Marvel has announced that comedian Patton Oswalt (Big Fan, Justified) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Agent Eric Koenig. 

Koening was a character created by Stan Lee and Dick Ayers. He made his comic book debut in 1966 in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #27. The character was a member of Nick Fury's original battalion during World War II. I'm sure they'll be making a few changes to his origin in the series, but it will be fun to see Oswalt in the show. Here's what Oswalt had to say about it,

“I got a call from my agent saying they want you on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I said ‘hell, yes,’” recounts the actor. “I’m lucky that I’m visible enough that they wanted to bring me in to play this character. I’d worked with [‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Executive Producer] Joss [Whedon] before on Dollhouse, and I guess I wasn’t too annoying and they decided to put me on another one of his shows. So I was very lucky.

When they first told me the character’s name, I’ll admit the first thing I did is I went on Wikipedia and looked up the M.O.D.O.K. character to see if Koenig was maybe his name before he became M.O.D.O.K., but it wasn’t. They keep on talking about the Clairvoyant in the show and I’m like, ‘is that M.O.D.O.K.? Am I M.O.D.O.K.?”

It's been awhile since I've watched the show, but I've been told that it's actually gotten better, so I'll be catching up on it.

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this Star Wars-inspired t-shirt called "Yoda Lay Hee Hoo!" It's just a ridiculously funny design! If you like it enough to buy it, click here. 

Paul Walker's upcoming action film Brick Mansions actually looks like it will be a lot of fun to watch, regardless of RZA's inanely bad acting. The movie is a remake of District 13, and it was directed by Camille Delamarre from a script written by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri. 

The story follows "an undercover detective (Walker) chasing a weapon of mass destruction that was stolen by a drug dealer in the ghetto known as Brick Mansions. But in order to track him down, the detective must seek the help of Lino (David Belle) an incredibly agile man who knows Brick Mansions better than anyone and is the only person not cowering in fear of the resident drug dealers."

Brick Mansions will be released in theaters on April 25th.

Gotham Twitter

This is our first look at Camren Bicondova as a young Selina Kyle in the upcoming Batman series Gotham. The character is described as "a teenage orphan and street thief who is suspicious and wholly unpredictable." It will be cool to watch her transformation into Catwoman. So far I real like the look and tone of this series, and I can't wait to see more of it.

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn tweeted out this delightful piece of geek art that features Rocket Raccoon and Groot as Han Solo and Chewbacca from Star Wars. It was created by J-Po, and it definitely put a big smile on my face. 

Hero Complex Gallery

Stephen King is my favorite author of all time. The stories he tells are just incredibly fun and entertaining. The Hero Complex Gallery is putting on a tribute show for the author called King For a Day. We've got a few pieces of art from the show that you can check out here. They are inspired by The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, The Shining, The Green Mile, Misery, and more.

The show is set to open on Friday, March 21st in Los Angeles and will remain on display through April 6th.

The Atelier series has been around for quite a while now, starting back in 2005 in the U.S., but going all the way back to 1997 in Japan. These games have always focused on item creation and experimentation over epic battles and warring kingdoms, and the series has enjoyed a nice cult following because of that. The game revolves around alchemy, the MacGyver-like art of creating useful items from a pile of random things you pick up in the world. You create all of your own items and equipment, from healing salves to armor, and from weird pies to weapons. The system itself is flush with options, and each creation can be manipulated in a variety of ways to produce different results.

The system is a bit dense to explain in great detail without putting everybody to sleep, but allow me to present the simplified version. Each item you find has a somewhat random set of abilities contained within it, and over time you unlock more and more recipes to create bigger and better items. Over time Escha and Logy both gain additional skills that can alter the way an item is synthesized, such as imbuing it with a certain element, or making it cheaper to create, or allowing that item to transfer more of its abilities to another item you create down the road. You can also distill items, which allows you to breakdown a rare item you've found to gain the recipe used to create it, but you lose that item in the process.

Atelier Escha and Logy is structured in cycles, 3 month cycles to be exact. This is when you turn in reports that detail your progress in multiple goals, one of which is always the progression of the main storyline (or what there is of one). I found this to be a nice incentive to go out and explore the world, and take on the otherwise mundane tasks of gathering synthesis materials and taking on monsters way below my level. The reason being that the more reports you complete and file with Marion, your boss, the more recipes you unlock, money you earn, skills you gain, etc, etc. There is also monetary value in your synthesis bingeing, as each month you are given a stipend for the items you have created, and the ones you still have in stock. You do have to manage your budget wisely early on, since you only get this stipend once a month, though to be fair you’re never really rolling in dough at any point in this game. You can also enlist the homunculi, a small, rabbit-like race who can duplicate items you already have in stock. You unlock this option by fulfilling item requests for Solle, the bluntness personified gateway to resources and funds for your division. He reminded me of Toby from The Office, but with less personality, which I wasn't aware was possible. This helps you save some time and keeps your inventory full by eliminating having to waste materials on making the same items over and over again, such as healing items. Like I said, there are plenty of systems in play here, and they come together to form an addictive whole.

However, you know when I said that these systems compelled you to explore? Well, that is true, but the actual exploring is in short supply. Additional areas open up in time, but each one is segmented into 4 or 5 smaller areas, and none of them really contain that much of interest. You gather materials from the 5 highlighted areas, and there are normally 2 or 3 monsters to fight, which you can avoid for the most part. One of your party members is most always around, but they don’t have anything of real value to add, so each place, even the other towns, feel rather empty and lifeless. The areas themselves are nice enough, but you never feel truly engrossed in this world due to the blatant emptiness in it. Even your home base, while containing much more in the way of npc’s, is still a bit lifeless, and could have used some additional townspeople populating places like the tavern and town square. It's a shame too, since the music in some of these locations is wonderful, and just as bouncy and laid back as the rest of the game.

As for combat, the game allows you to take up to 6 members into battle, with 3 on the front line and 3 on the back row that you can sub in at anytime. It also features some additional mechanics, things like support guards, which allow you to sub in a party member to take the damage instead of you. Handy when protecting your healers, but the action also depletes your support bar, which can also be used for support attacks. Depending on how you chain them and in which order, you can have all 6 party members attack during one turn, incredibly useful with more difficult enemies. Your back row slowly gains hp and mp back during a fight, so keeping an eye on everyone’s health bars and mp is recommended, and frequent trips to the imbue station at your atelier will help keep your group competitive with the most damaging weapons. While the game's demeanor would imply the battles are pretty simple and easy, you will get smoked by them if you are not prepared. Plus, any game that allows you to hurl a giant medical needle at someone deserves a little praise. 

While I enjoyed all the systems at play here, there was a constant feeling that everything needed just a bit more polish. The animations just take a hair too long when swapping out party members, and even the fighting and blocking animations hesitate a bit before they get going. This chops up the flow and momentum of the fights, not in a game-breaking way, mind you, but enough to be noticeable. A bit smoother execution here would have benefited the combat greatly. I was already 3 steps ahead of the game in determining what I wanted my next move to be, and I felt like I was always being held back by the speed. It did not feel like a framerate issue, rather one of design.

The same can be said for the story progression as a whole. After I got used to the systems, I felt like I was already done with everything I needed and wanted to do, but I still had 60 days to burn before I could turn in a report and move to the next main task. Synthesizing items burns some days here and there, but it won't burn 60, and I just ended up running around to burn the clock until report time. The developers could have implemented some other tasks and side quests to tackle during these times to keep player interest alive and kicking. That said, one of Escha and Logy's weaknesses doubles as a strength. As said before, the areas to explore are split into smaller, bite-sized locales, and while the depth of these areas leaves you a bit wanting, the smaller scope of them means that you can play this game for 15 minutes to half an hour and still feel like you accomplished something. It works for someone like me whose playtime is sporadic at best and doesn’t always have 3 hours of time to dedicate to one task. It's something I appreciated.

This brings us to the ultimate point of the game, and its not as deep as the title might make you believe. The goal is not to bring down an evil dragon, or to restore the earth to its former glory, or anything sizably epic in nature. The main goal is to become the best R&D division around, and to achieve that goal you must be the first to explore the floating ruins in the sky. Not exactly grand in scope, but honestly, it's something I grew to love about Escha and Logy. Most games these days I’m either saving the world, rebuilding it after its complete destruction (normally by our own doing), or something along those fairly popular lines. It was nice to just enjoy a less pressure-filled task, and because the game didn’t take itself too seriously neither did I. While the main story leaves a bit to be desired in grandness, there are many small vignettes throughout that allow you to get to know the cast, and they happen quite often and at random times. Now that scope does expand quite a bit once you reach the unexplored ruins, but for most of the game, it revolves around the day to day life of an alchemist.

All of this led to one of the most relaxing gaming experiences I’ve had in quite a while. The characters don’t leap out at you at first impression, but after several hours you do start to care. The humanizing little ticks revealed over time keep the cast lively. From Reyfer's constant cheapness to Logy’s OCD, to Linca’s not really sure what’s going on with her thing, they all have something that makes them just a bit off and, above all, memorable.

There is something quite endearing about this game. It's not trying to be something it's not, and while it does have its share of flaws, it is an experience I would recommend. Not for everybody, but the game doesn’t really care about that, and neither should you.

The scale of Godzilla in these new posters is really off, he appears to be 200 stories tall, maybe even more. Which would make him 2-3 times larger than any previous Godzilla. His scale in the trailers is consistent, so maybe the poster designers are taking creative license. Godzilla attacks theaters and other buildings May 16th (USA). Via Godzilla Facebook Page.

I know that Wes Anderson's movies aren't for everyone. The style and humor are a little more offbeat than the casual moviegoer is used to, but I really wish more people would give him a chance. If anyone has never seen an Anderson film and is willing to try him out, then The Grand Budapest Hotel is the perfect movie to start them on their journey. After they watch this I don't know how they wouldn't want to watch the rest of the films that he has made. 

This is the director's eighth film, and it was truly a charming and touching adventure. I respect and admire what the director did in telling this slice of life story which follows a character named Gustav H (Fiennes).  It takes place during a time when he is the concierge at the famous European hotel along with his Lobby Boy Zero Moustafa, who eventually becomes his best and most trusted friend. Together they get involved in the theft of a priceless Renaissance painting called Boy With Apple that was left to him in a will to him by an old friend and lover. This sets in motion battle between him and the woman's family for the fortune she left behind. That's just a brief overview of what is going on, but I don't want to spoil all the fun. There are so many more layers to the story that audiences are going to love. 

What made the movie even better is its ensemble cast which includes Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody,Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Own Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Mathieu Amalric. Everyone was absolutely fantastic, but I think Fiennes gives one of the best performances of his career in this movie. He was hilarious, and I would love to see him do more comedies. 

For those of you who are familiar with Anderson, his signature colorful style of storytelling is in full force. What makes this movie stand out above the rest is its incredibly fantastic and complex caper story. I loved it, and it was packed full of extremely entertaining scenes and hilarious situations. I found myself laughing all the way through the film. It was hard to pinpoint my favorite scene because there wasn't a scene in this film that I didn't enjoy. This was really a perfectly told story. But three scenes in particular stick out. One was the best prison escape sequence I've ever seen. The other two were a ski and sled chase on a snow slope obstacle course and a huge shoot out, both of which were ridiculously entertaining. 

Right after I finished watching this movie I was ready to watch it again, and I will watch it again. I'll most likely watch it multiple times, just like I have all of Anderson's other films. I have to recommend this movie to everyone, even if you're not a fan of the films Anderson makes. Just chech itout , and I promise you won't be disappointed. There are so many reasons for you to see this movie, but if I were to point out two of the biggest, they would be Fiennes and the prison break sequence. 

Anderson did it again! The Grand Budapest Hotel might just be his best movie yet! I absolutely loved what he did with this movie. Anderson is such an amazingly talented storyteller, and as long as he keeps making his movies, I will be a happy man. 

This great illustration of an Iron Girl suit was created by Bogdan Gabelko for the CGHUB Comic Con challenge. He calls is the Mark SRT 1 Barracuda, and it's really cool. 

After releasing the third full trailer for Maleficent earlier this week, Disney has delivered a new TV spot for the visually stunning film. I freakin' love the tone and style of this movie, and it seems like a lot of fans do too. A ton of people are excited for this, and they should be! I'm confident that Disney is going to hit a home run with this one. The new spot has a bit of new footage for you to see, so look out for that. It will be released in theaters on May 30th.

We have an incredibly impressive animated short film for you to check out today called Dark Noir. The short combines 2D and 3D animation and the visuals are stunning. I absolutely love the world created in this. In it, ideas exist as monsters that can be stolen from their owners. The story follows a detective hired by an old man whose ideas were stolen by a past love. In the process of searching for the man's ideas the main character learns something about his own past.

The film was written and directed by comic book creator Rafael Grampá, and it was animated by Red Knuckles animation studio. I love the concept of this story, and I think it's awesome enough to be adapted into a feature film. Thanks to io9 for the heads up!

The buzz for Captain America: The Winter Solider has been overwhelmingly positive. I have yet to see it myself, but I seriously can't wait! The excitement I'm feeling is exploding out of my head. While I patiently wait to see it I'll just soak in everything from the film that I can. Here's a new TV spot that featuring even more unseen footage from the movie. The movie comes out on April 4th.

[ed. note: I've seen The Winter Soldier, and a lot of this footage is pretty SPOILERY. I'm glad I hadn't seen this when I watched the movie.]

You've got to check out this beautiful series of sci-fi concept art created by Scott Robertson. It features spaceship and vehicle designs, and what makes this art even more awesome is that there is no 3D rendering here. This is all done by hand. Thank you Gizmodo for bringing it to our attention.

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke was recently a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where she talked about her audition for the series and introduced a clip from the upcoming fourth season. The scene features a contest between Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) and our new Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman). I've also included two TV spots with new footage. The series returns on April 6th!

Machinima released the first episode of their new web-series Enormous, which deals with a world overrun with giant monsters and a group of surviving humans who are dedicated to fighting back. This is a fun series with an old-school movie kind of vibe to it, and I think a lot of you will enjoy what it has to offer. 

It's based on the graphic novel of the same name by Tim Daniel and Mehdi Cheggour. This first episode was directed by Ben David Grabinski (Cost of Living short) from a script by Trollhunter director Andre Ovredal.

The film picks up years after E Day, the worldwide attack of massive insect like beasts, as the remaining humans from all walks of life must band together to survive and fight back against the monstrous invaders. Viewers are introduced to Ellen (Ceren Lee), a mother who has lost her child, and watch as she prepares to play a major role in the human resistance. The cast also includes Steve Braun (Wrong Turn 2), and Erica Gimpel (Veronica Mars).

The hit graphic novella series ENORMOUS (http://www.theenormouscomic.com), tells of how humanity is plunged down the food chain when an ecological event creates gargantuan beasts that decimate civilization. The series explores how humans react and cope with survival from multiple points of views and from multiple settings around the planet. In the tone of CLOVERFIELD and THE WALKING DEAD, ENORMOUS focuses on strong characters and complicated relationships with the monsters as the background.

Enjoy the show! 

"Oscorp is like Hell. It's the big, corporate overlord that's ruining our world." - Andrew Garfield

Thanks to MTV we have a series of photos and concept art from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The photos gives us new images of Rhino, Electro, and Spider-Man holding onto some plutonium. I've also included a behind the scenes video that includes the cast and crew talking about the movie and Oscorp's secrets. To watch the latest trailer for the movie, click here.

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It was recently revealed that David Fincher wants Christian Bale to play Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic that he is in talks to direct. This is a fan made poster that shows us what Bale might look like in the role. The poster was created by Ste Smith and was sent into Cult of Mac. If Bale is cast in the role, there's no doubt that he's going to be great. I was already sold on him playing the part when it was first announced, but seeing what he could look like as Jobs solidifies my initial thoughts. 

Watch director Darren Aronofsky in action as he directs his epic film Noah in this behind the scenes b-roll footage of the biblical epic. A lot of it shows the creation of the giant Ark, the filming of a confrontation between Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone, and more. Thanks to Traileraddict for the embed!

Having recently seen The Grand Budapest Hotel, which opens up nationwide in theaters this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to post this great video that focuses on Wes Anderson's use of symmetry in the films he's directed. He's definitely made an art out of it. The video was edited together by Vimeo user kogonada.