Earth Defense Force 2025 US Cover Art Revealed: The Gang’s All Here (Almost)!

Posted on September 25, 2013 by geelw

Nice. While the game’s Japanese cover art was a relatively simple shot of multiple motherships converging on an about to be invaded Earth, the North American art features all four playable classes and some of the many enemies you’ll face off with in this BIG bug and ‘bot blast fest. I loved that they used in-game character models and not a standard painting, although the import version DID ship with one of two reversible cover images done in a cool manga style. I’ll put in a quick Q to D3PoA’s PR and see if we’ll be blessed with that alternate art choice, but even if we don’t get them, this one’s a fine looking bit of art that will make those non-EDF playing pals of yours automatically ask what’s up with that cast of armored guys and gal and that upside down spider that’s making them nervous. Five new screenshots are below:

EDF 2025 ships out in February 2014. Back with more as info rolls in – stay tuned.

Earth Defense Force 2025 Hands-On: Bug Blasting 101, On a Few Cool Fronts…

Posted on September 23, 2013 by geelw

D3Publisher of America rolled into NYC last week with its small but awesome holiday games lineup and of course, as Earth Defense Force 2025 was going to be there, I had to make sure I got some quality time with the in-progress US localization. I’ve been playing the Japanese PS3 version since mid-July and had some time with the Xbox 360 import thanks to a friend who owns a Japanese 360, so I was more than ready to hop into the US version with relish.

D3PoA had a 360 set up for split-screen co-op play complete with English menus and plenty of enthusiastic voice acting fans of the series will crack plenty of smiles over. The game also has wide appeal outside that dedicated niche thanks to its addictive pick up and play simplicity, five difficulty levels, some amazingly tough missions that range in length and plenty of visual upgrades from earlier games in the series.

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Morose Monday Made Markedly More Meaningful…

Posted on July 22, 2013 by geelw

Well, let’s see now: coming home from a funeral: gloomy! Coming home TO a nice surprise in the mail (thank you, Play-Asia!) and a double surprise (I’d forgotten to cancel a big Namco Bandai press event for tomorrow morning, which is actually a great thing as it gets me out of the house and not sitting around moping) plus tax (another event on Wednesday and I think one more this week) mean life goes onwards, bumps in the road aside. OK, off to squash some bugs – I may post one more thing before midnight if I haven’t collapsed from being a wee bit too tired. It’s been a really long day…

EDF 2025 Recruitment Video #2: Not to “Bug” You Again, But You’re Wanted…

Posted on July 19, 2013 by geelw

Only in Japan do you get these goofball game videos that manage to be informative and amusing (well, if you understand the language, that is). I’m still waiting for my copy of the game to arrive, but others who ordered their copies at the same time I did seem to be finally getting them this week. No worries of course – it just means I’ll have a LOT of catching up to.

Meanwhile, the fine folks over at Game Empire HD are STILL uploading some great gameplay videos and as you can see above and below, things get quite chaotic in these later missions. Well, I did say that I needed some distractions this summer, so this will indeed count as one of them.

OK, I’m shutting up now. It’s too hot (again, as in 103 or so with the heat index) and I need to go do stuff that requires less effort. Sleep? Not yet… but maybe I’ll do something really nuts like cook something in the oven just to generate sweat and make me drink more water then fall into the shower for the third time today. We shall see…

E3 2013: Earth Defense 4 Update: On Shooting A Really Big Fly With A Few Hundred Shotguns…

Posted on June 17, 2013 by geelw

Well, 700 or so, to be a bit more precise. Japanese gaming site Gamer has a nice long look at the weapons types for each class in Sandlot’s upcoming giant insect run & gun game set for a July 4, 2013 release there (and a February release in the US and Europe). Fans of the older EDF games will see plenty of ordinance from the older games all redone as different weapon types (a great and welcome touch), and Sandlot has gone above and beyond the call, thankfully not delivering a simple EDF 2 reskin with more levels and gear. The weapons look and behave more “realistically” (well as realistically as you can get in a game packing nine-foot high and 15-foot long ants, bigger, hairier tarantulas, wasps with wingspans like a small plane and building-tall pissed off robots), ejecting shells and rockets that drop a bit when fired and yes, the destruction elements are also improved.

Of course, if you’re deathly afraid of bugs or giant robots the size of skyscrapers, well… I can’t help you much there. But hey, the game DOES have local co-op and online play, so you can hide behind someone skilled and maybe take up a support class role, as they do have those nice healing tanks and lovely turrets you can drop and run away from as they do their dirty work…

E3 2013: Earth Defense Force 2025 Updated Gallery/Press Release

Posted on June 15, 2013 by geelw

Sure, you more jaded gamers drooling over every “next-gen” game until your eyeballs fall out of their sockets may be peeking at these EDF 2025 screens and rolling on the carpet laughing, but here’s a laugh back for you. This game will pack in more action, awesome gear and mindlessly addictive fun AND a planet-load of replay value that will make some of those other upcoming games cry. Especially the ones chopped up in bits of pay wall content that you CAN’T return at all because they’re digital-only “you buy it you’re stuck with it and even if you delete it it still shows up that you paid for it at one point ha-ha” content that even in a “trade” situation, only your little brother would touch it but his parental units won’t let him because it’s rated above his age. And besides, they won’t buy him that console anyway, no matter how much he wants it.

So yeah, EDF 2025 will pretty much rock. Thank you, D3Publisher and Sandlot! February is a long time away, though… oh well. Press release below the jump, not edited much as I’m busy…
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E3 2013: South Park: The Stick of Truth Trailer: They Didn’t Kill Kenny!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geelw

Nope, THQ’s dying off in slow flames didn’t stop this game from getting snapped up by the highest bidder when the publisher’s assets were sold off, so veteran developer Obsidian Entertainment and new publisher Ubisoft are making sure fans of the TV show will have nothing to worry about. Granted, if you hate South Park, you’re shaking your fist at the screen and screaming “Whyyyyyyy??!!” or something (and if you’re at work or in a public place, you’re just mouthing it so no one gives you a dirty look), but this one looks like it’ll be fun and as pointedly crude as the show.

I’m not a regular viewer myself, but it does make me laugh and cringe at all the proper moments. One thing, though… where the hell is the Wii U version? Ubisoft? Get on that, please. I’ll most likely grab this for the PS3, but I’d say Nintendo’s console could use some more love…

Class of Heroes 2 Pre-Sales Now Live (Via Amazon ONLY, Unfortunately!)…

Posted on May 7, 2013 by geelw

COH2_small While it’s absolutely great to see Gaijinworks finally get this game out in a GREAT physical/digital pack for a measly $36.99 (with shipping!), the SOLE payment option (Amazon, via credit card ONLY, no Amazon credits, sorry!) means folks like me who don’t use credit cards are going to be holding out longer for the digital-only (boo!) PSN version to ship before we can actually buy this one.

Sure, I get that it’s much easier for the company to set up and deal with than multiple payment types (and those assorted fees they’d need to pay, plus PayPal’s stupid in general manner of doing business), but it also means they’re not going to see those pre-sales sell as fast as they should at the end of the day. So yeah… so much for that convenient Paypal option for those of us stuck with money burning a hole in our accounts or anyone with Amazon credit looking to polish that off.

Griping aside, a poke around the forums reveals that the game seems to be pre-selling well enough that Vic Ireland isn’t sweating the loss of a few cranky jerks like me who want to throw him our money but can’t – yet. Still, I hope to hell that we see some way we can get the game without paying a shit-mint on eBay for. And of course, there are people already “selling” the game there when it hasn’t even been produced yet. Well, a fool and his money are sooner parted than later, right? Anyway, looks as if I’ll have to “settle” for a digital version when the game is released.

Tech-Land Turmoil To-day…

Status

Won-derful. Updates will be slow as molasses today (or Mo Lassus, that really terrible relief pitcher in my fake fantasy baseball league with the 40.7 ERA – hey, he owns the team and likes living in the cellar!) thanks to some rather stupid shenanigans going on with the otherwise reliable virus scanner I use giving me grief while I try and do some needed updating. While I’m trying to figure this out without beating my monitor senseless (gently!) while pretending it’s the slow and not so helpful support I’ve been getting, I figure it’s a good idea to let you fine folks know I’ll probably end up under my post count. Still, there’s a LOT coming and I do need to make sure FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (just call him York!) gets his daily due.

Back in a bit. I have no mouth online, but I must scream at something…

There’s A Rebellion Afoot: Sniper Elite Series On Sale NOW On Steam!

Posted on April 6, 2013 by geelw

So, it seems that you’re not doing anything at the moment (hey, if you’re reading this site, that counts… er, ha ha?) and you KNOW you want to go scope out a bombed-out Berlin in order to take out a bunch of Nazis clinging to their last hope for some kind of magical victory. You also happen to have a decent gaming PC and a Steam account. Therefore, the Allied High Command (or UK developer Rebellion) orders you to click on over to the Steam Store and BUY one, two or ALL of their Sniper Elite series, which just so happens to be on sale for the next… oh, 18 hours or so. This weekend sale (seriously, the clock it TICKING!) gets you access to the original Sniper Elite, Sniper Elite V2 with all its DLC and the mighty gory (well, gorier, as all the games are quite not for the squeamish types) Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, which is still the award winner for “How can you NOT wonder what this one’s about and/or want to play it immediately upon hearing that title?” for this year (so far).