Madman Entertainment has released several anime titles in Australia today. All of the following releases are now available in stores and from online retailers.
Bleach Collection 27 on DVD (Episodes 355-366)
Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ on DVD and Blu-ray
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions ~ Heart Throb (Season 2) Collection on DVD
Today sees the release of the final collection of Bleach episodes. Madman stated that there are no plans for a box set of the anime adaptation, but it is something that may happen in the future. The Naruto Shippuden box set contains the first four Naruto Shippuden films. The limited edition Sword Art Online II Part 2 releases will come with an art book and will feature different cover art.
An official promotional image and English-dubbed trailer for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III: “Dawn of Rebellion” is now available on the official online Gundam news and video portal Gundam.info. This episode will premiere in Japanese cinemas in spring 2016. It will take place in the year U.C. 0077 and depict Char Aznable’s and Garma Zabi’s time as cadets. The second OVA, “Artesia’s Sorrow“, premiered in Japan less than a month ago.
Both the teaser image and original Japanese video were originally posted on the Japanese version of the official Gundam news site a few days ago. The teaser poster and the English-dubbed trailer are featured below.
Anno 2205 is taking the economic simulator series to space. The latest iteration of the Anno series will have players building cities in three distinct regions, all while fending off the threat of the Moon-based terrorist organization the Orbital Watch. Anno 2205 supports city sizes five times larger than its predecessor and introduces a session mode that lets player manage multiple maps at the same time.
Story
After the invention of nuclear fusion reactors, a new space race is kicking off. The Helium-3 isotope needed to fuel the reactors is found in great concentrations on the Moon, and now multiple corporations are now in a race to build cities Moon and harvest this new energy source. At the same time, the Orbital Watch threatens the plan. The surprisingly well armed terrorist organization composed of Moon colonists are hell bent on preventing a new wave of development on the Moon.
Anno 2205 doesn’t really provide a gripping narrative. To be fair, I don’t think most people expect an economic simulator to have much of a story in the first place. The game’s plot is really just a vague window dressing that explains the setting. The writing is average at best, for the exception Orbital Watch. The plotline with the terrorist organization is really lousy, and the lines written for Orbital Watch characters are somewhere between laughably bad and absolutely cringe worthy. The low quality makes it feel like the Orbital Watch was shoved into the story at the very last minute.
Gameplay
Anno 2205 is an economics-based city building sim with some light RTS combat. In the city-building portion of the game, players will need to build their city to drive income for corporation. The main source of income will be the citizens of each city. Happy citizens who have access to higher quality goods and services can be upgraded, unlocking access to better technologies. To support the factories, farms, and research centres, cities will need enough power and logistics to keep the economy moving. Success in the game hinges on efficient use of available land and maintaining the economy’s balance. Keeping citizens happy becomes more challenging as the quality of workers goes up and their needs increases. Eventually their needs can no longer be satisfied with products made in the zone, requiring trade routes to be be set up between settlements and further complicating the economy’s balance.
The game ships with three regions with three maps each. Upon gaining access to a new region, players will choose one of the three pre-made maps, each with its own bonuses. The other two maps will be owned by competing corporations and can be unlocked with a hostile take over with enough credits. Players start off in the temperate region, which lets players build without any restrictions. Once the Space Port is upgraded, players gain access to the next zone. The arctic and lunar zones have some building considerations. Residential buildings in the arctic must be built near industrial buildings to provide enough heat for their occupants. The lunar zone takes this one step further by requiring all buildings to be built near a shield generator to protect it from falling debris. The restrictions on constructions make efficient map set ups a little more challenging. The session system allows for all of the maps to have an effect on the company’s economic situation at all times, meaning players will need to hop back and forth between maps to adjust the economy in response to some growth in another zone.
I had a blast with the economic balancing act in Anno 2205. It is complex enough to be challenging without becoming too frustrating or bogged down in the details. The controls are excellent, especially the move function that lets gamers reorganize their cities as needed. I felt the trading system with the AI to be a little underwhelming. Each map has a trader who is willing to do some small trades, with offers cycling every 15 minutes. I found the trader was rarely willing to do any actual trades. Players can also trade with an AI controller lunar station, with prices being set by supply and demand of all Anno 2205 players worldwide.
The other half of the game are simple RTS combat missions against the Orbital Watch. Players are given a small fleet of ships to fight off Orbital Watch attacks and are rewarded with rare materials needed for upgrading factories in the city-building portion of the game. Helpful weapons and fuel for defensive abilities are littered across the map, encouraging players to explore the map in its entirety. Each combat map has three difficulty levels, with increasing rewards. The combat isn’t challenging and is rather repetitive. There are only a small handful of maps that are repeated often. The combat portion of the game feels half-baked, as if the developers were simply trying to add something to a feature box than creating something fulfilling.
Anno 2205 is littered with optional side missions in both combat and city-building modes. These missions are very simple, often asking for players to search out objects littered in the environment or completing very MMO-like grind quests. These can help minimize the number of combat missions a player needs to go on, as they do have rare resources as a reward. Unfortunately, these side quests feel very cheap and make the game feel a little more like a Facebook game than an actual full priced AAA title.
Anno 2205 has some minor bugs that still need to be stomped out. The controls seem to stick once in a while, needing a left click or two to fix things. Opening up a claim area box with a command ship then leaving the map will also cause the claim box to stay on screen, even when the map is changed.
Visuals
Anno 2205 is gorgeous. The landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. The cities themselves are a little on the quiet side, as traffic seems pretty sparse. The art direction is excellent. The temperate region buildings have a great futuristic style with lots of glass, while the arctic and lunar buildings are designed appropriately for their difficult environments. Everything isn’t perfect though, there are some sloppy graphics. The combat missions suffer from a lot of clipping, causing units to stack on top of each other. The voice acting and the model animations are not synced, leaving models still talking while the voices have stopped playing.
On the hardware side, Anno 2205 has an excellent set of visual options that can tame the graphics down to more manageable levels for older hardware. The FPS is pretty stable for the most part, but large amounts moving water absolutely crushes the FPS. In my testing, moving the camera to high motion areas like waterfalls easily result in a 20 FPS hit.
Audio
The music and sound effects in Anno 2205 are solid, though nothing really stands out. The voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Most of it is average at best, with a few standout lines. The weird thing is how bad all of the Orbital Watch lines are. Virgil Drake’s lines are passable, although weaker than the other main characters’ voice acting. The Orbital Watch unit lines are just downright awful and do not sound like they were performed by a professional voice actor. Anno 2205’s lack of proper closed captioning is a bit frustrating. The only closed captioning that is available is a very poor summary of what is being said by the voice actor.
Overall
Anno 2205 is an entertaining economic simulator with some half baked ideas. While the economic-based city building is great, the combat missions and the side quests feel like they were tacked on last minute. The game could have easily done without either of the two features and would feel like a more polished release. The audio/visuals are decent for the most part, though there are some very poor voice acting scattered throughout the game. If you are a fan of Anno 2070, city building sims, or economic based games, Anno 2205 will scratch your itch, but don’t keep your hopes high for the combat.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
A new visual novel is on the way to both MangaGamer on Steam and it just so happens to be called Highschool Romance. Though the title features no adult content, it does offer a bit of a twist since the story of the visual novel follows a young man named Shoji who must now cross dress as a girl after he is accidentally enrolled in an all girls high school.
Developed by AJTilley, Highschool Romance will offer multiple endings and when it is released for PC, Mac, and Linux on November 18th it will be priced at $9.95, though those who want to pre-order the visual novel can do so through MangaGamer (where a free Steam code will also be provided) for $7.96.
Overview There are a number of series that fans of certain genre know will generally deliver a satisfying experience every time and for JRPG fans the Tales series is a near annual reminder of what the genre they have fallen in love with. With many prominent series making the jump to the latest console generation it is now time for the Tales series to do so as well, and with Tales of Zestiria Rnow available in the West, both for the PlayStation 4 as well as those lingering on the PlayStation 3, how does the fifteenth entry in the series make its mark?
Story Tales of Zestiria takes place in a world where two kingdoms are constantly at war between one another, with the Hyland Kingdom battling the Rolance Empire while various guilds profit on the side due to the struggles of the world. Living in such turbulent times has caused a strange force to be generated in the world and this force has the power to transform everything, including the living and the dead, into monsters called Hellion.
In this world however there are also two types of beings, humanity as well as the Seraphim, magical beings that can only be seen by humans that have a strong level of resonance. One such human happens to be named Sorey who has lived with the seraphim all his life, even being childhood friends with a water seraphim named Mikleo. Despite living in isolation, Sorey and his friend manage to stumble upon a woman in trouble only for this woman to lead them down a path that will place Sorey in the shoes of a Shepherd, a man capable of fighting alongside the Seraphim and using their abilities to prevent the end of the world by cleansing it of the malevolent force bringing ruin to the land.
This is a return to form for the Tales series as it ventures back to its roots of being a strictly fantasy title in Tales of Zestiria as it moves away from certain elements previously found in Xillia. Players will find that Sorey’s journey has another staple from the series intact, and that is the incredibly slow beginning period. While necessary, the first six hours of the title feel like a chore but once you manage to get past that point things open up nicely with a number of reveals that give the simple seeming story more depth than it initially lets on.
As for the characters, most of the cast is quite enjoyable and their interactions in the field, during battle victory scenes, and of course during the Skits help create a colorful cast with plenty of humor and personality. It is worth noting however that due to relatively sketchy storyline reasons, players shouldn’t grow too close to one of the first few characters in the game as she is given the boot and replaced by a separate character.
While I found her replacement to have an interesting personality, though she does seem to contradict herself at various times, that manages to mesh well with the rest of the group after a short time, it is easy to understand that few may take issue with the replacement of a character that we’ve grown to enjoy with a sudden newcomer.
Gameplay
The release of Tales of Zestiria is the first one in quite some time that gives the player such an immersive feeling of having an open environment to explore. Almost every environment that players can venture through is given a massive field with plenty of unique objects to examine and items to collect and of course plenty of enemies to fight. Even little side-quests can be hidden in these environments that, when completed, provide players special skills that can be equipped onto their characters.
By providing so much to do in the field players will find themselves really wondering why the series hasn’t managed to try this before as it is hard to imagine going back to the old style, especially since the dungeons make use of this same style. I say this because the dungeons in the game still feature very formulaic mechanics that are the exact opposite of open feeling, by forcing players onto strict bland corridors and implementing various simplistic puzzles in an effort to pad things out.
Of course while exploring players will find numerous enemies to fight and while Tales of Zestiria still makes use of the LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System) that the series is known for, it has been changed up a bit. Rather than being transported onto a separate field, enemies encountered, with advantages being given to the player if they strike first, in the field are sealed into that environment with the player’s party deploying as the enemies usually grow in number as well.
It is worth noting that thanks to the storyline’s nature of featuring Seraphim and Shepherds, two humans and two Seraphim are allowed in battle at one time with each Seraphim being paired with a human. This does make party creation more restrictive than some fans of the series would like but it is also entirely possible to switch between Seraphim on the fly. To top that off, players can also make use of special transformations with their currently assigned Seraphim by triggering Armitization.
Armitization allows a human to temporarily fuse with their Seraphim and gain a massive boost to their stats, a changed appearance, and unlock some new skills. This type of action can really turn a battle in the player’s favor but the developers did make it a bit more balance since it reduces the number of fighters on the field down a bit which can be a big negative at times, especially if the Armitized character is defeated.
Other than that though players will find plenty of Artes at their disposal as well as numerous elements to customize their characters to prepare them for battle, in fact the customization may be a bit daunting at first but everything is introduced in a way that is easy enough to learn as players grow accustomed to fusing equipment together to create powerful armor and of course taking advantage of various passive skills and cooking in-between battles to provide special boosts. This creates plenty of ways to customize and deck out your party and possibly change up your strategy on the fly in a manner that will please many fans of the series.
Visuals & Audio Now although Tales of Zestiria has been released on the PlayStation 4, it is readily apparent that this was not what Bandai Namco had been intending on. I say this because despite its transition onto the latest console generation Tales of Zestiria suffers heavily from both terrible pop-in rates when it comes to objects in the environment, but also some rather noticeable drops in frame rate come into play far too often to be ignored.
Thankfully the character designs are still as lovingly detailed as fans will remember as each of the characters are excellently handled here. The same can be said about the environments players will be exploring as there is quite a bit of detail put into most of these landscapes, though some repetition does factor in here.
The music for the series remains as impressive as ever with a number of outstanding orchestral tracks that appear from time to time as well as plenty of enjoyable common themes that are used throughout the game. As for the voice acting, the actors handle their character’s personalities well enough with the title supporting a fully voiced dub.
Overall Tales of Zestiria returns the series back to its somewhat simpler roots by basing its story around a boy from the forest who is tasked with saving the world but throws in plenty of details and enjoyable characters to keep things fresh after the initial slog through the beginning. Sure the title may not have seen a proper transition onto the PlayStation 4 here, but the revamped combat system and the new way that world exploration is handled breathe some fresh air into a series that continues to remain dependable. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Did you know #86 is Maxwell Smart’s agent number from the old Get Smart TV show? This week’s Indie GalaEvery Monday Bundle won’t teach you how to be a super agent, but there are two brawlers that will make you feel utterly badass. This week bundle packs six indie games for $1.99.
One Finger Death Punch – A fighting game that uses a 1:1 response system that rewards skilled players for not button mashing.
Double Dragon: Neon – The classic beat ’em up has been rebooted for a whole new generation of gamers.
Hatred – A violent twin stick shooter starring an angry antagonist on a shooting spree.
Loot Hunter – A RPG on the high seas full of pirates.
Pizza Express – A fast paced restaurant sim that will have players attempting to survive against the withering competition against the local bistro.
Discotek Media has just revealed the final cover and disc art for their DVD release of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. The full image detailing the artwork for the release is featured below. They are still working on the artwork for their Blu-ray release of the film. Discotek announced that they licensed the film in February. They have not yet set a date for either of the releases.
It has been confirmed that the DVD will feature the film uncut and uncensored with the UK and US English dubs. The remastered dubs have been synced with the uncut anamorphic widescreen transfer. The subtitles to accompany the Japanese audio have been reworked and include options to view them with either the U.S. or the original Japanese character names. The opening and ending credits of the English version will be included.
Toonami Asia announced last week that they have acquired the television broadcast rights to the 52 episode anime series Dragon Ball Super. They will be airing an English -dubbed version of it in the middle of next year in Southeast Asia and in India. This will be the English-language world premiere of the series.
The announcement does not make it clear exactly which company is producing this English dub. The ambiguity of this led some people to believe that FUNimation Entertainment, the North American company that holds the home video rights to distribute the Dragon Ball series, will be producing this dub. However, a representative of FUNimation confirmed that the company has nothing to do with this dub. The representative did not say whether or not FUNimation currently has any plans to dub the series itself.
At an event at Kinokuniya in New York City on Sunday, Kodansha Comics announced that they have licensed Hiro Mashima’s mangaFairy Tail Zero. This single-volume story is a prequel to Mashima’s long-running Fairy Tail series. This manga depicts the origins of the Fairy Tail guild. Kodansha describes the story as follows:
Many years ago, Mavis Vermilion was a servant on Sirius Island, mistreated by a guild master and his daughter, Zera. But Mavis stayed positive, because her mother once told her that fairies never visit people who cry about their problems. When the guild came under attack, Mavis pulled Zera from the wreckage into the forest. Seven years went by, and the powerful wizards Warrod Sequen, Precht, and Yuri Dreyer arrived on the island, seeking a powerful jade gemstone. This journey would change the course of magical history…
Mashima began the prequel in July 2014 in the first issue of the Monthly Fairy Tail magazine and finished it just four months ago. A precise release date has not yet been decided upon, but it has been given a release window of summer 2016. Kodansha Comics is also publishing the main Fairy Tail manga series in North America.
Sledgehammer Games. Infinity Ward. Treyarch. Each of these three publishers have a now three year development cycle to work with on the yearly Call of Duty franchise, with each also having their own base of fans. While Infinity Ward dropped the ball a bit with Ghosts, Sledgehammer introduced a lot of new mechanics along with a gripping narrative full of celeb fanfare to re-capture the imaginations of many longtime fans. Treyarch is the cool guy of the bunch though, and is ready to bring their own slice of the pie to consoles with Call of Duty: Black Ops III. How does this entry fare with its longer development cycle? Let’s find out.
Story
Well, I wanted to come in here and say that if you liked the first two Black Ops title’s story, you would be pleased with the telling presented here – but I’m still unsure after going through the campaign what to think. I still have memories going through the story modes for the original Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and even Ghosts – and coming out with a decent one way or the other type opinion. I hated Ghosts, but loved the audacity Modern Warefare 2 had to challenge the consumer’s perception of actual war. This title doesn’t try to prove anything, and instead delivers one of the most sub-par stories in the franchise’s history.
I will sum it up for you. You start out as a character who is 100% human in a world that is inhabited by other humans and beings who have had modifications to grant them special abilities in combat. You then see a grizzly scene and well – your character becomes one of them to stay alive. It is the future, and I am down for some cybernetics, but I almost want to say that this plot got its wires crossed a bit too much and came off as a game in a complete identity crisis, trying to decide if it wanted to be edgy, boring, or a rip-off of where Hollywood was 20 years ago when we went through the whole robot phase in cinema. I felt as if this campaign was a remake of a movie that Will Smith directed – as its so forced. Sure, there are some likable characters. That said, how can I connect with these faces if all the campaign boils down to is a way to set up the theme for multiplayer and the abilities within. Its a paper thin tale that has no merit. Yeah, it will fit in nicely with your powers, but don’t expect to be gripped by this blockbuster that could have been of a mode here.
What is weird is that there are other narratives in the game that actually do come off as highly interesting, found in the game’s Zombies mode – Shadows of Evil. This story features four characters who are a mix of murderers, liars, and other lovely folk who must come together in a 1940’s noir styled environment to survive hordes of zombies. There is also talk from a guide of a curse, which blends into gameplay and assists the players as they shoot their way through wave after wave of undead foes. The story isn’t deep by any means, but its fun and has a few random twists that make it feel like a gritty B movie from start to finish.
Gameplay
At the core, Call of Duty fans know what they’re getting. Black Ops III performs very well as a first-person shooter and when it comes to the gameplay that fans expect, you will not be let down by the performance whatsoever. To go to the goods however, you would do best to go straight to the online multiplayer, where players go head to head in the new maps. I know speaking of Halo Reach here is kind of inappropriate as these two titles are vastly different from each other, but the new specialist system within multiplayer kind of feels like it is trying to do what Bungie did for Halo with this title. Starting out, each player has the choice of a power weapon or a special ability to which they can use to get an advantage against the opposing team. Battery is a great example of this as this character has the ability to fight off gunfire with Kinetic Armor and still manages to destory foes quickly with a large grenade launcher. You still have to charge up an ability to use it, but that short wait time is worth it for the awesome results.
The other specialists on the list bring balance, featuring an engineer that can teleport across time, a nice bow for the Outrider, and so on. These abilities blend so well with the new mechanics and maps – making everything fit like a well designed puzzle. I had a blast with multiplayer as more specialist abilities continue to unlock as you play, and while those wanting a pure COD game may object to these additions, I am on the other side that says this franchise needs this breath of fresh air. The only reason I disliked the campaign was because it felt like a tutorial for multiplayer. That alone robs the single player from that irreplaceable narrative that drops their jaw and makes them respect the team so much who crafted this game – so they then have to play more – and then turn to multiplayer. While Black Ops III totally abandoned that draw, it makes up for it with a multiplayer that is an absolute joy to play. It is also needed to speak about what that loyalist will get as this still very much feels like the Call of Duty you know and love despite the icing – as powers only last so long and the deep customization with ten slots is sure to keep you busy with your unlocks and perks. Same COD, different flavor – so to speak.
Zombies mode features multiplayer as well, but you can play alone. Now I love the setting, the whole mysterious aura of the cast and story, and so on, but playing this solo is extremely difficult. This is pretty much a wave by wave fare as it stands with a ton of opposition and a goofy yet fun story and the ability to morph into a…thing (you kind of have to play it to understand just what this beast is), but it still is a good time – just with a steep learning curve for those going in alone. What makes the mode is how addictive it ends up being. There is always another path to take, another weapon to use so you might survive for just a little longer. Its rare when a first person shooter can create an experience that keeps you going on the same little path for hours at a time, but the Zombies mode here is a slam dunk.
The maps in Black Ops III are fantastic with a great mix of platforms and structures that can be played from several different perspectives. This means that while some could wall run and tag another with a blade, others could use that same spot for a different use based on their equipment or ability. This allows for limitless variation on the battlefield and also means that no match ever has the same result of the one prior. Campaign has some nice little locales as well that are linear yet easy enough to get used to, and those who enjoy their time in the mode will be happy to know that they can go back as a prize for beating the game in “Nightmares”, which remixes the entire plot with zombies and somehow is more enjoyable overall. I hate most zombie anything as the subject gets boring after so long, but considering the pacing and fresh take on a rough story – well, lets just say its worth it to finish the campaign – no matter how slow it may seem.
Visuals
This is gaming’s equivalent to a summer blockbuster. Do we really expect Call of Duty to look bad? Not one bit. Black Ops III looks phenomenal and may be one of the best looking entries in the entire franchise as it runs at 60 frames per second and has some of the most detailed maps we have seen to date, capturing that shiny-steel perception of the future, with soldiers that look equally as impressive running about through the landscape. Sure, we have seen female models used in big budget games before, but for the designs to look as lifelike as they do – I must give it to Treyarch for finally offering up a well made version of the other side of the coin. That being said, when you design your character in the start of the campaign, that is the same face with a different hairstyle for each model. I guess this is just a nitpick compared to the rest of the quality that went into the main product, but it is something I made special note of while going through campaign as it did seem a bit rushed.
Audio
The voice acting is wonderful within Call of Duty: Black Ops III as of course Activision and Treyarch ensured they hired fine talent who all sound very believable in their roles. We have Jeff Goldblum, Heather Graham, Katie Sackhoff, and many more other talents lending their cords to the game, and most – if not all of the celebs taking part do a great job of bringing the characters to life. Black Ops III also features the usual sound effects from the weaponry and other bits that do a lot to make the battles come alive – bringing a heavy dose of atmosphere to an already stellar presentation.
PC Report By Jamie Laike Tsui
Call of Duty’s PC version has been a bit of an afterthought for the last several years. Many veteran PC gamers still reminisce about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare PC release, and it has been seven long years since any of us has seen “dedicated servers” and “Call of Duty” uttered in the same breath. Treyarch seems committed to turning the ship around and improving the quality of Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s PC release. The early announcement that the PC version would support split screen multiplayer was a good start. The announcement that mod tools and dedicated server support for unranked and modded games launch for Black Ops III in 2016 quickly propelled the game onto the top of Steam’s sales charts in the matter of days. So is Black Ops III’s PC release really the Call of Duty game PC gamers have been waiting for all these years?
The minimum requirement hasn’t changed since last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare release and neither has the engine’s preference for lots of RAM and VRAM. The game more than happily gobbles down available RAM, especially during loading. It is rare for me to see a game that so happily takes up almost 13 GB out of my 20 GB of RAM like Black Ops III does while loading levels. Those with video cards armed with more VRAM than me have been reporting that the game is just as greedy for available VRAM at higher graphic and resolution settings. 2GB of VRAM from older generation video cards, like the Nvidia GTX 670 in my rig, are definitely starting to show their age. Call of Duty: Black Ops III didn’t look the prettiest, but my GTX 670 paired with a i7-4790k could at least push out 60 FPS for the most part on low to medium settings at 1920×1080.
Treyarch has done a great job with Black Ops III’s graphic options. The settings screen is torn out of the wish list of every PC gamer out there. It is easy to navigate and plenty of PC specific options are available. A generous field of view slider goes up to 120. The game’s render resolution can be set independently of the game’s actual resolution, which will let lower end systems at least run the game at an acceptable frame rate average frame rate of 60 FPS. The often ignored split screen mode is available in Black Ops III. Even better is the option for vertical or horizontal split screen that allows for multi-monitor co-op with each player utilizing one screen each when combined with Nvidia Surround or AMD Eyefinity set ups. The only downside is the fact menus on these mutli-monitor set ups are stretched across all monitors.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s PC release needs some patching and optimization. The frame rate isn’t consistent, tanking horribly at times. The game seems to be struggling with input lag, especially when the frame rate drops below 60 FPS. Stability is still a work in progress, with several crashes throughout. There are also some bugs that need stomping. Black Ops III is not playing well with Windows’ audio settings. On one of our test rigs, the game would forcibly set the microphone volume to 100% and refuse to return the volume to a normal level until the game alt-tabbed out. On another rig, Black Ops III’s audio was barely audible because the game would play all sounds at the voice chat’s default 50% volume, even though the game’s volume was set to 100%. The game has Steam Family Sharing enabled which is a great feature for PC gamers, but right now there is a persistent bug that leaves the game unplayable online for the family accounts.
I believe the PC version would have benefited greatly from being held back a month or two to give Treyarch the time to properly focus on it. While I understand the demand to release a PC port at the same time as its console brethren, no one benefits from a poorly optimized and buggy PC release. To be fair, Black Ops III isn’t the worst example of a mutli-platform PC release, but it isn’t exactly the shining example of a PC version done right either. Treyarch has shown they are serious about making a proper version of Call of Duty for the PC, but they still have some ways to go before they reach that goal. If Treyarch can properly patch and optimize Black Ops III in the coming weeks and months, they may well be on their way to returning the series back to its former PC glory. But that is a future filled with possibility, what is important is right now. If you are willing to roll your sleeves up and do some leg work, Black Ops III can be very playable. However, most PC gamers will probably want to give Black Ops III at least a few more weeks of patching before deciding if they should buy the game.
Overall
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a great entry in a franchise that gets a lot of flak for being the same thing every year despite its changes. It is obvious that the franchise wants to change as even with the high quality of the gameplay, you can still see a game battling itself for a new identity as it tries to put on every mask to make the player happy. This wouldn’t work for most titles, but oddly – I found as an overall product (not speaking about the campaign), there is some sort of bizarre, second rate charm with Treyarch’s latest, as it still is very Call of Duty, but a Call of Duty that has covered itself in glue and is just rolling around in everything it can find that is relevant in 2015, hoping the good parts stick. It is a more honest experience, and one I had a blast playing as even though there are a lot of crazy risks taken – the payoff is definitely that much greater as a result. Good show, Mr. Duty. Good Show. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
