Is Crash Bandicoot Making A Comeback?

Crash Bandicoot fans have been itching to get their favorite back in the picture. Now it is happening, although perhaps not in a way we’ve been hoping for. Nevertheless, the marsupial icon is making a comeback  on Skylanders, presumably on October 16th of 2016, and there have been rumours that it will be a playstation4 exclusive. There has not yet been any pictures available of the upcoming Skylander figurine, but if and when it is coming, it is a must for Skylander gamers that love Crash. The rest of us who have been waiting for a new Crash Bandicoot game will have to keep waiting, or start to play Skylanders. I personally am not interested in any of these figurine collecting ‘toy games’ on market so I hope we will get a legitimate Crash game in the near future.

The leaking info that came from Singapore retailer Qisahn’s website should be correct(of course there is always room for error though). The fact that Activision not only has the rights to our orange friend, but is the force behind Skylanders makes the rumour that much more plausible.

Here’s a list of the old Crash Bandicoot games(from wikipedia) in case you got interested in collecting and playing the whole series thus far.

1996	Crash Bandicoot
1997	Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
1998	Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
1999	Crash Team Racing
2000	Crash Bash
2001	Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
2002	Crash Bandicoot: XS
2003	Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
	Crash Nitro Kart
2004	Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto’s Rampage
	Crash Twinsanity
2005	Crash Tag Team Racing
2006	Crash Boom Bang!
2007	Crash of the Titans
2008	Crash: Mind Over Mutant

Play with passion!

auburn.geek

Lego Dimensions adds a slew of characters

Lego Dimensions has been out for awhile and already has characters from Lord of the Rings, DC Superheros, The Simpsons and many more.

New characters have been announced in a trailer you can watch below. From Finn and Jake of Adventure Time, to the Goonies and Gizmo, even the blue blue Sonic the Hedgehog is making an appearance.

Fans of the game are in for a wait for these new toys to life characters but a wait is always good. I think these characters will really expand this game and introduce a new generation to characters so many people have enjoyed for years.

The fun begins on September 27th with the new Ghostbusters movie pack and the rest will roll out until summer of 2017.

I do enjoy the fact that this new set of packs and characters are mostly from the 80’s and 90’s as it really will expand the young players horizons in terms of what they recognize which is never a bad thing.

Here is the link to the trailer below. I really enjoyed seeing them meld the universe’s together and the end is definitely my favorite part!

Bioshock Themed Clothing Line For Women!

Love Bioshock? Now you can express your enthusiasm in a fun way! Living Dead Clothing that is also known for Final Fantasy themed apparel has launched a line of Bioshock dresses, leggins, t-shirts etc. You should find something fun to fit your fandom, since all three games of the franchise are included. The sizes go from xs to xxl so there should be something for just about everyone, but do remember to check from the size charts that you get a fit thats right for you!

Want to check out the complete catalogue? Look no further: catalogue

Here are some examples (my personal favorites) from Living Dead Clothing’s new collection.

 

Play(and get dressed) with passion!

auburn.geek

Mortal Kombat Beer Is On Its Way!

Great news for all of you who enjoy drinking a  good beer while destroying your friends in Mortal Kombat. Poulsbo, Washington’s Sound Brewery is creating new brews for videogame enthusiasts! The classic characters Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Raiden are the faces of the new brews that include an India pale ale, a saison and an imperial stout. Too bad none of the female characters aren’t represented though, but maybe they’ll add a ‘Sonya blonde ale’ if the new beers sell well and if the customers ask nicely..

The bottles are 22 ounces in size and they all contain 8+% of alcohol.
Official descriptions for each brew is as follows.

Sub-Zero Imperial IPA
Refreshingly cooling on a warm day, an Imperial India Pale Ale that’s not all about the hops or the malt but is a whole lot of both fighting it out for your palate’s supremacy. Drink icy for more of the hops or warmer for more malt. 8.5%

Raiden Imperial Saison
This amped up Imperial Saison has a blast of hops and CO2 that will hit your tongue with a bang. The aroma jumps out of the glass with its earthly and herbal notes not far behind. 8%

Scorpion Imperial Stout
A unique blend for great Imperial Stout brings both fire and ice into your glass. The fiery southwest chilies and cooling Madagascar Vanilla Bean pair nicely with the exotic notes produced by our own yeast strain. 8%

Play with passion! And never drive and drive!
auburn.geek

Battlefront 3 Fan Remake May Get A Steam Release

A long time ago in a gaming universe far far away, many a gamer awaited the inevitable announcement of Star Wars: Battlefront 3. We eagerly anticipated more destruction in the original trilogy universe as well as in the Clone Wars, massive space battles, and phenomenal heroes leading the way. Since the first Battlefront, the games had only improved and we had hope that those improvements would continue.

Sadly, Lucas Arts disappeared and the world never saw Battlefront 3. Electronic Arts and DICE eventually created a new addition to the series; called Star Wars Battlefront, it provided gamers with the opportunity to embark upon action-packed adventures in the many Star Wars locales from the original trilogy and fight his or her way to victory amidst dynamic battlefields. Star Wars Battlefront received moderately good reviews with reviewers praising it as a fun romp but noting that it lacked substance and became repetitive over time.

To my surprise, a mod team that turned into a fully staffed and capable development studio known as Frontwire Studios has been working on their own version of Battlefront 3. Originally slated as a CryEngine mod, Frontwire has dedicated a massive number of hours to the recreation of this unreleased title and announced that Steam, Valve‘s own digital video game and movie distribution software, will publish and make their fan remake of Battlefront 3 available to everyone FOR FREE. Called Galaxy in Turmoil, it looks like a very intriguing idea that could potentially take off! Here’s a quote from Tony Romanelli’s (Frontwire’s President) own announcement:

It is with great pleasure that as of today I am able to officially announce that Frontwire Studios has officially signed a distribution deal with Steam/Valve for the game Galaxy in Turmoil. After ongoing discussion between Valve Representatives and myself, Valve/Steam has agreed to ship Galaxy in Turmoil to it’s millions of users for FREE.

A lot of questions arise from an announcement like this: Can Valve really do this with an IP as big as Star Wars? What about Disney? Or Electronic Arts? What will they do? All of these have validity and honestly, no one really knows. The chances that any of these companies would put a Cease and Desist order on Frontwire probably remain slim, especially because the company plans on releasing Galaxy in Turmoil for free. I would love to see this game made public on a platform such as Steam! As of yet, Valve hasn’t released a statement. Hopefully, all of Frontwire’s hard work will pay off.

Pre-Alpha models and textures. It’s a great start!

In the meantime, head over to their official site to check out more of the game’s content and keep your eyes open for the potential release.

Happy gaming!

-Valiant

REVIEW: Stellaris

Review: This article goes in depth about a game and opens a dialogue about the positive and negative aspects that compose that game. At the end of the review, the author notes whether he or she feels this game was worth playing. Keep in mind that this review reflects the author’s opinion; you may have a different experience with this game!

Time Spent: 88 Hours

Version Played: PC-Only Release

Holy crap. I genuinely have no idea how I’ve spent so much time on a game that released less than a month ago. Where did all of that time go? What happened?!

Crafted by the same minds behind Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, Paradox Interactive has made their first foray into the 4X genre of video games. Called Stellaris, this insanely addictive grand strategy video game revolves around exploring your randomly generated galaxy, completing unique and entertaining quests, and building up your interstellar empire. Time seems to evaporate when playing Stellaris; indeed, the need to explore just one more system or complete one more piece of technology drives you forward in a fascinating romp through your galactic neighborhood.

Let’s start with the basics. Built in the same vein as games like Civilization, Endless Legend, Endless Space, and probably most like Sins of a Solar Empire, Stellaris is a 4X game. For those of you not familiar with the “4X” title, it means “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate” which runs the gamut of what you can accomplish in a standard game of Stellaris. I’ve often been a fan of 4X games and their insanely addictive turn-based or real-time gameplay usually has me staring at my clock wondering how much more time I can put into the game before I absolutely have to sleep. Stellaris is no different. Put in charge of a galactic empire of your choice (you can choose from pre-made empires or create your own with a wide variety of options available), you must explore all of your nearby systems and begin colonizing planets in order to expand your empire. Resources such as energy and minerals help power your fleets and build your structures while the ever important influence resource fuels diplomatic and empire-wide decisions and helps you recruit new leaders such as scientists and admirals.

Building your own empire is half the fun!

Simply moving past the empire builder can become a difficult task as you are given a plethora of races, racial traits, colonization options, government ethics, and ways of space travel from which to choose. Some of these remain purely cosmetic; my lovely bird people certainly look spectacular, but that doesn’t affect how other empires see me. Other options, however, impact how your people interact with their environment and the plethora of empires you’ll meet. When building a race, you can select from many positive and negative traits that could boost their ability to produce minerals or make the migration of your citizens take longer and cost more. Beyond that, your government ethos will play a dynamic role in your overall empire as well as your interactions with other nations. Depending on what you choose for the ethics section, this will open up new government types that could fit the style of play for your empire as well as offer bonuses for your people. It’s all a little complicated at first and I highly recommend reading a guide that discusses some of the major differences between the ethics.

It’s a shame that Stellaris doesn’t expand on the variety of options and give players more information on what bonuses, technologies, and buildings each ethos allows them to research or create. Such knowledge remains vital when crafting a unique empire! When beginning a new game, though, the amusing and sarcastic tutorial serves as a very helpful guide. Some 4X games have difficulty introducing new players, but thankfully Stellaris seems to handle that with relative ease while not overwhelming a player with absurd amounts of information. Do not mistake me for saying that Stellaris is a simple game; the complexities available to the avid grand strategy player are abundant and the AI can be utterly ruthless. It’s just that Paradox manages to present their newest title in a way that offers new players a beautiful interface and a quick entry into their first game.

The AI empires in a single player game all have unique personalities and along with exploring the galaxy, meeting these new empires fills the exciting early portions of the game with a bit of tension. Who will you meet: the peaceful mushroom people that wish to form alliances or the crazy spider people who desire nothing else except to purge everything in the galaxy? Like many 4X games, you can engage in diplomacy with every race you meet and while the diplomacy section seems a bit more detailed than some games of its ilk, Stellaris‘ diplomacy remains cluttered and annoying. As of the recent Clark 1.1 patch, asking for things such as civilian access through another empire’s borders became a bit easier, but the process still remains convoluted. Even if you remain on excellent terms with another empire, they might laugh in your face if you suggest things like an alliance or a non-aggression pact. The update added more notices for diplomatic events in the galaxy so hopefully Paradox continues to refine their diplomatic system.

As you expand into the galaxy, your science ship will encounter intriguing anomalies on the various planets it scans that could provide resource benefits, empire-wide bonuses (such as this floating tree that produced a sap that helped reduce the aging of my people and gave me a bonus to my overall happiness), or that could kill the scientist and the ship he/she/it tried to research the anomaly in the first place. As I mentioned before, this makes the beginning portions of the game a huge blast. After discovering all of these planets and mapping the galaxy, Stellaris comes down to two options: eliminating or subjugating the opposing empires or colonizing/conquering 40% of all colonizable planets in the galaxy. This doesn’t give players a wide range of options in which they can win the game. What if someone wants to form the first United Galactic Nations? What about if someone researches a piece of technology that allows them to transcend existence? Stellaris moves away from other 4X games that give players these options and simply demands that they engage in warfare to achieve his or her goals. While I don’t necessarily disagree that moving away from those general tropes is a bad thing, I feel like every style of play should have a way for players to achieve victory.

The galaxy quickly becomes a crowded place.

The scale of Stellaris becomes readily noticeable when you begin your first playthrough. You can customize your galaxy by choosing its size (150 systems is considered small while 1000 is the largest option) along with its shape (spiral, ring, etc.). You can even designate how many AI empires exist in the galaxy with you and how many get a head start as well as their aggressiveness and the overall game difficulty. The size of the galaxy generally determines how long that game will probably take; small is perfect for a day-long session while the largest setting may take you quite some time. Managing your empire as it grows becomes a daunting task. You can only directly control so many planets on your own. Beyond that, you must create sectors and assign governors to manage your ever expanding nation. These sectors act as miniature empires of their own and produce their own resources, science output, and construction ships. While it takes them some time to get started, you can help them out by giving the sectors some resources from your own pool to accelerate their growth. You can even tell the sector governor what you would like them to focus on producing: Energy, Minerals, Science, or Military. Before patch 1.1, the sector governors were practically useless. I generally began building up a planet and taking a resource penalty for having too many under my direct control before adding that planet to my incompetent governor’s sector. This made expanding out into the galaxy aggravating. Thankfully, patch 1.1 helped relieve some of these issues and greatly improved on the sector governor AI. While it’s still not as good as running everything yourself, I look forward to Paradox’s continuing updates.

In the end of the game, you only have one option: war. You have to expand your control in order to achieve victory and warfare in Stellaris resembles warfare in Sins of a Solar Empire. You can build fleets, assign admirals, and upgrade their technology in order to defeat your opponents. I’m still not entirely sure what the best weapon combinations are, but the computer can customize your vessels for you and it does a reasonably good job. You can only conquer so much of another empire’s planets at one time, however, and attaining overall galactic victory will take some time. You could even encounter crazy endgame events that pit you and the other empires against powerful new enemies such as hyperdimensional invaders if someone researched the jump drive or a rebellious machine consciousness hellbent on annihilating organic life if another empire researched artificial intelligence and refused to treat their synthetic people with respect. The middle of the game seems dull by comparison, but you rarely have nothing to do and Paradox has promised more scripted events for the middle game. As always, it’s nice to see a publisher supporting their product and listening to their fans.

Tired of the crazy AI? Try multiplayer! Having played with several of my friends, I can confirm that coordinating with actual humans helps in your galactic conquest. You can even play in massive 32 player games! The server begins to lag as players engage in large scale fleet battles and this becomes especially prevalent in a larger galaxy, but interacting with other players feels more natural than the sporadic AI. Stellaris also supports an incredibly active modding community and I can’t wait to see what people create. There’s already a Warhammer 40K mod in the works! Woo!

Stellaris has floored me with its craftsmanship and ingenuity. It certainly has its issues, but with the generally rapid pace at which Paradox has released patches, I remain confident that Stellaris will only get better with time. If you like space and 4X grand strategy games, definitely consider giving Stellaris a try.

Happy gaming!

-Valiant

New Mega Man TV Show Coming in 2017

Dentsu Entertainment USA and Man of Action Entertainment’s project, the new  Mega Man animation series, has been announced earlier already  but now it’s closer to popping up on our screens! As the Capcom’s beloved icon from as far back as 1987 is turning 30 the show is going to be aired next year as a part of the Mega Man’s 30th anniversary celebration. The TV show is supposed to be based more on the old 90’s cartoon than on any variations of the Mega Man games. The series will be aimed for 6-9 year olds(and fans of every age!) And it’s concentrating on Mega Man’s alter-ego Aki Light who goes to school like a normal kid and transforms into his familiar blue suit of armor on a regular basis. Other characters from the Mega Man franchise will be seen in the show too.

Dentsu Entertainment CEO Yuichi Kinoshit has said that: “We are very excited about the opportunity to introduce an all-new Mega Man to loyal fans and kids”. Also Duncan Rouleau of Man of Action has been reported saying that the company is looking forward to creating “something new that still respects the long tradition of the character”. The show will be aired in japanese and in english so that the fans from different parts of the globe can enjoy watching it. We are expecting 26 new episodes of Mega Man that are made with passion, we hope it’ll live up to the hype!

auburn.geek

500 Fans Will Gain Early Access To The New Legend Of Zelda Game At Nintendo’s Super-Fan Signup Day!

Nintendo is organizing a “Super-Fan Signup Day” on June 11th at 9 a.m. At this event The Legend of Zelda fans are given a rare opportunity to experience the company’s upcoming title in advance! The first 500 people in line at Nintendo’s New York store(Nintendo NY, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020) will gain access to playing the new game on designated times on june 14th-19th.

There will be a lot of other festive activities on the above mentioned dates. This is what Nintendo has told the press: “The six-day free event will begin at noon ET on June 14, when fans will be invited to watch gameplay of The Legend of Zelda live-streamed from Nintendo’s booth at this year’s E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles to the 15-foot gaming screen inside Nintendo NY,”[…]”From June 15 to June 19, Nintendo experts will also be giving guided game-play demonstrations on the big screen for everyone to watch and enjoy. Several fans may even get the chance to participate in guided demonstrations. There will also beThe Legend of Zelda trivia for a chance for fans to win fun prizes.”
So if you are in or near New York at the time, go try you luck out!

Play with passion!
auburn.geek

Videogame Movies, Yay or Nay??

Movie adaptations of videogames have always sparked up controversy among gamers. Most adaptations manage to offend every fan in existence (Resident Evil comes to mind), while a select few actually look really good (the Warcraft film, can’t wait to see that!). So the movie industry is still and will always keep making them in hopes of convincing gamers to watch more movies.

However, recent adaptation announcements/ releases are worrying this blogger.

We Look At ‘Batman – Return to Arkham’

The Arkham series, hands down the best series of superhero games ever created. This series first began in 2011 with Arkham Asylum and then was followed in 2013 by Arkham City with Arkham Knight being its swan song. This game is certainly a game that all Batman fans should delve into.

Now Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are last gen games and they needed a little work. But the re release of these games as Return to Arkham is spectacular. They really have gone all out to make the games look beautiful.

Having all of these games on on one system is definitely a good thing. Plus the fact that this is a remaster means they actually went through the work of upgrading the game and making it as crisp as can be. Honestly I remember showing my mother Arkham City and her asking if it was a movie, so it proves that remaking the game with Unreal 4 will highly advance an already beautiful game. Looking at these images, it is clear that this new engine has done wonders for a game that already looked so realistic.

The added bonus is of course the DLC which did cost a pretty penny when the game was released.You get all of the DLC for these two awesome games in one package without any downloading. I actually don’t know if I picked up the DLC  If you loved the games earlier it will definitely be something worth picking up.

If you have for some reason passed this game up before I highly recommend picking it up! It is truly a game worth playing simply because it is the definitive Batman video game series. The series really does get better as you continue to play the games and delve deeper into the world that is so artfully created. Plus, Mark Hamill’s portrayal of the Joker is sublime and even though he is crazy, you end up feeling for him. His energy flows through the game and really affects Batman in interesting ways.

I honestly think that this is a good way to introduce to a newer fan to the world of Batman, as it really is a fantastic open world game. As the crew grew more bold, they made more and more explorable areas and besides who doesn’t want to be Batman!

Return to Arkham comes out on July 26, for the Xbox One and PS4. Get ready to come back to the Asylum and the City. The Joker is waiting. You can check out the trailer below.