Feb 17

Game Review: Sonic Colours (Wii)

Okay, hands up all those people who remember when Sonic the Hedgehog games were good. Now, out of those three people, who has any hope left for the blue rodent? That’s right, none of you and you have very good reason. It’s not even a case of “once burnt, twice shy”, Sega have been pumping out horrid Sonic games for near on a decade and been getting away with it. That’s part of the reason why I stayed away from Sonic Colours. I just didn’t want to be disappointed yet again and the only people who were saying anything about the game were those die-hard glue-sniffing Sonic freaks who believe Sonic Heroes has some merit (it doesn’t) and that there were some tactics to be found in Sonic The Fighters (there wasn’t).

To all the Sonic fans who still believe he could star in a good game within this lifetime, I have this to say … WE MADE IT! Oh dear god we made it. Sonic Colours is what it needs to be by Sega finally adhering to a time immemorial rule : less is more. Continue reading

Feb 16

Game Review – Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

Crossover games are great. And the crazier the better. What would a fight be like between a monkey and a shark? Or a disco samurai and an electric spetznaz? TV shows like “greatest warrior” only work on statistics and “what ifs” and “maybes” but the beauty of the video game industry is we get to use skill to determine the outcome of such match ups. The foremost leaders of this genre for fighting games is CAPCOM who have brought their Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Resident Evil and other prominent title faces to the yard with characters from MARVEL comics with hilarious and addictive gameplay results for a third time.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a flashy, grandiose 2D-plane fighter with 3D modelled characters with emphasis on the scale of the attacks which whittle down the player’s health bar until one emerges victorious. Most fighters, even the Street Fighter series, tends to hold the extreme fanfare back for the big ultra combos but Marvel vs Capcom (MvC) has always wanted to give epilepsy sufferers something to really suffer from. Where the other fighters keep to the time honoured tradition of one on one, MvC says “HA! One on one is for pussies! We have THREE ON THREE!! Not only that, but you can have each character on your side jump in during a super and add to the damage. Take THAT everyone else”. Continue reading

Feb 15

Spider-Man Re-Boot Gets a Name and a New Photo of the Costume

So, Sony has announced in a press release that the new Spider-Man re-boot will officially be called “The Amazing Spider-Man” and will be released on July 3rd, 2012 (assuming the world is still here). They also released this spiffy new image of Andrew Garfield in the full costume (with the mask and all), click the image for a much larger version:

So, what are your thoughts? I think I am coming around to the design, love to hear from you. Comment below.

You can read the full press release from Marvel below: Continue reading

Feb 15

“Tron Special” Recording Tomorrow with Reel Junkies’ Fox

Just a reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday the 16th of February (Australian Eastern Time) at 11am we are doing a live recording of our “Tron Special” with Fox4649 (AKA James Rogers) from the Reel Junkies podcast. Come and join the chatroom to discuss the original “Tron”, the new sequel and what impact these films may or may not have had on your lives. Fox4649 is, in my opinion, the undisputed “Tron” fanboy of the decade :-)

This will be a fun show and the chatroom will be open for your comments and there will even be a giveaway for an Australian listener. Below you can find all of the schedule details. Continue reading

Feb 15

New Podcast Release Schedule

Okay for those that were paying attention, you will have noticed that the two podcasts, “Geek Actually” and “Film Actually”, came out on the same day this week, why?

In one of those strange moments of clarity, I realised that the release days of the audio podcasts doesn’t make sense. On the live feed we record “Geek Actually” first then “Film Actually”. But for some strange reason I put “Film Actually” the podcast up first on Sunday and then “Geek Actually” up on Monday. The problem is we often refer to the other show on whatever show we are recording and if you just listen to the audio this must be weird or frustrating. Continue reading

Feb 15

The Winklevoss Twins – The Special Effects of The Social Network

One of the most striking effects in David Fincher’s “The Social Network” was the creation of the Winklevoss twins. Armie Hammer does an excellent job as an actor bringing life to both brothers, giving each sibling a unique personality. However, the performance wouldn’t have mattered if we didn’t completely buy the effect. The reality of the scenes would have been spoilt if we looked at screen and saw a flaw in the effect, taking us out of the moment and lessening the drama.

I assumed that they played the scene with a double and then replaced the actor with another Armie Hammer (shot on greenscreen) later, it turns out that it was even more complex, and impressive, than that. Armie Hammer played all of the scenes with another actor named Josh Pence, the effects wizards then did face replacement with a CG face of Armie Hammer. Continue reading