Armored Core: Verdict Day In Stores – World Mech War Begins, Recruits Wanted!

Namco Bandai Games and developer From Software want you to REALLY stay home a lot more. Armored Core: Verdict Day is here now for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and in addition to its online-centric multiplayer action, the game actually features a single player campaign (thank youuuu!) those who want to play without friends (hey, some of love our alone time!) can hop into and fully enjoy. Got and Armored Core V save handy? Even cooler, as that can be uploaded to allow you some nice bonuses. For those of you who DO have friends and a PSN or Xbox Live account, you can round up your other AC fans and have at it in a pretty deep online play mode that’s actually worldwide (meaning it’ll have a longer shelf life than other AC games that only had North American server play). Anyway, the level of challenge gets a MAJOR boost with the Hardcore modes that I hear are tougher than the developer’s Demon Souls and Dark Souls in terms of some terrifyingly powerful enemies and insane game rules that make for increased damage as well as super-expensive repairs and ammo costs.

Granted, you’ll get more enjoyment out of this if you’re already a longtime Armored Core fan, but it’s definitely deep and challenging enough to keep your interest going if you like games that keep you on your toes as you learn the ropes…

Peripheral Vision: Valve’s Third Shoe Is A Hot One: Steam Controller, Inbound!

Steam Controller

Well, this is… interesting. I’ll hold off on any actual critique until I get my paws around one of these, but it looks like a game-changer if you want to play PC games on your TV (and aren’t already doing so with a big expensive gaming rig with a nicely pricey gaming mouse/keyboard setup. Read all about it HERE while I think for a bit or move on to writing another article. This one’s impossible to gauge from a photo and nope, those aren’t subwoofers on the front, ha ha.

Gallery: Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure

SNDC_Wii U_2D_E10p5th Cell’s latest game features the return of Maxwell and plenty of fun user-created content… but with a nice twist as you’ll see in that rather fun-looking trailer above. But wait, there’s MORE! Act now and every single Wii U, 3DS and PC copy of Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure also features a rather robust character edit function that allows you to create and play as any character you can come up with (with a DC Comics focus, obviously). I’m planning to scour that selection of classic to current heroes just to see if 5th Cell has stuck some of DC’s more oddball heroes and anti-heroes into the mix, so I’m hoping to see a Swamp Thing, Deadman and maybe Etrigan in there somewhere but mot likely there will be no Ally Babble or Madame Xanadu unless I can cobble them together myself. We’ll see. I do love little surprises like a smart development team that sticks in some really obscure characters into a game this flexible. Having a Bat-Mite to play around with would be quite cool, that’s for sure.

It also has (or at least HAD until I shrunk them down with Picture Resizer) some HUGE honkin’ screenshots in its press kit, which is quite amusing for a game that relies on a simple and effective art style. I had to shrink them to a more manageable size just so they’d upload faster (OK, well that and no one needs an 8000 x 4500 screen cap to scroll around like it’s a map to some lost Inca gold! Anyway, enjoy!

Assorted Heroes (Custom) Batcomputer_Dex-Starr (Custom) Dancin in the Streets (Custom) Omega Beams (Custom) Riddle (Custom) Superboy Prime (Custom) MarvelFamily_TrinityofSin (Custom) Mask-Erade (Custom) Meeting (Custom) MindGames (Custom) GettinTheGang (Custom)

Carrie “Unique” TV Spot: Well, If It Weren’t a Remake… It Sure Would Be.

Har de har. OK, it may be a darn good remake and all, but I still think Brian DePalma’s version will be the go-to version of Carrie I’ll always prefer for a few reasons. Sure, this new version has Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore in it as leads, but I can’t see Julianne saying “dirtypillows” without a snicker starting (and the fact that we’ve all see her dirtypillows in a few films, hee hee hee! Hooray for indie films!). Oh, rats… now that’s got me going and the Booby Express song is playing in the background (and too LOUD at that!). Argh! This is SUPPOSED to be a “serious” post! Oh well… done in once more. *Sigh*…

Dexter’s Finale In A Nutshell: Monty Python Did it MUCH Better in 1969…

(thanks, Chadner!) 

Oh, brother… I haven’t been so annoyed at a season of any TV show in ages. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, Dexter has its ups and downs, but this final season was so wretched that I had to post something about it in a mini-rantless post. Too many new characters (and way too many serial killers) were introduced only to be killed off, forgotten about or tossed into the last few shows as terrifically poor plot advancement as the episodes dragged out. And so forth and so on until that woeful finale where Deb finally gives up the ghost. Spoiler: she got shot (AGAIN!), but expired from an off screen affliction related to the coma she was in and Dexter shutting off her life support at the hospital, then carting her body off during the daytime during a not well shot chaotic scene as a big hurricane was brewing up. Bleh. I guess his killing clothes make him invisible to onlookers or something. Anyway, he ends up leaving his kid in Argentina with the escaped female serial killer he was sleeping with last season (don’t ask!) and he fakes his death (Kenny Powers did it better!) only to pop up in the Pacific Northwest as a lonely bearded lumberjack sitting in his creepy cabin as the show fades out forever. Yuk, bluck, What the F#@k?! Yeah, well… good thing I have a sense of humor (and YouTube)…

Girl Fight: Your Catty Crew Is Battling Here With Fist and Feet to Faces…

…with so much fast-paced fighting action, you’ll hope they’ve tied their laces!

OK, that’s enough crappy poetry from me, ladies and gents. Kung Fu Factory’s new Mature-rated females-only fighter looks pretty darn cool, although I will say after too many years of playing video games, some of those character costumes look a wee bit familiar. That said, my interest is piqued and I wish to heck this game was on a darn disc and not just a download game. I have SO many digital games on a few hard drives that it’s a heck of a chore keeping up with what’s on which drive. I was planning to hire a helper monkey to sort through all my accounts and compile a list of stuff I have yet to play (or need to get back to because I started, got halfway or less in and had to move on to something else), but what usually happens in those cases is that monkey ends up playing too many games and not working as expected, grrr. Or worse, they’ll get to Girl Fight, get better than I will ever get and proceed to beat me senseless until they start getting paid. Ouch.

Speaking of “ouch”, the ladies would definitley like it if you looked at them in action above and in the screens below. NO ogling, leering and/or drooling , though… they’ll get pissed and poke you in the eye with a spiked heel (Ouch!)

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Humor: NWA World Has Its Own Opinion About Valve’s Big Steamy Plans…

The funniest thing about this video is NWA’s animators used the late Crash Bandicoot (!) as Sony’s mascot when poor Crash hasn’t been in a game (or on a Sony console) in YEARS. Oh well, nostalgia runs deep over in Taiwan I guess. Either that or the fine folks at NWA didn’t want to animate the more up to date (and even more hugely popular these days) characters Ratchet & Clank because it would have taken a few minutes more to get an extra figure running about in this clip. These guys work FAST, you know. Anyway, yeah – things are getting REALLY weird on the console front with everyone wanting to take over that living room. I think poor Apple won’t even bother trying to make a console at this point. They’ve missed this train a few times and their customers aren’t necessary going to buy into a console that plays games they can already get on their phones and tablets and maybe try playing through Apple TV. Eh, we’ll see, I guess. Score one… no, TWO for Valve. Friday’s next big reveal should be equally or even more innnnnteresting…

Valve Drops Shoe Two of Three: Steam Machines, From A Few Sources (Plus How To Get One Early!)

Steam MachinesBOOM. Well, it’s not actually surprising, this badly kept secret of Valve’s, but at least the company knows how to make “old” news really damned thrilling. So, yes… in addition to their new Family Sharing plan, Valve is making a FREE downloadable game-centric SteamOS AND a console you can run it on. Even better, those upcoming Steam Machines are going to be coming from a few different producers so users will have a choice of styles as well as the flexibility to tinker with their individual systems and even create content if they’re that type of gamer. If half of that last sentence sounds familiar, it’s because Panasonic’s MUCH maligned 3DO Multiplayer ended up also getting a few variants produced by Goldstar and Sanyo at different price points and with different pack-in titles.

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Lichdom Gallery: Looks Like A Magical RPG Experience for PC Gamers…

LICHDOM_logo

Lichdom_Maelstrom_PanoramaAtlanta-based developer Xaviant is hard at work on what’s looking like an incredible new role-playing game, Lichdom (which in those screens below seems to be subtitled Redeemer). The currently PC-only title, (powered by AMD and Crytek’s highly versatile CRYENGINE) is centered around some rather heavy magic spell usage and as you can see in that trailer above, those spells pack quite a wallop. From what I’ve read on their YouTube channel, the game isn’t an open world experience at all, but promises to have an extreme level of immersion (always a good thing in a game such as this).

While those screens below don’t show off any in-game character models (that trailer above does nicely enough at that), but does feature some very nicely detailed environments that yes, recall Skyrim and a few other RPGs of the soon to be previous generation.

Even in an early graphics test the game looked magnificent, so it’s definitely going to be a PC card melter when it’s finally completed. That said, this is exactly the sort of game the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One need to lure in gamers who don’t see any RPGs on the horizon, so there’s hopefully at least some consideration given to porting the game over at some point (after it launches on PC, of course).

Lichdom_ Lichdom_Greyteeth_02 Lichdom_Maelstrom_02 Lichdom_Maelstrom_04 Lichdom_Riftwood02 Lichdom_Sinkhole01 Lichdom_Sinkhole02 Lichdom_Soddentrod03 Lichdom_Soddentrod04 Lichdom_Underground02 Lichdom_Underground02

As for the game’s story, main character and other details, well… that’s below the jump in handy press release form (of course)…

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Need For Speed Trailer: Put it in “Park”, Pinkman…

(thanks, joblomovienetwork!) 

Oh, this is going to hurt, but here goes. We really do NOT need… a Need for Speed movie. Seriously. Aaron Paul may be a hot star thanks to Breaking Bad, but this soon to tank out effects-filled gasser isn’t going to gain him any fans unless they’re too young to watch him as Jesse but right in the clutches of this upcoming car flick. Not that it’s supposed to be a big thing to see an actor come off such a huge TV show ride as BB and make the leap to Oscar bait right away, mind you. I predict this will do well on opening weekend if there’s no Fast and the Furious flick rolling out at the same time, but anyone lining up looking for character depth may as well play Need for Speed: The Run, which was EA’s attempt at making a racing game play like a movie… and it didn’t work all that well despite the best of intentions. I’d laugh if there were a game tie-in on a console (I can definitely see a cheap app popping up, though) at some point next year. We gamers don’t have THAT short a memory (well, I sure don’t)…

Oh well, I’ll shut up now with my predictions and let this one find its level. If it’s in YOUR wheelhouse, enjoy the show. Me, I’ll hold out for the cable premiere and kick myself later if I was incorrect in my forecasting…