Ubisoft has launched the closed beta for Panzer General Online in North America, a free-to-play iteration of the Panzer General WWII tank series. The PC browser game was announced earlier this year with a debut trailer.
Developed by Blue Byte with Funatics Software, Panzer General Online is a turn-based strategy game with a card collecting system playable within the browser. Players collect and trade virtual miniatures of tanks, infantry and artillery in order to create and upgrade a personalised army. Command cards can also be used to call in air strikes and perform maneuvers.
You can check out the official website and sign up for free here.
Stardock, the development studio behind digital card game Dead Man’s Hand, have announced the third installment in their award-winning PC strategy game series, Galactic Civilizations.
Announced as Stardock celebrates its 20th anniversary, Galactic Civilizations III has also had a few bits of information leak on it. Possibly most shockingly, Stardock revealed that GCIII will be coming exclusively to 64-bit PCs. The game will also add new features including multiplayer, political intrigue, upgraded visuals, and much more.
Of the move to 64-bit, Stardock vice president Derek Paxton said:
“The move to 64-bit architecture heralds a new era of game development at Stardock. The technology allows players to experience a level of graphical detail and on-screen activity unprecedented in large-scale strategy PC games. It dramatically increases the size and scope of the maps, and opens the door for modders to add a virtually unlimited amount of new content to the game.”
To check out the GCIII trailer, be sure to check out the video below this article. You can also check out the game’s official website here. To celebrate, Steam is also featuring Stardock games on sale beginning this Thursday!
Along with a handful of other series, Wagnaria!! (Working!!) was one of the first few anime that NIS America started working with when they jumped into the anime industry. When that anime was given a second season back at the end of 2011 many people thought it would be an easy pick up for the company, but two years later no such announcement was ever made.
That all changed today when the company announced that they have picked up the second season and will be calling it Wagnaria!! 2 and they are planning on releasing it in a Blu-ray only premium edition on February 4, 2014 for $64.99. The premium edition will come with a hardcover art book which will include an episode guide, character info for new characters and color illustrations.
While news about Tales of Xillia 2 in the West has been fairly scarce, today Namco Bandai has released a new English trailer for the game which features a combination of both great looking anime cutscenes as well as great looking in-game footage in what appears to be a very dark fantasy story following Ludger and Elle.
The story of the game takes place a year after the events of the first Tales of Xillia game and follows Ludger Will Kresnik as he travels alongside a girl named Elle Mel Marta who is searching for the land of Canaan and when the two are suddenly attacked, Ludger gains mysterious powers from a strange pocket watch held by Elle.
Kickstarter seems to be the place to go if you want to develop games based on emerging sports. There aren’t many sports games that can generate as much hype as titanic franchises like FIFA or Madden, so for more niche sports like lacrosse, the crowdfunding possibilities of Kickstarter are a godsend to devout fans.
Crosse Studios are partnering up with Big Ant Studios in order to develop Lacrosse 14, coined as, “A video game that captures the authenticity and realism of lacrosse like never before.” The Pittsburgh based studio, developers of three College Lacrosse games, promised that this title will feature online multiplayer, high fidelity graphics, character customization,and a dynasty mode that spans multiple years. An extra cool feature of the Kickstarter means that fans who preorder the game will be able to have their name and face put into the game, allowing them to play as themselves when the game is released.
Lacrosse 14 will be funded by a Kickstarter campaign and should be available for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in Spring 2014.
In the 90s, arcades were packed out with guys crowding Street Fighter II, waiting for Chun-Li to do her “spinning bird kick”, hoping to see that pixelated panty shot. In 2013, the mentality of fighting game fans has changed very little. From the outfit of King of Fighters‘ Mai Shiranui to pretty much everything in Dead or Alive, female characters in fighting games have always been fan favourites. It was only a matter of time until an all female roster like Skullgirlstook us all by storm. Now meet Girl Fight, another fighting game hoping to capitalise on a similar ideal. But with an experience that’s mediocre at best, Girl Fight stands as a reminder that you need more than just boobs to make a fighting game good.
Story
With a name as creative as Girl Fight, it’s surprising this game even has a story to tell. Regardless, Girl Fight does have a minor plot linking it all together, which seems to have as little creativity as it’s title. An evil corporation called The Foundation has discovered that women possess powers that men don’t have for some unexplained reason. If this game wasn’t so aggressively sexualised, you’d may mistake this for a feminist view. The Foundation then takes a bunch of chicks and puts then into a computer simulation (which is also unexplained) and they are forced to fight so the computer can gather data on them. Each battle in the usual arcade mode starts with a sentence about your character to give a hint to their backstory, with a voice that sounds like the iPhone’s Siri. However, while these motivations are used to break up combat, there is basically no ending to any of the characters worth paying attention to. Also with no voice acting from any of the actual fighters and no cut scenes, this story is so paper thin there may as well be no story at all.
Gameplay
Girl Fight is painfully generic, however it’s core mechanics are solid. This 3D fighter takes heavy inspiration from games like Tekken and Dead or Alive and is more or less a 4 button fighter. You have one button to kick, one to punch, one to block Mortal Kombat style and one to grab/throw. The two triggers are used for specials, but we’ll get into that later. There is no real variety in characters as they all seem to have very similar combos, height and weight, so while there is a decent sized roster they all essentially play the same. While 3D movement is present, combat still takes place mostly on a 2D scale, and with no projectiles or flashy special moves besides a throw, there’s not really much present to keep players interested after a few rounds. All this pretty much boils down to the fact that with such minor variations in both the roster and combat, little strategy is involved and it all comes down to simple button mashing for the most part. Heck on my first try of the “inhuman” difficulty with a character I never used before I got a perfect in the first round….and I didn’t even know any moves!
In all fairness, it should be noted that the basics are done well for a cheap XBLA title. Girl Fight also makes a couple attempts to be innovative as well with a large focus on character customisation. Before a battle players can pick two specials to assign to their two shoulder triggers. These can range from powerful attacks, power ups and even health recovery. These burn meter so they are used sparingly. While this is a nice touch and may seem to add a little depth, it’s also the only specials characters can do since they don’t have any themselves. This means every character is able to use the same meter burning special attacks. Furthermore, with online play it’s almost impossible to find a competitor online, so the multiplayer’s wager system for in-game currency is seldom seen in action. This currency is earned in both single player and multiplayer combat and can be used to purchase more costumes, moves and more in an attempt to expand the game’s life. So it is nice to see Girl Fight has tried to go beyond the bare minimum of a fighting game, even if it isn’t by much.
Audio & Visual
For a game that relies so heavily on good looking women, you’d think it’d look better. 3D models are of an Xbox/Playstation 2/GameCube standard, but you shouldn’t expect much more from a digital download title anyways. Textures are ok, not great and animation can be a little stiff. Character design is incredibly generic and boring as well. The asian warrior’s name is Shogun, the military chick’s name is Warchild, you get the idea. It’s just female versions of typical clichés, rinse and repeat with no charisma at all. Upon winning arcade mode and other challenges players can unlock sexy artwork of the fighters and see similar styled pics during loading screens. These are nicely penciled but do little to add to the experience. The soundtrack consists of electronic music which suit the tone of the game, but the production of a couple of the more dubstep-influenced tracks seem slightly subpar in terms of quality. No voice acting is present for any of the playable characters, and instead we only get the announcer who also is the only voice talent for the story. Note I use the word “talent” loosely as it’s basically just a boring robotic voice that sounds pretty much exactly like the iPhone’s Siri.
Overall
Girl Fight is the most basic, stripped down version of a generic 3D fighting game. The core mechanics are present and are quite solid, but there are no bells and whistles to actually draw you in. Uncreative character design, the roster has little to no variety, no proper voice acting, stiff animations and lacklustre gameplay results in a game with nothing to offer. It seems the developers know how to make a fighter that feels solid and responsive, but haven’t put much effort in surprising the player or providing much…well, fun. Ultimately, it’s major flaws all lie in fields of design and polish. Like I said earlier, it takes more than just boobs to make a good fighting game.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Nintendo loves to release their consoles in a variety of colours and limited editions and the 3DS has been no exception. We’ve seen Pokemon themes, Animal Crossing themes and now, a previously exclusive to Japan Luigi themed 3DS XL is joining the group as well as another Legend of Zelda edition based on the newest title A Link Between Worlds.
The Luigi themed console is white with Luigi silhouettes plastered all over the cover in different shades of green. The console nicely caps off the Year of Luigi which Nintendo has been celebrating this year. The console will cost £179.99 and is available from November 1. The Zelda themed console comes with a download code for the new game The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The console is gold on top and black on to the bottom and when opened, the forms the game’s logo of the two Triforce’s. In releated news, the retail version of the game will come with a reversible cover allowing players to choose between the all gold cover or a full colour depiction. A Link Between Worlds releases on November 22nd with the limited edition console releasing on the same day at a price of £199.99.
The bad news is these consoles have only been confirmed for a release in Europe so far. Check out the gallery below for pictures of the new consoles and the reversible cover. Has this tempted you to buy a 3DS or maybe even add another to your collection? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’ve been agonizing over whether you should jump at the chance to play Watch Dogs on current generation consoles or pick it up on a next gen machine then you no longer need to worry about it for quite some time since the game, originally slated to be released in mid-November for various consoles, has now been delayed by Ubisoft.
The game is now going to be released on all platforms sometime in Spring 2014 and while it is certainly an odd choice to delay a game one month from release for at least another five months, apparently the team has been struggling with whether or not the game should be delayed but ultimately decided to delay it so that they could “take the extra time to polish and fine tune every detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”
While Ubisoft had never claimed that The Crew would be a launch title for next-gen consoles, it had been something of a launch window game but that is no longer the case. Today in an investor call Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that the game which was originally meant to be released in early 2014 has now been pushed back into Q2 of the 2015 fiscal year.
While this may sound bad, it is worth noting that this delay only means that the game has now undergone only a few month delay and is still likely going to be released sometime in mid-2014. Despite this delay we recently had some hands on time with the game and you can read about that here.
If you’re looking for a new action RPG for the Vita then you may be happy to hear that Valhalla Knights 3 from XSEED Games is now available for purchase in North America. The title will cost $39.99 and is available both physically and digitally.
As for gamers in Europe and other PAL regions, the game has been announced for digital release in those areas and they can expect it to be available digitally on October 23rd for the price of £24.99 and €29.99. To see whether or not the game is worth picking up you can find our review for Valhalla Knights 3 here.
Along with a handful of other series, 
