Following last year’s release of Guardian Cross, a new, free-to-play, zombie-themed card battle RPG has been announced by Square Enix, called Deadman’s Cross.
Deadman’s Cross is set in a world plagued and destroyed by the undead. You must shoot through as many of the nasties within the allotted time with your weaponry, and any zombies that you do kill will drop cards that you can collect in order to build your deck. The way of hunting for cards is back from Guardian Cross, as is ‘Hunter’s Vision’ , although it has changed from top-view to 3D to enable a fresher hunting experience.
Deadman’s Cross is will be released as this Winter for iOS and Android devices. A first-look trailer for the game will be shown at this year’s Tokyo Game Show in just a short while at the Mega Theatre in the Square Enix booth (for anyone who will be attending). Check out the gallery of first screenshots directly below.
Focus Home Interactive have today announced that Space Hulk: Deathwing will be the latest installment into the Warhammer 40k Space Hulk saga. Space Hulk was originally a board game, and was followed up by an iOS/Android port. Deathwing will be departing from the board game formula and instead offering a full fledged first person shooter.
Players will jump into the shoes of a Space Marine Deathwing from the Dark Angels and will be tasked with making it out of a derelict Space Hulk alive. There will be deviating skill trees to master, abilities unlocked and lots of things to shoot. Aside from these small details, we don’t know much about the game.
Focus Home Interactive have provided us with a small teaser trailer to get us all salivating, which you can check out below. For all the Space Hulk: Deathwing news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Overview It is no secret that Makoto Shinkai is a special film-maker. He worked tirelessly for many years with small project like Voices of a Distant Star and She and Her Cat, it wasn’t until one fateful film that he would finally receive the recognition he truly deserved. That film is none other than the modern anime classic 5 Centimetres Per Second.
5 Centimetres Per Second is a short yet remarkable film that provokes both deep thought and emotion. This is about as tragically real as anime gets and Shinkai puts a spotlight on the painful distance that inevitable grows between us all. He has gone on to top himself with masterpieces like Children Who Chase Lost Voices, but 5 Centimetres Per Second was the film that laid the foundations for his future works. It is a brilliant film in every regard and one that is truly timeless.
Story 5 Centimetres Per Second, much like Shinkai’s other works, heavily focuses on the theme of distance. Shinkai is quite clearly a man who knows this all too well. He writes about distance with such vivid detail and emotion, it is hard to escape the feeling that there isn’t a little bit of Shinkai in all of his films. Such is the case with 5 Centimetres Per Second, with the film’s protagonist Takaki feeling almost like Shinkai wrote himself into the film.
Takaki is a young man who forms a close bond with a girl named Akari, as time goes on and they both grow older, circumstances cause them to go there separate ways, the distance growing further and further as they grow older and older.
Over time Takaki meets new people, but he still can never escape the sadness that distance leaves him with. It all builds up and soon enough everywhere he turns there is a little bit of sadness piled up around him. This is the nature of life and Shinkai portrays it with unflinching accuracy.
Shinkai uses his trademark motif of trains to great effect in this film, with several crucial scenes playing at with a train passing by, taking its passengers to some place far away. It really embodies the distance the film is so heavily focused on quite nicely.
The film is split into three acts. The first focusing solely on Takaki and Akari as they try to deal with the growing distance between them. The second act revolves around a now high-school aged Takaki and a girl named Kanae who loves him all the while knowing that he will never love her back. The third and final act, the shortest of them all, features Takaki now an adult with an ex-girlfriend and a crappy job that he hates, wondering when the sadness around him will stop piling up.
While 5 Centimetres Per Second is undoubtedly a sad film, it ends on a hopeful note with a rather ambiguous ending. Ultimately Shinkai isn’t telling a tale of loss, but a tale of hope. No matter the distance the grows between us all, there is always a chance that one day, just maybe, that distance will grow smaller, even if it is only at 5 centimetres per second.
Visuals and Audio
One of the hallmarks of Makoto Shinkai’s films is their astonishing aesthetics. 5 Centimetres Per Second is no different, featuring a plethora of unforgettable imagery and animation. Whether it be the country-side buried under snow, the summer heat beating down upon the ocean of a quiet seaside town or even the endless urban sprawl of Tokyo, Shinkai sees beauty in everything and shares a little bit of what he seas with us in this films art. He and his team at Comix Wave are undoubtedly in the highest echelon in terms of animation. There is so much detail in the world that they have created, it is simply incredible.
On top of all that, 5 Centimetres Per Second features a stunning soundtrack filled with beautifully arranged incidental music that add immensely to the emotion on screen. This particular release also happens to feature both a Japanese audio track and English language dub track, both of which are truly great with splendid performances from all involved.
Extras
Madman Entertainment did a particular good job on this release of 5 Centimetres Per Second. The amount of bonus content on disc here is truly delightful. Included is an interview with Makoto Shinkai himself, an interview with the Japanese cast of the film, a making of featurette and the film’s original trailer. As an added bonus the release comes with a reversible cover featuring Takaki and Kanae rather than the original cover of Takaki and Akari. Both look great and it is certainly nice to have the option. It all adds up to a great release that is more than worth the asking price.
Overall
Sometimes the greatest films are the ones that don’t overstay their welcome. While it only totals in at roughly 50 minutes, 5 Centimetres Per Second is a complete package, resonating thematically and reaching true emotional catharsis. It is short but sweet and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
At one point or another we all have felt that sadness that comes with distance, whether it be someone moving away or someone passing on from this world. It is that shared understanding of distance and that universal feeling that comes with it, that makes 5 Centimetres Per Second so special. Shinkai balls up all that emotion and lets it all flow out in three beautiful and unrelentingly heartbreaking acts.
5 Centimetres Per Second is proof that Shinkai is the real deal. It is an absolute modern anime classic and essential viewing for all anime fans. If you have never experienced the work of Makoto Shinkai, 5 Centimetres Per Second serves as a perfect entry point to the world of Shinkai.
This is life through Shinkai’s eyes and what he sees is often painful, frequently uplifting, put together with some kind of magic, always wearing its heart on its sleeve and it all plays out at 5 centimetres per second.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
CasinoRPG – a free-to-play game that merges role-playing, tycoon and city building with casino game favorites like poker, blackjack and slots from Goldfire Studios, who were successful in their Kickstarter appeal for the project – has entered its open beta phase.
Since the campaign, the development team has expanded. James Simpson, founder and CEO of GoldFire Studios, spoke on the benefits of the Kickstarter platform;
Kickstarter is so attractive for indies because it offers a true win-win. The community has a unique position to participate in the development, while also providing us the backing needed to bring our creations to life.
CasinoRPG features an open, persistent online world running in-browser thanks to HTML5 technology. The uniqueness of its blend of genres means that players of CasinoRPG are able to use their virtual winnings to build casino empires, design luxury apartments and follow a vibrant story throughout the sprawling cities. These cities are then built, designed and managed by all of the players in the game, connecting the gambling side with the tycoon, city building and role-playing elements.
Luke Simkins, Chief Technology Officer of GoldFire Studios, commented on the team’s experience and the advantages of releasing games for play through web-browsers;
We’ve faced many technical challenges working with such new technologies, but we’ve come a long way and are ready to show the world what the web is capable of. We’ve barely begun to tap the possibilities of the web as a legitimate gaming platform…the future of browser gaming is very exciting.
GoldFire Studios, being the only game studio in Oklahoma City, sees staying local as part of its culture according to Simpson;
We’ve chosen to stay here in Oklahoma City rather than go to one of the coasts. Tech startups no longer have to be in Silicon Valley to succeed, and we hope to prove that with CasinoRPG.
You can visit the official CasinoRPG website to apply for a beta invite. And check out the gameplay trailer embedded directly below.
The launch trailer for Total War: Rome II has been released, heralding the strategy giant’s arrival on store shelves today. A few days ago the game’s worldwide activation time was announced by SEGA and Creative Assembly. Sure enough, Rome II went live on Steam just a few hours ago.
The award-winning Total War series returns to Rome, setting a brand new quality benchmark for Strategy gaming. Become the world’s first superpower and command the Ancient world’s most incredible war machine. Dominate your enemies by military, economic and political means. Your ascension will bring both admiration and jealousy, even from your closest allies.
Check out the game’s launch trailer below, where death and loss is ever-present in Rome’s political and military landscape.
Here is some good news for those of you clamoring for more information on Silicon Studio‘s Bravely Default (or Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies as it is now dubbed). Those who are planning on picking up the game will be getting the “enhanced” package, which features extra story events and an improved interface, allowing for a more fluid experience.
Square Enix recently sent out a tweet on the official Bravely Default Twitter page to make the announcement:
The overseas edition is based on "for the sequel".
Of course “for the sequel” is just a Japanese term for the more enhanced edition of the game, so those who have had to wait this monstrous delay for the anticipated RPG can rest easy knowing we have the best version on the way.
Over the weekend it was confirmed that Media Blasters will be giving Ladies versus Butlers! an English dub. Currently the series is tentatively set to be released sometime in January 2014 though an exact date has not been announced.
To go along with the anime‘s English dub announcement, the company also released a potential cover art which can be seen to the right, and in the comments on their Facebookpage they also confirmed that when Ladies vs. Butlers! is released, it will include all six of the extra bonus segments which were included in the Japanese release of the anime.
As you may or may not know, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was launched worldwide last Tuesday. Since then Square Enix’s revamped MMOhas been experiencing numerous server and log-in issues which have also placed limitations on the game’s character creation system.
In an effort to address fans, the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, has written numerous answersto questions concerning what Square Enix is planning on doing to rectify the issue.
“To ensure as many players as possible can log in and create characters on existing servers, our development and operations teams are monitoring server load and population around the clock, placing and removing restrictions with even the slightest fluctuation in numbers in order to maintain near-full capacity on each World. We are still experiencing maximum concurrent connection numbers of over 230,000 users. This number, however, has taxed some of our instance servers, and is causing unexpected down time here, as well.”
The company has also said that they are working on adding new Worlds to the game to try and provide more areas for gamers to spread themselves out and if everything goes well, a worldwide maintenance is set to occur on Wednesday which will increase the number of worlds for gamers to play on. Because of these issues all players will also be given seven days of free trial time regardless of whether or not they’ve previously played the game.
As people look away from Marvel and DC Entertainment to provide them with their comic book fix, indie developers are starting to grow in popularity. Smaller developers like those featured on ABC’s Comic Book Heroes (check our review here), and Titan Comics are starting to take the world by storm.
Titan Comics’ A1 Anthology series has been widely well-recieved and pretty popular among comic book readers around the world. This week, the fourth installment will be available for purchase. A1 Anthology #4 will include three different stories, all penned by Dave Elliot and W.H. Rauf. The latest installments of the following books will be featured;
WEIRDING WILLOWS There’s a dinosaur from Hollow Earth loose in the Weir and she’s eating Farmer McGregor’s sheep! Can Alice and Frankenstein’s Monster stop her – before McGregor puts down this purple T-rex for good?!
ODYSSEY What do you get when you cross soldiers, superheroes, supervillains with a truckload of guns, in a children’s hospital in Iraq?! This month’s ODYSSEY, that’s what!
CARPEDIEM: NINE IRON
Grab your woods and irons, and join the CarpeDIEm agents as they battle a haunted putt-putt golf arena – where deadly surprises wait in every hole!
You can pick up A1 Anthology #4, next Wednesday, Sep 11th for a moderate $3.99. If this is the first you are hearing of the A1 Anthology, then check out the gallery below that features some of the covers and pages from the book. If you are planning on grabbing the book, or have ready any of the previous installments, then let us know what you think in the comments below and be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Titan Comics news as it becomes available.
Kingston are one of the world leaders when it comes to data storage and one of their newest devices, the Kingston MobileLite Wireless, seeks to bring further strength to that reputation. With the space available on mobile devices still rather limited and in some cases being unexpandable such as with the iPad, this device could be the solution to your storage problems.
The MobileLite Wireless is a fairly unique and innovative device. It is essentially a wireless portable hard drive that uses a Wi-Fi connection to stream data to up to three Android and Apple devices simultaneously. While the device doesn’t contain any storage within itself, the owner uses their own USB flash sticks, SD cards or hard drives (my 1TB Seagate portable hard drive worked just fine) to provide the storage and content, meaning the MobileLite Wireless serves as a link between your files and your portable devices.
In the box you will receive a slim micro USB cable for charging the device, a micro SD card adapter and a handy starters guide as well as the device itself. The MobileLite Wireless is sleek, portable and functional, all three very important factors for a device of this nature. Weighing in at under 100 grams and being only slightly larger and more dense than an average phone, carrying the device around with you won’t prove to be an annoying task. The dark grey and black colour scheme also looks great and means the MobileLite Wireless won’t stick out awkwardly amongst your other devices. The fact that it doesn’t need any wires to connect to your mobile devices is also a huge plus, as you don’t have to worry about having the correct cables or even having them at all. The ports on the side are placed well and the three led indicators provide a simple way to let the user know the status of the device. The left most light indicates battery level by flashing in different colours depending on it’s amount of charge, the blue central light indicates the wireless capabilities are on and the final blue light indicates you have a bridged connection to the Internet. Battery life comes in at just under 5 hours of continuous use but all functionality will still work when charging.
In terms of the MobileLite Wireless’ most core functionality, streaming content to an Android or Apple device works very well. It handles streaming data to up to three different devices at the same time, it’s fast and it feels just like those files are on your device. The MobileLite Wireless uses a Wi-Fi connection to connect, which means most devices will be capable of connecting without problem. You won’t have any problems with range either as you can get around 50 feet away from the device without any connection problems and you don’t have to lose your device’s Internet capabilities when you are connected to the MobileLite Wireless’ own network as the device can connect to a Wi-Fi network itself and serve as a bridge. Those who are security concious will be pleased to know you can place a password on the local network to stop just anyone from accessing their content.
The MobileLite Wireless also has some nice additional features that deserve a mention. By pressing the power button quickly as opposed to holding it down for three seconds to turn on the wireless capabilities, the Mobilite Wireless can serve as a charger for your phone or other devices capable of being charged with a USB connection. Charging drains the life of the MobileLite Wireless pretty fast and it isn’t the most efficient charger but it can save you in a jam if your phone is about to die. I got about a 40% charge to my phone on a fully charged MobileLite Wireless. It also serves as a standard card reader which will no doubt be handy for some users.
In terms of functionality with your content, one cool feature is the ability to copy your photos straight to the storage inserted into the MobileLite Wireless, which means you can instantly share that content with up to two other people and you now have a backup of those photos while clearing space on your device, all without the need of a computer. For those users of social media, you can also post photos to Twitter or Facebook directly from the device as well as e-mail them as long as you have the MobileLite Wireless connected to a network. The fact that you can stream content to three users at once with everyone having their own access to the content is perfect if for example, someone wants to watch a movie while another user listens to some music. As touched upon before about the photo sharing, you can also share other files from your mobile device simply by placing it onto the MobileLite Wireless storage.
To access the content on your SD card or USB storage device you must first download the free MobileLite Wireless application which is available from the App Store and Google Play. The app itself is simple and well designed. It features a small tutorial at the start and accessing your files is as simple as folder navigation with a drop down list. Photos can be viewed as thumbnails or a file list, tapping on music begins playing it and it all works as one would expect. Both the picture viewer and music player provide all the basic neccessities, but don’t expect anything extra like photo filters or music equalisers. The music player does however features repeat and shuffle functionality. Videos also work fine but will need an external app such as VLC player to play larger files due to the limitations of Androids default video player. This dependency on the app for accessing your content may be a problem for those who prefer to use thier main media player but will suit the majority just fine. I did have one small glitch where I couldn’t see all my photos in portrait mode but could just fine when I flipped the phone into landscape, but this was a rare occurence.
You can also copy files between your mobile device and the SD card, however this is a fairly slow and clumsy experience when it comes to anything but small, single files. Transfer speeds are rather slow. I tried copying a 4GB file over and came back some time later to find it was only a quarter of the way complete. Functionality for copying multiple files outside of folders doesn’t appear to be present and copying photos has its own problem as you can only transfer photos from the file list view, which means you only have access to the file name and not a thumbnail. You will have to click the file name and load up the photo first to see what it is you want to transfer over and then return to the list and select to transfer it from there. This missing functionality seems like an oversight as a quick tap of the screen or settings button while viewing the photo from the photo grid could have easily brought up the option. While this isn’t much of an issue as the device’s nature is obviously more inclined to streaming as opposed to file copying, it is an available option that doesn’t work well.
Overall, Kingston’s MobileLite Wireless is a fairly unique device and performs all the tasks it claims on the box to a high standard of functionality and simplicity. It may serve a rather niche market with its feature set, but at an attractive price point and the bonus of doubling as a portable USB charger and card reader, it serves that market well. The required app works well and is easy to use but has some room for improvement in terms of functionality for transferring files from your devices back to the MobileLite Wireless. If you are aware of its capabilities beforehand, you will not be dissapointed by this nifty device.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
