Kyttaro Games have been busy at work on their innovative new game Droidscape: Basilica. The stop motion animated puzzler challenges players to guide the unarmed robot named Bishop 7 to the end of each level. Bishop 7 has been tasked with rescuing a Chronomancer, keeper of the secrets of time travel, but plenty of dangers lie between Bishop 7 and his goal. The game is broken up into two phases, the planning phase where players will decide the best course of action and the execution phase.
Droidscape: Basilica features a new experimental technology called HeadTwister that will allow players to control the game by turning their heads. HeadTwister supports iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 5, and newer devices. Those with older devices can use the more traditional analog controls. The game is currently slated to be released on iTunes on July 25th, 2013 release.
Twin Moons is ahidden object adventure game, where players take on the role of a researcher with amnesia as he tries to uncover the mysteries of his past at the Twin Moons Institute. Through his/your journey you’ll learn the secrets of immortality, the “Half World” and other creepy stuff. Twin Moons is one of those games that some will love and others will hate depending on personal taste as it’s pros and cons of gameplay can be seen throughout it’s entire genre. All in all if you like hidden object or point and click titles, Twin Moons may be right up your ally but if not and you’re looking for something casual or a little more action packed like perhaps you should move on as this has no intentions of catering to you.
Gameplay
Twin Moons puts you in the shoes of….well some researcher guy who’s got amnesia. You get yourself in a bunch of mischief sneaking around the Twin Moons Institute trying to uncover your past. Basically gameplay works like this – you tap to walk to things, open things and collect things, as well as tapping on the things you collected to use on or open other things to uncover new things you can walk to. Oh yeah and there’s cut scenes stringing it all together. The concept sounds like simple stuff but it’s actually pretty difficult. But this isn’t because the game requires a lot of skill, it’s because it requires an incredible imagination to think of stuff you normally wouldn’t think of. I’ll give you an example – in the beginning you need to open the gate of the institue which is locked, so you’re expected to figure out that you must strip your car for parts and use those parts to fix the gate. In real life that’d seem ridiculous but that’s what Twin Moons is all about. You need to open your mind and think of how to problem solve using solutions that are normally impossible. Inthe game’s defence, it’s a trope of the genre and not it’s fault…even if it does seem frustratingly silly. Puzzles are also seen throughout that while having little variety to mix up the gameplay. Some of them are pretty good, but generally they are mostly forgettable.
Possibly the biggest plus side to the game is how forgiving it is. Twin Moons fully understands that it asks a lot of the player so it has a hint system that will point you in the right direction. If that isn’t enough it’ll even tell you what to do in order to advance. To discourage players from abusing this, every time you use it you must wait abut 60 seconds or so before you can use it again. Furthermore, minigames can also be skipped as well. The plus side of all this is that the frustrating element of the game is now gone – you can cruise through it all and enjoy the story without the stress. Sure all challenge is taken away and it kind of breaks the game, but that’s ultimately the player’s choice of how their experience will be – challenging or cheap.
Audio & Visual
The presentation of Twin Moons get’s the job done, even if it is a bit of a mixed bag. Scenery is detailed and done well, with just enough animation thrown in from making it seem to static. Character models are in 3D and are less impressive but they get the job done. The animation on the other hand seems a tad choppy, with sudden cuts between various animations. As for audio, music provides a suitable creepy atmosphere that captures the mood of the game appropriately. Voice acting is ok, but lip syncing is terrible with a capital T. But hey, it’s better than no voice acting I guess!
Overall
Twin Moonsis a mixed bag of everything. The core gameplay is challenging in both good and bad ways and the hint system is far from flawless. The story is mediocre and while the 2D graphics are lovely the 3D animations are a bit off. It’s a game that requires a lot of patentice and will definitely make you scratch your head and if that’s what you’re into you’re definitely going to love it as it’s totally aimed at you. While it may seem simple, this is far from a casual game. It’s for those crazy hardcore fans of uncovering a mystery because you’re seriously going to need to bring out the magnifying glass for uncovering both these hidden items and the Twin Moons Institute’s hidden mysteries. It’s for a totally niche market and while it’s not flawless what it aims to do it does well.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After the introduction of the Wargaming.net League, it stood to reason that the pro-competitive side of their games, such as World of Tanks was sure to heat up. Well, it seems that it certainly has and will continue to heat up with the announcement that World of Tanks will be part of the World Cyber Games competition for this years event.
While World of Tanks had its first appearance at last years event, it will be playing a much bigger role this time around, as it will be one of the games at the preliminary events at the national level for North America, Europe, CIS, and Asia. The winners from online qualifying matches will win travel to the national finals to see if they will be able to compete at the Grand Finals in Kunshan, China from November 28th to December 1st.
Because of this opportunity to show off their game on a world wide scale, Wargaming will be continuing to improve World of Tanks for both competitors and spectators, such as new features specifically for eSports. Perhaps some of these features are in the additions of the upcoming 8.7 Update or in subsequent updates down the line. Either way, World of Tanks looks to carry on its momentum in growth.
Over the Top Games kicked off their crowd funding campaign with a bang, releasing a trailer for Full Mojo Rampage, showing off extensive portions of gameplay taken from the very first public alpha build. Full Mojo Rampage is a top down rogue-like action game featuring randomly generated level and multiplayer action for Windows PCs.
Those who support the development by providing a payment of $20 to $250 USD will get instant access to the alpha, all future updates, and a copy of the game as both a DRM-free title and a Steam key. Those who purchase higher and more expensive tiers will get bonuses such as the digital soundtrack, personalized voodoo dolls, and tshirts. Over the Top Games is keen to receive feedback from backers, looking for feedback through the private backer’s forums and online polls.
Asterix is a classic French comic book that many people around the world have fond memories of, myself included! It stars a village of Gauls holding out against Roman invaders thanks to a special potion that makes the drinker incredibly powerful. The diminutive Asterix and his giant best friend Obelix engage on adventures that often involve many Roman soldiers getting beaten up.
Asterix: MegaSlap will challenge players to launch a Roman soldier as far as possible with a single punch. Players will have access to a wide range of wacky customization options that will help Asterix send the Roman soldier into all sorts of far off places featured in the series, such as Rome, Egypt, and Lutetia.
Bulkypix has announced that Asterix: MegaSlap will be released on iTunes at the price of $0.99 for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad on July 25th, 2013. An Android version will follow soon after.
The Develop conference held in Brighton, UK provides video game developers a chance to network and share ideas about video game development. This year, the 100% Indie stand provided space for indie developers to meet and get their games published on the Samsung Apps store.
“This is 100% Indie’s first Develop conference and it was a huge success. It was a brilliant opportunity to meet developers and technological pioneers and celebrate the genuine passion and talent in this industry. There’s a huge amount of raw talent out there and it was exciting to meet so many developers who are keen to bring their games to market as Samsung Apps,” said Joe Wee, founder of Chillingo.
Joe Wee and Samsung are the main drivers behind the 100% Indie initiative, which has brought over 30 games to the Samsung Apps store. This year, organizers observed a huge explosion in retro styled games inspired by the 8-bit and 16-bit era gaming.
Pain & Gain, the gym junkie, action-comedy revenge flick from Paramount Pictures is set to release in Australia next month, and in preparation Paramount have put up a brand new clip from the movie. The clip, titled ‘Stepfather’ has Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) playing basketball (see: dominating at basketball) against a group of kids, while trash talking and offering a few pearls of wisdom.
The film stars Wahlberg, Rebel Wilson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and is being directed by Michael Bay. Pain & Gain will be hitting Australian cinemas on August 8th. You can check out the ‘Stepfather’ clip below, and click here to take a look at the film’s red band trailer. Oh and while you are at it, enjoy the film’s previous ‘I’m a Doer’ clip here.
With Pain & Gain’s Australian release just around the corner, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the news as it becomes available.
I’m sure that everyone got wind of the upcoming American T.V showAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D, created for ABC by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, produced by Marvel Television. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D follows the character Phil Coulson as he puts together a small team of S.H.I.E.L.D agents and has them handle strange new cases. Each of the cases test the S.H.I.E.L.D in cooperation and ingenuity by making them work together to figure out the newly emerging cases of superhuman individuals scattered around the world.
After Agents was given the green light in late 2012, production and filming started early 2013, and was officially ordered on 10 March. Yesterday, the following announcement was made on Twitter:
It's official. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Tuesday, September 24 at 8|7c on ABC. Are you ready?
— Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (@AgentsofSHIELD) July 16, 2013
There is a lot of hype surrounding this show, and many people are looking forward to it. But fear not Australia! Not only did Channel 7 say that they were picking up S.H.I.E.L.D, but they also said they were fast tracking it later this year! Airing in Australia is due to start shortly after the premier release in America.
Gameloft, the powerhouse game development company that are known worldwide for their high quality iOS and Android games like Despicable Me: Minion Rush (check out our review here), and the Gangstar series (check out the review of the latest installment; Gangstar Vegas, here), have reached an epic milestone today; achieving a more than impressive 10 MILLION Facebook fans.
Gameloft has always believed that the community has been the biggest influence in their success and continued growth. Starting with their first ever Facebook fan when the page was launched back in 2009, it grew to over a million by September 2011. Since then, the rise has been even more meteoric, with the page today reaching its 10 millionth fan. This achievement makes Gameloft one of the top video game publishing pages on the social media site.
That’s a lot of coffee
Gameloft’s Product & Digital Marketing Director, Benoir Pourgaton summarises the company’s excitement on reaching this incredible milestone. He says;
We’re very proud to have reached 10 million fans on our Facebook page. This is the result of our fans’ dedication and the unique relationship we’ve formed with them … We thank our fans for all the suggestions and comments they share with us each day, allowing us to improve ourselves and deliver in return the best experience possible in all our games. We’ll continue to develop and strengthen this close bond with all our fans!
To celebrate, Gameloft have created an application where people can create their own Facebook infographic, as well as an instant win game that has a tonne of cool prizes to give out. If you haven’t done so yet, head over to Gameloft’s official Facebook page here.
After coming out of nowhere to repeatedly challenge the titans of the manga world like One Piece and Naruto, Assassination Classroom is getting its own one-off anime adaptation. The announcement was made in this year’s 34th issue of Shonen Jump where they revealed the return of the Jump Super Anime Tour after its nearly 3 year long hiatus.
The event will also feature footage of the upcoming SHAFT adaptation of Nisekoi, a never before seen Naruto Shippūden OVA, and promotion material for this fall’s second season of Kuroko no Basket.
Assassination Classroom is written by Yusei Matsui (Neuro – Supernatural Detective). It follows the story of class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High, as they attempt to kill their homeroom teacher. However, while this may sound bizarre, it is not as simple as just killing a person. Their homeroom teacher is really a colossally powerful squid-like creature that, before arriving at their school, destroyed 70% of the moon. With just a year until he destroys the Earth as well, it is the student’s job to kill the monster and claim the 10 billion yen bounty that is on his head. Unfortunately, as the monster can move at 20 times Mach speed and has a huge knowledge of assassination techniques, this proves to be an almost insurmountable task.
Whether this will be the start of a hugely anticipated full anime adaptation is yet to be seen, but if that ever does come to fruition it will be one of the most exciting bits of news in a long time.
