In anticipation of the upcoming release of Anuman’s (under the Joystick Replay label) TITAN: Escape the Tower, (a remake of the 1989 ‘Titan’ – released by Titus Interactive for the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and Amiga platforms) the development team have released a new trailer demonstrating gameplay mechanics and background sequences.
The original Titan, described by the team at Joystick Replay as “half wrecking ball, half strategy”, saw players avoid traps in a bid to find various routes of escape from the many labyrinthine levels.
As this is a remake, expect to see the following new features to boot:
Gameplay ameliorations, with a magnetism control function for greater precision.
Bosses & New enemy classes.
Tons of bonuses and powerups, such as Fireball, Multiball, Freezeball… and make use of them accordingly depending on your situation.
New artwork, environments and backgrounds (whilst retaining respect for the original level design): Jungle, Desert, Frozen Planet…
TITAN: Escape the Tower is slated for release on the 6 June 2013 for the PC, Mac, iOS, and Android platforms. For more info, make sure you routinely check Joystick Replay’s Facebook and Twitter updates.
The Stanley Parable: HD Remix, a full feature remake of the 2011 Source mod The Stanley Parable, was Greenlit by the Steam community earlier this week. For those who don’t yet know the premise (or rather, the lack of) that defines the title as a means of narrative experimentation, know this:
The Stanley Parable: HD (Helpful Development) Remix will expand upon the elements that made the Source Mod version so entertaining, dryly witty, and generally compelling. There is no ‘story’ here as such, and yet every seemingly inconsequential action is in fact, quite consequential. Classed as a mixture of action, adventure and simulation, the experience is driven by the player’s emotional investment, logical dexterity, general curiosity and overall intuition in the face of a world presented without any real explanation, but in which literally anything is possible. The developers are holding their cards quite tightly to their chests for the benefit of the player, they say. In spite of this, from where I stand this looks like this is nothing short of a cult classic waiting to happen.
For a true taste of what to expect, check out the latest teaser below. It’s decidedly tongue in cheek, and I was sold instantly. If you enjoyed this a little too much, you can even ask the narrator your own question by emailing [email protected], if he deems it worthy, perhaps he will respond.
For more info on the Stanley Parable: HD Remix be sure to follow the developers on Facebookand Twitter.
Multiplay, the organisation behind the one of the UK’s largest annual gaming expos; Insomnia, have today announced that Minecraft, the little indie game that could, will be a part of this year’s Insomnia 49 event from Telford, England. Not Only will the world-renown game be a part of the festivities, but it will be taking centre-stage as the UK’s first ever Minecraft Expo.
The Minecraft Expo is being described as a significant part of this year’s Insomnia event and will include things like: free-to-play tournaments, talks and presentations about the game, exhibitions from some of the most talented designers in the community, and the ability to purchase officially licensed Minecraft memorabilia. In addition, there will also be costume competitions, a Minecraft themed chill out zone and creative building challenges held throughout the weekend.
By having the game appear at Insomnia 49, Multiplay and Minecraft’s developers Mojang are furthering their business relationship as Multiplay were the group that organised the incredibly successful MINECON from Disneyland Paris in 2012. For this year, Multiplay saw a huge opening in the UK market, and the two groups have capitalised on it.
Insomnia 49 will be held from the 23rd to the 26th of August this year. It has grown from meager beginnings to become one of the UK’s biggest annual gaming events and host to the biggest esports tournaments in the country. Aside from Minecraft, notable games like League of Legends, Halo 4, Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2 will all be running officially sanctioned tournaments. In addition to the Minecraft Expo and esports, the event will play host to presentations on all the latest and upcoming games.
The event is still a fair ways away, so I am sure we will hear more about it over the coming months. For all the news regarding Insomnia 49, including how to register for some of the esport competitions, head on over to their official site here, and as always be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Wargaming, the leading free-to-play massively multi player online developer and publisher, today released a brand-new cinematic for its highly anticipated naval action MMO, World of Warships. Wargaming is most well known for its incredibly successful title World of Tanks, so with previous experience in war based MMO’s, World of Warships is definitely a title to look out for.
World of Warships is a free-to-play naval action MMO that will plunge players into an era of devastating sea wars. Players will be able to dive into the massive naval battles and tame the overwhelming power of multi-ton titans to conquer the seas. The United States and Japan will be playable factions at the games launch and ship classes will include Battleships, Battle-cruisers, Aircraft Carriers, Cruisers and Destroyers. The game will release with several multi player modes such as a World of Tanks like ‘capture the base’ mode. World of Warships will enter beta phase testing later this year.
At E3 attendees will be thrust into an immersive theater experience at Wargaming’s booth. In the demo’s, which will take place one per hour, attendees will be placed in the middle of the action in intense naval engagements and deadly aircraft strafing runs.
You can find the video embedded below, and screenshots of the game can be foundhere.
Ubisoft have just announced that their upcoming title Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will spawn 3 books regarding the game – a novel adaptation, an art book and a guide book.
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Novel
The novel which will simply be titled Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is to be published by Penguin Books in the UK on November 7th and Ace Books in the US on November 26th, localized versions are said to follow. The novel will be written by Oliver Bowden and follow the same tale of piracy as the video-game itself.
Assassin’s Creed IV Art Book
The art book which is titled ‘The Art of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’ will be published by Titan Books and released on October 28th. It will feature original art from the game including artwork based upon the Golden Age of Pirates which the game focuses on. There will also be a special edition available which features signed concept prints, however only 500 copies are to be released.
Assassin’s Creed IV Guide Book
Last but not least is of course the official Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag guide book which is said to provide an in depth look into the game as well as serve as a guide through the game. It provides a wealth of information for gamers to look into including:
100% Complete achievement guide
All the game’s secrets
A revolutionary walkthrough
A story analysis
A multiplayer strategies dedicated section
Tables and statistics for an in-depth understanding of game mechanics
The guide book also comes packaged with a map of the world of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag which is sure to prove useful when navigating the environment in the game. The guide book will be published by Piggyback and Prima Games.
Grand Theft Auto fans have pieced together what is allegedly the full game map for Grand Theft Auto V, set in the huge city of Los Santos.
Click on Image to view in full size
How was this done? Apparently by deducing from everything we have seen so far from Rockstar and using the official shots of the GTA V collector’s edition packaging revealed recently. Check out the high-res maps below and see whether you think if it’s the real deal or not.
Click on image to view in full size
Grand Theft Auto V is scheduled to release on September 17 this year for the PS3 and X360 and is the first game in the series to feature three playable main characters. In case you missed out, have a gander at the game’s screenshots here and here.
Digimon, Digital Monsters, fans will all have to remember this particular character. His name is Taichi (or Tai in the dub) and he is the lead character in Digimon Adventure 01 (or Digimon Season 1 in the dub). Taichi is being added to the Digimon MMORPG, Digimon Masters Online, by Joymax.
In Digimon Adventure, Taichi is shown to be a courageous young boy that dislikes classwork, but will always do what’s best for his friends. He is paired with the Digital Monster: Agumon, which Digivolves into the great Omnimon, eventually, by Jogresing with MetalGarurumon as MetalGreymon.
Players of the MMORPG will have a chance at winning the Tamer for use in two events. These are quoted below:
Players can participate in two events for their chance and earning this new exchange tamer! “Hunt Devimon and Capture the Moment,” will have players hunting down Devimon and submitting a screenshot in an exchange for tamer, Tai. “Reach the Top 10 Tamers of Gazimon” will challenge players to reach the top to earn the cutest and brand new tamer!
Loups=Garous: The Motion Picture Studio: Production I.G Publisher: MADMAN Format: DVD Release Date: 22 May 2013 Price:$29.95 – Available Here
Overview
Season after season we see Anime titles trying at the “bleak future” storyline, some of them do it well while others do it NOT so well, Loups=Garous flies somewhere in between good and bad. Loups=Garous was originally a novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku then in 2010 the motion picture was released. It’s an odd movie with an odd name and an odd storyline to say the least but it does it’s job as an anime movie and will, more or less, take audiences by surprise.
One of the many main characters.
Story
Like I mentioned above the story is kind of odd, I’m going to explain it in very little detail because there are some twists within the movie and a lot can be spoiled by giving too much information, so here I go: Basically the story revolves around a group of young girls who live in a society where everyone live digitally, so digitally that the main character scans her food before eating just to make sure that it is what it’s supposed to be. Everybody is monitored and cameras rule the streets, not to mention the police officers who constantly roam, and it all seems like this beautiful utopia. Someone close to the main group is murdered and they take it upon themselves to search deeper and figure out as much as they can, that’s when things get messy and crazy and, somewhat, convoluted. The story really does get twisted and extremely dark throughout, we see such a change in characters and we tend to learn a great deal about the characters in really odd and striking ways which would work great in an anime movie where there was enough set-up so that the audience actually cares about the characters. This is not one of those anime movies. We see little character development and then too much development in almost an instant, like there was no lead up to it at all, that’s what I thought anyway. These characters interact and they grow closer yet not closer and they’re friends yet not friends which, yes, does make sense considering the world that they live in where many people are segregated form each other but it just seems like it wasn’t done well enough in this movie.
Our hacker friend Mio.
While the characters and their growth needed work the actual story itself was really, really good! It got so deep, evil and twisted that by the end of it you really didn’t know who was the bad guy or even who seemed like the bad guys at the start of the movie were. A lot of things that happened actually felt out of place and like they didn’t belong and I think that was because of its rushed feeling. Yes, the story was excellent but I felt that it was rushed, I really think it would’ve been better suited as an anime series not movie so it had time to pan out and grow and actually eventuate into it’s conclusion instead of throw everything at you within the last thirty or twenty minutes. That’s not to say it wrecked the story, the execution was off and it felt like some key information and elements were left out but there’s enough story there to keep you interested. Trust me. It was the only element that kept me glued to the screen. If the characters in this movie were less boring and developed a lot smoother I feel like it would’ve blended with the story and the two could’ve complemented each other so much better.
Visuals
The designs of the character, in my opinion, are very basic in the way they look. I can understand they were trying to go for a realistic approach but from what actually happens in the movie they could’ve ditched that approach and it would’ve worked better. There was no flare when it came to the characters, they were flat (I’m not talking about how they’re in 2D either) and lacked appeal. What did blow me away was the backgrounds and animation. The animation was so damn smooth and looked really nice, it was so fluid and never seemed choppy or like it was lazily animated. The backdrops were quite beautiful, the vibrant ( turning to dark) colours really suited the story and the locations did the same. When they wanted you to feel lonely you felt it and that was done simply by the way the setting looked. At one point the CGI style of animation was used and it was actually done really well, it wasn’t over done and it didn’t seem corny at all. Visually this movie was top notch, not perfect, but really good.
The kick-ass member of the group Myao.
Audio
The dialogue and the voice acting is, and I hate to say this, really boring. Most characters are so mundane and even the ones that aren’t are just straight out annoying. The voices are really monotone and the actual dialogue that these characters have is simple and, sometimes, stupid. Things like; at one point in time a man tells our main girl Hazuki that he’s locked all the doors, she runs away from him and to a door and tries to turn the knob…it’s locked, she says “Oh…it’s locked…” in a really underwhelming way. That’s exactly what was wrong with the audio. It was straight out boring. What did get my attention was the music of the movie. Damn good! It was well placed and worked so damn well. The music was done by the Japanese band SCANDAL and they did an awesome job. As much as the voices annoyed me I stuck around for the music.
Our whole cast. From left to right: Kono, Mio, Hazuki and Yuko.
Extras
The extras in this release are really cool and there’s so many of them. There’s an interview with the Director Junichi Fujisaku, an interview with the Japanese Cast, an interview with Natsuhiko Kyogoku the Original Author and so much more that will keep fans occupied for hours. This really is a great release when it comes to extras and this isn’t even a blu-ray copy. Definitely no expenses spared when organising the extras for the release, I have to give them points for this.
The bad guy? Maybe. I’ll never tell.
Overall
This is a good anime movie release that does need a great deal of work but it’s not so terrible that you can’t sit through it and enjoy. I don’t hate this release, it’s got a place on my shelf, but on the same token I won’t be suggesting it to all of my friends. That doesn’t mean I won’t be suggesting it to no-one, it’s a good movie for people that are used to anime and that can look past what is wrong with it to look deeper and deeper to what it does right. If you love a good, little anime movie grab this. No doubt. There’s one thing I can say; I can see this movie as a muse to many people out there, although it needs work it’s still thought provoking and that’s a good thing all in all.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The Hub Productions have announced that lead actor of the most recognisable Star Trek character in the world, Captain Kirk, will be attending Oz Comic-Con this year. That’s right, William Shatner will be in attendance at the convention, being held in Melbourne on the 6th and the 7th of July.
Outside of Star Trek, fans of The Shat will recognise that he also played the popular character, Denny Crane, in the legal drama series: Boston Legal. Denny Crane was a fairly straightforward man and was a character befitting of William Shatner.
Be sure to check out the official site for more info.
Disney have released a trailer for their upcoming video game set in the Cars universe, Disney’s Planes. In Planes, players will fly through the story of Dusty, who is described as a “a big-hearted, speed-loving crop duster”.
Interestingly enough, the character, Dusty, is voiced by esteemed comedian Dane Cook. Also included in the game are the other characters from the film, and with them, some returning voices. These include Priyanka Chopra and Val Kilmer. To quote the press release:
Take to the skies and continue the storyline beyond the film with Dusty and other characters from the film, including Ishani, voiced by actress Priyanka Chopra; Echo, voiced by actor Anthony Edwards; and Bravo, voiced by actor Val Kilmer, as they embark on global missions, air races and grand adventures around the world.
Disney’s Planes is set to be released on all of Nintendo’s current systems: Wii U, 3DS, Wii and DS. The games will be available on September 5th, 2013. Be sure to check out the trailer, embedded below the following images from the game.
