Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Unboxing: Poor Teddie’s Gonna Get Bopped Quite A Lot. It’s in the Cards!


 
Hmmm. It seems that Atlus USA has a lot of headless people working for it. Okay, that’s just PR guy John Hardin showing off the game and bonus items in that video and not the Headless Non-Horseman doing some part-time work. Anyway, half a set of tarot cards and a inflatable Teddie Bop Bag may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but both will get some usage by fans of the Megaten games who need a break from this rather awesome fighting game. As noted in that title above, poor Teddie’s gonna get beat up pretty badly, but just follow the instructional portion of this video and don’t go all NFL player on the poor vinyl bear-thing. Besides, he’ll probably haunt your dreams and beat up on YOU in them if you play too rough…

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is out on September 30 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Crimes & Punishments (Sherlock Holmes) Launch Trailer: Elementary? Not So Fast, You Armchair Sleuths…


 
Oh, the rather droll and humorous closing exchange between Holmes and Watson is probably worth buying the game outright, but I think Focus Home Interactive and developer Frogwares want players to get more than just a moderate chuckle when the snap up this latest Sherlock Holmes game. It’s out on September 30 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC and looks like it’s going to be a pretty solid game. I’m actually behind in the series, but I may grab this one and work backwards just because it’s not really a franchise where you need to dive into each game in a particular order at all. You just have to love the man and his work. Still, I wonder what’s for dessert on that menu and whether or not the detecting duo actually attend that soiree they’ve been kindly invited to? A good mystery always deserves better clues, I suppose…

Godzilla Set to Stomp All Over PS3’s In December (Only In Japan, Of Course!)

BIG Godzilla 


 
Godzilla PS3Well, this was a bit of a surprise to see earlier today. And of course, despite having the new Godzilla from the US-made film as a DLC character… this isn’t even going to get an English localization release outside Asian territories, so it looks as if I’ll be helping this sell out of at least one production run at some point. Thanks to Play-Asia for popping this news into my inbox and making both my tired eyeballs pop open this morning.

After I recovered them from under my chair and washed them off, I pretty much realized the chances of this game coming out here in the west was zero multiplied by a few hundred zeroes. Not that we don’t need a new Godzilla game, mind you. It’s just that there hasn’t been one in a few years and while plenty of kaiju fans would buy this outright on a disc or as a download, I’m not sure that “plenty” is enough to justify the localization costs.

As you can clearly see from those videos and the game’s official site, this one sure looks pretty spectacular for a Godzilla game, so here’s hoping it’s not only as good as it looks, but VERY import friendly for those who want to snap up this region-free game and haven’t a clue about the language barrier thing most imports hit newbies with right out of the gate. If Bandai Namco’s US arm somehow decides to get this one out here, I’ll be the first one to let out a roar even if it’s only as a digital download. As usual, we shall see… but don’t hold your radioactive breath, folks…

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Update: Two More Reasons To Jump Out Of Your Seat


 

#AINope will be trending if I have my way, but I’ll very likely be far too busy ducking and weaving in my chair while playing Alien Isolation to do much social network socializing. Nope, I won’t be Twitching unless it’s involuntary and from the game creeping me out from playing past a certain point. No tweeting unless I’ve a police whistle around my neck and I’m calling for help before I throw a shoe at my TV screen. And definitely no facebooking at all, because that’s actually more frightening than any game ever made. Yaaaaaah!


 

Alien Isolation lands in stores and digital delivery systems on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Back with more ways to die horribly in this soon to be modern sci-fi horror game classic in a bit…

Gauntlet is BACK. Just Buy It And Bring Some Friends Along For The Ride!

Nice. Arrowhead Game Studios has done classic and current gamers a solid by making their Gauntlet reboot a more than worthy nod to the original arcade classic. I sure hope to heck this sells REALLY well and someone has had the foresight to get the developer some console dev kits, as this game is PERFECT for some solo or offline/online couch or not co-op play sessions. That and some of us old fogies like playing the game with some sort of joystick and not a keyboard/mouse setup. Also, it would be excellent to have the ability to take this one on the road as a Vita or (if it’s not too much trouble to do a new version down the road) 3DS game. Eh, we’ll see what sales figures and company heads say, I suppose. The game was made for the masses back in the day and there’s NO reason it shouldn’t be available on anything else that can handle it, I say…

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.


 

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.

A (Not So) Gentle Reminder: Pirates Do Whatever The Heck They Want, Arrrr!

TLAPD SkylandersSo (Ouch!). Yesterday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day and for a while I’ve always managed to more or less avoid “celebrating” that non-holiday that’s become one too many people take seriously (Ouch!). Anyway, I thought I’d make it clean through the day and not HAVE to post a single eyepatch, booty, or “Arrrrr” reference and actually did so, going to bed around 2am or so with a clean conscience.

That didn’t last long thanks to something resembling a pair of plastic hammers thumping me on the head until I woke up (Ouch!).

It turns out those Skylanders toys from the hugely popular game series? Yeah, they’re REAL. And tend to get really annoyed when they get ignored (Ouch). So, here’s a nice, belated post to go do something piratey yesterday(Ouch!) or ALL the time, not just on that designated day. Why? Well, because (and in case you didn’t read the title of this post)… pirates do whatever the heck they want! (Ouch!)… “Arrrrr!” Hey, Activision? Can you come and get this little guy out of my house? Those plastic hammers may be tiny (and plastic), but they do leave little dents in everything he hits. Hey, (Ouch!) I’ll trade him back for a PS3 or Wii U copy of Skylanders Trap Team (coming to PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One, Nintendo Wii/Wii U, Nintendo 3DS/2DS and Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Google tablets on October 5, 2014. Okay, is that enough? OUCH! Okay, okay… I’ll post the other video, too:

There, HAPPY now? (Ouch!) Okay, okay! AND I’ll buy the game too! (Great, now I’ll have that goofy song looping in me head allll dayyyyy, arrrrr!)

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Trailers 2-4: #JustBarelyIfAtAll (If You Need To Know)…


 
Nope…


 
and Nope…


 
annnnnnnnd, make mine a triple, bartender. Or, “No more for me, thanks, I’m dyin’!”

Yeah, it looks as if there are quite a few ways to expire in Alien Isolation and I’m betting some of you won’t need a rocket to ride through space when this game launches on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Hopefully Sega and developer The Creative Assembly have been shutting out the trolls and paying attention to those of us who want to experience the game on any platform to see if it’s a worthy follow up to the 1979 film as intended and those expecting some run of the mill FPS with the license stamped on realize it’s not all about what they want and all about what the CA is bringing to the table in the horror/sci-fi genre. Respect is a simple enough word for this one and I’m in for the long haul as far as spreading the word if this one’s a winner.

Pathologic Update: 17 Days To Go. Getting To Its Goal, Body By Body…


 
Slowly but surely, this remake of the 2005 sleeper PC game Pathologic is getting funded via Kickstarter, so hop in and splash around those plague-riddled ponds if you want to see this come to fruition. I love the unsettling vibe this gives off, that slow-loading pistol (and if you didn’t squeak a tiny bit when the camera dipped up and that bird-suited thing was standing there, you’re a better person than I am) and the overall air of gloom that makes this one special. Then again, if this real life ebola thing gets into the country, we’ll all be doing that dance those quirky rejects from Mummenschanz are soon enough. Man, I hate it when reality intrudes on my gaming life. Hopefully this gets funded and finished before the planet goes all 12 Monkeys, ha and ha… *gulp!*

HTR+: The Vita Gets A Fun-Looking Slot Car Racer (But Try Convincing The Trolls)…


 

Sure, if you were or are silly enough to ONLY buy a home or portable game system purely for visuals and how many AAA titles you can stuff in your shorts to show off to friends, a game like this enhanced port of HTR+ may look as if it’s not up your alley at all. On the other hand, if you’re like me and grew up with HO-scale racing sets (I was an AFX kid), this game is something that NEEDS to be played on the Vita. If you’re coming from a simulation or arcade racer background and have never tried any sort of slot car game (or actual slot car racing), you’ll need to get used to the controls and how they differ from what you’re more accustomed to.

tela006
 

“But those cars and tracks look like plastic toys!” Yeah, so what? They’re SUPPOSED to. “Oh nooooo! Another mobile game!” Which means you never played the mobile version to see if it was any good and didn’t realize that the Vita version isn’t a straight lazy port job. “I bought a Vita for THIS?” Obviously not, as you’re not getting a gun pointed at your head and forced to buy anything you dump on without playing it. And so forth and so on come the usual internet trollers who bash stuff when they should be expanding their horizons. That stuff got old and started collecting a pension five years ago and I’m gathering there’s no developer who wants to hear unsolicited comments from folks who seem to play LESS games and spend MORE time complaining about them. Anyway, I’ll look into getting a review code and seeing how this one plays, as that trailer set my nostalgia meter off big time…