Much like a similar video that came before this one, Namco Bandai have begun streaming a new 4-minute video of the upcoming Naruto game; Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst which, if you don’t know what it is, is basically a “director’s cut” version of the original game by the same title, bar the “Full Burst“. While in it’s most fundamental form it is a director’s cut release it also has been upgraded a great deal from the title that came before it, be it aesthetics, gameplay, audio, etc. Within the freshly-released video we see a side-by-side comparison of the two releases with Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 being on the left-hand side and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst on the right hand side. Watching through this video you pick up a lot of the little tweaks and changes that, in the long run, add a whole other layer to this game.
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3 Full Burst will offer additions to the original game like; a whole new story chapter, Kabuto as a playable character, 100 new missions, 38 more costumes and so much more. I can imagine that fans of the original release will be quite excited to see something like this with all those extras bundled together. It is set for a release in North America on October the 22nd yet, as of right now, I do not believe Australia has a set date. It will be released on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and for PCs with people already owning the original game being able to solely upgrade their game at a lower price but, once again at this point in time, there has been no information on how drastic of a price drop it will be. For now you can watch the full comparison video for Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst below in our featured video section.
A recent New York Times article suggested that the video game industry is going the way of the dinosaurs thanks to mobile gaming. Not so says Australia. A study published by Digital Australia 2014 in conjunction with Bond University has found that 7 out of 10 Australians are gamers, with a majority of the population getting their daily dose of gaming from a console, not just a mobile device or tablet.
That surprising stat is one of the many that has been crammed into the infographic below which sums up some of the findings of the report. In fact it has a lot of information that gamers can use to defend their hobby from the usual suspects- the majority of games released this year were classified by the Australian Classification Board as kid friendly, the average age of a gamer is 32, not “too young to play that”, and a huge percentage of parents play video games with their kids.
Author of the report Dr. Jeff Brand said, “When we conducted the first report in 2005, video games were seen as a medium aimed at younger children who only played on a console or PC. Today, the profile of the typical gamer is nearly synonymous with the profile of the typical Australian.”
Ron Curry, CEO of Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) added, “The latest report reinforces the breadth and depth of Australia’s gaming community. The first generation of Australian gamers are all grown up and playing video games not only for their own leisure, but as a way to connect with their children and their own parents.”
See, gaming is normal. Of course the statistics are taking a look at a very broad range of gaming habits, but the fact still stands that playing video games is part of life for Australian folks, no matter the context. Although technology is changing the way the video games industry works it is also bringing the medium to more people.
85% of gamers also say that playing video games reduces stress, something that has been echoed by previous studies which found that casual games can help with anxiety and depression.
For the full report, other key findings and more information head over to the IGEA website.
SteelSeries released the latest evolution in their SteelSeries Siberia line of headsets today. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite is the first in the series to feature 7.1 surround sound through Dolby’s virtualization technology. Additionally, the headphones sport over size memory foam ear cushions to add another dimension of comfort with the Sibera’s iconic suspension design. The volume and microphone controls are located on dials built into the earcup. The LEDs inside the ear cups can also produce 16.8 million different colours to suit every user’s needs. The drivers powering the Siberia Elite are the highest quality used in the line to date. The microphone is an active noise cancelling microphone that stows inside the headset when not in use.
The release of the SteelSeries Siberia Elite also brings the SteelSeries Engine 3. The engine has been completely rebuilt from scratch to provide customization. Different equalizer profiles can be saved for different games. Players can use a profile tuned to accentuate the sound of footsteps in Call of Duty while having a head rattling bass heavy profile for their favourite action movies. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite is now available for $299.99 AUD only and in stores everywhere.
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 Challenge is titled the Disney Movies Challenge, and tasks players with recreating famous Disney Films. Will you recreate Halloween Town from Nightmare Before Christmas, or maybe a scene from Fantasia? As always you can follow these instructions to send your Toy Box for approval
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 Maze 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.
This week, Ferrari joins the line up of manufacturers in Real Racing 3. The extremely popular Italian sports car manufacturer and EA Mobile has made the Ferrari FF, 458 Italia, and the F12berlinetta available for play. Additionally, the update has brought the Spanish race track Cricuit de Catalunya, hireable crew members, AI improvements, HUD customization, and Time Trial Ghost challenges to the game. Real Racing 3 is available for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
Additionally, the iTunes App Store launched in South Africa recently. EA Mobile has brought their more popular titles to the region including FIFA14, Plants vs Zombies 2, Real Racing 3, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, and The Sims FreePlay.
The Garden of SinnersDeluxe Movie Collection Studio:Ufotable Publisher: Madman Format: DVD Release Date: October 16, 2013 Price: $149.95 – Available Here
Overview
Some of you might be familiar with this title, also known as Kara no Kyoukai, but from my experience there is a fairly large number of anime fans who haven’t taken notice of this supernatural series of films. Which is understandable. It looks obscure, uncomfortably dark and has been out for a number of years, sitting quietly in the shadows.
Nasu Kinoko of Type Moon first wrote Kara no Kyoukai as a series of novels before he created the popular visual novel Fate/stay Night. While they both share a similar universe and “laws”, such as the use of magic, the two are very different. This adaptation was first released as an expensive Blu-ray import by Aniplex of America, where it sold out during it’s pre-order phase. Thankfully Aniplex re-released it as a more affordable DVD collection and now Madman has followed suit, bringing this movie set to Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Limited to just 1,000 copies, should The Garden of Sinners Deluxe Movie Collection be snapped up before it’s gone for good? We certainly think so.
Story The Garden of Sinners is made up of seven movies with a shorter epilogue totalling eight feature films. While there is an underlying story that jumps back and forth, most of the films have their own individual turn of events which manages to keep things fresh and constantly introduces new characters. It’s also important for viewers to pay attention to the timeline of each movie, otherwise things may get confusing very quickly.
The story takes place between 1995 and 1999 and is centered around our lonely female protagonist, Shiki Ryougi, and her acquaintance, Mikiya Kokutou, who has been drawn to her since high school. Shiki isn’t a normal girl, though. Possessing the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, she can see the so-called “seams” of life and death in every living thing, allowing her to cut almost anything. She works for Touko Aozaki, a puppet maker and a magus, who runs a small organisation that deals with abnormal events.
While almost each film has a supernatural plot with elements like villains and ghosts that cause suicides, the real crux to The Garden of Sinners is Shiki Ryougi’s story. Her beginnings as a daughter to a wealthy family, her split personality and obsession with murdering and how she met and almost killed Mikiya Kokutou. Mikiya’s belief and devotion to her is almost heart-wrenching. It’s a poignant, philosophical picture of life and the worth of living. But it also paints a stain on the worst of humanity through the taking of life. These films depict what they need to, without holding back, by showing gory deaths, a rape scene as well as cannibalism. It might all sound depressing but that’s really not the case. Yes it’s sad, thoughtful and ugly but it’s also beautiful and really powerful.
As an adaptation, this is Ufotable’s finest work and an example of how novels should be animated. Nothing is rushed, everything is shown with purpose. The theatrical film format lets everything sink in, leaving you mesmerised and retrospective in your seat throughout the credits of movie.
Visuals
Anyone who knows the studio Ufotable (Fate/Zero), who’s major debut came with these films, would know what to expect here. From the level of detail in every scene, the depiction of the dark and eerie city to the rendition of Takeuchi’s character design, the animation quality is simply sublime. The visuals, combined with the audio, really do make this series. It deserves to be seen on these grounds alone as I’ve yet to experience anything else quite like this in the anime industry.
The best way I can describe the animation is that it’s technical. Some anime like Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of Words (no coincidence with the title!) are beautiful like an oil painting while others make use of unique art styles. This, however, is like an eye-melting, PC tech-demo running on the highest settings. But combine this with a dark environment full of shadows, gory encounters and painstaking level of detail in every frame and you get something really special indeed.
Given the quality, I can’t help but express a desire to see this in Blu-ray, but that would be a little unfair seeing as they were strictly limited and beyond the price range of us common folk.
Audio
Think the animation looks damn fine? Wait until you hear it. The sound department equals that of the outstanding visual quality. Yuki Kajiura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) as composer is a natural fit to Ufotable’s animation, with use of fantastic string and piano instruments, weeping melodies as well as a unique theme song for every movie in the end credits by Kalafina.
The voice acting is expertly done, especially by the main lead Shiki and her tough, boyish voice. Fans of English dubs will be disappointed however, as this is a subtitled release. Given that it’s a Limited Edition that, by some miracle, has made it down under we can’t complain!
Extras The Garden of Sinners comes with with what you’d expect in a “Deluxe Movie Collection”. While we rarely see boxed releases from Madman these days, they decided to go all-out with this set. Included in the box (which has an awesome piece of artwork) are “Theater Pre-show Reminder” videos, a 36-page booklet containing a very useful chronology and episodic summaries, art work and messages from the staff. Finally there are 14 postcards featuring original art for the movies by artist Takashi Takeuchi.
For those iffy about the fairly high price tag it’s worth noting that these are 7 films (plus an OVA, essentially) that received a theatrical release in Japan. While some are under an hour, a couple run for almost 2 hours!
For those curious about the differences between Aniplex of America’s and Madman’s release, it’s almost identical. However, the box has a shinier finish, the DVDs come in ultra-thin cases and the post cards are of a smaller size.
Overall The Garden of Sinners is one the greatest series of anime films in my opinion, and the message it conveys is equally as great as the production values. The superb animation and sound form a package that’s truly special, and it’s all wrapped up in a box that, for once, looks great on your shelf.
It’s not an easy show to swallow, however, and without full attention and reference to the timeline of each film viewers can be left confused. The Garden of Sinners has terminology that is shared across a “Nasuverse” which spans the author’s works, and is not well explained. But should you decide to give this a go, you’ll be left thinking about Shiki and Mikiya long after the credits of the Epilogue, and chances are these films will remain a benchmark for many years to come.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Hajime No Ippo – Rising Episode 3 – A Woman’s Battle
Ippo’s fight against Shimabukuro is now over and the episode begins with his recovery after the fight in the last episode. For the first five minutes of the episode Ippo is asleep and the audience is introduced/reintroduced to three lovely ladies who all have “a thing” for Ippo and that’s where we get the title of the episode “A Woman’s Battle”. They fight amongst themselves for a little bit until Ippo’s mum intervenes and proves to the audience that, no matter what, SHE is the true woman in his life. Although she hates watching his fights because “why would I pay money to watch my son get hurt”, she continues to help him recover and to enjoy his time out of the ring. Ippo’s mum, somewhat, keeps him grounded and in a state of peacefully recovery when not fighting and you can really see it makes a big impact on his life considering he’s up and running within no time.
In true Hajime No Ippo-style this episode is both a post-match/pre-match episode. Ippo’s fight is over and Aoki’s fight is about to begin. Aoki is another boxer that trains in the same gym as Ippo and is one of Ippo’s close friends. His match is coming up soon so a majority of this episode is set-up and preparation for that. We see the more comedic side of Hajime No Ippo in this episode too, which I thought fit well. Aoki’s preparations are incredibly drastic which complements his personality quite well and we also get a nice look into his past as well as the reason why he MUST win this fight. I found it to be great how, even though Aoki is a comedic character, he feels like he is falling behind and that this fight is really the be all and end all for him, he jokes about that throughout the episode but by the end of it you get the feeling that this really is it for him.
His hero, Takamura, has hit the big leagues and his junior Ippo has done the same which, in turn, has broken a great deal of Aoki’s spirit. While, of course, he loves that his best friends are celebreties in the boxing world as well as actual great boxers his goal now is to reach their level, not for the fame but for the satisfaction of knowing that he has what it takes to fight at their level and, once again, be on an even playing field. The emotions portrayed in this episode were great because, essentially, they are real feelings that someone would feel about their friends; elated yet conflicted, he wants to feel overjoyed about his friend’s success yet he can’t help but feel left behind and, in some ways, jealous. We’re also introduced to his opponent, Imae, who is said to be a very straight forward fighter whereas Aoki is an extremely odd and unorthodox one.
Imae has been studying Aoki’s fighting techniques and believes he can, not only crush him, but humiliate him in the process. The use of higher-level conflict is so great in Hajime No Ippo. There’s obviously the physical conflict of two fighters in the ring but then there’s also conflicting ideals and goals: One wants to prove his worth while his opponent is doing everything to make sure that he is humiliated in front of a large audience. it gives the characters more of a reason to win, it’s not only satisfaction and pride in Hajime No Ippo, while they are the fundamental reasons why the characters fight, there’s always more layers and we as the audience have to notice ourselves. The episode finishes with Imae walking into the gym for the pre-fight conference but instead walks into Aoki’s naked body as he’s just coming off the scales, you can’t get a comparison thicker than that and I’m anticipating the start to a brutal fight in the next episode. As far as Anime impressions go, episode 3 did make a good one. Check out more Hajime No Ippo – Rising Impressions HERE.
Last week it was announced that we would all be seeing an Officially produced and officially sold 3D Maneuver Gear from this years Anime hit Attack On Titan. It was said to be filly unveiled at an Attack On Titan based exhibition in Tokyo next year but it seems like the Anime world has gotten a huge look at what the 3D Maneuver Gear will look like seeing as the prototype of the item was shown at a smaller exhibition over the weekend. This small exhibit is set up in the observatory on the 60th floor of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro Sunchine center and, while not as big as the upcoming exhibition, it still showed off what is to come of this amazing merchandise release.
Alongside Anime screenshots and other Attack On Titan-based items and merchandise, the Official 3DMG was shown in all it’s glory in an incredible glass case, set up in a way that almost every angle of the item could be seen and from that many people have determined that this one-for-one scale of the item is possibly the best we’ve seen in a very long time. The final product is set to go on sale sometime next year but, for now, we can just sit in awe at the prototype which, to me, is already looking fantastic! Along side the pictures above, here are some more images of the exhibition just for you all to see exactly what it’s like. Don’t forget to head down to our comments section and drop us a line.
It looks like Penny Arcade hasn’t wasted anytime in prepping for the next convention set for Down Under seeing as it wrapped back in July. However, those expecting a repeat of this year’s set up will be quite surprised and also several months off. That’s right, PAX Aus 2014 wont be in July next year, but will be taking place a few months later.
Scheduled for October 31st-November 2nd, PAX Aus 2014 will also not be taking place in the same location. It will still be in Melbourne, but will be moving to a larger convention center with the reservation of the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. This means that fans can expect more room and hopefully more attendance with the higher capacity, which should prove very useful as this year’s PAX Aus sold out months beforehand.
Those excited for PAX Aus 2014 should be pretty glad for the news and it will be interesting to see what more news will come out as the months go on. More information can also of course be found from the PAX Aus website.
In the wake of the recent Grand Theft Auto V frenzy that swept the world, and made Rockstar a hefty little profit, people may recall the little game that started it all. Yep, the original top down massacre of the original GTA is receiving some newfound attention.
The original creator of Grand Theft Auto, Michael Dailly, has decided to rebuild the first game in a 3D form. The game apparently already contained three dimensional maps, that were simply viewed from a top down perspective. This allowed players to utilise bridges and tunnels and provide some sense of depth. So in a way, the original GTa was ready built for 3D driving without us even knowing. Clever.
Those damn potholes…
The remake will render the game using a new engine and is said to run at 60 frames per second. It is being rebuilt in GameMaker: Studio package, produced by YoYo Games, the company where Dailly currently works as head of development. He isn’t planning on releasing the build to the public yet, as there is still more work to do. There are currently no plans to implement gameplay into the map, though Dailly has said that, once its done, he’ll decide what to do with it.
