Another Headless Horseman commercial. Man, this icon is popular this year. I saw this little gem for a Snicker’s commercial while on my way up to Montreal. Short, yet still funny.
Evil Review: Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies
Oh Counter-Strike, what can I say about this kick ass game series? It is the first tactical shooter I have ever played, I’ve played each Counter-Strike entry and loved each one. Now what we have here is Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies. CSNZ is a new free to play Counter-Strike game on Steam which is pretty much a zombie version of Counter-Strike Online, which is also a free to play Counter-Strike made by the same team.
Counter-Strike zombies was first released on September 23 as a beta and lets just say the beta was a complete failure. The game’s servers would not let people log in and the hack shield program that comes with the game was keeping people from playing, which this issue was happening to me. The developers saw this issue and later patched it, which is good I praise them for responding to my complaint as quick as they did. After the beta the game was finally released on October 7 to mixed reviews, mostly negative. Now are these negative reviews accurate of the game? Some are but most negative reviews are from people who barely touched the game and hate on it for the simple fact that it had a bad beta. So now I will go on and talk about this game and what I personally think.
The game’s requirements are great, anyone can play this game on any computer, which of course is common because pretty much all Counter-Strike games don’t require much so the download of the game and requirements won’t be much. When you load the game you’ll noticed that the menu is locked at a certain resolution and you cannot change it. You can however change it to widescreen in the options but this only takes effect if you are in a server playing. Hopefully they will patch this later on. When you search for a game you are met with four different game modes; Zombie Hero, Zombie Scenario, Zombie Escape, and Zombie Shelter. Each mode has different variations and even includes basic Counter-Strike game modes like hostage rescue, bomb defusing etc. As for right now I cannot recommend the zombie pvp game modes like zombie hero. It can be completely one sided and what I mean by this is if you are on the zombies team then good luck on winning because for humans, their team can just buy a machine gun, a bunch of ammo and just hold off in a corner. Reason for this is because if you are a zombie and you get shot at, you are immediately stopped in your tracks. So say if the humans are all using machine guns then you will not be going any where and lose. So for right now I would stay away from the pvp modes and move on to the pve modes which are more fun, like Zombie scenario which is my personal favorite. In zombie scenario you are grouped with a team of humans and you must fight through waves of zombies to reach different locations and eventually the boss. This game mode gets very chaotic and very fun, especially if your playing with friends.
Each game mode rewards players with points and loot crates which all can be used to craft weapons, ammo, or special items and even purchase weapons in the store. Now most people who can complain about this game always bring up a ”pay-to-win” excuse for saying the game is bad, which this isn’t true. After hours of playing I have noticed that the game does not try to force you to pay real money for things. In the store there are weapon packs you can buy for $1.99 each, but why is this an issue? You have all these game modes that offer both pvp and pve, so I don’t see the reason in the ”pay-to-win” argument. Not to mention this is again a free-to-play game, so the developers have to make money off it some how correct? Now for performance wise, the game has a few problems. So far I haven’t noticed any crashes or anything but I have noticed small glitches like invisible zombies attacking you out of no where, and some minor lag during games but nothing big.
Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies is a unique game and I had fun playing it so my rating for it has to be a middle 6/10. It’s a quite decent and very fun free to play game which I think is worth checking out. So you are on Steam and your bored or broke then go ahead and give it a try.
Meet the Evil Jade Executioner! “Red Nights” review!
“Red Nights” is not exactly a new film. Being released in 2010, the erotic, giallo-inspired, thriller has only been available for DVD purchase in the Belgium market while Germany has the sole blu-ray edition. With much anticipation, Philadelphia based company Breaking Glass Pictures will be bringing “Red Nights” to DVD in the States in all it’s suspenseful and bloody glory.
The ancient box of the Jade Executioner has become the fascination of everyone’s desires. From crooked politicians, to thieves, to sadomasochistic murderers, the box contains a poison that will increase your pleasure by ten fold while leaving you completely paralyzed and increase your pain by the same amount. This twisted tale with a sexual aura constructs a cat-and-mouse game between two femme fatales, Catherine – who just wants a giant pay day for the box and Carrie Chan – who wishes to use the poison for the ultimate pleasure from pain, while a Manau crime lord embarks on a mission to retrieve back his stolen antique box.
This is the first feature length film from French directors Laurent Courtiaud and Julien Carbon and while “Red Nights” looks beautiful on screen – the shot scenes remind me the Wachowski brother’s Noir film “Bound” – the story can be a bit loose and slow at first. The By the end of act one, “Red Nights” really pick up the pieces and the story of how Frédérique Bel’s character Catherine, a personal assistant to the crooked politician Savini, becomes snared in a web of deadly game with Carrie Chan – played by Hong Kong actress Carrie Ng – and in this game, minor players get a slow and painful death which translates very well to screen and relates very precisely to the character’s personas. Carrie is a sadist who can whip a dry martini while skinning you alive. Catherine is a bit more hesitant but her greed can force her hand to kill.
The gory effects are surprisingly realistic for a pair of visual effects crew members – Jam Abelanet and Bertrand Levallois – who don’t have much horror and thriller film credits behind their names. This goes hand and hand with how I described the first time directors and how the crew of “Red Nights” got it right the first time. Where the film lost me a many of times was the back and forth dialect of French, Chinese, and a little bit of English thrown in there for good measure. As much as I like a foreign film to use their native tongue, it’s hard to follow when a conversation between a Chinese actress who speaks in full Chinese and then the French actress retorts in full French. “Red Nights” would not make a good Rosetta Stone substitute.
Carrie Ng creates a fascinating character in Carrie Chan, a respectable, world renowned perfume designer and model. Chan’s dark side involves tight leather, bondage ropes, and razor sharp metallic finger talons that shred skin like shredding a block of cheese. Carrie Ng is lustfully sleek and sexy with her bad girl image that suites her well. Frédérique Bel couldn’t compare to Ng’s prowlness nor clean good looks, but I have to give Bel credit for making her character Catherine a sneaky and aggressive go getter. Maybe the issue was in the script’s writing, but Catherine seemed to lack a lot of intelligence for being in a game that could cost her her life. Catherine trusted everyone too easily and let people go too quickly without any kind of punishment or pain.
While “Red Nights” won’t break the DVD retail shelf bank, I’m still glad Breaking Glass Pictures and Vicious Circle Films are releasing this foreign gem to the masses of ‘Merica. And while I appreciate every aspect of this film from the director’s inspiration of Giallo genre to the histories of Chinese folklore, I can’t see my country men going crazy over a Chinese girl with finger blades. However, the story for Carrie Chan might speak more to horror enthusiast in that the Jade Executioner’s poison is similar to the box in Hellraiser. The box is described to show you the pleasures of pain much like the poison in “Red Nights.” Lets also not forget that Japanese porn actress Kotone Amamlya and French actress Carole Brana do a bit of nudity as well – click to see my skin page here. Come Tuesday October 21st, DVD will be readily available for purchase, but why wait? Pre-order your copy of a unique thriller with hints of gruesome horror torture!
2014 Horror Commercials #5: Snickers – ‘Satisface tu Hallowen” (Spanish)
Since it seems that Halloween-horror inspired commercials are scarce this year, I went else where to find a great commercial coming from the Spanish culture. The commercial is for Snickers and has a bit of an exorcists feel to it and, frankly, I can see why something like a neck twisting possessed demon wouldn’t make the U.S. commercial cut.
Check it out!
AMC’s “The Walking Dead” S5Ep1 ‘No Sanctuary’
“The Walking Dead” is back, finally! Season 5’s premiere episode is the critically acclaimed show’s best yet starting right off where we left in the last episode in season four. ‘No Sanctuary’ is gruesomely heart felt where scene after scene gore and emotion. There were so many gut wrench scenes that play havoc on all the areas of your brain that you don’t know whether to cringe or cry.
Rick and friends are locked in a train held hostage by Terminus hostiles. You can bet your ass that this episode is about the group trying to escape among other story line tangents like Carol and Tyreese figuring out what to do with baby Judith. Rick’s is on the edge looking for blood and revenge while the others passive methods keep Rick grounded. There is a great parallel between Terminus group and Rick’s group and that could prove costly our heros in future episodes.
Abraham Ford, Sasha, and Eugene are still trying to make their virus ending trek to Washington. The Eugene character is still a mystery to us all because he carries himself as a mullet sporting ‘scientist’ who has played one too many role playing games in his mother’s basement. Abraham follows Eugene blindly and I think Sasha just follows Abraham because she’s wants ride on his handle bar mustache (just sayin’). The three have some sort of secret that the rest of the group doesn’t know yet, but I’m sure more will come to light in later episodes.
Special effects guru and director of ‘No Sanctuary’ Greg Nicotero has a bag of new tricks for audiences this season. When you think there was enough blood in a season, this very first episode had probably outdone all the rest of the season’s combined. Ruthless intentions, compelling dynamics, and exploding zombie parts! Check out after credits to reveal a surprise reprisal of a form character! Get ready to geek out with your inner zombie out!
It's Bloggin Evil! 