A little late to the party, but Ubisoft have announced that the latest installment in their hit dance party franchise; Just Dance 2014 will be hitting store shelves across the UK this Friday. The game has a mix of old classics, and new dance tracks to keep fans of all ages entertained and shuffling their feet. Some of the tracks included in the set list are;
Get Lucky – Daft Punk Ft. Pharrell Williams
Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke Ft. Pharrell
Feel So Right – Imposs Ft. Konshens
Kiss You – One Direction
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
These tracks are joined by many others, for more than a staggering 45 available at launch. Also included in Just Dance 2014 is the World Dance Floor, which is the series’ first online multiplayer mode. In World Dance Floor, players can make a dance crew and compete against one another globally to see who is the best.
In celebration of Just Dance 2014’s launch, Ubisoft have also released Autodance 2014 by Just Dance on iOS and Android devices. Autodance allows players of all skill levels to record choreography for some of the game’s hottest tracks, and share them with the world. Whether you are just having fun with friends, or are looking to be the best dancer in the world, Autodance will be able to make your Just Dance dreams come true.
Just Dance 2014 will launch this Friday, October 4th in the UK and will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and Wii. Autodance 2014 by Just Dance is available NOW through the iOS App Store, and coming soon to Android. We have attached the launch trailer for the game below, so be sure to check it out and remember that for all the Just Dance news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
EA and Dice have kicked off the Battlefield 4 beta on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Currently, Battlefield 3 Premium members, those who pre-ordered Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe Edition and registered owners of Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition can jump in and play.
For the rest of you, the beta will be open to download on October 4 for all three systems. The beta features the now-familiar Siege of Shanghai map along with two game modes, Conquest and Domination. For more info, visit the official beta page.
Aside from serving as a preliminary bug and stress test, the beta familiarises players with the changes and features of a Battlefield that is fairly different from Battlefield 3. New guns, vehicles and gameplay mechanics along with a far more intimate spawning and customisation system is all there to try out.
Battlefield 4 Premium membership is already available to buy, providing access to all future expansion packs. The game is coming out on October 31 for current-gen platforms with an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release date of November 22 and November 29, respectively.
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ Developer: Namco Bandai Games Publisher: Namco Bandai Games Platforms: Steam (Reviewed), Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Windows Phone, Windows Runtime Release Date:September 25th 2013 Price: $9.99 – Available Here
Overview
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ is a downloadable arcade game and the newest addition to the Pac-Man franchise developed and published by Namco Bandai and is the follow-up to the 2007 game PAC-MAN Championship Edition, but includes all of the downloadable content from Pac-Man CE for free. PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ has recently been released on Steam, as well is available for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Windows Phone, and Windows Runtime.
Gameplay
Depending on who you ask, PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ is the perfect step forward for the Pac-Man franchise, which started back in 1980. A lot has changed since 1980, but the advancements in the video game industry have given Namco the opportunity to improve on the gameplay elements seen in its original counterpart.
There are many differences, for the better, in PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ when compared to the 1980 release of Pac-Man. It’s become faster, harder, versatile, and more addicting, but like its predecessors, it all starts with the maze; Each maze is divided into two halves, the player navigates their way through the maze, eating dots, ghosts, and bonus items to gain points. When Pac-Man consumes a bonus item one one end of the map, the other half changes, causing a new path to emerge, all while evading the multitude of ghosts.
This gets more challenging and diverse with the plethora of modes and courses that ship with PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+. If the regular five minute “Score Attack” isn’t enough, each map also has various time trials, and other game modes like “Ghost Combo” or the ten minute version of score attack.
After you’ve mastered those, why not try and replay all twelve courses in the dark? “Darkness” mode is precisely that; in each pitch black maze, only Pac-Man, dots, and the ghosts are illuminated, the course itself is dark, leaving each of your moves in question with the ever changing maze.
If you’re looking to play casually, PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ has a mode for you; a ten minute “Free” mode with unlimited lives.
Another few gameplay mechanics sneaking their way into PAC-MAN Championship addition DX+, like “Cornering”. Cornering is the technique to move Pac-Man in the direction you want to turn, before the turn comes, Pac-Man will emit sparks and will turn that corner more sharply when it comes time.
Ghosts have come back with a vengeance in PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+, with the maximum ghosts on screen, going from the conventional four in Pac-Man (1980), to the seemingly infinite cluster of ghosts on your tail in DX+. This paired with the game’s speed adjustment makes for an exhilarating rush. In Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+, Pac-Man’s speed increases as you earn more points; going from 1-50 and the differences are noticeable.
Because of the faster pace and, sometimes, overwhelming amount of ghosts on the course, Pac-Man also has with him a set of bombs, which clears the maze of ghosts, forcing them to respawn in the “Ghost Hideout” located in the center of the map. This buys you time and is sometimes the difference between Pac-Man nomming on dots and fruits another day or leaving Mrs. Pac-Man an unhappy widow.
Visuals and Audio
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ comes with a great array of visuals, character models, and audio choices. Each “skin” which comes free with the DX+ version of PAC-MAN Championship Edition, makes every playthrough unique and invigorating.
Each course can be played with twelve different visual and character choices, leading to an aray of combinations. Some of the skins include “Pack is Back”, a pack based off of the Pac-Man Television Series; “Dig Dug” and “Rally-X” also make cameos, both based off of their own games of the same name.
The sound effects in PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ are great quality and fit right in with the musical score. Along with the visuals and character skin, you can select music from a set of nine tracks, seven electronica-style tracks which fit great with pace of the game and two retro tracks for Dig Dug and Rally-x.
The fantastic Audio and Visuals mesh seamlessly together with the rest of PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ and it makes for an great and stimulating experience.
Overall
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ is an amazingly addictive game that we here at Capsule Computers will be playing long after this review and aside from a few desired additions that would push PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ to the next level, it’s a near perfect game.
But isn’t the fact that we want more a good thing? With so much customization and a wide range of courses and game modes, the only thirst that would be left to quench is a custom level, game mode, and difficulty generator; Like the ability to take away bombs all together, grant yourself only one life per course, set the time limit to unlimited, or eat your way around a maze in the shaped of your Grandmothers face!
Maybe that will be included if they ever decide to make Super Mega Extreme PAC-MAN Ultimate Special Championship Edition Deluxe Deluxe++ 2.0.5 3D Online II: Game Of The Year Edition but until then PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ will have to do, and believe me, it’s quite the awesome consolation prize.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Rockstar have again released a load of information that you might find handy should you want to jump into the GTA Online experience from Day One! They are always so detailed that I really don’t want to mess with their press release and try to summarise/re-word it for fear of missing important details. Here it is in its entirety:
With just hours remaining until the initial launch of Grand Theft Auto Online, here’s some more information to share to help get everyone ready for tomorrow. You can also look forward to plenty of GTA Online game tips and other community support features to roll out at the Rockstar Games Social Club website tomorrow as well – expect tutorial tips to be updated regularly as new content is added to GTA Online.
Access to GTA Online
Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with your copy of Grand Theft Auto V. On October 1st there will be a small downloadable Title Update released on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE. Upon installation of that Title Update, direct access to begin GTA Online will be unlocked in your GTAV game menu. You will be able to jump right into GTA Online via the 4th (bottom) slot in your GTAV character wheel. We’ve received many questions asking for a specific confirmation of what exact time GTA Online will be available but of course this is contingent on both Title Updates becoming available on each console’s network. As a general timeframe, we do expect the Title Update to become available on PSN and Xbox LIVE starting around 9PM Eastern Australian time this evening (1st October) , and your best bet is to stay tuned throughout the day here at the Rockstar Newswire and by following us on Twitter and Facebook where we will be keeping everyone updated.
When does GTA Online Take Place?
Some people who’ve been playing through Grand Theft Auto V’s Story Mode have been inquiring how the narrative of GTA Online correlates or crosses over. Grand Theft Auto Online is set a few months prior to the events of Grand Theft Auto V’s single player story.
Home and Garage Security
There’s plenty of havoc and treachery you can cause out in the open world of course, but in order to prevent some really annoying “griefing”, we’ve designed house party invitations specifically to be a friendly social affair where players can visit each other’s pads without fear of having them ruined or losing their hard-earned vehicles in the process. If someone invites you into their property, then it is considered a friendly visit and you will not be able to shoot up their place or steal their cars from their garage. By the way, in any given lobby, if you and another player own the same piece of property, you will each be able to enter your own personal instance of that property at any given time. You will also be able to enter each other’s instance of that property if you exchange and accept an invite. This way, multiple instances of ownership of the same property within a lobby can co-exist.
GTA$ and Fair Play
To allay some concerns we’ve heard on this subject, we can assure you that the game is designed such that the option of purchasable GTA$ should not disrupt the playing field – and there are a few mechanics in place to help ensure that. All players still have to rank up with Reputation Points (RP) in order to get access to purchase high-end items. No one can begin GTA Online and simply spend a lot of money out of the gate to get a leg up. You will have to earn your stripes and play to unlock access to the aspirational clothes, guns and other items. Please also remember that in GTA Online, hustling to afford the finer things by earning GTA$ doing robberies, stick-ups, winning races and other profitable activities is a fun gameplay experience rather than ever being a ‘grind’. As we mentioned on Wednesday, we will constantly tweak all areas of the game to make it play fairer and iron out any balancing problems (while fixing all the other problems we encounter!), but we really need your help in figuring out what those issues are. So please work with us on that!
An Ever-Growing Collection of Jobs
Grand Theft Auto Online is a long-term GTA experience that you can expect to be built-upon, to grow and to evolve in many ways in the coming weeks, months and beyond. As part of that, there will be a massive amount of Jobs available to play over time as we will be regularly adding new ones for you to enjoy. Additionally, you will soon be helping to add content to the game world yourselves, by creating custom Race and Deathmatch Jobs through the Content Creator tool which we plan to release this fall. Grand Theft Auto Online is a collaborative project between Rockstar and all GTA players worldwide, so expect that we’ll effectively be working on it together from day one. As a very small example, the Crew Hierarchies feature that was introduced a few weeks back on Social Club was a direct result of popular fan feedback from last year – and we’ll be looking at the GTA Online community’s feedback, input and ideas constantly to help inform how the game itself will grow and evolve. As mentioned last week, we’ll be looking closely at your feedback emails sent to [email protected] and in the GTA Online Suggestion Box board at the forthcoming Social Club Forums. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you as active participants in the world of GTA Online starting tomorrow.
The Character Creation System
The hereditary-based character creation system of Grand Theft Auto Online allows for a multitude of options to create your avatar that will then inhabit the online world of Los Santos & Blaine County. Choose your gender then decide on your mother and father. From there, you can choose to give one parent genetic dominance or leave them more evenly matched. The choice is yours. Next, you adjust a set of lifestyle variables which help determine your character’s appearance and starting stats. Decide how much sleep he/she gets, how much partying they indulge in, how much honest work versus illegal activity, and more. Essentially, you can adjust the genetics to wind up with a fresh faced lad or lass or a grizzled, haggard degenerate or anywhere in between! You’ll also be able to preview your end result in real time all throughout to ensure you’re satisfied before putting your character on a direct flight to LS. Of course, once you’re out and about in the open world, you can further customize your character with haircuts, clothing and accessories to suit your tastes.
Exclusive Social Club Features
In Grand Theft Auto Online, Social Club members get access to weaponry and vehicular unlocks, a whole new suite of Crew features to represent and coordinate with your squad, and special tools to get the most out of Rockstar Jobs and user-created Jobs when the Content Creator tool launches this fall. Check out the updated www.rockstargames.com/V/socialclub for an overview of GTA Online Social Club features including new Crew customization possibilities like Crew colors and Emblem vehicle decals, Crew messaging options, and Open or Closed Crew Sessions. Plus unlocks like the Sawed-Off Shotgun, the Annis Elegy RH8 and the John Marston Parent option to do the Marston family proud in the modern day West. Also stay tuned for info later in October about the very first GTA Online Social Club Events which will have special Event Playlists curated by Rockstar, reserved in-game license plate awards for top players, and more. So, if you haven’t joined, we recommend doing so!
Expect that we’ll be keeping you up to date here at the Newswire as the Title Updates become available on PSN and Xbox LIVE. We’re very much looking forward to seeing you and your Crews hit the wide open world of Los Santos and Blaine County in GTA Online tomorrow.
To be available from $2,699 AUD through JB Hi-Fi and Razerzone.com, the world’s thinnest gaming laptop, the Razer Blade – along with the Razer Blade Pro – will be released in Australia on October 18th.
The 14-inch Razer Blade is designed for ultra-portability, measuring in at just 0.66-inches thin, but packing more power-per-cubic-inch than any other laptop in the world. The 17-inch Razer Blade Pro is the third iteration of Razer’s ground-breaking portable gaming laptop, and is now faster and more powerful than ever before. It has been refined to increase performance without sacrificing that signature portability at 0.88 inches thin and 6.5 pounds. All the way down to the compact power supply, the Razer Blade Pro is sleek in design. Both are the most portable gaming laptop in their respective classes. Look below for a list of specifications and product features.
Today the television commercial for NBA 2K14 was released and I should know, I saw it at least ten times while watching sports earlier today. Anyways, 2K Sports has released the commercial online as well and you can check it out below. For those wondering, the accompanied song is “Step Into a World” by KRS One.
The footage of the game is said to be from the PlayStation 4 version of the game, though it is also coming to the Xbox One as a launch title and current generation consoles on October 1. For those who don’t know, anyone who pre-orders the game will also be able to get the King James bonus pack when the game is released.
Idea Factory, the parent company to Compile Heart and the maker of many games such as the Hyperdimension Neptunia, Record of Agarest War, Hakuoki series and many other titles, including one brand new teaser, has always had most of their titles brought to the West through various third party publishers. While some have slipped through the cracks, such as Monster Monpiece shown to the right, it seems that they are going to be trying to take matters into their own hands.
Today it was announced that they are opening up a base in California called Idea Factory International with former NIS America president Harusato Akenaga as the CEO. The company’s website, which will launch soon, can be found hereand a statement from the company can be found below:
“As it increases the volume of various content it wishes to make available globally, Idea Factory International intends to focus on providing general and overall information regarding Idea Factory properties to NA and EU fans, as well as strengthen the Idea Factory brand around the globe.”
Today it was revealed that Viz Media has acquired the license for Coppelion and will begin streaming the anime on Hulu and their VizAnime websitestarting on October 2nd. To go along with this announcement the company also released a preview trailer for the anime which can be found below.
For those who don’t know, Coppelion follows the story of three girls who are members of an elite special forces team named Coppelion who enter the abandoned city of Tokyo after the fallout from a nuclear meltdown. Coppelion also happens to be one of the many series that I am aiming to pick up this season.
With the Fall 2013 anime season about to kick off and many of our anime writers already putting out their picks, I figured that it was time that I make my own list. While we started this back in the Winter 2013 season and continued into Spring 2013, I skipped the Summer season but in place of that, I’ve come back with a rather massive list of shows that I’m giving a shot this season.
Coppelion In the year 2016 a nuclear meltdown has caused the Japanese government to evacuate and abandon Tokyo. However despite their attempt at rescuing people, nearly the entire population of Tokyo is killed in the meltdown. After twenty years have passed, a distress signal triggers the formation of a Special Forces unit consisting of three girls called “Coppelion.” The girls are sent into the city to find survivors but will likely find much more waiting for them in this long abandoned land.
Despite being the first pick on this list, which is ordered by debut date not preference, there isn’t a whole lot attracting me to Coppelion outside of its premise of adventuring through an abandoned city after a nuclear fallout. However after checking out a few previews it looks like it is going to feature some nice sci-fi action and special abilities, making it worth a shot.
Outbreak Company Picture your standard otaku who loves anime, visual novels, manga and all kinds of things moe and place him in a household where the father is a light novel author and his mother designs eroge games and right there is an interesting, albeit bland sounding, series. However take that otaku and suddenly make him the “moe” ambassador to a brand new nation in a parallel world and you have yourself a show.
Being a light novel adaptation there is always the chance that this might fall short of expectations or suffer from a terrible cliffhanger ending, but it does feature everything I like in a show. It has a fair share of politics and it will tackle some social issues as the world the character ends up travelling to ends up on the brink of war. With politics, harem building and some cute looking character designs this is an easy pick up for me.
IS: Infinite Stratos 2 Would saying that I watched the first season of Infinite Stratos count as enough of a reason for picking up this second season? Well it pretty much is going to have to. Despite there being more than a few years between the two adaptations, I’ve always hoped that a second season would be introduced as it was one of the better harem series in recent memory since, while a few girls ended up being relegated to comedic relief, there were still three frontrunners for the winning girl. It looks like the harem antics will continue throughout season 2 as well as the introduction of a few new girls that may or may not end up in Ichika’s harem.
Kill la Kill Studio Trigger has been making quite a name for itself. Made up from GAINAX members who were with the company back when Gurren Lagann was created, Kill la Kill is probably one of the most talked about shows this season. The anime will be an original series that seems to be very action oriented with the students’ uniforms providing them with special powers.
The pedigree behind this series is worth at least checking out and when you add in the interesting looking character designs and combat samples that they have shown so far it makes Kill la Kill an easy pick up this time and probably an early winner for anime of the season.
Freezing Vibration Same as Infinite Stratos 2, Freezing Vibration is the second season of the Freezing series and after checking out the first season I am going to continue to follow this action fan-service series throughout its second season. Despite featuring plenty of breasts and panty shots, there is much more to Freezing than fan-service as the combat has always been bloody and, occasionally, gory, as fighters have limbs sliced right off of their bodies.
While it is worth noting that Freezing Vibration will apparently skip over a story arc involving main heroine Satellizer’s family, it is likely for the best as it wouldn’t be fit for television, especially when it would take place right at the beginning of the season.
Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku o Ketsui Shimashita Raul has trained his whole life to become a hero and slay the demon lord. However just before he becomes a certified hero, the demon lord is defeated by someone else, leaving him with no valuable skills in society. While working at a magic shop as a part-timer, a new hire comes in asking for a job and on her resume it says that the reason she is looking for a job is because her father was defeated and that she is the demon lord’s daughter.
There have been A LOT of anime adaptations for demon lords and heroes coming together this year and not only have I seen them all, I’ve enjoyed them and this one looks no different. From the sounds of things there will be some heavy comedy aspects as well as bits of romance here and there making this romcom an easy pick up as it is right up my alley.
Log Horizon Sword Art Online is fresh on the minds of many people and love it or hate it (hate it), the idea of becoming trapped in an MMO is something that many people are familiar with now. However it looks like Log Horizon may just be able to take that plot and run with it far better than SAO ever did. After logging into a fantasy MMORPG, 30,000 gamers are suddenly trapped in the fantasy world and after getting acclimated to their new world, a group of gamers join together to form a guild.
There are two reasons that this could easily be better than the aforementioned anime, first the author for this anime happens to be the one behind the Maoyuu Maou Yuusha series which was intricate in plot and detail and also this series appears to focus more on the group working together with a bit of a lighter tone and a more fantastical element than simply one man running around like a loner in a black coat.
Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! Wrestling fan-service. Wait I need to mention more than that? Well “Wanna be the Strongest in the World” follows an idol who has turned into a pro wrestler because her friend and co-worker were hurt when they encountered an aggressive female wrestler by the name of Rio. To try and get revenge, the former idol Sakura enters the ring to try and climb the ranks and take out Rio.
One look at the series will immediately tell you why this show is one for me. While probably very basic in plot, the amount of ecchi fan-service offered in this series is simply too much to pass up.
Unbreakable Machine-doll The source material for Unbreakable Machine-doll is something that I’ve been following for a few months now so seeing an anime adaptation makes this an easy call. The story revolves around Akabane Raishin who enters into the Royal Academy of Machine Arts where all of the students have special Automatons that fight in their place. However Raishin is accompanied by a very special Automaton named Yaya who acts just like a normal human and is unbelievably strong… which is good since his test scores place him as the second to last ranked student in the entire school. There is a lot of potential for some good action in this series as well as some nice character interactions between Yaya, Raishin and the various classmates he comes across.
Non Non Biyori If you had showed me Non Non Biyori a few years ago I would have ignored it and went to watch something else entirely. Recently however the simple slice of life shows and moe anime have begun to look better and better to me with their simplistic stories and gags that almost always make me laugh. Sure this may end up being forgetful but hell; moe comedy is going to keep me watching it no matter what.
Tokyo Ravens Despite being born into a family of powerful spirit users, main character Harutora lacks any ability with the supernatural. This lets him live a relatively normal high school life until his childhood friend returns and drags him into a world where his dormant powers awaken.
Supernatural action is always high on my list of shows to watch and thanks to the animation style and the premise, it is going to be an easy series to check out.
Blazblue Alter Memory Would saying that I’ve played most of the Blazblue games be enough of a qualifier here? Well anyways, Blazblue Alter Memory will be a video game to anime adaptation and while it works sometimes, like with Hyperdimension Neptunia in Summer 2013, it can easily go wrong. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle the various twists and turns that make up Blazblue’s storyline and where exactly the anime will jump in to the series, though from the looks of things it will feature content mostly from the second game.
Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Lovecome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru Damn, long list and here we are at the end with the anime of the season with the longest name. Anyways, the story follows a boy named Kanade Amakusa with the power to literally choose his own future. At random times he is given multiple choice questions in his head that will determine the outcome of events. Despite what may seem like a gift, the choices aren’t always good ones and when it may involve you in a harem filled journey through high school things are going to get difficult.
A romcom is an easy pick up here and while it may not sound all that different from your standard light novel high school romcom, the multiple choice aspect of choosing your future seems to be an interesting enough hook that will keep me interested if it is worked into the series well enough.
Unlike the others I have no honorable mentions, if they are on this list they’ll be the ones I check out unless someone convinces me otherwise sometime after the season starts.
The guys over at Nintendo never seem to stop. First the 3DS has had its astronomically great year, and now the Wii U is picking up speed. However, there are still a tonne of great games to be released before we flick our calendars over to 2014, and Nintendo want us to know about it.
The broadcast will be at 12am tonight, so if you are one of those insomniac Nintendo fans, then you will be able to watch the presentation here. Don’t worry if you can’t stay up that late, as we will be sharing all the news right here after the presentation’s conclusion. So as always, be sure stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Nintendo news as it becomes available.
