Brutal Legend Story Trailer (I Apparently Missed This Yesterday)

I was browsing True Achievements (good site) and their first news story today is about the new Brutal Legend trailer that you just watched. I picked the Joystiq video player because it looks better embedded on this site.

I am really getting more and more excited for this game and I think it is going to be at least as good as Psychonauts in terms of quality and laughs. I don't know that BL will ever achieve a cult status like Psychonauts did because I honestly believe that it is going to sell better than Psychonauts did. EA knows how to promote a game unlike Majesco. Anyone else looking forward to this as much as myself?

New Brutal Legend Stuff (Meaning Screen Shots), YES PLEASE!

Holy s***, this is going to to be awesome.

There is no news to be had here but you can go here to see more new screenies of the Legend that is Brutal.

If you did not remember this game is coming October 13 of THIS YEAR!!! WHY AREN'T YOU AS EXCITED AS I AM?

THIS IS MY SHOUTING VOICE.

I think I need to maybe calm down with the Mass Effect and the Brutal Legend posts... maybe.

[Hint: It probably will not happen unless both games suck and then... well and then... that would... not be good at all.]

Mass Effect: Jacob's Story - Color Me Interested

 

Joystiq recently broke this story about a Mass Effect iPhone game called Mass Effect: Jacob's Story. It was a tip from a Joystiq reader about a survey in relation to the game. This story makes me wish that I was the kind of news outlet that readers came to me with this kind of news. Obviously since this is a Mass Effect story I could not resist posting about this.

The reason that I considered not posting about it is because it is just that, an iPhone game. I have confidence in the iPhone as a gaming platform but I am skeptical on whether this game will be good as a good percentage of the games for the iPhone are crap. From what I can tell I am not sure if Bioware is developing this but as long as whomever is developing it does not take any unnecessary creative license with the Mass Effect universe everything will be fine. In the end it did not take much convincing; I am going to play this if and when it comes out.

This is what Joystiq reported about the reader survey:

The mobile game will feature top-down shooter combat and a stylized, cartoonish look. The survey notes that Jacob's Story will function as a predecessor to the upcoming Mass Effect 2, revealing some of the backstory of characters featured in the console game. The handheld adventure would be about two hours long and cost $2.99.

If the game does what this short quote says that it will do, it will be a nice experience to bridge the gap between Mass Effect 1 and 2. I am looking forward to it, I just wish there was a date on it.

An Introduction to a PC Gamer

Hello blogging world! With the recent post by Nate regarding my addition to the blog, I figured I'd give a quick introduction.

My name is Kara and I love PC gaming. I have never been a console gamer and have been PC gaming since the days of the Apple IIe when I played Castle Wolfenstein. These days I spend most of my gaming time (which is pretty limited with a full time job) playing World of Warcraft, but I also attempt to branch out now and then with some COD4, COD5, or Fallout 3. Some of my favorite PC games ever are Diablo II, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Bioshock, Age of Empires II and Morrowind. Hopefully that gives you readers a taste of my general gaming interests. I tend to stay in the RPG/FPS realm, but every so often enjoy a good RTS. And I am not claiming to be all that great at any of these things! I just enjoy PC gaming, even if it means I get my ass handed to me at times.

I'm looking forward to contributing and look forward to some possible cross platform talk (delayed new releases for PCs, small differences in games between consoles and PC, etc) in the future!

Game Diary - April 28, 2009: Where We Go From Here

Yesterday I was privy to an experience that I do not often have anymore. I wrapped my hands around my 360 controller and I played COD4 on Veteran. I progressed myself far enough to net myself another achievement and though it is slow going I think I am going to make it through [the game on Veteran]. The only level I am worried about is the one following 'All Ghillied Up' because I know waiting for that Heli is going to be shit. I know that some people find it torturous to play these hard difficulties and a lot of time I agree with those folks but when it comes to shooters - most of the time - I feel that the challenge makes the experience more enjoyable. I know that when I was talking to Jarvis on one of our more recent podcasts he said he hates it and I know that Kara (Mercy Medical (we will get to that)) probably does not fancy it either. What is your opinion folks (seriously, drop a comment, I know your reading, where are your comments)?

Other than that I continued playing The World Ends With You on my train ride yesterday, that was, until my DS died.

But what I have been playing is really taking an aside to the other things that I have been working on regarding this blog. Matt, the author that steals news posts from me as of late (kidding of course), has been updating. As a result, more updates equals more site traffic. It is an obvious direct correlation but nonetheless I am happy about it. As a result I am adding a PC centric author: Kara (Mercy Medical), another author who can steal all of my delicious glory (again, kidding). I am enthusiastic about branching out and I think it will only mean future growth for this blog.

Lastly, I have been thinking about the site's design and the lack of an iconic logo and if there are any volunteers out there please feel free to contact myself using any way you know how. I can write the blog but I do not have the tech side of it down.

That's all for now, be sure to check back often or subscribe to our RSS feed so that you may enjoy this site on what I can only hope will be a daily basis.

Fighters and Zombies and MUpdates, oh my!

Today is a good day to be a nerd, in all regards. I'm here to drop two huge bombs of awesome on you, so please proceed to the nearest digital fallout shelter and prepare yourselves. It's about to get heavy in here.

First off, the big news this morning is that Capcom has announced the return of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. This wonderful little fighter is being brought to the PSN and XBOX Live! Arcade in a similar way to how Street Fighter II was brought back. We're talking HD visual filters, online gameplay, and all the stuff you used to love about this little classic.



Doesn't that just look wonderful? I am personally excited because now I can stop trying to get all those Arcade emulators and bootleg copies of MUGEN to run on my Mac. I can just wait until the summer and buy it. And it should be noted that I am not a huge fan of fighter games. They're only really fun when you have someone to play with. I am, however, a huge fan of fighter games with gimmicks. I loved Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects back on the PS2. I also love playing Marvel Vs. Capcom in the arcades. I also also own Mortal Kombat vs. DC. This is pretty much perfect for me so I can finally get my fix of using Captain America to punch the crap out of Wolverine. For those not familiar with the characters, here is a full list, and it should be known that you'll be getting all of these right off the bat. No unlocking required. And yes, you did read Sentinel correctly.

But this is what really intrigues me - call me crazy, but I think that this could be a backdoor game to Marvel vs Capcom 3. This is the logic that I am using: to be perfectly honest, Marvel vs Capcom did not do great financially (probably due to it being released on the Dreamcast), but it has since become a cult classic and a rare/popular game (most people would agree that the Dreamcast was a highly underrated system regardless). After seeing how well Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV have done, as well as bringing back things like Mega Man and Bionic Commando, I don't think it's entirely out there to think that any success that comes from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 could give faith to the developers to bring about a totally brand new game, and I would love that. You can be sure that when the day comes in the summer that this is released, I will purchase it. In fact, I'm putting away the money now just for it!

Check here for a little trailer/game play video.

The other big news break this morning is the release of the trailer for Dead Rising 2 complete with motorcycle chainsaw. Motor. Cycle. Chainsaw. Awesome. The first Dead Rising (which was the first game I ever played/bought for the XBOX 360) introduced us to Frank West, who has covered wars and thinks that hanging around a zombie infested mall is a good idea. Dead Rising, to me, was notorious for being rather tedious to complete in it's entirety. This is not to say that I didn't find the game to be enjoyable, but I found myself running around just killing zombies more than I would take the time to complete the actual plot. The fact that the plot elements were on a timer, and there was SO much to do, always left me feeling rather dizzy (and to cure a bad case of the dizzies, one should always pick up a katana and hack the undead apart). I do not know how much of these things will be changed for the new game, let alone what will be different at all. What I do know, however, is that I love killing zombies, and I will buy this game when it comes out to do just that.

Speaking of killing zombies, for those that don't know, the Survival DLC is out for Left 4 Dead, and I played it last night. It is ridiculous, but awesome. It's free, too, so be sure to grab it. Basically, you sit on a brand new map (which is a Lighthouse), and try to survive as long as you can after hordes and hordes of zombies attack. It's pretty outrageous, to say the least. The goal is to survive longer than 10 minutes, but if you go any longer than 14 the game will destroy you, as in, Tanks will load in 14 seconds or under. Now, I don't know how this makes it more difficult than what I was playing with because when I played, Tanks spawned pretty fast and appeared to be smarter than they were before the update. I got punched off the map twice! So yeah, to say this provides high octane zombie entertainment is to say the least. If you've got Left 4 Dead and are still reading this, I honestly have no idea why.

Game Diary - April 27, 2009: The World Ends With Me

In terms of news as of late there is not a lot going on other than this awesome Ghostbusters intro video. Why have intro videos become the new thing? I look forward to seeing them for the first time when I first boot up the game but I cannot resist watching them if I am anticipating the game. Faults of the internet perhaps?

Anyway I have not been playing much on the 360 lately other than some Peggle here and there but I have been playing The World Ends With You (DS) on my commute. For people who follow this blog, you know that I have been playing this game for over a month (and I have had it longer than that). It is an awesome game though it is beginning to get really difficult. One can control the level of difficulty but truthfully if you do not play on the harder difficulty levels you are doing your character a disservice. The story is finally starting to make sense and I really am looking forward to seeing where it is going. It is bad in a way - that I am looking forward to seeing the direction of the story - because you have to devote a certain amount of time to 'grinding' and you have to know that it is not a good idea to rush through the combat to see the story parts.

I think that I have talked about the unique combat so I will talk about what I have been wondering. When you save the game you have a rating for everything in the game. As of the time of this entry my ratings aren't all that great and it has me wondering how good my ratings are going to be at the end of the game. I hope that if they aren't that great I will be able to go back to parts of the game and change that for myself.

That is all for now, I think I am going to go play some COD4 on Veteran.

Monday MUpdate #1

So, due to my eccentricities and enthusiasm as of late, Nate and I have agreed upon me doing an update every Monday, if only so I don't randomly pop out of the woodwork once a month to review a game. So this is the first of many MUpdates to come, and I hope you enjoy it.

In the "game diary" section of the world, I haven't really been playing much. I was heavily into Mega Man recently due to a random occurence that reminded me of how much fun they were, but once I got back to playing them, I remembered that in reality, the games were detrimental to my mental health. Those games are ridiculous! I don't know when is the last time you played the original Mega Man games, or even the new one on XBOX Live, but it's just ridiculous. So, in order to stay sane, I ended up selling it back to GameStop and getting games for my new Nintendo DS. I got Chrono Trigger, The World Ends With You, and Final Fantasy IV (and I still have $50 left in GameStop credit!), and have been re-playing Chrono Trigger since. I think this is my (over all) 4th play through? Maybe? I don't know. I've been looking into finding Final Fantasy VI Advance as well, for GameBoy Advance, because I'd love an excuse to replay that. When I was little, and first got a GameBoy, my parents bought me Final Fantasy Legends III because they didn't know the difference between what I'd asked for (Final Fantasy III, which is what VI was retitled to in North America) and that. Anyways, Chrono Trigger for the DS is great. It's pretty much a port, but I love that you can seperate the battle command options from the screen for a nicer picture. I haven't come across many of the new AMVs, but the one I did see was cute(I love Robo). I highly recommend this even if you've played the game before. It's just such a classic.

I also finally beat Operation: Anchorage. Good stuff all around. I'm glad to get back into the world of Fallout. I will be purchasing The Pitt soon. Probably when I get a free chance during the week, although I may not play it for a while. The new Left 4 Dead DLC is out with new achievements and playable options, so I'd really like to give that a go. Plus, I STILL have to do my play throughs of Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect in anticipation for the new games (mostly Mass Effect though). I don't know if I posted this here or not, but a while ago I accidentally deleted all my save files for every game ever on my 360. It was devastating, but it gives me the motivation to replay things. I also plan to replay both Penny Arcade games because I had everything maxed out in all characters. Oy.

Finally, I'd like to post a little link. It's NSFW, but it's amusing. It's a combination of "I'm On A Boat" by the Lonely Island and clips from The Wind Waker. To be honest, while the video didn't have me laugh all that hard, someone's idiotic typo did. User 'LllusionX has a fanboy...' posted the comment "I think Link accidentally all the water," to which a whole slew of awesome comments came from. I think Link is a pretty cool guy. eh sails baots and doesn't afraid of anything. Gotta love the internet.

That's all I have for today. If you have time, IGN has an article up about the 10 Most Overrated Video Game Characters. This article was done through a poll, and I must say, people do not really get the concept of overrated at all. For example, Marcus Fenix was an overrated character, but all the comments really have to do with the game Gears of War, not the character. There is a very big difference. Also, Altair made the list, and he's had one game, and will only ever have one game. That's a little unfair, don't you think? Ah well.