FIFA 14, the upcoming football (or soccer, depending on your region) game from Electronic Arts, has finally announced their cover star for the Australian version of the game. Socceroo star Tim Cahill will land his way back on the cover for the folks down under.
This will mark his fifth year as a FIFA cover star, confirming his continued success both in overseas competition and as a member of Australia’s World cup team.
Cahill himself had this to say:
“The FIFA franchise is such an ingrained part of in football culture for so many millions of fans worldwide. I’m thrilled to be working with the EA SPORTS team again for the launch of FIFA 14. Every year they deliver new innovations that make the game more authentic and more fun to play. It leads the pack with the best technology and realism that delivers the most authentic sports gameplay experience. Bring on September 26!”
For more information about sports title FIFA 14, you can visit their website here.
Crowdfunding seems like the new big thing lately, with many indie developers trying to make the game of their dreams or the games they feel people really want to play that aren’t getitng made by big developers due to constraints present in the industry. If you’re a fan of old school fighting games then this crowdfunding campaign may peak your interest.
Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm is an original 2D fighter heavily inspired by Capcom’sStreet Fighter Alpha: 3rd Strike and contains many similar fighting game mechanics such as cancels, special moves and parrys that the player can input through the 6 button architecture. The game will be made available for PC (Windows) and features 8 playable characters, old school graphics, and easily accessible gameplay that is easy to get into but tough to master. The game has heavy eastern references complete with a Japanese theme song, but is fully localised in English also. Check out the trailer below to get a better feel for the game yourself.
Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm is being created by a team of three former SNK/King of Fighter developers and has earned the respect and support of the fighting game community, raising over $57,500 to date. There are 6 days left for the campaign to reach its $68,000 dollar goal. , leaving 6 days to raise the remaining $11,500. As the campaign reached its funding, GGPO netcode was added to minimise online lag, Kaji Yuki, the voice actor of main protagonist Elen from Attack on Titan joined the game’s voice over line-up, and popular tournament commentators James Chen, UltraDavid and Maximilian came onboard to provide English language in-game dynamic commentary. Fighting game commentary sounds pretty awesome to me and is something I haven’t seen implemented into a fighter before.
If this project has sparked your love for those old sprite based 2D fighters, check out the Indiegogo campaign here to get more information for the project and to pledge your support by offering what you can.
Earlier this year, CapsuleComputers reported about Kyoto Animations plans to adapt the popular light novel Kyokai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary) into an anime. At that time of writing, no dates were given on when the anime would be released. KyoAni have recently created the official anime website for the series and announced the anime will be premiered this year in October. Promotional art can be found on the home page as well as a link to the official visual novel site.
The story focuses on high school students Akihito Kanabra, a half demon invulnerable to wounds and Mirai Kuriyama, who is a shunned underworlder able to manipulate blood. Strange things start to occur when Akihito rescues Mirai who was about to jump off the school rooftop. Other characters mentioned on the website are siblings Hirofumi and Mitsuki Nase, who belong to a highly regarded family in the underworld.
The anime website shares similar content with the visual novel website as both contain plot summaries, character descriptions and even links to twitter icons which can be used on your own profile. The anime website also has cast and crew information and a glossary section for those that don’t understand the terminology used in the series.
The LN was written by Nagomu Torii and Illustrated by Chise Kamoi, the series received an honorable mention in the Kyoto Animation Award Competition in 2011 and has had two volumes published. The anime will be directed by Taichi Ishidate, who was involved in many KyoAni projects including Free, Hyouka and Clannad.
The Pokemon World Championships are almost upon us! In three days time registration begins. With over two hundred qualifying competitors from around the world, the three day tournament is sure to be intense.
The Pokemon World Championships, the event set to begin August 9th, 2013, brings all the top Trading Card Game and Nintendo DS/3DS players from around the world. Competitors will be competing for the World Champion Trophies, decks and booster packs, scholarships, championship points and exclusive World Championship merchandise. For more information on prizes, visit the official websites prize page.
On Friday, August 9th competitors register and check in. The opening ceremony takes place at 9 am on Saturday 10th of August and the World Champions begin at 10 am. At 5:30 pm on Sunday, 11th of August, the closing ceremony begins, marking the end of the 2013 World Championships. For full schedule details, visit the official schedule webpage.
Some of the developers from Monolith, those that had worked on the first F.E.A.R. and the No One Lives Forever series, have gotten together to make a new independent studio by the name of Blackpowder Games. The new studio has announced themselves and their first project today in the form of a video trailer.
Titled Betrayer, the new game will be set in 1604 in the New World as the player seeks out the missing inhabitants of a English colony. With a distinctive art style, the FPS will require players to stockpile a variety of period weapons such as muskets, crossbows, and tomahawks.
Players would be smart to keep all those weapons ready and handy as Betrayer features dangers in the form of ghosts and other enemies on the path to finding out what happened to the colony, but not everything in the wilderness of the land will be hostile, as players will find aid from a woman in red in the distance.
Those wanting to see Betrayer in action in the announcement trailer can find it embedded below. Players wanting to find out more about Betrayer themselves will have their chance when its Steam Early Access becomes available on August 14th, 2013 for PC. Until then though maybe check out some PC deals.
The Imposter conveys a true and disturbing story of how identities can change people in terms of their perception and imagined reality. Bart Layton directs this documentary exploring the 1994 case of missing 13yr old Nicholas Barclay in San Antonio, Texas, who was ‘discovered’ 3 years and four months later in Linares, Spain. The film challenges the well-known case by providing evidence to support the imposter, Frédéric Bourdin, and the Barclay family’s recollection of events. Does ‘The Imposter’ excel beyond a dramatic biography or give the audience further insight into the famous French serial imposter?
Story
The film begins with a recording of Nicholas, who is filming his sister Carey’s room before showing the birthday girl and himself on camera. On-screen text introduces the audience to the case; in 1994, 13 year old Nicholas Barclay disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. As with most drama documentaries, each family member speaks separately to the audience to provide a sense of intimacy and realism. In 1997, the Barclay family receive news of Nicholas being discovered in Spain, resulting in a chain of mixed emotions from anticipation to bewilderment for sister, Carey Gibson, brother-in-law, Bryan Gibson and mother, Beverly Dollarhide.
The film progresses cleverly by rewinding back to the opening scene, of a young boy hiding in a telephone booth and the voiceover of the concerned man who called the police station. In order to understand how ‘The Imposter’came to be, we see the real Frédéric Bourdin talking us through his actions as a younger boy, performed by Adam O’Brian. In order to successfully prove to the police he was a missing juvenile, Frédéric covered himself with layers, upon layers of clothing, with a hat and scarf to conceal his face, and created barriers of verbal and physical contact to prevent the authorities from identification.
Attempting to impersonate someone else completely is not exactly an easy task; although for Frédéric it was either steal the identity of a young missing person or be put in jail and beaten for perjury. The imposter explained his demeanour by stating, “For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be someone else, someone who was acceptable”. To give himself a chance of becoming a new person, with a different face, name, and security of a loving family and home, he searched through the US missing person’s list in the police station database and chose Nicholas Barclay.
From this very decision, the film unravels into chaos which impacts significantly on each of the Barclay family members and the memory of their son, Nicholas. The extent to which dark-haired and brown-eyed Frédéric Bourdin recreates the distinguishing characteristics of blue-eyed and blonde-haired Nicholas is unnerving to think about, especially the three matching tattoos he got; T on his left hand between his thumb and forefinger, J on his left shoulder, and an L and N on the outside of his left ankle. With the arrival of Carey (Anna Ruben) in Spain to pick up Nicholas, Frédéric was convinced that she would not see her brother in him. However, as luck would have it, Frédéric was embraced as a part of the Barclay family and for 4.5 months was taken care of in San Antonio, as their lost-and-found son, Nicholas.
The most interesting aspect of the documentary lies within the family’s immediate acceptability of Nicholas, despite only having pieces of information about what really happened during his disappearance. Special Agent, Nancy Fisher (Cathy Dresbach) at the FBI Headquarters in San Antonio, Texas takes on an interview with Nicholas to get an account of his kidnapping and torture and to assist in the capture of his military abductors. When a private investigator, Charlie Parker, comes forward and discovers evidence proving Nicholas is an imposter, he also finds out an even stranger truth about the Barclay family.
Visuals
Throughout the film, the audience moves to the real people and actors portraying the events simultaneously, highlighting the engaging visual experience associated with documentaries and biographies. I thought it was very effective to have specific blurry scenes that created a surreal atmosphere, as Frédéric changes into Nicholas, the audience interweaves between a world of fact and fiction. The photos and video footage of Nicholas, as well as Frédéric, emphasis the truth and power of these events and show the audience how different the imposter and child are.
Audio
The composer, Anne Nikitin, created compelling and dramatic music to suit the pace of the film’s story-telling, which was particularly evident with the introduction of Frédéric Bourdin; where more layers of instrumental pieces from the ticking xylophone, harp, double basses and violin, audibly reveal how the simplicity of one lie can become magnificently complex.
Extras
With The Imposter DVD, there are a variety of additional features, including the audio commentary with Bart Layton, making The Imposter with the producers, podcasts of telling the story, meeting Frédéric, shooting the drama and creating the music, the theatrical trailer and Madman propaganda. Bart Layton discusses with the audience why he introduced the film as a conventional documentary and rewound to where the extraordinary story began, in order to create a movie and not a dramatization. The idea of changing perspectives in the film and manipulating the audience, as Frédéric Bourdin would, is necessary in illustrating the imposter. Accordingly, the Barclay family took part in the film to clear negative allegations from the media and public about the case of their son, Nicholas, who is still regarded as missing.
Overall
The Imposter is an amazing and thrilling film-based documentary, which captures the true story of one of 500 different false identities that Frédéric Bourdin has assumed. The French serial imposter is well-known publically for his record of fabricated lives and professional career in perjury. The film opens up two doors into the case, as both sides of the story challenge the audience to determine whether or not both Frédéric and the Barclay family were pretending. I would highly recommend watching this insightful case to understand more about the imposter, as well as your own family values and what you would do under these circumstances.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
That’s right fellow Browncoats. You’re not reading this wrong. Firefly is getting its very own video game! Many die-hard fans of the much beloved Sci-fi western were very surprised to learn during San Deigo Comic Con 2013 that FOX had officially licensed Firefly to Sparkplug Games and that an MMO was already in the works. The announcement came with a shiny new trailer detailing all of the Captain-y things players will be required to do to make a successful crew and run jobs in the verse’ that so many of us have come to love. After years of waiting for a continuation to the Firefly/Serenity mythos we finally have the chance to keep on flying in the big ol’ verse. One can only speculate as to what familiar faces and places we might see, and what unanswered questions get addressed. The game appears to be slated for a 2014 release. Check out the trailer for yourself below!
My Little Pony follows the story of the mane six, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Apple jack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy, as they overcome milestones in friendship. Each episode sees the mane six through their lives, day to day, as they each learn new lessons in friendship, and discover how important friends and friendship really is. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – The Return of Harmony contains the first five episodes of season two of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The two feature episodes, The Return of Harmony Part One and The Return of Harmony Part Two, are the first two episodes of season two. These episodes follow the mane six as they overcome problems in friendship and defeat the god of Chaos. The other three episodes on disc see the mane six through hiccups in friendship as they help each other and their friends discover the value of friendship.
Each episode is packed full of bright colors, cute, quirky lovable characters and provides viewers with funny entertainment and keeps them wanting more. Hasbro Studios have yet again delivered another amazing DVD volume suited for young children and families.
Story
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – The Return of Harmony subtly progresses the main story of My Little Pony. The feature episodes (The Return of harmony Part 1 and 2) follow the mane six as they overcome one of their toughest milestones yet. Discord has returned after Princess Celestia and Princess Luna imprisoned him in stone and is wreaking havoc and chaos throughout Ponyville. He tears apart their homes and, through trickery and deception, convinces the mane six that they don’t need friendship. When it seems all hope is gone, Twilight Sparkle pulls through and helps the others remember why friendship is so important. They regain their memories, rebuild their friendship and defeat Discord, once again imprisoning him in stone, whilst learning that friendship is always worth fighting for, no matter what. The other episodes focus on characters like Princess Luna, Rarity and Sweetie Bell as they learn to not judge ponies without getting to know them, and accept each others differences, no matter how hard it can be.
The first two episodes Return of Harmony Part 1 and 2 create a two part story arc. In this story arc, Twilight takes the spotlight and saves Ponyville, and Eqeustria, from the clutches of the Spirit of Chaos, Discord. Discord tricks the mane six into believing that friendship isn’t important. Eventually, all of the mane six give up on friendship. All seems lost, until Twilight Sparkle is reminded of the importance of friendship. She reunites the mane six and defeats Discord, returning harmony to Ponyville.
The third episode, Lesson Zero, focuses on Twilight Sparkle. Her weekly letter to Princess Celestia, explaining what lesson in friendship she has learned, is going to be tardy if she doesn’t find a problem to resolve among her friends. Twilight turns to her friends for help, but they don’t take her problem serious enough. After being unable to find a problem to resolve, Twilight decides to create a problem. Chaos breaks lose throughout Ponyville thanks to Twilight, causing Princess Celestia to step in and sort out the chaos. Everything is resolved, and Twilight’s punishment is forgotten, provided that the rest of her friends write a letter to the Princess as well. Each of the ponies realise that it’s important to take your friends problems seriously, no matter how small and insignificant they seem.
Luna Eclipsed, the fourth episode, focuses onPrinces Luna. It’s Nightmare Night, a holiday dedicated to Luna’s alter ego Nightmare Moon. This is Princess Luna’s first time visiting Ponyville after what happened in Friendship is Magic Part 1 and 2, and the ponies of Ponyville don’t seem too over-joyed to see their Princess of the Night. It takes a while, but with Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie’s help, the ponies start warming up to Luna, and begin accepting her. Everypony in this episode learns that no matter who or what they appear to be, each pony deserves a chance.
Sisterhooves Social is the last of volume one. Rarity and Sweetie Bell take the stage, and learn that no matter how hard it may be, siblings must accept each others differences, no matter what. In this episode, Rarity has to babysit Sweetie Bell for a week after their parents decide to go away. Sweetie Bell tries to help Rarity with her day to day activities, but, like most younger siblings, does the complete opposite. Eventually, they dis-own each other, but it doesn’t last long. They soon realise that they need each other, and that life wouldn’t be the same without each other.
There is no overall plot to My Little Pony. Each episode, with the exceptions of feature episodes, has a brand new story. On occasion, there are flash backs to other episodes, but apart from that, the episodes don’t have much relevance to each other. Due to the lack of overall plot, each episode, with the above stated exception, can be viewed in any order.
Visuals
The DVD cover art captivates the essence of the show and characteristics of the ponies. The cover art fits in with previous volume DVDs. The DVD carries on the spine design from season one’s first and second volume, by placing Pinkie Pie, one of the mane six, on the top of the spine.
My Little Pony has come a long way in terms of visual aesthetics. Original generation one, two and three ponies had horrible coloring schemes. Not only did the pony’s colors look off, the character design was completely different. The character design has now been changed dramatically, with the new My Little Pony characters looking cute and adorable. The original My Little Pony character design had the characters looking more horse-like, with very strong horse-like muzzles and long faces, whereas Friendship is Magic generation ponies are designed cutely, with round faces and small muzzles.
The cartoon is great quality, presenting their intended audiences, young children and families, with warm, bright colorful characters and smooth animation. The visuals are fantastic. They don’t assault the audience with overly bright and eye-straining colors, like some shows designed for young children do. The pony’s colors are bright enough to captivate the younger audience, yet not to bright that they over balance and take away from the background. The contrasting works exceptionally well, as does the shadowing. The contrasting is not to stark and over the top, it’s fairly subtle, yet effective. The shadows, though extremely visible, are not over-powering either.
Audio
Nothing says ‘kids TV show’ like a poppy-girl-band theme song. My Little Pony’s theme song is not an easy tune to forget. Designed for younger children, the tune is extremely catchy, and the lyrics are hard to forget.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – Return of Harmony’s audio fits in with the visuals really well, and helps complete the show. The music scores are worked into each episode and scenes, having a strong yet subtle effect. The music, balanced quietly, works well with the context of the episodes. The witty dialogue caters not only for younger children, but for their older family members also, with little jokes placed here and there that draw out a small chuckle every now and then. The dialogue is loud enough for you to hear when the TV is at a reasonable volume, but not to loud that you have to turn it down when the characters shout.
Extras
The extras on the DVD cover trailers of other cartoons published by Madman such as Noddy, Pearlie and Growing Up Creepy. Each trailer shows a brief insight into the shows and the title sequence. The trailers introduces the shows to the viewers and plays through the title sequence and theme song.
Overall
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – Return ofHarmony is extremely different from the older My Little Pony episodes. With new character design, color schemes and a new catchy theme song, My Little Pony is hard to forget. With each episode packed with bright colors, witty one liners and cute, quirky characters, it’s sure to provide many laughs and keep viewers entertained and wanting to watch more. The show sends across meaningful messages to young viewers, and this particular volume sends across powerful messages, particularly to younger viewers. Return of Harmony is a great volume of episodes, but we could expect no less from Hasbro Studios.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Welcome to the 21st episode of CC Powerslam, Capsule Computers Wrestling Podcast! In our twenty-first episode we discuss the rise and fall of Ryback, Daniel Bryan’s upcoming title shot, predictions for Summerslam and the possibility of the Corporation being revived by Mr McMahon.
Send all your wrestling questions, suggestions, predictions and feedback to [email protected]
Topics discussed:
– Summerslam
– The Corporation revival in the cards?
– Ryback’s future
– Daniel Bryan’s title shot
– Does Damien Sandow have star quality?
– Is Cody Rhodes the next big face?
– Ryback and Randy going Corporate?
– Vince vs Triple H power struggle
– The curious case of Brock Lesnar
Feedback:
Send an email to [email protected] and let us know what you think of the podcast or what you’d like to hear or any suggestions you might have.
Tekken Card Tournament was released in April, and since then has amounted to over 4 million downloads across all platforms. Since we first heard about the game, there were rumblings and musings that there would be physical trading cards to accommodate the mobile game. Today those rumors become a reality, as Namco Bandai have announced the official release of the physical trading card booster packs. They are available in sealed booster packs of 5, with a grand total of 191 cards.
Namco Bandai Europe Senior Vice President, Oliver Comte said of the game
The support of the Tekken fans for Tekken Card Tournament has been incredible, and with the launch of the physical cards we’re giving them even more exciting possibilities to enjoy the game … These cards bring so many extra features, not least of all is the ability to take the mighty Heihachi and its rare powers into battle.
As Comte mentioned, each card will bestow special unlocks and abilities to the mobile game. You access these through scanning a QR Code that is present on each of the 191 cards. Once scanned, you will unlock awesome features like; valuable power ups, collectible art, new cards via the card fusion system, augmented reality characters, plus extra chances to get super rare powers for Heihachi.There are also 9 special Art Cards that feature exclusive designs for the game.
No Trading Card Game would be complete without the ability to play like cavemen, away from mobile devices. These Tekken Cards offer players the chance to play a streamlined and simplified version of the game without needing to reach for their iPhone or Android devices, however their true functionality is still reserved for the Tekken Card Tournament game.
Tekken Card Tournament is available for download on iPhone or iPad through the App Store, on Android and Kindle through Google Play and the Amazon App Store, Or through your web browser. Namco have also been so kind as to put up a trailer for the physical cards, which you can check out below. The trailer shows some of the ways that the cards will interact with the game and vice versa.
You can grab the booster packs at any EB Games store, or on their website starting today. Let us know in the comments below if you plan on picking up any of these, and be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Tekken news as it becomes available.
