E3 2013: New Titles

Well E3 has come and gone and as usual I'm playing catchup, but I had a monster of a comic book post to do and wanted to finish that first and hey, a week later isn't too bad anyway!!

I'm going to split my coverage of E3 into two parts, this first post will look at debut announcements made at the conference, while the next post will look at the new information given for already announced games. With the new consoles out of the bag there were plenty of new games - here are some of the Sci-Fi ones that caught my eye.

First up this one that I saw as I sat down to watch the live feed, it quickly got me out of my seat with excitement!!

I hadn't seen this coming - I knew a Halo announcement was possible, but I'd expected it for the Xbox One announcement event and it hadn't arrived so I figured we maybe had another year to wait. The trailer caught me by surprise looking like a completely new IP. Looks like John is having to cope on his own while going up against a pretty monstrous Forerunner (Precursor?) enemy. It's due in 2014 but of course requires shelling out for the new Xbox One so it may be a while before you read about it on this blog - but nothing new there!

Titanfall

At first it looks like a standard mech-warrior game, but Titanfall does seem to have some depth and variety to it. One interesting comment made was that testsers spent most of their time playing as pilots, not as mechs. The technology allowing for boosts, double jumps and smoothe wallrunning looks like it'll make the game more dynamic than others that have gone before, and let's face it mechs are always fun right?!!

Mirror's Edge 2

While Halo usually steals the show for my excitement, this came a pretty close second!! A lot of us thought the franchise was dead and there had been no word on a sequel to the ground-breaking game for some time so I'd given up hope. But (presumably on the new consoles) Faith is back to her free-running, rifle stealing self! With other games (including Titanfall) including free-running elements in their gameplay it'll be interesting to see if this franchise can still hold it's ground - I , for one, am hopeful.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Oh yeah! a tiny teaser for the first Star Wars game since the closure of Lucasarts. Not owning a PlayStation I've never played the franchise so far, but it's one fans have been calling for and it was good news to see that Star Wars still has a future in gaming. Obviously the teaser is set on Hoth, recreating the battle in Empire but hopefully we'll see some new storyline in there too.

Mad Max 

Another entry for the new consoles, not much revealed on this one, set in the world of the classic post-apocalyptic films.


OK, that's all I can think of - I'm sure I've missed one or two - post a comment to let me know!!
 

SF at the Movies - December '10

Shockingly on time - let's have a look at what Sci-Fi goodness is available in the cinema this month shall we?

Megamind
Released 3/12/10











Megamind is a new CG comedy that looks...dare I say it...good? Starring Will Ferrel as an evil looking superhero sent from a dying planet to Earth along with another super-cool baby. The two rivals battle for the people of the city until a new villain comes along, leaving only the blue skinned genius to save the day.

Monsters
Released 3/12/10











A thrilling sci-fi story set in the near future. A NASA probe collects samples of alien life and brings them back to Earth. However it crashes in Mexico and soon mysterious alien creatures begin to appear, forcing the US to quarantine half of Mexico. The story is of a journalist who agrees to escort a stranded tourist through the infected zone to the safety of the border - but travelling though somewhere called the 'Infected Zone' can't be easy!

TRON: Legacy
Released 17/12/10











Sequel to the memorable original TRON with it's visionary idea of life withing a computer program. I still haven't seen the original and I'm eagerly ready to see it before I watch this sequel which seems to have had a graphics update since the original came out. Still, it'll be nice to have a bit of cyberpunk before the year is out.

And that's your lot, though a bit more on our plate than last month - happy watching!

SF at the movies - January '10

Slipping in at the last possible moment, here are the Sci-Fi releases that were out in January.

Daybreakers

Released 06/01/10









I had high hopes for this one and while it didn't disappoint, it wasn't all I felt it could have been either. The movie takes the usual 'vampires have mutated from humans' plot (see my earlier post on vamps) and extends it to the point where most of the population are vampires, meaning they are short on their key food source - human blood. In danger of devolving or dying out they have to find an alternative. A vampire scientist teams up with the few remaining humans to find another solution. Great plot, and the cast didn't let it down but it still relied on spooky things going 'raa!' and excessive violence when it could have focused more on resolving the storyline.

The Road

Released 08/01/10









A superb film. I was wondering if Viggo Mortensen's career had died after LotR but he is most definitely back with this astounding performance. The setting is your average post-apocalyptic world with broken buildings, dirt everywhere and crazy people. This is merely backdrop however for the journey a man must take to try and find a better life for his son. On the way they have to contend with the elements and a lack of food, as well as how to deal with the often savage people they meet. It is a deep exploration of morality as the father teaches the son to do what's right while being faced with how far he has to go to protect him and prepare him for life in a broken world. My words don't do it justice - if you can, see it.

The Book of Eli

Released 15/01/10









Another post-apocalyptic tale, this one more of an action thriller than the other. The world's gone to pot but one dude has a book which apparently has the power to either save humanity, or grant incredible power to whoever possesses it. A gang leader is very interested in the book and not so he can save humanity, thankfully the guy who's got it is Denzel Washington and he can kick some ass to make sure it gets to the right hands. I'm probably not doing it justice and it looks good, but I think I've had my dose of post-apocalyptic for this month.

And that's it, so basically January is a month for the end of the world - let's see what Feb brings!