The Capsule Computers Indie Bundle is live in a brand new format. For the first time ever, buyers can build their own Capsule Computers IndieBundle from a choice of eight fantastic games. Each game starts at a minimum of $0.75 and at least two games must be purchased. Buyers can select from:
Spaceforce Constellations
Uprising 44: The Silent Shadows
Tommy Tronic
SlideTapPop
Xotic
Power of Defense
Non Flying Soldiers
Jelly All Stars
In addition, four games will be unlocked as bonuses as bundle sales goals are reached. Only one title, Dead Hungry Diner, has been revealed at this time. Like every Capsule Computers Indie Bundle, a portion of the profits goes to support the Australian Red Cross.
If you’ve ever wanted to see the world of Warcraft on the silver screen then you’ll have to wait a bit longer, as the much-fabled and rumoured Warcraft film adaptation has been moved till 2016 at the latest.
Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon and Source Code), Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft was to be released on December 18, 2015. However, that’s also the same day as Star Wars: Episode VII’s release date. And to avoid much competition between the two blockbuster films, Universal Pictures has decided to move Warcraft to March 11, 2016.
If Warcraft fans have waited this long for a Warcraft film, then we’re pretty sure another three more months won’t be that bad. Check out the official tweet from the Warcraft twitter sent out today.
Release date for WARCRAFT from @Legendary Pictures released by @UniversalPics is moving from December 18, 2015, to March 11, 2016.
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess Studio:A-1 Pictures Publisher:FUNimation Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Release Date:December 10, 2013 Price: $34.98 – Available Here
Overview Usually six years after their creation most shōnen series would have already spawned a few movies during that time frame. However unlike other titles, Fairy Tail has only been given one anime movie at the moment, with even Toriko featuring more movie releases. However quantity rarely equals quality and now that the first and currently only Fairy Tail movie, Phoenix Priestess, is coming to North America, is it worth picking up?
Story Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess begins with a ritual being held at a place called the Fire Village where two halves of a powerful magic relic called the Phoenix Stone is being protected. During the course of the ritual the village comes under attack by an unknown force of soldiers who annihilate nearly everyone in the village with only a priestess managing to escape with half of the Phoenix Stone after the village chief sacrificed himself for her.
We then join the signature Fairy Tail team: Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, and the cats, as they are attempting to catch the leader of a bandit group. After failing to do so and preparing to get a scolding from the guild master, Lucy encounters a woman with a strange bird that suddenly passes out near her. The woman’s name is Éclair and she has been suffering from a case of amnesia as long as she can remember, with only her Momon, the odd looking bird, to keep her company and take care of her.
After listening to her story, the Fairy Tail guild offers to help her in any way possible, which she reluctantly agrees to since she has a disdain for all mages and magic. After part of her amnesia clears, she realizes her purpose and that she still carries one half of the Phoenix Stone and as she slowly begins to reveal the purpose behind the stone and her past, the small nation of Veronica has hired a dark guiled named Carbuncle to take the stone from her at any cost.
With Éclair’s past coming into focus and the true meaning of the Phoenix Stone revealed, the Fairy Tail members must travel to Veronica to save their friend and also put a stop to a force capable of eliminating all life on the planet, whatever the cost.
Many shōnen movie plots either involve poorly developed villains or a story that barely is worth paying attention to, leaving only the most die-hard fans wanting to see their favorite characters in action. Thankfully Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess doesn’t suffer either of these problems. While there is indeed an enemy force to be taken down, the enemy is far from a mastermind but the eventual force that springs up from his plans serves as a suitable creature that needs everyone to band together and take it down and the emotional outcome from its defeat is certainly memorable.
It also helps that while this tale involves most of the Fairy Tail guild, members of a new guild called Carbuncle, Éclair, and the land of Veronica, the character development focuses entirely on Éclair and Lucy. The two become friends and Éclair learns to trust mages even while Lucy does everything she can to protect her which leaves most of the cast as minor side-characters that help drive the action along.
Continuity can be a difficult thing with anime movies based off of long running series. However that isn’t an issue as far as Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess goes. Instead it features another issue that people only following the English release of the anime and not the English manga or legal streams will experience. You see, Phoenix Priestess takes place after a number of significant events take place in the main Fairy Tail storyline which not only sees a few characters, such as Lisanna and Gajeel’s partner Panther Lily introduced to fans ahead of time and the return of Laxus to the Fairy Tail guild.
Despite the time-line issue, Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess has everything a fan of the series would want from a movie storyline. Not only is Lucy given more emotional development from her interactions with Éclair but many members of the cast also receive their time in the spotlight. Erza faces off against an opponent with similar skills, Natsu and Gajeel take on powerful opponents, though Gajeel’s opponent immediately feels mismatched, and Gray and Juvia work together to take down an enemy all while numerous pieces of comedy drop here and there to break up the action and drama of the story.
Visuals While I’ve never been one to complain about the magic circles that appear during the normal Fairy Tail anime, this movie has probably spoiled that for me. Throughout the entirety of the film all of the magic being performed, both by new wizards and old, is done without the use of the CG magic circle and it actually helps make the fights flow better and all of the action appear more fast paced since there no longer is a pause between moves.
The overall artwork in the movie appears a little bit better than your standard anime episode, with a softer color palette this time, a few sequences which look amazing, and even a fair amount of blood shed, but there are a number of times that the animation quality nosedives in mid-distance shots. It is also worth noting that since the movie also takes place post time-skip, a few character designs have been changed and the newly introduced Panther Lily also makes an appearance in both his standard and combat forms.
Audio As is standard with a release from FUNimation, both the original Japanese voice track as well as the newly recorded English dub are available in the release of Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess. Considering the time-line from the movie, this is the first time that viewers will hear the English voice of Panther Lily which is handled by Rick Keeling. Rick handles the voice well and although Lisanna also appears in the movie, she only has one line.
The rest of the English cast has retained their roles and provide an admirable job with their voice work while Éclair’s voice is handled wonderfully by Jessica Calvello. The basic background music in the movie uses a number of standard themes that Fairy Tail fans have come to know and love and as for the opening and ending theme, we have “200 Miles” by Jang Keun-suk and “Zutto Kitto” by Aya Hirano, the Japanese voice actress of Lucy.
Extras For Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess we have a standard set of bonus features which include a textless opening theme and closing theme, with the closing theme being the end of the movie, the original trailer for the movie, the US trailer, and trailers for other FUNimation anime.
The only other bonus feature happens to be Fairy Tail the Movie, Prologue: “The First Morning” which is a twelve minute long episode that explains how Éclair and her bird companion Momon met. Sadly this bonus feature is provided with Japanese voice work only as an English dub was not recorded, which is an odd decision.
Overall Despite the issues of introducing characters out of sequence, Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess offers an enjoyable side-story with everyone’s favorite cast of characters that not only sees them facing off against some new opponents but also provides an emotional final battle to close out the film. Thanks to the removal of the magic circles, the combat has never looked better and any fan of Fairy Tail would be doing themselves a disservice if they choose to pass this up.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It’s been a while since I’ve played a fun tower defence title on iOS, so thankfully Little Bit Evil has arrived to quench my thirst. Featuring some adorable graphics and a lengthy, challenging campaign, Russian developer Crazy Panda Games has a top quality game on their hands! While not perfect, Little Bit Evil is a strong recommend to strategy fans looking for great time waster on their mobile devices.
Gameplay
Little Bit Evil isn’t an extremely technical tower defence title, but it’s not too casual either, maintaining a nice balance welcoming to all types of players. It’s gameplay is as traditional as it can be, where players must build towers in particular areas to stop hordes of enemies reaching the goal you must protect. By killing opponents you gain souls, which can be spent on upgrading your towers during combat to assist you. A nice touch included is that by collecting currency from victories, players can also permanently upgrade the stats of their towers, making them stronger than they normally would be. This adds a nice RPG element into the mix and another layer of strategy to give players an edge in combat, and players will need all the help they can get as difficulty is intense. Levels are rather lengthy with huge amounts of waves per battle, as your opponents aim to make it a war of attrition to slowly wear you out. However it seldom feels like it’s impossible, so fighting for your life doesn’t seem so bad. Furthermore special moves are included to you are able to personally contribute to combat via lighting strikes and calling out a massive hulkish demon that a “little bit evil” itself. Levels introduce new enemies with information to mix things up, but it should be noted that the game doesn’t explain itself very well, making it an experience where you need to teach yourself for the most part, which isn’t that hard as most things are self explanatory. Still, it could be something to consider improving. Besides the additional challenge modes added to each level, there’s nothing more to say about Little Bit Evil. Controls are simple and work fine and it plays exactly as you’d imagine it would. It isn’t entirely creative, but it doesn’t aim to be incredibly unique either. It’s just a solid game that plays good. Simple, but good.
Audio & Visual
Little Bit Evil is charming, filled with charisma with engaging graphics to entertain the player. However, animations can be choppy and don’t always flow as well. A small, nit-picking problem I personally found is the character designs don’t really suit the characters. What I’m referring to is you play as the trolls/orcs/monsters/whatever you want to call them, while you fight a bunch of clumsy, chubby, non-threatening humans. While designs all look great and adorable, there is no fear or threat from the people you must mindlessly slaughter which is a massively missed opportunity for the game. Audio is also a bit of downer, with a cringe-worthy theme song in the intro and a soundtrack that doesn’t loop very well at all. It feels as if Crazy Panda cut corners here, as making a looping soundtrack really would’ve been a lot better, as the awkwardly faded out songs with silence between the tracks can really lower the adrenaline of a match. Voice overs are great and sound effects convey the action well, but sadly the soundtrack doesn’t reach the same standard.
Overall
Little Bit Evilis a simple and fun tower defence title. Gameplay is straight forward and fun, but also challenging. Visuals are cute and controls are solid, but sadly the soundtrack, confusing concept of character design and presentation of tutorials let it down a little. Regardless, Little Bit Evil still stands as a good example of strategy gaming on iOS devices and is definitely worth picking up if you’re into the genre.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After Sega brought Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F to the West, Hatsune Miku fans have been keeping an ear to the ground for any additional information about the games since it is now possible that new titles may also be loalized.
As such, Vocaloid fans will be happy to hear that this week’s Dengeki PlayStation has revealed that Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F is set to be released in Japan on March 6, 2014. The game will be available for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita at the same time. Interestingly enough, Sega is currently planning on releasing the Vita version of the first game, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f, sometime early in 2014.
We knew that an update for Chou Megami Shinkou Noire Gekishin Black Heart was going to be released this week and now thanks to Dengekiwe have not only some of the first details for the game but a few images of what the character models and combat in the title will look like.
One of the biggest changes to the game is that it will be a strategy RPG with chibi 3D character models and it will no longer be set in the world of Gamesindustri but in a place called Game Shijoukai where Lastation will serve as the player’s base.
There will be 18 original characters in the game as well as the four goddesses from the original Neptunia. Currently Chou Megami Shinkou Noire Gekishin Black Heart is set to be released in Japan on May 29th and after the localization announcement of a certain idol game, fans can probably look forward to an NIS America localization sometime after that date.
What’s this? Real character development in my slice-of-life? While Episode 7 was really heavy on plot, this time Hikari is going above and beyond the typical young and rash kid that we see in almost every anime. When Nagi no Asukara began, there was nothing to like about Hikari. He yelled instead of talked, got angry and his closest friends and was generally unremarkable. But now he has cast aside selfish thoughts, diverting his passion towards the well being of those he cares about.
After escaping the wrath of Uroko-sama, Hikari and Akari go to stay with Itaru and Miuna. The four are starting to become like family as Akari and Itaru discuss their future. Itaru suggests they reconcile with her father and to do things “properly” or else they might live with regrets.
Miuna wants to do something for Akari but can’t put her appreciation into words so Hikari suggests they go to the city the next day with all their friends and find something nice to buy. Now there’s a fair share of noteworthy character development on this shopping trip, particularly the alone time Hikari and Chisaki get in the elevator.
Here we learn that Hikari accepts that Manaka may one day leave the Sea Village for a man from the surface (Tsumugu?) and he will support her if she does. Chisaki presses him further and while he agrees he loves her, he learned that seeing her smile was more important than what he wants for himself. Chisaki isn’t satisfied with the response as her feelings for Hikari are still bottled up and we’re left with her leaving before more could be said.
Funnily enough, Kaname meanwhile asks Manaka what she thinks of Tsumugu. It’s clear she admires him a lot and doesn’t hesitate speaking clearly when she talks about him, which is interesting and she is indecisive most of the time.
Back to the shopping, the friends are struggling to find a gift for Akari, but Miuna does find a beautiful seashell pendant that’s tactlessly dismissed by Hikari as too expensive. When they still can’t find anything and eventually work their way back to the pendant, it turns out that it’s now out of stock.
Not to be discouraged, the group split up and look for it in other shops. Hikari at this point trips over and Miuna, thinking his ena is drying up, opens the backpack she was suspiciously carrying all day and pours salt water from a bottle all over him. It turns out Miuna kindly thought ahead for the Sea Village members and packed some handy salt water for them! They didn’t really need it but were happy enough to have a pleasant water fight to show their appreciation.
On the way home they realised that the gift should be just what Miuna likes, so using some fish scales that Tsumugu once found and a seashell they spent all afternoon looking for on the beach they made a handmade pendant for Akari. Seeing the kids’ effort and accepting the gift makes Akari realise that they need to wed properly, even with the approval of her dad.
So once again it ends with just Chisaki in troubled waters, still unable to resolve her attraction to Hikari. Something mysterious happens at the end of the episode, though, which is saltflake snow falling on land when it normally only happens underwater! It leaves there, puzzled before the credits begin to roll. This mystery had me loading the next episode in no time.
After Atlus announced that they were working on a dancing game featuring characters from Persona 4 many people were surprised but they will likely be even more surprised to hear that the game’s storyline will be considered canon.
This week’s issue of Dengeki PlayStation has revealed that Persona 4: Dancing All Night‘s storyline will take place after the events that occur in Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold, the second fighting game from Persona 4. It is a rhythm game featuring Rise Kujikawa and other Persona 4 characters. Currently Pursuing My True Self, HEAVEN, Reach Out to the Truth, and Time to Make History have been confirmed to be songs that will be in the game.
Madden NFL 25 Developer:EA Tiburon Publisher:EA Sports Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Reviewed) Install Size:12GB (Xbox One) 13.1GB (PS4) Release Date:November 22, 2013 Price:$59.99 – Available Here(RRP – $99.99)
Overview With the next generation of gaming consoles upon us, a number of sports titles have made the jump from the 360 and PS3 to the Xbox One and PS4. One of these happens to be EA Sports’ biggest franchise in North America, Madden. Being the 25th anniversary of the Madden series and the first one to grace the Xbox One, we have two things to look at and while a fair number of things have remained the same when compared to Madden NFL 25 on the 360 which boasted some minor improvements but few actual additions to the game, the Xbox One edition features a number of upgrades, but is it worth jumping to the next-gen?
Gameplay While there have been a few instances in the past where a next-gen version of a game may suffer from a few modes being taken out or trimmed as the company prioritized graphical improvements over bringing additional content, thankfully Madden NFL 25 has made the jump in-tact with all of its modes intact and with a few refinements here and there to help tighten up the feel of the game.
While there have certainly been additions to Madden NFL 25, most of what the game still plays the same as last year’s iteration and this remains true in the Xbox One version of the title. Of course there has been fine-tuning to a number of mechanics, though many of these are not clearly apparent outside of new plays in the playbook and mostly fix back-end issues from last year’s iteration.
As for what has been added into this version of the game, the Connected Franchise mode has been revamped with the option to play as not only a player or a coach, but also as an Owner of a team. Players can still choose to create a player of their own of course, play as a current player or select from a larger list of football legends than ever before and play as your role only or as the Coach to the team and having complete control over every aspect of the game, drafting and signing players etc. However despite being the Owner of a franchise, there really isn’t a whole lot added in this mode.
Being the Owner is simply being the Coach of a team but with a few extra fringe gameplay options such as the ability to set prices for tickets and merchandise and of course, being able to move the team to an entirely new city or state, revamping your stadium or demolishing and starting from scratch and trying to balance the books so that the team stays profitable and earns cash while also being successful on the field. While a nice addition, it feels like a rather basic inclusion that likely could have been fleshed out more.
Another minor inclusion in the game is a bit of an addition to the MUT (Madden Ultimate Team) card system where players have an option to work on team chemistry to help their team’s performance, adding more depth to a gameplay option that already is likely the deepest and most time consuming outside of the Connected Franchise mode.
Once the player actually gets on the field, they will find that a few more additions and a refined physics engine which will be discussed later, have made it into the game, but again nothing very groundbreaking. Gameplay remains very much the same as what was offered in Madden NFL 13 but the main revamp this time around is refined running mechanics in what is now called ‘Run Free’ and a precision modifier. It is worth noting that it may be tricky to get used to some of these new running techniques at first, but thankfully a newly revamped ‘Skills Trainer’ provides a tutorial for these various new additions to the game.
The whole run free aspect has adjusted and enhanced the various running moves that players have always had access to, such as the juke, stiff-arm, spin and more. These various techniques have been made easier to use and the aforementioned precision modifier helps make these moves more useful, as holding the precision modifier trigger will help turn some small runs into a first down or a break-away run for major yardage.
With the Xbox One version of the game, the offensive line seems to respond better to the movement of the player as they will often manage to open up a hole in the defense where it needs to be or actively move to defend a runner that is in the open which helps immensely as the defense has also seen an improvement in AI which makes them much more difficult to overcome compared to their 360 counterparts.
Away from the offensive side of things, the defense has been given a bit of an upgrade as well thanks to the ability to perform quicker switching between players to take down a ball carrier or set up before the play and a ‘wrap tackle’ that makes it easier to take down the ball carrier with low-impact but usually effective hits. Though considering the fine touches to the physics engine this time around, players may opt for more brutal hits thanks to the hit stick as they level an runner or take down the other team’s quarterback for a morale draining sack.
As mentioned earlier, the defensive AI has been enhanced this time around and while it is still possible to blow past a cornerback or even a free safety with proper running technique, the AI has made it a bit more difficult this time around as they will try to play safer on the run game. As far as passing goes, the defensive AI has also seen a decent upgrade, allowing the defense to better respond to your passing plays and even predict some of your play calls, forcing players to change things up occasionally.
It is also worth noting that, while this is a mode that few may want to use, it is possible to use the SmartGlass App through any capable device to activate ‘ChoachGlass’ which is a useful little tool which tracks the tendencies of the opposing team and recommends certain strategies based on the opposing team, giving the player helpful plays for when they are in trouble. Interestingly enough, the Xbox One’s Kinect also seems to be a lot more responsive than the 360 version, allowing for easier audible calling. However one has to be careful about post-play calling as the Kinect really seems to like picking up the word ‘Challenge’ a lot even when there is obviously nothing to challenge on the play, resulting in a loss of a time-out.
Visuals The biggest change that any player will find in Madden NFL 25 on the Xbox One is the graphical upgrade between the old version of the game and the next-gen version. Thanks to the fact that the original Madden NFL 25 fixed the numerous issues with the physics engine which featured players awkwardly flopping over one another, often causing a dogpile of people falling over after a play ended, the Xbox One version is mostly free of these issues with most players reacting realistically to being hit, though there are still issues where a player will bend in into an impossible bone-breaking position after a hit and get up like nothing happened.
There are a number of tiny nuances that have been refined for this next-gen experience as well, and most of it involves the look of the players, stadiums, turf, and weather patterns. Each player still looks a bit odd, but they have a more detailed appearance than before while the stadiums feature a better looking crowd and the canned side-line animations have also been varied up this time around. The grass stains sticks to the uniforms of players better and snow/rain looks much better in this version of the game, allowing for a more realistic looking field.
Audio Outside of the various grunts of players, collisions of bodies, crowd reactions, and the calling of various change-ups before hiking the ball, nearly everything that the player will hear as they play the game comes from the commentary of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. While the voice work does sound a bit better in the Xbox One version of the game, for the most part the commentary tends to be completely off the mark. After only playing a few games it is clear that the commentary is triggered simply by basic actions on the field which means that they can do everything from call a player the wrong name or completely miscall the situation, such as admonishing a defense saying they can’t stop the run game when the opposing team only has around ten rushing yards in the fourth quarter or calling it a close game when it is a blowout.
In most stadiums there are always your classic songs that are played to rev up the fans in the arena or simply are so familiar with the game that they are impossible not to include. The music found in the Xbox One version of the game either has been revamped or simply works better with the game as it is audible on the field occasionally in-between plays and the crowd can actually get behind the game with loud cheers or boos and even chants.
Overall While there have been a few tweaks under the hood and a few new methods of control have been added to the Xbox One version of Madden NFL 25, most of the improvements come from a new sheen of paint that helps make the game look better on this next-gen console. Other than that, Madden NFL 25’s Xbox One version feels and plays almost identically to the 360 version, which felt disappointing but at least this time around it is a fancier looking disappointment in a yearly franchise that doesn’t break anything but adds very little of note. That being said, Madden NFL 25 still delivers an excellent football title with tight controls and more than enough to do to keep NFL fans busy between games.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Out of the 1502 titles currently in the Steam Greenlight program, The Last Door has entered the top 100 for the first time (#99).
We’ve interviewed the developers at The Game Kitchen and have reviewed the first three chapters of the episodic horror adventure and would love to see them improve their standing. Continue the support here by giving them the ‘thumbs up’. Also, the opening chapter ‘The Letter’ is now available for free on the iPad, in English or Spanish. Chapter 2 – ‘Memories’ – can also be found in both English and Spanish, priced at $1.99. Remember, everything these guys earn goes straight back into creating the next chapter in the series.
