Media Monday: Project Giant Robot, Picross, and EVOLand

Let's talk video games this week:

- The Unfinished Swan - ★★☆☆☆
A neat concept that I generally found to be kind of a chore to work through. Gilliam's cameo was a nice touch.

- Project: Guard, Project: Giant Robot, & Splattoon Demos - ★★★★☆
These were all demos I played during downtime (re: hour-long gameplay segments of Smash Bros) while working in the Nintendo booth at E3. Guard was pretty fun, and involved a crowd shouting out when they saw robots sneaking up on me. In Giant Robot, I was knocked down once or twice by the evil robots, but I always took 'em down with me. In Splattoon, my army of squidgirls (Orange) triumphed over the other, lesser team (Purple). The motion controls were tricky, but I was determined to play it as intended. (One little extra thing about these that must have been reported on somewhere by now: Mr. Miyamoto was revealed to be working on a new Star Fox game at E3 this year. Also, the two 'Project' games are Miyamoto creations. There are Star Fox-related logos visible in the Project: Guard scenery...)

- EVOLand - ★★★☆☆
I've had my eye on it for a while, and bit during the Steam summer event. Generally pretty fun, but by the second half the gimmicks have mostly faded away into actually being the kind of game they're joking about. My time was split almost evenly between getting up to the last boss, and then running around collecting everything before taking him out. Finished with 100% completion.

- Picross e4 - ★★★☆☆
This is, I think, the third picross game I've played on a DS. Back to 2D this time. I liked that you get bonus puzzles for being a loyal franchise buyer. Blasted through this one really quick though, in about a month.

- Picross e3 - ★★★☆☆
And having finished that one, I then went and wrapped up the last few puzzles from last year's installment. None of these are as much fun and addictive as Picross DS was though. Maybe because then it was a novelty. It also had the fun Nintendo themed level, which never re-appeared.

- AC-130 Air Gunship - ★★☆☆☆
It's like that level in that AAA shooting game, except a lot less fun! …I still played all 15 levels…

Underground Comedy is Go!

For years, I've been tangentially involved in a documentary about the improv comedy scene in Los Angeles. In January we made a trailer for it, and now we're about to make the whole darn thing. We've got hundreds of hours of footage, and we want to bring you an interesting 90 minute feature film about what goes on in the black box theaters that are forging (a) tomorrow's big name comics and (b) tomorrow's accountants and waiters who did a fun thing in their 20s. Most people don't know about it, most people will never know about it, and even the folks that do might never get to see it because improv evaporates as soon as it's done, never to be seen again. Unless of course, someone is standing around with a camera crew documenting the whole thing.

Check out the trailer for Underground Comedy here and if you want to get a DVD in a couple years after we're done producing the movie and walking it around to festivals, or maybe a nice co-producer credit for your IMDB page, go have a look at the film's Kickstarter*, which is running for a mere 3 more weeks.

* Once upon a time, folks in film production probably compared notes on how they don't actually work so much with film anymore these days and isn't it a shame, why, I only ever worked on two projects in my life that shot on honest-to-goodness celluloid. Well that conversation is done, and everything's digital from here on out. The craft services table chit chat of the future is reminiscing about the days when films had investors. This is maybe my 5th crowdfunded movie.

The Curse of Oedipus!

This week I'm back on set with Diani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse, which means lots of media production, and not much media consumption. Instead, check out this promo I edited for the Antaeus Theater Company for their upcoming production of The Curse of Oedipus.

The theater company shares a ton of great actors with the movie, and the promo was written & directed by Diani & Devine! All I did was edit, color, mix, and make some fun graphics for the totally real previous versions of the show, like the Klingon version in the thumbnail, starring noted Klingon actor Michael Dorn.

#2,053: Edge of Tomorrow

Godzilla (2014) - ★★★☆☆
I think this was probably a good example of a classic Godzilla movie, but I don't know how many times I've actually enjoyed a classic Godzilla movie. Certainly, I liked this more than Monsters, but I think it was a misstep to swap out the charismatic lead for a kind of bland sap-faced dude.

Non-Stop - ★★★½☆
I watched this on a crummy hotel TV, and it was perfect. Solid 90s flavored action with more plot than the trailer gives up. Kind of a preachy speech from one of the bad guys, but he's duly punished for it. Recommended, even if you have to watch it on a high quality screen of some sort.

Duck Soup - ★★☆☆☆
It played much better the first time I saw it, in a packed theater, than it did in my living room. Either way, it's not one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies. Too much a melange.

Edge of Tomorrow - ★★★★☆
I totally expected some kind of twisty turny part after an hour or so, based on what the trailers gave us, but it's not that kind of movie. It's the movie the trailers tell us it's going to be, and it does a great job of being that. Comedic parts, action parts, and the best representation of the meta-nature of being a video game hero, just like everyone says.