Here’s something that will please many of you trading card fans out there, the Bakemonogatari themed Weiss Schwarz cards will be available in booster packs in two days’ time. The Trial decks were released last month on the 17th in both English and Japanese versions and the booster packs will also available just in time for valentine’s day, although I’m not too sure if these will make the perfect gift (unless your significant other likes the anime and/or trading cards).
The Bakemonogatari Booster box will contain 20 booster packs with each pack holding 8 variously assorted Weiss Schwarz cards; a special singed card may also be in one of the packs however this will be rare as the cards are inserted randomly. Each box will also contain a special promo card as well as the standard rule book for the game and a play mat.
Weiss Schwarz (created by Bushiroad, the same company that make Vanguard) plan to release cards themed around the currently airing anime Love Live and the much anticipated Sword Art Online 2 later on in the year. Let us know what you think about Weiss Schwarz or the anime mentioned by leaving a comment down below.
After the release of its “Freedom Cry” DLC it looks like it is time for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag to get another healthy dose of multiplayer DLC. The three new characters being released are the new “Guild of Rogues” feature The Siren, The Stowaway, and The Shaman. Each with their own reasons for joining the fray, each of the characters have their own style and weapon choice from The Siren’s naval saber, to The Shaman’s hatchet.
But the new characters aren’t the only additions that players can expect for multiplayer, as Ubisoft has also announced that there will be free DLC coming in the form of new maps coming February 17th. These two maps will include a new map based on Kingston and the favorite from ACIII, Charlestown.
Those wanting to see what each of the new characters and maps have to offer can check out what they’ve got going on in the new trailer embedded below. Anyone wanting to take the new characters out for a spin can download them today for Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, with PS3 and PS4 coming tomorrow, as they are available by itself or included with the Season Pass.
Techland and Warner Bros. have been focused on showing off gameplay for Dying Light for some time now, which is why it is nice to see them breaking the trend to focus on a more narrative driven style trailer. Simply titled “Humanity”, it features a survivor looking at what the people left have become compared to the ravenous monsters that now walk the streets.
These are certainly deep thoughts, though being the same team that brought us the first Dead Island trailer, it will be time alone that says just how much of it actually gets into Dying Light. Those wanting to see what other new tidbits can be gleamed from the trailer can check it out down below and post your own thoughts in the comments below.
Outside of the trailer, the only game to play with Dying Light is the waiting game as it is set to release this year for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
When Evolve was first announced at the beginning of the year, 2k Games and Turtle Rock didn’t have much to say about it except that it would be 4 vs 1 and that it already had a pre-order bonus. But that changes a little bit today as it finally has its very first trailer to show off what the game will be like.
Featuring four humans on an alien planet trying to hunt down a massive alien, it is easy to see the similarities to Turtle Rock Studios previous hit Left 4 Dead. The main difference this time being however a more sci-fi twist and a more competitive multiplayer focus with the fifth player being the giant monster themselves.
Those wanting to see the shiny visuals they can expect from the current generation consoles can watch the new trailer for themselves embedded below. Evolve is currently set to release in Fall 2014 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
In a surprisingly shrewd move, publisher Reality Squared Games (R2Games) has sponsored renowned cosplayers to cosplay as the titular ‘angel’ characters from their title League of Angels, which entered into a closed Beta in December before being released in January. The names on the list of those modelling include Maridah, Ginny McQueen, HezaChan, and Riki LeCotey (aka ‘Riddle’ and star of Heroes of Cosplay).
So far Maridah is the only one to have completed her costume of”Lorelei” and has had shots shared on social media outlets. McQueen’s “Sylvia” is also nearing completion while HezaChan’s “Amora” and Riddle’s “Prospera” portrayals will be expected around the middle of March. The majority of photos from these shoots will be made exclusive to subscribers of the League of Angels newsletter (For which you can sign up here). Teasers for the cosplays are also regularly dished out through the social media pages of League of Angels on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
The League of Angels game itself is a turn-based fantasy MMORPG strategy browser game. The game appears to include aspects of PVP and PVE with the option for players to seek out the eponymous ‘angels’, of which there are currently 9, and restore peace to a world torn asunder. You can sign up and play the game first-hand, here.
I personally think that R2Games support of the cosplay medium is a great idea for marketing games to the geek community but what do you think, dear reader? Do you believe that the realm of fandom and marketing should remain clearly delineated? What say you?
Overview
The first episode of The Wolf Among Us showed a glimpse of Telltale being able to apply their award winning narrative style to another property with just as good of results. The change in focus from survival to investigation even allowed it to stand out from The Walking Dead and show it as it’s own beast. Though unfortunately, The Wolf Among Us suffered a long wait between the first and second episode, which is sure to have left an aching in players dying to know what happens after the shocking cliff hanger.
Story
Episode Two picks up shortly after the end of the first episode, Bigby now reeling after the discovery of a second Fable body and now on a renewed mission to discover the identity of the murderer. The end of the first episode left players on a pretty big choice between who they would be pulling in to question and after a short look at the mundane side of the murders quickly gets to the questioning itself.
Unlike the first episode there are not many new branches for players to choice between this time through. While this is a little disappointing in some regards it does make some sense as there were quite a number of large choices that players had to choose between previously and now there is simply more content spread between those lines of decisions. This has it’s ups and downs and while the first episode had a lot of choice, the lack of them is noticeably stark, but perhaps over time later episode can find a healthier balance of the two.
While there are less choices to be made that change the path of the narrative, there are many more active instances this time around for players to delve into the kind of character they want their Bigby to be. Starting at the interrogation, players can better explore their choice between the good cop or bad cop methodology, which will of course impact how all the different characters will react to him down the road both in the rest of the episode and forthcoming episodes.
The investigation itself moves surprisingly quickly in this episode and because of this feels surprisingly short. This is a little disappointing after the extra wait just to receive the episode, but in terms of quality it is able to meet their previous mark. The amount of content available through difference choices may be impacting the length as well in this case, as players have two different possible interrogations that can each go two different ways, possibly with those characters remembering and/or holding grudges down the line.
Despite the shorter length than the first episode, Smoke & Mirrors has plenty more to offer in the world of Fables, plenty of new characters to meet and locations to learn about. This time around there are more lesser known Fables as well and giving a better idea of what kind of world the Woodlands were before they left. Even getting into the well known like Snow White, Big Bad Wolf, and Crane putting more of the secondary or tertiary Fable characters in at this point shows just how much they can do with the rest of the season.
Gameplay
One of the main aspects of The Wolf Among Us that stands it apart from The Walking Dead is that Bigby can take much more of a beating than anyone else can. This still stands true in the second episode, but ultimately only comes into play once in this episode. But it is still utilized effectively when exploring the character of the player’s Bigby as it adds an extra layer of depth when in the middle of a fight to having to choose to end the fight or keep going.
The other difference is the use of investigation, this time around players have more to investigate and have to actually try and piece together what the clues mean to the bigger picture, something that doesn’t come up very much in The Walking Dead. With the way the story continues to weave itself it will be interesting to see how much more of the investigation plays a part of the rest of the story.
The biggest addition this time around are extended scenes where players choose how threatening they want to make Bigby. The choice between having him actually smashing things up or simply threatening to or actually being pleasant to other characters. While more or less a series of binary choices, the depth that it gives each scene provides a lot for the player to decide how they, as Bigby, will react to the continued pressures of everyone treating him as the Big Bad Wolf. Just another aspect of Telltale knowing how to let players decide through doing instead of just dialogue.
Visuals & Audio
Continuing with the cell shaded graphic novel style visuals is a no-brainer at this point, so the more interesting aspects of the visuals comes down to just what the characters look like themselves. The more intriguing character styles come down to Georgie Porgie and Jack Horner, whom those that know their nursery rhymes would certainly not expect the characters to look, much less talk like this. But, even better still make the looks and character make sense within the context of living in New York.
The voice acting of the episode likewise does a great job continuing to hit the mark in quality, as the additional characters still sound authentic and fit their respective roles. Even with all the possibilities that players can choose between when going through the episode, the conversations remain fairly fluid as they proceed marking how well written and preformed it is. The music likewise continues the feelings of the noir style of narrative, even across the different locations Bigby visits this time around.
Overall
Despite an unexpectedly longer wait than was originally foreseen, The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 is able to maintain the same level of narrative quality. Unfortunately, with also having a shorter length than the first episode, it puts the episode in an interesting position. Is this what players can expect down the road? Or will this be simply on of the shorter episodes in the season? Hard to tell, but none the less the quality of the content still more than meets what Telltale is known for and leaves some excitement for what else will come.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Today Aksys Games has announced that they will be publishing Arc System Works’ XBlaze Code: Embryo, a visual novel based in the same universe as the Blazblue series, in the West and are currently planning on releasing it sometime this summer.
XBlaze was announced back in 2012 and the story takes place 150 years before the events of the first Blazblue game. The story will follow Touya Kagari, a high school student that is suddenly attacked and pulled into circumstances he has difficulty understanding. There will be multiple paths for the player to follow which will result in a number of different endings, including a gag ending.
Today Tecmo Koei has released the second developer dairy for Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z and this time around the developers from the three companies working on the game discuss what sort of enhancements they have made to Yaiba to make him not only a ninja you would want to have a drink with but also one that is capable of all different kinds of attacks.
The dev diary can be found below and as for Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z itself, it is still set to be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on March 4th in North America and a few days earlier on February 28th in Europe.
Today a new venture for Tecmo Koei and Omega Force has been released for the PlayStation Vita in North America. Toukiden: The Age of Demons, where players take on the role of a Slayer, a warrior skilled with hunting down Oni that threaten humanity, is now available at retail as well as a digital download.
To go along with the game’s launch, the company has also released a launch trailer for the game which can be found below. To learn a little bit more about what went into creating Toukiden, check out our interview with the game’s producer Kenichi Ogasawara here.
Coffee Stain Studios (Sanctum 2) posted footage of Goat Simulator as a joke. Originally, the video was meant to share some light hearted programming testing the indie developers were doing. The footage of a goat climbing ladders, kicking over buckets, and flying through the air went viral last week.
Due to popular demand, Coffee Stain Studios will be finishing the game. Players will be able to play a goat wrecking things in the spirit of old school skating sims and Katamari Damacy. Goat Simulator will be released later this spring on Steam. Pre-orders are now available at the official Goat Simulator website, which will provide a Steam code and 3 days early access. Goat Simulator is priced at $9.99 and will be available for windows only.
