Bleed 2012 – a fast, fluid, retro-styled platform shooter brought to us by Indie Developer Bootdisk Revolution, was approved by the Steam Greenlight Community today for PC release. Bleed places its focus on slick, stylish aerobatic dodges, a compelling retro soundtrack and challenging, fast paced gameplay.

Additional features include:

• A Bullet Time based control scheme, perform immensely satisfying bullet-dodging maneuvers and blitz rooms full of enemies like a boss.
• Seven expansive stages packed with multiple set-pieces and bosses.
• Tool up: Access to a complete arsenal of weapons, including a flamethrower, remote mines and a sword that deflects bullets.
• A range of difficulty settings spanning ‘laughably easy to maddeningly difficult.’
• Local co-op (requires one controller minimum.)
• Replay Value: Three unlockable characters that effect the gameplay mechanics in their own unique ways.
• An unlockable arcade mode, take on the whole game with just one life.
• An unlockable challenge mode, take on the bosses, tournament style.

The game boasts full 360 controller support and a demo of the first level is now available for download.

The full game is currently available to Xbox  360 players on the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Blade Wolf
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed)
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Price: 560 MSP ($6.99) – Available Here

Overview:
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was launched back in the middle of February and despite being a spin-off title that focused entirely on Raiden and was played as an action game, it was an amazing title that quickly established itself as a standout action game early this year. While the story revolved around Raiden, one character certainly deserved sometime in the spotlight, even if it was completely robotic. Thankfully Konami has brought fans exactly that, DLC that allows them to play as Blade Wolf, also known as LQ-84i. With players finally having a chance to play as Blade Wolf, is this DLC worth acquiring?

Story:
Before Raiden was able to free Blade Wolf and give it a chance to choose its own actions for once, it was simply known as LQ-84i and was under the service of Mistral and the rest of the Desperado PMC. Players join LQ-84i as it is being trained in various combat situations before being unleashed onto the field to assassinate a politician.

However despite Mistral speaking of freedom, LQ-84i’s AI realizes that it does not share the same freedom that this group is trying to “ensure.” As such, as soon as a chance presents itself, LQ-84i makes an effort to escape Mistral’s clutches and become free. However standing in its way are a slew of enemies and a mercenary named Khamsin who has his own idea of freedom.

Unfortunately despite players catching a glimpse of LQ-84i’s backstory, its story isn’t expanded any further than that training and the initial incident which locked it into servitude under Mistral. The reason for this is the fact that the DLC only lasts around fifty minutes to an hour which means there is little room for expansion.

Visuals & Audio:
Almost everything that players witness in the Blade Wolf DLC will be vaguely familiar thanks to the fact that outside of the final boss, all of the enemies players encounter and the areas that the player makes their way through are similar to the ones encountered in the main game. This means that while players do get a chance to expand their time with the game, much of it is retreaded territory.

Thankfully there are a number of cut scenes included in this DLC which are nicely handled and the final boss is also suitably threatening given LQ-84i’s smaller size. It is also worth noting that fans of Mistral will probably appreciate the extra… attention to detail… the character has been given in most camera angles.

As for the game’s voice work, Khamsin, Mistral, LQ-84i and one extra character are the only real speaking roles and they are all nicely handled by their voice actors. It is interesting to note that the standard combat music throughout this DLC is a fitting orchestral version of Blade Wolf’s theme from the main game with another song used for the final boss encounter.

Gameplay:
As mentioned before, the Blade Wolf DLC sees players playing as LQ-84i through only around an hour’s worth of content which sees them finishing a handful of VR missions before entering the field against actual opponents before finishing up in a rather anticlimactic manner. In fact, outside of a few optional VR missions scattered throughout the story, there is little actual content to play through in this DLC.

However what there is to play through is excellently handled thanks to the fact that LQ-84i features a brand new move-set that doesn’t copy a single thing from Raiden outside of his “zandatsu” attack which allows the player to slice and dice critically injured enemies into tiny pieces and absorb their electrolyte fuel cells to refill LQ-84i’s health and energy meter.

LQ-84i features a series of quick attacks with its claws and heavy attacks which make use of its tail chainsaw to deal various “combination attacks” that can either be used together or strung along with normal attacks for extra variation. LQ-84i unfortunately cannot be upgraded in any way nor can new moves be unlocked, though there are various boxes scattered throughout its mission that provide him with a larger health bar and energy meter.

It is also worth noting that LQ-84i’s lower stature lends itself well to stealth as it can hide behind vehicles and even tables in an indoor section. In fact when the player isn’t holding the run button, LQ-84i moves at a slow stalking pace that allows it to hunt down enemies and assassinate them silently usually through a brutal chainsaw through the back or throwing knives in the torso.

As for the brand new boss battle that has been touted about for this DLC, players must use LQ-84i’s abilities to take on a large mech wielding a chainsaw-scythe. Fighting against this boss requires a few unique tactics that make him interesting to fight against at first, though he is hardly challenging even on a harder difficulty setting, but it still is a nice new enemy to test LQ-84i’s new set of attacks against.

Overall:
Blade Wolf was one of the most interesting yet unexplored aspects of Metal Gear Rising and this DLC gives players a glimpse at what it is capable of. It is such a shame however that that is all this DLC is, a glimpse of greatness.  Clocking in at just under an hour, even on higher difficulty settings, players are teased with the new attacks that LQ-84i can unleash but thanks to the limited length of the story, Blade Wolf is only given a minor bit of development that will ultimately leave fans wanting more for their money.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
Developer: Access Games
Publisher: Rising Star Games
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Price: $39.99 – Available Here

Overview:
There are many great games in the industry but simply creating a great video game doesn’t automatically make the title memorable. In fact many stellar games are so run of the mill that they are quickly buried under other titles despite being remarkable in many regards. Only a few games can stick with players in such a way that they remember them in years to come and one of these happened to be Deadly Premonition.

When it was first released on the Xbox 360 for only $20 in 2010, many people experienced a game unlike anything they had ever played before and while it had a handful of issues, many of them were overlooked in favor of everything else the game had going for it. With a price tag double of the original but a number of enhancements made to the game, Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut has hit store shelves, but is it worth picking up?

Story:
Players step into the shoes of FBI agent Francis York Morgan, or as he prefers to be called, York. They are tasked with investigating a strange murder mystery where a young woman has been killed and her body left attached to a tree in the middle of the woods. Upon entering the town of Greenvale, York quickly finds that not everything is as it seems at and with supernatural events occurring left and right and mysterious red seeds appearing at each crime scene, something is very strange in the country town of Greenvale.

It is worth noting right off the bat here that anyone who plays Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut or even the original Deadly Premonition should enter the game with an open mind because at its very basic, the game’s storyline can be a bit convoluted and some of the strange twists that occur throughout the storyline’s progression come straight out of left field. You see, it is the world itself and the characters that occupy it that make Deadly Premonition the memorable game that it is.

Everyone in the town of Greenvale has a personality of their own and while some of them are obvious eccentrics designed for comedic purposes, they each are given some form of development and a number of side-missions can be done for each of these characters if the player chooses to pursue them. It also helps that, thanks to the game’s adherence to a real world schedule, each of the characters follows a daily routine as if they were living out their lives.

Tracking down an NPC may mean keeping an eye out for them at work, waiting for them to come home or seeing where they like to hang out in their down time. Each of these characters has a life of their own and one that they have lived for many years before York appeared and because of this we have an endearing set of characters that make even the most obscure NPCs worth remembering.

On the other hand, the eccentric Francis York Morgan is the true gem of this game. Practically everything about York makes the character impossible to forget. He is eccentric at times, makes multiple references to pop culture and even speaks to a mysterious Zach that no one can see. In a town full of strange occurrences, York may be the strangest of them all but in the end he also makes Deadly Premonition the memorable game that it is.

Visuals:
One of the bigger selling points in Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut is the fact that the game’s graphics have been given an overhaul and anyone familiar with the original will know that it certainly could have used a new coat of paint. However this coat of paint might have had a bit too much lead in it because while the world of Deadly Premonition does look a bit better than before, with better coloration and smoother textures, the game suffers from terrible frame rate issues.

While the original 360 version of the game had a few problems with frame rate dips, The Director’s Cut becomes practically unplayable at times thanks to the fact that the game will slow down to a crawl in areas with a lot of characters or anytime rain begins to fall. There are times when the game does run at a normal pace but unfortunately these frame rate issues persist throughout the game to such a degree they become impossible to overlook.

Audio:
Outside of the quirky cast of characters, one of the most memorable things that Deadly Premonition had going for it was it’s amazing soundtrack and thankfully, that soundtrack remains as amazing as ever in The Director’s Cut. There are numerous background tracks which are just wonderful to listen to and even if they are played non-stop they never become annoying. These aren’t even your standard background tracks either, since many of them sound a bit strange at first but one can’t help but fall in love with them.

As for the voice acting in the game, the characters voice work ranges from great to terrible depending on the speaking character. Monster dialogue is still rather terrible with moans of “I don’t want to die” being very repetitive.

Gameplay:
Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut promised more than just a new coat of paint on the game’s dated graphics, it also promised a few gameplay adjustments and while a few of these may be a bit annoying to some, they ultimately create a better experience overall. This is thanks to the fact that the biggest change made to the game is how the game handles combat.

Taking down enemies in the original Deadly Premonition was a chore and a half thanks to poor controls and bullet sponge enemies which created parts of the game that dragged on and kept the player from some of the more enjoyable aspects of the game. Thankfully both of these issues have been addressed this time around thanks to the fact that enemies not only die easier, York handles better when shooting or swinging weapons around.

It is also worth noting that while a few additions to the game have been made, these additions are only extra cutscenes here and there. Nothing new gameplay wise has been added to the experience outside of PlayStation Move support, which many will just want to avoid, and 3D support which, if you have a television that supports it, should also be avoided thanks to the game’s framerate issues.

That being said, there isn’t much that really had to be added in to Deadly Premonition because really, what more could there be to add? The game takes place in what feels like a living and breathing open world. As mentioned before, every NPC has a routine of their own and players are free to explore the town however they wish. Don’t feel like tracking down the next clue in the case? Then you can do a few side-quests for the eccentric population for some great rewards, go fishing, and more. There are even elements that allow York to grow a beard if he doesn’t shave often enough or wash his clothes so he doesn’t become a “stinky agent” with flies buzzing around him.

Overall:
Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut remains quite a unique and memorable experience that offers a storyline unlike anything a gamer has experienced before and thankfully none of the core gameplay features have been touched and the game’s combat system has seen a nice improvement. Unfortunately frame rate issues plague this slightly better looking version of the game and none of the new additions really add much to the experience. However while those who have already entered the town of Greenvale may not find much new to see here, Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut is without a doubt worth picking up for the uninitiated and open minded.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

With so little in the way of new game announcements for the Nintendo Wii U, it is even more disappointing for owners and fans of the console to hear that EA has seemingly dropped support for the console with no games currently in development.

While the company hasn’t ruled out developing titles in the future, for now this would spell the end of sports games as we know it on Nintendo home consoles as well as franchises like Mass Effect, Dead Space (3rd installment never made it to Wii U) and Crysis. For the first time since 1991, a port of Madden will not be seen on any Nintendo home consoles which is very sad news and looking to be a trend repeated by other big name franchises.

Why then are EA so hell bent on keeping their games away from the Wii U? EA Sports senior software engineer Bob Summerwill can be quoted via his Twitter that, “Nintendo are still operating like its 1990″ and “The Wii U is crap”. He remarks that all the other companies have the right focus, going so far as to say that Nintendo should forget about their own hardware and should be offering Mario and Zelda to Sony or Microsoft as exclusive series.

Personally, despite the fact that the Wii U clearly is not heading down the right path and Sega had some success doing this in the past, allowing rival companies access to such exclusives is one of the most ridiculous notions I’ve ever heard. Any self respecting gamer wouldn’t even look at Mario or Zelda on a non-Nintendo console if it was given away for free.

One can only wonder if other developers will follow suit after EA, deeming the Wii U to be a dead console and focusing all of their energies on the PS4 and next gen Microsoft console. We can only hope Nintendo can pull through and not follow in the footsteps of the Sega Dreamcast, which many argue also found itself invalidated by EA’s removal of sports games from its lineup.

Kids on the Slope
Studio: Tezuka Productions and MAPPA
Publisher: Hanabee
Format: DVD, Blu-Ray (Reviewed)
Release Date: May 1st, 2013
Price: $64.99 – Available Here

Overview
Life is a mess of seemingly random yet somehow connected events. These moments and these memories, they are the music that our lives are composed of. Every action garners a reaction. A banging of the drums brings about a tapping of keys and just like that something beautiful is born. Much like jazz, life often goes in an unexpected direction – such is the case with Kids on the Slope, a reflective tale of life, love and all that jazz in between.

Story
With legendary anime director Shinichiro Watanabe at the helm for this series along with long-time collaborator Yoko Kanno composing the soundtrack, it was a given that Kids on the Slope was going to be something special. In the past Watanabe has worked on original works such as Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Kids on the Slope however is his first adaptation of his fabled career. While that in itself can be approached with a measure of skepticism, I can wholeheartedly say that it feels very much in line with the themes and messages of his previous works. This is the sway of life.

Kids on the Slope is set in 1960′s Japan, a time of revolutionary change. The world is changing with each passing day and so are the lives of the titular kids on that slope.

Kaoru is a quiet boy who has just moved to town at the behest of his father. He is riddled with anxiety and fears the pain that comes with closeness. He can’t trust because he has been lied to too many times and no matter how many people surround him, he is more alone than anyone could know. But just like the times that change – he meets Sentaro, with a drumbeat in his heart and fire in his soul.

You get the real feeling that these two were almost fated to meet, the song played that day, reverberates long after. They find common ground in a passion for jazz and soon enough the sway of life sweeps them both up propelling them into unexpected directions. Their friendship is the center of the series and the chemistry between the two is a real delight.

What makes Kids on the Slope so special though is not just its excellent characterization and rich setting, but the story it tells. There is a raw honesty to Kids on the Slope that transcends entertainment. Life is quite often very cruel, but it is every bit as beautiful. It is that sense of wonder at the heart of this series that makes it so remarkable. We see how these characters face the world and how the grow through it all. You can’t know happiness until you know sadness, that is the notion Kids on the Slope embodies.

There is a worldly wisdom behind it all that we have come to expect from Watanabe anime and Kids on the Slope is arguably his most profound exploration of life to date. I am firmly of the belief that all good anime understand human emotion. That is Kids on the Slope’s heart and soul.

With a surprisingly fast pace, Kids on the Slope is a very reflective piece that treats youth much like a collections of memories, flashes of the past, echoes of days long lost. It feels very much like how one looks back on their youth, we remember the grand moments, the failures, the triumphs, the things that move us. Because of that, Kids on the Slope fits so much into any given episode without sacrificing any of its high notes.

Watanabe directs the series with nuance and subtlety that treats the audience with an appreciated level of intelligence and respect. Not everything needs to be spelled out and Watanabe understands that an action can say more than a thousands lines of dialogue if done right and done right it is.

It all culminates in an ending that provides genuine catharsis as an exclamation point to this series. While one song ends, another can always begins. No matter where life takes us, there is always hope that it will lead us back together. If jazz is the music of life, then life is all blues – filled with heartbreak, triumph, failure, sadness, happiness, anger, excitement, friendship and love. It is all of those feelings that make us who we are. That is what Kids on the Slope is really about, the way our youth and all that comes with it defines us. The exploration of that is what gives Kids on the Slope such an impact, anyone can relate to it – this is growing up.

Kids on the Slope is the summation of Shinichiro Watanabe’s career, poignant with a sparkle of hope that all these blues are worth it. He has done it again, Kids on the Slope is a true anime masterpiece and perhaps the anime he was always destined to make. No this not be Cowboy Bebop, this is certainly not Samurai Champloo, but this is Kids on the Slope and that is just fine by me.

Visuals and Audio
Tezuka Productions don’t work on many projects these days, so when they do you know it has to be something special. Of course that is exactly what Kids on the Slope is and Tezuka Productions along with MAPPA studio has gorgeously brought Kids on the Slope to life with a memorable art style that feels both nostalgic on anime’s past as well as vibrant and fresh in ways that few are. The character designs are each unique and memorable in their own right, but the real star is the stunning Japanese landscapes that provide the anime with a sense of place and beauty that is simply breath-taking, a true sight to behold.

Of course being a series about music, the soundtrack is naturally excellent. With Yoko Kanno composing it was hard for it to be anything but excellent. The superb soundtrack features covers of jazz classics such as ‘Moanin’ and ‘But not for me’. It also features a number of original pieces that perfectly supplement the series. Even in its quieter moments there is a slow burning revolution building underneath it all that amounts to Yoko Kanno’s greatest anime soundtrack to date. Much like her work on Cowboy Bebop in the past, this isn’t just a simple soundtrack, it is a truly brilliant record in and of its self.

This particular release of Kids on the Slope happens to feature an English dub, which I must say does this series true justice. Chris Patton as Kaoru and Andrew Love as Sentaro are perfect in the roles and the chemistry between the two is utterly electric. This is definitely a case of an English dub that is every bit as good as the original Japanese audio.

Kids on the Slope is a delightful experience for the senses. It a pleasure of sight, sound and most of all – soul.

Extras
Hanabee’s Blu-Ray release is absolutely astonishing to say the very least. The quality of the product overall is incredible and the add to that is several cast interviews that provide a greater level of understanding and depth of the series and its production. The two stand-out interviews were of course with director Shinichiro Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno. There is also the usual special features to get stuck into in what is an overall perfect Blu-Ray experience.

Overall
To sum up what Kids on the Slope means to me is no simple task. It is an exploration of life at its most simplest yet complex time. Growing up is never easy and getting old is not much fun, but that is what life is – unexpected, delightful, painful and sometimes even magical. Kids on the Slope much like Watanabe’s previous works is an utter masterpiece. It is arguably one of the greatest anime of all time.

This isn’t simply anime, this is life in moving pictures, the blues of it all – the melody of an honest heart and a warm soul. Kids on the Slope may not be perfect by design – nothing ever is – but it is a perfect experience and that is all that matters to me.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Tier2games have decided to release the final stage of their new strategy game on Kickstarter and put their faith in gamer’s to determine the outcome of Artifact Red-X, set for PC and iOS.

Ashley Hodgetts, creator and designer of Artifact Red-X stated”

“We here at Tier2games feel that it [Kickstarter] is the best way to reach our audience and let them influence the games we make. At the end of the day, they are who we make our games for. Additionally we are teaming up with Itar’s Workshop to release a special miniature table top board game based on the video game”.

Artifact Red-X introduces a real-time strategy and tactic turn-based game, in which gamer’s play an extraterrestrial species that must conquer all planets with the element Red X, eliminate the inhabitants and join forces with (or against) other aliens!

If the project is successful, players will be able to build and manage bases and resources, navigate the map, deploy missions, intercept alien craft, manage orbiting satellites and weapon platforms, and perform the same tasks as a team on multiplayer with video, voice and text chat.

Check out the video below for an introduction to Artifact Red-X strategy game. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to back the project before the funding period ends June 15!

Matrix Games and Panther Games proudly announced yesterday the release of a major new free update for their acclaimed PC World War 2 themed titles Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge and Command Ops: Highway to the Reich. The new release, dubbed version 4.4.263,  represents well over a year’s additional development, improvements and tweaks to the Command Ops engine, based mainly on player community feedback.

The update will be offered to existing customers free of charge, showcasing incredible value for money in respect to post-release support. The update contains a plethora of bug fixes and greatly expands gameplay and modding options.  Such as an entirely revamped LOS tool, which can deal with stalled moves and scheduled attacks with more ease. Vast adjustments have also been made to the supply element of play, enabling retreating and/or retreat recovering units to surrender, along with a host of other improvements. The full list of changes is available on the Forum page.

To download the update, current players can make use of the in-game “Check for Update” feature or download it directly from the games’ mirror sites here and here  respectively.

Following the May 16th launch of DAISUKI, Japan’s first anime streaming service, I had the chance to speak with DAISUKI’s Eri Maruyama for our CC Anime podcast about the service. We previously interviewed Eri-san ahead of the service’s launch. Now that DAISUKI has launched, it was time we discussed what is now on offer as well as what we can expect in the future.

You can listen to the entire uncut audio extract of our interview with Eri-san below:

You can check out the DAISUKI anime streaming service on the official website DAISUKI.net right now for free. Series such as Lupin the 3rd, One Piece, Sword Art Online and even The Prince of Tennis are now available to watch on the service.

Berserk The Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey
Studio: Studio 4°C
Publisher: Viz Media
Format: Streamed via Neon Alley

Overview:
The Berserk storyline has been going on for quite some time. So long in fact that I was barely born back when the manga first debuted back in 1990. However over its two decade long run it has been quite popular and even received an anime adaptation back in 1997. Now the series is being revisited with a trilogy of films covering the “Golden Age” arc of the manga and while the first movie was already released in North America by Viz, the second movie still won’t be released for quite some time. That is of course, unless you have access to Viz’s Neon Alley service where the second movie, The Battle for Doldrey, debuted this weekend. How does this movie fair? Let’s find out.

Story:
The storyline for Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey picks up shortly after the events of the first movie with Griffith’s words about true friends still resonating in Guts’ mind. However despite those words, Guts remains with the Band of the Hawk and battles alongside Casca and Griffith when they join with the King’s forces to take over the fortress of Doldrey.

In fact, this second movie joins the Band in the middle of a battlefield. However the numerous battles that the Band enters begin to take their toll, not only causing Casca and Guts to temporarily be separated from the rest of the group, but also giving their characters a chance to grow. Despite this growth however, Guts comes to a decision which will see him leaving the Band of the Hawk. When Griffith’s attempt to stop his departure is immediately thwarted, the lives of Casca, Guts, and Griffith take a turn for the worse.

Thanks to the fact that this is only a movie with a standard run time, it is forced to condense a large portion of storyline and character development into less than an hour and a half of run time. This means that even at the best of times, the storyline is compressed to such a degree that outside of the three main characters, Guts, Casca, and Griffith, barely any of the other characters are given much screen time outside of an enemy officer which appears throughout this movie as a recurring enemy for Casca to battle against.

This makes things even worse when you factor in the amount of time on battles and trying to develop these characters in meaningful ways. It also doesn’t help that while Casca does grow as a character in this movie and we begin to see Griffith’s downfall into insanity, everything is cut rather short thanks to the fact that the movie simply runs out of time to portray everything and ultimately ends with a cliffhanger of an ending. The poor pacing becomes one of the biggest issues with the plot despite some decent character growth on the main cast.

Visuals:
Those familiar with the first movie in this trilogy will likely remember how the animation studio chose to implement both 3D CGI elements into action sequences and background scenes alongside standard animation techniques. While some of the fighting choreography is great to look at and many of the deaths portrayed in these battles are very brutal, the basic animation here is the lowest of the low. Not only is the 3D animation disjointed and poorly detailed, it simply pales in comparison to even the most basic fighting animations found in the industry.

Whenever standard animation techniques are used, the movie actually looks pretty decent with a number of outstanding looking backgrounds to go alongside the characters which are usually nicely handled whenever they aren’t presented with 3D models. It is worth noting there is a bit of female nudity here including a few scenes that come close to sex and one full sex scene that doesn’t show off any major full blown nudity but viewers should be prepared for that aspect.

Audio:
Since The Battle for Doldrey was streamed on Neon Alley, the only audio option available was the English dub. This isn’t too much of an issue however thanks to the fact that the English cast is rather decently handled. The main cast of Guts, Griffith and Casca are all voiced well though some of the side-characters are poorly voiced. So much so that whenever a minor character speaks, it only proves how much the series ultimately only focuses on a handful of important characters.

As far as the soundtrack goes, the movie sports a number of nice set-pieces which play alongside the action scenes well though again it is a mixed bag outside of the action, as many of the other tracks are largely forgettable.

Neon Alley:
Now, it has been awhile since I’ve visited the Neon Alley app for watching anime and it appears that not much has changed since my first run with the service at launch. When the movie began I initially chose to watch it on the PlayStation 3, however when doing so I found that the movie often had terrible buffering problems and would suffer from artifacts appearing on screen often.

Because of this, during one of the commercial breaks, I switched to the direct internet connection on the Xbox 360 version of the app and thankfully the movie no longer suffered from these buffering breaks and actually played at a higher resolution since it seems that the quality of the broadcast is determined by the viewer’s internet connection as there is no option to set it yourself.

The aforementioned commercial breaks aren’t much of an issue since thankfully they are always focused on various anime and manga releases and thanks to the fact that the ability to pause or rewind is not available on Neon Alley, these commercial breaks are essential for a quick run away from the television to perform various non-television related activities.

While this may harken back to the days before everyone had DVRs, at least then most television viewers had the ability to record via VHS if they, for whatever reason, had to step away from the television for an extended period of time. While not much of an issue for half hour programming, committing the nearly two hours of time required to watch a full movie on Neon Alley could easily see viewers missing snippets of the movie.

Overall:
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey seems to have a lot going for it at first, unfortunately this potential is squandered. The storyline’s basic principle is sound and the main characters are given some development in this movie and to help all of that, the English dub is nicely handled and many of the action sequences are nicely choreographed. However the rushed storyline creates a disjointed feeling and the simply bad looking 3D CGI is awkwardly used and detracts from how great the normal animation looks. It also is worth noting that thanks to this being the Neon Alley stream; viewers have to also handle the various limitations of the service itself.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

“The Jagged Alliance series have always been played out on temperate pacific islands – looking back at Back in Action and Jagged Alliance 2 from an artistic point of view – trife brown colours dominated the landscape,” said Jesper Andersen, Concept Artist at Full Control. “We  have been influenced by games such as Dishonored that oozed dirty, dark and filthy visuals without succumbing to photo realistic textures. With Flashback we want to combine a realistic approach with strong colours to stand out from the masses.”