2003 FebruaryMerwin was so moved by Eden Studios‘ zombie fiction anthology, The Book of More Flesh, that he composed OgreCave’s first song. Yeah, you heard me. Sing along! Just follow the bouncing corpse. Don’t let it bite you, though.
Archive for February, 2003
MechWarrior soon to be a medium-to-major motion picture?
Thursday, February 27th, 2003It’s currently the top item, dated 3-27-03 for some reason, on this news page from one of the producers of last year’s deliberately campy CGI-fest Eight Legged Freaks. “I’m crazy about the material and this is a real passion project for me,” says Dean Devlin in an annoying Flash-text page you can’t copy and paste from. Man, if you thought the netgeeks jumping on Peter Jackson were ferocious, wait until aficionados of the five kajillion years of BattleTech storylines get on this guy’s case. Still, it’s nice to see cheap CG make a thousand flowers bloom, and maybe something good will come of this.
New Review: Construct Mechanus
Monday, February 24th, 2003Frank brings his first contribution to the Cave’s hoard of reviews, as he takes a look at Construct Mechanus from Philip J. Reed. Will the d20 supplement function as a well-oiled machine in his game sessions, or be left to rust on the shelf? Have a look and find out.
Crimson Skies: rules sold separately
Thursday, February 20th, 2003Here are all four products that’ll street in May, and while it is still not technically collectible, it is shaping up to be rather expensive. Four planes for $16, and you will likely need both of those packs for a game, plus the Aces will double that, and the rules and necessary accessories come in an $8 box? This doesn’t look disastrous yet but it sure is confusing.
There is no CCG, and I still need a damn spoon
Wednesday, February 19th, 2003Although it’s reported here as a card game, it’s not. If you read the article, you can tell that. Thought I’d save you even that much work… although to see what I’m talking about, you’ll have to read the article. Welcome to the desert of the real; have a pina colada. (Enough hints yet?) Update 2/19 11:01 PM: Someone at GamingReport has corrected the headline to remove any reference to a game. All’s well that ends well.
2nd MechWarrior expansion coming in like a minute and a half
Monday, February 17th, 2003Less than three months after the release of Fire For Effect will come Death From Above, a MechWarrior: Dark Age expansion featuring, for the first time in MW, helicopters and air combat. All we’ve seen so far is the flyer linked to above, but damn… saturating the market much?
Shadowrun: Duels officially announced at Toy Fair
Monday, February 17th, 2003Yup, WizKids is doing a Shadowrun game with six-inch figures. Here’s the official release. This doesn’t strike me as a great idea, but it doesn’t strike me as a bomb either. We’ll see. Is it still a miniatures game? Apparently, figure articulation will figure (urk) into the rules somehow, making this “World’s first Action Figure Game” even more similar to Z-G. There’s also now an official WizKids press release for Creepy Freaks if you’re into that. A DVD will be going into every Creepy Freaks starter, which is a nice way to kill both the CD-ROM tutorial and the lack-of-a-TV-show with one stone.
Rocketmen Fly Again
Sunday, February 16th, 2003Big time miniature sculptor Bob Murch (Wizards of the Coast, AEG, etc) has posted a preview of his upcoming figures he creates for his own specialty company, Pulp Figures. If you have not checked out their page before, their figures are for pulp era games like Call of Cthulhu and yes the ever cool, Space 1889. The new previews are of the tried and true U.S. Rocket Corp. They are slated for release around April of this year. If you have not seen this guy’s work, check it out.
You People Gossip Worse than a Bunch of Old Ladies
Sunday, February 16th, 2003For the last few months there have been announcements and rumors about a new license at WizKids. Well the rumormongers over at Gamingreport.com have offered up what they say is the definitive last and final truth. The story at Gamingreport is that the new license is nothing less than a new Shadowrun click game. The new figures are supposed to be typical action figure size. You can read the whole story here. If the story is true the whole thing has been sort of a con. WizKids might as well own Shadowrun, seeing as how the founder of WizKids, Jordan Weisman, helped design the game and his old company (FASA) published it. Regardless, I am looking forward to the whole thing.
Live from DunDraCon
Saturday, February 15th, 2003Yeah, there’s actually some news: nothing short of a potential new hit, in fact. Citizen Games’ Dungeoneer is a common sight on bar tables and floor corners as I write this – incidentally, I write this via a wireless Internet connection in the Marriott lobby. (Attention GAMA: how about leasing a DSL line and borrowing a wireless router for Origins? We are geeks, you know.)
Dungeoneer is a two-to-four-player tile-based floors-and-corridors kinda card game, that plays like Talisman on speed, with an elegant mechanic for throwing N points of monsters at someone depending on how much danger they’ve accumulated in their dungeon wanderings. No, it’s not collectible. The art’s gorgeous and… well, you get used to the card design. And you can buy four of them for the price of the Talisman reprint!
In other news, Tom Jolly’s Light Speed (evidently too new to have a web page) has gotten a gorgeous full-color treatment from Cheapass’ Hip Pocket line. However, Tom notes that his request to add a line saying that the game’s perfectly playable as a turn-based game, rather than real time, didn’t get represented in the final product. So, if the real-time thing bothers you, buy this anyway, so Tom can buy more things. Everyone likes… things.
Warmachine gets tuneup before leaving factory floor
Wednesday, February 12th, 2003This wouldn’t be news, but a friend who now calls himself a former 40K player gave the previous version of the Warmachine Quick Start rules two big thumbs up. (I should clarify that it isn’t this game that made him a former 40K player… it’s 40K that made him a former 40K player. But yeah.) He’s now played the revised Quick Start rules and he loves it even more. He plays it with Warhammer Fantasy figures and 40K dreadnaughts; I think I might try it with MK Dungeons guys and some Powerpuff Girls pencil sharpeners I got. That’s right, the rules are a free download, making further expenditure at least a little bit optional – but leadheads I know are drooling over the Warmachine leads proper. The starter boxes should be in stores by the end of the month.
Two Towers up for Best Picture Oscar
Wednesday, February 12th, 2003As if there was any doubt. According to the official Oscars website, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is nominated for Best Picture of 2002. It has some stiff competition in the form of fellow nominees The Hours, Gangs of New York, and The Pianist (as well as Chicago, but if Two Towers gets beat by that, I’ll eat my dice). Of course, Two Towers is also nominated in the categories of Art Direction, Sound, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Film Editing, so it’s bound to win something. Just probably not the big prize, as usual.