Author - Jerry Paxton

Quarriors! Announced for iOS Platform

2013/11/04
Jerry Paxton
Mobile News, News, Screenshots / Photos

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Hillside, N.J. – November 4, 2013 – Game creator WizKids/NECA today announce the upcoming release of Quarriors! compatible with iPad®, based on the hit original dice building game Quarriors!, created by Mike Elliot and Eric M. Lang.  Since its release in 2011, Quarriors! has received several awards, including Most Innovative Game of the Year in 2011 by Dice Tower. It has also been nominated for many awards, such as Best Family Game by Games Magazine Awards in 2012.  The digital release is slated for November in the US.

“The iPad version will be more accessible and reach a whole new audience while still being the fun and outstanding game current players love,” said Justin Ziran, president of WizKids.

The game offers single player and 2 to 4 player online and offline Multi-player and Pass-n-play action! For ages 14 and up, Quarriors! is a unique blend of strategy and chance featuring a revolutionary dice building game mechanic! As a Quarrior! – a mighty mystical warrior – only you have the power to capture dangerous Quarry from the untamed wilds! But your rivals plot against you! They will send their own Creatures and Spells to destroy your Quarry before you can deliver them to Empress Quiana and claim your reward! Summon your Creatures and protect them from your foes and you will earn Glory for yourself. The first player to earn enough Glory will be hailed as the Champion of the Empress. Deck building strategy without the tedium of shuffling!

Features include:

  • Full and faithful transliteration of the original dice building board game Quarriors! by Mike Elliot and Eric M. Lang.
  • Single player and up to 4 player Multi-player and Pass-n-play modes.
  • Full tutorial included.
  • Automatic scoring and rules enforcement.
  • Challenging strategic gameplay.
  • Immersive sounds, art and engaging special effects bring the tabletop game to life!
  • Compatible with iPad (2nd Generation), iPad (3rd Generation), iPad (4th Generation) and iPad Mini running iOS 5.1 or greater.

For more information on Quarriors! for iPad®, visit www.quarriorsgame.com.

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Need for Speed Rivals Now A PS4 Launch Title

2013/11/04
Jerry Paxton
News, PlayStation 3 News, PlayStation 4 News, Screenshots / Photos, Xbox 360 News, Xbox One News

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November 4th, 2013 — Ghost Games pushed the pedal to the floor and is delivering the next generation of racing games even earlier than expected! On November 15, Need for Speed™ Rivals will be available first on the PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system in North America, and will be the only racing game coming to the new console this year. Need for Speed Rivals will be available at retail and via download directly through the PlayStation®Network and will support Remote Play for the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system. Playing on the PS®Vita gives players the option of starting their races or chases on PlayStation 4 and finishing them on the go from their handheld. The game will be in-stores for the PlayStation 4 November 29 day and date with the console launch in Europe.

Need for Speed Rivals puts gamers behind the wheel of both sides of the law, daring them to cross the line as either a cop or racer in order to gain any advantage in the street’s ultimate rivalry. Players will choose between two distinct career experiences, each with their own set of high-stakes challenges, rewards, pursuit tech and cars. Powered by the advanced Frostbite 3 engine, the game features stunning visuals including epic vistas, super high-fidelity cars, time of day and weather effects. The intensity of the action is at an all-time high thanks to AllDrive, a revolutionary new way to experience Need for Speed where you and your friends are seamlessly connected in one racing world.

Winner of the official Game Critics Award for “Best Racing Game” at E3 2013, Need for Speed Rivals will deliver the most adrenaline-filled action racing game this holiday. Need for Speed Rivals will also be available for Xbox One®, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft starting November 22 worldwide. The game is coming to the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC on November 19 in North America and November 22 in Europe. Players eager to bust racers from day one can pre-order the game on Origin and at other participating retailers and receive the Need for Speed Rivals Ultimate Cop Pack at no additional cost*.

To join the conversation on Need for Speed Rivals, please visit http://www.facebook.com/needforspeed, follow us on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/needforspeed and #NeedforSpeed. Press assets for Need for Speed Rivals are available athttp://info.ea.com.

PS4 Screenshots

Company of Heroes 2 Content Update Coming Next Week

2013/11/04
Jerry Paxton
News, Windows PC News

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November 4th, 2013 — Critically acclaimed RTS game Company of Heroes™ 2 will see a free update called ‘Turning Point,’ on November 12, 2013. This update will include a host of free content, including items created by and for the game’s passionate community.

‘Turning Point’ includes:

  • World Builder

This highly requested community feature enables players to design and share their own epic multiplayer maps for Company of Heroes 2

  • Two New Multiplayer Maps

The game’s multiplayer roster is being bolstered with two additional multiplayer maps, the industrial ‘Rails and Metal’ and urban ‘Lazur Factory’

  • Four New Multiplayer Commanders

Four new Commanders, two per faction, are being introduced into the game’s multiplayer and skirmish modes. One Commander from each faction was designed by members of the Company of Heroes 2 community during a visit to Relic this summer and will be available via registration at www.companyofheroes.com.

“We are excited to provide such a large content update to Company of Heroes 2 players,” said Greg Wilson, Executive Producer at Relic Entertainment. “We are particularly proud to offer our community the much sought-after World Builder and are hoping to provide Steam Workshop integration and other mod features in the near future.”

Further information on the ‘Turning Point’ update’ will be detailed on the relaunched www.companyofheroes.com website throughout this week. The company also announced that a sneak peek at the new maps will be demoed live on Relic Entertainment’s Twitch TV channel tomorrow, November 5, 2013, followed by a preview of the community requested World Builder on November 6.

For more information, please visit www.companyofheroes.com.

Call of Duty Ghosts Pre-Launch Infographic

2013/11/04
Jerry Paxton
News, PlayStation 3 News, PlayStation 4 News, Screenshots / Photos, Windows PC News, Xbox 360 News, Xbox One News

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To celebrate Call of Duty: Ghosts shipping to retailers tomorrow, Activision and Infinity Ward have shared a little “It’s Call of Duty Time” infographic. Click on the thumbnail below to embiggen!

Konami Details the Metal Gear Solid V Experience

2013/11/04
Jerry Paxton
News, PlayStation 3 News, PlayStation 4 News, Xbox 360 News, Xbox One News

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EL SEGUNDO, CA – November 4, 2013 – Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. has released details for METAL GEAR SOLID V, the two-game experience comprised of METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES and METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN.

METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES will launch Spring 2014 as a prologue to the events leading into METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN. This prologue brings all of the hallmarks of the renowned franchise in a concentrated story mode that guides players into the new gameplay mechanics against the backdrop of the expansive METAL GEAR SOLID universe.

METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES features new advances made possible by Kojima Productions’ FOX Engine, such as radical new game design, day and night cycles, and weather conditions that will all dynamically affect gameplay. The missions are designed to ease players into the new control and gameplay advances that will be an integral part of METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN.

The METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES storyline follows the series’ hero, Big Boss, as he infiltrates a remote Cuban prison camp on a rescue mission, all while trying to remain undetected. Explosive plot lines develop quickly as he finds himself on behind enemy lines with little options for help.

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN will pick up where METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES leaves off and will plunge players into a new breed of open-world stealth action, featuring deep story arcs and dynamic gameplay as expected of a canon chapter in the METAL GEAR SOLID series. Both titles will be released for PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4, the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system and Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, highlighting the groundbreaking capabilities the FOX Engine brings to current and next generation consoles.

“The advanced capabilities of the FOX Engine are allowing me to express the story of METAL GEAR SOLID in a new way,” explained Hideo Kojima, Creator of the METAL GEAR SOLID series, and head of Kojima Productions. “There will be a significant difference in what METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN brings to the series, so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game offers. As such, METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES has been designed to introduce key elements, while setting up the events of METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN.”

METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES will be released in Spring 2014 on PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One systems. The game will be available in retail stores nationwide on current generation systems for the MSRP of $29.99 or via download for $19.99. For PlayStation®4 and Xbox One, the game can be downloaded for $29.99 suggested retail price.

Best Halloween Attractions of the 2013 Season

2013/11/02
Jerry Paxton
Geek News, Halloween, Haunted Attraction Review, News, Reviews

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Each year, we at the site go into full-on Halloween mode for the entire month of October. Actually, our season began earlier this year with The Empty Grave’s early August launch. After each season, we like to take a look back and rank our favorite haunted attractions by various criteria. Here is the list of haunted attractions we got to visit this season as well as our awards!

Haunted Attraction Reviews 2013

Best Value

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Big Worm’s Sherwood Scare Home Haunt – This small home haunt located in Northridge, CA has some excellent narrative elements throughout its haunted house as well as a great deal of production value. Plus, you get to give $3 dollars to a good cause of fighting CF – just look out for the “man in the lake”!

Most Scary

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Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights – Universal Studios might not have been quite the behemoth of scare that it was last year, but it still brought the terror in several of their well-produced mazes such as Evil Dead: Book of the Dead and Insidious: Into the Further. Their handling of these IPs was masterful and they made me jump several times during our visitations. For that, I am calling Halloween Horror Nights the “Most Scary” haunted attraction that I visited this season.

Best Monsters

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Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt – The monsters of Knott’s Halloween Haunt have been in the scaring business since the park began its haunted event in 1973. A great deal of these monsters spend the other 11 months of the year continuing to perfect their talents at gatherings and impromptu rehearsal sessions. Many of them even create their own characters and personalities to bring to bear against the park guests and we salute their dedication and talent. Unlike some haunts where the talent feels robotic, Knott’s monsters are dynamic and truly scary.

Best Set Design

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Reign of Terror Haunted House – We ended up doing a night of home haunts and other attractions we usually don’t get to reach in North LA County and I am so glad we did. The Reign of Terror haunted house in Thousand Oaks, CA features some truly amazing set design which makes guests feel like they are actually in the various sets found throughout the large attraction space. From the amazing textures on the walls to the creative use of animatronics built into the sets, the Reign of Terror is hauntingly-beautiful.

Best Overall Haunt Experience of 2013

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The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride – This year, the LA Haunted Hayride once again gave Southern California something that it simply doesn’t have: A Midwestern Halloween carnival (with substantially higher production value). Aside from the frightfully fun hayride experience, guests can find delicious carnival eats as well as a talented cast of monsters and even ghost hunter presentations, fortune tellers, and a creepy walk-through maze, all set in the lonely and dark woods of Griffith Park’s “Old LA Zoo”.

VisionTek R9 280X Review (Hardware)

2013/11/02
Jerry Paxton
Hardware News, Hardware Reviews, News, Reviews

r9-280x-61dOVisionTek’s Radeon R9 280X is out on the market and we got the chance to take a look at one. Sharing the same card architecture as the Radeon 7970 family of GPUs, the Radeon R9 280X is basically a 7970 that has been optimized for performance.

The VisionTek Radeon R9 280X Video Card features 1 DVI, 1 HDMI and 2 Mini display port connections and supports AMD’s Eyefinity multi-display features.

Visually, the VisionTek R9 280X isn’t a huge monstrosity of a video card. It features an attractive design with a red outer shell that covers up its heat pipe cooling system. Responsible for cooling the video card are two cooling fans with special, curved fan blades to move more air at lower RPMs. The VisionTek Radeon R9 280x is powered by way of a 6-pin and 8-pin power ports and it is recommended to use at least a 750 Watt power supply.

Installing the video card is a straightforward process, and the size of the VisionTek R9 280X makes it easy to get into even cramped PC gaming chassis.

Up Next: Specifications

PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures Review (Xbox 360)

2013/11/02
Jerry Paxton
News, Reviews, Xbox 360 News, Xbox 360 Review

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Namco Bandai was kind enough to send over a copy of their new PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures for the Xbox 360. PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures is platformer based on a children’s show of the same name. In it, PAC-MAN must take on the evil forces of Betrayus to save the city of Pacopolis!

Throughout the journey, PAC-MAN can be granted special, elemental powers to battle his foes – such as fire or ice-based abilities. These help break up the platforming and allow the titular character to actually be able to do some damage. The overall level design is colorful and decent – especially once you break free of the more tedious, early levels that the game puts your through. Weirdly, PAC-MAN takes on many different forms that I had not been aware he was able to do so (e.g. a giant boulder). The whole game feels a bit to me like a strange “trip”, if you get my meaning, but I think the kiddies will dig it a lot.

In a cool bit of Halloweeny goodness, the character of PAC-MAN is actually found to be somewhat disturbing in the game. I remember as a kid simply putting quarters into the arcade machine and happily-making the little yellow guy eat pellets and ghosts. Seeing him in 3D and hearing the dialog about him planning to eat his opponents borders on the macabre. But, I digress!

Overall, PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures is a decent 3D platformer geared towards young kids who are fans of the TV show. It doesn’t tread any new ground in the genre but competently handles what it sets out to do. The game is available on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, and there is also a version out there for the Nintendo 3DS.

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Live Action Remake of Dead Island Trailer

2013/11/01
Jerry Paxton
Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos

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November 1, 2013 — In 2011, Techland captivated the video game world when it released what is widely considered the greatest video game trailer of all-time for the relatively unknown at the time video game Dead Island. The trailer was viewed over 2.5 million times in the first five days and received universal praise from gaming and mainstream media outlets.

An All-new video game short, which comprises a shot–for-shot, live action adaptation of the beloved trailer, is now live on Machinima.  Featuring the same iconic music, the production team matched the emotion and action of the original down to the smallest detail.

Live Action Trailer

Reign of Terror Haunted House Review

2013/11/01
Jerry Paxton
Geek News, Halloween, Haunted Attraction Review, News, Reviews

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The folks behind Reign of Terror are back at it again this year and we were lucky to be able to experience their haunted house last week. Located above the Gold’s Gym in Thousand Oaks, CA, the haunted house features a huge amount of real estate and some of the most awesome set design and build quality I have ever seen in a haunt. Tickets are reasonably priced at $15 dollars each and, after purchasing, we were ushered around the backside of the gym and up a rear staircase. Once on the second floor, we found ourselves in an Old West mining town with a variety of sets to see. There were water features, a saloon, a small mining cavern, and a great deal more. The catch to this is that all that was just the queue line!

Once we entered the caverns signalling the start of the actual haunted house portion of the experience, we just kept getting blown away. Reign of Terror has done such a great job of making you feel like you are in the set environments. A haunted house, mortuary, science lab, prison, and a other locales will grace your journey towards the exit – each have a unique look and feel. Walls are an important aspect to any professional haunted house. You can often times judge the level of technical skills a haunt has by how they dress them. Are they simply painted plywood or have they gone the extra mile and textured them? Reign of Terror is all about the technical and their texturing is terrific.

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Additionally, while there is a lot of monster talent roaming the maze, a great deal of the scares found within are animatronics-based. Usually, I have a big problem with this as it makes the attraction feel like one of those old-school carnival dark rides. Reign of Terror has done an excellent job at making them feel as organic as possible. There was even one animatronic jump scare that actually made one of our party scream a little (a large feat as we are all grizzled and jaded haunted house-goers from ‘wayback’).

Overall, the Reign of Terror Haunted House needs to be on your to-do list for next October. They are doing an outstanding job and should be commended for their efforts.

Address

197 N Moorpark Rd
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

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