Tonight’s premiere marks the first time True Blood has been without its creator, Alan Ball. Left in the hands of a new creative team, is it too much to hope that really turns the show in a new, improved direction? Perhaps not. But it’s too early to tell. The missteps of the fifth season linger, but are growing faint as everyone—audience included—adjust to some drastic changes.

Bloody spoilers after the cut.

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E3 2013 came and went in LA this week, bringing with it a slew of new game announcements, trailers, and catty console rivalries. So what looked cool? We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite show highlights for your viewing pleasure. Fair warning: the following post is chock-full of shiny new gameplay and trailer-y goodness, so grab a coffee or two give yourself a few minutes to peruse. Or an hour. Hey, it’s Friday.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from this year’s E3 conference.

[Come take a closer look at Sony vs. Microsoft, Diablo III, Outlast, Star Wars: Battlefront, Super Smash Bros. 4, The Witcher 3, Destiny, and more...]

Get ready, Fangers. HBO’s Southern-fried vampire drama True Blood returns with new episodes this Sunday.

Scream-queen Anna Paquin reprises her role as Sookie Stackhouse, the fairy waitress of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Picking up right where season five left off, with her former lover Bill transformed into a supervamp after drinking the blood of the first vampire, Lillith, Sookie is on the run with her brother Jason, her best friend Tara, and her other former lover Eric Northman (the hideously deformed Alexander Skarsgård) All of them are caught in the middle of an full-on human vs. undead war.

[Season 6 Trailer Within.]

From the title, we can tell it’s Mother’s Day in Westeros and every proud mama receives flowers and heart-shaped necklaces and no decapitations and if you believe that after last week’s episode, I have a bridge between The Twins to sell you.

Actually, the title was maybe not so much indicative of exactly what I was expecting from a season finale of Game of Thrones. There were some notable absences, the foremost of which would have been a killer cliffhanger to keep tongues wagging till next year.

All I’m sayin’ is last year we got an army of White Walkers, this year we get... Enya.

But which is more terrifying, really?

[It’s Hodors all the way down...]

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Perhaps buoyed by the success of Indie Game: The Movie, Jeremy Snead and his team over at Mediajuice Studios have spent the last couple of years staking out conventions and traveling to major development houses to get footage for their wide-ranging, comprehensive documentary entitled Video Games: The Movie, touching on everything from the inception of the medium to contemporary gamer culture along the way.

[The history. The culture. The creation. The future. And more...]

So that happened.

Major bloody, bloody spoilers after the cut.

[Guest rights not honored within...]

Despite Nintendo’s initial victory in the last console war (achieved largely by the Wii’s successful capture of the casual gamer market), there are some warning signs emerging of late that indicate the console giant—whose brand was once synonymous with gaming—may be on the verge of riding off into the sunset. Driven partly by Nintendo’s overestimation of the Wii’s staying power, partly by the fickle nature of casual gaming, and partly by developer abandonment, Nintendo is facing some interesting times, to say the least—times that are not helped one bit by the gaming community’s lukewarm reception of the Wii U.

[“Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!”]

Unsurprisingly, the gaming news du jour has revolved pretty exclusively around Microsoft’s official Tuesday unveiling of the Xbox 360’s successor: the Xbox One. While there have been months of build-up for this next-gen console, including its fair share of controversy and leaks of system specifications and features dating as far back as last October, the general public has not been able to set eyes on the device itself until this week.

[So what’s new? Is the always-online requirement an official reality? Click and find out.]

Why, hello, Daario.

“Second Sons” is fine for a title, but it doesn’t leave much room for the women of Game of Thrones, many of whom also had a difficult time performing their duties this week. So much duty this week. And boobs. And leeches and lechers.

Gendry bled, Tyrion wed, Davos read, and... Samwell got to not be a big fat stupid for about five minutes.

Note: episode reviews are largely spoiler-free for the books, but spoilers are fair game in the comments. Be warned.

[Do not trust men who fight for gold. Unless they have killer cheekbones...]

Universal Pictures has just debuted the first trailer for Riddick, the upcoming epic action-adventure starring Vin Diesel, and it looks like everyone’s favorite criminal is getting back to his alien-slaying roots.

[Watch the first trailer for Riddick]

Each season of Game of Thrones has one episode written by AsoIaF author George R.R. Martin, and while we didn’t get the pyrotechnics of “Blackwater” or the surprise appearance of White Walkers as we did in “The Pointy End,” there were still plenty of memorable moments this hour.

And a ton of quotes that will have new meaning once the season’s over.

[Bear!]

Last month, we witnessed the end of one of gaming’s most iconic studios, LucasArts, at the hands of Disney. This move left the status of the developer’s Star Wars franchise as an unknown. Well, no longer. This week, EA announced their acquisition of the Star Wars license and assured fans that the future of the franchise in gaming is safe. As to whether this is good or bad news... well, that depends on your perception of EA.

[“Don’t underestimate the Force.”]

When all was said and done, this week’s episode of Game of Thrones felt like cresting the top of a huge rollercoaster. You get one moment to catch your breath and then it’s all quickly downhill to the season finale from here.

Jon Snow finally climbs the Wall, Ygritte gets a little too intense, Arya gets a lesson in archery and vigilantism, and Sansa gets some bad news. There were some interesting deviations from the books and some pointed parallels drawn between characters that became clear when the episode came round full circle. It might not have been the most exciting hour this season, but there were definitely some exciting scenes.

Note: Book spoilers are mostly avoided in the review, but are fair game in the comments. Proceed with caution.

[Chaos Theory according to Littlefinger...]

This week saw the release of three new trailers for Rockstar’s latest offering—Grand Theft Auto V. As the veteran developers begin to ramp up the release of information in the months leading up to GTA V’s September launch, they’ve allowed fans to progressively learn a little more about the game’s three protagonists, each of whom is featured in their own new trailer. Meet Michael, Franklin, and Trevor—Rockstar’s latest cast of miscreants in the GTA franchise.

[“I think you need a new therapist.”]

This week on Game of Thrones, Westeros burns with desire, vengeance, fever, holy fire, and questions. Plots beget counter-plots and counter-counter plots. And the seeds are planted for some very big events.

Oh, and Jon Snow knows something, after all....

Note: Show spoilers after the cut, book spoilers likely in the comments. Proceed with caution.

[Read more...]

Bethesda finally drew back the curtain on their latest project this week, and fans of the survival horror genre should be very, very happy. Shinji Makami, creator of the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis franchises, is returning to his survival horror roots with his new game, The Evil Within, in hopes of steering a genre he sees as slightly off-course back in the right direction.

[The gore-averse need not apply...]

NYC-area science fiction fans had a wealth of literary events to choose from this past Friday night. Singularity & Co. hosted the latest “I, Reader,” curated by Tor.com’s own Ryan Britt. In Manhattan, Neil Gaiman stepped in to moderate a Q&A with musician (and spouse) Amanda Palmer at the EMP Pop Conference. Uptown, the venerable NY Public Library opened its doors for William Gibson and a sold out crowd. The “LIVE at NYPL” series has hosted luminaries such as Lou Reed, Joan Didion, Werner Herzog, Patti Smith, and Salman Rushdie, but the genre offerings have been slim. Making the night even more of a rarity was the fact that Gibson made a public appearance without a new book to promote. Guided by popular moderator Paul Holdengräber, the author shared insights on his formative years, his writing, and the time’s ability to transform technology from magical to ubiquitous.

He also shared the first few pages from his work-in progress “probably called” The Peripheral.

[Burroughs, Bowie, and Blade Runner...]

The last ten minutes of last night’s Game of Thrones episode proved that one show’s fourth episode is another show’s season finale. It was one fiery hell of a capper to an hour largely about secret dealings, betrayals, and some big slices of humble pie served to Lannisters.

Show spoilers after the cut, book spoilers likely in the comments. Proceed with caution.

[“Dracarys.”]

Most fans of 90s gaming are well acquainted with developer LucasArts’ (technically known as Lucasfilm Games at the time) early adventure gaming classics: The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. This week, Ron Gilbert, creator of the Monkey Island-verse, opened up on his blog, Grumpy Gamer, about what he would like to do if he were ever to make another Monkey Island game—mandatory reading for gamers pining for the company of Guybrush Threepwood and the Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

[“Look behind you... a three headed monkey!”]