While Of Orcs and Men didn’t light up the RPG scene when it was released, the game’s two leads drew enough attention that developer Cyanide Studios is cooking up an all new adventure starring one of them and based on the teaser trailer above, it looks quite interesting. STYX: Master of Shadows puts that mean-faced but very charismatic little goblin back in the human world and looks to be a stealthy action game along the lines of the Thief series. We’ll see how this one plays out and if the stealth elements make the cut among the fans of the genre who demand perfection. So far, this is PC only, but I’ll hold out a hope it makes it onto consoles at some point just so I don’t need to spend more money upgrading my dinosaur rig that’s still holding its own but is aging in dog years by the day. As always, we shall see, but this one looks like it would fit well on either the PS4 or Xbox One at some point…
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Jazzpunk Trailer: Jack Into The Ultimate Crazy Trip From Adult Swim & Necrophone Games
Lovely. Jazzpunk is right up my alley, folks. It’ll run on my old PC or laptop, it’s bizarre as hell and manages to cover that 90’s cyber-fantasy stuff much better than most games made IN the 90’s did. Yes, I played plenty of them back in the day from excellent to absolutely putrid and I still have some pretty awful flashbacks about Virtuoso and Cyberdillo on the 3DO and don’t even get me started on those Lawnmower Man games (yes, there were a few of them). Anyway, this one’s on sale for a few more hours on Steam (you save three bucks for another 20 hours), so go check it out if you’re curios after seeing that video above. These posts are coming in short bursts today because of the crappy weather outside and the fact that the library is closing early today thanks to that crappy weather (boo).
Goat Simulator: Is That A Coffee Stain On Your Forehead? Just Say Yes.
Are you OK? That cup that sailed across the room and smacked you in the skull knocked you clean out of your chair! And so it goes with games that come out of nowhere. The madmen (and probably women as well) over at Sweden’s Coffee Stain Studios have come up with a pretty wacky game that’s buggy as hell and in their own words, you’d be better off buying something else:
Disclaimer
Goat Simulator is a small, broken and stupid game. It was made in a couple of weeks so don’t expect a game in the size and scope of GTA with goats. In fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat.
But guess what? Out of nowhere, this busted pile of code has become one of the hotter indie games of 2014 and yes indeed, you can pre-order it HERE. I wasn’t even sure if I even wanted to play it when I heard of it last week… and then I saw that video above. Okay, I’m sold on the stupid. And of course, that whacked-out tune in the video stuck in my head so Coffee Stain went and made a freaking 26-plusHumor, Video game minute REMIX of the dang thing (enjoy!):
I bet this takes your mind off that cold, snow and mess outside for a bit. I know I’ll have that goofy tune looping in MY brain until the weekend. Um, thanks, Coffee Stain Studios?
Comcast Buys Time Warner Cable: Here’s All You Need To Know As a Consumer…
Words fail me on this EXTREMELY crappy 45 billion dollar “deal” for any current consumer of pay TV out there who uses either service, so I’ll let assorted clips from The Empire Strikes Back do the talking (Thanks to ABiggerQuote for the clips!):
And so forth and so on. If you REALLY want to know how I feel, Robot Chicken spells it out even more (we’re screwed, folks):
(Thanks, adultswim!)
Yeah… sometimes all you can do is nothing but laugh at how we’re jerked around by these way too large corporations…
Evolve: 2K Games and Turtle Rock Give The Multiplayer Shooter Genre A Monster Kick…
I’ll admit to not being thrilled when I heard of Evolve because, futuristic weapons and cast of four hunters aside it’s yet another multiplayer focused shooter I can’t play because it probably doesn’t have an offline mode. But after seeing a bit of gameplay and getting that it’s a four against one game with that one playing a hunted beast that can evolve into a massive near-kaiju style beast, my interest went up a bit. Now, the ability to play as a monster isn’t a “new” thing in games at all, but developer Turtle Rock Studios is making this the core of the gameplay which requires the four players going after that monster to work together in order to take the player-controlled beastie down as quickly as possible.
Given Turtle Rock’s pioneering work on the Left 4 Dead games, it’s a no brainer that the team would take what they learned from that experience and up the ante considerably. Granted, the AI on that monster isn’t Director controlled and random, but I’m betting that creatures that the monster needs to feed on may be smart buggers who will hopefully spell trouble for the human hunters as they run and plan. I’m gathering that cutting off the food supply will keep that monster from noshing away and getting bigger, but I’ll probably need to ask that question at some point (among others) if and when I get some actual hands on time with this at a press event. Yeah, I may not play this at home, but I’ll certainly play it at a meeting and let you all know if it’s everything it’s cracked up to be. It sure looks like it shall be…
UNDER THE SKIN Trailer: Scarlett Goes Brunette (And Alien)…
Hmmm. I have a rabid dislike for trailers for films that haven’t been released that have blurbs in them, period. Sure, it’s a great way to hype up a project, but that comparison of this upcoming flick to Stanley Kubrick’s output made my eyebrow arch up and stick until I got a bad cramp. Granted, this long teaser to UNDER THE SKIN does look nice and cryptic (a good thing in this age of movies spilling plot beans all over the place in two minutes or so) and some of the imagery IS quite striking. So color me intrigued, Miss Johansson. Not sure I’m fond of that British accent she’s doing here, but it’s far from the worst I’ve heard.
But I have the feeling that until I actually see this at some point, it’ll just stay vague and haunting. I’ll probably hold out for the home video or cable showing, as if I can’t get into a screening I’d rather not sit in a theater with chumps of both sexes looking for a boob shot, their wives and/or girlfriends elbowing them in the head and that ONE person who decided to bring a child to a film not made for that age group. Yeah, it’s always something when you go to the movies these days…
Hail Caesar! Another Great Comedy Legend Passes On…
(Thanks, SidCaesarCom!)
Do yourselves a favor, class. Hit up Google (or whatever search engine you use) and YouTube, type in Sid Caesar and prepare for an education. Without him and a bunch of other dearly departed funny people, you have no sketch comedy, no Saturday Night Live and quite a few other shows and folks making us all laugh to varying degrees. What few episodes of Your Show of Shows I’ve seen made it for me one of the funniest live sketch shows ever created, and while “tame” by today’s standards, the writing team (Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Danny Simon, Mel Tolkin and Larry Gelbart among others) plus the cast managed to pull off some nicely subversive and just plain timeless routines.
(Thanks, shawmk!)
I’m kind of bummed out a tiny bit because too many younger folks don’t know the man’s work and probably know less about how he and his team revolutionized on a few fronts, but that’s what the internet is for, I suppose. Anyway, here are three routines to start you on your trip. I’ll leave it to you to find more (and believe me, there are PLENTY of clips to go around from this show and others Sid did). Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to do a little research myself – I could use a good laugh today…
(Thanks, Fuzz Tone!)
Snow Daze II: Forewarned Is (Almost) Four-Armed…
Status
Today may be slow for updates, but we’ll see. I’m getting ready for this new snowstorm about to hit here tonight and into tomorrow, as the radio is telling me nothing good. On the other hand, we’ve had storms not make it through here full strength, so I have a grain or three of salt that came with that weather blast. On the OTHER hand, the last two snowfalls were nice and semi accurate to a fault, so I think tomorrow will be crappy for getting out and about. On the OTHER hand (yeah, I have an extra one here just for posts like this), I could just ignore the snow and tra-la-la about like it’s midsummer or something, but I think the men in white coats will come or me if I do that. Hell, if it’s warm where they’re taking me and I can get free medical attention, I’m running around outside naked tomorrow once I pop out of bed and get a cup of hot tea or coffee in me.
Or not. We shall see…
Toukiden: Age of Demons Launch Trailer: A Little Late To The Party, Hmmm?
Okay, Tecmo Koei… I’ll cut you a tiny break today. I thought you guys would post that Toukiden: The Age of Demons launch trailer FIRST, but it was a gameplay basics trailer you ran instead. That made me jump the gun earlier and figure you were all playing your own game so much today that you’d not have time to run more trailers (or anything else for that matter). Oops. Oh well, but it’s GOOD for you because I get to do TWO posts about this really fun game you’ve published. Which is at the end of the day, good for you as well as Omega Force, correct?
Yup, I thought so.
2K Games and Bethesda Team Up For Legendary Reissues
And by “Legendary”, I mean you’ll be lost for hours in these digital worlds these two new collections have packed onto those discs. The first bundle features the multimillion selling titles The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and BioShock Infinite and the second bundle features everyone’s favorite FPS/RPG hybrids Borderlands 2 and Dishonored. I’d highly recommend these to new players who’ve yet to play these four modern classics, but collectors may also want to snap these up as it’s a pretty good value for the content you’re getting. Granted, the cheapskates out there who always buy stuff on sale may disagree, but 2K and Bethsoft aren’t targeting you anyway (nyah!). Ah, so many, mnay games… so little time to play them!
