Pikapool: A New Species?

None other than mister Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, The Proposal),  shared below picture of Pikapool, a mixture of Pikachu and Deadpool, via his social media accounts. Is it a new species or are we just wishful thinking? I for one like it very much.

I don’t know who made this, but thank you. #MaximumEffort pic.twitter.com/nH1ywqeshN

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) 22 september 2016

Ryan Reynolds is known to share cool stuff especially anything related to Deadpool. Which makes me wonder who the biggest fan of the character is; Ryan Reynolds or us? But that is another discussion.

Either way check out his Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/VancityReynolds/?fref=ts#) and/or Twitter (https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds) account for more goodies and snide remarks that are so Deadpool worthy. I honestly don’t know where Ryan Reynolds ends and Deadpool begins or vice versa but his remarks are so on the spot.

Destiny: Rise of Iron [PS4] Review in Progress

I haven’t picked this title up in nearly a year; since the “Oryx Challenge Ogre Glitch” issue in December 2015. I felt disrespected by a $500 million game and against my better judgement, I left the world of Destiny for what I thought would be for good. . . Then Rise of Iron drops . . .

While not as big as The Taken King in terms of size and scope, its story is centered on the player’s (that’s me) ascension to a next generation of Iron Lord, a multi-mission adventure that largely takes place in a brand new Earth zone dubbed the Plaguelands. If you haven’t played Destiny from the beginning, it’s pretty easy to get caught up, however, I’d recommend playing through the story from the beginning then heading toward new content. I rocked out on my PS4 for a solid six hours of game time and I was really pleased with what I saw and what was offered by this new expansion. It goes a little something like this . . . Spoilers Ahead . . .

The Fallen have returned, and this time they’re more dangerous than ever. They managed to get their hands (possibly claws of feelers) on some Golden Age tech called SIVA, a self-replicating nano-virus that they’re using to enhance themselves and weapons to gain an advantage in their never-ending war against humanity (that’s us). On top of their physical and technological upgrades, they also managed to breach the wall surrounding the Cosmodrome in Old Russia, and it’s up to the player (again, that’s us) to drive them back.

You start with a mission where you’re assaulting Felwinter Peak to make a foothold so a counter-offensive strike can be mounted against this new SIVA-upgraded Fallen faction called the Splicers. It’s a great opening to the game that starts with a ride up to the mountaintop on a rusting cable car (even though they call it a Gondola) and culminates in a classic Destiny shoot-em-up with baddies when you reach the top.

I’d forgotten about how exciting Destiny‘s settings and designs can be. The fast-moving enemies aren’t easy targets to take down, and can sometimes be a pain when you think you have your shot lined up. The game lets you know pretty early on that you need to keep on your toes and keep your head on a swivel to ensure you aren’t overwhelmed. It took me a few minutes to get back into the swing of things, and then I started to remember the routine of guerrilla tactics, popping out from behind cover and shooting at enemy targets before making a mad dash to a safe spot to decide what to go after next, and recovering health if needed. It makes for a game that feels dynamic and challenging – at least it does to me, a born again Destiny guy.

With Felwinter Peak liberated from the Fallen, the location becomes the expansion’s social hub where you get to talk to Lord Saladin, the last remaining Iron Lord, who outlines the plan of attack. What transpires is a fairly short, but quite tough series of story line missions that will probably take an average solo player the better part of an evening to work through. That being said, I had a buddy of mine running missions with me. Although he’s a total noob, two Guardians are better than one. I’m confident Destiny regulars will be able to complete them all in a few hours, especially if they team up with other Guardians.

The new story missions themselves vary, although some of their mechanics feel recycled from earlier expansions. I still found them entertaining to play through, mainly because I hadn’t played in months. Enemies are generally fast-moving and smart, while the tougher characters remain bullet sponges that require a good deal of ammo to tear down. Long story short, it’s very much Destiny in terms of its style and feel. Those who were hoping for something a little different might be disappointed, but I think that for the most part, the Destiny faithful will enjoy the story line campaign’s action.

When you reach the end of the new main story missions, the game opens up patrols in the Plaguelands, and a new strike, the Wretched Eye. Those, along with the new Archon’s Forge public event, and the latest raid, Wrath of the Machine that opens on the day of this review (stay tuned for that review), essentially represent the endgame PvE content for Rise of Iron. I jumped into the new Wretched Eye strike last night, and my noob team mate and I were lucky enough to get matched with a fairly good player who made short work of it. We could barely keep up with him as he blew through the enemies on the approach to the strike’s final boss (to be honest, I was hanging back to soak in all the new visuals and because I was live streaming it so it’d make for a better content stream). It took the combined might of all three of us to bring down the strike boss in the end. I’d probably have a tougher time of it with other players but my team mates and I ran together like a well oiled machine (too cliche?).

Now don’t get me wrong, I most certainly was not expecting an expansion as grand and epic as The Taken King. In some places the story aspect of Rise of Iron definitely does feel a little on the lean side. Everything it has to offer is fun but it just left me wanting more. But then again, I haven’t yet gotten into the endgame content and that’s probably where the real satisfaction is. There are artifacts to collect that imbue your character with special abilities that sound very interesting, loads of new weapons to collect, and, hopefully, a lot of new secrets to discover.

I’ll continue to pew pew pew my way through side missions in the quest for better loot and hopefully get the new raid done in the next few days and come back with a review of those new features to this latest expansion. What do you think of Destiny: Rise of Iron so far? Sound off in the comments.

What Are Ya Playin? LEGO Dimensions

Hello readers! I’ve decided to write my own entry for Skatronixxx’s ongoing game series What Are Ya Playin?.

Usually I am not a fan of the toys-to-life genre. Generally they tend to be quick cash grabs by gaming companies (I’m looking at you, Activision) by releasing what would usually be downloadable DLC content in the form of NFC figures. LEGO Dimensions, however, is different. Whilst the game (developed by Traveller’s Tales) does expect customers to buy NFC figures in order to access additional content, their packs provide a variety of new content for the game. Each pack not only comes with a LEGO minifigure and a vehicle and/or gadget mini build but also unlocks an Adventure World (basically a hub world) based on the license the minifigure originates from. The Level Packs in particular are great value for money: for £24 as well as a minifigure and vehicle and gadget minibuilds you get a whole new level to play in – the Doctor Who Level Pack even grants you access to all thirteen incarnations of The Doctor. 

For Year Two, Traveller’s Tales are adding packs based on a variety of franchises, such as Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, Gremlins and Sonic The Hedgehog. They’re even introducing a new type of pack: a Story Pack, where you play through LEGO recreations of recent and upcoming movies including Ghostbusters (2016) and The LEGO Batman Movie. I received the game as a Christmas present last year – nine months later and I still haven’t completed everything in the game.

I may have finished the story mode, for example, but there’s still dozens of quests in the Adventure Worlds to fulfil and minikits to discover. That’s basically what I’m doing now: going back to all the hub worlds I have unlocked and collecting every minikit I can find with my current roster of characters: Batman, Gandalf, Wyldstyle, Marty McFly, Doc Brown, The Doctor, Cyberman, Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson and Emmet from The LEGO Movie.

Piloting the TARDIS around Hill Valley never gets old and it’s great fun fighting Mad Dog Tannen in 1885. Unfortunately Tom Wilson was too busy to return to the role but Liam O’Brien is a good replacement. The other day I played through the Starter Pack Back to the Future level ‘Once Upon A Time Machine In The West‘ and noticed something I hadn’t spotted before: at the beginning of the level Doc’s girlfriend Clara Clayton can be seen crying for help on the top of a bucking horse. Further investigation showed that you needed Krusty The Clown to use his plant-growing ability to save her (quite how that works I’m not sure); you can use the Hire A Hero ability (at the cost of 50,000 studs) to use a character you don’t have for a short amount of time but I’m planning on getting Krusty anyway so I decided to leave it for now.

It highlights one of the reasons why LEGO Dimensions is so great though: there’s many hidden characters and references to the licenses featured, many nice little touches that you notice on subsequent replays. There’s always something new to discover, something you may have missed before…and even if there isn’t, who cares? It’s LEGO. LEGO is awesome.

It’s certainly a lot more preferable to buying multiple versions of Spyro The Dragon! 

Fallout Shelter Brings Fallout 4 Stickers For iOS 10 Users!

Now is a good time to be a gamer with an iPhone. First they got Super Mario stickers and now the new updates in Fallout Shelter and iOS 10 have made it so that the Apple people can put these awesome Fallout stickers all over their text messages too. Some of these new fun stickers are actually more like GIFs with their short animations(Vault boy thumbs up/down,carrying heavy stuff etc.) which of course is very cool. So cool that even this devoted Samsung fan really thinks switching sides might be a good idea after all. I really want to see more of these game related emojis and stickers on other phones as well. Here are some examples of the new Fallout themed stickers!

 

Play with passion!

auburn.geek

Capcom Monster Hunter To Hit The Big Screen

So I have yet to play this game myself, and seriously want to. After purchasing this for my brother a few Christmases ago, I have been wanting to get my hands on it for myself but been too busy to do so. L But I may have the push I need to get my bum in gear after seeing the movie. ^_^

That’s right, it seems they will be doing another video game to movie thing again. As they have in the past with movies like, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Brothers, the new Assassins Creed, Dead or Alive, Street Fighter (two movies here), Mortal Kombat, and others. Not sure if you could count Pixels here but it does have all the old school games from my generation…. O.o

Anywho, as mentioned above they are doing this again, but with the ‘bigger in Japan’ game of monster hunter. This was announced by producer Ryoso Tsujimoto during the Capcom’s Tokyo game show. The movie will be a live action (as it should be) though there are some speculation that it may not work for live action. Yet the producer said that the movie won’t be from the stories but its own mold of the game instead.

Well which ever way they go with this, I am sure this movie will be awesome to see. I mean I personally love movies with monsters, and the bigger the better. Which from what I gather of the game, you encounter a lot of different monsters and get to use fun weapons at that. It will be neat to see what they come up with for our viewing pleasure. ^_^

You Can Now Buy Sonic Shoes! Will They Help You Run Fast?

Do you want to run as fast as Sonic? Well, that is not going to happen any time soon but you can look pretty awesome wearing his shoes. The speedy hedgehog himself has his own running wear which is pretty fitting if you ask me.

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of Sonic’s release and Drop Dead is coming out with a clothing line in honor of the speedy blue dude. You can buy sweaters, shirts, socks, and yes, his shoes. I am not talking a pair of sneakers with his face on them like when we were kids or something like that, but his actual shoes. The red rounded speedy sneakers that he wore in the game. These shoes (actually comfy slippers) will run you about $40 bucks plus shipping and handling which isn’t too bad on the price for such slick apparel.

These shoes and the other items can be found in the infomercial by Drop Dead in their site which I totally recommend checking out. They did a retro commercial for them which was pretty fun to watch. Go check them out and maybe get some shopping done in the process. I know I will be “sneak”-ing a peak at the other clothes they have to offer. ^_^

Customization returns along with new Pokemon and Pokemon Refresh in a new trailer!

Pokemon Sun and Moon is closer and closer each day, and the Pokemon will stop at nothing to excite its fans.

This trailer started off with new Pokemon who are exclusive to either game.

Passimian was the first New Pokemon they showed off and he is of the Fighting type. A Pokemon resembling a lemur who wields a ball. He has the ability receiver which allows his ability to change to save him from an attack. I think this Pokemon is quite cool and very inventive.

Oranguru then got his time to shine, an orangutan Guru as it were. This Normal/Psychic Pokemon is clearly wise beyond its years. It is said that Oranguru are healers of wild Pokemon and have even been known to use items humans normally use. Quite the fearsome Pokemon to be able to do what other Pokemon can’t

Lycanroc is next up with his two forms. The first is the midday form which is exclusive to Pokemon Sun. While the Midnight Form is exclusive to Pokemon Moon. The Midday form is more wolf like and the Midnight Form is far more vicious looking.

The Midday Form really does just look like a stereotypical Wolf and is pure Rock type. Strong and loyal if this Pokemon respects you as a Rockruff you will have a ally forever.

The Midnight Form is just an awesome Pokemon, which is just Rock type. I honestly am surprised that it is just Rock as I hoped it would have been Rock Dark but c’est la vie. This Lycanroc is more like a werewolf which is what was thought to be the case. This devious grinned Pokemon baits it foes with a first attack before smashing them. Definitely not a Pokemon you want to be facing, I am sure he will join my team’s ranks.

Customization is back in full force with tons more to customize. The original character designs are nice but it always helps to have a character you create. The amount of customization is definitely improved and I am excited to see what kind of character I will be able to make.

There is also Pokemon Refresh which is similar to Pokemon Amie. In this you get to feed and pet your Pokemon. By doing so you get to raise their affection for you. This is such a great feature as it really allows you to connect with your Pokemon.

Lastly they showed off two new Z moves specific to fan favorites Pikachu and Eevee. Pikachu gets Pikatastrophe which looks like a devastating move. Eevee gets Extreme Evoboost which summons the power of all its evolution’s to increase Eevee’s power. This really looks like a wonderful fan service type move. I really enjoy that Vaporeon looks like he is the ultimate Eeveelution in this Z move.

Another thing announced was the connection between Sun and Moon and Pokemon Bank. This update will now come later then expected which I guess is understandable. With this update we will be able to use Poketransporter to send Pokemon from the Digital copies of Red, Blue, and Yellow to Sun and Moon!

With new news coming on October 4th we have a little time before we will get any news. But with less then 2 months the news will begin slowing so they don’t reveal it all. So excited to get my hands on this game!

Funko Announces ‘Scooby Doo’, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and ‘Street Fighter’ Pop! Vinyl Figures

 

The ever expanding line of Funko Pop! Vinyl figures is set to become even larger within the coming months, as a slew of new figures have been announced.

First up is a line of figures from the upcoming expansion to J.K Rowling’s Wizarding World, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’. The line contains several of the main characters from the film, as well as an adorable beast. At the moment this is likely a line only serious collectors and Harry Potter fans will acquire, given the relative obscurity of the characters. Once the film is out however, and people gauge which character they like best, popularity will no doubt soar.

“Newt Scamander, wizarding world Magizoologist, is joined by Tina Goldstein, Queenie Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Seraphina Picquery, Percival Graves, and a Niffler, a beast with an irrepressible
predilection for anything shiny!”

The figures are all set to release this September.

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Coming soon after in October are a line of figures from the ‘Street Fighter’ videogame series. Given the series wide popularity this is a sensible choice, but I for one hope it sees Funko branch out into a variety of different videogame franchises.

The series features OGs Ryu and Ken, as well as Chun-Li, Cammy, Blanka, Balrog, and Dan! You can also collect Hot Ryu from Street Fighter V!

The figures will be released in October.

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Finally, Funko also announced a line of ‘Scooby Doo’ figures, my personal favourite of the recent announcements. Considering the amount of different licenses Funko has under its belt, it was only a matter of time before they snagged one of the biggest cartoon series of all time.

Collect Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby!  You can also collect flocked Scooby (only at Gemini Collectibles), and a Scooby & Shaggy 2-pack (exclusively at FYE)!

These figures are set to release in November.

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If all the other figures Funko has released weren’t already enough to break the bank, then these new series might just stretch you to your limit. In any case they represent some iconic franchises, and be sure to stay tuned to Skatronixxx for information on the upcoming New York Comic-Con Exclusives.

What are you playing? The Tomorrow Children

The Tomorrow Children is an indie game exclusively for the system Playstation 4 made by the studio SIE Japan  Studio and  Q-Games. As you see I’m playing a lot of indie games lately but that’s because they are always different from the AAA games that we all buy, but this one I can tell you it is another universe… how could I explain to you the experience?! Basically you play an hologram that have the purpose to build or rebuild towns to restore humanity, so from there nothing abnormal really as you collect ressources as wood, metal, food and other things. To collect theses resources, you need to travel to these little island that appears and disappears as well from a time limit. You would say, yeah it’s a mine craft kind of thing where you build buildings and other things but nah it doesn’t stop there… you gotta defend it as well against monster who are from the void.

 What’s the void? Do not ask yet as I’m simply just a beginner in the game… the story (if there’s one) seems complicated as such that you need to get the info by yourself, there’s no straight line to follow or pre destinations as you chose to go in any available towns that needs your help to prosper once again. The game is really interesting but unfortunately as most of the recent games, you will need a constant online connection as players helps each other.

 I think they are trying to build a community in the game that cooperation is imperative, either for the defence of the town or the collection of resources. But like I said I am just at the beginning of it so I haven’t seen much yet. For what I have seen yet, with leveling up your hologram to obtain more powerful tool or being able to build your own house (yeah I forgot, you need licenses to live in a town or drive cars or use weapoms), it is interesting and will demand from you lots and lots of hours in front of your TV to achieve a certain level of pleasure really but I’m kinda scared that it would be too repetitive. 

But for sure I will let you all know once I have played enough to write a review from it.

LEGO Dimensions Meets The Hoff: The Knight Rider Fun Pack And LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack Has Been Revealed!

 

The technologically-advanced car K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) from the cult TV Series Knight Rider has been recreated in LEGO for a bunch of new in-game screenshots for the popular toys-to-life game LEGO Dimensions. A buildable version of K.I.T.T. is to be released in a Fun Pack with a minifigure of his driver Michael Knight ((played by David Hasselhoff in the television series).

K.I.T.T. can also be built into the K.I.T.T. Jet and Goliath Armed Semi (a truck usually driven by Knight Foundation founder Wilton Knight’s criminal son Garthe Knight).

The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack meanwhile is a little bizarre in that it doesn’t feature its main character (who instead comes in a separate Fun Pack  with a Bionic Steed which can also be built into the Bat-Raptor and Ultrabat. LEGO Batman comes with sword-switching and Master Builder abilities). The Story Pack comes with two minifigures – Batgirl (same abilities as Starter Pack Batman) and Robin (agility and dive skills)- and buildable versions of the Batwing (other builds: the Bat-Thunder and Bat-Tank) and the Bat Computer. I have to admit I am a little disappointed that by purchasing the LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack you don’t get a LEGO Batman minifigure. It sucks that you have to buy a separate Fun Pack if you want to play through the story as LEGO Batman. I’m not sure what LEGO and Traveller’s Tales reasoning is behind the idea not to feature LEGO Batman in the Story Pack, although I’m sure they must have a good one.

The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack, LEGO Batman Fun Pack and the Knight Rider Fun Pack will be released on 10th February 2017.