Author - Jerry Paxton

Saint’s Row: The Third – The Full Package Release Date

2012/09/24
Jerry Paxton
News

AGOURA HILLS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) and Volition, Inc. today announced Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package will be available for purchase in North America on November 6, 2012, and internationally on November 9, 2012 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation Network and Windows PC for the suggested retail price of $49.99.

The premiere edition of Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package includes the award-winning, critically-acclaimed, almost universally lauded Saints Row: The Third; the three downloadable mission packs Genkibowl VII, Gangstas In Space, and The Trouble With Clones; and more than 30 bonus DLC items from such hits as the Shark Attack pack, Witches & Wieners pack, Special Operations pack, and the Genki Girl Vehicle pack. With every weapon, every vehicle, and every outfit ever created for Saints Row: The Third, players will go over the top, off the reservation, and to places where no decent game should go.

“The fans have asked for it, and with the Full Package, we are happy to deliver,” said Kevin Kraff, Vice President, Global Brand Management for THQ. “With all the amazing and over-the-top DLC Volition created, the Full Package now stands as the definitive edition of Saints Row: The Third. For anyone that has yet to play this one-of-a-kind game, it’s time to strap it on.”

New Game Director for The Secret World

2012/09/24
Jerry Paxton
News

Durham, USA – September 24th, 2012 – Funcom is excited to announce that Joel Bylos has taken the new position as Game Director on ‘The Secret World’,the company’s recently launched massively multiplayer online game (MMO). Mr. Bylos will work together with Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist on expanding and enhancing the game through quality post-launch content. The team has already launched two major content updates in just over two months following launch, and focus going forward will be to expand the storyline, introduce entire new areas such as the upcoming New York raid, and much more.

Ragnar Tørnquist will continue in his role as Creative Director with even more focus on the overall setting and story for the game.

Mr. Bylos, who has been instrumental in shaping ‘The Secret World’ as Lead Content Designer’ throughout development, has extensive experience with developing post-launch content for MMOs. This includes serving as Lead Designer on the critically acclaimed ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ expansion pack for Funcom’s previous MMO launch ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. Mr. Bylos will manage the development team together with Scott Junior, who continues in his position as Producer on the game.

“Being given the opportunity to lead the game into a bold, new future is definitely a dream come true for me,” says Joel Bylos, Game Director on ‘The Secret World’. “I am very proud of what we as a team have created with ‘The Secret World’, and it is truly a brilliant canvas that will allow us to create more groundbreaking MMO experiences for many years to come. ‘The Secret World’ is only really getting started, and with a game world that draws upon our own,real world, there is no limit to what sort of amazing stories we can tell and fantastic locations we can visit in the upcoming content updates.”

“Joel and I have worked together for many years, and I cannot think of anyone more suited to maintain the vision and lead the game going forward than him,” says Ragnar Tørnquist, Creative Director on ‘The Secret World’. “I look forward to continue working with Joel on bringing the game forward through many, exciting post-launch updates, and I especially look forward to spending more time expanding on what I truly enjoy the most about ‘The Secret World’: the story, characters and the setting itself.”

The development team is currently working on wrapping up ‘Issue #3: The Cat God’, the latest content update for ‘The Secret World’, and production on‘Issue #4’ is also well under way. This update puts players in the middle of a devastated New York City where they have to battle an enormous monster crawling up from the depths of the New York subway system and onto the streets of Times Square.

‘The Secret World’ is developed by Funcom and co-published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA). For more information about the game please visit www.thesecretworld.com.

Halloween Horror Nights Orlando Opens Tonight

2012/09/21
Jerry Paxton
Halloween, News

ORLANDO, Fla. (September 21, 2012) – Tonight, there will be no escape as Universal Orlando unleashes the horror of Halloween Horror Nights 22, featuring all new haunted houses, hundreds of terrifying “scareactors” and a completely reinvented street experience that will leave guests with nowhere to turn.

Recently named “the country’s best Halloween event” for the fifth consecutive year by Amusement Today, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights raises the bar each year by creating all-new, terrifying experiences that entertain guests from all over the world.

This year, guests will encounter ground-breaking, horrifying experiences:

  • All-new haunted houses featuring movie-quality sets, including four houses based on some of pop culture’s biggest icons: AMC’s hit television series“The Walking Dead;” popular video game and motion picture franchise “Silent Hill;” the bad boys of magic, Penn & Teller; and legendary shock rockerAlice Cooper. Plus, three brand new original houses featuring a daunting European cathedral (Gothic); a bone-chilling apparition-filled house (Dead End); and Universal’s classic monsters as if they have stepped right out of the silver screen (House of Horrors).
  • A completely reinvented street experience that will unleash scareactors in an all-new, terrifying way. Roaming legions of menacing beasts, vampires, prisoners, warriors and more will find you in every corner of the park. There will be no boundaries. There will be no escape.
  • Two outrageous shows, including the return of the popular Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure and brand new this year, The 20 Penny Circus,featuring “magic for people with questionable taste.”

Sneak Peak of the Event Video

Capcom Expanding Dragon’s Dogma

2012/09/21
Jerry Paxton
News

Capcom has sent out a letter detailing some of their plans to update the really cool RPG, Dragon’s Dogma, in the near future. First on their plate is the addition of two new game modes, “Speedrun” will challenge players to clear the game as quickly as possible with in-game equipment awarded for those who clock specific times; while “Hard Mode” turns up the difficulty with enemies that are tougher to defeat, but with the reward of further equipment.

Then, sometime in 2013, the company will be releasing the first major DLC/expansion for the game, which is currently titled Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. They promise more on that product soon.

(Ed.Note: Give me a PC version, Capcom!)

Screenshots from Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

SpookyShogun Movies: HOLLOW (2012) Review

2012/09/20
Jerry Paxton
Film Review, Halloween, Movie News, News, Reviews

Get Used to these Expressions

HOLLOW (2012) is a British “found footage” film helmed by first-time Director, Michael Axelgaard. It follows four friends as they go on holiday to an old, abandoned monastery in the countryside. When screening HOLLOW, I was intrigued by the synopsis of the film. Apparently, there is a wicked-looking tree near the old site that has a long history of couples committing suicide by hanging from its branches. However, some believe that there is a darker force at work making the couples end their lives. It all sounds great in concept, but HOLLOW ends up being a very slow, plodding found footage film. This sub-genre of horror film is usually known for its films being slow for the first half hour or forty five minutes in order to set up the story, then all hell breaks loose and we get genuine chills and scares.

HOLLOW bucks the tradition by attempting to focus more on its characters and their interpersonal relationships. In viewing it, I kept expecting scares and freak-factor, but just got met with more and more character interaction. This would not be a bad thing usually, except for the fact that aside from a few scenes, they come off as unintelligent and boring people. We, the audience, quite clearly see the dynamics and twists between the characters unfolding long before the characters themselves do. When these dynamics come to a head, there is barely any payoff. There are only a few good, creepy/scary scenes in the film and, each time, I expected the film’s pace to quicken. After these moments of scares, we are treated to more and more (and more) slow character stuff. This film could have been cut down quite a bit in the editing room and been far more interesting. Give us some of the character stuff and follow it up with the scares – keep things moving, don’t let the story get mired down in itself.

Overall, I have to say “pass” on HOLLOW for some of the other found footage flicks out there (one of which is the subject of our next SpookyShogun Movie Review article). It’s not a bad first attempt at a found footage movie, it just needed some more time baking in editing before being served up to audiences.

[easyreview title=”HOLLOW Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”2″] Our Rating Scores Explained

Official Trailer

Elvira Returning to Knott’s Scary Farm for One Night

2012/09/20
Jerry Paxton
Halloween, News

BUENA PARK, CA – Elvira, the legendary mistress of the dark, will make a rare one- night-only appearance as part of Knott’s Halloween Haunt’s 40th year celebration on Thursday, October 4 from 9 pm to 1:00 am. Guests to the park that night can purchase a photo of the Hollywood Horror movie queen for her signature or even purchase a photo with her at the Knott’s 40th Halloween Haunt Museum.

Elvira’s reign as the “Queen of Halloween” began in 1981 when she became the hostess of the KHJ television show “Movie Macabre,” and went on to be the first horror host to be syndicated nationally.

In 1982 she became the headliner in the Ghoul Time Theatre show at Knott’s Halloween Haunt following in the footsteps of Sinister Seymour and Wolfman Jack. Elvira last appeared at Haunt in 2001.

Since its humble beginnings in 1973, Knott’s Halloween Haunt has grown to be the largest, most creative and most well attended Halloween attraction in the world. This year Knott’s Berry Farm will be transformed into a living nightmare with 13 themed mazes and ride through attractions, 9 live shows, and 4 scare zones featuring hundreds of free-roaming monsters.

Dates for this year’s Halloween Haunt are Sept. 21-22, Sept. 27-30, Oct. 4-7, 11-14, 18-21, 25-28, 30-31, 2012 .Knott’s Berry Farm closes at 5:30 p.m. each evening and reopens at 7 p.m. as Knott’s Scary Farm. The fear continues until 1 a.m. (2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.) For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.knotts.com.

Injustice Release Info, TGS Trailer

2012/09/20
Jerry Paxton
News

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced that their upcoming fighter, Injustice: Gods Among Us, will be released in April of 2013. Additionally, the company released a trailer of the game for the Tokyo Game Show.

Trailer

Razer Releases Game Booster Beta

2012/09/20
Jerry Paxton
News

CARLSBAD, Calif.  – Sept. 20, 2012 –Razer™, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, today announced the beta release of Razer Game Booster, software that optimizes a user’s system settings, improving game performance and providing the ability to share favorite moments with friends. This software enhances in-game experiences that players of all skill levels—from professional to casual—will appreciate. With the click of a button, gameplay becomes faster, smoother and easier to launch. The program is the latest evolution of the CNET Editor five-star-rated IObit Game Booster software, an immensely popular precursor that has been downloaded over 100 million times.

Razer Game Booster includes the following features:

Game Mode

Focus in on your game by temporarily shutting down unnecessary functions and applications, concentrating all of your resources purely on gaming. Applications shut down prior to gaming are restored when user exits the game.

Calibrate Mode

Simplify the process of setting up your PC’s performance by conveniently providing you with the option to tweak, defrag, or update any outdated drivers.

Share Mode

A bonus feature where you can show off your skills, create tutorials, and more, with the ability to record real-time audio/video and capture screenshots.

Razer did extensive research and testing in partnership with IObit during the development of Razer Game Booster, improving and updating features to bring about the most intuitive and powerful application possible. The software conveniently stores all games under one hub, and provides a unique boosting feature that enhances the functions of a PC for maximum game performance.

“Razer Game Booster takes what Razer is all about and supercharges it,” said Robert “RazerGuy” Krakoff, president of Razer USA. “We are huge fans of IObit’s Game Booster software and we are dedicated to providing gamers with the absolute best experience possible. To that end, we are committed to everything that adds performance and fun to gaming, which includes software and the systems they run on.”

Razer Game Booster is in internal closed beta, but fans have the opportunity to be part of an exclusive team of testers. Sign-up atwww.razerzone.com/gamebooster.

Bohemia CEO Comments on Dev Detainment

2012/09/20
Jerry Paxton
News

Bohemia Interactive CEO Marek Spanel has written a letter to the gaming community regarding the detainment of two of the company’s developers while on a trip to Greece.

From Marek Spanel:

My colleagues and I were shocked when we found out about the detention of our co-workers and friends, Martin Pezlar and Ivan Buchta, on the Greek island of Lemnos. Everybody who knows them realizes that they’re not spies and certainly never intended to threaten Greek national security.

The guys visited the island as tourists. Their trip to Lemnos was personal, organized via travel agent, with the single goal of experiencing the place that had inspired the virtual environments of Arma 3, a computer game that they’ve been working on over the past two years.

Our company has never gathered or collected any restricted information, such as photos or blueprints of military installations of any nation, nor have we ever tasked anybody else to do it on our behalf. We always respect the law and we develop all of our products using publicly available materials only – Arma 3 is no exception.

According to media sources, the Greek ministry of National Defence actually examined our game, after local authorities raised this topic. They assured that the game is fine. Originally planned for release in autumn of this year, it is based upon a fictional future, set in 2035.

The whole incident is a terrible personal tragedy for Ivan, Martin and their families; I believe it to be no more than a deep misunderstanding, one which will be swiftly explained. I’m ready to support the guys and their families in these difficult times as much as I can.

Marek Španěl

Bohemia Interactive a.s.

CEO