So there is this new RTS game, Meridian: New World, and it’s being made by ONE GUY! No seriously, all of it, ONE GUY, a Mr Ede Tarsoly. Watch this trailer and if your mouth isn’t dropping from the crazy thought that ONE GUY has built all of this…. well then you hate kittens…. or something. Seriously check this out, it’s incredible.
Meridian: New World is coming soon for PC.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
Playstation Access has done this very cool video comparing the size of the Launch PS3 and the Launch PS4. To see that we are not getting another George Forman Grill, take a look at the video to see how they compare.
So after seeing this side by side video what do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
Today, Playstation Access released this fantastic video showing off the PS4 like you have never seen it before. Check it out below.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
Night of the Rabbit is sort of like a cross between Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. Daedalic Entertainment does a wonderful job of capturing the wonder and excitement of being a child and manages to add in just enough mystery and whimsy to take you on a memorable journey. This is a beautiful game that can be enjoyed by a wide range of people, both young and old, with only a few pacing and illogical puzzle issues stopping it from being a classic.
You start the game as a young boy, Jerry Hazelnut, who wishes for nothing more than to be a wizard. It is this boy’s imagination that leads him into the woods near, what appears to be, an early 20th century British city. It is in these woods, that Jerry Hazelnut meets the mysterious rabbit magician, Marquis, who then offers young Jerry Hazelwood the chance to become a real magician. From this begins a journey, filled with characters, who do a wonderful job of fleshing out the story. Many hold secrets of magic and ancient mystery. Very rarely are you sure of the intentions of the characters you meet, and quite often you will be left wondering if they are friend or foe, and what exactly is your role in this mysterious world. The story uses a unique method of using the regular world and a different, “magical” world, which are like two different sides of the same coin. Both worlds go a long way in conveying the duality of everything and create a fantastic feeling of magic, mystery, and intrigue.
The art style and direction in this game are fantastic, which is a big reason why I was drawn to it in the first place. The artists have managed to capture the feeling of being young and full of wonder in the art. The sheer creativity here, as well as the detail, look like something out of a children’s book. They chose to use bright, vivid colours, and they have filled the environments with plenty of detail. The love and attention given to the art, only gets more awe inspiring the deeper into the story you get. They also manage to keep the locations varied and fresh as the game goes on, from forests and fields, to snowy mountains, and others.
Before you get to this wonderful art and intriguing story though, you have to start at the beginning. This unfortunately, is a bit of a slow starter. There is quite a bit of reading and using a radio to go over the tutorial with you felt a bit odd. The way this game starts off, and the visuals, would almost make you think this game was aimed at younger kids, but due in part to the difficulty of some of the puzzles, as well as how vast the story becomes, tells me that was not the target audience.
Night of the Rabbit is a point and click adventure game, and if you have ever played this type of game, you understand that sometimes these games can get confusing, and at times, downright frustrating. Sometimes it is about what stick you picked up and who you gave it to, or the order in which you did it. More often than not, it is less about solving a puzzle, and more about trying every talk, give, set down, and pick up every combination you can think of. For example, near the beginning, you are given a quest via a slightly confusing riddle, and expected to figure it out. In order to do so, you need to do this quest in a very specific order, do it out of order and it doesn’t work, so a bit of trial and error is needed. Now this isn’t indicative of every quest, as most make sense as to how to continue, but there were a few that left me scratching my head and trying to endlessly click though everything, wasting my time and impeding my progress. Now this wouldn’t be such an issue, but the “hint” feature borders on useless. Besides explaining what your main goal is, well that’s really all it does. If you are stuck, it does very little to help nudge you in the right direction, this left me on a few occasions wishing that it helped more than it did.
But the few adventure game niggles aside, this is a game that is rewarding to play, and has a story that makes you want to see it through. The pace starts with so many questions, and throughout the game, you want to keep moving forward to see how those will be answered. There are some genuinely unique and original characters, and the writing is superb and wonderfully believable. The story has some wonderful twists and turns, and they go far in creating a magical and memorable journey.
Few games these days try so hard to tell such a unique and whimsical tale. The story of a boy growing up, learning, and battling the forces that would seek to corrupt him. This is not a game for everyone, but if you can look past the few adventure game frustrations, and the slow start, you will be treated to a magical world, incredible art, great voice acting, brilliant score, and a story worth sticking around for. Few games have made me feel like a little kid again, discovering a new world, like this game has.
Night of the Rabbit is available now on Steam for PC and Mac.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
In a move that came out of left field, today Microsoft announced that they would be reversing their controversial DRM policies in regards to the Xbox One. This morning, Don Mattrick, President, Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft wrote this.
Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.
For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.
Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.
You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.
So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.
These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.
We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.
Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.
So ladies and gentlemen, does this change your mind in the upcoming PS4 vs Xbox One battle?
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
Ladies and Gentlemen, if there is one movie you go see this summer, go see Man of Steel. I have been waiting my whole life for a Superman movie that would be as big and grandiose as I felt a Superman movie deserves to be. Finally, with the combined star power of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan, we have that film. They have managed to take Superman from the Campy, very comic, borderline terrible (we loved them because we didn’t know any better) films of the past, and transform him into this absolutely incredible, grounded, more serious, yet still fun, epic film we have today.
This is an origins film, but it is a reboot of the Superman franchise. They manage to tell Superman’s origin in a way that feels fresh, not overly drawn out, and is exciting for both fan and non-fan alike. The beginning on Krypton, is visually breathtaking, and does a great job of Introducing Russell Crowe as Jor-El, as well as Michael Shannon as General Zod. From there we are shown, through flashbacks, a young Clark Kent, and are treated to a bit of insight into how difficult it was growing up with these strange powers, and how important the moral guidance from the Kent family was. They took some liberties here with the mythos, and just like anytime you make changes to a character like this, some fans will hate it, and others, will accept and enjoy it. Personally, I felt they were acceptable changes and only served to strengthen my enjoyment of the film.
This movie has some absolutely INCREDIBLE battle scenes. I mean never have I seen anything like it. The scale of the destruction from the fights… WOW. Zack Snyder and company NAILED these fight scenes. You can tell the love and care they put into them, the sense of scale is just mind-blowing. I think my mouth just hung open in awe for almost the second half of this film. We have seen some pretty epic battle scenes recently (Avengers anyone?) but nothing prepared me for the raw visceral kick that this film produced. They are big, HUGE, over the top battles, and I loved every second of them.
Part of what makes the battle scenes so believable is the music and sound. Hans Zimmer did a wonderful job of the score, the music really sets the tone, and he really went to the next level to make every scene feel so surreal and legendary. The sound effects in this film, with all the different battle scenes and special effects, simply shines. You will want to see this movie in the best quality cinema possible, it is worth it.
I feel as though they did a great job casting this film. Henry Cavill is a wonderful Superman, not only does he look and act the part, but I felt that he did a great job of conveying the emotional side of the character as well. Micheal Shannon is a fantastic General Zod, delivering a legendary performance and truly selling the character to the audience. When I first heard Amy Adams was Lois Lane I was nervous, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about, as she does a great job of being that brave, plucky reporter that we know and love. She and Clark have great chemistry together and it really goes a long way in the film to create attachment with these characters. There was the odd character throughout the film that felt a little campy (mainly a daily bugle reporter or two) but overall I was very pleased with the acting in this film.
After having seen this film, I couldn’t come up with any real gripes that I had. There will be people out there that will hate on the mythos changes, but I personally found them acceptable, enjoyable even. There will be some who will hate on it because it’s so unrealistic, Ummm guys, it is a film about aliens, and super-powered beings, so of course it will be unrealistic. I am sure that there will be the people that will hate on it because this is a more serious, less campy Superman, they will say it doesn’t “feel” like a Superman film. All I can say to that is, FINALLY, the Superman movie I have been waiting for my whole life, has finally arrived. When someone asks if I want to see it again, the answer will be an astounding, YES.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
During Ubisoft’s E3 press conference yesterday, they announced a new open world action RPG called The Division. It appears to be a 3rd person action RPG set after the effects of a bio terrorist event has gone off. It is looking crazy good. Take a look at this gameplay video and screens to see what i mean.
The Division will be coming to next gen consoles, no release date has been given yet.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
After much media speculation, Sony revealed tonight, during their press conference at E3, that the PS4 will launch this holiday season for $399. That puts it a solid 100$ less then the Xbox One. So between the price, and the total lack of any used game restrictions, Sony looks to be aiming for a price sensitive sweet spot, and dare I say, they are hitting it. Start, these console wars have!
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
Today, in a shocking E3 reveal, Sony announced its used game policy and created a video to show you how exactly this will work.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, It will work the exact same way it works now. No online checks, no needing to call home every 24 hours, your disk based games work exactly as they do right now. If you want to trade in your games, trade away my fellow gamers. They also stated that unless you’re playing a MMO (Massively Online Game) you will not need to be connected to the Internet. So, for those of you out there who don’t have your consoles connected online, breathe easy my friends, Sony has you covered.
Today at E3 Sony unveiled the console hardware for the PS4. I personally really like it, it’s rather unassuming, but looks sharp. Instead of me blathering on about the hardware, why don’t I just show you.
What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.
By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody
GEEKOHOLICS 
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