Review: WET

Posted on September 21, 2009 by geelw

Platform: PS3/Xbox 360

Developer: Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M)

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

# of Players: 1

Rating: M (Mature)

The best way to enjoy Bethesda’s new action game, WET is with tongue planted firmly in cheek, controller planted firmly in hand and butt planted firmly on couch. The game is a fun, funky mash-up of cinematic influences – Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, John Woo and more than a few others all get riffed on here and for the most part, it works perfectly. Despite the metric tonnage of “grindhouse” gimmickry, the game manages to click from the moment you press START and the fireworks begin. With its over-saturated color palette layered with an intentionally scratchy graphics filter, actual old movie intermission reel clips and outrageous, bloody arcade-style action throughout, the visual overkill outdoes itself over and again as the levels fly past.

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Release Calendar: 9/20 – 9/24

Posted on September 21, 2009 by geelw

Short list (sort of) this week. ODST seems to be the go-to game for most folks. Me, I’m more of a Shin Megami Tensei: Persona or Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection guy. Katamari Forever and Wacky World of Sports both bring the funny to their respective consoles, if you’re interested.

9/21/2009
Aion (PC)
Fabulous Finds (DS/DSi)
Just in Time Translation (DS/DSi)
Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection (PS3/Xbox 360)

9/22/2009
Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition (Wii)
Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2010 (PS3/Wii/Xbox 360)
Fallen Earth: Welcome to Apocalypse (PC)
Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun (Wii)
Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
Hidden Mysteries Titanic (DS/DSi/Wii)
Katamari Forever (PS3)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (PSP)
Order of War (PC)
Rapala We Fish (Wii)
Scooby Doo: First Frights for (DS/DSi/PS2/Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (Standard & Limited Editions, PSP)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up (DS/DSi/PS2/Wii)
The Price is Right 2010 Edition (DS/DSi/PC/Wii)
Wacky World of Sports for Wii.
Where’s Waldo? (DS/DSi/PC/Wii)
Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion (DS/DSi)

9/23/2009
Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft (Wii)
Squeeballs Party (DS/DSi)

Next week is a big one for a number of reasons. RPG and Horror game fans should be pleased, is all I’ll say…

Gallery: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Tagforce 4

Posted on September 20, 2009 by geelw

Had some quick hands-on time with this at Konami’s NYC press event a while back. Nice anime visuals, deep gameplay, plenty of battlin’ cards and creatures and a more “mature” feel than your Pokemon games, for sure. Fans will be completely enraptured, newbies will be baffled, very helpful tutorials aside. Interesting side note: Konami spells it Tagforce, but it seems to list at most retailers as Tag Force. “Potato, Poh-tah-toe, Tomato, Toh-mah-toe….” and all that…

November 17, 2009 is the release date, so mark your calendars accordingly.

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Random Art: Playing Around With MS Paint…

Posted on September 20, 2009 by geelw

Had a bit of Internet downtime around here a few days ago, so I started playing around with drawing for a few hours using markers for one piece and Microsoft Paint (which I generally hate) for the rest. Anyway, as I haven’t drawn in a while with standard pens or pencils, I wasn’t expecting much, but the piece came out OK. Using a mouse was a bit more time consuming, but I think I did pretty good for my first ever MS Paint efforts.

Here’s what I came up with, in case you’re interested:*

Now, guess which one was hand drawn (it’s pretty obvious, actually) and which were done in Paint!

* These and other works are on my Facebook page, so some of you folks may have seen ’em already.

As Far As I Know (OR: Some Answers To Your Lijit Searches)…

Posted on September 19, 2009 by geelw

1) Muramasa: the Demon Blade is NOT coming to any other console – It’s currently a Wii exclusive. The same goes for games such as Cursed Mountain, Darkest of Days, Risen and a few other titles exclusive to certain platforms. If you’ve got a decent gaming PC, two of the above games are recommended while the other two aren’t coming to PC (as far as I know)…

1a) Is Demon’s Souls coming to the Xbox 360? Most likely nope. The game was initially contracted by/for Sony’s Japan Studios, so it’s sort of like asking if Halo or a new Mario game will appear on another platform. Go buy a PS3 if you can afford to – the game is indeed worth it. Besides, there are a bunch of cool first and third party exclusives for the PS3 released this year and coming in the future will keep you more than pleased you finally made the plunge.

2) I’m still waiting for my review copies of Muramasa and a few other games to arrive. Ignition was swamped with requests from other editor-types, so I may not end up with one unless I truck it on over to GameStop and buy a copy. Yes, I absolutely support my favorite developers and publishers when need be! Heck, I paid full price for The Conduit and enjoyed it immensely.

2a) Speaking of reviewables yes, I’m working on getting a reviewable of Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection for either the 360 or PS3. Crave’s website hasn’t been updated for a while with new games, so I thought this one didn’t even exist until about two weeks ago (Thanks, Kate!). Fossil Fighters didn’t show up (yet), so it looks as if I’ll need to buy that one at some point. Between the stuff I have coming in and the previews and reviews I need to get done, FF is sort of a slightly lower priority until I free up some quality time for it.

3) I don’t do game tips/cheats/codes here, sorry! If, on the other hand, a developer or publisher supplies me with a tip/trick/code I can release to you guys, I’ll gladly share it! If you’re really hopelessly stuck in a game, definitely hit up a site such as Gamefaqs for those tricky boss or other game-related problems.

4) Shin Megami Tensei Persona PSP voice cast? I’m not sure, as I’m more interested in the game as a whole package… but this may help.

Um.. I think that’s it – got any more questions? Ask away!

Agetec & UFO Announce Way of the Samurai 3 for PS3 and 360

Posted on September 19, 2009 by geelw

In a unique co-publishing agreement, Way of the Samurai 3 is set to hit stores on October 13, 2009 thanks to the fine folks at Agetec (PS3 version) and UFO (Xbox 360 version).

According to the press release, Acquire’s latest entry in the ongoing swordplay saga is an all-new Action/RPG that promises a “completely new, highly refined style of gameplay, a rich weapon crafting system, beautifully detailed graphics and a deep branching storyline that that will unfold multiple endings based upon player’s actions.”

With that in mind, here’s a look at the game’s story (click the pic to enlarge and read) and characters (ditto) as well as a nice set of screenshots and a pair of CG stills from what looks like the intro movie. In addition, an exclusive iPhone/iPod Touch app has also been announced – see below the jump for all the details…

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Risen PC Goes Gold, 360 Version Slips to 2010

Posted on September 19, 2009 by geelw

OK, that’s one down, department: Deep Silver has announced that the PC version of Risen has gone gold and will be hitting retail on October 2, 2009. The Xbox 360 version, however won’t arrive until sometime in 2010 (cue the sound of RPG fanboys ranting worldwide). While this might seem a bit of a letdown to fans expecting both versions simultaneously, it’s actually more of a positive sign in my book.

How so? Well, rather than stamping your foot as you type that angry e-mail or message board posting out to whomever, look at the delay this way: it gives Piranha Bytes ample time to make sure the 360 version is tweaked to perfection. Besides, the dev team can also use any constructive feedback from pro and fan reviews of the PC version to possibly add extra content (or possible patches) that PC version gets during the window from its launch to the 360 version’s release date.

It’s all about the perspective, folks…

Telltale Games Celebrates International Talk Like A Pirate Day With Free (Monkey Island) For All!

Posted on September 19, 2009 by geelw

That’s right, me mateys (Arrrr!) – to celebrate International Talk like a Pirate Day , Telltale Games and LucasArts be givin’ ye a chance to nab a FREE chapter in its award-winnin’ Tales of Monkey Island series for the PC… but thar be but one catch, mateys (Arrrr!). The freebie only lasts from midnight tonight (PST) to midnight Saturday, September 19th, 2009 (PST) , so those of ye readin’ this article had better get with the piracy and nab ye some free booty as soon as the clock strikes twelve bells, (Arrr!).

In addition, Telltale be practically givin’ away the entire season of Monkey Island for a mere pittance of $29.95. And hey, if ye happens to already owns the entire season, no need to raise that Jolly Roger! Telltale still wants to give ye somethin’ – a FREE episode of one of their other fine PC games, (Arrrr!)…

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Review: Scribblenauts

Posted on September 18, 2009 by geelw

Platform: Nintendo DS

Developer: 5th Cell

Publisher: WBIE

# of Players: 1 (Wi-Fi: 1 – 2)

Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: A-

The first two things you’ll need to realize about Scribblenauts are as follows:

1) it’s not a platformer at all
2) Trying to play it as such will make for quite a bit of frustration

The game is actually a fantastic hybrid puzzle/brain salad sandbox experience that lets you dive in to test your word power in a lot more interactive manner than traditional pen and paper word games. There are a load of puzzle as well as action based challenges that require a bit of thought if you want to see all the game has to offer. If you’re like me (that is, ancient enough to actually remember those classic Infocom or other text-based PC adventure games), what’s here is a bit like those oldies. However, you get to see what you input as text materialize on screen and you can interact with your choices in a number of amusing ways. Of course, you can simply sit back and let what you’re called forth do whatever it wants to do, which in my opinion, is the beauty of Scribblenauts’ design.

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Obscure: The Aftermath Hands-On

Posted on September 17, 2009 by geelw

Way back in 2004, a scary little survival horror/adventure game called Obscure crept onto the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, receiving mixed reviews before disappearing from the scene and becoming something of an eBay collectible. The game still sold in well enough numbers that a sequel, Obscure: The Aftermath (or Obscure II, depending on where you’re reading this) was released in 2007 for the PS2 and Wii. Thanks to Playlogic and developer Hydrovision, that sequel is headed for the PSP on September 29 and thanks to their PR department, I’m writing up this hands-on of a preview build. Featuring disturbingly detailed visuals, plenty of “teen slasher flick” ambiance and wireless drop-in/drop out co-op play, this is one game horror fans looking for a wild ride won’t want to miss.