Before we get into the meat of this game, I’d like to start with the lesson I most sincerely hope every other studio takes away from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How to handle morality systems. Straight, DX:HR has the best morality system ever implemented in a game. It handles player choices in a way that is meaningful, powerful, and allows you to genuinely effect the way the game plays out. How does it do that?
Read MoreHanna. An original thriller by Seth Lochhead, and directed by Joe Wright. Not exactly household names; this is Lochhead’s first film, and whilst Wright has a substantial number of titles under his belt, he’s hardly known for action movies. His biggest previous success? Pride & Prejudice. Yeah.
Read MoreBlu-Ray Release by Funimation Directors: Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki, and Hideaki Anno (Supervising) Writers: Hideaki Anno, Yoshiki Sakurai So, I recently picked up the blu-ray release of Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone, and realised that not nearly enough people know about this thing. More than a few of you are probably familiar with the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, but for those who aren’t, here’s a primer: Shinji Ikari, an introverted teenaged boy with obvious family issues, on top of the usual “bundle of hormones and crazy”, has just arrived in…
Read MoreObviously with FanExpo, and then TIFF, I haven’t had much time for my usual comics review (though there’s certainly some good stuff on the stack), but at FanExpo I did get plenty of chances to read a whole load of interesting comic books. Here then, are my thoughts on a few of them. Max Overacts Four strips in, Max Overacts found it’s way into my daily webcomics feed. It’s the kind of comic that strongly recalls the early days of the webcomic explosion, when everyone was trying to recreate the…
Read MoreThe Gateway ID59 has a glowing touchpad. I thought I should mention this, because Gateway apparently thinks it’s very important. So important that the laptop arrived with a huge sticky label hanging from the screen, informing me of this feature. You can imagine my excitement. Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first, build quality and initial impressions. Honestly? It looks good. I’ll definitely credit Gateway with a great job on the overall design. Simple and sleek with clean lines, and an unobtrusive logo set off to one…
Read MoreWarning: The following contains mild spoilers. Machete is a damn good movie. I mean, I’m not asking anyone to be surprised by this, I’m just saying. It’s Robert Rodriguez directing a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Stephen Seagal, Cheech Marin, and Danny effin’ Trejo in exactly the kind of over the top brutal action extravaganza that Rodriguez specializes in. Of course, it’s also a movie based on a trailer that was created before the idea of actually doing the movie appeared to ever have been seriously considered. For those…
Read More“The film you are about to see is an homage to ‘no reason’, that most powerful element of style.” This is the manifesto that opens Rubber, delivered directly to the audience in a breaking of the fourth wall that is somewhat like taking a pound of dynamite to a pane of glass. Rubber is a “horror” film about a black rubber car tyre that kills people by making their heads explode. With telepathy. And when I say “horror” I do of course mean “side-splittingly funny, pitch black, absurdist comedy.” Screened…
Read MoreIn Black Death, screened this year at Toronto After Dark, Sean Bean plays a grizzled dark ages knight who leads a small band of Agincourt veterans, torturers and murderers, plus one world shy monk, on a mission to a investigate claims of a small village that is free from the plague, because a necromancer has been using Satanic power to keep the sickness at bay. Now, show of hands; how many of you gave out a little “squeeee!” at the words “Sean Bean” and “grizzled dark ages knight”? Good. Go…
Read MoreBox 13 Publisher: Red 5 Comics Review based on the trade paperback, original published on Comics by ComiXology iPhone app Writer: David Gallaher Art: Steve Ellis (inks), Mike Paar (colours) & Scott Brown (letters) Technologic OK, let me start by saying that Box 13, if nothing else, is a noble experiment. Conceptually, a comic book divided up into mini issues, just 8 pages long (including cover), designed to be read on your phone is pretty freaking cool. After all, in so many ways the comic book format seems ideally suited…
Read MoreWriter: AJ Lieberman Artist: Riley Rossmo Publisher: Image Three Kinds of Badass… Literally… When a man tries to sell me a comic book called Cowboy Ninja Viking – about a hero who is a cowboy, a ninja, and a viking, at the same time – you might say that he is working from an advantaged position. When said comic is about a secret project by the US government to weaponise multiple personality disorder in order to create super-soldiers for the war on terror… well, I’m fairly sure my wallet was…
Read MorePublisher: DC Comics Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Francis Manapul A Brief History of The Boy Redundant OK, so for those not in the know, the current incarnation of Superboy was conjured into life as part of the “Death of Superman” storyline, and his “big reveal” was that he’s a clone of Superman, but with powers based on ‘tactile telekinesis’ (it’s comic book physics dude, live with it). Of course, the whole clone thing naturally resulted in several years of “Oh my god, I’m a clone” moping, which Superman tries to…
Read MoreGigantic trade paperback Writer: Rick Remender Penciller: Eric Nguyen Colorist: Matt Wilson Totally Not Based On A Song By The Pixies Sometimes a comic book just leaps off of the shelf at you, for no good reason other than the sheer look of the thing. Gigantic is a great example. The cover art is gorgeous, deftly shaded pencil work picked out in bright colours, with a washed out light bloom effect, and, most importantly, a fucking huge robot dude being attacked by aliens with kanji script thrown all across the…
Read More