What’s Cookin’?: (Almost) Everything in Moderation…


 

Yep, I’m still alive. My brain has been percolating a lot these past two weeks on stuff galore, so it’s been tough to focus on being too entertained. That said, I do like what Nintendo is up to on a few fronts despite me not even being interested in Super Mario Run because I don’t own an Apple device (yuk!), have zero plans to buy it on Android and even it it rears its cute run ‘n jump head on Switch, it’ll be a “meh!” as far as making a dent on my playlist. While a decent platformer gets played here and there by yours truly, I just don’t get that same thrill I used to back in the arcade to 32-bit era. A new Mario game gets the same sigh and pass as a AAA first-person shooter from me, Miyamoto magic or not.

Yeah, it’s cool and all, but I just can’t. The good here (it’s only ten bucks! – take THAT, $99.99 mobile game DLC!) is counterbalanced with the need for an always online connection to play. But given that ALL mobile games need to connect online at some point during play and Nintendo’s strict requirement is to prevent piracy and cheating, it comes off as a necessary evil more than a draconian law being laid down.

Well, to me at least.

On the other hand… The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Yep, sold. I’ve even gone and bought a few Amiibo to use in order to take advantage of the freebies that drop if you’re smart enough to have a few lying around. Hell, I was Amiibo-resistant until Hyrule Warriors revealed you can get five random gifts per day just by tapping figures on the Gamepad.

Anyway, let me close here for now and get back to cooking my actual dinner. My mind clears up a lot when I cook, so this post is a result of a meat sauce with ground turkey playing the part of beef. That’s going with some linguini that…(taste!) just turned al dente. Back in a bit, a trip to planet Nom awaits.

-GW

Ni no Kuni II: RENEVANT KINGDOM – Level-5, At The Top of Their Game


 

Feh, who needs Final Fantasy and its overly complex kitchen sink boy band kettle-pot plot latest entry when Level-5 is simply making some of the best, if not THE best pure JRPGs out there today? Don’t get me wrong, folks. I don’t hate FF at all. It’s just moved so far into being too hip/ster and modern for my tastes with each installment. The first Ni no Kuni was fantastic, albeit a wee bit too epic in length if one wanted to see and do it all. Sadly, my PS3 was stolen before I got to complete the game (over 90 hours was put into those save files), but this sequel got me pumped to dive in for more and more stunning visuals now that it’s a PS4 game. Just ogle the hand-drawn and painted magnificence (oh, alright, it’s all digital, but still!) and hear that solid voice acting knowing you’re in good hands with this upcoming console exclusive. Lovely work here, just beautiful and I can’t wait to dive in.

-GW

New Death Stranding Trailer: The Good, The Mads, And The Ugly


 

So. I didn’t watch The Game Awards this year because these sorts of back-slapping shows are meaningless for the most part, but I did catch a few YouTube vids of cringe-worthy moments I won’t discuss here. That said, the best thing saw post-show on YouTube next to new Zelda footage was this bizarre update to Hideo Kojima’s new and still in development PS4 exclusive, Death Stranding. The first trailer was a total brain-masher that people spent too much time dissecting, so you know that second one above was even more disorienting.

If you didn’t catch it, the guy holding the odd baby looks a wee bit too much like director Guillermo del Toro and that’s definitely Mads Mikkelsen with the inky stuff on his face. I have no idea what this game is going to be about, but like a bunch of people in the same boat, I want it just to see how Kojima and his team can pull it all together into something somewhat cohesive yet still intentionally baffling. Okay, there’s really nothing “ugly” about this trailer at all – I just needed to get a catchy title and that popped into my head first.

-GW

Maize Launch Trailer: Fresh Corn’s The Best

I’ll just leave this here because I’m busy, but really need to play this at some point because it’s one of the weirder game ideas I’ve seen brought to life:

Yep. That’s… odd. I like odd. And it’s on sale, too. You may never eat corn again. Or you will, but you’ll look at it funny when out at the market.

-GW

Zelda: Breath of the Wild Site Is A Breath of Fresh Air Today

link-w-wolf-link

Yep. While the disappointment of the release slipping possibly into next summer is a bit annoying, the fact that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild now has an official site chock full of too much info is a really good thing. Go poke around, please. Especially if you’re a big, cranky skeptic who didn’t get the chance to play the demo this past June and think an open world Zelda is somehow a bad idea despite the series being chock full of open world goodness from the very first entry.

-GW

Die Young: Take A Trip To Shock Shack In 2017

2 

Horror games are a dime a dozen these days (or less when on sale) and I think I’ve seen every jump scare-packed trailer out there at least three times. So yes, I am a very jaded guy when it comes to the usual broody music and tilted camera angles spelling out coming carnage in paint by numbers visual form. REDRUM! That said, Indiegala s.r.l (yep, the same folks with that great bundle site who also have the promising MMO from Brain in a Box called VOODOO in development and on Kickstarter) is poking at the genre with a sharp stick with Die Young.

As you can see in that trailer below, the build-up is cheery, the sights look lovely and things even kick off with a really a catchy tune… but the payoff at the end is quite the corker. Let me warn you now that the final shot is a bit disturbing (or definitely will be to some folks):

Ouch. I hope that’s not the heroine of the game, as it’s supposed to be a survival game about a gal who wakes up in a hole on an island and has to find her way off before the locals track her down. Deliverance meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or some other chase ‘n chop flick? This might work out well if it’s at least fair to the player and not some relentless gore festival with no escape. Consider it a challenge to stealth game fans, I guess. We shall see.

5 

My, those sunflowers sure are pretty, aren’t they?

-GW

Home Sweet Home Will Scare The Leftover Turkey Right Out of You

1-home-sweet-home-poster-01

Eeek. I made it about ten minutes into the demo for Thailand-based developer YGGGAME’s upcoming horror game Home Sweet Home before tapping out for the first time, too scared out of my skull to move another inch. Of course, I wisely (or not so wisely) went back and restarted, determined to push on through my nearly squeezing my poor mouse to death. Let’s just say you’re all very fortunate I’m not some YouTube streamer with a loyal or any following, as the assorted sounds I was making were often creepier than the demo, which is absolutely nightmarish and so far, very well done.

I’ll let the official site’s version of the story lull you into its spell here:

Tim’s life has drastically changed since his wife disappeared mysteriously. One night, after suffering from sorrow for a long time, he woke up in an unknown place instead of his house. While trying to escape from this place, he was hunted by a rancorous female spirit. Can he survive? Is this place actually his house? Does it relate to the disappearance of his wife? Some dark sinister secret is hidden inside this house, and it won’t be a place of happiness as it used to be any longer.

What actually happens in the demo is you wake up with a hangover in a messy, unfamiliar bedroom you don’t recall (was that your wife’s voice telling you to get up?) and when you open the door, the stack of furniture in front of it is the first fright because it’s unexpected and wait? Was someone trying to keep you IN that room? Fortunately, there’s a flashlight under the table you’re crawling under that comes in very handy. A walk through a few filthy hallways and rooms leads to a simple puzzle where you need to find a key to get out of a suddenly locked room… but after that, it’s a descent into almost peeing yourself.

Continue reading

A Little More Of The Last Guardian Is A Lot Of Awesome


 

Spoiler Alert: This is absolutely gorgeous. Oh, and yeah – you get too many hints on what to do early on. Ah well. December 6th is getting closer and I’m rethinking my non pre-order plans for a hot minute. Yeah, I may just go the digital route and not deal with a disc version. On the other hand, I like having something to hold onto, specifically in this case of The Last Guardian being Team ICO’s swan song. It’s one of the few games where I’m actually going in with expectations of a greatness and don’t intend to be disappointed unless everything collapses at whatever ending wraps this one up. We shall see, my friends… we shall see.

-GW

The Last Guardian: Almost Here, With A Tear

 

At the very least, The Last Guardian will be remembered as Team ICO’s swan song, long in the making and very likely well worth that long wait. Interestingly enough, there’s an official soundtrack LP (yes, on vinyl!) by Takeshi Furukawa being put out by the fine folks at I Am 8-Bit that looks really lovely.

thelastguardian-vinyl-gatefold2

As I no longer have a record player here, I’ll just settle for a copy of the game I expect to be readily available on its launch date. Hype on the game seems to have quieted down considerably over the years, but I’m expecting a post-review surge of purchases followed by the usual suspects returning the game because they don’t “get” it. Ah well… we shall see soon enough, right?

-GW

Save

The Elder Scrolls Online Goes Free Temporarily

tes_online-free 

Well. As an Elder Scrolls purist, I’ve resisted the lure of paying for this online only experience for a few core reasons. But thanks to Bethsoft and Zenimax Online’s plans to reel more of us in, I’m going to finally put a few days in and see if I like what’s here. This free trial lasts until 11/20 and is open to PC, Mac and PS4 users. Even more tempting: until 11/29, the cost of the full game drops 67% to $9.89, so it seems this plan may work for both companies after all. Still, my backlog is massive and my time is limited, so I don’t expect to do much over this trial period other than create a character and kick a few tires. We shall see. You Xbox One users griping, fear not. Your very own free weekend is coming soon.

Another incentive to play if you’re over 18 and have a valid passport is this awesome contest with some great travel prizes. granted, you don’t have to play in order to enter. But I’m sure that gesture would be appreciated.

-GW