READS: Contemporary Krampus Will Put You In The Proper Holiday Spirit (OR ELSE)…

Posted on October 19, 2015 by geelw

Mike Drake (photo: Peter Keehn)

Just in time for Halloween and definitely an excellent Christmas gift that’s actually a reminder to watch your back and be good (or else!), Contemporary Krampus: A Modern Look At An Ancient Legend ($24.00) offers up a collection of professional and fan art that makes for quite a memorable chunk of nightmare fuel. Curated by Mike Drake (who did that stupendous cover above), you’ll get almost 70 striking images from traditional drawing and painting, to sculpture and even a few takes on the ugly Christmas sweater (but you’ll probably want one of the ones in the book).

Drake also contributes a nifty into to Contemporary Krampus and how this Anti-Claus has slowly but surely seeped into American culture over the years to the point that we’ll be seeing a Krampus horror flick hit theaters in time for Christmas. Nicely naughty AND not a low budget schlocker judging by the cast.

You should run out and buy this book just because it’ll make you grin and cringe simultaneously. But if you’ve read this far, live in one of the 50 states of the U.S. of A. (Yes, you need to have a US shipping address!) and want to WIN a copy of the book, just respond below with I WANT KRAMPUS! and I’ll pick ONE lucky winner tomorrow from those who’ve entered.

Want more fun? Well, if you’re a card-carrying adult and just so happen to be in the New York City area for Halloween, you should attend the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Times Square Halloween Party.

This adults only event will feature not only Drake signing copies of Contemporary Krampus, but also giving away a life-size Krampus (!) to one lucky attendee. Additionally, over 45 “special” exhibits will be pulled from the Ripley vaults and displayed exclusively to those brave enough to attend. The event will also feature:

A twisted game show
Psychic readings
Hypnotism shows with audience participation
Close-up magic
Day of the Dead candy celebration (at midnight)

To purchase tickets for this exclusive event (and they’re selling out quickly!), fans of the macabre need just click HERE (Boooo!)

Having A Steam Link Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

Posted on October 17, 2015 by geelw

Trapped for a weekend in a creepy mansion that just so happens to NOT be haunted by anything but stale air but has a rockin’ broadband connection, a TV in every room and you just so happened to bring along your gaming laptop? Or perhaps you’re at home and would like to stretch your gameplay options to other rooms without getting a hernia moving your PC around. Well, the fine folks at Valve have gone and cooked up what’s basically a plug and play router for their Steam digital delivery service called Steam Link.

Headed your way in November, a mere $49.99 gets you instant access to your Steam library and 1080p streaming at 60 frames per second in Big Picture mode on any HDTV (but I’d gather it won’t make old or newer games that run under frame rate that move any faster). Naturally, the more powerful a computer and stronger the connection you have, the better time you’ll have. Valve has certainly been a bunch of busy little bees over the past few years and it’s clear that they want to get Steam even more popular with the masses than it’s become among the mainly gamer crowd that makes the most of it’s assorted services.

How To Survive 2 Hands-On: Weekend At Learnies

Posted on October 16, 2015 by geelw

EKO Software and 505 Games have big plans for How to Survive 2 and you just might be able to help them out a bit. The game is set to hit Steam as an Early Access title this month and the feedback from that will help the dev team craft an even better experience than the original. Some hands-on time with a build at 505’s NYC event showed off a new setting (New Orleans), improved character customization, larger maps and the same blend of nail-biting action and offbeat humor that work quite well together. If you’ve ever wanted to face off against poison-spewing pelicans while fighting off a wave of zombies coming at you because you’ve set off a car alarm when you retrieved that car’s battery as part of a quest, well… this game’s got your name on it.
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BUY IT! MVD Entertainment Has Reptiles and Ants For Sale

Posted on October 15, 2015 by geelw

Oh yep. I’ve since forgotten who introduced me to Amphetamine Reptile Records way back in the day, but it was a fine and more than a little insane musical journey that was great while it lasted. MVD Entertainment Group is getting me (and some of you) to relive those glory days of noise rock with what’s going to be one of the best documentaries on the subject, Eric Robel’s The Color of Noise in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack. This trailer gives you a little taste of what to expect when the doc appears on home video November 24 and even better, MVD and AmRep will also re-issue some of the best releases from the label’s catalog on vinyl and CD starting in December 2015 and continuing into 2016 and beyond. Continue reading →

Get Trekz Titanium to 1000% Funding & Maybe Win Big

Posted on October 15, 2015 by geelw

While the Indiegogo campaign is already funded, the fine folks behind Aftershokz: Trekz Bone Conduction Headphones want to go for the gold by reaching 1000% before the day is done. Therefore, they’ve added a nice new perk I’d call “Bribery by Chocolate”, but they call a Titanium Ticket. Here’s the deal:

Pledge $10 and get a SHOKZ Chocolate Bar (which will ship out in December) which not only gets you into a drawing to win a fantastic prize, it may make you an INSTANT winner if that bar has one of five Titanium Tickets inside. Shades of Willy Wonka with a slight delay, folks! The more bars you buy, the greater your chances, although if you’re a total chocoholic who needs that fix NOW you may want to sock away some Halloween candy while you wait for your SHOKZ to arrive.

The five Titanium Ticket winners will get one Trekz Titanium plus one of the following prizes (winner’s choice): Apple Watch, iPad Mini or Next-Gen Gaming Console (Xbox One, PS4, Wii U).

As for those headphones, the words “Bone Conduction” got my interest piqued, so here’s what that is (because it’s always good to learn something new every damn day):

Trekz Titanium™ use bone conduction technology to transmit audio waves to the inner ears through the skull, bypassing the eardrums completely. Place them on your cheekbones, just in front of your ears. This leaves your ear canals open, allowing you to remain alert and aware of ambient sounds while you enjoy your music or tune in to calls.

Get it? Got it? Good. Now, go help these guys and gals make their over-target goal and maybe you’ll be a big winner of some awesome stuff while you’re at it.

Slender: The Arrival Wii U Bound 10/22

Posted on October 14, 2015 by geelw

As modern horror myths people fall too easily for, the Slender Man craze isn’t exactly my cup of hemlock tea. However, I do like a decent horror game and other than a handful of notable titles, the Wii U is somewhat lacking in those. Fortunately, developer Blue Isle Studios and publisher Reverb are planning to get Slender: The Arrival onto the Wii U very soon via eShop digital download. As in this month. As in October 22. As in you’re only spending $9.99 to maybe pee your pants a little if (and when) you get that frightened.

Nine more screenshots below (hey, you ducked under a table watching that trailer, so you’re already looking down!):

For those of you who happen to have a Wii Remote handy (smart Wii U owners who’ve owned a Wii know that keeping one around has come in quite handy), you can use that controller as the game’s flashlight/pointer. You’re not getting any weapons here at all and that light will be your only ally against that tall, nattily dressed faceless killer who tends to pop up when he’s least expected. Previous versions on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360and Xbox one didn’t use this functionality, so Wii U owners will be getting what may be the most fun version of this game to play in terms of how one interacts with the game world.

And, yep. Those screenshots are slightly unsettling. Particularly the one with the teddy bear and beach gear. With his more than pale complexion and that black suit I didn’t think Slender Man hung out in the sunshine at all. Eeek. Now I have sand in my shorts thinking about this. Hmmm… that’s not sand. Ewww. Back in a bit – I need to play this game at some point as I’ve avoided the other versions specifically to hold out hope that the Wii U would get this at some point.

Bard’s Gold Review: No School Like The Old School

Posted on October 14, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PC
Developer/Publisher: Pixel Lantern Games
MSRP: $7.99
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Site
Score: A- (95%)

In this not so new age of retro-gaming you’ll find plenty of developers claiming to have made the “hardest game ever” or something else that gets the eyebrow raised among those who crave that sort of challenge. “Hard” is in fact a relative term. Gamers with skill and a lot more patience can easily detect hit boxes, decipher enemy patterns and more or less make speed run mincemeat of some of these games within the space of a few hours or days. Bard’s Gold, created in Gamemaker by Erdem and Jennifer Sem, doesn’t care if and when you figure that stuff out, though. The game is designed to bump off your little pixel adventurer as often as possible as it teaches you all of its old school tricks.

The game is indeed quite difficult, but not at all unbeatable once you’ve put some time into it. In fact, the game greatly rewards players for figuring out early how to make the best of whatever it throws their way. Death comes quickly and often at first. And second, third and fiftieth plus. But as you discover how things work and the game becomes less frustrating and more challenging, its true beauty shines forth as an exercise in solid game design.
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ADR1FT Could Be The Best PR For VR

Posted on October 11, 2015 by geelw

With Virtual Reality slowly but surely making its way (once again, but new and improved – “this time for sure, presto!”) to gaming and other entertainment experiences, it’ll be the early games that will be the ones that make or break the format. Granted, common sense says new experiences aren’t going to be flawless and in terms of games, technical bumps and grinds are commonplace for first wave software. That said, VR needs to be as flawless as possible so any complaints are rendered mostly moot and allow developers to strut their stuff from the get-go as they start off with good games and make them better as time marches on.

Three One Zero Games’ ADR1FT is looking like it’ll be not only a go-to game for those dipping a toe into the VR pool, but also an experience non-VR using gamers looking for something impressive to play and show off should dive into. Since my last time with the both VR and non-VR enabled versions of the game way back in March, the dev team has made some major changes to the visuals and tightened up the gameplay even more. Thanks to Unreal Engine 4 and some mighty programming skills, the level of detail here is even more astounding. This is especially noticeable in the PC version, where using an Oculus Rift headset I spent about half an hour floating around and checking out as much of the destroyed space station as I could while keeping as close to air canisters and air supply points as possible.
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The Guest Hands-On: Quiet Hell Hotel Holds Soviet Science Hostage

Posted on October 10, 2015 by geelw

Madrid-based Team Gotham is a four-person studio that’s cooking up an unsettling Unity-powered first-person adventure game called The Guest that’s headed to PC at some point next year via Steam thanks to publisher 505 Games. Set in 1986, you’ll step into the shoes of Dr. Evgueni Leonov, a Russian scientist who wakes up in a strange Massachusetts hotel room that seemingly has no way out. In true adventure game fashion, searching for clues and items to combine and use come heavily into play as Leonov needs to problem solve his way through a number of scenarios as he uncovers what’s going on. Locked doors, batteries, scraps of paper, coat hangers, assorted tools and more could be studied and collected with everything you can carry having some use at some point during the game.

The time period The Guest is set in means there are no handy cell phones to use to ring for help (and no cliched “I can’t get a signal!” moments either) or other modern tech on hand. All the good Doctor has are his frazzled wits and anything you find while scouring the rooms you explore. The demo at 505 Games’ NYC event was a short enough teaser to be extremely intriguing as it showed off some initially simple but extremely well done puzzles and a wild bit of business that sort of resembled a panic attack Leonov has when he accidentally locks himself in a bathroom. The resulting freak-out made for a nice jolt and the only way to get it to stop was to find and use some pills stored in the bathroom’s first aid cabinet. How Leonov got to that hotel is explained during the demo, but you definitely don’t find out what the heck is up with his room being as weird as it is.

Team Gotham’s use of Unity here is quite stellar for such a small team. The game has a nice realistic look yet shouldn’t be at all demanding on some lower-end gaming rigs. Other than some newspaper and magazine clippings, objects can be rotated and examined to simply read their labels or to uncover additional clues. Yes, items need to be combined in order to succeed, so be prepared to turn one of the aforementioned coat hangers into a handier lock pick at some point. While not a “horror” game at all (at least as far as I was able to see), the mixture of waking up in a half-trashed hotel room, the need to medicate Leonov on occasion and the cryptic news clipping and other clues he finds give The Guest a nice psychological vibe. While the game should have appeal to anyone looking for a finely crafted first-person game that’s not all about shooting up monsters (or anything else for that matter) fans of hidden object games who want something more cerebral should also take interest in this one as well.

So far, this one’s PC only but it’s easy to see at least one of the big three wanting to add this game to their lineup. Given that The Guest is planned to be Oculus Rift capable at some point, it’s a no-brainer for Sony to want to add this to their Morpheus games lineup. Or at least that’s what I’d be angling for if I were picking potential indie hits at SCEA. While they only have a handful of titles on the way 505 Games is on a roll with a very strong lineup. With The Guest, ADR1FT, How To Survive 2, and Indivisible coming, it’s going to be a good selection of titles for gamers who want variety in their experiences.

Pocky & Rocky With Becky On Virtual Console: Bust Up Cute Baddies, Not Your Wallet

Posted on October 10, 2015 by geelw

Given that complete used copies of the low production run Game Boy Advance title Pocky & Rocky With Becky can fetch over $200 and new/sealed ones over $300, Natsume finally getting the game out on the Wii U Virtual Console is a great thing for those who missed out on the game and don’t have hundreds to drop on a copy these days.

For a fraction off those ridiculous auction prices (and yes, the Japanese versions of that cart run a lot more) you can get all the deceptive cuteness the game delivers along with harder than you may have thought gameplay. Well, the game isn’t really that difficult. It’s just that one hit from any enemy will knock Pocky, Rocky or Becky out of action and if you lose all your lives, you’re restarting from the beginning of one of the seven stages. Anyway, that’s your heads up for this one. Natsume has been on a nice roll of getting a few GBA titles onto the eShop such as this one, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and the great, under appreciated RPG, Car Battler Joe (which also comes highly recommended).

Other Natsume GBA games headed to the eShop are Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town along with the two Medabots games, Medabots Rokushu and Metabots Metabee. All three should be popping up in the eShop in North America later this year. Alrighty then, let me let you get yours. Off and away with you now – you’ve got some cool (and now cheaper) games to buy and play.