And If You DID Work Today, Black Curtain Studio Says, “Boo!”

Posted on September 2, 2013 by geelw

But not “Boo, you had to work today!”… it’s more like “Boo! You’d better NOT be working late, silly rabbit!” Yeah, as I noted with their first game One Late Night, these guys sure know how to make you dread office work. Well, guess what? They’re working on a follow up that, based on this teaser, will make you want to call in sick for about a month until your boss does something about that creepy space you have to slog to five days a week (and sometimes more… with NO overtime to boot! Bastard!). Anyway, go check out the original game (which has since gotten a Developer’s Cut version) and keep an eye and ear peeled (eww) for this new one when it finally gets a release date. Now, go get some sleep – your holiday is done and it’s back to the grind tomorrow (and those pissed off ghosts are waiting to jump you at the coffee machine…)

Random Film of the Week: The Man With the Golden Arm

Posted on September 2, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, OMP Drama!)

Sure, drug addiction isn’t a laughing matter at all, but Otto Preminger’s 1955 classic The Man With the Golden Arm manages to be more hilarious each time I see it for a few reasons. Although it’s packing in a classic Elmer Bernstein score, a great Saul Bass title sequence, Preminger’s strong direction, some powerful performances from Frank (One Take) Sinatra, Kim Novak, and a bunch of very familiar faces, the simple fact is the film hasn’t aged well at all (but that’s a good thing).

What may have been seen as a deathly serious subject for a cautionary tale almost 60 years ago can now be enjoyed as a nearly non-stop riot of scenery chewing performance art with two of the funniest demises in a “serious” film. Granted, if you’re in a totally unfunny mood, the film still has its story and dramatic pacing to keep you hooked in. On the other hand, it’s hard not to get in a laugh at the film’s expense in a few spots…

Continue reading →

“It’s a Holiday! I’m Not Supposed to Work Today!” (Well, Perhaps You Should…)

Posted on September 2, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, theincredibletoy!)

I overheard that at the laundry early this morning and got a chuckle because everything is a form of “work” even if you’re on a holiday. Hey, run that quote by my brain when it wants to get something done with words and it’ll chuckle at you too. “I can start anytime I want to” it will say in response before getting me into some sort of trouble after I post what pops out. It’s a messy process, people. Of course, this striving to put out content that changes based on a few things from a squishy, thinky thing needs to be continually fed and fertilized can lead to some minor to major distress on occasion. Oh, don’t worry, dear readers – I’m not the suicidal type at all, but it’s sure hard as hell to concentrate on stuff I need to do that’s of a mildly entertaining value when the rest of the world is perched on a ledge and no one’s called the cops.

Go ahead and jump, planet – the gawkers will click away with their cameras and get all social about the dive in their usual places online and off (not realizing that you’re taking those sheep-shaped dopes with you). Meanwhile, I’ll be here doing stuff (or letting my brain do stuff) while those who can handle it pick up the pieces and break out the library paste. Hmmm… maybe the planet just needs a vacation from the people on it and has been dropping some hints of the not so gentle variety. Oh well. At least I now have clean socks and underwear for the apocalypse, ha ha… eep.

Bugbear Wants Their Next Car Game to Be Your New Car Game…

Posted on September 1, 2013 by geelw

… even after you’ve gone and smashed that car into scrap metal. That’s right, folks – check out that video above and if you’re felling all warm and fuzzy inside about what you see, you know what to do. Get in on that pre-order action over at the official site, and bring along a few friends while you’re at it as hey, if you want to smash into someone with that virtual ride, it may as well be someone you know, correct? Oh, and “Next Car Game” is a tentative title – you can’t get more generic than that, so let’s hope Bugbear is saving up that title reveal and makes it a great one.

REALLY Quick Take: Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward

Posted on September 1, 2013 by geelw

I finally got around to playing this excellent Vita sequel to a Nintendo DS and 3DS game (999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) and I had to chuckle a bit because there are two ways to describe the game and as I’m busy with a ton of stuff, I’ll take the shorter route and potentially tick off some people who think this game is the greatest thing since sliced cheese bread. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it a lot, being a cranky old fan of point and click adventure games and all. But as I was finishing it up, I just so happened to be in the library last week and overhear two kids talking about the game and one of them offered up an unintentional ten word review that made me almost burst out laughing because Yahtzee with his awesome Zero Punctuation videos is supposed to be KING of the ten-word review. This kid nailed the game without even realizing he was doing a Yahtzee impression.

His take (and mine, if you have a short attention span and just want to know what the game is about or similar to) when his friend asked him about the game:

“It’s like SAW… but with anime characters and better writing.”

Yeah, that’s about right. Damn kids… I should have hired him on the spot, but I don’t think he was old enough. OK, so the game IS a bit more complex and cerebral than a SAW flick, but there are a few more than amusing parallels that if you describe the plots of the game and one of the movies, someone who knows one and not the other might get a little confused.

Incoming: Lost Planet 3 Arrives (It’s Winter In August!)

Posted on August 31, 2013 by geelw

Cool. As I was strolling home yesterday right past his truck, the UPS guy beckons me over to sign for a package I wasn’t expecting. It’s good that all the delivery guys know me around here, as I sometimes get stopped in the street or waved over from across the street if they’re working that side of the block.

Anyway, I’ve got some homework to do, it seems. I did play for about two hours yesterday and the game is quite good (definitely Spark Unlimited’s best game to date) with a few quirks (that Unreal tech is showing its age, but the characters and environments are lovely to look at). I’ll dive back in after I take care of that late dinner I started cooking a little while ago – the pot has stopped rattling, so I’ll assume that means that clawed thing I had to shove in with a baseball bat and the long tongs must be done by now…

Back in a bit…

Random Art: And You Thought I Was Taking the Weekend Off…

Posted on August 31, 2013 by geelw

Well, I almost did, thanks to sorting laundry and the mountain of ancient crap from the art vaults I decided to pore through over the past few weeks before putting the bulk of back into storage most of today. Anyway, That goofy thing above is a semi-recent digital piece based on part of a dream. The other thing below is from 1987. Is it a man, a horse, A Man Called Horse or all of the above? Who knows? A horse is a horse (of course, of course) after all…

Hmmm… I guess some things never change, but I guess I’ll keep dinking away at this art stuff until I get something right. Back in a bit, as I need to move a few more pieces so I don’t have to sleep standing up tonight like Mister Ed. Whaddaya mean “Who’s Mister Ed?” Oh, OK, not all of you reading this are aged cheese like I am. Darn kids. OK, Here you go.

BEYOND: Two Souls “Beautiful Drama” Trailer (The Only Time It’s That Is When It’s NOT Real)…

Posted on August 30, 2013 by geelw

With so much happening this year in the gaming universe, I almost forgot about Quantic Dream’s upcoming PS3 exclusive, set for an October 8, 2013 release. The PS3 has had a really busy year with key first party exclusive titles as well as third party games that show the console is far from dead once the PS4 hits in November. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see how well this does going into the PS4 launch so soon afterwards. I predict it will sell better than some PS4 launch titles and if it scores highly enough, may actually go up in price thanks to eBay resellers taking advantage of smaller stores running out of copies. Either way, the game is guaranteed to move in some impressive numbers even if it’s at a slower pace than the usual analyst and corporate forecasting (which is always annoyingly high to the point where even a game that sells five million copies is seen as a “failure” because the target was a bit too high)…

Androids May Not Dream of Electric Sheep (But I Bet They Dream About These Gorgeous Blade Runner Figures)

Posted on August 30, 2013 by geelw

(Photo from Geek Exchange Figures by Scott Pettersen)

“They’re my friends… I made them!”

Wow. It’s REALLY too bad these aren’t mass produced, as I can see a load of hard core Blade Runner fans wanting to get their paws on the entire set of these spectacularly detailed dolls… er, action figures… er, works of art. Scott Pettersen, a huge fan of the film and a ridiculously talented sculptor has made possibly the best looking non-licensed collectibles I’ve ever seen, so I’m speechless and you should check out his site yourself and wear a drool cup while visiting, as there’s a load of other wonderful goodies there (and some of it is for sale). The man’s got T-A-L-E-N-T… although an owl with that Rachel figure in her office suit would have been wickedly cool to see.

Other than that, speechless…

Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate Is “Under New Management” (So Watch Your Step!)

Posted on August 30, 2013 by geelw

In other words, the inmates have taken over the asylum and yes, Bats needs to do some darknight detecting and with due diligence at that or he’s not getting out in one piece. This 3DS/2DS and Vita game (set to launch with the console and PC versions on October 25, 2013) brings things down to size in “2.5D” form, but manages to look pretty cool and should feel like a classic side-scroller with a nice Arkham twist. Sure, you can get cranky and say the Vita game should be closer to the PS3 version, but here’s a case where I’ll defer to the dev team over at Armature because they’ve done a really good job with the visuals on both handhelds.