Continuing with their series of character introduction videos for Dead or Alive Xtreme 3Koei Tecmo has released a new minute long video focusing on introducing Momiji of Ninja Gaiden and recently Dead or Alive fame.
Similar to the past videos which have shown us Marie Rose and Helena, this video for Momiji shows off a number of the gravure areas as Momiji lounges around the island in various swimsuits including the one that was originally a bonus for those who picked up Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.
You can check out the video below and as for the game itself, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is set to be released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan on March 24th and the Asian release, featuring English subtitles, can be pre-ordered through Play-Asia.
The Walking Dead television series returned last night and if that episode didn’t have enough action for you, or your late and haven’t watched it yet, then Telltale Games still has something to help scratch that Walking Dead itch. With The Walking Dead: Michonne set to begin next week on February 23rd the company has decided to release a six minute video showing off how the first episode will begin.
In the video below you’ll be able to catch Michonne being voiced by Samira Wiley from Orange is the New Black as she struggles with her past memories as well as faces off against a large number of the undead.
Back in 2015 Sony and Quantic Dream announced that they were planning on releasing a PlayStation 4 version of Heavy Rain in March 2016 and now the companies have announced exactly when people can expect the title to be available.
The company has announced that the game will be released on March 1st in North America and Latin America and March 2nd everywhere else. Oddly enough, the Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls disc collection containing both PlayStation 4 versions of the games will be available in every country except for North America, with Europe, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia all receiving the collection.
Square Enix has announced that the popular mobile game Hitman GO will be arriving on a number of new platforms next week. Hitman GO will be released on February 23rd for the PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PC through Steam for $7.99. This updated release of the game will feature improved graphics as well as a new control scheme that has been optimized for consoles and PC interfaces.
The PC version will add in trading cards, emojis, wallpapers, cloud saves, and achievements while the PlayStation versions will offer cross-save and trophies. A new trailer for Hitman GO and a few new screenshots can be found below
With Street Fighter V set to be released in a little under twenty-four hours we have yet another set of character introduction videos from Capcom and this time the focus is entirely on members of the female cast.
We have introduction videos for Cammy, Chun-Li, and R. Mika and all of these three videos, showing off their various special moves and appearances, can be found below. As for the game itself, Street Fighter V will be released tomorrow for the PlayStation 4 and PC and will feature sixteen characters at launch with six more planned for release throughout the rest of the year.
Chase away the Monday blahs with a brand new Every Monday Bundle from Indie Gala and Capsule Computers. This week’s bundle packs seven great indie games for only $1.49.
Labyronia RPG – An epic RPG inspired by classic SNES JRPs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI.
Labyronia RPG 2 – Set 10 years after the first game, a small band of humans must reverse the elemental weapon that is sucking the life from the planet.
Legend of Mysteria RPG – Set in the Labyronia universe, you have been framed for a murder you did not commit and must now clear your name.
Secret Of Magia – An action RPG inspired by the likes of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana.
Destiny Warriors RPG – Three spirit beasts threaten to break out of their bonds and wreak havoc upon the world again. It is up to you and three friends to stop them!
Help Mike and Captain Dorian Save the Galaxy Today in ZHEROS, Now Available for PC on Steam
Bumbling Braun Meets Beautiful Brain to Kick Some Intergalactic Ass Today
Catania, Italy — February 15, 2016 — Save the galaxy and kick some ass today from the comfort of your PC as Rimlight Studios’ quirky 3D beat ‘em up title, ZHEROS, is now available on Steam. Already available on Xbox One, ZHEROS features high-energy sci-fi action, a quirky sense of humor and a hell of a lot of ass kicking as players fight against Dr. Vendetta’s robotic army as he attempts to turn every living creature into an army of bad-tempered weirdo minions. The PC version of the game features polished 3D graphics, two new soundtracks, lots of punching and, of course, hi-tech weapons for any enemies that are slightly out of arm’s reach. To commence the ass-kicking visit: http://store.steampowered.com/app/423270/ and get a 20% discount for the first week!
“We like fun and light-hearted games that will challenge you but also make you chuckle,” said Fabio Ilacqua, Art Director and Co-Founder of Rimlight Studios. “After launching the game first on Xbox One we incorporated player feedback to give the game more polish and some cool new features while still retaining that quirky sense of humor that makes ZHEROS extra special.”
Play as the members of the ZHEROS squad: strong but slightly bumbling and awkward Mike and agile, smart and ready for anything Captain Dorian, through 18 punishing levels in single player or co-op mode, relying on a rich selection of combo punches and one bad-ass upgradeable weapon. When Mike’s “wit” and Captain Dorian’s able-bodied know-how can’t get you out of tight situations, you can look for the trusty mech armor, which can be found randomly in levels, and will destroy anything standing in the way.
ZHEROS is now available on Xbox One for 19.99€, 19.99$, and 15.99£; the regular price on Steam (after the first week) is 14.99€, 14.99$, 10.99£. ZHEROS comes to Playstation 4 this Spring.
Established in 2014 by industry experts and passionate gamers, Rimlight Studios specializes in designing and developing video games with high-end visuals and entertaining gameplay. Rimlight Studios combines both the technical and creative capabilities to create engaging games that appeal to a wide range of audiences, on all platforms. Based in Catania, in hot Sicily, the team consists of a multicultural talented group of developers, joined together by their shared passion for videogames and their desire to create fun and enjoyable experiences for players and videogames enthusiast around the world.
Squadbreached Steam Early Access in December, looking to bring its balanced mix of realism and accessibility to the tactical shooter world. It is the highly anticipated spiritual successor to the wildly popular Battlefield 2 mod Project Reality. We were lucky enough to get a chance to sit down with Alastair “Chuc” Sew Hoy, the primary animator at Offworld Industries and one of the founders of Squad, to pick his brain about the game and its future.
What sort of work goes into making Squad as realistic as possible?
It’s a multi-pronged approach from all departments really, there’s the art-side where under advice from our military advisers we ensure that our weapon and player models are accurate to the real thing. Our environment artists and mappers reference and study the locations they are trying to replicate to the detail, working from first hand experiences from people living and having been to those regions. Working off professionally recorded sound packs and his own recordings, our sound designer works miracles trying to create the perfect soundscape, of which has been praised by not only critics but also former combat personnel all of who say that this is probably the closest thing combat would sound like. All in all it’s a healthy mix of the right advisers and extremely talented artists.
In the real world, the difference in equipment quality of the US Army versus the other three factions featured in Squads is pretty vast. How have you chosen to balance Squad’s game-play while still keeping the factions unique?
We tend to use reality as a starting point, as our factions tend to lend themselves to certain play-styles. Conventional factions like the US Army and Russia favouring defensive positioning and ranged combat with their standard issue optics, while unconventional factions like the Insurgents and Militia leaning towards ambush and close quarter style tactics. At this stage in the game without vehicles, we try to balance things by incorporating a role limitation system. So if we do implement a particular weapon system that can be abused, like a grenade launcher or powerful optics, we simply limit how many are available to players. And this scales depending on how many are on the team, and how many are even in the squad, so naturally the larger your squad the more options and weapon systems are open to you.
Logistics is going to play a major role in the final game, but it’s usually associated with the dreary essential tasks that keeps a work place rolling. How do you plan on incorporating it into the game in an entertaining manner?
Logistics as we have planned involves physically ferrying players and supplies up to the front and FOBs, where they’re needed. For a lot of our player base a support role like that is incredibly rewarding. Getting supplies up to the front does also make you a potential target for ambushing or certain weapon systems, so in the final implementation of the game you potentially could be running gauntlets of machine-gun or anti-aircraft fire just to deliver some ammo or construction material to squads up in the front lines. For some people that’s their jam.
You guys just released the version 4 alpha. Any hints on what the main priorities are for version 5?
Version 5 will be mainly map content focused, as we are still working to overhaul a number of our core systems relating to Animations and vehicles.
Vehicles are on the to-do list, any plans on how you’ll handle rolling out vehicles in the game? Should we expect transportation vehicles first?
Yep, that is the plan. We will be developing weapon systems along with the basic movement of vehicles as well, so expect armed transports and APCs, along side your usual 6-ton trucks when we do roll out vehicles.
The infantry-only alpha has proven to be an incredibly fun experience on its own, any plans for smaller infantry only type maps down the road?
We have the option of downsizing the playable area of any map and creating an infantry-only Skirmish layer on them. We foresee those being a big draw for smaller competitive Clan-style matches, so we will definitely still be acknowledging infantry-only as still being a valid way to experience the game.
Right now the maps are either set in the Middle East or in European forests. Any plans for other locations like the Arctic?
Our next real hurdle with the mapping and environment teams is extremely dense urban environments, very much like what you see in movies like Black Hawk Down. Creating a new environment set takes months, so we really have to control the scope at which we want to achieve over the development period we have set for ourselves. We have not planned anything outside developing our current biome sets and moving into urban, but when the time comes we will definitely make a lot of noise about it!
When Squad launches, the plan is to support mods. Any plans on how extensively we’ll be able to mod the game?
We will be creating a SDK that will allow modders to access our library of assets and visual scripting and create things like custom maps, game modes and weapons. More info on this will be available when we’re ready, as for the moment our priority is to release our version 1.0 to the public, target date end of 2017.
A majority of the developers are former Project Reality team members. How is the transition from modding to working on a full blown retail game?
Originally it was a bit of a bumpy ride trying to get our people used to the idea of this as a full/part time job. In addition there is a much greater emphasis on programming that we never experienced previously while in the modding scene, thus making everyone on the team appreciate so much more the talents and efforts of our programmers to make nearly everything you do in the game possible.
Kickstarter has definitely become a tougher place now that over 100,000 projects have been funded on the platform, including a ton of games. How was the Kickstarter experience for Offworld Industries? Anything you would or wouldn’t do the next time around?
Kickstarter was a great way for us to gauge our market and see who was interested and how much they would be willing to support us by. Definitely this time round with our Kickstarter we were very much under the gun when it came to time, if we had delayed the campaign any further it would have made the lives of a lot of our full-time staff much harder especially when a lot of our efforts up to that point were done completely out-of-pocket. Thankfully the campaign was a resounding success and if we do run another campaign for another project, we would ensure that our base product was a bit more feature rich and demonstrative of what the game is.
Squad is out now for Windows on Steam Early Access.
Streamline Studios brings integrated outsourcing development and art expertise to classic fighting game series
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – February 15, 2016 – Streamline Studios has today announced its role in Capcom’s upcoming fighting behemoth Street Fighter® V. Throughout development, Streamline Studios maintained a close relationship with Capcom’s in-house art and game directors on a large-scale collaboration on design, concept art, creation and integration of content, ranging from fighting stages and characters to fashion design and costumes. In addition to producing readily usable assets, Streamline Studios also helped establish the technical pipelines that led to better optimized lighting, material and backgrounds.
“Streamline’s dedication to technology, people and process sets a new standard for how global game development can be achieved, and the Streamframe platform made it possible for the Street Fighter V team to work from around the world as though we were in the same room,” said Bochan Kim, Sr. Producer of Street Fighter V at Capcom U.S.A., Inc. “Global IP development requires teams that push the boundaries of creative execution and Streamline did just that for us.”
“It is has been fantastic working with Capcom and an honor to work on such an iconic IP as Street Fighter. We’ve enjoyed every second of our collaboration,” said Alexander Fernandez, CEO of Streamline Studios. “A project of this scale requires innovation and seamless collaboration on all levels that doesn’t get in the way of development. Leveraging Streamframe, our technology platform designed for game development, we were able to directly integrate into
Capcom’s development process and significantly reduce turnaround times and costs.”
Streamline Studios worked on Street Fighter V with a large team of developers based out of its Malaysian offices. The studio continues to work with Capcom on Street FighterV as well as another unannounced title. Street Fighter V will be released for PC and Playstation 4 on February 16, 2016.
About Streamline Studios
Streamline Studios is a next-generation content outsourcing studio and game developer under the Streamline Media Group, Inc. umbrella, which also includes the company’s proprietary pipeline management solution software, Streamframe. Based in Malaysia and the United States, Streamline Studios is a rapidly growing team of over 100 highly talented artists, designers and programmers, led by industry veterans and experts that bring clients’ visions into reality. With more than 200 productions completed, including Bioshock Infinite, Gears of War and Avatar, Streamline Studios is the go-to studio for discerning developers that require the best in creative execution. Streamline Studios website can be found at: Streamline-studios.com. For more information about Streamframe, visit: https://www.streamframe.com/. For information about Streamline Media Group, visit: https://www.streamline-mediagroup.com/
About Capcom
Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games including ground-breaking franchises Resident Evil®, Street Fighter®, Monster Hunter™, Ace Attorney®, Mega Man® and Devil May Cry®. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Tokyo, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom and its products can be found at www.capcom.com or www.capcom-unity.com.
Capcom, the Capcom logo, Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry, Mega Man, Monster Hunter and Resident Evil are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd., in the U.S. or other countries. Street Fighter is a registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
It seems that the Lego franchise games are starting to be churned out quicker than Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty Games, and yet I find myself being excited every time. The brilliant array of properties and the stories that these games are able to tell are always enjoyable and I can never wait to jump into them. That’s why, when Lego Marvel’s Avengers was announced, the comic book geek inside me exploded with joy and couldn’t wait to relive all of my favourite moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with colourful, cute Lego pieces. However only a few minutes into the game I was struck with something; I had been here before. Lego Marvel Avengers may finally be the game that makes me step away from the Lego franchise for a little while.
Story
Unlike its predecessor, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes which tells its own unique story, LEGO Avengers instead adapts the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe . Starting with the opening battle from last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, time then jumps back to Loki attacking the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base at the beginning of 2012’s Avengers. From there you will dip into the timelines of the origin movies of our favourite caped heroes.
The jumping back and forth between movies and time periods is a little bit disorienting and I can’t help but wonder how much more cohesive the game would be if it was told in either film release order or if the events were in chronological order.
It also needs to be said that since this game adapts the film universe, there is not really anything new to see an explore. Don’t get me wrong that trademark Lego/TT Games sense of humour is here and they really go crazy with some of the classic Avengers moments, but the story, the characters even the dialogue; it has all been seen before.
Gameplay
Lego Marvel Avengers at its core is an action game that has the player (or players, because this is still one of those few titles that encourages couch co-op) taking control of a member of the Avengers team and mow your way through waves of enemies, as well as using the individual (or team) skills of the colourful heroes to solve puzzles, find hidden rewards and make your way through the stages. Combat is relatively simple, usually relying on just one or two button presses to destroy the colourful plastic enemies in your way, but this is a kid’s game and it works well for the title. There are also new finishing moves that have your Avenger destroying their opponent with a slick attack combo that area joy to watch.
There is also a surprising amount of content in a game aimed at kids. Not only are there the game’s levels, each with different requirements like Stan Lee’s to be saved, studs to collect. Minifigs to find and secret areas to uncover. You will be heading into each level at least twice to discover everything, and that isn’t even mentioning the open world Manhattan. I don’t think I’ve even found everything that Manhattan has to offer after more than 15 hours with the game.
The gameplay for Lego Avengers is actually really solid. Sure the finishing moves can get a little time consuming and repetitive, but for a game aimed at kids it is really responsive, fluid and easy to master. However for as solid as it is, there is one huge problem and it is the beginning of a trend that runs through the entire game; nothing here is new.
Since the very first Lego Star Wars game, the Lego series has utilised a very, very similar gameplay style for all of its games. Even outliers like Lego Dimensions or Lego City: Undercover play exactly the same. Now this has a benefit of anybody being able to pick up any Lego game and having a great understanding of how it works, but on the flip side it means that there is nothing aside from a few minor gimmicks the games play exactly the same. A few button mashes will take out most enemies and the way that you have to go hunting through levels to grind for unlock able characters and art has remained the same. In many instances this leaves the games feeling like pallet-swaps of the ones that have come before and Lego Avengers is probably the worst offender of this.
I think part of the issue has come from the short release schedule of these games, with one to two titles dropping each year there is no real time for the developers to step back and further improve on what they have. While the adage of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” is true, eventually the refusal to work on things leaves them worn down and broken.
Visuals & Audio
While voice acting has become a standard part of the Lego video game experience, it still falls into two separate categories; recorded dialogue, and audio that has been ripped from the films. Funnily enough, Lego Avengers has a quite nice balance between the two with the main Avengers characters retaining their audio from the films, and side-characters getting completely re-recorded dialogue. This is a bit of a double edged sword because as awesome as hearing Robert Downey Jr. And Chris Evans in a video game is, there is a real disconnect in audio quality between the recorded and the ripped. The audio from movies sounds a little more echoed and a little quieter, not to mention the fact that each character only really has a handful of lines that are sprouted on repeat in every enemy encounter.
Visually, this is a Lego game. Like the gameplay before it, the look and style of Lego Avengers is remarkably similar to games like Lego the Hobbit or Even Lego Dimensions. As always, I cannot fault how much the features of the world really do look like they have been built out of the world’s most popular toy bricks. Not only that but the characters all retain their signature looks from the films, including the slight variations in costumes that happened as the franchise progressed.
While everything looks great, it is still very same-y. The same pre rendered maps with interactive set pieces being made of Lego is a longtime feature of the series and at this point is just not as exciting or engaging as it once was.
Overall
I am not going to lie, there is nothing offensively wrong with Lego Marvel Avengers and it in fact is a fine game. The issues that plague it however come from the fact that Warner Bros. and TT Games have created this homogeneity to the Lego franchise that just makes you feel like you are playing the same game over and over again. Same simplistic combat, same map design, same visual look and same collectible grind to unlock all of the content just had me feeling like I had seen all of this before.
Honestly the way that the game adapts the film universe creates a fun and bite-sized way to enjoy the Avengers universe, but the way that it so religiously adapts the films does not help with the feeling of repetition, homogeneity and sameness that I felt while playing.
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