GTA V Reveal Trailer: Yes. And Yes, Indeed.

Posted on November 2, 2011 by geelw

For the hell of it, I stuck it on my lower-traffic blog even though it’s not really “Mature”. I hate the ESRB’s goofy, puritanical and needless restrictions on this stuff, by the way. I’;; rant about that some other time, though. Anyway, Well, well, well. And who DIDN’T think the trailer wouldn’t be spectacular stuff. Expect to hear some news at or around E3 time, if not before. If I really HAD to venture a release date guess, maybe holiday 2012? As for the rumors of a download-only GTA V, I hope the hell not, given that 100 percent of GTA players probably don’t all live in areas with stable (or any) broadband connections. One reason this rush to digital-only stuff is so annoying to me. Hell, that and who doesn’t want that usual big color map and manual combo. My suggestion to Rockstar: do a standard retail edition and make a TRULY limited collector’s edition as a DIRECT purchase from an online shop you set up. Keep the production run reasonable (take pre-orders so you know how many to produce ), make them worth the price and once they’re gone, that’s that.

Asura’s Wrath One-Two Trailer Punch: Bet On This To Beat Your Mind Senseless (In A Good Way)…

Posted on November 1, 2011 by geelw

It’s very hard not to ignore CyberConnect 2’s crazy cinematic action game and each time I see it in action, I’m glad the developer decided to get more creative than they have with their string of reliably feature-packed Naruto titles. Granted, what’s here is a few light years beyond weird in terms of nearly all about it. But that’s exactly what the industry needs, I say: more studios, large and small working on new IP that will shake things up a bit.

Hopefully, some of you folks out there will agree and want to come along form the ride. Capcom will appreciate that and CC2 will REALLY appreciate it even more,as it’ll show that there’s room at the inn for more originality and not just “me too” sequel mentality.

This Time, It’s War (In The North)…

Posted on October 28, 2011 by geelw

Guess what JUST showed up (well, around 12:30 this afternoon)? Looks like my weekend plans are shattered to heck, but in a REALLY good way. Off to get to work on a review, which should hopefully go live on ~~Monday~~, er. Tuedsay*. Now about that Batman: Arkham City I didn’t get, feh… you win some, you lose some, I guess. Anyway, I’m off to kill a bunch of Orcs and try not do die by U’ruk Hai. Back in a bit!

Yeah, yeah, I’d initially written this as MONDAY for the review, til I noticed the embargo. Oops. Tuesday it is.

Ni No Kuni Japanese Box Art Is Pretty… Boring (But Pretty Nonetheless)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by geelw

While this watercolor image for the Japanese version of the game is indeed a truly lovely piece of art, it’s also pretty generic to a fault. At best, It looks like a greeting card for some made up holiday (Happy Festivus!) or a menu from some renaissance fair salad bar and at worst, like a roadside sign advertising a fairy farm (Come Pet Our Unicorn. Please. Thank You).

Given the lush backgrounds found in both the DS and PS3 versions, I was hoping to see a Level-5/Studio Ghibli combo cover to end all covers. Or at least art to match the beautiful images found on the official PS3 and Nintendo DS sites for each system’s respective games. Here’s a link to a recent trailer as well so you can see that the game is absolutely a LOT more gorgeous than this placeholder-looking cover image. Oh well. It’s not THAT bad. Still, I guess it’ll be up to Namco Bandai to give us a North American version with a cover image that soars. As long as they use art from the dev team or Studio Ghibli-provided assets, it should be a winner.

Syndicate Hands-On: It’s Just Like The Original… But Better.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

That’s right, I said it. And yes, Starbreeze Studios will back it up in a big way on February 21, 2012. Based on the demo version I played at EA’s Naughty or Nice event about 2 weeks ago, even the most die-hard fan with greasy smoke coming from their eyeballs and ears about this game should ABSOLUTELY play this modern reworking of Bullfrog’s isometric RTS/Action hybrid.

Five (Plus One) Very Good Reasons to commit without question are below the jump… Continue reading →

Hideo Kojima Has Me (And Many Others) Drooling Over Metal Gear Solid. Again.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by geelw

Of course, any gamer worth his or her salt will want this as soon as it ships next month. If I’m not mistaken, it also comes with this, which is even better. Finally, this is hitting stores in 2012 (and it’s about time). Between these HD collections, what Kojima has cooking on the Vita, Metal Gear Rising and some other fun stuff, it’s going to be quite an anniversary for Solid Snake and friends…

The Lord of The Rings War in the North Pre-Order Teaser Tempts Away…

Posted on October 24, 2011 by geelw

Too many people online are out of their minds comparing every RPG to Skyrim or whatever other fantasy-themed open world experience on the way when it’s clear that Snowblind Studios is making a different type of adventure entirely. I’m definitely looking forward to this one as I’m a fan of the developer’s work and trust them to make a pretty good action RPG (as it’s something they’ve done a few times previously). We’ll see if the game defies the skeptics and becomes one of those “Hey, this is really good!” word of mouth titles pretty soon, as that November 1 release date is right around the corner. Of course, in this stupid era of games needing to sell a bazillion copies over a weekend to be considered a “success”, I truly hope that this game gets enough time to gain momentum before any judgment is placed on the potential of future installments…

TV Review: The Walking Dead “Bloodletting”

Posted on October 24, 2011 by geelw

This week’s episode kicked off with a great flashback that showed Lori being a tiny bit of a jerk as she revealed to a friend that she and Rick never argue about anything. Er, what the what? She’s upset with him that as a married couple, they DON’T fight? At ALL? Yeesh. Cue Shane driving up in his patrol car to tell her Rick’s been shot. Or not tell her, as she guessed by the look on his face. Of course, given that Lori was waiting to pick up Carl outside of his school, the key point of the scene was how she’d tell the poor kid his dad is in the hospital. Naturally, with Carl being the victim of a gunshot last week while under Rick’s protection, the tables are turned as now he has to figure out how to tell her the bad news. In a nice twist, it was someone else who delivered that news and soon after, Lori to meet up with the pair. There were a few new faces this episode as Rick, Shane and Otis (the shooter) rush an injured Carl to the home of a wise old doctor type to see about some emergency bullet removal. Continue reading →

Asura’s Wrath Hands-On: One Of These Days, Argus… Bang, Zoom!

Posted on October 23, 2011 by geelw

Thanks to a soundproof glass booth where attendees lined up to scream in order to win cool swag, Capcom and CyberConnect 2 had gamers literally screaming to play Asura’s Wrath, the upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 cinematic action game that’s so very hard to describe in the space of something like the entire Internet. OK, overblown hyperbole aside, the demo on the show floor was quite an experience that packed in over the top quick time events, a bit of strategic button bashing and a classical music score that made the experience quite hilarious. This is shaping up to be one of those games that has to be seen and played to be believed and even after that, you’d probably wonder what the hell just happened. Think the mighty God Hand on steroids and with a serious case of rage issues and well, that’s about a tenth of what’s coming your way next year. Continue reading →

Fusion: Genesis – Hands-On With Starfire’s Sure-Fire XBLA Hit

Posted on October 22, 2011 by geelw

One of the nicer surprises at the VERY packed New York Comic Con was actually hidden in plain sight at the Microsoft booth. While packs of gamers waited in lines to play the spectacular Mass Effect 3, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and a few other AAA games, right next to those was Fusion: Genesis, a sprawling, top-down space shooter/RPG/MMO hybrid by Starfire Studios headed exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade later this year. You probably haven’t heard of Starfire just yet as this is their first title under that name, but the four-man team is comprised of Chris Tilston, Mark Edmonds, Philip Dunne and Ross Bury, all ex-Rare talent with credits that range from GoldenEye, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark and Kameo. Fusion looks and plays like none of the above games at all, but it’ll definitely seem familiar to fans of PC classics such as Starflight, Star Control or even the Sega Dreamcast sleeper, Armada. The game also tips its cap to classic arcade shooters, Star Wars and Star Trek in spots, but I don’t want to spoil too much in this preview… Continue reading →