Free-to play game publisher and developer, Perfect World Entertainment who has recently brought out Neverwinter, has today announced the release of Sneaky Games’ Arena Of Heroes for the Apple iPad. This new strategy game is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) and is the first of its kind to introduce asynchronous gameplay alongside traditional real time combat, which is optimal for gaming on the go.
Arena of Heroes promises engaging and cross-platform PvP competitive gameplay. Compose a team of heroes from a current roster of 15 characters, and apply cunning tactics and strategies to take out the enemy Power Core to win the match. Heroes are customisable with multiple character skins per hero and enhancements via the glyph system, allowing you to pick and choose ability boosts to aid in battle. Arena Of Heroes also provides for the more competitive players, let it be through taunting your opponent through real time chat or by climbing the ranks in the PvP leaderboards.
For a compelling and free to play MOBA experience on the go, get your hands on Arena of Heroes. Make it quick because the first 50,000 player accounts will receive the “Molten Ivan” premium character skin. The game is available now to download on iTunes for the iPad, and coming soon for the iPhone, Android, PC, Mac and browser.
State of Decay: Breakdown Developer:Undead Labs Publisher: Undead Labs Platform:PC, XBLA (Reviewed) Release Date:November 29, 2013 Price:$6.99 – Available Here
Overview Zombie games are starting to become a dime a dozen nowadays but for every forgettable title simply riding the zombie train, there are others that shine. Despite its flaws, State of Decay proved to be one of these shining zombie games by dropping players in an open world zombie apocalypse where survival was no easy task. Now, six months after the release of the original game Undead Labs has released the first piece of DLC for the game, State of Decay: Breakdown. Does this DLC add enough to the game to warrant a purchase?
Gameplay
You may have noticed that we’ve skipped over the usual story section for this review and for good reason. While State of Decay was mostly an open world experience that players could take advantage of at their leisure, there was still a storyline with little side-stories that would nag the player to continue and progress through the game. Breakdown on the other hand removes the entire story aspect from the game and gives players only a few simple objectives, survive, establish a safe house, survive, gather supplies, survive, find an RV, and survive long enough to escape using said RV.
Obviously I listed survive quite a few times there because that is what Breakdown is all about, surviving as long as possible. Where players used to have a storyline to progress through the game now is all about trying to survive and use an RV to advance to a “new location” where the difficulty is bumped up a notch until things eventually become too much. However, exactly how the player chooses to approach this is all up to them.
When players begin the game they are able to select a playable character. To start with players are only given a random non-hero survivor, though hero characters both old and new can be unlocked by completing various challenges inside of the game. The player is then dropped into the world at a random location with only a few basic items on them and from there on it is up to them to survive.
The first objective is simply to find a community that will take the player and the ever present Lily in, and there are a number of communities that can be joined, allowing the player to choose either a community based in fields, on the outskirts of a town, right in the middle of everything, or elsewhere. Thanks to the random spawning and lack of hero characters, it is very likely that your very first venture into Trumball County will result in the player being torn apart by zombies before they even make it to their first community, giving players an instant feeling of how the game will be now that there is no intro to provide an established system.
After you join a community, Breakdown becomes what State of Decay players have come to know, a game where they must gather resources, save survivors, keep these survivors healthy, gain their trust etc. Shortly after the player starts to get everything together, they are notified that an RV has been found and can be repaired with a certain number of materials, and doing so they can simply leave and advance to the next area if they so wish. However while this can be done as quickly as possible, it may be more prudent to wait and gather as much as possible from your current area, it is all up to the player.
When you do choose to leave however, there is one problem. An RV can only hold so many people which means that you will need to choose only a certain number of survivors to take with you when you choose to advance. This can lead to some tough decisions for the player as they debate between some of their best fighters or a highly skilled medic. When you do leave however you take the entire weapons locker with you as well as a fair amount of the supplies you’ve gathered from the area.
When you arrive at the new area, you will again spawn in a random area on the map, the exact same map, with all of your survivors. The only difference this time is not only are you not alone but you also have equipment and resources to start out with. To make things even better, all of the various locations have been filled with resources again and vehicles have also been restored.
It isn’t all sunshine though, as every advanced stage also sees an increased difficulty level where zombies will start to be faster and stronger with an abundance of special zombies. At high stages it is entirely possible for there to be three special zombies, especially Ferals, within a block radius. This means while it may have been easy to eliminate enemies at stage one, stage four will leave the player cowering in fear from hordes and using whatever they can to get away, finally giving those distraction items some use.
Speaking of items, Breakdown does add a large number of melee weapons and firearms into the game so it is worth noting that the DLC does add a bit more than just this extra mode to the game. These weapons can be very useful at times but even the fanciest weapon can’t save you from a rampaging horde at a high level of difficulty. This means that while advancing as fast as possible might be fun, sometimes players can simply choose to spend hours on the first stage before advancing, as they take everything that isn’t nailed down with them in preparation for the dangers ahead.
Now, one thing that is an issue, especially since the game has been out for so long, is that the title is rife with bugs and glitches. Numerous times throughout the course of the game zombies simply walked through solid walls that should provide shelter, survivors tend to get stuck in the level geometry quite often which only results in their death and even their AI seems to have suffered some as they have almost zero survival instinct.
Visuals Now while the additional weapons and weapon designs are a nice touch and a few new characters or at least characters I never saw in the original State of Decay’s survivors have been added into the game, it quickly becomes a problem that outside of that there has been nothing added into the game as far as locations go. Despite moving to a “new area” the map is always the exact same location which tends to be extremely repetitive despite some survivor locations and supply ratios changing between maps.
While some buildings have been given an overhaul now that bases can be set up in them, the DLC still sees numerous houses with the exact same layout repeated over and over again and the title also suffers from some truly terrible pop-in rates. Everything from basic textures to even zombies themselves can pop in at times, with the zombies being a major problem since a safe player can suddenly find fifteen zombies spawn a few feet off the ground and attack them right there.
Audio The atmospheric nature of State of Decay remains true in Breakdown, however the voice work remains a problem in more than one way. Playing as a random survivor will always have the character using the exact same voice actor or actress depending on the gender. This grows tiresome rather quickly since the voice actor does not fit a lot of the randomly spawned characters. That being said, it is nice to see that most of the Heroes have been given their own voice actors and some of the repetitive dialogue has been changed up a bit.
Overall State of Decay: Breakdown not only adds a new survival based mode where gamers can take what they learned from the basic game and put it into practice as they take on increasingly difficult odds, but it also adds a fair number of new weapons to put to use. The survival aspect creates a true sandbox for players to enjoy and progress how they wish with almost every decision up to them, but sadly it is the same sandbox that we’ve explored before with the same graphical issues, glitches, and issues that remained true in the original release.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Doctor Who fans down under have reason to be excited with Billie Piper who portrayed the popular companion of the 9th and 10th Doctor, Rose, will be heading to Australia to appear at Oz Comic-Con 2014.
Billie Piper will be attending the Oz Comic-Con convention when it stops in at Perth and Adelaide next year. The following dates and locations have been locked in for Oz Comic-Con 2014:
Oz Comic-Con Perth: March 29 and 30, 2014 Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre – 21 Mounts Bay Road, Perth
Oz Comic-Con Adelaide: April 5 and 6, 2014 Adelaide Showground – Goodwood Rd, Wayville
This is without a doubt something that Doctor Who fans will not want to miss out on. So mark your calenders and get ready for the chance to meet Billie Piper former Doctor Who star. Not only that but there will be a plethora of other guests in attendence ranging all forms of pop-culture. For full details check out the Oz Comic-Con website.
Along with the increase in visual fidelity this version of the game has many technical enhancements made specifically for the platform and its features. These are:
Re-mastered, high-resolution graphics including lighting enhancements, an enriched color palette and improved character models
Dynamic detailed shadows and real-time environmental reflections (iPhone 5 series/iPad 4th Gen and above)
Physical controller support for all Made-for-iOS controllers
Cloud save support for playing across all your iOS devices for Rockstar Social Club Members
Updated checkpoint system
Dual analog stick controls for full camera and movement control
Three different control schemes and customizable controls
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is available for $7.49 from the Australian App Store and $9.99 from the New Zealand App Store for the iPhone 4s up, iPad 2 and up and the iPod Touch 5th Gen. Additionally, there will be news forthcoming related to its release for Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile. Check out first official screenshots below.
Get ready Borderlands fans! The third installment in the Headhunters series of DLC for Borderlands 2 has just been announced by Gearbox. The latest DLC for the Headhunters pack is titled ‘How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day’.
‘How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day’ is a Christmas-themed story in the Borderlands world that will have you facing off against Abominable Snowmen and other crazy critters that inhabit this Winter Wonderland.
The ‘How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day’ DLC is expected to be released by 2K Games on December 18th, 2013, just in time for Christmas. Be sure to pick up the DLC upon launch and get in the Mercenary Day spirit!
The stage is set for the grandest stage of them all, Wrestlemania 31! It has been officially confirmed that the 2015 event will emanate from Santa Clara, California, otherwise known as the Silicon Valley.
Wrestlemania 31 will be held at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, which is also the new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. This new stadium is said to be the most technologically advanced arena in the United States. Because of the technology available to WWE, it appears that Wrestlemania 31 will be the most interactive Wrestlemania event in history.
WWE have confirmed that Wrestlemania 31 will take place on March 29th, 2015. WWE Chairman ad CEO Vince McMahon commented on the announcement saying, “We are proud to bring WWE’s premier event, WrestleMania, to Silicon Valley, and grateful for the tireless efforts the City of Santa Clara, the City of San Jose and the San Francisco 49ers have put forth to make this dream become a reality. The innovative technology and connectivity at Levi’s® Stadium will set a new standard of customer service for our fans and ensure they have the most interactive experience in WrestleMania history.”
SANTA CLARA, CA – December 10, 2013 – Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews, the City of Santa Clara, the City of San Jose, the San Francisco 49ers and WWE® are proud to announce that Levi’s® Stadium will host WrestleMania 31 on Sunday, March 29, 2015.
The historic announcement was made at a press conference held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Mayor Matthews, Executive Director of the San Jose Sports Authority Patricia Ernstrom, Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco 49ers Jed York and San Francisco 49ers Tight End Vernon Davis joined WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Vince McMahon, WWE Executive Vice President of Creative Stephanie McMahon and WWE Executive Vice President of Special Events John P. Saboor in making the announcement. WWE Superstars John Cena®, Alberto Del Rio®, Big Show®, Sheamus®, Mark Henry®, Fandango®, The Great Khali®, R-Truth® and WWE Divas Brie Bella™, Nikki Bella™ and Summer Rae™ also made special guest appearances at the announcement.
“On behalf of the entire Silicon Valley, we are grateful that WWE chose Levi’s® Stadium to host its largest annual celebration in 2015,” said Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews. “WrestleMania is certain to be one of the highlights of the stadium’s inaugural year.”
“The San Francisco 49ers organization is thrilled that WWE has chosen Levi’s® Stadium to host WrestleMania 31,” said Jed York, Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco 49ers. “The vision for the stadium has always been to bring together all that is special about the Bay Area through the use of innovation and technology. WWE is certainly a model for innovation as they have perfectly blended the worlds of sports and entertainment. We look forward to providing the most technologically-integrated WrestleMania experience ever.”
“We are proud to bring WWE’s premier event, WrestleMania, to Silicon Valley, and grateful for the tireless efforts the City of Santa Clara, the City of San Jose and the San Francisco 49ers have put forth to make this dream become a reality,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The innovative technology and connectivity at Levi’s® Stadium will set a new standard of customer service for our fans and ensure they have the most interactive experience in WrestleMania history.”
WrestleMania is more than just a one-day event; it’s a week-long celebration that will stretch throughout the Bay Area. In addition to WrestleMania 31, other activities will include: WrestleMania Axxess – WWE’s four-day interactive fan festival at the San Jose Convention Center; the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at SAP Center; Monday Night Raw® at SAP Center; Be a STAR™ anti-bullying rallies; hospital visits and other pro-social activities designed to give back to the host community. The pay-per-view event will be televised in more than 100 countries. Last year, WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium generated more than $100 million in economic impact for New York/New Jersey region. Next year, WrestleMania 30 takes place Sunday, April 6 from Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
About WWE
WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 150 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 650 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Miami, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Munich and Tokyo.
Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to
Levi’s® Stadium will not only be the new home to the San Francisco 49ers, but it will also serve as one of the world’s best outdoor sports and entertainment venues. It was designed by HNTB and is being built by Turner/Devcon for the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. The $1.2 billion venue will have 1.85 million square feet, seat approximately 68,500 and will feature an expected 165 luxury suites and 8,500 club seats. It was designed to be a multi-purpose facility with the flexibility to host a wide range of events, including domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts and various civic events, and will be expandable for major events such as the Super Bowl. For more information, go to http://www.levisstadium.com/.
In celebration of this launch, the first fifty thousand player accounts will receive the “Moleten Ivan” Premium Character Skin ($9.99 value). To redeem in-game, players need to finish the tutorial and will unlock their first set of playable characters, including “Moleten Ivan.”
The first Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) title to include asynchronous gameplay, Arena of Heroes brings tactical battle strategy and cross-platform competitive play to gamers on across multiple platforms beginning with the iPad.
Players can choose from a variety of unique heroes to form a team and battle their opponents in the Arena. Each player has a Power Core and is tasked to attack their opponent’s Power Core until it has no remaining health.
Arena of Heroes is free-to-play and currently stars 15 heroes with which to strategize and battle, with each hero offering multiple character skins. Players can upgrade their experience by customizing heroes and accelerating their level-up time through gameplay rewards or with in-game purchases.
With a dynamic and unique PvP gameplay, and completely free to play, Arena of Heroes is the definitive MOBA experience on the iPad, coming soon for iPhone, Android, PC, Mac and browser.
“In the creation of Arena of Heroes, Sneaky Games and Perfect World are bringing together the popular MOBA experience in an asynchronous gameplay style that has never been done in a MOBA before.” – Fabien-Pierre Nicolas, General Manager, Mobile of Perfect World Entertainment
The second announcement in Madman’s #12AnnouncementsOfXmas promotion has just dropped. Madman Entertainment have officially acquired the license for the anime series Outbreak Company.
Outbreak Company tells the tale of an otaku with a particular interest in moe being transported to a parallel world where his anime fantasy becomes reality. This looks to be a must-see series for otaku.
Madman Entertainment plan on streaming the series on their Madman Screening Room service soon. On top of that they plan to release the series on DVD and Blu-Ray formats at some point in 2014. Stay tuned for further #12AnnouncementsOfXmas as we head towards Christmas.
You know…I’m beginning to think the future isn’t going to be all that great, too many movies and series’ depict the future as something that is nice in theory but almost always turns into a dystopian hell hole and on that note I now present to you an Anime called Guilty Crown which, if you’ve seen he series, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about. It started its Anime run close to the end of 2011 and came to an end almost midway through 2012, fans loved the series for its fantastic characters, story and overall animation and even in 2013, which happens to be a massive year for great Anime titles, I feel like it still holds up in in a strong way. A comet, a plague, a dystopian future, crazy-looking weapons, mechs and a bunch of damn good characters! What else could you possibly ask for out of an Anime?
Story
Set in a futuristic Japan that was once ravaged by a plague called the “Apocalypse Virus”, Guilty Crown’s story revolves around a high school boy and self-aware recluse Shu who one day finds him self in a bit of a predicament when he comes across a bleeding girl who just so happens to be the lead singer of one of his favourite pop idol groups.
It is revealed that Inori, the pop idol, actually works for a group of rebels called “Funeral Parlour” who have risen up against a mysterious and all-powerful government agency called GHQ who both looks over Japan with the intentions of eliminating what is left of the virus, unfortunately though they have a “take no prisoners” attitude that leads to a great deal of brutal deaths, they will do anything they can to have Japan be “secure” and “Funeral Parlour” don’t particularly like the way they’re going about it. Back to Shu and Inori: Just as the two characters meet, the GHQ hit the scene and take Inori away, what was left in Shu’s hands is a small robot that accompanied Inori, that small robot contained an incredibly fragile and extremely powerful bio-weapon called the “Void Genome”.
Shu, trying to do something selflessly for once, goes on a small quest to try and return this vial to its rightful owner. After a few altercations and a harsh punch to the jaw, Shu finally meets with the leader fo the rebellion, a man named Gai.
After an explanation as to what is going on is finished the rebellion is attacked by a bunch of GHQ Mechs, Shu realises that Inori (who has escaped by this point in time) is in danger and leaps to her aid as the robot fires a small round, the vile in his front pocket breaks and he absorbs the “Void Genome” which gives him the power to reach into a living humans soul and manifest a weapon that is unique to every person, he uses this to take down the mech and now he must choose whether or not to join “Funeral Parlour” in their attempt to once again liberate Japan or to hand himself over to the GHQ in the hopes that they don’t use his new found power for evil rather than good.
Guilty Crown has an extremely interesting, deep and incredibly unique storyline that gets a lot of inspiration from titles similar to it, the great thing about that is the fact that you can tell certain Animes were used as inspiration but there was no direct copying or cloning so, in the end, whatever was inspired by another series was taken, tweaked and made its own. The mixing of science, the supernatural and a semi-cyberpunk feel was done extremely well and, in many cases, something with so many sub-genres doesn’t always go down too well, in Guilty Crown’s case…it was done extremely well and was executed almost perfectly.
There are no characters that are incredibly annoying, nor are there any characters who you, as an audience member, feel to be redundant in their own series; every character has his or her place, they all have their own jobs and they all bring something great to the series even if that thing may be quite small. Finally we have a main protagonist who is self-aware; he knows he is awkward and anti-social, he also knows exactly why he’s like that and he’s doing his very best to change and grow closer to the ones around him. The great thing about him as a character is that, over the course of Collection One, he actually makes a very noticeable and gradual change.
The progression of the story as well as its pacing is also done very well, the introduction of characters and situations come at varying degrees with varying levels of urgency that really works well for this series because even though these characters are in constant danger, there are times where they must step back and regroup before they run out into the metaphorical line of fire and get taken down.
The focus isn’t always on Shu’s ability either, the first few episode dedicate themselves entirely to it but that is only because it is a brand-new topic and focal point. For the most part the spotlight is put on the cast as a whole, every single character has problems that they deal with alongside the events of the series so it’s great to see that the team behind Guilty Crown remembered that Shu wasn’t the only character people care about despite the fact that he may be the most necessary in the ongoing war.
Visuals
I have a real soft-spot in my heart for stories that are set in dystopian futures because with those stories come some odd and interesting visuals that, if done correctly, really make a lasting impact with the audience. Guilty Crown seems to be one of those series’ that knows exactly what it’s doing and does it damn well! Visually this series is absolutely fantastic, not only have environments and scenes been designed incredibly well but the colour palette used throughout suits the series’ overall darkness to a tee.
The animation throughout the series is fantastic and you never really see a big dip in quality from scene to scene, usually the calibre of animation stays at a constant high even when the production team decided to combine both CGI Animation and traditional animation, it was done so well that you don’t entirely realise it straight away but even once you do it’s not like it dampens the visual experience, if anything it puts it in a new light. All the characters are designed well, they all look fairly normal and there’s no real character that stands out too much, apart from one or two. What I liked about the characters in this show were that, even though this is set in a distant future, the series wasn’t populated by super odd clothing nor did they have strange hair styles, they kept it as normal and “realistic” as possible while still giving themselves room to add flair.
Audio
Both the music and the voice acting within Guilty Crown – Collection One came across in an almost perfect way. Different genres were used throughout and they all seemed to not only fit in like puzzle pieces but they were also very well-timed. I also got the feeling of certain characters being represented by certain types of music, it was very subtle but also very effective. Music actually played a big part on the series, considering one of the main characters was a part of a pop idol group, they had to get it right and they absolutely did.
Even though J-Pop isn’t my “cup ‘o’ tea” I did find myself enjoying the simple ways in which it fit in with the character, those around her and in the final minutes of the last episode of the collection. As I mentioned quickly above; the voice acting for the characters within Guilty Crown…they’re perfect. Each voice actor and actress brings their own emotions into the role, you can hear it in their voices, in their screams and in their overall interactions between each other. I can honestly say that this may have to be one of my favourite English voice acting casts to date…and I’ve seen a LOT of Anime.
Extras
I was very surprised to see that this release came with a great deal of extras, my surprise didn’t entirely come from the number of extras either, it more came from the fact that the extras are actually decent for a standard release. Guilty Crown – Collection One features the usual things like Japanese TV Spots and textless sequences as well as episode previews and what not, I enjoyed the commentary episodes that came along with the release, being able to hear exactly what the some of the cast and crew thought about the series and having them share some of their experiences really adds a layer of depth to the series that couldn’t have been noticed if not for the commentaries.
A featurette titled “Into The Void: The Creative Vision” and an extra called “Guilty Crown 4-Panel Theatre” are also present within the release, they too add a so much to the series. Look, I’m just extremely impressed at the fact that this is but a standard Anime collection release yet there are this many extras, it really shows just how much time and effort was put into this series.
Overall
Collection One was an incredible experience from the first episode to the last, it featured eleven heart-wrenching episodes which is something I haven’t experienced for a while, it made me care about the characters within the story and it actually showed some form of growth and development which is odd to see in series’ that feature an awkward teenagers as their protagonists. This series seems to be more than that and all I can say is that I hope the collections that come after this are just as good, these first 11 episodes rocked me and I can imagine they’ll rock a whole bunch of other audiences too. Obviously because of its mix of certain sub-genres it will not appeal to one hundred percent of people but I can image a great deal of Anime watches will find this fantastic. It has everything, even a whole bunch of great extras that aren’t usually present in standard releases…I don’t know what else to say. It was a delight to review and I hope a lot of you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
