In another example of a successful project being launched through Kickstarter, KING Art Games‘ strategy title Battle Worlds: Kronos is now in the final day to get the funding to move on to Android and iOS platforms. The company is very thankful for all the support that they have received thus far and Creative Director Jan Theysen says, “We’re enormously thankful to all of our campaign backers, who have been incredibly supportive and have really got involved, beyond just financially backing Battle Worlds: Kronos, in helping us to create the game that we have been wanting to make for many years,” and adds, “It has been quite a ride, but it isn’t over yet. Anyone that wants to back our project can help us achieve our next goal of bringing the game to iOS and Android.”
The game is a classic styled real-time strategy title and development originally started six years ago. It was very popular among the testers who worked on it. Funding proved to be difficult at first, so the project was eventually put on hold to focus on various projects such as the title The Book of Unwritten Tales, but was brought it to Kickstarterseveral years later. This choice proved to be a fantastic one as it reached its initial goal of $120, 000 in just seven days, and as funding keeps pouring in from supporters, they are excited at the possibility of their game reaching fruition.
Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol. 2 Developer: Pendulo Studios Publisher: Bulkypix Platform: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: April 25th, 2013 Price: $4.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol. 2 is the final part in the legendary Runaway series of point and click games. The game was split into two for iOS due to size limitations.
Story
Runaway: A Twist of Fate starts with Brian Basco accused of the murder of Colonel Kordsmeier. Brian fakes his death to escape the Happy Dale Sanitarium and calls his girlfriend Gina Timmins to help him clear his name. Without spoiling the whole plot, Volume 1 left us after Gina and Gabbo’s daring escape from two assassins. Volume 2 provides a quick refresher of Volume 1’s events for those needing a quick recap of events. The game starts of explaining how Brian Basco actually managed to escape from the Happy Dale and finishes the tale of how Brian and Gina clear Brian’s name and catch the real murderer.
Volume 2 provides a satisfying conclusion to the story. I felt they ended Brian and Gina’s story on a very positive note. The game’s plot ties in nicely with the previous two games. For those who never played the two previous games, Pendulo manages to work in a recap of both games as part of the story. As a person who did not play the first two games, I found the climax of the game to be extremely jarring. A Twist of Fate stays solidly in the realm of reality for the first 3/4 of the game. The sudden jump to Runaway 2’s ending feels like science fiction was suddenly jammed into the plot of the game out of nowhere. None the less, the writing remained extremely tight and witty.
Gameplay
Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol 2 continues with the classic Pendulo Studio layout for point and click adventure games. The character’s current inventory is displayed in a bar on the top of the screen. Items can be dragged around and dropped onto other items in the inventory and hot spots in the scene. The bottom of the screen contain buttons to highlight the hot spots in the scene, receive a hint, and access the options menu. The UI design is an excellent case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.
The difficulty of the puzzles in Runaway: A Twist of Fate Volume 2 manage to strike a good balance. Save for a few parts, the puzzles made logical sense. The nostalgic hint system returns with player’s “calling” the company tip line for advice. The system provided good hints most of the time with a few pieces of advice were simply too vague to be helpful.
The game seemed to be extremely stable for the most part. I only encountered one major crash during Dr. Reset’s reset animation. It was impossible to skip the animation with the fast forward button without causing a crash. Thankfully, the animation is short enough that it was not too annoying.
Visuals
Pendulo Studios continues their trademark visual style in Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol 2. Colours are bold and characters are visually distinct. The scenes are detailed and are excellent to look at. There were a few minor visual glitches where parts of moving characters would be covered up by the background, but they are few and far apart.
Audio
Headphones are highly recommended with Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol. 2. The voice acting is spot on and should not be missed. The sound effects and music is light hearted and help build the game’s humorous atmosphere. I felt the soundtrack in Vol. 2 was actually stronger than the first part of the game, as it ventured into some excellent vocal work.
Overall
Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol. 2 is an excellent conclusion to the Runaway series. As a gamer who has not played the first two games, I found the sudden addition of science fiction elements to the game to feel out of place. Vol. 2 fixes many of the crashes and bugs found in the first half of the game. The audio and visual experience is very polished and the voice acting is spot on. Runaway: A Twist of Fate Vol. 2 is a fine example of high quality adventure gaming on the mobile devices.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Neocore Games has recently debuted a new trailer concerning the ghostly companion in the coming title The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. The ghost’s name is Katarina who is a supernatural spirit that is indebted to the Helsing family. She will aid the current adventurer in different ways and will feel free to add her own two cents to Helsing’s ever-present troubles.
Katarina will be available to the player in three different forms: ranged, spirit, and melee. In these separate forms she will not only appear different but also invoke different abilities and become anything from an effective mage to a ruthless battlerager. Depending on the player’s preference, Katarina can advance her skills in a similar skill tree like Helsing’s. Take a look at the screenshots and trailer below to garner a greater understanding of Helsing’s deathly companion.
The latest from ATLUS, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers, may have just been released for the Nintendo 3DS in North America, but unfortunately fans of the series in Europe were not lucky enough to get the game, yet. It seems that those European fans shouldn’t fret or worry about having to import it, as ATLUS has teamed up with NIS America Europe to ensure it gets released.
Coming to Europe in the Fall, the 3DS version sees additional features not present in the original Sega Saturn and PlayStation version. With an extra 30 demons to defeat or negotiate with and an extra dungeon, fans of the original will find more to do in the updated game. As well as utilizing the bottom screen to map out the dungeon as they go or use a COMP hack to change difficulty and fill out the dungeon without needing to explore it.
While Fall is a little far away to have to wait for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers, fans can check out Capsule Computers’ own review of the game right now HERE.
In addition to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers, NIS America also has plenty of other games releasing for PS3 and 3DS this year, which can be found with tentative release dates below.
Spanish developer Gato Salvaje is trying to play their hand at point and click adventure gaming with the AR-K series. While they have already made Episode 1 and are currently working on Episode 2, they are hard at work to ensure that the series can provide a solid story for players to enjoy. What better way then to get a great writer like comic author Greg Rucka?
Players may best know Greg Rucka for writing for Action Comics and Detective Comics, for DC characters such as Batman and Superman, as well as for Marvel characters including Wolverine and Punisher. With Greg Rucka set to write Episodes 3 and 4, in addition to voice actress Ash Sroka (Tali of Mass Effect) playing the main character, Gato Salvaje hopes to provide a quality series for fans of point and click adventures.
AR-K is currently in the middle of a Kickstarter to help fund the continuing development of the series, but players can check out Episode 1 for free on the iOS App Store HERE or Mac/PC from their website HERE to give them a taste of what’s to come. Those interested in funding can find the Kickstarter HERE.
Yesterday, the full version of StarDrivewas released on PC through Steam following a truly successful Beta phase.
The title is the result of the combined efforts of US based (Portland, Oregon) developers Zero Sum Games and Netherlands based (Haarlem) publishing outfit Iceberg Interactive. The result of their efforts are rave reviews and according to the development team, promises of an entirely new ‘4X space strategy experience.’
StarDrive creator, project leader and Zero Sum Games CEO Daniel DiCicco said this on the creative process and future direction of the title:
Creating StarDrive has been an incredible journey…The release of StarDrive does not mark the end of development. Rather, it marks a new beginning. StarDrive is a living product and we intend to support and expand this game for many years to come. Have fun!
Steam are offering 10% off on this title until the 3rd of May.
You can check out the Developer Introduction for the game below and follow Zero Sum Gamesand Iceberg Interactive on Twitter for the latest updates on this title.
Two days ago, Hidden Path Entertainment announced to its Kickstarter backers that it had raised the required funds to develop DG2, (Defense Grid 2) thanks to a lone investor.
On July 10th 2012, Hidden Path launched the Kickstarter Campaign as a means of funding the development of new content for their acclaimed tower defense game, Defense Grid – The Awakening. Around the same time, talk of a sequel began to spread and soon afterwards 6,200 backers leapt aboard. Hidden Path was therefore sufficiently geared to release the expansion pack Defense Grid: Containment, which happened in January of this year.
The Bellevue (Washington, US) based development studio is extremely grateful for the support of their doting fans. Hidden Path CEO, Jeff Pobst, shared his thoughts on the project and campaign’s successes:
“Through the [Kickstarter] campaign we…created a shared engagement around the project with thousands of backers for several months. The excitement, involvement, and passion that the community displayed around Defense Grid directly helped us engage an investment partner and make DG2 a reality.”
Hidden Path are strong advocates of communication, listening avidly to the community throughout the development process. Sign up to the forums if you haven’t already for real-time access to the latest community updates. Aside from news, the forum also offers players the chance to post questions to the developers and provide their own user feedback and bug reports.
Release for DG2 has been scheduled for the first half of 2014 for PC. For more information visit the Project area of the Hiddenpath site. In celebration of the upcoming release Defense Grid – The Awakening and selected DLC will be on sale up until the end of the weekend at 75% off through Steam.
Get your dancing shoes ready, as we are back with another episode of CC Unplugged. This time, Dustin Spencer, Luke Halliday, Travis Bruno, and Thomas Hellier talk about music in video games. Of course you have to hear the show to find out our opinions when it comes to everything from Final Fantasy to Madden, so go ahead and hit that play button. Also discussed is the interesting topic of Nintendo’s E3 conference, Dead Island: Riptide, and your usual newsy fare.
We also have a GIVEAWAY yet again, where we are giving out one code for Battleblock Theater for the Xbox Live Arcade. Send your answer to that magical little question to [email protected].
Turn up those headphones, tell your friends, and be prepared to get UNPLUGGED!
Special Mention to our partners over at Razer, us here at Capsule Computers are geared by gamers, for gamers. Check them out on Twitter and Official Website.
Did you know that hurricanes that were really destructive get their name retired? Alright, onto the sales!
Steam is running a large Rockstar Games Weekend. All Rockstar titles are 50 to 65% off with a different franchise on sale for 75% every day. As of this writing, Max Payne is the current franchise on sale. I highly recommend playing the series from the beginning. It is one of the classic games that perfected the bullet time effect in a video game. Brutal Legend is 50% off this weekend. The game is a good action strategy game and with an all star cast that includes rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and actor Jack Black. Defense Grid: The Awakening is 75% off this weekend. It is a solid tower defense game with a decent set of map packs. Portal fans should check out the You Monster!DLC that stars GLaDOS.
GMG still has their full line of Weekend Hot Deals still. Recommended titles include the EVE Online: Starter Pack for those looking for a hard core spaceship based MMORPG and Hitman: Absolution. Tomb Raider is the weekend deal and has been marked down to 50% off and can be used with Greenman Gaming’s legendary 20% off coupon, GMG20-GGN5D-FC3NA. This is one of the cheapest prices for Tomb Raider. If you need convincing, read our review of Tomb Raider.
Get Games has their Get Loaded sale this weekend. Buyers can pick two games for $24.00 each. Most of the titles can be bought separately for a much cheaper price. I would recommend waiting for better sales for all the games except Sleeping Dogs and Hitman. Both games are much cheaper at Greenman Gaming. They are also running a shooters sale that is knocking down the prices of many titles in the genre. I strongly recommend picking up Farcry 3as 40% off is one of the cheapest prices available. I absolutely love the game and even selected it as my pick for 2012’s game of the year. Get Games also has the Batman: Arkham series of games and the Anno 2070 games for 50% off. Both games have been spotted for lower games, so extremely frugal gamers are better off waiting. For the masochistic, Get Games has Aliens: Colonial Marines for 66% off. This is the cheapest price since release, but be sure to read our reviewbefore purchasing.
GamersGate is running a Spring Sale, with big daily deals. I recommend checking out the Overlord Complete pack if you are looking for a humorous action game. Aliens: Colonial Marines is also on sale for 66% off. The hit indie game The Cave is at its lowest every price at 66% off right now. Fallen Enchantress is 50% off this weekend, however the game has gone down to 66% off on the rare occasion.
In order to celebrate the release Dead Island Riptide, Deep Silver created the ultimate zombie wedding ceremony. UK residents Jennifer Blackmore (nee Jones) and Rob Blackmore took their undead nuptials in front of 250 witnesses. The ceremony took place at One Mayfair in London and was designed to look like a twisted Carribean paradise, a continual theme in Dead Island. The bride and groom, along with the priest, were also made up in traditional zombie make up.
The Blackmore’s beat a number of other couples in a Facebook competition in order to win the undead ceremony. The judges were impressed by their feelings and enthusiasm for each other and the Dead Island franchise.
The zombie bride herself said:
“We’re thrilled to have been chosen to be the official zombie bride and groom for Dead Island Riptide! We’re big fans of Dead Island and the horror genre, and a zombie wedding is a dream come true for us.”
After the ceremony itself were the usual wedding traditions: speeches, cutting the cake, the first dance…though they were all twisted in the zombie style. Music was played by zombified band Mariachi Mexteca, along with a DJ set by actress and presenter Sarah Chapman. The couple was also granted a Carribean holiday by Deep Silver, to keep the theme, and happiness going.
Congratulations to the couple on their zombie wedding and may their love be undying (see what I did there?)
You can learn more about the ceremony here and see the couple’s original application below. Don’t forget to check out Dead Island on their official site (if you’re old enough). and a our review for the game here.
