Chronicles of the Mind: Truth or Dare (and/or Consequences) For The Egghead Crowd…

Based on this video and the game description alone, I’d say cops and judges need to keep a deck of Chronicles of the Mind cards with them at all times. Imagine the confessions and such that would get revealed after a round of this with some suspect who tends to get all talky as soon as they’re distracted by a “simple” little game such as this? Of course, that would mean people across America would be flooding the Griddly Games site with purchases as they’ll want to invite local politicians to attend and play a weekly game session just so they could see and hear what they REALLY think instead of hearing half-truths (or no truths) on assorted cable news and talk radio channels.

Hey, I don’t need a fun card game to know some people are really gullible when they get to gambling (or thinking they’re going to win a prize when they “win” a game), so why not take advantage of that wired in greed and get some actual answers, I say. Once again, Canada comes to our rescue, so make sure to thank the fine folks up at Griddly when you get the chance…

GRID 2: LiveRoutes & A Trip to Miami (A Really Fast Trip, At That)…

Codemasters is set to shake the racing game scene up with the addition of LiveRoutes in GRID 2, set for a May 28, 2013 US launch on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. LiveRoutes alter selected courses in the game each time you play, offering up six different routes when these tracks are revisited. This should keep some expert as well as novice players from blowing through familiar courses and should make for some interesting live events in online play.

As for Miami… welcome and hey! You just got to see a gameplay video of someone driving faster there than you can do in real life thanks to all the traffic they’ve got down there. Aren’t you the lucky one! Well, unless you get carsick watching all these videos I’ve been posting… oops.

Random Film of the Week: Spirits of the Dead

spirits of the deadI’d only heard of this horror anthology film a few years back thanks to a friend who saw the restored final third and raved about it. Of course, I never got the chance to check that, nor the rest of this film out until recently when the movie popped up on TCM and after a sluggish first segment, had me glued to the couch taking in the assorted sights and sounds.

Spirits of the Dead (or Histoires extraordinaires if you happen to be French and want an alternate title) is an offbeat selection of three Edgar Allan Poe stories that’s best known today for its incredible (and completely bizarre) final chapter directed by the great Federico Fellini that has to be seen to be believed. I’ll get to that below, but I need to bury one corpse and beat a dead horse for a bit… Continue reading

Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara: The Elf – In A Class All By Herself…

Hey, now… before you get all finger-pointy and mention that elves are a race and not a class, you should probably take note that in Dungeons and Dragons, they were initially seen as a separate class along with halflings and dwarves. Of course, elves don’t exist in real life (despite people spending too much time believing they do), so there’s a moot point here somewhere I keep misplacing. Anyway, whee – I get to try this Iron Galaxy-developed HD reboot/remake out next week when Capcom rolls into NYC with it and a few other awesome upcoming games, so expect a nice hands-on report shortly afterward. Dungeon & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara hits PC, PSN, Xbox Live and Nintendo’s eShop on July 14 – back in a bit with more on this instant classic soon.

Dragon’s Crown Cover Art, Artbook Revealed: Preselling A Not-So-Hard Sell…

DC_Artworks_Glam

Lovely… and it can soon be all yours, at that. Dragon’s Crown finally gets some VERY pretty cover art for its retail versions as well as a really cool pre-order bonus in the form of a 64-page softcover art book that’s absolutely going to be snapped up by fans of George Kamitani’s work. I’d go as far as to predict the art book selling for more than the game does down thee road among those who miss out and want to pay through the pores on eBay or some other site, but that’s not Atlus’ concern what you do with that bonus item as they see not a red cent from secondhand sales of their cool goods. Anyway, check out the official site if you haven’t already for character profiles, more of Kamitani’s lush artwork and more.

DCArtCover DrgVitaRp5 DrgCrwRpPromo4a

Dragon’s Crown will hit retail and PSN on August 6, 2013. Be there or be square, I say…

SCIENCE! Prepare To Sweat The Small Stuff With These Close-Up Images…

Mr. Water MiteYeah, I just had to do this to you just to screw with your Friday and make you marvel at the universe a tiny bit. “Click away at your peril!” Mr. Water Mite to the left says. What, you thought it was a Sandworm from DUNE or some fancy chastity belt/sex toy deal (eek!)? Well, it’s not (and VERY thankfully, in the latter example, eww). Hey, while you’re running around screaming or maybe standing on your chair screaming after you click that link, remember that it’s only a little science lesson you can pass onto those who think less of the little things they probably should check out every once in a while.

It’s also a nicely nasty collection of inspiring pictures for illustrators and wannabe game designers who need to come up with ideas for a creepy monster or three. That mosquito eye looks pretty tasty… or maybe not. Er, you may want to poke at these during the daytime, as I wouldn’t want to be you trying to sleep at night after viewing these shots…

GOG.com Wants YOU To Go Adventuring This Weekend (So, Get Lost Already!)…

Say… do you like a good story? Are you a cheapskate who likes good stories and has a decent PC and doesn’t mind camping out with the digital equivalent of a good book? Well, here you go: gog.com is having another cool weekend sale and this time, it’s all about adventure games past and present. From the fantastic classic The Longest Journey and it’s great sequel Dreamfall, to the chilling slow burner Scratches: The Director’s Cut or the brilliant survival game Miasmata to flawless gems such as Resonance, Botanicula and Machinarium: Collector’s Edition, there’s something for anyone looking to curl up with a warm PC or laptop. Prices range from $3.99 to $5.99 for each game, or you can snap up all twelve for $53.88 (which is a bargain considering the dozens of hours of gameplay here).

No frantic button bashing or much skill (other than reading and using a mouse to point and click or keyboard to move a character around) is needed and there’s sure to be something that catches your fancy at a nice enough price. OK, you know what to do next, so I’ll let you get to it…

Random Music Battle Time: Blur vs. Liberace (Well, They Both Kind Of Win)…

While waiting for a game to download the other day, I randomly Googled something and got something else entirely, and with a little brain work and rewriting here’s one result of that mistake: Song 2 by Blur, meet Song 2 as performed by Liberace. Yeah, it was a tough battle, folks… but believe it (or else), the results were a dead tie at the end of the voting. Well, actually, one half of my brain was bouncing up and down and the other was laughing, so that’s how that all worked out.

Liberace DVDOf course, Liberace gets the last laugh (and probably wins the bigger prize) because hell, he was a lot more talented (and funnier) throughout his long career than Blur will most likely ever be (or have been… hey, are they still even around?). That and you won’t lose your hearing from listening to too much of his music with the volume way up (well, depending on your age, you probably have some hearing loss if you’re a Liberace fan, ha ha).

Anyway, the fine folks at Shout Factory and Timeless Media Group have actually just released Libreace: The Ultimate Entertainer on DVD this week, so you can go see for yourself (c’mon, be brave! Expand those musical horizons! I won’t tell…) for a mere $13.98, which is a bargain considering what’s on the disc. Hey, get it as a Mother’s Day gift for someone old enough to appreciate that man’s work and you’ll get a few cheeks pinched afterward (make sure you’re sitting sown when you hand over that package)…

And hey, I’m betting Michael Douglas will make me fall of the couch laughing in a few with that HBO biopic coming up… we shall see, I suppose…

Humor: Another Trip To Bedrock’s Music Scene…

Cow belly, pot of beans
Tie a rope around your jeans
Tell your ma not to wait
You ain’t getting home till late…

Hmmm… based on those first four lines from the Bedrock Twitch, you’ll either be apologizing to some blind date for insulting her size or you’re on the way to a nice shotgun wedding for what happened afterwards. Or both, knowing some of you out there who can’t keep a secret or stay out of trouble at the same time. Thankfully, for the rest of you who know what’s what with this kooky tune, it’s all about bouncing around the room and keeping the tune going with a funny wig on your head and two-string guitar (made of stone, at that!) so it’s all good. Yeah, you KNOW you’re up and doing that one-foot hop, too. I won’t tell… but your dog may bite you for waking it up if you bounce by too loudly… or because you have the cat on your head thanks to not having a wig handy. “Twitch, twitch!”

Random Film of the Day*: 20 Million Miles to Earth

*For the next week or so plus, I’m going to add a random film the great Ray Harryhausen worked on. The legendary special effects MASTER passed away on May 7 at age 92 in London and yes, the film world owes him more than they can ever repay.

20000000_MilesWhile it has some great creature and scenic effects, some terrifically lousy acting and ridiculous dialog plus a few plot elements nearly sink 20,000,000 Miles to Earth like the doomed spacecraft that brings the Ymir into movie monster history.

That said, there are some iconic images in this 1957 sci-fi flick that linger in the memory, all masterfully animated by Harryhausen’s steady hands. His Ymir is at first “cute” and tiny, but as it increases in height and gets poked and pushed into an uncontrollable rage by a cast of idiots who misunderstand the poor creature until the army is called in to blow it off Rome’s Colosseum, you actually feel more sympathy for it by the time the film ends. Of course, if you just hate monsters in general, you’ll be cheering along with the fist-pumping crowd when the creature gets its due. But I’ll bet you a nickel that you’ll still think that Ymir was pretty damn cool…
Continue reading