13-time World Champion and Chief Operating Officer of WWE Triple H explained today via his Twitter what that white stuff was that was stuck to him during his entrance at WrestleMania 29 this past weekend.
It seems that HHH’s entrance prop malfunctioned while he was walking through it and he suffered second degree burns from dry ice that did not vaporize properly. Luckily ‘the Game’ always carries a bottle of water that he uses for his ring entrance and with that he was able to wash off a portion of the dry ice stuck to his body otherwise the burns could have been much worse!
Check out the official Tweet from HHH below and the results of the dry ice burn in the image shared.
Invizimals: The Alliance for the PS Vita and Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom for PS3 have been announced by Sony today. The PSP franchise is making the jump using cross-platform play between the two systems via two different games.
The PS Vita title is built around the handheld’s augmented reality function, allowing players to guide the Invizimals to safety and take part in mini-games. Sounding familiar, the game promises players can collect 150 of the creatures which you can hunt for, capture, evolve and battle with.
The PS3 release will be a 3rd-person action adventure game complete with an enemy robot army and numerous puzzles across six worlds. Cross-platform play enables four-player co-op battles and item exchange between PS Vita and the PS3.
Check out the trailer and newly-released screens below.
Today, publisher Deep Silver released the first in a series of three survival guide videos. The survival guide is meant to get players ready for service in the Spartan Order, the self-proclaimed guardians of the Metro.
The survival guide will familiarize would-be Rangers threats they will encounter in Moscow after the apocalypse. These include the tunnels of the Metro, the wasteland surface, and the no-man’s-land in between. Threats can include everything from warring human factions to mutants and harsh, toxic environments.
Be sure to check out the first entry to the Metro: Last Light survival guide below this post. It’s sure to do you some good before you take up your arms. Also be sure to check out the site for the game here, and follow them on Twitterand Facebook.
The official Attack on Titan (Shigeki no Kyojin) website, later published in Weekly Shonen Magazine by Kodansha, has announced a brand new anime and manga bundle. Set to be released with the 11th limited edition manga volume, is an Original Video Animation (OVA) titled Ilse no Techo (Ilse’s Journal). It is a side story prologue, set to focus on a member of the training corps, presumably one named Ilse.
For the OVA, Tetsuro Araki (director), Yasuko Kobayashi (script supervisor), Kyoji Asano and animators from Wit Studio will all return in their respective duties from the anime series itself.
The bundle is set to go on sale in Japan for 3,480 yen (roughly AU$33) on August 9th and is open for preorders submitted before June 24th.
Let us know what you think of this bundle announced in the comments section below!
A British Theater Company’s live stage performance of a Studio Ghibli film has been meet with praise and will perform in Japan later this month.
The play had the official approval form Studio Ghibli and is the first live action adaptation of a Miyazaki film in the world to obtain this cooperation.
Whole Hogs Theater, a newly created company from Warwickshire, have adapted the Studio Ghibli classic “Princess Mononoke” into a full on stage performance. The show ran from the 2nd-6th in April sold out in London, where they were meet with positive reviews from both audiences members and British theater sites. They have been set to perform again in Tokyo from April 29 to the 6th of May this year at the AiiA Theater.
Whole Hogs began a kick starter account to raise funds for the production in 2012; they raised over 9000 pounds for their project and have been regularly updating their website with rehearsal details, and production photos in regards to Mononoke.
Production photos of the performance can be found here.
As mentioned earlier today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have just announced Batman: Arkham Originsand Batman: Arkham OriginsBlackgate, the next instalments of the blockbuster Batman: Arkham video game franchise for a variety of consoles.
Batman: Arkham Origins will be the first prequel for the series and is in development for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii U. Unlike previous Batman Arkham games, this one is not being developed by Rocksteady but Warner Bros. Games Montreal instead. The young team will be using many of the previous assets developed by Rocksteady to retain the aesthetic the series has established.
Warner Bros had this to say about the upcoming title:
Batman: Arkham Origins features an expanded Gotham City and introduces an original prequel storyline set several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, the first two critically acclaimed games of the franchise. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, the game showcases a young and unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight. As the story unfolds, players will meet many important characters for the first time and forge key relationships.
Handheld gamers will also be getting their first taste of the Arkham series with Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. Unlike the console versions, the PS Vita and 3DS title will be set directly after the events of Origins and is in development at Armature Studio, which was formed by several team members who worked on the much loved Metroid Prime series. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is described as a “2.5D Metroid-style exploration action game”.
The best part is you won’t have to wait forever for the games to drop as both are set for worldwide release on October 25 of this year. Are you excited for these new entries in the great Arkham franchise ? Let us know in the comments.
UPDATE: Russian hackers reportedly discovered an exploit that tricks the uPlay service into believing that you already have the game you’re trying to download. This is how they were able to download it, and what resultantly enabled such footage to be leaked.
It seems one Youtuber under the name of eaglesblades has gotten his hands on an early copy of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Nobody knows how or why but the user has put up a Let’s Play of the first 15 minutes of the game, making use of some err… questionable commentating skills. It’s not the commentary that will interest you however, it’s the absolutely crazy gameplay of Blood Dragon, which wholly and faithfully continues Far Cry 3’s trend of total insanity.
Ubisoft has yet to make any sort of comment on the Blood Dragon leak but you can be sure that unless this is all a hugely elaborate hoax, they’ll most likely be more than a little interested in the early footage going live. Featuring what has to be one of the funniest tutorials I’ve seen and some retro 80’s style cut-scenes, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon at it’s core makes extensive use of the Far Cry 3 game engine.
Look out for the official release on May 1st but for those of you who who’d like a sneak peak, watch the videos down below (be warned of the incredibly bad commentary and extensive use of profanity as well). For more info on Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, head on over to the official reveal article here and look out for this retro downloadable shooter on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
Part 1 and 2 were originally taken down, but thanks to the always online internet community both have become available again via alternate YouTube Channels. Again, look out for some gnarly language.
Attention all Bounty Hunters, Troopers, Smugglers, Agents, Jedi and Sith! The first expansion pack for Star Wars The Old Republic has officially gone live! While the public access date for Rise of the Hutt Cartel is still slated for April 14th, any player who placed a pre-order down on the digital expansion prior to January 7 this year will receive the early access to the content starting today, giving all pre-order players five days in which to get ahead of the crowd. With this new expansion comes a whole new story for both Republic and Imperial players to experience, centred around the Hutts vying to become a third military superpower in the galaxy. The expansion has also brought the level cap up to 55, meaning a whole new range of powers and abilities are now accessible for high level characters.
In addition to the core content, early access players will also be happy to note a few special bonuses, which they should find in their character mailboxes, namely: A new Makrin Seedling pet; the Dr. Oggurobb Hutt Holostatue; and lastly an exclusive character title “Scourge of the Hutts.” Game update 2.0 will officially update all players with new content, but to get the most out of it, players are encouraged to secure a digital version of the expansion pack to get the full experience.
For those who missed out on the early access, don’t fret all too much. Rise of the Hutt Cartel will be made publicly available on April 14th. Check out the trailer as well below!
Warner Bros. Games Montreal has taken the mantle of the next Batman game from Rocksteady Studios. The cover for the upcoming May issue for GameInformer has revealed that game to be Batman: Arkham Origins.
The game will likely maintain the same look and feel of past Batman games, given that Warner Bros. Games Montreal has access to the same modified Unreal Engine that Rocksteady used when developing the first two titles in the series. Arkham Origins is set to take place years before the prior games when an “unrefined” Batman is being hunted by 8 world-class assassins on Christmas Eve, of all days. Fans of the series will recognize the assassin Deathstroke on the back cover (above), who will be making his debut in an Arkham game.
Arkham Origins will be in your hands sooner than you might expect. The game is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC on October 25, 2013. Check out the trailer below, which shows the team at WB Games Montreal explaining their vision and some of the early concept art.
For the full write-up, check out GameInformer’s page here. Stay tuned here for more news on Arkham Origins coming soon.
I had the chance yesterday to get some hands-on time with the PlayStation 3 version of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, courtesy of Namco Bandai. The demo was restricted to 10 minute bursts, featuring four characters in Luffy, Nami, Kuzan and Trafalgar Law.
The game has been out in Japan for a little over three weeks and is in the early stages of the full English localization treatment with its Western release planned for Q3 of this year on the PS3 and PS Vita. Thankfully, I was given an English fact sheet, which included the control scheme…or else I would have had to learn Japanese QUICK! There were two tutorial levels available for play: Sky Island and Punk Hazard – as well as one unnamed (or more accurately, untranslated) stage of the game’s first chapter.
Now, although each character had stats written underneath their name in the character selection screen, I understandably couldn’t make out exactly what each bar represented so my choice of character was quite random. Also, I am not the most familiar with One Piece, so imagine my amazement at discovering my first pick of Kuzan is pretty much a 9 foot giant! I chose Sky Island as my playground and jumped right in. All the enemies (pirates/navy clearly distinguished by their red clothing) looked like ants next to this guy!
I quickly acclimated myself to the controls, which are largely what you’d expect from a Dynasty Warriors style action game; ‘square’ for your “normal” attack, ‘triangle’ for your “ranged attack”, ‘X’ to dodge/dash and ‘O’ to execute an “ultimate attack”. These are the basics, but then you also have a “style” and “special” attack at your disposal, executed by pressing ‘R1’ and ‘R2’ respectively. During gameplay, I honestly had no knowledge of the “special attack” functionality and so I didn’t end up using it. It is governed by a yellow gauge under the health bar, that fills up as your hit count rises.
Part of the reason why I didn’t discover that ability is because the “ultimate attacks” used up the same meter, and so I assumed that was its sole purpose. Kuzan’s “style attack”, or Haki, makes him much faster and allows for longer hit chains for a short period of time. This ability is made possible once a vertical gauge fills and the ‘R1’ prompt flashes on the screen, letting you know it is available. As for your base form of offense, different combinations of face button presses result in unique attacks and combos.
Kuzan’s special power revolves around ice, and so these combos involved manifesting a massive “ice block” (which it actually sounded like he said) that he drops on opponents, a radiant frost that freezes and damages all enemies within a certain radius, a bombardment of bullet-like icicles and more. His “ultimate attack” is a linear freeze blast that reaches out and forward all the way to the end of the screen, destroying all enemies in its path. Enemy opposition – despite their high numbers – was weak, doing barely any damage and rarely even hitting me. That’s not to say I’m amazing at the game…or maybe I am. Yeah, let’s settle on that as the truth.
The mini-map on the top right displays your location, the zones under enemy control and where your comrades are fighting (A.I. partners in this instance). Having not played the first game, taking my first glance at the mini-map explained all I needed to know about the purpose of the game; wipe-out the pirates/navy in each area and overtake it. It’s pretty much a take on the “domination/zones” game type, except there’s no apparent threat of them being reclaimed. Almost every zone will hold/spawn a stronger general that you can lock onto by clicking in the right analog stick. Although they are more imposing physically, they pose little threat.
Strewn throughout the map are treasure chests that can be opened with a normal attack, and will hold items that boost either of your meters or coins, which you can later spend on upgrading your character’s attributes (these items are also sparsely dropped by the enemies). Short cinematic camera shots also play as you progress, alerting you to specific points of interest, such as a newly accessible area of the map. Soon enough, my ten minutes abruptly came to an end as an end-slate shows for a few seconds before returning me to the main menu. I hopped right back in though…
This time I chose Trafalgar Law on the 1st chapter stage. Objectives stay the same, as does the core gameplay. Stylistically, each character differs, but fundamentally they aren’t too different. What I did notice and utilise with both (and would probably be enabled for Nami too) was the ability to call upon Luffy by pressing ‘O’ after activating a Haki. I believe this is tied directly to the ‘special meter’ and effectively gives you momentary control over the lead character, who seemed much more powerful. It almost functioned like a tag-in, tag-out mechanic, but I didn’t see the ultimate advantages of it. After more of the same for the following 10 minutes, I decided that I got the gist of the game.
Visually, it’s an exciting title as the action is fast and heavy (not Bayonetta fast, mind you). The worlds are colourful and I’m sure fans of the franchise will greatly appreciate it; surely much more than myself. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see it sustaining my interest in the long-run. I usually gravitate to more story-driven, clearly defined goal-oriented games rather than the simple “clear this area” gameplay exhibited here. There are hints of an underlying plot following a “New World” storyline crafted specifically for the game, but with the build being in Japanese I definitely wasn’t able to follow it.
I would love to see more of the game once it’s closer to being translated completely, but also because I’m intrigued to see if there will be any further polish. The game is made to reflect the show’s visual look and feel, but the overall visuals are not very detailed nonetheless. Home-grown, Japanese developed titles are known for having a decided focus on gameplay and a lack of one on graphical quality, with many current-gen games looking like PS2 titles. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, but those who care are not the target audience. It’s a niche product with a narrow appeal outside of Japan; if you love One Piece, you will undoubtedly want to give this a shot. It was made for you.
