Ridge Racer is having another crack at the market with the announcement of Driftopia by Namco Bandai. Rather than a traditional retail release, it will be offered as a free downloadable game for PlayStation 3 and PC with in-game transactions. The game promises to inject its trademark drifting into the F2P format sometime in 2013.
The last entry to the franchise, Ridge Racer: Unbounded, saw a departure from the standard formula but received generally favourable criticism though sales were below expectations. It seems to have become a trend to turn a franchise towards the free-to-play model once it begins to struggle under disappointing sales and it will be interesting to see how this turns out for Namco Bandai.
ATLUS have today released a plethora of brand new screenshots for Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers ahead of its release on April 16th, 2013. Not only have they released a truck-load of screenshots for the game they have also released a brand new trailer that highlights the gameplay of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers.
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is a very unique RPG game that features first-person dungeon crawling gameplay set within a techono-gothic future world revolving around a group of hackers that plan to take on a mystic society in a battle of humanity’s fate.
You can check out the Soul Hackers screenshots and gameplay trailer below. Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS and will be released on April 16th, 2013.
The official Call of Duty website has announced a new Zombie Mode map to be included within the brand new Uprising DLC pack. The new mode, entitled Mob of the Dead, will feature big talent in the form of film veterans Chazz Palminteri (The Usual Suspects) as Salvatore “Sal” DeLuca, Joe Pantoliano (The Fugitive) as Arthur Arlington, Michael Madsen (Kill Bill) as Finn O’Leary, and Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) as Billy Handsome.
The four player co-op experience is explained in the map description:
“Anchoring the second map pack is Mob of the Dead, Treyarch’s most terrifying Zombies experience to date. Top Hollywood talent rounds out a cast of four Prohibition-era gangsters – each with a unique set of skills – that are forced to fend off hordes of the undead while imprisoned on San Francisco’s notorious Alcatraz Island. While guard towers and new weapons offer tactical advantages, survival offers an unprecedented new challenge for these four lost souls.”
The DLC will be made available on April 16th on Xbox LIVE with other platforms to follow at a later date. Check out the trailer below and comment. What will happen when gangsters and zombies clash?
The first content update for Real Racing 3(review here) is now live, and it’s focused on bringing the Chevrolet into the title for the first time.
The ‘Chevrolet update’ as I’m calling it introduces the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1,three new race series, 100+ new events and the chance to chase down and race your opponents in a new one-on-one ‘hunter’ race mode. Aussie developer Firemonkeys have also enabled the ability to transfer your cloud save data across multiple devices. And you can now compare race statistics with your friends in a new leaderboard.
Tony Lay, Executive Producer at EA’s Firemonkeys Studio said;
“We were delighted to hear that our community has asked for the inclusion of Chevy cars in the newest Real Racing game. Chevy has always been a key partner for Real Racing 2 and we are excited to have them back to provide realistic, fun-to-race cars for Real Racing 3.”
Download the update right now from the App Store and Google Play. If you haven’t downloaded Real Racing 3 yet (which is free!), you can do so here.
Bethesda has just announced their second add-on pack for the Arkane Studios’ game Dishonored titled; Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall. A new gameplay trailer was only just released for The Knife of Dunwall which we have in our featured video section below.
In the add-on you play as the legendary assassin and Empress-killer Daud. You also gain access to all his weapons, gadgets, allies and supernatural abilities. After the Empress’ assassination and the changed fate of Dunwall, you set out on a journey for redemption. Daud is informed that the key to his redemption is someone or someTHING called Delilah. Accompanied by a crew of The Whalers, a gang of mercenary assassins, you will travel to and through never before seen areas of Dunwall facing new and stronger foes as you advance. Take on a great deal of unique weapons and powers and embrace the dynamic combat that IS Dishonored.
“In the struggle to hang onto the last shred of your humanity, the choices you make will ultimately determine your fate”
The Knife of Dunwall is set for release in Australia and New Zealand on the 16th of April for Xbox 360 and PC and on April 17th it will be released for the PS3. The add-on is priced at $14.45 or 800 Microsoft Points.
Note that launch times may vary per region. For more information head to www.Dishonored.com.
Now go take a look at the new gameplay trailer for Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall and also check out our Reviews for Dishonored and Dishonoured: Dunwall City Trials by clicking on the links.
Namco Bandai Games have today revealed details of the special Collector’s Edition for upcoming installment in the legendary Tales Of RPG franchise, Tales of Xillia.
They have confirmed that the Tales of Xillia: Collector’s Edition will feature a limited edition Milla Maxwell figure, a high quality hard-cover artbook, the original soundtrack along with a copy of the Tales of Xillia game itself. This special Collector’s Edition will be extremely limited with only 10,000 copies being distributed worldwide. If you pre-order the special Collector’s Edition you will also receive special costumes for Jude and Milla as well as an exclusive custom PS3 theme. There is also a Day One Edition that includes everything of the Collector’s Edition excluding the Milla Maxwell figure.
Tales of Xillia will be released in America on the 6th of August and Australia on the 9th of August. You can check the official website here for more information.
Hitting shelves prior to the movie, Disney’s Planes The Video Game brings the action of racing through the skies exclusively for Nintendo consoles and handhelds. Featuring the voice acting cast from the movie, players will be able to play and race as main character Dusty, a crop duster voiced by Dane Cook, as well as additional cast members like Ishani, Echo, and Bravo who are voiced by Priyanka Chopra, Anthony Edwards, and Val Kilmer respectively.
Players will be able to take flight in a variety of modes from “Story”, to “Balloon Pop”, to console exclusives “Free Flight” and “Air Rallies”, to handheld exclusive “Challenge”. Disney’s Planes The Video Game will also have 10 characters to play as on consoles including drop-in/drop-out co-op, but only 6 characters solo for handheld.
Those in North America can get their hands on Disney’s Planes The Video Game for either Wii or WiiU consoles and/or DS or 3DS handhelds August 6th, a few days before it reaches theaters August 9th, while those in Australia will have to wait until September 5th, which is still weeks before it reaches theaters September 19th (or Sept 26th for WA, SA, ACT, TAS, NT).
Namco Bandai Games have released yet another DLC costume for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, this time for the pink-haired wonder girl herself Sakura.
The new DLC costume for Sakura brings the iconic designs of Hello Kitty into the Naruto Universe in the form of a Hello Kitty costume for Sakura. The Hello Kitty Sakura costume will be part of the upcoming costume pack which is slated to also feature Cowboy, Pirate, Matador, Gondolier, Kimono and German Lederhosen costumes for Naruto, as well as a Napoleon costume for Sasuke.
Namco Bandai have released a brand new trailer for the Hello Kitty Sakura costume which can be seen below. The costume pack will retail for 240 Microsoft points and $2.99 on the PlayStation Store.
You can check out our review of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3here.
The official game of the Speedway Grand Prix 2013 has been launched on the Apple App Store, on Google Play and on the Amazon Appstore. The game is made by Vivid Games, who also developed the hit title Real Boxing.
Official Speedway GP 2013 features enhanced game play and graphics over and above the 2012 version as well as 12 global circuits from the 2013 season. The game now features a new first person camera, and 15 real-world opponents. A new feature also allows Speedway fans to earn double points every time they play the game during a real live event.This latest game features all the tracks and riders for the 2013 season as well as new graphics and enhanced gameplay features.
As in the real thing, FIM Speedway GP 2013 game lets players compete in the dynamic and compelling world of speedway, the no brakes, one gear, motorbike racing sensation. Set during the 2013 FIM Speedway Grand Prix season, players will attempt to leave their opponents in their dust as they veer and power-slide round 12 real-world circuits, battling against 15 superstar speedway riders to be crowned World Champion.
Speedway GP 2013 has a wealth of new and enhanced features including ‘Helmet Cam’ that gives players an adrenaline-fuelled first person perspective. For the first time ever, gamers can also play during a live Speedway GP event to earn double points. FIM Speedway GP 2013 also features a host of unlockable content and gives the player the ability to earn points and purchase enhancements for their bike and rider. The game also includes 4 bonus circuits from the 2012 season in addition to the 12 circuits from 2013. The game combines stunning 3D visuals and intuitive one-touch controls to deliver an exciting racing experience.
Links to purchase the game, as well as a video showing the game can be found below.
Hiiro No Kakera Studio: Studio Deen Publisher: Hanabee Format:Blu-Ray (Reviewed), DVD Release Date: Out Now Price: $64.99 – Available Here
Overview:
Hiiro No Kakera was first introduced as a Visual Novel created by Idea Factory that was released on the PS2. The game and, evidently, the anime were both created to target teenage girl viewers this is definitely shown through the short series. Mixing a story revolving around an ancient evil being awaken and the genre of romance seems quite odd and, yeah, it is but for people that do honestly enjoy this type of thing I can see it being somewhat enjoyable.
Story: The story revolves around a young girl, Tamaki, who is called to a village by her grandmother with the intention of making her the heir to the Tamayori princess throne, so to speak, the Tamayori princess is the lead protector of the almighty sword Onikimaru that, if released, can bring about the end of man. Tamaki, after taking on the role, is then accompanied by 5 male, let’s say, security guards who stick with her day and night, willing to give up their lives for her in the hope that they can help her keep the sword sealed. After a little bit of no character development a group called the Logos begin to attack the 5 seals that bind Onikimaru, one at a time the seals are broken, the artifacts withing them stolen and the lead group being left battered and bruised. The battles escalate bit by bit as the seals continue to be broken and the Logos continue to seem to get stronger while our friends in the main group seem to get weaker or at least more naive.
It’s safe to say that while the story IS based around the protection of the sword and the Princess herself most episodes follow the same kind of unnecessary structure; happy, almost friend-like banter, flirtation scenes with one of the 5 male leads, Tamaki doubting herself, Tamaki promising that she will become the greatest Tamayori Princess and save the world then possibly a fight scene which doesn’t allow for much growth. Not to mention each episode ends with a male from the cast basically flirting with the viewer much like what would happen if you were playing a dating game which makes this anime seem tacky and really all about taking the money of young girls. This structure allows for no real development, not of character and not of story, when the Logos tend to attack one of the seals it kind of just…happens…there may be some forewarning but usually it’s just a “Oh guys I had a premonition, let’s go now!” and that would have to be about 14 minutes into an episode leaving little time for anything big to actually happen.
The characters themselves are generic and don’t seem to change or evolve and I find myself not caring about what happens to them, mostly because they have unappealing personalities and traits but also because nothing ever really happens to them, after a big fight and a visit to the hospital they were up and running the next day giving the reason “We guardians are different to humans” which makes battles seem underwhelming knowing that these characters can bounce back in a second. It was a normal, cheap setup of characters; The smart one, the sensitive one, the tough one, the loud one, etc. They even had a couple characters that were introduced later on in the series yet served no purpose at all in the coming events.
Look I seem to be really tough on this series and, yes, it does get somewhat epic nearing the very end of the story with big fight scenes and the impending doom of the earth, trust me it seems to get good at around the last 2 episodes, there’s a lot of action and probably more development in an hour of anime than the entire series but I feel like 11 episodes in an anime spanning 13 episodes is just too late to be kicking it into overdrive, not even that, to be kicking it in at all. The back story is something that has been done before and can be done again brilliantly, I happen to love ancient folklore stories modernized and I feel like this didn’t even try to do that, no, not that they didn’t try, it was more like they spent too much time showing the characters flirting than building upon story which, I suppose, for the target audience that would be the desired style.
Visuals: The animation in this was actually really good. It was fluid most of the time and not often too choppy. Obviously the effort for animation wasn’t put in during the talking and flirting scenes but they did extremely well when it came to the action scenes, it seems as thought they put a great deal of time into it. The characters looked good, the style of art was great if not super effeminate and the costuming was actually really appealing to me with the black school uniforms looking more like fighting gear and the military-style clothing that the Logos had. There was a fair bit of CGI animation mixed in with the traditional that seemed good…at first. After the first few episode once that wore off it became extremely unnecessary having every generic, blob monster, enemy being animate in CGI, it seemed like a cop-out. The best thing, visually, in Hiiro No Kakera was probably the surroundings and back grounds, they were beautiful landscapes, nicely drawn, nicely animated and nicely coloured, no faults there.
Audio:
The music in this was great, it wasn’t overused it didn’t get boring they strategically placed it and the choice was great because, although set in modern times, it took place in a village that seemed extremely traditional so the traditional Japanese-style music was a great fit. The voice acting in this somewhat varied, some characters like Tamaki were well acted, their voice wasn’t super generic and they didn’t entirely annoy me yet some characters who basically yelled every line they had in a high pitched, teenage-boy, voice got really old really quickly. I would say half the cast did an awesome job with the voices yet were brought down by other actors who really weren’t up to scratch. The dialogue also needed a fair bit of work. I’ll skip over the part where I complain about constant flirting because at this point that’s just a given. The dialogue seemed stiff and overacted in ways, the characters usually had nothing important to say and when there was something of value to be said it was always downsized by the crummy dialogue of another character.
Extras: For a Blu-ray disc release there really wasn’t anything super excited that came as an extra to the series. What was there was artwork on the inner cover just of one of the man landscapes of the series with an episode list on the side, clean opening and closing footage, anime credits and trailers for other anime. Typical, run of the mill, extras for this release.
Overall: I would NOT suggest this to any male. Period. It is very much a fan service for the ladies and, I suppose, fans of the original visual novel and fans of this type of anime. The story needs a lot of work and the characters need a lot of work but, once again, I’m reviewing this from a different point of view than the people whom this anime was intended for. I can see why many girls would be attracted to a series like this because it’s made for you, just a normal girl, to fill the spot of this powerful maiden who just so happens to be surrounded by many, many pretty boys. Even if you are a female fan of supernatural anime but aren’t into this flirty, pretty boy, fantasy stuff I still wouldn’t suggest it but for those out there who DO happen to like this kind of thing don’t go past Hiiro No Kakera because this will be right up your alley.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
