FREE GAMES! EA might be on it’s way to changing it’s reputation from worst game company, especially if it keeps up offers like this. To celebrate the 20 years of the Sony PlayStation and the PlayStation Experience event currently happening in Las Vegas, one of Sony’s biggest backer EA Games have made Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PS Vita), Mirror’s Edge (PS3), and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (PS4) free until tomorrow (we are guessing that is until 12:00 am on December 8th Sydney Time) on the PlayStation Store. The games also seem to be free worldwide. That’s right 100% free. These games are only available free on the listed platforms however, so no Need For Speed on the PS3 for example.
If you like what EA has to offer then head to this PlayStation Store link that will take you straight to the store where you can download all three titles for free. Definitely not a bad list of titles on offer considering you won’t have to drop a cent on them. Let us know in the comments below if you picked up one, two or all three of these titles for your Sony consoles.
Warner Bros. Games have revealed the third and final part of it’s ACE Chemicals Infiltration trailer series for it’s upcoming game Batman: Arkham Knight at the PlayStation Experience event currently being held in Las Vegas. After a small introduction from the PlayStation Experience stage, the trailer begins showcasing more epic looking combat, some grapple hook action, an aerial take down and more. We then get some story exposition from a rescued civilian before we are taken to a battle between the Batmobile and one of the Arkham Knight’s attack choppers.
The trailer also gave us a glimpse of the Scarecrow Nightmare DLC pack which was announced to be a PlayStation 4 exclusive. This DLC pack seems like it will include some new ‘nightmare’ scenes, similar to those pictured in Arkham Knight where the world will warp and a giant Scarecrow will be constantly mocking you and searching for you in what were definitely some of the highlights of Batman: Arkham Asylum. You can watch both part 3 on it’s own as it was shown at the PlayStation Experience or watch the video below that one that contains all three parts of the trailer series in one. Batman: Arkham Knight arrives worldwide on PS4, Xbox One and PC on June 2nd, 2015.
At the PlayStation Experience happening currently in Las Vegas Sony has made many announcements but one of the smaller ones was the announcement of custom faceplates that you can attach to the top part of your PS4 to give it your own sense of style. The whole ‘campaign’ is called Project Skylight and initially only two faceplates will be available, one based on Little Big Planet 3 featuring Sackboy and his burlap gang and one based on The Order 1886 featuring a shot of the Knights.
Starting today, you can choose from one of these Limited Edition Project SkyLight faceplates, each available for $24.99. Sony have said more faceplates are coming soon and that a few other fun enhancements are also going to be released under this Project SkyLight banner. These faceplates are being created in very small quantities and are available directly from the Sony Store which is U.S. based, so unfortunately we don’t have any international details as of yet. Let us know in the comments below which faceplate you will be getting if any and what designs you would like to see come out in the future.
Overview
Since the late 1970s the venerable Mobile Suit Gundam series has been ever-present in the anime industry and is widely known as the flagship of the “mecha” or giant robot genre. Although it’s important to note that the early Gundam broke away from the over-the-top “super robot” genre and grounded itself in gritty, military reality. Even today in 2014 we have the latest Gundam Reconguista in G currently airing alongside new generation mecha anime.
Simply titled Mobile Suit Gundam this is the original series and where it all began for the franchise’s popular Universal Century timeline, recently culminating in the Gundam Unicorn OVA episodes. Has this museum piece aged gracefully or should only fans wearing rose-tinted goggles apply? Thanks to Madman’s newly-released collection boxes, we feel it’s high time to revisit this classic.
Story
The narrative of the original Gundam has all the hallmarks of a classic space opera. The year is 0079 of the Universal Century calendar, a new age that was meant to see humanity cast aside the shadow of our tumultuous A.D. era and to expand the population into space colonies orbiting Earth. However not all went to plan. The “spacenoids”, led by the Principality of Zeon, declared war on the Earth Federation in a bid for independence sparking a conflict known as the One Year War.
The plot is centered on space colony citizen Amuro Ray as he stumbles across the Federation’s new secret weapon, the RX-78-2 Gundam before joining the crew of the White Base spaceship. From here it’s a journey across continents and space as Amuro vies with a Zeon rival pilot, Char Aznable, and copes with his own fears and doubts. The relationship between Amuro and Char is key to the story as the two encounter each other on the battlefield time and time again.
Char’s point of view to the story is fascinating on its own. Known as the Red Comet for piloting fast, red mobile suits, the young tactician’s motives are at first unclear while he pursues Amuro and White Base with a fevered obsession. While fighting for Zeon, he shows disregard for its leadership and openly mocks the ruling Zabi family.
If you’ve seen a Gundam anime before, particularly Seed, then the overall structure of the narrative will be familiar. This is after all the foundation of the recurring theme in the franchise. Though simple, the message is powerful. They say that media are a product of the age they are made in and Mobile Suit Gundam isn’t any different.
This series was created in an uncertain time when tensions simmered between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Earth Federation and Zeon are loosely modelled after two major superpowers. The creator Yoshiyuki Tomino saw the futility of conflict and so the blame of the One Year War is hard to pinpoint and no side is truly clean. This truly is a story of politics and ideals as much as it is about waging war with giant bipedal machines.
The result is a tale that’s actually pretty simple on one hand, as if Sunrise were testing the waters with the boy-in-robot concept. Whilst they kept in mind the young target audience, the show overflows with purpose and emotion.
Visuals
The animation in Mobile Suit Gundam is jarring to say the least. Despite knowing and understanding the fact that this was made 35 years ago, it’s still hard to get used to. It’s almost impossible to recommend all but the most committed newcomers to the Gundam franchise to start in chronological order thanks to the rough animation of this series. Colours often cross lines and robot limbs bend at impossible angles
Characters, however, are distinct and memorable with each of the Zabi family suitably menacing, Amuro plain yet heartening and Char’s iconic mask and outfit being the highlight.
Audio Mobile Suit Gundam is a great example of sound in classic anime. Everything from the iconic background music, cheesy sound effects and stellar Japanese voice acting performances from each cast member helps prop up a very old anime. Although the experience is lessened a little in English since dubbing quality wasn’t a huge priority for this release, it’s perfectly watchable in both languages.
The opening theme “Fly! Gundam” by Koh Ikeda as well as the ending “Forever Amuro” are a blast from the past with the booming male vocals which are a lot of fun to hear, if a little lacking in the composition department.
Extras
No extras are included with Mobile Suit Gundam but we’re just glad we have the series available here in one collection, especially when the original run was almost cancelled in Japan due to initial low popularity.
Overall
The original Gundam is a little difficult to judge today in 2014 when the fundamental narrative has been rehashed into countless newer titles with high quality animation. It’s a powerful little story that defines characters as victims of circumstance. Both heroes and villains meet on the battlefield, essentially doing their job yet each character fights with personal conviction. Modern robot anime rely on over-the-top effects or some other draw that sidelines the core element of mecha. Think of the recent Valvrave the Liberator or Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. In this regard, blowing the dust off Mobile Suit Gundam is paradoxically refreshing.
The biggest draw of watching this series is the history it contains for the Universal Century timeline. If you want to watch the new (and really good) Gundam Unicorn it’s essential to know the full story and Sunrise have strangely kept the events of the One Year War locked in the original anime. But for newcomers it’s hard to recommend this as a Gundam starting point when you have effective modern takes like Gundam 00 or, if you insist on Universal Century, OVAs like 08th MS Team. But the fact remains, if you love Gundam or realistic mecha (if that’s a thing) then this is the textbook that’s worth going over at least once.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Capcom has announced that they have formed a strategic partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring Street Fighter V exclusively to the Playstation 4 and PC. There is no mention whether or not the popular fighting game will be brought to arcades at this time.
Capcom has stated that there will be some form of cross-platform play, potentially indicating that PC and PS4 players will be able to interact online. There have been no announcements of how Street Fighter V will be distributed on PC, but it’s a safe bet to assume that it will be on most of the major channels such as Steam.
The first gameplay demo of the new title will be at the Capcom Cup grand finals tournament in San Francisco, on December 13th. This will be available to watch via stream on Twitch during the tournament next week.
Sega has announced that, in conjunction with Sony of America, Yakuza 5 will finally be coming to Western countries in 2015 for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network. Additionally, it was announced that Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls are now available on the PlayStation Network.
Yakuza 5 continues the stories of Kazuma Kiryu, Shun Akiyama, and Taiga Saejima from Yakuza 4, as well as some new protagonists. The game has five different cities, utilizing a new graphics engine. These cities are Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Tokyo.
Additionally, the battle system has been modified, and Sega reports that there will be even more mini-games than prior games in the series. The hostess bar system has also been updated with further customization & interactions. Also brought up was the introduction of in-depth side stories for each protagonist, titled “Another Drama.”
Today Techland and Warner Bros. have released a new trailer for their upcoming game Dying Light which is set to be released in North America on January 27th and in Europe on January 30th.
The trailer happens to focus on the game’s story where players take on the role of Kyle Crane, a character voiced by Roger Craig Smith. Kyle Crane is an undercover operative sent to infiltrate the quarantine zone that has become filled with zombies after an epidemic sweeps through the city. Here he must deal with warring factions and sheer chaos all while trying to survive.
Today to kick off their “PlayStation Experience” Sony and Naughty Dog revealed fifteen minutes of live demo footage of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. This footage, which can be viewed below, contains completely live gameplay.
This is the first time gameplay for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has been shown off and with the game set to be released sometime in 2015, Naughty Dog describes the story as follows:
Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter, Nathan Drake, is forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. His greatest adventure will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he’s willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves.
Koei Tecmo has released their first English trailer for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea. Well to call it an entirely English trailer would be a bit false, since all of the gameplay footage is from the Japanese version of the game but the trailer does feature an English voice over that gives us a preview of what certain characters will sound like once Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is released in North America on March 10th and in Europe on March 13th.
You can check out the trailer as well as some new English screenshots for the title below.
Those of you who are waiting to see what will happen next in The Banner Saga trilogy will be happy to hear that today during The Game Awards in Las Vegas Stoic Stuidos revealed that they are working on The Banner Saga 2. Unfortunately outside of this announcement, we know little about the actual title other than what has been hinted at in the teaser trailer that you can check out below.
The original game was a strategy RPG and was released not only for the PC but eventually came to the iOS, Android, and PlayStation 4 platforms so it will be interesting to see if this icy Nordic focused game will follow the same path.
