If you have a kid in the house, no doubt you know what Friday is: the release of the new Disney/Pixar movie Cars 2. Animated cars abound in the sequel that returns charismatic speedster Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and his tow-truck pal Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), and also introduces new characters such as British secret agent Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) in its internationally flavored storyline. Gamers of all ages can get in on the action, too, with Cars 2: The Video Game, which allows you to choose from more than 20 different characters to hit the road with and also train to become a world-class spy — or the animated automobile equivalent. Even better, we’re teaming with Disney Interactive to give away 10 copies of the game to readers, on their choice of console: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, PlayStation 3 or PC/Mac. Fill out the entry form below by next Wednesday and we’ll choose 10 lucky winners at random. Check out the official rules, and to get a look at the game, here is a neato behind-the-scenes peek.
World Wrestling Entertainment has its biggest day of the year this Sunday when WrestleMania XXVII hits the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. If you want to get more personally involved in an epic smackdown, though, you can also pick up WWE All-Stars, the new THQ video game (available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and PSP, and the Nintendo Wii and DS) that pits current as well as legendary pro wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson against each other in arcade-style, larger-than-life matches. John Cena, 33, the charismatic face of the WWE these days, is a part of the new game and this weekend’s WrestleMania activities, culminating in a match for the WWE title with him against The Miz Sunday. (The two have been having a weekly war of words with Johnson the past month on the USA Network’s WWE Raw, which airs every Monday night.) I had a chance yesterday to talk with Cena — who debuted in the WWE in 2002 and has had starring movie roles in The Marine, 12 Rounds and Legendary — about WrestleMania and his role with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, so read below for the interview and check out his character and others in this WWE All-Stars trailer.
Birthday wishes go out today to UNO — the classic card game, not the deep-dish pizza place. The pastime of kids young and old for 40 years now since its creation (which came out of an argument between an Ohio barber and his son about the rules of Crazy Eights), UNO has now moved from the family game closet to online platforms. More than 1.8 users play the game on a monthly basis via its Facebook application, UNO is one of the most downloaded games on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, and even the UNO iPhone /iPad app is a best-seller — currently it’s No. 5 overall on the paid apps chart. But how about for those longtime gamers who still want to draw their colored action cards in an old-school fashion? They’re in luck. The card game is getting a nostalgic makeover for its 40th anniversary with the limited-edition release of the UNO Retro Card Game — complete with throwback packaging, no less! — that’s priced at a mere $1 at retail stores. (Don’t worry — you can still get the regular version, too.) In addition, UNO is giving its fans another present on its birthday: Today only, the iPhone/iPad app, regularly $4.99, is only a buck.
You can’t say that the creative people at Disney are void of grand ideas. And for Epic Mickey, the new video game exclusively for the Nintendo Wii featuring Mickey Mouse and a host of “forgotten” characters, the folks at the House of Mouse are taking their iconic character to a dark world that will appeal to kids of all ages. (Of course, this is Disney so nothing is ever that “dark.” It’s not like Pulp Fiction or something.) The story picks up from the 1940s animated Fantasia and Mickey gets sucked by a malevolent force into Wasteland, which is not exactly the happiest place on Earth. From there, Mickey gets to be the hero and meets his long-lost “brother” of sorts, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character first introduced in 1927 that gets a reintroduction of sorts in Epic Mickey and is none too pleased of Mickey’s ubiquity. Check out a glimpse of Oswald in this Epic Mickey video and read below about five aspects of the game that will appeal to the Disney fanatic in you.
You’ve seen the new Harry Potter movie, so now it’s time to play the video game and be a magic man (or woman) yourself. The Electronic Arts game Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and DS, puts you right in the thick of things as Harry and his pals Ron and Hermione battle to save their friends and family from Lord Voldemort (who evidently is the guy who shall be named again) and his evil band of Death Eaters. The story mode follows the movie’s plot, as Harry ventures to find Voldemort’s Horcruxes, the key to defeating the villain who killed his parents, and has to battle a lot of assorted bad guys and creatures along the way. That’s where the action gets really neat with the Wii console or an Xbox 360 with the new Kinect. Use the Wiimote as a wand to do your spellcasting with the Wii, and you don’t even need anything in your hands to use your magic with the motion-recognizing Kinect. But even if you just have a normal old controller, it’s still fun defeating opponents with Expelliarmus and other spells in Harry’s arsenal. We’re giving thanks for Harry this week and letting you reap the benefits: 10 followers of our Twitter feed who tweet out their favorite Potter-verse character not named Harry and why — using the #usawloveshp hashtag, of course — by 5 p.m. EST Friday have a chance to win a copy of the new Harry Potter game for the console of their choice. Just don’t get hit by the Babbling Curse, though — you only have 140 characters! In the meantime, check out this trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1.
Monopoly has been around for 75 fun-filled years, but it’s never been as animated as it is now with the video game Monopoly Streets, now available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS (in the form of classic Monopoly). Streets puts the classic board game and all its real estate at eye level, as your animated avatar whips around Marvin Gardens, Connecticut Avenue, Reading Road and all the classic places as you work your way to the uber-ritzy Boardwalk and Park Place in a three-dimensional world. Choose your character — such as the captain of a ship or the driver of the iconic race car — and beat the opposition by grabbing up real estate that comes alive when you buy it and wilts when you mortgage property. What’s really neat: When you get to build houses and hotels, which are different and unique to each colored group of properties, and you see the look of fear on your fellow players’ faces when they see a full-on estate show up on Boardwalk that will likely send them to bankruptcy. (Well, I didn’t see the look of dread, actually. I was wearing it before my wife put me away for good when we played.) With great graphics and unlockable boards to play on, it’s a great thing to have around for the holidays. And since the season is upon us and we love our readers, we’re giving away Monopoly Streets to 10 lucky followers of our Twitter feed! Tweet your favorite part of Monopoly, from game pieces to real estate properties to even the jail (if that’s your thing), using the #usawopoly hash tag by Friday at 5 p.m. EST, and we’ll pick 10 winners at random to win copies of Monopoly Streets on the platform of their choosing. So get to tweeting and check out a behind-the-scenes look at the game below.
There have been many Spider-Man video games through the years, but as technology and consoles have improved, so has Spidey. Activision’s new Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game (out now on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS) actually offers gameplay with four different Spider-Men — from pulp-era Noir to modern-day Spider-Man to the Ultimate version to the futuristic Spider-Man 2099 — spanning four completely different worlds. The game features a number of voice actors from Spider-Man cartoons past, including Neil Patrick Harris, as well as a number of Spidey’s greatest and nastiest villains, such as the Vulture, Sandman, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter and Doctor Octopus. It was also written by a proven Spidey pro, comic book writer Dan Slott, who takes over full-time writing duties on the Amazing Spider-Man comic come November. “I could be lifting heavy boxes for a living. I get to write Spider-Man. It’s pretty awesome,” Slott says. Read below for Slott’s take on the game, and check out this game trailer featuring the four Spider-Man and his foes.
Whenever I play Monopoly, I always make sure to hit the Boardwalk as soon as I can — usually in a pewter race car. (Hey, I’m like a large 10-year-old, what can I tell you.) It turns out Mr. Monopoly thinks along the same lines I do. The popular board game celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and yesterday Monopoly hit Atlantic City (which inspired many of the game’s integral properties) in full force. More than 750,000 spectators were on hand to see Mr. Monopoly parachute out of a plane during the eighth annual “Thunder over the Boardwalk” air show — landing on a big “GO” space, naturally — to deliver the dice and money for an anniversary game lead by Charles Darrow, grandson of the original Charles Darrow who found fame with his game during the Great Depression. And there’s only more to come this year for Monopoly lovers: the game-changing (pun intended) Monopoly Revolution has hit stores and is a contemporary twist on the old classic; the Monopoly Streets video game hits consoles this fall; and Monopoly is coming to Facebook later this year as a game application for friends to play against one another.
Transformers fans haven’t had that much to look forward to in the video-game world. For years, companies have been trying to make a good game, but for whatever reason or another — iffy gameplay, clunky transforming, etc. — it’s never happened. That is, until now with Activision’s Transformers: War for Cybertron (available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii and DS). As a longtime fan of those robots in disguise, I was impressed with this effort far more than the failed ones before it. It’s pretty simple to pick up, has a bunch of different modes (from two separate single-player story missions to online multiplayer melees), and is filled with characters us geeks grew up with. Autobots like the big cheese Optimus Prime (voiced yet again in classic fashion by Peter Cullen), Bumblebee, Warpath and Ironhide are playable characters, as are Deception leader Megatron and his minions such as Soundwave, Starscream and Thundercracker. And even better, their robot forms and Cybertronian vehicle forms they do battle in are more like the old cartoon and toy versions that we all remember from our youth, rather than the odd alien-type looks they have in the recent movies. Laying waste to many an Autobot as Megatron made me want to play more games revisiting my childhood, so read below for a few other nostalgia-leaning games of note and to peep a glimpse of War for Cybertron.
While Heroes fans see him weekly as the enigmatic TV villain Sylar, Zachary Quinto opened himself up to a whole new audience — and world of fans — when he donned the pointy ears of Spock in J.J. Abrams‘ popular Star Trek movie reboot last summer. Now, he’s utilizing his voice talents in the new Star Trek Online game, a kind of World of Warcraft for the live-long-and-prosper set. In stores Tuesday, the PC game features Quinto as Emergency Medical Hologram 6.0, who walks gamers through tutorials as they begin their mission and tweak their customizable characters. I talked with the busy actor yesterday about the game, as well as the future of Heroes and his production company Before the Door Pictures, so read below for our conversation and check out a behind-the-scenes clip of Quinto voicing his character.
Art courtesy of USA Today, Atari, Paramount Pictures
Our Who’s News blog is a daily extension of the popular weekly celebrity column in USA WEEKEND Magazine. We share outtakes, extras and other celebrity news as it comes.
If you have a kid in the house, no doubt you know what Friday is: the release of the new Disney/Pixar movie Cars 2. Animated cars abound in the sequel that returns charismatic speedster Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and his tow-truck pal Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), and also introduces new characters such as British secret agent Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) in its internationally flavored storyline. Gamers of all ages can get in on the action, too, with Cars 2: The Video Game, which allows you to choose from more than 20 different characters to hit the road with and also train to become a world-class spy — or the animated automobile equivalent. Even better, we’re teaming with Disney Interactive to give away 10 copies of the game to readers, on their choice of console: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, PlayStation 3 or PC/Mac. Fill out the entry form below by next Wednesday and we’ll choose 10 lucky winners at random. Check out the official rules, and to get a look at the game, here is a neato behind-the-scenes peek.
There have been many Spider-Man video games through the years, but as technology and consoles have improved, so has Spidey. Activision’s new Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game (out now on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS) actually offers gameplay with four different Spider-Men — from pulp-era Noir to modern-day Spider-Man to the Ultimate version to the futuristic Spider-Man 2099 — spanning four completely different worlds. The game features a number of voice actors from Spider-Man cartoons past, including Neil Patrick Harris, as well as a number of Spidey’s greatest and nastiest villains, such as the Vulture, Sandman, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter and Doctor Octopus. It was also written by a proven Spidey pro, comic book writer Dan Slott, who takes over full-time writing duties on the Amazing Spider-Man comic come November. “I could be lifting heavy boxes for a living. I get to write Spider-Man. It’s pretty awesome,” Slott says. Read below for Slott’s take on the game, and check out this game trailer featuring the four Spider-Man and his foes.
Whenever I play Monopoly, I always make sure to hit the Boardwalk as soon as I can — usually in a pewter race car. (Hey, I’m like a large 10-year-old, what can I tell you.) It turns out Mr. Monopoly thinks along the same lines I do. The popular board game celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and yesterday Monopoly hit Atlantic City (which inspired many of the game’s integral properties) in full force. More than 750,000 spectators were on hand to see Mr. Monopoly parachute out of a plane during the eighth annual “Thunder over the Boardwalk” air show — landing on a big “GO” space, naturally — to deliver the dice and money for an anniversary game lead by Charles Darrow, grandson of the original Charles Darrow who found fame with his game during the Great Depression. And there’s only more to come this year for Monopoly lovers: the game-changing (pun intended) Monopoly Revolution has hit stores and is a contemporary twist on the old classic; the Monopoly Streets video game hits consoles this fall; and Monopoly is coming to 
Transformers fans haven’t had that much to look forward to in the video-game world. For years, companies have been trying to make a good game, but for whatever reason or another — iffy gameplay, clunky transforming, etc. — it’s never happened. That is, until now with Activision’s Transformers: War for Cybertron (available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii and DS). As a longtime fan of those robots in disguise, I was impressed with this effort far more than the failed ones before it. It’s pretty simple to pick up, has a bunch of different modes (from two separate single-player story missions to online multiplayer melees), and is filled with characters us geeks grew up with. Autobots like the big cheese Optimus Prime (voiced yet again in classic fashion by Peter Cullen), Bumblebee, Warpath and Ironhide are playable characters, as are Deception leader Megatron and his minions such as Soundwave, Starscream and Thundercracker. And even better, their robot forms and Cybertronian vehicle forms they do battle in are more like the old cartoon and toy versions that we all remember from our youth, rather than the odd alien-type looks they have in the recent movies. Laying waste to many an Autobot as Megatron made me want to play more games revisiting my childhood, so read below for a few other nostalgia-leaning games of note and to peep a glimpse of War for Cybertron.
While Heroes fans see him weekly as the enigmatic TV villain Sylar, Zachary Quinto opened himself up to a whole new audience — and world of fans — when he donned the pointy ears of Spock in J.J. Abrams‘ popular Star Trek movie reboot last summer. Now, he’s utilizing his voice talents in the new