It’s been almost two decades since the last entry to the storied King’s Questadventure franchise. This year will bring a new reboot to Sierra’s long running franchise by The Odd Gentlemen.
The Los Angeles-based developers sat Creative Director Matt Korba and Producer Lindsey Rostal down in front of the camera to talk about the game’s development and meeting King’s Quest creator Roberta Williams and Sierra co-founder Ken Williams. Based on the developer diary, The Odd Gentlemen seem very aware about the pressure and excitement of rebooting such a long running franchise.
The new game stars King Graham, now an old man, telling stories about his youth to his granddaughter Gwendolyn. King’s Quest will launch sometime in fall 2015 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.
As per the usual cycle of a Japanese leak followed by an official announcement from the English branch, Bandai Namco have confirmed the contents of the third and final (as far as we know) DLC pack for their well performing Dragon Ball title Dragon Ball Xenoverse. The third DLC pack revolves around the new movie Resurrection ‘F’ and officially contains:
• 4 Playable Characters: Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta, Golden Frieza and Jaco the Galactic Patroller
• 5 Parallel Quests
• 2 Masters: Jaco the Galactic Patroller & Elder Kai
• 8 Masters Quests
• 14 Moves
• 2 Costumes: Turtle Hermit & Gohan’s Tracksuit
• 2 New Accessories: Tagoma’s Scouter & Turtle Hermit set
• 7 Z-Souls
Definitely some cool elements there including Elder Kai as a mentor, making him the only non-playable teacher. On a more sour note however, it looks like there will be no new story content with this pack which seems like a missed opportunity. A well known hacker in the Xenoverse community was able to learn all of the new skills in advance of their official announcement and there are a good mix of strike and ultimate skills including everyone’s favourite missing technique the Instant Transmission Kamehameha!
Interestingly, no mention of the Japanese exclusive Resurrection ‘F’ costumes for the players custom character were announced which was pretty surprising as I thought they would definitely be included with the pack for English speaking audiences. Hopefully they will be made available for us at some point in the future. Let us know your thoughts on the new DLC pack in the comments below and tell us which aspect of the pack you are most looking forward to. There is no official English release date but expect it soon as Japan is supposed to get this lot of DLC before the end of the month.
Overview Everyone has a different sense of humor and while many people might enjoy a certain brand of humor, others may scoff or simply shake their heads at what others find funny. The slice-of-life genre is filled with different types of comedy series, many of which tend to feature an all-female cast doing random cute things or at the very least taking place in a school of sorts. As such, when Hozuki’s Coolheadedness first started airing it was a very different type of comedy series with an off-brand style of humor. So now that the series has been released in the West is it worth picking up?
Story Considering the massive number of people on the planet, managing Hell might seem like a hell of a hard job, especially when Enma, the King of Hell, is usually too busy passing judgment on souls or simply doesn’t want to handle specific tasks and is acting lazy. Because of this many of the smaller issues, such as staff shortages in one of the 272 different types of Hells present in the series or handling other religion’s dignitaries, tend to slip through the cracks and when that happens it is up to Enma’s Deputy Chief, Hozuki, to take care of things and make sure that all of Hell is running as efficiently as possible.
Despite the amount of jobs laid at his feet and being the second-in-command in Hell, Hozuki is more than just a stone-faced bureaucrat capable of intimidating anyone and quickly handling tasks in a calm (but occasionally frightening) manner. He is also a man of many different hobbies such as taking care of goldfish plants, interacting with his co-workers, and adoring any type of animal he comes across.
Thanks to the way that Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is set up, it is very similar to a workplace comedy but set in Hell where there are numerous fantastical areas and demons mixed in with an extremely heavy dose of legends and mythology. Enma plays the inept but good-natured boss that Hozuki usually has to reign in or clean up after all while dealing with the various issues that arise in Hell, such as the appearance of Momotaro, Beelzebub, and more.
The setting creates a lot of potential for humorous and really interesting situations but whether or not you’ll actually find most of the events that take place in Hozuki’s Coolheadedness funny is the main issue.While there is no denying Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is an interesting and intelligent series that delves deep into legends, features plenty of social commentary, takes jabs at politics and more, the style of humor in this series is as dry as a bone.
This dry humor is something of a rarity in many anime series and those looking for it will find plenty here but this is certainly not a series for everyone as it rarely actually tries to be funny and usually provokes laughs either through witty commentary or by the way that Hozuki deals with situations when they arise or even how ridiculous things tend to get. In fact, very few jokes are actually delivered in a decent manner and even the whole concept of turning hell into a bizarre office of sorts wears thin. This may not have been such an issue if Hozuki was an engaging character but he is far from it.
It is also worth noting that there is an immense viewing barrier to Hozuki’s Coolheadedness. As mentioned before, numerous characters from legends, mythologies, and religions appear and play various roles in the series and those who may be unfamiliar with some of Japan’s more obscure legends may struggle with the way that the series handles the jokes with these characters. Sentai Filmworks has tried to rectify this issue by providing large swathes of text that appear on screen to try and explain jokes and various cultural references but this often means that if you don’t already know what is going on you’ll likely need to either pause and read the information or completely take yourself away from the events happening in the show in order to quickly read why you should be laughing.
Visuals While the way that Hozuki’s Coolheadedness handles its humor and setting is unique, it is also unique in the manner that Wit Studio chose to present and animate the series. The animation studio has chosen to use a floating world (ukiyo-e) style of presentation to create a unique looking series with gorgeous and haunting backgrounds.
It is interesting to note that most of the characters are a bit more standard looking with various demonic features added for flair, though mythological creatures are designed to look similar to how they have usually been described. The aforementioned translator notes to explain various things are generally located at the top of the screen but as mentioned, they occasionally run four to five lines deep and obscure the series from time to time.
Audio As one would expect for a series steeped in different kinds of lore but primarily Japanese lore, Sentai Filmworks has released Hozuki’s Coolheadedness with only the original Japanese voice track. This is a fitting choice as it not only fits the theme of the series better but a decent amount of the series’ humor actually comes from Hozuki’s stoic tone.
The soundtrack for the series is surprisingly fantastic at times as it implements numerous traditional Japanese instruments to fit the setting of Hozuki’s Coolheadedness. As far as the opening and ending themes are concerned, the opening theme is surprisingly catchy to the point it will be difficult to get out of your head after watching the show while the ending themes are unfortunately very unremarkable.
Extras Hozuki’s Coolheadedness: Complete Collection comes only with a clean version of the opening animation, clean ending animation, and trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases.
Overall As mentioned before, everyone has different tastes and a series like Hozuki’s Coolheadedness will fit the tastes of a very select audience. The dry humor, stunted jokes, and heavy reliance on lore makes the series as different from your average comedy anime as they come but being different doesn’t always mean it is good. While amusing at times and featuring artwork that is absolutely gorgeous and a fitting score, this unique take on a workplace comedy unfortunately leaves much to be desired and even well-versed viewers will find it to be generally unfunny.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview Often when a game is produced with a ‘Metroidvania’ style of gameplay and features stunningly gorgeous visuals there is always some concern that the game will be all style with no substance. When Ori and the Blind Forest was first shown off last year we saw very little of the game until a few weeks before its release and now that it is available for purchase, is Ori and the Blind Forest more than just a pretty face?
Story Although the story of Ori and the Blind Forest is fairly simplistic as it involves the restoration of a devastated land, the prologue and the way that the rest of the story is handled is absolutely amazing. Rarely will you find a prologue told in such a simplistic but emotional manner and although actual control during this sequence is minimal, the way that Ori and its adoptive parent Naru interact with another with genuine affection and care.
As the land begins to fall apart and food grows scarce, the heavy feeling of loss at the start of the game makes Ori’s goal of bringing life back to the land feel all the more important. This becomes especially heartfelt during the latter half of the story as players come to realize why things have turned out this way. By effectively telling a simple but emotional storybook storyline, Ori and the Blind Forest will have a place in your heart if you can manage to overcome every challenge it throws your way.
Gameplay Ori begins its journey as a weak and fragile creature only capable of handling minor jumps before quickly gaining an ally that allows Ori to use lock-on attacks to damage enemies and destroy thorns that are in the way. Being a 2D platformer like it is, this only lasts for so long before players are quickly finding themselves obtaining various other abilities that allow them to climb up walls, use stronger blasts, float through the air, reflect enemy attacks back at them and using the blast for momentum, and more. In fact, while Ori and the Blind Forest may start out simply, it quickly becomes a challenging game where the exploration of the world seems to feel like training for the real challenges that are thrown at the player during certain sequences of the game, but more on that later.
As players learn various skills they will find that they can access new areas that were previously blocked off or couldn’t be accessed when they were there before, encouraging exploration and of course, strengthening the character. As you explore areas and defeat enemies, Ori will gain experience that can be used to level up three branching paths that are all revealed from the start, allowing players to plan Ori’s growth in a manner that will fit their playstyle, though it is worth noting that some of these path upgrades are also locked by progression, though this will likely only become an issue if you attempt to grind.
Now as mentioned, Ori is a fairly weak creature and even with a full health meter, which can be improved upon by finding objects scattered throughout the world, will be killed quickly by monsters, environmental traps, and flying objects that take large chunks of health from Ori. Because of the challenging nature of many of the platforming sequences and enemies, players will become quite familiar with the way that Ori and the Blind Forest handles it’s save system.
As you kill enemies and break crystals scattered across the area, Ori will gain Energy and any time throughout the game, save for the aforementioned certain sequences, can create a Soul Link (save point) by using a full orb of Energy. This becomes an essential system since the title does not autosave and if you happen to die, all of your progress, including collectibles, will be reset back to the last time you created a save orb. This means that players will often have to decide whether or not they should save at a certain point and running out of Energy or trying to get just a little bit further before saving as there will be times you will be low on energy and will be risking a long journey back if you fail to plan accordingly.
Ori controls incredibly well which is a necessity due to the high difficulty of some areas in the game, especially since many areas require precise timing and positioning or only a painful fall or death will wait. Now for those certain areas mentioned earlier, these areas involve Ori having to escape from an area with only a certain amount of time to do so and not only are save points disabled here, but even the slightest mistake can cause you to fail.
Taking advantage of Ori’s incredible dexterity and the tightness of the controls is the only way to survive these incredibly challenging areas but the entire trial and error aspect can become extremely annoying. Managing to complete these areas will provide players with an incredible sense of completion but they also border on being rather ridiculous as the complete reliance on precise movements through trial-and-error will frustrate many.
Visuals & Audio Moon Studios has crafted a bewitching multi-layered world where you cannot help but pause and stare at the environment at times. Not only is everything rendered in gorgeous 1080p but the multiple layers of every background give the environment a sense of depth. The vibrant and varied designs of the world make for a picturesque fairy-tale like environment for players to explore and overcome as the fragile looking Ori navigates through the twisted land of the forest all while avoiding the dangerous creatures that have appeared throughout the land.
The accompanying soundtrack is just as substantial as the visuals. While the background music is fairly low impact most of the time it matches the tone of the game but there are a number of orchestral themes mixed in with these that really sound amazing. As for the dialogue, the subtitles are set against an unknown language spoken by a wise-sounding narrator who appears from time to time to explain the events of the story.
Overall At first glance Ori and the Blind Forest may seem like just a gorgeous looking title with an emotional storyline but it also contains difficult but enjoyable gameplay filled with clever mechanics that keep things fresh throughout the experience. Although frustrating at times and, oddly enough, lacking exploration once the story is completed, Ori and the Blind Forest is a stunning game in almost every way and if you are looking for a challenge wrapped up in a beautiful package then you need look no farther than this game.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Ubisoft has announced that the first installment of their side-scrolling Assassin’s Creed Chronicles series, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, will be released tomorrow — April 21 — on Xbox One and Windows PC while the PlayStation 4 version will be released Wednesday, April 22.
In Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, you play as Shao Jun, a young assassin who just completed her training under legendary Assassin Ezio Auditore (which you can see in the short animated film, Assassin’s Creed: Embers).
In Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, players pick up Shao Jun’s story as she returns to China hell-bent on revenge. Her story will take players across China, to famous locations including the Maijishan Grottoes, Port of Macau, The Forbidden City and The Great Wall. Armed with stealth, agility, and a combination of deadly weapons and equipment including a sharp and swift jian, a secret shoe blade and lethal rope darts and daggers, players will deliver payback to those who decimated the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins.
Co-developed by Climax Studios and Ubisoft Montreal, the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles series is a 2.5D, side-scrolling stealth game. Think Mark of the Ninja gameplay in the Assassin’s Creed universe. China is the first installment in the series to be followed by Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India — taking players through the 19th-century Indian Sikh Empire — then Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia — following the Red October Revolution.
Universal Pictures made this past weekend Jurassic World Weekend when it took to Twitter to release three new posters for the upcoming film. We shared the first poster on Friday, but today we bring together the other two posters along with the new trailer for the film released today. Check out the new trailer after the jump:
In the trailer above, we get our first full look at Indominus Rex, the new genetically-engineered dinosaur created for Jurassic World. This new film appears to be returning the franchise back to its roots, begging the question of whether science should do something solely because it can be done. I wonder what Dr. Ian Malcolm is doing while all this is happening?
Following Friday’s poster reveal on director Colin Trevorrow’s Twitter account, the Jurassic Park account shared this one-sheet with the latest park attraction, Mosasaurus:
Indie Gala and Capsule Computers have put together a bundle of six indie games this week for the Every Monday Bundle. This week’s bundle is focused on point and click adventures that are perfect for the casual gamer.
Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise– An old school adventure that will challenge players to throw together the best birthday party ever in just a few hours.
AR-K– Hopefully this experience isn’t too familiar to you, but Alicia Von Volish has woken up with a nasty hangover after a one night stand and has a lot of questions about what happened last night.
Sinking Island– Billionaire Walter Jones is found dead at his private island, which only had ten other people on it. Now private detective Jack Norm has three days to figure out who is the perpetrator and bring them to justice.
Dark Arcana: The Carnival– At a haunted carnival, there is a world of evil behind the Hall of Mirrors. It holds The Evil One that longs to enter our world and wreak havoc upon mankind. With the help of a special monkey, the player will learn about the tale of two lovers and stop The Evil One once and for all.
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek– An ancient evil haunts Maple Creek, Vermont and it has kidnapped an innocent teenage girl. Players will need to solve the mystery of Maple Creek and your past to save her.
Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond– Dawn Harlock is returning to her home town of Iowa Island to solve the murder of her mentor and discover Dawn’s true identity.
For the first 24 hours of the sale, Indie Gala’s Every Monday Bundle #56 is only $1.89. Be sure to grab your bundle at Indie Gala before the price rises.
High Strangeness was the first game ever Kickstarted. The game was backed by 36 people in 2009. The number may be small, but this was long before the platform became the go to funding source for indie developers and Star Citizen made its record shattering campaign. High Strangeness mixes classic 8-bit and 16-bit adventure RPGs in what developers Barnyard Intelligence dubs as 12-bit gaming. The gameis currently slated to launch on May 6th.
Barnyard Intelligence draws heavy inspiration from The Legend of Zelda games on NES and SNES along with a few other action and RPG titles. The entire game world has been made twice, once in 8-bit style and once in 16-bit. The hero Boyd is capable of switching back and forth between the two words at will. The switch is not purely a cosmetic matter, as each world’s gameplay is true to its era. Features like sprint and combo attacks that are present in the 16-bit world are missing in the 8-bit world, while the 8-bit world feels much chunkier, with a greater focus on up, down, left, and rightward movement.
Balancing two separate worlds, especially with one have more features that most gamers are used to, is no easy task. Except for the retro die hard who lives, eats, and breathes the NES, it is probably going to be hard to convince people to spend extensive time in the 8-bit world. Barnyard Intelligence gets around the challenge by adding puzzles and mechanics like traps that are only visible in 8-bit mode. While I feel that the game doesn’t really merge the two worlds into one fluid package as “12-bit” would suggest, Barnyard Intelligence is definitely onto something very cool. The puzzles are imaginative and the developers even manage to integrate the switch between the two worlds into the enemy mechanics.
If puzzles are High Strangeness’ yin, then combat is the game’s yang. The combat will be instantly familiar to The Legend of Zelda fans, with plenty of monsters and bosses to slay. Boyd has his trusty flashlight for clubbing enemies and a variety of gadgets and skulls to assist him in combat. Mana serves as the energy that fuels all of Boyd’s attacks, including the flashlight, and regenerates slowly over time. This encourages a more thoughtful approach to combat, requiring a good bit of dodging. All weapons can be upgraded with currency dropped by enemies to be more effective or for new abilities, while Boyd’s clothing can be upgraded to provide improved stats.
Getting the graphics right is a must for a game like High Strangeness. The game stays true to the two eras that have inspired the game, screaming 8-bit and 16-bit all the way. It is great to see two very different takes on the characters, the world, world and the levels. No detail is missed, even the UI and character portraits change. Interspersed in the game are beautiful watercolour images that serve as the backdrop for the cut scenes. They add a very modern flair to the game, yet are reminiscent to the art on retro game boxes, which served as an imaginative and artistic take on the pixelated goodness contained within.
The audio side of High Strangeness is looking good. The game is backed with a solid chiptune soundtrack and a plethora of fitting sound effects. I’m a tad torn. On one hand, I would have liked to have heard two separate audio styles for the two worlds. On the other hand, the amount of switching that’s done in game would make pulling it off an Olympics level challenge to do right.
High Strangeness is on the right track to be an indie darling. It may have been six years since the Kickstarter campaign closed, but the game so far is well crafted. The future is looking bright for Barnyard Intelligence and High Strangeness.
We recently asked product manager for computer peripherals at the Logitech Daniel Borel Innovation Centre in Switzerland, Arnaud Perret-Gentil, some questions about the recently revealed MX Master Wireless Mouse. Dubbed “the possibility machine”, the MX Master is the most advanced mouse the company has produced. Read on for the full interview. For context, the questions were answered via email.
Where did your original design ideas stem from? Was the form factor established in the G502 Proteus Core the springboard, and then you moved on from there?
We started with the heritage we have from our MX right-handed mice. We wanted to have a design that communicates comfort, precision and speed, in a design language that is modern and different for the computer peripherals. The G502 Proteus Core is a gaming mouse, and has different inspirations.
What is the most distinguishing feature or “selling point” of the new Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse? The Easy-Switch capability with connectivity up to three devices is surely a personal standout?
The Easy-switch allows the today’s power user to use their favourite device on all the computer they use, with Bluetooth Smart or the Unifying dongle. It is an important aspect of the MX Master, for sure, but it wouldn’t be as powerful as it is if we didn’t develop different controls, unveiled by the Logitech Options software, that allows you to optimise your device controls for the different operating system your mouse is connected to. The controls are the gesture button and the thumb wheel. Then we bring back the Speed adaptive scroll wheel, that was created for the MX Revolution, and that were missing on the Performance MX. To be short, its biggest strength is its versatility. Whatever you do, you’ll have the best you can find for office use in this mouse.
Are you confident that you will be able to switch PC and Mac customers from their touch pad or wired mice to this most advanced wireless mouse? Did you see battery life as the sticking point in that respect?
With the MX Master we are talking to people who are spending 8hrs a day on their computer. It might be funny to say, but a mouse is what they touch the most in a day. Therefore they deserve the best tool, in terms of comfort, precision, speed and quality of build. The day you try a mouse like that, you won’t come back to a basic mouse.
From a technical standpoint, how do you create a mouse that is so feature-packed, but can last up to 40 days on a full charge?
We have a great experience in power management in Logitech, which has been developed through many projects. For example, an important innovation on the MX Master is that the Bluetooth technology we use: Bluetooth Smart. One of its advantages is to eat less battery than Bluetooth classic.
Were any compromises made for the aforementioned battery life or in getting any particular feature in, for that matter?
As explained above, we introduced Bluetooth Smart connectivity instead of Bluetooth classic, and one of its advantages is its power consumption. No compromises were made on the user experience side.
We’ve heard and bore witness to the effectiveness of the Darkfield Laser Sensor in the most recent mice, but how was Logitech able to develop such adaptive technology?
We have been developing mice for more than 30 years. We always have been at the top of the technology used in our products, this Darkfield sensor is an additional example of our engineering excellence.
The Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse encompasses what seems to be the entire package. With that thought in mind, where do you possibly see room for improvement in the future?
The operating system you use on your computer, the way people use their computer and the different digital experience the people have everyday is consistently evolving. The MX Master is the best mouse for the today’s power user, and it helps them being more effective their everyday activities. In the future, what the users do and how they do it, including the platform they use, will be different from today, and we’ll provide them the best product for their new experiences. Therefore there will be some improvement, as the future product will be designed for those new experiences.
Would you like to share any final thoughts about Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse?
To be short, the MX Master is the great marriage of heritage and innovation, in terms of design and engineering, in order to deliver unique user experiences. It is the result of the investment of a passionate and skilled team (you can watch our “Behind the scene video”) who worked to deliver the best product for today’s power user.
Our thanks go out to Arnaud Perret-Gentil and Logitech for giving us the opportunity to get some insight on the MX Master Wireless Mouse. For those interested in purchasing Logitech’s most advanced mouse, it is still available for pre-order here at a price point of AU$149.95*.
“Ryuk the Shinigami here. Damn, I’ve dropped my death note again… Look forward to watching the new confrontation between Light and L from July on NTV. I’m looking forward to Sunday nights… Heheheh!”. This is my translation of official an Twitter post.
Following on from the announcement in today’s issue of the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine, NTV has launched an official website for the live-action TV drama adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba’s manga series Death Note. Currently, the website only says that the actors to be playing Light Yagami, L and N will be announced soon.
In the live-action film series, produced by NTV in 2006, Tatsuya Fujiwara portrayed Light Yagami and Kenichi Matsuyama portrayed L. Near was played by child actor Narushi Fukuda in the spin-off film L: Change the WorLd.
The official website for this adaptation can be found here.
