I missed posting this latest Earth Defense Forces 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair video when D3Publisher posted it about a week ago. But now that I’m seeing it and smiling way too much, it seems that the game still hasn’t a US release date or publisher announcement. I’m gathering more will be revealed around E3 as to who gets the rights to drop this onto North American shores soon. My money says Namco Bandai (or is it Bandai Namco?) will do this, but I’m also holding out hope that D3Publisher of America once again does the deed.
Given that there’s a link between both publishers, anything is possible. This series may be niche outside Japan, but it certainly has a loyal enough following to support the PS4 version should it get the localization nod. Heck, do a promotion with Orkin or some more organic pesticide company to get more Americans into this game and you’re guaranteed a hit. Unless of course you run into the wrath of pro-invasive insect fans who think this stuff will lead to people being afraid of EVERY type of bug. Eh, you can’t please everyone, right? Riiiiiiight.
Even though I don’t play online games these days, Firefly Online has had me intrigued every since I heard there was an official game underway. Oddly enough, no one from any PR firm contacted me about covering it, so I assumed that was some sort of warning sign or worse, someone not wanting to do the hard work of getting the word out on something they thought was going to be too niche for its own good. Well, I was wrong on both counts as I found out when I bit the bullet and signed up for Firefly Online Cortex, the companion pre-game app currently available on Steam, Google Play and the App Store.
There’s not much to do in Cortex other than collect digital trading cards and points playing mini-games on a map of The Verse or reading news updates. That said, the cards are cool, there’s a second series coming soon and you can also score some even better bonuses by ponying up five bucks to attain Big Damn Hero status. This status will get some some great perks for the main game when it launches this spring on Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android OS. What kind of perks? Well, exclusive gear for your crew mates, access to items non-BDH players won’t have and some other neat stuff. Hey, they got my five clams without hesitation. I’m not here to babble about anything you can read in the FAQ here other than to add I like where this is all going and if you ever were a Firefly fan at some point in the past, you may want to think about signing up yourself.
What I like about the game based on the descriptions and video above it that it’s NOT at all forced social interactivity. You can play along with your virtual crew as you rise up in the ranks, taking your customized ship into charted and uncharted territories for fun and profit. The game is in fact, a single-player experience that just so happens to have some social elements added in like the ability to create and share quests with others. As it’s also powered by Unity, this means there’s a slim chance it may end up on other platforms (as in consoles) if it does well enough on the initial platforms it launches on (and there’s enough demand for a port in every port, of course).
Right now, my own personal choice will be what to play this on when it does ship. I’ve been eyeballing a few inexpensive tablets recently (primarily for gaming purposes) as well as dinking around on devices owned by a few friends while I decide to make up my mind. I suppose I could just run the game on the laptop just fine. However, I want to keep it freed up to write and have something else dedicated entirely to FFO. So, it may be a mobile platform after all that’s bigger than a phone and smaller than a breadbox. We shall see, but whatever I choose, Firefly Online will be played. At my own pace, of course.
Yes, Ember was supposed to be out last fall, but as CEO and creative director Jeff Birns explained at 505 Games recent NYC event, the team at N-Fusion has been a bit busy making things even better. The game looked fantastic when I first saw it, but it’s even more gorgeously detailed and as noted in my previous article, the best-looking isometric RPG on any device. Many new areas have been added, older areas have gotten changes and parts that needed work have indeed been worked on. Ten years of work and a proprietary engine that won’t quit go a long way in realizing a dream, is all I’ll say about the art and vast, carefully detailed open world players will get to explore.
I’ll even go out on a limb to say it definitely gives some PC role-playing games of any era a run for their money. Apple clearly has an exclusive to be proud of (the Steam version will most likely be released at some point after the iOS version), but how do you market such an amazing game on a device where most of its games really haven’t been marketed to the masses like AAA console games are?
While this latest delay may seem like “bad” news, developer Slightly Mad Studios is letting gamers know that the game is pretty much done (99.9% is certainly “pretty much done” to me!) and just needs that extra QA love so it ships across all platforms ready to run out of the gate:
“Despite our long heritage and pedigree in making critically-acclaimed racing games, Project CARS is by far the grandest and most intricately detailed of them all. Despite therefore the game being 99.9% complete, the remaining 0.1% attending to small issues and bugs has been tricky to anticipate. We’re absolutely dedicated to delivering a ground-breaking experience and by targeting mid-May fans can be assured that’s what they’ll receive” said Ian Bell, Head of Studio at Slightly Mad Studios. “Again, we want to thank our fans for their support and patience on this matter. There’s a high expectancy from racing fans around the world that Project CARS is going to be an exciting new contender in the simulation racing space and we firmly believe gamers deserve it to be in its most complete and polished state when they come to play it on day one. And since the gaming community is our primary focus and has always been at the heart of the project during development, we would like to offer some free content to all players as compensation for this short delay and as acknowledgement of how grateful we are. This gift, that we’re sure is going to excite fans, will be available from day one and revealed shortly. Keep an eye on our website for more info.”
To me, this reads “We want the console versions to ship out with hopefully zero need for day one patching, particularly the Wii U version.”, which is a good thing at the end of the day. Given the release of certain other high profile racers plagued with bugs (notably Sony’s DriveClub and UbiSoft’s The Crew), seeing Slightly Mad take the extra time to add that bit of extra polish their game up is a good thing. I’m holding out the Wii U version will get some love and respect, as Nintendo just can’t seem to get a break when it comes to good marquee racers that aren’t Mario Kart 8. Yeah, yeah, it’s lightning fast, looks phenomenal and most of all is FUN to play. But at my age, I tend to like my racers a bit more grounded in reality.
Okay, back to holding my breath for a bit longer, which is tough to to with a sore throat, mind you…
As soon as the box art appeared for the Japanese version of Oneechanbara Z2 Chaos, I stuck a .png file in a folder on my desktop to remind me to keep an eyeball peeled in case the game got a North American localization. I didn’t think it would actually happen, mind you. The last two games that made it over from this series didn’t do well critically, so it seemed those entries would be the last we;d see here.
Well, I was wrong, as Xseed Games is getting Tamsoft’s latest game out on the PS4 out in English this year (minus an “e” in the title). I’d gather this one will be a digital-only release, as it’s certainly more of a niche title. We’ll see soon enough, I suppose. Anyway, color me thrilled about this intentionally cheesy charmer that’s not at all for the kiddies.
So, I’m home today and feeling lousy as I deal with this evil throat, which seems to be clearing up a bit more, but not before giving me some guff and beige-green colored stuff to cough up. Yuck. Anyway, this PAX trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt made me feel better as I watched it, but I’m not quite ready to go monster hunting just yet. I’m trying to figure out which body part to sell so I can play this game when it comes out, but that’s another story for another time. Anyway, let me get back to my recuperation, as I’m way behind on a lot of stuff and can’t get much done if I’m sick as a dog. *Woof!*
As my scratchy throat woke me up to get it some more tea with honey, and I kicked and almost tripped over the box I put the names in when I got up (Memo to self: next time, make sure the box in on a table and not the floor!), I’ve decided to pick a winner for the La-Mulana EX Vita code. The funny thing is, one of the names I wrote popped out of the box when I kicked it and I was going to declare that person the winner (hey, I was kind of half asleep!). But I decided to redraw the winner just to be fair… and actually picked the same name again. Not easy to do when you pick facing away from the box the names are in while in a dark room with your eyes shut. Anyway, congratulations go out to:
Nate V.! (applause)
Check your email, mister!
As for you non-winners, listen up (and put down those torches!). Stick around if you happen to:
a) likes indie games and could use an instant mini-backlog
b) are a Star Wars fan who likes oddball collectibles
I have a couple of interesting giveaways in the works soon you may want to be a part of. No spoilers here, but it’ll be fun to see what happens…
If you happen to have a PlayStation Vita and haven’t picked up La-Mulana EX yet, you’re missing out on a few things:
Your character dying while getting attacked from all sides by cheap enemies.
Your character dying during a boss fight with something over ten times your his size.
Your character dying after you missed a pinpoint jump because you panicked and jumped again to certain doom (oops!).
Your character dying because you’re really not that good at these retro action/platform games but keep playing them anyway.
Get the picture? Okay, I’m only partially kidding. This game is hard as heck AND I’m not as fast on those buttons as I used to be. Pygmy Studios’ handheld port of this excellent throwback to the MSX days is out now and I have a spare code to give away. If you want it, just post in the comments below and I’ll RANDOMLY pick ONE winner. You need a Vita as well as access to the North American PSN shop, as that’s where the code needs to be redeemed. I guess that’s US and Canada entries only. Unless there’s a secret Canadian PSN shop I don’t know about. Let’s see now… it’s Wednesday, correct? Let’s shoot for a contest close of 11:59PM on Friday. I’ll pick one of you guys or gals at random and shoot you over your code. Get it? Got it? GOOD> Now, go enter already! No need to post an essay or reason you want to win at all, folks. Just an “I’m in!” gets you a chance. Good Luck!
I’d almost forgotten La Mulana EX was incoming on the Vita, but thanks to Rising Star Games hitting my inbox with this trailer, I’m reminded that this is a game that needs to be played. Of course, at my advance age, I’ll probably keel over from the old school difficulty curve the game sets up right from the first stage. But at least I’ll go down fighting, grrrr. Anyway, I need to bug Rising Star about that release date, as the banners on the site say it’s been out for a while, but I don’t see it anywhere on the US PSN shop. Eh, I’m in the middle of about twenty other things anyway, so perhaps that’s a good thing for now. Too many distractions means less work getting done, not more. At this point, I’m all for human cloning, provided I can have my double tinkered with so he types five times as quickly as I do (and uses more than four fingers).
Here’s a BIG kick in the pants for a Monday, courtesy of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. Okay, not really. it’s actually a brand new mobile game on the way from the folks at DeNA and developer ngmoco. Their upcoming F2P game Marvel Mighty Heroes looks to bring fast-paced tactical co-op action to iOS and Android devices soon. That teaser video above should get you fans motivated enough to pre-register for the game, but I’ll drop the press release below the jump if you need a tiny bit more convincing. Continue reading →
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 