PAX PRIME 2014: Hands-On with Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions

ne of the standout titles for the Xbox 360 during the launch of the Xbox Live Arcade was Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars, a highly stylized frenetic Twin-Stick style shooting game with a super-high emphasis on Score Attack for players to compete on the newly-formed XBLA leaderboards. Seeing a number of sequels since its 2005 debut, including XBLA's Geometry Wars 2 and the Wii and DS' Geometry Wars Galaxies, all of its iterations are solid, competitive games that anyone can drop in and play.

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PAX PRIME 2014: Hands-On with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for 3DS

t's no secret that Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. is eagerly being awaited by legions of Nintendo faithful, both on 3DS and Wii U. Every new announcement is followed with a fury of excited tweets, forum exchanges and general giddiness, and Nintendo is giving the gamers the goods with the debut of a new game mode: Smash Run. We got a chance to go hands-on with the very latest in the Smash lineup with Super Smash Bros. for 3DS here at PAX 2014 to get a closer look at this new mode of play.

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PAX PRIME 2014: Getting hands-on with The Order: 1886

here’s been plenty of buzz aimed at Ready At Dawn’s upcoming PS4 exclusive, The Order: 1886, and considering the debut it made last year, the hype is more than understandable. However, hype is one thing though, and impressions are another—so color me impressed; The Order: 1886 is geared in the right direction, and has all the makings to reset the standard for third-person shooting for the better.

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Nintendo reveals the new 3DS LL

arlier this morning, Nintendo surprised the world when it unveiled a new model of the 3DS XL, titling it, the Nintendo 3DS LL (I couldn’t tell you what the extra “L” stood for). The newer model will boast an extended battery life than all of its previous incarnations, two additional “ZL” and “ZR” buttons, a tiny right thumb stick camera control, and more.

The new system processor will also allow for HTML 5 to display, and the folks at the big N were thoughtful enough to include Micro SD support for storage this time as well. NFC compatibility is another impressive feature that will allow the handheld to use NFC scanning without the use of an external device required for the utility.

It’s slightly bigger than the XL and does boast a laundry list if improvements, but there wasn’t a whole lot of detail over the new firmware in the revision, which is a pretty big deal considering that the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles port will only work with this new model, and none of the other previous 3DS models.

It’ll be dropping in the Land of the Rising Sun on September 14^th, no news on when it’s coming stateside has been announced so far.

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Press Pause Radio Meet Up at PAX Prime 2014!

nother year, another trip to some far off, mystical, big city that’s playing host to one of the most anticipated events in video games today; PAX Prime. We’ll be doing the usual coverage and sorts sure, but this year, after we’re with working hard—we want to play hard.

Shit, no, wait…

That sounded weird didn’t it? Whatever, don’t make a case out of it or anything!

Anyway, after all the bouts of scrambling from appointment to appointment, rendering video, and all of the other nonsense, Ser and I are going to saddle up at the Gameworks down the street with some friends, and we’re inviting YOU to join us!

The address is 1511 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, and the time is 8:30 PM, Saturday night. We’ll be drinking, laughing, playing arcade games, and any tabletop games any of you want to bring, along with a sneak peak at Shark & Shark’s Kickstarter project, Flocks and Flyways (you guys should totally back it too!)

We’re looking forward to seeing you guys there! Stay tuned to the site for our coverage too, because, we’ll be doing it, and stuff.

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Oh My Darling Clementine-a TWDS2 retrospective series: All That Remains

014 has just been a busy year for game releases; it’s honestly been difficult to not just cover everything in games that’s happened this year—but to even cover all of the things that we wanted to cover on Press Pause Radio. Surprisingly, one of those very games was The Walking Dead Season 2. The perfect storm of circumstance and time constraints just pushed into a corner where we missed the train on properly reviewing for you guys and gals; so simply put, we decided not to.

I was able to catch up when the second episode released, but by that time, it just would have journalistically made sense from a practical standpoint to try and cram any catch up for critique by marathoning an impromptu “poop-sock” session of the game. It would have been a disservice to our follower base, so we ultimately decided to omit it; maybe cover it a different way instead when afforded the opportunity.

And Well…I just personally just reached the end of Season 2 of The Walking Dead, a play-through that carried on all of the choices of the previous seasons, and groomed for all of the emotionally strenuous decisions that I have make, and reflecting at the end of it, I can honestly say this.

I was truly unprepared for what I had signed up for when I took the responsibility of continuing Clementine’s story, and despite some reservations of some particular moments along the way, it all came full circle in the end, and manage to tear down any disappointment I may have had about the ride when it was all said and done. This will be the first of a five post series where I’ll be sharing my opinions on each individual episode in detail because there’s just too much to gloss over to just summarize the entire Season in one post—I hope the project will be as cathartic for you as it will be for me. Oh, and if wasn’t obvious already, this editorial series will spoil the shit out of some major plot details and events from the beginning to the very end of The Walking Dead: Season 2, so read with caution or come back when you’re done—take your time too, no rush.

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PPR 88

his week, we talk about Twitch, no, not the actual act of twitching, or convulsing, or anything like that (go see a doctor folks if you're experiencing any of that on the reg by the by.) The conversation covers all the areas worth noting like monetization, new security implementation, online narcissism, and the whole platform just getting too damn big for its own britches.

Among other things, Andrew and George preach what the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, and what it SHOULD be about when you do it, along with the Burger King Kids Club, Captain Planet, Pauley Shore’s Son-in-Law, and fucking Bible Man of all things because when do we ever have a handle on things?

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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Late To The Party: Bravely Default

et’s face it; we’ve reached a point where the cynical, yet-unavoidable truth concerning the relevancy of the JRPG couldn’t nearly deafen the opposing dissention to the contrary anymore like it has in 2014. Every new batch of titles that are hazardously published by the brave publishers who endorse them continue to dangerously escalate the degree of pandering we've slowly come to expect over the years. The same monotonous exercise of tired conventions and obnoxiously antiquated visual designs that do very little, or nothing, to break the repeating slump of circle-jerking that’s been plaguing the genre for the better part of ten years.

Sure there are the few exceptions that break out of the trappings of the stale mold that’s been defining the type. Lost Odyssey and Valkyria Chronicles are just a few worth naming and they have truly reinvigorated the same sense of charm and phantasm that the JRPG label once held, but these gems were few and far between the frequency of sub-par titles, and even garbage contemporaries released, within entire generations worth of time it seems.

That’s why it’s uplifting that Square-Enix, the arguabley, the giant of JRPG distribution that’s also seen its fair share of criticism for contributing the stigma associated with this kind of game, but then, there are moments like Bravely Default, that can surprise us all. Not only does Bravely Default stand as one of most criminally underrated champions for JRPGs at the moment, but it's easily one of the best games released in 2014 period.

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