An old, shady NSA agent creeps in on a young, adventurous and curious woman one night, asking her if she wants to help keep the biggest conspiracies in the world a secret. Elsewhere, a man who hasn’t slept in a decade recruits an ex-cop to solve a psychedelic murder mystery.

These universes can be found in Deep State and John Flood, two BOOM! Studios-published comics from Pennsylvania-based writer Justin Jordan, with respective art from Ariela Kristantina and Jorge Coelho.

“[Boom!] has been a good working relationship,” said Jordan via Skype interview. “The two books I’ve done for them so far are exactly what I wanted.”

Read the full article here, as presented on PopOptiq

Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Developed by Rare
Published by Rare
Available on Nintendo 64, Xbox, Xbox One

The gaming scene in the 90s was filled to the brim with company mascots competing for market share in their own platformers, from the days of 16-bit side-scrollers into the birth of the 3D platformer. Calling the market saturated with those titles would be fair, especially because just about all of them were sugary sweet. Super Mario 64’s bright green trees and sunny days were filled with colorful, cutesy characters. At the start ofBanjo Kazooie, players were greeted with a happy-go-lucky musical number from a smiling bear on his banjo. Characters like Sonic the Hedgehog had big, wide eyes, squishy noses and a smile.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day had its own adorable little protagonist and its fair share of cheery environments and ditties, but it gleefully covered it all in poop, swearing, drunken stupors, breasts, executions, blood, war, pee, torture devices and so much more.

Read the full article here! 

A large pizza rolls down a snowy hill, smashing evil skeletons as it gets closer and closer to its destination. Wings flap as a flying man straight out of Greek mythology tries his best to traverse as much as he can. The weight of a large silver-mining company on his shoulders, an executive fights werewolves to defend his livelihood.

These are just a few of the games from Riverman Media, a game development company made up of just two people: brothers Jacob and Paul Stevens.

“Until we became adults, we played every game together. Actually, we still do, for the most part!” said Jacob via Skype interview.

Read the full article here. 

Batman: Arkham Asylum’s release back in 2009 was an amazing surprise that changed the way action elements in games were made, evident in releases like Shadow of Mordor and Witcher 3. Arkham City in 2011 tweaked and expanded the original foundation, fitted then with an open-world structure, enough to give the game a unique feel without stripping the formula of what made it so engaging in the first place. Now, this year’s Batman: Arkham Knight has done the same thing, offering more welcome tweaks and a big expansion in the form of the Batmobile’s offerings of high-speed travel and tank battle. Those gameplay evolutions along with the most interesting story of the trilogy, one that is sure to please even the most hardcore comic book readers, makes Arkham Knight a fitting conclusion to Rocksteady’s three games, even though it is troubled by some technical hiccups and downright embarrassing portrayal of women.

Read the full article here.