Unless you’ve been living in a monastery high atop a secluded mountain there’s really no excuse not to have either seen or at the very least, heard of Noboru Iguchi’s blood soaked action film Machine Girl and/or the perversely twisted Tokyo Gore Police from Yoshihiro Nishimura. If you haven’t already seen or heard of these films then let me be the first to provide you with a little insight of what you can expect to see: copious amounts of gyser-esque, high-pressure blood spray, gratuitous violence, highly creative and suggestive weapons, a dash of twisted sexual innuendo (like only Japan can pull off) and of course large body counts that have the potential to rival the likes of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. If your interest has been peaked, please, read on.

For their next film, RoboGeisha, the duo will team up-Iguchi writing and directing and Nishimura handling the film’s special effects. As you can see from the debut trailer above the two haven’t lost any steam coming off of either project. Look for RoboGeisha to hit in early 2010.

[Twitch]

Explosions coming from every corner of the frame? Check. Torched cars barreling through the air? Check. Dozens of bullets blanketing the screen? Check. Could this perhaps be the latest action-packed film from Michael Bay?! No, surprisingly its not. Its Gamer from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. You know, Neveldine and Taylor. The gentlemen who brought us Crank and Crank: High Voltage.
Didn’t see them huh? Don’t sweat it, neither did I. That’s not to say they weren’t any good…I just never got around to seeing ‘em.

The duo’s latest film, Gamer, takes place in the not too distant future and follows Kabel (300’s Gerard Butler), one of many death-row inmates forced into participating in “Slayers”: an ultra-violent multi-player online game created by the reclusive twisted billionaire, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall).

In Slayers inmates are controlled remotely through by high-paying participants using a pseudo-virtual mind control interface. To Kabel’s highly-skilled controller Simon, and the other paying customers, the inmates are nothing but disposable sacks of flesh that serve as a form of entertainment. Not only for them, but for the millions who tune in to watch Slayers online each week. However, to Kabel, Simon’s skill might be the key he needs to put a stop to Slayers and eliminate Castle.

Now if the core premise of inmates being forced to run a gauntlet of death and destruction in exchange for huge ratings sounds at all familiar to you, that’s because its been done before. You may recall a little film from 1987 called The Running Man which is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

Rather than sit around twiddling your thumbs while you wait for Lionsgate to release Gamer into theaters later this year on September 4th, perhaps you can ponder some of the following questions:

Pending Gamer warrants a sequel, I’ll bet dollars for donuts that they use a videogame-related term(s) in the film’s title. I can see the possibilities now: Slayers: Time Extended. Or Gamer: Powered-Up.

[FirstShowing.net]
[Gamer - official site]

The eternal life question of “what a girl wants?”, as answered by the purple-haired lady genie exotically named Shantae, is to kick pirate booty and restore order in a quaint little 2-D circular-designed world. It also means that when you’re given an hourglass figure that the entire contestants of those goddamn top model shows would sacrifice a newborn or two for, you exploit it via the sensual art of the belly-dance. Only in this case, dancing lets you to turn into a menagerie of animals to help solve conveniently-placed puzzles blocking your path.
Read more!

From now until the end of the year is looking pretty good for gamers, and the PC is no exception. Crysis, which will be hitting the shelves November 16th, is looking better than ever.

From what we’ve been told, the story is a bit different now. No longer is a meteor crashing into the earth, but North Korea and America are still finding things to fight over. Now, you find a alien ship that has been enclosed in the mountains since the ice age, and presumably N.K. and the US get into a pissing match over it. Lulz ensure, and of course the standard alien plot to take over the world, in which you must thwart using your advanced nano-suit. And of course, loads and loads of explosives. The alien menace still utilizes world-freezing technology, which makes for a very interesting game environment, regardless of what it used to be prior to being frozen. With all this and more, November can’t come soon enough for us PC gamers.

[Gamespot]

Excuse me while I go throw up out of excitement.

Now, we all know Pentavision for their Korean hit rhythm games for the PC DJMax and and DJMax Portable for the PSP, (which is by the way, the greatest thing since sliced bread) but what about shooters? And Stylish eSper Shooting Sports for that matter? Well, we will soon find out. Pentavision has announced S4 League for PC and S4 portable for PSP. What we know now, it will be a third person shooter with team based elements and online based gameplay. Also, as they have announced many of the artists we know and love that made the soundtrack for DJMAx, will be making the music for this game, I’m willing to bet music will play *some* part in the gameplay. This IS Pentavision we are talking about. In either case, with the level of polish this team turns out, you have to be excited for them to turn open a new genre and step outside their normal game boundaries.

[Ruliweb]

Today, July 6, 2007, Sega of America announced that the developer Gas Powered Games will be working on a sequel of sorts to their hit action-RPG Dungeon Siege. What we know so far, the human race has been under attack by aliens, and you are on one of the few remaining life boats (space ships) of humanity, the “Armstrong”. You are Seth Walker, a cybernetics engineer who gets stick right in the middle of humanities fight for survival. One of the main game mechanics will be the cybernetic implants that you can use to augment your skills. Deus Ex meets Diablo? Well, we will see.  But I’m certainly excited, anything the developer of Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, and Supreme Commander, Chris Taylor, turns out these days should at least garner your attention during the development process.

[Sega Of America]

Starcraft Ghost, the oh so hyped Starcraft game, the game I once saw in a booth two years ago at and though “oh wow that looks complete”, was “postponed” early last year. Blizzard wanted to evaluate the potential of next-gen consoles. Hey, maybe that was going to be a good thing, a better game. A year and a half later we finally get word that Blizzard still has the game in mind, as Blizzard’s Rob Pardo said:

“With that game we were very stubborn. I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to�Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We’re hoping one day to return to it.”

Then again, this doesn’t mean much, if the game concept were to be resurrected it would have to be a whole new project, starting from scratch. Much like Duke Nukem Forever, and we all know how that’s going.

[next-gen.biz]

Well, hello there! Long time no see, anime review! I plan to get you up to date more often from now on!

*Ahem*…I didn’t think I would almost forget one awesome series that made me have some affection for Mecha series (I watched the first 2 eps of Gundam Wing. . .sorry). Along with pretty catchy electronic music and rememberable characters(well. . . kinda), this anime has a pretty interesting plot. Come and see why you should watch it!
Read more!

So, the new season of anime has started, and obviously, before the any of the series’ even began we all picked our favourites. When looking through a list of what was going to be on show, I noticed a peculiar title: “Venus Versus Virus.” Which included a picture of what looked to be very promising. I mean, psuedo-lolis, gothic lolita, guns, demon ass-kicking, a hint of lesbianism; hell, one of the main characters even has heterochromia (all the rage these days!). What could possibly go wrong? Oh reality, why do you treat me so.

Read more!

Celebrating Christmas I specially thought of a romantic, lovey-dovey anime series for all of you to read about. . . NOT!

Elfen Lied’s the name, and I conceive it as one of the first, if not THE first anime series to feature great quantities of blood and gore being directed to the main public. So come now, enjoy yor Turkey, Ham, Chicken, or Hot-dog and check this out!

Read more!