Big Hero 6 Trailer 2 is Excellent!

     I wasn't a huge fan of the Marvel Comics Big Hero 6, but the trailers for the film are outstanding.  The designs are great and the humor is top notch.  With this second trailer we get to see some of the other characters with their suits and a bit more action.

     I already like the movie and it's not even close to releasing yet.  This is going to be huge.

TMNT: Season 2 Finale: The Invasion: Review (Nickelodeon)

     Nickelodeon went and released the 2-part 2nd season finale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the official site, and it does not disappoint.

     We get a huge amount of stuff happening in this episode.  I'm going to try and avoid major spoilers here, but some minor ones might slip through.  The big part of the story is that the Kraang invasion has finally begun.  The Shredder and his clan of soldiers and mutants are out and about wreaking havoc while the Kraang are flooding the city.

Leonardo proves his worth.

     The Turtles themselves get into disagreements and end up separating at great cost.  Leonardo shows us how badass he can be and why he is the leader, Raphael shows emotion, Michelangelo shows a true sadness, and Donatello has great regrets.  Leatherhead shows up to aid Splinter (as well as another individual you'll have to see for yourself), Timothy (Mutagen Man) we learn has to be left behind in the ruined lair, but will remain frozen for 70 more years, Ice Cream Kitty has a grand moment, we finally get to see Donatello's hyped Turtle Mech, and there is a genuinely surprising revelation about recurring character Irma (April's friend)!

Mikey's Turtle Mech dreams have come true.

     This episode demonstrates the creators know what they are doing and handling this IP with great care, while at the same time maintaining a nice level of creativity.  They have pushed the boundaries in terms of character growth and story to a point that is enviable by other cartoons.  There is also what I think might be a good Triceraton reference and a blatant reference to the old 80's TMNT Party Wagon.  It has a great story to fit into the series.
     As an aside, I was really hoping Don's Turtle Mech would've actually been run by Metalhead's saved head, but alas it wasn't... yet.

High fives for Ice Cream Kitty

     The way the episode leaves off is a monstrous cliffhanger giving us a ton to look forward to in the next season.  Leatherhead is missing again, Raph hopes Spike (Slash) is ok, Splinter and the Turtles are separated, and the Turtles are forced to run and hide.  The Earth Protection Force arrives to try and fend off the Kraang invaders, which is nice because we get to see some humans outside the Turtles' sphere of influence accomplishing something.
     Essentially we are left with an Empire Strikes Back ending.  The bad guys have won, and the good guys are all down.

A Triceraton reference?  Perhaps a hint towards future episodes?

     Link to the full episode [ Nickelodeon ]

     For more of my Turtle's posts [ TMNT ]

Styx: Master of Shadows: Making of Video: Gameplay

     I've been following this game a lot lately, and today developers Cyanide Studios released a bunch of making of videos.  The only one I'll post here is the gameplay, and I'd recommend you check out their official game site linked below.

     Styx, the tiny, Amber-addicted, goblin assassin, is on his way to the source of his addiction and power- the World Tree in the Tower of Akenash.  Styx: Master of Shadows is a game that focuses on infiltration and has large vertical areas to give players opportunities to make their own paths with cunning and planning, because as the diminutive Styx, he can be easily overpowered by any of the humans and other beings you'll encounter.
     This simple premise of stealth and story has me fully anticipating a hit game.  I honestly believe this could be a very large gem hidden in a slew of recent sub-par gaming juggernauts.

     [ Styx the Game ]

Fez: Review (PS Vita)

     Fez.  What an interesting game.  To be sure, I don't want to talk about all the hubbub surrounding creator Phil Fish, I just want to talk about this gem of a game he made with Polytron Games.

     In Fez, you play as a simple being named Gomez in a neatly made 2 dimensional world.  One day he is granted an extra dose of power with a fez that imbues him the ability to move in the 3 dimensional space.  And it never feels like a gimmick of a game mechanic.  It feels necessary.  Gomez gains depth in a flat land.  Which is exactly a perfect metaphor for the game itself.

     At its core, Fez is an homage to the platforming puzzle games of yesteryear.  There are many improvements of course, such as not having a high level of frustration inducing difficulty that gaming seems to believe it thrives on.  This is a casual nod to the games we loved in the 1980's not a punishment for lacking enough skills to play it.
     There are a multitude of locations and environments.  Finding interesting ways of solving problems to traverse the platforms is never too difficult.  Although I admit I got stuck on the "Mausoleum Puzzle" in the crypt full of many doorways for quite some time.  Overall though, when you see treasure chests and the Cubes you must find to progress, there is a heartwarming sense of progression.  For completionists there is a massive amount of Cubes, and even Anti-Cubes.  There are QR codes, and hints carved into the walls of rooms as glyphs.  There are owls that can only be met at certain times and some nice people met along the way.

     The colors and sounds are all crisp and clear.  Controls are perfect, I never felt that any mistakes were due to input issues- it was my own fault.  The game is so perfectly compact it is hard to find fault in it.

     Fez is about discovery, perspective, and enjoyment.  Once you get the hang of navigating in a pseudo-third-dimension you'll long for more.  Literally turning the world to alter perceptions is a wonderful game of logic-shifting and spatial reasoning.  It's even hilarious to see how the other people around Gomez can't really understand the "Devil Squares"- the Cubes that are outside their range of perception.  They just don't have the capacity to grasp the greater symbolism.

     I, for one, found Fez to be an amazing and completely immersive experience on the PS Vita.  Fez is not just a reminder about what made retro games so fun, it's an addition of another layer of depth to truly fill out our experience.

TMNT: Into Dimension X: Episode Mini Review

     Nickelodeon has been doing a tremendous job with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show.  In this early web-release episode, "Into Dimension X," we get some really good stuff.  Simple changes are hugely meaningful in giving us a change of perspective.

     MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

     First off, we get the return of both Super Robo Mecha Force Five Team 5 (The series finale on VHS) and Leatherhead, who has been lost in Dimension X for quite some time.  Leatherhead sends a warning to the Turtles about the Kraang perfecting the mutagen and a dire need to stop whatever nefarious plans they've cooked up.  After deciding to help, Donatello and Leonardo tell Mikey that he can't come because he'll screw things up.  Mikey being the great rebel takes it upon himself to jump through the portal to save his buddy Leatherhead ahead of everyone.
     The rest of the Turtles stunned at the occurrence follow through shortly after.  Anyone else recognize a small homage to the TMNT: Turtles in Time with the portal's tunnel?  Once the Turtles make it to Dimension X and find out that no matter how cute things appear they could be deadly.  Time passes at a different rate and gravity doesn't work right either.  Nothing here is how it seems.  They eventually catch up to Mikey who is a very smart guy with all the differences between their dimensions.  He has somehow learned a huge amount of things and is a greatly capable individual.
     Being a borderline genius here he winds up taking lead and dispatching enemies with ease.  In addition to saving the day in general by thwarting the Kraang's plot- he has a few notable changes while in Dimension X.  The most visible is his helmet- he is wearing a Kraang skull for a hat.  Quite morbid, but very entertaining- I never really thought they'd have skeletons.  Then he has one of their limbs as an armband, and uses fart-noise-making worms as grappling hooks that never lose their hilarity.  In Dimension X Michelangelo is a Batman, and it is wonderful.

     As I am trying to not spoil the entire episode, I believe this is another episode that makes important changes in a way that is funny and meaningful.  One thing that has me thinking is Splinter's staff from older episodes looks an awful lot like the the giant one Leatherhead is hauling around... could there be a link?  I think there could be.
     Anyways, this "Into Dimension X" episode was a nice little jaunt into Kraang territory and I hope to see more of it in the future.

     To watch the full episode [ Nickelodeon: TMNT: Into Dimension X ]

     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

     

Deadpool Movie Finally Confirmed by 20th Century Fox!!!

This is a confirmation notice!

     It has finally happened, according to The Hollywood Reporter and 20th Century Fox (via Twitter) that everyone's favorite crazy merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool is getting his own film as a spin-off from the X-men franchise.  Ryan Reynolds is set to reprise his role as Wade Wilson (Deadpool) from the abominable 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

     This is great news to see that his internet fandom has brought new life to this movie.  Especially since the leaked test footage hit the web months ago looked like they had nailed the character without pulling any strings to make it less than R rated.  Despite the footage being years old, Reynolds' interest hasn't waned- although deals have not been finalized- things are looking good.

     Deadpool is set to hit theaters on Feb. 12, 2016, and will be directed by Tim Miller.

Styx: Master of Shadows: New Trailer: Die Harder

     Developer Cyanide Studios and publisher Focus Home Interactive's upcoming stealth game Styx: Master of Shadows debuts another homage-titled trailer today aptly called "Die Harder."  It shows off a variety of ways that Styx may be killed during the game.  Whether it be by trolls, traps, or magic guards- it's always quick.  Stabbed, shot, strangled, thrown from ledges, and crushed by giant fists.  There's plenty of ways to die if found.

     The most important thing to take away from this is if you are caught- run away!  Styx isn't strong enough to take on even a few enemies at a time.  The game does show the option to parry, but to what extent is not shown.  I believe it'll be just enough to separate yourself from the situation and back to the shadows.

     Styx: Master of Shadows will be available for in October for PS4, XBox One, and PC.

     Only Steam has an exact date (Oct. 7th) listed and a price of $29.99.
     Steam also has an exclusive 20% off pre-order bonus.

Wayward Souls Review (Android)

     To preface this review, I must say I'm relatively new to the phone gaming scene despite almost 30 years of other gaming experience.  In the last year I haven't found much in the way of games I've actually enjoyed on my phones.  In the last 6 months, however, I did find Wayward Souls.  Since it's release on the Android system it is the only game I continually return to.  Because tomorrow Rocketcat Games is releasing both an update for it, AND releasing its RPG precursor to it Mage Gauntlet I am finishing this review post.

Prologue: Paladin vs a zombie horde.

     Wayward Souls is a rogue-like semi-RPG complete with the much overused permadeath and staggering difficulty.  I haven't ever really been a fan of permadeath as I don't have days of time to waste, but Wayward Souls actually gives a little incentive to repeatedly take on the hordes of enemies.  Each of the 6 characters has their own stories for the game.  All their own dialogues and strange occurrences.  Granted 3 of the classes have to be unlocked by beating levels, but one they are, they get their own plot and it encourages players to continue to unravel the mysteries behind the story as a whole.

A lot of the tale is told through ghosts you stumble across.

     It also helps that even if you do play through, let's say, the first level and beat it with the rogue 3 times in a row you might get 3 different pieces of the rogue's sub-story in addition to the main part of it.  Like I ran into a fellow named Jepp Starcloak a couple times, but only with the rogue.  As the warrior I ran into a lady twice, and after looking up some things, I found she is one of the characters from Mage Gauntlet.  A very intriguing crossover.

Jepp Starcloak is the Zapp Brannigan of Wayward Souls.

     With each death you can level characters up.  None of the single-use forged items are saved.  You cannot keep weapons or armor found.  Only the boosted character traits carry on.  Things such as increased health or stamina regeneration that will stick with the character after you've died a few hundred times are the things that can be held and definitely become necessary in the later levels.  As a small bonus to that is the fact that the pinnacle skill boost on each individual character is a "gift" that boosts to all classes, handy incentive to level up each class.

My favorite character: a Prince of Persia-esque Spellsword.

Specialty dashes are very useful.

     The game has a lot going for it.  It's fun, highly replayable, it's got great visuals, moody music, and awesome sounds.  It is an all-around top-notch game.  There are some flaws though.  The controls can be finicky- sometimes a double tap will register as a power move and leave you vulnerable and may cost you an hours worth of your time.  Sometimes movement just stops and can lead to a quick, unfair death, something that has happened to me on numerous occasions.  As has some instant enemy hits that are completely unavoidable.  It's one thing to give players a chance to hit and run- forcing you you plan wisely, but it's another thing completely to force you to take damage just to slightly damage something.  Taking a single extra hit can cost you a lot in the long run.  This fact is exacerbated due to the difficulty, which can be can be quite divisive among players.

     The first couple levels aren't too bad, but I've been stuck on the catacombs for at least a month.  To the point where I'd like to give up.  The difficulty ramps up to absurd with a bombardment of high speed enemy swarms, lots of projectiles, and nearly invisible traps.  I've gotten 3 separate characters to the level and can barely make it to the 3rd floor.  Honestly, not everyone wants a Dark Souls type of difficulty.  Some players, myself included, would like to play through on a casual setting to enjoy the mood and atmosphere, we'd rather have a fun time finding story hidden story bits through the highly replayable nature of the game without the stressful onslaught.  When it comes down to it, some levels feel specifically designed to thwart attempts to pass by certain classes, while others are fairly well balanced.

Even the humor is well written.

     From the prologue to however far one manages to get in the game, Wayward Souls' dark fantasy is filled with lore and a ingeniously threaded story.  It has the wonderful retro 16 bit style of yesteryear hearkening back to games like The Secret of Mana and is brilliantly handled here.  Even with my qualms about the game, this is a must have, and I sincerely hope Rocketcat Games continues with pushing the bounds of phone games like this- just maybe not with the highest difficulty settings possible.


     [ Wayward Souls on Google Play ]

Destiny: Review: A One Week After Release Reflection

     It's been a week since Bungie's Destiny launched and while I am fully enjoying it, I have seen that it is very flawed as well.  For all the effort they put into making it a spectacular multiplayer game it suffers greatly in the single player area, and even greater in the story.  It is so close to the hype it gained, but not quite there.  I don't want this post to come off as just an all-out attack on the game.  Destiny has a lot of good merits, it's just lacking on a few very large things that should rightfully be addressed as the game expands its development in the future.  I'll still be enjoying multiplayer with all my friends at the cost of exploring the single player territory.

"I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."

     First off is the narrative.  The story is full of hollow characters and vague titles such as "The Guardian" or "The Traveler."  There are a whole lot of grey areas, full of grey motives- even the great divide between good and evil are essentially the archetypal Good and Evil.  But not all the way.  What all the characters lack is personality, a fact that is even more noticeable due to the overabundant cliched storytelling.  The line that the "Exo Stranger" character I screencapped all the pics of here says sums up the dialogue and story more perfectly than anything else.  She says, "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."  It truly seems like that's what the writers banked on, rushing us through hoping we wouldn't notice how shallow and generic the plot really is.  It isn't engaging enough to matter, and neither my excessive adoration of Bill Nighy nor of Peter Dinklage can make it any better.

     All these beings need more than just the simplest urges- there is no real depth- and it really drags the game down for all the non-competitive players that came in search of the grand space opera story we were hoping for.  Where are all the new takes on the old, time-worn sci fi tropes?  Destiny's sci fi epic has been stripped of any originality and it feels as if the millions they spent on the game went right passed the writers rooms.  Really, it feels an awful lot like the generic fill-in-the-blank science fiction stuff we were reading decades ago.  Destiny is too damn formulaic.
      Where'd all the promised potential go to?  It's like all those long load-time flights back and forth from the Tower are in reality just us actually traversing right on passed the vast gaps in narrative.

Strangely enough, these are my two favorite characters.

     It also seems like there is no depth in gameplay.  It's all the same throughout the entire game.  There's 3 types of weapons- main, heavy and special.  The loot here isn't anywhere near the exceptional variance I was expecting.  Everything feels nearly the same as everything else.  Rarity drops?  In all the time I've played I've found only a single blue weapon worth using. And damn near the same exact green scout rifle like 20 times.  One of my buddies has literally found the same purple scout rifle 3 times in a row. (Ok- nearly the same one- it's variables aren't noteworthy enough to make them different in play.  It isn't like the variance Borderlands 2's arsenal has.)
     Even the enemies of all races are tiered essentially the same, with damn near the same exact movements and weaknesses.  There are grunts, floaters, heavies, sub-bosses and bosses- repeat ad nauseam.
     The locations are brilliantly designed, but when each mission takes you to the same 6 places, it gets old fast.  Oh look, we're on Earth for the 71st time in the same area as all the last 70 times.  Bungie needs to add more worlds.  And why they're at it, put some damn missions on The Reef.  Seriously, two cutscenes and no action?!?  Ridiculous.  It is a waste of a locale.
     The problem with Destiny is actually in the redundancy.  The same locales, the same weapons, and roughly the same characters.  I've heard it said that Destiny is meant to be expanded, well I hope they've planned a LOT of expanding.  Of every thing they've created.  More worlds for missions to occur in, more variety in weapons, make the various races fight with different tactics, and maybe even some more characters to choose from.

     At level 16 with my Warlock I am only now starting to reap any real differential bonuses in the character.  I've noticed that there are a plethora of Hunters out and they seem to be overpowered with their wonderful arc blade ability.  All the pulse rifles are so close to each other that the differences are negligible.
     And while I'm mentioning irritations, in the single player game- it gets to be absolutely infuriating how much enemies hide.  I can look through a sniper scope from the Tower and all the Captains somehow sense it and run for cover on Venus, which is about 160 million miles away.  In multiplayer this isn't a problem, but in single player it forces you into situation where death becomes highly probably and then into replaying a lengthy battle.  It's happened to me on bosses when I got them down to a sliver of health and had to run out from cover only to be one-shotted from boss attack splash damage.  This could be avoided had they made it optional for random players to swing through and assist for the parts you actually need assistance with, but they can't.  Maybe add a loot incentive in there- because I haven't found anything worth the time investment of the hard-to-kill bosses yet.

     Really, this repetitiveness is a huge downfall.  Coming from a purely mechanical viewpoint Destiny is unparalleled.  Bungie can boast with the utmost confidence about their intuitive systems.  The combat is so perfectly done, and the visuals are absolutely amazing, so why did the story get the shaft?  It's true.  The controls are perfectly responsive, frame-rates are so crisp and clean without even the most minimal stutter, and even the menus are outstandingly designed.
     The story is the only thing keeping this from being the first "real" next gen game.  Bungie, there is still a chance to remedy this.  Make it easier for single players to enjoy.  Make matchmaking in the main game easier.  It's far too often I jump over to help a group without invites and then they're gone.  There needs to be an overlap to compensate for this divide- proximity chatting would be the most notably thing to patch and would be an immensely helpful for the situation.  Multiplayer is FUN.  With a group this game is capital letters FUN, but single player is not.  It has a completely different feel- which isn't really fun.

Is that a self-stabilizing knot of spacetime geometry in your pocket,
or are you just happy to see me?

     I won't be writing this game off by any means, I just would like to see some changes to make Destiny a game we can play for the long term.  I haven't even gotten to the horrendous stop-and-go nature of the engram loot- having to halt and drag a stash through those long load times back to the Tower just to find out it is a pile of crap.  It brings the multiplayer fun to a halt pretty quick, as does the communication issue I mentioned above.  I mean I've encountered only a singular public event in all the time I've played, and I couldn't communicate with anyone nearby to call in reinforcements- and even worse- I couldn't communicate with either of the two others actually with me because we weren't in a Fireteam together.  That is a huge hindrance to the fun we could've been having working together.

     For a game that was meant to be a sort of MMO-FPS-RPG, it is missing the mark.  Not by a whole lot.  A fair amount of small tweaks might fix this.  Maybe it was simply Bungie trying to smash together too many things, maybe not, I don't know.  All in all- I think if Bungie can alter a few very important things, Destiny still has a chance to iron out the kinks and draw us in for the long haul.  It honestly feels like we got 60% of the game, and that we may have to pay extra for the last 40%.

     Destiny still has the opportunity to become the dream game it was hyped to be.

Free Comic Giveaway! The Little Grey Splot and Over the Wall: Drawing Contest

     After Nicholas Straight's The Little Grey Splot debuted this weekend at SPX I have the wonderful privilege to have a small contest giving away 10 copies of his book.  I thought quite a while on what I was going to do and this is what I came up with.

     Contest Rules:

     Much like the interactive nature of the book I want people to make a splotch of any color you choose and then turn it into a small comic.  Turn one splotch into one comic.  Whatever you want. 

      So if you wanted you could make a blue splotch and turn it into an octopus that lost it's bubble gum dispenser.  You could make a yellow splotch and turn it into a star going on vacation.  Anything you want.  Use the above picture from the book as a rough guide, or the example below.

     Because I have no idea who is participating I would recommend children doing this as it is technically a children's book, but anyone of any age may enter.  Please keep it family friendly.  I ask that participants be fair, you may enter as many times as you like but may only win one prize.  Once your comic has been finished email the image to (joshuabarsody(at)gmail(dot)com) and then I along with Nick Straight, and if we can get him with Peter Wartman, will judge the comics.  All entries will be posted on this blog a week after the contest ends.  All entries must be in by Friday October 3 at midnight that night.  Be sure to include your name, email, and shipping address in case you win.

      There will be 9 winners of a copy of The Little Grey Splot, and the Grand Prize winner will receive 1 copy of The Little Grey Splot and 1 copy of Over the Wall.   

     If I finagle a bit and we get enough entries I might be able to get them to put personalized autographs on the books as well.