Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 VGA Trailer: More of the Same Is Actually a Great Thing…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

From visual quality and gameplay to audio, Mercury Steam’s first Castlevania experience was the best 3D game in the series by a few thousand miles and this sequel looks to be even better. If you haven’t played the original Lords of Shadow yet, go grab it and see for yourself that the combination of 3D and Konami’s storied vampire franchise can and does work well under the right hands. Of course, a little help from Hideo Kojima doesn’t hurt at all, but the game is definitely a nice surprise. The sequel adds some new elements and characters, but I’m betting the dev team isn’t mucking much with what worked in their last game. As always, we shall see.. but I predict this one will be as good as or even better than the first one.

South Park: The Stick of Truth Trailer: THQ Bets The Farm You’ll Buy This RPG

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

Ah, the eternal coin flip here: Is South Park still enough of a viable money-making franchise for THQ that enough gamers will drop full retail for it (thus making The Stick of Truth a huge smash hit from day one)? Will the talented folks at Obsidian deliver a RPG experience closer to a Neverwinter Nights 2 (quite good), a KOTOR 2 (decent, but flawed) or an Alpha Protocol (good idea, poor execution)? Will enough critics be kind to the game once they get past the gimmicky elements and dig into the RPG aspects? All these Q’s and many more will be answered soon enough.

I’ll admit now that I don’t watch South Park regularly enough to offer up anything other than an opinion that the game needs to be consistent and not rely solely on the outrageous humor the show is well-known for. That said, I’d love to see this on portable systems, but I guess that’s up to THQ (if they’re still around after the game comes out)…

The Phantom Pain VGA Trailer: Metal Gear Maybe? Probably. Maybe.

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

Hideo Kojima has quite the unique sense of humor. There’s enough here from the “Moby Dick Studios” developed game to get Metal Gear Solid fans in the know figuring out what’s up and even the name is clever punning around on Kojima’s part. I’ve given up on speculation and following every rumor and screenshot around as if playing the worlds biggest hidden object game. I know for a fact that any new Metal Gear game will offer up enough entertainment and replay value that it’s futile to hop around scraping up images, movies and the often wild opining that goes along with them. Yeah, that’s right Konami – I surrender – just get me a release date and I’m a happy man. That and hell, I’m too busy to keep being faked out by Kojima at every turn. He knows he’s making games that will stand the test of time, so I guess he’s happy as well…

Of course, this could just be an all-new IP, but I kind of doubt it, particularly given Kojima’s penchant for offbeat humor and all sorts of oddball references in the trailers for previous Metal Gear titles. This one would be the strangest to date, as at first glance, you might not even know what the heck you’re looking at…

Tomb Raider “Survivor” Trailer: Thankfully, Not A Damn Thing Like That Stupid “Reality” Show…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

I’m glad to see it’s looking as if Crystal Dynamics has pretty much kept the game they wanted to do as intact as possible during its long development cycle. Some are griping about it not being an open world experience, but I say go play the original TR and TRII and see why and how following a solid narrative overrides a need to explore at one’s whim in a game like this. The goal in the new game is to discover and survive the limited environments you’re dropped into primarily at the pace of how well you play the game, NOT to think you’re getting Skyrim meets The Hunger Games with a side order of Hostel II or whatever. So, shut up and either wait for a demo or the actual game to drop, learn some respect for storytelling and the fact that just because you want every game to be the same damn thing doesn’t mean a developer is going to listen. Hey, they’ve got my money on day one, that’s for sure…

Dark Souls II VGA Announcement Trailer: Prepare to Die (Even More)…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

Here’s that lovely VGA trailer for Dark Souls II – I love that like with the Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls openings, you really don’t find out anything about the story at all, but you DO get an eyeful of some of the horrific creatures that will kill you a few too many times during your adventures. It’s funny that some gamers still haven’t realized that FromSoftware didn’t just pop out of nowhere with Demon’s Souls and then Dark Souls. In fact, the Japanese developer has been making some of the most interesting games on consoles since 1994 starting with the deep, gloomy (and often frightening) King’s Field series. Their mech-focused Armored Core franchise allowed players to create and share some amazing custom mechs for years after PC mech games died off and other titles in the Shadow Tower, Echo Night and Tenchu series. A ton of other games ranging from the family-friendly puzzler The Adventures of Cookie and Cream to the intensely frightening (yet languidly paced) Kuon plus assorted licensed games done for the Japanese market and you’ve got a developer with a pretty solid pedigree.

Hmmm… I say These guys and gals need a retrospective or a documentary made or something in print just so people can see bits of everything they’ve done and respect their work even more. DSII is another day one buy for me and it should be for you as well.

The Last of Us Story Trailer: Happy Birthday To Me (And You, Hopefully)…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by geelw

So, Naughty Dog’s upcoming survival/adventure game comes out on my birthday (May 7, 2013). Well, well, well now. Hmmm… now I know what I want to be doing then. Finding out how the hell I’m going to make time to play it, what with all the other games I want coming out next year. Well, at least I guess I’ll have less people to worry about when I go to buy my copy of the game if all those folks who believe the world will end THIS year do themselves in for some crazy reason. Silly rabbits, I say… why kill yourself and miss out on the fun when there are too many great games to play that include survivable doomsday scenarios? What do I believe in? Well, I believe I’ll have another drink and get back to you after the world doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket. And you can’t make a bad cup of tea unless you try really hard to do so. I believe in that, too.