Splatoon Squid Jump Minigame Demonstration May 10, 2015

Maniac shows a small Minigame that Splatoon players can enjoy while waiting for multiplayer matchmaking to assign them an online game. Unfortunately, matchmaking works so fast he isn’t able to show much of the minigame, but it’s a simple and fun little diversion while you wait.

Splatoon is coming May 29th, 2015 exclusively on the Wii U.

Splatoon Global Testfire Multiplayer Gameplay May 9, 2015

Nintendo launched the Splatoon Global Testfire Demo tonight at 8PM PST for exactly one hour and oh boy was that hour intense.  We got to take a pretty good look at the gameplay for this unique multiplayer Wii U title, and here is some footage of our experience playing the game.  All footage was directly captured off of a Wii U system in native 1080p.

First up here’s the character creation and training mission, which all players will get once they start the demo.

And here’s a little gameplay for you.  This is a game of Turf War on the Saltspray Rig.  The objective of a game of Turf War is to cover as much of the game environment with your team’s color ink, while preventing the opposing team from doing the same by any means necessary.

Splatoon is coming later this month exclusively on the Wii U.

Maniac’s Thoughts on the Alan Wake 2 Prototype April 25, 2015

Earlier this week, Remedy did an interview with Polygon.com about a technical demo they produced in 2010 for Alan Wake 2.  The demo was created to sell the game to possible publishers and while it did not get made it did lead to the development of Quantum Break.  The web has been lit up with speculation about this demo ever since, especially by fans of the original Alan Wake game.  If you haven’t seen the demo or read the interview yet you can check it out here.

What follows are my thoughts on the demo and why I think Remedy chose to release this information now.

Maniac and Two Girls Try Bawls April 20, 2015

Maniac is joined by two ladies to try three flavors of Bawls Soda,  Over the course of this fifteen minute video we try the original Bawls, Cherry Bawls, and the brand new Orange Bawls soda. Is Bawls the greatest energy drink of all time?  Let’s find out.

If you couldn’t tell from the video, the answer is yes.

Halo: Nightfall Blu-Ray Disc Unboxing March 17, 2015

Late last year, Microsoft wanted to release a live action feature that set up the backstory of a new character that is planned to appear in Halo 5: Guardians and it was called Halo: Nightfall.  Produced by Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free, Halo: Nightfall was a five-part miniseries which was offered as an extra bonus feature for anyone who picked up a copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One.

However, for some reason that completely escapes me, Microsoft chose not to include the series on Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s game disc, instead requiring viewers to stream it through the newly released Halo Channel.  Now, while that application has a great selection of unique programming, because it is a streaming service it has completely failed to provide a consistent quality since November 2014.  In the times I have tried to use it, I have had experiences where the feature would drop in quality without warning, or the Halo Channel would deny me access to watching the film for no reason at all.  Also, the series’ episodic nature made it really easy to predict what would be happening in later episodes just by watching the “Next Time, On Halo: Nightfall” short at the end of each episode.  It’s a really frustrating experience overall, made worse when up until today, there was no other alternative if you wanted to watch the film.

Halo: Nightfall has now been edited from a five part miniseries into a feature length film and was released today on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc.  Now, we’re going to unbox the Blu-Ray version of Halo: Nightfall, a disc that should have been released with Halo: The Master Chief Collection in the first place, and see if it’s worth picking up.