Yesterday Square Enix released the first actual gameplay footage for the Final Fantasy VII Remake which is set to be released on the PlayStation 4 and while there was plenty of people discussing the apparent changes to the combat system at the time, there comes some more news now that Square Enix has released an official press release to go alongside that trailer.
In the press release the company states that Final Fantasy VII Remake will be “told across a multi-part series” and will feature “each entry providing its own unique experience.” Square Enix did not go into too much detail as to how they will be handling this though it is worth noting that the original game did split the story into three separate discs, meaning it may be given the same treatment here.
It appears that Seven Seas Entertainment is taking very kindly to the rising popularity of monster girls and unique manga series coming out of Japan as they have announced, as part of their recent licensing spree, that they have acquired the license to release the manga series My Girlfriend is a T-Rex in North America.
Created by Sanzo a little over a year ago, My Girlfriend is a T-Rex so far has been given one total volume but is still being produced in Japan. The first volume of My Girlfriend is a T-Rex will be released in North America on November 1, 2016 where it will be priced at $12.99.
While the story may be explained by the title alone, the My Girlfriend is a T-Rex manga takes place in a world where dinosaurs evolved to have more human-like features allowing them to live side-by-side with humans. While many of them have blended in well, there are still a few that are rather “cretaceous.”
The story follows Yuuma Asahikawa who encounters a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Churio and begins to date her. However with her ferocious appetite, vicious claws, and razor sharp teeth it will be quite a challenge for Yuuma to survive this relationship.
With so many different VR headsets launching in the coming months, developers big and small are racing to prepare content for the new platforms. Ubisoft is throwing their heft into the field with Eagle Flight. The game is being developed by FunHouse, a division of Ubisoft Montreal (Far Cry 4). Eagle Flight will launch in 2016 for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.
Eagle Flight is set 50 years after Paris is abandoned. Nature has begun to reclaim the once vibrant city. Players will be able to fly around in the city in single player or with up to five friends. The game will feature both free flight and adventure modes. Ubisoft has developed a new techhnology to help reduce the dreaded “VR sickness” through a new control scheme that is described as both “intuitive and precise.”
“We’re excited to make the dream of flying come true with Eagle Flight,” said Olivier Palmieri, Game Director, Ubisoft Montreal. “Virtual reality has created new and amazing opportunities for game developers and we wanted to offer a full VR game that took full advantage of the technological advances. With the breakthrough we’ve been working on, we’re confident Ubisoft’s first game developed solely for VR will be a truly enjoyable experience for everyone who plays it.”
Fans of the Ace Combat series will be happy to hear that Bandai Namco is indeed working on a new game and it seems like it will be quite an improvement. Ace Combat 7 as it is simply being called for now will be released for the PlayStation 4 and will support PlayStation VR.
The title is being developed using Unreal Engine 4 and will leverage “trueSKY” technology to create “beautifully rendered skies and highly detailed cityscapes” to provide “the most engaging aerial battles in the franchise’s storied 20 year history.” To go along with the announcement of Ace Combat 7 the company also released a debut trailer that you can check out below.
IO Interactive is trying something new with Hitmanthis time around. The game will start out with a beta that will feature missions focused on Agent 47’s recruitment to the ICA, his training, and the early days of his relationship with his handler Diana Burnwood. As development continues, more levels will be released for free.
A new teaser trailer for the Hitmanbeta has been released along side the announcement of the beta release dates. PlayStation 4 users will get access on February 12th, while PC gamers will get access a week later on the 19th. Strangely enough, Xbox One has been mysteriously left out of the beta announcement, even though the game is set to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
As many know, Dying Light has had an expansion in the works for quite some time. Well now Techland has decided to give fans of the game a release date for the DLC as well as a new way to pick it up. The Following DLC will be released on February 9th but perhaps the most interesting piece of news happens to be the announcement of Dying Light: Enhanced Edition that will also be released on that date. This version of the game will feature all of the various improvements made to the game as well as The Following DLC packed into the release.
To go along with this announcement Techland and Warner Bros. have released a pair of new videos, found below, for Dying Light, one of which gives us eleven minutes of gameplay from The Following while the second simply focuses on introducing the Enhanced Edition.
A new trailer for The King of Fighters XIV debuted during PlayStation Experience 2015 and with it SNK Playmore confirmed a number of new characters for the title, including Angel, King, Ralf, Kula, Billy Kane, and more.
The company later went a bit more in-depth saying that the roster will consist of fifty total fighters, many being returning characters as well as a number of new characters that will be involved int he story for the first time. You can check out the trailer below and as for The King of Fighters XIV, it is currently set for release on the PlayStation 4 sometime in 2016.
REACH NEW HEIGHTS AND DOMINATE THE SKIES IN ACE COMBATTM7!
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary; the acclaimed Ace Combat Franchise Arrives on PlayStation®4
Sydney, Australia – December 7th, 2015 – BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe is pleased to announce that ACE COMBAT 7 is in development at BANDAI NAMCO Studios’ internal teams in Tokyo, Japan. This will mark the franchise’s first outing on PlayStation®4 as ACE COMBAT 7 will deliver the most beautiful air combat experience ever through photorealistic visuals, intense dog-fighting action, and an immersive storyline.
Leveraging the trueSKYTM technology and developed utilizing Unreal Engine 4, ACE COMBAT 7 will astound players with beautifully rendered skies and highly detailed cityscapes but also set the stage for the most engaging aerial battles in the franchise’s storied 20 year history accompanied with an immersive soundtrack. ACE COMBAT 7 will take the elements that the series is known for to a whole new level! Aces who have proven their combat prowess in ACE COMBAT 7’s campaign mode can take their dogfighting skills further with furious online multiplayer battles.
PlayStation®4 players will also be able to get immersed in ACE COMBAT 7’s realism through exclusive features developed specifically for PlayStation®VR.
“It’s no small feat for any video game franchise to thrive over two decades; ACE COMBAT’s legacy lies in its tremendous quality and deep storytelling. With ACE COMBAT 7, we are planning on dominating the skies once again and delivering an unparalleled experience thanks to the PlayStation®4 technologies and to our team experience with their know-how!” Hervé Hoerdt, VP of Marketing and Digital at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe S.A.S., part of BANDAI NAMCO Holdings Inc., is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive content for platforms including all major video game consoles and PC, with marketing and sales operations in 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. The company is known for creating and publishing many of the industry’s top video game franchises, including PAC-MAN™, Tekken™, SOULCALIBUR™, NARUTO™, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN™, Dragon Ball®, GALAGA™, RIDGE RACER™ and ACE COMBAT™.
We are less than two weeks away from the highly anticipated (to say the least) release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Well in the lead up to the huge cinematic event, Disney have rolled out a new content update for their popular Star Wars: Commander mobile game. In the first big content update since July, the game now features new planets, new missions and new characters all related to The Force Awakens. Here is a brief rundown on what you can expect from the update:
Luggabeast Munitioneer – Players can hire the armored Luggabeast Munitioneer, based on the cybernetic-enhanced beast of burden in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to support their massive armies as they apply a damage buff to nearby friendly units.
Dowutin Hunter – Inspired by a new species unveiled in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dowutin Hunters are lumbering infantry hired to dispatch enemy defending units with shock and awe, troops and vehicles alike. They carry a grip of thermal detonators and a modified starfighter blaster to ensure that the job gets done.
Planet Takodana – Featuring Maz’s Castle, the planet Takodana is the home to many unaligned scoundrels and provides the perfect setting for new Conflicts in Star Wars: Commander.
The new Force Awakens update for Star Wars: Commander is available as a free download through theApple App Store or Google Play. In addition, the base game is also free to download so be sure to check it out today and get yourself even more hyped for The Force Awakens next week!
So after months in Early Access, Mordheim: City of the Damned has finally gotten its full release with its full starting complement of warbands. The title is a video game adaption of the Mordheim tabletop game by Games Workshop. As a fan of the original game, I was excited to see that a video game adaption was in the works (and I even did a preview earlier this year). A lot of new content has been added since last I played and with it, a lot of ground to cover in this review so let us make haste through these ruins to seize our prize…
Story
The basic premise of Mordheim: City of the Damned is that the eponymous city, in the lead up to a cataclysmic meteor strike, became utterly depraved due to its wealth and affluence. This drew all manner of evil beings to the city as well as corrupting its inhabitants. A twin-tailed comet then struck the city and largely obliterated it in a terrible conflagration. The meteor contained a significant volume of (what is basically) magical uranium called wyrdstone which was thrown across the city due to the impact. The city’s remains are now picked by scavenger warbands of various races for anything of value, including the rare wyrdstone.
As part of the campaign mode, players do have the option to go through a single-player storyline with their warband. This largely entails going through multi-stage scenarios with objectives that are thematically different (i.e. place bombs around bridge, collect holy water, desecrate temple, etc) but largely play out the same in terms of gameplay (i.e. get to point A with a unit that holds item B). Each of these missions begins and ends with a bit of voice over by a famous NPC (recognisable from the Mordheim tabletop) giving you the gist of what the mission will entail and how it will affect things for your warband’s faction. You also get to play with the NPC in the story mission as part of your warband and it’s a nice touch to use them and see their unique character models.
Outside of this limited narrative, the stories you’ll get from Mordheim are largely the ones which emerge just out of play. You might have the fun (or frustrating) experience of having a low level goon take down another team’s impressive hero, wiping out an opponent’s warband due to excellent tactical positioning, or having your leader go from master assassin to a peg legged (but no less deadly!) terror after a bad roll on the injury table. These events aren’t scripted and will be the meat of your experience as you explore the ruined city. If you, like me, are the kind of person who can create your own story from the random points which a game can throw at you then you’ll be able to have your own fun here.
Gameplay
The gameplay largely holds true from the design I wrote in the preview. On a tactical map, players take turns moving units around the map and activating special abilities. Units are given a limited number of points each turn to activate these abilities and higher level units generally receive more of these points a turn. Turn order is assigned by their initiative score, which in turn is determined by what equipment they have and their agility stat. Attacks and abilities can do damage and when a unit loses all of its health, it ‘goes out of action’. When warriors are taken ‘out of action’, you lose morale equal to the value of warrior (as determined by their skills). You generally win regular matches by putting a significant enough portion of the enemy warband out of action to cause them to rout.
A new addition to the tactical gameplay is the ability to ‘search’ various points of interest across the map. These add new tactical objectives to the battles which you’ll need to balance with the immediate objective of survival. There are three types of search points which are wyrdstone deposits, search points, and loot points dropped from out of action warriors. These come in three variants entitled ‘crush their will’, ‘wyrdstone rush’, and ‘marked for death’. The first one entails stealing the opposing warband’s banner from their cart (which does a significant morale penalty to boot), the second involves gathering as much wyrdstone as possible from the map, and the last one revolves around putting out of action specific enemy units to steal their gear.
The big change in gameplay from the previous version I played in the preview is the addition of a new level of strategic gameplay where choices in the tactical map have a repercussion in the future of the warband. Gathering loot and wyrdstone generally gives you better options to equip your warriors with as well as a source of income to pay them with. Having a warrior put out of action can lead to them sustaining a permanent injury which decreases one of their stats or even gives them a mental disorder which prevents them from disengaging from melee combat. Collected can be sold or sent off in shipments requested by the warband’s faction. Failing to meet four shipments leads to game over for the warband as they lose the support of their patron.
Visuals
The visuals have been revamped and improved since the preview I did a while back. That being said, the graphics and models aren’t particularly cutting edge or awe-inspiring. The textures are also underwhelming for a significant portion of the game with many walls and features looking very plastic. The overall visual design maintains a very Warhammer look however, so although the models could be better in terms of small details concerning graphical features… they are at least accurate in capturing the look of the models from the tabletop game. There are also some levels, such as the demonic library, which feature some interesting visual design for the environment.
The customisation on offer here is also woefully limited. The biggest changes to a units look are when you equip it with a different level of armour, which is cool and dandy. It’s nice that units can have a number of different colour schemes for the various levels of armour they are wearing as well. But what really shows the limits of the options is that there is no variation within the levels of armour and you cannot change the physical features of each warrior. Weapons are similarly stuck to one model which was also a missed opportunity to differentiate the units from one another. Across warbands, the equipment takes on their various characteristics but, within warbands, you might need to resort to colour coding various henchmen so you can recognise who is who.
Audio
The musical score which plays throughout is suitably orchestral in matching the tone of the game. The music generally plays to reinforce the tension of exploring the unknown in the ruins of the city as well as featuring some (I believe) synthesized notes in some tracks to play off the strange nature and danger of wyrdstone. The voice over performances themselves feel a little underdone and I feel that the actors, although strong in their performances, would have done well to have been given more direction.
Overall
Overall, I very much enjoyed my time in Mordheim despite its shortcomings. The setting is suitably Warhammer and the writing for the campaign missions are fairly spot-on. The gameplay equal parts addictive and frustrating as your warriors slowly gain experience but die quickly… in a fun sort of way. The visuals capture the Warhammer look pretty well with the warriors and environment even if model customisation was limited. The sound design overall is a solid effort even if I feel it could have been better with more. For me, Mordheim: City of the Damned is a flawed gem that I’m probably going to sink a lot more hours into the game after I’ve finished with this review. This game earns a recommendation from me, alongside a number of caveats.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
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