Quick News Hits: More Ways For Game Companies To Get Your Money (They Hope)…

Posted on May 3, 2012 by geelw

Gah, keeping up with all this breaking news is nuts (NUTS, I say!), so I’ll just do what comes naturally in these cases: make fun of the more important stories right from the inbox, but also post coolness where it counts. Hey, it’s tough love time around here all the time (as in I love the industry, but sometimes you guys make me wonder what’s in the water every so often)…

Ubisoft is releasing the 25-minute film Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 22, day and date with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The entire package (including extras) runs, according to the press release, 50 minutes. At $7.95 for the DVD and $14.95 for the Blu-Ray, that’s an OK price, but still a bit steep for those cheapskates out there who (paradoxically) probably wouldn’t mind paying ten bucks more (which coincidentally, falls in the center of that MSRP) for the game packed together with the movie in a retail package. Then again, given that the film and extras would probably have fit comfortably on a PS3 Blu-Ray (360 owners would have to get a separate DVD inside the case), maybe it should have been part of the game package after all?

Update: having just seen the film on tonight’s X-Play (it’s definitely well made, excellently paced and will absolutely drive interest in the game), I still think it should have been part of the package – maybe as something to watch while the game is installing, ha ha)

I’m just sayin’… there’s still a recession on among some of us, you know. Yes, I’m SO hard to market to, aren’t I? But I do pass on stuff I feel is important, so that’s the balance here.

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Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Sold For Almost 120 Million Dollars Last Night. Eek!

Posted on May 3, 2012 by geelw

Holy cats. Hell, I’d bet good money that Edvard Munch never dreamed his creepy little painting would rake in such an insane amount of money. Then again, he DID do four different versions of the thing, so perhaps he was trying to drive the future value down, a ha, ha and ha. Anyway, that amount of money rather greatly annoys me. So much so, in fact, that I did my own version of The Scream unintentionally yesterday. Hey, I can play the poor artist part VERY well, especially as I’m poor (and an artist when I feel like it). Say hello to the Grizzly Pawppet! Growl! Now, where’s my damn millions?

Oh, wait… Eddie (or is it Edvie?) Munch isn’t collecting a dime of that selling price, as he’s no longer with us. Good thing I don’t have his agent, I guess…

CoD: Black Ops 2 Documentary Gets You Up To Speed About Things To Come…

Posted on May 3, 2012 by geelw

By now, Activision and hard-working developer Treyarch have no doubt developed quite the thick skin (and a deaf ear from all those ricochets) when it comes to listening to the anti-CoD crowd wailing away when news of a new installment breaks. I’ve pretty much heard it all, from JRPG fans who “hate FPS games and CoD players” with a rather biased viewpoint (sorry, they’re not all “frat boy jerks” or “gun nuts”) to fans of other shooters who never seem to realize that most of the games they like wouldn’t be around if CoD wasn’t busting sales records and forcing a few innovations (like them or not) into the genre (which IS a bit stale after so many years with so many AAA games coming and going).

That said, and as I noted earlier, when it works, it WORKS, and Black Ops was one of those games that packed so much content onto a disc that you didn’t really need to play it online to enjoy some prime content. OK, let me shut up and let you enjoy this little “documentary” about the future world weapons and such presented in this upcoming sequel that’s bound to make all involved another mint. Oh yeah, I’ll be nice for a change and not even ask what Oliver North is doing in the video. Put him in the Zombies game next time, guys.

R.A.W. Looks To Cook Up Dungeon Crawling Devotees On PC/PSN/XBLA

Posted on May 3, 2012 by geelw

OK, so Wizarbox’s upcoming hack & slash ,also known as Realms of Ancient War, might not be able to take on Diablo II toe to toe (or is it hoof to claw?) in some eyes in terms of the presentation and megabucks hype machine grinding everything under it’s hooves. Nevertheless, the game at least offers up offline single player and local co-op options and isn’t passing itself off as a MMO that requires you to always be connected while playing. Whatever – I’m too busy and smart to keep harping on Blizzard for the changes they felt necessary to make to Diablo III a game tens of thousands can’t play (but millions more will, so it balances out, right?), so I’ll wish them well as they build forts and vaults out of money to hold more money. Any-way, since I missed posting the Warrior trailer last time, it’s presented below, so enjoy!

Gravity Rush Concept Video Has Me Wishing For Time Travel. Again.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by geelw

While I love the new system dearly, my poor Vita is feeling a bit lonely these days thanks to a case of the post-launch window vacuum blues. It’s learned to play the harmonica quite well, too!. That said, every bit more of Gravity Rush I see, the more I hug that portable closer. Too bad it wasn’t a launch title, but hey – good games do take more time and are always well worth the wait. Anyway, let’s hope this one comes sooner than later and not at exactly the same time as a half dozen or so other Vita games I’m really looking forward to. I’m not one to Rush through a game I really like (er, obvious pun intended)…

Starhawk Goes Gold (And How, For Beta And Warhawk Players)

Posted on May 2, 2012 by geelw

So, it’s on the way and soon at that, which is awesome. It’s even more awesome if you’ve been one of those folks playing the beta or were a big PS3 Warhawk player, as you’ll see in the above video. Personally, I love that LightBox is giving both single player and multiplayer fans something to look forward to. No matter which mode you choose, you can expect some of the tightest hybrid gameplay that should set the standard for this type of game for quite some time (well, until it gets copied to death by other developers). Of course, expect a few overly cranky RTS fans to whine a bit about the game making it so “easy” to blend fast-paced action with no need for insane resource management (or much in the way of micro-managing anything except trying to get shot up on foot or in/on a ride or or out of the sky when you’re flying around). SCEA has yet another mega-hit on their hands, and that’s always a good thing,,,

Playing Catch-up Can Indeed Be A Catch-22, Grrrr…

Posted on May 2, 2012 by geelw

Ugh. Yes, I’m STILL way behind on reformatting those thousand or so 2010 to mid-2011 posts, but it’s been way too busy inside and out of my gaming life to get to all of those updates. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to do some this weekend, barring incident. Still, I think I’m doing a decent job in posting new content every day. I could do MORE actual writing with an assistant fixing those older posts up, but I hate the whole “intern” thing. Hell, I just believe good work should be PAID work, not some crappy “do stuff for free and eventually you’ll be rewarded elsewhere when you apply for a real job” nonsense that’s become the norm these days all over. Double hell, I’m trying to find more writing work and all I see are “Hey, you can write for us for free!” posts in too many places or worse, scammy, scummy “send us four to six 500 word posts and we’ll see if they fit our site!” idiocy. Feh.

Oh well, enough griping. here’s some suitable art for my bridge-burning ways. Fire In the hole!

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Trailer Reveal: Well, Well… Now With More Mind-blowing Action (And Horses!)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by geelw

Ah, this month’s (or was it last month’s?) worst kept secret finally gets an official trailer. Pretty slick stuff so far – the horseback section should be amazingly cool to play if it’s done right. The most amusing thing about the whole future weapons aspect of the trailer and the older guy narrating it was it reminded me of Metal Gear Solid 4 in terms of tone. Maybe that’s just me, but I bet a few other people will make that comparison soon enough…

Anyway, I loved the first Black Ops because even with the darker tone, it was the funniest CoD in terms of the breakneck pacing and crazy bonus content in single player (I didn’t venture online at all). That said, I’m REALLY hoping that Activision doesn’t wall away the fun though a pay system that screws me and folks like me out of an otherwise cool experience. Now, I don’t take the franchise so seriously that I bend over backward to praise everything and not think about the stuff that’s flawed. Nor do I bash the franchise (and other well-made shooters like it) for basically doing the same stuff year after year because, hell, it works. If you’re an adrenaline junkie and love big, crazy roller coaster rides with screams and explosions and splashes of blood mixed in with dead serious storytelling where need be, it’s always been fun to blast through a CoD game over a weekend or so and have a gab-fest the next week or so with friends who’ve also enjoyed what’s been served up.

That said, Hey, Activision! Where the hell is that CoD zombies game compilation? You know, the RETAIL disc one with Call of the Dead, Moon, and every other bit of Zombie content from the series? I say it would sell like hotcakes, especially if you guys rounded up the cast from Call of the Dead and made a new campaign-based game with them appearing as playable characters (single, co-op and multiplayer modes). Get on it and get back to me. No charge for the idea (as usual)!

Activision Wants YOU To Be The Next Bond Game Bad Guy (Or Gal)…

Posted on May 1, 2012 by geelw

Nice. This is a pretty cool promotion for the upcoming Eurocom-developed multi-platform game 007 Legends that allows anyone to sign up, submit a photo of themselves along with a description of their evil world dominating ways for a chance to get into the final version of the game. Of course the big catch here is it’s a popularity contest with the community voting on the best Bond baddie. I’d prefer the developers choose in order to make sure this is taken 100% seriously, but I guess I should trust that there are some reliable Bond fans out there who can come up with a few great villains for Bond to go up against. OK, I know you’re itching to dress up like Dr. Evil and snap some pictures for your chance in the spotlight (before Bond busts a cap in your cap, chap) – go to it, already!

Another Day, Another Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Trailer…

Posted on May 1, 2012 by geelw

Well, OK… they don’t drop that often (well, yet, given Warner’s penchant to release dozens of trailer variations for their upcoming films), but it’s always nice to see how well Chris Nolan’s final chapter in his Batman trilogy is coming along. I have zero idea who Warner Bros. plans to take over the franchise should there be the need for a new set of films. But, I kind of feel sorry for anyone following Nolan’s work, as they’ll definitely be benchmarks for any future Batman films. Of course, that also means we won’t be seeing the series go back to those awful post-Tim Burton Batman flicks that are hard to watch because all they show off is a bunch of overpaid stars making a mint mugging for the camera while driving the franchise into the ground.