All posts by Dan Woizinski

Dan is a Canadian with a penchant for writing things, watching things, playing things and occasionally leaving the house. You can follow him on Twitter: http://bit.ly/WN6xMI

Full-Length ‘Take Earth Back’ Trailer for Mass Effect 3

There are fourteen days left until the Reapers reach Earth in Mass Effect 3. Are you ready? If you were watching The Walking Dead last week you might think you are; Bioware dropped a gorgeous pre-rendered teaser for the game during the show, but that wasn’t the whole picture. The 2-minute trailer that aired on AMC was a condensed version of the real deal; the extended trailer boasts a full extra minute of footage that rounds out the clip and packs on the adrenaline, even incorporating some of the stuff shown in ME3‘s first teaser way back in 2011:

I am shaking with anticipation for this game to come out, so watching this gave me goosebumps. That being said, this is the third version of the same trailer. Before AMC aired its edited version of the above cinematic trailer, a 58-second long  ‘trailer preview‘ was making its rounds on the internet. I’m a little baffled by that decision – they made a teaser for a preview of a trailer for a video game. I’m sure the idea was to generate a steady build of excitement, but I feel like all it did was take away the novelty, because with each subsequent trailer, a large fraction of it was already old news. When I add to that the fact that the trailer’s pre-rendered and therefore offers nothing relevant about the actual game, it gets a little ridiculous.

But I’m looking too deeply at this. The bottom line is, this trailer is fantastic and if it can drum up some excitement and bring more people into the series I’ll be a very happy FemShep.

This is happy, right?

CBS Greenlights Pilot From Louis CK and One of the ‘Seinfeld’ Writers…

I’m going to level with you, I haven’t turned my television on in over a year. This means I’m a little out of touch with the state of television these days, but from what I can gather on their website, CBS is now entirely made up of identical cop dramas and formulaic sitcoms. Also whatever the hell this is.

A Pitbull song in the trailer is TV Short-hand for “This is our Jersey Shore”

It’s not the most refined place for quality programming is what I’m saying. So it may come as a surprise to you to know that CBS just approved a pilot from Louis C.K. and Spike Feresten, two writers from critically acclaimed shows (‘Louie’ and ‘Seinfeld’, respectively). Deadline‘s report included a general idea of what the show will be:

CBS’s [sic] has greenlighted to pilot an untitled multi-camera comedy written by Louis CK and Spike Feresten, about an ensemble of young people trying to achieve their creative dreams in these tough financial times.

The show was actually pitched 13 years ago by the two comedy writers under the name Boomtown. At the time, it would have starred Louis C.K. and centred around him and his friends. However C.K. and Feresten have rewritten the script, likely with Louis C.K. out of the lead role, and the new show will finally get a chance.

How directly Louis C.K. will be involved in this new show remains to be seen, which is the main point of interest for me. He is currently enjoying the success of his latest stand-up special, Live at the Beacon Theatre, though he won’t be taking time to rest; Louis has been breaking the comedy mold in the past few years by throwing away all his material each year and starting again from scratch. On top of that he also serves as star, producer, director, editor and sole writer of the hit FX show Louie. I imagine this leaves little time to nurture a brand new show, but there’s nothing I’d rather see on TV than more Louis C.K.

Ridley Scott to Direct Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Counselor’

In a story that brings together two auteurs lauded in their respective fields, Entertainment Weekly reports Ridley Scott has signed on to direct Cormac McCarthy’s first ever screenplay, The Counselor. The Gladiator director plans to start production in May, making it his next project after the much-anticipated Prometheus. That would, as expected, push Scott’s secretive Blade Runner picture further down the production line, but it’s something I can personally make exception for, since this is a collaboration I’d never have imagined possible. EW also stated that Scott is hoping to bring along Prometheus star Michael Fassbender to The Counselor, who would star in the lead role.

McCarthy’s screenplay has been described by insiders as “No Country For Old Men on steroids,” according to Deadline, a bold statement considering the effect the Oscar-winning No Country had on audiences. We’ve reported on The Counselor before, but in case you need a refresher here’s a synopsis of the story from Deadline:

“The protagonist in The Counselor is a respected lawyer who thinks he can dip a toe in to the drug business without getting sucked down. It is a bad decision and he tries his best to survive it and get out of a desperate situation.”

I’m ecstatic to hear this news and I’ll be keeping up on all the newest updates.

‘The Avengers’ SuperBowl Trailer Is Online Now

The Avengers aired its SuperBowl spot earlier tonight, and chances are you are one of the many who saw it. But just in case you haven’t, I’ll give you a very brief summary: It features some of the best footage we’ve seen outside of Comic-Con so far, lending more camera time to Loki, his yet-unidentified alien army and The Hulk. The extended version of the trailer is up on the Avengers’ Facebook page now. Check it out below:

This looks fantastic. Can’t wait to see more.

Harrison Ford In Talks For New Blade Runner Film

Wozz - BladeRunner

Ridley Scott will be reacquainting audiences with two of his most beloved film franchises in the next few years with Prometheus drawing ever-nearer and the announcement in early 2011 that he would be directing some kind of tie-in to Blade Runner. It’s enough to get fans incredibly excited, especially because  we know so little about both productions. Prometheus is only about four months away and surprisingly little has been revealed or leaked about the film, and this Blade Runner project has been flying so under-the-radar that the only thing we could say for sure was that Harrison Ford wouldn’t be reprising his role as Deckard. And wouldn’t you know it, that might not even be accurate.

BladeRunner

Previously the film’s producer, Andrew Kosove, had said this to say about bringing Ford back, in an interview with The L.A. Times:

In no way do I speak for Ridley Scott, but if you’re asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no. This is a total reinvention, and in my mind that means doing everything fresh, including casting.

However Twitch debunked Kosove’s statement this week with a report that Mr. Solo is indeed undergoing negotiations for the film. The talks are in the very early stages, however, so this is far from a confirmation that he’ll appear. It’s also worth pointing out that we don’t even know how this movie will tie in with the timeline – It may be a prequel, sequel or something else entirely, so Ford’s casting could mean anything from a role as protagonist to a minor cameo.

Having Ridley Scott behind the camera really got me interested in this project. The approach he appears to have taken with Prometheus (A wildly different story than Alien, loosely tied to the same universe) might be an indication of the route he’ll take with Blade Runner, which I would love to see. I probably would have taken Harrison Ford’s involvement as a good sign as well, had I not seen the mediocrity-fest that was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

More on this story as it develops.

Button Mashing: Xbox 720, Wii U, The Darkness II & God of War 4

This is Button Mashing, Grizzly Bomb’s video game news headquarters. Previews, interviews, rumors and all the latest stories relating to the biggest games, all in one place. Here are the most important things you need to know for the week of January 30th, 2012:

‘Xbox 720’ Chipset in Production – (IGN)

Rumors and hearsay has become cold, hard fact: “Xbox 720”, or at least its core ‘System on a Chip’, is already being developed. According to Fudzilla:

Recent speculation that the new main System on a Chip (SoC) for the Next Xbox began production is apparently accurate; the SoC did indeed start production in late December of 2011. Sources tell us that the code name for the chip is Oban, and it is being produced by both IBM and Global Foundries for Microsoft.

Fudzilla’s report continued with a lot of important (and partially incorrect) combinations of words and numbers which are certainly important and made no sense to someone as tech-stupid as myself:

The power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series…”

However, IGNcorrected the initial mistake with the following update:

…mass production of the system’s GPU will indeed begin by the end of 2012 but will not, however, be based on AMD’s 7000 series Southern Islands GPU. Instead, the processor will be derived from the 6000 series, which was introduced last year. More specifically, it will be akin to the Radeon HD 6670, which offers support for DirectX11, multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output.”

They went on to summarize it for the layman (Thank you IGN. Sincerely: The layman):

Continue reading Button Mashing: Xbox 720, Wii U, The Darkness II & God of War 4