Techticles: 8/28/10 from Nerd Blerp on Vimeo.

For those of you who haven't spent an absurd amount of hours flipping your ship upside down and right side up in some sort of maniacal dance to increase points and evade destruction well, you probably haven't been spending your time playing Ikaruga. If you're so far removed from the loop that you don't know what it is, in a nutshell, it's a vertical-scrolling shooter where you control a ship that has to modes (light and dark) while in light mode you shoot (you guessed it!) light lasers, and in dark mode you shoot (pause for dramatic effect) dark lasers! While in light mode you don't take damage from enemy light damage, and dark prevents dark damage (Its absorbed and can be used to unleash a special lasery attack). Attacking dark with light and vice versa will cause double damage however it will also make you that much more vulnerable. The video below is one from a player that's truly mastered the art of Ikaruga.

I used to associate rainbows with extremely frightening children, and/or overly phallic mythological creatures (don't judge me!); however, not too long ago, my infantile views on the matter were torn asunder, due to one man and his visceral affinity for nature: Paul Vasquez. Though, you may know him as:

As Season 3 draws to a close, I’d like to offer a salute to the greatest villain in True Blood history: Russell Edgington. I assume that Episode 11 will be the last time we’ll have seen the Vampire King in all his campy splendor, as the character is just too God-awful-evil to live, so while the maniacal menace is still drawing breath, I offer him this meager article of tribute.

It wasn’t clear until about half way through the season that Russell would be our main antagonist, but once he was in the spotlight, he stole the show. Played by the beloved (and Tony-award winning) stage actor Denis O’Hare, Russell chewed scenery with the pleasure and ease of the matinee idols of old.

Not only did Russell cut through the hopes and dreams of the AVL like a Ginsu knife, he also dispatched the Magister (a 1,200 year old monster who was previously the most frightening entity on the show), robbed Queen Sophie-Anne of her power, and gave Eric Northman a reason for doing something other than changing his hairdo or pining for Sookie Stackhouse.

Last week, Boots and I had the opportunity to have some hands on time with four of Atari’s upcoming fall games. Overall, I was rather impressed by the game play and I am very excited to see these games finally go public. I’m sure you are all dying to know what new and fantastic games are coming out, so on to the previews!

“You have to remember, Kick-Ass made $100 million at the box office. Everyone was expecting it to make Avatar money, I would say people said maybe twice Iron Man money, that type of thing. But Iron Man had a budget that was like eight times our budget. They were like $300 million and we were $28 million. So they made $100 million on a $28 million movie.” - Mark Millar

Gaming Update: Konami Edition from Nerd Blerp on Vimeo.

August is over, classes are in session, and Labor Day weekend is right around the corner. I know many of you will become sad by the eventual passing of summer (I say eventual because it’s still 95 degrees here), but I know just as many of you are looking forward to the cool, breezy autumn that will be on its way. Personally fall is my favorite season, and we have a lot to look forward to this year including the NYC Comic-Con and Nerd Blerp’s own upcoming marathon.

One of the things I know I’ll miss are the summer movies; but fear not, for here I will give you a small sneak-peak into upcoming Fall movies!

Nerd Blerp Interview: Dave Cox from Nerd Blerp on Vimeo.