Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox Update (Late!): Closer, Yet Still More To Do…

Posted on August 28, 2012 by geelw

OK, OK, I’ve been a bit swamped under other stuff, so I’ve been bad and not posting all the Malevolence updates I need to. Well, part of that is for some reason, YouTube hasn’t been informing me when a new video is uploaded and I’m way too occupied in some projects to keep poking around. Anyway, here’s a gameplay update from the 13th (above) and some not quite in sync audio to go with more gameplay.

I wish I was one of the lucky ones testing this game, but I can’t do that with my crappy connection, that’s for sure. Still, I’ll keep my paws crossed that the team does well enough to find a small publisher who can get this out on a disc at some point, as this is a game I really want to play (and has been for a while).

(Another) Random Indie Game of the Week: Space Funeral

Posted on August 24, 2012 by geelw

Yeah, yeah, I’m late to the whole Space Funeral appreciation party, but hey, I was kind of busy. Actually, I’d heard about the game a while ago from some friends, but I finally just got around to downloading and playing it over the past week and yes, it’s an instant RPGMaker classic. While the gameplay is pretty standard RPG 101 fare all the way (using an Active or Wait time-based system common to the older Final Fantasy games), it’s the amazingly strange art style and general weirdness that makes the game so special. If you recall the more bizarre alternative comics from the 80’s by Gary Panter, Charles Burns, kaz and more, all filtered through a David Lynch lens with a shot of Suda 51 on the side, the game will grab you from the moment you hit BLOOD on the title screen. RPGMaker.net user catmitts must own a time machine or still get videos on his MTV channel on cable or something, as he’s managed to tap into the new wave vibe perfectly, creating an original game that manages to feel as if it was made for a Bizarro World NES.

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Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition: PC Gamers Finally Get To Feel The Pain (And How)…

Posted on August 20, 2012 by geelw

August 24, PC owners. Prepare to Buy… then Prepare to DIE. And love every moment of it. The core word here is NEW, as in new areas, NPCs, weapon, monsters, bosses, PvP areas and MORE. Yes, as a console owner I’m temporarily annoyed (we’re getting this content later, so it’s all good), but I’m also hoping that PC gamers who’ve been whining about wanting this so badly buy it in numbers that stagger the imagination. Hopefully, the online play will be cheat and hack-free, but we’ll see what happens in the first week or two of release and then a bit afterward as those that can start mucking about with the game code. I still would LOVE a Vita version of a Souls game or a new RPG franchise from From Software at some point geared to portable players. I guess we’ll see what happens with that down the road…

Random Indie Game of the Week: Epic Elf

Posted on August 19, 2012 by geelw

While it’s got a few pesky typos (and is yet ANOTHER game that’s making me wonder if I should join the fine folks over at RPGMaker.net and ask people to send me their scripts to proofread), spirit_young‘s very cool and often crudely funny RPG, Epic Elf manages to be well worth checking out for a few reasons. His spin on the treasure hunting rogue and his slime minion is a fun one, complete with modern day cursing (hey, it made me laugh) and plenty of increasingly challenging battles. I liked that the game wasn’t a complete walk in the park and some of the dungeons past the first area require your party to be properly leveled, packing some powerful gear and spells in order to take out enemies and much more brutal bosses. You can swap your trusty slime out with another useful minion once you find it, but be sure to level the new one up a bit or it will constantly be dying in combat.

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Incoming Retro Bliss: Sega Genesis Classics Collection Gold Edition (PC)

Posted on August 18, 2012 by geelw

As I always have way too much going on (being a one-man operation can be a bit of a pain every so often), sometimes I can be a tad forgetful. That. or I end up not getting to everything on my rather long list of games I’d like to dive into for a spell. To wit: I’d forgotten this amazing set of over 40 Sega Genesis games had shipped out to retail a while back (OK, something like March 2011!) until one of my eBay alerts reminded me that I was looking for this. A few clicks later and for a mere $9.90 shipped (brand new/sealed), I’m a happy camper set to re-relive some games I’ve played to death on a few platforms already. Hey, the classics NEVER get old, that’s for sure.

I’ll drop in a review once this arrives and I get in some quality time with the games in this great package. Hmmmm… now, where did I put that PC game pad I haven’t used in ages?

Assassin’s Creed III Naval Battle Trailer: By George, How Big IS This Game, Anyway?

Posted on August 18, 2012 by geelw

Between the open world exploration across a few choice (and massive, excellently detailed) locations and these spectacular-looking (and rather speedy) sea battles, it looks as if Assassin’s Creed III will be keeping a few million gamers quite occupied for a while before they even touch the multiplayer content on the disc. Me, I’m a story guy first and foremost, so I’m highly impressed by what I’ve seen so far and that includes the Vita game that’s an entirely different story altogether. That October 30 release date is rushing up fast and I’d bet this game will keep a lot of you gamers who normally head out on Halloween inside scarfing down that candy you’d intended to pass out to trick or treaters…

By the way, here’s a new Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation trailer in case you need another good reason to get a Vita. This just might be the best game on the handheld to date and for quite a while, the largest in terms of scope.

Konami On Air Gamescom 2012 Wrap-Up: Raiden The Wave (And How)

Posted on August 18, 2012 by geelw

Konami revealed a nice selection of upcoming titles at Gamescom this year and even had their own web show to promote the goods. Here’s a look at the three post show videos for each day of the show as well as the pre-show peek behind the scenes video that kicked things off. Between Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 – Mirror of Fate, and a few other cool games, I’m going to be glued to my TV for a nice chunk of time, that’s for sure. I just hope I don’t go even more broke stocking up on extra controllers…

Star Wars 1313 Gamescom Trailer: So Far, The Force Is Strong In This One…

Posted on August 17, 2012 by geelw

I’m not the firmest believer in the whole “uncanny valley” thing game developers are striving for in the upcoming generation of console and PC games where visuals get so realistic that you can’t tell whether you’re watching a CG trailer or actual game footage. However, I’ll give credit where credit is due to the dev team at Lucasarts working so hard towards that goal with their upcoming Star Wars game. Granted, at the end of the day, story and gameplay matter even more than even the best visuals in the galaxy for my money. Hopefully, this will be a game for the ages that’s got longevity (as in replay value) and legs (as in sequel power where we don’t just get a retread of what’s come before). As always… we shall see, right?

Random Game of the Week: Starless Umbra – A Work In Progress Indie RPG Worth Paying For

Posted on August 16, 2012 by geelw

I’ve been playing and enjoying many RPG Maker games since about 2001 (and far too many JRPGs to count in general since the 1980’s), but Starless Umbra is turning into one of my new favorites and it’s not even completed yet. RPGmaker.net user Andrew Keturi (aka dragonheartman) has been slowly working on this game since 2002 (!) and it’s shaping up into quite an epic that’s going beyond simply working with the basic RTP assets or being yet another shameless Final Fantasy meets Dragon Quest clone. Not that there’s anything wrong at all with a great FF or DQ clone at all (I’ll name two awesome ones next week from the site you should grab). Based on the dramatic prologue and few hours of gameplay I’ve squeezed in alone, there’s a sharpness to the project that’s welcome in everything from the battle system to choice of music and sound effects. In the build I played, the mix of challenging combat and interesting use of stamina (where choosing whether to walk and run actually makes a difference) kept me glued to my monitor for longer than I expected..

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Lost Planet 3 Gamescom 2012 Trailer: Spark’s Got A Blast Of Cool Coming Your Way…

Posted on August 14, 2012 by geelw

Spark Unlimited’s best game to date is going to surprise a lot of really jaded (and really annoying) people out there. You know, the ones who refuse to give a game a chance because they’re either pining away for an earlier installment or worse, spend too much time comparing apples to oranges when they SHOULD be, you know, actually playing more games and enjoying all the hard work that goes into them. My hands-on time with a demo a few months ago shown the dev team at the top of their form. Controls and visuals were solid, there’s that performance capture realism that works excellently and while yes, the game has a Dead Space vibe in a few areas, it’s FAR from a clone of Visceral’s hit series. Well, I think as long as Capcom and Spark concentrate on getting the final version out as tight as a drum and with a great story that’s well told, the amount of ACTUAL negatives that can be said about the game will be slim to none.