Interview with John Palamarchuk Lead Cinematic Artist on God of War 3

At a recent preview event for God of War III we had a chance to talk with John Palamarchuk, Lead Cinematic Artist at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio. He talked about what players can expect from the game, how he got his start in the game industry and most importantly what he has on his dork shelf.

We were able to spend about 30 minutes with God of War III, and what we played was very impressive. Be sure to read our full preview of the game here.

God of War III hits store shelves on Tuesday March 16th.

Second Iron Man 2 Trailer

The second official trailer for Iron Man 2 has just hit the web. The film sees Tony Stark pitted against his competitors, his government and a new threat in the form of Ivan Vanko, a mysterious Russian with a vendetta against the Stark family.

The film is directed by Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson.

Iron Man 2 hits theatres May 7th 2010.

God of War III Impressions

I recently had a chance to sit down and play God of War III, the third entry in the franchise from Sony’s Santa Monica Studio. After playing through the first 25 minutes or so, I only had one thought: Where the hell can this game possibly go from here?

Spoilers to follow.

God of War III starts where the second game left off. Kratos, the brutal Spartan warrior turned God of War, has been betrayed by the other Greek deities and stripped of his godly powers. Hell-bent on revenge, Kratos has allied himself with the mighty Titans, with their help he begins his assault on Mount Olympus the stronghold of the Gods.

Epic does not even begin to describe the opening of God of War III. The player is immediately thrust into the fray, riding on the back of Gaia, a massive 100-story tall Titan, as she scales Mount Olympus. As Gaia and the other Titans ascend the peak they face the full fury of the Olympian Gods defending their home. After dispatching several dozen minor minions, Kratos is confronted by none other than the god of the sea, Poseidon. The ensuing fight against Poseidon is a lengthy, multi-stage boss battle that constantly changes its orientation. The whole battle takes place on the aforementioned skyscraper-sized Titan as it lumbers up the mountain.

Part of what makes the visuals in God of War III especially impressive is the fact that 98% of the action is being rendered in real-time by the game engine. And as for the 2% of the game that isn’t in engine, the pre-rendered bits are seamlessly integrated with the rest of the game; you won’t even realize these moments are not being rendered in-engine. While battling smaller foes, you’ll observe the other battles going on in the background. You may become distracted while fighting skeletal warriors when you see Helios in his flaming chariot take down a Titan in the distance. Graphically, the game has come a long way from the 2009 E3 demo that became available in February. God of War III is easily one of the best looking games on the Playstation 3, and that’s saying something when you consider the cababilities of the hardware.

Read the rest of this entry »

DorkShelf.com One Year Anniversary!

Dork Shelf was conceived in a bar over beer and breakfast nearly one year ago. That’s right, drinking before noon led to what you see now. Inappropriate alcohol-consumption aside, we’ll be marking the actual anniversary of the site based on when the first post happened, which was in fact one year ago today.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my co-founders Jeff and Lucas and all of our contributors for the hard work they’ve put in over the past year. We’ve got something special here, be proud of it guys!

I’d also like to sincerely thank all of our readers, without you guys there would be no Dork Shelf. As always, we appreciate your readership and your comments!

Our second year at DorkShelf.com is going to be even better. Expect new features, new contributors, some events and that long awaited site redesign!

Stay tuned…

HBO picks up Game of Thrones for Series

First official photo from HBO's Game of Thrones - Click to Enlarge

The Hollywood Reporter and several other outlets are reporting that HBO has given the greenlight for a ten episode order of Game of Thrones. The TV series, which is based on George R.R. Martin’s extremely popular A Song of Ice and Fire novels, shot its pilot in the UK and Morocco late last year. Thrones stars Sean Bean (Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings) and Lena Headey (300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as well as a whole host of recognizable actors, including Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) and Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis), who was recently cast as Conan in the new Conan the Barbarian film. The series is being produced by novelist and screenwriter David Benioff, the man behind 25th Hour, Troy and more recently Brothers.

Game of Thrones is set in the medieval world of Westeros, where rival houses vie for control of the Iron Throne that controls the seven kingdoms. The fictional medieval setting doesn’t necessarily mean high fantasy; there are no elves or orcs in Game of Thrones. The focus is less on the fantastical or magical and more on political machinations and brutal battles. Game of Thrones was pitched to HBO as “The Sopranos meets Lord of the Rings” and that’s not far off from what Thrones is.

I’m not a big fantasy guy, but I count the Song of Ice and Fire series amongst my favourite books. Television critics have been amazed by the unprecedented amount of hype that the pilot for Thrones has generated; based on that fact alone HBO was wise to pick up the series. Great writing combined with the wonderful cast they’ve assembled for the show and HBO production values makes Game of Thrones the must watch show of next year.

Game of Thrones is set to begin filming in June on track for a television debut in Winter 2011.

The Crazies Review

Radha Mitchell in The Crazies

Breck Eisner’s The Crazies is a film that makes no bones about what it is. I had expected another run-of-the-mill horror film going in, but left the theatre pleasantly surprised. The Crazies is a tightly wound ball of suspense that will manage to unsettle and entertain you. The film is loosely based on George Romero’s 1973 movie of the same name; that film focused on both the civilian and military response to a deadly outbreak in a small town. Like Romero’s other work the film contained timely social commentary, in this case the film was a satire of the Vietnam War. The 2010 version of The Crazies is a little different, with the focus on squarely on the civilians, their dealings with the infected and the brutal military containment of the town. Now I’m sure you could draw out some kind of analogy relating to the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, but if there is any underlying message it doesn’t feel nearly as ham-handed as some of Romero’s efforts. The Crazies is a rare example of a Hollywood horror film that is not only a good genre film, but a pretty decent flick period. Unlike many other horror films, you’ll feel invested in the movie and actually root for the characters to survive.

Spoilers to follow.

Welcome to picture perfect Ogden Marsh, an ordinary farming community in rural Iowa. This is a town where nothing really exciting ever happens, and that’s just the way the residents like it. Here we meet the local Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his pregnant wife Judy (Radha Mitchell), the town doctor. When a local man unexpectedly shows up to a high school baseball game wielding a shotgun, Sheriff Dutton is forced to shoot him in self-defense. In the wake of this incident, more townsfolk begin to acting strangely; what was another painfully normal Spring in Ogdgen Marsh slowly begins turning into a nightmare for the residents. As things spiral out of control, Dutton and his Deputy (Joe Anderson) discover that a military aircraft containing a biological weapon recently crashed into the reservoir, contaminating the local water supply. Before the two are able to warn the residents the military cordons off the town and begin rounding up the infected families with brutal efficiency.

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Thought Bubble: The Self-Hating Game Designer

Heavy Rain from Quantic Dreams

The Playstation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain hits store shelves tomorrow. Much to-do has been made over the game from developer Quantic Dreams. Since its debut at E3 2006, Heavy Rain has been lauded for its revolutionary graphics, and with good reason. To say that the game looks gorgeous would be an understatement. But the appeal of Heavy Rain has not been purely graphical. Part of the reason the game has been receiving so much attention is due to Quantic Dreams’ own hype. The developers have emphasized the game’s characters and their realistic performances. After seeing the game in action a few months ago and having played the recent demo, I can see some of what they’ve been talking about. The characters are disturbingly realistic (though not always convincing) with eerily familiar facial expressions, which can cause the characters to lean into the uncanny valley at times. Visually, Heavy Rain is without question one of the best looking games of this console generation.

My own issue with Heavy Rain has more to do with the pedigree of Quantic Dreams. Their first game, Omikron: The Nomad Soul was released in 2000. It was an interesting cyberpunk adventure that many now consider ahead of its time, The game let you travel freely around a bustling futuristic cityscape, plus it combined the adventure and first person shooter genres in a way that really had not been tried before, Another intresting element of Omikron was its soundtrack; the music was composed by David Bowie, who also made a cameo appearance in the game. Omikron was a very promising start for Quantic Dreams. It was the company’s follow up to Omikron, Indigo Prophecy (known as Fahrenheit in Europe) that would start the developer on the path to Heavy Rain.

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Shutter Island Review

Martin Scorsese is a name that is synonymous with great films. It is impossible to call yourself a cinephile and not appreciate the man’s filmmaking. It’s also seemingly impossible to review one of his films without a lengthy preamble discussing his legendary oeuvre; so I’ll spare you that. We all know the great movies he’s made, mentioning how great Taxi Driver and Goodfellas are doesn’t really tell you anything about his latest film. That being said, Shutter Island is bound to be compared with his earlier work; not because it’s not of the same calibre as those other films, but because it’s so different from them.

Before I talk about the film itself, I have to comment on the trailer for the movie. The trailer for Shutter Island gives away far too many details about the film. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll have a pretty good idea of exactly what is going to happen in the film. Seeing the trailer made the film less enjoyable for me.

Spoilers to follow

Based on the novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) the film tells the story of two U.S. Federal marshals sent to investigate the escape of a patient from an isolated mental hospital off the coast of Massachusetts. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) immediately sense that all is not as it appears when the hospital’s administrator (Ben Kingsley) is less than forthcoming with information the marshals need for their investigation. Daniels, who has his own motives for taking on this case, believes that there is more going on at the hospital than just a simple prisoner escape. He and Aule begin to unravel what they believe to be a government conspiracy involving sick experiments being conducted on the patients of Shutter Island. Between a hurricane, patient escapes and an evasive hospital administration the marshals have their work cut out for them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Huge Turnout for Hand Eye Society Social

Hand Eye Society social photos by Mark Rabo

The Toronto gaming scene came together last week for the Hand Eye Society social. Not only was it an opportunity for the local game development, game journalism and enthusiast community to schmooze, but those in attendance were also treated to a preview of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, a collaborative project from local developer Capybara Games (Critter Crunch, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes), pixel artist/filmmaker Craig “superbrothers” Adams and acclaimed singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie.

Developed for Apple’s mobile touch devices, Sword & Sworcery is described by its creators as “a brave experiment in I/O cinema” and “a crude videogame haiku about life, love & death”. While the presentation raised more questions than it answered, based on what I saw I’d have to call the game a highly stylized touch adventure game. A quick survey of those in attendance revealed that people loved what they saw, but were still hard pressed to tell me what the game actually was. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen; the game recently won the IGF Mobile 2010 achievement in art award and you can immediately see why. Adams’ amazing pixel art has a simple, yet haunting quality to it. Guthrie’s sonic accompaniment lent Sword & Sworcery an eerie silent film vibe; it felt like a trippy, avant-garde version of King’s Quest.

Unit Bar in Parkdale was standing room only for the event, the largest Hand Eye Society social to date. Zack, Lucas, Joel and myself were there and managed to catch up with some of our favourite local game folk including Raki from Controller Punch!, Mark and Jaime of Gamercamp and Nathan from Capy to name a few. If you’re a local game developer (indie or otherwise), writer/blogger or just a fan be sure to check out The Hand Eye Society.

Check out the official site for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

More photos from The Hand Eye Society Social

Heartless Trailer

The trailer for Philip Ridley’s Faustian thriller Heartless has hit the web. The film stars Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, 21) as Jamie, a young man with a heart-shaped birthmark on his face. The East London neighbourhood Jamie calls home has been plagued by violence. Most people believe that the seemingly random violence is gang related, but Jamie soon discovers that there is a much more sinister cause behind attacks.

Heartless also stars the gorgeous Clémence Poésy and the awesome Eddie Marsan.
No North American release date has been set, but keep your eye on the official site for any news regarding a local screening.

Be sure to check out Shelagh’s review of Heartless from last year’s Sitges Film Festival.

Fallout: New Vegas Trailer

Bethesda Softworks has announced that their new Fallout game is set for release this Fall. Announced last year, Fallout: New Vegas is not Fallout 4, but is more of a spin-off and direct sequel to 1998’s Fallout 2. Bethesda also released a teaser trailer for the game to coincide with their announcement.

New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for developing the NeverWinter Nights series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Obsidian was formed shortly after Interplay’s Black Isle Studios (the developers of Fallout and Fallout 2) shut down. Many of the key players from Black Isle ended up at Obsidian, so hopefully Fallout: New Vegas can recapture some of the heavily-irradiated magic that made the first two games in the franchise so great.

Via Kotaku

The Losers Trailer

The first trailer for the big screen adaptation of Andy Diggle’s comic book The Losers has hit the web.  The film, like the comic book, centres on a CIA anti-terrorism team who are betrayed by their handler and left for dead. The group of agents decide to take out everyone responsible for selling them out, prime among them, their handler Max.

The film looks like it could be some fun, it has a great cast featuring Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Jason Patric and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I also really like the fact that they are staying faithful to the source material, which doesn’t often happen when studios adapt lesser known properties like The Losers.

The Losers is due in theatres April 9th 2010.