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| Monday, May 28, 2012 08:28 AM |
| (Last updated on Monday, May 28, 2012 10:04 AM) | | On the Board - Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars |
 by Fëanor |
I must sadly report that Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars is not a very good game. Which is really too bad because it's a great concept for a game, just very poorly executed. The idea is that you play out your favorite giant monster movies as a board game. The board is a simple grid pattern laid over an illustration of a city that's clearly already been through at least the beginning of a monster invasion. You pick one of four famous monsters (Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Gigan, and Rodan - each represented by a pretty cool color, plastic figure), and one of four game scenarios, then set up the board as the scenario describes, positioning various plastic and cardboard tiles which represent tanks, personnel carriers, buildings, ponds, gardens, fire, and rubble. Then you start destroying! Most of the scenarios require specific monsters to face off against each other, on a board where things are laid out in a specific fashion, but the first scenario (recommended for first-time players) is a more vague, open-ended affair that's just about destroying more than your opponent, and/or being the last monster standing.
As instructed, my brother and I chose to play the first scenario, entitled "Monster Law!" Our problems started right away. The rules tell you: "Evenly divide buildings, ponds, gardens, fire and rubble amongst each player. Roll to determine which player gets to place the special Restaurant buildings. Then take turns placing 4 markers on the board at a time." First of all, what do they mean by buildings, exactly? There are 90 thick, plastic, stackable building tiles, with a building looking thing on one side, and a rubble-looking thing on the other with big monster footprints in it. So clearly we split these. But there are also cardboard building tiles, a couple of which are clearly labeled with "food," so we know they're the special restaurant tiles. But then there's another tile that says something about a restaurant on it, but doesn't say food, and we weren't sure if that was a restaurant or not. And what is the difference between the cardboard building tiles and the plastic ones? Are they basically interchangeable, you just can't stack the cardboard ones? The rules do not explain. And does one person place all the restaurant tiles, as the rules seem to suggest? That doesn't seem fair. As far the ponds and gardens, these are all two-sided, but some of the ponds have gardens on the other side (and vice versa), and some of them have a fiery building on the other side, so these apparently were doing double-duty as pond/garden tiles and fire tiles. So... do we place them down as ponds, or as fire? There are not an even number of them, so how do we split them up? Do we put down all the fire tiles before the game even begins? If we do, then how do we indicate that another building has been set on fire later in the game (which can sometimes happen)? Do we pick up a garden we've already placed and flip it over and move it somewhere else? The rules also mention rubble, but rubble is only represented on the opposite side of the building tiles. Again, are we allowed to just place rubble down on the board during the setup phase, or what? This scenario also tells you to place down some military units (we at first thought it meant ALL the military units, until we realized how insane that would be), but the military units are also two-sided and some of them are different colors and have different numbers on them, and it's not clear at first that most of these differences are meaningless.
It's all very confusing. Basically, even though "Monster Law!" is described as a good first-time scenario, it's actually the exact opposite of that, as the setup phase requires you to know everything about the way the game and the tiles work in order to know which to put down where, and even whether you should put them down at all.
After we finally agreed to just give up on the incredibly long, frustrating, and confusing setup process and get started, we ran into further confusion. There are a ton of cards to sort through, some of which you don't even need if you're playing with Basic combat rules (which we definitely were; after the setup, we did not feel at all ready to tackle anything that the game itself described as Advanced). So first you have to work out what actually applies to you and what does not, and remove anything that does not. The way you take your turn is by expending energy points to perform various actions. You can perform as many actions as you want, until you run out of energy, which refreshes at the beginning of your next turn (although apparently you might want to hold onto some for defensive actions between turns - this never came up during our game). Although you have a handful of cards that describe the actions you can take, you don't really "play" the cards to perform the actions; the cards are just there as reminders of what you can do, and how much energy you have to pay to do it. In fact, there are piles of info cards that you have to have spread out in front of you throughout to remember all the point values and fiddly rules for movement and line of sight.
But here's one of the game's biggest problems: the rules are different depending on if you're reading the cards or the rule book!! How many destruction points is a tank worth? Three or two, depending on what you're reading. How many destruction points is a building worth? 1, 2, 3, or 6 points, depending on how many floors it has... or maybe it's 2, 4, 6, or 10 points depending on how many floors... but then it's actually 5 or 8 points if you set it on fire, which you can only do if it's three or four floors high... Also, even though your attack cards tell you to roll a die to determine whether you actually hit your target or not, the rule book says you don't need to roll a die if your target is a building or a military unit. Also, the rule book is very clear about the fact that the military units only move on the most destructive monster's turn, but the cards say military units move toward any monster in their line of sight whenever that monster moves, and the most destructive monster just breaks ties. Working out who the military units can see, which way they should move, and whether they should fire or not, is ridiculously fiddly and complex, making each step a monster takes a bit of an ordeal.
During your turn, you can also spend energy to buy a card on the event track, if it's purchasable (most are not). Once each player has taken a turn, the round ends, and you roll a die and activate the event card that's in that numbered slot, doing what it says - which could be setting a bunch of buildings on fire, or healing a monster, or taking a bunch of energy away from a monster. Events often affect a random monster, and the game suggests no method for selecting a random monster, so we just made up one. These events are actually a pretty fun idea, although again there can be confusion, as the text on the cards is pretty brief and there's not always enough details for you to know exactly how to handle them.
After you're done with the event, you discard the event card, fill the empty event card slot with a new card from the deck, reset everybody's energy, and determine which is the most destructive monster, as he gets to go first next round (which seems to me like a mistake - why should the player who's winning always get to go first? Doesn't that make it harder for anybody who's losing to catch up?).
You need markers to track health and energy for all monsters, but they seem to have included only four markers total, even though if you're playing with four players, you'd need eight markers. Also at least one of the actions requires you to roll four dice. They include only two dice in the box. Sure, you can just roll those two twice, or dig out some other dice from some other game, but man. Cheap!
One final complaint, and it's in the classic "this food was so bad, and such small portions" format. After all the confusing set up, and all the confusion of our first couple turns, we actually only ended up each taking two full turns, and activating two event cards, before I took half another turn and met the victory conditions for the scenario (35 destruction points). That was it, it was all over, just like that. We had never even gotten close enough on the board to fight each other; we just stomped a couple buildings and tanks and it was all over. Of course, maybe this was because of the way we'd set the board up - with tons of high point value four-story buildings all over the place - but how were we supposed to know that was a mistake, since this was our first time playing?? Why tell first-time players to design the game board? That's a terrible idea.
I feel like this could be a good game, maybe even with the pieces included, but the rules need to be almost entirely rewritten - and, most importantly, they have to be consistent! |
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| Monday, August 8, 2011 03:41 PM |
| Recyclotron |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Board games (Not), Christmas (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Gaming (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Metroid (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), Toys (Not), Video games (Not) |
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| Monday, February 14, 2011 11:00 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Art (Not), Awards (Not), Board games (Not), Books (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Commercials (Not), Dollhouse (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), Gaming (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Ghostbusters (Not), Links (Not), Masters of the Universe (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Friday, January 21, 2011 10:52 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Evan Shaner wishes a happy birthday to Comic Twart by posting a representative image for every theme chosen in the blog's first year.
- Dan Hipp illustrates one of my favorite moments from Return of the Jedi.
- Somebody made a board game version of a tower defense game. Sounds like it's pretty cool, too.
- Baby-sized TARDIS! I feel like Griffin should have one of these.
- I've been reading a collection of old Russian folk tales, so it was interesting to find this post about an upcoming novel that re-envisions the stories of old Russian folk figures. You can read an excerpt here. It takes the elements of Russian folk tales - the repetitions (often in threes), the moments of sudden and inexplicable magic - and analyzes and re-imagines them in the context of communism and socialism. It's absolutely fantastic.
- Now that a mad scientist is cloning a woolly mammoth, io9 has suggestions for some other extinct animals we might want to bring back.
- Fringe fans just have to love this "Walter is my homeboy" T-shirt. Because you know what? Walter is my homeboy.
- Good news, everyone! NBC has ordered a pilot for Ron Moore's police show set in a world ruled by magic - Precinct 17.
- Sounds like Marvel is once again making an attempt to turn Black Panther into a movie.
- The bikini- and carnage-filled trailer for the DVD/blu-ray release of the modern classic, Sharktopus, complete with catchy beach rock theme song.
- As the entire world knows by now, Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman and Tom Hardy will be Bane in the next Batman movie. It took me a while to mull this news over. I haven't seen Anne Hathaway in much. She seems a bit goody-goody to play Catwoman, but hey, she's an actress! She should be able to pretend to not be goody-goody, the way actresses do. Tom Hardy seems a bit of an odd choice, too, for a monstrous, wrestler-type villain, but Tom Hardy is awesome, and also pretty damn ripped, so I think he can pull it off. Plus, Christopher Nolan's instincts are pretty damn good as far as these things are concerned (anybody remember Heath Ledger, the best Joker ever?), so I'm cautiously optimistic.
- The 1600th episode of Laugh-Out-Loud Cats is pretty mind-blowing, you guys.
- Dark Horse/Mike Mignola need to hire Enrique Alcatena to draw a Hellboy book RIGHT NOW. I'm just saying. This guy is GOOD.
- Someone has invented a game that's a combination of bowling and billiards. That's actually kind of vaguely brilliant.
- Here's a video of someone throwing boiling water into the air somewhere where it's so cold that the water instantly evaporates (or turns to snow, or something - I don't know, I was an English major, not a science... guy).
- You can simulate a fake incoming call with Samsung phones? Hey, I have a Samsung phone!
- A guy attached a tiny video camera to some arrows and shot them with his bow! Nice!
- More and better images from the X-Men: First Class movie.
- Blastr has compiled an impressive list of 83 differences between Fringe's alternate universe and ours.
- Muppets inserted into 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Cinematical gives us a rundown of at least 13 movies that you can expect to see ads for during the Super Bowl.
- It sounds like Johnny Depp may be taking Robert Downey Jr.'s place in Sam Raimi's Wizard of Oz movie.
- Even for a non-American Idol fan like myself, this recap of the latest American Idol is truly entertaining. I love the quick, spot-on critique of those horrible Bing ads, too.
- Btw, don't worry, George Lucas wasn't really serious about that thing about the world ending in 2012. He claims. He probably just wants to make sure no one goes looking for his secret escape spaceship.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Batman (Not), Board games (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Commercials (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Football (Not), Fringe (Not), Gadgets (Not), Gaming (Not), Hellboy (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Muppets (Not), News (Not), Oz (Not), Phones (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Sports (Not), Star Wars (Not), Super Bowl (Not), Technology (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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| Monday, December 13, 2010 11:18 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- The latest Comics Alliance link roundup includes a video where Mike Mignola tells stories about his career, and this link listing five made up sci-fi children's books.
- Farel Dalrymple draws Batman, and Dan Hipp draws Inception and the Justice League!
- So J.J. Abrams is doing another TV series about time traveling and a mysterious island starring Jorge Garcia. Sigh. It's called Alcatraz, and Sam Neill just joined the cast.
- Cool shirt on Threadless: Technicolour Rex. (Via)
- Apparently there is a brand of rum called Kraken? Anyway, the company has some cool accessories for sale on its online store. Although oddly, no rum. (Via)
- Evan Shaner draws Velma! Clearly I need to subscribe to his blog. (Via)
- In case you somehow missed hearing about this somewhere else, Gawker got itself hacked. If you have a commenting profile on one of its sites, you probably want to go in and change your password.
- A new trailer for Thor is online. It has good bits and bad bits. Most of the bad bits happen when people say things. Which doesn't bode well, as I imagine there will be a good deal of talking in the movie. I'm still hoping it will somehow be an entertaining film, however.
- Gwyneth Paltrow says Pepper Potts will not appear in The Avengers. Can't quite work out whether I'm sad about that or not.
- The Ultimate New Frontier Collector's Set is up for bid on eBay. And hey, Christmas is coming up soon now! Hint hint. (Via)
- This is a clever idea: The Boardgame Remix Kit. Interesting new rules for those old family boardgames everybody already owns. (Via)
- Dinosaur versions of various superheroes.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avengers (Not), Batman (Not), Board games (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Darwyn Cooke (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), eBay (Not), Gaming (Not), Hellboy (Not), Internet (Not), J.J. Abrams (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mashups (Not), Mike Mignola (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Scooby-Doo (Not), Shirts (Not), Thor (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Friday, July 30, 2010 01:31 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Who doesn't love a good novelty toaster? This one's like a defibrillator! Imagine how dramatic your breakfast could be: "Live, damn it, live! You've never given up on anything in your life, now fight! Fight!!"
- There are already way too many versions of Monopoly out there, and a DC Universe-themed one would make exactly no sense, so it's probably just as well the project got cancelled. But I still love these sketches by Mike Allred for the Community Chest cards. (Via)
- At last, some plot details for Lars von Trier's upcoming sci-fi epic, Melancholia. Intriguing.
- The Venice Film Festival's competition lineup sounds pretty impressive. Included are the latest projects from Sofia Coppola (Somewhere, starring Stephen Dorff), Tom Tykwer (Three), Takashi Miike (13 Assassins), Vincent Gallo (Promises Written in Water), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), and Tsui Hark (Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame).
- That Total Recall readaptation is on the way, with direction by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) and writing by Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen, Salt, Equilibrium). Hmmm...
- Various Grant Morrison movies are in the works! Woo hoo!
- This teaser trailer for Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage isn't particularly impressive, but the filmmakers appear to be following in Ray Harryhausen's footsteps, which could be fun.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Board games (Not), Comic books (Not), Food (Not), Gadgets (Not), Gaming (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Monday, February 15, 2010 11:36 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- In honor of Valentine's Day I present, above, the venerable "Crunchy Frog" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Enjoy those chocolate assortments, folks! And while we're talking about the holiday, check out some geek (via) and Mr. Freeze-themed Valentines.
- This Nic Cage as Everyone entry is particularly well done, and particularly appropriate: Nic Cage as Mola Ram!
- Trailer for an intriguing-looking YA fantasy movie called Lost for Words.
- A gallery of photos of the toys and games presented by Hasbro at the Toy Fair. I'm particularly amused by the Iron Man 2-themed version of Operation.
- Sounds like Fringe is in danger of being cancelled. There won't be any TV shows left that I look forward to watching regularly if that one goes.
- A video anthology of werewolf transformations. Slightly NSFW.
- There's going to be a third Riddick movie. I'm not sure how to feel about this news. I loved the first movie, and although the second one had a lot of problems, it did have some great ideas and a great ending. So I'll remain cautiously optimistic for now.
- Neil Marshall's got a new movie on the way called Centurion, about a small band of survivors of a brutal attack on a Roman legion trying to escape enemy territory and make their way home. Here's the trailer. Eh. Could be all right. Although I'm not a big fan of the Romans being the good guys. (Via)
- The latest Let's Be Friends Again takes my favorite page of Siege #2 and makes it even better. If only this could happen in real life.
- Mike Mignola was brought in for a week to lend a hand on pre-production designs for The Hobbit. Yay!
- Amusing stop-motion animated video made using T-shirts.
- A thorough examination of the Toy Story 3 trailer and all its Easter Eggs. Totoro has a cameo! (Via)
- The official website for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is live. (Via)
- Heh. Concept art for an imaginary McDonalds-themed video game. (Via)
- Posters and other bits of art Photoshopped to give them a Star Trek theme. (Via)
- Leonardo Da Vinci, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yes, This is a real thing Marvel is doing. I'm vaguely interested. (Via)
- Images and video of a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari puppet show.
- A space cat riding a dinosaur. Now that's a T-shirt!
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Board games (Not), Cartoons (Not), Cats (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Fringe (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), Holiday (Not), Indiana Jones (Not), Links (Not), Mike Mignola (Not), Monsters (Not), Monty Python (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Politics (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Siege (Not), Star Trek (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not) |
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| Thursday, January 7, 2010 10:00 AM |
| (Last updated on Thursday, January 7, 2010 03:11 PM) | | Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- The video above really blew me away. It's almost entirely computer-generated. It's not real; it's super-real. (Via)
- The guys who wrote Zombieland will be writing the Deadpool movie. Seems like good news.
- Production on Cowboys and Aliens, which will reunite star Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau, will begin this summer.
- As Sci Fi Squad points out, it's pretty funny that the lack of sightings of the Loch Ness Monster has led some to conclude that the monster must have died - but not that it never existed in the first place.
- 100 cupcakes, each representing a different classic game. (Via)
- Sci Fi Wire takes us on a tour of an impressive Alice in Wonderland promo nesting book.
- Check out this awesome trailer for a Japanese horror film called House. It takes some unexpected turns! I really want to see this movie now. Sadly, it does not appear to be on Netflix.
- The first official photos from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. (Via)
- Fun Monsters vs. Aliens concept art. (Via)
- That photo of the hilariously modified soda fountain gets a further, brilliant modification.
- It looks like somebody actually put a photo of Ceiling Cat on his/her check card. Excellent.
- I love stuff like this: a list of fictional restaurants and their sources. (Via)
- Cinematical has a rundown of what movie ads we're likely to see during the Super Bowl.
- Pretty cool art blog, featuring some fun animated GIFs. (Via)
- Download a gigantic collection of lost pop music from the '00s here. Be aware, it takes a looooong time to download. By which I mean, I still haven't got to hear any of it yet. (UPDATE: I have since succeeded in pulling the whole thing down and listening to some of it, and it turns out there's some really fun stuff in there.) (Via)
- An amusing video of a couple of dudes recycling their Christmas tree by turning it into a rocket and launching it. (Via)
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Board games (Not), Books (Not), Cats (Not), Celebrities (Not), Christmas (Not), Food (Not), Football (Not), Gaming (Not), Links (Not), LOLCats (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Sports (Not), Super Bowl (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Wonderland (Not) |
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| Thursday, December 3, 2009 10:57 AM |
| (Last updated on Thursday, December 3, 2009 11:32 AM) | | Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- This is a sort of trailer for a show called Slingers that just looks absolutely amazing. It's a hip, sexy, smart, inventive, sci-fi heist show! (Via)
- Black and WTF is a blog of strange black and white photographs. (Via)
- Garfield Minus Garfield Plus Garfield. For some reason I feel like SuperTarzan in particular will enjoy this. (Via) (UPDATE: And already, there's a sequel! Garfield Minus Garfield Plus Garfield Plus Garfield! [Via])
- BatSanta!!
- You haven't really experienced Hamlet until you've heard it in the original Klingon.
- A Team Edward shirt I'd be proud to wear.
- Superheroes and supervillains, Picasso-style.
- Tom Hardy of Bronson might be in the next Mad Max, and Robert Duvall might play Don Quixote for Terry Gilliam. Love the casting in both cases, so I hope these become reality!
- The Green Lantern movie will dispense with the origin story quickly and get right into the action. That could be a good thing, but it could also be a very bad thing. Hmm...
- More details on the movie based on the board game Battleship. Yeah, this is almost certainly going to suck.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Batman (Not), Battlestar Galactica (Not), Board games (Not), Christmas (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Green Lantern (Not), Links (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shakespeare (Not), Shirts (Not), Star Trek (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Friday, September 25, 2009 02:12 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Are you ready for the Dollhouse season premiere tonight?? If you're not sure, you might want to check out the handy chronological recap of (most of) season 1 embedded above. (Via)
- GMail went down again for a little while yesterday. Really, just the chat part, I think. Anyway, here are five things to do when that happens. (Via)
- The interrobang looks like a pretty useful punctuation mark. Also, great name! (Via)
- Beard of monkeys (via) and coat of bears.
- Surrogates comes out today! Here's an interesting promo, and reviews of the film from Cinematical, io9, and Sci Fi Wire. Unfortunately most people seem to think it's pretty mediocre, but poppy and I still want to see it. The movie's release has also inspired a list of the 10 best robot bodies to jack your brain into, and a couple of lists centering on Bruce Willis: the top five sci-fi movie heroes played by Bruce Willis (I'd leave out any mention of Armageddon - *shiver* - but otherwise this is good), and seven arguments for Bruce Willis as a great actor (agreed!).
- An interesting glimpse of The Tourist, a sci-fi movie that may never be made.
- New Daredevil and solo Silver Surfer movies are on the way.
- Cute Star Wars cupcakes, and 17 amazing sci-fi themed cakes.
- This Sunday's Simpsons season premiere features Homer Simpson playing a new superhero character called Everyman, and it was written by and stars the voice of Seth Rogen. I haven't watched a new Simpsons episode in a while, but I'm curious about this one now.
- This list of the top ten sci-fi horror movies has some great picks, but is way off-base on others. I mean, c'mon: Mimic is just bad; Scanners is mediocre, if fun; Event Horizon starts out creepy and then gets stupid and unbelievable; The Blob is boring; and Spielberg's War of the Worlds falls apart as soon as you touch it. I think my list would be something like this: Alien, The Thing From Another World, Aliens, Pitch Black, The Cell, Forbidden Planet, Village of the Damned (1960), Bride of Frankenstein, Terminator, Terminator 2, and Dawn of the Dead.
- Cool conceptual design for a geometric soda can.
- Cool abominable snowman sculpture, and an alternate skin for Operation. (Via)
- This week's Wired Playlist features covers of famous sci-fi TV show themes!
- Gyromancer sounds like it might be a fun game: it's more puzzle-fighting!
- Werner Herzog is going to do something called Rogue Film School where he will teach you how to live filmmaking as a way of life. Wow!
- "A research team at the University of California Berkeley recently announced that it has successfully implanted electrodes into a beetle allowing scientists to control the insect's movements in flight." Watch the video of the remote control cyborg beetle in action, then freak out!
- So... steakhouse or gay bar? (Via)
- Joss Whedon's best TV episodes ever. Some weird picks, but big yeses to the Angel series finale, the Buffy musical episode, Dr. Horrible, and of course "The Body." (Via)
- Hilariously bad orchestral rendition of the theme to 2001. (Via)
- The top ten science fiction movie soundtracks. A lot of good picks, but... Flash Gordon? Seriously?? That has to be one of the most embarrassing soundtracks of all time! (Via)
- Snow White and the Se7en Dwarfs. (Via)
- Some crazy candid video of wild turkeys attacking people near my old neighborhood. (Via Todd)
- Cool Legend of Zelda art. (Via)
- An autotuned music video-style remix of an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. (Via)
- Top 10 unanswered questions in geeky movies. By which he means, plot holes.
- Movie poster mashups!
- A trailer for a crazy Russian anime film called First Squad, about a Russian medium fighting an occult order within the S.S. during WWII.
- The famous pop art portrait of Marilyn Monroe recreated with paint guns.
- An interesting report on playing Space Invaders Extreme with the Project Natal motion-sensing control scheme.
- Amusing disclaimer on the Ambien website.
- The 10 most puzzling ancient artifacts and an awesome concept car that's apparently more of a robotic exoskeleton. (Via)
- That Iron Man 2 set footage I posted the teaser for yesterday.
- MGM is so strapped for cash, the company might have to sell James Bond, The Hobbit, and numerous other franchises.
- Scream IV will begin production in April or May and amazingly they convinced Neve Campbell to return! But really, what else was she doing?
- Underwire likes FlashForward, and I'm hearing good things about it from other people, too. Damn! I thought this was one TV show I could avoid after the ads looked really stupid. Now I feel like I have to check it out.
- D'oh! If the Viking Lander 2 had dug its trench just 3.5 inches deeper, it would have struck Martian ice.
- Paul Pope close-ups! (Via)
- A first look at Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Paul.
- Scientists have discovered fossils of a four-winged dinosaur!
- The 100 worst movies of the last 10 years! I am at once thankful and slightly disappointed to say that I haven't seen any of these all the way through, although I have seen bits of a couple. (Via)
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Automobiles (Not), Board games (Not), Buffy (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Email (Not), Fashion (Not), Food (Not), Internet (Not), Iron Man (Not), Joss Whedon (Not), Language (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mashups (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Science (Not), Space (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
