We are Officially at Home Over at GeekBeerz.com

Go over to geekbeerz.com, where our journey continues on!

MEGA MEGA Poke-MEGA!!!

As strange and Digimon-ish as it sounds, it seems as though Pokemon will no longer be stopping at a third evolution, to an extent.

Something New is Upon us: Vote for your favorite cover art!

Our website and podcast series is going to have major changes, an evolution if you will, and it will include new promotional art too!

You guys will decide which cover art we should proceed with! This cover art (whatever it will be) will be our new podcast cover and will be used for about a year or so to promote and whatnot. There are four to choose from:

Cover Idea One:

This is both completely different and new for all of us. Very simple but can also be quite noticeable, almost standing out. This was made from an original idea for a modified USB logo for the TAG comic (update on that soon) but it was eventually thrown out of the TAG cover bin. The logo has been colored, turned 8-bit, and made to have a "Z" in the circular tip so I don't believe copyright issues would be a problem...

Cover Idea Two:

This one is even more simple than the first. It's basically the avatar logo we use on Youtube but with a border and name, cast, and whatever else we put on. Again, this can be very strong and straight to the point. Simple, but what's wrong with that?

Cover Idea Three:

This cover art was thrown out months ago, however it may still be good enough for a cover idea. If chosen major modifications would be made to make a whole lot better. The idea is to make a mock Mario side scroller with a twist put in the middle.

Cover Idea Four:

This one took pretty long to make. Basically is back to 8-bit versions of ourselves but newer and closer related models. If anything were to be changed I would put Shrew and Josh into the pic too.


Please choose your favorite by poll or comment, we would greatly appreciate your involvement!

Until next time...

Farewell Shrew...

You Decide: Was Mewthree just Confirmed???

While we still struggle to question Sylveon's type, Gamefreak and Nintendo decided to stab our backs with this image of a new pokemon that looks like Mewtwo's younger brother.

the Games for PS4

A crap ton of news for a future Console means a crap ton of new games announced. Well, there isn't quite many to be honest, but there is enough to make everyone wizz with true joy!

DESTINY
 



Destiny is the name of the next project from Bungie, the studio that originally created Halo. Unlike the exclusive Microsoft franchise, Destiny is being published by Activision. Court documents from the Call of Duty publisher released to the public as part of the Zampella/West trial describe Destiny as four “sci-fantasy, action shooter games.” The Destiny games are set to come out sometime after 2013. Activision released an official statement regarding Destiny's release date falling after the end of the year. This is possibly due to the lack of any next-gen announcements to date. The next three games of the Destiny series were originally set to be released in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

Personal Thoughts - I was excited for this game before it was even announced for the PS4. The art direction is wonderful and the fact that it is made by the creators of Halo, the game which they literally want to overpower and backslap with the Destiny series, is what makes this game all the more interesting. Also the fact that it's going multi Platform for PS4, PS3, 360, and the soon-to-be Xbox 720 is astounding!

 DEEP DOWN (working title)
 



Deep Down is a new game coming from Capcom. Deep Down is the working title of the game, so it could change before the game is released. Little is known about the game, but based on the clips shown at the PlayStation 4 announcement event, the game looks to be set in a fantasy setting.

Personal Thoughts - I thought Destiny was a beautiful game, until this bad boy revealed itself! Probably the only other game that also seems to utilize the next gen graphics most were hoping for. Don't get me wrong, Sure all the games for PS4 are amazing looking but Deep Down seems to just show it a wee bit better, especially in the gameplay (yes! this video shows actually gameplay and not just cutscenes).


INFAMOUS: SECOND SON




Second Son is the "third" installment of the Infamous franchise, after Infamous and Infamous 2. In this universe, the "DUP" is a police and monitoring group dedicated to keeping order and capturing Conduits (those individuals who can harness the power of Ray Sphere Energy). Cole McGrath and Zeke Dunbar are seemingly absent, and the results of The Beast are unknown (including the outcome of Infamous 2). Currently, the hero appears to be the character in the video below, however supposedly there will be multiple heroes to play as in the game.

Personal Thoughts - While I expected an actual "Infamous 3" title to show up, I am not upset in any way. Taylor in particular is easily ten times more excited for this than I am, and I'm very excited!


KILLZONE SHADOW FALL
 



The "fourth" entry in the Killzone franchise was officially announced at Sony's PlayStation 4 reveal event in NYC on February 20, 2013 as Killzone Shadow Fall (or Killzone Shadowfall). Guerrilla Games portrays the Vektans and Helghans as living side-by-side on a single planet in a "Cold War" like environment. The two populations are separated by a very large, very noticeable wall. Both populations vie with each other over standards of living, resources, and choice of lifestyle.

Personal Thoughts - I LOVE KILLZONE! It has always been one of my most favorite Playstation franchises of all time! While I, like many, expected a Killzone 4 and a continuation from where the mysterious ending of Killzone 3 ended, I like the whole prequel take and actually it sounds more interesting now that I think about it. I'll have to prepare money so I can play this and Killzone Mercenary (which comes out for the Vita in September).


DRIVE CLUB
 



Drive Club is a first-person driving simulator that aims to mimic the activities of auto clubs that focuses heavily on the PlayStation 4's "Share" feature for videos and images. Additionally, the developer (Evolution Studios) plans to allow players to challenge one another with user-created driving challenges of different criteria and skill levels.

 Personal Thoughts - I am personally not a huge fan of vehicle racing games in particular, however I would be lying if I said this looked bad. The game does look amazing and the share feature they want to utilize sounds like a good idea too.

THE WITNESS




a puzzle oriented game announced on 2013 February 20 during Sony's PlayStation 4 announcement. According to the project director, the game will be approximately 25 hours of puzzle solving and exploring much like in the vein of Myst.

Personal Thoughts - Nothing in particular interest in this game except for its outstanding art and the fact that it's a baby of the Braid creators. Also, it reminds me of the game Journey.


KNACK
 



a PlayStation 4 exclusive and an action platformer. It is being developed at Sony's Studio Japan and being directed by Mark Cerny, who is also PlayStation's long-time lead architect.

Personal Thoughts - This is basically what I think of if LittleBigPlanet had a baby with Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, with a little Destroy All Humans sprinkled on top. I am both pleased and interested in the game. I also noticed that it was/is being made by Japan Studio, shouldn't they be busy working on THE FREAKIN LAST GUARDIAN GAME!?


WATCH DOGS



Announced at Ubisoft's E3 2012 Press Conference, Watch Dogs is an open-world urban survival game with a measure of tactical stealth action thrown into the mix. Watch Dogs will be coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Playstation 4, Wii U, and PC.

Personal Thoughts - Already an interesting game before it was announced for the PS4 also. I have always had a somewhat faith in what UbiSoft can bring to the table 9reasons other than Assassins Creed).


Other announced games with very little to detail or been there, done that...


FINAL FANTASY (PS4)
Other than the announcement for its appearance at this years E3 2013, no videos or screenshots have been revealed thus far. But I'm sure Geoff is pretty excited for this title announcement, just a little lol.

DIABLO III
This game will apparentally also come out for PS3 as well, other than the major news of an iconic computer game series heading to the console roots it's still basically the same Diablo game as we've seen before. Still, a console release is a pretty big deal.

Other possible Games to be revealed:

It's extremely possible for Grand Theft Auto V and Beyond: Two Souls to also make it to PS4, especially for GTAV which was delayed. Another game called Singularity is coming out by Quantic Dream some time, is it possible that it's another entry or sequel to Raven and Id's game of the same name? It is believed that a next gen Sonic will be released too, whoever would be excited for that.

We can expect more games from comapnies like EA, DICE, Square-Enix's Luminous engine, Ready at Dawn, Naughty Dog, and Bethesda. And of course, as always and forever expected, more Call of Duty games.

Also keep in mind that the company Warhorse studios is making a mysterious unnamed Midevial RPG game, as we mentioned in our next gen graphics post (which you can see HERE)

So what game are you most excited for!? Let us know!  

Holy Crap: Playstation 4 comes out Holiday 2013 + Specifics of the Next-Gen Console!

Well, Sony literally hit us hard today with news upon news with their big announcement today. But the rumors for the most part were true, the Playstation 4 (PS4) is real and it comes out later this year!!!!

What exactly does this new piece of hardware have that makes it so unique? What makes it different from the PS3, more importantly from any other console? We will pinpoint every aspect that Sony has revealed to us:

the Console_____________________________________
Sony revealed everything, except the physical appearance of the console (which we'll expect to see at this years E3 2013). However, Sony did give a precise perscription on what the Hardware will have and be able to do. Post-event, Sony revealed the system runs on a single-chip custom processor and utilizes eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, with a next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine powering the way. The "highly enhanced PC GPU" packs 18 GCN units, the GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each packing up to 64 cores. That provides a lot of parallel processing power, and will thus handle the majority of the PS4's grunt work. It hits 1.84 TFLOPS of processing mojo. The console will use GPU compute features to take advantage of this components raw power - it'll be used for general computation tasks as well as building graphics.

 We're also looking at Blu-ray disk support plus good ol' DVD, plus HDMI output support as well as Analog-AV out and an optical digital output. It will also have AMD too! It's possible that the console will also be 4K enabled, but it isn't confirmed yet.

the Memory____________________________________
PS4 will ship packing 8GB of GDDR5 memory, basically as powerful as many game based PC servers allowing to save a butt ton of stuff. Sony has revealed that you will be able to power down the PS4 mid-game and then switch it on again in seconds and pick up right where you left off. That's the sort of loading power that this memory enables.

the Controller___________________________________
Remember the leaked PS4 controller images? They were true to an extent! Say hello to the sexy Dualshock 4 controller! The company's Lead System Architect Mark Cerny took to the stage to reveal the all-new companion, which has been redesigned and now features a more rounded form factor as well as what appears to be a slightly rubberized grip with "enhanced rumble capabilities." There's also a touchpad now (clearly taking a cue from the Vita), a headphone jack, the long-rumored share button, a light bar that, according to Cerny, will be utilized as a "more friendly way to identify players" and a stereo camera which is used to track the 3D position of the Move-compatible controller.

 Sony's touting the addition of the "Share" button as one of the biggest features of the DualShock 4, allowing players to easily send tidbits like video clips and screenshots to places such as Ustream, Facebook and, naturally, the firm's own PlayStation Network.

Goodbye legendary "start" and "select" buttons, which are now replaced by the "share" and "options" buttons. Also the D-pad has been somewhat redesigned into a larger and more button precise functionality for games (the D-pad was already excellent for the past 16 years, so this must be even better). The analog sticks are said to be more straight and functional, defeating what was used before without making it them Xbox 360 mocks. Obviously, the iconic triangle, circle, x, and square buttons remain the same. The R1 and L1 buttons are also comparatively large and more rounded, potentially improving responsiveness and usability.

 In terms of weight, the DualShock 4 adds a bit of heft to the DualShock 3, going from from 6.77 ounces to to 7.4 ounces. It's important to note, however, that Sony has cautioned that all of the device's specs are subject to change and the overall impact to the in-hand experience could be negligible.

 Unlike the leaked rumor images, the touch pad now sports a textured finish and is no longer recessed into the design, but rather stands slightly above the rest of the frame, making it easier to distinguish and more visually recognizable. The LED is no longer juts out at the top of the controller, but rather is built into the frame itself. It has also been given a more stylized triangular shape instead of a bland rounded bar.

  In addition to helping track a player for motion-based controls, the built-in LED can also be used to represent in-game elements, like a player's overall health.

the Compatability________________________________
Get ready lucky PS Vita owners,
Sony has revealed that the PS4 will launch with the ability to stream games directly to your PS Vita. In exactly the same way as the Wii U allows you to switch off your TV and continue playing on the tablet controller, the PS4 will wirelessly send your games to the Vita.
There will be similar synergy between "all Sony devices" which means Xperia handsets and tablets, Bravia TVs and BD players.
Sony hinted that there will be more announcements in this area, too. The obvious next reveal in this area is the ability to play PS4 games on your Vita from any location using a wireless connection.

the Instant________________________________________
It will have an instant on/off feature allowing your to shut down during a game and then boot up from scratch in seconds and resume where you left off. The days of waiting 60 seconds as your console loads up are about to end.

the Move________________________________________
Sony has confirmed that PlayStation Move will play a big part in the PS4 ecosystem. However, it has not yet been revealed whether the PS4 will launch alongside a new PS Eye camera and new Move controllers or whether the peripherals are staying the same with all the enhancements made console-side.

the GaiKai_______________________________________
PS4 will utilize a cloud computing system, so far the first major gaming platform to do so. The cloud computing will utilize Gaikai streaming technology.
Gaikai was a tiny, optimistic company throwing everything at the wall, desperate to find a use for its cloud gaming technology. Today, those dreams have been fulfilled: Gaikai's David Perry walked out on stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 event, confirming that the new PlayStation 4 will use that tech to stream games over the internet, with no need for discs or downloads.

the Appraisal                                                                       
In the end, Sony attacked us with everything they've had. Many gamers are obviously excited, but even many game publishers are appraising the console, particularly Blizzard and Capcom. Sure we already had the Wii U and rumors of the Xbox 720, but PS4 was the first to really show us what to expect from the upcoming next Generation.... uh, Generation.

Games
Obviously games will be coming out for it, but so far only a handful of games have been announced. Happily, each one sounds awesome! We will make a post talking about each game, but here is a list of each game announced officially (so far):

• Deep Down (working title) / Capcom 
• Destiny / Bungie
• Diablo III / Blizzard
• Drive Club / Evolution
• Untitled Final Fantasy / Square Enix
• Infamous: Second Son / Sucker Punch
• Killzone: Shadow Fall / Guerrilla
• Knak / Japan
• the Witness / Thekla inc
• Watch Dogs / UbiSoft

UPDATE: Despite rumors, the Playstation 4 will NOT block used games! Hooray!!!

a STAT and GeekBeerz teaser for 2013

Here is a teaser for a secret project for a comic series in 2013, to celebrate our new GeekBeerz and STAT partnership:

STAT is in the House!

I admit, when it comes to the designing and drawings I've done for this site I haven't really put any real effort into them. Not as much as I now do with my comics.

Say hello to STAT, it is a mini mock company that me and a old friend of mine named Tyler Robb created, Shrew also gave input and even inspired various designs. The company is suppose to be a comic and graphic novel company similar to the likes of Marvel, DC, or even Dark Horse comics. The only difference being that it's not just superheroes and dark tales, but more comedic and filled with very colorful and original tales and even spoofs. Possibly the longest going series would be my TAD comics, which tell the tales of all of us here in our own misadventures.

Basically, the mock company was meant to be something or somewhere that anyone can go to and give their own inspirations and ideas, and they would be able to bring their ideas out into the world. We have had many artists and authors come about, quite a lot of weird ones mostly, and most of them have even inspired characters and locations, and especially good jokes.

Well now STAT will more than likely be moving in with its cousin GeekBeerz very soon! This is mostly to bring a completely New element into the website while also being able to have all things in one convenient place to work on. I can't personally say when this will officially happen. But I can assure you that it will be worth it!

the Wii U is finally upon us! Was it a Hit or Miss?

Nintendo is the first to unleash the next generation console of their own creation: the Wii U, while not all of us have gotten the pleasure to either buy or try it for ourselves yet, is it worth it?

Give us your input! Is the Wii U the next best thing that is worth the cash and attention, or is it not entirely as intriguing as it seems to be? Hopefully one of us here will give our own input soon...

GeekFlix is moving in...

First off, I am glad to say I have returned from my rather long and busy week away from the guys. For anyone asking yes, my comic is complete and headed to its finishing touches (cover and back mostly) and will now hopefully lead to a publishing company. Well enough about me, time to get into important matters.

Anyone over here know GeekFlix? GeekFlix (full title is GeekBeerz Flix but we call it GeekFlix for short) is where we handle all the Movie and TV business, to keep other non-gamers busy with what they wan to know about. It has been slow for some time but it has all been slow for a reason.

GeekFlix is pretty much moving in with GeekBeerz! Now the GeekFlix site won't be gone in any way whatsoever, but it will now forever only have reviews for posts instead. All Movie or TV news will now and forever be posted on this site, while movie and TV reviews will have a link to send you to its GeekFlix review page. Not only will this make things easier on me and the others, but it will also help us bring out more and more posts in the near future.

Not only that, but the planned GeekFlix podcast, planned for starring me and Bergy respectively, will also be announced and linked to this site when the podcasts start up. This new podcast series will focus on movie, TV, and actor related news as well as having entertaining new segments per episode in order to figure out which ones work best. The new episodes are planned to only last for and hour and a half each.

 

a New Console???????

Say hello to Ouya, it is a custom-based Android operating system targeted to launch early next year.

We know that it's open to any developer making a game, provided that they have a free portion to it such as a Demo or Free-to-Play version. TwitchTV is one of the many Android apps that are supported. It does connect by HDMI at 1o8op HD, has WiFi and Bluetooth, and  Tegra 3 Quad Core Processor.

The controllers are wireless and use two AA batteries, and also have a touch pad for certain app games.  Other buttons make it similar to standard controllers with D-pads, action Buttons, and analog sticks.

How much would this bad boy cost? Just under a mere $100 is all! And while this may basically be a definite, with private fundings secured, the company has a kickstarter page asking for an additional $950,000 (click HERE to visit their kickstarter page for more on funding and rewards).

It may not be a strong competitor to the three mega consoles (but maybe who knows) it is still an interesting inclusion and can definitely be invited by gamers. No games have been confirmed so far, but some companies are interested like the makers of Minecraft.

 console comes out sometime next year...

New GeekBeerz video, PS Vita reveal

It may seem like we never care to put up videos and stuff, but in reality we have a major backlog of Videos in need of editing. Luckily, I was able to finish one.

This video is roughly two-three months old so it's not too terribly late. This one is similar to Shrew's 3DS review except that I was finally able to keep the Audio in it. While a little blurry and shaky around the edges, and having average audio,  it's a fairly decent video for what we're able to pull off.

This video was made when Geoff, Shrew, and I were already acting ridiculous for no reason. Bergy was unable to attend for being under house arrest.



Hopefully more videos will be on soon... [more videos are on Youtube, just type in GeekBeerzTAG]

Next Years new GeekBeerz-TAG logo look..

Here is an early look at the newest logo look for GeekBeerz-TAG. It will go into effect sometime in the coming weeks:

It took roughly seven hours to complete the design of the G and B. A lot of work has gone into this new logo look...

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 gets a Cinematic intro

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 come out in America sometime in Fall, but already they are making us get excited. Japan has just released this new Animated intro that goes through as course of various events. Sorry that it's in Japanese, but it is still easy to know what is happening. The best part is that this short intro alone is a hundred times better than the TV show!

Check out screenshots for the new Unreal Engine 4

It seems like everything uses Unreal Engine 3 now, which of course is true. But the world is changing, things eventually get replaced and newer and potentially better replacements emerge. The next step, being Unreal Engine 4, is expected to fully unveil at E3 but we got screenshots to examine, check em out:

Sony's financial crisis: the good and the bad

It's now no secret that this year Sony has been through Hell. Ever since the major Japan Earthquake the company hasn't been doing well financially. With their 6.4 billion dollar loss, what can we expect to see in Sony's, and especially Playstation's, future?

LAST YEAR: while the Playstation did win over the other consoles with HD remakes and major exclusives, the console itself has not sold much. In 2011 the PS3 sold 13.9 million units, down 400,000 units from the year before. the PSP also has its go, with 8 million units now down to 6.8 million units (of course this doesn't matter too much for Sony since their eyes are now on the Vita) and even the old PS2 was able to sell 4.1 million units, sadly being down from 6.4 million from the year before. And please, don't get me started on their TV's, which are down 18.5 percent year over year...

TODAY: Sony says that despite last years PS3 decrease of sales, the console is still a mere 3.3 million units away from Xbox 360 sales worldwide, which is really good especially since the Xbox was one year ahead of PS3, and analyst suggest that if the PS3 came out the same year as the 360 did then they would actually be winning the race. The PSP continues to still be a huge hit in Japan. And the Vita, while having a very slow start, is now starting to grow in sales. The games for the PS3, especially exclusives, are now and still selling very very strong.

THE FUTURE: Sony has announced at the upcoming E3 2012 they will be revealing 20 games, which shows how prepared they are to compete with Nintendo's Wii U. Also there is a possibility of the Vita getting a price cut this year too, meaning that sales will start to hugely increase for the handheld. Besides the 20 games for PS3, you can expect the Vita to get lots and lots of new games in its future, which is good. Sony seems to have plans to work more closely on it's Video game corner of the industry, which is huge news for any gamer. And while Sony is still expected to reveal the PS4 in late 2013, they still have complete faith in the PS3 to stay strong against the 360, Wii, and the upcoming Wii U.

I'm not sure what questions to ask, but what are people's thoughts on this?

Everything you need to know about Pokemon Black 2 and White 2

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 is shaping up to be excellent sequel games, and the first "legit" sequels that hasn't really happened in the main Pokemon handheld lineup. But what do we expect to get out of these games? Well what we do know is:

• the games take two years after the events of the first two games, the Male and Female protagonists that you play as will be the same as in the first two, but they will be older and with different clothing and hairstyles.
• these are true sequels to the last two games, meaning that you'll have to play Black 2 if you previously played Black in order to get what's going on.
• the Pokemon shown on the front covers are actually two new forms of Kyurem (sorry, no fusion this time :( ) the forms are appropriately called "Black Kyurem" and "White Kyurem", these are kind of Kyurem's mock forms of the previous two Legendaries, Reshiram and Zekrom. Both are still Dragon/Ice type but Black Kyurem can also learn powerful Electric type moves and White Kyurem can learn powerful Fire type moves. Both will also learn a very powerful and unique attack that makes these two new Kyurems very different but awesome.
• the Pokemon Meloetta will also, finally, show off its new form in these sequels as well. It is her pirouette form that was revealed back on Pokemon Black and White, but never available.
• Gamefreak did announce there would be "New Pokemon" in this game, this could be nothing really other than new forms and such but you never know for sure.
• new parts of the cities will be shown, and visually the games will look much different than the previous two titles.
• Pokemon from the old generations will also be available to capture in the wild. This is very different since the first two games only had 5th generation Pokemon throughout the game until you beat the game. Old generation Pokemon revealed so far are Tyranitar, Eevee, Metagross, Mareep, Psyduck, Riolu, Arcanine, Weavile, and Lapras plus we can expect their evolutions to appear also. More will be revealed later on.
• Above all else, the game will go for a much darker storyline.

 Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 release in Japan on June 23rd, and in the US and Europe this coming Autumn...