Category Archives: Video Games

Red Sand — A Mass Effect Prequel

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I’ve had my eye on this project for a while and I have to say, it’s looking more interesting as time goes by.

Students out at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona have been working on a fan film that is a prequel to the Mass Effect game series. Here’s the plot outline as found on the Red Sand Facebook page:

Serving as a prequel to the MASS EFFECT game series, “Red Sand” is set 35 years before the time of Commander Shepard and tells the story of the discovery of ancient ruins on Mars. Left behind by the mysterious alien race known as the Protheans, the ruins are a treasure trove of advanced technology and the powerful Element Zero, an energy source beyond humanity’s wildest dreams. As the Alliance research team led by Dr. Averroes (Ayman Samman) seeks to unlock the secrets of the ruins, a band of marauders living in the deserts of Mars wants the ruins for themselves. Addicted to refined Element Zero in the form of a narcotic nicknamed “Red Sand” which gives them telekinetic “biotic” powers, these desert-dwelling terrorists will stop at nothing to control the ruins and the rich vein of Element Zero at its core. Standing between them and their goal are Colonel Jon Grisson (Mark Meer), Colonel Lily Sandhurst (Amy Searcy), and a team of Alliance soldiers tasked with defending the ruins at all costs. At stake — the future of humanity’s exploration of the galaxy, and the set up for the MASS EFFECT storyline loved by millions of gamers worldwide.

All I know is that if this trailer is any indication of what the final product will be, we’re in for a real treat once it’s finished. What do you think?

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Note: The UAT Digital Video blog can be found at: http://uatdigitalvideo.blogspot.com/

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Links of the Week

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Happy Friday, everyone! It time to post my favorite links from this week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

  • Giveaway: Tor is giving away five copies of The Stolen Bride, an Arthurian novel by Tony Hays. Deadline is March 9, 2012.
  • Remember the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report? Okay, maybe this technology is more along the lines of CSI, but this bit of news that reminded me of that. Researchers at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) have created AR goggles that all investigators to create 3D videos of crime scenes, tag evidence and then virtually re-visit the scene. Here’s the link, complete with a one minute video.
  • Interested in the new 3D Spiderman movie? A new full-length trailer has been released for the flick starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen and Sally Field.
  • Melanie Rawn’s new fantasy, Touchstone, is coming from TOR and debuts February 28. The story focuses on Cayden Silversun, a rebel wizard who is part Elven, part Fae. You can find an excerpt here.
  • Here’s a fun site that posts an original fantasy/sci-fi short story or flash fiction story every day: Daily Science Fiction. You can get each post for no charge via the website or email. Alternately, you can get a monthly digest for Kindle for only $2.99 per issue. There’s some pretty good stuff here by world-class authors.
  • Laser tag anyone? I saw this sometime back, but this yet-to-be-introduced toy entertainment device still cracks me up. Engadget posted an article featuring Hasbro’s Nerf Lazer Tag system — for your smartphone. The plastic blasters pair with an iPhone or iPod touch and will be introduced this year.
  • Kindle Freebie: Best-selling author Mike Dellosso‘s Christian suspense/horror novel Scream is being offered free for Kindle – only until February 14, 2012. At last report, it ranked #11 on Amazon’s Free for Kindle Store. I understand you want to read this one with the lights on. The offer lasts only until February 14, 2012 and is intended to support his new book, Frantic, which was just released by Realms three days ago. You can enter Giveaways for Frantic here (deadline February 22, 2012) Also at Melinda William’s blog, http://www.berlysue.blogspot.com, (hurry, I don’t know when the deadline is on these last two websites). Each of these sites also has a review.
  • Giveaway: Tor is giving away on Goodreads 5 copies of Glamour in Glass by best-selling author Mary Robinette Kowal. Deadline is March 9, 2012.
  • Are you Frank Peretti fan? He is giving away pre-release chapters of his new suspense novel, Illusion, which will be available March 6. It’s a unique promotion — each chapter release is governed by Like milestones on Facebook. Last I checked, 8 chapters were available. Info here.
  • What’s a Friday link mash-up without geek news? Railgun technology is getting closer to reality when the U.S. Navy awarded a defense contractor $10 million to develop part of the system that can hurl projectiles at 5,000 miles per hour. Yikes! Don’t aim that thing at me!
  • Are you a fan of the wildly successful MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic? If so, you might be interested in three games that promise to offer stiff competition this year: Guild Wars 2 by Arena Net, The Secret World by Funcom (targeted for an April release), and TERA by En Masse Entertainment (targeted for release in May). Here’s more info.
  • And here’s a fun video for those of you who are fans of Mass Effect 3. Someone has put together the entire story in the game, set to the song Still Alive from Portal. Warning: Spoilers abound. I know the song but not the Mass Effect game. The tongue-in-cheek style still made me smile.
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There were so many things to choose from this week that it was hard to pick my favorites. What about you? Are there any you’d like to mention? Just click the comment bubble at the top right of this post.

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Links of the Week

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Happy Friday, everyone! It’s time to give you my favorite links from this week. So many to choose from this time. Well, here goes…

  • I stumbled across http://www.thetatteredscroll.com this week. There you can find many current fantasy ebook deals, including two RA Salvatore ebooks currently priced at $4.99 (that’s $3 off the usual digital price). It’s nice to have someone willing to go through what’s out there and find the cream of the crop.
  • http://www.starwarsuncut.com/ has released a remake of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, comprised entirely of 15-second fan clips. I watched a few minutes and have to shake my head at the originality of some of the submissions.
  • I love beautiful artwork. Naomi Novik has posted a beautiful piece of fan art by Daniel Govar, a dragon based on her Temeraire series.
  • MIT unveiled In Europe the Hiriko electric car, a windshield mounted car that folds up to take up one-third the parking space of an average size car. A pilot program for the little sci-fi looking buggy is set to begin next year.
  • I see Steven Spielberg is considering creating a Moses epic for Warner Bros. Will it going to be more fantasy or faith? I guess we’ll see.
  • Last year, Tor Forge gave away copies of Templar One (EVE, #2) by Tony Gonzales. Well, they’re at it again. Five copies are available on Goodreads. Deadline is February 24, 2012. (The book is based on the MMORPG game, http://www.eveonline.com/) For a peek at the action-packed trailer for the game see the publisher’s book page.
  • Here’s one that cracked me up: The 10 most undignified deaths in SFF, according to the Facebook followers of io9.com.
  • Care to contribute to one man’s attempt to list the family tree of every character in Lord of the Rings? http://www.lotrproject.com/. I wish him luck.
  • Giveaway: To kick off the Year of the Dragon, Tor is giving away four copies of the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring: The Graphic Novel by Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon, and Mike S. Miller. Speaking of WOT, the publisher is also offering 10 copies of the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. The deadline for both is February 24, 2012.
  • Giveaway: Another offering by Tor on Goodreads — The Stolen Throne by David Gaider, the prequel to Dragon Age: Origins, the role-playing video game from Bioware. Deadline is February 24, 2012.
  • Here’s some geek news: University of Washington researchers have created a game, Foldit, where players can decode and create protein shapes to help scientists learn how proteins work and help with drug research for HIV and Alzheimer’s cures. Gamers, go forth and save the world! More on this story on CNET.
  • Minecraft and Zelda unite! Here’s a video showing the Hyrule Temple built in Minecraft. Now that must have taken quite some time.
  • Want to up your geek-cred points a tiny bit? Tell people you know where to find the video showing the Lego Man in Space, footage shot by 17-year-olds Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad using a weather balloon and makeshift Styrofoam spacecraft to send a Lego man 15 miles up into the stratosphere. To make it easy, here you go:
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I think that’ll do it for now. Have a great weekend, everyone! If I missed any good links, leave a note in the comments. I love to hear from you.

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Brandon Sanderson Bridges Video Games with “The Infinity Blade: Awakening”

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God’s death didn’t do much to change the lives of the people of Drem’s Maw. In fact, most of them didn’t even know their deity had been slain.

So begins Brandon Sanderson’s new novella The Infinity Blade: Awakening, an e-book that bridges ChAIR Entertainment Group’s Infinity Blade video games made for Apple’s iOS 5 devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad). As a novelization related to video games, this book is a new type of venture for Sanderson, and yet he handles it with skill, as always.

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, it is no secret that I am a huge Sanderson fan and as such, snapped this e-book up within a few days of its release on October 3. I knew it would be a quick read and I was curious to see what it was like.

Because I had not played the video games, I was afraid I might have trouble following the plot, but I found that wasn’t the case. It’s obvious that the book begins at a point where a gamer would have beaten the first Infinity Blade game so in that vein, it read as if a new storyline had begun, which in effect is the case. I found that Sanderson wrote the book with his usual style, that is, with skill and humor. All in all, I found The Infinity Blade: Awakening a quick and entertaining read.

I would be amiss if I didn’t give you a synopsis of the book and I figure there is none better to do that than the publisher itself. As such, following is the official blurb:

Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets —  the one being in the world who can unravel secrets of the Infinity Blade.

Have you read The Infinity Blade: Awakening yet? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just leave me a note in the comments box below.

To purchase a copy of The Infinity Blade: Awakening for $2.99, here are links to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (Available in e-book format only.)

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”