Tuesday, May 31, 2011
fincher's girl with the dragon tattoo teaser
looks like it will be a shot for shot remake. which is good. casting seems perfect too.. plus trent doing the score? COME ON!!!
Monday, May 30, 2011
white council in the hobbit muahaha
I’m not going to say just what and when, but I will confirm that both the White Council and Dol Guldur will feature in the movies. And not just in one scene either. Just how to visualise it has been a challenge, but fortunately Alan Lee and John Howe went crazy with ideas, and it should look pretty cool.
In fact to celebrate the start of these 20 questions, I’ll show you an exclusive photo of the White Council planning the attack on Dol Guldur! Even if you don’t want to be hit with spoilers, you should still take a look. For the first image of Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel brandishing an array of fearsome Elvish weapons, click here.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning Could Be 2012’s Sleeper Hit
Everything about Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning seems designed to lose my interest. There's the title, the high fantasy setting, the silly race names. The entire game seems like a pastiche of all of the action role-playing titles that came before it.
But then I played it and suddenly I was enthralled.
I suppose it stands to reason that a game developed by Big Huge Games with the help of Ken Rolston (The Elder Scrolls III and IV), R.A. Salvatore (famed sci-fi and fantasy novelist) and Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) would be anything but forgettable.
It's odd then that at first glance, second glance, long demo, it's still easy to dismiss it.
That's how I felt as I set through a demo of the game last week at Electronic Arts LA studio. Sean Dunn, studio manager at Big Huge Games, walked us through the backstory of the game, rolling out place settings and race names like Amalur, Almain, Varani, Ljosalfar, Dokkalfar. There were even a few I recognized like gnomes.
As he spoke the television filled with gameplay and video showing off a detailed, colorful world, but one not easily separated from its action role-playing game predecessors. He showed us some neat twists additions in his game, like the ability to sneak up on anyone and try to pickpocket, that getting caught can mean in-game jail time which can result in a fine or lost experience points.
That you can create weapons from crappier other weapons and then tweak five basic components of your creations resulting in something special, unique.
You can, while running up to folks in the city for quests, skip their conversation and skip straight to a text summary of your quest. When you loot a treasure chest you can go straight into an option to compare your existing weapons and even switch out what you're using straight from that menu.
There were a lot of tiny touches that perhaps only hardcore action RPG fans would notice. There were also some bigger ideas, like the notion that you are classless, that your abilities and the sort of character you are is drawn entirely from your choices of skills allowing you to create odd new classes like Shadow Master.
The game's underlying story draws in part on the notion that you are in a world where everyone lives according to pre-ordained fates but that you are fateless. You can, though, find these fates and use them to create special talents in your character.
It's something new, but wasn't enough to get me interested. In fact, I sort of put off trying the game during the nearly half-day event at EA. Fortunately, I finally settled down into a couch in a backroom and played.
While combat isn't anything entirely new it was instantly satisfying. It sort of felt like an amalgam of what I love about God of War and Diablo. There's that clicky-button mashing need to obliterate your enemies backed with gratifying, graphics and clever take downs and abilities.
My character, for instance, could teleport through people, leaving in his wake a poison trail, a trail that was absorbed by enemies as he passed through them. Armed with a chakram and knives, my character was able to toss out waves of damaging attacks. I could also sneak up on enemies and deliver devastating, visceral sneak attacks.
The game, designed as a solid PC role-playing title, worked so well on the Xbox 360 controller, that I wondered aloud how they would make it work as well on a computer. "We're working on that," I was told.
The graphics and backstory may not have a lot of instant appeal, but the fantastic combat system and colorful attacks and specials are sure to get gamers to stick around long enough to start caring and understanding about those things. And with a promised 60 hours of gameplay, it probably makes sense to slowly ramp thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhat up over the course of the game.
There are four playable races, three class trees, each with 22 abilities to sort through. I played around with a few, like planting ice land mines or that venomous teleport, but there were many, many more I didn't get a chance to experience. That alone feels like it will make the game worthwhile.
via kotaku
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Five New Mass Effect 3 Details You Might Want to Hear
Mass Effect 3 executive producer Casey Hudson spoke with UK magazine Xbox World, divulging some mid-production intel about Shepard and company. The info is scattershot; little pieces of unconnected details about many different aspects of the game. Still, they help to create a larger picture of BioWare's vision for the game.
For those of you who want stay spoiler-free, here's a broad over-arching synopsis. If all goes according to plan, Mass Effect 3 is going to be bigger than its predecessors: It's also going to be more detailed than ever before. BioWare's goal is to create a realistic physical world worthy of holding the epic universe they created and that their fans love.
Warning: Spoilers below. This is the point of no-return. Reading past this point will reveal information vital to the plot of Mass Effect 3
1. Mass Effect 3 will have fewer party characters than Mass Effect 2
Don't expect to have nearly as many characters in Mass Effect 3 as you did in ME2. ME2's large crew—12 playable characters—was necessary for the game's posse-building storyline, but was a little large for BioWare's taste.
"Twelve was a big number in Mass Effect 2 - almost too big", says Hudson. "We're focused on a smaller squad with deeper relationships and more interesting interplay in Mass Effect 3' he explains. "We're not going to have twelve again but we are going to do more with the characters on your squad including Liara, and Kaidan or Ashley. And we're bringing everyone back - every main character is in Mass Effect 3 somewhere."
So yes, it is very possible that you might not get to control your favorite ME2 character. That said, every character from the game has a role to play in the story, provided they survived your trip through the Omega-4 relay.
2. You will travel to new worlds.
This one's kind of a no-brainer. Many of the planets you'll visit in ME3 are places you've only heard about in previous games. Hudson mentions that you'll see Palaven (the Turian homeworld) and Rannoch (the Quarian homeworld) in the game. It's also confirmed that you will return to Krogan homeworld Tunchaka.
As you might have already guessed, Shepard will also be going to Earth in this game. Hudson said that players will get to see "a Seattle/Vancouver megacity" both before and after the Reapers destroy it. Connecting the world of Mass Effect to our own, the city is designed to look just like Vancouver. "If you Google Map Vancouver the layout is pretty much the exact same as our map," according to level artist Don Arceta.
3. Those worlds are going to be big.
Reapers are big. In order to have accommodate fights with them, or even having them nearby means designing levels much larger than the usual spaceship corridors that make up a large portion of Mass Effect's locales. Many of levels will include more open spaces. BioWare plans to make the shift in a way a dramatic way, claiming that some levels that are not only larger than anything ever seen in a Mass Effect game, but larger than any game built with the Unreal Engine.
Think of it this way. At least one level has to be big enough for Shepard to fight using a 50-foot tall Cerberus mech.
4. In combat, you'll need to think on your feet
The gunplay in Mass Effect 2 is mostly standard cover-based shooter fare. It was often OK to hide behind cover, picking off enemies at the back of a room while directing your teammates. The ME3 team plans to change that. They want you to be forced to scramble. To do that, BioWare is putting enemy tactics at the forefront. Different types of enemies will not only have varying abilities, they'll use those skills in tandem against you. "Some will provide covering fire for snipers, some will deploy smoke to hide advancing comrades, others will coordinate subordinate units, and one will stomp around consuming its fallen friends to fuel itself," according to the feature.
5. Weapons are going to be much more customizable and detailed
In keeping up with their pledge to create a "deeper RPG experience" this time around, you'll be able to fine-tune your weapons in Mass Effect 3 much more than the last two games. "Every weapon is modular and can be customised with up to five modifications; scopes increase a rifle's zoom factor, new barrels increase accuracy or damage," Says Hudson. "Sling your gun on a workbench and it can be customised for http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa job at hand." Based on that last part, it sounds like it may be important to not only upgrade your weapons, but adjust them to suit different situations.
Hudson also mentioned that the team has been mixing it up with members of the DICE team, getting advice on how to make the guns sound realistic in varying environments.
Now that you've read all that, you're probably not happy that you'll have to wait until 2012 to finally get your hands on it.
via kotaku
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
dark knight rises tid bits(haha)
Speculation about the plot of Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises has been running wild ever since the credits rolled on The Dark Knight, and we have for you today a few bits that may offer hints as to what we can expect to see. Although nothing’s been officially confirmed, some photos and an on-set report suggest that Ra’s al Ghul (Josh Pence) and Bane (Tom Hardy) may be spending time around the Lazarus Pit. And while we still don’t know exactly how Marion Cotillard‘s Miranda Tate will fit into the film, a soundbite from the actress suggests her part won’t be a big deal. Hit the jump for more.
A couple of new images from the Indian set of The Dark Knight Rises have shown a large, oval-ish structure with a greenscreen that fans have been speculating may be the Lazarus Pit. To refresh your memory, here’s an explanation of the Lazarus Pit as seen in the comics:
The Lazarus Pit is mythical vats of arcane chemicals in the DC comics universe. The most common user of the pit is Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s al Ghul accidentally discovered the first Lazarus Pit as a cure for the dying son of a sultan he worked for. The Pit had a terrible side effect, however; it turned the Prince temporarily insane, leading to him killing the doctor’s wife. After being blamed for the murder, the man who would become Ra’s Al Ghul was buried in the desert. He was rescued by a tribe and a boy named Huew. After this he used the Lazarus Pit to save himself, and vowed to avenge his wife. The doctor gave himself the title Ra’s al Ghul – The Demon’s Head. (picture at top!)
All we have to go by at this point are these photos, so the presence of the Lazarus Pit is far from certain. However, an unconfirmed report on the The Dark Knight Rises Community (via Screen Rant) seems to back up the notion that the structure is indeed a Lazarus Pit — or some similar magical vat capable of producing a monster:
Eyewitnesses and crew members told us of a particular scene being filmed,” the site reports, “where a bald-headed child wearing ragged clothes emerges from the well and pulls his hood over his head. From the conversations, we reckon this is a young Bane, emerging from a vat of Venom, trained by Pence’s Ra’s al Ghul. The years of addiction to Venom builds him to be a massive monster with amped up senses, intelligence and physical prowess.
Once again, the eyewitness report should be treated as pure conjecture at this point. Keep in mind that the above quote is just the word of someone posting on a Facebook company, rather than a confirmed statement from someone officially associated with the film. So yes, this is more “shameless rumor-mongering” than “fact-based reporting” — but would you really want us to keep a rumor from you when it’s this juicy? I didn’t think so. [Comic Book Movie and Screen Rant]
In other TDKR news/speculation bait: Cotillard recently sat down with French publication Madame Figaro. When asked whether it was difficult to step away from her career temporarily in order to have a child, the actress gave this answer:
No, because the need for a child at some point is stronger then anything and afterwards I start up again with the shooting of Christopher Nolan’s Batman, to go back to it nicely, it’s a small role and a very comfortable one for a new mother.
(For the record, I’m sure it’s just a bad translation that’s making her sound grammatically challenged — I’m sure the quote sounds just fine in French.)
So we now have confirmation that her role in Dark Knight Rises is… small. Okay. As previously reported, Cotillard’s part is that of “Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham” — but confirmation of her character’s name hasn’t stopped fans from speculating that she might still turn out to be Talia al Ghul. Her quote about her TDKR role suggests that her character, whether or not she’s secretly Talia al Ghul, isn’t central to the main plot.
via /film
awesome wedding gift
Jim Lee gave this illustration to Wildstorm art director, Larry Berry, as a wedding present.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
new conan looks so good
it captures everything the way Robert E. Howard wrote it. is is how it should be! fuck!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
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