Warner Bros. and Avalanche Studios announced thatMad Max will be hitting the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 1st in North America and September 4th in Europe while also announcing that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game are no longer being developed.
Those who pre-order Mad Max before it is released will be given a Magnum Opus car body called “The Ripper” that comes with an upgraded exhaust system, off-road tires, a better suspension, and a V8 engine. This announcement also comes with a new video from Game Informer covering a bit of new information about the title and you can check that out below.
If you happened to have held out on picking up Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster when it was released last year for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita then perhaps you will be interested in picking it up for the PlayStation 4 as Square Enix has just announced the release date for this remaster bundle which will begin to hit stores worldwide in May.
Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster will launch for the PlayStation 4 on May 12th in North America and May 14th in Japan. This version will include a number of system specific features such as the ability to switch between the original soundtrack and the remastered soundtrack, cross-save between the old versions of the game, and remote play through the Vita.
Those who pre-order the game in North America will be given a special calendar while those in Europe will be given a Steelbook case featuring artwork from Yoshitaka Amano.
If you’ve been trying to keep up with Nintendo‘s Amiibo releases then you have to have good luck as well as the will to pre-order a figure early because Nintendo has had one hell of a time keeping most popular Amiibos in stock. In fact, the Marth Amiibo, which will be compatible with the upcoming Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., has been sold out since the launch of the Amiibos last year.
As such Nintendo of America finally decided to announce that they will be trying to restock Marth figures in late April, though if history is anything to go by they will likely produce too few to actually meet consumer demand.
As previously reported, 5pb.’s horror game Corpse Party will be making its way to the Nintendo 3DS, marking the first time that the series has ever arrived on that platform. At the time it was unknown what, if any, would be added to this 3DS remake of the PSP title but it seems that a brand new scenario will be added into the game according to 4Gamer.
Details on Corpse Party: Blood Covered …Repeated Fear are still very scarce though the original developers Team GrisGris will be handling the game’s story. It is worth noting that XSEED Games has previously released the original Corpse Party as well as the following title Corpse Party: Book of Shadows in North America.
Around the time that Koei Tecmo revealed Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, a teaser that Team Ninja would be collaborating with Marvelous to create some sort of Senran Kagura crossover was hinted at. Now it appears that that crossover will take place through some special DLC costumes for Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.
The costumes revealed so far include an Asuka outfit for Kasumi and a Mirai outfit for Marie Rose. While no release date has been announced for these costumes as of yet, it has been revealed that similar to the Senran Kagura games, the outfits will be gradually destroyed over the course of the fight.
Sony added to the pool of VR headset announcements during GDC 2015 with the reveal of Project Morpheus’ prototype number two.
The new prototype features a larger OLED screen that will lower motion blur, expand the field of view, support 120 FPS, and remove flicker. The positional tracking has been upgraded with the help of three extra LEDs and the tracking latency has been reduced. The physical headset is now easier to remove with a quick release strap and is lighter overall.
Project Morpheus is slated for a consumer launch during the first half of 2016. It will powered by Sony’s PlayStation 4 console.
The prototype will be made available to developers along with an improved SDK supporting 3D positional audio.
Indie developer Kitty Lambda Games and publisher Devolver Digital (Hotline Miami 2) announced their latest project, Paradise Never. The game is an action RPG set to launch on Linux, Mac, and Windows this summer. Paradise Never features a playful, colourful voxel art style.
Players are stuck in a Groundhog Day-esque situation, reliving the same three days over and over again. The peaceful French island they inhabit is experiencing a second French Revolution in an attempt to fight for independence from France, and the player must save the lives of as many people as possible to stop the three day cycle.
Kitty Lambda Games boasts their complex NPC system reacts to the world differently based on its context, allowing players to build a full profile of the NPC’s personality, motivations, and behaviours. Learning about the NPCs will be key to saving their lives in Paradise Never.
NVIDIA was very busy at GDC 2015 with a lengthy presentation featuring a rebooted NVIDIA SHIELD. The presentation included new snippets of gameplay from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid V, and Resident Evil: Revelations 2 all running on the new device.
The service includes a new SHIELD device that is an Android TV set top supporting up to 4K resolutions. In addition to standard Android apps, the the box can stream PC games powered by cloud computing through the NVIDIA GRID service.
The new NVIDIA SHIELD will launch in May 2015 for $199 USD and will include both the set top and an controller. The console is armed with the new Tegra X1 processor and a Maxwell-based GPU.
NVIDIA GRID will launch with more than 50 games, mixing AAA titles with indie darlings. SHIELD owners will be able to subscribe to the GRID service or purchase games separately.
Learn more about the NVIDIA SHIELD at the official site.
It looks like Right Stuf had a bit of information to reveal before NIS America could make an announcement themselves. The company has recently posted their first digital catalog of the year and with it comes news that NIS America is going to be releasing the 2012 anime series My Little Monster, also known as Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, in North America sometime in Spring 2015.
This listing shows that the series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD combo pack, will cost $59.98, and will be given NIS America’s premium edition treatment. It is worth noting that NIS America has not officially announced this license acquisition as of yet but considering the premium edition shown above, we can expect an announcement sometime soon.
Overview With the rising popularity of Japanese visual novels in the West, it has led to a number of unique titles being released in English. While many of these may be eroge with a story to establish the world or simply nukige, a number of titles with a focus on story have been released in English. The most recent of these is MangaGamer’s release of eden*PLUS+MOSAIC. Featuring the original eden* story plus the adult content released separately in PLUS+MOSAIC from the original game, is eden*PLUS+MOSAIC worth your time?
Story The world is nearly at the end of its life. Nearly one hundred years prior to the starts of eden* a red star appeared in the sky. Despite humanity having little knowledge of what this star was, the findings of a lone scientist proclaiming that it meant that the Earth was going to die a hundred years from then drove humanity to try and unite. You see, thanks to the events prior to this finding humanity had nearly been wiped off the face of the Earth due to constant warfare and with an already diminished population, the “Earth Unified Government” was created in order to prioritize humanity’s survival above everything else.
To do this, the nations joined as one and anyone who resisted was put down through might. With only a hundred years left, a lone woman named Sion came up with the plans to transport all of humanity to space in order to find a new home. Over the past hundred years humanity and Sion have worked to reach this dream. The reason Sion has managed to live so long is because she is a “Felix,” a genetically engineered human with an extended lifespan, eternal youth, and intelligence surpassing any living human and Sion is the smartest of them all.
Ryou Haruna has spent most of his life on a battlefield. After the disappearance of his parents and meeting a mysterious woman before she too was taken away from him, Ryou swore at a tender age to try and find this woman he called his sister once again. Because of this he has seen nearly everything on the battlefield and even became a decorated special forces member. Now with Earth at peace and nearly everyone evacuated, Ryou is assigned a new task… guarding the woman who made the designs of the spaceships that saved humanity a possibility until the last ship leaves behind the dying planet within a year.
From here we see Ryou, who has experienced a difficult life and thinks of himself as nothing more than an attack dog meant to be given orders with no purpose in life, meet with the odd but energetic maid Elica and the enigmatic Sion. Surrounded by military personnel and hidden away on a secluded island, Sion has known nothing but confinement since the moment she was born and while she still labors away at making sure everything involving the Earth evacuation plan goes smoothly, we see that she has never experienced freedom.
It is worth noting that eden* is a kinectic novel meaning that there is only one story to be told here and it is quite an emotional one that not only dredges up Ryou’s past and chance meetings but also crafts a love story with no happy ending in sight. Thanks to the nature of the world ending and the seemingly endless youth of a Felix coming with an abrupt expiration date, those who wish to experience an emotional story will find eden* pulling at their heart strings as Ryou and Sion grow closer to one another throughout the course of the visual novel, following them from the middle of a military base until they are the last two on the planet.
That being said, thanks to the focus of the game being mostly on Sion and Ryou, the rest of the side-characters introduced, such as the maid Elica, Lavie (Ryou’s partner in guarding Sion), the commanding officer Inaba, and a reporter named Maya. Their characters are explored slightly and there are plenty of hints as to what may have been (and is partially explored in the PLUS+MOSAIC scenes), but unfortunately they are given only the smallest bits of closure.
The same can be said in regards to the actual process of Earth’s evacuation and what is happening to the planet. Despite plenty of details being revealed concerning the way that the Earth became the way it is, including the wars that were fought and how humanity sees Sion almost as a goddess, the real cause of Earth’s impending demise isn’t explained and the actual details of the evacuation are only mentioned briefly despite the government’s persistence in making sure every member of humanity leaves Earth before the end.
Now, eden*’s story is completely self-contained while PLUS+MOSAIC is contained as a bonus. There are four scenes in total here, some of which are “what if” styled scenes that give players a few extra details concerning the side characters in the story as well as some comedic moments thanks to each bonus involving a decent amount of dialogue before the actual adult scenes take place.
Gameplay As mentioned earlier, eden* is a kinetic novel meaning that there are no choices to be made nor are there any endings other than the main one. As such those who wish to experience the game will be able to do so once and see the entire story, though it is quite a good one. This can be disappointing for some who may have wished to see more elements explored in the story.
It is worth noting that the four eroge scenes in PLUS+MOSAIC are locked away until the player finishes the main story which is for the best. This way all of the player’s focus is spent reading a poignant story without interruption.
Visuals & Audio eden*PLUS+MOSAIC is rather surprising visually as, rather than use static sprites that appear against various backdrops like most games, almost every scene in the game is designed to look unique. This is thanks in part to Ryou being a fully realized character with a face and personality who will be seen standing or interacting with other characters during dialogue. Another nice touch comes in the form of full lip-synching being done on the characters so that their mouths move as they speak while also blinking their eyes. As for the actual sex scenes that take place in PLUS+MOSAIC, each of the four scenes still feature mosaic censorship on both male and female genitalia but every scene features a number of CGs and some decent variation.
The background music found throughout the game is quite soothing and fitting for the theme of eden*, especially in regards to a certain character’s fondness for a song. As for the characters, every character, including Ryou, is voiced which is surprising considering the male role generally goes unvoiced in games such as this but it makes for a nice plus as the full voice work continues into the sex scenes as well.
Overall eden*PLUS+MOSAIC is an emotional journey that has a few flaws in world-building and handling side characters but focuses all of its effort in creating a memorable drama involving Ryou and Sion. Watching these two as they change throughout the course of the visual novel and begin to develop a deep connection on a dying world leaves a lasting emotional impression that will make eden* hard to forget and a visual novel to not pass up.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
