Short and sweet: you NEED to play Transistor. Preorder links are live on the Supergiant Games site – the game will be $19.99 for PC via STEAM or PlayStation 4 via PSN. As far as i can tell, there’s no Mac version as of yet, you Apple-heads!.
And yes, there’s a soundtrack pre-order as well. Get both the game and soundtrack to support these guys, I say!
Wow. Three great epic role-playing games, four horror-themed adventures (including one based on a great, gloomy Harlan Ellison story), a sci-fi/horror hybrid first-person shooter still seen as one of the best games ever made and while not quite a classic, a dark and disturbing action/shooter that’s worth a play just to see how bizarre it gets? Sounds like a buy if you ask me. Anyway, Wizardry 6, 7 and 8 plus System Shock 2 are more than worth the price it takes to unlock them and everything else is just the gravy on that cake. I actually liking this bundle because of Harvester, a supremely twisted point & click adventure game that doesn’t shy away from the David Lynch-like weirdness and some mildly to pretty shocking gore effects (which are cheap looking even by 1996 standards, but still effective):
Amusingly enough, the charities this bundle supports are Child’s Play and The American Red Cross (ha and ha, ha). Anyway, this one’s only available for a limited time (6 days, 19 hours as I type this), so GRAB IT before it’s gone!
I hadn’t checked in on the Godzilla gallery over at Imp Awards in a while, but the need to dig up posters for some other films had me check to see what was new and wow, were there some nice additions. Granted, they’re not all my taste and I think a few are overdone. Nevertheless, all are striking and would make excellent additions to any movie fan’s walls and/or collection. I wish I had room here (or still collected movie posters, for that matter)…
But wait, there’s MORE! Product placement, anyone? (and VERY amusing product placement at that!):
Hmmmmm… I wonder how much FIAT had to pay to be the first commercial to REALLY show the new Godzilla off? Probably way too much to contemplate, but at least they did a spectacular job with this commercial. Um, in case you haven’t figured it out after all those posters AND the commercial, Godzilla opens here May 16, 2014.
Hey, a year older means I get to think harder about stuff I want to do here on the site this year, so I’ll be tweaking a few things over the next few weeks. Mostly cleaning up the tags (they’re really mucked up), resizing old videos so they can be seen (WordPress tends to get funky when it makes stuff smaller automatically for some oddball reason) and getting back to fixing about a thousand older posts so all the links work properly. Yeah, I said A THOUSAND (yikes!). This is the most daunting thing I have to do, as it involves a LOT of html tweaking and maybe re-uploading stuff which means a LOT of going through image searches and my older blog (that’s still up but not updated save for a banner change and token post once a month). Ugh. I’d actually thought I found someone to help out with that stuff, but it seems he vanished before we could talk more about getting this done. Oh well… this is one of those projects where it’s best handled by the person who caused the whole mess. But Google won’t want to work for me, I’d bet (little in-joke there folks who use or used Blogger may understand).
Anyway, off to bed for my well-aged self. Yikes, it’s only a number, but if I stop to think about it, I’ve been around for some time. Eeek…
(thanks, captbijou!)
From the moment Dimitri Tiomkin’s bouncy western theme music kicks things off and “The Ballad of The War Wagon” plays out with its bouncier western lyrics (sing along, now!), you just KNOW you’re in for a good time. Directed by Burt Kennedy (Return of the Seven, Support Your Local Sheriff), this 1967 western paired John Wayne and Kirk Douglas as a pair of adversaries who team up to take down the titular gold-loaded, four-wheeled, well-armored horse-drawn vehicle (say that five times fast!) with the help of some friends is light and airy fun for an afternoon that’s worth a watch even if you don’t like westerns at all.
If your eyebrow is arching up a bit, fear not pardner! Just think of this gem as a variation on The Adventures of Robin Hood or a more modern heist flick with some of your favorite stars and that’s all you need to know to know you’ll come away from this one grinning. In fact, this is one of those films that works brilliantly because it’s supposed to be funny while also delivering plenty of action and dramatic moments to please genre fans… Continue reading
You’d need quite a big raincoat or duffel bag to be smuggling a Godzilla around, I say. Oh, wait… that’s not what’s being hid? Oops. Hey, it’s my birthday today, so I can do what I want (well, within reason). I told some beat cop earlier I was going to be out stomping on buildings and roaring at passersby and he suggested it was okay as long as I wasn’t using a bullhorn (those are supposed to be illegal here in NYC), I wasn’t being disruptive (no stomping after 8PM) or wearing a mask in public (also illegal under certain circumstances). Oh, and I might require some sort of PERMIT? Damn, that was a party-crushing moment for me, as I know what it’s like to apply for a permit here in the big city (between the lines and those fees, OY!). Crap, I should have applied for that paper two months ahead of time, huh? Oh well, next year… next year…
](thanks, oldhockstatterplace!)
I actually don’t do much on my birthday other than pore over whatever greetings sent my way (and this year has been good for people sending well wishes), while trying to stay out of trouble (so far, so good). It’ll be a light dinner (wait, pizza is light? It is when it’s your birthday!) and a glass of Chianti later tonight and maybe a movie or two, one of which may or may not be this 1981 slasher flick with the somewhat loyal cult following.
I’m aged enough to have first seen this one back in 1981 when it was initially released and while it’s got some effective, offbeat murders and a few cast members of note, it’s far from the best the genre has to offer. That said, it is fun to put together the plot’s parts and uncover the killer as you go, even though the film seems to want to surprise you with a twisteroo near the finale that may or may not make you want to stab someone…
HBO continues to crack me up with these video deluge blitzes after each episode this season. I kind of wish they’d just release maybe three videos tops. A recap of assorted clips, a behind the scenes with a slide into a George R.R. Martin interview and a preview of the next episode.
THAT would be (TOO) simple, no? Well, no, according to HBO, as they want to feed the fans until they’re stuffed to bursting with every bit of minutiae about each episode this season after it happens (as in an hour or two later, it seems). Some thrive on this stuff while I prefer more of a compact approach.
But whatever, try and tell the more hardcore GoT fans there’s TOO much info spilling about and it’s your insides that may be spilling out. That, or you’ll get a fierce tongue-lashing (and not the kind you’d expect from one of those fancy brothels, either). Ouch, ouch, (*yawn*) ouch… Continue reading
Hokay, I have some ‘splainin’ to do here:
I’ve played both Kane & Lynch Dead Men and Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, but I’ve never actually owned the first game until a few weeks back when I saw this in a stack of games some guy was selling at a sidewalk sale. Two bucks? No problem. As for the much maligned Aliens: Colonial Marines? I never played the demo and didn’t see that footage everyone says was mocked up and not representative of the final product, so the whole controversy went over my scalp. That said, I nabbed this sealed with ALMOST all the collector’s edition goodies (no Power Loader) for ten bucks, which may seem like too much based on the acid spewed upon the game worldwide. I’ve only played about an hour and while it’s far from great, as a FPS, it’s got some fun bits here and there. My money is on Alien Isolation being a more compelling experience and provided the dopes lurking and jerking on message boards REALIZE that the new game is from a C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y different development team known for all of their games being solid experiences through and through.
Remember Me? Yes, Nilin… I do, my dear. I played the PC version (thanks, Capcom!) and loved it for the most part. Capcom also kindly sent me the Xbox 360 version, but I couldn’t play it when I got it thanks to my two busted 360’s collecting dust here. So, I gifted it to a friend so he’d crack it open (and let me review it at his place, of course) and ended up picking up the PS3 version recently for about five times less than what it retailed for last year. As for Silent Hill: Book of Memories? I love Wayforward’s games and the demo of this Vita exclusive was interesting in a “Hey, it’s like Diablo, but NOT!” manner. A few levels in, and I read that the game is pretty much the same thing from beginning to end, but has a level cap and some other stuff that makes it a bit tedious. I haven’t reached that point yet, but thanks for the forewarning, Internet… Continue reading
Well, it’s Mother’s Day this week as well as my birthday (tomorrow, so you still have time to get me that gift or else!), so I’m going to have fun with this week’s pick. While seen as sacrilege to some fans of the original movie, for my money Psycho II is a nice surprise that does well at following up on Norman Bates’ life post-release from the institution he ended up in thanks to his deeds in the original.
Screenwriter Tom Holland and director Richard Franklin get some great (albeit limited) mileage out of Anthony Perkins here as he portrays Norman as trying to live the “normal” life, but ends up instead plagued by forced memories from the past intended to drive him back to his old ways. Or perhaps he’s hallucinating all that bad stuff? Whatever the cause, bodies start piling up (well, the actual death count is small compared to other films of the era), the mystery deepens and it’s not until the final reel that things become clear with a double twist corker of an ending that’s still amazing… Continue reading
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 