[Editor's note: Hoygeit has a weekly feature on the C Blogs called Media Monday. Each week, he draws something videogame related in under an hour and invites the community to do the same. Show us your art skills Dtoiders! -- CTZ]

Media Monday is intended to be a creative community activity where participants use ANY media of their preference. It can be traditional media (pencil, paper clips, pen on post-it), digital (Photoshop, painter, MS-Paint, etc), a photograph, 3D modeling program, or more esoteric items that fits the theme.

There is a time limit of 60 minutes (an hour) when you start your image. This can be done any time before the next Monday (you choose the hour that works best for you). After 60 minutes (or sooner if you prefer), please share the piece even if it isn't complete. Afterwards, post your piece in the comments.

This isn't a contest - it's meant to be a friendly collaboration for members of the community to take part it. Don't worry about the results, its intended to be fun!

Please try using the upcoming releases as the theme. Use anything coming out that you'd like to try a creative spin on.

This week I'm putting in an head shot image for Elika from the upcoming Prince of Persia game. This piece took me 40 minutes to make in Photoshop. Check out my past Community Blogs to see some more examples of Media Monday artwork. 

According to Katz, the game is coming to all major platforms, with a Wii version confirmed. The Wii version is said to include new family-friendly features for gameplay.

Link

It’s always nice to meet someone in the entertainment industry with a real reverence for the games, comics and the assorted geekery I hold near and dear to my heart — and former 20th Century Fox exec (and occasional comics writer) Jeff Katz is exactly that sort of person.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Katz, who returned from the set of the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” film just a few months ago, and get a few details about the upcoming “Wolverine” game based on the film — as well as how he mixes business with pleasure when it comes to gaming.

“A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved [in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'], we’re all gamers,” said Katz. “So when it came to the ‘Wolverine’ movie game, it was like, ‘Let’s do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game.’”

Katz was quick to add that since departing Fox for an as-yet-unnamed venture, he hasn’t seen much of the game, which will be published by Activision — but what he has seen of it has kept with the darker tone of the film.

“Even the game itself, from everything I’ve seen and been told about it, is going to be slightly harder-edged than the X-Men games that have come before — which fits the tone of the movie,” explained Katz, adding that he believes the plan is to release the game in all of the major platforms, with the Wii version receiving a few family-friendly tweaks.

Given the game’s multiplatform availability, I had to ask Katz (who also served as an exec for game-savvy studio New Line Cinema prior to Fox) what platform he expected to play it on. His response was as close to instantaneous as you can get — and shed some light on the very-appropriate way in which plans for one of the gaming world’s most-anticipated films were set in motion.

“I do business on Xbox Live. When I was at New Line, I put the ‘Gears of War‘ deal together for the movie over Xbox Live,” said Katz. “It’s been good to me, so I’m loyal to it.”

Pressed for a bit more behind-the-scenes info on the “Gears of War” movie deal, Katz said his gaming experience made the movie appeal of “Gears” one of the most obvious options in his eight-plus years at the studio.

“As a gamer, you just knew what ‘Gears of War’ was going to be,” said Katz. “It was a no-brainer.”

Thanks to Rick for the guest-post. See more of his comics-based-movies blogging at MTV’s Splash Page blog.

Mark Jacobs gave the WAR community an update on Mythic’s future plans for Warhammer, specifically the continued focus on making open RvR WARs absolute main attraction. It encouraging to know Mythic recognizes what separates WAR from other MMOs, and will focus on oRvR over PvE and scenarios, two aspects of WAR that are good enough as is. This post will be in break-down fashion, as I think Mark talks about a lot of important changes, changes that are much needed and perhaps long overdue.

Folks,

Over the last few months I’ve spoken about our continued focus on improving our open RvR systems. While we have taken some major steps in the last month, we believe that there is much more we can do to encourage people to take part in oRvR throughout the entire evolution of their character(s). Over the next few months we have some very exciting changes and additions taking place. Please note that as always, this does not represent everything that either we are doing or thinking about doing, just what we, as of now, plan on adding to WAR.

Somewhat basic here, other than the fact that Mythic now acknowledges oRvR as the main focus of WAR, rather than a piece of the puzzle in addition to scenarios and PvE. Major step forward, as no one is playing WAR because of it’s amazing PvE, or because we were looking for an update to WoW BG system. Scenarios will improve with class balance changes, and PvE (imo of course) is good enough right now to fill in the gaps between oRvR. The lack of oRvR has placed too much attention on PvE, which is why it continues to come up as an issue.

We have a number of major initiatives planned for oRvR in WAR. Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months.

Interesting statement only if over analyzed, but since this is exactly that, here goes. Pointing out that the changes are being made to oRvR, and not scenarios, seems somewhat bold to me. Previously Mythic was afraid to alter the importance of scenarios, mainly because of how popular they were. It’s encouraging to see that they are moving away from this stance, and willing to downgrade the effect scenarios have on the overall focus of the game.

First, we have created an RvR Influence system. This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR. This will be a complimentary system to our PQ Influence system. This system is already implemented in 1.1 and is scheduled to go LIVE along with that version in December.

Another huge addition to the very anticipated 1.1 patch (and overhyped? Can you overhype a patch?). This was something fans and bloggers have commentated on often, and Mythic has responded. How the influence system was not in oRvR from day one is a bit puzzling, but at least it’s being added in fairly quickly. As long as the itemization is in line with the rest of the game, this should be well received.

Second, we want to improve the visibility that players have into oRvR and make it easier for players to get involved in the action quickly and easily. We have a number of wide-ranging changes going into our map and travel systems to allow players to better understand the state of oRvR in our game and also allow them to get to the action faster. We have already taken one step with putting a Rally Master in each Warcamp but we will also add the ability for people to have a second bind point to make it even easier for players to move around the maps. We will also make it easily for players to see where players from their Realm are engaging in oRvR, a Campaign HUD for all tiers and other improvements We will also improve Tier-wide messaging about what is going on in Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Other additions include changes to the UI, in-game manual improvements, map enhancements, and a few other changes.

I found this section interesting because it’s a large collection of little fixes, which I think could add up to a big change. WAR’s main problem is getting players together in oRvR, and each piece above is a tiny step towards that ultimate goal. WAR does not need an NGE-style change, but rather a collection of these small steps to help guide players into the best content. The great gameplay is there, Mythic just has to get the players to it now.

Third, we want to provide greater incentives to players to participate in oRvR. In order to accomplish this we will be adding additional layers to the questing system of oRvR including the addition of Keep Quests, “Daily Event Quests”, Chained RvR Missions, improve the initial Tome Unlocks and other oRvR-oriented Events. We will also improve our BO itemization. Our goal is to provide players with even more incentive for participating in oRvR than we have already.

Catering to the PvE crowd here, and I’m ok with that. I think more MMO fans would be PvP fans if it was presented in a shinier package, and the above seeks to do just that. Execution and itemization will be key for these changes, both to keep them in-line with the rest of the game, but also to make them attractive enough for players to bother with.

Fourth, we want to encourage guilds to take and control keeps, and we will continue our work on adding better rewards for Guilds who own Keeps as well as the addition of a system of Keep upgrades. This system will be added to the game in several stages beginning in the late winter.

Late winter is a long ways away, but this is a good change. Currently guilds have very little motivation to own a keep, and increasing that will also increase a guilds willingness to defend one. Adding significant benefits to keep ownership will also strengthen a players motivation to stick with a guild. Mark later made a post about focusing on improving the rewards for defending a keep, which is a major issue right now.

Finally, we will begin work on a global oRvR “Fame” system that will be tied directly to the Tome of Knowledge which will provide more rewards, titles, experience, etc. for participating and being successful in oRvR. This system will provide even more incentives for people to participate in oRvR than the current systems and one that fits nicely both with the ToK’s concept as “This is your life” as well as an additional advancement and reward system.

“Fame” system, interesting. Anything that tracks more day-by-day RvR progress would be good. Let me know which day I killed the most players, which day I captured the most keeps, when I won a gold bag, that kind of stuff.

Please keep in mind that these additions are subject to change and given the nature of these changes/improvements, they will not go LIVE until we have thoroughly tested them. However, these are crucial improvements to WAR and are being treated as such by the team.

So release them yesterday!

Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR. Some of the systems are already in place and in Tier 4, oRvR is alive and well. On other Tiers, however, oRvR is not being engaged in as often as we had hoped when we launched WAR. Our goal is to ensure that oRvR is the place where players can level the fastest, get the best items and overall, have a great time while doing it. It is supposed to be riskier, more challenging but ultimately, more rewarding than any other place within WAR. What is outlined in this letter are some of the ways we plan on making this happen over the next few months and beyond.

Considering keeps were not even in the game in early beta, this is a significant change to the core of the game. Basically, Mythic should have made DAoC 2.0, and not some reinvention of RvR. Mistake made, now time to correct it. Luckily Mythic has shown a willingness to correct mistakes, and do some rather quickly. These changes need to happen before more players bleed out from WAR.

As always, we thank you for your patronage and support. We won’t let you down.

Mark

And if/when you do, fans will let you know. (see: ToA)

There are a few more comments by Mark in the thread, so go scroll through for the full details. And as always, everything above is just talk, and needs to actually be delivered. Events like The Witching Night and Heavy Metal show Mythic CAN react quickly to address issues, but mistakes like keep contribution, itemization, and scenario over-emphasis also show Mythic has a ways to go before they get WAR where it needs to be. Hurry up!

A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved, we re all gamers. So when it came to the Wolverine movie game, it was like, "Let s do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game."

• Activision Event 08: New X-Men, Transformers game revealed
  

A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved, we re all gamers. So when it came to the Wolverine movie game, it was like, "Let s do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game."

• Activision Event 08: New X-Men, Transformers game revealed
  

A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved, we re all gamers. So when it came to the Wolverine movie game, it was like, "Let s do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game."

• Activision Event 08: New X-Men, Transformers game revealed
  

It’s clearly going to be a very merry Christmas for Nintendo, as its software continues to sell well. Perhaps most gratifying of all is the improved chart position of Wii Music - if we’re going off individual sales per format, then it climbed from number 11 to number 7. Mario Kart and Wii Fit’s advertising blitz helped those two move up to numbers 3 and 4 respectively. Dr. Kawashima continues to fire Patrick Stewart’s synapses at number 5, while Wii Play (pictured above) climbed to number 6 - despite, to my knowledge, having not received any advertising at all. Still, it’s a good way to get an extra controller and a disc full of minigames you’ll play once and never again. Apart from maybe the tanks one and the laser hockey.

Elsewhere, Professor Layton dropped out of the top ten, mainly thanks to the game being sold out pretty much everywhere, while Mario & Sonic rose to number 10. Will Wii Music climb any higher next week? Let’s hope so, as I’m starting to think it might just be the best Wii-branded game yet. With the possible exception of Sports, natch.

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One Shots: The agony of defeat originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today we are proud to post some progress on our TC development statuses. Yes, the plural form. As many of you know we are developing a total conversion called Resistance, but we decided to start again with the development of Trek Battles 3.

Read: NG Total Conversion Development News
More Star Trek: Legacy News: FileFront’s Star Trek: Legacy Files

A new month and a progress report on what is going on with Aftermath. This news post will take a different direction to all the previous ones as this one there will be some bad news but there is good news too. It not all doom and gloom.

Read:Aftermath News: Change of Pace and a New Team Member
More Star Trek: Legacy News: FileFront’s Star Trek: Legacy Files

Read: Large Newspost from the XWW2 mod
More Battlefield 2 News: FileFront’s Battlefield 2 Files

Read:Black Mesa source - A celebration of the last decade!
More Half-Life 2 News: FileFront’s Half-Life 2 Files

Read:Visions Of Chaos Lord Of Change Preview and Updates
More Dawn of War: Soulstorm News: FileFront’s Dawn of War: Soulstorm Files

Once again we welcome back [i]Ace40k[/i] to the stage so that he can deliver to you, the Company of Heroes gamer the next version of his extremely popular sound modification! If you enjoyed his previous release…or, if you missed out on it, and you are of the mind that the weapon sounds that you hear while playing Company of Heroes lack that certain something, then count yourself lucky, as you are about to download a mod that will improve what you hear!

Download: Ace40k’s Sound Mod
More Company of Heroes: FileFront’s Company of Heroes Files

Stargate : La Releve (”The Relief” in English) is a French mod developed on the Battlefield 2 engine. The ambiance of the TV show is reincarnated in video game form to give you a new battlefield experience.

Download: Stargate: La Relève
More Battlefield 2: FileFront’s Battlefield 2 Files

dev_akm is now carrying over development after Oscuro’s retirement; Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul aims to make Oblivion a much more interesting, challenging, realistic and dangerous place, and also offers great rewards for the daring adventurer regardless of your level.

Download: Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul (v1.32f)
More Oblivion: FileFront’s The Elder Scrolls Files

Download: Commanders Revenges Extreme Edition
More Supreme Commander: FileFront’s Supreme Commander Files

Fast Fun and Crazy : Lite is a modification that edits a lot of the different units and structures in the game. This modification tries to make the gameplay faster while trying not to go out of control or unbalanced.

Download: Fast Fun and Crazy: Lite (v0.230)
More Command and Conquer: FileFront’s CnC 3 Files

Download: Silenced M21
More CoD 4: FileFront’s Call of Duty Files

Download: Otherworld Episode 1 Beta (v2)
More Oblivion: FileFront’s The Elder Scrolls Files

Download: =AaTc= Jet Mod
More Star Wars Battlefront: FileFront’s Star Wars Battlefront Files

Download: Experimentals Wars
More Supreme Commander: FileFront’s Supreme Commander Files

Making a return engagement, ab2531 has submitted his updated version to his super-popular mod! NHCmod is what you want to download if you’re looking for a more juiced-up Company of Heroes!

Download: NHCmod | OF
More Company of Heroes: FileFront’s Company of Heroes Files

Download:Aliens vs. Predator 2 Master Server Patch
More Aliens vs Predator 2: FileFront’s Aliens vs Predator 2 Files

Download: Voice Chat Icons

More Return to castle Wolfenstein: FileFront’s Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Files

This is a nice surprise…a very useful mod by our buddy, Jose: “Throwable” objects! First order of business….the PK3 is named “throwable_sfutt.pk3″ Sfutt? Made me laugh…..sfutt. XD

Sorry, just had to point that out.

Download: Throwable Stuff
More Jedi Knight III: FileFront’s Jedi Knight III Files

Open up your bandwidth and submit! Submit, I tell ya! MUHAHAHAHAHA!! …errm *cough* yeah. Dartborne is here with what would appear to be the largest of the mods that are at your disposal…this bad boy weighs is at a whopping 430+ megs! And it is worth every kilobyte!

Download: Dartborne Mod
More Company of Heroes: FileFront’s Company of Heroes Files

Ever felt like your German potato masher just wasn’t enough? Well this is definitely your fix, how about not two potato mashers, but six of them! These grenades actually existed during World War Two under the name Geballte Ladung. Probably something pretty hard to scream as you are running away from it in battle.

Download: Big German Grenade (1.0)
More CoD 2: FileFront’s Call of Duty Files

Faction commander is a powerful mod that allows you to dictate orders that your faction follows. The command system of this mod is composed of six types of commands and three classes of action codes.

Download: Faction Commander
More Stalker: FileFront’s Stalker Files

It wasn’t long ago when GobDemoMaster gave us a mod where we could open doors that were locked in the game Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Now he has come through with yet another version!

Download: Restored Doors/Rooms

More Knights of the Old Republic II: FileFront’s Knights of the Old Republic II Files

This is a simple tweak to saber colors and trails. By simple, I mean that a person who knows what they’re doing can probably replicate these effects in 10 minutes or less. I don’t think this 10 minutes was wasted, though.

Download: SM Cool saber effects
More Jedi Knight III: FileFront’s Jedi Knight III Files

Download: AOE Sound Pack

More Return to castle Wolfenstein: FileFront’s Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Files

Finally, what many Revolt fans have been waiting for, Revolt 4x — a version of Revolt you can play without crashing your entire game! smile This version features a number of key bug fixes that contributed to the instability of previous versions of the oldest CoD total conversion!

Download: Revolt 4x UO (Final)
More CoD: United Offensive: FileFront’s Call of Duty Files

After a bit of an absence, we are lucky to have Robin back with us to once again‘ wow’ you with some fantastic Far Cry adventure! This time your gaming experience will get a little spooky, with a bit of a dark ambiance…so if you’re scared of things that go bump in the night, then you shouldn’t leave furniture in the hallway…and you shouldn’t visit the far away island Lucifer Island!
Download: rll_Lucifer Island
More Far Cry: FileFront’s Far Cry Files

A Peaceful Moment is a screen shot captured by the author depicting a German officer overlooking a river beside a bridge. It actually is a quite peaceful screen shot, it’s a nice change of pace from all the action packed screen shots that are regularly viewed. This picture can also be used as a wallpaper if it fits your fancy.
Download: A Peaceful Moment
More Company of Heroes: FileFront’s Company of Heroes Files

From the maker of the popular mappack: Insomnia, this developer has decided to create, and release, another map in the [i]‘Hell’[/i] style. WarlorD69 has stated that he made this map with the intentions of it being both beautiful and terrible…a tough combination to pull off, if you ask me! however, I think that he has done a fine job of it!
Download: Kings Cemetery
More Doom III: FileFront’s Doom III Files

For those of you that enjoyed the original release (and those of you that may have missed it) bigdane is back to tantalize you with his newest version! All of you sniper-lovers, don’t fret, there are still plenty of places to pick from…Essentially, Crater Lake (v2) is more or less, a total remake of the original Crater Lake, which will provide you with even more Far Cry 2 goodness and some serious Assault action!
Download: Crater Lake (v2)
More Far Cry 2: FileFront’s Far Cry 2 Files

The Last Palace is a 4 player map based on a war torn city in which 2 players start at a ruined Imperial Palace. This map is greatly detailed with craters, bombed out buildings, building rubble, and etc are littered throughout the map to give that warn torn city look; and coupled with custom decals, it just adds more to the experience.

Download: The Last Palace
More Dawn of War Dark Crusade: FileFront’s Dawn of War Dark Crusade Files

Download: Game_Jedi’s Map Pack

More Star Wars Battlefront 2: FileFront’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 Files

Download: rpg_dy100a
More Elite Force: FileFront’s Elite Force Files

Lafayette is a very small map that is built for 4 players mainly designed for instant action as the game starts due to how the points are laid out. Teams start at forested regions of the map which are located at opposing sides of the map and a road way is located in the middle.

Download: Lafayette
More Company of Heroes: FileFront’s Company of Heroes Files

Nope, this isn’t based on the firm, but rather a map from D2tm called Tropic Thunder Here we have a eight player map that is based on the topical landscape which isn’t done that bad; added in are few foliage, trees, canopy and the like to make the map more detailed.

Download: Tropic Thunder
More Dawn of War: FileFront’s Dawn of War Files

Far Cry 2: Canyon

Hot on the heels of the release that was just mirrored, DobiKuba has gone about sending in another rather large map to rouse the old killer instinct in you and to show off his mapping skills!

Download: Canyon
More Far Cry 2: FileFront’s Far Cry 2 Files

Before we begin I will hold up my hands and admit I’m a Final Fantasy fan, I attend regular mettings to kick the habbit so wish me luck there. Anyhow, FF VII being my favorite of the series I just had to grab this file and set traps around it to keep those other reviewers off. Now onto the review…..

Download: Final Fantasy VII Compilation
More Jedi Knight III: FileFront’s Jedi Knight III Files

Download: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-F.I.L.E.S.-Computer Screen
More Stalker: FileFront’s Stalker Files

This is the Guardian Class, Oberth refit. Many of you should recognize this baby as it has popped up in a few news posts recently. Well its been a good wait for this to be finally done and dusted and props to Phoenix for getting her finished! Phoenix has also uploaded this as an entry to the ever growing list of entries to the Starship Contests.

Download: Federation Guardian Class
More Star Trek: Legacy: FileFront’s Star Trek: Legacy Files

Download: SM Steel Lasersword
More Jedi Knight III: FileFront’s Jedi Knight III Files

Download: Colt-1911- Texture -
More Stalker: FileFront’s Stalker Files

This is the Ambassador class and “Late Refit” originally released for BC by LC/Legacy and ported to Legacy by yopyop. This is a really high quality model which showcases yopyop’s impressive reworking of LC’s impressive model from BC.

Download: Ambassador Class
More Star Trek: Legacy: FileFront’s Star Trek: Legacy Files

Again, we regret that we cannot provide you with this weeks Demos, Patches and trailer. We apologize for the inconvenience! For now, here are the links to redirect you.

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