Category: While We Still Have time

Your Guide to Vampires That Don't Swoon

Posted on by tavia.

Dark Horse wants us to remember what made vampires scary in the first place. They’re monsters that feed on humans… mostly that’s why they should be scary. But for a long time we’ve been fed the drivel that vampires are chisel-jawed, deep feeling, hopeless romantics.

We’ve mentioned before that a supernatural apocalypse staring vampires would probably suck hard. It would not be epic high school love and sexy accents fighting over local nobodies. It would be scary and bloody as fuck until it turned into Daybreakers.

Dark Horse is here to remind us to hie our kids, hide our wives, and our husbands because vampires are raping killing everybody! They’ve compiled a free handy digital sampler comic showcasing the best of their vampire line up.

Some of them you’ve heard of, some probably not. It’s free. Try it, you might find something you like. Or you might learn something.

If you’ve got a taste for bloodsuckers, then look no further! Dark Horse does vampires right and gives readers who crave creatures of the night a crypt full of creepy comics!

Step into the world of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9, as everyone’s favorite Slayer adapts to her new life in San Francisco. Then check out Angel & Faith, where the vampire with a soul and the once-evil Slayer work to atone for past sins.

This preview issue also features Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Baltimore, which follows a vampire hunter living in a world beset by a post–World War I vampire infestation; samples from P. C. and Kristin Cast’s story of a vampyre boarding school in House of Night; and Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain, in which Manhattan suffers from a vampiric plague!

• Issue features selections from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #1,Angel & Faith #1, Baltimore: The Curse Bells #1, The Strain #1, and House of Night #1. Plus, the entirety of a short story entitled “Magical Mystery Tour Featuring the Beetles,” a previously unreleased, digital-only retailer exclusive from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9.

They’ve also provided an infographic. I’m always down for an inforgraphic:

First Impressions: The War of the Worlds (XBLA)

Posted on by tavia.

[wpspoiler name=”First Impressions vs. Reviews” ]First Impressions are based on demos while Reviews are based on entire games.[/wpspoiler]

Unfortunately (and fortunately because it means I’m driving less), I haven’t had time to listen to any audiobooks lately. That is until recently when I discovered The War of the Worlds video game narrated by Patrick Stewart.

I’m a science fiction junkie. I didn’t  get to be the creator of a website about surviving the apocalypse and fangirling about apocalyptic culture and entertainment without some serious scifi hours logged. Everyone has their preference, be it movies, TV series, books, or games. Personally, I indulge in all of the above but have always had a soft spot in my heart for audiobooks. A well written story read well can immerse me in an author’s world in a wonderfully unique way.

The War of the Worlds developed by Other Ocean for Paramount Pictures was a refreshing re-immersion into the world or audiobooks via interactive gaming. Sometimes I rummage through the Xbox Live Arcade games hoping to find something everyone forgot to tell me about. Well no one told me there was a War of the World game.

The game features narration by Patrick Stewart based on the 1953 film adaptation of H.G. Wells’ original story.

Check out the launch trailer from Paramount (also the makers of the 1953 film).

Published by

Paramount Digital Entertainment

Platforms

Xbox Live

Rating

ESRB Rating: E10+ – Fantasy Violence

Summary

The War of the Worlds is a dark and breathtaking new vision of the classic H.G. Wells novel, retold as a single player side-scrolling action-adventure, narrated by the acclaimed and distinguished actor, Patrick Stewart. Set in London, the gameplay narrative parallels the timeline and events from the 1953 movie adaptation, but introduces a new story arc, characters, locations, and sub-plots. With gameplay paying homage to classic cinematic platformers such as Flashback, Out of This World andPrince of Persia, the game follows the exploits of an unknown everyman struggling to escape the Martian invasion of London and rescue his family. Forced to think through insurmountable odds, players will outsmart an army of alien tripods, spiders and drones as they make their way through a landscape of total devastation.

The War of the Worlds Pros:

1. The game is simple and the controls are easy to figure out. So, even though there’s no tutorial it’s not a steep learning cuve.

2. PATRICK STEWART IS READING ME A STORY! That man was made to read me words. <3

3. Artsy fartsy. This game is like an interactive story and art museum all in one. Every level is a beautiful scene that has details too beautiful not to be explored.

The War of the Worlds Cons:

1. The lack of tutorial is also kind of a downside because for a while I had no idea what was going on.

2. The game is set really far out so you play as this tiny person in this huge environment with can be a little disorienting or detached.

3. You can’t die-die but I died (and came back) a lot because there’s a lot of poke it and see what it does which doesn’t make sense in the story because you’d be dead.

Overall, what I think of The War of the Worlds:

I don’t know if it was fun so much as worth spending time with. Similar to books not really being fun so much as engaging the game is just well done. While, of course, Patrick Stewart knocks it out of the park but that’s then paired with great artwork and smooth gameplay.

For just 800 Microsoft Points, I’m in it ’til the war is won.

Book review: Dark Magic by James Swain

Posted on by char

Dark Magic cover

Book review: Dark Magic by James Swain, published May 2012 by Tor Books

Note: The review copy was provided by the publisher.

Blurb:

Peter Warlock is a magician with a dark secret. Every night, he amazes audiences at his private theater in New York, where he performs feats that boggle the imagination. But his day job is just a cover for his otherworldly pursuits: Peter is a member of an underground group of psychics who gaze into the future to help prevent crimes. No one, not even his live-in girlfriend, knows the truth about Peter—until the séance when he foresees an unspeakable act of violence that will devastate the city. As Peter and his friends rush to prevent tragedy, Peter discovers that a shadowy cult of evil psychics, the Order of Astrum, know all about his abilities. They are hunting him and his fellow psychics down, one by one, determined to silence them forever. Dark Magic is a genre-bending supernatural thriller from national bestselling novelist and real-life magician James Swain.

First off, I’m going to admit that while I love science fiction and fantasy, I no longer read a lot of urban fantasy. Why? Because, quite frankly, I’m tired of reading about vampires, werethings, and ninja heroines with attitude problems.

Second, I’m going to admit that this review has taken such a long time to write because I read the book twice. (Yeah, I really it.)

Continue reading “Book review: Dark Magic by James Swain”

Review: Zombie Granny (Android)

Posted on by tavia.

Zombie Granny is not a game to just download and play on a whim. Sure it’s readily available and free[1. Our favorite Price] but it’s also missing a shit ton of images that take like eight years to download. My actual grandma’s make shit happen faster and Ms. Pearl was legally blind and thought my computer was damn near magical.

I found if I don’t let the device snooze and keep touching the phone it update more quickly… good start.

Yay! It finally finished.

My first impression is that it’s kind of a lot like Cut The Rope, but instead of trying to feed the frog candy you’re trying to kill the Zombie Granny with a fireball. Then, a few levels in, I thought it’s kind of like Angry Birds.

So, Zombie Granny is kind of like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds had a baby and it had a sick morbid sense of humor.

The gameplay is fairly simple and easy to get accustomed to, especially since the first few levels are tutorial levels. There’s a fireball attached to a rope and you cut the rope and drop the fireball on the unsuspecting zombie granny below.

While the gameplay is straightforward the concept kind of bothers me. Where’s my motivation? This poor old lady is just standing about, not even trying to munch on my brains and I just murder her like it a terrorist.

Next weird conceptual thing? Why are there fireballs just suspended from here and there? This isn’t even like a Mario dungeon level where the fireball are swinging around like traps and trying to impede your progress. These are like decorations.

Morals and logic aside, this is after all just a mobile phone game, the graphics are great and it’s super cute and wonderfully simple. This is a fun little zombie game with just the right about of snark and morbid nonsense to keep you entertained on a long commute or wait in a lobby.

[rating:3.5/5]

I’d let Zombie Granny live– at least until the water got low or she started to stink up the place.

 

Canada prepares for the zombie apocalypse

Posted on by char

Well, okay, the province of British Columbia is preparing for the zombie apocalypse. They’ve taken a page from the CDC’s book and have set up Zombie Preparedness Week. You know, so the citizens of B.C. can be good and ready for the zombie apocalypse. Also other disasters, like floods, earthquakes, and fires. But mostly zombies.

And just in case you’re wondering if the preparedness plan works, check out the post-zombie attack survivor’s blog here. Obviously this person isn’t from the lower mainland, because according to this map, Vancouver is toast.

I gotta admit, this is pretty cool. Now, if only Alberta would do something like this…

And for your viewing pleasure (because I’m nice like that), check out the video that Emergency Info B.C. put together. Be ye warned: it sounds like someone held Stephen Hawking at gunpoint to record this thing. And made him inhale some helium along the way.

 

Bandits Will be Bandits | The Last of Us

Posted on by tavia.

Cowards! The lot of them. Bandits and Highway Men are constantly trying to play on the sympathies of  those of us who don’t lack morals. They did it in The Book of Eli and They’re doing it again in The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog has been slow releasing information and videos about their upcoming post-apocalyptic video game. This time it’s a video!

The cinematic trailer shows a scene from a day in the life of Ellie and Joel… being ambushed by bandits on the road to who-knows-where.

Video description:

Joel and Ellie won’t have an easy road ahead of them. Their path across the US will intersect with other survivors, some of whom won’t be friendly. In this scene set to the somber chords of Hank Williams, Sr., Joel and Ellie continue their journey west in a battered pickup truck. As they drive towards the next destination on their route, and hopefully a place to find critical resources, the pair encounters a group of hunters. What happens next is something you have to witness to understand.

The Last of Us is genre-defining experience blending survival and action elements to tell a character driven story about a population decimated by a modern plague. Cities are abandoned and being reclaimed by nature. Remaining survivors are killing each other for food, weapons and whatever they can find. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a young teenage girl who’s braver and wiser beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.

Developed by Naughty Dog, The Last of Us is being made exclusively for the PS3 system.

Video:

[More about The Last of Us]

Dark Horse Extends Free Comic Book Day Through the End of May

Posted on by tavia.

Did you miss out on Free Comic Book Day this past Saturday? If you did, you also missed out on the Buffy/ The Guild preview (?) issue and the Star Wars/Serenity one-shots offered by Dark Horse. That’s sad.

You missed the space pirates, bandits, aliens, and heroes. You missed out on high-flying hijinks, and intergalactic world  universe saving awesomeness.

Lucky for you Dark Horse, specifically, Dark Horse Digital are nice people (is a nice person? cares about their readers’ happy feelings to sadness ratio?). Over in the “free” section of the digital.darkhorse.com website you’ll be able to read or download their Free Comic Book Day comics for the rest of the month of May. All you need is a free account and you’re on your way to slacking like a professional at work or number munching your monthly data allotment. Continue reading “Dark Horse Extends Free Comic Book Day Through the End of May”

Book review: The Unbidden Magic series by Marilee Brothers

Posted on by char

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Unbidden Magic Series, by Marilee Brothers (Moonstone, Moon Rise, Moon Spun, Shadow Moon). Published by Bell Bridge Books.

Review copies were provided by Bell Bridge Books.

This review covers a series of four books, so I’m not going to write the blurb for each of them. That would just take too long.

Here’s the background: 15 year old Allie Emerson is given a moonstone necklace by her friend and sometime guardian, Kizzy (who is a Romany Gypsy, but everyone calls her a witch). Allie’s mother, Faye, is pretending to have fibromyalgia to get out of working.

So, okay. The moonstone necklace. It’s pretty, it’s a necklace, it has special powers. (I KNOW.)

Continue reading “Book review: The Unbidden Magic series by Marilee Brothers”

House hunting for the apocalypse

Posted on by char

So it’s no secret that I’m STILL in the middle of a move (omigod this move never ends). Mr. Char and I are in the middle of trying to buy a house, which is a fun process in and of itself (and not stressful AT ALL /sarcasm). Granted, we have the greatest realtor in the history of realtors, and I know this because she puts up with me and my Type A obsessiveness without threatening to a) fire me as a client or b) stab me in the eye with an unsharpened HB pencil. (It’s a well-known fact that I’m a dorky oddball; it’s also a well-known fact that I tend to annoy people without really trying.) (Her name is Crystal, she’s with Remax, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND her.)

However, the point of this post is not to wax poetic about my realtor, even though she is full of Teh Awesomesauce™. The point is, after looking at over a hundred houses and visiting around thirty, Mr. Char and I obviously know what we want in a house. There are certain things we look for (and our realtor will tell us which houses fit our style before we even go for showings, which is rather nice of her). Some of those things tend to be a good-size kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, attached garage…you know, that sort of thing.

Sadly, none of those things will help me come the apocalypse.

Continue reading “House hunting for the apocalypse”

Book review: The Fate of the Species by Fred Guterl

Posted on by char

Publisher’s blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Bloomsbury USA]

The revelatory account of the biggest threats we face as a species–and what we can do to save ourselves.

In the history of planet earth, mass species extinctions have occurred five times, about once every 100 million years.

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A “sixth extinction” is known to be underway now, with over 200 species dying off every day. Not only that, but the cause of the sixth extinction is also the source of single biggest threat to human life: our own inventions.

What this bleak future will truly hold, though, is much in dispute. Will our immune systems be attacked by so-called super bugs, always evolving, and now more easily spread than ever? Will the disappearance of so many species cripple the biosphere? Will global warming transform itself into a runaway effect, destroying ecosystems across the planet?

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In this provocative book, Fred Guterl examines each of these scenarios, laying out the existing threats, and proffering the means to avoid them.

This book is more than a tour of an apocalyptic future; it is a political salvo, an antidote to well-intentioned but ultimately ineffectual thinking. Though it’s honorable enough to switch light bulbs and eat home-grown food, the scope of our problems, and the size of our population, is too great. And so, Guterl argues, we find ourselves in a trap: Technology got us into this mess, and it’s also the only thing that can help us survive it. Guterl vividly shows where our future is heading, and ultimately lights the route to safe harbor.

Note: This book is available from Amazon on May 22, 2012.

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Continue reading “Book review: The Fate of the Species by Fred Guterl”