Orangepixel Games: Meganoid Reboot Coming in 2017!

Today, the one man development team called Orangepixel has announced that not only has he been working on the post-apocalyptic Ashworld, but he's also been working on a Meganoid reboot.

With this reboot Orangepixel intends to take the great simple ideas from the original and its sequel and adding as much new and interesting extra content in as possible.  There will now be some story, inventory items such as skills like a double jump to obtain, and a rogue-like element to round out the overall improved experience.

Returning to his beloved Meganoid series, Orangepixel has been working on a new level generator akin to that of Spelunky's.  Levels will now be partially designed and partially procedurally generated, resulting in near limitless and unique challenges to play through.

This gorgeous looking reboot is currently only slated for a general 2017 release.

Meganoid [ Free to play ] or [ Premium for $2.57 ] via Google Play.

Meganoid 2 [ Free to play ] [ Premium for $2.54 ] via Google Play

Source Orangepixel Techblog

Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City: The Final DLC Announcement Trailer & Thoughts

     Dark Souls has been going strong for years now, and Bandai Namco and FromSoft have released the most recent trailer.  The final DLC of the entire series is titled The Ringed City, and touts a new world, new enemies, bosses, armors, weapons, and magic- all at the end of the world, and at the end of the age of fire.

     According to the official description:

"At the close of the Age of Fire, as the world ends and all lands converge upon themselves, a lone adventurer descends into the madness of the earth and uncovers the secrets of the past. As players make their way to the fabled Ringed City they will encounter ancient beasts, a new cast of characters teetering on the edge of insanity, new armor, weapons, magic, and at the bottom of it all, a long lost city filled with new horrors for players to overcome."

     The Ringed City looks like we'll finally get to see the city of hollows itself, Londor.  It also makes me wonder, was that tall woman with the crumbling jar thing Velka?  Regardless, I'm super excited for this last installment, and looking forward to what other games FromSoft will move towards after this.  Though, I do hope this last DLC will offer us answers to questions from long ago, as well as point to the future.  Maybe the end of the age of fire means their new dark fantasy game will be from the age of water Aldrich dreamed of.

     As much as I liked Ashes of Ariandel, I have to truly hope that they can match the scope of Bloodborne's Old Hunters DLC which was unbelievably well thought out and executed.

     Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City arrives on March 28th for $14.99.

          (Or as part of the DLC Season Pass for $24.99)

Logan: Trailer 2: Quick Thoughts and X-23 in Action

     The second trailer for Hugh Jackman's last Wolverine film has arrived, and Logan is looking good.

     The new direction the series is taking appears to be a welcome departure from the pure action of the other films and moving towards a traditional old western type feel.  I have to say I like the girl they cast as Laura "X-23" Kinney.  She seems to have the role down well, although some of the flips and jumps in scenes look like ridiculous wire-work (same for Logan himself).

     All in all, this should be a better movie than the last few, hopefully better than X-Men: Apocalypse as well.  I mean there's a few odd looking shots that definitely don't look "right" (as I said the absurd flips/jumps always look "wrong or off"), but other than that the story appears to be cut down to the essentials which bodes quite well for how poorly it's been handled in the past.

     Another thing I'd like to wonder about is Professor X.  I have a sneaky suspicion that he's "Sixth Sense-d" himself into the mind of Logan.  Or what if he's got Dementia or Alzheimer's- think of how dangerous someone with telepathy would be on that scale.  There's the potential for him to inadvertently kill, mind wipe, or cause mass hallucinations to everyone around him.  That could be a truly staggering story if handled properly.  I won't cross my fingers on that one though.

     Logan Arrives in Theaters on March 3.

Red Dog: Issue 2 Review (451 Entertainment)

PAST

     451 Entertainment's newest series Red Dog is brought to us by the talented writers Rob Cohen (of XXX and The Fast and the Furious fame) and Andi Ewington (writer of SIX, Sunflower, Ex Mortis, as well as his criminally under-appreciated series Overrun), and featuring art by Rob Atkins and colors by John Rauch.

PRESENT

     Red Dog is the story of Kyle, the only kid on the inhospitable planet Kirawan.  Kyle describes it as the "worst place imaginable" because Kirawan is a giant desert wasteland, devoid of water and oxygen.
     He's one of the mining colony of almost 200 souls sent to mine for the highly sought after time-altering element Imperium, and suffers the loneliness that plagues many young people in an adult world.  He has no real friends, perpetually getting in trouble, and always attempting to fit in.  A typical kid.  Fortunately he has a faithful robotic-canine companion in the form of Q, short for Quantum, the titular Red Dog to keep him company.

     After the cliffhanger ending of the first issue, this issue starts off with a large dose of action.  Right away Q saves Kyle from the onslaught of attacking natives.  The insectile race of natives have been making trouble for the mining colony, threatening the stability of the bio-dome they reside in, and they are warded off by some quick thinking, heavy weapons, and a helping hand from a great beast (and nice homage to Dune) from this twin-sunned world.
     Later, Kyle's parents argue, and he mopes.  His father has insurmountable standards he feels he'll never meet.  But his Uncle Jake has something special for Kyle's birthday.  Not only did he make Q, but now he's given him 5 more robotic dog siblings.  They of course get an immediate make over, and shortly thereafter they get busted during some play time.

FUTURE

     The struggle for survival is tough out in the far reaches of space and I'm sure we'll see much more of the natives and their interactions with the human colony.  We can't yet say for sure why they are so hostile, and we could learn a lot in the coming issues what they are really up to.

     There was a small tease at the time-travelling properties of Imperium in this issue with the return of a robot that had vanished previously- making me wonder if we'll see how and when the mass accumulation of it might make its reappearance soon.  We have yet to see it work on anything living, which might open an entire new potential for storytelling promise, and I believe that is what writers Cohen and Ewington have in store for us.

     This issue in particular gives us one very nice clue to the the future of our protagonist.  Kyle may be much, much more than he knows, as is hinted at with a steaming cup of allusion (hint, hint!), a nice conversation with Uncle Jake, and one small interaction with his mother.  I won't spoil it for you, but it is an extremely tantalizing one that directly involves Kyle.

     Red Dog is only at issue 2 (of 6) and it's shaping up to be a tremendous sci fi series.  It holds all the right elements for a good sci fi tale, it has strong writing and excellent art, and keeps things honed in on the true heart of the story- the boy and his dog(s).  On top of that, we've gotten some robots, aliens, and time travel, what more could we want?  There's a lot of questions that remain unanswered, but there's also 4 more issues to come- and I for one am quite eager for them to arrive.

     Red Dog Issue 2 hits stands tomorrow (Wed. January 11th, 2017)

     Red Dog Issue 1 [ Review ]

     Official Sites [ 451 Entertainment ] [ Twitter ] [ Facebook ] [ Youtube ]

     Link to 451's [ Comixology ]

     For more 451 comic reviews [ HERE ]

*Review copy provided by 451, Thank You!

Marvel Future Fight: NEW Now Update Teaser Hint 3 & Thoughts

     With the new Marvel Future Fight update nearing, the official website Mobirum has been giving us nice clues to try and puzzle out as to what we'll be getting.  Yesterday, I posted the clues and what they meant, and today we get a new one.

     The new message:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yet another code has come in, and we are unsure as to why Future_ME@mobirum.com is sending emails with images, and honestly, I was kind of concerned about opening them (after all, that seems like a fake email, and even if it was legit, we could've had some strange paradoxes and what not). After opening the file however, I was relieved that it was just an image of a random group of characters. 

I would Frame it if there was any quality involved in the image, but for now, I'll just leave it here so everyone can see it! 

     I like that they are going with a varied set of hints.  First the ASCII, then the simple cypher, and now an image.  The first two messages translated to, "3 New Characters,." and "ALL NEW THREE CHARACTERS ARE FEMALE."  This picture shows characters with the first letters of their names coming down to, NOW MARVEL.

     A clear indication that the 3 new female characters will be from the newer Marvel Now material.  Marvel does like to push things that tie in to their current content. I had previously guessed quite a few from that list with Spider-Woman, Kate Bishop, Medusa, Crystal, America Chavez, Monica Rambeau, Moon Girl (with a summon-able Devil Dinosaur).  Although I had forgotten about Hellcat, and she'd be pretty cool, or Riri Williams.  I also hadn't considered Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows series.  But, honestly, that's a horrible costume design and do we really need yet another Spider-character?

     As much as I think we could do without another Captain America or Iron Man clone, chances are pretty high we'll be getting Miss America and Riri's Iron Man, but the 3rd go go any direction.  I wouldn't mind a Kate Bishop and I really, REALLY would like to see Moon Girl (& Devil Dinosaur) - especially because Netmarble has been pushing the summons like crazy lately.  Plus if they made it so she became Devil Dinosaur, it'd be the first time a non-human was playable.  Which could eventually lead to a playable Lockjaw to go with Black Bolt.

     In addition, I'm really hoping we get a plethora of new costumes as well.  Some characters haven't had a singe new costume yet, and others have a ton.  Some of the choices of costumes seem a bit strange as well, like the Attilan Rising Ghost Rider instead of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Robbie Reyes one seems like a huge miss.

     For related posts [ Marvel Future Fight ]

     Source [ Mobirum ]

Marvel Future Fight: Mysterious Messages Hint Towards Next Update & Thoughts

     The official Marvel Future Fight website has posted two new hints at the near future of the game. Netmarble always gives their player base a series of clues to the next wave of incoming characters and levels, bits at a time and allows us to try and figure out what we're getting. For this one we get some codes to decrypt.

     The first one reads:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Our journey's into the future have seemingly stopped. It seems that we have altered realities one too many times, which has blocked our abilities to see into the future. This is not good as just last month our seers helped us in preventing catastrophic damage to Asgard! 

We have however managed to intercept messages sent through the fabric of time by our future selves, in order to reveal at least something in the upcoming update. We have no idea what it means, and we tried the lottery, and it doesn't seem to be that. Can you help us decipher the numbers and bring meaning to what is coming? 

051 032 078 069 087 032 067 072 065 082 065 067 084 069 082 083

     The second one reads:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

More jumbled code has been discovered. We have our codebreakers working on deciphering the code, but we're starting to suspect that they have absolutely no clue what they're doing. We're forwarding this code to you, agent, so that you may decipher the code and bring light to the information that we can't decipher. 

 XII KBT QEOBB ZEXOXZQBOP XOB CBJXIB+3

     For those of you that do not wish to be spoiled finish reading the post here.  For those that want to skip to the good stuff, click the "read more" below to see the decoded messages and my thoughts.

For related posts [ Marvel Future Fight ]

RiME: Finally Arrives in May 2017!

     I've had my eye on Tequila Work's gorgeous game RIME since 2014.  Through the last couple years, RiME has gone through some changes behind the scenes and now the game will be coming to more than just the PS4, it'll also be arriving on Xbox One, Steam, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch.  Which is great, a wider audience to share the experience.  RiME looks to be a wonderful amalgam of the games Journey, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Ico all placed on a strange and mysterious island like Myst.

     The 3rd person puzzle-platforming will help the shipwrecked boy unravel the mystery of this island he finds himself stranded on.  You are an interloper on this island, and it will react to your presence- the island IS a character in that way.  To find meaning, you'll need to delve in and try to solve the questions of who built this place, where is everyone else, and how the island changes.

     That last part is what really peaks my curiosity as the game's creator, Raúl Rubio Munárriz, mentioned something that immediately caught my eye in an old interview with Polygon, "Every time you explore this island or islands you are going to experience it differently."  It makes me think there will be an element of procedural generation, and then further question exactly how reactive will the world be.  Will every decision you make really change how the entire world around you functions?  Can you alter how animals populating the island react by changing what you do to them?  Will the island actively try to assist you in doing good, and try to thwart you from harming stuff?  Can the island fight against your goal?  I look forward to seeing if this is truly how the game is built.  A real reactionary world.

     Experience the subtle beauty of RiME in May 2017.