The Blackman 'N Robin Game News Update

This week in game news, MSI unveiled the VR One, a virtual reality backpack, some neat announcements came out of the Tokyo Game Show, Pokemon Go has managed to upset its users yet again and this is the last episode of the Blackman ‘N Robin Game News Update. In case you’re wondering, there’s still going to be a weekly game news show- it’s just moving over to 1 Rule Be Cool. To everybody who has been watching, reading and listening, I’d like to say thank you. I’ve worked hard to make, not only eighty five episodes of Game News Update but also to review games, movies and the occasional comic. I’ve written the news, interviewed developers and gone to PAX. It’s been an awesome five years! During the TGS, MSI unveiled the VR One, a backpack computer meant for virtual reality. It weighs about eight pounds and is meant to free users from the struggle of wires, which have the funny tendency to get in the way of virtual reality immersion. I like the concept, though the aesthetic of the device itself leaves much to be desired- then again, this is pretty first gen, so I’m certain future backpack VR computers, if they take off, will look a lot better. Regarding the week’s crowdfunding projects, first up is Cat Story, a cute platformer about a rabbit and a cat just trying to get home. Personally, I really like the art style on this one- it reminds me of old PC games- if you want to try it out, there’s a demo available from the game’s Kickstarter page. The other crowdfunding project this week is something special in that it’s unusual: Vulture Capitalist. In this game, you’re investing in startups early, with the goal of swooping in and taking them over. It’s like Pokemon, but with capitalism. The game itself sounds pretty cool, but what really caught my attention was one of the stretch goals, which is a yacht racing minigame. Thank you for reading. Want to stick with me? You can follow me on Twitter here.

This was a pretty quiet week for game news- while some cool stuff happened, such as the announcement of the Playstation 4 Pro, some Pokemon Go news and the announcement of Super Mario Run, which is coming to iOS. Also, this is the penultimate episode of The Blackman ‘N Robin Game News Update; rest assured, there’s still going to be a nice long game news show every week, but since I, the narrator, am moving house, the new show will be running on the new site. Details on that next week during our last episode. For now, enjoy! If you’re looking for DMCA’s Sky, you can find it here. In case you’re just tuning in and have no idea what that is, what happened last week is that No Mario’s Sky, a parody of No Man’s Sky, was hit by a DMCA last week, but that wasn’t enough to scare the developers off from making a cool game- so they made DMCA’s Sky and kept running- check it out if you’re looking for a neat, free No Man’s Sky parody. If you’re curious about this week’s crowdfunding project, the Kickstarter for a game called Hypnospace Outlaw has gone live, and it looks like a pretty neat adventure. The game hearkens back to the days of Netscape Navigator and AOL, when GIF-laden Lycos pages were all the rage. If you’re looking for a weird, cool game, check this one out. What do you think about this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews- follow me and stay with me wherever I go.

This was a relatively quiet week for game news-  the most exciting things to happen were the kickoff of PAX West going on in Seattle and the news that EVE Online is going free-to-play. Oh, and this company called “Nintendo” showed off their upcoming games, you might want to take a look at that. The Nintendo Direct this week was pretty exciting- at least, it was for 3DS owners. This week, Nintendo showed off some more stuff for Pokemon Sun and Moon and promised updates for Animal Crossing New Leaf. They also showed off Super Mario Maker for the 3DS, which has some weird restrictions- most excitingly, however, they announced Pikmin for the 3DS. This is a strategy platformer in which you play as Captain Olimar, and as a huge fan of the Pikmin franchise, I’m pretty excited to see Nintendo doing a cute spinoff- hopefully it turns out well! Maybe you prefer your Mario kinda sketchy, and mashed up with another game? If that’s the case, check out No Mario’s Sky, which was released as part of the latest Ludum Dare. I’ve played some, and it’s… Really weird. It’s a lot of fun, though. If you’ve come looking for the coolest crowdfunding projects of the week, you’ve come to the right place: this week, Abatron hit Kickstarter, and I’m surprised that it hasn’t garnered more attention. Abatron combines the excitement of an FPS with the careful planning of an RTS- essentially, if you and your friends can’t decide between Starcraft and Halo, you could just play them both at once in Abatron. The other crowdfunding project featured in this week’s episode of Game News Update is for a rhythmic racing game called Flight of Light; in this game, you race along a track, moving to the beat- it’s a simple premise, and to be honest, it looks a little rough visually- the gameplay, however, seems exciting. What do you think of this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the greatest game news, reviews, previews and interviews- follow me, @Jourdan_Cameron, for my own views.

We’ve got some pretty interesting game news this week regarding all sorts of stuff- there have been neat releases, such as Absolute Drift: Zen Edition and the new Master of Orion– the fantastic Faeria has gone F2P on Steam and it’s most definitely worth your time, we got an update on the hotly anticipated Owlboy and the Kickstarter for the OTON X is finally live- will it be worth your money? Check out all this and more on this week’s episode of Game News Update. Regarding the week’s crowdfunding projects, first off is the OTON X. I had a lot to say about it this week- now in case you’ve not heard of it, it’s a game console that’s coming pre-loaded with some software that generates game levels- that’s cool in itself, though the developers are claiming that it generates brand new games. I suppose they’re technically right about that, but procedural generation has its limitations- can the OTON create something with all the soul of Bastion? Will it make games with complex storylines? How an FPS with mechanics as innovative as those of Robot Roller Derby Disco Dodgeball? Thus far, I’ve seen none of that demonstrated- I’ve just seen simple platformer levels being made, and you know what? That’s good enough. But claiming that you’ll not need to buy new games because you own an OTON is disingenuous. Maybe video game music is more your thing- if so, might I suggest checking out the Kickstarter for Shadow and Steel? The next album from video game tribute band Master Sword, it’s an album of music from the Legend of Zelda series, but with more metal. It’s well worth checking out! Lastly, we featured the upcoming game Astro Boy: Edge of Time, a CCG featuring, as you rightly guessed, characters from the Astro Boy franchise at the end of time; while I’m not really familiar with the series, I have to say that the art for the game looks really awesome- and the card game itself seems interesting as well. What do you think of this week’s episode? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews- follow me for my own views.

We’re back, folks! After a week off, the world of game news has stayed crazy- this week, No Man’s Sky was released and some folks are disappointed, the Playstation Vita was hacked to allow homebrew, Pokemon Go has run into some… Issues, and some awesome games have been released- check it all out on this week’s episode of Game News Update. Looking for that awesome piece of Gravity Rush fanart by Vivian Law? You can check it out over here on her official site. If you’ve come in search of this week’s featured Kickstarter project, this week we talked about Stage of Development, which is a series of documentaries on the indie game development scene in Chicago; this is the second time that the documentary’s hit Kickstarter, and it looks really promising; check it out if it sounds like your sort of thing. So, what do you think about this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews- be sure to follow me for my own views.

This was a pretty interesting week for game news; a Starcraft MMO was released, the Sonic franchise might be on its way back up, we give first impressions of a promising SRPG called The Great Whale Road and we’re giving away a Steam key for Robot Roller Derby Disco Dodgeball– check out this week’s episode of Game News Update for all this and more! Curious about Taxman, Stealth, and Sonic Mania? Super Bunnyhop did a fantastic job explaining why the upcoming Sonic game has people excited; you can check that out here. Regarding the week’s crowdfunding projects, the interesting looking Glitched is well worth checking out if you’re a fan of Undertale and other games that break the fourth-wall- we’ve embedded the trailer for Glitched below for your viewing pleasure; you can check it out on Kickstarter here. The game has a demo available to play if you’d like to try it out first. Another game that caught our eye is Starcraft Universe– formerly titled World of Starcraft, it’s an MMO set in the Starcraft universe- hence the name- in a timeline in which the bad guys won at the end of Starcraft II. The game’s in beta right now and is running through a second round of crowdfunding; this is a clever way around the restriction that Blizzard has placed on fan-made projects that use their IP: these works can’t be sold, but crowdfunding is an acceptable way to pay for them. The last crowdfunding project that we featured is Upsilon Circuit, an ARPG with permadeath that’s really quite permanent; you see, Upsilon Circuit is set up like a game show- players watch as you attempt to make it through the game- if your character dies along the way, that’s it– it’s time for somebody else to play. Personally, I find the concept intriguing- I wonder, could Epsilon Circuit change the way that we think about and, perhaps, pay for video games? It’s very much a product of the modern gaming landscape- what do you think? Check out the trailer below. Well, that’s it for this week’s game news- for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews follow us on Twitter and Instagram @Blackmannrobin– follow me for my own views. We’ll be taking next week off- Game News Update will return on August 13, 2016.

This has been a pretty quiet week for game news- that is, unless you’re tinyBuild, which has been engaged in battle via blogpost with key reseller G2A- we have news of that and a whole lot more on this week’s episode of Game News Update. If you came here in search of fresh crowdfunding projects, you’ve come to the right place: this week on our show, we featured Buck, a metroidvania starring an anthropomorphic biker dog- check out the trailer below. Enjoy! If you’d like to follow us on Twitter, hit us up @Blackmannrobin; you can follow me if you’d like to hear my own views from time to time.

This was a pretty crazy week for game news- Sony confirmed that a new PS4 is in development, a whole bunch of game announcements were made before E3, Russia’s government has accepted eSports as actual sports and the government of Iran has banned 1979 Revolution, but the game may not be blocked for much longer- that, and we’re giving away a copy of Steamworld Heist for the Playstation 4/Vita. Check it all out on this week’s episode of Game News Update! If you’re wondering about that awesome Overwatch video showing off a couple teams of Genji players enjoying badminton, you can watch that here: Regarding the week’s Kickstarter projects, the first is for a game called Transmission, which is set to be released on Mac, Windows and Linux. In Transmission, you play as an astronaut who has crash-landed on a mysterious planet; you have no idea why you’re there, but you have to figure out how to survive. I love the game’s art style and I’m really hoping to see it succeed; check out the game’s trailer below. The other project that got our attention is for a visual compendium on the NES/Famicom– I’ve not much to say about it, other than the fact that it looks like a gorgeous coffee table book for retrogaming enthusiasts; check it out if it looks like your sort of thing. So, will you be entering our Steamworld Heist giveaway? Excited for E3? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; be sure to follow me for my own views.

This week in game news, Oculus VR introduced new DRM that wound up fueling future piracy, a Mirror’s Edge television show is being worked on, and some great games have been released- you can check it all out on this week’s episode of Game News Update. If you’re looking for the crowdfunding projects featured on this week’s episode, first off there’s Finding Gravity, a co-op puzzle platformer that in some ways is a bit reminiscent of Monument Valley and Portal 2– you can back it on Kickstarter here and vote for it on Steam Greenlight over here. The other Kickstarter we featured on this week’s episode was for a game called Biosupremacy, which is a sci-fi platformer about fighting aliens and using their DNA to become the ultimate lifeform- you can check it out on Kickstarter here and vote for it on Steam Greenlight here. What do you think of this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; follow me for my own views.

This week’s episode of Game News Update is quite a doozy- a Tetris movie is now in production in China, Apple has refused to allow Liyla and the Shadows of War onto their app store for political reasons, Batman: Return to Arkham has been announced and the first chapter of the new King’s Quest game is now free on Steam- all this and more on this week’s episode of the Blackman ‘N Robin Game News Update. If you’ve come here in search of the Kickstarter project featured on this week’s episode, you’ve come to the right place- this week, we showed off Ilios: Betrayal of the Gods– if you’re after new Metroidvania with a story and style that combines Greek mythology with a steampunk world, you’re looking at the right game. The Kickstarter trailer is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. This week, we also showed off the game Gemstone Keeper, which is a roguelike shmup that’s on Steam Greenlight right now– if you’re a fan of old roguelikes, you may want to check this one out as it pays homage to the genre with ASCII graphics- in case you didn’t know, the original roguelike RPGs employed these in their dungeons in lieu of sprites. What do you think of this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; follow me for my own views.

This week in game news, Blizzard met with the team besides the Nostalrius servers, the Oculus Rift has encountered some pretty big shipping issues (Best Buy got theirs first!), Overwatch went into open beta and we have plenty to say about it and we have coverage from Indiecade East- we have all this and more on this week’s episode of Game News Update. If you’re fond of that great piece of Overwatch fan art, you can check out more from the artist here on Tumblr. If you came here looking for more of our coverage of Indiecade East, you can check out our favorite pictures from the show, along with impressions of games from the floor; stick around as we’ll have interviews and panels up soon! In this week’s crowdfunding projects, there’s Hologrid, which we covered previously; you can check the Kickstarter campaign out here. In case you’re wondering what Hologrid is, what you should know is that The other Kickstarter project we showed off on this week’s episode was Rokh, a multiplayer survival sandbox game set on Mars; in some ways, it’s a bit like The Martian; we had the pleasure of chatting with the game’s creator at PAX East this year- we’ll have the standalone video of that interview available soon, for now it’s available to watch in this week’s episode.   Finally, the PICO-8 handheld console is becoming a reality; if you’d like to learn more and pre-order one, you can do so here. What do you think about this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; be sure to follow me for my own views.

This week in game news,  Blizzard has responded regarding the Nostalrius servers, the Nintendo NX now has a release window, HTC has poured a bunch of money into the future of virtual reality and we have a ton of stuff to show you from PAX East- check it out on this week’s episode of Game News Update! We’d have shared the link to the Carmack and Romero’s Kickstarter, but it’s been cancelled- because their Kickstarter trailer didn’t show off any actual gameplay of Blackroom, it seems that people were- understandably- hesitant to back it. Thus, funding has been cancelled (for now) a playable demo of the game is now in development- once that’s begun, funding for the game shall kick up again. What do you think of this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin on Twitter for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; follow me for my own views.

This week in game news, GameStop has entered the publishing business with GameTrust, the Xbox 360 left production, some awesome games have been released and we’re heading for PAX East! Plus, we got a release date for Hoops mode in Rocket League, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has been delayed, Supergiant Games has announced Pyre and some very neat tactical RPGs have hit Kickstarter- check it all out in this week’s episode! The music for this week’s episode was provided by Cement City; you can check out more of his work on Soundcloud. Regarding those Kickstarters, the first is for a game called Himeko Sutori, a turn-based tactical RPG- that’s currently in development for Mac, Windows and Linux; it’s super ambitious in that the finished version of the game will have hundreds of characters written out. That’s crazy, and I’m really hoping they’re well-written because if they are, they could raise the bar for epic scale tactical RPGs. The other strategy RPG on Kickstarter that captured my attention was for a game called Arcadian Atlas– in development by the Bair siblings, it seems to have a smaller scope than the previous game, but a more intimate story and some prettier art- its Kickstarter trailer is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Arcadian Atlas is in development for Mac, Windows and Linux. The last Kickstarter project to capture our attention this week was for a puzzle game called Quench. In development for Mac and Windows, it’s a gorgeous low-poly game in which you’re a shepherd who can control the weather. It’s pretty high concept, and I have to say that I’m digging the art direction. You can vote for it on Steam Greenlight here. Any game news from this week have you excited? Are you at PAX East right now? Do you wish you were at PAX East? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin on Twitter for all the greatest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; follow me for my own views.

This week in game news, Nintendo saw plenty of success with Miitomo, their bizarre but fun social network, the Nostalrius World of Warcraft servers were shut down- and Blizzard suffered a DDoS not too long after that- Leslie Benzies is suing Rockstar Games and there’s a way to play Oculus Rift exclusives with an HTC Vive- all this and more on this week’s episode of Game News Update. If you’re wondering about that Oculus Rift hack, there’s a new program called Revive that allows you to run games that were meant to be Oculus exclusive in your HTC Vive- Oculus has issued a statement on it– essentially, they don’t support it and say that it might stop working at some point in the future due to software updates- but they’re not going to try and stop it, either. If you’d like to try it for yourself, you can download it from here. Some pretty great games have been released this week- one in particular that I’ve been playing is Stories: The Path of Destinies– it can be a little tricky to describe. Imagine an isometric ARPG that feels like an accelerated Legend of Zelda game that combines CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) style storytelling with the narrator from Bastion and the storybook aesthetic from the new King’s Quest– that’s Stories, and it is awesome. Stick around as I’ll have a full review of the game written soon! Also, we’re experimenting with an audio-based version of the show- we may have a proper podcast set up in the future. What do you think about this week’s game news? Sound off below or hit us up and follow @Blackmannrobin on Twitter for all the latest game news, reviews, previews and interviews; be sure to follow me for my own views.