As The Steam/GOG Turns #6: The Calm Before the Storm Edition

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

This week is really the calm before the storm.  Next week we have a TON of games coming out, and once the rain starts coming, it's going to pour.  But that doesn't mean this week's releases are slouches by any stretch of the imagination.  Not whatsoever.

First, I want to talk a little bit about what I've been playing.  I haven't really been playing that much really on Steam and GOG, I've been playing more on my iPhone... again.  I'll talk about this one a bit later but I've been playing a TON of the new Wits & Wagers Trivia Party app that dropped this past week and it is very, very fun, and any trivia nuts should get it.

So, now on to the releases.  The Steam and GOG dual releases this week are pretty good, there are no GOG-only releases, and there is one Steam-only release worth noting.  It'll certainly start getting really interesting next week, but I am very excited to see what happens in the next month or two, but my wallet is NOT anticipating that very highly, believe me.

The first Steam/GOG dual release is Divinity: Dragon Commander.  It's a mix of the Total War games, a good RTS game, and a high fantasy game.  It's great!  You can even make crucial decisions that make each playthrough very, very different.  It's fabulous!  The price, however, is not so fabulous.  $40 is quite the price to pay, so unless you want to buy a game like this full price, wait till it's on sale.

The second dual release is Papers, Please, the highly buzzed-about game about making decisions at an immigration agency, much like Ellis Island and that ilk for persons who came to America by boat long before our current immigration discussion.  It has sprites that look like those from the Carmen Sandiego games, and that makes me super happy so get it!  And I think it's even $10, so you have no excuse not to get it if you like those kinds of games.

The third and final dual release (and the final GOG release this week) is the highly-praised indie game Spelunky!  Spelunky looks really, really good, and it unfortunately is $15, but if you like indie games, then you go ahead and pick this up. No excuses, you guys.

The one Steam-only release and the final release I want to talk about this week is Guacamelee! Gold Edition.  This game is a crazy mashup of Super Metroid and Mexican luchador wrestling, and it's been out on the consoles for awhile and it is finally making its way to the PC.  If you want another copy of this game, or if you didn't get a chance to play it on the consoles, then pick this sucker up.  Another indie game you should pick up at full price, or if it's on sale, even for 10%, pick it up.

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...

5 Upcoming Movies To Watch

Okay folks, I am here to preview 5 upcoming movies I think it will be prudent to keep an eye on.

1) The new Muppets movie, Muppets Most Wanted.  The teaser trailer has gone up everywhere online, my friends at The Muppet Mindset did a full breakdown of the new teaser trailer, and I think this is a movie to watch.  I'm not thrilled by the idea that it's basically The Great Muppet Caper all over again (with Tina Fey in a similar archetype to Dame Diana Rigg), but I love the Muppets, I greatly admire the late great Jim Henson, and I'll more than likely see this one when it comes out in Spring 2014.  Plus it's got Scooter singing "Moves Like Jagger" with Muppet penguins... what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!

2) CBGB, a film based off of the storied CBGB club of the same name, has Stana Katic as Genya Revan, and some chick I don't know named Malin Akerman is playing Debbie Harry (aka the lead singer of Blondie)... I dunno, this one looks really good but I'll withhold judgment till I see it this fall.

3) Saving Mr. Banks.  The upcoming Disney movie about the behind-the-scenes goings-on during the making of Mary Poppins with Tom Hanks as Mr. Walter Elias Disney himself looks unbelievably good!  This comes out right around Christmas time, when I saw the movie Hitchcock last year (about Alfred Hitchcock and the making of his classic film Psycho).

4) Ender's Game.  Whatever you think of Orson Scott Card and his homophobic viewpoints, I think this science fiction thriller is going to be one to watch this November.

5) Thor: The Dark World.  It's Marvel.  Nuff said.  My guess is this one's gonna be another movie to watch this November.

Wrapping Up Nintendo #2: The Happiness Is Retro Goodness Edition

Well, here we are.  Yeah, we didn't get any Wonderful 101 stuff today, but we will get that on the morning Friday, August 9th.  So, we'll hopefully have 2 Wrapping Up Nintendo columns in the same week.  Lucky me.  (Thankfully I live on the East Coast so I can wake up at a much less obscene hour on Nintendo Direct mornings)

So, what WAS discussed?  Funny you should ask.

Iwata-san started and ended this broadcast today, and the Treehouse information specifically for North America was sandwiched in the middle, and oh what a glorious sandwich it was.

But Iwata started with ... GASP... third party games.  He started off talking about Sonic Lost World for Wii U and 3DS, and they both look gooooooooood.  They are both coming out October 22nd.  Then he talked a little bit about Rayman Legends and we now know we'll get to play it on September 3, and with Rayman and... (I"m sorry Scooter I don't know the proper name of that blue guy) wearing Mario & Luigi outfits exclusively on the Wii U version!  Nice, right? (If you have a short memory of the middle finger Ubisoft flipped to Nintendo fans, then maybe.)

Next, they talked about the Art Academy Sketchpad app for Wii U, which they did not specify a release date for in the ND but it is coming later this week.

Then we got to hear from Erik Peterson of the Treehouse, and this one was where all the good megatons that usually come with these Nintendo Direct broadcasts came.  First, however, they broke their arms patting themselves on the back for how well people responded to Pikmin 3, and detailed this weird camera thing where you could take a picture from the perspective of a Pikmin, and showed fans' screenshots taken in this matter.  Maybe it was just me but this part was weird.  It's almost like they WANTED their fans to help promote Pikmin 3 for them, and they didn't acknowledge how poor the software releases have been for most of 2013.

Then, as expected, they discussed Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for 3DS.  I know some of you didn't like the idea of them showing off upgrading your gear and finally having multiple badge effects, but for me personally, that was a HUGE deal.  It's the biggest problem I have had with previous Mario & Luigi games, and the fact that they actually so much as fixed it with Dream Team makes me very confident about buying the game blind on the eShop as soon as possible.

Then they talked about the game Pokemon Rumble U... and I could care less about it.  The idea of using NFC (or near field communication) figurines so you can really experience the full game (and having them be exclusive to GameStop) is dumb, but if it makes Nintendo some more money and gets their investors off their backs... then so be it.

Then they talked about the retro classics like Shantae that are finally a download away after being notoriously hard to find for so long... and then they said that a legendary NES/Famicom shmup called Summer Carnival '92 Recca is coming to the Nintendo eShop soon.

Next they announced several other games that were coming to the 3DS Virtual Console, like the original NES Donkey Kong (still no full arcade version?  WTF Nintendo!) coming August 15th, TECMO BOWL coming this fall (no specific date but I'm so there with bells on), Wario Land 3 for GBC comes August 29th, and finally (but by no means the least important) Super Mario Bros. 3 coming to both the Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles later this year (this might be the "buy once, play on whatever" launch game... I hope this is coming to every Virtual Console title myself).

Then he discussed Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy which is coming in 2014, and then he said there was nothing else to discuss today... and a classic "OBJECTION!" exploded on our screens and dropped the megaton bomb that I had totally lost hope about: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is actually being localized and is coming in 2014.

Then it was back to Iwata and he detailed Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (the Link To The Past followup/sequel on 3DS) with a cool looking Dark Triforce, and the new HD remake of Wind Waker! Both are coming in November and I cannot wait for both of them!

Then they talked a little bit about The Year Of Luigi... and revealed that Luigi IS confirmed to be in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS... which everyone went "called it" almost immediately, but I feel that this was a master stroke to not reveal that Luigi was in the game right away.  Maybe that's just me?

And the final announcement was... a new Animal Crossing Plaza overlay for the Wii U's WaraWara Plaza... My guess is that the 3DS/Wii U integration with regards to Miiverse are still coming but they aren't coming just yet.  Let's hope they finally do this before the end of the year.

Anyways, see you Nintendo fans Friday for another Wrapping Up Nintendo.

Waiting For Nintendo #1: The "I Don't Expect That Much Newness" Edition

So, Nintendo announced this morning that they are going to do a nice Nintendo Direct presentation tomorrow focusing on 3DS and Wii U games coming the rest of this year tomorrow morning.

What on Earth should we fans expect?  Frankly, not much.  I guess I'll get right into my predictions for 3DS, Wii U, and Other, in that order:

3DS:

• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team comes out this coming Sunday, August 11th, so I wouldn't be surprised to see one last push of the game before it drops.
• They *might* talk about the upcoming 3DS eShop update I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, but really, who knows at this point whether that eShop update was real or not.  Even still, I hope they come out swinging to prepare Nintendo fans for the Nintendo eShop Unification Blitz of 2013 (the promotion of finally being able to buy eShop games on your computer or smart phone).
• The next game coming out after Dream Team drops is (for now) Pokemon X and Pokemon Y on October 12th, so there may or may not be a September surprise for 3DS owners, but who knows.

Wii U:

• I expect them to basically talk about how amazingly well Pikmin 3 was received.  They always like crowing about how their very recently released games have been received by the press and the public.
• Maybe we'll see a new bundle for the price-conscious amongst us, or possibly even a price drop, who knows at this point.
• Also they might talk Wonderful 101 again, which I think, if Nintendo drops the price cut bomb, we may actually get games that actually freaking sell like Wonderful 101 (which looks... bizarre... to say the very least).

Other:

• I have really no other major surprises, maybe an eShop update again, maybe something else, I really have no idea what else they could announce.  I am hopeful Nintendo is listening to their fans and drop a good surprise announcement or two, because they do like surprising us.

After all of that?  I will recap tomorrow as per usual, so see you then.

Waiting For Nintendo #0: It's Time for Mario!

(BTW, people of a certain age will get what I am referring to in my title here... just replace Mario with what Bob Clampett did after he left Leon Schleisinger's studio that was making the Looney Tunes cartoons that involves a very seasick sea serpent and you'll get it. Maybe.)

Welcome everyone to the first-ever Waiting For Nintendo column!  These columns will be fairly infrequent because Nintendo Directs that have the kind of 1-day-plus notice that we fans are seeing more and more of recently don't happen every month, usually they happen every other month or so, sometimes it takes 3 months, sometimes only 2, sometimes a Nintendo Direct Mini comes in between the times that Nintendo Directs happen in and makes the wait that much less unbearable between Nintendo Direct broadcasts.

So, what will this be? It'll be a discussion of what I think Nintendo will talk about in the next day's Nintendo Direct and I'll go over what I think MAY happen, and it's purely a bit of wishful thinking for this Nintendo fan.  So, I shan't waste any more time.  Watch this space.

Passionworks: The Most Underrated Heart Album EVER

Heart, if you've been following me on Twitter, or elsewhere, is one of, if not my all-time favorite musical artist or group.

Also, I am one of the few people who love, love, loves their eighties and early nineties output (a period that stretches from 1985 till 1995), but the same Heart lineup that makes me super happy on the 1985 self-titled comeback record and on 1994's flawless Desire Walks On was first on the scene with quite possibly one of the most criminally underrated records ever: 1983's Passionworks.

So, why has Passionworks become one of those albums I constantly have on "Repeat"?  Well... here's your chance to learn why.

First off the band ROARS into life on the positively insane "How Can I Refuse?", a song about a passionate love affair that the narrator doesn't exactly want to end.  The only thing is, the music video for this one is... cheesy 80s at best, and frankly doesn't add anything different or new to the song other than a... creepy magician who enslaves the band...  Yeah, just don't make mention of just how bad that sounds, just watch this music video and see for yourself:

Next is Blue Guitar, which I've always thought was about guitarist Nancy Wilson's beautiful blue 1973 Fender Telecaster (which, when she puts that sucker on you KNOW it's going to be a good old fashioned hard rocking song).  I don't quite know whether they're talking about a man or a guitar later on in the song, but holy cow, this works so well coming right off of How Can I Refuse.

Third in line is Johnny Moon, a slower song about what I can only guess is a spectral being disguised as a teenaged boy... Either way, this is the first major piece of evidence for my theory that Denny Carmassi is the best drummer in Heart's history, next to Ben Smith, the current drummer for the band.  He just NAILS the drum parts in this song and it adds something ethereal to this song that already had ethereal bits to it.

Fourth is Sleep Alone, a moderately more rocked up song about a woman who needs the... ahem... companionship of man.   It's interesting, but it kind of works better as a bridge between Johnny Moon's ethereal sound and the next song's more moderately rock song.

Speaking of, fifth is Together Now, a song about a person who is consummating his or her relationship in saying how they're together now, and nothing is going to shake their faith in how well this one's gonna work.

Sixth is Allies, which Rob Smith, the guy behind Death By Power Ballad over at PopDose said in a comment about 3 years ago was the other side of a coin flip that wrought his marvelously funny review of Heart's Alone.  I would very much enjoy hearing his thoughts on the entire Passionworks album, and this one in particular.  It has a superb piano line to start off, and has my attention throughout and I can sing along, moderately.  This one was confused with a song on the 1985 self-titled comeback album when I went searching for lyrics for the song All Eyes a couple years ago and when I finally got to hear it, I was so amazed at the song, it made all that prior confusion totally worth it.

Seventh is (Beat By) Jealousy, a song about (well, what else?) how the speaker is jealous of someone else's major successes.  It's really interesting for someone like me to listen to just how Ann Wilson effortlessly moves people's emotions to be on her side, and it is really unique to this artist because she can still totally bring it!

Eighth is Heavy Heart, about (again, what else?) a heavy heart, and how sometimes you have to move on, even with a heavy heart.  This is another great transitional song into the next song, Love Mistake.

Ninth is Love Mistake, which was written by Nancy Wilson for a friend of hers who had gone through a... rather painful breakup, to say the very least.  It's probably one of my favourite songs, and I was this close to thinking they were going to play this one live when I saw them in Asheville, but I still love this song dearly and hope they perform this one live... eventually.

Penultimately we have Language of Love, another fabulous song (and another one of my favorites on the record), and it contains such a perfect callback to How Can I Refuse that it basically cinches the entire album up with the most gorgeous yellow ribboned bow you could come up with.  

And finally we have Ambush, a fitting closure to their tenure at Epic Records, even if this album sold unbelievably poorly at first.  However, I think the above music video is proof positive they had NO idea how to sell Heart at that time...

As I wrap this up, I'm going to be honest and say that this album is probably one of those albums that I now hold in the same high esteem as the aforementioned 1985 self-titled comeback record by Heart and 1994's Desire Walks On.  As for Passionworks, this record totally rocks, and if you want a nice, criminally underrated early 80s album, you can't do all that much worse than Heart's Passionworks.

As The Steam/GOG Turns #5: The "Moved-To-Fridays-Permanently" Edition

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

First, before I get into the releases, I am going to move the column to Fridays for good, mainly because it's a nice way to cap off my week.

This week is, once again, firing on all cylinders, so let's get moving!

First, there are a release or two that are on both GOG and Steam, namely Rise of the Triad.  Look back a post or two to see my (very positive) review in case you missed it, but my summary is to just buy it already.  $15 is really a bargain.  Also on both GOG and Steam is the upcoming new game that has taken off across the Interwebs, Papers, Please.  It's coming out next week, but you can preorder it now. Another preorder on both GOG and Steam is the indie darling Spelunky.  Just get this game if you, like me, are wondering what all the hype was.

Now, on to the GOG-only releases!  First is Penumbra Collection, a collection of three horror games from the same people that later went on to make Amnesia: The Dark Descent.  If you like horror games, go for it.  I, on the other hand, will refrain.

Second is Jack Keane, and it is another great indie point-&-click adventure game!  If you like these sorts of games, you already know whether or not to buy it, so go to it.

Now on the Steam-only releases!  This is a packed week this week, with several pre-purchase offers and lots of DLC (which is NOT covered in this column, as I only cover full game releases).  I'll cover the full game releases for Steam only first, and then I will cover the multitude of pre-purchase offers that popped up this week.

First up in the new releases is Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny, which is a faithful remake of the original Realms of Arkania.  That looks really good, so any folks who are interested in CRPGs or who have played many CRPGs in the past might want to look into picking this one up.

Next up is CastleStorm, a 2D physics destruction/tower defense brawler.  Looks like fun so I will pick that up.

Next is Skulls of the Shogun, the XBLA indie darling (which Billy Berghammer of Planet Gamecube worked on) that is finally making its way to the PC.  I love indie games and I will more than likely pick this one up.

Next is Cannon Brawl, a RTS/artillery mashup game.  I am so happy that RTS games are starting to fully innovate so this one is on my list as I return to RTS gaming after a number of years away.

And finally this week in the new releases is Narco Terror, a old-school style twin-stick shooter where a one-man war is being raged against a drug cartel (sounds eerily Rambo-esque to me...).  I might get this one, we'll see.

Now on to the two Steam-exclusive pre-purchase offers.  First up is Skullgirls, for those of you who didn't get in on the IndieGoGo campaign to fund Squigly, Big Band, and others.  $15 gets you a fabulous independent fighting game that has a very distinct Marvel vs. Capcom 2 feel to it.

Next is Castlevania Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition.  I'm surprised this game hasn't made it to PC already but I'd very much rather play the original Castlevanias, they deviated much too far from the Castlevania mythology that has been in place for the entire time Castlevania has been made available on platforms like the NES.

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...