SimCity Social. Waiting on the edge of your seat for the next SimCity game? Well, February 2013 is still very far away (seven painstaking months!). In the meanwhile we are lucky enough to have SimCity Social from EA. The game is one of those free Facebook apps that lets you interact “socially” with your friends as you play. You build a city from the ground up using your resources, money, and energy to add new buildings (including homes, farms, businesses, factories, and landmarks to name a few). You can invite your friends as neighboring cities and share resources and help each other grow. It lets you become friends or foes with their cities (you can send them gifts like hot air balloons or prank they with a flock of birds pooing all over the city). As your population grows you get more and more advisors that set goal for you to reach, which steers the gameplay in certain directions. Click here to go to the app page for SimCity Social and follow the directions to add the game to your Facebook profile.

A side note on SimCity Social: the game does not tell you which of your Facebook friends are actually playing. Like all of the social app games, it tries to get you to spam your friends list (and your timeline) to ask everyone to join the game. I highly recommend searching your friends pages to find out who is already playing to make sure you only send invites and game items to them. Otherwise you might end up annoying a bunch of friends that have no interest in the game.

Urban Dead. This is one of those addictive multi-player web based games that you sign up for and quickly use all of your action points and then obsessively wait for them to refill so you can continue playing. You start as a survivor in the city of Malton after the zombie apocalypse has begun. There are four classes of character types to choose from including three survivor categories; military (privates, medics, scouts) , science (doctors, lab assistants), and civilian (police officers, firefighters, consumers), or you can choose to be a zombie from the get go. As you travel around the city you find items, earn experience points that let you gain skills, seek out good hiding spots, and look for other survivors and groups to join. Become a zombie hunter or eat as many brains as you can. This is the best online zombie game we’ll have until someone makes a Dead Rising MMO. Click here to sign up for Urban Dead.

Hollywood the Game. One part writing community and one part City simulation turns Hollywood and moviemaking into a game. You write a movie script, pitch it to player run studios, cast it with your favorite actors, design creative including posters and trailers, advertise the movie, release it, and finally watch the box office roll in. What will you do with all of that virtual cash? How about buying a house in HTG Malibu, a fancy car from one of your favorite movies, or how about games and DVDs based on virtual movies released in the game? The more items and awards you gather help your future releases in different ways. And with totally open game play, you can find yourself taking on a number of jobs, from producer or studio head, to a creative company, a casting agent, editor, video maker, or even a real estate agent selling virtual homes and offices. Become a big wig in a completely player run virtual Hollywood (the screen shot above is part of one of the many City maps). Click here to sign up for Hollywood the Game.

An announcement trailer for am all new Sim City has been released and words can not express how excited I am about it. Now if I’ll be able to find the actual time to play it is another story altogether.

While on the subject of simulations, Hollywood the Game is going as strong as ever. The game is completely open ended and player run. You start off in the slums of Hollywood with 500k in your pocket and you decide how you will play. Do you want to fight to become a movie studio head or a network executive for a television network? Open a creative company? Become a critic? Journalist? The possibilities are endless.

Avengers mania is reaching new highs as we inch closer to the mega superhero team up film that no one thought was possible to get together. Apple has posted a bunch of new exclusive videos. Check them out here. Will you be doing the epic Marvel marathon of all the past movies followed by Avengers in 3d?

After the short lived Mr. Sunshine and the cut off too soon Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Matthew Perry is being given another chance with a new show on NBC. Go On co-stars Julie White and Suzy Nakamura, with Perry as a sportscaster who uses group therapy to try to move on from a loss. White portrays a member of his group who is stuck in the anger state of grief.

A preview has been released for the Smallville Season 11 online comic series. The panels are a look at Lois and Clark’s relationship 6 months after the series finale. Give them a look.

Working on a new project? Heading up a company? Don’t forget Go Green Electricity. Keep your pollution to a minimum.

Have you checked out Hollywood the Game yet? The web’s best Hollywood simulation game…

The game’s official description:

Ever dream of writing your own film, taking it from conception and development to the masses? You’re not alone! In virtual Hollywood the entire entertainment world is at your feet. You can work with the studios and top TV networks to produce the movies you’d want to see and the television shows that deserve to be on the air. You can also become a renowned critic, or a beat reporter for one of our local newspapers. In Hollywood the Game everything is player run, so one day you might run a studio and make all of the big decisions! Interested in playing HTG? Then join our community of like minded individuals now! It’s free!

You can learn more about Hollywood the Game by heading here.

Hollywood The Game (HTG) is a Hollywood & Filmmaking Simulation Game that is open and free to players of all ages. Players can take the roles of studio heads, producers, critics, journalists, marketing agents, creative companies, real estate agents, and casting agents to name a few.

The backbone of the game emphasizes the producer/writer career, in which a player has the chance to write, cast, market (make posters, trailers, ads, etc. for your film), and produce their own films. The film is then released into HTG theaters, getting reviews and feedback from the rest of players, as well as receiving money from the HTG box-office. Everything in this game is simulated, including the films, (i.e., they’re not real films; just scripts, summaries, short stories, etc.), money, possessions, and posters and ads. Overall, it is a completely free, fun way to hone your screenwriting skills while having fun with a game at the same time.

You can access the site by clicking on this link. The game is finishing up its 10th session of virtual television and is entering a epic summer movie season that includes a new Batman adaptation, along with remakes of Hellraiser and Friday the 13th, and a ton of original pieces that producers are hoping to blow you away with! Hope to see you in Hollywood: The Game!

Hollywood The Game (HTG) is a Hollywood & Filmmaking Simulation Game that is open and free to players of all ages. Players can take the roles of studio heads, producers, critics, journalists, marketing agents, creative companies, real estate agents, and casting agents to name a few.

The backbone of the game emphasizes the producer/writer career, in which a player has the chance to write, cast, market (make posters, trailers, ads, etc. for your film), and produce their own films. The film is then released into HTG theaters, getting reviews and feedback from the rest of players, as well as receiving money from the HTG box-office. Everything in this game is simulated, including the films, (i.e., they’re not real films; just scripts, summaries, short stories, etc.), money, possesions, and posters and ads. Overall, it is a completely free, fun way to hone your screenwriting skills while having fun with a game at the same time.

You can access the site by clicking on the image at the top of the post, or by accessing this link.  Hope to see you in Hollywood: The Game.

Welcome to the New Year! I hope that 2011 brings you everything that you are looking for. The beginning of the new year means a lot of things; the Oscars are rapidly approaching, TV’s winter break will soon be over (Wipe Out returns in a few days!), and Marvel Comics is gearing up its next big crossover, dubbed “Fear Itself”.

Lets move on to the newest entertainment news from that Pit named Hollywood. Today we’re gonna look at a mix of comic news, upcoming television shows, and some movie tidbits.

• In less than 20 days Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 will be coming to an end! I still have a lot of questions after last issue’s tragic end and I can’t want to see how Joss sets up Buffy Season 9 and the new Angel series that is launching at Dark Horse Comics. 2011 will be bringing us a lot of good Buffy stuff.

• 24 was canceled this past March, but fans were left with a lot of hope that they’d see Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer live to fight another day… that was until this past week when FOX rejected the proposed script and put the project in development hell. There is still a good chance that it’d get made with Sutherland actively talking about it and Tony Scott interested in helming the action movie.

• 2011 is looking very positive in terms of comic related television shows. In just a week Cartoon Network is presenting a look at DC Comic’s next generation of heroes with Young Justice, a show that focuses on the comic universes top sidekicks, including Robin, Superboy, Kid Flash, and others. Also gearing up from DC and CN is Green Lantern: The Animated Series, which follows what Ryan Reynolds and Martin Campbell are setting out to do in the new movie; Hal Jordan, intergalactic policeman. Marvel Comics is looking to produce new live action shows for the Hulk and Cloak & Dagger. Hulk is currently in the very early stages of development, but ABC Family is looking to produce a teen friendly version of Cloak & Dagger. It is cool to see them gearing up actual live action shows. The current season of Smallville shows just how well a series can handle the action and sci-fi elements that are involved with bringing a comic series to life. In addition to DC and Marvel’s efforts, there is the long rumored Powers series (which I hope doesn’t happen because I’d love to some day be involved with such a series).

• Hawkeye will be making his first theatrical appearance in this summer’s Thor? That is the latest rumor making the rounds. With the confirmation that Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury will be absent from the film, I’d love to see Jeremy Renner in the mix. I just hope that he doesn’t try to fight the fallen God, for his own sake.

• Hollywood the Game’s latest year has ended and the game will be celebrating the past year of movie releases with its Bi-Annual Awards show. Head on over to HollywoodtheGame.com for more details!

• Do you have a dog? Looking for the best medications for them? There are a lot of websites that can help you with the search, sites like PetCareRx Reviews.

What is going on in the world of entertainment? Follow me into The Pit…

• Next month’s Fantastic Four #587 will see the end of the first family of superheroes, the series, and will take at least one of the team’s lives. Which member will take their last breath, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, or the Thing? My money is on the Human Torch. Place your bets below, then come back next month as we take a closer look at which hero bites the dust.

• It is great to hear Kevin Smith talk about his upcoming (and unconventional) horror film Red State. The passion he is putting into the project is really shining through. And I’m glad that he is back to making something he cares about after the dreadfully boring Cop Out and the letdown that was Zack and Miri. I just wish the trailer for Red State was better. It doesn’t give me a lot of hope for the overall piece.

• It was announced that the Playboy founder Hugh Hefner will be marrying Crystal Harris, a 24 year old Playmate. Apparently he popped the question over the Holidays. I have to ask… why? I mean, seriously, why? Does the 84 year old feel the need to settle down? Did the twins he was dating earlier in the year tire him out that much?

• We still have another three weeks until Chuck‘s return. In the meanwhile I’ll continue watching all of my favorite 80s action movies. Up next… Die Hard.

• The movie making simulation Hollywood the Game is gearing up for a new year of movies and session 10 of its popular television simulation. Check out the site and sign up if you are interesting in playing. Head on over to HollywoodtheGame.com

• True Grit is the best movie of the year. Yeah, I said it. Now go see it if you don’t believe me.

• Own a car? Than you really should have automobile insurnace. Yeah, I know this has nothing to do with entertainment and it contains a spelling error. Oh well. Can’t win them all.