October is going to be a frightening month this year. Not just because The Evil Within is set to be released that month, but also because the sheer number of games set to be released on certain dates in October will not only slaughter your wallet, but also kill any free time you may have.
As such it came as no surprise this weekend during QuakeCon that Bethesda is moving the release date for The Evil Within up one week in order to net itself a less jam packed week. As announced on their Twitter the game will now be released in North America on October 14th instead of the previous release date of October 21st.
Today Koei Tecmo released a large number of new screenshots for Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, most of which are for the PlayStation 3 but a few of them are for the PlayStation 4. The main highlight of these trailers is to focus on the new characters that will be joining the roster in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, two of which will be familiar with most gamers and three of whom are completely original.
Currently Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate is set to be released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as a retail title and digitally on the PS3 and PS Vita on September 2nd in North America while gamers in Europe will get the title on September 5th.
Overview Japan has long held dominance over the visual novel market. For every twenty visual novels released in Japanese, English speaking audiences are lucky to receive even one official English release. As such when Sekai Project and MangaGamer released the English developed Sakura Spirit it came as quite a surprise that even caught Japanese fans of the genre off guard. The question is, now that Winged Cloud has released Sakura Spirit, was this surprise a pleasant one?
Story Gushiken Takahiro is a rising Judo star is nervous over his upcoming match and he has good reason to be, since this match in two weeks’ time could make him a star of the Japanese Judo team. Taking the advice of a few of his classmates, Takahiro chooses to visit a shrine deep in the woods to pray for good luck in the upcoming bout.
After coming across the extremely well kept shrine in the middle of nowhere, Takahiro enters only to hear a mysterious voice questioning why he is at the shrine and giving him a haunting warning before Takahiro falls unconscious. When he awakes he finds himself in the forest he had just walked through. Concerned about his situation, Takahiro only wants to return to his home.
Much to his surprise, he hears the sound of female voices within the woods as two fox girls, otherwise known as kitsune from mythology, run from two female warriors pursuing them for the theft of something rather precious to the girls. Takahiro soon realizes that he is in a world different from his own as not only has he been sent back to feudal Japan, but the land is also populated by Spirits.
After being arrested by the female guards for a misunderstanding and rescued by the fox girls, Takahiro learns that the two kitsune sisters are not trusted by the village and finds himself caught up in a dispute between spirits and humanity. With Takahiro surrounded by magic and weaponry, will he have any chance of finding a way back home?
The story of Sakura Spirit is a straight-forward affair that does very little to step outside of the box as it focuses primarily on the misconceptions the human village has of the kitsune sisters and trying to bridge the divide between the two while also giving the reader a bit of time with each of the four girls in the game.
Unfortunately despite having four different girls to offer, we learn very little about most of the cast and the world itself as the only characters to be given a minimal amount of backstory and development are Narumi and Machiko as they have history with one another but even this is not explored to its full potential.
The other two, Maeko and Miyu, are given just as much focus as the other two but readers learn very little about them other than their personality traits. Playing through the entirety of Sakura Spirit gave me the feeling that the writers have a lot that they might have wanted to expand upon but simply put it to the side in order to get the title released as not only are those two characters not explored any deeper than surface level, the cause of Narumi’s tragic past is never fully revealed nor does the issue with the Spirits appear fully resolved at the conclusion of the story.
That being said, Sakura Spirit is a fun, albeit short, visual novel that takes a well-used storyline and makes it more enjoyable by putting its own spin on things and presenting players with a likable cast of girls. With plenty of humor and some very extremely suggestive dialogue at times, Sakura Spirit does have its faults but those faults only put a mild damper over an entertaining visual novel.
Gameplay As standard with many visual novels, there really isn’t much to playing through Sakura Spirit as players will simply read through the title. Though unlike many other visual novels, there is only one actual choice to be made in Sakura Spirit and even then this choice does very little to actually impact the outcome of the title’s story, instead it only changes a few characters’ clothing and unlocks a few extra CG scenes.
As with other visual novels, all CGs can then be viewed in the gallery at the main menu, but this is also a title that does not offer any scene replays, meaning that if the player likes a specific moment of the game, they will need to make various saves in order to quickly access these scenes. Not that that is a problem of course, considering the amount of save slots available. It is also interesting to note that there is no text log in Sakura Spirit, instead players are given the option to rewind the story as they see fit.
There is one problem in Sakura Spirit that pops up far too often however and that problem comes in the form of grammatical errors and numerous spelling mistakes. There are of course intentional misspellings such as characters not understanding modern terminology, but those are not what I am talking about. Players will encounter the first few spelling issues only a few minutes into the game and see them often throughout the two hour long game. There are times that back to back sentences will suffer from improper word usage, making a sentence incredibly awkward to read and problematic in a title all about reading.
Visuals & Audio There is one thing that really stands out when it comes to Sakura Spirit and that is the artwork. Almost every character shown in the game is incredibly well drawn with a large attention to detail being spent to clothing and making the girls look as attractive as possible. In fact, the game really tries to push the All-Ages style when it comes to the CG scenes as there are plenty of lewd looking drawings mixed in with the standard CGs, not saying that is a bad thing of course.
Just like the characters the backgrounds are very nicely handled and have a decent amount of variety ranging from forested backgrounds to various housing interiors perfectly fitting the game’s theme and setting. I did mention earlier that “almost” every character is well drawn and later in the game readers will know what I mean as a certain Spirits design is incredibly lazy compared to what fans of monster girls are familiar with.
Now Sakura Spirit does not feature any voice work whatsoever but instead offers some fitting, albeit fairly standard sounding, background music that is varied enough to not grow old but none of the tracks stand out in any significant way.
Overall Sakura Spirit is a low priced visual novel that suffers from numerous grammar problems that clocks in at a little under two hours but in those two hours players will be treated to a rather enjoyable, albeit surface level, storyline that accompanied by some stellar artwork and CG. While Sakura Spirit does end with a somewhat satisfying conclusion, it is done so on an obvious cliffhanger and it is clearly presented that the developers of the game will wish to continue the story and hopefully they will do so, because despite its faults, the characters and setting make for an enjoyable story that I would like to see continue.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
As I am sure many of you out there are aware of by now, the beta for Activision and Bungie’s highly (and I do mean highly) anticipated new shooter, Destiny is available now on PS3 and PS4. Well in typical Playstation style, the launch of the beta was ushered in with a nice little shindig.
Carriageworks in Sydney played host to the launch event and saw Destiny’s moon suspended from the catwalks and glowing angelically for the night. All around the room were banners and props from the game. As well-done as all of the decorations were, they were nothing compared to the piece-de-resistance; the game itself.
After a brief introduction by the heads of Activision and Sony Australia, we got to pick up controllers and head into Destiny’s world for the first time, and If you haven’t, I strongly suggest you check out our in-depth coverage of the beta here. Going into the beta I was a little… shall we say anxious. Destiny is well-hyped at this stage, and so far nothing had made me jump on the hype train, but I went in there ready to give it a go, and hopefully get excited.
When it came to Destiny itself, I was honestly expecting Halo with some additional multiplayer features, and that is basically what I got. This isn’t necessary a bad thing as it is impossible to deny to impact on gaming and culture that Halo has made, and more of it is sure to bode well for the future, but I feel that during my short time with Destiny, that I didn’t really notice anything new being brought to the table. I honestly felt like I was just playing the latest Halo installment, that added some weapon and armor customisation and Peter Dinklage.
Now I am sure that by saying that Destiny feels almost identical to Halo that we will get a tonne of angry messages in the comments below telling me that I don’t have any idea what I am talking about, and that Destiny and Halo are completely different. That’s good! I want to hear from you all! By this stage, you will have had more hands-on time with Destiny than I did and we can discuss the merits of the game.
I was not disappointed in my time with Destiny, but I wasn’t “wowed” by the experience either. I can see why it will be a major hit as it has some solid and downright fun gameplay mechanics and a tonne of content, but I guess it just isn’t for me.
For those of you who don’t own a Sony console, the beta will be come available later this week, so make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the hot Destiny news as it becomes available.
Have you ever wanted to have super powers? You’re lying if you say you have never once imagined it. Well this week sees the release of Titan Comics’ Ordinary #3. The book’s first issue was released in May this year has seen great success and if you love superhero stories with a little taste of the unusual then you don’t want to miss this.
Ordinary #3 Cover. Click to enlarge
Remember that scene in The Incredibles where Syndrome tells Mr. Incredible; “When everybody is special… No one is.” Well that is the general concept of Ordinary. Every single person on Earth has gotten super-powers… except for one man. Check out the official synopsis:
One day divorced plumber Michael Fisher woke up in his crummy one-bedroom apartment in Queens, New York, and discovered that everyone on planet Earth had gained super-powers… apart from him. The most ordinary man alive has now made it into Manhattan, hoping to rescue his estranged son, Josh, from the creature trapping him in his school. Meanwhile, the Vice-President has effectively staged a coup, taking command of an America braced for super-powered war. And he will go to any length to prevent Dr. Tara McDonald, the Scottish genome scientist, finding a cure for this plague.
Ordinary #3 will be available from your local comic book store, and the Titan Comics official page from July 23rd. We also have a trailer for the book that you can check out below, and for all the awesome comic book news as it becomes available, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
With its recent success in film, Disney and Marvel studios are about to release possibly their most eagerly anticipated film to date; Guardians of the Galaxy. Showcasing a very different aspect of the Marvel universe, and with an ensemble cast that rivals the star power of the Avengers themselves, it is easy to see why the world has their attention focused squarely on Star Lord and his band of outlaws.
In this day and age, it would be impossible to have a hit movie come out without a tie-in game, and Guardians is no exception. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon takes the Guardians and their allies on an intergalactic adventure to recover the five pieces of The Universal Weapon! Starting off as Star-Lord, players will recruit the rest of the Guardians and additional heroes, and go up against various villains such as; Korath, Nebula, and Ronan the Accuser.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Weapon is available for all smart phone and tablet devices, and will set you back $6.49 on iOS, $5.25 on Android and $4.99 on Windows Phone and PC. That may seem like a lot, but the game will feature over 60 levels at launch, and a wealth of characters for you to play as, so you will have content to last at LEAST until August 7th when the film hits theaters. If you need a little more info about the game, then check out the trailer below and remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Marvel news as it becomes available.
With all the hype surrounding Destiny it’s hard not to be curious and excited for the games release, even for a gamer that really has no interest or experience in the FPS/MMO genres Destiny largely belongs to. I went into the Destiny Beta with next to no knowledge of the game except knowing that its creators were Bungie, the developers behind the original Halo Trilogy, and while I know that series is held in very high regard I had never taken the time to play any of the Halo series myself. That being said, I went in with an open mind and dived straight into this unique sci-fi world not knowing what to expect. I can now say I was pleasantly satisfied with the time I spent with the game and am now much more interested in the final product than I was before. For the record this impressions article is based on the PS3 version of the Destiny Beta.
Right from the game’s title screen, the first thing that instantly strikes you about Destiny is the quality. This game is the epitome of a big budget, high quality, AAA game. The presentation, graphics, music, sound and even the the user interface are absolutely outstanding. Destiny draws you in to its high quality world and it’s a pleasure to be there.
You start off with an intro detailing how the human race expanded into space but a mysterious Darkness took over and forced a new beginning, which basically leads to present day in Destiny where there a few remaining remnants of that glorious culture. Pretty standard sci-fi narrative here but the story does become more fleshed out and intriguing as you spend more time in the world and start to learn more about its history. Once the history recap is over the game skips to present day where the scene opens with a small ‘Wall-E’ robot like creature scanning through old abandoned cars in Old Russia seemingly searching for your created Guardian who has apparently been dead for a long time. The robot reveals itself to be a ‘Ghost’, specifically your Ghost, and will be accompanying you throughout your journey, guiding you through the world, turning on lights for you and just being good company. Your Ghost is voiced by renowned Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, and while you can hear his voice in their it has been modified quite heavily to sound more robotic but still sounds great, even if his attempts at humor are no where near as strong as they are in Game of Thrones.
One of the big parts of Destiny is creating your Guardian and choosing a class for them. You can choose to make your Guardian one of three races including human, Awoken (humanoid like alien) or Exo (Terminator like robots). You also choose one of three classes that will have a huge impact on your abilities and play style. The choice here are Hunter (focused on long range killing or sneak up attacks), Titan (balanced class of offense and defense) and Warlock (more magically inclined). Each of these comes with their own advantages and disadvantages as well as unique skills that are acquired by leveling up. The character creator is rather well done, allowing you to change gender, skin tone, hair type and colour as well as eye and lip colour, each of which have a decent array of options. The only annoying thing I found about the creator is that you can’t spin the camera around so you don’t know what your character will look like from the back (which annoyed me a bit because when I finally got to see the back of my characters head I wasn’t a fan of the hair style I had chosen and their doesn’t seem to be a way to change it thus far.) I chose to play as a blue skinned Awaken Warlock but it is worth noting you can create different guardians and play as them as well during your campaign, so you aren’t locked into playing as only one race or class your entire adventure.
The controls here all felt intuitive, accurate and responsive. The guns on offer are fun and easy to use and there seem to be many varieties of weapon with even more sub varieties within them. The first story mission provides you with an automatic rifle and a shotgun which proves very powerful at close range. It doesn’t seem like Bungie have reinvented the wheel here when it comes to weapon types, but there may be some new weapon types present within the full game or hidden away in the Beta. As a Warlock you also have a powerful melee shock wave attack that your fire from your hand, but it is worth noting melee attacks are different for each class. This attack feels very powerful early on, one-shotting enemies at a close range that would normally need 5-6 bullets in them from the auto-rifle before they go down but obviously it is harder to get in close range without being bombarded by enemy fire yourself and the move has a rather long cooldown time so can’t be called upon repeatedly in the heat of battle. The only major gripe I have with the controls is holding down L3 to run, which just feels a bit awkward due to the limited amount of movement you can get on the control once you push L3 in and it is also hard to push the button in if the control stick isn’t centered. With more game time this issue will probably become less apparent and you do have to question what other button they could bind run too as all the other button seems to be in use.
Towards the end of the first mission you fight a mini boss that is a bit stronger than the grunts you have been disposing of until now but he still isn’t too hard once you get his shield down. Defeat him, and your Ghost will fire up an old spaceship and transport you to The Tower located in The Last City on Earth. The Tower is overwhelming at first, but the simple on screen prompts will help keep you informed of where you should be heading next and serve as notifications for shop fronts (such as the post office being highlighted green when you have new mail). The Tower serves as your main hub where you will shop, collect your mail, store loot and more. This is also the place where you will meet the most with other players and are able to ask them to join your team, check out their profile or check out their character in more detail.
One of the greatest details about Destiny is just how full of life the world is. ‘The Fallen’ (your main enemies in the Beta) are constantly searching the grounds for material but won’t really bother you unless you bother them first, ships warp in and out of the atmosphere, sometimes bringing along optional missions with them that you can complete for rewards, and perhaps most impressive, is that other players completing their campaign are often found wandering the map, which really gives you the feeling you are not alone in this open world. It’s really cool to be able to join up with someone on a whim and help them out in a firefight against the enemy knowing they probably have similar objectives to you based on their level and location. Likewise it is nice to receive that help if you are in a jam. Of course you can also choose to ignore the other players if you like and just carry on with your own missions if you’re more of a solo player. Another item of note is that the game is not strictly linear and after the first few story missions paths will start opening up for you to take alternate routes in the order you tackle said missions. Another great feature is that enemies scale to your level in most cases, keeping the game challenging.
Not only is the game full of life but it is also full of loot, and it is easy to see this will become one of the major aspects of gameplay as players compete with one another to find and wear the coolest looking and strongest equipment. There are many, many variations of helmets, arm guards, chest plates and leg armor as well as an arm band for Warlocks (each class has something special they can equip and have unique armour as well). All this equipment changes your physical stats (strength, defense and movement) and also affects your appearance. Some gear even come with bonuses such as strength +8 and all have a certain level of rarity. You can obtain loot from treasure chests, mission bonuses and store fronts at the Tower. The constant stream of loot and experience points make Destiny a rewarding experience as well.
As this impression of the Destiny Beta comes to a close I have some feelings I’d like to share on which version of the game players should buy. Those thinking that they need to upgrade to next gen before Destiny comes out should really reconsider their choice if Destiny is their sole reason for doing so. The PlayStation 3 version ran superbly and the graphics were very impressive. While the PS4 screenshots and video I have seen do look better by a small margin mostly in part to increased texture resolution, it isn’t enough for me to justify the PS4/Xbox One version if you don’t already have one of those consoles. With the PS3 version you also won’t be subject to the monthly costs of PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live to play online which is a factor to consider if that is an issue for you.
If I had one word to describe Destiny it would be engrossing. The game lures you in with it’s production values and keeps you around with its explorable, living, rewarding world. Add in a strong narrative, seamless multiplayer integration and solid gameplay and Destiny does indeed look like it will be able to live up to the hype it has created come release. Check back around September 9 when the full game is out for our full review.
And surprise, surprise! Messi is on the cover…yet again.
EA has been dribbling out details (I know, wrong use of the word) on the upcoming FIFA 15‘s improvements and innovations over last year’s entry. After the announcement that Lionel Messi will once again grace the cover of the game, EA Sports gave us a look at its ‘Incredible Visuals’, and now the ‘Emotion & Intensity’ in a second dev diary.
Check out the former directly below, and the latter at the very bottom of this article.FIFA 15 comes out on September in Australia and September 26 in New Zealand for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Quest For Infamy is a comedic, turn-based RPG that provides players an entertaining twist to the RPG genre with its snarky comments, intriguing voice-acting, and overall entertaining content. Developed by Infamous Quests and published by Phoenix Online Publishing, the company who brought to life Moebius: Empire Rising. The game plays similarly to the old-school RPGs of the past, and if you enjoyed that type of gameplay, you will definitely enjoy Quest For Infamy. The point-and-click RPG embraces the darker, badder side of morality, and the game pushes you to slowly seek out your cunning, wily nature and create mayhem and havoc. Gaining infamy is the name of the game, and making stupid jokes and snide remarks will lead you down the road to success in Quest For Infamy.
Gameplay
The game is similar to the old-school style RPGs. With a variety of options to utilize, you can control Roehm, the professional “raconteur”, to converse, observe, and attack certain objects and NPCs. Everything in this title is controlled through your mouse, so you can put your keyboard hand to rest. Lots of options allows a player to fully become immersed in each scene, allowing you to completely envelop the dialogue and commentary that is being chucked your way. Players can choose to walk, jog, or run as they progress through the graphically simple levels. You also have the option to converse with the NPCs scattered throughout Quest For Infamy. This is done by selecting the chat bubble icon when you scroll near the top of the screen. Alternatively, you can right-click your mouse until you reach the chat bubble icon. Another option is to interact with certain things, whether they be doors, corpses, or anything else you can think of. This icon is depicted by a hand pointing at something. Observing certain things is also an option by clicking the Eyeball icon, which will provide you with a detailed, if slightly humorous explanation of what your character is looking at. Lastly, you have the option to attack thins, which is seen as a sword for your mouse icon. You can also choose a class after the first few minutes or so of the game, completing quests to earn your certain class, whether it be a brigand, rogue, or sorceror.
Gameplay is pretty basic. You control Roehm and manipulate him into gaining infamy in all the realm. Interacting with NPCs, completing adventures and slaying monstrous foes will slowly increase your infamy. In the beginning of the game, Roehm steps off a wagon and chats a little with the kind heart that drove him all the way to the town of Volksville. It was there that I realized that Roehm has a Scottish accent, and is quite witty himself. The conversations held between the two characters is interesting and sets the story up nicely. One of the main things that I enjoyed about playing Quest Of Infamy was its choice of voice-acting. While I would usually put this under the Graphics & Audio section, I felt that the voice-acting really lent itself to the gameplay overall, even with its flaws. I’m not much of a fan for voice-acting, and generally I tend to avoid listening to the voice-actors as they try to convince themselves and their audience that they’ve been mortally wounded. That was not the case with Quest Of Infamy. If anything, the audio is needed to complement the gameplay. The voices used and the dialogue that they have creates a lighthearted atmosphere that makes the experience all the more enjoyable.
It was a little difficult for me to adjust at first, as I personally like to rush through gameplay. I found it unbearably boring, so I changed my tactic and decided to really read and listen to the dialogue and play through the game slowly. It opened up a completely different side to the game and I easily spent a few hours on the game without even realizing it. The game’s text is hilarious, and sometimes you’re caught off-guard by the witty remarks the developers throw at you when you accidentally press on something. I remember during gameplay when I wanted to walk through a door, I accidentally had the Observe icon activated, so instead, I received a message that said “It’s a door, dumbass” in a sarcastic tone. It was hilarious and I couldn’t help but smirk, even while I was sitting on an airplane filled with people. If you’re looking for comedic relief in an RPG title that also gives you a slight challenge, look no further.
Visuals & Audio
Visually speaking, Quest For Infamy does exactly what it intends to do. It doesn’t aim to be the most graphically advanced title, but it does provide the right amount of spunk needed to entertain players completely. The artwork is a little bit blocky, but it runs smooth enough and is actually kind of pleasing to look at, though I can’t imagine players with larger screens enjoying how pixelated the game looks. The music in the game is nothing extravagant, but it captures the lighthearted mood that the title is supposed to bring. The voice acting was also pretty entertaining, even though there were some slight issues with the voice acting that turned me off a bit. Other than that, I thought the voice acting was pretty necessary in creating a full experience for players as they make their way through the game.
Overall
All in all, Quest For Infamy was an amazingly well done title that kept me hooked for a good amount of time. Quest For Infamy is almost an ode to old school games that certainly does not take itself to seriously, which makes it all the more entertaining to play. The hilarious commentary and interesting gameplay makes it a definite pleaser for old school RPG enthusiasts. While there were some small issues with the game, none of them were horrible enough that I couldn’t overlook them in the general scheme of things. I enjoyed the game immensely and I’d urge anyone interested to get the game and get ready to spend some time laughing and racking up your brain figuring out a solution to the adventures that will be thrown at your face.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Anyone living in Beijing China, the fifth annual Slash Only #5 event took place today! So as always, it was another perfect excuse for the Capsule Computers Crew to attend and cover the event, this time in more ways than one. Slash Only #5 event was open to the public, with tickets being sold online and also a small amount at the door for 50RMB (approx $10USD/AU) per person. So it certainly was a very affordable price if you’re a Dojinshi/comic book fan eager to pick up the latest Dojinshi’s and pop culture merchandise from popular TV shows, movies and games from the US and UK “Only.” Yes you heard that right. Slash Only only focuses on US and UK stuff and absolutely NO Japanese Anime, shows, games or movies were sold at the event.
Slash Only #5 was held at Beijing Workers Stadium on two floors (level 1 and Level 3). A total of 1,000 tickets were made available to the public via online purchasing. As we’ve come to expect from Slash Only events, the organization was fantastic and the staff were very helpful. The event started at 9:00am in the morning, and once the doors opened, the mad rush was on for young and old as the fans, who quickly filled up the event hall, lining up to buy their favourite Slash Only Doujinshi and merchandise.
As always, the Slash Only event organizers offered everyone attending a chance to pick up and collect the Slash Only trading card game cards, which are similar to other card games like Magic The Gathering. These cards were not for sale this year, but were given away to the fans once they purchased merchandise from any of the vendor booths. This has always been certainly a great little incentive cooked up by the organizers (GA EXPO) for the fans who enjoy collecting these cards (myself included).
Today’s event drew an impressive amount of Cos-Play characters dressed up from a variety of US and UK TV shows, movies and hames. I personally took the time this time to plan ahead and prepare and organise my own cos-play outfit and chose to dress up as Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 4. You can check out my work above and all the event and cos-play images below in the gallery. We also have a link to our full gallery images hosted on Facebook and Weibo. A lot of effort and time was certainly spent into some of these outfits, which I must say were very interesting and well designed and organised. Once again, Slash Only #5 event was a fantastic success and we look forward to covering Slash Only 6 early next year in 2015. Click on the link below to be taken to our Facebook gallery page for Slash Only #5 Event. *note* only 20 images are present below. Full gallery of 150 images can be viewed on our Facebook and Weibo pages. Click on the links below to check them out.
