Child of Light Gets The Always Amazing Amano Touch…

Posted on April 7, 2014 by geelw

While I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork up close and personal, it was too many years ago here in NYC when he was promoting HERO and I even got to chat briefly with him about his art on the Front Mission games thanks to a friend who translated my questions and compliments. Anyway, here he is doing what he does best for Ubisoft’s upcoming Child of Light and making me wish I could actually afford to own one of his paintings one of these days. It’s too bad this video isn’t longer, but oh well – sometimes you have to take the art you can get however you can get it, right? Child of Light will be available April 30 for assorted platforms and yes, you need to buy it.

Child of Light is My Game of the Month (And I Haven’t Even Played It)

Posted on April 2, 2014 by geelw

Well, what else is new, right? As soon as I saw screen shots of Ubisoft’s upcoming RPG Child of Light, then video of it in action, I had to immediately add it to the top of my “PLAY IT OR ELSE!” pile and add both a background and banner using the gorgeous art to the site. It’s coming out April 30, 2014 for PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and Wii U, so if you’re currently owning one of these systems or have a PC capable of running this game, you pretty much have zero excuse not to snap this up. That new UbiArt Framework tech makes the game look like a storybook come to life and I’d love to see it get used as a game making tool by an even wider range of artists as the years go by. Of course, as this is a digital only release, I’m hoping it’s not gone and forgotten by gamers out there who still prefer packaged titles for a few key reasons. But as with anything rolling out these days in this economy, we’ll see what happens…

E3 2013: Might & Magic X Legacy: “Old School, New Rules”, Huh? OK, Does It Run In DOS?

Posted on June 8, 2013 by geelw

Alright, I’m kidding, Ubisoft (sort of). Anyway, Limbic Entertainment’s plan of a partially user-aided development process for its upcoming Might & Magic “sequel”/reboot is both a great and terrible thing. Great indeed, as we’ll see some fine ideas implemented that make the game what longtime fans want to play (er, hopefully without too much fighting amongst the gamers helping out). Terrible because I’m betting the game will require a higher-end PC than what one would think should run this, the game may have modern elements that make it less than enjoyable (if too many ideas make it in that kill any challenge thanks to casual play modes)and finally, at the end of the day, it’s still a niche RPG that will be over the heads of the crowd that can’t get past the grid-based movement and lack of stuff blowing up every three seconds.

Then again, this isn’t the game for them at all and goofy cartoon trailer aside, Limbic looks as it it might be able to resurrect this franchise and make me forget all about Might & Magic IX, an under-polished mess of a game that crept into retail with way too many issues to make it playable for long. Anyway, the art I’ve seen so far looks great – as long as the results are solid (and yes, this also gets a console release at some point so more can play it), this could be a more than welcome return to form…

Might & Magic X Legacy: Ubisoft (Finally) Revives The Classic RPG Series (Fingers Crossed Version)…

Posted on March 21, 2013 by geelw

MMX_gobliny Sure, my first Might and Magic game was the lowly (but still incredibly hard as hell) Sega Genesis game, Might & Magic: Gates to Another World, but that turned me onto the series and I followed it onto the SNES and later, PC as time went on. Anyway, the series ended up dying a horrible death in 2002 with the rushed release of an unfinished Might & Magic IX (as publisher 3DO was itself dying in the flames from churning out too many mostly awful games for far too long) and has until now, been a series longtime fans have been begging to see reborn. Well, it looks as if Ubisoft is finally getting it in gear, as German developer Limbic Entertainment is working away on an all-new installment that’s coming to PC and will be revealed this weekend in Boston at this year’s PAX East.

Might & Magic X Legacy should be one to watch out for if it’s done right, so here’s a few fingers and toes well-crossed that the dev team and Ubisoft get this out in fine form AND get it to gamers across multiple platforms and this classic style of RPG is strong thanks to a few indie darling hits and seeing MORE people playing a new M & M game instead of the high end PC elites only will make more fans of this game and more loot for the developer and publisher at the end of the day. Hell, Ubisoft slapped the much more casual-friendly Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes onto anything with a screen except for digital watches (and that was only because the screens were too small), so let’s see Vita and 3DS versions even if they’re scaled back or entirely different side-stories, I say…