NIS America has announced that they have acquired the license for Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, previously known as Tokyo New World Record: Operation Abyss in Japan. The title is developed by Demon Gaze’s developer Experience and NIS America plans on releasing it on the PS Vita sometime in Spring 2015 for North America and Europe.
From the studio that made Demon Gaze comes Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, a sci-fi dungeon crawler RPG set in a near future Tokyo. With the city under the constant threat of Variants genetically engineered monsters and the emergence of portals leading to a mysterious dimension called the Abyss, the government has established the Code Physics Agency to investigate these mysterious phenomena. The Xth Squad a unique group of teens modified by the CPA’s Code technologymust evade traps, face down powerful monsters, and investigate the mystery behind the Abyss.
Today NIS America has announced that they plan on releasing the sequel to The Guided Fate Paradox, The Awakened Fate Ultimatum, in North America on March 17th and in Europe on March 20th for the PlayStation 3. The company also revealed that they will be offering a standard edition as well as three different Limited Editions depending on what special version of the game you want.
There is an Angelic and Devilish Limited Edition that cost $54.99 each and feature a copy of the game and bonuses that are themed towards that specific character, while the $59.99 Ultimate Fate Edition includes both Angelic and Devilish picture card sets as well as a 1.5 inch double sided coin.
You can check out the various limited editions on NIS America’s online storeand some new screenshots below.
While we knew this was coming eventually, it is good to hear an official announcement. Today NIS America confirmed that they will be bringing Disgaea 5 to North America and Europe in Fall 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and they will be giving it a new name, as it will be called Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance when it is released in the West.
As we already know, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance tells the tale of Killia and a number of other rebels who rise up to fight against Void Dark, a powerful and terrible Overlord. We recently saw a trailer introducing us to the main protagonist and NIS America has released some new screenshots for the game that you can check out below.
Are you a big online gamer? In this day and age I would be seriously surprised if many of you say “no, not really.” Well for those of you out there who are big into online gaming, you would know that the closer you are to the servers means the less ping and less lag you experience while playing. That is why it is seriously amazing to announce that Microsoft have officially switched on Xbox One servers here in Australia!
Now you can enjoy games like Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection with even better load times, letting you get into the online action sooner and with less disruptions to your gameplay. This is big news, and with all the big games rolling out over the next 12 months and beyond, it will no doubt prove to be an ever increasing boon to us Aussie gamers.
So are you excited about the new servers hosted down under? Let us know how they will affect your gameplay experience in the comments below and remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Xbox news as it becomes available.
Overview George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has practically taken on a life of its own thanks to the amount of popularity that the television adaptation, Game of Thrones, has garnered. The bleak land of Westeros has attracted fans from all over the globe and now Telltale Games is trying to make their own little mark on the series with Game of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series: Iron from Ice starting everything off. Now the question is, has Telltale managed to grasp what keeps viewers interested in the show while also delivering a worthwhile experience?
Story Now it is worth noting that since Iron from Ice takes place after specific events that take place in the “A Storm of Swords” novel and season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere” that there will be spoilers concerning these events as these events lead players directly into the start of the storyline. It is also worth mentioning that unlike most of the other titles Telltale has worked on, Game of Thrones almost requires players to have knowledge of the series to actually enjoy it.
That being said, players take control of Lord Gregor Forrester’s squire Gared during the events that take place during a wedding at the Twins. From here on, players will find themselves controlling a couple of members of House Forrester in what becomes turmoil times for the house which has found itself on the wrong side of a lost war and suffering the consequences.
Similar to Game of Thrones’ storytelling style, players will swap between certain characters in the Forrester House throughout the game. In Iron from Ice players take control of not only the righteous but lowborn squire Gared Tuttle, but also Mira Forrester who resides in King’s Landing as a handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell, and Ethan Forrester a boy who has found lordship thrust upon him at a young age due to the demise of his father and older brother. Now if a few of these characters may sound somewhat familiar, it is likely due to their close resemblance to the Stark family.
Almost every member of the Forrester House is nearly a carbon copy from their Stark counterparts, including the situations they are placed in and what ends up happening to them. In the world of Game of Thrones rarely does anything good happen to good people and this does make many of the interactions players have with the likes of Cersei and Ramsay Bolton really nerve-wracking as you never know what they will do or how they will react to the player trying to balance their real feelings and those that they must wear on their face to avoid the tip of a blade.
That being said, despite the story actually blending the Forresters’ struggle seamlessly into the world of Game of Thrones, the illusion of choice once again looms its head in Iron from Ice. In something that has unfortunately become commonplace, from what has been shown so far very few decisions you actually make in this first episode change the story in any way. Perhaps these choices may have more effects later on, but for now they are nothing more than simple illusions.
Gameplay Those familiar with the way Telltale Games handles their properties should know what to expect coming into Iron from Ice as nothing has changed. Players will spend their time selecting from up to three different dialogue choices or the choice to remain silent, exploring an area and examining things, and taking part in quick time events during action sequences.
Unfortunately Iron from Ice takes one thing from Game of Thrones that really is an issue in a game such as this, and that is the low level of action that generally takes place. Outside of the initial area where players take control of Gared, there are no quick time action sequences of any sort which means that the rest of the episode is something of a slow paced affair.
Another issue that rears its head is that exploration and basic item gathering are cut back in this episode and even the items you gather at the moment are not used in any meaningful way, though they will likely have some purpose in the coming episodes.
Visuals & Audio One thing that is a bit interesting about Game of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series: Iron from Ice is how Telltale has chosen to move away from their standard comic-book style art and instead have adopted a style similar to an oil painting. This makes for an interesting look at times with the background scenery, but it also creates a very blurry looking backdrop more often than not.
The character designs are also found lacking, especially since a number of popular characters such as Tyrion, Cersei, and Margery all appear in a manner similar to their HBO counterparts. While it is admirable that Telltale has managed to retain the cast from the series to voice their in-game characters to fit perfectly with the roles, it is unfortunate that the actual designs range from looking barely anything like how they are meant to be to simply being stylized wrong.
Overall While the plight of the Forresters is indeed an intriguing one that will have me returning, the various issues that have already arisen in Iron from Ice are a warning sign. That being said, Game of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series: Iron from Ice is off to an interesting start as the developer has managed to craft a storyline that fits in perfectly in the world of Game of Thrones, including personalities of returning characters being exactly how fans should expect them, but whether or not they will manage to keep this level of intrigue throughout the story has yet to be seen.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
A couple of months ago Sekai Project announced that they would be launching a Kickstarter project to bring all three games in Frongwing’s Grisaia Trilogy over to English speaking audiences and today that Kickstarter launched. Sekai Project is asking for $160,000 in funding and they will need to meet that goal by February 1st, though considering they have already hit $112K at the time of this writing, they are well on their way to meeting that goal.
Some of the basic rewards for the Kickstarter feature $30 for a digital copy of The Fruit of Grisaia, the most familiar game in the series, $40 for a physical copy of The Fruit of Grisaia, and $80 for digital copies of all three games, The Fruit of Grisaia, The Labyrinth of Grisaia, and The Eden of Grisaia. If you want a complete box set of the whole trilogy, you will need to dish out $120 and net yourself a physical copy of all three PC games.
Those looking to back the Kickstarter can do so here and on that page you will not only find more details about the project, such as the higher reward tiers that feature things such as poster sets, tapestries, bedsheets, and even double-sided hug pillow covers at various levels.
If the company manages to make it past their initial funding goal, they have revealed the following stretch goals:
$200,000 – Idol Magical Girl Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru, a spin-off game to the Grisaia series, will be licensed and localized. Like the other three games, this will be made available in both digital download and physical format.
$240,000 – Grisaia Ports! The series will be ported to different platforms. Details on which platforms will be supported are still forthcoming, so stay tuned for more updates!
It is worth noting that this Kickstarter is only for the All-Ages version of the game though Sekai Project did state the following:
While we cannot comment on 18+ versions of the game right now, more information on that will be made available near the end of the campaign.
Madman Entertainment is now more than half way through its twelve days of Christmas announcements for 2014. Below are the announcements that have been made so far.
On the first day of Christmas, Dragon Ball Z Tamashii Buddies were made available for purchase.
On the second day of Christmas, a selection of Banpresto and Megahouse collectibles were made available for pre-order.
On the third day of Christmas, One Week Friends was announced. It will be available soon on AnimeLab, with a home video release to follow.
On the fourth day of Christmas, Free! Eternal Summer, the second season of the popular series Free!, was announced. It will be available soon on AnimeLab, with a home video release to follow at a later date.
On the fifth day of Christmas, In Search of the Lost Future was announced. The series is still airing in Japan. It is not clear if the license is for streaming rights, a home video release or both.
On the sixth day of Christmas, Wanna Be The Strongest in the World! was announced. AnimeLab will be streaming the series in 2015 with a home-video release occurring at a currently unannounced date. The announcement does not clarify if the series will be receiving a Blu-ray release as well or if it will just receive a DVD release.
On the seventh day of Christmas, No-Rin was announced. It will be available for streaming on AnimeLab soon and will be released on home video sometime in 2015.
Stay tuned for more of Madman’s twelve days of Christmas announcements!
Studio Ghibli’s latest anime film, When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Marnie), will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on March 18, 2015. The sets will feature multiple language options, which are detailed below.
The DVD release will sell for a suggested retail price of 4700 yen (5076 yen tax inclusive in Japan) and contain two discs. It will feature two audio tracks: Japanese Dolby Digital 2ch stereo and 5.0ch. Japanese and English subtitles will be included with this set. On-disc extras will include the storyboard, trailers and more. The disc will be encoded for region 2 and will be in the NTSC format.
The Blu-ray release will sell for a suggested retail price of 6800 yen (7344 yen tax inclusive in Japan) and contain both the film and all extras on a single disc. It will feature three audio tracks: Japanese DTS HD 5.0ch, Japanese Linear PCM 2ch stereo and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.0ch. English, Chinese and Japanese subtitles will be included with this set. On-disc extras will include the storyboard, the script for dubbing, trailers, a making-of video and more. The Blu-ray will be region free, as is normal with Blu-ray releases of Studio Ghibli films.
Hanabee has just announced on the fourth day of their 7 Days of Christmas promotion that they will be releasing Majestic Prince Part Two on DVD and Blu-ray in Australia on February 4, 2015. A DVD and Blu-ray release was announced for Little Busters! Refrain on the third day of their promotion, and both titles are currently available for pre-order here.
Both editions will contain twelve episodes over two discs and will be sold for a suggested retail price of $59.99 AUD. On-disc extras will include the textless opening and ending animation. As with the release of the first part of the series, part two will feature the episodes with both Japanese audio with English subtitles and English audio.
Monolith Productions and Warner Bros. Interactive have released a new DLC expansion for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. This new expansion brings further story content to the game, as well as new monsters and missions. The DLC can be found on digital distribution services for $9.99 (USD).
Monolith has titled this DLC Lord of the Hunt, and it the content brought to the fore is definitely related. Players have been given more beast hunting missions related to Torvin the Dwarf Hunter, which I think is a great thing to build off of. The chemistry between Talion and Torvin was one of the more enjoyable parts of the story to me. They also claim to be adding more lore, which in my opinion as a fan of Lord of the Rings, is never a bad thing.
Additionally, new enemy monster types have been added to the game, as well as new Orcs called Beastmaster Warchiefs. These new Warchiefs will be able to ride monsters and engage players in mounted combat. This new type of combat is exciting to see, and looks to add more challenging fights to the game. Check out the full rundown of features in this DLC below.
·New Story & Lore – Discover more tales from Torvin, the Dwarven Hunter, as you work together to tame the beasts of Mordor and fight Sauron’s minions.
·New Nemeses – Face off against the Beastmaster Warchiefs, powerful new Uruks who have the ability to ride monsters and engage in perilous mounted combat.
·New Monsters – Ride into battle on the Wretched Graug to vomit toxin at your foes, stalk your enemies on the predatory Caragath and attack from the shadows or raise an all-consuming Ghul Horde.
·New Missions & Challenges – New Beast Hunting challenges and collectibles open up new trophies and achievements.
·New Epic Runes – Make your Mount unstoppable with five new epic Runes that make you the ultimate hunter.
·Test of the Wild – Test your skills against the Beastmasters and mount your trophies on the leaderboard.
·New Character Skin – Lord of the Hunt skin transforms Talion into the ultimate Beastmaster.
The addition of new gameplay features to Shadow of Mordor is exciting, though it’s unfortunate that it was added now, after most players have already defeated the game. The new leaderboards and missions do give a good reason to return to the game, however, it does remain a pricey DLC. The major flaw is that unfortunately this new content is not available in the base game, and is only available in a separate Lord of the Hunt mode. Check out the video trailer below.
