I’m Cheap, But Games Aren’t. Still, There’s Work To Do…

Status

Well, I don’t get ALL my games for free*, folks. Had to shell out for Dark Souls, but that’s OK, as it’s one of those games that’s worth paying full price for. Fortunately, I managed to find a copy of Collector’s Edition for the same price as the standard version (as it SHOULD be – it’s vastly overpriced on eBay already!). I also have a copy of Star Odyssey on the way (finally). The game only got a SUPER limited print run of a mere 600 copies and mine was paid for back in July. Some production issues slowed the manufacturing process, but those have been dealt with and hooray, I get to dig out my Sega Genesis after far too long.

By the way, getting a game or anything else for free NEVER guarantees an automatic good review. I’m going to be fair and honest about what I write no matter how I get anything sent my way.

Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking Trailer: UbiSoft’s BIG Conspiracy In Action

Posted on November 4, 2011 by geelw

Listen up! Before you start in with the “Awww, cuuute!” stuff, you REALLY shouldn’t let any Rabbids into your home, especially if you have a Kinect. Why not? For starters, they multiply like, well… Rabbids, they’ll eat all your canned food (and probably part of the cabinets they were stored in) and you’ll never get a second of rest once you start chasing them around and stomping them before they can destroy something else! Anyway, that’s my good deed for the day – consider yourselves warned. Fail to heed my words and it’ll be trouble. That lamp that just went flying across the room? That wasn’t YOU swinging your arms and kicking wildly in front of the Kinect that did it. It just looked that way. Those darn Rabbids can fool you into doing all sorts of insane stuff. I think UbiSoft has been overrun by the little buggers, since they created them a few years back and came up with this game to get rid of their infestation! So now, they’re shipping them out all across the globe and actually CHARGING people good money for the privilege of flailing away in front of their TV sets like spastic chimpanzees. Oh, the humanity!

Remember, You have been warned.

Heavy Rain “Director’s Cut” Coming November 8th. Buy It (Even If You Own The Original Already).

Posted on November 4, 2011 by geelw

One of the best and most cinematic games this generation for any console gets another reissue, this time with pretty much everything you were expecting. Almost. It’s not really a Director’s Cut if you try and think of it EXACTLY like a film, but given that David Cage is a great game director (and really needs to make more games), I’ll let this slide a bit. Basically, you’re getting the award-winning dramatic adventure game in it’s Move Edition format plus a bunch of sweet bonuses:

Complete, original game, Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain Chronicles: Episode 1 – “The Taxidermist” DLC
Heavy Rain Original Videogame Score by award-winning film and television composer, Normand Corbeil (16 tracks)
New front-end menu and interface with built-in Move support
A series of 8 “Making of” Bonus Videos
Three Dynamic Themes (Heavy Rain, Heavy Rain ARI Forest, Heavy Rain ARI Mars)
15 additional pieces of new concept art
2 bonus Trailers (Thank You Trailer, Love Trailer)

As a Greatest Hits reissue, that bargain price is sure to get a few more people playing this truly innovative game. And hopefully, it’ll make Quantic Dream a few bucks more as well. As much as I love my indie games, we need developers like QD to save the gaming scene from becoming an all-app, all the time wasteland of a few gems in the rough buried under piles of garbage. Let’s hope we see something from Cage and his team on the Vita at some point as well…

The Sound of Skyrim Video: Bethesda Shows & Tells, You Get To Bring The Smells…

Posted on November 3, 2011 by geelw

11-11-11. is almost here and I know a lot of folks WON’T be going to the movies to see Immortals, that’s for sure. A good chunk of gamers will no doubt be camping out in their living rooms exploring the wide world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, not coming out into the real daylight until their relatives send the cops around to check for a strange smell. Of course, after doors are kicked in across the world because of that odor, all the authorities and formerly grieving family members will discover is a few too many smelly, unwashed gamers with headphones on (that why they didn’t hear the banging and ringing), moldy bits of takeout food and perhaps a lingering aroma of a disc drive spinning eternally. Yeah, I’m going to be one of those folks…

The New James Bond Film Is Called Skyfall. Get Over It (It’ll Be Fine Even If You Hate The Name).

Posted on November 3, 2011 by geelw

Hmmmm. I’ve been a Bond Fan since the Sean Connery days and have seen all the film numerous times. They’re not ALL great and some haven’t aged well, but not all of us are blessed with great genes, right? My take on the fuss over the title: Skyfall is FAR from the worst title in the franchise’s long history. Octopussy and Moonraker still make my eyes roll far back in my head, The Man With The Golden Gun was a wee bit TOO descriptive and then there’s The Living Daylights. Whatever. Besides, didn’t some of these same ranters go ape over Quantum of Solace when IT was announced as the last Bond film title? Ah well, the whiny fan saga continues. Continue reading →

Games, Games, Games (& More Games)…

Status

Just finished Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact (not bad for a kid’s game) and am working on that review as well as one for Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi Z (also pretty good). GoldenEye: Reloaded should be completed and posted this weekend and the mystery package Sega sent along that I missed because I stepped out to the post office to pick up MORE games should be boomeranging back in a few hour from UPS. OK, who needs sleep? Not me, folks! Keep the games coming and I’m a happy reviewer. Yeah, the backlog is already hitting, but I’m a multi-tasker! Which reminds me, I need to register for Toy Fair, as well. Too much going on, as usual…

GoldenEye: Reloaded Also Makes My Day…

Status

A bit of serendipity (of sorts). As I was mooning over the GTA V trailer, my PS3 review copy of GoldenEye: Reloaded shows up. Looks as if the stuff I was planning to post (new Max Payne 3 screens, a quick note on UbiSoft acquiring Red Lynx and some other miscellany) will have to wait a few hours while I strap on my Move and Navigation Controllers for a bit. This should be fun. Back in a bit…

Stuff To Do While Waiting For The GTA V Reveal Trailer…

Posted on November 2, 2011 by geelw

Post some art I did last week:

Drink too much coffee…

Or NOT drink too much, as the trailer JUST went live a few minutes ago while I was in the kitchen dinking about. D’oh! Off to post it and not comment on how awesome it is…

Finally! A NEW Tiny & Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers Trailer!

Posted on November 1, 2011 by geelw

Awesome. One of my favorite in-progress games gets a new video update. Nice, nice. NOW, if only this would come to consoles as well, even more people would see how cool it is. Anyway, go bug the upstanding guys over at Black Pants Game Studios about becoming a beta tester for this one, as it’s shaping up to be a real winner and a truly original, innovative new game.

Yes, I Do Other Things Besides Write Here…

Aside

Just a quick note to some folks out there in Internet-land who don’t quite seem to get it yet. Sometimes I write for other sites like this one. That’s the first column, there’s another to come. I’ve a couple of older columns here (such as this one.) And I still submit the occasional article to the Digital Press print ‘zine (I have a new column due around the end of November on the N-Gage as a gaming platform). I also draw a bit and take not so hot photographs. I think that’s it, but there’s much more out there.