Earth Defense Force 4.1 Update: No Lights, New Rides? It’s All Good!


 

EDF 4.1 PS4 Release DateAmusing “warning”: If you don’t speak Japanese, this video will seem somewhat baffling for about the first two minutes and fifty-three seconds. However, those of you who happen to be fans of Sandlot’s awesome Earth Defense Force series of games will get your jaws hitting your shoes hard before you burst out laughing and nodding in approval.

The upcoming PlayStation 4 game Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is shaping up to be a must-have title thanks to the developer not only porting the main game over intact, but adding loads of new content, enemies and vehicles. That Depth Crawler you see at around 2:55 is the best thing to happen to the series because it allows for the ultimate in mobility in the game’s deadly tunnel missions AND it works excellently in outdoor maps.

EDF 4.1 Depth CrawlerAdditionally, longtime EDF fans will see that there’s no longer static lighting in those tunnels, meaning visibility will be practically zero without some sort of light source. Thankfully, that Depth Crawler has lights (and packs some nice firepower). Hopefully, this means going in on foot if one chooses will show your character or teammates all sporting lights on their armor. The game isn’t out until April 2, 2915 in Japan and no U.S. localization plans have been announced.

EDF 4.1 Depth Crawler 1That said, one would hope that some smart publisher who owns the rights would be on the case worldwide for this one. I smell a surprise hit that thanks to all the improvements and new content just might be one of the better games. New bosses, more missions, improved visuals, what’s looking like a more stable frame rate? Yup, all of those are making EDF 4.1 a must buy when it finally ships. The Japanese version is compatible with any PS4, although expect to be lurking around GameFaqs if you need help navigating the menus and learning some strategies if you’re new to the EDF experience.

Richard Corben’s RAT GOD #1 Preview: The Squeamish Reader Gets The Quease…

Rat God 1 Corben Cover Art

Well, there’s a face only a mother could love, huh? Dark Horse Comics is going to be publishing Richard Corben‘s latest work, RAT GOD in February. Here’s a sneak peek of the first five pages plus the cover to issue #2 of this three issue limited series. Corben’s ink work has grown a lot more uniquely stylized over time, but still works excellently in conveying his storytelling skill.  The story is Lovecraft inspired with a Native American twist and from the teaser below, seems on par with some of Corben’s older work for assorted Warren magazines back in the 70’s.

 

Rat God 1 page 1 Rat God 1 page 2 Rat God 1 page 3

Rat God 1 page 4 Rat God 1 page 5 Rat God 2 cover art

A little synopsis for you if you’re now curiouser:

There’s something in the woods… Eisner Award Hall of Famer Richard Corben is set to deliver an original backwoods tale of terror inspired by H. P. Lovecraft.

Terrible things stalk the forests outside Arkham in this chilling series from comics master Richard Corben! An arrogant city slicker on a quest to uncover the background of a young woman from the backwoods finds horrors beyond imagining, combining Lovecraftian mutations with Native American legends.

And since you’ve been good, take a peek at the cover to issue 3 (if you dare!). Now that you’re hooked in, each issue will be available at your nearest comic emporium for $3.99. Issue one should be in stores February 4, 2015 with March and April ship dates for the remaining issues.

Dragon Age Inquisition Updates Keep You Twitching and Choosing…

So, the final (but not quite final I’d bet) push is here as Electronic Arts and BioWare even more heavily promote Dragon Age Inquisition, the upcoming BioWare-developed epic RPG set for release November 18. While the game is coming to PS3 and Xbox 360, it’s the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions that are getting the most attention from many fans and pretty much every critic set to review it. Those versions should clearly show the developer making the game they wanted to make from the beginning of this popular franchise, although one can only imagine how future games will look once older hardware becomes less common.

There is also an intriguing and optional social feature currently in beta called Dragon Age Keep that looks to immerse fans even more completely into the world of Dragon Age as they learn every bit of lore from previous games and even share their progress in the new adventure as they play. Check it out:

if you’re Twitching for more Dragon Age, fear not. EA and BioWare have you covered this coming Thursday with a live stream of the game’s multiplayer component starting at 10:00AM PST (that’s 1:00PM EST) on the developer’s Twitch channel. This content will include the following:

  • Three Multiplayer Maps: The team will be showing three destinations: Elven Ruins, Orlesian Chateau and Tevinter Ruins.

 

  • Three Multiplayer Characters: The team will be showing character progression on the three unlocked starter characters: Legionnaire, Keeper and Archer.

 

  • Tips & Tricks: The team will be walking viewers through core tips and tricks on how to be successful in Dragon Age multiplayer. They will also touch on Ability Trees, Chests, and Crafting.

 

  • Live Q&A: Producer Scylla Costa and Associate Producer Billy Buskell will be taking questions from viewers live during the stream.

 

Who:                     Dragon Age multiplayer Producers Scylla Costa and Billy Buskell

What:                   Dragon Age multiplayer gameplay feature 3 maps, 3 multiplayer characters, and Q&A.

When:                  Thursday, November 6th at 10:00AM PST / 1:00PM EST

Where:                http://www.twitch.tv/bioware

 

That should tide you over until the game is finally launched on November 18, 2014 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows.

Review: Kromaia

Kromaia BoxPlatform: PC

Developer: Kraken Empire

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (90%)
 


 

Now, here’s a crazy paradox for you: Kromaia is an arcade-style shooter that’s currently PC-only, yet it bridges that gap between old and new tech and ideas past the point of reinvigorating a genre that might seem a better fit for consoles or yes, arcades. Yeah, yeah – you PC die-hards will be rolling your eyeballs and shaking your fists in my general direction right about now. But I counter that stuff by saying this is exactly the sort of game that needs to be on more platforms and not just exclusive to PC, no matter how large the potential player base is. It’s that good, that fun and that challenging and nope, you 3D-hating shmup fans aren’t getting off easy by skipping this because it’s not got a sprite in sight. The game is new-school looking, old school hard as nails and while “short” (Note: Arcade 101, Class 1: it’s not the length, but how much you go back to the game that counts), packs quite a memorable punch…
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Dragon Age Inquisition Hands-On: All is As it Needs to Be (Which Means You’ll Be Very Busy Soon)…


 
A half hour may be a long time if you’re sitting through a really bad TV show, being tortured, have a terrible toothache or are waiting for some test results, but it’s clearly not a good deal of time to sit down with a build of Dragon Age Inquisition. For me ( a fan of the series and BioWare’s RPGs in general for quite some time), the game is one that doesn’t need a huge amount of hyperbolic posts from editor-types or even PR gurus because it’s a series that’s pretty much sold itself to a fan base who wanted to see a western-developers RPG do more with the genre (and it’s succeeded for the most part despite a few bumps along the road it’s traveled). My half hour at EA’s media event a few days back was spent ogling the beautiful visuals, running around with my party picking plants for crafting and looting assorted caches while getting the hang of the deeper combat system that now adds some very welcome tweaks to the mix of real-time and “turn-based” format.

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Kromaia Hands-On: Blasting Cool Looking Stuff Four Ways ’til Sunday (Well, Any Day of the Week)…


 

Kromaia ArtKraken Empire’s upcoming space shooter Kromaia is going to be one of those games genre fans will be more than pleased to see thanks to the stellar visuals and intuitive control scheme (provided you use a keyboard/mouse or decent game controller). Rising Star Games has wisely snapped this one up for a Q4 2014 release and I recently got my paws on some preview code to take for a spin. And spin I did, as the ships in the game are all kinds of maneuverable thanks to the six degrees of movement through the game’s enemy and obstacle-packed levels..

The preview build had four different levels and four types of ships to play around with, each linked to one of the stages. While I could sit here and make comparisons to Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, Rez and other excellent sci-fi or fantasy shooters where you’re set on a path without much deviation, Kromaia outdoes those games by allowing you to go anywhere you point that ship you’re flying. There are clear goals in each map, but you can choose to go off what you thought was a predetermined path and zip around at your leisure while trying not to get blown into plenty of pixels by the nicely aggressive enemy AI…

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Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.


 

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.

Corrections Dept: Xillia’s Kitties Can’t Do Magic That Well!

Tales of Xillia 2 Standard EditionOkay, I’ll tweak the post tomorrow when I’m more awake, but I made two goofs in my Tales of Xillia review regarding the exploits and some side quests monsters vanishing. One: In Kitty Dispatch mode, Rollo WILL come back faster if he’s carrying certain sub-items with him or you save and come back later in the day (that system clock seems to work for that as well as the bonuses).

Two: while some low-level monsters may disappear from the Job Board when your Badge level increases, those TOUGH sub-bosses stay on their own sub-menu and never disappear. I was up for roughly 37 hours on that last chunk of my playtime, so when I sat down to write from a few notes I’d taken, I ended up adding in a thought I had based on me being half-awake while playing and confusing the Job list with the sub-boss list. Hey, it happens! Anyway, I’m in the final stretch of the game, but I’m saving that until tomorrow or Thursday because if I don’t sleep now, I’ll probably be as dead as some of those monsters Ludger and company go hunting throughout the game…

See you all tomorrow. Zzzzz…

Review: Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Xillia 2 Standard EditionPlatform: PlayStation 3

Developer: Namco Tales Studio, LTD.

Publisher: Bandai Namco Games

# of Players 1-4

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Official Site

Score: A- (90%)

tox2-screen02 Tales of Xillia was one of last year’s great JRPGs, offering up an intriguing plot, a party of interesting characters designed by different artists, the series trademark fast-paced battles and plenty of the usual JRPG tropes all adding up to a lengthy and memorable game experience. The follow up, Tales of Xillia 2 changes up things a bit with two new main characters, a much darker tone, even faster combat, a different skills leveling system, loads of reused maps (this is a good thing – more on this below) and a fair amount of humor thanks to a localization team having a blast with their translation efforts. The result is a game that will pull you in for the long haul as it takes Ludger Kresnik and company on a journey spanning a few familiar and all-new areas (well, all-new to those who haven’t played the first game)… Continue reading

Tales of Xillia 2: Missed the First Game? Here’s The Deal So Far…

 

ToX_BannerYou actually don’t need to have played Tales of Xillia to fully enjoy Tales of Xillia 2, but in case you didn’t and are wondering what you missed, this under six-minute recap of key cinematic moments from the first game should get you psyched for the new adventure ahead. I’ve been playing since yesterday evening and will have a review up on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how far I get in the game. I should take my time with this and try to get as close to 100% completion as possible, but there’s SO much to tackle in this game that if I tried to blaze through too quickly, I’d definitely miss out on a lot of content. On the other hand, if I get caught up in all those side-quests and cat-catching (I’ve caught 23 out of 100 so far), this review isn’t going to get done until November (of next year, ha and ha!)…

Back in a bit…