Lost Planet 3 Pirate Reveal Trailer: I Thought Cold Made Criminals Stay Home!

Posted on March 6, 2013 by geelw

June 25, 2013 is the big day for those Lost Planet 3 fans keeping a good eye on Spark Unlimted’s best game to date. Of course, there’s still a way too vocal online presence from those who don’t get this is a PREQUEL and not a sequel (I blame the numbering system a little for this, but more blame goes to those who’ve NOT been reading all those hands-on previews at all), but I think (and hope) this will iron itself out when the game finally ships. HOPEFULLY, that’s enough time to silence some of these negative yappers as they ease into the game proper, but I also think Capcom needs to push back as gently as possible and help some of these misguided miscreants a bit before they get to vomiting their “I didn’t play the game BUT…” opinions all over Metacritic (which is no longer a reliable source for fair ratings at all) and get a LOT of people downsized out of jobs in the process. I love what I got to try out last year and think the game will “click” with many as soon as they let the story and characters do their thing.

Thief 4: As Long As It Doesn’t Stab Me In The Back When It Takes My Money, I’m Good…

Posted on March 5, 2013 by geelw

Ah… this is fine news indeed. It seems that there’s a new Thief game (which just SO happens to be called Thief 4 because it’s the fourth game in the series) in the works for PC and next-generation consoles. Nice. I’ll do a happier dance when I see some gameplay, but to the initiated, the Thief series is one of those seminal works that’s pretty deep and always challenging to dive into. Eidos Montreal is handling the development chores, Square Enix will be publishing and if the game is anything like Deus Ex: Human Revolution in terms of scope (but with much more interaction), it’s guaranteed some solid ratings as well as a loyal fan base.

Granted, I’m betting ANY inclusion of “casual” play modes will be met with all sorts of internet-driven derision and division, but that’s how it goes in an era where more people seem to want to try more types of games (before giving up before they’ve learned the damned controls in the tutorial). As always, we shall see. I’ll be sneaking carefully behind this one and keeping tabs, that’s for sure…

Tomb Raider PC tressfx Demo: If You’re THAT Picky About Hair Animation, You Need A New Hobby…

Posted on March 5, 2013 by geelw

There’s probably a fancy salon in your town that could use your assistance with some REAL hair problems, so pack up your gaming rig and roll it on in! Yes, yes, that hair animation in the PC version of Tomb Raider is indeed spectacular… but it’s also not that important unless you have stock in AMD, are one of those PC-only diehards (that ends up using a console-like controller to play the game because keyboard controls in 3D games like this are usually not as good) or hell, you just like flowing hair even if it’s digitally created. Eh, whatever, Sassoon… the game is great on anything you can play it on, so leave the graphics folks to their overclocking polygon and frame rate count fetishes, I say…

Defiance Competitive Multiplayer: Rush Hour At The More Than OK Corral…

Posted on March 4, 2013 by geelw

Since Defiance isn’t a garden variety online FPS (or a FPS at all) and not your standard semi-real time MMO where you queue up actions and wait while moves play out, the game flows a lot more like a purer action game because it IS one. Granted, I still can’t play it online at all here (boo!), but nothing should stop YOU from if you’re interested in the show and able to do so. Here’s hoping Trion Worlds has a bigger hit than even they’ve imagined and they can do something similarly fun for those of us who don’t live online (whether by choice or not) when we want some simple, fun but thrilling gaming… my fingers are crossed…

Applied Design @MoMA: Portal Is Actually Harder If You Start in the Middle.

Posted on March 4, 2013 by geelw

Granted, I haven’t played this in some time, but it’s NOT exactly the toughest game out there. However, if you pick up a controller and try to start playing, expect to get lost fast. This level is actually really simple (I ran through it on the PS3’s The Orange Box collection just to make sure I wasn’t losing my touch), but I just dinked around for a bit so the video could be shot. Anyway, the guy who played after the next guy tried DID remember how to play and it was a good thing, as a video crew caught that fun bit of puzzle/platformer action for whatever site they were filming for… Ah, well. Hey, if they had Cosmic Ark or Thunderground there, I’d STILL be playing today…

VGA 101: On Kenji Eno: A Loss Isn’t A Complete Loss If Something Is Gained In the Process…

Posted on March 3, 2013 by geelw

One of my favorite game creators, Kenji Eno, passed away on February 20th and I’d planned to write up something memorial-esque last week, but couldn’t for a few reasons. The main one was it’s actually quite hard to write something brief about what playing through some of the games he and his studio WARP created during their brief run meant to me without actually going through the library here and taking time to do so. That’s going to get done in about a month or so, barring incident. The other was I wanted to read what some of his close friends wrote about him in order to get a better insight on the man and his work. There was also a little bit of unfinished business to take care of in getting a certain something back to a certain someone, so that had to come first… Continue reading →

Defiance Ark Hunter Chronicles 1 & 2: Building Up That Mythology Is Very Helpful…

Posted on March 2, 2013 by geelw

As Trion Worlds and syfy get ready to roll out Defiance on April 2, they’re dropping all sorts of background mini-movies and excellently produced trailers on the game, game world, creatures and other features (like these Ark Hunter Chronicles vids) in order to have a big, fat and very necessary back story to all the events you’ll soon be watching (and hopefully, playing). This is indeed a good thing and potential viewers and players of the innovative TV show/MMORPG hybrid will probably want every little thing to sync up as perfectly as possible to pleas and appease even the pickiest of nitpickers. It works for me (but I’d still prefer that great looking and playing game – it’s REALLY fun – to have an offline mode)…

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Trailer: Captain Morgan vs Cap’n Crunch Time…

Posted on March 2, 2013 by geelw

Man, these “leaks” are getting worse, but this video may not be up long. So I’m posting it now for posterity’s sake (if Ubisoft kills it on YouTube, I’ll replace it with an official one in a new post). Well, Ubisoft sure knows how to rock the boat, as this upcoming installment seems to have nothing to do with the last (shocking!) and makes you realize that those naval combat sections in Assassin’s Creed III were only the tip of the iceberg. Yes, I know a LOT of nautically themed puns, ladies and gents, but I’m sparing you all because I want to keep at least PART of my readership.

Retro City Rampage on PC and WiiWare Is Full of Surprises (Well, One More Awesome Surprise)…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Not content with a simple port of an already hilarious game, creator Brian Provinciano decided to take it to the next level (or more precisely, back to the roots) by cooking up an “8-bit” version of the game for the WiiWare and PC releases (out now!). Even if you’re terminally rusty at games, if you’ve a brain with a dusty old file cabinet filled with memories of 80’s and 90’s pop culture references, Retro City Rampage is fun and funny enough to get you cracking up within a few seconds of playing it. Anyway, some neck exercises for you to practice, as you look a bit tired and you don’t want to have to pay for that Lifestyle Lift (at least for a few MORE years,right?): Look up and click! Look down and click! Repeat as required until you figure out you need a Wii or PC to get the game (or a PS3, Vita or Xbox 360)…

Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army Out Now On Steam – Gore Patrol On Duty!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

So… how, pray tell do we go from happy-happy cartoon ponies to blowing holes in zombies just like that? Easy- you pretend you’re riding a bus, just move along and enjoy what’s outside the window. Which in this case would be that final teaser trailer and the even MORE naughty official launch trailer (both very NSFW, by the way- you’ve been warned!) and maybe even you picking up this standalone co-op focused expansion from Steam at some point. Yeah, you know you want to… and you’ll probably fool everyone by storing the game on that My Little Pony Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOT USB drive you just purchased. Shhhh… I won’t tell a soul. Maybe…