Hmmmm… Don’t you hate it when you hit “Publish” BEFORE you’re actually done with an article you wanted to post much later, which in turn forces you to stay up and forge onward to edit/finish it instead of something else you wanted to actually complete FIRST because it’s kind of overdue and you were working on it for a while?
Just asking, as that NEVER happens to me (eye roll)…
Like nearly everyone else who saw it, I was floored when Ubisoft dropped Watch_Dogs into our collective consciousness at the end of its E3 press conference. Not only did they completely surprise people, they did so in the way things USED to be done in this industry. Win NO in house PR-generated “leaks” or overly annoying viral nonsense that keeps people who need to be more productive trolling around the Internet looking at teaser sites or playing with devices in useless mini-games that hint at what’s to come. Although amusingly enough, that’s probably one big way to market the game now that the beans have been spilled. Still, as great as the game looks and as amazing as the idea behind it is, something bugged the hell out of me when the demo was over…
“In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.”
– Ray Bradbury
So, the great Ray Bradbury died last week and that’s another bit of my past gone away. And yours too, even if you’ve never read a word of his massive body of work. Along with plenty of classic science fiction, fantasy and many other stories that had a beautiful flow to them many have copied (or more accurately, tried to copy and failed miserably at doing so), he wrote one of the best editorials on censorship that I’ve ever read. I normally despise Sir Rupert Murdoch’s local opinions as fact-packed fish-wrapper, The New York Post, but they ran that column he wrote (mostly to justify their own “news” agenda) yesterday and I had to tip my hat their way for doing so… Continue reading
This is pretty great to look at, but remember: it’s ONLY a tech demo and under the right hands, I’m betting things can only go up from there. But at what cost? For me, a game engine is only as good as the programmers and artists who end up using it. There have been a number of games created with older and current versions of the Unreal engine that do an amazing job of NOT looking as if they were made using it (which is really cool in my book). This leads me to believe that while we will indeed see plenty of games that make us all say “Oh…THAT’S Unreal 4?”… we’re going to be sitting through a lot of games before that, sighing “Oh, that’s Unreal 4…” Continue reading
How the heck else would you describe him after he goes and writes an actual book called THE DARK KNIGHT MANUAL that features everything you always wanted to know about being Batman, but were afraid to ask? After some thought, I think he’s being a wee bit TOO smart here, putting all you need to create your very OWN Batcave, suits, gadgets, vehicles and more between 112 pages (with hardcovers for longevity) adding 35+ removable items and sticking it in stores this month for a mere $40. “What’s the deal?” you ask? Well, dear reader, I’d say Mr. Wayne is getting a wee bit tired of the crime fighting gig and wants a LOT of you out there to get cracking on getting into the masked vigilante business so he can enjoy his yacht, planes and champagne drinking nightlife while you do the dirty work. You, yes, YOU can be a part of the Batman franchise by… owning your OWN batman franchise!
Either that, or he’s putting out FAKE plans just to fool a few of the villains who are out to get him by making them pay just to get their hands on plans that aren’t quite the ones he’s using right NOW. Hmmm… on the other hand, maybe “Bruce Wayne” is just the pen name of some nefarious baddie long forgotten by Chris Nolan, despite doing everything he could to get even the tiniest cameo in the upcoming soon to be blockbuster. My money is on Ali Babble, as he hasn’t been seen in a Batman comic since 1946! That’s a hell of a long time to wait around just to get some revenge! I know I’d have at LEAST Fourteen Peeves if I was left out of the canon for THAT long!
Seriously, if these two E3 videos from Ubisoft’s upcoming (up to FIVE player) Wii U exclusive don’t get you grinning, you’re one pretty mean person having a not so hot day. Don’t spread that frown around at all, I say. Rayman, Murphy, Globox and the rest of the crew want you to let your cares fall away as you race through some mighty pretty (and pretty insane) old-school platforming levels (with some neat and quick “3D” elements) , feeling like you’re years younger, pounds lighter and a bit hairier up top. No, on top of your head, silly (yeesh!). Ha! I saw you smile. Good – that’s just what the game is supposed to do. OK, my work here is done (again)… Thanks Ubisoft!
With The Dark Knight Rises about to blast into theaters this summer, here’s a little cool reading material for you to pore over that makes for an instant conversation starter because it’s an actual BOOK, not some bunch of bits you can flick around with a pinky and cry over when some thugs swipe your e-reader or iThing on the subway. You’ll soon find out there’s NO Batman if that happens (just some cop laughing at you), but if you have this BOOK in your home, you can comfortably fantasize away on your comfy couch about wearing the cowl, cape and boots all you like. Well, until one of your friends steals the book from your house. Damn you, Joker!
Anyway, Batmobile: The Complete History is written by Mark Cotta Vaz with a Q & A foreword featuring Paul Levitz (formerly of DC Comics fame) and Nathan Crowley (the production designer on Chris Nolan’s Batman film trilogy). It’s 148 pages thick, costs $39.95, comes out this month and it’s hardcover (so you can whack someone upside the head if they try and “borrow” your tome of power), featuring over 100 illustrations and photos of Batman’s wheels from 1939 onward. You know you want this book, so I won;t stop you at all from buying it. And yeah, you want an actual Batmobile, too. But at least ONE of those isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Besides, reading is good for you. And take that utility belt off before you sit down and poke a hole in those cushions with a Batarang or something.
Lovely. Absolutely lovely. Well, if they can make a battle system that’s a bit more action oriented (and lose the quick time events!), I’ll be diving back into a Final Fantasy game after too long away. Still this IS a tech demo, so it’ll be up to what the programmers can do to assure any game using this engine looks as great or even better. As for MY own new-gen wants: I want NO damn “dot” shadows ever again in a 3D game, EVER, destructible/movable objects (no more furniture nailed to sets), ZERO clipping issues, voice sync that looks realistic and hell, every door opening in a game for a change. Some bathrooms would help as well, but hey, RPG characters aren’t real and don’t need to poop or pee, I guess.
OK, that said, I STILL want to see an anime game on a new console that looks and flows even more like an actual anime does. We’re getting to that point and it’s clear that the coming console cycle Can make that happen. I’ll be keeping my eyeballs peeled (eww), so get on it, guys….
It’s been a while since I did this column (again!), but here you go, thanks to Ubisoft’s upcoming Wii U exclusive (which isn’t based on this flick, btw), I’m inspired to scribble a bit about one more of my old horror faves. Here’s the ZOMBI 2 poster I forgot to run in my Zombi U post earlier this week. Seeing that happy, smoochy undead mug once more made me think of being freaked out then amused by the commercial for the film when it ran here way back around 1980, I think.
I recall that I actually didn’t see the film until about 1983 or ’84 thanks to a friend of a friend who worked at some place that cut together TV ads. Everyone who worked there was pirating every movie that came in the door and making themselves huge movie libraries, and I recall his was pretty damn impressive and packed with stuff I’d never seen before but always wanted to. I think I only borrowed two or three tapes from him, as I was SUPER paranoid about some dark sunglasses-wearing agent types kicking my door in and busting me for whatever I was doing that was illegal (was it even illegal to watch a copied movie you borrowed back then? Who knows?).
Anyway, Back to the movie for a sec: It was (and still is) pretty gory, but also a bit funny in spots. Well, HILARIOUS, as a zombie (well, a guy in undead makeup) actually fights a REAL (and drugged, from what I remember reading later) shark in probably the craziest moment in the movie. The scene I remember most vividly was a woman getting her eyeball poked out with a piece of wood (eww!), but there were a few other shocking bits throughout. The beginning and ending made me laugh, so that’s a trade-off I guess. Celebrity sort of alert: Mia Farrow’s sister, Tisa is in the film – but she’s not the one who loses her eyeball. So, yeah, it’s not a family flick at all this time out, but if you can track it down, it’s a funky, chunky scare-fest worth your popcorn time.
If you’re REALLY in the mood for this sort of stuff, I say pair it with Mario Bava’s gore/splatter classic, Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve, the inspiration, at least in terms of special effects for the first two Friday the 13th movies about a decade later).
OK, I’ll admit it. I wasn’t at ALL keen on Defiance from the moment I heard about it. Sure, Trion Worlds is known for some solid MMO experiences, but the fact that the game would be based on a show from the network that brings us crappy camp like Sharktopus and Jersey Shore Shark Attack! didn’t exactly make me comfortably assured about reliable quality control in regards to the upcoming TV series. Sure, the Battlestar Galactica reboot was groundbreaking and great from the start , but as the song goes, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”
Then I saw some gameplay and well, I had to eat my hat…
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