Yesterday Balloon 27 (B27) announced their newest game Hill Billis available now for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.
Hill Bill is a hill-billy game that follows Hill Bill on his quest to become the next Evel Knievel. Players take on the role of Hill Bill as masters jumps and tricks that get crazier daily. Gamers must master jumps and tricks on home-made ramps, until it becomes time to take on death-defying jumps, over greater distances at Race Tracks, Mud Rallies, and even the Circus! Jump on Hill Bill’s trusty third-hand garage-sale bike and master 60 death defying levels before attempting to master the greatest stunt-jump of all; the Grand Canyon.
Hill Bill is B27’s first game on the App Store. Featuring exhilarating jumps, gorgeous environments, new bikes and outfits, it’s a perfect combination of quirky, fun art style, authentic sound effects, exciting gameplay and colourful environments that provide hours of engaging and addictive gameplay, which is sure to keep iOS gamers coming back for more.
Purchase it here on the App Store for $1.99. Be sure to also check out our weekly iOS suggestions for other great iOS games to play!
Immortal Empire Developer: Tactic Studios Publisher:Tactic Studios Platforms: Internet Browsers (PC, Mac, Linux) Release Date: May 20, 2013 Price: Free – Play Here
Overview
With what feels like a recent resurgence of isometric strategyRPGs (like Harebrained Schemes‘ Shadowrun Returns) the engines are primed for the genre to make a comeback. Enter Tactic Studios and their free-to-play browser-based game Immortal Empire. The game has been in the works for quite some time, but has it released during a proverbial gold rush? Should it be inexplicably slaughtered or forever raised on high? Let’s find out.
Story
You are an immortal. You’ve been brought back into the world by the elder you’re tied to, but the purpose behind it all is not yet clear. Following his guidance, you must accomplish missions. On one of these missions, you soon run into some other folks and learn that there is much more to your existence and its significance in the world that you ever would have thought possible.
Gameplay Immortal Empire plays like you would expect most standard turn-based strategy roleplaying games to. There’s a definite rhythm to the cadence, though, and it can be easy to let yourself keep rolling between missions.
Before a mission starts, you’ll have the briefing with whichever NPCs fit the bill for the storyline at that point. It doesn’t always flow as smoothly as it could, but overall the storytelling and dialogue are solid.
After you’ve received your marching orders for the upcoming mission, you can manage everything to prepare your team for what lies ahead. This includes getting getting or upgrading skills, purchasing and equipping gear, enchanting equipment if you want to, comparing your stats to everyone else in the world, and making any real-money microtransactions you want. You’re also welcome to jump into a chat room and chat it up with everyone else playing at the same time.
When you go out to the world map, there will be pins placed where you can travel to. Each location typically has five story missions that will be carried out on it. Playing a location will take you to the last map available to you on a given pin, but you have the freedom of joining games with other players for some assistance.
Once you’re in the mission, everything swaps to an isometric view with your team placed in front of you. You can choose to move any number of your team at the same time, though if someone will run into an enemy only one is typically sent out. Each character is given a specific “time” allotment per turn, and everything from walking to attacking and using skills takes time. When your party’s time runs out, any allies you have go and then enemies take their turn.
The game, rightfully, leans quite heavily on forcing the player to think strategically. Are you going to put your caster within range of a group of enemies so she can hit them or will your tank be out front absorbing the damage? One wrong move could lead to the death of a teammate, and the game itself is quite unforgiving. You didn’t mean to click that spot? Too bad, because your unit is sitting there now for better or worse. It can become frustrating, but it also encourages that you think before you act, and that’s a good thing.
You’ll start with only one immortal. Each type of immortal has a unique set of skills to play off of, so mixing and matching is a fun exercise as you learn what suits your playstyle best. As the story and your level progresses, you can earn additional party members. This offers up a unique choice, since experience is gained as a squad. Do you diversify your team, or keep building up the warriors already in your party? It can take a while to bring a latecomer up to everyone else, but that could make the difference in victory and defeat down the road.
There are several forms of currency in the game. Defeating enemies and completing quests will reward you with “pure source.” This is essential your experience points. They’re shared between your whole team, so you’ll have to decide which characters need to level up to best contribute. On top of pure source, you can earn gold to purchase gear and “radiance,” which will let you purchase some unique items. Radiance is also the real-money currency, should you decide to spend your hard earned cash on the game.
As you work through the game, you’ll come to realize that you don’t have to play alone. If you want, you and three friends can all jump in and command your squads together to work through the story. This offers a fantastic way to play cooperatively while still getting a solid single-player experience. For those with a little more bloodlust, you can jump in and play competitive matches against other folks.
Visuals
By virtue of the fact that the game is restricted to internet browsers, the visuals are pretty tightly limited. No matter how large you grow your browser, the game window itself will never get bigger than an 800×600 resolution. This leads to a few inherent issues.
First, there’s only so much that can be pressed into that amount of space. For the general play area, that’s not a problem. Each mission, though, is equipped with a minimap that’s tremendously helpful. It’s quite small with no way to resize, though, and it can become busy quickly. Second, it lacks graphical fidelity. Nothing in this game looks as sharp as, say, Shadowrun Returns (which allows 1080p). Fortunately, the 16-bit art style works really well for Immortal Empire. Colors pop really well and everything looks distinct, in spite of the low resolution.
Apart from the limitations of the browser environment, Immortal Empire has solid graphical design. The menus you’ll switch through between missions are intuitive and crisp, with sharp looking icons representing each of the items and spells at your disposal. NPCs looks decent as well.
Audio
Tactic Studios are quite proud of the soundtrack they’ve created, and they should be. They’ve put together a solid orchestral fantasy soundtrack you would expect to hear accompanying a Dungeons & Dragons game or fantasy film like Willow. It runs the gamut from deep and mysterious to light and warm with a tinge of whimsy.
The sound effects are fit their job well, too. They craft the feeling that your habitation in the world is more than just that of an observer. It’s even more impressive when you realize such a small studio did all of the audio work from the ground up by themselves.
Overall
Overall, Immortal Empire is a surprisingly rich strategy RPG experience. The fact that it’s currently bound to a browser shouldn’t overshadow the solid gameplay experience that lies within. Though the graphical fidelity feels constrained, the game has a unique sense of charm. The sound design does a solid job immersing you in the world. Whether by yourself or with a group of friends, Immortal Empire is definitely worth a look.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
As you may have already heard, all first-run copies of Killer is Dead will include free ‘Smooth Operator’ DLC along with a number of other extras such as a hardcover art book and soundtrack CD. Today XSEED Games released some screenshots showing off what this DLC will have to offer players.
As you can see below, there are alternate costumes for Vivienne and Mika, a bonus Gigolo Mission with Betty, an extra episode focused around a vampire named Sebastian and an in-game item called ‘Gigolo Glasses.’ Killer is Dead is currently set to be released later this month August 27th in North America and August 30th elsewhere.
Sanctum is Coffee Stain Studio’s tower defense/first person shooter crossover series. Super Sanctum Tower Defense is a retro take on the series that was released alongside Sanctum 2. The FPS perspective is replaced with a traditional isometric view and the three dimensional graphics now features SNES graphics.
Story
Super Sanctum Tower Defense is a casual take on the series. There is no plot in the game and the Core Guardians have an extremely small part in the game. The units and buildings will be familiar to players who have played the other Sanctum titles, but no effort is made to introduce new players to the Sanctum universe.
Gameplay
The tower defense mechanics play exactly like the Sanctum series. The player is presented with a blank level and is allowed to build walls to control the movement of the incoming enemies. The enemies will take the most direct route to the player’s core. Each enemy that reaches the core will do a certain amount of damage to it. When the core’s health reaches zero, the game is over. Each map is a different design, which force players to create the most effective maze possible based on the landscape.
The players can only choose up to four tower types and four active abilities to use in each map. The player starts with a small amount of money to buy towers and gains more money by killing enemies, picking up crates of cash randomly dropped by enemies, and successfully completing levels. Towers can be upgraded twice to provide great range, firing rate, and damage. Just like the full game, augmenting the towers and active abilities are a variety of perks that can be purchased between levels. The perks can improve certain types of towers, improve active abilities, improve money flow, and provide some general advantages.
Super Sanctum Tower Defense is a deceptively difficult game. There are two levels of difficulty and two modes of gameplay. Survival mode will throw an endless stream of enemies at the player’s defenses. The longer players can hold out, the higher their ranking on the online leaderboards. The regular mode will pit the players against a set amount of waves. The normal level of difficulty can be beaten by players of any skill level, but a perfect level will challenge tower defense veterans. There are a large variety of towers to choose from, each with an optimal condition for use. Players will need to create a working strategy and choose a skill tree build that will best suit their plan of attack to succeed at the game.
Almost all of the enemy aliens in the Sanctum universe make an appearance in Super Sanctum Tower Defense. The player will encounter a large number of generic Walkers, but special aliens like the quick groups of Runners will test the flexibility of the player’s defenses. The game throws a larger wrench in the machine by throwing flying units that fly over walls and take the most direct route to the core at the player. Certain towers only fire at air or ground units, which forces the player to make difficult choices during pregame tower selection. To provide players a chance to counter these units, each tower can be given specific targeting instructions, such as preferring to shoot at the healthiest enemy.
The controls in Super Sanctum Tower Defense are relatively simple. The game can be played with the mouse only, with players dragging and dropping abilities and towers into the right spot. However, since active abilities have a small time window where they are more effective, Super Sanctum Tower Defense is best played with a mouse and keyboard. The four towers are bound from keys 1-4 and the active abilities are bound to Q,W,E, and R. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the key binds, so left handed gamers may find themselves frustrated.
Visuals
Super Sanctum Tower Defense is retro 16-bit take on the series’ sterile visual style. The visuals are a departure from the series’ three dimensional graphics, but are instantly recognizable as Sanctum with its white and blue colour scheme. The whole series has been reimagined as an SNES game and looks great to boot. My only complaint is that the game is locked at a 1024 x 768 resolution. There are no options to tweak the visuals.
Audio
The audio follows the retro theme with blips, bloops, and chiptunes. The music isn’t bad to listen to, but it isn’t the greatest thing. I found myself turning off the music and sound effects after a while out of audio boredom.
Overall
Super Sanctum Tower Defense is a solid game to play on a coffee break or a laptop while on the train to work. At $4.99, the game is a little pricey. The game does strip out the unique FPS mechanics from the Sanctum series, but is still an entertaining tower defense game that stays true to its roots.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf series of books have sold over ten million units worldwide since 1984. Now, the long running series is breaking into the mobile market with the help of Forge Reply and Atlantyca Lab. BulkyPix will be providing their publishing expertise as they have already brought classics like Asterix to the mobile market.
The game will be entitled Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf: Blood on the Snow. It will be released for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. The game will be a fusion of interactive fiction and RPG gameplay. The first act of the four act game will be released in November 2013. More information about the title will be announced at GamesCom 2013.
As SMASH! 2013 ended, it was time for most people to head on home and rest up after a long and fun day of panels, discussions, merchandise hunting and cosplaying. However, for a sizeable group of people, the night was only just about to begin, for the night would bring out one of the most fun dance party events that has been hosted in Sydney. Themed after the Vocaloid sensation and starring two of Japans leading Vocaloid DJ’s Hachioji P and kz, was the first ever Vocaloid Night party.
What a night it was over at the Pontoon Bar across the bay from the Sydney Convention Center. It was amazing to see such a large turnout of Otaku, Anime aficionados, Vocaloid fans and even some regular people coming along to see what the night had in store for them. Not only was there great music, but we also had Anime and Vocaloid themed cocktails to enjoy. Seeing as it was a Vocaloid event, I personally stuck to the cocktail “Hatsune“, named after the most famous Vocaloid, which was quite nice.
Assisting with the night were a few of the members of the group running the Neko Nation event here in Australia, which focuses on remixes of Anime, gaming and touhou music. It’s really great seeing the local events helping each other out to help grow and nurture for a growing culture here in Australia.
The club itself was a bit smokey, which was most likely to help with the awesome lighting and laser effects coming from the stage which really added to the atmosphere of the event. Adding onto this was the amazing electronic soundtracks being played over the course of the evening, and everyone was dancing to their best.
Of course, the stars of the night were the two Japanese guest DJ’s, Hachioji P and kz, both of whom had the crowds cheering, chanting, making a lot of noise and in some cases, singing along to their favourite Vocaloid tunes. In fact, I’d say that as great as the local talents were, the two DJ’s were the best performers of the night. Hachioji P played a really great set in the middle of the event and kz closed the event with an amazingly high energy performance which left the crowd chanting for more. And to be honest, I’m not sure that kz was expecting that kind of reception as he seemed rather flustered and humbled by the praise of the crowd. There was some really nice energy flowing from the crowd to the stage and then back. Which was amazing to be a part of.
Vocaloid Night 2013 was a successful event in that it achieved the things I was looking for from a musical event. A great and enthusiastic crowd, talented DJ’s and a sense of community and comraderie improvised from a joined and collective fandom. This was a great night and it would be a shame if there wasn’t a follow up to this event next year.
In time for this week’s release of Payday 2, Episode 4 of the PayDay 2 Web Series is now available on YouTube. Episode 3 left off after a brutal fistfight cleared Hector’s strip club. Episode 4 starts with Special Agent Griffin talking Mr. Steele, the owner of the First World Bank. She is looking for clues to track down the PayDay crew and suspects Mr. Steele is involved. At the same time, a corrupt politician known as The Elephant is working his way into Bain’s Crime.net but getting in isn’t that easy.
PayDay 2 is a co-op FPS set to be released on Steam on August 13th, 2013. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions will be released worldwide between August 13th to 16th.
At this years SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show! Mindscape were holding a competition for fan-art of the conventions mascots. The artwork was submitted by fans to Mindscape and then put on display at the convention to eventually be judged and have a winner chosen.
What made this competition interesting is that it was themed after a ZombieApocolypse and was also open to entrants that may not be attending the event physically. This means that the competition was open to a potential large amount of entrants.
On display were some great entries. Hopefully Mindscape will be hosting competitions like these at future events. If you were at SMASH 2013 this year let us know what you thought of the artwork on show in the comments section below.
This year at SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show, much like the last few years, there was a maid cafe set up to service attendees that made bookings. At the cafe, participants were served by both maids and butlers some fine treats and other kinds of delectables.
The maid cafe is well known as an event based on the Japanese maid cafes that are favourited by otaku types. Typically the staff are dressed in older style maid outfits and are usually quite cute. The maids at SMASH! were no exception to this. Thankfully we were able to take some photos of the cafe and the maids.
As always, the maid cafe was a huge success with it being booked completely out and being quite busy for the entire day. We’re sure everyone that attended had a great time. If you did attend let us know what you thought of it in the comments section below.
In Rockstar‘s Grand Theft Auto Vgameplay premiere video, the online component of the game was glimpsed at in the tail-end of the trailer before the narrator promised; “which we will show you properly soon”.
Now, we have confirmation of the reveal date for Grand Theft Auto Online – this Thursday, August 15th. Not only will we receive our first detailed gameplay video of the online modes, but embargos on the first press previews will also be lifted. This will all be released through www.rockstargames.com/GTAOnline, but you can be sure that we will be covering it on the day and sharing it with our readers as promptly as possible.
