Trump personally dictated a statement that was
issued after revelations that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer
during the 2016 election. The Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Carol
D. Leonnig explain.
In beautiful 60FPS 1080p, watch Kratos battle the Lord of the Underworld
in one of the most menacing, brutal boss encounters in God of War 3
Remastered, coming to PlayStation 4 this July 14, 2015.
One of
the most critically acclaimed games of the last generation, God of War
III, has been remastered for the PlayStation 4 system, marking the debut
of Kratos on PS4. God of War III Remastered brings the epic battles and
carnage to life with stunning graphics, 1080p gameplay targeting 60FPS,
and an elaborate plot that once again sees Kratos at the center of
destruction as he seeks revenge against the Gods who have betrayed him.
Every week, a landslide of video game
trailers hit the Internet, hyping up the games that have just been
released, the games that are about to be released and even the games
that don’t have release dates. It can be a bit overwhelming to keep up
with all of them, which is why we’ve decided to collect our favorites
into a single post.
A Batman game with a mature ESRB rating? Count me in. Arkham City didn’t blow me away like it did many others, but with the Batmobile in tow and the darker tone of Arkham Knight, I’m ready for it to be June already.
This isn’t Final Fantasy XV, but it’s the next best thing. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
pleasantly surprised me when I had a chance to go hands-on with it last
year. The game has supposedly received a few major tweaks since then as
well, so I’m hoping for a polished port when this game hits PS4 and
Xbox One in March.
The final DLC for Shadow of Mordor brings Celebrimbor face-to-face with the Dark Lord himself. The DLC for Shadow of Mordor
has been surprisingly competent up to this point, but even if you’ve
missed out on everything before it, The Bright Lord DLC looks like it
will be the one to pick up.
I have no idea why this exists, but it’s free to download and you don’t even need to own Forza Horizon 2 to play it. Still no word on whether Vin Diesel did any voice over work for the game.
OlliOlli was a hit in 2014, and just over a year later, the
sequel is nearly ready to launch on PS4 and PS Vita. It looks like more
of the same, so if you enjoyed the first one, OlliOlli2 shouldn’t disappoint.
An armed militia group in Wisconsin plans to confront people who
signed the petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) at the polls on Nov.
4.
The "Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia" will check the names of those on
the petition and will then seek out the Democrats on that list,
according to Facebook exchanges viewed by Politicus USA.
The Facebook page for the militia has since been scrubbed.
The group plans to follow people from polling locations to their homes, according to a Facebook post viewed by The Capital Times.
"Please private message us names of people you know are active voters
and wanted on warrants. We can get our agents to watch their polling
location, identify the individual, and then follow them to their
residence. A call the police and they will be picked up for processing,"
the Facebook message read.
The group is using the website Put Wisconsin First to identify petition signers who have outstanding arrest warrants and those with tax defaults.
According to Politicus USA, the Facebook page for the group featured
pictures of African-Americans, but the group denied that they are
targeting blacks.
"We can assure you that we will be targeting all democrats, not just
black ones," a Facebook message read, according to the Capital Times.
"If you think we meant blacks only it is because you are a racist who
thinks the only people with warrants are black. We know better because
we have a nice list of people who are wanted democrat activist types.
Most are actually white. We will target everyone."
The video game industry has grown enough over the past 30 years
that it has developed a key trait that earlier generations of games
initially lacked: taste. Games have always been able to convey complex
stories, but something needs to let people know that in order for them
to make the purchase. Obviously, trailers are a way to capture people’s
attention. Sometimes, though, developers go so far above and beyond
creating that mini-commercial for their game that they ultimately create
a tasteful, self-contained narrative all on its own that’s able to be
delivered in just a couple of minutes. Many trailers are good, but only a
select few can survive on their own as a separate piece of flash video
fiction, and these are the best out there.
Valiant Hearts
Warning: the above trailer for UbiArt’s upcoming game is nearing the depression level of the infamous Futurama
dog episode. You know the one. Aside from being instilled with the
power to put tears in the eyes of the most hardened, bitter soul, the
narrative not only conveys what the game is about, but you can show it
to your grandma and she won’t feel lost. The trailer works on its own,
regardless of its video game roots.
Dead Island
When the Dead Island trailer dropped a handful of years ago,
for a brief moment, it engulfed the internet. From Twitter feeds to
Facebook posts, and gaming outlets to sites that have nothing to do with
media, the digitally connected world was interrupted. Once you saw the
trailer, it made sense — it’s simply one of the best trailers from any
genre of media. Thanks to its clever use of editing the chronological
flow of time and mixing that with a tragic, self-contained tale, people
still talk about this trailer today — even though the game ended up
having no emotional value relative to the trailer’s.
Halo 3
The final installment in the original Halo trilogy, Halo 3
not only picked up where the previous game’s very controversial
cliffhanger left off, but — at the time — was viewed as the last “real” Halo game. Three more were made after that, and Microsoft has already unveiled Halo 5.
Though the series has enjoyed some stellar trailers and commercials
over the years, nothing comes close to the famous “Believe” trailer. It
features an intense battlefield scene, but everything is still as a
camera pans and zooms through the paused action. On its own, it tells
the story and havoc of war — it doesn’t matter that you don’t
necessarily know who the armor-clad soldiers are or why they’re battling
aliens. The meticulous, tragic detail speaks volumes on its own.
Dying Light
Debuted last year, the same producer behind Dead Island — and thus its magnificent trailer seen above — is developing another zombie apocalypse game, Dying Light. Where Dead Island was more or less an open-world action title, Dying Light
seems to be an open-world parkour title — but with zombies. The
trailer, as seems to be the trend when Techland is involved, is great,
and can stand as a self-contained short about the tragic story of a
group of agile zombie apocalypse survivors, and the hell they have to go
through just to survive.
Battleblock Theater
Once upon a time, there was a trailer about two guys who were the
best of friends and going on an adventure. It release back in 2011, and
had so many trailers between that and its 2013 release date, that it was
actually a bit difficult to find this original version. While most
memorable game trailers are serious affairs, Battleblock Theater’s
is one of the funniest, from its unique narration style to the mimicry
of wooden stick puppets. Whereas many trailers have been funny, this
trailer is not only hilarious, but tells its own story, albeit a
prologue. When your mom can enjoy a trailer about a game she knows
nothing about, you know something went right.
The above trailers aren’t the only memorable game trailers – Metal Gear Solid trailers are always long and amusing, and one time Kratos was murdering enemies in a forest map that turned out to be the back of an enormous Titan
climbing up mount Olympus. However, they’re perhaps the best instances
of game trailers that can stand on their own. They have a proper
beginning, middle, and end, and aren’t primarily focused on showing off
how you’ll level up in a game, but instead effectively convey their
games’ narratives by telling their own.
A
Tea Party group’s use of a piece of zealous propaganda from the video
game Bioshock Infinite could underscore the flawed dogma at the
movement’s heart. – Mural of deity George Washington expelling ‘foreign
hordes’ from Bioshock Infinite
The above picture graced the Facebook page of the National Liberty Foundation
not too long ago, joining their rather anti-minority photo-stream.
However, as noted, this is not some patriotic symbol of years past, or
cherished words of wisdom. Instead, it is art from the video game
Bioshock Infinite.
Its use by the Tea Party affiliated group was
intended to be some kind of rallying point, but instead it revealed how
accurate the depiction of the fusion of politics and religion within
Bioshock Infinite truly is.
Bioshock, The Series Which Cast A Spotlight On The Darkest Corners Of Utopian Thought.
Bioshock Infinite was released to much fanfare in March of this year.
With years of anticipation, this continuation of the hugely successful
Bioshock series sold millions of copies
since release, and is considered a huge success. The Bioshock series
has been part of popular culture since the original title was released
in 2007, with references to it found in popular culture.
Every Bioshock title has picked on a radical element of society, and
cast a cold spotlight on to it. The original Bioshock was heralded for
its dissection of Ayn Rand Objectivism with its depiction of the final
and ultimate expression of Objectivism in the dystopia of Rapture.
Bioshock 2 turned this on its head, with a harsh critique of Altruism
and Communism, and its expression of their own impossibility in the
wreckage of Rapture. In both games, it was not the root philosophy at
fault, but that both philosophies requiring a super-human level of
perfection in order to work. Their systems fail not because of the
philosophy, but because those who are to implement and manage the
systems are flawed, imperfect humans.
Much
as with the earlier titles, Bioshock Infinite picked a segment of
society, in this case those who bring religious fervor to politics. Set
in the flying city of Columbia, Bioshock Infinite deals with a society
in which a fanatical religious cult controls all, with the base of their
tenants being that the founding fathers are akin to saints or gods, and
the Constitution is religious scripture. One could point out the
similarity of this deification of the founding fathers, with the fusion
of religion and politics, to the Tea Party and their absolute dogma that
this nation is one for theocratic rule and not democratic.
And as with
the earlier titles, while a theocratic state works in theory (who would
not love a nation ruled by the love and kindness of Jesus or the peace
and harmony of Buddhism?) they are being managed by people, and the
human element always destroys the utopian society in which the player
finds themselves.
In Bioshock Infinite, a radical religious group based on the idea
that America was divinely created as if god itself reached down the drew
the lines on the map, has seceeded from the Union. They view the
founding fathers as gods or saints, and worship them. They call those
who do not follow their narrow view of the nation as heretics, those who
are beneath contempt. The ideals of democracy and freedom are
perverted, replaced with blind loyalty and a slavery to their fanatical
leader.
Sounds like the Tea Party to me.
The launch trailer for Bioshock Infinite.
Should the Tea Party reach their pinnacle and reach the utopian
future they imagine, the results would be as tragic as the closed cities
found within the Bioshock games. That the National Liberty Foundation
took a prime piece of that failure and promoted it on their wall,
complete with its stated desire to eliminate any non-Anglo-Saxon from
the continent, speaks poorly of the group and their mission. The other
photos on their site show an ignorance for democracy, and the United
States form of government as found in the US Constitution.
Once they realized that they had used a piece of video game
propaganda which was criticizing their movement, the page took it down.
However, here is the evidence, preserved for us:
The Bioshock series is an excellent dissection of the insanity which
grips the fanatics across this nation. For the National Liberty
Foundation to confuse this dissection with reality is, at the least
disturbing. Or, do they honestly believe in the divinity of the founding
fathers, as the Latter Day Saints have proclaimed? Do they believe that the US Constitution a divine document, given by god?
Bioshock Infinite explored the dangers of such a utopic vision. It
would do the National Liberty Foundation, and all Tea Party groups in
fact, to learn from it.
With Thor: The Dark World just weeks away from release, Marvel
has already started laying the groundwork for the next entry in its
extended superhero universe, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
And the impressive first trailer offers a glimpse of a film that looks
like the studio's most ambitious and adult offering to date.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set after the events of both the first Captain America and The Avengers,
as the hero adjusts to life in the modern day after spending over 50
years frozen in the Arctic before being thawed out. "I joined
S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect people," says Captain America (Chris Evans) in
the film's trailer. "To build a better world sometimes means tearing the
old one down. And that makes enemies," replies Robert Redford's
Alexander Pierce, making his debut in the Marvel universe.
Anyone who's sorry to see Captain America going solo again
after his time with The Avengers will also spot a few welcome familiar
faces, including Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson), who has nearly as large a role as Captain America
himself in the trailer.
If the presence of Robert Redford wasn't enough of a tip-off, the trailer makes it clear that Captain America: The Winter Soldier
will take a more staunchly political angle than most of the other
Marvel franchises. As a man who grew up in the 1930's and 1940's, Captain
America is having a difficult time adjusting to a world where the U.S.
government is asking its agents to eliminate potential threats before
they happen.
A big-budget superhero movie with the political
implications of Showtime's Homeland? If Marvel can actually pull it off, Captain America: The Winter Soldier could well turn out to be the best, brainiest superhero blockbuster it has ever released.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt "The Beginning" provides exclusive information about the creative process behind the game.
Key
developers are inviting you on a journey into Geralt's world, where
you'll fall in love with the breathtaking vistas and experience the
atmosphere that helped us shape some of the locations in the game.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Debut Gameplay gives you an exclusive sneak
peek into the vast and gritty world of Geralt of Rivia, the witcher.
Experience a realm where morality is not a simple choice between good
and evil and where every decision ripples through the one hundred hours
of gameplay CD Projekt RED has hand-crafted to meet the needs of the RPG
fan.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features:
- Vast, living,
open world full of meticulously created quests and Points of Interest,
35 times bigger than the one in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- Genre-defining story set in a universe created by the acclaimed writer Andrzej Sapkowski
-
Redesigned combat mechanic that merges a fluid and highly responsive
skirmish system with the precision of a dedicated fighting game
And many, many more...
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will premiere on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC in 2014.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, THE GRANDMASTER is an epic
action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary kung fu
master, Ip Man.
The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of
China’s last dynasty, a time of chaos, division and war that was also
the golden age of Chinese martial arts.
Filmed in a range of stunning locations that include the snow-swept
landscapes of Northeast China and the subtropical South, THE GRANDMASTER
features virtuoso performances by some of the greatest stars of
contemporary Asian cinema, including Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang.
It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for Wong Kar Wai‘s The
Grandmaster, but next month our patience will finally be rewarded. To
prepare us for the martial arts epic’s release, The Weinstein Co. has
released a new full-length U.S. trailer.
Tony Leung leads the cast as Ip Man, who’s probably best known in the
U.S. as the guy who trained Bruce Lee. In the 1930s, when The
Grandmaster begins, he’s a happily married man practicing the Wing Chun
kung fu form in southern China. He’s challenged to a fight by a martial
arts master from the north (Wang Qingxiang), and then later by the man’s
daughter (Zhang Ziyi).
The trailer starts out with the same rain-soaked scene we’ve enjoyed in
other trailers, but quickly moves on to other, equally dramatic scenes.
There’s no dialogue at all, lest the appearance of subtitles turn off American moviegoers. At least the voiceover isn’t as annoying
this time around. Wong hasn’t done much in the martial arts genre, but
he seems to acquit himself nicely. There’s lots of exciting action,
choreographed beautifully by the Yuen Woo Ping, but Wong hasn’t lost the
moody introspection that marks his other works.
