Dance Fortress 2 - Not much to be said.

Might be a good idea to watch it on youtube itself, youtube vids get a bit of the side cutoff due to the setup of the page. (Just click the video box twice)

Christopher Nolan Back for Third Batman Film

The director of Batman Begins and the smash hit The Dark Knight has finally confirmed that he will direct a third Batman movie.

It's been the source of rumor and speculation ever since The Dark Knight was released, and after Nolan's success with this summer's Inception, it was never a sure deal. But Nolan has decided that he will not follow in the footsteps of Batman directors before him, namely Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, by bowing out after two films. There is no word on what the third Batman film will be about or what villain will take center stage, but at least we know that the series is still in good hands.

Of course, getting him to confirm it took some doing from the interviewer at Empire. "It's becoming inevitable, I'll put it that way," says Nolan. "I feel myself falling into it, I guess. And getting it all figured out and I'm pretty excited about what we're doing so. If I haven't announced it, I think that people probably all know at this point that I'm doing it."

So, what? Can we say that you are you doing it or not?

"I think you can at this point, yes."

Ok, good. Whew.

Nolan also hinted that he is working on the script now with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the screenplay for the Dark Knight, as well as the short story that was the basis of Nolan's first film, Memento.
With Warner Bros. announcing a 2012 release date back in May, it finally seems like a third Batman might actually happen. Now it just has to compete for our attention with Avengers, Thor, Nolan's own Superman: Man of Steel, Green Lantern, Antman, Green Hornet, Spiderman, Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, R.E.D. ...

- Entropy

Treyarch Has "Evolved" Zombies Since World at War

Treyarch is bringing zombies back in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but probably not the same ones seen previously in World at War.
 
In the past few months, zombies were all but officially confirmed to be making a return in Call of Duty: Black Ops through a retail description, recent strategy guide listing, and various other channels. Now that we can stop speculating and know they'll be included, Treyarch has revealed that the studio will likely be making zombies even cooler than they were in Call of Duty: World at War's Nazi Zombies mode.


What made this World at War mode so fun was the ability to team up with friends to just annihilate wave after wave of zombie attackers while defending an area. It also had a bit of story attached to it, though this wasn't exactly the main focus.
Treyarch recently alluded to Edge magazine that Black Ops' zombie mode will improve on World at War's, possibly with more story. "We continued to evolve [Nazi Zombies] after World At War," Treyarch head Mark Lamia said. "There was a dialogue going on with some of our hardcore community, and we were able to interact with the community and evolve. We did that with our zombie lore."

Treyarch could plan on keeping the "zombie lore" going, as Lamia looks back positively on interaction with fans. "I definitely think there's something very exciting about interacting in a live way, and being able to respond," he added.

Black Ops takes place decades later than World at War, but zombies potentially have an unlimited life expectancy and may have survived in an underground bunker somewhere, or some psycho just created brand new ones. We'll have to wait to know if they're connected or not until more information comes out on the upcoming mode in Black Ops, or until November 9 when the game is released.

I, however, was saying from the start they'd have something akin to "Vampire Vietcong" the moment their first trailer revealed the time period.

Crytek reveals RL Secret Military dealings.

 

There's a whole world of "serious games" out there, and Crytek has a secret studio set up to tap into it.

With six studios around the world, Crytek is surprisingly large for a company that has only released three games in ten years. That's because not all of its revenue comes from making games, or at least, not the games that end up on shelves for people to buy. Crytek also makes money with what CEO Cevat Yerli refers to as a "secretive engine business," with a lot of military companies as customers.

Yerli says that Crytek actually has seven studios, but that the seventh isn't named Crytek like the others and works solely on non-entertainment projects. Crytek supplies the military with technology, simulations software, training programs and anything else it may want and/or need. As well as its military contracts, Crytek also works with a number of gas and oil companies, and Yerli says that there's an entire industry around making serious games that runs parallel to entertainment software.

Crytek certainly isn't the first games company to provide technology to the military. Games like Full Spectrum Warrior and SWAT 4 have been used as training tools by various forces around the world, and the US Army even produced a game of its own - America's Army - to help with recruitment. Looks like we're getting a little closer to a Deus Ex style dystopia every day.


- Entropy.

Bioshock Infinite Gameplay

I realise I'm a few days late for this, but for any of you who havn't seen it?  Yeah. Do it now.



Holy fuck that looks good

- Entropy

Prince Of Persia Almost Went Modern Day

The Prince of Persia franchise may have dodged a bullet this generation, saving fans from the discomfort of seeing the series thrust into the modern age, an idea that was ultimately scrapped for a PoP reboot of a different nature.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête tells CVG that he once led a small team of Ubisoft developers on a project that would have starred a modern day prince platforming through a post-apocalyptic desert world.

“Think a bit Day After Tomorrow, but replace the snow with sand and everything,” Jacques-Belletête says of the scrapped Prince of Persia. The designer says that Ubi sought something “completely out of the left field”, but nixed that project in favour of the stylised 2008 Prince of Persia.

Given the somewhat rocky nature of the Prince of Persia brand over the past decade, it wouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise to see such a serious shake-up. But it sure sounds… scary.  Dont get me wrong, I'm all for new directions on ideas, but something so radical in the hands of Ubisoft?  Yeah, VERY glad that didn't happen.

- Entropy.

Joker burns down Highschool.

Arson is no joke, even when it's committed by a man dressed as the Joker.
Politicians that blame comic books and videogames for society's ills may have a new real-world example to use in their arguments for getting rid of anything fun. An Irish man was recently caught red-handed burning down his former high school dressed as the Joker. Arson everywhere is soon to be blamed on the existence of Batman.

Christopher Clancy of Clondalkin, Ireland attempted to get into the spirit of the comic book/movie villainy by dressing up as the Joker, pouring gasoline around his high school, and lighting it on fire. When police arrived on the scene they saw a man dressed "in a purple suit, with green hair, a white face and red painted lips," just like the Joker. "He then told us to go around the corner and we would see what he had done," police said. Clancy was upset because he believed the school was "run by hypocrites" and says he "didn't like the way they treated my friends."

Clancy's arson reportedly caused more than $1 million in damages, which is a pretty lame act when it comes to Joker standards. If the Joker was mad at the way a school treated his "friends," he would have just blown up the entire school while everyone was in it, including his friends.

Link: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/joker-set-fire-to-old-school-in-revenge-on-hypocrite-staff-2273186.html

- Entropy.

Movies of 2010

Well, after my first post mentioning the only movies I remembered off the top of my head from this year, I figured I should compile a nice little list of all those I have really seen this year and where I place them, along with a few thoughts (although I expect this to turn out to be quite long.)  All thanks to Wikipedia for keeping better track of movie releases than I am (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_in_film)

Disagree with my opinions? Let me know + why in the comments!

In release order, the movies I have seen this year are

Daybreakers - Started off well, but steadily got worse and worse as it went on.  A shame, as it really captivated me at the start with the idea of Vampires setting the status quo and running society.  A lot could have been done if they'd just ended it beter!

Shutter Island - I thought I had seen the twist coming about 10 minutes before it was revealed, and then the twist turned out to be a complete lie - some of those scenes really did my head in.  Loved it dearly.

Kick ass -  Had me planning the week after where/how to build my costume.  Nick Cage played an amazing big daddy, and especially for an actor I havn't liked in ANYTHING else he's done, really captivated me.  He + Hit Girl really stole the show from kick-ass, who became more of a supporting charechter by the end, but that was definatly for the better, considering how it played out with Hit Girl stepping up to lead position.

Iron Man 2 - A definite meh compared to the previous outing of the Red and Gold suit, not helped by actor changes (read: replacing Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as Rhodey) and a terrible villain.  The tech is amazing, and is really the main attraction of the movie (you know it, the holgraphic keyboard gadgets and hacking that Stark uses just to tease the audience are the best bit of it).  That said, the court scene is briliant, and RD. Junior never ceases to impress.

Get him to the Greek - Nearly died laughing.  Being with one of the idealised 'perfect' audiences was a huge help as well - laughed at everything that needed to be, shut up when they didn't.  Cant say much else than if you love inteligent humor and a briliant look at the music industry, see this movie or die trying to.

Toy story 3 - Weather you grew up with it or your kids did, Toy story (and most disney/pixar movies) have a cult following that surmounts most cults.  There were more teenagers, adults and grandparents sans children in the theatre than there was children.  Pixar never fails to deliver briliant pacing, storytelling ability and humour. 

Inception - Well dip me in Hummus and throw me to the lebanese, this movie was AMAZING.  Saw it total of three times, one of those on Imax.  If you have been living under a rock, go see this for some great mind-fucks and amazing cinematography, coupled with class A acting (I sound like a damn PR commerical...)  I just love Leo in basicly everything he does, this is no exception.

Well I'm done typing for now, thats just the movies relased this year I've seen. caught up with a whole lot more oldies (Pulp Fiction and Serenity spring to mind) that I might cover in a later blog depending on the responce to this one :)

So, what movies have you seen this year?  What'd you think about them?
All the talks big corporations have about piracy aside, they still seem to be able to put out at least a few movies of exceptional quality.

Halo: Reach, primarily a forge rant.

So, picked up Reach on release day and been loving it ever since.  Forge was always a huge attraction to me for Halo 3 and I spent upwards of 500 hours easily making huge maps for my frequent LAN parties.  You can just imagine how happy I was when they released this video:



Yeah, that definatly won me over.  Unfortunatly, Its not all sunshine and roses. From a strictly creative POV, Forge 2.0 is infinatly better than its predecessor.   A huge budget, the ability to Phase and Fix objects with ease, edit co-ordinates - its all there.  What the promlem is that it is lacking are a few nuanced controll things that made Forge 1.0 workable with a lot of endeavour and time.  Things like the ability to push or pull objects away from you with the left stick while holding the right trigger.  Now, it just controls your zoom.

(I might be totally wrong on that omission from Forge 2.0, if they mapped the push/pull to a different button, please someone for the love of God tell me!)

But, slight OCD issues I have asside, the first week of Forge has been very exciting.  Its actually almost an issue of too much choice - I'm just closing up and shutting down with too much stimulation.  Once I have a brainwave of an idea I should be fine though - thats what most others seem to be doing!  There have been some truely amazing maps been released so far, with almost pixel perfect remakes of clasic H1 and H2 maps alongside innovative new peices rearing their heads out of the ground and into the light of day.  The next few years will be very interesting too see what the forging community will discover in terms of new tricks and shortcuts, new problems and new solutions.  I'l definatly be on the lookout on forgehub (basicly the heart of quality forging in the halo 'verse.)

What do you think of the newest (and last to be created by Bungie) Halo game?  Much of a forgeaholic? Hate the thing?  Let me know in a comment down below.

- Entropy.

First post, new start.

Howdy Blogosphere, and welcome one and all to The Escapism Quadrant!  Little thing I decided to set up to give my thoughts on some of the areas of escapism we have in our society (eg Music, Movies, Games, ect.)

This is my first blog, so if I'm breaking some blogging norm or cardinal rule, just point it out to me and I'l hopefully fix the situation.

Having seen only a handful of movies this year (Inception and Get him to the Greek are the only few that jump to mind so far, sure that more will come back (been a big year)  and really torn to pick a favourite so far.  How many movies have you seen?  Which was your favourite?

(I'l be keeping most of these blogs fairly short and sweet, but hopefully have a lot of them)

Thats about it from me,

- Entropy.