Oops. I Forgot Some Adventure Time 3DS Screens Last Month…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

OK, this is a sort of filler post, but I did forget to add these to that Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! screenshots for the Nintendo 3DS in that preview I wrote up not too long ago. I’m still flipping a coin about whether to buy a new 2DS or a bigger and more expensive 3DS XL to play this on.

On one hand, cheap is always good and that 2DS and its kid-friendly design (it’s targeted to 5 and 6 year olds!) will make me the envy of the playground parent set (er, not that I hang out at playgrounds or with parents, mind you). On the other hand, that more expensive XL is MUCH better for my eyesight thanks to the nice and big screen. Decisions, decisions… well, it’s not exactly earth-shaking in importance at all, so worry not your pretty little heads about me this time. I think I’ll work it out just fine…

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! Hands-On: Knowing Is Half the Battle (But You Still Need To Fight!)

Posted on September 23, 2013 by geelw

FACT: D3Publisher of America’s new publicist, Edith Yang is a total hoot, sitting there cheerily playing and promoting Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! clearly knowing it’s got “Sleeper Hit” stamped on it in big red invisible neon ink letters. I have special glasses, so I can see that on the big banner off to one side with the game logo on it. I say nothing about these glasses as I’m not wearing any and don’t want to sound completely insane by stating the opposite. But I digress…

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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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INTERVIEW: Half of Twenty Questions With Lost Planet 3’s William Watterson

Posted on August 22, 2013 by geelw

With Capcom and Spark Unlimited’s PS3, Xbox 360 and PC sci-fi action game Lost Planet 3 finally headed into stores August 27 here in the US (August 30 in Europe and Australia), I had the great opportunity to shoot a few questions over to WIlliam “Bill” Watterson, voice and motion capture actor for lead character Jim Payton (who by the way isn’t related to THAT Bill Watterson, which is why he’s called William here). You can probably call him Bill if you run into him in person (just don’t ask him to draw you a picture of Calvin or Hobbes).

Anyway, below the jump he discusses voice acting (with a few tips for you thespians out there), music, LP3’s western influences, booze and how to get social with the man himself in a few places online…

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Young Justice Legacy Hands-On Update: Still Kicking (and Punching) For A November Launch

Posted on August 16, 2013 by geelw

First, the “bad” news (which isn’t bad at all when you read the good news): Young Justice Legacy is coming out in November for multiple platforms, not September as noted a few updates back. The “good” news (which is actually great news): the delay (which is thanks to the started later Nintendo versions) will give developer Freedom Force more time to polish this already fun action “RPG-light”. The gameplay is heavy on the easy to tap out combo attacks and special moves, while the character customization should appeal to gamers who like to beef of their heroes to be better, faster and stronger versions of their already powerful selves.

Some additional hands-on time this week when Little Orbit dropped into NYC revealed that the game is really shaping up to be a solid and pretty decent game experience that’s not going to reinvent any wheels, but should please fans of the canceled show in terms of where the story fits into the canon and the dozen playable characters from the show. You’re getting an action-heavy pick up and play game along the lines of Justice League Heroes or Marvel Ultimate Alliance with more stylized visuals, a nice set of locales from and inspired by the show, a voice cast full of folks from the show and some classic DC villains to go up against solo or with up to two other friends offline or online.

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Hands-On With Pac-Man Championship DX: Dot’s Entertainment (And How!)

Posted on August 12, 2013 by geelw

As an old fogey, I can’t recall a year not going by since 1980 without playing a Pac-Man game. Granted, I’m sure a lot of other people can say that, but it’s pretty incredible that the dot-munching, ghost avoiding/chasing character has held up for over 30 years. Of course, next to the arcade classic, the best ways to play a good game of Pac-Man these days is by hopping online and getting in some quality time with the excellently addictive Pac-Man Championship Edition on the Xbox 360, which is finally getting a content upgrade soon in the form of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. The original game was an Xbox 360 exclusive, while DX made its Windows 8 debut earlier this year. Pac-fans old and new will LOVE this one for its spin on the classic game, the funky HD neon visuals and the lighting fast pace of the game that’s bound to keep you playing ’til the wee hours…

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Random Indie Game of the Week: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (XBLA)

Posted on August 8, 2013 by geelw

Since I’m sitting here with a couple of RROD’d Xbox 360’s (shakes fist at busted consoles) and no willingness to throw more money away at Microsoft to fix them or buy a replacement (shakes fist in the direction of Redmond HQ for producing such faulty junk of a console), I’ll need to wait for this to pop up on PSN or Steam. On the other hand, I think a friend is picking this up over the weekend, so I’ll probably boogie on over to his place and play this after he’s done with it. Given that Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is designed to be played in a single sitting, I don’t mind at all and I can get a perspective from someone else about the story’s impact and how he liked the unique control scheme. As noted in my earlier hands-on preview, this is one of those special games that’s worth a buy despite the relatively short length because you get to see a great developer stretch its wings with a fine new IP from a film director trying his hand at game development (and succeeding quite well). Back with a review probably around Monday.

Random Game of the Month (JRPG Edition): Tales of Xillia

Posted on August 6, 2013 by geelw

It’s finally here and it’s going to be a game genre fans should buy for a few key reasons from the mixed art styles working amazingly well, the stupidly deep amount of stuff to do in this installment (it’s the biggest Tales game to date), the “open world” feel to the gameplay experience plus all the usual stuff that has fans of this series sometimes buying specific consoles to play a single game in the long-running franchise. Tales of Xillia is all that and more, folks.

I’m betting at some point over the next day or three Mr. Baba and the dev team will probably be sitting at home (well, at their separate homes, as I’d hate to know what happens with such a large bunch of people living together biting their nails at the same time each Tales game is released) and wondering right about now how many fans in the US and other territories this is coming out in will be snapping up this one in the Standard, Limited or Collectors Editions. I need to get this one myself, as my backlog is SO huge this year that it’s worth doing a flowchart on (and I did – it’s terrifying). Anyway, if you’re an fan of anime/mamga-styled Japanese RPGs, yeah, you need to buy this game.

Dark Souls II Hands On: Home Again For the Hardcore…

Posted on August 1, 2013 by geelw

As I noted earlier, if there was any doubt that From Software was making Dark Souls II “easier”, all one had to do was play the demo build that’s making the rounds (it was a huge hit at this year’s E3 as well as the more recent San Diego Comic-Con) to be shown the error of misreading that quote from one of the game’s directors a few months back. The game isn’t “easy” at all, but more accessible in terms of getting you into the action quicker, getting rid of backtracking yet upping the scale of the maps to an impressive degree. As to the demo, it’s brutal but beatable and although I didn’t make it to the gigantic knight boss, I did stick around for a bit to watch a few fellow editor types step up to the plate, swing and miss wildly, their chosen characters dying in a few not so pretty ways…

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Rollers of the Realm Pre-Beta Hands-On: Pinball Wizards Whip Up an Instant Classic

Posted on July 7, 2013 by geelw

I can probably tell you the long and boring story of my first pinball machine memories (1972,Gottlieb’s Batter Up, first version, but I also vaguely recall playing Central Park a few years earlier at Coney Island while standing on a rickety wooden crate), but then you’d be fast asleep and drooling in front of your computer instead of up-voting Phantom Compass’ (and friends!) innovative Rollers of the Realm on Steam Greenlight.

The team is working on what’s turning out to be a superb genre-blending mix of old and new ideas that features some excellent pinball action, decent writing and so far, what’s looking to be the makings of an instant hit that absolutely deserves to be on as many platforms as possible. I signed up to get access to a playable version as soon as I heard this was in development, that pre-beta access popped up in my inbox on Friday and after playing the first chapter a few times, I’m definitely recommending anyone even remotely interested in pinball, RPGs and puzzle games to take a nice long look at this one…

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