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Killer Instinct: Behind the Music at PAX Aus

July 24, 2013

Easily the best panel I attended at PAX Australia 2013 was Killer Instinct: Behind the Music. There are many reasons for this: the 17 year long absence of Killer Instinct in our lives, that nostalgia and fondness for the 90’s, the charisma and passion of Mick Gordon, the composer of the new Killer Instinct‘s soundtrack and host of the panel, and the plain bad-ass-ness (that should really be a word!) of the music of Killer Instinct! This is a game that so many have patiently – and sometimes impatiently – waited for what seems an eternity in gamer years. It’s unfortunate that we can’t share the visual and aural elements of this presentation to you, but we will relay to you the process Mick walked us through in recreating such an iconic soundtrack.

First of all, let me just express how awesome Mick Gordon. This guy is a fountain of charm and “cool”. After the panel was over, many of the attendees went up to hake his hand and pick his brain a little further. And not only did he stay to talk, but when the next exhibitor wanted to start setting up, Mick didn’t shoo us away, but invited us to stand on the stage and continue our conversation while he packed up. He even signed autographs like a rockstar, gave advice to sound engineers and aspiring composers and gave us all his email to contact him. It also doesn’t hurt that he is extremely talented and passionate about his job, and in particular this one…

Mick has been a lifelong Rare fan, with Killer Instinct being the pinnacle of that list of great games. He started off the panel by asking us if we remembered the 90’s: blue light discos, watching Saturday morning Disney, those trolls with the crazy hair, the pens that connected to each other, Goosebumps, fast food not being bad for you, eating Samboy chips just for the tazos and pogs, sucking on Warheads…the…video game arcade? (you knew where he was going!). Mick then hilariously trolled (speaking of) this generation of young gamers:

Do you remember, putting in a dollar, you’d get a life?! And if you died, you’d have to put in another dollar! And kids today complain about free-to-play…that ‘do you wish to continue?’ screen just reminded me how poor I was!

We then arrived at the original Killer Instinct. We took a very brief trip down memory lane, listening to snippets of the old soundtrack, which was so good they put it on a CD called Killer Cuts (if you own that CD, please tweet us at a photo @CapsuleComputer). We then heard an unreleased track from that CD…and thank God it never saw the light of day. After having a good laugh, we fast forwarded to November of 2012 when Mick got an email about possibly working on a new project for Microsoft – his dream project. And so the work began on redoing the Killer Instinct main theme for the reveal at E3.

Moving onto the character themes, Mick had to look at the characterisations of each one, taking them and bringing them into 2013. Jago is up first – a Tibetan monk who dedicated his life to focusing on the Tiger Spirit. After witnessing its manifestation in the evil entity Gargos, Jago returns to his temple to realise that he had been chasing something that was always inside of him…he is the Tiger Spirit. Mick attempted to reflect that journey and Jago’s current state of being in his new theme, by travelling to a Buddhist temple in Dandenong (what a trek!) and learning how to perform throat singing (which wrecked his voice). After failing to mimic his example, we moved onto Glacius…

In exploring Glacius and finding inspiration from his background for the creation of his new theme, Mick wanted to delve deeper than the Terminator T-1000-like aspects of Glacius, and examine the fact that he is an alien that had crash landed on Earth, had his technology stolen from him by Ultratech and is now back to reclaim it knowing full well what it is capable of in the wrong hands. Visually, he looks more like an actual ice-creature, with an endoskeleton of rock, an outer “shell” of liquid-translucent skin and on top of all that, a high-tech suit.

His foreign, mysterious and high-tech nature informed the creation of his theme. It is filled with ominous choir singing and backed by a fast and powerful synthetic sounding drum beat. It was at this point that Mick reminded us of the data constraints that prevented pieces longer than 1 minute back on the original, which is why each track involved 1-minute loops. Now, that obviously isn’t an issue. In fact, Glacius’ theme is a whopping 13 minutes long! Because of this and the fact that the music adapts dynamically to how you are playing, Mick promises that you will not hear it all or in the same exact way every time you play a round or match.

Carrying on from this concept of dynamic music, it was revealed that each character has a musical Ultra that is not only specific to them, but specific to the level they are currently on. Pulling off Glacius’ Ultra, for example, on Jago’s stage, will sound like Glacius’s Ultra, on Jago’s stage. Got it? Basically, the music scores the fight. Next, we took a look at Sabrewulf – the final officially announced character so far (although we’ve all seen that latest teaser for Chief Thunder). The lycanthrope is one really messed up person – if he can still be referred to as a person…

Drugs could not reverse the effects of lycanthropy, so he then cut his arms off and replaced them with metal prosthesis. Why? Well as Mick put it, “he was hoping it would satisfy his consumer urge to have new things”. But it didn’t, and so he tore them off and they can be found, in-game, hanging from the roof of his laboratory. He now has to permanently inject himself with drugs to stave off the condition, but is slowly realising that he has no choice but to succumb to the beast within. A drug-fiend werewolf’s music sounds as you would want it to: a combination of long, screeching and staccato strings ala old monster films like Dracula and Frankenstein.

As an awesome treat, Mick then played for us the new theme, in it entirety, for the first time ever. It was accompanied by a video montage of gameplay, and a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment…which I must’ve blinked on because I missed it…so disappointed in myself. But what came next got my mind off that failure rather quickly – we recorded some audio that will feature in the final game (with some heavy modifying, undoubtedly). Mick orchestrated us as we mimicked high and low winds, and performed a variety of chants and sounds. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on them being utilised in Chief Thunder’s stage music.

Mick closed out the panel by holding a 20 minute Q&A, which was unfortunately populated by impossible questions such as “if Orchid is coming back, how did you do her theme” and “how did you approach making new characters’ themes, as I assume there are some”. *Sigh*… But he did leave us with a tantalising riddle of sorts: “Every original Killer Instinct character’s theme will be included in the game, but will remain hidden. To find them, you must fight against your instincts.” Finally, just know that the music is in phenomenal hands as everything Mick composes, he sends to the original Killer Instinct composer Robin Beanland for his approval. “As a fan, I would not accept anything less”.

Full Mojo Rampage Preview

Jamie Laike Tsui

July 24, 2013

Full Mojo Rampage is Over the Top Games’ newest project. The indie devs are the same team behind The Fancy Pants Adventures and NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, two games that have won high praise from reviewers and GameLab, international video game trade show based in Spain. Full Mojo Rampage is described as a rogue-like “face-paced exploration and action game.” The game is currently in alpha status. The first of five quests and three of the Parent Loa’s are currently available for testing in both single player and multiplayer format.

Players take control of a voodoo keeper, and arms themselves with up to two Voodoo Pins that serve as initial stat modifiers. There are five Parent Loa’s that grant four unique abilities. Each Loa are inspired by the spirits of Haitian Vodou. To start with, only a few Voodoo Pins and two abilities from each Parent Loa’s are unlocked. New abilities and Voodoo pins are purchased with medals earned from completing quests and gold, randomly dropped by enemies and chests, respectively. A variety of different masks are also selectable, but the effects of the masks are strictly superficial.

Being a rogue like game, death in Full Mojo Rampage is permanent. Upon dying, the player will have to start the whole quest from the beginning. The only things that carry over to the new game are the coins and medals used to unlock items, thus health management is an extremely important part of Full Mojo Rampage. Health potions are currently at relatively low drop rate and are rather rare in the in game shop. On the other hand, the potions can be hoarded in the inventory, available for use whenever needed, in the case the player is lucky enough to find multiple potions in a run. The other way to restore health is to hunt for green health orb drops from enemies and chests. To help keep players alive, all of the playable Loas have some sort of defensive ability that will help them evade damage.

Full Mojo Rampage keeps the pace quick. Most areas will spawn two to six enemies as the player enters, with certain areas tending to spawn even more. The player moves around with the WASD keys, aims with the mouse, fires their staff with left click, and uses special abilities with right click and space. The controls work very well in its current state, but for those who need a little extra tweaking can customize the controls to their liking. Inventory management is a drag and drop matter, as the mouse pointer is free to move about the screen.

In addition to the default wand that spams small balls that do a small amount of damage, and the larger abilities that are fueled by the pink mojo pool, players can pick up special weapon wands to do extra damage and equippable items that will further modify the player’s stats. These items are scattered randomly through the levels, found in chests, dropped from enemies, and purchased from stores. Inventory space tends to get a little tight at times, so inventory bags can be found to increase the amount of equippable items. I found these were a bit on the stingy side, as I often had to pick and choose between items before I reached a store. But I soon discovered I was able to push items around like a soccer ball until I was able to drink a potion and free up some space in my bags. Randomly spawned inside levels and available after most levels, the store carries four random items and allows the player to sell unwanted items for a decent amount of gold. The well used for selling items is still a little glitchy at the moment, requiring a few attempts to actually sell the item.

The levels in Full Mojo Rampage are randomly generated. Currently, a few themes such as dungeons and cemetery have been added. The level layout itself is randomly generated, but the quest within the level is not. The levels are broken up with boss battles. However, I have found the bosses so far are rather predictable and could use a little more complication to the fight.

Full Mojo Rampage is a cute and cartoony take on the voodoo theme. Voodoo keepers are child sized, with exaggerated features. The world of Full Mojo Rampage feels like The Nightmare Before Christmas met Saturday morning cartoons and had a wonderful video game baby. The loading screen art is one of my favourite parts of the game, showing off the game’s unique style.

The music also reflects the cartoony nature of the game, fitting right in with the classic Saturday morning cartoons like Pinky and the Brain or Beetlejuice. There are only a small handful of tracks at the moment, and I hope the full release of the game will provide a little greater variety. The sound effects are great, though the sound of spells can feel a little weak at this time. But of course, being an alpha, these sounds may not even make it to the final version of the game.

Full Mojo Rampage is ramping up to be an excellent game. It is a simpler and more accessible game compared to most action RPGs on the market, and the rogue like qualities provide some excellent pick up and play content. The alpha is surprisingly polished, mostly lacking in content and minor tweaks. Over The Top Games may have a top quality AAA indie title growing in their offices.

PAX Aus Stealth Gaming Panel Feat. Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Zac Elawar

July 24, 2013

PAX Aus Stealth Gaming Panel Feat. Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Stealth mechanics have been integrated into a large number of titles over the years, but what exactly makes a good stealth game? The Stealth Gaming panel at PAX Australia 2013 aimed to find an answer to that question through analysis and discussion, whilst paying reverence to the genre and exploring why it is so popular. To give a little focus and direction to the proceedings, Splinter Cell: Blacklist featured at the centre of the talk with Kristjan Zadziuk – Animation Director at Ubisoft Toronto – present as the special guest panellist to offer an inside perspective on the topic.

Alongside him were founder of rawDLC, Dave Kozicki, PC Powerplay freelance journalists Terrence Jarrad and Nathan Cocks (yes, some jokes were made at his expense) with the editor of Sneaky Bastards, Dan Hindes, hosting the panel. To begin, Hindes effectively expressed why stealth games mean so much to him with the following quote:

The essence of the way any game functions can be boiled down to spawning an object, moving that object, and destroying that object. The rest are details. So think about Pong: the ball spawns, it moves, it’s destroyed if you miss it. Think about Call of Duty: a guard spawns, he moves in front of your cross-hairs, he is destroyed. Stealth games are about doing something interesting with the details. They’re about doing something a little bit more intelligent with those details. Those details become the focus of the gameplay. The end result is not destroying that object. In some stealth games you don’t destroy any objects at all in the entire thing, and you can go through and play the way you want. They are highly expressive…they are highly personal.

The panel spoke about the uniqueness of stealth games, in that you are often using superior information to overcome overwhelming odds instead of the usual superior fire-power given in shooters in particular, in order to overcome even odds. Kristjan then explained the multiple animation directors of Ubisoft’s approach of likening each of their star franchise characters to a certain animal. Altair was an eagle, and Sam Fisher – in Blacklist – is compared to a panther. He was stumped when Hindes asked what Rayman was (what would you guys liken him to?)

After some joking that Splinter Cell is like Star Wars – “every other one is kinda sucky” – Kristjan assured everyone that Blacklist (the 6th in the series for those keeping track with the analogy) will break the trend, as it were, and Ubisoft Toronto feel a responsibility to return Fisher to his roots, hearkening also to the brilliance of what is widely considered the ultimate Splinter Cell experience in Chaos Theory. Speaking on what exactly made Chaos Theory the best of the franchise, Hindes pointed to its freedom of approach for each mission, and systemic abilities such as shocking a water puddle. Kristjan promises that, through manipulating A.I. with your actions, systemic executions like that are possible in Blacklist.

Beyond Good & Evil was then used as an example of a title with stealth elements in it that completely missed the mark, while Batman: Arkham Asylum handled it phenomenally. The reason why being intelligent A.I., but not to the point of being frustrating. In Arkham Asylum, the enemies would see Batman, but not immediately shoot haphazardly. They would show fear and then there behaviour would change once you vanished. That transition stage is where Kristjan believes A.I. should be its smartest, with that specific implementation being an influence for Blacklist.

With all that has been said about feeling empowered, that vulnerability is also a hallmark of the genre. Hindes then divulged an interesting conversation he had with the developer of Monaco – in his words, one of the greatest stealth games he has played. The developer said to him that he considered Pac-Man the original stealth game;

He said “no, think about it. You are quite powerless. You have superior information. And every now and then you can turn the tide against these friggin’ ghosts by eating one of the ‘power pills’ and send them back…”

Regarding modern games, Deus Ex: Human Revolution was spotlighted as an example of a game that gives many options to the players. That flexibility is what most desire and consider a necessity in great stealth game design, but there is such a thing as too many options. The analogy used was going to a restaurant with 50 items on the menu, and ending up choosing the cheeseburger because it’s all too much (ala Metal Gear Solid‘s multiple boxes). Kristjan, however, reiterated that players can indeed play the way they want in Blacklist and are not required to kill a single person in their playthroughs.

Kristjan then offers some details on using shadows in Blacklist, and also the returning Spies vs Mercs multiplayer mode. He mentioned that the Art Director of Splinter Cell: Conviction “could not stand” the black and white filter used to indicate being invisible to enemies, and so in Blacklist, they have implemented a bleed-in blending effect where Sam almost literally goes invisible, completely slinking into the black of shadows. As for Spies vs Mercs, more information will be relayed soon, but there is a mysterious Blacklist mode along with the traditional Classic mode, which pits teams of 2 against each other.

To end the session, a 15 minute Q&A delved into each of the panellists opinions on certain games and mechanics. We actually believe it would be more interesting to hear your answers. So, we put it to you, our readers. Why do you like stealth games? What is an example of a fantastic mechanic and a terrible mechanic that you either had the pleasure or displeasure of using? And what would be your dream or perfect stealth game? Let us know in the comments below; we’d love to read what you think and have an open discussion with you all!

Diablo 3 – #EvilReborn Part 2 & 3 Teaser Trailers

Joshua Moris

July 24, 2013

Ever since the first #EvilReborn teaser trailer for Blizzard’s Diablo 3 was released, PlayStation has been relentless with their onslaught of #EvilReborn material. The second movie in the series presents itself as another Paranormal Activity skit with a small child standing dangerously close to the TV. Consider this a lesson learned when parenting your children.

#EvilReborn Part 3 offers a slightly different route as the footage plays out like a maze in a first-person view. When given the option to pick a weapon, would you choose a PS3 controller over a knife or hammer? This guy certainly did, and then probably crapped his pants after seeing the glowing red eyes.

And that wraps up the series thus far. Stayed tuned for more #EvilReborn updates as Diablo 3 is quickly approaching its launch date – September 3, 2013.

MechWarrior Online: Honor Cancer Victim – Sarah’s Jenner

Joshua Moris

July 24, 2013

MechWarrior Online: Honor Cancer Victim – Sarah’s Jenner

Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing – creators of MechWarrior Online – showed today that they truly care about their franchise when honoring the death of the MMO’s youngest player: Sarah Marie Alida Parries. Sarah was only five years old and had fought the hard fight against an aggressive cancer which eventually took her life. What do they do to honor her then? A custom Jenner class ‘Mech was created and given the nickname of ‘Sarah’s Jenner’ – her favorite class to use. In addition to creating a custom class in Sarah’s name, 100% of the proceeds made from purchasing the $10 ‘Mech through August 20th will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. Players that take advantage of purchasing ‘Sarah’s Jenner’ will also experience a 10% XP boost. President of Piranha Games, Russ Bullock, had the following to add:

Sarah’s passion for ‘Mechs and her battle with cancer had a profound impact everyone at Piranha. She was an inspiration with her passion and energy for the game and our hearts and deepest condolences go out to her family. The outpouring of heartfelt sympathy from the MechWarrior community and the support and encouragement we’ve received to develop this unique ‘Mech has been nothing short of incredible. We have the best fans in the world.

Those interested in donating or observing how much has been collected thus far can go to: http://mwomercs.com/sarah. Just by looking at the image above you can see neat additions like the pony decal that would truly make a five year old girl happy. If you want to learn more about the actual ‘Mech, watch the video below to get the full scoop on ‘Sarah’s Jenner’.

Escape Plan Trailer Breaks Out

Andrew Day

July 24, 2013

We live in a time that is filled with superhero and comic book action movie. It is fine, great even, and if you are into comic books (like yours truly) then it is a golden age of cinema. Movies like Superman/Batman and Avengers: Age of Ultron are great, but even the most die hard of comic book nerd needs a change of pace, needs a true old-school action flick to sit down and enjoy. Well coming October, you will have just that.

Atmosphere Entertainment, Emmett/Furla Films and Summit Entertainment are joining together to bring us Escape Plan, staring Rambo (check out the trailer for the new rambo game here) and the Terminator; Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s right, you read correctly. The big guys are teaming up, for real this time. None of that short cameo like in The Expendables, but a full on team up. OK, if your 800’s action-movie excitement has subsided, we can talk about what the movie is about.

Ray Breslin (Stallone), plays a structural engineer whose job is to break out of prisons for a living. When he is hired to test out a new “inescapable” prison, he finds himself in the middle of set-up, and that the people who hired him have left him to rot. Meeting Swan Rottmaye (Schwarzenagger), the two decide to help each other break out of the maximum security hell hole, and hunt down those who put Breslin away.

Suffice to say; the movie looks totally badass, and like you can just sit there, switch your mind off and enjoy it for what it is. Plus the duo of Stallone and Schwarzenagger just adds cred to any big blockbuster action movie. A trailer for this film has broken its way out of prison, and is on the lamb below. Definitely check it out and let us know in the comments what you think. For all the Escape Plan news, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.

Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys manga wins a 2013 Eisner Award

Travis Bruno

July 24, 2013

Over the weekend during the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con, Naoki Urasawa‘s 20th Century Boys manga series was awarded the 2013 Eisner Award in the category of Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia. For those who don’t know, the Will Eisner Comic Industry is called the “Oscar” of comic book awards and the award ceremony is always held during Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that the manga has won this award, as it also was given the same award back in 2011. Presently the 20th Century Boys manga is being published by Viz Media under their “Signature” label.

The Company You Keep coming to DVD

Vicky Martin

July 24, 2013

Madman is excited to present Robert Redford’s successful film, ‘The Company You Keep’, which is on the home run to DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital Download from August 21.

Based on Neil Gordon’s novel, The Company You Keep, (trailer featured below) follows the lives of former Weather Underground activists and the unravelling of their identities when an enthusiastic journalist, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) starts investigating leads on members of the cohort, after Sharon Solarzone (Susan Sarandon) turns herself into the FBI. Once Ben uncovers the true identity of Nick Sloan (Robert Redford), he joins in the cross-country man hunt for the fugitive wanted for murder and discovers in the process that the history of this case isn’t as clear-cut as the authorities claimed it to be.

The DVD and Blu-Ray special features of the thriller, include interviews with the stunning cast; Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Nick Nolte and Stanley Tucci, and featurettes about the film script and the original Weather Underground organisation. For further interest, check out the 2004 Academy Award nominated documentary, The Weather Underground, available through Madman.

Dynasty Warriors 8 Xbox 360 patch on the way

Travis Bruno

July 24, 2013

Dynasty Warriors 8 Xbox 360 patch on the way

It appears that some of the issues that I had with Dynasty Warriors 8, such as the slowdown and lag issues experienced throughout the game, even when I was simply walking through Ambition mode, wasn’t shared by the PlayStation 3 version of the game. As such it Tecmo Koei has announced that they are working on a patch for the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Koei’s Chin Soon Sun wrote his Facebook page that “We confirm that our development team is currently working on the patch and the patch will be released as soon as possible. We will announce the submission date as well as the release date on all our social network channels. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

As you can see, it is unknown exactly when this patch will be released, but even without a patch Dynasty Warriors 8 still offers the best Dynasty Warriors experience in memory. Check out our review for the game here.

SteelSeries Siberia v2 Heat Orange Edition Lights Up Stores

Jamie Laike Tsui

July 24, 2013

SteelSeries Siberia v2 Heat Orange Edition Lights Up Stores

The SteelSeries Siberia is one of the legendary headsets designed for gamers, dating back to the early 2000’s. Now, SteelSeries is introducing the latest iteration of the Siberia headset, the SteelSeries Siberia V2 Heat Orange Edition.

The Heat Orange maintains all of the V2’s features, including the over the ear design, retractable noise cancelling microphone, in line volume and mute controls, and a comfortable over the head suspension system to provide hours of comfortable gaming.

New to the Heat Orange Edition are the orange LEDs located in the earcups. The LEDs have six different lighting settings, including an active mode that responds to the sounds in the headset, and are controlled by the SteelSeries Engine.

The SteelSeries Siberia v2 Heat Orange Edition is available at retailers for $159.99 AUD.

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