Must Be An Internet Holiday or Something…

Status

Hmmm. So, here I sit with a sloooooooooooooooooow wi-fi connection, a just-dead wireless mouse, a full inbox and a nice hard table I can bang my head against, except I’m in a public place and I think the other people around me would want to go first with that head-banging stuff. If it’s because there are too many people using the signal here, I’d like to vote the wannabe “model” with the stack of fashion magazines in front of her “studying” how to get her dream job, the really funny guy who shows up daily with a HUGE stack of lottery tickets to fill out based on some numerical formula (it seems he’s trying every possible combination as it seems he fills in at least 100 cards a day) and the kids using library PC’s for gaming or facebook (when they shouldn’t be doing either during school hours) right off the island so I can get some work done.

(Thanks, DeSilvatron!)

Grrrr… back in a bit. That I’m even getting THIS post up (it’s got no images, so it’s easy-peasy) is a good thing, but I’d actually like to run something more… substantial.

Godzilla Set to Stomp All Over PS3’s In December (Only In Japan, Of Course!)

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Well, this was a bit of a surprise to see earlier today. And of course, despite having the new Godzilla from the US-made film as a DLC character… this isn’t even going to get an English localization release outside Asian territories, so it looks as if I’ll be helping this sell out of at least one production run at some point. Thanks to Play-Asia for popping this news into my inbox and making both my tired eyeballs pop open this morning.

After I recovered them from under my chair and washed them off, I pretty much realized the chances of this game coming out here in the west was zero multiplied by a few hundred zeroes. Not that we don’t need a new Godzilla game, mind you. It’s just that there hasn’t been one in a few years and while plenty of kaiju fans would buy this outright on a disc or as a download, I’m not sure that “plenty” is enough to justify the localization costs.

As you can clearly see from those videos and the game’s official site, this one sure looks pretty spectacular for a Godzilla game, so here’s hoping it’s not only as good as it looks, but VERY import friendly for those who want to snap up this region-free game and haven’t a clue about the language barrier thing most imports hit newbies with right out of the gate. If Bandai Namco’s US arm somehow decides to get this one out here, I’ll be the first one to let out a roar even if it’s only as a digital download. As usual, we shall see… but don’t hold your radioactive breath, folks…

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Update: Two More Reasons To Jump Out Of Your Seat

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

#AINope will be trending if I have my way, but I’ll very likely be far too busy ducking and weaving in my chair while playing Alien Isolation to do much social network socializing. Nope, I won’t be Twitching unless it’s involuntary and from the game creeping me out from playing past a certain point. No tweeting unless I’ve a police whistle around my neck and I’m calling for help before I throw a shoe at my TV screen. And definitely no facebooking at all, because that’s actually more frightening than any game ever made. Yaaaaaah!

Alien Isolation lands in stores and digital delivery systems on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Back with more ways to die horribly in this soon to be modern sci-fi horror game classic in a bit…

TCM Reminds Us That War Is (And Always Will Be) Hell…

Posted on September 25, 2014 by geelw

Ah, there’s nothing like the darkly comic insanity of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) to remind us that painting oneself into a corner before deciding to spray a few cans of Raid around the house, then light up a cigarette to relax is always a terrible idea. Anyway, if you’re up late tonight and into Friday morning, you can catch this classic on TCM at 1am (eastern time – dip backwards on that clock according to your own time zone). I tend to watch this one a few times a year because it’s both hilarious and bracing while showing not much has changed over time except news (and bombs) can travel a hell of a lot faster. While the film is perhaps the bleakest of black comedies, according to one New Yorker article from earlier this year… a good deal of what happened in the film was (and perhaps still is) entirely plausible to some extent. Eeeeek. Um, sleep well, ladies and gents… sleep well…

Gauntlet is BACK. Just Buy It And Bring Some Friends Along For The Ride!

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Nice. Arrowhead Game Studios has done classic and current gamers a solid by making their Gauntlet reboot a more than worthy nod to the original arcade classic. I sure hope to heck this sells REALLY well and someone has had the foresight to get the developer some console dev kits, as this game is PERFECT for some solo or offline/online couch or not co-op play sessions. That and some of us old fogies like playing the game with some sort of joystick and not a keyboard/mouse setup. Also, it would be excellent to have the ability to take this one on the road as a Vita or (if it’s not too much trouble to do a new version down the road) 3DS game. Eh, we’ll see what sales figures and company heads say, I suppose. The game was made for the masses back in the day and there’s NO reason it shouldn’t be available on anything else that can handle it, I say…

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.

Some Random GOTHAM Thoughts…

Posted on September 23, 2014 by geelw

Hmmm. So, even though I’m not fond of their “news” division’s endlessly dreary antics in keeping people misinformed and angry and frightened half to death, I have to give it up for some of Fox’s TV lineup on the pure entertainment front. The new DC Comics-inspired drama GOTHAM is actually quite good, but I see some critics have no idea who’s who in the Bat-verse. Edward Nigma is NOT going to be the Joker unless he’s got a split personality and all those riddles he’s telling turn to worse jokes. I thought they introduced a wee bit too many characters from the comics in that pilot, but I guess they had to because it’s best to throw out as many cards onto the table as possible and get those arcs going. We got young versions of Catwoman, Batman, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Penguin, the future Commissioner Gordon and an already dirty cop Harvey Bullock. I’d gather the guy who shot Thomas and Arthur Wayne may also be from one of the comic’s versions of the origin story, but we’ll see where that goes during this season. There’s more to say, but I’ll let a few episodes sink in before I make more noise.

Well, I do have one other goofball complaint – 8PM means I can’t see the show when it airs. I need to hit up the On Demand channel and catch this show the day after. Given the content, it should go on at 9, but the silliness that is Sleepy Hollow takes up that time slot. So, a day late and a dollar short is my way of experiencing this new take on an old classic comic story for the ages. Okay, back in a bit…

And Who Wouldn’t Want To Spend the Evening With Miss Bardot?

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

Well, I have no idea what I’d say or do once I popped out of that time machine and found myself in the presence of the lady, but I’d probably faint dead away from surprise that my time travel experiment worked and wake up a few seconds before I was to be zapped back to the present. Oh well. I guess staying safe at home with these five films is a safer bet:

8PM: And God Created Woman (1956)

9:45PM: Une Parisienne (1957)

11:30PM: Plucking the Daisy (1956)

1:30 AM: The Night Heaven Fell (1958)

3:15 AM: Contempt (1963)

The good thing for me is I’ve only seen two of these films, so the rest will be my first time. Um… er… (*beet!*) you know what I mean! Get your mind out of the gutter, you. I need all that space for mine to float around in later! ;^P

Endless Legend Is Out: Buy It & Just Toss Out Every Clock In The House…

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

You won’t need them because once you start playing this game, the concept of time is rendered meaningless. Well, that’s what a friend said to me over the weekend when he got the game. He’d been an Early Access guy and had been poking around with a pre-release version and letting me know how this new fantasy-themed 4X game was coming along (quite nicely, from what I heard). Over the weekend, he’d done nothing but get up in the morning, hop in the shower, pop out to the store for provisions and after that, he was pretty much glued to his monitor. Normally he doesn’t do this, but he’s got a big work week ahead of him and wanted to get in enough gameplay to tide him over until this coming weekend.

Of course, he gets to bed around 2:30am Monday (today!), but pops up at 6am only to find he doesn’t need to zoom out of the door at all because the big Monday conference had been pushed up a day thanks to a few surprise births among a few wives or women in his office being a few days to a week early. Guess who still popped out of bed, put a pot of coffee on and went back to Endless Legend? That guyyyyyyy! Yeah, that’s dedication, folks. It must also mean the game is worth a buy if you like the 4X strategy genre and need a new fix. I’ll need to knock a hole in my schedule AND toss out all the clock in order to even think about playing this game, but let’s see what I can do with a few things this week before I decide to dive in and forget about everything else for a spell…

Sluggish Sunday Seems Sensible. So Slowness Simply Slides…

Posted on September 21, 2014 by geelw

(thanks, “Gerry Anderson”!)

Thunderbirds aren’t GO! Today’s a gloomy mess outside and I’m in no mood for foul weather. Anyway, my brian has some clouds stuck in it temporarily so there will be a distinct lack of interesting things to read outside of this post. Well, until tomorrow. I’ve been a bit busy dinking around with Destiny and I’m finally getting back to writing the review I’d started just after the launch because this is a game that shouldn’t have been reviewed at all until about three weeks to a month after its release.

I also finally got my paws on one of Sony’s Wonderbook titles and… it works wonderfully. However, they totally screwed up what could and should have been an interactive book series that brought titles to life for MORE than just the kid market (or more precisely, the “Parents who buy this stuff for kids who don’t buy it because they don’t work for a living” market). To date, there are a mere three US releases and one title that only got a European and Australian release. I also have a few movies to write about, some books to review on the way and some other stuff some PR people have been promising to hit me over the head with is incoming, so it’s not as if I have nothing to do, folks. I just need to get my motivation revved back up to do it (and promptly, at that)…

Back in a bit…