Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Gameplay: Your Wallet Was Stolen While You Were Reading This…

Posted on January 12, 2013 by geelw

2013 is shaping up to be a pretty darn good year for the troubled Vita, what with the excellent Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath closing 2012, Earth Defense Force 2017 hitting this past week and a few other key niche to “A” quality games on the way. Sanzaru’s upcoming PS3 and Vita-bound Sly Cooper game looks to bring home and portable Sony fans one more reason to shell out a premium for games they can’t get elsewhere. Dedicated consoles will never die out as long as there are gamers loyal to the cause. Granted, a price drop on that hardware and those expensive memory cards would help the Vita do even better, as it seems that it’s the only thing holding some off from committing to the system.

Side Effects May Include Me Wishing This Was A Different Sort of Movie…

Posted on January 11, 2013 by geelw

OK, it may be a great new flick when all is said and done (that trailer is quite tantalizing, that’s for sure), but as soon as I head the title a few months back, I actually thought Hollywood finally caught up to me and my bright ideas. I’d always imagined something called Side Effects being a David Cronenberg or David Fincher film about some pharmaceuticals gone haywire years after they were tested on people not realizing they were part of some massive and illegal field study. Oh well, my idea is safe as long as I don’t do something REALLY stupid like post it on the internet!

Oh, wait… $#!t. Eh, whatever. Not like anyone is going to do ANYTHING like that anytime soon, right? Oh, wait… $#!t.

CES 2013: iPotty? Really? Argh in the Time of Cholera…

Posted on January 10, 2013 by geelw

Now, I’m not one of those folks who believes dropping a kid in front of a TV playing PBS for an hour or two is a bad thing, but THIS crap? Or more precisely, THIS crapper? No. Hell no. No, No and NO. Sure, I get my best thinking done on the can, but dammit, a freakin’ TODDLER needs to concentrate on learning the basics of taking a good and safe poop, not helping his or her entire family contract a nasty case of whatever they deserve to get from handling an iPad that’s going to be Germ Central Station the minute some dopey hipster parent looks away at their phone (or lawd help them, reaches for that damn phone to snap a picture of the kid using the thing to post on Facebook) and Junior wipes a stinky hand all over the screen. Eww (even if it has a screen protector included). What’s the shelf life on stupid ideas? Bet you a dime this gets recalled at some point or just tanks flat out. Save your $39.99 and thank me later, folks.

And I usually LIKE some of CTA’s goofy but useful peripherals, by the way…

Marvel Finally Gets The LEGO Treatment Later This Year

Posted on January 9, 2013 by geelw

TT Games is back at work on another new licensed LEGO game, but this time it’s an all Marvel title set to hit no fewer than seven consoles (PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360, Wii U, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS) by the end of the year. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be set initially in a stylized Lego New York City before spreading out into other locations familiar to comics fans and according to the press release, “offers an original storyline in which Nick Fury calls upon Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine and other heroes spanning the Marvel Universe to save Earth from such threats as the vengeance of Loki and the hunger of Galactus, Devourer of the Worlds.”

Right now, that’s the sole image for the game above, but that’s going to change soon enough, folks. Expect this family-friendly superhero fun blast sometime in Fall 2013.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch: Meet Joe Hisaishi, The Final Piece of a Perfect Puzzle…

Posted on January 9, 2013 by geelw

As you’ll see here (and hear here, ha ha), Joe Hisaishi’s stirring score for the Level-5/Studio Ghibli collaboration Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch fits the game wonderfully well. It’s definitely one of those cases where every element of the game’s development flowed together into what’s looking to be a truly spectacular and memorable experience for JRPG fans. North American PS3 owners only have about two weeks more to wait before the game hits retail, but it’s absolutely going to be one of those games that was not only worth the wait, but worth every penny spent on whatever edition you end up owning. Namco Bandai has a big hit here, I say – hopefully, it’ll do as well as the company and all involved in the project hope, as these sorts of expensive epics may be going the way of the dinosaur thanks to too many publishers focusing on quickie casual, social and mobile titles more and more for faster revenue generation.

VGA 101 Personals: Hardcore Game Nut Seeking Reliable PS3 Controller For Good Times…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

Seriously. For some reason, I have NO luck with PlayStation 3 controllers. I’ve gone through no fewer than ten controllers in the past five or six years and it’s not because I’m some hulking ham-fisted beast-man or mean-eating Amazon snapping spines like twigs like Tura Satana in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (whee, a Russ Meyer reference!). I’ve only gone through two Xbox 360 pads in about six years, but I do tend to gravitate to the PS3 a bit more. That said, I don’t think it’s the controller’s construction at all because that total includes a few third-party pads that have died from a broken analog stick here or a rechargeable battery that wouldn’t charge there (the most common issue). My last controller was an otherwise excellent Power A pad that looked like an Xbox 360 controller and it worked beautifully until a few days ago when it flashed a few read lights around the ring in the center before pooping out completely. Boo. Hiss. Continue reading →

Oh, I’d Say Games and Movies Aren’t At All The Thing to Worry About Here…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

So, I’m walking to the library here earlier today and take a detour to the post office to drop off a package I’d forgotten to send out on Saturday (oops). While waiting on line, a couple of people are “debating” gun control off to the side near the pay phone. Ruh Roh. This always, always makes for some amazingly bizarre conversations to overhear if (and yes, when) things get heated. Let’s just say by the time one guy who was a retired cop with a wife still in the school system he didn’t want packing heat threw up his hands and walked away from the other guy who said he was a veteran and suggested that not only should armed guards be in and around schools, a single tank be placed outside every school school to keep ANY sort of potential threats away, yeah… I was taking mental notes galore…

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EDF 2017 Portable Hits PSN – Buy It & Bug Out!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

Sandlot’s niche bug blasting epic rolls onto the PlayStation Vita today and even if you’ve played the Xbox 360 version to death, this is a MUST buy. Seven new stages, new enemies, new weapon drops, the return of Pale Wing from EDF 2, new 4-player co-op and versus modes and more all await. After a shaky 2012, the Vita needs support with “smaller” titles like these and while $40 seems pricey for a download-only release, the sheer amount of content here and the fact that it will take a while to unlock everything if you’re into Trophies makes this one of the key releases for Sony’s portable this month. If you’re a fan of Japanese monster flicks, old 50’s sci-fi, high-action games with a wicked difficulty curve (Think you’re hot gamer stuff? Beat Mission 1 on Inferno with the default weapons and let me know how that goes) and hell, love supporting the underdog, the EDF wants YOU!

That and hey – the game just may help you overcome that needless fear of spiders you have… er, or it’ll just turn you into a total catatonic mess after that first stage they appear in. Hitting your Vita rapidly with a plastic flip-flop is not a very good idea, particularly in public. It’s winter here and what the heck are you doing wearing plastic flip-flops in the snow, silly? And a can of Raid, too? Hmmm… I think you have some issues to deal with that aren’t gaming related…

CES 2013: Land of the Giants (and Some Other Big Issues)…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

Between the stupidly high-resolution TV’s that most average Joe and Jane consumers won’t care about thanks to sky-high price points and the fact that resolution means nothing if you’re just watching Honey Boo Boo’s Amish Mafia Fishin’ Moonshiner Auction Storage Hoarders all day on the couch and plenty of other useless but well-made tech goodies out of the price range of anyone but the seriously wealthy, it’s a wonder CES hasn’t sunk itself into the sands of Las Vegas this year like a truckload of Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges. Seriously, who needs a 20″ or 27″ tablet computer, a cell phone with a 6.1″ screen and some of those 100+” Super Ultra Mega Deluxe 4K screens? You want a Lamborghini with that order, mister? Yeesh. Granted, it’s great that tech companies are “innovating” every year, but the yearly emphasis on size in some things makes you wonder if the Jolly Green Giant or 50-Foot Woman is the actual customer being targeted. Well, they do make a cute couple come to think of it (and their kids are just lovely… and growing up so fast!)…

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Corpse Party: Book of Shadows Proves The PSP Isn’t Quite Dead…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

And you thought you’d seen the last PSP game ages ago, huh? Well, there are a handful of releases still popping up such as Xseed Games’ Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, set to hit PSN on January 15 for $19.99. If you’re into horror-themed games with a twisted sense of humor and a flair for the dramatic (as in creeping you out in all the right places), well, you can either unearth your old PSP from its dusty grave or whip out that Vita, as the game will indeed run perfectly fine on that newer handheld. And yes, you should probably play the original Corpse Party (also available on PSN), as this game focuses on eight in-between stories from events in the first game. Stylish visuals, a nice amount of M-rated content and a pretty creepy soundtrack are all lurking in the corner waiting to jump out and bite your brain… so what are you waiting for?