Anarchy Reigns repoussé

Si vous êtes fan des jeux signés PlatinumGames (à qui l'on doit les excellents Bayonetta et Vanquish), cette nouvelle risque de vous attrister. D'autant plus si vous attendez de pied ferme Anarchy Reigns.

Alors que le jeu est toujours prévu pour le 5 juillet au Japon, SEGA décide de repousser la sortie européenne de son jeu de combat multijoueur jusqu'au premier trimestre 2013 sur PS3 et Xbox 360. Aucune raison officielle n'a été avancée mais les plans de restructuration des bureaux occidentaux de l'éditeur n'y sont sans doute pas étrangers.

En effet, SEGA a déjà revu à la baisse ses prétentions pour l'année fiscale 2011/2012 avec une baisse de 47% de ses bénéfices nets (soit un total de 20 milliards de yens ou 181 millions d'euros). Du coup, des coupes doivent être effectuées dans le personnel américain et européen de l'éditeur. De plus, certains projets pourraient se voir annulés laissant ainsi SEGA se concentrer sur les jeux dématérialisés et ses licences fortes telles que Sonic, Total War, Alien ou encore Football Manager.

· Forum Anarchy Reigns

Une version boîte pour Alan Wake

Finalement la version PC de Alan Wake ne sortira pas uniquement sous forme dématérialisée sur les différentes plateformes de téléchargement, mais aura bien droit à une bonne vieille version boîte. Et l'heureux distributeur qui va se charger de sa commercialisation est Nordic Games, qui nous précise bien que les DLC publiés sur le Xbox Live seront également inclus dans la boîte.


Si Alan Wake n'a toujours pas de date de sortie précise, on sait désormais que l'écrivain maudit sera disponible sur nos machines dès février prochain. Joie.

· Forum Alan Wake

Les fondateurs de Bioware quittent le studio

C'est hier soir que Ray Muzika et Greg Zeschuk, les fondateurs et dirigeants de Bioware ont annoncé leur départ du studio, et de l'industrie vidéoludique par la même occasion. C'est via des posts sur le blog de Bioware que les deux compères ont fait état des raisons qui les ont poussé à faire ce choix.

Ainsi, Zeschuck à fait part de son envie de se consacrer pour un temps à sa famille et ses amis, avant de passer à autre chose. Cette autre chose prendrait la forme d'une émission sur internet nommée "The Beer Diaries", dans laquelle il présenterai différents brasseurs et leurs bières.

Ray Muzika pour sa part, souhaite aider de jeunes entrepreneurs à monter leurs structures, en investissant dedans, mais aussi en leur fournissant conseils et avis. Il prévoit aussi de s'investir plus profondément dans des œuvres de charités, en rapport par exemple avec la santé, l'éducation ou les droits des animaux.

Une chose est sure cependant, les deux compères en prévoient pas de revenir tout de suite (voir jamais) au jeu vidéo, estimant avoir accompli ce qu'ils avaient à faire dans cette industrie avec Bioware.

Néanmoins, et sans doute pour rassurer les joueurs inquiets du départ des deux fondateurs de Bioware (et de la santé vacillante du studio, en lien avec le relatif échec de Star Wars the Old Republic), Aaryn Flynn, manager de Bioware Edmonton et Montréal, a lui aussi posté un assez long post sur le blog de Bioware, faisant un état des lieux du studio. On peut notamment y apprendre que Bioware travaille sur un tout nouveau jeu doté d'un vaste univers, et basé sur une toute nouvelle technologie de jeu.

Rumeur Les DLC d'Assassin's Creed III en Season Pass

C'est une fois de plus le site Kotaku qui lance rumeur, à savoir que le prochain volet d'Assassin's Creed pourrait bénéficier d'un Season Pass. Le site s’appuie sur une note de la part d'Ubisoft destinée à GameStop, un important revendeur. Ce Passe Saisonnier serait donc une première pour la série, et permettrait aux joueurs qui s'y abonnent d'obtenir toutes les DLC qui verront le jour.

Aucun détail n'a pour le moment était révélé, ni même officialisé. Mais on devrait en apprendre plus dans les semaines à venir. On sait pour le moment qu'une équipe travaille spécialement sur les futurs DLC de l'épisode 3, et que les détails et dates de sortie devraient ultérieurement. Reste à savoir si les prix et l'intérêt de ses contenus téléchargeables en valent la peine.

Le jeu quant à lui, est attendu pour le 31 octobre, sur PS3, Xbox 360 et PC.

· Forum Assassin's Creed III

2012-12-21-106

[Rumour] Fermi Notebook shown at Cebit

Surprisingly, SemiAccurate have caught eye of a Geforce GTX 480 placedin a notebook. It is unclear as to exactly what this particular "GTX480" is, but it is unlikely to be a mobile part, unless a rebrand. Thisis not a first, however, as we have seen laptops feature the desktopCore i7 in the past, when the laptop CPUs where stuck at low speed Core 2Quad. However, if it were indeed a GTX 480, a 300W GPU inside anotebook is an entire different thing altogether.

Needless to say, such "notebooks" are more like "portable desktops" thannotebooks. They are more portable than desktops, however, and theremight be a market for people who are on the move but want the fastestsystem, and are willing to pay an exorbitant premium.

There is no news of an actual GTX 480M, however, and we probably shouldn't expect one for several months, not counting rebrands. Till then, it will be rather interesting (or even amusing) to see niche portable desktops shipping with the monstrous GTX 480.

Reference: SemiAccurate

2012-12-21-117

[Rumour] Geforce GTX 460 Specs

Expreview are reporting that the upcoming GTX 460, rumoured to releasein mid-July, is a 336 shader, 192-bit, 768MB product. Furthermore, theclocks are rumoured to be 675/1350/1800, core/shader/memory,respectively. At first glance, the GTX 460 looks more like yet anothersalvage part of GF100, rather than the rumoured GF104. The shaders (orCUDA cores) spec doesn't add up either.

The GTX 465 is made up of 11 SMs, with each consisting of 32 CUDA cores, thus giving 352 shaders. The next salvage would be 10 SMs, or 320 shaders.

The TDP of the GTX 460 is 150W - and this is one spec that has been consistent, whether the GTX 460 ends up being a salvage GF100 or a GF104. The pricing - $230 - is also consistent among the diverse rumours. This places it right on par with the HD 5830 - ATI's weak-link. If there's any truth in these specs, it should give the HD 5830 a tough time.

There's at least a month to go to the "460" product, but it remains unclear as to the exact nature of this card. If it were a 240/256 SP GF104, then a GTS 460 branding is more logical. However, if it is a 320/336 SP part, it is more likely to be a GF100 with several SMs disabled, in which case GTX 460 would be the likely branding. Whichever way, Nvidia has to get their mainstream competitors on retail as soon as possible.

Reference: Expreview

2012-12-21-417

Acer To Offer Cheaper 8.9-inch "EeePC" In Q2

DigiTimesreported that Acer is pricing its 8.9" low cost PC about US$ 50 lower than theupcoming ASUS 2nd gen. 8.9" Eee PC. FOB price of its Acer low-cost PC is at~US$ 250-300, while the market ASP is ~US$ 350-400. In comparison, FOB price ofits ASUS 2nd. gen. Eee PC is at ~US$ 300-350, while the market ASP is ~US$ 400-50.ASUS might launch its 8.9" Eee PCs earlier in April this year while Acerlow-cost PC slated for launch in May. However, the specs of the Acer solution isunclear yet but the 8.9" Eee PC 900 is supposed to be powered by the upcomingIntel Atomprocessor.

a few brief words on “watchmen the ultimate cut”

I’ve already reviewed Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen, ” specifically the director’s cut, in my typically way-too-verbose style at http://trashfilmguru.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/oh-what-a-lucky-geek-i-am-i-got-to-see-the-directors-cut-of-zack-synders-watchmen-in-the-theater/ , so I’ll refrain from going into heavy depth about it here again to save both your sanity and mine. Suffice to say, I was all over this new 5-disc DVD (your host hasn’t made the Blu-Ray leap yet) box set the day it came out, and while I find it a mixed package and even something of a missed opportunity, I’m generally pretty pleased with it.

First off, the “book-style” packaging is great, and it looks sharp on your shelf. Does that matter? Ultimately, no, but whatever. It’s a cool-looking product. It also can be had for a pretty reasonable price. I got it off Amazon brand new for $26.99. So that’s another plus. But what of the content of this impressive-looking, reasonably-priced box? If you’ve already got the director’s cut on DVD, is it worth a “double-dip,” as the industry lingo goes?

Well, that depends on how big a “Watchmen” fan you are. The only major difference here is that you get about 15 more minutes of film, with the animated (and very cool) “Tales of the Black Freighter” material added in, as well as some establishing footage around each animated sequence involving the newsvendor and the kid reading the comic. If you’re a hardcore “Watchmen” fan you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about and if you’re clueless as to what it is my blathering here is exactly in reference to, then honestly you don’t need this “Ultimate Cut” box set at all.

There’s been some criticism that the “Black Freighter” stuff kind of slows down the pace of the film and doesn’t mesh in too terribly well, but I don’t buy that. It seems like a perfectly worth addition to me. The flick honestly never lags, even at the just-over-three-and-a-half-hour running time of the “ultimate cut.”? Plus, you get two full feature-length commentaries, one from directory Snyder and the other from Dave Gibbons, co-creator and illustrator of the original comic (as usual, Alan Moore is nowhere to be found, having washed his hands of all Hollywood adaptations of his work). Snyder’s commentary is highly informative, moves along at a good clip, and is a pleasure to listen to. Gibbons is a little more subdued and his commentary lags in spots as it’s clear he’s just sort of watching it and taking it all in. It’s still a worthwhile enough way to spend over three and a half hours of your time, but it’s definitely the less essential of the two commentaries to check out, and probably only of interest to serious devotees and/or completists.

And speaking of serious devotees and/or completists, that’s kind of where this set falls short. The second disc is a nice selection of extras totaling over two hours, but there are some things missing. We get the same behind-the-scenes featurettes “ported over” from the previous director’s cut release, plus a nice lengthy new one, and the faux-documentary “Under the Hood” that was originally issued as part of the “Tales of the Black Freighter” single-disc release, but we don’t get the full “Black Freighter” story by itself without interruption that we got with that earlier stand-alone disc. This isn’t the end of the world as “Black Freighter” works best when cut into small segments and watching the whole thing in one go makes a person realize that it is, in actuality, a rather flimsy little story. It has much more impact in “pseudo-serialized,” if you will, format. But the full, uninterrupted version is about a minute or so longer than the segmented version that’s in? the “ultimate cut”? of the film. Again, probably only if interest to the anal retentive completist (who? me?), but still worth a mention.

Another item die-hard will probably regret Warner Brothers not including is the interactive video commentary from Snyder that’s on the Blu-Ray version of the director’s cut. I haven’t seen this myself yet, but i hear it’s pretty awesome and he goes into great depth while delivering essentially an annotated visual guide to the film. Warners could quite easily have found a way to include this material in stand-alone fashion on both the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the “ultimate cut,” but have chosen, for whatever reason, not to do so. Something tells me that a “Super-Duper, Seriously Ultimate Cut,” or a “Complete Watchmen,” might be in the works for next Christmas.

The third disc is yet another digital copy? of the theatrical cut, which was already included with the Director’s Cut, and is totally superfluous. Why they bothered with it I have no idea.

Finally, the fourth and fifth discs comprise the “Watchmen Complete Motion Comic,” a pretty cool little semi-animated, full-length “video book” of all twelve issues of the comic itself. I rather like it, but again, it was issued as a stand-alone release some time ago, and here they haven’t even repackaged it to fit in with the overall visual look of the box or anything, it’s the same release as before in the same packaging. Nice to have if you don’t already, but absolutely redundant if you do, and good luck getting more than a couple bucks for your now-unnecessary stand-alone “Motion Comic” release on eBay.

So there you have it, the “Watchmen Ultimate Cut” box set in a nutshell. A little bit of extremely worthwhile new material, plenty of stuff that’s already been released previously, and some stuff they just plain missed out on ilcuding, probably quite intentionally. I don’t think this will be the final “Watchmen” DVD/Blu-Ray release, as it’s in no way absolutely comprehensive, so look for a set containing the Ultimate Cut, the director’s cut, another frigging digital copy disc of the theatrical cut, and all the bonus material that’s out there at some point in the future. Like I said, next Christmas is probably a pretty safe bet.

You do get more than enough bang for your buck, though, provided you’re a die-hard completist and want to see as close an adapatation of the comic itself as is probably humanly possible. In short, it’s a must-have for hardcore “Watchmen” devotees, but anyone and everyone else can safely take a pass.

halloween horrors 2011 “the undertaker”

Well, friends, this one’s gonna be brief because we’re venturing into uncharted territory a bid here — the flick under review today, 1988′s The Undertaker, is actually an unfinished, believe it or not, but it’s worth looking at as it features the last starring turn of the one and only Maniac himself, the late, great Joe Spinell.

I’ll be the first to admit that this is included in our annual Halloween horror round-up more as an item of interesting curiosity than anything else. Given that director Franco Steffanino’s's film ran into the twin obstacles of no more funding and Spinell’s untimely demise before it could be hammered out into finished form, essentially what we’re got on our hands here, thanks to the fine folks at Code Red DVD (specifications of said DVD being rather minimal here — the full-frame transfer looks pretty sparklingly, surprisingly good for the most part, though it veers into crummy, even downright greasy territory in some spots, and the sound is hit-and-miss to put it kindly — the only extra, cool as it is, consists of the legendary Robert Forster and his daughter, Kathrine, sharing their memories of Spinell — keep in mind I’m not complaining here because the fact that this thing even managed to get a DVD release at all is something of a miracle and I thank Code Red for doing all us Joe Spinell fans a great service here) is a rough cut of the movie. There’s very little by way of gore or other special effects, the editing is choppy (jarringly so in several instances), and the overall feel is of watching some semi-competent student project that just happens to feature a recognizable (to fans of cult cinema, at least) lead actor.

That being said, you can see that The Undertaker had some — I repeat, some — potential. Spinell is back to doing what he does best, playing a skin-crawlingly creepy and pathetic psycho, this time out said psycho going by the name of Roscoe, a small-town New Jersey mortician who has a penchant for necrophilia, a nagging wife who won’t leave him alone long enough to enjoy himself with his corpses, and a big problem with his business — namely, there just aren’t enough people dying in his town for him to have a variety of sexual — uhmmmmm — “partners,” not to mention a steady income.

As you can imagine, his only alternative is to take matters into his own hands and steer some business his way by dint of his own actions.

Spinell isn’t at his Maniac – level best here, but he still turns in a solid enough intentionally-way-over-the-top performance, and the overall tone of the film seems to be pretty self-deprecating in terms of its outrageously tasteless subject matter, but you never know how it all would have turned out with a few more scenes, a final edit, etc. Maybe the filmmakers unintentionally did us a great service by pulling the plug on this thing, or maybe we lost another Spinell classic, it’s hard to say (well, okay, it’s not — the surviving mish-mash of material leaves the distinct impression that we needn’t worry too much about the latter).

Still, in my book at least The Undertaker is definitely worth a look. You have to be willing to cut it a hell of a lot of slack, to be sure, but getting the chance to see Joe Spinell in action one final time makes putting up with all of this flick’s — how shall I put this? — glaring inconsistencies more than worthwhile. They just don’t make lecherously slimy cinematic killers like this anymore, and even in a raw and incomplete production (that, it must be stated, looked like it was most likely doomed to be a substandard effort anyway given the rather second-rate nature of the script),? Joe Spinell stands out.

modern grindhouse classics “piranha 3-d”

Okay, so I meant to get around to reviewing this back when it came out but I was lazy and I didn’t. Still, now’s not a bad time to take a look at Piranha 3-D since it’s due out on DVD any day here, and while home DVD and Blu-Ray 3-D can’t come close to matching the theatrical experience yet, this is such a fun flick that it’s certainly worth a rental on your part, or even a purchase if you can grab it on sale cheap.

And cheap is the operative word when it comes to Piranha 3-D. Oh, sure it had a budget of around $25 million, but it’s loaded with cheap and plentiful gore, cheap and plentiful nudity, and life comes damn cheap in it, too. I ask you, friends, what could be better than that?

This is true B-filmmaking all the way courtesy of French “new horror” maestro Alexandre Aja, who made his mark with Haute Tension in his home country before taking Hollywood by storm with his remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes and then taking something of a misstep with the Kiefer Sutherland horror vehicle Mirrors, which wasn’t as bad as many of its detractors would have you believe but really wasn’t actually very good, either.

Anyway, Aja’s back in fine form with this third installment in the Roger Corman-originated Piranha franchise (the two previous flicks were directed by Joe Dante and James Cameron, respectively), and while it’s probably not fair to classify it as strictly a sequel per se to the first two, it’s certainly not a remake of the original, either — I guess the most appropriate term to use here would be to say it’s a re-imagining, much as I despise that word, and indeed all trendy Hollywood and corporate buzzwords — for instance, is anyone still referring to anything as a paradigm shift anymore? Didn’t think so.

But I digress. The paper-thin plot here revolves around spring break in the fictitious town of Lake Victoria, Arizona, where thousands of hard-partying college kids descend each year to perform their annual bacchanalian rites of binge drinking and binge fucking. Things are gonna be a little bit hairier for the wild youths this year, though, since an earthquake in a self-contained underground aquatic ecosystem has ruptured the lake bed and sent hundreds of prehistoric piranha swarming into party central. The piranha have been surviving in their little watery subterranean paradise all these years by eating each other since there’s nothing else around to sink their teeth into, so they’ve big, they’re mean, they’re bloodthirsty, and,? like the nauseating drunken students, they’re out for a good time.

Aja really pulls out all the stops in once the mayhem ensues, treating us to a non-stop bloodbath punctuated only by totally gratuitous boob close-ups and even more gratuitous full-frontal nudity. There’s an extended underwater ballet scene with starlets Kelly Brook and Riley Steele (yes, that Riley Steele, and she’s only one of several porn stars brought in to liven up the proceedings here) that seriously verges on soft-core territory, and if 3_D T&A is your kind of thing, you won’t be disappointed. I’ll just leave it at that.

There’s a gratuitous sampling of has-been B-list actors crawling out of the woodwork here, too. Elizabeth Shue (who I swear to God doesn’t age) has the nominal starring role as local sheriff? Julie Forester, who;s got to try to solve the crisis while also rescuing her son, who’s gone off for the day on a photoshoot with ultra-sleazy “Girls Gone Wild”-type producer Derrick Jones (Jerry O’Connell). Ving Rhames is her bad-ass deputy, Christopher Lloyd is on hand as a mad scientist-type who’s fervently trying to figure out just what these deadly fish are, where they come from, and how they can be stopped, Richard Dreyfuss is on hand for just long enough for you to say “Hey, that’s Richard Dreyfuss!” before he becomes the bloodthirsty fish horde’s first victim, and if you look really closely you’ll even see Eli Roth as the emcee of a wet t-shirt contest.

But the main “star” here is the sheer, unbridled, completely tasteless mayhem that’s front and center almost from the word go. Ever possible way to be eaten by deadly fish is shown in graphic detail, some of which you can imagine, others of which, quite frankly, you can’t. A guy’s dick getting bitten off and later chomped down by one of the piranha is played for laughs (as it should be). There’s fish-bitten boobs, legs, arms, feet, shoulders, stomachs, faces, you name it — and there’s just no damn way to kill these things off en masse. In fact, at the very end, Aja just plain stops trying as the film finishes on a note that’s pure sequel set-up (not that this will probably happen now given the movie’s underwhelming box office performance).

Not all the 3-D works all that well, to be sure — underwater 3-D effects seem to be an iffy proposition at best, and some definitely deliver the goods better than others. Still, even when Aja and his effects crew fall short, it’s certainly not for lack of trying. Piranha 3-D is a film that aspires to do one thing and one thing only — absolutely annihilate all the boundaries of good taste, and get away with all it can and then some. It’s a true stylistic, and thematic, heir to many of the grindhouse and exploitation flicks that we cover so regularly here at TFG and viewed through that lens, you have to say that it succeeds more than admirably. It’s gleeful, unmitigated, irredeemable trash — just the kind of thing we love around here.

In short, Piranha 3-D is the party movie of the year. It’s full of blood, boobs, blood, boobs, blood, boobs,more blood, more boobs, butts, female genitalia, and huge, shiny, flesh-devouring teeth. Can’t ask for any more out of a movie than that, can you? Catch it as soon as you can.