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Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 2, 2014 in Videogames 
Since Telltale Games is making both The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Wolf Among Us at the same time (with even more episodic adventure games in the works), it’s understandable that both releases are a bit slower than fans would like. So when I see a “launch trailer” for the third episode of The Wolf Among Us, I understand that the game probably isn’t releasing this week, much less has a release date. Still, it looks like things are heating up in the story, with this episode landing right in the middle. I’m dying to see where this mystery goes, but for now, I’ll have to settle for this trailer. Read more…
Tags: Fables, Telltale Games, The Wolf Among Us
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 2, 2014 in Videogames 
Half-Minute Hero was a fun PSP game (that later came to PC) giving the player “30 seconds” to save the world, though in-game mechanics allowed you to continually roll back time. Later unlockable modes let you play as an Evil Lord, Princess, or Knight with new gameplay styles. Like many unique ideas, it didn’t sell that well, seemingly dooming the sequel to remain in Japan. But luckily, Marvelous AQL has announced that they’re bringing Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming to Steam on April 4. Here’s where the info gets murky. Because yesterday was April Fool’s Day, the info provided about the game seems fishy. Marvelous claims the game will support the Oculus Rift (which seems unlikely) and that the game will cost $999.99 on Steam — though owners of the first game will get 25% off. If the game is coming out on Friday, I’d expect the price to be much, much lower. Either way, check it out! Read more…
Tags: RPG, Steam
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 1, 2014 in Videogames 
It’s taken long enough, but I guess that’s typical for Virtual Console releases these days. Capcom has confirmed that they will release six Mega Man Game Boy games on the 3DS Virtual Console in May — a “Mega May,” according to Capcom. The first Mega Man Game Boy game is already available, but I guess this is the remaining ones: Mega Man II through Mega Man V (the latter of which isn’t just a remix of NES levels), plus the two Mega Man Xtreme games based on Mega Man X (the letter, not a tenth installment, since things could get confusing with the Game Boy games using roman numerals). The games will all be released in one month, but fans can vote on Capcom Unity to decide what game will be released first. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with just going in release order; they’re all going to be out by the end of the month. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Capcom, Mega Man
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 1, 2014 in Tech, Videogames 
Two years ago, Google gave Google Maps a temporary 8-bit facelift, remaking the map in the style of Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior as it was called in America) on the original NES in honor of April Fool’s Day. It seems they’ve still got games in the mind, because this year’s April Fool’s Day “prank” has scattered pokemon all over the world. Reports are claiming there are at least 150 pokemon to find, with Google promising that the first person to find all of them will be hired as a Pokemon Master. While I doubt that, there might be some reward for finding them all first, so download the app on your iOS or Android phone — you can’t find them on a computer — and get started on catching ’em all! Read more…
Tags: April Fools, Google, Pokémon
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 27, 2014 in Videogames 
Opinion is currently split on backwards compatibility, or the ability to play games from previous consoles on a new console. On one hand, it’s great to not need older consoles to play your favorite games, letting gamers sell their old systems for some extra cash and free up space under their TV; it ensures that we don’t lose the ability to play generations worth of games, something movies haven’t had to worry about as much. On the other hand, including old chips isn’t cost-effective, and emulating them is very difficult due to their complicated architecture; plus, backwards compatibility is only a strong selling point for the first year of a console’s life, when game choices are limited. It’s a real shame that the PS4 can’t play any previous games, but it’s understandable. But that may soon change. Read more…
Tags: PS2, PS4, Sony
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 27, 2014 in Cinema 
As much as I love realistic sci-fi or gritty sci-fi or hard sci-fi, I can’t deny that I’m growing a little tired of it. One reason the original Star Wars trilogy always resonated with me was because it wasn’t quite science fiction, but more science fantasy. Now that I’m older and don’t feel as insecure about whether or not my entertainment choices are “legitimate” enough for non-geeks, I’ve started hungering for sci-fi with pulp sensibilities, or sci-fi that’s just plain weird. I want to see more sci-fi where no one worries about whether or not the alien kingdoms or advanced technology could plausibly exist in real life if we only had some unobtanium. So I’m really liking that Hollywood is putting out more sci-fi that’s “out there”; off the top of my head, this summer offers both Guardians of the Galaxy (which is also a superhero movie) and Jupiter Ascending. And while either film could be a mess, just watch the first full-length trailer for the latest from the Wachowskis and tell me that doesn’t look like a grand adventure. We’ve had enough grim sci-fi like Elysium recently (putting aside the fact that it was a horrible movie and disappointed compared to District 9) — let’s have something really wild and fun. Read more…
Tags: Jupiter Ascending, Sci-Fi, the Wachowskis
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 26, 2014 in Videogames 
After several years, Sega finally released a Hatsune Miku PS3 game in North America and Europe last year, with a Vita version released just this month. Apparently Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F did well enough that they’re bringing over the sequel — also on PS3 and Vita — to both territories this fall. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd will continue the music series, which has players pressing buttons in time with music made using Vocaloid voice-synth software, specifically the most popular version featuring virtual idol Hatsune Miku. I wouldn’t say that it’s my favorite music game, but I put a decent amount of time into the original Japan-only PSP game, and it’s pretty fun. Whether you enjoy this comes down to whether or not you enjoy the 40 new songs and returning favorites, but it’s worth trying out if you get chance. Read more…
Tags: Hatsune Miku, Playstation Vita, PS3
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 26, 2014 in Tech, Videogames 
In an unexpected move, Facebook has announced their plans to buy Oculus VR, the company making the Kickstarter-ed Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Facebook is paying out around $2 billion, which includes $400 million and 23.1 million Facebook shares, with another $300 million tied to undisclosed milestones. The partnership seems completely random, but Facebook and Oculus VR reason that this is another step in connecting people. After games, the plan is to expand the technology into other areas, like getting ring-side seats at a sports game, consulting with a doctor, and going to school. Read more…
Tags: Facebook, oculus rift, Virtual Reality
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 25, 2014 in Comic Books 
After over a year, Marvel is about to wrap up The Superior Spider-Man, the storyline where a reformed Doc Ock’s mind is in Spider-Man’s body. Peter Parker is coming back in The Amazing Spider-Man #1, but what will be waiting for him? Pretty much every Spider-Man ever created, apparently. The next story will be Spider-Verse, and it will be pulling in “every” Spider-Man from across multiple universes. I say “every” because there are a few rights issues preventing characters like Spider-Boy (a DC crossover) and Spectacular Spider-Man (because Sony co-owns the cartoon of the same name). But otherwise, you’ve got them all! And apparently Morlun, one of Spider-Man’s deadliest foes, is back from the dead, which can’t be good for any Spider-Man. If you want more hints as to what may happen, check out the Free Comic Book Day issue, because there will be a five-page back-up story. Read more…
Tags: Spider-man
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 25, 2014 in Videogames 
Microsoft often sets up Xbox Live events where gamers can play with various celebrities. With that context in place, it’s easy to see how impressionable people might think an Obama impersonator is actually the real deal, even if there’s no way the president would take the time to play himself. That’s what happens in this collection of videos: a damn good Obama impersonator plays Titanfall in character, promoting the Affordable Care Act and cracking political jokes. His voice isn’t a perfect match, but he has Obama’s inflections down, so I’d imagine this sounded pretty convincing when compressed over an Xbox headset. So does this mean Obama has reversed his position on gun control? Read more…
Tags: Barack Obama, Titanfall, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 20, 2014 in Tech, Videogames 
The Oculus Rift has been in development for a while and is getting close to release, but Sony must figure it can do it better. They’ve announced Project Morpheus, a prototype virtual reality device that is being developed for PS4. While much is up in the air, including the design and specs, here’s what the prototype can do. It has a 1080p display at 1000hz with a 90-degree field of view. There’s 360-degree movement, 15mm eye relief, and support for forward prediction. So far, there’s a VR version of God of War being developed, as well as a special build of the recent Thief game, though it will only be key sections, not the entire game. EVE Valkyrie is playable on the dev kit right now, and there are two games called The Deep and The Castle; to complete the VR experience, you can use the PlayStation Move controller in The Castle. It’s a cool idea, but I do wonder why Sony needs their own VR device instead of working with the Oculus Rift. Will the market support a separate VR headset for each platform? Will it even support one? Read more…
Tags: PS4, Sony, Virtual Reality
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 20, 2014 in Cinema 
The Giver was one of my favorite novels as a kid. It could very well have been my first dystopian novel, and the themes were thought-provoking. A film adaptation is coming August 15, 2014, and the first trailer looks fairly solid. There’s maybe a bit too much influence from The Hunger Games, because futuristic dystopian stories where kids rebel against the way of the world are hot right now. But hey: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes…with a cast that good, I could overlook whatever Taylor Swift is doing in there. My bigger issue is a major one: The Giver should be in black-and-white, not color. Read more…
Tags: The Giver
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 19, 2014 in Animation, Cinema 
Of all the films that Pixar is made, I was always somewhat disappointed that The Incredibles, one of my personal faves, never got a sequel. Sure, Toy Story put them on the map, and Cars prints money for Disney’s coffers, but I thought The Incredibles had the most sequel potential of any of them. (Not that I need a sequel, mind you; I just wanted one instead of sequels to their other movies). Lo and behold, Disney CEO Bob Iger just confirmed that Pixar is working on a sequel. Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting, Iger shared that Brad Bird, who not only wrote and directed the first film but also voiced Edna Mode, was already working on the story. It hasn’t been confirmed that he will write or direct, but hopefully he does return for at least one of those roles. Until then, all that’s left to do is speculate wildly. I want more team-ups with Samuel L. Jackson’s Frozone! Read more…
Tags: Disney, Pixar, The Incredibles
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 19, 2014 in Animation, Cinema 
20 Century Fox’s Blue Sky Studios is making a big-budget Peanuts film, based on Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and all the other classic characters created by Charles M. Schulz. Considering how many other modern animated/half-animated films have come before and sucked, it’s reasonable to be skeptical. But wait a second — this teaser looks good! While the animation nut in me pines for 2D animation, even I can admit how limited the Peanuts cartoons were, so it’s not like there wasn’t room to grow. This animation style, while done with CG, does a great job of retaining Schulz’s original designs and art style while mixing in faux-stop-motion animation. With a script by Schulz’s son Craig, Schulz’s grandson Bryan, and Cornelius Uliano (who simply has a cool name), there’s certainly potential for this movie to duck the trend of awful modern animated reboots and rehashes. Here’s hoping! Peanuts will be released on November 6, 2015. Read more…
Tags: 20th Century Fox, Charles Schulz, Charlie Brown, Peanuts
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 18, 2014 in Anime, Videogames 
We still may not have gotten an official release for Persona 3 The Movie: Chapter 1, Spring of Birth yet, but that won’t stop the second movie from coming out in Japan! The multi-movie adaptation of Persona 3, Atlus’s successful refresh of their sub-franchise that led to the juggernaut Persona 4, is rolling on. On June 7, Persona 3 The Movie: Chapter 2, Midsummer Knight’s Dream will be released. As with the past movie, the art direction looks great, just dripping with atmosphere. Maybe this one will be a bit more interesting now that the plot is already underway. Read more…
Tags: Atlus, Persona 3
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 18, 2014 in Videogames 
You could argue that there have been three main “eras” of Konami’s Castlevania series. The first era contains the classic 2D action games that started on the NES. The second era began with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which redefined the series with Metroid-like progression and RPG elements, and ended with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. The third era includes the middling Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games and whatever other random entries were released while Konami tried to figure out what it wanted to do with the series. Those second era “Metroidvania” games are easily some of the best in the series, only out-done by the level design in a few of the earlier action games, and most of them can be traced to producer Koji “IGA” Igarashi, the cowb0y-hat-wearing, whip-wielding man who was the heart behind Symphony of the Night. But it looks like he’ll never return to Castlevania, as he has announced his departure from Konami. Read more…
Tags: Castlevania, Konami
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 13, 2014 in Tech 
Since moving across the country, the requests to fix my parents tech problems have been drastically reduced. Still, I can only imagine how frustrating it is for them to have a problem and have no idea what is causing it. Mike Lacher has explored this in a piece for New York Magazine, and now it has been animated with narration by H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Bob’s Burgers). When an old couple’s WiFi breaks, it’s up to the son-in-law to fix it. It’s a straightforward story told with all the bombast of an epic quest in ye olden days. I bet this is how my parents viewed it when I taught them to just restart their computer. Read more…
Tags: Fantasy, The Internet
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 13, 2014 in Fandom, Videogames 
Have you tried out Grand Theft Auto Online? It’s the multiplayer component of Grand Theft Auto V, and it lets you roll around Los Santos with friends, taking on missions with your custom characters and fighting other players. Ideally, you’d get a good mix of progression and mayhem. In practice, it’s very easy to have all your plans go awry due to other players being crazy — you know, the way most players don’t even finish a GTA game’s story and just use it as a sandbox to play around in. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it results in moments like those found in YouTube user Jameserton’s video below. I’m not a huge multiplayer gamer, so I’m okay with sticking to the singleplayer in game’s like this. But I can’t deny the chaotic experience makes for a funny video. Read more…
Tags: Grand Theft Auto
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 6, 2014 in Videogames 
True Detective is my new Breaking Bad, in that it’s an intense, thoughtful, well-written, deliberately-paced show with outstanding production values that I can’t stop thinking about all week. Even now, I’m mulling stuff over for this Sunday’s final episode. (Each season will have its own characters and story arc, so everything is wrapping up in episode eight.) The guys at Dorkly had some different detectives on their mind, however, and decided to mash up True Detective‘s distinctive, amazing opening sequence with LucasArts’ classic adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road. The game, which stars an anthropomorphic dog and rabbit (er, lagomorph) as freelance detectives, fits surprisingly well with the creepy opening. They only do about half, but they make up for it by mocking up one of Rust’s more notable diatribes using the in-game graphics. I love the interaction between Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, so I’d totally be down for a game featuring the two of them. Read more…
Tags: HBO, LucasArts
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 6, 2014 in Cinema 
That Super Bowl spot for Transformers: Age of Extinction might have whetted some appetites, but it didn’t give a good sense of the film besides “Optimus Prime wielding a sword while riding a Dinobot.” Actually, that’s still probably a good summary of what the film will be, but regardless: the first trailer is here, with Shia “I Am Not Famous Anymore” Labeouf nowhere in sight. Mark Whalberg is headlining this film, which takes place four years after the last movie. Honestly, with Michael Bay still at the helm, it looks fairly similar to the previous films. Maybe this one will be more than just explosions? It would be nice if they used some restraint in animating the Transformers’ immeasurable moving parts, because they reach visual overload far too often. Read more…
Tags: Michael Bay, Transformers: Age of Extinction
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 5, 2014 in Cinema, Star Trek 
The Wolf of Wall Street may not have won anything at the Oscars this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor the movie in other ways. Grant Gourley has edited scenes from Star Trek: The Next Generation to create “The Worf of Starfleet,” and it looks surprisingly entertaining. The editing is the star here, bumping up the slow, deliberate tempo of TNG for an energetic trailer. And unlike usual, Worf comes across as smooth and almost witty, instead of his normal, kinda dorky self that haltingly discusses honor. I’d watch this movie! Read more…
Tags: Star Trek: The Next Generation, wolf of wall street
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 5, 2014 in Comic Books, Videogames 
Reviews of Batman: Arkham Origins were mixed. Some liked the familiar gameplay, while others saw it as a buggy rehash of Batman: Arkham City by Warner Brothers’ b-team. Regardless of your opinion, I think we can all agree that the series belongs in the hands of developer Rocksteady, which is just what is happening. Batman: Arkham Knight will be the final game in Rocksteady’s trilogy and feature the Scarecrow as the main villain (as hinted in Arkham City). Two-Face, the Penguin, and Harley Quinn will be in the mix, with the latter playable if you preorder, though it’s unclear if they’ll be story sections or challenge maps. Batman can also freely ride in the Batmobile, newly redesigned for this game, though reminiscent of the Tumbler from Nolan’s Batman films. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Knight, DC Comics
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 4, 2014 in Videogames 
People complain every time Capcom releases DLC, as they should. But the one series they’ve been really good about DLC with is Street Fighter, specifically Street Fighter IV. After releasing the inevitable Super Street Fighter IV at retail, they’ve had an almost yearly stream of updates to satisfy the demands of competitive fans. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition was available at retail and as a paid update, then followed that with a free balance patch called Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Version 2012. With the end of the last console generation, Capcom has one more update: Ultra Street Fighter IV, available at retail and as a paid update, meaning you still don’t have to buy a new game if you have the old one. And it’s got a nice bonus too! Read more…
Tags: Capcom, Street Fighter
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 4, 2014 in Fandom, Videogames 
To answer the question above, no, it’s not. But when you think about it, little about Sonic the Hedgehog makes sense. Hedgehogs aren’t known for being fast (or blue), the game world — while creative and distinctive — couldn’t possibly exist in reality, and putting animals in robots is a pretty poor evil scheme. Even though Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara created Sonic to become Sega’s new mascot, this sketch by BEASTS, in which a group of underlings at Sega create Sonic after a particularly unproductive brainstorming session, seems somewhat plausible. After all, it’s not like Mario made much more sense either. Read more…
Tags: Sonic the Hedgehog
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