|
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 12, 2014 in Videogames 
An English release for Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Agito was already announced at this year’s E3, but that’s not the only Final Fantasy announcement Square Enix has for RPG players. The latest Japanese issue of Shonen Jump revealed Final Fantasy Explorers, a new multiplayer RPG for 3DS. You can pick different jobs you’re likely familiar with like black mage or monk. You can team up with three other players to fight various summons from previous FF games. Basically, it seems that Square Enix is doing their own take on Monster Hunter. Since the 3DS doesn’t have as many MH-style games as the Vita, the only big game this needs to compete with is Monster Hunter itself! Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Final Fantasy, square enix
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 11, 2014 in Videogames 
Bandai Namco is co-developing Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, so many were wondering whether or not any Namco characters would appear in the game. With Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man all in the game, it only made sense for Pac-Man to enter the fray, and luckily he was just confirmed. While he mostly retains his modern 3D look, it seems that for some attacks he’ll transform back into a 2D form to munch things up. He also can attack with ghosts, pellets, Galaga, Dig Dug, and other old school summons. The video also confirms the return of Mr. Game & Watch, as it is humorously pointed out that both characters originated in 1980, while Mario and Donkey Kong debuted in 1981’s Donkey Kong. Read more…
Tags: Namco Bandai, Nintendo, Pac-Man, Super Smash Bros.
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 11, 2014 in Videogames 
Because Atlus doesn’t have a European branch, releasing their games is always iffy because it relies on other companies publishing the games. As a result, some games don’t come out or are hard to get. (Persona 4 Arena was just taken off the European PSN store.) Atlus is fixing this somewhat with Shin Megami Tensei IV, which is finally getting released in Europe. Sadly, there is no physical release, as the game is only available as a digital download from the eShop. The game is also only in English, reusing the localization for America. Still, this is good news for hardcore RPG fans. The price hasn’t been set yet, but we do know the game is coming out in Q3 later this year. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Atlus, shin megami tensei
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 10, 2014 in Videogames 
When Final Fantasy XIII was announced, it was done so as part of the “Fabula Nova Crystalis” project that also included Final Fantasy Versus XIII (just for PS3) and Final Fantasy Agito XIII (for mobile). The former game was delayed, being reannounced as Final Fantasy XV in 2013, while the latter game was reworked for PSP as Final Fantasy Type-0. FFXIII got two direct sequels, FFXV isn’t finished yet, and Type-0 was never released outside of Japan due to the declining demand for the PSP. But suddenly, we’re going to be getting it — just not for PSP! Read more…
Tags: Final Fantasy, PS4, PSP, square enix, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 10, 2014 in Videogames 
While Microsoft and Sony had solid press conferences yesterday, Nintendo’s E3 Digital Event on the first day of E3 was much more impressive to me because it captured the self-awareness mixed with new hype of E3s past. Robot Chicken produced the opening (and various interstitial skits) in which Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Amie definitely ate a fire flower and lit a press member on fire. Then, Reggie and Nintendo of Japan CEO Satoru Iwata began fighting each other. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, E3 2014, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct, Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 10, 2014 in Videogames 
We close out E3 2014’s “Day 0” with Sony’s press conference. Last year, this was the conference that helped propel the PS4 ahead of the Xbox One in terms of consumer excitement. With Cross-Buy, the ability to buy a game on one platform and get any other version for free (like buying on PS4 and getting the PS3 and Vita versions for free), Sony gives gamers a big incentive to play on all their systems. And this press conference was filled with a ton of game footage — nothing too in-depth, which allowed them to fit in even more game coverage and reveals. Read more…
Tags: Playstation Vita, PS3, PS4, Sony
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 9, 2014 in Videogames 
Following EA’s disappointing press conference, Ubisoft attempted to pick up the excitement by showing something cool right from the start. Instead of beating around the bush, they went right into showing their biggest recently-announced game: Far Cry 4. Read more…
Tags: E3 2014, PS4, Ubisoft, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 9, 2014 in Videogames 
The second press conference of E3’s “Day 0” was Electronic Arts, and while there was new stuff shown off, it is unlikely to get you into a frothing mess of anticipation. They began with their studio DICE, who showed some early in-engine footage of Star Wars: Battlefront, coming Spring 2015, and the environments looked gorgeous. The Star Wars license looks like it’s in good hands. Read more…
Tags: E3 2014, Electronic Arts, PS4, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 9, 2014 in Videogames 
It’s time for highlights from E3, the biggest game expo of the year! Microsoft got a lot of flack for not talking about games enough as they revealed the Xbox One last year. Thankfully, Microsoft kicked off E3 with a conference devoted entirely to games. (How refreshing!) Read more…
Tags: E3 2014, Microsoft, Xbox One
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 9, 2014 in Videogames 
Star Citizen continues to grow and change impressively. For being entirely crowd-funded, they’re doing a great job making the whole process look professional and open. Their latest release is the reveal of a new ship, the Freelancer, in a faux commercial, just like their previous ship reveals. This one is a trucker vessel though, so it has all the trappings of a truck commercial, complete with rough-and-tough voiceover and gritty kinetic typography. It’s pretty neat. Also neat is the release of their dogfighting module to all backers, so if you’ve supported Star Citizen at one point or another, check out the news page here and get to downloading! Read more…
Tags: Star Citizen
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 9, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Doctor Strange has been a film that Marvel has been plugging away on slowly, but it seems like the ball is finally rolling. A few days ago, Scott Derrickson announced that he would be directing the film, working off of a script by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (although there were some rumors of rewrites). Now the question is: who will play Doctor Strange himself? Well, Deadline caught wind of Marvel’s most recent wishlist for the film, which is basically just their dream choices without any realistic vetting. They are: Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy. Those two join the previous rumored choices of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Johnny Depp (but chances are those two have passed the role up by now). Sorry Marvel, but these are some boring choices! Try picking someone more unique! Read more…
Tags: Doctor Strange, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 8, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Ok, ok, maybe that’s a bit cynical of me. But Peyton Reed did direct the movie Yes Man, so it’s an easy joke to make, especially given that Marvel seems to want one of those right now. Adam McKay, who was in the running to direct Ant-Man previously, will be contributing to the script, but the directing is all Reed. Now it’s up to them to steer this project back to safety. I’m just not sure if you can save this movie in the eyes of the hardcore fans now — they are the ones most upset by Edgar Wright’s departure. But as long as the mass audiences like it, that’s all the matters now. Read more…
Tags: ant-man, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 7, 2014 in Videogames 
Tom Francis, the creative mind behind Gunpoint (one of my favorite indie games from last year), has released a new game: Floating Point. For free. Yes, the whole game. For totally free. He says it’s a ‘thank you’ to all the people who supported Gunpoint and him over the last year, and he wanted to give something back. It’s not a large game, but it is incredibly cool and relaxing. You swing about from shape to shape, collecting objects and listening to some cool tunes. It’s really unique and and be played entirely with your mouse. Oh yeah, and it’s free! Who can argue with that? Check out a trailer below. Read more…
Tags: Gunpoint, Indie Games, Tom Francis
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 7, 2014 in Television 
Yup: no one can stop the Game of Thrones train. The fantasy series has beaten the previous record-holder at HBO, The Sopranos, to become the company’s most popular show ever averaging a gross audience of 18.4 million viewers. That’s a lot of fans. The previous record was 18.2 million, by HBO’s iconic Sopranos, but it seems that dragons, swords, and magic were able to win more people over than a classic crime drama. And that’s saying something, I think! Just don’t expect anyone to make it out alive of this next season, you know? Read more…
Tags: Game of Thrones, HBO
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 7, 2014 in Anime 
At long last, after ages of teasing, planning, delays, and uncertainty, Sailor Moon Crystal is finally real. I mean, we’re seeing actual animated footage of it, so I can only assume it’s not my imagination. This is a remake essentially, a new anime adaption that plans to stay closer to the original manga’s storyline. The series is planning to run 26 episodes, and will begin airing on July 5th. It’ll be streaming worldwide, so chances are you’ll be able to watch it somewhere (Viz Media has licensed it in the US). Also, it’ll only air twice a month, so factor that into your Sailor Moon-watching schedule too! Check out the trailer below. Read more…
Tags: Sailor Moon
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 6, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections
A while back LEGO released a Volkswagen T1 Camper Van, which was one of its most beloved sets in a long time. Now they’re releasing another classic car, this time a Mini Cooper. It’s looks fantastic, especially in its unique green color. It also features an adorable little picnic basket and blanket for those lazy Sunday afternoon drives. The model is coming out in August, and will run you $99.99 USD. Not too bad! Check out the video below of the LEGO designer showing of the features of the set, like a brick-built engine, functional trunk, and the removable roof. Read more…
Tags: Lego
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 6, 2014 in Star Wars 
After the success of Chronicle, Josh Trank has gone on to get signed to the Fantastic Four reboot, which was a big step up. Now, Disney is courting him too, and have signed him to direct a Star Wars spin off film. He’s another example of Disney’s strategy: find young up-and-coming directors to make Star Wars spin off films for cheap! Once again, there’s no word on what the story or script will focus on, but that’s to be expected when we’re this early in the game. Until then, he’s working on The Fantastic Four. How that film turns out will probably determine whether I get excited for this one! Read more…
Tags: Josh Trank, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 5, 2014 in Videogames 
Since their reinvention with Persona 3, the Persona games have been known for their striking, colorful openings, showing off the characters and setting the tone of the game. I know I’m not the only person to have rewatched them too many times to count. Well, it seems that Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, the upcoming 3DS dungeon crawler, isn’t too much of a spin-off to get its own fancy opening number. It shows the characters from Persona 3 and 4 looking cool and interacting with each other, since this is a crossover game. I’ve already watched this a few times, because the music is as catchy as usual. Alas: this game won’t be out in North America until Fall 2014. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Atlus, Persona 3, Persona 4
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 5, 2014 in Cinema, Star Wars 
Someone has managed to sort all of Star Wars alphabetically. No, it’s not a wiki or database of some kind, and we’re talking about Star Wars the first movie, not Star Wars the franchise. This guy has alphabetically sorted every word spoken in the film and cut a video of the words in order. The original film is 121 minutes, while this edit runs for a mere 43 minutes. The most common word is naturally “the,” but interestingly enough, the word “lightsaber” is only uttered once in the entire film. Strange, huh? Read more…
Tags: Episode VII, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 4, 2014 in Comic Books, Videogames 
After the somewhat disappointing Batman: Arkham Origins, most fans are pretty excited about Batman: Arkham Knight, the third and supposedly final entry in Rocksteady’s series. While the game was originally supposed to be released by the end of 2014, that seems to no longer be the case. Now Rocksteady says the game has been pushed back to 2015, to allow more time to deliver “the awesome level of quality that Batman fans and gamers expect.” I’d imagine some of this is prompted not only by working with newer hardware — the game will release only on current-gen platforms: PC, PS4, and Xbox One — but also to make sure it’s much more impressive than Arkham Origins, which Rocksteady didn’t develop. I’ve always got a lot of games on my plate, so I don’t mind waiting. But still, it would be nice if most of the big games for these new platforms weren’t all coming in 2015 or later. Hopefully E3 next week has some good news for that issue. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Knight, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 4, 2014 in Videogames 
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was one of the early reasons to own a 3DS, offering a fun musical romp through the history of past Final Fantasy games. The sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, is coming out in North America on September 16, 2014, and it’s especially enticing for those who skipped the first entry. With 221 songs, you’ve got access to every previous song, every previously-released DLC song, and new songs, plus the option to buy more DLC songs in the future. That’s a lot of songs! But if you’re really excited for the game, you might consider preordering the collector’s edition. Only 5,000 copies are available on Square Enix’s online store. If you pony up the $70, you get a big box (similar to Kingdom Hearts 3D‘s collector’s edition), a collector’s pouch for your 3DS, a 20-song soundtrack CD, an additional CD with 5 remixed songs, and 5 premium cards based on CollectaCards seen in the game (with passwords to unlock the card in-game). If you don’t have the scratch for all that, you can still preorder and get the 5-song remix CD. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Final Fantasy, square enix
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 3, 2014 in Videogames 
After many years of mediocre fighters, Midway finally made a comeback with 2011’s Mortal Kombat, sometimes called Mortal Kombat 9, and kept that success going into the DC fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us. So it’s not surprising, but still a nice surprise, to see a trailer for Mortal Kombat X, the newly-announced next game in the series. It doesn’t show any actual gameplay, consisting of a prerendered fight scene of Scorpion fighting Sub-Zero. But with some traditional 2D camera angles, you get a sense for what they want the final product to look like. Maybe we’ll see something at E3 next week? Read more…
Tags: Mortal Kombat
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 3, 2014 in Science 
It looks like teleportation isn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility, according to a new scientific breakthrough. Scientists at Delft University have managed to teleport information encoded on sub-atomic particles to another place with 100% accuracy for the first time. According to Professor Ronald Hanson, who lead the team, we may one day be able to teleport a human as well. Hanson points out that we’re just a bunch of atoms arranged in a particular way, so if they can teleport a very small amount, there should be a way to teleport a large amount. Read more…
Tags: Teleportation
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 2, 2014 in Cinema 
James Cameron is making the rounds again, and in addition to talking about his next 3 Avatar movies (yes, a sequel trilogy to the original film), he’s also talking up the benefits of 3D. One thing he mentioned was the possibility of re-releasing Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 3D. He said, “Terminator 1 I don’t think so because you could upgrade it to 3D but it’s still pretty gritty, available light photography, low budget filmmaking. […] But Terminator 2 is a more polished film and, I think, it has a kind of timeless appeal.” He theorizes that releasing it in China (a market that hasn’t seen the film on theater screens yet), could pay for the conversion cost and release costs in the US. It seems like it’s still early, but 2016 is the 25th anniversary of the film, so the timing could be just right! Read more…
Tags: James Cameron, Terminator
|
|
