Ser Ilyn, bring me the head of the cover for Game of Thrones

Alternative title for this blog post: In the Game of Thrones cover design, you win or you die

Well, I was trying to enjoy my strawberry Poptarts and a cup of coffee this morning, but was rudely cover farted on by Game of Thrones: The Game, a new RPG based on a TV show based on a series of amazingly captivating books, dropping next month from Cyanide Studio. Let’s just cut to it then. Look at how dreadfully boring this looks:

Sigh.

This cover makes me think someone literally pitched “game” of “throne”, and no one said mum against it.

I was worried before about some of the odd changes and unnecessary additions being dumped into Game of Thrones: The Game, and I certainly wouldn’t be more interested in picking up a copy based on the cover art above. I understand that HBO is immensely proud of the throne they actually built for the set, often bringing it around to conventions for fans to sit in and briefly feel kingly, but an empty chair shrouded by pepper-black smoke does not say “roleplay in George R.R. Martin’s massive Westeros.” It says that no one tried, and that’s a real downer, given that there is countless material to pull from to present an exciting and enticing image; if anything, a map of Westeros would’ve been a better choice or a shot of a Night’s Watch member looking down from the Wall or–and I’m a wee reluctant to say this–some dragons despite the fact that they are not around at the given time of this videogame. I mean, dragons do sell, which is why they are on a lot of fantasy book covers whether integral to the plot or not.

That said, I’m still getting this game, if only to tell y’all about how terrible it is likely to be. I will try my hardest not to go into it totally biased by all of this, but that could be nigh impossible. We got the televised show that A Song of Ice and Fire deserves, but it’s looking unlikely we’ll get the same kind of treatment in the realm of videogames.

Sadly, Mega Man Legends 3 has been cancelled

As I was inching closer and closer to completing George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons last night, I took a small break between powerful chapters to see how the Internet was holding up. Maybe I shouldn’t have as I already knew that the night was gonna get sad and frustrating once I closed the latest ASoIaF tome for good, but the Internet exists for checking, and checked it I certainly did. Scrolling through my Google Reader feeds, a headline popped out at me, and I read on, grimacing, trying to fathom the what and why: Capcom had announced that they were canceling Mega Man Legends 3, citing that certain criteria had not been met to push the project forward into full production. See Capcom community liaison Greg Moore’s words right here:

“Part of [the game development] process includes an assessment of whether the title will go into full production, and is based on a number of criteria with input from different sectors of the company. Unfortunately it was not felt that the Mega Man Legends 3 Project met the required criteria.”

Sigh. That hurts.

There’s not much on the horizon that has looked appealing enough to warrant more use of my Nintendo 3DS, but Mega Man Legends 3 (and its Prototype Version demo thingy) were definite contenders for my gaming hands and eyes. I still swear I have a copy of the original PlayStation Mega Man Legends somewhere around my apartment, but have not gone looking for it yet; it’s a game that was different enough to be a Mega Man title and more. I liked it for how hard it tried to not be the same ol’ same ol’, and while I never got to play any more titles in the series after that I knew that I’d pick up MML3 and its demo on day one. A portable MML is enough to get me smiling. I was definitely bummed to learn that the Prototype Version wasn’t going to be available when the eShop opened, and I should’ve seen through that thin veil, that Capcom was out for revenge against Keiji Inafune, that they’d rather push less exciting franchises forward than give a series that, without a doubt, has its fans, has personality, has a thousand and five stories yet to be told.

I have to wonder what criteria wasn’t met. More than likely, we’ll never know. Farewell, Mega Man Legends 3. May your health gauge refill sooner than later.