Lost Planet 3 Now Available: Turn that AC Up Full Blast – It’s Supposed To Be Freezing

I’m still working through a ton of stuff here (as in among other things, I’ve piles of old artwork stacked or spread out on nearly every flat surface in the home office), but I’ll need to grab a copy of Lost Planet 3 to play through soon. I haven’t read any reviews (which is helpful when you’re going to write one yourself eventually, in case you hadn’t guessed), but someone sent me an email with two links I didn’t read and noted that one was positive and the other not so positive, which is what I expected from the usual suspects out there in review-land. I liked what I played on the two occasions I got some hands on time, so I know I’ll enjoy the final version warts and all. I’m more of a story guy than a back of the box bullet point person, so I’m in this for the whole package, not just seeing if the game is as good as other games released this year or whenever.

Back in a bit…

New(ish) Thor: The Dark World Posters Are Not Keeping Things Loki…

Thor_TDW_castOh my, it’s the flying pun (heh). OK, OK… I’ve been lax in posting stuff about Thor: The Dark World. Sue me later, but at least suffer like a man (or woman, although they’ve suffered enough because of us men) through this post about these posters. The one up top was released earlier this month and is pulling off a nice Star Wars variant pretty well (although it’s a wee bit too crowded for my tastes), while these latter two dropped today and are nice looks at Thor and Loki good for covering up a closet door or something similarly sized.  Hmmm… nice, but I know some of you want to see the ladies get their own posters. In other words, it’s your move, Marvel…

Thor_TDWa Thor_TDW2

Meanwhile, In Los Santos (Yep, It’s a GTA V Update)…

image001Yes, it’s a few more Grand Theft Auto V screens below and below the jump, info on the game’s Special and Collectors Edition extras some of you Standard Edition buyers will want to shake your fists at before canceling your old pre-order to upgrade to either the Special or CE version for all the goodies they’ll has. Or if you’re feeling particularly self-generous (or are naturally that way) you can just buy all THREE versions of the game and make Rockstar even happier, right? RIGHT?

GTAV1 GTAV2 GTAV3 GTAV4 GTAV5 GTAV6 GTAV7 GTAV8

September 17, people…

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A Day Off For a Bit of Art…

lakeside property

Hokay, I needed a bit of a break from the ziggurat of stuff to do (or is it juggernaut? I forget), so yesterday I did some fun stuff like a larger piece of brain-clearing art (above), clean out a big box of stuff that gave me a splitting headache by the time I got to the bottom and then I escaped into the summer air for a stroll and after a mental coin toss, some impromptu entertainment. There’s nothing like supporting the arts, folks. Alright, it’s late (the train ride home took forever, thanks to track work and the ride taking three times as long). Off to bed for me (after I go find an aspirin)…

Gamescom 2013: RIME – Ico Meets Journey in This Lovely PS4 Exclusive

(thanks, IGN

Tequila Studios’ upcoming PS4 exclusive, RIME looks wonderful in that ICO meets Journey manner with similarly rich (but more detailed) visuals and what sounds like a pretty lovely score (provided it’s not placeholder music). As for the story and gameplay, it’s tough to get a grasp on what the plot is and how this one controls from the video, but the game sure carries the influence of Team Ico’s work with those shadowy creatures and the protagonist using a torch to fight them off. It also looks like a more open world experience than ICO or Journey, but again, it’s tough to say much other than the game looks simply gorgeous.

I’m reserving any judgement on this one until it gets seen in person and played, so hopefully, Sony will get back to inviting those of us with smaller sites BACK to their press briefings, as they’ve been shutting out everyone who’s not packing in page views by the multiple thousands in exchange for what seems to be “strategic partnerships” with the big guns. This, of course… STINKS, as I used to be invited to SCEA events all the time and it’s a total pain in the neck to not get a response back to an email or a heads up that there’s something cooking in the city. Hell, I’m a train ride away and always thrilled to see new titles, so someone needs to start paying heed to the “little guys” (although after doing this stuff since 1998, I don’t consider myself “little”, grrrr…)

Random Art: Fit to Be Tied, Frees the Mind (I Guess)…

tiedWhee, more dumping from the way too busy brain factory upstairs. Yeah, a bit of being arty every so often helps me think (and that’s a good thing). I’m still playing catch up with the backlog (and dodging the occasional cranky Batman fan), but otherwise, it’s humming along on a few fronts.

I need to review a new chair (yeah, a chair, but what a chair it is, ladies and gents) and some other stuff, compete all those previews I’ve started and convince a few people to see The World’s End without me being there because I’ll be doing other things (like work and maybe more art? We shall see…). Yeah, you should see it, too. And speaking of films, yup, more Random Film of the Week action is on the way as well. Stick around… you’ll see…

Perspective: Two Words For Those Cranky Batman Fans: Michael Keaton.

(thanks, Batman on Film!) 

Hoo boy. Based on the internet collapsing in on itself yesterday and today, you’d think someone ran around kneecapping old ladies walking cute puppies or something across all 50 states and in too many countries around the world to count. It seems that this new age of short attention spanned, easily “outraged” fanboys and girls are forgetting their film history a few too many times, so let’s play Time Machine for a bit. Back in 1987 or ’88 when there was NO internet (well, not what we call the internet these days), I can distinctly recall Batman fans I knew flying far off the handle when the Batman movie was announced with a director they’d barely heard of and a guy playing Bruce Wayne/Batman who’d only been known for being a comedian with not so big a movie resume.

I remember reading the news and thinking one word: DISASTER…

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BOUGHT THAT! RPG Trifecta Pack Get!

RPG_Trifecta_Pack

Yeah, yeah… I a bit late in picking this awesome deal up (it was released on August 6), but the RPG Trifecta Pack is all mine and I just saved a few hundred bucks in the process by not tracking down the out of production cart versions. Granted, the collector in me still wants to shell out for the two Genesis RPGs I’m missing from Super Fighter Team (I already have one of the few hundred copies of Star Odyssey here in the library), but this set will most certainly do.

Amusingly enough, if you happen to be the owner of a creaky PC from the last century, guess what? All of the games will actually run on any system with the following operating systems: Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, ME, and 98SE (which is amazing but not unexpected, given emulation works well on any modern PC). Mac users? Well, you’ll need Mac OS X 10.5 and above. I don’t own a Mac, so I have no clue if that’s good, bad or ugly, but if you’re jumping up and down at home or the office, it’s all good. OK, I need to shut up and get downloading. Well, it’s only a 4MB file, so it’ll be quick, even on a crappy dial-up connection. Of course, I won’t get to PLAY any of these three until I whittle down my backlog here, so I guess this is an early holiday gift for myself – whee!

INTERVIEW: Half of Twenty Questions With Lost Planet 3’s William Watterson

Lost Planet 3 PS3With Capcom and Spark Unlimited’s PS3, Xbox 360 and PC sci-fi action game Lost Planet 3 finally headed into stores August 27 here in the US (August 30 in Europe and Australia), I had the great opportunity to shoot a few questions over to WIlliam “Bill” Watterson, voice and motion capture actor for lead character Jim Payton (who by the way isn’t related to THAT Bill Watterson, which is why he’s called William here). You can probably call him Bill if you run into him in person (just don’t ask him to draw you a picture of Calvin or Hobbes).

Anyway, below the jump he discusses voice acting (with a few tips for you thespians out there), music, LP3’s western influences, booze and how to get social with the man himself in a few places online…

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Gamescom 2013: Murdered: Soul Suspect Trailer: Can I Get A Witness?!

Airtight Games and Square Enix are going to be dipping a toe into the supernatural with the upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 game, Murdered: Soul Suspect, set for a 2014 release. If you’ve been around the gaming block a bit, this one looks like a cross between L.A. Noire, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and a couple of cool PC adventure games from way back when. I like that the video plays like a little hint book of sorts and there will be more to come that will no doubt aid games who snap this up in uncovering a few important clues as they go through the game. Of course, I tend to avoid spoilers and tips before or while I’m playing, so I’m probably only going to watch each of the rest of these trailers once and hope my short term memory gives out like I’m starring in Memento II or something. Er, pretend I didn’t type that – I can see some lousy straight to video sequel popping up in what, two weeks from now…