So, the World Cup came in like a tornado and left just as fast. No doubt you still have your vuvu’s and are probably using them as a beer funnel or toilet roll holder. WoZela poses the same question I’ve been asking…what are we going to do with them now?

Here’s the deal, WoZela have started an open source initiative that brings artists, designers writers and just about everyone to generate ideas to reuse the vuvuzela. These ideas will be exhibited all over the country alongside established artists and designers.

The most useful ideas will be handed over to community artists and craftsmen for them to sell locally and abroad. We are creating jobs here people! It’s a great idea and an even cooler cause.

What you need to do:

• Get your hands on one or more vuvus cut them, bend them and use your Jedi mind powers to
  fashion them into any shape you can think of!
• Take a picture and submit it to www.wozela.co.za with your name.
• If you don’t have time, simply sketch a picture of your idea and submit it. The peeps from Wozela
  have assured us that you will only be judged on your idea and not your drawing skills.

The most ingenious idea will win the grand prize of R10, 000 and the top 50 ideas will be exhibited nationally!

Enter, enter, enter…you could win money for mahala! And indulge in the satisfaction of finding a new home for the vuvuzela.

I will admit that when it comes to comics I’m a bit of a prude and prefer the traditional printed version myself. I loathed the idea of reading comics online mainly because it felt like someone was trying to steal the experience away from me (I suspect it’s Green Peace….filthy fecking hippies, get a real job) but lately my opinion has changed. I still prefer the saddle stitched glossy paper I’ve grown up with but a mans got to move on with the times.

What makes online/digital comics different? The fact that they are different. They have taken the classic medium and made it cheaper, more direct and alot more personal. Gone are the days when you read a bad comic and could not be arsed writing a lengthy letter to the greedy bastard editors and the large corporations and know that they will most likely not read it or not care. Now we have the power to leave a positive or negative comment right there on the page.

You also learn to enjoy each frame of each strip since only so much can be posted in such a minuet space. It also shows the talent of the author and artist to keep the reader interested with so little to look at.

So today’s post will be looking at some of the best online comics I have had the pleasure of reading (and leaving my comments)

First up The Abominable Charles Christopher written and drawn by Karl Kerschl and all I can really say is….wow. It’s funny, heart wrenching and almost makes me fell a little girly when something sad happens.

Next would be something very different and very cool. (Warning to all, avoid using any hallucinogenics when reading this strip as it will cause you to freak the feck out.) Kukuburi by Ramon Perez follows the Journey of a young girl who finds a magical world filled with French talking squids and Battle-whales as she fights against a really cool looking villain dressed in black. A must read if your life sucks and needs some coloure.

And finally, one of my favourite online comics comes from the gents that gave us Red Vs Blue and Achievement Hunter for all our gaming needs. Yes I’m talking Roosterteeth and RT Comics. A great comic written by Griffon Ramsey and drawn by Luke McKay and it covers gaming and everyday life (if everyday life was strange and funny).

Thats me for today. Enjoy you little bastards.

I would consider myself a pretty laid back kinda guy, but at the same time there is a lot of things that irritate me. Some things, like shitty drivers, I can’t fix but other things I can! That’s the reason for this round of ‘the TEN’, I want to fix something…

And that thing is what people watch on YouTube…

Everyday, and I mean EVERYDAY, I get sent links to YouTube videos via face book; email; twitter; etc. but unfortunately 98% of them are music videos!

REALLY!?! Is that the only thing people think is on Youtube? COME ON!!!!!

YouTube has some of the most creative and entertaining content on the web, and to dumb it down by using it exclusively to watch music videos is the equivalent of buying a PS3 and only using it to watch movies!!!

So to remedy this I have put together a list of my favourite YouTube channels! I hope that you are already watching some of them, or at least are going to start once you’ve read this…

(in no particular order)

1. Xbox

Kinda obvious, but oh so worth it! The official Xbox channel not only has the latest Xbox360 trailers, but it also has the latest Xbox news! If there is something worth knowing about the 360 you will find it here.

2. Blendtec

“Will it blend? That is the question.” What are we trying to blend? EVERYTHING! In the hopes of finding something that the Blendtec series of blenders won’t be able to blend…

Shameless marketing yes, but amazing to watch! They blend Everything from iPhones to Vuvuzelas! You have to check it out!!

3. The Key of Awesome

If you can look past the cheesy show name (which actually becomes super awesome once you watch the show) and actually watch the show you’ll understand why this channel (which is mainly about pop culture parodies done to music) is so AWESOME!!

4. Black Box TV

What makes this one so special is that it is so unique. The majority of channels on YouTube deal either with comedy or the news, but BlackBoxTV is a horror/thriller channel, which is well written and shot amazingly! The writer/director for most of the vids is Phil DeFranco’s friend Tony, and if you know anything about YouTube, you know that PhillyD and his friends make only quality content!

5. College Humour

Not 100% a YouTube channel, but it still counts! Any way, College Humour makes great video game/tech/pop culture videos. From parodies to POVs they do everything, and they do it well!

6. HAWP (Hey Ash Whatcha Playin)

I have to thank Trevor for introducing me to this one. Born on Destructoid, HAWP is a brother and sister team that love video games and make video game parodies and video game themed videos. Random and bizarre HAWP is all kinds of awesome!

7. Dave

“Dave – The home of witty banter.”

Look past the odd name and you will find something awesome. And that awesome thing is Dave…

Not really sure about it’s origins, but I’m pretty sure it’s a UK TV channel. Dave is crammed full of amazing British comedy, from some of Britain’s best comedians!

8. Like Totally Awesome

We actually covered this channel already when we posted their Alan Wake review, and I hope since then you have been watching! If you haven’t, Like Totally Awesome is another pie that PhillyD has his finger in. LTA covers video game news; Internet stuffs; need to know geek info; etc. If you don’t have the time to search the Internet for news, then LTA’s short bursts of the most important nerd news is for you!

9. The Philip DeFranco Show

The same things that make LTA awesome are the same things that make The Philip DeFranco Show awesome : bursts of interesting news stories told in an amusing way [over simplification, but who cares!]. The main difference is that the PDS covers ALL of the Internet, be it gaming; celebs; or even stories about Hitler being black!

PhillyD is pretty smart: has awesome news: and most importantly, is fun to watch. So much so that his channel is one of the only YouTube channels I’d actually subscribe to [I don't subscribe, I'm not a joiner].

And finally…

10. Guile theme fits all

I love this channel because it demonstrates such creativity and badassery, that its transcends being just a YouTube channel and starts becoming a meme, and on the Internet there is no higher form of win than creating a meme!

Guile theme fits all is basically proof that the music from Guile’s stage in Street Fighter 2 goes with everything, EVER! We’ve tried it, and it works!

I hope my list helps elevate YouTube to the status it deserves (among my fb friends at least)

Have fun…

It’s quite understandable if you are currently on a Blizzard high at the moment, seeing that StarCraft 2 was all kinds of awesome!  

But unfortunately Blizzard has no intention of feeding your hunger any time soon, atleast not with Diablo 3…

In a recent IGN interview (hit the link for the full story) Blizzard revealed that the they are busy double and triple checking their work, and still building a lot of content.

If this sounds like the ‘polish stage’ to you, then unfortunately you are sadly mistaken, Diablo 3 is officially in pre-polish and by the sounds of all the work that needs to be done I don’t see it being finished anytime soon.

To put it into perspective, Diablo turned 10 recently and StarCraft 2 took 12 years to come out, so it stands to reason that we still have another 2 years to wait for the next chapter of Sanctuary’s struggles to be released.

Until then you can hit the IGN link for the full story, or head over to Blizzard for more on Diablo 3 like screens; art; and gameplay videos!  

Have fun…

If you are a Halo fan, or even curious about the upcoming Halo Reach, you should be checking Bungie.net DAILY for information!

For those of you who haven’t though (don’t worry I forgive you) a new post has gone up detailing EVERYTHING you might want to know about Reach. From what achievements there are going to be, to how they made the BEYOND awesome new live action “Remember Reach” trailer (below)

[BTW have you added your light yet?]

Before you go fill up on Reachy goodness, be warned, the post is very; very; VERY long! So long in fact that I (Mr. super Halo Fan) haven’t even finished reading it yet! If you’re still keen (like you should be) you can get it here.

But if that’s too much effort, at least watch the latest live action short! And you can check out the Armour Effects (effects not abilities!) details here. 

Have fun…

If you have not heard the news, then you have clearly been living under a rock, or living in a parallel universe where comics, gaming and our very way of life has been replaced by Hello feckin Kitty.

The Fantastic Four will be losing a member to Deaths cold grip!

Coming this September “3″ will hit the stands. Marvel promises this is the arc where shit hits the fan! As everything that has been built up over the past couple of months drops like a German brick on a on top of un-suspecting women’s chest.

Honestly though, who is getting excited about a long running character dying in this day and age? The chances are that in 2-3 years Marvel will find a way to bring this character back (who remembers Cap’s passing in “Fallen Son” or Colossus’s in Uncanny X-Men 390)

It would be feckin awesome if this could actually stick but we will have to see. All we can do right now is guess who will die and maybe start a betting pole, even though the rumors claim Mr Fantastic is going to die, (makes sense ‘a’ plenty) and who will take their place in a new team line-up.

Some previews/teasers already released…

We thought we would keep the hype alive, to honour all you die-hards out there who kept the torch burning for 12 years…

Last month the internet was ablaze with StarCraft 2 launch material from all over the world. Megarom, Do Gaming and ASUS teamed up to bring StarCraft 2 to us South Africans, and it was epic. I know a few people who couldn’t wait for the 27th of July. Thanks to the irreverent Mr. Steven Tu, the new Marketing Manager of Asus, we cracked the nod to be at the event. Follow him on Twitter: @tuism (sorry I had to).

The launch took place at Sound Room in Kyalami, and you knew something huge was about to go down. Firstly because, of the groups of gamers vibrating with excitement. I kid you not, if we had dimmed the lights you would have seen people covered in lumo yellow, glowing with excitement and transcending the mere planes of human kind.

The launch started with a quick tournament with pre-selected players, and Asus computers with can you believe it…Starcraft one, just to remind you why you were at the launch in the first place. The tournament was, really intense; I’m not going to lie. The guys who took to the stage were composed, knew their shit and were not new to StarCraft. But, of course they had to be composed, the prizes were huge.

1st Prize
G60Jx Gaming Laptop
Starcraft 2 Limited Edition Game
Razer Gaming Bundle
R3000 Cash Prize

The gamers featured:

• Dreamer
• Shase
• Angry African (My fave, I like a bit of flair)
• McNoob
• Alcardu
• Kreefle
• Rubilac
• Azul

The guys were chosen according to their rankings and are the best SA has to offer the StarCraft universe. Every game was filled with an amazing strategy, showcasing that StarCraft is in fact more
than a game. It’s a phenomenon!

P.s Congrats to Travis “Shase” Weedon who whipped some serious A55!

But unfortunately time got away from me, so I’m going to bed pretty late (4:20 as I’m writing this), but I don’t want you guys to miss out on some Thursday content (incase I wake up mid-afternoon)

So go check this out. I’m too lazy to tell you what it is, but it’s awesome and it’s about Reach… so 2X awesome then.

Any way I’m off to bed, have fun… (4:25)

If you follow us on Twitter, you would know that our online play has been dominated by one game as of late, and that game is…

Monday Night Combat

Just watch this and you’ll see why…

Not bad right!?!

Monday Night Combat is the sport of the future where cloned combatants try to destroy the enemies “Moneyball” while fighting off rival clones and armies of robots trying to destroy theirs, all in front of a live audience!

So that’s the premise, the actual gameplay however is class-based 3rd person combat. Why didn’t I say shooter? Because it is much more than that!

As a genre, Monday Night Combat falls in between Tower Defence and 3rd person shooter [think : Toy Soldiers meets Battlefield Heroes], the two game modes (yes, only 2 unfortunately) fall into the PvP and PvE categories:

“Crossfire” is 6v6 PvP, where players try to destroy the other teams Moneyball, by weakening it’s shields with their armies of robot minions, only when the shields are down can the players attack the ball directly. Obviously the other team is doing the same…

“Blitz” is PvE, where the player(s) must defend the Moneyball against waves of robots bent on it’s destruction… [think : horde meets tower defence]

Both modes are playable online, splitscreen, or alone. But let’s focus on the PvP…

The cartoony, but intense, action takes place on symmetrical maps which offer multiply routes and player triggerable hazards. What’s nice is that despite being an arcade title, you can still tell that a lot of time has been taken into building and balancing the battlefields, so there is no one size fits all approach to matches!

Being a TV show, there is of course money up for grabs! The money takes the place of experience points (which is earned ingame and as life time earnings), and is earned by killing; doing damage; assisting; and generally playing the game. But what do you do with all your riches? one of 3 things :

1. Build Defences and send specialist robots after the enemy
2. Upgrade your skills, or
3. Customize a class.

The tower defence aspect of Monday Night Combat is fueled by the funds you pour into it. Want an impenetrable defence? Then you have to spend the money building and upgrading the 4 different types of turrets available.

Unlike other titles, like BFBC2, life time experiance gained does not affect the gameplay (atleast not as much) , instead money you earn during a match is spent on upgrades for that match. So EVERYONE starts out the same flavour of vanilla. It’s what you do during the battle, and what that battle calls for, that determines how fast you upgrade, and in what direction your upgrades take you!

There is however an opportunity to use your “life time earnings”, and that’s by spending the money to unlock customizable classes. What this allows you to do, is to upgrade certain aspects of your classes abilities ie. Their reload speed; accuracy; clip size; or speed. It’s not as in-depth as a “build-system” but it does add a certain amount of longevity.

The greatest part of Monday Night Combat is the class system. Too many class-based and build based shooters lack “believablility” when it comes to their classes, with all their classes eventually blending into one. But that’s not the case with Monday Night Combat…

Instead, each class plays completely differently, (kinda like in an RPG) with some being long range specialist, and some being melee; some being sneaky, and others being aggro accumulating juggernauts! Rest assured though, that there is no one class that trumps all! Instead there is a sort of Rock-Paper-Scissors system, with each class having it’s natural prey and predator.

It’s difficult to fault Monday Night Combat, it’s fun; has significant replay value; is well worth the money; and is surprisingly polished for an arcade title (but that seems to be the norm now days). My one gripe however is the matchmaking…

Because it is a little new (it was released on the 11th of August during the Summer of XBL) there aren’t always people to play with, so solo Blitz becomes your best bet. And then there’s the imbalanced team picking. Sometimes (when you actually find a match) they will pair the best players in the lobby together AND give them the numerical advantage! I’m pretty sure that both of these issues will be addressed with time, so I’m not going to let them bug me too much. 

Monday Night Combat is definitely worth the 1200 MS points price tag, and is definitely worth downloading! Go give it a shot! But if you can’t find any one to play with, feel free to invite me to a game!

Have fun…

There are very few things that can tear me away from video games, or get me out of bed early.

But when THE ED, asked me to join him in his fight against communism, I knew I had found one of those rare things…

So off we went, like the future boys we are, to fight communism with our new secret weapon…

Capitalism!!!

“Say what?” You say? Well basically, what we were doing last week was striking a deal with AnimeWorx to stock our gear! So we spent time putting invoices together, working out wholesale prices, and consulting the sage like wisdom of our pie charts…

So now that it’s done, you can also pick up our GEAR at one of the AnimeWorx locations if online buying isn’t your thing.

So if you want to look awesome while supporting the rebellion’s fight against communism be sure to stop by our GEAR page (where the shipping is still FREE!!!), and if you are a deep cover agent concerned about leaving an electronic paper trail, be sure to visit one of our sympathisers…

Have fun…