New Star Wars game looks like Battlefield 4 goes to space. Can't wait!

A scene from Star Wars Battlefront amid the battle for Hoth

Years ago (like back in 1994), I used to be pretty good at a PC game called X-Wing. It was about the only computer game I ever played then, and I haven't played anything else since. (Except for Ingress, but that's a completely different kettle of fish. Make sure you join the green team!)

X-Wing: cutting edge gameplay circa 1994

Last Christmas, that changed with a gift of the PC game Battlefield 4. Crikey, computer games sure have come a long way! I've sunk almost 400 hours into that game since, and progressed to Level 58 so far. But the reality is I'm not that fast anymore and my kill/death ratio is still pretty sad.

I'm better at the reconnaissance strategy and long long distance sniping than the frantic running around everywhere mode that seems to be the MO of most good players.

When a friend posted a link for a teaser video of the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront game, I could tell immediately it was by EA and DICE—the makers of Battlefield. It looked so much like BF4, but with different uniforms. And ray guns. And jet packs. And space. See for yourself:

Elysium trailer looks the honest to dog goods!

After the horrible letdown that was Prometheus, one can be forgiven for being wary about getting excited about awesome scifi trailers. So this one about the upcoming movie Elysium has really really hoping that the movie goes close to the promise of the trailer. Because what's in the trailer looks totally freaking awesome...


Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and direction by Neill Blomkamp, who did that amazing surprise package District 9.

"Orphan Black" trailer looks good. From BBC America. We need the ABC to lock this in for Australia!

The folk over at the very cool io9.com have posted this short trailer for a new series from BBC America about a woman who starts running into identical hers, and falls into a rabbit hole of intrigue and danger.

Sci fi, clones, suspense, looks like a strong female lead (there are getting to be many more of those lately—a good thing), BBC pedigree, the ingredients are stacking up for show with promise.

And let's face it—TV needs some quality sci fi...

We SO need to lobby the ABC's Mark Scott to make sure when it opens on March 30 in the US, we get it here too.

Look out Battlestar Galactica fans! Blood and Chrome BSG prequel launches this Friday

And it isn't going to be locked up on some inaccessible pay television site—it's going to be released on the web.

OK, so it may not therefore end up being full production quality. But let's face it—we are starved of decent scifi (looking at you Prometheus!), so we'll take it!

Here's the trailer:


As it says on the box:

Follow young pilot William Adama in the First Cylon War and his first adventure aboard the Battlestar Galactica. 

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Good hunting!

UPDATE 10/11/2012: It's geoblocked. Grrr. But thanks to @DebraAtkinson42 I can point you to an alternative that doesn't require a VPN subscription: http://www.tvweb.com/shows/battlestar-galactica-blood-and-chrome/episodes.
And the first two episodes seem pretty good. Still, 10 minute chunks can be a bit annoying, so maybe allow a bunch to build up and watch them in one hit?

What I've been reading and writing - a bit of a catch-up

This is a catch-up of my reading and writing lists as auto-compiled into e-zines by Paper.li. As usual, it is mostly for my own reference down the track, but maybe someone is interested.

The recycling bin may no longer be full of discarded newspapers, but holy moley I'm chewing through some online reading...

Editions for the week ending:

1 October

24 September

17 September

10 September

3 September

27 August

20 August

13 August

6 August

30 July

23 July

16 July

9 July

Phew. That's it. Must keep on top of this a bit better...

What happened to the Star Wars that I used to know?

If you liked the original Star Wars but cringe at the "prequels", 3D and endless remakes, then this Gotye spoof is for you.

Make sure you turn the captions on (the CC icon) to fully appreciate the witty lyrics.

Sci Fi fans: seems we have reason to get excited about Prometheus. Check these trailers.

It's the source of constant amazement that good science fiction is so hard to come by...

In an era when there seems to be so little that is new in the entertainment world, you'd think that studios would be pumping out sci fi topics like there's no tomorrow (hey hang on - there's a plot line...).

After all, there are endless plot lines that could be explored and no-one to tell you they are wrong. Think about the topics with brilliant currency (both topical and financial!) - the Large Hadron Collider, dark matter, dark energy, fusion energy, tsunamis and nuclear reactors, a Chinese space race, an Indian-Pakistan nuclear conflict (or the Koreas if you like), the Square Kilometre Array, life on Enceladus, global warming, where to for the US's feral Tea Partyists...it just goes on.

But what do we get? Sequels and 3D remakes.

So is it any surprise that all of geek-dom get wound up about the pending release of something like Prometheus? Yeah sure - technically it's a 'prequel' to the Alien(s) franchise, but a whole lot different.

Battlestar Galactica Blood and Chrome - awesome prequel trailer escapes from YouTube blackout! Watch here.

This trailer for a prequel to Battlestar Gallactica went viral when it hit YouTube a couple of days ago, but was just as quickly yanked after complaints from Syfy. Boo!

Guess they realised that once it got out there, the pressure from fans would be irresistible. As it should be! There was even talk that Syfy would demote the whole idea to a webseries.


Battlestar Galactica Blood and Chrome : premier... by PureCine

The plot follows a younger William Adama in the first Cylon war. Actually, let's let Geek Crash Course fill in the gaps: