Lost Dimension Hands-On: Brain Trust And The Tall Tower of Doom

Posted on July 4, 2015 by geelw

Don’t plan on getting too attached to your party members in Lost Dimension, developer FurYu’s new RPG headed to the PlayStation 3 and Vita on July 28 from Atlus. Among the cast of powerful teen agents of SEALED are a number of traitors aligned with spiky-haired villain The End and the game rather effectively randomizes who those traitors are on each floor of the enemy packed tower you’re ascending.

While it’s yet another game in which Japan gets partially destroyed and it’s up to a cast of youths with special skills to save the day (and the planet), there’s an added layer of tension here that builds as your party gets whittled down based on your decisions. Even worse, choosing your allies based on how you as the person playing the game feels about them can have some pretty drastic in-game consequences.

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Tales of Zestiria Trailer: Your October Surprise (Plus Tales Tax)

Posted on July 3, 2015 by geelw

Bandai Namco Games is rolling out not one, but two Tales games between this year and next, one new and one old but new for PC gamers who may be interested in one of the earlier entries in the long-running franchise. Tales of Zestiria is coming to PS3, PS4 and PC on October 20, 2015. PC Gamers who hop on board the Steam pre-order train will have the opportunity to nab the upcoming HD port of Tales of Symphonia for FREE as a bonus tier item. This great deal may not convince some who only collect physical media to grab the game, but for those of you PS4 owners looking for a ton of swag, there’s as nice Collector’s Edition packed with the following:

TALES OF ZESTIRIA game for the PlayStation 4 system

Serialized premium box packaging

Exclusive SteelBook case

Chibi Kyun Chara figure set

DLC pack

TALES OF ZESTIRIA hardcover art book

Three TALES OF ZESTIRIA pixel-styled character key chains

TALES OF ZESTIRIA 40 minute “Dawn of the Shepherd” OVA anime Blu-ray disc

That’s a nice chunk of shelf space, I bet. I’ll post some pics of the set once I’m at a place with a better connection speed. Or you can just check out all the info on the official Tales Blog.

Some Bundles For Those Freakish About Fireworks And Flag Waving

Posted on July 2, 2015 by geelw

Let’s say you’re not doing anything this long holiday weekend (hey, we don’t all have friends who know how to use a grill or perhaps we’re just allergic to explosives and a little antisocial on holidays like this) and you want to try out some cool indie games. Well, Humble Bundle and IndieGala have got you covered quite well this week. Introduced yesterday, the Hump Day Bundle packs in a dozen games for under three dollars in a nice mix of genres. Horror game fans may find a few titles to groove on such as Трейлер (RED LAKE), which looks pretty darn freaky on a few levels:

Yeah, that’s some nightmare fuel right there. If that game isn’t up you particular dark alley, you have a few more to choose from. You can even TRADE games now on IndieGala if you want to try out something else, so that’s cool as well. As for the Humble Bundle, read on, dear readers… read on.
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Divide By Sheep: It’s The New Math, Kids!

Posted on July 2, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, tinyBuildGAMES!)

If they taught math this way back when I was in grade school I’d bet a heck of a lot of kids would probably be a lot smarter. And probably vegetarian or vegan not to mention not afraid of death at all. Anyway, great and prolific indie developer tinyBuildGAMES does it again with another hilarious slice of pure fun with a twist. Divide By Sheep is a math puzzle game that combines Death, loneliness, sacrifice and too cute to chop up sheep in a game where every move counts. Okay, it’s nowhere as grim as that last sentence sounds at all although a sense of humor is going to be needed in order to get full enjoyment from this one.

If you feel like counting sheep now and getting Death some new wooly pals to play chess with, the game is available on Steam and iOS NOW. Even better (well, if you’re an iOS user), you can get tinyBuild’s Spoiler Alert for FREE and Fearless Fantasy for a mere 99 cents. Those are both hard to pass up deals, I’d say.

A Few Notes on James Horner

Posted on July 1, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, Cinefix!)
While many will remember the late James Horner for his work on Titanic, Avatar, Braveheart and other major Hollywood blockbusters, my own memories of the man’s work go back to his 80’s output when a few of his scores stood out and made me seek out their soundtrack albums, which back then were sometimes available weeks before a film was released. Amusingly enough, I hadn’t realized he’d done the score for the icky schlock-fest Humanoids From The Deep until I re-watched the film for a recent blogathon.