Of all the different games from Excalibur Publishing I’ve sampled over the past two months, Jalopy is out and out the best one to date. Created by Minskworks, which is Greg Pryjmachuk, a former game developer who worked on on the legendary Formula 1 franchise, Jalopy is both a visual throwback to the 1990’s and a solid, challenging car simulation for the modern age that’s more fun to play than certain AAA driving games. Set during the fall of Communism in the Eastern Bloc, players are tasked with owning and maintaining a beat up but lovable Laika 601 as they drive it around the GDR’s highways and countryside. Continue reading →
So, yeah. I haven’t done a nice cooking article in a while. But that’s probably because I’ve been in a bit of a food rut for a bit. I guess you could say it was something akin to this, but with me and a great deal less comedy (or something like that):
I cook the majority of my meals myself, only occasionally going out to eat or if I’m really lazy, buying precooked soft noodles and tossing assorted appropriate leftovers into a bowl for a zippy but dull lunch or supper. Oh, don’t go weeping into your freshly made consommé, kids – this story has a point! Anyway, about two weeks back I was dinking around the former Deals (which is now a Dollar Tree) picking up a loaf of nice Pepperidge Farms pumpernickel and I spied something that took me back about 30 or so years. Continue reading →
Yikes. As busy as I was/am this past week, it seems I’m about to be watching a lot more movies over the next week or so. Too bad it’s almost April as this would be the perfect time to get stuck indoors with a few feet of snow on the ground. Or not. Well, there’s a new Dollar Tree opening up tomorrow morning at 8 and it’s within walking distance. So my popcorn needs will be taken care of and I maybe tempted to grab a box of Dots or something movie candy-like if I don’t get trampled by all those old ladies and early bargain hunters who’ll flood the place and trash it before the day is through.
Okay, back to work here – I’m in the middle of something like half a dozen games (all worth your time and money) that need to be reviewed.
If you missed out on Buddy Cooper’s amusing and gory slasher flick The Mutilator way back when it was in theaters or later on VHS, you’re in for a treat thanks to Arrow Video. This one’s got the goofy acting and eyebrow-raising plot holes you’d expect from the genre, but it’s the exceptionally nifty gore effects from Mark Shostrom (Videodrome, Evil Dead II) that will get most viewers on the hook (pun intended).
As for special features, Arrow packs the disc with a raft of bonus content that makes the film a lot more enjoyable thanks to all the great interviews with the cast and crew that participated. These extras are all a great thing as the story here is pretty standard genre wrangling saved by some humor and the aforementioned gore effects.
Ten years after accidentally shooting his mother, Ed Jr. (Matt Mitler) gets a phone call from his dad with a request to close up his beach condo for the winter. After his girlfriend Pam (Ruth Martinez), and school chums Ralph (Bill Hitchcock), Sue (Connie Rogers), Mike (Morey Lampley), and Linda (Frances Raines) invite themselves along for a little fun in the cool fall sun, they discover the condo in a rather messy state. Chalking it up to Big Ed being drunk with a few friends, two of the teens commence their usual getting drunk and splitting up for some alone time antics. Let’s just say Big Ed has a little (okay, somewhat large and sharp) axe to grind with his son… and his poor friends just so happen to be in the wrong place at the right time for him to get in some prime chop time. Continue reading →
If you’re an Arrow Video collector here in the U.S., things are about to get even more interesting in your library thanks to the company’s SIX April releases through MVD Entertainment Group.
Only 3000 of this set will be made and as usual, Arrow is packing that LE box with both films and special features galore:
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Limited Edition boxed-set (3000 copies) containing Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight
Brand new 2K restorations of the films from original film elements
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
Limited Edition 60-page booklet containing new writing on the films from authors Danny Shipka (Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France), Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films) and writer Leonard Jacobs
DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS
Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
From Spain with Love – featurette comprising newly-edited archive footage of director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro, interviewed at their home in Barcelona
Master of Giallo – screenwriter Gastaldi on Death Walks on High Heels and how to write a successful giallo
Death Walks to the Beat – a career-spanning interview with High Heels composer Stelvio Cipriani
Original Italian and English trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT
Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
Extended TV version of the feature
Crime Does Pay – screenwriter Gastaldi reflects on his career in the crime film-writing business, including a look at Death Walks at Midnight
Desperately Seeking Susan – visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the distinctive giallo collaborations between director Luciano Ercoli and star Nieves Navarro
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
And that’s only the first of six great genre films and film sets coming next month… Continue reading →
Well, it looks as if the console world (or at least the PlayStation 4) is getting its big VR headset at a surprisingly small price point of 399.00. Granted, many industry insiders (and thoughtful dopes like me) figured Sony wasn’t going to break gamer wallets too much. Let’s see now, A PS4 is about $280 or so depending on the model you buy, a PS Camera is $59.99 and with that PS VR headset, you still come in way under the price point of a gaming PC upgrade and one of the pricier VR solutions. Granted, PC gamers are scoffing at PS VR because they have scalable rigs thy can tweak to no end and most likely higher frame rates with overclocked systems burning holes into wherever they’re placed. Still, Sony promises a plug and play experience with frame rates up to 120fps, so we’ll see what’s what soon enough as the games roll out.
As for games, some 230 are in the works for PS4 from first and third party developers. My current favorite just so happens to be the return of a classic arcade and home game, this time coming from the folks at Rebellion:
Yes indeed, this one will be awesome even if it’s not running in VR (and yep, it’s playable without the headset, folks). Hokay, off to start saving those pennies.
Having seen my share of horror oddities on TV, in theaters an via assorted video formats since the 1970’s (okay, late 60’s if you count those Chiller Theater and Creature Feature reruns), I have to say Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood is way up there as one of the more bizarrely unfocused storytelling-wise but visually striking genre films I can recall. Thanks to Arrow Video, the film has been lovingly restored and presented as one of the three films in its must-own American Horror Project Volume 1.
Director Christoper Speeth‘s unusual flick is a loosely (VERY loosely) plotted tale of a family who’s invested in a run-down carnival that has some pretty grim secrets underneath its dilapidated thrill rides. Some viewers may note slight similarities to Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead and certain silent films the movie itself spotlights at certain moments. While the film does suffer from a number of continuity issues no editor could fix thanks to many shots being done in a single take, the production design and overall tone here makes this one well worth watching. Trust me, if the bizarre found object set design doesn’t hook you in, it’ll be the general weirdness and downbeat tone you can feel from the outset that work their magic on your eyes and brain. Did I mention you also get to see singing ghouls and cannibalism by said ghouls here? Nope? Well, yes indeed you do. Continue reading →
Sometimes you come across a game that’s familiar on a few fronts with a corker of a new twist that makes it instantly desirable. Indie developer Thing Trunk is cooking up a love letter to Diablo and similar chase ‘n chop classics called Book of Demons as part of its rather interesting Return 2 Games program. BoD will feature paper cutout characters and dungeons (a bold move that works quite well if that video is any indication) as well as a wealth of features listed below:
Paper cut-out graphics.
Upgradable card system that unifies items, spells, and skills.
Unique movement and fighting system for more strategic gameplay.
Flexiscope™ system that adjusts sessions size to players’ liking.
Endless end-game mode with 100+ challenges.
First truly accessible hack & slash.
Randomized dungeons.
Single-player campaign with 3 character classes.
60+ different monster types.
Lots of humor.
According to the R2G website, Book of Demons will be released on PC in Q3 2016. You can (and should if this one floats your own boat) consider supporting Thing Trunk by adding the game to your Steam wishlist and/or sending them some of your loot to support BoD and the other six incoming R2G projects. The developer’s plans to not only get seven retro-themed titles out total AND set them in their “Paperverse” makes everything they’re doing thrilling if it can all be pulled off the way they intend. If what’s here is any indication, it’s going to be a ride full of smiles and cool titles for anyone on the Thing Trunk bandwagon.
Speaking of bandwagons, here’s R2G’s rather nice theme music because every big project needs something epic sounding to back it up so well:
If anything, you can at the very least follow the team around the Internet just to see what’s cookin’ as they update with BoD and other games news:
As someone new to the drone scene, I’m finding the options somewhat daunting, but have recently narrowed my selection down to what the fine folks at MOTA have to offer. As a near-total novice to the hobby, I’m currently not one for the bigger models that now need to be registered with the FAA. But the three entry-level JETJAT models I saw at Toy Fair really got me wanting to take them all for a spin. Continue reading →
Not that you’d have the time or space to actually build an life-size Death Star out of 435 TRILLION (yikes) LEGO bricks (not to mention the only way to get that many bricks in the first place requires a working time machine and a black hole suitcase to hold all those bricks), but the folks at Ebates decided to figure out just how many LEGO it would take to whip up some of sci-fi’s most recognizable items. I’m gathering certified LEGO expert, Matija Puzar has access to those two items noted above, as he’s actually crunched the numbers and came up with those insane figures in the infographic below:
WHAT?! no Serenity from Firefly? How do you have The freakin’ Heart of Gold, a Borg Cube, AND Spaceball One but not Serenity? Boo. Ah well, maybe next year. I’m actually not all that inclined to the construction business, as I prefer to watch stuff being built or get someone a lot less easily distracted to tackle the heavy lifting. Of course, those planet-sized builds would require a lot of labor and an actual planet to build them on, so perhaps there’s something to all this “we’re going to Mars!” nonsense after all. The moon is a better idea, as it’s closer and you could probably watch the construction from your roof with a good telescope. That and my own storage space is limited here at the home office. As in I only have room left here for stuff like Santoki’s extremely cool and very useful LEGO Stationery lineup, coming to a store near you soon.
Of all the different games from Excalibur Publishing I’ve sampled over the past two months, Jalopy is out and out the best one to date. Created by Minskworks, which is Greg Pryjmachuk, a former game developer who worked on on the legendary Formula 1 franchise, Jalopy is both a visual throwback to the 1990’s and a solid, challenging car simulation for the modern age that’s more fun to play than certain AAA driving games. Set during the fall of Communism in the Eastern Bloc, players are tasked with owning and maintaining a beat up but lovable Laika 601 as they drive it around the GDR’s highways and countryside. Continue reading 
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 