After a delay, ShootMania Storm is finally approaching its final release date, so developer Nadeo and publisher Ubisoft are putting together a launch event with a pro tournament to celebrate the occasion. This isn’t going to be just any tournament though, as the grand prize will be $100,000.
The launch event will be taking place April 6th-7th at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco and all fans 18 years or older are encouraged to come and check it out. Fans will be able to watch the pro tournament, talk to the pros, get their hands on some swag, and compete for prizes of their own.
The launch event isn’t the only thing Ubisoft and Nadeo have planned however, on the release date, April 10th, the first players will be able to take part in the “ShootMania 4 All” launch party. Those interested in “ShootMania 4 All” can check out the website HERE to find a location near them to participate.
ShootMania Storm will be releasing April 10th for PC, players interested in the game can pre-order it from Steam HERE.
The teaser trailer for the new “Space Pirate Captain Harlock” remake movie was shown in Japanese theatres last weekend and it looks freaking incredible! Entirely CG animated this film looks beautiful and epic. Now if you haven’t seen it go and check out the first teaser released in February here.
Leiji Matsumoto’s original manga of the same name revolves around the title character, Captain Harlock, rebelling against the earth government and fighting for humanity with his crew aboard his space ship the Arcadia. The manga spawned an anime series, a few small features, a sequel and now this.
We have writer Harutoshi Fukui (Mobile Suit Gundam UC novels) who has built the story revolving around modern society and it’s issues, and Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) is intending to direct the film with the latest technology in the style of a Hollywood production. The budget for this movie is incredible having the highest production budget to be ever put into a Toei Animation project hitting about the equivalent of over 30 Million U.S. dollars.
The Space Pirate Captain Harlock remake will open in Japan sometime this fall. Stay tuned for more.
Now go and check out the NEW teaser in our featured video section below and don’t forget to drop us a line in the comments section just below that.
The Stinky footboard is a controller which is controlled by the feet. The innovative pedal controller goes live today on Kickstarter with a goal of $75,000.
As it says on the Kickstarter page
Our innovative technology allows for lightning-quick action with precise control all the while keeping your foot resting on the footboard in a relaxed, natural position. This means more functionality; improved gameplay, enhanced performance; and increased actions per minute (APM), all while keeping control and your fingers on the action.
Benefits of the Stinkyboard controller include:
Allows simultaneous actions such as in FPS games players can strafe, change guns and throw a grenade without taking their fingers off the AWSD keys
Increases actions per minute (APMs) for RTS gamers
Makes it easier to access additional key bindings for MMO players
Shaves precious seconds off for eSports players
Simplifies controls for beginners
The Stinky footboard offers plenty of customization for gamers and could indeed be used for many games. For example, an alternative pedal mechanism in racing games, or to assign kick combos in fighting games or action games. All in all, quite useful!
Pre-orders for the Footboard can be placed via their Kickstarter page. The controller will be available for sale in June for $119.
Rising Star Games’ Super Black Bass 3D, the newest entry into the long-running sportsman’s franchise, has broken the water and landed on store shelves today. Released for the Nintendo 3DS, the franchise has seen 16 releases across 7 different platforms, making it one of the most prolific fishing series in video games.
With its first release on the 3DS, Super Black Bass 3D touts a whole host of features including:
Catch fish with Super Black Bass 3D’s “Real Rod System” featuring realistic movement controls
Multiple Game Modes
Hundreds of fish to catch across various competitive locations
Changing conditions that affect your fishing: changing seasons, weather conditions, and time of day
Upgradeable fishing gear
Domestic / International rankings – Give yourself a Master of SBB alias and challenge fellow anglers from around the world
Closest experience to real fishing on the Nintendo 3DS
Longest running video game fishing franchise
Be sure to read some of our othercoverage regarding the game. You can also check out the official website here.
Race fans rejoice, the new DLC pack for Forza Horizon has been released today! Dubbed the “April Top Gear Car Pack”, the packs six cars have been hand picked by the staff of “Top Gear” magazine and members of Turn 10 Studios; two of the cars are actually making their debut: the 2012 Bowler EXR S and the 2011 Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale Zagato. Included free for all Forza fans is also the rare 2002 BMW M3-GTR.
As well as the aforementioned cars the pack includes the 2011 Ford Transit SuperVan, which has been detailed to include Le Mans stripes and 3.2 liter 198 horsepower engine. The 1998 Mercedes-Benz AMG Mercedes CLK GTR is a “street” car that is nearly identical to the racing model that dominated the Le Mans series, offering blazing speeds to keep the competition at bay. Last but certainly not least is the 2012 Aston Martin Vanquish; stylistically similar to the classic AM look, it also features a noticeable upgrade in the engine department offering 526 horsepower in a V12 for extreme power no matter the situation.
The “April Top Gear Car Pack” can be found on the Xbox Live Marketplace exclusively for 400 Microsoft Points, or as part of the offered Season Pass for 4000 Microsoft Points. Gamers in need of additional information can visit the official site, www.forzamotorsports.net.
Casual games really only need to do one thing – be addictive. Sometimes I wonder if they’re specifically targeted to be competitors to soapies to suck in the much coveted stay at home parent/disaffected student demographics. What ever gimmick they use to get you over the line, flinging cute objects at ugly ones, generating great speed or simply tapping at stuff, the genre demands above all else a slick execution. Here we have a game with a pretty absurd gimmick – use sentient crockery and house hold items (wizards are house hold items, right?) – to stop storms from destroying houses from across the USA. Inasmuch ‘Drip Drip’ is a success, but will mummies across the nation take to game?
Story
You’re from elite drip collector based in the United States. I had no idea that was a job. I want this job so bad. Well, I thought I did, but the amount of complete wrecks you have to help save makes the role seem far less glamorous that the title makes it sound. If only I could be elite at something. I digress, but to be honest that’s the whole story.
For a while there I wondered it there was a social commentary sitting behind the window dressing here. Maybe a climate change angle? Perhaps something about poverty in a post-hurricane Katrina America. I thought it was that one for ages. Seriously, why did we have to fix half these places when they were obviously health and safety hazards. Did these building have heritage listings? Were they the birthplace of some historical figure? In that sense I guess it had a deeply implied narrative in there somewhere. In a far more literal sense you’re just a dude fixing stuff before it breaks.
Gameplay
Does this game reach the standard I previously set for casual games (i.e. to be addictive)? In a word, yes. The developers at Imminent Games have done their research (or watched that episode of Extra Credits about the Skinner Box). Rewards will keep you around long enough, giving you the full tool box of abilities toward the end to dominate and feel pretty good about yourself on the two lower settings. Simultaneously, you’re going to have to master the game in order to get all five stars for each level.
Stars are not just given for not screwing up too bad but are attached to specific achievements such as keeping the basement below a quarter capacity and making sure you’ve dumped all the water before game’s end. You can tell they’ve used this with the intention of tweaking the game play to keep you on your toes. For example, the dumping all the water before the level is over mechanic seems simple enough, but certain leakage types, like water that is seeping between floors, keep leaking after the rain has stopped. Even though you may have dumped the water out, the bucket will return to its previous resting place and may ruin your attempt at a perfect score.
While the gameplay is considered, it isn’t complex. Unlike other casual games, such as Angry Birds, the mechanic is both simple and complex. Or put more accurately, the game is complex because the mechanic is simple. Drip Drip on the other hand is so boxed in with its functionality there’s no room for interesting emergent gameplay. The difficulty ramps up as the set pieces gain complexity not because you’re required to learn more techniques. Perhaps this will impact how replayable the game is after your first playthrough if you aren’t addicted to maxing everything out.
I think the stand out achievement for this game is that it’s complete. It’s a whole device drawn out in all the ways they could have conceivably created for a game about collecting water. Drip Drip pays attention to the details it considers being worthy of including and that’s fine. In fact, it’s a better achievement than some AAA games manage but they’re dealing with a whole other world. There’s a lot here to do but not as much to sink your teeth into.
Visuals
I want to say the visuals are crazy but that’s not quite right. Maybe strange? The whole aesthetic is well executed but the paraphernalia associated with this world just doesn’t work for me. Anthropomorphic stuff is usually cute and that’s definitely the style they’re going for here but I just don’t find brooms with googly eyes appealing. It feels a little off kilter without any creep factor to make up for it. It’s well executed and this may just be a personal taste thing here. The game is about collecting water from houses that are being flooded so what could I expect?
Most enemies and traps look cool and are animated well. The ghost looked like they didn’t even try but that’s splitting hairs. A lot of the choices just didn’t make sense, especially when they could have had the same impact on gameplay if they chose something else to represent that impact. Lightning, sure that makes sense. A lightning god that looks like Moses from South Park? I’m not so sure. Why do aliens care if a happy little bucket does or does not dump water out of a window? I guess the sight of a living bucket is strange enough to warrant a probing though.
Audio
The audio is exactly what you’d expect from a game like this. It’s well synced, gives you a satisfying sense of feedback and alerts you that stuff off of screen needs attention. The sound of rain pouring is always soothing, and made me kind of sleepy a few times. After you finish getting 5 stars on each level you could use the title screen as a sleeping aid. Outside of that there’s not much about the audio that brings this game to the next level. It does the job that’s required of it and it does it well.
Overall
Casual games are a fickle beast. Separating greatness from another solid addition is a fine line. For me, that fine line is being so simple that it’s almost primal. Drip Drip is too closed in how its mechanic can be applied to get to that level, yet it sure is solid. The game does have its quirks though. Am I the only person who can have an existential crisis while playing a casual game? Why am I repairing all these houses that have clearly been abandoned for years? How many talented drip collectors were pushed aside so that I could reach the top of the pile, to be one of the few elite? If you want to tap away the hours in front of your screen or hammer out a level while you wait for the bus you can get a lot of mileage out of this game. I just don’t too many people coming back to it after they’ve finished all the levels.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Rockstar Games have just announced the official cover Art for Grand Theft Auto V as shown above. The official cover art features the three main characters that you’ll end up playing in the game: Franklin, Michael and Trevor along with a few other random images of people, vehicles and cute and friendly animals you’ll end up meeting, driving or shooting at in the game.
You can grab the cover art as a wallpaper or background at www.rockstargames.com/downloads now. Be sure to check out the official website for Rockstar Games here, and their Twitter page here. What do you think of the box art? Let us know in the comments section below.
Today Atlus announced that they are planning on bringing Shin Megami Tensei IV over to North America this Summer. The game focuses on the “Samurai” which are the protectors of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado. Players play as a fresh Samurai who must work with various factions and prevent Mikado from being overrun by demons.
The game features all new demons, dungeons and story arcs that have branching plot lines, StreetPass functions, various decisions that can have “lasting repercussions” and plenty of voiced dialogue. Shin Megami Tensei IV will be sold at $49.99 when it is released sometime this Summer exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. To go along with this announcement, the company also released the below batch of images featuring in-game screenshots, artwork and a glimpse at the anime cut-scenes in the game.
Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland Developer: Gust Publisher:Tecmo Koei Platform:PlayStation Vita (Digital Only) Release Date: March 19, 2013 Price: $39.99 – Available Here
Overview: Since the PlayStation Vita was released last year, it has proven to be quite a capable handheld at times. So capable in fact, that a number of developers have begun releasing ports of their console titles onto the handheld. Tecmo Koei has been leading the charge with these “Plus” versions, with Dead or Alive 5 Plus hitting stores a bit ago and now, rather silently, Atelier Totori Plus. Has this gorgeous looking PlayStation 3 RPG managed to make the jump to the Vita without suffering a drop in quality?
Story: The release of Atelier Totori Plus may seem a bit strange at first thanks to the fact that it actually is the second game in the Arland trilogy. However those jumping into the title should not worry too much about any continuity issues, thanks to the fact that while Rorona is in the game the storylines of the two titles are not connected in such a way that players will be left out.
That being said, it is worth noting that those who played the original Atelier Totori will find that the storyline for Atelier Totori Plus has gone entirely unchanged. This is great thanks to the quality of the story and the characters, however it is worth noting that outside of the DLC character introductions and events and the DLC dungeons, the storyline has not been given a major overhaul.
Anyways, for those new to the game, the story of Atelier Totori Plus follows a girl named Totooria Helmond who is the daughter of a famous adventurer. Totori, as she is called by her friends, has been working as an alchemist studying under Rorona in the hopes that she too can become an adventurer just like her mother before her. However Totori is trying to do more than simply live up to her mother’s name, she is also trying to find out what happened to her mother after she vanished years ago.
Like all games in the Arland series, Totori Plus features your standard three year schedule where players are given a limited amount of time to reach specific goals or they will fail. Unlike the most recent Atelier title, Atelier Ayesha, these numerous checkpoints that occur throughout the game itself help keep the player focused on the storyline a bit more and provide a sense of urgency. However while the time limit certainly can be a factor, it isn’t suffocating enough to limit player exploration and force players to feel like they have to reign themselves in.
As for the story itself, despite featuring a girl trying to track down her mother, Totori Plus sports a very light-hearted storyline that still strikes an emotional chord thanks to the fact that Totori is trying to track down her missing family member, which is something Atelier Meruru, a later game in the series, was lacking. A goal that went beyond the simple physical nature of keeping your shop or skipping out on being royalty.
Anyways, as I mentioned the story can be very light-hearted and is chock-full of comedic moments where most players will be struggling not to laugh here and there. Also while the story may still lose it’s focus here and there, Totori’s charming cast of characters, which has been expanded a bit more on this release thanks to DLC characters joining the group rather than simply just talking to them at towns, helps keep the story interesting.
While there isn’t too much new for returning players, newcomers will find a charming, light-hearted storyline with plenty of comedy and a great cast of characters that you can’t help but adore. Sure the time-limit may be problematic for some, it’s more than tolerable and with plenty of different endings, including character endings and a “True Ending” Atelier Totori Plus has plenty to offer those who are looking for multiple playthroughs.
Visuals: Thanks to the art style and design of Atelier Totori, the game was never a massive drain on the PlayStation 3’s resources and that makes it perfect for the Vita’s lesser capabilities. In fact, it is such a perfect fit that the game, at times, looks better on the Vita’s smaller screen than it did on the PlayStation 3. It is worth noting that occasionally characters can appear a bit rough around the edges, but this occurs rarely.
As for the art style itself, Totori sports highly detailed, hand drawn character portraits that appear during most dialogue scenes as well as a number of event scenes that are also hand drawn. The main game features a soft color palette and well-designed character models and enemies to battle against.
Audio: Thanks to how vocal fans were about the lack of a Japanese voice track in Atelier Ayesha it seems that Tecmo Koei has chosen to rectify that issue by including both the English voice track and the Japanese one. While this does make for a very large download, longtime fans and newcomers will appreciate the options. It is worth noting that the English dub remains the same one recorded by NIS America for the PS3 release of Totori so the dub continues to impress.
As for the soundtrack itself, the game sports an amazing set of background music on its own, but thanks to this being the “Plus” version of Atelier Totori, players can switch out all of the theme songs in Totori with music from past games in the series, including ones never released in North America. This is a nice little treat and allows for gamers to keep things fresh when they grow tired of a specific set of background music or want to listen to something different for a separate playthrough.
Gameplay: Atelier Totori Plus is practically a carbon copy from the original PlayStation 3 release of Atelier Totori when it comes to gameplay, which is quite impressive given the nature of the game. The Vita’s touch controls are non-existent for the most part, outside of being able to scroll through the world map via the front touch screen, but even here players will find that simply using the analog sticks is a better alternative.
As mentioned before, players are limited in time and because of this, everything the player does in the game requires some sort of time passage. This includes everything from traveling to a new area, synthesizing items together with alchemy, harvesting ingredients and even fighting enemies. Everything passes time and because of this, time management plays a big role in the game, but as mentioned earlier, it isn’t too overbearing.
This passage of time also affects the various alchemical ingredients you carry as well, meaning that the longer you carry certain ingredients around with you, the lower their quality will be. This means that even if you obtain an S rank item, it may eventually degrade to E quality if enough time passes. Also, since Totori subscribes to an older version of alchemy, players are able to pick and choose which type of item traits they want to apply to created items, meaning there is much more depth here than what can be found in Ayesha.
As for the game’s combat system, it has remained unchanged with players able to take three fighters into combat at one time, though the limitations in combat are rather glaring in Totori now that multiple games in the Atelier title have been released since. Players still have the ability to assist allies by blocking incoming damage or following up on an attack and everything works on a turn based system so nothing truly has changed there.
Considering Atelier Totori Plus sports all of the DLC from the PS3 version, there are three new party members that can be added to the group eventually and a new, very difficult, area has been added to the post-game. Also available in Totori Plus are a number of costumes that players can change Totori into as they create them in the game. A number of these outfits do step into the realm of fan-service and given Totori’s slender build some may find issue, however those outfits can simply be ignored and are not forced on the player in any way, meaning it is there for those who enjoy it, and not for those who do not.
Overall: The original Atelier Totori on the PlayStation 3 was a great RPG that had a nice light-hearted storyline, a great art style and fun gameplay. Thankfully, Atelier Totori Plus hasn’t lost a single ounce of what made the original a great title. While various aspects have aged thanks to the improvements of more recent Atelier games, Atelier Totori Plus has been condensed onto the Vita and made portable with everything that made the original release great and more.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Telltale Game’s smash hit The Walking Dead will be available in retailers in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on May 10th. The retail release will consist of all five episodes and will be available for Windows, Mac, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Those who do not speak English or know English as a second language will be able to access the new subtitles in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
The Walking Dead game is based on Robert Kirkman’s popular comic book series of the same name. The comics has now spawned a hit TV series and two video games. Telltale’s The Walking Dead has won Game of the Year from over 80 media outlets, including Capsule Computers. The game is available on iOS, Mac, Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
