In a recent interview with MTV, Samuel L. Jackson discussed his reprisal of the Nick Fury role for the upcoming Iron Man 2 (a part, which he has now finished shooting.) In a bit of news that may disappoint some fans, it seems that there actually wasn't much to tell. Apparently Jackson's portrayal Nick Fury will NOT see action of any kind in the new film. According to Jackson:

“We still haven’t moved Nick Fury into the bad-ass zone. He’s still just kind of a talker.”

This "rationing" of Jackson might have to do with the terms of the 9 picture deal he signed with Marvel films. (Pure speculation.) Perhaps, the idea was to have Nick Fury play a kind of "puppet-master" behind the scenes for the majority of his film appearances, making the plot of the Iron Man/Avengers-related  films move forward.

Jackson first played the role in a hidden, post-credits scene in the first Iron Man film, where he waits at Tony Stark's home to discuss "The Avengers Initiative." (In a scene that still sends fanboy chills.) Due to the way the scene came across, it was generally assumed that he would fighting alongside Iron Man in the sequel against whatever threat would present itself. That, however, does not seem to be the case, as Fury will likely be a man who simply makes things happen. (Presumably assembling the new Avengers team.) Further strengthening this speculation, Jackson also seemed to imply that his role in the film would be minimized to merely two scenes. In the interview, he stated that "both" of his scenes are with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.

When asked if the action would hopefully come in The Avengers, Jackson replied, "looking forward to that, yeah." So, it seems fans will have to wait a while longer to see Nick Fury kicking ass and making evil supervillains look like 10-year-old girls in sundresses.

What do you think about this? Good or disappointing news?

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Ubisoft Montreal developers speak on the change of direction they've taken Sam Fisher's classic, action stealth series with the first developer video for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction. Watch all the new gameplay features that they've marked as "time to do something new".

"As I was playing them [the old Splinter Cell's] I found them to be... frustrating" states one of the of developers. Overambitious? Or a welcome breeze of fresh air for an old series? Let us know in the comments section.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction Behind Closed Doors: Part 01 - Redefining Splinter Cell

David Perry's Gaikai service is very ambitious. It's an exercise in "cloud gaming" that runs games on distant servers, sending the live video feed of the game to a web browser. It places the burden of computing power on Galkai and only asks the user to have enough bandwidth to handle the streaming video. Keyboard and mouse inputs are sent to the server, take effect, and the changes are sent back.

The service was privately demoed at E3 2009, but was not shown to the public.

But will it work? If this new video from David Perry is to be believed... it just might:

Gaikai Technology Demo (JULY 1, 2009) from David Perry on Vimeo.

In the video, you can see David running Spore, EVE Online, World of WarCraft, and even Mario Kart 64 (running on an emulator) in his browser. He claims that it only requires around 1Mbit/s of bandwidth. Do you believe this or do you think David is using some smoke and mirrors?

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There are many advantages to living in Europe: You get to drink better coffee, bathing is optional, you have decent public education and health care systems and you can look down your skinny European nose at American tourists. But don't apply for political asylum just yet. Activision's upcoming music game DJ Hero will be amazingly expensive on the Continent.

In the U.S., the game plus turntable peripheral is expected retail for a reasonable (I guess) $120, but in the United Kingdom, DJ Hero will run you GBP 107.99, --$177 in American money-- at chain ShopTo. At HMV, it's a bit more expensive at GBP 99.99.

I hear DJ Hero is very, very fun, but I'm not convinced that it's worth $120. Plastic guitars just seem somehow more versatile than plastic turntables, you know? What do you think would be a fair price to pay for the game plus peripheral.

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If you have ever said to yourself, “I wish there were more dynamic and technologically impressive advertisements being shared between my Xbox 360 and other devices,” then you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft has been thinking the very same thing.

MediaPost News reports that Microsoft will soon be adding Xbox Live ad support for its Silverlight technology, which will give advertisers the ability to create more graphics-intensive campaigns that can then be distributed across multiple Silverlight-supported devices like mobile phones and PCs. 

Silverlight will also increase the media streaming capabilities on the 360, including the ability to deliver 1080p HD and 5.1 surround sound video in place of standard HD offerings for things like movie trailers. As Gamasutra points out, Neflix already uses Silverlight to stream movies to the 360, so don’t expect to see any drastic changes there.

It seems only logical that Silverlight support will also be available for in-game advertising as well, but I’m still waiting to hearing back from Microsoft to see if that will in fact happen.

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As regular readers of G4tv.com know, I've been breathlessly following a mysterious Square Enix countdown clock since last week. The entire nation and some parts of Canada now eagerly await my witty and terrific speculation about the possible meaning of this marketing campaign.  But, fans, I'm afraid this will be my last update on that particular subject. The mystery game has been revealed.

According to Kotaku's translation of Weekly Shonen Jump, the upcoming game is The Four Warriors of Light: A Final Fantasy Anecdote. Here's a breakdown of the breath-taking details: It's for the DS. It's a turn-based RPG. The plot involves saving a princess. When you change your character's equipment, his/her appearance changes too.  That's all we know, but it's pretty ground-breaking, eh...or, you know, not.

So yeah! Another spin-off Final Fantasy game!  I can hardly contain my glee. Ultimately, the joke is on Square Enix because The clock is still ticking, but anyone who is even remotely interested in which game it's counting down to already knows. Ha ha!

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Wedbush Morgan Industry analyst Michael Pachter, in his company's July industry reports, opines that mobile games are a fad. In a section headlined "Mobile Games Are a Fad," Pachter explains that while a billion iPhone applications have been downloaded since the phone launched, less than 20% of the downloads are games. So the iTunes App Store has generated "under $400 million in game downloads" in its first year.

Pachter predicts the mobile game industry will grow at 25% per year for a few years, but will eventually fall as competing devices enter the market. So, if you believe Pachter, the PSP and the Nintendo DS are safe for the time being.

Pachter also said that Electronic Arts' faith in the mobile games market is "misplaced." EA has recently put a lot of resources into its mobile division, with iPhone versions of popular EA games available, including Spore, The Sims and Tiger Woods.

You might not be an "industry analyst" like Michael Pachter, but I'll bet you have an opinion on mobile gaming. What do you think? Are cell-phone games just a passing fad, or do they have "legs?" What games do you play on your phone?

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My mind was blown earlier this week when game designer Harvey Smith, currently of Arkane Studios but formerly of Midway and Ion Storm, responded to my Twitter about the new Spoon EP with a video game connection. It turns out Britt Daniel, the celebrated singer songwriter for indie musical darling Spoon, actually used to make video games. Daniel worked for a very celebrated PC developer.

Welcome to "Morning Hangover" -- an excellent way to start your day with the crew at TheFeed...no matter what you're recovering from. Every morning you'll hear musings from two of TheFeed's editors and have the chance to share  your thoughts on what's going on in the gaming world. So buckle up, down a blood mary (virgin if you're not yet 21), and keep reading!

Raymond Padilla: Just to make sure you guys know that I actually mean what I type, I'm posting a picture of my black chocobo. Now that you've seen Leahy -- the best black chocobo in the history of Final Fantasy -- I'll move on. A lot of game writers I respect -- including TheFeed's Jake Gaskill -- have been raving about Ubisoft's Call of Juarez: Bound for Blood. From what I've seen so far, I'm mostly unimpressed. I mean...it looks okay...but maybe I just want more from a western-themed game.  Red Dead Revolver and Gun also left me wanting more. The last western game that I really enjoyed was Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman and that was only because of its immensely awesome opening theme song. I just don't understand why developers have struggled with westerns. You have guns, lawlessness, horse chases, houses of ill repute, Native American mysticism, and more! I'm positive that a video-game western will dazzle me in the future and I'm sad that one hasn't already. Maybe Tim Schafer can journey to the wild west for his next game. Or maybe...I've got it! Square Enix can make a western game with gunblades! And the good guy can go riding off into the sunset on his black chocobo (named Leahy). Any of you have ideas for what would make a great video-game western?

It's written that men cannot live on bread alone. Some people happen to believe that men (and women) also need a healthy dose of videos with angry couples throwing beer, upwardly mobile ducks, rappers who love stretchy pants and outspoken fitness moguls and you can only find that stuff Around the Net.

Find the video links from Around the Net for Attack of the Show after the jump.

Chris Hardwick reviews Livio Radio, a digital audio receiver that brings the thousands of free Internet radio stations like Pandora off the computer speakers and to any room in your house.

Check out the full review from Attack of the show after the cut.

So who's ready to switch sides in World of Warcraft?? Not me! Here's what happened today in video games, popular culture and technology.

• TheFeed's Morning Hangover continues with a black chocobo named Leahy and some Harry Potter sadness.
• If Blizzard's math about the beta test is right, it's looking possible StarCraft II might not release this year.
• The Pirate Bay has been purchased by an outside company and will go legit.
• Check out the awesome Devil May Cry 4 sword replica!

Hello G4ricans my name is Ernesto Moreno, although most people around here call me Ernie. I am the official (not really official) artist for G4tv.com, which means I make things look pretty. But is that really all I do here? You might ask. Yes that is all I do here, it may not sound like a fun job but trust me it is.

For example all these fun “Meet the Feed” photos are all my doing (with the exception of Jonathan Goorvich) and those where a blast to do. My passions have always included two things Art and Video Games and thankfully this job combines both. But enough of all this introduction lets get to the interview so you can learn about Ernesto Moreno the man.

Interview: Ernie Moreno - Graphic Artist, G4tv.com
By: Jonathan Goorvich

Jonathan: Your name is Ernie Moreno, but you had no choice in that name, so what would you like us to call you?

Ernie: I actually like my name very much it’s always made me stand out. Only part I really hate about my name is that people either make that damn Sesame Street joke or put in extra letters like: eArnesto or Arenesto. So in that case I would probably like a name that people who only speak English could pronounce.

When Activision merged with Vivendi, a lot of gamers were surprised that so many titles were left in limbo. Whether it was Brutal Legend or Ghostbusters, it seemed odd for Activision to relinquish publishing rights for hyped-up titles. Tigon Studios' head of game production Ian Stevens wasn't surprised that the company's The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was dropped. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz he said:

"I worked with Activision for many years, I started my career there in the mid-nineties, and produced Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360. So I've known so many of those guys, their executives, since I was in high school. They love brands and annualisation, and there wasn't going to be a Riddick game every year. It was somewhat predictable, what happened.

We weren't surprised -- and I certainly don't take that negatively, personally, or anything like that. They were very gracious to us, and they're wonderful people. I actually like them an awful lot -- it just wasn't their thing. They were very helpful in finding Atari as a new party."

In other words, Dark Athena was dropped because Activision couldn't sequel-ize it to high heaven. To quote The Black Eyed Peas, "What's wrong with world, mama?"

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Even though official news about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune making its way to the big screen only broke last week, Naughty Dog has been collaborating with the Hollywood producers involved for about a year-and-a-half, Naughty Dog creative director Amy Hennig revealed in an online chat with fans on the PlayStation Blog this afternoon.

"We're really excited about the development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as a movie," said Hennig. "We've been working with Arad Productions for the last year-and-a-half or so, and couldn't be happier about their enthusiasm for the project. We're looking forward to sharing more info with you all as soon as we can."

With rumors that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford are considering another stab at the Indiana Jones franchise, does Dr. Jones suddenly have competition?

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