new mechwarrior announced
The lady to the left, she's familiar? Thought so. Reactor online, sensors online, weapons online, all systems nominal. Yes. That's how you and me and half the mech loving community started each mission in MechWarrior 2. Fourteen years passed and Carole Ruggier (apparently she's the voice talent behind the mech pilot voiceovers) could still make a small fortune from mech ringtones. Hopes up? Not quite.
Piranha Games announced a new mech game in the series (simply naming it MechWarrior, announced for PC and Xbox 360) and you know what the video and article comments miss the most? That's right, it's "the girl with the voiceovers". Arduous mech fights, battle units constructed with painful care, wonders of cockpit claustrophobia (with the occasional wireframe rendering). The footage below, that's in-game. The voiceovers? You will change it, will you not. (via ign)
One of the key features is a sense of information warfare, using everything from unmanned drones surveying the battlefield from above to light scout mechs relaying information to teammates. (...) The designers want to reward you for picking a mech and sticking with it -- you will gain experience and become better at piloting your chosen mech, and that will translate into better accuracy and damage with weapon systems. (...) While the developers didn't go into how many mechs will make the game, based on the video trailer and the discussions, we know of at least four. There's the Jenner (light class), both the Warhammer and the Rifleman(heavy class), and an Atlas Prime, a feared assault-class mech.
UPDATE 1: Not completely sure about the exact person of the voiceover girl being Ms. Ruggier. Anyone with better intel?
blomkamp's district 9 to premiere 14th of august
These are times for good science fiction. Seriously. First, it's Duncan "Zowie Bowie" Jones with his rendition of alienation with his superbly shot Moon (featuring Sam Rockwell as himself and Kevin Spacey as Kevin Spacey's voice! HAL revisited! another sample source for oldschool psy and electro-industrial musicians! who all love David Bowie anyways!) and now - actually, on the 14th of August - it's time for Neill Blomkamp's alien apartheid action movie District 9. I've previously mentioned Blomkamp's work, so check up on that - aliens have been stranded on Earth for 28 years with the zaibatsu Multi-National United creating regulated zones to herd them up. So far, the trailers have shown us interrogation scenes, aliens confessing to want to go home, earthlings who are afraid and lots of warning signs. The new trailer is here and it shows us physically superior creatures, monstrous mecha technology that's actually able to catch an RPG in mid-air without too much of a hassle. And some sort of a spray that transforms humans into something the military calls freaks. Gorgeous. These are times for good science fiction.
ghost in the shell stand alone complex new series a possibility
During the question and answer session, one fan asked about the possibility of a third season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Terashima-Furuta answered that she expects the project to happen, but that the director is currently tied up in other projects.
Expects to happen would mean four to seven years on the Western hemisphere, two to three on the Eastern. (anime news network on the production i.g. press conference via drifter)
neotokyo: japanese cyberpunk mod for Half-Life 2
Neo Tokyo, ネオ東京, short-cropped hair, burgundy lipstick, matching fingernails, automatic handgun, clichés of the futuristic Japanese urban environment. This time, it's an FPS MOD released by NT° for the Half-Life 2 Source engine. By the trailer, a might fine job, clearly inspired by Akira and the Ghost in the Shell universe, as the creators actually state it. Instead of Capture the Flag, NT° opted for Capture the Ghost and it's very thoroughly detailed for us noobs (discard this if you're hardcore) on this page with all the treats from thermoptic camouflage to tachikomas. (neotokyohq.com)
NEOTOKYO takes place about 30-40 years from now in a Japan that has drifted into social/political strife due to the inevitable stresses that come from changing times. The Japanese government is grappling with intensified external (Asia geopolitics) and internal (economic/social) problems, and there is mounting pressure from within Japan to return to the days when it exerted influence through military power and strength. A failed legislative push to alter the Japanese Constitution (allowing the Japanese military to engage in offensive actions outside of the country) leads to an attempted military coup by members of Japan's armed forces (GSDF). The coup fails, but was very close to succeeding. In an effort to suppress further coup attempts, Japan's Prime Minister forms a branch inside the Interior Ministry's National Security Forces (NSF) called GROUP SIX. They answer directly to the Prime Minister and are sworn to protect the Japanese Constitution at all costs. They immediately begin to hear rumours of a rogue element of the GSDF Special Forces (JINRAI) maneuvering for a second coup attempt. These JINRAI are Special Operations Group 43 (SOG43), fierce nationalist loyal to their love of country, and a desire to put Japan back into a position of strength and power.
This begins the war in the shadows between the NSF and JINRAI.
2033, sleep dealer, hocico: mexikói életképek
Tíz hónapon belül két nehézpáncélos mexikói versenyző is betalált a neonringbe, a nyolcvanas évek amerikai Sprawljában kövérre hízlalt hi tech low life pedig sehol sem igaz annyira, mint Mexikóban, ahol ha jó napod van, a sertésinfluenza nulláz le, ha rossz, a tizenötezer voltos sokkoló. Dekadencia, nyomor és az érthetetlenül dühös spanyol nyelv köszön vissza az új mexikói cyberpunkból: megérkezett a 2033, a Sleep Dealer, mindehhez pedig a Hocico-Amduscia tengely ipari csűrdöngölője dukál. Ami a mexikói sci-fi triviákat illeti: a Predator, a Tank Girl és a Total Recall egyes részleteit is itt öntötték celluloidba, az első mexikói sci-fit pedig vélhetően Manuel Antonio de Rivas ferences barát írta 1775-ös csillagászati atlaszának előszavaként, yo chekku de.
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robo-geisha: noboru iguchi is back with metal and flesh
The net is sizzling with the trailer of Noboru Iguchi's new movie entitled Robo-Geisha scheduled to be released in 2010. If you remember the robotic geishas of Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (or the insane geisha slut puppets in Dir en Grey's video Obscure), that's just much more - more exploitation and more blood tsunami action (and a narrative voice right beyond madness). Given time, check back on his Iguchi's previous works, The Hajirai Machine Girl and Kataude mashin gaaru. (via twitch)
realtime airtraffic in wraparound lufthansa visu porn
Developed by WHITEvoid, here a 14 meters broad screen equipped with a projection of 180° which makes it possible to the visitors to move in the airspace. An entirely navigable visualization 3D, in real-time, represents the 16.000 flights of the company of Lufthansa plane. ()
The project itself is named networkSim and won two iF awards for Structure and Interface - you can find more info at WHITEvoid's site.
skorbut: nine lives later
Half kAlte fArben, half Dorsetshire, German electro-industrial (or something you'd call club electro nowadays) act SKORBUT is entirely convincing in its sound and miserable in its looks. Their download-only EP "9 Lives Later" is a decent peace of work and if you remember how well-produced kAfA was back in the days - Daniel Galda's time spent with Das Ich just helped it to become more focused and actually much more German in its sound. If you were into Forma Tadre or kAlte fArben, you gonna love Skorbut (check their latest album Firewall) and Combichrist fans are in for some treat as well - Phantom Pain live just sounds like Andy on a day bored and algorhythmic.