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Thanks to GAMEINFORMER We have some very nice pictures of the New Assassin Creed… looks like we Brits will be taking a pounding from our American Cousins in this American Revolution themed art work is to be believed.
GAME STOCK, DOWN BY 20%
“Speculation about the future of Game Group was mounting last night after it emerged that the embattled retailer will not stock the potentially best-selling video games Mass Effect 3 and Mario Party 9.”
Read more here:
Young Rapper is Skooled by Dead Poet, Teacher; Mark Grist
I don’t mind my hibbidy hop from time to time but i cant say I’ve been overly keen on the now rather popular Rap battles; granted some of these kids are awesome at their craft but it all seems to be pretty lowest common denominator stuff, with lots of swear words and pointing. Mark Grist; Former Teacher and poet, shows these kids how its really done.. What you are about to watch is pure.. Poetry!
Check him out at
The 2011/12 Downloadable Game Round Up
Downloadable Round Up
February’s a great time to catch up on some smaller games. After the bloated AAA schedule of the last three months of 2011, why not sample a few of these bite-size appetisers…
Trine 2: PC/Mac, PS3, 360
Holy crap this game is pretty. With some of the nicest lighting effects we’ve seen, this platform/puzzle game is a real audio/visual treat. Playing as three interchangeable characters (the D&D trinity of Mage, Thief and Warrior) joined as one by the titular “Trine”, it’s your job to vanquish some evil/recover some magical McGuffin. I don’t remember – it was pretty generic, whatever it was.
Tweaked and rebalanced form the first game, it’s now possible to complete every level as each character, although you’ll want to experiment with combining their abilities on your first playthrough. There’s also a multiplayer mode, but this usually ends up translating as “mage creates box and levitates it while the other player stands on top”.
Iron Brigade: 360
Delayed by six months and forced to change its name from “Trenched” due to a European copyright dispute, Double Fine’s tower defence/mech shooter is a highlight of the last few months.
At its best when played co-op with up to three friends, Iron Brigade encourages you to customise your mech (or “trench” in the game’s lingo) to overcome waves of “tubes” – television inspired nasties. There’s also a compulsive loot aspect to the game with colour coded weaponry and equipment straight out of Diablo.
With a horde mode, a new DLC pack (“Rise of the Martian Bear”) and endless options as to how you approach each level, this will last you a long time.
30 Days of Video Games. – Day 2 – My Favourite Character
30 Days of Video Games. Day 2. My Favourite Character
I wonder why it is, that only a few of the many great Video Game characters stay with us and the rest simply fade into obscurity. Some we simply remember because they don’t let you forget, bombarding us with title after title and game after game; Mario and Sonic being prime examples / Culprits. Others we remember because we made those characters with a little bit of our own personality; Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect could be designed to fit the game you wanted to play. But are these guys and gals, hedgehogs and plumbers, worthy of remembrance? Are they individual enough to give you that spark that makes you think; WOW! I must own every game they have and collect religiously any merchandise they come out with?
To have that special something, setting them apart from the rest, of a very saturated pack, these would be icons have to make you sit up and take notice first. Whether they be real and gritty, with personality issues up to the eye-balls like Dante; the half-demon protagonist from Devil May Cry, or a less in your face approach, where their deeds, great accomplishments and amazing feats speak volumes; A la Alec Mason of Red Faction Guerrilla; the man that almost single-handedly won back Mars for the mining colonists! What this man lacked in personality he made up for in heroic deeds time and time again; either way there has to be something there to make you identify with them.
Maybe it is down to pure charisma; someone who has enough wit to have a glib remark for every sentence that falls out of their adversary’s mouth, or has enough cool to say something that makes you think “Why I can’t come up with stuff like that?” For me it has to be ‘all or nothing,’ a character that has it all and does not compromise on a single thing: Personality, character flaws and the ability to slap the snot out of anyone who crosses them…
My Top 4 Gaming Characters
4: Nathan Drake, the main protagonist in one of my favourite game series; Uncharted on Playstation 3. The game plays well, with an immersive representation of the world from war torn urban landscapes to ruined Tibetan temples and everything in-between. You can also guarantee in each of these visually spectacular environments you will encounter more goons than at an annual ‘EDL’ convention!
Nathan Drake, in my opinion, is the Male equivalent of Lara Croft , with a personality….“A male Lara Croft?!… personality?!” I hear you cry. Obviously there are two main reasons my fellow geeks may disagree with my view but based solely on the context of this article, you have to understand. Lara was the first true video game pin up, granted; an accolade I could not bestow upon Drake without a major change in my life style (each to their own of course) but she does genuinely lack the personality of a human being; something they mirrored extremely well in the films, when they cast Angelina Jolie; all Smile, no substance. Drake however seems to suffer from a personality overdose, which in a video game character is great. He has something witty to say about everything and even when he has been shot or is sitting in a train that is precariously hanging off the side of a cliff, he still finds the time to make a quirky quip. Luckily for you and I, “the gamer,” he is also pretty handy in a fight; the game being full of challenging gun fights and increasingly more difficult enemies and puzzles.
Drake is a very likeable character and is genuinely fun to play as; problem is he seems to suffer from a disease that seems to only affects witty, attractive archaeologists; The Tomb Raider complex. This hideous disease gives its host a touch of kleptomania and a propensity for wanton vandalism of some of histories oldest and most fragile ancient ruins. In the process of recovering many priceless heirlooms they manage to destroy everything else around them and make away with but a small fragment of the vast tapestry that is history, that don’t seem to care too much about… time team has a lot to answer for!
FAST FINGER PAINITNG!
And I honestly thought I was all awesomed out.
I came across this ‘Awesome’ (and in its true sense of the word and not like a hotdog ) clip on Youtube. This chap finger paints, at stupid speeds, on glass plates and unlike you an I doesn’t come away with shredded fingers and something that looks like a cross between a childs play school project and an industrial accident!
Watch and Wonder.. it truly is AWESOME!
Time Tunnel – A look forward to 2012 ( Part 1 : Movies)
By Ben Fee 10/01/2012
No doubt about it, 2011 was a banner year for geeks. In the world of games we had the release of Batman: Arkham City and the almighty Skyrim. At the cinema we were witness to Harry Potter’s final hurrah and the first wave of Marvel Film’s attempt to dominate Hollywood. And what a wave it was – Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class and not a stinker among them. Then, to top it all, we saw the birth of our very own Geek Pride site, striding across the internet like a sweaty sarcastic colossus.
But what does 2012 hold in store for the pale, light-shunning hordes of geekdom? Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your pokeballs…
All your cinemas belong to us
It’s been on the cards for a while now but 2012 is the year that us geeks officially rule the movie-going roost. In May, Joss Whedon (who, I must admit, can do no wrong in my eyes) brings us his make-or-break gamble, The Avengers. This is by far the most important film for geekdom in many years. Plot and suchlike aside, this is Marvel’s coup de grace, their attempt to present a coherent cohesive universe in which all of their properties interact and affect the lives of the others. In the same way Captain America made Iron Man 2 less rubbish, The Avengers will, if successful, turn all the recent Marvel films into one incredible action-adventure experience. There’s a lot to worry about though. This is Whedon’s first major blockbuster as writer/director and he’s chosen a film in which every character needs their own plot, characterisation, development, all in a two and a half hour package. “Too many characters” has been the death knell for many a genre film but, if anyone can handle it, it’s going to be the guy who gave us Buffy, Angel and Firefly.
If he pulls it off, get ready for a landslide of geekgasmic proportions. DC are just waiting to see if The Avengers sinks or swims before having another stab at bring their own supergroup The Justice League to the big screen and, my personal favourite reason for it succeeding, hopefully we’ll see a lot more of this Joss Whedon fellow if he manages to pull off the biggest superhero event since Peter Parker tried to pet a radioactive spider.
Away from the gravity well created by The Avengers’ very presence in next year’s release schedule, Marvel Films are also going to have a go at revitalising everyone’s favourite wall-crawler in the Andrew Garfield-starring Amazing Spiderman. After the franchise-slaughtering Spiderman 3, we needed more web-slinging action like we needed more explosions in a Michael Bay movie, but Marvel Studios are betting that a more serious tone and a less annoying Peter Parker are going to win where Tobey Maguire mincing down the street to Staying Alive failed so very miserably.
DC’s Dark Knight Rising will also be clamoring for our box office attention, promising a climactic end to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, made even more intriguing by the presence of the villain Bane, played by Tom Hardy, a character who, in the comics, was responsible for “breaking” Batman and who better than him to be the one to put the Dark Knight in the ground.
If superheroes aren’t your thing (you freak), Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus are going to occupy the extremes of the geek spectrum; one a heart-warming fantasy, the other a bleak sci-fi horror, but both welcome returns to the properties that made these creators household names to all self-respecting geeks. Add to those the more obscure but equally exciting Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and World War Z and that yearly cinema pass is starting to look pretty darn tempting.
More on 2012 Films can be found in this guardian Article http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2011/dec/30/50-biggest-films-2012-pictures#/?picture=383507097&index=3
Rumours of Next Gen Consoles to be revealed at E3 2012
It seems that there are rumours going around that the new Xbox and PS are going to be showcased at E3 2012.. if this is true Geek Pride are very excited and will strive to bring you more information when we have it!
Source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/next-xbox-and-ps4-set-for-biggest-ever-e3/089421
SAINTS ROW: The Third (8GPPs)
by Gareth Brown 04/01/12
Straight to the Point: Crazy, over the top and often hilarious, Saints Row: The Third puts the series into the open world big league. 8GPP (Geek Pride Points)
(This review includes tiny, minor spoilers, but given that this game is INSANE, we needed to give you some context.) From humble beginnings as an uninspired GTA rip off, the Saints Row series has finally found its voice, in one of 2011’s most unapologetically “fun” games. Following the events of the second game, the Stilwater Saints are riding high, with their own multimedia conglomerate that includes TV shows, movies and energy drinks. However, things don’t go smoothly for long, and they find themselves transported to the city of Steelport where they must once again rise to the top of the criminal underworld…
Things we like
- Polish – Open world games are renowned for their bugginess. For the most part, SR:TT is as polished as they come, and bar a few AI path-finding issues, we didn’t see any levitating grannies, backwards dragons or horse people. The game also looks great, with a cartoony, neon style and some great visual and audio effects.
- Your character, your way – Be it a seven foot tall kabuki transvestite, a bright green gorilla costume or Walt from Breaking Bad, you can create an infinite number of freaks, character tributes or lookalikes. Plastic surgeries dotted around the city mean that no choice is permanent, and with seven voice tracks to choose from (including the unintelligible “zombie”), there’s nothing you can’t tweak. You can even download other people’s creations if you’re feeling lazy!
- Killing prostitutes – This is always the best part of an open world crime game, and SRTT is no slouch. We even turned our gang into a harem of hookers so that we could chainsaw them in the safety of our crib.
- Weapons – You start the game with access to an airborne bomber drone, and things only get crazier. In the last third, we had access to infinite incendiary SMGs, a remote control that works on real cars and a purple dildo bat called “the penetrator”.
- Vehicular manslaughter – SRTT’s commitment to the ludicrous extends to the selection of vehicles, which is both overpowered and hilarious. Without spoiling some of the highlights, there are tributes to several geek-favourite movies, and you’ll even be able to soup up a SMART car to become a Mad Max style death machine. With some big, bling rims, naturally.
- Bringing the lulz – SR:TT is some funny shit. With a pro-wrestling based melee system and about 20 different ways to crack someone in the balls, the temptation to harass civilians is ever-present. But the humour isn’t confined to the gameplay, and SRTT features one of the sharpest, most knowing scripts and the best voice acting you’ll see this side of Portal 2.
- Another level – The majority of SRTT’s missions are standard “open world, go here, shoot countless dudes, escape” fare. But there are several missions that stand out as some of the best gaming has to offer this year; from a zombie outbreak to a trip into cyberspace that takes you into another genre altogether.
- Any chance of an upgrade? – SRTT has a light RPG style character upgrade system that basically allows you to unlock a range of OTT powers. We are now invulnerable to bullets, explosions, fire, falls and car crashes. We never have to reload, can sprint forever and have infinite rockets. It’s an officially-sanctioned God mode and we love it.
Niggles
- Combat fatigue – The core gameplay of SRTT doesn’t stray far from the template established by GTA over 10 years ago. You drive places, shoot people, drive back, and masturbate in guilt and shame. Wait, what?
- Pimping ain’t easy – We have to admit being a little tired of the pimps and hos vibe that’s infected this series since it started. Given how far removed from any semblance of reality Saints Row has become, we hope it ditches the remnants of this aesthetic for the already announced Saints Row 4.
- Multiplayer by numbers – While the two player co-op is fun, it pales when compared to the suite of options offered by something like GTA. The cringingly tilted “Whored Mode” isn’t even worth trying, and feels like it’s only included thanks to the name.
Wish List
It’s rare for us to 100% an open world game, but SRTT compelled us to keep playing. After 24 hours in Steelport, we’d done every activity the map had to offer, and completely upgraded our character (a zombie-voiced Clarke Gable lookalike, since you ask). Once this is done, there is nothing to do except shoot cops and dick around. DLC please! There’s also some room for improvement in the gunplay, which while serviceable is far from perfect.
Conclusion
SRTT is a reminder that the concept of “fun” is still important. In a year dominated by military shooters and po-faced RPGs, its rabid quest to show you crazier sights and inspire you to even greater acts of mayhem put a big old smile on our faces and a purple veined penetrator in our pants.
UltraMarines (the Movie) – 7GPPs
One of the Illuminati behind Geek Pride was round today, so I thought I’d best do some more words, prove I’m not sitting on my laurels and all that.
Ultramarines; The fisher price, my first marine chapter of the 40k universe. The good, the proud, the straight laced stalwarts for the defence of the Imperium. But fuck me are they boring. Even the Blood Angels are cooler than these, and it’s a nightmare to get that blue armour shaded and highlighted properly even when you’re using Ultramarine Blue. The Workshop have forced these guys on the public for years, Space Crusade even had a spin-off simply called Ultramarines in the early 90s! I suppose they’re the most easily palatable of the chapters, no messed up immortal Primarch’s, no dark imagery or colour schemes…
So what better chapter to make into a game AND a movie? Yeah right.
Still, you’ll have read the reviews on the same already, I enjoyed it, despite having to play as Titus, and the obvious rip-off of their own chaos primarch, Horus of the Traitor Legions, lightning claws and all.
The movie however, you may not have seen.
Plot-wise, its Aliens, distress beacon, lost contact with a colony; few marines go in to see what’s cooking; Find a massacre (of an annoyingly cooler chapter of marines) and all hell breaks loose, predictably. There’s enough geekery involved to confuse the layman, geneseeds, Astropaths and the like, but not a whole lot of plot. Not even Sean Pertwee of Event Horizon can lift it; which is an utter shame.
These ideas have been kicking about since I was a kid, planned movies on such a rich, immersive universe; and what a universe it is. Sadly because of the lack of funding, they never come to much. Spacemarine is quite clearly a work of love, the detail that’s gone into it is immense but due to the limited budget the niche market, the final product, and much as it pains me to say this, does, at some points, feel like a 90 minute cut scene from the game. If there were no limits on the budget, or at least a bigger one it’s clear the developers would have put much more into the movie, more depth, more of the nightmares that are Chaos and it would have been all the grander for it. As it is they were limited and you could tell.
The above said there are some really nice touches, the space shots are for the most part pretty special, the marines vessel is perfect in its gothic majesty, the Thunderhawk Gunship is spot on and even the Ultramarines themselves all have that pious outlook one would expect from the chapter itself.
To summarise, if you’re a fan of the 40k universe, give this a whirl, you won’t fall in love, but it’s cool to watch non the less. If you’re not, then I’d steer clear of it as firstly you wont get the nuances and secondly it will bore the tits off you.
by wavesofstatic 04/12/2011
