Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure Launch Trailer: Atlus Goes Back To The Past To Bring You The Future!

 
As I noted last year, seeing a new Tex Murphy interactive adventure (or game, for those of you scratching your heads right about now) is quite a shock as well as a pleasant surprise, so it’s also a good thing that Atlus is not only seeing this through, they’re making sure their followers know all about it. Now, you don’t need to have played the other Tex games to get into this one at all, but it may help some of you appreciate what’s here all the more. Especially if that mildly cheesy full motion video you’re seeing above isn’t floating your boat, but you’re intrigued about the story and such. Trust me, you’ll get used to it once the plot wraps its fingers around your throat and starts shaking gently. It’s great to see you back, Tex… next time, don’t take so darn long to make a comeback!

The Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure is coming to PC and Mac April 22, 2014.

Super Smash Bros. Direct: System Seller To Some, System Savior To Others…

 
While I think The Wii U and 3DS versions of Super Smash Bros. will do incredibly well, I’d bet a solid five cents that those numbers won’t be as huge as some are thinking. Granted, it’s been a while since a new SSB was released, but I’m thinking this, like Mario Kart 8, will appeal mostly to the already system-owning Nintendo fans more than it will anyone who’s yet to buy a Wii U or 3DS just to play it. Sure, I’m reading comments on boards from people waiting to buy a Wii U “just for this game”, but I take those with a whopping grain of salt, as if you’re a Nintendo nut, you probably already have a Wii U and are in the holding pattern loop waiting for more first party games to drop. Granted, there WILL be people snapping up a Wii U just for this one and MK8, but those numbers probably won’t be as massive as even Nintendo wishes them to be.

That said, with the 3DS version coming first this summer, it’s going to be a massive game launch and push for that handheld while poor Wii U only owners have to sit it out until the winter when that version ships. Granted, Nintendo also knows that many Wii U owners are 3DS owners (but it’s not a 1:1 ratio at all), so they get to make money twice selling two versions of the same game (although I’m betting there’s not a line of code shared between them in terms of visuals). Anyway, this video reveals a ton of stuff, so stick around for the whole thing, as there are a few minor surprises during the last third and at the end.

Wolfenstein “Nowhere To Run” Trailer: But If You Tried Walking, You’re Very Much Dead!

 
Although I’m quite bored with the FPS genre, I’m keeping an eye on these Wolfenstein: The New Order updates because the story is pretty intriguing and Machine Games seems to have made series hero B.J. Blazkowicz into more of a character with an actual personality instead of just a one man army and part time bullet sponge, tossed him into a world that’s actually an interesting place (well, an interesting place full of Nazis in an alternate future where they WON World War II) and has you trying to put a stop to the menace using (what else) extreme prejudice. So Blazkowicz isn’t going to be getting the Nobel Peace Prize at all, but he will be taking out a LOT of trash by feeding it a lead and other ordinance diet until he’s whittled things down to the more manageable size of zero (or something close to it depending on whether or not this one’s got a sequel idea brewing).

Okay, the one man army thing is still in effect, but at least it’s well done so far. Wolfenstein: The New Order, will be available on May 20, 2014 (and in Europe on May 23) on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Pre-ordering gets you into the upcoming DOOM beta test, so slap down a deposit on this one and prepare to see another classic shooter get the reboot treatment…

LEGO The Hobbit In Stores Today: CG Plastic Playground Beats CG Movie FX Any Day of the Week…

 
While I’m not a huge fan of the fantasy amusement park thrill rides that are The Hobbit films, TT Games has never let me down with their takes on the Lord of the Rings franchise and a bunch of other games they’ve done up with the full on LEGO treatment. While production values have been beefed up considerably since the first LEGO games, the same sense of silliness and all-out fun is intact, as is drop-in drop-out co-op play, loads of secrets and probably so many characters to play as that the game’s replay value is way off the charts if you’re one of those folks who wants to see it all and doesn’t care how long it takes to unlock everything. Anyway, this one’s available NOW for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS and PC, so round up the family and go grab a copy, I say…

Game of Thrones S4: Promo Onslaught In Full Effect…

 
Warning! If you still didn’t see the premiere, here and below there be SPOILERS! The premiere episode wasn’t even an hour cold when HBO started dropping videos galore and making me crack up because I think this was the fastest they’ve ever updated their YouTube page with GoT content. I’d have posted it last night, but I was busy with some other stuff (a few other shows and working on a bit of art). Anyway, here you go and I bet more is on the way, as this season seems to be one that’s going to be more memorable than the last one on a few fronts

 
Hey, I did say this post had spoilers in it, didn’t I? Of course, if you’ve read the books, you know most of this stuff already. On the other hand, as the show deviates from the books in a few very interesting ways, it’s great to see how the show’s writers have knitted things quite well into the overall story to date. So far, so good… and that second episode looks to be even more interesting. Six more days… only six more days…

Things I Learned @Toy Fair 2014: I Think A Crowded Coop Needs A Name Change…

TF_balloonicorn“How about a REALLY Crowded Coop?”Was what I suggest to Mary Olson after seeing the size of this year’s amazing lineup at Toy Fair, but I think she would have hit me on the head with that prototype Halo bag I’d been ogling. It’s a good thing she didn’t, as I’d then be responsible for the entire first run having a dent the size of my forehead in and I’d like to be a bit less of a negative influence on product design in the future. Where last year, the company had a handful of licenses that yielded a sizable amount of product, this year the booth was about three times the size and there were so many products on display that I had to swing by twice to see them all…
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Child of Light Gets The Always Amazing Amano Touch…

 
While I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork up close and personal, it was too many years ago here in NYC when he was promoting HERO and I even got to chat briefly with him about his art on the Front Mission games thanks to a friend who translated my questions and compliments. Anyway, here he is doing what he does best for Ubisoft’s upcoming Child of Light and making me wish I could actually afford to own one of his paintings one of these days. It’s too bad this video isn’t longer, but oh well – sometimes you have to take the art you can get however you can get it, right? Child of Light will be available April 30 for assorted platforms and yes, you need to buy it.

IndieGala Every Monday Bundle: Hard To Pass Up (And Harder To Put Down)

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Let’s see now… six games for $1.89 for the next 15 hours, then the price jumps to a still insane $2.99 for the same content? SOLD, even though I already have the excellent A Valley Without Wind in my still hefty backlog of games to be played. Nice. Get this deal HERE and make sure to take a look at the assorted Happy Hour deals on other bundles and the other sales on too many titles while you’re there.

Random Art: All My Ghosts… And A Few Skeletons…

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Meh, nothing to see here. Move along! Started this before Game of Thrones kicked off, waited until that was over (yes, it was a fantastic premiere to Season 4) and finished it while being not at all impressed with the House of Lies season finale. Bleh, that was an annoying half hour of mostly unlikable people to see. Anyway, here you go. Did I mention i don’t believe much in ghosts, either? Hey, I have enough on my plate in real life to be walking around falling over stuff every time I hear a floorboard creak or see something flit by in my peripheral vision. I don’t even think I liked Boo Berry as a cereal (because Franken Berry and Count Chocula would have beaten the crap out of me if I let one more monster-themed cereal in the house)…

Storing Up Energy For Some Quality Time…

 
Shhh. Quiet back there! I’m kind of taking the day off until Game of Thrones pops up this evening. I made the mistake last night and early this morning of staying up to watch all of those House of Lies episodes I missed when I bailed on the series and man, that was a bad decision. The show is well-acted, but I ended up hating just about everyone on it beyond the point of caring (um… thanks, writers?) and with a season finale popping up, I figure I may as well commit to that at some point this week just to wrap that up as neatly as possible. I’m definitely watching the Shameless finale and may scoot back to HBO to catch the Silicon Valley premiere just because it’s Mike Judge and Office Space is one of my favorite films as a former office drone (in a few too many places in the past) and long time movie lover. Eh, we’ll see… or perhaps not. GoT has all my attention until Orphan Black returns in less than two weeks. As for Mad Men? Coin toss when it returns, period. I gave up caring about that show ages ago…