Despicable Me 2 Toy Profile of the Week (2): More Minions, More Problems!

Posted on March 2, 2013 by geelw

Three more minions here and a new poor rhyme,
despite my bad verse, they’re well worth your time.
A golfer, a ninja, and rocker that’s punk
(it’s best to look upwards than read my old junk!)

But if you’re not green yet, then keep reading on
(and be glad that I’m not writing your favorite song)
those Minions will pop up in stores really soon
about a month before the film lands in June!

Pictured, three more Collectible Action Figures from the upcoming Despicable Me 2 toy line (2”-3.5”), Age: 4+; Approximate Retail Price: $4.99 – Available starting in May at a retailer near you.

I Got Invited To The Opening Of A Garage: Dude, Where’s My Car?!

Aside

OK, this is either good sign or a sign that my career as a writer is OVER. I got invited to a garage opening. Seriously. I don’t even own or drive a car. Maybe the invite came from someone who saw me move a friend’s van a few times VERY carefully around the block when he was moving and an overeager traffic agent was lurking about? Eh, whatever. I won’t worry about this too much… hell, I may even show up for the free refreshments. I’ll get there by subway, of course…

BEYOND: Two Souls – Willem Dafoe Reveal/Interview: Quantic Dream Goes For A Class Act(or)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by geelw

David Cage is certainly getting Quantic Dream’s upcoming PS3 exclusive BEYOND: Two Souls some big talent. In addition to Ellen Page starring in the game, Willem Dafoe has joined the cast and as you’ll see here, the dev team has captured his look and performance perfectly. Even more amazing is how they aged Page DOWN to look like a little girl here (and look!, She’s the exact same height as she is now, har har). Anyway, this one has been on my radar since it was announced last year and every bit of footage is pushing it up on my must play list. Now, I’m wondering who else is going to make an appearance in the game. If Cage gets Charlotte Gainsboug in here, I may run out of air from screaming, as she and Dafoe were quite freaky and frightening together in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (one of the more disturbing but amazingly shot “horror” films you’ll see)…

Cultchah! MoMA’s Applied Design Show Brings Gaming to the Masses (Huddled and Unhuddled)…

Posted on March 1, 2013 by geelw

Hokay, I’m sort of on an extended road trip today (and as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions), so this will be brief (with much more to come later). The Museum of Modern Art held a press event to show off one of their new exhibits, Applied Design (in case you didn’t see the video above). In addition to some amazingly practical objects formed from the alteration of nature into things such as furniture, tools and a rather innovative mine sweeping device, a number of important video games were on display, many of them playable. I’ll post a bunch of videos later (and some may even have ME in them – oh noes!), but if you’re in the NYC area from March 2 (tomorrow!) to January 31, 2014, it’s worth checking this exhibit out.

Aha! Smarter Folks Than I Have Figured Apple’s Tactics Out, Too…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Hey, I’ve been saying this for a few years to anyone within earshot (and sometimes out of earshot if you’ve seen my soapbox rants live in Times Square – the closest I’m allowed to an Apple store these days), but now it’s “official” (well, sort of). Apple is really a sneaky mercenary front after all (dun dun dunnnnn!). The fine and dandy (and smarter than I ever will be) people over at Egghead Central have posted this interesting look at just how the Cupertino camp cooks up its new products and all that “innovation” they bring. Yeah, yeah, you Apple-heads out there won’t like some of their findings, but that’s “satire” for you, isn’t it?

Toy Fair 2013: Chains to Champions: Brick Warriors Go Board Game (And You Certainly Won’t Be Bored At All)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

OK, I’ll admit it. I’d never heard of Brick Warriors until a few days before Toy Fair when a friend with a bigger ear to the playground who collects and tweaks his collection of miniatures asked me to check out the upcoming Chains to Champions board game the company was working on. It’s a good thing I decided to be a nice guy and drop on down to meet Ryan Hauge, Amanda Taylor and Rhonda Denny (the game’s lead playtester and most likely the company’s ringer if you ever end up playing against her for money), as the game is looking to be a ton of fun for minifigure fans across the globe. C to C is a gladiatorial combat game for two to six players (or one player with multiple personalities who wants to beat himself senseless at a board game) that’s easy to pick up, yet also highly challenging as you complete in card-based clashes for coin and customization upgrades.

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If The World Goes to Crap, Outerra Makes Going Outside Quite Optional…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

When I have the free time and (a drool cup), I’ve been occasionally looking at these insane videos from Outerra, the Slovakian company (well, three REALLY talented Slovakians) cooking up this amazing tech that according to Wikipedia, “renders high-quality terrain, terrain texturing, flora and water flow normal maps using relatively sparse and highly compressed data through fractal processing and calculations.” and yeah, it does just that. And very well as you can see. if you happen to have a beefy enough PC and want your mind to blow itself out of a nostril, feel free to download the Outerra Anteworld Alpha and prepare to lose yourself for a wee bit too long in what’s there. It’s a bit buggy and still a work in progress, but that’s what an Alpha version of an engine usually is, folks. I can see some creative game developer out there taking this and running with in (right into one of those lovely trees you’re ogling)…

Retro City Rampage on PC and WiiWare Is Full of Surprises (Well, One More Awesome Surprise)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Not content with a simple port of an already hilarious game, creator Brian Provinciano decided to take it to the next level (or more precisely, back to the roots) by cooking up an “8-bit” version of the game for the WiiWare and PC releases (out now!). Even if you’re terminally rusty at games, if you’ve a brain with a dusty old file cabinet filled with memories of 80’s and 90’s pop culture references, Retro City Rampage is fun and funny enough to get you cracking up within a few seconds of playing it. Anyway, some neck exercises for you to practice, as you look a bit tired and you don’t want to have to pay for that Lifestyle Lift (at least for a few MORE years,right?): Look up and click! Look down and click! Repeat as required until you figure out you need a Wii or PC to get the game (or a PS3, Vita or Xbox 360)…

Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army Out Now On Steam – Gore Patrol On Duty!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

So… how, pray tell do we go from happy-happy cartoon ponies to blowing holes in zombies just like that? Easy- you pretend you’re riding a bus, just move along and enjoy what’s outside the window. Which in this case would be that final teaser trailer and the even MORE naughty official launch trailer (both very NSFW, by the way- you’ve been warned!) and maybe even you picking up this standalone co-op focused expansion from Steam at some point. Yeah, you know you want to… and you’ll probably fool everyone by storing the game on that My Little Pony Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOT USB drive you just purchased. Shhhh… I won’t tell a soul. Maybe…

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOTS: mimoco & Hasbro Bring You Useful Eye Candy

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Well, MY own eyes are burning like toasty coals in some marshmallow fluff factory because I’m not into the whole Brony thing and all, but I don’t begrudge anyone’s interests (provided they’re not harmful to others). Anyway, if this is your big plastic cup of sugar laced saccharine… well, lookit you bouncing around the room with your wallet or purse out! Yeah, I can hear the furious clicking away from here as you poke around the mimoco online store, your eyes as big as saucers as your brain furiously fights over which of the the characters to get. Available in up to 128GB as well as USB3.0 speeds, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash are all staring back at you with their own big eyes to the point where, gosh and golly, you HAVE to get all THREE!

mimoco knows this as well and as you can see from the video above, each USB drive comes packed with super-cool bonuses that will show the world you love MLPFiMX to death and then some. So, you know what to do, right? Oh… you’ve already done it before you even finished reading this post? Well, good for you – my work here is done.