As of last week, Sony has agreed to settle the charges made against them by the Federal Trade Commission (US) in regards to their misleading launch campaign of the PS Vita during in 2011/12.
The main case revolved around the console’s claims that players could continue any Play Station 3 game on the go by pausing at any time and switching devices. The FTC took issue with this as it was not true for “any” PS 3 game, but only a select few. Additionally, some games could only be switched over at certain times. An example of this is MLB 12: The Show (a baseball game) which could only be paused, saved and switched after completing a full 9 innings match. To make matters worse, Sony also forgot to mention that player would have to buy two copies of the same game to enact this feature.
The promotion of the PS Vita’s cross-platform capabilities weren’t the only aspect of the launch that proved misleading. For Australians, the PS Vita’s 3G version always proved problematic, but apparently we didn’t fair as badly as the US. The FTC included in its complaint against Sony that the $50 more expensive 3G capable version of the console allowed for live, multiplayer gaming through the 3G network.This simply wasn’t true. Sony simply didn’t provide this feature.
Sony’s advertising agency, Deutsch LA, also took the blame for pushing the PS Vita’s cross-platform gaming and 3G features. Moreover, the company received further criticism for asking staff to promote the product on personal social media accounts without disclosing their connection to Sony or Deutsch LA.
As a result of the settlement, consumers who bought the PS Vita during its US launch campaign (before 1 June 2012) are entitled to a $25 refund or a $50 merchandise voucher. Customers eligible for the refund will be sent an email from Sony after all aspects of the settlement are finalised by the FTC.
Jessica Rish, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Products made the following statement in regards to Sony’s behaviour:
“As we enter the year’s biggest shopping period, companies need to be reminded that if they make product promises to consumers — as Sony did with the “game changing” features of its PS Vita — they must deliver on those pledges. The FTC will not hesitate to act on behalf of consumers when companies or advertisers make false product claims.”
Sentai Filmworks has recently revealed their March 2015 release schedule. This list details each of those releases.
March 3, 2015:
Outbreak Company Complete Collection. The series will be featured with dual audio options and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $69.98. This series was licensed in 2013.
March 10, 2015:
The Familiar of Zero: Knight of the Twin Moons (season two). All episodes will be featured with Japanese audio and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $49.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98.
The World God Only Knows: Goddesses (season three). All episodes will be featured with dual audio options and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $69.98.
March 17, 2015:
Devil and Realist Complete Collection. All episodes will be featured with Japanese audio and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $49.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98.
March 24, 2015:
Place to Place. All episodes will be featured with Japanese audio and English subtitles on Blu-ray. The set has a suggested retail price of $59.98.
Student Council’s Discretion. All episodes of the first season will be featured with Japanese audio and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $49.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98.
March 31, 2015:
Gingitsune Complete Collection. All episodes will be featured with Japanese audio and English subtitles on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $49.98 while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $59.98.
Bungie released a new behind the scenes trailer featuring Destiny’sfirst expansion pack. Destiny Expansion 1: The Dark Belowis designed in response to player feedback demanding more content. The preview trailer features members of the development team giving a sneak peek at the new main character Eris, who serves as the main quest giver, and the new raid Crota’s End.
Destiny is Bungie’s first project after leaving Microsoft. The game mixes first person shooters with MMORPG mechanics, and is filled with raids, dungeons, and PVP scenarios. Destiny is available now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Destiny Expansion 1: The Dark Below launches on December 10th, 2014.
‘Puyo Puyo Tetris’, the merging of two famous puzzle games – Puyo Puyo and Tetris – will be released into Japanese markets on December 4th, available to Playstation 4 and Xbox One owners.
Addictive and fast paced, the multiplayer modes have always been a staple of Puyo Puyo and the trend looks set to continue in Puyo Puyo Tetris. Sega have released a trailer on its website (available below), detailing the different multiplayer modes that gamers will get to choose from. There are five modes in total:
Vs – a 1v1 mode, where players can choose to play Puyo Puyo or Tetris together, or even a combination of both at the same time. Puyo Tet Mix – players will need to handle grids of Puyo Puyo and Tetris at the same time. Swap – a countdown will start during this mode, and when it expires the game modes will swap. Party – up to 4 players with power ups available. Big Bang – immediately sent into fever mode, players will need to create ‘garbage’ that will end up being destroyed – hence the ‘Big Bang’.
Aside from the modes highlighted above, there is the ‘National Puzzle League’, where players all over the world can compete together and rise through the ranks. There is also a club that requires registration, which at the time of writing seems to be exclusively used for expanding your network of friends within the game.
Last but certainly not least, replay videos of your memorable matches or otherwise, can be shared amongst friends and the Puyo Puyo Tetris community. If the game appeals to you, but you are dissuaded by the language options, then try out the recently released Tetris Ultimate.
Death is upon thee in the form of words, thy cannot escape the grim fate of a reaper’s hunt. And so, Bacon Bandit Games and Digerati Distribution present Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey, a haunted twist to scrabble and its unusual place in a role-playing game. What is this madness? Should we grimace in response? Or endure the dead weight of Grimm’s Journey?
Story
Grimm is not your average reaper, aside from the whole “lingering in the darkness in a long, hooded black cape and a scythe in hand”. Who would have thought that Grimm or his partner in crime, Rose, would need the power of words to slaughter horrifying monsters? In practice, the clever concept of using words as a means of fighting delivers an enjoyable casual gaming experience for players. However, let’s not forget that Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey is clearly a revamp of PopCap Games, ‘Bookworm Adventures’ from 2006. What is clearly lacking . . . is the storyline. The developers attempt at narrating Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey through the comic strips, is disjointed from the main focus of the game. Despite the limited storyline, players will still be incentivised to complete all of the 40 levels, all of which offer 4 different challenges for players to complete.
Gameplay
What makes the game unique and addictive to play, are the limitless range of words that players can create using the fifteen letter tiles in each round. Players are able to deal damage to monsters with each word they spell, however the damage dealt is greater if longer and more complex words are used. The encyclopaedia factor adds to the thrill of learning new words from the tiles provided, and thus being able to transfer their knowledge from the game to the real world. Unless of course, players are too embarrassed to reveal that they didn’t know the name of one of their favourite television shows, ‘Dexter’, actually means “on or towards the right-hand side”.
One Of My Best Saved Word Images!
The most exciting and challenging element in Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey are the different combination of tiles that impact on the word choices players make. There are an assortment of tiles with crippling (or wonderful) effects, which ultimately impact on the amount of damage the player deals to the monster and possibly, themselves. At any random time, monsters can transform letter tiles into poison, whirlwind, rocks, crystals, knives and duplicate tiles. God forbid, players get caught with plague ridden tiles and must prevent the spread of disease to other tiles in each turn. To top off the rising difficulty of each level, in Grimm’s Journey there are bosses who can only be defeated on special word conditions, for example; Coney King takes quintuple damage from words containing the letter T.
In order to survive, it’s essential for players to constantly upgrade their weapons, health bar, alchemy, armour and purchase books that increase the percentage of damage dealt, as well as purify potions that remove the bad effects on tiles. Players are able to buy goods from the store using the gems they earn in-game from battle and treasure chests. During rounds, players are able to make purchases from a dodgy-looking Santa, which is good because the store is not accessible in-game. These items include; a shield that reduces damage by 50% for one turn, increase damage by 30% for one turn, bacon for increasing 10% health and steal health for 50%. In other instances, players could earn themselves a mystery reward if they guess the correct word right, with only 9 attempts to fill in all of the blank spaces.
Visuals & Audio
Bacon Bandit Games and Digerati Distribution have done a superb job balancing the creepy and dark undertones of a grim reaper in their picturesque animations. The cartoonish bosses – evil rabbits and angry wolves stand out with the colourfully detailed scenery of caves, graveyards and forests. Despite Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey being a casual game, it was good to see a map included in the game to outline the players path. One of the best visual features in the game, is the fact that players can save their best word image at the end of each round – for boasting rights of course!
Grimm’s Journey is packed with sinister and fast-paced music, which draws on the intensity of the turn-based combat in the game. I found the music to be more dramatic during boss levels, as expected, and I couldn’t help but think of myself playing in an arcade arena. However, after several hours of playing through each of the levels, the upbeat music can start to get on players nerves.
Overall
Being a fan of word puzzles and role-playing games, there’s no denying that Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey does a fantastic job at combining the two genres into one game. While it may seem like child’s play, Grimm is suitable for all ages and will have even the greatest minds baffled to solve their next word. Don’t leave Grimm hanging on one letter, join the hauntingly beautiful scrabble pursuit.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
I love Batman, no secrets there. I also love just about everything else in the DC Comics line-up. I grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series and nowadays I have withdrawels waiting weekly for Arrow to air. I also love Lego and fondly remember playing with the colourful bricks all in my youth. Combining the two is often a dream come true for me – my Lego Batmovibile still sits proudly assembled from my 16th birthday and my keys are adorned with a Lego Joker keychain. However, I didn’t LOVE my time with Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Don’t get me wrong, as a celebration of Batman’s 75th birthday and a love letter to DC Comics it does a stellar job. But as a video game, and more importantly – a video game sequel, it is a few bricks short of a masterpiece.
Story
Following on a little after the events of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Lego Batman 3 sees the universe being threatened by the inter-galactic collector – Brainiac. After attaining the powers of all seven lantern corps, Brainiac heads to earth to add it to his collection. Brainiac’s arrival sets the scene for our game, where the Justice League are forced to team up with the likes of Lex Luthor, The Joker and Solomon Grundy who are all aboard the Watchtower (The Justice League’s orbiting satellite) in order for there to be a planet Earth left to return to. While it isn’t a particularly in-depth story, it is a pretty cool way to have some of our favourite heroes and villains team up together – and there are few villains in the DC roster who are better suited to the role than Brainiac (MAYBEDarkseid, but he could be a little TOO dark a character for a kid’s game).
Gameplay
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, surprise surprise plays just like most other Lego games. You take on the roll of one of 150+ (no, not even kidding) super heroes and progress through the game’s linear story, doing some mild puzzle solving and combat along your way. The game takes place over 15 campaign missions, and during your first play through will not take all that long to complete, but Lego games are best off being shorter experiences to keep up with the attention of the target demographic.
Sadly, the free-roaming that was a huge part of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is long since gone, and while there are a few hub areas like the Bat Cave, Watchtower and a few planets here and there – these are minor in comparison to what’s come before, and the result is a much more linear gameplay experience. I found this to be a bit of a let down, especially considering that exploring the fully realised Gotham City was one of the best parts of Lego Batman 2 (and that version of Gotham was more fun to explore than last year’s Arkham Origins’ iteration). That sense of freedom and exploration has all but disappeared, leaving players to rely on the levels themselves to fulfill their need to explore, build and discover.
Lego Batman 3 also feels like a step back from more recent Lego Games, with the most recent comparison being with Lego: The Hobbit, which made great strides in creating a real RPG-style adventure for players, with its unique loot gathering/crafting mechanics. In comparison, Lego Batman 3 is a lot more bland and bare-boned, which left me feeling a little bit empty during my playthrough. While I am more than happy for Lego franchises to differentiate from one another, it should be that the mechanics between them are different, not that some franchsies have more toys than the others.
One thing that has always kept me coming back to the Lego games have been the incredible amount of collectibles to unlock. Not only are there 150 characters to unlock and use, but there are minikits to put together, Adam Wests to solve, studs to collects and upgrades to buy. While the story can be breezed through in only a few hours, players might have a little bit of a tougher time if they are completionists. However the sheer number of collectibles means jumping back into previously beaten stages is more of a joy than most other games – and being able to play as any currently unlocked character is always fun.
Batman’s trip to outer space isn’t without its flaws though, and lack of an open-world is not the worst of them. Lego Batman 3 is incredibly buggy. Oftentimes events won’t trigger, enemies won’t spawn or characters will just end up in places that they shouldn’t be which causes the gameplay to come to a sudden and immediate halt. On more than one occasion I was forced to quit out of the game and reload the level I was in from scratch after an item or event that was required to proceed never appeared.
For me, the game is most fun as a love letter to DC Comics. While the gameplay isn’t as stellar, the easter eggs, references and flat out allusions to DC’s long and storied history are absolutely brilliant. One of my favourite ever unlockables in a video game made it so that whenever I hit an enemy, the sound effects and comic “KAPOW” and “WHACK” text boxes from the old Batman ’66 TV series would pop up and it is the things like this that show the developers really care about the product they have created.
Visuals & Audio
Like I said above – it is a Lego game, the visuals don’t exactly change much between games, and this is rightfully so because lets be honest TT Games nailed the Lego look and feel from the get go with Lego Star Wars, so why fix what isn’t broken. Much like every other Lego Game before it (bar The Lego Movie Videogamewhich had a unique look and feel among its brethren) the environments are made of a mixture of high-definition, fully-rendered backdrops with a bunch of interactible (see:breakable) objects being made of Lego.
Many voice actors from the previous Lego Batman games have reprised their roles, and they all do killer work. Not only does the consistency between games help keep the sense of continuity strong, but it has allowed some of these actors to really embrace their role. Troy Baker as always manages to steal the show as Batman (also to note – Baker is the only person in history to portray both Batman AND The Joker) but he is joined by an absolute extravaganza of voice acting talent, like Clancy Brown who IS Lex Luthor at this point, having portrayed the character in cartoons for almost two decades now.
Where Beyond Gotham really shines is as a love letter to DC Comics fans, and a lot of this comes from the way that the game is presented. Firstly, by getting actors from as far back as Adam West (who voiced the Caped Crusader in the 1966 TV series) all the way up to Stephen Amell, (who currently plays Oliver Queen/The Arrow in the hit tv-series Arrow… which you should check out if you haven’t already) the developers show a lot of love to the entirety of DC’s history. Little audio cues like John William’s Superman theme or Fox & Gimble’s Wonder Woman TV theme playing then the characters take to the skies respectively are just flat out awesome and are sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone old enough (or fanatical enough) to remember watching the movies of television shows in their younger days.
Overall
If you are like me and play Lego games every time a new one is released, and grew up reading DC Comics and watching Batman: The Animated Series then Lego Batman 3 is pretty much everything you want in a game but when you really think about itLego Batman 3 is a strange little product. It looks like it is trying to hit all of the target demographic checkboxes and in many ways feels like a love letter to the past and future of DC Comics. Adam West’s Batman, the old Wonder Woman theme, Kevin Smith as a playable character, and even TV’s Stephen Amell voicing Green Arrow all show a lot of care and love for the comic book giant, but at the same time they seem to appeal to people who would likely never play a Lego Batman game. This strange mix of kid-friendly mechanics with jokes and references that are sure to go WAY over their heads leaves Lego Batman 3 in a sort of limbo where only a tiny niche will truly “get” all of the game’s nuances.
As far as being a good game, Lego Batman 3 – Beyond Gotham definitely has its flaws. The removal of the open-world environment that Lego Batman 2 brought to the table (and other Lego games since have carried on) really make this one feel like a huge step back for the franchise. The game also glitches out rather frequently, often forcing the player to completely quit and re-enter the game for them to resolve. For all the steps back the game takes, the character roster is an absolute dream and lets you play as some of the greatest heroes and villains the world has ever seen. All in all if you love Lego and/or love DC Comics then this is the game for you – but if you didn’t grow up on them then be prepared to wonder “Why is this a thing,” an awful lot.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Dragon Ball Z Season 7 advances the story by seven years from when we last saw our heroes after the defeat of the evil Android Cell. This is the biggest time skip in Dragon Ball Z and it brings some pretty big changes as well. Gohan is at high school struggling with both the ladies and hiding his Saiyan powers, new characters Goten and Videl are training hard for the World Martial Arts Tournament and all the while, more sinister events are transpiring in the background. Weighing in at the smallest of all the Blu-ray releases with only 25 episodes, does Season 7 hold up in quality to its Season 6 predecessor which scored a massive 9.5 out of 10? Read on to find out.
Story
Dragon Ball Z Season 7 actually begins immediately after the end of Season 6 where all the focus is on Goku participating in The Other World Tournament which is basically the World Martial Arts Tournament except with fighters who have been dead for thousands of years and have been training that entire time. The Other World arc is surprisingly entirely filler, but you wouldn’t know it as it stands up well next to the main content. In this mini saga we are introduced to many interesting and funny characters and also learn a bit more about the Dragon Ball Universe as King Kai explains how the world is split up into quadrants with Kai’s who rule over them. The Kai’s are all unique characters and some of the fighters present in the tournament use interesting techniques, such as Caterpy’s Chico Torture attack where he tickles his enemies or Aqua’s ability to turn the stage into water.
The Other World Tournament also introduces us to one of my favourite characters in Pikkon who is kind of like the Goku of the West Quadrant. He displays power on par with Goku taking out Cell and Frieza in an instant, uses great techniques and is just an all round likable fighter, not to mention he has an epic match against Goku in The Other World Tournament Final. Apart from all the notable warriors and fights there is some great humour here, such as Goku running back and forth on Snake Way due to his impatience, King Kai forgetting he can fly and Goku wanting to ride the big fancy plane. There is heaps of humour to be found throughout the rest of the season as well, such as Vegeta wanting to destroy any journalist that bother him or everyone holding back on the punching machine (except for Vegeta who decides to not hold back).
After the five episode long Other World saga is over the main series begins again jumping forward seven years into the future. Gohan is now 16 and attending Orange Star High School. Season 7 takes a very different pace here as the focus is moved away from fights and on to Gohan as he struggles to fit in at school while keeping his powers hidden and dealing with troublesome girls. Taking on the alter ego of The Great Saiyaman, while providing plenty of laughs, doesn’t help his cause either as he constantly cuts class to save people in need raising more questions. If you’re here for the fights then you will probably want to skip all these episodes but there is some light hearted fun to be had here such as watching everyone stare in awe as Gohan jumps 20ft to catch a stray baseball or seeing Gohan try to perfect his Great Saiyaman pose and speech.
Season 7 introduces Videl, Goten and Trunks to the main cast and they are all welcome additions. Videl is the daughter of the bumbling Hercule but is nothing like her father. She is full of attitude, serious about her martial arts and police work and acts as both a love interest to Gohan as well as his foe as she tries to unravel The Great Saiyaman’s identity. Dragon Ball Z is not really known for it’s strong female characters so it is very refreshing to see Videl added to the mix here, even if her limited power forces her to the bench as the Season continues. Goten is like a re-imagining of Goku as a kid, all about having a great time and getting into trouble while the slightly older Trunks is very much the same except a little more devious. The duo’s match in the junior division of The World Martial Arts Tournament is another season highlight, mixing both intense action and the childish roughhousing you would expect from these two boys.
Speaking of The World Martial Arts Tournament, it is great to see it return here from the original Dragon Ball series and the bright and colourful island setting acts as a great backdrop for the entire cast to reunite. Even though you might be watching this season back to back from Season 6, it still feels like you’re reuniting with all your old friends and it’s heartwarming to see Goku meet up with Gohan and Krillin again, as well as meet Goten for the first time. Season Seven may not pack in as much action as past sets, but it has a lot of laughs, great characters and enough heart to keep you interested.
Visuals
There is no doubt the quality offered by this Blu-ray collection is margins above its old DVD counterparts. The most noticeable difference in the remaster is the sharpness which has improved three fold thanks to the high definition offered by the Blu-ray format. The Majin Buu Saga has always looked better than past sagas of the show thanks to simply being newer and that has aided in the better image quality present here.
I’ve mentioned this in all my prior reviews but it is important to a lot of fans so I will mention it again here. Dragon Ball recently celebrated its 30th year anniversary so as you can imagine the anime is quite old. It was first broadcasted in the old 4:3 aspect ratio but has been converted to 16:9 widescreen for this release without the option to view it in its original form, resulting in about 20% of the original image being lost. The good thing is that Funimation have selectively cropped each scene in these new Blu-ray releases instead of leaving the crop confined to one spot for the entire run of the show. The result being an image where important details are rarely lost and we get a widescreen picture instead of an image with black bars on the side.
Grain has been nearly completely removed to provide a clearer picture and the touch up doesn’t go unnoticed in Season 7. The colours, brightness and contrast here are perfect. The new release does not suffer from any type of over saturation like the DVD releases but colours still manage to pop on screen. The colour adjustment allows more details of the images to stand out such as shadows on clothing and highlights on characters hair. The example above with the DVD on top and Blu-ray on the bottom showcases this perfectly. Lines are sharper and cleaner, colours are not over saturated and light and shadows are visible where they previously were not. The tint on Gohan’s glasses on the Blu-ray for example show a great improvement in this area.
However not everything is perfect for this release, partially due to the old age of the anime. Sometimes when characters are drawn at a distance their details are completely absent, with the worst examples showing characters without any facial details at all. While this may have been a non issue in the past with standard definition, it really stands out now and just looks wrong. The remastering quality while great over 90% of the time, sometimes seem to miss parts of the image, leaving a noticeable blur that is normally present in the center of the screen.
The original box art (featured at the top of this review) manages to cover the events of Season 7 well as past seasons have done before it and looks great with bright colour palette. Like the previous sagas, the next two covers will link up to form a sort of mural that covers the entire saga.
Audio
The audio options presented here by Funimation are top notch and should not leave anyone disappointed. The default audio is set to the Funimation English dub with the original Japanese Audio track and is presented in True HD Dolby 5.1 surround sound. While there isn’t as much chance for the music or surround sound to shine here as there was with all the massive battles in Season 6, it still sounds crystal clear and caters to fans of all audio options. While the volume seemed low in the first season sets, you can rest assured any volume related problems have been fixed here.
The Japanese and English music track both have some great highlights here and I really recommend watching the Season twice with both soundtracks just to see the best of both worlds. On the English side you have tracks such as Pikkon’s Theme and Supreme Kai’s theme which fits perfectly with the air of mystery the character gives off when he is first introduced. On the Japanese side you have a soundtrack that fits every piece of the action. It makes you feel unsettled when a fight is turning for the worst and can also pick you up when a character you’re rooting for is gaining the upper hand.
As for the voice acting, you again have the choice of the Funimation English dub or the original Japanese vocal track. The new English cast voices are all very fitting for their character, from the playful and carefree tone in Goten’s voice to the teenage attitude and sweetness that Videl’s voice actor helps convey. Kid Trunks voice sounds perfect for him later on, but suffers from an early inconsistency when we first meet him where he sounds like he is talking with his mouth full. Gohan’s voice actor has changed due to his coming of age but portrays the smart yet clueless Gohan very well. The old voice actors also deserve some praise here, showcasing the experience they have gained over the shows run. I can’t really comment on the Japanese vocal track here as I just leave the audio in English, but I have no complaints about what I have heard of those performances.
One final note on audio, just like how Season 6 changed up the menu song from past releases for the better, Season 7 also brings in a new menu track and it’s just as catchy as the one on Season 6 and syncs up well to the events in the background. I even found myself letting the menu loop a few times just to hear the song.
Extras
Season 6 had some excellent special features with voice cast interviews and some special trivia and Season 7 continues the excellent offering with the most bonus footage present so far on a DBZ season set with over an hour and 20 minutes of new content. The first interview with Justin Cook who is the voice of Raditz, Dende and Super Boo as well as Director of Production offers some great insight into the shows legendary status, the grandness of the story and characters and production insights from all-nighters to how the show came to America.
The other interview on the extras disc is with Nathaniel Harrison who is the Senior Mixing Engineer and Audio Manager for Funimation. Nathaniel goes into how the sound process has evolved from old Sony tape decks to fully digital as well as how the different audio options came to be from the Japanese music to Bruce Faulconers track.
The final extra is a feature on the DBZ Collectible Card Game which will really intrigue those who have invested time into the card game or are looking to collect them. The feature really goes in depth into the game and features many people who worked directly on the card game. There are some really rare items presented here that have never been seen before such as the original proxy plastic cards that include elements of the card game that never made it out of play testing. There is also a world champion rematch and a roundtable about the renewed release of the card game under Panini.
Apart from the big extras, there is a short U.S. trailer and a text less opening and closing segment. The ‘next time on Dragon Ball Z’ segments are missing from this release, however the previous episode recaps are present. The one negative with the extras is that there is no physical episode guide such as the one featured in the old orange remastered DVD box sets but the extras here make up for that absence with really intriguing, informative and nostalgic features. One other small annoyance I will quickly mention here, the trailer before the main menu appears still can’t be skipped with using the ‘top menu’ button.
Overall
Dragon Ball Z Season 7 on Blu-ray is another winner. This season might have had most of the fight scenes we are used to replaced with humour and light hearted scenarios but that isn’t a bad thing and the fights that are here are just as intense as the series best. The visual quality stands up to offerings from past seasons and is surpassed in many ways thanks to the better animation that was present in the Buu Saga. The audio keeps up the sky high standard Funimation has set from Season 1 with fantastic sound in all categories and origins. Aside from oddities such as some rare visual issues and Kid Trunks’ voice sounding strange in his earliest episodes, there really isn’t much you can fault here. The excellent extras on offer add to an already strong package to make this another fantastic release from Madman.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Aniplex of America has announced their acquisition of the streaming rights to all three seasons of the new Durarara!!x2 series. The new adaptations were initially announced in May. Although the first series was animated by Brains Base, the second series will be animated by Studio Shuka, the company’s first major project. Aniplex USA has launched an official English website for the series. They describe Durarara!!x2 as follows:
“6 Months Later…We haven’t changed at all… or it seems….”
Half a year after the turmoil that rocked the entire city of Ikebukuro—
Peace has once again returned to the city and people are living each day normally.
The high school students enjoy their days of youth as the strongest and most dangerous man of Ikebukuro works diligently. The informant plots a new scheme and the headless rider is pursued by the cops as she rides through the night…But soon this normal will be cut short by the abnormal. Slowly but surely, the unknown will seize the city and face an all new storm.
The first season of the new series will premiere in January 2015. The episodes will be streamed with English subtitles on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
In something that has become something of a disturbing trend lately, Bandai Namco has announced that yet another title will be getting an HD re-release on the latest generation of consoles. The title this time happens to be Dark Souls II and it will be called Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin will be released in North America on April 7th and it will contain all three pieces of story DLC for the game, ‘Crown of the Sunken King,’ ‘Crown of the Old Iron King,’ and ‘Crown of the Ivory King,’ a number of new NPCs and enemies, new in-game events, online matchmaking and more.
If you already own a copy of Dark Souls II, then most of these new features will be added into the game through a large patch while the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 versions will offer a significant graphical boost as well as supporting up to six players total in a single session.
Following the reveal of Etrian Odyssey and the Mystery Dungeon, Atlus has announced that they are working on a new numbered entry in the series. The title is currently simply being called Etrian Odyssey V and while a teaser trailer was released, and can be found below, there currently are no actual details about when the game will be released nor what platform it will be available for.
Judging on the series’ past of only being available on Nintendo handhelds, Etrian Odyssey V will likely be a 3DS title and for now you can check out the title’s official Japanese website here.
