Just as I was starting to think that Paradox Interactive was running out of things to add to the strategy game behemoth that is Crusader Kings II, a new expansion is announced which adds in an entire subcontinent to the game. The sixth expansion to the much beloved (especially by me) strategy game, will add the lands of Central Asia to the map as well as introducing new a ruler type (Rajas), along with new religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Hinduism). Our cover of the release of the previous expansion, Sons of Abraham, can be found here.
Considering the track record of Paradox when it comes to the amount of content in their expansions, Indian rulers will play in a manner completely different to their Western counterparts, as one would expect for a culture which would had developed largely independent of contact with Christendom (at the time period). The different religions are hinted to each have a different effect in gameplay with new events for each of the new major religions. These include meeting with yogis and sadhus, celebrating Diwali, meditating under bodhi trees, and many more new unique cultural events. The new expansion will be available through online distribution in Spring of this year (hurray!). No doubt these new Rajas will stand proud beside the Kings of Europe, the Caliphs of Middle East, and the Mongol Khans (as well as the Aztec Emperor, whose one goal in life appears to be wrecking all my carefully crafted plans… CURSE YOU MONTEZUMA!).
In the meanwhile, you can check out the new map in the trailer below.
After his last outing through time, it looks like Sly Cooper will be on an even bigger adventure, but this time around it won’t be coming to any system console or handheld as it will be coming to theaters instead. Yep, it turns out that Sly Cooper will be getting his own movie sometime in 2016 thanks to Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment.
Sly Cooper will be joining the ranks of other video game characters that have gotten their own movies in the past, though being an anthropomorphic raccoon his will luckily be CG-animated. First created by Sucker Punch, who’ve since gone on to make the newest inFamous game Second Son, Sly Cooper has more recently been in PlayStation All Stars and a new Sly Cooper game released for the PS Vita and PS3.
There hasn’t been too much released on the Sly Cooper movie yet, but a trailer just released today does at least show how the character will be making the transition, along with Bentley and Murray. Those wanting to see the trailer for themselves can check it out embedded just below.
There is no other anime this season that has been top to bottom great week in week out. In a season riddled with series of ups and down, Noragami stands out as one that is consistently a good source of anime entertainment each and every week. And you know there is good reason for it as well, not only is the source material great, but the studio working on it is firing on all cylinders as well.
This weeks Noragami dives deeper into the series mythos, exploring the very nature of life and death. What does it mean to be dead and what does it mean to be alive? Hiyori makes for a perfect viewer substitute as she stands firmly between both worlds, an anomaly between the near and far shore. Through here we get to see both sides of that coin and the results are actually quite tragic.
Yuki is developing to be one hell of an interesting character and definitely a tragic hero for us to follow. He has no recollection of being alive, but feels a deep sense of emptiness, a void in his existence. We seen through a series of flashes when he became Yato’s regalia that his past life was not exactly a good one. But through that we see Yato take Yuki under his wing, almost like a son. The connection between the two of them goes further than that though, there is also a literal connection between their minds that allows them to share their feelings (even the dirty ones).
From there we see an interesting side of Yato. The Stray God that we have come to know thus far is really only just scratching the surface here. When he is confronted by another much more successful god in the God of Learning, Yato comes off as a rebel of sorts, more anti-hero than hero. He flat out refuses to save people who are committing suicide, which of course sets Hiyori off. But there is a method to his madness, he thinks that life is something that should be valued and not just thrown away. Ultimately he does the right thing, but because of all this we see that there is a darkness in him, he is a Stray God that has stared out at the cruelness of the world and kept walking on.
With the introduction of the God of Learning and the return of Yato’s former regalia, now under the command of the God of Learning, we are sure to see some more Gods being thrown into the mix.
Yato’s goals seem simple at a glance but I feel that there is more to him than meets the eye, underneath his somewhat rough exterior is a warm heart and with Yuki and Hiyori as his charges, I expect to see that heart shine brighter than ever before.
As we dive deeper into Noragami, it is becoming clearer and clearer that this is an anime with a lot on its mind. With the beginnings of what looks to be a series long exploration of life and death, Noragami is shaping up to be one of the most thought-provoking anime series of the season.
With this episode, Noragami is verging on beauty in its journey into the concepts of life, death, love and existence itself. If it can stay consistent, Noragami might just wind up being a profound examination of the human condition at its very core. What will make or break this series however is if it can maintain its warm heart in the face of harsh darkness. Only time will tell where the Stray God and friends may roam.
It’s been a couple months since the last DLC for Bioshock Infinite was released with “Burial at Sea: Episode 1”, exploring Booker and Elizabeth in Rapture set prior to the events of the first Bioshock. But, developer Irrational Games and publisher 2k Games have just put up a brand new video showing off the first few minutes of the next DLC.
Just what can players expect from “Burial at Sea: Episode 2″? Well, those interested can go ahead and find out from the video embedded below, but obviously be warned that as the opening few minutes of a second part, there is going to be some spoilers. But anyone just dying to find out, can go ahead and watch it regardless.
As for when “Burial at Sea: Episode 2” will be officially releasing, there is unfortunately no definite answer, only a hopefully disappointing coming soon. But, if luck holds out it will prove to be sooner, rather than later. Be sure to check out our review of Bioshock Infinite if you’ve somehow missed out on it before.
Harebrained Schemes, the folks behind the the tactical RPG reboot Shadowrun Returns, are back with a whole new full-length campaign entitled Shadowrun: Dragonfall. The new campaign, which is set to release February 27, is now available for pre-order.
The new cyberpunk-meets-fantasy campaign will feature a full-length campaign set in Berlin as well as a multitude of new features and enhancements. It will debut on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with iPad and Android tablet versions yet to come.
Features for Dragonfall include:
New Full-Length Campaign: Return to the “Tech meets Magic” future of Shadowrun as you and your team of runners get drawn into a treacherous conspiracy.
An Exciting New Locale: Shadowrun: Dragonfall transports runners to the Free City of Berlin.
Command Your Team: Lead a small team of shadowrunners, each with their own outlook and backstory.
New Weapons, Cyberware, Enemies & More: Try your hand at the long-range sniper rifle, devastating grenade launcher, stun-inducing taser, and more.
Save Anywhere
New Game Editor Features: A wide range of enhancements to the game editor for community content creators.
The expansion, which requiresShadowrun Returns, is $14.99 and will release February 27. You can check the game out and preorder it on Steam here. Be sure to check out the official trailer below this article as well.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Dren McDonald and Jason Poss are now accepting pre-orders for their string quartet album with a modern video game twist. The String Arcade features 15 tracks from games both modern and retro. The composers hope to inspire gamers to learn the viola, violin, and cello. The album is available for pre-order at 20% off the normal price on iTunes and BandCamp. All of the proceeds of the album will go to support the Alameda Music Project, a free after school music program for kids in kindergarten up to grade 5. Check out the track listing bellow:
Grasswalk (Plants vs. Zombies)
Echos of Ecco (Ecco the Dolphin)
Ferdinand Wanders Out For a Late Night Haircut (Pettington Park)
Engii (FTL – Faster Than Light)
Sonic 2 Scherzo (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
Outlaws Title Theme (Outlaws)
Medicated Cow Walks the Cobbled Streets with Disgruntled Goat (Ravenshire Castle)
Scurvy Scallywags Theme (Scurvy Scallywags)
Scabb Cemetery/International House of Mojo (The Secret of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge)
Midnight City has announced that Blood of the Werewolf will be ported to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Q2 2014. In addition to the console port, Blood of the Werewolf will be receiving an Endless Challenge that will pit Selena against a never ending stream of enemies. The mode will be available on the console edition at launch and will be added as a free update to the Steam edition afterwards.
Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche is the sequel to the flash game Avalanche. Players will need to scramble their way upwards as an avalanche of items drop from the sky. There are over 70,000 possible item combinations that will help the players survive the crush. Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche will be released on Steam near the end of the first quarter, 2014.
Ubisoft Blue Byte (Ubisofts’ mobile division) recently announced that an all new Monuments feature would be added into ANNO Online, a new free-to-play, browser based, world building strategy game. The Monuments system allows users to build their own buildings (libraries and botanical gardens for example) which can open new tech trees and bonuses. Friends can also help each other build these Monuments through multiplayer and more Monuments become available to build as players complete quest chains. Now the team behind the game have released an exclusive backstage video showcasing the games latest features and explaining all the details about Monuments.
For those who aren’t aware what ANNO Online is, it is a web game set during Medieval times that allows players to build thier own city. Players can colonize new islands, trade goods and discover treasures to gain prosperity. You can check out the video below and if you think that ANNO Online looks particularly interesting and want to try the game for yourself, head on over to the official website and you can start playing right now!
Loadout is a fast-paced, third person shooter with near limitless amounts of gun customization, meaning that no two games are ever the same. It currently features ranked and unranked game modes that are centred around objective based gameplay, with custom games coming soon and the new annihilation mode. Silly, fun, and yet highly competitive, this PC shooter will launch so many different projectiles your way that you can’t help but pay it attention.
Gameplay
The big selling point of Loadout that sets it aside from every other shooter on the market is its unbelievable amount of gun customisation, offering literally billions of possible weapons to choose from. Players can improve their guns by levelling up various parts via matchmaking or by adding different components, changing projectiles, or by so many other means it is mindboggling. What blew me away though was just how much impact each change made to how the gun feels when you’re playing with it. My main criticism of the Borderlands series is that the guns often feel floaty and there is no real oomph behind your shots, even when your gun is obnoxiously oversized and powerful. Loadout doesn’t exactly perfect that problem, but considering that an average PC setup lacks the rumble of a console controller, you can feel an awful lot of punch behind even low level big weapons like a standard rocket launcher. If you want a light, agile rifle, you can make one. Want a 6-barreled rocket launcher with auto-fire that sends rockets corkscrewing through the air before exploding into cluster bombs and causing unimaginable mayhem? You bet your ass you can make it!
What makes or breaks any competitive game for me is how balanced it is. I always hated Call of Duty because some guns and play styles were simply better than others and that made so much of the game unplayable. Conversely, I loved Halo before ODST because of it’s Quake-like arena style layout which positioned weapons symmetrically between spawns so no one was at a disadvantage. Loadout does neither of those things, simply saying, “here are billions of guns, keep playing and keep learning and your gun will keep getting better!” It is balanced because every character is extremely powerful in their own way so when the dust settles, there is not a man left standing. Early access on Steam may have its controversies and rightly so, but when a studio uses it to fund production as it tries to balance everything and work out the bugs instead of just releasing the game unfinished, you can really see its benefits and those are certainly visible in Loadout.
Going into this game, I was dreading the fact that a huge part of Loadout is objective based. In my experience with shooters, I always found that whenever objectives are involved, people either ignore them completely and just farm kills, or you are so focused on them that the shooting element of the game is dwarfed. Bemused, I stumbled out of my first few games of Loadout absolutely stunned at how natural meeting objectives was. The objectives are so simply laid out that you just go along with them like breathing. When you’re playing TF2 you have to make a concerted effort to push the payload, or capture the control point, but in Loadout you find yourself doing all of these things without even noticing what you’re doing. In a way, I feel like this makes it less tense at times, but it keeps you constantly in the action and that breakneck carnage is the real strength of this game.
I personally have a small issue with the fact that you can buy experience boosters for in-game currency that you can purchase with real money, but for the most part, the micro-transaction model is fair and mainly consists of a wide variety of hilarious clothes, hats, and taunts that are both of no consequence to gameplay, and are great to rub your victory in the face of your enemy.
Visuals
Edge of Reality has done a magnificent job with the art style and graphical fidelity of this game. Somehow, they have managed to inject into Loadout almost all of the charm of Team Fortress 2, but they have also succeeded in bringing it up-to-date, so it feels like a game that should be released in 2014. Every single asset in the game’s roster is bright and vibrant and every animation is smooth, be it projectiles, general movement, or loose limbs soaring majestically over a boxer shorts flag, hoisted high atop a flag pole surrounded by huge men dancing to Gangnam Style. Running the game on its highest settings, I found the shadow quality to be excellent and I could say the same about smoke and particle effects. The inclusion of an FOV slider was also a very welcome feature and being able to see more of what is going on around you definitely helps in multiplayer. I can see how playing this game with bad ping would be a real issue considering its fast-paced nature, but if your connection is reasonable, you should be fine considering how stable the servers seemed to be.
Audio
Right from the account creation menu I loved the sound design in Loadout. The menu features grimey rock music that makes you want to dive straight in and every asset feels satisfying to click which is something I am very picky about in game menus. As soon as you get into a game though, the noise is on a whole different level… Tesla guns, guns that heal, rockets exploding constantly, the guns don’t just look and feel cool, but they sound awesome too! Adding that final stroke to the masterful work they have done on this game’s main focus, the meaty explosions and the strange splat of the healing guns, the arcadey ping that you get whenever you hit an enemy, the random guitar solos whenever someone taunts you, everything just collects into something really quite wonderful. My only small qualm is that they need to adjust the difference in audio levels between the menus and when you’re in a game. Suddenly having my eardrums bleed having been dropped in the middle of a warzone after casually enjoying some low volume background music is not overly pleasant to say the least.
Overall
Rarely do I play a game for review purposes and then go back and play it again, but for Loadout I think I could make an exception. It is impossible to be bored when you are playing this game. The art style is captivating, the sound design is fantastic, and the customisation makes you keep coming back time and time again in hopes that today you can make your gun that little bit better. Bored of grinding for weeks for that new sight in Call of Duty? Then Loadout is undoubtedly the game for you. Strap on the bondage gear and get your hexibarrel rocket launcher ready, it’s going to get wild!
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
BANDFUSE: ROCK LEGENDS MUSIC STORE AND FIRST DLC FEATURING JIMI HENDRIX AVAILABLE NOW
Experience Fully Playable Hendrix’s Songs “Fire” and “Love or Confusion,” Plus Hits from Boston, Yes, Incubus, and More
Campbell, CA — January 28, 2014 — Realta Entertainment released today its new Music Store for BandFuse: Rock Legends,the music video game designed by musicians for people who want to play music. The BandFuse: Rock Legends Music Store offers users the ability to sort, listen to, and purchase DLC songs and backing tracks for play on Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.
The BandFuse: Rock Legends Music Store is headlined by Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” and “Love or Confusion” from the album Are You Experienced (1967), the first two of 15 signature songs coming to the game from the legend’s catalogue. The store also features epic songs from The Offspring, Incubus, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Yes, Blues Traveler, Filter, and Pantera. An expanded library of backing tracks for players to create and record original music is also part of the DLC catalogue. Each downloadable song comes with a music video, multi-instrument support and Lick Lab learning modules for $2.99, and each backing track is $1.99.
Only on BandFuse: Rock Legends will aspiring musicians receive the unique opportunity to learn to play like Jimi Hendrix. Gamers can now pick up a real guitar or bass and play ‘Fire’ and ‘Love or Confusion’ with fully animated tablature, five difficulty levels, including the full lead and rhythm transcriptions, and view specially selected Jimi Hendrix video footage while playing.
The new Music Store enables players to broaden their musical experience with a wealth of content packed into each DLC track. Songs are playable on guitar, bass, and vocals in single-player mode or multiplayer mode on five difficulty levels. Just like every song that comes on disc, each DLC song is also paired with a specially picked video to accompany it. BandFuse: Rock Legends’ DLC songs are fully integrated into all gameplay modes, including Lick Lab and Practice Mode.
The first BandFuse: Rock Legends DLC tracks are:
Jimi Hendrix “Fire”
Jimi Hendrix “Love or Confusion”
Blues Traveler “Run-Around”
Boston “Foreplay/Long Time”
Filter “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
Incubus “Pardon Me”
Lynyrd Skynyrd “Simple Man”
The Offspring “All I Want”
Pantera “Cowboys From Hell”
Yes “Roundabout”
The first BandFuse: Rock Legends backing tracks are:
Marcus Henderson “Funky Canon”
Marcus Henderson “Jazzy Chill Groove”
Marcus Henderson “Backing Beats Pack 1” (Three looping drum tracks)
Reigniting the music genre with the only true multiplayer experience on console, supporting two guitars, a bass, and vocals, BandFuse: Rock Legends’stellar lineup of acclaimed talent, authentic animated tablature, and lag-free audio unleashes a full band experience for players of all skill levels. Players jam using authentic animated tablature and a fully unlocked library of 55 massive genre-jumping songs ranging from rock to metal and punk to funk.
The platinum cast of musicians includes master guitar instructor Slash, Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Mike Ness (Social Distortion), Bootsy Collins (Parliament-Funkadelic), George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Zoltán Báthory and Jason Hook (Five Finger Death Punch), and Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom). Later this year, Jimi Hendrix will be integrated into the game as a rock legend, which will include interviews with present day guitar greats talking about his technique and experimental style paired with archival video footage from his illustrious career.
Only Guitar Center offers the ‘BandFuse: Rock Legends Guitar Bundle’ (MSRP $179.99), the exclusive, specially-priced starter pack for players that includes a Fender Squier Bullet guitar, the BandFuse: Rock Legends video game (Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3), and a BandFuse guitar cable. A list of participating Guitar Center locations can be found HERE.
BandFuse: Rock Legends is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is out now in North America and Japan on Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 system, and is available in North America and Japan with a European release coming soon. To learn more about BandFuse: Rock Legends, please visit www.bandfuse.com/, ‘Like’ the game on Facebook, follow @BandFuse on Twitter and watch the dev team rock out on Twitch.
