E3 2015 - ATOM BOMB BABY

The more popular of the Fallout 4 trailers doing the rounds gives you an extended look at the character creation overhauls and how your story hinges on a relationship with a loveable, stray dog. It wants you to make an emotional investment. This one features comical, shoulder-mounted garbage hurlers that can pulp the heads of enemies blessed with names like 'Raider Scum'. I know which one better represents my previous dealings with the wasteland.

E3 2015 - WELL BLOW ME DOWN

Studio MDHR are back with another trailer for their beautiful Cuphead, a game that resides at the collision point between Gunstar Heroes and Fleischer Studios animation. Video games are good at magpie-ing visual cues, anime and manga have been thoroughly plundered for effects, but they rarely work so hard to properly contextualise the swipe. Cuphead doesn't just cherry-pick the ideas, it looks exactly like an interactive Popeye cartoon.

E3 2015 - 10,000 GAMERSCORE

Hopefully Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves signal a change in Microsoft's attitude towards the underappreciated studio. Not sure why you'd buy a second-party Nintendo studio then have them working solely on wallet bleeding t-shirts for online avatars. Anyway, Sea of Thieves has nifty cannonball firing animations and Rare Replay promises a curated moment feature that allows you to dip in and out of the assembled classics.

E3 2015 - DIAMOND DOGS

Perhaps Konami have finally twigged that Metal Gear Solid as a brand is indistinguishable from Hideo Kojima? As if to allay fears that the interaction auteur had been snatched off the project, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's big E3 tease runs with a front-and-centre direction and editing credit for Kojima.

E3 2015 - HOTH

Star Wars Battlefront has got to be the easiest sell in the world. If DICE doing Battlefield with a space opera skin wasn't exciting enough, then you've got John Williams' rousing marching standards and Ben Burtt's indelible sound effects elevating the entire package into the fucking atmosphere. Good to see Luke firmly back in his black, ten-thousand-times-cooler-than-sweaty-old-robes Jedi outfit too.

E3 2015 - DOOM

Despite the Crysis cyborg suit and a brand new mantling mechanic, Id Software's latest pass at Doom looks to be maintaining the original games core appeal of wildly cycling through loads of amazing, gigantic guns while throngs of demons charge at you from every angle. The de rigueur executions barely feel like a betrayal either, they're just another excuse to fill the screen with gibs.

E3 2015 - GENERATION ONE

Platinum Games' take on Transformers is predictably perfect - a colour-popped, cel-shaded version of Generation One that looks like a cross between the beautiful Nelson Shin animated movie and Studio Ox's TV Magazine angles. This vid demonstrates a pretty bare game that looks more like a proof-of-concept than a full fleshed out game. Still, the Decepticon generics are wonderfully obscure, they all look like Runamuck with colour schemes borrowed from Whirl and the Stunticons.

E3 2015 - MOTHER

Famicom classic Mother makes the leap to the Wii U as EarthBound Beginnings. Presumably, given Nintendo's reluctance to get under the hood and tinker with legacy releases, this is a straight port of the 8-bit game. For people who struggle with embedded videos, Mother is an obstinate, surreal jab at the Dragon Quest formula, set in the United States as seen through the eyes of Japanese software developers.

E3 2015 - NEW CHALLENGER

Nintendo are getting the jump on E3 with a couple of big announces. First up is Street Fighter stalwart Ryu being added to both the Wii U and 3DS versions of Super Smash Bros. Ryu makes the crossover with the majority of his movelist intact, apparently you can even use old Street Fighter II negative edge techniques to store up inputs for special moves.

Jurassic Park III

The Jurassic Park films have real issues mounting a satisfying finale. Each is apparently operating under an undisclosed agreement to never actually have the humans and dinosaurs go claw-to-claw. Instead the tiny, pathetic fleshlings must mantle obstacles and flee. Few of these characters ever think to pack a gun when jetting off to any of the series' dinosaur islands, even if they do it's usually junked before they can unload on any advancing threat. Either this is an attempt at an animal rights informed, conservation angle or the filmmakers just really want to keep their adventurers forever on the back foot. Mind you, it's not like you could blow the arm off a raptor and still maintain a family friendly certificate. Not in 2001 when Jurassic Park III was released anyway. 

Director Joe Johnston continues this passive trend with an airless finale that sees the malevolent new apex threat frightened off by the brief whoosh of petrol igniting. Similarly, a pack of Velociraptors are placated with, essentially, a flute. Johnston is fine when it comes to arranging the specifics of hazard-based action but a little lacking when the time comes to go in for the kill. Unlike Spielberg who, let's face it, is a bloodthirsty savage, Johnston is just not particularly interested in the gruesome, consumptive details. Dismemberment is handled politely and usually completely obscured then. Several deaths even involve some of the casual neck-twisting usually seen in America's more roided-up action films. This strange sense of decorum jibes badly with a 90 minute screenplay going full speed ahead. JP3 might be plotted like a state-of-the-art B picture but, on the day, the film itself is executed with all the excess of one of Disney's True-Life Adventures.

V-TRIGGER

A trailer and an impressions video from VideoGamerTV for Street Fighter V. As the guys mention in their discussion, it looks like Yoshinori Ono and his teams are trying to give the new game some of Street Fighter III: Third Strike's reversal magic. Although only a handful of characters are either shown or discussed, it looks like the new V-Trigger gauge will allow certain characters to absorb or even repel fireballs, much like a buffed version of the III series' parry system.

The Lost World - Jurassic Park

The Lost World - Jurassic Park is a nastier, more overtly comedic second instalment that cuts the dimwit awe of the original film to jampack itself with queasy set-pieces. Framed as an expedition straight out of King Kong, Steven Spielberg's follow-up also takes a few basic structural cues from Aliens. As with James Cameron's sequel our lead is a reluctant survivor, in this case Jeff Goldblum's Dr Ian Malcolm, being forced back into the fray. Like Ripley, Malcolm is (eventually) flanked by a team of experts armed with military hardware that also kind of looks like lightly dressed filmmaking equipment.

Spielberg's tonal approach is largely and, I suppose, refreshingly impartial. The Dinosaurs aren't demonised, no matter who they gobble up. It is understood that the humans are trespassers wandering, uninvited, into the habitat of these animals. That makes them fair game. Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp construct a never-ending attack factory that quickly whittles this army of extras down to something more dramatically manageable. So, while Jurassic Park had action sequences that revolved around surviving in close proximity to prehistoric monsters with Spielberg playing the moment, trusting that the effects were a big enough presence to maintain interest, the Lost World presumes that this element of surprise has been forfeited. These dinosaurs are therefore demoted to a further, spikier layer of threat in a series of minutely composed catastrophes, often including upended machinery.

Consequently, The Lost World's joys are more to do with pure filmmaking technique than anything specifically organic. These characters may have arcs but for some reason they all terminate around the 100 minute mark. The San Diego finale that follows this resolution therefore feels completely tacked on. Key characters, such as Vince Vaughn's photographer, are absent for no stated reason and the two leads have picked up incongruent action abilities between scenes. Spielberg's film also stops dead in its tracks for several minutes while we cycle through some lame suburban skit about night terrors. Lost World's best stretch comes earlier then: a breathless charge towards an extraction point that caps the second act. During this gauntlet the dwindling survivors have to dodge both a pack of Velociraptors and the two vengeful Tyrannosaurs.

Pete Postlethwaite's Roland Tembo is an interesting presence in this section, another Great White Hunter explicitly testing himself against these ancient titans. Tembo lugs around a double-barrelled cannon and, like centuries of forebears who cannot abide massive animals living undisturbed lives, he hopes to blast a hole in the Bull Rex. Though when he does finally fells his quarry, Tembo quickly slips into a depressive funk. He may have successfully brought down the greatest apex predator in history but he's lost too many friends along the way. Tembo doesn't feel this victory, he's burnt himself out. Simultaneously, Malcolm and pals are scrambling all over a dilapidated communications hot-spot, pursued by drooling Deinonychi. Although they haven't really clashed, at this point every major character has had their personal objectives converge then conclude. It's a shame that there's another twenty minutes of The Lost World to go. Still, if nothing else, those superfluous minutes do offer the audience a chance to see a crowd of millionaires experiencing a collective concussion as the genetic horrors they've cultivated make landfall in the United States. 

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park puts us in the company of a succession of flawed, grasping men struggling with their place in the world. Their default coping mechanisms tend towards career, above all else. Whether through intent or just plain slightness of writing (screenwriters Michael Crichton and David Koepp adapting the former's best-selling novel), the vast majority of the men in Steven Spielberg's film are explicitly defined by their work. We have a couple of scientists, several corporate climbers, and even a Great White Hunter. Each, in turn, is proven flawed or even expendable. These men fail in Jurassic Park because they have no underlying responsibility, their skill sets are defined purely by ego and therefore found wanting. The only specimen to transcend this holding pattern is Sam Neill's Dr Alan Grant, a grumpy palaeontologist. 

We are introduced to Grant in his professional capacity as a Dinosaur Dig Supervisor, with the good doctor wandering around upsetting computers and frightening children with his vivid descriptions of their consumption. Dr Grant is in a relationship with Laura Dern's Dr Ellie Sattler, a much younger palaeobotanist. The difference in age suggests a kind of conspiratorial impropriety between the two, perhaps beginning in a University setting? Anyway, she wants him to settle down and have children. He'd rather poke around with fossilised bones. It's a poor start for this action hero. Grant has greatness thrust open him when the titular resort goes into meltdown leaving him stranded in the Tyrannosaurus paddock with two children in tow. Grant had been alarmed by the idea of offspring: they'd ruin his fun and probably smell. All in all, they represent an extra responsibility that he just doesn't want. Nevertheless, Grant warms to the youngsters quickly. 

Like himself, Joseph Mazzello's Tim is a walking dinosaur encyclopaedia; Ariana Richards' Lex is blonde and forthright like Dr Sattler. The children are a leavening influence on Grant then, not only do they force him to become stable and emotional available they even eke out his latent sense-of-humour. In a way these children are an instant, fully-formed representation of the kind of family that Sattler and Grant might (eventually) expect to have. Neill's palaeontologist has instantly understood that he has to take a very specific role in this situation: he must be strong and calm, towering above any danger the gang might find themselves in. In order to keep the children from becoming catatonic Grant must be their rock. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Dr Grant has become a surrogate father. Maybe this is why the film struck such a chord with its young audience? Set aside the perennial prehistoric favourites and you have a piece that treats children as precious commodities that intrinsically confer purpose.

NEW AGAIN

Capcom double-down on their re-release strategy with HD makeovers for Resident Evil 0 and the NES Mega Man games. With any luck we'll eventually get some sort of Onimusha collection and some of the company's so-called curate's eggs like Killer7, God Hand. or maybe even Shadow of Rome.

I'd also like to see Capcom revisit their arcade releases. We've had loads of collections before but they all tend to focus on early output rather than refined iteration. A complete Street Fighter II package with all five games would be fantastic. Even better would a comprehensive package dedicated to how Capcom could take any licensed premise and turn it into a thoroughly entertaining side-scrolling beat 'em up. Neither Alien vs Predator nor Cadillacs and Dinosaurs deserve to be forgotten.

Sadsic - Oyster Lucy

RADIATION KING

Bethesda get the jump on E3 with a full-blown trailer for Fallout 4. Although it's not much of a looker compared to something like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the post-apocalyptic splendour of this Boston wasteland does look enticing. Can't wait to be three levels deep in some irradiated bunker scratching around for batteries.

I wonder if the pre-bomb interludes are just included here to frame the game's madcap culture or if they represent a literal piece of the experience? Previous entries in the series have trusted the audience to cotton onto the 1950s exceptionalism-gone-wrong premise. Perhaps Bethesda are looking to ape The Last of Us' great, playable fall-of-man sequence? If you're gonna steal, you might as well steal from the best eh?

Jackie Chan in the 1980s - Dragons Forever

Sammo Hung and Corey Yuen steer the Three Brothers cycle to a close with Dragons Forever, a sappy, scrappy entry that sees each of the principal stars acting wildly against type. Hung puts himself front-and-centre with a turn as a soft-hearted arms dealer that allows him to play a chaste romance with older lady, Deannie Yip. This relationship, and a parallel romance for Jackie Chan, forms the meat of Dragons' second-act, muscling out some mounting intrigue surrounding a gang of smack dealers and their New Romantic heavies.

Yuen Biao pops in and out of the film as Tung, a principled inventor prone to psychotic flights of fancy. It's a juvenile, supplementary part very much in the vein of Austin Wai in Fearless Hyena II or an insane version of Biao's own David from Wheels on Meals. As is usually the case, Biao's gymnastic perfection is wasted with a role best described as an recurring plot obstacle. Tung is essentially a malfunctioning robot child, programmed to ruin burgeoning relationships with ill-timed appearances.

As an idea, simple-minded violence maps nicely onto Biao's youthful, underdog persona. Hung and Yuen choose to keep the actor underdeveloped and on the margins though, the bulk of his story on the cutting room floor. Come the finale, the high-kick MVP is fed to the alpha heavy to raise the stakes for a confrontation with Chan. Unfortunately, despite some early promise, Biao's interjections are akin to Jim Varney's Earnest suddenly turning up in the middle of a Rob Reiner film. Tung is an irritant you always feel ill-prepared for.

Jackie Chan's character Lung is the biggest departure of all, a corrupt mob lawyer who's not above cracking uncooperative women across the face. Chan's flirted with sourness before, his roles in the Lucky Stars films had an arrogant, impatient clip to them, but Lung is actually sleazy. Every woman is ogled. According to Bey Logan's commentary, the chartered boat seduction Lung employs to woo Pauline Yeung's character was a proven method for rich businessmen looking to ooze around beauty pageant contestants.

Logan insinuates that Lung's womanising is a lot closer to the real life Jackie Chan than the relentless do-gooder persona Police Story had minted. He also states outright, quoting Sammo Hung, that Chan was the main stumbling block to further Three Brothers films - he just didn't want to make them. Hung had helped resurrect Chan's career after a couple of duds and the star's US misadventures, but by 1988 Jackie Chan had three proven formulas to riff off for sequels. He didn't need his Big Brother anymore.

Perhaps there was a quality issue in play too? Wheels on Meals and Heart of Dragon had delivered but the Lucky Stars films had gotten increasingly ramshackle. Chan's guest spot in Winners & Sinners had evolved into a recurring obligation to prop up an action finale. Chan's involvement also ensured that the films would be an attractive proposition for the Japanese market. With this in mind, it's easy to see a kind of courting going on in how the film's finale is arranged.

Benny Urquidez is back, recruited to play a henchman with a Yuppie haircut and Blitz Kids make-up. His eyebrows are fair against pale skin, he looks singed, like Arnold Schwarzenegger after tackling Reese's improvised car bomb in The Terminator. Urquidez soundly thrashes both Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, paving the way for a feature showdown with Jackie.

Urquidez's demolition of Biao is especially galling. A two-handed assault on a wave of anonymous henchmen saw Biao blow Chan off the screen. Biao is lithe and perfect in his movement. Chan is fine, incredible even, but Dragons Forever thoroughly demolishes the myth that Jackie performs every single one of his stunts. There are at least four obvious instances of the star being doubled in this sequence - two of which utilise slow motion. These moments jar, even more so following some immaculate near misses from Biao.

Dragons Forever is the kind of film that makes you wish that there was more Hong Kong movie gossip floating around in English. Who doesn't want to read about the conflicts and clashing egos? Was Urquidez brought in for a rematch to keep Chan happy? Did Chan sulk after his directors made zero effort to conceal Chin Kar-lok's doubling? Or is it simply a case of incessant injuries finally starting to add up? Jackie Chan had a leading role in twenty films during the 1980s, a punishing workload for any actor, never mind one who routinely broke his bones and ordered Kodak film by the ton.

Transformers vs GI Joe #9 by Tom Scioli

Power Glove - Vengeance

Beastie Boys - Mullet Head