Batman: Arkham Origins – Cold, Cold Heart story add-on now live
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today released Cold, Cold Heart, the action-packed story add-on for Batman ™: Arkham Origins. Set on New Year’s Eve, Cold, Cold Heart sheds light on the tragic origin story of Mr. Freeze and players will discover how he earned his place as one of Gotham City’s greatest villains. Cold, Cold Heart is available today for purchase on the PlayStation®Network, Xbox Live Games Store and STEAM for £7.99 and also for players who have purchased the Batman: Arkham Origins Season Pass and are connected to the Internet.
The Cold, Cold Heart Story Add-On introduces new locations including Wayne Manor and GothCorp, taking players on an ice-cold journey as Victor Fries encounters Batman for the first time. Players will have access to all new gadgets including Thermocharged Batarangs and Thermal Gloves. Batman is also equipped with his powerful Extreme Environment (XE) suit to take down Mr. Freeze and his Cryo-thugs in hours of new story content.
You can download assets for Batman: Arkham Origins – Cold, Cold Heart to share with your readers at the following links:
YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/etrccevOThM
Developed by WB Games Montréal, Batman: Arkham Origins is based on DC Comics’ core Batman license and introduces an original prequel storyline set several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, the game features an expanded Gotham City and showcases a young and unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight. As the story unfolds, players will meet many important characters for the first time and forge key relationships. The online multiplayer mode is developed by Splash Damage.
Batman: Arkham Origins is the latest instalment in the blockbuster Batman: Arkhamvideogame franchise and is available now for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii U™ system and Windows PC. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate™ is also available for the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system and Nintendo 3DS™ handheld and the HD version, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate™ – Deluxe Edition, is available for PlayStation®3, Xbox 360, Wii U™ and PC.
My.com are very excited to welcome BMW to World of Speed. BMW has a rich racing history dating all the way back to the golden age of racing and beyond. There are very few racing discipline that BMW hasn’t participated in and haven’t had tremendous success.
The first BMW that My.com are delighted to reveal is the BMW 135i. This sporty compact is an all-round solid vehicle good for racing on any track in World of Speed. Weighing in at 1,560kg with an in-line six cylinder engine producing 300hp makes the 135i well suited for racers of any skill. But performance isn’t everything, the 135i is a sleek car just waiting for the player to put their personal touch on it.
There are more BMW’s to be revealed but the 135i is a great start. Gamers wanting to get behind the wheel can do so by signing up to the World of Speed beta.
Keep up with all the latest news about World of Speed, by liking on Facebook, following onTwitter and +1’ing on Google+.
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About World of Speed
World of Speed is a AAA massively multiplayer online action-racing video game, which introduces a new level of connected competition to the racing genre. Developed by the award-winning team at Slightly Mad Studios, World of Speed allows players to hop into the driver seat of their favorite cars and race across real world circuits and tracks carved from the streets of real world cities. As an online experience, players will be able to create and join in-game Clubs, compete against other players and teams in a variety of diverse team-based gameplay modes, interact and show off in the Airfield social hub and dominate the world in Territory Wars. World of Speed is a free-to-compete experience and will be available in 2014 on PC.
About My.com My.com is a subsidiary of Mail.Ru Group, the largest Internet company in Russian-speaking countries with the audience more than 100 million users (comScore, September 2013), that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:MAIL, listed since November 5, 2010). My.com’s vision is to build an integrated communication and entertainment platform, dubbed ‘Communitainment,’ beginning with a family of mobile apps: myMail, myChat, and myGames.
Putty available now on PSN for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4
London, United Kingdom – April 22, 2014: System 3, the UK’s most successful independent publisher, is delighted to announce Putty Squad is now available digitally in a cross-buy promotion for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 for a limited time.
Available at one great price, Putty Squad can now be bought online at the Official PlayStation store for £19.99 (€24.99), with immediate access to both the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 versions. Putty Squad will also be available at retail for PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS in early May.
Putty Squad’s Vita and PS4 release sees the unlikeliest of heroes, Putty, ready to morph to levels greater than ever before with complete graphical overhaul. Every background, bitmap, enemy and ally has been redrawn and re-rendered to take advantage of the Vita’s gorgeous display, re-mastered from the PS4 base assets.
“With the festive season recently taken place, we thought there’s no better way than to continue the festivities with the release of Putty Squad on both PlayStation Vita and 4 than as a cross-buy promotion,” said Mark Cale, CEO, System 3. “Gamers will now be able to receive both formats at one affordable price, giving players the option of playing as Putty in the comfort of their home or on the go, as another in a long line of brilliant PS Vita games.”
Putty Squad has been given a complete overhaul in graphics to deliver a modern, immersive experience. Gameplay has been finely tuned to offer an accessible platform game for all fans, and downloadable free levels will be made available for a year after launch. As Putty you can punch, inflate, morph, stretch, lie flat and absorb on his journey through a host of different levels.
Putty Squad is also available digitally on Nintendo 3DS, providing excellent 3D visuals as Putty morphs through beautiful vistas, leaving players immersed throughout Putty’s journey.
For more information on Putty Squad, please visit System 3’s official website.
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About System 3
Formed in 1982 by Mark Cale, System 3 is recognised as one of the founding pioneers of the gaming industry and as a name synonymous with producing original genre defining gaming concepts year on year. System 3 stands proud as the last surviving British Independent Publisher from those grass roots years.
Konami Digital Entertainment will be bringing a dose of psychological horror to the PS Vita, with Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories set for release on PSN. The release date for this double bill will be announced soon.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories originally released for the Nintendo Wii in December, 2009, before ported versions released for the PlayStation 2 and PSP. Silent Hill: Origins, however, came out first on the PSP, and then the PlayStation 2. Now a whole new generation will get to experience the legendary horror series on the PS Vita; with Origins being a prequel, and Shattered Memories being the most innovative as an adaptive retelling of Harry Mason’s quest to find his missing daughter (the premise of the initial entry in the franchise), there couldn’t be a better introduction for handheld gamers toSilent Hill.
Mecha fans are spoiled for choice these days. Each season has something new to add to the resurgent robot genre and Spring this year is no different, giving us not only Knights of Sidonia but also Captain Earth. The premise for Sidonia is a rehash on paper; humans now live on giant colonies in space and face the Gauna, a tentacled alien menace against which they do battle using humanoid frames called Gardes. It’s also a whole lot more than that which is why I decided to cover it.
Let’s get one major flaw out of the way so I won’t be repeating myself for ten weeks. The character animation is bizarre. I’m not entirely sure what they wanted to achieve but the faces are CG-ish and look awkward, not to mention that it results in jittery frames. Now that we have fish-faces taken care of, let’s move on.
Knights of Sidonia has a ridiculously fleshed-out back story from the get-go. Everything is meticulously detailed; cockpits, pilot interfaces, the colony’s inner machinery and so on. Nagate Tanikaze is our hero of the show. He spends his days deep in the bowels of Sidonia, a monolithic ship housing a portion of humanity, training to pilot the Garde mechs using simulation pods.
He’s a little weird, rarely mingling with the other residents and forced to steal rice from the massive food production facility that feeds the population. After getting caught he is brought to the surface for the first time and risks being thrown in the “bio reactor”, which I’m guessing is a furnace that powers the colossal vessel. Luckily he is saved by Ochiai, a man who represents the captain of the ship, a woman who hides behind a mask yet removes it when she meets Nagate. I’m going to hazard a guess that she isn’t exactly human 100%, as her face does look a little awkward.
Earlier on we see her in a room with stone faces talking out of raised capsules. They mention someone called Saitou Hiroki, his mummified remains and whether Nagate inherited his skills and experience. To add fuel to the intrigue, we see activists proclaiming that Sidonia is ruled by “undead” waging a false war to prolong their lives. Naturally they are dismissed as crazy but those stone faces could be exactly that.
So Nagate is asked to become a Gardes pilot of Sidonia and next thing you know he’s introduced to a bear called Hiyama with a robotic arm. Even stranger, he meets Izana Shinatose. Here we learn another curious fact: procreation can now be done with both men and women and there is now a third gender where the body adapts after a partner is chosen. This isn’t very clear because what if you don’t end up choosing a partner? Or if your partner is of the third gender too?
Sidonia borrows traits from other shows like the Gauna having a “core” which needs to be destroyed, the brain or spinal cord, which can only be pierced with a special spear called the Kabizashi, of which only 28 exist in Sidonia. Nagate is assigned the Type 17 Tsugimori Garde and we see a bit of rivalry. Norio Kunato is a proud character who believed he would be the one to use this machine.
Nagate is called to his first sortie, a mining mission, and the launch and takeoff sequence is awesome. I really love the cinematography and camera angles in this series, whoever is in charge of that knows what they’re doing. Have I mentioned the attention to detail?
As expected, the mining op is derailed by the appearance of a Gauna from beneath the ice of the dwarf planet, and they haven’t been sighted for over a hundred years. This anime has a fascinating setting with incredible designs so let’s hope the plot is strong in this one!
Check out more Knights of Sidonia Impressions HERE.
Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf: Forest Hunt is the second act in the Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf mobile series, developed by Forge Reply and published by Bulkypix. Released five month ago, Blood on the Snow won “Best Italian Indie Game” and “Best Game Design” at the 2014 Drago D’oro Awards, also receiving a very favourable critical response, ours included. Act 2 is finally here, and addresses some gripes with the first, while furthering the story, adding new gameplay elements and tightening up the overall package.
Story
Forest Hunt continues to follow the Lone Wolf through his quest to uncover the truth behind the attack on Rockstaarn, which was perpetrated at the outset of Blood on the Snow. Act 2 sees the Kai Lord journeying through the Sunken Forest with Leandra Redalion, whom readers will be familiar with from Act 1. Their tumultuous and challenging partnership – if you can refer to it as such – is explored and tested much more significantly in Forest Hunt. Along with her father Ien, who is introduced early on as the victim of a Giak kidnapping and torture, Leandra becomes an increasingly important figure in the plot. Being a family of inventors, their knowledge is valuable, and should their works be acquired by the Darklords of Helgedad, the lands of Magnamund would surely be in grave peril. The ante is therefore raised with even more cause to the Lone Wolf’s journey, which sets him on a trail to the dark tower V’taag. Much like Blood on the Snow, there are non-linear paths to take, though the primary story beats stay the same.
Gameplay
Following on from the note on non-linearity, there are optional locations that yield loot and enrich backstory should you choose to examine them, treated almost like side-missions. The one big mandatory choice the player must make concerns the final approach leading into the last chapter which, again, simply gives an alternative route to a written-in-stone endgame. However, depending on your chosen track, the gameplay encounters do differ. In regards to what has changed gameplay-wise, meditation can only be engaged at merchants (for a price) and during specified opportunities. Multiple combat difficulty levels should now alleviate any serious grievances with the battle system, which is now more dynamic thanks to extra status effects (positive and negative) and the intimidating inclusion of the Gourgaz, an enormous bi-pedal lizard warrior boasting high damage attacks, substantial HP and the ability to enhance its vile allies with powerful buffs. The other new gameplay element is the Shianti Cube puzzles, which are relatively simple, involving rotational and push-pull mechanics that allow you to attempt to shape the cube to fit in a door mold. Due to its volatile nature, a timer is placed on the puzzles, of which there are unfortunately only two in the entire act.
Visuals & Audio
Forest Hunt retains the trademark aesthetic and soundscape established in Blood on the Snow. Something gamers may not even notice are the options to change text font, display damage and change language in the main options menu. New environments carry a familiar visual tone, whilst looking and feeling like entirely new areas in regards to its features; this time around, the mines, caves and various Giak/Drakkarim camps present an even gloomier world as players delve deeper into enemy territory. At first glance, there seems to be a slightly higher level of fidelity to the graphics, with character models in particular looking more detailed. Musically, the effective original soundtrack collaborated on with 93 Steps used in Act 1 can be heard again throughout.
Overall
Forest Hunt takes what was done in Blood on the Snow and reiterates on it, refining and improving in virtually all aspects of the experience. All things considered, these may only be slight improvements, but Blood on the Snow was already a great initial entry to begin with. The most notable change here in Act 2 is the addition of three combat difficulty settings, as the ridiculously tough nature of some of the battles in Act 1 was a source of frustration for many. The addition of the formidable Gourgaz to the line-up of adversaries brings another layer of depth to battles, providing new, positive buffs to its comrades. The Shianti Cube puzzles are another welcome, although disappointingly scarce addition. The replay-ability is still there, with your chosen abilities and attributes dictating possible avenues for resolution and offensive strategy. For those who started with Blood on the Snow, there is absolutely no reason to stop now; Forge Reply have got a fantastic mobile series on their hands. Personally, Act 3 can’t come soon enough.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview Despite being a long running light novel with an anime adaptation spanning four seasons, Zero no Tsukaima, better known as The Familiar of Zero, has largely been passed over in the West. Outside of manga localizations, the only attempt at bringing the series to North America previously was met with failure and eventual license expiration. Now, Sentai Filmworks is bringing The Familiar of Zero’s first season back to the States and this time it is on Blu-ray but is it worth picking up at all?
Story Tristain Academy is home to a large variety of noble students and in this world, the only way to be a noble is to have magic power. As such these young nobles attend the school to practice their craft and learn the ways of magic from the various teachers at the school. However despite everyone there being gifted with magic… some are less gifted than their peers.
Despite being from a noble house with a prestigious lineage, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière is so bad with magic that she has earned the nickname Louise the Zero as she has zero chance of ever casting a spell correctly. Instead anything she attempts results in an explosion that regularly destroys the classroom.
With the second year’s summoning ritual just around the corner, Louise is desperate to prove to everyone that she can summon a glorious familiar that will put everyone else’s to shame. After pretentiously performing the spell in front of everyone, Louise manages to cause yet another explosion but when the smoke clears a normal looking teenage boy is left lying on the ground.
Unfortunately for her, the summoning is binding and she must take this boy, Hiraga Saito, as her familiar. Unfortunately for him, Saito is now in a magical medieval land far different from the normal Tokyo lifestyle he previously enjoyed. Now he has to live the life of a familiar, which in his case sees him sleeping on hay, eating stale bread on the ground, washing Louise’s clothing and underwear, and regularly being abused by his master.
Being the fish out of water that he is, Saito isn’t about to take his new life sitting down and he must now deal with the social inequality between peasants and nobles. Even when hints about a way home and evil machinations happening within and around the country, Saito has to be more concerned about how Louis will react anytime he looks at a different girl.
Despite seeming like a standard romantic comedy at the start, The Familiar of Zero will surprise many viewers who believe it to be fluff with no substance. Very quickly viewers are introduced to the problems that exist in the world where nobles can openly abuse their powers to abuse servants and peasants. Moving beyond that, the series takes advantage of the political power and influence that the students hold to create a relatively intriguing driving plot for this first season.
Running alongside this plot we have the burgeoning romance between Louise and Saito, which develops at a nice pace with Louise playing an iconic sadistic tsundere and Saito being an actual likable male lead. Saito is the exact opposite of Louise in many ways as he often refuses to take his punishments lying down and is more than willing to fall for the wiles of a girl which often sparks a bout of punishment from a jealous Louise too prideful to openly admit her feelings.
Throughout this first season we are introduced to a number of characters and although a few of them aren’t explored as much as one would like, we actually are introduced to a bit of backstory concerning Tabitha as well as Siesta with her development playing a major role in the latter half of the season. Alongside those developments the series avoids treading too close to potential harem territory and instead we are treated to a believable growing relationship between Louise and Saito as she begins to see him as something more than a mere servant even if she isn’t quite ready to say what she feels out loud and he grows to be concerned for her well being.
Visuals Now here is the key aspect for those who might have went after this series back in 2009 as that release was only available on DVD. With this release being on Blu-ray the overall sharpness of everything in the series is much better than what fans may remember and despite being a series originally produced in 2006 it stands up incredibly well in a number of areas.
This Blu-ray release also really helps the bright colors used throughout the series really pop which is a plus considering the magic and the design of the characters. That being said, there are some minor issues here and there with odd looking background characters and an occasional simplistic looking backdrop mixed in with a few of the better designed areas. As far as fan service is concerned, this release contains the very little as it is usually only provided through some skimpy costumes or changing scenes with Louise, though Kirche and Siesta have a fair share as well but nothing most anime fans would even bat an eyelid at.
Audio Now it is worth noting that Sentai Filmworks has not recorded a new English dub for this release which is… unfortunate. Now it is nice that this release contains an English dub, rarely does an English release sound as bad as the voice work in The Familiar of Zero: Season 1 does. Only Louise, performed by Cristina Valenzuela is passable while every other character, including Saito’s voice actor Jonathan Meza is terrible. Every character, ranging from background characters to main side-characters Guiche, Siesta, Kirche, and especially Henrietta are all poorly voiced.
Rarely do I choose to listen to the Japanese voice track for releases like this, however the voice acting was simply that unbearable compared to the original Japanese voices. Even with Valenzuela’s passable performance she still pales in comparison to Rie Kugiyama’s portrayal of Louise. If nothing else, it is best for viewers to simply take this release and listen to the Japanese voice track and only attempt the English dub if they really want to test themselves.
Anyways, as far as the background music is concerned, it is likable for the most part as it fits the theme of the series nicely but is generally forgettable. For the opening theme we have “First Kiss” by Ichiko which is a nice opening theme fitting the series and the ending theme is “Honto no Kimochi” sung by Rie Kugiyama which is also fitting, especially for the final episode.
Extras This release of The Familiar of Zero: Season 1 comes with a bare bones set of bonus features as it only features a seven minutes of extended episode previews which are presented in Japanese and are almost the exact same as the original previews except they include a few extra lines of dialogue.
Rounding out that we have Japanese promotional videos, a clean version of the opening animation and ending animation, disc credits, and trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases.
Overall With a great sense of humor with plenty of slapstick comedy and actual romantic development The Familiar of Zero Season 1 is an enjoyable release and considering the anime has since spawned three sequels, it is easy to see why. With likable characters, an interesting setting that viewers get a small taste of in this first season, the great couple that Louise and Saito make, and how hilarious the show can be when they trade barbs with one another. Unfortunately despite this Blu-ray release giving viewers a nice jump in quality by making everything in the show look a bit better, the remaining sub-par English dub begs for the release to be watched in Japanese only, but I have a feeling that won’t be much of a problem for many viewers.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Out of the many characters in Hyperdimension Neptunia, one of the most popular ones happens to be Noire so it certainly makes sense that Compile Heart is making a spin-off game titled Chou Megami Shinkou Noire Gekishin Black Heart based entirely around her.
However I didn’t think there would be such a power difference in the characters. In this latest trailer for the game, we see Noire taking on Neptune, Vert, and Blanc and soundly defeating all three of them without any help from Noire’s numerous friends she can make in the game. Noire Gekishin Black Heart is set to be released in Japan on May 29th and, being a spin-off from the Hyperdimension Neptunia series that is generally localized by NIS America, one can hope that it will eventually make its way overseas.
Early last year Viz Media announced that they would begin publishing the World Trigger manga in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump and now over a year later the company has announced that they will begin releasing printed volumes of the series starting in October.
From Daisuke Ashihara, World Trigger takes place four years after a mysterious portal to another dimension opens and invincible creatures called Neighbors begin to invade the Earth. Osamu Mikumo isn’t the most skilled fighter when it comes to using other-world technology to find these creatures, but with the help of his Neighbor friend he will do his best to protect Earth. The first two volumes of the series will be released on the same date on October 7th and will be priced at $9.99 a piece, although digital copies will also be made available on that date for $6.99.
We have written about Tales of Hearts R in length back when the game was announced for release in Japan, but despite fans cries to get the game released in the West, over a year passed since the game’s release in Japan without a single word from Bandai Namco.
Well that all changed today when none other than the series’ producer Hideo Baba stepped in front of the camera to tell us that they have listened to the fans’ requests for the localization of Tales of Hearts R and now they are doing it.
Tales of Hearts R is now set to be released in North America and Europe this Winter. The North American version of the game will be sold as a retail exclusive at GameStop but will also be released as a digital download from the PlayStation Store. Currently information about the European release format is unknown but it is sure to be revealed eventually. You can check out the full video announcement below.
