Blog Archives
Some Fancy New Video Games Are On The Way
This weekend was apparently some kind of fancy video game convention. I’m too lazy this Monday morning to look up the exact name, so forgive me, but I just wanted to share some trailers for the games I’m excited about. I’m not too lazy for that!
First up is State of Decay 3, which is my favorite zombie franchise! There are a bajillion zombie game franchises out there, but State of Decay is my favorite.
State of Decay is a GTA-esque open world sandbox game is that all about scrambling for resources and maintaining a community. Despite what the trailer shows you, action and gunfire aren’t a big part of the game. At least they weren’t big parts of the first two games. It’s about having a big, open world and an established camp, and then taking a vehicle and what few weapons you’ve found and heading out into the world to raid warehouses and broken down grocery stores to find the supplies you need to get your camp and people through another day.
It’s also one of those games where you control everybody in camp. You don’t just have one singular protagonist, you can switch between everybody! And then there’s perma-death! So it’s real nifty.
Glad to see it’s coming for Playstation, my current gaming device of choice. And it’s coming next year. Sounds good!
Next up, here’s a new look at the Fable reboot.
This one has been moved to next year to avoid GTA6, which is fine by me. Between Wolverine in September and GTA6 in November, I was planning to skip Fable at launch. Everything I’ve seen so far has me excited for a big, spacious, interactive open world — just gotta wait and confirm they’ve got all the kinks worked out.
Fable is coming in February.
There’s a new Gears of War, this one called E-Day for Emergence Day. Not sure why they’ve decided to go backwards in the timeline, but it’s not a big deal and I’m sure it doesn’t matter. I don’t need strict continuity in my GoW games.
Will probably play. The last time I had a core gaming group of friends was back in some of the early GoW games. We had a blast playing matches and getting through the story. Those were good times. So yeah, I’ll probably play this one, though probably not with my old crew. I think I’ve played every GoW so far.
Gears of War: E-Day comes out…oh! Oct 6! And not for Playstation, just for X-Box and PC. I’ll figure it out.
Lastly is Star Wars: Zero Company, which is Star Wars dipping its toes into X-Com.
The X-Com games were super fun! They’re tactile, squad-based game maps. I’m going to love adding Star Wars to that mix, with at least one Jedi on the playing field. That should be a hoot. I definitely recommend the X-Com games to anyone looking for a neat challenge. I’m sure they’re very on sale these days.
Very excited for Zero Company. And it comes out on Aug. 27! So perhaps I’ll play that in between Crimson Desert and Wolverine.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6 Video Game to Movie Adaptations That Don’t Have to Suck
One year from now, the Warcraft movie will arrive in theaters and hopefully put all other video game movie adaptations to shame. And the Assassin’s Creed movie will apparently start filming this Fall. Both of those could be brilliant, or at least that’s what I’m hoping. Until then, we’re going to have to make due with that Adam Sandler movie that’s based off that one episode of Futurama. Video games and movies just don’t go together all that well, for some reason.
So I’m here to tell you that it can be done! I have a few ideas.
Watch the Rifftrax, it’s really good
Considering some of the best video games are already pretty cinematic, I don’t see why it’s so hard to adapt a killer video game into an awesome movie. But whether they change everything completely, like the Resident Evil series, or play things way too straight, like the Mortal Kombat series, or just go insane, like the Mario Bros. movie, Hollywood just can’t seem to get video games right.
Join me after the jump for six video game to movie adaptations that I think would actually be pretty cool.
What’s Jay Up to Nowadays?
Jason Mewes – of Jay and Silent Bob fame – will be starring later this month in a movie about competitive video gaming called Noobz…which I’m pretty sure is supposed to sound like ‘boobs’. And if that’s what they were going for, they definitely succeeded.
The movie will be released in theaters on Jan. 25, with January being the typical dumping grounds for bad movies. I don’t expect it to be any good, it’s just nice to know that Jason Mewes is still getting work, plus the game appears to be about a Gears of War tournament. My friends and I used to play Gears of War online all the time. We were semi-good, and it was a blast. So maybe this will be some kind of guilty pleasure movie.
And judging by the poster, they were definitely going for ‘boobs’.
And why shouldn’t they?
My 6 Favorite Video Game Characters
In honor of Wreck-It Ralph, this week’s blog list is all about my favorite video game characters! Though sadly, none of them appeared in the movie. Still, being the huge fan I am of fiction and storytelling, I actually pay a lot of attention to the stories and characters in video games. It’s not just all about mashing buttons for me. These are characters for whom I’ll go out of my way to play, or I’ll pick them all the time when it comes to gaming. Sometimes with annoying frequency.
None of these dinguses made the list
A lot of video games have a surprisingly deep mythology around them. Heck, even Angry Birds has the backstory of the pigs stealing the birds’ eggs – or something. And I often like to immerse myself in these stories. One of the biggest reasons I love World of Warcraft so much is because of the story and the lore. It helps that some of these games get cartoon shows, novels, comics or movies to help expand the story. Not that any of those things has particularly explained why King Koopa will kidnap Princess Peach in one game, and then race go-karts or play soccer with her in the next.
Mario even invites both of them to his frequent parties, as if that won’t make for an awkward evening. But questionable decisions by plumbers aside, here are my six favorite video game characters!
My 6 Favorite Fictional Weapons
I’m not much of a weapons man in real life. My family never owned guns and I never went hunting. I never got my parents to sign me up for any cool ninja sword classes. I never even got to use my dad’s chainsaw when I helped him gather wood all those times. But like most every boy on the planet, you better believe every stick or toy I found turned me into a Ninja Turtle. Every cardboard tube was an instant lightsaber. It’s just the way of the world.
Don’t worry, she’s from the Internet, she will protect us
And while real life weapons are cool, fictional weapons are even cooler! Imaginations run wild and think up some of the greatest, coolest, wildest tools imaginable, and we’d all sell important body parts just to own them. Some people may want jetpacks or flying cars to be invented, but I want these 6 awesome fictional weapons!
Henchman-4-Hire 