Baloo and Bagheera?

C'mon Baggy, get with the beat!

There are some insane deals on Disney Infinity figures right now.  Best Buy has some figures marked down to 5 dollars and most of the others down to 9.  In addition to that a lot of the discs are also half priced.  Toys R Us has buy one, get one for a dollar on all of there figures.  I had to get Baloo because Jungle Book is my favorite Disney movie.  As soon as my son saw Black Panther something clicked in his soul and he needed to have him.  When we got the two of them home I realized just how appropriate the paring was.

Harley Quinn Real Doll?

Even when I'm not buying anything, I'm always looking at comic shops pre-orders and new releases.  Last night I saw a pre-order for the life sized replica of Harley Quinn and I had to talk about it.  I skim over most things Harley because there is a lot of merchandise out there.  "Life sized" got my attention but what really got me looking at the listing was the word replica.  There are lots of life sized busts or even statues out there.  Replica was something different and instantly I felt it was something a little creepy. 

I wasn't wrong either.  This replica stands 5'11 and is made of foam rubber and latex.  The hair is a synthetic hair to make it more realistic.  Each replica is hand painted.  Harley is sculpted from digital files from Batman: Arkham City.  It's all a very impressive looking piece but all I can think about is someone is going to have sex with it.  Sure, I know that is my sick mind and not the product itself but I can't get around it.

 

If the real product looks at good as the pictures, it is pretty impressive.  If you're looking for a villain to outfit your Batcave this one is going to run you 1,200 dollars although you may find it slight cheaper at some online retailers.  But to all you wannabe Batmans out there, please don't fuck the Harly replica. 

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Video Game

After being leaked all over the internet last night, the new Lego Star Wars game has been officially announced.  The game will release on June 28th and I'm sure all of those places that take pre-orders already have their systems set up to do so.

At this point you should know what you're getting with Lego video games.  You either like them or can't stand them.  There is no doubt that some are better than others, the first Marvel one was probably the best one I had played.  It's nice to see Star Wars back in Lego form though, it's been awhile.

Disney Infinity 3.0: Marvel

Disney Infinity's 3.0 edition has been going strong with the Star Wars releases.  I haven't played the Force Awakens playset yet, but I can say that the Prequel playset is fun, the Original Trilogy playset is amazing, and the light up figures work better than imagined.  The Marvel news has been pretty quiet though.  We knew that there was a Marvel Battlegrounds playset coming out.  That it would allow up to four people to play and that one of the figures included would be an unmasked Captain America.  Unmasked if the perfect way to symbolize the movie universe because no one keeps their damn masks on, but that is a rant for another day.  But seriously, superheroes in movies and television need to keep their damn masks on.

The new Marvel lineup has been revealed even though many of the figures had already been teased or easily guessed by looking at Marvel's movie lineup.  An amazing looking Black Panther will be hitting the shelves along side Vision, Ant-Man, Black Suited Spiderman, and a pack of Power Discs.  Black Suited Spidey was a Vita exclusive for 2.0, but will finally be available to everyone.  The Power Disc pack includes The Tesseract, Nova Corps, Darkhawk, and Ghost Rider's Bike.  Which means everyone who buys that pack, really just buying it for that awesome motorcycle.

The other interesting thing to note is many of these packages have a wi-fi icon on them.  This is to let players know that these figures will require a software update on Disney Infinity to work.  Most consoles are connected to the internet but this an important fact for those who may have difficulty getting their game system online.

WWE 2K16: The New Day

Last year's WWE 2K15 left a lot of long time fans pretty unhappy with the game.  It seems any time a yearly series makes the jump to a new platform they seem to leave out half of the regular features.  In WWE 2K15 you couldn't even make female wrestlers.  We are about a month away from the new WWE 2K16 and it looks like most of the things that were cut are coming back.  Created female wrestlers are back, there are 100 save slots for created wrestlers, and their My Career mode looks drastically improved.  You might even say this a New Day.

Xavier Woods even manages to mention his wonderful Up, Up, Down, Down youtube channel.  I skipped last year's game but I think I'm back aboard the hype train.  WWE 2K16 will release on October 27th.  Pre-ordering will net you a Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator character.  No other DLC has been announced at this time, but there will most likely be a Season Pass.

Castle Crashers Remastered

A remastered version of Castle Crashers just came out on the Xbox One yesterday.  This was one of my favorite side scrolling beat-em ups on the 360 so I'm really happy to see that it is making the jump to the new console.  The even better news is that for a limited time the Remastered version is free to those who bought the original version on the 360.  There were some slight hiccups with the process early yesterday morning, but I was able to download it last night with no issues at all.

You won't have to lose your progress either!  Behemoth,, the creators of Castle Crashers, posted the image posted above.  The entire process was extremely fast and would have gone even quicker if I didn't have to track down where I had stored my 360 controllers.  The DLC carries over too, so if you added the extra characters like the King they will be available to play.

If you didn't pick up this wonderfully cartoony hack and slasher when it was first released it is still worth the full asking price.  It's a fun game solo but really shines in couch co-op.

Disney Infinity 3.0

Last Christmas my son and I were gifted Disney Infinity 2.0 and it hit us as gently as a heroin addiction.  My house has an army of wonderfully sculpted plastic statues of Marvel, Pixar, and Disney characters.  I was able to make my own fun out of the game, but the 3 core play sets were very combat oriented and the game’s combat really wasn’t that fun.  Last Sunday Disney Infinity 3.0 launched with its new Star Wars theme.  The weeks before the launch were full of preview video and interviews talking about how much had changed.  The new information looked promising but how different would it really be?

I don’t believe 2.0 is a game I could recommend to someone.  3.0 looked like it would change that but I wasn’t sure.  The starter set is going to give you Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and the Twilight of the Republic play set.  Playstation users were able to order a special edition which comes with the Rise of the Empire set, Luke, Leia, and Boba Fett.  All of that content will be available later to all other versions.  I enjoyed the Clone Wars series so I was okay with waiting for the Classic stuff.  I ran through the tutorials and started the playset.  I’ve played enough to confidently form an opinion but I haven’t come close to doing everything that you can do.

First things first, the new combat is fantastic.  The Jedi pull or push enemies, send them flying into the air, and then slice them to ribbons with their lightsabers.  Thankfully the other new characters are just as impressive.  Sabine from Rebels has become one of my favorites as she leaps over enemies and sprays them down with her dual blasters.  On top of that there is also starship combat.  It’s a simple shooter but a lot of fun.  I’m looking forward to jumping into the X-Wings when I pick up the Classic stuff.

It isn’t just the combat that has improved though.  The driving also got overhauled.  In the previous versions jumping into a car felt floaty and handled odd. The new mechanics feel very familiar.  Even the little I’ve seen from the new playsets seem to do a good job mixing up the action with doses of platforming, exploring, and space combat.  There is a lot more coming out for the game too.  A speedway racing disc, a Force Awakens set, and new Marvel set have all been announced.  While I couldn’t recommend 2.0 I can recommend 3.0; just don’t buy it at full price.  Figures, playsets, and core boxes go on sale for this franchise all the time.  The figures can be a huge money sink and paying full price for them just doesn’t make sense.  During the launch week Target is running a 2 for 20 sale and Best Buy has buy 3 items get 1 free.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Tresspasser

The newest and possibly last DLC trailer for Dragon Age: Inquisition dropped this weekend.  Tresspasser is DLC set two years after the final events of the game and will hopefully answer a lot of the questions players were left with.  In addition to finding out the fate of the Inquisition you get to fight Qunari again.

In addition to the DLC BioWare also announced some more quality of life patches are on the way.  Tresspasser will launch September 8th.  I know I'll be getting it, the last few seconds of the trailer all but demand that I do.

Dragon Age: The Descent

Dragon Age Inquisition's newest DLC was released yesterday.  The Descent sends the Inquisitor and crew into the Deep Roads and has them facing off with Darkspawn.  The expansion is very combat heavy but starts dropping some pretty big lore changes/hints when it comes to Dwarven history.  If you're heavily into Dragon Age's Lore you already know Inquisition threw some pretty big bombs at the player, this continues that trend.

I'm happy to see that the Dwarves are getting more time to shine this time around.  Inquisition didn't really spend much time with what is happening with Orzammar.  I realize their information shows that Dwarves are one of the least played races but I still really dig them.  Harding and Dagna were two of my favorite people to talk to in Inquisition.

WWE 2K16 -Terminator Pre-Order Reward

WWE 2K16 just announced a new pre-order reward today and the commercial for it is amazing.  I can't remember the last time a non-wrestler was included in a WWE video game.  With the create a wrestler feature the game's servers are full of unofficial characters based on comic books, television shows, and movies.  Adding the Terminator is pretty cool.  Arnold is a part of the WWE Hall of Fame and the last Terminator was featured pretty prominently at the last Wrestlemania.  It looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was featured.

That video isn't enough to make me pre-order though.  WWE 2K15 cut a lot of create a wrestler features and there hasn't been any indication that those cut items are returning this year.  I have to wait and see before they get any of my money again which is disappointing because I'd really like to have a good wrestling game on my X-Box One.

Sea of Thieves

E3 starts this week so expect lots of great video game announcements.  This one is for the Xbox exclusive Sea of Thieves from Rare.  The trailer starts off a little slow, but give it some time.

I'm a little disappointed it looks like a MMORPG since I prefer to stick with small groups of people I know in games.  I'm pretty anti-social to be honest.  Part of it is my own paranoia that people will think I'm a bad player and part of it is there are some strange people out there.  I'm still burned by that City of Heroes Guild I was in that imploded.  That's a story for another day, but I assure you it was strange and uncomfortable.

Lego Marvel Avengers

I've played a lot of the Lego video games.  While I'd say that all of them were enjoyable, there were some that were better than others.  I think Marvel's Lego game was the best one.  It had a great open world and an original story that involved a huge cast of characters.  Today we have the trailer for Lego Marvel Avengers which looks to be a way to play through the Avengers movies.

It's still really early, but I can't help but feel let down.  As I stated before, the first Marvel Lego game was like a love letter to the Marvel Universe.  There were characters all across the Marvel Licensed properties.  The X-Men were in it.  Spiderman was in it.  The Fantastic Four was in it.  Ghost Rider, Blade, and Daredevil were all in it.  This announcement just looks a retread of the Cinematic Marvel Universe, which is much less appealing.  I hope I'm proven wrong when more details come out.

Grand Theft Ambrose

Youtube user Raven Cyarm mixed a little Grand Theft Auto V with last night's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw to come up with this fantastic video.  It is seriously well done and was put together pretty quickly.  Even if you aren't a wrestling fan, I think it is still worth a watch.

NHL 16

In a completely unsurprising move, EA has announced that they will be releasing NHL 16.  The yearly series angered long term fans with the first release on the next gen systems.  There were a lot of features that were expected in the series that 15 cut.  The announcement that was just made today has a long list of new features or updates to existing ones.  Here are the ones that stuck out for me.

Be a Pro.  There are some big changes to this mode.  Your rookie can now start in the CHL and work your way up to the NHL.  In addition to that, you’ll no longer be putting points into your attributes.  Instead the game will keep track of how you play and reward you accordingly.  You will also be able to sim shifts that your player isn’t on, which will make games go much quicker.

6 v 6 Online play.  There isn’t much to say about this one, 12 people all playing one online hockey game.

Distinct Team Arena Atmosphere.  The game is adding team specific celebrations, mascots, chants, and even signature props to the game.  Consider 15 didn’t even animate hats on the ice during a hatrick this is a nice improvement.  I hope that will get some octopi on the ice in Detroit.  I’d love to see some arena specific music, but I’m sure that would be a huge pain.

Playoff Beards.  This is the one that is going to get all of the press.  Players supposedly will have accurate beard patterns, length, thickness, and growth rates.  I won’t lie, I love this. 

Finally, since we're talking about hockey...holy fuck Tyler Johnson.

Disney Infinity 3.0

It was one of the worst kept secrets ever; Disney Infinity’s next release had to be Star Wars.  The first game was all Disney and Pixar.  The second introduced Marvel into the mix.  Both games even included unlockable Star Wars items.  It was a no brainer that Star Wars would be involved in the next big game update.  Last week a German video game store blew the surprise big time by putting up the pre-order for Disney Infinity 3.0.  The whole world could see the new starter pack would include Anakin and Ashoka.  Disney Infinity’s own Youtube channel didn’t comment on the leak but promised big things for today. 

Now we have an official announcement and it came from Game Informer.  The video above shows early game footage and a large number of the figures to expect.   For those unfamiliar with how Infinity works there are two main play types; play sets and toy box.  Play sets are the story mode and are represented by a clear plastic game world piece.  Only figures that make sense in that world can be used in play sets.  So Iron Man is fine in the Avengers play set but Stitch is not.  This time around all of the Star Wars characters will be usable in every Star Wars era’s play sets.  Toy box mode lets you create anything you want and freely mix your characters.  You can also download other people’s creations and play through them.

Game Informer’s website also had some other interesting news.  Melee combat has been reworked and driving has also received a massive overhaul.  Races make up a big part of the toy boxes so that is a very good thing.  The new set will also include new Power Discs but they will not be blind packaged this time around.  There was no mention to how they are going to be sold or at what price point.

From the video and the article we know these figures are on their way.  I'm sure there will be more, but these were the ones announced so far.

Starter kit: Anakin and Ashoka

Original Trilogy Playset: Luke and Leia

Single Star Wars figures: Chewbacca, Han, Vader, Clone Wars Obi-Wan, Maul, Yoda

Force Awakens Playset and figures were announced but unnamed.

Marvel Playset and figures: Hulkbuster Iron Man and Ultron. 

Pixar’s Inside Out play set and figures: Joy, Disgust, Anger, Fear, and Sadness.

Disney figures: Classic Mickey Mouse, Classic Minnie Mouse,  Sam Flynn (Tron), Quorra (Tron), Mulan, Olaf.

Marvel Puzzle Quest

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto on the Xbox One.  It took me a while to pick up the game because I was so bored by the last one that I never finished it.  The new one has me sucked into both the single player version and the multiplayer.  But it is not the game that I’ve spend the most time with.  No, that honor goes to Marvel Puzzle Quest.  When I’m walking around with my phone at 22% charged it’s because of this game.

Available on iOS, Android, and PC Marvel Puzzle Quest is one of those freemium games that actually works.  MPQ is a continuation of the Puzzle Quest series.  I had the original Puzzle Quest on my Xbox 360 and spent hours upon hours playing it.  The concept was simple, it looked like any other jewel matching game but it threw in RPG elements.  You had a character with different abilities.  All of these spells and powers cost colored points.  The only way to get these points was to match gems of that color.  Added to that, each match and power would cause damage to your opponent and vice versa.

Marvel’s version is very similar but instead of only having one hero though put together teams of three.  Each of the characters has their own powers and finding a group that works well together is part of the fun.  As you play you unlock random packs that give you more characters to use.  You can use real money to purchase more random packs and to purchase my space on your roster, but it isn’t a crippling pay wall. 

 The game is constantly getting new character updates too.  The randomness of the rewards can be frustrating at times but the game is a lot of fun.  While I did say earlier that the game doesn’t require you to pay, I did want to mention I have purchased some of the Hero coins.  I felt it was the best way to show support to the game that has captured so much of my attention.  The coins went to expanding my roster slots; I have to be ready for when I eventually pull a Luke Cage cover.  I feel like already having Iron Fist should increase my chances for a Cage.

GTA Online - The Warriors

The Warriors is one of my favorite movies ever, so any time I stumble across something celebrating the movie I always excited.  The video below was made by the Youtube channel GTA Series Videos. They used Grand Theft Auto Online to recreate the intro, ending, and a number of memorable scenes from the movie.  It is a fantastic job and I can't imagine how long it must have taken.

Obviously some of the likenesses are off, but I don't think GTA Online has that many 70's hair styles loaded into it.  My only real complaint is they used some of the crappy director's cut material.  The video is amazing though and is really worth the 8+ minutes it takes to watch it.  It makes me want to both watch the Warriors again and give GTA Online a try.

Dragon Age Inquisition Jaws of Hakkon

Yesterday PC and XboxOne users were able to download the first real single player DLC for Dragon Age Inquisition.  Titled Jaws of Hakkon this add-on has you searching a new area for clue to the final resting place of the last Inquisitor.  The trailer happily shows you some beautiful new snowy areas to explore and also has a new dragon to fight.  The price on Jaws of Hakkon is 15 dollars.

I haven’t had a chance to download it myself but I was paying attention to the initial impressions.  If you’re a fan of Dragon Age Lore, you’re going to like this.  The zone is meant for characters in the 20+ level range and can be accessed both before and after beating the game.  Of course there is a bunch of new schematics and gear to use.  If you’re a fan of scout Harding, she is back and apparently has a bit of a larger role.  So for those keeping track: new area, new fetch quests, new lore, more Harding, and new enemies. 

If you’re looking for big explanation of the game’s final scene, it isn’t happening here.  If you’re looking for a Citadel style send off where you party with all your companions, it isn’t happening here.  I’m looking forward to playing it, but it isn’t enough to push to the top of my gaming pile right now.  No word yet on when this timed exclusive will make it to the other consoles.

LEGO Batman 3

The new Lego Batman game has just been announced.  This one is subtitled "Beyond Gotham" and the video features the Justice League hanging out in space.  Hopefully this means that DC's other heroes will get more game time in this one.  I would be much more excited if the game was called DC Heroes and not Batman 3. 

When Marvel released their Lego game it wasn't called Spiderman, Avengers, or X-Men.  They were brilliant in just using the generic Marvel Heroes.  Sure Spiderman, Wolverine, and Iron Man get a lot of screen time in the story but a lot of other characters get their time to shine.  I wish DC would have done the same this time around. 

Marvel Infinity

The Skylanders model of toy + video game was a huge success.  So much so that Disney followed it up with their Infinity game.  Sure there are differences in what you can do with the games but the most basic concept is the same; put a toy on a reader and it does something in your game.  I grabbed the first Skylanders when it came out because I thought the concept was so interesting.  That and I could make a walking shark wear a pirate hat and punch things with brass knuckles. 

Despite really liking the blocky art style of Disney’s Infinity game I was okay with admiring them on the shelves and not jumping into that game.  Disney is ready to start talking Infinity 2.0 and that involves Marvel.  To start with we’ll be getting the Avengers cast.  There will be 20 playable figures released, so we can start speculating on who those will be.  Spiderman and the Guardians of the Galaxy both show up in the teaser video.  The characters keep the Infinity style and it works for most of them; I didn’t care for the Modok in the video.  I don’t know that I’ll be picking up the game but I’ll be watching the release closely.  Hopefully they’ll make an Iron Fist figure. 

The other  thing to remember is that Disney owns another big franchise that would do very well in an Infinity style game.  Seriously if they start making Star Wars Infinity I’ll probably have to sell my house.