Have you ever wondered what would happen if Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Bruce Lee and Liam Neeson did battle in a giant battle royale of action movie superstars? I’m sure a drunken conversation has resulted in a battle between movie heroes but nobody’s really gone beyond the argument over pints.
The Showdown Effect, a new game from Magicka devs Arrowhead Studios, tries to answer the question of which action star would win if placed in a battle to the death. If Super Smash Bros. dropped the more family oriented direction for the comically clichéd action ripped out of 80s and 90s action movies, it would be The Showdown Effect.
For the second time in as many weeks, another GoW game was released. However, this isn’t a new God of War but a new Gears of War. Judgment is a prequel in the lore of the Gears of War story. This one doesn’t focus on the exploits of chainsaw-wielding, steroid-using hero Marcus Fenix but Damon Baird who was a secondary character in the previous trilogy of games.
Were the critics tired of another game in another franchise that might just be getting milked to death or was something special done with the 4th (Microsoft) GoW game? Read the rest of this entry
Hotline Miami was one of the surprise hits of gaming in 2012. It might have been because of the gratuitous violence but it was more than likely because of how fun and challenging the gameplay was.
Well, the gratuitous violence was recreated in this fan film by a group of high school students. I doubt it would go over well with their teachers but the Hotline Miami Facebook page sure liked it.
The RTS world begins and ends with Blizzard’s StarCraft series. People love it so much that I don’t recall much in the way of complaining when Blizzard said that StarCraft II would come out in three parts focused on each of the three species in the game. It launched with Wings of Liberty in 2010. Last week, the first expansion pack for SC2 was launched. Did the critics think Heart of the Swarm lived up to the franchise?
I didn’t want to turn this week into Mass Effect 3 Week Part Two but we’re getting close to that. The team of Holly Conrad, a noted Commander Shepard cosplayer and costume designer, and Jessica Merizan, a community manager at BioWare and also a FemShep cosplayer, also known as Crabcat Industries, show you how to build your own soundproof booth (which, ironically, looks more professional than the booths they had at the campus radio station at my alma mater).
They also talk to Jennifer Hale and Ali Hillis, AKA FemShep and Liara from the Mass Effect trilogy (or Bastila Shan from KOTOR and Lightning from FF13), about voice acting. If you’re interested voice acting or are a huge Mass Effect fan, you probably should give this a watch.
Has Kratos worn out his welcome? God of War: Ascension is the fourth game in the God of War series for the PlayStation home consoles. The GameRankings and Metacritic scores for each of the first three games were 92 or higher. The aggregated scores for Ascension are around 80%.
Critics haven’t taken to GoW: Ascension quite like they did with the numbered GoW trilogy but does that mean that this is a bad game? Read the rest of this entry
Okay, short of getting Mark Vanderloo, the actual model for BroShep, to cosplay as Commander Shepard, this is the most mind-blowing bit of Mass Effect cosplay you’ll ever see. It’s the voice of Commander Shepard, Mark Meer, cosplaying as Commander Shepard with the face of Samara and Morinth, Rana McAnear. I told you that it was pretty mind-blowing.
This is it, isn’t it? One last ride with Commander Shepard as we take on a group of well-armed and ill-intentioned bad guys in order to save the galaxy with our friends in tow. BioWare made us well aware that this was going to be the final piece of DLC released for Mass Effect 3. In effect, Citadel would be a send-off for the series that people had invested so much time and energy into over the last six years.
So how was our ride into the sunset with Commander Shepard and crew?
Yesterday, we had Austin Wintory’s detailed commentary of the music he composed for last year’s Game of the Year, Journey. Today, we’ve got more Journey music.
This time, we have violinist Taylor Davis and some intrepid cosplayers put together this two-song medley from Wintory’s Journey score. The songs in this are Apotheosis and I Was Born For This. While you might not know the songs by name, you’ll certainly recognize the sound of the music and the costumes that Davis and friends are wearing.
I very seldom mention the projects I find interesting on Kickstarter. However, I’m willing to make an exception to post this one. Rogue System is a new space sim being developed by Digits Crossed Interactive. This isn’t any normal space sim, though. Checking out the videos that DCI and boss Michael Juliano have posted show that this is the sim-iest and most intense space sim that I’ve ever seen… And okay with that. Read the rest of this entry
et geekera 