Assault Suit Leynos To Get PS4 Remake (Or: Target WORTH!)

Posted on March 8, 2014 by geelw

Well, alright! I’ve never heard of Japanese developer Dracue Software, but they certainly made a name for themselves at this year’s BitSummit in Japan by announcing they’re working on a remake of the classic Sega Mega Drive game Assault Suit Leynos. The game, known in the US as Target Earth, will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive (at least for now, but I hope a Vita version is in the pipeline). The only thing up media-wise other than the game site is this teaser trailer that’s all footage from the original with the reveal that the new game is PS4-bound:

Yep, it’s a buy whenever it’s done and hopefully won’t be either a download-only game that gets buried on PSN with little fanfare outside its home country or worse, play like the Assault Suits Valken “remake” for the Japanese PS2. THAT game was based on the Super Nintendo-only sequel to Leynos (called Cybernator here in the States) and the PS2 version was just a chore to play effectively thanks to cumbersome controls and pretty accurate enemy shooting. My hopes are for the best, as Leynos was and is a great game to play through multiple times. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the soundtrack stays the same as the original game or isn’t remixed and/or fiddled with too much. Eh, we’ll see… I have faith in Dracue to not screw this one up…

READS: It’s A Mystery To Me And More, Sort of Historical Version…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Well, whee! Barnes & Noble came through pretty quickly and that means I get to do some reading this weekend. While her husband MTM sits at home holding the fort down (and sliding around on the floor in his underwear like Tom Cruise in Risky Business because he’s got the house all to himself), his wife, author Andra Watkins is out walking the Natchez Trace, following the path of Lewis and Clark. Nope, he didn’t drive her out thataway and accidentally leave her to her own devices, folks. There’s a nifty and interesting story behind all that trekking she’ll be doing for the remainder of March plus… but you’ll have to read her blog to get all that info. Hey, I can’t tell her story better than she can and I don’t have a book to sell (yet). SO you get to get it from the horse’s mouth as it were. Anyway, you can grab To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis from a few places digitally or physically. You’re smart, so you’ve clicked on one of the links here or the book cover to the right of this post in the sidebar or have already gotten a copy and are nodding and smiling because you’re further along in the book than I am.

Back with a review soon…

Orphan Black Better NOT Get A Musical Episode, Is All I’ll Gently Suggest…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Holy cats, fans can be ten thousand percent nuts sometimes. HELL NO, this otherwise fine and well written sci-fi drama does NOT need ANYTHING resembling a sing-along hour with cast members warbling out tunes while facing death and danger. Nope. NO. No way. Stupid ideas are a dime a dozen, Buffy did it already and THAT show was campy from the get-go, so it’s excused. OB is fine as it is and even as if planned and executed a dream sequence, a musical episode would be such a shark-jumping moment that I’d probably never go back to it after that travesty aired. Let the fan-fictioners dabble in that nonsense all they want, but keep the clones away from the chorus line, please. Even as a joke, it’s a terrible one because that means someone has probably gone and thought out at least a way to make it happen. Yikes and yuck. I’m keeping my eye on you, Maslany – punch someone in the throat if they bring you a script that has you singing anywhere unless it’s necessary for the plot, grrrr!…

Dragon Age Inquisition Update: Oh, The Places You’ll Go (And Stare At For Far Too Long)…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Lovely. While I wasn’t enamored with Dragon Age II‘s overuse of environments and SUPER truncated finale, that first game was quite spectacular through and through. The third game looks pretty mighty to behold in these trailers, but I’m hoping we see more open environments that beg to be explored like a real world spot where you want to stop and smell the virtual roses (without getting jumped by a pack of monsters or highwaymen). We’ll see soon enough, but I’m going to go out on a limb and trust BioWare has learned from keeping an ear to the ground for fan feedback by now that more is always better thing when it comes to freedom in how one plays their RPGs…

Dark Souls II PC Screens: Prepare To BUY Is More Like It, Folks…

Posted on March 7, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, yeah, the modders will have their fun with the game once the PC version drops and they hack in some more “realistic” visuals for those who want them, but I love FromSoftware’s original vision for this soon to be released sequel. PC owners also get some nice content bonuses for pre-ordering (this version of the game ships out on April 25, a month and two weeks after the console versions (eek!), so there’s still time to grab this from a few online and retail locations). Click away below the jump for some press release action with the gory details. I’m backlogged in posting today and actually got in some books I need to read and review, so I’m kind of swamped…

Continue reading →

Sylvain Chomet Makes The Simpsons Worth Watching Again…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, Animation Domination!)

Ha. In case you don’t know who Mr. Chomet is, drop everything (well, not your phone or tablet or laptop if you’re somehow reading this in transit or while sitting in a coffee house of some sort) and go rent his wonderful animated films The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist, I’ll wait (La la laaaa, la dee dah, la la la laaaa). Oh, you’re back. Anyway, what he’s done with Homer and his family is amazing and YES, I’d LOVE to see how he’d handle a complete episode. Granted, the time that would take would be pretty ridiculous, but given that nothing seems to stop The Simpsons from dying again, it won’t matter how long it takes to get completed after all. Or hell, at least let’s see a Treehouse of Horror short from the guy (which will still take almost forever to get made)…

Bacon Craze Gets People Stupid About A Dumb, Dumb Device…

Posted on March 6, 2014 by geelw

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer exec
That is who I truly want to be-e-eee…
‘Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer exec,
I’d put a halt to this stupidity!

Sooo, It’s apparent that some people at Oscar Mayer are either smoking that bacon a wee bit too much, as they have no clue as to what hell they’re about to unleash on themselves and a “lucky” few people who get something in the mail that may change their lives (and not for the better). It seems that the eggheads over at the “Oscar Meyer Institute For The Advancement of Bacon” have come up with a tiny device that plugs into your phone and when triggered using you’re phone’s alarm system, puffs out the scent of sizzling bacon along with an accompanying sound effect. What. The. Fork? Look:

Now, this is cute and all, but as soon as I heard about this project, my brain spit out its tea. Then when I saw that video above, my brain hit itself in the head with a cast iron fry pan. What. The. Fork? Continue reading →

Transformers: Age of Extinction Trailer: Bay of Picks of the Litter? We’ll See…

Posted on March 5, 2014 by geelw

While I’ve seen the three previous films and way too many of the cartoons to count, I’m not a huge fan of the Transformers movies and their CG overkill, nor do I revere those old animated series as some sort of overall canonical tome that cannot be tampered with. That said, it looks as if this one’s going to be more “serious” than previous installments,, but then again you can’t tell by a two and a half minute plus trailer how the quality of the final flick will be. Mr. Bay seems to have spent that studio money up but good here and based on the usual polarized response this teaser has gotten, I’d say this will make a Megatron full of money (ah ha ha… Hey, pure corn is my specialty, folks!). Then again, if this is the last of the series (and to quote the late Godfather of Soul, James Brown: “Please, Please, Please!”*), it’s certainly going out with a bang. We’ll see on June 27th what’s what, I suppose. Check that: YOU’LL see before I will, as I’ve sat out the last two films until they popped up on cable.

*Yeah, I do KNOW that classic song is about JB wanting someone to NOT leave him, but for this franchise, that cape has come out too many times and it’s done every encore it can think of…

LUFTRAUSERS: Old School Looks Meets Bullet Hell. Everybody Wins…

Posted on March 5, 2014 by geelw

Well, well, well. I’d not heard of this snappy little arcade indie game until earlier today, but as soon as I saw that teaser above, I had a nice flashback to the days of dropping too many quarters into a bunch of cabinets in a few too many places week after week. From watching this craziness once, I got a nice blend of Toaplan’s ancient classic Fire Mustang, a few Cave shooters galore, bits of Asteroids, Galaga and so forth and so on now rolling around in my head. I think I need to review this now. PlayStation 3, PS Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux users will all be grinning like maniacal monkeys with twitchy hands soon, as the game has a March 18 release date. Vlambeer’s got another sneaky little hit on their hands here and I’d expect it will hit all the right notes with shump fans looking for a highly customizable and crazy, challenging ride… Continue reading →

SOMA Update: Theta of the Absurd, Getting Creepier By The Second…

Posted on March 5, 2014 by geelw

Okay, my pun-like reflexes are a bit sad and lonely today, but that’s what happens when you just finish hanging a bunch of laundry and haven’t had that second cup of joe yet. Anyway, Frictional Games’ upcoming PS4 and PC exclusive, SOMA is looking quite nice in this latest clip and while the game won’t be done for a while, it’s looking like one to watch as it progresses. I still want Frictional to give the world a FIEND update, as that scary little top-down horror gem deserves a nice modern update at some point. Although, not that I think about it… I’m not sure if I’d prefer a first-person viewpoint, as you could see all those damned deadly holes you could avoid falling to your death into with the bird’s eye view. Eh, we’ll see what happens in the future when we arrive. SOMA’s the game to concentrate on for the moment…