Konami has released another trailer for their upcoming title Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. This time around, gameplay is the focus. Specifically, the brand new Mastery System that will be central to controlling Dracula in battle.
The new system is set to be an integral to combat within the new game. As Dracula begins each fight in a weakened state, he must gradually gain power and extend his abilities by slaying foes and solving puzzles. The experience gathered from said tasks can be funnelled into the abilities of the game’s three key weapons: Void Sword, Chaos Claws and Shadow Whip. Each weapon is governed by a ‘skill tree’ system, wherein players level up their weapons through clever usage . The more the player uses a specific weapon to execute combos, the more their power grows. Thus, weapon experimentation is rewarded with increased power as challenging attacks are performed flawlessly.
The conclusion to the Lords of Shadow series is slated for a March 6th release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Check out the trailer below and witness how devestating the power of Dracula can be. It would be wise not to defy him.
Overview After a minor delay, Capcom Vancouver has provided a steady stream of DLC for Dead Rising 3 but unfortunately for fans of the game and season pass holders; this DLC has been mediocre at the best of times. Now just a couple of weeks after Fallen Angel was released, the next $10 DLC pack for Dead Rising 3, this time called Chaos Rising, has been released. Is this one any better than the rest or does it continue to follow the same trend?
Story As with the past two pieces of DLC for Dead Rising 3, we are introduced to the story by an unknown man watching the Zombie Defense and Control cameras as the outbreak in Los Perdidos occurred. So while players were following the story of Nick Ramos and those around him, this man saw everything including people seeking revenge. This “Untold Story of Los Perdidos” focuses on a face that anyone who has played the game before should recognize, a man named Hunter Thibodeux.
When the zombie outbreak occurred, Hunter was serving time in a jail cell after being betrayed by one of his fellow gang members. Despite being a member of the feared Kings of Chaos, no one seems willing to free you and as such Hunter takes it upon himself to free himself from behind bars and set out on a path of vengeance that sees him mostly collecting random items.
Unlike Angel, and even Kane, Hunter has no redeeming features and shows absolutely no sign of growth. He doesn’t even devolve into a psychopath throughout the story; he just stays on as a one note character that is all about bikes, blood, and whiskey with nothing in-between, unless you want to go gather more collectibles for the hell of it.
Sure his little path of vengeance has a few more tiny cut-scenes than the former two pieces of DLC and there are some named characters to face off against, this DLC offers the least interesting character of the bunch with no hope of development, especially since unlike the other two characters who players might not have recognized, Hunter’s cross over with the main story is very apparent and so is his ending.
Gameplay Capcom Vancouver has kept things pretty one note for Dead Rising 3’s DLC and that remains the case with Chaos Rising as Hunter controls the exact same way that Nick does and all levels, abilities and PP earned carry back and forth from the main game. Of course multiplayer is also removed still and the game continues to take place in Los Perdidos with a few extra roadblocks here and there to try and funnel players down a different path.
As I mentioned before, there are a few named characters that Hunter will have to go against in the game and weapon lockers are not available in safe houses, meaning players will need to take advantage of their found weaponry to get the job done. These bosses are pretty forgettable overall though one does drop one of the new weapons for the DLC while the other, the person Hunter is seeking revenge against, repeats the same two or three moves in a somewhat interesting ring of fire battle.
Now like the past few pieces of DLC, five new weapons have been added into the game but unfortunately these weapons are the worst of the lot. To kick off the mediocrity there is the Razorback spiked helmet that is used to headbutt zombies with no special kill animation, followed by the Hellblast, a gas canister with flares taped to it that does less damage than your average explosive, a giant hammer called the Bonecrusher which is interesting to use at least, the Sawtooth, a sword with a chainsaw as the blade that sounds more impressive than it really is, and probably the only worthwhile weapon of the bunch a hand cannon which is a multi-barreled pistol that shoots flaming bullets.
As for the combo weapon this time around, players can create a weapon that shoots sawtooth blades at a slow rate of speed and although the kill animation is interesting, it is probably the weakest of all projectile weapons next to the toy category. Thankfully the bike that this DLC adds to the game, the Thrasher, is decent enough as it slices enemies apart with blades all over the bike and allows players to shoot blades out of the front.
On the collectible front, this time around players have been given the option to collect special whiskey bottles, smash emergency phones for whatever reason, and gather special bikes that are scattered around Los Perdidos. The latter collectible quest pretty much multiplies the bothersome vehicle durability quest by twenty and is more trouble than it is worth unless you happen to be a real completionist.
Visuals & Audio As with past DLC, the only thing different about Los Perdidos are a few barricades in a few new areas. The game still looks as good as it does during the single player but that isn’t too much of a consolation at this point now that we are three DLCs in. The character designs are decent looking with all of the tattoos that a hardcore biker gang would have, though it would have been better to see Hunter actually dressed in his signature outfit for more than the final mission.
Now with the voice work for this game, I’m not sure who thought that the voice actor chosen for Hunter was a good fit because it definitely was not. While it worked for the brief moment in the story mode, having to suffer through his incredibly bad voice work throughout the brief story mode will make you happy that this DLC only takes an hour, two at max, to finish.
Overall Dead Rising 3’s DLC could have been something worthwhile and actually seeing a bit of the backstory for a psychopath would have been amazing if it actually showed how they reached that point. Unfortunately Hunter is as unlikable and un-evolving as a character can be and to top it off, he has a terrible voice actor. Add that on with the fact that the collectibles are even more meaningless this time around, the weapons are almost a complete wash of mediocrity, and the only saving grace this DLC has is that it offers some actual boss combat, as minor as it is.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Recently I got the opportunity to review a game called “Tanktastic”, now if you know nothing about this game please allow me to take you through just a bit of what it is like: “Tanktastic” is a mobile title that is available for both Apple and Android devices. It is a MMO/shooter where players take control of an extremely powerful tank and are tasked with simply beating the other team or the other players depending on which game mode you are playing. It is a truly brilliant game with fantastic visuals and a control system that close to perfect.
It feels like a tank simulator but adds a level of fun and excitement that only high-octain multiplayer games can. To read the full review of the game click here. Us here at Capsule Computers were lucky enough to nab an interview with the “Tanktastic” development team, a company called “G.H.O.R” who both created and published the game. As a fan of the game you can imagine that I’d be excited to be able to interview these great people so, if you too are a fan of “Tanktastic” or you are interested in the other side of games and their development, I suggest you read on.
Capsule Computers: What got you guys started on making “Tanktastic”? What was the inspiration behind attempting (and evidently succeeding) to bring a multilayer shooter to mobile devices?
G.H.O.R:Sooner or later, anyone who has a passion for games, wants to create a game. In early 2012 there were already tank games for PC computers, but there were none for the mobile platform. There we saw our opportunity.
CC: Do you find that working with a smaller medium such as mobile devices is a difficult task in any way, or does it make things a lot easier since it is a smaller medium?
G.H.O.R:There are pros and cons. Cons: Our game comes highly optimized so that you can play on a large number of devices. This is especially true of Android devices, because of their large numbers. We needed to to please everyone so that the game would perform well and would be comfortable to play without any “lag”. Our team is always trying a new way to improve the graphics and performance with each new update. Recently we tested OUYA, a game console based on Android, connected to a 42″ TV. Our game performed no differently from console games. Pros: To develop mobile games, we do not need a huge staff in order to compete with the “giants” of the gaming industry such as Wargaming.
CC: The environments were clearly inspired by somewhat real battlefields. What kind of research did you have to do before you chose to work on those particular maps, if any?
G.H.O.R:Our first map was called “Demo Map,” and it was in the first version of our game. It is still there now, only slightly modified. We constantly keep in contact with all of our players on social networks and forums. We held contests and asked people what kinds of maps they wanted to see in the game. We got answers such as “Military Base,” “City,” “Forest,” and “Winter Map.” We don’t stop just with those releases. We think: the more maps, the better.
CC: You have a multitude of different tanks and upgrades that are available within the game. Are all these tanks legitimate makes and models that you researched, or did you have to dip into your imagination to come up with a few of them?
G.H.O.R:All of the tanks are based on real-world models.
CC: Can you tell us anything about future updates or releases? What can we expect from G.H.O.R in the near future?
G.H.O.R:We are always developing and becoming better. Initially, we had 4 people on the team, now we have 9 people who work on the game. Currently we are working on the next update, Alpha-20. We believe that we are still small, and that over time we will turn into something great. The main thing is to never stop, and keep evolving.
I would like to give a special thanks to everyone involved with the interview (each and every member of the development crew G.H.O.R). Thank you very much for talking the time to sit and answer these questions, it is greatly appreciated and it was an pleasure to have been able to interview you all.
This one goes out to all you fans of “Donkey Kong”! Today Nintendo Australia released two brand-new “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze” trailers and they’re simply fantastic! The first of the two trailers was just a short one (only about 30 seconds long) that shows pretty much all the elements of the game that we’ve previously seen but the second trailer…let me just say; fans of the series will be mighty happy about this one. The new “Aquatic” trailer sees the return of underwater levels, something we’ve seen before but not for a very long time. This beautiful, high-octane “Donkey Kong” title is looking to be absolutely brilliant both gameplay-wise and aesthetically. The great thing is that the game is now available to purchase on the Wii U from any good video game retailer but before you head straight out to buy it I suggest you take a look at the two trailers below to get you just that extra little bit more pumped up for this whacky and wild adventure. Dive into “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze”!
Welcome to March 2014, gamers! With our transition into the third month of the new years comes two new and entirely free titles for those of you out there who are currently Xbox Live Gold Members. You all know how “Games With Gold” works. Last month we got “Dead Island” and “Toy Soldiers” for free, this month though the Xbox Marketplace has made the games “Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution” and “Dungeon Defenders” free to play. Two fantastic games to add to your (I assume) already extensive catalogue of fantastic games.
You’ll have most of the month, as per usual, to download these games before they go back to being fully priced: “Sid Meiers’s Civilization Revolution” – a strategical game that pits you against the world as you build up your armies and do your best to conquer all which stands in your way slowly become the globe’s greatest empire/ruler – will be available for free beginning…well, two days ago (March the 1st) and ending on the 15th of March so you still have enough time to grab your free copy now.
“Dungeon Defenders” on the other hand – an action/RPG, tower defense game that has you and your friends slaying wave after wave of enemies while you level up your character and gain new weaons and abilities along the way – will begin its run as a free game starting on the 16th of March and ending on the very last day of the month (31st March). Buying these games outright would cost you $49.95 for “Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution” and $19.95 for “Dungeon Defenders” so what’s stopping you from heading over to your Xbox 360 right now to get these gems for free? Get on it!
TALES OF SYMPHONIA CHRONICLES™ IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE PLAYSTATION 3 SYSTEM IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
The Acclaimed Tales Of Symphonia Saga Comes Back In HD Packed In An Exclusive Bundle Never Released In Australia and New Zealand
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 3rd March 2014 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe today announced that TALES OF SYMPHONIA CHRONICLES™ exclusively for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system is now available in Australia and New Zealand. Journey through two epic role-playing games and experience the entirety of the SYMPHONIA storyline with TALES OF SYMPHONIA™ and its follow-up title, TALES OF SYMPHONIA™ Dawn of the New World™.
Follow Lloyd Irving as he embarks on a grand adventure with his friends to restore mana back to the world of Sylvarant, a source of energy necessary for the survival of their world. Along the way they learn of the parallel world of Tethe’alla, whose survival rests on the same source of mana Sylvarant needs to sustain life. How will Lloyd and his friends find a way to ensure the survival of both worlds? TALES OF SYMPHONIA takes the signature real-time battle system of the TALES OF role-playing games, allowing for direct control of the character through fast-paced tactical battles.
TALES OF SYMPHONIA Dawn of the New World continues the story from the previous installment by delving into the consequences set into motion by Lloyd and his friends at the end of TALES OF SYMPHONIA. Take on the role of Emil Castagnier as he seeks to uncover the mysteries that have befallen his world. Dawn of the New World advances the series’ battle system by introducing a new monster recruitment feature that lets players capture more than 200 monsters and train them to participate in battles. Players have complete control over their roster of party members and monster allies, allowing for limitless combinations to take out to the battlefield.
TALES OF SYMPHONIA CHRONICLES includes features that are new to players including the original Japanese voice-overs, new 2D art during special Mystic Artes attacks, and costumes for TALES OF SYMPHONIA, as well as a casino-themed area for TALES OF SYMPHONIA.
TALES OF SYMPHONIA CHRONICLESStandard Edition and Collector’s Edition is now available in Australia and New Zealand. For more information on the Tales of series and Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, please visit http://www.NamcoBandaiGames.com.au and www.TalesOfGame.com.
Please respond to this email if you have not received a copy for review purposes
About NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S.
NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S., part of NAMCO BANDAI Holdings Inc., is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive content for platforms including all major video game consoles and PC, with marketing and sales operations in 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. The company is known for creating and publishing many of the industry’s top video game franchises, including PAC-MAN™, Tekken™, SOULCALIBUR™, NARUTO™, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN™, Dragon Ball®, GALAGA™, RIDGE RACER™ and ACE COMBAT™. More information about the company and its products can be found at www.namcobandaigames.eu or www.facebook.com/namcobandaigames.europe.
Focus Home Interactive announces their newest project, Space Run. The PC title is a strategy game mixed in with space ship construction elements, similar to a tower-defense game called Defense Technica.
Space Run is developed by the one-man indie developer Sylvain Passot, who runs PASSTECH Games. After working for 10 years in a large French development studio, Passot decided to develop his own game, which is Space Run. The title will be playable at the GDC Play in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference from March 17 till the 21st. They’ve even released a trailer for the game that you can check out below.
The game is set to be released in May and will be under $10. Check out their website here for more information, and stay tuned for this PC exclusive!
Overview
Developed by Black Tower Studios and Aksys Games, Magus is one of those titles that sneaks its way onto the stores without much in the way of hype. This also marks the first time game publisher Aksys has worked to develop one of the titles they’re publishing. How does Magus hold up? Will it surprisingly ascend to godhood or should it have been left in a dungeon?
Story
You are Magus (pronounced May-juss). Locked in prison, you’ve resigned yourself to the fate of eternal imprisonment. One day, there’s a commotion raised when a young lady, who you come to know as Kinna, breaks into the prison to release you. After fighting your way free of the guards, Kinna tells you of your godhood, which has been dormant until now. Using various colored stones, you can cast an array of magics that will aid you. Now, you’ll have to travel across the world to claim your place as a god and unravel the plot behind your lifelong imprisonment.
Gameplay At its core, Magus is more of a third-person shooter than the perceived action-RPG it was being pitched as. When I typically think of an RPG, whether traditional or western in nature, there are some melee mechanics involved. Magus completely eschews the notion that you can strike someone with your hands, opting instead for projectiles and a reticle.
Magus is given three core schools of magic. They have fun and interesting names like “Blue,” “Red,” and “Green.” Each of the three has a fast primary attack and a slower, harder hitting secondary attack. You can swap between the active magic type on the fly to suit your needs, though not much variety is required from your gameplay, even on the hardest difficulty.
There are a grand total of five different levels to play through. When you start out, you can choose from four different levels: Desert, Mines, Graveyard, or a tropical island. Enemies from each level are unique to their setting, giving you undead to fight in the graveyard, unicorn-like creatures in the mine, and so on. As you play through each level, groups of enemies will spawn, swarming you and leaving you to take them out. Unfortunately, this is how literally every encounter outside of boss battles happen.
Boss battles feel terribly underwhelming. You’ll spend time in each level mowing through dozens of the same two to three enemies until you reach the boss. The boss battles are no more interesting. I was able to beat the vast majority of the bosses in the game without ever taking a hit, using the same basic tactics I’d used to steamroll all of the earlier enemies.
Your partner, Kinna, throws a big wrench in the potential difficulty of Magus. It doesn’t help that enemy AI is fairly stupid. Kinna will run around, fighting enemies with you. Those enemies will often swarm her, leaving you completely open wreck shop. I found that using the blue magic’s heavy attack, which acts almost like a grenade, was more than sufficient for taking out swarms of bad guys. Herein lies one of Magus‘s most conflicting aspects for me. It’s terribly satisfying to take out 10-15 enemies with a handful of attacks. It virtually breaks the game, though, presenting absolutely no challenge under any circumstance. If you stand still, you’ll get wrecked, but if you keep moving and just peck away at the groups of enemies, you’ll be unstoppable.
As a way to present a little variety to the game, there are three fully fleshed out skill trees – one for red, blue, and green magics. Red will grant you necromancy skills, blue offers you various buffs and support skills, and green focuses on combat magic (such as fire, healing, and earthquakes). As you gain experience and level up, you get access to more and more of the skills. These can grant a fun bit of variety to the game (like turning into a titan and kicking guys around or increasing your speed for faster travel and attacking), but they’re ultimately superfluous. In my experience, the only skill I really used was the blue speed boost, which not only let me travel faster but also increased my attack speed. I also found a blue area of effect skill useful for corralling enemies and executing them all with a single attack (including bosses).
As far as gaining experience and leveling up goes, a good run through a level can generally net you 2-3 levels, allowing you to hit the level cap with a handful of level replays. You can put points into one of six categories: strength, dexterity, vitality, red, blue, and green. Calling the categories “strength” and “dexterity” feels like a misnomer, given the classic sense that melee damage, dodging, etc., are affected by them, where magic was always affected by intelligence or the like. I felt like it was all pointless, simply trying to let players feel more powerful because numbers were incrementing.
As you play through Magus, you can get new gear to equip. Your gear layout is quite limited, granting you only a few slots: helmet, armor, belt, earring, ring, tattoo (yes, a “tattoo” slot you can never see). The gear affects your pointless stats and, with the helmet and armor, changes your looks. None of it is really impressive or eye-catching, though, and the vast majority of it is bland and lifeless. It felt like there was no soul in it.
Visuals & Audio Magus is an ugly game. The graphic fidelity looks like something that may have passed on the PlayStation 2, but in a time where studios are creating jaw-dropping titles like The Last of Us or Uncharted, it’s hard to go back. The lack of variety is also a bit stifling, with only 2-3 models for armor and helmets and a handful of enemy designs that are used ad nauseum. It’s all also fairly generic and uninteresting to look at.
The sound design is somewhat mixed. The music can be catchy at times and the voiceover work is actually much better than I would’ve expected, given the rest of the game. At the end of the day, though, it’s all forgettable, serving its function with no lasting impression.
Overall Magus is not a good game. Bland, low resolution visuals, forgettable audio, an uninteresting story, and a lack of variety do little to leave a positive lasting memory. The combat can be fun, especially if you enjoy feeling utterly powerful beyond control, but the repetitive nature of it leaves it feeling like nothing more than a very easy grindfest. It’s also quite a short game, beatable in only a handful of hours. This would have been better served as a downloadable title with a price to match, instead of a budget title playing out of its league. If you’re interesting in this style of game, I would urge you to consider other options, like Earth Defense Force 2025.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Oi, nakama, listen up because we’ve got some really exciting news straight from our friends over at Crunchyroll that’ll get fans of the long-running Shonen series “One Piece” absolutely jumping for joy! It was announced over the weekend that Crunchyroll will now begin to add an average of 20-30 older “One Piece” episodes per week.
This will occure every Saturday at 6:00pm Pacific time at the exact same time as the brand-new episodes air. This means if the new episode left with a little more than just a simple “One Piece” itch, you can get your fill of the pirate crew and their amazing adventures by watching older episodes. This is fantastic news for “One Piece” fans who have followed it from the very beginning as well as fans of anime who are yet to jump onto the monstrous bandwagon that is the “One Piece” fandom.
Having seen through the enemy’s plan and subsequently saving an entire battleship, Sio’s unfortunate encounter with a piece of shrapnel last week rendered her less than concious as her allies retreated. Naturally they rescued Sio, as she wakes up to find herself in a Japanese hospital. In Japan. So, under direct order’s of the Commander, Sio finds herself with time for a little R&R. Her first act of freedom: check her emails.
Though her injuries were only minor, the Commander specifically sent Sio to a hospital, in her home country no less. Whilst Saint Germain notes that this is partially as a form of repayment for Sio saving her life, he never divulges what the complete reasoning is. DOGOO (the alien) also seemed specifically worried about Nobunagun, though whether this is due to genuine compassion or professional courtesy is unclear.
Are all strategy meetings this personal?
For the most part, this episode focuses on the somewhat strange friendship between Sio and Asao. Though she has never exaclty been the most confident character in anime, Sio is in a perpetual state of nervousness whenever Asao is nearby. As her first real friend, Sio is still unaware of how to act, what to say, what not to say…and that;s just the beginning. Her uncertainty really shines through due to the fact that she is constantly blushing and stammering whenever she tries to hold even a regular conversation with Asao. Obviously the humourous side of the series, this also serves to prove just how radical Sio’s personality changes when she taps into the soul of Nobunaga.
Just as it was in episode 1, Sio managed to unleash her latent skills when Asao was in grave danger. This time however, Sio did not have an AU Ball in her possession. Communicating with the soul of Nobunaga directly, she managed to kill an Invasion Object by firing an energy bullet from her finger tips. Though such a method clearly uses more energy than an AU weapon, Sio still managed to do something no other E-Gene Holder has. At least as far as we know. Whether unique or not, we also glimpsed just how present Nobunaga is within Sio. Reacting to her pleas, his soul was able to lend power directly to her body, effectively bypassing the AU system. Though only a brief attack, Sio was once again changed by the soul of Nobunaga, bearing her trademark combat grin. Of course, immediately after the shot was fired she was back to good ol’ timid Sio, uncertain of what just happened.
Just point and shoot
Back at HQ, Vidocq explains the nature of their mission’s failure to a number of DOGOO higher ups, revealing a number of interesting developments in the study of the Invasion Objects. As the series has so clearly set out for us, the Objects wish to evolve to a point of dominance on Earth, rolling right over humanity if need be. However, if that’s the case, why would an army centred on evolution take a step backwards? Though developing as a species of monstrous vertebrates up until this point, the creatures discovered in the underground tunnel are in fact invertebrates. Deducing that it is impossible to devolve, Vidocq concludes that the Objects still retain a storehouse of unevolved beta cells, the original form the Objects before their evolution began. This odd truth once again showcases that the Invasion Objects are much more than simple monsters, a fact belied by their oft employed kamikaze tactics.
Though only brief, this episode also shows the Invasion Objects effect on regular citizens. With fear of attack ever present, a number of Japanese residents decided to stock up on food and move away from the coast. Which in all honesty isn’t a bad plan. As one of the relatively safer countries on the planet, Japan has also seen an influx of foreign patients. That’s right folks, those nameless characters running in the background whilst DOGOO saves the day have lives too. Take Asao for example, unable to wield the same power as Sio, she decided to become a nurse and do what she can to help. A small fact that helps to bring back the human element of the series. Honestly, it’s been monsters and platoons of unbalanced warriors for a while now. You kinda forget what normal is.
Seems about right…
So with the world under constant Invasion Object attack, it’s up to the First and Second Platoons to try once more and destroy the underwater tunnel. With their faults revealed by the previous battle, a fact even the prideful Jack accepts, it looks like it might be time for Sio to take on a different role and help her fellow Holders sense the flow of combat. I wonder if Nobunaga is a good teacher?
