If for whatever reason or another, you cannot simply download Ubisoft‘s I Am Alive and From Dust for the PC or haven’t picked it up for either the PS3 or 360 then you’ll be happy to hear that the games are now available in physical form down in Australia. The games are part of Ubisoft’s budget PC range called “That’s Hot!” and are priced at $20 each.
The physical copies are available for purchase at EB Games and JB HiFi. Those interested in seeing if they are worth picking up or not can check out our reviews for the Xbox 360 versions of From Dust and I Am Alive here and here respectively.
Get ready to draw your six-shooter asUbisoft have releasedCall of Juarez: Gunslinger today for retail PC ($19.95), digital download on PC ($17.95), Xbox LIVE Arcade (1200 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network ($21.95). You can see the launch trailer embedded at the bottom of this article.
The Techland developed Call of Juarez: Gunslingeris a true homage to the tales and legends of the Wild West era. Players will embody Silas Greaves, a ruthless bounty hunter who has spent his life on the trail of the West’s most notorious outlaws. The telling of his personal story is linked to the history of the Wild West, drawing on a mix of myths and historical facts. Made of memorable encounters with some of the West’s most notorious names such as Billy the Kid, Pat Garret, Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, the game blurs the lines between man and myth.
We will have our own review up in the coming days.
Dead Ahead Review Developer:Mobirate Publisher: Chillingo Platforms:iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch, Android Release Date: 23/05/2013 Price:FREE – Available Here
Overview
To tell the truth I’ve had a soft spot for endless runner titles ever since I first picked up Temple Run. However since then I’ve played and reviewed about a million vanilla titles of the genre and as a result I feel like I’m slowly becoming brain dead. Thus it makes me extremely happy to report that developer Mobirate’s latest effort, Dead Ahead is a fresh and exciting take on the concept and is probably one of the best endless runners on mobiles to date. I’ll be honest – this is the second zombie-related “free-to-play” title from Chillingo I’ve reviewed in a row, and the last one was a bit of a disappointment. But oh boy, Dead Ahead is one hell of a treat!
Gameplay
The concept of Dead Ahead works so perfectly it makes me wonder why we haven’t seen a thousand other games just like it. It’s an endless runner disguised as a zombie survival title. Generally when I play a game I just wanna kill things, but If I have to run from something personally I’d prefer it to be a zombie. Dead Ahead has a unique take on things and as a result has a slight learning curve. At first it appears to be very much like Jetpack Joyride as it’s a side scroller, the vehicle moves by itself and you got to dodge obstacles by moving up and down, etc. But Dead Ahead is so much more than that. The twist with this title is that the obstacles that are dead ahead (see what I did there?) are usually the least of your worries. An endless horde of zombies are chasing you and can catch up. There are a few ways to kill the zombies. Firstly, you have a gun so you can shoot those behind you, but like all good zombie survival games you have limited ammunition. Players can also accelerate to go faster and escape the zombies, but the catch there is moving faster means you have a higher risk of crashing into the obstacles in front of you. The most encouraged way to kill zombies is to make them run into obstacles or other zombies. You know those scenes in action movies where the hero must escape a missile that’s locked onto them? It’s a lot like that. Move out of the way at the right moment and the zombies with run into things, killing them. With so many options and tactics at the player’s disposal, Dead Ahead actually feels like it has a ton of depth to it.
But it doesn’t stop there. In fact the better you get at the game, the better the game becomes. The further the player gets in a level, the more various types of enemies are introduced. There’s exploding zombies, the banshee who will charge at you and even boss characters who jump at you and take some time to kill. Furthermore the more coins you get the more types of weapons, vehicles and stages you can unlock. On top of all this there is a challenging level up system that feels greatly rewarding as it allows players to unlock new items. To level up players just need to complete three unique tasks that surprisingly have plenty of variety and never feels repetitive or pointless. Even Facebook integration has been done in an interesting way. Players are given banners showing their stats that they can share on Facebook so even that has a nice twist to it. Sure players can also take advantage of in-app purchases but they never seem forced as the game is so fair with coins. For players who are struggling to complete tasks, they can be rewarded with more coins by defeating bosses, getting high scores or completing daily challenges. This is how free-to-play titles should be. The option for in-app purchases is present, but you never have to use it to enjoy the game. With such a strong balance of challenge it is tempting at times, but a true hardcore gamer would most likely embrace this.
Audio & Visuals
Dead Ahead is filled with style. The retro, pixelated presentation adds to the gameplay’s arcade feel (I’m getting a kind of Metal Slug-ish vibe) and character design is outstanding. But it’s the little things that make it a joy. From the blood that trails off your wheel from running over a zombie to the fight game styled font that appears when racking up combos Dead Ahead is truly a work of art. Audio is right up the same ally as sound effects for weapons certainly packs a punch. Music isn’t crazy and in your face but instead hangs in the background pumping up your adrenaline with strong kicks with an outlandish feel (I’m getting a kind of Metroid-ish vibe). All in all Dead Ahead is presented in the same way the gameplay is: pretty damn good.
Overall
I’ll put it in clear terms: Dead Ahead is a breath of fresh air amongst an endless sea of endless running titles. It’s surprisingly deep for a game in this genre, it’s fun, it’s addictive, it’s challenging, it looks & sounds fantastic and most importantly it’s never aggressive in regards to in-app purchases. Dead Ahead is a prime example of what developers should aim for in regards to free-to-play video games. An easy to recommend title for both casual and not-so-casual gamers alike.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Yesterday it was revealed in Famitsu that Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate would see the addition of Ein, Hayate’s amnesiac alter ego and Virtua Fighter’s Jacky Bryant. Today the company chose to reveal how the characters will look in the game and a snapshot of them fighting already existing characters.
Jacky takes on Christie while Ein takes on Hitomi, which is a bit ironic considering their history together. It is currently unknown how many more characters will be announced before the game is released in Japan on September 5th, but with the previously announced Momiji, the roster has seen three additions so far.
Zombie Fish Tank Developer: Aidem Media Publisher: Chillingo Platform: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: May 23rd, 2013 Price: $0.99 – Available Here
Overview
In the illustrious career of the zombie disease, zombie-ism has affected humans, dogs, crows, and now fish. Zombie Fish Tank stars a fish looking to predate his way up to the top of the food chain and seek revenge on the people that turned him undead.
Story
Zombie Fish Tank’s basic premise is that our hero has been subject to many cruel experiments that eventually resulted in his zombification. Now, our yellow scaled friend is off to grow larger and larger while he seeks revenge on the humans. First, he must survive the insane creatures the lab has produced. The plot is a little light, but serves as a good enough reason why we should sate our zombie fish’s insatiable appetite. The game does have many witty little pieces of writing scattered through the game, which is a pleasure to read. Some of it is genuinely laugh out loud to read.
Gameplay
The core mechanic in Zombie Fish Tank is to eat smaller fish while avoiding larger fish. Getting eaten will result in game over. Once a certain amount of prey is devoured, the zombie fish grows in size and the hunter now becomes the hunted. After devouring a fish, there is a random chance that a can drops that contains power ups, debuffs, or radioactive material called Zomboil. Zomboil serves as in game currency. The game is composed of forty levels split into ten zones. Each zone composes of three normal levels and a boss fight. Each normal level has three optional tasks that need to be completed that add an extra level of difficulty to the game.
With in-game currency, players are able to buy a variety of limited use power ups, new in-game power ups, and a variety of fish that can be placed into a fish tank to provide a stat boost for the player. Eight fish can be placed in the tank at any time, but there are 81 different fish to purchase. Many of these are either more potent versions of previous fish or have the same stats as other fish, allowing players some leeway to pick the best looking fish while still able to stack certain stats.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay of Zombie Fish Tank. The boss fights were an interesting change of pace, and some were downright difficult. The prey/predator mechanic is a lot of fun. However, Zombie Fish Tank is one of the few games where the motion controls are by far superior to the touch controls. The gyro controls can be re-centred at any time with a quick double tap of the screen. The motion controls were very responsive and accurate. On the other hand, the touch controls were extremely clumsy. Using the touch controls required very fine movements to control the zombie fish. Even then, half the time I felt I wasn’t really controlling the zombie fish so much as I was encouraging him in a certain direction and eventually he would eventually fling himself that way.
Visuals
Zombie Fish Tank is a done in a slick 2d animated style. There is a large assortment of mutated fish, ranging from monstrously cute to completely strange looking, that help provide a nice visual variety to the game. The backgrounds manage to be full of life without being distracting to the gameplay. The in game UI is well designed, but I found the menus to be visually busy. This gave a cluttered feel to the menu that I do not like.
Audio
The audio in Zombie Fish Tank is rather average. The music is a little on the generic side, but is pleasant enough to listen to. The sound effects are a little lacking; there is only a small handful of chomping sound effects. I would have preferred to see more variety in the chomping noise as it is such an important mechanic of the game. Players won’t be missing much by playing with the sound off.
Overall
Zombie Fish Tank is a good game. It combines snappy writing with a fun predator/prey mechanic. The visuals are excellent, but the audio side is a little lacking. The touch controls could be improved, but it is thankfully eclipsed by the fantastic gyroscope controls. For $0.99, you really can’t go wrong with Zombie Fish Tank.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
If you’ve been waiting to pick up Telltale Games‘ Poker Night 2 because you were anticipating the game’s release on the iOS then you are in luck. Today Telltale launched the game onto the app store for $4.99 where it is available for both the iPad and iPhone, though it is worth noting that the game is only compatible with iPad 2, iPhone 4 and up.
If you haven’t heard, Telltale Games’ Poker Night 2 lets players play poker against Borderlands’ CLaptrap, The Venture Bros’ Brock Samson, Sam from Sam & Max and Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series’ Army of Darkness. Those interested in learning more about whether the game is worth picking up or not can find our review of the PC version here.
With yesterdays announcement of the Xbox One it should come as no surprise that games announced for the next-gen PS4 are also being announced for Microsoft’s latest media device. Today Square Enix has announced that Eidos Montreal’s reboot of the Thief franchise, simply called Thief, will also be heading to the Xbox One as well as the PlayStation 4 and the PC sometime in 2014.
While little has been shown for the title so far, those who want to learn more about the game and keep up with everything about it can check out Thief’s official website, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube pages to stay up to the minute on all Thief news.
Just in time to release alongside the flick, Fast & Furious: Showdown has hit consoles and is ready to take us all on a spin. This video game adaptation puts players behind the wheel with all of the excitement from the flicks, and has popped up suddenly on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Here are the details of what to expect:
Fast & Furious: Showdown takes some of the franchise’s iconic characters on a high-stakes adventure around the globe that delivers takedowns, heists, hijacks and havoc. Players can switch roles with their AI partners or team up with a friend for two-person local co-op. Completed objectives unlock new vehicle performance and customisation options to make each player’s ride unique. A bonus Challenge Mode and online leaderboards let players pit their strength, speed and skills against competition from all around the world.
Sounds rather interesting, and those who are fans of the franchise might want to think about dishing out the dough to interact with the overall experience. Yes, it’s licensed, but with the lore involved, there are sure to be a few out there who are ready to take it to the streets.
If you’ve been thinking about picking up Platinum Games’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance then you may want to wait a second before running out to the store to buy it. Today Konami announced that the game has been given a special “Ultimate Edition” on the PlayStation Network.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Ultimate Edition is currently available for download on the PSN for $63.99 and it comes with the game itself, the Jetstream Sam and Blade Wolf DLC packs that were released since the game was released, a free VR mission pack and the various pre-order bonuses of Cyborg Ninja Armor Skin, METAL GEAR SOLID 4 Raiden Skin, Commando Armor Skin, White Armor Skin, Inferno Armor Skin. Currently there is no word if this Ultimate Edition will come to the 360 in any form.
Black Forest Games, the indie studio that brought you the lovely Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams in March, has begun teasing their next project called Ravensdale.
Heralded as their next Kickstarter project, the team will be releasing one image that’s part of a bigger picture over the next eight days leading up to the reveal on May 30. The formal announcement will be held on June 1 at RPC Cologne.
As you noticed, the first puzzle piece is that hefty big axe up there which suggests a fantasy or medieval setting for the game. The gritty title is described as a “over the top smash em’, shoot em’, bash em’” co-op multiplayer platformer. Be sure to keep an eye out as we reveal more of Ravensdale in the coming days!
Check out the game’s Facebook page and the team’s website in the meantime.
