I don’t use Xbox Live anymore, but some folks who do had a little issue over the weekend… Hmmm. And according to Microsoft, this was “only” due to “routine maintenance”… Uh Huh. Well, that next console is rumored to require an always online connection even for single player offline games and of course, Microsoft isn’t doing the right nor smart thing by totally or even partially denying this. Despite the fact that squashing the rumblings on the internet EARLY goes a long way in assuring they get more people interested in the new system because it will work when THEY want it to… (the plot thickens)… Continue reading →
Meet Kenya, Irisa, Nolan, Datak, Stahma Tarr and a few more guys and gals you’ll want to see more of once this new show gets its hooks into you. I’ll check out the entire first season to see if I like what’s going on, but based on all the pre-production videos, teasers, clips and yes, all those gameplay videos, a play session and a few other things, I’ll say this is one worth checking out.
That and hell, it sure beats the crap out of another Sharktopus movie, that’s for damn sure… Continue reading →
Of course, with two days to go, the Defiance YouTube page is absolutely *exploding!* with all sorts of neat character profiles from the show and more, which I’ll run in a bit. But I wanted to finish up this digital comic mini-series by running the “Director’s Cut” version. I’m usually not much of a fan of this style of animation (hey, I grew up watching those awful Marvel cartoons from the 60’s, so seeing not much has changed other than the talent is a lot better is kind of grimly depressing. Or really funny – I can’t decide). Anyway, Defiance premieres on Monday, April 15 at 9PM EST of syfy.
Gran Soren just got a whole lot more dangerous. Seriously. Granted, it already WAS pretty deadly as it was teeming with all creatures great and small wanting to grind your party’s bones to make their bread (or a tasty filling for that bread), but the mad wizards at Capcom have worked in plenty of new not so wee beasties guaranteed to send you into a frenzy of running away if you’re too weak a character to handle it. On the other hand, if you’ve got the buff stuff and no bluff, you can tough it to those creatures rough until they’d had more than enough. Yeah, I liked Basil Wolverton’s bizarre comics as a kid, so sue me. Or go track down some of his freaky funnies.
Anyway, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 23, 2013) brings you the COMPLETE original game, ALL the DLC packs AND an entirely new adventure all for a measly $40. This means your friends who missed out can hop in and start off and see what’s what, while YOU, dear reader (well, if you played the original) can upload your save files and beat up on those bruisers with relish. Well, the relish they were going to slather all over that bread they were going to get to baking…
Not just eyeball candy for the guys, these special ladies are a going to be a big part of what makes the upcoming show guaranteed to reel in viewers of both sexes who like strong female characters who get to go toe to toe on a few levels with the men in their brave new world. It should be quite intriguing to see how well this cast does over time across the viewership, as there are a lot of interesting personalities the cast has to work with and I’m sure the writing team will have a hard time if they need to get rid of any of these characters in an upcoming storyline. As always, we shall see…
The single player in GRID 2 was quite thrilling in that demo from a few months back, but Codemasters knows that many will be snapping up this one first and foremost for the multiplayer modes and fortunately, the game shines even more here. A few members from the dev team rolled into NYC with a new demo that just so happened to be on the same day and in the same hotel as Namco Bandai’s Global Gamer’s Day, so it made for an exciting start to a long day packed full of great upcoming titles. The Xbox 360 version was set up (and looking fantastic, by the way), but being the only writer to pop up at this first session meant playing against the people working on the game and only having the slimmest of chances of beating any of them during the bunch of races about to take place… Continue reading →
OK, other than clicking on the page on April 1 and entering the Konami Code on my keyboard to blow up all the stuff on the site with clicks, I ignored this “game” because it was pretty obvious that it was an April Fool’s gag gone viral. Hell, NO ONE would make a game like that after Duke Nukem Forever, Bulletstorm and a few other humor-centric shooters didn’t exactly set the world on fire. That and hell, Crytek was too busy working on stuff like Warface, Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 DLC plus whatever else they’re cooking up, so this HAD to be a big, fat joke. Welllll, to quote Ah-nuld in that gun shop scene from The Terminator… WRONG.
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is not only real, it’s a standalone game that doesn’t require owning the original version of Far Cry 3 to play, looks completely nuts and sorry to say, isn’t going COMPLETELY old school because it’s a DIGITAL-ONLY release. Hell, if Ubisoft were smarter about this retro thing, they’d get this out in a LIMITED edition for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and sell it on that fake online shop they’ve set up on the Blood Dragon site. Do one run and that’s it for physical copies. They’d certainly get the attention of core gamers, collectors and those who just want more options in how they play their games, that’s for sure.
Hopefully Ubisoft and their PR will pay attention to my non-negotiable demands and make this happen as a retail product – I can see a bunch of people snapping this up if it’s packing the heat they expect.
If there were ANY doubts that Dark Souls II would “go casual” among the pack of journalist-types who attended Namco Bandai’s Global Gamers Day last week here in NYC, those were squashed VERY flat by the mighty throwing of one VERY large axe by an enemy during a demonstration of the game. While the team at FromSoftware’s main design goal is to make the game more “accessible” to players, to the producers that word (which means “casual” to some gamers) meant accessibility ONLY in terms of making sure the game’s pacing put players into even MORE dangerous situations much faster than in Demon’s Souls and the first Dark Souls. Fetch-questing for NPCs has been minimized and backtracking through enemy infested areas is out (although you CAN choose to explore anywhere you like), replaced by a refined warp system and areas where surviving enemies and the insanely deadly environments will become your primary challenges. Continue reading →
Hmmm… STILL no Swamp Thing in this game? OK, that’s a little in-joke there (VERY little), but WB Games and NetherRealm DO have a (wait for it) BIG hit on their hands which should be the go-to game for DC Comics fans for some time. I guess it would have been too much to ask to see that fighting engine get put to use in a more RPG-like setting, but I also guess that one day we’ll see a developer blend those styles and more successfully. There have been a few fighting game influenced role-playing experiences, but it’s been a while since there’s been one that REALLY packs a punch (oh, the puns…. the puns!). Anyway, this looks like a total blast, so I say buy it and grab a few friends for some fun on a rainy weekend. Of course, if I were in charge of the DLC, I’d add in Ally Babble, The Spectre, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Plastic Man and The Creeper as bonus characters, but hey – my old comics memories can probably beat some of yours to death any day of the week (provided I get enough sleep the night before that big brain-battle)…
Capcom gets with the rolling out of gameplay footage from their more than eagerly awaited HD remake of one of the cooler arcade games we never saw in the US. Check out the Capcom Unity post about this beefy brawler here and get ready for some superior hack & slash action coming to the PC, PSN, Xbox Live Arcade and Wii U eShop. Like a few of you out there wringing your hands for a Vita version, yeah – I’m with you there. Hopefully, Capcom WILL make this happen, as this one’s perfect for some on the go action, especially if the dev team at Iron Galaxy can make it run smoothly for some serious four player co-op. OK, I’m getting ahead of myself here, but hey, it’s a damn great idea I think NEEDS to get done.
I don’t use Xbox Live anymore, but some folks who do had a little issue over the weekend… Hmmm. And according to Microsoft, this was “only” due to “routine maintenance”… Uh Huh. Well, that next console is rumored to require an always online connection even for single player offline games and of course, Microsoft isn’t doing the right nor smart thing by totally or even partially denying this. Despite the fact that squashing the rumblings on the internet EARLY goes a long way in assuring they get more people interested in the new system because it will work when THEY want it to… (the plot thickens)… Continue reading 
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 