LUGCast Episode 2: Dog of the Year Edition

Yes, an episode 2 did actually happen, long long ago. Wanna see what we thought far far back in the annals of time? When Sleeping Dogs was on everyone's lips? Before half the internet started complaining about AC3? Heck, even before Tokyo Jungle came out, this was on our minds... and then cause we are terrible (at the moment) at forward motion, it sat around in various computers and databases till finally, at long last... we remembered it. Enjoy.


Dogs of the Year, part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4 cause Youtube is a butt

Kingdom Hearts Plot Summery Episode 1: The Phantom Premise

Ed Beers

I am writing this summery of the collective plot/s of the Kingdom Hearts franchise for the benefit of those who either a) have not played the series but wish to lean more about the series if and or when they wish to mock it since there is plenty to mock of it. b), have only played certain games in the series due to a limited number of game systems and money to spend on the games of systems and want a look at what you missed. Or c) played all the games and it just isn't adding up for them. Thank you for your patience with my writing style and for reading this,

Once upon a time, long ago, there was an old man, named Old Man Xehonort. And even longer ago, Old Man Xehonort was once a young Old Man on a journey. He was on a journey to find either a way to keep kids off his lawn, or more exactly something to complain about. He tried to just accept things as they generally were, but seeing how everyone else did that, well he was not one for mob mentality and the like. Through his studies he learned that kids these days take the like for granted. There was once a time when there wasn't so much light in the world, so little that they fought over it.

He liked this idea, he saw it as people being grateful for the like they would have, so, working through his young and middle old age, old man Xehonort tried to remake this 'Keyblade War' he had heard so much about lately. The way the war came about was pretty simple. Even longer ago, there was this big-ol-honkin' door, called surprise surprise, Kingdom Hearts. Like many doors, or at least the doors I'm told to stop trying to open without permission, it had one specific key, which for some absurd or awesome reason was also a sword. It was called the χ-blade, but they called it a Keyblade since that was less stupid, but not by much. And when the Keyblade opened Kingdom Hearts, light spilled out on the giant single world that creation once was. I think they called this event Wednesday, and on Wednesday you better get up early so you could grab yourself some light and rub it all over ya, else you're out of luck.

Well this system of light haves and have nots didn't sit right with, well everyone heck it didn't even sit right with the haves cause of how much effort it was. So all of creation split off into different groups ready to beat the ever livin' Wednesday out of each other. So they looked at the Keyblade, and made their own swords made in the shape of keys and fought over the Keyblade and Kingdom Hearts... And in the process they broke the key and lost the door... Smooth. the Key broke into 20 'pieces', 13 dark keys and 7 light keys, which trust me will be important much later on in the plot... I hope. As for the door, since it was a door to light that no longer had a key it got surrounded by darkness, and that boys and girls is why bad things happen to good people in this universe. Soon enough what little light left in the giant single world that was the universe got swallowed up, but since kids are all pure and happy and blah blah blah, the universe was split into multiple smaller Disney based words cause creation left kids in charge of making it.

Episode 1, end.

Solo-Cast 1: Now with 100% Less Pandas

I, Ed Beers, would like to apologize for SEVERAL things bout this podcast. 1, sorry for the poor quality of the audio, still figuring the exacts out for using my handheld camera's mic in place of the profession mics the team proper uses. 2, I want to apologize for trying to do a solo pod-cast at near 3 am in the morning... That's just a bad idea all together even if you're nocturnal. 3, sorry for how lack luster the news I reported on was. And lastly, I apologize for me recording it Saturday evening and Sunday morning and only getting this all up by Tuesday. Do try to enjoy

The Wii U-Have got to be kiding me

Ed Beers

Well, it was bound to happen, Ed Beers here again with the news we would have up on a LUG-Cast but well, life keeps happening, hard. So, to try and keep up with gaming news (nearly) as it comes out. And the news of the moment is, of course, the Wii U finally having a price point and release date... Joy.

Nintendo announced this Thursday that the Wii U will be coming to stores this year, November 18th in the US, December 8th in Japan. It will come in two different packs, one bare bones 300 dollar pack that comes with the system, the gamepad, 8 gigs of internal flash memory, and all the cords you need to plug it in. The other pack is a 350 dollar pack, with 32 gigs instead of 8, comes with the series of mini-games full of reference to games you wish were in the launch titles Nintendo Land, and gives you a 10% digital discount on online purchases till 2014. Though they have not spoken to how much additional gamepads will cost in the US, there is a estimated cost in Japan roughly around 180 dollars US, but there isn't much worry over that since there's no talk yet of games that will use multiple pads for gimmicky I mean original inspired gameplay.

Now the box itself, from what I understand, the inner workings of the Wii U are suppose to be better, faster, and hold more than the aging last leg consoles PS3 and 360. That might be true, I would have several ways of checking that if any of the info on what's inside the box was confirmed, could compare and contrast like people have done with the image above of Arkham City Vs Arkham City: Armored Edition or whatever fancy name they've given it. I'll try to be fair and wait for actual fully finished gameplay for me to compare when it does come out, but till then, well consider what a internally powerful juggernaut the Wii failed to be I feel justified in my disbelief.

The system will be using at least single layered Blu-ray discs for their games which at least means we won't have another format war. However it feels that having the box play actual DVDs or Blu-rays just would detract from the true gaming focused machine that it is... Right... So tell me then Nintendo, more about this TVii program you are so proud of. That's right the Wii U will have a 'free service' that allows you to watch on your TV or on your gamepad shows from other services you already pay for, like Hulu, Netflix, or even TV recorded onto your home DVR... But nah having it play DVDs would just, you know, distract you from how game focused they are now.

I, have to be honest I do not get a lot of things about all of this. Why is it coming out in the US near a month before? Why does it not come out with any games (that are likely to be around 60 dollars per)? Why does it not come with any wii-motes or nunchucks which you may or may not need for many of these games? Do they think only people who bought a Wii will buy a Wii U? Do they not want new people to join in? Why do they not want their machine playing DVDs and Blu-ray discs but are fine with video and TV streaming? Why are people drooling over the idea of spending 300 to 350 plus tax on a system without a single REAL game? ... No I do not think of Nintendo Land as a real game. I mean sure, there's the whole talk of Bayonneta 2 coming to the system exclusively, but there's barely anything else that isn't just a specialized port of a pre-existing PS3 or 360 title. I don't get wanting a version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 where you can grab a mushroom and grow giant, the game's as bizarre as is with devils and orges flying around fighting bears. I mean I didn't really enjoy what they tried to do with the Wii, but I at least understood what they were going for, what they were trying to do. I don't even have that advantage to explaining the Wii U. I don't get the price or what Nintendo is trying to do with this... I don't hope that it does badly but I'm not actively rooting for it, sorry Ten-dog, We've been tight for a long time but, I just don't get this.

I think I'm Over(strike) Fuse, and it's not even here.

Ed Beers

Hey, it's me, you're buddy. Say, remember that new Insomniac game being published by EA? That silly action filled looking trailer a couple E3s ago? And it had that quirky feel to it, looked like if The Incredibles met TF2 they got drunk and made a beautiful looking baby. Yea you remember, Overstrike 9, everyone was looking forward to more news about it last E3 and were disappointed that there wasn't any. Well now there's new news, a new title, and most disappointingly, a new more generic look.

If you think you notice a bit of a difference between this trailer to what you may recall from the old trailer way back at E3 2011, well, you're not wrong. While the earlier trailer didn't give any exact gameplay, we felt it gave us a sense of what to expect. True more realistic look than Ratchet and Clank, but not as serious and trying to find it's footing as Resistance. Something smooth, kind of retro evil genius style to things... And what are we given over a year later? A trailer that to me looks no different than every other third person run around with friends shooting things games. I trust that, since it's Insomniac there should at least be decent weapons, but this trailer feels, lacking. Feels as if the quirkiness and silly feel as been ripped out for generic one-liners and machismo. With any luck the visuals will change around, the gameplay will be more interesting, and once we actually hear characters talk there will be that charm we know from the game makers... Or we get another EA game that could have been awesome.

Final Fantasy 13-3: 3rd times the charm

We yet live! Thanks to all of you for staying with us during this dry spell. Ed Beers AKA Jake here with a video game news update. Straight from Japan just as they're celebrating 25 years of Final Fantasy... dear lord I feel old... On September 1st the people at Square Enix reveal that yet another sequel to Final Fantasy 13, the FF that everyone wanted but near no one was pleased with, is currently in production. Titled "Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13", you are put in control of everyone's grumpiest Final Fantasy lead this side of Squall, Lightning. However, as oppose to the usual 40-60 hours of story and wandering and side quests, they've gone for a more Majora's Mask approach and have given you 13 days before the world ends.

Yes it seems, that along with 13-2's focus on time travel, as well as their 'once you get past the first 20 hours of gameplay it gets really good' experience in FF 13, time seems to be the focal point of this number entry in the series. Papa Final Fantasy 8 would be so proud. Though I have yet to see exactly how those days pass, wither it's in real or game time and if time passes even when you aren't playing, I have to express my general confusion and frustration at Square for yet again adding a time limit to one's gaming. For more on that subject, feel free to read my less than kind review of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.

Course they aren't just telling us 'oh, well, you have to see how fast you can level up and save the world in 13-ish days'. They are trying to expand on the time system to better use, such as having a monorail system between towns that runs on a time table, that certain people or groups only come out during certain times of day, and of course the ability to reverse time through achieving goals such as monster killing. Personally, I have never been one to enjoy the prospect of a ticking clock over my head reminding me of how much I've wasted wandering about enjoying the view. While I'm always for the release of more games from one of my childhood favorite developers, I can't help but worry that they're much more found of Lightning and the Final Fantasy 13 series than any of their fans are.

Still, with the promise of a more action based gameplay style, rumors of Lightning being able to hang from cliffs or dodge around corners, as well as having full control over her moments during battles, things could be much worse. Guess we'll just have to wait for this year's Tokyo Game Show for a better idea of how this game will or won't work.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance Review

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance Review

By: Ed Beers

Fans of the series who have yet to play Birth By Sleep may not want to read this review, since I will make several semi spoiler references to the game as jokes and the like.

Fans of the Kingdom Heart, spoiler alert it does not reveal when Kingdom Hearts 3 may come out. But fret not, this is still a nice story tease to keep you interested until they release either a remake of an earlier game or number of games, or amazingly actually get a release date for KH3. Sure you'd have to put up with an absurd time limit system, constant pet care to improve your stats and abilities, mostly lackluster ally AI, Disney and Square characters only making cameos and not in your battle teams, poorly rushed through Disney plots so you aren't distracted with any annoying interest for too long, and a new movement system that makes fighting a bit chaotic and platforming puzzles to find hidden treasure pointless, but least the Kingdom Hearts story and all of it's totally not yaoi baiting gets advanced.

The story picks up after the team received the newest canon rewrites from Birth by Sleep. Our favorite characters we are forced to play as, Sora and Riku, are brought to Yen Sid's tower in order to be given a special kind of test, to be given the Mark of Mastery, since for whenever KH 3 happens they'll need as many Keyblade masters they can get to face evil Lenard Nimoy (Xehonort). What's so different about this test? It's set in the dreams of worlds that weren't brought back from the darkness at the end of KH1/couldn't fit into KH2. And before you can say Inception, they're in, just in time for things to go horribly wrong.

The new monsters introduced into this world, are called dream eaters, which come in two types. Nightmares, that 'eat' happy dreams, (though it's never explained what that means or does) and Spirits, which makes up your other two team members are just color swaps of the nightmares, and 'eat' nightmares and Nightmares. And as far as allies go, they make me miss Goofy and Donald. Not only do they simply squeak and trill to 'speak' and means the writers don't need to worry about extra dialog, the combat AI seemed to think 'well you know, you've got this under control it's all good'. More than once after trudging through a hard won battle, I'd looked down to the bottom screen to see my Dream Eaters are stuck all the way on the other side of the map, despite their power to just teleport next to you if they fall too far behind. Course that's just how annoying they are in battle, outside of battle you're expected to pet them, poke them, take photos of them, play with them, feed them, train them. These Spirits are your pets, as well as your set of stat and ability boosts. For the more you take care of these little boat anchors, the more points you get to unlock special attacks, spells, items, or boosts like attack haste or defense boost and so on.

To try and balance out these sometimes screen filling, walking into walls allies they also give you a flashy, bouncing around, sometimes puzzle breaking style of movement and combat gameplay, called flowmotion. With it you're suppose to get around the stage more quickly so you won't worry as much about the 'drop system' time limit. It also allows you to bounce off a wall or certain polls around the stage to go into a special flashy attack to do even more damage to enemies near by. What it does it makes going up the side of buildings without having to find some secret trick or jump you're suppose to pull off to get there, or dodge some attacks a lot easier than the game might have wanted it to be.

You my have noticed I mentioned something called the Drop System. Well, instead of swapping you between the two main characters, or have you play through one character's story and then the other as the story progresses, you are forced to swap mid game, mid puzzle, mid battle even, between wherever one character is, to where the other was last you dropped out as it was. It decreases at a set amount, and you can buy items to 'heal' your drop gauge, but also if you're hit with certain statue effects or certain attacks, the rate it will drop will increase to an insane amount. I suppose it makes sense in the greater scheme of the story they're telling, but I feel it's one of the stupider things to add in a game next to having a stock set of lives in a game. Or having the game be playable in 3D which still makes no sense to me it doesn't change a thing as far as I can tell.

I've put down a lot of the things they've added into the game, but that's mainly because I felt it got in my way of actually getting through the game to enjoy the story, since I felt it actually did what most long running series fail to; it filled in plot holes. Ever wonder why mister hoodie was there at Destiny Island all those years ago in KH1? That's explained. Ever wonder why the emotionless Nobodies were so angry and sad about their lacks of emotions? That's important enough to be addressed. Why do I spend so much time wearing a digital watch? ... Well no it doesn't answer that it's just concerned about the nagging KH questions. I mean sure they make a couple smaller plot wholes, but they're still answering the questions a fan would care about. I just wish it played better.

The League of Undirected Geeks Podcast Episode 1 - Here We Go!

The League of Undirected Geeks Podcast Episode 1 - Here We Go! by Undirected Geeks


Welcome to the first episode of the League of Undirected Geeks Podcast. This week we get things started right by doing introductions, short news stories, and a round table discussion that quickly goes off rails. Like what you hear? Want to hear us talk about something else? Want to see a different direction for the podcast? Leave us your thoughts either below in the comments or at -

leagueofundirectedgeeks@gmail.com  
                                                                                               
We want to hear your thoughts!

A New Kind of Indie Bundle

By Julan 'MakAttack' MacDonnell

The Humble Indie Bundles have easily spread the word of games developed by small game development studios that are, of course, independent. Amnesia, Botanicula and The Blackwell series are just a few games that have gotten massive support from the gaming community since being placed in their respective bundles. Today a new bundle is upon us, but it isn't what most might think a Humble Bundle would be. Instead of rad games, we get mad beats.

LAGcast Episode Zero - WTF Are We Doing?

So here it is, our first episode. Not much to say. Title says it all really..... Enjoy!
Ep.0 WTF Are We Doing? by user42896192

Pokemon Conquest Review

Pokemon Conquest Review

By: Ed Beers

Honestly, far too often, I find myself as a young brash boy, about to rally up a mishmash of followers and former enemies to unit all of Japan under my banner either for selfish reasons or boredom, dislike of how things work currently, or just to stop someone worse from doing so first. And that's just the adventure this new Pokemon game for the DS promises to give.

Like near all Pokemon games, it is unsure if you are a boy or a girl, but sadly, no there is no feudal era professor Oak to explain Pokemon to you, just text covered pans over still images, with some grandiose music. And before you can say what next, you're thrown into the battle for all of Ransei (the Japan like country you're fighting over). You see, in this world of humans and pokemon, warriors are those few humans who can communicate wordlessly with pokemon, a warlord is the warrior leader of a kingdom, and legend claims if one was to conquer and unit all of Ransei, one would come face to face with the pokemon who created the land.

So the plot is fairly simple, you're yet another warlord in this land who wants to see if the tale is true, while you defend yourself from other warlord, nothing all that thought heavy or moralistic minded, which I am thankful for, it lets me focus on all the brain throbbing gameplay. You have your map, the castles you have control over, the neighboring castles, and the paths between them. Each castle can hold up to 6 warriors, and each warrior can have a certain number of pokemon based on their stats, but you can only get more pokemon by linking with wild pokemon only with the warrior wanting to link with them. Then there's how well the warriors link with which pokemon (better linking means they can become stronger), finding that one pokemon they link perfectly with, leveling their pokemon through battles, making sure you put the right warriors/pokemon in the right castle to defend/attack the neighboring castle. Course there's the needed balance of warriors with the matching preferred type to catch wild pokemon, and those with pokemon of an effective type to beat enemy warriors. Eyes crossing yet?

No? Good, cause now we need to get into how the actual battles work. The maps are not all that big, but that could be a good thing. I mean, as awesome as hundreds of pokemon crashing into each other on a giant field might in theory, gameplay wise it gets a bit cluttered. Never mind that you need what little space you have to keep your enemies in range of your attacks. Each of the 200 or so pokemon in the game have 1 attack, and they all hit at different ranges. Some may hit right in front of them, some hit in a line or group attacks, some may hit from 3 space away... Though considering the range of some of these attacks I wouldn't mind larger maps personally. Of course if it was just pokemon attacking each other, there would be no need for the warriors controlling them. Each warrior, along with their preferred pokemon types and perfect links leading to more powerful pokemon, they also have their own stats that add to a pokemon's abilities, as well as special one time skills that can raise their stats, or heal certain status effects like poison and the like, as well as holding items for the pokemon to use. Course that would be plenty to keep track of, even if all the battles were just the same beat all the enemies. More often than not, the battles will be capture or hold all the flags, or have similar special features like shot cuts, random attack elements, and so on.

One of my favorite aspects of these waring states era Japan set games, is seeing the ways that the famous warriors and warlords of the time are portrayed, but it's even funner seeing what pokemon they perfectly link with. Sure, in the course of Japanese history there are some links that were bound to be obvious, like Hideyoshi, famously referred to as a monkey cause of his facial hair and lack of height, of course he would perfectly link with a flame monkey pokemon. Or that a sweet little girl like Oichi getting paired with Jigglypuff. But then you get the more, frightening links, such as Kenshi Uesugi, one of the more warrior like warlords though to be one of the two who would actual take over... And his perfect link pokemon is a Mewtwo. Yea, next why not give a shark heat seeking missiles.

Does this game leave me wishing there was more to it? Yea, wish it was a bigger game, or slightly better graphics, or even more than just one attack per pokemon. But over all, 35 dollars for this solid DS game, and no annoying 3D gimmicks, more than a fair price point in my view.

MechWarrior Online Founder's Program Announced

By: Julian 'MakAttack' MacDonnell

Piranha Games, developer of the upcoming free to play mech combat game MechWarrior Online, has just announced their Founder's Program. In an attempt to drudge up further support for the already highly anticipated summer release of this long awaited sequel to one of PC gaming's nearly forgotten franchises, Piranha Games has announced a three tier Founder Program where anyone willing to shell out the big bucks can not only start playing the game before it's actual release date, but get some bonus perks as well; both for their mechs and their user profiles.

Amnesia Sequel Given Teaser Trailer

By: Julian 'MakAttack' MacDonnell

I bring both tidings of great joy and caution, for true horror lurks among us. Come this fall, a new yet familiar beast shall be unleashed upon the unsuspecting public once again. Yes my friends, Amnesia has returned.

Lollipop Chainsaw Review

Lollipop Chainsaw Review

By: Ed Beers

PS3/360

This game is a needle jammed packed with adrenalin, caffeine, sugar, extra shot of espresso, jabbed right into your arm... Also, the needle is really a stick of dynamite. This game is about chainsaw swings, pop culture, the 80s, being a bad ass, zombies spewing so much blood it makes a rainbow, and a well meaning cheerleader's rocky relationship with the cut off head of her boyfriend. This game is a mix of Evil Dead, Buffy, even Heathers, with references to countless icons from fat Elvis to the game Pac-Man, to Bootsy Collins's Mothership. This game is a whole lot of things... But as the description in the first sentence might suggest, it's not what one would call a long game.

You play Juliet, part of a loving family, a cute boyfriend, good grades, things are going pretty well as you enter your 18th year of life... But as you go to meet said boyfriend as said family prepares a birthday bash for you when, really it's no big deal, just a slight annoyance... A zombie apocalypse is thrown in your way. But don't worry, you aren't going to be hindered by any annoying moral questions about like, if it right to kill these former fellow students? Or thoughts of 'well what if there's a cure, and I just killed a good friend of mine'. None of that to worry about really, just bring out your chainsaw, give your parents a call to let them know you'll be a bit late, and just start cutting into the crowd, and make your zombie hunting family proud as you hunt down the 5 zombie lords that will seal the hell hole ripped open by magic and explosives.

Gameplay, namely the slicing up beating explosive and general destruction of zombies, is solid. It flows well, it's fun, and the further you go/more upgrades you buy, the more ways you have to slice through the crowds. You've got a nice mix of normal attacks to start with which can combo into each other nicely from the start. You've got your heavy attacks for slicing off arms, low attacks for taking out legs, a dodge button to leapfrog over attackers, and a pom-pom attack to stun them, making with head cutting a lot easier. As you progress your chainsaw will get new add-ons to your chainsaw, making it a gun, or giving it a heavy duty engine, or even letting it blast your boyfriend's at the hoards with a giant party popper. And of course, the more you kill zombies, the more cash you get to buy new ways to kill more zombies easily which will get you money cash.

Though don't think that all you do is learn to kill more zombies. A girl's gotta look her best, even at times like these. Sure you have your lovely San Romero High cheerleader outfit (and one of the more awkward trophies/achievements I've heard of with it), but as you play through you unlock for purchase more outfits. These, just as the people you fight, are a crock pot of pop culture references, not even touching on the store pre-order costumes such as Ash from Evil Dead, or a Foxy Brown like golden jumpsuit and afro. You'll get just plain change of clothes of course, different patterns for the cheerleader outfit or more casual attire, but you'll also get a blood covered full body rabbit suit. Even better, you'll get costumes from popular animes such as High School of the Dead, Deadman Wonderland, and This is a Zombie!? And that there's so many costumes is a good thing, it will give you a reason to play this more than once.

And if there's anything this game needs, it's a need to play it more than once. The story mode, is sweet, sharp, action and comedy packs... But short. Not like, FPS this game is mostly for multi-player short, but surprisingly short for an action title without any multi-player aspects. Along with there being more things to buy than you can in one go, one of the major draws to keep playing after the credits roll, is to beat your friends and family on the leader boards and world wide ranking mode. But even with that in mind, this game ends just soon enough for you to wish there was more. Course, that might be intentional, since there is such a feel of speed, of a rush from start to finish. Though the flow does get a little banged up by the strange, middle level, or even stranger right after beating the boss, comic book styled load screens.

One of the biggest surprises for me in this game are the characters in it. One looks at the TV spots, or the posters at game stores, and you think 'oh this is some slutty American cheerleader spreading her legs for the gamer's camera while cutting zombies up with a chainsaw'... Well the cutting zombies up part was right, but Juliet is just such a cute, all be it off center, character. True her talking style seems right out of the 80s, but she feels like she was raised from the 50s. Polite to your elders, no funny business with strangers. Heck, she apologizes to a zombie when she accurately states exactly how fat the zombie is. She is a cheery ray of sunshine, completely used to the idea of a zombie apocalypse but has yet to really enjoy a normal trip to a farm. And her less pure, awkward, now depressed since he has nothing from the next down boyfriend is a great foil to her unshaken rainbows of awesome.

Still, despite how short the story is, or the awkward loading moments, I am not regretting buying this game... Wish I could have paid a little less, maybe like 50 instead of 60, but whenever I want another jolt of action, it'd be like loading in your favorite zombie comedy flick really. You plug in, you laugh at your favorite one liners or sight-gags, maybe you check out the special features if you haven't for a while, and damn if you don't have fun. It's a real enjoyable game, but I do suggest giving it a try before slapping down full sticker price for it, you know, just in case it's not your thing.

Star Uncharted: Episode 1313

Finally dragging myself out of the river that is E3 info for some air, I had some time to myself to think, before taking the plunge into the even murkier waters of coverage of E3. During the brief break, I turned my attention to a game that was announced days before E3, though we only got a look at the gameplay once E3 was in full swing, Star Wars 1313. What the game promises is a mature rated game, a darker and grittier look at the Star Wars universe, and most of all they promise no jedis and none of their problems. You are simply one man (bounty hunter) trying to make his way in the universe.

What the gameplay trailer gave us, looked very familiar. Right off the bat, you can tell it's a Star Wars game. The tech looks and feels like the original Star Wars trilogy, you're fighting against nondescript aliens with a trusty blaster, complete with 'pew pew' technology and red or blue lasers flying. You play, as mentioned above, a bounty hunter in the Star Wars galaxy, which is a questionable career choice to begin with what with the high mortality rate. To add to the list of choices likely to get you a painful or humiliating death, our Bounty Hunter (who I am dubbing Nathan Darklighter till we learn otherwise for reason I'll explain later), finds himself going to level 1313 of Coruscant, one of the many and varied wretched hives of scum and villainy in this galaxy.

Now you might be wonder why I dubbed our hero Nathan Darklighter. That's because it looks like, and has all the ear markings of, an Uncharted game. From the 'you really should have seen this coming' explosion ambush, to the cover third person shooting with melee take downs. It even had a dramatic climbing a half destroyed vehicle moment where you think you're there, but then something explodes and you're even further from your goal and have to climb using the helpfully differently colored ledges and pipes.

Will the adventures of Nathan Darklighter borrowing heavily from Uncharted? Heavens no, in fact going with a similar play style will likely help, it just feels like it fits so well and weirdly into a strange circle. You have George becoming famous thanks to Star Wars, he then worked on Indiana Jones, then Uncharted was made heavily inspired from Jones, and now a Star Wars game from the Lucas studios is borrowing heavily, or heavily inspired, by Uncharted. It just all, ties in on itself like a strange knot, ready to anchor down this new game.

All Aboard the Hype Train! Most Anticipated Titles of 2012!

Welcome to the Hype Train, where you can discuss which games you're looking forward to most in 2012.

With E3 just around the corner, what can we as gamers expect at this years venue.  For one thing, I am very much looking forward to Hitman Absolution which will be released on November 20.  Hitman Absolution follows our favorite barcode baldie as he embarks on a mission after killing his only friend and handler, Diana Burnwood.  Details are scarce at the moment but this all access video courtesy of Gametrailers.com should whet your whistle for the time being. Oh yeah, the video is NSFW....I've always wanted to say that.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-hitman-absolution/730730

Konami's Pre-E3 Report

Konami Pre-E3 Press Conference

Contains Spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 4 (minor) and Castlevania Lords of Shadow (major)

Konami is not exactly known for one of the big guns of E3, that's why I imagine they prefer have their conference before the actual event, to get people out looking for the playable demos and videos out on the floor before their attention is grabbed by the bigger companies such as Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. That's not to say what Konami brings out isn't exciting looking titles, and it seems they might be trying to make up for a lack luster feel from last year. I will admit I did not expect much from this year either, since they started off with how much work they are doing with Facebook or I-phone games, though on a business side I understand why they need to get that out.

Following their Frogger Pinball advancements, and why they're in the Bay Area, they got to what most people like myself want to hear about, their console releases. They started off with PEZ 2013, which as far as I can tell, the changes from the 12 version are the things Soccer fans may notice. Sadly, I am no soccer fan, so more of this information flew right over my head, which funny enough was one thing they brought up, the ability to not kick a soccer ball over your opponent's head to get around them.

Though only a rough release date has been given for Zone of the Enders HD ('holidays'), it was nice to see the cleaned up HD graphics of the game. Additionally the new, fresher anime opening is always a nice eye catcher. Though, personally I'd care much less about how pretty it will look when it comes out, and more of a when it will come out, an actual number would be lovely. Still, we can't get everything in life.

Minor Spoiler for MGS 4 start

Anyone who has seen the first gameplay trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, may do a double take when they see the cosmetic and mood change into Metal Gear Rising: Revengence... You may also do a double take trying to understand exactly what Revengence could possibly mean. But despite the silly attempt of making a cool sounding English word the other changes to the game, most noticeably teaming up with Platinum Games (Makers of Bayonetta), seem to be in the right direction of an action game. You can still slowly and dramatically cut through opponents and the environment alike, the video showing cutting through pillars Metal Gears and the support structure of Ferris wheels. But the action looks more high pace, dynamic, and not as one note as you get plenty of non-sword weapons to add to your carnage, such as a dual-sided pole arm or even a bazooka (I imagine more weapons will be added before it's release). Could Revengence take Gaiden's place as the ninja action game to choose from after Ninja Gaiden 3's lackluster release not too long ago? From the lovely explosions and absurd high speed cuts, I hope so. Just make sure to bring your own watermelons.

Minor Spoilers for MGS 4 end

Major Spoilers for Lords of Shadow (and it's DLC) start

Lastly, as a special treat for watching Konami pat itself on the back for 25 years of Metal Gear, fans of the long running Castlevania got a fun little peak at what's become of a certain monster hunter. As it turns out, for those who haven't played the DLCs or don't plan to, Gabriel has now become a vampire, going by Dracul (Ah, now I see how it all connects). In the trailer, we're given a nice little cut scene of Gabriel's... uh, Dracul... let us call him Gabracul for now... His castle being attacked by human solders, and that outside of turning to smoke, his combat approach hasn't changed much since he destroyed his combat cross. He's still making wide area whipping attacks, only this time with red energy beams covered in grey and black smoke. As the humans slowly realize how stupid it is to face against a vampire, a giant construct pulls itself up to take on the challenge. Unimpressed by this, Gabracul simply gets a pick me up... By which I mean he picks up a bleed solders and drains him, before launching himself as a smoke griffin at the creature. After we're given the title and get all excited about this, we return to the slaughter fields to find one person still standing, ready to keep fighting. A lone figure, dressed up real nice for a knock out drag out war, with long white hair, and an impressive looking sword. Gabracul greats this new combatant with a grin... And we are given a tease of a lightly 3DS Castlevania on the way.

Spoilers End

Does this press conference change my view of Konami? Does it make this company a force to take out major 3rd party game makers? ...No, it's still just Konami. But that's not by any means a bad thing.

Harley Quinn's Revenge Review

Batman Arkham City - Harley Quinn's Revenge

By: Julian 'MakAttack' MacDonnell

Xbox 360

-Spoilers For Arkham City Abound-

Top Ten Scariest Characters in Gaming

By: Julian 'MakAttack' MacDonnell

-Possible Spoilers-

So yeah, my first top ten list. Took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do for this as I wanted it to be both meaningful to me and interesting to you. I should start out by saying I love the horror genre. Whether it be a night of playing Resident Evil 2 or seeing how long I can play Amnesia The Dark Descent before I wet myself in a combination of fear and anxiety, I will always have a place in my heart, and on my shelves, for anything in this genre. But as I grew up and played more video games of varying genres, I would go on to encounter other scary or intimidating characters that were outside horror games. So it is that I make my case here that the list following are currently my top picks for the most scary, intimidating and frightful characters(human or otherwise) to ever grace our video game systems.

Wakfu Review

Wakfu Review

By: Ed Beers

PC/Mac

Mating Sheep. Now that I have your attention, this game has mating sheep, but I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a Free-to-play MMO from Square Enix, and while it's not going to replace WoW or SWTOR anytime soon in terms of lore or story, fans of the strategy classic Final Fantasy Tactics should give this at least your first 10 levels. I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised, as well as just plain surprised, say by the mating sheep-fine, fine getting back on topic.

This is not a serious game, or at least this series does not take itself serious, so do not let the long explanation of what your classes do make you think otherwise. This is a goofy game, and it's goofiness does it credit. You start off by, after making a free account and choosing your server group based on where you want to be, choosing between 13 different classes, which is a fair amount of variety by itself. Each class plays differently enough, you've got archers, thieves, assassins, summoners, fighters, healers, plenty of character types to choose from. But also each class has 3 of four different 'element' spells and specials, Earth Fire Water and Air, to follow which help make how you want to play a character special to you as well.

As you start playing, if you're used to turn based strategy RPGs, such as either the Final Fantasy Tactics or Disaea series, you'll notice how similar the fight systems work. You move through the map by clicking on the square you want to get to, as long as you can  get there without opening some gate or door of course. The fights are, surprisingly enough turned based, and thankfully not random encounters. You and your enemies are given 30 seconds to move or attack, a helpful counter on the side. Course it wouldn't be very fun if you could just attack endlessly for 30 seconds. Instead you're given a certain amount of movement, action, and 'Wakfu' points, which are used up by spells attacks and movements of course. The more you use your spells from the three element paths, the strong the spells become of course but the further down those paths you go, learning more powerful and costly spells, or spells with more interesting effects like swapping places with an opponent, or strengthening a summon, or other such effects. When one gets into the flow of the fight system it can get very fun and fast pace.

An interesting aspect of this game is the eco/political system within the game. You'll start learning early on, among the first 10 levels, of the ecosystem in the Wakfu world. How you can go out and kill monsters chop down trees and the like, or even create more, to balance out the forces of the world. Will you be a ruthless logger? A tree huger? A poacher, or a shepard? And that's not even entering into the political system... Mainly cause since I'm playing this for free I cannot enter fully into it. From what I understand, once you join a nation you can actual start working FOR the nation, working within the system to make your nation the best. There's even elections to choose leaders, which even non-paying members can take part in.

Right enough of that helpful information about gameplay and variety and the like, this game is SILLY, and that's a good thing. If this game was serious it would be an interesting system but I doubt it would have pulled me in so much. But it's silly, it's goofy, from it's cartoony 2-D style artwork, to it's major NPCs such as a golden flying TV, to it's in game history of the world being nearly drowned by an ogre crying over being rejected, all the way down to the sheep like creatures bouncing on top of each other with very pleased happy panting looks on their cartoony expressive faces, and it's wonderful because of it. I know that a lot of games try to have a silly aspect or two to it, but how can one really take a world flooding monster serious, when it's flooding with world with it's tears over a bad relationship? Is it bad that it's a silly game, of course not, in fact I feel that it does itself a favor by it, but I do believe I'm repeating myself.

This game, being free to play, is worth looking into, especially if you're a fan of FF Tactics and other such games. Once you find a class and play style you might find yourself look for battles. And even when fighting gets dull you'll have plenty to get into with crafting items, harvesting or hunting, mining or planting. It's all fun, and it barely takes any time really.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review

By: Ed Beers

PS3/XB360

“Lemme tell ya a tale.” True a traditional start to a story, but in a story such as this, traditional and expect is a good place to start. As one might be able to tell from the title, this game is based on a Judeo-Christian text, namely The Book of Enoch, ancient (300 BC - 1st century BC) Jewish writings of the Great-Grandfather of Noah, fallen angels, and their giant babies. But this isn't a religious study blog this is a game review.

The story begins when seven angels, blinded by their love of humanity, may just have doomed it by their actions. They left the heavens, and came to Earth, where they were worships above God. They created the Tower of Babel as their home of worship, and the angels began to mate with the humans. Their children, the Nephilim (giant humanoid blobs), feeding upon each other grow larger and larger, threatening to swallow the world in flames. Seeing this, God prepared a flood, a flood that would cleans the world of the humans, the fallen angels, and their children. Wishing to save humanity from such a fate, a heavenly scribe, Enoch, went to Earth to find and purify the fallen angels, and stop their children. Followed by the four Archangels, and provided support by the aloof Lucifel, can Enoch climb all the levels of The Tower of Babel, and purify the fallen and their children, and stop the flood?

The visuals are stunning, original feeling, and each level of the tower feels fresh and different. One second you'll be fighting wave after wave of enemies in an ethereal coliseum, before being thrown into a cartoony, almost cute 2-D platforming level, before finding yourself racing along a Tron like futuristic city, or leaping across a living Japanese ink painting. The pacing between these scene changes is just right, moving to a new word just as you feel you've seen all you need to of the one you're in, alternating easily between 3D action, and 2-D platforming. The music following you through the game follows a similar trend, changing with the background, as well as in or out of battle. Some levels, if you don't like angelic choirs or tribal drums can get on one's nerves, but nothing too truly terrible.

The controls for the game are simple enough, you have your attack button, your jump button, your block button, and your purify button (will get to that in a second, don't worry). Gameplay however, can get very complex in some battles. As you enter battle, you'll have chances to steal and purify the weapons your enemies are using against you, there are three types of these. The sword-like Arch, the long range Gale, and the shield turn gauntlet Veil. The more you use your weapons, the more impure they become, which is why you need the to purify them during and after battle, the more pure the weapon the more damage they do. Course things would be far too easy if that's all there was to combat. Like many battle systems in Japanese games, things in El Shaddai work on the rock paper scissors system. Gale's most effective against Arch wielding opponents, Veil against Gale, and Arch against Veil. That's not to say you cannot win if you have the 'wrong' weapon, but they make it hard enough to encourage you to steal the more effective weapon any chance you get. Don't be surprised to find yourself facing each enemy type in one group of enemies that comes along. But, the game is kind, they realize how hard many fights well get. When you get defeated, and you will, you'll notice our hero scribe falling in slow motion, and darkness closing in around him. That's your cue to mash every button on your controller, to get right back on your feet. Course, get knocked down too often, the amount of mashing you'll need to do gets larger, and the time you have to do it in gets smaller. Can't have things getting too easy, where's the challenge in that?

This game is a beauty to behold, there's just something wonderful about how it looks and feels that I did not feel in the demos or teaser trailers. Maybe it's the sense of control, or the flow of the story, but it is something that needs to be experienced. Though most argue that video games are not art, I believe El Shaddai is, at very least, a giant step forward towards a piece of art that is also a video game. Please, give this often passed by game a hand on try.

Eph's F's: Batman Arkham City Game of the Year Edition

No, do not adjust the screen.  That is correct I am giving the Game of the Year Edition of one of 2011's best video games an F.  Not because of gameplay or anything like that. God no.  It gets an F for an entirely ridiculous reason.

Okay, now that I have your attention, I'm going to let you, the reader, to go and take a couple of minutes and just google Arkham City Game of the Year boxart.  Don't worry I won't go anywhere.

 And for those of you who were lazy to check it out, I have the image for you below.

Is this smart marketing? I mean for one thing, if you've been living under a rock or just awoke from a coma and didn't hear about/play Arkham City, now would be a great time to.  But the thing is, this boxart is just....atrocious.  I think I saw a Brazzer logo somewhere in there.  

Now let's analyze this boxart.  First off the picture, what do we see? It's Batman obviously wiping off what appears to be blood.  Then there's everything else. Funny thing is that the boxart is clearly yelling out at the top of its lungs that this is one hell of a game of the year edition game.  Look at that huge 10 out of 10 and 5 out of 5's. You get quotes stating the obvious and also bonus content.  With this kind of boxart, I'm surprised NOT to see any sort of product placement on it.

So hats off to you Batman Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition. For it is not what is inside that I'm failing, but for what is outside I am.

-Eph

Alan Wake's American Nightmare Review

Alan Wake's American Nightmare Review

By: Julian MacDonnell

XBLA

Alan Wake was a first for development house Remedy Entertainment. Having just come off of their first big hit franchise Max Payne, they decided to change things up a bit for their next hero; Alan Wake. Changing from film noir to psychological horror and moving the setting from a blizzard stricken New York City to the seemingly calm and serene town of Bright Falls, Remedy went on to make a very well made narrative driven (if clunky controlled)game.

Now it's been nearly two years since Alan's first outing to save his wife and the citizens of Bright Falls, and fans have been clamoring for a sequel. Unfortunately, due to lack of a publisher, Remedy has been forced to drudge on with their first downloadable-only game: Alan Wake's American Nightmare. What was supposed to be nothing more than a side story in the series seems to have turned into a bit of an experiment for Remedy and the next step in continuing the actual story.

Mighty Switch Force Review

Mighty Switch Force Review

By: Julian MacDonnell

For Nintendo 3DS

To say the 3DS is still lacking in the amount of games in it's library(let alone those that aren't ports or re-releases) is slowly becoming untrue. With the recent release of Resident Evil Revelations and Kid Icarus Uprising, as well as a slew of other games being released over the 3DS's E-Shop, it seems Nintendo has caught up to where they should have been about three months into the life cycle for its newest system. As to whether most of these titles are actually worthy of purchase or if we're about to see a repeat of the shovel-ware released for the Wii during most of its life span is hard to say just yet.

So when I went looking in the E-Shop for new games to play, it should be no surprise that any new title I saw would meet my hesitant stare. I know I could have just as easily gone down the safe route and purchased a game from the virtual console selection, but then again I didn't get my 3DS just to play old gems I could still find for their respective systems today. So when I saw Mighty Switch Force pop up after a little digging, I was hesitantly drawn to it. As I would find out, this small download title comes to us from WayForward Technologies, the same developers of a little known title on the GameBoy Advance called Shante. Having only played a bit of their earlier work, I was immediately hooked on seeing what they were going to do with the 3DS's hardware, and thankfully my curiosity was rewarded.

Pixel Junk Shooter Review

PixelJunkk Shooter

By: Julian MacDonnell

PSN

After three well received games in it's PixelJunk series, studio Q-Games returns once more to deliver it's latest creation: PixelJunk Shooter. After three different types of genres(racing, tower defense and platformer) Q-Games now tries it hands at a 2D space shooter. Does the on-going success of the PixelJunk series live on with it's most recent title?

Cave Story Review

Cave Story
By: Julian MacDonnell

WiiWare

Cave Story is an independent title developed not by a studio, but by one man; Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. Over the course of five years, Pixel created and released his game over the internet in 2004 for players the world over to enjoy. The game was well received and garnered the attention of publisher Nicalis who wanted to update the game with better graphics and port it to console systems. Daisuke accepted the offer and a little while later, Cave Story would be released on the Nintendo Wii as a downloadable WiiWare title. But, with the updated version, has the game lost some of it's charm?

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Review

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
By: Julian MacDonnell

Nintendo 3DS

The Legend of Zelda series has seen its fair share of ports and updates of already existing titles. Now comes one more in the form of a touch up to one of the best known and well loved entries in the series; Ocarina of Time. First released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, Ocarina of Time was for many the first foray into the land of Hyrule and an introduction to some of gaming's most well known and beloved characters.

With the recent release of Nintendo's newest hand-held system, the 3DS, Nintendo needed titles to help sell their system. So it's no wonder that when looking into their back catalog of games, they would choose to touch up and release one of their most revered titles to help sell the system. But with the newly renovated Hyrule, is it enough to ask gamers to come back once more to a land they have most likely seen many times before, or is it doomed to fall into mediocrity once the nostalgia trip fades?