Today 2K Sports revealed that they have selected the alternate cover art that will be packaged with WWE 2K14 when it is released later this year on October 29th in North America and November 1st everywhere else.
As you can see above, both covers feature the hottest star in the WWE today, Daniel Bryan. The cover on the left will be used in the North American release of the game and is by Mike Rodriguez of Corona, CA while the one on the left will be used in the PAL regions and is created by Alexis Zankowitch of Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux, France. This cover art will be on the reverse side of the main cover art, which features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
New studio Blackpowder Games is keen to make a name for themselves with their new heavily stylised game Betrayer and have released the game to the public as a Steam Early Access title. Game designer Craig Hubbard expresses that the team wanted “to get feedback while there’s still time to react to it and make the game better.”
Betrayer is an eerie first person action adventure game that takes you to the New World at the turn of the 17th century. The game focuses on exploring, unraveling mysteries, collecting loot to spend on better weaponry, and engaging in brutal combat against deadly enemies. The studio wanted to make a game that didn’t spell everything out to you, leaving room for the player to figure things out for themselves depending on the clues they find. They are hoping the early access release will allow the community to help fine tune the balance between providing too much or too little information.
If you’re interested in checking out Betrayer early, you can get it on PC through Steam Early Access here.
Earlier today Sentai Filmworks announced who will be voicing who in AKB0048 when it is released next month on September 3rd on Blu-ray and DVD. The English casting list for the main characters can be found below:
Character
Voice Actor
Nagisa Motomiya
Luci Christian
Chieri Sono
Emily Neves
Orine Aida
Brittney Karbowski
Yuka Ichijo
Monica Rial
Sonata Shinonome
Juliet Simmons
Makoto Yokomizo
Molly Searcy
Minami Takahashi the 5th
Cynthia Martinez
Yuko Oshima the 9th
Tiffany Terrell
Yuki Kashiwagi the 6th
Margaret McDonald
Mayu Watanabe Type 3
Hayley Adams
Haruna Kojima the 8th
Nancy Novotny
Tomomi Itano the 11th
Allison Sumrall
Sae Miyazawa the 10th
Shannon Emerick
Sayaka Akimoto the 10th
Beth Lazarou
Kirara
Tiffany Grant
Mamoru
Greg Ayres
Nagisa’s Father
Christopher Ayres
Nagisa’s Mother
Nancy Novotny
Teacher
Mark X Laskowski
Additional voice work for the series will be provided by Hayley Adams, Meaghan Avocato, Christopher Ayres, Greg Ayres, Kalin Coates, Tiffany Grant, Josh Grelle, Mark X Laskowski, Margaret McDonald, Brent Marshall, Nancy Navotny, Tiffany Terrell, and David Wald.
The company also provided the below story synopsis for the series:
The year is 0048, and in the wake of the great wars, all forms of entertainment have been banned by the dystopian and iron-gloved rule of the anti-music DES. To combat this threat to intergalactic harmony, a group of bold young women have resurrected the legendary J-Pop band AKB48 and formed an all new Band of Sisters – AKB0048! But these rocking rebels aren’t simply singers! Trained in combat as well as choreography, these striking strike team members are equally at home in concert halls and in the trenches. Under the leadership of the mysterious Sensei Sensei, they’re ready to lay down their lives in order to make the universe a safe place for getting your groove on! And as a fresh new team of singer-soldiers join the cause and enter basic training, the batons and battle gear are about to be passed to a new generation of daring divas! Get ready to polish your dancing boots and dive into danger with the latest hard hitting hits as the new recruits take the staging ground and the veterans provide the musical soundtrack to their own action epic in AKB0048!
Bill Tiller, an artist who has worked on LucasArts titles such as The Dig, The Curse of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, is working with Swiss game developers IF Games and animation studio boutiq to create a new adventure game entitled Perils of Man. The game will come in two three hour episodes.
Ana Eberling is the star of the series, a 16 year old girl who is plunged into a time travelling adventure. This coming of age tale explores themes of choice, destiny, and predictability in life. The first episode of Perils of Man will be released for iPad in October 2013.
Guardians of Middle-Earth was released for the XBLA and PSN back in December last year and despite being updated with more and more characters the game hadn’t made the transition over to PC, yet. It seems that the game is almost ready to make the journey to Windows as a trailer and release date have been announced.
Set for release on Steam and other digital retailers in August, players will be able to choose from characters from both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as the forces of light and dark clash. Coming from developer Monolith Productions, publisher Warner Bros., with the PC version itself thanks to Zombie Studios.
Those wanting to watch the trailer for themselves can find it embedded below. Guardians of Middle-Earth for PC is currently available for pre-order before it releases on August 29th, 2013. Those wanting more information on the game itself can read our Guardians of Middle-Earth Review.
Today, Sega and Sports Interactive announced that the next game in their highly successful management simulator series, Football Manager, will be, “the most compelling and realistic to date.” With over 1000 improvements made since the last yearly installment (Review for Football Manager 2013), Football Manger 2014 promises a whole host of new features in every area. This means that everything from being able to deal with club matters right from the news inbox, to the improved AI and player models will be far superior to the last game.
The inclusion of cloud saving means that now players can take the helm of their team from wherever they have access to a computer. Maybe even more exciting is the use of Steam Workshop which will mean players can customise their teams in more ways than ever before and share their custom content with FM players across the globe. Custom-made challenges, competitions, and logos will all be available to share with other players via the pre-game editor which will be free to download with the game.
FM 2014 will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux before Christmas 2013 and those who pre-order from participating retailers or via digital platforms will gain access to a beta version of the game 2 weeks before it hits the shelves. For updates about further new features included in FM 2014, follow @milessi on Twitter where he will be doing daily tweets detailing a new feature every day.
Today Sentai Filmworks announced the English cast for their upcoming release of Campione! which is going to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 15th. The English dub’s director will be Jason Grundy while the rest of the cast can be found below:
Character
Voice Actor
Godo Kusanagi
Blake Shepard
Erica Blandelli
Monica Rial
Yuri Mariya
Hilary Haag
Liliana Kranjcar
Genevieve Simmons
Ena Seishuin
Carli Mosier
Athena
Brittney Karbowski
Shizuka Kusanagi
Luci Christian
Arianna Hyama Aleardi
Juliet Simmons
Verethragna
Leraldo Anzuldua
Lucrezia Zora
Maggie Flecknoe
Melqart
David Wald
Sasha Dejanstahl Voban
John Swasey
Anchorwoman
Allison Sumrall
Narration
Christopher Ayres
For those who don’t know about the series, Sentai Filmworks has provided the below story description:
Some people suddenly find religion, but for 16 year old Kusanagi Godo, it’s that REALLY old time religion that’s found him! As the result of defeating the God of War in mortal combat, Godo’s stuck with the unwanted position of Campione, or God Slayer, whose duty is to fight Herectical Gods whenever they try to muscle in on the local turf. Not only is this likely to make Godo roadkill on the Highway to Heaven, it’s also a job that comes with a lot of other problems. Like how to deal with the fact that his “enhanced status” is attracting a bevy of overly-worshippy female followers. After all, they’re just there to aid him in his demi-godly duties, right? So why is it that their leader, the demonically manipulative sword-mistress Erica Brandelli, seems to have such a devilish interest in encouraging some VERY unorthodox activities? Get ready for immortal affairs, heavenly harems and lots of dueling deities taking pious in the face as the ultimate smash, bash and thrash of the Titans rocks both Heaven and Earth in CAMPIONE!
As with so many Rockstar games, Grand Theft Auto V is sure to be a big hit when it comes out, but one of the less detailed aspects of the game is the online component. Finding only some success with their past multiplayer, utilizing mostly the tried and try styles of online play, like deathmatch and racing, the plans for what Rockstar would be trying with GTA V has been very under wraps. Wonder no more however as the Grand Theft Auto Online trailer has been released with plenty of details.
It seems that Grand Theft Auto Online will be much different than the style of online multiplayer in the past, with players taking directly to the streets of the map, meeting people, and trying to make a name for themselves. Choice looks to be a major part, as players will be able to do whatever they want and style their character however they choose, much like the choices players had for CJ back in GTA San Andreas.
But, the most surprising aspect, will be that development of the online game world will persist after the game has been released, giving players even more as time goes on. Players shouldn’t worry about being stuck with what the devs design for them content wise though, as an editor will also allow players to design their own races and deathmatch arenas. So, maybe players should check out that Travelogue and start planning.
Be sure to check out the trailer embedded below for the full details and be ready to be impressed, as it looks to have a whole lot of potential. Grand Theft Auto V is set to release in September for Xbox 360 and PS3, with Grand Theft Auto Online releasing for those with GTA V on October 1st.
Rise of the Triad is easily the most game changing first person shooter today, much like it had the potential to be back when the original was first being developed as a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D. Rise of the Triad is, of course, a remake of the game with the same title from back in 1994.
Story
Rise of the Triad has a rather simple story. A group of expert military operatives, called the H.U.N.T, are sent to an island in order to investigate what seems to be a dangerous cult. However, things quickly take a turn for the worst when they are attacked and left stranded on the island. It is up to the player, and their skills, to traverse the games levels, taking down the cult, and leaving the island.
What’s interesting about the games story is that the game rarely uses cutscenes to tell the player anything. In fact, outside of the initial cutscene, there are very few within the game, leaving the player to work out what’s going on through observation and supposition. For example, during the first leg of the game, you have the opening cutscene, as well as all of the weird Nazi-tech surrounding you to drive you forward. Whereas, in the second leg, you start to wonder where all this weird Nazi-tech is coming from, why are there bosses with overpowered abilities and just where in the environment can I glean this information?
If you look around hard enough, there are a lot of very subtle hints as to what is actually going on with this secret cult. The NME (enemy, get it!) are up to something, and the more you look around, the more you piece together whilst sprinting from area to area, the more you realise it is no good.
However, the story is most definitely not a really deep piece about the human experience of killing Nazis with a baseball bat. It’s a story about a team that has to take on Nazis with a baseball bat. And it’s pretty hilarious.
Gameplay
Rise of the Triad is an accurate recreation of the original game in the sense that the levels, weapons and enemies are largely similar to it. The levels are still arcade madness, the weapons are still split into three groups and the enemies still range from common to bizarre.
One of the things that makes Rise of the Triad unique in todays gaming climate is that the levels aren’t just simple ‘A to B’ styled levels. Rather, they’re interesting ‘A to B’ style levels. Yes, much like FPS’ games have been for the last 20 years, this is still pretty much a corridor shooter.
However, the fact that getting from the entrance of an area to an exit of the area requires you to dodge some rather strange obstacles, complete jumping puzzles and hunt down different coloured keys, makes this game very old school in design. While modern games rely on cinematic action sequences to keep you entertained, Rise of the Triad has you trying to work out a path through a maze of moving razor blades, requiring not only expert timing, but also expert positioning.
The way weapons are handled in Rise of the Triad is a happy medium between realism and fantasy. What this means is that your loadout is generally dictated by a few simple rules. You can have up to three bullet based weapons (sub-machine gun, dual pistols and a pistol), one explosive weapon and one magical weapon.
Interestingly enough, it’s only the bullet based weapons that have unlimited ammo. If the player uses up all of their rockets or magic ammo, they’re forced to lose access to that weapon. However, with rockets and magical weapons, if the player manages to pick up another weapon of that type, they will drop their current weapon and pick up the new one. So if you remember where it is that you drop a weapon, you can always backpedal to it later, although in most cases, this is unnecessary.
Remember a time where shooters had massive boss fights that weren’t just inserted to build up play time and were actually difficult and rewarding? Rise of the Triad harkens itself back to a time where these things existed. Even the first boss in this game is amazingly intricate to work out. In the first phase, he’ll shoot these kinds of waves at you, from there it ramps up in difficulty until he’s firing explosives at you, springing firey spikes from the ground and launching fireballs across the ground. Each boss fight in the game has a build up of elements like this boss fight, and each one is rather creative in its execution.
My one gripe about this game, really, is that nobody in this country appears to play the multiplayer. Over the course of the week, there was one Australian match happening whilst we were online. And while the multiplayer is incredibly fun, actually finding a game can be a bit tough.
On top of all of these elements still is that because this is a Steam game, it has Steam achievements built into it. Unlocking all 111 of these achievements might seem like a difficult task, but they’re really fun to go about doing. It was particularly enjoyable seeing some of the achievements and having a laugh at some of them. They poke fun at the game, the developers and gaming in general. If there was an achievements of the year award, it’d go to Rise of the Triad.
Rise of the Triad is a ball of creativity when it comes to the gameplay. You can tell the developers had a lot of fun recreating this game. This fun is reflected back at the player who will then have fun themselves.
Visuals and Audio
Visually speaking, Rise of the Triad seems a bit dated if you’re standing still and not actually playing the game. However, once you start adding in the insane movement speed, the motion blurs and a plethora of gibs. You’ll find the game actually looks really amazing.
What’s interesting about the game visually is the way that everything that should be really different blends in together in this world. For example, a magical baseball bat seems in no way out of place within a Nazi-esque facility.
One thing that was nice to see was how on the games overworld map, there were a lot of homoages to past classics. If you look hard enough, you can even spot mecha-hitler from Wolfenstein 3D.
Rise of the Triad has an amazing metal soundtrack that reconstructs the original arrangements from the original Rise of the Triad game. The developers have also included the original soundtrack as well, and that can be toggled on or off in the audio options.
Adding to the fun, or sometimes frustration, is the games in-game announcer. You just died? “Get to the chopper… oh wait you can’t”. Die too many times in Multiplayer? Guess what, you’re a “loooosssseerrrrrrr….”.
It’s things like this that take Rise of the Triad above and beyond your standard game. It’s a box of fun, and tries to be little else.
Conclusion
Do you know the saying: “style over substance”? Well, Rise of the Triad is a game that rises above that saying because this is a game where the style definitely creates the substance. For a remake to have come out so well is nearly unheard of, it just goes to show how passionate and involved the production team were.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Halfbrick‘s Fruit Ninja – with around half a billion downloads globally already – hits yet another platform today with its release on the Sony PlayStation Vita, this version developed by fellow Australian studio Big Ant.
Now its success is bound to heighten with a whole new audience. Fruit Ninja for PS Vita has exclusive features unique to the portable platform, whilst maintaining the legendary juicy gameplay, with Arcade, Zen and Classic Mode included. A vast array of items are also able to be unlocked and used to customize your game in Sensei’s Swag and Gutsu’s Cart. Taking advantage of the power of PlayStation Network, players can go online with multiplayer, in ranked or private games, checking leaderboards that track wins as well as scores in all offline modes. Players can also use integrated Voice Chat to speak to each other.
Fruit Ninja is available to download right now for AUD$7.35 from the PSN Store.
The inclusion of cloud saving means that now players can take the helm of their team from wherever they have access to a computer. Maybe even more exciting is the use of Steam Workshop which will mean players can customise their teams in more ways than ever before and share their custom content with FM players across the globe. Custom-made challenges, competitions, and logos will all be available to share with other players via the pre-game editor which will be free to download with the game.
