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Geek Pride Guide To Summer Sales #1: The GOG Show

Ben Fee
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Geek Pride Guide To Summer Sales #1: The GOG Show

844bac20026bcb6faf3d308fe9ad38365b3df6d1b5c4b74d0db309b426c997c5Ah, Summertime. For most people this means lounging in the Sun, squeezing into a packed beer garden, or standing in a supermarket aisle wondering if the price tag for the sun cream is some kind of ghastly error, but for us geeks it is a time for drawing those curtains a little closer, breaking out the TV box sets, and preparing to spend every goddamn penny we posses on videogame sales.

This year it’s GOG who are first out of the gate, offering us a decidedly Steamy-looking sale with new deals every day and a fun little XP thingy that can bag you even more games!

Woah there, pardner! What’s a GOG?

Sorry, my bad. GOG stands for Good Old Games and they are a site dedicated to bringing back those ancient videogames you thought had been lost to the mists of time, as well as all the latest titles, geeky indie movies (including the excellent The Gamers Series) and some top notch documentaries.

OK, I’m in! What can I expect from the sale?

I’m so glad you asked! There are some absolute gems up for grabs this year and likely a lot more before the end. At the moment, here are some of our solid gold recommendations:

RPGS

Isometric roleplay legends Black Isle have a fair few titles on offer including the seminal Planescape: Torment and enhanced versions of their Baldur’s Gate series, including the original with the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion, Shadows of Amn with Throne of Bhaal, the recent expansion Siege of Dragonspear and the first Icewind Dale. If you’re looking for something a little more modern, check out the excellent Shadowrun Returns by Harebrained Schemes and its expansions Dragonfall and Hong Kong, all of which are also in the sale.

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Planescaping some Torment

If isometry is not your thing, take a look at Deus Ex and its spiritual predecessor System Shock 2 for some first-person RPG action, both of which will capture you with their immersive plotlines and are essential elements in any gamers education.

Action

Now don’t think that just because GOG is home to some amazing classic RPGs that they don’t know how to party! In this sale they’re coming right out of the gate with some Lego action, some Serious Sams, a couple of entries from the phenomenally atmospheric survival horror series Metro 2033, and some real blasts from the past in the infamous blood-soaked racer Carmageddon series and the first three Mortal Kombats for the price of a bag of Monster Munch.

Adventure

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Simon. Sorcering.

I know what you’re going to say. “But Geek Pride, what about those old point-and-click adventures I used to know and love?” Well GOG has them by the bucket load. Indulge in some warm and fuzzy nostalgia or acquaint yourself with an unfortunately fading genre with such stone-cold classics as Simon the Sorcerer, Tex  Murphy, and the under-appreciated masterpiece, The Longest Journey.

Appetite well and truly whetted? Well head over to the site and take a look at the hundreds of games currently on offer and reacquaint yourself with some old friends. Who knows, you might even end up making a few new ones.

The GOG sale runs from now until June 22 with new deals arriving every 24 hours.

Do you have a favourite retro game you’d like to play again? Let us know in the comments!

 

Outcast – Episode One – A Darkness Surrounds Him

Andy Haigh
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Outcast – Episode One – A Darkness Surrounds Him

Outcast is the new show from The Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman (based on the comic of the same name) set in the rustbelt small American town of Rome, West Virginia. A creepy introductory scene features a young boy quickly shattering the everyday domesticity of a daughter arguing with her mother with some disturbing behaviour.

Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit) is a tortured squirrelly eyed loner and misfit generally shunned by his town folk because of events in his past. In fact the only person that seems to actually care about him is his adoptive sister Megan (Wrenn Schmidt) who is determined to not let him live in the dank squalid conditions of his former family home. Whilst Megan might care about Kyle her husband Mark (David Denman) like much of the town folk thinks he’s a dangerous misfit and doesn’t want him around their young daughter.

Meanwhile smoking poker playing local Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister) has come to the aid of the mother seen in the intro whose son is in the grip of a fearsome possession. Reverend Anderson soon seeks the help of Kyle saying the events he’s witnessed remind him of what happened in Kyle’s past. Scattered flashbacks to Kyle’s past reveal he suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his menacing mother, so bad that it still haunts him and his now elderly neighbour Norville (Willie C Carpenter) feels guilt over him and his late wife not taking action. The scattered flashbacks imply that Kyle’s mother and his former partner both suffered from demonic possession.  Kyle whilst initially hesitant to get involved helps the beleaguered Reverend and realises the child’s possession is somehow connected to him.

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Outcast is a distinctly mixed bag horror drama, on one hand it does a pretty good job of establishing a small town where everybody knows everybody for good or ill and where events in your life can define you as a person regardless of what you do after them. The flipside to that though is the horror aspect whilst atmospherically shot by director Adam Wingard (director of You’re Next and The Guest) doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, it’s not really scary and if you’ve seen The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose or any of the other countless films that revolve around demonic possession then you’ve already seen pretty much everything that Outcast has to offer in that regard, but unlike say American Horror Story it doesn’t have fun revelling in its cliches either.

One of the most interesting/weird aspects of Outcast, for viewers in the UK anyways, is seeing Philip Glenister ,well known for playing the corrupt but fundamentally good Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt in Life on Mars and its follow up Ashes to Ashes, doing an American accent and doing it pretty damn well.

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Watchdogs 2 – Back and better than before?

Mark Canty
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Watchdogs 2 – Back and better than before?

Are you ready for the second coming of Watchdogs?

This evening, Ubisoft took the covers off the sequel to last year’s Watchdogs. Moving the action to San Francisco, this time you are Marcus Holloway, fighting against corruption and ctos v2 with the Dedsec Hacker collective. Can we hope that this will be as awesome as it promises, or as awesome as the promises of its predecessor ? It has a lot of goodwill to make up, but I live in hope!

DedSec

Hacktivism, drones and quad-copters seem to be the order of the day in the Bay Area.  It is an optimistic city turned bad from money and corruption. What will they do to poor old San Francisco, other than graffiti, light shows and SWATing people you don’t like?

Details are few and far between, but it’s less than a week until E3, where we should see new details and videos.

Geek Pride will be covering it all here, of course, along with all their other games!

Watchdogs 2 is set for release on November 15 2016 on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 in a variety of editions including robots, caps, season passes (DLC, of course!) and statues of Marcus. Fingers crossed, gamers!

Watchdogs 2 - Marcus

The Nice Guys

Callum Tyndall
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The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling is not an actor I typically associate with comedy. At his best, I think of Drive and Only God Forgives. At his worst, The Notebook. This is dumb, because there are two films already that prove Gosling knows how to handle comedy: Crazy Stupid Love and The Big Short. There are reasons these don’t necessarily jump to mind, while both films I enjoyed they’re not necessarily landmark films for Gosling, in each film Steve Carrell was arguably much more the star. But they’re important to remember because they serve as somewhat of an appetiser for the truth that The Nice Guys serves up. Namely, that Ryan Gosling is actually bloody funny and I could more than happily watch him do physical comedy for hours.

In essence, The Nice Guys is a comedic crime-noir revolving around a murder/missing persons case. Russell Crowe takes on straight man duties as Jackson Healy, a man who, for a price, will solve problems for you. Said problems are mostly solved with the swift application of violence but the core of Healy is his desire to actually do something good. Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling is Holland March, a former police officer, now private detective. While Healy desires to be heroic but just can’t quite get there, March is pretty much a straight up coward, given up on heroic notions as long as he can wring every last dollar out of a case.

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The film is a Shane Black piece, heavily reminiscent of the criminally underseen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which similarly employed a mismatched duo in a crime-noir setting. The difference here is that while Kiss Kiss Bang Bang felt small and dark, The Nice Guys is lush and big. The setting, 1977 Los Angeles, is gorgeously rendered, swinging between porn parties, car shows and seedy airport hotels. The Los Angeles depicted is not necessarily a nice place, there’s more than enough dark underbelly here, but fortunately, our heroes are not quite as nice as the film’s title may suggest.

Typical of Shane Black, who co-wrote the film with Anthony Bagarozzi, The Nice Guys is witty from start to finish. Aside from Gosling’s aforementioned brilliance as an actor of physical comedy, the film is replete with such wonderful lines as, “You took the Lord’s name in vain.” “No I didn’t Janice, I actually found it very helpful.” I don’t think a single scene goes by without a memorable one liner, each delivered near pitch perfectly by a truly stellar cast.

Aside from our heroes, who quite rightfully take up the meat of the events, are orbited by a variety of madcap characters, each of which manages to make quite the impression, regardless of screen time. Chief among them is Holly March, Holland’s daughter, who serves the Jiminy Cricket role for both the heroes, entreating them to be better. While potentially irritating, as many child characters often become, Angourie Rice plays Holly with just the right amount of sass to keep her interesting, her place as the more adult member of the March family managing to angle her as a sort of sidelong third member of the team.

the-nice-guys-3Aside from the consistently excellent comedy, the film manages to play surprisingly well off its action pieces. While several of the characters are handy in a fight, it doesn’t try and convince you that they’re “action heroes”. Healy is a  tough guy but he’s not unstoppable. And March is just a shambles of a man in general, let alone in a fight. As with a lot of great hero characters, the duo get by as much on tenacity and sheer luck as on anything resembling real competence. When they are forced into action though, the fights are bombastic and do not hold back on reminding you that, funny as it is, this is really a crime story.

Weak points? Not many really. The film is long for what it is, clocking in at just under 2 hours, which some people may find a stretch. Personally though, I didn’t even realise how long I’d been in there till the film ended. Black is excellent at keeping the story ticking along, managing the pace to maintain interest. Other than that, there are a few moments where The Nice Guys hits absurdity which some people may not click with. It’s definitely a Shane Black film and it’s a film with hard connections to its noir roots. If you don’t have any particular engagement with either of those points of genesis, there may well be certain points where you start to feel the film stretch away from. However, if you get Black’s style and you like the noir thematics, you’re likely to see where the film has unfolded from.

Honestly, I can’t recommend The Nice Guys enough. This is a film begging to be franchised, for at least one more adventure with the duo. Russell Crowe plays understated throughout, containing the character in a way that makes the slow draw of his personality all the more enthralling. Gosling meanwhile is downright hilarious. If I don’t get to see Holland March at least once more, then someone is wasting a hell of a character. There’s so much going for this film but really what it comes down to is the duo. And even if you’ve only seen them doing talk show appearances, you already know that Crowe/Gosling may well be the new powerhouse pairing when it comes to comedy.

 

3 of E3’s Biggest Flops

Andrew Corban
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3 of E3’s Biggest Flops

Gamers, publishers, retailers, and developers worldwide know to mark E3 on their calendars for the hottest announcements and biggest surprises in the gaming world – but we can all recall some of the show’s most legendary gaffes. From nostalgic mistakes of yesteryear to more recent digital doozies, we’ve gathered 3 of the most spectacular flops ever to grace the famous E3 stage.

 

The Sega Saturn

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 In 1995, Sony’s debut in the console world – the PlayStation – went head to head with the freshly launched Sega Saturn in Japan, rapidly taking leadership in its home market. Sega of America responded by using E3 1995 to announce that the Saturn, previously pegged for a September release in the United States, had apparently proven so popular that 30,000 were being released across America to coincide with the June presentation. Retailers had other ideas – and certainly didn’t appreciate the surprise release announcement. Add to that the fact that the Saturn retailed for $399, $100 more than the PlayStation would launch for, and you can see how Sega of America’s hubris marked the first of what would become many years of gaffes, finally ejecting them from the console market altogether.

Nintendo’s 2008 E3 presentation

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 Few have shaped the gaming market as profoundly as Nintendo. Yet it’s not unfair to say that the company’s attempts at staying contemporary haven’t always hit the mark. In recent years, Nintendo has shied away from live stage presentations at E3 altogether, instead streaming its announcements worldwide. Looking back at the company’s 2008 stage show, we can’t help but think that this was the presentation that helped spark that notion.

In 2008, Nintendo’s Wii system was coming up on two years into its lifespan, and gamers were hungry for some announcements that would spark renewed interest in what is arguably the most popular set of gaming franchises in the world. Yet rather than play to those strengths, Nintendo ushered in the dawn of the ‘Wii as a lifestyle product’ ethos with a series of awkward and flailing gameplay demonstrations of the likes of Wii Sports Resort and the now infamous Wii Music. On top of that, using Wii Fit‘s Balance Board as a snowboarding prop for Shaun White didn’t exactly set gamers’ pulses racing.

The PSP Go

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 Remember that PlayStation Portable you asked for that didn’t play physical media, was locked to one region and account, and was more expensive than the more capable PSP that was still on the market? No, we don’t remember asking for that either – yet in 2009, Sony was adamant on regaling us with the purported advantages of just such a system. The PSP Go launched with 16 gigabytes of internal memory, with the ability to double that capacity with a memory stick – yet by promoting a digital-only marketplace to a gaming world that simply wasn’t ready for it, The PSP Go’s sales volumes spoke for themselves, and it wasn’t long before the machine was discontinued.

volumes spoke for themselves, and it wasn’t long before the machine was discontinued.

 

Era: The Empowered’s Lacuna #1 Preview

jesshealy24
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Era: The Empowered’s Lacuna #1 Preview

 

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With a fair few board games and comics under his belt, game designer Ed Jowett has decided to combine both of these passions in his latest creation, Era: The Empowered. For those who are unfamiliar with the Kickstarter campaign, Era is a new superhero RPG with a delicious 90’s flavour where, once the player discovers their abilities, they become part of the Empowered Division, a government agency that prides itself on observing the law. With that in mind, Jowett hopes that the first of this tie-in comic series, Lacuna, which is also on Kickstarter, will allow many more comic stories that he has lined up in order to expand the universe and flesh out the Empowered series in its entirety.

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Partnering with celebrated writer Amy Allworden, dialogue consultant Johnathan Lewis, and artists Rudi Roelff and Sathit Kaew; Jowett strives to enrich the series by focusing on a set few individuals in the Empowered world. The first, Lacuna, centers around the troubled Chris “Lacuna” Jameson, who upon uncovering his superpowers, begins to fight criminals all the while going seemingly unnoticed by any other empowered. That is, of course, until he is abandoned by his family and he is forced to seek out another just like himself.

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While there are variations of panels being both inked and colour as shown in the kickstarter preview, Jowett promises that Lacuna will be a full colour comic. The preview shows intricate examples of what is to come should the project be successful, including a preview video that entices viewers with a series of panels showcasing intriguing potential plot-points, initial characterization sketches from the artists with a clever narration to peak interest. So far the campaign has made great progress in the short time the project launched, with updates being made accordingly documenting the comics creation.

So, if you’re a fan of Jowett’s previous tabletop and comic book work, or if you simply want to help fund an indie comic we encourage you to take a look at Era: The Empowered’s Lacuna #1 Kickstarter page and if you feel so inclined, back it up!

 

Game of Thrones Spreads its Wings For Season Finale

Ben Fee
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Game of Thrones Spreads its Wings For Season Finale

Unshackled from the sometimes glacial plot of the books, Season Six of Game of Thrones has been an absolute stonker with some welcome returns, long-awaited reunions and an absolutely heartbreaking doorstop. As we approach the end of the season the familiar dread of having to go another year without our precious Westerosi drama starts to creeps into our bones, but fear not my sweet Summer child! Although the end is nigh for this season, we might be getting a little more bang for our buck this time around.

HBO have today confirmed that the last episode of this season “Winds of Winter” will run a whopping 69 minutes long – the longest episode yet! There’s no synopsis yet but it will be directed by Miguel Sapochik who helmed the awesome episode “Hardhome” in which Jon Snow faced off against the Night’s King and his army of White Walkers so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a bit of epic action before the series is out. Book-readers will recognise the episode title as that of the long-awaited sixth novel in the series, although what that means for the show itself is anyone’s guess.

The finale will follow an episode with the intriguing title of “Battle of the Bastards”, but I couldn’t begin to guess what that could refer to.

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Looking forward to the finale? How do you think this series will end? Let us know in the comments!

Everything We Know About…Doctor Strange!

Ben Fee
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Everything We Know About…Doctor Strange!

 

24212327945_6881f25034_oOpening in theaters on November 4th and directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Marvel Studios‘ Doctor Strange will be the fourteenth entry into the comic-book publisher’s shared movie universe and the second of their Phase Three offerings.

Taking a much-needed departure from the rock’em sock’em super-heroics of the Avengers movies, Doctor Strange will delve into the until-now-only-hinted-at mystical side of the Marvel Universe with Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Hobbit) playing the titular Sorcerer Supreme, forced to master ancient magical arts and save the world from supernatural evil. Details have been fairly light on the ground so far, with only a few leaked set photos and a trailer to go off, but we’ve taken a look through the Eye of Agamotto and gathered together everything we know about…Doctor Strange!

  1. The Doctor’s Origin Will Be Staying True To The Comics…

In the comics, Dr Stephen Strange is a gifted but egotistical surgeon whose hands are irreparably damaged during a car accident. Searching for an alternate method of healing, Strange travels to the Far East and becomes the pupil of a mysterious being known as The Ancient One, soon taking over his mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, greatest of all magical practitioners and mystical protector of this dimension. As you do.

The trailer hits all of these beats pretty hard, showing Cumblethatch alternately swanning around in scrubs or a tux before going all Seven Years In Tibet and still managing to pull of dashingly handsome under an inch of grime and a beard that would make Brian Blessed jealous. We see the car crash and its aftermath, the good doctor with his hands demolished, and we even get a good look at Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One and the film’s first big diversion from the comics…

  1. …Except For The Ancient One

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Originally a Tibetan farmer, Marvel have altered the origins of their MCU Ancient One, turning him into an androgynous Caucasian and sparking accusations of whitewashing and cultural insensitivity. Taking to BirthMoviesDeath, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige attempted to explain the decision:

The sorcerers have been around for millennia, protecting us from things we didn’t know about until this story. There have been multiple [Ancient Ones], even if this one has been around for five hundred years, there were others. This is a mantle, and therefore felt we had leeway to cast in interesting ways.

  1. He’ll Get By With A Little Help From His Friends

Assisting Strange in his mystical adventures are Benedict Wong as his faithful manservant Wong (although expect that relationship to be updated a scootch), Rachel McAdams possibly playing  potential love interest and fellow medic Christine Palmer AKA Night Nurse, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo. Traditionally an enemy of the Sorcerer Supreme, Mordo is a fellow student of The Ancient One who resents Strange’s natural talents, something that will not be transferring over to the movies. Says Ejiofor in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“In terms of his life with the Ancient One, it’s this long and intense relationship they have that’s just very deep and very connected. I think they both recognize in Strange this certain quality that they feel is going to be very useful in a situation they’re in — just by the nature of who he is, and the way that he operates, and the way his mind works, and the certain skill set and personality that he has. So, when they all meet, they realize that he’s somebody that can be plugged into this very surreal, interesting, sort of fascinating circumstance that they’re all in, and the dangers that they face. And so it becomes a process of assimilating him into their ways of life.”

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It’s also been confirmed that Doctor Strange will be packing his trademark Cloak of Levitation giving him the power of flight and the powerful Eye of Agamotto, an amulet that allows his to see through all disguises and illusions, view the past, and track psychic and magical energies.

  1. Something Wicked This Way Comes

Set photos have revealed Mads Mikkleson’s baddie, a sorcerer who breaks off from The Ancient One to start his own sect, looking pretty evil with his scary eyes and creepy groupies A recent Lego set has also hinted at the incursion of some form of tentacled beastie into our realm, something that could well be linked to the mystical shenanigans of the Hannibal actor’s villain. Our money is on this monster being Shuma-Gorath, an extra-dimensional entity that tries to enter our world through the mind of The Ancient One, forcing Doctor Strange to kill him and take up his old mentor’s title. The Lego set also gives us another look at Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, his mystical base of operations located in New York’s Greenwich Village and likely site of the movie’s climactic battle.

On location with 'Doctor Strange' filming in New York City Featuring: Mads Mikkelsen Where: New York, New York, United States When: 04 Apr 2016 Credit: WENN.com
WENN.com

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5.Crazy Dimensions Ahoy!

Briefly glimpsed during the finale of last year’s Ant-Man, Doctor Strange is going to be a full on exploration of this weirder side of the Marvel Universe. Said Kevin Feige to Empire Magazine:

“We see glimpses of something called the Dark Dimension, but if you were to open a Doctor Strange comic drawn by Steve Ditko, you would see the Dark Dimension is, in fact, very colorful in an extremely psychedelic way. Those are the things we’re not shying away from.”

The trailer also gives us a few shots of mind-bending geography and some cheeky astral-planing by Strange himself, so expect this movie to be a bit of a head fudge.

Are you looking forward to Doctor Strange? Let us know in the comments below!

Geek Pride Interviews: Arrow – Willa Holland and Katrina Law

Matt Geary
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Geek Pride Interviews: Arrow – Willa Holland and Katrina Law

At MCM London this year, we got invited to a round the table interview with Arrow stars, Willa Holland and Katrina Law.

Superman Confirmed for Season Two of CW’s Supergirl

Ben Fee
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Superman Confirmed for Season Two of CW’s Supergirl

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It can be argued that season one of Supergirl was not without its ups and downs, but no one could deny that one of the biggest gripes came from the involvement (such as it was) of Kara Zor-El’s cousin and longest of long shadows, Superman.

Assumedly hamstrung by some complex agreement with Warner Brothers, the producers of Supergirl were reduced to only showing fleeting glimpses of the Man of Steel’s big toe or otherwise having his presence felt through Whatsapped cat videos to Kara while she was in the middle of saving the world. At the time executive producer Sarah Shecter explained away Supes’ shyness:

I think the reason why Superman’s not in the show is because it’s not about him. And it’s her show and it’s about her and he is just sort of a shadow in the back of her psyche, and I think that’s the right way to portray him because that’s how she experiences it.

But faster than a speeding bullet and following the recent news that the show was jumping networks to the CW, today has seen the announcement that casting is underway for an actor to play Superman in a number of episodes in season two. But if you’re wondering whether this version of Krypton’s favourite son will have any links to past or present incarnations, EP Andrew Kreisburg has your answer:

It’s not the Christopher Reeve version. It’s not the Henry Cavill version. It’s a version of Superman and what he has gone through in the world that we live in and the things that he’s faced and what’s happened to him vis-a-vis how it reflects on Kara is all our invention.

Hopefully he’ll stick around long enough for a cheeky crossover with the Emerald Archer, Scarlet Speedster and those wacky funsters over on Legends of Tomorrow!

Supergirl season one will be available on DVD from July 25th. A season two release date has yet to be announced.

Who would you like to see guest star on Supergirl? Let us know in the comments below!

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