Australia’s TILT Action Sports Film Festival will begin a night earlier on November 11, opening with a feature-length documentary McCONKEY; to celebrate the life of professional skier and BASE jumping legacy, Shane McConkey.
Michael Lawrence, TILT Director stated, “McCONKEY reflects the true essence of the TILT Film Festival, which is about amazing human stories set to extreme and highly visual backdrops. This movie deserves to be on the big screen, and we are proud to ensure that the Australian public has the opportunity to see these magnificent stories that will visually astound them.”
Red Bull Media House and Matchstick Productions present this documentary to share the life a phenomenal, inspirational and talented sports hero, Shane McConkey; who lived life to the absolute fullest and should be remembered for the impact he made as an ultimate innovator. Don’t forget to check out the teaser trailer for McCONKEY featured below.
Thanks to Sony Action Cam and Garage Entertainment, the TILT Action Sports Film Festival offers a variety of nine extreme action films; with surf, skating and snow icons in double features from November 11-15. Join the sports movie experience herefor only $15 (concession) and $20 (adults) per night.
Now that is how you make an introduction! With this episode of Ace of Diamond we are introduced to Furuya, a pitcher who is seemingly destined to be Eijun’s rival. He is Eijun’s complete opposite in nearly every sense, except for one – they both aim to become the ace of Seidou.
Furuya’s cool demeanor is of particular interest. He seems initially apathetic, but we quickly discover that he is much more motivated than we first thought. He comes across as distant, yet it may just be that his eyes are focused elsewhere (on star catcher Kazuya). Undoubtedly his interactions with Eijun make for the most intriguing scenes of the episode.
Eijun ever eager to train is playing catch by himself rather than attending the Seidou team’s game. Furuya however accidentally missed the bus because he was in the bathroom. This of course leads to a fated meeting between the two.
Furuya decides to be Eijun’s partner in a game of catch, but soon voices his disgust at Eijun’s unpredictable pitching style, only to internally note its potential immediately after. Furuya like Eijun is a special kind of talent. Eijun can’t throw straight, but there is advantages to that. Furuya however throws far too intense of a straight ball, the power of which was more than Eijun could handle.
These are the kind of moments that sports anime fans live for, the meeting between two characters fated to become intense rivals. You get the feeling here that Eijun and Furuya are indeed about to engage in a long and hard fought rivalry.
In fact it seems as though these two are destined to clash over the position of ace, a position which seems to be now open after a poor performance from Seidou’s ace Tanba. Despite winning their match, Coach Kataoka was displeased with Tanba’s work and kicked him off the mound, seemingly for good. Kataoka then decides to test the first-years meddle in a first years versus upperclassmen match, which looks to take place next episode. This definitely looks to be positioning Eijun against Furuya in a clash over the ace spot. One has a dynamite straight pitch, the other has an unpredictable curve, it looks to be a tough fight and Eijun’s first real challenge since joining Seidou.
The question remains however, is Eijun good enough to be the ace of Seidou? Right now, it doesn’t seem like it. His game is far too sloppy and Coach Kataoka seems well aware of that. Eijun may just be a diamond in the rough for Kataoka to shine into an ace, but for now it seems like a long road ahead for Eijun and with Furuya providing a major obstacle for him, his goal of ace may be even further away than first thought.
Furuya wasn’t the only new character introduced this week, we also got to meet Haruno, who seems to have quite a lot in common with Eijun (as far as being a ‘baka’ goes). She sees his passion and drive as a source of inspiration and hope for herself. While we know very little about her as of yet, one figures she will play a significant role in Eijun’s journey moving forward. Her belief in Eijun and her own dreams of becoming a manager seem to be inter-connected with the main plot here, so I’m sure we can expect to see much more of her moving forward, even if it is only cheering Eijun on from the bleachers.
Big things are happening on Ace of Diamond and with the introduction of a true rival for Eijun in Furuya it looks like the heat is on in the race for the ace. It begs the question though, with the theme of sacrifice being the through line for the series, what price must one pay to become the ace of Seidou? Well with the clash between Eijun and Furuya dead ahead, it looks like we won’t have to wait long for an answer.
NIS America kicked off the year by announcing that they had picked up the anime Love Live! for release in North America. Since picking up the anime the company has yet to say when it would be released in the West and although there still is no release date, fans of anime can now check Love Live! out on Huluas it has just been added to the service.
For those who don’t know, Love Live! is the story of a group of high school girls who, in an effort to save their school from closing, attempt to raise application numbers by becoming forming a nine girl school idol group called μ.
I will be blunt; I really really wanted to love Batman: Arkham Origins. I grew up on Batman in both print and screen forms, so the Arkham Games have always been fantastic experiences for me as a fan. Unfortunately, Arkham Origins, while still a great game, fails to meet the expectations of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Features largely unchanged gameplay mechanics, a plot that while fantastic for fans can sometimes get a little shaky, (including characters that sometimes feel shoehorned in), and a wealth of technical issues, Origins leads itself to being the weakest installment in the Arkhamverse.
Story
Batman Arkham Origins tells the story of Bruce during his second year of crime fighting. Here he is young, brash, and emotional, while still lurking in the shadows and fighting muggers and typical street crime. We rarely get to see the side of Bruce before his life is bogged down by criminals like Two-Face or Scarecrow, let alone when he is still an urban legend to most of the people in Gotham. This urban legend styled Batman is an awesome way to approach the character, and really allowed the developers to create the sense of fear that Batman has always aimed to inspire in criminals (many of those criminals actually think the Caped Crusader is a demon here in Arkham Origins).
All of the promotional material leading up to the game implied heavily that it was focused around the 8 assassins that had descended on Gotham one Christmas Eve to take down the Bat. While the assassins to play a substantial role, this really is another Joker story at its core. The assassins all do play their role, but many of them are not necessary. I felt that Copperhead and Electrocutioner were shoehorned into the plot, and two other assassins were actually side-missions with no bearing on the campaign. of all eight assassins, only Bane, Firefly and Deathstroke really get any spotlight.
Deathstroke’s boss battle in particular is actually a thing of beauty and aside from being a lot of fun to play, looks and feels like a fight sequence out of a martial arts movie. Slade and Bruce evenly go one on one against each other, dodging, countering and parrying each others moves before resorting to the gadgets and tricks against one another. It is also a relatively difficult encounter and makes for a great challenge for players. The only downside is that it is so early on in the game, and Slade isn’t seen again until the very end.
There is one section at the end of the game’s second act that I cannot go into details about without spoiling large chunks of the game, but is by FAR one of my favourite story sections in all of gaming. It involves a deep and introspective look at a certain famous character, and as a Batman fan, really was a joy to experience.
All in all as a take on Batman’s early years it is very well crafted. There is a little bit of congestion though, with all of the various rogues gallery members that appear. aside from the aforementioned assassins, we have Black Mask, Joker, Enigma, Anarky, Penguin and Mad Hatter all featured either in the plot, or in side-missions, bringing the total number of rogues gallery members to a staggering 14. Not to mention the allusions and introductions of characters before they have turned into their alter egos. This really is Batman’s busiest night ever, and one hell of a way for him to be introduced to the world of super-criminals.
The game’s plot is filled with plot twists and turns at every corner, and while many of these twists are pretty easy to predict, it is still great to watch the story unfold. Using plot twists and cliffhangers during the middle of the story really helps liken the game to a comic book, where at the end of every chapter you are left with either a twist to leave your mouth agape, or a cliff hanger to have you buying the next issue. The same is true here, except you already own the whole game. You will want to keep playing to find out where the story is heading now, and what will happen to the characters along the way.
Sadly, the plot is filled with a lot of Deus Ex Machinas, and other plot devices that just repeat themselves, often in the same fashion. Batman’s use of the shock gauntlets to save lives happens twice in relatively quick succession, each preceded by him remembering the same thing. What is interesting and exciting the first time (even if it is an obvious action) becomes boring and bland with repetition.
Gameplay
Here is where the game struggles, and it pains me to say that, because no matter how good a game’s story or presentation are, if it struggles in gameplay then you have a problem. A lot of Arkham Origins comes from the previous two games, and for the most part you will either be gliding around the streets of Gotham, taking out gangs of thugs in massive brawls, or sneaking through air vents and silently eliminating them.
Arkham Origins is still fun, but relies heavily on what has come before it, almost copy/pasting the free-flow 2.0 combat system from Arkham City straight into their game. While it is still fluid, fast-paced, exciting to watch and fun, there is nothing new here when it comes to fighting bad guys. One major drawback that also comes from the combat system is that the game seems to imply that you have played the previous two and remember all of the different combo attacks. Had I not spent countless hours with Arkham City, I would not know how to permanently destroy an enemy’s weapon, or worst of all even finish off a grounded thug. The game chooses to tell you simple hints like how to punch and counter your opponent, but not how to finish them off, which is often vital for scoring high combos.
The combo scoring system has changed here, and aims to really bring to light a lot of the more in-depth moves and techniques that players can do. In past games, these advanced techniques usually weren’t discovered until you had finished the game and were in the challenge maps. Now, you are scored at the end of each encounter depending on factors like; difficulty of encounter, score multiplier , number of times hit, different moves used etc. This makes the player try harder during the game, especially as this combo score feeds directly into the amount of XP that you earn.
XP is used to purchase upgrades for Batman and his gadgets. In previous games it wasn’t unheard of to have completely maxed out your character by the halfway point. The implementation of the combo based XP system means that likely wont be the case, and you will still be upgrading your Caped Crusader long after you finish the main plot. Some of the gadgets are also unlocked by completing various specific challenges, like taking out a particular assassin or completing a predator stalking mission without being seen (the latter of which unlocks the series-regular sonic Baterang).
The game’s length is also incredibly short in comparison to past installments. The campaign can be finished in around 10 hours, and the side missions all up don’t take too much longer. It is also far easier than Arkham Asylum or Arkham City. The puzzles aren’t as in-depth, and the encounters aren’t as challenging. Playing on normal difficulty, I died a grand total of five times, and two of those were just to see what witty retorts the villains would make once they had ended me. The change in difficulty isn’t too bad though, as once you have beaten the game you can try out the game’s “I am the Night” mode, which gives you one life to complete the whole experience.
The lessened difficulty also applies to the Enigma Challenges (previously Riddler Challenges). In Arkham City some of these challenges were downright infuriating, taking time and precision to complete. While there are some difficult data-packs (this game’s answer to riddler trophies) to unlock, many of them are solvable without wanting to throw the controller in frustation. There also feels like there is a lot less of them this time around, which is surprising considering the game’s almost 2x larger map.
While there are less Riddler/Enigma challenges, they are replaced by crime scene reconstructions. Here, Batman will use his detective vision to find out intricate details of the crime, and by linking up with the Bat Computer in the Batcave, will be able to digitally reconstruct the crime to discover how and why it went down. This if fun, and usually involves Batman rewinding and fast-forwarding the reconstruction to find out where particular pieces of evidence may be placed. This becomes less fun when you can physically see where the evidence is, but you cannot interact with it until you have discovered it through the reconstruction. I personally spent five minutes looking at the shell casing I was trying to find before rewinding the crime scene to a point where it would let me interact with it.
The Multiplayer component for Arkham Origins different, and enjoyable for what it is. The mode has two opposing gang teams (Joker vs Bane) with their 3 man squads squaring off against each other in typical third person shooter fashion. Like most third person shooters, as you level up and play more matches you are given more options to customise the look and playstyle of your soldier, including weapons loadouts and gadgets available to you. Many of these gadgets are similar to single-player abilities, like “enhanced vision” etc. What really separates this game mode from others is that there are also two players operating in the shadows as the Dynamic Duo: Batman and Robin. Batman and Robin are tasked with eliminating the gang members from shadows, grates and vantage points while they are busy occupying themselves with each other. Additional points are awarded for killing a member of the Dynamic Duo, which leads to further XP gain at the end of the match.
The other defining feature is that after a certain point, players are able to open a door and either become The Joker or Bane. The player who reaches the door first becomes their gang’s leader, and gives them a wealth of additional powers and abilities. The Joker is overpowered, but Bane is just an absolute monster. This can really shift the balance of the game heavily on the favour of whoever gets their gang leader (Especially if that leader is Bane… Bane just destroys opposing teams).
Arkham Origins does suffer from one repeating and horrible issue however; the game has a tendency to lock up and completely freeze. These freezes are random, unpredictable and can occur no matter what you are doing. Gliding over a bridge, freeze. Changing discs to play multiplayer, freeze. Loading up the game’s main menu, freeze. There is no rhyme or reason to it, and it really detracts from gameplay (not only because you have to depower your console just to play again). It is especially troublesome when these happen in quick succession one after another. I was forced to power off my console and wait for it to power off completely three times in under an hour. Aside from the freezing and crashing, the game also suffers from some serious frame rate issues at parts. The game can often slow down to a crawl when there are too many thugs on screen (which happens more and more as you progress through the story).
Visuals
Visually, Arkham Origins is quite a nice game to look at, but it is still not on par with its predecessor. Despite the fact that the games share many of the same locations, Arkham City’s map just feels more alive, and is better to look at. Snow is used a lot as not only a storyline element (it is Christmas Eve after all), but also to cover up a lot of the map, which leads to this white layer on a lot of things. It looks nice, but is also very stagnant and stationary, there are no footprints left in the snow or slight built up on defeated thugs, which makes it feel more like a device to obscure the player from things.
While the backdrops and settings aren’t as great as their predecessor, a lot has to be said for the character models. Each character looks like they were hand crafted to perfection, and still retain their traditional comic book look, while also looking original and different, and like they belong in this dark iteration of the Batman Universe. Characters also look different to how they do in later games, due to this title’s status as a prequel, so you can see how they grow and develop from where they are now, to where they will be in Arkham City.
Batman himself is a perfect example of this, and his suit is thicker, bulkier and scarier looking that his AA or AC attire. This has the bonus of making him look totally bad-ass, but also you can see that he is inexperienced, and still has a long way to go before he is the Dark Knight that we know him to be.
Audio
The voice work for the Arkham Games is always beyond reproach, and thankfully Arkham Origins is no exception to the rule. The cast here are made up of a variety of Arkham alums, previous Batman related media voice actors, and newcomers to the series. Alums like Nolan North’s cockney Penguin really, Tara Strong’s Dr. Harleen Quinzel and Martin Jarvis’ Alfred stand alongside Robert Costanzo’s Detective Harvey Bullock (Costanzo voiced the character in Batman: The Animated Series), and Mark Rolston’s Deathstroke to create a game that looks and feels like a Batman game should.
Roger Craig Smith steps into the role as Batman for the first time here, and although it isn’t the best performance of his career, he manages to deliver a take on the Dark Knight that fits in with the story. Smith’s take on batman goes from one extreme to the other; sounding calm and almost identical to his Chris Redfield voice, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, being more gravelly than Christian Bale’s take on the character. This inconsistency in his voice portrayal really helps set the tone of the game though, as this is a Batman who is still young, still brash, still finding his identity, and most importantly still very emotional, the wide range of voices portrayed here really works.
Troy Baker is without a doubt the stand-out star here, voicing none other than The Joker. Taking over the reigns from the fan-favorite Mark Hamill is no lean feat, but Troy has stepped up to the plate and delivered in a big way. His voice style is very reminiscent of Mark Hamill’s earlier Joker work on Batman: The Animated Series, but retains a sense of darkness and grit that really fit the bill here.
Overall
I can’t say that Batman: Arkham Origins is a bad game, because it isn’t. However, it is easily the worst entry into the Arkham series. Copied/pasted gameplay mechanics, reused plot, and technical issues like the game’s random and constant freezing really hold it back from being something special. It is a shame that is the case, because playing this for the story will be very rewarding to fans, but as an overall gameplay experience, it is definitely lacking and doesn’t quite meet the lofty expectations set by its predecessors.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Aside from quality headsets, peripheral maker SteelSeries also does gaming mice. The Rival Optical Gaming Mouse is their latest tool for PC gaming, designed for right handed users in the vein of their previous SteelSeries Ikari mouse. The Rival features rubber grips, anti-sweat coating and 6 programmable buttons.
Packing on board an optical sensor rather than a laser, the Rival has a 6500 CPI resolution and handles movement speeds of to 200 inches per second at 50g of acceleration. Aesthetically, the mouse has two lighting zones with millions of colour options, stable and pulsating.
Aside from the hardware front the Rival also supports the SteelSeries Engine 3 software suite, allowing multiple profiles and settings and is compatible with both Windows and OSX.
The Rival Optical Gaming Mouse will retail at a price of AU$99.99 and will be available in November. Visit the official site for more info and pre-order options.
Defense Technica Publisher:Devolver Digital Developer:Kuno Interactive Platforms: PC (reviewed), Mac, iOS Release Date: October 24, 2013 Price: $14.99 – Steam
Overview
Originally launched on iOS devices, Defense Technica gained attention for being similar to another RTS title called Defense Grid. The main draws to Defense Technica were that it had sleek 3D environments as well as mobile availability. Now indie developer Kuno Interactive has created a PC/Mac edition on Steam to unleash their child. Since the mobile draw has been removed, will Defense Technica stand a fair fight against other tower defense titles? Let’s take a look…
Story
Perhaps one of the lagging characteristics of this tower defense title is an uninvolved storyline. The developers tried to incorporate meaning into the storyline by instilling mission briefings prior to entering a level and by forcing the backstory down our throats at the start-up menu. However, the backstory can be easily skipped by pressing (ESC), and mission briefings are unsubstantial text. If you are one to enjoy a good story, Defense Technica forgot to charge up their power cores.
What could have made the game even better would be an interactive storyline that instilled the mixed emotions of this rag tag group of survivors facing extinction. Cinematic videos are also a great way to garner attention, but low budget indie projects do not necessarily get that luxury. Involving a mission debriefing for the first time run through – like StarCraft – would make the story more visible and appealing.
Gameplay
Defense Technica’s strongest value lies in a solid foundation that has complimentary supporting assets. The foundation stands firm because the focus remains that the player must defend the base core at all costs. Mechanisms like enemy spawn rate, gameplay speed, difficulty, and tower cost all assist in capturing the fun aspects that make tower defense titles addictive.
Dynamically changing environments takes the title’s difficulty to another level. Placing a towers along a path can easily deter enemies from the ‘closer’ route, but what happens when the scene physically shifts? Such environments incorporate pulley systems to unlock new pathways as more enemies spawn. In these occasions you may have to build some blockades to create longer routes, but some instances you just have to deal a ton of damage to get by.
In order to explain tower customization, the acquisition of medals must be explained. For the first couple stages you may become skilled enough to take 0% damage to your power core. In these instances you would gain the full amount of medals available for that stage (i.e. 3 medals for the lesser stages). Upon reaching latter stages, you have the ability to level up individual towers. However, you must have earned enough medals from your previous winnings to allocate points into upgraded/new towers. Once negative attribute about switching between normal and hardcore difficulty is that you do not gain more medals by completing hardcore modes. If the developers balanced out medals according to completion/difficulty, it would be more engaging to earn the medals from a hardcore stage. Perhaps if you decided to play hardcore only, you would gain the hardcore and normal amount of medals to be used in customizing towers.
Choosing your tower customization guarantees a whole new ball game, but the right upgrade might be crucial for your next stage. One such tower customization can be noticed with upgrading the ‘Stabber’ tower. This little guy stabs melee units and can be more useful against heavy armored foes. Once upgraded, this tower packs a punch as the damage output is significantly increased by electric swords attached to the Stabber’s arms. Further down the road you can attach a hammer to really dish out some heavy hits.
Audio/Visual
Audio has the potential to greatly affect the game environment whether its by sounding off an alarm or having a computer system detect abnormal readings. This tower defense title can easily be played on mute because the player can base tower placement and bombs purely by visuals. If the story was incorporated more into the mix, I could see more necessary involvement with dialogue and perhaps mission briefs.
Some titles are purely crafted to for the look and feel for iOS devices, but Defense Technica holds to its beautiful 3D quality on PC. While I do not encourage new players to play with the camera zoomed in, you will get to take a closer glimpse at your enemies ugly faces. Not only that but the environments are classy as well providing dynamic shifting battlefields and weather systems. Homing rocket launchers receive less visibility on a cloudy day, and fire turrets have a damage reduction during the rain. With visuals like weather factoring into gameplay, you cannot deny depth in game mechanics.
User interface is huge when dealing with events in real time. For the most part I think Defense Technica provides a sleek interface ready to take on the challenge of another wave of enemies. A combination of mouse and keyboard shortcuts should make upgrading and adding towers less challenging – unless you prefer keyboard only like myself. For a real challenge select hardcore and jack up the game speed. Let’s see how fast those fingers move!
Overall
Spawning from an iOS title, the PC version performs as instructed and does so without requiring you to purchase upgrades. What lacks in the storyline is made up in the functionally sound gameplay that proves to be addictive at each passing victory or abysmal defeat.
However, this title would be more attractive at a lower price. The iOS version sold for a margin of the cost yet required in game purchases for additional content. I would keep a close eye on the indie radar for any price reduction on Defense Technica.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After whispers and speculation all the way through this year, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has finally made an announcement on the features and release date of the ‘PlayStation App’. The new app for mobiles is coming soon for all the gamers who are geared to play the anticipated PS4 and it is by far on a whole new level compared to their current official app.
Designed to enhance the experience for gamers on their new console, the use of the app is extensive as it allows mobile devices to act as a second screen to support PS4 games. You can use it for many simpler uses as well such as easily accessing your PSN features, messaging people on your Friends List and browsing the official PlayStation website. The PS app can be downloaded for free onto smartphone and tablets which run on the popular systems; iOS and Android, and will become available in the US on the 13th of Nov and the 22nd of Nov in Europe.
PlayStation App comes with an astonishing variety of features that allow users to effortlessly enjoy the world of PlayStation. The crazy features that have been listed are as follows:
Direct access to various PSN features and information
Users can not only just access their own profiles, but also have the ability to access and filter their friends’ profiles. Also their is the ability to see and compare trophy accomplishments, exchange messages to friends with any PS system and users are notified about game invites and their friend’s shared activities.
Browse the official PlayStation website and access information
Users can access the PlayStation official website to browse through news, blogs and game information. The language and content of the website will depend on the country the user’s Sony Entertainment Network account is registered.
PS4 Second Screen Feature
Users can install PlayStation App onto their mobile devices to use as a second screen in supported games. For example on ‘The PlayRoom‘, a title pre-installed in all PS4 systems that requires PlayStation Camera, users can draw pictures on their mobile device screens and flick them towards the TV. The images then appear as a 3D object within the game.
Spectate other PS4 users’ gameplay
When users’ friends upload or begin live streaming their gameplay on PS4 systems, the friends’ activities are displayed on “What’s New” of the PlayStation App screen. When users tap on this notification, they can boot pre-installed applications, such as browsers, to spectate the uploaded gameplay. Users can also post comments on gameplay screenshots, footage and live streams.
Purchase game content on PlayStation Store
Users can purchase game content while away from home and download it directly onto their PS4, PS3, and PS Vita systems.
Use a mobile device as a simple remote to control the PS4 system
Once installed, users can use their PlayStation App to control their PS4 system as long as both devices have access to the same Wi-Fi access point. For example, users can switch their PS4 system to standby mode, startup their PS4 system from standby mode, and use their mobile phone as a keyboard for their PS4 system.
It looks like fans of the Ys series in Europe won’t have to wait for months to hear whether or not Ys: Memories of Celceta will be heading over to their region, as it has been announced today by NIS America that the company will be bringing the game to Europe in early 2014.
The North American release of the game is being handled by XSEED and they recently detailed the game’s main characters. As for the story itself, Ys: Memories of Celceta revisits the story of Ys IV with an all new story which will feature conspiracy, deception, and mystery. To go along with this announcement the company also released a number of anime screenshots which you can check out below.
Considering Halloween is about forty-eight hours from now it only makes sense that any developer working on producing a horror game would take advantage of the spooky atmosphere to try and put out some Halloween themed screenshots and it looks like Warner Bros. and Techland have decided to do just that.
As you can see above, two new images of the game have been released. As for the game itself, Dying Light is set to be released in 2014 on the PC as well as both next-gen and current-gen consoles minus the Wii U. For those looking for more info on the game we recently were able to check it out at an event and you can find our impressions here.
While, at the moment at least, there seem to be no plans from NIS America or other Western companies to bring the PlayStation 3 exclusive Fairy Fencer F to the West gamers won’t have to import it to try out the game. Compile Heart is planning on releasing a demo for the game on the Japanese PlayStation Network on October 31st.
Since demos are of course free and creating a Japanese PSN account is rather simple, this means gamers worldwide will be able to sample the demo which will allow players to check out the game’s battle system while taking control of Fang, the protagonist, Harler the mad scientist and Pipin which is a strange green creature.
