MOVIE REVIEW: Colin (cont.)

I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of Colin, the debut feature from UK Director Marc Price and Nowhere Fast Productions, and as promised I wanted to share my thoughts. The story was definitely different from anything else I've come across in the genre as the main character becomes infected within the first few minutes of the film.
This is definitely the kind of movie that will have you picking up on little things the second time through. As the day progresses and Colin wanders across the city he stumbles across several places and items which seem to spark a sense of recognition within him. By the end of the movie we discover that all of these things had a relevance in Colin's life.
We receive a few glimpses into the lives of several of the surviving population throughout the city, including Colin's own well intentioned but slightly naive sister Linda.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Colin to fans of the zombie genre. The major fight scene may have seemed a bit cheesy at first with the survivors attacking with melee weapons and a sling shot loaded with what appear to be razor blades, but when you stop and think about the fact that gun ownership in the UK is practically nonexistent compared to here in the US, it makes a bit more sense. The special effects were far from the worst I've ever seen and were thankfully not constantly shoved down our throats just for the sake of using them. Especially since the whole movie was made for about $70USD

This unique take on a zombie story was great!

The COLIN Homepage

Nowhere Fast Productions

The Predator becomes the prey

It seems that the Predator drones that the CIA has been using for years to do reconnaissance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have been hacked. Now I'm not overly surprised that someone eventually found a way into this system since no system is unbreakable, but what i had a hard time comprehending was that it was achieved using an off the shelf application known as SkyGrabber. SkyGrabber works as an intercept program, which hijacks satellite feed without interrupting the data stream. The program is available for only $25.95, and is fully capable of viewing the camera feeds of these recon drones widely used by both the CIA and US Air Force. How is a $26 piece of software able to intercept the video feeds of both the CIA and USAF? The answer is simple, for some ridiculous reason, these feeds were never encrypted.

While this does not yet allow the hijackers to take control of the $20m multipurpose unmanned aircraft (the Predator is classified as multipurpose as they are commonly armed with Hellfire missiles.
It does however raise questions as to how much more work it would really take for a terrorist to get into the system and take control of a drone, thus enabling them to possibly use it in an attack against our own forces.

The discovery of this information so easily available was apparently made at least a year ago when the US military apprehended a Shia militant that had intercepted video feeds on his laptop.


Original story from Times Online

MEDICAL NEWS: Iowa State Cures Parkinson's?

It seems the Biomedical Sciences Department at Iowa State University has made a major discovery pertaining to Parkinson's disease. Without getting in over my head in medical jargon, it appears that a protein known as Protein kinase-C (PKC) is responsible for killing the cells that normally produce Dopamine, the chemical responsible for the regulation of movement.
More importantly though, Professor Anumantha Kanthasamy and his research team have also identified a compound that will neutralize PKC and allow the Dopamine producing cells survive. They are however still looking for additional compound options to find the safest choice with the fewest chances of side effects.
Unfortunately for sufferers of Parkinson's, Kanthasamy says it may well take up to 10 years to find and thoroughly test the new options. This discovery does however herald the possibility of breakthrough treatments and a possible cure for Parkinson's Disease as well as advancement in the understanding of related conditions such as Tourette's Syndrome.



Article on Futurity.org
Article on KCCI of Des Moines

GAME PREVIEW: L4D2 demo

Having preordered our copies of Left 4 Dead 2, which comes out November 17, a friend and i have been playing through and talking about the single player mode of the demo version. Here is why we think you should check it out.


The Zombie Apocalypse v2.0 has arrived!

evil pirate ned: LEFT 4 DEAD 2 discussion time!
evil pirate ned: the opening trailer is great. Not that I expected anything less.

head hobo: so aside from the trailer, what'd you think?

evil pirate ned: loved it. knew i would. and did
evil pirate ned: DECAPITATION BY GUITAR.... FUCKING BRILLIANT

head hobo: inorite?
head hobo: did you get to play with any new weapons? Other than the obvious guitar

evil pirate ned: i used the ak47 a bit. it seemed kind of light powered for an assault rifle. and i used the guitar and night stick a bit. Other than that I stuck with my trusty shotgun.

head hobo: the ak is amazing, but its a little less accurate then the M16

evil pirate ned: I thought the AK was good. but having fired an actual AK, i think it was kind of under powered (granted i was not shooting at the face of a pissed off zombie the last time i used one)

head hobo: I thought they did a good job with it. Its more powerful than the M16, but a little less accurate
head hobo: the combat rifle looks like it will be a badass gun in the game too
head hobo: did you get the chance to toss a pipe bomb?

evil pirate ned: yeah i used a pipe bomb and a molotov. i didnt notice much difference in the molotov. but the pipe bomb almost seemed less effective, like more of the ai ignored it.
evil pirate ned: what did you think

head hobo: it depends whats going on
head hobo: sometimes the zombies wont hear the pipe bomb
head hobo: but I love the flying zed chunks and blood

evil pirate ned: definitely. the graphical updates were great

head hobo: the chunks of zombie everywhere?

evil pirate ned: yeah the changes they made to the impact of explosions and bullets was sweet. i shot the leg right off one and it kept hopping towards me til i face shotted it

head hobo: yeah, the dismemberment and the ai they put with it was awesome

evil pirate ned: I actually had a few problems with ai but that may only be due to demo code. and it wasnt terrible. it was mostly things like zombies running at me backwards or sideways after getting caught up on something. or taking a long insensible path to get to me
evil pirate ned: who have you played as so far?

head hobo: Nick

evil pirate ned: yeah so did i. all the character models looked really good though.
evil pirate ned: im gonna go through later and see if i can hear more of the comments between different characters, the only ones i really caught first time through were the ones between ellis and Rochelle.

head hobo: yeah, the dialogue Ive heard so far is pretty good
head hobo: also the safe room grafitti is a blast as always

evil pirate ned: yeah that’s one of my favorite parts of the original is reading the saferooms. i liked the comment at the first safe house in the parish about how someone needed to start hiding the pens

head hobo: yeah
head hobo: did you noticed they added a resurrection item to the game?

evil pirate ned: no. the only real item i noticed that was new was the adrenaline shots which i knew about ahead of time

head hobo: they added a defibrillator or whatever those heart paddle things are called
head hobo: the bile bombs are pretty cool too

evil pirate ned: not sure i came across those

head hobo: they look like canisters of ooze from ninja turtles

evil pirate ned: what do they do

head hobo: they are filled with boomer bile, and when you toss them whatever is hit with the bile gets swarmed by infected
head hobo: who after they kill whatever was hit start fighting each other

evil pirate ned: thats pretty cool. i definitely didnt see those yet
evil pirate ned: i wonder if they work on tanks

head hobo: I'd think so

evil pirate ned: im gonna have to try to find out next time through.
evil pirate ned: i noticed a charger spawn inside the first safe house though so as soon as we ran in we got knocked back out

head hobo: yeah, they like to spawn in the safe rooms now

evil pirate ned: and i was admittedly only playing on normal the first time, but i noticed the charger went down in 3 shotgun blasts. seemed a little easy.

head hobo: the charger is pretty easy to kill, as long as you get him before he gets you

evil pirate ned: yeah i guess i expected him to be more on par with a tank, but im glad he isn’t.

head hobo: the spitter can mess your day up too
head hobo: did you notice the second boomer model?

evil pirate ned: yeah i saw the second boomer skin right before the end. right as i accidentally came around a corner and bludgeoned a witch with my nightstick...

head hobo: did you hear that you can 1 shot the witch with the katana and fire axe
head hobo: if you get her before she freaks out
head hobo: kind of like how we could one shot the witch with the shotty at point blank

evil pirate ned: good to know. Cause the witch is still someone I didn’t enjoy running into.
evil pirate ned: and the spitter is another "easy kill" as long as you kill her quckly. a couple of shots and she was out, but if she got her attack off, especially if it trapped you in a corner, it was bad.

head hobo: yeah
head hobo: did you happen to run into a tank?

evil pirate ned: i saw every zombie time that is in the demo

head hobo: They said each campaign will have one kind of special common infected such as the clown zeds, and the mudmen, and the hazmat guys, and yadda yadda
head hobo: I think for the demo it might have been the riot zeds

evil pirate ned: yeah the riot police were the ones for the demo
evil pirate ned: and those things would not fuckin die

head hobo: yeah, they are immune to attacks from the front

evil pirate ned: not completely immune actually. just incredibly resilient
evil pirate ned: a full shotgun clip from the front will put one down, but it’s a huge waste of ammo

head hobo: I didnt notice that
head hobo: I always just knocked them away and shot them in the back

evil pirate ned: yeah… i never bothered to try knocking them back oddly enough.
evil pirate ned: rofl. "note: in accordance with CEDA emergency management policies, firearm possession is not allowed"

head hobo: Im interested in checking out the new realism mode

evil pirate ned: wanna say anything else on the game?

head hobo: ITS FUCKING AMAZING!!!!
head hobo: is that enough?

evil pirate ned: perfect


the demo is currently available as a download when you pre-purchase your copy of the game. this is a definitely a must play.


-LEFT 4 DEAD series hompage
-LEFT 4 DEAD series wiki page

BIZZARRE NEWS: Ice Skating Bear Kills Russian

I was sent to a story today about a circus bear in eastern Europe who had been trained to ice skate. The story wasn't about the ice skating though, apparently the bear got tired of acting like Brian Boitano and doing tricks for people.
The bear turned on both his trainer and the circus's administrator, causing injury to the trainer. The administrator was not so lucky, after almost completely losing a leg to the animal, he was dragged by the neck across the ice and eventually died.

I'm thinking that perhaps this is a hint that we shouldn't be training animals such as bears to do things like ride bikes and use ice skates.
I mean, whats next?
Are we going to train grizzlies to use rifles and drive tanks? I know what you're thinking, "An army of bears would be awesome, everyone would fear them!", but consider what happens when they turn on us! Im fairly sure that is a war you don't want to fight.
Here is a link to the original story.

GAME REVIEW: World of Goo

Somehow i managed to miss out on this brilliant puzzle game from 2D Boy for an entire year, but im making up for it now. Don't let the cartoonish graphics trick you into thinking this is a simple childrens game. World of Goo is an great game that has given me some rather interesting challenges, and since it relies so much on physics and balance, every time i think i have figured it out the scenario changes just enough to make me want to figure out the next problem.

"The comedy is implemented in bucket-loads, parodying the power of cynical marketing and the corrupt exploits of major corporations... and at this point I struggle to find a way to put into words how a puzzle game can explore so many themes. It's just incredible." -as reviewed by Dead Pixel

2D Boy received awards for both Technical Excellence and Design Innovation from the "Independent Games Festival" for this game.

As of this posting 2D Boy is currently having a 1 year anniversary sale on World of Goo, allowing people to buy and download it for whatever they feel its worth. Regular pricing is $20, and is also available as a WiiWare game. The full version as well as a demo are available on Steam, Direct2Drive, Greenhouse, Impulse, Mac Game Store (Mac only), GamersGate, Gametree Online (Mac only), as well as the games homepage.

MOVIE REVIEW: Colin

Anyone who knows me knows that i'm a huge fan of horror and zombies no matter what the medium is. I enjoy searching for books and movies that the average person would never have come across on their own, whether its because they are low budget, out of print, or foreign.
I recently came across the trailer for a movie coming out Oct 23 in select theaters, and on dvd Oct 26 by the name of "Colin".


SYNOPSIS
"Our hero Colin is bitten by a zombie; he dies and returns as one of the undead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse. Through his encounters with objects, places and people, we learn who Colin was and more pertinently, what he has now become. Including a broad daylight zombie versus human street battle, an epic housebound siege and bags of gore." -http://www.colinmovie.co.uk/

Seems like an interesting concept for those who have grown tired of the standard formulaic movies. I'll update on this again once I've watched it.