New District 9 trailer manages to make the film look 1000 times more awesome then it looked. If this film is 10% as good as it looks Neill Blomkamp will be the next Del Toro. Now if only the Halo movie had happened...

A remake/alternative version to Neon Genesis Evangelion split into 4 films? I can't say no. Despite being very overrated Evangelion remains one of my favorite series. It's got mind fuckery, giant robots fighting and more religious imagery then a church on Sunday, not only that but this should get rid of some of the filler all anime seems to have and the updated animation is gorgeous.

I'm kind of torn though as to whether I should :
A) Watch it as is and wait for the second version to come out
B) Wait for the American dub to come out which should be soon
C) Wait for the rest of the Japanese ones to come out (this could be three years)
D) Wait for the rest of the Japanese ones to come out and then the American dubs of them (this will take a billion years)

Who am I kidding I won't be able to wait.

One day I shall spend the 4th of July eating hot dogs,drinking Dr. Pepper and watching fireworks in a park in the good old USA. It's a simple dream but one I'll complete someday.



Keeping the music video theme of the last day going with an "America Day" playlist behind the cut.

( It was for freedom )

Bloc Party - One More Chance

I love you Bloc Party and your constant hipsterness. I hope this means they play over here in some capacity that isn't support to some outdoor gigs. I like my gigs like I like my ummm something, the point is I prefer them inside.

MGMT - Kids

Old song, new video. No idea why it's stuck in my head but I really like the video.

I think when I die my tombstone will have "played Fallout 3" engraved on it. I'd taken a break from it for a couple of weeks but decided to dust it off after finding the Dunwich Building was in it ( the Dunwich Building being a refererence to this Lovecraft story) and now once again I'm completely hooked. It's been a long time since a game has had a hold on me like this one. I've had it 9 months, have yet to get bored with it and I'm pretty sure am just scratching the surface of it, not only that but yesterday I got all the downloadable content for it so it'll probably be a year before I come close to finishing it.I think I'll write up a feature on it when I get some free time.


Along with downloadable content shopping I did some book shopping, got Crime and Punishment and Lolita, Lolita is particularly difficult to read in public when it's cover is like this, but it's a fascinating read non the less. I needed a break away from the constant violence and horror that Mc Carthy writes and they should be a relatively easy read.

Other then that there's not much to talk about, I'm going to try and put away more time to catch up on the stack of DVD's beside my TV. All the catching up on comic,game and books has meant my film time has decreased to nothing. The last thing I saw was Transformers : Revenge of The Fallen (thankfully for free) which makes my inner film nerd weep.

I blame Facebook and Twitter for the lack of nonsense posts.

New Halloween trailer is out.



I kind of like it. I wasn't too keen on Zombies first Halloween but I'm giving Zombie enough credit/hope because The Devil's Rejects stands as one of the best horror movies of the last 10 years for me. It's just the crazy hick stuff that he's thrown in, on one hand it's great that he's trying something new with the franchise yet on the other hand it stops Halloween and Michael Myers being different from other slasher killers/films.

Even if it turns out terrible it can't be as bad as Halloween VI.

I'm just so angry I could...

It was for freedom



I'm not a big fan of Alex Ross, his stuff can be extremely pretty but it usually comes of as stiff and lifeless or too much like the toy models he uses to create the images. This image though, for some reason just works in so many ways. It could possibly be because it reminds me more of Gabrielle Del Ottos work then Ross's usual stuff but whatever it is is really good. The piece is a cover for Marvels upcoming Captain America : Reborn mini series which will bring Steve Rogers back to life or from whereever he's been chilling out for the last few years. The trailer below sums it up.



Speaking of the trailer actually I really wish Marvel would up their game with web media. If you look at their site and a lot of stuff they do you can see some progress and work but a lot of it seems to be done by "friends" and people who don't really know all that lot so it comes off half assed in comparisons to what a lot of site seem to offer. Now I know it's miles ahead of what DC are doing but highering the intern in the office to voice a trailer rather then a proper voice actor and you just get left with shoddy material, even if it's just for a web based trailer for a comic.

I finished Metal Gear Solid 4 today.

Overall I enjoyed it. There's a lot of good gameplay mechanics in it, graphics and sound are gorgeous and it retains it crazy 4th wall breaking sense of humor. If you've enjoyed (and played 1-3) there's no way you won't enjoy it. I'm stll figuring out ways to replay the game even after just finishing it.

Now with the praise out of the way I can let rip into. Holy fuck are there way too many cutscenes that go on for ever. My final play time came to just round 14 hours, at least 6 of that if not more was cutscenes and that's not exaggerating at all. The game is split into 5 chapters (or acts), each in a different area, one of the acts is broken down as such :

1 - trail a guy using stealth (about 20mins of gameplay)
2 - cutscene (30ish minutes)
3 - chase scene and boss fight (25 minutes depending on how long it takes you to kill the boss)
4 - cutscene (about 40 minutes)
5 - Act finished so you have to install the next part of the game to the PS3s hard drive (15 minutes)
6 - Mission Briefing for the next act (25-35 minutes)

Yeah... Now I know everything except for part 5 and 6 is skippable but first time through I wasn't going to skip through story (except for at the very end since there's a 45 minute cut scene and by then I had had enough) and yeah I know it's a Metal Gear game so expect long cutscenes and Codec talks but that shit is ridiculous. Looking around I found that minus the cutscenes you can clear the game in around 5 hours. I'm pretty sure I got more gameplay out of the original Metal Gear Solid demo on PS1 then I did the entire game here.

Also the story is pretty much garbage, just like Resident Evil 5 it's a game where every single little plot hole is tied up except this time it's just "words words words nanomachines words words words" which I guess is on par for Resident Evils "words words words Wesker words words words T Virus words".

So yeah if you ignore the story and just muck about withe the gameplay it's real fun but otherwise urgh I hope you have a lot of free time to watch crazy cgi.

There is nothing that this band can do that I won't like. The album is like sex to my ears with out the obvious pain that would result from having sex with ones ear.

Metal Gear!?

you were always on my mind

I haven't played as much Silent Hill as I've wanted to. I cleared the first one multiple times,still have the disk lying around somewhere and have the soundtrack on my computer. I rented 2 & 3 but got no where near as close to finishing them as I wanted, partly due to my lack of PS2 and i've heard nothing but bad things about 4 and Homecoming. The franchise just ended up slipping through the cracks for me. And the film? Was pretty but empty and fell apart as it went along. When the inclusion of Sean Bean brings a movie down you know something's bad. So with all that it's weird that Silent Hill : Shattered Memories has jumped so high on my list, possibly because there are only a handful of Wii games that take my interest, partly because it seems to be doing something interesting with a franchise I've heard has gone stale.



First things first the game isn't a remake of Silent Hill despite following Harry Mason looking for his daughter after a car accident. Not a lot is known about the story itself but it's based around a psychiatrists session with a patient, depending on the choices made by the player the world of Harry changes. For example so far if the player says they like to drink then Harry will meet Cybill in a bar instead of a cafe and as for Cybill herself depending on the players choices she ranges from the Cybill everyone knows to a snappy dark haired women to a kind brown haired woman, not to mention the psyduck inducing Dhalia moment in the trailer. The other interesting change is there is no combat in the game, regardless of how much you love the franchise I think everyone can agree that the combat in the games has always been very stilted and horrible to control. Instead faced with the monsters chasing Harry you have no choice but to run,hide and try to keep one step ahead of them.

With all the positives out of the way there is one thing that I'm iffy about with the game and that's the art direction. On one hand the game does look pretty, especially for something being developed on the Wii and the frozen effect is interesting. On the other hand the lack of blood,chains and fire is just weird in a Silent Hill game. That aside though a good Silent Hill and horror game for the Wii would be interesting. If you'd like to see more IGN have a walkthrough of the demo at E3 that looks great.

I never talk about comics here despite the fact that I've put possibly more time and money into them then video games. What's up with that? So yeah in an effort to discuss and pimp some awesome comics expect a lot more comics talk from now on.

First off Grant Morrisons & Frank Quitelys "Batman & Robin" came out this week and after what I consider to be a pretty underwhelming arc with R.I.P I think the book is starting to live up to the hype. So far Morrison has done a great job of combining multiple interpretations of Batman into the book, this time going with a crazy Adam West vibe with a sadistic slant and introducing a host of crazy new characters. Pictures are better then words though so after the cut are some great moments from an excellent #1 issue.

Before diving in though some backstory. As far as the world is concerned Bruce Wayne has died, Dick Grayson (the original Robin and Nightwing) has taken up his mantle along with Damien Wayne (Bruce Waynes son) so that the world shall always have a Batman & Robin. This is their first outing as Batman and Robin.



(  You Should Read Batman & Robin )

E3 conferences are done. The last two days have been pretty hectic, awesome nerd fun. Lots of cool stuff, lots of dick waving by companies and lots of cool videos appeared. There's a pretty good round up of it over at Burn All Zombies. Over all i thought it was a good show though despite everyone having some small failings.

I think the most interesting thing was watching all the different business strategies on display and what the means for the consumer.

Microsofts idea now is effectively get anyone that owns the internet and make them own an Xbox. It's an interesting strategy as they try and pile as much stuff into the Xbox. Twitter, Facebook and Last Fm integration are all very interesting to me since I'm a whore for multipurpose consoles. Looking more at Project Natal it still remains interesting but a long way from actually being implemented and I think it's unfair to judge until more is seen, I am interested to see how they compensate for the whole no controller = no feedback thing. I also loved the whole stream 1080p/preparing for the eventual digital distribution only form of media but again I think it's a bit before a lot of people have the 8-10Mb broadband capable for it and by extension I love love love the Sky TV connection since I can't get satellite TV in the apartment and that would be an awesome compensation. Game wise there's a lot of more of the same, but not in a bad way. I think Microsoft successful have the 15-35 Male market and as long as they keep with exclusive downloadable content they won't have to worry about Sony. So yeah a lot of long term plans that'll be interesting to see pan out and some cool games to keep me interested until then. All in all if someone were to "win" the show I'd have to give it to Microsoft.

Nintendos idea is an odd one for me. It's not one I see myself benefiting from as much as Microsofts but it's one that I can't give out to them for having because it's so successful and at the end of the day they're a company like every other company. Nintendo is the same Nintendo as was during the NES,SNES,N64 and Gamecube era and if you don't get excited about new Marios and Metroids they aren't the company for you so just move on. Seriously they are never going to change. They showed a handful of new Marios, a new Metroid and mentioned that Zelda and Pikmin and possibly Kid Icarus are all being worked on, to them that's what the hardcore gamer that owns a Wii wants and that won't change. Sure there are a handful of interesting titles like Silent Hill : Shattered Memories, Golden Sun DS, Dead Space : Extraction, No More Heroes : Desperate Struggle and The Conduit from third parties but unlike Microsoft and Sony they'll always be the minority. While all that is going on they will keep selling to Moms and "casuals" and making money hand over fist. Perfect example being that no matter how amazing Alan Wake looks to me I know it'll never make as much as the Wii Fit : Plus they announced. I'd say it's depressing but i think we are slowly moving towards a time when both can exist at the same time. The Wii Vitality thing though, yeah I can't explain that shit.

Sonys idea was the only thing I can really say disappointed me. I'm not saying that there weren't a lot of interesting games shown The Last Guardian, Uncharted, Mod Racers and LBP all look amazing but at the price point I'm still not buying and I know I'm not the only one. The worst offense being that everyone knows that a PS3 Slim exists (all the leaked pictures prove it) and that they are waiting for the PS3 to sell more before they release it, everyone knows a price cut is eventual they just need to bite the bullet and do it. Seriously I know they are down money wise but all they are doing is hurting themselves without a price cut. Not only that but being the last ones to announce motion control just didn't sit well with me, especially since it was in a demo mode, holding off until TGS really would have been a better option. My bitching aside though I have no idea who Sony are marketing towards, they laughed as they announced Hannah Montana stuff (so why announce it in the first place?), they announced new MGS,Gran Turismo,and Last Guardian to please those who already own a PS3 and a new PSP for those who already own one. Where's the new market? Where's the new ideas? Where's the new players? It's all just reeks off old business model and I don't like it.

So there's a lot of words on video games. As I said overall I thought the shows were fun, each console has a lot to offer and each has their own problems. I think over the next year we'll see more of the same from everyone until a market disappears or expands greatly. Gonna post on some great games I've seen when I get back from work.

Day One of E3 has come and gone.

Heres some of the cool shit that's been announced.

Project Milo is freaky


Project Natal could potentially be awesome



Left For Dead 2 // Splinter Cell Conviction // Metal Gear Rising on 360 // // Modern Warfare 2 footage

I'm surprised I'm not as excited for the Halo game but there's tons of cool game to look forward  to. Preparing myself for Nintendos and Sonys later. 

E3 starts tomorrow. With the expectation of last year due to a lack of internet E3 has basically taken over my life for a week for the last 5 years and before that hours and hundreds of euro through game magazines. It's an important event for the video game industry and something I've become more and more interested in as I've become more engrossed in the industry side of things. Even if you're not too interested in the industry though it can be a great event with a lot great news and videos.

What is it?

E3 or the Electronic Entertainment Expo is the annual trade show for the American side of the gaming industry. Each year every major game company brings their best for the year. If anything good is going to come out between now and the end of the next fiscal year it's probably going to be mentioned here.

Why should I care?

E3 can have everything. New consoles, games, franchises, the first glimpse at anything new. From a strictly consumer aspect personally I've found it interesting to find out what a company is going to push for the rest of the year and what to look out for. Wikipedia has a good list of the big things that have been shown there. Megatonz! Jaw dropping announcments! Exclusives! It can be when nerds go crazy.

Why shouldn't I care?

E3 can also be a bit of a dick waving contest. "Sales figures,we am better then you, don't you care how great we are?" The main thing is that E3 often suffers from an identity crisis. A sort of Comic Con meets business conference, often afraid to embrace it's comic conesque fan types and as such end up being a snore, don't belive me? Watch this video


This year is possibly the most important year for the show. Last year was  a bomb, not only that but Nintendo needs to impress it's hardcore crowd, Sony needs to impress everyone and Microsoft needs to spread its market share. By the end of the week all this could happen but even if doesn't there'll at least be some pretty videos and images.

t
Some demo footage of Project Trico (Team Ico/Shadow of The Colossus) next game leaked. I have to say it looks amazing and is actually making me consider getting a PS3. I missed out on Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus when they came out, my own fault for selling my PS2 years ago ( I traded it for a Gamecube, not a bad choice but i should have just kept the PS2 and saved up for the Gamecube). I kind of don't want to miss out on big games this "generation" of consoles, not that I have money to recklessly spend but I think I should get back into the habit of just playing fun games after playing games for "achievement points" and such for too long.

There's not a lot to say about the game, rumor says that the footage is three years old, the name Project Trico is just a placeholder and there might be an updated video shown at E3. Big video after the cut but you really need to click the HD button to enjoy it.

( Trico )

Another Mass Effect 2 teaser surfaces, I get more excited, anticipate E3 more. Also if you killed off Wrex you are jerk.

Official Site // high def trailer

The first trailer for The Road surfaced early today/late last night depending on your time zone. It's one of the most misleading trailers I've ever watched.



Watching that you may think that the film is going to be an explosion film in the vain of I Am Legend but you couldn't be more wrong. I didn't talk much about the book after i read it but it's possibly the most harrowing story I've read. A father and sons travel across a dying world, one without hope, where the last factions of humanity are cannibals and murderers, where each turn is worse then the last. Were it not for the magnificent imagery in it and the fact that the test screenings have shown that the trailer is misleading I'd be worried about this adaption but as it stands it just makes me want to get people to read the book more. So read it and get yourself depressed, it's a short read but totally worth.