Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has debuted the official TV Spot for Mortal Kombat X, coming to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC April 14 in the U.S., and April 15 Australia-wide. The spot features System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” and can be viewed embedded below.
Come April 6, the Launch Trailer for Mortal Kombat X will be released, also featuring System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”, but as a special cut edited by band member Shavo Odadjian. ‘Kombat Kast’ 7 was just this past Friday, with another scheduled for this Thursday. And for anyone who missed it, and haven’t pre-ordered yet, it’s worth mentioning that the PS3 fight stick/s released in conjunction with Mortal Kombat (2011) are forward compatible with the PS4 version of Mortal Kombat X.
When I first heard about ScreamRide, I thought it was a bit like Roller Coaster Tycoon but reimagined for a new generation. Armed with only that knowledge, I was less than eager for ScreamRide, having never really enjoyed the park management games. However, once I booted it up and started playing, I found an experience that not only WASN’T Roller Coaster Tycoon, but was an incredible amount of fun. No ticket booths or public utilities to worry about here, ScreamRide is a game all about roller coasters…. or should I say, roller coasters and destroying buildings with them.
Gameplay
ScreamRide isn’t just about building roller coasters. In fact, players are able to choose between three distinct jobs within the futuristic setting; Engineer, ScreamRider and Demolition Expert. These jobs are all completely different to one another and in that way it feels like ScreamRide is three different games in one.
Engineer Mode has you building tracks to meet certain requirements, often with very limited resources. Your job is to build the best coaster you can from the pieces you are given, almost like a LEGO set with only the picture on the box to guide you. The game gives you slight hints and tips as to whether or not your coaster works as planned, or sends its patrons hurtling into the side of a building. Hint systems in games can often come across as patronising or demeaning, so I was a little taken aback when one popped up on my screen, however all of the ones I saw more pointed me to which specific piece(s) of my track were giving me grief so that I could fix them specifically.
ScreamRider mode puts you in the driver’s seat… literally. You take control of the wild and insane coasters as they go around bends, up steep inclines and upside-down. The goal is to not let the passengers fall off of the track, which sounds easy right? In practice it is a lot more challenging and fun than it seems, having to reposition yourself back on the track and to ensure you aren’t using your boost at a time that will careen you off the track and into the ocean.
The last game mode, Demolition Expert has almost nothing to do with roller coasters. In this mode, you are tasked with launching spherical cabins filled with people at the roller coasters and surrounding buildings in order to wreck the absolute crap out of them. Think Angry Birds but in 3d, with awesome destruction physics and you have a bit of an idea what Demolition Expert mode is all about. The most destruction you cause, the more points you gain, and everything is connected in one way or another so a perfectly angled shot will cause a chain reaction for an insane amount of points.
ScreamRide features a campaign mode that allows you to experience all three facets of the game through a series of increasingly difficult stages. Each level is broken up into challenges to complete and points to earn. I will note however, that ScreamRide’s campaign has a tremendous difficulty spike towards the end of the game. The last few levels are exhaustingly difficult and downright tedious at moments. However the desire to achieve all of the possible
For those of you who love to build and create without limitations, ScreamRide also includes a pretty awesome sandbox mode where you can create your own coasters, attractions and destructible buildings all from the ground up. The sandbox mode can seem a bit overwhelming at first glance, but the tools are really intuitive and in no time you will be creating and sharing your awesome new creations online.
Speaking of online, ScreamRide doesn’t feature any multiplayer mode. For many of you I know this will be a huge disappointment, but on the flip side – it does contain leaderboards so you can track your skills against other players from around the globe, as well as the ability to share and download user created maps.
Visuals & Audio
ScreamRide is set is a futuristic wonderland where everything is grey or chrome and looks like it is coming at you straight out of Interstellar or Star Wars. While a futuristic setting normally leads itself to a lot of extra flash and detail, this is the type of game where super high-end graphics aren’t necessary and the developers knew this. Opting instead to scale back and make room for the physics engine, a decision that I believe has paid off nicely for the game as a whole.
The audio is very similar in this regard, most of the sounds you will hear are the riders screaming in excitement (or is it fear?) and the sounds of buildings collapsing. Well that’s not actually entirely true, when you are running through the coasters as a ScreamRider, you will hear the constant almost incessant computerised voice telling you how well you are doing. It gets downright annoying after the first few missions and by the end you’d wish you were just playing on mute.
One thing I noticed during play was that some of the bigger levels suffered from really noticeable frame rate issues. This was particularly the case when causing destruction and toppling buildings, and it really made it hard to enjoy these sections to their full extent.
Overall
I didn’t have the greatest of expectations when heading into ScreamRide, but my misconceptions were immediately vaporised and replaced with high octane fun. Building coasters, racing through them and launching yourself into giant buildings has never been so exciting, and I think I can say that ScreamRide is the most fun I have had with my Xbox One in a long time.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It is a gloomy afternoon here in Sydney, and as I sit on my computer I think to myself that it is the perfect weather for some Newsbeat! Xbox Newsbeat is your one stop shop for all of the goings on in the world of Microsoft. So sit back, relax and enjoy this week’s delicious helpings of news straight from the Microsoft HQ itself.
Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious Expansion Available for Free for a Limited Time
In preparation for the upcoming film; Furious 7, Turn 10 Studios have released a special stand-alone expansion to their hit racer; Forza Horizon 2. In Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, you’re recruited by the Fast & Furious’ Tej Parker (voiced in the game by Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges) to help him acquire ten special cars for his Fast & Furious crew.
Forza Horizon 2 Presents: Fast & Furious requires no previous Forza game, in fact you can right now jump onto the Xbox Live store and downloading it completely free (until April 10th).
The World of Minecraft Just Got Brighter with the Pattern Texture Pack for Xbox
Have you ever sat there and thought that Minecraft needed more colour? You have? Well guess what, now you can have just that with the newly released “Pattern” Texture Pack for Xbox One and Xbox 360. You can get the new texture pack for $1.35 and fill your game with bright colours and knitted sweaters on all of your animals.
Master Chief Returns to Xbox thisOctober
You read correctly folks! The highly anticipated Halo 5: Guardians has ginally been given its release date. You will be stepping into the shoes of Master Chief on October 27th of this year. Check out our earlier hands-on preview with the game’s multiplayer mode, and also head over to HuntTheTruth.tumblr.com to see some of the episodic teases that 343 Industries have put out.
There we have it folks, another awesome edition of this week’s Newsbeat. Make sure you head over to the Xbox Live store now for your Fast & Furious game. As always, stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the awesome Xbox news as it becomes available.
Another week, another awesome ‘Kombat Kast’. Mortal Kombat X is just over two weeks away from release, and in ‘Kombat Kast’ 7: Black Friday, NetherRealm community Manager Tyler Landsdown and designer Derek Kirtzic hosted a breakdown of new character Erron Black, the fallen Elder God Shinnok and a returning (from the dead) Liu Kang. Additionally, we got a look at the Practice Arena, which allows players to set all kinds of parameters (even interactables), a WB Play exclusive Tron-esque Raiden skin (see below) and a video on how the sound effects in the game were created. Check it all out in the ‘Kombat Kast’ embedded at the bottom of this article.
Mortal Kombat X: Erron Black Official Trailer
The expert marksman, Erron Black, is a bad-ass. Clearly taking inspiration from classic Western film icons, Mr. Black’s arsenal isn’t restricted to guns alone. In one variation, Outlaw, the Earthrealm-born warrior brandishes a modified Tarkatan arm with blade as a makeshift sword. Could this be the fate of Baraka? Also, he harkens back to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance with a move that breaks off said sword in the opponent, causing them to bleed out over a short period of time. In his Gunslinger variation, the player gains a Cowboy trademark “stand-off” pose, from which you can pull off multiple unique attacks. He can also flip a coin in the air, ricochet a bullet off of it, and aim its trajectory towards the enemy. Show-off. That attack is range-controllable. Finally, in his Marksman variation, Erron utilises a rifle, with which he can pull off a chargeable low sniper-like shot, blast off three bullets whilst walking back, creating range, and launch his foe in the air with a rifle-butt uppercut. This is all in addition to his common specials: a slide, anti-air and rolling sand bombs and caltrops that do damage over time and stop runs.
Shinnok is no longer a copycat ladies and gentleman…mostly. In his Impostor variation, Shinnok can steal a move from the enemy, a homage to his original skill-set in Mortal Kombat 4. He has a single use only, however, signified by the colour change of the gems on his attire. He also has a “Tricky Portal” that is completely skipped over by special guest on the ‘Kast’, lead designer Paulo Garcia. Switching variations mid-fight in the Practice Arena only (neat feature), we get to Bone Shaper. In this variation, Shinnok can materialise a bone sceptre to do combos with, sweep the opponent, or shake the ground with, similar to Jax’s signature ground pound. In his final variation, Necromancer, Shinnok’s forearms are entirely skeletal, which is equal amounts creepy and cool. He can summon a giant skeletal hand that can literally flick the opponent away (how insulting!), crush them from above or emerge from the depths and squeeze them (surely that’s a Brutality waiting to happen) just like in MK4, once again. His standard specials are upwards blasts, akin to Shang Tsung’s, an amulet blast and a two-hit shoulder charge.
The De-rezz God! Those who have a WB Play profile will net this sweet Raiden skin on Day One!
Lastly, stalwart Liu Kang…dead, but not dead…it will all be explained in the story. Personally, I was happy that Liu was seemingly gone for good (unless he came back as a vengeful wraith), until I saw his gameplay in this here ‘Kombat Kast’. He is by far the fastest fighter in the game, and, with that said, embodies the spirit of Bruce Lee more than ever. His combos are insanely fast, and his X-Ray attack rattles off 15 hits! In his Dragon’s Fire variation, Liu rocks a sweet face tattoo, gains the ability to charge his classic fireballs, adds an additional hit to his flying kick and can enhance his enhanced fireball…that’s right, an enhanced ‘enhanced’ move (uses two bars of meter). In Flame Fist, the iconic bicycle kick manoeuvre turns into a punch-flurry which, if utilised whilst the namesake ability is active, will do massive damage. Blocking won’t help much either with increased chip damage. To round it all off, Dualist sees Liu becomes the embodiment of Yin and Yang. He can call upon the light to regenerate health (a charge move) or call upon the dark to give himself a slow, detonatable orb attack that doesn’t connect en-route like all over “fireballs”, but on detonation only.
MKX Kombat Kast: Episode 7 – Black Friday
Mortal Kombat X releases nationwide on April 15 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. And remember, for those who own the PS3 fight stick/s for Mortal Kombat (2011), they are cross compatible with the PS4 version of Mortal Kombat X.
Call of Duty World Championship 2015 has finished, with Denial taking home the top prizes after their defeat of Team Revenge. Those who don’t follow e-sports still had a good reason to tune in, as Activision premiered the new trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare“Ascendance.”
The trailer focuses on the new Exo Zombies map set in the iconic Burgertown restaurant. John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and Jon Bernthal return for the second chapter, after the team narrowly escapes from the Atlas research facility packed with zombies. Unfortunately, they aren’t faring much better in the outside world, as the Exo Zombies are running rampant outside. The team is now trapped in Burgertown, fighting for their life.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare “Ascendance” contains new multiplayer maps, the OHM direct energy weapon, the second Exo Zombies chapter, and a Exo Grapple playlist that enables the Exo Grappling Hook for multiplayer use. The DLC launches on April 1st for Xbox 360 and Xbox One as a timed exclusives, with other platforms seeing the DLC in the coming weeks.
Logitech has unveiled what they are dubbing the “Possibility Machine”, the MX Master Wireless Mouse. The MX Master is their most advanced wireless mouse ever produced, able to work across multiple screens, devices and operating systems.
The MX Master adopts a similar sculpted form to the company’s recent offering, including the stellar Logitech G502 Proteus Core Tunable Gaming Mouse. Its speed-adaptive scroll wheel allows auto-shift between click-to-click and hyper-scroll control. The distinct thumb wheel enables side-to-side scrolling among other advanced gestures, and every button can be customised to your preference.
The mouse also features Logitech’s proprietary Darkfield Laser sensor, which enables it to track accurately on virtually any surface, and can last up to 40 days on a full charge! Last but certainly not least, users can utilise Logitech’s integrated EasySwitch technology to connect either via the included Logitech Unifying receiver or Bluetooth Smart tech, enabling pairing with up to three devices at a time, which can be switched between at the touch of a button.
The Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse is a beautifully designed, customisable mouse with the versatility of control, precision and speed. The numerous navigation options and advanced features make it our best mouse ever. – Charlotte Johs, global vice president of computer peripherals at Logitech.
The Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse will retail at $149.95, set for launch this April. Compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 or later and Windows 7 or later via USB connection. Mac OS X 10.10 or Windows 8 and later required for Bluetooth Smart use.
Rockstar is making good on their earlier promise to launch a steady stream of new information and media leading up to the April 14th release of Grand Theft Auto Vfor the PC. They will be launching the official trailer for the game next week.
Today, they released 15 new high resolution screenshots taken from the PC version of the game. The PC version has been hit with multiple delays as Rockstar put some extra development time in. As a result, PC players will be able to benefit from some eye catching visual optimizations designed with PC hardware in mind.
Those who pre-order their copy before Tuesday March 31st will get a bonus $500,000 of in-game cash for the single player mode and an extra $1,000,000 for multiplayer.
This movie looks like it will be absolutely badass! Not only that but with the likes of JK Simmons and Matt Smith joining the ranks, the star power behind it is tremendous!
The first episode of Life is Strange (full review here) was a pleasant surprise in the episodic narrative genre, focusing on relatable issues such as bullying and friendship with a touch of supernatural elements in an awesomely detailed world. Episode 2: Out of Time has now been released and I’m happy to say it manages to continue the fine example set by the first game as well as throw in some shocking surprises and fun gameplay twist. This review contains no spoilers.
Story
Episode 1 introduced us to the ‘small town’ vibe of Arcadia Bay, the school of Blackwell and Max Caulfield’s new time bending powers. Episode 2 expands on everything established in the first episode, delving deeper into the lives of other students as well as Max, your best friend Chloe and even the town itself. This world is so full and lovingly crafted and really feels lived in, a very important aspect of this game to help ground it and make the world feel believable. The game world is also littered with intractable objects you can make, all accompanied by Max’s thoughts, literally giving you insight to how Max thinks and interprets the world in her head.
Max is a very fleshed out character and best of all, she’s your character. The choices you make in this episode have some pretty big impacts on the world around you and the choices you made in the last episode really seemed to matter here, especially during character interactions. It might be the whole illusion of choice thing but it does seem like some parts of the game you hear or play through would never have taken place if you didn’t make some of the choices you did earlier in the game.
It’s hard to talk about the story further without spoiling it but there is an excellent, relatable tale to be told in Life is Strange. Themes many people have experienced in their life such as friendship, bullying, fitting in etc. are present here and it’s great you get to call some of the shots as you might not have had that ability in high school. Episode 2 doesn’t further the main threat we learned about at the end of the first episode or delve much deeper into Rachel Amber’s disappearance, but it deepens character relationships, expands on Max’s character and powers while also setting up a few more mini story lines that will most likely come to a head over the coming episodes. There’s also some big moments that bring the whole episode to a close.
The dialogue isn’t perfect as there are a few times that lines don’t really make sense within the context of the conversations they are spoken in or the writing seems out of place for that character however these instances are pretty sparse within all the dialogue in the game.
Like in the first episode, a fantastic addition to Life is Strange is all the optional story you can read up on through text messages, diary entries and character biographies. The game does a great job at providing you with the necessary information to understand the main story upfront, but for those who are interested in really delving into character histories and past events and Max’s thoughts on everything you can do just that. The journal is presented in this cool scrapbook style, really making it feel like an art students diary.
Gameplay
Life is Strange will rightfully have many people drawing comparisons between itself and Telltale games, as well as titles like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. Life is Strange and those games are for the most part very similar, perhaps being more similar to the latter titles as you can freely move around your environment to interact with objects, people or move on to a new area. A small appreciated touch in Life is Strange is the ability to perform a light jog to help you move faster as opposed to being stuck in a slow walk all the time.
You make choices from up to four options in conversations (normally just two), some of which look like they will have a major impact on the story. The options you have in these conversations often change depending on past actions and you can often rewind them if you are not happy with your answer. While there are a lot of smaller decisions that simply alter dialogue or make your tree grow instead of shrivel (which are still fun in there own right), there are also some big decisions to make here and this is where your emotional investment comes into play and you get to feel like a big shot making all the calls.
When you’re not walking around interacting with the world, you’ll be using your time powers to solve puzzles that are well implemented into the story. There are a few of these sprinkled throughout episode 2 and I solidly enjoyed them. Some are challenging and will require you to rewind to remember something or pay more attention to a specific detail you may have glossed over earlier. There is no limit to the amount of times you can rewind time in these instances and some puzzles have multiple solutions allowing different approaches. There are also moments your powers will fail you and these moments are some of the most tense as you can’t rely on retrying. The game does a great job of making you become dependent on your time powers, so you really feel it when it isn’t there.
The time functionality has been implemented excellently by Dontnod. It is not only used to solve puzzles but allows players to reverse decisions they may wish to take back (within reason). People that love to see every possible dialogue option play out will love this feature. If you do rewind through a conversation, next time you have that conversation you can simply use the skip button so you don’t have to listen to the same line again. Another nice touch is an auto rewind for your most recent function you can activate with a simple button press. Also there is a big scene in the game where this feature is really fun to play with but I won’t spoil that for you.
Visuals
The visuals in this game are kind of like a 3D water colour painting with lots of soft tones and visible brush strokes. It looks great and details on characters and the environment are impressive for an art style that appears simplistic on the surface. Environments are incredibly detailed and have just as much personality as the characters within them. The PC version has plenty of options for visual settings and my version suffered no performance issues with my time in the game.
The interface is very clean and has this whole ‘Juno’ feel to it for those familiar with the film. White squiggly line drawings pop up to represent objects you can interact with and also when the game is saving or you have made a consequential decision. When you perform a rewind the visual effects used are really powerful, user friendly and aren’t slow or clumsy. The same can be said about performing a fast rewind or skip and put polish on the already near perfect time control system. The freedom of the camera movement is fun to play with and allows you to set up screenshots in lieu of a proper photo mode which seems like an odd omission for a game based around a photography student.
One big negative that is not easy to overlook however is the lip syncing. It does seem slightly better (or maybe I just paid it less mind this time around) than in episode 1 but is still a big issue for the game, especially as there are a lot of moments where the camera is focused on someone’s face a lot of the time. This is a ‘budget’ title but it doesn’t stand up to the standard set by similar story based titles such as Heavy Rain.
Audio
The game doesn’t have a big soundtrack, with most of the games music being diegetic and playing through headphones or a CD player, however the licensed tracks that accompany the games opening and closing scene as well as some parts in between is perfectly melded to the visuals. I mentioned Juno as a reference before and the audio here also takes some inspiration from the film, with the indie acoustic songs heard here giving off a pleasant, relaxing vibe that compliments the game perfectly.
The voice acting is really good for the most part, with lines delivered well and character’s voices matching their personality from the shy Max to the hard ass veteran security guard or creepy janitor. No sound effects are out of place and complete the wonderfully detailed world.
Overall
Episode 2 takes the great world and characters established in Episode 1 of Life is Strange and continues to expand upon them. The story has a great balance between intense moments and exploration with the highlight of the story definitely coming with this episode. The choices you make feel impactful to crafting your own story as well as the character of Max and the time bending tasks the game lays out for you are both challenging and fun to complete. Complete with beautiful graphics and a perfectly fitting soundtrack, Life of Strange manages to place itself right up there with some of the best of the episodic narrative genre. If you liked Episode 1 definitely pick up this one.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
MangaGamer‘s latest localized visual novel, Princess Evangile, is now available for purchase, or download if you happened to pre-order it. There are two versions of the title available, an All-Ages version that is currently available on Steam for $34.99 where it is temporarily on sale for $31.99 and an Adult version featuring uncensored nudity and sex scenes that can be purchased on MangaGamer’s website (18+ Only) for $44.95.
This PC visual novel is described as a “massive” title that features twenty six different chapters with numerous event CGs as the story follows an entire year of school where the protagonist is enrolled in Vincennes Private Girls’ Academy as the school’s first ever male student as a test to see if they can integrate boys into the student body with there being a vote at the end of the year to determine whether or not the boy can stay in the school or if he will be removed from the premises.
The MX Master adopts a similar sculpted form to the company’s recent offering, including the stellar 
