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Know your Inflight WiFi prices

Matt Geary
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Know your Inflight WiFi prices

Don’t know about you but I’m hooked to the internet nearly 24/ 7. I NEEEED it, to the point that if I don’t have wifi access, in some guise,  I get withdrawal symptoms…. Starts rocking back and forth in the corner.

No truer is this statement than when I’m at the airport / on a plane, jet setting back and forth to all the interesting places I go… cough. And so I generally try and find the cheapest way to get myself hooked in, usually ending up with some expensive tariff because I can’t find anything better; if only I knew where to go…WAIT A MOMENT!

That’s right, the guys at Momondo have provided GP with this rather awesome Infographic to help  us, and therefore you,  navigate your way around the charges when you are off on your Jols or, if like me. on super cool business trips….ha, I wish.

Check it out below!

momondo-inflightwifi

Watch_Dogs: Who watches the Watch_Dogs?

Sai Mealing
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Watch_Dogs: Who watches the Watch_Dogs?

[Home Page Carousel] Aiden_NewKeyArt_99828

Since E3 2012, three console launches have been and gone and a next generation war between Microsoft and Sony has broken in full force, but one game has still managed to grab immediate media attention above everything else.

When Ubisoft first showed off Watch_Dogs in the Los Angeles Convention Centre the mainstream games press were left stunned. Despite Ubisoft’s reluctance to admit anything at the time, Watch Dogs provided the closest thing to proof that next gen hardware not only existed but was due pretty much imminently.

Fast forward to last February and Sony officially unveiled the PS4 to a select crowd in New York who all inherently knew why they were there. Several launch games were exhibited, some of which are still yet to be delivered, but it was Watch_Dogs that came last and again gracefully stole the show.

Arguably not since Grand Theft Auto III had a game looked to re-create a modern living city in such revolutionary detail. It’s citizens seemed to live and breath while a partially-cloaked protagonist swaggered around a virtual metropolis with a confidence that just seemed to capture the imagination. Open-world adventure games were definitely nothing new in 2013 but this somehow just looked different.

Aiden wears a mask and has a gun. His hobbies include waxing car bonnets with his arse.
Aiden wears a mask and has a gun. His hobbies include waxing car bonnets with his arse.

CtOS-pot

For the uninitiated Watch Dogs (I’m not using the underscore any more) is an open-world adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal alongside Ubisoft Bucharest and Ubisoft Reflections in the UK.

In 2003 a software glitch caused a real-life major black out throughout parts of the US and Canada that lasted for two days. Watch Dogs builds upon this event and genuine research to depict a near-future scenario where the entire city of Chicago is controlled by a single Operating System known as the CtOS. Whoever controls CtOS has real-time access to mobile communications, bank records, financial and credit status and pretty much all of the other private things that people generally like to keep to themselves.

Players assume control of hacker Aiden Pearce who is able to access the CtOS from the relative comfort of his mobile phone. Through the CtOS, Aiden can profile other characters and use their personal secrets as means to help or destroy them at will. The law enforcement and traffic control components of CtOS allow Aiden to bend the city as his needs dictate. Pursuing vehicles can be stopped in their tracks by raising bollards in the middle of the road and security cameras can be used remotely to scope danger or record private conversations.

Aiden’s back story and most of the plot remain unknown but trailers and preview footage so far demonstrate that he is no stranger to crime and that murder and intimidation are definitely not beneath him. His behaviour suggests that he could be an ordinary guy with a world to save or just possibly a bit of a dick head.

Bob is subject to a restraining order. On the plus side he does earn $75k a year though.
Bob is subject to a restraining order. On the plus side he does earn $75k a year though.

That old chestnut

After E3 2013, Watch Dogs was set for a release date of November 19th and I saw several demonstrations of the game at London EGX last September but something didn’t feel quite right. While Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and The Crew were being chucked at attendees full force, Ubisoft were being remarkably cagey about their one game everyone really wanted to play.

Watch Dogs was there but only in a secluded live demonstration booth and during a one hour developer session with Creative Director, Jonathan Morin. Any game play on show was strictly choreographed and it was pretty clear that non-Ubisoft employees weren’t getting anywhere near a controller. This isn’t a completely alien concept by any means but it definitely was unusual for a game which, by that point, could only have been 8-9 weeks away from retailer distribution.

When Ubisoft finally officially delayed release to the 2014 financial year a few weeks later, not many people were surprised but a lot of people were pissed off. An official PS4 bundle had been confirmed months earlier and this caused havoc for retailers with some console pre-orders in the US being cancelled altogether due to a system error.

The Xbox One and PS4 had lost their most anticipated cross-platform launch title although perhaps not-so coincidentally, Assassin’s Creed IV sales subsequently went through the roof. Players were given a Watch Dogs-related Easter Egg buried deep within Black Flag but that was about it.

Hacking CtOS leaves Aiden free to control many aspects of the city infrastructure but is this freedom just an illusion?
Hacking CtOS leaves Aiden free to control many aspects of the city infrastructure but is this freedom just an illusion?

Not-so ancient history

It’s become harder these days to remember a time when the only annual video game franchises were sports titles but back in 2006 that’s how things were. The world didn’t yet know about credit crunches or any of that twerking bullshit and the words Modern Warfare generally meant nothing outside of military circles.

It was during the E3 of that year that Ubisoft unveiled a killer app known as an Assassin’s Creed. Loosely based on Prince of Persia and the stories of the real-life assassin Hassan-i Sabbah, the game was one of the first to look truly next gen at the time even though the Xbox 360 was nearly a year old by that point.

The audience were wowed by the fluidity and cool oozed by protagonist Altair as he was seen strolling calmly behind a corrupt political figure on a middle eastern town square before knifing him in the back. The game looked gorgeous and the Ubisoft hype machine went into overdrive. When the final product arrived just over a year later, it reviewed generally well and sales far exceeded expectations but success came with it’s fair share of controversy.

The problem with Assassin’s Creed was that much of it’s apparent openness was just an illusion that the media and players had concocted for themselves. Whilst the first Assassin’s Creed wasn’t a bad game by any stretch, it was extremely repetitive and far more linear than most people had hoped.

What looked like it could have been a GTA-style free-roaming romp through a crusades Damascus was actually just a collection of fetch quests thrown together with some occasionally irritating dialogue and poor design decisions.

A small group of idiots inexcusably vented their frustrations towards the game’s producer Jade Raymond and impolitely accused her of using her looks to support Ubisoft’s marketing campaign. It wasn’t the nicest time.

 

Multiplayer features enable players to hack into other people's games and generally act like cocks if they're that way inclined.
Multiplayer features enable players to hack into other people’s games and generally act like cocks if they’re that way inclined.

Who watches the Watch_Dogs?

As a developer and publisher, I genuinely like Ubisoft. They don’t seem anywhere nearly as risk averse as some of their rivals when it comes to new IP and are always among the first to back new platforms. Although successive iterations of Assassin’s Creed have become slightly wanton, for every Just Dance sequel they have a title like Red Steel, Zombii U or The Division that looks to use generational hardware developments to push things in a new direction. Quality often varies but at least they try.

Unfortunately Ubisoft’s marketing teams haven’t always been known for their tact. Ubisoft trailers have a habit of ‘leaking’ prior to any major event in the industry calendar and one promo for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier that featured a popular reality TV star was far more insensitive and cringe worthy than advertising ever really should be. Presenter Aisha Tyler’s #Girlwood t-shirt also raised eyebrows at E3 last year although I have to admit to actually quite liking that one.

When I saw Watch Dogs last September, I couldn’t help but feel deja vu. There was no doubt in my mind that it looked visually stunning and a lot of thought had clearly been gone into the hacking features and design but at it’s core it just looked like a modern-day Assassin’s Creed.

Multiplayer features aside, the non-playable character interactions and supposedly random events looked highly scripted and most of the demonstration time was actually just spent in continuous sequences of uninspiring cover fire. After approximately 30 minutes of live demo, I came to an unfortunate realisation that many of my first impressions of Watch Dogs were based on expectations formed in my own mind.

Of course, it’s not Ubisoft’s fault if I have unrealistic expectations of their products but they should be mindful of their advertising and have a duty to market their products responsibly. People felt short-changed by Assassin’s Creed in 2007 because it failed to live up to much of the hype produced by Ubisoft’s marketing machine.

Like any other kind of entertainment media, a game can only be marketed so much and hyped for so long before it reaches unattainable heights. The world of Aiden Pearce and CtOS could turn out to be far more sparse and one-dimensional than many of us may have hoped.

All seems a little familiar
All seems a little familiar.

Nearly there

Earlier this month, Watch Dogs was again confirmed for Q1 2014 which means that it’s due for release between April and June of this year. The game was also recently submitted and passed by the ESRB and PEGI for age ratings in the US and Europe which only usually happens in the final stages of development although an official release date remains unannounced.

There is no doubt that the game will do well commercially based on hype and the fact that many early next-gen adopters are currently struggling to find high quality releases to justify their investment. The Wii U version has been delayed but that isn’t likely to leave much of a dent in the sales figures.

It is more in the eyes of reviewers and player feedback that Watch Dogs may struggle. In post-GTA V market, AAA open-world games face a battle to justify their existence especially since Rockstar’s game managed to exceed almost every expectation. Ubisoft also have to contend with pre-existing negative sentiment after last year’s final hour delay.

Watch Dogs was the most wanted game of last Christmas and postponing release with only a month to spare did not go unnoticed. Just getting the game to run on an Xbox 360 without the console pissing itself is not going to cut it.

I really do still hope that Watch Dogs doesn’t disappoint. It remains the game that I’m looking forward to most this year after Titanfall, however I’ll reserve final judgement without bated breath and with slightly more realistic expectations until it finally arrives in the Summer.

Interview with Knight & Dragon’s Matthew Gibbs and Bevis Musson

Cristina Bogdan
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Interview with Knight & Dragon’s Matthew Gibbs and Bevis Musson

Knight&Dragon is a comic book for all ages, that offers the readers the possibility to decide the outcome, depending on the character who’s story they choose to follow. Light-hearted, yet compelling, it’s one of the newest comic books created under the Improper Book label. We got to chat with its creators: Matt Gibbs and Bevis Musson who answered a few questions about their creative process, the choices they’ve made regarding this comic book and the future projects that we may expect from them.

 

Matt&Bevis

GP: Could the two of you say a few words about yourselves? Give us a clue as to who the people behind the comic are?

Bevis: I’m Bevis Musson. I’m mostly an artist, but I also write as well, and have been floating around in the British Small Press scene for a good few years now.

Matt: And I’m Matt Gibbs. I’m a writer and editor, working mainly in comics and games, including working as the managing editor of Improper Books.

 

GP: Knight&Dragon sounded like it will be a brutal tale of blood and, quite possibly some gore. I found myself surprised at how different from my perception of its name the story was. In a good way. Can you tell us how this story came to be? Where did the idea come from, how you two got around to putting pencil to paper and bringing it to life?

Matt: I’ve always been a huge fan of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy books and I wanted to do something along those lines, playing with branching narratives in comics. At the same time, I wanted to create something playful and accessible for all ages and the idea of the traditional story of a Knight, Dragon and Maiden seemed a perfect one to subvert.

 Bevis: I think even from the start we set out to tell a story that approached the traditional tale from a slightly different viewpoint. The nature of the book, with multiple storylines and endings, meant that a straightforward battle wouldn’t really have worked anyway. The more playful cat and mouse story appealed more to both of us and certainly suited my style more as well. Matt came to me with a fairly complete script that I did some character designs and sample pages for that then actually led on to a fairly major rewrite. There was a lot of interplay between the writing and the art like that. Some things changed in the script because I found a better way to make it work visually, some ideas that I had for layout or art simply didn’t work because they didn’t serve the story the way they needed to. It’s always very rewarding to work on a book with that kind of give and take on all sides.

 

Created with GIMPGP: Why did you make Knight & Dragon silent? While I was going through the pages, I have to admit that the images were so compelling that for the longest time I imagined the dialogue in my head, without acknowledging it wasn’t there, so it seemed like a perfect choice, but what was behind it?

Matt: The main intention was to leave space for the humour and also make it accessible for all ages. By having all the characters speak to each other and think in pictures, it made the whole comic much more playful. It also means that there are no barriers to young children reading and interpreting the book for themselves, as well as no barriers to language. I knew Bevis’ beautiful linework and Nathan Ashworth’s gorgeous colours could pull this off too. There’s something about the styles used on each page that just makes me grin.

Bevis: I had a great time doing the ‘dialogue’ in the book, actually. It gave me a chance to use two slightly differing styles on the same page, treat the speech bubbles as extra panels and design the page as one whole with the dialogue as much a part of the art as anything else. I letter a lot of my own work, but there’s something different about getting to make the dialogue in a comic an integrated part of the art in a way that text can never quite be.

 

GP: Everyone is in a constant rush now, yet you chose to make Knight & Dragon a story that can’t be read unless you actually pay attention to the tale and follow the clues. What motivated that?

Matt: I’m not sure that was ever a consideration on our part. I guess the lack of words does make the reader look at each individual panel and the page as a whole, rather than rushing through reading just the dialogue or captions. The page turns, the mechanism at the bottom of each page where we direct the reader to the next step of the story, slow it down a little too. That probably also helps focus reader attention.

Bevis: I do think that a lot of people reading comics, and illustrated stories of all types, sort of skim over the drawings because they don’t have to ‘read’ them. By not having any text, but still having speech bubbles that you need to read to understand the story does mean that you approach the book in a slightly different way. That can only be a good thing, and also means it’s accessible regardless of your reading age or language skills. It also means that you can read the same dialogue in a slightly different way depending on which path you’re following through the book.

 

GP: Now, the Knight’s tale had a definite ending, or several endings. Do you plan on maybe writing more of the Knight’s story? Maybe have a Knight & *insert mythical creature here* in the future?

 Matt: As a branching narrative it lends itself to so many different stories with multiple protagonists. We’ve got ideas for other Created with GIMPbooks in a similar style, but I don’t think we’d revisit the Knight, Dragon and Maiden just yet. We have ideas for something more fairy tale perhaps, such as Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel.

Bevis: I don’t think either of us would rush back to these exact characters straight away, no, but I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to going back to them at some point in the future. There’s certainly a lot more of their world that we could see. We’re more likely to come back to the specific format rather than the characters though.

 

GP: The not-so-helpless maiden was quite a nice surprise. I know a lot of people would’ve preferred a classic tale where she really needs rescuing, yet here she rides off on the dragon or gets the guy she wants, without actually depending on him to save her. You chose to go against the classic tale, which despite the changes in society seems to still be the norm in the media. What made you choose that as opposed to the thing that “sells”, so to speak?

Bevis: The whole set up of Knight & Dragon is a little different from what you might expect and even from the very early proposal it was clear that Matt didn’t want to just have the same old fairy story and the same old tropes. By having the Maiden being a lot more forceful, a lot more in charge of her own destiny, it opens up the story in a way that you don’t normally get. Also, almost all the comics that I’ve done in the past have revolved around women and I think that’s part of the reason that Matt asked me to do the book. Even if she hadn’t been that in control in the original proposal I’d have asked to go that direction when I came to draw it. That said, even though she was a dominant character in the script I made a conscious effort to make her even more so in the art. She’s not a passive character in any way, even when she’s tied to a stake. I did several different design proposals for her before we started properly and in one she was your traditional blonde, petite princess type, and to be honest she didn’t work. She didn’t fit the story at all. I’d almost go so far as to say she wouldn’t let me depict her like that. She doesn’t look like the ‘normal’ damsel in distress and she doesn’t behave like that and that’s probably why people like her so much.

Matt: As Bevis said, from the outset it was our intention not to make her another damsel in distress that needed saving. Even without the structure of a branching narrative, where you need more potential and surprising directions for each character to take, I don’t think either of us would ever want to create a character constrained by that mould. In many respects the book isn’t called ‘Maiden, Dragon & Knight’ only so that we could surprise and delight people as we updated the classic story.

 

Created with GIMPGP: I found myself wishing for more of the horse’s path. He was one of my favourite characters. Did any of you have a “favourite”, someone whose path you enjoyed more than the others? Or is it like me making you choose between your children?

Bevis: When we first started talking about doing Knight & Dragon, Matt asked me what I like to draw and what I don’t like to draw. The one thing I said I don’t like drawing was horses. Drawing horses makes me want to cry, even once I worked out he could wear a tablecloth so I didn’t have to draw his legs. And despite all that the Horse has become the break out star and steals almost every page he’s on. So naturally the Horse has pretty much come out as the most popular character with everyone else. Almost everyone read the Horse’s story or the Dragon’s story first and a lot of people wanted to know more about them, especially the Horse. I’m not sure if I had my own favourite as such. The Horse gave me the most chances for comedy and the Dragon was probably the most fun to draw, but I think my favourite was probably the Maiden. It was great to draw someone who is so much of a type, but completely goes against all those expectations at the same time. I also liked drawing the Farmhand a lot, but that’s just because any excuse to draw beefcake pleases me.

 Matt: Everyone loves the Horse! So I’m pleased I was able to talk Bevis into drawing him… Sorry, Bevis. As to my favourite, yeah, it is like deciding between my darlings, but if I had to pick only one it would be our Maiden. A great deal of the book hangs on what she decides to do, especially the final outcomes. It’s a close call though, as the Horse adds a lot of humour to all of the paths and, as Bevis pointed out, often steals the scene.

 

GP: Are there any other projects the two of you are currently working on? And that you can talk about? Or any project that you would like to do in the future, but haven’t had the chance yet?

Matt: Bevis and I are planning another fairy tale inspired comic with Improper Books. Something more traditional this time and linear, but very much in the same all-ages style as Knight & Dragon. It’s still early days though. Alongside that, I’m working with Sara Dunkerton on another all-ages title, this one is an anthropomorphic tale about mice, which we will be releasing more details of soon.

Bevis: Yeah, the story that we’re working out at the moment is very exciting. As Matt says it’s much more linear, but it’s playing with the traditions and themes of fairy tales and making something new of them. We’re also looking at exploring the nature of design and layout in comics too. We’ll have to see how that pans out though as we go on with the planning of it. I’ve also got a couple of other irons in the fire, not least getting on with finally doing the next issue of The Dead Queen Detectives which has been coming imminently for at least three years now.

You can find us on twitter @matthewgibbs and @bevismusson, and learn more about Knight & Dragon and other Improper Books titles via improperbooks.com

Character Fan Art Feature: Data, Goonies

GuruMel
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Character Fan Art Feature: Data, Goonies

This week I will be featuring fan art of the greatest Goonie – Data, thanks to Chris Kent for the suggestion. Data really was the only Goonie in any way prepared for their adventure, having previously trained with Indiana Jones.

First up, everything you need to know about data in one handy infographic from Tom Whalen. Nice font choice, clean layout and good design. Whalen has some great pop / geeky designs, I think we might see his stuff in this feature more often!

Okay, so it didn’t take me much searching to realise that there is not very much Data fan art. In fact, I suspect that Chris Kent may be a Goonies artist angling for a featured image – which is fine by me, the more fan art the better!

Alright, next up, this cute image from Sergio Lantadilla. I could totally see an illustrated children’s book in this style – really love the textures and layering, some impressive digital painting technique here.

For my third image I’ve chosen this from Evelyne Schulz. A bit different to her usual high realism portraits, I like the movement in this picture, in the action, pose and style. I also like to see characters depicted through their characteristics rather than the actors faces – this could never be mistaken for anyone else, yet hardly any face is visible.

 

My next choice is this image from Scott Serkland. I love the bold black and white, perfect for vectoring, but still hand drawn and a bit sketchy. A great character study, and he has done other Goonies too! Serkland is another artist I would like to feature again – his images really appeal to me, but then I am weak to cartoony, clever, pop culture art.

Despite my concern that I wouldn’t actually be able to find 5 images of just Data and not the rest of the Goonies, I have actually had to choose from a few for this final pick. Again I’ve managed to save the best ’til last!

It’s a push to consider it as fan art, as the artist is a professional, having worked for Marvel and Disney, but he drew this image of Data for a fan, as a fan. Bow before the greatness that is this image by Casey Jones! Loving the details, the shading – everything about it!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this snapshot into obscure character fan art, and look forward to the next installment!

If you have any suggestions for a characters you would like to see featured here please comment below, or send us a message!

Ian McNaught-Davis 1929-2014

GuruMel
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Ian McNaught-Davis 1929-2014

Ian McNaught-Davis has passed away at the age of 84.

A giant of what is now a bygone era, the dawn of home computing, Ian McNaught-Davis brought computers to the masses in the UK, presenting The Computer Programme, Making The Most of The Micro and Micro Live in the 1980’s.

He was the public face of the BBC Computer Literacy Project, and a pioneer in an entirely new type of TV show. His formal style and technology predictions (ranging from full on crazy, to scarily accurate) are now embedded in the minds of so many like me who spent big chunks of the 1980’s copying code into a BBC Micro.

He was also a well renowned mountaineer and president of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation from 1995 to 2004. As well as the president of the British Mountaineering Council, and a speaker for and supporter of the Computer Conservation Society.

He was one of the many unsung heroes who have helped shape the technological world we all now enjoy so much. Thanks for everything and rest in peace Ian McNaught-Davis.

Isometrics: WARP Month: D, the Internal and the Metafictional worlds of Kenji Eno

David Rose
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Isometrics: WARP Month: D, the Internal and the Metafictional worlds of Kenji Eno

Warp Month

D: is it a morass of contradictions? Is it a game or an interactive movie? Does it have merit at all today or is it nothing more than two hours of bad FMV? Isometrics takes a trip into the mindscape of Kenji Eno’s D…

Welcome to Isometrics, a distinctly more WARPed look at the literary world of video games.Now last week I got quite a bit of discussion from a couple of people (which comprises the majority of the Isometrics viewing audience), whose opinions formed quite the dichotomy;  either they agreed with my retrospective of an interesting but largely forgotten gaming figure at one of the most formative years of the medium as a literary form, or they thought I was eulogising an obscure game designer of little interest or relevance (particularly to a western audience) who made what can be described as fundamentally flawed games. Eno’s stuff  was intended to go against the mould(kind of), to make an impact for what it wasn’t rather than what it was, and I’m glad that kind of spirit is continued in the discussion surrounding his legacy.

 Dvideogame

Part of my intentions with Isometrics was to highlight games that aren’t necessarily the best, or the most technically impressive, but have the most interesting ideas and scope for exploration and critical analysis, and D basically epitomises that- being a game known more for its ideas than itself.

And what are these ideas you ask?  These come from two different schools of thought; on one side is the metafictional themes of D and the other the internal, psychological and sensual elements. Both aspects interplay with each other a lot in a way that Eno claims is unintentional, though given the end result I’m not entirely sure. In any case, there are certain major themes that run through D, and indeed the entire Laura trilogy.

The metafictional elements begin right with the mode of game it attempts to be. D is an interactive movie game in every respect of the word. Not only is the game entirely an on-rails adventure with nigh-ubiquitous use of pre-rendered video sequences, but it is an interactive movie in the more reductive sense of the word. D was not the first game to try and claim the interactive movie term, but it was the first to actively explore what it meant, which meant that the game had a lot of rather experimental design decisions, not all of which were positive.

The first, and most prominent of these was the concept of a virtual actress, a concept that Eno did not invent himself (the root of the idea can likely be traced as far back as Osamu Tetzuka, the “godfather of anime”, and his concept of the “Star System”), but was one of the more prominent real life attempts to bring the concept to life. The idea behind it was that Laura, the lead star of D, Enemy Zero and D2, was not in fact the same character but the same “actress” of sorts inhabiting various roles that were narratively unconnected but in a way connected through her role. It’s unclear why Eno did this, whether he thought there was money to be made in leasing out popular characters or as the first of many homages to California in the Laura trilogy, but it is definitely worth noting, since it deliberately frames the player as being an actress in the midst of playing a role, in a way very tangentially similar to the much later series Assassin’s Creed.

The other major element, and probably the most major was the deliberate restrictions on the player’s actions. A player could not pause nor save the game, which emphasised the game as a complete experience that you would go through in its entirety. Add to this a two hour time limit, the average length of a feature film and you have features that attempt to shift the experience of the game towards experiencing this story in its entirety, and typically only once at a time, since failure or at least failure to get one out of the four endings you desired meant starting the game once again from the very start.

Some people may find this annoying…

Especially when you had puzzles like this, designed to waste your time like a lot of dickish 90s adventure games
Especially when you had puzzles like this, designed to waste your time like a lot of dickish 90s adventure games

The third, and probably most positive end is the focus on cinematic presentation and the way in which it managed to create the atmosphere in D. That isn’t really to say the graphics have aged well, because in reality they’ve aged about as well as gout. This was always the bugbear people had with Full Motion Video and any game that used it intensely; because of how quickly computers developed, computer graphics could look dated and antiquated surprisingly quickly, and D, with a reliance not only on full motion video but 3D rendered characters suffered particularly heavily, especially in the facial movement department. That said, the graphics were both ambitious and very good for their time. Both of these points are made all the more impressive by the fact that WARP was a small independent game company that at the time had a team of about four animators total to work on D, all of which were using rather cheap Amiga home computers.

One of the better screengrabs I could find. Laura looks alright when she's not moving, or in frame...
One of the better screengrabs I could find. Laura looks alright when she’s not moving, or in frame…

The other thing is that despite the animation limitations, there were levels of evocation that managed to shine through. An emphasis on little touches and sequences helps the animation climb very slightly up from the pit in which it graphically resides. In addition to this there is a significant influence of a wider range of films than the typical block buster, with optional scenes involving collectable psychedelic scarabs (it doesn’t make much more sense in context) that reveal that there is more to the game than mere metacommentary.

The story is at its core a psychological horror about a doctor who has lost control of his baser self and become a murderer. Laura Harris, his daughter, rushes to the hospital to try and talk him down, which is when things start to get rather more oblique. The hospital walls shift to those of a Gothic castle and Laura has two hours to try and figure out the secret of her father and the strange mental oubliette he has created for himself before they are both lost to what I can assume is madness (the game over screen doesn’t really explain much).

Now, it’s funny that the aesthetic is Gothic, because there’s a certain Gothic text that this owes rather more than a favour to…

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT:

Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, one of the seminal texts in the first wave of Gothic horror.

In D, most of the story is left deliberately enigmatic, revealed tentatively through the finding of scarab beetles, which reveal that neither Laura nor her father Richter are who they seem, instead Richter claims they come from the same line as Dracula.

Not sure if I'd get away with actually showing the cannibalism so here's a pretty scarab!
Not sure if I’d get away with actually showing the cannibalism so here’s a pretty scarab!

Now, given the rather… bad way that line was delivered atop the bombast, it is easy to mock the revelation as a twist there for the sake of it. Eno claims in interviews that the game was originally designed with no story and so had to have one built around it, hidden literally on shelves and in cubby holes. But at the same time, by invoking the name of Stoker’s text it indelibly makes itself an adaptation of the novel.

Perhaps, much like how the Andy Warhol produced 1974 horror film Blood for Dracula re-contextualises Dracula as a grotesque parasitic member of the old aristocracy, literally feeding on the young and innocent, here Dracula is a psychological, internal monster, one that creates a desire to feed on other people, taken to its most literal in the final scarab seen, where Laura is seen eating her mother’s arm. This, as well as the other scarab scenes were created in secret from the rest of the team and surreptitiously sneaked into the game via a rather clever disc-swapping ruse in order to fool the censors.

Consumption imagery runs rampant in the game, with the very first thing the player seems upon gaining control being a dining table, the eponymous “D’s Diner” of the mistranslated Japanese title, and the connection between food and flesh is not one the game shies away from. With bowls of blood soup, wine casks and the many scenes of mastication, there is an emphasis on the bodily, the fleshy, the fluidy, all things that 3D couldn’t really render. After these revelations comes the final, and difficult choice; kill the paternal or be killed.

There might well be a lot more( or indeed a lot less) to the game than that. Its features, for good or bad make the game one that will be debated for a good long time regarding its place in gaming history. For some it’s yet another title that tries so hard to be cinematic that it fails to be either a good film or a good game, and for others it is a very flawed and very short masterpiece.

For me, it is simply fascinating, part of gaming’s adolescent hunt for identity which comes to epitomise Eno’s western released work, as we will find out when we find Enemy Zero.

What is your take on the Interactive Movie? Did you play D and feel I missed something important? Feel free to drop a comment below, on the Geek Pride Facebook page as well as on Twitter, either through Geek Pride’s or my own Twitter page.

15 Minute Game of Thrones Teaser – Ice and Fire: A Foreshadowing

Hani Fearon
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15 Minute Game of Thrones Teaser – Ice and Fire: A Foreshadowing

Winter is coming, grab a tissue. No, not like that… HBO have released a lengthy (and girthy)  teaser for Season 4 of Westeros drama entitled ‘Ice and Fire: A Foreshadowing’. That’s right, 14 minutes and 31 seconds of guts, gore, action and an awful lot of sad faces from the cast when talking about last season’s climactic events.

Along with plenty of sad faces, the trailer also shows off some of the new characters that we can expect to see in April, including Prince Oberyn who looks to be a major player. Much of the teaser focuses on the cast’s feedback to Twitter questions about the ‘best characters’ and quotes and what to expect this year. Oh, and there are dragons.

According the writer and executive producer David Benioff, we can expect even more of a climax to this season and some great action and mind-blowing visuals. Well, it certainly looks that way and the Purple Wedding looks set to be quite the extravagant event.

Also, Rory McCann (the Hound) referring to Joffrey as ‘a wee prick’ is just fabulous.

http://youtu.be/J5iS3tULXMQ

Science For The Win! Brittany’s weekly Science Roundup

TheWookie
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Science For The Win! Brittany’s weekly Science Roundup

StandBackSCience

Walk like an Egyptian…I mean dinosaur.

We’ve all heard that birds are related to dinosaurs but scientists have recently come out and announced that birds actually ARE dinosaurs. Modern chickens have a helluva lot in common with their therapod ancestors. To learn how dinosaurs moved, researchers attached a weighted tail to a chicken to observe how they behaved. The weight difference shifted the center of gravity for the chickens allowing the team to get a better understanding of how dinosaurs, specifically a T-Rex, walked. As a digitigrade biped it is safe to say that a chicken, with a plunger on its butt, walks like a dinosaur.

dino chicken tail

Source

Artificial skin makes breakthroughs.

Skin is by far the largest organ in the human body. Aside from creating an essential barrier against germs, it also allows us to regulate our body temperature. Artificial skin has been developed in the past, but now results have come from a Swiss lab that have artificial skin functioning biologically. Even though it has only been tested on mice models, human trials are being set up now. This could revolutionize the way in which we treat victims of severe burns and other horrible injuries involving the skin. Currently we treat people in need of skin with grafts from other parts of the body and also with cadaver skin transplants. Hopefully the trials will go well and we will start to see the use of this awesomeness soon.

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Source

Bionic takes on a whole new meaning.

bionicarm

What would you miss most about your arm? Hugs? Feeling the softness of things? Bionic arms have made it possible for amputees to hug again and grasp objects, but until very recently they haven’t been able to transmit any sensation. That all changed in February 2013. Results were published earlier this week of an experimental bionic arm tested last year. Amputee Dennis Aabo Sorensen was the first to test this modern marvel.

A bionic arm was connected to the nerves in his remaining limb section that allowed him to detect the basic “feel” of objects. “I could tell if it was a hard object or a soft one,” Sorensen said in an interview after the experiment. Although this cannot be used outside the lab yet (the hand was connected to computers the whole time making it far too impractical) researchers are hopeful that the research and develpometn will form the basis for future experimentation in treating amputees and helping them regain at least a semblance of the life they had before their injury.

Source

A Family out for a stroll.

All it took was a few footprints to send the world of human origins into chaos. Archeologists announced the discovery of 800,000 to 1 million year old footprints in Happisburgh. These are the oldest known footprints outside of Africa. Researchers say that it is very likely these belonged to a family of Homo Antecessor, or “pioneer man.” Britain is considered the edge of human habitation 800,00-900,000 years ago and is thought to have had a much colder climate resembling modern day Scandinavia. 700,000 years ago was when it had a Mediterranean type climate.

This may seem like it’s not very significant, but within the scientific community it is incredible. Every discovery, even the little ones, help us to better understand where we came from and where we are going. The beauty of science is that we can adjust what we think when we learn something new. Sadly the footprints were washed away shortly after they were found and the 3D models were scanned and built to preserve the information.

But hey, at least they were found.

footprints

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Mr Peabody & Sherman Review

James Buckingham
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Mr Peabody & Sherman Review

Everyone’s had the “If I could go back in time I’d…” conversation at some point… but I’ll bet one of the things on your time travel bucket list wasn’t to ride the Trojan horse like a rollercoaster through Troy while it’s being ransacked.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman Header

Mr. Peabody and Sherman is the latest offering from Dreamworks Animation, giving the familiar characters from the 1960’s Rocky & Bullwinkle Show a digital facelift with a rather entertaining adventure tale of life, love and historical faux pas.

Living in the UK, I didn’t get exposed to Rocky & Bullwinkle (I was more of a Thundercats & Transformers kinda kid), so I had no idea who our time travelling protagonists were… still I trundled along to the movies with my other half and our 7 year old. I also must advise I had to watch this in 3D, much to my irritation (I have a long-running hatred of 3D, primarily because it really hurts my head).

Despite sitting there, with 3D glasses on top of my glasses (yes, really) I quite enjoyed Peabody & Sherman’s antics through ancient Egypt, and their other pitstops throughout some of history’s significant moments.

Story

The general premise of the movie is a simple(ish) one. Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell – Dawn of the Dead, Modern Family) adopted Sherman (Max Charles – Family Guy and The Amazing Spider-Man) when he was a baby, and proceeded to teach him his vast collected knowledge – history in particular, using his invention the “Wayback” (a time machine of course). When Sherman gets in a fight in school, he’s forced to have a playdate/dinner with his would-be bully Penny (Ariel Winter – Modern Family), and when she finds out about the Wayback, the fun ensues.

Agamemnon waits for Sherman to take a whiff...
Agamemnon cuts the cheese, and waits for Sherman to take a whiff…

Now of course, this is a kid’s movie… so don’t be expecting a lot of historical accuracy. There’s been a lot of artistic license taken with the facts… but it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to spoil anything, but the developments that unfold are quite amusing… especially towards the final act of the movie when things start going a little pear-shaped.

Aesthetics

The visuals are everything you’d expect from a studio like Dreamworks – silky smooth animation, great character design and the 3D parts of the film aren’t bad. The parts made for 3D are (as always) fairly obvious, but it’s not poorly done post-production 3D at least. Is it worth seeing in 3D though? No. I know I’m a little biased, but if you lose something when you see a film in 2D, then you’re watching the wrong movies. Save your cash, and get some ice cream while you watch instead.

For the love of god don't take that woman's cake away
For the love of god don’t take that woman’s cake away

All the voice acting is really well done, with Burrell’s turn as Peabody being particularly good. Young Max Charles does a good turn as Sherman too, with another Modern Family alum joining in the form of Ariel Winter tagging along as the initially nasty piece of work Penny. As well as our main protagonists here, there’s also some notable cameos from such movie veterans as Mel Brooks, Family Guy’s Patrick Warburton and Stanley Tucci making appearances, though Warburton is a little typecast in his Kronk-esque role again.

The music in the film is… adequate. There’s nothing that really stands out about it, but it does the job in terms of setting the scene. There are a few moments when the music could’ve been used to better effect – like when the inevitable major sad moment happens, there seems to be an absence of drama or impact of the gravity of what just happened. With some well-placed heartstring-plucking music at that point, it could’ve inspired tears.

Sherman takes Penny cruising, hoping to impress
Sherman takes Penny cruising, hoping to impress

This brings me on to one of the few things I disliked about the movie. There wasn’t much attachment created to the characters, aside from Sherman. The initial bullying scene at school took me back to my own childhood, so struck a chord with me a bit… but aside from that I couldn’t really give a crap about what happened to most of the other characters.

Fun Factor

What the movie does really well is use the time travel mechanic to bamboozle the audience slightly (sorry… I just really wanted to use the word bamboozle) towards the end. One of the other things I really liked was that Peabody uses his intellect a lot like Cumberbatch’s Sherlock in how he works things out, with the on-screen overlay of his mind working. I’m a sucker for intelligent characters though if I’m honest, and I like that children’s movies aren’t afraid of making intelligence cool – It’s the same reason I really liked Meet The Robinsons (if you’ve not seen it, you really should – it’s brilliant).

Final Thoughts

All-in-all I quite enjoyed Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and that’s despite the headache I had from the 3D. There’s not a great deal to complain about with it to be honest – it’s a little formulaic, and predictable in places, but with kid’s movies you’ve got to expect that. Make the film too complicated and you lose your target audience faster than a kid can pick their nose. My little girl really enjoyed it, and wanted to sit through it all over again before the credits had finished rolling. The great thing about the characters and the time machine mechanic is that you’ve got so many more possibilities for future movies, so I hope it does enough business to snag itself a sequel.

Trailer:

Zomnibus of Brian Keene’s The Last Zombie hits Kickstarter

Andy Haigh
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Zomnibus of Brian Keene’s The Last Zombie hits Kickstarter

LastZombie_TEASER_2

Whilst some people might be all zombied out, for anyone that’s not they might want to check out the Kickstarter for The Last Zombie by Brian Keene.

The Last Zombie, a comic book published by small indie publisher Antarctic Press, is the story of Doctor Ian Scott, a man on a desperate journey through a post-apocalyptic U.S.A. which might not sound that big of a deal but there’s a difference.

The zombies have come and mostly gone but disease is rampant in the remnants of the US. Wild animals rove the shattered landscape and, if that isn’t bad enough, desperation has driven survivors to extreme lengths.  Through this nightmare scenario, Doctor Scott and his small team of soldiers and scientists must find their way from Colorado to West Virginia to reunite him with the woman he loves…before its too late for either of them.

Whilst Keene handles the writing, art is handled by Joe Wight, Fred Perry, Brian Denham and Chris Allen who between them have worked on numerous titles.

Due to the indie nature of the publisher, it’s probably safe to say that plenty of people have never even heard of The Last Zombie but are thinking that a post-apocalyptic zombie comic written by a critically acclaimed and award winning horror writer sounds pretty good. For them this is the ideal opportunity to get their hands on the ‘Zomnibus’ which collects together all 25 issues in one hefty tome for the first time (printing an omnibus is an expensive business) – there’s even a hardback if you’re feeling flush.

You can even check out the first issue here The Last Zombie #1

Check out the Kickstarter here Brian Keene’s The Last Zombie Omnibus.

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