Overkill’s The Walking Dead Set To Scare Up Sales on PC, PS4, Xbox One

Posted on April 29, 2015 by geelw

After a few not so stellar attempts by other studios to make a first-person shooter based on The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and David Alpert at Skybound have decided to let one of the best multiplayer FPS teams in the industry have the keys to the car along with all the gas they can scrounge up. Currently in development by Overkill Studios, all we have to look at for now is this simple followed by Kirkman’s announcement and a nice little gift for Payday 2 fans worldwide.

As it’s far too early to say what the game will be about in terms of its plot. We do know it will at least take place in and around Washington DC and be released sometime in 2016 for the aforementioned consoles and PC. Once again it looks as if those holding on to those PS3 and Xbox 360’s for dear life will need to bump themselves up into “next gen” which in now “current gen” to a few million people around the globe. PC owners will of course be trumpeting their own victories on the frames per second and detail setting maxed out front, but that’s always another tale for another time. 505 Games just got another money making AAA title in their library worth checking out.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer 2: TBT Meet TMI, All In Two Minutes Flat

Posted on April 16, 2015 by geelw

Well, the film certainly looks incredible (in that practical FX meets CG manner expected of it), but man did that old Ford get OLD. Well, I’m not getting any younger myself, but yikes. Scary stuff there. All kidding aside, it also looks as if the film won’t skimp on the humorous elements at all, so that’s a good thing. Nothing’s worse that a sci-fi/fantasy flick that tries too hard to take itself seriously (no names here, but some will know of which I speak). I’m betting we see more as the week spools out, what with Star Wars Celebration in full swing and all. Eh, perhaps I’ll save up one day and go to one of those, but that’s only going to REALLy happen if I’m IN a Star Wars flick at this point. Hey, I’d play Darth Faux Hipster Goatee any day of the week!

Mad Max: Fury Road TV Spots: Hit the Road, Jack. You’ve Got A Movie To Catch

Posted on March 29, 2015 by geelw

Ha. You know, I’d forgotten Mad Max had a last name until I saw the description to this new teaser. Anyway, Mr. Rockatansky is back in action on the wild road soon (hey, May is creeping up faster than you’d think!), so here’s a look at two of the TV ads for the film. Can George Miller pull this off as well as he did back with the first two films? Or will we need another hero to save us from the pre-summer blehs?

Eh, my money is on this being a winner as long as the jaded ones out there with their negativity and access to computers get busy slamming it with their tiny little hammers because it’s not what they wanted or expected. Yeesh. Try and make art these days and you find no one’s happy because everyone’s a self-styled “critic” these days. Feh.

SPECTRE Teaser: Gold Bond Works Hard For You

Posted on March 28, 2015 by geelw

Well, that was kind of anti-climactic, but quite intriguing. No explosions, sexy ladies or snappy quips to be found here at all. just a looming sense of a dead-serious Bond film looking to be the most memorable on of the Daniel Craig era. The continuity in the last few Bond films has been at least more or less coherent and consistent, so SPECTRE has that going for it. Of course,the gadget-loving Bondies who want the less serious JB on screen will probably wait a bit, see what the reviews say this November and still complain if they’re mostly positive. You can’t please everyone, I suppose. Anyway, let me shut up before someone SMERSHes me in the face with a Thunderball.

Persona 5: Last Gasp on the PS3/First Breath on the PS4…

Posted on December 31, 2014 by geelw

Atlus’ long running Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of games has always been a reliably sturdy franchise for fans, surviving a few major artistic and gameplay changes some dislike while providing deep and generally well written plots as well as some interesting characters. The company has been teasing Persona 5 for a little while now as the game is still in development in Japan, and as this latest teaser shows, some of the familiar elements are back. Expect high-school age kids finding out they’ve got hidden powers called Personas, Japan at the brink of some sort of apocalyptic destruction, and dozens of hours of gameplay not counting plenty of side-quests. Demon fusion, teen angst, maybe a bit of romance options and a number of returning good, evil and neutral NPC’s to chat with will no doubt also be par for the course.

This second teaser trailer reveals not much at all other than some of the new cast of characters and their names. Additionally, as this will be the first Persona game for next-gen (or current gen if you’ve already made the switch), it will be interesting to see the differences between the PS3 and PS4 versions of the game. I’d imagine the more powerful PS4 will run the game at a steady frame rate and probably feature ore detailed environments. But outside that fighting game, the series has never been about super flashy visuals or lightning paced action. We’ll keep an ear to ground for more on this one, but let’s just say a chunk of time is being carved out in order to dive deep into this one and play it at length.

The Phoenix Project: Will it Rise to the Occasion for Sci-Fi Fans?

Posted on December 19, 2014 by geelw

In short, raising the dead means raising hell if you’re careless (go, sci-fi science!), and of course this makes for some interesting films. The Phoenix Project is coming in January from FilmBuff and Ironwood Gang. Based on the IMBD trailer, looks quite interesting. I’ll hold off any further comments until I get my grubby paws on some sort of screener, but it’s pretty cool to get a vibe from a few other films while watching this teaser. A little Re-Animator here, some Frankenstein there, a dash of (and hopefully ONLY a dash of) Flatliners somewhere on the bottom, shake well and BOOM.

We’ll see if the final version is up to snuff soon enough. Hey, you look as if you need to read a bit of a press release. You go do that, I’ll go make some popcorn:

THE PHOENIX PROJECT

In Select Theaters & VOD/Digital Download on January 16th, 2015

Four young scientists work to craft a machine to reanimate deceased organisms. As the project develops, the machine exceeds their wildest expectations, creating boundless possibilities that challenge the very nature of human existence. However, success with this experiment comes at a price, as ulterior motives and reckless abandon lead to consequences none of them could predict. As their time and resources fade, this team of visionary scientists must face the realities of the task they have set out for themselves, bringing the dead back to life.

Directed & Written by: Tyler Graham Pavey
Cast: Corey Rieger, Andrew Simpson, David Pesta & Orson Ossman

Distributor: Film Buff

Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama

Runtime: 92 minutes

Mad Max: Fury Road Trailer: Hardy to the End!

Posted on December 10, 2014 by geelw

If you somehow thought director George Miller lost his knack for making wildly kinetic action flicks, this new trailer for the upcoming Mad Mad: Fury Road should spin your head around a few times. Granted, it’s only a trailer and yes, trailers tend to be not much like the actual film at all or worse, show all the good parts and leave some viewers wanting their money back once those end credit roll.

That said, let’s give Miller the benefit of the doubt and hope this film is closer to the magnificence of The Road Warrior and not the oddball-ness of Beyond Thunderdome. As usual, we shall see. If the film stinks (and I think it won’t), I’ll just get my pair of toecutters and get George on the horn. Or just catch it when it hits cable for the repeat play thing…

Terminator: Genisys – Yeah, He’s BACK (Again)…

Posted on December 4, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, Arnold!)

Well, I guess it’s as good a time as ever to note that when I first heard Arnold was doing another Terminator flick, I think I broke something laughing. Of course, we’re at the point in visual effects tech that the best and brightest can make anything or anyone real look like a CG effect and here’s living proof of that coming to a theater near you next year. Actually, the plot makes it sound like a reboot that’s burning the candle at both ends with the return of Kyle Reese, Sarah Conner and a few other elements from James Cameron’s original two flicks. Of course, the film should benefit from Alan Taylor‘s direction, as his Game of Thrones work is pretty strong.

Granted, other than more plastics and metals there’s not much of a difference between the gritty filth of Westeros and the gritty radioactive filth of the future setting here (and the gritty filthy present the characters will end up in). But if the film can capture all that made the first two Terminator movies so special, this one may do well outside the blockbuster-fed crowds that will rush out to see it when it finally opens next July.

On the other hand, if this flick slips up in any way, shape or form in the plot or tosses in too much for the modern “Wait, what just happened?” crowd who need stuff constantly explained to them, it may tank out after a month because word of mouth hit it harder than a T-1000 slapping Arnold with a sledgehammer. Balance is the key to success, I’m betting. And I’m also betting the home video version will pack in scenes that get left on the cutting room floor because that’s the trend these days. Anyway, that’s two formerly successful franchises making a comeback in 2015, so between this reboot/remake with a twist and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, it’s the 1980’s all over again.

And yeah – that’s both a good thing and a not so good thing…

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser: Turning the Internet Into Hype-Our-Space…

Posted on November 28, 2014 by geelw

Well, color me interested, but not quite yet convinced. This teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakened is too short, but it looks as if the effects teams have been hard at work with over a year to go. Or at least they’ve just done up scenes for this trailer that show they’re on the case and not planning to blow it:

(Thanks, Star Wars UK!)

I have no questions as of yet other than wondering who’s flying the Millennium Falcon in that short clip and why that yet to be revealed dark Jedi has the second most impractical lightsaber I’ve ever seen. But I can wait for that reveal in some other trailer. I’m gathering this one movie will have the most teasers and trailers released for it of anything coming in 2015 just because Disney wants to show that the Star Wars license is in good hands. I didn’t think so when I heard the news and soon enough, saw Mickey ears on a Darth Vader helmet (wtf?) and I think Goofy dressed up as Darth as a plush doll (yikes!). But I’ll pay less attention to the licensing on this film because there will be THOUSANDS of new products coming to rake in the dough from the rubes and all I want to see is a decent new film in this series.

December 2015 will be here sooner than you think, given the way time has flown this year. I may be too ancient to fall for marketing and merchandising tactics, but I’ll see this if it’s as entertaining as the original was. I’m also holding out for the trailer where J.J. has people jumping off something high, as next to lens flare overuse it’s a trademark in all his films for some oddball reason. As usual, we shall see, right?

Review: Rollers of the Realm (PC)

Posted on November 17, 2014 by geelw

Platform: PC (also on PS4, Vita)

Developer: Phantom Compass

Publisher: Atlus

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: ?

Official Site

Score: A- (90%)

While it may seem like a super-easy casual game at first glance, don’t let the either the art style or offbeat hybrid concept fool you one bit. Rollers of the Realm offers up a serious challenge to pinball aficionados and is one of the bigger indie surprises of 2014. However, you really don’t need to be a pinball wizard to fully enjoy what’s here. The game offers up enough fun to get pretty much anyone who picks it up pulled into its unusual blending of genres. Developer Phantom Compass gets some decent mileage from its medieval fantasy epic setting, dedicated voice actors and yes, the all-important element of making the gameplay both fresh and rewarding… Continue reading →