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)…

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!

Raven’s Cry Gameplay Trailer: More Pirates Setting Sail For Retail!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by geelw

Sooooo… it looks as if pirates are the new zombies this year, huh? Between this game, Risen 2, the new One Piece game and a few other pirates appearing in games lately, it’s looking like “Yo, Ho, Ho” and “Arrrrrr” will be popping up on review sites as well as too many lame pirate jokes that even I won’t be able to stand with my pun-laded ways. That aside, Raven’s Cry does look quite good so far. Octane Games and publisher TopWare just may have a nice niche RPG hit on their hands that won’t get the hook (arrrr!) when the finally game hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 at some point.

Random Art: “Ask Mister Owl…”

Posted on April 25, 2012 by geelw

Sometimes, inspiration comes from the weirdest places. I was on the subway a few weeks back and there was some overly inquisitive kid bugging the crap out of his parents with questions about all sorts of things probably best discussed at home or at least not in a train car packed with people. Anyway, after about the sixth question, the kid’s mom is trying to hand off the next question to the father, but he just does a facepalm and mutters “Ask Mister Owl” under his breath. Of course, the kid didn’t get the joke at all (look it up if you’re younger than oh, 40 and don’t know your TV commercials or candy history) and yes, asked “Who’s Mister Owl?” Which pretty much cracked anyone sitting nearby (including me) up.

The idea for the MS Paint art above came to me just the other day based on that subway trip, so now you know where I get most of my inspiration. Well sometimes…

Gallery: Wii Library (A Work Back In Progress!)

Posted on April 25, 2012 by geelw

I’ve actually owned and played a LOT more than I’ve kept in this photo, but I’m in the process of adding a few more games through trades and tracking down some dirt cheap titles in a few clearance bins. I actually have a few more games on the way thanks to a small trade I made recently, but I wanted to post this picture up now. I guess, I’ll update a few months from now when I have more interesting games to show.

That said, sometimes, it makes me want to (gently) sling an untethered Wii Remote at the heads of those who say the system ONLY has “kiddie” or family games or worse, slam the console without having played a single game on it because they just don’t see how motion control would work on a favorite genre. While, yes, there are a lot of not so hot games on the system, you can absolutely say that about any console from any generation. As far as the Wii (or any other system) goes, when you have a developer who gets what can be done, it works – when you have one that doesn’t quite get it right, it doesn’t. Of course, even a “bad” game can be enjoyable if you’re in the right frame of mind…

Prototype 2 Covent Garden Live Ad: Anarchy In The UK. Or Something Like That.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by geelw

OK, this made me crack up quite a bit, as I can see some unsuspecting non-gamers strolling through Covent Garden, coming across this bizarre live advertisement for Radical Entertainment’s sequel and wondering what the hell is going on. Well, it’s certainly an attention grabber, that’s for sure. The game should be rolling into stores all over the place at some point today, but here in the US, we’ll just have to settle for bigger-budgeted live action and CG TV commercials and no faux real-life rumbles in a big case in a public place. Here in NYC, this would just be performance art, anyway…