Category: Video Games

Disney Infinity’s 2015 Roundup

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Screen-Shot-2013-08-27-at-2Disney Infinity video game enthusiasts will be in for multiple treats next year. In an interview with Computer and Videogames, Disney Interactive’s John Vignocchi and John Blackburn teased at the inclusion of the Star Wars universe. If there’s a date to guess at, that may come to coincide with the theatrical release of Episode 7: The Force Unleashed. The new hope is that not only the classic quadruplet —Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca — be featured in this toy line but also the characters from Star Wars: Rebels. Patches to the game engine will be required if the Force abilities and lightsaber actions are going to be fully realized.

The likelihood of seeing the live action film translated over to the toy franchise first is slim. To see the original cast in their youthful form is most likely not even in the books. In order to get the attention of older fans still into gaming, this company will be very remiss not to. For new legions missing the CGI from the TV series, hopefully all the figurines will have a Clone Wars style look to them.

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It’s Morphin’ Time! Two Power Rangers Scheduled To Appear at IF Con 2015!

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

IFCon2015The list of guests for The Island Fantasy Convention continues to grow and with their latest announcement, I squealed like a nerd.

Our fair city of Victoria, located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, will see in 2015 not one but two Power Rangers! Wether they are here as special guests of the con or they are expecting the Empress Hotel to be smashed by a giant creature is anyone’s guess. I’m just happy they’ll be here — destruction or no.

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Little Farm: Spring Time review

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Fans of online resource management games will find Little Farm: Spring Time for Android devices enjoyable and addicting. It mimics the dynamics of another game, Hayday, which should not deter would be experimenters of farm culture to check other versions out. The barnyard graphics are cute and crisp. Perhaps the reason this game is appealing is that it successfully fuses the Asian art style with Western aesthetics. Just playing the game alone will reveal that most of the players are from Asia, meaning an instant market.

With this growing community, this product will no doubt gain a quick cult following and a problem: there’s no translation service on their Facebook page to tell fans around the world what an announcement is about. In the game, the same problem exists when a gamer from the East ‘messages’ someone from the West with a resource request. A built-in auto detector for foreign transactions can come in handy. That can be important when economics and commerce is concerned.

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Sakura Con Guest: Range Murata

Range Murata ©2008 George SeguinRange Murata ©2008 George SeguinPhoto by George Seguin[/caption]Japanese artist and designer Range Murata will be a guest at Seattle’s Sakura-Con April 18-20, 2014.

Murata is best known for his beautiful conceptual and/or character design work on such anime series as Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6, Shangri-La and SoltyRei.

Winner of the “Best Artist of the Year” at the 2006 Seuin Awards, he has published numerous doujinshi and artbooks including Racten, robot and futurhythm.

Murata has also been involved in console games. His work has appeared in Sega Saturn’s Wachenröder and Playstation 2’s Spy Fiction for Sammy Studios.

Previously announced guests at Sakura-Con include Shigehiko Sato at Fuji Creative Corp, Mami Koyama (Sailor Moon & Urusei Yatsura), Yui Ishikawa (Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan), Christopher Smith (Digimon Fusion and Crossfire: B-Daman), Matthew Mercer (Tygra from Thundercats reboot) and performance artist ELISA (Hayate the Combat Butler and Project Railgun S).

To buy your tickets to Sakura-Con, visit their official website.

Finding Family Ties with Game Cycle

Game Stop 1
Otaku no Culture’s James
Shaw is always on the hunt
for something to buy.

Ontario-based operation Game Cycle has traveled west, as far west as it can, to give sailors and Esquimalt residents an outlet to buy, sell and trade videogames and movies. This store has been in operation for over a year now, and it’s an independent extension of the Ontario run business. And according to regional manager Justin Hembree, the traffic from the local community has been good.

“We get a lot of regulars through, a lot of locals,” says Hembree, “and the military comes in.”

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Tour the Newest Dragon Age

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

BioWare’s newest Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer is out now and it looks very promising. Using Frostbite 3 as it’s foundation, the environments look stunning. It appears BioWare is going more for a game where a player can get lost in the lands on a grand adventure ala Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

At 1:43 of the video we can see there is a place in the lands where you can find a large tear in the Veil. But the location that has me most excited is the opportunity to explore the Dwarven Deep Roads. The Deep Roads was the gem of both Dragon Age I and II.

Although I may have to update my computer for this one, it would almost certainly be worth it. Hopefully Dragon Age: Inquisition will not be a disappointment as Dragon Age II was. Reusing the same environments was just one of the problems. It made the game feel tedious.

Dragon Age: Inquisition launches this fall on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and PC.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFNSvWwQR5s&w=560&h=315%5D