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Grimm Bros’ Combines Classic JRPG with Roguelike Mechanics in “Dragon Fin Soup”
Beautiful, Tactical Roguelike JRPG Set in Charming, Twisted Fairytale World Launches on Steam Greenlight
San Francisco, CA (March 4, 2014) – Indie development studio Grimm Bros today announced the launch of Steam Greenlight campaign for its upcoming debut PC title, Dragon Fin Soup. A charming hybrid tactical action RPG with roguelike elements, Dragon Fin Soup is set in a world inspired by fairytales and classic JRPG’s. Hailing from all corners of the globe, the indie team of five veteran developers have launched the official Dragon Fin Soup Steam Greenlight Campaign, to make the commercial release on Steam a reality. To pledge your support, visit: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231462918
“With accessible controls and brilliant visuals, Dragon Fin Soup will appeal to core gamers looking for a rich, tactical experience and RPG fans who love dark, twisted tales,” said Grimm Bros CEO Ash Monif. “Typically turn based games can be slow and discontinuous, however in Dragon Fin Soup movement, combat and controls have been streamlined to empower you to set your own pace.”
Set in a beautiful, high-resolution World, Dragon Fin Soup features deep RPG mechanics, tactical decision making, turn-based but action oriented controls and serves the player with witty humor and deeply flawed characters, complete with original stories, crafting, fishing, gathering, pets and many other fun features.
The world of Dragon Fin Soup begins on the back of Asura, a giant dragon-turtle god who swims the multiverse of space-time, players choose to unravel the tale of their character in Story Mode or embark on a journey to discover the wilds of Asura in Survival Mode. With a variety of compelling locations to explore including spider forests, ice caves, abandoned mines, scorching deserts, mushroom forests and haunted mansions, Dragon Fin Soup kicks off the action with the tale of Red Robin, whose bloody dark past comes back to haunt her with a vengeance.
Story mode focuses on storytelling, character progression and exploration. Beginning in a country village where players learn the mysteries of the world and encounter a custom blend of scripted events, crafted story quests and procedurally generated missions.
Survival mode plays like a classic Roguelike and is designed for the thrills and scares that come with exploring the dungeons, permanent death, fighting monsters and surviving to achieve the highest scores.
Grimm Bros is led by CEO Ash Monif in charge of business development and production.
COO Randis Albion in charge of art direction, development and design. Collectively the indie studio of five, have over seventy years of games industry experience working on franchises including James Bond, Mercenaries, Sims, Lord of the Rings and League of Legends.
About Grimm Bros
Grimm Bros is a new indie RPG game studio, comprised of veteran game developers from around the world. With experienced team members located in Philadelphia, Bangkok, Chicago, San Francisco and London, Grimm Bros works together online making games from its various home offices, pubs and cafes.
Hamburg, March 4, 2014. InnoGames just released the Grepolis Heroes on the English languages versions of the game. Andromeda, Heracles, Leonidas and many more – from now on, players have access to numerous Heroes from Greek mythology. All of them have several unique abilities and can be used in battle. The Heroes will be only unlocked on certain new game worlds, in order not to change the balancing of already established worlds. English-speaking players can access the Heroes Feature either on the US-world Ithaca or the International world Mochlos.
Heroes are an entirely new kind of special unit. Each of the game’s Heroes is unique and has specific abilities. To be able to recruit a Hero, players must solve island quests in order to get either coins of war or coins of wisdom. Each hero can be assigned to one city from where they can be sent to battle as well. By investing coins of war or coins of wisdom, heroes can level up, which will improve their base values and the power of their special skills.
Grepolis is a strategy game set in Ancient Greece. In the free browser-based title, players are tasked with building up a vast metropolis and uniting with other players to establish a powerful military and conquer far away islands. Currently it boasts over 20 million registered users and is playable in 22 languages. The Grepolis Mobile App has recently been released for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded for free on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. It supports all major features of the browser version and is optimized for mobile screens and touch control.
With about 120 million registered players, InnoGames is one of the world’s leading developers and providers of online games. Currently, the Hamburg-based company employs 300 professionals from 22 nations. InnoGames has scored major success with games such as Tribal Wars, Grepolis and Forge of Empires.
One of the hardest aspects of learning mathematics is the sustained practice which is required in order to become proficient. Practising can become tedious and boring which means that the children fail to engage with the work, which in turn causes them to not retain anything they’ve learnt. Video games have been used to help bridge this gap between practising and retention by ensuring students remain engaged throughout their practice. It is in this vein of ‘edutainment‘ that Peaksel’s new family-friendly game: Zeus vs Monsters. This game hopes to help these kids not only practice mathematics, but also to learn a bit about Greek mythology (which is pretty cool and has made a resurgence in Geek culture recently, a la Magic the Gathering).
The game hopes to facilitate the practice of mathematical functions and formulas while also providing a background based in Greek Mythology. It hopes to teach maths skills as well nifty things about the Ancient Greek gods such as who Zeus and the Titans were, over what domain Hades ruled, and other such interesting tidbits. There are also options in place to allow an educator to track the progress of their student and see in what areas they may be having difficulty which sounds like quite a nifty feature…
For gaming parents, this might be an interesting way to help your child when it comes to learning mathematics. The game is available free for iOS on the App Store here. Take a look and tell us what you think for yourself…
To celebrate the imminent theatrical release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier from Marvel and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Event Cinemas are holding a special ‘Mega Ticket Event’, and will also be screening the film the night before release. Check below for all the official details.
Mega Ticket Event – Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 3D
Sunday, March 30 at 6.30PM. Tickets cost $50 for over $80 worth of value. Includes:
Night Before Release Screening – Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 3D
Wednesday, April 2 at 7PM. Tickets as per normal 3D pricing.
Chris Evans is returning to the big screen in his Marvel super hero role as Captain America. Can’t wait to see it? Then don’t miss our Advance Screenings of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 3D! Be amongst the first to see Marvel’s highly anticipated blockbuster – Captain America: The Winter Solider.
Time to transform and roll out! Today the guys over at Paramount Pictures have given us a brand new trailer for their upcoming epic; Transformers: Age of Extinction. This latest poster shows off the film’s protagonist Cade, played by Mark Wahlberg. Judging from the poster alone, Cade already looks darker and more serious than Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBouf) from the previous films.
Check out the new poster below and remember that Transformers: Age of Extinction will be hitting theaters June 26th and is headlined by some killer talent. Joining Wahlberg are the likes of Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz, Sophia Myles, TJ Miller, Han Geng and Li Bingbing, and it looks like it will be the biggest and hopefully the best movie in the Transformers Saga. So for all the Transformers news as it becomes available, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Majesco Entertainment Company has recently announced that Gardening Mama 2: Forest Friends will be available for the Nintendo 3DS this spring. The game will feature plenty of different features that will surely entice fans of Cooking Mama and fans of the prior title, Gardening Mama.
Use the stylus to plant seeds and care for them as you try to take care of your garden.
Grow a variety of different plants, up to 50+ unique plants are available.
Trade points for different decorations that you can use in your custom garden.
Different activities allow you different experiences every time you play.
Protect your plant from viruses and bugs.
For more information on this title, check out their site here. In addition, check out the screenshots that they’ve released to see what’s in store in this exciting new title.
Overview
With the release of Shadowrun Returns a little over half a year ago, the promise of more content set in the rich cyberpunk universe was tantalizing. With the toolset released for the community, the Shadowrun universe was sure to grow. Now, developers Harebrained Schemes have released their first official expansion. How does Dragonfall hold up, though? Is it sitting on a horde of gold or was it shot out of the sky?
Story
You are a shadowrunner. You’ve lived under the radar, earning your keep by taking on the sorts of tasks law-abiding citizens couldn’t even imagine. Set during the same time period as Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall takes you out of cyberpunk Seattle and drops you into Berlin, Germany.
An old friend and fellow shadowrunner, Monika Schafer, pulls you onto her team. On your first run with the new team – a run that was supposed to be easy money – something goes horribly wrong. Monika, an expert decker, jacks into the computer system of a door below Harfeld Manor when she suffers a terrible biofeedback from the defenses in the door. With her dying breath, she utters the phrase “Feuerschwinge” and passes away. Now, you’ve got to discover what happened to Monika, earn the respect of her team, and uncover a plot that goes much deeper than any shadowrunner has ever been.
Gameplay
Fans of Shadowrun Returns will immediately feel at home in the warm glow of neon lights and computer screens. If you haven’t played Shadowrun Returns (which you definitely should) you’re in for a fantastic treat (minus a few bugs).
Harebrained Schemes has outdone themselves with the first expansion. Dragonfall continues what is shaping up to be a legacy of excellent stories with fantastic storytelling. The story itself is full of intrigue, fantasy, and action. Beyond that, the storytelling is excellent. There is an attention to detail given in Dragonfall that few games on the market can boast. The game delivers some great payoffs to If you spend any time at all with this game, you’ll be completely sucked in.
Along with the storytelling, I found the characters to be deep and interesting, contributing to the experience whether through conversations between missions or in combat, bringing their unique skills to bear. The team in Berlin boasts a wide array of unique individuals from the veteran shaman Dietrich to the hard-nosed, militaristic troll Eiger, to the emotionally detached medic, Glory, and more. They all have personality, helping further immerse you in the story and world.
For veterans of Returns, Dragonfall‘s combat remains largely unchanged, and that’s perfectly fine. For the uninitiated, Shadowrun‘s combat is a strategic turn-based system, allowing you to set up and handle each encounter with an addictive air of tactical prowess. You’ll be able to position your runners, take cover, shoot, cast magic, and more. It’s not meant for run-and-gun gamers as it can take some time to orchestrate everything, but the payoff of a battle won will always call you back for more. In terms of character class and progression, much is still around from Returns, offering the same classes and karma upgrade paths as before. It’s familiar – nothing groundbreaking – but why try to fix what already operates at the top of its class?
On top of a finely crafted story, the sheer amount of new content in Dragonfall makes it worth the purchase. New classes of weaponry like sniper rifles, grenade launchers, and tasers make their way into the game. There’s also a bevy of new character portraits to bring the world to life, several new enemies to fight, and more. RPG fans everywhere will find a lot of bang for their buck here.
Visuals & Audio
Visually, not much has changed since Returns. Dragonfall features quite a few new character portraits and gear options, as previously mentioned, but the overarching aesthetic remains the same. Cities are bathed in an eye-catching neon glow. The dark, grungy streets of Kreuzbasar and its surrounding landscape are constant reminders that the world is a broken, decaying place. Character models carry no more fidelity than they did before, though a few new enemies give you something new and interesting to look at. All of that said, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is still an excellent looking isometric RPG with a lot to satisfy your eye-candy sweet tooth.
Dragonfall boasts a great cyber-punk soundtrack. Composed by Marshall Parker and Sam Powell, who were involved with the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Shadowrun titles, the music does a great job of setting the mood and driving the action. The game’s sound effects also do an excellent job conveying the on-screen world, packing a punch with each gunshot or spell cast.
Overall
I found Dragonfall to be a top-notch follow-up to one of my favorite games of 2013. It boasts a great story, accentuated by excellent storytelling and deep characters. Combat is both cognitively satisfying and visceral, delivering an addictive system you’ll look forward to. There are a few bugs, but they’re insignificant compared to the strength of its offerings. If you don’t have Shadowrun Returns yet, it’s easily worth the price of admission. If you do, Dragonfall is a must-have. Overall, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a finely crafted RPG experience, showing that Harebrained Schemes knows its audience and continues to hone their craft.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
On Tap in Austin:Devolver Digital Turns Up the Heat at South by SouthWest with Jaw-Dropping Indie Games, Indie Cinema Premieres and a Film Distribution Panel Discussion from the Future
– Go hands on with the anticipated Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, catch a worldwide premiere for the remarkable professional gaming documentary “Good Game” and Hear Why Digital Distribution is the Future of Your Indie Film with Devolver Digital at SXSW –
AUSTIN—MARCH 3, 2014 –– Devilishly handsome Austin-based independent games and film publisher and distributor Devolver Digital is going big at South by SouthWest next week with an incredible array of indie games demos, independent films and an in-depth panel featuring the best minds from the games and independent film industries. The panel focuses on the future of indie film distribution, “Can Digital Game Publishing Show Us the Way?” on Tuesday, March 11 at 12:30pm in Room 15 at the Austin Convention Center.
The hotly anticipated PC game Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number will be showcased in Devolver Digital’s indie gaming Array of Spectacularness from Friday, March 7 through Sunday, March 16 at booth 145 in the Austin Convention Center. Additionally, attendees can get their hands on Vlambeer’s LUFTRAUSERS, andget bro-y with Broforce and glimpse the complex moral-dilemmas in the upcoming Gods Will Be Watching.
Devolver Films commemorates its first birthday on March 11 with a kickass celebration and the free worldwide premiere of its latest indie documentary, ‘Good Game’ at the Seekret Theater at 7pm. ‘Good Game’ follows the notorious professional Starcraft 2 team, Evil Geniuses, and goes behind the scenes in the ruthless world of competitive gaming.
Since forming at SXSW one year ago, Devolver Digital’s film distribution arm has already seen the release of more than 50 independent films across multiple genres. The team invites SXSW attendees, fellow filmmakers, indie film fans and gamers to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with them on the infamous RVIP Lounge and Karaoke Bus on Monday, March 10, from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. In addition to drinks, karaoke and general debauchery, Devolver will hold a special screening for one of its most critically-praised films, Let’s Ruin it With Babies, which was lauded by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Marie Claire Magazine and more that night at a super secret location to be revealed at a later time.
Mike Wilson, co-founder of Devolver Digital said, “One year of distributing great indie films is something to celebrate. We’re fortunate to work with such amazing people every day, and we’re looking forward to bringing more of these passion projects—whether they’re games or films—to bigger audiences.”
Wilson is set to speak about digital distribution for independent game developers and filmmakers on the panel “Can Digital Game Publishing Show Us the Way?” on Tuesday, March 11 at 12:30pm in Room 15 at the Austin Convention Center. Joining him on the panel is Director of Business Development at online direct-to-fan distribution platform VHX Adam Klaff, Portal and Portal 2 Designer Mike Morasky, Co-founder of the Humble Bundle John Graham, and Stephanie Tinsley Schopp, principal at the boutique PR consultancy Tinsley-PR.
About the Devolver Digital Interactive Pavilion of Spectacularness:
· Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number follows 2012’s critical hit and commercial success Hotline Miami with more carnage, distinct visuals and a pulsing soundtrack, all wrapped up in a story that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
· In LUFTRAUSERS, developer Vlambeer marries aerial dog-fighting with a classic arcade style that’s makes being a fighter pilot feel truly badass.
· The highly-anticipated Gods Will Be Watching from developer Deconstructeampromises sweaty palms and furrowed brows as players point and click their way through puzzles that make them confront tough ethical choices.
· In the run-and-gun, side-scrolling action game Broforce, developer Free Live Games introduces a hyper-masculine group of commanders who fight terrorists and free prisoners of war, in the dudeliest way possible.
To schedule a time to meet up with Devolver at SXSW, please hit up Stephanie Tinsley Schopp, [email protected].
Recently, independent developer Nowhere Studios announced that their puzzle platformer title Monochromawill be launching this April through Steam for the PC, Mac, and Linux.
Monochroma follows a boy and his brother after they witness a crime committed by an evil corporation. The game utilizes the the brothers working together to save the world from this evil corporation. The game is set in the 1950’s during a heavy period of upheavals and protest. The game was inspired by past classics such as Heart of Darkness, Abe’s Oddysee, and other titles. The game acquired a lot of its funding from Kickstarter, finishing its campaign in July 2013.
Make sure to keep an eye out for this exciting title. To find more information, check out their site here.
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