In Case You Haven't Been Paying Attention 11/21/08

Clump clump....clump....clump....

HeroClix Not Dead Yet

Catalyst Game Labs has submitted a bid to aquire WizKids Games properties: HeroClix, the Pirates PocketModel Game, Star Wars PocketModel TCG, BattleTech/MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. 

source: http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/

Contests

Win a Hellboy DVD . Standard, fill out form, random drawing type contest. 

Win $1000 . This is a photo contest. You have to submit a photo of the game Battle of Britian being played in an unusual place.

More GenCon Internet Buzz

The Lucusfilm lawsuit against GenCon has been dismissed. The courts feel that the payment of the charity money is handled adequately under the chapter 11 filing.

Z-man Customs Problem

Z-Man Pandemic reprint has been delayed by U.S. Boarder Enforcement pending an X-ray inspection. This happened to the first shipment as well. Is it just coincidence, or a conspiracy? Or maybe it has something to do with trying to bring a container marked "Pandemic" into the U.S.

Black Friday

[news] Next Friday officially kicks off the holiday gift shopping season, and is the day of the biggest sales of the year. [/news]

[shameless site fund raising promotion] If you plan on avoiding the crowds by shopping on-line, and if you are going to be buying something from Amazon, please consider buying it through the Amazon links on Fortress: Ameritrash. Fortress:Ameritrash receives a small commission from these purchases, so it's like giving two gifts for the price of one.

You can purchase anything sold by Amazon by using the search search widget found in the right column -  just enter keywords or ASIN number in the search box. Or browse Hot Deals . [/shameless site fund raising promotion]

Asmodee

Most of the focus on Asmodee deals with their release of the Formula D reprint.

According to their main page, Formula D has been shifted to the "New Release" category, menaing that it should be available soon.

Their Formula D sub-page has some nifty tidbits:

      -The next Formula D track was revealed:  the Sebring track in Florida and Chicago. You can see the board for yourself at http://www.formula-d.info/en/?p=128.

-   A shortcut for printing out and placing on the board can be found here (http://www.formula-d.info/en/?p=131) that "adds a bit more chaos to a track that already has more than its fair share."

In the last bit of Formula D "news", there's a promotional movie on one of their subsites that...uh...defies description.  Click on it if you must, but be warned this will be time of your life that you will never be able to recover.  If you think you can handle it, check out http://www.asmoman.com/formulad/formulad_hd_english.html. 

Asmodee to publish Snow Tails

From the Asmodee website:

"It's official, Asmodee will publish and distribute Snow Tails, a sled racing game made by the Lamont brothers and edited by Fragor Games. "Snow Tails a sort of Car Wars but with more dogs and less flamethrowers!" stated a prolific French game author who had fallen under the Snow Tails' spell while at Essen.

The Lamont brothers are not unknown to the gaming public - they have also been behind Shear Panic, a tactical game full of cute little resin sheep which had made some waves in Essen before being reprinted on a larger scale. Snow Tails is gearing up to be the proud successor to Shear Panic: a fact proved by the many copies which were on sale in Essen and of which few haven't been sold. A new step is about to be taken by Snow Tails, which will be published and distributed worldwide by Asmodee. Its original gameplay has been able to hook Croc (the aforementioned prolific French game author) and Pierre Gaubil (Executive Officer at Asmodee), who has stated he was more than happy to work with the Lamont brothers, who are friendly and uniquely colorful characters in the world of gaming (one is a lawyer and the other one is a shepherd), and who have but one rule when it comes to making games: "We make just one game a year, but we make it a good one!"

The new edition of Snow Tails will be available in stores in the second quarter of 2009."

BOOB TOOB

ABC is running commercials for the return of LOST, set to happen on January 21st, 2009.  LOST has been a rare show that has for the most part managed to keep up its high quality, making it one of the best shows on TV....MONK's next season, its eighth, is also slated to be its last....Scrubs is set to come back to television on Tuesday, January 6th--but on its new home ABC...Speaking of ABC, they have decided not to order any more episodes of “Pushing Daisies,” “Eli Stone” and “Dirty Sexy Money.”  The bodies continue to mount over the fall television season, it seems...Heroes posted its lowest ratings ever, which is a shame because the series has really found its groove again after stumbling its way through its strike-shortened second season...Superman ubervillain Doomsday has apparently made his way onto Smallville.  At this pace, Superman will have finished his entire superhero career without ever donning the blue and red costume.

Star Trek Trailer

The latest trailer for next year's big Star Trek reboot is available online.  See it for yourself at the official site:  http://www.startrekmovie.com/


Yeah, it does sound like he says, "Siberius."  I blame modern rock singers from ruining the enunciation skills of an entire generation.

Multiman Winter Offensive

Multiman has finally announced their Winter Offensive event, a whole sixty days before it's due to start. I guess they figured there's no sense in waiting.

Details are here -- http://www.multimanpublishing.com/wo.php and there's an interesting part hidden down in the page:

"Depending on demand, we'll run some one-day tournaments on Saturday including STORM OVER STALINGRAD and other MMP IGS/Gamers games! Email Brian if you are interested and let him know ASAP!"

If anyone is looking for a bit of (time to step into the genre for a moment) "forward observation on the target" Sag has offered to field questions. Train station and airport relatively close by, all of DC and Baltimore is a short drive away for field trips before or after.