Super Neptunia RPG: Cool Canadians Bakin’ Up A Hot JRPG? Yep, Nep!

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Out on PC via Steam last week and coming to PS2 and Switch June 25 in North America (the 28th in EU territories), Super Neptunia RPG is coming from an interesting combination of forces. Japan’s Idea Factory and Compile Heart worked with Canada’s Artisan Studios to bring Nep fans an all-new game in the long-running series and the very first side-scrolling entry, to boot. As a fan of the series since the PS3 days, I’m quite intrigued by this one and the opening movie has sealed the deal that this *must* be played:

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(Not So) Random Film(s) of The Week: The Thing (1982)

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With his trusty bottle of J&B to keep warm, R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Vance Norris (Charles Hallahan) try quite unsuccessfully to make snow angels.

THE THING sfSo, what did YOU do during last week’s too damn hot weather? Me, I dragged my slightly sickly self out in that nasty, unbearable heat to go sit in a nice, well-chilled home with seven other people with the express purpose of making some of them scream. No, I didn’t do my *legendary* crowd-pleasing Chippendale’s act, people (wait, I have a Chippendale’s act?). I simply put a very old plan into action I’d successfully executed a few times in the distant past in introducing a fine horror film to some friends who had either never seen it previously, have only seen a heavily edited for TV version or yes, just disliked scary movies.

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that I’ve actually previously reviewed an older DVD version of the 1982 John Carpenter film and I’ve also deconstructed the 2011 prequel which I found okay, but lacking in some respects (I think the studio meddled a bit too much with the film, turning it into less than what director Matthijs van Heijningen intended to be a more solid horror experience). Now, I didn’t just show up unannounced, tie seven people to assorted furniture and force them to watch the movie, so there. Nope, as a matter of fact, I was actually asked to host a little screening party by a friend who borrows movies from me on a semi-regular basis.

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FOX n FORESTS Funded (Almost!): Go Help Push This One Over The Edge!


 

FnF_SteamGreenlight_Icon512x512Look at him go! As a big ol’ nostalgic gamer, Bonus Level Entertainment’s absolutely gorgeous platformer FOX n FORESTSjumped out at me right away with those beautiful graphics and nostalgic soundtrack kicking the cobwebs off a few shelves in my brain. THIS, folks, is how you do 16-bit right. Make a game that looks and very hopefully plays as if it’s been made in the mid 90’s when developers were maxing out the Super Nintendo hardware and coming up with some technically incredible game experiences.

Anyway, the game is on Kickstarter and VERY close to it’s funding AND has very wisely been Greenlit on Steam. There are about 40 hours or so left and you KNOW you want this in your library, right? Yeah, you’re smiling and reaching for that wallet. Good.

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Go throw money at these guys, NOW.

Blu-Ray Review: The Mutilator (Fall Break)

The Mutilator AV023If you missed out on Buddy Cooper’s amusing and gory slasher flick The Mutilator way back when it was in theaters or later on VHS, you’re in for a treat thanks to Arrow Video. This one’s got the goofy acting and eyebrow-raising plot holes you’d expect from the genre, but it’s the exceptionally nifty gore effects from Mark Shostrom (Videodrome, Evil Dead II) that will get most viewers on the hook (pun intended).

As for special features, Arrow packs the disc with a raft of bonus content that makes the film a lot more enjoyable thanks to all the great interviews with the cast and crew that participated. These extras are all a great thing as the story here is pretty standard genre wrangling saved by some humor and the aforementioned gore effects.

Ten years after accidentally shooting his mother, Ed Jr. (Matt Mitler) gets a phone call from his dad with a request to close up his beach condo for the winter. After his girlfriend Pam (Ruth Martinez), and school chums Ralph (Bill Hitchcock), Sue (Connie Rogers), Mike (Morey Lampley), and Linda (Frances Raines) invite themselves along for a little fun in the cool fall sun, they discover the condo in a rather messy state. Chalking it up to Big Ed being drunk with a few friends, two of the teens commence their usual getting drunk and splitting up for some alone time antics. Let’s just say Big Ed has a little (okay, somewhat large and sharp) axe to grind with his son… and his poor friends just so happen to be in the wrong place at the right time for him to get in some prime chop time. Continue reading

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders: Get Yours Before Someone Else Gets Theirs

ABC Murders cover logo 4Mystery fans on the trail of the whereabouts of Microids’ upcoming Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders now have a fresh clue as to the location of the game. This latest trailer shows off more nicely stylized visuals and Hercule Poirot doing what he does best.

The game will hit retail and digital outlets for PC/Mac, PS4 and Xbox One February 4, 2016 in Europe and February 23, 2016 in North America. Pre-orders for the PC version are being taken on gog.com and Steam, both at a temporary 20% discount off the $29.99 retail price.

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The King of Oddball Asides wants me to note that Monsieur Poirot wears his gloves all the time in that trailer and that makes him a suspect as well. But The King of Oddball Asides is indeed an oddball himself. Anyway, Microids would very much like it if you crept up on them one of these days and got all nosy like a certain Belgian detective. In English, follow them using the links below:

Website: http://www.Microids.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/microids

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Microids_off

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/microids

Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders: Kill Some Time With Poirot in February

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packshot%20illustration_SMALLFrench game publisher Microïds and developers Artefacts Studio are putting the final touches on what’s looking to be a fine mystery/adventure game, Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders, set for release on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac February 4th, 2016 in Europe and February 23 in the U.S. on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac. Microïds obviously knows the universal appeal of Christie’s work as the game is going to be dubbed in English and French and subtitled in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish and Russian. As you’ll see below he jump, the development team is really going above and beyond the call to make Mr. Poirot look and play excellently to a wide variety of gamers interested in the character and story (which happens to be one of Christie’s greats)… Continue reading

The Order: 1886 Update: A Little Right Music For Turkey Day…

Fun fact that’s got nothing to do with actual history: Nikola Tesla has been in at least two videogames this century. Airtight Games’ fun but flawed Dark Void, published by Capcom back in 2010 and now, Ready at Dawn’s upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive, The Order: 1886. Anyway, here’s a look and listen with some of the soundtrack and a nice interview to go with that moody music. If you’re in a Tryptophan haze after gobbing down your turkey dinner, this music may induce some interesting dreams. Hey, at least you had dinner. My kitchen is still a wreck and although some cooking can be done, you certainly wouldn’t want to be here waiting for something to pop out of the oven. Feh. Well, about eight days or so next month will take care of that, so my kitchen nightmare continues into December.

Okay, enough grumbling from me – go back to your celebrating, shopping and whatever else you were doing. I’ll be back tomorrow with a few more interesting posts…

Fund This! GRAAL SEEKER: The Final Push is On!

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Okay, folks – Lugludum’s cool-looking retro strategy RPG GRALL SEEKER needs our assistance! Go help fund the project over at Indiegogo and if you’ve got a Steam account, absolutely give it an up vote on its Steam Greenlight page. This is one of those games that needs a bigger audience willing to try something outside their usual comfort zone, so go check out those links and make Lugludum a very happy bunch of game makers!

Hey, Guillaume! Play us out with a little game music, won’t you, sir?

SAVAGE: The Sword of Goshen Update: Another Indie Retro Action/Platformer Shaping Up as a Nice Surprise…


 
Matt Fitzgerald of Planet Tobor is making what’s shaping up to be a fun retro action platformer you 8 and 16-bit fanatics may want to keep an eyeball peeled for. SAVAGE: The Sword of Goshen is looking pretty cool, and although it’s still deep in development, you can download and try out the alpha and maybe let him know what you think or just hold out for a later build that’s less buggy. But even in the state it’s in in that video above, you can tell it’s a labor of love that’s coming along quite nicely. Anyway, it’s already been funded through Kickstarter, so for me, all that’s left to do is wait for the game to drop onto a download service so I can pay for all this hard work going on…

Graal Seeker Update: Extended Campaign + Some Music Lessons For You Potential Backers…

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Meanwhile, back in crowd-funding land…

With only 16 days left in its Indiegogo campaign, Lugludum Game Studios’ work in progress tactical/RPG Graal Seeker is jockeying for a Steam Greenlight spot, so help them out with a vote and a pledge if you haven’t yet. This latest devlog is a total educational hoot, as it shows how the music and some of the sound effects were done (go, Guillaume!). You may want to fund the game just so he doesn’t come after you with some of those weapons he has! Then again, that might make for a heck of a stretch goal – get the sound guy to chase you around a room so he can record screams for the Graal Seeker sequel!

Finally, PR guy Thibaut Trampont wants you to bug the dev team on Reddit tomorrow:

Ask Us Anything (AMA) on Sunday 19th October:
We will be on Reddit to answer all questions the 19th October at 3pm UTC with the guys from Battle Brothers, That Which Sleeps and Dungeon Kingdom. This can be a great opportunity to satisfy your curiosity about how indie developers like us make RPGs. The link will be shared on twitter the day of the AMA.

Follow Thibaut Trampont on Twitter here: @ttrampont – and go get this game funded! It looks like it will be quite a bit of fun and certainly a unique experience for SRPG fans who want something more than anime-based fantasy games in their libraries.