Strider NYCC Trailer: Hiryu Go Again!

Capcom and developer Double Helix are counting on a combination of classic old school hard gameplay and a fan base who actually remembers the arcade classic or other versions of Strider to make this reboot a big hit and I think they’re on the right track. So far, the combination of lush 2D and 3D visuals, familiar gameplay with some nice twists and what I’m hearing is a high level of challenge should propel this to some decent scores and sales on anything it’s released on. Sadly, there’s no Wii U version (yet), but hopefully this error will be rectified sooner than later. Those Wii U owners tend to get mighty cranky when they feel they’re being screwed over, that’s for sure…

Knock-Knock: Ice Pick Lodge’s House of 2.5D Horrors Spells S-L-E-E-P-E-R…

The last time I played a game by developer Ice Pick Lodge, it was their 2005 PC horror/adventure/RPG Pathologic, one of those quirky sleepers that the mainstream didn’t “get” because it was one long, strange trip of a game experience. This new game, Knock-Knock (now available on Steam) looks pretty interesting in a One Piece Mansion meets Alone in the Dark sort of way. And don’t worry if you know not a whit about either of those old games. Those were the first two titles that popped into my head when I saw that teaser trailer above and the gameplay trailer below. I guess I now need to try out this horror/humor gem and see if it’s a diamond in the rough or a handful of cloudy zircons from the dollar store.

Yes, it most certainly looks as if it’ll be at least intriguing and extremely trippy sort of like a bad dream that gets funny as it ends and has you waking up laughing more than you’d thought as you were having it. Hey, that’s how I roll (out of bed) some mornings, people…

Sniper Elite 3 Trailer: Rebellion’s Up for Another Shot. Are You?

Talk about going out with a bang. 505 Games and UK developer Rebellion are following up their successful Sniper Elite V2 and Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army with a new game that leaves a destroyed Berlin for the hot and dusty sands of Africa (or that’s what I’m gathering from this trailer). Granted, blasting holes in assorted Nazis may not be your cup of tea and nope, this isn’t a historical recreation at all, folks. But there’s always that odd satisfaction one gets from this series of tinkering with old history one bullet at a time for all the right reasons, of course…

Your Friday Evening Slight Freakout, Courtesy Frictional Games

Hmmm. It looks as if Frictional Games is working on a new horror game and as this slow burner of a live action teaser shows, it will have a sci-fi angle. I’m a huge fan of the developer’s three Penumbra games and Amnesia: The Dark Descent and while I’ve yet to play their latest, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (developed by The Chinese Room), the mixed reactions I’ve seen and heard make me more intrigued because it seems some were expecting one thing and got something else entirely that stands up on its own for the most part. Anyway, the new game (which seems to be titled SOMA) already has a teaser site up that’s intentionally designed to look a bit glitchy, so don’t freak out if you click on that link and see some garbage on your screen for a spell.

As for gameplay and screens? Well, I guess I’ll keep an egg peeled on my inbox and see what pops up in there. Back in a bit with more on this one once that happens…

Thief “The Bank Job” Pre-Order Bonus Has Me Thinking Stolen Thoughts…

…As in I’ve seen plenty of annoying comments from people who think this game will be awful because Looking Glass Studies isn’t working on it, the color palette is too blue and black, the “stealth” seems easier and so forth and so on. All of this by looking at movies and screens from a game that’s not even done. Wow, the psychic prowess on internet trolls is REMARKABLE sometimes (well, ALL the time), isn’t it? I say shut up and wait for that knock on the door that will be followed by a conk to the noggin if you were silly enough to fling that door wide open without checking first. It’ll be Garrett reminding you that this reboot is probably going to have some stuff you haven’t yet seen and might actually be fun if you pipe down and hold out for a demo and/or maybe some ratings (although, if you rely on those solely to buy games, there’s something mildly to moderately wrong with you). Opinions are only worth the time to read these days if the person is at least INFORMED, not speculating to the point of draining the brainpower of anyone who reads their scribblings about how little they know about everything and how that lack of fact makes them an “expert” because the scream the loudest and their soapbox has spinning rims or whatever…

Peripheral Vision: Valve’s Third Shoe Is A Hot One: Steam Controller, Inbound!

Steam Controller

Well, this is… interesting. I’ll hold off on any actual critique until I get my paws around one of these, but it looks like a game-changer if you want to play PC games on your TV (and aren’t already doing so with a big expensive gaming rig with a nicely pricey gaming mouse/keyboard setup. Read all about it HERE while I think for a bit or move on to writing another article. This one’s impossible to gauge from a photo and nope, those aren’t subwoofers on the front, ha ha.

Gallery: Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure

SNDC_Wii U_2D_E10p5th Cell’s latest game features the return of Maxwell and plenty of fun user-created content… but with a nice twist as you’ll see in that rather fun-looking trailer above. But wait, there’s MORE! Act now and every single Wii U, 3DS and PC copy of Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure also features a rather robust character edit function that allows you to create and play as any character you can come up with (with a DC Comics focus, obviously). I’m planning to scour that selection of classic to current heroes just to see if 5th Cell has stuck some of DC’s more oddball heroes and anti-heroes into the mix, so I’m hoping to see a Swamp Thing, Deadman and maybe Etrigan in there somewhere but mot likely there will be no Ally Babble or Madame Xanadu unless I can cobble them together myself. We’ll see. I do love little surprises like a smart development team that sticks in some really obscure characters into a game this flexible. Having a Bat-Mite to play around with would be quite cool, that’s for sure.

It also has (or at least HAD until I shrunk them down with Picture Resizer) some HUGE honkin’ screenshots in its press kit, which is quite amusing for a game that relies on a simple and effective art style. I had to shrink them to a more manageable size just so they’d upload faster (OK, well that and no one needs an 8000 x 4500 screen cap to scroll around like it’s a map to some lost Inca gold! Anyway, enjoy!

Assorted Heroes (Custom) Batcomputer_Dex-Starr (Custom) Dancin in the Streets (Custom) Omega Beams (Custom) Riddle (Custom) Superboy Prime (Custom) MarvelFamily_TrinityofSin (Custom) Mask-Erade (Custom) Meeting (Custom) MindGames (Custom) GettinTheGang (Custom)

Humor: NWA World Has Its Own Opinion About Valve’s Big Steamy Plans…

The funniest thing about this video is NWA’s animators used the late Crash Bandicoot (!) as Sony’s mascot when poor Crash hasn’t been in a game (or on a Sony console) in YEARS. Oh well, nostalgia runs deep over in Taiwan I guess. Either that or the fine folks at NWA didn’t want to animate the more up to date (and even more hugely popular these days) characters Ratchet & Clank because it would have taken a few minutes more to get an extra figure running about in this clip. These guys work FAST, you know. Anyway, yeah – things are getting REALLY weird on the console front with everyone wanting to take over that living room. I think poor Apple won’t even bother trying to make a console at this point. They’ve missed this train a few times and their customers aren’t necessary going to buy into a console that plays games they can already get on their phones and tablets and maybe try playing through Apple TV. Eh, we’ll see, I guess. Score one… no, TWO for Valve. Friday’s next big reveal should be equally or even more innnnnteresting…

Valve Drops Shoe Two of Three: Steam Machines, From A Few Sources (Plus How To Get One Early!)

Steam MachinesBOOM. Well, it’s not actually surprising, this badly kept secret of Valve’s, but at least the company knows how to make “old” news really damned thrilling. So, yes… in addition to their new Family Sharing plan, Valve is making a FREE downloadable game-centric SteamOS AND a console you can run it on. Even better, those upcoming Steam Machines are going to be coming from a few different producers so users will have a choice of styles as well as the flexibility to tinker with their individual systems and even create content if they’re that type of gamer. If half of that last sentence sounds familiar, it’s because Panasonic’s MUCH maligned 3DO Multiplayer ended up also getting a few variants produced by Goldstar and Sanyo at different price points and with different pack-in titles.

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Lichdom Gallery: Looks Like A Magical RPG Experience for PC Gamers…

LICHDOM_logo

Lichdom_Maelstrom_PanoramaAtlanta-based developer Xaviant is hard at work on what’s looking like an incredible new role-playing game, Lichdom (which in those screens below seems to be subtitled Redeemer). The currently PC-only title, (powered by AMD and Crytek’s highly versatile CRYENGINE) is centered around some rather heavy magic spell usage and as you can see in that trailer above, those spells pack quite a wallop. From what I’ve read on their YouTube channel, the game isn’t an open world experience at all, but promises to have an extreme level of immersion (always a good thing in a game such as this).

While those screens below don’t show off any in-game character models (that trailer above does nicely enough at that), but does feature some very nicely detailed environments that yes, recall Skyrim and a few other RPGs of the soon to be previous generation.

Even in an early graphics test the game looked magnificent, so it’s definitely going to be a PC card melter when it’s finally completed. That said, this is exactly the sort of game the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One need to lure in gamers who don’t see any RPGs on the horizon, so there’s hopefully at least some consideration given to porting the game over at some point (after it launches on PC, of course).

Lichdom_ Lichdom_Greyteeth_02 Lichdom_Maelstrom_02 Lichdom_Maelstrom_04 Lichdom_Riftwood02 Lichdom_Sinkhole01 Lichdom_Sinkhole02 Lichdom_Soddentrod03 Lichdom_Soddentrod04 Lichdom_Underground02 Lichdom_Underground02

As for the game’s story, main character and other details, well… that’s below the jump in handy press release form (of course)…

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