While it’s still an example of great American film-making and a must-see movie, I’ve been having a recurring dream of a Taxi Driver followup for quite some time. As in over 20 years of random story ideas hitting me in the dream-space or while strolling around NYC. The city has changed so much since the film’s 1976 release, but in a (not so) weird way certain elements have cycled back into that film’s bleak version of the city, citizens, and some of the politics around them.
Granted, it’s never (ever!) going to happen unless the stars are in order (on a few fronts, ha and ha-ha) and some other key people think it’s a good idea. It’s not (at all), but Hollywood has done far worse updates of other films (for better or worse… mostly worse in my opinion). Nevertheless, I’m getting this silliness off my chest and out of my head so I can clear up space in the grey matter filing cabinet. Continue reading →
Hey now! Step away from the keyboard and put down that baseball bat, folks. Shelton IS a big fat (and green!) pig. Or more precisely, he’s voicing a big fat (and green!) CG pig named Earl in the upcoming The Angry Birds Movie:
Blake Shelton voices “Earl” in in Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation’s ANGRY BIRDS.
Of course, the filmmakers aren’t letting the man’s musical talents go to waste at all. The award-winning singer (and co-host of The Voice) is also lending his voice to the film’s soundtrack. No news as t what he’ll be singing or when it will be sung has been revealed, but there’s nothing wrong with a little (or big) surprise, I always say. Um, that does depend on the surprise, though. This counts as a good one.
Adding to an already talented cast that includes Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Hannibal Buress, Ike Barinholtz, Jillian Bell, Cristela Alonzo, Danielle Brooks, Romeo Santos, and the YouTube team known as Smosh (Anthony Padilla, Ian Hecox), it looks as if the film will be getting a few (well, a lot) more fans hoofing it to a theater new them when it opens this summer.
If you’re a fan of old sci-fi “B” movies from days gone by, ACE Team is going to get you grinning with their upcoming PC and PS4-bound game The Deadly Tower of Monsters. The Santiago, Chile-based developer with its small library of visually gorgeous and reliably weird games is making this one a special slice of must-buy entertainment on a few fronts. The game seems to be a mix of classic beat ’em up and action/RPG with a decidedly retro vibe and some very pretty visuals. As a big “B” flick fan, I like the offbeat influences from films such as Forbidden Planet, Invaders From Mars, King Kong and many more. Sure, the younger gamers might be clueless and not aware of all the in-jokes and homages to too many things to count. But the end result should hook them in with what’s looking like fast-paced gameplay and those aforementioned pretty visuals.
From the videos above and below, the game sure looks as if it’ll be fun enough to warrant plenty of sales, a few replays and hopefully more console ports at some point down the road. Of course, that’s mostly up to how the game does on those two initial platforms and any legal stuff keeping it locked down on two platforms. I don’t mind exclusives at all, ladies and germs. But it’s nice to have more options over less when there’s a title as fun-looking as this one on the way.
Before (well, 1280 x 720 looks a LOT better on a HD set in 1080i)…
After! PC version, *much* prettier PNG image.
Ah, the terrible JPG format and how it degrades over the shortest periods of time. Foo. I’d wanted to post a bunch of screens from the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen over the last few weeks up to the game’s PC release on Steam shortly (January 15), but when I finally got around to looking at the over 300 screenshots I’d taken over time, they all looked terrible. Normally, I go back and save jpeg images as .png files, but I got busy with too many things just didn’t have the time. Yet another reason to hate digital art, I guess. Still, a promise is a promise, but instead of a daily gallery of ugly imagery, you’re getting most of the shots I liked in one easy to peruse (but hard on the eyeballs) set of screens below the jump.
That said, before I commence with the eye torture, ogle that lovely trailer above and then go read this post, as here are more screens from the PC version along with more info about what the updated version of the game will have in store for those picking it up again or for the first time. There’s a lot of info there (thanks, Capcom!), but it’s all worth checking out because I know it’ll get got by fantasy RPG fans looking for a nicely-sized game world and plenty of pissed off mythical beasts coming at them with now even more gleaming teeth and claws. By the way, pre-ordering the game on Steam gets you its soundtrack and a digital art book. So there’s some incentive for those who want it.
Fans of Super Fighter Team are more than likely pretty pleased and having a Happy New Year plying some nostalgic fun as the two Mega Drive/Genesis titles Magic Girl and Cascade announced early in 2015 have finally shipped out to buyers and the return of Beggar Prince, Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey means those most asked for titles will finally be re(or re-re)-released at some point this year.
As usual, HUGE Props to Super Fighter Team head honcho Brandon Cobb for fighting the good fight and getting these games out his way in this day and age of plenty of beauty pack reissues of the not so legal sort getting snapped up by collectors in record time. SFT’s small but solid library of console titles make for perfect entry level collector purchases as well as great gifts for your favorite classic gamer.
If your budget is lower but you still want to surprise someone (or give yourself a gift), you can drop $20 on the cool RPG Trifecta Pack and get three of those games digitally for your PC and save a chunk of cash. Isn’t freedom a wonderful thing? Yeah, I thought so.
A day late, a dollar short and you can’t keep the change. Yeah, yeah. I was busy doing stuff or not doing stuff yesterday (I forget), so I didn’t get around to posting. I forget. Wait, I said that already (see?). Anyway, as I no longer make make resolutions because I don’t need to guilt trip myself into a coma at my advanced age, I’ll just say that things are happening and will continue to happen here at DAF in 2016 and leave it at that. SUSPENSE is so underrated these days, you know…
Back in a bit – I need to finally change the background and banner on this site and another one, download a few games to review and otherwise stay out of trouble.
Onechanbara ZII Chaos (PS4, $49.99) – Budget game developer Tamsoft gets its sexy ladies onto the PS4 in a game that’s going to be loved and hated by gamers for a few reasons. While it has a super smooth 60fps frame rate, the cheesy music rocks somewhat firecely and the action is nearly non-stop (and supremely gory), it’s easy to see the easily ticked off whiny westerners losing their minds over the skimpy costumes and all-out fan service on display. Bikini, schoolgirl outfit and other fantasy femme tropes get trotted out (and that optional Banana Split pack bonus costume is too racy to show here), but the ladies are far from the helpless princess stereotype at all. Aya, Saki and the rest of the crew have been zombie killing for about a decade since their introduction on the PlayStation 2 and later Xbox 360 and Wii Onechanbara titles, so this one’s just their best looking adventure to date. While the game seems a tad on the short side, the reply value comes from unlocking outfits and having at stages again so you can better your score jut like arcade games of old. Then again, every Onechanbara game is pretty much the same: kill plenty of zombies before they kill your gal of choice and have a BIG grin on your face while doing so. Score: B (80%)
Well, 2015 zipped by too quickly (he typed, knowing that the year isn’t quite over but hey, everyone else seems to be doing year-end articles) and I while didn’t get to write as many reviews as I’d have liked to, I took a ton of notes on things so I could sit down and catch up a some point. The best laid plans of mice and men (and Bemis!) often go wildly astray, so instead of long form full reviews, I’m going to do a bunch of capsule commentary on games, films and books over the next few days just so you have a little something to read when you pop by. Anyway, some quickie game impressions to get started:
Tales of Zestiria (PS4/PS3/PC, $59.99/$49.99 respectively) – Namco’s Tales Studio pulls out all the stops in this latest installment in the long running JRPG franchise (15 Tales to date!) with a game that’s part throwback and homage to the first Tales (of Phantasia) back on the Super Famicom while bringing in an all-new cast, storyline and for the first time, an open world map to explore. Although PS4 owners get the better visual end of the deal on console, the PC version should more than please those fans who pick it up looking for something to play and show off to friends. The game is consistently entertaining from the fast-paced combat to the usual humor found in character interaction and dialog choices. Yes, the use of classic literary references, myth and other tropes is piled on thicker than your mom ever spread mayonnaise, but it works well enough to keep the game fun. I’m actually still playing this one because there’s an extraordinary amount of things to do, stuff to collect and some 93 hours in, I’m close to the endgame but will probably dive in again at some point to revisit a few save files. There are enough divergent paths and interesting encounters (make friends with the Normin you meet!) to keep this one in the play stack for a while. Score: A- (90%)
See that screenshot above? That’s the otherwise fun Fat Princess: Piece of Cake locking up on my poor Vita for the fourth time in the middle of a tough board (Mission 42, to be exact). A big fat BOO to that nonsense. As a free to play game I haven’t yet spent a dime on, it’s not bad at all (random freezes during play aside). On the other hand, as I refuse to buy into the micro-transaction model and complete online connectivity to receive daily rewards the game has been designed around, I’ve hit a huge roadblock in my progress that shows the failings of the F2P model in nearly any game it’s implemented in. If you’ve played the game, you know that it’s around the Happy Hills map (Mission 54, to be more precise) where the game comes to a complete stop for anyone not willing to shell out for additional content or able to connect online for certain random bonus items.
Yeah, yeah. “Everyone “should” have an always online connection these days!”, right? Wrong, and even if thy did, the fact that far too many games, free or not, are linked to this model means there’s less common sense among game developers and publishers who aren’t paying attention to that “small”amount of their potential audience they’re not getting a dime from thank to the shady business model that’s taken over the industry. South Park nailed it perfectly:
Now, are there any decent “free” to play titles? Yes indeed. I’d recommend Rubicon’s spectacular and completely FREE Combat Monsters in a heartbeat, although the persistent online connection needed makes it not attractive at all if you live in an area with spotty connections or simply don’t want your data tracked. That said, the developer does F2P right because you can indeed play the game for ages and not drop a dime on anything. Stuff that does cost money is priced fairly, makes sense (as in there’s NO pay to win content) and the dev team has polished it all up with a pretty addictive and thrilling game experience.
That said, It seems that the days of buying a retail or online product, registering it and never having to hear a peep ever again about your purchase or have your gaming life poked into are gone for good… but they aren’t. As long as you can grab an older not connected to the internet console or handheld and play games you like without being prodded in the pocket for payment, you’re good to go. Of course, you’ll be missing out on the shiny, shiny draw of somehow spending money on something that was advertised as “free” to play. But that’s one of those things that probably needs to to a high court to decide what the heck that word actually means in this day and age.
I don’t think I’ve ever returned a holiday gift as an adult. I do recall as a kid getting scooped up by one or both parental units and being taken to a big store (was it Alexander’s or Korvettes? Maybe both?) the day after Christmas to return stuff that didn’t fit or exchange that extra pair of jammies for something more useful.
As I got older and wiser (although that’s debatable according to many people), something smart in the squishy computer kicked in and I started asking people for EXACTLY what I wanted provided they were open to buying me a present. I haven’t looked back since. Hey, I’m getting old and life is too damn short to be running around like a happy headless chicken with a plastic smile glued on for all occasions.
Yeah, yeah. To some of you (and probably too many of you), Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever (else) you celebrate is supposed to be chock full of surprises on the gift front. Me, I prefer the predictability of not needing to drag my lazy behind out of bed on a bleary day and huff-hoof it to the malloverse in order to stand in a long line just to swap a bad tie for another one or some stop ’em in their tracks cologne for a discounted set of equally smelly gift-boxed soap I’ll only use in a really dire emergency. That’s just not fun. “What do YOU consider fun?” you ask? “Fun, natural fun!”, I would answer (followed by “shut up and dance”). My suggestion is you who hate the grind of shopping and shipping only to have to lift and shift unwanted goods around the until you get what you want is to try being a little more forward when you need to ask for something. You’d be surprised at how efficient your life just became.
You’re welcome.
Oh, and if someone gives you an unasked for melon baller as a gift, keep it and use that $#!+ as a coffee scoop. What you want and what you need are sometimes interchangeable, but in some cases re-purposing makes even the worst present a good deal more useful.
While it’s still an example of great American film-making and a must-see movie, I’ve been having a recurring dream of a Taxi Driver followup for quite some time. As in over 20 years of random story ideas hitting me in the dream-space or while strolling around NYC. The city has changed so much since the film’s 1976 release, but in a (not so) weird way certain elements have cycled back into that film’s bleak version of the city, citizens, and some of the politics around them.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 