Pads & Panels

Title: Backseat Drawing

Publisher: Out of the Box

Players: 4-8

Ages: 12 to Adult

Time Per Game: 30 Minutes

MSRP: $24.99

Description

In Backseat Drawing, players divide themselves into two teams. Each team receives an erasable white board and marker. One person draws for each team per round, but the two opposing artists don’t know what they are drawing. It is up to the rest of the team, who glance at the word card secretly drawn from the box, to describe the image to the artist until he guesses the word.

It sounds simple, but players cannot give descriptive words like “fire,” for instance, if the word is “fireplace.” Players have to stick simply to shapes, sizes, arrows and directional cues, such as up, down, parallel, perpendicular, etc. The first artist to guess the word takes the card for his team. The directors and artists rotate for the next round, and the first team to collect seven cards wins. (more…)

Title: Switchball

Platform: PSN (Also XBLA, PC)

ESRB Rating: E

Publisher: Sierra Online

Developer: Atomic Elbow

Rating:

Review by: Chris Park

The PlayStation Network has a large amount of downloadable titles and probably something for everyone. With that in mind, Switchball is only for those who wish to test their patience and endurance for a game that is repetitive, mind-numbing, and in the end boring.

The purpose of the game is to take a ball through a course from one end to the other. Along the way, various upgrades for the standard ball are available through the different worlds, like a metal casing or a multipurpose ball that can be magnetized or given jump abilities. Each of the five worlds has six levels with free play and timed modes, along with a multiplayer mode. But completing the levels is like watching the intermission of Seven Samurai for ten years; it never ends. (more…)

Many of our regular readers have likely already seen the debut of C.R. Stemple yesterday with his Challengers inteview. We think he’s a swell writer and plan to make it official, so today we’ve added him to our “About” page with a bio. We’ve also copied and pasted it below to help introduce our readers to the latest addition to the staff. Everyone say “hi!”

C.R. Stemple – Staff Comics Writer, Leather-Jacket Wearer, FNG2

Carl Ryan Stemple comes from miles within the Appalachian wilderness, the offspring of a United States Post Master/mountain bike enthusiast and a Special Education teacher/ex-flower-power activist. Thus, as an “indoor” child encapsulated by forest, he read a fair share of comics and toggled a number of D-pads and joysticks, leading to a lifelong passion for both. His first choice of post-secondary schooling was to study English at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, famous for the 1970 Marshall football team plane crash…and the movie about the 1970 Marshall football team plane crash, with little notoriety in any other field.

Stemple moved to Chicago, IL in May of 2009, transferring to Columbia College Chicago with the hopes of attaining a degree in film editing. Since moving, Ryan has punched off his own glasses at a Ghoti Hook show (he totally had it coming), lit a badminton racket on fire (see picture), and joined the band Love and Squalor as lead guitarist (thus making the ugliest band in Chicago). He is available for lunches – preferably Thai or Cuban. (more…)

Title: MySims Agents

Platform: Wii (Also DS)

ESRB Rating: E

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Maxis

Reviewed by: Sarah Kumley

MySims fans with a penchant for solving mysteries will feel right at home with the series’ latest title, MySims Agents, which puts the series characters in the shoes of investigators.

In MySims Agents, the player’s character dreams of being a special agent with his sidekick Buddy instead of working at the local pizzeria. The player begins with some basic tools, such as a crowbar and a magnifying glass to help get to the bottom of dilemmas. After solving a few small crimes around town and attracting the attention of a special agent, the character, named by the player, is promoted to special agent and given a headquarters and secretary of his own. (more…)

Title: “Abbey Road” DLC for The Beatles: Rock Band

Platform: 360 (Also PS3)

Publisher: MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix

Review by: Bill Jones

Usually the equation for whether to purchase DLC tracks for Rock Band is as simple as one’s love for Rock Band plus one’s love for the particular track. With The Beatles: Rock Band, however, it is a slightly different story, with the dreamscapes that play behind the tunes and, in the case of its first substantial track pack, two- and three-song sets, and a 16-minute B-side medley. (more…)

[Ed note: I've wanted to start a series for awhile now featuring unique independent shops doing great things in the comics and games industries, but swamped with work and the feasibility of finding great places outside of the Chicago area, it has been put off until now. But the tenacity of the site's newest writer, C.R. Stemple, prompted us to get it going. So without further adieu, I present readers with the debut of Stemple for Pads & Panels, as well as the first in hopefully a great series we call "Awesome Places." And if readers know of an awesome shop near their hometown, please don't hesitate to let us know. Thanks! Enjoy! --Bill Jones]

Awesome Places #1 – Challengers Comics + Conversation

Owners: Patrick Brower and W. Dal Bush

Location: 1845 N. Western Ave. 2R, Chicago, IL 60647

Website: www.challengerscomics.com

Interview with W. Dal Bush

Interview by: C. R. Stemple

The city of Chicago is not without an abundance of comic book shops – not by a long shot. In fact, the Second City is home to the largest chain of retail comic book stores in the US, Graham Crackers Comics, a direct-market dynamo whose website serves as a 24-hour national sales hub for everything readers would normally find during an in-store visit, essentially eliminating all of the necessities of comic shop culture and interaction.

One new local shop, however, calls foul. Opened in April 2008 by co-owners Patrick Brower and W. Dal Bush, Challengers Comics + Conversation has not only gone out of its way to create a thriving, lively community of both casual and hardcore fans, but also sustains it through a wonderfully interactive and intuitive website that’s driven by (and only truly accessible through) in-store visits. Considering all this, plus a strikingly modern, easily navigable layout with surprises literally around every corner of the store, it is no surprise that Challengers was recently awarded The Best New Comic Book Store in Chicago Magazine’s August 2009 issue.

Pads & Panels visited Challengers and talked with co-owner and sharp dresser W. Dal Bush about the shop, the comic book community at large and what readers can look forward to in the near future. (more…)

We’ve still got a prize or two left in our grab bag for the ongoing contest, but we’re taking a brief break in the interest of Halloween. Three Rivers Press was kind enough to provide us with an extra copy of Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, the comic supplement to Max Brooks’ definitive zombie guide. We’ll be giving that copy away to one lucky reader in a contest that ends on Halloween. Entering is as simple as commenting on some of our stories.

To Enter

Registered readers can earn one entry per post by commenting once on each post, starting with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine review posted today and all subsequent posts until the contest period ends Saturday, Oct. 31 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. In response to this post, users should tell us what their favorite zombie book/movie/game is and why, as well as their plans for a costume this Halloween. We’ll also give an extra two entries to anyone who comments on last week’s review of Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. (more…)

Title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Edition: Blu-ray

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Gavin Hood

Developer: David Benioff and Skip Woods

Producers: Fox, Marvel

Film Rating:

Blu-Ray Features Rating:

Review by: John Gustafson

Blu-ray Features

After what seemed like an eternity awaiting the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray, the emotionally wrenching and heart-string-pulling drama has finally released! That is what is called sarcasm, yet if someone was to say that to director Gavin Hood, he would take that statement as a compliment and most likely add to it with some gibberish about the underlying duality of Wolverine’s struggle to cage the beast or bay at the moon. (more…)

Title:  Dirt 2

Platform: 360 (Also PC, PS3, Wii)

ESRB Rating: T

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Codemasters

Rating:

Review by: Dan Braun

Dirt 2 is respectable rally racer from start to finish. The controls are mostly tight and responsive, the graphics beautiful, and it features a wide enough variety of events and venues to not get too boring too quickly. Its presentation is slick and its menu system intuitive and simple, and aside from some minor annoyances, should keep racing fans happy due to its decent campaign length and smooth multiplayer. (more…)

Title: The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks

Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Writer: Max Brooks

Artist: Ibraim Roberson

Review by: Bill Jones

It would be hard to dispute the praise Max Brooks has received as “the Studs Terkel of zombie journalism.” While the phrase in and of itself seems entirely ridiculous, it is also dead on. And that fairly describes Brooks’ work to date, including his latest, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks.

In what may amount to his most notable work (though World War Z is giving it a run for its money), the original Zombie Survival Guide serves as the definitive textbook to surviving what Brooks feels is the inevitable zombie apocalypse. The book is defined as humor, and rightfully so, but instead of going for over-the-top parody (he is the son of director Mel Brooks, after all) Brooks provides a dead-pan account, addressing what he perceives to be a real threat. To enhance that, Brooks goes as far as dispelling the “myths” about zombies, cutting it down to the “real” stuff, presenting what appears to be an incredibly well-researched text, all with the sharp wit and commentary of a George A. Romero film. (more…)