NERF getting into the Humans vs. Zombies game

Humans vs. Zombies is a popular variant of the “team deathmatch” played by NERFers (yes, that’s a word).  It’s been around for a while, and there’s even websites dedicated to it.  Now Hasbro is getting in on the action and making a specific Humans vs. Zombies set of guns.

Here’s a preview of the first of the line, the Hammer Strike, and folks, this thing is beautiful:

Unlike the classic Maverick or its sucessor, the Longarm, this gun has an actual thumb trigger that cocks the spring, meaning it can be used akimbo to go all John Woo on some people.  The taped up handle look is a little annoying in that it would be nice to be able to put your own tap there, but the general aesthetic is nice.

This looks to be the first in a full line of offerings tailored to Humans vs. Zombies.

 

 

More Poltergeist News – This may not suck after all

New new news on the Poltergeist remake – it’s not a remake!  Well, that changes things!  The story is clearly similar, but this, in fact, is a new family that has moved into a house where the Freelings once lived.  According to new information, at some point in the movie they discover some of the stuff from the kids’ room from the original movie, including the Star Wars bed sheets and a black and white TV.

So this is a sequel, not a remake, and while they are calling it a reboot, it’s supposed to be set in the same universe, and connected to the original.

I’m a lot more ok with this now!

 

The Poltergeist Remake

New details have come out about the Poltergeist remake.  Only, at this point I think you can safely say it’s not a remake so much, considering that only the barest of story elements are being kept the same.

Here’s what we know so far – the story revolves around a family terrorized by ghosts, just like the original, but this time the family hasn’t been part of the neighborhood for several years.  This time they are a down-on-their-luck family who move into a new house.  Just as in the original, the young daughter is kidnapped by the ghosts and the family tries to get her back.

That’s where most of the similarities end.  The family is not the Freelings, but instead is renamed the Bowens.  The psychic investigators from the college (Dr. Lesh in the original) will be led by the ex-wife of the Mr. Bowen.  They’re also adding a reality tv show host.

I think I understand why they made the story about a family moving into a new house that they discover is haunted…but honestly it breaks a lot of what was good about the original.  By making it a new house, they don’t have to explain why the family could have lived in the house for years and have nothing happen – it’s true in the original there’s no singular trigger for the hauntings, though it could be the swimming pool excavation or the start of the development on the hill.  It honestly didn’t matter, but the new filmmakers seem to need a reason, so now we get a generic “family moves into a haunted house” story.  This could just as easily be an Amityville remake.

Making the investigators connected to the family also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s unnecessary and likely will lead to some sort of conflict between the ex’es that just doesn’t make sense in the movie.  It seems the filmmakers have lost the concept that Poltergeist is about family, not about the ghosts, not about reality tv, not about hauntings.  It’s about family overcoming the impossible.  It certainly isn’t about a man dealing with his ex-wife.

I have no illusions that this movie will flop.  I just wish people would realize it before they screw up something good.

 

Lucasarts No More

Disney has announced that Lucasarts, makers of such games as X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Grim Fandango, Secret of Monkey Island and Sam & Max, has been disbanded and the employees laid off.  You might notice something about those game titles – they’re all very old.  This is because Lucasarts hasn’t directly produced many hits in the last decade.  Most of their recent successes were from outside studios licenses by Lucasarts, but not the studio themselves.

One casualty of this, unfortunately, is Star Wars 1313, which looked to be a pretty damn good game.  It’s been scrapped along with all other current Lucasarts projects.

All is not lost, however, as this may mean that Disney will license the properties to other developers.  It’s actually MORE likely now to see some of the classic Lucasarts games rebooted.  Additionally, it’s highly unlikely there won’t be more Star Wars games, and quite honestly, Lucasarts has sat on some properties, like the X-Wing and TIE Fighter space combat sims, for FAR too long.

It’s never good to see people lose their jobs, but perhaps something good will come of this.

 

10 and 11

This should make any Whovian squeal.

 

The One Ring to be displayed in England

I love stories about forgotten things, about strange bits of history that have had unknown influence, and connecting the past and present in odd ways.  Today, I bring you such a story.

The One Ring, the golden ring of Sauron found (stolen) by Bilbo Baggins and eventually destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom by Frodo, Sam and (unintentionally) Gollum, was inspired by a real ring.

This ancient ring was found in a farmer’s field in 1785.  The inscriptions are in Latin and it bears the image of the goddess Venus.  It’s linked to a curse tablet from the temple of Nodens.  Tolkien, who was researching Nodens at the time, was shown the ring by a friend and it apparently inspired him to make the Macguffin of his epic story a magic ring, but one that was also cursed.

The real ring, however, passed out of mind for an age, lingering in the vaults of a library for years after Tolkien’s visit.  Now it’s being displayed in the Vyne museum in a “ring room” that discusses the connection between this real ring and Tolkein’s fictional One Ring.

Read more here.

 

 

What if the Doctor was a lady?

Here’s an alternate universe list of the Doctors…if they had been women.

http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/

Bonus points for changing The Master into The Mistress!

 

Fan made Star Wars VII trailer will make you want the new movies NOW

This is a really good fan made trailer splicing the audio from the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer along with video from The Old Republic and The Force Unleashed II, plus a little Star Trek footage.  It’s really, really well done.

 

Why you should hate Glee and try to get it off the air

I’m no fan of the show Glee.  I know there were some Joss Whedon fans who really took a shine to it, but I wasn’t one of them.  I tried to watch their atrocious version of Rocky Horror wherein they changed “offensive lyrics” such as changing Sweet Transvestite to “I’m just a Sweet Transvestite from sensational Transylvania” (really…transvestite is ok, transsexual is not????).  It was so terrible I didn’t make it more than half way through.

The show is also supposedly set in Lima, Ohio, and is so much NOT Lima (which is maybe 45 minutes from my home town) that it’s pathetic.  It’s a small town in Ohio…there aren’t lots of musical theaters there and Lima is about an hour or two away from ANYWHERE like what they depict.  It’s as rural as it gets and makes the show that much more stupid.

But now they’re ripping off music and not even apologizing for it.

Jonathan Coulton, best known as the guy who wrote the ending songs for Portal and Portal II, did a slow, funny cover version of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back.  It’s really pretty good.  Glee decided to rip  it off, and when I say rip it off, I mean they copied it exactly, even the slight lyric changes and a duck quack to cover a naught word.  When Coulton contacted the producers of Glee, they basically told him to take a hike.

So, not that I have that many readers or fans, but those I do, please do what you can to spread the word – this show needs to go.  It needs to crash so hard in the ratings it leaves a crater in its time slot for the next ten years to teach these asshats a lesson.

 

J.J. Abrams officially announced as Star Wars VII director

I think I might pee myself.  J.J. Abrams has been announced as the director for Star Wars VII.  Say what you want about the lens flare king, he can make damned good movies.  And now that he’s worked with Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek II, maybe he’ll cast him as the big bad in Star Wars because THAT. WOULD. BE. AWESOME!!!!