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Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 22, 2013 in Videogames 
Dark Souls II is still polishing its ability to smash your will into the ground. The sequel to the notoriously difficult 2011 game is due out on March 14. But before then, Namco Bandai will be holding a closed beta to test the online features, which will improve upon the spotty connectivity of the first game. The beta starts on October 5, but here’s what you need to know before getting too excited. Read more…
Tags: Dark Souls, Namco Bandai
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 21, 2013 in Comic Books, Videogames 
I’ll admit to being quite nervous about how Batman: Arkham Origins would turn out. It’s not being made by Rocksteady, who made the last two critically-acclaimed games. It’s missing Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill (Batman and the Joker). It’s a prequel, not following up on the tantalizing threads left by Arkham City. And it’s adding a multiplayer mode. But the latest trailer is the trailer that made me put down money for a preorder. It looks like a Gotham I want to explore and a story I want to experience. They even took Firefly, one of Batman’s b-list villains, and made him look kind of awesome and menacing! Plus, it helps that not only does Roger Craig Smith sound like a competent young Batman, but Troy Baker is doing an excellent job at emulating Hamill’s Joker, which is no easy task. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Origins, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 21, 2013 in Videogames 
It’s really annoying when console producers are coy about when their new consoles will launch. It’s obvious that they’ll launch shortly before Thanksgiving, yet they dance around like the date is some treasure to be hoarded. At least Sony has finally come clean about when the PlayStation 4 will launch at its Gamescom event. Come November 15, you can buy a PlayStation 4 for $499.99. Europe and other PAL territories will have to wait just a bit longer, as the console will launch there on November 29. Time to start getting in line! Read more…
Tags: PS4, Sony
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 20, 2013 in Videogames 
When it comes to games, the Wii U is really hurting, so almost anything would help at this point. While people don’t generally buy new systems to play old games, people do generally like Street Fighter. So maybe announcing all three SNES Street Fighter II games might help! Even after current Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono said that it wouldn’t happen, Capcom announced that Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo (which also includes SFII Championship Edition), and Super Street Fighter II will be available on Wii U for $7.99 each. And there’s a deal for the US: if you buy one game, it drops the price of the other two by 50%. If you’re in Europe, if you buy two, you get the third one free. Both deals cost the same if you’re getting all three, so consider reliving the days when you couldn’t patch fighting games and your old version became obsolete! Read more…
Tags: Street Fighter, Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 20, 2013 in Videogames 
Alright, that header pun is pretty bad, but more importantly: Gamescom is starting in Germany, so you know what that means: new demos, trailers, and sizzle trailers, i.e. the kind that feature a ton of different games trying to sell you on a system. The Xbox One is slowly recovering after a disastrous reveal period, and now that Microsoft has made an about-face on pretty much every negative aspect of the system, these games are actually looking kinda good. Alright, they’re just looking good in general! New console launches are always rocky, but if you choose to upgrade now instead of waiting a year, it at least looks like you’ll have some decent game options in the meantime. Read more…
Tags: Xbox One
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 19, 2013 in Videogames 
Dead Island was an interesting game. It’s sequel, Dead Island: Riptide was pretty disappointing. So now what for Techland? They’re trying something totally different: Dead Island: Mirror’s Edge edition. Dying Light is their 2014 game that focuses on traversal and parkour while avoiding the hordes of the undead on an island. Granted, this looks way better than either of the Dead Island games and also seems to have some more interesting game mechanics. This 12 minute video gives a pretty good idea of what they’re aiming for, and it certainly got my attention. The question is, can they pull it off? I sure hope so! Read more…
Tags: Dead Island, Dying Light
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 19, 2013 in Videogames 
I was never a big fan of typing games. I’m not sure why, perhaps I associated it too much with “work” and not “fun.” However, Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing is a bit of a different beast. Made in one month by Holy Wow Studios for the July 2013 Something Awful GameDev Competition, the idea was to make an educational game that isn’t boring or unentertaining. They lure you in with warnings about profanity and Native American spirit animals and then next thing you know you’re putting points into your typing skilltree and typing like the gods. Trust me, this game is worth it, and you can play it right in your browser, here. Do it. Read more…
Tags: Holy Wow Studios, Indie Games
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 18, 2013 in Videogames 
Game Freak recently had an event in which they announced a TV special called Pokemon: The Origin. It’ll focus on the original trainer, Red, from Red and Blue, and will be a short single-episode TV event. Pretty cool right? (Don’t worry, the trailer is below the break.) Yeah, but what I found even more intriguing was the short promo video for X & Y that showed a mysterious image of Lucario and Blaziken facing off in the streets — in HD. Is this an upcoming Wii U Pokemon game? A new Pokemon Stadium game? Some fans are even theorizing that it could be a Pokemon fighting game. Time to start guessing, Poke-fans! Read more…
Tags: Pokémon
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 16, 2013 in Videogames 
Surprise! After a test launch in Australia and New Zealand last month, the long-awaited Plants vs. Zombies 2 is now out on iOS devices. This new game is free-to-play, with in-game microtransactions, but according to Popcap, no purchases are needed to beat the game. I’ll report back to you on that factoid soon. For now though, it looks like a worthy successor and I’m liking the new art style too. The game will only on iOS right now, but will be arriving on basically every other platform ever pretty soon. Trust me. The original game was on everything. Download the game here or watch the trailer below. Read more…
Tags: Plants vs. Zombies
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 16, 2013 in Videogames 
Rockstar officially announced GTA Online (at least, in any real capacity) and the new trailer showing it off looks fantastic. It’s a persistent, online world were you can team up with friends to go on heists, race your large collection of cars, or just mess around in the world. Details are still a little sparse at the moment, but the whole mode seems to be very ambitious. And when things are so ambitious, you have to wonder if they can deliver. Still, they’re not rushing this out, at GTA Online won’t be available at GTA V’s launch, and will instead arrive October 1st. I’m still holding out hope for a PC version, so for now I’ll just watch from the sidelines. And watch this trailer. Read more…
Tags: Grand Theft Auto
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 15, 2013 in Animation, Videogames 
“Fantasia” is a name that evokes a lot of musical history and artistry. While some may argue (myself included) about the song selection in Harmonix’s Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, it seems that the music-oriented studio is still trying to stay true to Walt Disney’s original concept of marrying music with fantastic imagery. This latest look helps contextualize what Harmonix is doing in the broader scope of the somewhat-ongoing Fantasia project. In the meantime, it has also been announced that composer Inon Zur is contributing original music for the game. Zur has done music for games like Dragon Age and Prince of Persia, so he’s a solid vet to have involved. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Music, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 15, 2013 in Comic Books, Videogames 
Telltale Games knocked it out of the park with The Walking Dead: Season One. It garnered tons of “Game of the Year” awards, which is incredible for a modestly-budgeted game with no bleeding-edge graphics from a smaller developer. Season Two is coming in Q4 2013, but before those episodes start releasing, Telltale has another comic book collaboration to start: The Wolf Among Us, a prequel to Bill Willingham’s Fables series. The episodic game will release its first episode in Q3 2013, with the overall series centering on Bigby Wolf, the reformed Big Bad Wolf who can take human form. Bigby works to keep other fairy tale creatures in line in a part of NYC known as Fabletown. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Fables, PS3, The Wolf Among Us, Vertigo, Xbox 360
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 14, 2013 in Anime, Videogames 
Arc System Works has released a trailer for the first anime adaptation of BlazBlue, their spiritual successor to Guilty Gear. Titled BlazBlue: Alter Memory, the trailer first recaps a bunch of anime intro footage from the games, as if you remind you that yes, they have been animating fights all along and this is a natural extension. And then, there’s the new footage, which is looking pretty sharp. The anime will supposedly adapt the tangled plot of the first game (BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger), but I’d hope that they consider continuing it into the sequels. Hideki Tachibana (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira) will direct with Seiji Mizushima (Fullmetal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam 00). Read more…
Tags: BlazBlue
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 14, 2013 in Animation, Videogames 
Okay, considering how much actual animation there is, “animated” might be a bit strong. But this fan video from Dave Rapoza takes the SNES classic Super Metroid and puts it into a lightly-animated vignette. There’s some interesting grit to the drawings — actual grit, not the modern “dark = gritty” use of the word — that reminds me of Magical Game Time, while the direction suggests an alternate timeline where Samurai Jack‘s Genndy Tartakovsky helmed a Super Metroid cartoon in the mid-90s with his signature style. Rapoza says the drawings were all done in Photoshop and assembled in an editor, which explains the minimal animation. But take a look, and appreciate the great sense of atmosphere! Read more…
Tags: fan videos, Metroid, Nintendo
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 11, 2013 in Videogames 
Pokemon X & Y aren’t too far away now — October 12th is growing closer. Nintendo and Game Freak have been very careful to trickle out info at a specific pace, and it’s that time again! This time they’ve revealed several new evolutions for older Pokemon. Lucario, Blaziken, Absol, Mawile, Ampharos, and the previously revealed “Mewthree” are all getting new Mega Evolutions that unlock new moves. Yes, that new Mewtwo evolution is actually a Mega Evolution. The twist on these, though, is that they can only happen in battle while the Pokemon is holding a certain object. After battle, they return to normal. A few other new non-Mega Pokemon were revealed as well. Images of all these below, as well as a trailer! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Pokémon
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 10, 2013 in Videogames 
Hideki Kamiya, the Twitter-infamous director of many popular games, such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Bayonetta, has partnered up with Nintendo to release a Nintendo Direct about The Wonderful 101. Given that this is one of the biggest games coming to Wii U in the near future (besides Pikmin, which just came out and you should get!), it’s no surprise Nintendo is giving this a big push. There’s a new trailer to watch that stretches over 7 minutes long and a demo is now out on the eShop in Japan, Europe, and the US. If you can’t try the demo out, check out the trailer below. Read more…
Tags: Nintendo Direct, Wii U, wonderful 101
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 9, 2013 in Hobbies and Collections, Videogames 
Tony Swatton keeps on forging, and his latest piece is the Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda. It’s possibly his nicest-looking blade yet, and certainly the best Master Sword replica I’ve seen – especially since it can actually cut things (mostly). They of course take it out and test it, swing it at various jars filled with gems and soda bottles that vaguely resemble potions. This is all well and good, but Tony keeps referring to it as “Zelda’s Master Sword” which is either hilarious or annoying depending on your personality. Read more…
Tags: Legend of Zelda
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 8, 2013 in Tech, Videogames 
John Carmack, co-creator of Doom, co-founder of Id Software, and programmer on many, many computer games is joining Oculus VR, the company making the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset for use with games. Carmack was the one who debuted the device at E3 2012, and now he is taking a full-time position at the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). However, the award-winning programmer isn’t really leaving Id, either. He’s still planning on working on games, and he’s also not abandoning his rocket company Armadillo Aerospace. Read more…
Tags: id Software, oculus rift, Rocket
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 8, 2013 in Videogames 
For a while there, I thought it was entirely possible that Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney would not be released outside of Japan. Sure, Level-5 often takes an unusually long time to announce Western releases for their Layton games, but with so many other niche games not leaving Japan, you can’t blame me for being nervous. It didn’t help that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is only getting a digital release, and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2 never got translated at all. But lo and behold, during the latest Nintendo Direct, they finally confirmed that the US (and it turns out also Europe) will be getting this crossover game in 2014. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Ace Attorney, Capcom, Level-5, Nintendo Direct, Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 7, 2013 in Videogames 
So far we only knew that Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, and Millia Rage were returning for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, the long awaited proper sequel to whatever the last Guilty Gear X2 update was. Now four more characters have been confirmed to be returning to the game: Chipp Zanuff, May, Venom, and Potemkin. There are no new characters yet, but Potemkin’s design does look quite different from how he used to look. See his new art for yourself below. Read more…
Tags: Arcade Games, Guilty Gear
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 3, 2013 in Videogames 
EverQuest Next was announced roughly three years ago, and since then the team behind it has been silent. However, they have just re-unveiled the game and it has been completely overhauled. It looks very different visually, with improved graphics and a new art style, but perhaps most interesting is the gameplay changes. EverQuest Next has destructible terrain and custom-created tent villages. While it’s still an MMO, EverQuest Next Landmark (a free-to-play game to build and create objects to take into the game proper) has a heavy dose of Minecraft included in it, as you can collect supplies and build anything your heart desires with a voxel landscape. Everything in the two games is generated procedurally with no repeats. Could this be the MMO to finally shake up the age-old formula? Read more…
Tags: EverQuest Next
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 3, 2013 in Videogames 
QuakeCon is going on right now!I hadn’t heard of much news coming out of it, when suddenly Bethesda decided to liven things up a bit! They announced The Elder Scrolls Anthology, which includes all five main games in the series, as well as the add-on expansion packs. Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim are all featured, each on their own disc. The package also includes maps of each major location, which I’m sure would look good hanging up. It’ll arrive September 10th and run you $79.99. Does that seem worth it to you? Read more…
Tags: Elder Scrolls
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 2, 2013 in Videogames 
Get your wallets ready for a bunch of new games arriving via Steam Greenlight! After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, both Divekick and Papers, Please are finally arriving on Steam. Papers, Please puts you in the role of a border agent who can approve or reject any immigrants papers. It’s a fascinating look into a dark world of borders, immigration, and oppressive governments. It’ll arrive August 8th for $9.99. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Divekick is a fighting game that parodies fighting games and their community. You can only use two buttons: jump and divekick. And it’s amazing. I mean, there’s a Seth Killian character for crying out loud. Divekick will arrive August 20th for $9.99 as well. Buy both of these games! Read more…
Tags: Divekick, Indie Games, Papers, Please
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 1, 2013 in Comic Books, Videogames 
It seems like you can’t get to the third game of a series without multiplayer being thrown in along the way. As rumored, Batman: Arkham Origins will have a multiplayer mode called “Invisible Predator.” It’s an eight-player mode that pits two three-person gangs against Batman and Robin. Basically, Bane’s gang and Joker’s gangs play a game of territories against each other. Along the way, they need to fend off Batman and Robin, who are using stealth tactics to take out the gangs. If certain gang members meet up at the right place, one of them can become Bane or Joker themselves, which grants bonuses and paints a bigger target on their backs. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Origins, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
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