Tecmo Koei America will be having quite a presence at E3 2013 with a solid set of games on display and available for hands on. Those looking forward to what they will be able to see from them at this year’s event can check out all the games they can expect to see from them down below:
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z – Putting players in the shoes of cyborg ninja Yaiba as he faces zombies from developer Team Ninja, players will be able to get their hands on the game before it releases to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2014.
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate – Adding in the “DOA5 Plus” mode, players will be able fight in all new locations and with new fighters in single player, as well as online arcade style matches and tournaments. Players will be able to see Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate on display at the Tecmo Koei booth before it releases to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 3rd, 2013.
Dynasty Warriors 8 – Taking the classic beloved elements of the Dyanasty Warriors series and adding in multi-endings and extra modes, this all new addition to the series will feature old and new characters alike. On display at E3, players will be able to see what is coming before it releases to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 16th, 2013.
Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland – The third and final game in the Arland series from developer GUST, the Pus version of the game adds in additional content in the form of costumes, endings, and all the DLC from the PS3 version. It’s presence will be seen at E3 before it releases for the PS Vita on September 3rd, 2013.
Toukiden – Coming from the developers of Dynasty Warriors, Toukiden puts players into the role of a Slayer as they head out from Utakata Village to take quests and fight Oni, all the while filled with influences from historical Japan. Players will be able to see the game on display before it releases to PS Vita in late 2013.
There will be plenty of things to see from Tecmo Koei at E3, which those lucky enough to attend can find in the West Hall at Booth #4700, but those unable to go to E3 2013 shouldn’t worry as there will be plenty of coverage to show off everything they will be displaying this year.
Upcoming MOBA from Warner Bros., Inifinite Crisis seems to have no shortage of new champions. Just last week they were showing off Shazam, and now this week the team at Turbine have some more to show off with new key art for Green Lantern and the announcement of Cyborg. While players can see the Green Lantern key art above features the likes of Arcane Green Lantern, Prime Green Lantern, and Atomic Green Lantern, those wanting to know more on Cyborg can find it below.
Cyborg, for those that didn’t know, is a cyborg as his name suggests, but that doesn’t mean he’s all brute power either, as he has the intelligence to match. Thanks to the addition of alien technology, Cyborg can provide ranged attacks with heavy damage. Since he starts out hitting hard Cyborg’s additional attacks augment and compliment his normal basic attack to make them even more effective. Players can find even more information in the video embedded below.
Infinite Crisis is currently set to release on PC and while it is still in closed beta, players can sign up to join HERE.
BulkyPix and Numeric Pipeline are back to bring the first instalment of Pendulo Studios‘ legendary adventure series Runaway to iOS. The game begins when student Brian Basco meets Gina for the very first time. She is fleeing from the Mafia and Brian is dragged along for the epic adventure. The game features over 100 scenes and a redesigned interface with the touchscreen in mind. The game is full of the humour and instantly recognizable art style that made Pendulo famous.
Runaway: A Road Adventure will ve available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch on June 6th, 2013. The game will be priced at $4.99 USD on the iTunes App Store.
CI Games, the studio behind Sniper Ghost Warrior and its sequel have announced that more information about their upcoming fantasy RPG, Lords of the Fallen will be unveiled at this year’s Role Play Convention from Cologne, Germany. The information will be presented via a panel discussion and Q&A session with members of the Lords of the Fallen team.
Tomasz Gop, the Executive Producer of Lords of the Fallen will be among the team members handling the presentation from, and is particularly excited about sharing more details about the game’s features. One key feature that Gop seems excited to talk about is the gameplay balancing and difficulty levels of the title. He has stated that;
A challenge in games can be measured with the difference between randomness and skill. Our goal is to make a game that rewards players for doing what it takes to cross that gap. A game where learning skills and ultimately mastering them is the basis of fun and entertainment.
For those who cannot make it all the way to Germany for the convention, fear not! CI Games will be officially unveiling and presenting Lords of the Fallen in a playable form at this year’s E3. With that in mind, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the information about Lords of the Fallen coming as it becomes available.
Wargaming, the free-to-play MMO developer and publisher, has announced today the extent of its presence at the E3 2013 Expo in Los Angeles, USA. It will have a ridiculous 10,000 square foot booth located at 601 of the South Hall. Current and upcoming titles will be showcased and playable on the floor.
Gamers will have a chance to take to the skies in World of Warplanes or ground-pound their way in World of Tanks. World of Warships will be making its first public presentation in a behind-the-scenes, domed theatre demo. The demos begin on the half hour each day of the show with limited seating for each session.
Finally, Wargaming is unveiling its first console title being developed by former Day One Studios, Wargaming West, that was announced earlier this year. E3 guests will be able to have some hands-on time with this new game.
Capsule Computers will be bringing the latest from the E3 show-floor come June 11-13, so stay tuned!
Nintendo of Japan have announced that they will be streaming a brand new Nintendo Direct video for their Japanese audience later this week. The presentation, titled “MH4 & GYAKUTEN5 Direct” will be specifically pertaining to the latest entries in the Monster Hunter and Phoenix Wright franchises; Monster Hunter 4 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies.
This specific Nintendo Direct video is intended for the Japan market and as such will be streamed entirely in Japanese. However for those who are interested, you can check it out here(The video goes live at 9pm AEDT on Friday). It is probably a safe bet that these two titles, at least in passing will be mentioned during Nintendo’s E3 Direct on June 11th. Regardless, we will be watching the presentation and posting all the information that we can make heads or tails of, so be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the updates regarding Monster Hunter 4 and Ace Attorney Dual Destinies.
Hacker Evolution Duality is exosyphen studio’s latest hacking sim. The game has seen a major redesign compared to the previous twotitles in the series including a new graphical UI based gameplay and a variety of mini-games replacing hacking commands.
Story
Hacker Evolution Duality begins in 1999 during the height of the Y2K frenzy. For those too young to remember, computers used to be programmed with the last two digits in the year. The fear was that when the year 2000 struck, computers would not know what to do with themselves and all sorts of terrible chaos would result. Hacker Brian Spencer is in the thick of the frenzy with an innovative solution to the problem. Unfortunately, a rival company has decided to steal Brian’s hard work. Being young and impulsive, he decides the best solution is to forcibly liberate his files. After all, Brian has a big business deal in the works and a lot of money is on the line. This is the first toppled domino in a chain of events resulting in Brian’s downfall and eventual recovery.
The plot is actually extremely scant in Hacker Evolution Duality. The story is completely limited to the short introductions provided at the beginning of each level. Considering the campaign portion of the game contains only six story missions, the plot is anemic at best.
Gameplay
Hacker Evolution Duality updates the game to modern operating system design. Long gone is the console, traded in for a sleeker graphical user interface. Due to this change, Duality feels even less like a hacking sim and more like a strategic puzzle game with a hacking theme. For the exception of penetrating firewalls, breaking the server security now requires players to successfully complete a short mini game. They range from the extremely simple click the mouse button when two arrows aligned to the blisteringly difficult Key Crack game.
Also new to the series is the addition of AI controlled hackers. Hacking certain servers will alert the wrath of the server admin and will result in painful counter attacks at a constant interval. Players will have access to more money this time around allowing for freer spending habits. They still must balance CPU upgrades with reinforcements to the firewall and integrity score. Enemy AI will turn some of same tools you use against you, like the devastating EMP attack, to chip away at your firewall and your computer’s integrity. Although the global Trace score is still an important objective in several levels, ensuring your computer’s integrity score doesn’t drop to zero becomes priority one, closely followed by maintaining a firewall. Just as you can be destroyed, so can enemy servers. Since hacked servers play an important role in hacking harder targets and buying the player extra time to hack, the decision to destroy enemy hackers becomes an important part of the game’s strategy.
exosyphen studios attempted to address one of the biggest problems with previous titles by making each level independent of the others. In previous games, the Trace score, money, and upgrades were carried on to the next level. In Duality, the player starts each level fresh with a default amount of money and upgrades. Additionally, older levels can be replayed without having to start the game from the beginning. Three levels of difficulty have been added to the game to further address the previous games’ difficulty level.
Many of the changes made to address criticism from previous games were effective, but a completely new problem was introduced to Hacker Evolution Duality in the form of the dreaded Key Crack mini-game needed to decrypt servers. Even at easy difficulties, Hacker Evolution Duality is hard. The early levels can be completed with a bit of good strategy. They are tense, a little frustrating, but enjoyable. However, unless you can conquer the Key Crack mini game effectively, the game quickly becomes a painful exercise. The Key Crack mini-game sounds easy enough when it is explained in the guide. Click randomly ordered numbers from 63 to zero before you are traced. In reality, not only are you racing against the clock, enemy AI hackers are brutally depleting your defenses and the font used for the numbers tend to make the numbers look the same. Most of the time, there simply isn’t enough time to complete the mini-game. On certain portions of the game, even if you dump all your money into firewall points to buy yourself time to complete the mini-game, a slower player will find the Key Crack mini-game impossible.
On the other hand, I found the open world levels to be more fun than the campaign. Although they are still very difficult, some of the pressure from the AI hackers is diverted as hackers go into a free for all deathmatch to be the last man standing. The action is more frantic, focusing less on the puzzles and more on the mini-games and electronic carnage.
Visuals
Hacker Evolution Duality is an excellent looking game. The UI design is simple, clean, and usable. I only wish it was possible to move windows around for a better view of the map. Although there are no fancy 3d animations in Hacker Evolution Duality, the graphics are sharp, well designed, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Audio
Hacker Evolution Duality is the first game in the series to venture away from the pounding electronica genre and fuses it with traditional video game orchestral scores. Although the game still doesn’t match the audio to the pacing of the game, the music comfortably swings back and forth from the intense electronica to more eerie and haunting orchestra pieces.
Overall
Hacker Evolution Duality was a fantastic move in the right direction for the series. Unfortunately, the difficulty level of the game is an extreme stumbling block. exosyphen studios made a gamble by radically changing the gameplay compared to the previous two titles. I strongly believe if the difficulty level of the game is addressed, Duality has what it takes to be an indie cult classic.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Independent development studio Camel 101, known for its previous game Gemini Wars, has revealed a new real-time tactics title called Black Talons. It will be set in the universe as Gemini Wars, an RTS game released last year.
Black Talons is being made for PC, Mac and Linux systems and the following features have been detailed:
Persistent and customizable squads.
Deep campaign mode. The actions of the player directly affect the balance of power on the system. There is one main objective to achieve, but there’s much more to do.
Customizable Battlecruiser. The Battlecruiser serves as the base of operations, and can be customized with weapons or infrastructures that will boost the squad numbers, teleport soldiers or even bombard the battlefield.
Faction relations. There are a number of neutral minor factions in the game. These factions will have missions available for contract work. When the player completes missions for a certain faction, the relations will improve with that faction. On the other hand, completing missions against a faction will lower the relations with it. Having good relations allows the player to train or buy units unique to that faction. Having bad relations will make that faction randomly attack the player during missions.
Upgradeable and unique (per class) skill tree for all units
5 worlds with different environments and weather conditions that directly affect the battle: rain, fog, snow, ionstorms and more insane stuff.
Different unit classes with specialized roles: Recon, Tactical, Assault, Support, Engineer. Each class can carry a different set of weapons and has its own abilities. Powerful mechs can enter the battlefield with salvaged or bought equipment and weapons.
Check out the new trailer below and visit the game’s Facebook and Twitter pages for more info.
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.
