VGA 101 Personals: Hardcore Game Nut Seeking Reliable PS3 Controller For Good Times…

PS3_padSeriously. For some reason, I have NO luck with PlayStation 3 controllers. I’ve gone through no fewer than ten controllers in the past five or six years and it’s not because I’m some hulking ham-fisted beast-man or mean-eating Amazon snapping spines like twigs like Tura Satana in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (whee, a Russ Meyer reference!). I’ve only gone through two Xbox 360 pads in about six years, but I do tend to gravitate to the PS3 a bit more. That said, I don’t think it’s the controller’s construction at all because that total includes a few third-party pads that have died from a broken analog stick here or a rechargeable battery that wouldn’t charge there (the most common issue). My last controller was an otherwise excellent Power A pad that looked like an Xbox 360 controller and it worked beautifully until a few days ago when it flashed a few read lights around the ring in the center before pooping out completely. Boo. Hiss. Continue reading

Oh, I’d Say Games and Movies Aren’t At All The Thing to Worry About Here…

panzer frontSo, I’m walking to the library here earlier today and take a detour to the post office to drop off a package I’d forgotten to send out on Saturday (oops). While waiting on line, a couple of people are “debating” gun control off to the side near the pay phone. Ruh Roh. This always, always makes for some amazingly bizarre conversations to overhear if (and yes, when) things get heated. Let’s just say by the time one guy who was a retired cop with a wife still in the school system he didn’t want packing heat threw up his hands and walked away from the other guy who said he was a veteran and suggested that not only should armed guards be in and around schools, a single tank be placed outside every school school to keep ANY sort of potential threats away, yeah… I was taking mental notes galore…

Continue reading

EDF 2017 Portable Hits PSN – Buy It & Bug Out!

 

Sandlot’s niche bug blasting epic rolls onto the PlayStation Vita today and even if you’ve played the Xbox 360 version to death, this is a MUST buy. Seven new stages, new enemies, new weapon drops, the return of Pale Wing from EDF 2, new 4-player co-op and versus modes and more all await. After a shaky 2012, the Vita needs support with “smaller” titles like these and while $40 seems pricey for a download-only release, the sheer amount of content here and the fact that it will take a while to unlock everything if you’re into Trophies makes this one of the key releases for Sony’s portable this month. If you’re a fan of Japanese monster flicks, old 50’s sci-fi, high-action games with a wicked difficulty curve (Think you’re hot gamer stuff? Beat Mission 1 on Inferno with the default weapons and let me know how that goes) and hell, love supporting the underdog, the EDF wants YOU!

That and hey – the game just may help you overcome that needless fear of spiders you have… er, or it’ll just turn you into a total catatonic mess after that first stage they appear in. Hitting your Vita rapidly with a plastic flip-flop is not a very good idea, particularly in public. It’s winter here and what the heck are you doing wearing plastic flip-flops in the snow, silly? And a can of Raid, too? Hmmm… I think you have some issues to deal with that aren’t gaming related…

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows Proves The PSP Isn’t Quite Dead…

 

And you thought you’d seen the last PSP game ages ago, huh? Well, there are a handful of releases still popping up such as Xseed Games’ Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, set to hit PSN on January 15 for $19.99. If you’re into horror-themed games with a twisted sense of humor and a flair for the dramatic (as in creeping you out in all the right places), well, you can either unearth your old PSP from its dusty grave or whip out that Vita, as the game will indeed run perfectly fine on that newer handheld.  And yes, you should probably play the original Corpse Party (also available on PSN), as this game focuses on eight in-between stories from events in the first game.  Stylish visuals, a nice amount of M-rated content and a pretty creepy soundtrack are all lurking in the corner waiting to jump out and  bite your brain… so what are you waiting for?

Capcom Delivers a Late Gift With Remember Me’s “Kid Xmas” Trailer

And here I was thinking I was the King of Procrastination. Oh well, it’s nice to see more of this upcoming game from Dontnod Studios in France as well as Capcom testing the waters big time with such a promising new IP that looks to add a memorable character and story-driven gameplay experience to a very crowded market. I’ve got my eye on you Nilin! That May 2013 release won’t be forgotten, that’s for sure…

Holy Puck! There’s A Hockey “Season” After All…

Status

geelw's avatar

Oops. Leave it to me to joke about no season and be wrong. Oh well – not like I watch hockey anyway and judging from the reactions from a few fans I know, they won’t be doing much watching either. Well, at least some businesses that rely of the hardcore fans can hopefully salvage something out of this and yep, there’s always next year… er, later this year when the new full season is supposed to start, right?

Random Film of the Week (Double Feature Edition): THEM! & Tarantula

(thanks, Tobar!) 

With Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable rolling out on the PlayStation Vita on Tuesday, I figured I’d write up a short column about two of the many “They don’t make ’em like they used to!” sci-fi films that most assuredly influenced Japanese developer Sandlot when they created their cult favorite game series that got its start as a pair of budget PlayStation 2 games (The Simple 2000 Vol. 31: The Chikyuu Boueigun and The Simple 2000 Vol. 81: The Chikyuu Boueigun 2) and a more visually polished Xbox 360 sequel which has been nicely expanded and enhanced for Sony’s portable system. Both flicks are “B” movie classics worth watching if you’ve never seen either previously, with the former film being surprisingly tense and well-acted considering the subject matter and the latter film using some pretty well done matte work to convincing effect in a few scenes.

Yeah, yeah, there’s no fancy CGI here and some implausible moments in both flicks can be eyeball-rolling if you start applying any rules of reality to what you’re viewing. Nevertheless, if you’re in the right mood, you’ll be hooked into both films from the memorable beginnings of each one and stick around to their bitter endings…

Continue reading

MLB 13 The Show Preview Trailer: Wait, It’s Baseball Season Already?

 

I actually don’t play sports games these days nor do I watch a lot of sports save for the occasional X Games or interesting looking auto race if I happen to be flipping by the Speed Channel. Too much stuff to do here and I’ve learned not to grow attached to a bunch of talented yet flawed folks tossing balls or whatever around and getting paid way too much money to do so before being traded to a new team for no other reason that they were making too much money where they were last year. Of course, hockey doesn’t count this year unless you bought EA’s video game and made up your own season (but I wonder if players in that sport are collecting checks for being on strike?). Eh, whatever – no matter how much I kid here, sports fans are going to stick by their favorite teams no matter what and at least Sony is making what I hear is such a pretty spectacular fake baseball game that if it had commercial breaks and a bit more commentary, would pretty much be like watching a game on TV. You do just that – me, I’ll be over in the other corner playing some RPG or watching a really terrible film or something. Oh yeah – if you ARE a baseball fan, feel free to go vote for the cover guy for this year’s game HERE.

Evil Dead Trailers New & Old Bring The Scares (I Guess I’m Sold!)…

 

I’ll have to admit that the original Evil Dead didn’t freak me out that much because the people who’d seen it and told me it was SO scary had built it up based more on their own fears and tried to project that onto me before I went in for my viewing. I liked the film quite a lot (I actually owned it on VHS, DVD and UMD at one point), but I wasn’t put “under the seat” as promised. That said, it’s just an excellent, scary low budget classic worth watching by anyone who loves the genre or wants to eventually make his or her own horror flicks. The sequel, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn was nothing but an extended Three Stooges episode with gore effects and I laughed more than cringed throughout that one because I got the joke right away. Other than Bruce Campbell’s performance (he’s still one of the more under-appreciated actors out there, I say) I still don’t like Army of Darkness much, but it’s gotten better with age and I’d gather the more mainstream approach also helped Sam Raimi get more work outside the horror genre. This reboot/remake/whatever actually looks more frightening than the first one because it’s being taken more seriously. I may just go and see it to see if it indeed does put me under the seat, but I still I still think someone needs to remake the 1967 – 1970 horror flick Equinox (a big inspiration for Raimi) as the official prequel to he whole series and get it over with just to complete that particular part of the cycle.

 

DAF Never Official Off the Top of the Head Game of the Year Picks (Part One)…

I hate “best-of” lists in general because they revolve around too many people who haven’t really seen, read or played “everything” released in a year (it’s impossible for to do so with so much content released across multiple platforms), so they end up being incredibly biased. As proof of that, I’ve decided to toss out a few titles I liked too much in 2012 just to show what happens when you play too much stuff and force yourself to narrow that down to games you just played too much of rather than games that were all around stellar. Or something like that. Anyway, not in any type of order at all and kind of incomplete because I’m still playing a few things, but here we go: Continue reading