I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer for Lionsgate’s upcoming Kick-Ass but it looks funny in that quirky, charming, kid-movie kind of way. We decided to put together a list of this year’s gadgets that will also kick some serious ass and put it up on our parent site, Bullz-Eye. The best part about the list is the fact that it does not include the iPad. Yes, Apple haters, if you want to enjoy a gadget list for the upcoming year without the world’s flavor of the month, this is your chance.

I tried to cover a wide range of products so everyone could have something to love. Obviously Project Natal and Playstation Move are the big video game releases for the year, and though I didn’t use the iPad, the iPhone 4 is on there (sorry guys, iPhone OS 4 looks great). I’m also looking forward to the nPower PEG and MagicJack’s upcoming femtocell. On the whole, it’s going to be a pretty solid year for gadget geeks.

While it’s true that in this internet age of ours we can send out instant messages to thousands of people with just the click of a mouse, there is something to be said for the personal touch. Being able to hold an invitation or business card or postcard still matters to a lot of people. Whether you’re trying to attract customers or throw an amazing party, you should consider getting the word out with products prepared through an experienced online printing company.

Online printing means you can provide the basic text or graphic images of your material to a professional printer, and let them handle the rest. This could mean a new line of unique business cards that are sure to attract attention. It could also mean a series of fun, retro type postcards to promote your neighborhood business by providing printed discounts. Or even something as simple as baby shower invites. The goal with any online printing project is to create that personal touch. It will say so much more when you can put something into a person’s hand rather then sending out an “e-vite” or cyber flyer that might get lost in the spam file.

The source material for any online printing project will come from you, but that doesn’t mean you need to have a PhD in photoshop. A qualified online printing operation will have experienced and talented graphic artists standing by to turn your ideas into reality. It could start with a simple photo you snapped on your cell phone or a company logo you sketched out on a napkin. When the online printing graphic artists take over, they can reimagine your idea into a tangible piece of art. Think of the business cards or postcards you’ve held onto over the years. Wouldn’t you want the same idea to last as long? It can…by turning to online printing.

There’s a new “social networking” service aimed at male gamers. When you’re feeling lonely or would just like to hear a woman’s voice on the other end of that headset you can pay for that special touch at Game Crush. The site offers pay per session interactions with attractive female gamers. You can play anything from console shooters like MW2 to a casual Flash game – just keep those hands visible, friend.

The site launched today and is already down from the amount of traffic it received. That’s probably not interested gamers as much as it is people curious about what this sort of thing looks like. My guess? A train wreck. If anything, I hate to think of the things the poor girls working for this will be subjected to.

Interested gamers can pay $8.25 for 500 credits, which the company says is about the price of buying a girl a drink. Not if you’re buying her PBR. That’s right, we keep it classy. Each session runs 400 credits, after which you can leave a 100 credit tip. Those sessions will typically last 10-12 minutes, less if you’re playing a Flash game. It’s a pretty stiff way to enjoy the company of a lady, but I guess getting your ass whooped in some Halo by a hot chick might fulfill someone’s wildest fantasy.

I remember having lots of fun playing Bingo. When I was a young girl, we played it in school when it was too wet for our class to go outside for recess. My family had a game that we’d play at home, when my Mother could get all of us kids to sit down long enough. Our local school’s PTA often held bingo games as fundraisers. The local Lions, Elks and other such clubs still have a couple of bingo nights at their lodges. Still, as a game, it seems to have fallen out of fashion everywhere except on the web.

Playing bingo and other games of chance on the web is a trend that seems to be constantly growing in popularity. Many of the game-based websites offer free on-line play, or you can register with them to play for money or other prizes. Online bingo lacks the fun of a game held in a room full of people frantically trying to get those tiles in a nice neat row, so they can yell “bingo” at the top of their lungs. Still, it is easy to access and very convenient. You can play at almost any time of the day and from the privacy of your home on sites like Caesars online.

I may be waxing a bit nostalgic, but I would really like to see bingo become more popular as a pastime that is undertaken in person. Oh, I could go to the local Elk’s game, but they usually offer it on a night that is inconvenient for me. So, I guess what I’d like to see is the game become part of our culture once again, whether or not you play for money. It was fun and competitive, but based entirely upon luck, so that those of us without any particular skill still had a chance of winning.

Once upon a time I was considering going pro as a Halo player. No joke. I was in college, logging several hours of play a day and winning local tournaments as often as I could find them. Being in college, though, I was dead broke, unable to afford the plane ticket and lodging it would cost to to get from central Ohio to one of the early MLG tournaments with hopes of landing a team spot and competing at the national level. At the time, pro gaming, at least for consoles, was just getting its start, and there wasn’t another venue that would offer that kind of opportunity before I was set to graduate and find myself in need of gainful employment.

If you’re in that same situation, things have gotten a bit better. There are loads of pro leagues all over the country, and regional tourneys happen all the time. Breaking into the MLG scene can still be pretty tough, which is why Doritos has put together the Pro Gaming Combine in select cities around the country. You still have to get there, and there is an entry fee, but pro gaming has reached a point that, if you’re any good, you can easily get noticed at an event like this and start to make a name for yourself.

The combine runs for three days at a time with both team and solo categories. Players who demonstrate the highest level of “slaying power, teamwork/communication, leadership, objective play and support play” will be selected for further evaluation by the MLG Scout Team and given an opportunity to play at an MLG Pro Circuit event and an invite to the National Championship Competition, all expenses paid. Combine registration is $100 per team or $10 per player, which is much better than the actual circuit tickets last time I checked.

For the date and location schedule, check out the official page at MLG. There will be several online events leading up to each tourney, giving you the chance to see how you stack up before spending that Hamilton or Benjamin on your registration.

As the new year turns, I’m always compelled to look back on the previous year and think on what I played the most. 2009 was a strange year. I moved 700 miles across the country. I started writing for this blog and another, and I read a ton.

In short, I was busy, and it made a significant impact on my gaming. I cancelled my WoW subscription in favor of games that require less time. I purchased a console with hopes of finding new, less time-intensive titles. I bought more arcade titles on Steam than ever before. For all my efforts, though, I didn’t find my must-play game of 2009 until December.

I got an email from a real-life friend and former WoW buddy. He said he and another friend had picked up League of Legends, a free game that looked a lot like DotA. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big DotA fan, so I was immediately interested. Ten minutes into my first play session and I was hooked. The game is like DotA’s sexy younger sister, so much prettier and inexplicably more developed.

I’ll spare you most of the details, and just touch on a few of my favorites. First, the game is free. Don’t let that scare you away, though. The developers update the servers weekly and continue development for new heroes and maps. It’s the most well supported free game I’ve played in a long time.

Secondly, there’s a meta-game. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a very cool addition for what can be a repetitive genre. The appeal of the game is that you can complete a full game in under an hour, farming up items for your hero along the way. Once that game is done, though, the items are gone. For League of Legends, the developers added the summoner system, a game interface that allows you to purchase new heroes, upgrade your stats for every game you play, and purchase cosmetic enhancements for your characters. The bonuses are small, but you can unlock nearly all of them through gameplay. It ends up feeling like a much more immersive game because there’s something to do outside each individual game. Think of it like the farming/grinding/what-have-you that you do between raids.

Lastly, the game is well-supported. I know I mentioned this above, but Riot Games, the developer, is heavily committed to the game. They release new heroes, are working on new maps, and continue to fiddle with an underwhelming matchmaking system. The game is by no means perfect at this point, but they continue to work at it. That’s good enough for me to keep playing.

If you haven’t done so, head over to the official site and give the game a look. There’s even a special section for DotA converts. What was your must-play game of 2009?

Microsoft’s latest update for Xbox Live added Facebok and Twitter integration to the service, a feature that is reportedly reaching millions of Xbox Live subscribers. Microsoft’s official usage stats for the first week show that two million users logged in to Facebook accounts, with another half million creating new accounts. The first statistic isn’t so surprising – two million users is roughly ten percent of all Xbox Live subscribers – but I found the second pretty shocking.

The two million users stat is sort of pointless because just about anyone forced to download the update will give it a shot once. And why not log in so that you don’t have to later on? To me, though, the service is too stripped down to use often, and Facebook pictures are rarely the sorts of things that need to be viewed on a TV screen, but that’s just me.

Microsoft didn’t give any data regarding Twitter adoption, other than to say that the service has received tweets from almost every region where Xbox Live is present. Color me unimpressed.

Source: CNet

There’s an awesome post on College Humor today. Written by Brian Murphy, the article suggests five status updates from favorite characters in gaming’s past.

There’s an appearance from Shiek, who’s still trying to pass as a dude, a self-loathing Mega Man failing a personality test, and my favorite: a bromance between Sonic and Tails gone sour. That last one culminates with a mssing Sonic, a drunk Tails, and the words, “I love you man seriously. I always have.”

I don’t know exactly what is so funny about defiling childhood’s idealized characters/relationships, but it is some damn fine entertainment. Looking for some reddit karma? Take the College Humor idea and apply to the nostalgic reference of your choosing. Upvotes guaranteed.

There are plenty of people who think the Madden Curse is fake. Yet somehow every year fate finds a way to prove those people wrong. It could have something to do with repeatedly putting oneself in harm’s way for sport. Maybe it’s bad luck. Either way, we’re half way to fulfillment this year, as Troy Palamalu is sitting a few games. Will Larry Fitzgerald share that fate? Why not bet on it?

That’s what Playblackjack.com is asking. The site takes sportsbetting to a new level,` giving users a chance to pick the game in which Fitzgerald will meet his fate. Get it right and the payout is 9 to 1. There are quite a few games left in the season, but your cut’s pretty nice if you pick the right date. If Fitz makes it through the season, (I can’t believe I’m going to write this in its original context) all bets are off. You’ll get your money back if Fitzgerald somehow makes it through the season injury free.

Ben Heck spends most of his free time making mind-boggling mods of popular game console hardware. He’s the guy responsible for the 360 in a box, that Microsoft console with an attached screen inside a briefcase. He doesn’t just work for fun, though. This past week Ben hacked together a controller to do some good – a controller that would allow people who would otherwise find it difficult to play to be able to play with one hand.

As you can see in the picture above, Ben’s mod involves swapping the D-Pad out with the ABXY button set, allowing one-handed control of just about any game. He’s also switched the triggers, so the right-handed trigger, the one used for most primary functions like shooting, is on the left with the controls. As you can imagine, he could probably make one for right-hand folks too. For the truly hardcore of the one-handed contingent, Heck’s also added smaller ABXY controls to the back of the unit, allowing you to keep that thumb on the control stick as while you melee someone in the back.

Head over to his blog for the complete set of pics and contact info regarding customization.