If you were concerned that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax would suffer the same delays that its predecessor suffered when it came to a PAL release then you can rest easy. It has been announced that Sega will be handling the publishing for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax in Euorpe and although there is still a small delay, it is better than nothing.
The game will be released in that region on November 21st and a number of retailers will be offering Arcanas Tarot Cards as pre-orders. It is currently unknown how Sega will be handling the DLC characters when the game is released, as both Marie and Adachi were free for the first week after release in North America.
Since the first set of Sailor Moon is set to be released in North America on November 11th, Viz Media has released an unboxing video showing off the goodies that come with the Limited Edition version of the show, which includes both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the series as well as a special chipboard slipcase and an booklet.
Also shown off in the video is the standard DVD version, though this version will only be available at certain Wal-Mart locations. Finally near the end you can check out the box art that will be used in Set 2 when it is released.
Apple’s line of products have been getting their fair share of Pokemon love recently with the release of the Pokemon Trading Card Game: Online for iPad and now an all new children’s game called Camp Pokemon. While most Pokemon titles are still seen as ‘kids’ games in many peoples eyes despite the high levels of strategy and knowledge required, this game is definitely a children’s affair, being aimed at 6 – 8 year olds and introducing them to the Pokemon brand.
Camp Pokemon will feature 6 mini games as well as a few other features to keep the kids occupied including a badge collection containing over 100 Pokemon.
Find the Pokémon: Use a spyglass to search for virtual Pokémon and earn their Pins. Earn Rewards to unlock new levels and search for other Pokémon in different environments.
Poké Ball Throw: Launch Poké Balls at cardboard cutouts of Pokémon hiding in the grass and knock them down. Earn Rewards to unlock the Rock and Water environments.
Pokémon Evolutions: Test your knowledge of Pokémon Evolutions by choosing the correct Pokémon missing from the Evolution chain.
Battle Matchups: Practice type matchups, an important skill in Pokémon battles, by choosing which type is strong against the given Pokémon.
Pokémon in Focus: Choose the Pokémon that matches the shadow projected on the tent.
My Cabin: In this home base, campers can find their Pin Book, Photo Book, and Bulletin Board.
Photo Booth: Create camp memories by taking photos with the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch camera, adding stickers to the images, and saving the pictures to the app’s Photo Book or the Camera Roll on the camper’s device.
Mystery Cave: What could be hiding in the Mystery Cave? To find out, campers will need to earn the right to enter!
Camp Pokemon is available now on the iPhone, iPad and the newer iPod Touch and can be downloaded directly from the App Store. Unfortunately if you are an Android user you probably won’t ever gain access to this title or any others that have launched on the Apple product line so far as The Pokemon Company have not been released any of these smaller titles for Android so far. The launch trailer for the title is available below.
The Pokémon series has been around for a very long time at this point and trying to catch up on it would not only be a painful task on the wallet but also quite a daunting task to track down. Well, it would be if the entire Indigo League wasn’t being released on DVD next week by Viz Media.
This release is the first time that the Pokémon Indigo League season has been gathered together in a single release and will cost $54.98 U.S. / $63.99 CAN. Set for release next week on October 28th this release will come on nine DVDs and will contain all seventy eight episodes from the Indigo League.
For those who don’t know, the Indigo League marks the beginning of Ash’s journey to try and become a Pokémon Master with the help of Pikachu and his eventual traveling partners Brock and Misty.
While I may be a bit too young to remember the start of Voltron thirty years ago, I do have some fond memories of catching reruns of the series as a child and for fans really nostalgic for the series, Viz Media has something that may interest you.
Over the weekend the company announced that they will be releasing a special book commemorating the 30th anniversary of the series. Voltron: From Days of Long Ago, a 30th Anniversary Celebration, is a hardcover book that examines the entire Voltron universe as well as the series’ impact on pop culture.
When it is released on October 28th in print, the book will cost $29.99 U.S. / $34.99 CAN while a digital version that is planned to be released the same day will cost $14.99 U.S. / CAN.
Today Microsoft and Insomniac Games released the launch trailer for Sunset Overdrive which is set to be released next week on October 28th in North America and on October 31st for Europe. This trailer features all of the style and customization that players can expect once they pick up this over the top looking game.
You can check out the trailer below and if you want to learn some extra details about the game, we recently interviewed Marcus Smith, the creative director for Sunset Overdrive, and you can find that full interview here.
You can check out the character trailers below but for those who want to get a glimpse of the 38 page art book, featuring artwork and character designs from Shigenori Soejima that will be included in “The Wild Cards” premium edition version of the game, you can check out a sample of it here.
Today XSEED Games revealed that Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit will be released digitally in North America on November 11th and November 12th in Europe. This first release will cost $14.99 and feature the girls from Hanzo and Homura’s Crimson Squad and a couple of weeks later on November 25th the $14.99 “Gessen x Hebijo” pack will be released, adding the girls from both schools into the game and bringing the total playable number of shinobi up to twenty.
Those who previously downloaded DLC for Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus will be able to import their clothing into Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit to add extra customization options and this also includes Rin and Daidoji, though it is worth noting that you will need to purchase the “Gessen x Hebijo” expansion to play as Rin.
To go along with this announcement a gameplay trailer and some new character art and English screenshots for Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit have been released and you can check it all out below.
Samurai Warriors fans will be happy to hear that the latest game in the series from Koei Tecmo is now available for purchase in North America. Samurai Warriors 4 can be purchased at retail for $59.99 on the PlayStation 4 while the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita versions of the game can only be purchased digitally for $49.99 and $39.99 respectively.
This latest installment adds a number of new characters to the game, bringing the total number of playable fighters up to 55, a number of new features and better graphics, and it is also the first game in the series to be playable on the latest generation of consoles. We recently had some hands on time with Samurai Warriors 4 and you can check out our impressions here.
Overview The Alien franchise has been ripe for the picking ever since the first movie debuted in 1979, spawning a handful of sequels, spin-offs, and numerous video games. However despite the large number of video games created using the concept and story of Alien, few, if any, were able to capture the atmosphere and horror that was brilliantly displayed in the movie that started it all. Now, so many years later, we have a game that delivers practically everything an Alien fan could ask for in the form of Alien: Isolation.
Story Alien: Isolation takes place fifteen years after the events of Alien and players step into the role of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, traveling alongside a Weyland-Yutani crew to a soon to be decommissioned space station called Sevastapol owned by the Seegson Corporation. Amanda’s goal is to track down the black box from The Nostromo which has fallen into Seegson’s possession.
While Amanda is hopeful that this mission will give her some clue as to what happened to her missing mother, things go south incredibly quickly. Stuck aboard a station filled with trigger-happy survivors, malfunctioning homicidal synthetics, and a creature that is beyond her understanding, Amanda’s mission soon becomes one of survival against nigh-impossible odds.
Alien: Isolation doesn’t exactly tell an enthralling storyline and even the few twists that do exist are easy to predict, however the way that it tells the story is what makes it great. Amanda is a believable enough character to exist within the actual Alien canon and players are with her every minute of the game as she tries to survive and escape. It also helps that there is some great world building in effect thanks to numerous terminals and audio logs that reveal the events that took place in various parts of Sevastapol as everything went to hell.
Gameplay Many games claim to fit into the survival horror genre, very few of these titles actually nail the “survival” part while Aliens: Isolation handles it perfectly. Players can always attempt to fight against the threats that they are facing but stealth and trickery are your best bets to survival. Amanda will obtain various firearms and explosives throughout the campaign but despite these weapons being useful for taking down a single opponent, chances for survival are slim.
Not only does Sevastapol house human enemies that travel in groups and are usually ready to shoot at anything that moves with impressive accuracy, there are also deadly synthetics that take quite a beating before going down and are immune to certain weapons. Combine that with the fact that Amanda has limited health that can only be restored using medkits and the limited amount of ammo you will come across and you will quickly find direct confrontation something to avoid.
Instead players will learn to make use of all of the cover that the game provides, including sliding under desks, hiding in lockers, sneaking through air vents in the floors and walls as well as all of the tools you can create. Throughout Sevastapol various blueprints will give players ways to create various items such as noisemakers, EMP mines, medkits, explosives and more to help her survive. However since all of these items require specific ingredients and you can only hold so many of these ingredients, players will need to find a fine balance between crafting and using tools when necessary and making sure not to leave any important ingredients behind.
It is highly recommended that you test out any tool in your possession though as waiting until your back is against the wall is a mistake since there can be deadly consequences to your actions. Not only will Amanda have to worry about the synthetics and survivors she comes across, but also an incredibly intelligent killing machine as well in the form of a Xenomorph.
Players will spend a bit of time before they encounter this creature but once they do, Alien: Isolation becomes a game of inches as you do everything in your power to avoid being killed. The Xenomorph will stalk Amanda throughout the rest of the game and players have very few options to deal with it. Bullets bounce right off of the creatures exoskeleton and even explosives will only temporarily stun it. At best once players obtain a flamethrower and molotovs you can attempt to scare it away, however do not trust this crafty Xenomorph to not be prepared for next time.
You will need to constantly be on the lookout for the creature as it searches for its prey. Even the smallest noises can draw its attention, meaning that fighting against humans or synthetics can not only result in death by these enemies, but also the creature arriving to slaughter everyone. At the same time however, you can do whatever it takes to avoid detection by sneaking around, hiding, and making use of the iconic motion tracker to keep an eye on its location. Be careful though, while the motion tracker is a useful tool the Xenomorph can hear it as well.
The most enthralling and at times frustrating aspect of Alien: Isolation is how intelligent the Xenomorph’s AI is. Not only is the creature unpredictable but it appears to learn from things that you have done in the past. There is no predictable pattern to its actions as it stalks through the hallways, slithers into vents, and drops down looking for something to kill. While you can make use of the creature’s deadly nature to clear an area of enemies by drawing its attention with a noise maker or even smacking the wall, you best be prepared for the consequences.
Not only does the Xenomorph shrug off bullets, it is faster than Amanda and will catch up to her and kill her if you choose to simply run away. In fact there are times when there is just no other option than to die as the creature appears from out of nowhere and players are left trying to find a way to survive an inescapable situation.
It is thanks to these moments that Alien: Isolation can feel unfair at times, since not only does the Xenomorph appear to always be in the vicinity of Amanda, even if you managed to escape the creature without drawing its attention a single time and used a tram to enter a new area of Sevastapol, but the title uses an old save system requiring players to save manually at specific areas in the game. If you happen to die before saving then you will lose all progress made from that point. This can make certain areas feel like quite a chore at times, but you will be absolutely delighted once you manage to make it through and find the next save point.
Everything in Alien: Isolation comes with a risk. Hacking equipment and burning through hatches all takes time and stationary positioning, meaning that you will be at the mercy of the Xenomorph if it appears in the area. To ratchet the tension up another notch, these save spots require a few seconds to activate which means that it is possible to die while waiting for the save system to warm up and boy is it frustrating when this happens.
Visuals & Audio Alien: Isolation is a game that requires players to not only properly sneak around and make use of their tools accordingly in order to survive; it also is one that needs the player to keep an eye on their surroundings and their ears to the ground. Once the Xenomorph appears, you will need to always keep an ear out for its location, identified by the thumping of the vents as it crawls through them or the sound of its feet hitting the ground. Nothing is more terrifying than being in an isolated area and hearing the creature slide out of a vent in the other room.
If you really want to get the most out of Alien: Isolation’s graphics then I recommend checking out the original movie before playing, as you will appreciate the amount of effort that the team put into replicating numerous systems and elements from the movie into the game’s environment. Everything feels and looks authentic thanks to the way that the lighting in the game is handled and creates an atmosphere filled with tension and danger around every corner as you keep an eye out for drool dripping from the ceiling and an ear out for the threatening noise of the ever present Xenomorph.
Overall Alien: Isolation feels like a game that was developed with a lot of love for the franchise and it shows. From the way the Xenomorph behaves to threatening atmosphere fitting environment design, it is the game fans of Alien have been waiting for. You will die, quite often in fact, and the game will feel like it is being sadistic at times with its save system and the ever present threat of the Xenomorph, but it is a title that feels like it has grasped hold of the concept of survival horror like few have and created an amazing Alien game.
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