Alien Isolation #HowWill YouSurvive Update: Yup, I’m Flared Up For This One As Well…

Posted on September 30, 2014 by geelw

Flared Up, indeed! I just realized (okay, again!) that it’s OCTOBER (well, tomorrow!) and Alien Isolation is out in a week’s time. Eeek. Now, I have to do a coin toss and decide what to get, as there are a few other games coming that need to be played and I’m not sitting on a ton of money here (yet). As I know the big sites will all be reviewing the next-gen versions, I may play odd man out and grab the PS3 version just because I really want to see how that turned out and yes, more of you guys and gals out there still play games on your own PS3 or Xbox 360 than you do on those fancier newer machines.

Crowd Control? Nah, this one’s not getting a massive midnight launch and doesn’t need one at all. As this isn’t a crowd-pleasing first-person shooter in the Call of Duty or Halo vein and is in fact, a hybrid horror/sci-fi experience that looks to capture the spirit of Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film, I’m betting there are STILL a small bunch of people out there who will go into this expecting a non-stop guided missile on-rails shooter or something the game isn’t. But it’s their own damn fault for not paying attention to the developer diaries and all those previews other sites have done for a while. Oh well…

&nsbp;
Distress will come when this launches on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC and people buy it, get home and then get too scared to play past certain spots. I have the first film in a loop in my brain (I’ve seen it countless times and plan to watch it again before the game arrives just to set the perfect mood), so I know I’m going to love what’s here. Now, about that DLC and stuff that should HOPEFULLY pop up for everyone and not just be exclusive to certain retailers? Yeah, that’s my big gripe about this and other games that piece out content like that. It may be “what people want” (according to game companies), but this SHOULD have been one of those games that packed as much as possible onto that disc just out of respect for Alien fans who don’t want to miss out on ANY content but have no choice in the matter.

Falling Skies: The Game Lands at Retail for PS3/Xbox 360, Digital for PC, Wii U

Posted on September 30, 2014 by geelw

This month went by WAY too quickly, ladies and gents! Anyway, one of the games I’m looking forward to playing has arrived, so I’m cracking my knuckles and getting ready for it (by whipping through a few recent titles and whipping out impressions over the next few days). Actually, you’ll probably be playing Falling Skies: The Game before I will, as review codes are going out later this week. You can zap yourself on down to any game retailer and get this for you PS3 or Xbox 360 or if you have a gaming PC or Wii U, hit up Steam or the Nintendo eShop respectively.

Oh, go on and buy it, already. You need a surprising tactical sleeper in the XCOM vein between the AAA blockbusters out now or waiting to drop in October and beyond and hey, those Espheni aren’t going to shoot themselves, right? I thought so! Get to it, pal!

Final Fantasy XV TGS 2014 Trailer: Doing That Double Take For Reasons Right & Otherwise…

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

Okay, we’re finally seeing a FF on console that looks exactly like those spectacular CG opening and story movies the series in known for, but man, what a cast of heroes this time out. What the what? Seriously. As great as this in-progress game looks, I really have no interest in playing as a too-long car (it looks like a Mercedes hearse convertible) full of big-haired bar band rejects. It’s not Social Distortion, it’s Antisocial Ripple in the Pond! Okay, it was a lot funnier when it popped into my head as I was typing. On paper, it’s a bust. *Le Sigh*…

(Thanks, GamesHQ Media!)

Hey, I love Tetsuya Nomura’s art and character designs (most of the time), but I dunno about this cast. Of course, it’s probably Square/Enix’ response to those FF X-2 games with its all female cast of heroines (and nope, I didn’t like those games much). Maybe I’ve finally outgrown this franchise after all, as I missed the XIII entirely, had no interest in any of the online only games and just grew weary of poking around message boards only to find people still whining about no official FFVII remake, FF games that only got a Japanese release not coming out here and other rolling over the keyboard nonsense that’s kept me away from most game boards for quite some time.

Eh, we’ll see, as usual. I remember when a new FF game was a system seller to some people. I’m not sure this newest one will be as big a mover in this more jaded age of gamers spending too much time gabbing about what they hate and less time actually playing stuff. But I may be wrong…

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Unboxing: Poor Teddie’s Gonna Get Bopped Quite A Lot. It’s in the Cards!

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Hmmm. It seems that Atlus USA has a lot of headless people working for it. Okay, that’s just PR guy John Hardin showing off the game and bonus items in that video and not the Headless Non-Horseman doing some part-time work. Anyway, half a set of tarot cards and a inflatable Teddie Bop Bag may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but both will get some usage by fans of the Megaten games who need a break from this rather awesome fighting game. As noted in that title above, poor Teddie’s gonna get beat up pretty badly, but just follow the instructional portion of this video and don’t go all NFL player on the poor vinyl bear-thing. Besides, he’ll probably haunt your dreams and beat up on YOU in them if you play too rough…

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is out on September 30 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Neverending Nightmares Out Now For Steam & OUYA (!): Welcome to a True Horror Game, Folks…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Sometimes, I’ll see a comment about a horror game or film where someone states that the creator(s) must be “mentally ill” or words to that effect for coming up with such visions that put audiences under or behind their seats (or both). Well, Infinitap Games’ President and creator of Neverending Nightmares, Matt Gilgenbach has struggled with OCD and depression for years and made this honest and outright frightening game in order to share the wealth in terms of showing how powerful battling an invisible enemy can be. From the game description:

Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the developer’s actual battle with mental illness. In the game, you take on the role of Thomas who awakens from a terrible nightmare only to find that he is still dreaming. As he descends deeper through the layers of hellish dreamscapes, he must hide from horrifying apparitions and outrun his inner demons. He must discover which of the horrors he encounters are a manifestation of his own psychological state and figure out what reality will be when he finally wakes up.

As hellish as this looks, I absolutely have to give props to Gilgenbach for showing that people dealing with these conditions can actually be creative and necessary to this industry while creating content that’s deeper than it seems. Okay, for some of you the REALLY scary thing is this game is also on the OUYA because you most likely thought that micro console was DEAD and it’s clearly not going away just yet. Mua-ha-ha-haaaaa! Hmmm… perhaps Matt should have done a Wii U version as well just to cover the other console some people think is both feet in the grave. Anyway, get this game NOW for PC via Steam or if you have an OUYA, yeah, it’s a buy for that as well.

Godzilla Set to Stomp All Over PS3’s In December (Only In Japan, Of Course!)

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Well, this was a bit of a surprise to see earlier today. And of course, despite having the new Godzilla from the US-made film as a DLC character… this isn’t even going to get an English localization release outside Asian territories, so it looks as if I’ll be helping this sell out of at least one production run at some point. Thanks to Play-Asia for popping this news into my inbox and making both my tired eyeballs pop open this morning.

After I recovered them from under my chair and washed them off, I pretty much realized the chances of this game coming out here in the west was zero multiplied by a few hundred zeroes. Not that we don’t need a new Godzilla game, mind you. It’s just that there hasn’t been one in a few years and while plenty of kaiju fans would buy this outright on a disc or as a download, I’m not sure that “plenty” is enough to justify the localization costs.

As you can clearly see from those videos and the game’s official site, this one sure looks pretty spectacular for a Godzilla game, so here’s hoping it’s not only as good as it looks, but VERY import friendly for those who want to snap up this region-free game and haven’t a clue about the language barrier thing most imports hit newbies with right out of the gate. If Bandai Namco’s US arm somehow decides to get this one out here, I’ll be the first one to let out a roar even if it’s only as a digital download. As usual, we shall see… but don’t hold your radioactive breath, folks…

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Update: Two More Reasons To Jump Out Of Your Seat

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

#AINope will be trending if I have my way, but I’ll very likely be far too busy ducking and weaving in my chair while playing Alien Isolation to do much social network socializing. Nope, I won’t be Twitching unless it’s involuntary and from the game creeping me out from playing past a certain point. No tweeting unless I’ve a police whistle around my neck and I’m calling for help before I throw a shoe at my TV screen. And definitely no facebooking at all, because that’s actually more frightening than any game ever made. Yaaaaaah!

Alien Isolation lands in stores and digital delivery systems on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Back with more ways to die horribly in this soon to be modern sci-fi horror game classic in a bit…

Gauntlet is BACK. Just Buy It And Bring Some Friends Along For The Ride!

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Nice. Arrowhead Game Studios has done classic and current gamers a solid by making their Gauntlet reboot a more than worthy nod to the original arcade classic. I sure hope to heck this sells REALLY well and someone has had the foresight to get the developer some console dev kits, as this game is PERFECT for some solo or offline/online couch or not co-op play sessions. That and some of us old fogies like playing the game with some sort of joystick and not a keyboard/mouse setup. Also, it would be excellent to have the ability to take this one on the road as a Vita or (if it’s not too much trouble to do a new version down the road) 3DS game. Eh, we’ll see what sales figures and company heads say, I suppose. The game was made for the masses back in the day and there’s NO reason it shouldn’t be available on anything else that can handle it, I say…

Mail’s In, I’m Out!

Posted on September 23, 2014 by geelw

Thanks to the mail deities delivering nearly everything at once yesterday evening because of a slight delay from a few states and faster than expected international shipping (hoo-ray!), I’m taking today off to tackle a couple of entertainment options. For the upcoming Fairy Tale Blogathon at Movies, Silently I had to import Ray Harryhausen The Early Years Collection from the UK, as it’s not available in a Region 1 format DVD (why?). I was deciding between writing that 2-disc set up when I came across the complete 2-disc set of Fractured Fairy Tales and snapped it up because it was dirt cheap and had free shipping. Of course, someone claimed that review, but I didn’t mind because I grew up watching The Bullwinkle Show reruns and those FFT segments were always hilarious.

For a crazed change of pace, I HAD to bug Clint over at MVD Visual about The Sex Pistols on TV, a DVD documentary of the band’s outrageous live interviews and other footage that I’ve wanted to see for some time. Yep, I have pretty varied musical tastes, folks. Finally, time to give the devil his due, as Diablo III Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition is in the house! While the PS4 is getting all the online ink, I’ve only seen two reviews of the PS3 version, so my review will let those of you curious about this who don’t yet own that new console know if it’s worth a buy. I did play a few hours last night and here’s a spoiler: It’s a buy for a ton of reasons. You get the original game with some BIG changes (as in your copy of plain DII is now obsolete to some extent) and the Reaper of Souls content that adds even more new stuff.

Hmmm… okay, enough procrastinating – I need to go dip myself into some diversions, people. Back in a bit…

Endless Legend Is Out: Buy It & Just Toss Out Every Clock In The House…

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

You won’t need them because once you start playing this game, the concept of time is rendered meaningless. Well, that’s what a friend said to me over the weekend when he got the game. He’d been an Early Access guy and had been poking around with a pre-release version and letting me know how this new fantasy-themed 4X game was coming along (quite nicely, from what I heard). Over the weekend, he’d done nothing but get up in the morning, hop in the shower, pop out to the store for provisions and after that, he was pretty much glued to his monitor. Normally he doesn’t do this, but he’s got a big work week ahead of him and wanted to get in enough gameplay to tide him over until this coming weekend.

Of course, he gets to bed around 2:30am Monday (today!), but pops up at 6am only to find he doesn’t need to zoom out of the door at all because the big Monday conference had been pushed up a day thanks to a few surprise births among a few wives or women in his office being a few days to a week early. Guess who still popped out of bed, put a pot of coffee on and went back to Endless Legend? That guyyyyyyy! Yeah, that’s dedication, folks. It must also mean the game is worth a buy if you like the 4X strategy genre and need a new fix. I’ll need to knock a hole in my schedule AND toss out all the clock in order to even think about playing this game, but let’s see what I can do with a few things this week before I decide to dive in and forget about everything else for a spell…