Tag: video games

Get These Awesome Posters Just In Time For Comic-Con!!!

by Scott Alminiana

Well folks, Comic-Con ’12 is fast approaching. It’s just 5 loooong days away! Here’s something awesome to help hold you over until it arrives.

Andrew Heath is a graphic designer and he has some awesome prints available in honor of this years Comic-Con. The Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 print is a limit edition run of only 15. It is 18″x24,” hand numbered and signed and goes for $50. The rest are either $10 or $20. They are available for purchase here. What do you think, do you want them as badly as I do?

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of July 6th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Another week on the East Coast, another hot ass week. Perfect time to stay in the nice cool air-conditioned house and play some of this week’s recommendations.

 

Spelunky (XBLA – 1200 MS Points. Original version free on PC)

Tired of Super Meat Boy or Trials Evolution and want another game to kick you in the balls? Well Spelunky has got you covered this weekend. 2D platforming with rouge-like style is perfect for punishing you while getting caught in the repeating cycle of playing the same level over and over. This ends up being a good thing for Spelunky since there is so much to see that the only way to see everything is to risk exploring the levels and hope you survive long enough to find all the secrets. Just don’t dawdle too long or the ghost will one-hit kill you.

 

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (3DS – $39.99)

Somehow, making a Final Fantasy rhythm game actually works. It helps that the music Square Enix decided to put into Theatrhythm is the original music selected from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy 13 and not some sort of new style remixes that mix it with speed metal. Ugh. With all the action that happens beneath the notes you must press on screen, it’s a shame that you can never take your eyes off the notes long enough to enjoy the visual masterpiece playing out during the song. Curious as to see what characters people put in their teams.

 

McPixel (Pc, Linux, OSX – $9.99)

I could try to explain this game but all you really need is the trailer to see just how insane McPixel is:

Going into this thinking that logic will help you solve the puzzles in the required 20 seconds will be your undoing. Usually the most stupid answer is the right choice.

Metroplex Flexes His Joints, Brings ‘Fall Of Cybertron’ A Week Eariler To Gamers

by MoreLikeAndy

Not often do we get a bump up in a release date for video games. Coming a week earlier than previously announced by Activision, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is now releasing August 21st in the U.S. and the 24th for Europe.

To celebrate the good news, I present METROPLEX!

Multiplayer In ‘Halo 4’ Not Possible Without 8 Gigs of Space

by MoreLikeAndy

Players will need an Xbox 360 hard drive or a minimum 8 GB Xbox 360-compatible USB flash drive for “Halo 4” multiplayer gameplay. For an optimal experience, we recommend players use an Xbox 360 hard drive with at least 8 GB of free storage space. For more info, go to http://storage.halo4.com.

That is the official word from a Microsoft spokesperson letting us and everyone else know for a fact, you need a hard drive to play multiplayer. I still don’t understand the reason other than maybe it has something to do with caching the game or something to do with the DLC that will eventually come down the pipes from 343 Industries.

Either way, if you are one of the unfortunate gamers without a hard drive for your Xbox 360, you might start looking around for some deals before Halo 4 launches November 6th, 2012.

Vivica Fox Shows Off Her ‘Kill Bill’ Skills In ‘Hitman: Absolution’

by MoreLikeAndy

When seeking out the voice and motion capture actress to fill the role of the leader of “The Saints”, a deadly team of assassins that dress as nuns in Hitman: Absolution, the smart play would be to go after someone with experience in killing, in movies that is.

Vivica Fox is a good choice in my opinion. Having the training during the filming of Kill Bill makes it easier for Vivica Fox to take some of the bumps and scrapes that one would assume would happen during motion capture for an action game as she says so in this video interview:

What’s a mystery is if The Saints are actually in the game and if so, why show us the team getting decimated by Agent 47? The only person you see not get killed is the character played by Vivica Fox. Did she survive? I guess we will all have to wait until Hitman: Absolution launches November 20th, 2012 to find out.

Marvel vs Capcom: Origins Announced

by Shawn Madden

Have you been hoping that Capcom would release the first Marvel vs Capcom or even Marvel Super Heroes? Well now you can have both in one! The game will merge both fighting styles giving you the choice of classic one-on-one battles or you can choose the three-on-three tag style of Marvel vs Capcom. The game features an online multiplayer mode with a limit of eight players in the lobby. Players that are waiting for their turn will be able to watch the match currently going on by using the spectator mode. Marvel vs Capcom: Origins will also feature HD graphics and the ability to save replays of players’ matches. The game will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network for $14.99 (1200 Microsoft Points).

Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins brings two classic arcade fighters – “Marvel Super Heroes” and “Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes” – together and to the modern generation. This September, fight like a hero, play like a legend!

Source: IGN

Mount & Blade Devs Want You To Meet Their ‘Caribbean’ Queen

by MoreLikeAndy

For anyone old enough to remember that song, you’re welcome for getting it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Snowbird Games, the developers of Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword has announced a naval action-RPG that takes place in the Caribbean, of course. The time period will be during the ‘Golden Era of Piracy’.

Over at Snowbird Games’ site, they go into a little detail explaining that this will mostly be ship-to-ship combat. There will be some out of ship combat, it seems, with Caribbean having players siege towns and ports as well as boarding other ships.

“True ‘Caribbean’ atmosphere of the vast and dangerous world” is one of the bullet points for Caribbean. That better mean either we get the option of naming our ship the ‘Billy Ocean’ or have the crew sing the song while hoisting the sails.

Firmware 1.8 Will Unlock ‘Classic Mode’ For Playstation Vita Owners

by MoreLikeAndy

No date has been announced yet for the magical 1.8 firmware that will finally let PS Vita owners play PS One games on the go sometime this Summer. As shown at Sony’s E3 2012 event, not all of the PS One games will be available upon the 1.8 release and with little info to go on right now, we have no idea just what games will actually work, except the ones shown at the E3 2012 event, when the 1.8 firmware is released.

Now if we can only get Sony to work on having PS2 game support on the PS Vita, I can give up holding on to my backwards compatible PS3.

 

Source: Andriasang.com

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend of June 29th 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Having your power out during 90+ degree weather for 5 hours is not a good way to start off your gaming weekend. Thankfully, the drought of releases hasn’t hit us yet so there are plenty of new things to check out this weekend. Here are my recommendations:

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC

Those of us unfortunate enough to not own it for the Xbox 360 will have to wait another month before we get our chance to play Dawnguard. For the lucky ones though, just having the option of either being a werewolf or a vampire lord is enticing enough to jump back in to the world of Skyrim. The fact that the story for both vampire lord and werewolf are around 10 hours each make the $20 asking price well worth it.

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Episode 2

If werewolves and vampires are not your thing, may I offer you zombies? Just beating out the monthly timeline that Telltale sets for their episodic games, The Walking Dead: Episode 2 will continue the story of Lee and the survivors along with all of the awful choices you were forced to make in the previous episode. From the early looks of Episode 2, it’s going to get even tougher to make those on the spot choices… not to mention the addition of some very tense scenarios when another band of survivors discovers the group.

I Remember The Rain

I became aware of this game through IndieGames.com and was very thankful for it. But a word of warning: you have to go into I Remember The Rain knowing that it’s all story. Very little interaction is required by the player. Although being only 5 minutes long, the story that Jordan Browne constructs after only working on the title for a month is stunning. I must have played it 3 times in a row and each time I was blown away by how I Remember The Rain pulled at my emotional strings. I guess I am a sucker for a good story. I think you will be too.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘Spec Ops: The Line’

by MoreLikeAndy

Spec Ops: The Line is suppose to pull on your emotional heart strings with the fact that you are fighting your own kind, the U.S. military. For me, there is a disconnect in what the story of Spec Ops: The Line is trying to tell me and all the killing I am doing. Just by having Nolan North and Christopher “Kid” Reid say to each other “we’re killing our own people!” doesn’t do enough to pull me into the right and wrong situation I think the story is trying to tell. Maybe I have been desensitized by all the war movies and games I’ve played in my life that the story just doesn’t hit home.

It feels like 2K Games focused more time on the sand effects and how they can manipulate the battles more so than the story. Throwing grenades or any other large explosions will cause the sand to swirl up and create a fog that makes it hard for both enemies and your team to see one another. The roaring sounds of the scripted sandstorms in the middle of a firefight added to the craziness of the action. If I was ever in a sandstorm, I think 2K Games got damn close to what it would feel like to be in one.

Feedback on shooting is excellent and the enemy AI at times seems to be pretty smart with cover, though few occasions you will see suicide like tendencies with shotgun and knife wielding enemies as they charge towards your team. Handing off multiplayer duties to Darkside Game Studios was a mistake due to how vastly different the look and feel from the campaign is.From the stiff animations to the cruddy PS2 era textures, it’s anyone’s guess why 2k Games decided to add it in the first place.

Maybe with all the cover-based shooters flooding the market for gamers, developers should draw a line in the sand and start finding a different way to tell moral stories like Spec Ops: The Line tried to.

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Shows You What It’s Like To Drive Something You Can’t Afford, Ever

by MoreLikeAndy

Being a Lamborghini fan myself, I can’t deny that I had a Ferrari Testarossa poster taped to my wall in the late ’80s. With Atari’s Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, I am curious as to my loyalty for Lamborghini and how it holds up today.

With 52 vehicles and a campaign mode that spans the whole history of Ferrari’s legacy, that should be more than an adequate ‘test’ of my loyalty.

 

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends releases July 3rd, 2012 on PC, Xbox 360 & PS3

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

by MoreLikeAndy

Spider-Man. Most know him as “your friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man. A select few know him as Peter Parker. With the movie coming out next week, Beenox wants to show you the all-new, shiny Amazing Spider-Man.

It seems like every year we get a new Spider-Man game. People will argue that the series peaked with Spider-Man 2. As great as Spider-Man 2 was (and the overlooked Ultimate Spider-Man), I think that Beenox’s honorable efforts with Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time can’t be completely dismissed. So how did they do with The Amazing Spider-Man? Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man is not Spider-Man 2, but it could be a step back towards returning Spider-Man to the fonder end of gamer’s memories.

As is well documented in video game history, any video game that comes out while tied to a movie’s promotion, usually ends up being pretty lackluster. Before you blame the developers for choosing to work on these titles, just remember that the developers hardly ever get to choose what project they get to work on. Combine this with the lack of time for development that most of these games have and they are usually doing the best that they can while swimming upstream.

The Amazing Spider-Man tries to skirt around spoilers by having the story take place after the events of the movie. Beenox gets away with it, until about an hour into the game. If you would like to avoid what I think is a major spoiler to the movie, put playing this game off until you go to the theaters. Speaking of the story, although it introduces classic villains such as Rhino, Vermin, Scorpion and of course, The Lizard, it ends up being pretty bland. Experiments gone wrong, city-wide infections, Gwen Stacy in trouble and only Spider-Man can save them all. Except for the Gwen Stacy part, you could almost picture this being Prototype.

In fact, the textures and the overall look of the Manhattan could be reused assets from Prototype. When you are outdoors taking a leisurely web-swinging stroll through the city, the sense of speed at first seems great. Once you do it for an hour or so you start to see just how slow Spider-Man is actually moving. Only when you get close to the streets does it feel like I am moving really fast. It could be due to the fact that the camera is pulled in really close to Spider-Man. I am not sure if the camera pulled further out would make the sense of speed any better. Regardless, like much of the game, it stops being impressive and the shortcomings start to show.

One highlight of the game is the combat system. What should be mandatory for all superhero video games is to look at what Rocksteady has done with the combat in Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The fluid nature and ease of multitasking a group of enemies is how I think a superhero would fight, especially one with a Spider-Sense. Beenox nails it when it comes to the style of combat that Rocksteady is praised for with the Batman titles. Although more animations could have been done since Spider-Man repeats the same moves way too often, everything feels like it should for Spider-Man. It’s fluid and fun for the most part.

 

Yes, much like the Arkham games, the combat is a light mix of hitting ‘x’ to attack and ‘y’ to dodge with the combos automatically happening. When you start to take into consideration that there are objects in the environment that you can utilize, you will see just how fun the combat can be. The stealth attacks in The Amazing Spider-Man is pretty simple yet it makes you want the noir Spider-Man game with stealth mechanics the Beenox did in parts of Shattered Dimensions. Stealth is the best way to take out the one enemy I detest in the game, soldiers with assault rifles. Since you cannot dodge them without doing a web retreat, taking them out before engaging the weaponless enemies makes things easier on you.

I never like Spider-Man indoors so I was a little upset that a lot of the game takes place inside buildings or sewers. But not all of it.  There is a boss fight sequence near the middle of The Amazing Spider-Man that really blew me away. Zipping through the city’s skyline while being chased by flying robots at dusk was exhilarating. To stop mid-swing in order to turn around and Web Rush (in slow-mo) and target the robot never got old. Web Rush, the new system for targeting areas or enemies and quickly zip-lining to them, is not just made for getting around the city faster, you know. For a game going back to the open world theme, Beenox should have had more of situations like this. Hell, they even open big with a nice boss fight as your first encounter.

If you are a person that needs to collect everything in a game, well The Amazing Spider-Man has a ton. 700 comic book pages are scattered throughout Manhattan and it seems like every ten seconds, I was running into one. The more you collect, the more comic books you can unlock to peruse in the extras menu option. Most of them pertain to material Beenox used for characters and settings in the game. You also can’t be Spider-Man without Peter Parker taking pictures. Finding Oscorp logos helps you to unlock new costumes for Spider-Man that you can wear during the game. I was okay with the default suit so I never felt the need to go hunting for those logos and the new skins don’t add anything to the gameplay.

Side-quests are back as well but felt unnecessary in order to complete the game. If you just want to breeze through the main story, you can. You won’t upgrade your abilities to the maximum but that’s alright. The upgrades you get for your abilities in the easy to use ‘OsPhone’ menus are enough to get you through on normal difficulty. After the game’s credits roll, you are thrown back into the game to clean up all of the petty crime and investigations that you didn’t do earlier so it is nice to be able to return to clean up Manhattan. Or you can be like me and just spend time swinging in the sunset, since the selection of what time of day you want is available before leaving your apartment. There’s nothing like swinging through the game’s bloom lighting effect.

Being an epilogue for the film helped the game avoid the major trappings for the most part. Repeat voice dialogue, a monotonous story and too much indoor scenarios reared its ugly head though and bogs down what could have been a fuller experience. With the open world back, fluid combat and some great set pieces, most of that can be overlooked. In the end, especially if you’re a Spidey fan, The Amazing Spider-Man is a fantastic time. Hmm. The Fantastic Spider-Man… has a nice ring to it. I’ll have to see what Stan Lee thinks…

Over 1 Million Pre-Orders for Pokemon Black & White 2 In Japan. Surprise?

by MoreLikeAndy

It really shouldn’t be a surprise as to the popularity of Pokemon anywhere in the world. The series has held up between generations of gamers ever since Pokemon video games were made.

Andriasang is reporting that as of June 17th, 1.16 million pre-orders for Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 were taken from clamoring fans and parents of those fans. The previous Black and White games had pre-order numbers over 1 million as well. Now please, please give us a Pokemon game using the Skylanders technology.

Geekscape Games: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Looks Like ‘Arkham City’

by Shawn Madden

‘Arkham Asylum’ and ‘Arkham City’ are games praised by both video game and comic fans alike and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ definitely seems to have taken some ideas from it. And I am saying this in a completely positive way. I’ve been posting numerous updates about this game over the past few weeks and this new developers diary focuses on the stealth and combat in the game and it looks great. It definitely looks like we will be getting quite a few different styles of gameplay throughout the game.

It also appears a new skin for Spidey has been added to the game and if you know my love of this character you will know that I was pretty psyched seeing this…

SCARLET SPIDER!

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend – 6/22/2012

by MoreLikeAndy

I wasn’t satisfied with starting one new feature this week at Geekscape. So to keep myself busier than I should be, I created ‘Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend.’

Essentially, this will be a weekly feature that will contain games that I am going to play every weekend. What I want to try to do with this feature is to not only show you some games you might be missing out on, I also want to get our community (THAT’S YOU) involved. It would be nice to see what everyone is currently playing. Hopefully, this will spark conversation among us.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Demo

After last night’s Nintendo Direct announced that Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance demo was live on the eShop, I finally thought I would dip into the world since my initial try with the first Kingdom Hearts left me motion sick. I am not sure if I’m going to be lost in the story since I have no knowledge of the universe. Only one way to find out.

Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

I mentioned this wonderful pinball add-on  earlier in the week for Pinball FX2 (Marvel Pinball on PSN) and I need to play more of this. Although I am not a trophy/achievement hunter, something about Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles makes me want to get them all. That, and I want to get the highest score possible so I pose a challenge to anyone on my PSN friends list.

Pocket Planes

Finally getting over my slight addiction to Tiny Tower last year, NimbleBit decide to introduce a new addiction. Everyone I follow on Twitter is buzzing about Pocket Planes and from what I gathered, this is Tiny Tower with planes. I wonder if I can buy John McClane in-game to be my airport security chief?

I might try to fit some GAMER and Diablo III time in just to see what kind of adjustments went into the OSX version of the game. That’s what I’m gaming for the weekend. What about you?

Anyone Still Have Their Annie’s Secret Circle Decoder Ring?

by MoreLikeAndy

A new image from the Spy vs Spy game Robot & Pencils is working on arrived in my inbox today.

It seems like there is some sort of code at the bottom of the image and since I don’t drink Ovaltine, I never got my secret decoder ring. Maybe someone in the Geekscape community can figure out the coded message?

UPDATE: Looks like Geekscape community member Shu solved the riddle. It reads:

WHITE AND BLACK SPIES RESURFACE -(STOP)- IPAD -(STOP)- IPHONE -(STOP)- IPOD TOUCH -(STOP)- ONLINE TWO PLAYERS -(STOP)- THIS SUMMER -(STOP)- THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN FIVE SECONDS -(STOP)

Thanks Shu!

Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi Releases iOS Surfing Game

by Shane O'Hare

Video game legend, Hironobu Sakaguchi is announcing his next game to be released from his Mistwalker studios. PARTY WAVE, on iOS devices!

The game features two modes. A “paddling” mode and a “Party Wave” mode. The first one puts players in a top down view where they control their surfer past obstacles in order to get to the perfect spot to catch the wave.

Anyone who remembers T&C Surf Design on the NES should automatically be stoked, especially with the Party Wave portion of gameplay.

Party Wave is slated to be released on the Apple App Store sometime Mid July

Vita Sales Double With the Release of Persona 4: The Golden in Japan

by MoreLikeAndy

When will companies learn. You can’t have a great handheld gaming system without great games. When there are games to actually play at a regular interval on your portable system, people are happy. When people are happy, they spend money on your products.

Case in point, according to Andriasang.com, the PS Vita more than doubled its sales from 13,383 to 34,549 in one week. All this because Persona 4: The Golden was released. Of course, this is in Japan but you can see that if games come out regularly and are good, people will buy your products. Although Gravity Rush came out this month, it almost feels like the US has to wait too long in between releases to really feel like the PS Vita was worth buying at launch. Let’s hope the Fall gaming season has a lot more to offer for the poor PS Vita so I can stop using it mainly as my Twitter feed/Netflix machine.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Resonance’

by MoreLikeAndy

With the success of Telltale Games has had with The Walking Dead game, a lot of people could point at the demise of the traditional way point and click adventure games are made. Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games would like to point out with their latest game, Resonance, there is still some life left in the traditional ways.

Point and click adventure games are all about the story. The better it is, the more you want to continue to the end to see the story through. Resonance does an amazing job with the sci-fi/conspiracy theory story in that if this was fleshed out more and put out as a book, it would have done very well for itself. Since I don’t want to ruin the story, thus the game itself, I will be as brief as possible. Resonance’s story revolves around a breakthrough a scientist and his research assistant on a project they are both working on. What follows is a series of events that eventually brings 4 people together to solve all the mystery behind “Resonance.”

The way Xii Games introduces you to the 4 main characters is stunning. After the opening scene, you get a grid of 4 different panels with different pictures that all have timepieces in them. All of the timepieces have different times on them. You have the option of choosing any 1 of the 3 panels since one of them is the opening scene. Once all the panels are completed, I was delighted to see why Xii Games put that grid panel in the beginning. Delaying the title screen for your game is always a pleasure to see if done right.

Of course with a good story and presentation, you need some good voice actors to make the words and the world around those words come alive. All of the voice work was pretty good. There were times when the audio seemed to spike yet it happens very little that some might not even notice it. Anyone who has played Bastion will immediately notice Detective Winston Bennet. He is voiced by the “Narrator” himself, Logan Cunningham. Thankfully, the lines in the story that the Detective has seem a perfect fit for Logan.

At first glance, you would think that you could treat Resonance like any other old-school point and click adventure game. You will find out very quickly how wrong you are. Putting a twist on the formula, Resonance has a Long Term Memory (LTM) and Short Term Memory (STM). LTM is a consistent summary of the story as the player makes it through the story. I look at it as a log file of what I have done already and to help me remember important things that may or may not help me solve puzzles. STM is more limited in you can only have up to 5 things in your STM. These things can be anything you can interact with from any location. Anything you add after the 5th thing to your STM, the last thing added before that will drop off.

So what does this all mean? It means these memories will be essential to solving a lot of the puzzles you will encounter in Resonance. Clicking on everything to brute force the solution to the puzzle will not serve you well this time around. Using LTM and STM along the traditional point and click adventure tropes was a little daunting at first. There were a couple of puzzles that took me 30 minutes to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. My conditioning to the old methods of point and click adventure games made me have a lapse in memory, thus forgetting that STM’s and LTM’s could be used as items and presented to other characters during the conversations trees. It will take a little to get used to so don’t worry too much at the beginning when you start learning the new mechanics Resonance throws your way.

The UI was one sticking point I had issues with Resonance. Having to click and hold while dragging items out of my inventory to use was very annoying. It made me feel like I had to work harder than anyone should using inventory items in point and click adventure game. Switching between characters also felt slow and cumbersome. The process during certain moments in the game was a lesson in patience for me. At the risk of being nit-picky, I wish there was more screen resolution sizes. Maxing out at 1280×920 made Resonance look a little hazy on my 24 inch monitor. Setting the game to run in window mode fixed the hazy problem but introduced new problems of me clicking off the screen and onto my desktop. Making these changes has to be done outside the game since that is the limitation of the engine Resonance is running on which is not that big of a deal for most people. So don’t be frightened when you don’t see an options choice in the main menu.

While other companies try to reinvent the point and click genre by making it more action oriented, some of the charm that makes a point and click game can be lost. With what Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games did with Resonance, it shows you that there is still innovation left in the traditional way of making point and click adventure games. With only a few minor issues, the story, writing and interesting new mechanics make Resonance worth playing for anyone looking for a great adventure game.

My Wife Loves Bill Nighy! The “Geekscapepod” For June 15th, 2012!

by Jonathan

My wife Laura joins me on this episode to talk about the difference between the Resident Evil and Underworld films, talk fictitious characters we’d like to bang and George W Bush’s cameo in Game of Thrones. I also review Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lego Batman 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man on 3DS and Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles gets delayed! Finally Disney might be bringing Marvel to theme parks and we both pretend we’re eating at the late 90s Marvel restaurant… that really existed! Eat up!

Subscribe to the show on iTunes!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:44 — 16.5MB)

‘Splinter Cell’ Coming Soon To A Theater Near You?

by Scott Alminiana

Deadline is reporting that Ubisoft is engaged in discussions with studios to bring Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell to the big screen. First it was Warner Bros. that was in talks with Ubisoft, but now it would seem that Paramount is the front runner for the project.

Paramount seems like a natural fit for the Tom Clancy endorsed game due to the studio having previously adapted his books (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and Sum of All Fears) into films. The studio is currently in the process of rebooting the Jack Ryan franchise with Chris Pine and Thor director Kenneth Branagh attached to direct.

I’d like to see a movie version of Splinter Cell work but movies based on video games have a bad track record in Hollywood. Has there ever truely been a decent video game movie made? I thought Mortal Kombat was the best thing ever when I was a kid, but I was 11 and had terrible taste.

So what do you think, would you see a Splinter Cell movie? Who do you think would make a good Sam Fisher?

Geekscape Games Reviews Elgato’s ‘Game Capture HD’

by MoreLikeAndy

I am all about recording my gameplay. Since I review games, this helps to get screenshots as well as looking at a section of the game to help me describe something that sticks out while playing. For awhile now, I’ve been using a non-HD device and although it works for the price, the quality is not as sharp as it should be to use for my reviews. There aren’t many devices that do HD recording for consoles, especially using HDMI. Elgato kicks in the door with a $200 answer, the Game Capture HD.

With the vast array of consoles hooked up at my desk, one can imagine the snakes nest of wires going everywhere. Being the size of a portable hard drive and having only 4 ports, the Game Capture HD is easy for people with very little room for more devices in their gaming area. One of the things that I don’t like about other HD capture devices is all the wires coming out of them. It may seem trivial but when you actually have one of these devices with component cables coming out of both ends, it ends up being a mess of wires everywhere.

Simplicity seems to be the goal when Elgato came up with the design of the Game Capture HD. HDMI in, HDMI out and usb cable to the computer and you are done. There are extra cables included for the Game Capture HD since the PS3 cannot do anything over HDMI without HDCP (insert). What you might think is an s-video in port  is actually where you plug the special cable made for the PS3. There is also a component cable for that port to use for any other devices that don’t have HDMI, you know, just in case you want to record some of that awesome Wii gaming goodness.

Excited to test the Game Capture HD, I hooked up the Xbox 360 first.

 

 

Using the default settings of the software, that video of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks pretty good at 720p. I tried out 1080p for another video but I didn’t notice the quality being all the much better so sticking with the default settings should suit the majority of people. If you want to change the settings, the ease of use will make things quick for you to do so. Changing the quality of the recording is as simple as moving the slider. The only thing I notice with the quality slider is what bitrate the video is recorded in. Nothing changes the audio though. That stays at 224 kbps ACC. Video is also static to one format, h.264.

Since I am not familiar with editing video, I asked Geekscape’s Head Geek Jonathan London about h.264 (mp4, m4v) and editing that file type since he does this for a living. In his words:

On a Mac, you want to be editing an MOV file. Neither of those files you listed are ideal and would need to be converted to be cut in FCP or Avid and Premiere.

This is for the Mac users, of course. Yes, Game Capture HD actually works natively on Windows and OSX. Elgato lists that the software works only in Windows 7 and OSX 10.7 though I never got the chance to test to see if older OS’s would work so people with older OS’s should be wary. On the Windows side of things, the raw format saves in .TS where as on the OSX side it saves in either .mp4 or .m4v. Simplicity of design also carries over to the software for the Game Capture HD. Those looking to do some basic editing and effects will feel a little left out. The only things possible when editing is cutting clips out of your recorded video. I don’t really see this as an issue since iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are ok in a pinch, and free for that matter.

The Game Capture HD software makes it simple to upload and share your videos with the handy assortment of buttons in the bottom corner. Using either Facebook or Youtube to host your video, you can share with all your friends on Twitter, Facebook, email or just save the original file to your videos folder. Other options are OS specific. With OSX, you get the options of ProRes and iMovie. Windows 7 users get Movie Maker.

What I think is a big deal and separates the Game Capture HD from the competition is the ‘timeshift’ feature. In a nutshell, the Game Capture HD is a mini Tivo. From the moment you turn on the software and hook up the device, the counter starts. At first I thought the buffer for how long it will let you rewind was in the device itself. Turns out, it uses the hard drive the device is hooked into as the buffer. Essentially, the buffer can be as long as you want it to be, so long as you have the hard drive space.

Once you pick a spot to start your recording, the temporary buffer file on the hard drive stops and anything before the point of recording is gone. I went 2 hours before hitting record and the buffer file size got to 4.4GB’s in size. Very helpful to know that you can play until you want to record. Saves you time and hard drive space.

Not satisfied with just testing out the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, I tried using the Game Capture HD on my PC. My XFX 5770 video card has a full HDMI-out port on it so I figured it would work. I was right. For people that like to record their gameplay on PC but don’t want to use software like Fraps will enjoy using the Game Capture HD. Well, that is if you have another PC or laptop to record on. I did notice some frame rate issues on the PC that wasn’t recording but I imagine that was due to the resolution I had set on my 32 inch LCD TV that doubles for one of my PC monitors.

I am new to streaming video live from a console so I am not sure how most people do it these days. The Game Capture HD is not recognized by the streaming software I tried as a video device so I ended up using Xsplit (free version) to capture the live preview screen of the Game Capture HD software. Not the best way to do so but from the test I ran doing this, it was clear and stutter-free.

With how little of a footprint the Game Capture HD has with its size and usage of few cables, I can say that anyone willing to spend money on an HD capture device for pretty much anything that can use non-HDCP HDMI as an output will feel great about the purchase. I see some having issues with the barebones software that only lets you cut and clip your videos. Could be Elgato wants people to use their own video editor of choice. Still would be nice to do everything in one software suite instead of moving around 2 or 3 different ones. With the Game Capture HD, Elgato just threw down the mic to all competition. Time to step your game up, fellas.

E3 2012 – Geekscape Games Plays Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed!

by Josh Jackson

A few years ago when Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing was released, what I had first blown off as a Mario Kart knock off ended up being way more entertainng than I could have ever expected. The game found a great balance of solid racing mixed in with sprinkles of nostalgia for fans whether you were on board for the Sega Master System or the Dreamcast. So when a sequel was announced, I wanted nothing more than to hit the track with some of my favorite Sega mascots, but damn was I surprised at who showed up to the races this time around.

Transformed is looking to take the Sega nostalgia act even farther with stages inspired by such forgotten classics as Golden Axe and the Panzer Dragoon series, each with a distinctive layout that is sure to please longtime fans. When it comes to the characters, while your usual Sonic suspects were all here, (including Tails, Dr. Eggman, Knuckles and Amy,) it’s who was new to the races that caught my eye. So far, Gilius, (the dwarf from Golden Axe,) Joe Musashi of Shinobi fame, and best of all, the sky pirate Vyse from Skies of Arcadia have been revealed. What other surprises can we expect? Unfortunately, Sega wasn’t ready to give more details at the time, but let’s just say Shenmue characters will be in if they expect to earn the fanboy sale.

But new characters and stages aren’t all that Transformed offers. As the title suggests, it’s not just kart racing anymore! Vehicles transform to planes, hovercrats and back again, and while this is far from an original idea, (Mario Kart 7 and Diddy Kong Racing already did it,) unlike the games this one borrows from, these sections feel like lengthy, meaningful additions to the course. Another interesting addition that I’m all for is the need to build up a star meter to unleash each racer’s All-Star ability.

See, the original followed the familiar formula of granting last place the best weapons, which almost always included these character specific attacks. This time around, players must earn it by pulling off stunts and racing well overall. So if you’re sick of crap like blue shells or Super Sonic coming from behind and stealing your lead, higher ranked players will have a fighting chance. So what are these abilities this time? Sadly, they weren’t in the E3 build. At least not yet.

So it seems like the development team at Sumo isn’t satisfied with keeping the same formula and decided to shake it up. I for one am excited to see what other surprises this game has in store for a Sega Genesis fan like myself, but we’ll have to wait until the fall to find out what those are.

Ubisoft Following the Footsteps of Naughty Dog With Use of Motion Capture, Voice Acting

by MoreLikeAndy

Naughty Dog nailed it on the head with their Uncharted series with how well the reactions to what the characters are doing on screen matched up. When making video games, the voice acting is done separate from the motion capture. This can create that disconnect from what the character on screen is doing and how the voice actor reacts to it. Having someone do the voice acting and motion capture at the same time is a huge undertaking and why most studios don’t do it.

With Far Cry 3, Ubisoft seems to get the definition of insanity and is doing things differently by using the same actors for both voice and motion capture. The folks over at CVG did an interview with the actor who plays Vaas, who seems to be the main villain in Far Cry 3. I was hoping for someone that was crazed out of their mind but Michael Mando seems like a genuinely sweet guy. I like that Ubisoft wanted Mando to go even further and over the top with the character Vaas. Everyone loves an on the edge psychotic bad guy. Can’t wait to get my hands on Far Cry 3 on September 4th, 2012.

E3 2012 – Geekscape Games Plays SiNG!

by Josh Jackson

Amid the many games to play at the E3 show floor, there was one section of the floor that intrigued me. At the corner of the Nintendo booth, there was a small living room set up with a group of people having the time of their life in it. In a convention full of people who seemed to either hate their jobs or were too concerned with nabbing free stuff to actually take the experience in, actually watching people having fun was a change of pace. As they say, (and by they I mean me,) a party’s not a party until I’m there, so I walked into the SiNG demo booth for WiiU and tried my hand at being the next singing sensation.

Since this was an early build of the recently announced title, there were only a handful of songs to choose from. Of course, there’s only really one choice when Call Me Maybe is on the list, so to show how hip I am with the music the kids listen to these days, destiny decided that would be the song that my voice would lead a room full of Japanese businessmen into a giant dance routine.

The lyrics appeared on the game pad while the screen featured a dancer showing my backup what to do. When the lyrics flashed yellow during the chorus, it meant it was time for the whole room to join in and sing along! It was a simple set up, especially because we were playing in Party Mode, which doesn’t score you and just focused on having fun with the song. It’s a unique way to free up the TV so multiple play styles can converge into one, but while the details behind the game say that there will be a scored singing mode featuring unlimited players for dancing, I hope that’s not PR speak meaning that dancing won’t be scored at all.

Regardless, even though I was surrounded with highly produced, multi million dollar blockbuster games, SiNG with its simplicity was some of the most fun I had all show! I’m looking forward to how the game will develop as it advances, so you can count on a follow up as more details become available.

http://youtu.be/HV93svATZgs

E3 2012 – Geekscape Games Plays Pikmin 3!

by Josh Jackson

I along with pretty much every gamer here at Geekscape backflipped in excitement over the announcement of Pikmin 3. Partially because Pikmin has become a beloved member of the Nintendo household, with two fantastic games from years past, and partially so we won’t have to listen to Jonathan beg for it for another year. But as soon as I hit Nintendo’s booth, I had one priority, which was to see if this long awaited title still had it.

If you happened to catch the E3 reveal, the biggest addition to the game revealed so far is the inclusion of rock Pikmin. These guys can destroy enemy armor as well as crystalized walls that block your team of astronauts from advancing. Rather than collecting set items like before, the Pikmin were tasked with bringing various fruits back to the ship, each one worth a different value of money. Everything from cherries, strawberries and… enemy corpses (?) awarded me more money. Money that I had no idea what to do with, but I’m guessing that will be revealed in time.

One interesting thing was that there were no pods that grew new Pikmin for your team. All of the ones in the demo were already plucked and were just waiting to be found. When the enemies gave me money instead of seeds, I was wondering if we would still get to grow Pikmin at all. Unfortunately, that information wasn’t available yet, (i.e… the demonstrator didn’t know,) so I’ll just hope there will be a better way of expanding other than just coming across them.

Using the game pad as a map proved to be a big help as well, giving you a view of where each fruit was located and allowing you to plan a proper attack. After the stage was over, I had the ability to watch my playback to see where weaknesses in my paths were and try to find how to gather more in less time if I decided to play again.

So essentially, Pikmin 3 felt very familiar, which isn’t a bad thing when you’re as good as Pikmin. With improved graphics and mechanics that make the world feel more real, (like with your characters actually needing supplies to build,) on top of the addition of the Game Pad and motion controls to make playing more efficient, it’s looking like Pikmin 3 just might be worth the wait.

E3 2012 – Geekscape Games Plays Rayman Legends!

by Josh Jackson

Rayman Origins took platforming fans like myself by surprise last year. Finally reclaiming the spotlight and stepping out of the shadow of the party loving Rabbids, Rayman returned to true form by providing possibly the greatest 2D platform experience ever. Not wanting to settle for just being the best, it looks like Ubisoft is taking steps to make sure that Rayman Legends lives up to its name by raising the bar on the classic genre once again.

The WiiU demo on the show floor featured Rayman being controlled by the Classic Controller and his friend Murfy on the Game Pad, people who played Origins will feel right at home. Many of Rayman’s abilities like wall running, swinging and floating have returned with new levels to challenge your platforming grit. The biggest change comes from the graphics, so while many of the animations are the same, the characters are now rendered in 3D, which helps when launching the characters or attacks into the background. Taking out dragons from far away is a sight to behold!

But it’s Murfy that truly brings the new feeling to the game. Unlike Tingle in Wind Waker or playing as the almighty cursor in Mario Galaxy, Game Pad users will guide their character through obstacles in the level. Is there a rope that needs to be cut, bridge that needs lowering or maze that needs tilting? Leave it to Murfy! The tilt control had just the right amount of responsiveness when it came to delicately guiding Rayman out of harm’s way, and really made the Game Pad user feel like an important part of the experience.

I’m looking forward to a whole new set of worlds to tackle with such solid game play. With the trademark humor coming back as well, (musical platforming featuring rocking grannies?) I can’t wait to get a proper 5 player game going. Rayman Legends is shaping up to be even more worthy of your money than Legends was, so when the WiiU finally launches, I know what will be on my must buy list.

E3 2012 – Geekscape Games Plays Lollipop Chainsaw!

by Josh Jackson

When I think of batshit crazy games, I think of Suda 51, the madman behind such titles as Killer 7 and No More Heroes. When news arose that the designer was working on a new zombie hack and slash starring a cheerleader who bashed heads in while rainbows flew out of their bodies, why wouldn’t I want to play it?

Over at Warner Bros. Interactive’s booth, LolliPop Chainsaw was on display in all its glory. Traveling through the high school where the zombie outbreak starts off, controlling the smooth moving Juliet was a breeze. Divided between dodging, weaker pom pom attacks and stronger chainsaw attacks, combining these attacks were keys to taking out as many zombies as possible.

So far, the game wasn’t all just button mashing away until you win. Lining up stunned enemies and chopping them down with a single attack results in multi kill bonuses that earns more money for upgrades. While they weren’t in the demo, different enemy types and bosses are promising to be abound when the game releases on June 12th.

On top of hidden bonus zombies, unlockable costumes and combat that expands as you play, the final version of Lollipop Chainsaw is looking to be one of Suda’s best efforts yet. Enjoy these screenshots and look back for a full review later this week.

 

E3 2012 – Geekscape Plays Project P-100!

by Josh Jackson

Nintendo’s E3 showing undoubtedly received a mix reaction, but there was one thing that was unanimous; a new title from Platinum Games was a reason to lose your mind. Tentatively titles Project P-100, the developer is definitely showing its Clover roots, with a unique play style to match artwork that looks like a certain Viewtiful hero. But once the game started up, it was something truly special.

Playing as a small super hero, this brave little soldier must fight off hoards of evil robots attacking the colorful town in the demo. He’s not very strong on his own however, so what’s one to do when getting slapped around by killer robots? In P-100, you’ll enlist help from various heroes scattered throughout the town. Like a more action packed Pikmin, gathering a group of heroes gives players the ability to create weapons with them. By drawing on the WiiU Game Pad, your army can morph into a giant fist, a sword that reaches the heavens, a giant pistol or even bridges! Using these powers need batteries though, so when you’re running low, rushing into the enemies with a mighty battle cry will recharge them quickly.

Did I mention the boss fight in the demo was huge? Fighting on top of a giant mech that acted as both an obstacle course and an all out battle was a hell of a lot of fun. All while it was towering over the city below. If these are the heights the game hopes to reach in just the demo, I can only imagine what the final product will be.

Platinum is known for its creativity, and P-100 is looking to be no exception. While it may not have received as much attention as your Mario and Pikmin titles, this game is looking like it could be THE reason to own a WiiU when it’s released. And as always, when more information becomes available, make sure to check back here for the latest updates.

“Prometheus” Has Landed! The “Geekscapepod” For June 11th, 2012!

by Jonathan

Prometheus is finally here! But was it all that we’d hoped? I check out the mech simulator game Hawken and have a blast doing it! Predator is now 25 years old! Geekscape casts the JLA movie! And I am experience serious AvX fatigue! Stop it with these crossovers already!

Find it on iTunes

And check out Matt’s positive review and Scott’s negative one!

Who do you agree with here?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:29 — 11.9MB)