Assault Suit Leynos To Get PS4 Remake (Or: Target WORTH!)

Posted on March 8, 2014 by geelw

Well, alright! I’ve never heard of Japanese developer Dracue Software, but they certainly made a name for themselves at this year’s BitSummit in Japan by announcing they’re working on a remake of the classic Sega Mega Drive game Assault Suit Leynos. The game, known in the US as Target Earth, will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive (at least for now, but I hope a Vita version is in the pipeline). The only thing up media-wise other than the game site is this teaser trailer that’s all footage from the original with the reveal that the new game is PS4-bound:

Yep, it’s a buy whenever it’s done and hopefully won’t be either a download-only game that gets buried on PSN with little fanfare outside its home country or worse, play like the Assault Suits Valken “remake” for the Japanese PS2. THAT game was based on the Super Nintendo-only sequel to Leynos (called Cybernator here in the States) and the PS2 version was just a chore to play effectively thanks to cumbersome controls and pretty accurate enemy shooting. My hopes are for the best, as Leynos was and is a great game to play through multiple times. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the soundtrack stays the same as the original game or isn’t remixed and/or fiddled with too much. Eh, we’ll see… I have faith in Dracue to not screw this one up…

READS: It’s A Mystery To Me And More, Sort of Historical Version…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Well, whee! Barnes & Noble came through pretty quickly and that means I get to do some reading this weekend. While her husband MTM sits at home holding the fort down (and sliding around on the floor in his underwear like Tom Cruise in Risky Business because he’s got the house all to himself), his wife, author Andra Watkins is out walking the Natchez Trace, following the path of Lewis and Clark. Nope, he didn’t drive her out thataway and accidentally leave her to her own devices, folks. There’s a nifty and interesting story behind all that trekking she’ll be doing for the remainder of March plus… but you’ll have to read her blog to get all that info. Hey, I can’t tell her story better than she can and I don’t have a book to sell (yet). SO you get to get it from the horse’s mouth as it were. Anyway, you can grab To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis from a few places digitally or physically. You’re smart, so you’ve clicked on one of the links here or the book cover to the right of this post in the sidebar or have already gotten a copy and are nodding and smiling because you’re further along in the book than I am.

Back with a review soon…

Orphan Black Better NOT Get A Musical Episode, Is All I’ll Gently Suggest…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Holy cats, fans can be ten thousand percent nuts sometimes. HELL NO, this otherwise fine and well written sci-fi drama does NOT need ANYTHING resembling a sing-along hour with cast members warbling out tunes while facing death and danger. Nope. NO. No way. Stupid ideas are a dime a dozen, Buffy did it already and THAT show was campy from the get-go, so it’s excused. OB is fine as it is and even as if planned and executed a dream sequence, a musical episode would be such a shark-jumping moment that I’d probably never go back to it after that travesty aired. Let the fan-fictioners dabble in that nonsense all they want, but keep the clones away from the chorus line, please. Even as a joke, it’s a terrible one because that means someone has probably gone and thought out at least a way to make it happen. Yikes and yuck. I’m keeping my eye on you, Maslany – punch someone in the throat if they bring you a script that has you singing anywhere unless it’s necessary for the plot, grrrr!…

Dragon Age Inquisition Update: Oh, The Places You’ll Go (And Stare At For Far Too Long)…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Lovely. While I wasn’t enamored with Dragon Age II‘s overuse of environments and SUPER truncated finale, that first game was quite spectacular through and through. The third game looks pretty mighty to behold in these trailers, but I’m hoping we see more open environments that beg to be explored like a real world spot where you want to stop and smell the virtual roses (without getting jumped by a pack of monsters or highwaymen). We’ll see soon enough, but I’m going to go out on a limb and trust BioWare has learned from keeping an ear to the ground for fan feedback by now that more is always better thing when it comes to freedom in how one plays their RPGs…

Dark Souls II PC Screens: Prepare To BUY Is More Like It, Folks…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, yeah, the modders will have their fun with the game once the PC version drops and they hack in some more “realistic” visuals for those who want them, but I love FromSoftware’s original vision for this soon to be released sequel. PC owners also get some nice content bonuses for pre-ordering (this version of the game ships out on April 25, a month and two weeks after the console versions (eek!), so there’s still time to grab this from a few online and retail locations). Click away below the jump for some press release action with the gory details. I’m backlogged in posting today and actually got in some books I need to read and review, so I’m kind of swamped…

Continue reading →

Sylvain Chomet Makes The Simpsons Worth Watching Again…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, Animation Domination!)

Ha. In case you don’t know who Mr. Chomet is, drop everything (well, not your phone or tablet or laptop if you’re somehow reading this in transit or while sitting in a coffee house of some sort) and go rent his wonderful animated films The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist, I’ll wait (La la laaaa, la dee dah, la la la laaaa). Oh, you’re back. Anyway, what he’s done with Homer and his family is amazing and YES, I’d LOVE to see how he’d handle a complete episode. Granted, the time that would take would be pretty ridiculous, but given that nothing seems to stop The Simpsons from dying again, it won’t matter how long it takes to get completed after all. Or hell, at least let’s see a Treehouse of Horror short from the guy (which will still take almost forever to get made)…

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Trailer: Miller & Rodriguez, Partners In Crime…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

(thanks, JoBlo Movie Trailers)

Oh, yeah. I loved Sin City, so this trailer for the follow up made me grin a wee bit too much. This is good even though it took so long for this to get made that some of the principals who were in the previous film look a little long in the tooth even with a bunch of prosthetic makeup and fine fancy lighting doing their thing so well. Still, it’s all good because Miller and Rodriguez are doing it up as it should be done and all is right in the world (well, in that weird way things roll in Sin City). Anyway, August 22 is when this one’s let loose like a pack of starving dogs, so make sure you’re in its path and welcoming that first bite…

Hmm. It Seems IKEA Has Something For Every Storage Solution…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

Heh. They ought to see my current game library. Hmmmm… if I had the time and a camera to make a fancy video, maybe I should send them a clip so all those people could fall out of their fancy (but relatively inexpensive) Swedish-designed chairs as they scramble to solve MY particular problem. Bonus points if they can get 2000+ games, about 40 or so systems, a ton of press materials and a smaller stack of movies spread across storage in THREE rooms into ONE. Then and only then would I be a true believer! Then again, the wonders they did for this guy in Singapore sure are pretty neat to behold, so there’s hope for me yet.

Bacon Craze Gets People Stupid About A Dumb, Dumb Device…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer exec
That is who I truly want to be-e-eee…
‘Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer exec,
I’d put a halt to this stupidity!

Sooo, It’s apparent that some people at Oscar Mayer are either smoking that bacon a wee bit too much, as they have no clue as to what hell they’re about to unleash on themselves and a “lucky” few people who get something in the mail that may change their lives (and not for the better). It seems that the eggheads over at the “Oscar Meyer Institute For The Advancement of Bacon” have come up with a tiny device that plugs into your phone and when triggered using you’re phone’s alarm system, puffs out the scent of sizzling bacon along with an accompanying sound effect. What. The. Fork? Look:

Now, this is cute and all, but as soon as I heard about this project, my brain spit out its tea. Then when I saw that video above, my brain hit itself in the head with a cast iron fry pan. What. The. Fork? Continue reading →

Harlan Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever Finally Comics-Bound!

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

YES. I’m SO pleased at this news that I’m too busy doing mental back flips and stuff to type out a boring descriptive post about the plot and whatnot, so you get to read a boring descriptive press release instead. Woo. Yeah, I’ll be grabbing this five-issue series for sure. Or should I hold out for the inevitable collected edition? Ah, whatever – we’ll see. Isn’t that cover awesome, by the way? Meanwhile, just for fun here’s an old Harlan Ellison’s Watching video for you on the implosion of the trading card collector’s market: