Friday, January 20, 2012

TeeFury Venture Bros awesomeness

Call yourself a Venture Bros fan? You've got one day to make good on that boast.

Star Wars Uncut: The Directors Cut



Several years in the making, a community of Star Wars fans more or less crowd sourced a remake of Episode IV, remaking it 15 seconds at a time. The result - the ultimate Star Wars film for the child with ADHD in all of us. I'm currently watching this via Xbox on our tv and am at the part where the Jawas pick up R2 and its nothing short of fantastic. Seriously, you need to watch this now!

Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki

A new film from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time / Summer Wars team of director Mamoru Hosoda, script writer Satoko Okudera and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

"Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki" (The Wolf Children Rain and Snow)



No real synopsis exists (that I could google haha) at the moment. I'll update when I find out a little bit more about this film. The team behind this are pretty dam good. 

Sadamoto the character designer is best know for his character design work on Neon Genesis Evangelion and the third "rebuild Evagelion" film (that are really worth checking out) will be out later this year as well

Fancy 'Knife to the face' Adventures

There's been quite the epic Hacker vs the unhackable Jack Cannon battle going on at Fancy adventures


I love how Jamie draws expressions and his powerglove hacker villain is super great!

Thank GIF it's Friday

Because it's fun when a cat goes nuts.


Opinion: The DC New 52 Disaster!

September’s much-hyped DC New 52 reboot was enough to intrigue me - as a lapsed mainstream comics reader - to take another dip in the (admittedly shallow) superhero pool. If you read any of my reviews, you’ll know that my feelings were mixed, but it was enough to get me purchasing comics again and there were quite a number of series that I decided to persevere with, including all four Batman books, both Superman books, Wonder Woman, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Justice League (both regular and Dark), Deathstroke, Flash, Aquaman and guilty pleasure Catwoman.

The future of DC. And you think I'M blowing things out of proportion!
Now, a mere five months later, I’m ready to drop everything. Which of DC’s recent decisions have left me feeling  alienated enough to quit mainstream comics a second time? Join me after the jump and we’ll duke it out!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Dogs That Sing Star Wars vs. A Little Girl That Sings Hardcore

Choose your destiny! Will you be pulled into the Bark Side, or stay true to your Hardcore roots?



Songs to Make You Smarter



As a history nerd, a pseudo-science nerd, as someone who enjoys all sorts of music, it's often forgotten in our adult lives how much music can teach us about the world around us. We had countless songs in school about everything to help us remember, we had the Animaniacs teaching us about capitals and whatnot, and now, as adults, we're supposed to read dry history texts or listen to lectures? Screw that! Let's learn through music!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Board Game Unboxing: Loch Ness

Loch Ness was a 100% impulse buy for me. As I was wandering my local game store I saw it, and remembered seeing pictures from a few months ago. I pulled up the trusty Board Game Geek on my iPhone and saw that the reviews were average, and ratings were a little below that. But did that stop me?

Of course not! This looked like a game that would work at my table (my weekly game group is a little younger, and a bit more casual) and I really liked the theme and components. It was worth a shot, and I've been known to enjoy some games that aren't always the most popular. See my top ten of 2011. :)


Now, this hasn't hit the table yet... so we're going to take a look at a whole bunch of unboxing photos. Are you a meeple fan? There are some seriously cool components after the jump.

Recap: Project Runway All Stars, Episode 2


It happened again! Project Runway: All Stars continues, despite the gaping void left by Tim Gunn's absence. Luckily the fact that these are hand-picked all-stars doesn't stop them from making terrible, terrible clothes that I can make fun of.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What's Out? 18th of January 2012


I'd like to start with a plea to all creators and publishers out there. I know I get upset when I see terrible things being released but it turns out that without those things, this column is hard to do and boring to read. Next week I want to see some crazy dumb stuff here, okay?
But for now a very bare bones look at this week:

Stryder's Favourite Comics - Release Date 1/11/2012

Another week, another LONG list of comics!  A little late this week since it took me this long to read all the books and also fight some miserable virus that hopefully won't affect my ability to compose sentences that make sense!  Just bear with me folks...


Green Lantern #5 - Sinestro and Hal Jordan are still working to free Sinestro's home planet from the Yellow Lantern corps that Sinestro created!  To do this, Sinestro has armed several political prisoners with Green Lantern rings with a very limited power supply.  Unfortunately, the prisoners are more interested in tearing Sinestro apart than stopping those that used to be his minions!!  What is a possibly-reformed ex-dictator to do???

Again, a decent issue of GL that really has almost nothing to do with Hal Jordan.  I beleive this wraps up the storyline though, and we'll move to a more Earth-centric dilemma next month.  It's been an interesting way to start a comic book and one that I'm happy I've seen through, despite my initial misgivings.  I'm still not sold on Hal or this comic entirely, and he'll never be my favourite super-hero, but as far as cocky smart-ass daredevils with more guts than brains go, Hal's at least intriguing!  Even if I mostly enjoy mocking his idiotic decisions.  Hmmm.  Could Green Lantern be the new Aquaman???

Lots more after the jump!!

Jack Sparrow - meet Michael Bolton

Okay - I have no idea how such a thing came into being. But it exists, and the world is a better place for it. What can I say, the man loves his Johnny Depp.

Trailer for New Sith Book Packaged in Evil Pyramid!

Did you know that there's a new book that purports to contain hidden secrets and artefacts from ancient Sith history? Have you ever wondered what makes these nefarious, pale, lightning-spewing bastards tick? No, to be fair I haven't really either, but I will say that this book is pretty awesome because it comes packaged in an evil pyramid with lights and sounds! Don't believe me? Then why not check it out for yourself at 0:36:


HOW CRAZY IS THAT!? It is an evil monolith that spits out your book and cackles at you and probably shoots agonising lightning at you at converts you to the dark side and then causes you to kill a lot of children. Actually it sort of looks like a perfume bottle.

And it looks like it covers power, madness, perpetual life and... The Rule of Two...

Join me after the jump and I'll tell you why the Rule of Two is BULLSHIT.

Nerd History: The Real First Video Game



I'm prepping/away for a business trip this week, which means little chance to write and research and even less time to play Skyrim, which is slowly wrecking the already-limited social life I have. In honor of that, you probably thought that Pong or Spacewar was the first real computer game. Instead, enjoy this video and article from the Brookhaven Lab about Tennis for Two, a computer game developed in 1958.

Tuesday Bounty! Glorious Bounty Explodes!

I can't stress how much I've been looking forward to showing this new page of Edward J Grug and my webcomic Glorious Bounty! It really thrusts the story in a whole new direction. I hope you enjoy it even a little as much as we enjoyed making it.

For a recap, Furious Bruce has been having his head mercilessly squeezed by a Convoluted Killbot in an attempt to learn more about his past. This was a plan by the weaselly Deevis who Bruce has attached to a bomb in case things go wrong. Just as important information is being revealed the machine is getting dangerously tight. Can Bruce find out what he needs to know before it crushes him?

Click to enlarge, or check it out on the official site.


And, as always, if you're new to Bounty, then check it out from the very beginning here.

Kim Novak want to report a rape

So there's a movie that came out last year (or will be in Australia this year on the 2nd of Feb) called
"The Artist" directed by Michel Hazanavicius


During the movie we hear Bernard Herrmann’s score for “Vertigo”. Kim Novak being the last remaining star from 'Vertigo' (Hitchcock, Stewart and the composer Herrmann have all passed) yelled RAPE! via a press release and a full page add in Variety. You can hear an interview with Kim Novak here.

Yeah it's a pretty hyperbolic reaction but what's great about the Internet is it loves when something becomes huperbolic and a meme is usually born

Enter "*movie* Vertigoed" thanks to the indiewireblog Press Play competition

Here's Akira


and there's more after the jump

Monday, January 16, 2012

Elevator: Source

"Elevator: Source is a single or co-op elevator experience that is different each time you play. What floor will you stop on next? What will happen? Who knows! We don't even know! And we made the game. It's THAT EXCITING."


"Elevator: Source" is a Half Life 2 mod and it is quite a fascinating surreal social experiment of a game. Check this long video of a group of guys playing it.


It's funny to see how they react to everything this game throws at them. All they can do is jump, cough, check their watches and slap and none of these actions really do anything. Check the 27:45s mark where the first girl turns up and later 32:43s when the second girl (whose head is not on fire) turns up how these guys react.

Oh and how their trained gamer instincts kick in at the 31:32s mark

The end is pretty funny to where they are finally free from the elevator how they all crowd around the tv and watch a youtube video of them playing left 4 dead and one of the guys says 'we're being meta' haha!

There are 28 random floors and dlc pack to come so each elevator trip will be unique and who you decide to play the game with will also change the experience. The creators have also supplied a developers kit so you can even make your own floors.

you can get the mod here http://www.pixeltailgames.com/elevator/

TeeFury - A Game of Ice & Fire by Drew Wise

I've never even seen Game of Thrones, but I would play this game in a second. I'd also wear it as a t-shirt.

And you can for just $10! But act quickly, it'll be gone in 23 hours, 50 minutes and counting...


http://www.teefury.com

Another anime


So I've just stated watching 'Another' and the first episode was pretty good. Yeah it's 'another' anime set in a school but one thing they've done really well is captured just an oddness to the town and the people. 


I have a review after the jump

Johnny Depp Slaps Some Kid in the Hospital.

I went back to work today after a month of holidays and need a quick pick me up. This is it:


Now that was better than the last three Pirates of the Carribean movies combined!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Recap from Saturdays Unpub 2: Unpublished Games Festival

This article was cross posted at the wonderful board gaming site, Games and Grub. Visit them at http://gamesandgrub.blogspot.com.

Yesterday myself and many others trekked out to Dover, Delaware for John Moller of Cartrunk Entertainment's Unpub 2; a convention featuring unpublished board games presented by the designers.


As a designer, it was a day to get feedback for my own game.. but as a board game fan, it was a day to try out new things. Some that I've been reading all about online recently (VivaJava, Princes of the Dragon Throne), and others to discover for the very first time (Wartime, Fat, Pond Farr).


Click through the jump for my full recap of the days events.