The first theatrical trailer for the new Conan the Barbarian movie has been released, the one starring Jason Momoa, not Arnold, which is due out Aug 19th.
As a big fan of Robert E Howard’s works, I am looking forward to this – it looks more true to the source material than Arnold’s version did.
The trailer can be seen over here.
Over on facebook, Peter Jackson – director of The Lord of the Rings – has posted his first video from the set of The Hobbit. Looking forward to seeing it – and also more videos from Peter Jackson as the filming continues.
Head over here to see it.
For those who hang around the indie writing scene, the name Amanda Hocking is one you’ll come across sooner or later – more than likely sooner.
A year ago she was an unknown – today she is one of the biggest names on the indie scene, with over half a million copies of her books sold, and is attracting attention even from the mainstream. She recently did a TV interview, which shows how far her star has risen.
She also was interviewed by USAToday;
It is an unbelievable story – and one that is inspiring to those just starting out on the indie road.
Can we replicate her success? That is doubtful, but at the least it shows us that there are opportunities out there, if we work hard – and have a little luck.
Bioware have put out a very short teaser for Mass Effect 3, the final part of the Mass Effect game trilogy.
Can’t wait.
I’ve got three clips to share here, all Dr Who related.
The first is the promo for the upcoming Dr Who Christmas Special. And for a change this year it will be being shown in Australia at Christmas and not weeks later.
The next two are unreleased bridging scenes, just special little scenes done for fun.
The first takes place between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below.
The second takes place between Flesh and Stone and The Vampires of Venice.
Been a short while since I have had a chance to play ME2 but thought I should get around to posting some thoughts about.
I’m still a bit unsure of whether I prefer Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2. In some areas they made some big improvements, but in others they didn’t quite hit the mark. Plenty of others have talked about it before though so I’m not going to labour it.
I did enjoy the game. It was a different look at the ME world, had some great music and characters and left us waiting for the third, and final, chapter of the trilogy.
It is certainly best played with a save from ME1 – all the little bits and pieces that make it into ME2 that refer back to events in ME1 give it flavour.
On to other matters – six degrees of Mass Effect 2. Firstly one has to watch the following scene.
Apart from the amusement of the conversation, pay attention to the names given to the two recruits – Burnside and Chung. Short of a massive coincidence I know (and have worked with) the two people they are named for – Ken Burnside and Winchell Chung. The project was Attack Vector on which I helped design the background setting – a hard Newtonian science space sim. Apparently during the design of ME1 both of them gave some assistance to the designers via a mailing list I’m also on – sfconsim – and this easter egg was a way of thanks.
And one more clip, involving Mordin, one of the character in game. Probably my favourite and also has a huge fan base. He is simply awesome and quite complex all in one. The following clip is just a small display of his awesomeness.
Back in the day when I was young, one of my favourite TV shows was Danger Mouse. On a whim I looked it up on youtube last night and was surprised to find just how awesome it still is.
Here is one of the episodes – The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemea – made even more awesome by a Doctor Who reference.
Even though I knew Mass Effect 2 was being released just around the corner (as in just over a week now), I hadn’t been paying it all that much attention. I enjoyed Mass Effect 1 and am planning on getting the sequel, but as matters stand at the moment, I’m going to have to wait until it comes down in price to be able to afford it. So there wasn’t much point in looking at it too much or I’d just torture myself.
But something I did stumble across (and alas had me looking into the game more than was good for me) was the following video showing who is doing voice acting in the sequel.
Martin Sheen.
Tricia “Number Six” Helfer
Michael “Colonel Tigh” Hogan
Carrie-Anne “Trinity” Moss
Michael “Worf” Dorn
And Adam “Jayne Cobb” Baldwin. No one knows yet what part his character plays, or if you can have them as a team member, but if they are you know I’m going to have them permanently on roster. Teaming up with Jayne Cobb? You betcha.
And here is the trailer for the game.
One of the interesting things about ME2 is that you can import saves from ME1 and events that transpired in it affect the ME2 game. A character dies in ME1? They aren’t around in ME2. The choices you make at the end of ME1? They carry over – so the council may be dead or alive.
Only two of the six original team members are available to team up with again – Tali and Garrus. Its a shame that Wrex can’t be a team member, but given what can happen in ME1 with him, you can see why.
In preparation for when the game does come out, I am working on a couple of saves, getting them set up perfectly to export over.
Playing the game again makes me want to work on some SF stories again one of these days. Many years back I came up with a SF setting that I have planned to write in for some time, but it has always been far down the list of things to do. Maybe one of these years I’ll get back to it.
WOW.com has just put up a video of the World of Warcraft Tauren druid forms, both bear and cat, for viewing.
It comes in at 10 minutes and shows all the various colours available.
Can’t wait to try them myself.
This is an interesting clip I came across which is apparently from 1969 looking forward to how they saw computers functioning in the future – as well as what was to become the internet.
It didn’t quite turn out the way they foresaw, but it showed remarkable guesswork. All works by futurists naturally will not always turn out exactly the way they imagine, as there will be advanced they could never imagine in their wildest dreams, but they can certainly inspire and often entertain at the same time.
For myself I often ponder how things may turn out in the future. For example, the current global economic mess. What would happen if everything goes pear shaped and ends up in a new Great Depression? How would the world look, how would people survive? It did give me an idea for story to explore that, but that needs to wait until I’ve finished other projects first.
Mist and Shadows 