MLL - Metro Last Light 13 minutes de gameplay

Dans son infinie bonté THQ vient de mettre en ligne une vidéo de 13 minutes pour le très prometteur Metro : Last Light. Issue de la présentation réalisée lors de l'E3 2012, cette longue séquence de jeu dévoile l'ambiance toujours aussi déprimante et horrifique qui entoure l'univers du titre. Jeux d'ombres, gestion de l'oxygène, mutants et autres horreurs sont au programme. On vous laisse apprécier :





Metro : Last Light n'a toujours pas de date de sortie fixe. Le jeu de 4A Games est toutefois attendu pour l'année prochaine Xbox 360, PS3 et PC et peut-être un jour sur WiiU.

· Forum Metro : Last Light

Jeu indépendant Des patchs à 40 000 dollars

Depuis la semaine dernière il est difficile de ne pas entendre parler de Tim Schafer aux quatre coins de la toile. Il faut dire que le monsieur, à l'origine de séries aussi prestigieuses que Grim Fandango ou Maniac Mansion, a réussi à collecter en moins de trois jours plus de 1,7 millions de dollars pour son prochain jeu d'aventure en faisant appel aux joueurs pour le financer. Fort de sa nouvelle popularité, Tim Schafer a donc donné de nombreuses interviews à des sites américains pour expliquer comment va avancer le projet en question (un jeu d'aventure à l'ancienne), mais surtout s'exprimer sur un sujet qui lui tient particulièrement à cœur : le jeu indépendant.


Dans une interview accordée au site HookShotInc.com, le sieur Schafer y explique pourquoi les plateformes de téléchargement des consoles de jeu (le Xbox Live et le PlayStation Network) sont de formidables moyens pour les développeurs indépendants et pour leurs jeux pour se faire connaître, mais que leur potentiel a été gâché par la trop faible importance qui leur est actuellement accordée. Cachés au fin fond des menus des consoles et surtout trop tributaires des politiques des constructeurs, ces derniers étrangleraient financièrement les petits développeurs en leur faisant payer la mise en ligne de patchs 40 000 dollars pièce. La seule solution pour ces développeurs est de se tourner vers des distributeurs plus ouverts (comme Steam) ou de les distribuer eux-mêmes, comme on a pu le voir avec Minecraft.

Notons que ce n'est pas la première fois que les développeurs indépendants se plaignent des politiques commerciales et éditoriales des constructeurs sur leurs plateformes de téléchargement. Il y a quelques mois, c'était le développeur de 2D Boy qui expliquait pourquoi le Xbox Live Arcade était trop contraignant pour les petits studios.

Les mods de la semaine #78 WiC, C C Tiberium Wars, Skyrim, HL

Les deux dernières semaines sont passées à la vitesse de la lumière pour certains d'entre vous et la fin des vacances menace d'achever votre bonne humeur ? Respirez un bon coup et profitez de ce dernier weekend de liberté pour tester les quelques perles qui sont arrivées dans nos galeries cette semaine. Une avalanche d'excellents mods comme on en voit trop peu ces derniers temps et dont les meilleurs se retrouvent dans notre sélection hebdomadaire.


Cry of Fear 1.0 (Half-Life)

Prenez le moteur d'Half-Life. Saupoudrez le d'un peu d'Amnesia : The Dark Descent et mélangez le tout avec Afraid of Monsters. Le résultat ? L'excellent Cry of Fear, un mod horrifique pour Half-Life qui tire ses inspirations chez les meilleures productions de développement amateur. On y incarne un jeune homme amnésique qui doit enquêter dans une ville sombre remplie de dégénérés. Il faudra user de flingues et de diverses sources de lumières pour se tirer de cet enfer, pour peu que l'on ait le courage d'installer ce mod sympathique.

- Télécharger Cry of Fear 1.0 (1,73 Go)


Modern Warfare Mod 2.5 (World in Conflict)

De loin l'un des meilleurs RTS des années 2000, World in Conflict est toujours joué par une communauté d'acharnés de la stratégie. Le titre a en effet des qualités indéniables, comme la fidélité avec laquelle il reproduit le comportement des armes et machines d'antan. Pourquoi ne pas combattre de façon plus moderne en installant Modern Warfare Mod ? Ce mod permet en effet d'amener toute la technologie de pointe du FPS au STR que vous aimez tant. On y retrouve aussi bien les pétoires récentes que les avions de chasses suréquipés, le tout dans un mod parfaitement équilibré et jouable en multi.

- Télécharger Modern Warfare Mod 2.5 (1,54 Go)


CNC Fallout Public Beta v0.1 (Command and Conquer : Les Guerres du Tiberium)

Les amateurs de C&C : Les Guerres du Tiberium et de la saga Fallout l'attendaient depuis un petit bout de temps. CNC Fallout est enfin disponible dans sa toute première version. Comme son nom l'indique, il intègre l'univers post apocalyptique de Fallout à Command and Conquer. On y retrouve des décors dévastés, des véhicules faits de matériaux de récupération, des soldats sans honneur et surtout une bande-son parfaitement maîtrisée pour accompagner le tout. Si seuls les modes multijoueur et escarmouche sont disponibles dans cette version, des mises à jour futures devraient apporter une campagne digne de ce nom.

- Télécharger CNC Fallout Public BETA v0.1 (754 Mo)


The Epic Sounds of Archery 1.0 (The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim)

Comme beaucoup de joueurs de Skyrim de bon goût, vous avez laissé vos livres de sorts, parchemins, vos haches, boucliers et épées pour une arme plus noble : l'arc. Pourquoi ne pas sublimer votre expérience en modifiant un chouilla les fichiers audio du jeu ? Avec The Epic Sounds of Archery, vous pouvez enfin ressentir la puissance de vos flèches du moment où vous bandez votre arc jusqu'au moment où elles partent en fusant vers votre pauvre cible.

- Télécharger The Epic Sounds of Archery 1.0 (2,09 Mo)

D3 - Diablo III Blizzard fait le point

Depuis la sortie de Diablo III la semaine dernière, Blizzard a du essuyer quelques aléas qui entâchent l'expérience de jeu des adeptes du hack and slash. Que ce soit au niveau des serveurs, des comptes des joueurs ou de l'hôtel des ventes, le studio a souhaité apporter quelques précisions dans un communiqué posté sur le forum de Battle.net hier.

Dans un premier temps, le studio annonce la venue d'un patch dès la semaine prochaine. Il sera destiné à résoudre plusieurs bugs du jeu et à garantir une certaine stabilité du client. Pour ce qui est des Hauts Faits et des problèmes rencontrés par les joueurs à ce sujet, les développeurs se penchent encore sur la question et devraient produire un correctif d'ici quelques semaines, si tout se passe bien.

En ce qui concerne le système de sécurité et les histoires de piratages qui ont fait surface, Blizzard maintient que les comptes ayant été "piratés" n'ont en fait été ouverts qu'avec l'entrée du bon mot de passe. Les serveurs n'auraient pas été infiltrés, et le nombre de cas selon la firme reste très faible. Blizzard conseille à ses joueurs d'être prudent quant au choix de leur mot de passe, et en profite pour les inviter à se munir d'un Authenticator, un appareil fabriqué par le studio pour améliorer la sécurité des comptes. Authenticator est aussi disponible en tant qu'application pour smartphones.

Enfin pour la question de l'Hôtel des ventes en argent réel, il s'avère que ces précédents problèmes de sécurité retardent sa sortie. Prévu pour mai, il ne sera pas accessible avant une date ultérieure qui n'a pas encore été précisée. Il faudra donc patienter jusqu'à une prochaine annonce officielle, Blizzard ne souhaitant pas prendre de risque suite aux difficultés rencontrées.

· Forum Diablo III

2012-12-21-2

$299 Wii-U gaming console represents "a really strong value"

According to Nintendos Chief operating officer, Reggie Fils-Aime, the Wii-U represents an excellent value as a gaming platform, and this wont be changing anytime soon.

Announced in 2011, the Wii-U has been pretty well anticipated by gamers as Nintendos successor to the incredibly popular Wii gaming platform.

Wii-U GamePad w/console on the right

In the tradition of the Wiis unique gaming controllers, this new console features a tablet-like controller called the "Wii U GamePad", which integrates a camera, accelerometer, gyroscope and -most notably - a touchscreen that can even be used in place of a television display.

Wii-U GamePad

Despite the unique properties of the system, and the solid success of its predecessor, some wonder how the console will ultimately stack up in value against some other upcoming systems, such as the highly anticipated Xbox 720 and, as-of-yet unannounced, PlayStation 4.

This question is compounded by the Wii-Us starting price tag of $299. Although this is hardly unusual for a console, the value of the Wii-U as opposed to current and upcoming systems makes it worth asking whether gamers would rather buy a Wii-U with their Christmas money, or what they might consider a more powerful/hip system.

But Reggie Fils-Aime, chief operating officer at Nintendo, is quite sure that Nintendo will be offering a solid product worth its cost. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Aime said that the console "is a really strong value, and its a value thats going to be strong for a long time."

Of course, who would expect him to say any differently? Ultimately, the question boils down to vox populi - the voice of the people. And the console will go on sale to the American public on Novemeber 18.

The console will be available in two versions: the $299 basic set, which includes the console, a single GamePad, sensor bar, and 8GB of onboard storage. A "Deluxe" set will also be available at $349, which includes the same offering as the basic set, with an additional charging stand, Nintendo Land game disc, and 32 GB on onboard storage.

Source: CNET

the bw review “before watchmen nite owl” #3

What happens when you devote the first issue of a four-issue mini-series to pointless set-up and needless backstory that achieves nothing? Well, not only do you get a crappy first issue, you end up with something on the other end like?Before Watchmen : Nite Owl?#3, which has to do waaaaayyy too much because that opening installment didn’t even get the overall plotlines that are being set up for conclusion here?going in any way, shape, or form.

Seriously, if J. Michael Straczyski had just started with the second issue, and split the various components of this third issue into two, we’d be in a much stronger position as readers to actually give a shit about how this is all going to wrap up — instead what ?we got was a first issue that didn’t need to exist, followed by a second issue that finally decided maybe this series had better have an actual?point to it after all, followed in turn by a third issue that actually isn’t all that bad but has to cram an awful lot in before we finish up next month. All this, as is the case with all these BW titles, from a series that has?three fucking editors working on it, none of whom seem to actually show up for work.

Anyway, what we’ve got going this time around is Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl 2, working side-by-side with costumed criminal/madame Lady Nightshade to crack the case they’re working on involving the murders of several prostitutes, a case the cops obviously don’t give a shit about. Meanwhile, Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, has taken a job as a janitor at the church he attends, while elsewhere on planet Watchmen,?for reasons we don’t know, grief and anguish are eating away at Nite Owl 1, ?akaHollis Mason, who’s taken to hitting the bottle. By the time the issue is over, we’ll see Dan and Lady Nightshade get it on (although essentially get nowhere on their case), Dan get some free bedside psychoanalysis from his surprsingly well-adjusted new ladyfriend, Mason turn the first draft of his by-now-legendary?Under The Hood autobiography over to Dan (it’s apparently far more confessional than anything we’d previously been led to believe, ‘cuz reading through it seems to send Dan to the edge of a nervous breakdown himself), and Rorschach come much closer than his erstwhile crime-fighting partner to solving the murdered-hooker case when he makes a seriously?grisly discovery in the church basement.

Like I said, compared to that first issue especially, it’s all quite readable. But it would read a lot better spread out over a couple of issues, where Rorschach’s grim find in the basement and Dan’s heartbroken reaction to Mason’s book could both have served as pretty solid little separate cliffhangers. Instead, what we get is ?Dan breaking down as he reads Mason’s manuscript (which, let’s face it, probably has a lot more to do with the supposed “big revelation” coming up in?Minutemen #5?than it does with anything going on here, and in fact won’t be “resolved” in this series at all) while there are still a few pages to go, and then Rorschach’s —- uhhhmmm — “situation” serving as the cliffhanger at the end of this book, which is pretty absurd when you think about it because — this is supposedly Nite Owl’s book, not his!

Ain’t that just the breaks for poor ol’ Dreiberg, though? Always kind of an “also-ran” character in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original?Watchmen series, here in his own fucking book he can’t even score the penultimate issue three cliffhanger, and is effectively reduced to being of secondary importance in a series that bears his name on the cover! Again, I gotta ask — three editors “worked” on this?

On the creative front,?Before Watchmen : Nite Owl?#3 (variant covers, as shown, by the Andy and Joe Kubert and something called Chris Samnee, respectively) sees, sadly, the departure of the late, great Joe Kubert on inks about halfway through the issue. Not sure if his health had taken a turn for the worse and he literally couldn’t continue beyond that point or if these pages by his son Andy weren’t inked at all before he passed away, but whatever the case may be, the remainder of the issue is inked by — Bill Sienkiewicz? Holy shit there’s a name I haven’t heard in ages, and I just have to ask — what happened, Bill? To go from?Elektra : Assassin?and?Stray Toasters to last-minute fill-in work like this where your primary job is to ape another guy’s tyle? Man, it just hurts to even think about a fall that steep. Bill gives ?Joe’s incredibly distinctive look his best effort, sure, but it’s still nowhere near the same because, well — it just?can’t be. But Bill, seriously, if you’re ever reading this (ha! as if!) — dude, you’re better than this. You really are. You’ve written and drawn some of the most unconventional, envelope-pushing stuff ever published by the “Big Two.” I know a paycheck’s a paycheck, but seriously : this kind of thing isn’t your?forte, man. I’m as sorry as anyone that?Big Numbers didn’t work out, but to go back to work-for-hire quickie cash-grabs like this? Well, I’m gonna remember you as you were, rather than what you’ve been reduced to.

Anyway, don’t get me wrong — this series has, on the whole, improved dramatically, apart from the immeasurable loss of Joe Kubert on “inks” (I still think he was essentially drawing the book over Andy’s rough breakdowns), but that waste of a first issue put Straczynski’s story in such a hole that climbing out of it’s been a pretty steep endeavor and left us with a cliffhanger in the book’s biggest moment that , again, absurd as it sounds, doesn’t even feature the (at this point nominal, truth be told) title character. It’s not so much that this is a?bad series per se, just that it could have been so much better and stronger with ?a few quick fixes that are so readily apparent that anyone can see them.

Except, apparently, a DC editor.

2012-12-21-541

aigo P880 MP3 Player

Huaqi Information Technology (SINGAPORE) Pte Ltd has pioneered theintroduction of OTG technology to the digital audio world with its aigo MP3player, P880 in Singapore. In addition to the compact design, package in thisingenious innovation are additional interesting. Features such as e-photo album,jukebox function, MP3 playback, FM radio, voice or sound recorder, data storagefunction and it have a built in SD / MMC card reader that allows you to store10000 song.

aigo latest MP3 player P880 is all set to impress its audience with its ultradazzle TFT colored liquid crystal screen display to the acme: 2.2 inches. Itdisplays pictures with high resolution to the perfection. P880 certainly makesphoto viewing a superb experience, which brings back fond memories anytimeanywhere. You can even set your favorite photos as wallpaper! Now not only youcan customize your very own music album, even your personal photo album or youmay sit back watching your favorite idol picture in slide shows and listening toyour favorite song, watching the latest movie or MTV.

P880 supports MP3, WMA, WAV music format and has twenty five equalizer – tomeet most of your audio essentials. The top acoustics fidelity takes you to theunequalled sense of hearing enjoyment. The USB 2.0 interface allows datatransmission speed reaches up to 480Mb/S, the drag and drop feature furtherenhance the ease of transferring music or data files from PC to aigo MP3 P880.Looking for more? The integrated FM radio supports up to 20 preset radiostations.

With a built-in microphone, P880 can record up to 600 hours of ultra lengthsdigital sound recording. Besides, voice or sound recording, it has FM radiorecording capability, which enables you to record songs from any FM presetstations. Another special feature is its hassle free direct recording functionfrom any audio device such as compact disc man, cassette player or VCD playerwithout connecting to a computer.

In OTG technology, P880 provide direct download of JPEG picture from yourdigital camera. All these are carried out without connecting to a computer! Nomore spending of money on additional digital camera memory card or looking for acomputer just to transfer your digital photos.

Last but not least, the data management function enables you to organize yourfiles into folders for quick retrieval of music, data or photos while on themove anytime, anywhere. aigo MP3 P880 is your ideal digital entertainmentcompanion! What more, its only cost you $ 699 of the shelf. Order in advance ismost welcome.

Product features:

- 7 in 1 functions
MP3/WMA/WAVPlayer
MMC/SD card reader
Recorder
Storage hard disk
FM Radio
Mobile data management
Electronic Photo Album
- Support MP3/WMA/WAV files
- 20GB storage capacity
- MMC/SD card expandable (direct transfer)
- Support A-B repeating
- 2.2 inch TFT colorful display
- View jpeg pictures, Movie, MTV
- FM tuner, with FM recording
- OTG technology, read files from SD card without computer aid
- Support pictures and music continuously show
- Seven-color backlight

grindhouse classics “the stuff”

B-movie veteran Larry Cohen (God Tole Me To, It’s Alive) could always pull a project together, it seems. The guy was just plain never out of work for long — and still isn’t, although he seems confined primarily to scriptwriting duties these days with projects such as Phone Booth and Captivity. In 1985 he was still a genuine low-budget auteur, though, writing as well as directing projects for the smallest-scale indie distributors, mid-size outfits like New World (who handled the financing for the subject of our — ahem! — “analysis” today), and occasionally even the big Hollywood studios. Working primarily out of New York, Cohen was usually able to put together a pretty decent cast to handle his uniformly well-written and well-executed, if a bit “old-school” horror in terms of their occasional less-than-complete originality, flicks.

Simply put, you generally knew what you’d be getting from a Larry Cohen film — nothing groundbreakingly awesome, but always better-done-than-it-felt-like-they-probably-should-be, some decent budget effects work, a fe laughs, and generally a pretty solid little story. And so it is with The Stuff, in many ways probably the quintessential Cohen flick.

It’s probably a bit ironic that ol’ Larry became best known for his horror (more precisely his horror-comedy hybrid) work, given that he got his start with blaxploitationers like Bone and the truly classic Black Caesar, but if there’s one thing Cohen has proven over the years it’s that he’s a movie industry survivor — when times and tastes change, he’s smart enough to change with them and go with the new flow enough to keep getting work. When blaxploitation started to slow down, it’s only natural that a guy with his keen survival instincts would gravitate toward horror, but one thing he didn’t lose along the way was his nose for making his stories stick with an audience by injecting just enough contemporary social commentary to give his films relevance. It’s never an overpowering element of his M.O., so to speak, but it’s always in there somewhere. Sometimes that makes his projects feel pretty dated, as the issues he’s addressing are no longer of front-burner importance in today’s world. At other times, though, it makes him look downright prescient, as the issues he’s tackling actually grow in importance from the time of the movie’s initial release.

That’s certainly the case with The Stuff, a movie about gelatinous goo oozing out of the center of the Earth and packaged as an ice cream-type dessert that eventually takes over and expels itself from the “host bodies” who are consuming it.

Okay, so the parallels to the horror classic The Blob are pretty painfully obvious here, but like I said, sparkling originality has never been a Larry Cohen signature. What’s remarkable is that the issues he’s tackling in this story — fake foodstuffs, slick marketing (the fake TV commercials for the The Stuff, with their scarily-catchy “Just can’t get enough of The Stuff” jingle are one of this movie’s highlights), and environmental disaster oozing from the ground are more pressing than ever in in 2010, when our grocery store shelves are full of genetically-modified “frankenfoods,” our airwaves (and the internet) are bombarded with with ever-more-aggressive ad campaigns for shit we don’t need, and oil is spilling out of an underwater hole into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 200,oo0 barrels (or something) a day with no end in sight.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a true Larry Cohen film without a plethora of fairly-well-realized characters. Our main protagonist is a corporate espionage specialist named David “Mo” Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) , who;s been hired by a consortium of ice cream manufacturers to find out the secret of The Stuff and why it’s eating up their market share (and, quite literally, their customers). In his quest to find out what The Stuff is, where it comes from, and why people just can’t resist its appeal, he teams up with a wide variety of crackpots, independent sleuths, and various hangers-on, including PR-exec-turned-gal Friday (and sorta-love interest) Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci), down-on-his-luck cookie magnate (and obvious Famous Amos stand-in) “Chocolate Chip” Charlie (SNL alum Garrett Morris, who meets and awesomely spectacular stuff-induced demise that you have to see to believe), and right-wing militia commander Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears (Paul Sorvino), who basically functions as a cross between Rush Limbaugh and Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay (needless to say, he’s convinced The Stuff is a commie plot to destroy America and he’s determined to wipe every trace of it from the face of our fair land).

If all this sounds like a weird amalgamation of The Blob, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Soylent Green, well — that’s because it is. But goddamn if it doesn’t all work.

The effects, as mentioned, are terrific fun. The huge masses of stop-motion Stuff are well-realized and frankly look a hell of a lot better than most of today’s CGI garbage, and for smaller-quantity servings, they just used gobs of yogurt and soft-serve ice cream. Again, damned if it doesn’t work just fine. There are several impressive death-by-Stuff scenes, the just-mentioned one with Morris being the best, but truth be told they all look good, and I’ve watched plenty of flicks with ten, a hundred, or even a thousand times the budget of this one not pull off their supposedly “shocking” death sequences with anywhere near this much effectiveness and aplomb. All told, it’s a genuine visual delight.

And finally, on the trivia front, be on the lookout for appearances from Danny Aiello, the Brothers Bloom, Eric Bogosian, and a very young Mira Sorvino.

The Stuff is available on DVD from Anchor Bay. It features a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that’s been digitally remastered and looks great, the sound likewise has been remastered and is presented in a crisp, clear 5.1 mix, and as far as the extras go, while the overall selection is pretty light, there’s a feature-length commentary track from Larry Cohen himself that’s flat-out awesome to listen to.

Is The Stuff a classic? Nah. But it’s plenty good, about 50 times better than your first impression of it would lead you to believe, and a downright professional piece of work. It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s incisive, it’s smart, and it’s well-acted, well-directed, and amazingly well-realized visually. It’s one of those movies that, if you own it, you find yourself watching it again three or four times a year just because — well, it’s so damn solidly done.

And with that, I’m off to the Dairy Queen for a heaping pile of soft-serve Stu —- errr, ice cream.

halloween hangover 2011 “blood shack”

Around here at TFG, Ray Dennis Steckler is one of our (okay, my, who are we fooling?) all-time heroes. Seldom in cinematic history has one man accomplished so much with so little. And yet, I find his films difficult to review (in fact, in nearly three years of blogging this is the first time I’ve ever gotten around to writing about one of them) because, frankly, his “plots” are so uniformly paper-thin that there’s just not that much to talk about without delving into the minutiae of the production itself, which is rather redundant when it comes to Steckler because the DVD releases of his film Media Blasters/Shriek Show cover all of that so well already (in the case of today’s subject, 1971′s Blood Shack, for instance, there’s not one but two commentary tracks, one from Steckler himself and one from the always-awesome Joe Bob Briggs, an on-camera interview with Steckler about the making of the film, an extensive gallery of still photos from the production, an interview with the film’s star (and former Mrs. Steckler) Carolyn Brandt, a couple different versions of the trailer, and an alternate, 70-minute cut of the film (the “official” cut being a mere 35 minutes) under the title of The Chooper — the list is endless. Needless to say it’s a comprehensive and essential purchase) that there’s really nothing to be accomplished by my regurgitating any further behind-the-scenes information for the umpteenth time. And yet —

The hows, whys, and wherefores of a Steckler production are pretty much inseparable from any analysis of the on-screen “product” itself because there’s simply no way to appreciate any of this guy’s work without actively realizing what an absolute fucking miracle it is that any of these films were made in the first place. Blood Shack was made for $500 and stars his ex-wife and kids. Everybody else in front of and behind the camera was a friend of his and the bleak desert locale was property owned by an acquaintance. It’s truly a labor of love, and Steckler himself never harbored any illusions about getting rich off any of these flicks. All his stuff was strictly third-and fourth-billed filler material at the drive-ins and the fact that any of his films, much less all of them, even survive to this day is testament to this guy’s perseverance in the face of odds longer than those of picking the winning numbers for this week’s Powerball.

One thing you can certainly count on from any Steckler production is a raw and authentic sense of locale that the biggest Hollywood productions could never match in their wildest dreams. Case in point — the setting for Blood Shack is a dingy, abandoned, piece-of-shit Nevada desert lean-to that MGM could spend millions trying to replicate? yet never match because this is no fancy studio set dirtied up and trashed to give it an air of realism, it’s the actual fucking deal. And while it’s admittedly absurd to consider that some black-clad killer of local legend known as “The Chooper” can sneak around in a totally flat, arid and open landscape where you could see a wild coyote from ten miles off, you can’t let things like gaping plot holes and suspect (at best) “acting” deter you from enjoying a Steckler film because, hell, you couldn’t do any better with 500 bucks and a half-dozen or so friends and relatives and your finished product would never make it onto any screens at all, much less have a cult following four decades later.

Yeah, okay,? I just gave away the whole plot with a shrug — woman inherits a disused piece of land in the middle of nowhere and a mysterious (and supposedly legendary) killer called “The Chooper” shows up and starts offing people in an attempt to drive her off — but so what? Complexity isn’t exactly the name of the game here, either. On Planet Steckler, the normal rules of what makes for “good” cinema just don’t apply, and you’re either gonna appreciate what this guy was able to accomplish or you won’t, simple as that.

Look, I’m not here to convince you that Blood Shack is some unheralded masterpiece of low-budget horror. It’s got a complacent and austere vibe all its own that I enjoyed tremendously but that I can easily see many folks finding at the very least off-putting, if not downright dull. What is is, however, is a testament to the sheer bloody-mindedness of one lone individual who just wanted to make this movie because he could.

Call me crazy, but I’ll always have a healthy amount of respect for that.

“pontypool” changes everything

Zombie flicks. You either love ‘em or you don’t. I certainly love ‘em, and so do plenty of other folks, if the recent box-office success of movies like “Zombieland” and the “Resident Evil” series are any indication. But the best and most groundbreaking of the bunch in recent years has flown somewhat under the radar.

2008′s “Pontypool,” from visionary Canadian director Bruce McDonald (best known for his distinctly north-of-the-border-flavored road movies “Roadkill,” “Highway 61″ and “Hard Core Logo”) is a distinctively atmospheric, oftentimes downright scary entry into the zombie canon that has the potential to redefine the entire genre in the same way that George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” did back in 1968 and Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” did over 30 years later. But first, enough people have to see it, because great art that exists in a vacuum is still great art, to be sure, but if it enters into the public consciousness, by word of mouth or other means,? even if we’re just talking about on the level of horror and more specifically zombie genre fans, then it has the power to be transformational. And if there’s one thing “Pontypool” does — and does very well — it’s to take the zombie movie in a bold new direction by opening up some seriously new and (therefore naturally) previously-unexplored territory for a genre that many folks feel has become a bit shopworn in recent years.

Oh, don’t get me wrong — in many respects, McDonald’s film is very much a traditional? low-budget walking-corpse story. The principal cast of characters is very small. The action, such as there is, take place in an enclosed location with our protagonists under siege from the spreading undead infection that surrounds them (essentially Romero’s stock-in-trade scenario for his first three “Dead” films). And (again like Romero) the zombie plague, and the reaction of the surviving humans to it, serve, at their core,? as? stand-ins? for the filmmaker to cast light on certain contemporary sociopolitical issues.

So what, then, can truly be said to be so new about “Pontypool”?

That’s where reviewing this film gets tricky. Because you can’t give away what’s new and different and altogether revitalizing (how’s that for an ironic choice of words when talking about a walking-dead movie?) about this film without giving away some major plot points and therefore trashing the element of surprise for any potential viewers that might be out there. Suffice to say that I’ll offer just a couple of clues : in one scene a copy of Neal Stephenson’s cult classic science fiction novel “Snow Crash” can be seen lying on a desk, and it’s no accident that I chose to open this review by saying that I hope strong word-of-mouth buzz among horror fans will get this film wider attention. And I’ll say no more than that.

Writer? Tony Burgess, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel “Pontypool Changes Everything,” has really hit on a novel approach for how the zombification virus is spread here that utterly redefines both how one can become a zombie, and what it means to even be one. Yes, of course, it’s still transmitted from one carrier to the next, but that’s where any similarity to the living dead of old ends.? Because with “Pontypool,” all notions of how it’s spread, and for that matter why (the implications — and that’s all they are, implications — of who might be ultimately responsible for the origins of this particular plague are truly chilling) are completely blown out the window.

Radio shock-jock Grant Mazzy (veteran Canadian actor Stephen McHattie, best known to American and international audiences as Hollis Mason, the first Night Owl, in “Watchmen”) has gotten himself sacked from his (unspecified) major-market gig over a Don Imus-type brouhaha (again, the specifics are unspecified) and has found work in the only place he can, as the morning show host for an AM station that broadcasts out of a church in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario ( I looked it up and it’s a real place). How much of a comedown is this for our guy Grant? Well, the “eye in the sky” traffic commute reporter in Pontypool phones in his reports from his car that’s parked on top of the biggest hill in town and plays helicopter sound effects in the background, and the biggest local news story is an old woman’s missing cat (the name of which will have significance later).

With Grant in the studio are his producer, Sydney Briar (McHattie’s real-life wife, actress Lisa Houle), and his technician, a recently-returned Afghan war vet? named? Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly). That’s about it for the main cast of characters, apart from the town doctor who plays a part later.

What begins as a day not unlike any other quickly turns strange, however, when Grant begins to get phoned-in reports about a mob of crazed people converging on said town doctor’s office. Then more reports start to come in about large groups of people acting strangely and attacking random folks in the city, in the woods, and on the highways. Some of the reports, such as one about a car carrying a family being literally buried under a herd — that term is used specifically — of people are so bizarre (and so much more effective when heard and not seen —? showing anything like that on this film’s budget would have resulted in yet another cheap CGI spectacle, and we’ve had more than enough of those in more than enough other movies) that Grant and his cohorts don’t know whether or not they’re being played for fools in some sort of massive, town-wide hoax. When an in-studio guest starts behaving strangely, though, they know something’s up.

Soon the BBC is calling. More and more truly unbelievable reports are coming in. And it’s soon quite obvious that this cold and snowy late-winter morning has brought something entirely new and dreadful to the sleepy hamlet of Pontypool. When one of their own, Laurel-Ann, begins to transform, all pretense (or hope) that it might be some sick and elaborate joke is gone.

When the full-scale zombie siege of the studio finally begins in earnest, our protagonists are still trying to figure out, on the fly, how it can possibly be stopped, so flabbergasted ( and, for that matter, only partially informed)? are they as to the nature of the infection and it’s mode of transmission.? It’s pretty damn tough to figure out how to stop something if you barely understand how it works and find it hard to believe what little you do know.

Throughout the film, the claustrophobic studio setting and incredibly small cast of characters really works in terms of presenting the us-vs.-them, inside world-vs.-outside world, “bunker mentality” sense of atmospherics so essential to this story’s success. Sure, it’s indicative of a very tight budget, but it’s also indicative of how said tight budget can really be harnessed to the story’s advantage. Less is indeed more.

And speaking of less and more, now would be the time to point out that gorehounds are sure to be disappointed here. The level of blood and guts on display is pretty damn low, but that only makes it all the more shocking and disturbing when the violence really does start to hit home. Have no fear, though — even though the gross FX quotient here is pretty low,what few there? are really are? quite effectively staged and presented. That being said, though, the majority of the horror is “Pontypool” is psychological, and in the best horror tradition, what’s not shown is much scarier than what is, allowing the viewer to imagine in his or her own mind the unfolding terror taking place outside the studio walls — and threatening, of course, to get in.

A major hit at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, “Pontypool” nonetheless received scant theatrical distribution. It played some in Canada and on a small handful of? art-house screens in major US markets and got some play at various horror conventions and independent film festivals, but that was about it.

Now, the good folks at IFC (Independent Film Channel), which handled the distribution rights, have hit us with a one-two “Pontypool” punch : it’s just been released on DVD, and is also playing on IFC On Demand on cable TV. The DVD looks and sounds great, with crisp, clear 16:9 letterboxed picture (as if it wouldn’t, it’s essentially a brand new film) and top-notch 5.1 Surround sound mix. A commentary track featuring McDonald and Burgess is included (the good news from it — they’re planning two sequels!), there’s a selection of independent Canadian short films, the theatrical trailer is thrown in, and best of all there’s also the full-length original CBC radio drama (presented along with corresponding? stills from the film to make it easier to follow the audio action) that McDonald and Burgess developed before the full movie project was green-lighted.

“Pontypool” isn’t just the best zombie film of the year (and I say this as someone who absolutely loved “Zombieland,” although it’s technically true that this was a 2008 production and that was 2009), it’s the best zombie film in many years. Entertainment Weekly has already declared it one of the 25 best of all time in the genre. And while I’m usually not one to agree with any statement found in any gossipy Hollywood rag, much less one that features a regular column by Diablo Cody, in this case they’re absolutely right. Hell, I’d go so far as to say it’s top 10 material.

So see it already.

Oh, and spread the word — it’s the only thematically appropriate response. That’s as close to a hint as I dare to get.