Principal photography on the fifth instalment in the Mission Impossible series is officially under way. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions made the announcement, noting that filming is taking place in Vienna, Morocco and London.
Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacherdirector and Oscar winner, Christopher McQuarrie, is helming the picture based on a screenplay by himself, Drew Pearce and Will Staples. Tom Cruise Productions, Bad Robot and Skydance Productions are co-producing the sequel to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the stars of which – Simon Pegg (as Benji), Jeremy Renner (as Brandt) and Ving Rhames (as Luther) – will be returning. Joining them will be Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin.
Keep an eye on Capsule Computers as we continue to update you on “Mission Impossible 5”, which will surely receive a proper title sooner than later.
Two DLC packs have been announced for Mario Kart 8 including two new cups, new characters and new vehicles alongside some other bonuses. The first pack will be available towards the end of November this year and features a cross over with the Legend of Zelda series, bringing with it Link as a playable character and a track based on the Zelda universe. The other three tracks in the first DLC pack appear to be Wario’s Mines from Mario Kart Wii, a track based on the F-Zero franchise and a track based on Excite Bike. Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach will appear alongside Link as new playable characters (because we don’t have enough versions of Peach and Mario on the roster already!) and the Blue Falcon vehicle will also be making a return to represent the F-Zero franchise alongside three other vehicles.
The second DLC pack will have an Animal Crossing focus and feature Isabelle, Villager and Dry Bowser as playable characters. This set will feature a course based on the Animal Crossing franchise as well as a dark forest course and will be released at the end of May 2015. Both packs are set to cost $10.00 AU but you can purchase both as a bundle for $16.00, not a bad price considering this will increase the number of tracks available in the game by 50%. As a bonus for those that do grab both DLC packs either separately or through the bundle, players will receive 8 different coloured Yoshi and 8 different coloured Shy Guys to use immediately.
Users can preorder the DLC by clicking the in game shop menu which will be available once they download the new Mercedes Benz update which goes live tonight in Australia. Let us know in the comments below how you feel about Nintendo jumping on the DLC train and if you will be purchasing any of these DLC packs in the future.
Shadowgate was first launched in 1987 for Mac computers. The game and its sequels eventually found itself on the who’s who of retro platforms, ranging from DOS to the Game Boy Color. 27 years after Shadowgate was first released, the point and click adventure game returns to Mac and Windows in a reboot made by Zojoi, with funding raised through Kickstarter. Zojoi is led by Dave Marsh and Karl Roelofs, the two original creators of Shadowgate.
Story
The player is a simple soldier who has been tasked to defeat The Warlock Lord. Formerly known as Talimar, The Warlock Lord was once a member of the Circle of Twelve, but has fallen from grace due to his lust for power. Lakmir, the last surviving member of the Circle of Twelve has hatched a plan to stop Talimar before he can find the great power that lies within the living Castle Shadowgate.
The plot is told through cut scenes and conversations throughout the game. The lore is further fleshed out with writings found scattered through the grounds of Castle Shadowgate. I enjoyed the writing in Shadowgate, finding the plot to be a solid backdrop for the game. The weakest part of the writing is Yorick the talking skull, who serves as your guide and source of gameplay hints. I found he ranges from irritating to mildly amusing.
Gameplay
Shadowgate started as a point and click adventure and the reboot is true to the original, for better or for worse. The player moves from room to room, interacting with a variety of objects. Puzzles block progression from one area to the other. Shadowgate is merciless with its players, as there are plenty of ways to die. Death comes from making poor decisions when solving puzzles or just lingering around too much. The hero relies on keeping a lit torch to explore the depths of Castle Shadowgate, but running out will spell a humiliating death. Turns used is how Shadowgate calculates time, with every action except “LOOK” counting as a single turn. Each torch is capable of lasting a certain number of turns before they eventually burn themselves out, forcing players to complete the game before the limited torches run out.
The UI remains unchanged for the most part from the original 1987 game. Several commands line the top of the screen. Actions are completed by choosing an object in the scenery, clicking the appropriate command, then clicking the object the player wishes to interact. Unfortunately, this is a really clunky way to interact with the game. The hotkeys quickly became my preferred method of interaction, as it sped things up considerably. Personally, I find the default hot key selection to be atrocious. Each key is bound to the first letter of the action it is associated with. This ends up scattering all the hot keys across the keyboard. Mixed with the custom hotkeys that allows players to access any item with a number key, the default key bindings were practically impossible to use without looking at the keyboard.
For users who prefer the mouse, Zojoi did make some small additions to try to streamline the controls. It is possible to double click an action to lock it in place, making all future interactions with objects to automatically use the locked action. Unfortunately, no amount of hot keys or tweaks can stop the fact using inventory items on the environment is unwieldy. The inventory windows covers almost the entire screen. Players must first click the item they want to use in the inventory, then trigger the command, then close the inventory and click the object they want to interact with.
Shadowgate has an excellent difficulty system. The three difficulty levels scales the challenge level of the puzzles and punishes the player for wasting turns on useless actions as the difficulty level rises. In lower difficulty levels, certain puzzles are eliminated completely, other puzzle are simplified, less red herring items are scattered across the levels, and hints are less vague. Since Shadowgate is time limited by torches, starting with lower difficulty levels allows players master a set of puzzles that will help them buy time for future experimentation on new puzzles at a higher difficulty level. I feel this is a smart system that helps lower the learning curve of the game and makes it more accessible to new players. It is important to note that no matter what difficulty level, it is very possible to put oneself into a situation that will make it impossible to complete the game. Either a new game must be started or the player must return to an earlier save.
The difficulty scaling in Shadowgate is very good. Puzzles follow a good logical flow and are significantly easier at lower difficulties, but are changed enough that the more difficult version still provides a good challenge. Starting the game from the beginning due to running out of torches or poor turn management is initially a bitter pill to swallow, but I soon found myself figuring out ways to shave turns off my runs. I suspect Shadowgate speed runs may soon become a popular hobby among fans.
Visuals
Part of Shadowgate’s makeover involves brand new illustrations for the entire game. The backgrounds are absolutely stunning and fall into a more traditional fantasy art style. The cutscenes on the other hand have a more wispy and ethereal look to them, which provides a nice artistic flair. The UI manages to feel oh so retro without falling into a pixelated 8-bit look. For the nostalgic, Zojoi has added retro-styled transitions and text that hark back to the NES era.
Audio
Shadowgate’s soundtrack has also seen an update. The game has a orchestral score. The soundtrack is very enjoyable to listen to, complete with an epic fantasy score that would make RPG fans feel at home. Zojoi also gave the soundtrack the retro treatment, allowing the orchestra score to be replaced with a retro chiptune soundtrack in the options.
Although the game’s sound effects are solid, they are most definitely eclipsed by the soundtrack. The voice acting is probably the weakest link in the audio chain. Though the main characters’ voice acting is superb, the performance of minor characters struggled.
Overall
Shadowgate isn’t for everyone. The game returns the genre to a more challenging territory, a stark and brutal contrast to the more common casual-friendly difficulty level of most adventure games today. Nostalgic fans will be thrilled that the game’s UI has also stuck to its roots, though its clunky handling is showing its age. Zojoi has done a fantastic job in the audio/visual makeover, with a stellar soundtrack and gorgeous illustrations. Shadowgate is packed with replayability thanks to its three levels of difficulty. For those wishing to test their puzzle solving skills or looking to relive the glory days of adventure gaming, Shadowgate is a challenge worth embarking.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Perhaps the most popular anime of all time, Dragon Ball Z is currently receiving full season Blu-ray releases of its engrossing adventure featuring action, laughs and perhaps what everyone remembers most, the epic fights between the universes most powerful warriors. Following on from the release of the previous four volumes on Blu-ray disc, Season 5 brings with it some great fights involving the Androids and Cell as well as our heroes developing both in terms of power and character. Read on to find out how this Blu-ray version of the classic Android Saga holds up on its own as well as how it compares to previous releases.
Story
Season 5 contains a great air of mystery, quick progression and some fantastic fight scenes. Following on where Season 4 left off, Bulma has discovered a time capsule that is identical to the one Trunks used to travel to present time from the future. The cause of this phenomenon is later revealed to be Cell, a bio-android who takes the position of main villain from the Android trio of Android 16, 17 and 18 as the season goes through the paces. Cell is revealed to be made up of cells from all the strongest Z warriors as well as their enemies in Frieza and King Cold, giving him a great combination of power and abilities which he demonstrates throughout his battles. This makes Cell an interesting villain but perhaps more interesting is his quest to achieve his perfect form and become the ‘ultimate’ Android by absorbing Android 17 and 18.
Cell is a great villain to watch and demonstrates his intelligent and plotting nature more than once. He waits for opportune moments to strike and often gets out of situations that would spell his doom by taking advantages of his opponents weaknesses as he does by using Solar Flare to escape Piccolo or taking advantage of Vegeta’s pride. While he may seem nothing but power hungry for the majority of the season, his ambition to test his new ‘perfect’ power once he achieves his final form calls for him to create the Cell Games Tournament, with this season ending on the episode where Cell announces his plan to Trunks.
One of the best things about Season 5 is that a lot of the cast gets a chance to shine, especially with series star Goku being out of commission for most of the season while he recovers from a heart virus or is off training with Gohan. Piccolo fuses with Kami to become powerful enough to challenge Android 17, Vegeta gets some short lived redemption against Cell after being defeated by Android 18 and even Tien slows down Cell in a life risking effort. Trunks gets to display his power even if his youth and inexperience proves to be his downfall while Krillin mostly stays out of the fray but struggles with his emotions for Android 18 which leads to some huge implications.
Many characters receive a great deal of character development throughout the season, with a large focus on Gohan and Trunks as they become stronger through training and realize their true potential as well as develop deeper relationships with their fathers. Gohan becomes stronger through encouragement and teamwork from Goku, where as Vegeta ignores Trunks completely and while the two definitely become stronger through isolation this leads to trouble later on in the season when they both could have benefited from communicating more with one another. The scenes that take place within the Hyperbolic Time Chamber between Goku and Gohan as Gohan attempts to ascend to a Super Saiyan are among the best in the series.
There are a good number of fights that contain a balanced amount of even match ups that could go either way such as Piccolo and Android 17, Cell and Android 16 and Piccolo vs Cell as well as fights where you basically get to see one character completely dominate over the other such as Super Saiyan Vegeta vs Second Stage Cell and then the reverse where Cell becomes perfect. The fights are well choreographed and look great, with fighters showing new techniques such as Piccolo’s Hell Zone Grenade and one of Vegeta’s most famous attacks, Final Flash. They also contain some interesting twists and turns to temporarily swing the results in favour of one warrior over the other so that you never know who the victor will be until the end.
Visuals
A lot here may seem repeated from my Season One review (which you can read here if you are interested), but the Blu-ray seasons all have the same remastering process applied so not much is different between them. Dragon Ball Z purist are very vocal when it comes to the series being released, especially in the areas of Colour correction, amount of grain and the most controversial, aspect ratio. The anime first broadcasted in the old 4:3 aspect ratio but has been converted to 16:9 widescreen for this release without the option to view it in its original form, resulting in about 20% of the original image being lost. This does look odd in some scenes with the top of character’s heads being cut off, but Funimation have done a fantastic job with Season 5 in cropping these scenes on a frame by frame basis so that nothing is lost.
Grain has been nearly completely removed so the picture is much clearer, however this can sometimes have a strange effect on shots that mostly comprise of background or feature characters at a distance in that details are lost and the image appears simplified. Colour saturation has been increased, meaning colours are brighter than how they were originally intended which sometimes has a detrimental effect on the source material as deeper colours like the orange of the character’s uniforms appear too bright. In Season 5 there are times when everything seems ‘lighter’ than normal and during these times is when this colour correction probably hurts the quality the most. When the quality of the original picture is poor, the Blu-ray only amplifies the sub par quality of the original product.
Picture of Gohan turning Super Saiyan in Season 5 on the orange remastered DVD set. Apologies for the poor image quality.The same scene on the Blu-ray release. The scene is has been selectively cropped to show more of Gohan’s body instead of his hair. Also of note are the much sharper lines and brighter colour contrast, particularly in ares of heavy shadow.
There is no doubt the quality offered by this Blu-ray collection is very high. The series looks good in HD, especially into its fifth season where the artwork has become more consistent and detailed overall. Colours are vibrant, lines are bold and all the action is crystal clear. You can see a big step up in sharpness from the DVD sets to the Blu-rays and when I was going back to the DVD sets for a comparison it was hard to adjust to the lower quality on my LCD monitor. One small problem that is still present on scenes that don’t contain much movement is that the image will sometimes wobble and distort. This is moderately distracting but isn’t present too often and is most likely due to the old age of the source material rather than the remastering process.
The original box art (featured at the top of this review) once again looks fantastic and links up with the former and yet to be released seasons to form a cool ‘mural’ representing all the key moments from the anime. Menus are clean, simple and functional. One strange error is that no title text is present on Episode 164, Ghosts from Tomorrow, which is a very small but obvious flaw with the set.
Audio
Just like with Season 1 the audio options presented here by Funimation are top notch and should not leave anyone disappointed. The default audio is set to the Funimation English dub with the original Japanese Audio track and is presented in True HD Dolby 5.1 surround sound. This option sounds terrific with the volume turned up, with sounds like energy blasts coming from the appropriate speakers when appropriate. The other audio options are original U.S. broadcast which is presented in Dolby True HD 2.0 and finally the full Japanese audio with original music and voice which is presented in True HD Mono. The final option does sound rather old and muffled due to its age but has got a bit of an upgrade thanks to the improvements in Blu-ray sound quality.
Bruce Falconer clearly hit his stride with Season 5, with some of the most memorable dub tracks in the series such as the empowering Dragon’s Theme, the whimsical Theme of Piccolo or epicness of Vegeta’s Theme featuring prominently. The Falconer track always seems perfectly suited to the events taking place on the screen, complimenting the action perfectly as does the original Japanese track. As for the voice acting, you have choices of the Funimation English dub or the original Japanese vocal track. The Funimation voice cast continues their great work here, particularly Dameon Clarke as Cell giving a fantastic performance and capturing the look of each of Cell’s forms with the perfect tone.
Extras
Season 5 packs a decent amount of special features within especially in comparison to past releases. While the episode guide featured in the old orange remastered box sets are completely absent without any sort of replacement, interviews with Sonny Strait (Krillin’s English voice actor) and Meredith Mauldin (Android 18’s English voice actor), alongside a rare insight into Toei’s animation studio and the creation process of the original Dragon Ball Z anime make up for the loss. These three major features are fairly beefy at around 15 minutes each and offer some great insights into how the show came to be as well as how the dub. Hearing how the actors felt during the process and seeing old touring photos with the old card game hummer is very interesting and the extras here compliment the bonus features that were present in the other sets very well.
Apart from the big extras, there is also a short U.S. trailer as well as text less opening and closing songs. The ‘next time on Dragon Ball Z’ segments are missing from this release, however the previous episode recaps are present. One small issue is that the trailers for other anime that are present at the start of each disk can not be skipped and are a good minute and a half long which proves a minor inconvenience.
Overall
Dragon Ball Z Season 5 on Blu-ray is an excellent showing of one of the best story arcs from the series. Whilst the most hard core fans will still take issue with the editing applied to this release, those that can look past it or don’t mind will find an excellently presented product with high definition clear imagery and a near perfect audio experience. With tension filled moments, questions to be answered, character development in both personality and strength and some fantastically choreographed fights, Season 5 does not disappoint those following the storyline from early seasons and ups the ante to a new level. With some great extras included this is perhaps the best version of Dragon Ball Z Season 5 you can purchase and while there is still room for improvement, this is a huge step up from the orange remastered DVD set. However if you are a true 4:3 purist, you will still most likely be better off with the Dragon Box release.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Unfortunately it looks like the first PlayStation 4 exclusive JRPG has suffered a minor delay in Japan. It has been revealed that the idol RPG Omega Quintet will now be released on October 2nd instead of its original release date of September 18th.
No reason was given for the delay but the company did release a brand new trailer for the game which you can check out below. At the moment it is worth noting that there has been no word of Omega Quintet being localized, but due to the PlayStation 4’s region free nature, potential importers or those with Japanese PSN accounts will have only a small hurdle to overcome.
Over the weekend FUNimation announcedthat Toonami will be getting a bit darker starting on September 13th. While the action drama Black Lagoon is set to end on that date, the dark and bloody Hellsing Ultimate will be taking its place. Starting on September 13th each episode will start airing at 1:00 AM Central Time.
It is worth noting that although each volume will take up an hours worth of space, it will also be edited down and censored a bit to fit with the programming block’s rating program as well as time constraints, since many of the OVA episodes vary in length.
A new batch of screenshots for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix has been released by Square Enix and the focus of all of these screenshots happens to be Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix, a version of which will be released for the first time in North America in December.
It is worth noting, at least for those who are just now getting into the series, that a number of these screenshots contain spoilers so beware of that. Anyways, you can check them out below and be sure to keep an eye out for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix when it is released in North America on December 2nd and in Europe on December 5th.
A couple of weeks ago Compile Heart released a batch of Hyperdimension Neptunia U gameplay clips that focused on the CPU Goddesses and now they have released a set of six videos that not only focus on the CPU Candidates but also two of the game’s guest characters.
Those familiar with the series will recognize the little sister characters, Nepgear, Uni, Ram and Rom, but these videos also introduce us to Famitsu and Dengekiko. You can check out all of the videos below and those interested in this Vita game can look forward to its Japanese release in a couple of days.
EA Sports announced today that Portland Trail Blazers point guard, NBA 2013 Rookie of the Year and 2014 NBA West All-Star Team member Damian Lillard will be gracing the cover of NBA Live 15. The cover reveal trailer can be viewed embedded at the bottom of this article.
Lillard himself broke the news via Instagram post:
http://instagram.com/p/sH3F_gv4sD/
The two-time NBA Skills Challenge champion isn’t just being featured on the cover, as he will also be virtual coach of sorts in NBA Live 15‘s new Learn Live onboarding mode, teaching players the basics of gameplay as he recounts personal stories about his own journey up the ranks of basketball. His work with EA Tiburon extends past these honours and the multiple motion-capture sessions over the past two years, as Lillard has also sat in and weighed in on design decision making for this year’s iteration.
After what was an absolutely abysmal entry in the series, EA is looking to bounce back (pun unintended) with NBA Live 15, releasing on October 9 in Australia and October 10 in New Zealand for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with the most photo-realistic visuals in franchise history, over 500 core gameplay improvements, all-new real-time physics on dunks and lay-ups and, of course, the always-connected online game modes and all the benefits of the Synergy Sports partnership, ensuring you never miss a beat during the NBA season with new content updated daily, all season long.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: behind the good ol’ U.S. of A., South Korea makes the best films. On October 15, the Far East cinematic movement continues with Icon Home Entertainment releasing The Terror, Live on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.
From writer/director Byeong-Woo Kim, The Terror, Livestars Jung-Woo Ha (The Chaser) as a “disgraced former television news anchor who unwittingly takes a call from a terrorist on his live radio show. When the terrorist’s threat to blow up the nearby Mapo Bridge in Seoul proves to be frighteningly real, Yeong-Hwa Yoon (Jung-Woo Ha) decides to use the unfolding incident as his way to get back in the spotlight.” I can definitely see the Phone Booth comparison as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. If you love thrillers or South Korean film in general, check The Terror, Live out come October 15.
