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Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove Launches on Kickstarter

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Here comes the FUNK! After a complete decade, Humanature Studios are bringing back two of the fliest aliens that ever hit a console in Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove. Thought up by original creator Greg Johnson, this reboot of an amazing franchise has went to Kickstarter in order to revive the namesake, and thus far, it is looking awesome.

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Back in the groove will play more like the original with an all-new stacked world that is still randomly generated, with new presents, stages, and earthlings on top of all of the fond ones we remember running from. So how is this possible without Sega? Well, Sega doesn’t own the rights to Toejam and Earl, which is why we have seen very little from the duo since releasing that so-so Xbox Original title years ago. Co-op is going to be a mainstay for the game, and though little details other than some screens have emerged, there are a ton of rewards available for those who make a donation. Check out the page here and get to donating!

Batman: Arkham Knight “Gotham is Mine” Trailer Released

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Batman: Arkham Knight is just over three months from release and Warner Bros. Games have released a brand new trailer showcasing many of the famous villains Batman will have to take on in the final game in the fantastic Arkham Trilogy. Scarecrow has been busy reuniting the Rogues Gallery, including Two-Face, The Penguin, the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and the new titular enemy the Arkham Knight. The game was recently awarded an “M” Rating by the ESRB and this trailer showcases that maturity in all its bloody glory.

You can check out the gritty trailer below and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below. This is easily my most anticipated title for the remainder of the year. Batman: Arkham Knight will be releasing worldwide on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on June 2nd. You can check out an older three part trailer series by following the link.

Mario Party 10 Release Details & Series Milestone

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Mario Party is back for its tenth entry (well 13th if you include the handheld entries Island Tour, DS and Advance) with Mario Party 10 and the game promises over 70 new mini games, boss battles and an assortment of game modes. Nintendo have boasted sales figures for the popular party series, revealing it has sold 39.6 million copies worldwide since the original Mario Party on the Nintendo 64.

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One such mode is Bowser Party, that pits 4 players who use Wii Remotes against one player who uses the Game Pad to control Bowser. To avoid being burnt, bumped or blasted away, players using Wii Remote controllers must co-operate to escape Bowser’s clutches – all the more difficult when the Bowser player can use the buttons, motion controls and touch screen of the Wii U GamePad to wreak havoc in unsuspecting ways.

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Another mode makes use of a selection of 10 available Amiibo (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, Rosalina, Donkey Kong and Wario) to create a new mini game board map, each with it’s own special feature such as Luigi’s board which features a Poltergust 5000 to suck up your opponents Stars. Amiibo can also be used to collect special in game Tokens that can provide power ups or alter one quarter of the game board to a theme of a different character. Personally my interest for the title went out the window when I saw the car, but these new modes do show some promise.

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Any Amiibo can be used (so the Super Mario Bros. Mario Amiibo will work as well as the Smash Bros Mario Amiibo) however it should be noted only one set of game data can be present on an Amiibo at any one time, so say goodbye to your level 50 Figure Player from Smash if you want to use the same Amiibo for Mario Party 10. The game will be available in Australia from March 21st exclusively for the Wii U at a retail price of $79.95, or in a bundle with a Super Mario Amiibo Figure for $89.95.

Cities XXL Review

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Cities XXL 
Developer: Focus Home Interactive
Platforms: PC (reviewed)
Release Date: 05/02/2014
Price: $39.99 – Available Here

Overview

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Upfront I will tell you this: modern city building games are a guilty pleasure of mine. I enjoy planning out the various districts and zones of my city and then watching it grow as families and businesses move in. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine due to the fact that I’m terrible at playing them as my civic ambitions quickly outgrow my budget. I had not played any games in the Cities series before and was eager to get my teeth into Cities XXL. The original game was designed to be an MMO with players trading between cities and competing to build famous landmarks, which will probably explain some of the elements I will be talking about below.

Story

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As you might be able to guess, there isn’t a narrative which runs throughout the entire game. The tutorial has a simplistic story to link the various missions together which are conveyed through static messages. The writing here is generally subpar and the attempts at comedy largely fall flat. What’s worse is that the tutorial feels like it does not sufficiently teach you the intricacies of various aspects of gameplay, but goes into confusing depth about the proper placement of bus and subway stops. Nonetheless, this type of game normally does not have a story as a selling point so we’ll leave at this.

Gameplay

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Cities XXL is fairly rudimentary in its game design with most aspects of the city building genre on display. You are able to directly build various utilities and services in your city such as police, fire departments, and schools. You are also able allocate land to be zoned for various industries which vary from agriculture, heavy industry, and high tech. These in turn require that you zone various residential areas for different classes of citizens to meet the needs of industry. Each industry produces some manner of resource which is then further consumed by other industries in your city. Excess production can then be sold to other cities or to a megacorporation

This becomes the central mechanic with which you interact with the game. You create residential zones. You form industrial zones. Each of the zones are create can either be high, medium, or low density with varying levels of efficiency. You build schools, hospitals and whatever else your citizens need and. As long as their desires are met, your city will thrive and things will continue to function like clockwork with your city producing resources and cash. For most city builders, this forms the bulk of the experience as you continue the never-ending cycle of building and earning money from your creation so you can continue to build and earn more money. These games then typically provide you with the opportunity to destroy in creative and fantastical ways such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and sea monsters rising from the deep. If your first thought was of a child building a sandcastle and then smashing it, you would not be half wrong.

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As far as I can tell, Cities XXL does not provide you with the option of creatively/destructively clearing the board. Instead, the game encourages you to repeat the process on another map with building an entirely new city. It encourages you to keep your hard-earned progress and instead trade resources between your various cities in order to improve their efficiency. The game essentially asks you continue the cycle of building and accumulation indefinitely across its various maps which have their own difficulty and resources.

This would not be a problem in and off itself if it were not for the fact that this process is extremely dull in the game. None of the building you engage in feels like it accomplishes anything besides increasing numbers in a spreadsheet. Everything feels far too abstract as resources and even services like police and clinics do not provide anything more to gameplay than simply satisfying a demand for security or healthcare. In other city building games, these services would provide some use to the prepared or paranoid player in staving off or mitigating some disaster. Instead, if your city is found to be lacking in doctors or police then your citizens will simply leave.

Another aspect which slows down the gameplay significantly is the fact that most construction options are locked off at the start. Major roads, industries, and even police stations are locked off until the city reaches an arbitrary number of citizens. This does force the player to pace themselves and stops the civic budget from being blown out too quickly, but it also means that your first hour or so is going to be zoning and rezoning housing and industry at the same density level (because higher density zoning is ALSO locked off). This aspect of the game makes the process a lot less fun for me.

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One interesting mechanic which the game introduces and has kept from its original design as an MMO is the ability to build various famous landmarks. To try and break the monotony of my game, I decided I attempt construction of Himeji castle in my little European farming town. Building a landmark goes through three stages with each requiring different resources to complete. My city did not have enough resources of a particular type but by trading resources, I would be able to build it anyway.

Due to my developed agricultural industry, I was able to trade food for access to highly trained executive professionals. I was excited to finally have a concrete area into which I could deploy the resources I produced or bought into building something which wasn’t just another residential neighbourhood or office block. The game informed me that it would take a number of hours to complete the project in its entirety and I believe this was a holdover from when the game was originally designed as an MMO (since your city would continue to function after you logged off). As construction got under way, I continued to develop my industrial base (which was largely just farms and offices). When I had extra tokens I could trade, the trading window thus decided to negate my previous import deals when I attempted to import in more specialist tokens.

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A pop-up informed me that I did not have a sufficient income to confirm the deal and that my imports in other areas would be cut back to save money. Why the designers thought it would then be apt to renege on my other deals rather than just blocking my new attempt to import more is beyond me. My attempts to renegotiate my previous deals came to no avail as evidently, the representatives of the megacorporation took offence at my ignorance of trading mechanics and thus refused to supply the same way they did before. I was quite confused by this sudden turn of events but didn’t worry too long as the game crashed soon after. It was at this point that I felt I had invested enough time in the game.

Visuals

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This game is not anything spectacular to look at. When zoomed out, the buildings and cityscape appear quite dull. To further highlight the repetitive nature of early game, most of your city will look the same as building models repeat simply due to the high volume of low density buildings you need to put down. I guess this could be a comment upon the cookie-cutter nature of suburban life, but it would still feel like your city is bland and lifeless. These models also sometimes don’t match up with the building description as I found a ‘grocery’ which had an Irish pub as its model. The textures up close do not endear themselves to me either as they appear to be rough and unfinished.

The interfaces for various menus in the game are an anomaly amongst spreadsheets. They are capable of both flooding me with a deluge of information while also being Spartan enough to not have the specific detail which I’m looking for. Navigating between various overlays to see what’s going on in your city is similarly counter-intuitive and clunky.

Audio

I did enjoy the soundtrack to Cities XXL. The songs were a variety of soothing new-age sounding tracks to accompany the serenity of laying out grids on a map. After all the time I spent in the game and listening to them numerous times; I don’t find these songs to be irritating (so that’s a point in its favour). Nonetheless, the music is largely forgettable.

Overall

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I cannot help but state that I am disappointed with this title. It was difficult for me to gain any enjoyment from it. It largely feels like an unfinished product with many jagged edges which needed more time to be polished. The city I built felt like it had no vibrancy or character to it as its citizens and industry felt far too abstract. Couple this lifelessness with an unattractive aesthetic and you’ll end up with a city builder simulation that simply isn’t fun to play. There are plenty of better titles in this genre which are more deserving of your time and money.

2-5-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

GTA V Heists and PC Release Dates Announced

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It seems like there is never a shortage of new content for Rockstar‘s Grand Theft Auto V. Every few weeks new online missions and user-created game modes seem to surface. Now, There is even more reason to play the award-winning criminal simulator, with the highly anticipated Online Heists and PC release date finally being announced.

Heists will be a playable part of the game from March 10th, when you will be able to engage in an insane 4-player cooperative gameplay experience, giving players the chance to team up to pull off a string of intense, multi-part raids and robberies across Los Santos and Blaine County.

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PC owners can rejoice too, as their copy of the game will finally be available both at retail and as a digital download on April 14th. What secrets will be uncovered and how big will the PC community be? Only time will tell!

In addition to the announcements, we also have a couple screenshots of the game to share with you, so check them out below and remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Grand Theft Auto news as it becomes available.

You’ll be Dying for this Dying Light Collector’s Edition

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So you know how just about every game that gets released nowadays has an exclusive collectors edition (or even multiple different editions)? You shell out a few bucks more and you might get an art book, or a steel case to house your game in and the publishers get a little extra cash in their pockets. Well the guys at Techland and Warner Bros. have gone absolutely bonkers with this idea and introduced the one of a kind “My Apocalypse” edition of Dying Light for the not-so-meager price of £250,000.

Ok so now I have given you a moment to catch your breath, and contemplate WHY you would spend that much on Dying Light(or any video game for that matter) I will tell you. You get four copies of the game, each in a sexy steel book, real-life parkour lessons and some exclusive merchendise. Hm, I think I’m forgetting something… Oh right! You also get a god damned House!

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Click to for full-size

The house comes fully fortified and ready to fend off even the biggest zombie horde, and the four copies of the game are great until the apocalypse hits and there’s no power to run your game console. This is definitely extravagant, but it isn’t unheard of – Grid 2 had a special edition that came with a car.

Project CARS Career Mode Detailed in New Video Series

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The first in a new series of videos describing the wide list of features in Project CARS, Bandai Namco have released an in depth look at the games Career mode including a look at the main menu, initiating the mode and how players can freely progress in nearly anyway they like. Players will be able to gain love on social media, appear in news stories and then use these accolades as leverage to gain sponsorship deals and the like. It definitely looks impressive and it’s pretty amazing that everything shown in this video is only related to one of four game modes.

Those looking to get their hands on Project CARS will have to wait a little longer thanks to yet another near release delay. The game is now releasing on April 2nd for the PS4, Xbox One, PC with a Wii U version also planned for release this year. You can watch the detailed developer video below.

 

Discotek Media Reveals ‘Castle of Cagliostro’ Blu-ray Details, Other April Releases

Discotek Media recently took to their Facebook page to reveal their April 2015 release schedule and the details of their upcoming Collectors’ Edition Blu-ray release of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1979 theatrical film, Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro.

All of the following titles are set for an April 28, 2015 release (all prices are in US dollars):

  • Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro Blu-ray – RRP $29.95
  • Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (Season One) Collection DVD – RRP $39.95
  • Samurai Troopers TV Series Collection DVD – RRP $59.95
  • Samurai Pizza Cats Collection DVD (reissue) – RRP $49.95

Discotek revealed that the Castle of Cagliostro release will come in a slipcase, which will feature alternate artwork to the Blu-ray cover. It will feature a mini art poster inside. The Blu-ray will be coded for Region A only.

Sentai Filmworks Licenses ‘Knights of Sidonia’, Discusses Release Details

Sentai Filmworks has just announced its latest acquisition: the home video rights to the 2014 Knights of Sidonia anime. It will be available on DVD and Blu-ray soon. Following this announcement, Sentai Filmworks held a Q&A session on Twitter. Here are the main statements they made:

  • There will be a collectors’ edition containing “exclusive content and other goodies”. The box set will also contain extra exclusive art.
  • The original U.S. English dub of the series will be included.
  • The release will feature a Japanese 5.1 audio track and an exclusive English 5.1 mix. A Spanish language track will be included, along with English, Spanish and French subtitles.
  • They acquired exclusive alternate angles, which can be considered as Director’s Cuts for each episode.
  • Other on-disc extras will include behind the scenes and footage from the creator’s Japanese Q&A panel and the Advanced Screening.

The release date for the DVD, Blu-ray and Collectors’ Edition DVD/Blu-ray combo-pack is June 9, 2015.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse Review

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Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: February 26th, 2015
Price: $99.99 AU – Available Here /$59.99 US– Available Here

Overview

Dragon Ball Xenoverse was announced by Bandai Namco early last year who promised to bring Dragon Ball to next gen consoles and for the first time, the PC platform. They also promised an original story and often teased us with trailers and screenshots featuring a mystery fighter who would later be revealed to be a product of the first expansive character creator to feature in a mainstream Dragon Ball title. To raise the hype even further, Xenoverse also marked the return of Dimps, the studio behind the praised Budokai titles from the PS2 era. With all this pressure does Dragon Ball Xenoverse manage to live up to its expectations? Read on to find out.

Story

Warning there are slight spoilers ahead but nothing that hasn’t been covered in previous news. Sort of new villains Mira and Towa are upsetting the normal flow of time to gather energy for some unknown reason. The Supreme Kai of Time and Trunks from the Future have summoned your created character to be a Time Patrol Warrior and go back in time to make sure history plays out as it should. Because of these events main villains and even allies often come under an evil spell that increases their power and forces you to fight them. A more sinister evil is also lurking in the shadows.

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Towa and Mira are looking to cause trouble in the past!

For the most part, Dragon Ball Z fans will get a kick out of the story. Sure it is fairly poorly written, power levels are fairly inconsistent with the show (particularly your created character) and I am sure someone could poke a lot of holes in the story (there is a sequence towards the end that will have you just saying ‘what the…’), but if you just take it for what it is the story is a fun ride and the references and few plot twists that occur are enjoyable as are some of the more light hearted moments. Needless to say, those who don’t know the show well are going to be very confused as to what exactly is going on as entire story arcs are skipped, characters come out of nowhere and there are often references to events you don’t see in the game.

While the story is different in parts, this is basically the original story with your own created character thrown into the battles especially in the games earlier stages. Don’t expect any branching paths to occur as this is an all linear story. That being said it is refreshing to have a change of pace and perspective from the regular Dragon Ball story mode we have seen in the past, especially for those who have been playing these games for a long time now. There are no difficulty options however the difficulty scales as you continue the story and if you complete a few parallel quest in between missions to level up or bring some items into battle you should be fine.

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If Vegeta saved a pudding will Beerus get mad? Changes like this keep the player on their toes.

The in game cutscenes here, particularly the ones that show a preview of the changes in the saga are very well done. Sadly the same can’t be said about the anime like cutscenes which look very cheap and poorly drawn as is the intro. Some cutscene transitions that take place mid battle are also awkward, where say you might be fighting Nappa and then when he reaches a certain damage point a cutscene initiates and Nappa is suddenly in an entirely different outfit to what he was a second ago.

Apart from the main story, there are over 50 parallel quests that all contain their own mini story and are normally based upon what if scenarios such as Guldo taking the admission test for the Ginyu Force or the Saiyans revolting against Frieza. Many of these stories have you fighting alongside those who are normally enemies and you can pick any combination of teammates you wish. These add some great variety to the game and each mission includes bonus conditions you can complete for better drops. These Quests have a lot of dialogue occur during them which is often personalized according to who is on your team or who you are fighting, and characters will also comment on your created characters race which is a nice touch.

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Over 50 Parallel Quests provide lots of dialogue between characters.

Gameplay

To be blunt, the fighting is good but a fair ways off being perfect. I would place the depth of the fighting engine at a little less than halfway between the Tenkaichi series and the old 2D Budokai fighters. We now have two attack buttons for light and heavy attacks which can be charged to gain guard break status. There are standard ki blast that can be rapid fired by holding down circle and can also be fired while moving. Throws are back (and look great) and there is also a strong knock away attack you can perform by holding both attack buttons. You can lock on to your enemy and switch between targets with a flick of the right stick. The lock on system works well although on some occasions your attacks won’t launch in the direction you intended.

Movement feels great as you fly about the arena and you can also ascend and descend at will. Defensively you can block, parry (which requires practice and timing), or teleport which requires a fair chunk of stamina if you are not guarding. Each character also has an escape move they can perform for a high stamina cost, although it seems the CPU in story mode isn’t limited by that restriction. The defensive and offensive options can lead to some pretty interesting back and forth during fights which makes up the core of the combat along with combos.

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Combat is solid however there is room for improvement.

Stringing combos together is fun and players can teleport after a combo to ‘ping pong’ their opponent and catch them with another combo if they time it right and have enough stamina. The strings are easy to perform and can also lead into super attacks or ultimate’s pretty safely if you have enough ki. The system is very easy for beginner’s to get into as they can mash square all day and perform some cool looking attacks. For those that want to push the fighting system to its limits you will probably do so relatively quickly and unfortunately, you may not be satisfied with the level of depth offered here once you do.

While the fighting is good the character creation feature is hands down the games biggest draw. Players can create their own Human, Saiyan, Namek, Frieza Race or Majin Buu character (with applicable races having a female/male option) and change nearly everything from hair, facial features, height, body mass, tops, pants, shoes, accessories and even voice. The number of clothing options is stunning, with some clothes and accessories taken from pretty obscure characters such as Korin’s staff or Uub’s clothes from the end of Dragon Ball Z. The same can also be said for special attacks. There are definitely some weird exclusions such as the inability to change your aura or have a Saiyan with a tail or even change the colour of the clothes you unlock unless it is an original costume for the game, but these are minor complaints in the wake of a very well done character creation system.

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Dress as serious… or silly as you like!

The RPG leveling system is simple yet solid, allowing you to increase 3 points in any of the 6 stats each level up allowing you to build a character that suits your play style may that be rush down, ki management, defensive etc. A great feature Dimps added is the ability for your own created character to have up to 8 alternate outfits which can easily be switched between so you can make different move sets and outfits that suit different missions or battle types and easily switch between them in Toki Toki City or at the character select screen.

Apart from fighting, players will be spending most of their time in the hub world of Toki Toki City, running between the three sectors, buying clothes, interacting with others, taking on missions and more. This is a great hub world and although a quick travel menu might have been appreciated, running through the city seeing everyone else’s Time Patrol warrior is pretty cool and lets you see accessories and costumes you haven’t unlocked yourself yet. You can also find mentors such as Vegeta or Piccolo (and 10 others) that give you unique missions and skills once you complete them as well some characters that will give you gifts. I imagine a lot of people will have heaps of fun goofing around doing one of the 40 poses you can do in the city.

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Seeing the creativity in Toki Toki City is definitely an experience.

The game has a wealth of online options. You can complete any of the Parallel Quests alongside two others in online co-op (an offline mode is also available with A.I. partners) and there is also online vs. which allows up to 6 players to fight at once in two teams of three, as well as standard ranked one on one. There is a World Tournament Mode that also lets others spectate as well as player matches up to 3 vs. 3 and 1 on 1 ranked matches. Unfortunately many cheap strategies are being utilized already but Bandai Namco have shown willingness to patch such issues, already releasing a patch to help stop one popular exploit.

Visuals

The graphics in this game won’t blow anyone away but they are the best graphics seen in a Dragon Ball game to date. The character models are a highlight, being well detailed and on point to what the character’s look like in the show. Super attacks are another strong point, with ki attacks like the Kamehameha being fun to pull off and looking devastating. Some strike attacks are also visually impressive, particularly the Super God Fist which gives a great close up of your fist connecting with your opponents face and the impact looks flawless.

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Xenoverse features the best character models in a DBZ game to date.

Stages are big and look pretty good but are a far cry from what they could like with the power of next gen consoles. The cel shading on the stages isn’t as good as it is on the main cast and water looks flat and barely makes a splash when characters come in and out of it, making me question why they bothered including water in stages at all. The 21 stage roster is probably the best we have had in a Dragon Ball game to date and accurately captures locales from the show.

Stage destruction is limited to smashing only through certain rocks and buildings and while seeing a myriad of small craters appear on a building after a barrage of ki blast is awesome, the damage unfortunately fades away after a second. I do give the developers props for finally incorporating dynamic damage into the maps though. Small ki blast give off a nice explosion when they connect while larger ki attacks such as the Spirit Bomb feel pretty empty and lifeless on impact with the opponent which makes me miss the cinematic ultimate attacks we have had in past games.

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Dynamic damage looks cool but unfortunately it doesn’t stick around.

For the most part combat does look good although it does have a slightly ‘stiff’ feel to it and can sometimes look pretty clunky as characters tend to get stuck in their hit animations, particularly at the top of the stages, or get sent flying by a kick that clearly didn’t connect. That is not to say I ever felt cheated by a hit box, it’s just the way the combat looks at times. This is in no way caused by performance issues, as I have yet to experience a single frame drop in my entire time with the game which is impressive as the game runs at full 1080p. The game runs at 30FPS on PS4 (it will run at 60 on PC) however it is very smooth and I can’t imagine anyone having an issue with the performance.

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Dodgy hit connections such as this one lessen the experience a little.

Another flaw with the visuals is that mouths don’t move at all a lot of the time while characters are talking or just hang open without any movement while a character is yelling either during a mid battle cutscene or transformation. This makes characters look ridiculous at times and takes away a bit from the fantastic models. On a similar note, your created characters hair will not spike up when they turn Super Saiyan which in my eyes is a blatant disregard of the source material. The number of hairstyles is fairly limited and the traits of a Super Saiyan are one of the most recognisable sights in anime history, so the issue definitely deserved the attention of the developers in my opinion.

Audio

Audio is definitely one of the biggest mixed bags in this title, with a host of volume and sound effect problems that bring down the voice acting, variety and soundtrack. Players will most likely find the background music for battles much too quiet among all the sound effects, but luckily Dimps has given us separate controls over the volume of music, sound effects and voices. I found having music at 80% and sound effects at 40% was a good fix.

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Unfortunately the sound effects are on par with what Videl’s face is feeling right now.

While the volume issue is an easy fix, the games sound effects are easily it’s biggest let down. From being overused to just poor sounding or even missing, the sound effects fail to emulate the sound of the show as past titles have done. The ‘big hit’ sound that sounds similar to a home run bat smash in Smash Bros. is the biggest offender and accommodates way too many attacks. Some actions have no sound effect such as when you perform a recovery off the ground after being knocked down. A lot of big ki attacks sound identical and don’t replicate the sounds they made in the anime. A Supernova from Frieza sounds just like the Kamehameha for instance. There are also some strange audio errors such as Goku acting like he’s about to fight Yamcha when he comes up against Beerus for example.

As for the voice acting for the most part it is really good apart from a few nuances (Trunk’s practically yelling HEY! to you every time you speak with him for example). Funimation dub fans will be happy to see some original voice actors returning for certain roles such as Android 18, Perfect Cell and Jeice who have reverted to sounding like they did in Dragon Ball Z as opposed to the Kai dub. The entire cast give great performances apart from a few awkwardly or halfheartedly delivered lines here and there. The voices chosen for Towa, Mira and Demigra are both very well chosen and acted. Fans of the Japanese voice cast will be pleased to find the voice toggle option available from the menu right at the start.

Meredith McCoy is back as Android 18 and sounds as good as ever.

Another highlight is the soundtrack, which is definitely one of the stronger mixes for a Dragon Ball game we have seen in recent years. The music does a great job of conveying tone in the story mode and accommodating battles apart from a few strange choices where more relaxed songs are played during seemingly intense fights. While still composed mainly of electric guitar riffs there is a healthy mix of techno, violin and more epic sounding boss like music mixed in to add some variety.

Overall

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is one of the most inspired Dragon Ball titles in a long time however it is not without its flaw and mediocrities. The biggest draw card no doubt is the create a character option, which provides massive variety in how you customise your warrior. The story is refreshing for long time fans but does feel disjointed. The fighting system is fun and accessible but those looking for true depth will look elsewhere. The graphics shine in some areas and are just O.K. in others and while the music and voice acting is solid the sound effects really let down the entire audio package. Dragon Ball Z fans will no doubt love the game despite it’s inconsistencies and lack of polish but there may be just enough wrong with Xenoverse that makes it hard to recommend for those who are simply curious about the franchise.

7-5-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.