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.

IndieGala Every Monday Bundle: Hard To Pass Up (And Harder To Put Down)

Posted on April 7, 2014 by geelw

Let’s see now… six games for $1.89 for the next 15 hours, then the price jumps to a still insane $2.99 for the same content? SOLD, even though I already have the excellent A Valley Without Wind in my still hefty backlog of games to be played. Nice. Get this deal HERE and make sure to take a look at the assorted Happy Hour deals on other bundles and the other sales on too many titles while you’re there.

SOMA “Lambda” Trailer: Frictional’s Upcoming Game Is Drowning In Atmosphere…

Posted on April 5, 2014 by geelw

Literally and figuratively it would seem. And all this time I thought it was going to be a more landlocked futuristic experience. Oops. On the other hand, it still may be, as this long teaser doesn’t explain much other than sometime in the future we’ll see a 100 percent waterproof computer that’s probably a few generations too large. Unless, of course this whole wearable tech trend that I despise so much fails miserably like it needs to. That and the death of the “holodeck” as a potential money wasting concept only the stupidly wealthy can afford. Bleah. Just give me a good game, something to play it on and if it’s not a handheld system, a controller and I’m happy. Anyway, SOMA isn’t out for a while (2015, it’s looking like) – more updates to come as they drop.

Always Sometimes Monsters Trailer: You’re The Moral Of This Story…

Posted on April 4, 2014 by geelw

Coming in May from developer Toronto-based developer Vagabond Dog and publisher Devolver Digital, Always Sometimes Monsters looks to tackle a few of life’s more interesting challenges in playable form. That trailer has piqued my interest for a few reasons, as it seems the game isn’t starring your generic hero or heroine and in fact, it looks as if you’re allowed to create a character that expands into what they used to call “alternative lifestyles” back in the day. Okay, I’m kidding a bit. It’s always good to see games embrace all types of people and this one looks as if it’ll resonate even among non-gamers who see that trailer and get to thinking about some of their own real life choices in similar situations. Well, that’s exactly what the developer wants, so I think they’ve got the attention of some of you now, right?

Alien Isolation Update: The Sounds Of Nostalgia Recreated For Your Screaming Pleasure…

Posted on April 4, 2014 by geelw

What’s looking like the best Alien game to date is getting even better thanks to the development team’s focus on getting every element right as rain. Jerry Goldsmith‘s score to Alien was and in not only one of his best works, it’s one of the best genre soundtracks ever created (even though the original film drops a chunk of it in favor of cues from Goldsmith’s score to Freud and some classical tracks). I could write an entire post on the score alone, but I’ll wax poetic on it at some point in the future, as I’m kind of otherwise occupied with a living pile of work shuffling around the room here and making a nuisance of itself. Anyway, as you can see and hear here, Alien Isolation will get an additional layer of creepy thanks to the sound design and as a huge fan of the original film, I couldn’t be happier.

Alien Isolation lands on PC and PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One on October 7, 2014. back with more once Sega hits the inbox with an update…

New Mario Kart 8 Gameplay Trailer: HD Does Make A Difference, Doesn’t It?

Posted on April 3, 2014 by geelw

While a few previews I’ve perused say it’s more or less the same old Mario Kart in terms of gameplay, on the visual front at least, Nintendo has a killer game here. Now, I’m not a big fan of this series because I prefer more realistic looking racers and have been karted out for years thanks to too many sessions with older entries in this franchise. But it’s hard to ignore those shiny (finally) CG-quality visuals doing their thing (and how!). Granted, the Wii U needs more than one game to push its sales numbers up and this one will indeed sell to fans of the games and maybe even move a few folks to finally commit to purchasing the console. On the other hand, at the rate new first-party games are dropping on the console, Nintendo will need to hope this one blows the doors off anything else released in May just so sales are steady or at least massive within the first month. As always, we shall see, but I predict yet another “evergreen” for the company that sells for as long as they continue to make games for the console.

Dungeon of the Endless Update: Your Multi-Almost Everything Game is Almost Ready!

Posted on April 3, 2014 by geelw

Amplitude Studios’ upcoming multi-hybrid game is looking quite spectacular in this new trailer and updated screens combo plus the mix of genres (just watch the trailer, as the very thought of writing all that out is making my fingers hurt. Here, go ogle some new screens and make sure to read some of the amusing descriptions in the pics that have them:

Okay, let me get back to work, because I got caught up in reading some of those screens as well. You can get more info on Dungeon of the Endless HERE (official site!) and HERE (the game’s Steam page where you can sign up for early access and more!)

Risen Comes to GOG.com: Adventure (And Lots of Dying For The Impatient) Await!

Posted on April 3, 2014 by geelw

One of my favorite adventure/RPGs of the past few years is finally DRM-free and ready (once again) for its close-up. While the Xbox 360 version of Risen suffered from a terrible downgrade in visual quality, the gameplay was intriguing and challenging enough to keep me playing. Of course, the PC version is the way to go if you can run it smoothly with all the settings up, so here you go for a measly four bucks. While the game is shorter than developer Piranha Bytes’ Gothic games, there are a ton of things to do and places to go on that deadly island your character gets shipwrecked on. The solid sense of accomplishment you get from surviving those early encounters is bolstered even further as you take down enemies that previously caused you grief (and there are many right from the beginning of the game) and your character grows into a force to be reckoned with.

Anyway, I’ll shut up now and let you get to checking this one out. It’s a really nice surprise for fans of European made open world RPGs as well as quite the sleeper that should have gotten a lot more attention. As for Risen 2? Well, we’ll talk about that one later, as I still need to finish it one of these days and can’t say whether or not I like it just yet…

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 Gets Knockbacked Into May…

Posted on April 3, 2014 by geelw

Game delays are nothing new, so this isn’t really a big surprise. Still, you have to love the press release Neocore Games sent out to announce the delay:

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II Delayed due to Monster Invasion

Slightly delayed, but no need to worry – all that extra time will be spent polishing the game. The new release date is set to May 22, 2014.

So, what happened to the April release date of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II? Well, we could blame the supernatural or the bad Vrikolak meat in the fridge, but the truth is, we want to release a superb game as polished as possible on release and that will take a little longer than we thought. We want to make sure the sequel is superior to the first game in every aspect and it keeps you nailed to your chairs all the way to the end with its engaging new story. Now the new date will also mark the anniversary of the first game’s release. So be ready to hunt down the new swarm of monstrosities when the game hits Steam on May 22, 2014.

All of you are reaping souls right now anyway, aren’t you?

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is available for pre-order on PC. To pre-purchase the game, head to neocoregames.com/store and choose from the various supporter packages in various price ranges.

Me, I’m currently NOT reaping souls because Blizzard has ignored PS3 and Xbox 360 owners of Diablo III, but I have other stuff to keep me occupied while I wait for the man with the hat and Lady Katarina to make their second appearance in a more polished form. That, and I can also replay the beta a few more times just to see how all those other character classes do against the hordes.

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…