Star Trek Into Darkness is hitting theaters soon, but why settle for just watching the flick when you can recreate scenes from the comfort of your home. Today, ACTION MOVIE FX received an update, adding in the STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS promotional FX pack that allows you to do just that.
We are getting closer and closer to the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and with that comes the usual promotional footage. This time, Nintendo have released a meaty trailer for the game, displaying everything we remember about the Wii version. The bosses, the platforming, the colorful cast of characters. Yes, it is all here – just not in English quite yet.
We are pretty pumped about the waggle-free 3D edition of DK Returns, and you should check out the new trailer down below and let us know if you plan on picking this one up when it launches later this month in the comments section.
Today, Square Enix have released the Shipwrecked Multiplayer Map Pack for Tomb Raider. Currently available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Steam, PlayStation owners will have to wait until May 9th, at which point the pack will go up for download on the PSN Store.
The Shipwrecked Multiplayer Map Pack features two new multiplayer levels:
Lost Fleet is a massive beached ship that serves as a dangerous battleground filled with twists, turns, and traps.
Himiko’s Cradle is a place where danger lurks around every corner. This mountain top shrine and its surrounding area is sacred land to the scavengers of the island and will be your final resting place if you are not careful.
Published by Titus Interactive in 1988 for the Amiga, PC, Commodore 64, Amastrad, Atari ST, the first “Fire & Forget” videogame was a classic shoot’em up. Players had to save the world thanks to the famous weaponed Thundermaster II vehicle.
Fire And Forget: The Final Assault is set for release on May the 16th, on the PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Preparations continue as the release of the new Saint Young Men movie draws closer, creating anticipation amongst fans.
The film, adapted byA-1 Pictures, is set to screen on May the 10th in Japan with the added incentive of special merchandise offered to audience members who show up for the first screening.
Audience members will be able to purchase goods from theaters including Saint Young Men T-shirts, Jerseys and A4 sized post cards. Earlier this month it was announced that a special booklet would be on sale and will be sold on a “first come, first serve” basis. The booklet contains special interviews with the cast and crew, art work from the movie and original cover art from the Saint Young Men’s mangaka, Hikaru Nakamura.
The original soundtrack for the movie will be released tomorrow and a special event celebrating the launch will take place in June.
Saint Young Men originated as a manga back in 2007 and is still ongoing in Morning 2 Magazine; the manga is based around the lives of Jesus Christ and Buddha, who share a Tokyo apartment together whilst on their vacations on Earth. Clickhere to check out the official website of the movie.
Undead Soccer the arcade survival game from CGMatic and published by BulkyPix is now available on Android for $1.99.This is a bit different from your standard zombie killing game; because mostly you will be using a soccer ball and a bin lid to take down any zombie that gets in your way, as opposed to the usual shotgun style weapons.
In the game you can upgrade your power-ups and your super ball power to enable you to kill more zombies.There are different football styles and shield styles to be unlocked as well as numerous big bosses to fight.
The game takes place after the player is sent off from a soccer game. After heading to the locker room and sitting waiting for the game to end, you then head back out onto the field because you’ve noticed that things have gotten rather quiet… in terms of a soccer game and not the zombies everywhere. Using a mechanic similar to that of flick soccer the player is then required to clear hoards of zombies out of the way as you progress through various stages.
PublisherEA and developer DICE probably didn’t have much time to prepare after leaksand having to official release the Fishing in Baku gameplay video for Battlefield 4. Now however they have two more screenshots to better display the level of detail possible with the Frostbite 3 engine.
The terrain pictured is pretty much a haphazard mess of filthy, but that seems to prove the point all the more as looking over the screenshots themselves it’s difficult to find major issues. The two screenshots do a great job showing off a solid mix of character detail, lighting, water, rainbows, and other everyday objects. Players wanting a better look for themselves can click on the images above to see the full-sized screenshots for themselves.
Battlefield 4 is currently set to release for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC with no official release date currently announced.
Players of MechWarrior Online have a new giant mech to add their arsenal and many other goodies to look forward to in the newly released update.. The new Stalker Mechs name is Misery and she weighs in at a massive 85 ton and comes equipped with four medium lasers, a large laser, a Gauss rifle and an SRM-6. Not to mention she can reach top speeds of 48.6 kph which isn’t bad for a girl her size. Check out the awesome trailer below to see this beast in action accompanied with an epic rock track.
Pilots also have a chance to get the new Jenner Champion Trial Mech as well as three other Trial Mechs that have been made available to take out on a test flight. Players can now add their own personal flare to their Mechs with the added ability to customise the colours of all their Hero Mechs in the Mech Lab. The Buccaneer Premium Pattern has been added for those who want to customise their Mech even further. The pattern presents enmies with a taunt that changes depending on the Mech type you are using.
Some other performance fixes and enhancements have also been made. A full list of updates is available on the Official MechWarrior Online website.
Waiting… waiting… waiting for some deals. Oh, hello everyone! Welcome to another episodic freak event of Xbox Live News with Pipper. The beginning of this month yields less than promising deals as most are waiting in anticipation of Microsoft’s next generation console announcement. Whether or not we will have more questions or answers by the end of the month is to be determined. Deter your focus for a minute and gaze upon some Serious Sam deals.
Deals of the Week
Name
Discount Dates
Price
Serious Sam
May 7 – May 13
Serious Sam 3: BFE
400 (50% off)
Serious Sam 3: BFE Jewel of the Nile
400 (50% off)
Serious Same HD: TSE
400 (50% off)
Serious Sam HD: TFE
400 (50% off)
Serious Sam Double D XXL
400 (50% off)
Battlefield 3
May 14 – May 20
Battlefield 3: Premium
2800 (30% off)
Battlefield 3: End Game License Key
600 (50% off)
Battlefield 3: Aftermath License Key
600 (50% off)
Battlefield 3: Armored Kill License Key
600 (50% off)
Battlefield 3: Close Quarters
600 (50% off)
Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand
600 (50% off)
New Releases
Whoa, an Injustice: Gods Among Us character for 400 MSP? I suppose that is as reasonable as some of the avatar items these days. Some players would expect a little bit more bang for their buck though. Minecraft advocates will definitely take advantage of the free skin add-on in celebration of its 1st birthday.
Name
Release Date
Microsoft Points
(Games)
Monaco
10-May
1200
Sanctum 2
15-May
1200
Hunters Trophy America
17-May
800
(Games Add-Ons)
Injustice: Gods Among Us Character #1: Lobo
7-May
400
Tomb Raider Shipwrecked MP Pack
7-May
400
Minecraft Battle ‘N Beasts Pack
8-May
160
Minecraft 1st Birthday Skins Pack
9-May
FREE
Borderlands 2 Psycho Bandit
14-May
800
(Games on Demand)
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2
7-May
Just Dance Disney
7-May
Samurai Warriors 2 Empires
14-May
Lego Lord of the Rings
14-May
Looks like Kinect Central is at it again with some more sales this go-around. Home Run Stars will be discounted to 320 MSP (60% Off Value) from May 7th to May 13th. Additionally, Rhythm Party will be discounted to 320 MSP (60% Off Value) from May 14th to May 20th. That’s not all! A mysterious “Gem Sale” will occur during those last mentioned days, so keep tuned into your dashboard to find out the big secret!
If you haven’t let your gold membership turn silver yet, I give you plenty of kudos to continue to “Play Hard or Don’t Play At All!”
Hiiro no Kakera – The Tamayori Princess Saga Studio: Studio Deen Publisher:Sentai Filmworks Format: Blu-Ray Disc Release Date: April 16th, 2013 Price: $69.98 – Available Here
Overview:
There seems to be an appeal to translating a visual novel into an anime, after all a plot already exists, art style is already established, and the characters have already been created. Well, that last one may not be true all the time, as visual novels will sometimes utilize a bland or flat main character for its audience to displace their own personalities into. Which isn’t really how that sort of thing is done with an anime. Hiiro no Hakera is based on the visual novel series of the same(ish) name on the PS2, PSP, and DS, with this background does it succeed as an anime?
Story:
The story of Hiiro no Kakera is that of a teenage girl sent to live with her grandmother under particular circumstances by her parents. The girl, Tamaki, has been long absent from her grandmother’s village since childhood and upon her return finds out that the quiet village isn’t quite as quiet as she might have thought. Surrounded by ghosts and gods, the village is the location for a powerful artifact, the Onikirimaru, that has been sealed away to keep the world safe, but that’s not all as Tamaki is also the Tamayori Princess! For those that may not have picked up on it yet, the original visual novel was for teenage girls and as such the anime is geared for that audience as well, which if anyone has any doubt the final scene of every episode being one of the male characters breaking the fourth wall to thank the viewer for coming should clinch it.
Alright, so along with being the guardian of the Onikirimaru to ensure that it remains sealed away the princess has protectors in the form of the Five Guardians, 5 attractive male descendants of ancient supernatural beings. One of the interesting things about this anime is that the focus is less on the plot itself and more on the characters and their relationships. Not that there aren’t things going on, as there are, but in a story where the Logos are trying to break the seals and free the Onikirimaru, far far more time is spent with the characters in school and talking than doing anything about that.
The reason for the focus on characters as opposed to plot or action becomes more apparent as the story continues, namely that the balance of power is literally one sided, like Darth Star versus Alderaan one sided, and the only reason the one side doesn’t just pull the trigger is because of how one sided it is. Think about that. That being said, there are a number of interesting elements at play throughout the series, such as inner conflict and refusal to act until it is settled. There are also some additional characters, outside Tamaki and her guardians, that are interesting and mysterious enough to actually want to know more about. However, those more astute will notice that this is simply the Tamayori Princess Saga, or Season 1, so there seems to be a lot left for later.
Visuals:
Visually, Hiiro no Kakera maintains the general quality of modern anime. Backgrounds are detailed and beautiful, with the characters well animated to ensure the flow of action and dialogue. Being a Blu-Ray release, the images are certainly also more crisp, but the best visuals in the show tend to be in the infrequent fight scenes. The guardians’ and the Logos’ powers look fantastic, though it may be more that through the series they are simply under utilized.
Characters look good for the most part, but unfortunately those in the Logos are the only ones that have interesting character design. The guardians for the most part simply wear their school uniforms, which the major distinctions between them being their hair color and height, while the Logos feature a variety of attire person to person that distinguishes them less as a group and more of a set of individuals working together.
Audio:
In a show with so many male characters and characters in general, it is nice to see that their voices are in fact different enough to easily distinguish. The voice actors do a good job to fit their characters in terms of personality, though Tamaki herself does tend to be a little stale at some points, but this may simply be part of the visual novel source leaking through. Andrew Love as Takuma is probably the strongest performance, which fits well with his character being the most important and versatile overall.
The music of the series continues with the general gear of leaning towards a female audience often being more light and airy, but of course being a bit darker during the battles. The gearing is most apparent of course with the opening and closing however. The opening song is “Nee” by Maiko Fujita, which does a very great job of capturing the feelings surrounding Tamaki as she is more powerless and needing to be protected by her guardians. The closing, “Kono Te de Idaki Tomeru kara” by Shuhei Kita, fits instead on the guardians perspective of being there for Tamaki. So, the music does a wonderful job of bottling the two main perspectives of the show ideally for the female audience.
Extras:
Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray release of Hiiro no Kakera is very limited in the form of special features. It does provide the clean opening and closing for those wishing to enjoy all the eye candy of those without the credits over top. The only other special features on the disc though are the trailers for the other upcoming Sentai releases. While a paltry sum of extras, being the first season of an anime based off a visual novel the demand for additional content may not be too high.
Overall: Hiiro no Kakera – The Tamayori Princess Saga is unabashedly an anime with the girls in mind, and some man service to boot. The main character finds out she’s a princess, she gets to have five good looking men protect her, and for the most part the series focuses more on their relationships than the actual plot. Girls looking for a nice series with plenty of guys to swoon over will certainly be able to find quantity here, but mileage will vary in want of a plot. It does in fact have a plot with a least some interesting concepts, if only they would have focused more on those, but perhaps with all the introductory material out of the way the second season can provide more.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
