Since the launch of Call of Duty Elite with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last November, the service has drawn in over 7 million subscribers including 1.5 million premium paid subscribers, according to Activision’s 2011 earnings report.
Considering that the Elite service hasn’t even been launched for PC or Playstation 3 (Call of Duty Elite is scheduled to launch on Playstation 3 later this month on February 28), this is certainly an impressive figure that will mostly likely rise exponentially.
So far two new maps have been released for Premium Subscribers. But plenty more downloadable content including new game modes, maps and Special Ops missions is set to be released over a planned nine month schedule.
Toki Tori just has Nintendo written all over it, so its no surprise really that Two Tribes, who have released titles on the Gameboy, DS and Wii have a vested interest in making a sequel come true on Nintendos upcoming HD console, the Wii U. With very little information available at the moment, everything is a little speculative, with the news coming after Nintendo announced new strategies for its online capabilities and stores. It seems Two tribes see the 3DS store as a huge step in the right direction and assume Nintendo will follow suit with the Wii U’s online offerings. With the title relying heavily on online sales, choosing the right platforms for which to develop becomes a hard decision, with the quality and ease of delivering the product to market being of the utmost importance.
Two tribes see plenty of potential for the Wii U controller, already anticipating a smooth transition onto the platform in relation to controls, where the 2 analogue sticks would be perfect for stomping and whistling. Toki Tori has also specifically been designed to run without being a drain on the graphical interface, meaning it should look awesome on the controllers wide screen as well as on any large flat screen. Toki Tori’s uniqueness comes through the living environment players inhabit, where everything is used to solve puzzles, with very few limitations on what to do. Apart from the fact their will be NO motion control and these small tidbits of information, not a whole lot is known about this title yet, but stay tuned for more news.
OZ-Comic Con, the Comic Con alternative for Aussies has had it’s blessing from none other than Stan Lee himself. For those who don’t know who Stan Lee is, you have forgone your right to live on this planet. I’m not going to bother explaining to you that he is one of the biggest icons in the comic-book world at all.
Now then, he has left a message for all of us Australian Comic-book fans that may be attending this event – which I have embedded below. So take a look and thank Stan Lee for his time in participating in this awesome video.
Excelsior!!
Update: Tickets can be purchased for $20 for adults and lesser rates for children. For more information, check out the ticket prices here and choosing the Tickets section on the side. Tickets are available through Ticketek and on the website linked above. Oz Comic-Con is also looking for Volunteers for the Adelaide convention. So be sure to register for those positions if you are interested in helping out.
Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, and Rift developers Trion Worlds have decided to mark the date in a bizarre but wonderful way – mass marriage! That’s right, if you get married in Telara between 9am PST on February 14 to 9am PST on February 15, you will automatically be part of a world record attempt – for the most in game marriages in 24 hours.
If you take part you’ll get the exclusive in game title – “the Avowed” (changed from the originally announced “Tier of Knots”), but marriages of convenience will not be tolerated – you must remain married until the end of the event! Marriages are a fairly new feature in Rift, but those who have already tied the knot are encouraged to file for divorce so they can do it all over again!
If this whole marriage business is all a bit of an unknown, you can find more details on the process here. Trion Worlds have also released a new video specifically for the event, which you can watch below.
In this single-player shooter, veteran Major Fletcher is caught in a battle between two of mankind’s greatest enemies. With over-the-top action and a wide variety of weapons, Fletcher must battle his way through seemingly never-ending waves of mechanical foes which will lead him to discover that not everything is what it seems to be.
The free-to-play online fps, Crossfire: Europe, now has a new gameplay style: Biohazard mode.
In this new mode, the Black List terror organisation lost control of soldiers biochemically experimented on. Now these infected mutants are roaming in the secret Grand Canyon facility and the Global Risk counter-terrorist unit has dispatched a team to eliminate them.
Biohazard mode features four-player support and 18 new monster types. This mode rewards players that play cooperatively as players that do will receive the best rewards. The better the teamwork, the higher chances of the team surviving, which in turn means receiving exclusive items from prize crates after each wave tier.
The Guinness World Records book has it’s fair share of odd and random entries, but did you know there’s also a gaming version? Well the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition book is getting ready to release, and a survey conducted for it has just revealed a surprising ‘fact’ – Call of Duty Black Ops has the greatest videogame ending of all time.
Now this is according to a mere 13,519 voters, so isn’t exactly representative of the millions of gamers out there, but even so the outcome is more than a little debatable. Is this really the best conclusion to any video game in the entire history of gaming?
10. Heavy Rain
9. Final Fantasy VII
8. Metal Gear Solid 4
7. Portal
6. Red Dead Redemption
5. God of War
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Halo: Reach
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
You can check out the full top 50 for yourself here.
If you are super keen to get your hands on the demo for Mass Effect 3 (due for official release tomorrow) then get yourself over to Facebook pronto. Once there you can exchange your basic data and birthdate for access to the Mass Effect 3 app, which if you play through and win, will grant you an access code to either the demo or an avatar item in the form of the Normandy.
The game has been running for a few days now, so this is your last to chance to get hold of the demo before it’s released to the masses tomorrow. If you manage to mess up the game (decipher a simple code) then you’ll be locked out for a couple of hours – so be careful with those clicks.
Mass Effect 3 will be released in full on March 6, and the demo goes live for all tomorrow.
Kill List Studio: Film 4, Screen Yorkshire, Rook Films, UK Film Council Publisher: Madman Entertainment Format: Blu Ray (reviewed), DVD Release Date: January 11, 2012 Price: $39.95 (available here)
Overview:
Kill List is the second film by British director Ben Wheatley, following on from 2009’s Down Terrace. Co-written with his wife Amy Jump, the film is something of a genre mashup, taking in kitchen sink domestic drama, the one last job hitman movie, and, somewhat jarringly, occult horror. Comparisons have been made with horror classic The Wicker Man, and Kill List has found itself crowbarred into ‘cult independent classic’ status by many reviewers.
Story:
With numerous domestic arguments over a Jacuzzi and unbought toilet paper, the opening half hour of Kill List may have you wondering whether you’ve bought the right movie. Jay (Neil Maskell) is a British army vet, who having returned from a mysterious but mentally damaging job in Kiev, hasn’t worked for eight months. Tensions are high within the household and arguments between Jay and his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) are frequent and frightening for seven year old son Sammy.
Joined by old colleague Gel and his new girlfriend for a dinner party, things inevitably flare up once again. Outraged by his wife serving gravy in a Pyrex jug and being told off for eating too much, Jay flips his lid and his dinner plate, souring the atmosphere and storming off to the garage. There he’s joined by the more mentally stable and genial Gel, who offers to bring him in on a job – a kill list.
As unlikely as it may seem, this middle aged and mumbly pair are actually hit men, and even more surprising, Shel knows it. Meanwhile Gel’s new girlfriend has taken a trip to the toilet, where she casually removes a mirror from the wall, carves an occult symbol on to the back of it and then carries on as normal.
And so the duo set off to strike the names from their list. As with the preceding scenes things are tense, and even though there are moments of black comedy to lighten the load, even these are tinged with a feeling of dread, or hint at the violence to come. Title cards dominate the screen with the identity of the next entry on the list, so after signing a contract in blood (hint hint) Gel and Jay set off to kill a priest. Things begin to unravel when the victim sincerely thanks Jay for his work, and the next victim only makes matters worse for Jay’s mental state.
The quiet menace of Kill List is punctuated with moments of intense and uncompromising violence. As Jay gradually unravels his kills become more disturbing, and the camera never cuts away. Comparisons with Drive are inevitable, but Kill List has none of that films style or glamour to detract from the horrific acts on screen – the film certainly surpasses Drive in it’s brutality. Despite the fact that Jay’s victims may be ‘bad people’ , there is never any illusion that the hitmen are ‘good’ – Jay is committing violent and sadistic murder. The fact that on the surface the two seem such ordinary men only adds to the impact – hit men are not glamourous, they are killers. This also demonstrates a point that Kill List makes many a time – you never know what evil seemingly normal people are capable of.
Gel provides more of an emotional tie for the audience than the psychotic Jay, but even he cannot ground the third act of the movie. Where Kill List has so far survived on a very real and serious reality, the finale throws that out the window and feels like a different film entirely. Moving into horror territory brings the dividing line between terrifying and stupid all too close, and for some Kill List will definitely cross it. The final twist is an obvious one that has appeared in another recent horror, and it leaves too many things unexplained to bring a satisfying end to events. Character motivations ago unexplained and it’s difficult to care about the eventual outcome. After the credits rolled on Kill List I just found myself with a bad taste in my mouth and not much else.
Audio and Visual:
Despite having a very simple, realistic visual style, Kill List is still very well shot. However jump cuts can make the tension feel forced, and the timing of the edits is jarring to the point of knocking you out of the experience. The music too feels a little asynchronous, particulalry during the first half of the action. It reflects the jumbling of genres in the film and really does feel like it doesn’t belong with what’s going on visually. When the kill list actually begins things come together into a more effective package, and the violent moments are incredibly effective in their execution – they are almost guaranteed to provoke some sort of physical reaction. Unfortunately some of the dialogue is very difficult to pick up on, a bad mix combines with some mumbly British accents to make subtitles a near necessity in certain scenes.
Extras:
Extras include three short interviews with cast and crew and a seven minute making of. Although the interviews are brief they allow the director, main cast (Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring) and producers to dig into the themes of the movie and it’s development history without falling into too much of a love fest. Director Ben Wheatley runs over the reasoning behind some of the creative decisions, and the two actors provide a bit more insight into what makes their characters tick. The making of is a compilation of un-narrated clips rather than a structured documentary, so don’t expect to gain any real insight into the process. Overall Kill List provides about fifteen minutes of extras that unfortunately won’t satisfy any fan who really wants to dig into the movie.
Overall:
Kill List is a film that will doubtlessly divide opinion. It’s well acted and at times incredibly tense, and the violence of the kills will stick in your head for a long time. It’s a quiet, slow burner of a movie that never fully explains itself. If you’re willing to think about it’s themes and characters then there is something to be mined from it, but the film itself falls short of being a satisfying experience, largely because of the ending. Horror fans sick of Hollywood style shlock should give Kill List a try – it’s as far removed from that as you can imagine.
Riot Games has just offered a short comic for their upcoming champion, Nautilus – the Titan of the Depths.
In the comic we can see that there is a fermenting hatred forming in the undeath of the latest champion. Remembering his last moments only as a dream, Nautilus has forged these memories as a personal vengeance for those that left him for dead. The severed anchor symbolizes his broken connection with the living and offers his opponents the same deliverance to join in a similar suffering.
Personally, I think Nautilus would make more sense as a ranged DPS champion. I would reduce his movement speed seeing that he has a major amount of diving gear. If the anchor is truly his main weapon, I would extend the reach with a chain which would provide not only ranged damage but also have a radial effect. His ultimate will surely have something to do with embedded secrets in Davy Jones’ locker. Beware of the KRAKEN!
