Razer has released a new trailer for their newly-released TRON Gaming Mouse. Officially licensed from Disney, the mouse features TRON-themed lighting as well as a 5600 dpi 3.6G laser sensor as well as an ambidextrous design. It retails for $99.99 and is available at the official Razer store.
FyreTV has announced the availability of their FyreBoXXX set-top adult entertainment [read: Porn] box. The FyreBoXXX retails for $89.95 and allows you to purchase clips, scenes, or full adult films from a library of over 20,000 titles and stream them right to your home. You only pay for the scenes / films your purchase – there is no monthly fee. However, they do offer monthly subscriptions if you would rather go that route.
You can checkout more info on the FyreBoXXX at their official site [NSFW].
Pinball is the old school of arcade gaming. There are actually museums dedicated to the slanted tables with their silver balls and fast flippers. Over the years videos games were added to pinball machines and pinball machines were added to video games with varying success, usually the less successful being the video games. As strange as it seems, we have had plenty of success over the years imitating human movements but when it comes to the little silver balls crossing the tables and hitting the bumpers just right, it always seems to fall just short. So when Zen Studios took on pinball machines it was a daunting task and critics were ready and waiting to attack another attempt.
Much to their shock, Zen Studios not only pulled off the physics they expanded their game with more tables and a sequel, each time just getting the better and better and the tables more exciting. Finally they got to the point that they teamed up with Marvel Comics and created the game that appealed to our inner gamer and inner comic geek with all the best physics ever made for pinball. If it sounds like I may be a bit over-excited about it, I’m not. My fingers and arms are tired from hitting my flipper buttons like crazy every chance I could for days. I went out to a video arcade, found one of the classic pinball games from way back in the day and I discovered I actually liked the video game one better. The real life game had a broken flipper, some of the bumpers were a little too worn and the special aspects of the game barely worked. When I got home I was able to play a game with identical physics without the worry of a sticking or broken flipper or lousy bumpers. Add to it the interaction with Marvel heroes and villains that can’t quite be duplicated yet in the real world and Bam! you’ve got a game with all the bests of old school gaming with the magic of modern technology.
Graphics/Audio:
The graphics and audio are spot on for creating a pinball machine experience. The dings, clicks, bells and sound clips that make pinball all the fun it is are clean and believable, and yet the addition of Marvel comic heroes and villains just a little too animated for a real machine works as well.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is immersive and you soon forget you are playing a video game instead of a table top. You shoot the ramps, you pull back the plunger, you go crazy with the flippers and that little silver ball reacts just like you would expect it to. You use very few controls, mostly a button for your right flipper and another for your left. Wolverine has a short table with simple ramps, Spiderman has a long table with lots of crisscrossing paths for the ball to travel, Iron Man has lots of tubing and metal to fit the technology theme and Blade solidly pulls off the land of vampires with a table that changes between daylight mode and night. One of the only real complaints at this point is that there are only four tables and the gameplay is so addictive you just want more. With the word being that Zen Studios has gained access to the whole Marvel Universe, I imagine we will be aiding more of our favorite heroes with our trusty flippers in the near future! This is also nice since some people really prefer a certain type of table over another so having more options will give them more to love.
Playtime/Cost:
This has an unlimited playtime. The game is playable over and over, it has online multiplayer as well as a ‘pass the controller’ up to four local player mode. There is also an online leaderboard system and trophies to be won for each table. Add to that the fact that there is already talk of more tables and heroes coming along this game is a great value at $10.00 and is perfect for single player and party gaming. They are even planning tournaments!
Last Call:
This may be the best pinball video game I’ve ever played. It is in some ways better than the real thing because the physics are so solid that you get the play of real life without any of the wear down of mechanical parts. I can’t wait for the next table, which will be chosen by player’s votes with Ghost Rider currently in the lead.
*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review, though at the price I would have happily bought it anyways.
Disney Interactive Studios and Junction Point Studios have released a twelve minute long ‘Making of Epic Mickey’ featurette. Epic Mickey is out now on the Nintendo Wii platform and puts players in the cartoon feet of Mickey Mouse as he attempts to save a destroyed cartoon world from an evil force.
Just in time for the holidays, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island ‘Launch of the Screaming Narwhal’ is now available for iPad on iTunes. In the Tales of Monkey Island series, hapless pirate Guybrush Threepwood fends off a relentless pirate hunter, matches wits with a malicious marquis, overcomes fearsome foes with sabers at sea, and is nearly digested by a giant manatee while hunting down a pox-eliminating sponge.
‘Launch of the Screaming Narwhal’ retails for $6.99 on the Apple App Store. Telltale has episodes two through five planned for release in the new year and they also will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.
2K Games and Firaxis have released a new trailer for their Double Civilization and Scenario DLC pack. The pack, which is available for $7.49, allows players to rule the Spaniards as Isabella or the Incans as Pachacuti while also introducing a new campaign to the game based on the discovery of the ‘new world’.
Xbox 360 gamers looking for a keyboard and mouse control system for their console have thus far been out of luck. The few systems out there are not implemented well and do not lend themselves to efficient fragging. Penguin United, creator of the Eagle Eye system for the PS3, has announced an Xbox 360 version to be release during CES in January.
The Eagle Eye for the Xbox 360 will retail for $59.99 and allow you to use your favorite USB keyboard and mouse to control your console titles.
Disney Interactive Studios have released a new trailer showcasing how game developers designed the world of their hit actioner, Epic Mickey, based on over 80 years of Disney animation and theme parks to pull from. Epic Mickey is available now on the Nintendo Wii platform.
BioWare officially announced Mass Effect 3 at the Spike Video Game Awards 2010 along with releasing the debut trailer. The game is due out in the holiday 2011 season! Unfortunately, it looks like the Reapers have found Earth…
Greetings, Shogunites! As some of you may notice, we have been doing some updates around here. Not only is the site far more SEO-friendly, but it also now features heavier social network ties by way of a multitude of ‘share’ buttons After the Jump of each article. Please feel free to share articles you like with friends, etc as it will help the site provide better coverage to readers.
Furthermore, we have installed an ACTUAL Facebook page. We would love it if you joined us as fans, so hit the official page here or just the ‘LIKE’ box in the right-hand column or the Facebook icon in the ‘Be Social’ nav bar at the upper-right corner of this website.
Here’s to a great 2011!
-GS
