Favs kinda has a thing for guys in hi-tech armor, doesn't he?

The game involves creating a character, interacting with other players in FPS scenarios, and a storyline about a fallen Earth-based intergalactic society that must be reclaimed.

The trailer, however, like trailers for so many games, is a tad more cryptic than that. It looks like Giancarlo Esposito is remembering the time he mixed up Halo and John Carter in his head. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as space Seinfeld might or might not say after riffing on the quality of shuttle-served peanuts for 30 minutes.

Watch it after the jump. No actual Seinfeld humor in it, I promise. Not that there's...okay I shut up now.

Irish makeup artist Julian Checkley may or may not be able to act - though he can most definitely gesture threateningly - but he wears that Sith Lord outfit like a nightmare come to life. Also, he built the entire get-up from scratch over six weeks. Yeah, the character is basically Vader without most of the helmet and sporting yellow and red "Sith eyes," and his name sounds awfully like some dude named "Gus" decided to call himself "Darth Maul" and screwed it up, but hey, Julian didn't create the guy - he just recreated him spectacularly.

Now witness the time-lapse of Julian transforming from civilian duds into a fully armed and operational battle Sith. It is your density.

The Dutch equivalent of "like molasses in January" is "als een slak op een teerton," or "like a snail on a tar-barrel." In As You Like It Shakespeare describes "...the whining schoolboy...Creeping like snail/Unwillingly to school." And of course, with the advent of email the conventional posting of letters became known as "snail mail."

All of which is to say that snails are slow, both proverbially and in fact. Thus the little creatures just aren't a natural fit with the hyperactive, quick-cut, short-attention-span idiom of contemporary pop culture.

Yet it's shaping up to be a higher-profile-than-average year for gastropods. The animated fantasy Epic, opening this weekend, features a comic-relief snail and a slug. And slated for July is Turbo, another animated feature, this one about a snail with racing ambitions. Then there's this distressing development.

Here are 13 other notable snails:

13. The Doorkeeper Snail in Pinocchio

"Snails are never in a hurry," says this domestic of the Blue Fairy in Collodi's classic children's novel. She makes an exception in Pinocchio's case: it only takes her nine hours, while he waits outside in the rain and cold, to come down four flights and let him into the house. When he asks for something to eat, it's only a few more hours before she returns with a tray for him.

Apparently she was too slow to make it into Disney's 1940 film version; however there's a charming statue of her in The Pinocchio Park (Parco di Pinocchio), a tourist attraction in Tuscany.

What do you get when you cross the director of Repo Man, the guy who played Dracula and Sirius Black, a notorious dead punk musician and an Italian plumber fond of mushrooms?

If you put it all on a shirt, you get this Sid and Nancy/Mario mash-up:

Artist Butcher Billy has other inspired musical combos available as well, like Robert Smith as Plastic Man, Bat-Elvis, Smiths video games and Aquaman as Billy Idol.

How do you think this mash-up tale ends? Does Mario choke to death on mushroom fragments after swimming too quickly post-meal, or does he save Nancy when it turns out that his princess is actually in another bathroom?

Only the fan fiction swirling inside your head knows for sure...

h/t SlyDante

In Redmond, WA, yesterday, Microsoft held their big press event to unveil their new console, officially named Xbox One. Overall the specs are pretty similar to the PS4: 8 gigs of RAM, cloud storage, no backwards compatibility, 4K output for movies (games unconfirmed), built-in motion tech, DVR ready, blah blah blah. Unlike the Sony conference, which ran long at two hours, Microsoft's was barely one, and to say they left us wanting is an understatement - their boldest move was actually showing the console. (Sony has only teased their plastic box in a recent commercial.) During those 60 minutes, most of the time was spent talking about the All-In-Oneness (oh, I get it now) of this miracle device they hope will be the main hub of your living room.

Games? Sure, the new Call of Duty: Ghosts, some sports titles and maybe one more. That was it.

So here's what I dug and what I found disappointing:

BEST:

5. It's Official: Original Programming is the Future of Everything.

We can probably look to Netflix as the one getting the ball rolling on this, but the future for streaming services is killer brand-name programming. (Can't wait for Arrested Development this weekend!) So Halo as a live-action series was a no-brainer, but having Steven Spielberg oversee its development is a nice surprise. Yes, the last show he produced was the floundering Smash on NBC, but a sci-fi setting is way more in his wheelhouse.

Plus, the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn web series that launched alongside Halo 4 was solid. I'm making assumptions here, but I would think the key is to use the live-action storylines as a way of expanding on the insanely huge online community of wannabe Spartans and Covenants, which probably means the Master Chief (or at least the version we're used to) will only show up sparingly. If you're a fan of Halo and buy the Xbox One, why wouldn't you watch this?

Added bonus: MSN is looking to revive Heroes for Xbox Live. Would the main cast come back? I'm betting not, since the cheerleader stars in Nashville and another is Spock nowadays.

(not the actual logo)

The press conference should be starting right about now. Post your reactions below as it happens.

For those who don't want to follow along live and just want highlights, we'll have it all in a list later on. Will update this thread with the best streaming links when they are found.

Here's one. It's also supposed to be live on Spike TV.

How is it that these video games have more logical costumes than the movies? It's like Axel Braun worked on them or something. Anyway, I think now I have a good idea why this is a prequel - it allows Batman to get his ass kicked more easily, and to have a less fully developed moral code. (I'd like to see a '30s style Bob Kane Batman game someday. Anybody else?)

Lots of talk about Kevin Conroy being in or out of this one, based on comments he made that he's doing an upcoming Arkham game. Seems that whatever he's talking about, it isn't this one.

Also: Deathstroke as a playable character.

h/t 10glfan59

Not everyone was fond of the movie, but maybe you'd like it better Super Mario style?

I'm not kidding. In this 16-bit game that you can play online for free, you don't get to shoot bad guys or blow up stuff. You jump on their heads and collect coins. It's like how they turned Super Mario Brothers into a more typical action movie, but in reverse.

But you don't play as John McClane - you play as his kid. Which is like getting stuck as Luigi every time.

Also there's this fake Russian promo for the movie. As fake Russians go, this one's pretty decent.

To celebrate the release of The Great Gatsby, Slate posted this cute little Gatsby video game. While their game is tongue in cheek, classic literature is a surprisingly common source of inspiration for developers. Some of the literary games that have been produced over the years are classics in their own right, while others are... well, they tried. Check out one of the following the next time you want to add a touch of sophistication to your gaming session.

7. The Great Gatsby

Slate actually wasn't the first to make a game based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel. In addition to the incredibly dull Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby, which features all the raw thrills of poking around for hidden objects and practicing your typing, there's also a brilliant, NES-inspired platformer that's free to play online.

Players control Nick Carraway as he looks for Gatsby and tosses his hat to take out every waiter, partygoer and flapper in his way. It's a clever game with a catchy soundtrack, charming 8-bit graphics and hilarious references to the novel that have been adjusted for the strange world of video games.

The developer claims it's an obscure unreleased localization of a Japanese game, and while The Atlantic debunked that, the developer made some great NES style manual pages to support his lie, so let's pretend to believe. Keep it in mind the next time you're bored - it's a good way to kill 15 minutes even if you aren't a fan of the novel.

These figures are in 12" scale, are two of the best robot toys I've ever seen, and I'd bet money that they'll cost more than I have money to bet.

NECA's working on more affordable versions, but if you feel like shelling out for the "Fuck you, I've got disposable income and will spend it in awesomer ways than you would" versions, 3A Toys are the way to go.

Figures.com has the details on where and when you can expect them to become available.