Machine Gun Time! Almost…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by geelw

Okay, this week is going to be a FUN one for me on a few fronts. I get to pop downtown to play some Earth Defense Force 2025 co-op with a few fellow editors and D3Publisher of America PR folk (Hi, Michael! Hi, Myki!) then come back up here to write all about it and get you all pumped up about this game. Yes, those are dragons flying around in that trailer. Uh-huh, that’s right… DRAGONS. And yes, they’re mean and CHEAP bastards when they swarm and start roasting then chomping on your character.

The game is packing a bunch of other surprises in case you haven’t gathered quite yet, but I’ll save some of those surprises for my hands-on later in the week. Oh, yeah… those two EDF Troopers below playing Patty Cake while there’s a spider THAT close? They’re dead meat unless that screen was shot on Easy mode. Anyone who’s played any EDF game knows what I’m talking about.

Game of Thrones S4 “Fire and Ice” Preview: Slyly, The Clip Joint Beckons…

Posted on January 26, 2014 by geelw

As much as I love this show, I try to keep away from these sneaky preview shows and other online “entertainment” that exists mostly to satiate those fans who’ve not read the books and only stick to the show’s canon (or fans of the book who want to get all picky and pissy about the changes). I’m still flipping a coin as to whether I’ll watch this behind the scenes clip show as I prefer going in cold and letting the assorted writers and directors have their way with me and the stories and characters they’ve added to Martin’s work. Then again, it’s the same for me with The Walking Dead and any other show I like based on something else…

Random Film of the Week(end): Repo Man

Posted on January 26, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, spamanator666!)

“Never broke into a car, never hot-wired a car. Never broke into a truck. ‘I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm’ It’s what I call the Repo Code, kid!”

Even when I saw it back in 1984, I never considered Alex Cox’ outstanding first film Repo Man a purely “punk” movie. Sure, it’s got one of the best (if not the best) soundtracks of any film of that year (some say “ever”, but they’d be dead wrong) and yes, it’s got characters who play “punks” as well as enough of a vibe that makes you think it’s a dopier film than it actually is.

Then, as you’re being entertained by what’s onscreen, one of a few unexpected things happen as the film pops into different genres. As Emilio Estevez’ bored punk Otto Maddox goes from getting fired from his crappy minimum wage job stocking supermarket shelves with generic food to making bigger bucks as a repo man and characters toss out priceless lines like “The more you drive, the less intelligent you are…” or “I don’t want no commies in my car. No Christians either.”, the next thing you know you’re hooked in for the duration… Continue reading →

More Sage Advice From Valhalla Knights 3? Okay, Sure…

Posted on January 26, 2014 by geelw

Although I’ve completed Valhalla Knights 3 a little while back, I ended up snapping a bunch of screenshots for no other reason that I can use them for random posts like this. Anyway, guys (and some of you ladies out there), here’s more of Tina laying it down for you. She sounds as if she’s got a good head on her shoulders, right? Then again, I guess you can trust a half-dressed weapon shop clerk only so much…

Random Film of the Week(end): Rollercoaster

Posted on January 26, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, sideshowcarny!)

In some parts of America during the summer of 1977, you either got very lucky and saw Star Wars, or you got very unlucky because that flick was sold out when you wanted to go and had to settle for something like Rollercoaster. Now, on it’s own merits it’s a passable “disaster” flick that’s a wee bit too long and wastes the talents of a few major stars at the tail ends of their careers. On the other hand, it’s about a unnamed home-grown terrorist who decides to seriously vandalize amusement parks and kill people (at least in the first big accident in the film) in order to extort money from a mega corporation just because he can.

There’s no motive other than profit, he’s not some crazed maniac out for revenge whose daddy and mommy were killed in a freak amusement park accident, and the film relies on some dopey luck and dumber plot holes to speed things along as it hopes you won’t notice under all that Sensurround booming your eardrums into submission. But none of this will matter to some people who see this flick today and think it works on the level of a decent thriller. It sort of doesn’t in my old eyes because the film not only shows you the culprit right at the beginning, it tends to drag out scenes just to show off some fancy camerawork and some nice amusement park real estate instead of add depth to the characters it needs to… Continue reading →

Toukiden: Age of Demons Demo Hands-On: Don’t Cry For The Dead Devils…

Posted on January 25, 2014 by geelw

After spending some time with Tecmo Koei’s Toukiden: Age of Demons, I can see why the game was the top selling PlayStation Vita game for 2013 in Japan. The combination of Monster Hunter and Dynasty Warriors plus veteran developer Omega Force’s expertise in creating some gorgeous visuals should help knock this one up the charts in North America and Europe when it launches in February. The demo does a solid job of getting you into the fantasy version of feudal Japan cooked up by the dev team, and the action is more deliberately paced and at times a good deal more tactical than the more free for all Musou style of play many are accustomed to. This is all a good thing, as the game should draw in a few players who want something deeper than the standard (but still fun) chase and chop action some are expecting… Continue reading →

Legionwood 2: Volume One Gets Officially Site-d

Posted on January 25, 2014 by geelw

I actually didn’t know (but should have guessed) until a few months ago that the guy behind the Legionwood games, D. Robert Grixti, is a published author and is working on his second novel (among many other things).

Anyway, he’s also Dark Gaia Studios and has just put up a site dedicated to Legionwood 2: Chapter One that you may want to check out. You can download the demo to try out for free or buy the first chapter (which is set for a February 28, 2014 release) outright for a measly five dollars. According to the author, Chapter One will offer:

15+ hours of classic RPG gameplay.
Dozens of minigames and sidequests to discover.
Hundreds of different character configurations.
Over 80 intelligent and dangerous foes.
Non-linear game that makes your choices count.
Multiple endings.

In addition, the first Legionwood as well as Dark Gaia’s other games can be found HERE (and they’re all free!). Pop on by and take a peek at the man’s work, I say – he’s got some talent to spare, that’s for sure…

Random Film of the Week(end): Planet of the Apes (2001)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by geelw

Thanks to reports from around the internet and a few periodicals about all sorts of problems during the pre-production phase and more issues during the rather speedy shooting schedule to meet a July release imposed by 20th Century Fox, I certainly didn’t want to see the otherwise reliable Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake, but my mother sure did.

I was camping out at her place during that summer after a breakup and on the day the film opened, she pretty much rolled up on me and said we were going to the movies, so off we went. The funny thing was 33 years earlier, she took me, my older brother and sister to see the original film (my first movie experience), so I guess she was trying to jog my memory a bit out of the funk mode it was in. Well, that worked to a point as we both ended up not liking this remake much at all.

Of course, I ended up heading back to that theater a few days later to make sure I was sure I didn’t like the film… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: PRISON

Posted on January 24, 2014 by geelw

Let me tell you, kids… Scared Straight has NOTHING on Renny Harlin’s PRISON. Hell, If they showed this released in 1988 flick on TV and in schools, instead of some hard-timing losers screaming at kids about staying out of trouble, I’d bet you a hot nickel that the rate of incarceration in America would be at an all-time low. Seriously, this film is SO messed up and mean and shot in an actual closed prison with actual inmates from another joint so there’s a solid sense of verisimilitude here that’s amplified into the haunted realm by the ghost of an executed killer out for some bloody reeeee-venge.

This film is also important for a few reasons horror and fantasy fans should appreciate. For one, it got Harlin the job directing Nightmare on Elm Street 4 which was his “big” American genre film break and led to others over the years both good and bad. It’s also Viggo Mortensen’s first movie appearance in a leading role and we all know where his career went as the years went by. As for this nugget of methodical madness, it’s a pretty effective blend of genre jail flick and atmospheric horror featuring some nicely gory moments plus one of the funniest random deaths I’ve ever seen in any film… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: Iceman

Posted on January 24, 2014 by geelw

EDIT! It was THAT cold in the library that I got Tim Robbins and Timothy Hutton confused. Heh. Corrected! The funny thing is that mistake most likely came out of a conversation last night with a friend who started that confusion as we were discussing movies both actors were in and I must have retained that up in the vaults as a frozen memory. OOPS. Ah well…

Yes, it’s still winter outside, so I’m tossing this forgotten flick up with the hope you check it out because it’s actually a great and thought provoking sci-fi drama. This may or may not be a short post because it’s FREEZING in the library (seriously, NYPL? What’s up with this indoor cold?) and my brain is flipping on and off in deciding my word count. Anyway, excellent performances from Timothy Hutton as Stanley Shephard, an anthropologist who helps a defrosted prehistoric man (John Lone) as he struggles with the new world he’s been awakened into.

Sure, the “science” here is immediately questionable as to how that caveman survived 40,000 years in that block of ice, but the film works because of the performances that have you believing everything it throws at you. Besides, as I’ve said before, if you’re going to see a sci-fi flick for the “science”, you’re not going to be enjoying much with a too-critical set of eyes… Continue reading →