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Eliza Dushku starts playing WoW
Alright, so maybe she's only picked it up after almost five years of the game being out, but it looks like actress Eliza Dushku has started to play World of Warcraft. The actress, who broke into the nerd radar when she played a renegade Slayer in Joss Whedon's Buffy, tweeted yesterday asking her followers whether she should roll Alliance or Horde. The tweet made a small ripple across the nerdverse. The Dollhouse star, whose new show is getting pummeled in the ratings, received a number of responses on Twitter, most of them telling her to roll a Horde Blood Elf. We certainly hope she bucks the trend, though... Dear Eliza, Please roll a female Tauren Druid. Sincerely, Zach Dushku isn't the first actress or celebrity to publicly reveal a geeky side, and certainly not the first, uh, cryogenically-challenged female to play the game. There's Mila Kunis from That 70's Show, Guild creator and star Felicia Day, or even gaming event staple Kat Hunter, so the actress' firing up WoW probably isn't that big a deal. I mean, it's really okay to be geeky. There's nothing to it. Even girls play video games. It's also stipulated in the nerd handbook that we should play them in our underwear. The Chewbacca one.
iriver N20 Mariah Carey edition reveals an unfortunate case of man-hands
While iriver might not be the mega brand in Europe and North America, it does dominate on its home turf in South Korea. Enough so to attract music celebs like Mariah Carey who's pitching a butterfly approved, Special Edition N20 preloaded with her latest contractual obligation. The $120ish player with integrated clip is limited to 5,000 units so act now... or not. See the songstress in an awkward mid-shill moment after the break.[Via Anythingbutipod]
Former Super Mario Bros. Super Show star 'Captain' Lou Albano dies
For many gamers in their twenty-somethings, "Captain" Lou Albano is best remembered for his portrayal of Nintendo's titular mascot in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. We regret to inform you that Albano has passed away at the age of 76.Acting on numerous tips, we were led to details on PopEater, which reports that Albano passed away at his home in Mount Vernon, NY. Family members confirmed on Monday that Albano was under hospice care for an undiscovered condition. Albano leaves behind a lasting legacy in the wrestling world and fond childhood memories of doin' the Mario for many Joystiq staff members.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Celebrity Nerds: Lil' Wayne's got a modded Xbox
Celebrity Nerds confirms what you always knew, deep in your heart of hearts: that stars are nerds like us. Send in your own confirmations of this fact right here. Now, we don't have photographic evidence of this one, so Wayne, if you happen to be a reader, feel free to snap a pic of yourself with the console. Either way, we have enough proof to proudly classify Lil' Wayne a... you know, nerd. GTR has published a video of the New Orleans-born rapper having a conversation with KRS-One during which he says he's got an "Xbox that has every game from A-Z, Atari, Nintendo, pong, movies & even porn." Whoa. Where can we get one of those? Wayne claims that the Xbox was a gift... but we bet he hacked it himself. Video is embedded after the break.[Via Joystiq]
Henry Cavill plays WoW -- Ryan Reynolds doesn't
I was reading my print copy of Entertainment Weekly today, which features their Summer Must List. They listed their Must Dashing Duke as Henry Cavill from The Tudors. Cavill says that World of Warcraft is on his Must List: "It's fairly addictive." In an interview with JustJared.com earlier this year, Cavill said that he also plays Eve Online. As a geekgirl, I say yay to more gamer hunks.In the same issue of EW, their cover boy, Ryan Reynolds discussed his Must List. It included Intervention and Jon & Kate Plus Eight. When asked about his Must Videogame, he said "I don't really play videogames. Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?"I'll field that question, Ryan. Yes, yes there is. Those reality shows that you have spent so much time watching? Yeah, excellent candidates for bigger wastes of time. I watch reality TV, too, but I think that interactive gaming is a much better expenditure of my leisure time. Of course, I'm a bit biased, but I think that if people compared their hours spent watching TV to the hours that gamers spend playing, the numbers would be similar.Now I have to decide: desecrate some flames? Or watch The Deadliest Catch? Regardless of my decision, it won't be watching Van Wilder, but that has nothing to do with Mr. Reynolds' view of gaming.
Director del Toro predicts 'Citizen Kane of games' will appear in next decade
Acclaimed Hollywood director and self-professed Team ICO fan, Guillermo del Toro, sees a bright future for video games, claiming that the next decade will bring about titles of an "earthshaking Citizen Kane" caliber. Basing his thoughts on the dynamics of narrative in sandbox games, del Toro states that this evolution in storytelling (he coined as "story engine" in his interview with Wired) will turn into something so powerful that it will not only give us better games, but also change Hollywood and "rewrite the rules of fiction." While this may seem like a bold prediction difficult to live up to, del Toro assures he won't hobbit away from the responsibility of seeing it come true. "I'll be trying to make [such a game]," he told Wired. "But I won't be trying until after The Hobbit." There you have it folks, del Toro "Citizen Kane" game confirmed* for 2019. Mark it down.*Not actually confirmed[Via GameDaily]
Vin Diesel plays WoW. Probably.
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Vin_Diesel_in_awe_about_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King'; Reader Nick tipped us to this one -- Fast and Furious actor Vin Diesel had a guest appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where he alludes to playing World of Warcraft. While he plays coy about any details about the character(s) he plays, an interesting part comes when popular British host Ross reveals that his wife plays a green, Spectral Tiger-riding Level 80 character. Diesel gets up to shake Ross' hand at the mention of this, and proceeds to some helium-induced hilarity.It shouldn't be a huge surprise that Diesel actually plays that game, considering that he's known to be a hardcore gamer and even wrote the foreword to the D&D 30th Anniversary retrospective coffee table book. In fact, he leads the discussion from D&D to World of Warcraft by saying that games nowadays are MMOs. This should corroborate what baseball player Curt Schilling has mentioned in a past interview about Diesel playing WoW. It would've been interesting to learn his class and faction (rumors say his character's name is Dish), but I guess players will just have to find that out another day. Maybe if he talks over vent, his Iron Giant voice should give him away...
Hasselhoff taps 'celebrity card' to nab his daughter a Wii
David Hasselhoff, representative of talking cars and safe beaches the world over, recently told a very funny story to MTV Multiplayer. He says he's one to "play celebrity cards," and when his daughter said she wanted a Wii, he got busy. Calling up his local game store, The Hoff was told that no systems were left, but was quickly able to charm the clerk into admitting that the store had held one system back. "Hold that game. I will be over in 30 minutes," he said, eventually showing up to the store where a very shocked employee declared, "Knight Rider! Dude!"Obviously, the store sold him the game system, and we imagine his daughter was incredibly happy that her dad used his celebrity to get it, but wouldn't it have been faster to just call up Nintendo? We heard Iwata's hooked on a feeling.
Palm Pre handled, handed out to celebrities?
There seems to be no shortage of chatter about celebrities and their new Palm handsets today. We already knew that stars attending the Independent Spirit Awards would be getting a swag bag containing -- among other things -- a Palm Pre, and based on the coverage we're seeing from the event (held on the 21st), they at least got to handle them. It's actually difficult to say if Palm was giving the device out that night or putting people on a waiting list, but what it does make clear is that the Pre can't be too far from launch if the company felt comfortable enough to throw them into such an uncontrolled setting. Does this mean the release date is nearer than we think, or is Palm just hoping that a little of that star power rubs off on the phone? Either way, we're super jealous of Eliza Dushku.Update: According to a Tweet from Palm (which links this post -- meta!), these were just there to be played with, not handed out.[Thanks, Marques]
America's Next Top Model finalist turns to game design
Heather Kuzmich, a top-five finalist from Cycle 9 of America's Next Top Model, will soon be modeling something other than clothes: video game characters. Kuzmich, who overcame the social hurdles of Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of Autism) to appear on the show, has enrolled in a video game art design program at the Illinois Institute of Art.Interviewed on the blog of Voodoo PC founder, Rahul Sood, Kuzmich said, "To be honest, I always wanted to do something that included art and creating stuff with my hands. At first I wanted to get into costume design, but that soon changed to game design, especially since I frigging love games and love doing weird designs for characters."Kuzmich is a gaming fangirl, but she's decidedly platform agnostic. She plays on PS3, Wii, DS and PC, citing the Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy VII, Prince of Persia and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as some of her all-time faves. In other words: she's a model gamer.[Via GameCulture]
Wii Warm Up: Celebrities
Not so long ago, Nintendo was content to advertise its biggest franchises with kids rapping awkwardly on a sofa. Since then, things have changed somewhat. In a bid to capture more and more of the expanded audience, Ninty is throwing the celebrities at us, such as those in the UK advert above (Harry Redknapp's evident confusion during the Brawl segment is something we shall always enjoy seeing).How do you view slebs being used to endorse some of your favorite gaming products? Is it a horribly cynical marketing ploy, or simply a very cunning tactic on Nintendo's part? Also, do you know of anybody who was nudged toward a Nintendo-branded system by one of these adverts?
Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Hopper are Deadly Creatures
Click image for more screens It looks like THQ is throwing the big bucks at the oft-delayed Deadly Creatures. At least, we assume hiring Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton for a spot of voice-acting isn't cheap, particularly considering the pair aren't short on acting gongs. Sadly, contrary to our expertly 'shopped post image, they'll be playing human characters, a missed opportunity if ever we saw one.Hopper and Thornton's involvement is old news, but the behind-the-scenes trailer featuring Hopper lending the game some necessary gravitas is new -- head past the break to see it!%Gallery-16331%
French WoW ads starring Alexandre Astier
Here's the last (or at least we think it's the last, it's all that's mentioned on Blizzard's official page) round of television ads for World of Warcraft in 2008. The ads come from France this time, and they both feature Alexandre Astier, star and creator of an Arthurian comedy show called Kaamelott, as a Human Paladin. While the German ads seemed to focus on PvP, these are very PvE based -- in one, he and his group run from a rampaging Frost Wyrm, and in the second (after the break, and apparently it's a "web exclusive," maybe because you can't show a virtual pile of corpses on television), he shows off his rezzing powers, and, err -- their limits.WorldofWar has translations for both of the ads. Is it me, or aren't these as funny as the others? I think Ozzy comes out the best in all of them -- not only is his ad hilarious (better than the Mr. T ad, my previous favorite), but he gets to co-star with the Lich King, and you can't really compete with that. But kudos to Blizzard's teams for putting all of these together. Maybe next year we'll actually get a female WoW player, or, you know, a whole new campaign.
Smudo and Thomas D star in two new German WoW ads
We're not quite sure who Smudo and Thomas D are either, but apparently they're big in Germany, as part of a hip-hop group called Die Fantastischen Vier (or "The Fantastic Four"). And now they're starring in two new German Warcraft ads, the first we've seen starring more than one celebrity. Smudo plays a Night Elf Rogue, and Thomas D plays an Orc Warrior, and in both the ad above and one the one after the break, they get the jump on each other -- Smudo lays down a mean sap, and Thomas D brings the full fury of the Horde to bear. Interesting that Blizzard is using PvP ganking to sell the game, but maybe that's a German thing.My Deutsch is rusty, but you can pull a few things out of there -- when Thomas D is sapped, he says "ich ben ein krieger," which means "I am a Warrior," Schurke means Rogue, and of course right before the tag, as with all of the other commercials they are saying, "What's your game?" Blizzard's ingame animation department just keeps getting better, too. I really, really want those glasses for my Orc. Really.Thanks, Thomas!
Nintendo UK wheels out the celebs ...
... with mixed results. But let's start with the good ones: Patrick Stewart will be back this Christmas to sell the DS and Brain Training to Brits (as he was last year), and he'll be doing it alongside Julie Walters. Hurray! The rest of Nintendo's celebrity line-up will be quite obscure to Americans, but when they produce lifestyle photography as brilliant as this, who the hell cares? They include: Girls Aloud. British girl pop group, and actually a pretty big name in Blighty. Most famous member is one Cheryl Cole, who seems lovely and sincere on X Factor, though isn't quite as pleasant if you meet her in a nightclub toilet. Fern Britton, once-cuddly, now gastric-band-wearing TV presenter, will be advertising Cooking Guide. Ronan Keating, one-fifth of Irish boyband Boyzone. Incidentally, in the process of writing this post, we discovered Boyzone were reforming. Ugh. Anyway, Ronan will be promoting Big Brain Academy. Jamie and Louise Redknapp, slightly thick but good-looking soccer pundit and his former pop star wife. Will join forces with their extended family to push Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports, and Super Smash Bros.: Brawl. That's a lot of responsibility on the Redknapps' shoulders! We hope they're up to it. And going by Nintendo's current record in the UK, they'll probably do really well. Best of luck to all of them.
Joystiq attends the Fallout 3 Launch Party
Joystiq attended the celebrity-filled Fallout 3 launch party last night, and although we were weren't allowed to bring in a camera or a recorder, they didn't have a lock on our eyes and brains. The game-branding was minimal, with a few signs and recycled booth setups doing double duty at the party, but they did have a lot of hands-on stations, staffed by a bevy of scantily clad ladies who ... actually knew the game. Check out the highlights after the break.
RIM shows employees that rich people use BlackBerrys, as if they care
Oh yeah, we know a certain dutiful crew in the R&D labs at RIM are toiling away on the BlackBerrys that we'll be swooning over in the years to come, but what winner took the time (and what champion instructed him / her?) to conjure up this PowerPoint slide? Reportedly, this here slide was used within the company to show just how awesome its handsets are, because clearly, if six rich people accept free phones well before the street date from you, that equates to stellar quality and usability. Oh, and just remember RIM -- we'll bet Motorola used to brag about all the superstars with RAZRs, too. See how far that got 'em?
GOTY 2008: Celebrity Sports Showdown
Click image for more ludicrous, I-can't-believe-they-actually-did-this screens. When we took on this job, we never quite expected to be commenting on a picture of country music star Keith Urban skiing, but we'll do our best. So that's Keith Urban skiing, and this is Celebrity Sports Showdown, the latest Wii project in EA Sports' "Freestyle" sub-brand. If your breakfast just reappeared in your mouth, know this: you're not alone.The aim of this minigame smorgasbord is thus: take control of one of fifteen big-headed "celebrities," and pit them against one another in events including (amongst others) Wild Water Canoeing, Smash Badminton, Arena Dodgeball, Slalom Showdown, Hurdle Derby, and Curling. The celebrities come from the sphere of music and sport, and include leathery-skinned lump-wiggler Fergie, Reggie Bush, Avril Lavigne, Sugar Ray Leonard, and others not sufficiently famous enough to make this sentence.There's a full list past the break, though most are fairly C-list to a UK resident such as yours truly -- will there be a localized version with Keith Chegwin? Fingers and toes crossed! Or not.%Gallery-29557%
C-list celebrities + Gamespot party = Awkward
The latest episode of Glitch in the System makes it horribly obvious that the "celebrities" attending Gamespot's E3 bash had no idea who was hosting the party. That street probably goes both ways because, straight up, we had to Google almost every single one of the "celebrities" that we saw in the video. Check out the cringe-inducing footage o the red carpet interviews after the break.PS: Thanks again to the 300+ people who attended -- or used astral projection to attend in spirit -- our Joystiq E3 meet-up. Watching something like this makes us appreciate you all even more.
Jennicide places in poker, poses for Playboy, and plays on Proudmoore
Jennifer Leigh knows games -- she finished 5th at the Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages series. She's known as Jennicide on PokerStars, and finished "in the money" at the World Poker Tour in 2006. Other folks might know her from May's issue of Playboy magazine. In a recent interview with the RPG Vault on IGN, she talked a little about her history with games and World of Warcraft. WoW's the only MMO she's played recently, but she's been known to play Everquest, Guild Wars, and others. She picked up World of Warcraft during a losing streak of poker, and figured paying Blizzard a monthly fee was would be less painful than continuing her streak. Of course, she runs into the same problem many people do: while she loves her WoW, she has trouble explaining to people who don't get it. She's surprisingly open about her server information. (For the record, she plays a Night Elf Druid on Proudmoore, and helped found the guild Fate and Fury. Also, she's planning a Blood Elf Warlock.) Between this and the politicians coming out of the closet, I can't wait to see what other interviews crop up.
