Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Life And Times Of

What have I been up to lately, while Apocalypse POW! has been on hiatus? Quite a lot, and thanks for asking.

· Bioshock: Infinite. This is the big one - I've been waiting YEARS for this game, and the day of release has finally arrived. I got my copy yesterday but haven't had much of a chance to play yet (work, went out for all-you-can-eat Sushi with the fiancee, came home and watched New Girl, and then went to bed) but what little I have played has been spectacular. I can't comment much on the story or even the gameplay, since I'm still looking for Elizabeth and thus technically going through the intro, but this game just oozes quality and polish. I have no doubt that Irrational Games put an immense amount of talent, effort and testing into Bioshock: Infinite, and I can't wait to get a chance to really get into it. Sadly, that probably won't be this weekend, as I have out-of-town family obligations, but hopefully it'll be soon.

· This is a huge, huge weekend for TV. Not only is it the third series finale of The Walking Dead, but season three of Game of Thrones and the back half of season seven of Doctor Who also start airing. It's a good time to be a geek. I have to say, I've been enjoying the hell out of this season of The Walking Dead. After the very spotty and uneven second season at the farmhouse (which was altogether dull and populated by irrational and unlikeable characters, but was peppered with the occasional brilliant moment), I've been relatively impressed. The Governor has been handled well, the introduction of Michonne (and to a lesser extent Tyreese) has satisfied my comic-book-nerd expectations, and the writing has been getting better with every episode. I'm excited for the finale but dreading having to wait a year for season four.

· On February 4th, the very day it came out, Heather went out and bought me Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS. I've been playing it daily ever since, and I can't recommend it to you 3DS owners enough. It's the first 3DS game released since the system was introduced that I would consider a must-play - I've never even been into tactical RPGs all that much, but Fire Emblem: Awakening is just incredible. One word of advice, though: unless you want to beat your head against the wall in frustration, don't play with perma-death options enabled. I made this mistake during my first game - which lasted about two hours - and was perilously close to flinging my 3DS into the wall. It wasn't until I started over in Casual mode that I was able to really get into it.

· I was accepted into the beta for the Android game Ingress this morning. Ingress is an augmented-reality mobile game, in which one joins either the Resistance or the Enlightened, and various objects like energy and portals are overlaid on a map of your city. I haven't been much of a fan of mobile games - controls tend to be wonky, and I just haven't found any that really grab me - but Ingress is a horse of a different color. I've only played around with it a bit on my transit into work today, and it definitely needs some polish (it sometimes doesn't want to pinpoint my actual location, for example, and even when I'm standing still my icon moves around quite a bit) but the concept is appealing and I'm sure they'll work out the kinks in time.

That's about it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something relevant, but that sums up what's taking up much of my time and attention these days.

Monday, March 25, 2013

DuckTales: Remastered HD

Apocalypse POW! is still technically in a holding pattern, but in the meantime, I wanted to post a handful of things I've been sitting on lately, starting with this. Announced last week, here is the teaser trailer for the upcoming high-definition remake of the classic NES game DuckTales, out sometime this summer. The remastered edition will be available through the Wii U eShop, XBLA and PSN, with a very good chance it'll be coming to Steam at some point as well.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this. There were a lot of games that I loved as a kid, but DuckTales was - for a while at least - my absolute favorite. It was pretty tough, I'll give it that, but that just made it all the more satisfying when I beat it.

I guess I was about eleven when DuckTales first aired, and the Nintendo game came out a year later. Even at that young age, I was well aware that videogame tie-ins to established properties were generally not good, but for some reason Disney's Nintendo games, probably thanks to Capcom's involvement, were always top-notch. I played the hell out of DuckTales and despite the occasionally wonky controls, it was my go-to game for at least a year.

It seems like remastering and re-releasing games is a thing lately: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix and Final Fantasy X \ X-2 HD Remaster are both in the pipeline for the PS3 and are due to be released the near future, and I'm sure there are other games due for HD treatment as well. Which makes it all the more awesome that Capcom is digging into the vaults for a gem like DuckTales to polish up and release.

I'm gonna get my nostalgia on SO HARD when this finally hits.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Still On Hiatus

Hey guys - I know there's something self-defeating in posting about being on hiatus while still on hiatus, but I just wanted to let you know... I'm still on hiatus. I have so much cool stuff to post, but until Photobucket gets their act together, I'm taking a break from things.

Photobucket is claiming that the feature I need is one of their top-requested features right now, and should be coming "in the next couple of weeks". I'm guardedly optimistic.

At any rate, things will return to normal relatively soon.