Mortal Kombat Vita Bound This Spring

Posted on January 22, 2012 by geelw

“The NetherRealm team is committed to making sure that we follow up the success of 2011’s Mortal Kombat with an equally compelling experience on the PlayStation Vita,” said Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios. “The original game content and new features we developed for the PlayStation Vita will provide gamers with the best fighting game experience available on the new mobile platform.”

NetherRealm’s brutal battle ballet is back, this time arriving on the Vita sometime this spring. As with the PlayStation 3 version, the game will feature fan favorite Kratos as a playable fighter plus a number of new yet to be announced enhancements and features that should help it rocket to some pretty impressive sales. While I wait for more news and some screenshots from the upcoming game, it looks as if this version will start making appearances at a Vita Hill Social Club event near you at some point in the near future. Stay tuned for updates as we get them

Review: The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Posted on November 1, 2011 by geelw

Platform: PS3 (also on Xbox 360, PC)

Developer: Snowblind Studios

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE)

# of Players 1 – 3 (online 1 – 3)

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Official Site

Score: A-

Attempting to expand upon a revered and well-established canon such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth saga is indeed tricky business, particularly in the case of The Lord of the Rings trology. Get it wrong and it’s a trip into the bowels of Mount Doom as some poor development team and publisher face the wrath and ruin of legions of longtime fans. Fortunately, The Lord of The Rings: War in the North delivers an epic (and Mature-rated) tale that ties in nicely with the trilogy as well as an addictive hack & slash that’s challenging and highly replayable. It also marks Snowblind Studios’ first current generation title (finally!) and yes, they’ve done a very solid job here. The visual presentation is grand and fitting, the music is perfect and the familiar gameplay is brutal, simple and about as fun as can be for a game of this type. The game is not without its flaws, however. Some chinks in the armor show up in the form of a a weird sound bug in one area, occasional AI stumbles plus a wee bit too much repetition of quest-related dialog. Nevertheless, this is one journey well worth taking whether or not you’re a fan of the books and films. Continue reading →

This Time, It’s War (In The North)…

Posted on October 28, 2011 by geelw

Guess what JUST showed up (well, around 12:30 this afternoon)? Looks like my weekend plans are shattered to heck, but in a REALLY good way. Off to get to work on a review, which should hopefully go live on ~~Monday~~, er. Tuedsay*. Now about that Batman: Arkham City I didn’t get, feh… you win some, you lose some, I guess. Anyway, I’m off to kill a bunch of Orcs and try not do die by U’ruk Hai. Back in a bit!

Yeah, yeah, I’d initially written this as MONDAY for the review, til I noticed the embargo. Oops. Tuesday it is.

The Lord of The Rings War In The North Boss Battle Vignette

Posted on October 8, 2011 by geelw

I like the quote in the email that prefaces this trailer, so here it is:

“The enemy knows you have entered here. What hope you had in secrecy is now gone.”
Celeborn, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings

Snowblind Studios is really going all out with this one and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s all turned out. I think fans of the books should be pleased as the game doesn’t shy away from the violent elements found in the books and it’s looking as if it will let you venture to a few areas chopped from the movie trilogy. Granted, the M-rating might be a initial turn-off for those expecting one of the simpler hack & slash movie games geared toward the entire family. However, I say let’s see what happens as people play the game and share it with friends in co-op. I’ll bet any hesitance over a purchase based on the amount of blood in the game disappears once folks see how much fun it all is.

Gamescom 2011: Batman: Arkham City Mr. Freeze Trailer

Posted on August 20, 2011 by geelw

Finally, some chilling (ha ha) gameplay footage from the upcoming game that washes the vestiges of that awful Batman & Robin movie from the last century out of my brain for good. Rocksteady is definitely on course to deliver an even better experience than the first game, that’s for sure. I’m glad that there’s a separation between this and Chris Nolan’s films simply because it’s great to see what a developer can do when NOT tied to following or trying to capture a movie experience properly in game form. That’s hit or miss, especially with games based on films based on comic books. Yes, I’ll run the previous gameplay trailers within the next few days (thanks for asking)…

Bastion Launch Trailer (YES, You NEED This Game!)

Posted on July 18, 2011 by geelw

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/TptJHeWngJs?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0

Lovely and now available on Xbox Live Arcade, it’s Supergiant Games’ RPG masterpiece ready for your approval. It’s also coming to Windows later this year (and hopefully on a disc as well as download so more people can play this gem). From the rich visuals to the innovative voice narration (it’s pretty darn genius), this one is an instant classic that demands multiple replays. I’d love to see this on the PS3 and Vita as well, but I guess we’ll see how it does sales-wise, right?

E3 2011: The Lord of the Rings: War In the North Trailer: Massively Impressive Multiplayer, But Also Solo If You Want It!

Posted on June 10, 2011 by geelw

Like a lot of you out there, I’m a HUGE admirer of Snowblind Studios’ gorgeous work, so every bit of info on this one has been swallowed whole and digested so it’s absolutely on my most wanted list. This tiny teaser of things to come shows promise and I can’t wait to dive into the more brutal (and accurate) version of Middle-Earth the team has crafted. Let’s hope there’s at least ONE portable version in the works (Vita, Vita, Vita!). Even if I don’t magically get a review copy, I’m buying this outright, day one…

Batman Arkham City Teaser (Yet Another Long Wait That’s Going To Be Worth It)

Posted on December 10, 2010 by geelw

Well, now we know it’s next fall as far as the release date goes. WBIE may be stingy with revealing assets, but heck, that’s not going to stop the game from being as good as (or even better than) the original, I say…

Scribblenauts Pre-Launch Event Spells F-U-N at Nintendo World

Posted on September 14, 2009 by geelw

“What, no B-A-G?” That’s probably what Julie Cheng was thinking when she got the very first retail copy ofScribblenauts... or what you’re probably thinking Julie Cheng was thinking if you look at that photo long enough. Yup, these press photo ops are so darn obvious, it’s a bit comical to the more snarky eyeball such as mine…

Continue reading →

Games On TV: Scribblenauts Commercial

Posted on September 13, 2009 by geelw

Here you go: mildly amusing, although given the game’s superb originality, it comes off as a bit lower key than I thought it would be.

Ah well… I guess Middle America needs this super-clean version that can be shown at all hours of the day without the usual irate parents’ groups going off the deep end about the game for no reason at all other than it’ll make their kids see and use words in the dictionary that they’d rather them NOT know at all. Yeesh.

Anyway, go buy a copy when it hits stores on September 15!