Monthly Archives: August 2016

Horror Title Allison Road Comes Back To Life

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aliisonroad

My first thought upon hearing the title Allison Road was “Isn’t that a song by the Gin Blossoms?” And yes. Yes it is. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

Rather, what we’re talking about is the spiritual successor to P.T., the “playable teaser” for a then-upcoming Silent Hill game directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro that was unceremoniously cancelled because Konami doesn’t know a good thing when they see it (and yes, I’m still bitter about this). Despite having a successful Kickstarter campaign,  the game was cancelled in June.

Well, apparently the UK developer who was working on the game, Lillith, LTD, has decided to revive the project.

It sounds like the project was cancelled due to a falling out with then publisher Team 17. However, it looks like Lillith Ltd has located a new publisher for the title in Far From Home. This, according to creator Christian Kesler, also gave the team some time to go over and make some changes to the story and generally tweak it a bit (from the linked PC Gamer article):

“It did take a bit of soul searching to find the drive again to work on Allison Road and to simply make a call on what to do next,” Kesler said. “After the setback, I took a bit of a break from working on it and re-evaluated all the work that had been done so far—the whole journey, so to speak. I started making a few (in my opinion) necessary changes to the story and the flow, little bits and pieces here and there, and before I knew it, it sort of naturally came back to life.”

I, admittedly, hadn’t really paid all that much attention to the project when it was originally announced last year (for which I am now kicking myself). See, I love horror, and I love video games, so it would stand to reason that I love horror video games. Watching the prototype, I definitely see some shades of P.T., but more in-depth, with voice acting and more interaction with objects.

I am getting pretty excited about this. There has been a dearth of good horror games recently, and from what I have seen of this project, it looks like Lillith Ltd has what it takes to pull this off.

The Trailer Park: Hidden Figures

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It’s been a while since I last wrote about a trailer. Mostly this was because I hadn’t seen any film trailers that sparked my interest. Until I watched the trailer for Hidden Figures.

Hidden Figures, directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, tells the story of three women: Katherine Johnson (Taraji P Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), and is based on the non-fiction work by Margo Lee Shetterly. These three women were mathematicians who worked for NASA and were crucial to a number of projects. It looks like this one focuses on John Glenn’s orbit around the earth in 1962.

The movie looks like most of the focus is going to be on Johnson, but Vaughan and Jackson appear to be getting a good amount of screentime as well. I will admit, though, that I had no idea who these women were until I watched this trailer, but I did look them up on Wikipedia and they’re actually pretty interesting. Obviously, being women of color in a field dominated by white men, they experience that lovely intersection of racism and sexism, and the film doesn’t look like it’s going to gloss over that.

It also helps that it looks funnier than hell. I think my favorite part of the trailer is when the three meet John Glenn (Glen Powell), and Jackson checks him out as he walks away. Johnson asks her, “How can you be ogling those white men?” and Jackson replies, “It’s equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every color.”

Also, while I am admittedly unfamiliar with Taraji P Henson and Octavia Spencer’s work, I am excited to see Janelle Monáe here. I love her work as a singer, and she just seems to be a really awesome person all around.

The current release date for Hidden Figures is January 13, 2017. I will probably be seeing it, and I’m most likely going to be looking up the book in the near future as well.

Katie Plays Stuff: This Is The Police

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(First, some business. I have a new patron on Patreon! Christina Kortes (full disclosure: my sister) recently pledged five dollars a post. Please email a post idea to katjapants@gmail.com and I will write a post on it. If you would like to give me some money, you can go to my Patreon page or my PayPal. Thanks!)

This Is The Police shows you what it’s like to be a police chief for a corrupt force. And that experience is mostly really, really boring.

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About Me

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Hi! My name is Katie. I am a thirty-something living in northern Minnesota.

I am a huge nerd, and have been one for pretty much my entire life. I grew up watching numerous sci-fi series like Star Trek and Babylon 5, as well as a number of movies of the same genre. I also read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy novels, and have been very into video games since I was about 18. Those are the topics that I generally tend to blog about. I also have two weekly features: Mythology Monday, where I talk about various myths and folklore; and Short Story Saturday, where I summarize and talk about a different short story.

I currently have a Patreon, but also operate a PayPal and Ko-Fi account if people would like to show support with a one-time donation.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Also, social media!

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So, welcome! I hope you enjoy.

Again? Seriously, Again?

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Well, another female celebrity has been chased off of social media by harassing troglodytes. This time, the star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Daisy Ridley was forced to shut down her Instagram account. Her horrible crime? She had that audacity, the absolute nerve, to make a post decrying gun violence.

According to the above link, the post (which can still be found on her Facebook page) reads thusly:

Thinking about how lucky I am like……… Serious bit: as I sat in the audience yesterday tears were streaming down my face at the tribute to those that have been lost to gun violence. I didn’t get a great picture of the incredible group that came on stage but they were so brave. It was a true moment of togetherness. We must ‪#‎stoptheviolence‬

So, apparently because she had an emotional reaction to a tribute at an event she was attending (the Teen Choice Awards) and decided to post a call for peace, that’s apparently too fucking political.

The comments on her Instagram are no longer there, naturally because her Instagram is no longer there. However, her Facebook is still there, and still getting comments. I think this one is probably my favorite:

BULLSHIT

This guy, this fucking guy, is apparently so divorced from reality that he somehow thinks that Ridley using a fake laser gun in a goddamn movie suddenly invalidates what she’s saying above.

Oh, but it gets even better. Apparently, some people have taken to harassing her co-star and friend John Boyega, trying to get her to come back. Boyega, naturally, gave a very classy response supporting her decision:

boyega defense

It’s just, I really would like to be able to stop talking about this. I really would. But it just keeps fucking happening. It happens every day to people who aren’t celebrities (who, by the way, are people too). And people just brush it off, saying it’s just the Internet and we should stop talking about this. Except, that’s bullshit, because unless we talk about harassment and shame the fuck out of the people who do the harassing, this is just going to keep happening. And will most likely get worse.

I close with a thought I had when something similar happened to Leslie Jones on Twitter (except without the delightful added element of racism, this time): The Internet is part of real life. The people that are behind the screen are real people, with real feelings, and who experience real hurt when people pull this shit.

Star Trek Recaps: TOS, “The Cage”

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Screencaps from treckcore.com

(First, just a quick reminder that I have a Patreon page! While this blog is very much a labor of love, I also have the goal of it being my career some day. If you like what I write, please consider making a contribution. Thanks! Now, on to our regularly scheduled post.)

I may have mentioned once or twice that Star Trek was a pretty huge part of my childhood. A large part of our family time when I was a kid was spent watching the various series that were one when I was a kid (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager), and my mom used to watch the original series when she was a kid.

I do have to admit, however, that I actually haven’t watched very much of the original series, and it’s actually been quite a long time since I’ve watched any of the others. That (along with listening to the podcast Women At Warp which you should all be listening to because it’s amazing) has spurred me towards this little project.

Once a week, for the foreseeable future, I will be recapping one episode of Star Trek, beginning with the original series, and going straight through to Enterprise. I will be including the animated series, and I may cover the movies (I’m undecided on this point).

To that end, I will start with the TOS unaired pilot episode, “The Cage.”

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