Cultchah! MoMA’s Applied Design Show Brings Gaming to the Masses (Huddled and Unhuddled)…

 

Hokay, I’m sort of on an extended road trip today (and as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions), so this will be brief (with much more to come later). The Museum of Modern Art held a press event to show off one of their new exhibits, Applied Design (in case you didn’t see the video above). In addition to some amazingly practical objects formed from the alteration of nature into things such as furniture, tools and a rather innovative mine sweeping device, a number of important video games were on display, many of them playable. I’ll post a bunch of videos later (and some may even have ME in them – oh noes!), but if you’re in the NYC area from March 2 (tomorrow!) to January 31, 2014, it’s worth checking this exhibit out.

Tomb Raider “Reborn” Trailer: Everyone’s Got Girl Power, It Seems…

 

It looks as if Square Enix and veteran developer Crystal Dynamics have hit a big home run here in this reboot of the franchise and this new video is probably the best bit of PR to come out of this. Watching it is a bit tough, but you’ll want to rescue a tree full of kittens or kick a burning bus down the street into a fire hydrant right afterwards I bet. Just don’t tell the cops that I told you you SHOULD do this. I have enough trouble with people jumping in lakes and flying kites on my say-so. Just go buy the game instead if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360…

Retro City Rampage WiiWare Trailer: Old School Shows New School How it’s Done (Again)…

 

Vblank Entertainment’s laugh ’til you drop almost all-out action hybrid game, Retro City Rampage is finally Nintendo bound and it’s about time. Fans of the company’s classic NES console will be getting all misty-eyed and confusing this with all of the games it merrily references while their kids will be wondering why Mommy or Daddy is hogging the controller and locking them in their room. It’s not like they don’t make enough money to buy their own Wii or Wii U, right? Ah well – kids, just be extra nice to Mom and Dad – they’ve just never forgiven Grandma for tossing their games in the trash when they went off to college, that’s all. Anyway, get this on WiiWare tomorrow and get ready to play until you drop.

Review: Driftmoon

driftmoon_name

driftmoon_boxshot2Platform: PC

Developer: Instant Kingdom (Ville/Anne Mönkkönen)

Publisher: Instant Kingdom

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (95%)

Do you own a decent cap or hat, dear reader? If you do, go get it now, put it on and tip that cap or hat in the general direction of Finland (Jyväskylä, to be a bit more precise). If you don’t have a good cap or hat, what’s wrong with you? It’s cold outside! Anyway, what’s with all the polite haberdashery tilting? Well, dear reader, it’s a hats off to Ville and Anne Mönkkönen for the seven years of work that went into one of the best games of this year. Driftmoon is an instant classic you’ll want to dive into and explore at your own pace just to experience great game design in action. Solid writing, great visuals and the excellent hybrid adventure/RPG/puzzle gameplay make a visit to Driftmoon well worth the price. As great as the game is, the included easy to use editor gives this one endless possibilities for users to craft their own potential classics…

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Gallery: Mystic Chronicles (Or: Natsume Keeps The PSP Flame Burning Into The Summer Months)

MC_screen (1)Well, well, well… I didn’t even know Japanese developer/publisher Kemco was still around these days, but thanks to Natsume deciding to localize the company’s iOS RPG Fantasy Chronicle for North America as Mystic Chronicles for a summer 2013 release, I’m a bit happier to see the developer still cranking out fun games that more genre fans here in the US will get to enjoy. Tile-based 16-bit visuals straight out of the SNES and Genesis days? Check. First-person field and dungeon combat (and turn-based at that)? Check. Cute anime/manga art all over the place (like it or not – I happen to like it a lot in this type of game). Check.

All I need to know now is when it’s coming out and how much I need to spend to get my grubby paws on it (retail is preferred, but I’ll take a PSN code to get my fix). Hey, I have three PSP’s here, at least one of which gets regular usage (Earth Defense Force 2 Portable has been on constant play here since I got it from Play-Asia), so I won’t be needing to go nuts digging through the Bins of Doom here looking for them.

Anyway, onwards to the gallery with you! Watch your step and duck, as it’s below the jump… Continue reading

Bugbear Entertainment Has Been Some Busy Bees. You’ll Want A Seat Belt For This One.

 

I’ve had a mad crush (pun intended) on Bugbear Entertainment and their games since I first got a debug demo for FlatOut on the original Xbox many years back and played it to death. I have almost all their other racers (yes, even Glimmerati for the Nokia N-Gage, which needs to remade for other platforms so more people can see how fun it is) and in general, all you need is one go at any of their games to see that these guys love making arcade style racing games that aren’t supercar showcases at all. They’re still around and have made some fine racers, but some were better than others and while each game was well worth playing, I felt it would be a nice thing to see the developer go back to its roots and do something that was fun and chaotic with a hefty amount of car damage making it a guaranteed smash with fans of this type of game. Hey, car puns are too easy to write – I’m holding back here just so I don’t go overboard, folks…
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NEOGEO X Classics Coming In April With Another Cool Bonus

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And so it begins (or continues, actually). In case you were wondering when and how SNK/Playmore was going to be getting new NEOGEO X games out, well the mystery has been solved. In late April, selected game retailers will stock the upcoming 3-game card NEOGEO X Classics: Volume I, which is the first of five three-game card compilations on the way. This next series of game cards will feature the following arcade hits from the company’s huge library:

ART OF FIGHTING 3
BLAZING STAR
BREAKERS REVENGE
FATAL FURY: MARK OF THE WOLVES
KIZUNA ENCOUNTER
THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’96
THE LAST BLADE 2
METAL SLUG 2
SAMURAI SHODOWN 3
SAVAGE REIGN
SENGOKU
SHOCK TROOPERS
SUPER SIDEKICKS 3 – THE NEXT GLORY
TOP HUNTER
WORLD HEROES JET

In addition, each card will ship with the “ROCKET” High-speed Data Transfer and Charging Travel Cable, at no additional cost. There’s also a system update on the way as well as a travel case for the handheld. More details will drop soon, so stay tuned for more. I’m quite happy with my X, so seeing it get more support is making me a happy camper indeed…

PS4 Reveal Event (Full Version)

 

Put on a pot of whatever and pull up a seat. Here’s the full press event I didn’t get to see live, so whee, we get to watch it together!  Hey, it’s NOT a rerun if you’ve never seen it, right? Hmmm. this brings back memories, though. I need to interview Mark Cerny at some point, as he’s been missed for a while on the gaming scene. KNACK looks like a classic PSOne platformer remade with amazing physics and I can’t wait to see more. Amusingly enough, I haven’t seen Dave Perry in years (he’s something like seven feet tall in person), but I remember a chat we had about Shiny’s development on The Matrix: Path of Neo and some other fun stuff a few years back at a loud Atari event.  Enjoy the ride, folks… Sony’s just getting started.

Below the jump is the official press release (I fixed a silly spelling error I caught), as I’m too busy to edit the darn thing down, you get to pore over every official word and hold Sony to the fire if they don’t deliver the goods…

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More PS4 News? OK: The Witcher 3 Will Be A System Seller For Some.

TW3_WHlogoThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is confirmed as coming to the PS4 (as I figured as soon as I read the initial press release a few weeks back), so FINALLY, Sony fans get to play a CD Projekt RED game and see what they’ve been missing. Hopefully this also means we’ll see The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings or even better, ALL The Witcher games get some love on the new console, as together they make up one of the best written and best looking fantasy/RPG games you’ll play, bar none. I don’t know what’s in the water or food there, but the team at CDPR is made up of some truly talented and smart folks who get it done and get it done right. I can’t wait…

All I need now are some trailers and screens to keep me dreaming of misty woods, crumbling castle and creepy beasties to avoid (or dice up like a sack of carrots if they get too hostile) and I’m good…

Watch_Dogs & Watch The Future Arrive on PS4

That’s almost it for the PS4,
some cool tech on the way
A new controller, camera too,
and some new games to play.

I’ll post more vids later to-day
I’m just about to drop
Expect more Sony stuff to see
(your eyes, they just may pop!)