Despite the horrible press the game has received since launch, it seems many consumers will either not research a game they are picking up or are so die hard they will buy anything a company puts out, even if it has a number of issues and is practically unplayable the week of launch.
Today EA announced that SimCity has managed to sell over 1.1 million copies. This makes it the fastest selling SimCity so far and roughly 50% of these are for the digital version of the game. Of course when the game requires an online connection and functioning servers, any version may as well be digital.
EA is trying to make amends with their fans after the horrific launch issues the game suffered which made it so that gamers could not play the game that they paid $60 for. Beginning today, anyone who has activated their copy of SimCity should have been sent an email with instructions on how to download one of the following games for free:
Battlefield 3(Standard Edition)
Bejeweled 3
Dead Space 3(Standard Edition)
Mass Effect 3(Standard Edition)
Medal of Honor Warfighter(Standard Edition)
Need For Speed Most Wanted(Standard Edition)
Plants vs. Zombies
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
The redemption portal will be live for everyone by March 22nd but you must register your copy of SimCity before March 25th and claim your free game before the end of March 30th. How ironic is it that they are offering SimCity 4 as a free game?
With the first video for Pokemon Rumble U – the newest addition to the Pokemon Rumble spin-off series – came the reveal of a physical element to gameplay. The franchise will feature a line of figures that will be used to interact with game itself, similar to the recent Skylanders series of games. The figures will work with the Wii U’s game pad, utilising the inbuilt near field communication (NFC) sensor to add the character data into the game. As of yet, 7 figures have been revealed with 6 regular and 1 special. The regular figures consist of Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Torchic, Piplup, Lucario and Victini, whilst the special promotional figure is an alternate, stronger Pikachu.
The figures are also customisable in nature. Using points acquired in game, players can increase the strength or alter the attack of a Pokemon and return the new information to the figure. This allows players to use their specialised figure as a miniature save file, granting use of the Pokemon on any system. The game will feature all 649 Pokemon, adding Keldeo, Genesect and Meloetta, who were previously absent from the Rumble series. It will also allow for 1-4 simultaneous players as well as a grand total of 100 Pokemon able to battle at any given time.
Check out the 2nd trailer for Pokemon Rumble U below (Japanese)!
Bandai have deployed a trailer with subtitles for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Gundam Seed Destiny. Following a similar release format as the last remaster, Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny will be released in both limited and standard editions, split into four boxes with three discs each starting from June 21, September 25, December 25 and finally March 26 2014. The limited edition will contain a special storage box designed by the character and animation staff, disc jacket, booklet, audio commentary, clean opening and promotional videos.
While there is no sign of these remasters ever making their way overseas yet, Bandai are kind enough to ship Gundam Seed Destiny with English subtitles making this an import-friendly title. There is a catch, however, as typical of a Japanese release it might not be wallet-friendly. The limited edition will set fans back 21,000 yen (AUD$212) while the standard edition comes at a no-less comforting 18,900 yen (AUD$190). Multiply this by four and you might just have to sell a kidney!
Gundam Seed Destiny continues the story established in Gundam Seed, where a tenuous peace now exists between the Naturals of Earth and the Coordinators on the space colonies called PLANT. During a meeting between PLANT Chairman Gilbert Dullindal and the neutral Orb Representative Cagalli Yutha Athha an unknown squad of soldiers hijack the new Gundams being secretly built on PLANT, sparking the second Bloody Valentine War. Divisive among Gundam fans, the Cosmic Era timeline that encompasses Seed has proven to continue to sell well as a franchise.
The trailer for the HD remaster of Gundam Seed Destiny can be seen below.
Jon M. Chu – the director of ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’ – took some time to talk to us, as part of a round-table about his move into action blockbusters. He may have found fame through films such as ‘Step Up 2’ and ‘Justin Bieber: Never Say Never’, but Jon is determined to attack every genre Hollywood puts in front of him. That’s not to say he didn’t learn anything from that experience however. We only managed to get a couple questions in with our limited time, but it was a true pleasure.
SPOILERS:Much like in our interview with two of the film’s stars Adrianne Palicki and DJ Cotrona (read here), we make mention of a particular event in the film that has a great effect on the plot moving forward and the characters’ motivations. It was revealed online many months ago, so it’s not exactly news. HOWEVER, there are a few other scenes referenced as well, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Some of the cast have made the distinction that you’re not a ‘dance’ director as some of your films may imply, but rather you’re all about movement. Can you describe that distinction and how that affected your approach to the film?
I was never a dancer. I got into the ‘Step Up’ movies just because it was an opportunity, I jumped in and I got to meet a lot of dancers but what I love – what I grew up on – was movement. Storytelling in movement. John Wayne walking onto a porch says more in his swagger than a paragraph of dialogue could ever say.
So when you have people like ‘The Rock’ and Bruce walking in, I love that we can tell what type of character they are by how they retreat or fight back when they get hit. The type of morality they have when they watch a victim or anything die or anything they kill. We have a lot of time and a lot of characters we have to communicate very fast, to our detriment actually because we have a lot to do but it’s stuff we have to communicate very quickly. To me that’s fascinating. I love that kind of stuff. To have an eight minute sequence without dialogue to me was so fly. I love that challenge.
Again, the dancers, what I learnt from the dancers is, yeah there’s a guy who can spin on his head and there’s this guy who can do all this stuff but that’s not actually what people respond to. What people respond to is what it means to that person who is spinning on their head or if you’re cutting around the whole time nobody understands how or what this person is actually doing. With dancers I could actually do this stuff physically. Sometimes you don’t do anything with the camera, sometimes you step back and let the guy do his thing and maybe just push in a little bit and feel that power. One of the great advice that I got was ‘the shots don’t lie, film makers lie so get the fuck out of the way and let the shot play.’ A lot of the time with Bruce and Dwayne you just let them do their thing and get out of their way.
The delays have been talked about and reported online. What was it like in that time-frame when you had to go back and shoot extra scenes with Channing and Dwayne after getting that feedback?
All those things aren’t true. We didn’t go back in. When we were reading about it, ‘right, that’s interesting, we’re not shooting anything right now’. In the delay, we did shoot a day or two before all that, like December or something like that.
We shot the video game scene, which was a bit of fun. We just wanted a bit of humour in the movie so it wouldn’t feel so heavy because when you kill a whole bunch of people, when you destroy London, I mean… That was way before the delay. When the delay happened we literally didn’t shoot anything. We were full-on trying to get 3D and we spent ages. We had over 700 artists and 300 shots. Each shot we needed to make fifteen, twenty different versions. It was a gruelling marathon at all times.
I thought it was funny, it hurt – I was like ‘they don’t know and they’re making up all this stuff!’ Paramount’s rules were don’t say anything and let it ride, we’ll deal with it when we do. When the next trailer came out people were like ‘See they shot more stuff, he’s alive!’ I couldn’t say no he’s still dead because I wanted that to be a surprise too. It was funny just to see how people take it and run with it.
Well it’s good to have that cleared up because that was commonly spread as gospel online. Thanks for this Jon!
Also check out our interview with Storm Shadow himself – Byung-hun Lee. G.I. Joe Retaliation will be out in cinemas on the 28th of March. Our review will be up days earlier on March 25th.
Byung-hun Lee is a one of the leading actors of what is known as the “Korean Boom” in television and film. A mega-superstar in Korea, Byung-hun is finding growing international popularity, and not just in Asia either.
Films like ‘Addicted’, ‘A Bittersweet Life’, ‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ and ‘I Saw the Devil’ have given him critical acclaim alongside the mainstream television success he has enjoyed in his home country of South Korea – such as with ‘Iris’, which was adapted into a feature-length film.
As part of a round-table, we managed to get in a few questions with the magnetic actor as he visited Australia promoting G.I. Joe: Retaliation, in which he reprises his role as Storm Shadow.
How did you feel about swapping from being super-evil in ‘Rise of Cobra’ to siding with the Joes this go around? How do you feel about your character changing?
It’s a turning point. Seriously, I really like Storm Shadow. He’s selfish; he goes on his own way. Actually he doesn’t care about what G.I Joe is or what Cobra is. He goes his way. He just takes advantage of their purpose. Even though their purpose is different he just uses them. If you saw the movie, he just went his way. He refused Snake Eyes’ suggestions. He just refused them and went his way. That’s his turning point.
What’s the biggest difference between acting in a big film in Korea like ‘I Saw the Devil’ and filming something like ‘G.I. Joe’ and ‘G.I. Joe 2’?
I really like those movies, actually (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil), that’s why I work with him (Ji-woon Kim) a lot. It’s not commercial film. There a lot of ideas of my work and his work but you cannot tell it’s a commercial film. I really want to do what I really want in Hollywood but this (G.I. Joe) would be my really good chance for a career. This is a really big budget movie, it’s going to be released all over the world, and if they think ‘oh hey, it’s really good’ finally I can choose what I really want. So I think this is a process.
Seeing as American films import a lot of foreign films for remakes, is there something you’ve been a part of that you’d actually be interested to see remade in the American style?
Somebody already bought A Bittersweet Life and Addicted, one of my romance movies…romance and mystery. I don’t want to join those remakes.
Is that because you’ve already done it and it would be uninteresting to play the same character – or a slightly different version of it – again?
Doing the same character is not a reason actually. I don’t think it’s boring, but I think that’s (the Korean original) the best one. If I make the same one I don’t feel confident that I can make it better. It’s got its own environment and mood that movie, so I don’t want to change the colour of the movie.
Of course, you guys just came from the premiere in Seoul; what was the reaction like in Korea?
Mostly, they’re working in the movie industry (those at the showing) and they like it. Korean people, they concentrated more about my performance compared to the story. It’s not right, it’s not fair actually. They just concentrated about me. “Wow, you’re better than in the first one!” Most of the reaction was like that; I couldn’t share the exact reaction of the movie but I think they enjoyed it.
Now that Chan-wook Park and Ji-Woon Kim have also made the transition over to Hollywood, do you catch up with them and do you see yourself reuniting with either and working with them in America?
You know when I was filming G.I. Joe 2 they were working in other states. Park was working on ‘Stoker’ and Kim was working on ‘The Last Stand.’ We just texted each other and talked on the phone, they said “this is crazy and I want to go home.” [Laughter] The system is so different in America. The studio and the producer is much stronger but not in Korea. In Korea, the director is king. He can change everything – even the budget sometimes! So they must have a lot of hard times. Then I finished and they finished and we three met in L.A. We didn’t talk about that. We talked and complained. I could tell that they think “I really want to work with Korean actor” and I do with them. With this kind of great director and a Hollywood movie would be awesome. Maybe they are thinking like that.
It would be awesome to see a reunion with either, or both! Thanks for your time!
Check out our interviews with fellow cast-mates Adrianne Palicki and DJ Cotrona and director Jon M. Chu. You’ll be able to see Byung-hun Lee in ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’ nationwide on the 28th of March this year. Our review will be up days earlier on March 25th. In the meanwhile, check out this clip of Storm Shadow taking on his arch nemesis Snake Eyes.
With ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’s’ release imminent, we were given a series of round-table interviews with the stars during their media trip to Australia (part of a global premiere run). Our first was with Adrianne Palicki, who plays Lady Jaye, and DJ Cotrona, who plays Flint.
Adrianne was recently featured in the remake of ‘Red Dawn,’ as well as having great success with the TV show ‘Friday Night Lights’. She was slated to play Wonder Woman in the self-titled television series and shot the pilot, but the show was not picked up.
DJ Cotrona is also extending himself into more feature-film work after starring alongside fellow ‘Joe’ Channing Tatum in Dear John in 2010. He was a principal cast member on the TV series’ ‘Detroit 1-8-7’ (2010-2011).
SPOILERS: We reference one particular event in the film in our questions that has a sizeable effect on the film’s plot. It was revealed online many months ago, so it’s not exactly news. BUT, we still don’t want to ruin anything for those who don’t already know, so you’ve been warned.
How familiar were you guys with the franchise before taking on these roles?
DJ Cotrona: Intimately so. It had a hand in raising me. I was obsessed with it. My brother was, and you were too [to Adrianne].
Adrianne Palicki: Yes!
DJ:So to actually get to be a part of the film version of it was a childhood dream.
You’ve worked with Channing before, so are you guys good friends?
DJ:Yeah, we’ve been friends for a while. We like to bond over army uniforms and hold each other. Look at each other longingly and have emotional ‘cry moments’.
AP:He got really awkward off set ’cause you guys do that randomly.
DJ:Yeah, I helped him practice for Magic Mike. ‘Chan’s’ the best; I’ve known him for a while, he’s a great guy and it was a lot of fun doing something with him.
Did you get a lot of time together on set seeing as he got killed off within like, 15 minutes?
DJ:As long as I get an emotional scene with Chan down in the dirt… Sarcasm doesn’t translate to text I just realised. [Laughter]
What was it like working with Jon, the director. Given his dance background and everything he’s done, did you find that background translated well into shooting an action film?
AP: Absolutely, it really does translate. The movement he has with cameras and the way he sees things, also he’s around our age so it was one of those situations where we became fast friends. He didn’t feel like this crazy superior guy, it felt very collaborative and we worked together. He was our buddy.
DJ:We were playing. We were literally playing with our friend. There was no pressure; it was about all of us throwing out ideas and pointing out the best one. I think Jon is a brilliant director. I think he’s got really good taste. Aesthetically, he likes to capture kinetic movement, whether it’s a dance movie or a giant action movie, he’s really impeccable. Everybody always jumps and says he’s the dancing movie director but that will end very quickly. He’s very talented and I think he’ll move up quickly.
How did Jon go about getting movement from you?
AP:Everything we had really was very choreographed. We had phenomenal stunt coordinators. It was one of those situations too; John is very visual. We’d be working for days on a fight sequence and then get to the set on the day and he’d be like ‘I don’t like the way that looks’ and immediately we’d have to…
DJ:Amazing looking things too…
AP: ‘I just don’t feel like this is going to flow with this.’ He was editing it blind so on the fly Steve, our stunt coordinator would say ‘this is what we’re going to do…’ He has this very specific brain that I think makes the movie flow very well.
As fans, what was your favourite thing to see materialise on screen?
DJ:The pontoon boat, I had that thing! I played with that thing in the bathtub. The Cobra helicopter, I had that thing. So much of it was… Everyday you’d show up on set to go and do your job and you’d look and there’d be this giant toy. You get so distracted.
AP:All of a sudden you’re a child again. It’s your job – this is awesome!
Are you guys worried you’re going to be killed off in the next movie after what happened with Channing?
DJ:You know what? No, no. Wait…yeah, now I am. Thank you… [Laughter]
AP:Fingers crossed.
We hope not either. Thanks for your time guys!
Check out our interviews with fellow cast-mate Byung-hun Lee and director Jon M. Chu. You can watch ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’ when it’s released nationwide on the 28th of March. Our review will be up days earlier on March 25th.
The Kickstarter for 2D space shmup Humans Must Answer has been going for almost a week, so developer Sumom Games has released a public beta demo of the project. That’s right, not a backers only beta demo, but one that anybody can download to play for themselves.
With four levels to play through, but nothing finalized to say the least, the public demo is the prefect way for those looking to see more about the game as it continues to work towards its goal. The developers are also wanting feedback from all those that play the demo to help improve the game during its development.
Players can find out more about Humans Must Answer from the trailer embedded below before downloading the demo, as well as the whole wealth of information on their Kickstarter page HERE, where links to the public beta demo can be found. Players can also find the game on Steam Greenlight HERE.
Spellgun Studio’s social MMORPG on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad as soft launched. The game has been rolled out to the Canadian App Store and will be released world wide in the coming weeks. Legacy of a Thousand Suns was first released on Facebook in 2010 and boasts 20,000 players daily. The game has now made the jump to iOS. The sci fi adventure sends the player on an epic journey to rescue Princess Illaria of the Sian Empire from enemy forces. The art style fuses ancient Chinese fantasy with high quality sci-fi setting.
A Legacy of a Thousand Suns is available now on the Canadian iTunes App Store here. New content for the game will be rolled out every two to four weeks.
Today Square Enix has released a few more details and a handful of screenshots for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. The game will feature a new area which is being called “The Dead Dunes” and Lightning will have two new abilities this time around.
The first ability is called “Lightspeed” which will consume EP (energy points) which, when used in battle, will slow down time, freezing opponents in their tracks while Lightning launches a blistering assault. The second ability is simply called “Recovery” which is as it sounds like. The spells consume EP but allow Lightning to cast various recovery spells on herself.
Byung-hun Lee is a one of the leading actors of what is known as the “Korean Boom” in television and film. A mega-superstar in Korea, Byung-hun is finding growing international popularity, and not just in Asia either.
With ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’s’ release imminent, we were given a series of round-table interviews with the stars during their media trip to Australia (part of a global premiere run). Our first was with Adrianne Palicki, who plays Lady Jaye, and DJ Cotrona, who plays Flint.
