As opposed to the usual graduates of the Dick Van Dyke School for English Accents*. Although I have to wonder if Sheffield lass, Elizabeth Henstridge, normally sounds so “American TV Friendly.” Looks like our Joss is branching out.
Coming no time soon to a channel I can get. Probably.
*to be fair to James Marsters, his English accent did improve a lot over his time in the Buffyverse – expect for that time he tried to say “squirrel”
After the rollicking success of the newly revamped Tomb Raider* it seems a new film version is once again on the cards and top choice to play Lara Croft is (unsurprisingly) Hayley Atwell.
Alas, that is not to say she’s in talks with MGM or anything; she’s just the person legions of fans want to see wield those guns and is well up for it herself.
Tomb Raider was my “coming of age” franchise and I adore Hayley Atwell – I swear her resemblance to Lara Croft has nothing to do with it – so even the remotest possibility that she could take on those tombs has me doing my happy dance. Which is basically the same as the Commander Shepard dance but with less rhythm more bouncing. But putting girl crushes and bouncing aside for one second, Atwell is beyond perfect for the role in every conceivable way.
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that MGM will ultimately go with somebody younger than the 31 year old or worse still, that they’ll decide on somebody less endowed: can’t have large** breasted women running around being capable and intelligent, that shit offends people!
In case it’s not immediately obvious, I’m very much against pandering to the Anti-Lara’s-Boobs Brigade. If a person has a problem seeing Lara Croft’s strength, courage and intelligence over her chest that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with her appearance; it means there’s something wrong with them. They’re an idiot.
Here’s hoping MGM is paying attention.
*unless you’re an NVidia user anyway – have they fixed that yet?
**yeah, this notion of a C-DD cup being “large” is purely cultural; biologically it’s fairly average. Something bra manufacturers are keen to ignore***
***anybody know who made the bra Atwell was wearing in Black Mirror? If it can hold her up I figure it’ll work for me
Some say a great story makes a great video game. For me what makes a game great is the world it inhabits: a world that I can and want to explore to its fullest. No game has blown me away in that respect quite like Metro 2033.
It may seem a strange thing to say about a game set in the subways of post-apocalyptic Moscow, but Metro 2033 is the most mind-bendingly beautiful game I’ve ever played (I’m actually getting a little turned on just thinking about it). I don’t mean beautiful in the sense of aesthetically pleasing – not in the way that, say, the Scottish Highlands are beautiful – but beautiful in its design and execution: Metro 2033 is alive.
So as you can expect, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the follow up since it was announced and doing little dances of joy every time there was even a smidgen of news.
Things were a little dicey there with THQ going into administration and all but thankfully most of their upcoming titles where snapped up by other companies and Metro: Last Light is now available to pre-order and is set for a May release.
I can’t afford it but I’m dancing all the same.
The year is 1899. Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus has returned home from a disastrous expedition to Mexico, which has ended in tragedy. Wracked by fever, haunted by dreams of a dark machine, he recovers consciousness in his own bed, with no idea of how much time has passed since his last memory. As he struggles to his feet, somewhere beneath him, an engine splutters, coughs, roars into life…
Some time in 2013 (although we don’t know when) we’ll see the release of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Frictional Games wants to hear you scream. If you have the lungs and the vocal chords send them your most blood curdling sounds of terror and torture: SQUEAL, little piggies, SQUEAL!
It’s a shame that when I scream it sounds like somebody kicking a seagull.
A Machine For Pigs is an indirect sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent – one of the few games worthy of the label “Survival Horror” – and FG’s second follow up to my personal favourite, Penumbra. Their first game, Unbirth was was never finished but what there is can be downloaded here. It’s unstable but worth a look.
Both The Dark Descent and Penumbra came with their share of technical grievances but this time around development duties have fallen to thechineseroom, who brought us the beautiful Dear Esther so high hopes all around.
There’s this notion that everyone’s opinion is equally valid. My arse. A bloke who’s been a professor of dentistry for 40 years does not have a debate with some eejit who removes his teeth with string and a door.
Dara O’Briain
