Sins of the Solar Empire: Rebellion will be getting it’s very first DLC called “Forbidden Worlds“. The DLC will add things like new planet types, new planet specialization, technologies, planetary bonuses and additional Steam achievements.
The Official Feature list is as noted below:
•Four new planet types to colonize and exploit (Barren, Ferrus, Greenhouse, Oceanic), each created with beautiful high-res textures.
•New Planet Specialization System: Dedicate your worlds to either social or industrial output. Devoting your planet to social improvements will increase its population and culture, at the cost of trade income and ship production. Choosing an industrial path will limit your growth and culture, but make your planet a trading and ship building powerhouse.
•15 new research subjects allow the races to conquer and expand onto the forbidden worlds.
•Discover 40 new planet bonuses during your exploration of the galaxy, unlocking the dark past of the Sins’ universe.
•Unlock five new Steam Achievements and display your mastery of forbidden space!
The new DLC The Forbidden Worlds will be available direct as well as on Steam, GameStop, GamersGate and GameFly. It is slated for release on the 5th of June and will go for $4.99. For more info hit up the games website here.
Today Atlus USA announced that anyone who happens to pre-order Dragon’s Crown from a participating store will net themselves an excellent bonus in the form of a 64-page softcover art book which will feature full color illustrations from the game, including artwork of the characters, descriptions from the artist and some background artwork as well.
The book will also include illustrations from Akira Yasuda, Kinu Nishimura and Gouda Cheese who is also known as BENGUS. This pre-order bonus will be available for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions of the game which cost $49.99 and $39.99 respectively. Those looking to pre-order the game have a little under two months to do so as the game is currently set to be released on August 6th in North America.
Ace Attorney Studio: NTV Publisher: Madman Format: DVD (Reviewed) Release Date: April 17th 2013 Price: $29.95 – Available Here
Overview
“Objection!” is just one of those words that fills you with excitement and joy IF you’re a Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney fan and why wouldn’t you be it? It rocks! With 5 games or so under it’s belt it’s fairly safe to say a great deal of people agree with me. Director Takashi Miike has brought this story out of a game and right onto the silver screen so well! This is the next bit of Phoenix Wright gear; A movie called Ace Attorney and if you love a bit of Phoenix Wright or just some quirky-ass courtroom action please read on.
Is That The…Wright…Evidence?
Story
What I thought ruled about this movie was how well it followed the original game yet also, somewhat, made it it’s own. The main two trials of the movie are exactly the same as the game, obviously, with slight differences but not big enough to upset a die-hard fan of the series. It follows the case of the Murder of Mia Fey and the case where Wright must defend his rival Miles Edgeworth. Both of these trials came directly from the game. Those two cases made up the bulk of the movie but we do have the appearance of two smaller cases that were in the game, they were put in the movie as a kind of “Comparison” between Wright and Edgeworth and actually how different their styles are in court which is great because that comes into play as the movie continues on with Phoenix having to defend Miles and Miles actually helping Phoenix along out of desperation…initially. Characters like Von Karma, Larry Butz, the Fey Sisters and a bunch of the odd characters make it into the film and are portrayed so well! Phoenix himself carries over swimmingly from the game, you actually feel like you’re watching a story about Phoenix Wright and not just the movie of a story loosely based on the game. So much of the humour is also brought along as will as the intense situations of a courtroom.
Little bits of the film were changed, only slightly, so that the style of the game is easily understood. Obviously game mechanics are hard to bring to life in a movie but Miike does it well. Gigantic, courtroom machines that project holograms are used to represent everything you would see in the game like the evidence used and a lot of the quotes and video, it feels very quirky, extremely unique and really takes nothing away from the series because, really, after they’ve introduced it they don’t draw attention to it which would have taken away the vibe of a video game. If this movie does anything great than the game it’s the level of darkness, sadness and severity that comes out of a grueling murder case. This movie can even get a bit haunting at some points but, once again, I didn’t feel as though it took away from Phoenix Wright at all.
Von Karma Going Mental
Visuals
Ace Attorney does this well. Not only does every character, bar one or two, look the way they did in the game but the fact that they found a way, through CGI, to bring the game to life and make it look almost real is something incredible. Costuming was done almost 100% correct, the hair definitely got the attention it deserved and the locations were incredible accurate. This movie, like the game, takes place mostly in the courtroom and they, somehow, found a way to keep it from being boring as hell. Every character acts out their signature movements like how Phoenix points his finger and yells “Objection!” and a lot of the characters flip out the same way they did in the game. This is probably the closest “game to movie” film that has been made up to this point.
The Judge Returns
Audio
This is much the same as the visuals. The actors do a great job…acting! They sound the way they should, they put just the right amount of emphasis as the actual characters would too which is hard because the games are all set in written dialogue so you have to read how the characters are reacting and for that to be put across as well as this…wow. The music is also similar to the game, similar enough that while sitting there I went “Hey! That’s the thing! From the thing…oooooooh!”, I could pick up on what was what straight away so it wasn’t like I had to decipher or listen hard and pay 200% attention to figure it out. They did extremely well. The court sounds were great also! So reminiscent of the game with the sounds of the flashing evidence and even the characters’ “Gyah!” when hit with evidence. It was just fantastic to say the least.
He’s Not Phoenix…Wrong
Extras
Now we really didn’t get much extras with this release but the one thing we did get was really cool; it was a “The Making of: Ace Attorney” and it really gives you a fairly big insight into how they did what they did. I understand that’s in a lot of movies but it’s still nice to get a behind the scenes look and it works great if you decide to watch the feature again so you can now tell how they did what they did. Very interesting.
Larry Butz: Friend of Wright
Overall
I would have to say that, unlike the games, this movie is great for anyone interested in mystery solving and courtroom banter. For a non-Phoenix Wright fan it could get a bit hard to sit through only because the audience wouldn’t be used to it at that point but it’s a damn good courtroom drama, it’s got a fair bit of action in the courtroom and it really isn’t boring. There’s a bunch of humor and a whole lot of funny banter that will keep people in their seats and there’s a heck of a lot of situations where the audience will no longer need the whole seat because they’ll be on the edge of it. Definitely NOT a movie to skip out on because your not an Ace Attorney fan.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview
Though the starring role does not involve Hugh Jackman, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing created by NeocoreGames provides an escape to a fantasy full of mystery and magic. What kind of monsters might you encounter? Well, read on, and I might capture such evils.
Story
The Helsing family has proven its renown as certain deeds have not gone unnoticed. For these reasons a ghostly companion named Lady Katarina vows to aid Helsing through his travels for a deed done for her family not long ago. Useful in more than a singular fashion, the ghostly counterpart would die again – if possible – to help Helsing.
As you and your ethereal companion delve into quests that surround merchant disappearances and odd behaviors of once glorified monstrosities, you begin to question the purpose behind your actual involvement. “What is the underlying meaning, and who is the benefactor” – are questions that come to mind. Even vampires and werewolves have a different agenda with Helsing this time around.
Gameplay
Those looking to find action in an role-playing game have certainly found a winner here. With the options of selecting a higher difficulty right off the back, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing couldn’t be branded any other way than tough. Heroic difficulty pits your character against hordes of enemies right away leaving some instances with very little room to run. Experienced players will need to strategically place attributes into skills/magic to destroy the throngs of evil.
Which brings us to the next topic where Helsing shines further – customization. With only one playable character, Helsing can place knowledge in a variety of skills/abilities. Players can place skill points in melee attacks, ranged attacks, active abilities, or passive auras. Mix matching and devising your own tree makes for half of the fun for the title. Did I mention that your ghost companion has her own attributes as well as her own skill tree? Katarina can be a great range, support, or melee character depending on her advancement. I personally love it when she freeze enemies in their place. Makes for an easy kill or great distraction.
There are a couple aspects that I feel should be explained or introduced earlier on in the game. Your “mana” is not usable from the get go though actively appears next to your health bar. Deactivating or allowing the player to attain a mana using skill right away may deter the confusion of its purpose. Fitting right along-side mana is the acquisition of items known as essence. Essence can be used to add effects to certain items that you pick up in your travels. The negative aspect regarding essence is that you need to find a person to imbue the essence with an available item. Unlike gems from the Diablo series, you cannot socket an essence by yourself.
During my testing I found a minor glitch when upgrading my “Arcane Healing” skill. The title is set up to accept a limited number of levels in skill categories. An example of this can be seen when upgrading the skill “Arcane Healing” from 5 (learned)/ 5 (max) levels to 6/5. This strange appearance could be taken as a flaw in the game or as optimal bug. Who wouldn’t want to heal for more?
Audio/Visuals
Lady Katarina’s voice is very alluring. There is just something about the accent that makes you intrigued but readily cautious about her motives. And there is need to stay aware with her ghostly appearance changing from a calm vision to a murderous “she-devil”. Who knew something so attractive could be so deadly?
The visuals seem to heavily mimic the user interface of Diablo 3 in a variety of ways. First, any enemy encountered will have a health bar that is displayed at the top of the screen. If magically endowed, the creature will have abilities or status effects under the health bar. Other similar instances include item drops and the option of zooming the top-down camera closer to the playing character.
Conclusion
The preview build for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing may contain a few troublesome areas, but the overall gameplay proves to be an engaging experience. This can be especially said for the highest difficulty level! Those use to Blizzard’s Diablo should feel right at home in this gothic-noir setting. Though the title presents only one playable character, a deep skill map allows for an interesting array of monster slaying potential (ranged/melee). Let the fates of lycanthropy and vampirism bring everyone together for the game’s release on May 22, 2013!
Indie developer Coffee Stain Studios has announced that Sanctum 2 will be released worldwide on May 15, 2013 as a downloadable game for the PC and Xbox 360, with a PS3 release soon to follow.
The FPS tower-defence game is receiving pre-order bonuses on Steam in the form of the exclusive Britech CG Elite Edition DLC Skin Pack and immediate access to a free copy of Super Sanctum TD. It’s available to pre-purchase now.
Super Sanctum TD is a retro-style tower-defence game where players build mazes and towers and utilise air strikes and other abilities. It’s available to buy for $3.99.
Sanctum 2 allows players to take on the role of an elite soldier who must protect oxygen-producing Cores from waves of aliens by placing towers then jumping into battle alone or as part of a squad in 4-player co-op.
The title will be published by D3Publisher as an arcade game on Xbox LIVE and by Reverb Publishing for the PlayStation Network. The price tag is set to be $14.99 for PC and PS3 and 1200 MS Points on Xbox Live.
A launch trailer has been outed following the game’s announcement, viewable below.
Check out the developer’s site here for more info as well as its Facebook and Twitter pages.
Fans of the old school side-scrolling shooter should be sure to check out indie developer Vanni del Moral’s new game, Bad Bots. Thanks to Digital Tribe Games and IndiePub Entertainment, Bad Bots will be making it’s way to both PC and Mac through Steam on the 17th of this month.
Take control of Sam McRae as faces a horde of killer robots bent on destroying all the humans aboard the space ship “Titan Hauler”. In the campaign, Sam will have to find his way through 170 rooms, filled with over 2000 robots with 7 bosses that need taking care of. Unfortunately, Sam is the only human left alive, so the only aid he’ll be able to find are the 8 weapons he’ll be using to send those robots to the trash heap. Additional features include 3 challenge rooms to face, 14 achievements to earn, and full implementation of controller support and Steam Big Picture.
Players wanting to find out more about Bad Bots before it reaching Steam May 17th, can click on the images in the gallery below to see some full sized screenshots as well as watch the trailer embedded below that.
A man playing the Ouya console that you wanted so much that you made it get delayed.
The Ouya Company have confirmed that they have delayed the release of their Android based home gaming console by three weeks. The Ouya console was originally slated for release on June 4th, but will now hit shelves on June 25th in order to meet apparent ‘high demands’.
Julie Uhrman, founder of the Ouya, has stated, “The demand we’re seeing from gamers and our retailers is beyond our expectations, so, to meet all this demand, we are shifting our launch date by three weeks to give us time to make more Ouyas.”
This is more bad news for backers of the Kickstarter funded console, who previously discovered that the online based console will not support online play until the indefinite future, in a move that Uhrman claims “is going to bring back couch play.” Because it couch play has apparently died or something.
On top of all of that, The Ouya Company has received a total of $15 million dollars in funding from companies such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mayfield Fund, Nvidia, Shasta Ventures, and Occam Partners. Which of course seemingly nullifies any point of the Kickstarter project to begin with depending on how you look at it.
This has certainly been a bumpy road to release for the Ouya console, I’m sure many fans just want to get their hands on the thing after all this time. Unfortunately, they will have to wait three weeks longer because more people apparently want the Ouya for some reason.
The first casting news for Studio Ghibli’s upcoming The Wind is Rising film have come to light. In a surprising yet rather exciting turn of events, Hideaki Anno, the creator of the Evangelion franchise, has been cast as the film’s lead as Jiro Horikoshi.
This will be Anno’s official voice acting debut, despite having voiced brief uncredited cameos for both FLCL and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. This is of course his first full-fledged role and he will be starring as the film’s protagonist and subject matter, World War II Zero fighter designer Jiro Horikoshi.
Hideaki Anno voicing Jiro Horikoshi in ‘The Wind is Rising‘
Interestingly enough this was not the first time, Hideaki Anno has worked with Studio Ghibli on a project. He previously worked as an animator on the epic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. At the time the higher ups and Ghibli were so impressed by his work that they proposed he head a sequel in a possible trilogy of Nausicaa. As history shows that trilogy never came to fruition and Anno would go on to create his magnum opus Evangelion.
The Wind is Rising will be the first film directed by Hayao Miyazaki since 2008’s Ponyo. It focuses on the real-life story of Jiro Horikoshi and his history designing Zero fighters in World War II. The film opens in Japanese theaters on July 20th, 2013.
Siliconera have reported that they received a leak of Sony’s upcoming marketing campaign for the PlayStation 4 which reveals the console’s slogan to be “Greatness Awaits”.
The commercial for the campaign is said to begin with an empty road in a small town. A man walks down the road and begins to address the viewer, “Who are you not to be great? You, with the imagination of a brilliant child and the powers of an ancient god.” The buildings around the man begin to crumble, “Who are you to be ordinary? You, who could get away with murder, or raise the dead…” Following that a loud screech is heard and two sprint the opposite direction from the man covered in yellow paint, “Who are you to be anonymous? You, whose name should be spoken in reverent tones or in terrified whispers.”
Leaked campaign document (click for full-size)
The PlayStation 4 commercial seems to get more and more elaborate from there according to Siliconera’s leak. For now take this leak with a grain of salt, because as with all leaks nothing is official until you hear it from the horse’s mouth. Regardless it is an interesting concept for the console to say the very least, only time will tell if “Greatness Awaits” with the PlayStation 4.
Today Square Enix released the first screenshots for Final Fantasy X-2 HD and I must say they are absolutely wonderful looking. I mean, we’ve already seen what Final Fantasy X HD will look like but it seems that X-2 HD will look even better than its better known predecessor.
You can check out how Yuna, Rikku, Paine and even a glimpse of that wonderful opening sequence in this HD release below and keep an eye out for Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster when it is released sometime in 2013 on the PlayStation 3 together or on the PlayStation Vita separately.
Today Atlus USA announced that anyone who happens to pre-order Dragon’s Crown from a participating store will net themselves an excellent bonus in the form of a 64-page softcover art book which will feature full color illustrations from the game, including 
