Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Update: Two More Reasons To Jump Out Of Your Seat

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

#AINope will be trending if I have my way, but I’ll very likely be far too busy ducking and weaving in my chair while playing Alien Isolation to do much social network socializing. Nope, I won’t be Twitching unless it’s involuntary and from the game creeping me out from playing past a certain point. No tweeting unless I’ve a police whistle around my neck and I’m calling for help before I throw a shoe at my TV screen. And definitely no facebooking at all, because that’s actually more frightening than any game ever made. Yaaaaaah!

Alien Isolation lands in stores and digital delivery systems on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Back with more ways to die horribly in this soon to be modern sci-fi horror game classic in a bit…

And Just Where Is That iPhone Made, You Ask? Have a Seat & See (Er, Take Your Phone Out of That Pocket First!)…

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Ha. Nothing in this rather helpful infographic on why Apple-heads who spend hundreds of dollars or more on each new iteration of the iPhone continue to jam that expensive device into their back or front pockets and complain when the screen cracks or with the iPhone 6, the dang thing BENDS (oops!). Or why the heck Apple doesn’t supply a sturdy case to go with that new tech toy. Oh well – bring on the iPhone 7, I guess!

Made available by: comparecamp Author: Alex Hillsberg

TCM Reminds Us That War Is (And Always Will Be) Hell…

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Ah, there’s nothing like the darkly comic insanity of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) to remind us that painting oneself into a corner before deciding to spray a few cans of Raid around the house, then light up a cigarette to relax is always a terrible idea. Anyway, if you’re up late tonight and into Friday morning, you can catch this classic on TCM at 1am (eastern time – dip backwards on that clock according to your own time zone). I tend to watch this one a few times a year because it’s both hilarious and bracing while showing not much has changed over time except news (and bombs) can travel a hell of a lot faster. While the film is perhaps the bleakest of black comedies, according to one New Yorker article from earlier this year… a good deal of what happened in the film was (and perhaps still is) entirely plausible to some extent. Eeeeek. Um, sleep well, ladies and gents… sleep well…

Gauntlet is BACK. Just Buy It And Bring Some Friends Along For The Ride!

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Nice. Arrowhead Game Studios has done classic and current gamers a solid by making their Gauntlet reboot a more than worthy nod to the original arcade classic. I sure hope to heck this sells REALLY well and someone has had the foresight to get the developer some console dev kits, as this game is PERFECT for some solo or offline/online couch or not co-op play sessions. That and some of us old fogies like playing the game with some sort of joystick and not a keyboard/mouse setup. Also, it would be excellent to have the ability to take this one on the road as a Vita or (if it’s not too much trouble to do a new version down the road) 3DS game. Eh, we’ll see what sales figures and company heads say, I suppose. The game was made for the masses back in the day and there’s NO reason it shouldn’t be available on anything else that can handle it, I say…

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.

Random Film of the Week: Five Star Final

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, All Vintage Films!)

If you think what passes for today’s “news” reporting is sketchy and lurid, 1931’s excellent potboiler Five Star Final will show you that the more things change, the more they stay the same. As with plenty of other pre-Code flicks, it’s got lots of surprisingly saucy dialog, a nice pre-noir vibe and some fine performances from a mostly great cast.

Featuring Edward G. Robinson in the lead role of a troubled newspaper editor, Aline MacMahon as his snappy-pattered secretary and a surprising turn by Boris Karloff as a lecherous reporter (he’s almost as frightening as he would be in Frankenstein later that year), this is one of those fast-talking, hard driving “message” films that slaps you back in your seat and holds you down as it spills out its guts about the crazy would of tabloid “news” and how it affects its subjects on all sides of the fence. While there’s an “on stage” element to certain scenes some may find sappy to a fault, I’d say that’s here to balance out the nastiness going on at that awful tabloid… Continue reading →

Some Random GOTHAM Thoughts…

Posted on September 23, 2014 by geelw

Hmmm. So, even though I’m not fond of their “news” division’s endlessly dreary antics in keeping people misinformed and angry and frightened half to death, I have to give it up for some of Fox’s TV lineup on the pure entertainment front. The new DC Comics-inspired drama GOTHAM is actually quite good, but I see some critics have no idea who’s who in the Bat-verse. Edward Nigma is NOT going to be the Joker unless he’s got a split personality and all those riddles he’s telling turn to worse jokes. I thought they introduced a wee bit too many characters from the comics in that pilot, but I guess they had to because it’s best to throw out as many cards onto the table as possible and get those arcs going. We got young versions of Catwoman, Batman, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Penguin, the future Commissioner Gordon and an already dirty cop Harvey Bullock. I’d gather the guy who shot Thomas and Arthur Wayne may also be from one of the comic’s versions of the origin story, but we’ll see where that goes during this season. There’s more to say, but I’ll let a few episodes sink in before I make more noise.

Well, I do have one other goofball complaint – 8PM means I can’t see the show when it airs. I need to hit up the On Demand channel and catch this show the day after. Given the content, it should go on at 9, but the silliness that is Sleepy Hollow takes up that time slot. So, a day late and a dollar short is my way of experiencing this new take on an old classic comic story for the ages. Okay, back in a bit…

Mail’s In, I’m Out!

Posted on September 23, 2014 by geelw

Thanks to the mail deities delivering nearly everything at once yesterday evening because of a slight delay from a few states and faster than expected international shipping (hoo-ray!), I’m taking today off to tackle a couple of entertainment options. For the upcoming Fairy Tale Blogathon at Movies, Silently I had to import Ray Harryhausen The Early Years Collection from the UK, as it’s not available in a Region 1 format DVD (why?). I was deciding between writing that 2-disc set up when I came across the complete 2-disc set of Fractured Fairy Tales and snapped it up because it was dirt cheap and had free shipping. Of course, someone claimed that review, but I didn’t mind because I grew up watching The Bullwinkle Show reruns and those FFT segments were always hilarious.

For a crazed change of pace, I HAD to bug Clint over at MVD Visual about The Sex Pistols on TV, a DVD documentary of the band’s outrageous live interviews and other footage that I’ve wanted to see for some time. Yep, I have pretty varied musical tastes, folks. Finally, time to give the devil his due, as Diablo III Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition is in the house! While the PS4 is getting all the online ink, I’ve only seen two reviews of the PS3 version, so my review will let those of you curious about this who don’t yet own that new console know if it’s worth a buy. I did play a few hours last night and here’s a spoiler: It’s a buy for a ton of reasons. You get the original game with some BIG changes (as in your copy of plain DII is now obsolete to some extent) and the Reaper of Souls content that adds even more new stuff.

Hmmm… okay, enough procrastinating – I need to go dip myself into some diversions, people. Back in a bit…

And Who Wouldn’t Want To Spend the Evening With Miss Bardot?

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

Well, I have no idea what I’d say or do once I popped out of that time machine and found myself in the presence of the lady, but I’d probably faint dead away from surprise that my time travel experiment worked and wake up a few seconds before I was to be zapped back to the present. Oh well. I guess staying safe at home with these five films is a safer bet:

8PM: And God Created Woman (1956)

9:45PM: Une Parisienne (1957)

11:30PM: Plucking the Daisy (1956)

1:30 AM: The Night Heaven Fell (1958)

3:15 AM: Contempt (1963)

The good thing for me is I’ve only seen two of these films, so the rest will be my first time. Um… er… (*beet!*) you know what I mean! Get your mind out of the gutter, you. I need all that space for mine to float around in later! ;^P

Monday Means Bundles of Joy All Over (And An Aching Backlog Again)!

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

Let’s see now, the mailbox is bursting at the seams today, so I guess it’s Bundle time! Here are a few deals to pore over at your leisure, although you kind of want to hurry on those 24-hour deals, folks:

The IndieGala Every Monday Bundle this week is $1.89 and consists of three indie adventure games and three quirky kind of retro-style games. It’s a nice mix of randomness that should keep you entertained in short spurts or for a particularly boring weekend. The nice thing about all of these games is you’re not forced to play them all within a particular time span. Unless of course you’re trying to buy and play games in a specific order or knock them off your backlog as you buy each bundle. Hey! I;m not done yet – two more to go… Continue reading →