Play This You Bastard! - Vampire Rain

Will I be as happy as this chap once I finish the game? I doubt it.

As a fan of video games, I have played my fair share of great games with amazing narratives and stupendous visual/audio effects. Some games I've played have made me question things, others have made me laugh out loud and some have even left me emotionally drained.

Not all of these titles have been Triple A blockbusters from a renown studio, some have been from smaller lesser known studios, people with a passion and a story to tell.

It's no secret that Deadly Premonition, a game that's in the Guinness Book of Records for polarising critical reviews of it, is my favourite game narrative. I finished the game and for about a week, I couldn't turn my xbox back on as it had hit me right in the balls in the final act and the ending was both tragic and beautiful. The graphics and game play put a lot of people off of this, but for fans, it's part of the charm.

Which brings me to Vampire Rain. A game that is so fiendishly difficult that it has made grown man literally soil their pants and eat the contents rather than go back to playing another second of the infuriating horror-stealth game.

Blade's really gone downhill since Trinity

I had a very brief go on a demo of Vampire Rain when it first came out about four years ago. I do not remember it. I remember the reviews though, which went from scathing to mad scribbles on a piece of paper as the reviewer had lost the will to live.

This title is on it's way to me, for the low low ebay price of £2.00 (inc. P&P so you know it's good... I mean the guy is practically paying me to take it off his hands) and I shall be spending some time with it.

Will I tire of it within moments of loading it up, or will I strive through the poor game play/level designs/voice acting/insane difficulty and finish the game?

Well, there's one way to find out...

The Hero : Reckoning

There have been films, books and comics that in the past, have attempted to answer the question "What would happen if a real person decided to become a superhero?"

With an upcoming short, we're hoping to answer that question but in a way it's never been answered before and THIS time you can be included in the process by helping invest in our project.

We're hoping to raise a meagre £200 to be able to create a truly original (and dark) comedic view into the psyche of someone who'd willingly risk their life for other people in the name of "Justice". Richard Fingerling, a reporter, is invited to interview this new Vigilante, and follows him through his trials and tribulations.

So if you're interested, please click the link below and help us achieve this short, if you're not interested then thanks for reading anyway.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/the-hero-reckoning-1170

Stoopid Studios : The making of The Sandwich

THE SANDWICH

So here's a link to Stoopid Studio's latest film. Our second scripted film (written by yours truly) and below is some waffle on the processes behind it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4UkSYs2on0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

One evening on my long walk home, I was thinking about my as yet unborn child and had an idea. I imagined that it was quite possible for my future son/daughter, to travel back in time and kill me, now that I had already done my bit in creating them.

My mind had an argument with itself on the nature of the paradox and before I knew it, I had walked the 3 miles home with no recollection of how I got there.

Well I wrote this down and changed some elements of it, but the idea of children from the future coming back to visit their father is the driving factor behind it. Instead of trying to kill the father they're trying to stop or encourage him to eat a sandwich.

It didn't take me too long to write but I had to keep going over it to make sure it made some sort of internal sense to the characters, even if the audience was baffled by the entire premise. I tried to explain all of this to my long suffering lady wife Louise, but honestly it took ages to read through it with her as quantum mechanics isn't her chosen subject in mastermind.

I gave the scripts out to the actors before the shoot and most of them had learnt their lines or at least enough of their lines for them to wing it (like I did) also at one point we realised that I'd written one of the characters to be pro when he should have been against, so a quick re-write and we were good. I also told the "children" to wear clothing that they think their character would wear in the future, which I felt would add a nice/subtle visual touch to it. Matt, who plays the last child of the father, hadn't got that text message, so instead I dug out some clothes and a wig which look suitably daft enough.

The Sandwich, I hope, is supposed to be a character in itself, as the whole future(s) fate(s) is(are) decided on if it is or isn't eaten. I'd written "Cheese Sandwich" in the script, but added a little extra something in the form of Jam. If you haven't tried a cheese and jam sandwich, I suggest you do so.

The piece took on a life of it's own really and I'm generally happy with how it turned out. The editing isn't as tight as it could have been, but I am going to say that this is part of the aesthetic of the piece because so much time travel is happening it's distorted reality. Music was nabbed as per usual from the same composer that I use for all our stuff (he has a great range and they're free as long as you mention him) the only bit that wasn't quite kosher was the music for the speed-up bit which was taken from Rayman Origins.

I've re-written the script after we filmed it as there are certain bits I thought could be improved, including the second time the first son appears, I thought it'd be funnier if he only had one arm this time and made out that he never had an arm. Also, Matt's character wouldn't refer to his universe's other dad being dead as he wouldn't know that in this universe his other dad had died.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy. If you'd like a copy of the screenplay or think you could make a better version, send me a line to addyace@aol.com

Dangerous Corner

Recently I auditioned for a part in our local theatre's upcoming production of Dangerous Corner by J B Priestley and thankfully I landed a part! Huzzah!

For those of you who are unaware of just what Dangerous Corner is all about, here's everybody's friend Wikipedia.

"Robert and Freda Caplan are entertaining guests at their country retreat. A chance remark by one of the guests ignites a series of devastating revelations, revealing a hitherto undiscovered tangle of clandestine relationships and dark secrets, the disclosures of which have tragic consequences."

I'll be playing Robert Caplan, an inquisitive man who's never heard of the saying "Curiosity Killed the Cat!" and who believes that the truth should be out in the open no matter what the cost.

I'm quite looking forward to getting my teeth into an acting role as I haven't done any theatre work for some time. I've mainly been focusing my efforts on Short Films, writing and looking after my baby when my wife's been working.

Rugby Theatre's production will be directed by Ash Hirons, who did a great version of the better known J B Priestley play "An Inspector Calls"

The production will see the reunion of my good friend Mr. Pollard, who's not only a great friend, but a very talented actor. (Ladies should also note that my good friend Mr. Pollard is currently single, and also note that his moral compass is set in the Victorian era, meaning he won't mistreat you unless he's actually Jack The Ripper - which he's not)

The show dates : 17th - 24th November at Rugby Theatre
http://www.rugbytheatre.co.uk/

Half Arsed Review : The Woman In Black

I was home alone last night and decided that I'd take a look at a horror film as I had some Doritos and Ice Cream, which are hard to consume when button mashing an xbox game.

The Woman In Black is a very atmospheric horror and is well worth a watch if you like ghost stories. It centers on a lawyer who goes to a remote house on a causeway to tidy up the recently deceased lady's paperwork and gets more than he bargained for.

I had a bit of trouble with the titular character's name. Arthur Kipps was also the name of the main character from half a sixpence, so there's part of me that likes to think of this as the unofficial sequel.

The film starts off really creepy with three girls having a tea party, which isn't creepy in itself, but it's when they suddenly stop and stare right at the camera that you get chills and what happens next sets the whole tone for the film. The special effects are very good and don't detract from the piece (here's looking at you Insidious) and the whole film is reeking in foreboding atmosphere.

My only complaint? Daniel Radcliffe. When he's first seen I found it hard to not think of him as Harry Potter, which isn't the actor's fault, it's just all I've seen him do for the past however many years he's been doing it for. It doesn't take long however for him to shake off Hogwarts and become a single parent/lawyer. But he's just not a very good actor in my opinion.

Case in point. At one moment in the film he's angry at someone for not warning him about the titular woman of the title, however instead of portraying a realistic amount of anger, bitterness and resentment he just comes across as being a little "ticked off"

He doesn't detract from the film as a whole, but I wish they'd have chosen a more well rounded actor who can portray emotions other than "teen angst" (I think Radcliffe may have played the part on stage, and maybe he's more suited for that version if it is the case)

But aside from this, I think it's a great return to form for Hammer Studios and a worthy addition to any horror fan's collection. The film made me jump, made me anxious and didn't outstay it's welcome.

Half Arsed Review: Grave Encounters

I was expecting to hate Grave Encounters, another found footage film in a long line of found footage film horrors. It seems most horror's I watch these days are this kind, because they're cheap to make and easy to do.

Grave Encounters is about a team of paranormal investigators who are filming for the 6th episode of their Most Haunted style TV show "Grave Encounters". They decide to lock themselves in a haunted asylum for the night and things don't quite go as planned which isn't good for them, but good for the viewer.

I'd previously watched a similar film called Episode 50, which had a similar concept, but was an awful awful movie that went from hand held camera footage to regular movie footage. It blew.

So my expectations were pretty low for this, but I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't say that this is an amazing film, but it's not awful either. I'd say it kinda sits in the middle, it's okay and has some good moments, but overall doesn't shock or scare you as much as the film makers intended.

Here's the good bits (Spoiler-ish)

Their "Psychic" is just an actor pretending to be a psychic, this is quite fun and as things go to shit he is a bit of comedic relief.

There's a great story device half way through that I won't divulge on for fear of spoiling it.

Unlike a lot of found footage films, stuff happens and you see it. The CGI is fairly good but there's a few moments where it's not quite as good as it could be.



Unlike other found footage films, you actually see shit happening!

The film started off with a producer stating that you're watching footage that hasn't been tampered with, however he's never seen again. Really they should have book ended it with him and not shown credits of the actors who were in the film (thus spoiling the illusion that this is found footage)

All in all it's a decent stab at the genre, has some okay scares and the internal logic of the plot and characters makes sense.

Rent it.

The Great Rugby Tornado... cont.

Well there have been news hounds traipsing up and down my garden all day according to my long suffering lady wife Louise.

I also had the time to get in touch with the BBC, and this is what they put on their web page!

Just so you know, that's not my garden in the picture, but the trampoline looks familiar...

The elderly relatives weren't actually mine, they were elderly and had relatives... lost in translation I guess.