Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom Coming In November from Wayforward & Little Orbit

Posted on May 8, 2014 by geelw

“What Time Is It?!”

Well, it’s NOT quite THAT time yet, kids. Anyway, Publisher Little Orbit’s partnership with Cartoon Network looks to pay off this November when the latest Adventure Time game is released for PC via Steam, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

So far, all we have is this somewhat intentionally generic (and intentionally HUGE! – Go on, click it and see for yourself. YAAAA!, Right?) artwork of heroes Finn and Jake to ogle (although, according to the Ice King and a few other characters from the show, there’s some desperation in you if you consider either of these two ogle worthy). However, according to the press release:

The game will introduce a classic top-down action adventure experience and puzzle-solving element to the franchise, reminiscent of early high fantasy console games… In Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, players take on the personas of both Finn and Jake as they navigate through the eponymous kingdom – a mysterious unexplored region in the Land of Ooo. They will discover hidden secrets by exploring all corners of a new kingdom created exclusively for the game and encounter never-seen-before characters and creatures.

Sounds like a plan, man. Put this one in the pan, Stan! Yeah, there’s no Wii U version, but I guess you could say “what else is new?” when it comes to support drifting away from that console (which is too bad, but hey – you gotta sell where your game will sell these days!). More on this once we get some screens and trailers out of Wayforward and/or Little Orbit. I wanted to squeeze them like a sack of grapes, but they really don’t have much to show it seems. I guess e3 will be the big reveal…

Bound By Flame Launch Trailer: There’ll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town This Friday…

Posted on May 6, 2014 by geelw

Spiders’ next game is (almost) here and I’m actually quite eager to give it a play through, as they’re a developer that’s done a number of great looking games with interesting play mechanics that while not flawless, showed a ton of promise with each project. Bound By Flame looks like a labor of love and the next step for the developer, as it’s their first “next-gen” game for the PlayStation 4 as well as being on PS3 and Xbox 360. Of course, PC gamers will say they’re getting the “best” version (and they’d be right in terms of visuals), but for me, at the end of the day, it’s gameplay that makes the game, not running the game with all the settings maxed and showing off what that graphics card you have can do. The visuals look nice on anything I’ve seen this on, the music (by Olivier Derivière) and voice acting are excellent and the combat looks like an interesting mix of a few games. Of course, videos are one thing, but there’s nothing like some controller time to see how it’s all come together. Well, May 9th is the day, so I guess I’ll see what’s up with this one then…

Alien Isolation “Lo-Fi Sci-Fi” Trailer: The Future? Same Problems As The Past (You Need Four Hands For Everything!)…

Posted on May 5, 2014 by geelw

Eeek. I actually MISSED posting the Alien Isolation update from April. Oops. Hey, it happens with all these games coming out, kids. Anyway, how fitting that this video is about the low-tech equipment used in the game and the lower tech methods developer The Creative Assembly used to get parts of the game looking quite analog. I love this behind the scenes stuff and you have to appreciate that old techniques work as well as (or even better in this case) than just doing everything on a computer to FAKE video footage that looks garbled and yep, “lo-fi”. October 7, 2014, folks. Carve out some time for this one – it’s turning out really special…

Call Of Duty: Advanced War Blowout: Activision Breaks Out The Sledgehammer…

Posted on May 3, 2014 by geelw

Yes, the Call of Duty franchise is a multi-billion dollar winner for Activision’s coffers each year, but it’s also one of the more automatically reviled game series to some folks who think it’s more of the same each year. Activision seems to know this and has for a few years, so it’s shaking things up in a big way with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. While the game is also set to hit PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 4, 2014, it’s the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions that will be getting the most scrutiny. A three-year development cycle means the team at Sledgehammer is most likely looking to change up elements of the more than familiar gameplay and the added star power of Kevin Spacey in a central role (nope, you don’t PLAY as him, though). Videos ahoy, above and below with three teasy screens, all in-engine of course:

While I LOVE Vice as a news outlet, their getting caught up in this game here is a bit dicey on a few fronts. Oh well, I guess this whole concept of future war HAD to be addressed, but Blackwater getting a nod here? Yeesh. Anyway, I guess those guys still have their loyal supporters. Anyway, more actual game-related teasy-pleasy for you:

And YES, in case you’re interested, the pre-order madness has officially begun. All you need to do is click one of those links above with your wallet out and *ding!*, you add money to Activision coffers, get yourself a copy of the gae on launch day AND boost up the presale figures to potentially Guinness World Book of Records stats if you’re one of those folks that’s REALLY thrilled about a new CoD game and what that entails and wish to be part of that potential record.

As for me? I just want to see what the campaign looks and plays like, as I avoid multiplayer entirely in these types of military shooters. If the story is engaging and thrilling, I’ll even sink to playing this on my old fat PS3 which is still going quite strong after years of service. Anyway, if looks could kill, the next-gen visuals here would leave plenty of folks deceased in front of their monitors, shrinking the user base down by a significant amount (much to Activision’s displeasure). Thankfully, gorgeous screenshots have never (as far as I know) caused serious injury (or even minor ones), so I think Activision has found a great balance here that will make some commit to that new-gen console if they haven’t already made the move.

Back with more on this one soon…

Sniper Elite III: Killing Vehicles Is A Bigger Part Of The Game As Well, Folks…

Posted on May 2, 2014 by geelw

While you could indeed shoot gas tanks and blow up cars and trucks in Sniper Elite V2, that X-Ray camera effect wasn’t used and while optional to some missions, you didn’t have to take out some rides if you didn’t want to. Granted, this made the game much harder if you had more Nazis to mow down, but some players relished that more unrealistic challenge. Anyway, as you can see above, no engine block or gas tank is safe in this installment. Rebellion’s Sniper Elite III, coming on from 505 Games in July, is bringing the pain with more not for the kiddies at all WWII action in an even bigger (and some would say *ouch!* ballsier) manner than before to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, XBOX One and most likely PC down the road a piece. War is Hell, indeed…

Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes: “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”, Indeed…

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Well, it HAD to happen, but I’m not exactly happy it has. Anyway, I bet Activision is royally ticked off because this would have been excellent as a T-rated Marvel Ultimate Alliance sequel or reboot with a more serious story and more “realistic” action figures that they could have also done as a more family-friendly jaunt in the Skylanders vein. Granted, dividing the universe up like that may have been a bad idea because one BIG game that will sell well is better at the end of the day that two that use wallet-draining collectibles as a core element, but who knows? I could see the older collectors sticking to the heroes they like and spending money and those with kids (and more money) springing for both sets, but that’s my brain over-thinking things (again).

Anyway, the license is now Disney’s to play with for ages (forever, it seems), so this is what’s coming, and soon, at that. Hmmm… Iron Man, Thor and The Black Widow in that starter pack? Okay, but I bet Cap will sell out in America and yes, like you, I thought Spider-Man (who’ll fly off store shelves as well) wasn’t going to be here thanks to Sony Pictures currently owning the rights to the character. Yes, Disney Infinity 2.0 and these figures will indeed sell out everywhere this holiday season, but I’d love to see something mature pop up out of the Marvel Universe again before it goes all cookies and milk and yearly “spend your holiday money on THIS!” on us grumpy old timers. That, and how do you make Deadpool cute? Or the Man-Thing? Or some of the other oddball characters you probably won’t see here thanks to some hefty editing out of anything deemed too much by Disney? Eh, we’ll see… I’ve been proven wrong many times in the past.

Child of Light Out Is Out Today (So You’re NOT Reading This Post, Right?)

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Nope, I wasn’t lucky enough to grab a Child of Light review code from whomever handles this stuff over at Ubisoft, but I don’t mind paying the $15 to play this game at all. My platform of choice will be the Wii U, as it’s a system that needs more love and it’s great that Ubisoft decided to bring this game to the console, although it’s no surprise given their support for it since its launch.

As you can see, reviews are indeed in from those who DID get codes early and yes, the game comes highly recommended. I’ll probably get to playing this early next week, as I’m working on a few things and my poor backlog is indeed killing me these days. I guess I can train a monkey or goat to play games and write about them, but that would cut into my budget something fierce (and the food? Yikes, I’d go broke with a pet here in NYC)…

Bound By Flame Updates: Combat And Music Looking And Sounding Quite Good…

Posted on April 26, 2014 by geelw

So, Bound By Flame is looking to be your next epic action RPG experience and as seen in that work in progress video above, it’s coming along nicely, especially if you like a more arcade-like style of gameplay. This isn’t even trying to be “realistic” in the way some folks want, but to me, that’s the beauty of developers all doing different things. If every game played EXACTLY the same, I’d be one bored stiff gamer looking fora new hobby, that’s for sure.

As for the music, composer Olivier Derivière (who did the fantastic score for Remember Me) has whipped up a beautiful, varied score that features a chorus and some wonderful “vocal textures” as you’ll hear above. Developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive, Bound By Flame hits stores for consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) and lands on PC via Steam on May 9, 2014. Back with more if there’s more coming before it ships – I hope so, as this one’s looking very interesting indeed…

The Only Problem With Dark Souls II On PC Is The Usual One For Any Hard Game…

Posted on April 25, 2014 by geelw

I’m sure FromSoftware knows this already, but with Dark Souls and now Dark Souls II, they’ve gone and made a game that’s too hard for those “gamers” who can’t deal with the level of challenge, so yes indeed, hackers and cheaters will be rampant. Granted, once you buy a game you’re more or less free to do with it what you desire, but what’s the point in playing a game that’s supposed to be difficult if you hack up the ability to one-shot anything that comes at you, maybe survive a fall that’s SUPPOSED to kill you (to teach you a lesson in paying attention to the environment) and so forth and so on? I don’t mind messing with a game after I’ve completed it a few times (as I’ve played Diablo II offline solo with a bunch of crazy mods that made my characters invincible killing machines or I’ve changed up the gameplay in that gem to make it much more challenging). But I just don’t get the automatic urge to cheat one’s way through a game and claim “victory” when no actual hard work was done outside of dinking around with the game code to make it work in a way it wasn’t intended to.

Ah well, it’s not my problem, so I’ll just let it rest. Still, I’d love to see a developer cook up a game that can’t easily be cracked apart or at the very least, identifies cheaters with a nice big flashing neon sign so people who want to play legit can do so in peace. Of course, cheating is rampant in many console games as well, but in some cases, those people can be easier to avoid if one decides to stay the heck offline or just play with people you know where applicable…

Telltale’s The Walking Dead Is Nearly Everywhere You Look. Go Get Caught Up In This One, I Say…

Posted on April 25, 2014 by geelw

Between the Complete First season being released on Google Play and Season Two dropping onto the Vita, Telltale Games’ stellar The Walking Dead series is taking over just about everything that can play this multiple award winning series and letting an even wider audience experience the horror. Telltale’s games are more accessible than your typical action-heavy PC or console games thanks to a simpler to use interface, story-focused dialog trees that require reasonably fast (but not insane) timing and choices that truly affect the outcome of each chapter. This also makes TWD highly replayable because of how your decisions stack up as the chapters flow onward.