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Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Review

December 29, 2014

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Aksys Games
Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed)
Release Date: December 16, 2014
Price: $59.99 – Available Here

Overview
Before there were numerous iterations of Blazblue there were countless upgraded releases of the Guilty Gear games. However after the Blazblue series rose to prominence, gamers have had to wait nearly seven years for another proper fighting game in the Guilty Gear series and now that Aksys Games and Arc System Works have brought Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- to the PlayStation 4, is it everything fans have been waiting for?

Story
With a roster featuring as many elaborate and strange characters, a number of which have been in every Guilty Gear title so far, the personalities of the fighters in Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-‘s roster are quite a sight to see. Unfortunately this doesn’t translate especially well into the actual game as most of the personality we see from these characters comes from their interactions with other fighters before and after a match. The standard “Arcade Mode” that features a brief unique cutscene at the beginning and some extra bits of dialogue near the end before closing out with another short cutscene unique to that fighter does very little to explain what is actually about to happen in the story nor does it really delve into the various happenings in the world.

Instead players should take the default Arcade ending as a prologue to the actual story mode which is an almost entirely cinematic experience that plays out more like an anime than anything else. Players will be able to save at any time, but for the most part the story mode is something to sit back and enjoy, especially with how gorgeous the game looks, but more on that later. Most of the enjoyment comes from being able to follow everything that is happening between the characters and the various terms and mythology used throughout.

Thankfully the game features a pull up glossary to explain various terms and give background information of certain events to help fill in some gaps, allowing even newcomers to have some sort of grasp on the story, though chances are even veterans will need to pull it up from time to time for a refresher course. That being said, it would be nice if this cinematic story was broken up in some way similar to how Blazblue occasionally featured the occasional simplistic fight instead of simply placing chapter markers in various places to remind players they can move to the other modes if they wish.

Gameplay
Those who are familiar with the Guilty Gear franchise will immediately be able to recognize that only a few minor adjustments to the game’s mechanics have been made in this title and that means that this is far from an easy title to jump into as there are no auto combos or anything else. As such newer players are almost required to visit the game’s funny but informative tutorial section, but even then a lot of the deeper mechanics are still left to be discovered by the player.

While it may seem a bit simple at first, as players will be using combinations of punches, kicks, slashes, heavy slashes, dusts (launch attacks), and more. These standard attacks are all similar to how one would expect with the slash attacks being more unpredictable and similar to the character’s fighting style. Now while I mentioned that there are no auto combos, there are Gatling Combos that are relatively simple to learn and can be quite useful to newcomers but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

You see, while most special moves make use of quarter circle analog stick moves or half rotations combined with a button press or two that is about as easy as it can be. You see, each special move requires a certain tension meter meaning that players must always act aggressively as defending for too long can not only cause a guard break but also lower your tension gauge. Mixed in with all of these mechanics are two burst types, clashes, instant kills, instant defense, meters to watch, three different types of roman cancels, stuns, blitzing and more.

This means that although players will be able to get by on the minimum if they wish, there are a lot of complicated mechanics happening in almost every battle and unless you learn how to perform them, you’ll find yourself losing more often than not. Though this complication does create some amazing looking matches. Thankfully alongside the aforementioned tutorial, there are various missions and challenges that players can undertake to better learn their favorite characters and the rest of the rosters’ styles meaning that there is plenty to get the player up to speed as long as they try everything out.

As for the roster itself, some will find missing fan favorites to be disappointing as well as the initial roster of fifteen (not counting the two DLC characters, though at the time of this writing Elphelt is still free DLC) fighters, one of which requires a lot of grinding to unlock to be a bit anemic. That being said, quantity doesn’t always equal quality and here we have a game that prioritized quality as each of these fighters have unique fighting styles and are completely different feeling from one another.

Once you feel like you are up to the task, you’ll find a rather fun take on online gameplay. Players can select various lobbies from around the world, including those closest to their home location with each lobby able to contain up to sixty four players. Rooms can be created in these lobbies and while players can choose to search for either ranked matches or join these rooms, the fasted and often most fun option is the latter of the two. If you do search for a ranked match, you will be able to train offline while waiting for an opponent to pop up.

Once you enter a player match room, that can be locked or feature various modifications depending on the room creator, players will be able to either wait or spectate if they wish, but instead of having to wait around you can in fact take part in a match right away most likely. This is because each room features four cabinet style set ups similar to Japanese arcades and you can either choose to sit at an empty one and wait for someone or join someone else and quickly begin a match that has always performed smoothly for me. Combine this with the cross-play between the PlayStation 4 version and the PlayStation 3 version and you’ll always be able find a suitable match in little time.

Visuals
The most outstanding aspect of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is in the graphics department and that is because the developers really knocked it out of the park with this one. By creating 3D models on a 2D plane, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is easily the best looking 2D fighting game I have ever seen and likely will be for quite some time as it will be hard to top the blended style of the Guilty Gear franchise with the superb animation techniques used with these characters.

With a slew of varied backgrounds for these fights to take place against, every fight is gorgeously presented. Even the camera moves around dynamically whenever a special move is performed and lands and if you happen to nail an insta-kill attack then prepare for a gorgeously designed finishing attack. The entire game feels almost like an anime, especially when you consider that these exact same animation techniques are then transferred into the story mode as well as the fact that the title never experiences any slowdown on the PlayStation 4, even when the fanciest techniques are flying across the screen.

Audio
Thankfully Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- features the original Japanese voice track to go along with the English voice track. I say that because, unfortunately, most of the English voice work sounds terrible by most standards with only the occasional character sounding decent. As such players will likely prefer listening to the original Japanese voice track for everything outside of a middle of a battle, since that is the only time subtitles are not automatically present.

One of the things that the Guilty Gear series has always been known for is its rock soundtrack and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- lives up to that legacy by featuring some amazing sounding tracks used to make every battle feel faster paced than ever before. If there is anything to complain bout here, is that it feels like the list of tracks in the game is actually lower than previous titles, but what is offered here is quite excellent.

Overall
Guilty Gear fans have had to wait for a long time but the wait has been worth it as Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is one of the best 2D fighters in a long time. With breathtakingly gorgeous visuals that we have never seen implemented in a fighting game and fast paced combat that is everything fans loved, the only thing that fans could ask for are some of their favorite characters back. While not very newcomer friendly, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- should be a must-have for any fighting game fan this new generation.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Review

Nathan Farrugia

December 29, 2014

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release Date: December 4th, 2014
Price: $39.99 USD – Available Here / $69.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix is a follow up to last years HD remaster collection 1.5 ReMIX which contained the first Kingdom Hearts, RE: Chain of Memories and a movie length feature comprising of cutscenes that summarised the story of the DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. 2.5 ReMIX continues the trend offering the Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts 2, the Final Mix version of Birth By Sleep and a summarised version of yet another DS game in Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded. Does this new collection manage to retain the magic of the original titles? Read on to find out.

Story – Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix

The story of Kingdom Hearts 2 follows on from the events of Re:Chain of Memories and the first Kingdom Hearts games with lots of subtle and larger call backs to events that took place within those games and others in the series. Flashbacks and journal entries help explain the events of the first two games, however it is recommended to have at least played through KH1 and maybe Chain of Memories to see the story unfold for yourself. You can also play through 358/2 Days before or after which will give you a completely different understanding of Roxas’ character and the events that occurred before he ended up in Twilight Town.

Kingdom Hearts is your basic good versus evil story (more light versus darkness in this case) but many of the characters sport complex personalities and motives which give real depth to this character driven narrative. It’s hard not to be intrigued by the curiosities of Roxas or root for the kindhearted Sora and his lovable sidekicks Donald and Goofy. When these characters have to make tough decisions it worries you how it will affect those involved and that marks the sign of a great story. A strong sense of mystery keeps you playing to find out the next answer and the narrative loves to hide the true identity of characters, particularly the games antagonist group Organization XIII.

Unfortunately Kingdom Hearts 2 has a very slow start and it will take you about 3 hours before you complete the prologue and get to the main part of the adventure. Some of the sections in the prologue are fun such as the struggle tournament and heading into the mansion, however there is also a lot of boring stuff too such as money farming in mundane jobs and tracking down abnormalities in the town. Luckily it’s all uphill from here and when Sora, Donald and Goofy reunite the magic really starts to kick in.

Of course one of the main draws of the franchise is the inclusion of the Disney Worlds, all of which feature a ‘lite’ version of the movie or its sequel that the world is based on. These stories are more or less self contained and have little impact on the overall story, however none of that really matters as the joy of visiting your favourite Disney Worlds and interacting with your favourite characters is just an amazing. It’s also interesting to see how Sora and other characters factor in to the events of these Disney stories, as obviously they were never there in the original movies. If you’re a sucker for nostalgia be prepared to be hit hard here.

Story – Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix

Birth By Sleep is actually the first game in the series timeline, taking place 10 years before the first game. It has a lot of connection with the main story as well as being rather self contained. The story here is actually split into three as near the beginning of the game you choose to take control of Terra, Aqua or Ventus, all who have their own unique journey, personality and abilities. All these stories intertwine to tell different perspectives of the story and also come together in the endgame to create a unified ending.

First you have Terra who is struggling to keep the darkness out of his heart due to his thirst for power, kind of like Riku. Take out the fantasy elements and Terra is easily the most relatable of the three Keyblade wielders. Situations like struggling with moments of weakness, feeling powerless to help and taking the easy way out are all things players will probably be able to relate to and that makes Terra a great character. It is interesting to see how Terra deals with his struggles and how his relationships with characters grow over the course of the game, especially those like Maleficent.

Aqua has a huge desire to protect her friends as well as the balance in the world and takes her position as a newly crowned Keyblade Master very seriously, even if her orders sometimes conflict with her relationships. Aqua responds to situations as you would expect and has a classic goody-goody attitude, very much like Kairi. Her story is still fun to play through but more for the events that take place rather then for the character herself.

If Terra is like Riku and Aqua like Kairi, then Ventus is definitely Sora and that is more than just because of his looks. Ven is curious and fun loving and is often treated like the little kid that always gets told it’s too dangerous and he should head home. Much like the others Ventus wants the protection of his friends above all else and is willing to die for that cause. Following Ventus through the worlds as he easily makes new friends is charming and the impending final showdown between himself and his evil doppelganger Vanitas helps advance the story. Without spoiling anything I want to praise the endings for each character that aren’t as you would expect from a game like this, providing a refreshing change of pace from most RPG endings.

Story – Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded retells the story of the DS remake of the original mobile title Kingdom Hearts Coded. It does this through newly animated and voiced cutscenes with an occasional voiced text screen. Basically, Jiminy Crickets journal that he wrote down all the events that took place in the first game in have been corrupted by data bugs and the pages are now blank except for a mysterious message. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale have to try and help repair the journal with help from data versions of Sora and Riku. After that act of that story concludes, another connected yet somewhat separate story also takes place involving Sora going through Castle Oblivion.

Kingdom Hearts makes a much better game than it does a movie and unfortunately only about 30 minutes out of the 3 hour long cutscene compilation, actively engaged my interest, with most of those moments being one of two completely new cutscenes only found in this title and other scenes that connected more to the overarching story of the series. Most of this story is dull and unimportant and has no consequence on the other games. Unfortunately you can’t just watch scenes in any order, so you will have to sit through the entirety of the story before you can browse the chapter selection screen at will.

After seeing the same worlds three to four times now it feels a little tiresome to see them again here. There are also some incredibly boring scenes such as when Sora tries to give Alice her memory back, only so she can lead him to the keyhole, beat the monster their and return to the next world which you knew was going to happen anyway due to the repetitive nature of this task. Their is also a lot of repetition in the dialogue, mostly relating to the whole motif of never giving into darkness or remembering your friends are always with you even when you’re alone. At some point this just becomes annoying and you find yourself saying “O.K. we get it!”.

There are some strong story scenes present in Re:coded that do add to the story, fill in certain mysteries and elude to the events of Kingdom Hearts III, it is just unfortunate you have to sit through a lot of boring and repetitious moments to get to them.

Gameplay – Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts 2 is an action RPG much like the first game except in the sequel everything is taken to the next level. You still have your basic attacks which seem to come out and combo together a little quicker, you still have your magic which seems a little less overpowered than it was in the first game (some spells are missing all together and some like fire have changed) and items and summons are also back. Then there are new abilities and attacks you can equip, limit attacks between certain characters and the awesome new drive forms that come with a large list of set abilities, change your basic attacks and magic and allow you to wield two key blades at once.

One big addition are reaction commands that require a press of the triangle button to initiate a mini quick-time-event that results in a favourable outcome if you succeed. These look great and are normally unique for each enemy or big boss fight, keeping the battle fresh and adding some great cinematic flare. All the above mentioned combat options are welcome additions and give you a huge arsenal to build your play style around.

However what good would all these attacks be if there were no enemies to defeat? Well luckily both games in this collection feature a huge variety of enemies, from basic Heartless and Nobodies to intense battles involving boss characters that can take your health down to zero in a second. All these enemies have unique attack patterns and tells, forcing you to keep on your toes, learning the best way to react and counterattack to each attack. There are four difficulty options present right from the start and while you might get away with mashing the attack button on easy and normal, you won’t have such luck on the two harder difficulties which provide a great challenge for seasoned players and really show the true depth and potential of this amazing combat system.

While the combat is the star of the show, there is lots of exploration to find chests and stickers, mini games to play and secret bosses to find and defeat. This is a huge game full of variety and any action RPG fan will be thrilled with what they find here, especially as the Final Mix version of the game offers even more content then the original that hasn’t been seen yet in an English release.

Gameplay – Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix

The battle system in Kingdom Hearts BBS is often touted as the best in the series and it is not hard to see why. The variety in attack options is simply stunning. You have your basic attacks which end in special finishers as well as a command deck which you can fully customise with any of the 30+ commands all of which can level up to become stronger. Certain combinations of commands lead you into command styles that completely change your basic moves, movement and damage output. On top of that you have items, D-Links that enable you to adopt another characters command list and shot locks that enable powerful multi-hit attacks on an enemy. All these have a cooldown once used so it is important to mix it up and manage your commands effectively. One of my gaming beliefs is that variety is the foundation for great gameplay and Birth By Sleep has plenty.

All these attacks look great and are fun and satisfying to pull off, making this action RPG one of the top in it’s class. The moves are a lot easier to perform now thanks to being able to use the DualShock 3 as opposed to the original PSP controls which only featured the one analog nub as opposed to two sticks. The camera is now mapped to the right stick as opposed to a single button, nearly eliminating all the issues the camera had in the original game and the additional L2 & R2 buttons help you to cycle through the command list so you don’t have to move your thumb off the left stick to the D-pad which is very handy.

Apart from combat you will also be melding commands to create new ones, exploring new Disney Worlds some of which are presented in Kingdom Hearts for the first time such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, finding treasure chests, racing on your Keyblade hoverjet and more. All of it is a good time apart from a few mini games you are forced to repeat multiple times to collect everything, but if you’re not a completionist you can just ignore all that and focus on the main story and combat which are the heart of this game.

The other area you might be spending a bit of time in within Birth By Sleep is the Command Board mini game, which is kind of like Monopoly only Kingdom Hearts-ified. This lets you gain new abilities and level up your current commands and is pretty fun unless you really want a command exclusive to a board and can’t manage to land on it. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer for this mode which is a shame as it would be a lot more fun then friends then against the CPU but if you love board games and love Kingdom Hearts you will easily love the command board as it offers a great mix of random elements and strategy to create a great standalone mini game.

Visuals

Just like the first collection, HD 2.5 ReMIX lives up to it’s title featuring remastered graphics and textures that make the worlds and characters look as good as new. All the blurriness found in the original games due to standard definition is gone, replaced by sharp and clean looking models and textures. Models do look a little blocky and sometimes textures do look a little blurry at times (such as Sora’s hair or gloves), however for the most part this is a very nice looking game. Special effects like beams of light and sparkles were already impressive on the PS2 hardware and now they shine even brighter on the PS3.

The graphics and performance do fair a little rougher in Birth By Sleep, even though the game has been updated greatly from it’s PSP origins. This is most noticeable with the menu presentations and the way the game saves. Models also tend to be a little less detailed than in other areas of the compilation with environments more so, but I must stress the word little here. What will slightly hamper your fun in BBS is some small performance issues. The framerate does drop randomly in places you wouldn’t expect, most of the time being in cutscenes. Luckily I do not recall having any battles that suffered from frame rate drops, but on a whole the game does feel less ‘fluid’ than the smoothness of KH2 and Re:coded.

A big highlight of the visuals is definitely the facial animations. The story could probably be told without a word from these characters as their is just so much expression and charm to be found through their animations, from Sora’s cheeky grin to an expression of sadness from Roxas, these characters look like they really feel their emotions and it’s a joy watching cutscenes play out. Unfortunately this high level animation can’t be found throughout the entire game (except for Re:coded), with about half the scenes resorting to using a basic texture for mouth and eye movements which looks much, much worse.

One last note on performance that effects both Birth By Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix is the load times for entering drive forms and D-link have been noticeably extended. It will take about 3-4 seconds each time you want to establish a D-link and the game is practically frozen while it loads the new move set. It’s not a game breaker but as these games have pretty fast paced combat it is annoying to wait while the forms load and you don’t really want to see any steps taken backwards in a HD remaster.

Audio

Simply put, amazing. From the rearranged original orchestral tracks to the Disney classics such as The Beauty and the Beast theme and the Pirates of the Carribean theme the soundtrack across each game is epic, diverse and really drives emotion into those listening. All the battle tracks are also fantastic and will get you ready to kick some heartless/nobodies/unversed butt and most of the world background music is very catchy as well (I can’t stop humming the theme from Enchanted Dominion). A special mention goes to the games two main themes in Sanctuary and Simple and Clean for being great vocal songs that accompany the intros perfectly.

The voice work also scores highly, with all character reprising their roles, even those from the big Disney films (except for Genie who still sounds great in KH2 but pretty bad in Re:coded and Alice in Re:coded). Sora’s new adult voice may be a bit jarring at first but you do get used to it quickly. Apart from a few awkwardly delivered lines from the main cast I can’t fault the voice actors work across any of the three titles in this collection and a special mention to Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame who plays the villainous Master Xehanort perfectly. Sound effects are also spot on, with all the magic beams, chest openings and Keyblade strikes being satisfying to the ears and bringing more life to this magical universe.

Overall

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is a great remastering of two already fantastic titles and the inclusion of a story that while having some shining moments is unfortunately 75% uninteresting. 2.5 ReMIX provides some of the best action RPG combat ever mixed in with an epic overarching story with interesting and recognisable characters and settings. All of this is presented brilliantly through remastered visuals and audio and there is no doubt some songs will get stuck in your head as the soundtrack is nothing short of excellent. Considering the game is available at a lower price point and contains three times more content than most other titles, you have yourself an awesome, great value collection that is well worth your money and shelf space.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris Review

Andrew Day

December 24, 2014

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris Review

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC (Reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Release Date: Out Now
Price: $19.99 USD – Available Here / $49.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

2010’s Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a bit of a deviation from the popular Tomb Raider franchise that took the titular character and put her in a dungeon-crawler styled puzzle game instead of her usual foray of third person action/adventure games. Guardian of Light turned out to be a critical success, garnering a tonne of positive press when it released. Fast forward to this year and Crystal Dynamics are at it again with the direct sequel – Temple of Osiris. In this adventure, Lara will team up with a rival treasure hunter and two Egyptian Gods in order to uncover the secrets of the Temple of Osiris as well as make it out alive.

Story

A sequel to Guardian of Light, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris has our stalwart heroine facing off against the evil Egyptian deity – Set. The only way to stop Set’s plan for world domination is for Lara to team up with a rival treasure hunter; Carter Bell, and two imprisoned gods Horus and Isis to collect the fragments of Osiris. The story is quite frankly a little bland and forgettable. There’s nothing offensively bad with the writing, but it definitely wont be making any “best gaming stories” lists in the near future.

For those looking for a more grounded game set in the new universe that was created by 2013’s Tomb Raider, you might be a little disappointed. Temple of Osiris is separate to that universe and tells a fantastic tale featuring gods, demons and spirits. Not only is this a mythology-heavy narrative, but there is no slow introduction to the concepts, as the opening cut scenes basically introduce us to the gods and demons that inhabit the temple and threaten the world. The quick introduction to the spiritual elements means there is no slow build up means that there aren’t many “woah” moments in the story, but it is an enjoyable romp nonetheless.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Temple of Osiris is a dungeon-crawler which heavy puzzle elements. Lara and her cohorts each have access to a variety of weapons and skills to help them traverse the environment and solve the puzzles in their way. The two treasure hunters have access to modern firearms and a grappling hook while the gods can cast magical spells, activate a shield and even trigger some of the ancient mechanisms with their ancient power.

In addition to their basic skills, players can find additional weapons and power-ups that allow them special skills like flaming bullets or resistance to explosions. These are helpful for sure but the game’s combat is definitely its weakest part. That isn’t to say that combat is poorly implemented or designed, but it is just flat out easy. No encounter gave me any particular trouble, and unlike other games of the genre that can use combat as another type of puzzle, the battles to me feel more like obstacles in the way of the real gameplay.

Temple of Osiris is a relatively short game, which will only take you about 4-5 hours to complete. However, with the dynamic game design and all of the collectibles to find, there are plenty of reasons to play through over and over again. Temple of Osiris is a game that is absolutely designed for multiplayer and while it is possible to play through the game from beginning to end on your own, it is a much more fulfiling experience playing with friends. One thing that really impressed me about the game was how the puzzle design would change depending on the amount of players you have. Puzzles will retain the same general “gist,” but for every additional player, they change to become more difficult and require more teamwork. This not only makes the game feel more dynamic, but also grants a heap of replayability. Being able to play through the same game twice (but with a few friends the second time round) kept me interested and engaged.

The closest comparison I can think of in terms of other similar games would definitely be Gauntlet. The four player cooperative gameplay, dungeon-crawling, puzzle solving action is straight out of Gauntlet’s book. Despite their similarities, I believe Lara Croft is an all round better game than this year’s Gauntlet, offering players more reasons to play, tighter controls and a full-fledged story.

Visuals and Audio

Although it doesn’t lend itself very well to screenshots, Temple of Osiris is a surprisingly beautiful game. Character models are highly detailed and animated beautifully. I was legitimately surprised at how well done the character models were, especially considering how far out the camera is in a game like this. It would have been easy for Crystal Dynamics to half-ass the animation and still have a pretty looking game.

The game’s environments are all kinda same-y, but that is to be expected considering they are almost entirely set inside ancient tombs. While there isn’t a whole lot of variety to the backdrops, they do look pretty cool none the less. Crumbling walls and misshapen bricks on the floor make it look ancient, rustic and exactly the type of place that Lara would love to visit. It is also important to note that the game runs buttery smooth with no lag or frame rate issues – this is great and it helps Temple of Osiris not feel like a poor console port.

As for audio, it is a bit lacklustre to say the least. Whether it is a problem of the script or the audio direction I can’t say but the characters all felt lifeless and wooden. It could definitely be worse but it is far from the best voice acting this year. The rest of the audio isn’t too bad, guns sound like guns and enemies groan and grunt like you would expect.

Overall

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris isn’t the best game out there at the moment, but it is far from the worst. Although it is only a couple of hours long and the combat is a little weak, the game is still a solid multiplayer dungeon-crawling puzzler. The fact that the game adapts to how many players you have and changes the puzzle accordingly is one of its coolest features and one that keeps me wrapped in the game even after two playthroughs. If you are looking for a quick time killer, or a game to entertain your buddies who are over for a few hours then it is hard to go past this one.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

FUNimation Announces ‘The Rolling Girls’, ‘Death Parade’ and More

K. Roberts

December 24, 2014

FUNimation Announces ‘The Rolling Girls’, ‘Death Parade’ and More

FUNimation has been announcing several acquisitions for the Winter 2015 simulcast season recently. Many new shows are premiering in January and many shows are returning for another season.

Rolling Girls was announced for simulcast at a to-be-announced date. A description of the series is provided below.

Gun your engines and get ready for the full-throttle adventure of The Rolling Girls, the first original anime from the studio that brought you Attack on Titan! In the wake of the Great Tokyo War, Japan, as the world once knew it, no longer exists. What remains is a fragmented network of independent nations ruled by heroes known as the Bests. Each Best commands an army made of the Rest as they seek to conquer anyone in their path. Enter Nozomi, Yukina, Ai, and Chiaya. These four intrepid and adorable girls are ordered by their Best to travel across the country by motorcycle, keeping a watchful eye on the field of battle wherever they encounter violence between warring nations!

Death Parade was announced with a premiere date of January 9, 2015 at 12:28pm ET. The episodes that follow will be broadcast on Fridays at 11:30am ET. A description of the series is provided below.

There is a place after death that’s neither heaven nor hell. A bar that serves you one chance to win. You cannot leave until the game is over, and when it is, your life may be too. From Studio Madhouse (Death Note, Black Lagoon) comes a thrilling new series where the stakes are high and the rules are simple: your life is on the line.

Sequels and returning series include: Tokyo Ghoul √A, Fairy Tail, Shonen Hollywood, One Piece, Yona of the Dawn, Kamisama Kiss 2 and Garo the Animation.

Lastly, a home video release was announced for Inari Kon Kon (Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha), which will include the OVA episode. It has not been clarified if there will be a Blu-ray release, but it was confirmed that this will be a subtitled-only release, a rare decision for FUNimation. A free digital calendar featuring artwork from the series is available here. A synopsis is provided below.

Inari is a cheerful girl in Kyoto who has a crush on one of the coolest guys in her middle school, but she can’t seem to confess her feelings to him. After saving a beautiful goddess’s familiar, the deity blesses Inari with the ability to shapeshift—much to the chagrin to the rest of the spiritual world. Will love bloom for the newly empowered girl when the spirits intervene?

There are still more announcements to come from FUNimation in the near future.

Etherium Deploys First Gameplay Trailer

Brandon Postal

December 24, 2014

Tindalos Interactive & Focus Home Interactive have released their first gameplay trailer for Etherium. The trailer for the new RTS show us very polished graphics, with the weather effects showing off the dynamic game engine. The GUI looks clean and well laid out, though stylized quite differently from other strategy games.

The large campaign brings to mind Star Wars: Empire at War. You build fleets and send them to planets in order to colonize them and build up tech trees. Then, battles occur both in space and on the ground. Battles can be won by either destroying enemy bases, or by destroying their space fleet, offering a twist on standard RTS engagements.

The presentation of Etherium looks to be one of the more beautiful RTS’ I’ve seen. The single player campaign brings to mind Sins of a Solar Empire, with fleets warping in from planet to planet. Players are not given a linear path for the campaign, and they can choose how they wish to conquer the solar system. Space segments in Etherium are turn-based, while the ground segments are real-time. Much like the collaboration for EVE Online & Dust 514, space fleets will be able to aid on-the-ground troops.

The bulk of the title will be ground combat, and it looks stunning. It is a resource based game, with units being flown down from your space fleet. Players will be unable to amass swarms of one unit type; various units have distinct advantages over others, so you’ll need mix troop types.

Weather effects in the game are more than just a visual effect. Various types of weather affect combat and unit movement, adding a degree of realism into the futuristic strategy game.

Etherium will be available in early 2015 for PC, and can be preordered right now on Steam.

Mordheim: City of the Damned Preview

Mateja Simovic

December 23, 2014

Mordheim: City of the Damned
Developer: Rogue Factor
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platform: PC
Release Date: 21st of November, 2014
Price: USD $31.99 – Available Here

Allow me to be upfront with you: I loved the tabletop miniature version of Mordheim. Sure, some warbands were overpowered and some unit builds were infinitely exploitable… but what endeared to me was the semi-RPG aspect of having a warband which grew more powerful with experience as the campaign progressed. When I first heard about the development of this title, I was eager to see just how well (if at all) the developers had recreated this sense of progression and growth. Unfortunately, this aspect is yet to be implemented… among pretty much a lot of other features which made the original Mordheim so interesting for me. What has been shown so far in the early access of Mordheim: City of the Damned is a fairly robust base for the rest the strategy/RPG to be built upon.

The early access for the game is the very essence of basic. There are currently only three warbands available from which the player can choose. These options are the Sisters of Sigmar, the Skaven, and Human Mercenaries. At the current build you can select any of the above warbands and customise each individual unit to your heart’s content.

There is quite a lot of detail which has gone into this aspect of the game so far, with multiple builds available in accordance with the equipment that you give each unit. Most items provide different bonuses to hit/damage while others, such as swords and shields, provide the option to parry attacks/mitigate damage. To me, it felt largely balanced and I got the impression that it would be quite easy for me to spend a significant amount of time on individually working out the perfect build for each member of my warband. I have a feeling that someone will eventually work out the optimum build for a warband but until then it’s still fun to equip your units in accordance with your own stratagems.

Although each warband has a similar structure, with each containing space for a mixture of heroes, henchmen, and a single special unit, there is plenty of asymmetrical design to keep each warband unique. This largely keeps to the spirit of the original tabletop game, which is good in its own way, but hopefully the devs have learnt the lesson of the source material and worked to carefully balance the asymmetric gameplay of each of the warbands. On my playthroughs, I favoured the Sisters of Sigmar for their ability to dual-wield Sigmarite warhammers (Basically Holy Warhammers which pack a punch).

Having kitted out my holy rollers to my specifications (Insert joke about it being *Hammer Time*) I ventured to forth to play a number of skirmishes. Skirmishes are currently the only available game mode as of writing, but a campaign mode with progression and persistent wounds appears to be on the cards soon enough. I could never quite get into a multiplayer skirmish whenever I jumped on. Whether this is because there is a problem with my connection to the servers or that the Australian timezone doesn’t match up well with the game’s peak player activity is not known to me. Instead, my holy-rollers and I spent a good solid number of hours wailing on a variety of AI-controlled opponents (alongside dabbling with other, less sanctified warbands).

Whether versing a human or a computer, the base game remains the same with your warband attempting to eliminate the opposing force by either killing them all or forcing them to rout. The gameplay is an interesting mix of turn-based actions with third-person movement. Basically, characters act in initiative order and take it in turns to spend movement or strategy points on various actions. Moving around the map, attacking, taking stances, and various other actions each require a certain amount of points from either of the individual pools. Movement itself is performed by directly moving the unit around with WASD controls and once you cross a threshold (indicated by a blue circle around the character) you spend an additional movement point. Other actions such as climbing or attacking, which have a chance of failure, are shown with the percentage chance of success when the player highlights them. Factors such as out-numbering, weapon types, and positioning all come in to play to determine the outcome of these battles. This design provides for an interesting turn-based experience as the player guides their warband through the ruins to engage with the enemy.

It is at this point that I should probably point out that the maps are absolutely amazing. There are a limited number of maps currently available but I must absolutely commend the developers for their incarnation of the ruined city of Mordheim. It may not be the most graphically pretty urban space to grace your screen, but the city itself feels like its own foreboding character with plenty of ruins, side streets, traps, and Cronenbergian flesh growths strewn about the place. The distinct grim and macabre nature of the Warhammer setting is present in spades throughout the city with a distinct feeling of oppressive gloom. I look forward to having the ‘loot’ interaction properly integrated so that I will finally have a reason to actively search through these ruins and to see more of the terrain.

The design of the unit models themselves is similarly detailed and in-keeping with the source material. Unfortunately, customisation of units before a battle is somewhat limited as armour does not change regardless of what type has been equipped but at least weapons do change to reflect the selected option. The models are all suitable digital recreations of the tabletop figurines with great amounts of details. The music is similarly suited to the setting with the score playing ominously to match the grandeur of the ruined city. The music in this instance reminds me somewhat of a cross between the soundtrack of Diablo II and the Dawn of War series.

With all of this in mind, there is a still a lot of work which needs to be done (and to which I’m looking forward to). As I’ve mentioned previously, the ‘loot’ option is still not properly integrated but I imagine it will be brought in with the same update which finally enables campaigns. AI warbands also did not appear to field the powerful unique units of each warband (i.e. Rat Ogres) but this has apparently been fixed with a patch at time of writing. I look forward to returning to try out the campaigns and to growing a managing a warband as it explores the city of Mordheim more thoroughly at a later date.

The game is being offered at a discount due to its current state as an unfinished title. It is currently at a stable build with a few glitches here and there mainly involving movement around the map. I would recommend holding off until another major update just to ensure that you have plenty of content to dig into for your first foray into the dark city of Mordheim. If you’re interested to see how the basic gameplay is going feel and you wish to help out with its development, then now is a good a time to get your hands on it.

DSFix for Dark Souls Accidentally Swept up in DMCA Take Downs Against Debug File

Jamie Laike Tsui

December 23, 2014

There has been an unintended victim since the release of the debug .exe file for Dark Souls on the popular modding site Nexus Mods. Durante’s DSFix 2.3.1 was accidentally swept up in the wave of DMCA take downs when the German office of Bandai Namco issued one against the DSFix file on Dropbox.

Fans reacted with anger and confusion on NeoGaf and Reddit as DSFix is a necessity to get the PC port of Dark Souls running well. Durante explains his fix works by intercepting API calls between the game and the computer, thus containing no infringing material.

The latest update from Bandai Namco is that they have recognized that the DMCA take down is in error and that the matter is currently being resolved. In the mean time, those who just picked up Dark Souls during the Steam sale can use the temporary mirror hosted on Mega.

New Atelier Rorona Plus 3DS details and screenshots released

Travis Bruno

December 23, 2014

New Atelier Rorona Plus 3DS details and screenshots released

Today Koei Tecmo and Gust has released a slew of new screenshots and details for Atelier Rorona Plus 3DS which is currently set to be released in Japan on March 26th. It has been revealed that the game will contain all of the content added into the Plus version that was previously released for the PS Vita and PS3 though everything has been given a chibi look to work better on the 3DS. This includes the extra mode that involves Totori and Meruru appearing from the future, also in chibi form.

Atelier Rorona Plus 3DS will make use of a revamped battle system that starts like standard battles, featuring either the enemy running into the player on the field or a symbol attack that then transfers into a grid-based battle arena to allow players to easily control their party members and defeat their opponents.

Also shown off in these latest screens are our first look at the Atelier Astrid mode that allows players to play through a small original story following a younger Astrid Zexis and her partner Sterkenburg.

Working!!’s third anime season to air in July 2015

Travis Bruno

December 23, 2014

Working!!’s third anime season to air in July 2015

A flyer that is inserted into the thirteenth manga volume of Working!!, as first discovered by Twitter user nobunaga421 and reported by Yaraon, has revealed that the third anime season for the series will start airing in July 2015. The title will be similar to past versions as the only change has been an added exclamation point making the official title Working!!!.

A-1 Pictures will return to animate the series and at the moment it is unknown exactly how much of the source material the third season will cover, as there is much left to be tapped since although the manga ended its nine year run in Japan last month, the second season aired back in 2011.

It is worth noting that NIS America has licensed and released both seasons of Working!! in North America under the name Wagnaria!!, meaning that if they follow suit with this third season it will likely be called Wagnaria!!! as well.

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