Pads & Panels

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Hands-On Impressions

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Archie’s Take

EA’s Need for Speed series has gone through many changes and iterations over the past few years. The series has delved into both sim and arcade play styles a few times, gone “Underground” into the world of street racing, and most recently has undergone changes to put players directly in the driver’s seat with Need for Speed: Shift.

The upcoming title, the Criterion developed Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit isn’t so much another revolution as it is a reimagining of one of the most popular iterations of the series. Bill and I got a chance to check out the new title at a special preview event held at Debonair Social Club in Chicago in August. (more…)

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Sigh. It’s been a long weekend. Since becoming a “full-time” freelance writer, I’d almost forgotten until this weekend what it’s like to be on a work schedule, have to go out and put in 8 or more consecutive hours somewhere. I generally put in more than that a day with my writing, but being on a flexible schedule means it’s usually more broken up and interrupted a lot more often by the silly distractions that come so easily around the house. But it’s been both tiring, rejuvenating and a bit of fun to get out and do a few solid days of real work again.

Archie and I both worked, full disclosure, indirectly for Sony PlayStation this weekend at the Alli Dew Tour at Soldier Field in Chicago. It doesn’t mean we’re fan boys, and it doesn’t mean we’ll be giving preferential treatment to Sony’s games or hardware. We’ll still always provide honest opinions on games, and keep an objective view of what we do. It just means we needed some extra cash, and got hired by a marketing agency that handles Sony’s event marketing in Chicago, which for us meant standing inside and outside of a Sony tent, getting a chance to get our hands on PlayStation Move and talking to people about it, helping them play and learn more about it. (more…)

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On Thursday, April 15, 2010, Lionsgate held a red carpet premiere for Kick-Ass at AMC River East in Chicago, Ill. Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl) walked the carpet. Pads & Panels’ Tom Braaksma got a chance to ask them each a few questions. Bill Jones films and edits.

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Threadless Tees is a Chicago-based company that has taken a different approach when it comes to what they print on their apparel. Threadless’ approach is through a community of artists and fans voting on user-submitted designs. The designs go up on the website for an allotted time, and the fans vote, promote and ultimately decide what gets printed to tees, hoodies and even children’s clothing. What attracted Pads & Panels to Threadless are the many great gaming- and comic-inspired tees that have been printed over the years. The staff here at Pads & Panels recently got our hands on a couple of these relevant tees thanks to the people over at Threadless, and present our thoughts on a couple of their recent gaming and comic designs, not to mention model them for our readers. (more…)

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Yes, you read that right. Today, we bring to you a very special interview with 5-time Pro-Bowl Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs. But the Chicago Bears? Linebacker? Pro-Bowl? “That’s football stuff!” you proclaim. True, it is football. But Mr. Briggs also happens to be a huge comics fan. We’re not talking about “got caught on camera once looking at a Spider-Man comic” kind of a fan. We’re talking about real deal comics enthusiast. So much so that during our hometown comic convention, the inaugural Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (better known as C2E2), Briggs hosted his own “dream panel,” talking to fans as well as some of his favorite comics creators. He’s a proclaimed Top Cow fan, and the publisher actually printed a variant cover of The Darkness featuring Briggs this month. That’s the kind of comics fan we’re talking. So it was our honor to catch up with Briggs following his panel to talk about his love for the medium, as well as his newly launched charity, the Briggs 4 Kidz Foundation. Bill interviewed, and Tom filmed. Go Bears!

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[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…)

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Rhythm Heaven Sampling Event – Krush Skate Park, Tinley Park, Ill.

Nintendo held Rhythm Heaven sampling events in four cities – Seattle, Boston, New York and Chicago – this weekend, April 25 and 26, to give gamers a chance to get hands-on with both the game, and the DSi, on which the game was running.

Surprisingly, one of the two Chicago-area events wound up right in our neck of the woods at the Krush Skate Park in Tinley Park, Ill. So John and I wound up heading over yesterday to check it out and report back for the site. (more…)

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Video Games Live

Interview and Photos by Bill Jones

*Note – This interview was scheduled to appear early this year in AMP Magazine, the publication many of us wrote games for before launching this site, which is why the interview is dated by a couple months. It is still relevent and informative, however, and Video Games Live is highly recommended if it comes through your town.

Video Games Live is an experience unlike any other – a unique melding of the nerd world, its electronic recreation and the high-class of an orchestral and choral performance in a true theatre that breaks down the haughty conventions with audience participation and a rock show vibe while bringing to life many of videos games’ best compositions on the stage. After experiencing the show first hand last year, we had a chance to talk to its mastermind, Tommy Tallarico last December. Always the entertainer, the television host/writer/game composer/producer gave the magazine plenty of insight into his program, which is bearing down on its fifth anniversary of being on the road this year.
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