Double Earth Defense Forces News: EDF 2 Coming to Vita ! EDF 4.1 Coming to PS4! (In Japan at Least)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

Okay, I had a weird tickle in the back of my head today and as I had my Vita with me, I fired up Earth Defense Forces 3 Portable (EDF 2017) just to see if there were any recent updates and when I clicked on D3Publisher’s Japanese game page for the EDF series and looked in the news section, my head spun around like Linda Blair’s in the Exorcist before I let out a little squeal of delight. Woo and hoo – the best EDF game is finally getting the portable remake it deserves AND that “new” EDF game for the PS4 is packing EDF 4 and some excellent new content onto next-gen hardware.

Earth Defense Forces Portable 2 V2 packs in the full PS2 game on the Vita, but it’s NOT a straight up port at all by developer and series creator Sandlot. A new 4-player mode, the Air Diver class from EDF 4 and some nice visual tweaks that don’t spoil the intentionally “retro” look of that PS2 classic are making me want to grab this one as soon as it’s available in Japan (or from Play-Asia where I’ll most likely get this from). Go ogle the two LOVELY screenshot galleries over at Gematsu (thanks, Gematsu!) while I compose myself for a minute… Continue reading →

FUND THIS! Graal Seeker: The Battle of Britain For A Shiny Cup o’ Miracles, Indie Style!

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

And who doesn’t want a retro-inspired turn-based strategy RPG with procedurally generated maps set in medieval Britain and thereabouts or as it’s noted by the developer, “a 2D narrative RPG with roguelike elements & tactical battles”? Welcome to Graal Seeker, a work in progress and Indiegogo campaign from Lugludum Game Studio. 26 days to go, about 1200 of 10,000 Euros raised and it’s also on Steam Greenlight for those who want to vote it in.

I’m liking the mix of stylized 2D art and 3D animated characters in those battles, the modding possible (you can create and share your own adventures!) and the fact that the dev team is showing this off in quite well in an early but polished enough state to get noticed by little guys like me who love promoting games they see and like (like being the imperative word here – I don’t write much if at all about stuff that doesn’t float my boat). That permadeath means the game should also appeal to fans of Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series or other games were dead characters don’t pop back up after they expire on the battlefield.

Of course, whether or not this one makes its target is all up to YOU, so I guess now that you’re feeling guilty, you HAVE to go check this out and maybe make a pledge. Hey, the rewards are sure worth it. Spend as little as five euros to get your name in the credit or go all out and spend 1000 Euro and become a Knight of the Round Table (round table not included, but you’ll be a quite the hero to Lugludum Game Studios!). Now, I wonder who’s the first modder to do a Monty Python and the Holy Grail expansion or total conversion. You just KNOW one is coming and yep, that killer rabbit better be pretty much unbeatable.

Back in a bit with an update once the campaign is a few more weeks in…

Final Fantasy XV TGS 2014 Trailer: Doing That Double Take For Reasons Right & Otherwise…

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

Okay, we’re finally seeing a FF on console that looks exactly like those spectacular CG opening and story movies the series in known for, but man, what a cast of heroes this time out. What the what? Seriously. As great as this in-progress game looks, I really have no interest in playing as a too-long car (it looks like a Mercedes hearse convertible) full of big-haired bar band rejects. It’s not Social Distortion, it’s Antisocial Ripple in the Pond! Okay, it was a lot funnier when it popped into my head as I was typing. On paper, it’s a bust. *Le Sigh*…

(Thanks, GamesHQ Media!)

Hey, I love Tetsuya Nomura’s art and character designs (most of the time), but I dunno about this cast. Of course, it’s probably Square/Enix’ response to those FF X-2 games with its all female cast of heroines (and nope, I didn’t like those games much). Maybe I’ve finally outgrown this franchise after all, as I missed the XIII entirely, had no interest in any of the online only games and just grew weary of poking around message boards only to find people still whining about no official FFVII remake, FF games that only got a Japanese release not coming out here and other rolling over the keyboard nonsense that’s kept me away from most game boards for quite some time.

Eh, we’ll see, as usual. I remember when a new FF game was a system seller to some people. I’m not sure this newest one will be as big a mover in this more jaded age of gamers spending too much time gabbing about what they hate and less time actually playing stuff. But I may be wrong…

Neverending Nightmares Out Now For Steam & OUYA (!): Welcome to a True Horror Game, Folks…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Sometimes, I’ll see a comment about a horror game or film where someone states that the creator(s) must be “mentally ill” or words to that effect for coming up with such visions that put audiences under or behind their seats (or both). Well, Infinitap Games’ President and creator of Neverending Nightmares, Matt Gilgenbach has struggled with OCD and depression for years and made this honest and outright frightening game in order to share the wealth in terms of showing how powerful battling an invisible enemy can be. From the game description:

Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the developer’s actual battle with mental illness. In the game, you take on the role of Thomas who awakens from a terrible nightmare only to find that he is still dreaming. As he descends deeper through the layers of hellish dreamscapes, he must hide from horrifying apparitions and outrun his inner demons. He must discover which of the horrors he encounters are a manifestation of his own psychological state and figure out what reality will be when he finally wakes up.

As hellish as this looks, I absolutely have to give props to Gilgenbach for showing that people dealing with these conditions can actually be creative and necessary to this industry while creating content that’s deeper than it seems. Okay, for some of you the REALLY scary thing is this game is also on the OUYA because you most likely thought that micro console was DEAD and it’s clearly not going away just yet. Mua-ha-ha-haaaaa! Hmmm… perhaps Matt should have done a Wii U version as well just to cover the other console some people think is both feet in the grave. Anyway, get this game NOW for PC via Steam or if you have an OUYA, yeah, it’s a buy for that as well.

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

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Well, 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…

Endless Legend Is Out: Buy It & Just Toss Out Every Clock In The House…

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

You won’t need them because once you start playing this game, the concept of time is rendered meaningless. Well, that’s what a friend said to me over the weekend when he got the game. He’d been an Early Access guy and had been poking around with a pre-release version and letting me know how this new fantasy-themed 4X game was coming along (quite nicely, from what I heard). Over the weekend, he’d done nothing but get up in the morning, hop in the shower, pop out to the store for provisions and after that, he was pretty much glued to his monitor. Normally he doesn’t do this, but he’s got a big work week ahead of him and wanted to get in enough gameplay to tide him over until this coming weekend.

Of course, he gets to bed around 2:30am Monday (today!), but pops up at 6am only to find he doesn’t need to zoom out of the door at all because the big Monday conference had been pushed up a day thanks to a few surprise births among a few wives or women in his office being a few days to a week early. Guess who still popped out of bed, put a pot of coffee on and went back to Endless Legend? That guyyyyyyy! Yeah, that’s dedication, folks. It must also mean the game is worth a buy if you like the 4X strategy genre and need a new fix. I’ll need to knock a hole in my schedule AND toss out all the clock in order to even think about playing this game, but let’s see what I can do with a few things this week before I decide to dive in and forget about everything else for a spell…