Alone with the Internet

Today I worked from home and it was a pretty busy day. First off, I checked out Tiny Barbarian DX, watched a few videos, tried to find out when it's coming to the OUYA and then finally decided its far too awesome and I must have it now. So I bought it on Steam - and found it to be awesome.

I also popped onto twitter and found an announcement for not only this : 

but also Telltale has a Game of Thrones game in store. Oh my good news indeed - unless you're my wife, who doesn't care about anything but another chapter of "The Wolf Among Us" and constantly bugs me about it as if I can speed things up somehow.

I was also blown away by the "No Man's Sky" trailer I saw today....

Now you are too right?

"Ustwo" has put out a trailer for their upcoming iPad game : "Monument Valley" which looks every bit as good as the screenshots they previously put out implied. 

Plus all the other little indie games things I read about today, and saved bookmarks to play - Hotline Trail on Gamejolt - reading about the NESJAM .... 

All in all a busy day in gaming & news today.

Awesome Lamps & Lights

I had to do a little work in the internet today, googling "lamps" - strange but true.... check out some of these cool ones that I found...

original.

 original.

 original.

 original.

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original

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original.

Zero Charisma - Trailer

Steam Controller Demonstation

Leave it to the guys at Valve to come out of nowhere with a console, an OS and now an innovative controller. I haven't read much about this controller but it will be interesting to see how it effects PC gaming in general, especially when you see them in this demo playing games that aren't typically games that can be played with a controller.

Bonus : they play PAPERS, PLEASE at the end of this video with the controller - I thought it was an interesting choice; love that game.

Neptune's Pride : Triton (Day 11)

Things are getting increasingly complicated and I am checking into the game 4-5 times a day. I have been rushing at the beginning of each cycle to buy lots of economy and industry to get the full use of each day, but because of that I haven't always had money by the end of the day. Lately I have been more cautious, and left a little cash to make transactions between players and also to build a much needed carrier late in the day to gather the growing amount of ships on my planets.

Unfortunately, after winning a battle (barely, darn defense bonus) my fleet continued on to the next planet, you can see in the bottom left, and is now flying to their deaths at that purple stronghold. My ally Dark Blue is really messing things up there for purple, and since I don't want to get pinched in again by him I have send another carrier out to attack yellow and give myself safe passage to the lower part of the galaxy. It will take a long time to get some more fleets down here, probably 2 days but when they arrive they will be quite large. Heopfully, Light Blue (as seen in the diagram as being the leader at the moment, as far as Stars are concerned) doesn't attack me, a double front would be my ruin at the moment.

Neptune's Pride : Triton (Day 10)

So, this is as far as I am going to push in for now, I am trying to put more effort into expanding my economy and trading for some technologies before all remaining players start fending for themselves. The Light Blue, despite being my ally has been moving large fleets right near stars that create our border, so I have that to worry about in the north, so I will try to calm things in the south and move a little slower, defend when I can, move in on Purple but  not too quickly, trying to get them to attack me so I get a defense bonus. Yellow is also moving in on the action so we have a 4 way conflict going on here, so I am trying to make it look like I am NOT a weak target.

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton (Day 9)

I am now fighting it out with the Green player, although I am sure he is in trouble (my fleet is quite large, he's being attacked by an opportunist Purple and probably also by my Dark Blue ally). I now have to be concerned less with Green and more with Purple - who is being controlled by the computer and (this being my first game) I have to play a catch-up with when it comes to tactics. I will try to reinforce my position on my secondary planets (just behind the front line) and leave more fleets behind on planets, instead of draining them of all ships every time and building a large fleet!

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton (Day 8)

It has begun and I have access to green now. This is the kind of situation you can get in because of the slow order resolution. My fleet has left the planet, I can't change their orders once they are in hyperspace and now I can see that by the time they will get there they are going to be dealing with a much larger fleet. Darnit.

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton (Day 6)

Still penned in. So I have decided to ask my ally Dark-Blue (AllyWlz) to allow me to pass over one of his planets to get to green. He agreed. The fleets have been sent out. We are on the brink of war!

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton (Day 4)

I am maneuvering my fleets in the hope that my alliances with light-blue will hold and that my research into hyperspace travel technology pays off so I can finally reach green and get some action in this game.

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton (Day 3)

Well, nothing much has happened. I have set up some research on Terraforming and Banking (I am thinking that I probably wont get rushed and can therefore attempt a little investment). This is the Intel chart that scares me a little, seeing some other factions invest in Weapons (probably people who AREN'T on their very first game, so I am using them as a guide). I am the cluster of RED planets on the left of that zoomed out map, I have an alliance with both Dark-blue (AllyWlz) and Light-Blue (Vastgrishnakh) at the moment. Interestingly, the game has alerted me that AllyWlz shares a network address with Orange (Mister Creazil) - so I am a little weary of a pinch between those two, but I think Vastgrishnakh will hold them apart for now.

Oh and Green (Groek) has already been placed under "AI Administration" for inactivity. I like the sound of that, very....machine-like.

Neptune's Pride 2: Triton - The Beginning

So it begins. Well, it turns out that actually I am not playing with my friends because I joined the wrong game. That suits me well though, then I can play this game as a tutorial and hopefully do a little better when I do play with my friends in the coming days. So far I haven't really done anything, but make fleets (which I guess are called 'Carriers' in the game and 'fleets' in the tutorial videos - and send them to close by planets, anything in range really - and then i spent the rest upgrading some Economy and Industry on what I thought is my "home planet."  This, accidental playing-with-strangers-game also makes it a little easier for me to write about any happenings during the game since I doubt any of these strangers will thing to google me.

Hohokum

I have a list of Playstation games that I would love to play - and when I get my hands on a PS3 I'm going to work though that list, this is another reminder that original and interesting games exist on the console. 

Thief is Back! February 25th!

I have been asking this for years: "Where is this console generation's 'Thief??" We've had so many Assassins's Creeds so many things like Dishonored....Now it seems there's one on the horizon, finally.

The Next District 9??

Apart from the voices and music, this was completely done by Kaleb Lechowski, a 22 year old student in Berlin. You can read more on Mashable.

Grand Theft Auto V

I was a fan of GTA, who wasn't? I liked the old top down ones and thought that they really pushed how gritty and violent a game could be, while still be a good game. I loved GTA 3 and Vice City because they were based on all my favourite gangster movies. I liked San Andreas a little less, although I played it alot and I'm sure it's one of the better ones. GTA 4 I played even more, but found myself more and more frustrated with the actual game - losing missions because of the crappy physics engine - bumping into stairs that the character should be easily walking up or crashing into a small rock on the beach that flips my car (even though it can plow through other cars and knock down street lights on a highway. It was strange because you wanted to play GTA 4 for the freedom, the story - everything that was good about it - but if you were playing other games at the same time you would always feel like there was something not quite right in the over the shoulder view, the guns response, the aiming, the auto-aim, the......

wait, what were we talking about?

oh, GTA 5....yeah I wasn't that interested to be honest, but after watching this...let's just say they have my attention, I'm not convinced yet... alot of this can be explained - like 'the golfing is actually crap and golf and cycling are the only two sports, sure you can dive but there's no reason to except to look around, you can para glide but only from this one cliff and it's fun, once....

I just wish it was another chapter is the RED REDEMPTION series....

opinion : to be continued.

Two Recommended Documentaries

In Europe this year an app for the appleTV was released called "Watchever" - it's kinda like Netflix - if Netflix was hampered by Germany's strict copyright laws.....and Germany's love for dubbed movies...

Ok, I'm not he biggest fan. But there are some good things on there that I have watched that I otherwise probably would not have checked out - and here the trailers for two of them:

Bigger Stronger Faster

Closer to the Edge

Cinema Ninjas

While cleaning out my Google Reader - I found this story, it's one of my favourites and I had to share it. I could have used these guys when I went to see Django Unchained.

Story Here.

Web Awesomeness : Exploding Actresses

Exploding Actresses

Pretty much the best thing I've seen on the Internet since Cage Cats.

Science Fiction Movie List

Firstshowing.net has a cool list of upcoming sci-fi flicks. Ok, some of them have already hit, but it reaches pretty far into the future - so be sure to read up and be ready. It over here.

Lego: Totoro's Catbus

Tomoyuki Wakata, a Lego-Maestro built this awesome Catbus from My Neighbour Totoro - check out the video, and then check out more of his builds here!

Star Wars as an 80's High School

What if Star Wars was an 80's high school movie? Yeah, you're right, that does kinda make sense. Check out this series from the deviant art user DenisM79 - check it out here! I think I might have posted this before, but he's done more since....so do it....click. Oh and he does more fan art - its all great.

Cube World Video

The guys from Yogscast get to play a closed beta of Cube World - does this mean that Cube World is close?! I sure hope so, it has looked good for so long - but now it's getting more and more polish from I am following the German creator of Cube World on Twitter where he shows lots of cool screenshots, but he's also got a production blog and a new webpage. Heck, they even have a forum already....

....oh, on the forum page it seems that they have a playable demo and paid alpha access. Get on it!

Wollay's Blog / Wollay's Twitter / Cube World Webpage / Cube World Forum

Minas Tirith Sandsculpture

Link to artist here.

Half-Inch Millennium Falcon Papercraft Model

Since Google Reader is shutting down, I'm cleaning up a little and wanted to post some of my favourite links here....

Let's start with this :

Read more at the artist's webpage here.

Summer Movie List 2013

Here's some movies I am looking forward to this summer and why....

First of all, I haven't seen any of these movies yet...I have kids, so when I get around to seeing them I will...

MAN OF STEEL
Zack Snyder does Superman? With Christopher Nolan whispering in his ear, David Goyer writing and Michael Shannon as a bad guy (a personal favourite since Boardwalk Empire) I think this has all the makings to be a very very good Superman movie (I don't really go in for all that Marvel stuff, so I really hope this is good)

WORLD WAR Z
I actually am not too interested in this. But I will check it out because of Marc Foster. It's getting good reviews and already there is talk of a sequel so it's gotta have something - I just don't see it.


RED 2
I really liked RED, actually I think I watched it 3 times in 1 week because anytime someone was at my place and said they hadn't seen it we felt obligated to put it on. It's funny, action packed and some how just really likeable (blame that on the cast, or maybe just their age). Hopefully the 2nd can keep all that up....

ONLY GOD FORGIVES
Well, pretty boy seems to be making some really good decisions - instead of doing the millions of romantic comedies that he is surely being offered he's chosing to do the Brad Pitt thing and do movies that he's interested in, or work with people he finds interesting. He seems to also have become the muse of a couple of directors so I wouldn't be surprised if he does another film with Nicolas Winding Refn after this. (like the Pusher trilogy). Check out the trailer - the music (although VERY much like the theme from TRON really makes for a great preview)

THE SPECTACULAR NOW
I want to see this, just because the kids seem so real and normal. Either that's really good casting or really good acting, I'm not sure - either way I'm interested.

ELYSIUM
I've only seen one little teaser for this movie - I avoided the trailers because I know I'm going to see it and I don't want them to ruin everything for me. Imdb.com writes the "buzz" on their site about this movie : "With its A-list cast, rumored alien-planet setting, and layers of secrecy, Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to District 9 is this year's Prometheus." I don't think you want to be compared to Prometheus, but it shows that people are really expecting alot from this and that's why I have a little doubt in my mind that it might TRY too hard and might not be as fresh as District 9 (kinda like Matrix and Sin City - who both brought their own visual style but by the time the sequels were out - or will be out - the style seems overused and so the movie struggles to find identity). I want to like it - I hope he finds a way to break new ground and doesn't just so a sci-fi commentary on the class systems, corrupt multinationals, a utopia living in lies and empires.... you know....normal scifi stuff....

KICK ASS 2
A new director (No Matthew Vaughn), no longer with Lionsgate - I wonder how this is going to be - but the trailer looks great and Jim Carrey looks like he was the perfect choice for it. Too bad that Nic Cage isn't back in it though.

PACIFIC RIM
A friend of mine with good movie taste thinks this is going to be the hit of the summer. I'm not so sure, the bigger you are the harder you can fall and Del Toro isn't going to make a goofy Avatar-like love story that will attract a bunch of ticket buying women to the theaters. I hope it does well, I think it will be good - and I am definitely going to get it on Blu-Ray.

THE LONE RANGER
This one gets my vote for 'Hot Movie of the Summer' - I think Gore Verbinski has solid gold on his hands here - Armie Hammer is finally getting his chance in a big movie (he was on my short list to be the next Batman) Johnny Depp is wearing a mask (always a good sign for Depp - check his filmography) supported by Helena Bonham Carter and Barry Pepper (three thumbs up!) - I expect this to do for cowboys what Pirates of the Carribean did for pirates.... "Arrrrr" was so last year.... Now its "Yeeeehaaarr!"

AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS
Not really a summer movie - I doubt I would be munching popcorn or sipping mountain dew during this onw - but look at this cast : Casey Affleck, Ben Foster and Rooney Mara. You make any movie with those 3 and I will watch it - Casey Affleck is about to go prime time (I mean, soon my MOM will know his name) because he's been added to Nolan's next project "Interstellar" - so get to it and watch some of his movies so you can brag to your friends that you liked him before that sci-fi movie made him überfamous.

THE WORLD'S END
This finally looks like the end of the trilogy of Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz - I personally liked Paul but I didn't really think that it was the end the trilogy - it just didn't seem to fit in the same way. This will do it - it will be grand!

RUSH
Yeah ok, I'm going to get some flack for putting this on my list but Ron Howard+biopic often equals success. Throw in Daniel Brühl - from Germany, most will know from Inglorious Bastards and you have yourself the first good movie about an otherwise (in my opinion) boring sport.

The Wolf of Wallstreet Trailer

This looks great. It almost comes across as a spiritual sequel to Goodfellas - rooting for the bad guy, him talking into the camera, a look into a corrupt, glamorous and alluring world. I really hope this works and Leo finally gets some recognition from the Academy. (after Django, it's gotta be coming soon...)

The Hollywood Reporter

Had fun watching this last night. First channel I've actually subscribed to on Youtube.

Kickstarter : Pixel Press

Kickstarter has got an iPhone app - this is the coolest thing that I saw today...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robinrath/pixel-press-draw-your-own-video-game?ref=live

Every Noise At Once

A friend showed me this page. You have to check it out - its a time sucker though, so be warned. 

Awesomeness.

Lego Breaking Bad the Game

The Witness Trailer

Jonathan Blow (Braid) has released a trailer for his new game. It's coming to the iPad too, looks like a perfect fit - keep your eye on this one....

Moving Day!

I've decided to move my blog from my.opera.com to blogger. I've been with Opera for a long time, but I was having problems uploading pictures and controlling content on the Opera blog for a while now, and I have come to accept that the audience there is rather limited. Now that I have an iPhone and iPad and I can blog right from there using the Blogger app, so it just seems like a logical move and a nice fit.