Pacific Rim “Second Chances” Trailer: Your Countdown Clock May Be Running a Bit Slow…

Posted on July 7, 2013 by geelw

Oops, I forgot to run this trailer yesterday, so here you go. Only a few more days to go before those theater seats get packed in by the drooling mobs of kaiju fanatics and their mental checklists, so expect to see the Internet world even more flooded than usual with Comic Book Guy-like rants and/or raves about what works and what some of these smarty-pantses think was done “wrong” by Del Toro and company in making their summer epic. Pass the oversize grain of salt, puh-leeze! Meh, some people are never happy (and that’s because if they ever got up in the air on a crane to direct a shot, they’d probably poop themselves and pass out from fear of heights.

Rollers of the Realm Pre-Beta Hands-On: Pinball Wizards Whip Up an Instant Classic

Posted on July 7, 2013 by geelw

I can probably tell you the long and boring story of my first pinball machine memories (1972,Gottlieb’s Batter Up, first version, but I also vaguely recall playing Central Park a few years earlier at Coney Island while standing on a rickety wooden crate), but then you’d be fast asleep and drooling in front of your computer instead of up-voting Phantom Compass’ (and friends!) innovative Rollers of the Realm on Steam Greenlight.

The team is working on what’s turning out to be a superb genre-blending mix of old and new ideas that features some excellent pinball action, decent writing and so far, what’s looking to be the makings of an instant hit that absolutely deserves to be on as many platforms as possible. I signed up to get access to a playable version as soon as I heard this was in development, that pre-beta access popped up in my inbox on Friday and after playing the first chapter a few times, I’m definitely recommending anyone even remotely interested in pinball, RPGs and puzzle games to take a nice long look at this one…

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Earth Defense Force 4 Gameplay Videos: Bigger, Better, Faster, MORE.

Posted on July 6, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, GameEmpireHD!)

My own copy of the game is in transit from Play-Asia, but there are some folks who picked up the game in Japan and are posting videos galore to show off some of the new features and the updated visuals. Here are a few from Game Empire HD that range from short to medium lengths and show a few of the classes in action. I’m a bit more methodical in how I play an EDF game, so seeing all those pickups left lying around at the end of those stages is a bit distressing. Then again, I’m gathering the person playing is trying to blast through the game as quickly as possible just to get as many videos up as possible.

That said, I did notice all of the videos posted so far are played on Normal mode. Personally, I always blaze through Easy first when playing an EDF game just to get it out of the way, earn a bunch of armor and new weapons plus whatever bonus is gained for completing the game on that difficulty level. That and it’s the best way to see what’s coming on the harder difficulties without struggling with too much dropped on my head at once. OK, I think I have about a week or so to wait, so let the countdown commence…

Pacific Rim TV Spot #7 (Plus!): Another Smash Hit From Kaiju Goo Goo…

Posted on July 6, 2013 by geelw

Only a few days left before this stomps into theaters, so yes indeed, the ad and future Blu-Ray/DVD bonus features are rolling out bit by bit. I haven’t been following any merchandising on this film at all, primarily to keep me from buying every Jager and Kaiju I can lay my eyeballs on to fill that shelf space I don’t have (hey, nearly every inch of free space has a game in it or nearby). But don’t let that stop YOU from blowing a chunk of your last paycheck or three if you see something that grabs you.

Er, of course… if that something grabbing you is a few hundred feet tall, you can throw all the money you want at it and not much will happen at all. Hell you don’t have THAT much shelf space anyway…

Hey, part of that last sentence rhymed! No charge for that instant poem (as usual)…

DARK “3D Features” Trailer: Riding The Double Gimmick Wave…

Posted on July 5, 2013 by geelw

This latest trailer for RealmForge’s upcoming Xbox 360 and PC game DARK shows off both modern and “vintage” 3D visual options. I’m still one of those skeptics about that Oculus Rift being anything but a developer’s dream more than a gamer’s go-to peripheral, but that’s because I haven’t tried those damned fancy eyeball curtains and am getting tired as hell of hearing people claim that it’s such a hot deal. I’m sure I’ll get to give the Rift a go one day and be a-mazed out of my skull, but I don’t trust a product without a release date nor a price point that claims to be affordable and the best thing since sliced bread with bacon baked into it. I guess the best thing to do is dig up my ancient cardboard anaglyph 3D glasses and see how that mode hold up as I look into snapping up the more expensive version of that old tech in the future to see if it’s worth what it’ll cost (which probably won’t be as cheap as I’d like). Eh, whatever – if the game is good without the extra distraction of something on my face, it’s a better thing at the end of the day…

Earth Defense Force 4 Launch TV Spots: July 4 is Business As Usual in Japan…

Posted on July 4, 2013 by geelw

Today’s the big day for some gamers in Japan as Earth Defense Force 4 is out and getting furiously played by many. Those of us who’ve imported copies will be waiting patiently around their mailboxes like vultures for our copies to show up and it’ll be hiding away from the sun for a bit as we plow through the game and see what developer Sandlot has done with the series in the five or so years since they last worked on a home console EDF game.

From some poking around on GameFaqs, a few users who live in Japan and have the game are loving the changes so far (a good sign) and combined with the positive Famitsu scores (a 34/40 average), this one looks like a keeper.

Of course, when the game hits US shores next year, you WON’T be seeing these wacky Japanese ads for it at all, so I’m doing my civic duty as an EDF patriot and running them here.

I don’t know what D3Publisher of America’s ad plans are, as they generally don’t run a ton of ads for their games anyway, but it would be nice to see some sort of equally oddball campaign here that’s inexpensive yet equally amusing and effective.

Impressions of the import to come in a bit – I’m going to go get my vulture outfit out of storage and go hang out downstairs…

There Are 22 Pacific Rim Posters (So Far). That’s A Lot of Wall Space.

Posted on July 3, 2013 by geelw

And that’s just that’s counting the US and Japan, based on the gallery over at Impawards.com (that page has 17- the other five show up if you click on any of the images). I don’t think that’s a record for number of poster designs for a single movie, but it is impressive to see the different sizes and art styles in a few cases that would dress up any boring wall in your home. I’m not one for collecting posters these days, but if I did, I’d say these would be perfect for kicking off a collection. That looooong banner sized monstrosity at the top of this post actually made me laugh the first time I saw it because I could see it running down one of the long hallways here in the home office (thus making the trip to the bathroom a pretty cool one unless there was something stomping around in the shower I didn’t want to see)…

Pacific Rim “It’s About Compatibility” Clip: Yeah, And Who Does The Dishes Later, Too!

Posted on July 3, 2013 by geelw

Ah, the eternal struggle of women versus men! POW! BAM! Geez, how about a hug and a good book to read for both of them? Well, I’d prefer these action films drop the typical guy/gal fights where you know it’s going to be a “she’s cute… but can she fight?” thing where it’s proven that “yep, she can fight!” at the end in favor of actual character development where no one needs to prove anything save how far then can punch some alien behemoth when they’re suited up and out on the battlefield. Then again, this clip only clocks in at just over a minute meaning there’s more time for a block-sized monster to dropkick a few skyscrapers at a charging Jaeger. Of course, nothing beats the EPIC beatdown from They Live for sheer macho overkill extended play craziness. I don’t think that needs to be remade any time soon… but I did write a near-complete design document for a game based on that movie that died with hard drive that went up in smoke. Oh well…

ABSENCE: If Your Eyes Can Hack the Hiccups, You May Like This Horror Flick…

Posted on July 3, 2013 by geelw

Expectant mother Liz wakes to find her nearly-to-term pregnancy has disappeared overnight. When doctors can find no medical explanation for the loss, police treat Liz and her husband Rick as prime suspects in what has now become a missing child case. Only Liz’s husband and brother trust her version of events.

Well, that’s an eyeball-opening teaser and plot synopsis for the indie horror flick ABSENCE, that’s for sure. I don’t think the movie has any visible fetus removal scenes, but your attention is grabbed right away and kind of held for that fifteen seconds above. Below, may I suggest not clicking on that clip at all if you easily get carsick? I’m don’t at all but the handheld camerawork did give me a headache just watching it the first time. These found footage flicks are take it or leave it for me, but I guess this will do well enough with the horror fans who love this “reality” genre stuff. I’ll most likely catch this at 3am on cable at some point in the future when I should be sleeping or am otherwise up way too late working…

So, are you frightened yet, or did you need to down a Dramamine?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – The Epic Making of an Epic (Part One)

Posted on July 3, 2013 by geelw

With all that live action location footage and sweeping camera shots on display in this video plus the promises from the team that this game will be their best yet, it’s impossible not to get a little excited about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as development continues on the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. I know I want the game to be the best new RPG on any platform once it’s released, so I’d like to very emphatically suggest that CD Projekt RED keep Senior Writer Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz away from high cliff edges and live wolves, as I actually jumped a little when he was walking too close to a potential nasty fall in one shot and later, probably could have lost some fingers if that wolf he was stroking decided it wanted a finger sandwich during that part of the clip.

Then again, that shot was edited, so it may have been the wolf handler’s hand in one part and Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz’s in the other. or maybe the man has more talents than writing? I guess I’ll have to wait and see if he’s written himself into the game as a character, right? And I’d imagine if he did, that character would have a shorter last name, as twenty spaces is a lot of screen real estate to fill!