Earth Defense Force 4 Gameplay: More Pest Control With Wing Diver

Posted on July 13, 2013 by geelw

The fine folks over at Game Empire HD are really going crazy with the EDF 4 gameplay videos. My own copy of the game is still on the way, so I’ve been keeping an eyeball on their YouTube page and taking notes galore on some of the tougher stages. Everyone has their own play style and in fact, EDF games encourage you to experiment with those random weapon drops until you get comfortable blasting bugs to bits with different gear you’ve collected. Of the four classes, the Wing Diver (or Pale Wing, or Pale Wing Diver if you really want to get formal) is the most agile thanks to her ability to fly and some of her really powerful close and ranged weapons. The tradeoffs are a very low starting armor and many weapons relying on the same energy source as her flight pack, so managing your energy is key in making sure you live to the end of a mission.

While this is my favorite class, I may not play the game through the first time with the lady. In the previous EDF games she’s appeared in (EDF 2/EDF 2 Portable and EDF 3 Portable), once you get some of her better to best weapons, she’s pretty untouchable save for confined spaces such as caves and tunnels where she can be damaged more easily by some of her own ordinance. I have the feeling I’ll go for the old reliable EDF Trooper for a bit until I get one of the Bound Shot weapons (which fire “bouncing” rounds – great for clearing out tunnels packed with giant spiders and ants and does double duty outdoors against large robots) than perhaps poke around with the new Fencer class before going with the winged one. That Air Raider I’ll save for last, as he seems to be the most challenging to use (although there are already a few exploits for the character). OK, back to playing vulture near my mailbox. I may be scaring the postman away, but he knows I get a lot of stuff sent this way so he can take the glaring and third degree when I don’t get a package I’m expecting…

TURBO Thoughts (and Too Much Honesty…)

Posted on July 13, 2013 by geelw

So, TURBO wasn’t bad at all. The 3D is OK, the kids will dig it, the parents will get a laugh at the stuff that’s written in for them (which will lead to the kids BUGGING you with “What’s so funny?” until you have to shush them and say you’ll tell them later) and it’s bound to get some sort of sequel (even if it’s straight to video, as I can see a certain character wanting revenge).

For the record, you’re not seeing this for any Oscar-winning performances or the “best” in animation (although what’s here is quite good in that stylized manner expected of a CG family flick). But there’s nothing wrong with turning one’s brain off, plopping into a seat and watching a snail imbued with nitrous and possibly sports energy drink super-speed blaze around and exhaust nearly every possible gag about fast gastropods. I say NEARLY because it seems as if they’re saving the rest for that inevitable sequel. Not sure the same cast will be back (hey, money isn’t free!), but I bet there are a lot of actors who can sound just like the cast here and no kid will be the wiser.

(thanks, DreamWorksAnimation!)

Speaking of wiser, I’m guessing whatever good karma I have just got a kick up a notch as I was looking for a restroom after the show and while poking about the floor I was on, I opened a door and walked into a showing of Pacific Rim that was about a half hour away from the ending. I suppose I could have been a jerk, grabbed a seat and stuck around for the next showing, but I had to pee and I also needed to get to work on some posts today and a few other things I’d planned out previously (Hey, laundry sorting is important! Separating the pile into bags keeps it from forming into THE BEAST FROM THE CLOSET!*). I did pop my 3D specs on to checkout how the film looked and it wasn’t bad. Then again, I think I also left because I hate coming into a film near the ending (or hell, after it begins). I like watching stuff from the start and paying attention, not playing connect the dots (unless I’m re-watching Rashomon, Memento or Pulp Fiction one more time)…

Oh yeah, the restrooms were on a higher floor, which I found odd for such a huge theater, but oh well…

EDIT: Aha- I see that Dreamworks is as always, twenty paces ahead of me. There’s going to be a TV series called Turbo: F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team), which will air on Netflix in December 2013, so there you go. I don’t use Netflix (*gasp!*), so like that that Arrested Development reboot, I’ll be missing this too. Hopefully, the series won’t drop all its episodes at once and burn itself out like AD did (the show always worked best in small doses), but I guess we’ll see what happens. Er, you who use Netflix will see what happens…

(*No, I don’t keep my dirty laundry in a closet and neither should you. It’ll stink up the place if left in too long AND it’ll fuse together into the shape of some elder god of dirty clothes and eat you as you sleep. You’ve been warned…)

You Always See the Weird Stuff on a Friday, Right?

Posted on July 12, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, GoodOldDaysReturns!)

Well, you USED to see a hell of a lot MORE weird stuff in person without a screen in your face before we became a “social” nation where everyone hunkered down over a device and broadcast their Friday fish, bad dance moves and drunken escapades for all the world to see (only to then whine and complain when those pictures and other media got sucked up by the privacy-eating 800lb gorilla in the room we were warned about a long time ago). Privacy needs to become the new black, I say. Anyway, if you’re staying at home with your camera off, let Peter Lorre entertain you… what, you didn’t know he could warble out a tune? Well, here you go – you learn something new every day, huh?

SHARKNADO 2 On the Way? It Is if You’re a Fan of NWA!

Posted on July 12, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, I watched that damn dumb flick last night and man, it was AWFUL. And awfully hilarious. And why the hell were some of the funniest and crudest jokes said in the background as if they were dubbed in later? Oh well. Junk TV is Junk TV. Of course, the mad, mad satirists at Taiwan’s wonderful NWA World know this AND they do better cheesy CGI effects than the guys at Asylum. I say let THEM do that sequel. This fake trailer PROVES they can hack it and make it cheaper to boot! Hell, I’d BUY this if it were on a DVD…

There’s a Pacific Rim Video Game? You’d Like to Know If It’s Good. I Can’t Say At All…

Posted on July 12, 2013 by geelw

(thanks again, Game Empire HD)

That’s because I don’t own a tablet at all (tried a few, but I’m like Goldilocks – haven’t found one that’s “Just Right” yet), so I’ve been missing out on these cash-ins that pop up when new blockbuster flicks hit. In a way, I prefer these sorts of licensed games show up as cheaper, well-intentioned games than ones with bigger budgets, longer (but never long enough) development cycles and higher price tags. Anyway, the fine folks at Game Empire HD have saved me the trouble of buying a tablet just for this game (not that I would do this, mind you!) and have posted some nice videos of Pacific Rim: The Game in action on their YouTube page. Do please poke around and check them out. In the meantime, a trailer for the game to ogle since you’re here…

I like the arcade-like look and play to this, but would I run out and snap this up if I did have a tablet? Mmmmaybe… I tend to like more story to my games, but I don’t mind the mindless beat ’em up from time to time…

Humor: 2013: A Shoe Odyssey

Posted on July 12, 2013 by geelw

Warning: There’s gore in this post thanks to some helpfully descriptive videos from a few horror flicks. You’ve been warrrrrrned…

Hey ladies, listen up. I have NO idea how some of you gals strut around in high heels or any other shoes without socks or other foot protection. I have even more respect for those of you who brave the foibles of poor shoe construction in the name of vanity yet I also now see why some of you spend SO much time and money on the best kicks money can buy. Guys? You who wear socks with those sandals? I used to laugh at you. Oh, how I laughed. Tonight, I’m planning to BE just like you, my new idols. How did I come to this e-feet-phany? Read on, dear reader… read on…

So, I happened to cut a finger while making dinner and that actually saved me from killing myself the next day. Earlier, I decided to clean out a closet and get rid of stuff that didn’t fit. I ended up giving away a few things including four pair of shoes that were too small, but I also found a few that fit I hadn’t worn in a while or at all. One pair was a nice set of Sandro Comfort Walk sort-of sandals (I’m no shoe linguist, kids. Just look at the picture above and call them what you like) and after trying them on, finding they still fit and walking around the house for a bit with them just to make sure my feet weren’t going to be barking at me the next day.

Little did I know I’d be doing the barking when those shoes did the biting…

Continue reading →

Random Indie Game of the Week: Mega Man Revolutions

Posted on July 12, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, HowlingOneify!)

OK, so that official site looks plainer than a matzoh viewed through a telescope at 500 yards, but Mega Man Revolutions is a really fine little surprise of an indie game that yet again proves that sometimes fans can make better games than the people who own the property. In development on and off for 11 years (!), Mike Crain and a handful of very dedicated Mega Man fanatics have whipped up a really fun and yes, REALLY challenging slice of retro gaming bliss. I could sit here and babble on about how cool it all is, how the classic visuals and soundtrack give off that familiar grin-giving (and grimace-giving in the hard parts) vibe and so forth and so on, but I actually need to complete the game myself. I’m only on the second stage, but poking around YouTube has revealed the game indeed has what it takes to be awesome:

So stop, drop and Roll yourself over to the MMR site, download and play this one. The single player mode is done, there’s some sort of co-op play in the works and if Capcom is smart, they’ll either start throwing out job offers or compile all these really great fan games into some sort of bundle at some point down the road to distribute as freebies on their own site. Wishful thinking, yes… but hard work like this deserves to be taken notice of and rewarded I say…

Incoming! Sony Pictures Classics to Distribute Jordowosky’s Dune in the US

Posted on July 11, 2013 by geelw

(thanks DuneInfo!)

Well, now… this is something I’ve been wondering about since I heard about the project a long time ago and it looks as if we’ll all get to see just what happened with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune back in the 1970’s. Sony Pictures classics will be distributing the recent documentary hopefully to theaters and most likely onto home video at some point and I say, sight unseen (well, other than the clip above) that it’s well worth a buy, rent or ticket price.

While Jordorowsky’s sprawling more than epic length version of the film was never completed, many of the artistic talent involved in the massive pre-production process went on to bigger and better things spurred on by their great deal of hard work on this long project. Can you imagine ALIEN without the amazing visuals contributions of H.R. Giger, Moebius, Chris Foss and of course, writer Dan O’Bannon? I’d imagine that film wouldn’t have been made at all or worse, would have ended up as yet another low-budget 70’s sci-fi film all but forgotten today. Anyway,

Curse of Chucky Trailer: That New CG Dolly Doesn’t Scare Me One Bit…

Posted on July 11, 2013 by geelw

Bleh. No wonder this is direct to Blu-Ray & DVD, although I won’t stop you from buying or renting it. Some folks are creeped out by this new digital Chucky, but I couldn’t stop laughing once his eyeballs bulged when that gal leans in closer. Maybe I’ll catch this on cable in a few months and change my mind, but probably not. For my money, 1945’s Dead of Night still has the scariest single “animated” doll on film, but I’ll give it up for Trilogy of Terror’s “Amelia” chapter for putting me under a couch. This new film might put me under a couch if I’m rolling on the floor laughing… we shall see…

Humble Weekly Bundle: 15 Spiderweb Software RPGs. No-Brainer Buy of the Week? Absolutely!

Posted on July 11, 2013 by geelw

Eyes Bigger Than the Head and Now REALLY Needs a Time Machine Department: Holy Cats. Spiderweb Software teams up with the Humble Bundle folks to provide ALL of their currently available hand-crafted fantasy RPGs in a “pay what you want” bundle that’s a MUST buy if you’re looking for some of the deepest and most unique role-playing experiences out there. Jeff Vogel and his tiny team of talented tricksters have been slowly turning out some really cool isometric games since 1994 and this spectacular sale features a whopping 15 games (faint, *THUD!*) which can be all yours for as little as a few dollars.

Yes, some of that coin you pay will indeed go to some great causes (the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play Charity), so feel free to feel guilty and pay more than the average or even give more money to Vogel and his merry men and women if you like. OK, I’m babbling on here, but I’m just thrilled about this offer because it gives some of you the chance to play some really fun and challenging old-school epics. Oh, in case youe sense of humor is too new school or just slow on the uptake, Jeff is making a funny in that video when he calls himself a “living legend”. Some folks on YouTube don’t seem to understand this. Damn kids…