Ten indie developers will be part of the first ever Indie Arena booth at GamesCom 2013 in Cologne, Germany. The developers will be featuring playable builds of their games in the public exhibition Hall 9, Booth A-045. The following developers will be bringing their games to GamesCom 2013:
IndieArena.de has brought together the ten developers who participate in their community. The booth is supported by Unity Technologies, Headup Games, Application Systems Heidelberg, OUYA, Gioteck and Mediadesign Hochschule Düsseldorf. GamesCom2013 is running from August 21st to 25th
Chillingo and LambdaMu are releasing a major content update for their freemium iOS title Pixel People. The update will bring over 30 new jobs, more achievements, mutants to meet, and new buildings. New lands will be made available to explore and players will be able to visit their friend’s cities.
Pixel People is a freemium game that allows players to build a brand new Utopia from scratch. Players will need to splice the genetics of their existing population of citizens to create new and exciting jobs for incoming clones. The world is full of secrets to discover through experimentation. It can be downloaded from iTunes.
Highly anticipated co-op shooter PayDay 2 launched around the world for Windows PC today through Steam. The game costs $29.99 USD. The PlayStation Network downloadable release for the PlayStation 3 will be released tomorrow for $49.95 AUD. Retail stores will begin selling the physical copies of PayDay 2 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on August 15th for the same price. A Xbox Games on Demand is in the works for a later release.
PayDay 2 is a co-op first person shooter that brings players together through the mysterious Crime.Net to commit heists across Washington D.C. Successful heists will award players with experience to buy new perks and money to buy better equipment, but fail a heist and the meticulously planned robbery can go horribly wrong. Players can suddenly be forced to fight their way through hordes of cops to get out alive.
Mad Catz, one of the top designers of gaming products, has announced some exciting news with shipping of their new TRITTON Pro+ True 5.1 Surround Sound Headset for use with Mac and PC. Announced first back in E3 these headsets offer an array of impressive features including the aforementioned 5.1 surround sound with four separate drivers in each ear to deliver crisp quality sound, the headset also has no need for a separate decoder unit and uses the computers sound card to process audio. Also included is the bonus option of the Selectable Voice Monitoring, a useful option that allows gamers the option of whether they want to hear their own voice in the headsets or not. The headset will also feature light weight and flexible construction for ease of use during long gaming sessions.
When initially unveiled back in June the response was pretty positive. President and CEO of Mad Catz, Darren Richardson, said “The TRITTON Pro+ headset received a warm reception with the passionate gamers at E3 thanks to its advanced feature set and multiple speakers, delivering highly accurate sound separation, ideal for online gaming; We believe the TRITTON Pro+ for Windows PC and Mac will enable us to further diversify our platform base within the high-end audio category.”
For more information on Mad Catz, its other products, and other related information you can visit their official website.
Your dreams of leading a global empire shall lay dormant no longer, as the ultimate grand-strategy game – Europa Universalis IV – has launched today for PC, Mac and Linux users worldwide.
Take control of a nation in the ‘Age of Discovery’ and reshape history (an example of which can be seen in the launch trailer directly below) as you battle ruthless A.I. in an extensive single-player campaign and defeat your friends in 32 player multiplayer. Explore, trade, declare war, preach diplomacy, spread religion and expand your empire. We were just recently given a hands-off preview session with the title, and fans of the series/genre will be satiated, believe us.
‘Empire of Sweden’
The following is a list of Europa Universalis IV‘s main features:
Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible and the possibilities are endless.
Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system: Use coalitions, royal marriages and support for rebels and explore the possibilities of the new unilateral opinion system.
Use your Monarch Power: Experience the new system of monarch power where your choices are influenced by the caliber of the man you have at the top and will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay.
Experience the all new trade system: The trade system adds a new dimension to the great trade empires of the period. Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers.
Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events
Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy hundreds of years of gameplay in a lush topographical map complete with dynamic seasonal effects.
Engage in Cross-platform Multiplayer: Battle against your friends or try the co-operative multiplayer mode that allows several players to work together to control a single nation with up to 32 players. Featuring hotjoin, improved chat, new matchmaking servers and support for a standalone servers.
Create your own history & customize your game:Europa Universalis IV gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire and uses Steam Workshop.
You can purchase the game for $39.99 through Steam and other digital distributors, or shell out an extra $5 for the Deluxe Extreme Edition. If you want to try before you buy, a demo is currently available, allowing players to sample 28 years of in-game time. Happy conquering!
Warm Bodies is your typical love story; boy meets girl, boy eats girl’s boyfriend’s brains, boy falls in love with girl. Wait what? Ok so it is a not so typical love story, and it certainly isn’t a typical zombie story. If you are the kind of zombie fan who can only handle the classics, or whose zombies have to be violent, moronic drones then you will hate this movie. This movie is largely targeted at women, or men who have to sit through another boring rom-com with their girlfriend/wife. While it has its share of problems, it provides a nice subtle look at the ridiculousness of romanticising the monster genre, which is becoming ever-popular in this day and age.
Story
Warm Bodies follows the exploits of ‘R.’ R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who can think and feel, but doesn’t have any memories of his life before being turned. He knows the rules of being a zombie, and is forced to live by them but is conflicted and disappointed by the fact that he has to abide by these rules. We learn very early on that by eating brains of a human, zombies gain their thoughts and memories, which is what triggers R falling for our lovely heroine, Julie (Teresa Palmer).
Aside from the zombie element, the movie plays out like any typical teen romantic comedy would; the girl’s father (played amazingly by John Malkovich) disapproves of R, although in this instance it is a little more justified than in many rom coms. The pair also have to overcome a difficult hardship and save lives, all while growing together and falling in love.
After eating Julie’s boyfriends brains, R develops his memories and this in conjunction with his initial reaction to seeing her starts to create a change in him, both physically and mentally so that he starts to become human. He immediately tries to protect Julie, and keep her safe from the other zombies, as well as their more vicious counterparts, the Bonies. He does this by making sure she stays locked in an airplane, and not leaving unless accompanied by him.
When watching the movie, I was really hoping that the pay off at the end would be that Julie wasn’t actually in-love with R, but instead was suffering from stockholm syndrome from him keeping her locked up. However this didn’t seem the case, and instead we end up with the typical, sappy “love conquers all” element that we see time and time again.
To enjoy Warm Bodies you effectively have to convince yourself to buy into the premise. If you have heard or seen anything about zombies in any media then you will be hard-pressed to suspend your disbelief enough for the movie to not make you angry. However if you can do that, you will find a film that although nonsensical at times, does a fine job of poking fun at how we humanise monsters so often in media today.
As I started to watch, I was trying to determine whether Warm Bodies is actively making a mockery of books/films like Twilight, or if it is a happy coincidence. It didn’t take me long to realise it was definitely the latter, as although there are no distinct jabs (at least I don’t think there was… I haven’t read or seen Twilight so I can’t be sure), the whole tone of the movie is reminiscent of a parody without ever crossing that line. Also there is one scene in particular where R is matched up against a picture of a traditional-looking zombie, and the differences are compared.
As a blend of the zombie and rom-com genres, it does allow for guys and girls to watch it together without either side being too repulsed, but saying that, neither side will be particularly thrilled either. The people who would probably get the most out of the plot would be those that are analysing it for an English or film-review class, as there is a lot to delve into here.
Visuals
It is difficult to make a post-apocalyptic movie setting look fresh and unique, and while Warm Bodies doesn’t quite go that far, it does accomplish a lot with the standard crumbling buildings and shanty towns. Most of this is accomplished by the fact that a good portion of the movie is set in an airport, which is not usually an area visited in most post-apocalyptic film/video games.
Aside from locale, costuming and makeup are done so well in this movie. Each zombie looks unique, and you can get a sense for their (undisclosed) backstory just from looking at them. Everything from the janitor, through to the two children in matching school uniforms. A lot of the colours are the same drab, grey-washed look that you would expect, but there are enough splashes of colour through the movie to break it up, and these rare instances of colour really do stand out and grab your attention (a perfect example would be R’s hoodie, which is a vibrant red colour even though it is tattered, torn and dirty).
The zombie makeup is vastly different from what many zombie-fans would expect. Instead of huge open wounds and oozing scabs, the zombies in Warm Bodies look dirty, slightly scared, and pale. This helps to make you forget that these creatures are meant to be nothing more than mindless eating machines who only want to feed. The lack of intensely violent makeup would also mean that the movie is more bearable for women, which is undoubtedly its target audience.
Audio
For a movie about interacting with zombies, Warm Bodies is a surprisingly dialogue heavy film. This would be alright, if half the dialogue wasn’t mumbles, grunts or groans. Even as R starts to develop his verbal skills, he can be difficult to understand and during my first viewing of the movie I had to switch on subtitles just so I could understand what was happening.
Aside from the dialogue, the movie suffers from a bit of audio inconsistency. One scene will be barely audible, while the next will be blowing your ears off. This isn’t only true for the action moments of the movie, as many of the touching moments suffer from the same problem.
While the movie’s dialogue and audio in general can suffer, one aspect where it really shines is the soundtrack. Warm Bodies compiles a bunch of great songs that are punctuated by some all-time rock and roll classics. Expecially during the earlier parts of the film, when R doesn’t have the ability to speak fluently, these musical tracks serve as a way for him to communicate what he is feeling, and as soon as a song starts to play the audience is made aware of the exact tone that is being conveyed.
Extras
The wealth of extras that come on-disc for Warm Bodies is incredible. Aside from nine deleted scenes, there are bunch of special featurettes and behind the scenes footage for fans to enjoy. Everything from how the make-up was applied for the zombies on the show, to home movies of actress Teresa Palmer, and even a look at the zombie-school the actors had to attend. There is definitely enough here to keep you entertained for hours after the movie finishes.
Overall
I think the best way I can describe Warm Bodies is “watchable.” While it has its problems, and it likely won’t be remembered fondly in years to come for any kind of cult appeal, it does manage to raise some interesting points about how the monster genre have become romanticised in film and TV. A mostly likable cast, help round out this film into something that won’t sit well with horror fans or zombie-purists, but adequately serves as a conversational piece. Due to its nature, I wouldn’t be surprised in a few years to hear it being added to the curriculum of some university film-analysis class.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It has been a long time coming, but finally a game funded by Kickstarter has reached all major gaming platforms and that game is none other than the jump n’ run title Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. On August 22nd this crowd-funded platformer will be hitting the Nintendo eShop in Europe and Australia and will be available for download on the Wii U. This means that it will be the first title funded by Kickstarter to be available on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U.
The quirky title is available for €14.99 and features a number of challenge modes to please both casual and hardcore gamers alike. People unfamiliar with the platformer genre will enjoy the easy mode where you can slow it down a bit and have fun exploring the levels and taking in the interesting art style and awesome soundtrack. On the other hand seasoned veterans can ramp up the difficulty to hardcore or uber-hardcore and enter a whole new world of pain.
If that wasn’t enough, Black Forest Games are releasing a DLC pack for Giana Sisters called Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Rise of the Owlverlord which will feature 7 new levels, a boss fight, and a ton of extra achievements to hunt. People who pledged over $15 will be able to download this DLC for free and for everyone else it will be $4.99 upon its release in September.
Just last week, Warner Bros. announced that the next addition to the roster for Injustice: Gods Among Us would be the legendary second-generation magician; Zatanna. Today, the fishnet-wearing, backwards-speaking, sorcereress of the DC Universe is available for everyone owners of the PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of the game. To mark her inclusion to the game’s roster, Warner Bros. and Netherrealm Studios have provided (much like they have done for past characters) a video that showcases Zatanna’s history, powers and abilities.
You can check out Zatanna’s history video below, and you can also download the Mistress of Magic (also the name of a great Zatanna story) NOW on Xbox for 400MSP, or later today on PS3 for $4.99.
Remember that for all the Injustice: Gods Among Us news as it becomes available, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
I think it is fair to say that since the release of Another in early 2012, nothing that P.A. Works has produced has been particularly memorable. RDG Red Data Girl was so slow to get into that it was almost painful to watch and having to say this about quite possibly the most beautiful animation company in Japan is a shame. P.A. Works production values are second to none it seems and everything from backgrounds, to character designs, to even the smallest details in a room have the greatest care given to them. That is why I still believe that there is promise in every series that they produce and Nagi no Asukara is no exception.
Little is known about the actual story of this series, but what we know so far is that it revolves around two children that live by the sea: a girl who tends to cry a lot called Manaka Mukaido and her caring childhood friend, Hikari Sakishima. What we can derive from the PV is that there will be a magical element to the story, but aside from that they are really not showing their cards yet.
Leading the voice cast is the hugely talented Kana Hanazawa who will be voicing Manaka. Hikari will be voiced by Natsuki Hanae who made his real breakthrough in 2013 with the series Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge (The Severing Crime Edge) where he voiced the main character Kiri Haimura.
Nagi no Asukara is set to release this fall and a manga adaptation began serialization in the June 2013 issue of Dengeki Daioh. For news of other fall releases and everything else you need to know anime world, check out our Anime News section!
DAISUKI have announced that they will be streaming Sunrise studio’s legendary anime classic Cowboy Bebop on their free anime streaming service. Interestingly enough, Funimation recently announced that they had acquired the title to the anime masterpiece.
It appears that the series will begin streaming on DAISUKI at some time in 2014. However no solid date has been set as of yet, with release details for Cowboy Bebop being held fairly close to the chest by DAISUKI.
Cowboy Bebop follows the adventures of a group of bounty hunters of the space ship known as Bebop. Stay tuned for further information on the DAISUKI stream of Cowboy Bebop as it comes to light.
