Boop. Beep.

Push It! from jorge jaramillo on Vimeo.

Via Twitch.

Washed up immortals and bizarre monsters.

Rebellion's first Aliens versus Predator game was too interesting an action horror experience to ever be repeated by risk-averse bean counters. With its hordes of respawning xenomorphs allowed to run loose through non-linear levels, it offered a level of fear and tension you just can't achieve with scripted jump scares, no matter how carefully crafted.

Interesting then, to see them collaborating on NeverDead with Konami, a game with some fantastic monster and character designs (well, I like them) and an Evil Dead-esque gameplay mechanic of comic dismemberment. I would describe my expectations as "cautiously optimistic".

Monday Movie: My Neighbour Totoro

Satsuki and Mei have just moved to the countryside and a decrepit new house beside a towering camphor tree. While their dad tries to cheer them in the absence of their hospitalised mother, they soon begin to realise that the forest is home to strange and magical creatures.

One of the most famous and beloved offerings from director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, My Neighbour Totoro mixes imaginative creatures, beautiful landscapes and everyday childhood to sublime effect.

"No more shooters!"

Related news.

New Cushion

Somehow he was able to tell that it is for him.

New computer!

With a mid-range graphics card that can play Deus Ex: Human Revolution at a fair clip with the whizz bang pretties turned on.

Above is a screenshot of the subtle and complex method I used to get past the bouncer at the Hive. Don't worry, it was his pride that I hurt most of all. (That and the arm I broke.)

Almost Monday Movie: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

When the legendary journalist and travel writer Adèle Blanc-Sec returns from her adventure to secure the mummified physician of Ramesses II she finds Paris besieged by a pterodactyl. And if she wants to cure her seriously ill sister, it turns out she'll have to tame this prehistoric beast...

Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec is a film likely to please fans of director Luc Besson, carrying all his trademark touches. It's brash, colourful, imaginative, stylish, always perfectly framed and bears that strange mixture of soppy centre and callous edge that he does so well.

It has all Besson's flaws too, of course - the plot is woolly, the characters are barely developed and it lacks focus. But in addition to its Besson-ness, the film has one more saving grace: an engrossingly fun performance from Louise Bourgoin in the title role.

Part 2 is a love story.

I blagged part one way back when.

"After spending years making a game for the US market, at that point we thought we failed."

Little late posting this, but my video games news and reviews source of choice has an excellent interview with Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro.

I've mentioned before how I think there's too little diversity of opinion when it comes to video games, and Deadly Premonition is a really high profile example of a profitable cult hit in a medium that's often narrow and risk averse.

So I picked Deus Ex: Human Revolution, naturally. After a little dithering I got the PC version. It runs okayish, but I guess it's an added incentive to finally pick up a new computer before this one finally expires from its various small ailments...

A Family Shot

So, Xenoblade Chronicles...

...is pretty much the JRPG we've all been waiting for. No random battles, streamlined interface, save anywhere, equipment choices change the characters' appearances, an open world complete with jumping and swimming (and fast travel)...

In short, everything you hoped that Japanese studios would learn from Western role playing games, without losing its character and uniqueness in the way that many Western-targeted Japanese games have this past decade.

"I'm not myself, you see."

Thursday Comic

Batman: Streets of Gotham, Hush Money - Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen et al.

Batman's dangerous foe Hush has now assumed the likeness of the deceased Bruce Wayne, and even when Catwoman and the new Batman and Robin apprehend him, his complex schemes continue. Meanwhile, a brutal new vigilante stalks the streets, the pyromaniacal Firefly is implanting incendiary devices in the unsuspecting citizens of Gotham, and self-mutilating serial killer Zasz is planning something so horrific, a key member of the underworld resolves to rat him out.

If that sounds like the set-up for a stirring superhero yarn, let me get to my chief problem with this book: I just described everything that happens in it. It's not that they ran out of space, the book's really thin. It's just that all we get are a few disparate beginnings all but one of which go nowhere, and then you've turned the last page. Dustin Nguyen's art is as lovely as ever, but even he disappointed me a little, toning down the prettiness of his Bruce Wayne (or Hush, in this case) in favour of a more typically beefy depiction. Boo-urns.

Almost Thursday Book

Forgotten London: A Picture of Life in the 1920s - Elizabeth Drury, Philippa Lewis

A collection of photographs taken from the contemporary book Wonderful London, and provided with modern commentary. Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

Potato Worlds in HD

Vesta, courtesy of Dawn, via The Planetary Society Blog.

Monday Movie: Ashes of Time Redux

In the middle of a harsh desert, the equally dry Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) makes a living as a middleman between assassins and their clients. As the seasons come and go, all sorts of odd characters come to see him: a cross-dressing princess (Brigitte Lin), a warrior about to lose his sight (Tony Leung), and a woman who hopes to buy vengeance with a basket of eggs and a mule... But as killers and customers come and go, Ouyang Feng's mind is forever on the woman who broke his heart (Maggie Cheung, no relation).

As you should expect from a Wong Kar Wai film, Ashes of Time has no plot or structure to speak of, its draw stemming entirely from its lush visuals and understated emotions. When it comes to the former, WKW and cinematographer Christopher Doyle are at the top of their game. I struggle to think of a more sumptuous and vividly realised film, full of fantastic uses of light, shadow, colour, reflections and, of course, that incredible desert. The emotions, though, while they may simmer quite nicely throughout the film, rarely survive emergence into the harsh sunlight, seeming, to me, somewhat forced.

Whether or not any of the multiple story threads grab you, this film is absolutely 100% high grade beautiful throughout. The fact that it was almost lost to history, leading to this "redux" edit of the surviving footage, is rather scary to consider.

Oh, hello.

Come in, take a toy mouse. Not this one, it's mine.

Tumbleweed

If there's two things I like in a Freddie Wong video, it's seeing him collaborate with members of the established film industry, and settings other than the usual car park. This has both.

"Kung fu."

This won't be Wong Kar-Wai's first kung fu film, but he's not normally a name associated with the genre. Regardless, it looks about as beautiful as you'd expect, Wong seeming to have found a good alternative to his erstwhile cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

On the topic of post-Doyle WKW films, I should probably get around to dusting off that DVD of My Blueberry Nights and finally watching it...