Tag Archive: video games


Obey Me–An unlikely, badass duo of bounty hunters lead new Dynamite series

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms — 1 Comment
March 5, 2019

 

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sometimes the implementation of an idea goes well beyond the idea itself.  That’s what I found with the new Dynamite Comics series, Obey Me.  The catchy title and great covers drew me to this first, and I’m a sucker for a story that stars a hound dog.  I’m also a fan of the movie Crossroads, a 1986 film written by John Fusco that features an old man who sold his soul to the devil.  A kid comes along (played by Ralph Macchio) who bargains for his life, and the result is a true American classic, steeped in mythology and blues.  In Obey Me, a young woman bounty hunter is tasked with hunting down a mob boss who has broken his contract with the devil.  She is joined by a talking hellhound–a familiar of sorts–and must go through several bodyguards to get to her target.  Along the way through some mouthy dialogue and murderous camaraderie, the pair–the woman is Vanessa and the dog is Monty–create a goofy brand of chemistry.  The plot sounds a little strange, but the first issue arriving in comic book stores tomorrow provides a heckuva fun story.

Obey Me blends two of my all-time favorite off-the-wall comic book series:  It has the irreverent humor and unusual talking characters of Felipe Melo, Juan Cavia, and Santiago Villa’s The Adventures of Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy, and the equally strange, irreverent, and unusual series God the Dyslexic Dog from Brian and Phil Phillipson and legendary artist (and this year a Will Eisner Hall of Fame nominee) Alex Niño.  Plus there’s the Talking Dog.  Obey Me writer Mario Mentasti provides a familiar foundation, but look forward to some amped-up action and dialogue that will be loads of fun for mature readers.  Artist Ben Herrera and colorist Emmanuel Ordaz Torres find the perfect balance of comic book situations and blood, fire, and damnation.  Best of all, the team of Vanessa and Monty is all badass, making the book a must for your comic store pull list.

 

I was surprised this story is a tie-in to a PC and console game called Obey Me from Error 404 Game Studios.  It’s better than your average video game tie-in comic.  The game is a one- or two-person “top-down 3D action brawler” coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC later this year.  Here is a preview of Issue #0 of Obey Me, courtesy of Dynamite Entertainment, and the trailer for the video game:

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Two paths lie ahead to supplement your play of the new action-adventure game Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms — Leave a comment
October 2, 2018

 

Review by C.J. Bunce

As part of the release of the new single-player action-adventure game Shadow of the Tomb Raider, two new companion books are coming your way, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of the Apocalypse and Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The Official Art Book.  The game, available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, continues the adventures of Lara Croft following the conclusion of the story launched in the 2015 game Rise of the Tomb Raider.  Players accompany Lara on her harrowing journey to become the survivor we know as the Tomb Raider.  The Official Art Book features exclusive concept art and developer interviews detailing the conclusion of Lara Croft’s origin story.

Path of the Apocalypse is the official tie-in novel to the game, written by S.D. Perry.  As we catch up with Lara, she has taken the Key of Chak Chel, setting off an apocalyptic flood–the Cleansing–foreshadowed by the ancient Maya (but she only did it because the agents of the secretive organization called Trinity were going to get to it first!).  She uncovers several clues that may help her prevent the next three foretold apocalyptic events from happening, but it seems like she may be the character in the ancient stories herself, acting to fulfill their prophecy.  Her first adventure is escaping the remnants of a flooded village.  Next, she and her companion Jonah must hire a plane that can sneak them under Trinity’s wide net of operatives, to re-trace the very steps of Trinity inside a system of deep caves, a path to the hidden Peruvian city where the silver Box of Ix Chel is hidden.  Halfway through her survival story inside these caves, readers might wish they had started to draw out their own map of the caves, lay out some kind of bread crumbs to find their way to the surface.  Lara continues deeper into the cave as Trinity operatives kidnap her friend and a pilot.  Do they wait for her to emerge from the cave’s entrance or take their weapons into the cave and pursue her?  And what are these toothy animals appearing in the dark corners of the cave?  With the fate of the world at stake, Lara is in no position to just give up.

Beginning with artwork from the 2013 Tomb Raider game and including great images from Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Official Art Book chronicles the video game production process, from concept to final design.  Art director Martin Dubeau, character artist Michael Verhaaf, and concept artists Maxim Verehin and Yun Ling, and hundreds of others served as digital costume designers, prop creators, and environment location scouts–just as if they were making a full-scale, live-action motion picture–incorporating their historical research on ancient Latin American cultures.  The game goes deeper into the history than the novel, introducing ancient peoples and the artifacts of their world.  These were all designed by Dubeau’s team and are incorporated in full-color layouts in The Official Art Book.

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Dive into the game’s backstory in Tales from the Sea of Thieves

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms — Leave a comment
May 15, 2018

Review by C.J. Bunce

Ahoy there, matey.  Gaming developer Rare and distributor Microsoft have said they expect their new shared world action-adventure game Sea of Thieves to be a major success for Xbox One and Windows PC, with a Rare company executive stating he expects the game to become a franchise as popular as Halo, Gears of War, and Minecraft.  As part of its efforts to bring in players, Rare has partnered with Titan Books to publish a tie-in to the game, Tales from the Sea of Thieves.  Sea of Thieves the game is a first-person pirate adventure allowing players to sail a legendary world alone or with a crew of up to four players.  Released in March, the game’s greatest appeal so far for fans has been its great visuals, opting for a cartoon-like palette versus a photo-real world, and its cooperative gameplay.

Written by Paul Davies, Tales from the Sea of Thieves is a fictional journal written loosely in the style of seafaring lore like you’d find in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly novels, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, more recently William Goldings’ To the Ends of the Earth, and countless other historical accounts.  Its design becomes a real-world take-home prop from the game, a mock “battered and beaten” textured hardcover that looks and feels like a 19th century book that will go well with your tricorn, Jolly Roger, parrot, compass, and telescope.  The contents are in-universe, providing the accounts of pirate crew experienced years before the events of the game, introducing the types of adventures players can encounter in the game.

The tales are light fare, suitable for any age.  They don’t go so far as the darker side of the high seas as you would find in Lovecraft, but the voices are similarly evocative of his style.  The artwork is stylized from the game and fun, full color with the icons and emblems you’d expect from pirate lore.  Even the page edges are untrimmed as with journals and books of years past.

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Enemies turn friends in Kirby: Star Allies for Nintendo Switch

Filed under: Con Culture, Fantasy Realms — Leave a comment
April 1, 2018

Guest review by Alec Jessen

The newest addition to Nintendo’s Kirby game franchise, Kirby: Star Allies, is now available for Nintendo Switch (known in Japan as Kirby of the Stars: Star Allies).  The release of the new game is centered around an interesting new mechanic that has not been seen before with previous games in the Kirby series: a multiplayer/cooperative story and gameplay.  This fun, new mechanic is an interesting addition to Kirby games, giving fans a chance to experience adventures not only with Kirby, but also with friends from either the real world or via the AI/CPU.  As with past games in the series, players help the young, pink, spherical hero Kirby as he fights to save his home.  In the new version of the game all of the characters are still as cute and lovable as ever.

It’s a great way to play as a team.  Kirby: Star Allies features Kirby having a new ability–the ability to make friends.  This allows players to turn most of Kirby’s enemies into allies, which can then be either controlled by the computer or by friends in a local co-op of up to four players.  The ability is not only so that Kirby can have a few buddies to travel along with.  The abilities of his new friends are a necessity for Kirby to progress on his journey.  For example, the fiery abilities of the character Burning Leo are needed to ignite bombs that open up new paths, and only the electricity of Plugg can activate certain doors.  And the combined power of Kirby and his newly converted allies allows them to complete tasks using abilities such as the Friend Bridge, where Kirby and his friends form a bridge for certain characters to travel across. The teamwork in Kirby: Star Allies is both fun and heartwarming, especially playing in the company of friends.

It’s Kirby in a great new high-definition version.  One of the most interesting elements of Kirby: Star Allies is the use of the beautiful, vibrant Nintendo Switch graphics, while still being a side-scroller video game.  Its use of graphics along with the aspect of a side-scroller is a refreshing, near-3D experience.  The designers created a great combination, keeping the classic feel of past Kirby games, while also giving it a modern, unique update–It’s a great blend of new and old.

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Disney’s TRON Run/r takes Programs back to the Grid

Filed under: Con Culture, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes — Leave a comment
June 11, 2016

TRON banner

A familiar universe awaits fans of TRON.  Derived from the look and feel of TRON: Legacy, Disney’s 2010 sequel to 1982’s original sci-fi classic TRON, Disney Games has released TRON RUN/r, a new runner game with spectacular visuals and a cool and exciting soundtrack.   It’s the next iteration of TRON following the Emmy Award-winning animated television series TRON: Uprising.

Return to the world of TRON with TRON RUN/r, a new lightning-fast, action-adventure runner with a twist!  Blaze through dynamic circuits, face off against adversaries, and hone your DISC and CYCLE skills on 32 levels.  Then, challenge friends to the grueling STREAM program that will test you with endless combinations of modes and levels!  How long will you survive?

tron-run-r-screenshot-6

The story of TRON began as a video game, so it’s a natural evolution for the franchise to dip back into its roots, so you can imagine playing the game back at Flynn’s arcade.

TRON vid

Take a look at these trailers for the game and see for yourself:

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Video game review–Find something for everyone in Star Wars Battlefront

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June 1, 2016

SW Battlefront

Review by Alec Jessen

Many of us know and love Star Wars, especially the video games.  The Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront 2 video games from back in the earlier 2000s were some of the best Star Wars games available, and here in 2016, we’re taking a look at a recent update of that video game released at the end of 2015 to quench our thirst for more Star Wars.  Star Wars Battlefront is a First and Third person shooter game that takes place in the Star Wars universe.  The game has much to offer, from the iconic Star Wars heroes to a variety of weapons to use.

Graphics

The graphics of Star Wars Battlefront are absolutely astonishing.  The lighting, animations, and the smallest of details create something magnificent, from the brush and trees on Endor, to the grains of sand on the Jundland Wastes.  When playing in Third person, the walking and running animations are perfectly smooth.  When a player is harmed, the character will flinch, adding to the effect of actually being in the battle.

STb 5

Gameplay

Almost all of the game modes in Star Wars Battlefront have a teamwork factor, meaning that it can be difficult in this game to be successful unless you have some teammates to back you up.  This is represented by the partner system as well:  Each player has his or her own partner, which they can “respawn” (coming back to the game once the player has been defeated) onto, and partners know where each other are at all times.

Skill is an important part of Star Wars Battlefront.  The developers of this game, DICE, did a great job of evening out weapons, vehicles, and first and third person.  Accuracy is the same for both first and third person, so those who prefer playing in third person do not have to worry about being at a disadvantage.  Players can also switch between the perspectives mid-game, by the push of a button.  The weapons of Star Wars Battlefront have great balance.  For example, if a weapon has a high rate of fire, it may not be very accurate, and if a weapon has a low rate of fire, it could be very accurate.  Players have to choose what they think will go best for their fighting techniques.

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Face off against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada now with free Starfighter arcade game

Filed under: Movies, Retro Fix — 1 Comment
April 1, 2016

Last Starfighter clip

Greetings, Starfighter.  You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada…

It’s no secret that we at borg.com are fans of sci-fi videogames–especially if they are part of a classic sci-fi movie like Tron or The Last Starfighter.  Thanks to the freeware programmers over at RogueSynapse you can download a freeware version of a brilliant, true looking version of The Last Starfighter as seen in the movie right now, and spend the rest of the weekend mastering your Starfighter skills.

Grig and Centauri would be proud.  Our apologies to your spouse.  The picnic will probably get rained out anyway.

Oh, and you’re welcome.

Starfighter video game screen freeware

Those from the generation that lived through these early video games recall keying in entire games like this that were included in Games or Compute! magazine.  It looked just like this, only it went on for dozens of pages:

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Retro fix–New documentary unearths the rise and fall of Atari

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Movies — Leave a comment
April 17, 2015

Atari box

Atari, the company that brought us the Atari 2600–the game system that revolutionized what it meant to be a zombie–offered families in the early 1970s the benefit of the neighborhood arcade without that annoying quarter-gobbling component.  Adults who shake their heads today at kids zoning out over their smartphone games forget what it was like when they first zoned out over  Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Duck Hunt, Asteroids, Yar’s Revenge, Berserk, Pitfall, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and all their pixelated friends.

When Space Invaders was introduced, kids lined up at Woolco stores for hours on end to play the in-store demo model to try to beat the current high score.  The earlier Pong and Breakout games were revolutionary–and addictive–but Space Invaders was exciting, nerve-wracking, and required a different take on an old skill.  Hand-eye Coordination became a new, finely-honed, almost magical power.  Wielded the best by teenagers.

Then something strange happened.  We got distracted by something else.  Most of us didn’t even notice when Atari vanished.  When modern video games playable on PCs via compact discs came around we all went searching for the original Atari games and for years, nada.  What happened to Atari anyway?

Pac-Man game over    ET video game

If you didn’t track the business pages for Atari back in the 1970s and 1980s, a new documentary will get you caught up.  Atari: Game Over is a nostalgic look back at the first video game designers and how one designer created the first great game for Atari, and later the last, and then vanished into anonymity.  His journey parallels several die-hard fans’ strange and curious search to prove or disprove an urban legend–that Atari lost so much money on the E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial video game for the Atari 2600 (thought by many to be the single worst video game of all time) that Atari dumped at least a million of the unopened boxes in a desert town landfill back in 1983.  It’s also a story of one of the first Dot Com economic busts long before there were Dot Coms.

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Dead Space: Liberation–graphic novels as video game tie-ins

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March 2, 2013

Dead Space Liberation

Electronic Arts was at the cutting edge of video games back in the 1980s.  Today’s EA provides games with stunning 3D level immersive experiences.  In 2008 EA released a very different and modern third-person shooter, science fiction horror survival game called Dead Space.  Dead Space was big, selling more than 2 million copies.  In the game, players followed along literally over the shoulder of Isaac Clarke–named for science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.  Clarke was as an engineer on an interstellar mining starship called the USG Ishimura, where he found himself stuck with some undead creatures called Necromorphs in a setting straight out of Ridley Scott’s Alien.  The February 2013 release Dead Space 3 brings along with it a new graphic novel series tie-in: Dead Space: Liberation. 

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LucasArts to raise the bar on video games with Star Wars 1313

Filed under: Con Culture, Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
June 18, 2012

Lucasfilm intends to create the next generation of gaming with its game-in-the-works, Star Wars 1313.  Bringing together the entire Lucasfilm family, LucasArts is teaming up with Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and Lucasfilm Animation, to render a real-time production the company expects will provide an incredibly detailed playing experience.  Lucasfilm says it is using full performance capture, mixing voice actors with full motion capture to record facial expressions and movements, so actors can fully perform what the characters are doing and this will translated to the gaming screen like never before.  This is expected to be a big step toward the convergence of movies and gaming.

Don’t expect to get Star Wars 1313 any time soon for your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.  LucasArts is designing this complex game for bigger game machines and so Star Wars 1313 will likely not be out in final form for a few years.

As for the substance of the game and story, this action adventure will veer away from the Jedi world that has monopolized Star Wars gaming, and feature a darker, more mature adventure.  From the preview this has the feel of the early Star Wars comic books that took place after the original Star Wars.  In fact the game is to take place between the first and second trilogies.  The background is the seedy underworld of the capital of the Republic, Coruscant.  Think Mos Eisley but in a dense urban area.  The game is to have interesting new weaponry and will feature a bounty hunter stalking his prey in the city.  Whether or not this will include Boba Fett has not yet been disclosed–the character in the preview is an example of a character you might find in the final game.  Supposedly there are some 5,000 levels to the city of Coruscant, and the number 1313 in the title refers to a particular underworld in the city that will serve as the center of the story.

Here is the preview footage:

I think the editing of the music is the best part, plus the explosion sequences look great.

Of course the trailer only shows some apparently spice smuggler inspired scenes in someone’s space vessel–nothing yet about how the city scenes will look.  There is no release date for Star Wars 1313 but the buzz is already building across the Web.  Check out the Star Wars 1313 website for updates as they are released.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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