Warner Premiere has announced the availability of their 8th Motion Comic, Jonah Hex.

“Warner Premiere Motion Comics are taking the casual comic book fan deeper into the pages of these amazing stories and giving fans a new way to experience timeless comic books and graphic novels,” said Eva Davis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Warner Premiere. “Jonah Hex Motion Comics are a great way for fans to prime themselves for the upcoming theatrical release. The voice acting by Jim Cummings and the rich artwork by Sequence Studio will really make fans feel like they’re in the heat of battle with Jonah.”

Jonah Hex Motion Comics is an all-new collection of archival comics featuring Jonah Hex, the ruthless bounty hunter with a conscience. Now three of his legendary stories have been brought to life, page-by-page, and told in seven extraordinary episodes. The first five episodes are adapted from the graphic novel Two Gun Mojo, telling the action-packed story of Jonah Hex seeking justice and revenge against Doc Williams and his gang when a friend is murdered. The Gunfighter and The Hangin’ Woman are two additional stories from the popular 1970’s comic series featuring the notorious gunslinger, re-colored and animated for the first time.

Jim Cummings, the versatile voice actor known for his many roles in animated productions takes on the voice of Jonah Hex, the no-holds-barred, rough gunslinger. Other characters are voiced by Steve Blum, Bill Farmer, Maurice LaMarche, Lani Manella, Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Mick Wingert.

iTunes Link ($5.99)

SEGA has inadvertently let the proverbial cat-out-of-the-bag about Sonic the Hedgehog’s future game appearances, evidenced by the graphic above that was located on the official Sonic 4 website. The image reveals two important elements, including a release date (July 2010) and available platforms, which include the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and the long-rumored and now confirmed, iPhone (and iPad).

Proof can be found here, though the image has apparently been removed by undoubtedly embarrassed representatives of SEGA.

Remember when the Playstation 3 launched and Sony execs tripped all over themselves to say things like consumers were confused over all the SKUs of Xbox 360s, only to introduce a fleet of new PS3 SKUs? Remember when Sony execs criticized Microsoft for having two different models for Xbox Live in Silver and Gold? Funny how things change.

Kaz Hirai of Sony has officially confirmed that 2010 will bring a paid subscription to the Playstation 3.

Gamespot:

During the presentation, which emphasized Sony’s plans to make its game business profitable in the next fiscal year, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai confirmed the plans. “We will be building upon our current free [PSN] service offering with premium content and services to start the subscription model,” he told attendees.

Perhaps to assuage PS3 owners’ fears that they would soon have to pay to play online, Hirai issued a subsequent statement indicating the present level of service would remain gratis.

“SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral, and PlayStation Network,” Hirai said in a statement given to British outlets, such as CVG. “Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.” (Emphasis added.)

As of press time, US Sony reps had not offered Hirai’s statement or further clarification about its subscription plans for the PlayStation Network. Luckily, though, the “current free services” currently offered on PSN include online play, Facebook integration, and Netflix video streaming. On Xbox Live, both of those features are only accessible at the Gold membership level, which costs at least $50 per year.

Battlefield 1943 blew the doors off the XBLA Marketplace, selling a mammoth 600,000 copies in just three days to become the fastest selling arcade game in the platform’s history. It’s a well-deserved success for a truly awesome game that finds me returning night after night for my fix.

Unfortunately, not all is well in the world of Battlefield as a few glaring problems are increasingly annoying the shit out of me. Worse, EA/DICE aren’t copping to any issues and are acting like too many other game companies by simply burying their head in the sand while they count your money.

So what needs fixing? Here goes…

Fix the Squad System

I play Battlefield 1943 every night with my brother as a two-man squad. At the end of nearly every round, our squad is disbanded and we find ourselves on opposite sides. We can only reform our squad if there happens to be an available slot on either side, which is seldom the case.

That means we have to exit the round, go back to the main menu, reform our squad and search for yet another game, only to repeat that process over and over and over.

It’s frustrating, ridiculous and it needs to be addressed.

This situation most likely occurs because the auto-balancing system is trumping the squad party, which is not the way it should work.

Fix the Squad System Part II

DICE made a huge error in making squads an option and not mandatory. Joining a squad is a benefit to every player as it gives you up to three more options on where to spawn after a death. Without a squad, you are stuck spawning on the carrier or a captured flag. When you’re in a squad, you can spawn next to any squad member, affording you access to current skirmishes and flag attacks that happen to be underway.

Battlefield 1943 should force players into a squad from the get-go. No option to go solo. The entire game is based upon squad play, yet for some reason DICE lets people go lone-wolf, which is pretty stupid.

Obviously, players could solve this problem by joining a squad, but considering your average player is a complete moron, I’d rather not sit around waiting for the community to solve an issue that shouldn’t be an issue. I back my “moron” claim because more often than not, when I click Join an Open Squad….I don’t actually join an active squad because THERE ARE NO SQUADS TO JOIN. That means there are 11 people on my team acting like a solo-tard.

Fix the Matchmaking

Not as prevalent as the relentless Squad Disbanding bug but no less annoying is Battlefield 1943’s weak matchmaking service that find me entering a round with only a handful of players on the server. Playing 4 versus 4 is not uncommon, nor is it any fun.

Battlefield 1943 is meant to be played 12 versus 12. Period. 10 versus 10 should be the threshold before the server is restarted and repopulated. Why games that are populated with only 8 total people are allowed to exist is beyond me. It makes for a thoroughly boring experience, forcing the player to bail on the round and return to the main menu, hoping the next round will actually be populated with players.

This wouldn’t be so bad if nearly empty games were injected with players to fill the server, but that rarely happens, indicating there is a bug in DICE’s system that needs to be addressed.

Fix the Leaderboards

More often than not, the leaderboard is screwed up. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn’t. This has to be the easiest fix in the world but EA/DICE apparently couldn’t care less.

The problem comes when trying to find your ranking on the Global list. If the leaderboard is in a bad mood, it will only display the top 1,000 players. If it’s working, which is rare, you’ll find your position within the full list.

How hard is it to fix this crap? Why is this problem persisting a month after release? To make matters worse, if you go to Battlefield1943.com and check you stats, you’ll find the same bullshit: sometimes their leaderboard works, more often than not it doesn’t. Stats are messed up, it says I’ve killed 1400 people with a Jeep when it should actually be a tank, and so on.

This may be a crazy concept, but if you’re going to offer a service then at least make sure it functions. If it doesn’t function, then fix it. If you can’t fix it, then remove it.

Fix Squad Communication/Team Communication

Ohhh Dice, I do try to love you, I really do. But you make it so f’n hard sometimes. Just like Bad Company, Battlefield 1943 has a broken communication system. Sometimes your squad mates won’t be able to hear you speak into the mic or, if you’re not in a squad, you often won’t be able to communicate with people on your team.

If I find this same crap in Bad Company 2, I will announce a jihad.

In Closing

DICE made a great game, albeit one with a very troubling beginning that found the majority of players unable to even join a game because EA/DICE did not properly test their software before putting it up for sale. Fortunately, the problem was fixed within a few days. Unfortunately, that was the last we ever heard from DICE. Since then, they have made no comments on what they are or aren’t working on in terms of fixes.

In the age of Twitter, of which Battlefield1943 has its own account, you’d think DICE could put forth the effort to to issue a one sentence statement on their future intentions for fixing or avoiding the problems with Battlefield 1943.

As a journalist covering this industry for over twenty years now, I’m not holding my breath.

Zen Pinball is an excellent pinball game for PS3 that can be purchased and downloaded from PSN. It offers four well-designed tables with plenty of strategy and frustration, crisp graphics, awesome sound and even several multiplayer options. If you love pinball, it’s a must have. If you resisted the temptation to purchase Zen Pinball and you happen to be a hardcore fan of the classic Street Fighter II, then you may be forced to lighten your wallet a tad, as Zen Studios has announced an expansion table that will pay tribute to Capcom’s classic brawler.

From the Press Release:

“This is our first expansion table for ZEN Pinball and we couldn’t be happier to bring this amazing franchise of Capcom’s over to PSN,” said Zsolt Kigyossy, managing director of ZEN Studios. “The Street Fighter II Tribute table for Pinball FX was one of the most popular XBLA downloads of all time, and with new gameplay features and enhancements we’re confident that we’ll achieve similar if not more success for ZEN Pinball.”

Loaded with the iconic characters that revolutionized the fighting genre, “Street Fighter II” comes alive in ZEN Pinball. With this new table, players will experience the legendary Street Fighter™ franchise combined with the arcade thrills of traditional pinball employing cutting-edge visuals, true-to-life ball and table physics and new innovative features not found in any other pinball game.

ZEN Pinball Street Fighter II Tribute Table Features:

• Enter the World Warrior Championship fighting as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile and battle against Sagat, Evil Ryu, Vega, and Balrog, then win the final round of the championship against M. Bison!

• Discover combo shots, animated punches, kicks and special moves as you fight against opponents using ramps and a variety of orbit shot

• Multiple in-game challenges featuring objects, art and memorable items from Street Fighter™ II

• Table soundtrack, sound effects and voices from the original Street Fighter II

Comic-themed gaming site, GameAlmighty, has provided us with yet another great strategy guide, this time focusing on the armor-covered mobile behemoths of the battlefield, tanks. The beginning is pretty straightforward, but then it starts laying out unexpected and unconventional tactical gems pretty quick that have us believing the author when he says that “several [of these] tricks and tactics that I use consistently find me racking up tons of points and ruling the leaderboard using nothing more than a tank.”

And Tanks to you, GameAlmighty, for all the great tips. They can be found here.

Battlefield Games and Hardware at GoGamer

Yesterday the highly anticipated Battlefield 1943 finally arrived on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, via their Xbox Live and the Playstation Network services, and the buzz from the gaming community is that its a hit – when you can play it. A real bargain costing only $15 on either system (there is a limited-play demo you can try for free), the game is already so popular that its servers have been overwhelmed and many gamers are having problems connecting for online play. For those who do manage to get into a game, competition can be fierce, especially for inexperienced players forced to battle it out with longtime fans of the series who are most likely familiar with maps being re-used from the previous title. Thankfully, GameAlmighty has posted an extensive strategy guide that covers everything from the vehicles and classes to the tactics and maps and should do a good job of helping to level the playing field. You can find it here.