Friday, February 12, 2010

Will you P.B. my valentine?


2K Games just showed me a little Valentine's Day love ... oh, and promoted the release of "The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom," downloadable on Feb. 17.

Milking Green Lantern

Get those udders ready — DC is about to milk us for all we're worth.

Over the past few weeks, DC has rolled out plenty of news on new series to look out for in the coming months. Already, most of the news has assured me my wallet will be hurting very soon, but that's been mostly because everything that's spinning out of "Blackest Night" has been pretty exciting and natural stuff. None of it has felt like an over-the-top cash grab ... until now...

Check THIS LINK to DC's Source blog and read about a new Green Lantern title kicking off in a matter of months, "Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors."

Yes, that's right. Five years ago, DC was skeptical about a single GL title being able to sell, and now they're trying to make us support three. Yes, we are being milked, and punished for our love of all Geoff Johns has given us.

The lineup will be as follows: "GL: EW" with Guy Gardiner and Kilowog. "GLC" with Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Ganthet. "GL" will (presumably) still feature Hal Jordan.

Is it just me, or does this seem like it's going to end up killing both "Corps" and the newborn "Emerald Warriors?"

With apologies to Peter Tomasi, who has done a masterful job on the book, "Corps" was selling so well, predominantly, because it was the No. 2 book on the road to "Blackest Night." Now, DC is not only taking away two of "Corps" more popular characters, they're being taken away right as the "Blackest Night" momentum is ending.

On the other side of the spectrum, other than die-hard fans like me, is anyone going to buy a book starring just Guy and 'Wog? Especially when "Blackest Night" had just ended?

I think DC is over estimating how much people love the Green Lantern family of titles vs. how much people loved "Blackest Night." And it's going to cost us. First, it will cost those of us who are willing to try all three books. When that ends, it will cost us one, if not two, of the three GL family books.

Cash Cow won't last long with this sort of milking, DC.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Will 'Fable III' make you 'super pissed off'?

It's quickly becoming clear that history will remember "Fable III" for ... something. It's going to be ambitious, that much is obvious. But, will it be an ambitious success or failure?

It's going to use Natal. And it's being made by Peter Molyneux, the developer who seems to be embracing Natal more than anyone else. And it's quickly looking evident that those Natal controls are going to make "Fable III" less of a sequel and more of an entirely new series.

Which is why I'm not the least bit surprised to read this quote on IGN.com: "We're making some announcements about Fable III and […] it's going to really upset people. I'm really scared when I go out and tell people what it is they're going to get super pissed off."

Let the speculation commence. IGN itself has started already at THIS LINK, which provides some hard evidence backing up all of those pissed-off guesses.

Then again, 'ole Pete loves running his mouth before a game comes out, and most of what he says turns out to be rubbish. So I guess we'll all see next week.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Master Quest (Part 3)

Don't worry, I have not forgotten about my quest to save Hyrule, even if real life has taken away plenty of time of late.

I've had plenty of time to get used to my adult body now, however, my biggest challenge remains the awkward GameCube controller. In fairness, some of the awkwardness is coming from the age of the controller itself. It tends to stick in a forward position, making aiming difficult and maneuvering slim edges VERY difficult.

But, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. To give you a sense of context, I've blown through the Forest, Fire and Water Temples, as well as mini-dungeons Bottom of the Well and Gerudos Fortress.

Surprisingly, I wouldn't call any of the three temples any tougher than their first-quest counterparts. Rather, they were all simply variations on a theme — with the exception of the Water Temple.

The Forest and Fire Temples are extremely similar to their previous incarnations, and if I didn't already think the first Forest Temple was a breeze, I would say this second one is easier than the first. The first version of the temple had a little more back-tracking, while this one had a couple more monsters, Six for one, half-dozen for the other. The only real surprise here was that I'd completely forgotten how to fight Phantom Gannon at the end of the temple, so it took me a while to get him to get out of those paintings of his.

One challenge at the start of the whole thing. Attaining that first key by lighting fires and shooting an arrow across the room to light torch number three proved devilishly hard. Still, that may have only been because, with the state of my GameCube controller, it took me a while to even figure out that shooting an arrow to light torch No. 3 was a possibility, let alone then taking the time to execute the move. But the rest of the Temple was pretty simple, and was the most similar to its' original counterpart since the Deku Tree dungeon.

The Water Temple, on the other hand, was very different from the original. Frankly, when playing through the original game on second and third play-throughs, the Water Temple was groan-inducing. I would cringe at the thought of how much tougher this "Master" Water Temple would be. As it turns out, the Temple was VERY straightforward this time around. Water-level changes were kept to a minimum, with very little back-tracking. In fact, the only problem was simply over-thinking. There are two small wings of the Temple which cannot be accessed until you already have the Boss Key, and they have very little redeeming value, only containing Gold Skultas. But the decoy existence of these rooms will make you think the Temple is more puzzling than it is.

Thus far, I would still call the "Master Quest" a must-play for any Zelda addict. But the game really has not been a challenge, just a variation on a theme. And so much has felt easier this time around outside of the dungeons, just because I've played the game so much. I currently wield Biggoron's Sword (possibly my favorite weapon of any Zelda game ever), and again wondered why I felt it was so tough to acquire 10 years ago.

But we will see. I'm about to head into the desert armed with the Eye of Truth, so hopefully Nintendo has a couple of super-tough dungeons awaiting me before I go after Gannon.

New 'Sonic' game revealed

It's an all-new Sonic. And no, I'm not talking about the restaurant on Route 9 across the street from Arby's.

Oh, how I love Arby's... where I was I?

Oh yeah, Sonic. Or should I say, Project Needlemouse. Or, should I now say, "Sonic 4!"

All the rumors were true, there is an all-new 2D old-school looking downloadable Sonic the Hedgehog game in the works, with a release window of this Summer.

Oh, how I love Jesus for this news. And oh, how I love starting sentences with "oh."

Follow THIS LINK to the official Web site for more news.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Wii topples NES

This story pains my retro-gamer heart. Follow THIS LINK to IGN.com and read that the Wii has now sold more units than the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

I may just be Talkin' 'bout my Generation here, but sales shmales. The NES provided more cherished bright new world moments than all other gaming systems combined. It's just too bad all those soccer moms following the Wii trend managed to usurp the NES' economic crown.

Besides, the NES had something it seems we'll never get from the Wii — Kid Icarus. Yes, it's a small strand of pride to cling to, but I'm clinging, damnit!