Author: Shane O'Hare

The northern most Geekscapist. I've been doing the 'scape since before it was cool! Video games are my main prerogative but I can be passionately geeky for many things.

NVIDIA Announces New Portable Gaming System: Project Shield

by Shane O'Hare

In a text book example of “out of left field” Nvidia, the video card creator Juggernaut, has announced that they are getting into the video game platform market. Dubbed Project Shield, it will bridge the gap between PC and Console gaming.

Powered by the newest portable chip, the Tegra 4, it will allow gamers to have console quality content in a portable platform. The brand new custom chip, which combines a 72 core Nvidia GPU and A15 arm quad core processor, allows immense graphical power that doesn’t demand a lot on your battery. The results? Hours of console quality gaming that can be run off a large cellphone battery.

The main drive behind the development of Project Shield was getting high quality games into your hands. The device runs off a vanilla Android OS which gives gamers access to all Google Play games, but the real reason to pick this sucker up is it’s ability to stream your PC games to the device. If you have an Nvidia GTX 650 or higher graphics card, you can play any of your PC games to your device. With a pretty beefy retina display attached to the controller you will get some stunning clarity in your hands.

Not much else to report, check out the full release HERE on Nvidias official site. To see an extensive gallery and some of the footage from the Press Event check out our friends over at The Verge

My initial thoughts? I am pretty intrigued. I always love seeing new technology so when I get this press release I was excited. There has been a pretty strong push lately with getting the PC out of the computer room. With stuff like STEAMS Big Picture and 1:1 desktop display streaming to iDevices it seems like there is a market for changing how we consume PC games. As for the the handheld portion itself, it seems dubious. There are a couple of gaming devices out now that will attach to an Android phone (Check out some humorous commercials for the MOGA HERE and HERE) and it seems like there is a strong market with getting a controller on an Android.

Geekscape Games Review: ‘The Art Of Assassin’s Creed III’

by Shane O'Hare

The Assassin’s Creed series has always shown incredible artistic direction; from the dark atmosphere of the crusades to the vibrant and alive renaissance to the dystopian modern age we get to visit as Desmond, the wonderful team over at Ubisoft have yet to disappoint fans. The great guys and gals over at Titan Books  have recently put out an amazing collection of concept art and notes from the design team that crafted Assassin’s Creed III. Lets jump right in and take a look at The Art of Assassin’s Creed III

When I got my hands on the book I was ecstatic. I normally don’t go for art books and I’m simply not very interested in concept art. When I cracked the spine on this hardback however, I was blown away. The outstanding painted collections of concept images are presented in an extremely intelligent and cohesive manner.

The book is laid out over seven chapters that is prefaced with a great foreword by the Creative Director for AC3, Alex Hutchinson, which explains the thought process of the artists. The collected works start from a few sketches in a meeting way back in 2010 and cover the entire two years of development.

Present Day

Now, when I started looking at this collection I hadn’t yet played the game. I’ve only just got my hands on a copy and haven’t even broken the surface of the narrative. It’s really amazing to see where the artists changed their initial concepts and where they kept things the way they were envisioned from the start. Talking over the book with my friend Dylan, who had already cranked through a good portion of the game was an extremely interesting conversation.

The artist Chinh Ngo states that he wanted to to showcase the artificial lights of the modern era, making the sequences as Desmond a stark contrast to the natural lighting from the revolution. Exaggerated and dynamic lights were featured to help bring the cold electric feel across the atmosphere; from the overhead view of an MMA fight, to a dark, damp vehicle sequence. The notes on the Abstergo offices were interesting; the design team wanted to make the angles of the building very sharp and sterile.

Characters

The creative thought process behind these characters is amazing. The evolution of Connor is something any fan of the game has to see; his first design is very Native American inspired, with feathers being very prominent. The change from concept to concept is very interesting to see, his first iteration is very foreign compared to Ezio or Altair. Conceptually looking into the historically relevant people you’ll meet in the game is absolutely breath taking. These large scale paintings of some of the historical figures deserve to placed in a museum, I’m saying they’re actually museum quality.

Forest & Frontier

The one element of AC3 that shines the most is the expansive environment players can explore. The entire game is 1.5 times larger than Rome from Brotherhood, and you can see in this section of the book that the art team really put a lot of their heart and soul into crafting this world. The really fascinating portion is the recreation of famous battles and locations from history. The artist notes in this chapter are very intriguing and are definitely worth a read.

Boston

Way back at SDCC 2012 I attended the Ubsoft AC3 panel (my fellow ‘scapist Jake108 was also there). They demoed a section of the game in Boston, and frankly I was a little underwhelmed. The portion I saw seemed to be step backwards from the Italian renaissance, and the parts I’ve seen in game of the city still haven’t overly impressed me, but DAMN, this section of the book is critical. Seeing these huge set pieces really wowed me. From alleyways to docks, I cannot believe how cool this place looks. Maybe I need to progress further in the game, but where did all these great ideas go!? If you pick up this book, you NEED to see page 83; That HUGE shot of the entire city is absolutely incredible. It deserves to be on canvas in some rich white dude’s study, right over the fireplace.

New York

New York, New York baby. Historically this place was the setting of many pivotal battles for the revolution. The notes here focussing on the emphasis of shadows are very interesting. It’s more of the same you’ll have seen in the Boston section, and it is also the shortest section of the book.

Homestead

A returning mechanic from AC2 is the home territory. In this case players get to interact and upgrade a large tract of land that Connor and his mentor call home. I’ve seen a great deal of the process of upgrading and exploring the homestead while watching my friend play through a bunch of the quests. I find it extremely interesting how the game intertwines different characters into your own town. Doing small sidequests for each new person who comes into the homestead and how the area changes from what they bring is one of the coolest parts of the game. The concept art for the homestead area is very intriguing. The character and housing developmental changes is definitely something to take notice of.

Battle At Sea

Back at that SDCC panel, Ubisoft expanded on the Naval portion of the game. Seeing stills from it made me want this game so much more. I’ve always loved the sea from this period in time; if you see the miniseries Hornblower from A&E you will know why. AC3 really blew this part out of the water, pun intended. The paintings from this chapter are really some amazing pieces. If Titan Books are reading this, you can get me the images from page 135 on canvas for Christmas (please!).

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the beginning, I’ve never been a HUGE art fan. The little books you get in some collectors editions of games really never interested me. This huge collected works from AC3, on the other hand, is something to behold. The notes that accompany the pictures is worth the price of the book alone. The crew over at Titan Books really put together a great collection and I think everyone needs to check it out.

You can get your hands on the version I have right HERE.

BUT! If you are the ultimate Assassin’s Creed fan then you’lll want to get the Limited Edition copy. It features a radical slip case and two signed prints from two of the artists, Chinh Ngo and Gilles Beloeil. It is limited to 1000 copies, so if you want it, you better get it quick!

Publisher THQ Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

by Shane O'Hare

THQ is cleaning house and giving ownership to a new set of people. After a HUGELY successful Humble Bundle that raised the stock of the company almost 40% temporarily, another great deal offered through amazon and now the STEAM winter sale, it is still going through with what all the economists believed. They’re filing for Chapter 11 baby.

Clearlake Capital Group is putting up $60million US Dollars to purchase the fledgling publisher and it’s four development houses, Vigil, Relic, Volition and THQ Montreal. The goods news is their development schedule will continue as planned during the course of the Bankruptcy, should the court approve of the sale.

We will keep you up to date on the process as more information is released. The bankruptcy court will allow for other companies to make offers and bid on the publisher, so it may get interesting.

Read the full press release HERE

Check out the THQ Collection on STEAM HERE

DmC: Devil May Cry FINALLY Gets A Release Date! FOR PC TOO!

by Shane O'Hare

Finally! I’ve been waiting for that elusive “2013” date to turn into a specific Month and Day. Well we got it! For XBOX and PS3 you can get your grubby paws on it January 15th! WOOHOO! Best part about all this? A mere 10 days later us PC players will be able to pick it up ( January 25th )! Retail, STEAM and Origin will all be offering the game! Check out the PC version requirements.

Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows Vista®/XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
Processor: AMD Athlon™ X2 2.8 GHz or better, Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.4 Ghz or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: ATI Radeon™ HD 3850 or better, NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GTS or better
DirectX®: 9.0c or greater
Sound: Standard audio device

Recommended System Requirements:
OS: Windows Vista®/XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 3 GHz or better, Intel® Core™2 Quad 2.7 Ghz or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 9 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: AMD Radeon™ HD 6950 or better
DirectX®: 9.0c or greater
Sound: Standard audio device

The game will also support third party controllers, just in case you don’t want to use a Keyboard and Mouse.

 


Nirvana Is Back! With Paul McCartney As Lead!?

by Shane O'Hare

It’s 12/12/12 and the world is acting pretty damn weird. It was announced/leaked today that Nirvana will return for a one night show, and their lead singer will be Paul McCartney. Yeah, THAT Paul McCartney. You know, from the Beatles.

This is all for the 121212 Hurricane Sandy Charity concert. The goal of the event is to raise money for the Robin Hood Fund which is said to directly go to areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.

In an article from The Sun, it said that Paul had just rung up Dave Grohl and Grohl asked him to come around and play some tunes. After a few songs and an what I would say would be an enjoyable evening, Paul exhibited a startling example of being oblivious. He asked Dave “Who are these guys?”. He was quickly informed that he was taking up the role of the late great Cobain and the guys he was playing with were Nirvana…sort of.

Well this little get-together really sparked something, as McCartney along with Krist Novoselic and David Grohl will be joining forces TONIGHT as Nirvana playing a brand new song during the 121212 Charity Concert. Hopefully our own Matt Kelly will take the time out of his busy schedule to watch it and give us his thoughts.

For more information on where you can watch this event, check out the 121212 Broadcast page HERE.

Metro: Last Light Gets A Gameplay Trailer! Check Out ‘Genesis’

by Shane O'Hare

Metro: Last light can’t get here any sooner. The sequel to Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light has promised to offer next gen cutting edge graphics and environments. Well we finally get a peak at what we can expect come 2013. Check out the Genesis trailer below.

 

4A Games has really out done themselves with this one. Metro 2033 was a stunning example of how a fantastic book can be brought to life in a very organic way. We can expect greatness this time around as well, because the author of Metro 2033 and Metro 2034, Dmitry Glukhovsky is writing the story for Last Light.

So you say “Shane, you are extremely attractive and even though you have a tendency to flip out at the drop of the hat we all love you very much and value your voice at Geekscape, but I am absolutely new to the Metro games series! I haven’t played 2033 and don’t want to get left behind.”

Well you’re in luck, as THQ is really being generous right now what with their Humble Bundle. Well the Christmas cheer keeps flowing as they are giving Metro 2033 away…FOR FREE! AS IN BEER! AS IN DON’T COST A THING!

You can get your very own free copy of Metro 2033 right here!

Is ‘Phantom Pain’ The Next Metal Gear Solid Game From Kojima?

by Shane O'Hare

During Spike’s VGAs there was a MYSTERIOUS trailer played for a new game called Phantom Pain, by a brand new and unheard of Moby Dick Studio. Well a few intrepid online sleuths have put the puzzle together and the evidence leads to it being the newest Metal Gear Solid game. Lets take a look at the trailer.

Pretty spooky. When I first watched it I pegged it for another horror shooter like F.E.A.R, but while doing some research I found some interesting clues. Someone pointed out online that the WhoIs lookup for the brand new and unknown Swedish game studio has its domain registered by a French woman living in Gibraltar. If you take a look at the WhoIs list you can see most of the registration is in French.

Another piece of the puzzle is that during the VGAs, Forbes reported that “Phantom Pain” isn’t even the right title and it is meant as a misdirection, and flat out say it is Kojima’s game. The CEO of Moby Dick Studio is named Joakim Mogren, if you pull a D’avinvi Code on that name, the first name spells out “Kojima”.

The internet is pretty much settled on this being Metal Gear Solid 5, and not Ground Zeroes, but a shot from the Ground Zeroes promotional images is an almost exact facial match.

But the real smoking gun is this image below. If you look at the Phantom Pain banner VERY closely you can see small faint letters and when you fill them out in MS-Paint you get this.

Check Out The ‘Street Fighter X Mega Man’ Reveal Trailer!

by Shane O'Hare

Street Fighter is a real Reese’s type title. Always mixing up with other flavors. Sometimes it’s good like in the case of Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, and sometimes it’s not. Like the case of Street Fighter X Tekken. Well Street Fighter has gotten it’s peanut-butter in another games chocolate with the new Street Fighter X Mega Man. Check out the reveal trailer below!

Not what you thought, was it? This nice little game is coming out in honor of the 25th Anniversary of both Mega Man and Street Fighter and can be yours FOR FREE as a PC download this December 17th. A nice little Christmas present from Capcom to you.

Check out the official website HERE.

The Future Of ZombCon: The Fate Of One Of The Greatest Conventions Is Still Uncertain

by Shane O'Hare

A few months ago our friends over at ZombCon posted a request for help. They needed a certain amount of presale tickets in order to keep their convention completely independent and at home in Seattle, well the deadline for the presale has come and went, and no word from the people in charge was heard. Well we just got an update on the situation for the convention, a press release was issued today and it gave me mixed feelings. From the release.

After the December 2nd deadline, we reached 314 total advance ticket sales through our first campaign, an impressive number, but not nearly enough to move to helping us secure our first media guest and hotel for 2013. We delayed the announcement, due to sudden interest by a third party to possibly invest to reach our $25,000 goal and support to help produce the convention as early as 2013.

After a set of meetings, it is clear that the investors see the potential, but have expressed  interest to take it to a new city like Las Vegas or Los Angeles. However at this time, there is no contract and the conversation continues as we speak. Not all hope is lost for our Zombie horde and the ZomBcon convention in the near future.

At this current time, our organizers are currently in Los Angeles meeting with a number of people to secure a new home for 2014. By having the convention closer to the industry, it would allow us to invite media guests at little to no cost, simply due to being closer to Hollywood, as well as reduce our operational costs.

Our organizers want to Thank all of you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm in the great Northwest, it has been our home and continues to be our home starting with the annual Red, White & Dead Zombie Walk in Fremont.

When I first heard the news I was saddened. I’ve been to a few conventions but only one like ZombCon. Everyone around was really enjoying themselves and sharing stories, trivia and thoughts on the horror genre. It wasn’t the brain melting overload that SDCC is now. You could really get to know some really cool people from the industry.

The good news from all this is that there is still hope. Hopefully the new investors will be able to breathe some life into this great convention and bring it to a market that will yield more visitors.

The horror and zombie genre was always one that I wanted to know more about, I respected them for what they were but never really was able to wrap my head around them and enjoy them like some. Going to ZombCon and being able to soak it all in at once was a great experience and filled my brain with some crazy knowledge.

For the full release check it out HERE.

The Soundtrack For ‘Journey’ Is Nominated For A Grammy! First Time For A Video Game

by Shane O'Hare

Gamers occupy an amazing time, our passion is evolving from the waste of time that once was a game of pac-man, to giant franchises and opuses like Halo. Games are taking the next step.

The hyper stylized, wonderfully emotional and powerful MASTERPIECE of a game, Journey, has just been nominated for a Grammy! I can understand your amazement, “A GAME?! WIN A GRAMMY?!!?!?!”, what once was just a dream of musical producers of Jet Set Radio is now the possible future for Journey and the games composer Austin Wintory!

Journey is nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and is up against some real Juggernauts. Tintin, The Artist, Dark Knight Rises, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Hugo are all competing against this magnificent piece of art.

Some of you may be saying, “Whats Journey, and why should I care?”, well let me educate you.

Journey is a PSN downloadable game, where players take up the role of an anonymous and silent protagonist. There is NO dialogue at all in this game, and the entire narrative is up for interpretation to the player. The only kind of feedback you get is the incredible soundtrack that is programmed perfectly. The background music is constantly changing and reacting to what is happening on screen. Take a peak at my personal favorite level in the game to get an idea of what this is all about.

Lets cross our fingers and hopefully Journey will make musical history.

We Got Ourselves Some ‘Bioshock: Infinite’ Boxart!

by Shane O'Hare

Without further adieu, HERE IT IS!

Wow, how…generic. A white guy, in his 30’s with brown hair. This seriously detracts from the game. All the previous games, System Shock and Bioshock, you were kind of a faceless protagonist. This just makes it look like every shooter guy out there. He reminds me of someone specific, but I can’t place it…

And of course the ever relevant Mega64 video.

 

Bioshock: Infinite can be found next on store shelves February 26th. Right next to Max Payne 3: The Shooting.

Halo 4’s Newest Map Pack ‘Crimson’ Gets A Trailer & Pricing

by Shane O'Hare

The first of three planned maps for the online portion of Halo 4 just got a release trailer. Check out what you can expect in the “Crimson Map Pack” below.

I am actually not very impressed. These all feel very very similar to existing maps, nothing screams “BUY ME”. If you want to enjoy Crimson you can for 800 MS points on December 10th.

Watch As The Cast Of ‘Frasier’ Crew The USS Voyager! It’s Both Horrible And Hilarious

by Shane O'Hare

Set your web browser to random as hell. In this random clip from some random special, we get a glimpse at what the USS Voyager would be like if the cast from Frasier were in control.

Cheese sensors report maximum cheddar.

Bungie’s Newest Game ‘Destiny’ Has Details Leaked! This Looks Huge!

by Shane O'Hare

An intrepid reader, someone on the inside most likely at Bungie, leaked a STACK of pics and details to our friends over at IGN. What follows is an intriguing series of photos with a few bites of delicious hickory smoked info.

Destiny is the first game from the famed Halo developer since their departure from the franchise. It is still a very sci-fi (SyFy)  heavy game. From the document leaked to IGN:

Our story begins seven hundred years from now in the Last City on Earth, in a Solar System littered with the ruins of man’s Golden Age. A massive, mysterious alien ship hangs overhead like a second Moon. No one knows where it came from or what it’s here for, but only that it’s our protector. Meanwhile, strange, alien monsters creep in from the edge of the universe, determined to take Earth and the Last City. We are young ‘knights’ tasked with defending the remains of humanity, discovering the source of these monsters and – eventually – overcoming it.

IGN hasn’t shared the entire uncut document, but they have pointed out some interesting points. The leak says Destiny is geared to a diverse audience, specifically stating they want make it accessible to everyone, like the Star Wars universe. It also says that there is a large social aspect to the game, where players will explore the universe with friends.

When the story was posted Bungie responded by posting an image on their website, which has filled me with glee.

That is one BADASS piece of concept art. I personally love universes that look like this. Dirty, electronic, scary and full of that hard sci-fi flavor I love. No other details have been announced, but you can be guaranteed the Geekscape Gamer Guys and Gals will keep you updated as more info is released.

Be sure to head over to IGN for the full writeup, but in the meantime check out all of the collected art that has been released.

 

The ‘Wii-Mini’ Has Been Revealed! BUT ONLY FOR CANADA!!!

by Shane O'Hare

You read that right kids. The Wii gets a facelift, err well uhhh more like invasive fat removal surgery. Take a look at the little guy below!

That does look pretty slick, doesn’t it? Under the hood we have a drastically different machine. All GameCube compatibility has been torn out, WiFi removed and a new top loading disc drive (think portable walkman CD-Player) Nintendo has been able to scrape out most of the cost off the console. At $100 you get a Wii, Wii-Mote Plus and Chuck and that’s it.

The most interesting part of all this is that is a Canada exclusive. December 7th our friends to the North (East for me) get this little guy. At first I was confused, but looking into the though process behind it, everything makes sense. A lot of the Wii’s already out there have just devolved into a Netflix machine and Netflix not being as popular in Canada like it is here in the USA makes it the perfect place to do some retail level market analysis.  Who knows, this may be crazy successful and be sold in the US shortly.

Nintendo has a history of releasing compact versions of consoles at the end of their life cycles. Top loading NES, SNES-2, GBA-Micro and GameBoy Pocket are all prime examples of their logic.

So the world will wait, see what Canada does with this device. Hey, Derek, why don’t you enjoy this rare opportunity to have some delicious exclusivity.

December 7th the lovely Canadians can pick this up along side a stack of Tim Hortons treats. Lucky bastards.

Check Out The Launch Trailer For The Newest Battlefield 3 Expansion ‘Aftermath’!

by Shane O'Hare

The next iteration and expansion for the online shooter masterpiece, Battlefield 3, just got it’s launch trailer TODAY! Check out Aftermath below.

If you’ve not been in the loop, Aftermath is the fourth expansion for Battlefield 3 (BF3 premium member this will show up on Battlelog automatically). It takes place after the series of earthquakes that hit Tehran in the single player campaign. We all remember that big building coming down in the BF3 launch trailer, well now we can play in that crashed (the tower was driving drunk) building!

New mad max looking cobbled vehicles and the crossbow everyone was raging over fit very well in the post quake environments. I am very excited to see how the aftershocks and tremors will play a role into online play.

So if you have a PS3 you can hop on right now and play these maps right away, PC and Xbox need to wait until December 4th.

Bring Your Minecraft Creations To The Real World With ‘Minecraft Reality’ Iphone App!

by Shane O'Hare

It appears that Mojang is taking an interesting step towards the mobile market. Instead of getting vanilla Minecraft working on iOS, they’ve decided to bring Minecraft to the real world. Check out the trailer for “Minecraft Reality” below.

So let me break it down for you. This app lets you take objects and models from the game, ones you’ve or others have created, and put them into the real world. With some pretty clever Augmented Reality and GPS tagging you can place the object with your iPhone and others with the App can run into your creation in the real world!

So check out the iTunes appstore and buy it yourself HERE.

Check out the developers (13th Lab) page HERE.

So for two bucks I think it a pretty interesting and fun concept. I just wonder how long until giant penises plague downtown L.A.

Team Bondi’s ‘Whore Of The Orient’ Gets A 2015 Release

by Shane O'Hare

Way back in August we broke the story that the team who created the award winning L.A. Noire would be making a new game set in 1930’s China.

Well no new details on the game have been released yet, but a German gaming website was able to announce that the game will be released sometime in 2015. Now this is nowhere near as long as the seven year development for L.A. Noire. I have faith that Team Bondi (now KMM Interactive) will be able to make a spiritual successor to one of my all time favorite games.

Ponies Are Back In Town! MLP:FiM Returns THIS SATURDAY!

by Shane O'Hare

Fellow Bronies, let us rejoice and praise Celestia! My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic returns to the HUB this Saturday November 10th at 10 AM ET!  Check out this sneak preview of the two part premiere titled “The Crystal Empire”!

Are you as excited as I am? I’ll be waking up after a night with Bond to breakfast in bed WITH PONIES! TWO WHOLE EPISODES OF PONIES!

Also new from The HUB is a new show centered around My Littlest Petshop, titled Littlest Petshop, and it features some familiar voices! Tabitha St. German and Nicole Oliver will be the star talent on the newest show. You can see that right afterwards at 11 AM ET!

See you in Ponyville Saturday

Geekscape Movie Reviews: ‘The Man With The Iron Fists’

by Shane O'Hare

Last Friday was a day of days. I spent my entire evening at the cinema! Starting the night off with MY most anticipated film of 2012 (besides Battleship), The Man With The Iron Fists! Right afterwards I saw the animated juggernaut Wreck-It Ralph, but our own Derek Kraneveldt put up a very verbose review of the film, and seemed to like it a bit more than me. But I digress.

The RZA is The Man With The Iron Fists, but surprisingly isn’t the main character in the film!

The Man With The Iron Fists marks famed Wu-Tang member, The RZA (Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) directorial and writing debut with the help of gore master Eli Roth of course. If you’ve been living under a rock (or have been a member of Westboro Baptist Church) and DON’T know who the Wu-Tang Clan are let me give you a quick refresher.

The Wu-Tang Clan is a group of hip-hop pioneers. Revolutionizing the genre in dozens of ways. Be it rhyming style, sampling, lyrical content or starting the modern idea of a rap crew. In short, Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nuthin to fuck with.

Now the first Wu-Tang Clan album is the shining example of the RZA’s love for old Kung-Fu films. Specifically some of the shining stars from the Shaw Brothers studios. If you’ve seen a single Shaw Brothers movie or just love old Chinese Kung-Fu movies then this is right up your alley.

Our film starts off with a bang. Old school freeze frames and Chinese characters that look like moon speak to most of us. This whole film oozes with style and cool, your eyes will not be disappointed. The first scene is a doozy. A test of might, as a fight during a banquet with two rival families have dinner together. A man gets his arms ripped off. Like, from the elbows down. By hand. Right away I knew this was the movie for me.

We are quickly flung forward into the plot, well one of the many plot lines that all end up crashing together. The leader of the Lion Clan, Golden Lion, gets murdered in a scheme devised by his underlings. Silver and Bronze Lion have their leader murdered in order to assume control of the clan to steal a shipment of gold being sent by the Emperor himself. Golden Lion’s son , Zen-Yi (The X-Blade), gets word of his fathers death and immediately goes in pursuit of his killers.

The lesser Lions display the ancient Chinese art of SWAG.

Then we have the Emperors gold itself. It is being moved from the Emperors castle and up to his troops in the North. What use an army has for three carriages of gold eludes me, its just an excuse to add another plot line to the film that include some serious badass and legendary assassins, the Gemini Killers.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Shortly therafter we are introduced to the mysterious stranger character, Russel Crowe. He plays the pun tasticaly named foreigner Jack Knife, who is just looking for some strange and opium…or so it seems. Jack Knife had me wondering about his motives the whole time, and overall was way more enjoyable to watch than The RZA. It was really surprising to find out that Crowe filmed the entirety of his scenes in TEN DAYS.

Mr. Knife should win an Oscar for his use of anal beads on a Chinese whore.

So where do these plot points all end up? WELL JUNGLE VILLAGE OF COURSE! The home of our protagonist (if you can really call him that), the man with the iron fists himself, the Blacksmith. Yeah, our director RZA is the only black guy in the movie…and is a blacksmith…named Blacksmith…and is a runaway slave. The hilarity is palpable. (NOTE: His character appears in Django Unchained, so keep an eye out.) His character is Jungle Village’s blacksmith, and ends up making weapons for pretty much everyone so they can kill everyone else. He is in love with a prostitute that works at the Pink Blossom Brothel, and is slowly working to pay her way out so they can live together in happiness. But after one of the other incomprehensible plot lines finds out he is making weapons for the other, he has something awful done to him and he is left to the aid of Mr. Knife.

The Pink Blossom is run by Madam Blossom herself, Lucy Liu! Her character feels fairly one dimensional and it was like she was mostly channeling her role of O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill. She wasn’t the BEST performance in the film but DAMN she had a great fucking job. What I wouldn’t give to spend a day in her life.

Madam Blossom and her girls. Really the best LOOKING characters in the film. If you, heheh, know what I mean.

I know what you are thinking, “That is a huge fucking preface!”, and you are right. This is where The Man With The Iron Fists runs into problems. It is obvious at the get go that this film is RZA’s giant love letter to The Shaw Brothers. He ends up trying way to hard to incorporate different themes from many Shaw films and the different story lines end up feeling rushed and you never get a chance to really learn the different characters. It is interesting to learn that the first draft of this film was four hours long, but was cut down by the studio. I imagine the full length version makes a lot more sense and the overly dramatic death scenes more meaningful.

What this film does excel at is the fighting, but the rushed story puts all but two major battles inside the Pink Blossom Brothel in the third act. Everything but the blatantly obvious (I’m looking at you Bautista) was shot traditionally, and I cannot praise this film more for it.

What we are treated to is a “greatest hits” of old kung-fu and wire-fu fight scenes. If you’ve seen The Five Element Ninjas, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Crouching Tiger and The Matrix you know what you are going to get in this film. The disjointed story is held together by the fighting, and RZA got really creative with the fighting.

Crowe showing his Crane style to RZA. Eli Roth looks very disappointed.

The character known as “X-Blade” has a suit of armor that is just a bunch of articulated knives, and is able to stab every living thing with any part of his body. His first battle is against some members of the Rat Clan in a noodle hut, and is a giant homage to the now FAMOUS fight from Samurai Champloo.

My personal favorite scene was the Gemini Killers fight. They have brought the gold to Jungle Village and have rented a hotel for them and their soldiers for the night. Well Lion Clan know its there and they want it. What followed was a brilliant display of old school wire-fu with modern camera techniques. The Gemini Killers use Ying-Yang swords that they link together for some truly amazing moves. Thought I did get a strong hint of The Crippled Masters when the girl got on the shoulders of the male.

I’m really starting to drone on. My final thoughts? This film is brilliant but suffers from a story that meanders from fight to fight. The RZA’s love for Kung-Fu movies from our youth is really obvious, and this movie really pays tribute to some of the greats and not so great films from China.  If you spent many a weekend at a Blockbuster looking for some random dubbed Kung-Fu movie, or if you know that Operation Condor is actually the sequel to Armour of God you will not be disappointed with The Man With The Iron Fists.

I hate giving reviews a score on a scale, and prefer to highlight the good and bad points for a product.  Your money is very well spent seeing this in the theater. The all original soundtrack featuring Wu-Tang, Kanye, Wiz Khalifa, The Black Keys, My Chemical Romance and many many more really shines. With fantastic fights that salute the great choreographers from our youth, and are full of blood, gore and crazy weapons this film shines on the big screen. Just don’t expect a story worth writing home about.

‘Mass Effect Trilogy’ Gets An Official Trailer

by Shane O'Hare

Mass Effect is over. The story is finished, much to the chagrin of many privileged gamers. Well this coming Tuesday isn’t just the day to waste your vote at the polls, it is the day you can pick up the Mass Effect Trilogy! Take a peak at the trailer below!

Some of the feature you get with the Trilogy are:

Over 75 hours of story content, plus Mass Effect 3’s critically acclaimed multiplayer mode.

Create and customize your own character with his or her appearance and skills, then play your Commander Shepard through all three Mass Effect games.

Experience an amazingly rich and detailed universe where your decisions have profound consequences on the action and the outcome.

Build a personalized arsenal with powerful weapons complete with their own upgrades and modifications.

Unleash devastating abilities and skills as you command and train an elite squad.

Take the war online with class-based, co-operative multiplayer in Mass Effect 3.

‘The Ship: Full Steam Ahead’ Gets A Kickstarter! Help Get The Sequel To A Great Game Going!

by Shane O'Hare

Way back in ye olde 2007 a small, but ambitious game was released on the STEAM network. The Ship: Murder Party was originally a mod for Hal-Life 2. It put players on a Victorian era cruise ship during a fancy party, where they are put into a game to the death!

The multiplayer gameplay was what surprised most players. You were given an Alias name and you were challenged with blending in with the NPCs, hiding from those who are tasked to kill you, all the while trying to find the target that was given to you. Essentially a first person CLUE/Murder Mystery Party game.

Well the team that brought us the first Ship game are at it again, and are putting up a kickstarter for the next iteration. The Ship: Full Steam Ahead really pumps up the steampunk this time. Take a look at the trailer below.

Color me excited! If you want to check out the full Kickstarter and contribute, head on over to their page HERE!

Mega64 Announces New Compilation DVD!

by Shane O'Hare

You read the title, now believe. The crazy fun guys from San Diego (and friends of Geekscape) that brought us the famous Tetris Skit, Resident Evil 4 Skit, Assassin’s Creed and Fallout 3 Skit have just announced a new compilation DVD. Watch the trailer for ‘Time Travelers” below.

The third in the series (Mega64 Time, Mega64 Night Time), Time Travelers will be an up to date compilation of skits, commercials and “oddities”. Not much has been released yet, but the group have said a full list of content will be on their site shortly. What HAS been announced (tonight on their live stream) made me giggle like a school girl!

Not only do we get and updated collected works of skits and commercials, but we get eyes on new and unreleased videos (did you see that ACII costume? Cause I did!). Also included with the DVD will be a commentary from the Boyz and a brand new story line!

So check out their official website for more info  and be sure to get to their store come Black Friday to pick up the DVD!

Mysterious Videos Show Up On Playstation’s YouTube Channel

by Shane O'Hare

Today I came across a mysterious video put up on Playstations YouTube account. It is the sequel to an even more mysterious video posted on the 18th. Lets take a peak at “The Reload” and “The Arrival”.

 

Lets go back and deconstruct what we see. In the first video there isn’t much there, we are greeted by a tough, solemn looking lady who is holding a gun. She appears to be at a hotel front desk, when a stranger off screen can be heard walking in. The sound electricity popping can be heard quickly after.

In the second video we see the same lady typing a letter in a foreign looking language, one that reminds me of “WingDings” font from MS-Word. A jeep arrives outfront and she proceeds to unlock a gate for the driver.

What does this all mean? Well my best guess is that these are ads for Playstation Allstars Battle Royale. The first video we can assume that the electricity man is Cole MacGrath from the inFamous games and the second guy is most likely Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

The date at the end you ask? Well it coincides with the public beta of Playstations Allstars Battle Royale. So if this is any else, you can color me shocked. I will be sure to keep you updated when more of these mysteries come out.

Battlefield 3 ‘Aftermath’ Expansion Gets An Announce Trailer!

by Shane O'Hare

The fourth expansion for the online military shooter, Battlefield 3, has been teased a few times. With Premium members getting a peak at some of the post earthquake environments, and yesterday the lead community dev posted a pic on Reddit showing off the newest crossbows (Hint: it’s the banner. Up there!). Today we get an official announcement trailer. Take a peak with me!

“So whats the deal with the place all fucked up?” you ask? WELL, During the single player campaign an earthquake hits Tehran, separating you from your squad and really making a mess of the whole place. If you saw the Battlefield 3 trailer from a million years ago, you can see a nice large building falling over.

Well, “Aftermath” wants to expand on that disaster. Maps will bring players into places that have recently been destroyed, making gamers look at approaching challenges differently. I am assuming the new game mode is one where players duke it out while there are active tremors going on in the battlefield.

The release schedule is:

PlayStation 3 Premium members: November 27
Xbox 360 and PC Premium members: December 4
PlayStation 3 players: December 11
Xbox 360 and PC players: December 18

Check Out 14 Minutes Of Gameplay From ‘Far Cry 3’

by Shane O'Hare

We’ve seen clips and pics from Far Cry 3. We’ve seen the crazy “Definition Of Insanity” trailer from E3. Now, we get a peak at the giant over world.

Lead Designer Jamie Keen and Level Designer Mark Thompson lead us through fourteen minutes of gameplay that shows you how the overworld reacts. Let me just tell you this, it looks VASTLY improved from Far Cry 2.

December 4th is a Far Cry 3 day.

Get Back In Black With The ‘Black Ops II’ Launch Trailer

by Shane O'Hare

Black Ops is my personal favorite CoD game of the franchise. The narrative they took with the era’s fear of communist nuclear attacks, Vietnamese war travesties and good ole fashioned conspiracy theories (To be fair, MKUltra actually happened, just google it) was some of the best writing in a video game I’ve witnessed in a long time. So you can understand how excited when I heard they would be making another Black Ops game.

Well November 13th is almost here so Activision have released an official launch trailer. Check it out BELOW!

Explore ‘Captain Scarlett And Her Pirate’s Booty’ In The Borderlands 2 Expansion!

by Shane O'Hare

By now you’ve played a SHIT TON of Borderlands 2. You’ve played New Game +, twice. You’ve beaten Terramorphous a stack of times. “Now what?” you ask. Well now it’s time to put your pirate boots on and go hunt for treasure! AND YOU CAN DO THAT TODAY!

The just released DLC for Borderlands 2 , Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate Booty hits stores today. Check out the trailer for the expansion below.

Kill With Friends In This ‘Assassin’s Creed III’ Multiplayer Trailer

by Shane O'Hare

At SDCC during the AC3 panel they discussed briefly what you can get with the multiplayer. You can create bands of assassins that can play in various game types. Get a nice peak at what to expect with this trailer!

AC3 ships October 30th on Xbox and PS3. November 18th on the WiiU