Paranormal Activity 4 is set for release in a few short days, and for those of you who haven’t caught the first three movies, then Paranormal Pictures have released a video just for you.
Even if you have seen the first three movies of the series, it’s a great way to remind yourself of what’s happened so far. Plus, there’s some new footage of the new film thrown in there for good measure. Looks like Hunter will be playing a part in the new film, not just the demon getting bored and deciding to mess with the neighbours. At least that’s good news.
So, will Paranormal Activity 4 have as much flickery-light, and flying kitchen items as the previous three movies? Well, let’s hope so. There’s nothing like good old crazy poltergeist mischief.
There’s also a few short clips from the film. The first is accurately entitled ‘Running through the house’
And the second, ‘Levitate’
Check out the new History Recap featurette below!
Paranormal Activity 4 is being released in cinemas on October 18, 2012. Keep an eye out on the site for a review, as well as other movie, gaming and TV news.
Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ Studio: Production I.G Publisher: Madman Format: Blu-Ray Disc (Reviewed), DVD Release Date:September 5th, 2012 Price: $34.95(Buy here)
Overview
The Tales of franchise is an incredibly large one that has been published by Namco (and later Namco Bandai) for years. The latest entry, Tales of Vesperia was launched on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 formats and has gathered an incredibly large fanbase for this entry alone.
Of course, in this review, we’ll be looking at the Anime movie that (I believe) takes place before the events of the games. The movie shows us a lot about the world lore and issues and really allows us to get to know the characters from the games in a much more relaxing format.
Does the Anime do the game justice though? I wouldn’t know, I haven’t played the games. But after watching the movie, I kind of want to.
Story
Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ follows a small band of knights as they have to deal with the daily defence of their town against seemingly more and more aggressive monster attacks. The group eventually starts to research the cause of these events which culminates in them raiding a dungeon and fighting even stronger monsters.
One thing that I noticed early on with the story was that it really felt like I was watching somebody play an RPG, rather than actually watching a movie. The first thing that made me think this was a scene early on where the main characters are pretty much forced into doing guard duty for their superior. What reinforced this even further was that the leader than took the time to talk to every single villager in the town. This to me felt like the opening quest to nearly every Role Playing Game that I have played.
I feel that having that connection to the games by having something that felt gamey only strengthened the movie, at least for me anyway. I really don’t like it when a game adaptation strives to be it’s own thing, which often leads to the detriment of the franchise.
The overall progression of the story also felt similar to that of a video game. For instance, as I already stated, the main characters are made to do a simple task at the beginning of the film, but these tasks get more and more complex as the arc advances. For example, there is an exploration based quest, there’s a quest where the party fights a tough monster for the first time and there is even the mandatory dungeon crawl. Heck, the main characters even ended up with a powerful weapon (albeit not obtained from a treasure chest) as a reward for completing the dungeon. So yeah, the progression in this film is very gamey. And as a gamer, I loved it.
So overall, fans of the Vesperia game(s) will absolutely love the story in this film, as will fans of RPG games in general. However, it is unlikely that people who are not interested in these things will find this too engaging; but there is a massive overlap between gamers and otaku, so the people that will disappointed in this are unlikely to want to pick this up in the first place.
Visuals
If you have a Blu-ray player, I would definitely recommend getting this movie as a Blu-ray disc. There are so many moments in this film where the visuals are just vibrant as magic. In particular, this is when certain characters cast a spell or when there is some kind of magical effect happening. This paragraph may make the others parts of the visuals seem bland, but this is really the strongest visual point.
I haven’t quite played the game for this franchise, so I can only go off screenshots and artwork for reference when I say this. But it seems like everything in this movie is following the aesthetics of the games quite well. I’m not a big enough fan to notice any discrepancies, but I don’t think anyone that is will really complain all too much.
What I really liked about the visuals in this was how a lot of the monsters were realised. Generally speaking, when you’ve been playing games and watching anime for as long as I have, you kind of expect a certain thing to look a certain way. This was something cool with this film, because I’m not familiar with the source, all of the monsters looked and felt really unique and interesting. For example, there is this one monster that absorbs a bunch of dogs and looks incredibly awesome.
Overall the visuals in Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ are pretty cool and I doubt anyone will be disappointed. I think that they captured the world quite well and fit the theme nicely.
Audio
I’m not entirely sure if this movie features an entirely original soundtrack or it features one that is lifted from the video games. However, it does do an amazing job of conveying what is happening on screen to the person at home watching.
I can’t really comment on the audio quality negatively, except that I had to turn my speakers up much louder than usual to have the film be as audible as other films. However, this is a minor gripe as the audio quality is excellent and every aspect of the audio was incredibly well done. I have no complaints, so short audio section is short.
Extras
Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ has a pretty decent selection of extras. What you’ll first notice about these is if you open up the case, you’ll see some nice artwork behind the disc-popper thingy that is quite cool.
The Picture Sound special feature is a collection of artwork that is panned through whilst a selection of background music is played. It is quite soothing and the artwork is actually quite nice to look at.
There’s also a Promotional Footage segment, which has 8 minutes of trailers for the movie. It showcases a bunch of cool scenes from the film to promote it.
There is also the U.S trailer and a bunch of trailers. This is pretty standard for an Anime release these days.
Overall
Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ is a remarkably nice package that fans of both Anime and the RPG series will enjoy. It has an amazing focus on visuals and the story is very reminiscent of a video game. I absolutely loved it and I think you will too.
The whole point of Beauty and the Beast is the fact that a beautiful girl falls in love with an ugly beast, seeing his inside beauty. Especially since the show is based on a show that originally had that ugly beast. So it doesn’t really translate as well when the beast just happens to look like a super model. I mean sure he has a scar, but it looks more cool than scary, and if he turns his face the right way you can’t even see it.
The supermodel beast-man is the result of an army experiment (a piece of exposition which came very clumsily), who emerges from hiding to save a damsel in distress every so often. Kreuk plays a cop who was rescued nine years earlier by the beast-man. Who has decided to stalk her out and play the brooding, angsty male lead.
That isn’t exactly the end of it either, Beauty and the Beast also suffers from not knowing what genre it wants to be, and falling into the cliché for each genre. It starts off as a procedural cop drama, with the two main cops (Kristin Kreuk and Nina Lisandrello) trying to constantly one up each other with ‘witty’ one-liners that are so over-the-top cheesy, that it is absolutely ridiculous. Then, once Cat (Kristin Kreuk) meets the ‘Beast’ Vincent Keller (Jay Ryan) the show changes gears to cheesy romantic.
The best part of the episode was the fight scene, maybe because there wasn’t any writing involved, and it didn’t drag, or involve much acting either. Kreuk, for some reason, has a Brooklyn twinge to her voice that a lot of the characters have adopted.
Beauty and the Beast seems like a good idea on paper, but its just that everything else doesn’t follow through. It could be classified as a guilty pleasure if you don’t mind overlooking the fact that the show tries so hard to do everything that it ends up doing them far too over the top. The CW did well with Arrow (at least so far), but unfortunately seems to have fallen short with Beauty and the Beast.
Keep tuned to Capsule Computers for more of the new Fall television shows.
This episode – ‘Buck the System’ – starts with Dexter waiting in line at the post office looking pretty exasperated. We’ve all been there bro. Dexter has been stuck in Debra’s Fort Knox for a while now and he’s starting to feel the pressure, apparently an animal is never more dangerous than when it’s backed into a corner. So much so that he’s started to fantasize about going all serial killer-y on the postal office worker. Well, that’s fair turnaround. He’s shipping off a suspiciously arm-shaped box to Miami Metro, this arm just can’t stay still can it?
Deb and Dexter head into the station for a staff meeting, during which Deb spends a lot of the time staring Dexter down. Masuka notices this and makes his usual comments, which launches Dexter into stabbing him in the throat with a pen. Ouch. Of course the fact that the room full of cops only react with mild surprise and ‘oooh’ tips off the fact that it’s a fantasy.
However, the next scene where he starts strangling a tough suspect who’s giving him lip is no fantasy. Luckily, guard dog Deb bursts into the room and stops Dexter from going any further. Ignoring the suspect’s cry for help as he’s still lying on the ground, she chases him into the narrowest alleyway ever and confronts him.
They have another argument about the power of self control in the narrowest alleyway in the world, and finally Debra agrees to back off a little. But, knowing the Morgans, a little won’t be enough.
So, given the little bit of freedom that he has, Dexter decides to go on the hunt again and start looking at Ray Speltzer, a nasty guy who has a habit of beating women to death. I don’t think this is what Debra meant when she said she’d give you space Dex.
Dexter is truly back in the game, stalking Speltzer at his gym. He’s not the only one stalking, with Debra waiting outside the gym and calling him to check up. Seriously, these Morgan kids and their inability to keep their promises.
Back at the station, and look Quinn has a visitor, and guess what? It’s the stripper from before. What is up with Quinn and women, he always seems to get the wrong ones in his crosshairs. She’s fishing around for some information for the Brotherhood regarding the bracelet (the one that Viktor strapped to himself after leaving her body in the trunk). And Quinn, thinking with his nether region as always, gets a date with her. You’d think a well-off, decent looking cop in Miami could do better than a stripper with a questionable past and connections, but he’s never known how to pick them.
The stripper debriefs the Rich Brotherhood Leader while he tells her a story about how he killed his music teacher because he got an F. There’s a man who knows how to take bad news well. He suggests she get closer to Quinn and get as much information out of him as possible. Knowing Quinn, that will be pretty easy.
The Miami Metro forensic department has received an extra special package; damn that postal service is efficient. Oh, hey what a surprise, it’s the Ice Truck Killer arm. And looking even more fake and hollow than usual. It also includes a letter insinuating that Louis had the arm and sold it. With that, Louis is fired. Boom, bitch.
Wayne Randall’s (the serial killer who suicided on the highway at the end of the last episode) mother comes into the station to drop of a bag of memoirs that Wayne gave him before he was arrested. Looks like this means more digging out by the highway for the department.
The fun isn’t over for Louis either, as he comes home to Baby Batista watching his home porno of him getting a blowjob from a prostitute. He insists that if you pay for it then it isn’t cheating. Is that how it works now? Baby Batista storms out, knocking over a whole bunch of collectibles on her way out.
What was that Dexter said about backing an animal into a corner?
Debra follows Dexter again, this time to a bar, and Dexter – well aware that he was being tailed – invites her in for a cold one. He then points out Speltzer and tells Deb that he thinks Speltzer is getting ready for another kill. Based on the fact that Speltzer shaved his head. Now, in Dexter I trust in all manners killer-y, but the reasoning is a little bit flawed. So, in typical Debra fashion, she explodes at him and reiterates that the law is there for a reason. Yeah, this argument isn’t going to resolve itself anytime soon.
Debra: This is done.
Dexter: [voiceover] I’m not done with Speltzer.
Oh you guys.
So Dexter continues to stalk Speltzer, finding that Speltzer has a special little mausoleum that he likes spending a lot of his time in. But, before he can investigate further, Deb calls him into the station for a job.
Dexter and Batista are sent to question Wayne Randall’s old girlfriend, Hannah McKay. Aww hey Sarah! You’re looking well. It kinda hurts to not see you being a kick ass secret agent making goo-goo eyes at Chuck, but happy to have you back on my screen. They question her a bit more about her ex’s killing spree, and Dexter takes a cheek swab DNA test – one that he screws up because looking into those blue, blue eyes throws him off. Her expression goes flirty and Dexter bolts. I never knew inserting a Q-tip into someone’s mouth could be so sexual, but putting it that way I can see it now.
Not sure how this is going to turn into a season guest pass for Strahovski, but I admit I’m curious.
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood has used the bracelet to track where Viktor ended up, including the exact marina and boat slip that was used. Damn, technology, when you’re used as a plot point you are super powerful aren’t you?
They run into Louis, whose revenge scheme apparently includes sinking Dexter’s boat. At first he pretends its his boat, which gets a power tool held up to his eye (and me cheering), but then he caves and tells them it’s Dexter’s boat. And gets his head blown off. Something about the way the camera zooms in on his blood droplets screams future trouble, but that’s for later, now we celebrate that Louis has bit the bullet! Sure, he was never much of a threat, but he was damn annoying. Plus, he calls Dexter a ‘ginger freak’. Asshole.
If you have been biding your time playing other games while you wait for 4J Studios to release their next update for Minecraft on the Xbox 360 then you will be happy to hear that your wait will soon be over. Today 4J Studios stated on their Twitter the following: “Microsoft has confirmed that we’ve passed Cert Test, and the 1.8.2 update will be out tomorrow (October 16th)!”
This update adds a “ton” of new content in the form of creative mode, hunger, new food, new biomes, new mobs and the ability to sprint. There are also a few fixes planned with this patch and you can find the complete list of changes and upgrades to the game here.
While a number of you have already clocked many hours running through Borderlands 2’s latest class, Gaige the Mechromancer, some people haven’t played as her yet, either because they are too attached to their original classes, or simply because they haven’t downloaded her yet.
Of course, for those who haven’t downloaded Gaige yet, you will be able to pick her up for free if you are a member of the Premium Club or pay $10 if you are not. Today 2K Games and Gearbox released the below trailer showing off some of Gaige’s skills and although it may be a week late, it still is quite informative as it goes over the many skills that make Gaige a badass.
For all those with their sights set on the skies, Konamis acclaimed Flight Simulator Birds of Steel is now available for digital download, allowing more players to get into the cockpit of the 100+ planes on offer and join one of many historic WWII aerial recreations. Birds of Steel is now available at $29,95AUD for XBox 360 users via the Game on Demand channel and can be downloaded through PSN for Playstation 3 users. In conjunction to its availability through digital download Konami have released 3 new DLC packs which add a larger range of currency options to players attributes.
In what I can only assume to be a first in video game history, and potentially is a competitor for weirdest news this month. A virtual company within Second Life has started a Indiegogo campaign in order for it to increase its presence within Second Life. Nintai Brokerage Corporation teaches players how to participate in its virtual stock exchange called the Capital Exchange.
Nintai is seeking the funding so that they can improve the quality of the simulation, and also make it accessible to more players. Nintai’s goal of $5000 may seem small in comparison to some video game crowd-funding efforts, I’m looking at you schaffer, but it has yet to be seen whether people will rally around this. They do have 28 days to achieve their goal and frankly I have seen for weirder things funded, so they may just manage to pull it off.
Here is what the CEO of the virtual company, Cecil Niosaki, had to say,
“I think it’s incredibly important that we continue to operate on the Second Life grid so that we can teach people how the stock market works. I believe that an education in finance is necessary, and oftentimes players take what they learn on the Capital Exchange onto the real stock market.”
Second Life is an online virtual world created in 2003 by Linden Labs, which allows players to create avatars for themselves, so that they can interact with other users and participate within the Second Life economy. Though popularity for Second Life has died off in recent years, it still has a substantial userbase which may be due to the level of creation that it allows its users to have within the game.
Be sure to check in at a later date, for if they actually manage to reach their goal, then I will definitely be writing about it.
Activision announced today that the launch of its upcoming behemoth Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 will herald not only a newly revamped Call of Duty: Elite, but one that is becoming free for all to use as well. They also announced that the revamped version of Elite will provide support for both clans and the wildly popular zombies mode. The revamp was also widespread enough for them to consider it necessary to release a video explaining all the new features, so if you prefer video to actual reading then jump (or fall?) to the bottom of the page.
Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirschberg commented on this change “We’ve learned a lot in our first year of Call of Duty Elite, and we’re very proud that we over delivered on our commitment of playable content to our premium members. What we have realized is that several of the Call of Duty Elite services which are currently only available to our premium members for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are things that would further unite, engage and delight our player community. So we are going to make them free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”
“For Call of Duty: Black Ops II, DLC Map Packs will be a separate offering from Call of Duty Elite. The Season Pass will be a great way to acquire all four Map Packs at a discount, but if our fans would rather take it one Map Pack at a time, then we’ll offer each pack á la carte for anyone who wants it. What we aren’t doing is requiring a paid membership to access the great player services for Call of Duty: Black Ops II and we’re thrilled to offer all of Elite’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II features to players for free.”
The Call of Duty: Black Ops II Season Pass will provide you with four DLC packs, with it setting you back 4000MSP. The DLC packs will retail otherwise at the CoD standard of 1200MSP, this would provide Season Pass buyers with an 800MSP saving. No release schedule has been given for the DLC besides them not being released until 2013. As with previous iterations of the Call of Duty franchise the DLC will be a timed exclusive on the Xbox 360 much to the chagrin of some PS3 users.
Not only has the Wii been made cheaper, but it looks like the Xbox 360 will be cheaper this holiday season. Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 holiday bundles will be $50 cheaper than past year’s prices.
The first bundle will include a 250GB Xbox 360 Slim, Forza Motorport 4 as well as a digital download of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as well as all of the standard in-box content you’d usually receive. The other bundle will offer a 4GB console, Kinect, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect Disneyland Adventures. These bundles will be available at nearly all retailers in North America closer to the holidays.
