Page 3577 – Capsule Computers

Home Blog Page 3577

Football Manager 2015 Review

November 24, 2014

Football Manager 2015
Developer: Sports Interactive
Publisher: SEGA
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Android, Linux, Mac, iOS, PS Vita
Release Date: Out Now
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here / $69.95 AUD Available Here

Overview

The Football Manager (FM) series has become a staple of the sports simulation genre and has been around for close to a decade. In that time, it has developed a strong and dedicated following whose passion for the game manifested in the extensive guides I had to employ to learn to play this game. This review is not targeted to them, although you can certainly still enjoy it, as I doubt the opinion of this humble writer would be able to sway the opinion of such a dedicated a fanbase. Besides that, I’m not a regular consumer of sports games and this is my first foray into FM so I cannot provide a comparison to previous games in the series. Instead, I will provide analysis and a critique with my outsider observations. So if you’re interested in hearing my thoughts on Football Manager 2015 and maybe getting some tips on how to introduce friends to the series, read on.

Story

This game is a hardcore simulation of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the cut-throat world behind championship soccer. It’s a game which revels in the cold calculations of number crunching behind the world’s “Beautiful Game”. There are certainly narratives to be explored with you transforming the quintessential underdog team into champions on the world stage or rising up from obscurity to take your rightful place as the world’s top soccer coach. These narratives are created by the player, with game solely providing a canvas upon which the player can connect the various dots.

The closest the game comes to providing a narrative to the player is with dialogue trees which the player can use in dealing with players, media, and club officials. The various dialogue options can further be altered by choosing the tone which a player will take such as ‘assertive’ or ‘passionate’. The options are meant to have various effects depending upon the context and disposition of the personas you’re interacting with. Most of the time, I found that I got the best reactions from players and media by simply choosing the positive, passionate responses. There is probably some greater nuance which I’m missing to these interactions, but I ended up playing most of my time in the game as a very happy-go-lucky manager. There were also several instances where I did not appear to have any options and simply left the conversation as soon as it started…

Gameplay

Right off the bat I will say this: Football Manager 2015 is the deepest simulation of anything I have ever encountered. The sheer breadth that this game can cover is amazing and a testament to the engine which runs it. Depending on the power of your hardware, you can have the game simulate a world with tens of THOUSANDS of players, coaches, and support staff with their own individual desires and abilities. This kind of intense number crunching is the very essence which defines computerised strategy/simulation games from their boardgame counters parts. All of these numbers are tied to a real-world analysis of players and staff in the current world of International Football.

Into this mass, you play as a football coach with varying degrees of skill and responsibility. The game gives you your own character to play, with your own sets of skills and stats. It balances a stronger coach with higher expectations from the club board, so it’s still fair to play an international level coach playing with a minor league team. The player is also able to mediate the amount of micro-managing that they deal with by assigning certain tasks to support staff to take care of.

Your efforts culminate with the matches that your team plays, which are played out for you by the computer. There is limited input in these sections, with the player being able to determine tactics and give more specific instructions about how to engage the match, but largely the match is determined by the actions and efforts which came before. This game is reverent of the world of soccer which, when combined with the calculated simulation aspect of the system, allows a soccer fan to take on management of their favourite teams and lead them to glory.

The matches are as fun to watch as any real world soccer game and at several points I did yell abuse and cheer at my screen when my team was appropriately terrible/good. I quite enjoyed these moments but the problem is that they were few and far between. I spent most of time dealing with the fairly clumsy UI as I dealt with various aspects of running the team. For me, I felt overwhelmed by the decisions the game was giving me as I had no frame of reference for what my actions would result in.

This game lacks a tutorial to help new players gain a basic understanding of the game mechanics and the various decisions they would be making. The game does have tooltips which can be turned on or off to help give some explanation, and alongside this the AI of the support staff will give recommendations on various actions. Even after reading guides and watching playthroughs, I still had to rely heavily upon the advice of the AI as well as delegate most duties to my assistant coaches. The point of this game is intense number-crunching with the player deliberating over various decisions, but it needs to do more to give new players an understanding of the weight and consequence of their options beyond a simple tooltip.

What I’d recommend for new players beyond simply engaging in extended ‘trial-and-error’, is to delegate most activities to your support staff and then learn each aspect of the game one-by-one. This will hopefully take some of the pressure off while you’re learning the ropes and you should eventually end up with a more holistic understanding of the mechanics as you learn.

Visuals & Audio

The visuals and audio in this game are mediocre. The UI is not particularly aesthetically appealing although there are a number of skins which players can import to mitigate that. The matches themselves are also similarly mediocre with passable graphics. The animations for the players are actually quite good but at times the animation can play out awkwardly in a tackle or with a player almost waddling across the field. There are no ambient sounds or music when you are outside of a match and I resorted to listening to the radio to keep me company while I planned out the future of my team. Matches themselves are largely dominated by the cheering of the crowd which grows in volume as plays are made and teams score goals. With these areas deficient, it’s fairly easy to assume that most of the effort for this game went into mapping and populating the deep simulation of the game.

Overall

There is a lot to overcome in this game. The steep learning curve, the clunky UI, and the long-term nature of the game mean that it takes a significant investment of time and effort to play it properly. I had to ask for an extra week to work my way through a couple of seasons and even now I feel like I’ve just barely gotten a handle on it. But this game certainly has its appeal as well and can sucker you in if you’re willing to put in the effort. There’s no feeling quite like coming out on top in a league which your team played hard to win… except for maybe winning a sports league in real life (I wouldn’t know). Overall, this game is really quite fun to play but that fun does not come easily or without cost…

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! Review

Travis Bruno

November 24, 2014

Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit!
Developer: Meteorise
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platform: PS Vita
Release Date: November 11, 2014
Price: $14.99 – Available Here

Overview
The Senran Kagura series is something that gamers thought may never make it overseas and now here we are with the spin-off rhythm cooking game Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit!. While previous games were always packed with plenty of buxom beauties, exposed underwear, and convenient nudity censorship, the titles also had satisfying combat mechanics to keep things in balance. Now that the shinobi of Senran Kagura have put down their weapons and stepped into the kitchen, is Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! a title that fans should acquire?

Story
The legendary ninja Hattori Hanzo has proclaimed that a Secret Ninja Art Scroll capable of granting one wish of the user’s choice will be awarded to the shinobi capable of creating the Secret Ultimate Dish. Sounds like serious business, but don’t worry it isn’t anything like that at all because it is more like Hanzo is simply hungry and bored and wants to raise a little hell with the help of his disciple Kiriya who seems to be quite different at the moment.

As such he has advertised that such a scroll will be given to the victor of a cooking battle and the girls of Senran Kagura have all taken the bait for their own reasons. In this base game, the girls of Hanzo Academy and Homura Crimson Squad are all included and Hanzo couldn’t be happier as he is able to not only enjoy some delicious cooking, but also quite a show.

Now in the game each character will have her own unique story mode that will unlock special accessories and costumes as well as some visuals. These story modes range from ridiculously funny to just plain funny as none of them are meant to be taken seriously. Each story is told through a visual novel type narrative though only a few actual dialogue scenes populate each of the girls’ story modes as most of it is simply setting things up and then delivering a punch line at the end.

The barrage of humorous and racy jokes is upped immensely in Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit with constant food references and other bits of dialogue being double entendres. Everything is sexually charged as the girls talk to one another, barely veiling some of their flirtier or perverted attitudes, and it creates a hilarious experience that fans of the Senran Kagura series shouldn’t have it any way and neither would I as I found myself laughing constantly in-between cooking battles and simply enjoying the ride.

Gameplay
Now once you do select a girl, either for the game’s story mode which consists of a number of cooking battles in a row interrupted by a few dialogue sequences, an arcade mode featuring another set of back to back battles, or free mode allowing players to choose who they will play as and who their opponent is, you will then begin a three part cooking battle.

The food that is prepared is determined by what character you will be facing off against, though all of the food is handled the same way as players will need to tap buttons as they are shown to you on the bottom of the screen. There are two lines that buttons can appear on and this includes both D-Pad directions as well as the face buttons and while some notes may simply require the player to tap it once, others will need to be held until a certain point or tapped numerous times within a certain limit to finish. The closer each button is to the proper point the better score you will be given, which is to be expected, and it is worth noting that the more notes you successfully complete will build up a “combo” that can then unleash your chosen girls’ shinobi skill. These skills are all the same and do little to actually change the visuals of the game as they simply help you earn more points while also burying the chances that your opponent has to come back in round as the skill will stay active until you miss a note. Despite sounding easy, the harder difficulties can be incredibly difficult on specific songs as they mix together the directional buttons and face buttons to such an extent it can be one hell of a challenge to complete, especially since there are two lines to worry about.

With each battle being a three part affair, each part is split into a taste testing by Hanzo where he will pick the winner of that part. This is chosen by a colored bar at the top of the screen pushing into the loser’s side of the screen and is determined by how accurate you are with the notes. Each round won or lost will result in the losing party suffering from ripped clothing. This means that by the end of the second round you can have your opponent stripped completely to their underwear and if you manage to pull off a complete victory in the final round, she will be stripped completely naked with chibi versions of her face covering her nipples and a bar of light covering her lower part.

It is also worth noting that doing well in the earlier rounds will fill up a heart meter that, when full, appears as an extra note in the song that, if activated, will zoom the camera around your opponent as she continues to cook. The camera puts emphasis on your opponents “life and hometown” and while there are two angles that the camera can take, it appears to be random which one will trigger.

If you have managed to obtain a perfect victory, you will be awarded something a little extra as your opponent is then placed in a situation where she is served up as a desert, covered in chocolate syrup, whipped cream and more to be as sexual looking as possible without going over the line. Each girl has a different pose and this is certainly a game that does everything it can to deliver that extra bit of service to the player.

This is continued into the dressing room where players can unlock countless different accessories, outfits, and underwear to dress up their favorite girls. There is so much to unlock in the game and so many different combinations to put together that fans will have a lot to unlock. Of course for those looking to be a bit perverted, the touch screen and gyroscope can be used to provoke the girls.

Visuals
Since Senran Kagura fans in the West are getting Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! so soon after Shinovi Versus, you may notice that the character models have been improved a slight bit over SV, but for the most part they will look the same as you remember with quiet a lot of customization available. By using the dressing room you can change the outfits that each character will wear while she is cooking and even the underwear she will eventually be stripped down to.

The cooking sequences change depending on the item that is being made at any given moment and some of the creations that come out of the final round are quite ridiculous looking and they match perfectly with Hanzo’s euphoric reactions to eating the winner’s food.

Audio
Although the gameplay is tight, the graphics are gorgeous, and there is plenty of service to be had for fans, Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! is unfortunately rather weak when it comes to the songs on offer. Since each girl offered in the game has their own song, there are only ten songs available in this basic version of the game and among them only a couple of tunes actually have lyrics where everything else is simply an instrumental.

While a few of the songs do sound nice and there is a wide-range of genres available, including a Christmas sounding tune, the offerings end up being sadly forgettable. Many of these songs feel like the type of background music you would expect on a menu or as a theme rather than an actual song you would play a game to which is disappointing.

Overall
Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! offers a game that only fans of the series would love but there is plenty here to love. While it is unfortunate that the songs are of lower quality than one would expect for a rhythm game, there is a nice challenge here for those looking for it, plenty of content to unlock, and of course more humorous storylines involving the cast of Senran Kagura to enjoy. With so much lewd content on display this may not be a game to play on the go, but it is a title that Senran Kagura fans will definitely enjoy.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault Review

Jamie Laike Tsui

November 24, 2014

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault Review

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: SEGA
Platform: Windows
Release Date: 17 Novmeber 2014
Price: $39.99 USD – Available Here / $59.95 AUD Available Here

Overview

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is the second expansion pack for Company of Heroes 2. The pack is standalone and does not require the base game. The first expansion pack introduced the western front armies to multiplayer matches. Ardennes Assault follows up with an 18 mission long single player campaign. Players are given command over three companies, each with unique abilities, to tackle the missions in whatever order they choose.

Story

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault takes players to the winter of 1944. The Nazi army launched a daring offensive through the Ardennes region in hope of splitting the Allied forces in half and turning the war around. Now the three companies are tasked with repelling the assault and recapturing lost territory. The plot loosely retells the events of the Battle of the Bulge. Most of the story is told through the cut scenes before each mission and the debriefing provided by the company’s commander. The cut scenes are made to mimic the war time news reels shown back in the US, while the debriefing are read out by the company commanders and differ depending on the commander.

Relic Entertainment does a great job with Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault’s writing. The news reels perfectly replicates the real thing, using the correct language and the patriotic tone that glossed over the horrors of war for the viewers at home. The debriefings help build characters to actually care about, something missing in many RTS titles. Young Lt. Vastano is clearly out of his element typing up his after action reports, after being thrust into handling the bureaucratic matters following the disappearance of his CO. The grizzled WWI veteran Capt. Derby prefers to decompress after the battle by confiding in the company chaplain, while the young upper middle class Capt. Edwards contends with US Army censors as he writes home to his father. The small details are not forgotten by the writers. Units chatter among themselves, respond to commands, and alert commanders of current events. The lines feel torn out of Saving Private Ryan and other classic WWII flicks.

Gameplay

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is composed of two phases. The campaign map will have players moving their three companies around the Ardennes region, attacking German held areas. During this time, players can spend requisition and experience points to add reinforcements to their companies and upgrade each company’s special commander abilities. Bringing in new troops will cost experience, so veteran levels and company strength needs to be balanced at all times. This forces players to be mindful of their units, as losing too many units in the early part of a game may result in being placed in a difficult position later in the campaign. A company that loses their company strength will be wiped out.

Although the campaign is open ended, players will probably tackle batches of mission based on difficulty. As Nazi troop levels rise, the AI will have access to extra resources and will put up a harder fight. Once a map is defeated, the surviving Nazi forces will attempt to flee to the closest German stronghold, possibly increasing the difficulty in the next round. As players move around the main map, special events may trigger, encouraging players to attack a certain map due to weakened enemy strength or promise of a new unit.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault focuses on the tactical combat on the unit level. Base building is practically non-existent, with each commander getting a small base right off the bat. Higher level units in the tech tree are unlocked by summoning an officer unit to the battle. Infantry units serve as game’s bread and butter, as many can be armed with light machine guns, grenades, and anti-tank bazookas. They can even hop into disabled vehicles or take control of abandoned heavy weapons left by enemies. There is a strong emphasis on combined arms tactics, as vehicles are ever so weak against infantry manned anti-tank guns and bazookas. Smart commanders will need to micro-manage units to maneuver them into cover. I found the AI was ok at taking cover, but could not reposition themselves behind new cover to respond to a flank attack or jump behind nearby cover beyond a certain range.

The game benefits from the fact Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies was released over five months ago. The units are balanced very well. Battles require commanders to create well-rounded squads that have their weaknesses covered and encourage players to create opportunities to gain the upper hand by targeting enemy vulnerabilities. Send in tanks without support and they will get slaughtered by anti-tank guns, but send in riflemen with grenades into the same built up area to quickly destroy anti-tank guns will allow their supporting tanks to roll into the base and slaughter the enemy with ease

There is a decent variation to mission objectives. Many of them start as a capture and control type mission, with randomly generated optional objective or two added for good measure. However, Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is at its best when creative curve-balls are thrown into the works. One of my favourite missions was a spin on the capture and control. It sent me racing around the map in a desperate attempt to capture airdrops randomly dropped around the battlefield at set intervals, while both the enemy commander and I were being choked out of resources at an alarming rate. The randomly generated optional objectives are not nearly as interesting. They all boil down to going to a certain part of the map and collecting intel, killing a VIP, destroying a crippled tank, or rescuing pinned units. They become very predictable after the third or fourth mission.

For the most part, Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is very stable, but it is not bug-free. I experienced a very serious bug in Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault that caused a two maps to not load at all, making me unable to complete the game. The remaining were all minor things, like AI running around back and forth in small on rare occasions, clearly unable to decide what to do or how to get out.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is a standalone expansion pack, but Steam will install the entire Company of Heroes 2 game. When booting up, players will get the full menu, but those only owning Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault will only have access to Single Player Campaign menu and the options menu. The rest of the menus will advertise the other portions of the game that can be purchased. Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault launched with a day one DLC that locked the Ranger company out, unless players were willing to fork over an extra $4.99 USD or pre-order the game. Frankly, I am not too thrilled at the idea of locking out an entire company behind a paywall on day one.

Visuals

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is still looking good, almost a year and a half since the base game was originally released. As an older game, the minimum specs aren’t too high and the game ran well on my computer. I love small details like how each infantry units have members who will die as the unit take damage. The maps are populated with lots of objects, giving infantry units plenty of places to take cover and keeping the maps looking lively. The animations are solid and the UI fits perfectly with the WWII theme.

Audio

The voice acting in Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is solid. The accents are mostly spot on, though there are a few rough spots. The sound effects sound great and the music serves as a nice backdrop to the game.

Overall

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is a solid single player campaign. The units are balanced well, the missions are interesting, the graphics are lovely, and the sound design is solid. The 18 missions are too short for $39.99 asking price, especially since the multiplayer Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies expansion is not included. The replayability rests only in the higher levels of difficulty, as the randomly generated optional mission goals and playing the same maps in different orders, which make the high price even harder to swallow. Ardennes Assault is worth picking up, just at a lower price.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Tales of Hearts R Review

Travis Bruno

November 24, 2014

Tales of Hearts R
Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: PS Vita
Release Date: November 11, 2014
Price: $39.99 USD – Available Here $59.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview
Over the last few years, nearly every JRPG announced for release in Japan has managed to make its way overseas, regardless of how niche it might be. As such thinking that an established franchise such as the “Tales of” series would pass up a worldwide release is more than surprising. However back in 2008 and the year prior, a number of Tales games did not see a Western release in any form. Now with Tales of Hearts being remade for the PS Vita and Bandai Namco listening to fans of the franchise, Tales of Hearts R has been released in the West.

Story
A young girl named Kohaku and her brother Hisui are on the run from a witch and while they are trying to escape, they manage to find their way to an isolated village where the oddly named Kor Meteor lives and trains with his grandfather. When the pair arrive in the village, Kor manages to help Kohaku and Hisui fend off the witch’s attacks but in the process his grandfather is murdered and Kohaku’s “spiria” is heavily damaged, causing shards of it to scatter around the world.

A spiria is basically a crystal like item that holds the emotions of the owner and can also be used to power weapons called “Soma” which is one of the few methods to defeat monsters which have begun flooding the land. Since Kohaku’s spiria is now shattered,Kor joins up with the two in order to restore her personality by tracking down every piece and making a number of new allies along the way.

Somewhere along the line however it becomes apparent that there is much more going on to the story than a simple fetch quest and Kor and the rest find themselves on a serious mission with the fate of the world in the balance. I will admit that Tales of Hearts R is one of the slower starting games in the series as it does take a while to pick up the pace but thankfully it does ramp up as the story progresses and begins to reveal more about the world.

As with many Tales games, the characters are initially identifiable by their basic tropes but unfortunately, unlike most other Tales games, Tales of Hearts R does a poor job managing a number of the characters you find joining the party. There are some interesting developments made over the course of the game for the cast and seeing Kohaku go from her previous self to an emotionless shell and back is interesting, but it feels like it is far too little for a series that usually boasts a strong cast of characters.

Gameplay
Much of Tales of Hearts R’s mechanics will be familiar to longtime fans though the combat and leveling systems have been changed up this time around. As usual, players will enter a battle where they can move freely on a battlefield if they wish, but generally charge in a straight line towards the targeted enemy. You may make use of basic attacks as well as Artes (skills) to deal damage to your foes and this time around you can easily chain together numerous combo attacks using basic attacks and Artes.

One thing that has been added to the game is a chase link system where players can unleash a powerful slew of attacks after launching an enemy into the air and even trigger linked attacks with party members during these chase links. This makes the fast paced combat even more enjoyable than before and thanks to a system that allows players to completely customize how they want their AI partners to fight, you will find yourself fighting alongside highly skilled party members that will react to situations exactly how you want them to without a second thought.

As mentioned earlier, the level up system has also been refined to allow players to craft characters to best fit their play style. Every time a character levels up the player can distribute these points to various parts of their Soma, increasing the damage they do and usually unlocking new Artes in the process. Combined with the aforementioned AI modifications, the amount of customization in Tales of Hearts R is a pleasant surprise.

What isn’t pleasant however is the fact that for whatever reason, Tales of Hearts R has reverted back to the ancient random encounter system. Unlike other titles where you will run into enemies on the field, you will now randomly be thrown into combat against enemies as you explore. There are ways to lower the encounter rate through items, but random encounters end up being an unwelcome blight that is only alleviated by the fun and enjoyable combat system.

Visuals
Tales of Hearts R has reworked from the ground up over its original DS release but at times it really doesn’t show it. While the designs of the towns you venture through and the character designs are impressive looking, the same cannot be said for many of the dungeons and areas you will venture through.

Many of the dungeons are straightforward affairs that offer little exploration and are some of the blandest you will find in a JRPG but there are a handful of memorable looking areas that try to make up for it. At least the enemies you encounter will have a decent amount of variety, which also helps alleviate the annoyance of random encounters.

Audio
Now unlike almost every other Tales release in memory, Tales of Hearts R does not feature an English dub and instead relies only on the original Japanese voice track. This isn’t a major issue however as it does sound quite natural at times and practically the entire game is voiced thanks to this decision. There are a few moments where the Japanese voice work seems to contradict what is being shown in the localization texts, such as how the main character’s strange localized name Kor is still said as the Japanese version’s Shing and a number of English phrases thrown in from time to time, but for the most part only those with some awareness of the language will probably catch most of these issues.

Unfortunately as far as the background music goes, there really is not much to be said about it due to the fact that the music is relatively bland and uninspired. There are a couple of decent tracks mixed in with the soundtrack but sadly none of the music will be memorable, especially the opening video for Tales of Hearts R has been stripped of its vocals and is now an instrumental only version.

Overall
Sporting a satisfying story that is held back a bit by some poor character development, Tales of Hearts R is makes for a satisfying game. The new combat mechanics and customization aspects improve the already enjoyable combat system though the forced random encounters and uninspired dungeon design may leave players putting the title down from time to time to avoid being burnt out on it. Perhaps the fact that it was always designed for a handheld console is something of a blessing as Tales of Hearts R still offers an enjoyable experience, just one that has a number of flaws.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Review

Travis Bruno

November 24, 2014

Assassin’s Creed Rogue
Developer: Ubisoft Sofia
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360 (Reviewed)
Release Date: November 11, 2014
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $79.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview
Although many people have turned their attention towards the current-gen exclusive Assassin’s Creed Unity, Ubisoft has not left fans that have yet to upgrade to the latest systems in the dust as they have released Assassin’s Creed Rogue for the older consoles. Throughout the years we’ve followed the battle between the Templars and the Assassins; however we’ve only ever seen the fight through the Assassins’ eyes. With Rogue putting us in the boots of a Templar, is the title worth picking up?

Story
Taking place during the French and Indian War in the North Atlantic, players take on the role of Shay Patrick Cormac, a new member to the assassin order who is working under a familiar face in the form of Achilles Davenport. Thanks to his skills, Achilles chooses to give Cormac a chance to prove himself and accept a dangerous mission involving a Piece of Eden.

Unlike his predecessors, Cormac has an attitude that forces him to question many of the methods that the Assassins use to complete their missions and when he witnesses the slaughter of many innocents and is left to die by those he used to call friends, he aligns himself with those that players have killed throughout the years, the Templars.

Witnessing the events of Assassin’s Creed Rogue through the side of the Templars makes for an interesting experience and Cormac’s personality is a nice refresher, even if he is not as likable as Edward was back in Black Flag. The entire aspect of having to chase down and kill those who you would previously have been helping puts the story in a bit of a new light, especially when it appears that, at least through their eyes, that the Templars really are the good guys while the Assassins may not be as noble as we’ve been led to believe.

Now as for the modern day aspect of the story, it is reminiscent of Black Flag where players are still a no named employee for Abstergo Entertainment and can walk through the halls of the building in first person mode. While sifting through the memories of Cormac, you accidentally cause the entire building to be locked down and crash the servers. You are then told to continue exploring his memories with zero contact from the modern day Assassins, making this a consistent story where players are always siding with the Templar side of the conflict.

Gameplay
The actual gameplay found in Assassin’s Creed Rogue feels like the company took the best aspects from Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III and put them together to create a new game using old assets. Players will find themselves sailing the iceberg filled seas of the North Atlantic while participating in open-sea combat that feels extremely similar outside of a few new weapons you have at your disposal, traversing through the streets of the 18th Century streets of New York, and even traveling through the forests of the Hudson River Valley.

As you explore you will come across numerous places to capture ranging from gang hideouts to full on forts and this is only the beginning of what becomes a game littered with collectibles, many pertaining to the French and Indian War, numerous side-activities, and various resources you can gather to help upgrade your ship and make it as dangerous as possible out on the icy seas of the North Atlantic. In fact, one of the best aspects about Rogue is that none of the side-activities are really that tiresome or worn out this time as there is just enough variation here to keep players happy even when they are binging on side quests between campaign missions.

Both the combat system and the parkour system remain the same as prior games where the combat involves players having to attack opponents while countering incoming attacks and changing their strategies depending on what type of enemy they are facing off against. The entire combat system feels like a repeat of past games, making it familiar but also losing the impact that it once had as everything is far too familiar at this point. As for the parkour, it contains the same problems that persisted in past titles where certain movements would either cause Cormac to stutter as he climbs or unintentionally leap off in a random direction instead of where you intended.

It is worth noting that a couple of new firearms, including an air rifle, are included in Rogue though they aren’t quite as useful as I would have liked. One of the most interesting new features to the game appears a few hours in once Cormac becomes a Templar. As you remember, Assassins are always out for Templar blood and that is certainly the case in Assassin’s Creed Rogue and gives players a consistent sense of danger. As you walk through the streets you will always need to keep your ears tuned and eyes open as Assassins have a chance to ambush you at any time. Keeping an ear out for whispers and using an enhanced version of Eagle Vision is essential to avoiding major health loss and getting the jump on your hidden foes.

Visuals & Audio
Being a title that is exclusive to old hardware, Assassin’s Creed Rogue still does a very good job at keeping everything nice looking. Exploring through lush looking forests or sailing through the decent looking oceans is still impressive looking, though once you do enter the city you’ll notice that a number of noticeable shortcuts have been taken to lower the amount of detail actually present in most of the game’s textures.

As for the voice work, you will find that Assassin’s Creed Rogue supports a very fitting voice cast that portrays the characters and the struggles of the world nicely. Unfortunately I must say that I was disappointed that most, if not all, of the music in the game, including the sea shanties, was taken directly from Black Flag and transported into Rogue. While the quality is still there, it would have been nice to hear something new.

Overall
Assassin’s Creed Rogue makes the best of what it has at hand. Although a number of elements of the game are simply elements re-used from the past couple of Assassin’s Creed titles, they come together nicely and create an experience that fans will enjoy. Especially since it happens to wrap up the elements from the American side of the conflict and helps transfer us nicely into the next step in the Assassin’s Creed storyline, Unity.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

PES 2015 Review

Dustin Spencer

November 24, 2014

PES 2015
Developer: PES Productions
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Playstation 4,Playstation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox 360
Release Date: November 11, 2014
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $89.95 AUD –Available Here

Overview
Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (also known as PES) franchise has been around for years, comfortably sitting as the “other” go to experience for fans of the sport. While the well known namesake dominated in the earlier part of the 2000’s, we haven’t seen those heights reached for sometime now. With a load of tweaks, new features, and that new generation of polish added, PES is back with PES 2015. Going into a new generation, can Konami score a goal, is this title one to simply pass? Let’s find out.

Gameplay
I think that many out there consider FIFA to be the top tier soccer title out there. As far as sales go, FIFA does rule the market and the higher sales are usually weighted with what has been a more defined and represented product. Pro Evolution Soccer may not have the budget of EA, but it does have a lot more in terms of authenticity. PES 2015 backs this statement, as the gameplay has reached new heights in this year’s version, feeling polished and fluid throughout. To be honest, I haven’t played a lot of PES, so the response time when passing and shooting took some getting used to. Over time though, the delay is forgivable as it leads to more precise shots that feel realistic. Those looking for easy accessibility found in FIFA will be a bit put off by the tactical stylings of this title, but if fans are wanting a superior product of simulation, then they will love the love the detail on display here.

PES 2015 is a slower soccer experience as it is more about the journey to the goal, rather than simply hitting the ball in a net. The AI are proof of this, as the players on the field play smart, opening up gaps by blocking the opponents on the field. You will quickly learn about player formations and outsmarting a stiff defense, as even though your team is smart, the opponents are usually one step ahead. My first game ended at 0-1 as I wasn’t quite equipped with the proper mindset for the AI to be so in tune with the process. By formulating a strategy, you are able to win – and that is what gives PES 2015 its legs and makes it feel distinct. Its all about gaining momentum and running with it, and the least bit of obstacle can change that momentum in an instant, making for some exciting match-ups every time.

A small downside of the game comes down to licensing issues. EA has the wallet to present more, and I would guess Konami – for legal reasons, decided to go for generic names and kits, rather than obtaining the rights to the likes of the English Premier League. This is nothing really new to be honest, but it is a bit of a disappointment to those wanting to get behind Manchester City and all of the other re-branded teams. On a good note, some teams did get licensed, such as Manchester United (the only English Premier representation), and it can definitely provide a laugh to see the ridiculous ways that the developers made it work with the “almost there” brands and names within the game.

When it comes to the in-game modes, the always welcome Master League leads the way, but hasn’t changed too much. The counterpart to Ultimate Team – myClub, is probably the biggest time sink, as players get to spend currency (in-game and real if needed) to build the perfect team to take on the world. I am not a big fan of spending real cash for any in-game feature, but to be honest, PES 2015 doesn’t really require too much legwork to gain GP as it is, so unless it is your preference to gain the points faster, you shouldn’t have to worry about actually paying much in myClub. Become a Legend is also a decent portion of the game to go to, as you can build one player and move up through the ranks and gain notoriety. I spent most of my time here oddly enough, as its very easy to indulge on this train to the top career mode of sorts. Finally, we also have are basic training modes. Sure, its just a tutorial, but players are rewarded with medals and the drills are actually quite entertaining.

Visuals
Presentation has always been a problem for PES, but I will say for a game that has never stood out much in terms of visuals, Konami did an excellent job with the environment and the player models. The animations are fluid and never seem to be too stiff or awkward, which of course benefits the authenticity. I know menus are not important, but the menus need to be addressed next year. I get it PES, you are that kid on the block that is all substance and no style. You have proved that time and time again, but why not flare up the menus to make them more attractive? Sure, there are not too many modes so less is more, but a bit busier load screen and revamped menu could definitely assist in making the look of the game match the five star feel it already has.

Audio
As far as the audio goes, you wouldn’t be missing a lot if you muted the commentary. The team doesn’t even try to make your game exciting, and just sound bored as they ramble on. The in-game soundtrack is not much better. Sure, Konami paid for music and I give them props for that. However, the music that was selected is rather unfitting and sounds like it is coming out of a metal ball instead of an arena. The sound effects however are serviceable and kicks and taps represent the action happening on the field.

Overall
PES 2015 is a great representation of the sport of soccer, and an outstanding addition to the franchise. Gameplay wise, this may very well be the high point of the series. PES however needs to stop settling for second best and put forth the effort to be the best, as it has all of the tools to topple its showboating competition. While the game is great, a few missteps take the full package away from true glory. That being said, you can’t find a more authentic footy title than the fourteenth entry into this series, and even though some of the team names didn’t make the cut, I think PES has a very safe future heading into a new generation.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Xbox Newsbeat: November 19th – November 23rd

Andrew Day

November 24, 2014

Xbox Newsbeat: November 19th – November 23rd

Another week has gone by, and we here at Xbox Newsbeat cannot wait to start serving you the hottest, most delicious news bits from Microsoft HQ. This week is one of celebration, supercar racing and games long since forgotten, so sit back, put your napkin on your lap and get ready to enjoy the Newsbeat!

Many Thanks for One Year With Xbox One

Can you believe it!? The Xbox One has been entertaining us for a whole year already! Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Well what good is a birthday without a celebration! To mark the occasion, Microsoft are sending out personalised emails that detail your achievements on the shiny black box over the past 12 months, and are also offering the following free bonuses for you to nab:

A Year One Gamer Picture
New Xbox One backgrounds: A special Year One background as well as an exclusive Day One background for those who unlocked the Day One achievement
A Year One background image for use on Twitter, your desktop, etc.
A free rental of “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” (for a limited time)
A free rental of “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods” movie and a sampler pack of “Dragon Ball Z” TV episodes (for a limited time, available in the U.S. and Canada only)

12 Months down, lord knows how many to go!

Xbox Australia Partners With DJR to Bring Marcos Ambrose Home to the V8 Supercars

Geez, Microsoft aren’t shying away from the partnerships at the moment are they. After last week’s partnership deal with JB HiFi, the home of the Xbox have now announced that they will be joining this year’s NRMA 500 V8 Supercars race in December.

Not only will they have a car in the event, but the driver is none other than Two-time V8 Supercars champion and Australian racing legend Marcos Ambrose – who is returning to Australia after eight years in the US NASCAR circuit to race the Sydney NRMA 500 season finale – appeared at a launch event this morning at Lakeside Park in Brisbane to unveil the Xbox Racing Ford Falcon FG he will drive on December 5-7.

‘Atari: Game Over’ Now Available on Xbox

Atari’s lost games – buried out in the middle of New Mexico were once thought of as nothing more than a rumour, but a new documentary Atari: Game Over uncovered the truth (and the stockpile of games), and now you can watch it directly through your Xbox One.

Atari: Game Over is produced by Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning producers Simon and Jonathan Chinn, and directed by comic book movie veteran Zak Penn, “Atari: Game Over” explores the video game industry’s first bubble and collapse, as well as the golden age of video games, through the lens of the excavation.

So there we have it, another break-neck instalment of Xbox Newsbeat. Did any of this week’s headlines manage to particularly grab your attention? Let us know in the comments below.

Red vs Blue Season 12 Review

Michael Marr

November 23, 2014

Red Vs Blue Season 12
Studio: Roosterteeth Productions
Publisher: Hanabee
Format : DVD, Blu-Ray – Reviewed on DVD
Release Date: 5th November, 2014
Price: $29.99 – Available Here

Overview

Red Vs Blue and RoosterTeeth are two phrases that are essentially synonymous with the Machinama media genre. What started out with a bunch of lay-about soldiers just standing around and talking in the middle of a boxed canyon has evolved into a massive internet phenomenon, now spanning 12 seasons. Kind of shocking when you consider that, to this day, they’re still lay-about soldiers who do almost nothing but stand around and talk, and drive each other nuts with often hilarious results. It’s usually around this 12th season point in a series’ lifecycle when fans start to ponder as to whether the show starts running TOO long. Like the previous seasons, Red Vs Blue Season 12 has also made its way to DVD. The big question to ask is, does RvB still hold up after all this time?

Story

The plot of season 12 pretty much picks up straight from where season 11 left off, give or take a few months of in-context time. After the (literally) explosive finale of season 11, the Reds and Blues have been separated, and are now heavily caught up in a civil war for the planet Chorus. (The planet they crash landed on in the last season). After meeting with a mercenary named Felix in the last season, Tucker, Caboose, Grif and Simmons have been drafted into the rebellion, with the promise of the chance to help rescue their comrades from the Federal Army. It seems that all the wrong (or right) reputations of the wayward heroes have preceded them, as they are considered by many of their fellow rebel soldiers to be living legends, as the soldiers who brought down Project Freelancer in earlier seasons. Symbols of strength and hope. Beacons of light in the darkness and all that…

As any long time viewer would know, this notion is obviously a completely inaccurate representation of this little band’s abilities. However, as a result of this rather inexplicable fame, each of the four are promoted to the rank of Captain, and given their own squads to train and manage. As Grif put it “Prepare to be sorely disappointed”.

One of the hit-and-miss aspects of the “Idiots-in-command” is the relationship each of the main characters share with their protégés. Tucker’s apprentice is an inept suck-up; Grif’s number 2 is equally as lazy and uninspired as he is; Simmons’ understudy is, well… female, which is a problem to a guy who has serious difficulties in talking to ladies; and Caboose’s underling seems to think his captain some sort of ingenious and respectable military mastermind. The relationships Tucker, Grif and Simmons share with their squads are not particularly funny or interesting, mostly because these second fiddle characters are exactly that, second fiddles. The only instance where it works humorously is in Caboose’s case. Even so, viewers will find it a little difficult to care about these characters in earnest.

In season 12, focus is thrust upon Tucker as the main character. (He is the lead character on the box art cover after all.) Without any sign of Washington, Church or even Sarge around to provide guidance and leadership, Tucker ultimately takes it upon himself to lead the others in their mission to recover their friends by doing what they do worst: working hard. Tucker’s character development and growth as a legitimate soldier in this season is quite appealing to see, especially since the focus of previous seasons have almost exclusively been upon Church. (And they let the viewers know this through numerous in-jokes about that older focus).

A small collection of old faces also return at around the halfway point in the season, just when the whole civil war starts to go really pear shaped. We’re also introduced to a few new characters who I sincerely hope will become regulars in the series, such as Doctor Grey, a borderline psychopathic doctor who is significantly more entertaining than the old Reds and Blues medic. Her cheery demeanor in the face of extraordinary hostility kept things light hearted and solicited some genuine laughing out loud moments in some of the story’s darkest moments.

The shifting story focus from soldiers doing nothing, to soldiers actually doing something heroic in this season is certainly a departure from what RvB has done in the past. The plot continues the saga set up by season 11 quite nicely and is still a greatly entertaining story to watch. It’s still rampant with in-jokes and popular culture references that long time fans know and love, yet it does just enough new to keep the audience invested in watching even after all this time. In particular, the conclusion of this season gives the audience and pretty good idea of where season 13 will take us. And I for one, can’t wait to see it.

Visuals

As with Season 11, Season 12 is filmed in the HD graphics engine of Halo 4. The RoosterTeeth crew still know how to stick to the visual roots of the series, while making the best use of out the in-game customization tools to fashion environments, background elements and camera angles to their liking. The animation is still about what you’d expect from RedVsBlue. There is a lot more environment variance this time around as the Reds and Blues find themselves traversing a large variety of locations across Chorus in an effort to.

One significant change worth noting compared to the last season is the return of CGI action sequences, where certain segments of the show are filmed with custom made CGI instead of the standard in-game machinama style alone. These custom animated scenes were always a glorious highlight in previous seasons, particularly in season’s 8-10, and were noticeably absent in season 11. However, don’t expect the action sequences to be as wild and over the top as they were in previous seasons. Many CGI animated scenes aren’t even action-based at all. Instead the focus is on conveyance of emotion through action, since everybody in this series has their face perpetually hidden by a helmet.

While the general dialogue scenes benefit greatly from the CGI treatment, the combat scenes with it aren’t up to the same standard as they were with previous seasons. CGI is used in action scenes quite sparingly, and even then most of it appears stiff and less epic. Don’t expect “Agent-Carolina-Jumping-Off-a-Building” levels of style this time around. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun to see, but just doesn’t deliver the same level of “OMPH” as before.

Audio

The audio style of season 12 is very much keeping in step with the standard of sound and music quality in season 11. Nico Audy-Rowland contributes some very nice musical scores to accompany the situations and environments. The RoosterTeeth crew have also done a bang-up job of using the limited sound toolset available in Halo 4 wherever they can, using in-game sound effects wherever they can, just to instill that sense of “Hey! Remember we’re still in a Halo game!”

The character voice acting is still up to the usual stellar RvB standard with familiar Roosterteeth members making up members of the main cast, with lots of minor voice roles handed out for many supporting characters. The delivery of jokes are still quick and witty, though there are moment when a joke’s completely obvious punchline is coming, BOW CHIKA BOW WOW. It says a lot about the quality of voice acting at hand when you have to convey thoughts and feelings through something without a face, but everyone pulls it off quite nicely.

Extras

As will all previous RvB DVD releases, Season 12 comes stacked with a slew of bonus feature content, including 4 more of RvB’s ever entertaining PSA videos. Also included are the Audio commentary reel from the cast and crew, a blooper reel of some of the bigger gaffed moments of RvB, a few deleted scenes and Teaser Trailers for other RoosterTeeth productions, such as RWBY volume 2 (soon to be reviewed), Best of RT Shorts, and X-Ray and Vav. It’s also very cool to see a few little self-referential Easter eggs hidden throughout the collection, like soldiers watching an episode of RWBY on the big-screen TV.

Overall

It’s worth noting that this is NOT the place to start watching if you’ve never watched Red Vs Blue before. For many of the jokes, a lot of pre-existing background context is needed to understand. And yet I don’t find a thing wrong with this. It shows RvB isn’t being tailored differently to bring in new audiences; rather it’s sticking too much of the already existing formula fans know and love, and delivers more and more of it. Yet at the same time, much is different this time around. Odds are, if you’re an RvB fan, you’ve already seen most of this online already, but this DVD collection is still a definite fan “must-have” to enjoy those moments of hilarity again and again.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Mordheim: City of the Damned Early Access Unleashed

Mateja Simovic

November 23, 2014

The city of the damned, Mordheim, is finally open for adventurers to explore and pillage to their hearts content. Published by Focus Home Interactive and developed by Rogue Factor, the game is a computer adaption of the Games Workshop’s tabletop game of the same name. In return for participating in the game’s early access period, the game will be on sale with a 20% discount in order to facilitate feedback to the developers to improve the game. You can find the game on steam here.

The original game had the players control a variety of warbands including Skaven ratmen, vampires, and human mercenaries (amongst others) as they traversed the ruin city of Mordheim in search of valuables to loot and was an interesting blend of both strategy and role-playing mechanics. The early access version of the game currently offers two warbands, human mercenaries and skaven from clan Eshin (ninja rats), with another two slated for the final release. We’ve previously covered the unveiling of the Sisters of Sigmar as a confirmed playable warband in the game. There are current two procedurally generated maps with randomised elements and two unique maps with the only current game type being deathmatch.

More content will be rolled out incrementally with the devs obtaining player feedback as the game develops. I personally look forward to the prospect of sinking my teeth into the game and to see how the brutality of the Mordheim tabletop game transfers into a video game. Stay tuned for our preview coming soon.

1...3,5763,5773,578...6,761 Page 3,577 of 6,761