Today Natsume released a large set of screenshots for their upcoming 3DS release from the creator of the Harvest Moon series, Yasuhiro Wada. The game, as you may know by looking, is Hometown Story and these screenshots give us a look at everything from character customization, a few characters in the game and also some shop management.
Those looking for footage of the game in action can check out the game’s E3 trailer which was released back in June. For those who don’t know, in Hometown Story the story takes place in the town where your character grew up in. After the passing of your grandmother, the character takes over the her store and revitalizes it. Also revealed today was the fact that the game’s character designs have been done by Atsuko Nishida, the woman behind a number of famous Pokemon designs and that the game’s soundtrack is being done by Nobuo Uematsu, who is known for working on Final Fantasy. Currently Hometown Story is set to be released sometime this Fall in North America.
Swift Revenge is a vertical action-scroller developed by Russian independent studio Spaceship Apps, and published by Ayopa Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game utilises the accelerometer of the iDevices for movement control and will test your reflexes as you work to avoid obstacles, rack up points and take down the evil Doctor Crow and prevent him from gaining control of the planet. Is Swift Revenge worth more than just a quick look?…
Gameplay
The gameplay of Swift Revenge is quite simple. 95% of the time, you will be playing on a vertical plane and can control Swift’s descent by tilting your iDevice left or right. In the first World, you will have Swift’s power of speed. Tapping anywhere on the screen will result in a burst of speed that enables you to break through oncoming obstacles. Holding down anywhere on the screen gives you a sustained speed boost, but it will run out, as indicated by a power meter on the top middle of the screen. This meter regenerates automatically over time. Each World thereafter gifts a new power, the mechanics of which work largely the same.
Your arsenal – once complete – will range from guns to boomerangs, swords and shields. These can all be upgraded by spending coin in the Shop, which you accumulate through play and have the opportunity to collect at the end of each checkpoint. If you are struggling with a level and keep dying, provided you have the required money, a prompt will appear asking if you’d like to upgrade your weapon for an advantage. I found the sword ability to be the weakest and most frustrating, as you need to swipe left or right to use it, but your precision and timing must be impeccable as there is a limited reach on it that can sometimes be deceiving in how short it is.
You can also purchase costumes from the Shop, although they have no practical purpose. As you progress through a level, you will reach checkpoints, and also weapon gates which give you an option of flying into and acquiring whichever ability you prefer at the time. And much like with the weapons/abilities, new enemies and obstructions will be introduced, such as spinning lasers and balloons holding dynamite, which can be bumped into and, well, it ain’t pretty. There are also threats specific to your currently equipped weapon which add an element of strategy. Levels get progressively harder and longer, putting to task your ability to gain a high-score on the leaderboards for longest run without dying.
At the end of each World is a mini-confrontation with Doctor Crow, who attempts to defeat you with a different form of weaponry each time. After his attack, his shield will go down and you have a limited window to attack and damage him. When he’s had enough, he warps you both to another World (which can all be restarted from the main menu) with his faulty time-machine, and in-between in the space-time void – which requires you flip perspective to landscape – he drops a stream of coins which you can try to pick up for a nice bonus before the next, more difficult World is upon you. At first, I was becoming extremely frustrated, but mostly because I sucked. You get better as the difficulty ramps up to meet your new-found confidence with a good balance.
Visuals and Audio
Swift Revenge is a vibrant title with five unique aesthetics for the five Worlds you can play through. World 1 – Greenflotia – has a lush, island theme set against clear blue skies. World 2 – Westernia – takes on the Western theme, complete with cacti and a sandy-orange backdrop, but with a sinister looking chapel in the middle of the background. World 3 – Medievalia (notice a theme here?) – skins enemies as knights and features a huge, fantasy-inspired castle in the background. World 4 – Easternia – is all things Japanese, while the final World – Futuria – is, you guessed it, set in the future, but a high-tech, dark, dystopian looking one.
The effect of rising air-stream and clouds gives a good sense of movement, as does the animation of Swift’s wings flapping in the appropriate direction when tilting your iDevice. All visual elements, both good and bad, are clearly distinguishable. Each of the 5 Worlds also have their own themed background music, which is looped as you play. So, for example, you can expect a more classical leaning – including horns and strings – on Medievalia. When you pause the game, the music continues to play but sounds muffled, like it has been placed into the background itself, which is a nice touch. The dialogue text is quite silly, and somewhat juvenile, more aimed at kids than any other demographic.
Overall
Swift Revenge is definitely a challenging game. Your reflexes, as well as your patience and persistence, will be tested as you work to dodge numerous obstacles and destroy debris for points along the way to reaching Doctor Crow, who provides fun little “boss battle moments”, being entirely too short and easy to be called true ‘boss battles’. “An epic story with deep characters and plot twists?”, as teased, will not be found here, but for $0.99 you’ll be able to squeeze 5 hours out of this colourful, playful title.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Last month you may have heard that Nippon Ichi Software had announced that they will be bringing Criminal Girls Invitation to the PlayStation Vita. At the time gamers were unsure whether or not this game was a sequel to the unlocalized PSP game, or something else.
Thanks to the most recent info from Dengeki Online, it has been revealed that Criminal Girls Invitation is an updated port of the aforementioned PSP game. The game will feature new story elements, characters and costumes as well as more punishment scenes. Currently the game is set to be released in Japan on November 28th. As for a chance at Western release, it appears slim at the moment thanks to NIS America not bringing the original Criminal Girls to the West.
Considering that the other two games in the Arland series have been given “Plus” releases on the Vita, many fans of Gust’s Atelier series assumed that Atelier Rorona would eventually be ported to the Vita in some form.
However after the game’s producer said that there would be no “Plus” version of Rorona, it squashed those rumors of a Plus version. Instead, it seems they have chosen to remake Rorona from the ground up. Today it has been revealed in Dengeki PlayStation that they are working on New Atelier Rorona for release on the PS3 and Vita.
The game will feature new content, new character modeling which will look similar to the character portraits and also new events and an extended time system. Currently Tecmo Koei has New Atelier Rorona slated for release in Japan sometime this November.
Kingdom Conquest II misses you and really wants you to return to the homeland of Magna. To entice players to come back to the card battling/real time strategy/MMORPGs that has been available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices since 2010, Sega Networks is offering players the Super Luxurious Eleven Item Set.
To be eligible for the set of items, you must have not logged in between June 25th and July 25th and return to your quest by logging in before the 5th of September. The items contained in this special pack are listed below.
150,000 x Crystals
400 x Gold Ticket
7 x Premium Ticket (Rare)
3 x Premium Ticket (Super Rare)
400 x Orb Ticket
+15% all Resource Production Boost (30 days)
Maximum Cost Boost Set (30 days)
+30% Monster EXP Boost (30 days)
+30% Commander EXP Boost (30 days)
War Support Package (30 days)
12 x Combat Points
If these items have proved worthy enough for you to give the game a second chance but you have deleted the app, you can re-download it for free from both the App Store and Google Play marketplace.
NeocoreGames is a Hungarian based game developer that boasts its competitiveness and professionalism in the gaming industry. When creating games like King Arthur or The Kings’ Crusade, this studio aims to compete with the leading developers in the current RPG and RTS arenas. In their latest venture, NeocoreGames dove into the history of Van Helsing and created an action packed role playing title with a world full of fabled adventures. Capsule Computers reached out to NeocoreGames with some heavy handed questions. Let’s see if they were prepared…
Questions answered by:
Orsolya Tóth (PR/Community Manager) Mátyás Csikós (Community Manager)
Question 1: Could you tell us about yourself and the role you play in the company?
Orsolya: I’m Orsolya Tóth, PR & Community Manager at NeocoreGames since 2009. I keep contact with journalists, answer questions, present the game and give interviews at game shows like E3 and Gamescom, but my job also includes a lot of testing and playing computer games that are quite similar to ours.
Mátyás: I’m Mátyás Csikós and I work as a Community Manager at NeocoreGames. This means that I am watching over the forums, answering people’s questions and helping them with any issues. I also work as a game tester, helping to squish those pesky bugs 🙂
Question 2: Being a Hungarian based game developer, what was the motivation to get the company running?
Orsolya: Our goal was the ultimate dream of all gamers, which is to create great games. Certainly we had our own ideas about how we should do this, and the only way to achieve our goal was to gain control and do it ourselves. There’s nothing better than seeing your project finally becoming the GAME you’ve always dreamed of.
Question 3: Your previous titles such as King Arthur and The Kings’ Crusade encompass a mixture of RTS and RPG elements. How did the action RPG genre come into play? Was this an easy transition?
Orsolya: Everyone in the team loves RPGs, and we’ve already been toying with the idea of creating one for a very long time. We even wanted our King Arthur game to be an RPG in the beginning, and while we had to admit that RTS was a more fitting style for the King Arthur storyline, still we couldn’t help but add quite a few RPG elements to the King Arthur series. With Van Helsing, we basically just carried on with the original plan of creating RPGs 🙂
Question 4: Why Van Helsing? What was the reasoning in deciding on the Bram Stoker theme? Was there a team gathering where members started yelling out personal interests (TOOTSIE ROLLS! ECTOPLASM! VAN HELSING!)?
Mátyás: The idea was born in 2009 as one of the four possible drafts for future games. Van Helsing was a good choice because many people are familiar with the name and they can instantly tie the person to the monster-hunting profession. But Bram Stoker’s Dracula was just a starting point for us. The story takes place in an alternative Europe similar to Stoker’s world and it focuses on Professor Van Helsing’s son who needs to face new trials if he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps. And yes, there were many great individual ideas, but sadly enough we ruled out Darth Vader and the fighter jets at the very beginning 🙂
Question 5: What kind of adversities has the company faced in the title’s early development?
Mátyás: We had to adapt to a new genre that in many aspects works differently than a strategy game that we were already used to. This took up a lot of time of course and we also had to face many problems that we haven’t met before.
Orsolya: We also had to replace the main character in the middle of the development because our community didn’t like the first version with his manga-style white hair and big eyes that made him look like a child. It was a tough decision, but it was totally worth it.
Question 6: Part of NeocoreGames’ mission statement entails that the company strives to be competitive in today’s market. In what ways do you believe the company achieves this with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing?
Mátyás: We always try to sneak in a few elements to our games that make them stand out of the competition in some way. In the King Arthur games, these elements were RPG-styled quests and other role-playing modules, and in Van Helsing, it is the Tower Defense mini-game. We also put a lot of stress on humour and irony (or even sarcasm) in Van Helsing to mock the genre clichés a bit.
Question 7: Speaking of being competitive… Have you heard many comments regarding the similarities between your title and the Diablo series? Were these elements consumer driven to meet public expectations?
Orsolya: Of course we heard a lot about the similarities between our game and the titan of the aRPGs. We have immensely enjoyed playing the Diablo games and we drew quite a bit of inspiration from them, among many others. We wanted to keep some elements of the UI and the gameplay for example that players already got used to in this genre, so they don’t need to go through an extensive tutorial, but can jump right in and enjoy the game.
Question 8: On the marketing side of the business, how was the $14.99 price decided upon? The game seems to fit in with most retail value games.
Orsolya: There were many factors that influenced the final price of course, but basically we chose this amount considering the gameplay time Van Helsing offers. We also wanted to make this an easy choice for the fans of the genre and it seems to be working well so far 🙂
Question 9: What is your favorite monster to kill, and what is your strategy to take it down?
Mátyás: Honestly, I just love huge packs of weak monsters that I can annihilate with a fully charged AoE attack such as Lightning Strike. Nothing is more satisfying than a big splash, huge numbers, and a giant pool of blood left.
Orsolya: My favourites are those whose attacks can be dodged, like the different variations of the Strongman, the charging Feral Hookbeast, the Lesovik or the Batrachiantaur, etc. You can see when they start playing their attack animations and you can move away in the last second just to hit them while they are trying to get themselves together for their next attack. It seems quite simple now, but you never face these monsters on their own and you have to keep an eye on the full stack of enemies and that’s a challenge sometimes 😉
Question 10: Van Helsing is to receive more attention. What’s next on the NeocoreGames’ agenda?
And that wraps up the interview with NeocoreGames! We can certainly expect high quality craftsmanship for the upcoming sequel as the developers focus on client feedback in their game titles. To prove that point, take a look at our review for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.
PayDay 2 Game Director David Goldfarb is back in front of the camera to talk about the dynamic event generation in PayDay 2. Although there are a set amount of maps in PayDay 2, each play through is a little different as things like guards and security cameras are placed differently each time. Furthermore, if a heist goes horribly wrong, the next map may completely change, reflecting the story progression of the heist. Payday 2 developers, Overkill Software hopes this will bring unpredictability and replayability to the game.
Additionally, Overkill confirmed today on Twitter that the game will be released on Steam on August 13th, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 copies being released between the 13th and the 16th.
PAYDAY 2 release date confirmed! PAYDAY 2 will be out on Steam on August 13th, other platforms between 13th-16th. http://t.co/UZm5C7CArb
ArmA 3‘s full release will not include a campaign. Currently, the alpha and beta builds of the game have featured a variety of showcases, short demos of major gameplay features, and several shooting range challenges. The full release of the game will provide a larger range of showcases and challenges, but will lack a story based campaign. Instead, the campaign will be released in three free DLCs, called Survive, Adapt, and Win, to be released in the months following the release. ArmA 3 will still have all its mod tools at launch, allowing for players to generate and share their own content while they wait for the official campaign.
ArmA has been a series infamous with “buy it after a couple of patches” recommendations by gamers everywhere. Bohemia Interactive has taken this to heart, noting on their blog that they are choosing to release a more stable final ArmA 3 sooner versus waiting around in beta while the campaign and localization is completed.
ArmA 3 is slated for a Q3 2013, with a specific release date to be announced later. The full game can be purchased at a small discount while it is still in beta on Steam or at the Bohemia Interactive Store. The game is for Windows only.
Today gamers in North America will be able to pick up what can easily be called one of the best beat’em up games of this generation. Dragon’s Crown has been released onto the PlayStation Store as well as physically in stores courtesy of Atlus USA. The PlayStation 3 version of the game sells for $49.99 while the Vita version goes for $39.99. Our review of the PlayStation 3 version of the title can be found here.
It is also worth noting that if you pick up a physical copy of the game, you can net a Dragon’s Crown art book which is 64 pages and features full-color production art from Vanillaware. Also worth noting is some temporarily free DLC that will give gamers a chance to replace the narrator’s voice with the voices of the six playable characters. This narration DLC is only going to be free for one month and then will cost $1.99 from then on.
Pain & Gain is an odd and crazy film, and for many reasons; first of them being that it’s a black comedy helmed by infamous action blockbuster director Michael Bay. The rest we’ll get into with this review. The movie is based off of the 1999 Miami New Times articles written by Pete Collins. For those who haven’t heard about this unbelievable true story, here is the breakdown: back in the early-mid 90’s, a group of numbskull body-builders from Sun Gym in Miami, Florida became the perpetrators in cases of extortion, theft, murder…the lot! It sounds grim – and it is – but has Bay et al managed to squeeze some humour out of this otherwise gruesome real-life tale? (and should he have?)…
Story
It’s June 17th, 1995 and Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is on the run from the Miami-Dade County police, who have converged on his location, interrupting his morning inverted sit-ups session hanging off the Sun Gym billboard. But how exactly did we get here? Years prior, Lugo was hired by Sun Gym owner John Mese (Rob Corddry) after he promised to triple membership within three months. Mese looked past the released convict’s jail time in hiring him, and within 3 weeks, Lugo surpassed that goal. Life is fine, but Lugo wants more.
A very minor role for Ken Jeong, but a hysterical one.
When a rich new client named Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) walks in and shares his story with personal trainer Lugo, the latter gets jealous and full of contempt for the man, whom he sees as a crook who unjustly became a millionaire and certainly didn’t deserve it more than him. Confiding in his friend and fellow trainer Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), Lugo feels like he is taking a hold of his life and fulfilling his full potential. He decides to attend a seminar by the charismatic Jonny Wu, who motivates and convinces Lugo that he is a “doer”, not a “don’ter”. This new found drive leads Lugo to hatch a plan to kidnap Kershaw and extort from him all of his assets.
First, he recruits Doorbal, and then a second accomplice by the name of Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson), a cocaine-addicted convict who had turned to religion and only recently began working out at Sun Gym. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is hilarious in this role; his performance ensured that Doyle is the most charming of the three, who shows a constant level of innocent naivety and at least some moral fibre. In fact, the entire cast does an amazing job, with Tony Shalhoub being the other stand out as a “difficult victim” and a hard man to get behind. Moving on, the three blockheads attempt to execute Lugo’s “master plan” for kidnapping Kershaw, but of course things don’t go as hoped.
“At least your raisinets are chocolate covered…”
Eventually, they do succeed. Now, for the sake of those who haven’t read the original articles (basically an extensive, 3-part essay), which would be the majority of you, I will refrain from any further hard spoilers. The only thing I must reference is the fact that Kershaw wasn’t their only victim. Taking that into consideration for the plot of a film, the introduction of new characters mid-way through the film was expected, but is usually frowned upon in the medium for its potential to break pacing and change focus. Here, the pace is consistent and non-stop, so it isn’t as detrimental, especially because the Kershaw story doesn’t end before the next victim’s begins, so there is a through-line and overarching conclusion.
More secondary characters are introduced along the way, including Doorbal’s love interest and ‘penis doctor’ Robin Peck (Rebel Wilson), a clueless stripper named Sorina Luminita (Bar Paly) who joins the Sun Gym Gang believing she is aiding the F.B.I., and retired detective Ed Du Bois, III (Ed Harris), who is influenced to investigate the group. There has been backlash that the filmmakers have turned these killers into sympathetic figures; giving Doorbal erectile dysfunction being a key example. But they all do despicable things, and if your sympathy for them outweighs your disgust, then you have the problem. Doyle does have some redeeming qualities, and there’s a reason his real-life counterpart is still alive today.
Talk about amateur interrogators…
That brings up the fact that the filmmakers protected the names of the men and women played in the film who survived the ordeal, although the proper details are not hard to come by. It’s actually crazy how accurate some of the actions the Sun Gym Gang take are to real life (a certain use of horse tranquillizer and a method for removing fingerprints comes to mind), with a late freeze-frame reminding us “this is still a true story”. That being said, numerous details were changed or completely fabricated for the purpose of providing a more entertaining film, although I’m not sure it wasn’t already absurd enough.
There is a definite clash of tones, but it isn’t as much an issue as I expected it to be. What they did was reprehensible, but we’ve been laughing at black comedies for decades. The only difference here is this was real life, and that’s a big one. For those families affected by the criminal acts of these men, the film is understandably an unwanted reminder, and in their minds, a travesty. But for those who are disassociated from the real-life events, they can theoretically laugh at this because the bad guys get their comeuppance (not a real spoiler, you know no one could succeed doing this)…they are not protagonists like in the traditional sense. It’s strange, and one of very few films where I can understand why critics would absolutely deride it, but not me.
Visuals
The film’s setting of Miami-Dade County, Florida, screams its identity and individual culture loudly. The coastline city is an instantly recognisable place, and here it is almost personified as another character. The pastel colours, the constant shine of the Sun’s bright, beating rays, the retiree beach-bum lifestyle; it all permeates through the film. Michael Bay and his cinematographer did an amazing job of capturing the vibe and essence of Miami.
Lugo can feel the American Dream in reach
In terms of directing, the Michael Bay stamp is clearly discernible. The camera work and angles, part of his trademark style, are utilised here in a much more noticeable fashion, if only because low angle tracking shots and the like are far from commonplace in the comedy genre. But somehow, it works and aids in creating a distinctly, stylistically unique entry in the comedy genre. The freeze-frames could be looked at as being overused, but did fit in perfectly as a visual motif.
Audio
The somewhat eclectic soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky is quite different to what you’d expect from the Michael Bay collaborator (having previously worked on The Island and the Transformers trilogy). There are moments of airy melancholy in the tracks that play on Lugo’s starring scenes, which perfectly encapsulate his and the gang’s sad, deluded sense of hope for the materialisation of the American dream. There’s also a track that reminds of Nine Inch Nails – and the Resident Evil film’s main theme personally – with an industrial element to its sound.
Yes, the obligatory ‘walk away from explosion’ scene. But with a twist!
Much of the score is higher octane, with moody synths and electronica dominating the soundscape, along with some overdriven guitar and pounding drums. There are a few licensed tracks from the 90’s featured in the film as well. The only let down audio-wise was the actual sound-editing of a couple scenes. There was an instance where the character from the previous scene finished his sentence during the transition to the next scene set in a completely different location and time. This “technique” isn’t unheard of, but it was especially glaring here.
Overall
Even writing this now, I’m still slightly unsure how I feel about this divisive film. Not often does a film breed such conflicted feelings, and they all stem from an innate moral compass that most of us have. Yes, it’s not necessarily something that should be laughed at, but by God is it ludicrous, ridiculous – and every other synonym – that it just becomes comical on its own merit. Will you feel uneasy or guilty for liking it? You probably should…but there’s no doubt that it is a memorable motion picture experience, unconventional and amoral as it may be. Luckily, I like unconventional, and maybe upon further reflection my opinion will change (for better or for worse), but I have to admit that Pain & Gain thoroughly entertained me.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Today Natsume released a large set of screenshots for their upcoming 3DS release from the creator of the Harvest Moon series, Yasuhiro Wada. The game, as you may know by looking, is Hometown Story and these screenshots give us a look at everything from character customization, a few characters in the game and also some shop management.
Considering that the other two games in the Arland series have been given “Plus” releases on the Vita, many fans of Gust’s Atelier series assumed that 
