Rockstar Games Co-Founder, Jamie King, has recently joined forces with Soul and Vibe by taking a role in their advisory board. Having a background of Co-Founder and VP of Product Development with a successful franchise will certainly make any career movement quite noticeable. With games likes Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption at his back, Jamie King will not doubt make a positive impact for the growing game company. Soul and Vibe’s CEO and President Peter Anthony “Tony” Chiodo had the following to say regarding Jamie’s decision to join their board:
We are very excited to have Jamie on board with Soul and Vibe. He knows how to conceptualize game experiences and transform them into hugely successful franchises. He also knows how to leverage licensed brands into valuable transmedia properties. Jamie has a wealth of experience managing numerous developments simultaneously and his network of talent is global. As a Co-Founder of Rockstar Games, he has played a key role in shaping gaming, contributing to the growth of one of the most influential publishing labels in our industry. We are honored that he sees Soul and Vibe as an opportunity to further shape our industry’s future.
In his new’s release, Jamie mentions that he and Tony share a common vision for the future of gaming. With this vision he mentions that “Soul and Vibe will represent a new face in interactive publishing and it’s been a while since I’ve seen an opportunity this promising.” Think King is on to something? Lend us your thoughts in the comments below.
Diablo is about to invade the PlayStation 3. Gamers can now pre-order Diablo III at retailers to receive the exclusive Infernal Helm item, which provides an experience boost to the wearer. Certain retailers are providing special bonuses in addition to the Infernal Helm.
“In addition to including all the improvements from the PC version over the past year, we’ve made several updates to Diablo III for play on the PS3. We got a ton of positive feedback from players who tried the game at PAX East, and we can’t wait to get it into everyone’s hands later this year,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and Co-Founder of Blizzard Entertainment.
Diablo III for PlayStation 3 has been optimized for controllers. Find your local retailer for pre-orders at the official Diablo III site.
The IllumiRoomteam at Microsoft Research released a demonstration of their new technology designed for the next generation Xbox console. The system currently works with a Kinect sensor and a wide angled projector. Eventually, the system will be a small coffee table based unit.
The IllumiRoom is able to expand the game to reach beyond the television screen and take over the living room. The projector is able to produce a variety of effects, allowing the surrounding living room to match the art style of the game, expand the peripheral field of view to include the rest of the room and more.
The project was a joint effort between Microsoft Research and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The full research paper can be found on the official Microsoft site.
Seeing as how a new Call of Duty is being announced every year, Activision has decided to try something new. If you go to the official Call of Duty website you will be greeted by a mosaic, made up of tiny versions of people’s Facebook and Twitter profile pictures. It appears the mosaic becomes more complete as more people add their photo to the site. At time of reporting it seems to reveal a disturbingly sad version of a Pikachu, a tiger or a creepy clown.
Activision community manager Dan Amrich is promoting the page, telling fans “Something’s up at callofduty.com…you might wanna check it out.”
It has been previously rumoured that the next Call of Duty game in the series will be Call of Duty: Ghosts, which will be developed by Infinity Ward and be running on a next generation engine.
Seven developers have come together to resurrect an old project. Seaven Studio has formed with the intention of going indie by developing and self-publishing a soon to be announced game. The developers have chosen to pool together their savings and self-fund their upcoming title. Seaven Studio promises to stay close to the gaming community and develop their game in response to feedback provided by the community.
The team has released a short teaser trailer on YouTube starring a mouse standing on a boulder at night as glowing green rocks fall from the sky. More information about this game will be released in the coming days.
Some great news for anyone suffering from or who knows a sufferer of Lazy Eye or ‘Amblyopia’, as Tetris is here to save the day again, with the latest research showing much alleviated symptoms through controlled use of the much loved retro classic. Not only has it helped us pack cars with 10 times more than they should be able to hold but Tetris is also here to lend a hand with vision improvement as Dr Ben Thompson along with a team of scientists from McGill University have been busy conducting the worlds first Tetris experiments with the ultimate goal of generating enough funding to fine tune the treatment and start offering it to patients.
“Although amblyopia is often known as ‘lazy eye’ the impairment in vision is due to abnormal development within visual areas of the brain, not a defect of the eye,” says Dr Thompson.
The studies have shown that rather than traditional treatment in which sufferers wore an eye patch over the affected eye, patients are far better off using both eyes, with far higher intensity stimulation on the affected eye, which ultimately forces both eyes to work together. A game like Tetris requires both eyes to work together to distinguish the shapes needed to fit into the spaces below, thus sufferers of lazy eye whose primary affliction lies with the brain receiving different images from each eye in childhood have found much benefit through the treatment thus far. Patients who played for 1 hour a day over 10 days showed vast improvements that lasted up to 3 months.
Hopefully more funding will be provided and the team can fine tune the levels of intensity needed to successfully utilise Tetris as a tool for a structured treatment of visual impairments such as this.
EA is demonstrating how it earned the worst company in the world award by laying off 10% of their workforce. Worse, the rationale behind the redundancies is that Electronic Arts wants to focus on mobile and ‘new technologies.’ Why not work on getting releases right instead of shifting focus entirely?
The announcement is a rather staccato affair. Rumours are circulating about the exact number but the 10% figure is being thrown around at the moment. Given the company has 9000 employees that would be around 900 people now jobless. While this is terrible news for the industry I can’t help feel they’ve added insult to injury by explaining the cuts as a refocusing on mobile. Can we expect to see Battlefield as an iOS exclusive? Oh the horror.
House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels Developer: Magic Pockets Publisher: SEGA Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iPad, Android Release Date: April 25th, 2013 Price: $4.99 – Available Here
Overview House of the Dead: Overkill has risen from the dead on mobile devices in the form of The Lost Reels. So how does an arcade shooter translate to a casual mobile gaming experience? Quite well, actually. Magic Pockets manage to find some fresh meat in the all to familiar house of the dead. House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels brings the legendary franchise to mobile in style.
Gameplay
The task of translating an arcade shooter to the Nintendo Wii was not too difficult of a task as the motion controller seems to lend itself well to this type of gameplay. Magic Pockets had the task of bringing that very Wii game, House of the Dead: Overkill, to mobile platforms and they pull it off, resoundingly so. Interestingly enough House of the Dead: Overkill makes for a great casual game as is evident by this version.
The game is simple addictive fun at its core. It takes the House of the Dead series is a different yet familiar direction that feels perfectly at home on a mobile device. There are two gameplay modes, the Story mode and the Survival mode. Both of which are relatively self-explanatory.
The Story mode focuses on going through levels and taking out zombies in each level. It’s simple, fun and doesn’t feel demanding of your time, allowing you to jump in and play on when you please. The Survival mode is similar to your horde mode style of gameplay, you must survive for as long as possible while taking out as many enemies as possible.
House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels is a remarkably simple game, yet it is astonishingly addictive. The control scheme is easy to pick up and is easy to use. The left side of your screen is used to aim your gun and the right side of the screen features on-screen buttons for firing your weapon, switching weapons and of course reloading. It is simple and effective.
All of this combines to create a very addictive casual gaming experience. There is an in-game store but it is never forced upon you, which is for the best considering the game costs $4.99 to begin with. All in all, it is a worthwhile experience that can be enjoyed both on-the-go and in the comfort of your own home.
Visuals and Audio
This is perhaps one of the best looking games on the mobile platform. The visuals are crisp and detailed with a brilliant macabre atmosphere. From the in your face over-the-top zombies to the brutal violence, it is a great looking horror title that looks for the fun in the horror instead of the scares.
Perhaps my favourite part of this game is its soundtrack, an excellent composition of light-hearted gleeful tracks that does all the heavy-lifting in terms of tone setting. The music alone tells you immediately, that this isn’t a game out to scare you, it is a game that wants to entertain you and that it does.
Overall
It is hard to look past House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels, it is quite simply one of the best games on the crowded mobile gaming platform at the moment and earns every cent spent on it through sensational gameplay that is as addictive as it is fun. This is not a game to miss for your mobile, it is worth the price tag. Whether you are a fan of House of the Dead or just looking for something fun to play, journey into the House of the Dead. If these reels were lost, then this game is one hell of a revelation.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Fresh screenshots have been released for Alternative Software’s and Home Entertainment Supplier’s upcomingRugby Challenge 2 The Lions Tour Edition.
The new entry to the Rugby Challenge franchise adds a whole bunch of new gameplay features with the addition of quick taps, quick lineout’s, mauls from lineout’s, interceptions, contesting the ball at the breakdown, removing players from the ruck, number 8 scrum pickups and changeable team strategies in-game.
Sound and commentary has been rebuilt, with real commentary from Grant Nisbett and former All Black player Justin Marshall, along with French language commentary from Eric Bayle and Thomas Lombard.
To top it off, the game contains 110+ teams and 50+ stadiums from around the globe with official team, competition and special match licenses.
Rugby Challenge 2 The Lions Tour Edition is coming out this summer on 360, PS3 and PC. Visit their Twitter and Facebook pages for more info and check out the new screens below.
Yesterday, a group of talented students (NNNICE Games, Based in Hilversum, Netherlands) at the Utrecht School of Arts & Technology announced their plans to release Starcoon, a browser based arcade space adventure title scheduled for release on 1st May 2013. The game is described, (rather fittingly) as a ‘get as high as you can’ adventure that features well written audio and eye catching cartoon graphics. The player controls Curio, a raccoon with a goal. Specifically, the acquisition of as many stars as possible on his way to the Moon. By looks of things, this game holds the potential to prove popular with a variety of demographics.
Features include but are by no means limited to; A vibrant, colorful and engaging world, fast-paced arcade shooter action, gameplay that is easy to learn, but hard to master, power boosts offering an edge during gameplay and a clear score attack system.
Keen to follow this title’s development? Follow NNNICE Games on Twitter and Facebook.
