I've been following Mikhail Rakhmatullin's work for awhile now. A Russian artist hailing from Moscow, what strikes me the most about Mikhail is his stylistic propensity for sci-fi fantasy characters with exaggerated stature and colorful costumes that make for memorable silhouettes.
Elongated necklines, broad shoulders, bow-legged posture and gorgeously detailed outfits. His concept work is equally impressive, strong creature and location designs that make for a well-rounded portfolio. Catch more of his work after the break.
Horror maestro John Carpenter is front and center in the first music video promoting his debut album "Lost Themes". One of if not the most iconic horror director of the early to late 80's, Carpenter is just as much one of the architects of the aural landscape of the contemporary sci-fi horror genre as he is its visual curator.
In "Night", we see Carpenter don a Oculus Rift helmet to embody the presence of a remote-controlled robot, tearing through the iridescent-soaked streets of midnight L.A. before meeting up with a buddy for a friendly game of baseball. Although the video itself isn't directed by Carpenter, co-directors Gavin Hignight and Ben Verhulst do an exceptional job of echoing the visual nuances of his best work. Here's hoping we see more videos from this album in the future!
For the past three days, Square-Enix has been teasing a reveal of one of their North-American produced titles with an audacious, frustratingly obtuse interactive promotion campaign through Twitch called 'Project: Can't Kill Progress'. Neogaf however had other plans, blowing the lid on Eidios Montreal's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the highly-anticipated follow-up to their critically successful reboot/prequel to the Deus Ex franchise.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution, with players re-assuming the role of Adam Jensen; the Cervantes-bearded and lethally-armed (pun entirely intended) protagonist of the previous game as he is recruited by an newly-formed Interpol-funded task force aimed to hunt down and capture augmented terrorists in a world that now hates and fears transhumanism. With a new suite of mechanical augments that allow him to stealthily navigate, socially manipulate and offensively eliminate threats as never before; Jensen must once again maneuver through a shadow-net of proxy-conspiracies and double-agendas in a personal mission to uncover the truth and, by doing so, seek absolution for the havoc he helped to inadvertently unleash.
Human Revolution was one of my favorite titles of 2011, with my only complaints being the gratingly lackluster Boss encounters (a problem partially remedied by the game's Director's Cut Edition) and an overwhelming desire for more free-roaming areas to explore that were cut throughout production (for example, Upper Hengsha and ground-level Montreal). The sobriety and fatalism in this first trailer is chilling. As a long-time fan of the series, I'm looking forward to how this title narratively bridges the gap between Human Revolution's transhumanist renaissance period and the original game's dystopian oligarchic society shepherded by disease and information warfare.
No release window announced as of yet, though if I were to venture a guess, I'd say quarter four of this year only to be inevitably delayed for another quarter or two. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is slated for release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
