Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Teaser: Techland’s Back in the Saddle Again

 

After the bumpy detour into modern times (the well-intentioned but flawed Call of Juarez: The Cartel), Techland is taking its wild western series back where it’s always belonged and if the comments on the YouTube channel are any indication, fans of this series are (so far) more than pleased. March 14 will see the full version of this trailer drop and perhaps some gameplay will show up as well. Given the developer’s expertise in producing some incredibly stunning looking visuals, there’s absolutely zero doubt that this will be a mighty fine looker. Of course, it’s ALWAYS the gameplay that counts and I’m gathering the team has been busy polishing that to a new badge shine. As always, we shall see…

Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter: inXile Gets That Planescape “Sequel” Underway…

 

torment artWell, now… That’s going exactly as predicted, ladies and gentlemen. As in it’s ALMOST funded on the first day (and probably FULLY funded by the time or very shortly after I complete this brief post). Torment: Tides of Numenera is an upcoming PC RPG game that will take place in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting (called Numenera of course), and as you can see if you poke around both the Kickstarter and Numenera pages, it all looks quite spectacular indeed.

As with other projects this huge, Digital and physical versions will be made available for backers (whee!) and I hope this actually makes it into retail at some point, as the original game is one of those classics for the ages and this one (being cooked up by some that were involved in that epic) is looking mighty amazing as well. Getting more people to play a game like this outside of those lots of throwing money at it for strictly personal reasons (hell, If I had a few thousand bucks lying around, I’d want to be an in-game NPC too!) is a pretty good way for gaming to gain a bit more respect among some who overly criticize the hobby based on what they see in the media… Continue reading

Zeno Clash II Trailer: Atlus Has Another ACE Effort (That More Need To Be Able To Play)…

 

As much goofy but intense fun as Zeno Clash II and its prequel, Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition look, the tiny little fact that many devoted Atlus fans who can’t get access to PSN or Steam accounts are going to miss yet another great game is going to be a sticking point that has yet to find a proper resolution. Yeah, yeah, I know digital is the way to go (and the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay of the future!) for a super-niche game such as this one (and man is it weird!), but I’d love to see Atlus get BOTH Zeno Clash games onto a disc (along with ACE Team’s awesome Rock of Ages) for console users who don’t or can’t use PSN or XBLA. I actually have the first game for PC on a new import disc I picked up from the UK, but it requires a wee bit more powerful of a PC than I currently use and my laptop DEFINITELY can’t run it at all. Bleh.  I’m not one for online petitions, but I’ll go sign one if need be just to get to play more funky games such as these…

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

 

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…

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…

 

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…

 

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.

 

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…

D2_signedOne 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…

 

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)…