Around the Web on November 5th

[RPG Post]

Around the Web on November 5th

I assume, if you have been online, on the XBOX 360 or in the way of a determined Christmas shopper, you have discovered that the Kinect is out. If not, the Kinect is out for the XBOX 360, as well as the system update to the dashboard, presumably to allow smooth integration. Reviews are mixed and the launch titles are not a big deal unless you're into dancing but Ars Technica does have an interesting article, with videos, of how Kinect “sees” your room.

Promising technology, no one using it correctly yet. The story of so many revolutions and complete flops. I mean who knew the Newton was the way to go?

What else happened this week, I mean, except for news and stuff?

Random stuff

[end_news_blurb]

Captain America: The First Avenger is well under way. Some production photos are up at Heavy. I am undecided on this. Cap is not my favorite hero. I don't hate him, I'm just sort of ...apathetic. The shots look good and the WWII storyline intrigues me. I'll at least give it a go on DVD.

A giant space peanut bearing alien visitors and zeta-prime mutagenic energy is screaming earthward. Most of that is implied but we did shoot at it first, so no surprises if it attacks us back.

The Rolling Stones, the only immortal band known so far, is coming out of cryogenic and pharmaceutical stasis to go on tour, next year. An audio interview is at the bottom of the link. I think they are the longest surviving band in rock history, although Golden Earring might be them if they are still around.

There's a Flash game up at Kongregate called The Trader Of Stories. It's a point and click choose your own adventure, fairly standard, but the graphics remind me of Miyazaki work. And I was sucked into it fairly quickly. It's a short game, give it a try.

Why does your adventure group not communicate effectively? It all has to do with peanuts (not space peanuts) and cheese, according to a study at The University of Leicester. Lifehacker provided the link.

What movie do you associate with your state? The Huffington Post has a US map of movies that I instantly disagree with. I mean Fast Times for California? Aren't there a few other movies more indicative of LA or Napa or Cali as a whole? There's some more discussion about the map up at Plastic. There's another, interactive map at Hollywood.com.

Who thinks a family-friendly Akira is a good idea? Violence, flesh and gooey depravity: that's what I want in my cyberpunk psionic motorcycle movie. IO9 is suggesting Zac Efron might star, bringing yet another white guy in to play an Asian role. We won't like a film set in Japan but we're ok with Middle Earth? What is the reasoning with this odd xenophobia?

Amazon has its top ten Science Fiction and Fantasy books of the year up. I am embarrassed to say I have read none of them, but will order all of them from the library as soon as possible to make up for it. I did read the first Sandman Slim novel, which was good fun. And The Orange Eats Creeps has a title that bags for perusal.

Finally, In Role-Playing Game News

If you haven't looked at the Blog of Robert J Schwab, take a look. This is pulled from his site; “a writer and award-winning game designer best known for his work on Dungeons & Dragons, got his start in 2002 and has never looked back. He has designed or developed almost two hundred gaming books in both print and digital formats for Wizards of the Coast, Green Ronin Publishing, Black Industries, Fantasy Flight Games, and several other companies. Some of his best-known books include the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Player’s Handbook 3, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Grimm, and Tome of Corruption.” Theres a lot of interesting material here.

A new Cthulhu adventure, for Trail of Cthulhu, is available on drivethrurpg. Not So Quiet is from Pelgrane Press, using the Gumshoe system instead of the older Chaosium rules. Gumshoe stress investigation and slow building horror, in this case at a WWI military hospital.

RPG.net has an ongoing series of cross genre pollination ideas, including the most recent on Superheroes in different timelines, Ancient Greece, Rome, 16th Century Europe (Spain vs England) and a Biblical nod to the Valley of Elah. The whole series has some great ideas for developing new campaigns or working something different into a current campaign.

[Matt]

Battle: Los Angeles

I don't think I'll put much faith in a movie by Jonathan Liebesman, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Darkness Falls, but there is something about the trailer for Battle: Los Angeles that I really like. It is probably a movie we've already seen too many times and since this version doesn't have Will Smith I doubt it will make a ton of money. Hopefully it is better than the disastrous Skyline.

I guess what I love about the trailer is the music selection, Jóhann Jóhannsson's "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black." It just has such a different beat to it compared to what I would expect from the trailer and working against what is happening on screen creates a real tension.

Music Editing

After writing the last line I wanted to see what I thought of the trailer with some other music selections. I turned down the audio on the trailer and press play on some songs. I didn't do anything to match up the tracks. I'll include the tracks for you to try it if you want to.

I started with Independence day soundtrack - The darkest day. It matches up very interestingly for the first half. If I took out a chunk and had the end match it could work. But it is just a typical heroic fare compared to the track used for the real trailer.

I followed that with Star Wars - Duel of the Fates. Didn't do anything for me.

Newt up is Mortal Combat. Perhaps in a Uwe Boll movie.

I played it with Hans Zimmer's Inception piece "The Dream is Collapsing" and that sounded awesome. I don't like it as much as the others, but I would still be interested in the movie.

And finally for something off the wall and funny, here's some dirty dancing.

[Matt]

Here is a new trailer for Battle: Los Angeles.

[Justin OOC]

definitely gonna see it