Paradox Interactive has unveiled that their upcoming PC fantasy war-game, Warlock II: The Exiled, will hand over the power of creation to the players themselves. Scenarios can be customized and altered to fit the gamer’s thrill for battle. And the magic does not stop there as these mods can be shared to magic wielders everywhere via the Steam Workshop!
Additionally, Paradox has released a new trailer that encapsulates the different worlds that the player can experience. I offer you fair warning; the ‘puns’ are endless. Expect phrases like: “Only a ‘luna’tic would live on the moon”. Check out the trailer below and stay tuned for more information regarding Warlock II: The Exiled.
It looks like fans of the Tenkai Knights TV series on Cartoon Network will have something to look forward to this summer with the announcement of a game based on the series on its way for 3DS. Being published by Namco Bandai, the game Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle, will put players in the role of one of the four knights of the series.
Those unfamiliar with the series should know that the series itself is based on the “shapeshifting construction bricks” from Spin Master, featuring four heroes powering up to defend the Earth from the villainous warlord Vilius, complete with a shapeshifting army called The Corrupted.
The game itself will include both Story Mode with missions to complete and a multiplayer, where players will face off to see who is the better robot. Those wanting to save Earth and the Tenkai Knights‘ world of Quarton can look forward to the release of Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle this summer exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS in the Americas.
Hozuki No Reitetsu Episode 4 – Pretty Boys Need Love Too/The Crackling Hell
Another week, another episode and I’m so glad because I cannot get enough of Hozuki No Reitetsu. Welcome back to another installment of Hozuki No Reitetsu Anime Impressions, I hope you’ve all been as excited about this new episode as I have! This week marks the release of Hozuki No Reitetsu episode four, an episode that takes us on a journey through the rich Japanese mythology as well as the inner workings of Hell and its workers.
Although not as funny this week, the episode does give us a little more insight into the environment of hell and the rules and regulations it has put in place for both its citizens and its workers. We’re met with a not so scary ghost story, a beautifully handsome pair of young men, a group of lazy torturers and one hell of a demonic rabbit in this weeks episode so, as you can already see, this is just another typical and super crazy episode of Hozuki No Reitetsu. Let’s jump in, shall we?
Pretty Boys Need Love Too:
The first of two stories in this weeks episode is “Pretty Boys Need Love Too”, which follows Hozuki and Shiro as they head over to the Crow-Tengu Police HQ to meet with a friend of Hozuki’s and a high tier worker for the department of protection. Straight up, this story wasn’t really as funny as usual which I suppose I need to put less emphasis on, it’s just something I feel like should be noted.
Here we’re met with more Japanese mythology than usual, it seems odd to even say something like that but it’s very true. A great deal of secondary subtitles outlining references to Japanese lore and/or old stories was used and I think going back to watching the episode after reading the stories would allow audiences to get more out of it. I’ve yet to do that but I suppose I can put it on my “to do” list.
Amongst the Japanese lore are the usual pop culture references; Goku’s Nimbus, the catbus from “My Neighbour Totoro” and even popular motor vehicles like Ferraris and Harley Davidsons got a mention, though are we all really surprised? We’re told a reverse ghost story by a demon taxi that really highlights how silly and odd the demon world is, especially when you find out the “ghost lady” in the story was alive the whole time. Ooooh, ooooooooooh, oooooooh! You get it, it’s ghost noises.
I was a little disappointed that the Crow-Tengu Police didn’t get much time in the spotlight but that’s just because I’m a real big Tengu fanboy. Can you be a fanboy to mythological creatures? For the most part I didn’t entirely enjoy this half of the episode, I couldn’t really put my finger on it but it didn’t have the same “pizzaz” as some of the other stories I’ve seen…or maybe I’m just a bit ticked off that the Anime tricked me when it introduced a girly-looking character and it turned out to be a boy. I guess that was my fault though, the episode is called “Pretty Boys Need Love Too”, and it’s true; we do need love.
The Crackling Hell:
Here we are at the second half of the episode which was better than the first half but not the best all together if you ask me, and since you’re reading this article I’ll take it as, yes, you are asking me. Hozuki notices that these torture demons that he’s employed are getting extremely lazy, they’re barely torturing anymore because they’re too busy taking naps and being all around lazy so in true Hozuki style he does something about it, something crazy.
He organises a meeting for these lazy bums where, at the end of it, they would have learned everything they need to know about torture in hell whilst also learning a little something about themselves…that they’re scared of rabbits. He tells them, what seems like, a children’s story about two animal friends; a rabbit and a badger, seems fairly innocent right? Wrong!
The rabbit, throughout this story, mercilessly kills this badger and some fairly brutal ways…turns out this thing wasn’t a children’s book after all. After scaring the group of demons (something I thought I’d never have to say) he introduces them to the rabbit from the story, to theirs (and our) surprise the rabbit is actually real and, not to mention, the story itself was entirely non fiction. Who’d have though? Though the rabbit is cute, it is also extremely scary and super deadly, Hozuki hopes the demons will learn a little something from here but really he just scares them enough to do the assigned work.
Much like the first episode I wasn’t really into this one as much as I usually am, maybe because of the lack of comedy due to its focus on more of the demon world, I’m not too sure. Fact is; it gave us a nice little look into the “ongoings” of the underworld, it’s proven to us that this isn’t just a “random gag, nothing actually matters” anime series. Regardless, this is still one of my favourite series’ of this season and you can’t expect every episode to be a cracker, we’ll just have to see what the coming weeks bring.
Check out more Hozuki No Reitetsu impressions HERE.
Robot Entertainment, the development team behind the tower defense gem Orcs Must Die! franchise, have released their newest game, Echo Prime, on Steam today.
The sci-fi action RPG, which previously released on iOS devices, has been given new content, improvements to visual fidelity, and reworked PC controls. To celebrate the release, the game is currently 20% off ($7.99/£5.59 instead of the regular $9.99/£6.99). Players who get the game during the sale will also get a copy of Orcs Must Die! 2 for free!
Features for the game include:
Optimized for PC
Even More Enemies and Environments
New Hardcore Mode
Upgrade Your Arsenal
Echoes of the Multiverse – Discover and unlock dozens of “Echoes”, alien life forms from alternate universes.
Share Echoes – Use your friends’ Echoes in combat to help them level-up, and level up your Echoes when your friends use them!
Random Campaign Generation
Includes the Full Soundtrack
To grab the game, you can go to their Steam page. For more information, you can check out their official website.
Compilations are quite a mainstay with anime makers and Short Peace is no different bringing together 4 different anime pieces into one collection. With works from Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo, the compilation of Short Peace will be making its way to the Americas this Spring exclusively for PlayStation 3 thanks to the help of Namco Bandai.
But while Short Peace contained the 4 anime short films Possessions, Combustible, Gambo, and A Farewell to Weapons the release to the Americas for the PS3 will also add a fifth piece in the form of a game from the famed Suda51. Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is a 2D side-scrolling platformer where players will be introduced to the live of a teenager who moonlights as an assassin, until an evil organization threatens everyone close to them.
Coming from Grasshopper Manufacture and Crisy’s Inc., it’s safe to assume that Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day will be a very interesting romp through an unusual world. But those wanting to get a nice look at what can be expected when the entirety of Short Peace is released this Spring can check out the trailer embedded below.
Namco Bandai are proud to announce that PAC-MAN Museum will be released February 25 on PSN and February 26 for XBLA and Steam. Get ready retro arcade gamers to tackle an endless puzzle of mazes with the adorable yellow pellet-chomping hero.
PAC-MAN Museum offers the whole package, with a bundle of classic PAC-MAN titles that range from the critically acclaimed PAC-MAN Championship Edition, PAC-MAN Battle Royale, and much more. In celebration of the upcoming launch, for a limited time Ms. PAC-MAN will be included as a free promotional DLC item. After March 31, the endearing yellow beauty with a red bow will cost $4.99.
Don’t miss out this February on the ultimate PAC-MAN experience!
EA Mobile has a treat in store for you guys this week! Today marks the launch of Dungeon Keeper, EA Mythic’s devilishly twisted mobile take on the 1990s hit PC game. Best of all; it is FREE!
Dungeon Keeper will challenge you to master the Hand of Evil and to build the ultimate in diabolical underground lairs in order to defend it from the invaders who are adamant about destroying the Dungeon Heart. You will have to summon an army of minions, spanning some of the most notorious fantasy creatures you can think of. Imps, Trolls, Bile Demons and Warlocks are all par for the course here as you try to repel your invaders and maximise your defenses using expertly laid traps and clever dungeon design.
So if you are into strategy games, and own a mobile device then be sure to grab Dungeon Keeper today on the App Store or Google Play. That’s it for the EA Mobile news this week, but as always be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the mobile news as it becomes available.
Usually when it comes to a release from Atlus, gamers in Europe and other PAL regions have to wait a year or even longer to play the title on their shores. However it seems that Atlus is stepping up to the plate when it comes to Conception II as the company has announced that they will be releasing the game in Europe.
The title will be released as a digital only title in Q2 for both he PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. For those who don’t know, Conception II has the player taking the role of a human teenager with Star God powers off the charts that allow him and fellow classmates to battle against monsters. This sees the player venturing into monster-filled labyrinths while also trying to keep up his personal relationships with seven different girls.
Sometimes comics aren’t just about these muscle-bound superhumans saving the world from an apocalyptic evil that threatens to devour all known life…sometimes there more subtle than that, sometimes they’re about intelligent and worldly human beings that are all searching for something greater than what it is they have now. Graphic Novels and Comic Books like “The Absence” take mystery and grab it with both hands, they cloud the audience with though-inducing dialogue which, in the end, leads us every closer to the characters we’re reading about. Written by Martin Stiff and nominated for the “Best Comic” award at last years British Comic Awards, thanks to Titan Comics I’ve been given the chance to review such a revered graphic novel, hopefully it holds up to all the hype that has surrounded it since its release.
Story
“The Absence” is a story that takes place many years ago just after the end of World War II and focuses on a small town with a strange aura. Marwood Clay left the town many years ago to join the military so that he, alongside thousands of other young men, could help protect his country. On one fateful day Marwood returns, the only man of his platoon to survive his military service and it seems as though he’s also the only man from the town to have gone to war and returned, though…not a hero. Robert Temple is an odd and eccentric man who has only just recently moved into the small town, throughout most of the story his strange house is being built and it is made known that this place of residence must be perfectly built but the audience…well, you’re not to know why until the very end. The focus is mostly on Marwood Clay and Robert Temple, both strange, both mysterious and both working to build something incredible. This graphic novel is entirely populated by feelings of confusion and mystery as well as small cases of anxiety here and there as you read on and begin to uncover the truth behind these two men.
The most brilliant aspect of this comic in its entirety would have to be, without a doubt, its story. It hosts a level of intelligence that not many stories do and, despite its slow start, it keeps audiences intrigued all the way until the very end which is where the real magic happens. The good and bad thing about this comic is that the reader has to make it all the way through to the very end before they are ready to truly appreciate what has gone on throughout, that means you’re kept in the dark about so many things most of the way through but they’re all brought to light within the last 30 or 40 pages. As the story goes on, the characters develop both in good and bad ways, what made it work was that it wasn’t thrown at you nor was it forced upon you, it was all quite subtle and it’s only once you noticed it did you truly NOTICE it. Intelligence is a key word when referring to this graphic novel, the dialogue was well-written and it invoked thoughts within my head that not a lot of other comics could, I assume it would do the same for a lot of others.
Artwork
This is quite a dreaded topic for someone like me who happens to love illustrated work but I MUST be honest and unfortunetely being honest means that sometimes I have to sound cruel. The artwork within “The Absence” was…not good. I find it hard expanding on that point without my heart breaking in two but I must. It seems as though Martin Stiff has an incredibly gritty and rough style of drawing which is all good and well if executed properly, this I did not feel was the case for “The Absence”. I cannot say that I actually enjoyed certain scenes for their aesthetics alone, most were quite ugly and largely unimpressive. There was a great need for depth within scenes, simple stress lines or attention grabbing techniques could have been employed to allow for a more eye-catching display of art. Once again, I feel far too terrible for criticising ones art and don’t for a second think I’m calling Martin Stiff a terrible illustrator, that’s not the case, I just feel as though half of these panels looked more like sketches than actual finished pages.
Most characters were ugly and half the time I actually couldn’t tell who was who until a name was mentioned. I can’t honestly say environments looked any better, some actually could have looked so much better but the level of grit within this type of art style really made it hard on the eyes. Lines didn’t seem entirely filled out, they looked almost like scratches rather than inked lines. What highlighted all this was the speech bubbles and sound effect lettering (like “boom” and “crash”); they were all so sharp! When the crisp speech bubbles and what not were placed directly next to or over the top of a hand drawing, it was clear that one was better than the other with the hand drawing seeming rushed. It’s so unfortunate and I’m sure a lot of other people absolutely love the art style for one reason or another but it just did not grab me in any way. The lack of colour also didn’t help though, looking at the drawing themselves, I really don’t think they would have.
Overall
I don’t fit into that group of people that consider “The Absence” to be comic book of the year. I loved the story through and through, and I actually took my time reading over dialogue so as to not miss anything but, at the end of the day, it’s not a perfect comic book or graphic novel unless the calibre of the visuals match that of the story. I stuck around with it because of the dialogue and the mystery, it drew me in and kept me there for what seemed like ages but I could not just get over the look of it. It’s like having a rusty, old car with an incredible motor and it’s something I could not get my head around. Though, at the end of the day, it is my opinion and my opinion alone, some of you out there may absolutely love it because of its visuals, to the rest of you I say; get it for the story, it will be worth it in the end.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
While we have seen a bit of gameplay footage of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc so far, those unfamiliar with the title probably don’t know exactly how the classroom trials will unfold and as such NIS America has released a trailer for the game where Monokuma himself explains how the rules of these trials will work out and how someone can graduate from the school.
Currently Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is set to be released on February 11th in North America and February 14th in Europe and we had a chance to interview the company about the game and you can read the full interview here.
