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”
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.
That’s X as in ten. Not as in porn. Not the snappiest of blog titles but it’ll do.
As a child I was obsessed with Red Dwarf. I had every episode from seasons one to five on VHS (until the friends my parents had borrowed them from asked for them back), seasons six through eight in taped-off-the-telly format and various specials, novels and quiz books.
I never owned the videos myself because by the time I had to part with my adopted copies, the only versions available were digitally remastered and filled with dodgy CGI and sound effects. No power in the verse could persuade me to part with money for that. Thankfully, unlike George Lucas, Grant and Naylor realised what a pile of wank the remastered versions were and my beloved Crimson Short One was restored to its original format for the DVD release.
I still don’t have the DVDs. What the hell’s up with that?!
It’s no exaggeration to say that the later seasons of Red Dwarf were a little, um… yeah. They had their moments certainly, but overall the magic was gone.
Nevertheless, if Red Dwarf X is the return to the old school it’s been touted as, I say bring it on. Except for that exclusive to Dave crap.
But I have to ask, what’s up with Kryten’s head?
And proving there was still quality to be found after season six…
Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.
John Green
