A Repeat Performance On A Mucky Monday

Posted on August 10, 2015 by geelw

So, my eye is pretty much all back to normal (hoo-ray!), but I’m a wee bit stressed about some other stuff. Meh, I’ll figure that annoying stuff out as the week progresses. I just found out that there was indeed a remastered version of one of the wackiest monster movies ever made, Reptilicus!. You needed a lift today as do I, so here’s the “Tivoli Nights” scene from the film all queued up so you can get a smile going and maybe buy tickets to your next vacation spot. The monster in this flick is long dead, so there’s no need to worry about anything in Denmark biting you on the behind. I think.

Anyway, you can grab Reptilicus! and Tentacles on a double feature Blu-Ray from Shout Factory, or get it with a few other films over on Amazon. The weird thing is it seems the multi-film DVD has the remastered version, which means it won’t have the best picture as it’s stuck with other films on the same DVD

Back tomorrow with some actual posts worth reading.

Tripping The Blight Fantastic: Four, Right In The Cinematic Trash Heap

Posted on August 9, 2015 by geelw

I’d actually started this post around two months back, but put it aside to work on other things. It was going to be a really lengthy point-by-point peek at why the film deserved to flop out, but I decided to not be so negative until I maybe saw the final product. It’s a good thing I waited because after seeing the film, everything I thought about writing happened and the movie was even worse than my cynical ass expected. But I don’t blame director Josh Trank (Chronicle) all that much because it very well seems the studio had more to do with the film being such a train wreck.

In my opinion, Fox needs to sell back or hand those rights over to a studio that can actually do something constructive with the characters. Too many hands went into what looks like rushed re-shooting and sloppy editing so what should have been another reliable summer blockbuster for fans has turned into a must-see exercise for film students as to what NOT to do. Or a note to creative types with vision to stay far away from licensed properties and a studio system that demands souls and final cut in exchange for some sort of loyalty. While the film is far from unwatchable, it’s not worth the cost of a ticket at all and more suited to cable or network TV. Then again, on a channel with commercials, trying to make sense of the film will be a total nightmare unless scenes are added back in to help things out. Continue reading →

Dungeon Travelers 2 Hands-On: Fan Service Steamy Express, Inbound

Posted on August 7, 2015 by geelw

Let’s get this out of the way first: Atlus’ upcoming PS Vita JRPG Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & the Monster Seal is NOT for kids. Period, end of story. Developer Aquaplus’ first-person dungeon crawler may have that cute anime look to it, but the mash up of bishojo game and classic (albeit simplified) Wizardry gameplay seems to have twisted many gamers into human pretzels as they either express offense at the content or defense at wanting to buy the game.

The thing is, half-naked artwork and cheesy dialog aside… the game isn’t “porn” by any stretch of the imagination unless it’s an overactive one at work. Some of the furor about the game comes from the presentation of its female characters in assorted states of undress, some silly cut scenes that let players linger as long as they want to on images and oddly enough, the fact that the ESRB determined a mere four of these images to be worthy of getting edited from the final North American product. While some journalists are doing the “A-ha!” dance around those unseen images (you can look them up online if you wish), they’re also busy unintentionally or intentionally insulting not only Atlus’ decision to publish the game, but people who may want to buy the game in the process. Continue reading →

The Eyes Have It (Less): Things To Come (If You’re Still Around To Read Them)

Posted on August 6, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, VIDEOJAXX!)

Day four or so of the icky eye is going okay. It’s looking almost normal but I’m still not venturing too for into the outside world. I did do some shopping over the last two days, but between the black sunglasses and hand sanitizer I’d been whipping out, I’m betting I look like a really paranoid celebrity. Or a blind guy making sure there’s no evidence while stocking up on doomsday supplies.

Anyway, I have a lot of crap to yak about in a few days. Everything from the Muppet mess-up I’m annoyed and amused about to what the hell is wrong with some people and overly criticizing certain games (and their audiences). But let’s not get ahead of things. First things first, that damn eye needs to stop doing its thing and get back to normal.

Humble Bandai Namco Bundle: The Good, The Dark and The (Very Little) Money

Posted on August 4, 2015 by geelw

Here’s a deal that’s hard to pass up, particularly if you’ve always been curious about the Souls series, have never touched the games and have a decent gaming PC set up. Sure, you can go for the minimum purchase and NOT get Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition. But for a measly tenner you get that and six other games with MORE dropping into your Steam library next week for FREE. Yeah, I can hear your eyes popping and ears perking up from here. keep it down and go BUY this bundle. Save the Children gets some of that money you’ll spend as well, so be generous if you roll that way. Bandai Namco will certainly appreciate it and you’ll appreciate the cool games you’re getting even more I bet.

Blu-Ray/DVD Review: Contamination

Posted on August 4, 2015 by geelw

Up until a few years back, I’d never considered Luigi Cozzi’s sci-fi and fantasy films anything more than hilariously terrible pastiches of far better films. But getting older and mellower has made me take a fresh look and appreciate them a lot more, warts and all. I’m finding that while somewhat hampered by budgetary constraints and packed with some truly laugh-worthy visual effects, there’s an earnestness and respectable amount of passion in them that makes up for most of the inadequacies.

Yes, Star Crash still makes me cringe and the two Hercules films are more overly colorful comic book reworkings gone haywire of classic mythology. But you can clearly feel the director’s intent on making movies from the heart even as they bust your gut from unintentional and intentional laughter.

Contamination, Cozzi’s 1980 gorier “homage” to Ridley Scott’s classic Alien has gotten an excellent Blu-Ray restoration thanks to Arrow Video. Not only do you get a lovely AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer in 1.85.1 widescreen, there’s a great set of old and new interviews with the director and Maurizio Guarini of Goblin (who did the film’s score) as well as a fun look at other Italian genre flicks that swiped ideas from blockbusters. As for the film itself, as I hadn’t seen it for over 30 years, it was certainly a fun and bloody trip down memory lane as well as something of a love letter to New York City where some of the establishing shots were films.
Continue reading →

Dark Souls III: The Eyes Have It And You’ll Get It, Alright

Posted on August 4, 2015 by geelw

As in expect to PREPARE TO DIE a lot more than before thanks to FromSoftware’s latest entry in its not at all casual RPG franchise. Not at all for the weak-kneed player who wants some hand-holds and footholds through its gloomy and deadly dungeons, the Souls series packs in death by everything from environmental hazards to many enemy types looking to kick your frightened ass all over those environments. I tend to play these games just to survive the experience and not be a speed-running expert at them. But I know of some extremely talented players who relish the challenge of making double time through the maps as they face danger head on and die a lot as a learning process.

Of course, speed, accuracy and learning each enemy’s strengths and weaknesses is a huge key to enjoying the ride. That said, the geniuses at FromSoft have packed the series with everything from AI that follows you relentlessly to enemies and bosses that are bigger than the areas they try to kill you in and seemingly indestructible to novice players. Nope, nothing casual at all here, kids. In fact, there’s a terrifying element to all the games that borders on horror in some areas, but I’m not calling this a “horror” game series by any means. Just a note that if you’re not playing with a tiny bit of fright creeping into your bones, you’re a better man or woman than I. Anyway, DSIII is coming in 2016. Prepare to… yeah, you know.

Here’s a Musical Monday Surprise Not To Have

Posted on August 3, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, Guillermo Reyes!)

Yeah, wonderful. I woke up yesterday feeling a bit odd and had a VERY slight eye pain and a bigger headache. The headache was from caffeine withdrawal (whee) and the eye pain faded to a slight itchiness. I do have an eye allergy, so I ignored fussing with it and as it was a lazy kind of day, I spent much of it doing not so much and didn’t actually look into a mirror until about 8pm. Wonderful. I have a nice case of what looked like conjunctivitis in my right eye. Nice. I’m gathering it was from the puddle that bus zoomed though during the rain storm a few days back. I thought I was clear, but I got a nice bit of not so clean water hitting me on the right side of the face under my umbrella. Yuck.

Anyway, between that and some other nonsense that popped up yesterday, I’m needing to maybe actually take a day off. Off to get my puffy eye looked and and I’m gathering it’ll be some sort of over-priced eye drop prescription that I’m going to substitute with something cheaper and over the counter. Anyway, yeah. I also need to change the banner and background on the site. I’ll do that later today or tomorrow. Hell, if I’m going to be confined for the next few days, I may as well suffer a lot less than I need to. Boo.

Back in a bit.

Zombi: U Will Want To Play This Wii U Port On Your PS4 & Xbox One

Posted on August 2, 2015 by geelw

Call me only mildly surprised that this is happening, although I’m shocked (shocked! But not really) that it didn’t happen sooner. ZombiU was one of the Wii U’s standout launch games in that it made the GamePad and touchscreen mandatory for the gameplay to work best at what it was trying to accomplish. Looking down at it to check one’s inventory or prepare a weapon or something else only to look up at your TV and see something (or a few somethings!) shambling and scrambling out of the dark was a terrifying thing to experience. Yes, Vita or Windows tablet support for that second screen would be beautiful to see. But even Sony has mucked that up quite a bit by taking so long to implement it into games and only as a means of playing portable games on a larger TV. I don’t own a Surface tablet, so I can’t comment positively or otherwise) on anything Microsoft has done for dual screen gaming. Oh well.

Anyway, without that second screen this might look like another zombie game to skip over if you’re tired of the genre. You’d be sorely mistaken for thinking that based on looks alone. My frightening and sometimes fearfully frustrating (Do I want to go on through that door? Hell nope! Oh… okay. CHOMP!) experience with the Wii U version says that if approached with an open mind by smarter PS4 and Xbox One owners who don’t resort to insults whenever they see a Wii U game, the experience should be quite a worthy one. The rogue-like random elements add infinite replay value and there are some really effective scares to be had. Anyway, August 15, 2015 is the big day for this and I hope to hell it not only does well, but gets some of the all-out naysayers about the Wii U to ‘fess up and admit that there are actually some great games on that system they haven’t played (er, until now that is).

Abyss Odyssey Extended Dream Edition: ACE Work, Now On PS4

Posted on August 1, 2015 by geelw

ACE Team’s rogue-like brawler/RPG/adventure hybrid Abyss Odyssey was one of those uniquely gorgeous games that catered best to those who spent time mastering the intricacies of its seemingly simple combat system. The game’s lovely Art Nouveau-inspired visuals and realistic animation made it less of a button basher and more a game where practice makes perfect. Capturing enemy souls and using those enemies or the allies you’d also unlock to replay procedurally generated maps added plenty of replay value to what was a nicely challenging game experience.

Now, the PS4 finally gets what’s looking like the definitive version of the game. As you can see from those nice-looking screen shots below (which do indeed look nice, but don’t really do the game much justice at all), the game is Mucha beautiful:

In addition to some nicely enhanced visuals and smoother gameplay, there’s also a new online PvP mode for those who crave fighting against live opponents. Speaking of gameplay – here’s a short look at the launch trailer:

Se what I mean by screenshots not doing this justice? Anyway, go grab this one if your artistic and energetic sides have been activated. It’s a neat little sleeper that will keep you entertained for quite a bit.