Author Archives: Nathan Grayson

Hi! I’m at BlizzCon! There’s a World of Warcraft preview panel happening right this very second. You want Pandas? Well, here’s 90 minutes of the little bastards and their furry fists of fury. Follow this space for all the news.

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The desert is vast, but you’re not alone on your Journey. Production lead Robin Hunicke takes Nathan Grayson by the hand and leads him into the sands.

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Make heaven sleek, streamlined, and awesome for us, Steve. Beware, though: They allegedly have creatures with a billion eyeball wings and cow faces up there. This might be a toughie, even for you.

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We didn’t have to fly halfway across the universe for news this week, so it came to us. Big time. We battled back as hard as we could, but at what cost? Huh? Our souls? Oh, no biggie, then. Here’s what it all means.

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Yakuza: Of the End is a game about Japanese mafia zombies. Crazy? Brilliant? Both? We have no idea. But – seeing as that description probably secretes some sort of pheromone-based Western exec repellent – we weren’t exactly hopeful that we’d ever get to find out. Show’s what we know, though, because the apparent result of a genre-based Mad Libs match looks to be expanding its criminal empire to this side of the pond. According to a European trademark dug up by Joystiq, something called Yakuza: Dead Souls is on the way. Odds are, it’s either a shiny new name for Of the End or a Dark Souls crossover. Which – come to think of it – sounds incredible.

iPhones are flying off shelves. Your grandparents frequently go on 27-hour Farmville binges. OnLive and Gaikai may actually be powered by magic. So, this triple threat has consoles six feet under, right? Not even close, says GameStop president Tony Bartel.

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As we reach the point of chewing through solid wood in our desire for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Nathan Grayson mans up and takes the plunge.

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Do you like interesting things? Then you should be keeping track of The Binding of Isaac. It’s a roguelike shooter with a dash of Zelda, a hint of Robotron, and a soothing dollop of terrifying imagery. Fortunately, you won’t have to do much legwork to reach this one’s final destination. Team Meat madman Edmund McMillen has announced that the game’s coming to Steam on September 28 for $5 via the magical malleability of a sheet of paper. There’s also a limited edition Isaac plushie in the works. His insides may be fake, but his tears are all too real.

So, reading. It’s quite the thing, apparently. While Kinect, Move, and their ilk try to do away with controllers as much as possible, reading requires only a pair of un-blinded eyes. Pretty wild, huh? Being the trailblazer that he is, Nathan Drake hopes to tame this amazing technology using a two-pronged attack composed of comics and a novel.

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The conventions refuse to relent. Brenna’s vanished in mysterious lands across the sea, and Johnny’s in a corner softly sobbing “Jehuty” to himself. But the headlines keep rolling. Here’s what it all means.

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Kim Swift, one of the minds behind the original Portal, has apparently made a game so funny it causes physical pain. Nathan Grayson suffers for his art.

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We can’t claim to even begin to understand what’s going on in Final Fantasy Type-0′s latest trailer, but it sure does look pretty. In an industry that constantly strives to capture the subtle, graceful ebb and flow of goddamn explosions, Square Enix’s CG department deserves a gold medal. That will self-destruct in ten seconds. There are also some story and battle bits in there, the latter of which gives us flashbacks to Crisis Core – in a good way. Check out the full thing after the break. Oh, and make sure to mute your volume. Don’t let our ears’ sacrifice be in vain.

Thanks, Siliconera.

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El Shaddai’s taking its drop-dead gorgeous show on the road. Or at least, roads paved with Google’s ever-popular mobile OS. Famitsu (via Andriasang) revealed the bite-sized adaptation to be a 2D platformer, which is pretty much par for the course with these things. Leap-based shenanigans are, of course, great and all, but the real question is whether or not the game’s unique sense of style made the jump intact. So far, we’ve only got one screen to go on, but, uh, let’s just say they could have picked a better screen.

Secret best news of TGS: This. All of this.

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Convention season has taken its toll. With TGS looming, we’ve lost Pat. He is, as you all know, dead. Or without Internet. We, however, must soldier on. Here’s the week’s biggest stories and what they all mean.

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Like Liam Neeson rescuing his daughter with the help of his best pals Fist and Gun, Activision was relentless in its pursuit of its beloved website domain. And you know what that means: mountains of unconscious and/or deadsploded thugs. No wait, the other thing: court cases!

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Videogames have proven themselves adept storytellers, effective learning tools, and profoundly able to support whatever the hell WarioWare is. Sometimes, though, you just want to slip out of your pretentious pants, throw on something comfy, and kill everything until even its ghost’s ghost is dead. Enter Space Marine. No cover, no notions of so-called “realism” – just good old-fashioned gory fun. Well, in theory, anyway. But how does it actually fare when tossed into the toothy maw of harsh scrutiny? Find out after the break.

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Do you ache to see more of Dragon Quest X? Do the very fibers of your being vibrate with longing for Square Enix’s next slime-soaked opus? Well, we’re sorry. This is going to be a really uncomfortable wait for you. But hey, here’s something to sort of ease the pain: ten minutes of gameplay footage from the recent press conference. Word of warning: the video’s grainier than a sand sandwich, so you may want to squint a little. Still though, it’s significantly better than nothing and even demonstrates what appears to be a bit of the crafting system. Check out the full thing after the break. Thanks, CVG.

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Gamescom, PAX, and now COD XP. Yes, game convention season is in full swing, and we’ve got our hunting rifles. We stalk news, shoot it, and devour its heart to gain its powers. Here’s what it all means.

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At PAX 2011, Nathan Grayson clasped eager hands with Mass Effect 3 and then had to be dragged away – despite detecting more than a nod to that other third-person space marine epic.

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