Half informative, half sexy, and altogether definitely one of the funniest promotional videos for a video game that I have seen in a long time. The boys over at EA Australia brought us an … interesting guide to FIFA 14 celebrations today, employing a team of Australia’s finest models straight from the gym to demonstrate a handful of Tim Cahill’s favourite celebrations from the new FIFA title.
If they can stop laughing for a few seconds, fans can learn how to do the Muevelo Shuffle, The Punch and Dodge, and The Gallop Dance (Gangnam Style Anyone?).
FIFA 14 is being released on current-gen consoles tomorrow, with a midnight launch event being held in Australia tonight to celebrate. Next-gen consoles will have FIFA 14 available on launch.
Leave us your thoughts on the video in the comments below.
David Cage, head of Quantic Dream and Creative Director/Writer on BEYOND: Two Souls made the trip down under to promote the upcoming title, which features Hollywood superstars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. It was our privilege to grab some interview time with him and pick his brain on the game. It was a pleasure to speak with such a humble, nice and endearing figure in the industry.
I just quickly wanted to touch on the success of Heavy Rain. I am someone who obsesses over numbers and keeps an eye on sales and box office numbers for films and stuff like that, and Heavy Rain is one of those rare titles that had the standard drop off, but then a resurgence. Every time I looked back at the charts, it seemed to hit another million and pick up its second wind, and then a third wind… did that fact have any impact on the relationship between Quantic Dream and Sony, in the sense that maybe it was validation for a concept with such uniquely dramatic and confronting themes for the industry at the time?
Not really, but it is something we do see now, three years later, like “oh, wait a minute. We keep selling Heavy Rain games worldwide”, which is a great thing. I met some retailers – I think it was in Asia – who told me that now when people buy a new PlayStation 3 console and they ask “what are the games that I should buy?”, the retailer keeps says “this game, this game, this game and Heavy Rain“. So, that’s great, and also there is the word of mouth – gamers talking about this game that they should try it. So, no, I think the relationship of trust with Sony was really based on the initial reactions to the game when it was released and to the fact that press and gamers seemed to respond very positively to the experience that was also something very different from other games at the time.
Yeah, after it came out it instantly became my favourite PlayStation 3 title. And I remember – annoyingly – having to defend it against people who would naively state that it wasn’t a video game, but an interactive movie. I pushed it on everyone I could.
But you know, different people have different expectations about what a video game should be. Some people think that video games should be “fun” in a special sense, like having a gun or driving a car and having this action… and other people think “no, that’s not as important. What matters is what you feel when you play”. And it’s true that we make games for this category of people having this type of expectations.
Yeah. And what confused me was when Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in NA) came out in 2005, there wasn’t this reaction and although, of course, they’re not the same game, they do share the same essence, soul and design/storytelling philosophies. And everyone loved it. Then Heavy Rain comes out and it’s suddenly an issue…
While I think that the essence of the two games was probably very similar, Heavy Rain probably had better implementation; probably a better story or a story that resonated better, maybe better technology… and I think game after game, mentalities evolve. And before Heavy Rain, very few people were interested in interactive storytelling or emotion in games. But then Heavy Rain arrived and then more games tried to explore this route, so now with BEYOND: Two Souls it’s less of a shock, I would say for some people. So yeah, slowly but surely this idea becomes accepted – that games may not only be about shooting, but about telling a story.
So, moving onto BEYOND: Two Souls, remind us of how long the script is for the game and how long it took to write?
It was 2,000 pages. It takes about a year to write.
And what was your writing schedule like in that period of time?
Oh, it’s working very hard… usually I work all week. I work a little less on the weekend, but usually it’s six days a week. And working 12 hours a day, 12-15 hours a day, so it’s quite intense and it’s a strange process because you really live in your story for a year. So it’s kind of disturbing… it changes a bit your social interactions with people and, you really live in your world for a year.
We’ve heard briefly about your personal inspirations for the story this time around, but were there any specific influences coming from other media, films, games…
There were a couple of scenes where I thought “okay, this is an homage to this thing” and I really enjoyed doing it. Maybe people will see it, maybe they won’t. But, you know Heavy Rain was really belonging to a very specific genre, which was film noir/thriller. What I tried to do with BEYOND: Two Souls is something probably more original and more personal, and there are probably references here and there to different films and books or whatever. [And some subconscious as well]. Yeah, but at the same time I think the overall journey is something I believe is more original probably than what I’ve done in the past.
And what was the whole process like of creating these characters, and then reaching out to Hollywood names like Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe for the roles? Was it a case of not worrying about the obstacles involved in getting them because you just had them in mind from the get go?
Well actually there are two processes. In the case of Ellen and Willem it was a little bit special because I had their names in mind pretty much as I was writing the script very early on. And when I was done with the script, I was pretty convinced that only Ellen Page could be Jodie Holmes because it was her; it was clearly the best actress for the part. So we just contacted her and hoped that she would accept, and the same thing for Willem, and we were very lucky because they said “yeah, that’s interesting – let’s do it!” But that’s not the normal process, because for the rest of the cast for example, we work with a casting agent named Suzanne Goddard-Smythe – she lives in LA – and she is a casting director for films and TV series. And usually, what we do is just talk about the characters and say “okay, we need this type of person, and this is his part and this is the kind of role he has”, and then she meets, sometimes 200 or 300 actors, chooses maybe 80 and then she makes a short selection of maybe 5 that I meet in person. And then I meet these actors and make my choice. So, that was the process for Eric Winter and Kadeem Hardison who are in other roles, and most other actors who are in the game.
And so, in particular, did you find that Ellen and Willem – or actors of that calibre and that name recognition – are generally more open to working in the medium now?
Yeah, in the case of Ellen and Willem, that was really the case. I mean, for Ellen we just sent her Heavy Rainand some press reviews, and the script for BEYOND: Two Souls and told her why we thought she would be amazing in the role. And then we met, and explained in more detail what shooting would be like, and yeah, she was just interested in the experience that was something new to her and I guess she was interested in the script and it was as simple as that. But you know, you can meet different actors; some actors are just interested in money and will do anything if you give them the right amount of dollars. And some people are not interested at all; they just don’t want to hear about video games because they think all video games are the same and they don’t want to be a part of this. So there’s different people will different reactions – you just need to find the right fit between the talent that you need and also the right mindset for these people. And this is exactly what we got with Ellen and Willem; they just wanted to try this new thing that was totally new for them and they wanted to be a part of it. That was the ideal situation.
What do you think was the biggest challenge for yourself and the team during the developmental cycle for the game?
Oh my God, the entire thing was a challenge to be honest; it was actually much bigger and more ambitious than we initially thought, and there were production challenges, technical challenges… and you know, initially we feared that working with Hollywood actors would be the biggest challenge and actually, that was the smoothest part because they were extremely professional and they came very well prepared. So honestly, working with them was a walk in the park. But there were some technical issues, especially when we worked on the ghost part, because usually you optimise your engine so, for example, what’s behind this wall doesn’t exist at all so we don’t need to think about it. But now, we had this ghost who could go through this wall and see what’s on the other side, or he could go very high and have a very large view of the sets so that’s another issue in a matter of optimisation. So we had to come up with very detailed environments and characters that could hardly be optimised because, as a ghost, you could get really close to anything and have a very large view of everything, so that was the ultimate challenge.
We didn’t want any loading screens during the game, so when you load your first scene there is a loading screen, but once it’s loaded you can play the entire game without seeing another loading screen. And that was another challenge because, actually, the game is streaming in the background all the time just to pre-load what’s coming next. So that was another challenge. And also, the nature of the experience that is always very different… you know, there are not two scenes that play the same way, and even within the same scene, gameplay can change very significantly. And there were some very challenging parts. There is a scene where Jodie runs down a slope and, my God, we spent a month for 30 seconds of gameplay, just to make it right and have the camera where it’s supposed to be, have the right pacing and just give you this feeling of being chased and you just running as fast as you can, and that took a lot of time. And there are many moments like this in BEYOND: Two Souls that may be very short in the final experience, but took a lot of time to be made.
And so you’ve actually gone to a few film festivals such as Tribeca because of the connections to the game and the nature of the storytelling; have you received some sort of gauge for the reception from that community to the project? A community who may not have been familiar or educated on the medium at all beforehand?
You know, it was a great honour to be the first game to be a part of the Official Selection of a film festival, especially when it’s as prestigious as Tribeca. So it was interesting because I think – the people at Tribeca – they wanted to talk about the different forms of storytelling, and they thought that what we were doing was exactly what they were looking for. So it was a great opportunity to put a game like BEYOND: Two Souls in front of an audience that was a film audience. And it was interesting because they didn’t know what to expect. They heard about the game, they knew it was featuring Ellen Page, etc., but at the same time, when I talked to people in the theatre before they could see the projection, they thought “oh, is this going to be about shooting, is this going to be about driving… what kind of video game is this?”
So there were a lot of pre-conceived ideas about what a video game was supposed to be. And actually, we showed them this scene where Jodie is a homeless girl, and she lives under a bridge and needs to find a way to make money to buy some food… and I think they were a little bit taken by surprise [Laughter]. And it was good. And that was also the first time that Ellen Page could see an entire scene, and she told me she was really surprised too. I mean, she shot all these things, but when you shoot things alone on an empty suit in this mo-cap suit, you don’t realise how it’s going to be and what the final result will be when it’s going to be filmed and with the music and all this stuff. So I think she was really pleased with the result.
With Heavy Rain, you had the four main protagonists and at certain points, they can die, but the story continues and is obviously shaped by their passing in many ways. With BEYOND: Two Souls, you have only one in Jodie, and so that concept of continuing after death can’t really work. We know you’re not a fan of retry screens, so with those facts in mind, how branching can the game get? Will there instead be decisions made that may not lead to death, but an entirely different section or path that you maybe wouldn’t ordinarily seen if you played it another way?
Oh yeah, of course. The first thing I want to say is that we didn’t try to replicate the experience that was Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain is Heavy Rain; it had its own style, tone, language… but BEYOND: Two Souls is a different experience where we’re trying to explore different moods. And depending on how you play, there will be entire parts or scenes that you will see or miss. It really depends on how you play and there will be many different consequences to your actions. Although Jodie can’t die the way that characters did in Heavy Rain, many other things can happen.
From the more recent footage that we have seen, it’s become clear just how varied the situations, locales and experiences are that Jodie gets into. Again, not to compare anything to film, but in terms of storytelling techniques on a whole, we see it more often in film where a tone can flip across the acts and it draws people out of their engagement and comes across disconnected and abrasive. Did you ever have that thought or concern in the back of your mind when writing the story out?
You know, actually, that was never a concern for me because I had the entire story in mind and knew what kind of journey it would be. I was fine with this idea that it could be a little bit disorienting for people at first to jump through time and see her as a kid and then a teenager and then an adult, but I knew that slowly that would build something stronger; as the pieces of the puzzle would fall into place, all of these things would start to make sense and it would create a very interesting dynamic for the narrative where the player – instead of just watching the story being told – would actually have to connect the dots by themselves and really see the consequences of something before seeing the causes, which would create this momentum that I was looking for. And that’s really the feedback we have from the first people that played the game, is that “oh, we were a bit lost at first, but things fall into place and it truly makes sense and makes the experience stronger”. So that’s what I was hoping for, and from the first people that played the game, this is what seems to happen.
That’s good to hear. And finally, just quickly, we saw with the Dark Sorcerer demo that you guys are exploring emotions and genres outside of what we’ve seen so far. A comedy game in particular is something that hasn’t been done much, especially not in the last decade or more. Do you think that genre could be the basis for an entire game, would you be willing to explore that further and do you think it would require some supporting elements from other genres, like action, to stay interesting or engaging?
The Dark Sorcerer was just a prototype, so it’s not our next title, but I really enjoyed making it and I think there’s definitely the potential to create a comedy game. And I think it can be really interesting and funny to do and to play. I don’t think you need to incorporate, necessarily, action elements or anything. I think you could create a game that could be a romance, for example, just be a love story or just be a comedy. You don’t need the action element necessarily to make it interactive. And that’s something that will still need to be demonstrated but that’s something we strongly believe in.
Yeah, because that would be a wildly different experience, again…
Yeah, it would be fun. Who knows, maybe we will do it someday.
Awesome, well thanks so much again for your time!
Oh thank you.
We want to thank David Cage for taking the time for us, and to PlayStation Australia and Hausmann Communications for organising the interview and making it possible. BEYOND: Two Souls comes out October 9th nationwide, exclusive to the Sony PlayStation 3. You can download a demo come October 3rd.
One thing with gaming consoles is that the sounds it makes quickly become part of your daily life. The ‘ping’ as you switch on your Xbox 360, or the ‘click’ you hear as you cycle through options on the PS3’s menu become part of the overall experience. While these become part of the trademark of the consoles, one thing gamers always really care about is the sound the fan makes.
How many times have you heard, or have you yourself said “the fan on this console is too loud!” Or even the opposite “I can barely hear the fan, it is awesome!” Obviously we want the consoles themselves to be as quiet as possible to not interrupt our gameplay experience, and Sony, being the smart cookies that they are, are well aware of that.
Uploaded today on the Sony UK PR Instagram account was this brief 30 second video. The video just simply showed the upcoming PS4 console, and let us hear the power-on beep that many players will soon be accustomed to, as well as the almost silent fan that the console will be running.
Quiet isn’t it? I had to listen to the video a few times on max volume, as my computer’s fan was louder than the PS4s. What do you think? Was the fan quiet enough, or do you need there to be absolute dead silence while you are gaming? Let us know in the comments below and remember that you can hear that satisfying ‘beep’ and the whisper quiet fan of the PS4 when it launches November 29th. Always remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the PS4 news as it becomes available.
Overview
The Infinity Blade series has blazed quite an impressive path on the iOS platform by repeatedly pushing the mobile platform to its utmost limits all in the name of being an epic game. With Infinity Blade 3, we once again get a game that is epic in all the right ways but one that undoubtedly feels strained by the limits of its platform.
With Infinity Blade 3, ChAIR push the iOS platform to breaking point – sometimes literally – creating what is ultimately a game that should’ve graduated from mobile to console long ago.
Gameplay
Infinity Blade 3 is undoubtedly the most ambitious game of the series thus far. It is really the pinnacle of the series and it is hard to imagine how it can top this if the series remains on mobile. The limitations are plain to see but regardless of all that the game plays quite well despite a few crashes here and there. It is a mighty big game weighing in at well over 1 gig in size but it is every bit as big inside as well. The world of Infinity Blade 3 is vast and deep, filled with countless adventures and battles to be undertaken.
The game requires iOS 7 to run and is optimized for iPhone 5. However the game runs well enough on older devices providing the update to iOS 7 has been done. There is times in which the game can crash in particular intense portions of the game which is of course troublesome but its not so common that it ruins the experience.
Much like its predecessors the game features a simplified touch based combat system requiring you to tap, swipe and hold in order to battle it out against some truly fearsome opponents. It is simple and easy to understand meaning that just about anyone can jump in and grasp the control scheme for the game.
It is about as close as you can get to a console game experience on a mobile device and with the expanded world and gameplay mechanics this is definitely a good direction for the series. Unfortunately the game is beginning to show signs of finally hitting the glass cieling that is the limits of the mobile platform. It might be time to think of moving to something bigger and better for Infinity Blade.
Regardless of all that, the game is a lot of fun and features a compelling story if you are so inclined as to explore it. It is a nice game to play if you have some time to sit down and focus. It might not be the best game to play on-the-go however due to its intensity and ammount of attention it requires to play to any successful degree. If you can find the time to commit to this mobile game however you’ll find yourself more than happy with the hack and slash fun it offers.
Visuals and Audio
The star of the show for Infinity Blade 3 is without a doubt it’s jaw-dropping visuals. The aesthetics on display here are simultaneously gritty and beautiful, creating an appealing juxtaposition of the grimmer sides of reality with the more inspiring sides of it. The world of Infinity Blade 3 is well crafted stylistically with harsh realism in mind. This may very well be the best looking game on the iOS and ChAIR should be applauded for their excellence in aesthetic design for this game.
Infinity Blade 3 also features a suitably dark soundtrack brimming with brooding tracks that amplify the sense of despair that surrounds the game. There are several more energetic tracks that instill a feeling of victory and hope. It all comes together quite nicely in what amounts to a very well rounded soundtrack.
Overall
If there was any game that needed to break free from the mobile platform it was Infinity Blade 3. There is a glass ceiling hanging low over this game and it is clear that a series this epic in scale can’t stay on mobile forever. This is a huge game that is every bit as fun as it’s predecessors but it suffers several issues due to the limitations of the platform in which it is on.
Fans of the Infinity Blade series will surely not be disappointed with the latest chapter in the epic tale of clashing swords and the brave warriors that wield them. It is every bit as good as those that came before it and even improves upon them. It is not the best game to play on the go, but if you are serious about your gaming you will likely want to devote some serious time and attention to this epic hack and slash. The battle is on and the blades are swinging, Infinity Blade 3 is a great game that pushes the mobile platform to its limit.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
An indie game studio, Risen Games, has announced their next new game, Adrift, which is now seeking funding on Kickstarter, if successful on Kickstarter, it will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux if successfully funded, and will fully support cross-platform play. The new studio attempts to design their projects in a way that projects their love of gaming, they always work with the goal of creating original and addictive games that are free of ads.
The new Adrift game is a little old school arcade feel with a unique mix of genres that seem to work well, it involves co-operative play, tower defense, dual-stick shooter, and even a RPG component. There is an option to go solo or team up with up to 5 others, players can choose different classes and abilities and are pitched against the hazards of space, including deadly asteroids and roving pirates, which they must repel in order to protect their tiny colony ship. Adrift is designed so player can customise the game in each play with many strategies to defend and win the game.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX Developer:Square Enix Publisher:Square Enix Platform:PlayStation 3 Release Date:September 10, 2013 Price:$39.99 – Available Here
Overview Years ago when Square Enix announced a partnership with Disney to create a game called Kingdom Hearts, few could have predicted how memorable the franchise would become. By combining Square Enix’s capabilities with numerous Disney characters from our past, the PlayStation 2 title remained one of the best games on the platform.
Since then, numerous Kingdom Hearts titles have been released, albeit ones that have been all over the board as far as the series’ story goes. As such, Square Enix has taken three of games from the series and brought them together in HD for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX. Does this HD collection of nostalgia manage to bring back the fond memories of the original titles or does it fall into a jumbled mess?
Story Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, the enhanced version of the original game that was never released in the West until now, begins with Sora and his two friends, Kairi and Riku, working together to build a boat. They have lived on Destiny Island with their families for years and while peaceful, they want to find adventure. However just before they are about to leave the island, Sora meets a cloaked man talking about the world.
Unfortunately the appearance of this man is only the tip of the iceberg for Sora as the island suddenly comes under attack from shadow creatures called the “Heartless.” Even after he obtains a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade which possesses the ability to defeat these enemies, Sora and his friends are sucked into oblivion.
Sora awakes to find that his world has been destroyed and that he is now alone in a strange place called Traverse Town. Here he meets up with Goofy and Donald Duck, the two of whom are on a mission from Mickey Mouse to find the keybearer and try to put an end to the darkness that is enveloping the various worlds. Kingdom Hearts then follows the journey of this trio as they make their way through numerous Disney worlds and defeating various monsters all in an attempt to not only possibly prevent further disaster, but to reunite Sora with his long lost friends.
The overall storyline for Kingdom Hearts remains the same as ever, with players venturing into numerous worlds and seeing key moments of Disney movies carried out from a new angle as they play a part in how everything is prevented. Despite seeming impossible, the combination of Disney characters and Sora’s own personal goal make for a heartwarming story full of friendship, loss and love that makes it wonderful to experience, even if it’s for the second time.
The bulk of the actual story takes place throughout Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix but it does continue a bit in Re:Chain of Memories which sort of acts as a bridge between the first game and its sequel where Sora’s memories are brought into question and Organization XIII is introduced for the first time.
Finally there is 358/2 Days which provides a roughly three hour movie since all playable sections have been removed and it looks deeper into the origin of Roxas. These two inclusions serve to expand the players’ knowledge of the franchise and considering the lesser appeal of these two games when they were originally released, this may be the first time that many have actually heard these pieces of the story.
Gameplay Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX comes with three titles bundled in one disc and players are able to choose between these whenever the game starts up. As mentioned earlier, these games are Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, which serves as the main attraction for this HD release, Re:Chain of Memories, and 358/2 Days which has been reduced to cutscenes only.
The gameplay of Kingdom Hearts remains very much the same as gamers remember it, as combat relies heavily on simply button mashing and maneuvering around enemies. Players unlock various abilities that can be equipped and customized, new Keyblades and accessories to equip and more, to make Sora and his allies a better match for the player’s fighting style but for the most part, everything in the first game remains structurally similar.
It is worth noting that since this is the ‘Final Mix’ version of the game there are a number of new weapons introduced, a few new scenes, that aren’t voiced, and other additions never found outside of Japan so this is clearly an enticing bonus on its own. However there has been a change in the way the camera works as well. Players are now able to control the camera with the right stick, making it a bit easier to control but this only slightly alleviates the camera issues that plagued the original release of the game.
For those who don’t know, Re:Chain of Memories was actually something of a card game where players still fight against enemies, but they do so using cards that they have gathered. It is possible to gain a pre-emptive strike if the player strikes an enemy before engaging in combat, but these fights tend to be more technical than flashy. This card system can be frustrating to learn, especially the combo system, but it does feel more satisfying than slicing away at enemies like what is found in the first game.
Since 358/2 Days is only available as a movie, there is no real gameplay to speak of, which is unfortunate since including the full game would have been better. That being said, players are able to skip chapters and rewatch scenes whenever they feel like, making it more akin to a DVD included with two HD versions of past games more than anything else.
Visuals Considering the age of some of these games, especially the platform that 358/2 Days was released on, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX easily lives up on the HD part of its title. The game’s visuals are sharp and look better than they ever have before. The numerous colorful worlds that players visit are striking and look absolutely wonderful when the player first enters them. That isn’t to say there aren’t issues still, as there are a number of areas that are rather barren and feel lifeless and backgrounds tend to be pretty bland more often than not.
Cutscenes are impressive looking, with the details on characters really shining through, though there is some pixilation here and there. The newly revamped movie style of 358/2 Days is nicely handled as well, which is quite a task considering the game originally was released on the DS.
Audio Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX has managed to retain its impressive English voice track and although the newly added scenes in Final Mix aren’t voiced, the entirety of 358/2 Days has been given voice work for the first time ever.
As for the soundtrack for these games, there are numerous songs that will instantly trigger nostalgia within players who have played these titles before. They are wonderfully produced here and sound better than they actually did originally; making them great fits for the action and scenes that they are paired with.
Overall Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX could easily have been a simple cash-in on a series that many gamers are fond of. However Square Enix has went the extra mile by bringing us the best version of Kingdom Hearts 1 and pairing it with another great title and pretty much the entirety of the story offered in 358/2 Days. With more Kingdom Hearts in the future, this HD release easily provides the best way for fans to reminisce and enjoy these games anew or for new players to jump into one of the most overly complex franchises in recent years.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It seems that every year the Tokyo Game Show sees more and more attendees visit during its four-day period. This year a total of 270, 197 visitors passed through the doors, 46,444 more than the previous year.
Of note, over 100,000 people attended during both public days on each day, exceeding the record of 94,989 visitors in 2012. Expanding the area from Hall 1 to Hall 9, rather than up to 8, played a role in enhancing TGS and including more attractions like the Indie Game Area, Dating Simulation Game Area and the Cloud Gaming Area.
The next Tokyo Game Show is scheduled to be held at the same venue from Thursday, September 18 to Sunday, September 21, 2014. If anyone was lucky to attend TGS 2013, sound off in the comments below!
Be sure to check out our full coverage of the announcements and trailers right here.
Nihilumbra is a puzzle platformer by Spanish indie developers Beautifun Games. The title was originally released on iOS. With the PC release, Beautifun Games has added HD textures to compliment the platform’s larger monitors.
Story
Nihilumbra is a dark tale about a creature born from the depths of The Void. Our hero quickly chooses a humanoid form and begins its escape. The Void is chasing it mercilessly, bent on reabsorbing our hero.
As its name suggests, Nihilumbra is a dark game. The story is told through statements and questions appearing in the landscape while a male voice narrates. Beautifun Games did an excellent job in creating an interesting presentation.
Unfortunately, the biggest flaw in Nihilumbra is the pacing in its emotional journey. I found the tone to rise and fall awkwardly as it cycled from really dark moments to a hopeful and sometimes defiant tone. The transition between the these moments are abrupt, with some occasions going from the dark voice of depression and gloom to the next sentence full of hope and desire. I feel the dance between bipolar emotions was a good fit for the game, but simply fell short in its execution.
Gameplay
Nihilumbra is a puzzle platformer that provides players with five special abilities. These abilities are represented by a single colour and can be painted on surfaces to create a variety of effects. The abilities will need to be mixed and matched to conquer the puzzles the hero will encounter. A new ability is introduced in every new world. Nihilumbra contains five worlds plus a special Void Mode that will allow players to replay all the new levels with a challenging new twist.
The five abilities provide unique gameplay elements. Beautifun Games takes full advantage of the abilities in crafting the puzzles. For example, one puzzle will require the player to use the mud ability to sneak past a sleeping monster while another will use the same mud ability to pin monsters safely in a corner while our hero proceeds forward. For the most part, Nihilumbra is right on the mark on difficulty level. In the main game, there was only one puzzle I could think of that required a little bit of luck to complete successfully. The first half of the game can easily take three to five hours to complete, with Void Mode taking substantially more. The difficulty curve in Void Mode compared to the regular story mode is vastly different. Veteran puzzle platforming fans will have plenty to occupy themselves with in Void Mode as it is extremely challenging.
The weakest part of Nihilumbra’s gameplay are the final boss levels in each world. In the end, the hero is chased by The Void and must finish puzzles under the pressure of time. Unfortunately, the player’s advancement is locked to the camera which slowly follows the plodding Void. Often times, I found myself anticlimactically standing at the far edge of a screen waiting for the camera to advance which caused unnecessary interruptions in what should have been an extremely tense moment. I would have preferred to see the player be allowed to move at their own pace at the cost of The Void advancing faster.
Nihilumbra and the PC seem to be a fit made in heaven. The touchscreen controls translate well to the PC. The hero is moved with the traditional WASD combo that will be familiar to all PC gamers. Ability swaps can be done through the old UI which requires the user to click the orb in the top right portion of the screen or by using the 1-5 keys. The void ability is permanently bound to the right mouse button. The controls work very well on the PC, my only complaint is the fact it is not possible to bind keys to personal preference.
Visuals
Nihilumbra has five different worlds. Each world is based on the ability acquired in the level. The purple and black void clashes wonderfully against the serene, yet lifeless world. The monster design is interesting to look at and fit well with the game’s theme. Important gameplay elements like box types and monster types are instantly recognizable, a boon when completing sequences while being chased by The Void. Small touches like our hero sneezing in the cold mountains and sweating profusely in the volcano are wonderful little touches that create a complete and believable world.
On the technical side, Nihilumbra runs smoothly on modern PCs. There are options to lower the graphic quality by using the older standard textures for those with less powerful computers. The only problem with the game’s graphics is that the game is locked to fullscreen mode. Gamers who prefer to play in windowed mode will be completely out of luck.
Audio
The audio experience is probably the best part of Nihilumbra. Composer Álvaro Lafuente steals the show with his wonderful soundtrack. Nihilumbra’s music is moody and melodic. Each piece helps build each world’s mood and the soundtrack is definitely worth picking up at four dollars. The narration’s voice acting is spot on. The actor delivers an excellent performance which is mixed with a slight echoing effect that becomes the hero’s inner voice. The sound effects are thoroughly enjoyable. Each ability has its own little sound and the monsters can make some really horrifying noises. Nihilumbra’s sound direction is all around a pleasure to experience.
Overall
It is easy to see why Nihilumbra won iTunes’ Best of 2012: Hidden Gem award. Nihilumbra is boasts solid puzzle platforming action with some unique ideas. The gameplay is supported by excellent visuals and a fantastic audio experience. Unfortunately, Nihiumbra falls short due to its awkward story that feels more like an unpleasant emotional yo-yo then an uplifting tale of triumph over darkness and despair. At $9.99, Nihilumbra is a must buy for puzzle platformer fans. I also highly recommend the game for anyone looking for an interesting and modern take on a classic genre. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Fox TV has acquired the rights to develop Gotham, a live action TV show following the pre-Batman story of Commissioner James Gordon and his rise through the Gotham police force. In addition to following the career of Gordon the series will also feature some of the most famous villains of Gotham City. Batman will make no appearance in the show.
Gordon has been a prominent figure in the Batman universe since the first comic was published in 1939, and played a major role in Christopher Nolan’s recent Dark Knight Trilogy where he was played by Gary Oldman.
Bruno Heller (Rome, The Mentalist) and Warner Bros. TV created the series, with Heller remaining on board. Fox has already ordered an entire series, bypassing the pilot stage of production. The show is thought to be arriving next year and marks the second recent venture into a spin off TV series by DC Comics after the launch of Arrow.
Potential cross-over between the two shows could be limited. Arrow airs on a different network, and the pre-Batman period that Gotham takes place in would make any collaboration especially difficult.
The Gotham reveal comes as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D makes its much hyped debut.
During last night’s Xbox One Media Event, we got some hands on playtime with Capcom‘s upcoming Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3. After mowing down zombies with a motorcycle/steamroller combo vehicle with flamethrowers on the sides (just in case there are people out there who thought Dead Rising was getting too serious) we got the chance to sit down with the game’s producer Mike Jones of Capcom Vancouver. We had a tonne of questions about the past, present and future of the series, and Mike was more than happy to oblige.
NOTE: The interview contains a few minor spoilers for the game, and also some adult language.
Hi there ladies and gentlemen, this is Andrew Day, Vicky Martin and Zac Elawar here for Capsule Computers and we are talking to Mr. Mike Jones, the producer of the upcoming Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3. So without further adieu, lets jump straight in.
V. So first question; what inspired Dead Rising to begin with?
Like the first, first? So I can’t take credit for that. That was all Keiji Inafune and the guys back there. I mean, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants right now.
V. So then what inspired YOU to do Dead Rising 3?
Well so Dead Rising 3 is obviously the third installment in a series. It’s an evolution of a franchise and for us its been this sort of story of growing, evolution and anteing up. So, the first game you’re in a mall, second game; casino resort, third game and now we’re in a fully open world streaming city. So we wanted to just make it the biggest, baddest, most ambitious game we could. More zombies than ever before, more weapons than ever before, it is a bigger and badder Dead Rising than we’ve ever made. So what inspired us was to outdo ourselves, right? So what we wanted to do is solve all these problems that we couldn’t solve on the current generation consoles.
Working on Xbox One allowed us to still have the number of zombies, number of weapons, number of physics objects, number of Ai that is being calculated on screen, cross co-op, all on screen, all streaming, no loads, and that was the technical challenge we set out to solve when we were making Dead Rising 3, technically. From a gameplay standpoint, we wanted to bring player choice, player freedom and all the fun of the game to the surface. So we wanted to let you play how you wanted to play; take it seriously if you want to take it serious, be goofy if you want to be goofy, take the combo weapon system and make it more accessible, make a combo vehicle system and just let people have FUN killing zombies. So those were kind of our guiding lights early on; player choice, bigger-better, no loads, full streaming open world.
V. Plus nightmare mode?
And nightmare mode! Yeah! So well the other thing ; I get asked a lot about this and I’ve seen myself quoted online. We’re totally divided in the Vancouver office right. Like half of the dev team is like “fuck the timer, fuck all that shit, it is annoying. I hate that. It’s not fun! Like, I just want to have fun and kill zombies and make combo weapons and do whatever!” While the rest of the people are like “No! That’s what made the game fresh, made it unique and made it awesome when it first came out. Made it Dead Rising.” And in the end we were just like, “you know what, fine. We’re never going to make you two agree. So we’re just going to make two different modes of the game.”
We’re going to make regular story mode so you can play at your own speed, no time pressure, auto saves, all that shit, explore the world – the world’s huge now, there’s tonnes of stuff to explore, tonnes of collectibles to find, blueprints, challenges, side-missions, psychos, all that kinda hidden stuff. BUT if you’re a super crazy, masochist Dead Rising fan and you like that hardcore nonsense; we got a timer, only manual saves, you gotta start over, it’s gonna be painful; Nightmare Mode, right. And we have that if you want to play that way, it’s again player choice, it’s totally up to you.
But we have one player profile save, so if you want to play regular mode and level your dude up, then go to nightmare mode and play like a New Game+, you can do that. Or, if you get stuck in Nightmare Mode you can go over to Regular Mode, level your guy up, and then go back type of thing.
Z. So your character improvements carry over between game modes?
Absolutely. I mean that’s how DR1 works right? You died, you fuck and then you restart, and you do it again. So we have totally kept that.
Z. You mentioned the auto-save stuff, and I was going to ask about that but you’ve pretty much answered it. One of the things that frustrated me the most in Dead Rising 1 was the saves.
So you’re on the other side of the fence, you just wanna like “Look, I just wanna go in and kill zombies and have fun, and fuck around with my buddy, and not be on a schedule!”
Z. I just don’t want to HAVE to find this place just to save thegame because then if I die, I’m screwed just because I forgot to save the game.
Exactly, yeah. Well that’s what we found, we have a huge audience, we’ve got a lot of fans. Some of them love the convenience of modern gaming, some of them love the hardcore, masochistic rules of previous Dead Risings and there’s no way to resolve both of these expectations, so we just have to make two modes.
V. Are there still different levels of difficulty in regular mode?
No, so the way it works is we have a difficulty curve as you go through the game, and the state of the world will change, number of zombies, zombie mutations, we have human enemies that show up. So there’s going to be a whole difficulty curve as you go through the game, but regular story mode is tuned one way, Nightmare Mode tuned one way and it has its own difficulty curve, and is actually probably the most difficult Dead Rising you’ve ever played. But there isn’t like “Easy – Medium – Hard – Hardcore,” levels of difficulty. It’s more like you play regular mode and it’s tuned a certain way.
A. I know that in previous Dead Rising games, as you play through the story you need to reach a certain point before you can unlock the whole map. Is that still the case here?
No, so in DR3 we kind of a prologue, or an ‘intro sequence,’ that we’ve created that’s sort of linear and teaches you about the gameplay systems and combo weapons and stuff like that. Just how the world and the game systems work, but once you’ve finished that opening sequence; you have access to the entire world. NOW, as you go through the world and you complete story missions, the state of the world changes; the number of zombies, the mutations of zombies, the human enemies, what’s going on in the world is going to change as you go through the game. But no you have access to everywhere. So if you wanted to spend the first 5 or 10 hours of your gameplay experience collecting all the blueprints, and finding all the collectibles and leveling your guy up, you can totally do that. If you just want to bee-line through all the story missions, you can do that too.
Z. Something I was interested in was, when you mentioned the Psychos. In past games, Psychos were those ‘boss’ characters. Like the crazy clown (Adam) and all that. Are you following that same sort of system where they are the boss battles?
Well ahh, yes and no. So yeah there are. So our paper-thin social commentary has always been that humanity is the real evil right, not the zombies BUT to answer your question, there’s actually a whole set of story bosses that are a little bit more serious and straight forward, and all the Psychos are either side missions or they are hidden and you need to find them, and they are WAY crazier. So, we have a whole set of story bosses, and we have a whole set of Psycho boss battles.
We actually put a lot more effort into our boss battles this time around. They actually have staging, they have patterns, they have environmental effects. It is actually a proper boss battle; it’s not just that you whack a dude 100 times with a crowbar until he dies. So we think people will get a lot more out of our boss battles this time around, and the Psycho battles as well, but we do have story bosses as well as Psycho battles and they are totally separate. The Psychos are our chance to go a little bit loonier, and a little bit crazier, where as the story bosses we wanted to keep more straightforward, down the middle, classic horror style.
A. I know some of our fans out there wont really know, so I was wondering if you could shed some light on the ‘7 Deadly Sins’ theme on some of the Psychos?
Yeah so ahhh I’m trying to remember what we’ve talked about, because we’ve tried to keep some of this secret, but yeah there are Psychos based on the 7 Deadly Sins. We have talked about Greed, who is an ex-surgeon, and he harvests people’s organs because he’s trying to sell them on the black market and make a bunch of money. He’s crazy and he’s one of the darker ones.
Sloth was really difficult to design, I’m not gonna lie. I think we’ve released some information about him recently, he’s kind of like this lazy dude who sits in his house and he’s got all this home automation shit. So he’s got like remote controls, and he sends drones after you and locks you into his house and tries to kill you. Who else have we talked about… I don’t think anybody else, It’s all kind of secret right now. We want there to be some surprises up our sleeve when people actually play the game you know.
A. So part of Dead Rising’s charm has always been its humor, and its little jabs at other video games and especially other Capcom stuff itself. Can we expect more of that for Dead Rising 3?
Oh yeah we’ve got tonnes of Capcom easter egg stuff in the game. We’ve got costumes, we’ve got weapons; I think we showed off our Dragon Punch [item] that lets you Shoryuken, a combo weapon from Street Fighter. We also have an electrified Blanka mask where you can zap zombies. We have a whole bunch of surprises up our sleeve we haven’t announced, like Servbot from Megaman. We have a bunch of Capcom easter eggs, cause we’re Capcom Vancouver, so of course we’re gonna sneak that stuff in.
Z. There’s something actually I was wondering, in terms of the technical aspects of the game is the frame rate with the new hardware. How have you found that, because there are an insane amount of zombies on the screen.
Oh yeah. We’ve got more zombies on screen, more weapons on screen, physics objects, AI that we’re calculating, huge world, fully streaming, we’re syncing up over a network for co-op. Yeah and we actually got dinged, everybody online was freaking out around Gamescom, they were like ‘oh the frame rate looks shitty,’ and it’s like ‘dude, we’re still working on the game. We’re still optimizing it. It’s not finished.’ That’s the last thing you do, once it’s complete and you have all the world built, all the missions built and everything in there, THEN you start optimizing. Then you start getting the frame rate up there, getting the performance up there.
People have noticed, I’ve seen articles hit the web just last week when we were at Tokyo Game Show, from our Gamescom build to our Tokyo Game Show build. It is similar content, and a similar area of the world so people who saw it at Gamescom and saw it at Tokyo Game Show were like “oh shit they weren’t lying, they actually did optimize everything, and the framerate is totally solid now,”and we’re like;
“See? We’re not done, we’re still working on it! Give us a break, there’s two more months till we come out! We’re human beings too! We have feelings too!”
Z. Because when Vicky and Andrew were playing it, I was looking over and I noticed that with the Roller Horn (A Steam Roller crossed with a Motorcycle) just rolling over zombies, and with the flamethrowers that there was no stutter, no frame rate drop, no nothing.
Sure, and I’ll be the first to admit; with Gamescom we had some frame hitches and problems. Since then we updated some shit, we optimized some things.
Z. The only time I think I saw any stutter was with the traffic cone sound blaster, and it was only for half a second and then it was gone. So you guys have it nailed.
Well there’s a LOT of physics going on there! Listen to me when I tell you that we’re still working on it. That build is weeks old, and we have guys in Vancouver RIGHT NOW who are staying up until 3am to solve that problem. We are also working on new hardware, with a new SDK, as a day one launch title; a lot of people don’t understand the balance in this. We re-wrote our entire engine for Xbox One, and then we were getting new development shit, and new information about the hardware, and we were working with Microsoft trying to optimize everything and it is insane what our development team has been able to do. We’ve just been thrilled working with Microsoft and how our team has risen to the challenge to make the biggest, most ambitious Dead Rising yet.
V. What do you think the response will be when you do release the game?
People are going to be like ‘fucking awfu-‘ no. I think that Dead Rising fans are going to get a whole lot out of the story, a whole lot out of the characters and a whole lot out of the background we’ve got there, as well as the gameplay system. All the stuff they’re used to is gonna be there in spades. It’s gonna be more convenient; you can combo anything, anywhere. We’ve got more weapons, more zombies, more missions, a larger world than we’ve ever had before.
If you are an open world action gamer we’ve got that. If you just wanna get in and play with your buddy online, we’ve got that too. Tonnes of zombies, you can goof it up if you want, you can take it seriously if you want, but for Dead Rising fans, I think the boss battles, the Psychos, the player customisation. Whether you are a Dead Rising fan or an open world action gamer, the player freedom is what we’ve really tried to invest. The leveling, visual customisation, weapons, whether you want to engage in the missions or not, we just wanted to give you like a huge toy box and let you do what you want to do.
What we really really hope is that once the game comes out, that people just start to discover all this crazy, anomylous, like sandboxy stuff that we never planned. I’m really looking forward to seeing people’s speed run videos, and their crazy co-op videos. Things like “this weapon and this weapon is just crazy,” or “you can do this thing on this mission,” and we just can’t wait to see all the sandboxing and improvisational, crazy stuff that people do when we let it out there into the wild.
Z. One more thing we should mention is the Smart Glass integration. So what can we do with the Smart Glass App.
Well we basically turned your phone… into a phone. It actually adds side-missions to the game, you get random mission calls, it has its own story that folds into the mainline story. You complete the missions and you actually unlock support applications; item finders, weapon finders, survivor backup, military grade support like air-strikes, sniper fire, military grade flares etc.
At E3 at our announcement, people were like “Why can this mechanic guy just call in an air strike?” But there is a whole story reason for that; you gotta find the PDA, you gotta hook up your smart glass, you gotta complete the missions, you’ve gotta hack into the military network and THEN you can call in airstrikes. But we’re hardcore gamers, we just wanted to add something that was going to be convenient and add to the experience, it wasn’t just going to be gimmicky, and a lot of people who have sat down with our Smart Glass think its really, really cool, we had a lot of fun developing it and it actually becomes this cool couch co-op thing.
You can be playing and hand it to your buddy and be like “Dude, where am I supposed to go? Dude, find me a gun! Dude, call in an air strike!” So its been a lot of fun to work on the smart glass stuff, and we hope people enjoy it.
A. With Dead Rising 2, instead of a demo we got Case Zero and then afterwards we got the Case West epilogue. Any chance of something like that coming out for Dead Rising 3?
Well obviously we can’t do a Case 0 because we’re a launch title on Xbox One so we can’t make it any earlier than day one. But yeah, we definitely have some DLC in the works, we’re still trying to figure out how we want to expand the game, and we wanna do some cool stuff that we think fans are gonna enjoy, and hopefully once we’ve got it figured out we will let you guys know more details.
A. And last quick question before we let you get back to the party. For those who are kind of on the fence between Xbox One and PS4, is Dead Rising 3 worth the investment in an Xbox One?
Absolutely! This game could not exist on 360, this is an Xbox One exclusive for a reason. We’ve got a long partnership with Microsoft; Dead Rising 1 was exclusive, Case Zero and Case West which you just mentioned were also exclusive. We’ve been super thrilled to partner with Microsoft with trying to bring our dream game to life on Xbox One, and if you like Dead Rising, if you like zombies, if you like open-world action games, if you like freedom, if you like goofing around, if you like FUN, you’ve gotta play Dead Rising 3! And its only on Xbox One. I dunno what else to tell ya.
A. Alright, thank you very much!
Thank you
“If you like FUN, You’ve gotta play Dead Rising 3!” Well after that sentiment, I sure am convinced. Thanks a heap to Mike Jones for spending some time with us, and shedding some light on some Dead Rising 3 stuff that we didn’t know about, and for having a good time while doing so.
Dead Rising 3 will be available as a launch title for the Xbox One when it launches on November 22nd, so remember that for all the Dead Rising news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
