Moonlighter: 3 Days Left for the Zelda-Like Rogue-lite Kickstarter Game

     It isn't often I toss money towards Kickstarter projects, an even less often for crowd funded games that are tied to larger companies like the Square-Enix Collective, but today I spotted Moonlighter and was genuinely intrigued.  Sure, it already has well over twice the budget goal it initially asked for, but I threw some money their way anyhow, as this project looks amazing.

     As many might be able to tell, Digital Sun has drawn inspiration from the likes of Rogue Legacy, The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and the tremendous works of Studio Ghibli to create this game.  It's got some beautiful top-down adventuring and wonderful art, alongside what appears to be some great worldbuilding.

Moonlighter is an action RPG game with rogue-lite elements about Will, an adventurous shopkeeper, that secretly dreams of becoming a hero. 

To earn the daily bread, he needs to venture into the dungeons near his town, defeat strange enemies, and obtain loot to be sold at his shop. 

Wisely managing the gold from those sales is the only way he’ll get strong enough to risk into deeper gates and, maybe, open the sealed one. 

Moonlighter has endless randomly generated dungeons, a myriad of cool and expensive items, many weapons, dozens of weird enemies, five incredibly tough bosses, and gold... tons of gold! 

You start with 100 gold coins. 

Some cheap equipment. 

And a shop.

     I like the idea that Moonlighter presents and it answers the question that's always bothered me in RPG's through time, where do the shopkeepers get all their wares?  I have a feeling I won't feel so bad about spending so much gold on a sword after learning the shopkeep had to defeat a boss to obtain it.

     Moonlighter has an estimated delivery of March 2017.

     [ Digital Sun Games on Twitter ]

     Source [ Moonlighter on Kickstarter ]

Ghost of a Tale: Early Access Play Might be Available Soon-ish

     Ghost of a Tale creator Lionel "Seith" Gallat has posted an update today on the official website that if the closed beta goes well, we might be able to play an early access version of the game in "not too long" a time in the future.  It's been a long three years of development, and you can tell the game has come much farther than expected because it looks absolutely stunning.

     Ghost of a Tale is about a small minstrel mouse named Tilo on Periclave Island.  Rumors are that the island is haunted and there is a tower that holds some wonderous treasure, but there is great danger surrounding the path Tilo looks to travel.  It's up to the player to piece together what has happened on the island and find why there are undead rats roaming the land on the way to obtaining the treasure.

     I had first come across Ghost of a Tale from a Gamasutra article, and shortly thereafter from an Analog Addiction article [ EDIT: It was actually this AA Article ], and decided to periodically keep checking in on it.  With each new tidbit of information the game looks better and better.  What else would I expect from a game that takes it's inspiration from 3 of my favorite games ever- The Legend of Zelda, ICO, and Dark Souls.

     Plus, it takes an anthropomorphic approach, bringing up memories of a childhood favorite book of mine, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.  The film version was also amazing and called The Secret of NIMH.  Regardless, this is a game I'd highly recommend looking into supporting.  Seriously, it has come so, so far from the Alpha trailer 3 years ago, and the Gamescom trailer from 2 years ago.

     Official site [ Ghost of a Tale ]

Death Road to Canada: Arrives July 22nd!

     One of my favorite developers, Rocketcat Games, has finally given us a release date for their new game Death Road to Canada.  I've been hyped for this for quite a while, and especially after their ridiculous live action trailer, it's great news that in just under a month we will be slaying zombies on a trek to the great northern wilderness.

Death Road to Canada is out July 22nd! Recruit people and dogs in a procedural road trip: https://t.co/icscqjFcH3 pic.twitter.com/Ltz4Imz3EZ

— Rocketcat Games (@rocketcatgames) May 14, 2016

    Death Road to Canada will cut swathes through the undead on July 22nd.

     It will be available on Steam, PC, MAC, and Linux.
     And at a later date on iOS and "possibly other platforms."

Masters of the Universe: Kellen Lutz as He-Man

     I saw that Kellen Lutz, star of the box office turd The Legend of Hercules, has apparently been in talks to possibly play He-Man in the cinematic reboot of Masters of the Universe.  He had tweeted that he had a meeting about the film and claims it's in "GREAT HANDS!"

      *SIGH*

Flexing my acting chops is WAY harder than flexing my abs!

     This news, in combination of ties to McG, make my hopes for a proper film adaptation of this beloved 80s property quite small.  The old 1987 Dolph Lundgren version was a tremendous mess, and I still have some enjoyment of it- like Frank Langella's Skeletor and Meg Foster's Evil-Lyn.  Too bad there wasn't Tri-Klops or Stinkor...

     What I'm wondering is why they don't get people on the project that have a vision for Eternia like the awesome sculptures below by DeviantArt-ist EdgePang.

This is how to handle it.

     As it sits now, the Masters of the Universe film sounds like it's being handled as horrendously as the JEM film, which is to say it's looking like a pile of Beast Man's rotten shit.  It doesn't help that it's being written by Christopher Yost, the person responsible for the terrible Thor: The Dark World.  Seriously, not a single thing I've read about this project makes it sound even remotely decent.

     I currently hope that this Masters of the Universe film will never reach my eyes.  In "great hands" my ass- it sounds awful.  

Disney Infinity: Cancelled Spider-Gwen Figure

     So shortly after the reveal of the cancelled Doctor Strange Disney Infinity figure, we now get news and images of the cancelled Spider-Gwen as well.

     Once again, I must say this is awful because the game had so much potential that wasn't being capitalized on.  As amazing as these figures were, the in game content was severely lacking and is, at least I believe, why the sales weren't nearly as good as Disney was hoping.
     The situation could be remedied by greatly expanding the in-game content, and- to cut costs- make the figures smaller.  An even $9.99 would be considerably better than the typical $15, especially because the figures had a limited number of resets (2), and could only be used in certain play sets.  Disney Infinity was very constricted in terms of play and ridiculously limited in scope.  But the potential was there.  So much potential wasted.  I mean really, no online play?!?  That is almost a standard in every other game made, so why not here?

     A part of me hopes another company swoops in and Disney licenses the game out so we might see more Disney Infinity.  The odds are extremely slim, but at least if some group handled it like Skylanders or the LEGO Dimensions with much larger open worlds, the game would sell much better.

     We'll sadly probably never get this wonderful Spider-Gwen for our shelves or game.

     Source [ Infiniteer Adventures ]

Transformers: The Last Knight: Barricade!

     I really wasn't too surprised when it was announced Transformers would be getting a 5th film, and it's not too surprising that one of my favorites Decepticons is returning- Barricade.  He's gotten an upgrade from his last appearance in the first film in 2007.

Hey @joshduhamel, we thought your boys took care of this problem. #transformers

A photo posted by Transformers (@transformersmovie) on Jun 10, 2016 at 8:53am PDT

    Now I'm really hoping that Soundwave makes an appropriate return, but not as a damn Mercedes Benz SLS ARG as he was in Dark of the Moon.  At least he was a subterfuge and intelligence agent as a satellite in Revenge of the Fallen.  He should be doing spy work, and not be an agent of brute force.  And he definitely needs his army of smaller spybots- Laserbeak, Ravage, Buzzsaw, Ratbat, Rumble, Frenzy, Slugfest, and Overkill.

     For more of the pics check out the Transformers Movie Official Instagram page.

     Transformers: The Last Knight is set to hit theaters June 23rd, 2017.

Disney Infinity: Cancelled Doctor Strange Figure

     After hearing the awful news back in early May that Disney Infinity was stopping production, along with all of Disney Games, and seeing this new Doctor Strange figure makes it sting just a bit more.

     Infiniteer Adventures has posted a video showing not just this amazing Doctor Strange, but also concept art for Jafar, Peter Pan, and a second Hulk figure.  The main figure is based on the upcoming Doctor Strange film, and the look of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Dr. Stephen Strange.  And it is just wonderful how well they captured the look and feel of the character.

     A small part of me hopes some other company buys up the rights to somehow continue to produce these things.  But if someone does, I can only hope they focus more on the gameplay in the actual games, than the figures themselves.  That is, I believe, what really killed the sales and subsequently Disney Infinity, in the long run.  The games had no real substance, and no online play- which is a fundamental part of play in damn near every other game made.

     Currently, after hearing about the Marvel Ultimate Alliances being rated for the new consoles, and hearing that the new PS4 Spider-Man is indicative of what's to come- I'd like to guess we might be soon getting actual games that are large and fun to play.  Not a two hour campaign and 4 dinky mini-games.  The companies being licensed these games could have far more potential than the Infinity line would've- so despite my disappointment with Disney Infinity being shuttered, it might turn out to be a very huge blessing in disguise.

     And damn, does that Doctor Strange figure look awesome or what?

     Related posts [ Disney Infinity ]

     Source [ Infiniteer Adventures ] via [ Comic Book Resources ]

Titan Quest: Hits Android (Google Play) July 7th!!!

     DotEmu has revealed that Titan Quest will be hitting Android devices on July 7th!  It's been a hard wait for all of us non-iOS users.  The iOS version itself has had some issues with the UI and framerate drops, but recent patches have fixed them.

The Gods have answered our prayers... #TitanQuest #Androidhttps://t.co/JqQnAgLfWs

— DotEmu (@DotEmu) June 20, 2016

    I look forward to playing this on the go for somewhere around a thousand hours, it's been years since I last played, and I can now enjoy it all again.

Marvel Future Fight: Update: Hyperion & Doctor Strange: Quick Thoughts

     The always outstanding mobile game Marvel Future Fight just got another update with a new playable character and a bunch of new costumes.  Once again, the menus got changed, for the better, and a slew of other little alterations and such.

     What I wonder is why after their last big update teaser from two weeks ago showed Thanos and had a big Doctor Strange teaser at the end, why didn't they didn't add him?  They instead went with Hyperion of the Squadron Supreme.  More so, why go with Hyperion and not the Sentry, whose powers would offer some potentially amazing light versus dark flip-flopping with his dark alter ego the Void.  Think of how cool it would be if his 6 star power completely changed him to a dark version with different powers!  That could be absolutely amazing.

     Anyways, Strange was datamined, along with the Enchantress, a long time ago, almost a year ago if I recall correctly.  I figure they are just teasing him and withholding until around the time the film hits theaters in November.  An annoyance for sure, especially with Future Fight's blatant tease two weeks ago.

     I'm not really interested in many of the new costumes, except Yondu's, and Hyperion really isn't a character I care to play- but I have to say the game changes are holding up well.  Hopefully we'll keep getting more costumes and characters to round out the roster.  Perhaps some more of the Squadron Supreme...

     And maybe we'll get Doctor Strange sooner than November.

Gravity Rush 2: E3 2016 Trailer!

     This is a game I've been hyped for for a long time.  The first game was what sold me on the Playstation Vita and how awesome that system truly is.  Sony has pushed this to the PS4 and essentially ignores their Vita, but Gravity Rush 2 will definitely benefit from the boost in console hardware.

     What also kind of bothers me is why did they not play this during the Sony E3 Press Conference?  It seems like something that would garner a lot of welcome attention.

     Gravity Rush 2 is expected in 2016.

     For my previous related posts [ Gravity Rush ]