Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes F2P

Gamespot has let loose with some information about the latest MMO Giant to turn to the Dark Side (known as Free-2-Play, although that in itself is debatable).

Sad times for everyone involved I'm sure, it's just not been performing well enough under it's pay-monthly subscription scheme and is now being forced to include a free-to-play system. All past subscribers will be credited with premium currency depending on: if you bought the Collector's Edition AND the number of months you subscribed for (more details here).

S.W.Tortanic is sinking.

I really wanted this game to succeed, I bought this game on launch and I even played solidly for a month. There was nothing to keep me hooked, the story was pretty much the only hook. The gameplay was dated and basically the exact same as World Of Warcraft.

A Night in with Rusty Hearts

Title: Rusty Hearts
Developer: Stairway Games
Platform: PC

Rusty Hearts is an online side-scrolling beat-'em-up and fully co-op-able with a bunch of friends. Now downloadable on Steam and totally Free-2-Play.

This video is a year old so it's probably very different now. New characters and such. We'll update this at some point.

"Devil May Cry but with friends and online!" 

A Night in with Bastion (Part 1)

Title: Bastion
Developer: Supergiant Games
Platform: 360/PC

Digging up some entertaining videos from the past. Bastion is an isomentric, mission based, action game with some light RPG elements in it. Recently appeared as part of the latest Humble Bundle.

"Come and enjoy it with us kid."

Top 5 Silent Hill Monsters

Just a bit of fun in the wake of the excitement for the upcoming movie this October. I will be reflecting on the series and the grotesque beasts that have spawned forth from the twisted minds behind the games.


SPOILERS, ahoy. If you've not really played the Silent Hill games then I suggest you go play them and enjoy them, then we'll all be on the same page.

When he's got a giant spear it's best to just mind your own business.

Silent Hill: Sean Bean Can't Survive Again

Title: Silent Hill: Revelations 3D
Director: Michael J. Bassett
Release Date: 26th Oct (US), 31st Oct (UK)

As a long term follower of the Silent Hill video game series I thoroughly enjoyed the 2006 movie directed by Christophe Gans. Not necessarily revelling in its artistic decisions to deviate from the original source but enjoying the visual experience of the movie and how it captures all the elements that I feel makes up Silent Hill.

Someone has really good artistic skills when it comes to leaving threatening messages written in blood.

So here we are again, hype and expectations for the second instalment are definitely at a high. Provided they can deliver a similar experience to the first movie, it can't go wrong. Here's where my concerns start, the writer has changed as has the director. Not a good start.

Krazy Korean Film: The Chaser

No doubt that all of you, like me, have seen their fair share of crazy non-sensical Asian films, from killer hair extensions to mutated fish and meatball machines. But every so often you stumble across a little gem. This film is that little gem. In my opinion one of the best Korean films since Old Boy.

Directed by Hong-jin Na and starring Yeong-hie Seo, Yun-seok Kim and Jung-woo Ha. Joong-ho is a dirty ex-cop who became a pimp who, due to having several of his girls go missing, is in major financial trouble. He discovers that all the girls who disappeared were requested by the same guy with whom one of his girls is  meeting with right now! Soon the race is on!

Facebook Presents: Space Pokémon (Outernauts)

Farmville, Cityville and Villeville. Social games don't have a good reputation and with good reason. Many of them don't extend beyond basic clones of Tetris or Bejewelled and they never really have depth to them. The ones that are a bit more extensive end up caught in the web of "you must invite x number of friends to proceed". Here is the latest game in the Facebook world.

Outernauts is a Facebook game designed by Insomniac Games, creators of the Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance.

This all seems familiar...

The game follows a simple system: befriend space monsters, then use them to fight and capture more space monsters. Sounding familiar? There will also be other space monster trainers - other Outernauts to compete against. Yeah, okay, it's Pokémon in space.

Complete with evolution, 4 moves per monster and double battling. Even the battle transition is scarily similar. But none of these things are a bad thing and I'm certainly not about to call "cheap-knock-off", it definitely is a tribute and is tastefully done and well fleshed out. Pokémon fans will be pleased to play this while they wait for the next installment of their beloved franchise.

Movie Talk: The Dark Knight Rises

They should rename it "Why the hell can't I hear anyone speak?: The Movie" and who gave Deckard Cain (of Diablo fame) a role in this movie? Does Chris Nolan finish his trilogy story with the intended bang or does  The Dark Knight fail to get a rise? Minor spoilers to follow.

As a huge Batman fan and a big fan of Nolan's Batman movies I had high hopes for this movie but I went in open minded. One theme that definitely continues from the previous movies is the idea of 'escalation' - everything in this movie is bigger and more impressive than the last.

Movie Talk: Amazing, Fantastical, Splendiferous Spider-Man

Let's cut to the chase. Did the movie live up to the hype? With three movies already under Spidey's belt in the form of the Maguire Trilogy, did Garfield leave his mark so that we might be blessed(/cursed) with another updated trilogy? Or are we reeling from another terrible Spider-Man 3 and force to shake our fists at the screen while doing our best Jon Arbuckle impression?

No major spoilers but beware if you're particularly sensitive to minor plot discussion, don't read - just go watch it.

Don't be so glum, Pete. All teenagers go through this phase.

Summer is Over

It's been a harrowing 10 days. I stapled my wallet shut just so that I wouldn't use it to buy every single cheap game that I saw in the Steam deals.

It didn't last long and I ended up picking up:

- Just Cause 2. Fun, sandbox game where you can parachute-grappling hook combo yourself as a means of transportation. Also a multiplayer mod is in beta currently so that's worth a look.


- The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. collection. Atmospheric, opressive, post-nuclear disaster survival simulator. GET OUT OF HERE, STALKER. Seriously good FPS series.


- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Metroidvania title with co-op. Speaks for itself.


- Evochron Mercenary. Space Pirate/Adventurer Sim. It's like Microsoft's Flight Sim combined with EVE Online... but Offline. Has co-op too.


- Arma 2. All for the mod: Day Z.

Diablo 3 Glitches

When you spend most of your life on Diablo 3 you come across the occasionally amusing glitch or bug. Nothing important to see here, just humour. Enjoy!

Scary Movie Night

It's Scary Movie Night and in this I will be briefly previewing a movie and telling you the ups and downs and convincing you to watch it.

(Warning: volume may be too loud, need to work out the kinks still).

Exte - Hair Extensions
Directed by Shion Sono
First Released: 17th February 2007

[Updated] Final Fantasy Versus Finally Confirmed Dead?

Originally intended to be a group of games involving the games we now know as Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy Versus has now rumoured to be finally canned.

Many fans will have already given up on the title after numerous no-shows at big industry events and a whole six years since it was announced and all we have is a trailer, some gameplay and some screenshots. You'd think after six years there would be at least a demo of sorts.

Nowadays Square Enix are always the butt of jokes about long development cycles and sub-par RPG games. Seems like we're relying on their Eidos side to provide the goods - probably the best investment Square Enix have made in a long time: looking forward to Hitman Absolution and the new Tomb Raider origins game.

The Co-Op Night #1

Blacklight: Retribution
Developer: Zombie Studios
Platform: PC


As someone who plays games a lot, I find the experience is enhanced 100-fold when you can play a game with one or more friends (it also helps if the game itself is good). So in these articles I'll be bringing you co-op games that I have enjoyed with my fellow gamers and introducing you to them.

Such a magnificent beast.

Today we'll be looking at Blacklight: Retribution (also known as BLR). A first-person shooter developed by Zombie Studios and recently made it's debut as a free-2-play game on Steam. Expect cash shops and a lot of negative attitudes, but a generally good game with high production values - most of all: fun!

Movie Talk (John Carter)

Title: John Carter

Theatre Release date: 9th March 2012

Home Media Release date: 5th June 2012

At first glance you see this movie and you'll think, "Epic! Aliens and sword-fighting! It must be good!". However, movies these days have a bad habit of showing all the good parts in their trailers.


This movie is not worth your hard-earned money for a cinema visit but I would recommend you give it a chance on home media or even through legal streaming media - this is especially true if you have children. This movie has a lot of colourful characters and good amount of action,it won't bore you but, essentially, the movie is a Disney live-action movie. Expect it to be child-friendly and avoid if Disney is not to your liking.

Je m'appelle John Carter

Steam Sales Begin!

The Steam Summer Sales are here! Hide your wallets!

Here are the Day 1 deals so far:

Let's all go give Valve our money. (Steam)

The Prodigal 7th Son Returns

There have been rumours for the past few weeks but it's finally been confirmed. Final Fantasy VII is getting a re-release on the PC. This time it comes complete with 3 new features: Achievements, Cloud Saves and a Character Booster.

1997, a great year for hair.

Google - Can You See What I See?

I've always been a bit of a technophile, being obsessed and excited about the direction of the industry and this new bit of technology being developed by Google is no different. Bringing us an "augmented reality head mounted display" edging us further into the realms of science-fiction.

Is he looking into the future?
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

This is the dream: augmented reality. Currently we have voice recognition working in unison with all the other Google commodities we've grown accustomed to, complete with video camera - all rolled into a little lens unit.

Scott Pilgrim... The Collectors Edition~

Have you guys heard of a little known thing called 'Scott Pilgrim?!'
Well, I bring to you a little bit of interesting news~ 


But first for those who don't know about the series. Scott Pilgrim was originally a series of graphic stories by Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Scott Pilgrim is a series of books spanning from 1-6 volumes from the years 2004 -2010. The graphic stories depict the life of 23 year old Scott Pilgrim, his love life and his band. (I won't go too much into it as I'm sure you all know what happens!) After the 6th and final installment of the books in 2010, it spawned many things- A hollywood movie (2010), A short Animation, A game (2010) and countless merch.


Without sounding TOO hipster (I totally was into the comic books before everyone else) I've loved the comics ever since I was introduced to them, and was kinda dreading the Hollywood movie (Michael Cera playing the lead?! Wasn't something I could picture well).



So any news about something knew to do with the series is a tad bitter sweet to me. I'm now getting the sense its being OVER done. How much longer can you milk this series?


The author Bryan Lee O'Malley announced today via his Twitter and tumblr, that he'll be releasing a Collectors Edition of Volume 1 of the series!...So! Am I excited?!
.....Not really!

Square No More

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Once Again Guilds At War

Title: Guild Wars 2

Release Date: 28th August 2012
 
Written by: Covalency

Guild Wars 2 is an interesting one to be sure, it follows many of the conventions of an MMO but where it breaks them is where it really shines. Skipping right to the inevitable comments: yes, it's awesome no doubt about that, but no it won't kill World of Warcraft - Blizzard are doing a fine job of that themselves.

You have to wonder why is it only now we're getting features like these when many of them have been common complaints in the genre and gaming for so many years.