Editorials
Dead Pixels Predicts What We’ll See At E3 2012
Continuing our annual tradition of using our seemingly endless knowledge of the gaming industry to predict what will happen at the biggest gaming event of the year, we have again donned our mystic robes and whipped out our big crystal balls. Also, my crystals balls are way bigger than TJ’s, just in case anyone was wondering about that. So if you’re one of the unlucky many that won’t be attending E3 this year, I suggest you head past the break for much prophesying and soothsayery.
Oh and before we dive into the predictions, here are the dates you should mark off on your calendars:
June 4 – Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony’s pre-E3 press conferences
June 5 – Nintendo’s pre-E3 press conference, E3 begins
June 6-7 – E3
Adam’s Predictions
I’ll start things off with my predictions for Microsoft’s press conference. The biggest difference I foresee in their conference over what they’ve done in previous years is there will be less of an emphasis on exclusives. They’ll of course have Halo 4, there will almost definitely be some sort of timed exclusivity with Black Ops II’s DLC, some Forza Horizons, a little Fable, and hopefully a lot of Deadlight and more on Crytek’s upcoming Ryse.
Speaking of the Kinect, it’ll be a major focus as well. The Kinect’s catalogue of games has been disappointing so far, so I hope they’ll give us something to make the peripheral seem worth its high price tag–which I wouldn’t be surprised to see lowered.
While we’re on prices, I could easily see Microsoft dropping the Xbox 360’s price tag substantially. The $99 subscription console has been confirmed but I can see the console itself getting a price drop of around $50 as they continue pushing it as an affordable all-in-one entertainment device.
If you’re looking for some crazy exclusives or big game reveals, I don’t see much of that happening this year. There will of course be some exclusives, but Microsoft’s arsenal is pretty low right now since they’ve refocused their efforts on expanding the Xbox 360’s suite of apps and other features. I think we’ll get details on a reworked dashboard, some new apps like the long-rumored web browsing that’ll almost certainly be Kinect compatible, and hopefully an iTunes style game store for bite-sized Kinect games–though that last one’s really just hopeful thinking on my part. One thing that’s guaranteed not to be there is the next Xbox, so forget about that for now.
Now for Sony. They’ve managed to scrounge up a number of exciting exclusives, including the multiplayer-centric God of War: Ascension, Battle Royale All Stars, The Last of Us, and potentially even Killzone 4, though that one hasn’t been officially confirmed. I also wouldn’t be surprised to hear more on The Last Guardian, which as a huge Ico and Shadow of the Colossus fan I desperately hope it hasn’t been cancelled.
The Vita is obviously going to be something Sony tries to push, since like the Kinect, its library of games is pretty shallow (however, unlike the Kinect, the Vita is selling horribly. Oh and forget about the PS4; Sony has said they aren’t announcing any new hardware at E3.
The last of the Big Three is Nintendo, which has been struggling with some money losses as the Wii’s popularity continues to decline and the 3DS struggles to capture the magic its predecessors have had. I can see them shifting more of their efforts on rebranding and reintroducing the Wii U after last year’s horrendous debut. I think (read: desperately hope) the console will be renamed because right now it’s fairly confusing. Is it its own console or just a tablet peripheral? Is it compatible with the Wii? Nintendo needs to make the answers to these questions clearer for the people who don’t keep up with gaming blogs.
Now for the games. The game I’m most looking forward to hearing more about is Shinji Mikami’s Zwei, which was revealed recently. All we know is it’s a “pure” survival horror game and that it could potentially be Mikami’s last project as he shifts his focus to running his Tango Gameworks studio.
Right up there with Zwei is Dead Space 3, a game I’m almost positive will make an appearance at E3. We already know there’s a new Dead Space arriving by March 2013, but that could be one of the many Dead Space-related projects EA supposedly has in development right now.
A week ago I would’ve said there’s a very good chance Valve would announce Left 4 Dead 3 this year, but that’s already been shot down, along with Portal 3 and Half-Life 3. I also would’ve liked to hear something from Condemned 3, because the longer that game stays silent the more worried I get about it ever seeing the light of day.
The game that worries me the most is InSane, because if THQ is going to scrap any of their projects–because of their recent monetary woes–InSane is going to be the first game to get the axe. We haven’t heard from it since its debut teaser at the Spike VGAs last year, and now that Guillermo Del Toro’s At The Mountains of Madness film has been put on hold It’s looking more and more difficult to get my GDT fix.
If I were to come up with a wish list, it’d include Condemned 3, InSane, Dead Space 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Eternal Darkness II, and something from Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. Unfortunately, it looks like only one game on that list has a chance of being unveiled. I was going to mention The Secret World, but TJ’s up next and we all know that’s on his list, so without further rambling, here’s TJ!
TJ’s Predictions
There’s a few heavy hitters I’m pretty excited to hear about at this years E3. News always gets slow right before E3. It really just builds the suspense for all the news that’s going to blow us away.
Since Adam literally just announced the next Dead Space, I’m super excited now. But we don’t know what it could be. Dead Space 3 would be ideal. What I really don’t want is for the series to take a Resident Evil type of turn, where we end up with a bunch of shitty games. Which in turn means we have to wait longer and longer between the good ones. Something I think would actually be awesome is a Dead Space FPS. That would probably end up being super scary.
Resident Evil 6. Last year I was just hoping they would announce it. They didn’t. But now that the zombie cats out of the bag I can’t wait to see what they show us at E3. The story so far is very shrouded in mystery and honestly I hope they keep it that way. I want to be shocked at every turn when playing 6.
I really want to hear more about Shinji Mikami’s new survival horror game Zwei. I’m incredible intrigued by the game, I want to see what he’s been up to.
Is it too much to ask to see something from the next Dead Island? I believe Dead World was the name they had bought the rights to. It’ll be cool to see where they take the next game, and if they are able to create a trailer as good as Dead Island’s announcement.
I’m really excited to see more about Halo 4, so I’m hoping 343 is there to show us more on the game since it was passed onto them from Bungie.
I’m actually pretty excited for the whole show in general. Out of all the video game conventions/shows etc E3 has the most reveals, info, videos, screens etc. I haven’t thought too much about it this year and I’m pretty glad. I’m excited to be surprised and I’m hoping to see some really awesome stuff this year.
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The problem with filming sequels back-to-back is that, unless you can afford expensive reshoots, there’s no easy way to adjust course in between movies if fans react badly to where the story is headed. That’s why it’s important to have a complete narrative thought out well in advance lest you accidentally kill a budding franchise.
However, this isn’t always the case. Every once in a while, it seems like the cinema gods smile upon certain chaotic productions and gift moviegoers with complete franchises that feel like more than the sum of their hastily produced parts. Ted Nicolaou’s Bloodlust: Subspecies III is precisely one of these miraculous pictures, with the raw talents of the artists involved (as well as the continued support from Romania) turning the feature into an effective conclusion for a series that kind of made things up as the filmmakers went along.
That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow readers to join me on this third part of our journey through the Subspecies franchise as we look into Bloodlust and talk about how it remains a surprisingly satisfying finale to the original trilogy.
A Trilogy Planned on the Fly
Released only a year after Bloodstone found plenty of success in rental stores and mail-in VHS catalogues worldwide, 1994’s Bloodlust was produced at the same time as its predecessor in (mostly) the same locations and with the same team. This means that the movie benefited from all the same upgrades as Bloodstone, with the crew now being more experienced with the ins and outs of surviving a low-budget Romanian production and the cast really settling into their characters.
At this point, everything from location scouting to the makeup process had been streamlined, with Wayne Toth and Norman Cabrera, the main duo behind special effects, even switching out time-consuming prosthetics for latex gloves in order to speed up Anders Hove’s monstrous transformation. The titular “subspecies” demons were also once again relegated to a mere cameo appearance due to the laborious puppetry required to bring them to life.
The only real hiccup came from the fact that actress Denice Duff had replaced the first film’s Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and was immediately expected to portray the character as both an innocent victim in part II and as a secondary villain in part III. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, the hectic production schedule that blended two different movies meant that Duff would often find herself having to alternate between two incredibly different versions of Michelle during the same shooting day – though it’s obvious that she’s having more fun with Bloodlust’s more traditionally vampiric version of her character.
In the finished film, we pick things up immediately where the previous entry left off as Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is forced to leave her vampire sister Michelle (Duff) behind in the dungeons of Castle Vladislav due to the rising sun. This allows Mummy (Pamela Gordon) to use Michelle’s blood to revive the vicious Radu (Hove) so that he may continue his quest for the coveted Bloodstone – a magical artifact that perpetually drips the Blood of Saints.
Meanwhile, the dreamy US embassy agent Mel (Kevin Blair) agrees to help Rebecca plan a rescue mission, though they’re unaware that Radu has become infatuated with Michelle during his attempts to guide her growing bloodlust. This all culminates in a climactic confrontation meant to tie up all of the series’ loose ends in one of Full Moon Pictures’ most ambitious productions.
The Evolution of Radu
Like its predecessor, Bloodlust: Subspecies III was also warmly received by fans who argued that the series was an even bigger success than Full Moon’s other major horror franchise, Puppet Master. This praise wasn’t unanimous, however, as 1994 had seen the rise of a more modern breed of sexy vampire popularized by Anne Rice, with old-school Nosferatu like Radu being viewed as obsolete when compared to the likes of Lestat and Gary Oldman’s take on Dracula.
In a way, one might argue that Nicolaou’s film is something of a swan song for the classic vampire story, as Bloodlust combines all of the traditional elements we tend to associate with these tales into a single tragic yarn that ties a neat little bow on Radu’s story as well as the old-fashioned monster movies that he represents. The finale remains shocking despite the fact that this is the third time we see Radu get brutally killed onscreen, with the brief tease that he may one day return feeling more like a nod towards the nature of evil rather than sequel bait.
The film dabbles a bit in gothic romance and even explores the inherent power fantasy behind transforming into an immortal creature of the night, but the filmmakers never lose sight of Radu as a demonic force even when he’s willing to betray his beloved Mummy for Michelle’s sake. In fact, his twisted “love” for his fledgling makes him even creepier as we get the feeling that his passion comes from a dark and disturbing place.
Anders Hove is at his absolute best in this film, with the effects department boosting his moments of what the younger generation would call “aura farming” whenever Radu emerges from shadows like a 90s version of Count Orlok. There are even a couple of surprisingly effective jump-scares here, which is why I’d argue that Bloodlust cements Radu as one of the most memorable cinematic vampires of all time despite his humble origins.
Subspecies Saves Its Best For Last
Nicolaou and Vlad Panescu also saved the best for “last” (more on that in a bit) regarding the film’s visuals, with the cinematography and overall atmosphere of Bloodlust absolutely surpassing what we saw in the previous films. Everything feels appropriately climactic this time around (including the wonderful soundtrack that was co-composed alongside an authentic Romanian orchestra), and I appreciate how this is the fastest-paced entry in the trilogy since the film doesn’t need to waste time setting anything up.
Bloodlust still suffers from some of the same low-budget blemishes as its predecessors, but there’s so much creative passion here that no amount of wonky effects work or stilted dialogue can get in the way of appreciating the flick’s gothic grandeur. That’s why it’s not surprising that the movie’s definitive(-ish) ending would later be retconned as fans begged for more Radu.
Of course, the next entry in this series would be a different kind of vampiric endeavor altogether, with the filmmakers attempting to engage with the same trends that ultimately killed Radu and his antiquated kin. That, however, is a story for another time. For now, I’ll merely insist that Bloodlust: Subspecies III remains a highlight of Full Moon’s expansive catalogue and is definitely worth seeking out today.
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