First and foremost, Patch 1.2 will activate the long-awaited Legacy System.  Legacy up till now has just meant the same last name for all of your characters on a given server, but with the patch it will be so much more.  Players will be able to construct family trees, and be able to construct lineage as they choose.  The system will also allow players to “pass down” abilities to there “offspring”, in other words, if a characters father was a Sith, and had the ability to Force Choke, his republic Jedi Consular son could “inherit” this ability.  To keep the game balanced however, these abilities are only able to be used while the characters companion is present, so mostly PvE solo situations.  Things could get out of hand if everyone in a game of Huttball could use abilities like Force Choke.  Another cool thing about the legacy system, is once a player reaches level 50 with a certain race, lets say Sith Pureblood, the player is then able to create a Pureblood with any race.  This works for companions as well, reaching certain points of affection with your companions will allow unlocks of that companion type on other characters.

The patch will also includes several new encounters for players to go thru.  A new warzone Novare Coast, will have capturable points and a defend-the-base kind of gameplay sort of similar to Civil War.  There will also be 2 new PvE encounters, an operation, Explosive Conflict, as well as a flashpoint, Lost Island.

With Patch 1.2 also comes a massive amount of general gameplay changes and improvements.  Lots of class balancing (some of which much needed, but I digress) as well as improvements to abilities, and animations that may not have worked as intended.  Further improvements to crew skills including new recipes and the ability to give your useless ship droid an upgrade slot, which will allow him to have a specialty in a crew skill of your choice, like your other companions have.  Players will now be able to customize armor as well, being able to change main colours and accents.  A new tier of armor, and several new daily level 50 quests on Corellia in a new zone called “The Black Hole” are also being implemented. This will be most helpful, as some of the new legacy unlocks will require substantial amounts of credits, and these new quests certainly help to acquire them.

As I mentioned earlier, lots of players including myself, felt this patch couldn’t come soon enough.  While I have been beyond satisfied with the game, and continue to be impressed with how Bioware/EA have released a game as complete and balanced upon launch, new content is nice and should always be welcomed.  There have been lots of complaints online about things being “broken” or “not finished” in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and while some of these complaints may seem vaild, it needs to be noted the game is still only a few months old.  I’ve played many MMO’s in my time, most notably World of Warcraft, and Star Wars was far and away the smoothest launch I have ever played thru.  World of Warcraft was broken, for a long, long time.  Many people who play WoW now, didn’t experience this, so they wouldn’t know.  I feel Bioware/EA doesn’t get near the credit they deserve with SW:TOR, instead its overshadowed somewhat by players with experience only playing finished/polished games. I hope Patch 1.2 draws some of the people who /unsubscribed in a ragequit fashion back into it, as it really is a great game.  But thats the end of my rant, and this article, hope you enjoyed reading and are looking forward to this patch as much as I am.

May the force be with you.

Over the last year I have been writing and producing The Colour Scheme, a five-part radio drama that aired last month on 92.9 KICK-FM.  Revolving around a group of American bank robbers traveling to Canada to rob the Canadian Bank Note Company, the story unfolds through the unique perspectives of five characters.

Instead of telling you the story however, why don’t you give all five episodes a listen?  The first four episodes were recorded in studio and mixed in post-production, while the finale was performed live on 92.9 KICK-FM.

Pour yourself a drink, sit back and relax, you are about to take part in,

On this week’s show, the gang leaves the confines of the Ice Palace to take in the annual Winnipeg Comic and Toy Expo and chats about some of the event highlights. In the news segment, we discuss Amy Reeder’s departure from Batwoman along with a couple other changes to DC’s New 52 creative teams and the Awesome Arena returns to showcase a battle between the red and green Hulks, with the latter having recently (in our minds) been trained in Kung Fu.

All this and more, including reviews for Amazing Spider-Man #680 and #681, Swamp Thing #7, Fatale #3 and many more books from the past two weeks.

Download episode / Listen on mobile (Right-click “Save-as”)
Subscribe to LBR via iTunes
Visit Longboxradio.com

Show details:
Recorded: Saturday March 10th, 2012
Duration: 1h 22m 38s
Edited by: Lee Skwarek

Music credits:
Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas
Great Lakes Avengers by Kirby Krackle

Show notes & links:
Shazam’s new look via ComicsAlliance

Total Recall is in theaters August 3 and also stars Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Total Recall” is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he’s got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.

(Video courtesy of Movienewz)

Here is the official announcement,

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (February 29, 2012) – The man with the hat is back – and looking better than ever! The world’s favorite globe-trotting archaeologist is, at long last, embarking on his greatest adventure – when The Complete Indiana Jones Blu-ray Collection comes to Blu-ray Disc from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Media Distribution. The Complete Indiana Jones Blu-ray Collection will be excavated in the fall of 2012 and will include all four of Indy’s thrilling adventures, using the highest possible high definition picture and audio presentation – along with a “best of” collection of documentaries, interviews, featurettes and a few new surprises.

Stay tuned to POA! for more info.

Check out the trailer for the release below!

Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Day Watch), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the big-screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel from 2010.  Seth Grahame-Smith has been a hot author over the last couple of years due to his literary mash-ups Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Seth Grahame-Smith also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stars Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and is set for release on June 22, 2012.

Initial impressions of the set I feel were generally good. For anyone who has played sealed/draft format for any length of time, you will have most likely agreed that Innistrad was a fantastic set, with lots of great playables and cards that will retain some value even after they rotate out of Standard format. This meant that Dark Ascension had some big shoes to fill in the expectations of Magic players.  While being a much smaller set than Innistrad, I feel the set didn’t disappoint.  It introduced some new mechanics in Undying and Fateful Hour, and continued on where Innistrad left off with Morbid, Flashback, as well as the Double-Sided cards.

Although the set has only been out for not quite 2 weeks, it has already made quite the impact in the competitive tournament formats.  There has been 2 Starcitygames.com Open Events, as well as a Pro-Tour in Honolulu that featured the Standard format and players put together some interesting brews.  The inclusion of Dark Ascension cards was most apparent in the Wolf Run decks,  notably Red/Green finishing in the 1st and 2nd spot at Pro Tour:Honolulu.  Piloted by Magic legends, Brian Kibler and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, both decklists were very similar, and featured a 4 of Huntmaster of the Fells fitted in amongst the still somewhat traditional wolf run list.  Dark Ascension also gave some great playables for archetypes that have been off the radar for some time, including Mono-Green, all styles of Birthing Pod decks, and Mage-Blade/U/B Blade.

Individual cards that I feel have made a big impact already and you should probably be playing if you aren’t already include but aren’t limited too: Faithless Looting, Huntmaster of the Fells, Lingering Souls, Strangleroot Geist, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and Gather The Townsfolk.  These cards all obviously don’t fit into the same deck but are all good in there own respective ways.  Lingering Souls can make you five 1/1 fliers at a cost of 5 mana, which is absolutely bonkers and this card will undoubtedly see play in every format.  Sorin, Lord of Innistrad does most of the things you want a planeswalker to do, makes a body, pumps up your existing guys, and his wrath effect is very useful in wiping out 3 creatures/planeswalkers on the opponents side, and then returning them to your own. Gather the Townsfolk might be just what U/W Humans needed to push it into Tier 1 territory in standard, providing you with 2 1/1′s and giving your Snapcaster Mage an excellent target as a flashback option.

With only 2 weeks under its belt, Dark Ascension is proving to be a great addition to a steadily evolving standard meta-game.  There is no single “best deck” by any stretch of the imagination which makes for a very fun, very healthy and very diverse field.  The set also continues in creating a brewers paradise for trying out new things at your local Friday Night Magic.  For anyone who has played Magic for any amount of time, I have no doubt they would all agree its a great time to play right now.

Here is the official synopsis for the film,

The narrative architect behind the Bourne film series, Tony Gilroy, takes the helm in the next chapter of the hugely popular espionage franchise that has earned almost $1 billion at the global box office: The Bourne Legacy. The writer/director expands the Bourne universe created by Robert Ludlum with an original story that introduces us to a new hero (Jeremy Renner) whose life-or-death stakes have been triggered by the events of the first three films. For The Bourne Legacy, Renner joins fellow series newcomers Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Oscar Isaac, while franchise veterans Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Scott Glenn reprise their roles.

The Bourne Legacy is set for a August 3, 2012 release, and as you can see it does not star Matt Damon.

Jeremy Renner has become one hot ticket in Hollywood since breaking through with 2008′s The Hurt Locker.  Not only was he in the massive hit that is Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, but he is also playing Hawkeye in one of the years most anticipated films, The Avengers (the Super Bowl TV spot can be seen here).

This reveal comes after a handful of other teasers for the upcoming event including a shot of the Sinister Six, what appears to be a downed crowd of infected civilians and a selection of angles showing Pete suiting up in his new duds, all of which you can check out below.

20th Century Fox announced today that The Wolverine is now set for a July 26, 2013 release.  The Wolverine is being directed by James Mangold (Knight and Day, 3:10 to Yuma) and has Wolverine going to Japan and battling it out with the Silver Samurai.

Snikt!