The Nintendo 3DS is a few years old now, but still seems to be evolving everyday. As of today in fact, a new update has launched for Australia, allowing users to finally add a theme to their HOME menu through a theme shop.
As you would expect, these new themes do cost a small penny, but add music, images, and decorations for those bland folders – features characters from The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and more.
Here is some more information about the update from Ninty themselves:
As part of today’s system update, a new Theme Shop has been added to the HOME Menu that unveils themes for Nintendo 3DS. Themes allow Nintendo 3DS and 2DS owners to personalise their systems by changing the menu background, icons and folders, and music and sound effects.
In addition to five simple colour themes provided with the update, a launch line-up of other themes are available for purchase now from the all-new Theme Shop*. These include eye-catching designs for the likes of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi, while for Zelda fans a design showing the parallel worlds of Hyrule and Lorule from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds also features**. As a heads-up for budding town mayors in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, designs paying tribute to that game are set to release at the end of October as part of a weekly updated line-up.
* Wireless broadband Internet access required.
**Completely Mario, Completely Luigi, Completely Peach, Completely Yoshi and Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Two Worlds are priced at AU$2.60/NZ$3.40 each.
There isn’t a word on when these updates will hit the U.S., but I would imagine we will see them hit very soon. For now, you Aussies can download away.
2K Australia and Gearbox Software have travelled to the moon and back to deliver the evolution of the Borderlands series, with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. While the whacky first-person shooter is set to be released on October 16, the game steered into action at EB Expo 2014 last weekend.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is essentially the sequel to the original Borderlands and prequel to Borderlands 2, which follows the origin story of Handsome Jack and his rise to power and corporate corruption. As an employee of the famously known megalomaniacal tyrant in Borderlands2, witness Jack’s transformation and assist with the rise of the Hyperion Corporation.
What distinguishes the new game from its predecessor and successor, is the amazing location on Pandora’s moon, which completely changes the co-op gameplay experience. The low-gravity environment transforms the way players move and interact with the chaotic universe; oxygen tanks enable long-distance air jumps, the ability to hover higher for a birds-eye shooting scope, and crash landing (better known as the “gravity slam”) to stun enemies on the moons surface. Did I mention that players are able to get upgraded oxygen tanks that have special elemental effects, like acid, fire and shock, which significantly enhance their gravity slam? Yep – methods of killing just reached a whole new bar in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
There are four new badass character classes in the game; Nisha ‘the lawbringer’, Athena ‘the gladiator’, Wilhelm ‘the enforcer’ and Claptrap ‘the fragtrap’. I chose to play as Athena (kind of an obvious choice), because she is a character that is both tanky, aggressive and has an impressively powerful Kinetic Aspis shield (if you upgrade it the right way). As with previous Borderlands titles, each of the character classes are built with a unique skillset that offers players an equally enjoyable and exciting experience playing the game. So don’t limit yourself to one badass!
The stand out feature in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is, of course, its bizarre and awesome range of weaponry that really makes a difference in the game. Players can choose from the Cryo freeze gun, Star Wars inspired laser beams and shotguns, a Ghost Busters cannon and plenty more insane weapons. I have to say that, there is nothing quite like the ability to freeze your opponent, then leisurely chip away at the glass statue until they shatter into pieces. For the first time in the Borderlands series, players are able get rid of their mediocre loot they collect and change it up for new weapons using the grinder machine. Don’t be alarmed though, there is still plenty of high quality loot on the moonscape, with special one-offs and legendary items for players to dig their hands into.
2K Australia have gone one step further with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and that is, including more diverse ‘Aussie’ humour.
On the 2K Panel at EB Games Expo, Tony Lawrence, General Manager of 2K Australia stated, “With Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, we’ve used humour in a self appreciating way, to add to the sense of surprise and keep players on their toes”.
I think that 2K and Gearbox Software have made a bold move, in taking the Borderlands series in a new direction – an evolution that will not only surprise players, but make them yearn for more incredible titles.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC next week. Pre-order the game now and receive the Shock Drop Slaughter Pit bonus content, featuring intense zero-atmosphere combat against the fiercest enemies on Pandora’s moon. Keep in mind that exclusive bonus content is limited, so it’s first in – first serve!
For the rest of our 2014 EB Games Expo Coverage, including hands-on previews and interviews, click here.
We really enjoyed Tactic Studios’ browser-based RPGImmortal Empire. Now the Canadian indie developer is bringing their multiplayer tactical RPG to Kickstarter in hopes of remaking the game from the ground up for a downloadable release.
Tactic Studios is hoping to raise $8000 CAD (about $7000 USD) to scale up the music and graphic quality, add new gameplay features, and provide alternative in-game colour schemes. If the team can get to their stretch goals, they plan on implementing English voice acting for the game, art upgrades, PvP, releasing the source code, and more. The game will be released for December 2014 on Steam, as the game has already been Greenlit by the Steam community.
It seems like the Doctor’s travels have taken him to a new unexpected realm, one full of blocky landscapes, blocky people and blocky baddies. The good Doctor has arrived in Minecraft as a DLC skin pack, but it will only be for Xbox 360.
Over 50 new Doctor Who skins will be made available, including skins from Peter Capaldi’s new twelfth doctor series and my favourite companions, Amy and Rory. There will even be creepy Weeping Angels, The Silent and the exterminating Daleks.
The skins will be released in waves with Skin Pack 1 already out. Spoiler alert, it the first character skins are Doctors One, Four, Six, Nine, Eleven and Twelve, The War Doctor, Clara Oswald and the well-meaning Rory Williams. There are also skins for the Weeping Angels, the Snowmaen and the Smiler.
Lucky, this DLC can be yours for only $2.99 and there is word that soon Xbox One gamers will be able to get their hands on it as well. Sadly for some though, there is no news about the DLC being available for PlayStation versions of the game.
The time is here friends! After initially being postponed, the final chapter in the Dark Souls II Lost Crowns Trilogy is finally here! Crown of the Ivory King is the last in the trilogy of stories set in the Dark Souls II universe, and the end of a challenging, yet rewarding group of DLC.
Crown of the Ivory King is available now through the Xbox Live Marketplace, Playstation Network and Steam. If you have already purchased the Season Pass then you will already have access to the DLC, which you can get to through the Shrine of Winter (which you would have gone through if you have progressed far enough in the main story).
Are you ready to die all over again one last time? Let us know in the comments below if you have already made it into the DLC, or how excited you are to hit download and step into the new, uncharted world. As always, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Dark Souls II news as it becomes available.
The Witcher game series is a Fantasy RPG which bucks the tropes of Fantasy RPGs by painting a grim, dark setting with plenty of moral shades of grey. We’ve previously covered the game’s extended and beautiful trailer here, but at EB Expo I had the opportunity to ambush one of the writers of the series and question him about the story for the upcoming installment. Below is my interview with Jakub Szamalek as we discuss the interaction between narrative and an open world in the upcoming Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Firstly, can you give us an overview of what to expect in The Witcher 3 in terms of story?
Well firstly I’d like to say that even though this is an open world game, the story is just as rich as it was in the Witcher 2. So we didn’t compromise the depth or the richness of the story for the open world gameplay. I think you’ll see that these two elements work together quite nicely in the Witcher 3 and I think if anything there’s even more non-linearity as you can do many of the quests from the main storyline in the order that you want to. So the sequence that you do these quests can be different and that gives you a slightly different impression of the story and there is as much goodness as there was in the previous installments.
So in regards to non-linear storytelling; what challenges did it pose and how did you guys overcome them in terms of production?
Well for us, in the story team, the biggest challenge was making sure that we know what’s going on and that we think of all the variations and possibilities that come out of opening up the world. So just making sure that all these elements come together in the end and work was the biggest issue… but what we’ve devised is that the story in the Witcher is not a linear story or narrative. It’s more like crumbs and puzzles that have been sprinkled all across the world so you can pick them up at any point and they always combine together and you get the full story. So I think it’s a structure which works very well with the open world.
Cool. So the villains of this installment, The Wild Hunt, have been hinted at since the first game. How do you see them forming up as the main antagonists in this installment?
So they have appeared in the two previous games, they’re also pretty important within the books and they’re actually quite an unusual enemy and villain… unfortunately I can’t go into too much detail as I don’t want to spoil the surprise of uncovering the secrets for yourself.
Dang.
But there is more to them than might appear at first glance.
How delightfully cryptic… So you mentioned the Witcher book series; how closely are you sticking to the established Witcher lore and how much have you guys added in yourselves?
Well, where possible we’re trying to stick to the lore as far as we can. So we of course, we have to add a lot of stuff as games are a different medium which means they require a slightly different approach. So in the books, the city of Novigrad was described in just a few sentences and that’s enough for you to have an impression of what it looks like… while we actually had to create it and that takes a lot of work and creating things which weren’t in the book simply because they didn’t have to be. But where possibly we’re sticking to what’s there in the books since they’re really good and there’s no need to improve something which already works very well…
So we’ve previously seen there’s a very strong influence from Polish and Eastern European folklore upon the setting and monsters in the game. Since the you’re now implementing an open world setting, did you draw from other cultural myths in fleshing out the world?
Yeah of course, most of the team are from Poland and it’s an important part of our identity as a company and what we do. Having said that, we’re not trying to close off other influences and we consume the same media and films that people do in Western Europe or Australia. One of the regions in the game is heavily inspired by slavic myths and culture and traditions… but other parts of the game were inspired by entirely different media or cultures. For example there is an archipelago of islands which was inspired by Nordic sagas and myths so it has a very different feel. And then there’s Novigrad which was inspired by Medieval Amsterdam and by novels like the Count of Monte Cristo as there’s a lot of a ‘cloak and dagger’ mysteries going on there. So I’d say it’s a very diverse game.
That’s good. Lastly, is there anything else you’d like to add in terms of the story of The Witcher 3 and what people can expect?
Well, I just want to say that I’m really excited and that it’s definitely a game that I would want to play myself so I would encourage you to grab it when it comes out in February.
Sweet. Thank you very much, Jakub.
For the rest of our 2014 EB Games Expo coverage including hands-on impressions and interviews, click here.
The ActionRPG is an ever-growing genre, and Lords of the Fallen looks to take advantage of that. Lords of the Fallen is a brand new IP from the Deck13 Interactive & CI Games and published by Bandai Namco. It takes place in a fictional world where no sin is forgiven. After long-forgotten monsters and demons threaten to destroy the world, our protagonist Harkyn, recently released from prison, sets off to save humanity.
Even from the brief introduction the lore of Lords of the Fallen really managed to capture me, the idea that sin is unforgivable and that criminals are forever cursed to publicly bear their wrongdoings (in the form of runes tattooed across their face) really sets a dark, unapologetic tone. The fact that the citizens of the world rely on these criminals as the only possible means to throw the darkness in a kind of “you can only fight evil with evil” mentality just fuels this and immediately we understand that we are not playing as some valiant knight in shining armor, but as a seriously bad man.
Gameplay-wise, Lords of the Fallen is an action RPG that has you slaying demonic and conquering giant behemoths of bosses with use of various weapons and magical spells. Mechanically Lords of the Fallen plays a lot like a slower version of Dark Souls, but with monsters and the player character feeling heavier and slower than the famous game series. The slower, heavier characters make the combat feel more precise because it takes longer for your character to recover, leaving you more vulnerable to attack for longer periods of time. Players will need to learn the attack patterns of enemies and bosses in order to defeat them, lest they resort to reliving the same stage over and over again.
I only got to play the first boss battle of the game, but I really liked how the Deck13 have made it so that the boss fights happen in “stages.” After sustaining enough damage, the boss I was against discarded his armor, weakening himself but also allowing him to more faster and add additional moves to his flourishes. The different stages of the fight reminded me of all Super Nintendo games like Mega Man X, or DuckTales where bosses would change their attack patterns after they have taken a few hits, bringing an old mechanic and bringing it into a modern game to hopefully great effect.
I’m a big action/RPG gamer, and more specifically I am a big Dark Souls player, so it was hard for me to not see some similarities between the two games. However while Lords of the Fallen seems to take more than a little bit of inspiration from the Souls franchise, it still manages to stand out on its own. Firstly the game is still challenging but nowhere near as daunting as the Dark Souls. Bosses telegraph their attacks well enough for you to learn their patterns easily, but are still forces to be reckoned while enemies slowly get stronger as you progress through the game, gaining more attacks and different abilities.
Lords of the Fallen is one of the most visually appealing games that I saw during my entire time at this year’s EB Expo and that’s saying a lot. The dark, dank castle that makes up the first stage is incredibly detailed, although the game itself was incredibly dark. Some areas were completely obscured by shadow, making it hard to navigate and see enemies hiding in wait. I’m not sure if this is an intentional gameplay element or just the settings being too dark for the television it was presented on, but either way it made it a little difficult to play through some of the game’s corridors. Aside from this though everything looked great, the particle effects of certain items and the flames on the boss’ sword all looked amazing and really eye-catching. You can tell that this was a game built from the ground up to take advantage of the Xbox One and PS4’s hardware.
Have you ever heard people say that Japanese Horror games are just scarier than American ones (taking the old vs newer Silent Hill games as prime examples of this)? Well Lords of the Fallen is in kind of the same vein. The European take on the action RPG genre seems to have resulted in a game that is challenging while lacking the soul-crushing difficulty of its FROMSOFTWARE competitor. As someone who always loves a challenge, I felt like Lords of the Fallen was missing something.
I enjoyed my very brief time with Lords of the Fallen, but I am still not sure if it does enough to separate itself from the heavyweights of the genre. I guess we will find out when Lords of the Fallen becomes available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on October 31st.
For the rest of our 2014 EB Expo Coverage including hands-on previews and interviews, click here.
Overview Attempting to kick off a new manga series is a difficult endeavor. Not only do authors need to introduce the world to the audience, they must also provide enough of a hook and likable enough characters to keep them coming back for every new chapter. Daisuke Ashihara has had previous success with his Super Dog Rilienthal manga that ran for a little under the year in Weekly Shōnen Jump but now he is back with World Trigger, also published by WSJ. With Volume 1 of World Trigger now available for purchase, can it manage to hook readers?
Story Four years prior to the start of the manga, Mikado City came under attack from an unknown life-form that appeared from a portal. Conventional weaponry was useless against these creatures that became known as Neighbors and they laid waste to large swathes of the city. That is until a special group calling themselves “Border” appeared and managed to defeat the Neighbors using technology they derived from the unknown organisms.
Since then, Mikado City has become a hotbed full of Neighbor portals, but thanks to the efforts by Border and a machine that regulates where these portals appear, most of the population continues to live their lives normally, only fleeing when an alarm sounds. Osamu Mikumo witnessed the members of Border years prior and now he is a student at school who prefers to keep to himself while trying to uphold public morals and helping those in need all while working as a trainee in Border.
One day an odd boy named Yuma Kuga transfers into his classroom and thanks to his frank attitude and lack of a filter, he immediately ends up on the bad side of the class’ bad side. When Osamu comes to his aid, he learns that Yuma has a good reason for not understanding standard Japanese life, as he is a Neighbor. After being saved by Yuma, Osamu agrees to conceal his secret.
The biggest plus that World Trigger has going from it at the start are its two lead characters. Osamu is far from your standard lead character who, despite appearances, usually is the strongest person in the room at any given time. In fact Osamu’s weakness as a Border agent lends some credence to his steadfast nature to protect those around him, even if it costs him his life. On the other side of the coin, Yuma’s tendency to point out lies and childlike outlook on life which both contrasts and compliments Osamu’s personality.
Secrecy is something that appears to run rampant throughout World Trigger and thanks to Ashihara’s style of writing, it never becomes a drag. His pacing and ability to weave a story containing world building information and plot points without slowing down the action is necessary in shōnen series such as these. There is clearly more than meets the eye in this first volume alone as not only does Yuma’s existence and knowledge raise numerous questions, it is clear that there is much that Border is possibly hiding.
Osamu, who hides his status as a Border Trainee, knows next to nothing about the Neighbors, including the various types that appear throughout the volume. Not only that, but seemingly basic information about the Neighbors seems to have been withheld despite the fact that it could save his life. With the appearance of the A-Rank elite Border soldiers and yet another unknown Neighbor appearing to threaten the city, readers are left off with not only an enticing cliffhanger, but a great introduction to what appears to be an exciting and different storyline.
Artwork World Trigger’s art style is interesting because any time the Neighbors aren’t around or there isn’t any action occurring, it can feel a bit generic looking. This is thanks to the childish looking faces used on Yuma and a number of other characters and the fact that the school uniforms they wear are incredibly mundane looking.
However once the action does pick up, the art style takes a nice upswing as the fight scenes against the Neighbors not only see the use of special weaponry but also an outfit swap as the characters transform slightly for battle. There is a nice amount of detail and variety put into the designs of the various Neighbor enemies as well, making every action scene a real highlight.
Extra Content After every chapter in this volume Daisuke Ashihara either comments on the way that he draws some of the characters and also provides additional bits of information for them. Also some additional statistics concerning the A-Rank team members that make up the Arashiyama Squad that appears near the end of the volume. Finally the author ends with some additional comments on the characters, such as how much certain ones are a pain to draw, where he got their design inspiration from, or how his editor told him to increase a character’s bust size to try and make her a bit more likable.
Overall World Trigger accomplishes quite a feat in this first volume by not only telling a great story with plenty of information woven into it, but also leaving plenty of hints that there is much more to come. With a smooth pace and an interesting premise, there is a lot of promise in this series start and it will certainly be interesting to see where things will go from here.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Game of Show. Without question. Those were my immediate thoughts after watching a live presentation of a brand-new Tom Clancy’s The Division demo at the EB Games Expo 2014. Other rumblings I overheard: “Does it so much better than Destiny“, “Bungie is in a lot of trouble” and “Destiny Shmestiny!”. Okay, that last one I made up. The Division doesn’t even have a set release date yet, only a vague 2015 release window. And why the comparisons? I mean, aren’t they entirely different titles that can co-exist with strong fan-bases for years to come? Absolutely, but they share MMO and RPG elements, and in this demonstration we got a much better look at them being fully-integrated and well-executed.
You have probably seen the most recent slice of the game Ubisoft shared online. It takes place just outside this giant museum in Midtown Manhattan, which would become a base of operations for the group of agents after clearing out some hostiles in the vicinity. Well, this new demo practically continues on from that point. Night has fallen, however, though the crew begins in the now familiar underground subway. The “Echo” mechanic is shown to us once again, although we received fresh information that the finished game will not actually feature cutscenes of any kind, with these ‘Echo’ reconstructions representing certain story beats and memories integral to the overall plot. Pulling up that awesome 3D map, the player draws out a line of way-points for the team to follow, and they soon emerge on the surface of Manhattan’s streets. Dark and foreboding, the domineering, yet awe-inspiring image of a long-deserted Madison Square Garden demands your sight. Before taking a look at the since-enhanced U.I., it should be noted that Charly, product manager over at Ivory Tower (the developers of The Crew) was aiding his extended Ubisoft family in demonstrating the companion app capabilities, which we will detail shortly.
So, taking a look at the map again, some important information is listed on the top right: Security, Contagion and Morale. Every zone you enter has a Security level, that can be improved by clearing out enemies and generally making the area safer (duh!), a Contagion level, which indicates the threat level therein, and Morale, which pertains more so to your team if I’m not mistaken. We have fewer details on how Morale can be improved in-game. Opening up the Inventory, we see multiple tabs holding carried Weapons, Armor, and – among others – Vanity. Vanity items are how The Division allows you to personalise and customise your character. Some may be purely cosmetic, while other may have stats attributed to them, much like your usual Gear in MMOs. In examining weaponry, it is clear that upgrading and modifying said weapons is a significant part of the experience as well. The same can be said for gadgets. Modifications are made across three tiers or categories (unofficial titles): ammo types, method of delivery and supplementary elements, such as noise suppressors. In using the automated turret as an example, you can swap out the ammo type to make it a flamethrower. And in terms of the method of delivery, a mine can become a seeker mine.
Gadgetry such as the automated turret and pulse seeker mine can be assigned to either bumpers on an Xbox controller (L1 and R1 for PlayStation) for quick deployment. Moving on to some action, the crew spot a trail of blood and decide to investigate. Eventually, they come across a high-contamination zone, requiring they put on gas masks before travelling further in. Warnings are issued to the player via the interface when they are approaching said zones, and if you don’t have a gas mask in your possession, you’re going to have to avoid it, turning back and exploring another route. In this case, the group delves into the area, discovering a gang of ‘Cleaners’ in front of a dilapidated supermarket. For those who are unaware, the Cleaners are the faction brandishing flamethrowers, who have no alliances and wish to rid the city of contamination. Admirable…unfortunately, they believe everything and everyone needs to be cleansed in order for the city to be truly “clean”. Even if you haven’t been exposed to the contagion, they give no quarter, working to dispatch you without hesitation. Better safe than sorry, I guess. In engaging the foes, we get our first clear vision of the companion app interface and abilities.
The agents proceed to eliminate the couple weaker members of the faction, all the while Charly is offering support in the form of shield deployment and healing the wounded. When it’s down to the big, burly brutes who wield the flamethrowers, teamwork is essential. Charly drops tear gas that disorients the foes, allowing our main protagonist to unleash an onslaught of semi-automatic Shotgun shells, dealing major damage. Charly also joined in with gunfire of his own. The interface for the companion app looks like a Heli-cam, with the corner lines framing the top down view. At the bottom of the screen are the four icons representing the afore-mentioned abilities of the mobile player. After each use, there is a cooldown meter in play, ensuring you can’t spam these powerful tools. I wonder if Ubisoft Massive will consider smartening up the A.I. to actually attack the drone, which is something I haven’t seen yet (although that would be a considerable hindrance for the mobile player, as they would have nary a defensive technique). Also of note, damage totals are now visualised above the heads of the enemy taking the hits. Soon enough, the flamers fall, the Security level of the district improves, exiting the orange and entering the green.
But what’s this? That flamer happened to drop a Legendary item. Sound familiar? After acquiring said weapon, a comrade enters the now secure Supermarket to turn on the CERA generator within, and return power to the district. This brings electricity back to light the streets and buildings, and potentially can aid in providing clean water for the crew. Doing so also unlocks extra side-missions that were not possible prior. Alas, this is when our time ends with Tom Clancy’s The Division. Hopefully, along with the interview we conducted with game director Ryan Barnard, we’ve provided a somewhat clearer idea of what The Division brings to the table. And it goes without saying that the Snowdrop engine enables absolutely stunning atmospheric effects and overall visuals. The tone is perfect for what Ubisoft Massive are trying to achieve, and I can’t wait to see more of The Division.
The latest outing in the Lego Batman series: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham will be landing on store shelves on November 26th but before it can do that, first the caped crusader and the rest of the Lego Justice League will be stopping in at New York for this year’s New York Comic Con in a star-studded panel, hands-on demos and new information about the game being released.
Here is a better look at what you can expect from the Lego Batman 3 NYCC appearance:
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Panel – Taking place on Saturday, October 11 at 12 p.m. (local time), the animated panel discussion with actors Kevin Smith and Troy Baker (sadly, no Adam West), TT Games developers Arthur Parsons and Stephen Sharples, DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns… plus, a special guest appearance by Stephen Amell, star of hit TV series Arrow. The panelists will go behind-the-scenes of this year’s ultimate Super Hero adventure for all ages and reveal new characters, show off exclusive gameplay demos and give away out-of-this-world prizes!
Hands-On Demos at DC Entertainment Booth – The game will be playable at the DC Entertainment booth, giving people the chance for hands-on time with one of TT Games developers.
Content Reveals – Throughout the show we’ll be revealing new characters and content from the game.
Stephen Amell must be Warner Bros. and DC’s golden boy at the moment because he is everywhere. If you will be in New York next week, be sure to hit up the NYCC, but if you can’t make it then keep your eyes glued to Capsule Computers for all the NYCC news as it becomes available.
