Today Konami announced that fans of Pro Evolution Soccer can expect the next iteration of the game to be released on September 24th worldwide. This means that gamers will be able to experience PES 2014 as it takes advantage of Kojima Productions’ FOX Engine in what the company is calling a more fluid soccer experience.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 has focused on six key gameplay improvements, including TrueBall Tech giving players complete body control, a Motion Animation Stability System to simulate body contact amongst players on the field, a “Heart” system that will handle player emotions on the field and even a PES ID which allows gamers to easily recognize some of their favorite soccer players since the game will recreate their play style and running styles.
Today Viz Media announced that they will be participating in the Japan Film Festival of San Francisco (JFFSF) which will be held during the 2013 J-Pop Summit. This is the first annual Japanese film festival in Northern California and to kick things off Viz will be bringing numerous films to show off to those who want to catch them long before their physical release.
The company will be bringing Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning, Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower, and Berserk The Golden Age Arc II – The Battle for Doldrey to show at the event. Tickets can be purchased early here, here, and here. All movies will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles and tickets will cost $13.00 each unless it says otherwise. The air times for each of the movies can be found here.
Fairy Tail: Part 5 Studios: A-1 Pictures, Satelight Publisher:FUNimation Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Release Date:July 23, 2013 Price:$54.98 – Available Here
Overview It’s been almost a year and a half since we last saw Fairy Tail in North America but you cannot keep a good shōnen series down for long, especially one as great as Fairy Tail. As such, FUNimation has started releasing their second set of Fairy Tail parts beginning with Fairy Tail: Part 5. When we last left the Fairy Tail guild, they had just wrapped up an internal issue that saw every member of Fairy Tail in action. How will things fair in Part 5? Let’s find out.
Story Unlike the past few releases of Fairy Tail back in 2012, Fairy Tail: Part 5 finds itself in the unique position of being able to start off the release without having to wrap up a previous story arc. Thanks to Part 4 wrapping up the Laxus arc, Part 5 is able to hit the ground running. Unfortunately it does the opposite and instead provides some simple one-off episodes focused more around comedy and some character development for Lucy.
While a bit annoying considering this release starts out with simple standalone episodes, they serve as a barrier between the larger story arcs and help reacquaint viewers with the cast. There is also a focus on Lucy throughout these simple episodes since while Natsu and the gang may be the stars, she remains the most down-to-earth character of the bunch and seeing her grow as a character as she confronts both personal challenges and opponents in combat is one of the highlights of the series.
Anyways, once these one-off episodes wind up the Fairy Tail guild has been asked to join a Wizard coalition to face off against the OraciĂłn Seis, a dark guild that is one of the strongest in the land, with six extremely powerful members. Because of their strength, the coalition is needed and Fairy Tail sends their best team consisting of the main cast, Erza, Gray, Lucy, Natsu and of course, Happy.
Since the series’ debut, most of the extra non-Fairy Tail members have been enemies but this part sees the inclusion of a number of new characters and a number of allies as well. With Fairy Tail teaming with members from Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Cait Shelter, viewers are introduced to the next major story arc which unfortunately does not finish in Part 5, the Oración Seis arc.
Since Part 5 contains the beginning of the arc, viewers are given time to grow familiar with the newly added characters, though the obvious focus on the young girl Wendy feels a bit too heavy handed as it clearly makes her the key character of this story arc. Though considering both the opening and ending themes prominently feature her, subtlety isn’t the series’ strong point.
Despite their numerical superiority, the strength and abilities of the OraciĂłn Seis quickly throw the team into disarray as many members are taken out of action and the rest of the combat ready members sally forth to put a stop to OraciĂłn Seis and their search for a dark magic that can literally change the nature of the world itself.
Viewers are quickly given key battles which play out through the second disc in the package as the members of OraciĂłn Seis take on the Light team, but despite the high amount of action that takes place, there is actually a decent amount of story interwoven with these fights. Attentive viewers will notice numerous callbacks to past story arcs, especially the Tower of Heaven, throughout these battles, especially since a certain someone makes a comeback this time around.
It is also worth noting that despite the high combat content, the series’ powerhouse Natsu only has a small amount of combat time compared to the rest of the cast. While Natsu fans may not appreciate his diminished combat time, it gives Fairy Tail a chance to show off one of its best features, an expansive cast of characters with unique abilities and personalities that have been, or are in the process of, developed to a point where viewers actually care about their battles.
Part 5 brings viewers to roughly the mid-point of the OraciĂłn Seis arc and features quite a bit of story woven into the combat sequences and while it may take a while to get going, the number of new and old faces and consistent humor make Part 5 a successful return for Fairy Tail as viewers wait for the next part to be released.
Visuals One of the things that I’ve always found wonderful about Fairy Tail is the amount of characters that the anime manages to contain and actually give screentime. While there are other shōnen series that trot out new characters every so often, many of these characters are shown once and never again, or appear similar to already existing characters. In this part viewers are introduced to numerous allied characters as well as a new set of enemies, each with interesting character designs, especially when it comes to the leader of Blue Pegasus.
The animation quality throughout Part 5 is impressive more often than not, but there are some noticeable drops in character detail during a few combat sequences and even in basic talking scene throughout the release.
Audio
It should be no surprise, given this is the fifth Fairy Tail release now, that FUNimation has given the release an English dub. The cast from the first set of releases have returned to reprise their roles while new characters have been introduced and alongside them come a batch of new voice actors. These new actors have done a great job matching the feel of the rest of the cast and Brittney Karbowski’s take on Wendy fits the character perfectly.
As far as background music goes, numerous themes that we’ve heard before come into play alongside a handful of new tracks which are fitting for the combat sequences but usually forgettable. The opening theme “Egao no Mahou” by Magic Party and ending theme “Holy Shine” by Daisy x Daisy continue to follow the same themes as past Fairy Tail openings and endings, which is nice as they have always been pleasing.
Extras As far as bonus features go, Fairy Tail: Part 5 has what one would expect from the series at this point. There are clean versions of the opening and ending themes, a US trailer for this part of Fairy Tail, trailers for other FUNimation releases and finally commentary tracks for episode 49 and 58.
Episode 49’s commentary features Tyler Walker, Todd Haberkorn, Cherami Leigh, and Carl Philips. The cast spends a fair bit of the commentary talking about what they’ve done since the first set of releases finished as well as a bit about the episode itself, making for an entertaining, but not overly humourous commentary. Following that is a commentary for episode 58 which features Tyler Walker again, Aaron Dismuke, Lindsay Seidel, and Cherami Leigh. The cast discusses some of their past works as well as some of the first series that they worked on back when they were first starting out.
Overall Despite being away for a year and a half, FUNimation’s release of Fairy Tail hasn’t missed a beat. Despite being slow to start, Fairy Tail: Part 5 has everything that fans of the series have come to love at this point, with plenty of action and comedy as well as a worthwhile story tying everything together. Add great voicework to that as well as some mild fan-service and you have what continues to be the best new shōnen series out there.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The creative development team, Undercoders, are excited to announce that they have released the most comprehensive Consoles Video Games Quiz, free-to-play on iOS and Android devices.
The trivial application challenges players to name as many video game consoles, using pictures from all the ones ever made, as fast as possible to earn high scores and Video Games Quiz coins for valuable hints. Players must completely clear all of the 10 levels to unlock every achievement and earn a spot for the highest ranking in the Game Centre and Google Play leaderboards.
Check out the trailer below to see the huge variety of consoles; from the best selling in history to the most obscure machinery only true hardcore gamers will be able to identity!
The Toronto, Canada based team behind ManaCrowd are hoping to shake up the entire crowdfunding industry by bringing a new approach to crowdfunding indie video games. The explosion of crowdfunding has turned the video game industry on its head, providing gamers a stronger voice in what they want to see developed, and opportunity for smaller projects to gain funding previously unheard of.
In the crowded market, with giants like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter dominating the space, ManaCrowd is making its stand with an interesting take on the relationship between gamers, indie developers, and crowd funding. ManaCrowd’s approach to crowdfunding is inspired by Kiva. The non-profit organization has led the charge with microfinancing by providing small loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations, funded by people on the internet.
The team behind ManaCrowd
ManaCrowd seeks to provide a full service platform that will connect indie developers with gamers willing to lend money, advice, feedback, and marketing power to the developers. In return for monetary support, indie developers will provide a portion of the game’s royalties to the crowd funding backers. Since the backers and the developer’s monetary success are tied together, backers are encouraged to provide helpful feedback to improve the game and spread interest in the project through word of mouth and social media. Indie developers will in turn get the benefits of feedback, even during the early concept stages, a supply of game testers who will help refine their games, money to finance development, and crowd driven marketing. The hope is that with the help of backers, the game will be successful enough to repay the donation and then some, allowing backer to donate the money earned to another indie project, creating a cycle that will increase funding for indie games.
ManaCrowd is calling this platform “crowdpublishing” as the site will provide benefits normally associated with having a a major publisher’s backing. Participating developers will have access to ManaCrowd’s assistance to get the games onto major distribution platforms, all without having to sacrifice the rights to their intellectual property.
Currently, the site plans on focusing on titles for browsers, mobile devices, Linux, Mac, and Windows PCs. The site is currently under active development and will launch soon.
Steam broke 125 Greenlit titles today, adding fourteen new games and two new software titles to their sales platform. There are now 127 titles that have been accepted for distribution on Steam through the Greenlight program.
A Hat in Time, Among the Sleep, BROFORCE, Centration, Chasm, Darkwood, Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut, Divekick, Operation Black Mesa, Project Awakened, Recruits, Rekoil, Shelter, StarMade, Dexster Audio Editor, and GraphicEditor openCanvas will be released onto Steam when the developers feel ready to make the release. Some will join the Steam Early Access program and others will be released as complete projects.
Steam took efforts to clarify their notoriously convoluted judgement process, but managed to do little more than re-hash previous announcements. This news will probably serve as a disappointment to indie developers who have been demanding clarification since the start of Steam Greenlight.
Indie Royale teamed up with the site Indie Gamer Chick to hand pick nine of her favourite indie games that were released on Xbox Live Indie Game. For one price, buyers will receive Dead Pixels, Chester, Antipole, LaserCat, Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos, Little Racers STREET, SpyLeaks, Orbitron: Revolution, and a mystery game. The games are a variety of Steam, Desura, and DRM free files. This bundle is only compatible with Windows PCs.
Indie Royale buyers can name their price, as long as it is above the current minimum price. As buyers pay the bare minimum, the minimum price will rise for future buyers. Buyers who pay $10.00 or more for the bundle will cause the price to drop for other buyers.
After a month long wait since the last episode, the third episode of the PayDay 2 live action web series was released today. The third episode draws away from the PayDay crew and focuses on Bain, the mastermind. The FBI are trying to learn more about Bain and his connections to the seedy underworld of Washington DC. The episode crescendos with a fist fight in a seedy strip club and caps off with a small teaser for episode four.
PayDay 2 is developed by Overkill Software as a full retail release, compared to the digital only release of the first title. The game will be released sometime in August, 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC.
Indie Gala is celebrating the sun and warm weather in the Northern Hemisphere with the Indie Gala Summertide Sale. They are returning to the three tiered sale, offering a total of fourteen games to buyers.
Those who pay any price will receive Miner Warfare, Doom & Destiny, and Oniken. Those who beat the first tier average price will also receive Space Pirates and Zombies, Exceed – Gun Bullet Children, Exceed 2nd – Vampire Rex, and two unannounced games. Those who beat the second tier average price will also receive Exceed 3rd – Jade Penetrade Black Package, Sacraboar, Trainz Simulator 12, Trainz Simulator 12 – Aerotrain and Coronation Scot DLCs, Painkiller: Recurring Evil, and a mystery Steam title.
Indie Gala Summertide is a mixture of Steam and Desura redeemable keys that run on Windows PCs. A portion of the profit goes to support the AbleGamers charity.
Ubisoft and Pwnee Studios‘ upcoming platformer Cloudberry Kingdom received a hilarious new trailer today. Taking a few veiled swipes at the Super Mario franchise, the narrator introduces Bob and his three friends, also conveniently known as Bob, as they dodge an obscene amount of traps and enemies. Death seems to be a common occurrence in Cloudberry Kingdom, and success is measured in inches as the looming wall of death draws nearer, pressing the players forward.
Cloudberry Kingdom is an infinite platformer that will be released on PlayStation Network on July 30th, PC and Xbox Live Arcade on July 31st, and Wii U on August 1st.
