Ni No Kuni Japanese Box Art Is Pretty… Boring (But Pretty Nonetheless)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by geelw

While this watercolor image for the Japanese version of the game is indeed a truly lovely piece of art, it’s also pretty generic to a fault. At best, It looks like a greeting card for some made up holiday (Happy Festivus!) or a menu from some renaissance fair salad bar and at worst, like a roadside sign advertising a fairy farm (Come Pet Our Unicorn. Please. Thank You).

Given the lush backgrounds found in both the DS and PS3 versions, I was hoping to see a Level-5/Studio Ghibli combo cover to end all covers. Or at least art to match the beautiful images found on the official PS3 and Nintendo DS sites for each system’s respective games. Here’s a link to a recent trailer as well so you can see that the game is absolutely a LOT more gorgeous than this placeholder-looking cover image. Oh well. It’s not THAT bad. Still, I guess it’ll be up to Namco Bandai to give us a North American version with a cover image that soars. As long as they use art from the dev team or Studio Ghibli-provided assets, it should be a winner.

Yes, There’s A Call of Cthulhu Film (And It’s Actually Quite Good)…

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

Just when you think you’re a horror film fan who’s seen everything, there’s this over at Fandor: a short film based on H.P. Lovecraft’s seminal cosmic horror tale work that looks as if was made early in the last century that’s surprisingly well-done and effective. Hell, it’s by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, so of course it’s going to be good (and true, friend… all true). You can even buy stuff, er, ARTIFACTS from the Lovecraft Society, so make sure to support them in their good works, kind sirs and madams… Continue reading →

Syndicate Hands-On: It’s Just Like The Original… But Better.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

That’s right, I said it. And yes, Starbreeze Studios will back it up in a big way on February 21, 2012. Based on the demo version I played at EA’s Naughty or Nice event about 2 weeks ago, even the most die-hard fan with greasy smoke coming from their eyeballs and ears about this game should ABSOLUTELY play this modern reworking of Bullfrog’s isometric RTS/Action hybrid.

Five (Plus One) Very Good Reasons to commit without question are below the jump… Continue reading →

“Make a list of movies you believe everyone should see at least once…”

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

Um… OK. Hey, WP keeps suggesting wildly generic topics like this as potential post subjects, so on a whim (and while waiting for my water to boil – early tea time!) I’m doing this off the top of my head, 100+ films (for now)*, NO “top 100” nonsense (this list is in no particular order despite some directors’ work appearing consecutively) and no links, so you need to do some work here figuring out which versions. No documentaries in this list, as that’s a separate long list I may get to at some random point. CLUE, more often than not, it’s the original version over the remake, dammit. Black and White or silent film won’t kill you and you’d be surprised at how great the majority of older films are when compared to today’s cinema: Continue reading →

Grand Theft Auto V Is (Of Course) A Go…

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

As you can see, it’s on. Expect a November surprise, courtesy of Rockstar Games. No, the game isn’t coming next month, folks (the Internet would break if that was the announcment), just what’s probably going to be a pretty cool trailer (and a Double-Wide Airflow, at that). Now, all those folks screaming madly about it can perhaps pipe down a little with the ALL CAPS rants online and maybe think about also pre-ordering Max Payne 3 when its release date is announced. Rockstar is working hard on that game as well and you SHOULD enjoy it as equally as you do any GTA game, I say…

Hideo Kojima Has Me (And Many Others) Drooling Over Metal Gear Solid. Again.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

Of course, any gamer worth his or her salt will want this as soon as it ships next month. If I’m not mistaken, it also comes with this, which is even better. Finally, this is hitting stores in 2012 (and it’s about time). Between these HD collections, what Kojima has cooking on the Vita, Metal Gear Rising and some other fun stuff, it’s going to be quite an anniversary for Solid Snake and friends…

My (Unofficial) Breaking Bad Final Season Predictions

Posted on October 24, 2011 by geelw

Since this season was originally supposed to be the final one for the show, going out on the dramatic high note it did would have been pretty great stuff. But now with the show getting a chance to wrap up a few loose ends, speculation is pretty rampant among some fans as to what’s going to happen in the new final season. My two cents: Given that Gus Fring is dead and gone, some folks might not be too pleased about this. Those folks would be whichever DEA and other law enforcement employees he might have been paying off to look the other way. Walt may have done himself and Jesse a huge favor by taking out the meth kingpin, but try telling that to a crooked cop or agent who was using Gus’ payoffs to pay off that mortgage or put their kids through college. I have the feeling that Walt will see the effects of his actions not vanishing into thin air as he’s hoped.

Also, Skyler now knows he’s a killer (and a damned creative one at that), so there’s that issue to deal with. Oh, yeah… then there’s the matter of Gus’ bodyguard Mike, who will no doubt be none too pleased that his employer is dead and gone (as is everyone else in the organization as well as the opposing Cartel it seems). Still, I’d actually love to see the show end with Walt and maybe Jesse (if he survives the season) back where they began: cooking meth from a busted-looking trailer in the middle of nowhere. After you lose everything, you sometimes have to fall back on what you know how to do best…

The Lord of The Rings War in the North Pre-Order Teaser Tempts Away…

Posted on October 24, 2011 by geelw

Too many people online are out of their minds comparing every RPG to Skyrim or whatever other fantasy-themed open world experience on the way when it’s clear that Snowblind Studios is making a different type of adventure entirely. I’m definitely looking forward to this one as I’m a fan of the developer’s work and trust them to make a pretty good action RPG (as it’s something they’ve done a few times previously). We’ll see if the game defies the skeptics and becomes one of those “Hey, this is really good!” word of mouth titles pretty soon, as that November 1 release date is right around the corner. Of course, in this stupid era of games needing to sell a bazillion copies over a weekend to be considered a “success”, I truly hope that this game gets enough time to gain momentum before any judgment is placed on the potential of future installments…

TV Review: The Walking Dead “Bloodletting”

Posted on October 24, 2011 by geelw

This week’s episode kicked off with a great flashback that showed Lori being a tiny bit of a jerk as she revealed to a friend that she and Rick never argue about anything. Er, what the what? She’s upset with him that as a married couple, they DON’T fight? At ALL? Yeesh. Cue Shane driving up in his patrol car to tell her Rick’s been shot. Or not tell her, as she guessed by the look on his face. Of course, given that Lori was waiting to pick up Carl outside of his school, the key point of the scene was how she’d tell the poor kid his dad is in the hospital. Naturally, with Carl being the victim of a gunshot last week while under Rick’s protection, the tables are turned as now he has to figure out how to tell her the bad news. In a nice twist, it was someone else who delivered that news and soon after, Lori to meet up with the pair. There were a few new faces this episode as Rick, Shane and Otis (the shooter) rush an injured Carl to the home of a wise old doctor type to see about some emergency bullet removal. Continue reading →

Asura’s Wrath Hands-On: One Of These Days, Argus… Bang, Zoom!

Posted on October 23, 2011 by geelw

Thanks to a soundproof glass booth where attendees lined up to scream in order to win cool swag, Capcom and CyberConnect 2 had gamers literally screaming to play Asura’s Wrath, the upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 cinematic action game that’s so very hard to describe in the space of something like the entire Internet. OK, overblown hyperbole aside, the demo on the show floor was quite an experience that packed in over the top quick time events, a bit of strategic button bashing and a classical music score that made the experience quite hilarious. This is shaping up to be one of those games that has to be seen and played to be believed and even after that, you’d probably wonder what the hell just happened. Think the mighty God Hand on steroids and with a serious case of rage issues and well, that’s about a tenth of what’s coming your way next year. Continue reading →