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Senran Kagura: Peach Ball Heads West this Summer

After waiting some time fans of the Senran Kagura series will be happy to hear that the odd little spin-off pinball game, Senran Kagura: Peach Ball, is finally getting a Western release. XSEED Games and Marvelosu have announced that the game will be released digitally on the Nintendo eShop for the Switch in North America and Europe for $39.99 though a very limited retail release will be available in North America.

The opening cinematic as well as a number of screenshots have been released for Senran Kagura: Peach Ball and you can check those out below. The story of the game takes place after Haruka, the mad scientist of Homura’s Crimson Squad, ends up brewing a strange concoction with unknown effects and since she has been working at the local arcade, she has been storing her experiments there. After an accident causes five of her fellow shinobi to be infected, it turns out the concoction turns their mentality to that of animals.

Now, with Asuka, Yumi, Yomi, Ryona, and Murasaki causing wild havoc in and around the arcade, Haruka has devised a way to return these shinobi to their senses – the mystical Peach Ball. Applied to a subject’s body repeatedly, with the proper vibrational force, it can undo the effects of her experiment. Conveniently, it’s just the right size for a pinball table.

Mortal Kombat 11 Introduces the Kollector

Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios have revealed a new character that will be joining the Mortal Kombat 11 roster. The Kollector, as he is named, was born in poverty and seized his collections duty with a zeal that impressed Shao Kahn, becoming one of the Emperor’s most feared associates. As more of a corrupt, mafia enforcer than a government official, The Kollector stole riches from Outworld’s people, rewarding himself with wealth and status in turn, but when Shao Kahn died, Kotal Kahn vowed to weed out the former regime’s corruption.

After years in hiding, living off his ill-gotten gains, The Kollector was captured and now faces execution, determined to destroy anyone in his path. A trailer showing off the Kollector in action can be found below while the game itself is set to be released on April 23rd on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Borderlands 3 Launching September 13

Previously 2K Games and Gearbox Software only revealed a little bit of information regarding Borderlands 3 and now they have not only given us a solid release date but a number of other details as well. The game will be launching on September 13th for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC and pits players up against the fanatical Calypso Twins who are trying to unite the bandit clans and claim the galaxy’s ultimate power.

The four new Vault Hunters introduced this time are Moze the Gunner who can summon her mech named Iron Bear for additional firepower, Amara the Siren that is a capable brawler that can summon ethereal fists to pummel her foes, FL4K the Beastmaster who can call upon loyal beasts to assist in battle, and Zane as the Operative that specializes in battlefield gadgets. Check out the new trailer and the screenshots for Borderlands 3 below.

https://youtu.be/JiEu23G4onM

The Walking Dead: The Final Season – Take Us Back Review

The Walking Dead: The Final Season – Take Us Back

Developer: Skybound Games
Publisher: Skybound Games
Platforms: Xbox One (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, PC, Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $4.99 – Available Here

Overview

Few could have believed that seven years ago when Telltale began telling their own story in The Walking Dead world that the series would end up coming so far. After four seasons that started with Lee and continued with Clementine, fans have watched Clementine’s journey for many years as she continued to grow and survive in a world that takes pity on no one. Now after nineteen episodes and the closure of the original company, the story comes to an end in The Walking Dead: The Final Season – Take Us Back

Story

Considering this is the final episode of the season as well as the final episode of the series it is worth noting that readers should play through at least the most recent episode before continuing to read as some spoilers regarding major events that occurred in Broken Toys will be discussed below.

Picking up immediately after the explosion that capped off the end of Broken Toys, Clementine and AJ find themselves struggling to survive on the flaming sinking boat that once served as a stronghold for Lily’s group. Regardless of the choice players made at the end of the previous episode events play out in a similar enough fashion that finds the pair left with very little resources as a massive amount of Walkers begin to flood the area, drawn both by James’ previous actions and the noise from the explosion. With little to rely on but her own wits and the help of a few others, Clementine must still try to survive and find her way home once more.

While the previous episode may not have suffered too much from the unstable situation the developers found themselves in it does come through a bit more in Take Us Back as the episode finds itself struggling to find a solid enough pace while trying to tie up loose ends. This primarily comes down to the fact that there are really only is one major decision to make this episode that also ends up betraying the fact that most of your previous handlings of AJ really don’t matter too much in the end. Witnessing the outcome of both choices shows that, outside of a few minor dialogue changes, how AJ ends up acting and the choices he ends up making on his own boil down to only a single choice by the player, rather than the culmination of a season which just ends up feeling a bit disappointing.

What isn’t disappointing are the stakes that constantly end up getting raised as players progress. While danger was always nipping at Clementine’s heels the tenacious nature of the final enemy and the zombies themselves lead to some intensely emotional sequences before culminating in an incredibly touching series of events that take place between Clementine and AJ. In fact there even is a flashback sequence that finally touches upon how exactly she managed to find him once again between season three and four, though the exact circumstances about what is happening there, as well as numerous other elements, are left vague.

Obviously the ending for such a long running series will leave players feeling a number of different emotions and it is difficult to really say just how someone should feel after everything is said and done. While there are still loose ends that were never tied up and the nature of the ending does end up being drawn out a bit more than it should, we do find a solid enough finale to Clementine’s journey here even if it may leave some feeling a bit unsatisfied by the time the credits roll.

Gameplay

Similar to past episodes players will be given quick time event sequences to survive against both the undead and living threats though it is worth noting that this time around the game is far less forgiving in some sequences so players will need to be on their toes to avoid getting killed. There are only a few real exploration sequences and if you have been gathering the various collectibles throughout the season there are bonus dialogue scenes and thoughts given by AJ after a certain point in the episode.

It is also nice to note that there is a different feeling once a certain shift occurs in the episode. Rather than making timed dialogue choices using the usual Telltale system players are instead given multiple options for dialogue and actions with a much more forgiving timer. Perhaps this is a sign of a difference to come should the development team continue with another series in the future or simply a shift between characters but it is a nice touch.

Visuals & Audio

The shift between studios seems to have at least settled in better this time around as Take Us Back manages to avoid any of the graphical glitches that plagued the previous episode and features a number of great looking sequences and detailed character models. This is especially true during a few of the more haunting sequences in the game involving a certain persistent enemy and the finale as well.

The soundtrack features a fairly standard set of tunes that players are familiar with but the real credit here goes to the voice actors. More than ever some of these sequences needed to shine through with strong performances and all of the voice work managed to do that splendidly.

Overall

It has been a long journey since Clementine made her way down from her tree house to save Lee but now her journey has come to a fairly solid ending. While the lack of a meaningful player choice throughout the season is a bit of a damper and many plot threads are left hanging, this at least is an ending that may never have happened and while everyone may take to the ending in a different way, it still packs an emotional punch.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World Review

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World

Devloper: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: Switch, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $99.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

Gust’s Atelier series first began back in 1997 and over the years numerous games of various types have been released for the series even if it took a few being exclusive to Japan before they started making their way West. Over the years many of these games feature a similar formula and only have a little bit in the way of crossover with other entries in the series outside of guest appearances. This time around Gust is trying something a bit new with the spin-off Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World. Featuring a different gameplay focus as well as characters from the series’ long history is this one fans will enjoy?

Story

After graduating at the top of her class Nelke von Lestamm, along with her maid Misty, have traveled to the village of Westwald to pursue her dream of discovering a powerful plant known as the Granzweit Tree that will grant it’s finder great powers. Nelke has always loved alchemy but unlike other game’s in the franchise, she has absolutely no talent so no matter how intelligent she might be, becoming a famous alchemist never happened to be in the cards for her. Despite this setback Nelke poured her heart into learning about economics, town management, and more in an effort to become a great aristocrat.

Since rumors have pointed towards the tree being near Westwald, Nelke offered to take control over the tiny village from her father, promising to turn it into a thriving city. With both her father’s expectations, the lives of her citizens, and her dreams on the line Nelke has a lot of challenge awaiting her but it isn’t long before numerous familiar faces appear and end up being more than willing to help since Nelke’s goals line up directly with their own.

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World’s storyline is a bit of an odd thing this time around as it plays out in a far more linear manner due to the way story progression actually is handled by the ending of days and weeks. Now this is far from a bad thing as the narrative itself is enjoyable on its own but longtime fans of the franchise should be prepared for that. What really does help the game’s story shine also happens to be the characters that appear from throughout the franchise’s history.

While the new characters are treated well the real shine comes from seeing so many of everyone’s favorite alchemist’s and fighters in one place. Of course, outside of the core characters of Pamela and Hagel, some of the first characters introduced happen to be characters that Western fans likely won’t recognize as they come from games that were never localized but rather quickly players will begin to gather a massive number of characters spanning across every game in the series. One of the best aspects of the way Gust’s writers happened to handle this crossover is to fully embrace the fact that fans want to see these characters interact with one another.

Instead of simply speaking to Nelke or other characters in their series while ignoring everyone else almost all of these characters have chances to talk and interact with one another as you bring them along with your party, fulfill little missions for them, and interact with them during Nelke’s holidays. This creates an incredibly large and highly enjoyable number of scenes that fans of the franchise will just adore and these really help breath some extra life into an already solid enough storyline as fans never quite know who may appear or how each character will interact with one another, making for a great story that fully embraces the fact that it’s a crossover.

Gameplay

The biggest difference with Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World happens to be the fact that unlike other games in the franchise, this one happens to be more city building and management than anything else. As the leader of the town of Westwald Nelke is in charge of making sure everyone in the city is happy and that it continues to grow while she pursues her own dreams.

To do this players will find Nelke’s schedule split between weekdays and holidays where weekdays see Nelke having to manage the various aspects of the city, building various facilities such as areas that can produce various resources, ateliers for the numerous alchemists to work at and synthesize items, and of course shops to actually sell various items and earn a profit. Players can also craft various roadways that serve as a connection between all of the buildings as well as various cosmetic boosts to the city to pretty things up a bit and make the city your own. Things do get more complicated as the game progresses as the amount of requests from the residents and other aspects can add up after awhile and the need to properly assign the most skilled resident to fit a specific job does mean there is still some micromanagement involved here, especially when it comes to avoiding a shortage of certain ingredients or products, but this resource management tends to be the only major concern when it comes to making sure the city runs smoothly, making for a game that can feel a bit too simple at times when it comes to managing a city.

Holidays are where Nelke, and players, take a more hands-on approach to helping assist the city. Players are given a limited amount of action points for the day and can use these to interact with the various characters introduced at the time, raising their affection levels that unlock new character specific story scenes and possibly boosting their various stats as well, and head out into the wilderness with a team that can be handcrafted to bring along a player’s favorite characters should they desire. While out in the field players do not have direct control over the exploration as the party will simply walk through the path gathering items from harvest points and entering battles with enemies at random though it is possible to have the group speed things up and run, since moving through an area drains the player’s action point total, but a running team is unable to harvest various ingredients along the way.

After encountering enemies players will find their five player party entering a fairly simple style of combat where their party and the enemies take part in a turn based battle system. Players can have direct control over what actions Nelke and her friends make but the other alchemists and fighters end up working more as support fighters that will act automatically with a wide array of skills at their disposal. It is interesting to note that while players do have the ability to stack “Drive Points” that can be used to activate special skills, players will rarely need to actually worry about the challenge for these fights. The ease of these battles is even signified by the ability to turn fights into “auto” battles right away and have the computer assume complete control of the fight and, nearly without fail, win with little actual input from the player.

Visuals & Audio

Fans of the Atelier franchise will be happy to hear that while this game does branch out a bit from the norm it still retains the signature art style that everyone has fallen in love with. The character designs continue to be a strong point and seeing some characters that first debuted back on the PlayStation with new modernized designs are a real treat. The designs of the buildings and many of the environments you explore are also quite varied once you progress far enough in the game and players can still expect to see some flashy combat moves despite the toned down fighting mechanics.

As far as the voice work goes, the game only features the original Japanese voice track but this works incredibly well partly due to the fact that every returning character appears to have retained their original voice actor. The soundtrack features a satisfying mix of tracks that work well during the management scenes and dialogue sequences with an overall feeling of fitting in perfectly fine with what fans expect from the series.

Overall

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World manages to tell an amazing crossover storyline that fans will appreciate due to how much Gust embraced that aspect of the story but be prepared for a title that ends up feeling a bit too easy for its own good. Managing and building up your city is a rather fun endeavor that grows more challenging at a satisfying pace but it is clear that the focus was spent on that rather than the JRPG style elements that have been merged in, as combat and exploration feel rather anemic in this entry.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

SKYBOUND AND NMC STUDIOS’ VEHICULAR BATTLE ROYALE GAME notmycar NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM

SKYBOUND AND NMC STUDIOS’ VEHICULAR BATTLE ROYALE GAME notmycar NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM

Grab an Exclusive Vehicle Paint Job Today During Founders’ Week (April 5-12)

April 5, 2019 (LOS ANGELES, Calif.) – From publisher Skybound Games and developer NMC Studios, the all-out automotive battle royale game notmycar is now available to play for free on Windows PC via Steam Early Access! Players can grab a free exclusive custom paint job for notmycar’s one and only pick-up truck of punishment – The Beast – by playing during Founders’ Week, going on today through April 12. Buckle up, buttercup!

Check out notmycar’s unique blend of high-octane motorsport and explosive competitive multiplayer action in today’s new gameplay trailer.

notmycar delivers total vehicular battle royale mayhem, putting you on a massive island battleground where you’ll have to fight for your life at breakneck speeds to outlast the competition and remain the last car standing. Drop, drive and destroy with diesel-powered fury and an arsenal of brutal weapons and abilities. You’ll need a skilled hand on the wheel and the trigger to win the fast-paced, tire-burning chaos that is notmycar.

Game Features:

Drop: Get an instant shot of adrenaline as you freakin’ glide your car into each match. Pick the best landing zone on a massive island battlefield that gets smaller and smaller over time, driving your enemies right into your sights.

Drive: Race across dangerous terrain to chase down targets and leave all rivals in your dust. Customize your battle wagon to the nines so your worthless enemies know fear as they spot you on the horizon. With a variety of flags, paint jobs and more, you’ll make sure they remember exactly who blasted them into oblivion.

Destroy: It’s pedal-to-the-metal as you race to snatch the best weapons from caches all over the island. Second place is the first loser, so show no mercy and fight your way to the top of the junk heap to be the last car standing!

Get the latest news, updates, reminders and exclusives for notmycar by visiting www.notmycar.com and following the game on Twitter.

About Skybound Games

Skybound Games is a division of Skybound Entertainment that publishes videogames and tabletop games, focusing on unique and exceptional independently developed IP. Skybound Games expanded into the videogames space in 2018, led by CEO Ian Howe. The current slate of games includes Slime Rancher by Monomi Park, The Long Dark by Hinterland, Skullgirls by Lab Zero Games, and Death’s Gambit with Adult Swim Games and White Rabbit. Skybound Games also took ownership of Telltale’s The Walking Dead in October 2018.

Tabletop games include The Grimm Forest with James Hudson and Druid City Games, Pitchstorm with Ben Kepner, and Superfight and Red Flags with Jack Dire.

Skybound Games can be found on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

New Pet Sematary Lore Trailer

A new trailer came out for Paramount Pictures new reboot of the horror classic Pet Sematary which goes over the basic plot background for the film.The original Pet Sematary film adaption was released in 1989 and first brought Stephen King’s original creepy tale of a cursed graveyard bringing the dead buried there back to evil second life to the silver screen.

This new film, directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, stars Jason Clarke, Amy Steimetz and John Lithgow. It’s out now in cinemas in Australia and you can find a featurette released earlier on the film here.

You can find the new trailer below if you’d like to brush up on the premise before going to check out the film!

Join The Battle For D.C with “Tidal Basin”, The First Post-Launch Content Update

Join The Battle For D.C with “Tidal Basin”, The First Post-Launch Content Update

First Raid Begins on April 25th

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — April 5, 2019 — “Tidal Basin”, the first post-launch update for Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2 is available today on the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. “Tidal Basin” is part of “Invasion: Battle for D.C.”, the first free post-launch update that includes upcoming releases of “Operation Dark Hours”, the first 8-player raid in the history of The Division, and a brand new Specialization.

As part of the endgame and post-launch first philosophy of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, ”Invasion: Battle for D.C.” brings new challenges and content:

  • Players face a new challenge in encountering Tidal Basin, a new stronghold held by the Black Tusk Faction. Tidal Basin is now home to some of the most powerful enemies in the game, and they’re not going down easy.
  • After completing the Tidal Basin Stronghold, players will be able to advance to World Tier 5 and unlock the possibility to obtain gear scores 450-500.
  • “Invasion: Battle for D.C.” introduces a new Heroic difficulty setting making for some of the most challenging gameplay yet.
  • Upon reaching World Tier 5, weekly invasions will be introduced with the Black Tusk taking control over selected main missions and strongholds in the city. These activities are harder to complete but more rewarding in loot and gear.
  • Players can now enjoy two new exotic weapons Pestilence and Nemesis as well as three new gear sets: True Patriot, Hardwired and Ongoing Directive.
  • As part of the update, all players will also have access a new PVP map called Fort McNair
  • The Invasion Apparel Event, which will allow agents to collect outfits inspired by the enemy factions, as well as new masks and weapon skins.
  • Operation Dark Hours is the toughest of all challenges: an 8- player raid that will test the teamwork of the most experienced agents, coming April 25th.
  • Coming in a later update, Agents will have the chance to unlock a brand new Specialization

While “Invasion: Battle for D.C.” is the first batch of free content brought to players as part of the Year 1 post launch updates, Agents can look forward to the following content later this year:

  • Episode 1, D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions, releasing in Summer 2019, will take players to the surrounding areas of Washington to fight for the liberation of the city in two additional main missions, a new game mode to investigate the fate of a lost convoy, encountering unexpected threats along the way;
  • Episode 2: Pentagon: The Last Castle, releasing in Fall 2019, will have additional main missions, with players storming the Pentagon to unveil the secrets that hide beneath one of America’s most iconic locations;
  • Episode 3, releasing in Winter 2019 will close the first chapter of The Division 2 story and pave the way for more content to come.

Led by Massive Entertainment in collaboration with seven other studios around the world*, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is the next evolution in the open-world online shooter RPG genre that the first game helped establish. Set seven months after a deadly virus was released in New York City, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 brings players into a fractured and collapsing Washington D.C. The world is on the brink, its people living through the biggest crisis ever faced in human history. As veteran Division agents, players are the last hope against the complete fall of society as enemy factions vie for control of the city. If Washington D.C. is lost, the entire nation falls. Building upon more than two years of listening to and learnings from The Division community, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will offer a substantial campaign that organically flows into a robust endgame, to create a cohesive and meaningful experience for all types of players, helping players emphasize their freedom to make strategic choices and hone their own approach.

For more information on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, please visit: tomclancy-thedivision.ubisoft.com. For the latest news on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and all of Ubisoft’s games, visit Ubisoft News: news.ubisoft.com.

*Associate studios are Ubisoft Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Leamington, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Bucharest and Ubisoft Sofia

About Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, with a rich portfolio of world-renowned brands, including Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s video game series, Rayman, Far Cry and Watch Dogs. The teams throughout Ubisoft’s worldwide network of studios and business offices are committed to delivering original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular platforms, including consoles, mobile phones, tablets and PCs. For the 2017-18 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of €1,732 million. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoft.com.

© 2019 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Tom Clancy’s, The Division logo, the Soldier Icon, Ubisoft, and the Ubisoft logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries.

Heat Review

Heat

Studios: Regency Enterprises, Forward Pass
Publisher: Warner Bros
Platforms: Cinema
Release Date: Out Now

I had first heard of Heat years ago, when I still had a keen passion for performance, from an acting teacher who raved about the performances and editing of the film. He was a pretty good teacher and I remembered the recommendation to this day, so when I saw that the film would be in this season’s In the House line-up, I was eager at the prospect to finally see it screened properly up on the big screen.

To kick off the screening, the movie nerds, Ryan and Draz, went over some of the film’s trivia before the film started. What particularly caught my attention was the fact that Mann practiced a particularly severe attention to detail with regards to the actor’s performances to the point where Pacino lost focus during a take and delivered a line with ridiculous emphasis… which ultimately became the take which made it into the finished version.

Story

The film opens on a heist on an armoured car on the grimy streets of LA. The robbers made up of Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore), Trejo (Danny Trejo), and Waingro (Kevin Gage) pull off the heist largely in accordance with their precise plan but things go sideways and three guards get killed. Detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) gets put on to the case investigating the armoured car robbery and is able to trace the likely culprits to McCauley and his crew. When McCauley crew catch sight of the police tracking their moves as they plan for their next big heist, they need to weigh up their chances of getting away with the loot while the police breathe down their neck. Will crooks make it away scot-free or will the boys in blue of the LAPD be able to catch them red-handed?

I very much enjoyed this film’s script and the great thought that was placed into crafting our protagonists. Most of the ensemble cast get at least one or two smart or witty lines to say and pull out great performances to match the dialogue. The film does take it’s time and with an almost three-hour runtime, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that. There’s a lot of character development and story arcs which happen for a lot of the side characters beyond our two protagonists and this can drag a bit. Overall, the film is fairly focused on our two protagonists, Neil and Vincent.

Pacino’s Vincent is a bundle of nerves moulded together into the shape of a man who chases criminals at the cost of everything else in his life. From Pacino’s little outbursts of neuroticism give the character a sense of barely controlled emotion. Vincent is a man whose job as a homicide detective have given him a lot of trauma which he refuses to process through. This unpredictable behaviour gives his character an interesting screen presence which holds your attention while also giving a plausibility to the less rational decisions he makes as a character but help facilitate some of the film’s best narrative moments. It was no easy task to contrive a reason for Pacino and De Niro’s characters to be onscreen at the same time for a scene but thanks to some foundational character work, the film was able to have one.

De Niro’s Neil is a smooth operator who similarly showcases occasional emotional outbursts. Whereas Vincent is all nerves, De Niro is a foil in that even his moments of emotion are subdued and demure. He goes from exhibiting murderous intent and action to subdued performative innocence in the span of seconds in a single scene. His breadth of emotion throughout the film might be limited but we see his anger and desperation in full (if perhaps muted) display through his actions and the performance of De Niro. It makes a great countenance to Pacino’s performance and the two of them cut a striking performance when the film places them together in the frame.

One aspect that definitely isn’t comfortable in today’s context with it’s presentation of violence towards women. It’s somewhat egregious to see women characters whose main purpose and character arcs appear to revolve around violence being directed at them. This isn’t to say that there aren’t men whose sole presence in the film is to have violence done to them but it’s particular for the women characters considering how none of the lead characters are women… It may not bother you but it’s certainly an aspect of the film which I don’t consider has aged as well in the decades since its release. I was able to enjoy the film regardless but it bears mentioning in case it might affect you.

Visuals

To say that this film indulges its director does not encapsulate the degree to which the film moves at to it’s beat. Shots and sequences go for exactly the duration the film desires with the same action occurring from multiple angles to reinforce its impact. A reason that the film takes great patience with its shots is also to properly build tension at an extremely measured pace. The action unfolds at a fast enough tempo to keep you engaged in what’s onscreen, even if it’s just Val Kilmer jumping in and out of cover to fire at the cops or an actually slow (but deadly) game of cat and mouse. The film knows how to keep you tense and on the edge of your with it’s editing. In addition to this, the cinematography showcasing the night-time beauty of LA gave some of the sequences an almost dreamlike feel as well as being quite aesthetically pleasant.

Audio

The film has a fairly standard orchestral score and pop music soundtrack fitting the era and tone of the film. Where the film’s sound design gets interesting is with its soundscape which heightens the volume of all its sound effects, especially in the big set piece scenes. When the Movie Nerds were talking about how the production team filled the streets of LA to create the soundscape, this is where we get the full sense of film’s potential as it disorients your senses with sound. I would liken this overwhelming sound to the effect of listening to heavy metal for the first time at full volume. The effect of this is to set you on edge during the extended action sequences and even when the action slows down on screen visually; especially with the film’s ultimate climax. I loved this aspect of the sound design but it behoves me give everyone with concerns about over-stimulation that this might be a bit confronting…

Conclusion

Overall, I very much enjoyed my time with this film; it’s easy to see why this film is such a classic of the heist genre and why it was essential to see it in a cinema. The story features some very strong screenwriting alongside some excellent performances from it’s two leads. The film’s direction features strong editing to compliment the build-up and release of tension to make every scene tense. The film’s audioscape overwhelms you to compliment the tension you’re already feeling and make the action so much more impactful. This film is a tour-de-force of how to edit an action movie and is a must see for any and all who have an interest in crafting interesting visual and audio experiences. I have no problem recommending this film to any and all who are interested in spite of the caveats I’ve mentioned earlier.

Kudos to In the House for giving us a chance to see this film on the big screen!

For other films which In The House is screening, feel free to check out their schedule here.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Acclaimed Adventure Game Silence Out Now on Nintendo Switch

Acclaimed Adventure Game Silence Out Now on Nintendo Switch

Daedalic Entertainment brings its beloved and beautiful adventure to Nintendo’s home console

Hamburg, Germany, 3rd April, 2019 – Daedalic Entertainment is delighted to announce that the fan-favourite adventure game Silence is out now on Nintendo Switch. 

Silence is a beautifully animated adventure about 16-year-old Noah and his little sister Renie, who are cast from the real-world during an air raid and flung into a magical realm stuck between life and death. This conflicted dimension, full of colourful characters, twisted monsters and sights that push the boundaries of reality, is stuck in a state of war against dark creatures haunting towns and cities, with only a small band of rebels standing in the way of utter anarchy.

“Silence is one of the most popular adventure games we’ve ever created, so bringing it to the Nintendo Switch was a no-brainer for us,” explained Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann. “We’re excited for the Switch’s substantial adventure-game-loving audience to finally get to experience Silence’s enchanting mix of colour and personality.”

Featuring an emotionally gripping story, imaginative puzzles, beautiful visuals blending 2D and 3D art design, compelling characters and hours of fully voiced dialogue, Silence is part sequel, part spin-off of the classic adventure The Whispered World, which was also developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment.

To find out more about Silence, please visit Daedalic’s official website.

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