28 Mar 2010

WHAM!

KAPOW! ZORK! KERSMAF! BAJOINKL! AND SUCH LIKE!


Comic cliches. Cause they never get old.


Haven't blogged for a while. Not sure why. Been trying to think of something to write about. Uh-oh, that's a direct quote from XKCD. But I've been doing this for a year, I'm much cooler.

But it's a good start to a blog post about comics, since I've been reading a few of them recently.

I recently downloaded an iPod app called Comics X (or X Comics, I'm not sure), and it's got a ton of free comics available to download. I've been sampling a few, and a few were pretty good (Atomic Robo, Hunter Killer, Elephantmen, Wanted) but one that really caught my attention was Chew. In fact it caught my attention so much, I bought all of the comics in the volume.

Chew follows cop-turned-FDA agent Tony Chu, who is cibopathic (fantastic word) meaning he can take a bite out of anything and get a psychic impression of its history. Of course, this means lunch time can be a bit of a struggle, but it also mean that he is a brilliant detective after a slight round of cannibalism. The comic features some fantastic dark humour, as well as brilliant realised characters, all of which are expertly drawn. For more info on Chew, check out the official blog here.

So, until next time, I'll be doing... something... else. I don't know what. Biology probably.

See y'all on my next blog post!

19 Mar 2010

Birthday Cake Joke

Although the 19th of March might not seem a big deal, it does represent a rather momentous occasion for me. One year ago today, I finally got around to setting up the blog I'd been thinking about doing for a while, and I made that first post about fishing in "Twilight Princess". A hell of a lot has changed since then. I changed the name and layout of the blog, changed consoles in July, became a semi-serious journalist, and went to university. And so, in lieu of any actual gaming updates, I'm gonna talk about my most anticipated games for this year.

And you are going to listen.

Fable 3; Can't wait to start making swords out of dragons teeth or guns out of fog or whatever. I really hope that this doesn't get delayed, cause then I'll have to set fire to something/one. I'm also gonna have to increase my GamerScore if I want really awesome weaponry.

Enslaved; might not have heard of this but it's a new action adventure from Ninja Theory, based on Monkey; Journey to the West. In future New York. And there are robots. So you know, that's cool.

Just Cause 2; I'm aware this comes out very soon, but I won't be able to play it for a while due to uni. Flying round a tropical paradise with parachuting and Spiderman-style sling shooting. And awesome cars.

HD Monkey Island 2; Cannot come soon enough.

Star Wars; The Old Republic; Although I'll probably never play it cause it's on PC and subscription, I'd love to have a go at a free trial, cause this game looks awesome. Smuggler or Bounty Hunter?

Fallout New Vegas; Might not be out this year cause of potential delays, but considering how much I loved Fallout 3, I know I'm gonna love this new iteration. Mainly because there will probably an awesome fedora hat in there somewhere.

Mass Effect 2; Although it came out earlier this year, I still have yet to play it, mainly because I haven't to finish the original. I don't want to start the game without a saved ME1 Shepard to use. Looking forward to more space opera fun. IN SPACE.

L.A. Noire; Film Noir style detective stories have always interested me so I'm really looking forward to this open world crime solving action adventure from Rockstar. And more fedora hats.

SMG2; The original is pure platforming elegance, so surely the sequel will be more of the same. It'll give me something to play over the summer on the Wii, which is good. I should really finish my second playthrough with Luigi at some point...

Half Life 2; Episode 3; Yeah, right.

You know, I never did get that Frog lure. Hm.

10 Mar 2010

Singing the News

COMING TO YOU LIV- Sorry that's too loud.

Coming to you live, across the globe, report from nowhere near the front-line, this is...

The Starting Village News Network!

Last week, Portal 2 was revealed in a flurry of updates, ARG hints, radio transmissions and ASCII art (god, I hate ASCII art). It seemed odd since the whole ARG set up looked like it was going to unfold over time, slowly revealing the game bit by bit, but I guess that got kicked in the head somewhere along the way. Probably when people hammered through the radio transmission in super-quick time. Perhaps the ARG will carry on, even after the game is released.
I read the scans of the GameInformer article, and the game looks very different, but also very interesting. I've made my feelings about Portal clear, but one of my major gripes was that I didn't feel the game was long enough. The fact that this new game is full length speaks to me as I feel I would enjoy a longer game. There's also the co-op play, which could turn out to be fun. Only time will tell I suppose.


Although this is only rumour and speculation at the moment, Kotaku informs me that a Monkey Island 2; LeChuck's Revenge remake could be in the works. This is major news for me, as I adored this game as a child. It had so many fantastic puzzles and vibrant characters, and as I said previously, it's an infinitely better game than its precursor.
I remember reading... something a few months back saying that the developers were not too keen on doing MI2, but since the last one sold so well, perhaps they were persuaded. So now MI2:LR:SE is going straight to the top of my "Most Anticipated of 2010" list, slightly ahead of Fable 3 and Enslaved. Although I insist on calling it Super Moneky Island 2 Turbo HD Remix.

ROLL ON GDC Y'ALL!

7 Mar 2010

Plants of Mass Destruction

So, as February levels up into March, I peek my head out of the trenches and survey the battlefield that is gaming.

Unnecessary metaphors aside, I've been playing two games recently. Both of them quite heavily feature plants. Let's go!

Eufloria is an indie game by two developers, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May, and is a sort of exploration/RTS hybrid. It's very much as describe on it's site, an ambient game. The goal is to send your seedlings to other asteroids and plant them, so that they can create new seedlings. You encounter opposition in the form of rival seedlings and have to fight them off using defensive trees and the seedlings themselves. One rather cool feature is the ability to zoom in and out of the battlefield using the scroll wheel. From far away, you can view all of your asteroids, with dots representing your seedlings, but you can zoom right down to the level where you can see all of your seedlings firing at the enemy. It's a neat feature.

Plants Vs. Zombies... It feels weird typing this, since originally I was not a big fan of the whole concept of tower defence where your towers can be destroyed by the enemy. But PvZ has really grown on me. It's a fun game with a fair amount of longevity, since you can replay the adventure mode again with a slightly harder difficulty level. The games sense of humour is fantastic, and the final boss fight in the adventure mode is a good laugh. The achievements give the game a real sense of depth and give you something to aim for.
I take it all back, Plants Vs. Zombies. You're alright.

I started this post on Wednesday evening. So much has happened in terms of gaming since then. Grr.

See y'all in the garden!