Chris and Kyle, aka "The Armchair Thinkers," had your's truly as their guest on the Podcast this week. I thought it went pretty well, Judge for yourself.
Alright, so to answer a few readers who kept asking, I finally managed to rent "Halo: Reach" over the weekend. No, it's not getting an episode because it didn't really leave me with anything to think about or talk about and I'm unable to summon the interest to finish the campaign. I've got no real affection for first-person shooters to begin with, nothing about Halo's story, universe or design has ever really appealed to me, and it was quickly evident that I was in for more of the same so... no thanks. I played an evening of the online multiplayer, which did nothing to assuage my dislike for online multiplayer at least in the case of FPS's.
So... yeah. NOT a "review," since I didn't finish it, but didn't really do it for me.
I haven't been able to gauge what the general "fan-culture" reaction has been to "Batman: The Brave & The Bold" - currently wrapping up it's final season on Cartoon Network - but I dig it, and apparently it's big with the kids (as it ought to be.) If you haven't seen, the basic idea is HUGE helpings of Silver Age DC fan-service disguised as humorous, "all-ages" Batman cartoon. I won't say it's up to snuff with "Batman: The Animated Series," but the best of it ranks up there with the one-off "funny" episodes of "Justice League Unlimited" - think "This Little Piggy," same basic idea. In a more general sense, think a more cleverly-scripted cousin to the Adam West "Batman," co-starring a big cross-section of DCU supporting-players and with a heavier emphasis on "get it past the censors" jokes for parents/older-audiences - for example, pay really close attention to the lyrics in this musical bit as the Birds of Prey rate the... "effectiveness" of their various male counterparts:
Unsurprisingly, you can thank Gail Simone [pause for fangirl squeal] for that one (which may or may not have aired in the U.S. yet)
Anyway, the GAME (Wii) is excellent, absolutely worth a buy (I'm told the DS version is good as well.) It's a side-scrolling 2D beat-em-up. The controls take a little getting used to, as it's built around a pretty deep combo-system for a kid-targeted Wii title, but overall pretty smooth once you get into it and looks like it'd be a lot of fun with two people. Developer was Wayforward Technologies, who've carved a niche for themselves as experts of retro-style side-scrollers with "Contra 4" and "A Boy & His Blob." Licensed youth-titles on the Wii are usually a red-flag for shovelware, but retrogamers and/or Silver Age superhero fans should absolutely give it a look.
"Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" is setting itself up to be 2010's other divisive direction-change for a longstanding NES-spawned franchise. Turning Castlevania 3D has never worked out very well, but Konami put some serious money and creative muscle into this attempt - which started out as a game "like" Castlevania that eventually got co-opted into a kind of reboot. In this trailer, actor Jason Isaacs - at this point probably best known to most as Lucius Malfoy - gives us a very thorough rundown:
Obviously, this'll have to come down to how it plays, but so far I like what I see. Yes, obviously, there's a HUGE amount of influence being drawn from other recent successes - most notably God of War and, of course, Shadow of The Colossus. On the GoW front, at least, it must be taken into account that Castlevania invented the use of whip-like and/or "tethered" weaponry in action games. But the design is gorgeous, the subtle but unmistakable references to series mainstays looks nicely done, and I'm really liking those moments where it looks like you're using the ubiquitous chain-whip like such weaponry is actually used (i.e. two-handed and "full body" style like Gogo Yubari in "Kill Bill" - most Castlevanias have had you using a chain whip like a "normal" leather whip.)
The question has always been "will it feel like Castlevania," and from this the answer looks like "yes!" to me - I see a vaugely medieval European setting, I see classic gothic-horror imagery, I see an improbably elaborate castle and I see a Belmont wailing on stuff with a whip - that's Castlevania, as far as I'm concerned. Assuming it plays well, the BIG "to do" among fans will be the design. From about 1997 on (re: "Symphony of The Night" on the PS1) the series has largely kept to a more starkly Manga-esque "neo-goth" look; while this one seems to be a conscious return to the Universal/Hammer Horror by way of Frank Frazetta art-design that the series boasted from the original up through Rondo of Blood. For me, this is what I've always wanted/hoped a 3D big-scale Castlevania would look like, but for folks who started at "Symphony" or after I imagine this must look a bit jarring.
Below, the trailer for "Texting of The Bread" - a new mobile game that marks ScrewAttack.com's first foray into game development:
The basic idea is it's a 2D spin on "Typing of The Dead" (re: "House of The Dead" as a keyboard-training game, cult-classic) with mobile texting and evil Gingerbread Men instead of zombies. I saw it in action back at SGC, and it looked like a lot of fun.
You can pick it up for your iPhone, iPad etc HERE.
Look, I appreciate and am grateful for people posting and linking the show throughout the web, but can I ask a small favor?
When you do, can we maybe NOT do it as part of an "eff you!" or "your opinion is WRONG, here's the RIGHT one!" thing on a forum or talkback or whatever? I appreciate the passion and enthusiasm, but when the show - and, by extension, *I* - get used in such a way, it reflects bad on the show and reflects bad on me. Y'know?
Especially since, regarding the "Other M" episode... I wasn't looking to "refute" or "take-down" any other game critic or site; mainly just respond to recurring message-board trolling and memes.
So... by all means, re-post... but let's all have some tact, eh? ;)
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