Cool. As I was strolling home yesterday right past his truck, the UPS guy beckons me over to sign for a package I wasn’t expecting. It’s good that all the delivery guys know me around here, as I sometimes get stopped in the street or waved over from across the street if they’re working that side of the block.
Anyway, I’ve got some homework to do, it seems. I did play for about two hours yesterday and the game is quite good (definitely Spark Unlimited’s best game to date) with a few quirks (that Unreal tech is showing its age, but the characters and environments are lovely to look at). I’ll dive back in after I take care of that late dinner I started cooking a little while ago – the pot has stopped rattling, so I’ll assume that means that clawed thing I had to shove in with a baseball bat and the long tongs must be done by now…
Well, I almost did, thanks to sorting laundry and the mountain of ancient crap from the art vaults I decided to pore through over the past few weeks before putting the bulk of back into storage most of today. Anyway, That goofy thing above is a semi-recent digital piece based on part of a dream. The other thing below is from 1987. Is it a man, a horse, A Man Called Horse or all of the above? Who knows? A horse is a horse (of course, of course) after all…
Hmmm… I guess some things never change, but I guess I’ll keep dinking away at this art stuff until I get something right. Back in a bit, as I need to move a few more pieces so I don’t have to sleep standing up tonight like Mister Ed. Whaddaya mean “Who’s Mister Ed?” Oh, OK, not all of you reading this are aged cheese like I am. Darn kids. OK, Here you go.
Angrier and louder (and less funky), but yeah, you get the message. Just pass it up the ladder ’til it reaches the top. And hell, add some Creedence in for good measure (because nobody doesn’t love them some Creedence):
And so forth and so on. Pick a few of your own favorites and make up a playlist. Pass it on, pass it on, pass it on.. maybe one day they’ll start listening. And talking to each other before the shit hits the fan… again.
With so much happening this year in the gaming universe, I almost forgot about Quantic Dream’s upcoming PS3 exclusive, set for an October 8, 2013 release. The PS3 has had a really busy year with key first party exclusive titles as well as third party games that show the console is far from dead once the PS4 hits in November. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see how well this does going into the PS4 launch so soon afterwards. I predict it will sell better than some PS4 launch titles and if it scores highly enough, may actually go up in price thanks to eBay resellers taking advantage of smaller stores running out of copies. Either way, the game is guaranteed to move in some impressive numbers even if it’s at a slower pace than the usual analyst and corporate forecasting (which is always annoyingly high to the point where even a game that sells five million copies is seen as a “failure” because the target was a bit too high)…
Wow. It’s REALLY too bad these aren’t mass produced, as I can see a load of hard core Blade Runner fans wanting to get their paws on the entire set of these spectacularly detailed dolls… er, action figures… er, works of art. Scott Pettersen, a huge fan of the film and a ridiculously talented sculptor has made possibly the best looking non-licensed collectibles I’ve ever seen, so I’m speechless and you should check out his site yourself and wear a drool cup while visiting, as there’s a load of other wonderful goodies there (and some of it is for sale). The man’s got T-A-L-E-N-T… although an owl with that Rachel figure in her office suit would have been wickedly cool to see.
In other words, the inmates have taken over the asylum and yes, Bats needs to do some darknight detecting and with due diligence at that or he’s not getting out in one piece. This 3DS/2DS and Vita game (set to launch with the console and PC versions on October 25, 2013) brings things down to size in “2.5D” form, but manages to look pretty cool and should feel like a classic side-scroller with a nice Arkham twist. Sure, you can get cranky and say the Vita game should be closer to the PS3 version, but here’s a case where I’ll defer to the dev team over at Armature because they’ve done a really good job with the visuals on both handhelds.
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comic Adventure is shaping up to be a weird little game indeed in a good way, with Maxwell meeting the DC Universe and playing hero with his heroes against some classic villains. The Wii U, 3DS/2DS and PC exclusive should be in stores and online September 24, 2013 and for a limited time, will come with a free digital comic, Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure – “A Battle Most Bizarre.”
Here, I have to get clippy with the press release below the jump (and there are some new screens to ogle as well), as stupid me forgot my power brick for the laptop and my time is bleeding away by the second (eek!)…
… but a song AND the crazy dance number to go with it? Yeah, it happens to the best of us (meaning me), so I’m sharing this clip and hope it happens to YOU (and sooner than later at that). For those of you who know “Me Ole Bamboo” from 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, feel free to sing along, but don’t even try that cane dancing in this video because you know you’ll break something (in your body and wherever you’re watching this). Memo to the kids: Dick Van Dyke was 44 when he did this (ouch), it took 27 takes and from what I understand, being a beat behind the other (much younger dancers) at the beginning made this routine even tougher. Hell, I have trouble getting the heck out of bed some mornings, but this may help in making me leap up instead of drag out. OK, get to it with the stretches, people – I want you all doing this bit in your sleep within the week. If anything, it’ll take care of that “restless leg” thing once and for all…
Well, that was… educational. Every time I see footage and screen shots from this upcoming wonderful time stealing enterprise called GTA V, I have to wonder how Rockstar Games keeps pulling this off, as each title in the long running series has been setting and raising all sorts of bars in terms of interactivity and storytelling. Yeah, yeah, I know many of you buy in for the mayhem you can cause, but when you get to the story and let it play out, they’re always extremely well written (and easily beat much of what Hollywood has to offer to death) and highly enjoyable. September 17th, people – start practicing that fake cough for that telephone call you’re going to make saying you’ve a bad case of the “flu” so you can get that week off to dive in and play around… you KNOW you’re going to…
If you’re big into DRM-free classic and indie games, you should already know by now that gog.com is the place to poke around for your content fix and yes, they continue to add some great old as well as new titles well worth checking out. Here’s a quick peek at two from this week’s batch:
The Chaos Engine was a fantastic Amiga game from The Bitmap Brothers that was so good it was ported to both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo (and retitled Soldiers of Fortune in North America). It’s a top down shooter that’s not a simple run & gun at all, but a game that takes practice and patience (in large doses) in order to succeed. Nice 16-bit visuals with a steampunk vibe working away, challenging gameplay that keeps you on your toes, a cool soundtrack and plenty of surprises await in this solid little blast from the past. It’s ten bucks, supports co-op play (break out that second controller) and will most certainly test your skills at dealing with sudden alien surprises. And teleports that bring in MORE alien surprises. This game doesn’t play when it comes to making you sweat that small stuff.
With its intentionally stylized chunky polygon visuals, Shelter may look like an old PlayStation era game buffed up a bit, but it’s a really cool indie title from indie developer Might and Delight that’s got a simple premise that should get non-gamers to want to try this out. You play as a mother badger who needs to try and keep her five cubs alive as long as possible during a series of linear levels where nature is your biggest enemy. Feeding them is key, but keeping an eye peeled for that hungry eagle while traveling through the forest adds a layer of tension, as does rainy weather, darkness and a few other elements you’ll soon see. Think of this as playing through an episode of Nature or some other PBS documentary and you sort of get the idea.
Replay value seems high here, as there’s going to be that time you lost ALL your cubs and you’ll want to do better the next time. That circle of life stuff can be a bitch, but I sort of wish humans needed to go through the same stuff these days, as whittling the pack down to the smartest over the strongest might make some things better off. Anyway, if your maternal urges are swelling right about now, you know what to do. No, not THAT (this is a family show!)… I meant go snap up some Shelter of your own for a mere $8.99 and keep your cubs out of harm’s way!
Cool. As I was strolling home yesterday right past his truck, the UPS guy beckons me over to sign for a package I wasn’t expecting. It’s good that all the delivery guys know me around here, as I sometimes get stopped in the street or waved over from across the street if they’re working that side of the block.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 