Shakespeare is the best writer who ever lived. His words carry such beauty, brutality, humour and psychosis that we’ve seen a number attempts to update the context of his stories, with varying degrees of success. Here’s a trailer for new version of the lesser-known *Cymbeline* from director Michael Almereyda, who you may remember from his version of *Hamlet* starring Ethan Hawke in 2000. Take a look.
Continue reading “Cymbeline Trailer Combines The Bard With Bikers And Bullets”
Because, if anyone’s going to show how to do DLC properly, it’s Nintendo. New Tracks! New characters! Yoshi colour variants…
Continue reading “Mario Kart 8 Has Incoming DLC And It’s Brilliant”
Want some new games? Of course you do. Check out September’s offerings for the two competing subscription services.
Continue reading “PlayStation Plus and Xbox Games With Gold: September’s Free Games”
A few trailers for your enjoyment this morning, both of which seem to echo the *protagonists-trapped-underground-with-terrible-ancient-evil* scenario so beautifully captured in Neil Marshall’s *The Descent* (pictured above). Come and watch.
Continue reading “Trailers For As Above, So Below And The Pyramid Trap Us In Our Nightmares”
As I got into bed last night I slipped my hand under the covers and something buzzed against it. I instinctively yanked my arm away while something black and striped and angry crawled out from underneath the duvet and headbutted the light in determined repetition. I wish I could say that my response was calm and measured, but it was more like Free Willy jumping out of the aquarium with a high-pitched yelp to match. It was dealt with.
Now, imagine that scenario but you’re in the middle of a swarm of *hundreds* of these bastards and all you have is an machine gun. Or replace the bugs with zombies, or lizard men, or tiny red demons, or mechanical spiders that split into *more* spiders, and more spiders, and *more* spiders, when you destroy them. Welcome to *Crimsonland*, where *Borderlands* meets *Earth Defense Force* in a bloodied frenzy.
Continue reading “Review: Crimsonland (PS Vita, also available on PS4 and PC)”
It’s a wonderful time. Finally, after years of neglect and half-assed mobile entries, the space game is back. *EVE Online*’s held the ground for a few years, but its systems and politics are incomprehensible to all but the most devout of players. These emerging titles, together with seemingly mandatory support for the Oculus Rift VR headset, hold the promise that’s been burning in the hearts of everyone who’s been raised on a diet of *Star Wars* and *Battlestar Galactica*: to sit in the cockpit and twirl through the stars in the hot bloom of a thousand enemy lasers.
“Stop!”, shouted my wife. “You need that!”
Continue reading “A Flower On A Step – The Pointlessness of Nintendo”
This week has seen the big names in gaming gather in Germany for the annual Gamescom conference. Though not as likely to contain the kind of news bombshells that are a basis of E3, it’s still a good opportunity for the mayor players to add detail to their upcoming rosters, and even throw in a few surprises. Also, once again Nintendo opted to not hold a conference but instead had their most recent games running in a booth to try and maintain the WiiU momentum.
Continue reading “Gamescom 2014 Round-Up: All The News From Microsoft and Sony”
*Focus On Design is a spotlight on the mechanics and structure of a chosen game and as such is filled with spoilers.*
There’s always been a problem when writing reviews: by their very nature, they’re unable to be objective. Every single human being on the planet perceives things differently, yet some choose to write this perception as if it were fact. This then bleeds outwards into review culture: scan for bulletpoints, scroll to the score, and allow our own personal opinion to be instantly coloured by that of another. Reviewers balance expectation against result, gorging on the game to complete it within the review window, and often a marketing agenda will shape these initial expectations in order to compete with a rival publisher’s title. This can create a tidal wave of negativity for any game that falls into such a trap.
If you’re of a certain age, the modern *Transformers* films leave a very bitter taste in the mouth. Michael Bay’s re-imagining of the classic characters has robots with ridiculous racial stereotypes, body designs that are far too busy to be memorable, and fights that largely leave you confused and disorientated.
Well, filmmaker Harris Loureiro has spent the best part of a year making a film with his Optimus Prime and Constructicons fighting the way we always imagined as we threw our fantastically colourful and chunky toys across the playground. Watch!
Continue reading “Watch This Stop-Motion Transformers Battle And Forget About Michael Bay”
If, like me, you consider the high point of modern Disney movies to be all about Ariel, Beast, and Aladdin, then it turns out you’re a massive fan of Glen Keane. Over the course of 37 years Glen had a hand in 20 productions and now, two years after he left Disney, he’s made an animated short for Google’s Spotlight Series. It’s called *Duet*, and you should watch it right now.
Continue reading “Stop What You’re Doing And Watch This Beautiful Short By Ex-Disney Animator”
Nathan Drake is back for one last time, if the trailer shown today at Sony’s E3 conference is anything to go by. And, if this is really in-game engine footage, then he’s going to go out in style. Have a look!
You know those books you got obsessed with when you were younger – Harry Harrison, Arthur C. Clarke, any novel that had weird aliens and spaceships on the tatty covers? Well, in today’s Sony E3 conference, UK indie studio Hello Games showed off gameplay footage of *No Man’s Sky* and, if you loved those books, this is the game of your dreams. Take a look!
Continue reading “No Man’s Sky Gameplay Footage Is a Sci-Fi Dream”
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