Halo: Nightfall trailer dawns

In a week dominated by news, reviews and buzz about Destiny, another of Bungie’s progeny hogged some of the spotlight, as the trailer for Halo: Nightfall saw the light of day. It has some impressive film cred, with none other than Ridley Scott serving as executive producer on the project, and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan – who has serious geek chops including the likes of Heroes, Under the Dome, and Falling Skies - sitting in the director’s chair.

The live action trailer takes place between Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, and follows Jameson Locke, from the Office of Naval Intelligence, chasing after a scary biological element that selectively targets humans.

Hit the trailer below for more.

23 Jump Street may be on the cards

Despite the ending of 22 Jump Street, in which the series lampooned the possibility of a sequel – 23 Jump Street – it looks like the phrase never say never does apply. According to Deadline, Sony Pictures has enlisted the aid of writer Rodney Rothman once again to pen the follow up.

Whereas 22 Jump Street saw odd couple Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum heading to college to deal with drug dealers, it’s unclear yet whether the duo will indeed be sent to medical school as threatened, or somewhere a little less intimidating – like law school perhaps.

What is perhaps more of a concerning question mark is whether directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be back on board, particularly considering their masterful treatment of one of the better movie surprises we’ve had of late, The Lego Movie.

Apple gives away new U2 album

One of the interesting snippets to come out of last night’s unveiling of the Apple Watch is this – the new U2 album Songs of Innocence is free to all iTunes account holders worldwide (yes, South Africa included) up until the 13^th of October.

Logging into iTunes with an active account, which is required to access the gift, shows the 11 track album ready and waiting to be downloaded in the purchased page.

Massive Dungeons & Dragons sale debuts, entices

If you are on a bit of a shopping spree, or have a particular weakness for nostalgia, then we strongly recommend you down a potion of fortitude, and lock your wallet in a dank tomb before reading further, as Comixology has announced a scarily comprehensive Dungeons & Dragons sale, with its volumes going for between $5 (R50) and $6 (R60) and its 100 page spectacular’s practically emitting a siren’s call with a $2 (R20) price tag.

As if that’s not tempting enough, also on offer is a Captain America sale, although that likely won't take as big a bite out of your budget as succumbing to Dungeons & Dragons potentially could. Consider yourself warned.

Bungie debuts Live Action trailer for Destiny's release

As any gamer will know, yesterday marked the cross platform release of Bungie's intergalactic shooter Destiny, which is already shaping up to be one of the top games released in 2014. To coincide with the game's release, developers Bungie unveiled a live action trailer for gamers to enjoy.

The trailer chronicles a fire team of three Guardians as they head out to take on the various alien foe, and drive back the growing threat posed by the Darkness. It also showcases the abilities of each Guardian class, along with some of the planets in the game itself, including Venus and the Moon. All things considered the production value is quite high, and looks on a relative par with some of the sci-fi action adventures that Hollywood can create. As eager as we are to play Destiny, the live action trailer poses an interesting look at what a Destiny movie would look like. If Halo: Nightfall, also co-produced by Bungie proves fruitful, perhaps a Destiny movie could be on the cards.      

Cape Town hosting Open Book Comics Fest from 20-21 September

Open Book Comics Fest is a Cape Town-based festival to promote literacy among younger audiences, and started a little over three years ago. It also aims to create visibility for up and coming local artists and cartoonists, and give the public an opportunity to interact with illustrators one-on-one.

Our very own comic book aficionado, Moray Rhoda heads up this festival, which takes place from 20-21 September this year in the District 6 Homecoming Centre. Entry to the two-day long festival is completely free, with an additional comic book workshop happening on the 18th and 19th of September.

Comic books provide a great medium for younger audiences to learn how to read, as the image heavy content lends itself well to making the story aspect easier to understand. As the reader develops confidence, the ratio of image to text can be changed to a bit more text-heavy works, like Tin Tin or Asterix and Obelix. This method can work for readers learning a new language as well. Comic books also offer an incredible breadth of genres and comic books can be aimed at all age groups, from young first time readers to adults.

Contributions by Robin-Leigh Chetty.