Onelargeprawn
Just when we thought the music genre of video games was a dying breed, the folks at Harmonix come up with a way to shake things up. Cue Rock Band Blitz, a rhythm game that doesn’t require a whole new set of peripheral plastic instruments. Let’s rock this review!
Let me tell you a story. When I was a kid, I used to stay over at my cousin’s place during the holidays. He used to own one of the most amazing comic book collections I’d ever seen, and—to the ire of everyone around me who told me I was being thoroughly antisocial—I spent every holiday reading and re-reading every single one of those comics. He had them all: superlative quantities of Superman, great piles of Green Lantern, judicious amounts of Justice League, and of course, a buttload of Batman comics. I read them all, over and over again. I first got my love of the DC and Marvel universes from those days back then, and I never really lost it. As you, dear readers, know well, I also have a great love of Traveller’s Tales Lego series, so I was justifiably quite excited to get my hands on Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.
Transhumanism (which my spell checker insists is the misspelling of transvestitism) is a movement that seeks to improve the mental and physical characteristics of humans through the liberal use of technology. It is the main subject of a new sci-fi web series that premièred just the other day.
Aptly titled H+, the digital series produced Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) advances ideas like Project Glass into a future world where human beings are connected to the Internet 24 hours a day via a device planted in their bodies. While some are more than happy to accept the H+ computer into their lives, others are opposed to the technology for the fear of breaches in privacy and the ever looming threat of hackers. It’s not long before a virus outbreak kills millions of users, leaving the remaining humans to fend for themselves in an offline world.
The first two episodes were flighted on August 8th on YouTube, with a new episode due to be added every Wednesday. Have a look at these two H+ episodes after the jump.
Illustrator Jed Henry loves the old Japanese art of ukiyo-e, a type of woodblock printing (The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a wonderful example of this technique.) Henry also has a fondness for video games, and as artists like to do, he decided to mash both passions together.
In Ukiyo-e Heroes, Henry has researched and drawn a selection of Nintendo video game characters in the Japanese ukiyo-e style. There are currently 12 designs that feature Mario, Link, Samus, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Simon Belmont, and a wonderful panel of Street Fighter characters. Have a look at some of Henry’s artwork after the jump.
Ever since I played Final Fantasy Tactics, I’ve loved tactical RPGs. Sadly, the decent ones are few and far between, so I was really excited to get my hands on Rainbow Moon, a new tactical RPG from SideQuest Studios. I hacked, slashed, and…err…tacticked my way through the game to bring you this review.
Recently, Yager Development did a great job at proving that shooter games can have mature, thought-provoking storylines. While Spec Ops: The Line may have been a surprising blip in an otherwise tired genre, Saber Interactive’s latest entry is most assuredly not. Despite the promise in its title, Inversion did nothing to turn my world upside down. It’s not for the lack of trying though. With nods to a few other titles, Inversion never really finds an identity of its own, and the its much advertised gravity manipulation feature isn’t much more than a flimsy gimmick. My review continues after the jump.
The theatrical release of Stanley Kubrick’s 161-minute space opera, 2001: A Space Odyssey, must have hypnotized audiences in 1968, especially the ones who were already on drugs at the time.
Fast forward 40 odd years and you wonder whether modern audiences would be able to sit through all those the extended lunar landing scenes. Film School Rejects tries to imagine what the trailer to 2001: A Space Odyssey would look like if it were to be marketed to audiences today. The recut trailer is complete with loads of flashing imagery and a bombastic soundtrack designed to excite those limited attention spans. Michael Bay would have been proud although Stanley Kubrick might just have been rolled over in his grave. Have a look at the blockbuster trailer below.
[via @JoeyHiFi]
If you thought Don Pettit’s star trail photos are out of this world, then you’re sure to appreciate this stellar effort.
A number of people have used NASA’s Image Science & Analysis Laboratory source of photos to create stunning time-lapse videos of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station. The latest video from photographer Knate Myers is no different. Myers adds a touch of Photoshop to enhance some of the NASA shots and uses the tune “Sunshine” by composer John Murphy. Have a look at View from the ISS at Night below.
[via The Verge]
In the wake of such epic fantasy RPGs as Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur comes a new IP, Dragon’s Dogma, which promises to be full of dragons, ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggity beasties. And, of course, all this comes with a healthy dose of killing aforementioned things that go bump in the deep, dark night. And it has sidequests, too, because everyone loves a good sidequest. I sidequested through the this game to see how many dragons I could kill by the end of it.
Game of Thrones has been showered with much praise and attention. Fans have remixed the opening theme tune, re-created the characters out of LEGO, and even compiled a video of only just the naughty bits.
The house sigils have been of particular interest as well, from the minimalist to the seriously cute. They are the inspiration for a new set of posters, this time if popular characters from comics books, TV, and film were part of the noble houses of Westeros.
Have a look at the sigils of House Wayne, House Skywalker, and House House after the jump.