Tonight marks the start of the 6th annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival, which runs for 8 nights at the Toronto Underground Cinema, with the Canadian horror comedy “Monster Brawl”. Over the years TADFF has grown to become a breakout festival, featuring horror and science fiction films that one may normally not get a chance to see on the big screen.
Read MoreRyan talks with Viktor Kalvachev, writer for the Image Comic “Blue Estate”, a deliciously lurid pulp comic with some of the best covers I’ve seen around in a while. Given the twisty nature of the plot, a team of artist take turns drawing different sections of the story. Viktor talks about some of the unique challenges working on a multi-artist book, including supplying maquettes of the main characters so that the artistic team has a similar frame of reference.
Read MoreRome Sweet Rome, a sci-fi adventure story that first found life online, has been bought up by Warner Brothers, and destined for the big screen. The story itself was penned by James Erwin, who besides writing flash fiction in response to random questions, is a two time Jeopardy champion. The inspiration? So I’ve been watching HBO’s Rome and Generation Kill simultaneously and it’s lead me to fantasize about traveling back in time with modern troops and equipment to remove that self-righteous little twat Octavian (Augustus) from power. Let’s say we…
Read MoreOne thing we weren’t expecting to see at Fan Expo this year was new laptop technology. While game franchises have become a major part of conventions in the past few years, with the convergence of geek culture, it’s usually a matter of game titles, not the hardware underneath it. So when we came across the Toshiba booth, which had their new Qosimo glasses-free 3D laptop on display, we had to take a look.
Read MoreAfter a long and well-publicized battle with pancreatic cancer, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has passed away at the age of 56. The statement from the board of directors can be read above. Boing Boing has put up a great tribute, in the form of a temporary site redesign that’s worth visiting.
Read MoreMicrosoft’s Zune Music services have always been a very US centric brand, with rumours that it would come to Canada swirling for a couple of years. The last we heard, it was originally going to show up here back in the spring of this year. While the Zune video marketplace has been available in Canada for some time, allowing users to rent and buy TV and film content via their PCs or Xbox 360s, the iTunes competitor has been bereft of, well… tunes, until now.
Read MoreSometimes the best things at a convention are the most random. One of those moments was while Ryan and John were getting ready to go in after picking up their passes. It just so happened that it was the same time Lance Henriksen was out front taking a break from signing copies of his book and doing the convention guest thing.
Read MoreWhen rumours started floating around that today would be ‘Mango Day’, in which Microsoft launched the 7.5 version of their mobile OS (Mango of course), I have to admit I was pretty skeptical, after how clumsily the folks at Redmond handled the NoDo update in the spring. It turns out that Microsoft got it right this time, as the latest update to Windows Phone 7 has been launched worldwide.
Read MoreNow over half way through its fourth season, it was announced that Breaking Bad will return for a fifth and final 16 episode season. If you’re not already watching what the fans call BrBa, I can’t recommend it highly enough, as it may be the single greatest piece of filmed entertainment ever.
Read MoreWhile at the Image booth during Fan Expo, we had a chance to talk with Owen Wiseman and Nam Kim, writer and artist, respectively, of Samurai’s Blood, a gorgeously drawn samurai revenge tale. Unlike many tales in the genre, especially in comics, Samurai’s lood avoids the more fantasy-based trappings, and weaves a tale more firmly grounded in reality.
Read MoreEpic Games had to pull off a hat trick with the concluding chapter of Gears of War. First is to bring new visual and gameplay tweaks that are prerequisite for a sequel to be a hit with the fans. Second, they needed a way to recap the story for newcomers. Finally, they needed to wrap up the story in a way that is satisfying for a trilogy that was designed to end with the third installment.
Epic pulled it off with style and grace, as Gears of War 3 exemplifies exactly what a sequel should be.
Read MoreWhile Konami has yet to peg down a definite North American release date for Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, there’s news floating around (via Joystiq) that it will land in Japan on November 23th. This suggests that international dates can’t be far behind.
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