Cel-Shaded Jeans Make You Look like a Vault Hunter
Anyone who's ever dreamed of becoming a Vault Hunter is now one step closer to making their dream a reality.
A pair of jeans created by Etsy seller DejaNeufHueres have been designed with a cel-shaded motif to make them look like they're pulled straight from the Borderlands Universe.
They're hand-made in France and sold in extremely limited quantities - one, to be exact - and cost $114. Visit the official store page to learn more.
Borderlands is the open-world first-person shooter published by 2K and developed by Gearbox. Its latest release is The Handsome Collection, which bundles Borderlands 2 and the 2K Australia-developed Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel together in one. Read IGN's review of Borderlands: The Handsome Collection to learn more.
Classic Dreamcast JRPG Coming to Steam
Grandia II, the Japanese role-playing from Game Arts that first released for Dreamcast back in 2000, is coming to PC by way of Steam, GungHo Online Entertainment has announced.
Just a few weeks ago, GungHo released a survey to gauge the interest of fans in PC ports of classic JRPGs from Game Arts' large portfolio of old school software. The results are now in, and it appears the community really wanted to see Grandia II be the first to receive such treatment.
The upcoming remaster will not only boast improved high-definition visuals, it'll also feature both mouse/keyboard and support, as well as Steam Trading Cards and achievements.
Retro VGS Is Bringing Back Cartridges
The Retro Video Game System, or "Retro VGS" for short, is hoping to revive the use of video game cartridges.
Mike Kennedy, from GameGavel and Retro magazine, is the man heading up the the console's development, and firmly believes there is more to cartridges than just nostalgia.
"You can still find Ataris at the swap meet, cartridges, 30 years later, plug them in and it all works," Kennedy told VentureBeat. "You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a working original Xbox in 25 years."
The console will not be a platform to run your old cartridges, however. Instead it will serve as a device that runs brand-new games inspired by retro titles. A Kickstarter campaign is planned for later this year.
The Test Solar Road is Even Better Than Expected
The world's first solar road, SolaRoad, is doing even better than its developers thought it would.
Since opening in November 2014 between the towns Krommenie and Wormerveer near Amsterdam, the 70 metre test track has produced over 3,000 kWh, which is enough to power one household for an entire year.
The road is currently built for bicycles in order to maintain the environmentally friendly message, but it could withstand heavier traffic if required.
In other environmental news, NASA had some good news about the ozone layer recently.
Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.
WipEout: Still Awesome (Almost) 20 Years On
There were two games that really convinced me that the future was now when the original PlayStation launched back in September 1995. Those games were Ridge Racer and WipEout*. Ridge Racer because, holy hell, it was an ‘arcade perfect’ (remember that expression?) racer on a home console! This can’t be happening! And WipEout because it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Sure, I’d played F-Zero on SNES, but this game’s anti-gravity racing took players on precipitous, rollercoaster-like courses at speed, and did it all to the sounds of a superb club/rave soundtrack. Wipeout was Cool with a capital C.
And if you took a step back, and looked at gaming at the time more broadly, the arrival of PlayStation represented several huge shifts for console gaming. It was the move to the bold – and as it seemed at the time, more mature and sophisticated - new world of 3D, it was the move away from cartridges to CDs, which meant more cinematic presentation and proper CD quality audio, and it was a console that – from the get-go – was marketed to teens and adults. Sony wanted the PlayStation to be a console for the clubbing generation, and WipEout was the game that most perfectly encapsulated that.
Mortal Kombat X Kotal Kahn Statue is Heart-Wrenching
Pop Culture Shock has unveiled its Mortal Kombat X 1:4 scale Kotal Kahn statue and it's gruesome.
Three variants will available for pre-order soon; Sun God, Blood God, and War God, costing $425, $435, and $445 respectively. The Sun God statue is limited to a run of 500, while the War God has a production run of 350. Lastly, the Blood God statue is limited to only 250.
The three statues each represent a different side of Kahn and his power: Blood magic, drawing power from sunlight, and his final state, the Mayan God of war. Each of the statues has a unique colour scheme and both War God and Blood God come with weapons.
Badland: GOTY Edition Coming to Most Platforms Soon
Frogmind has announced that Badland: Game of the Year Edition will be coming to multiple platforms in the last week of May.
It will be out May 26 for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita in North America, and May 27 on those consoles in Europe. PC, Mac, and Linux will get it on May 28, and it will be out May 29 for Xbox One.
The planned release date for Wii U is the end of June, but the exact date will be announced at a later time.
The base price of Badland: Game of the Year Edition is $12 on consoles and $10 on Steam. It will feature cross-buy functionality on PlayStation platforms.
Check out IGN's announcement of Badland: Game of the Year Edition for more details on what to expect.
Club Nintendo Slashes Prices for Physical Awards by 50 Percent
In its customer loyalty program’s final weeks, Nintendo slashed the amount of coins needed for Club Nintendo physical rewards in North America.
The updated Club Nintendo rewards page slashes the exclusive items by up 50 percent off, from a Retro Mario T-Shirt to Fierce Deity Link Jigsaw Puzzle:
- Mario & Luigi Greeting Cards: 300/150 coins
- Nintendogs Greeting Cards: 300/150 coins
- 3DS Game Card Case: 2015 Edition: 400/300 coins
Toren Review
When you're reflecting on a recently completed game, hating it is just as helpful a feeling as loving it. Whether your opinions are glowing or scathing, strong feelings in either direction mean that you'll have plenty to share with others when the topic comes up. It's the middling game--inoffensive but unremarkable--that really haunts you. I don't feel any regret about the time I expended playing Toren, but that's the problem. I don't really feel much about that time at all.
In Toren, you direct a small girl known as Moonchild to the top of a crumbling tower. Like the tower of Babel, it was built by people seeking great power who were punished severely for their hubris. Mankind's last hope is a girl trapped inside the tower, doomed to die and be reborn endlessly until she can scale it and slay the dragon that shares her prison. It's a web of myth and mysticism where each individual thread is vaguely familiar but has been woven into something distinct and original.
Moonchild starts as a toddler stumbling around the overgrown lower level, but the endearingly uncoordinated flopping of her limbs gives way to composure and poise the farther she progresses up the tower. The enchanted sword that takes all her strength to first lift is soon wielded with ease. Aspects of Moonchild's maturation are handled very well, including her evolving design, with one notable exception. In her awkward preteen stage, her childhood dress tears into a convenient deep V-neckline with straps slipping away from her shoulders and three large round gaps in the cloth exposing the majority of her back. This is not what happens when someone outgrows a piece of clothing, and considering that the player saw this same character toddling around in baby bloomers about thirty minutes prior, this phase of her costume evolution comes off as somewhat creepy.
The actual act of climbing the tower involves solving relatively simple environmental puzzles, fending off assorted enemies, and exploring optional dream sequences where Moonchild's mentor explains her situation and some broader philosophical musings about the nature of mankind. This is where the your experience can be seriously derailed; if you skip these optional (and easily missed) sequences, it becomes quite hard to follow the plot. You'll never want for those lofty chin-stroking tidbits, though, even though they're some of the least interesting things the game has to say.
Storytelling gripes aside, the hands-on feel of playing isn't great either. The best illustration of this comes in the form of the shapes that Moonchild must fill with sand during her dreams. Each dream has at least one of these to complete, and to do so, you hold down the interact button and direct her around the shape's outline. The game very weakly snaps her to the path, but it's incredibly easy to stray. It's even easier if you disregard the warnings and elect to play with a mouse and keyboard instead. (Don't do this. Seriously.) These sand tracings are the most annoying part of the game; even when you perform well (controller and all), it looks like Moonchild has spread the sacred sand with as much care as a toddler spilling cereal all over the kitchen floor.
I wish my problems with Toren ended there, but I can't leave out the times that I somehow managed to wedge Moonchild in places where the camera steadfastly refused to follow, the times when she simply slipped through the floor geometry and fell into oblivion, the times when Moonchild's arms froze in place while her legs continued to animate normally, the times that her sword hit foes with so little effect that I kept attacking, not realizing that they were already dead, the times that I took a jump too early but the game graciously floated me over to the destination platform as though I'd triggered some sort of moon gravity mode, the time that I fought the dragon, fudged the timing, and darted back to regroup before it could perform its “you're too slow” instant kill... only for the game to snap Moonchild back into its talons anyway.
And yet Toren is not without its charms. In spite of some conspicuously low-quality models, it's a delightful thing to look at: its colors are vivid, its world is small but detailed, and it doesn't shy away from dramatic use of its camera and lighting effects. A couple of the dream sequences elicited quiet gasps as I proceeded through them, and even the credits (which feature painted illustrations unfurled to a vocal version of the game's beautiful theme) are worth watching.
For all the problems, it's easy to recognize the flashes of something special in Toren. It's a loaf of homemade bread, proofed and kneaded, laid in a pan, and sprinkled tenderly with rosemary but unfortunately pulled from the oven a few minutes before it could pass the toothpick test. However complex the recipe, Toren just feels undercooked.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Season Finale Photo Preview
The battle between the Inhumans and SHIELD has crossed a line. Jiaying murdered Gonzales but made it look like a case of self-defense, and now everyone is on edge. The two hour Season 2 finale, "S.O.S.," will see SHIELD put everything on the line to survive. The end of Season 1 left the organization gutted and ripped apart, and it appears as though they're facing starting over yet again. The synopsis says Coulson's team "will be forced to make shocking sacrifices."
Sacrifices could mean a team member dies, but maybe it also means that they have to decide to kick Skye out of their lives and leave her with the Inhumans. See a preview of what's ahead in the below photo gallery.