Aha! Activision WAS being pretty stealthy this year at Toy Fair. Nothing to show ON the floor and I didn’t ask for an appointment at the booth this year (nor did I get an invite), so I figured they were taking the year off to retool for next-gen fun. Nope. Here’s this year’s blast of “We’re going to get your money and a LOT of it”: Skylanders Trap Team, rolling out in October for consoles (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS) , but of course, pre-orders kick off earlier (April 23, 2014 here in North America). Press release below the jump, gallery coming tomorrow, as I’m running late today and need to zip back home… Continue reading →
*Sigh* Ah, the internet… home to fools with busted soapboxes and lousy opinions, all in the name of… something. Anyway, YES, the Wii U version of Child of Light is going to look exactly the same as the other versions, yeesh. That UbiArt Framework and the lovely hand-drawn art in the game will run on any modern console as well as anything next-gen and any decent PC. But try telling that to the trolls out there and all you get is under-bridge bile drippings from people who haven’t touched Nintendo’s console and don’t intend to.
Frankly speaking, screw those dolts, I say. As a multi-system owner and longtime gamer, I’m still trying to decide which system to get this one for, but I’ll play and review it on the Wii U if I have to just to have another game for that system that needs to get MORE of them this year. Anyway, April 30th is the big day and hopefully, this version won’t get slapped with a last-minute delay or anything else that will get the skeptics babbling from their stinky toll-haunts under every local bridge. I don’t normally wast my space on people like this, but after overhearing some inane anti-Wii U drivel today, I had to put my foot down before I put it up someone’s read end.
That and the last living thing I actually kicked was a REALLY slow pigeon a bunch of years ago. Hey, I was in a hurry, it was in front of me trundling along like an over-sized inchworm with wings and it wasn’t a “kick” at all… it was more of a foot-lift and bird shift to my right as I zipped past.
Equally as important as the plot and lovely visuals are the music and sound effects in Ubisoft’s upcoming soon to be classic Child of Light, and as you can see above, all those pieces are indeed falling exactly where they need to. It’s clear that this project will be one for the ages as well as a great first game made with UbiArt Framework (which needs to get into the hands of a few other developers just so we can see how different art styles hold up to the new tech). April 30th is when this one comes out for PC and consoles, so keep an eye peeled, I say…
While I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork up close and personal, it was too many years ago here in NYC when he was promoting HERO and I even got to chat briefly with him about his art on the Front Mission games thanks to a friend who translated my questions and compliments. Anyway, here he is doing what he does best for Ubisoft’s upcoming Child of Light and making me wish I could actually afford to own one of his paintings one of these days. It’s too bad this video isn’t longer, but oh well – sometimes you have to take the art you can get however you can get it, right? Child of Light will be available April 30 for assorted platforms and yes, you need to buy it.
While a few previews I’ve perused say it’s more or less the same old Mario Kart in terms of gameplay, on the visual front at least, Nintendo has a killer game here. Now, I’m not a big fan of this series because I prefer more realistic looking racers and have been karted out for years thanks to too many sessions with older entries in this franchise. But it’s hard to ignore those shiny (finally) CG-quality visuals doing their thing (and how!). Granted, the Wii U needs more than one game to push its sales numbers up and this one will indeed sell to fans of the games and maybe even move a few folks to finally commit to purchasing the console. On the other hand, at the rate new first-party games are dropping on the console, Nintendo will need to hope this one blows the doors off anything else released in May just so sales are steady or at least massive within the first month. As always, we shall see, but I predict yet another “evergreen” for the company that sells for as long as they continue to make games for the console.
Well, what else is new, right? As soon as I saw screen shots of Ubisoft’s upcoming RPG Child of Light, then video of it in action, I had to immediately add it to the top of my “PLAY IT OR ELSE!” pile and add both a background and banner using the gorgeous art to the site. It’s coming out April 30, 2014 for PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and Wii U, so if you’re currently owning one of these systems or have a PC capable of running this game, you pretty much have zero excuse not to snap this up. That new UbiArt Framework tech makes the game look like a storybook come to life and I’d love to see it get used as a game making tool by an even wider range of artists as the years go by. Of course, as this is a digital only release, I’m hoping it’s not gone and forgotten by gamers out there who still prefer packaged titles for a few key reasons. But as with anything rolling out these days in this economy, we’ll see what happens…
Ubisoft is making game making an even more “magical” process these days thanks to its UbiArt Framework tech that allows for artists to see their work come to brilliant life while remaining unchanged from how it was created. The upcoming multiplatform role-playing game, Child of Light (April 30, 2014) presents the gorgeous storybook world of Lemuria and allows players to dive in and explore it using some tried and true gameplay along with some nice new features sure to bring on the raves from an audience hungry for new original properties and not more of the same old same old.
Given that the game is set ti launch on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U (so far!), it looks as if anyone with a home console or decent enough gaming setup will be seeing what the fuss is all about soon enough. Yeah, I know you Mac and Linux users are all cranky right about now, but I guess there will be a version of this for you folks at some point down the road. In the meantime, I guess you could always make friends with someone who has one of the systems the CAN play on when it launches next month…
I think I’m the only person I know who wasn’t hesitant about buying a Wii U because I knew Bayonetta 2 was an exclusive. PlatinumGames has gone through hell thanks to fans begging, pleading and even threatening them to get this on other systems, but the team has stuck to their guns and as Nintendo is publishing this one, the chances of this popping up elsewhere are ZERO. Unless Platinum decides to recode this at some point, which I’d say isn’t going to happen. I have to give them all the respect in the world for sticking to their guns on this and I also say if you own a Wii U, you need to support these hard-working guys by buying this game as soon as it drops for full price and not waiting a few months or longer for a price drop when no one notices you picking up the game at a discount. That’s NOT support, folks (despite it being the big thing to do with PC games in those charity bundles). It may seem backwards, but the big three still rely on day/week one buyers to get games such as this selling well enough to justify their development costs AND keep people employed at the end of the day…
Hmm, judging by the spike heel now sticking out of my ear (ouch), I think Bayonetta wants me to let her go so she can get back to that game she’s starring in soon. Well, I shall do just that (and remember not to squeeze her so much while typing). Ouch.
YUM! I said I’d eat a crow pie if I was wrong about The Lego Movie not sucking and yep, I’m a man of my word, although I had to substitute some of my not yet world famous chicken for “crow” and a few slices of whole grain bread for “pie”. Anyway, it’s good to see this one netting nice notices so now I need to see it at some point and make sure all those critics weren’t sucking in the happy gas WB pumped into those free screenings I didn’t get an invite to (boo!). Since I’ve been ignoring the film for the most part, I’m going in blind other than what I’ve seen on those TV spots popping up all over the place every few seconds. I still think it’ll be well over the heads of anyone over ten years old who won’t get all the references and in-jokes, but that’s probably me underestimating the kids of the hipsters and boomers taking them to see this.
And wait, wha-whaaaat?There’s a video game based on the film as well? I did predict this last year or earlier, but I’m actually surprised that there was one made because that’s just TOO meta at the end of the day. Anyway, you KNOW a movie is going to be worth seeing when Fox News has a shit fit about it for all the wrong reasons. They seem to believe that a movie made to get people to run out and spend money to see it (and the tie in toys AND the game that’s made for the same purpose) is somehow teaching kids to be “anti-capitalist” (wha-whaaaat?)… despite the OBVIOUS hundreds of millions this will rake in for a few big corporations. As the kids say, DERP.
Yeah, they’re quite stupid over there and I wish they’d stop it. But it’s interesting watching them hang themselves by their own rope every day they keep the blood pressure of their viewership headed through the roof over trifling nonsense. Perhaps they all need to chill for a bit and actually go see some of the stuff they bitch and moan about as bad for Amurrrrica? That would be my prescription…
Nope, I haven’t yet picked up The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, but it gets an automatic kick onto my non-list for a few reasons. One: the GameCube original was pretty darn awesome and that wonderful art style made an impression on me as soon as I saw screenshots and others were griping that Nintendo had “lost its mind” by making Link and company look like something out of an old cartoon. As a friend ran out and snapped up a Wii U recently just for this game (he got that fine bundle package with the fancy Zelda-themed GamePad art), I got to see a few hours of the game running (and even played a a little) and can vouch for the buffed up HD visuals as being better than the original game… mostly.
There’s an odd muting of the palette in a few areas and while the use of depth of field is super cool, it tended to make some areas force my eyes to automatically squint until I got used to the effect (but that’s probably just me). Otherwise, the game is just as fun, funny and almost as tricky as ever. From what I’ve heard, Nintendo hasn’t adding any new areas, but tweaked the gameplay, adding some easier and harder means of playing the game for new and old players alike. The annoying Tingle portions are apparently less so, but if the game is also a straight up enhanced port, I’m gathering that long and pesky quest that makes up a chunk of the latter portion of the game is still intact. Oh well, but the good thing about a LoZ game is once you’re past a certain point, you’re committed to completing the adventure, so that’s not much of a big deal.
I’ll most likely go with the physical version over the eShop download just because I really, REALLY want that case and manual. My GameCube Wind Waker is signed by Mr. Miyamoto and I’d love to get the Wii U game signed as well. Hey, I may not have the biggest collection on the planet or be the super-fan Nintendo wants me to be, but I do know having the chance to meet one man I respect for what he’s done for the medium is one other thing worth holding out for…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 