Australians can feel a small sense of pride for the upcoming release of Gran Turismo 6 as Australia’s own Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit, Bathurst, will be featured for the first time in any Gran Turismo game. The track is known worldwide for its incredible difficulty due to steep inclines and narrow mountain top section.
Sony and Polyphony Digital have released some images of the in-game recreation of Bathurst, plus the fifth concept movie which also centers on the track. But, Bathursts inclusion isn’t the only thing Australians have to look forward to as Gran Turismo 6 and the Bathurst track will be available for those attending EB Expo 2013 this weekend.
Those wanting to check out the images can see the full sized screenshots by clicking on them in the gallery below, as well as the new concept movie embedded below that. Those interested should be sure to preorder Gran Turismo 6for some additional cars before it releases worldwide on December 6th, 2013 exclusively for PS3.
Some great news has come for the Aussie Android users. Today PopCap Games has announced Plants vs. Zombies 2. The game is available for Australian and New Zealanders for real-world play testing and only downloadable on Google Play for Android phones, this is in the wake of the success of the Chinese edition of Plants vs. Zombies last month. The full release of Plants vs. Zombies 2 will be available to the rest of the world in due time, however like usual, the game has already been released on iPhones and iPads a while back. You can check out review for it here.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a great casual game that is made to be fun for all ages. The new game adds an extra layer to what we have already experienced in the original game with the inclusion of a time-traveling adventure. Players are propelled through different historical eras to fight against zombies from each respective era. Players are armed with a range of new specialized plants to face these zombies. The Android adaptation is currently available free-to-play (download it here) and it promises to bring the same compelling action and quirky humour as the first game which is already beloved by players the world over.
The Lame Game Marathon is returning for the third time with Aussie gamers Dan, Mark and Dukey once again willing to play some of the worst videogames ever made, crushing their spirits all in the name of charity.
The brave souls plan to live stream the traumatising ordeal as they play 15 terrible games for 24 hours straight. Some of the titles include:
2000’s overhyped and eternally delayed FPS blowout, Daikatana
An obscure, yet unintentionally hilarious Japanese PS1 title from 1998 known as King of Crusher
1994’s infamous fighting game based on the true life story of Shaquille o’Neal – Shaq Fu
The biker brawler trainwreck which is a current contender for the worst game of 2013: Ride To Hell: Retribution.
More games will be announced over the next three weeks, but others include Fast & Furious: Showdown and Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis. It’s certainly comforting to know that there is now a noble upside to the biker travesty released this year, Ride To Hell: Retribution.
Starting at 10am AEST on Saturday, October 26, Lame Game Marathon 3 aims to break the record of $7,300 set last year for UNICEF. The show’s coverage will be handled by dedicated hosts Mick, Sam, Leo and Shane while they get involved with the viewers over chat and social media.
Donations can be made before and during the event here while more info can be had on the official website. Check out the promo trailer below, too.
FIFA 14 Developer:EA Canada Publisher:EA (EA Sports) Platforms: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, PC Release Date: Out Now Price: $59.99 – Available Here
Overview
Another year, another FIFA. In 2014, there are more versions of the soccer title than ever before, with a Mobile Edition that is now free-to-play, a Legacy Edition for handhelds, the Wii and the PlayStation 2, current-gen entries and next-gen releases planned in November, which will take advantage of the newly developed EA Sports Ignite engine for exclusive features and tweaks. That doesn’t mean you should wait almost another two whole months to quench your thirst for the “beautiful game”. FIFA 14 for Xbox 360 is here right now… but PES 2014 has shown its mettle, resurrecting the brand in many’s eyes as a potential challenger, once again. Does FIFA 14keep its clean sheet against its rivals?…
Gameplay
When you start up FIFA 14, first thing that’ll happen is your pre-existing data from previous titles – if any – will carry over and inform your supported club, play-style, etc., just like in the last few iterations. Your social media accounts can also be linked, namely Facebook and YouTube (for achievement/video replay sharing). Once you’re out of the title screen, prepare to be greeted by a new, slick user interface. Front page is your Home tab, which collates key modes, statistics and updates for quick access. Then you have the Play tab where you can initiate any mode, the Football Club tab allows you to check in on your supported club’s progress and leaderboards and the Customisation tab where you can configure various settings, change your default kit or practice arena player, plus more.
All familiar modes make a return. ‘Be A Pro’ and ‘Tournaments’ have been relegated to the “More” sub-menu, so it is clear the developer has an acute understanding of which modes are less popular. I’ve always appreciated the attention to detail in the fact that every tournament has their real-life counterpart trophy represented in-game. Seasons is spotlighted, and pressing the ‘Start’ button brings up your friends list – whose achievements you are constantly reminded of and compared to throughout. Skill Games are playable from the ‘Play’ tab, as is the Practice Arena. Of course, where the fun really is at is Career and FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT).
FUT is addictive as ever, and if you do have data to carry over from FIFA 13, you may find a nice reward to kick-start your team building campaign in the form of special Card Packs. In terms of what’s new for the mode, Player Styles is an addition that affects team chemistry. They dictate a player’s specialties based on their tendencies and develop through playing matches. In all likelihood, you’ll be spending a large chunk of your time in FUT or Career, either as a player or Manager. In Player Career, choosing someone as skilful as Robben from a highly ranked team such as Bayern Muchen, for example’s sake, puts higher expectations on your performance. If you ever get frustrated, it is possible to request your own transfer or loan. Perhaps your character is getting older and you decide to call it quits, transitioning to become a Manager.
Manager Career is more involved this year. Need more funds to buy a certain player, whose purchase you deem imperative to the team’s success? You can request funds from the commission with specific stipulations (e.g., “We will attain first place in the league table”). Your agent will keep you informed of opportunities to coach national squads, and you can also manage the youth squad. Through scouting, you are able to specify conditions for your region-specific or global transfer network search and make a contractual offer to desired players. Each player can be scouted further for a more detailed report on their skills and abilities, with each scout having a judgment rating and able to handle up to 6 reports at any one time.
FIFA 14 features some fundamental changes to its core, mostly relating to engine/technical advancements. Pure Shot now allows you to adjust your stride and shoot from more positions and footings (whether intentional or not). Knuckle shots as well as other techniques can now be executed, although they aren’t initiated like a finesse shot, for instance, which requires holding the ‘RB’ button and pressing ‘B’ for shoot. They happen depending on your player’s skill level, positioning, and other factors. Bolstered by the new Real Ball Physics, striking is much more satisfying – no longer will the ball’s trajectory seem like a coded, key-framed finish, but an organic, dynamic outcome. In regards to other gameplay alterations, protecting the ball has never been easier, and can now be done whilst dribbling at any speed. And formation/team fatigue is displayed on the match pause/half-time screen, which is extremely helpful. You can even flick the right thumbstick for an instantaneous formation change from here.
Also, the majority of tricks are now delegated to the right thumbstick alone, becoming easily accessible when it was once daunting to attempt. This doesn’t mean the harder manoeuvres are any easier to achieve, but the configuration change is definitely more convenient and approachable. Teammate Intelligence is another hyped advancement; your fellow team members now make more clever runs on the offensive, and pro-actively recognise ideal opportunities for defensive support. It’s just a shame I couldn’t test my skills online as EA’s servers prevented me from doing so at every turn. I was disconnected and dropped out from 10 attempts in a row before I plainly gave up. Another aggravation stems from the removal of popular and successful national teams such as Serbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Japan and more, whilst terrible footballers like India remain. Why was this done? Hopefully they are added – free of charge – in future updates.
Visual and Audio
Character models are slightly improved title-to-title, and in FIFA 14, managers are now making their presence known on the sidelines. Managers can be seen standing at the front of the ‘team box’, although they are about as detailed as the 3D members of the crowds. The biggest visual difference from FIFA 13 is the completely revamped U.I. Its modular, metro-like layout is crisp and easily read, with no traditional menus and lists to scroll through, and less lag. I liken it closely to the Xbox 360 dashboard layout. Some might not like hearing that, but I’m confident the majority of players should prefer this interface style.
Martin Tyler and Alan Smith return as familiar voices on commentary. It’s very hard to prevent any sort of repetition in commentary for a sports title… in fact, it’s nigh impossible. The sheer amount of lines that would have to be written and recorded in order for even a few matches in a row to have 100% unique commentary is daunting. But, that doesn’t change the fact that hearing the same, singular line stated over and over again begins to aggravate the player, especially when they’re not particular tailored to the situation at hand, but just cycled through. Nonetheless, there is a lot of new dialogue implemented to stay current with the product/sport.
Jeff Stelling has joined the team as the pre-match and stadium announcer, although I’m not sure how much he actually adds to the experience. Was his inclusion necessary? Probably not, but hey, no harm, no foul really. In-match, the deafening boos and vehement jeers of my bitter rival’s supporters when I beat them in their home town is a greatly appreciated touch. FIFA always has a good selection of music on-hand for your menu-surfing listening pleasure, with this year’s line-up including ‘Copy Of A’ from juggernaut NIN, tracks from popular bands such as Empire of the Sun and Vampire Weekend, and the particularly catchy ‘We Sink’ by CHVRCHES. Pro Tip: Press the ‘Back’ button to skip songs.
Overall
EA Canada find ways of fine-tuning the FIFA gameplay experience with every instalment, and this year is no different. The combination of Pure Shot and Real Ball Physics results in more varied and realistic strikes; Teammate Intelligence is substantially higher as they make appropriate more runs and are not just reactive, but pro-active, and Precision Movement brings a great sense of momentum to play. The new U.I. is cleaner and the Career mode – in particular the Manager’s Career – has seen significant additions and enhancements, creating a decidedly deeper affair.
Unfortunately, persistent, yearly-issues relating to repetitive commentary and EA’s unstable servers still have not been answered, the latter of which becoming a major obstacle in enjoying or even accessing, for that matter, many online components. Numerous teams have also been inexplicably omitted… and not smaller teams either – Asia champions Japan and previously consistent top 10 in the world Croatia being two prime examples. Thankfully, the more notable improvements came in the most important department – the gameplay (which is hard to gauge just by watching) – and this is why FIFA 14 retains its crown.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Wargaming has released details of Update 8.9 for its free-to-play MMO, World of Tanks, revealing a new team battle mode along with a second set of powerful German Tank Destroyers. Japanese vehicles were only recently added to the game, increasing the variety on show.
Promising to increase the game’s competitiveness, the new mode will let players form teams that will battle it out with opposing forces of similar skill level.
The new line of German Tank Destroyers range from Tier 4 to Tier 10 and include machines such as the Marder III which was designed to counter the effective Soviet T-34 tanks. The Tier 6 Nashorn is a sledgehammer designed to smash heavy tanks while the Waffenträger auf Pz.IV uses a 360-degree rotating turret, unusual for self-propelled tank destroyers.
Finally, a new battle arena is also added called “Northwest” set in North America along with Erlenberg receiving the Encounter battle mode. World of Tanks is a team-based MMO for the PC, dedicated to armoured warfare and features over 300 steel machines from multiple nations.
Overview
The sound of tractors, the smell of freshly mowed grass, the taste of a chicken’s egg, crops ready for the picking. All of these are the call of the wild for farming fanatics. These are the things they live for and that passion is something that Farming Simulator 2013 aims to capture.
While many will write Farming Simulator 2013 off as simply silly, there is undoubtedly an audience for such a game. If you love farming or are just genuinely intrigued by the idea of a farming simulation, there may be some honest to goodness fun to be had with Farming Simulator 2013. It may have its fair share of bugs, but if you dig deep enough you’ll see the underneath that tractor stuck under a wagon is a real heart of gold.
Farming Simulator 2013 may very well be the most endearing gameplay experience of the year. It’s like a ride-on lawn mower stuck on a fence, no matter how frustrating it may be there is just something about it you can’t help but find awesome.
Gameplay
Farming Simulator 2013 is as the name suggest a farming simulator game. It places you on one of two selectable farms and gives you tasks to undertake all in the goal of bettering your farm and building yourself an impressive lot of crop and animals to work with. It is a relatively simple concept, but Giants Software decided to complicate it a bit.
The complication comes in the form of the game’s control scheme, which as you’ll notice in the loading screens, is pretty damn intense. Each button has about 4 different actions attributed to them each with different combinations being required to do different tasks. It can be frustrating at times, but once you get past the steep learning curve you’ll find a real challenging experience to partake in.
There are a number of bugs and glitches present in the game that can be often disrupting to the experience, but they are more so funny than anything else. If anything they will give you a good laugh before correcting themselves. It seems a lot of the glitches and bugs come from vehicle use. Simply bumping into another vehicle can often have disastrous results such as one vehicle becoming stuck under another or in other cases flying into the sky. It is great for a laugh though.
If you can look past the problems though, you’ll see that there is actually a fair amount of fun involved with vehicle use. Controlling a tractor or driving a small and speedy vehicle gives the same sense of open world chaotic fun you’d expect from a game like Grand Theft Auto. The real fun however comes from nailing the tasks attributed to each vehicle. The most common of which are to mow the lawn, harvest crops or sow seeds.
It has a immersive open world and a plethora of farming based simulations to engage yourself with. Even if you just want to do silly stuff, Giants Software have more than accommodated to those types of players with a number of wacky possibilities available to players with a more crazy side to them.
Farming Simulator 2013 is a surprisingly deep game that is held back by some significant control issues and apparent bugs. Fans of the concept are bound to be able to look past this and see what a real diamond in the rough Farming Simulator 2013 really is.
Visuals and Audio
As far as graphics go, Farming Simulator 2013 is visually accurate for the most part to the farming life style and the available vehicles are all well designed and represent their real life counterparts well. It may not be the most awe-inspiring visuals work but the game has a solid graphical style that is well designed despite some corners cut here and there.
The game’s soundtrack is relatively pedestrian, not leaving an significant impact on the experience in any real way whatsoever. The use of real farming sound effects is a great way to increase the games realism and thus increasing the quality of the simulation, but some of the sounds can become somewhat grating after a while.
Overall
Farming Simulator 2013 is a special kind of simulation game. It’s not just one that simulates the tireless work of farmers, but the tireless lives of those passionate men and women who toil and labor over their farms. If you really get down to the nitty gritty of the game, you’ll see that it’s an experience with a level of depth that may not be immediately apparent at first glance. Give it a real good go and you’ll come to see that Farming Simulator 2013 has heart.
It is far from a perfect game and it has more than its fair share of problems, of both the frustrating and funny kind, but Farming Simulator 2013 is really at its core a pretty fun simulation game. It can feel like a harvester stuck in a tree sometimes, but when it really gets rolling its like a chicken that learned to fly.
This game is a real diamond in the rough. Sure it may look like a big old lump of coal at first glance but if you shine it up nice and pretty and take a gander at what lies underneath you’ll see that it’s actually a shining example of just how inventive the simulation genre can be. If something exists in real life it can surely be simulated in a game and Farming Simulator 2013 is proof that it can actually be pretty fun too.
If you go into Farming Simulator 2013 thinking it’s going to be silly, you’ll probably get that. But if you go in without any preconceptions, or if you are a farming fan looking for some fun, you’ll likely find that despite its inherent flaws, Farming Simulator 2013 is arguably the best farming simulation game on the market. Well the tractor is ready, do you wanna go for a ride?
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Monster launched the iSport Freedom headphones today. The on ear headphone uses Bluetooth technology to play music from smartphones. As part of the iSport line, the iSport Freedom is sweat proof while maintaining high quality sound.
Geoff Matthews, CEO of Australian Monster distributor Convoy, says “The new iSport Freedom headphones target anyone who wants to achieve their very best. From entry level fitness enthusiasts to the most hard core workout buffs and professional athletes, the iSport Freedom headphones provide active listeners with a new way to excel at their sport whilst enjoying great sounding music.”
The Monster iSport Freedom are available at JB HiFi and Harvey Norman in Australia for $349 AUD.
Come on and slam and welcome to the jam! NBA 2K14 has slam dunked its way into stores across Australia and New Zealand today bringing the latest evolution in the popular basketball game series once again into the hands of eager gamers and ballers alike.
To celebrate this phenomenal release, 2K Games have released a launch trailer to the wilds of the internet much like Kobe Bryant launches a ball towards the net in a game of basketball. You can check out the launch trailer for the game below featuring the Kanye West song ‘All of the Lights’. NBA 2K14 is out now on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 be sure to pick it up and get ready to slam dunk your way to victory.
Further underscoring its position as a premiere horror genre-centric DVD, Blu-ray and digital entertainment provider, Scream Factory is pleased to announce “31 Days of Screams”. This is going to be a month long Halloween celebration aimed to engage horror fans even further by placing an appropriately theme holiday emphasis behind its unique library of film classics. Its fast-growing social and digital video channels feature original content created for the launch.
The promotion started on October 1, 2013 and will be continuing daily until October 31. It will be broken down into three multi-faced categories to make it more convenient for the participants.
Scream Factory / Shout! Factory continues to raise the bar while curating and revitalizing some of the most underrated horror and sci-fi cult classics through highly-engaged online social media. You can get the full list of everything included here.
Today Viz Media has announced that they will be debuting the third movie and final movie of the Berserk: The Golden Age Arc trilogy in a triple feature down at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas down in Texas.
The three Berserk movies will be shown back to back at two different Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on two different days. On Saturday October 26th the first two movies and the subtitled version of the third movie will be shown at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Vintage Park, located at 114 Vintage Park Blvd., Houston, TX while on Sunday October 27th all three movies will be shown with their English dub at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Mason Park, located at 531 S. Mason Rd., Katy, TX. Tickets are only $15 and are available for purchase here.
Some great news has come for the Aussie Android users. Today 
Today