Batman: Arkham Origins Teaser: The Dark Knight Grouses…

Posted on May 16, 2013 by geelw

Man, that Bruce Wayne (er, Batman) sure is a real party-pooper, isn’t he? All that gloom and criminals are the scum of the earth stuff plus what looks like a vinegar and lemon diet make for one grumpy Darknight Detective, that’s for sure. Then again, this is ONLY the teaser for the upcoming game. The actual trailer drops on May 20, 2013… so I’m betting it’ll be even darker and grimmer. Hmmm… that man needs some cotton candy and a fancy paper hat, I think. Either that or he needs to stay in one night and maybe catch up on some old TV shows. Comedies, preferably…

Diablo III PS3/PS4: It’s Not Wizardry At All… It’s Just Damn Good Coding At Work.

Posted on May 16, 2013 by geelw

If there’s one game I really want to play as soon as it launches on either the PS3 or PS4, it’s probably Diablo III. Not because it’s the greatest game on the planet, mind you (it’s not), but because I want to see how well Blizzard got it up and running in single player mode with direct control and no always online nonsense to keep solo play fans from enjoying the ride thanks to a crappy Internet connection or a few other reasons. Of course, I’m more of a Torchlight 2 guy these days, but I love my isometric dungeon crawlers on anything (but a touch screen) as long as they’re done right. DIII looks as if it will draw in a load of new fans as well as some older ones who got shut out of the PC version. It should also silence those who think this type of game “can’t” be done on a console (despite years of proof from other iso RPGs running on Sony as well as other systems). I’m hoping this gets an official demo at some point before release just so Blizzard can show off all that hard work to the cranky crowd, but as always… we shall see…

VGA 101: uDraw Tablet (PS3): THQ’s Folly Makes For A Really Cool Budget Artist Buy…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by geelw

uDraw PS3a uDraw PS3b

When the uDraw was first released for the Nintendo Wii, it sold well enough that THQ decided to bring the tablet peripheral to both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but took a little too long to get it to market as more functional tablet devices became hot sellers. You could say that the company greatly overestimated a few things, most importantly, the selling power of the uDraw to an a PS3 and 360 audience made up of more hardcore gamers who had little to no use for a new peripheral they wouldn’t go near with a ten foot pole (unless they were using that pole to smash the thing to bits). Needless to say, uDraw on the PS3 and 360 didn’t do well at all and plenty of retailers and probably a few distributors were left sitting on plenty unsold stock… Continue reading →

GRID 2 “WSR 3” Video: Drift & Shout…

Posted on May 14, 2013 by geelw

And now, a bit of slipping and sliding through the Asian courses on GRID 2 for your soon to be driving like a maniac pleasure. Five years of hard work is coming to a close and it looks as if Codemasters will have a new legion of race fans when the launches at the end of the month onto PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Of course, some of the griefers whining endlessly about the cockpit view not being in tagging along and actually liking the game for the sense of speed and solid visuals would be some extra icing on the cake, but at this point, the dev team probably could care less what the non-stop complainers are complaining about. As usual, we shall see and I’m betting some clever hacker will knock out a patch for the PC version at some point that adds a viewpoint some prefer (even if it makes the game perform a bit worse)…

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified – “Origin Declassified” Trailer: Agent Carter, I’m On YOUR Side…

Posted on May 13, 2013 by geelw

From the bits of gameplay shown, this origin story looks like a re-skinned version of last-year’s XCOM reboot, so you’d think it would shut the naysayers up a bit more. Nope. 2K Games is still getting not too much respect from those folks, but I say the company doesn’t need these people at all at this point. Let others who want to play the game do so and enjoy it while you keep your opinions to yourselves and sleep better clutching that old boxed copy of the Microprose classic you hold so dearly as the “best game ever” to your chests. Eh, whatever – I love that original game myself, but I’m at least more open-minded and can respect a new developer who wants (or WANTED, as far as the original design went) to do something outside the box. As always, we’ll see how the new game turns out when it hit s retail on August 20, 2013. Unless he and his team are complete klutzes, Agent Carter’s got nothing to worry about from me…

Defiance 1:4 Recap/1:5 Preview: Renewal Means More Life Ahead For Many…

Posted on May 11, 2013 by geelw

The great news is syfy has renewed Defiance for a second season, so that means the ratings are decent enough that we’ll get more of this fancy futuristic western and hopefully more airtime for certain characters. The tie-in action/shooter MMORPG also seems to be doing well as its user base has hit the million mark and seems to be growing after some of the usual online gaming issues that plague new releases. Thanks to the rather deep back story to the show (and game) world and the assorted races, there’s a lot of unexplored territory that should keep this train rolling for as long as content can be created. Of course, all this depends on the show keeping those ratings as high as possible and the game getting rid of a few bugs that still keep it from perfection.

Given the dedication to both products from all working on them, it’s a no-brainer (to me, at least) that things can only get better in the future (even if the future is a pretty busted up planet we’re going to live on)…

The Last of Us TV Spot #2: A Month or So Isn’t That Long To Wait…

Posted on May 11, 2013 by geelw

As I’ve said before, Sony’s not going to let the PS3 fade into the usual “old” console obscurity as they’ve got a few more great first-party games that show off some developers at the top of their game. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us looks to combine solid storytelling and intense action in an exclusive that looks to be one of the best games made for the console. The recently released Dark Horse Comics prequel has sold out (well, as far a physical copies go), so it looks like plenty of gamers who picked the book up (and happen to own PS3’s) will be zipping on down to their favorite game shop (or lurking by their mailboxes) when the game’s June 14, 2013 release date rolls up.

Bethesda Underground Mother’s Day Surprise: Oh Yeah, And He Broke That Lamp, Too…

Posted on May 10, 2013 by geelw

Awwww! Here’s a pretty cool and amusing video from Bethsoft with Arkane Studios producer Seth Shain and his mom having a fun little discussion about what he does for a living. Hmmmm… I guess he needs to go buy her a console and a copy of Dishonored for Mother’s Day, huh? Well, that’s what I’d do after telling her I was a doctor all these years. OK, he didn’t, but let this be a lesson to all you lazy sons and daughters out there who get through life wanting to stab your own mom with a cold spoon for not letting you have the car that one time or reading you the riot act for staying out too late and forgetting to tell her where you were going or which one of the soon to be jailbirds you were out with. Little things mean a lot, so get to it this weekend, I say. That’s my good deed for the month, mind you – after this, it’s back to open season on the rubes, so watch it…

Resident Evil Revelations “Shock and Panic” Trailer (No, Not About The Wii U Features)…

Posted on May 10, 2013 by geelw

Ah ha ha… I had to get that little joke in because I read some message board posts a week or so ago that were blasting the Wii U version for being “for kids” or something silly like that when clearly, the Wii U Gamepad features in that video below aren’t necessarily “for kids” at all because the main game certainly isn’t. I mean, if you shot or beat a zombie or other creature to death here and CANDY came out or maybe BUBBLES and RAINBOWS, maybe I’d be on your side. Or maybe not, as I generally don’t take sides in these debates at all – I just play the games and let you know that I like them and yes, you should spend your money accordingly.

That and hell, you just KNOW that there’s going to be a lot of otherwise “mature” gamers running around drawing naughty bits every chance they get and smirking like straight-jacketed hyenas when they see their handiwork show up on some website as part of some review or news item. Trolls like these breed when they need to feed, I say. Resident Evil Revelations hits PC, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360 on May 21, 2013 – Some hands-on time is coming up next week, so expect some words from and to the wise about this one shortly…

GRID 2: LiveRoutes & A Trip to Miami (A Really Fast Trip, At That)…

Posted on May 10, 2013 by geelw

Codemasters is set to shake the racing game scene up with the addition of LiveRoutes in GRID 2, set for a May 28, 2013 US launch on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. LiveRoutes alter selected courses in the game each time you play, offering up six different routes when these tracks are revisited. This should keep some expert as well as novice players from blowing through familiar courses and should make for some interesting live events in online play.

As for Miami… welcome and hey! You just got to see a gameplay video of someone driving faster there than you can do in real life thanks to all the traffic they’ve got down there. Aren’t you the lucky one! Well, unless you get carsick watching all these videos I’ve been posting… oops.