Top Hat Sasquatch

I may have given up on the Call of Duty games a year or two ago, but I still look fondly on the first game I ever owned on my Xbox 360, Call of Duty: World at War. If you’ve played that game (or Black Ops), you’re probably aware that legendary actor and all-around badass Gary Oldman voiced the Russian character Viktor Reznov. Well, Mr. Oldman was on Conan recently and the topic of video game voiceovers got brought up, and to the delight of geeks everywhere he spouted off a few Viktor Reznov phrases rather loudly.

I’ve always wandered what legit actors think about lending their voices to video games, and it looks like Oldman is a good sport about it.

Via The Verge

I have a confession to make. I loathe the retro creations known as Steampunk. The concept of Victorian era hi-tech creations just seems odd to me. When I look to escape in fantasy, I don’t want to go back in time to the 1800s. There are so many other more interesting worlds to explore.

That being said, I love these new Star Wars illustrations by artist Greg Peltz. The feature portraits of select Star Wars characters in Victorian costumes. When Peltz isn’t drawing really cool illustrations, he works for a little company called Pixar Animation Studios — perhaps you’ve heard of them.

Apparently these portraits have been around for a while but I just got tipped to their existence by the (of all things) fashion blog Trendland. According to the site, you can purchase your own prints of Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt for $75–$125 each. I enjoy each of them equally but you have to admit that Sherlock Holmes-esque Artoo is extremely smashing.

There’s no shortage of ways to enjoy retro video games these days. Most people these days pay to download games on their game consoles or play digitally acquired ROM files with emulators on their computers. Either way, it sucks playing retro games with a mouse, keyboard, or any game controller that wasn’t designed to play that game.

I’ve seen plenty of USB adapters that allow you to connect your NES, SNES or Genesis controllers to your computer, but the Retrode is a unique gadget. It has slots that take SNES and Genesis game cartridges, as well as plugs for controllers. If you have emulators on your computer, you can plug it in and play the games from the cartridges via the Retrode’s USB interface. At first I didn’t understand the appeal, if you still need an emulator, what’s the point?

I guess the Retrode is a tool for people who still have lots of retro games and hardware laying around but don’t want to rely on a 25 year old console to keep enjoying them. One of the best things about the Retrode is how it doesn’t need any drivers to work on your computer.

The Retrode is cool, but it will run you $85. If you’ve got some old controllers and copies of Yoshi’s Island or Comix Zone laying around, it might be a cool gadget to try out.

The geek community has been in an uproar since Businessweek ran it’s cover story about LEGO’s new line for girls called LEGO Friends. The set is the next (and apparently, biggest) attempt by LEGO to cater towards girls, but something about the taller-and-unnecessarily-curvy minifigures is rubbing a lot of fans the wrong way. I’m with Amy of Media Macaroni on this one, I’m all for new brick colors and accessories, but these sets don’t look like they’re even focusing on the building aspect at all. They may as well be Polly Pocket sets.

I want to hear what this little girl has to say about LEGO Friends.

The year has come to a close and it’s been swell. This time last year, we had just changed the name of the site from Saturday Morning Central to Top Hat Sasquatch, and the team began to grow. The first group effort was an article about the best movies of 2010. It’s fitting that a year later, after the site has grown with the addition of Bubble Pipe Theater, that we would end with a best movies podcast. It’s the first show that our good friend and contributor Justin Lacey of HorribleNight.com has sat in on, and we were glad to have him. In the show we talk Apes Rising, Captain America and Thor, Super 8 and Attack the Block, Hugo and Hanna, and everything in between.