movies

0331 – War of the Worlds (2005)

spacetime coordinates: 2000s New Jersey // New York // Boston

war_of_the_worldsWar of the Worlds is an 2005 American science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, loosely based on the novel of the same title by H. G. Wells. It stars Tom CruiseDakota FanningJustin ChatwinMiranda Otto and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. In the film, an American dock worker is forced to look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade the Earth and devastate cities with towering war machines.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/

movies

0328 – Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

spacetime coordinates: 2020 London // France // Switzerland

Edge of Tomorrow (alternatively known by its tagline Live. Die. Repeat. and marketed as such on home release) is a 2014 American science fiction film starring Tom Cruise and Emily BluntDoug Liman directed the film based on a screenplay adapted from the 2004 Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The film takes place in a future where Earth is invaded by an alien race. Major William Cage (Cruise), a public relations officer with no combat experience, is forced by his superiors to join a landing operation against the aliens. Though Cage is killed in combat, he finds himself in a time loop that sends him back to the day preceding the battle every time he dies. Cage teams up with Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt) to improve his fighting skills through the repeated days, seeking a way to defeat the extraterrestrial invaders.

Edge of Tomorrow Concept Art by Kev Jenkins

Gender roles

Comparison to video games        Battle suits

Sequel      IMDB

games

0314 – BioShock (2007 video game)

spacetime coordinates: 1960, the underwater city of Rapture

BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games.

The game’s concept was developed by Irrational’s creative lead, Ken Levine, and incorporates ideas by 20th century dystopian and utopian thinkers such as Ayn RandGeorge Orwell, and Aldous Huxley, as well as historical figures such as John D. Rockefeller. The game is considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, on which many of Irrational’s team including Levine had worked previously.

BioShock is set in 1960. The player guides the protagonist, Jack, after his airplane crashes in the ocean near the bathysphere terminus that leads to the underwater city of Rapture. Built by the business magnate Andrew Ryan, the city was intended to be an isolated utopia, but the discovery of ADAM, a genetic material which can be used to grant superhuman powers, initiated the city’s turbulent decline. Jack tries to find a way to escape, fighting through hordes of ADAM-obsessed enemies, and the iconic, deadly Big Daddies, while engaging with the few sane humans that remain and eventually learning of Rapture’s past. The player, as Jack, is able to defeat foes in a number of ways by using weapons, utilizing plasmids that give unique powers, and by turning Rapture’s own defenses against them. BioShockincludes elements of role-playing games, giving the player different approaches in engaging enemies such as by stealth, as well as moral choices of saving or killing characters; additionally, the game and biopunk theme borrow concepts from the survival horror genre.

Bioshock Trailer

BioShock received critical acclaim and was particularly praised by critics for its morality-based storyline, immersive environments, and its unique setting, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time and a demonstration of video game as an art form.

pc requirements (MINIMUM): Operating System: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista. CPU: Intel single-core Pentium 4 processor at 2.4GHz. RAM: 1 GB, Video Card:Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM and Pixel Shader 3.0 (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550)


steam

movies

311 – Nova Zembla (2011)

novazemblaNova Zembla is a 2011 Dutch historical drama film directed by Reinout Oerlemans. It is the first Dutch feature film in 3D.

The film describes the last journey of Willem Barentsz and Jacob van Heemskerk through 1596-1597 when they and their crew tried to discover the Northeast Passage to the Indies. However, due to the sea ice, they are stranded on the island of Novaya Zemlya and have to spend the winter there in Het Behouden Huys (The Safe Home). The story is told through the eyes of Gerrit de Veer, and is loosely based on a diary he published in 1598 after his safe return. Gerrit is portrayed as having a relationship with Catharina Plancius, the daughter of the astronomer, cartographer and reverend Petrus Plancius, who pioneered the concept of the North East passage to reach the Indies. The Novaya Zemlya effect, first described by De Veer, is shown in the film, albeit in a non-historical fashion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911607/

games

0310 – Victor Vran (2015 video game)

Victor Vran is an action role-playing video game developed by the Bulgarian independent development studio Haemimont Games, creators of recent Tropico titles. Victor Vran is published on Steam by EuroVideo Medien.The setting of the game resembles Gothic-fantasy fairy tale where both magic and science have a place in the world.

Victor Vran Minimum System Requirements – OS: Windows Vista 32-bit. / CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.5GHz. / RAM: 4GB System Memory. / GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 420 or AMD Radeon HD 4650 or Intel HD 4000. / HDD: 4GB Free Hard Drive Space. / DX: DirectX 11.
games

0309 – The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing (2013 video game)

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an action role-playing video game developed by the Hungarian independent development studio NeocoreGames. Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the game focuses on the trials of young Van Helsing, son of the legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from the book. The game is set in a gothic-noir 19th-century Eastern Europe and contains “intentionally anachronistic humor and gadgetry”.

2486193-the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing_pc_coversystem requirements (minimum): OS:Windows XP SP3, Windows 7, Windows 8. / Processor:Dual Core CPU 2.0 GHz. / Memory:2 GB RAM. / Graphics:GeForce 8800, Radeon HD4000, Intel HD4000 (min. 512 MB VRAM) / DirectX®:9.0c. / Hard Drive:20 GB HD space. / Sound:DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card.

REVIEW   /   steam

movies, quotes

0306 – Tracks (2013)

In 1977, Robyn Davidson travels from Alice Springs across 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) of Australian deserts to the Indian Ocean with her dog and four camels.  National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan documents her journey.

34810_TRACKS_1sheet_FN2.indd

Tracks is a 2013 Australian drama film directed by John Curran and starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. It is an adaptation of Robyn Davidson‘s memoir of the same name.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2167266/

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“And there are new kinds of nomads, not people who are at home everywhere, but who are at home nowhere. I was one of them ”