We’ve heard a little bit about Techland‘s latest project Hellraid since it was revealed back in April, but today the company has chosen to provide a few more details about the game. As described by Techland in their press release, Hellraid is a “first person co-op slasher” where the company is blending classic hack and slash action with a more advanced combat system based around timing and precision.
The game will offer both single player and co-op gameplay where players can complete quests and explore the world in single player to develop their character and play co-operatively to challenge each other for who is the best in the game.
Hellraid will take players through various worlds using magical portals and each area can be played an unlimited amount of times allowing players to go back and finish side-quests and tackle areas with their friends as they slay monsters with both melee, ranged and magical weapons. There will even be unique skills for the four main character classes in the game which consist of a Warrior, Mage, Paladin and Rogue.
The title will also feature a Dungeons and Dragonsesque “Game Master” which will make sure that each time you play through an area in Hellraid players will be given an all new experience, especially when areas are tackled in co-op. Currently Hellraid is set to be released on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime this year and to go along with these new details the company has released a handful of screenshots which can be found below.
The Princess and the Pilot Premium Edition Studios:Madhouse, TMS Entertainment Publisher:NIS America Format: Blu-ray Release Date: May 14, 2013 Price:$44.99 – Available Here
Overview When NIS America announced that they were entering the anime industry in 2010 it was a pleasant surprise. Since then, at the time of this writing, they have released eighteen anime series in premium edition packages and even re-released a number of them for fans that missed out on the premium run. However unlike many anime distributors, the company has avoided bringing anime films to North America. That has changed with their release of The Princess and the Pilot, but is the movie worth purchasing?
Story The Levamme Empire has been at war for many years and they have been on the losing side of things, but despite this the empire has remained strong thanks to its royal family. After the prince of Levamme declares his love for a wealthy girl named Juana del Moral and promises to marry her in a year’s time once the war is over.
However after enough time has passed, the war is raging harder than ever and in an effort to weaken the Levamme Empire, the Amatsukami Imperium launches a surprise assault on Juana’s estate, killing her father and nearly Juana in the process. After such a vicious assault, a plan is hatched by the Levamme forces to smuggle Juana over enemy lines into her husband-to-be’s waiting arms. The pilot tasked with this solo mission is Charles, the best pilot of the San Maltilia Airforce.
Despite being the best around, Charles is the subject of much criticism and is treated like a rat thanks to his parentage. Being a “bestado” as he is called, Charles accepts the mission and begins his flight with the soon-to-be princess in a one-way flight to the prince. Despite being a straight shot to the meeting point, their journey quickly becomes one of danger and romance as the Amatsukami have caught wind of their flight and it turns out that this isn’t the first time these two have met one another.
Stories of a forbidden romance are far from rare, in fact many of the most well-known storylines revolve around a love that cannot come to fruition and that happens to be the case with Princess and the Pilot. It is worth noting that this movie is likely not for everyone as it can be very slow moving at times and even boring despite the fact that the hour and a half movie length forces the story to advance without a lot of extra details.
Despite the movie length, by focusing solely on Charles and Juana viewers are able to see how strongly these two become attached to one another. There are multiple moments throughout the presentation that we see Juana grow as a person as she abandons parts of her naiveté, usually through symbolic means, and accepts the world as it is. Though a few plot points are brought up but then completely unexplored thanks to the limited presentation time and poor pacing.
The Princess and the Pilot tells us a love story fraught with peril as some of the best sequences are the dogfights as enemy planes attempt to shoot down Charles, but ultimately this is a story cemented in reality. Despite the feelings that the two share with one another, Charles is the lowest of the low in society while Juana is about to be the next princess of the country. This leads to a… let’s call it realistic ending that can be perceived as happy but will stick with the viewer after the credits roll as the poignant truth of the movie’s world sinks in.
Visuals Considering this is a review it would be unfitting to simply provide a one word answer to any merit of Princess and the Pilot but if I had to sum up the animation and artwork with one word, it would be outstanding. This anime has amazing production values whenever the movie takes to the air. The designs of the planes are highly detailed and are gorgeous in motion, especially when it comes to the dogfighting.
The animation is still rather impressive when it simply focuses on the characters themselves as they are nicely animated and thanks to the symbolic changes that Juana undergoes, her character design reflects her evolving personality. It is worth noting that some of the talking scenes with the side-characters see a dip in animation but even here everything is presented crisply with vivid colors that look great on Blu-ray.
Audio Being a release from NIS America viewers should note that The Princess and the Pilot comes with only the original Japanese voice track and English subtitles. This isn’t too much of an issue thanks to the fact that the original Japanese voice actors are more than suited for their roles and there are a number of inserted songs, such as a lullaby, that work best with the Japanese cast handling the performance.
The sound effects for the series are top notch, especially when it comes to the dog fights as they sound spectacular. There are a number of decent background tracks used throughout the movie, though none really are noteworthy outside of the aforementioned insert songs which feature Japanese vocals.
Extras NIS America has given The Princess and the Pilot the Premium Edition treatment which means the movie comes in a large oversized chipboard slip-case which features a gorgeous piece of art featuring Juana and the plane on the backside and the cover art shown at the top of the review on the front. The on-disc extras are rather simple, as they are Japanese promotional materials and trailers for other NIS America anime releases.
Being a one slim-case package, NIS America has padded the slip-case out with a DVD case sized piece of stiff Styrofoam. As for the art book, the company has went all out by providing multiple page commentaries from the Japanese staff including the Director, Screenplay writer, a Japanese anime critic and a long interview featuring the character designer Hidenori Matsubara who provides commentary to his character designs and sketches. This is followed by statements from the Mechanical Designer including concept sketches of the planes, statements from the original author and a number of scenery images and art focused on Juana.
Overall Princess and the Pilot may be rather rudimentary as far as its basic premise goes; however by focusing on only the two main characters and placing them in numerous life and death situations that push them together, the viewer becomes invested in their journey. Thanks to this the all too realistic ending is impactful even if it ends up being extremely predictable and the movie’s poor pacing leaves numerous unexplored pieces of information. Princess and the Pilot handles it’s oft used storyline with grace and couples it with superb visuals and an extremely detailed art book which combined make a memorable, albeit flawed, offering.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Jeff Henshaw, Group Program Manager of Xbox Incubation & Prototyping, has enlightened the gaming community, via an OXM interview, on the potential of using cloud computing with the Xbox One to create massively enhanced game experiences and prolong the console’s life-cycle;
We’re provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we’re provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud. We’re doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there’s roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players. They can do that out of the gate.
Integrating the cloud in the operation of many facets of the system (identification, game saves, etc.) was a heavy focus for Microsoft in developing the next-gen console. It’s also the reason why we reportedly will need to connect to the internet – at least once every 24 hrs – to use the console. Looking forward into the future, if games were to rely on the cloud to run important features, it would seem that we’d need a constant internet connection to play them; one of manyconcerns levied by gamers around the world, who may not have such reliable internet connections.
Only time will tell how this all works out…this sort of thing has never been done before, most certainly not at this level.
In about 2 weeks from now, E3 will be upon us and hopefully all our lingering questions on hot-button issues related to the next-gen consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will be answered. One of those important topics is DRM implementation and its effect on the used games market.
Just because Sony hasn’t divulged their possible plans for DRM doesn’t mean they don’t have them; a possibility that everybody seems to be ignoring, leading Geoff Keighley to liken their unearned reputation to that of a “kind of white knight” in the latest episode of Bonus Round. He went on to suggest that, from what he’s hearing, Sony fans may be in for a rude awakening;
The one thing that is amazing to me is that right now we’re not hearing a lot from the game publishers about what their view is on this. The console companies are becoming the bad guys. And, you know, Microsoft is getting beaten up a lot on it. Sony, I think, has been seen as this kind of white knight so far that’s not going to restrict used games. Based on some of the things I’m hearing, I don’t think that’s entirely true, because I can’t see publishers allowing one system to do one thing and one do another.
He makes a very good point. Microsoft has absorbed all of this venom without us even having a clear image of the truth. Fans have let their voices be heard via Twitter since the Xbox One Reveal, urging Sony to keep the PS4 DRM free, and several Sony employees have responded to the outpouring;
Humbled by the outpouring of passionate PlayStation fans and their willingness to talk to us directly. Please know that we hear you. <3
— Nicolo Accordino ニコロ・アコルディーノ (@Nikoro) May 27, 2013
The thing is, all four of those responses reference the passion on display from their fans, whilst doing nothing to specifically alleviate their concerns. So, again, we just have to be patient and wait for E3. Hopefully both companies listen to reason.
Personally, I’ve never seen such an overreaction as what Microsoft has received in revealing the Xbox One. The gaming community has had some strong (over-dramatic) opinions on the supposed used games fee – which may or may not even exist. Another sore point is the fact that the bundled Kinect must always be connected and ‘will always be listening’. That last phrase has resulted in some incredible paranoia.
But Microsoft’s corporate Vice President Phil Harrison has assured Eurogamer that consumers have nothing to be concerned about;
Microsoft has very, very good policies around privacy. We’re a leader in the world of privacy, I think you’ll find. We take it very seriously. We aren’t using Kinect to snoop on anybody at all. We listen for the word ‘Xbox on’ and then switch on the machine, but we don’t transmit personal data in any way, shape or form that could be personally identifiable to you, unless you explicitly opt into that.
Legally, Microsoft can not share your personal data unless you sign a form of contract giving them that permission, unless it’s something incriminating…(have you got some illegal actions to hide?). In this case, the privacy settings for Xbox One Kinect will be similar to the current-gen Kinect’s. Jeff Henshaw, Group Program Manager of Xbox Incubation & Prototyping, referred to the relevant privacy policy (which can be read here), in a new interview with CNET, where he also clarified that the camera itself can be set to be turned off;
If you want privacy, we’ll give you modes that ensure your privacy. We will have something similar for the Kinect with Xbox One. The system is designed to have Kinect be an integral part of the experience. It’s not the case where you’ll be able to remove the camera altogether. But you’ll be able to put the system in modes where you can be completely secure about the fact that the camera is off and can’t see you.
I highly recommend those who are worried about an invasion of privacy read the above-linked policy.
Speaking to OPM, animation lead Zach Volker clarified the developers’ statements, saying;
When we’re talking about a new engine we’re talking about upgrading significant systems within that engine. We’re not talking about throwing it all away and saying we’re starting from the ground up […] What we do is we say, ‘okay what are the things that are significant and that we would say that are encompassing of the engine or its visual quality? Are those being upgraded in a significant way? Alright, then I think that warrants that we’ve got a new engine on our hands.
From my point of view, it’s clear that the developers either do not understand the definition of “new”, or purposely stretched the truth in order to hammer home the idea that Ghosts will be significantly different from its predecessors. They also lauded the apparent new found abilities to lean from cover and slide as something special during the presentation (you can view the video in the link at the top). That being said, Mr. Volker also explains how difficult it is to create a whole new engine on a two year cycle, which is a very fair point (should take it up with Activision). But, their choice to inaccurately define the tech is a little discouraging.
We still need to see how the squad’s dog A.I. behaves, especially in battle, and how drastically the battlefield can change with the dynamic maps in multiplayer. Those are, at least, some definitely fresh elements for the franchise.
The pandemic is just over 3 weeks away from hitting Australian shores, and today we have a brand new poster for World War Z to warn us. Featuring a worried-looking Brad Pitt, it can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Along with this and following the recent World Premiere announcement, Paramount Pictures have announced a place of refuge from the infected in Sydney: The Star. On June 9th, the casino’s newly constructed Event Centre will play host to its first ever film premiere, built on the rooftop of the building with state-of-the-art technology being use to provide the best 3D viewing experience for all the guests.
Brad Pitt and Director Marc Forster will walk the red carpet on the day and fans will be able to catch a glimpse of the stars arriving at the Pirrama Road entrance to The Star from 4:00 pm.
World War Z comes out June 20th nation-wide. Check out our impressions of a portion of the film we were previewed here.
Namco Bandai Games have just announced that 3DS owners can get their first taste of the hotly anticipated Project X Zone, with the game’s demo launching on the Nintendo eShop today.
Project X Zone features a crossover between gaming giants Namco Bandai, SEGA and Capcom. The game features 50 playable character which span 29 legendary gaming franchises. This demo is slated to be the first of two. This first round gives players a “A lethal surprise”, with characters from series such as Sakura Wars, Cyberbots, Space Channel 5 and Valkyria Chronicles being featured in the Imperial Theater stage from Sakura Wars.
You can pick up the demo of Project X Zone now on the Nintendo 3DS eShop or you can simply scan the QR code below to instantly download it with your 3DS device.
We also have a bunch of screenshots for the game which you can see below for your viewing pleasure. Project X Zone is slated for release on the July 4th, 2013 exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS console.
With Nintendo’s eShop service, you never know what might end up on sale. This week, Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titans has received a 25% price drop, putting the game at $29.99 for the time being. Now, we reviewed this romp ourselves recently and enjoyed the game at full value – so I would say that this discount is a pleasant one to see on the platform that is entering its prime.
The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U are doing it right thus far with these discounts (you can check out a couple of examples both here and over here), and proving that Nintendo are rather clever by handing their pricing choices to the publisher. Hopefully, those who grab this title on sale will also pay some attention to the next Atlus title in line, and we can continue to see this kind of thing happen on the platform.
Overview The Blackwell Series has been going pretty strong since its first game released in 2006. Classic style adventures games, the series is currently a total of four games, with a fifth on the way. This bundle contains remastered versions of the first three games in the latest version of Adventure Game Studio to ensure they meet the same standards. Does this bundle provide a 3 for 3 adventure game enjoyment, or will it leave players wanting to dig through their game inventory?
Story The Blackwell Series centers around a family and their ghost. Kicking off with The Blackwell Legacy, Rosangela Blackwell discovers the family secret and getting pulled into the family business. The first game acts an excellent introduction to the characters and world, where ghosts are an everyday kind of thing and it is the job of Rosangela and family spirit guide Joey Mallone to try and pass them on to the next life. The series doesn’t just stick to Rosangela though, as Blackwell Unbound fleshes out more on the character of her Aunt Lauren during her tenure with the duty.
Interestingly enough, while the bundle includes the first three games in the series these three games fit very well into working as a trilogy as the third game, Blackwell Convergence, sees the games come full circle back to Rosangela. Even more interesting as the main plots end up playing into each other to deliver an even deeper plot with a suitable conclusion to cap off the transition from the Blackwell characters looking for their own cases to being more detectives. While the games on their own each tell a good story, together they create a perfect introductory arc for The Blackwell Series.
Gameplay
Obviously based on the classic gameplay of adventure games, the gameplay in these games sees interesting evolution over the course of the three games. While the most basic interface of left clicking to interact and right clicking to observe is present through all the games, the adventure game staple of inventory sees some nice improvements game to game. The Blackwell Legacy is the most stiff with inventory only being used on other inventory or automatically through dialogue options, thankfully Blackwell Unbound sees a more classic approach with using inventory items in gameplay rather than dialogue and Blackwell Convergence following suit.
While the first game has players assuming the role of Rosangela alone, the other games allow players to switch between the two main characters offering different dialogue options for characters they can both speak to. This likewise offers some interesting puzzles where the ghost Joey is the only one able to go or see specific things, albeit unable to interact with much of anything with his lack of being alive. This ability to switch between the two also allows for more logically deducible puzzles, as Legacy has a few that are difficult to solve from this lack of character switching.
The most unique aspect to the gameplay is the Notebook, which is a notebook Rosangela and Lauren use to keeps notes on important key information. The Notebook provides the bulk of the dialogue interaction as it can be used in dialogue to speak to characters about the clues that have been written down. This streamlines what is important and what isn’t and even allows players to combine clues to make deductive conclusions in the first and second games. The exclusion of combining clues in Convergence has both good and bad points, good in the sense that having to leave a conversation with a character because a deductive conclusion was missed by combining clues was annoying, but bad in that it took out a unique feature.
Visuals and Audio
With three different games across four years it’s safe to assume that the graphics have been through some changes, especially as evidenced by the screenshots seen here. Being based in AGS, all the games feature pixel art and sprites though the art does not get better with every game, more looking better chronologically with Convergence set in 2007 looking the best and Unbound set in 1973 looking the “weakest”. Weakest being completely relative of course, Unbound is still a good looking game on its own. Likewise the audio is an interesting mix, as only Joey and one minor character carry the same voice actors. Despite these changing voice actors the performances are well down and for the most part very professional, the only negative being some noticeable pops in recording. The music however is flawless, sounding great and with plenty of different pieces throughout the series with specific themes for different areas.
Overall
Ultimately, The Blackwell Bundle is a set of three good games that are stronger together than they are apart presenting a great experience. While the art and voice acting is certainly dynamic from game to game, it never feels like they don’t fit together. Outside of a few minor issues from character audio, The Blackwell Bundle provides fun and interesting adventure game experiences that fit to create a complete arc and is sure to please fans of the genre and even get them onboard for more adventures.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
