Noctis from the upcoming Square Enix game Final Fantasy XV, formerly known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, is being made into a Play Arts Kai figure. Square Enix merchandise manager Hidemi Matsuzuka took to Twitter to show off the yet to be painted prototype (see below). Director and character designer of the game, Tetsuya Nomura, has overseen the figure’s development. Currently, it is still uncertain whether anymore of the Final Fantasy XV cast will join their leading man as a Play Arts Kai figure.
This recent reveal is sure to add to the continued hype of Final Fantasy XV. With no concrete release date as of yet and only a handful of trailers, any insight to the game prior to its release on both the PS4 and Xbox One is welcome.
The online MMORPG Last Chaos U.S. is officially under new management. A leading online game publisher Gamigo AG has acquired all licensing rights for the online game as well as its customer base from Aeria Games. This is a good step forward for Gamigo AG after the issues they had with developing Grimlands earlier this year.
Any worries of the game’s future performance can be set aside as Last Chaos U.S. is coming into experienced hands. Gamigo AG has controlled and looked after Last Chaos in the European regions and are simply expanding their operations.
Remco Westermann, CEO of Gamigo AG announced:
“We set a clear sign for growth by acquiring the North American license for Last Chaos right before the end of the year … We were already able to celebrate considerable success with this game in Europe. By expanding our portfolio, we’re giving our still young location in San Francisco the best position to start into the new year.”
Last Chaos is a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG which takes in the chaotic realm of Iris. After an epic battle among the gods, anarchy and terror reign. Now, players must fight for dominance. To learn more about the action, check out Gamigo Online.
EXPERIENCE AMAZING 3D ON IPAD THIS HOLIDAY WITH GOOD NIGHT MOWGLI; COMING SOON TO THE APP STORE
Drift into Peaceful Sleep with a One-Of-A-Kind Interactive E-book for All Ages
Chennai, India – December 6, 2013 – VividhaHMI, an innovative developer of mobile applications and games, announced today that Good Night Mowgli, an interactive e-book for iPad, will be available on December 11 on the App Store. Good Night Mowgli is one-of-a-kind interactive book where children and kids at heart journey through pages of stereoscopic 3D, as they drift into peaceful sleep to bedtime tales and soothing lullabies.
Utilizing the most exciting features of iOS 7, Good Night Mowgli brings eye-catching 3D-like imagery that creates a true sense of depth with each turn of the page and physics-based interactivity to a traditional storybook experience that will delight kids and parents alike. The familiar Jungle background helps tell the tale as it resonates with both kids and adults.
Good Night Mowgli transports one back in time to the golden days of childhood with its plot, storytelling, sound, music, light, color, and voice acting. Voices of well-known voice actors Susie Brann, David Holt and Patrick Cremin make this book stand out.
“Usually interactive story books depend upon narration, but we wanted to bring it up a notch up in Good Night Mowgli. We have used full-fledged voice acting by some of the best talent in the industry to make it come alive,” said Santosh Kumar, CEO, VivihaHMI. “Kids and parents will love the new parallax visuals and interactivity that makes this app a first-of-its-kind. Not only is it beautiful but it also helps parents soothe their children to sleep.”
Good Night Mowgli features bedtime tales told to Mowgli in the Jungle by his friends and family. As the sun goes down and the moon rises, kids are transported to Mowgli’s forest and experience bedtime stories like never before. Readers will love to interact with pictures across pages of the story and animate characters and objects through the use of iOS 7’s physics simulated feedback. Through advanced parallax motion effects and traditional two-dimensional art pieces, the storybook’s pages come to life as readers tilt the iPad to see different viewing perspectives. With beautiful artwork, wonderful narration, and soothing music, kids and parents will rest peacefully this holiday with Good Night Mowgli.
Good Night Mowgli will be available on December 11 on the App Store for iPad download for the suggested price of $3.99. For more information, please ‘like’ us on Facebook.
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ABOUT VividhaHMI:
Vividha HMI Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a Chennai based company specializing in Mobile App, Game Development, Visual Effects and Animation. They provide full service starting with concept until delivery or anything in between. VividhaHMI binds smart coding and animation into a great program with a love for design, look and user experience.
The new indie title Dyscourse has been fully funded thanks to Kickstarter. Owlchemy Labs began this campaign in early November, receiving more funding than they set out for. The original goal was for $40,000, but at the end they earned $44,134 from 1,816 backers.
In this psychological survival game, you play as Rita, a full-time coffee barista who unfortunately gets stuck on an island after her plane crashes. Along with other tourists, you (as Rita) have to decide whether or not you want to be a team player and work for the good of the team, or be a lone wolf and look out for your own survival. This game will test every fiber of the human element through interactions, bonds, decisions, and even betrayals between the group. Not only do you need to watch out for the dangers of the island, you have to be careful of the people sleeping in the same camp as you. But as the saying goes, “Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.”
The beta for Dyscourse on the PC will start in May 2014, and will be on Steam. Everyone that contributed to the Kickstarter fund will receive a Steam key for the game. Check out the Kickstarter page here.
The Video Game Awards on Spike TV used to be good for one thing, showing off new trailers and videos for the upcoming games of the next year. Now rebranded as VGX, it seems they are still looking to keep up that side of it as Ubisoft and Obsidian Entertainment have put out a new teaser for South Pack: The Stick of Truth.
The new teaser is for the new trailer for South Park: The Stick of Truth that will be airing during VGX and so it doesn’t show off much, but has the depth of humor that South Park is known for. Namely, Cartman showing off his mad fart throwing skills.
Those wanting to check out the teaser in preparation of the full trailer at VGX can find it embedded below. South Park: The Stick of Truth is set to release in 2014 for Xbox 360 and PS3, while VGX will be airing on Saturday, December 7th at 6 EST.
ICEBERG INTERACTIVE LAUNCHES ALL NEW 4X SPACE STRATEGY GAME STAR LORDS, AVAILABLE NOW ON STEAM’S EARLY ACCESS PROGRAM
Arkavi Studios’ Firstborn Offers Rich New Galaxy to Explore, Tough AI, Modding and More
Haarlem, The Netherlands – December 6, 2013 – Veteran game publisher Iceberg Interactive announces today that its latest 4X space strategy game Star Lords is available now on Steam’s Early Access program store.steampowered.com/app/246940/. In development with up-and-coming Portuguese developer Arkavi Studios, Star Lords offers many features that fans of the genre know and love, including a large universe to explore, deep and complex gameplay, customization options, and much more.
Players can purchase the game now in Steam’s Early Access program and be involved in the rest of the development process by providing feedback and suggesting what they would like to see updated, changed or added to the game. Early Access players can then play as the game evolves throughout the entire development process.
“Star Lords is an amazing 4X game, and we are thrilled to be working with the talented Arkavi Studios team,” says Iceberg Interactive CEO, Erik Schreuder. “We are looking forward to players joining early as the game evolves, and hearing what they would like to see improved and implemented in the game. Early Access provides such a unique addition to the development process and we are looking forward to hearing what players and fans have to say.”
Star Lords is a tactical, turn-based space-strategy game showcasing eight major races in an epic-sized complex universe with some new twists to the 4X genre. Star Lords is set in space where players can take command of one race to join the struggle for supremacy in the galaxy. As the leader of an empire, players explore the stars, colonize new worlds, manage their empire and conquer whoever dares to oppose. In the Early Access Alpha, some features are not available yet such as multiplayer, huge galaxies and domestic policies, as these are still very much being tested. They will be opened up further down the line in Early Access.
Star Lords Key Features:
Living, Breathing Universe: in addition to the major powers, independent races and pirate clans also claim the galaxy as their residence – use them to your advantage
Economic and Political Layers: War isn’t the only way to weaken one’s enemies; diplomacy, intelligence and trade are very powerful and effective tools
Eight major races each with their own ship designs, technologies, unique traits and unique abilities
Create and customize your own ship designs
Generals: Unique and powerful units evolve as they battle
Randomly generated universe, tech tree and units – never play the same game twice
Empire shattering: unrest might lead rebels to start a civil war which in turn might lead to the creation of a new, independent empire that might grow to rival your own
Plotting: secretly finance a war against your enemies in order to weaken them or prepare a surprise joint war along with your allies in a bid to destroy that frighteningly fast growing empire
Human-like AI that doesn’t cheat and plays by the same rules as human players, while presenting a constant challenge. Or play with your friends in hotseat mode.
Modding support
LAN, hotseat and online multiplayer (not available yet) with matchmaking
The Alpha version of Star Lords is available for $19.99 on Steam’s Early Access Program. For more information about Star Lords please visit www.starlords-game.com.
SteamWorld Dig rocked the Nintendo 3DS eShop earlier this year by mixing platforming action with mining and exploration. Now, developers Image & Form has brought the mining platformer to PC through the Steam distribution service. The PC version boasts high resolution textures, new graphics, gamepad support, and Steam Trading Cards.
Story
Rusty the robot visits to the old mining town of Tumbleton where his uncle used to call home. There, he is roped in by the residents to mine the tunnels his uncle once worked in an attempt to bring the town back to its former glory. Since his uncle’s death, the monsters have become active which has turned the tunnels into a dangerous place. Rusty must now unravel the mystery of the monsters and discover the fantastic technologies his uncle has left behind.
SteamWorld Dig’s plot is a classical JRPG tale in a unique and wonderful setting as the steampunk western is a memorable combination. The game is salted liberally with humour and a sad observation on the possible fate of humanity. SteamWorld Dig occurs after humanity has wiped itself out and is now buried underground. All that is left of us are ugly mutated troglodytes that are mere shadows of their former selves. The plot is a little thin, but the world is well crafted.
Gameplay
SteamWorld Dig takes the mining genre that has gained popularity since the successful launch of Minecraft and mixes it with classic platformers like Castlevania and Metroid. The ground beneath Tumbleton is randomly generated, providing a brand new experience with each playthrough. The game is split between three main zones: the town will provide a place for Rusty to sell his spoils and purchase upgrades, the mines underneath Tumbleton is where Rusty will spend the majority of game mining and exploring, and the caves will provide Rusty a place to solve puzzles and find new technologies that will provide him with new abilities.
In the caves are puzzles and platforming challenges. I found most of the puzzles were agility based, requiring the player to traverse deadly traps and hostile enemies to reach the end of the cave. However, there are a few logic puzzles that were surprisingly difficult in some of the caves. Luckily, unlike dying in the mines, there is no financial penalty for dying in a cave. Rusty will simply respawn at the cave entrance and everything will be reset. If a puzzle was done incorrectly, Rusty can simply exit the cave, re-enter, and make another attempt at the puzzle.
About 40% of the caves cannot be skipped as they contain technologies that are necessary to complete the game. The rest are optional caves that will provide bonuses on completion. Within the mandatory caves are tons of secret areas and extra bonuses. There is an achievement for speedrunning SteamWorld Dig, but there is also plenty of content for obsessive completionists.
There is a good balance between the mining/exploration and platforming portions of the game. Most of the mining can be skipped over if players are willing to sacrifice a few of the optional upgrades. The final boss is tons of fun, but it was so well done that it made me wish there were more boss fights in the game.
SteamWorld Dig supports both controllers and keyboards. Personally, I found the keyboard controls were adequate, but the inability to customize key bindings was frustrating as I did not like the default bindings. I highly recommend playing the game with a controller as the experience will definitely be more enjoyable.
Visuals
SteamWorld Dig has a colourful eye catching art style that that melds steampunk with classic westerns. The character designs take traditional western archetypes and reimagines them as steam powered robots. The ground under Tumbleton contains three distinct areas. The first level is a traditional mine under the desert, the second layer is a toxic swampy mess that has entombed the remnants of humanity, while the final level is a grey high tech world full of wiring and robots. Image & Form have done a fantastic job in creating a memorable world.
The PC port has brought significant improvements to the game’s visuals. PC gamers who do not keep up with the Nintendo 3DS could easily forget that the game is actually a port. The graphical customization options are a little thin. The game automatically selects the largest full screen resolution the monitor is capable of, though the windowed mode scales to however large the window is. The system requirements are pretty low to begin with, but sluggish computers will only have the option to remove the bloom effects to improve performance.
Audio
SteamWorld Dig has a great western themed soundtrack that reminds me of cheesy spaghetti westerns. Though the number of songs are a bit on the short side, I found that I did not tire of listening to the same few songs for extended periods of time. The sound effects are top notch as they match the world perfectly.
Overall
SteamWorld Dig is a great buy at $9.99. The gameplay is a fun mix of platforming and exploration, the difficulty is at the right level, the visual and audio experience is well crafted, and the replayability factor is very high. Although there are some room for small improvements in the quality of the porting, Image & Form have created an excellent game.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Game publisher Iceberg Interactive have announced today that Star Lords, the latest title from indie developer Arkavi Studios, is available on Steam Early Access now.
Star Lords is a 4X space strategy game in the vein of Galactic Civilizations or Sins of a Solar Empire. The game will offer a large universe to explore, deep and complex gameplay, customization options, and more.
Features include:
Living, Breathing Universe: in addition to the major powers, independent races and pirate clans also claim the galaxy as their residence – use them to your advantage
Economic and Political Layers: War isn’t the only way to weaken one’s enemies; diplomacy, intelligence and trade are very powerful and effective tools
Eight major races each with their own ship designs, technologies, unique traits and unique abilities.
Create and customize your own ship designs
Generals: Unique and powerful units evolve as they battle
Randomly generated universe, tech tree and units – never play the same game twice
Empire shattering: unrest might lead rebels to start a civil war which in turn might lead to the creation of a new, independent empire that might grow to rival your own
Plotting: secretly finance a war against your enemies in order to weaken them or prepare a surprise joint war along with your allies in a bid to destroy that frighteningly fast growing empire
Human-like AI that doesn’t cheat and plays by the same rules as human players, while presenting a constant challenge
Modding support
LAN, hot seat and online multiplayer with matchmaking
For $19.99 you can get access to the game via Steam and be involved in the rest of the development process by providing feedback and offering suggestions for updates.
A week has gone past us already, and it is time for the awesome folks over at Disney to shower us with free Disney Infinity maps in this week’s Toy Box Challenge. As with previous weeks, there are five free maps for Disney Infinity owners to download, as well as a new Toy Box Submission Challenge, and a video that showcases the winners of the previous challenge. Without further adieu, lets get into it!
TOY BOX SUBMISSION CHALLENGE
This week’s Toy Box Submission challenge will be a tricky one. The theme for this week is the North Pole Challenge! Which is quite fitting considering Disney’s Frozen is about to hit theaters, and it is of course the holiday season. I will let you in on a little secret – If you have the figurine for Elsa, she unlocks a special giant snowball that would go PERFECTLY in this challenge!
As always, you can create and share your Toy Box creations though, using these instructions:
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U
Bring up the Pause Menu and select “Online/Multiplayer.”
Then select “Toy Box Share” > “Disney’s Toy Boxes” > “Submit to Disney.”
Follow the prompts. You’ll be asked to give your Toy Box an original name and description. Choose carefully – they will be shown to everybody if your Toy Box is featured.
iPad
Bring up the Pause Menu and select “Toy Box Share.”
Then select “Disney’s Toy Boxes” > “Submit to Disney.”
Follow the prompts. You’ll be asked to give your Toy Box an original name and description. Choose carefully – they will be shown to everybody if your Toy Box is featured
TOY BOX COUNTDOWN
This week’s Toy Box Countdown features the top 5 user generated maps that were submitted to Disney for the previous DuckTales Challenge Check out the video below to see the top 5 entrants in the challenge. All of which you can download right now!
You can check out last week’s winning Toy Box maps here.
That’s another week of Disney Infinity updates for you passionate Disney fans out there. Were you happy with the Toy Box Countdown winners? Will you be downloading any of the maps (wither from the winners, or from Disney)? Let us know in the comments below, and remember that for all the Disney Infinity news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Dark Souls II will soon be here. In just a few short months, gamers around the worlds will be gripping their controllers, trying not to throw them through their TV screens as they die again and again and again. Well until then, to tie us over, Namco Bandai have been providing us with a bunches of screenshots from the upcoming game that tease certain aspects, and today that time has come again.
The latest screenshots, which you can check out below give a little hint as to how the Covenant (see: PVP) element of the game will work, including things like the blue and red phantoms. Check out the screens and let us know in the comments whether or not you were big on the PVP element of Dark Souls/Demon Souls and if you will be participating in it for Dark Souls II. As always, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Dark Souls II news as it becomes available.
