First trailer for Tarsem Singh’s “Immortals,” starring Superman-to-be Henry Cavill, looks like “300” as reimagined as a JRPG by the most hyper-emotional kid in your Mixed Media 101 art class…

…I approve.

Like. Like. Like. LIKE. LIKE. LIKE!

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

“War of The Thinkers,” for anyone who doesn’t follow the other blog, represents the 7th and final episode of an in-series “mini-story” for The Game OverThinker. Take a look, if the mood strikes you…

http://v.giantrealm.com/saf/272828ab50091da6eb1ae85133def12ae9a44eb4

More stuff after the jump…

So… there it is, have at it. In addition to further episodes of the regular series, I’m planning to have some making-of, retrospective stuff up in the near future to elaborate on certain points; but just a few things real quick while we’re all here:

If some of the post-transformation looks oddly-sped-up, there is nothing wrong with your computer or ScrewAttack’s player (at least not in regards to this.) What you’re seeing is mostly an attempt to artficially replicate a high shutter-speed with video, coupled with some “OMG a whole fucking day of shooting captured all wiggy for some reason!!!”

My favorite joke in the whole bloody enterprise is at 10:21.

Credit where credit is due: My best friend Tim Luz and my brother Chris did not only 99% of the cinematography on this, but they’ve done 99% of the “when you see me” shooting on the entire series up to this point – the unsung heroes of The Game OverThinker. In addition, that’s Chris in the AntiThinker “true form” costume, and doubling me in the over-the-shoulder “Fake Shemp” shots.

The fake blood you see in the “splatter” shots is store-brand vegetable juice, and the “chest-punch” torrent is a mix of tomato soup, water and cherry gelatin-mix – every single drop of “prop gore” spilled was not only nontoxic and biodegradable, but edible. The “chopped” tree limb was an unrelated (to the tree) piece of debris being held up offscreen. NO portion of all that beautiful forest land that provided such a nice backdrop for this whole production was polluted, despoiled or otherwise harmed by our filmming; a commitment we all made and stuck to.

Looking back now, I kinda want to go back and stick the “Rise From Your Grave!!!” sound from Altered Beast over the “ressurection;” but nah – I’m DONE editing this bloody thing 😉

The “origin story” alluded to be The OverThinker is more-or-less “true,” and will probably be elaborated upon in the future. (I’m only making MOST of this up as we go along.)

“Cloaked Figure” aka “Monster-Voice Guy” DOES already have an identity, I already know who/what he is, what his “deal” is, etc; and you’ll hopefully find out exactly what that is in the near(ish) future.

Yes, that last bit is referencing Rev Rants’ video. NO, I’m not “calling him out,” looking to start shit, or even outright wholesale disagreeing with him; my position is more on the lines of “except when it is.” I see the “Fun is Not Enough” thing quoted around a lot, often used (incorrectly, unless I misunderstood Rev’s initial point) as a “takedown” of smaller titles and casual/retro stuff… and yeah, I’m on the other side of that. But otherwise? Rev is alright with me 😉

Nintendo announces a “Wii Successor” for 2012… in a pdf.

We’ll all find out how much money it’s going to cost to play the next Mario, Zelda, etc. at E3.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Intermission: “How To Read Film Criticism”

Hast thou dawwwww?

Obviously a takeoff on “Little Vader,” and a funny one, but part of me hopes the whole “kid loves Thor” bit isn’t just wishful thinking on Marvel’s part. One thing the early reviews seem to agree on is that this is the “youngest” Marvel-movie yet in terms of likely appeal – i.e. it’s more about the straight-up fantasy/heroics than it is about Iron Man’s middle-aged ennui or Hulk’s anger issues – and it really would be cool to see one of these things take off primarily with kids in a big way.

Oh! And hey, check out my interview on PixelJumpers…

The Escapist has some Reddit pix up, purporting to be design-scans (from developers toolkits?) of Wii2 (aka Project Cafe, aka “The Stream”) controllers that – if real – look an awful lot like my “other” guess at the device’s format; name that it’d be essentially the “bottom half” of a 3DS in the button/screen setup.

That’s certainly what it looks like, and makes me even more curious if one of the “big reveals” of this machine is going to be that you can actually USE a 3DS in place of a controller. “It’s made of stuff you already might have!” strikes me as a very Nintendo-esque marketing theme, and it’d go hand-in-hand with the all-but-innevitable confirmation that it’s going to be backwards-compatible with the Wii Remote as well. They would, after all, be INSANE to tell people that all of the plastic attachments they bought for Wii Sports aren’t “useful” anymore.

And the countdown to “Skyward Sword will be delayed to be a Wii2 launch-title but don’t be mad at us because look! OMG! Smash Bros. 3DS and Raccoon Mario is back!” begins…

(posted to both blogs, because it’s relevant)

Okay. By now, everyone is reasonably-certain that “Wii2” gets revealed at E3. And slightly-less-than-everyone is reasonably-certain that it’s mystery-controller A.) isn’t a Wii-Remote successor but rather can interface with one or something like one (knowing Nintendo this means peripheral backwards-compatibility, which they’d be INSANE not to do after selling everyone’s mom a fortune in Wii Sports toolkits) and B.) incorporates a camera and mini-LCD touch screen into it’s design – with most rumors suggesting the screen is roughly the size of an iPhone’s, which would be HUGE for something that most are assuming is going to be “built-in” to a conventional dual-stick/buttons controller.

I’ve got a different theory…

I’ll say upfront that I’m almost-certainly 100% off-base about this; largely because I have no talent or skillset for engineering. But on the off chance I’m right (or that it’s not Nintendo’s idea but not a bad one either…) here we go:

What if the touch-screen is an “everycontroller?”

Here’s the idea: The screen will “fit” because it isn’t there in-addition to action-buttons, but INSTEAD of action buttons. Basically, instead of dedicated action-buttons that every game has to be engineered for, the controller is just one or two analog sticks with NO dedicated action-buttons – instead, the touch-screen generates a set of “buttons” the arrangement and “form” of which are SPECIFIC to each individual game. Arcade-style buttons for a fighter, NES/SNES setup for a platformer, a PC-style stylus-oriented inventory menu for a sim (or an MMO?), something else for whole other genres I’m not thinking of or haven’t been invented yet?

So, yeah. Crazy, probably not even close. But I don’t think anyone could deny that this sounds EXACTLY like something Nintendo would do, right? Attention-getting, table-upturning, callous disregard for how 3rd party developers will feel about having to be controller-builders as well as game-designers and – this is the important part – it would LOOK ultra-revolutionary and cutting edge but can actually be built entirely out of decades-old technology their tech-teams are already well-versed in from the DS line. (Hmm… slightly-less insane theory: The controler will look like the bottom half of a 3DS, and a 3DS could be used in-place of one.)

So… uh-huh, that’s kind of it: A controller that can turn into “any” controller – at least, that’s how they’d sell it.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf