Jet Car Stunts Launch Trailer: Get a Grip With This Speedy Arcade Racer Next Tuesday on PS3 & Vita

Posted on October 3, 2014 by geelw

Welly, well-well. I’ve actually never played Grip Games‘ rhater awesome looking Jet Car Stunts, but after seeing this trailer, I really want to see if I can survive some of those treacherous track designs. While this is already out (as of October 1) on mobile and Xbox Live, I rarely play mobile games all of my Xbox 360’s are dead and I want to play this on the Vita and PS3 anyway just because I still use those systems the most and despite what some editor-types are saying, neither one is quite “dead” just yet. Flying cars may not be a reality again for a while, but this could be the next best thing. Well, provided you have no fear of heights, falling, bright cartoon colors and what look like Hot Wheels cars with pop up aerodynamic handling. I’m in on all this, so next week will be a fun one. Hell, I’ll need SOMETHING bright and cheery to take me away from Alien Isolation and its relentless horror, so this may be the game I grab when I need a break.

Kromaia Hands-On: Blasting Cool Looking Stuff Four Ways ’til Sunday (Well, Any Day of the Week)…

Posted on October 1, 2014 by geelw

Kraken Empire’s upcoming space shooter Kromaia is going to be one of those games genre fans will be more than pleased to see thanks to the stellar visuals and intuitive control scheme (provided you use a keyboard/mouse or decent game controller). Rising Star Games has wisely snapped this one up for a Q4 2014 release and I recently got my paws on some preview code to take for a spin. And spin I did, as the ships in the game are all kinds of maneuverable thanks to the six degrees of movement through the game’s enemy and obstacle-packed levels..

The preview build had four different levels and four types of ships to play around with, each linked to one of the stages. While I could sit here and make comparisons to Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, Rez and other excellent sci-fi or fantasy shooters where you’re set on a path without much deviation, Kromaia outdoes those games by allowing you to go anywhere you point that ship you’re flying. There are clear goals in each map, but you can choose to go off what you thought was a predetermined path and zip around at your leisure while trying not to get blown into plenty of pixels by the nicely aggressive enemy AI…

Continue reading →

The Tale of The Princcess Kaguya: Studio Ghibli’s Back With Some Classic Beauty…

Posted on October 1, 2014 by geelw

Currently, this one’s only part of a children’s film festival here in NYC, but I’m hoping it at least gets a limited release in regular theaters after that’s all said and done, as it’s quite lovely and yes, it’s Studio Ghibli doing some amazing animation work as usual. Check out the trailer below for some lovely visuals:

(Thanks, Movieclips Trailers!)

This is one of those films that NEEDS to be seen even if you know the classic story by heart. Let’s hope this gets more notice and that wider theatrical release before it pops up on Blu-Ray/DVD and people somehow forget it exists because it’s not being promoted outside of a niche audience. Oh, wait. OOPS. It IS getting a US release on October 17, so I guess I can see this after all and not have to deal with squealing kids, shushing parents and overpriced tickets. No wait, the tickets will still be overpriced, but one out of three is just fine by me…

Alien Isolation #HowWill YouSurvive Update: Yup, I’m Flared Up For This One As Well…

Posted on September 30, 2014 by geelw

Flared Up, indeed! I just realized (okay, again!) that it’s OCTOBER (well, tomorrow!) and Alien Isolation is out in a week’s time. Eeek. Now, I have to do a coin toss and decide what to get, as there are a few other games coming that need to be played and I’m not sitting on a ton of money here (yet). As I know the big sites will all be reviewing the next-gen versions, I may play odd man out and grab the PS3 version just because I really want to see how that turned out and yes, more of you guys and gals out there still play games on your own PS3 or Xbox 360 than you do on those fancier newer machines.

Crowd Control? Nah, this one’s not getting a massive midnight launch and doesn’t need one at all. As this isn’t a crowd-pleasing first-person shooter in the Call of Duty or Halo vein and is in fact, a hybrid horror/sci-fi experience that looks to capture the spirit of Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film, I’m betting there are STILL a small bunch of people out there who will go into this expecting a non-stop guided missile on-rails shooter or something the game isn’t. But it’s their own damn fault for not paying attention to the developer diaries and all those previews other sites have done for a while. Oh well…

&nsbp;
Distress will come when this launches on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC and people buy it, get home and then get too scared to play past certain spots. I have the first film in a loop in my brain (I’ve seen it countless times and plan to watch it again before the game arrives just to set the perfect mood), so I know I’m going to love what’s here. Now, about that DLC and stuff that should HOPEFULLY pop up for everyone and not just be exclusive to certain retailers? Yeah, that’s my big gripe about this and other games that piece out content like that. It may be “what people want” (according to game companies), but this SHOULD have been one of those games that packed as much as possible onto that disc just out of respect for Alien fans who don’t want to miss out on ANY content but have no choice in the matter.

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…

AUTOMATA: Will This Rise of the Robots Flick Be Any Good (or is My Post Title the Tell*)?

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

Sure, it’s got that distressed Neil Blomkamp look going for it, a shaved head on Antonio Banderas (along with what looks like an inflatable trenchcoat, ha and ha) and that trailer above looks interesting yet derivative in a few ways. But I’m guessing that October 10 limited US release of AUTOMATA will be the true fortune teller. My own sensors detect a bit of Blade Runner (good), I Robot (bad) and a bunch of other films (which could get ugly if critics and sci-fi fans get picky). Eh, always trust the director, I say. Granted, I’d not heard of Gabe Ibáñez until today when someone asked if I’d seen the trailer, so I don’t know much about him a few seconds on a good search engine would cure. The again, I didn’t know who Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alfonso Cuarón, or Guillermo Del Toro were until I saw films they’d directed.

Still, as usual, I’ll more than save that ticket money and very likely wait around a bit and perhaps see this on cable in oh, about seven or eight months if it disappears from theaters in a hurry. Sometimes you get a hidden and under-appreciated gem in these types of films and sometimes it’s just an expensive clunker. But once in a while it’s a middle ground film that should have gotten more love but rolled over at the box office because of a film or films that were better and more widely advertised. Then again, after being burned by other sci-fi flicks too big for their britches, I prefer to roll the dice at home these days than be stuck in a theater wishing I could change the channel…

*(feel free to Google or whatever Rise of the Robots if you haven’t a clue as to what I meant. Oh wait, I did that for you – you’re welcome)…

Jupiter Ascending Trailer #3: Keeping Those Flames Burning For The Fans…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

At this point, I think anyone who’s committed to seeing Jupiter Ascending is in on this one like a free breakfast buffet at the Waldorf. Meanwhile, on the internet… it’s the usual online yappers and their complaints about everything from the casting to too much makeup on the characters. Good thing it’s a sci-fi flick and not a documentary, right? Anyway, this one has me curious despite some genre staples rearing their heads and a seemingly simple plot that from the trailers doesn’t seem all that complex. I’m gathering the Wachowskis have a few aces up their sleeves (as usual) and I’d bet a few of those griping may actually come around and be pleasantly surprised (or unpleasantly surprised) once all is said and done. It’s hard to say how the film will do once it’s released, but I don’t pay attention to box office anyway anymore. Popularity never really means a “good” film at all in my book. It’s more a barometer of what certain audiences automatically sheep out to see during those first two or three big weeks. Sometimes the smarter and stranger flicks don’t draw in crowds at all or at least until an audience sifts through (or pays no attention to) the reviews and finds them. As usual, we shall see what the future holds once it actually arrives…

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Unboxing: Poor Teddie’s Gonna Get Bopped Quite A Lot. It’s in the Cards!

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Hmmm. It seems that Atlus USA has a lot of headless people working for it. Okay, that’s just PR guy John Hardin showing off the game and bonus items in that video and not the Headless Non-Horseman doing some part-time work. Anyway, half a set of tarot cards and a inflatable Teddie Bop Bag may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but both will get some usage by fans of the Megaten games who need a break from this rather awesome fighting game. As noted in that title above, poor Teddie’s gonna get beat up pretty badly, but just follow the instructional portion of this video and don’t go all NFL player on the poor vinyl bear-thing. Besides, he’ll probably haunt your dreams and beat up on YOU in them if you play too rough…

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is out on September 30 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Crimes & Punishments (Sherlock Holmes) Launch Trailer: Elementary? Not So Fast, You Armchair Sleuths…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Oh, the rather droll and humorous closing exchange between Holmes and Watson is probably worth buying the game outright, but I think Focus Home Interactive and developer Frogwares want players to get more than just a moderate chuckle when the snap up this latest Sherlock Holmes game. It’s out on September 30 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC and looks like it’s going to be a pretty solid game. I’m actually behind in the series, but I may grab this one and work backwards just because it’s not really a franchise where you need to dive into each game in a particular order at all. You just have to love the man and his work. Still, I wonder what’s for dessert on that menu and whether or not the detecting duo actually attend that soiree they’ve been kindly invited to? A good mystery always deserves better clues, I suppose…