Category Archives: News

Star Trek: Discovery Is Delayed, And I Am Sad

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Well, this is disappointing. According to EW, the premiere date for Star Trek: Discovery has been pushed from this upcoming May to…we don’t know when.

The series, which is set to take place a few years before the original series, recently cast The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green for the lead role. It was supposed to have premiered next month, but was pushed back to this upcoming May last September. This, combined with the fact that Bryan Fuller stepped down as showrunner in October, doesn’t really fill one with confidence.

They did announce that they’ll start production next week, however. They also announced that Sarek (aka Spock’s dad) will be playing a major role in the series, and will be played by actor James Frain. This does provide some hope, since I don’t believe that they would be making casting announcements for a show that won’t see the light of day. According to a statement relased by CBS:

“Production on Star Trek: Discovery begins next week. We love the cast, the scripts and are excited about the world the producers have created.  This is an ambitious project; we will be flexible on a launch date if it’s best for the show.  We’ve said from the beginning it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast. There is also added flexibility presenting on CBS All Access, which isn’t beholden to seasonal premieres or launch windows.”

So it does look like we’ll be getting Discovery, just not as soon as we had hoped.

Still, the fact that they pushed it back again, without giving us a release date, doesn’t bode particularly well. On the other hand, it may actually turn out to be a good thing if it results in a better program.

Time will tell.

Shut Up And Take My Money: Bioware Announces Release Date For Mass Effect: Andromeda

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Mass_Effect_Andromeda_cover

Earlier today, BioWare released information on their official website, finally giving us a release date for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Yes, us lucky North Americans will be able to experience the next installment of the Mass Effect series on March 21, 2017, with the rest of the world getting it on March 23.

Mass Effect: Andromeda, which is set 600 years after the Mass Effect trilogy, will feature an entirely open world. Like with the previous games in the series, the player can choose to play a male or female character, Scott or Sara Ryder. Unlike in the previous games, however, the two characters are actually siblings and both will play a major role in the action.

I’m actually quite excited about this. As I’ve said before, Mass Effect is one of my favorite series, and the trailer that was released on November 7 looks absolutely fantastic.

Michelle Yeoh Joins Cast of Star Trek: Discovery

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There’s been some news floating around that actress Michelle Yeoh has been cast  in the upcoming series Star Trek: Discovery.

According to an article on EW.com, one of the show’s producers Nicholas Meyer let the news slip during an interview; however CBS Television studios has declined to confirm the casting choice. Still, seeing who this news is coming from it seems like it’s pretty legit.

Meyer has stated that Michelle Yeoh will be playing a captain, but not the captain of the Discovery. Instead, she will be playing Captain Han Bo of the starship Shenzhou, but that she will “play a significant role in the show’s first season,” according to the EW article linked above.

Discovery was originally set to launch in January 2017, but due to issues finding the right cast as well as Bryan Fuller stepping down as showrunner, it was pushed back to May 2017. The series is set to follow a female lieutenant commander on board the eponymous vessel, about 10 years prior to the original series.

Personally, I’m very excited about this news. Michelle Yeoh is an actress that I quite like, and I count Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon among my favorite movies. Her casting also affirms Discovery’s commitment to having a diverse cast.

Plus, it’s also one of the first pieces of news that we’ve had about the first Star Trek series in over a decade since announcing the delay, which is definitely a sign to the positive.

Bioware Has Put Out A New Andromeda Trailer, And It Is Awesome

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(Just as an aside: It’s election day in the US! Are you a citizen and over 18? Vote! Seriously, get out there and vote, you motherfuckers.)

me andromeda

I quite enjoy Mass Effect. It’s definitely one of my favorite game series (though I still need to finish the third game. There are a lot of games that I have that I need to finish, actually.) So naturally I was very excited when Mass Effect: Andromeda was announced last year.

And for N7 Day this year, Bioware gave us a new cinematic trailer for the game:

First off, I’d like to stay that looks very pretty.

It also does a good job of showing what we’re in for with this game, which takes place about 600 years after the original trilogy.  Basically the player chooses between two siblings as the playable character as they navigate the dangers of the Andromeda galaxy. It also looks like it’s going to be completely open world.

The game doesn’t have a set release date yet, other than the vague spring 2017. Still, I’ll be looking forward to it whenever it comes out.

Shut Up And Take My Money: Nintendo Reveals Its Next Console

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Nintendo revealed its newest console today, and it actually looks pretty interesting.

Previously referred to as the NX, the console is going to be released under the name Switch. Looking at the video, this makes sense: it looks like it’s going to be a hybrid between a handheld and TV-based console.

The console (which has a built-in screen) rests in a dock, where it connects to a TV. However, when it’s out of the dock, you can attach controllers to it and carry it around like a handheld device. So far, it looks like there’s a decent lineup of games so far. Naturally, the next Legend of Zelda looks like it’s coming to the Swtich, and I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of people playing Skyrim in the above video. There’s even a rumor that Blizzard may be releasing Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft to the console (although this has not been confirmed by neither Blizzard nor Nintendo).

Personally, I think the idea of a handheld/console hybrid is pretty cool. There are a lot of console games that I would love to be able to take with me while I’m on the go. It also seems to be cartridge-based like the DS and 3DS, which also leads to the possibility of backwards compatibility.

I actually really kind of want one. Alas, we shall have to wait until March before it becomes available.

Footage From Cancelled Silent Hill Game Emerges

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So, some footage from a scrapped Silent Hill game for the PS3 from 2006 has emerged. Entitled Silent Hill: Broken Covenant, the game would’ve been an exclusive for the console developed by Climax. Climax also developed the fairly well-received Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the somewhat less well-received Silent Hill: Origins.

Apparently the game would have followed a priest named Hector Santos who’s called to a town in Arizona by his niece Anna. Apparently, said town is in the process of being taken over by the same evil infecting Silent Hill after that town’s resident cult decides to set up shop there. Apparently, after it didn’t get picked up, some changes were made (apparently Anna was set up to be the next Alessa, for some reason), only to be rejected again.

A lot of the assets in the video are obvious placeholders (the player character is actually Travis from Origins and the song “Maternal Heart” from Silent HIll 3 is used in some places). That doesn’t bother me too much Also, according to the commentary in the video, Pyramid Head and nurses (both of which appeared in way too many other games).

All in all, I’m not terribly impressed by this. From what we know of the plot, it sounds a lot like the first game (and that story’s been pounded into the dirt). I’m also disappointed by the return of Pyramid Head and the cult in general, as I feel they’ve been overused in the Western Silent Hill games and comics. The game taking place in a desert seems interesting, although it makes me think more of Welcome To Night Vale than Silent Hill. I wonder if the members of Silent Hill’s cult wear soft meat crowns?

Of course, as with Silent Hills, we’ll never really get to know how good it would’ve been.

Horror Title Allison Road Comes Back To Life

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aliisonroad

My first thought upon hearing the title Allison Road was “Isn’t that a song by the Gin Blossoms?” And yes. Yes it is. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

Rather, what we’re talking about is the spiritual successor to P.T., the “playable teaser” for a then-upcoming Silent Hill game directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro that was unceremoniously cancelled because Konami doesn’t know a good thing when they see it (and yes, I’m still bitter about this). Despite having a successful Kickstarter campaign,  the game was cancelled in June.

Well, apparently the UK developer who was working on the game, Lillith, LTD, has decided to revive the project.

It sounds like the project was cancelled due to a falling out with then publisher Team 17. However, it looks like Lillith Ltd has located a new publisher for the title in Far From Home. This, according to creator Christian Kesler, also gave the team some time to go over and make some changes to the story and generally tweak it a bit (from the linked PC Gamer article):

“It did take a bit of soul searching to find the drive again to work on Allison Road and to simply make a call on what to do next,” Kesler said. “After the setback, I took a bit of a break from working on it and re-evaluated all the work that had been done so far—the whole journey, so to speak. I started making a few (in my opinion) necessary changes to the story and the flow, little bits and pieces here and there, and before I knew it, it sort of naturally came back to life.”

I, admittedly, hadn’t really paid all that much attention to the project when it was originally announced last year (for which I am now kicking myself). See, I love horror, and I love video games, so it would stand to reason that I love horror video games. Watching the prototype, I definitely see some shades of P.T., but more in-depth, with voice acting and more interaction with objects.

I am getting pretty excited about this. There has been a dearth of good horror games recently, and from what I have seen of this project, it looks like Lillith Ltd has what it takes to pull this off.

Gamer Asshole May Go To Prison Over Threats

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You know, with all the recent news that’s been coming out about bullshit like harassment and threats, I’m starting to think that maybe the Internet was a mistake.

What I’m talking about this time is the fact that some douche in Sacramento named Stephen Cebula apparently thought that it was a good idea to send a very threatening message to Blizzard saying he was going to shoot up the place with an AK-47.

What prompted his sending the popular game publisher these threats? The fact that they silenced him (basically rescinded his ability to use chat functions) in Heroes of the Storm.

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YouTuber Gives Undertale to the Pope

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I am honestly so amused by this. So, a YouTuber named MatPat (who is one of the people behind the Game Theorists channel on YouTube) got the opportunity to go to Rome and (amongst others) talk to Pope Francis about the Internet and how it brings people together. Now, it’s tradition for people who go to see the Pope to bring a gift of some sort.

MatPat gave the Pope a Steam code for Toby Fox’s Undertale.

The above video detailing why is actually quite interesting. He talks about out-group homogeneity bias and how Undertale actively subverts it by giving the group designated “monsters” their own personalities and through its emphasis on non-violence. You can play the game as a standard RPG, where you basically kill every monster you meet, but that nets you the bad ending, whereas playing as a pacifist nets you the best ending in the game.

So, he gave it to the Pope largely because of this focus on solving problems without violence. This makes sense. I wonder if the Pope actually played it? I’m thinking probably not (MatPat himself says that it was mostly a symbolic gesture), but still it’s a pretty amusing image.

And all this makes me want to play Undertale now.

Shut Up And Take My Money: Persona 5 Gets US Release Date

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p5

So, not only is Final Fantasy XII getting a re-release next year, but now we finally know when Persona 5 is coming to the US? It’s like RPG fan Christmas.

The game will be hitting US stores on (for the PlayStation 3 and 4) on February 2, 2014. This is, of course, Valentine’s Day, in case you care about that sort of thing. There is, of course, a special edition of the game that will be released as well, which includes things like the game’s soundtrack, a plushie of one of the characters, and even a book bag for those who want to shell out the extra money.

I’m actually pretty excited about this. While I didn’t really get much of a chance to play the first two games of the series, Persona 3 and 4 are two of my favorite games. And seeing as how this entry was announced in 2011, it’s about damn time.

Now if only we could get an actual release date for Kingdom Hearts III, that would be great.