EA have announced today that they have officially released the demo for the hotly anticipated upcoming installment in the FIFA soccer video-game franchise, FIFA 14. The demo is now available globally for players to get a chance to get a kick in with the game before its release later this year.
The demo for FIFA 14 is available to Xbox 360 owners on the Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation 3 owners on the PlayStation Network and PC gamers on EA’s Origin service. The game was voted “Best Sports Game” at Gamescom 2013.
Be sure to pick up the demo for FIFA 14 now and get an early shot at goals with what looks to be the best FIFA game to date.
Ubsisoft’s next-gen racing title being developed by Ivory Tower has alot of competition from the likes of Forza 5, DriveClub and Need for Speed Rivals, not to mention Gran Turismo 6 on the PS3. The Crew has really caught my eye though, standing out from the competition with its vast driving landscape based on the U.S.A that features over 1000 landmarks, fully customisable cars and the merged single player and online experience. It really looks The Crew will be creating something unique, which is very important for a new franchise entering an over-saturated market. The team making it is also rather impressive, with many of the creators working on past racing game franchises such as V-Rally, Test Drive Unlimited and even non-racing games that are held in high regards like Splinter Cell.
Ubisoft recently held their Digital Days 2013 event where they showcased some new games and provided more information on already announced titles. Key features detailed in the latest press release include:
NEVER DRIVE ALONE – Jump in and out seamlessly and build your crew of four through bonding or intense rivalry. Whether your objective is to takedown a convoy or to escape the police, achieving it with friends ensures a fresh experience each time you join in.
A PLAYGROUND OF UNPRECEDENTED SCOPE AND VARIETY – The entire United States is your driving playground – all roads and everything in between. Every type of terrain imaginable is yours to master – from downtown city streets to suburbs, hillsides, cornfields, canyons, desert dunes or even race tracks.
PREPARE YOUR CAR FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE – Collect body and performance parts along your progression to customize and upgrade your licensed cars. Equip your ride with 5 different tuning specs (street, perf, dirt, raid, circuit) to adapt to different driving terrains. Choose from a wide range of perks to enhance your vehicle according to your driving style.
THE EXPERIENCE GOES ON, WHEREVER YOU ARE – Continue the experience on iOS, Android tablets, and on the web. Keep track of your friends’ performances and tinker with your ride before playing it live to set new records, or send your crew on jobs on-the-go to gain more XP and parts.
A large Q&A was also conducted at Gamescom. Here are all the highlights in simple list form for your viewing pleasure.
The Crew defines what freedom truly means in a driving game, without any barriers and invisible walls to restrict your car to the road. Go anywhere in the huge open world at any moment and use the surrounding environment to your advantage. Take that cop chase off-road and watch those cumbersome patrol cars spin out in the dirt, or maybe just hide in a corn field…
Play the entire campaign co-operatively with your friends.
THE CREW contains 1,000 real world landmarks and many major American cities from across the nation, each with environments and terrain representative of their real-world counterparts. Maneuver through the bustling streets of New York City and Los Angeles, cruise down sunny Miami beach, or trailblaze through the snowy mountains around Aspen, Colorado. Nearly every type of terrain you can think of, from downtown city centers, suburbs, hillsides, cornfields, canyons, desert dunes, race tracks – you name it and it’s in the game.
The Crew will take you on a journey to move up the ranks of the Five-Ten Motor Club, a gang grown around Detroit’s illegal street racing scene – making a rep for yourself and ultimately taking down their activities one region at a time.
Each time you enter the game world, you are notified of all your friends’ achievements that have occurred in your absence – new scores to beat, missions completed, etc.
Every car is a 19-piece puzzle that you can customize and upgrade at will as you unlock body and performance parts along your progression. During our campaign you will be introduced to 5 different tuning specs (street, dirt, perf, raid, circuit) that enable you to perform better and venture on unexplored or previously impracticable terrains.
Max level cap is 50 but there is alot planned for end game content.
Companion apps are becoming a big thing with next-gen and the Crew is no exception. Players can do tasks like building their cars and organising missions on their phones and tablets, meaning you have more time to race on the big screen. A closer look into some of the screens reveals we will be able to modify the colour of our cars, the type of paint and also apply a variety of decals which will leave fans of car customisation happy. The app will be available for Android and Apple devices.
Check out the screenshots below which show just how varied the landscape can be and how you can customise each car (a Camaro in this case) to suit different challenges such as offroad, raid and street. It also gives a look at the companion app which allows users to update their cars without the use of a T.V. A recent video from Gamescom also walks us through a couple of missions in game and explains mods and perks, you can check that out in our recent article covering the game. The Crew is releasing in early 2014 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Today Natsume has announced that they have launched their pre-order campaign for their upcoming 3DS release, Hometown story. Though the game currently is only set for a release window of sometime in the Fall season, gamers can now choose to pre-order the game from whichever retailer they feel like.
However if you happen to pre-order the title from GameStopyou will receive, along with the game of course, an Emerald Green Ember plush toy which mimics the baby dragon which is in the game itself. The game will cost $39.99 at launch and in the game itself players will play as a character who recently inherited their grandmother’s shop and must build it up again to revive not only the store, but the town itself.
As you may or may not know, Atlus USA is bringing a unique fighting game featuring anime/visual novel characters to North America and that game happens to be called AquaPazza. At the time of their localization announcement, the company didn’t know exactly when it would be released but today they have announced that they are planning on releasing the game on November 19th for a nicely discounted price of only $29.99.
To go along with this announcement the company released a handful of screenshots which can be seen below. As for AquaPazza itself, it offers thirteen playable characters, numerous partners that assist in combat and numerous gameplay modes, including an online component.
Today Kingdom Hearts fans will be able to take some time and visit some of the classic games in the series as Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix has been made available for purchase in North America. As for European regions, they will have to wait until Friday to acquire the PS3 exclusive.
For those who don’t know, this version of the game includes HD versions of Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories as well as cinematics from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. To go along with the game’s release, Square Enix has released a number of new screenshots and a launch trailer, both of which can be found below.
Remember Theatrhythm Final Fantasy? It’s been awhile so if you need to refresh your memory you can check out my review of the title here. If you do happen to remember it then we have some great news for you, today it has been revealed that Square Enix is developing another game for the Theatrhythm series.
Thanks to a scan from Shonen Jump magazine, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call has been revealed and it will contain over 200 songs and 60 characters from the Final Fantasy games. These songs will also include some from Final Fantasy XIV and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Also new to the game is a versus mode that allows players to challenge others to rhythm battles. Currently Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call is planned for a Spring 2014 release on the 3DS.
Quick name a company that just announced a JRPG. No it isn’t Square Enix. Nor is it Compile Heart, Gust, Nippon Ichi Software or even Idea Factory. Nope it actually is Ubisoft and they have revealed that they are working on a game called Child of Light which is a JRPG inspired title that will be released as a digital download for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC.
The company has released a trailer for the game which can be seen below and they have also given us some details about the title. The game will follow a fairy named Aura who is searching for her home and must defeat the Black Queen to do so.
As she makes her way through the game she must battle against numerous enemies in turn-based combat and interestingly enough, the game will be told all in rhyme. Child of Light is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal and will use the same engine as Rayman Legends when it is released sometime in 2014.
Hey fans of the anime Watamote, how long would you wait for the next episode to air, what about a movie or an ova? A month, three months, how about thirteen months? And I thought the wait for the Oreimo specials was long, this one takes the cake.
The manga website Gangan online has released an informative pageannouncing that a special OVA episode will be included in the special edition seventh volume of the manga, which will be released on the 22nd of October 2014. If this so happens to interest you then I suggest you plan ahead as pre-orders are already available Through the Japanese Amazon and 7netshopping websites, and for only 3,500 yen ($35 USD) it could be worth the wait.
The Watamote manga currently has four volumes published in Japan by Gangan and will soon be available as an English release in October this year. Let us know what you think about this OVA news and if you are a fan of Watamote by leaving a comment down below.
Today EA Sports’ latest iteration of the NHL franchise has been released to stores in North America. With NHL 14 the company has focused on not only improving the way that players hit one another on the ice but also how they control.
However, as highlighted in the launch trailer below, one of the biggest changes has been the way that players will now fight and check other players during the game. To top off this news, EA has also announced that there will be 14 pieces of music licensed from various artists around the world, the full list of them can be found below:
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Part 2 Studio:Gonzo Publisher: FUNimation Format:Blu-ray/DVD Combo Release Date: September 10, 2013 Price:$64.98 – Available Here
Overview So far, Gonzo’s revival of the Last Exile series has been going well enough. Though poor pacing, an unfocused plot and some basic animation issues plagued Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Part 1, the review of which can be found here, it managed to lay quite a bit of groundwork by building up a world full of various nations and introducing numerous characters to the story. Will all this build up pay off in Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Part 2?
Story Years after the people who fled the world after it went to hell and became almost entirely incapable of sustaining human life returned, the few people who stayed behind and suffered through the fall of the world were forced to leave their homelands. These refugees have gathered together under one nation known as the Ades Federation and after the events from Part 1, the Ades Federation has launched a worldwide war seeking to bring peace to the world by crushing everyone in their path and returning the land to its people.
When we last left Fam, Giselle and Millia the newly formed Turon forces were viciously attacked after Millia’s sister renounced her right of being a princess, firmly placing herself as an ally to the Ades Federation’s military leader Luscinia. With their meager force switching sides and their last allies damaged and fleeing the battle, the three have crash landed into Glacies territory. While they are helped by members of the Glacian military in return for assistance in the first half of the series, Glacies is the next target of the Ades Federation.
While the three are able to form a bond with Dian, one of the leaders of Glacies’ air fleets, and repair their vanship, it quickly becomes apparent that they are simply fleeing a nation at the brink of destruction. As they make their escape, they bear witness to the might of the Ades Federation as it not only obliterates the Glacian forces with new weapons capable of destroying smaller ships, but even summoning an Exile once more to annihilate the capable defenses of Glacies, leaving it nothing but a frozen wasteland of wreckage and corpses.
As Fam and her friends return home only to find that the Sky Pirate bases have also come under attack, Saya, the young head of the Ades Federation is told the truth behind Luscinia’s actions and it is declared that he is an outlaw and calls for all displaced nations to join the Ades Federation in forming a Joint Forces to not only take back their lands, but put a stop to Luscinia’s plans.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Part 2 continues to suffer the main problem that existed in the first series and that is proper transitioning and actual pacing. An on almost episode to episode basis, minus a recap again, there are major shifts in the world as world powers are destroyed, raised, destroyed again, alliances are formed, betrayed, shifted and formed once again all while peace seems to only be a fingertip away as the series pushes to the final episodes with numerous plot twists and shifts in allegiances constantly changing the makeup of Fam’s world, even in the final episode.
One thing that is better handled this time around is the way the characters are handled. Despite the world spanning scale of the war, Fam remains a focus of the series as she is usually part of something, though often not the main player in the scene. Both Fam and Millia receive a fair bit of development throughout this second half as they come to grips with the constant war and try to come to terms with their future, even while Fam tries to remain a bright spot in a dark world, despite her naïve nature aggravating everyone around her. However, once again due to pacing, it is very obvious that entire segments of backstory and subplots, especially involving Fam and other characters, are completely forgotten or summarized for the sake of time, leaving some twists not only poorly supported but also full of holes.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Part 2 wraps the series up in a decent enough manner, though thanks to the low episode count of the series everything feels rushed and crammed together. Despite that, this second half manages to deliver a believable goal for Luscinia’s plans while the people of the world simply seek peace, even if it means going to war to do so.
Visuals While the battles that were held in the first half of Fam, The Silver Wing were rather large at times, they seem like simple skirmishes compared to the battles that take place in this second half. The second half opens itself up with the Ades Federation’s fleets taking on the powerful defenses of the Glacies nation. Things become hectic very quickly as battleships and vanships are destroyed, artillery is carpet bombed and entire crews are destroyed in spectacular fashion. This battle and the many others that take place throughout this second half are all handled with CGI, from the designs of the ships, explosions and smoke and even the Exiles which eventually enter the fray and everything looks rather spectacular in motion.
That being said, it is clear that the company faced some limitations when it came to animation as entire sequences are sometimes skipped, such as the coup de grâce of Glacies, Fam’s zipping around the battlefield on her agile vanship and more. It is also worth noting that the normal animation also takes a hit as the characters often suffer drops in animation quality.
Audio As mentioned in the first half of the review, it is worth noting that many of the returning characters from the first season of Last Exile have been recast and unfortunately they continue to poorly match up with their previous voice actors. As for the rest of the cast however, they handle the characters nicely and considering all of the characters from the Glacies nation speak in Russian, it is nice to hear the Russian mixed in with the English dub.
The soundtrack for the series continues to be quite impressive as not only are there numerous background songs that are matched up perfectly with specific scenes, a number of these songs have vocals to them. Whenever these insert songs are played they usually make the accompanying moment all the more important feeling. As for the opening and ending themes, they are the same as the first half and fit the series well, though it is worth noting that a few variations are used throughout the second half to bring special attention to the closing of that episode.
Extras Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Part 2 features numerous on-disc bonuses though a number of these are pretty much your standard inclusions. There are two textless versions of the opening songs, and four textless closing songs, promo videos from Japan, the US trailer and trailers for other FUNimation shows as well as a spin-off “Friday Night” collection of 8-13 which is short in length and played mostly for laughs.
Alongside these extras there is also the second half of the Anime Expo 2011 interview with the staff at Gonzo and two commentary tracks. The first commentary track is for episode 17 and features Chris George who is the ADR Engineer for the series, Caitlin Glass, the voice of Magnolia, and Gwendolyn Lau, the voice of Vasant. The second commentary features the return of Leah Clarke and Jad Saxton as the voices of Giselle and Fam respectively and they are joined by Monica Rial who handles the voice of Sara Augusta, the Empress of the Ades Federation.
Overall
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing built itself a world full of different cultures and people, brought them their knees, rose them up again as one and then struck them down once more only for a final goal to be achieved by the time the last credit sequence rolls. With stunning battle animations and a large scale plot, this second half manages to deliver on the groundwork of the first half.
While Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing could have been great if it had the time to properly develop everything that takes place, it falls short due to obvious limitations to the studio’s budget and massive pacing issues that force huge shifts in power with little to no development whatsoever.
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