2k

NOVATO, Calif.--Over on one side of the synthetic hockey rink, the director yelled out, "Motion-capture ready?"

The technician answered, "Ready."

The director then shouted out, "Actor ready?"

NHL star Rick Nash, a left wing for the Columbus Blue Jackets answered back, "Ready."

Nash was on hand, even as the Stanley Cup Finals are still in progress, because he's the cover star for 2K Sports' forthcoming hockey video game, NHL 2K9. And he was here, in this small studio in a nondescript office park for an all-day motion-capture filming session for … Read more

NOVATO, Calif.--I'm sitting outside a nondescript warehouse space in this Marin County town, and sitting right behind me is Rick Nash, an NHL all-star with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

All of us are chowing down on barbecue, and every single one of us is wearing comfortable clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and the like.

But not Nash. He's in a full-body motion-capture suit. That's because he's here to for a mo-cap filming session for 2K Sports' forthcoming hockey video game, NHL 2K9.

I'll run a full story on this later today, and a full gallery, most … Read more

After countless rumors, it appears that last year's underwater dystopian masterpiece, BioShock, will see the light of day on the PlayStation 3 after all. The critically acclaimed title had recently been in the news regarding its big-budget Hollywood adaptation.

Now, Computers and Videogames is reporting that the latest issue of the UK magazine PSM3 is showcasing a preview of the PS3 version of the game along with a handful of screenshots. While there's been no word from 2K Games officially, once the magazine hits newsstands on June 5 we'd imagine a press release will follow shortly after. … Read more

No one can argue with the fact that last year's BioShock was a milestone in interactive storytelling as far as a video game is concerned. 2K Games was able to create such a unique setting and mood all while engaging us in a thrilling narrative like nothing we've seen before. Naturally, an experience such as this seemed ultimately destined for the big screen, and now Variety is reporting that Universal Studios will be the company bringing the underwater city of Rapture to a theater near you.

But perhaps the biggest news to come out of all this is whom Universal has lined up to direct the dystopian drama. Gore Verbinski, famed director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, has signed on while accomplished screenwriter John Logan (Sweeny Todd, The Aviator) is in talks to write the script.

It would appear that all the pieces are in place for BioShock to break the curse of disappointing movies adapted from video games. Even more encouraging, Verbinski says that BioShock has the strongest narrative of any game he's played, which is why he wants to bring it to the silver screen. Just promise us there won't be any CG Big Daddies and you're already headed in the right direction.… Read more

Caroline McCarthy joins us to summarily rick roll the living crap out of us. We talk ghosts and social networks, SXSW, Major League Baseball 2K8. And we even get a little personal...What? Caroline McCarthy + Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales? What? We didn't say that...see the question marks?

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Cross-blogging link: Ace Reporter Caroline McCarthy's cool, hip, in-the-know, up-to-date, above-average, exceptional, adept, and witty blog, the Social.

CES 2008 is over and now it's up to us to figure out which gizmos are next on our list of Must Have items. Even though I've been a life-long Canon customer, I was sorely tempted by the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 that the company says can shoot 60 still images per second with 6MP resolution. Wow! But what if the action lasts more than a single second? And what if you want 2x the resolution so that you can show off the full capabilities of your new 150" Panasonic TH46PXZ850, with it's 4K by 2K resolution? You need a 4K camera, and that's been hard to find in a consumer-sized format. Until now.… Read more

When daylight saving time came two weeks early this year, there was concern that there might be a host of problems. There were some, but like the Y2K bug, there was not widespread mayhem and chaos as the movie-of-the-week industry might have hoped.

But Congress didn't just spring forward a little early this year. It's also is making us wait a week longer to fall back. Instead of changing this past weekend, we don't go back until next weekend. I thought most of the gadgets would know, but it appears not all of them got the message. … Read more

Just like in the movies, they attack when you least expect it. It had been months since we'd encountered any spherical alien vehicles, but they're back--disguised a harmless air filter.

The "Antibac2K" claims to be a lightweight air-cleaning device that eliminates 99.99 percent of bacteria and other contaminants. That's a whole 0.02 percentage points more than other air filters, and we germaphobes all know how important that difference is.

But benefits aside, this circular menace is betrayed by its LEDs, which we all know the classic alien calling cards. We hope only that … Read more