What to Do on Those Dog Days of Winter…

Posted on January 26, 2015 by geelw

Well, it’s already snowing outside, but it’s a light snow so far. Things aren’t expected to get “serious” until later tonight, but I’m prepared to go home and hide under some blankets at the drop of a hat. I’m thinking a nice long sleep will do me some good, but my backup plan for any restlessness might involve making my own rescue dog just to keep my hands busy (and warm, should the heat go out).

Yeah, you know you want one of these paper Saint Bernards for yourself. Go print one (or a few) out and get busy trying to put it together. Er, BEFORE you soak yourself in that brandy you bought yesterday (or will buy today at some point). Better to do your paper-crafting while sober, as you don’t want to lose any digits to slippy scissors or end up with a pile of crumpled paper mistakes instead of that cute and easier to care for doggie in that pic to the left…

Random Film of the Week(end): Malibu High

Posted on January 25, 2015 by geelw

In the storied pantheon of “High school girl goes bad, turns to prostitution and murder to make ends meet, meets end tragically” films, Irvin Berwick’s 1979 exploitation classic Malibu High is probably the “best” of the bunch. Well, I’m not sure “best” is the proper word to use for a film this bizarre, but you genre fans know what I mean.

That cute poster on the left makes it look like a typical pre-80’s sex comedy flick packed with lowbrow laughs. But man, is it oh soooooooo misleading. Yes, there are laughs to be had here and plenty of them. But the film’s general tone straddles the line between parody and interesting attempts to be serious with breathtaking results… Continue reading →

When The Weather Outside Is Frightful…

Status

Whee. According to all the frantic and too melodramatic weather reports (complete with doomsday theme music!) it’s supposed to SNOOOOOOW up this way at some point tomorrow afternoon into Tuesday. Reports say up to two feet (maybe) blizzard conditions with up to 40mph winds. Nice. Well, my two feet will then need to get my one ass outside early tomorrow to get some work done before I sock myself in for the long haul. Or short haul. or no haul if this storm ends up as a bust instead of the BOOM it wants to give us in the kisser. Anyway, I’m up to my earbows in stuff to do, but if there’s some sort of power outage, I’ll be silent but deadly or something like that.

Or, “Here we go again!”. or “Oh, no… reruns!”

(thanks, Movieman Trailers!)

Actually, it hasn’t snowed like this here in a while, but I’ve been disappointed by previous NYC snowstorms where the reports were for massive amount of snow but the pre-show hype was more overblown than the snowdrifts were. That said, according to those reports, the coming storm system isn’t playing around at all. I fully expect some fools to lose their lives when they go out to snap those unsafe selfies and some tree limb decides to give them a clobber for being so damned dopey. Just get some hot cocoa and a sweetie to snuggle and stay the hell indoors, people. I have neither here, so I guess a bunch of old “B” movies is the closest thing to a substitute.

See you all in a bit. I’ll try and zap up a bunch of posts tomorrow during the day before things get all white outside. Back in a bit…

Star Wars: Battle Pod – New, Yet Nostalgic, Now In Arcades!

Posted on January 24, 2015 by geelw

Wait, who’s still got an arcade near them? And I don’t mean a mascot character “pizza” chain (yuk!) or a psuedo-pub grub hub with over-sized tablets posing as arcade games. All kidding aside, as soon as I saw that Star Wars: Battle Pod trailer above, I got a hearty laugh because it’s pretty much a far better-looking version of Namco’s classic 1991 arcade game Star Blade. Given the relatively short length of the experience, the specialized cabinet and its unique screen that allows for flawless immersion, the chances of seeing a home version of this game would normally be zero. On the other hand, with VR technology finally getting some sort of roll out within the next year or so, I could see this as some sort of pack-in or downloadable digital game to keep Star Wars fans happy.

In other words, it’s your move, Bandai Namco… Um, let the Wookie win?

Hikari Friday: Steel Yourself For Platinum Frankenstein!

Posted on January 23, 2015 by geelw

Yeah, I know, I know – that was a putrid pun. But I couldn’t help myself you know… just couldn’t Karl it off, heh. Anyway, this weeks Funko giveaway is a limited edition Platinum Frankenstein, #1 of 750, at that. Check him out below in all his glory:

Yes, he can be all yours if you’re the lucky winner of this week’s giveway. All you need to do is click it on over to one of Funko’s social media sites:

Facebook!
Twitter
Instagram

Follow the rules and you’re good to go! If you win, you get a nice note saying so from Funko and shortly after that, your cold-eyed swag staring back at you from the confines of its packaging. If you’re a loser (and aren’t we all from time to time?), you can just boogie on down to your nearest Funko retailer and buy one of these limited run Frankies for your own. Hey, wasn’t one of your New Year’s resolutions to get more exercise? Well, there you go, mister or miss(us). One more reason to get off the couch and take a stroll in the cool winter air. In other words, if you win, you WIN… if you lose, you still WIN!. Good luck in any event!

Review: Citizens of Earth

Posted on January 22, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PlayStation Vita (also on PS4, PC, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS)

Developer: Eden Industries

Publisher: Atlus

# of Players: 1

ERSB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: B+ (85%)

Fans of classic 90’s console RPGs should drop everything (as in, NOW) and grab Eden Industries’ Citizens of Earth for anything they can play it on. The game perfectly captures the spirit of the classic Super Nintendo game Earthbound while adding elements such as a more open world to explore 30+ party members to recruit and too many puns to keep track of. Not everything is flawless, however. A few typos, accumulated loading times and one pesky navigation glitch sometimes kick the good bits in the good bits. Nevertheless, this is one of those fun and funny games that can suck you in for hours at a time. Atlus wisely rescuing this failed crowd-funded game project and saw fit to publish it for a few platforms.

In the game, You’re the Vice President of the World (!) and things are somewhat screwy in the post-election phase. Angry protesters are outside your home, there’s trouble at the local coffee shop and lots more wildness that requires your VP skills. You’ll need to round up and recruit citizens from all walks of life to aid you in your quest, so expect to meet up with a wide cast of odd and amusing party members as the game progresses. This isn’t any sort of emotional powerhouse storyline at all, so going in expecting weep-inducing cut scenes or “powerful” moments is a fool’s errand. On the other hand, if you like pun-heavy puns, goofy-looking enemies and creative uses of coffee, pastry and pharmaceuticals, you’ll love what’s here and then some… Continue reading →

Club Nintendo Bites The Dust (Soon). Replacement Parts Available (Later).

Posted on January 21, 2015 by geelw

While I personally haven’t taken much advantage of Club Nintendo rewards other than to nab a few downloads, the end of a relatively brief era is approaching as Nintendo winds the program down in favor of a new (and to be announced) loyalty system. Six years may be dog years in terms of the internet, but as usual, Japan got the best goodies while North America’s rewards were more along the acceptable to “Hey, that’s REALLY awesome!” set of points for stuff “freebies”.

That said, I’ll take what the company says about killing off the club and replacing it with something newer and shinier at face value as well as claim my free copy of Flipnote Studio 3D in February 2015. It’s too bad that freebie isn’t Wii U compatible, though. I could see a lot of people who don’t use a 3DS or even a 3DS XL because of the screen size maybe wanting to try out the image creation software and play around with it on a bigger screen. Ah well. RIP, Club Nintendo!

Bundle Stars Brings The Games – You Bring The Wallet!

Posted on January 20, 2015 by geelw

Yikes. TWO bundles a day for a five days over at Bundle Stars? That’s just wacky under “normal” circumstances… but if you’re looking for deals on a ton of titles all at once you may as well dive in both feet first and get your backlogs aching with some fine indie PC games in pretty much every genre. I’m in the middle of writing a review at the moment, so I’ll just play the lazy card and let you click on each pic below to get on over the deals yourselves. Note that these are only available for a LIMITED time (about 72 hours each), so act FAST and grab a bundle (or bundles) and walk away happy that you now have way too many games to get to.

Okay, let’s go!

One!

Two!

Three!

Four!

Okay, my work here seems to be done… but isn’t. I’m poring through my inbox and see other bundles in there from a few sites. Yaaaaaah. Okay, I’ll get those up tomorrow, as I’m still banging away on a game review and some other stuff…

Random Films: Bad Movies: It’s What’s For Dinner!

Posted on January 20, 2015 by geelw

Okay, I couldn’t help myself. After the cheesy charm of Mill Creek Entertainment‘s 50 movie bundle Sci-Fi Invasion sent me to Nostalgialand, I had to have more. Fortunately, I was able to track down five more of these sets for dirt cheap ($35 shipped for everything) and now never need to go outside again. Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Sure, there are all so-so transfers and if I had enough bandwidth, a load of time and a bigger hard drive I could look around the internet and get all of these for no money at all. But I’m a perfect example of someone who can’t use any streaming service at home thanks to jumpy internet as well as one of many who just prefer physical media over downloads. I’m not so fond of this digital future everyone is pushing for because it’s too much trouble and expense to keep up with every trend.

That and many of these tech items that are supposed to be changing the world are ending up to be disappointing failures. Segway, 3DTV and Google Glass owners who got sucked into those technological wonders as early adopters shelling out small fortunes are probably feeling a lot less chatty these days. Unless of course they’re those staunch defenders who claim we all didn’t “get” what the “future” those expensive toys were supposed to bring the world. Now, I’m NOT against new inventions and innovations at all. It’s just that people will be people and think that recreating stuff from movies that should stay in movies and/or thinking people will adopt every bizarre idea as the next big thing has led to a LOT of time and money wasted. Work on saving the damn planet, not just trying to sell us stuff and maybe I’ll be impressed…

Anyway, I have some movies to watch (“SOME” he says? HA!). Not now, but soon, as I’ve a ton of work in my inbox. Um, anyone want to come over and watch too many bad movies? Bring food and beverages, because I’ll probably be feeling far too lazy to cook anything.

Okay, back in a bit…

Project CARS’ New Trailer: Stare Into The Skid!

Posted on January 19, 2015 by geelw

Nope, I didn’t forget about you, Project CARS. I’m still holding out hope that the Wii U version is as wonderful to play as it’s promising to be and makes those who only own that console and not an overpriced gaming PC at least happy to have a decent licensed racer. While other consoles and PC have gotten some stellar realistic racers, the amount on Nintendo’s home consoles is embarrassingly low. Well, the amount of GOOD licensed racers, to be precise. Yeah, yeah, I’ll check this out on the PC, and PS4 at some point. But my Wii U needs this game just to shut down the haters who don’t own one who still think it’s “underpowered”. So, Bandai Namco Games… let’s do this! March 2015 is rolling up sooner than you think…