Category Archives: Video Games

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.

Katie Plays Stuff: This Is The Police

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(First, some business. I have a new patron on Patreon! Christina Kortes (full disclosure: my sister) recently pledged five dollars a post. Please email a post idea to katjapants@gmail.com and I will write a post on it. If you would like to give me some money, you can go to my Patreon page or my PayPal. Thanks!)

This Is The Police shows you what it’s like to be a police chief for a corrupt force. And that experience is mostly really, really boring.

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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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Katie Plays Stuff: I Have Become A Pokemon Go Fiend

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pokemon go

Fun fact for you all: I had never actually played a Pokemon game. Of course, I’ve known something about the series for a while, mostly through a combination of cultural osmosis and having friends who’ve played them extensively, but it wasn’t really something I’d ever gotten into.

And then Pokemon Go was released on July 6, and needless to say I have become a fan.

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Shut Up And Take My Money: NES Mini

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NES Mini

As I may have mentioned before, my dad likes to post interesting things about video games he comes across to my Facebook page. Today, he posted this, an article about a miniature NES console. And now I need it in my life.

The NES Mini, as it’s currently being called, comes pre-loaded with thirty classic NES games. According to the above article, the games are as follows:

-Balloon Fight

-Bubble Bobble

-Castlevania & Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

-Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr.

-Double Dragon II: The Revenge

-Dr. Mario, Excitebike

-Final Fantasy

-Galaga

-Ghosts’ N Ghoblins

-Gradius

-Ice Climber.

-Kid Icarus

-Kirby’s Adventure

-Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, & Super Mario Bros. 3

-Mega Man 2

-Metroid

-Ninja Gaiden

-Pac-Man

-Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream

-StarTropics

-SUPER C

-Tecmo Bowl

-The Legend of Zelda & Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

I’m especially excited about the original Final Fantasy. I do have the Final Fantasy Origins edition that was released for PS1, but have never really had a chance to play the original version.

The NES Mini is set to release on November 11 for $59.99, which actually isn’t that bad of a price. Before seeing it, I would have expected it to retail for $100 or more.

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.

They’re Making A Final Fantasy VII Themed Monopoly Game

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ffvii monopoly

I saw this and thought it was a joke, but nope. Apparently this is a real thing that people will be able to buy with real money.

That’s…weird. Also, doesn’t it kind of miss the point of Final Fantasy VII? You know, considering that a pretty big number of the bad guys work for a giant power company that owns basically everything, is fucking up the planet, and is one of the root causes behind everything bad that happens in the game.

It’s going to be released sometime next year, it looks like. You can pre-order it at Merchoid, if you want to drop $50 for a board game.

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

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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.

Shut Up And Take My Money: Final Fantasy XII Getting HD Release

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Fun fact: I love Final Fantasy. It is probably my 2nd favorite game series, after Silent Hill. And while Final Fantasy XII isn’t my favorite game in the series (hello Final Fantasy X), it’s still pretty high on the list.

So imagine my utter joy at learning that it’s getting a PlayStation 4 HD re-release.

Titled Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, it’s set to include improvements to the visuals, as well as the score. It’s also going to include certain elements that were in the game’s International version that was not released in the US, mainly a tweaked leveling system that allows you to choose certain classes for the characters (in the original, all the characters could learn every skill, causing the party to feel somewhat homogenized after a while).

We don’t have an exact release date yet, besides being sometime next year. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this, though, and will definitely be buying it whenever it’s released.