developers Conference, which runs March 5-9 in San Francisco.

[UPDATE] Ubisoft has released the box art for Assassin’s Creed III (pictured above), confirming rumors that the game will be set in Colonial America. The company also announced that it will officially unveil Assassin’s Creed III on March 5 at 5 p.m. PDT.

Assassin’s Creed III is due for release on October 30. Company CEO Yves Guillemot predicted it would be “the biggest launch in Ubisoft history.”