Review: The Park (PC)

Posted on November 8, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PC
Developer/Publisher: Funcom
MSRP: $9.99
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Official Site
Score: B (80%)

Although it’s set in The Secret World universe, no previous experience with that MMO is needed to get a jolt or two from The Park, Funcom’s short psychological horror adventure that’s both a nice looking and eventually haunting game experience. It’s not without flaws that make parts a lot less immersive than they should have been and as an experiment in storytelling it relies on too much inner dialogue from the main character that makes her sound more like a writer working on a short story in her head more than a worried parent. That said, if you’re in the right mood on the right dark night, the game will eventually get its creepy points across and right under your skin.

When her child, Callum, goes missing during a trip to a shuttered amusement park with his single mother, Lorraine, she heads into the gloomy, deserted venue in order to track him down. That’s the simplistic way of telling the story without spoiling much because the game experience is actually fairly short, clocking in at about two hours if you take your time and do as much as possible. As Lorraine makes her way around the park calling out her son’s name, she ends up making the rounds of the few rides and attractions while talking to herself (internally and externally), finding newspaper clippings and other notes that detail the park’s not so safe past history. Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: The Pirate

Posted on November 5, 2015 by geelw

Every movie fan (this writer included) has a case of “Hollywood Blinders” they slap on for certain films they love because without them, thinking of anything abnormal taking place behind the scenes ruins much or all of a particular movie’s strengths. This little review just so happens to be about one of those films some outright adore while others don’t take to it all that well.

While its comic book colors and highly exuberant performances make Vincente Minnelli’s 1948 musical The Pirate a mostly to extremely fun to watch slice of Hollywood entertainment, it’s the behind the scenes stuff that makes the film somewhat problematic as a classic one can fully enjoy unless you ignore certain elements. For this particular film, those Hollywood Blinders take the form of an eye patch (or bandanna or even a big felt pirate hat if you like watching your colorful, imperfect musicals with two working eyeballs).

The pairing of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland should have been a wonderful one and in fact is when the film hits most of its high marks. But thanks to the studio system’s lousy treatment of her from the beginning of her career, Garland’s star was far from shining bright during the troubled production. The results are amusing and impressive at times, but it’s also a somewhat flawed film with a too quick finale that pops in as if the cameras were running out of film and something needed to get shot or someone had to walk the plank.

(thanks, SuperVintageCinema!)

Garland’s assorted troubles (including a nervous breakdown that kept her off set for an extended period) thankfully don’t show up in the finished product. But it’s clear that the wide-eyed gal next door who played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz less than ten years previously was a wider-eyed and far more troubled soul on a downward spiral to a much shorter life than she deserved. Toss in a fantastic Gene Kelly dance sequence with The Nicholas Brothers that seemingly got them pushed out of the movies (and Hollywood) for a few years too long and you end up with a film best seen with those Hollywood Blinders on. Nice and tight, now. So, buckle your swash and slap on that eye patch, folks. There’s a storm a-brewin’ on the shooting stage and you’re getting shanghaied and strapped into your seats for a wild ride… Continue reading →

Review: Poncho (PC)

Posted on November 4, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PC/PS4/Mac/Linux
Developer: Delve Interactive
Publisher: Rising Star Games
MSRP: $14.99
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Official Site
Score: B+ (85%)

With pixel-packed “retro” games showing no signs of stopping, it’s great to see Delve Interactive shake up the scene with Poncho, a game that’s both new and nostalgic with a side of super challenging for good measure. The open world side-scrolling platformer features multiple layers of parallax scrolling to hop in and out of in order to progress and this is both excellent and a tiny bit frustrating until you get your sea legs. The game’s depth also extends to the minimalist but somewhat deep story of Poncho, a cute little robot who finds himself going where no man has gone before because there aren’t any humans left in the world the game takes place in.

Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: High and Low

Posted on November 2, 2015 by geelw

Based on the 1959 crime novel King’s Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter), Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film Tengoku to jigoku (Heaven and Hell or High and Low to western audiences) is one of those great police procedural films that’s a must for crime drama fans. With perfect casting, a gripping story of a kidnapping gone wrong thanks to a case of mistaken identity and the rush to find the kidnapper before things go further south, Kurosawa’s film is a multi-layered masterpiece worth seeing multiple times.

When “wealthy” businessman Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) and the company he works for decide to snap up the National Shoe Company, there’s a divide between executives on how to close the deal. Gondo prefers the company stick to making well-made and reliable stompers for the masses but other big shots want shoes for all that are cheaply made and thus, more profitable because they’ll need to be replaced more often. With all the back and forth debating going on, Gondo has a master plan he’s hiding from his peers. He’s mortgaged everything he owns and plans to pull off a leverage buyout of National Shoes that would put him in charge for good and keep National doing what they do best.

Little does he know he’s being watched by a few pairs of far more evil eyes looking up at his “castle” from the lower depths… Continue reading →

Review: Whispering Willows (Wii U)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by geelw

Platform: Wii U (via Nintendo eShop)
Developer: Night Light Interactive
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: N/A, but probably T (Teen)
Official Site
Score:A- 90%

While its methodical pace won’t be for all tastes, Whispering Willows is a great example of an indie game that does some cool things with an ancient formula. It’s a light horror adventure game that happens to be side-scrolling and going to be visually familiar to fans of many arcade and console titles. There’s no run button here, so young Elena Elkhorn’s exploration efforts will be a languidly paced but somewhat spooky journey in and around the haunted mansion she’s searching for her lost father in. That slow pace noted above means your character and the game she’s in requires you to take in every sight and sound offered (which is fine as a lot of work went into making the game). But as this isn’t action heavy at all, the bulk of the story is told through journal notes found while walking about and you don’t want to go into this expecting to be frightened out of your seat by anything resembling a jump scare or gore galore.

That said, the game’s frights come in a few forms from creepy-looking ghostly things only Elena’s spirit form can see to areas where darkness and strange visual elements make Elena’s trip mildly to moderately terrifying if you’re into the vibe the game creates. The dev team also deserves major props for making Elena of Native American descent, which explains her helpful spirit-walking powers she can use thanks to an amulet gifted to her by her father. Continue reading →

Review: Slender: The Arrival (Wii U)

Posted on October 29, 2015 by geelw

Platform: Wii U
Developer: Blue Isle/Parsec Productions
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Official Site
Score: B- (75%)

Nowhere is safe in Slender: The Arrival, a somewhat polarizing first-person horror game that’s made the rounds on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One and has finally arrived on the Wii U in time for Halloween. As someone who’s avoided the game in its previous incarnations thanks to not being into the whole Slenderman myth (that some take way too seriously), I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that the game is actually more than a little frightening.

Or should I say unpleasantly surprised that I found myself backing out to the HOME screen on my Wii U after a few particularly well-placed random jump scares. At the right time (after midnight) and under the right conditions (big headphones on in a dark room, rainy and miserable outside), I found myself unable to push on during one part where that damn skinny suit-wearing freak kept popping up and making me squeal like a trapped piglet. Squeee! Squeeeee! Yipes. That’s the game doing its job quite well despite some flaws in the ointment. Continue reading →

Gone Fishing, Thanks to Sekai Project

Posted on October 28, 2015 by geelw

Well, lookit! I got a FREE ticket to the Manten Aquarium from Sekai Project. Nice, and THANKS, guys! I haven’t been to the aquarium for quite a while so I hope I have a REALLY good time.

Hey, as long as those little and big fishies stay in their tanks and there’s no shenanigans going on involving a bunch of visiting Japanese high school kids going missing and having horrific things happening to them, I bet I’ll have a blast.

“La, la, la,laaaaaa…” Oops:

*Sigh…* Once again, this is why we can’t have nice things. Officer, I didn’t see a thing, sir.

Sound of Drop — fall into poison — is out on Friday, October 30 for PC via Steam. You’ll find out about my trip around then. Er, if I make it back in one piece…

Blu-Ray Review: Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats

Posted on October 25, 2015 by geelw

What’s black and red and giallo all over? Ha. If you’re still reading this, you’ve just survived a pun to the head without any ill effects. Anyway, arriving just in time for Halloween, Arrow Video’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats: Two Adaptations By Sergio Martino & Lucio Fulci makes for another fine Blu Ray/DVD set to add to your collection.

The two films, Sergio Martino’s sexy/scary Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), and Lucio Fulci’s flat-out weird The Black Cat (1981) are two more variations of Poe’s popular horror tale that’s been the subject of a number of horror films and anthologies. The interesting thing about all the Black Cat films throughtout cinematic history is how different they all are and how each director takes the parts of the story they (or the screenwriters) felt worked for what they were attempting. Continue reading →

Second Death Hands-On: Survival of the Bit-test

Posted on October 23, 2015 by geelw

It’s 1958, and Chicago cop David Harris made the tough choice to bring his mobster brother back from Cuba and deliver him to justice, but things get tougher when their home-bound plane crashes on a mysterious island. Now he must save his brother — and learn the truth behind his terrible crimes.

That mysterious island isn’t something out of a Jules Verne book at all, but a rather interesting PC, Mac, iOS and Android game called Second Death. Created by Evan Wagstaff (design, coding, script) using Game Maker Studio with a small team helping out with art, music and sounds, this retro style “noir Survival RPG” mixes early 16-bit looks, item crafting, JRPG-like combat, a barter system and two game modes (plus a tutorial) to take for a spin. While the game won’t be officially released until January 2016, the demo that’s currently available at that link above (and seems to be titled or subtitled Absolution) seems to be pretty much what the final version will look and play like. Continue reading →

Corpse Party: Blood Drive – What’s A Little Death Between “Friends”?

Posted on October 21, 2015 by geelw

And you thought your school days were insane. The survivors of the certifiably unbalanced and/or genuinely terrified for their lives students of Kisaragi Academy’s class 2-9 are baaaaaack. While you can fully enjoy their new exploits in Corpse Party: Blood Drive on the Vita (out NOW!), if you want the full gory story, you’ll need to snap up the two previous games (Corpse Party and Corpse Party: Book of Shadows) on the PSP (and yep, they DO run fine on the Vita) so you can play catch up before this new game freezes your blood and spine solid.

All three games are guaranteed to scratch that horror/mystery itch you’ve got going under the skin, but expect things to get bloody before you know it. That EverAfter edition of Blood Drive is the perfect way to dive into the third chapter if the first two float your boat, so feel free to grab one while they last.