Monster World RPG Finally Gets An Update!

Posted on October 26, 2013 by geelw

EDIT! Oops. There’s also a gameplay video up that I missed in my hurry to post this news, so it’s now below.

More precisely, I finally got back around to checking up on the boys at Max Team and they’ve posted that video slideshow you’re watching above with one eye as you read this text with the other. How DO you do that, I have to ask? It would sure make my job easier if you could teach me! Anyway, As you can see in that slideshow, the game is coming along really nicely and according to a post on the dev blog, the game is pretty much done save for the long and arduous process of debugging the game so it plays as great as it looks with no pesky issues slipping into the finished code.

The dynamic duo of Massimo and Fernando plan to pump up things in a big way once the game is ready for release and I’m betting fans of Sega’s classic Monster World games (I know a few of them including myself) will be all over this in a heartbeat once that download is posted. I still can’t believe they’re doing this in RPG Maker 2003, but such are the wonders of doing all your artwork by hand and not using only the assets in the program, folks!

The Wonderful 101 Demo Out Now: FINALLY (But Not A System Seller This Year)…

Posted on August 9, 2013 by geelw

My biggest complaint about the Wii U is the lack of demos on the eShop (and yeah, yeah, I do KNOW many developers hate making demos). Anyway, The Wonderful 101 demo is now live and ready to play, so if you’ve a Wii U at home, this one’s a MUST play. Um, that is all (as I’m in the middle of downloading it myself). I can very safely say that my Wii U is VERY happy right about now… maybe I’ll post some impressions over the weekend or later. As for that title above, while I know the game will do well at retail, I don’t think it’s going to sell systems to very many people unless it’s to a handful who were waiting until the game dropped to buy in. Platinum makes some VERY excellent niche titles, but not games you want to run over old ladies to pick up a console for. Just stating the truth, kids.

That said, Nintendo has always carved its own path out in this industry, so other than some woes they’ve noted about being surprised at how difficult and expensive making the move to creating HD content has been, they’re pretty much set in their ways as to what they want to see in the future.

Dark Souls II Hands On: Home Again For the Hardcore…

Posted on August 1, 2013 by geelw

As I noted earlier, if there was any doubt that From Software was making Dark Souls II “easier”, all one had to do was play the demo build that’s making the rounds (it was a huge hit at this year’s E3 as well as the more recent San Diego Comic-Con) to be shown the error of misreading that quote from one of the game’s directors a few months back. The game isn’t “easy” at all, but more accessible in terms of getting you into the action quicker, getting rid of backtracking yet upping the scale of the maps to an impressive degree. As to the demo, it’s brutal but beatable and although I didn’t make it to the gigantic knight boss, I did stick around for a bit to watch a few fellow editor types step up to the plate, swing and miss wildly, their chosen characters dying in a few not so pretty ways…

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Late Night Game Week (Final Stage!): Wii, U Get 2 C That Jimmy Still Sux!

Posted on June 22, 2013 by geelw

Ha ha. OK, I had to do that horrid spelling job in the header as a little in-joke even I don’t get and yep, it’s another pre-show title to save time because I just KNOW Jimmy’s going to lose it and fail at another game live on TV. Anyway, saving the Wii U for his final post=E3 Game Week show meant this was either going to be a blowout for Nintendo because more people stayed home to watch OR… a bust because they were all out clubbing or whatever the crazy kids do on a Friday night (har har). Anyway, the 20-Ryu Hadouken/cartridge blowing/toothbrush circle bits was dumb and funny (and all those “World Records” they set WILL be broken over the weekend, I bet). That multiple video games “record” bit was stupidly awesome, though. Jimmy “played” six games all at once for twenty seconds and looked as if he was trying to escape from robbing a vintage game shop and ran into an arcade only to be trapped on a Dance Dance Revolution Supernova machine. Or something like that – just watch the video:

See? Now go break THAT record, Mr. or Ms. Guinness…

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Late Night Game Week (Day 4): Jimmy Answers the Call of Duty, Gets Ghosted…

Posted on June 21, 2013 by geelw

I actually wrote the headline before Jimmy’s show kicked off (hey, planning in advance works when you know what’s coming, correct?), but in case you missed it, the proof is above (or will be once NBC gets its act together, grrrr!).

Anyway, the show was a bit more game-centric and snappier than last night’s thanks to Defiance’s Grant Bowler, Jimmy running viewer videos of themselves playing with their mothers (pretty damn funny) and Elijah Wood geeking out with Fallon over The Last of Us before talking briefly about the new season of Wilfred and the remake of Maniac and then some fake video games in a skit.

As for CoD:G, well, it looks great on the Xbox 360 (but I think that dog has a LEAN button… whaaaat?!), but the demo was too short and other than a nice scripted building tumbling down and the novelty of playing as Riley (the dog) for brief bits, it’s looking like a CoD game, which is great to bad depending on your bias in either direction. I only play for the campaign mode anyway, so I may look into this on the PS3 or PS4 in the future. And oh yeah, I was actually wrong up above! Jimmy didn’t suck so much at the game today. Well, other than barking at the screen at one point (OK, it made me chuckle a bit).

Well, tomorrow is Nintendo’s day on the show, although I noted in the teaser for the show, they had “Nintendo Wii” and not “Nintendo Wii U” as the system being demoed. Oops. Er, unless Nintendo has some surprises we didn’t see at E3 planned for tomorrow, that is…

Late Night Game Week, Day 3: Jimmy (Almost) Survives Watch_Dogs And Aisha Tyler

Posted on June 20, 2013 by geelw

The problem with five minutes of one game (or two and a half minutes give or take of two games) is it’s IMPOSSIBLE to grasp what the hell some games are about. That said, in the case of Ubisoft’s stellar-looking upcoming action/adventure game Watch_Dogs, five minutes on a crazy and funny talk/variety show with a giddy host is excellent yet somewhat less than perfect for a game so huge. Don’t get me wrong, kids – I’d invite Jimmy Fallon over to the home office and show off some wacky games he’s most likely never heard of at the drop of a hat, BOOM, I’m there… er, he’s here (oh, you know what I mean). Thankfully, Aisha Tyler (also a HUGE gamer and comic as well as Ubisoft’s go-to celebrity as she also happens to be a character in the game) did a great job of explaining the concept and some of the open world gameplay before Jimmy took over and failed a mission (*sigh*). Well, he got further than I thought, but still. I’d actually love to see the guy host an ALL gaming show one day, not just one with funny segments and a few stars popping up to plug their assorted projects.

Of course, that would be a different show entirely, but a NEEDED one for gamers and G4 is no more (although, like a zombie with a steel-plated skull, the damn channel is STILL on the air pumping out movies and reruns of old shows including X-Play and Spike TV is too damn dumb to watch unless GTTV is on, as it’s just macho crap and blood beat-fests all day and then some. Yuk). I suppose internet “TV” shows are a good source, but not if one has a crap connection or hell, prefers gaming news from eight feet away and doesn’t own a damn Smart TV or whatever it is that basically means you’re online watching Honey Boo Boo when you COULD be learning a new language or something else more interesting…

Jimmy Fallon Versus The PS4: Jimmy Gets the Knack!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by geelw

While the Xbox One got two games crammed into five minutes, Sony’s new PS4 showcased one game, the family friendly platformer, Knack was the showcase title on this second day of Late Night’s Game Week. Game Director Mark Cerny was on hand to show off the new console and controller, noting that it’s been redesigned for shooter fans, most likely to let them know they’re not forgotten despite the somewhat cute game on display Jimmy was about to dive into. He also got in a quick shot at Microsoft by noting that used games could be played on the PS4 and (yes!) the console can indeed be used offline. Microsoft takes another knock there, thanks to it’s spotty PR performance not doing the best job at explaining things. As for Knack, Cerny showed off a quick cut scene and played for a quick bit (the game looks great, but Jimmy was easily distracted by some amazing looking water for a split second) before turning over control.

Fallon played a cool ice level that showed off some great-looking Pixar-like visuals and a familiar mix of 3D platforming and combat. Knack can smash and absorb bits of the environment in order to grow and take on the characteristics of whatever he’s busted apart. It’s sort of like a Metal Men comic meets Crash Bandicoot with the aforementioned Pixar visual style and it looks pretty incredible. That said, I’m gathering Knack was shown for a few other important reasons. Fallon’s viewer base covers a wide age range, so Sony wants to get the console buying adults on board with a non-violent game they can immediately buy with that PS4. The game is a first-party title and Sony’s first party studios are responsible for a good deal of the system’s hits, so as a launch title, Knack needs to show it can be as good as the best games of its type on the new hardware. Finally, I think the game may be a hard sell to some of the shooter fans (thus the earlier shout-out by Cerny), so I think Sony wants them to know their games are indeed coming (and on launch day, at that). Then again, those shooter fans DID get a great demo of Killzone: Shadow Fall three months ago.

Oh yeah, Jimmy didn’t suck too much at Knack, but he’s still like a box of puppies bouncing in the back of a moving truck when it comes to getting all giddy about stuff. You have to love the man for his sense of wonder other TV hosts fail to activate in anything like a realistic manner, so I’ll give him that much…

Jimmy Fallon Is Still Quite The “Spaz” As A Live TV Gamer. Oh Well…

Posted on June 18, 2013 by geelw

That said, I like that he’s so enthusiastic when he plays games even when he’s awful at them. Still, he did whip Microsoft’s Phil Spencer at the new Killer Instinct (it sounded like a flock of woodpeckers over on Jimmy’s arcade stick) before zipping over to Forza Motorsport 5 for some slow-ish racing action. No, the game wasn’t slow at all, kids. Fallon just drove that fake ride like I’d drive a real car on a real road (and I can’t drive – although I’ve actually driven a few times). As for how the games looked, well see for yourself, but DO play the video in HD. It’s hard to tell on a standard def TV or much on a HD set, as you kind of need to be in the same room to get the full effect of “next-gen” visuals. Still, Spencer was light on the details (well, five minutes is not a lot of time to do a segment on two games) and may have made a slip of the tongue (or not) by stating “The Xbox One has THREE times the power of the Xbox 360!” to Jimmy as he was tolling around and smashing the front of his expensive looking digital car. The problem with that three tmes thing… well, it’s TEN times the power elsewhere (Oops).

Well, the article says ten time the “computational power”, but still… it’s an awful mistake if it was one and given Microsoft’s PR stumbles these last few weeks, it’s another of the last things the company needs when it comes to damage controlling a sticky situation. Oh well… at least Spencer got the $499 price right on the nose. Fallon’s earlier spot on bad games was pretty funny as well. Hmmm… I think I need to send him a list of stuff one of these days (and maybe loan out stuff he can’t find), as I have 2000+ games here and probably more than a few stinkers in my kusoge pile…

FUSE “Hired Guns” Trailer: Well, The Demo Is Free, So They’re Really Not Hired (Yet)…

Posted on May 7, 2013 by geelw

Today’s the big day for Insomniac’s FUSE in terms of the gaming public finally getting a great demo to blast through on PSN and Xbox Live. I’ve been a fan of the game since I got some hands-on time late last year, but the project has been a bit of a gripe-fest for some fans of the developer who didn’t like the visual change from its initial reveal as Overstrike and the made-up rumors that EA “made” the team change the game to a modern-looking “gritty” shooter just to sell more copies. Every game goes through a few redesigns before the final product ships, so I give Ted Price and company the first and last word on the game’s visuals and gameplay (which by the way, are both solid). Anyway, if you’ve got a PS3 or 360 humming in your home, drop everything and go give that demo a shot. Insomniac certainly won’t mind the feedback once you’re all done, that’s for sure…

Gallery: Resident Evil Revelations

Posted on April 26, 2013 by geelw

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Jill_Porthole_Artwork Jill Valentine certainly isn’t on The Love Boat this time out and this creature-packed cruise from hell she’s stuck on will surely make her long “OK, let’s NOT do that again” list along with her every other appearance in a Resident Evil game where she’s put through the virtual wringer. But where would you fans be if she wasn’t always in some sort of peril with half a clip left and something really ugly closing in for it’s dinner? Granted, if she’s out of ammo and on her last legs, that’s actually more your fault than the game, right?

Anyway, Resident Evil Revelations looked fantastic as a Nintendo 3DS game last year, but completely redone for consoles and PC, it’s definitely a visual showstopper for the long-running franchise. With a May 21 release date set Capcom has announced that yes indeed, a demo for the upcoming multiplatform game will be released soon over Steam (PC), PSN (PS3), Xbox Live (Xbox 360) and eShop (Wii U), so you’ll get to try this one out and see the horror for yourself. Or not see it, because you’re too damn scared to tiptoe into the next room. Hmmm… I wonder if there’s even a tiptoe animation in the game. I guess that’s my winning suggestion to Capcom for the next installment in the series…

Below the jump are a boatload of screens and a part one of a great developer diary that looks at how RE’s of the past have shaped this installment – do drop in and check it out, please… Continue reading →