10 Cloverfield Lane: Surprise! J.J.’s Dy-no-mite Trailer Blows Up the Internet

Posted on January 18, 2016 by geelw

Ha and double ha. It seems producer/director J.J. Abrams is The Master of Surprise (not to be confused at all with The Master of Disguise). It also seems no one knew about this new film at all until the trailer dropped on the 15th followed by the sound of jaws dropping and keyboard tongues waggling for days since. Judging by the tagline on that poster, the very brief plot synopsis on IMDB and some bits gleaned from a few re-viewings, it’s clearly *not* a “sequel” to Cloverfield at all (despite all the “Cloverfield 2” posts online since this trailer dropped), but a film that seems to have a similar tone of stuff “out there” and how folks react to it.

10_cloverfield_lane

As for that cast, John Goodman? Great in pretty much any role he’s taken and who doesn’t like Mary Elizabeth Winstead? Okay, you three in the back? Get lost. Never heard of the other guy, but I may have seen something he’s in and not recalled his generic mug at all. Hey, I’m getting old… but two out of three ain’t bad in terms of the actors here. Anyway, March 11 is coming up sooner than you think and this may be quite the ride through paranoia whether or not it’s got any monsters in it at all.

As always, we shall see…

Lovely Planet Arcade: The Unknown Known Gets A Fast Followup

Posted on January 16, 2016 by geelw

I’ve heard about, but actually NEVER played Lovely Planet (*gasp!*), so I guess I now need to, thanks to developer QUICKTEQUILA and publisher tinyBuild Games announcing this maybe it’s a sequel? return to the colorful pastel world of the first game. If the zippy and amusing videos of the first game are any indication as to what’s in the second, players can expect a load of challenge and even more good times when the game jumps out of the developer’s talented hands and lands on Steam later this year. Hey, don’t trust me on that last sentence at all – just go read about the game using on of the links above.

I think by the time LPA is released I’ll have played the first game. I hope. My backlog is a mountain of code that needs to be scaled and the clock is always ticking…

Road to Ballhalla: Brains of Steel Required in This Humorous Hybrid

Posted on January 15, 2016 by geelw

tinyBuild is at it again with another upcoming game bound to entertain and get you out of the casual funk into something far funkier. Road to Ballhalla is coming around the middle of 2016 and if that trailer bove is any indication, it will make a mockery of your gaming skills while teaching you a few things about proper reading comprehension. This will lead to you ignoring real world stuff like speed limit signs or proper parking procedures, which in turn will lead to you having to fight tickets of all sorts by explaining how this game taught you not to trust everything you read. Aha. tinyBuild wants you to disobey rules and orders just so you’re super cautious but still make ridiculous mistakes because you’re silly enough to take what a game it teaching you about IT and try to use those rules in the real world.

tinyBuild, you are EVIL. I still want to play all your games, though (so you’re not so evil after all).

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders: Get Yours Before Someone Else Gets Theirs

Posted on January 15, 2016 by geelw

Mystery fans on the trail of the whereabouts of Microids’ upcoming Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders now have a fresh clue as to the location of the game. This latest trailer shows off more nicely stylized visuals and Hercule Poirot doing what he does best.

The game will hit retail and digital outlets for PC/Mac, PS4 and Xbox One February 4, 2016 in Europe and February 23, 2016 in North America. Pre-orders for the PC version are being taken on gog.com and Steam, both at a temporary 20% discount off the $29.99 retail price.

The King of Oddball Asides wants me to note that Monsieur Poirot wears his gloves all the time in that trailer and that makes him a suspect as well. But The King of Oddball Asides is indeed an oddball himself. Anyway, Microids would very much like it if you crept up on them one of these days and got all nosy like a certain Belgian detective. In English, follow them using the links below:

Website: http://www.Microids.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/microids

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Microids_off

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/microids

The Final Station: A Hell of a Commute Coming Your Way

Posted on January 14, 2016 by geelw

What the heck is going on over at tinyBuild Games these days? All they seem to do is make games, and damn good ones at that. That’s not supposed to happen at all, folks. Where are the crowdfunded failures, the whiny employees griping about long hours as they spend too much time hanging out on message boards responding to the slightest complaint about an Early Access game that didn’t work or ate someone’s save files? Nope, I don’t see that here. Just more games that want me to play them when they’re out. Stupid indie developer!

All kidding aside, tinyBuild’s upcoming The Final Station looks really fantastic. Take one part survival horror, one part train simulator and you get innovation wrapped up in yummy, excellently animated pixel visuals that end up more lifelike than some big buck AAA release that has every map bumped and requires you to upgrade your 3D card. Anyway, go add this one to your Steam wishlist (it’s set for a summer 2016 launch) and be prepared for more, as this week the developer has been introducing a new upcoming title for the last three days with a fourth and final one to get an announcement tomorrow. I’ll do a post on each as soon as I un-bury myself from a little backlog I’m staring at.

Odyssey of the Oddity Concludes Somewhat Abruptly

Posted on January 11, 2016 by geelw

I can actually recall the first time I heard Space Oddity on the radio. It was sometime after its 1969 release and if memory serves me correctly, it almost made me miss my school bus. Between the haunting acoustic guitar work and the otherworldly sounds emanating from the clock radio in my room, I was transported into that tin can floating in the void. Instant David Bowie fan from that point on and what and education that was.

Suffragette City made me look up that word (the first one, silly!) and in doing so before the age of the internet, got me checking out the dictionary and then a few encyclopedias as that rabbit hole opened up as I discovered other issues related to that word. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, union organizing, women’s rights (which I don’t think were listed in much detail as far as 70’s educational tomes were concerned) and other mind-expanding bits and pieces were in the process of being uncovered. One teacher I had noted my research and gave me a few newsletters to peruse from her college days. Of course, at that age (I was about ten or eleven at that point), most of that reading material was way above my brain grade but I absorbed them anyway. Continue reading →

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice TV Spots: Capes & Jaw-Juts on the Menu for March

Posted on January 10, 2016 by geelw

And so, it begins. By the time Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters in March, I fully expect to see no fewer than 25 or so of these 30-second (or longer) TV spots that still won’t give away all of the film’s “surprises”. I’m at the stage where these comic book blockbusters don’t surprise me much if at all because both DC and Marvel traffic heavily in killing any actual suspense these films bring thanks to wanting to keep as many main and some supporting characters around as possible as a means of generating income. Alternate universe stories aside, they can’t “kill” off a *major* character anymore (without replacing him or her) because they’d be removing a slice of that easy revenue stream fans pony up on a regular basis.

That said, collateral damage seems to me more than okay in these flicks. In English: you sure can lay waste to cities great and small, killing thousands or even millions of civilians as a plot pushing element. “Dead” superheroes get to come back to life at some point, but dead normal folks stay dead long after the rubble has been cleaned up. I suppose there’s a moral here, but I’m too lazy to look for one today.

MOVE OR DIE: Friendship Destroyer, Inbound

Posted on January 7, 2016 by geelw

On the other hand, a game like MOVE OR DIE is 100% made for playing with folks you know or don’t know anywhere in the world at any time. As you can see from that trailer below, indie developer Those Awesome Guys have cooked up a fun, devious, and genius plan to destroy as many friendships as possible in a single game experience via local multiplayer or online play. You’re a cute icon trapped with a few buddies in a room where the rules and games change every 20 seconds and you need to stay in motion or explode (eek!). Add in all sorts of challenges and the pure panic they provide and yeah, it’s an instant classic of the digital download variety:

While the game is currently Steam-bound on January 21, it would be awesome of Those Awesome Guys to get their baby onto consoles and handhelds in record time. I guess I should try this out and destroy a few friendships of my own, but I’m already at that point where I’ve streamlined my contact list to supermodel skinny. So I guess I can hit the park and train some squirrels to fiddle with controllers and figure out the game mechanics at some point. I can take that show on the road and make MILLIONS from the rubes and with those MILLIONS, run for elected office because here in the U.S. of A., anyone can run and if Deez Nuts can (my squirrels will rip him to pieces in the race!), so can I, grrrr!

Er, where was i again? Oh, right – MOVE OR DIE wants YOU.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters: ACE Team’s Got Another Weird Winner Up Its Sleeve

Posted on January 4, 2016 by geelw

If you’re a fan of old sci-fi “B” movies from days gone by, ACE Team is going to get you grinning with their upcoming PC and PS4-bound game The Deadly Tower of Monsters. The Santiago, Chile-based developer with its small library of visually gorgeous and reliably weird games is making this one a special slice of must-buy entertainment on a few fronts. The game seems to be a mix of classic beat ’em up and action/RPG with a decidedly retro vibe and some very pretty visuals. As a big “B” flick fan, I like the offbeat influences from films such as Forbidden Planet, Invaders From Mars, King Kong and many more. Sure, the younger gamers might be clueless and not aware of all the in-jokes and homages to too many things to count. But the end result should hook them in with what’s looking like fast-paced gameplay and those aforementioned pretty visuals.

From the videos above and below, the game sure looks as if it’ll be fun enough to warrant plenty of sales, a few replays and hopefully more console ports at some point down the road. Of course, that’s mostly up to how the game does on those two initial platforms and any legal stuff keeping it locked down on two platforms. I don’t mind exclusives at all, ladies and germs. But it’s nice to have more options over less when there’s a title as fun-looking as this one on the way.

Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen Gallery (PS3): Not Pixel-Proof, But Perfected on PC

Posted on January 4, 2016 by geelw

Dragon's Dogma_ Dark Arisen Screenshot_48

Before (well, 1280 x 720 looks a LOT better on a HD set in 1080i)…

After! PC version, *much* prettier PNG image.

Ah, the terrible JPG format and how it degrades over the shortest periods of time. Foo. I’d wanted to post a bunch of screens from the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen over the last few weeks up to the game’s PC release on Steam shortly (January 15), but when I finally got around to looking at the over 300 screenshots I’d taken over time, they all looked terrible. Normally, I go back and save jpeg images as .png files, but I got busy with too many things just didn’t have the time. Yet another reason to hate digital art, I guess. Still, a promise is a promise, but instead of a daily gallery of ugly imagery, you’re getting most of the shots I liked in one easy to peruse (but hard on the eyeballs) set of screens below the jump.

That said, before I commence with the eye torture, ogle that lovely trailer above and then go read this post, as here are more screens from the PC version along with more info about what the updated version of the game will have in store for those picking it up again or for the first time. There’s a lot of info there (thanks, Capcom!), but it’s all worth checking out because I know it’ll get got by fantasy RPG fans looking for a nicely-sized game world and plenty of pissed off mythical beasts coming at them with now even more gleaming teeth and claws. By the way, pre-ordering the game on Steam gets you its soundtrack and a digital art book. So there’s some incentive for those who want it.

Continue reading →