Hotel Inferno: POV Horror Puts The Fear In Your Face

Posted on January 28, 2016 by geelw

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Horror fans who haven’t see it yet are going to get a hard kick in the eyeballs with Hotel Inferno, a POV (point of view) shot film from 2013 that puts you in the shoes of a hired killer tacking the job of taking out a number of targets who fins out the job is a lot more sinister than he’s been told. To the moviegoers who avoid the gory stuff, it may not be seen as either a “modern classic” or as memorable as Dark Passage or Lady in the Lake. But I say it’s absolutely worth a watch for the practical effects work, to see where the crazy plot goes, and to find out if it makes you jump out of your seat a few times like a good gore-fest should.

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Some ickier (and definitely not for the kiddies!) screens are below the jump… if you dare! Continue reading →

Adlens Interface: Buy-Focals for Screen Geeks & Movie Freaks

Posted on January 27, 2016 by geelw

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If you’re a heavy computer user or TV watcher who suffers for eyestrain or someone looking for an inexpensive adjustable focus eyewear option, you may want to consider Adlens Interface ($49.99) as an option. While they’re not made to replace your current prescription, they’re an excellent choice for light to moderate use if you’re the sort stuck in front of a screen for work or play. I tend to only wear glasses when watching movies from a distance at home or in a theater, so I was curious to see if Adlens would work for my own needs. Let’s just say I was quite pleased when the opportunity arose to check out a pair and see for myself. Okay, two slight puns in a single sentence normally means some sort of sentence from a pun-hating judge, but I think I’ll be forgiven this time.

Anyway, Adlens uses Alvarez Dual Lens Technology with two polycarbonate plates per eye that slide at the twist of a dial located on each side of the plastic frame. Right out of the case all you do is slip the specs on, shut one eye and adjust the lens for the open eye and repeat the process for that previously closed eye. The Interface adjusts between -6 to +3 diopter range on each lens, which should do well for a wide range of users. A week of testing showed that Adlens does quite well at making extended work and play sessions in front of the computer as well as a bit of binge watching a lot more comfortable. Yes, you’ll need to readjust the lenses when you go from about 18 inches or so away from a monitor to a TV a few feet away. But that’s not a bad trade off at all. Besides, you can consider that dial turning some actual exercise if you’re a total couch potato type.

While the glasses are lightweight and comfortable, I could see some users griping that they feel “cheap” because of that all-plastic construction. My only issue is with the dials feeling a bit too loose by default. I suppose if Adlens manufactured them to slowly click each adjustment into place would add a bit to the cost of producing them (and add to the cost of buying a pair). But I’m neither an engineer nor a bean-counter, just a regular guy with a brain full of suggestions (and a site to sometimes post those things on). The nice thing about Adlens is if you just need some go-to temporary specs, they have a few models priced between $30 and $70 all ready to ship.

January’s Retro Pop Box Packs in the 70’s Memories

Posted on January 25, 2016 by geelw

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Right before that dopey snowstorm landed, I’d gotten a few (okay, a lot of) packages delivered but just now got to opening them up (hey, I was busy moving furniture around for last week’s plastering and painting and was in quite a haze of weariness). So seeing January’s Retro Pop Box peeking out at me from a small stack of packages made me grin somewhat like Mr. Sardonicus after an encounter with a tickle fetish dominatrix. Um, never mind that reference! Anyway, someone at the post office felt it okay to doodle on the box (boo), as my regular carrier was on vacation (Joe always brings my mail right up to the door and doesn’t cram it into the mailbox) and the new guy is a bit goofy because he sometimes puts the wrong mail in a few boxes.

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Inside the box were a nice sticker tribute to David Bowie (who passed away the previous week, so the creator elves were fast on the draw here) and a nice set of 70’s themed items:

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Heh. A nice and exclusive RPB T-shirt that references a key scene from 1978’s Animal House will be worn here in a pants optional mode. Hey, when you get older, you tend to like LESS clothing (and not just on the ladies or whatever). DOn’t ask me to explain this – you’ll hopefully live long enough to experience it yourself. I call it *Freedom!* Whee.

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The other stuff was a nice hodgepodge of items. That Space Invaders bag will get shouldered for shopping trips (and has already gotten the thumbs up seal of approval at a local game shop), I do need a tiny shark toy and maybe a tinier toy Jet Ski to go into the tiny Happy Days lunchbox (sorry, Fonzie – that’s the first tribute I thought of, aaaaayyyyyyy!), that Doctor Who journal will require a tiny pencil or pen if it’s to last the 500 years noted on that cover, and I’m wearing that Thing button as I type this just because it’s always Clobberin’ Time somewhere in the world and I need to represent.

Anyway, if your own nostalgia meter is spinning, you know what to do, right?

Dungelot: Shattered Lands – A Cuter, Stabbier Minesweeper

Posted on January 25, 2016 by geelw

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Dungelot 0 Another of tinyBuild Games‘ upcoming titles is Dungelot: Shattered Lands from Red Winter, a two man studio based in Russia. Shattered Lands is their third game, but unlike the much maligned Dungelot 2 (which got lots of guff for its micro-transaction heavy gameplay), it’s available on iOS now and coming to Steam later this year as a single player game worth keeping an eye peeled for.

While I’m not a big Minesweeper fan in general, it’s the super cute art style and familiar rogue-like RPG aspects that have my interest piqued. Hey, who doesn’t like loot drops and increasing difficulty? Well, that and it’s got a rather large and unholy cow as a beefy boss that needs to be taken down:

dungelot-shattered-lands-gif Moo! Of course, that means that Cow from Hell above is udderly a female fiend (last time I checked, bulls are udderless), but hey – equality goes as good for evil as it does for good when all is said and done. If that sentence made no sense it’s because I’m still zonked out from the snowstorm we had two days ago. I could use some hot milk right about now, so that bovine behemoth-ess (MOO!) is looking mighty attractive about now.

But I digress. Go pick up the game if you have an iOs whatever to play it on or slap it on your Steam watchlist and go hide in a corner until it appears in that store at some point down the road. Here are some screens to ogle below while I nap through the rest of this post:

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PSN Flash Sale: Make Your Snow Day More Useful Yet Less Productive

Posted on January 24, 2016 by geelw

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Trapped indoors thanks to all this snow, are we? Well, Eeee-hee-hee! or something like that. I’m actually trapped indoors thanks to a freelance job that needs to be done before pumpkin hour (midnight), so I’ve no to time to play anything (*whine!*). While I wait for another part of the job to float through the ether this way, I figure I may as well post something quick and painless.

Anyway, If you have a PlayStation Network account, you’re not going to be lonely at all. Well, if you’re alone, you’ll still be lonely, but you won’t lack for entertainment options thanks to this latest PSN Flash Sale.

Tons of games and movies (wait, does digital content actually weigh something?), but the list is so long that I’ll only list the PS4, PS3, Vita and PSP games below the jump. If you’re smart you’ll just boogie on over to that link above and burn a small hole in your wallet before the sale is over Monday.
Continue reading →

Snow Daze: Be Careful What You Wish For, Folks

Posted on January 23, 2016 by geelw

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Whee. 20+ inches of snow and counting, but I’m not counting. According to the smiling weather folks on a few channels who seem to be inordinately cheery about all that white stuff outside blowing around and sticking to anything moving or motionless, it’s allegedly supposed to stop around midnight or so. But that also means a more of those dopes who weren’t out today (from my window I saw a few too many people “driving” sideways or walking in the streets while a car or two slid sideways past them) will be out tomorrow because they know no better than to stay indoors with something (or someone) warm and toasty. Oh well.

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I didn’t venture out other than to check the mail only to find out that post office motto really is not true at all, but it seems we may need some more milk after all. So I get to be a dope myself for about ten or twenty minutes, but I do need that cow juice to go into the coffee I’m making that’s required to keep me going though a job I need to plow through that’s due before Sunday is done. Thankfully, the supermarket is less than a block away and the folks who run it live in the area. Then again, I need to step outside for some frozen air anyway, as stir craziness will occur and the dope crashing here who smokes indoors when he shouldn’t (and needs to quit) is going to get a paper hatchet to the head otherwise. Hey, paper cuts can be pretty damn painful, you know…

Attractio: Great Gravity Game’s a Gas

Posted on January 22, 2016 by geelw

Sure, it’s got a serious case of Portal envy, but Attractio is also quite a lot of fun to play because it adds a bit of freshness to the gravity puzzle game formula made user-friendly fun by Valve a bunch of years back. Actually, back when I tried the PS4 demo out at a Bandai Namco event last year the game reminded me of a cross between Portal, The Running Man and a teeny-tiny bit of the old Amiga game The Killing Game Show (aka Fatal Rewind, for you Sega Genesis owners who recall that truncated version of the Amiga game). IF none of those ring a bell, let’s just say that the game is all about trying to think your way out of a series of increasingly deadly puzzles and traps for “fun” and some sort of profit (survival and prizes do go together, right?)

Anyway, the game is out NOW digitally on PC via Steam or PS4/Vita via PSN for $19.99, so if puzzles, gravity and trying not to have your avatar die horribly from embarrassment when he or she gets stuck (or get bumped off by a high fall into some hot lava-like liquid) are your cup of tea, this one’s a recommendation of the most absolute order.

Suicide Squad: Mission: Impossible With Some Bad, Bad Men (& Women)

Posted on January 21, 2016 by geelw

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So, yup. If that first trailer from last year didn’t get your eyeballs and ears all perked up, Warner says watch this and you’ll be feeling around on the floor for both eyeballs and ears after they’ve popped out of and off your head. Go get something clean like a big plate to put on the floor near your monitor (I’ll wait) and click below:

See what I mean? You have until August 5 to find your eyeballs and ears, by the way. Also, if you do find those eyeballs first, go check out the rest of the posters over at Imp Awards just because they’re an even dozen simple and pretty cool designs.

Ziegfeld Fall-ies: “Progress!”: Or Why We Can’t Have (and Keep) Nice Things

Posted on January 21, 2016 by geelw

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So, the famed Ziegfeld Theater is closing soon. Hearing this news earlier did not make my day go any better, folks.

Let’s see now: closing the only remaining theater in NYC with a 70mm screen? BAD IDEA. Turning that theater into a stupid “special events” hall when there are plenty of spaces already? WORSE idea. I’m so annoyed at this I can’t even muster up the energy to rant and spill some history on you guys and gals. Between this news and the recent demises of the big Toys ‘R Us in Times Square, FAO Schwarz further uptown, and the slowly fading actual deli scene this city is dying the lonely death of a thousand cuts in favor of becoming more of a dead-eyed strip mall packed with tourists who come here just to go to higher priced versions of what they already have in their states.

Yeah, yeah – big movies aren’t making as much money as online streaming services generate and in general, shopping is “easier” when you click away and get no exercise as a trade off for free shipping (unless you order too close to Christmas because you think Santa Claus is real and that box will pop up right on time. HA.). But both retail space and big screen movie houses are needed just because not everything looks good on a damned mobile screen or computer monitor, multiplexes lose personality (and hearing films through poorly constructed walls sucks) and hell, it’s just BETTER to see and touch something you want to buy up close and personal. Take a picture, it’ll last longer, indeed. Funny, but not funny – Bow Tie Cinemas also owned the Loews theater near me that got turned into a totally useless Marshall’s that’s a grand, laughable waste of space inside which always looks as if it’s never been cleaned properly.

Yes, Bundle Stars Has TOO Many Deals This Week

Posted on January 21, 2016 by geelw

Quake Bundle

It’s probably common knowledge already that game bundles and bundle sites are the best means of getting recent to older titles without waiting around for seasonal deals or hanging around all day on a site hoping for a flash sale to pop up. Bundle Stars continues to give gamers looking for deals aching backlogs and Steam-ed up wallets thanks to a nice selection of deals. This week has seen a wealth of AAA bundle deals like the one above and more great hits in the limited Bundle Fest series that concludes tomorrow. All the week’s Bundle Fest deals end in six days, so you’ll need to act quickly.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cry in the corner because I’m probably going to add more games to my backlog. Hey, everyone needs a hobby, right? Mine seems to be adding games to my already bursting at the seams library.