From all of us here at your favorite geek entertainment website, we wish you a happy new year’s eve! Party safely, people!
Archive - 2019
BUENA PARK, CA (December 2019) – The countdown to the New Year is on at Knott’s Merry Farm! With special fireworks, live entertainment, and extended hours, plus Knott’s signature rides and attractions, Knott’s New Year’s Eve celebration is the place to experience an unforgettable night.
Unique one-night-only entertainment serves up fun for a variety of ages and interests including a family-friendly comedian, dancing lessons and more. Guests are invited to count down to the New Year with festive music, party hats, noisemakers, and endless fun. To culminate the evening and the final seconds of 2019 Knott’s will light up the night sky with a dazzling firework display at the stroke of midnight.
- Martini Pop Swing Band is on hand to play the slickest standards ever. Professional swing dancers and instructors will be there to make sure guests don’t miss a single step.
- The Calico Mine Stage will blast timeless pop and rock music courtesy of Hiatus.
- DJ Howly brings the party to the farm for a special New Year’s celebration with high-energy music and dancing taking place at the Calico Mine Stage.
- Next to the Calico Mine Stage, the PEANUTS characters will be posing for pictures with guests to celebrate the New Year.
- The stage will be set at Boardwalk BBQ as two sets of piano players go head to head in full keys wage war with PianoMania Dueling Pianos.
- Family-friendly comedian, Chipper Lowell, brings his hilarious comedy, magic and audience participation to the Bird Cage Theatre.
- Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies, four country boys from deep in the hills of Anaheim will have the crowd’s toes tappin’, hands clappin’ and guts bustin’. The best darn tootin’ entertainment this side of the Santa Ana freeway. The comical and musical number can be seen at the Wagon Camp.
- Fiesta Plaza will feature DJ JC playing upbeat music and will host a dance instruction to teach guests how to dance the Latin way.
- Midnight Fireworks Spectacular, guests can ring in the New Year with a bang as the park’s skies wonderfully light up for a firework display that will leave the young and young at heart in awe.
- A New Year’s Eve celebration is not complete without a delicious meal. Spur’s Restaurant is serving up a special New Year’s Eve buffet from 4pm-10pm; prices are $34.99+tax for adults, $29.99 for Seniors (62 and over0 and $18.99+ tax for kids (11 and under).
In addition to the special New Year’s Eve entertainment, guests can experience all the magic of Knott’s Merry Farm’s festive lineup of entertainment, delectable food, holiday shopping and much more. Showtimes vary, check knotts.com for more information:
- Merry Christmas, Snoopy! In this exciting show filled with whimsical and spectacular ice skating, Snoopy enjoys all of the best parts of the season including trimming the Christmas tree, awaiting Santa’s arrival and attending the festive Christmas Ball!
- When the sun sets on the farm, the buildings and paths in Ghost Town twinkle brightly to the beat of holiday favorites as snow gently falls. Park goers can enjoy the nightly Snow and Glow experience on School House Road and Main Street in Ghost Town.
- Another nighttime tradition at Knott’s Merry Farm is the joyous Tree Lighting Ceremony. TheCalico Tree Lighting Ceremony features the Calico Bell Choir and the mayor of Calico gathering around the tree for an illuminating Christmas celebration.
- The holiday season celebration continues in Camp Snoopy with a lively performance at the Camp Snoopy Theater A Peanuts Guide to Christmas features delightful mash ups of holiday songs with a cheerful and heartwarming dose of the Peanuts Gang.
- In the intimate setting of Ghost Town’s historic Bird Cage Theatre, catch a live performance ofCharles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or its brand-new holiday sequel, Marley’s Wings.
- Savor the ultimate comfort foods with Knott’s world-famous holiday treats. Santa’s Christmas Cabin serves up an array of holiday treats like warm roasted nuts, mouthwatering pastries and handheld cookie shots filled with a cold drink of milk or warm chocolate. Guests can also enjoy more holiday dishes throughout the park like an apple pie pizza sprinkled with a warm brown sugar crumble topped with cream cheese icing at Beechy Keens Pizza or savor the legendary cooking at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant.
- In Ghost Town, the streets transform into a shopping wonderland with the Knott’s Christmas Crafts Village that offers dozens of local artisans selling their unique gifts.
Knott’s New Year’s Eve Celebration is included with regular daytime admission. Park hours on New Year’s Eve are 9am to 1am. A new 2020 Season Pass includes one free visit to enjoy Merry Farm in 2019, unlimited visits in 2020 with no blackout dates, discounts on select food and merchandise, and access to exciting year-round seasonal events. A Regular Season Pass includes unlimited admission in 2020 to Knott’s Berry Farm and a Gold Season Pass includes unlimited admission in 2020 to both Knott’s Berry Farm and Knott’s Soak City Waterpark with no blackout dates. Now at the lowest price of the year, Regular Season Passes start at just $99 or nine easy payments of $9.50 after initial payment and Gold Season Passes are $120 or nine payments of just $11.50 after initial payment. These offers end January 5, 2020. Applicable taxes and fees apply. Payment plans are only available at knotts.com. To purchase Season Passes or tickets, or for more information about Knott’s Berry Farm, visit www.knotts.com or download the Knott’s mobile app for your smartphone today. And join the conversation using #KnottsNYE.
Tempe, Ariz. – December 26, 2020 – Entering into the new year, McFarlane Toys announced today that it has begun a licensing agreement with CD PROJEKT RED to create action figures for Cyberpunk 2077! For the next 3 years, McFarlane Toys will be bringing fans the newest figures from the role-playing video game Cyberpunk 2077. Today, you can pre-order the latest figures online at GameStop.
The first wave of the McFarlane Toys Cyberpunk 2077 range will feature two sizes of the Johnny Silverhand action figure, including a 7-inch and 12-inch version. It will also include a 7-inch (Male) V figure as well. The 7-inch figures will have 22 points of articulation and replicate the likeness of the character, for the price of $24.99. The 12-inch Johnny Silverhand has an MSRP of $39.99. All figures will be available to purchase at major retailers in Spring 2020!
Cyberpunk 2077 will be released April 16, 2020 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, with the version for Google Stadia set to launch the same year. The game has won more than 200 awards, including the Golden Joystick Award for Most Anticipated Game. Recently, Cyberpunk 2077 has also received media and fan attention for its star-studded soundtrack.
Fans of both McFarlane Toys and Cyberpunk 2077 can check www.mcfarlane.com and the McFarlane Toys social media channels for updates and news, www.mcfarlane.com; www.instagram.com/mcfarlane_toys_official; and www.facebook.com/mcfarlanetoys;
In a time where online first person shooters and battle royal games dominate the market, Arise: A Simple Story invites both new and veteran gamers to take a step back to a simpler game style and as its namesake – a simpler story. Arise was released digitally December 3rd, 2019 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Epic Games Store.
Arise has a very somber start, with the screen opening upon what looks like a Viking funeral. As the older gruff man is lit on fire the screen transitions to him waking up in Snow with indication to use right stick to move. Thinking this would move my character, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this control commanded the sky, not the body. With this motion the player is able to manipulate time back and forth. This is put to interesting use in the first level to change the landscape from a frozen snow landscape to spring flowers and back.
As a haunting voice commanded “arise” with soft piano melody as backup, I knew that this was where my story was to begin. I was now in command of this man who appeared to be at the end of his own story. With no backstory or idea of where to go, I set off to the first snow covered level. The game left me to explore with only simple control hints appearing on screen when I reached an insurmountable obstacle. On the Xbox the left stick controlled the player with the A button as a simple jump motion. The right stick then controlled the sky, or “time” both to rewind and fast forward.
As I aimlessly wandered about the first snowscape playing with the time speed controls I was pleasantly surprised to see puzzle solving elements woven into the game itself. Instead of the generic “move block into space to solve” kind of puzzle, the game focused on obstacles that stood in the way of your advancement. These puzzles required the use of the time control to make the snow melt into water to lift wooden tree trunks to higher ledges, command the sun to shift the direction sunflower platforms faced, and rewind falling rocks from a cliff face. Although the game lets the player choose their own pace to explore, there is a set path that the game guides you to with stone markers indicating an element of the story – of the man’s life. It didn’t take long to understand that this game was about the journey, not the destination.
The lack of text and simple controls makes this game highly accessible to all gamers. Though the gameplay and repetitive obstacles soon became monotonous and at times felt like the memory cut scenes were placed too far apart from each other. This made the game seem to drag on and become a race to get to the next area to advance more of the story. This story is derived from what the player puts together from flashback cut scenes, the music tone, and “memory drawings” that can be found hidden throughout the stages and marked by butterflies. These memory Easter eggs give the game more of a collecting completionist feel to the game, but if you don’t mind having the full story can easily be ignored and overlooked.
As the game goes on, you realize your character is a man who has lived a long, complicated life. Each small discovery is something that you as the player are witnessing for the first time but as the character are reliving as lost memories that even he has forgotten. The game does an amazing job of painting contrasting levels that showcase both the joys and sorrows of a life. The small sweet moments are set against contrasting levels filled with sorry and despair. The first chapter of the game brought me to tears, and the lightning filled level titled “Alone” stirred up self-reflection and fragments of my own life that I was finding myself adding onto the character. The lack of dialogue and written story lends itself to the player creating their own story and adding their own human element into this game that ended up being both an exploration of the character’s life and a look into my own.
After a couple hours of solo play, I decided to dive into the two player mode option. I was curious to see what this second player could add to the experience but was instantly let down to see that it just split the controls, myself having control of the character and the second player manipulating time. With the addition of a second player the game instantly lost its intimate feeling and became just a platformer where poorly timed jumps and miscommunication with the second player became comical and tedious. This is definitely a game better suited for one player, but it was interesting to see that it offered the ability to share the experience more with the person beside me.
It is easy to say that the game trailer had me hooked instantly. Sadly the trailer has the problem of showing the “greatest hits” of the game, these striking moments that when played through lost their power as I realized I had already seen them once before. The downfall is that Arise is the type of smaller game that needs a hook to get people interested in picking it up, and while the trailer did just that, the game itself seemed to lack in new emotionally stirring sections. I recommend giving the trailer a quick watch and picking it up if it tickles your fancy. It isn’t a game for everyone, but it is a game that will definitely stick with me for a while and my own memories that it stirred up along the way.
From all of us at GamingShogun.com, we hope you and yours have an incredible holiday celebration. We will see you all in a couple days once the crazy gift exchanges, caroling, and big meals are done with. Thanks for an amazing year so far.
Burlingame, Calif. – December 19, 2019 – Today, KOEI TECMO America and famed developer Kou Shibusawa introduced all-new gameplay elements to their greatly-anticipated strategy game, Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV (RTK14), including the first information on officer creation, promotion, and search. The return of the iconic franchise is set to launch across the West on February 28, 2020 for the PlayStation®4 Computer Entertainment System and digitally on Windows PC via Steam®.
Over 1,000 officers are featured in RTK14, each with their own traits and characteristics to help crush opposing armies and outwit enemies. But if following the likes of Liu Bei or Guan Yu isn’t what you’re looking for, gamers will also be able to freely create new officers from scratch. Creation tools include everything from the officer’s name to their abilities and face. Additionally, specific settings such as the officer’s politics, character traits, tactics, and favorite formations will also be customizable to help create the officer of your choice, whether it’s purely from imagination or the polygonal resurrection of some of history’s more famous military minds.
If creating officers isn’t your thing, gamers will also be able to search for officers with unique character traits, recruit them, then deploy them in battle. Take command of officers with character traits such as “Insightful” or “Recruiter” to scout other officers who may become helpful allies in your quest to control Ancient China. RTK14 requires a lot of specialized personnel in order to conquer the map, so searches and recruitment are vital conditions to advancing your army, especially when it comes to utilizing the officer’s set character traits. For example: Officers that possess traits such as “Duelist,” “Heroic,” or Vigorous” can execute duels on the battlefield, and during the automated duels, officers with the traits “Duelist” and “Vigorous” are given the upper hand.
When defeated in battle, the losing officer may be wounded, captured, or may even die, and the units of the losing side will have their morale severely lowered. When a unit’s morale reaches zero, it is annihilated, so the character traits Duelist, Heroic, and Vigorous become extremely powerful in battle. Other traits like “Divination” will help prevent disasters like plagues and locusts from attacking your base, while a trait like “Abundant Harvest” will help increase supply income. Meanwhile, some officers will also feature character traits such as “Reckless” and “Irritable” and while powerful, these officers will be difficult to control. To find ultimate success in RTK14, gamers will need to figure out how to effectively find or create the right officer for the right position.
As officers become more and more successful throughout the game and begin to take over cities, the imperial court will bestow a “Royal Rank.” The bestowed Royal Rank will provide various benefits such as increasing the number of commands that can be executed during diplomacy or being able to designate the timing to trigger optional tactics to the troops. When the Royal Rank is “Duke” or higher, attack targets can be set by province, and campaigns can be executed to district units across multiple bases. Regular marches require a single order for each unit, whereas campaigns can be executed thanks to a single order across all units, helping strategies unfold in a more dynamic and effortless fashion, establishing Royal Rank as key to officer and army success in the ultimate quest to take control over Ancient China.
Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV is now available for pre-order. Those who purchase any version of the game within the first two weeks of launch will be able to download the additional scenario ‘Battle of Yiling’ for free.
For more information on Romance of the Three Kingdoms 14, please visit the official site, Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/koeitecmous and Follow us on Twitter @koeitecmoUS.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, December 19, 2019. Today Fatshark announced that the Warhammer: Vermintide 2 expansion, Winds of Magic, is available to Xbox One.
The first expansion for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 brings a brand new enemy faction and new challenges to the game. As a meteor crashes down in the Reikland, the Beastmen rush to the epicenter to claim it as a Herdstone. It is up to the five heroes to stop them before a dreadful disaster strikes the Empire.
“We are happy to bring the Winds of Magic expansion to our Xbox One players, and have them join the fight against the Beastmen.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO Fatshark.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – Winds of Magic features
Beastmen – The New Enemy
Dark Omens – New Level
Winds – New Game Mode
Raised Level Cap
New Talents
New weapons for all heroes
New Difficulty
Winds of Magic Xbox One
https://www.microsoft.com/store/productid/9pj0jjw2gq9v
Not playing Warhammer Vermintide 2 on PC? Pick it up now.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/552500/Warhammer_Vermintide_2/
Vienna/Austria, December 19th, 2019 – The Great Sage held a secret while he was sealed inside the crystal for all those centuries… namely, the fact that he was actually training diligently! Despite being cast away in a crystal deep inside the elemental mountains by none other than the Buddha himself, the Great Sage never gave up! Experience this training for yourself as it unfolds in a series of missions across action-packed stages that are filled with gimmicks and traps different from those found in the main game. The new DLC Mind Palace is out now and available for 9.99 $ on PC and PlayStation®4.
Watch the trailer for Mind Palace:
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS33RBQfVd0[/embedyt]
IRDNING, AUSTRIA (DECEMBER 18, 2019) — Toplitz Productions announced today a planned Q1 2020 Steam Early Access launch date for their foresty business simulation — Lumberjack’s Dynasty. In the game, players take over a family farmstead in need of restoration as they set out to likewise restore the family’s lumber business. Lumberjack’s Dynasty will provide players with challenging story quests to complete as they build a timber empire their in-game family will be proud to carry on with.
Along with the announcement of the Early Access start for Lumberjack’s Dynasty, Toplitz Productions is pleased to announce that the recently released title Farmer’s Dynasty already has a large and active community, and since the game’s release, the publisher has been working hard on updates and improvements and is looking forward to providing players with a compelling farming simulation.
“We’re very proud of our community, which has been with us through the Early Access phase of Farmer’s Dynasty and has contributed significantly to the success of the title through constructive feedback,” said Robin Gibbels, Producer at Toplitz Productions. “We are now looking forward to the Early Access start of Lumberjack’s Dynasty and cooperation with our fans!”
More info on Farmer’s Dynasty and a complete list of updates is available on the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/678900/Farmers_Dynasty/
Lumberjack’s Dynasty combines the traditional life and business simulation genre with elements of the role-playing genre, creating a unique experience offered as a forestry simulation game. Lumberjack’s Dynasty challenges players to manage forests, harvest timber, and produce high-quality lumber and other products for sale. They will get behind the controls of heavy logging equipment and harvest prime timber as they grow to become major producers in the lumber industry while ensuring the prosperity of their family for generations to come — creating a true dynasty!
London, United Kingdom – December 18, 2019 — Firefly Studios teased new features, modes and units in a rapid fire Q&A video featuring over 80 community questions. Senior Programmer Matt Smith discusses everything from hot keys and talking peasants to the final unit count and DLC. He even addresses the central question of whether you’ll be able to pet the (war) dog in Stronghold: Warlords:
“After 20 years designing RTS titles, we have a good feel for what players want from Stronghold,” said Nick Tannahill, Marketing Director at Firefly Studios. “That doesn’t mean we can say yes to everything, but as a handful of devs working with our own engine we can at least try to add some of what the community asks for. Whether that’s something small like removing unit caps or a larger ask like adding a new type of campaign, we can adjust during development and really deliver for the fans who have been supporting us over the last two decades!”
Firefly’s newest development diary update answers many of the latest Stronghold: Warlords community questions taken direct from the official Stronghold Discord. With queries surrounding the groundbreaking Warlords system, new city builder gameplay and eccentric cast of characters, Firefly’s latest entry in the legendary castle-builder series is set to be the most ambitious yet.
Covering a variety of topics, this new video reveals fresh details about the game and hints at upcoming events in their Discord:
- An expected release on Steam mid-2020
- Cow names
- Modding through day one Steam Workshop support
- Warlord recruitment and abilities
- A possible new single player economic campaign teased
- Units and AI characters featured in the game
- Multiplayer details including map sizes and matchmaking
Scheduled for release on Steam in 2020, players can find out more about Stronghold: Warlords by visiting the game’s official website: www.StrongholdWarlords.com and store page on Steam.