Eeek. I actually MISSED posting the Alien Isolation update from April. Oops. Hey, it happens with all these games coming out, kids. Anyway, how fitting that this video is about the low-tech equipment used in the game and the lower tech methods developer The Creative Assembly used to get parts of the game looking quite analog. I love this behind the scenes stuff and you have to appreciate that old techniques work as well as (or even better in this case) than just doing everything on a computer to FAKE video footage that looks garbled and yep, “lo-fi”. October 7, 2014, folks. Carve out some time for this one – it’s turning out really special…
Well, it HAD to happen, but I’m not exactly happy it has. Anyway, I bet Activision is royally ticked off because this would have been excellent as a T-rated Marvel Ultimate Alliance sequel or reboot with a more serious story and more “realistic” action figures that they could have also done as a more family-friendly jaunt in the Skylanders vein. Granted, dividing the universe up like that may have been a bad idea because one BIG game that will sell well is better at the end of the day that two that use wallet-draining collectibles as a core element, but who knows? I could see the older collectors sticking to the heroes they like and spending money and those with kids (and more money) springing for both sets, but that’s my brain over-thinking things (again).
Anyway, the license is now Disney’s to play with for ages (forever, it seems), so this is what’s coming, and soon, at that. Hmmm… Iron Man, Thor and The Black Widow in that starter pack? Okay, but I bet Cap will sell out in America and yes, like you, I thought Spider-Man (who’ll fly off store shelves as well) wasn’t going to be here thanks to Sony Pictures currently owning the rights to the character. Yes, Disney Infinity 2.0 and these figures will indeed sell out everywhere this holiday season, but I’d love to see something mature pop up out of the Marvel Universe again before it goes all cookies and milk and yearly “spend your holiday money on THIS!” on us grumpy old timers. That, and how do you make Deadpool cute? Or the Man-Thing? Or some of the other oddball characters you probably won’t see here thanks to some hefty editing out of anything deemed too much by Disney? Eh, we’ll see… I’ve been proven wrong many times in the past.
So, Bound By Flame is looking to be your next epic action RPG experience and as seen in that work in progress video above, it’s coming along nicely, especially if you like a more arcade-like style of gameplay. This isn’t even trying to be “realistic” in the way some folks want, but to me, that’s the beauty of developers all doing different things. If every game played EXACTLY the same, I’d be one bored stiff gamer looking fora new hobby, that’s for sure.
As for the music, composer Olivier Derivière (who did the fantastic score for Remember Me) has whipped up a beautiful, varied score that features a chorus and some wonderful “vocal textures” as you’ll hear above. Developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive, Bound By Flame hits stores for consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) and lands on PC via Steam on May 9, 2014. Back with more if there’s more coming before it ships – I hope so, as this one’s looking very interesting indeed…
I’m sure FromSoftware knows this already, but with Dark Souls and now Dark Souls II, they’ve gone and made a game that’s too hard for those “gamers” who can’t deal with the level of challenge, so yes indeed, hackers and cheaters will be rampant. Granted, once you buy a game you’re more or less free to do with it what you desire, but what’s the point in playing a game that’s supposed to be difficult if you hack up the ability to one-shot anything that comes at you, maybe survive a fall that’s SUPPOSED to kill you (to teach you a lesson in paying attention to the environment) and so forth and so on? I don’t mind messing with a game after I’ve completed it a few times (as I’ve played Diablo II offline solo with a bunch of crazy mods that made my characters invincible killing machines or I’ve changed up the gameplay in that gem to make it much more challenging). But I just don’t get the automatic urge to cheat one’s way through a game and claim “victory” when no actual hard work was done outside of dinking around with the game code to make it work in a way it wasn’t intended to.
Ah well, it’s not my problem, so I’ll just let it rest. Still, I’d love to see a developer cook up a game that can’t easily be cracked apart or at the very least, identifies cheaters with a nice big flashing neon sign so people who want to play legit can do so in peace. Of course, cheating is rampant in many console games as well, but in some cases, those people can be easier to avoid if one decides to stay the heck offline or just play with people you know where applicable…
Between the Complete First season being released on Google Play and Season Two dropping onto the Vita, Telltale Games’ stellar The Walking Dead series is taking over just about everything that can play this multiple award winning series and letting an even wider audience experience the horror. Telltale’s games are more accessible than your typical action-heavy PC or console games thanks to a simpler to use interface, story-focused dialog trees that require reasonably fast (but not insane) timing and choices that truly affect the outcome of each chapter. This also makes TWD highly replayable because of how your decisions stack up as the chapters flow onward.
So, your interest is piqued, no? Well, go whip out that favorite device and go get some Walkers into your now more entertaining life, I say.
Well, I think it’s a wee bit elaborate compared to what was seen in thee first two films, but apparently, West Coast Customs is making a real version (or has made one already, because you know, TV “reality” shows operate outside of the real world in terms of their schedules):
I actually got a Carmageddon meets Twisted Metal feel out of that WCC video above, but hey, enhancing the pointy and shooty stuff on the rides makes them stand out visually. I’m hoping that suspension can actually stand up to some major bumps and jumps, as I’d be taking that thing sailing over a few barricades in my own post apocalyptic imagination. Which, by the way, isn’t post apocalyptic until I start watching the news for more than twenty minutes, ugh…
Well, SOME of you are already downloading or playing this as we speak (wait, we’re back on speaking terms? Okay, fine!), but to the rest of you holdouts with decent gaming rigs to run this who are on the fence, you need a kick in the pants (well, a light one, as I don’t want to get on your bad side again). Just BUY it and prepare for a super tough but rewarding game experience. A bit to a great deal challenging for new players, but a total corker if you love games that test you and don’t even bother to hold your hand as you explore at will.
Dark Souls II doesn’t tell you much other than “here you are, find out what to do on your own” and to some, it will be the ultimate in “PAY ATTENTION!” game experiences because once you take your eyes and ears off the ball, something is going to come out the darkness swinging something heavy and dull or heavy and sharp and your poor avatar gets knocked off, down or into something that kills it. Oops. You’ll learn to appreciate dying here whether or not you play the game with other live players dropping in to invade your game.
Hey, I may not have a decent gaming PC (yeah, I’m not all that willing to blow food and bill money on 3D card upgrades, a new monitor and all sorts of stuff just to say I can play a game for graphics first), but my PS3 still gets the job done just fine. Anyway, Watch_Dogs may have been delayed for a bit, but I don’t mind (or care) at all if it means the end results will be even more finely tuned. Now, I’m not at all interested in this as an online experience because I’m a story first kind of guy. So, I’m most likely going in with no intentions of spending a second playing with or against others when this finally hits stores.
Granted, given that Verizon is forcing everyone in this area to update their service to whatever higher speed connection they’re going to replace all the land lines with (and you should read their lame-ass excuse for doing this), I’ll be finally able to get on PSN with my old fat model PS3 (I’ve been using my Vita at a few wi-fi hotspots to get games and updates for that system). I can’t even imagine all the game patches and updates waiting for my poor hard drive, so I’m probably going to need an external drive before that big communication change occurs. Oh well, enforced evolution… do your stuff, I guess…
A-ha-ha, little joke there. I figure if you’re going to be playing Lords of the Fallen, you’ll probably want to consider learning where the “BLOCK” button is on that controller or keyboard and learn to USE it wisely so you don’t end up like our poor test subject above. That, and knowing when to dodge or roll away from blows will more likely than not keep your character healthy and breathing for as long as possible.
Of course, the Dark Souls/Dark Souls II crowd KNOWS this, but this isn’t that game at all, just the same publisher getting out a game that will have some making the usual comparisons just to waste time before they actually play it (if they actually get around to playing it)…
Codemasters’ Racing Studio certainly hasn’t been sleeping at all, getting this new GRID game out in less than a year since the last one. While this PC footage looks incredible, I’m gathering the game will also look quite lovely on whichever consoles it appears on. Namco Bandai rolled this one out as one of many upcoming surprises and with a June 24 release date in the US (June 27 in Europe), it’s sure to be one of those games of summer that keeps a few folks indoors sweeping around turns and playing passing games with that pesky AI and/or peskier live players.
I initially noticed that no console news popped up in that video, but I can’t imagine this series skipping home systems at all. Aha- poking about on the press site I see it’s also coming to PS3 and Xbox 360, so no worries at all about the series leaving out a rather hefty chunk of its fans. Anyway, updates to come, of course. Color me grinning and imagining gliding around a bend at 100MPH or so…
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