In about a month and a half The Awakened Fate Ultimatum will be released for the PlayStation 3 and recently NIS America released a new batch of screenshots as well as a set of trailers for the upcoming title. These trailers introduce the story as well as the two girls that the player will have to choose the fate of throughout the story.
You see, in The Awakened Fate Ultimatum players take on the role of Shin Kamikaze who is killed by a group of demons flying in the sky. In his last moments he witnesses an angel descending to fight off the demons and take him to Celestia where he is saved thanks to the “Awakened Fate” crystal which has given him the power of a god.
Today Viz Media has released Coppelion on Blu-ray and DVD in North America. This release comes with all thirteen episodes of the series all featuring a brand new English dub as well as the original Japanese voice track. Coppelion will be available as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack that costs $69.99 U.S./$81.99 CAN.
The combo pack will feature an illustrated chipboard box to contain the series as well as on-disc bonuses in the form of a production art gallery, clean opening and ending themes, and the original trailers for the series. Coppelion follows three genetically modified schoolgirls that are part of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force as they operate in a world where the capital of Japan is now a wasteland and it is their job to try and rescue anyone who is left behind.
Indie Gala and Capsule Computers are giving bummed out Seattle Seahawks fans something to make them feel better. The Indie GalaEvery Monday Bundle #45 is packing six indie games for less than the cost of a drink at your fancy coffee shop.
Akane the Kunoichi – Akane is a ninja on a quest to rescue her master Goro. She must conquer 15 stages using 3 special ninja techniques to save her one true love.
Black Viper: Sophia’s Fate– Sophia is a police officer by day and a cat thief by night. Her day job has tasked her to investigate a murder, but she will need her talents as a thief to crack the case in this hidden object adventure.
Fabula Mortis– A first person shooter inspired by fairy tales and steampunk.
Fat Chicken– A reverse tower defense game that will have players leading their animals to the slaughter house, while attempting to fatten their value along the way.
Shadows of War– An RTS with a really slick visual design, Shadows of War is taking the genre 2D.
Yury– A challenging platformer inspired by the merciless old school platformer.
For the first 24 hours of the sale, the bundle can be purchased for $1.49. Head on over to Indie Gala to buy your copy.
Project CARS promises to be one of the biggest love letters to car and racing culture ever released for the video game world, with Slightly Mad Studios putting an impressive amount of work into all aspects of the game, particularly the car models. Publisher Bandai Namco has released a number of new screenshots showing off cars you are more likely to see in someone’s driveway rather than on a track, showing off the impressive variety of cars in the game.
Alongside these new screens, a feature list for the game has also been revealed which you can view in full below.
A huge variety of motorsports and reflected car culture with relevant rules and formats
The largest track roster of any recent racing game
A freeform career mode that allows you to choose your own path with Historic Goals to earn, Accolades to win, Endorsements to sign, and Invitations to receive
Competitive online with features such as ‘join in progress’ and invite-only sessions
Fully-dynamic weather and time of day
Race weekends including warmup sessions, practices, qualifying, and two-race format
Pit stops and pit strategy creation for different scenarios and events (eg.. endurance)
Deep tuning setup creation
Asynchronous play via the Driver Network – Time Trial mode with downloadable ghosts and regularly-scheduled Community Events
Save and share your proudest moments with photos and replays
Player tailoring and accessibility features – dial the game to your own particular skill and comfort level
Playable either at a cinematic 12K resolution or on a more intimate scale with Oculus Rift. Project Morpheus, or nVidia Shield
Support for over 40 different wheels and peripherals
Second screen support via apps created by the community through the Project CARS API
Project CARS is releasing on March 17th for PC, PS4 and Xbox One while Wii U and Steam OS/Linux versions have only a 2015 release date. A new trailer was also released recently which you can check out below.
The Battlefield series is a staple of the gaming scene with the original Battlefield 1942 coming out well over a decade ago. The series has been a mainstay of multiplayer FPS action with players fighting across various historical such as the battles of World War 2 and Vietnam to the not-so historical settings of a near-future Earth. The latest instalment developed by Visceral Games and published by EA takes a very different turn in the series with the players taking on the roles of heavily armed criminals fighting heavily armed police. At a press event in Sydney, I was able to get some hands-on time with Battlefield: Hardline. Read on to find out what I thought about the game in the short couple of hours I was given to mess around in the Beta build (which will be coming out shortly) on a PS4.
Firstly, you might be happy to know that the old Battlefield formula is most certainly present. Players still play as one of two teams in a match (Insert joke about ‘cops and robbers’) and old familiar games modes like ‘conquest’ are still available for fans of the series. In this mode, players attempt to capture points around the map which causes the enemy ‘tickets’ to count down until they lose. The new setting doesn’t particularly come into play as the teams of law breakers and enforcers largely play mechanically identical. It’s not surprising that the dev team hasn’t messed around with these mechanics too much as it’s a design which works and has proven popular in the past. I had some concerns about this formula becoming stale but from what I’ve been able to experience so far, the game has certainly shaken things up in a noticeable way.
In a presentation given to us before we jumped into the game, Scott Probst (Senior Producer), highlighted three key aspects which Visceral was aiming to overhaul in this title: Story, Strategy, and Speed. As this was a multiplayer only Beta, I was not able to see much of the Story. From the trailer, it appears to be drawing upon the style of police action movies such as Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II. The strategy aspect largely revolves around the specialist equipment you can use to alter your traversal of the map… sometimes through wanton destruction. The last aspect, speed, was certainly on display in the build we were playing and altered the gameplay in a fairly significant way from the standard Battlefield formula.
One of the game modes, ‘Hotwired’, exemplified this new focus as the objective of mode was similar to conquest in that we would be capturing points and forcing the enemy tickets to countdown. The main difference in this mode is that the points are themselves various vehicles which the players have to capture and drive around in. This creates a very interesting dynamic as the action follows the vehicles as they drive around the map due to the fact that the vehicles do not count as ‘hotwired’ unless the player driving it is maintaining a minimum speed. The action ends up moving quickly through the urban and suburban environments as players speed through the streets trying to hold on their mobile victory point or on the flipside; trying to blow up the oppositions captured vehicles.
Both sides get a number of vehicles to play with as they speed towards and around the city. They include: sports cars, muscle cars, squad cars, helicopters, motorbikes, and unmarked vans. For players with a more suicidal/happy-go-lucky streak, there is also the option to drive around in a tank truck (which also happens to be one of the objective vehicles). To quote Jeff Zaring (Lead Multiplayer Map Designer) when asked to explain what the thinking was behind the tanker vehicle was: “Here’s a bomb, get in and drive”. During play, the tanker did prove to be popular amongst the assembled press in spite of its volatile nature sub-par handling.
Another fun aspect of this mode was the opportunity for players to lean out the windows of speeding vehicles and fire wildly at each other. This gameplay felt very much like being in a scene in an over-the-top action movie like Hot Fuzz or the aforementioned Bad Boys II. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the game due to its fast pace and the relative ease with which a player can join this action by directly spawning into a vehicle at the scene.
One quandary I encountered from others on my team was that the vehicles handled in a strange way and I agreed with that sentiment to some extent as the controls reacted in an unusual manner (compared to racing games on the PS4). I personally felt that this gripe would largely be overcome with more time to get used to the controls and handling of vehicles in the game. Overall, however, I found this new aspect of the game to be a refreshing change in this instalment and I enjoyed this mode the most out of the three I was able to play.
The last mode I was able to play was a ‘Bank Heist’ mode. This was an interesting twist upon a standard ‘capture the flag’ mode with each team taking on the role defender and attacker in a fairly dynamic and fluid way. The criminal team starts out attacking a vault filled with loot, which they then have to carry to a drop off point, and then defend the point for 5 seconds before successfully delivering the loot to a dangling rope from a helicopter. The map is significantly smaller and more intimate (compared to the other modes) which helps to keep the players close to the action from spawn to imminent/pointless death.
Overall, I enjoyed the time I was able to play around in Battlefield: Hardline. As a fan of earlier instalments in the series, it was good to step back into familiar territory. There are significant parts of the game which have remained the same (classes, gameplay modes, etc) but the aspects which have been added in with this instalment do provide an interesting twist on the old formats. I would recommend curious parties to check the game out themselves when the Beta is available.
Pokémon XY is adapted from the video games by Hidenori Kusaka with art by Satoshi Yamamoto. It follows a different plot that was inspired by the original games. Other video games in the Pokémon series, including some spin-offs, have been adapted into single-volume or multiple-volume series, for example the Black & White manga release listed above is just one of many adaptations of the games. Although it is is not stated in the listing for any of the releases, some alterations have been made in the past to the Pokémon manga, so it is not clear whether or not any of the particular releases listed above are unedited, outside of the known changes to names of both human and Pokémon characters.
NetherRealm Studios has slowly been revealing the roster of Mortal Kombat X and so far many fan favorites have already been revealed including the most recent reveal of Reptile. Well now the company has revealed that Ermac will once again be entering the fray when Mortal Kombat X is released or the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC on April 14th.
Below you will see just how different Ermac will look in Mortal Kombat X as well as a glance at a few of his abilities, revealing that many of his telekinetic moves and fatalities will remain part of his moveset.
MangaGamer has recently released their latest English translated visual novel eden* and eden* Plus Mosaic on Steam and their own website. Now Steam only has the standard eden* while MangaGamer is selling both versions, with eden* Plus Mosaic being the 18+ version of the game.
It is worth noting that eden* Plus Mosaic does cost a bit more, as its standard price is $24.95 compared to eden*’s selling price of $19.95 but it is also worth mentioning that for the next week both titles will be on sale, with eden* Plus Mosaic now priced at $14.97 at MangaGamer’s Adult Storeand eden* at $9.97 through MangaGamerand $9.99 through Steam. It is worth noting that every purchase of eden* will also go towards funding minori’s other PC visual novel Supipara and more details about that project can be found on the official website here.
Also for those who are more interested in Yaoi (Boys Love) then you will be happy to hear that MangaGamer has also opened up pre-orders for their very first yaoi title No, Thank You!!! which will go on sale on February 27th. Those who pre-order the game early will be able to own the title at a 10% discount from the standard $39.95 selling price. Those interested in pre-ordering can do so here. (18+)
Dying Light is the third zombie FPS from Techland, the developers behind Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide. Dying Light takes the melee zombie FPS gameplay from Techland’s previous titles and mixes it with a new free running mechanic. The game is set in the fictional city of Harran, Turkey. The city is under quarantine after a virus triggers a zombie outbreak in the middle of an international athletics competition. Kyle Crane parachutes into the city in hopes of recovering a vital document in the hands of a rogue element.
Story
After the city of Harran is put under quarantine, the Global Relief Effort (GRE) begins organizing aid for the survivors of the zombie outbreak. Kadir Sulaiman is in possession of important documents that the GRE is eager to recover. Kyle Crane is hired to parachute into the city, recover the documents, and get out cleanly. His plans are quickly derailed when he is ambushed and infected with the zombie virus. Crane soon becomes attached to his rescuers who are currently in a battle of survival against the thuggish dictator Rais. Crane’s mission quickly goes awry as he is no longer able to balance his original mission goals and his loyalty to his rescuers.
Techland has crafted a good story with Dying Light. The twists and turns are a bit predictable, but are not enough to detract from the story. The characters are interesting and there are some really memorable minor characters that gave me a good laugh. I believe Rais is a bit of a shallow villain that deserves some a little more character development. The ending of the game provided more character development for Rais in five minutes than the previous five hours. Even with the few hiccups, Dying Light provides an entertaining story that keeps the game moving.
Gameplay
Parkour and free running mechanics have been experimented with in first person shooters for some time now. There are plenty of examples of games that have fallen flat on its face and others who have elevated the mechanic to new heights. Dying Light has provided one of the best implementations of free running from a first person view so far. The control scheme is simple enough to feel intuitive and movement flows well. Running across the rooftops, climbing stomach turning heights, and leaping from ledge to ledge happens as smoothly as running from point A to point B on the ground in most first person shooters.
The great parkour mechanics is complimented with Dying Light’s level design. There are two visually distinct areas in the game. The slums are filled with shacks, cheap buildings, and industrial sectors that provide an urban jungle gym to explore. The old town, on the other hand, is a towering city inspired by The Renaissance. There are probably hundreds of possible routes through areas both on and off the ground. Some ideal routes are subtly hinted out with red cables, spray painted arrows, and ramps to run off, but players are encouraged to choose their own path through the obstacles.
Dead Island veterans will be at home, as Dying Light’s DNA has Dead Island written all over it. The multitude of melee weapons, crafting blueprints, and rarity system make their return, but Techland has made some excellent tweaks to the system. Each weapon has a limited number of repair slots that will allow the wielder restore the weapon’s durability. These slots are limited by the weapon’s rarity. Player skills can slow the durability decay or randomly not consume a repair slot. Weapons have two sets of upgrades. Blueprint modification will add damage along with some elemental effects. Weapon mods can be found scattered around Harran and add a stat boost. Special combat abilities can be purchased with combat skill points.
Dying Light’s combat is a bloody good time. The game is full of zombie dismemberment and plenty of gore. It encourages players to be agile and engage in melee combat as much as possible. There is ample ammunition in the game and plenty of opportunity to get into gun fights with Rais’ thugs, but gunfire will draw the attention of more powerful zombies. This can quickly worsen the situation, especially at night when volatiles roam around. There is a good mix of special zombies that are slowly introduced, which build a more challenging experience as the game progresses.
The levelling system uses three separate experience points for the three skill trees. Delivering supplies, completing missions, and helping survivors will provide players with utility oriented abilities. Players will also earn agility and combat levels from simply free running around and getting into fights. Agility levels will give players both dextrous combat abilities and new ways to traverse the terrain. Combat levels will provide new abilities and an extra bump in toughness for the player. I really like how agility levels and combat levels are separated from survivor levels. It feels like a more natural way of improving the Kyle’s abilities, as Kyle becomes a better traceur by practicing those skills instead of completing missions.
Dying Light is probably at its best at night. While the players rule the day, the night is owned by aggressive, fast, and powerful zombies called volatiles. It is possible to win a fight against a few of these powerful zombies with a few well prepared friends, but these battles almost always end with a heart pounding sprint through the city once the number of volatiles become overwhelming. Exploring at night is a risky experience, but players are rewarded with double agility and combat experience plus bonus survivor and agility points for surviving the evening and escaping pursuers.
Multiplayer comes in two flavours in Dying Light. The base experience is four player co-op. The co-operative element is interspersed with optional competitions based on the players’ current area. Players interested in participating can opt into the competition, with the winner being awarded with extra experience points. These competitions can range from killing as many zombies as possible to collecting the most valuable loot in a short period of time. The most fun competitions are races that challenge player’s free running abilities, hands down, as the large variety of routes through an area provide a pure skill challenge.
The final element of Dying Light’s multiplayer is the Be the Zombie mode. Originally a pre-order bonus and paid DLC, Be the Zombie mode is now available to all owners. Players can allow player controlled zombie invasions in their multiplayer game settings, allowing a competing player to control the Night Hunter. The Night Hunter is a quick but fragile monster that is capable of zipping around with its tendrils and pouncing on unsuspecting players. Like the volatiles, the Night Hunter is vulnerable to UV light. Take a blast of UV light and the Night Hunter’s energy bar drops, preventing it from pouncing on more players and eventually locking out the tendrils. I initially started playing with the expectation that the Night Hunter would be balanced against the player, but a couple of rounds of playing the Night Hunter, I soon realized how utterly wrong I was. A competent player on his own has a fighting chance against the fragile Night Hunter. Be the Zombie mode serves as a challenging distraction from the main game.
Visuals
Dying Light looks great. There are plenty of different zombie models and two visually distinct areas. Techland has paid a lot of attention to small details. I really liked seeing how weapons are visually different after repairs. Blades are held together with nuts, bolts, and strips of metal. Broken wooden handles are repaired with strips of metal and tape. Modifications look a little ridiculous, but still provide a distinct, cobbled together look
On the PC hardware side, Dying Light is a solid port. The initial release has been a little rocky with frame rate drops and crashes, but a series of post release patches has solved most of the problems. Dying Light needs a serious computer, as the minimum requirements are hefty. The game demands a powerful CPU with strong per core performance and a lot of VRAM. On the flip side, there are plenty of options to tweak the game, including the motion-sickness preventing FOV options.
Audio
Dying Light provides a strong audio experience. The sound effects are well done and the voice acting is top notch for most of the game. There are a wide variety of accents scattered across Haran, reflecting the varied population that was trapped in the city during the international athletics competition. The zombies have a creepy humanity to them, with almost audible syllables and screams that cut through the usual undead moans. The scoring is tense and always fits the mood.
Overall
Dying Light sets the new standard for first person parkour titles and easily ranks as one of the best zombie FPS games on the market. The audio/visual experience is top notch. The game’s combat is fulfilling and the fluid movement system is a pleasure to use. The night makes Dying Light a thrilling experience. Good night, indeed.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Madman Entertainment has just revealed their list of anime releases scheduled for April 15, 2015. Here is the list in its entirety:
Ben-To series collection – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
Dog & Scissors series collection – on DVD with dual audio
KILL la KILL volume four – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
Log Horizon part two – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
Sailor Moon season one part one – on DVD with dual audio
Sankarea: Undying Love complete collection – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
Spirited Away – on Blu-ray with DTS-MA 5.1 surround Japanese and English audio
The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – on DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio
Madman has not yet confirmed if they will go through with their plan to release Sailor Moon on Blu-ray. The home-video release of Sankarea: Undying Love was delayed back in 2013. This was due to the discovery that FUNimation, the North American licensor and dubber of the anime, was given the censored television broadcast version instead of the unedited version released on home video in Japan. Initially, a replacement program was going to be made available for any customers who purchased the censored version. However, the home video release has been delayed for one-and-a-half years and only just been re-announced.
FUNimation also delayed the home video release of Ben-To due to discovering “inconsistencies associated with the materials used to create the release”. Initially set to be released several months ago, both FUNimation and Madman have delayed their releases of the series until now.
