Dropping in from the Zune HQ here. It’s been an informative day and there is some awesome stuff coming out that I am very excited about. For now, there are a couple things going to be live tomorrow. This includes an update to zune.net. What can you except?

Podcasts

• Audio Streaming from web Download/Subscribe push to software (U.S. Only)
• Audio/Video search function
• Summit your Podcast from Zune.net

Music

• Updates to quizzes and sharing with friends

Others

• RSS feeds for the forums

Check back and I’ll link to the other MVP’s articles about this!

http://beetstro.com/beet-farm/the-maczune-girl-mystery-part-2/

Pandemic Studios is in development of a little game called The Saboteur. The Saboteur follows the story of Sean Devlin, in a Nazi occupied Paris who is seeking revenge.  Now, I’ve been to Paris but not this kind of Paris. To find out more what this world looks like, I got a chance to ask the creators and find out more.

We know very little about this Nazi occupied world. I can safely say, it’s because most of us were not even born yet! What inspired this world?

Our inspiration behind The Saboteur actually comes from a real-world story. Do a search for a guy named William Grover-Williams and check it out. It’s a really amazing tale of a mechanic that became a Bugatti race car driver in France in the early 1900’s. Once World War II broke out, he joined the SOE and went back into France as a British spy to disrupt the Nazi occupation. The guy obviously had balls of steel, and that’s exactly the type of hero we wanted to recreate in The Saboteur – except our hero, Sean Devlin, is only after revenge and doesn’t care about helping any country win the war.

Seems like a badass and a bit selfish — just my type of guy!  I wonder if he would ever take me out to dinner. Are there any bistros in the game?

It wouldn’t be Paris without bistros, right? You’ll see all kinds of sidewalk cafes and eateries in this gorgeous city, though Sean will be a bit busy cracking skulls to enjoy any tasty croissants. While you may not eat during the game, you may see our hero enjoy some other necessities of life, such as drinking from his flask or lighting up a smoke.

Well, smokes are way more low cal than croissants, so I’m cool with that. Nazi Paris is embracing its M rating, so what are some of the things we can overhear while roaming the streets?

The Nazis will swear I aplenty in German, but the real treat isn’t what you’ll hear in the street so much as what you’ll occasionally hear indoors – through the walls, if you know what I mean.

I’ll be sure to keep an ear out. What movies severed as an inspiration?

For the universe backdrop, the Indiana Jones flicks taught us that Nazi’s are always fun to kill, even (and perhaps especially) if you’re not fighting the war. Some classics like Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare also gave a lot of great reference material when it comes to blowing Nazis up. But when it comes to creating our hero, Sean Devlin, we looked to films such as Die Hard and Dirty Harry to create a tough-as-nails anti-hero that is clever enough to get any dirty job done.

Aside from getting inspiration from other films,  I heard you guys went to Paris to help create an accurate Paris for Sab. How accurate is the final product?

It’s what we like to call the Disneyland version of Paris . Everything is in the right place, and, if you’ve ever been to Paris before, you’ll instantly know how to find your way around. For the sake of gameplay and balancing, we didn’t recreate a full one-to-one replication of the real city of Paris , but it’s HUGE. Every major district is there, each with its own flavor and distinct style. Again, if you know Paris , you’ll be right at home. And if you don’t already know it, then it’s cheaper than a plane ticket and you’ll probably learn something.

What sections of Paris were stylized for the game?

We’ve stylized some things such as the Moulin Rouge, which has been recreated in The Saboteur as The Belle de Nuit. By the name alone, you can probably figure out what goes on here. And we’ve taken a bit of creative and artistic liberty with our universe in bringing the Nazi occupation to life, so that the parts of Paris that are inhabited by the Nazis will be truly intimidating as you discover them.

Did you guys go to any cabarets in Paris ? As part of research of course!

The Parisian nightlife is part of what makes this unique city so magical, so naturally the team had to get some first-hand experience. For research, yes. But unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten where those photos went …

Be thankful there is not a TMZ for gaming! Quick fire question: Hamburger vs. French bread?

Neither – freedom fries!

Great choice. Let’s move along now to the more hard hitting questions. There are lots of pretty ladies in this Nazi Paris –  inspirations?

Again, some of the best perks of this job are the reference and research stages. We are sitting on a stash of photos from modeling sessions for some of the more sexy characters in the game. And by “sitting on,” I of course mean “using as our desktop wallpapers.”

I expect to see these images in my asset disk…yesterday. If you could be born again, would you be born in Nazi Paris? Why?

Yes. But only in the universe of The Saboteur, and only as Sean Devlin – where you are a one-man wrecking crew with the entire city of Paris at your disposal. Any other scenario would be pretty grim.

What do Deadpool, the Wizard of Oz, and Starcraft have in common? Well, it certainly isn’t “Zerg”, “Rainbows” or “Poptarts”, so it must be “awesome”! That’s exactly what you get in this Q&A session with the worlds greatest ‘player two’. (I’ll give you a hint, the wind doesn’t whisper “hostiles” at him.)

Carlos Ferro, AKA Dominic Santiago, AKA Domination, AKA “the character responsible for the majority of my achievements in the Gears of War series”, has taken a moment to chat with me on behalf of Co-optimus.com. He talks about Voice acting, toys, Gears, and Batman.

Take a look at what he has to say, in his own words!

Yes, I love food. So I thought to myself, “What would an awesome videogame based on food look like?” My answer was simple: To have fun and learn at the same time. I asked my Twitter homies, what they thought a videogame based game should look like — this is what they had to say:

hangmansix: A FPS with girls in bikini’s throwing pies.

about 11 minutes ago

Tue Feb 17 20:41:50 +0000 2009

“Never Wanted to Dance”

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Dear and the Headlights | I’m not crying. You’re not crying are you?

The Aimless Never Miss — The Bright Side

Angry Vs The Bear | I Sing, We Sing

Pugs Atomz | Tear N your eye

A-Trak | Say Whoa

The Everyday Visuals - Boom! Boom! Boom!

DJ Eleven - So Simple (DJ Eleven remix)

Okay, okay, I know, Dexter has been around for quite some time now. But, not surprisingly, most of the people I’ve talked to had no idea that Showtimes Dexter started off in book form. With the fourth installment of the series, Dexter by Design, on its way, I thought I’d take the opportunity to shed some light on the books that gave Dexter life.

Recommended for: Fans of psychological thrillers, the Dexter TV show on Showtime, or anyone who might appreciate a bit of (very) dark humor on occasion.
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Series: Books 1-3 released, book 4 scheduled for September, 2009.

TV is a wonderful thing, it allows you to see what Dexter is up to – to a certain extent. TV has censorship as well. While some stations have the “unedited” Dexter featuring more language, but really, he’s still pretty tame compared to his book self. Do I have your attention yet?

Dexter Morgan is best known as: the serial killer with morals – stalking, and murdering people who truly deserve justice. Careful, deliberate, Dexter. Dexter even works for the people responsible for putting murderers behind bars, as he’s the blood splatter specialist for Miami Detectives, who “helps” solve crimes with his unique insight from a killers point of view.

Dexter in book form is completely unleashed. Free to give you a play-by-play of what a serial killer must be thinking while stalking his prey, to give you situations that only your imagination can illustrate properly, and internal dialog (some of which is in the crazy-third person) that will make one laugh and shudder at the mind of our favorite murderer.

The series thus far spans over 3 books that hold a lot more focus to what really goes on when Dexter does his thing, sheds much more light on the side plots of his personal hobby, and I will preach it as I always do: The show is good, but the book is better.

Check out:

Darkly Dreaming Dexter: ISBN 0307277887

Dearly Devoted Dexter: ISBN 1400095921

Dexter in the Dark: ISBN 0307276732

(September 2009) Dexter by Design: ISBN 0385518366

As many designers out there, I use the internet to find inspiration for my next project. It is because of this I came across this little gem: Card Observer. As a design snob and branding enthusiast, I find card design to be the best way to judge a company and its creativity. Card Observer has tons of amazing examples of card design done right.

Comics, games and swag are some of the things I am missing  as I sit at home in my P.J’s during New York Comic Con. However, I am glad I can live the experience through the Twitter, Flickr and blog posts of some. EA, has created an event site to cover everything that is going on at the Con. I have not seen this type of coverage from anyone and I am really glad they stepped up! Visit the event site for coverage, interviews, pictures and video!

What happens when the apocalypse happily meets up with starting a new, animal filled life? Crossing4Dead is the latest game from Farcical Studios to the nethersystem, which takes the survivors of Left 4 Dead and gives them a new life among the animals. Join Regn, after she’s survived the apocalypse, but been separated from her team, make a new life in the world of Animal Crossing.

Meet new friends, maintain a town, and most of all…Survive. Write anonymous letters to be mailed by stork to random strangers to answer the age-old question: are we alone post apocalypse? How would you survive, what would you do? Play the game**, decide your destiny.

**This is not actually a game, this is an editorial by yours truly for Co-optimus.com. My goal is to have you enjoy what you read, and hopefully you enjoy “Crossing4Dead”, Cheers!

Read the whole editorial over at Co-optimus!

Listen @ Myspace Music

If you find yourself bobbing your head to some electronic, funky beats blasting through your speakers and are playing FIFA 09 or NBA LIVE 09 – you are probably listing to Chromeo. Perhaps “the only successful Arab/Jewish collaboration since the beginning of time”, Dave 1 and P-Thugg have been friends since the age of 15 and decided to make music together. I chatted with P-Thug about their music, cooking and women.

What’s your role in the band?
I’m mostly the synthesizer and bass dude.

That’s where the fun is at! How did you get started using those?
I started bass in high school and played some guitar. But then Dave is a better guitar player, that’s why I stayed with the bass. Then I took up keyboards later.

Did you have former training or did you jut pick it up yourself?
I kind of just picked it up. I had teachers here and there, couple music lessons, but I mostly picked it up myself.

Self-Taught is the way to do it. Do you write alone or do you guys write together?
We usually present each other with demos through MP3s. He’ll call me up, throw ideas around, leave voice mails singing, etc. We meet up for a few weeks to record together, since I live in Canada and he [Dave] lives in New York.

Woah, that is so Y2K! Where did you get started?
We used to live in Montreal, but then he moved to New York, seven years ago.

In my personal musical journey, I jumped from Hip-Hop to rock to electronic and then just loved everything.
It was the same for us. Dave is more of the Hip-Hop guy and I’m into funk.

Image wise, no one would be able to put that together, I’m sure. Talking about image, I love the image you guys use of the keyboard with women legs — I think it’s brilliant.
Thanks. The guys who designed our cover came up with it — we loved it. Funny thing is that some people have found it to be offensive.

Whatever! We can find some of your music on EA’s FIFA 09 and NBA Live 09. Are you a gamer?

I don’t play all that much now, but I was bigger into videogames back in the day. I loved Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!!

Oh man! I’m sure 8-bit music has been embedded in your brain. Are you guys touring now?

No, we aren’t. We are working on our album at the moment.

Inspirations from other musicians?
Everything, really. New bands, old bands — it’s a hard question to get specific with.

Do you use MySpace to find up on new bands?
Yes, I do. I mostly use blogs to keep up with new bands.

Are you active online?
Yup. Our MySpace is maintained by us.

Band name
One day Dave came up with it and we thought it was great.

In Hip-Hop we are starting to see the trend of electronic vocals being used everywhere. How do you feel about these trends and would you be afraid if a style you created was being overused by a genre.
I love it, actually. Yeah I know people use it A LOT, but it usually happens in music. If something is popular, people will try to use it. If something of mine became a staple, I think it would be a good thing. I can only hope people will use it for good instead of bad.

Aside from music, do you have any other hobbies? Cooking? Knitting?
I actually really love cooking.

Again with the cooking! Why are so many guys into cooking now a days?
It’s crazy! If I’m on a date with a girl, 90% of the time, when I ask if they cook, they always say “Oh, I can’t cook”. I think something is wrong with this! Girls get really angry at me because of it, too. I usually get the “Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I have to cook!” I just think it’s so unnatural — you have to cook to eat! I’m not “macho”, If I can cook, why can’t you.. you know? I once took one of those survey things and It asked me what are turn offs for me and I put “women that can’t cook”.

Are you into any cooking shows?
I really like Iron Chef.

I think it’s a good time for me to sign off before you ask me for my cooking skills. It was a pleasure! Do you have any inspiration tips?
Thank you and start recycling!

Original stories are somewhat difficult to come by, as remakes or copycats run rampant – But, to recreate the classic story of Alice in Wonderland from a very original angle, I became interested. Imagine if Alice in Wonderland was actually the backward version of a little girls struggle for someone to believe her tale of a real Wonderland - anyone not quite satisfied with the suggestion that Wonderland is pure nonsense may like to have a go with this one.

Recommended for; Teen +
ISBN product number: 0142409413

This version is the tale of Wonderland’s plight of the four suits in the Queendom (Heart, Spade, Diamond and Club families) and the evil plotting of the feared Redd (known better as “The Red Queen”) to battle for ultimate power. The struggle of good versus evil, light versus dark, and Black imagination versus White imagination. Alyss Heart, young heir to the throne, has just had her 7th birthday, and will be in training in White imagination to rule the kingdom from that day forward…

The beginning of the story captivates one with the lore of Wonderland. Each person has special powers based on their White Imagination – with imagination being the key to their civilization, children have more power there, than they do in our world. Alyss has one of the strongest White Imaginations in Wonderland, with ability to imagine things into existence, and alter things as she chooses, but she could never imagine the horrors her terrible Aunt Redd would reign down on her future kingdom.

During an ambush attack by Redd and her army of transforming playing cards, Alyss is forced to flee the kingdom through the Pool of Tears with her mothers bodyguard, Hatter Madigan. They are separated, and she is left bewildered in London, England, while the distressed Hatter searches for her from Paris, France. Learn how poor Princess Alyss Heart is laughed at while trying to explain her life, get back home to Wonderland, and left abandoned in an orphanage where her imagination is drained.

Familiar characters take on different appearances in The Looking Glass Wars, as the Mad Hatter is transformed into a royal body guard with a rather unique battle-ready hat, the Caterpillar is a wise prophet for the Queen, and the Cheshire Cat is a deadly assassin with nine lives.

I personally enjoyed the little details and personality quirks in this tale – such as; Hatter Maddigan uses Wonderland logic while dealing with the Parisian citizens, and trusts only people wearing hats,the Cheshire Cats use of deception (as a cute, cuddly kitten) to sneak past guards unnoticed, and all of the little explanations that brought this classic tale back in to my head. I look forward to the second book in the series; Seeing Redd, and eventually the conclusion to the trilogy which has yet to be released.

If you like things like this, check out The Looking Glass Wars’ Hatter M in graphic novel form; adapted by Liz Cavalier, and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Available in Trade paperback (ISBN: 0981873707).

The Decemberists  | The Rake’s Song

Dirty Projectors  |  Knotty Pine

MF DOOM  | Ballskin

Mos Def   | Quiet Dog

Air #6
Amazing Spider-Man #584
Astonishing X-Men #28
Black Lightning Year One #2 (OF 6)
Dark Avengers #1
Dr Doom Masters Of Evil #1
Faces Of Evil Deathstroke #1
Garth Ennis Battlefields Night Witches #3 (OF 3)
Green Lantern #37
Punisher Frank Castle Max #66
Ruins #1
Spider-Man Noir #2 (OF 4)
Supergirl #37
Uncanny X-Men Annual #2
War Machine #2