Wishing you all a happy holiday

What better way to celebrate endure Christmas Eve than with a black metal mix-tape courtesy of Anti-Gravity Bunny? Black (Metal) Mixmas IV is over 4 hours long, contains some of the year's best offerings from the sub-genre, and is free to download. 

According to Anti-Gravity Bunny, the mix-tapes have been split into traditional (Part 1 & 2), post (Part 3), and experimental (Part 4) black metal. Each part is also short enough to be burnt onto a CD, to help facilitate the spreading of the bleakness. My new neighbours will probably never experience a Christmas quite as black as this ever again.

CoD: Ghosts of Christmas present

It's almost time to celebrate the winter/ summer solstice, dependent of whether you're in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. Associated with this event, many also celebrate the holiday dedicated to Santa Claus's birthday by observing the cardinal sins; greed, envy, gluttony, and sloth, often in this precise order.

Fortunately those at the Call of Duty: Ghosts camp are being quite old fashioned, and are celebrating the occasion by giving us a gift in the form of the Festive Personalization Pack. The 'Festive Pack' contains a holiday sweater weapon camo, and seasonally themed reticle, playercard, background, and patch. 

If you're playing on an Xbox 360, Xbox One, or P,C the 'Festive Pack' is already available for download. However, if you're playing on a PlayStation 3 or 4, you'll have to wait a while longer for the holiday spirit to kick-in, as the release date is still 'TBA,' as per the CoD: Ghosts Micro Items site.

While to weapon camo looks utterly useless, I quite like the snowflake reticle and patch, which could work rather nicely for a soldier in a snow camouflaged uniform. Dependent on when the PlayStation versions of the Pack become available, and whether I can download it to my PC and transfer it to my PS3, will dictate whether I get this or not. On the top of my list if things to do next year, is to set up a wireless network at home, then I'll be able to start downloading all types of cool stuff for my PS3.

So this is happening... Tales from the Borderlands

So this is happening. Telltale Games, responsible for the successful The Walking Dead series, is making a series called Tales from the Borderlands that will be set in the Borderlands universe.

There has been no information released as to which platforms the game will be developed for, but going on the popularity of the Borderlands franchise, I'd imagine that it'll be playable on every platform available.

I'm pretty stoked by this news, but probably wont get around to playing this until at least a year after it's been released. Hopefully by then Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition will have been released here in South Africa, I will have been able to finish it, and all the episodes of Tales from the Borderlands will have been released on a single disc.

New tune from Sol Invicto

Sol Invicto have added another single to their Tapes series. Gleech starts of sounding like an anthem for the impending apocalypse, but at around 50 second mark the sounds of the lost souls begin to give way to an infectious beat.

I've had Gleech on repeat for the last half hour or so, and I'm loving it. Now to wait for the rumoured second offering from Richie Londres' other project, Okujira.

Nine Inch Nails announce live DVD and Blu-ray

Following the release of the Live 2013 EP, and several videos of performances and behind the scenes action from the Tension 2013, Nine Inch Nails have released a 90 minute video from their performance in Los Angeles last month. This also just happens to be one of the concerts I was planning to attend if I found myself in Los Angeles that week, but sadly the trip never went ahead.

The above video also serves as a promo for the expanded concert set for release next year on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital distribution. According to the nin.com minisite, and Facebook the full concert will be releases, with 5.1 surround sound audio mix, as well as additional content.

I'll be aiming to get the Blu-Ray, as I want to experience the Los Angeles show in full-HD, which will be the next best thing to actaully having been there myself. Hopefully I'll be able to catch Nine Inch Nails on a future European or North American tour, as I doubt they'll be heading to South Africa any time soon.

Stasis is funded!

Stasis, the indie horror game that I posted about a month ago, has been successfully funded over on Kickstarter. This is excellent news for local game developers, as it shows there is interest in the community. The Stasis project has also unveiled several 'stretch goals,' including:

• $ 105 000 - Suicide: Key items can be used on John, CAUTION... may be fatal!
• $ 120 000 - Mark Morgan: An extended Mark Morgan Soundtrack
• $ 140 000 - Cayne Chapter: A prequel chapter of Stasis added to the full game

If you haven't yet, I highly suggest giving the alpha demo a go. It took me a little over an hour and a half to complete, and sets up the story really well. The demo reveals just enough information to pique your interest, and leaves you wanting to know more about the Cayne Corporation and their motives.

It would be great if all these stretch goals could be met, but with only three days to go, I think the 'Cayne Chapter' goal might be just a little out of reach. Let's see what happens during those last three days though.

Beer versus coffee

Here's a neat infographic featuring two of my favourite beverages; beer and coffee:

Source: I Love Coffee

I'd imagine you could substitute 'beer' in the above infographic for any other alcoholic beverage, since it's the alcohol content of the beer that makes it a 'creative juice.' In which case, why not kick of a productive day with an Irish coffee!