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Wargame: Red Dragon Review

Lendosan
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Wargame: Red Dragon Review

When people say RTS they usually think of your standard Red Alert or Company of Heroes, something that involves base building.  Granted that is sometimes the best aspect of playing an RTS game.  Eugen systems have really pushed the boat out regarding RTS games over the recent years, and it all started with R.U.S.E., a game which broke the mould.  Since starting the development of a line of games that I personally have now come to love, I’m going to take a look at their latest instalment, Wargame: Red Dragon, a new realistic real time strategy game for the PC.

Firstly the game is a top down strategy game that doesn’t involve base building, but don’t let that knock your back.  Red Dragon is a deck building RTS game which, to the uninitiated, may sounds strange but having played the series from European Escalation, it all works really well.  The deck building strategy really opens the game up, allowing you to build anything you want.  Obviously this doesn’t mean that its easy to create a balanced, level deck, but it does open it up to be a virtual war game.

Deck Building
Build the army you want to use in Multiplayer

The deck building side is a really unique system where you build a deck using activation points, in preparation for your battle.  Each card gives you access to a number of units that you can call onto the battlefield to fight for you.  Every region you capture gives you points and those points grant you units.  Its a smooth, working system that gives you a realistic battle to fight through.  Sometimes the vast number of units you need to control can be overwhelming, either those you control or fight against.

Red Dragon Coastal
Fight with Navy’s on sea or to help support a landing.

New to the series is the Naval unit, which adds the ability to fight on sea or perform naval landings from a new quarter. It really brings the game to life, adding more strategy and tactics to the game. The new maps are immense in size, you now fight along coast lines or through multiple cities, across vast country sides and through little hamlets. The game looks beautiful as well and the detail is amazing. Considering how many units are on the battlefield, the developers have executed this perfectly.

Immense Wargame
The maps are immense in size.

Now the campaign in the last instalment of the series, AirLand Battle, was a simple affair fought over the same map. Eugen Systems have listened and in Red Dragon there are four individual campaigns you can now play through. They are alternative history settings which really explore how the Cold War could have ended.  Being a huge Tom Clancy fan, especially the book Red Storm Rising, Red Dragon really does push the boat out and massively appealed to me. However for some bizarre reason Eugen have removed the co-op campaign mode, meaning that you have a great campaign setting but no co-op mode, a slight reversal of the previous game.

Red Dragon Campaign
Campaign mode is fantastic.

Red Dragon is a great RTS title that presents some truly unique twists compared with most other games in the genre. Its something you can pick up and be good at right away. Although the tutorials walk you through your first game, there is so much added depth thanks to the deck building and multiplayer gameplay.  Red Dragon is a game I will play for years to come providing that the publisher support is there and is a perfect solution for realistic RTS fans.

If you want to base build and spam one type of unit then this likely isn’t the game for you however if you want to play something that isn’t a simplistic version of Paper, Scissors & Stone, then you’re going to love this. Its available on Steam and the Wargame website for £29.99 and with Steamplay support for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.  Embrace the Red Dragon and give this RTS title a go today, you will not be disappointed.

Why you want a physicist to speak at your funeral

Matt Geary
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Why you want a physicist to speak at your funeral

I would like to state now that this article, and the quote within, are NOT an attack or judgment of those with faith or religious belief, in any way shape or form. It is just something that really hit home with me and I felt compelled to share it and my thoughts on the subject.

Granted it will be a more sombre affair than most of our articles but even if you don’t agree with what has been said, I hope you will agree the sentiment and the way it was spoken / transcribed is rather beautiful.

 

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Introduction

I am, I guess, what modern society would call an Atheist (though I am not keen on that label) and it has been a very long and mentally taxing journey to arrive in the place I am today.  Yanking yourself from a lifetime of belief, in something you have been told is true for so many years, is paramount to weaning yourself off an addiction; it hurts. And it doesn’t matter how much you think you’ve conquered your thoughts and your resolve, there will always be residue, lingering at the back of your mind.

It is this residue that has bothered me a lot over the past few years and even more so over the last week or so. Every religion has an end, a place people go, a heaven. But in the dark lands of none belief, there is nothing…. just nothingness and this is a rather bitter pill to swallow. More so for me personally, not because I want to live forever but the idea of never seeing my loved ones again is beyond heart breaking and still brings me to the edge of tears when I contemplate it now.

I knew that stepping away from so many years of what, in effect, is a safety blanket for the soul would be hard, but it made me want to live life more, achieve more, learn and understand more. The only issue I had was, I couldn’t seem to quite achieve 100% confidence in what I had learnt or believed, the residue clung on tight; that was until yesterday.

The following has been on the interwebs for quite a while now (2005 I believe) and I remember reading it about 6 or 7 years ago. Then, though, I wasn’t who I was today, my thoughts, ideas and beliefs were still forming and it was only when this beautiful piece popped up on my Facebook feed again that something clicked and I think I finally found what I was looking for and the answer to the above.

This was a speech given by Actor, Comedian and Commentator; Aaron Freeman.

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Why you want a physicist to speak at your funeral

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly. Amen.

 

Thanks to I F**king Love science for bringing this to my attention again and to Aaron Freeman for putting it so beautifully.

 

You can find the audio version of the speech here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4675953

Alex Turner and Miles Kane set to write “X Men inspired film”

therockfairy
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Alex Turner and Miles Kane set to write “X Men inspired film”
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Miles Kane

Digital Spy recently caught up with Miles Kane who let slip that himself and Arctic Monkeys’ frontman, Alex Turner, are putting their musical collaboration (The Last Shadow Puppets) on hold, to write a film inspired by X-Men and set in the 1960s.  When pressed for answers regarding new material from the band, Kane revealed “It’s something we always talk about y’know? But I think we’re gonna write this film first anyway, before we hit back into that.” Surprisingly he also added that “It’s gonna have a sort of X-Men kind of vibe and sort of set in the ’60s, but I can’t give anymore away than that.”

Kane went on to say that neither he not Turner planned to star in the movie, “but we may have a little cameo.”  Intriguing eh?

 

 

Long awaited Director’s Cut of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed coming to Blu-ray…in the U.S

Andy Haigh
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Long awaited Director’s Cut of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed coming to Blu-ray…in the U.S

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Several months ago I mentioned that a new cut of Clive Barker’s notoriously butchered film Nightbreed, dubbed the “Cabal Cut”, was set to appear on Blu-ray after being featured at numerous film festivals around the world.

Well the time is nigh as Scream Factory announced details via Facebook yesterday.

The film will be available as a standard DVD/ Blu-ray set which features the Unrated Director’s Cut, as it is now officially called, and as of yet undisclosed special features. This edition features Clive Barker approved art by Ralph McQuarrie. It will also be available as a Special Limited Edition which features the unrated Director’s Cut of the film on Blu-ray, the 1990 R-Rated theatrical version of the film on Blu-ray and a third disc which will feature exclusive special features. The Special Limited Edition will also come with a Collector’s Book featuring an essay and rare photos and also features new artwork by Joel Robinson approved by Clive Barker.

Clive Barker writer/director of Nightbreed and Cabal the book, on which it is based had this to say,

“This is film history and beyond my wildest dreams of realization. When Scream Factory told me that they found the NIGHTBREED film footage I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller [of Seraphim Films] all the way back in 2008. As we embarked down the road of attempting to track down the lost footage, we looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe one day they’ll find it.’ It’s my pleasure to announce that the day has come.

Speaking personally, I didn’t allow myself to believe that it would. Even if we did find some footage (which we did in 2009 in the form of heavily degraded VHS tapes) and even if we did find a company willing to release the film (which we did in 2013 with Scream Factory, God bless them) the prospect of finding the actual lost film materials was remoter than I’d wanted to admit out loud. If the footage could not be found by those who had worked closest on it the same year it had been released, then what were the odds we’d be able to find anything 20 years on? But Scream Factory, in their commendable determination, kept up the search and thanks to them total reconstruction has been made a possibility.

There’s never been a reconstruction that’s had as little chance of succeeding and yet has succeeded on as many fronts as this film has. It’s unprecedented. To now have a movie that we can put together in the way that I fully intended it to be seen when I first set out to make this film in 1989 is extraordinary. The project has moved inexorably to this conclusion. Fate and the hard work of individuals such as Mark Miller, Russell Cherrington, Phil and Sarah Stokes, Occupy Midian, Morgan Creek, and ultimately, Scream Factory have made this a possibility and I could not be happier.”

There’s a catch though, due to a rights agreement with Warner Bros there is as yet no planned UK release and Scream Factory apparently aren’t allowed to sell it outside the U.S either meaning European fans can’t order it from them. Whether this will effect other online retailers is unclear.

Arrow Season 3 to get Katana

Daniel Delargy
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Arrow Season 3 to get Katana

Arrow newsflash: actress Devon Aoki has been cast as Tatsu Yamashiro – otherwise known as the superheroine Katana – for the upcoming third season of Arrow!

A skilled martial artist, she has served with a number of teams, such as The Outsiders, the Birds of Prey and the Justice League of America. She recently attracted the attention of viewers through her regular appearance in the animation show Beware the Batman, which was cancelled very recently.

 Katana’s name comes from her weapon of choice – an ancient mystical katana blade called Soultaker, which traps the souls of it’s victims…including her late husband’s. It has not been revealed whether this supernatural angle will be hinted to or be fully developed in the series, but it is known that she will be important to Season 3 flashback sequences, where {SPOILERS} she will be one of Oliver’s instructors now that he’s in Hong Kong under watch of Amanda Waller and ARGUS, as revealed in the season finale. {SPOILERS END}

This isn’t the only sword-bearing ( / bow wielding) comic character Aoki has played either, as she took on the role of Miho for the original Sin City in 2005.

The new season of Arrow is set to premiere on October 8th.

Once Upon A Time Casts Frozen’s Anna and Kristoff

Erin
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Once Upon A Time Casts Frozen’s Anna and Kristoff

This season’s finale of Once Upon a Time left viewers with quite the teaser: Elsa from Frozen, sauntering out into Storybrooke. Her face was not shown and creative forces from the show have said the character has yet to be cast. Anna

Shortly after reports came in that Anna and Kristoff would be appearing on the show’s fourth season as well. After wide speculation, casting for these two characters was confirmed today. Elizabeth Lail, a newbie actress, will play Anna, while Scott Michael Foster (Cappie from “Greek,” who has also worked on “Californication” and “Chasing Life”) will play Kristoff.

Kristoff

Given the already high amount of characters from so many different stories featured on the show, I am curious to see how Frozen will be re-worked to fit in with the rest of the show’s storylines.

 

The trials of Cate McCall – trailer

Cristina Bogdan
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The trials of Cate McCall – trailer

Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, James Cromwell, Taye Diggs and Mark Pellegrino all team up to bring us a new tale of corruption, lies and justice. I’m not sure, given the trailer alone, who the good guys and who the bad guys are, but I am actually excited to find out. 

Here’s a short synopsis of the movie, in the words of its creators:

Cate McCall (Kate Beckinsale; Pearl Harbour, Underworld, Total Recall), was a hotshot lawyer with the world at her feet, but as her career went from strength to strength, her personal life began to fall apart, she slipped into a spiral of alcoholism and depression that drove her family away, and left her with nothing.

Sometimes we find redemption in the darkest of places and fresh out of rehab Cate must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder in order to be reinstated at the bar and regain custody of her daughter.   But this is a case that will challenge everything she vowed to uphold; Cate will be thrown into a world of lies, abuse and deception, where fighting for what’s right may mean fighting for her life.

I’ve been hooked since spotting Mark Pellegrino, who seems to be (once again) cast as a bad guy. I’m not sure how big his part is, but he looks as evil as it can be, in a movie where the line between good and bad is seems more than just a little blurred.

The movie, directed by Karen Moncrieff, will be released on DVD and VOD come July 7th, but until then take a look at the trailer, and stay tuned, a review is coming soon.

 

Dreams Do Come True: Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” is Coming to Starz

Erin
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Dreams Do Come True: Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” is Coming to Starz

If you’re not sitting down, you just might want to, lest you swoon like a Victorian lady.

Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” is being adapted as a series on Starz.

No, this is not some Sandman-eque dream, this is really happening. Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Heroes”) and Michael Green (“The River,” “Kings,” “Heroes”) will be writing the script, and showrunning the series. They’ll also be executive producers, along with one other guy. What’s his name? Oh, just NEIL GAIMAN.

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Did you read that right? Are you dancing yet? No? Read it again: Neil Gaiman will be an executive producer for a TV adaptation of “American Gods.”

Starz Managing Director Carmi Zlotnik knows a good thing when he sees one, and he’s making some big promises:

“’American Gods’ is a project that deserves to be made. With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael, and Neil, we believe we can create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans and viewers.”

Gaiman directly commented “When you create something like ‘American Gods,’which attracts fans and obsessives and people who tattoo quotes from it on themselves or each other, and who all, tattooed or not, just care about it deeply, it’s really important to pick your team carefully: you don’t want to let the fans down, or the people who care and have been casting it online since the dawn of recorded history. What I love most about the team who I trust to take it out to the world, is that they are the same kind of fanatics that ‘American Gods’ has attracted since the start. I haven’t actually checked Bryan Fuller or Michael Green for quote tattoos, but I would not be surprised if they have them. The people at Fremantle are the kind of people who have copies of ‘American Gods’ in the bottom of their backpacks after going around the world, and who press them on their friends. And the team at Starz have been quite certain that they wanted to give Shadow, Wednesday, and Laura a home since they first heard that the book was out there. I can’t wait to see what they do to bring the story to the widest possible audience able to cope with it.”

American Gods

This is reassuring news, as I think we can all agree that projects made by talented fans often yield the best results.

CEO of FremantleMedia North America, Thom Beers, said “Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ is pure genius and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this classic to life on screen. Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk have put together a dream team with Fuller and Green joining Gaiman on this amazing journey. Coupled with Starz’ shared passion for this project, we’re confident this combination will raise the bar for drama.”

We certainly hope so. Let’s make HBO kick themselves for letting this one fall through; I personally think this project has the potential to be just as popular (if not more so) than Game of Thrones.

Bryan Fuller stated “Neil Gaiman has created the holiest of holy toy boxes with ‘American Gods’ and filled it with all manner of magical thing, born of new gods and old. Michael Green and I are thrilled to crack this toy box wide open and unleash the fantastical titans of heaven and earth and Neil’s vividly prolific imagination.”

Yes, please.

I know I’m not alone in my excitement. Since publication in 2001, American Gods has been translated into over thirty languages and earned a great many awards, including Bram Stoker, Hugo, and Nebula Awards for Best Novel.

While I’m bouncing like a hyperactive two year old with anticipation over seeing Shadow and Wednesday brought to life (I’m not a Laura fan), I am absolutely giddy over the idea that, at some point in the future, we’ll see “the un-named god” and maybe, just maybe, get some further insight as to who Neil meant for him to be. (For those who don’t know, there is a god that was never identified in the novel, striking much debate as people struggle through lore and legends to name him.)

Now, let us party and await the coming awesomeness. Woo!

Neil Marshal reveals NBC’s “no smoking please” approach to Constantine.

Andy Haigh
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Neil Marshal reveals NBC’s “no smoking please” approach to Constantine.

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In a recent interview Neil Marshall, director of The Descent and several episodes of Game Of Thrones, amongst other things, revealed an important detail about the upcoming pilot for NBC’s Constantine – due to network policy John Constantine will be kicking his chain smoking.

For people not familiar with the character or Hellblazer, the character’s former home, this might not seem like a big deal, but Constantine’s chain smoking is a key character trait. His habit served as the core of one of the most acclaimed arcs to feature in Hellblazer, Garth Ennis’ Dangerous Habits. Constantine’s smoking also served two other functions as well, it indicated his blue collar origins, as smoking has generally been associated with the British working class, but it also serves as a visual metaphor for Constantine’s other addiction – magic.

The habit is so synonymous with the character that it’s hard to find a piece of Hellblazer art that doesn’t feature Constantine either behind a fog of smoke, with a smouldering Silk Cut in his hand or hanging from his mouth. Even Francis Lawrence’s film kept his chain smoking despite changing other details about the character and the world he inhabits.

Exactly how this will affect the show remains to be seen, but it seems like a big, if somewhat predictable, stumble for a show that has  done a lot of stuff right to convince fans that actually they were paying attention to the source material. much to a lot of people’s surprise.

Predator: Dark Ages Kickstarter

Matt Geary
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Predator: Dark Ages Kickstarter

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkageproductions/predator-dark-ages

I stumbled across this little gem on my random meanderings through the world of Kickstarter and I have to say it really has promise as an Idea.

In short, it’s a story about a group of Templar Knights, sent out by the church to hunt a ‘Demon’ (The Predator) that is terrorising the English country side The concept is pretty brilliant and plays very heavily on ‘honourable’ battle, something you will be well aware the Predator race is very fond of; well that is until they are beaten, throw their toys out of the spaceship and try to blow everyone and everything up… they have honour but man are they bad losers!

Anyway, Director James Bushe and his crew have started this kickstarter to try and aim for a 25 minute long fan film, or, if they only get the minimum amount of £5K, a high concept trailer.

Personally I want to see the 25 minute long film, so dig deep my geek brothers and sisters and make this thing happen!

Kickstarter vid and trailer below, to wet your appetite

Our story begins in a dark prison cell, with a mysterious man chained to the wall, tired and hungry, he is the only living survivor from an attack on a group of soldiers. The only living witness to the atrocities a demon of the night performed in front of his very eyes.

Entrusted by the church to hunt down the beast that slaughtered their brothers in arms, a group of battle worn Templar Knight’s must use this only witness to find and kill the demon that plagues the English countryside.

To lead this group is a knight who no longer believes in God or country, and has given up on humanity. But will this one last battle help him regain his lust for life and save his fellow brothers, as well as himself?

The soldiers are only too aware of the devastation that was brought to their lost comrades, and so must turn to others to assist in their quest. So a group of battle hardened, money driven mercenaries are called upon to join the hunt.

Having to not only drag with them a suspicious sole survivor who is an eye witness, but also a pack of un-trust worthy mercenaries, a difficult path full of twists and turns lies ahead for the Templar knight’s, more so than they first believed…..

 

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