Samurai Shodown: We’ll Take A Slice On Switch, Please

Posted on February 27, 2020 by geelw

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A farewell to arms and a few other body parts…

Well, it’s here and Samurai Shodown has landed on Nintendo’s Switch in fine form. Those who pre-ordered the physical version via online sources or walk in to Best Buy or GameStop to buy the game before March 25, 2020 are getting two nice goodies, a free controller skin (seen below) and a digital copy of Samurai Shodown 2, a port from the Neo Geo Mini.

Digital pre-orders just get the Neo-Geo game because the process of teleportation won’t be figured out until about… (checks year 2100 textbook) the year 2093, but even then it’ll be a highly flawed process and only available through some sort of Amazon Prime Plus Plus Premium service, with a 20% success rate. In English, you might want to go out and get some brief exercise to pick up a copy of the game much sooner. Good cardio if you sort of double-time it there and back, I hear. Well, read this post first, of course – I need the traffic before you go out in it.

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Persona 5 Royal: Want To Be A Phantom Thief? Let Morgana Show You The Ropes

Posted on February 25, 2020 by geelw

With Persona 5 Royal just around the corner (well, March 31, 2020 is kind of creeping up fast), here’s a looks at the game with a little help from Morgana with an assist from Kasumi as they point out a few cool additions to the game. I’d say “Thanks Atlus!” for this video, but it seems they don’t know it’s missing yet. Well, I guess this post will double as a PSA, then. Hey Atlus? You need to hire more security, I think.

Get One!

Get Both!!

Still, I bet the game sells like hotcakes anyway, even with Morgana’s paw prints on a few copies. Wait. Now THERE’S an idea for an even more limited edition… Hmmm.

Say, Morgnnnnnaaaaa? – are you busy right now? I have an idea, cat.

-GW

OVERPASS: Console Release Bumped To March, PC Still Landing Feb. 27

Posted on February 23, 2020 by geelw

According to publisher Nacon North America, all three console versions of Zordix Racing’s hardcore off-road simulation driving experience OVERPASS have been moved to March 17th, 2020, but PC fans using the Epic Store get their ride sooner on February 27, 2020. This is actually good news for Nintendo Switch owners, as it’s now launching at the same time as Xbox One and PS4 versions and in reality, some PC games are released before their console counterpoints anyway, so the delay here isn’t that unreasonable in my book.

Go ahead, play the theme from Rocky…

Here’s a short video of Zordix Racing’s Head of Production. Joakim Eriksson taking the game for a little spin to wrap things up (it’s educational!):

Yep, the good times are going to roll soon – I can’t wait.

-GW

Deliver Us The Moon: Because It’s There, Right?

Posted on February 19, 2020 by geelw

That’s going to be a hefty Amazon bill, but shipping might be free, at least if you use Prime.

I’ve yet to play KeokeN Interactive’s fantastic-looking Deliver Us The Moon, but it’s a title I’ve been following since about a year back when I stumbled upon it as a PC game. Now coming to consoles in April (PS4 and Xbox One) and Summer 2020 on Switch courtesy of publisher Wired Productions, this epic adventure game looks like the it’s right up my alley.

Well it’s also the closest I’ll get to leaving the planet anytime soon and going to the Moon, but one would guess at this point that any space travel is going to fall outside of the very, very wealthy or those interested in mostly scientific pursuits, as space isn’t for totally clueless people because of too many variables (such as “Hey! Let’s play in the airlock!”) preventing them from a successful trip there and back.

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Survey Says (Ding!): Gothic Remake Is a Go, Won’t Be Ready in 2020

Posted on February 19, 2020 by geelw

The people’s choice, indeed.

Well, 43,111 people participated in a little extensive survey THQ was taking and the verdict is in: We’re getting a Gothic remake at some point, just not this year. PC and next-gen consoles are the targets here, so it seems at least the game will have a very similar visual fidelity across anything it’s eventually released on.

If you have Google Drive, you can see and download the results of the survey here in PDF form (it’s a whopping 21 pages):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uNuvngHrTZ3AVpNEdoXS-E8rKlwVdhlX/view

Here’s the press release as well, below the jump.

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Persona 5 Royal/Persona 5 Scramble: Catching Up With a Beast Is Tough

Posted on February 14, 2020 by geelw

The gang’s all here, and then some…

I need more time!

At my ancient age, a new Persona game is something I look forward to with both a sense of awe and dread. Awe because the very expansive Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei titles and their assorted spin-offs on a few platforms are one of the best and has been for decades, and dread because well, there’s so much to do in each game that it’s easy to lose track of time when playing them. The series is well known for some intensively lengthy games even back on the Famicom and Super Famicom systems up to today on the PS4, especially if you’re playing more than one game for just journalistic purposes. Heck, it took me almost three months to play Persona 4 way back on the PS2 and I’m here to report that I’ve been taking my time with the brilliant Persona 5 because of so many other games in my backlog to cover.

Well, that and the game is pretty and spectacularly dense in terms of depth and story and well, I bought it somewhat late (I think it was early last year when I made the plunge for a retail PS4 version). Even if I were to concentrate solely on the game, that’s about 60 or so hours without any shortcuts and that’s probably the basic story elements and a bit of leveling up for good measure.

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Let’s Go Gothic For A Bit, Shall We?

Posted on February 11, 2020 by geelw

Hmmmm. But I give it a thumbs up, with reservations…

I still have my boxed copies of Gothic and Gothic II here and got the non-Piranha Bytes developed Gothic 3 on a disc with two other games, so this news of a playable teaser got me thrilled the series is in a comeback mode of sorts. THQ released a demo of what their team in Barcelona is working on a few months ago and is very wisely asking for user feedback and whether they should continue with the project. In a nutshell, it’s a big YES from me despite some huge problems from the start, and yes, I have some notes to offer as a fan. Constructive criticism time:

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Rustler: Get Medieval in This Hilarious GTA-Inspired Game

Posted on February 1, 2020 by geelw

Yep. This needs to be played for this reference alone.

First of all, when I went to install the Rustler Alpha demo on Steam, I was greeted with Grand Theft Horse as a title on the game installer, which was magnificent. Indie developer Justus Games knows which side of the bread their butter in on. Second of all, for an alpha, the game is coming together pretty well. It’s just up on Kickstarter now and is there waiting for you to pledge or the drunken sot with the sword in the banner above may come for you. He’ll be right up your alley if you’re not right up his, as it were. That alley will be dark ad have a few rodents in it, most likely.

Gameplay is much the original Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2 isometric top down stuff but rendered in a nicer game engine with some lusher environments. As with the aforementioned games, there’s humor in all the mayhem you cause and yes, the old ultra-violence means it’s not a child’s game for sure. But there’s that nifty cathartic thing going on here that just works because you get immediate results from your attempts at criminal behavior (or, assorted guards and villagers don’t just stand by while you crime away), so expect to fight as you run run or ride a swiped horse away from trouble, or cause more pain for as long as you can. It’s your choice, but the lead’s character’s seemingly perpetually drunken state can cause him to fall off a horse or otherwise be dismounted.

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Here Be Dragons: Insanely Good (So Far)

Posted on January 31, 2020 by geelw

Too good to be true, so it must be false!

How does one properly describe a game where you play as a few somewhat (okay, VERY) off-kilter pirates in a turn-based strategy game that features a dice-spitting cherub, sea monsters of a few types, gameplay on a “living map” and a reworking of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World? Yeah, you can’t, but you sort of just have to watch this trailer first to see why:

Red Zero Games? Congratulations are in order as you win the prize. What prize it is will be determined at a later date, but you win something for this pure madness in my book (Memo: give Red Zero Games a prize but not the stale popcorn from last week, that’s not a prize unless they’re dead parrots). I’m actually still playing Here Be Dragons (my laptop has been in haywire mode this week), but so far, this game has had me laughing with it constantly because it’s got easy to pick up, tricky to master gameplay, other than a few glaring typos is extremely well written, and its humor is right up my alley.

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Overpass Hands-On: A Scoop Of (Extremely) Rocky Road, Please

Posted on January 30, 2020 by geelw

(sings): “Bumpy roads, take me home…”

Bigben Games wants to be your racing simulation racing studio of choice (WRC 8 was a pretty excellent sim on PS4 and my favorite console racer last year), and its upcoming off-road title developed by Zordix Racing in Sweden, Overpass (set for release on March 12, 2020 and March 17 for Switch) is certainly shaping up to be a really solid game experience. I got an hour or so of playtime with the PC version and can report that it’s going to fascinate some and frustrate others, but this is actually a really good thing. If you’re more used to arcade-style racers where all you do is floor the accelerator and powerslide to the fastest victory you can manage, well, here comes a game that’s a test of skill where learning the literal ups and downs of the tracks becomes part of the game and speed needs careful mastering and consideration.

Does anyone remember Spintires? If so, imagine that with faster off-road racers in mind and the needs to both master a track’s hazards and nail in a quick time despite those hazards. Overpass does this somewhat magnificently, with analog triggers and a thrilling use of controller feedback where you’ll feel the road beneath your ride of choice and need to navigate through the environment unless you want more free badly done rolls than you can find at an Olive Garden.

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