Chris: The second film in our tour was fairly disappointing. Despite using the same production crew and lead actors as Curse Of Frankenstein, Hammer’s take on the legendary vampire hasn’t aged nearly as well.
After the jump, dead and hating it Continue reading →
The fact that Batman: Arkham Origins has a Season Pass offer isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that Warner Bros. Games expects gamers to fork over $19.99 for what seems to be a lot of cosmetic skins. According to what producer Guillaume Voghel told IGN, gamers are totally going to get their money’s worth.
“The costume DLC is going to be available with the Season Pass and it’s basically a bonus right?” he explained. “There’s going to be a lot of value in that Season Pass. One of the items we can’t talk about yet… We’ll just wait for the gamers to really see what the entire package contains. It’s going to be a big deal.”
Here’s my proposal to all developers and publishers that want me to buy their DLC packages up front: When you can tell me exactly what you’re selling, I’ll give your offer more consideration. Until then, you can stop wasting my time.
Frictional Games’s latest project is being teased. The newly launched “Soma Systems” site leads to a progress bar (currently at 18%) and some futuristic error messages. According to the “Vivarium” case file on the web page, some researchers have found an ominously primitive item during a salvage mission. The accompanying video (seen above) seems like it could’ve come straight from the depths of the SCP Foundation, which would imply that Frictional is sticking with horror.
Soma, by the way, is a potent drink used in Vedic rituals and appears as a drug in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as well as Phillip K. Dick’s VALIS. A quote from VALIS appears on the Soma website in a coded message. “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
Chris: This movie felt like a good place to start the journey into this era of horror films, mostly because it has a number of “firsts” going for it: first color (and how) Hammer Films monster movie, and the first mainstream color horror movie with red blood…and lots of it.
After the jump, it was alive Continue reading →
Come on, Sega! You’re not even trying. 25 extra lives for Sonic Lost World if you order through Amazon? Thanks for nothing. The GameStop offer is an unlockable Omochao buddy that helps the player collect rings in co-op mode. I don’t think there’s ever been a better argument against retail exclusive pre-order bonuses.
In honor of October, the spookiest month of the year, I’m going to share with you some of my scariest moments. These are tales fraught with horror, so beware ye faint of heart. Also, fraught with a grown man screaming and running away, if that does anything for you.
After the jump, more jumping Continue reading →
Tom loved Rebuild on the iPad and so did I. It’s a terrific game of personnel management, urban revitalization, and dealing with the shambling masses of undead. Should I send Frank out to the dangerous hospital zone to clear out some zeds, or should I pair him up with Betty to scavenge for supplies in the suburbs? Frank isn’t very good at combat, but he needs more toughening up before the hordes of undead arrive in three turns. On the other hand, my merry band is running low on food… Decisions like that made pressing that next turn button compelling.
Sarah Northway has announced a Kickstarter to raise funds for the revamped PC version of her zombie apocalypse game. Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville will come with big additions like NPC forts to trade with, a campaign that moves from small towns to a big city, an optional real-time mode, and all-new art!
My biggest expense for this game is the art. I want to bring Gangs of Deadsville to as many new players as I can, which means focusing on how the game looks and feels as much as how it plays. I’ve hired lead artist Adam Meyer of Steamroller Studios, who defined the new style of clean vector art and iconic characters.
And what art it is! The graphics on the iOS version aren’t bad, but there is a bit of disconnect between the gory illustrations and the almost cartoony map. The new style appears to unify the art between the screens. Check out some more screenshots of the new look here.
If you haven’t played it yet, the mobile version will be on sale throughout October for 99 cents! The original free Flash version is still available as well, but it doesn’t have all the features of the current game.
Starbound, the side-scrolling procedurally generated planetary exploration game that is totally not Terraria, won’t launch until sometime in 2014. The game will only be released in beta form at the end of this year according to an update on the Starbound Newsletter despite earlier estimates of a 2013 launch given to pre-order customers. Chucklefish explained that the 1.0 release was pushed back due to normal development growth.
When we began pre-orders back in April, the idea of not completing the entire game by the end of the year seemed absurd! So we set our official “release date estimate” for 2013 and elsewhere stated that the game would definitely be out this year.
Game development is fairly unpredictable, though, especially on games as large as Starbound, and things often take much longer than we could have thought possible. Given that, we’d taken the stance that it’s the beta that will definitely be available this year, not the full game. While we’re always actively talking to people in IRC and the forums, we only recently updated our website’s info to reflect these changes! Sorry about that.
Coincidentally, Terraria received its 1.2 update this morning which added a slew of bugfixes, new features, enemies, and items – including craftable rocket launchers. Watch out Skeletron! I’m going to have a rocket launcher when next we meet!
October has always been my favorite month. It’s the month of cool weather, awesome clothes, and sleeping with the windows open. It is long shadows and the magic hour in prime time. Thanks to Halloween, it’s also the month I love to dive deep into spooky stuff in all kinds of media, from horror story collections to favorite scary video games.
After the jump: “You wanna see something REALLY scary?” Continue reading →
Nintendo’s Pikmin 3 gets paid Mission Mode DLC starting today. The $1.99 Collect Treasure content pack is the first Mission Mode DLC available. The pack adds four stages to the game. A second pack is scheduled to be released soon. According to the announcement, a game update will add a free Mission Mode stage and global rankings to the game for everyone.
There are a few sequences in The Avengers when the various superheroes team up for combo moves. The Hulk positions a shard of armor plating and Thor hammers it into the giant space worm’s back. Captain America uses his shield to bounces Iron Man’s beam through several bad guys. Hawkeye needs to command a higher view of the city so Iron Man flies him up there (“Clench up, Legolas”). Black Widow catapults herself off Captain America’s shield to grab a passing airship. Are director Joss Whedon and his team indebted to the kind of combo moves I’ve been doing all along with my Marvel Ultimate Alliance characters or my Marvel vs Capcom tag teams? And doesn’t it go farther back to the comics that inspired them? You can only do so much with lone gods and superheroes. It’s in the aggregate that they’re most interesting. That’s the key to Sentinels of the Multiverse, a co-op card game that so good at emergent superheroics that it doesn’t need an established licence.
After the jump, DC who? Marvel what? Continue reading →
Forward Unto Dawn! Microsoft’s blockbuster Halo 3 will be free for all Xbox Live Gold members in October. Major Nelson announced that the Games with Gold program continues in October by offering Might & Magic Clash of Heroes starting tomorrow, and Halo 3 starting on the 16th. As with previous Games with Gold releases, Xbox Live Gold members will be able to keep the games in their library even if their subscription lapses if they download them during the offer period.
You have today left to download Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas for free.
If you’re not into NBA (pictured), this week’s release of NBA 2K14 is no threat to your wallet. The other possible wallet threat is for people who want to farm, romance, and JRPG on a Nintendo 3DS with the latest Rune Factory, also known as Rune Factory 4: I’m Surprised There’s Not Some Long Title in This Space. Atlus is trying to get you to buy a re-issue of the previous Etrian Odyssey JRPGs by bundling them under a new name and using the word “Untold” to imply it’s new. Nice try, Atlus.
But for most folks, this week’s threat is to whatever time they might be eager to spend with Grand Theft Auto Online, which goes live tomorrow. I predict great and/or terrible things.
Roberts’ Space Industries announced that Star Citizen blew past another crowd-funding record. The $20 million stretch goal has been achieved unlocking first person combat on “select lawless planets.” It was just a scant couple of weeks since the first person shooter stretch goal was announced along with passing the $18 million funding milestone, but Chris Roberts revealed the next stretch goal. At $22 million, the developer will add better faces to the game using Infinite-Realities‘ scanning technology.
Roberts addressed concerns that the game could become a victim of feature creep by pointing out that they have two types of stretch goals. The first kinds of features are already being implemented but need funding to complete, and the second type being features that can actually speed development.
But both types of goals are carefully considered – we don’t commit to adding features that would hold up the game’s ability to go “live” in a fully functional state. Also remember that this is not like a typical retail boxed product – there is no rule that all features and content have to come online at the same time! As you can see from the Hangar Module we plan to make functionality and content come on line as it’s ready, so you should look at the stretch goals as a window into the future of functionality and content additions we plan for the live game.
In celebration of the new crowd-funded record, players are getting an aquarium added to their hangars! Will fish collecting be as popular as it was on Mass Effect’s Normandy?
Why are we watching a Tyler Perry movie from three years ago? Because listener Soren Hoglund won our listener pledge drive/lottery and this was his pick! So we present our first ever Tyler Perry movie, which Tom thought was totally worthwhile thanks to a last-minute cameo. We unveil our 3×3 about favorite character reveals at the 1:03 mark.
Next week: Gravity
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