Bound By Flame Updates: Combat And Music Looking And Sounding Quite Good…

 
So, Bound By Flame is looking to be your next epic action RPG experience and as seen in that work in progress video above, it’s coming along nicely, especially if you like a more arcade-like style of gameplay. This isn’t even trying to be “realistic” in the way some folks want, but to me, that’s the beauty of developers all doing different things. If every game played EXACTLY the same, I’d be one bored stiff gamer looking fora new hobby, that’s for sure.

 
As for the music, composer Olivier Derivière (who did the fantastic score for Remember Me) has whipped up a beautiful, varied score that features a chorus and some wonderful “vocal textures” as you’ll hear above. Developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive, Bound By Flame hits stores for consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) and lands on PC via Steam on May 9, 2014. Back with more if there’s more coming before it ships – I hope so, as this one’s looking very interesting indeed…

Lazy or Late? Here’s What’s Up On Game of Thrones…

 
Uh-huh. I’ve heard all the excuses, people. You KNOW you have time to catch up because you can dump most or all of those crap “reality” shows that are ALL the same and actually be entertained by real writing and people getting paid to act well (as opposed to real fake writing and people acting badly wasting your time).

 
Anyway, it’s not as if Game of Thrones needs more fans watching the show on Sunday instead of waiting to binge away, but it couldn’t hurt if it gets even more people camping out for an hour just to get another season extension so we can see more of what’s inside the heads of George R. R. Martin’s head (as well as the folks who script the show once they commiserate with the man himself).

On the other hand, now that Sunday has become the new Thursday (remember when THAT was the big TV night?), it’s mighty tough to choose what to watch if you’re not a crazed DVR-head packing every free hour with all the stuff you want to watch…

The Only Problem With Dark Souls II On PC Is The Usual One For Any Hard Game…

 
I’m sure FromSoftware knows this already, but with Dark Souls and now Dark Souls II, they’ve gone and made a game that’s too hard for those “gamers” who can’t deal with the level of challenge, so yes indeed, hackers and cheaters will be rampant. Granted, once you buy a game you’re more or less free to do with it what you desire, but what’s the point in playing a game that’s supposed to be difficult if you hack up the ability to one-shot anything that comes at you, maybe survive a fall that’s SUPPOSED to kill you (to teach you a lesson in paying attention to the environment) and so forth and so on? I don’t mind messing with a game after I’ve completed it a few times (as I’ve played Diablo II offline solo with a bunch of crazy mods that made my characters invincible killing machines or I’ve changed up the gameplay in that gem to make it much more challenging). But I just don’t get the automatic urge to cheat one’s way through a game and claim “victory” when no actual hard work was done outside of dinking around with the game code to make it work in a way it wasn’t intended to.

Ah well, it’s not my problem, so I’ll just let it rest. Still, I’d love to see a developer cook up a game that can’t easily be cracked apart or at the very least, identifies cheaters with a nice big flashing neon sign so people who want to play legit can do so in peace. Of course, cheating is rampant in many console games as well, but in some cases, those people can be easier to avoid if one decides to stay the heck offline or just play with people you know where applicable…

PlayStation Plus Brings May Showers Of FREE Games!

 
Yeah, the pay for online multiplayer access thing is still here and silly, but PlayStation Plus is still the best deals in console gaming in terms of what you’re getting otherwise for that $50 a year. Next month’s pile of stuff you’ll need a working time machine to play is quite awesome (as you’ll see above) and overall, you make that cost back each month and then some if you also own a Vita in addition to your PS3 and/or PS4. I keep wondering what will happen when Sony runs out of stuff to give away, but given the large library of old first and third party titles people are clamoring for from the PS1 and PS2 era plus the amount of indie titles currently on PSN, I’m gathering this won’t be an issue they’ll need to deal with for quite some time…

Telltale’s The Walking Dead Is Nearly Everywhere You Look. Go Get Caught Up In This One, I Say…

 
Between the Complete First season being released on Google Play and Season Two dropping onto the Vita, Telltale Games’ stellar The Walking Dead series is taking over just about everything that can play this multiple award winning series and letting an even wider audience experience the horror. Telltale’s games are more accessible than your typical action-heavy PC or console games thanks to a simpler to use interface, story-focused dialog trees that require reasonably fast (but not insane) timing and choices that truly affect the outcome of each chapter. This also makes TWD highly replayable because of how your decisions stack up as the chapters flow onward.

So, your interest is piqued, no? Well, go whip out that favorite device and go get some Walkers into your now more entertaining life, I say.

Mad Max “Magnum Opus” Teaser: Is That Ride Street Legal? Oh, Never Mind…

 
Well, I think it’s a wee bit elaborate compared to what was seen in thee first two films, but apparently, West Coast Customs is making a real version (or has made one already, because you know, TV “reality” shows operate outside of the real world in terms of their schedules):

 
I actually got a Carmageddon meets Twisted Metal feel out of that WCC video above, but hey, enhancing the pointy and shooty stuff on the rides makes them stand out visually. I’m hoping that suspension can actually stand up to some major bumps and jumps, as I’d be taking that thing sailing over a few barricades in my own post apocalyptic imagination. Which, by the way, isn’t post apocalyptic until I start watching the news for more than twenty minutes, ugh…

Hmmm, How Do Those Godzilla Trailers Look In Japanese? Let’s Take A Peek!

Aha, so that’s how they’re doing things over there. Cool. I love all of these reworked trailers and the nice slice of theme music below, so good on you, Toho for fully embracing this reboot with open arms and getting Godzilla fans in the place he was born just as thrilled as folks here.

Godzilla opens in North America on May 16, 2014. When does it open in Japan? Um… it’s in one of those trailers above, right?

Dark Souls II PC: Dead-ja Vu All Over Again… PREPARE TO BUY!

 
Well, SOME of you are already downloading or playing this as we speak (wait, we’re back on speaking terms? Okay, fine!), but to the rest of you holdouts with decent gaming rigs to run this who are on the fence, you need a kick in the pants (well, a light one, as I don’t want to get on your bad side again). Just BUY it and prepare for a super tough but rewarding game experience. A bit to a great deal challenging for new players, but a total corker if you love games that test you and don’t even bother to hold your hand as you explore at will.

Dark Souls II doesn’t tell you much other than “here you are, find out what to do on your own” and to some, it will be the ultimate in “PAY ATTENTION!” game experiences because once you take your eyes and ears off the ball, something is going to come out the darkness swinging something heavy and dull or heavy and sharp and your poor avatar gets knocked off, down or into something that kills it. Oops. You’ll learn to appreciate dying here whether or not you play the game with other live players dropping in to invade your game.

Natsume Keeps The PSP Flame Alive With End of Serenity!

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The PSP has become the handheld that just won’t die even though I’d gather that the bulk of owners have moved onto the Vita. On the other hand, I have three PSP’s here and one Vita and some months, one of those older handhelds gets more usage than the newer, pricier one. Anyway, like last year’s sleeper hit, Mystic Chronicles, Natsume’s upcoming RPG End of Serenity started life as a mobile phone game in Japan and is making it overseas this summer as a digital release via PSN. Although the game will make an appearance at this year’s E3, I won’t be there, so I’ll be like the rest of you intrigued about this old-school JRPG and snapping it up when it drops as a download. If the latter game was any indication, gamers can expect a very long and highly challenging JRPG that looks and plays like it belongs on a 16-bit console (which is always a great thing in my book).

More news to come once Natsume rattles my inbox some more – stay tuned…

Watch_Dogs on PS3: Solo or Online, It’s Looking Like A Winner For Ubisoft…

 
Hey, I may not have a decent gaming PC (yeah, I’m not all that willing to blow food and bill money on 3D card upgrades, a new monitor and all sorts of stuff just to say I can play a game for graphics first), but my PS3 still gets the job done just fine. Anyway, Watch_Dogs may have been delayed for a bit, but I don’t mind (or care) at all if it means the end results will be even more finely tuned. Now, I’m not at all interested in this as an online experience because I’m a story first kind of guy. So, I’m most likely going in with no intentions of spending a second playing with or against others when this finally hits stores.

 
Granted, given that Verizon is forcing everyone in this area to update their service to whatever higher speed connection they’re going to replace all the land lines with (and you should read their lame-ass excuse for doing this), I’ll be finally able to get on PSN with my old fat model PS3 (I’ve been using my Vita at a few wi-fi hotspots to get games and updates for that system). I can’t even imagine all the game patches and updates waiting for my poor hard drive, so I’m probably going to need an external drive before that big communication change occurs. Oh well, enforced evolution… do your stuff, I guess…