Whispering Willows: A Haunting You Will Go (On Even More Platforms)

Posted on August 15, 2015 by geelw

Abstraction Games and Night Light Interactive have a nice and spooky surprise coming soon for Xbox One, Wii U, iOS and Android owners. Although the game is already out for a few platforms (PC, PS4, Vita and OUYA), I’d actually never heard of Whispering Willows until an email about the latest version popped up in my inbox. Initially set for an August 12 launch at $9.99, Xbox One owners will be seeing the game as part of Microsoft’s Deals With Gold promotion starting Friday, August 28th at 30% off ($6.99) for two weeks only (through Friday, September 11).

iOS and Android versions will also be available on the 28th with the Wii U version following shortly thereafter. The horror-themed puzzle adventure has you playing as Elena, a young girl with the ability to use astral projection. The talent comes to good use thanks to her father going missing in a creepy mansion and yes, Elena heads into that haunted palace set on finding out just where he is and what’s happened to him. I’d say more, but I’ll need to play the game and get back to you on how it turned out. I’d gather all those plaudits on the official site mean the game is worth the price and more. A half dozen screens to ogle are below.

Bracketron’s SmartCord Sling Bag: A Portable Attention Hog

Posted on August 13, 2015 by geelw

A short while back I got one of Bracketron’s cool SmartCord Sling Bags ($24.99) to take for a spin and it’s been an amusing time going places with it and getting unsolicited comments and responses. The bag itself is a small messenger style tote with an adjustable shoulder strap and five storage pockets that allow for a small tablet and/or phone or other device to fit comfortably inside. While it’s well-designed and almost nondescript (form and function blend well here), it’s definitely going to be that fluorescent yellow (or white, depending on which one you order) ear bud storage bubble on the outside of the bag that gets people talking… Continue reading →

The Hateful Eight: Tarantino’s 70MM Western Will Rake In More Than A Fistful of Dollars

Posted on August 12, 2015 by geelw

For some reason I thought Quentin Tarantino had directed MORE than a paltry eight films in his career. But I think I was including stuff he didn’t direct directly in that number plus some TV work he’s had a hand in. Whatever. The Hateful Eight is looking fine and grim and chilly as it packs in some of the director’s favorite actors into a snowbound winter cabin and lets them chew the scenery. I’m expecting a bit of back-stabbery and gun-shootery bits with the trademark Tarantino touches wrapped up in an all new score by Ennio Morricone. As the film takes place a few years after the Civil War, I’d not expect to see any modern in-jokes here. But I’ll expect some of the characters in the film to get in references to some of their previous work.

Of course, I’m only basing that on Kurt Russell seemingly making a nod to his MacReady character from John Carpenter’s still fantastically freaky 1982 remake of The Thing. Hey, I don’t look for this stuff in trailers, folks. It. Finds. Me. I think. Anyway, The Hateful Eight is out in a limited 70MM Panavision release this Christmas Day with a wider release set for January 8th, 2016 “everywhere else”. I guess the roadshow version is for the Academy folks to check out before they get to that Oscar balloting stuff they do. I saw some fine actors doing their thing, but didn’t see anything “award winning” in that too-brief trailer. But with Tarantino films, you really need to see the whole thing before making any judgments for or against them.

Zelda: Sword of Moria Update: Western Calatia’s Pretty, But Not A Nice Vacation Spot

Posted on August 11, 2015 by geelw

When last we ventured into the land of Western Calatia (a few weeks ago), ever-questing hero Link had just died at the hands of a boss, but upon his revival was wondering when he’d see more of the rather well-made fan game he was starring in, The Legend of Zelda: Sword of Moria. Actually, the game’s creator, Jessica Brown has been busy working on it in between her writing for a few gaming sites and other things like life in general. So it’s a case of her own patience and persistence overcoming any sort of burnout and boredom that tends to set in when working on something for such a long period of time. My experience with the last couple of demo builds has been nothing but total fun because here’s a case of someone who’s dedicated to making a game that’s worthy of the Zelda lineage and canon while not rushing it out just to say it’s “finished”.

That map above seems as if it’s huge (and it is indeed!). And as note, it’s not a nice vacation spot because it’s got monsters that will keep Link from enjoying his stay by constantly trying to kill him. But it also seems likely that it’s not the entire game world Brown has planned for the final release. Excellent. Even more excellent, she’s just posted a nifty article over at Zero Friction that details some of her thoughts on developer fatigue and how to deal with it. If you follow the fan game scene (whether it be ROM translation efforts or full-on games being created from scratch), you know many projects flame out and vanish or move from person to person sometimes for years until they disappear for good or actually get completed. brown touches on that and more as she lays out some ideas on how her game may or may not be chapter-based along with some other stuff I’ll let you get to on your own.

Random Art: Lost Doggie (Sort Of), No Reward

Posted on August 11, 2015 by geelw

Actually, if you find it you can keep it. You’ll need a big yard and a rather large pool for exercise and bathing purposes plus a sign letting your neighbors know to keep their own pets indoors at night. They’ll turn up missing otherwise. Otherwise, it will ~~absorb~~ eat pretty much anything you set down in front of it. Let’s see now.. oh, right. The puppy also has somewhat caustic saliva, so letting it hop up onto your lap for snuggling is a bad idea. Then again, given its somewhat massive size, I’d imagine you’d not want an overly peppy lap-hopping, acidic drooling pet lumbering your way. Finally, it’s housebroken to some extent (as in it’s broken the last home it was in, which is why it’s “lost” in the first place).

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.

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.
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