Random Film of the Day*: Mysterious Island

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, bttfportugal!)
*For the next week or so, I’m going to add a random film the great Ray Harryhausen worked on. The legendary special effects MASTER passed away on May 7, 2013 at age 92 in London and yes, the film world has lost a true giant as well as a fine and talented gentleman…

Mysterious Island Poster Yet another Charles H. Schneer/Ray Harryhausen production featuring a brilliant Bernard Herrmann soundtrack, 1961’s Mysterious Island is another classic fans of the master stop motion animator cite as some of his best work of the decade as well as a pretty solid genre entry. It’s certainly got a nicely varied cast of creatures going for it from a giant crab, an very angry and huge prehistoric bird, a few huge bees in their cliffside hive and a majorly over-sized cephalopod near the end. You also get a nice balloon escape at the beginning that gets most of the cast to that titular island, a few ladies tossed into the mix courtesy of a shipwreck and a surprise appearance by Captain Nemo that adds another layer of the fantastic to the film…
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The Burning [Collector’s Edition]: Once Again, Shout Factory Mutates Into Scream Factory…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

the burning blu-ray_dvd Man, I haven’t seen The Burning in YEARS, but thankfully, Shout Factory’s Scream Factory arm is bringing it back to life, and on a bonus-filled Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack at that. If you’ve never seen this 1981 cult classic, carve out a space under or behind the couch, pop in this flick and get prepared to lose a lung screaming as the horrifically disfigured camp caretaker Cropsy gets revenge on the teens who accidentally set him ablaze in a prank gone wrong.

Yeah, it’s got some minor to moderate similarities to Friday the 13th (which, along with its sequel lifts some of its bloody murders directly from Mario Bava’s awesome gore classic Twitch of the Death Nerve), but hey, at that time, these horror flicks were being churned out pretty quickly and a little gleeful borrowing here and there wasn’t a crime at all. That and hell, Tom Savini doing the effects on both this and Friday meant you were getting the best Hollywood gore for that ticket money. That and hell, Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander are in this one! Do they survive? Mwah-ha-ha-haaaa… you’ll need to watch and find out!

Anyway, you modern gore fans (aka “Meddling kids!”) who want to see something old farts like me were into back in the day should definitely check this “moldy oldie” from the 80’s out. And yeah, yeah you aged sticklers for gory detail, the original poster art for the film is on the reverse of that new, more colorful cover art. You think Shout Factory’s going to leave you hanging? As always, they’re killing you with kindness…

VGA 101: uDraw Tablet (PS3): THQ’s Folly Makes For A Really Cool Budget Artist Buy…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

uDraw PS3a uDraw PS3b

When the uDraw was first released for the Nintendo Wii, it sold well enough that THQ decided to bring the tablet peripheral to both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but took a little too long to get it to market as more functional tablet devices became hot sellers. You could say that the company greatly overestimated a few things, most importantly, the selling power of the uDraw to an a PS3 and 360 audience made up of more hardcore gamers who had little to no use for a new peripheral they wouldn’t go near with a ten foot pole (unless they were using that pole to smash the thing to bits). Needless to say, uDraw on the PS3 and 360 didn’t do well at all and plenty of retailers and probably a few distributors were left sitting on plenty unsold stock… Continue reading →

Payday: The Heist 2 Gets A Cross-Platform Retail Release: Smart Move (And A Steal, At That)…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

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Other than trying the game out at a friend’s place for about an hour or so, I didn’t get to play Payday: The Heist because I can’t access PSN or Xbox Live at home. Of course, with its fast-paced but more tactical gameplay that your garden variety FPS and ability to play out different heists, the game did well enough as a PS3 and PC download that a sequel was a no-brainer. Overkill Software has been in the kitchen cooking up Payday 2 for a bit and publisher 505 Games has announced that not only is the sequel coming soon (as in this August), it’s making the jump to Xbox 360 AND getting a nice retail release this time out.

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As you can see from the screens below, the fine folks at Overkill (which is an offshoot of Starbreeze Studios) certainly know their way around a graphics engine and if you hate clowns, you’re already hiding behind a couch cushion thanks to those freaky masks. Of course, the proof is all in the playing, so I guess this one gets added to my already crowded list of games to get to once they’re out. Those of you looking for a little virtual cops & robbers action should probably be on the lookout for this one as well…

What’s The State of Dead State? Funny You Should Ask…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

Hot of the presses (well, not really, but it’s from today!) comes this neat interview with members of DoubleBear Productions, the dev team behind the upcoming indie zombie-themed RPG, Dead State. It’s pretty cool to see the game coming together despite the team being in separate locations. I like how the game is shaping up so far as a more serious exploration of the survival theme as opposed to a simple mindless shooter (we’ve enough of those to last a few lifetimes) or comedy-packed take on its theme. Of course, I’m holding out for some hands-on time, so my eyeball is fixed on the progress this makes as it winds its way towards completion…