Earth Defense Force 2025 In Stores Today: Yes, You Need This Game (Just In Case)…

 
Ha. On the way back from Toy Fair, I spied not one, but TWO different UPS trucks a few blocks from my place. That means ONE of them has my copy of Earth Defense Force 2025, but neither truck will arrive here for about an hour (booo!), meaning I’ll be sitting here waiting to pounce on the driver as soon as he rings the doorbell downstairs. I think I SHOULD just go down and wait for him, but that’s bad to do because it looks as if I’m stalking him or am some sort of addict lurking around waiting for the man (cue The Velvet Underground in the background). And if that game isn’t in today’s delivery? Well, I guess I’ll live… but the rest of that ice cream in the freezer is going to have a pretty bad evening… (Dun-Dun-DUNNNNN!)

Back in a bit…

EDF 2025

Wow. Just as I was typing that “Back in a bit”, the doorbell DID ring and yes indeed, I got my bugs in a box! Okay, so much for productivity tonight, but I am going to set an alarm to let me know when I need to stop playing and get some sleep. I do have a few meetings tomorrow that I can’t be late for and nope, they won’t believe me when I say I was killing giant bugs all night!

BOUND BY FLAME: Spiders’ New RPG Seems Quite Witcher-iffic. This Is A Good Thing.

 
A-ha. I was wondering just what developer Spiders was up to, as they last teamed up with Cyanide Studios for Of Orcs and Men and Cyanide is now busy with the follow-up, STYX: Master of Shadows. Spiders is working on BOUND BY FLAME, an upcoming fantasy action/RPG set to hit PC, PS4 and “last” gen consoles later this year (although there seems to be no Xbox One version? Hmmmm…). Casting such a wide SKU net usually means a drop in quality somewhere unless you have a developer who knows their stuff, and I think Spiders can pull this off if they’ve learned from proper criticism of previous games. I like the visual style here (although the faces on the characters look a bit… “off”) and the gameplay and mature time seems similar enough to CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher games that the game may find an audience among those who like European-style RPGs as much as they like the games made here and elsewhere. That crafting system looks pretty fun as well and I hope it’s as flexible as noted in the trailer above.

 
Like Focus Home Interactive other RPGs, I’ll be keeping an eyeball on this one. I still get use out of my PS3, so I may go that route for the final just because I don’t need to connect it online in order to play stuff. We shall see, as usual…

Thirteen Minutes of South Park: The Stick of Truth: Obsidian Nails It Quite Well Indeed…

 
While I’m not what I’d call a regular viewer of South Park, I’ve seen enough episodes of the show that I have to give veteran developer Obsidian huge credit for getting it right. I love how the game pokes at some traditional RPG/JRPG tropes (gotta love that main character with amnesia and no speaking voice!) while also nailing the rhythm of the show in the editing and other bits. It’s a good thing Ubisoft picked this up after original publisher THQ went under, as it’s got hit written all over it (provided you’re a fan of the show, of course). How this will do outside the show’s base is tough to say, as I know some folks despise the art style and limited animation the show uses. I’m not one of those, by the way. Anyway, March 4 is the big day for this one, so keep an eyeball peeled if you haven’t placed a pre-order yet. I have the feeling this may sell out in a few spots and be one of those overpriced eBay titles if it scores highly with the critics and people make it a surprise sleeper hit. Yeah, it’s NOT supposed to be for the kids, but you know how THAT always goes with South Park games, right?

Evolve: 2K Games and Turtle Rock Give The Multiplayer Shooter Genre A Monster Kick…

Who's Hunting WhoI’ll admit to not being thrilled when I heard of Evolve because, futuristic weapons and cast of four hunters aside it’s yet another multiplayer focused shooter I can’t play because it probably doesn’t have an offline mode. But after seeing a bit of gameplay and getting that it’s a four against one game with that one playing a hunted beast that can evolve into a massive near-kaiju style beast, my interest went up a bit. Now, the ability to play as a monster isn’t a “new” thing in games at all, but developer Turtle Rock Studios is making this the core of the gameplay which requires the four players going after that monster to work together in order to take the player-controlled beastie down as quickly as possible.

 
Given Turtle Rock’s pioneering work on the Left 4 Dead games, it’s a no brainer that the team would take what they learned from that experience and up the ante considerably. Granted, the AI on that monster isn’t Director controlled and random, but I’m betting that creatures that the monster needs to feed on may be smart buggers who will hopefully spell trouble for the human hunters as they run and plan. I’m gathering that cutting off the food supply will keep that monster from noshing away and getting bigger, but I’ll probably need to ask that question at some point (among others) if and when I get some actual hands on time with this at a press event. Yeah, I may not play this at home, but I’ll certainly play it at a meeting and let you all know if it’s everything it’s cracked up to be. It sure looks like it shall be…

Preview: The Witcher – Geralt of Riva Rides the Dark Horse…

The Witcher DH 
I’d forgotten Dark Horse Comics was doing a book based on this book and game series, so this was a nice surprise. Paul Tobin (writer) and Joe Querio (art) are on the case here and so far, the preview is not bad at all. It’s hard to step from the realism of CD Projekt RED’s lush and lovely game world to the printed page, but that’s the power of that team’s work that makes such a huge impression on those of us who like Geralt of Riva and his rather interesting adventures. Anyway, everyone’s favorite antihero/monster hunter/ladies man/ is coming to your favorite comic emporium on March 19, 2014 – feel free to bug your retailer or just place an order online at the usual suspects (Things from Another World or Dark Horse Digital).

A few pages and the cover to Issue 2 are below the jump – enjoy!

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FREE STUFF GET!: Earth Defense Force 2025 DLC Up For Grabs!

EDF_BN 
Well, this is pretty darn cool. If you happen to be a fan of Sandlot’s upcoming Earth Defense Force 2025 and happen to have a facebook account, D3Publisher of America has some awesome free stuff for you. It’s the Special Ops Mission Pack for free on either the Xbox 360 or PS3 is all yours for watching and sharing a “Breaking News” video on that otherwise useless social networking site. It’s all spelled out on the game’s official facebook page, so boogie on over and viddy well, then share what you’ve seen with a like-minded buddy and get your DLC code (which can be redeemed on or after 2/24/2014. EDF 2025 hits retail on February 18, 2014 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Yes, there are screens to post… but I’m on a sloooooow connection and will add them tomorrow. Back in a bit!

Pac-Man Museum: Namco Bandai’s Fast Moving Fossil Still Rules.

 
I can’t recall a year since 1980 that Pac-Man wasn’t playable on something so it’s good to see Namco Bandai keeping things rolling along with this latest collection that focuses exclusively on everyone’s favorite power pellet chomping, ghost chasing (or avoiding) round yellow hero. PSN, Xbox Live Arcade (February 25) and PC via Steam (February 26). You know you want to play even if you’re not a gamer. Hey, EVERYONE is lousy at Pac-Man until they suddenly get really good at it from playing too much. And if you don’t think that will happen, a ha ha ha… you’ll see. You’ll be dreaming of colorful ghosts and those oddball sound effects soon enough.

Oh, Yeah: The Walking Dead Is Back (In A Few Places)…

 
I still haven’t gotten around to playing Season Two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, but I’ve been a bit busy/crazy lately. Now I’ll have even LESS time to get to it thanks to the second half of Season Four of the hit show popping up tomorrow. Thankfully, it’s not a long half-season, but on the other hand, I’d love it if shows didn’t split into halves where you wait around staring at a wall for months between episodes. I don’t like binge watching too much at all (I save it for shows that are dead and gone), but I do like regularity. I say feed prunes to the writing staff, cast and directors on all these shows so they can grasp the concept of a season starting up and not being over until we get a week to week set of shows without minding the gap.

Yeah, I’m talking to YOU, Mad Men (already shot and done as a series, but keeping us waiting what, a year more for those final shows? Yeesh. I don’t even think I’ll be interested when it kicks off again)…

Crow Pie Chronicles (Or I’m Glad To Be Wrong About): The Lego Movie

 
YUM! I said I’d eat a crow pie if I was wrong about The Lego Movie not sucking and yep, I’m a man of my word, although I had to substitute some of my not yet world famous chicken for “crow” and a few slices of whole grain bread for “pie”. Anyway, it’s good to see this one netting nice notices so now I need to see it at some point and make sure all those critics weren’t sucking in the happy gas WB pumped into those free screenings I didn’t get an invite to (boo!). Since I’ve been ignoring the film for the most part, I’m going in blind other than what I’ve seen on those TV spots popping up all over the place every few seconds. I still think it’ll be well over the heads of anyone over ten years old who won’t get all the references and in-jokes, but that’s probably me underestimating the kids of the hipsters and boomers taking them to see this.

 
And wait, wha-whaaaat? There’s a video game based on the film as well? I did predict this last year or earlier, but I’m actually surprised that there was one made because that’s just TOO meta at the end of the day. Anyway, you KNOW a movie is going to be worth seeing when Fox News has a shit fit about it for all the wrong reasons. They seem to believe that a movie made to get people to run out and spend money to see it (and the tie in toys AND the game that’s made for the same purpose) is somehow teaching kids to be “anti-capitalist” (wha-whaaaat?)… despite the OBVIOUS hundreds of millions this will rake in for a few big corporations. As the kids say, DERP.

Yeah, they’re quite stupid over there and I wish they’d stop it. But it’s interesting watching them hang themselves by their own rope every day they keep the blood pressure of their viewership headed through the roof over trifling nonsense. Perhaps they all need to chill for a bit and actually go see some of the stuff they bitch and moan about as bad for Amurrrrica? That would be my prescription…

Ah, The Things You Don’t Notice Unless You’re Paying Attention…

So, I was about to recycle the box D3Publisher of America sent me when I got another big laugh. I’d not noticed this yesterday in my giddy state (and it was a bit dark in the room where I opened the box), so imagine my surprise when I went to clean out the box and saw this:

EDF2025_eek

Now, ten or so years back, I’d had to have been peeled from the ceiling with the Jaws of Life, but as I went through some nice bug therapy a while back, I just roared with laughter because I didn’t even think they’d stick fake cockroaches in that box. For one thing, even the developers won’t go that far because they don’t want to freak people out (which makes me think that giant spiders must be seen as really cute in Japan!). Anyway, for some reason, I can’t upload the fuzzy close-up image I shot of me holding one of those rubber roaches, but that’s probably good for you readers who’d also hit the ceiling if you saw one (real or fake). I’ll try again later. You’ve been warned…

EDF2025_eek2

EDIT: it’s later! Yay! (You were warned)…