You may have heard of a certain game that has been making the rounds called Project Beast. Many people were excited for this title since it was being worked on by the man who directed Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Well now we have an official reveal for the game in the form of Bloodborne. Today during their E3 press conference Sony revealed that they are working with From Software to publish Bloodborne as a PlayStation 4 exclusive sometime in 2015. To go along with this announcement they released a debut trailer that you can check out below.
Today during their E3 press conference, Sony revealed that in August, fans of the Infamous Series will soon have a new piece of downloadable content to play for the PlayStation 4, regardless of whether they own Infamous: Second Son or not.
I say this because the newly revealed Infamous: First Light is a piece of standalone DLC where players now control Fetch, a woman who has had to deal with many emotional traumas in her life before the events of Infamous: Second Son. Not only do players gain her abilities but new environments, some of which are shown off in the trailer below, will also be explorable.
We might have known this was coming, since a number of other less popular titles have already been given the next-gen upgrade but today it was made official. During Sony’s E3 press conference it was revealed that Grand Theft Auto V is going to be released on the PlayStation 4 this Fall. Their reveal came with a follow-up announcement from Rockstar Games saying that the title would also be heading to the Xbox One and PC at the same time.
Players will even be able to transfer their GTA Online characters from older consoles onto the new consoles. No details as to what upgrades have been made or a price for this version of the game have been revealed as of yet, but you can check out a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto V below.
Today during Sony‘s E3 press conference we were able to witness some new The Order: 1886 footage that even included a few snippets of gameplay. The full video can be found below and in it viewers are treated to a new enemy called a “Half-Breed” which is a different species that has become a deadly threat to humanity.
These enemies are generally called Lycan since they bear many resemblances to werewolves and they can prove to be a deadly foe. The Order: 1886 is a PlayStation 4 exclusive and is set to be released on February 20, 2015 across the world.
While Dead Island: Riptide was not my favorite game and kind of put a sour taste in a lot of mouths, there is no doubt that Dead Island has always been a franchise with potential. During Sony’s big showing at E3, Deep Silver announced that Dead Island 2 would be next in line to see a release, coming with a fun trailer.
The clip probably isn’t actual footage, but displays what we can assume to be a more realized world from a sequel that doesn’t take itself as serious this time around. Watch down below and hopefully, this will be the track laid down that gets this train moving full speed ahead. Dead Island 2 launches on the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on a future date, so stay tuned.
Ah, The Last of Us. We knew another version was underway for quite some time now, but Sony decided to fully show off the Playstation 4 upgrade with a brand new trailer at E3 this year (full coverage of the event here), featuring some further detail that is sure to be appreciated by the massive fanbase for the game.
What you should do now is buckle up and relive the game through this trailer – which shows those new visuals in full motion. Its quite a sight to see and beware, as this clip of The Last of Us Remastered features plenty of spoilers. Oh yeah, you can pick it up on July 29th, 2014.
Eureka SevenPart 2 Studio:Bones Publisher:FUNimation Release Date: April 22nd, 2014 Format: DVD Price: $34.98 – Available Here
Overview
Looking at the first half of the original Eureka Seven series, it was easy to see why it would earn a sequel series, with it’s great pacing, well-rounded characters, and fantastic visuals. With Part 1 down though, it’s time to look at what Part 2 has to offer, to see if it can successfully finish off with the same great pacing and keep the characters interesting to the close.
Story
At the end of Part 1, Renton and Eureka had finally reunited, making it clear to each other just how they felt. The best part of this is that it doesn’t destroy the working chemistry that Renton and Eureka already had, where before they struggled to indicate that each wanted the relationship, now it focuses on them struggling to effectively communicate, but refusing to give up on each other despite the problems. Making one of the most realistic relationships I’ve seen in anime in quite some time. Starting their relationship for real, doesn’t solve all their problems, it just opens the doors to new ones as they are both so completely terrible at communicating and understanding each other.
Outside Renton and Eureka relationship problems, the heart of the plot continues to slowly progress as now that Eureka has chosen Renton as her partner, they can begin their journey to save the world and stop whatever Dewey is planning. The pacing ends up speeding up and slowing down a little bit across the remaining episodes, but it never feels too fast to follow or too slow for anything interesting to happen. There is always something happening with someone on the show whether it is Dewey and his new squadron, the Gekkostate, or Renton and Eureka, which helps immensely when different characters aren’t doing much of anything at certain points.
It’s very impressive just how much Part 2 is able to cover with just 24 episodes, while having 2 fewer episodes than Part 1, Part 2 is able to cover much more about the world in which they live. It’s great that not only does the anime do a good job explaining why everything works the way it does on their planet, but that it makes sense within the confines of the universe as well. Part 2 is able to address all of the loose ends and deal with them appropriately, from the depression disease, to the origins of the scub coral themselves, and Eureka’s role in everything.
In the end, Eureka Seven is able to answer all the pressing questions and neatly wrap everything up in a bow perfectly. Any episodes that seemed like almost filler even end up having some sort of significance in the end for the bigger picture, which is the true mark of a good series. 50 episodes total is the right amount to get everything just the way necessary, and even with the Gekkostate having such a large crew, everyone there is appropriately fleshed out as well as other side characters. For a show about sky surfing robots, Eureka Seven is able to paint a world that interesting to explore and learn about, so that it everything that happens to it matters.
Visuals
While for the most part the visuals are much the same as Part 1, there are plenty more additions and changes that take place throughout the series. The Antibody Coralians are some of the most unique designs in the show that even their design makes sense within the context of the universe. Plus, the transformations that Nirvash and other LFOs go through also add some more variation to what the viewer gets to see. Likewise the changes that Renton, Eureka, and even Talho go through add even more to their characters as well, to show just how far they’ve come. Part 2 is able to not only match the quality of Part 1, but even go a tiny bit beyond it.
Audio
The music for the show continues to do a get job fitting the tone, especially as the show continues to have a darker and more mature tone, though there is still humor woven in. The first opening theme for Part 2 is “To the Center of the Sun” by Bivattachee which primary works on the theme of flying away, while the first ending theme, “Tip Taps Tip” by Halcali, focuses on trying to walk a path to the future. The second opening theme is “Sakura” by Nirgilis that uses the theme of falling in love, while the second ending theme, “Canvas” by Coolon, instead is about finding home after trying go alone.
Where the first half only really had one really stand out voice, this second half has multiple characters go way and above where they started out to be more than just one dimensional. Like last time, Talho is even more amazing this time though, as well as Renton and Eureka both having impressive exchanges when their relationship has starts to become tense. The stand out this time though turns out to be Anemone, who has a pretty surprising turn of a character arc, which is highlighted by both the original Japanese and English dub. Those that liked the voice work in Part 1, should find even more to enjoy in this.
Extras
Like Part 1, Part 2 offers the surprising Japanese commentary on select episodes, while the vast majority of shows will simply have English or no commentaries. This still provides a nice different look at the process and a chance to hear the Japanese voice cast as themselves instead of as the characters. There are still the standard trailers of Eureka Seven, as well as other FUNimation releases, but in addition to the Japanese commentaries there are additional interviews with the English cast to make up for the lack of English commentaries, so that viewers can still hear the thoughts of the English cast on the production.
Overall
After seeing the original series, it is no small surprise that a sequel series was made, but with the problems that the sequel series ended up having it’s fantastic to see that they are its own fault and doesn’t stem from its origin. Eureka Seven Part 2 is able to not only finish off the story in a way that keeps the viewer engaged, but is able to handle all the loose ends. The visuals only get better as characters go through development and different LFOs go through vast improvements, while the audio is able to go farther by giving characters more depth with their development. Eureka Seven Part 2 is an unexpected improvement of Part 1, which was already good. There isn’t much more one can ask for.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
To kick off their PlayStation E3 press conference, Sony showed off a few minute long trailer hyping up Activision and Bungie’s Destiny. They did this for good reason however because after this footage was shown, it was revealed that the Destiny beta will not only be starting this Summer on Sony consoles first on July 17th, but also when the game is released on September 9th there will be a special PlayStation 4 bundle with the game.
While no price was announced for the bundle, it will include a special white 500 GB PlayStation 4, a white controller, a 30 day voucher for PlayStation Plus, and of course a copy of the game.
To close out their E3 presentation, Ubisoft had one more game to reveal and it is certainly a surprising one. They revealed that they are working on a new Rainbow Six game called Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and it happened to be revealed through a 5 on 5 multiplayer demon session that featured one team holding an innocent hostage and barricading themselves inside of a building while the other team plays as a SWAT style team that must breach the home to try and rescue the hostage.
You can check out the full gameplay video below, where it looks like nearly everything in the house is destructible in some form, as explosives can be used to breach walls and ceilings. Currently Rainbow Six Siege is set to be released sometime in 2014 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Overview Independently created comics are a great contrast to the “capes” stories that some of the bigger publishers thrive on. Titan Comics’ new book; Alien Legion: Uncivil War from the creative team of Chuck Dixon, Larry Stroman and Carl Potts gives us a space opera that features a gang of intergalactic peace keepers. While it suffers from some timing and pacing issues, this is a book that shows a lot of promise not only in its storytelling but in its world and characters.
Story
Set in deepest reaches of space, Alien Legion: Uncivil War follows a band of peacekeepers as they, you guessed it; keep the peace. Traveling from planet to planet when the need arises, the team consisting of members from a half dozen different planets all come together for the greater good.
Issue #1 takes the team to the planet Harkilon, after a series of refugees are attempting to escape their civil war-torn planet. The team are met with hostility upon their arrival and eventually have to perform such tasks as fending off wild creatures and helping a queen to give birth. The story does suffer from some pacing and timing problems in this first issue, but hopefully after we are fully introduced to the main characters and the universe itself, this will smooth out.
The book can at points be really difficult to read. To help build this universe and its characters, Dixon, Stroman and Potts have created an entire language of colloquialisms, idioms and brand new words. As readers we are thrown into the deep end and told to swim for our lives. It feels a little like you are going on holiday overseas – the names and places seem right, but there is the occasional word or phrase that just makes you stop and wonder what the heck is being said. It really helps to build up this universe and make it feel alive and authentic. Luckily, the final few pages of the book also contain a glossary of some of the more commonly used words and phrases. Re-reading the book after you have glanced over the glossary terms is really a new experience in of itself, so you are kind of getting two books for the price of one.
Visuals
Alien Legion: Uncivil War has a relatively average art-style. Nothing really leaps off the page but at the same time it is always interesting to look at. The colour pallet is mostly comprised of earthy tones like brown and dull green which give a very gritty and dark feel to the whole book.
As with most space-opera styled pieces, the world is filled with creatures of varying shapes and sizes. Despite the weird and wonderful universe that Alien Legion is set in, the team that the book follows are all pretty much humanoid. Don’t get me wrong though, every character is worlds apart from one another. Of the five characters that are introduced to us in the beginning of the book, only three of them actually look like people. The rest, be they commander Sarigar with his bright blue skin and red markings, or Jugger (who looks like a cross between Juggernaut and The Hulk) everyone looks weird, wonderful and unique.
While there is nothing wrong with the art style, it does feel a bit lacking. In the modern age of comic books we have artists like Jim Lee doing really clean and crisp (and insanely detailed) pages, and then we have people like Justin Randall doing really amazing things with the medium, it just makes this typical “comic-book” art style feel a little dated.
Overall
Alien Legion: Uncivil War #1 marks the beginning of a new story, a new world and new characters in comic book history. The space opera style really fits right at home on the printed page, and the writing although hard to wrap your head around at first really makes the book feel authentic and alive. While it doesn’t have the most stand-out artwork and suffers from some timing issues, I am really excited to see where the creative team can take this bad boy. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
