Month: August 2015

Game Changers: Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360) (Rockstar Games, 2010)

Game Changers is a semi-regular column featuring games which have had a significant impact on me over the years. Games that were so incredibly stunning and awe-inspiring, they changed my conception of what a game could be at the time. Previously, I have written about Out Run, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Street Fighter Alpha 3.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the Wild West. Growing up, one of my favorite things to do (whenever I wasn't playing games or practicing spinning toy pop-guns like a gunslinger) was kick back and watch some great Westerns on TV. "Back to the Future, part III", "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr", "Tombstone", the legendary Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name" trilogy ("A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"), and of course, the John Wayne classics like "Rio Bravo", "El Dorado", and "True Grit" (to name more than a few). These films (and one show) are some of the finest examples the genre has to offer. They are far from the only cinematic representations available, however.

When it comes to games, the options are much less prevalent. When I was young, there were really only two Western games that I found to be any good, Sunset Riders and Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters. Both were multiplayer Arcade titles from Konami and both were really great games. They also both came out in the early '90s and quickly received multiple home console ports.

I acquired them (for my Sega Genesis and Sega CD, respectively) pretty much as soon as I found out about them. I spent a lot of time playing both of them and they still remain two of my favorite games to this day. But the early '90s was a fairly long time ago. Gaming changed a good bit as the years marched on.

Tons of great new games came and went but almost none of them featured an Old West setting. The incredibly few that did were either not available on the platforms I owned or were just not very good. I started to think I might never play a great modern Western game. But finally, in 2010, Rockstar Games released perhaps the greatest Wild West game of all time, Red Dead Redemption.

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New Steam Store Releases: Grandia II

Just in time for its 15th anniversary (and completely as a surprise to me), this week, Grandia II has come to the Steam Store. Already one of my all-time favorite RPGs, this version of the game is even better than I remember. That's because Grandia II Anniversary Edition features upgraded visuals, an extra difficulty setting, Steam Achievements, and an original Japanese voice option.

It doesn't include a soundtrack, though, unfortunately (my original Dreamcast version did). That one small oversight aside, this game is definitely worthy of a purchase. If you've never played it before (or even if you have), I would strongly urge you to give it a look.

Also out this week, Mega Man Legacy Collection (Boo-yah!), a very excellent (and dark) looking sci-fi action platformer, and an action RPG sequel featuring time-travel and evolving video game styles. Celebrate a very welcome 15th anniversary, then proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.

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New Nintendo eShop Releases: Sin and Punishment (x2)

This week on the Nintendo eShop, you can treat yourself to a double scoop of Sin and Punishment. Both the excellent Nintendo 64 original and its Wii sequel are now available. The original is noteworthy for using English voice acting, despite never having been released outside of Asia (until it was later ported to the Virtual Console). It is also noteworthy for being totally rad. If you like well-made Japanesey shooters, you could do a lot worse.

Also out this week, a crazy platforming party game with a color-changing twist that also features guest characters from several high profile indie titles (Shovel Knight, Guacamelee, and Mutant Mudds, to name a few). Lock and load...and then proceed further to view this list of new releases.

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Give me a W. Give me a R. Give me a U. Give me a P.

This week the WRUP falls to me because I have some exciting news coming your way and also because Dr. S is currently sick and passed out and I've stolen his computer (Mwhahaha). Next week is the Toronto Ontario Canada's FanExpo and I will be there attending it. What's so exciting about FanExpo you ask? Well let me let you in on a tiny secret. Video Game Demos! *Squee*

Alright let me compose myself here a tiny bit and give you a list of Demos that I'll be hopefully reporting on the week after.

  • Assasins Creed: Syndicate
  • Battleborn
  • Halo 5:Guardians
  • Disney Infinity 3.0
  • R6
  • StarWars: Battlefront
  • Lego Demiensions

And without a doubt my personal hopeful, Project Morpheus.

It's not just all about video games though, you can find yourself walking aisles and aisles of comicbooks, figurines, collectibles, treasures and more. There's table top games, costumes, and people everywhere that you can chat with. Are you an up and coming writer? Do you want to be an illustrator of some form? There's vendors from all over the globe that you can meet. If you do see me walking around in my Teemo hat next week while I'm in Toronto don't be afraid, stop by and say Hi!

Alright now, let's get down to the real reason we're all here. What's everyone playing this weekend?

  • Andrew(Twitter):In a Rockstar mood. Might replay Red Dead Redemption. Also, possibly some GTA IV (though I never beat that one). Oh, and some Mega Man Legacy Collection for good measure.
  • Danteg: I'll be playing the waiting game. I need my new ISP to get their installation done so I can get back online.
  • Thomas(Twitter): Too sick for gaming now, which sucks. I'll probably manage a round of solitaire though.
  • Greywolfe(Twitter,Youtube): Rex nebular:  I'm now out of the ship and exploring the planet.  it's a proto-larry game and from what i remember, things get silly from this point outward.  larry 5:  we're doing what i believe is the last Patti segment and then the game wraps up.  i could be wrong.  I've installed and played a bit of Wildstar, so maybe that, but my big pet project at the moment is leveling a guy in wow from scratch on a new server with no money or gear.  we'll see how that goes. There may come a point where the garrosh-ness and orc-ness of the game makes me just flip a table completely. Oh!  I'm also dithering around and messing with evoland 2.  so far, i quite like what I've played.
  • Tisnight(Twitch): Been playing a ton of Starcraft 2's arcade games, check out Solo Lottery Defense, a sort of weird tower defense where you set up your defenses by scratching lottery tickets, RNG is a bitch!
  • Yoda0VGs(Twitter):Back on the multiplayer gaming fix. My inner masochist will be continuing to put another 300 hours into Dota while the idiot in me will be hoping back and forth between a few different MMOs until one.... stiqs  :smile:
  • Hasenpffefer(Steve): Planning, planning and hearthstone. Also more planning.

New PlayStation Store Releases: Mega Man Legacy Collection

Talk about deja vu! Just like Zombi(U) last week, this week features another instance of something that was previously only to be found on Wii U (in this case a collection of NES Mega Man games) suddenly becoming available for everyone! PlayStation 4 (and Xbox One and PC) owners rejoice! Mega Man Legacy Collection (aka Mega Man's 1-6) is here and ready for your immediate attention. So, stop what you are doing and go download it without delay!

Also out this week, the definitive edition of Dishonored, the obligatory (and hopefully halfway decent) yearly Madden installment, and a surprisingly fresh new survival horror game. Ready... Proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.

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The Ground Will Fall Out Beneath Your Feet, The Pillars Of Eternity Will Shatter And The Earth Will…Evo…Land…Twice?

A whole slew of news from the GOG front:

Perhaps the biggest news is that Bethesda Softworks has finally landed on their digital distribution shores, but the new Pillars of Eternity Expansion has also been released on the storefront and - my soft spot game - Evoland, finally got a sequel and it's on GOG now.

So, let's take a closer look at what happened, shall we? Read more

Opinion: Isn’t It Weird How We Don’t Have Many Cyberpunk Games?

Words by Greywolfe

I like some science fiction in my video games. I adored the Dig and have played Portal from end to end at a friend's house. [Getting stuck towards the end becasue "flinging" was a bit of a tricky thing to master.] I wasn't crazy about Doom, exactly, but I played it, wanting to see what the fuss was about at the point where first person shooters got going. Likewise, I adored the Science Fiction spin on Master of Magic called, aptly, Master of Orion. It spawned two sequels [neither of which I particularly cared for, but they're there.] and - for a long while over the summer of 1994, a buddy and I played through UFO: Enemy Unknown together, delving into that game's secrets.

But there's a very weird lack of Cyberpunk games and I sort of wish we could fix this Read more

Iron Man V Captain America V Batman V Superman

Why I'm more excited for Zak Snyder's latest film than Marvels next epic.

I'm sure you would assume I'm a DC fanboy in the  preference wars of Marvel or DC. Well fuck you. I am a comics fan, not a brand fan. I enjoy good characters, action cells, and unique stories. I don't give a shit if they come from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, or hell, even Image Comics. If you're not 13 years old and you still give into brands buying your loyalty, you need to wake the fuck up. Yeah Marvel has some great stories, but they also have shitty ones, same goes for all publishers. You wouldn't go, "Yeah I don't really like Paramount Pictures, Universal just makes way better Movies." You judge individual films based on their characters, plot, and production value. And real comic fans do the same with our favorite form of reading.

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That said, it's with this idea of story in mind that I've come to realize that I am far more excited to see Batman V Superman than Civil War. I've read Civil War, it's a great premise and the story is paced perfectly throughout the books pages. And yeah like many I was fucking pissed when Cap kicked the bucket. Oh yeah spoilers, no never mind Fuck you y'all shoulda read the book years ago. And while I think it will be cool to see the book come to life on the big screen, I already know the story. Even those who don't know the story know it was a pretty famous comic in marvel history. But for those who don't its the story of the Registration act, a law that would be put in place requiring any being with extraordinary abilities to be registered with the government to keep track of these individuals and regulate their activities to avoid future unwanted destruction. Now yeah that's a great concept that we'd seen previously in books like Watchmen but the Civil war book kept characters true to their morals, with neither side really being wrong and causing a large and violent conflict over the legislation. But again, that story was great in the book but I'm sure that the film won't show me much that I haven't seen before.

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And that is where Batman V Superman stands apart. Yeah I know we've seen Supes and the bats duke it out many times before. Sometimes under a good premise, such as when bats actually beat supes, and sometimes it wasn't so great. But at least it wasn't as bad as Supes vs Spidey. Yeah that fucking happened.

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But we haven't seen this story yet. In Man of Steel, an inexperienced Superman becomes partially responsible for the cataclysmic destruction of Metropolis. While he gained many worshipers for saving the earth who now follow him religiously, this chaos caused the death of someone close to none other than Bruce Wayne, who has already hung up the mantle after loosing his good friend and apprentice Robin.

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That is one hell of a cool idea. Combine that with an amazing tribute to Dark Knight Returns with the Knight Armour that could very well be made of Kryptonian Technology to help him go toe to toe with basically a god. Only to have Wonder Woman and Aquaman both making their first big screen appearance in history to help these two get a cool head and stop whatever Lex is up too!!! Holy fuck, that sounds like a load of fun. And above all else, we get to watch, for the first time ever, a live action Batman, punch, and get punched by, a live action Superman. Who would pass that up? Many also criticize the art style of the Dc films. well in the past DC comics got much darker and heavy handed when Marvel was getting really kid friendly. and when Dc started to sell tons of copies of these darker books, marvel started heading the same direction to tap into the market as well. and with the MCU universe being the definition of popcorn crunching pretty colors cinematic events, I'm glad these future DC films aren't just going the same route. They aren't idiots they know its a risk to make these films have a darker tone than the traditional superhero films as of late. But it does seem like it would fit the story better to be more grounded and gritty. and again, its different from the colorful lighthearted Marvel films.Which are also great (Except for Ultron which was shit and to a minor extent so is Ant-Man) and those films have their place, and the Dc films will have theirs. I would take a kid to see Civil war, despite its heavy themes, I know its still basically a Disney film with more action. There is no way in hell i would take a kid to see BvS just based on what I've seen so far it looks like this is more a film for older comic book fans, made by older comic book fans.

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Well I bet a lot of people would do it for one reason, Ben Affleck shouldn't be Batman!!! I guarantee most of the people saying that actually thought Christina Bale was a good Bats.

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But I digress. Affleck is a great choice for a few reasons; The Chin, The acting chops, The parallels between his own Career and this Batman's life story (The whole being a huge deal only to fall off the radar after huge pitfalls from the media only to find redemption as a director). But the biggest one is one no one is fucking talking about. He is the first actor playing Batman who actually reads Batman comics. Like grew up with them, worshiped them same as you and me. While other actors maybe watched other bats on the big screen, or did some reading research once they got the part. No other bats is able to refresh on the part by pulling shit out of,their own comics collection. But he can cuz he has one. And come on, how where you people not convinced after this?

But I'm sure many don't like Ben for the same reason they don't like DC in general. Its because we listen to what's fed to us. Its in our nature, but when you look at what's in front of you and not what's being relayed in the media. Greatness is hard to ignore.

fanservice

TLDR - All the Reasons BVS Will be more Exciting

  • Original Story (Not a Retelling like Civil War)
  • First Apearance of Wonder Woman and Aquaman in a Major Motion Picture
    • This is a historic moment in comic history for Both characters.
    • Both heroes have future stand alone films lined up in the future
  • Dark Knight armor
    • Possibly created from material from kryponian ships, that kal wouldn't be able to punch through.
  • Passionate Creators behind the Project
  • Batman and Superman are going to Punch each other
  • Batman and Superman on Screen Together
  • Batman Punching Superman
  • Superman Punching Batman
  • Aquaman
  • Wonder Woman