With the Nintendo 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. 4 now released worldwide with every little secret about it floating somewhere on the Internet, the Wii U version still holds a great deal of mystery especially in terms of stages and game modes. Well it seems like some of that shroud of mystery will be unveiled in a special Smash Bros Wii U centric Nintendo Direct taking place on Friday at 9:00 (AEDT) in Australia. If you wish to watch this broadcast you can head to the official Nintendo Australia broadcasting page at the correct time.
With the 3DS being the only version to receive Smash Run it only seems fitting the Wii U will also get it’s own major game mode aside from the classic and all-star series staples. Will we see the shock announcement of new characters or possibly future DLC? Your guess is as good as ours at the moment but leave what you think one (or all) of the 50 must see things are below in the comments and if you’re right you will be able to say ‘called it’ until no one cares anymore. Super Smash Bros. Wii U has a December 6th release date, two weeks after the U.S. gets the game on November 21st.
Pinnacle Entertainment Group president Shane Hensley, creator of tabletop role-playing gamesDeadlands and Savage Worlds, lead writer for City of Villansand executive producer for the MMORPGNeverwinter, is bringing another to market based on the system introduced in the latter. Called The Last Parsec, the sci-fi tabletop RPG was funded on Kickstarter within the first hour of its campaign!
The Last Parsec will see players explore the galaxy, finding new civilizations, battling enemies such a hostile aliens, space pirates and myriad other creatures. Characters do so under the banner of an intergalactic mega-corporation called JumpCorp, who contract out security, bounty hunting, transportation and all other manner of jobs. At this very moment, the project has received over 800% funding, with about 59 hours left to contribute. Looking forward to the remaining 2.5 days, there are three immediate stretch goals at $70K, $80K, and $90K that will allow Pinnacle Entertainment Group to create and provide miniature-tier backers with bonus tabletop figurines of the Florian, Saurian, and Rakashan alien races, respectively.
For more information and your chance to jump on board, visit The Last Parsec‘sKickstarter page here. Check out some released artwork in the gallery below.
Like any major modern release, Far Cry 4will be supported post launch with a season pass worth of DLC content. Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 4‘s Season Pass will contain four pieces of mission based content and a PvP mode. “The Syringe,” “Escape from Durgesh Prison,” “Hurk Deluxe Pack,” and “Valley of the Yetis” will provide players with two smaller missions and two mini-campaigns. Only “Escape from Durgesh Prison” will require a friend to complete, while the rest can be played either alone or co-operatively. “Overrun” introduces a domination mode to the game’s multiplayer.
Far Cry 4’s Season Pass will cost £23.99 or $30 USD. Buyers using digital retailers like Uplay, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Marketplace can pick up Far Cry 4 Gold Edition for $89.99 USD, which will net them both the base game and the season pass at a discount. Far Cry 4 will be released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows
Flat Earth Games announced the release of their arcade stealth-shooter Metrocideon Steam Early Access today. Metrocide takes place in a futuristic dystopia where police drones rule the skies. Players will take on the role of T.J. Trench, a contract killer looking to make enough money to escape the city by plying his trade. As a rogue-like game, players will only have one life to complete their dirty deed in secret by dodging drones and relying on an extensive array of weaponry.
Metrocide is currently part of Steam’s Early Access program. As part of the launch, a new video walkthrough featuring Zone 3 has been released. Flat Earth Games hopes to balance the game’s difficulty in the next six week and release the full game before the end of the year. Check out Metrocideon Steam.
Pop quiz! Are there more ways to multiply two numbers to get to 30 or are there more games in Indie Gala‘s Every Monday Bundle #30? Stumped? Well there are four ways to multiply to 30 (1*30, 2*15, 3*10, and 5*6) and seven indie games plus one DLC in the Every Monday Bundle #30! For one low price, buyers will receive:
Rabbit Hole 3D Steam Edition– A minimalistic retro puzzler that mixes the classic book Alice in Wonderland with a little red brick falling down the rabbit hole of words.
Triblaster – A retro styled shooter that will challenge players to survive in a 3d space against a rainbow of geometric shapes.
AntiSquad– Take command of AntiSquad, the home to misfits that clean up the messes most governments don’t want to be associated with, in this strategy title from Bulkypix.
Secret of the Magic Crystals– Players can run a magical horse farm and then race their noble steeds with “The Race” DLC.
RoboBlitz– A physics based action puzzler featuring space pirates, robots, and 19 humorous levels.
Frederic: Resurrection of Music– The great Frederic Chopin has risen from the grave to duel soulless pop stars looking to wreck music in the name of corporate greed. Players will rock out to 12 remixes of famous classical music pieces with Chopin’s trusty piano.
Playing History: The Plague – The black plague was among the deadliest outbreaks in the world. Though mostly eliminated through modern antibiotics, Playing History: The Plague takes players on a point and click adventure in one of the most terrifying moments in history. Be sure to vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
For the first 24 hours of the sale, gamers can pick up all seven games for only $1.99. Afterwards, the price will rise, so be sure to brag your copy at Indie Gala.
Fans of Gust’s Atelier series will be happy to hear that Koei Tecmo is planning on bringing the latest game in the series, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea to the West. Currently very few details are known about their plans for the game as the localization announcement was just confirmed over Koei Tecmo Europe’s Twitter, but they are planning on releasing it sometime in 2015.
Although this release announcement has only been made by Koei Tecmo Europe’s branch, there is a near 100% guarantee that Atelier Shallie will also be released in North America. For those who haven’t followed the game since it was announced, Atelier Shallie takes place six years after the events of Escha & Logy features two heroines, Shallistera and Shallote, with Shallistera trying to save her village from failing and Shallote training to become a skilled alchemist.
If you were hoping to add another racer to your next-gen console’s backlog then we have a bit of bad news for you. Project Cars, which was originally meant to be released in November, has been delayed until March 20, 2015. This delay affects all versions of the game, including the PC release, and Bandai Nacmo has said that the reason for the delay is not only to “extend and polish” the game but also to move away from some of the more competitive titles that come out in the holiday season.
We recently had some hands-on time with Project Cars and you can check out our impressions of the title here.
Recently Microsoft announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection had gone gold and with that came a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is that the game will now be released on November 11th almost everywhere in the world, except for a few countries who will be see the title released a few days later. As for the bad news, well you better make sure that you have plenty of hard drive space open when the game is released.
You see, Halo: The Master Chief Collection uses up the entirety of the 45 GB Blu-ray disc and on top of that there will be a 20GB content addition that will be downloaded alongside the installation. The reason for this massive install size is because Microsoft did not wish to cut any corners when it came to releasing these titles nor did they want to force players to swap between different discs when they want to switch between the four games included in the collection.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, a new vision for the future-set timeline in the immensely popular FPS series, is out in two weeks for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC from Activision, but you can view the Launch Trailer right now, which is filled with high-octane action and gameplay. The video is embedded at the bottom of this article.
Kevin Spacey’s involvement as Jonathan Irons, the cunning leader of private military corporation Atlas, has been well-publicised. The player, however, will embody Jack Mitchell, a soldier who dons an advanced exoskeleton and is committed to restoring order after the world is devastated by a catastrophic attack. That exoskeleton provides multiple options in manoeuvrability that drastically changes the usual rules of the battlefield, and all of the abilities it enables – the dodges, dashes and boosted jumps – carry over into multiplayer for an even more intense experience with friends. Multiplayer also features a revamped Create-a-Class and Supply Drops.
Again, check out the Launch Trailer below, and read our hands-on impressions from EB Expo 2014 earlier this month.
Overview Of the many anime series I have watched, I can probably count the series that took place in a College setting on one hand. Usually these series are set in a middle school or high school with graduation being the final goal. Even the most popular series generally find a conclusion once their characters graduate high school. As such Golden Time being set in a college, albeit one focused on freshmen students, is already off to a different start. From the author who brought us Toradora!, will Golden Time get off to a successful start with Collection 1?
Story Tada Banri has just moved to the bustling city of Tokyo to attend a private law school. Despite how challenging this might be considering he is not only late on his first day but also knows no one within the city, he is happy to be living alone and taking a step forward with his life. In fact, his new found freedom is quite the blessing because immediately after graduating from high school Banri was involved in an accident that left him with retrograde amnesia, leaving him with no memories of the past eighteen years.
After spending a year trying to recover, he has moved on with his life, though the past will continue to haunt him throughout the series. After managing to make a friend with fellow law student Mitsuo, he is introduced to a girl that Mitsuo has been trying to escape from for years, his childhood friend Kaga Kouko. Ever since they were children Kouko has planned their lives together and thanks to her wealthy upbringing, she never was given a reason to deviate from her plans… other than the fact that Mitsuo wants nothing to do with her of course.
With Kouko’s die-hard desire to marry Mitsuo and his desire to avoid her and find someone he really loves, problems quickly rise to the surface. Still, after meeting and becoming friends, it becomes clear that Banri and Kouko appear to be meant for one another as Banri is a boy with no past while Kouko wishes to move past hers. However things are never that easy, especially when memories of Banri’s high school crush Linda, who also attends the school and has become quite close to Banri despite knowing he doesn’t remember her, begin to surface.
The first half of Golden Time has its highs and lows but one of these highs happens to be the way that it handles its characters. Rarely do we see any semblance of a realistic relationship in an anime series, with characters usually locking away their feelings until the final moment but in Golden Time there is actual discussion and development that feels believable, giving the cast a human quality that is necessary considering some of the idiotic situations the cast ends up in.
It is also interesting to see a dime a dozen type cliché like amnesia actually be used to create a worthwhile plot point. Thanks to the way Banri’s amnesia and past are explored over the course of the first half of the series we watch as he struggles with the feelings that are warring within him. A certain aspect of how it is being handled leaves much to be desired however as it not only doesn’t fit with the realistic tone of Golden Time but also feels like an attempt to force drama into Banri’s life and new relationships.
Despite the forced feeling that the ghost of Banri’s past has, its existence does serve as a way to represent the conflict between Banri’s new life with his friends and his past memories and relationships as well as a tool to test his faithfulness with Kouko. This results in a number of interesting events, but at the same time the forced feeling of “Ghost Banri” drags down the feel of the series due to its unnecessary existence and the way that it makes a story already plagued with disjointed events and odd occurrences, even worse does the series no favors.
On the other side of the coin, we have Kouko who starts as a character that will easily rub viewers the wrong way but eventually shows character development thanks to legitimate conversations and not forced drama. While Kouko may be an over-the-top character that tends to be clingy and a bit possessive, the reason that she is this way is not only elaborated on but can easily be inferred by the viewer thanks to her past and Banri’s situation. That being said, I can also see her being a character that people will find annoying if they do not understand why she is acting like she is.
Visuals Golden Time was animated by JC Staff which can be hit or miss depending on the property they are working on and thankfully Golden Time just so happens to be one of their hits. Featuring detailed character designs, especially in regards to Kouko’s ever-changing clothing, a gorgeous color palette that is nicely presented in Blu-ray, and nicely detailed environments Golden Time is quite a visual treat.
Character expressions tend to lean towards realistic which is a nice touch, though there are a number of times that they are taken to the extreme to try and pull off some laughs but generally fail to do so. It is also worth noting that there are noticeable drops in quality whenever a mid-range or group shot is used as facial expressions and even character designs dip noticeably.
Audio Sentai Filmworks has released Golden Time: Collection 1 with only the Japanese voice track accompanied by English subtitles, but this shouldn’t disappoint many as the series sports a fitting Japanese voice cast with a large number of series under their belts, except for Banri’s voice actor who is more of a fresh voice.
The background music throughout Golden Time is quite fitting for a series focused more on romance than comedy and it does a nice job of not overpowering any given scene. The opening theme for this first half is “Golden Time” while the ending theme is “Sweet & Sweet Cherry.” Both of these songs are performed by Yui Horie, the Japanese voice actress for Kouko and although the ending theme is a bit sub-standard the opening theme mixes English and Japanese lyrics together to create an enjoyable tune that will be hard to skip past.
Extras As far as bonus features go, Golden Time: Collection 1 is about as bare bones as they come. The release sports a clean version of the opening theme and ending theme as well as trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases and the disc credits.
Overall Over the course of Golden Time: Collection 1 viewers will witness genuine character development and realistic interactions interlaced with forced drama and strange events. Thanks to the way things have been handled in the series so far, it is hard not to fall in love with characters and also become frustrated due to certain events. With the first half of the series leaving off on an interesting note as Banri continues to try and leave his past behind and move on with the insecure but loyal Kouko it will be interesting to see where things will go in the second half. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
