E3 2010 Trailers …Video Games in other words

•June 30, 2010 • Leave a Comment

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is over, but I’d like to share a few standout game trailers that have me interested in playing… And no, I don’t necessarily mean buying, I mean inviting myself over to a friend’s house and pitching in to go rent a console haha …Where are my friends at!

Ahem; I love games, ever since early childhood they’ve been a part of my life, more so than film (what a geek) and every year we gamers get an earful of some crazy concepts and are treated to a visual feast of splenderific, stylized in-game graphics and fast-paced imaginative action yet to be released. Oh-yeah I’m talking games baby!

To name a few – You get to fly spacecraft in the upcoming Halo: Reach and Slice absolutely anything with you samurai sword in the new Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the first game in the series that wont be directed/developed by the legendary Hideo Kojima.

There’s a new chapter in the Silent Hill series. PORTAL 2 is gonna be fun on a bun. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to be funking amazing! A game that looks to encompass all that is awesome in things like Blade Runner, Ghost In The Shell and Metal Gear Solid (which is everything) and my favourite news so far; an excellent sci-fi shooter by the creators of Bioshock that is actually set in 1950s suburbia called XCOM (official reboot of 1993 game)

Holy-Moly I better start saving…

The most intriguing thing about XCOM is how it looks to implement 2K’s philosophy of story-based shooters.

The contrast between 1950s Americana and the chilling alien entities that you have to fight should make for nice dramatic friction. You can see BioShock‘s stylistic DNA in XCOM but there’s more going on than just retro-design cues. XCOM looks promising.

I love the music in this trailer.

The return of Chell and GlaDOS brings with it a whole new level of awesome. Your new AI companion Wheatley not only delivers LOL-worthy lines but will also help you solve all-new, all-fiendish puzzles.

Starkiller’s new dual-wielded lightsabers are only the tip of the iceberg of the series’ combat evolution.

Story-wise, the plot delves into more of Starkiller’s past and brings Vader front and center to the intrigue.

The previous Tron film is a touchstone for a whole generation of gamers and the buzz on the new Tron Legacy movie that’s coming out this holiday season is high. Thankfully, the Evolution game looks like a clever, visually appealing bridge between the two movies.

AND of course there are loads more, like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2, a new Mortal Kombat game, Crysis 2, Assassins Creed 3… I think I’m going to ‘try’ and tone down my enthusiasm toward such geeky pursuits. Could help with the ‘finding a fg’ thing huh 😉

Have A Nice Day

•June 29, 2010 • Leave a Comment

‘Sex And The Starfleet’ [cameos & easter eggs]

•June 28, 2010 • Leave a Comment

YAY FOR SUPPORTING CHARACTERS!!! Yesterday there was a midday screening of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991) …Of course I watched it.

The only thing I had remembered from this film was the floating Klingon blood during the zero-gravity assassination, so I was surprised to find so many recognisable actors playing roles in this particularly good Star Trek story.

Kurtwood ‘Red’ Smith from ‘That 70s Show’ plays an important role as Federation President.

Yeah that’s ‘Sex and the City’ actress Kim Cattrall playing Vulcan officer Valeris:

There’s also a great chunk of story that takes place on a prison world “the Dilithium Mines on the Penal Asteroid of Rurrabentae” aka “The Alien Graveyard” where Captain Kirk has been sentenced to life without parole.

There he makes an alliance with a shapeshifting alien named Martia, who is played by supermodel Iman (which means “faith” in Arabic) Iman is David Bowie’s wife:

Christian Slater also makes a cameo as “Excelsior Communications Officer” to tell Captain Sulu that Starfleet is requesting the location of the Enterprise:

This is also the first time we get to see Michael ‘Next Generation’ Worf (grandfather of his usual character) as Bones McCoy and Kirk’s Klingon lawyer:

I almost forgot about General Chang, played by extremely talented Canadian actor Christopher Plummer. He’s an eye-patch wearing, Shakespeare quoting, Bird-of-Prey flying badass Klingon. Mr. Plummer once explained why he does so many villains and antagonists: “The Devil is more interesting than God.”

When NASA rolled out their first space shuttle “Enterprise” on September 17, 1976, the creator and crew of the fictional starship USS Enterprise was there.

President Ford had been persuaded by 200,000 letters from Americans (in a campaign organized by famous Trekkie Bjo Trimble) to change the name of the shuttle from “Constitution” to “Enterprise” to honor the influence of the television show on science.

Good times, good times. Gene Roddenbury, the original creator of Star Trek died right before this film was released (October of 1991) It’s cool to see/know that there are some Star Trek fans working at TVNZ – CHEERS!!!

…Damn I’m cool. No synopsis for you today, go google it

Terminator: The Sarah F***ing Connor Chronicles

•June 27, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I think that inserting bleeped-out profanity dramatically improves the quality of the show:

Think of it as a really warped take on The Sarah Connor Chronicles… with lots of innuendo. And no plot. Also, much silliness. Bonus: an abundance of the F-word. Hope you laugh. – Roxy

Video Game Wars by jnkboy

•June 27, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Check out this excellent cover art for Swedish game magazine LEVEL:

It’s missing some key Playstation characters but that doesn’t make it any less cool – Art by jnkboy

Guile Theme from Street Fighter goes with… Everything

•June 26, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I saw maybe two videos that made me think “it might be possible that the Guile theme from Street Fighter goes with everything?”, but then I did my research and have now come to a conclusion; the Guile theme music from Street Fighter… TOTALLY GOES WITH EVERYTHING!!!

Here are but a few of my favourite examples of this new decree:

To be honest about that last one; MacGyver makes everything cool (LOVE this show)

“Captain EO” starring the late Michael Jackson

•June 25, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I bet you’ve never heard of “Captain EO” before today, that’s because it was a 1986 3D Disneyland attraction:

At the time of its production, it was the most expensive movie (per minute) ever made – Someone bring this to New Zealand!

Captain EO is a big budget three-dimensional, 70mm, Sci-Fi, fantasy, narrative musical movie attraction that played at Disney Parks. Presented by Kodak, it premiered September 19, 1986 at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

It was produced by George Lucas, Rusty Lemorande, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Michael Jackson (at the peak of his career) and Angelica Houston. CEO’s original songs were written, produced, and sung by Michael Jackson.

Wow, that was pretty cool – for shame Family Guy:

Seriously now, If I had Captain EO’s space suit I’d gatecrash parties and cut inline all the time…

RIP MJ

New Zealand is Out! and I’m not talking Kiwifruit

•June 25, 2010 • Leave a Comment

New Zealand’s ‘All Whites’ final game in the World Cup was played on Thursday June 24 against Paraguay with a 0-0 draw! (darn you smart people who placed bets)

Despite the first-round elimination at the World Cup, most, if not all of us kiwis are proud just to have known our team got through to qualify for the World Cup at all.

New Zealand team line up – South Africa Group F match between Paraguay and New Zealand at Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane, South Africa. – Photo by Michael Steele

Paraguay and New Zealand teams huddle – Photo by Cameron Spencer

New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert put it well when he said: “There is no good way to leave the World Cup,” before the final. “But leaving together with Italy and (2006 finalist) France can’t be too bad.”

Yeah… But now NZ is out, I like many more am just going to go back to watching highlights replayed on nightline. (that or play Fallout)

The ‘CD Sea’ by Bruce Munro

•June 25, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I wonder how many copies of ‘Creed Human Clay’ and ‘Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water’ are in there?’ …’The Boondock Saints’… 😀 All of them?

Random cool art like this is beautiful. Artist Bruce Munro had an ingenious idea to turn a grassy landscape into a shimmering bed of reflective light.

His newest installation ‘CD Sea’ is the first of a number of self-funded ‘eco’ installations using recycled materials, at Long Knoll Field in Wiltshire:

Munro visualized an inland sea made of unwanted CDs. He was just 1 million CDs short and then the public responded with hundreds of CDs arriving from all over the UK and as far afield as California and Brazil. Well it has certainly paid off and looks amazing:

The scaly rainbow will remain on public view for the next two months, before being dismantled and sent to a recycling plant in Frome.

“You never know how something will work out, but now I could not be happier. I’m so grateful to everyone who turned out to help. We had a magical weekend and CDSea looks amazing, like a giant painting on the grass.” – Bruce Munro

Read more at: ArtKnowledgeNews

Gaga Vs. Ibuki – FIGHT!

•June 24, 2010 • Leave a Comment

What if Lady Gaga were a character in Street Fighter 4? She’d look badass that’s what:

View Patrick Warren’s other works at: DangerPat.Blogspot

Rock Band Mother, Plays Drums Nude [SFW…ish]

•June 24, 2010 • Leave a Comment

No frontal nudity, just a too cool for clothes mother playing the Rock Band video game in the nude, at home among her children:

For those who have anything negative to say about nudity, I want to say that nudity is a very healthy, non-sexual thing that many pervs think is all about sex.

On a personal note to Casey Scala, the original uploader of this video: Thank you for showing YouTube that society is all wrong about nudity. ~ Danny Hooley

Shaping Water with Waves – Japan’s AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin)

•June 23, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Just think of the insane calculations that have gone into this (formulas known as Bessel functions) – Researchers at the Akishima Laboratories in Japan developed a device that uses waves to write on water:

The shape manipulation of the water is so precise that you would be forgiven for thinking you’re looking at CGI effects from James Cameron’s The Abyss.

The primary purpose of the machine is apparently to conduct tests for water safety and the shape-drawing thing is just an added perk.

Although I think the laboratories expect this technology to be incorporated into amusement devices. Things that combine acoustics, lighting and fountain technology, installed at theme parks and hotels say.

One commenter had this to post:

The freeze-frame [above] implies that they’ve creating a static shape in the water, and they didn’t. They can create waves which – in one moment – forms a shape. Impressive, but not mind-blowing.

Costing at LEAST the equivalent of a million dollars for a tank that sophisticated, if they were using it solely for drawing shapes on the water I’d have to go hit somebody in charge somewhere. – Rob A