Theatrhythm Final Fantasy en Europe

La saga Final Fantasy souffle cette année sa vingt-cinquième bougie. Pour fêter dignement l'événement, Square-Enix a sorti en février dernier Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (prononcez Theater Rhythm), au Japon du moins. Ce jeu de rythme sur 3DS propose près de soixante-dix musiques cultes tirés des treize principaux épisodes de la saga sur lesquelles il faut tapoter dans le tempo sur son écran.

Ce jeu, qui verse dans le fan-service complet et l'assume totalement, aura la chance de sortir en occident. Square-Enix vient en effet d'annoncer que le titre sortira aux Etats-Unis et en Europe cet été. L'éditeur a pour l'occasion mis en ligne un nouveau site officiel pour le jeu, pour l'instant vide, une page Facebook ainsi que quelques screenshots localisés du jeu. La date de sortie précise de Theatrhythm Final Fantasy devrait être dévoilée prochainement.

· Forum Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Risen 2 Nouvelles images et DLC de précommande

Prévu pour la fin du mois d'avril prochain, Risen 2 : Dark Waters aura la lourde tâche de faire oublier le raz de marée Skyrim et la sortie sur console de The Witcher 2, qui aura lieu une dizaine de jours avant. Le RPG des allemands de Piranha Bytes a toutefois de beaux arguments pour lui, comme en témoigne ces nouvelles images paradisiaques issues du jeu.


Deep Silver, l'éditeur de Risen 2, précise également que les précommandes ont débuté concernant la version console. Si vous vous décidez à craquer dès maintenant, vous disposerez dès le premier jour et gratuitement d'un DLC, Treasure Isle (l'île aux trésors en bon français), une nouvelle quête comprenant une nouvelle île et permettant de faire le lien scénaristique entre le premier et le second épisode de la série et de débloquer un item légendaire (trouvable uniquement dans le DLC) qui augmentera les statistiques du joueur de façon permanente.

· Forum Risen 2 : Dark Waters

Crytek Le free to play et rien d'autre

C'est lors d'une interview accordée au site Videogamer.com que Cevat Yerli, président de Crytek, a annoncé la ligne de conduite de son entreprise.

Le développeur, à qui l'on doit un moteur de jeu fort agréable à l’œil, ainsi que quelques jeux plutôt honnêtes (Crysis), à en effet annoncé sa volonté de se consacrer uniquement au développement de jeu free to play dans un avenir proche. Cette annonce, qui ne remet nullement en cause les projets déjà engagés auprès d'éditeurs (comme Ryse avec Microsoft, qui se fait encore relativement rare), s'inscrit dans la droite lignée des projets actuels de Crytek, et notamment Warface, son FPS gratuit encore en développement.

Yerli explique cette volonté par plusieurs éléments. En premier lieu, le fait que pour Crytek, l'avenir se situe dans le jeu gratuit et en ligne. Yerli ajoute d'ailleurs qu'il souhaite que son entreprise se situe à la pointe de cette avancée, et qu'il ne lésinera pas sur les moyens. A ce titre, il assure que les jeux free to play à venir ne seront pas des jeux au rabais, et que les budgets de développements accrocheront ceux des meilleurs triple A.

Son second argument concerne la politique générale actuelle qui consiste à "traire les consommateurs jusqu'à la mort", en leur refourguant force DLC et packs premiums, avec dans le collimateur des éditeurs comme EA ou Activision. Reste à voir si le développeur aura les reins assez solides pour supporter de tels coûts de production et dans quelles proportions les contenus supplémentaires payants (armes, boost de caractéristiques et autres avantages du genre) impacteront l'expérience de jeu.

· Forum Warface

TD2 - La soluce de The Darkness 2 sur Tom's Games

Au lieu de craquer pour les habituels Modern Warfare 3 ou Battlefield 3, vos goûts en matière de FPS vous ont porté vers le très bourrin The Darkness 2. Un jeu aux qualités indéniables comme en témoigne notre test fraîchement débarqué. Vous n'avez toutefois pas attendu pour mettre la main sur la suite des aventures de Jackie Estacado.

Afin de ne rien louper de la campagne solo et de rafler toutes les reliques disséminées sur votre chemin, nous avons le plaisir de vous offrir notre solution complète pour The Darkness 2. De votre tragique dîner aux chandelles jusqu'au dénouement de votre folle histoire, notre guide ne vous lâchera pas d'une semelle, pour peu que vous lui rendiez visite à cette adresse.

· Consulter la soluce complète de The Darkness 2
· Forum The Darkness 2

2012-12-21-252

3DMark for Windows 8 to Benchmark Everything: Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops

The new benchmark is the first to support multiple iterations of DirectX - 9 and 11. This decision was made in order to support the variety of devices, which as we all know will range from high-end smartphones and tablets to ultrabooks, notebooks and desktop PCs. Given the diversity of the platforms, we had our doubts in complexity of the test scenes. However, Oliver Baltuch, President of Futuremark Corporation quickly addressed our doubts.

3DMark for Windows 8 will enable apples-to-apples comparison between ARM and X86 powered devices. Its going to be quite interesting to compare contemporary ARM products such as Nvidia Tegra or Qualcomm Snapdragon versus AMD Fusion and Intel Atom/Core processors.

3DMark will continue to feature "Entry", "Performance" and "Extreme" levels of detail, albeit the difference in detail will be larger, as previous "Entry" mode was simply too complicated for Intels embedded graphics. One of potential scenarios in 3DMark for Windows 8 would be that a tablet user sees all of the test scenes, while a graphics processor in lets say Intels earlier Core i3/i5 processors (Arrandale/Clarkdale) fails to do so.

Naturally, the reverse role applies as well, with AMD Fusion processors rendering what for instance, Qualcomm Snapdragon, NVIDIA Tegra or TI OMAP4 cannot.

The benchmark is scheduled to debut alongside Microsoft Windows 8 operating system, probably sometime during 2012.

2012-12-21-307

8600GTS Gaming Performance

Let's take a look at how the upcoming 8600GTS performs in current games, 3 gamestested.

PlatformTest Setup

CPU IntelCore 2 Duo E4300 Overclocked @ 9 x 266MHz = 2.4GHz

Motherboard

ASUSP5N-E SLI 650i SLI

Memory

2x 1GB GSkill F2-8000PHU2-2GBHZ DDR II set to run @ CL4-4-4-12, DDR2 800MHz,2T

GraphicsCard

8600GTS 745/1145

7900GT 450/660

HardDisk Drive

Seagate80GB Barracuda SATA Hard Disk Drive

PSU

SilverStoneZeus ST56ZF

OperatingSystem

WindowsXP Pro

I tested the 8600GTS at 745/1145MHz against one of theclosest card in price point, the 7900GT. The equivalent on ATi's side would beX1950 Pro but unfortunately no card at the moment so not tested with that yet. 

Drivers used is Forceware 101.02, support for all cards modded by Guru3D. Image Quality settingsused default settings in Control Panel, with maximum in-game quality settingsselected. No Anti-Aliasing applied, and 16xAF used when stated at the lastbenchmark.

“bad lieutenant port of call new orleans” floods the screen with manic, visceral intensity

I know what you’re thinking. You’re outraged. Disgusted. Maybe even mortified if you’re especially sensitive, at the very least perplexed if you’re not. What kind of a human being would incorporate a play on words about the tragic flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the title of his post? I mean, that’s just beyond tasteless, right?

Yes, it is. And yes, you should be royally pissed at me right now. That’s intentional. You see, I want you to stop reading this review. I want you to shut your computer off. Hell, if you’re not winning the lottery or getting it on with the woman (or man, as the case may be) of your dreams right now, I think you need to stop what you’re doing. You need to stop what you’re doing, get in your car, on the train, on the bus, on your feet, whatever — and get down to the theater and see “Bad Lieutenant : Port Of Call New Orleans.” It’s just that good. Whatever else you’ve got going on can wait. In fact, I’ll even helpfully stop the review right here so you can get back to it after you return.

Long pause.

Followed by another long pause.

And another.

Then a final, really long one.

Okay, back? Good, welcome back.? Great stuff, wasn’t it? Now let’s continue, shall we?

I’m a lot like you, dear reader. When I first heard that independent film legend Werner Herzog was working on a “reimagining” of Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant,” my first reaction was “why?” I mean, it’s not like it’s a movie that necessarily has “remake” or “sequel” written all over it. Like most of Ferrara’s stuff, it’s a pretty singular work that doesn’t exactly scream out for a fresh set of eyes to reinterpret it. And Harvey Keitel’s performance — I mean, shit, how are you gonna top that? Hell, how are you gonna even come close to equaling it? Why try? What’s the point?

Well, there wouldn’t be any point. And Herzog knows that. And to his credit, he doesn’t even try to go that route. This new “Bad Lieutenant” only tangentially relates to the first in that it explores the same theme of a monumentally crooked and sleazy cop trying to crack a big case in the midst of a tremendous, and entirely self-inflicted, downward spiral in his life.? Apart from that, the two have nothing to do with each other. Gone are the obsessive visual and thematic references to Catholic iconography and catechism. The setting has been transposed from New York to a just post-Katrina New Orleans (well, technically the first scene takes place as the flood waters are rising, then we jump ahead six months,? into the city’s? “rebuilding” — and Dear Lord do I use that term loosely — period). Hell, even the main character has a different name, different set of life circumstances, different everything. In truth, the only reason I think Herzog stuck with the title is because otherwise audiences would have come out of the theater saying “you know, that one kinda reminded me of? ‘Bad Lieutenant’” — so by invoking the original so plainly he’s able to, at the very least ironically if not downright perversely, have this film taken as a more stand-alone work than if he had just called it something. File that under “go figure.” (And file this under “go figure,” as well — and probably of interest to absolute obsessives (who? me?) only (and it shouldn’t even be to us) — the title of this film in all the posters and other advertising is listed as “Bad Lieuteanant : Port of Call New Orleans,” while the opening credits read “The Bad Lieutenant Port Of Call : New Orleans.”)

The next thin your reviewer found a bit suspect in the pre-production stages, after wondering just why Herzog was even making this thing at all, was the casting of Nicolas Cage in the lead. Cage is a bit of an enigma, isn’t he? I mean, here’s a guy capable of delivering mind-blowingly good, once-in-a-generation performances in films like “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Lord of War” and “The Weatherman,” yet also of absolutely mailing it in, so to speak, in drivel like “Next” or the atrocious remake of “The Wicker Man.” In between the two poles we have his numerous stints as, either literally or essentially, a second-rate Elvis impersonator.

Needless to say, the end result on display here proves my worried were entirely groundless, as the best always are. Cage is in absolute top form here, giving arguably the very best performance of his entire career. He’s wiry, main, and absolutely seething with, to quote my own headline, visceral intensity. He doesn’t sweat whether or not he’s sometimes so frightfully over the top that his performance reaches caricature-like levels — hell no, instead of tiptoeing up to that metaphorical line in the sand, he rubs and smears it out with his shoe and stomps all over the spot where it used to be just for good measure. He’s absolutely fucking gone as? drugged-up, degenerate gambler (and, oh yes, cop) Terence McDonagh, and he doesn’t look back. Keep up with him if you can.

And herein lies another crucial difference between the two “Bad Lieutenant”s. In Ferrara’s version, Keitel is just completely foul. He’s not what you’d call charismatic or engaging in the least (not that I’m saying this is a bad thing, it’s exactly the type of performance that was absolutely required in the “first” film). He’s already lost. The central thematic question in the “original”, therefore, is whether or not a guy who’s absolutely beyond all hope of redemption can still find it, if not earn it, by bringing to justice the scumbags who brutally gang-rape a nun. And frankly, whether or not he even should since she’s already forgiven them herself. It’s taking place on an entirely different psychological playing field than Herzog’s film, because in this there is still some, God help me for thinking this but it’s true, likable insanity in Cage’s character. He’s got dangerous, maybe even death wish-style reckless charisma oozing out of him on a goddamn cellular level. In that respect, one could argue that this new “Bad Lieutenant” is somewhat more accessible than Ferrara’s version, because McDonagh still has enough (barely) on the ball to pull himself out of his living nightmare if he really wants to. But damn, with lines like ” I thought it was coke but it turned out to be heroin and I gotta be at work in an hour,” and “Shoot him again! His soul is still dancing!” you gotta wonder if he isn’t enjoying his ride to hell waaaayyyy too fucking much to stop the ride.

And that’s the brilliance (and I loathe the unearned overuse of that word way more than you can possibly imagine) of Cage’s performance here in a nutshell : he’s a coiled snake that you know will strike at any moment, and you can’t decide whether you’re dreading that or looking forward to it. Then you realize you’re doing both.

The nominal plot of the film itself concerns Cage’s investigation of a brutal execution-style murder of a family of Senegalese immigrants, but as with Ferrara’s earlier effort, Herzog here concentrates far more on the backdrop this story plays out in front of (or, more accurately given the focus here, behind) — that of McDonagh’s exhilarating and dreadful descent into madness. Our guy Terry does everything a bad cop oughtta do : shakes down suspects for cash and drugs, gets in gambling debt up his eyeballs, rips shit off from the police property room, smokes crack, snorts coke, drinks booze, skips out of town, runs a thoroughly crooked investigation, helps the bad guys, screws around on his girlfriend (who’s a hooker herself, played by Cindy Craw—err, Eva Mendes), and worse. And while he doesn’t consistently engage in the type of outright abusively soulless depravity that Keitel did in the “original,” he pulls off one stunt so hopelessly fucked-up-beyond-all-reason that even old Harvey would probably blush.

The decision to set the story in the ravaged post-Katrina Big Easy really pays dividends, as well. Not only is it thematically appropriate on a pretentious “film scholar” asshole level (rising metaphorical flood threatens to swallow main character ), but the overall atmosphere of a decimated Third World-style “law enforcement” operation (although from what I understand the New Orleans cops weren’t exactly famous for honesty and integrity pre-flood, either) gives ample narrative “breathing space”? (did I just badmouth pretentious “film scholar” assholes a minute ago? I should have read ahead to the point where I sounded just like one — except I hadn’t written it yet. But I digress — as regular readers of this blog, if any such creatures exist,? know I so often do) to the idea of a situation where a guy like McDonagh could actually get away with some of this shit. On a purely aesthetic level, I’ve gotta congratulate Herzog, as well, for his decision to shoot this movie on an apparently cheaper grade of film stock than normal. It gives the whole flick an added level of immediacy and realism that a slicker overall appearance just couldn’t maintain. It’s a grimy story about a grimy guy shot in a way that looks grimy. Well played, Werner.

The rest of the cast holds up pretty well, too. While I’m sure nobody was dying to see a reunion of the principal players in “Ghost Rider,” Mendes does a nice turn as McDonagh’s high-priced hooker/junkie girlfriend, Frankie, Cage’s fellow Elvis-worshiper Val Kilmer is solid as his almost-as-crooked-as-he-is onetime parner, now subordinate, Stevie, the always-underappreciated Vondie Curtis-Hall turns in a seasoned pro’s performance as McDonagh’s commanding officer, rapper Xzibit is seriously bad-ass awesome as crime boss “Big Fate,” the (again always) underappreciated Brad Dourif turns in another dead-on perfect (because he always is) portrayal, in this case as McDonagh’s understandably impatient small-time bookie Ned, solid vet Tom Bower puts in? a solid vet turn as Terance’s ex-cop, ex-alcoholic father, Pat, and the (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) always underapp—forget it, I won’t even go there, I’ll just say Jennifer Coolidge has deserved a best supporting actress Oscar a couple of times now (and no, I’m not talking about her turn as Stifler’s Mom, although she sure is a million miles away from MILF territory in this movie — truth be told, I was thinking specifically of her roles in the various Christopher Guest-helmed ensemble/improv comedies, particularly “Best In Show”) and she’s an absolute scene-stealer here as Pat’s still-alcoholic second wife, Genevieve.

So what we’ve got here, folks, is essentially the ultimate “bad cop” movie, and quite likely the best film of the year, period. It’s certainly going to take one hell of an effort to top it. Even Herzog’s usual, and frankly in other films sometimes jarring, asides into purely interpretative realms of surrealism (just what are the giant iguanas about? Each viewer will probably have a different explanation) work here since by the time he goes there, he’s already established such a forceful groove (do those two words seem incompatible together? I assure you they’re not) that you’re just willing to go with his frantically rushing flow.

And that’s it. I’m all out of praise to lavish on this movie. It grabs you from the word go and never lets up. It’s absolutely exhiliratingly debauched and I loved the hell out of it. All I can do at this point is tell you one more time? to rush right out and see it. But there’s no need for that because you already have. Right?