Nicholas C. Martinez

An Interactive Experience

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NY Comic Con 2011 Roundup - Rockstar Shines, Star Wars Stumbles

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Every year, NY Comic Con showcases the industry’s best upcoming games and demos for the public to enjoy. Here’s what I found interesting this year while I roamed around the exhibition floor. Continue Reading…

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New York Comic Con 2010: The Video Game Round-up

(As seen on TwinGalaxies.com and mylittlexboxblog.com. Published October 12th, 2010.)

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In the past, comic conventions served as a place where fans of Marvel, DC or other comic publishers could pick up rare back issues on the cheap and hang out with fellow superhero fanatics.

Today, conventions, or “cons” as they are affectionately called, are more than just over-sized comic book flea markets - - they have become the haven for all things multimedia, especially upcoming projects from the world of video games.

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Review: Monday Night Combat (X-Box Live Arcade)

(As seen in part on TwinGalaxies.com.)

You’re a clone living in the not so distant future, in need of money to pay the bills and feed the kids. What do you do in order to make ends meet?

Fight for your life in front of a live studio audience!

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Review: FIFA 11 (X-Box 360)

(As seen on TwinGalaxies.com.)

The long walk to the pitch, as depicted by the game's amazing graphics system.

The long walk to the pitch, as depicted by the game's amazing graphics system.

Not so long ago, gamers like myself would readily mock the overall quality of EA Sports‘ FIFA soccer simulator.

Digital superstars would move around the pitch in a fashion mimicking a malfunctioning robot. Goaltenders would readily leave their post without good reason, allowing opponents to score goals without opposition. And the game’s graphics engine rendered many of soccer’s famous faces into unforgiving and laughable caricatures reminiscent of a Picasso painting.

Still, loyalists shelled out the steep asking price for the sub-par title with the hopes that EA would one day improve their product - - and pose a serious threat to their direct competition, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer.

Well, the wait is finally over.

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Review: Call of Duty - Black Ops (X-Box 360)

(As seen on TwinGalaxies.com.)

In April 1961, President John F. Kennedy ordered the most dangerous and aggressive overthrow of a sitting foreign ruler in the country’s still expanding history -namely, he green-lit the assassination of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Though the mission, coined the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was unsuccessful, it stands a dramatic turning point in the Cold War, and in global history as well.

This benchmark event also serves as the starting point for the single-player campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Treyarch’s latest offering from the wildly successful first-person shooter franchise. Conceivably but unofficially, Black Ops’s timeline bridges stories of the past that centered on the gruesome events of World War II, with the recent Modern Warfare series featuring the diplomatic frying pan that is the Middle East.

After playing through the brief but engaging single-player campaign, as well as jumping into the game’s online multiplayer system, I can safely say that where President Kennedy’s mission into Cuba failed, Treyarch’s digital black operation is nothing short of an overwhelming success.

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Admiral’s Row Threatened by Snow

(As seen on BrooklynBased.net, published on January 4th, 2011. Illustrations by Lucy Sikes)

The timber shed at Admirals' Row, circa 1838.

The timber shed at Admirals' Row, circa 1838.

For nearly eight years, Scott Witter has campaigned for the preservation and landmarking of Admiral’s Row, the once prestigious strip of pre-Civil War-era brick brownstones along the Flushing Avenue side of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Now, the dilapidated houses, marred by crumbling walls, cracked brick-face facades and gutted of original mantle pieces and other interior items by looters, await execution via the city’s wrecking ball.

“I’ve witnessed the demise of Admiral’s Row,” Witter said. “And I have been outraged by it.”

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Walking Against the Bulldozers

(As seen on the NY Times’ Local Blog, published on October 18, 2009. Photos by Nicholas C. Martinez)

City Councilwoman Letitia James, with oversized coin, led Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s walkathon Saturday from Borough Hall to Habana Outpost to protest Atlantic Yards.

City Councilwoman Letitia James, with oversized coin, led Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s walkathon Saturday from Borough Hall to Habana Outpost to protest Atlantic Yards.

“Develop Brooklyn, don’t destroy it,” went the rallying cry of nearly 200 protesters who marched along the busy sidewalks of Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street on Saturday. The demonstration, led by City Councilwoman Letitia James, was the climax of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s fifth annual walkathon against Atlantic Yards and its would-be developer, Forest City Ratner.

“They build a development that we do not want in our community,” Ms. James said. “What Ratner wants is to not only take away their homes, but to take away their memories. That’s why we have to march on.”

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“There’s an inherent danger to it”

(As seen in the NY Daily News and online at NYDailyNews.com on January 5th 2010)

FDNY CHIEF Brad Walls surveyed the facade of the Whitestone Shopping Center as his firefighters from Battalion 47 approached the flamed-filled Lollipops Diner.

Before the firefighters could turn their hoses on the blaze, the restaurant’s front window melted and the fire jumped to the awning. The overhang burst into flames and rained melted plastic onto the sidewalk like a fire-laden waterfall.

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Lost your job? Throw a party!

(As seen in AM NY and on AMNY.com on 10/23/09)

Elizabeth Scholander, of Brooklyn, lost her job at Citibank last year. As she began her job hunt, she stumbled onto her first pink-slip party.

“It was pretty much a job fair,” said Scholander, 25. “But in a relaxed, social setting, held in the evening. I loved the idea and wanted to start doing these ‘pink-slip parties’ myself.”

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Review: Transformers - War For Cybertron (X-Box 360)

The war for Cybertron has begun and the only weapon that can turn the tide is you.

Transformers: War For Cybertron, now available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the PC, throws you into the global conflict that precedes the famous 80’s cartoon series. Gamers can play as their favorite Transformers characters, either Autobot and Decepticon, in order to turn the tide of the war - - and determine the ultimate fate of the robot homeworld.

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