Los Angeles, U.S.A. — Grab a parka and some buddies because all-new developer Lantern is officially announcing Frost Wars: The Rise of Fatty Sparkles, a collectively-designed turn-based strategy game that’s gone from dice and Legos to the PC. The game will be playable to the public for the first time at PAX from August 31 to September 2.

Frost Wars is built for core gamers, focusing on cross-platform player vs. player combat. Lantern is currently building the game with the Unity engine, and has been soliciting ideas from players in order to guide and influence the game’s development. Players testing the pre-alpha version have already seen hundreds of their suggestions deployed into the game’s weekly releases.

As Lantern cherishes the idea of community-designed gaming free from censorship or corporate influence, the players serve as the game’s designers and constructors, sharing ideas and voting on what to add next. The best ideas go into the game to be play-tested and refined by everyone within the game’s community.

“We understand why the big studios choose to keep the audience out of the process. It’s a real risk to invite people in this early. What if there’s bad press for your unfinished game?” says Austin Hice, co-founder of Lantern. “But over the last six months we’ve seen that nothing can top the ideas that players bring to the game.”

The chaos of Frost Wars begins as Toxi Co., an international mega-corporation, travels to the Arctic in search of the purest ice on earth. When a freak drilling accident unleashes mysterious goo that mutates the native animals, a war for survival breaks out between the native Eskimos and Toxi Co.’s work-a-day employees – a war that’s masterminded by an arms-dealing polar bear named Fatty Sparkles.

Players can jump into the turn-based Arctic madness with two primary modes of play. “Speed Play” is a synchronous game mode that allows up to four friends, or random opponents, to join together and battle it out in one sitting. “Extended Play” is an asynchronous game mode that offers gamers a more relaxed style of play spread over multiple days, allowing multiple battles to be fought at the same time.

Featuring a heap of unique game modes, an already vast array of specialized squads/weaponry, and the chance to be part of a community that is literally shaping the future of the game, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about Frost Wars.

A closed alpha for Frost Wars will begin in September. To get early access to the madness, visit www.frostwars.com or www.facebook.com/FrostWars. The game is set to be demoed at this year’s PAX Prime in Seattle, WA.

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Green Lantern is part of the DC Comic world coming to the big screen.  The movie follows Hal Jordan, a human who is chosen by a ring of infinite power to save Earth, from Parallax, a parasite attacking Earth.  Hal Jordan, a test pilot, is called forth to protect Earth by joining the Green Lantern Corps. —an intergalactic embassy that harnesses green energy through rings to protect the universe.

To those who have read the comics, there have been some changes in the transition from comic to movie.   The movie seems like it will follow the later series, as having Hal Jordan fight off the Parallax.  Hector Hammond is also in the movie and will have run-ins with not only Hal but with the fear monger, Parallax.  It seems like the movie will incorporate different areas and villains of Green Lantern from all different eras of the Comic, but will ultimately focus on the origins of Hal Jordan.

Directing the movie is the well-known action director Martin Campbell who created such titles like: 007 Goldeneye, Casino Royale, and The Mask of Zorro.  Having done these movies, it feels like he will be right at home with the action sequences of Green Lantern.  Nevertheless, it seems like Martin Campbell didn’t know the story of Green Lantern that well before he was put on the project, so the movie might not necessarily follow the story line of the comics religiously.  However, they did have Ozzy Iguanzo, a comic book expert, so they could set the record straight on some details.  Mister Campbell  had stated in The Telegraph that, “It was an extraordinary learning curve, conceptualizing the characters, going to another planet, deciding what the planet looks like and keeping a sort of reality, if you can call it that.”  However, despite the difficulties and differences from the comics, the producer/writer of Green Lantern is none other than Greg Berlanti, whom has worked on Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, an animated movie based around Hal Jordan, Kilowog and other Green Lanterns.

The cast has its fair share of stars like Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/ Green Lantern.  Martin had picked Reynolds based upon his physical acting in “Buried”, and has been quoted saying in his production notes that, “he also physically looks the part, is charming, funny, and has a great sense of decency.“  Ryan Reynolds isn’t the only star in the movie.  Blake Lively (The Town) is taking on the role opposite of Reynolds as Carol Ferris, a fellow test pilot and lifelong friend of Hal Jordan.  Lively has this to say in the production notes about Green Lantern, ”… I love that the movie also has a great sense of fun and a hint of romance about it.”  Voices of Geoffrey Rush (King’s Speech) and Micheal Clarke Duncan (Green Mile) are used for Tomar-Re and Kilowog respectively.   Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption) also makes an appearance as Hector Hammond’s pushy father.

One thing that will make or break this movie is the special effects.  Spending about 50,000,000 dollars on them alone they should be pretty impressive.  Why spend so much?  Not only is making Parallax, Tomar-Re, and Kilowog entirely in CGI a task in itself, but trying to make an entire alien planet in less than a year is a daunting task.  Oa, the Green Lantern Corps. planet is all CGI, so creating an entire planet that looks realistic and pleasing to look at will take some serious skill.  What also is all CGI is the famous Green Lantern suit.  To do this, Reynolds is wearing a motion tracking suit.  Kind of like a leotard but soupped-up with motion tracking modules so that the artists can paste Green Lantern’s suit on Ryan Reynolds’s body. For such a daunting task there is good news.  People like Karen Goulekas (Spiderman) and  John DesJardin (Watchmen) are both overseers of the effects teams, and to top it all off Grant Major who worked on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will be the production designer.  Green Lantern may have a lot of daunting effects in over 1,300 of their shots, but they have chosen the right people in order to get the effects done well.

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