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'Portal: No Escape' Elevates the Fan Film Genre

08.24.11 @ 5:00PM Tags : portal, short, videogames

Dan Trachtenberg’s unoffficial short film Portal: No Escape, based on Valve Software’s videogame series Portal, brings to mind a few talking points. One of them: if you want eyeballs on your short, picking an existing franchise is a great way to ensure you’ll get them (of course, Hollywood uses this same logic to make remakes and adaptations ad naseum). You could do worse than a franchise like Portal, though, which is a terrifically clever series (Portal 2 is one of two videogames I’ve found time to play in the past year). Shot on a RED with anamorphic lenses, the short is extremely well-made: More »

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Independent Game 'Limbo' Brings a Film Noir Aesthetic to the PS3 and PC

07.19.11 @ 1:14PM Tags : games, indiegames, interactivity, limbo, videogames

Check out the aesthetic of the independent game Limbo, which seems to be influenced by film noir, sci-fi, and german expressionism. Limbo won Spike’s best independent game award last year for its presence on the Xbox Live Arcade and has been lauded as a “modern classic.” Today, the game premiered on the Playstation Network for $14.99, and will also be coming to the PC platform on August 2nd via Steam. Here’s the atmospheric trailer, which shows its cinematic influences by beginning with the sound of scratchy film: More »

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Boy, Games Sure are Getting Close to Movies: The 'Bioshock Infinite' Trailer

07.9.11 @ 2:11PM Tags : bioshock, games, indiegames, interactive, interactivity, videogames

In the blockbuster game world, recent multimillion-dollar releases like L.A. Noire (which was the first video game to play at the Tribeca Film Festival) and Portal 2 have taken videogame storytelling up a notch. If this demo of the forthcoming game BioShock Infinite is any indication, first-person shooters are packing in the action, set-pieces, ideas, and storytelling of blockbuster films — but handing controls over to the player. And that’s the whole point, right? Take a look at this video, which isn’t a pre-rendered trailer, but rather 15 minutes of screen-captured gameplay : More »

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If Today’s Nintendo 3DS Doesn’t Need Glasses, Neither Will Tomorrow’s 3D TV

07.2.10 @ 1:07PM Tags : 3D, 3ds, avatar, games, nintendo, videogames

Nintendo’s announcement of the Nintendo 3DS brings with it the usual slew of technology refreshes — faster processor, higher resolution display, etc — as well as a capability new to handheld gaming: 3D. However, this 3D technology is a bit different from the one moviegoers are used to, in that it doesn’t require glasses. What could this mean for the future of 3D video games and movies? More »