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Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 Review

March 24, 2013

Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 Review
Studio: J.C.Staff
Publisher: FUNimation
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Release Date: March 26, 2013
Price: $69.98 – Available Here

Overview:
Long running anime series in Japan can be rather rare. Outside of your average shōnen anime, many series are lucky to receive two anime seasons before leaving readers with an unfinished show. However Shakugan no Shana has managed to make it to the end, to Shakugan no Shana Final as it is called in Japan and referenced multiple times in the series itself. After reviewing so many Shana releases, we have come to the Shakugan no Shana Season 3. Does part one of this final season heat things up? Let’s find out.

Story:
It has been a long time coming, but with Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1’s beginning, fans begin their final journey with the cast as the series enters its final season. Because of this, anyone intrigued by the series is almost required to watch the copious amounts of Shana that have already been released if they hope to understand anything that occurs in the season. Therefore, we’re going to jump straight into the plot without covering the basics.

At the end of season two of Shakugan no Shana, Yuji finally is ready to make a choice between Shana and Yoshida, however on that faithful Christmas Eve night Yuji suddenly vanished. Just like any other Torch, everything related to Yuji has been removed from the world and everyone close to him who doesn’t know about The Crimson Realm has forgotten that he ever existed. Despite this, Shana holds out hope that Yuji is still alive and continues to train in Misaki City, visits his mother and attends school.

However when Yuji appears back into their lives, he has changed drastically. For the man Shana and Yoshida once knew has changed, and instead he has given himself over to the leader of Bal Masqué, the “Snake of the Festival.” Yuji remains conscious within the Snake of the Festival as their two goals coincide with one another, and as he reveals his plans to the Flame Haze present, it is clear that war is on the horizon. However, can Shana possibly fight against someone she holds so dear?

This third and final season benefits from the massive build-up the first two seasons and OVA collection have provided by allowing viewers to continue at a rather brisk pace throughout Part 1 here. Viewers know what is at stake and they know the relationships of those involved and while the first couple of episodes are focused on a bit of backstory and going over some of the events that occurred during the minor time-skip between season two and three, the rest of the series escalates quickly as the Bal Masqué forces begin to target the Outlaw organizations and launch a full scale war.

Before we get into the characters viewers already know, it is worth noting that there are numerous characters introduced on both sides of the war here, though it is probably best not to grow too attached to any specific character because once battle is joined, blood is spilled on both sides where unique battles take place featuring powers we have never seen before clashing against one another. However where this action begins to shine the brightest is when Shana Season 3 begins to draw upon its vast character library and draws characters into the fray that viewers haven’t seen in quite some time.

Despite most of Season 3 focusing heavily on action and the various battles between the Flame Haze and Bal Masqué, there is a decent bit of character development here, though most of the development comes from the minor-plotline involving Margery and her hunt for the Silver. Throughout the Shana series Margery has always been a bit of an aloof drunkard who was only serious once she had to fight, however here viewers are shown a side of the character they may not have expected as her and Keisaku grow.

Of course Shana and Snake of the Festival are also given some mild developments, though thanks to events that occur early in Part 1 Shana is out of commission for quite some time which allowed for the aforementioned focus on war and side-characters. Snake of the Festival unfortunately isn’t detailed too heavily so far in Part 1 however and Yuji’s co-operation can be seen as questionable at best, but Shana finds herself determined to stop at nothing to put a stop to Snake of the Festival and either free or convince Yuji that his chosen path is wrong.

Ultimately Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 progresses rapidly as the story barrels towards a finish. The Flame Haze and Bal Masqué have engaged in full scale combat with new characters and old begin to fight for their lives and their ambitions. Everything has been laid on the table and with a great stare down ending; Part 1 will leave viewers quickly reaching for Part 2 to see how things turn out.

Visuals:
The Shakugan no Shana series has become a rather interesting title to review over the past few months thank to the fact that while their release in North America has happened within five months of the first season’s re-release, the Japanese releases began back in 2005 and trickled out every few years from then. Because of this we’ve been presented gradual improvements of the series’ art style over the years and with Shakugan no Shana Season 3 being the most recent, viewers are in for a real treat.

While nearly all returning characters haven’t seen a change in character design, the overall quality presented here is represented throughout the cast, both new and old. As for the action itself, every battle scene throughout part one remained consistently impressive without noticeable drops in visual quality and thanks to the wide-reaching nature of the fights in Shana Season 3 Part 1, the locales not only impressively detailed but also varied enough to keep things interesting.

It is worth noting that a couple of episodes do feature ending credits playing over the action. These are actually the English credits placed into FUNimation’s release and at least two episodes in Part 1 continue to play throughout the credits and it is very annoying to try and watch the events occurring in the last couple minutes of these episodes with large credits all over the place.

Audio:
The same cast of voice actors from the second season, movie and OVA releases have returned to reprise their roles and as one would expect, the Japanese voice track is available in this release as well. As for the English dub quality, the cast remains in top form and Josh Grelle has managed to adapt his voice work for Yuji quite nicely since he began working on the series. It is also worth noting that the company has done a great job alternating the voice work for Yuji and Snake of the Festival as two separate voices are provided and this is accentuated nicely by subtle shifts in the character’s facial design.

As for the background music in this release, it is rather rudimentary and expected so it unfortunately can be rather forgetful at times. However one thing that deserves praise is amazing use of the series’ ending theme “I’ll Believe” by ALTIMA. Numerous times throughout this release the ending song’s first verse began playing before the episode ended. This was usually done with dramatic or emotional ending sequences and almost without fail I was given the chills each time it played. As for the opening song in Part 1, we have “Light my Fire” by KOTOKO which works as a solid opener for the series, especially with this half’s focus on action.

Extras:
As far as bonus features go, Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 comes with one noteworthy extra alongside somewhat expected features. There is a textless version of both the opening and ending songs as well as trailers for other FUNimation releases but there is also another Shana-Tan short included as well as two episode commentaries featured in this release.

The Shana-Tan episode is called “Shakugan no Shana-Tan Final Destruction and it clocks in at nine minutes long but unfortunately it only features the Japanese voice work with English subtitles. The short is a nice comedic break from the drama of the season 3, however even in this comedic mini the drama permeates near the end.

Part 1 features Episode 4 commentary as well as one for episode 7. Episode 4 features commentary by Jerry Jewell who is the director for this season and the ADR Engineer Alyssa Galindo. These two discuss a lot of technical aspects of the show and Galindo admits that she is a bit confused by Shana since this third season is the first one for her. As for Episode 7, we have Jerry Jewell again and Josh Grelle the voice of Yuji.

Overall:
With the past seasons and side-material working as a base for nearly everything that occurs in this season, Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 feels like the beginning of the end. With everything on the table and the balance of the world in danger and only a few flaws, this release places viewers in the midst of a large scale conflict that throws new and old characters into impressively animated combat while not forgetting about the emotional ties that hold Shana and the rest together.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Princess Jellyfish Review

Benjamin Webb

March 24, 2013

Princess Jellyfish
Studio: Brainbase
Publisher: Siren Visual
Format: DVD
Release Date: Out Now
Price: $49.95 (Buy Here)

Overview

An Anime series about a group of Otaku, social outcasts due to being insanely obsessed over things, seems like it would be an ideal Anime series for real life Otaku. And, at its core, this is what Princess Jellyfish is. However, even corer to that, this is a self-insert Mary Sue series designed for female viewers.

This is a construct that may alienate a lot of male viewers. Even further, the primary demographic of Anime is still a male one. How did I find this series to be? Read on to find out.

Story

Princess Jellyfish follows the story of a group of social outsiders that each follow their own sort of niche fandom. Each of the main casts interests range from Jellyfish to Trains. What makes this interesting is that each of the main characters have an aversion to a group of people that they refer to as the stylish. As you can probably guess, the story quickly becomes interesting when one of the stylish assists the main character, Tsukimi, in the rescue of a Jellyfish from certain death within the tank of a petshop.

Since the rescue of the Jellyfish, now named Clara, the Stylish “woman” and Tsukimi begin to spend more and more time together until the two characters end up becoming the sole main characters of the show. These two characters are a great combination. Well actually, the way all the characters interact are great until the show decided that it needs some forced drama and then it just starts to feel really needlessly over the top in drama.

The best example of this in the series is when the main Stylish trap-dudes brother is the love interest for Tsukimi but then he is seduced by this woman and they’re at his place. The two girl is waiting in the car and as soon as the drama begins with the trap guys brother and the rest of the family, the trap guy and Tsukimi just happen to arrive at the perfect moment to have everything even more dramatic.

Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with this but the series started off so well and I’m not entirely sure why they dropped the initial comedy theme and went down the drama route. Even though there was plenty of drama that just happened to be timed to events, there still seemed to be an even larger element at play in the series. This element? The incredibly blatant Mary Sue-ism.

Let’s take a look at this in a way that makes it seem blatantly clear that the show is a Mary Sue story. First of all we have the main character that is plain enough for a girl to self insert into, but also pretty enough that it is believable that the handsome men will fall for her antics. Next, the main character is strange, all her friends are strange, but still – in comparison to them – she is normal enough that she is never the strangest person she knows. Even further, she finds that all of the handsome main characters will fall for her for reasons that help perpetuate the self-insert image. Oh, she changes just slightly from her usual ways and suddenly she attracts a new person but then her usual behaviour is just suddenly starting to attract another man and then all of the sudden she starts developing feelings for him because of no reason other than she can act herself around him.

As a male in real life, I found it incredibly hard to self-insert into the series at the appropriate moments, so I couldn’t connect with a scene as intensely as the director would have liked. This is what made it difficult to build a connection with any of the characters even though, like them, I’m a hardcore Otaku myself. In fact, out of all of the cast, I found the cross-dresssing trap character the most relatable cast member. However, this just may be due to my own tendencies (err… not that I cross-dress or anything), rather than he being a character that is relatable for most males.

Visuals

Despite this show having a strong fashion element, anything that wasn’t dolled up within the show looked incredibly plain. Not that there is anything wrong with a bit of contrast, especially in a show that needs to show the aesthetic differences pretty people and Otaku people (which is odd, because Otaku people that I know in real life are generally the prettier ones).

Actually, I really quite enjoyed all of the different fashions in the show, especially on the main trap character. I’m not some massive fashion afficionado, I don’t cross-dress and I really wouldn’t know anything about clothing except that I enjoy looking at what I enjoy looking at. Where I’m going with this is that I like the designs on the male cross-dressing lead. It provided an exemplary contrast to the exaggeratingly plain look that the rest of the main cast had.

The one thing I’m kind of annoyed at was the surprising abundance of Jellyfish. I know it’s called Princess Jellyfish and all, but still, way too much Jellyfish in this show. Like really, there is a lot.

Audio

Oddly enough, this is one of the few times where the English dub is clearly the superior dub on a release. I’m not sure why, but the Japanese dub sounded really subpar and a lot of the characters didn’t sound like they represented their personalities all that well.

What was really bad about this release was that on the first disc of the series, the language defaulted to the English language without subtitles, however, the second disc defaults to the Japanese language without subtitles. And, for some ungodly reason, it keeps switching tracks between episodes, meaning that you have to keep switching back to the superior English dub every episode.

Extras

Do errors count as an undocumented feature? Seriously though, Princess Jellyfish comes with a few extras in the form of Special Features. These include both commentaries and trailers. These can be found on the second disc (is episode 11 commentary only). However, on the first disc, we only have the commentary for the first episode. The case also includes a cool inner artwork that leaves the interior of the case fairly interesting to glance at.

Overall

Princess Jellyfish is an Anime series that is purpose built for viewers to self insert into. The series is so blatantly Mary Sue that unless you’re able to self insert into the main character, you will not be able to enjoy this series at its fullest. While it has some entertaining moments, I feel that unless all viewers can appreciate it at a similar level, it doesn’t work as a feature.

Next Mass Effect “Fresh and New”, Bioware Also Working on New IP

Zac Elawar

March 24, 2013

Next Mass Effect “Fresh and New”, Bioware Also Working on New IP

Over at PAX East in Boston today, Mass Effect series Executive Producer Casey Hudson teased those in attendance during a Mass Effect Trilogy panel with some tidbits on the future of the franchise, a brand-new IP in the works and an update on the announced Mass Effect film.

On the next entry in the franchise, Hudson stated;

“We are starting to get ready to develop another Mass Effect game, and it’s going to be a new thing. We want to be able to give fans an opportunity to get back into the world with these things you’ve come to know and love about the Mass Effect experience but start something fresh and new—a new way for you to explore the whole universe in Mass Effect.”

The most interesting part of that statement is the phrase “a new way for you to explore”. It could just be an incidental choice of words, or it could possibly signal a genre twist for the franchise? A Destiny inspired level of social connectivity/exploration perhaps?

When speaking on an undisclosed non-Mass Effect project, this is what Hudson had to say;

“We are developing a whole new fictional universe at BioWare for myself and Preston [and other main Mass Effect trilogy creators.] That’s kind of our next thing. We’re focusing on building something new the way we did at the very beginning on Mass Effect.”

And finally, Hudson was optimistic and flat-out encouraging about the Legendary Pictures produced Mass Effect film;

“That hopefully should be seen as a good thing, because what we’re looking at are, I think, the right things to make sure it’s going to be a great movie. It’s not just going to be a movie; it’s going to be really special.”

What do you all expect from a new Bioware IP? And, do you think the Mass Effect film will be a rare exception to the game-to-film adaptation curse? Let us know.

Source: Kotaku

Another JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Commercial!

Frank Inglese

March 24, 2013

This makes three! Yes there’s another ad for the new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure game and, like all other footage of the game, it’s pretty flippin’ awesome and it’s getting me in the mood for some “Ora Ora Ora!” action. This particular ad is showing off the pre-order exclusive DLC character Yoshikage Kira; the psycho, serial killer and his Stand Killer Queen (Great song too).

This game has an incredible lineup, so far there has been about two dozen fighters announced that’ll be placed in the JoJo fray. Characters like Johnathan Joestar, Will A. Zeppeli, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Giorno Giovanna, Guido Mista, Noriaki Kakyouin, Jean Pierre Polnareff, JoJolion’s JoJo and more.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle is scheduled for release on the 29th of August this year and if you haven’t seen the kick-arse limited edition pack you better go check it out here. If you’re a true fan of Hirohiko Araki’s (Creator of JoJo) work you’ll definitely wanna pick this up.

Now go check out the featured video below to see the new commercial!

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Review

Joshua Moris

March 24, 2013

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC, Mac
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Price: $39.96 – Standard Edition; $79.99 – Collector’s Edition Edition

Overview
Very few titles make me giddy enough to want to sing Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, but StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm sure knows how to get this heart racing. Ever since Wings of Liberty – the first installment – was released, I knew I would be acquiring the latter instalments strictly based on the campaign storyline.

Wings of Liberty’s protagonist Jim Raynor has done everything in his power to bring Sarah Kerrigan (Queen of Blades) back to humanity. He has learned that the coming evil cannot be stopped unless the Zerg, Protoss, and Terran unite against the singular threat. Will Sarah be able to control the swarm in her human form? Who is aiding this ancient evil? Did Jim give up everything just to lose more? All questions will be answered and perhaps lead to more questions…

Story
Spawning from the existing cliffhanger of Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm enthralls you from start to end with cinematic clips in-between missions. While you are actually playing out the story through campaign mode, the meat of the story is developed in these small interchanges and continues to build the mystery of the intertwined characters. Blizzard has done extremely well in creating cinematic clips that makes the audience feel as though they are in the movie theater. This very aspect makes Heart of the Swarm addictive to play. Players will yearn to get to the next cut-scene to reveal the fate of their strategic exploits.

* CAUTION – May contain spoilers *

We find Sarah Kerrigan in a bit of a predicament at the very start of the campaign. The Terrans have her secluded in a secured base to test her Zerg controlling abilities in her reformed human state. Under the control of the Emperor’s renegade son – Prince Valerian, the Terran base has been made a temporary sanctuary/containment cell for the former Zerg Queen. Shortly after experimenting Kerrigan’s psionic prowess, the Terran facility becomes under attack from Emperor Mengsk’s forces containing an elite ghost unit, Nova. Kerrigan – no longer bound – joins up with Jim Raynor in trying to escape the facility. As Sarah crosses a platform to destroy a heavily armored Archangel unit, the bridge collapses separating Jim and Sarah once again (setting up a similar experience that determined Kerrigan’s fate). Sarah promises Jim that she will rendezvous with him upon the Hyperion, battlecruiser command center, and leaves with Jim’s airship. The Hyperion, however, cannot reach Jim due to being under heavy fire leaving Jim to fend for himself. Nova approaches and takes Jim as a prisoner.

And that is only the beginning of this epic tale. The story continues to build on the development of who Sarah is and who she has to be. This leads her to changing back into the Queen of Blades but with her own personal consciousness rather than being directed by an “Overmind”. A search for greater power or “essence” determines Kerrigan’s route to save Jim and be rid of the monster that is Arcturus Mengsk.

New characters join the fray in effort to make the Swarm stronger. One of the most interesting character’s is Abathur who takes on the role Zerg mad scientist. Through the collection of essence and genetic mutations, Abathur aids the Swarm in evolving different strains of DNA to make the Zerg more powerful/adaptable. Additionally, Kerrigan tries to remember why she had despised Abathur before in her previous experience as the Queen of Blades. The answer why shouldn’t surprise anyone that experienced the original StarCraft.

Gameplay
Most of my time in experiencing Heart of the Swarm has been dedicated strictly to playing the campaign. Thus, I will be discussing in detail the experiences involved in the campaign missions, achievements, and Kerrigan’s abilities. Campaign missions begin with a very different approach that has not normally been in the StarCraft franchise. A slightly more Warcraft III direction has been taken with Sarah Kerrigan acting as the hero using unique abilities in battle. Adding more of a Warhammer 40k feel, the Heart of the Swarm has instances were a boss battle will occur instead of the normal strategy of building units. This builds upon the complexity that Heart of the Swarm provides giving players something more to look forward to than a straight up collision of armies.

Abilities offer a subtle twist in the already interesting single player campaign. Sarah Kerrigan is able to gain “levels” by performing extra objectives during campaign missions whether by collecting Zerg essence or protecting an existing brood. As she increases in level, Sarah is able to acquire new abilities that can actively or passively help during missions. On such active ability unlocks at level 60, and Kerrigan can summon “Drop-Prods” of her Swarm as reinforcements. A total of 50 Zerg will be unleashed at that location doing damage by exploding drop-pods on ground contact.

When picking out a passive ability, it is important to plan understand how it will help you for the next mission. An ability called “Zergling Reconstitution” allows you to respawn 10 dead zerglings every 30 seconds until all zerglings are brought back to life. Other passive abilities can provide automated vespene geyser extraction, instant overload spawns, or even broodlings spawning from Kerrigan’s dead opponents.

After every mission – excluding evolution missions, there are certain achievements that can be completed. The basic achievements can be attained simply by completing the level, but more difficult achievements will have you complete a mission within a time frame or without losing much health with Kerrigan. Completing enough of these achievements will earn you more completion in the overall campaign.

Evolution missions do not offer any extra achievements, but they will decide your new DNA strain for your Zerg Swarm. For instance, you will have to choose between two very different strains of a single unit. Being a new unit of Heart of the Swarm, the swarm host is able to burrow on top of the ground and spawn locusts to attack ground units in a single area. The first strain that is shown allows the swarm host to burrow and create carrion locusts that fly and attack ground units. This can be used effectively when rifts separate units and locusts can fly over to attack units. The second strain is known as the creeper strain which allows the swarm host to tunnel deep within the ground and resurface in any available creep area. Such units can provide a quick defense for a separate base.

Beyond the campaign, the multiplayer offers some new units to experience. A total of 7 new units are available with 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, and 3 Protoss. First up are the Terran’s hellbat and widow mine. Hellbats are the mechanized transformation of the hellion unit and can cause splashed fire damage to ground units. While these units are useful against biological melee units, they can be easily deterred by armored units. I am happy that Blizzard was able to somewhat incorporate the original “firebat” unit. Widow mines are the latest crave among Terran users. These beautifully crafted mines are the altered form of past “spider mines”. A widow mine is a highly mobile unit that can burrow itself into the ground rendering itself undetectable from normal units. They build up explosive charges that can break through heavily armored units as well as attack air units; having a few of these around the command center could help prevent uninvited guests.

Both the swarm host and viper are new units exclusive to the Zerg race. Swarm hosts – previously mentioned – spawn locusts when planted into the ground. By learning to burrow, swarm hosts can be undetectable by normal units and an endless supply of locusts. However, locusts in multiplayer are only able to attack ground troops. The second unit called a viper is Blizzard’s redesign of a flying “defiler”. Vipers have the ability to consume health from player-owned biological objects and convert it into usable energy. This energy can be used to emit a blinding cloud that reduces ranged attacks to melee distance or to abduct a unit to the viper’s location. The latter ability becomes extremely useful when dealing with siege tanks or colossus.

Left to Right: Terran Hellbat, Zerg Swarm Host, Protoss Tempest

And finally the Protoss have three new units with the mothership core, oracle, and tempest. Unable to build a mothership right away? No need to fret because now Protoss lovers can build mothership cores fairly quick into the game. These little motherships can provide a quick escape to nearby units back to a nexus by using “Mass Recall” and can use “Time Warp” to reduce the speed of units entering the field by 50%. Once more resources are acquired, the mothership core can be upgrade to a mothership. Oracles are solely based on their abilities and the use of energy. They are able to use “Revelation” to reveal an area for 60 seconds by targeting an enemy unit or structure. Oracle’s “Envision” ability reveals cloaked, burrowed, or hallucinated objects for 60 seconds. Without an attack oracles would be rendered useless, so they have pulsar beams that are activated by draining 1.4 energy per second. The beams are an excellent harassment tool for probes, drones, or scvs. Last on the list is Protoss’s power house unit named tempest. Tempests are long distance shooters that somewhat resemble the Zerg’s guardian; however, this unit attacks both land and air units making it quite the commodity. One of the lagging skills of this air unit is that it has slow movement speed and can be taken out quite quickly if enough enemy air are in the area. Those in for the long haul would be wise to utilized a mothership alongside an armada of these beasty units.

Audio
Perhaps the only deterrence when considering sound quality is the guttural speaking of some Zerg characters. Abathur has almost a bubbling to his annunciation that makes some words hard to depict. A quick fix to this is having subtitles present making any conversation with Abathur easier to understand.

Tricia Helfer hands-down brings Sarah Kerrigan’s character to life. Whether it be her intensity or sheer passion for delving into her character, the Queen of Blades becomes a believable entity. One of the more difficult roles to play is that of a strong female presence holding back. With Helfer at the reigns this can directly be seen in a discussion with Prince Valerian just before an “invasion”. Kerrigan steps back from her usual role of being ruthless and showing no weakness to showing a smidgen of compassion for the sanctity of the Terrans.

Visuals
During cut-scenes with Abathur, you will notice that he occasionally spouts out saliva when speaking to Kerrigan. However, the distraction is that this saliva sometimes appears to be a blue/green glitch. I first questioned if this was on purpose because of Abathur’s nature of being the gene splicer of the Zerg and perhaps has an innate connection with technology. Yet the occurrence seemed unnatural and out of place that provides a minor distraction from the game’s content.

User interface has been overhauled to accommodate new features that Heart of the Swarm has brought. When accessing StarCraft II, players will be able to see a StarCraft news feed upon logging into their Battle.net account. A new menu selection appears on the left with campaign, multiplayer, arcade, and replays. Having purchased the Heart of the Swarm expansion will allow you access to the new campaign as well as to its multiplayer. Note that players can use the options menu to switch between Wing of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm multiplayer. If you cannot appreciate the beauty of Sarah Kerrigan, you can change the background as well to the planets theme.

Many new portraits, decals, and skins have been added for further interactive play. Perhaps placing your own insignia on your troops gets your jollies in a bundle? Well, plenty new visuals have been incorporated with the leveling system allowing players to unlock the content. Skins will actually alter the cosmetics of specific troops and even add special affects to their abilities. Leveling up you skills with individual races will unlock not only new skins but new portraits/decals.

Overall
Wings of Liberty was only the beginning for StarCraft II, and now we can see the internal seed blossom with Sarah Kerrigan in Heart of the Swarm. The greatest experience of this title had to be a well driven story that can earnestly be felt by its onlookers. Containing a vast amount of emotions that have been festering since StarCraft’s original release in 1998, Heart the Swarm places you in its treacherous bowels only to emerge with new understanding of its developing characters. Sarah Kerrigan said it best herself, “I did what I had to…” And I’m here to tell you that Sarah did it very well.

Fuse Dated for May 30th in Australia and May 31 in New Zealand

Jamie Laike Tsui

March 24, 2013

Fuse Dated for May 30th in Australia and May 31 in New Zealand

Insomniac GAmes and EA’s newest IP Fuse has been given an official launch date in Australia and New Zealand. The game will be released on May 30th in Australia and May 31 in New Zealand.

Fuse stars Dalton Brooks, Izzy Sinclair, Jacob Kimble, and Naya Deveraux in their battle to protect human kind from an alien invasion. All four must work together to survive. The game is designed to be played with friends or alone with the ability to take control of any of the four characters at the most critical moments.

Those who pre-order Fuse will get four Hyperion Prototype Agent Armor Skins, four Hyperion Prototype Weapon Skins, and the Quickdraw team perk.

Fuse will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Find out more about Fuse at the official website.

Dust: An Elysian Tail Coming to Steam

Mari Shishido

March 24, 2013

Dust: An Elysian Tail is now coming to Steam sometime soon. The creator, Dean Dodtrill, says on his facebook that there will be a lot of minor superficial changes but the game itself will be the same. For people with laptops, he says he will provide a wide range of visual options.

“For those with laptops, I’m working hard to allow a WIDE range of visual options, besides standard resolution options, to let you play on various hardware. Those with monster systems can also enable uncompressed character portraits, which look quite sharp.” -Dean Dodrill, Creator

To find out more you can visit the game’s official facebook here, and the twitter here. You can also check out the announcement trailer below.

What’s In Store For “Project Versus J”? We’ll Soon Find Out!

Frank Inglese

March 24, 2013

Now it’s safe to say that we don’t know a great deal about Project Versus J, what we do know is; it’s a Namco bandai developed fighting game that pits Toriko against One Piece against Dragon Ball Z. That alone is enough to get a Shonen Jumps fan excited! We also know that it’s set for the Playstation 3 and Vita. The game is made to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Shonen Jump Manga so we can expect there to be appearances, big or small, from a bunch of other Shonen Jumps favourites.

Do NOT turn away from this yet! Not even for a break because two days ago a site popped up, a Bandai-run site that teases the hell out of this! Basically the site is just a count down timer. It started at ten days but seeing as that was two days ago we’re now down to eight.

It’s entirely in Japanese but go and check out the site here.

Mass Effect 3 Stats Infographic

Mari Shishido

March 24, 2013

An infographic was released on the Mass Effect Twitter, detailing the choices of all Mass Effect players world wide. It is quite interesting to compare one’s playthroughs with the general populace, and knowing just how wrong they are.

Only 64% of players were able to see Wrex in Mass Effect 3, which majorly effects the game’s setting. Liara and Garrus are the most popular squad members, most likely because they have the most useful powers and the way the game is paced. 36% of players were able to save both the Quarians and the Geth and only 8% of players did not cure the Genophage, proving that humanity is still good.

64.5% of players were Paragon, leaving the rest to be renegade. Only 18% of players who completed the game played as femshep, which is consistant with the statistics of the last two games.

Look at the infographic below to find more details to compare your game to the rest of the world’s.

CC Impact! Presents the Defiance Beta

Joe Morgan

March 24, 2013

Have you ever read through the gaming news of the day or kept up with the new releases of the week and thought, “Man, I’d love to play this, but I can’t afford it right now,” or “I really need to wait until the weekend so I can finish my classwork and pass this calculus class!” We may have a resolution for you.

Now, you can let us show you the first half hour of games we’re playing. With our newest feature, CC Impact!, we’re looking to share our first impressions with you as we experience them. This may be new releases for the week, footage of demos or betas that we’re allowed to share, or something that’s been around for a while that we’re itching to show off .

When we’re first playing the game, we will be livestreaming the footage to our Twitch page. We’ll be sure to upload it to our YouTube page later for those that missed the livestream as well.

Check out Episode 1 of CC Impact! below, where editor Joe Morgan brings you his first impressions of the beta for the upcoming game Defiance. Be sure to leave a comment here or head on over to our YouTube page and leave a comment so we know what you think of our newest feature. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter, since we’ll let everyone know when a livestream begins that way.

Without further ado, here’s our inaugural episode of CC Impact! Defiance Beta Game Play!

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