I’m pretty sure a lot of us have played a tabletop RPG or two within our lifetimes (I have) and well, usually there’s just always something that’s just a little bit off and it’s usually the sound. Like, your DM is a metal-head who will only play heavy metal during your high fantasy sessions of Dungeons and Dragons. Or maybe you have a group that prefers silence for serious business.
Well now there is an app that you can download which will dramatically alter the soundscapes of your session. This piece of software is called Syrinscape and it essentially creates a unique soundscape based on a users needs. Whilst initially only coming with a small sample of soundscapes, the app (available on PC and mobile platforms) will allow gamers to purchase additional soundscapes to further boost their in game experiences. The app itself is free, but players will be able to purchase additional soundscapes for $2.99 or gain access to 15 soundscapes over 6 months with a once off $15 subscription.
Be sure to check out the official site for more info. The app is currently available on the PC and Android markets.
Microprose, together with Atari, announced today that Special Forces: Team X (STX) is now available for purchase. You can buy the game on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Points and Steam for PC ($14.99/£11.99/€13.99).
Zombie Studios, who have previously developed the Blacklight franchise, created Special Forces: Team X as a fast-paced 3rd person shooter with a special twist on the maps. STX features a real-time map selection system with each battlefield being divided into three separate zones, with the layout being determined by previous matches. STX touts over 100 possible map combinations, ensuring the game is constantly shifting.
Customization is paramount in STX. You can pick your own skillsets and special abilities, create and upgrade your arsenal with rocket launchers, grenades, and licensed weaponry including Sig Sauer and Kalishnikov. The game features five multiplayer modes including new gametypes Hot Zone and High Value Target, each supporting two to four teams.
Per the official age-gated site, the game features include:
Dynamic Map Tile System – The multiplayer maps in STX are customized in real time by players able to vote on selected tiles in the beginning of each round. The game features 9 unique map tiles, creating over 100 multiplayer map combinations.
Stylized Action – Take part in the fast and brutal action gameplay with bloody executions and headshots.
Player customization – Customize your Special Forces Operator any way you want! Customize your weapons, change your appearance, and select player skills and taunts. Find your perfect loadout for the way you play.
Dedicated Server – The PC version of Special Forces: Team X offers dedicated servers with various gametypes running 24/7.
Heavy Weapons – Heavy Weapons spawns throughout the maps and if you see one available in its weapon box, pick it up, it might just change the tide of battle.
Team Play Bonus – Stick with your team and be richly awarded by your actions. Players that work together in groups of 2 or more will have an advantage in firefights.
Authentic Weapons – In Special Forces: Team X equip your Operator with real world weapons. Select through a range of Sig Sauer’s, Kalashnikovs and Colts, or pick up a FAMAS, TAVOR, BW-15 or a Mossberg 500.
Multiple teams – Go beyond the standard 2 team matches, and experience the controlled chaos with 3 and 4 teams in TDM, HVT and HZ. Sometimes fighting more than one team is better for your rank progression.
Attack Dogs – Bring a ferocious canine with you to the battle and send the dog on enemies behind cover.
Gametypes – Special Forces: Team X introduces new gametypes, these are Hot Zone and High Value Target, both that can be played with multiple teams. The game also features the standard gametypes TDM, CP and CTF.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has spoken to the rumours, as of late, that characters such as Yoda, Han Solo and Boba Fett may be getting their own feature-films.
Although he doesn’t mention those characters in particular, he refreshingly gives a concrete answer: “In fact, we are working on a few stand-alone films…” He goes on to explain toCNBC, “(Lawrence) Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga. So we plan to make Star Wars VII, VIII and IX over roughly a six-year period of time starting in 2015. But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time too.”
The Yoda rumour has very little behind it, while Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand,have provided potential timelines for the possible Han Solo and Boba Fett films, stating, “The Han Solo story would take place in the time period between Revenge of the Sith and the first Star Wars (now known as A New Hope)…” and “The Boba Fett film would take place either between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, or between Empire and Jedi, where the bounty hunter was last seen plunging unceremoniously into a sarlacc pit.”
This is some pretty major news. What are your reactions? Would you love to see a Yoda-centric film? We know many have clamoured for a Boba Fett film in the past. Let us know!
Things have been going very well for CD Projekt RED so far with The Witcher series critically and if these sales figures are anything to go by, financially as well. Today the company announced that the franchise has now sold over 5 million copies. This includes the combined total for the original The Witcher as well as The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, both of which have been discounted to honor this milestone.
With the company just revealing the third game in the series, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and mentioning how it will be 30 times larger than the already impressive Witcher 2, it is great to see the franchise doing well for such a dedicated team.
Neon Alley may have started with a limited line-up of series but now the service is blossoming into one that almost shouldn’t be passed up. Today, Aniplex of America announced that they will be placing Fate/Zero on Viz Media’s Neon Alley service and best of all, it will feature an English dub.
The English voice cast was also announced which can be found below:
Kari Wahlgren as Saber
Matthew Mercer as Kiritsugu Emiya
Bridget Hoffman as Irisviel von Einzbern
Crispin Freeman as Kirei Kotomine
Patrick Seitz as Assassin
Marc Diraison as Tokiomi Tohsaka
David Earnest as Archer
Doug Erholtz as Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald
Grant George as Lancer
Lucien Dodge as Waver Velvet
Jamieson Price as Rider
Johnny Yong Bosch as Ryunosuke Uryu
Dan Woren as Caster
Liam O’Brien as Kariya Matou
Kyle Hebert as Berserker
To go along with this announcement, the company also provided the below trailer for the English dub. The stream will begin sometime this Spring and as for Neon Alley, it is currently available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as a premium app that requires a $6.99 monthly subscription to use.
Remember Sunny Gurlukovich from Metal Gear Solid 4? Well it looks like she is all grown up or at least more so than the last time we saw her. As you can see in the Famitsu scan to the right, it has been revealed that Sunny will be appearing in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Of course, this reveal shows little actual information about Sunny, such as what role she will play in the game, or if she will simply be a cameo to make fans happy. Either way, click the scan to the right to see Sunny’s new older look in HD.
Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away Studio: Cirque Du Soleil / Strange Weather Films Publisher: Paramount Pictures Release Date: February 21, 2013 Format:Cinema
Overview
Cirque Du Soliel is one of the worlds most exciting, entertaining and grandiose circuses in the world. James Cameron has taken this circus group and transformed their acts into a vibrant and elaborate film that demonstrates the best of the circuses story-telling theatrics. However, as this is a film, do the amazing choreography and performances translate well to the big screen? Find out in our review below.
Story
Cirque Du Soliel: Worlds Away had a rather… basic story. I mean, like, incredibly basic. You see, there was this girl who’s name was never uttered once during the entire film and for some inexplicable reason that would escape anyone with any modicum of logic, she falls in love with this trapeze artist named: The Aerialist. No really, that is his name. The credits said so.
The story begins when this unnamed girl (she has a name, it’s in the credits, I just can’t remember it) enters a circus tent and sees The Aerialist fail his only job at the circus and falls to what should have been his death. Now instead of doing what any normal and reasonable person would do after seeing a giant portal being opened up around him, like calling the police or ambulance or Gordon Freeman, she instead runs after him and is taken into this portal as well.
It is here that you would think the bulk of the story would take place, and well, you’d be right. The only problem there is that it feels like the story takes a massive stand-still for an entire two circus performances before you realise that these performances are the story. It is really not apparent at all and I purposefully skipped over the part where she joins a world where circus performances are used to tell the story just so that you would feel as mad as I was that a crucial detail like this was brushed over.
What’s even worse with the story-telling is that the movie tries to get you to connect with this world so quickly that you have no room to adjust. Within the first five minutes you’ve gone from the real-world to the circus world with a character that only has one spoken line in the entire film and as a result of this, you just do not connect with the reality of the world which negatively adjusts your enjoyment of the film.
Maybe, you know, this was done on purpose. Perhaps it’s to feel the same disconnect the lead character is feeling being a part of this strange new world? The only problem here is that she seems to be experiencing this world differently to how you, the viewer, are experiencing this world. This also doesn’t become apparent until much later in the movie so you’re left feeling cheated through the first 45 minutes or so.
Another thing that I didn’t like is how the physics of the circus world was represented. It’s like: “Hey, let’s ignore physics, so long as it fits the circus routine. Amirite?”. No, no you are not right. You can’t plug a hole with a dance. Even if that dance shows the male lead swimming into the moon itself. Why didn’t they just do another representative act with a rocket made of contortionists? They did it for swimming cannibals earlier.
The entire story, I feel hangs onto how much common sense and logic a viewer has. The more grounded in reality a person is, the harder they’re going to find it to approach the story that’s being told. I mean, who here has fallen in love with a person within the first 2 minutes of seeing them? How many of you here would approach a giant magic portal made out of sand, considering you didn’t know it was a portal and someone could have just died hitting it? If you can get over the giant leaps of faith that the movie requires, you will be able to jump right into this story.
Visuals
I saw this movie in 3D, so you’d expect the colours used to be a little more vibrant than usual to make it through the glasses. This was the case with this film, fortunately. So you don’t really lose much impact with the colours on the screen throughout the entirety of the movie. And, let me tell you, it is an amazingly colourful and vibrant film.
Each performance in the film, regardless of how well or poorly they showcased some of the story, was incredibly well choreographed and executed. While I was quite annoyed that the filmmaker relied almost exclusively on the performances to drive the story, the shows themselves were spectacular. However, I feel that for a film, the performances should have been a supplicant to the story, not the proponent of the story. Either way though, the acts were incredibly amazing and if I continue this paragraph I’m just going to keep repeating that phrase.
What was interesting about the film was all the costuming for each of the performances. As a circus act, you can expect a lot of what you see to be exaggerated, but the costumes were simply amazing to look at. I remember looking at Ryu Hayabusa and Kasumi when they first appeared within the third (I think) performance. They couldn’t have nailed those costumes better.
If I was to say anything about this film, it’s that it is prettier than Avatar – – James Camerons previous 3D film. If you liked that visually, you’ll wet yourself with this one.
Audio
The soundtrack in this film started out amazing. There were a bunch of awesome music tracks throughout that felt pretty good. It’s almost as if they were summoning the work of some great composers like Yuki Kajiura, for example. There was that one song that sounded like it was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, and it sucked pretty bad, but other than that the majority of the music was great.
And then out of nowhere, bam, a bunch of tracks that are licensed and dull. It’s almost as though they didn’t care about the music choices in some of the middle acts of the film. And hey, if the music doesn’t fit, I no longer care and my attention is waning. However, it does pick back up, but it never feels the same afterwards.
My one major gripe about this film is that there are almost no spoken lines throughout the film. Everything is explained or conversed through performances and movements. The only exceptions to this are right at the start and when the female lead speaks her only ever line in the film. And that one line is just the same word repeated 2-3 times. While I can understand the choice, I feel that even basic grunting at some stages would have been appropriate.
Overall
As a film that relies way too heavily on the audience entering the cinema in a certain state of mind, I can’t recommend this too quickly. This is especially true if you’re somebody who takes a while to adapt to any film. However, the amazing choreography and performances do make this worth seeing, but, the incredibly basic story may be a massive turn-off if you’re not into spectacles. Loved the soundtrack though, I’d buy a CD or something with most of the songs from the film.
For players of the MechWarrior online video game in the Mech Warrior series, they will have noticed that a new Mech has been made available for purchase. This Mech is of the Class: Hero and is called the “Pretty Baby”. But that’s not all that was included in the update. You’ve also got some new in game enhancements like scoreboards, death cameras and the ability to message before a round begins.
Pretty Baby also comes with her own video, which will be embedded below. What’s cool about the trailer is that it really goes to show the thought behind the Mech, which seems to be pretty much: “Wouldn’t it be cool, if?”. So she’s my kind of Mech for sure.
Be sure to check out the latest patch notes. As well as the trailer embedded below for more details.
Good news for those of you who really want to throw extra money at Dead Space 3. Not only does the game have its own set of micro-transactions built into the game, you can also expect some actual story DLC within the next month. Today EA revealed that the “Awakened” DLC will be landing in March for the PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 at a $10 price tag.
Currently EA has not provided any details as to what the storyline will be, but they have hinted that you will “experience the franchise’s darkest chapters as the Necromorph battles become even more gruesome and terrifying than ever before.”
If you were disappointed about all of the extra content that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge was receiving but didn’t feel like dropping all that cash on Nintendo’s brand new home console, the Nintendo Wii U then you’re in luck. Famitsu has revealed that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge will be released on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at least in Japan so far.
We have reached out to Tecmo Koei in the West for comment, but as Game Nyarthreports, the 360 and PS3 version will feature brand new costumes, a new Ninja Trials mode and Ayane, Kasumi and Momiji will be on-disc already for players to enjoy.
