What does Warren Spector, creator of Deus Ex and the upcoming Epic Mickey game want to do next? Ducktales, that's what. Now, the original Ducktales game is a true NES classic, and if anyone could bring it into modern day gaming while retaining the inherent greatness of the license, it's Spector. If Epic Mickey id half as good as it seems, Warren Spector should have spin on nearly every Disney property, frankly.
I did manage to go see Scott Pilgrim at midnight on Thursday, and it was a truly amazing film. This is kind of like if Hollywood actually treated video games with the respect they deserved when making them into movies, because although yes it's based on a comic, Scott Pilgrim is pretty much like a video game, with tons of references littered throughout. Even if you are not familiar with the comics, if you are a geek. you will probably loves this movie, as it totally works (i.e. my fiancee & her cousin saw it with me, having almost no knowledge of the series, and absolutely loved it). It's funny, charming original and action-packed. This is easily the most fun I've had at theatres this year so far, everyone should go see it.
Video game novels are pretty much a crapshoot. I've read several, and they mostly range from not horrible to nearly unreadable (the Halo series of books covers the entire range). These days, I'd probably need a little extra incentive to pick one up. The people behind the upcoming Fable novel, The Balverine Order, seem to release this, and are offering a code for an exclusive yet-to-be named weapon if you purchase the novel. Granted, exclusive items haven't seemed to do much in games beyond being a status symbol, but as a somewhat avid reader, I'll support anything that encourages reading (plus the fiancee is completely obsessed with Fable II and is highly anticipating the 3rd game, so I pretty much have to buy it).
Finally, Star Wars is really finally coming to blu-ray, but only in the newer crappier "Greedo shot first" editions, and possibly only in all-in-one box set with all 6 films. Screw you Lucas. I'm pretty sure I'm passing on anything Lucas has a hand in forever, as he's essentially spent the last 20 or so years ruining two of the biggest franchises of all time.
All right, that is it for today, I should hopefully be back by Tuesday with... something.
Admittedly, the Expendables isn't taking aim directly at Scott Pilgrim, it's more concerned with with the super chick flick Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts. And I don't think there's ever been so much testosterone in one flick, even with key players missing (seriously, you couldn't nab Vin Diesel or The Rock? That would've been better than UfC fighter Randy Couture or Dolph Lungren, who's entire claim to fame is Ivan Drago). But all three movies are opening this weekend, vying for top spot. Admittedly I do want to check out Expendables, but I'm pushing it just trying to catch Scott Pilgrim at midnight tonight(which if that does happen, expect a review tomorrow night), so that'll probably wait for video. What would be awesome is if Scott Pilgrim leaves these two in the dust, it would actually be a huge message to studios that there really is a big audience for something that has big game references and doesn't treat the gaming culture at large with disdain.
So if you're like me, you've watched the Scott Pilgrim trailers a bunch of times already, because they are epic, but even more epic is the trailer matched up the the graphic novel series it's based on:
And I've now played through several levels of the Scott Pilgrim game, and it's pretty sweet. If you enjoy side-scrolling brawlers, it's hard to go wrong here, especially since it's only $10. The soundtrack is extremely memorable, and the game looks fantastic, and it's really fun to go through the levels repeatedly, which is good, because one of the biggest complaints about this game is probably going to be how hard it is, especially solo. The enemies are brutal and cheap, but enough powering up through buying items and leveling balances it out. But easily the biggest sin is a lack of online play, as this game seems built for it, and it's just odd. Still this is easily one of the best downloadable games of the year even with those glaring flaws, so do yourself a favor and download it.
And as old school as the game is, the pitch goes back even further to more of an 8-bit look:
While that would've been kind of cool, I'm glad they went aimed a little bit higher with a 16-bit feel for the actual game.
Ok, that's really all I've got for today, hopefully back tomorrow with a Scott Pilgrim review and some non-Scott Pilgrim stuff. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Skyline
Hell just about anything is better than another goddamn Madden game. And later today, we get what is already being called one of the best video game adaptations to date, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the Video Game. It just sucks that unlike when something comes out on the 360 to download and we can get it at 12 am, we have to wait til the official PSN update hits, which is always a vague "sometime Tuesday", which usually translates to around 5 pm from what I've experienced. Admittedly that's better than waiting til August 24th, which is what you are going to have to do if you only have a 360. Of course I guess that's better than only having a Wii, which as of now, it isn't even coming out on, which makes no sense, since everybody seems to be comparing it to River City Ransom, one of the best games on the NES, which is available for download on the virtual console). Of course, I guess Wii owners could console (no pun intended) themselves by downloading RCR, it is only $5 and still stands as a completely awesome title.
In other Scott Pilgrim awesomeness, check out these fake movie posters for Chris Evans character, Lucas Lee:
The only thing that would make this more awesome is if they made fake trailers for them ala Funny People or Grindhouse. Course then someone may get the idea to actually make one of these in (which is how Machete happened) in which case the joke's gone a little too far.
One more cool Scott Pilgrim thing before I move on, you can check out both the Soundtrack and Original Score right now for free over at Spinner. Ad the game's soudtrack is available for a listen at the Playstation Blog
Jumping back a step, River City Ransom is one of many great games that have been released on the VC, but where all the great releases lately? 2010 has seen very few releases period, and barely ay of note. Is the VC pretty much a dead thing now that Wiiware is fully up and running? IGN certainly seems to think so, and it would be hard to prove them wrong. I had no idea Japan's VC library is nearly double the size of the US one, and it seems like we basically get scraps with no explanation as to why. Admittedly it bothers me less lately with plenty of fantastic new content both retail and digital to spend my money on consitently, but it would be a shame to have the service basically slowly wither and die as it seems to be doing, even though there's a mountain of old school titles left untouched.
Is Blockbuster going to finally be able to challenge netflix and gamefly by combining games & movies into one rental service? That is what they are now trying. Admittedly, as I currently pay for both Netflix and Gamefly, an all-in-one subscription is overall a tempting offer, but as Netflix offers streaming and I'm overall pretty happy with Gamefly's service and selection, I'm willing to pay a bit more until Blockbuster can prove they offer something better. It honestly may be too little, too late anyways, as Gamefly and especially Netflix are ingrained into the public as where you go for online rentals.
Ok, That's it for today, I do apologize for only one post last week, but I was super busy and not a whole lot seemed to be going on that wasn't covered to death. I should be back Thursday with a review if the game, I sadly probably will not be able to see the movie til at least Monday due to me weekend just being packed work-wise, so expect of review of the film then. In the meantime enjoy 101 FREE GAMES to make up for lack of posting last week.
Lego games have pretty much become their own genre at this point. And why not? What could've been a bunch of shoddy kiddy games has turned out to be a series of mostly fun all ages action titles brilliantly spoofing some great franchises. But With 2 Indiana Jones games and the upcoming release of yet another Star Wars Lego game based on the Clone Wars, they seem to be short on overall ideas. So here are 7 that could easily give the Lego games a much needed boost.
7. The Prince of Persia
Yeah, the movie bombed and the games have sort of gone downhill since the original Sands of Time. But the property itself would be pretty awesome for a lego game to be set in, with the cool palaces and dungeons. And Lego games have certainly proven that they can make even craptacular movies like the Star Wars prequels incredibly entertaining. The only downside would probably be that POP isn't exactly loaded with memorable characters, but that shouldn't get in the way of fun gameplay. I mean just look at the video, wouldn't that be awesome to actually play?
6. Evil Dead
Ok, going a little outside the box here, but seeing Ash and the Deadites lego-fied would just be pure awesome. I mean, it's a series known for not taking itself seriously in any way, shape or form to begin with, so making it a lego game wouldn't seem that out of the realm of possibility (aside from the fact that clearly Lego only wants to do family friendly properties). There's certainly an audience for it, as you can tell by the fan art above, and you can find any number of Evil Dead lego videos on youtube.
5. Alien/Predator
Arguably a much richer field to mine than Evil Dead, the Alien/Predator movies have become much like any other long-running horror franchise, definitely not scary and almost a joke. So might as well go all the way with it. And I could certainly see a lot of rich comedy opportunities in the usual Lego manner. Best of all, they could theoretically not eve have to cut down on the violence cause hey, it's just Lego characters, they get body parts cut off all the time!
4. DC/Marvel
Yeah, there's Lego Batman. But both the DC and Marvel Universes are so huge, any one of their key properties could easily be a Lego game in its own right, but obviously having something like a Justice League or Avengers or any random mismash ala the Marvel Ultmate Alliance games would be the preferred way to go. Since Batman has already been done, I'd rather see a Marvel-based game, but really, somebody needs to get on this.
3. Pirates of the Caribbean
Unfortunately I think the only reason this hasn't happened yet is that some company named Mega Bloks owns the rights, because otherwise this just seems way too obvious. It's got a ton of characters, sets ideal for lego adventures and it's very popular with families. My guess is we'll see it at some point, hopefully in the not too far off future (and preferably before another Lego Harry potter game).
2. Transformers
Granted, this might have to be handled a little more carefully to be done right, but Transformers in a lego setting would be ridiculously awesome. And just seeing Autobots, Deceptiocons, Dinobots, and whatever the hell else bots in the glorious Lego selves would be worth $50 or $60 all on its own.
1. Lord of the Rings
This would be my top wish. Seeing the awesome battles and characters in Lego form would be epic. And with Harry Potter arguably being the best Lego game to date, it's been proven that a fantasy setting as such would work really well. The time might not be right now, but hopefully if the Hobbit films ever get off the ground, it would be perfect opportunity.
All in all, the Lego franchise has the potential to remain frash for a long time, as long as they don't milk it by doing licenses either no one cares about, or continuing to mine already familiar ground (i.e. no more Star Wars). So hopefully, they'll be smart enough to do so.
Ok, that's it for today, I hopefully should be back a little later in the week with something. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Sucker Punch
Because they seriously fail in the math department, claiming Kinect is cheaper than the Wii. Sure, if you already have a 360. And this is hardly the first time a company has used funny math (the most infamous probably being Atari's claim that it's final system, the truly craptacular Jaguar, was the first "true" 64-bit system). And as Destructoid has pointed out, while the Kinect may be able to "track" up to 6 people, it can only handle 2 playing at any time. Face it Microsoft, your math just doesn't add up. Nice try, though.
Yes I did happen to watch the latest DCAU movie yesterday. Honestly it's a good thing they keep making this stuff, or I'd never be able even remotely keep up things that have happened since I stopped really reading comics about 12 years ago. I still read the occasional graphic novel while killing time at Borders, but that's about it. Anyways, most DC/Batman fans know that there have been several Robins, but only one was brutally murdered by popular vote/The Joker, and that'd be Jason Todd. Years later, he's come back to deal with criminals the way Batman never would. Controlling a few key ones and killing the rest. Now in the comics, he's brought back to life by Superboy punching reality (yeah, that kind of stuff happens all the time in comics). I won't spoil exactly how he was brought back in the movie, but let's just say Superboy isn't in it. Ultimately whether or not you'll enjoy this movie arguably depends on your history with DC animated stuff. There are certain iconic voice actors established with key characters in the DC Universe. Most notably Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. These guys are considered the standard for any animated work featuring these characters. And this is admittedly not the first time they've decided to go another route, but for many fans it's hard to hear anyone else in the role. It's certainly a solid entry in it own right, but for anybody who owns or has watched a good portion of the DCAU, it doesn't quite stack up to the high quality bar that was set with movies such as Subzero or more recently, Wonder Woman (arguably the best non-batman animated DC movie to date). Still, I'd reccomend a rent for any Batman or comic fan.
Does anyone play Everquest anymore? I'm pretty sure that sadly the grandaddy of MMORPGS has been shoved into near-irrelevance since WOW has more or less dominated the market for years and everyone else is just dividing up an increasingly small pie. Apparently in a bid to try and regain some relevancy, they are going the free to play route like so many others. But it's not quite the same as it won't include the latest expansion. I'm not sure who this is suppossed to appeal to.The hardcore who still play Everquest will want access to the newest and frankly if you're not playing Everquest now, you probably never will as their are far more attractive offerings out there, free or otherwise.
That's pretty much it for today, but I will try and do one more post sometime this weekend. In the meantime, enjoy your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Skyfyre
Actually the Wii arguably has a better track record than any console in history of attracting women (at least those that don't normally play video games), but attracting rpgs at anything even remotely resembling a regular fix seems next to impossible. I mean the last rpg that even came out for the system was Sakura Wars. And I really tried to like it, but several chapters of listening to inane sub-standard anime chatter with the rare occasional battle thrown in was just too much for me to bear. This was a similar issue on the Gamecube, but with it being a distant third, that wasn't surprising. The Wii is completely dominating the market, and with it being considerably less expensive to develop for, it should seem a haven for quirky rpg developers aiming at a niche crowd. Unfortunately, that hasn't really happened. So, an rpg fan with only a Wii to play desperately grabs at anything that comes out. That almost seems to be the hope behind Arc Rise Fantasia, out tomorrow, because according to nearly every review, it'd be extremely difficult to be more generic. Ironically rpg fans are far better off owning a 360, what with its wide variety of both American & Japanese flavored-rpgs. And the DS has a pretty healthy library as well. And what's the next rpg Wii owners even have to look forward to? The next Dragonquest game, due out whenever they feel like it at this point (likely 2012 at this rate). On the bright side, this console generation is seemingly having a much longer life-span than previous ones, with the next generation nowhere to be seen, so it's not too late to change this (but I doubt it will happen).
Batman 3 isn't coming out til 2012, but in the meantime you can help tide yourself with the latest DC direct-to-video release, Under the Red Hood, which is an animated re-telling of the return of the only Robin ever killed by popular vote. DC video releases are normally of tremendous quality (the Wonder Woman movie is one of the best animated films I've seen in a long time) so I definitely intend to rent it tomorrow and hopefully will have a review up next time I post.
How much will you pay for a 3DS? Is $250 too much? That's what often-quoted (and wrong 90% of the time) analyst Michael Pachter thinks it'll be. Granted, it's tough to say what a fair price for a portable 3D gaming system that can play 3D movies as well would be. But Nintendo has always stressed affordability for their products, including this newest one, so that price does seem like a slim possibility at best, or at least it would have a pretty solid bundle included to come out at that price. It would almost certainly be more than the DSi XL which is currently $189, but I think we'll simply see the DS disappear, the price of the DSi & DSi XL dropped and the 3DS at $199, as anyone who bought a DSi/XL might feel shafted at suddenly seeing a new fancy 3D system that can play their games and more and suddenly have to shell out another $250 for it.
Ok, that's really all I have for today, but I should be back tomorrow with something, in the mean time, check out the awesome new comic-con Tron Legacy trailer as the TRAILER OF THE WEEK:
Now I played the original Starcraft back when you didn't need to have a $1000+ rig to run the latest computer games, but my interest in computer games was steadily waning at that point anyways, and with computer gaming being more of a niche thing these days than ever, it's easy t see why someone who was raised on consoles or has played console games almost exclusively could not give less of a frakk about arguably the biggest PC release in nearly 10 years, Starcraft II, which is out this Tuesday. It doesn't help that consoles and RTS games just do not seem to mix. It's been tried mind you, but usually with middling results at best. For whatever reason, developers just have not managed to work out a formula that amounts to a quality RTS experience on a console, and so console gamers (which do make up something like 90% of the gaming community) at large don't care. Personally, I've tried the RTS genre several times over the years and never really had a taste for it. Probably something about having to do all that micromanaging in real time.
Couldn't download the free Doctor Who games released awhile ago because you live in the colonies? Well good news, they are now available for download. Bad news-not free like they are across the pond, but 4.95 for both episodes is hardly something I'd complain about, that probably just covers the licensing fees or something.
So the world's biggest comic convention, the San Diego Comic Con was this weekend, and everybody seems to be going ape over the not terribly be surprising news that Joss Whedon is indeed directing the Avengers, and that Mark Ruffalo is the latest Hulk, even though they've been the names most associated with those respective roles for months. Whedon on the Avengers is of course huge. It's hard to see Mark Ruffalo convincingly do Bruce Banner even though he is a very solid actor, he just seems ill-fitting for the role. But as he may be a green cgi giant most of the time, it may not matter.
Ok, that's really I got for today, I will hopefully do another post tomorrow or Tuesday (certainly Wednesday at the latest), but in the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: The Breach
So Batman 3 casting rumors are popping up again with the film actually being in the not horribly far off Summer of 2012. The big rumor running is that the villain will be the enigmatic mastermind known as the Riddler. A classic villain to be sure, but bring this character into Nolan's universe and what have you got? A low rent Joker. I mean, he'd clearly be a super-intelligent psychopath who hatches crazy schemes to outwit everybody. Pretty much the only difference would be the Riddler would be doing it for an ego boost, the Joker just did it for kicks. I really feel that this would be a wrong way to go when Batman has a large assortment of more than worthy villains, many of which fit well into Nolan's more realistic universe. Bane would be a great way to play on the fact hat currently Batman is a fugitive, as he could be hired by an overeager official who finds out he can't control him. Black Mask is virtually a mirror image of Bruce Wayne, just twisted inside, so he'd also be a great choice. My top pick however, would be Mr. Freeze. Though it was touched on briefly with Two-Face's all too brief subplot in Dark Knight, a tragic villain as the focus would be perfect after Batman mainly having to deal with pure psycopaths so far. Granted, Nolan so far has been able to handle dual villains rather deftly, so maybe a Bane/Freeze combo could work. Then again...
And yes, at the top is a trailer for the completely awesome-looking Scott Pilgrim videogame, due out on PSN in just a few weeks. Feel free to drool of the River City-esque awesomeness. If any new ones pop up before the actual release, I'll put them up. I'm seriously anticipating this more than most retail releases coming out this year.
Apparently, even the sinister Mr. Shanrgilamayan cannot kill Avatar: the Last Airbender. The absolutely awesome cartoon is getting a spin-off next year called The Legend of Korra. Now, if this was a mere cash in on Nickelodeon's part, I would be skeptical, but since the original creators are involved, I'm very excited. This is the kind of rare animation that manages to be entertaining on many levels for kids and adults. Let us wash the horrible memory of the movie away and await these hopefully awesome new adventures.
The price for the Kinect has been confirmed at $150. I've more or less said my piece on this. It's not that the price seems unreasonable in itself, but the software looks terrible, and good luck convincing the casual public to fork out at least $100 more than what Nintendo is offering (and odds are Nintendo will drop the price again).
That's really all for today, I should be back tomorrow with something about Salt as well as a couple other items. Til then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Red
Two potentially huge movies out this week, The Sorceror's Apprentice & Inception. I saw both today, and firstly I'd really like to talk about Apprentice. How exactly a short section of Fantasia got turned into a full blown big budget movie clearly involves a lot of liberties, and I guess they are hoping for the same magic that came with the very loose concept of a movie based on a certain piratey theme park ride. I think it works as a big dumb popcorn flick, with good comedy and special effects, and clearly Nicholas Cage had plenty of fun with his role. I will say I think Jay Baruchel was poorly cast, as he's pretty much just annoying and can't really carry the more serious heroic growth moments his character has throughout the film. I still think it's worth seeing overall, which doesn't seem to be the consensus.
Inception is pretty much everything you've heard. Brilliant, suspenseful, amazing. This might be Nolan's best work to date, and considering his resume that's saying quite a bit. And the thing is, everyone seems to know its brilliant and yet they are worried it will fail (and in a day and age where movies like "Marmaduke" een get made, it's a serious concern). So drag everyone you know with you into this film. If they don't understand or don't get it, you should probably find new friends...
Finally, with 007 movies in limbo for god only knows how long, will we actually see Daniel Craig don the secret agent duds ever again? Well if a couple of videogames do well enough, we may see him more often than we'd think, because not only is the Wii release of Goldeneye featuring Mr. Craig, but a new original Bond game was just announced, and they are treating it like a full blown movie. Now granted, Bond games have an overall fairly shoddy history, but the last fully original (as in not based on a movie at all) Bond game was the very excellent Everything or Nothing, so hopefully it follows in that game's foot steps.
Because today is the release one of the more hotly anticipated downloadable titles of the year (at least on PSN, it hits XBLA tomorrow), Deathspank, an old-school dungeon crawler with a good sense of humor. I downloaded the demo, and it was pretty entertaining. But even though the reviews are very positive, most clock it in at a measly 8 hours, not a very meaty rpg. Now, admittedly, standards should be a little different for a downloadable title, but this is an rpg we are talking about. 15 hours should arguably be the bare minimum, with 20 being a more acceptable number. There is no reason someone couldn't make an epic rpg clocking in anywhere form 30-60 hours on the graphical level of a PS one title or even a 16 or 8-bit game. I mean, we do get occasional bytes in old school classic rpgs such as Secret or Mana or Final Fantasy IX that are available for download, but where are some original rpgs? I mean aside from the newly released Deathspank, there's the Penny Arcade games, and that's about it. Hopefully somebody is working on one, because I'd love to see an epic Super NES era style rpg to downloadable channels. I mean, if they can make something as awesome as Torchlight and sell it for $20 (actually far less with it constantly being on sale) on PC, surely they can do something equally epic for consoles, right? Someone get on that.
Well, I'm about 9 or so hours into Dragonquest IX, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. Though it is still very old school and frankly the multi-player aspect is essentially nothing more than grinding with friends since you can't advance the story any. Still a really solid choice for anyone looking for a timesink portable rpg.
So, Kinect demo units are coming to a major retailer near you. Where you ask? Macy's. Yeah, that's the ticket, demoing it at a place that gamers never go for gaming, and that is on the verge of bankruptcy. And while Kinect is clearly an attempt at reaching a non-gamer audience, it's not the matter of "playing the Halos" as the Penny Arcade guys put it. It's the matter of being able to navigate menus equally well with your hands vs. a controller, or being able to do something like drive with nothing physical to interact with. The complete lack of a physical controller to do many things that in real life require control of an object sounds like you might as well be just using your imagination and playing in a cardboard box. Which would be a helluva lot cheaper than buying whatever the hell Kinect thinks it is.
Ok, that's pretty much all I have for today, but I'll leave you with the TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Valhalla Rising
At least if you aren't already a fan of the series. Despite it being around as long as the venerable Final Fantasy franchise and being an international phenomenon to the point where Japan virtually shuts down when a new one is released. But here, it's relegated to a small but fiercely dedicated fanbase. I wouldn't count myself as fiercely loyal, but I have enjoyed the majority of the series entries, I especially invested plenty of time in the last couple entries. It's kind of hard to describe why it's got such a huge following, as it's been extremely slow to change with the times (i.e. the seventh installment, a Playstation title looked like it could've easily been done on a Super Nintendo). But hey, Pokemon's barely changed in over 20 years and its still huge. The series has always maintained a huge charm factor, possibly because it's so simple when other rpgs get more and more complex (hell I had to buy a strategy guide just to understand most of FFXIII). The ninth installment is a true divergence for the series, adding a huge multi-player component that while I'd like to advantage of, nearly nobody out here in the midwest seems to have both a ds and an appetite for old school rpgs, but the single-player component should be enough to keep me busy for quite awhile, and I happily anticipate the next chapter, apparently due out for the Wii.
Not much else to comment on, except that I managed to catch Despicable Me earlier today, and it was a very charming film. It's probably not what you would expect, but it's very funny and manages to not overdo it with the syrupy sentimental stuff and it's nice to see a non-pixar production that is actually good every once and awhile. I would say that I would've preferred either a pure villain vs. villain movie or Gru keeping to his evil ways and teaching the kids, but obviously that probably wouldn't go over so well with the mainstream audiences. Still, a high reccomendation from me.
Well, that's really it for today, but I should be back early next week with DQ IX impressions and whatever else happens to break. In the mean time here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Looming
I've said that Sony's Playstation Plus service really needed something far beyond the little tidbits of practically useless freebies and discounts to get myself interested. Hulu plus, the new service from Hulu that sounds essentially like what we've all wanted cable to be for years at the low low price of $9.99 a month. Now it is coming for PS3 in the very near future (like supposedly later this month) and originally it seemed to be only available to Plus members. Granted, some decried this as relegating non-Plus members to the same second-class citizenship rules that the Xbox Silver players suffer from. But keeping in mind that cable/satellite is at least 3 times more expensive a month, paying $50 once a year and $10 a month would be quite the savings, and something I would've gladly signed up for. Luckily, Sony and Hulu aren't seeing this way and are merely offering Plus owners a shot at the preview period, essentially the beta. Once Hulu plus is out of preview (which should be later this month) it will be available to all PS3 owners. Win one for the cheapskates like me, but getting it through Playstation Plus still would've been a very good deal.
By now you might've noticed the ginormous trailer posted for Dragonquest IX replacing the artwork of Scott Johnson. I think what I'm going to start doing is alternating between upcoming trailers for games & movies I'm really excited for that are hitting soon, and the occasional piece of awesome geek art if there's a lull. We'll see how that works out. Dragon Quest IX itself, which hits this Sunday, I'll likely discuss in far more detail in my Thursday/Friday post (more likely to be a Friday). In the meantime, have a slime drink...
Whether or not this strikes you as completely awesome probably depends on your history with the Dragon Warrior/Quest series...
So even though it's easily the worst movie of the year, if not the last several, M. Night Shakalazam's savaging of The Last Airbender still managed to make a pretty respectable $70 mil over the holiday weekend, bringing up sequel talks. God I hope not. Most people are betting/hoping the is the final nail in his directing coffin, but nearly everything that even breaks even gets at least a shot at a sequel. I hope if development does go forward, the studio boots his ass or those who were duped in the first place just don't go.
Ok, that's really all for today, but I hopefully will post something tomorrow. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The American
Yeah, after working double shifts yesterday and today and having to be up in a little over 6 hours for work again tomorrow, I'm in no shape for a full on post, so look for an actual post hopefully tomorrow (but assuredly there will be one Wednesday at the latest). In the meantime, enjoy the last few hours of the holiday weekend with a bunch of clips from what is currently easily my favorite sitcom currently, the supremely geeky BIG BANG THEORY:
Which frankly I didn't think was possible after the Village and the Happening. Hell, this was suppossed to more or less be his comeback piece. A huge budget, a potentially huge property, and since he had an established lore and story to follow, he couldn't possibly include any of his usual nonsensical plot twists and surprises. But yes, M. Night Shahadoons take on the beloved and completely awesome Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender is a complete affront to fans of the show and moviegoers in general. I could forgive the lack of appropriate race casting (most of the cast of the cartoon is Asian or Indian) as it admittedly might have a less broad appeal that way, but the actors (aside from the kid playing Aang, who does an okay job) are all completely terrible. Their are numerous essential elements of the show either completely butchered, missing or changed for no reason to something compleltely ridiculous, the special effects are serviceable at best, and the fighting is choppy, slow and extremely clumsy. Finally, if you watched the series, you know that that while it is a fairly serious affair about rebelling against a violent empire, it also had a ton of hilarious moments. The offbeat humor was a key element, and it's pretty much completely absent from the movie. This will arguably be his biggest failure to date and frankly given his track record over his last 5 films, I'd say we are all better off if it's his last.
So, Nintendo's E3 press conference was 20 kinds of awesome, but they were lacking in one big area: NEW IP. As much as we loved seeing all those old franchises updated, their pretty much wasn't anything new, making many think Nintendo has pretty much blown their wad and won't be able to follow it up next year. While it will be hard regardless, the good news is that Shigeru Miyamoto knows this, and has stated that they in fact need new characters, which they should focus on next year, so kudos to him for realizing this, I hope they can keep up with it.
Birth By Sleep is coming up fast (Sept. 7), and I thought I'd do my little bit to promote it by making a fanvid"
Finally, Roger Ebert has recanted? No of course not, that'd be silly. He simply apologizes for expressing his half-assed opinion that he still clings just as strongly to about games not now and not ever being art. Gamers are seeing this as some sort of victory? Why? Frankly the man shouldn't apologize for giving his opinion on the matter, that he should be free to express all he wants, it's the whole point of free speech. Just as the gaming community is free to respond. That he shouldn't have apologized for, and it's damn cowardly of him to do so frankly. So the gaming community is hounding him about it? Get a goddamn backbone and don't sort of apologize for having the opinion in the first place. Essenitally saying "I still believe what I said, but I was wrong to say it anyways" is a complete fucking cop out.
That's really all for today, but I'll probably try and post something this weekend if I can, in the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Infectonator!
Seriously, I wonder why these even exist, because every time we hear about a decision more or less influenced by a focus group, we all do a collective facepalm, well frankly this most recent news deserves more than one so...
Because thanks to a focus group, they are cutting the evil option from Epic Mickey. You know, the whole point of this game was suppossed to be a massive revamp of the mouse, so he would be more like the old days where he had a goddamned personality. It's not like he was going after guys with a chainsaw, but apparently "murder by paintbrush" is too much for a goddamn biker. Who the fuck invited a biker to a focus group about a Mickey Mouse game? You remember the Goldeneye Wii trailer? Those at least were focus groups of GAMERS. Now granted, this shouldn't change much of the actual gameplay, but to talk about how you want to change the perception of what Mickey is and then bow to what someone's perception is based on when they were a kid is absolutely idiotic. Massive fail Warren Spector. Massive. Goddamn. Fail.
Speaking of massive fails, I think Microsoft is setting themselves up for a big one with Kinect, and not just because it's a piece of absolute crap. I mean it'd be one thing to expect it to appeal to the more casual crowd (which admittedly, it might hold some appeal to people who don't actually play video games, but it's hard to imagine someone like that shelling out for this when they can just get a Wii), but they are actually expecting their hardcore fan base to go out and buy it as well. You know, the same fan base that mocked the far more sensible waggle of the Wii. Not to mention on more than one occasion MS has claimed that this is not a product for their current user base, since it is mostly more hardcore gamers.
Now on top of that, while the Wii and Move can support anywhere from 2-8 gamers depending on the game, How many can Kinect support? 2. That's right, TWO. What the hell kind of party game only supports two people? Hell the minimum expectation for most multi-player games these days is 4. Now granted, not all do that, but the fact that the possibility isn't even there is ludicrous. This might honestly be the biggest flop since the Virtual Boy when all is said and done.
Moving on, with the PSN's weekly update today, they launch the Playstation Plus service. Yes, it comes with a myriad of free goodies that you get to keep as long as you have the service, with new ones every month, but nothing strikes me a must have. I mean I already own LittleBigPlanet, and I have no interest in the freebies that are currently offered. That may change, but I don't think anybody like the idea that if you stop paying, all the freebies go away. I still think they will have to add something integral to the service that gamers think they cant live without in order to really get a decent buy rate out of this.
In some hopefully awesome news, Hulu is coming to PS3 & 360. Granted, it's not the free online streaming you can get on your PC, but it's their "plus" subscription service that's $10 bucks a month. Which may sound like a rip-off when you already get tons of content for free from Hulu on your computer, but this is more of an on-demand type service where you get access to things like full current seasons as well as access to old TV shows. I almost exclusively use my netflix to watch TV shows, so this sounds like a great idea to me, and a much better option than cable.
Finally yes, I did pick up Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 today and while I agree with most of the reviews that it might indeed be the best lego game yet, it still may be too familiar to anyone who has or has had several lego titles, but far any huge lego/potter fan it's probably worth picking up.
Ok, that's all for today, I should be back Thursday with a review of The Last Airbender as well as other stuff, until then, your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Rango
And no, this is not news of another Lion King sequel. It's the far more welcome news that the long, long road of the fan-developed King's Quest title, The Silver Lining has actually gotten Activision's blessing and will be released this July if you're not familiar with the game's story, it's basically been in development and consistently stalled usually due to cease and desist orders. King's Auest is easily one of the best adventure series ever, it would be great if this cause an actual rebirth to the series, which wouldn;t be so far fetched with series like Sam & Max making big comebacks.
I managed to get my hands on copies of both Toy Story 3 the game and Transformers War for Cybertron earlier this week. If you are a fan of either I can reccomend them. The attention to detail and solid shooter aspects make War for Cybertron a worthy purchase indeed, though as someone who was honestly never all that into the series, it was hard for me to get into it when it is essentially Gears of War with giant robots.
Toy Story 3 the game is two very different types of beasts rolled into one. The story mode is a competent but uninteresting standard kiddy platforming game. The real enjoyment and fun lies in the awesome toybox mode. You play as Buzz, Woody or Jesse (though in this mode they all play the same, so it's just personal preference) and it does sandbox almost better than most of the GTA series, with being able to customize townspeople, bulidings, and just being able to create your own hodgepodge of a little universe. It's even got a hint of World of Warcraft with tons of quests to complete. I could see spending hundreds of hours on this mode.
I also managed to finally catch Toy Story 3 the movie and Knight & Day. I will start off by saying I do think Toy Story 3 is arguably the weakest chapter in the trilogy, considering a how amazing the first 2 were, it's almost to be expected. But it is still an extremely good moving with a heartwarming story and a great last big adventure for Woody, Buzz and the gang (though Pixar has said that while this will be the last movie, we will likely see the characters reappear in things like the always great Pixar shorts they have before every movie).
Now onto Knight & Day. I sort of feel bad for Tom Cruise. Sure, he's nutty as a fruitcake, but what famous person isn't? It doesn't stop him from making mostly enjoyable movies (Mission Impossible 3 can stand up to any Bond/Bourne film IMHO), but since the year where he was more or less outed as a hardcore Scientologist and so crazy in love with Katie Holmes that was jumping up and down on Oprah's couch, people don't really seem to want to see him in films much. I won't say Knight and Day is stellar or anything, it's not. But it's an extremely enjoyable action-comedy with two leads that work very well together and it's a shame it might not do well just because people think Tom Cruise is nuts. I also heard this might be sort of a litmus test for the in-development Mission Impossible 4 which if it was either stalled or dumped because of this would suck because JJ Abrams (that'd be the guy that resurrected Star trek) and Cruise work extremely well together.
Want to see Nintendo of America's Reggie Fills-Aime promoting Donkey Kong Country Returns on Jimmy Fallon? Of Course you do:
I have to admit, Jimmy Fallon has completely won me over between catering to the video game audience and his occasionally awesome impressions. Let's just NBC doesn't offer him the Jay Leno show anytime soon, we all see how that goes...
Finally, the Nintendo onslaught of awesomeness begins tomorrow with Sin & Punishment: Star successor. Now, I do love just about anything Treasure does, so normally this'd be a no-brainer, but I just don't have much long-term interest in shootemups like this. Which granted, since they last maybe 8 hours on average, fits, but makes them so not worth full price. I will just be happily anticipationg the not too far off release of Dragonquest IX on July 11th.
All right, that's all for now, but I should most definitely be back on Tuesday with impressions of Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 and probably a couple other things. Til then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Manhattan Project
Because you know, it's not enough that in the next 6 months us Nintendo fans are getting Sin & Punishment 2, Dragon Quest IX, Metroid Other M, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, Golden Sun & Donkey Kong Country Returns. No, the avalanche of awesome games sure to break your bank isn't enough. Arguably, by the time your wallet has just recovered from that, you may be right on the verge of Nintendo's newest portable, the 3DS, as Nintendo has promised that it will be out everywhere by March of next year. And that's at the latest, there are already rumors of a December release in the US, as March would be the latest in all major world markets, and the U.S. usually gets them second, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it in stores (and gone just as quickly) before the year is out.
2 License-based games that don't suck? Well it's happened. Toy Story 3 came out last week, and Transformers: The War for Cybertron shipped today and the reviews are surprisingly solid overall. Not quite up there with the top tier titles mind you, but it seems like anyone who is a fan would not be wasting their money picking these up. I'm honestly not much of a Transformers fan to begin with, and the MP demo didn't impress me all that much, but the reviews have me thinking I should at least rent it. Toy Story is on my buy when it's on sale list at this point, as I'm saving up for the not too far off Dragon Quest IX.
Most people would agree that to a certain extent, the Xbox Gold pricing structure is ridiculous in that you have to have a separate paid account for everyone in you household who wants to access Gold features. They have decided to make it a little easier by offering a "Family Plan" where $99 will get you a year's subscription for up to 4 accounts. Certainly a bargain when your kids want their own accounts, so I see the appeal there, though honestly one account would cover the majority of needs so I don't know exactly how well this will do.
I did play the Crackdown 2 demo yesterday, and while it was entertaining for the about 30 minutes they let you play, much like the fun but flawed original it quickly loses its appeal because the gameplay just doesn't evolve much beyond what you see at the beginning. Pretty much the highlight of both games is being able to at some point leap tall buildings in a single bound, but there's just not really much beyond that.
Finally, as if I wasn't excited enough already for Epic Mickey, somebody is making some pretty awesome accessories for it:
I would seriously buy these now just in anticipation, it sucks that we have to wait til fall. Now, I'm not nearly as buzzed about the upcoming Tron: Evolution game, but the same company is releasing some pretty slick-looking controllers as well:
I seriously hope these work because they are making me seriously rethink my stance on never buying 3rd party controllers.
Ok, that is all for today, but I will definitely be back later in the week to talk about Knight & Day as well as the first of a seemingly endless amount of awesome titles for the remainder of the year from Nintendo: Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. Until then, enjoy the TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Green Hornet
This post is a little bit later than I anticipated, but I kinda kept putting it off in favor of finishing up Mario Galaxy 2 & Fallout 3 (finally, bought that way back in '08 when it came out, never seemed to get into it long enough to finish til now).
Sooo, Playstation Plus. Sony's long-feared premium service. Feared in that it would bring an end to the free service we enjoy now that routinely makes the fact that 360 owners pay for their service, while superior, harder and harder to defend. The good news is that Sony at least claims that the same level of service you get now. It is so far simply like most premium services, where you get extras such as free tidbits (i.e. themes, maybe the occasional downloadable game) and early access to demos. And at the same price as Xbox live for a year ($49.99) it doesn't seem like a bad deal, but I don't know if I see a lot of people signing up just for that stuff. And when they buy-in rate is low, that's when Sony might take bigger measures, say having certain games have online play only for people who have the plus level of service. I seriously doubt I'll buy into this, as aside from Netflix and the occasional demo I really don't use my PSN for much. They would have to offer some very good incentives to make it worth the money even if it actually adds up to less than $5 a month...
And though it hasn't always been the case, news sort of slowed to a giant crawl after Tuesday's press conferences. Where was the Arkham Asylum sequel? What about those demos behind closed doors? No last minute surprises it seems. Essentially the biggest story running around afterwords was that Kinect wouldn't work if you were sitting down. Which Microsoft outright denied, but we'll see when the thing actually launches. The good/bad news is that I suddenly have a lot more games I want to buy, and unsurprisingly they are all from Nintendo. They seem to really have the strong lineup for the remainder of this year, even without a Mario or Zelda. Pretty much the only way they could blow people's minds more is by launching the 3DS this holiday, but Nintendo isn't one to rush things, I'm betting Summer of next year for the highly-anticipated handheld.
Moving (finally) on from E3, this is a rather big movie weekend, with the much anticipated Toy Story 3 opening. I've repeatedly mentioned that while I've enjoyed much of Pixar's work, I've never found them as pitch perfect as many others do (i.e. Wall-E had an extremely bludgeoning enviromental message that went over kids heads and was just insulting to adults). The previous Toy Story movies are 2 of my favorites and while I definitely want to check out the 3rd chapter, it just hasn't hit me as a must see, so I might wait for video.
I was hopeful that Jonah Hex would at least be enjoyable trash, as I really enjoy the comic book character it's based on, but with diverging hugely from the comic (he doesn't have supernatural powers!) and getting really poor reviews, seems like something I'll just catch sometime when I'm really bored.
Ok, that's it for today, but I should be back Monday or Tuesday with thoughts on the new Transformers game, the demo for Crackdown 2 and probably some other stuff. In the meantime enjoy both the TRAILER and FREE GAME OF THE WEEK:
Seriously. The last time Nintendo had an exciting press conference was way back in 2006 when they first introduced the Wii. Since then it's been several agonizing years of loyal Nintendo fans hanging onto small tidbits here and there while crap like the vitality sensor and Wii Music or Wii Fit took center stage. This year, Nintendo seemed to (mostly) have the message that they in fact had not forgotten about delivering one hell of a gaming experience on a consistent basis, as every game (with the exception of Just Dance 2 damn every one of you who bought that trash) was not only mostly a surprise in that we hadn't heard about it, but welcome updates to old favorites that everyone has been clamoring for. A redone Goldenye, a New Donkey Kong, a New Kirby for Wii, and Zelda & Metroid both looked fantastic, and Epic Mickey looked insanely good, with Kid Icarus apparently leading the charge on the new 3DS. The 3DS is still a big question mark, as while they talked about it quite a bit, it was impossible to see the 3D in action without being there and I imagine it might be the same till you can get your hands on a demo yet. Also no price or release date was announced, so I wouldn't be surprised if it launches next year, and I'm willing to bet it will be around $199, which would be a great deal for 3D gaming and movies on the go (that's right, movies, if you didn't catch the conference, you will be able to watch movies like Avatar in 3D on the 3DS, which is pretty frakking insane).
In fact the only thing I'd say was apparently lackng in Nintendo's conference was that there really wasn't any new IP, virtually every title was tied to a long running franchise, most of which have been around since the NES era. And Nintendo has officially pretty much dug everything out of the vault by now, so next year they better have some new stuff to present.
Sony also had their conference today, and while it wasn't nearly as amazing as Nintendo's, it was pretty entertaining in its own right and miles better than Microsoft's. I'd say the biggest issue much was again, lack of big surprises, though a new Twisted Metal game certainly holds my interest. And while Move still mostly looks like a Wii rip off, it looks like one that can certainly hold its own. Aside from the crossover action game Heroes on the Move, I didn't see much that interested me personally, though. And frankly, while the hardware seem mostly reasonably priced, it goes up rather quickly if you are buying for 3 or 4 people. They are certainly facing an uphill battle trying to convince people that this would be a better option than the $200 Wii. They are also facing an uphill battle with their big focus on 3D gaming, because frankly 3D TVs aren't selling and Reggie mentioned why in the Nintendo press conference, it's literally thousands to have a 3D set up in your home. I just really think it's going to be awhile before it catches on. Hopefully their seemingly new focus on the PSP actually works, cause that system has been pretty much crap from day one.
So to sum up, Microsoft failed big time. Sony entertained but didn't really offer anything groundbreaking, and Nintendo regained a lot of lost credibility with their best show in years. I'll probably give some highlights of my most anticipated games either tomorrow or Thursday, so see you then.
Because seriously, Microsoft has rarely been the belle of the ball at E3, what with usually playing it extremely safe and having jack squat that we didn't already know about, but at least Microsoft's former pirate was able to keep the crowd engaged. Not one person could do that this year, some didn't even try, including noted egotist Cliffy B, preferring to let the mostly meh games speak for themselves. Halo: Reach especially failed to look like anything evolved from previous Halo titles, the only game I could muster any excitement for was Fable III, and it's awesome to know that as of right now, it's not all that far off (Oct. 26th). And while the announcement of the ESPN partnership is huge in some aspects, but they spent far too long on it.
But let's get the meat of the conference, Microsoft's Kinect. Was it a complete disaster? Ok, not completely. There were some positive aspects, namely titles like Kinect Adventures and Kinectimals showed some actual potential (though the little girl acting like the virtual tiger was actually licking her was just stupid), but the rest was pretty much a disaster. Their Wii sports rip-off looked unplayable, the dancing game(s) just exist to make you look like a complete tool, and even the much-hyped Star Wars title looked meh at best. The conference as a whole was a giant fucking mess. To be honest, I'm not completely sure the others will be good, the last good set of conferences (or at least entertaining to watch) was right before the latest consoles launched. I watched this one live and it was an absolute exercise in slow torture most of the time, snapping the occasional decent bit from time to time. I don't really plan on watching the other press conferences, I'll just get a recap after and comment on the highlights and lowlights. A rather auspicious way to start E3 IMHO....
Well here we are, hours away from the biggest gaming event of the year, and I can honestly say I can't remember a year when I've been less excited about the industry's big event. Barring any major reveals, we already know what the big three's main focuses are going to be, and not one of them sounds all that appealing. For Nintendo, it's their official DS successor, the 3DS. Portable 3D gaming on the go sounds like a fantastic sales pitch, but much like the DS when it first hit, it will probably take awhile before developers really figure out what to do with it in an actual gaming sense rather than just pure gimmickry. Sony's move has got to be as close as you can possibly get to Nintendo's own Wii remote & Nunchuck without violating copyright, even with their own version of Wii Sports. I'm just not sure of the appeal of HD waggle over non-HD. Core gamers sure as hell won't want it, and the more casual crowd will struggle to see the difference, especially since you have to buy a PS3 and the move controllers, which will probably add quite a bit to the more appealing Wii package. And finally there is Microsoft's Natal, which I've talked about previously about how much of a joke it is. I cannot imagine the appeal of this to anyone. There's just a lot of genres that require something tactile like a controller to work properly. Sure, a fighting game might work, but that's really about it.
Well surely the games that are confirmed are something to be excited about right? Well I see a few interesting possibilities (Mafia II, Dead Rising II, Lost in Shadow), but few titles to really, really get excited about, especially that are coming out this year. As I see it now, assuming releases hold firm, I see very few purchases for myself for the rest of the year-Epic Mickey, Fable III, and Birth By Sleep are the only games that I'm really pumped about. I'm hoping there will be some surprises (seeing footage of a new Zelda title & an Arkham Asylum sequel is almost a lock) but those will be far off titles that we may yet again be seeing in a more complete form next year. The event itself may be back to the glitz and glamour of past years, but what's on display doesn't seem to really be on par with the majesty of the event. Hopefully I'm proven wrong, with lots of great surprises over the next couple of days. I'll most likely be doing a daily posting of events through Wednesday or Thursday, starting with thoughts on Microsoft's press conference (and EA's/Ubisoft's if they have anything worth talking about), so we'll see.
I've brought this up before, but as a rule, video games tied to movies suck. The Watchmen games pretty much suck, The Kick Ass game sucks, the Avatar game sucks. I have hope the Toy Story 3 game won't suck but I won't be too surprised if it does. One game that looks like it's chances of suck are relatively low is the upcoming Scott Pilgrim downloadable title coming to PSN this August. It stays pretty true to the look of the comic (which admittedly I don't know enough about to fill in a Cliff Notes version, but I plan to get up to speed because it sounds to awesome for me to miss out on), which itself is a giant love letter to geek culture. I'm more excited about this than some AAA titles coming out because frankly this looks more fun. I mean really, somewhere along the line between games getting real and artsy and deep, a lot of people have forgotten to make them fun. I'm not saying it's a lost art, a solid number of games still have that, but it's hard to say stuff like God of War III or Modern Warfare or Final Fantasy XIII is just fun. They are being too serious to be fun. Scott Pilgrim will hopefully just be fun.
New Mortal Kombat movie? That seems to be the buzz. Judging by this trailer, it looks like it might actually have some promise, but it sucks that Cage is dead at the beginning, he was the best part of the original...
Well it took about 3 weeks, but I finally got some quality time in with Red Dead Redemption. I hesitated just right out buying it, because while I normally enjoy Rockstar's work, I get tired of the game about 20 hours in. I feel like I get my money's worth mind you, but Rockstar games tend to be ginormous in scope, so I get nowhere near done with them. And while sometimes I get lucky in renting the newest games (i.e. Red Steel 2 or Alpha Protocol), since I do nearly all my renting through Gamefly, I'm at the mercy of their seemingly random availability, which can be a cruel bitch. I even scoured Blockbuster off and on for weeks, finally getting lucky on Monday. Granted, this seems to have the same scope, but it's very cool, and with no annoying cousins constantly bugging you on your cell phone, you actually have the freedom to do what you want when you want rather than be at the beck and call of some random asshole because you don't want to hurt your relationship with them. So I do plan on owning it , but I'd really like to put away Super Mario Galaxy 2 and hopefully Fallout 3 (which I think I'm finally nearing the end of) before I actually pick it up.
Finally, I love Torchwood. Granted, it kind of stumbled through season one, but season two was a pretty massive improvement and Children of Earth was absolutely brilliant, so I had hopes for awhile that it would be coming back. For awhile it seemed destined to land on Fox, which would be a horrible idea given their history with sci-fi shows, then that deal fell through and we hadn't heard anything for awhile. But now it's confirmed that it will be back, just not til next summer (boo!). It does sound like it will have a much grander scope, so that's a plus, and hopefully being broadcast on Starz will expose it to a wider audience.
All right, that's all for today, but I leave you with arguably the most epic FREE GAME OF THE WEEK yet: Zelda II: FPS
On a portable console, no less. I find the rumor itself highly suspect, probably the kind of screwy math that had Atari claiming their horrid Jaguar system was 64 bits. Or at the very least, if it does possess that kind of power, it may all go into providing the glasses-free 3D gaming without much of a visual upgrade. And the big question is what would that do to the battery power? The extremely lengthy battery life is one of the top reasons to own the console, if it's drastically reduced to say, PSP levels, that would be a major flaw in the design IMHO. With only a week left til E3, we will find out the answer relatively soon.
And it's alost like someone heard me complaining about the lack of interesting stuff at E3, because, not one, but 2 upcoming Kingdom Hearts games should be at the show. One is almost guaranteed to be an near final version of the PSP game Birth By Sleep, the other better not be the just leaked remake of a series of cell phone games. It's been more than long enough between the Kingdom Hearts proper titles and we're several years into the current generation of home consoles. BRING US KINGDOM HEARTS III.
Yes, I did play the Lego Harry Potter demo this morning. It was fun, so if you are a Lego/Harry Potter fan you will probably have fun with it. But it really isn't all that different from any Lego game you've previously played (complete with idiotic A.I. parnters). I seriously feel like the Lego games are starting to become a little long in the tooth, and aren't too far from becoming in the same league as WWII games, where everyone will just be sick of them.
Dreamcast classics coming to XBLA and PSN? Well. sort of. Sure, some people fondly remember Crazy Taxi & Sonic Adventure. But those people are horribly, horribly mistaken. Sonic Adventure was a completely terrible game that much like Dragon's Lair, we were too amazed by the presentation at the time to realize. Crazy Taxi is fun for about an hour, tops. It is fun in an arcade setting, where you'd play it once in a while, but available to play all the time on a console, the shortcomings and limited appeal crop up quickly.
Dragon Age Anime? I'm not horribly thrilled. So far, game based movies in general have been pretty much garbage, and the attempts at anime (Dante's Inferno, Halo Legends) haven't fared much better. Plus, anyone want to give odds on it skirting so close to Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson might be looking to sue?
All right, that's it for today, but I did finally get my hands on a rental copy of Red Dead Redemption, so I'll hopefully get some time in with that and give impressions, as well as thoughts on a few other things. Til then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Beastly
I've mostly stayed quiet on this whole Microsoft and Sony trying to capitalize on the Wii's success stupidity because I hadn't seen much of it. Now granted, any motion-controller has the capacity to make you like like a complete idiot, but Natal takes it to a whole new level, and frankly it's not just looking like an idiot. Any precision gaming of any kind just doesn't seem possible period on this thing. I you can't drive with just imagining the steering wheel, brakes and gearshift there, you cannot swing a sword or bat or shoot anything properly with nothing to hold. Granted, all Sony is really doing is offering an HD version of what you can already get on the Wii(even with its own version of Wii Sports), but a unapologetic rip-off seems better than this controller clearly designed with complete Spaz's in mind. I'm not saying I'll never give it a shot, but I cannot imagine any game that will make me want to buy this, and it's hard for me to imagine it appealing to anyone other than little kids and frankly the parents aren't going to pay more when they can get a wii for less and motion control is all the same to them. I'd argue it's a similar uphill battle for the Move, but since HD is actually starting to take off, they may actually be able to steal a good portion of the Wii's market since they will offer much nicer-looking motion control games. Of course there is this history of virtually any add-on not doing all that well to worry about at all. I mean how many people own a Playstation eye or an Xbox live Camera? Granted, more is being put into these, but history really isn't on Sony & Microsoft's side. The reason Nintendo's has worked is because it's core to the system, it's how it works. Even the motion plus, which probably would not sell all that well on it's own no matter how many games supported it, is working because it's essentially a pack-in as well. Neither Natal or Move is necessary to the core experience of their respective systems and so the chance for them being the novelty they keep claiming the Wii is (and yet are trying to follow) is much higher.
Ok, back to the weekend, I doubt I'll post tomorrow as I'm fairly sure I have at least a 12-hour day, but as I said last time Monday or Tuesday is almost a definite so see you then.
I absolutely loved Deus Ex 2, and this trailer has me very pumped for the next installment. It just sucks that we have to wait til next year to experience it.
Unfortunately I still haven't seen Prince of Persia. Twice now plans to see it have failed, I think its a sign that I should wait for video.
E3 is only 9 days away? That's awesome, because right now there are basically 2 games coming out for the rest of the year I'm really truly looking forward to-Epic Mickey & Fable III (assuming it actually comes out this year). That's it. I have a passing interest in Fallout: New Vegas, but considering I'm finally plugging through Fallout 3 at a slow but steady pace, I'll probably need a break. DC Online Universe looks somewhat promising, but there has yet to be a solid console MMO so I'm not holding my breath. I have virtually no interest in Natal or Move (though that may change depending on what they have at the show) and I'm pretty sure the 3DS will be like the DS in that it might take a year or two before it really starts having a solid library of titles that effectively use the 3D technology. So hopefully, E3 will give me a few more reasons to plunk down my hard earned cash on some games.
Lord of the Rings Online is a well received popular MMO, so it would never be free to play right? Apparently not., because this fall it will go free to play. Sounds like just the ticket to pull me back into the MMO well, though I would need a much better computer than the crappy laptop I've got now before I would even consider it.
So these are supposed concept art for the upcoming Captain America and Mighty Thor movies, giving us a rough idea of what the characters will look like. I'm hardly a hardcore fan of either, but I think they both look fine. The infamous wingtips on cap's old school costume would look silly live action. Though I think Thor is missing something without his trademark helmet, so hopefully that will be part of the final costume.
Finally, I got Alpha Protocol in the mail from gamefly today. I figured given all I heard about the game, I still might digg it. I've certainly been able to overlook damning flaws before (I really enjoyed Advent Rising, for instance, even though it was massively flawed). But honestly I couldn't even get past the training. You heard me. I DIDN'T MAKE IT PAST THE TUTORIAL LEVEL. Why? mainly due to the headache-inducing hacking game. I even looked up help videos on youtube and I couldn't figure it out. But there were plenty of other problems. The enemy A.I. problems show up immediately (essentially they are all morons), and essentially the real issue is that there are insanely strict time limits on everything. Even from the very beginning of the game, you only have seconds to make dialogue decisions (often before the person has finished speaking), disable alarms and hack computers. And frankly both the alarm and hacking minigames are a giant exercise in massive annoyance. And while I readily admit to not being a great gamer, my over 20 years of experience in the medium should pretty much mean I'll have little if any trouble getting past the tutorial level of virtually any game. Alpha Protocol is broken and not fun, plain and simple.
Ok, I should be back Monday or tuesday with impressions of the Harry Potter Lego demo and probably at least a couple other things. Til then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Chubby Ninja
Why couldn't they have backpacks like this when I was a kid? Well, I may get one anyways when 80stees actually start selling them, it would awesome to wear to a convention.
47 stars in on Super Mario Galaxy 2. Am I still loving it? Absolutely. However, I am at the point where even with getting more than a few optional stars, I need even more to advance, which will lead to quite a bit of annoying backtracking and possibly trying to get stars from sources I loathe, such as the prankster comet stars. It would be nice if I wasn't forced to go after stars that I feel are frustrating and not worth the effort.
Being that the God of War Collection was a ginormous success, it would be a no-brainer that Sony is looking into releasing other HD collections. What is surprising is that the most likely up for a conversion to HD are a couple of their less successful titles, Ico & Shadow of the Colussus. Granted, these are gorgeous, amazing games that are worthy of an HD upgrade (especially, Colussus, which really pretty much needs it), so I don't think there's anything bad about it, but I'm surprised they didn't go with something more high profile.
Finally, is Sony finally doing something right with the PSP/PSPgo? Well sort of. They are dropping prices on a lot of games, and throwing in 3 free ones with the PSPgo. Now this is a great initial deal, but then you are a slave to Sony's overall ridiculous pricing structure with no other options. And I'm saying as an owner that the library just sucks. You can get the occasional solid rpg port, which is nice, but the only reason at this point I haven't just dumped it is because of Birth By Sleep. Maybe E3 will provide a couple of additional reasons, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.
Hope everyone had a great memorial day weekend, I'll most likely post again on Friday with thoughts on Prince of Persia and whatever else goes on in the next couple of days.
