Overkill Software is working themselves up into a frenzied pace and are releasing a steady stream of videos leading to the upcoming launch of their co-op shooter PayDay 2. This eight minute long video follows the Quality Assurance team robbing a bank. The team almost pulls off a perfect stealthy run, when things go wrong. The police show up and the robbery erupts in a vicious firefight.
PayDay 2 is a co-op FPS that puts players in the shoes of the PayDay gang, a crack team of thieves led by Bain. He is a shadowy mastermind pulling the strings in Washington D.C. The game will be released on August 13th, 2013 for Windows PC and August 13th-16th for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The latest game in the famous Ultimafranchise was released to the rest of the world this week. Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar is the first Ultima title to be released on the mobile platform and has been available in Canada as a soft launch title for some time now. The initial Canadian release was deemed successful, so no modifications or updates have been made to the game itself.
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar is an online RPG that takes place after Ultima IV. Britannia is under siege by a plague that is destroying the land and corrupting the people. Heroes have gathered to find the source of the plague and purge it from the lands. The game is available for free on iTunes and runs on iPhone 4S/iPod Touch 5th Gen/iPad 2 and above.
Based on the show of the same name, Spartacus: Legends brings the intense combat to the console along with some awesome customization options. The game has an in-depth fighting system allowing for merciless attacks on your enemies using varied attacks and weapons. The game puts you with the task of building the ultimate house of gladiators during the latter end of the great Roman Empire where gamers must fight in order to become the strongest in the ancient land of Capua. Gamers are able to rise up from the rank of a lowly slave and wanna be gladiator up the ladder to become the Champion of Capua.
As well an intense campaign mode, Ubisoft also delivers many ways to deck out your gladiator, many different weapons and armors are available to choose from and players can execute additional attacks in order to better defeat your bloodthirsty foes as you progress through the ranks. Spartacus: Legends is available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Overview
Games in the “Shoot ’em up” category have, unfortunately become rarer in recent years. The days of quarter munchers like 1942 and Raiden are long past, so when a shoot ’em up makes a debut, it’s worth checking out. How does Abyss Attack hold up? Is it a treasure to be raised from the deep or should it be buried at sea? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Abyss Attack is pretty straightforward. While most arcade-style shoot ’em ups give you direction pads, a shoot button, and a bomb button (or maybe more), Abyss Attack keeps it very simple.
You’ll use tilt controls or your finger on the touch screen to maneuver your ship. You just move it in the direction you want to go, and it’ll get you there. It’s very intuitive, but occasionally misses the mark as it seems that some finer maneuvering is lost with this approach. Using your finger can also become frustrating as it obscures your view of the game.
The fire button you were used to for so long? Kiss that goodbye. Abyss Attack made the right choice and just had you firing all the time. Given that most folks could have wedged a paperclip or penny on the fire button for their own games growing up, this seems like the appropriate decision to make. Given the cramped screen space of a mobile device, it’s nice to avoid a button you would only hold down all the time anyway.
While Abyss Attack is a solid shooter for the most part, it has several issues that detract from the overall experience. As already mentioned, there are hazards to using the touch controls as you sometimes lose some fine maneuverability. In a genre where some of the games become known as “bullet hell shooters” due to the high density of enemy projectiles on screen, that’s a huge deal. Abyss Attack doesn’t overload you on enemy projectiles like many of its cousins, but the controls are an issue nonetheless.
Occasional screen chugging can be an absolute nightmare with a shoot ’em up. Abyss Attack has times when everything works with no hitches. At other points, the framerate feels like it’s crawling, and that can cause serious damage to your run.
The most egregious offender related to design problems, though, is the continual insistence to bore microtransactions into the skull of every consumer it can get its hands on. Abyss Attack will use every single chance it can get to remind you that you can spend real money in-game. No, thank you, I don’t want to buy more crystals.
You died on your run? That will cost you 300 crystals. If you’re having a great run, that doesn’t seem too unfair. The real problem is that it will bring you back with ONE HEART (of which you start with three). Get hit again? That’ll cost you 900 crystals. “Oh, don’t have that much? You can buy more now!” It could be somewhat more excusable if it the game didn’t already cost $0.99, that could be somewhat excusable as “freemium.” This just feels like a money grab.
Visuals & Audio Abyss Attack looks great. Monster designs are unique and colorful. They feel natural and dangerous, and they stand out well in contrast to the deep, dark sea around them. Boss monsters are also big, colorful, and fun to look at. The added ship designs you can unlock add a little bit of variety to the game as well.
The soundtrack is pretty chill but it feels right at home in the setting of the game. Sound effects are right on, too. Squishes from organic life as they’re hit by bullets, the crunch of your ship as you take a hit – it all evokes the setting and action quite nicely.
Overall
Overall, Abyss Attack is a solid shoot ’em up. The graphics and sound are both well designed and fun. The decision to keep you shooting constantly is a great choice, too. Unfortunately, occasional control hiccups, screen chugging, and an egregious freemium push on top of charging to buy the game really dampen what could have been an otherwise fantastic experience.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Gamers who dream of building vast empires akin to the likes of Caesar, Alexander the Great, or the Pharaohs are about to get a taste of something exciting. Today, Paradox Interactiveand Paradox Development Studios have released a demo of their upcoming title Europa Universalis IVon Steam.
Europa Universalis IV is one of the most open ended strategy titles of its kind and allows the player to have almost unparalleled freedom. Add in mod support through the Steam Workshop, and you get nigh unlimited possibilities for building and shaping your empire. The multiplayer will enable large battles with empire facing empire in combat with the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems being supported at the launch of the game.
In the Windows only demo, players get the option to take control of the four currently available kingdoms, each with their own different play styles. Players can choose from the colonial system of Portugal, the in-depth trading system of Venice, the battle ready Ottoman Empire, or the diplomatic prowess of Austria. There will be several different ways to tackle the demo. The demo is fairly long, lasting 28 in game years, although we’re sad to say that it will not include the multiplayer modes. The developers are also throwing in some extras to entice fans of the demo to pre-order the full version on Steam, due out August 13, with the addition of the game Crusader Kings II as well as the accompanying save converter.
Yes that’s right Pokemon fans, Mega Pokemon are a thing now. For all those that dreamed they’re old Pokemon would get a new form or evolution in Pokemon X & Y you may be in luck. The latest issue of CoroCoro magazine has revealed that some Pokemon can achieve an entirely new form through a process called Mega Evolution, which is likely to involve some sort of unique item as well as a new item called a Mega Stone.
Pokemon confirmed to be getting a Mega form so far include Blaziken (which means it is the first Pokemon to have four stages of evolution), Ampharaos, Mawile, Lucario, Absol and Mewtwo. Mega Pokemon have a new look, new abilities and can even change type. For example, Mega Mawile becomes a steel/fairy type and Ampharaos becomes electric/dragon. We have seen Mewtwo’s Mega form announced much earlier and it is officially know in English as Awakened form, so it is likely the term ‘Mega’ will changed to ‘Awakened’ in the process of translating it to English. Whatever they’re called, these new Pokemon definitely look like they’re ready to throw down. A new female gym leader named Koruni was also revealed and it is said she can tell you all about the secrets of Mega Evolution.
Three entirely new Pokemon were also revealed. They’re Japanese names are Meikuru, Dedenne and Horubii. Meikuru is a grass type and is the pre-evolution of Gogoat, the Pokemon we’ve seen that is ridable in a previous trailer. Dedenne is an electric/fariy type, and looks like a tiny Raichu crossed with Hamtaro, while Horubii is a small normal type Pokemon who looks like a cartoon rabbit. A new Super Training area was also shown as part of the world map, but no further details on this have been stated.
How do you feel about Pokemon getting a Mega Evolution? My hype for this game just rose another 10 points. Stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the latest developments on Pokemon X & Y as the game nears it’s October 12 release date on the Nintendo 3DS.
Check out all 55 images in the gallery below for Pokemon X & Y Mega Evolution!
Fifteen titles are joining the growing library of Greenlit titles on Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam. This time around, all fifteen titles are video games. The following games will be released in the coming weeks and months, through Steam Early Access or as full products:
7 Days To Die
The 7th Guest
Crashtastic
The Dead Linger
Door Kickers
INFRA
Maia
Nekro
The Novelist
Paranomal
Satellite Reign
Stranded Deep
Strike Vector
Viscera Cleanup Detail
Wayfarer: The Outer Reaches
Several of these titles stem from successful Kickstarter campaigns, including 7 Days to Die, The Dead Linger, Maia, and Nekro. Horror and zombies seem to be popular with this batch of games, with four of the titles leaning heavily such themes.
There are many great looking titles, but Viscera Cleanup Detail has my curiosity piqued the most do to its extremely quirky idea of cleaning up after a space marines vs alien battle.
A few weeks ago we wrote about the Global Challenge that developer Hardlight and publisher SEGA had set up in their iOS game Sonic Dash. The goal being for players to reach a total milage equal to 100 laps around the Earth, which if they achieved would reward the entire community with a new, and free, playable character.
Well, players were able to reach the 100 lap mark and in addition to receiving Shadow as a playable character, SEGA and Hardlight have released an infographic showing off all the cool stats that occurred during the challenge, which players can click on above to see a bigger version of. It seems that quite a lot of players helped in the challenge exceeding 4 million and over 9 billion rings were collected. And what more can be said than, great job!
So players wanting to speed through Sonic Dash as Shadow, can get him through the in-game store on iPad and iPhone. Or those that don’t have the game yet can download it from iTunes for free.
Remember Spiral Knights? It hit one million players 2 years ago and well its still been chugging along. Now today developer Three Rings Design and publisher SEGA have put out a brand new update for the game. This new update includes the addition of new mission, battle sprites, and rarity class items. The battle sprites themselves being pets that players will be able to utilize during combat to give themselves the edge in the form of skills the battle sprites have for players to use.
Because of such a major addition to the game, Spiral Knights is holding a promotion to allow players to receive a special “Companion Prize Box” each day that they play between today the 13th. The boxes themselves containing free upgrades that players will be able to use on their battle sprites. Players will also notice that there are now combat difficulties to choose from, to better fit the experience players are looking for, as well as an overhaul of the game’s energy system.
Those wanting to check out the new changes and additions to Spiral Knights can play the game for free from their website on either PC, Mac, or Linux.
While betas are all well and good, there comes a time for them to come to an end and generally that’s when the game is about to come out, which seems to be the case for Final Fantasy XIV. The final beta will be taking place August 17th to August 19th on both PC and PS3, after which all the beta activity will cease until the games release August 27th.
But, that doesn’t mean players will be forced to wait more than a week to get back into the game as Square Enix has just announced that those who have pre-ordered the game will be able to gain early access on August 24th. They have also announced some of the game’s incentives from Veteran Rewards that depend on the length of players subscriptions, to a free companion iOS app titled Final Fantasy XIV: Libra Eorzea launching a week after the game, to the ability the play for free until September 9th for those that registered Final Fantasy XIV 1.0.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will release August 27th, 2013 for PC and PS3, new accounts get 30 free days with a starting monthly subscription of $12.99 (£7.69 / €10.99) after that. Want more information? Check out our own Final Fantasy XIV Preview.
