Of the four games that XSEED Games had to show off at E3 this year and also release new assets for, Ys: Memories of Celceta was given the least which is unfortunate but you can still check out the four screenshots below. But hey, to go along with these screens they have also given us a few story details.
In a bustling town deep in the frontier, a young man collapses without his memories. With only his name of Adol Christin left to him, he wanders the nearby town of Casnan to find out more about his past. He is joined by a thief who says that they knew him and the two manage to rescue a group of minors from a mine collapse. Impressed by the two’s skills, the army quickly enlists their help to explore the sea of trees and map the world, a task that no one has ever returned from.
Gamevil has today released their latest title published for mobile devices, Steel Commanders. The game is developed by Thingsoft and is a Trading Card Game based around sci-fi mechanical warfare, similar to other popular titles such as Rage of Bahamut and Legend of Cryptids. The game boasts HD graphics and allows players to strengthen their deck by competing against other players for rewards or combining or training cards.
Game features include:
Unit Structure – The game features 5 units similar to that of modern day combat – Infantry, Combat Vehicles, Aircrafts, Structures, and Mech. Each unit has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.
Strategic Battle System – Steel Commanders features a battle system with customizable attack and defense squads, ranks to rise up in and a number of strategic elements to make the player keep on their toes. A ‘rock-paper-scissors’ effect ensuers that even if an enemy’s DEF is greater than the player’s ATK, it does not guarantee a sure loss and players must be wary of squad composition.
Alien Invasions – While questing, Alien Invasions are randomly triggered. By having more alliances, Alien Invasions become more frequent and easier to defeat. However, just because the battle is over does not mean you should let your guard down. At higher levels, Aliens can evolve and return for a second round. Alien Invasions can also be done with allies. Players who deal the most damage or deliver the final blow will receive bonus rewards.
Commander Points – Similar to other TCG Card Battle games, Steel Commanders utilizes Quest Energy, Attack Energy, and Defense Energy. These points allow users to further customize how they want to grow their teams.
Steel Commanders is now available free of charge for Apple devices through the App Store and on Google Play for Android Devices. You can check out a trailer of the game below and the Official Gamevil Website for more information.
As we’ve already heard, XSEED Games is planning on bringing Ragnarok Odyssey Ace to North America and now we know roughly when they are planning on doing so. Out of E3 today come a few new details about what makes Ragnarok Odyssey Ace better than the vanilla version of Ragnarok Odyssey which was released late last year.
For example, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will feature additional store elements featuring new giants and weapons to take them out, more customization options, new ACE skills that will be job-specific, the Yggdrasil Tower to provide unlimited replayability thanks to its randomly generated levels and finally a Mercenary System that allows players to fight alongside AI partners to take on strong monsters without relying on online assistance.
With E3 winding down now and plenty of announcements made and a handful of screenshots already released for one of XSEED Games‘ other titles, the company has also provided a large number of screenshots for their upcoming PlayStation Vita release Valhalla Knights 3.
The screenshots, which unfortunately are still in Japanese, can be seen below and currently Valhalla Knights 3 is set to be released sometime in the fall. As for the game itself, the story places players behind a group of hardened criminals who have been imprisoned in a far away castle stronghold. However these criminals may have wanted to be placed here for a very specific reason and if they are able to claim a treasure that is possibly the most evil thing in the world, god help those standing in their way.
Since it was announced that XSEED Games would be handling the localization and release of Rune Factory 4 a few months ago, we’ve heard little about the title minus a few references from the company’s Twitter here and there.
Well now that E3 has come around they have chosen to release some of the first English screenshots for the game which can be seen below. As for the game itself, Rune Factory 4 is still set to be released sometime this Summer and sees the addition of a number of new features, including the ability to marry a few special enemies you come across and more.
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E3 Week is upon us, which means no time is better for a new episode of CC Unplugged. This week, Dustin Spencer, Luke Halliday, Travis Bruno, Kane Bugeja and Frank Inglese have come together to give their opinions on it all, with the claws sharp and ready to attack. From the full unveiling of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One to Nintendo’s humble line-up, we give our grades for the E3 that was, and speak a little about the future as a whole for the industry.
So grab a pass, Tell Your friends, and Prepare 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.
One of the best part of E3, besides getting sweet sweet swag, is that everyone, even those at home get to see brand new things that haven’t been revealed before. Which is great because up until now, there hasn’t been much in the way of information for Bethesda‘s new IP The Evil Within. Sure there have been screenshots showing off what plays can be expecting to see, but finally video has come out of E3 showing how players can expect to actually play.
The 12 minute video, which players can find embedded below, finally gives that sense of what players will be doing in game, though anyone wanting to see pure gameplay will have to put up with the interview going on along with the video. It is nice to see just how dark and survival oriented the game will be in a time where many games have gone the route of action with horror elements. Players can look forward to The Evil Within when it releases for current gen consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, next gen consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and PC.
A lot of people are wondering just how much the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins will play like it’s predecessors. While trailers are nice and all, what people really need to see is actual gameplay to see just what the Batman is packing. Luckily Warner Bros is psychic, or they’ve been doing this for a while, so with E3 2013 they’ve been able to show off some of the gameplay for this newest adventure, which I guess is one of Batman’s earliest.
Weighing in at a little over 30 minutes, the Batman: Arkham Origins gameplay video has a lot of time to show off what players can expect. Though looks like the gameplay will be very much like the first two games, but that’s not really a bad thing as they handled well enough to launch the series to the heights it’s been enjoying. Those wanting to watch the gameplay for themselves can fine the video embedded below before it releases in October for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC.
Despicable Me: Minion Rush Developer:Gameloft Publisher:Gameloft Platforms: iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, Android Release Date: Out Now Price: $0.00 – Available Here
Overview
Despicable Me: Minion Rush is the latest game tie-in from acclaimed mobile developer Gameloft. In this endless runner you take the role of one of Gru’s Minions who is aiming to be crowned the Minion of the Year. In order to reach this lofty goal you must run as far as you can, collecting bananas and defeating your colleges in the process. The game captures a lot of the charm of the film series, but offers nothing new to the endless-runner genre.
Story
Gameloft worked with the film’s production company; Illumination Entertainment to provide a story that would not only fit in with the Despicable Me universe, but also capture the feel, humour and heart of the series and the lovable, yet hopeless Minions. For what its work, this is pulled off nicely, and even comes with an opening cinematic to introduce you to the game.
The collaboration with Illumination has allowed for the chaotic feel of the Minions to be captured perfectly. There are also a few eEaster Eggs for fans of the series, that appear as nothing more than gameplay elements unless you have seen the films (and in some instances the animated shorts). One of these is the fact that the primary form of currency in the game is Bananas, which as shown in “Despicable Me: Banana” is a food that the Minions love above almost all others, and would fight each other tooth and nail to have. These little nods to the fans are definitely are a welcome addition and show the care that Gameloft and Illumination have put into the title.
Gameplay
Despicable Me: Minion Rush is an endless runner. The game plays almost identically to Subway Surfers, and sadly doesn’t add much to this formula aside from one or two truly distinct powerups. Your Minion runs through a “three lane” path, and you can swipe each direction to make them move into the lanes and avoid some obstacles, while sliding under and leaping over others.
There are pickups you can collect which help you in various ways from automatically collecting bananas, through to Gru’s infamous freeze-ray which nullifies all obstacles for a short time. These all feel like standard fare for this type of game though, and even though they are all decidedly Descpiable Me-ish, aside from the Giant Minion or the Fluffy Unicorn (It’s so fluffy! I’m gonna die!) they don’t feel fresh or new.
In this game, your Minion runs through two different and distinct areas. These areas are Gru’s Lab and the Residential Area. Both offer slightly different obstacles and ways to avoid them. They each play just differently enough to not feel like simple re-skins. In addition, the game also offers segments where the camera angle can change, and you go from a third-person view to a side-scrolling one. I have always found that endless runner games can sometimes grow monotonous, but the two areas and alternating camera angles do enough to break it up.
Each of the game’s two areas has its own boss encounter. Gru’s Lab has you facing off against Vector from the original film, while the Residential Area introduces us to Meena, who was designed specifically for this game, yet still feels like she belongs in the Despicable Me universe (I actually had to stop and check that I hadn’t missed an animated short that introduced her). The boss encounters have you dodging robots large robots, while flicking smaller ones back at their masters.
The game occasionally suffers from frame-rate issues and noticeable slowdown. In a game like this, where staying alive as long as possible is the primary goal, having a random slowdown can really detract from the enjoyment.
Like most games of its type, Despicable Me offers goals to be accomplished in order to level up your character. These work well in theory but I reached a point relatively early on, where all three of my available goals required friends to also be playing Minion Rush. Since I currently don’t know anyone else playing the game, my Minion’s level up progress was completely halted unless I paid to skip the objective with tokens.
Speaking of the Tokens, Minion Rush has a decidedly “pay to win” feel. There are two types of currency in the game; bananas and tokens. Bananas are readily available through the levels, but tokens are much, much rarer. Not only are they rarer, but three of the game’s unlockable Minions require them. You need 9500 tokens to unlock the available costumes, and you only start the game with 50 (100 if you connect to facebook). In addition, Tokens are used to revive yourself should you fail a level, so if you don’t have a steady supply and you make a stupid mistake it is game over for you. It is a tried and true system on the app store to operate this way, however many games give you their currency just often enough that you don’t feel like you are being forced to buy them. Minion Rush doesn’t offer this amnesty.
To end the gameplay section on a positive note, is also a little Gift Code password feature included in this game which allows you to unlock some bonuses for the game. As a bonus to our readers, I have gone through all the possible combinations to find the unlockables. In the picture below you will see the five different combinations you can use.
Visuals
Despicable Me: Minion Rush manages to capture the look and feel of the films, and their ever so lovable Minions. Everything is brightly coloured and just looks like it is part of the series. Scattered through Gru’s Lab there are even pictures of the other cast members. As mentioned before, the two environments are very different from one another and each offers their own quirks, obstacles to avoid and secret paths so that they don’t appear as the same areas with different coats of paint.
Audio
Through the Despicable Me films, the Minions have always had their distinct garbled language, and that is something that carries through to Minion Rush. Your Minion, as well as any others that you pass by will all speak hurriedly in their own language.
The background noises are all chaotic and add to the game’s “rush” feel. Car horns beep as you get near, downed power lines sound like discharging electricity and windows shatter as you jump through them. There can sometimes be a lot of noise happening at once, and while it can sometimes be distracting, and even downright annoying, it is what the Minions are all about so it can be easily forgiven.
Overall
Despicable Me: Minion Rush is a charming tie-in to the Despicable Me universe, but doesn’t add too much to the endless runner formula. It captures the feel of the movie and its Minions, and is simple enough to master that everyone can play and have a good time. A few technical issues like framerates can grow frustrating quickly, and the game has a definite “pay to win” feel, but still remains a fun way to kill a couple of hours. At the $0.00 price point it is hard to not recommend this game, especially if you have kids who love the films.
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