Ubisoft subsidiary Blue Byte, developers behind The Settlers and the Anno franchise, wanted to give you a bit of look behind the curtain at some of the changes they have planned.
Blue Byte has released a video they call a “Backstage” video. This allows the devs to have some Question and Answer time. It lets you see that Blue Byte employees from all around the world are working hard to make this a great experience for everyone involved.
In the video they cover topics like:
Guilds
New game content
Science System – Skill Points
New Buildings
End-Game content
Events
Maintenance
For the video, be sure to check it out below this article. If you’re interested, be sure to go check out the game here. Also feel free to read up on some of ourothercoverageof The Settlers Online.
Those that haven’t seen Splinter Cell: Blacklist’s walkthrough videos HERE and HERE or have been avoiding them to not get too spoiled about the locations they will be playing in, may want to check out the latest trailer for Ubisoft’s latest in the series. Far less spoilerish, but still packed with Sam Fisher style action the new trailer highlights his abilities and Sam’s 3 S’s of Stealth; Stalk, Strike, and Silence.
The trailer also includes a few glimpses of some of Sam’s newest additions to his inventory, like his mini-copter. While not the highlight of the video, those that did miss the walkthroughs should certainly find the new gadgets intriguing. Though in terms of content the trailer itself is lacking in all but the story.
Players can view the trailer embedded below to see Sam stalk, strike, and silence his foes to gear up for the release of Splinter Cell: Blacklist in August 20th in North America, August 22nd in Australia, and August 23rd in Europe.
The joint production of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment and Kabam, The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age has attracted over 1 Million unique users to the game in less than a month. This was probably not surprising to the developers as the game saw more than 250,000 players on its launch day.
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age challenges players to take up arms alongside the greatest heroes of the Third Age, including select characters from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey like Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, Radagast and more. Gamers are charged to lead an army of Elves, Dwarves or Orcs in fast-paced tactical combat and band together with thousands of other players to join powerful alliances and wage an epic war online .
If you would like to join in the battle for Middle Earth, the browser based game inspired by the Peter Jackson films can be found at Kabam.com in addition to the Google Chrome Store and Facebook.
Last week the Catnip Bundle from Bundle Stars was announced HERE with one small hiccup for those wanting to know exactly what they were getting. The Bundle, at the time, included two mystery games and while it only required a little more than $5 knowing all the games in the bundle can make the difference.
But the mystery is over now, as Bundle Stars has revealed the final two games of the Catnip Bundle, Scratches: Director’s Cut and Chrome: SpecForce. While Scratches is a mystery horror, Crome: SpecForce is an FPS and sequel to the original Chrome, from developer Techland the makers of the Dead Island series.
Players that are interested in picking up Scratches: Director’s Cut and Chrome: SpecForce, plus the eight others included in the bundle (Pushcat, Metal Drift, Wasteland Angel, Obulis, Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortal, Chains, Post Mortem, and Avencast: Rise of the Mage) for cheap just have to pay at least $5.02 HERE. Though players should act fast as the offer only has a little more than 10 days remaining as of this writing.
Despite the fact that pretty much every fighting game out there now has a story mode, including Dead or Alive 5, Persona 4 Arena, everyBlazBluegameand even Mortal Kombat, it looks like Capcom may finally be thinking about putting some sort of story in their fighting games.
Over on Capcom’s forums, when asked by fans about including story in the next few fighting games, Capcom USA’s senior VP, Christian Svensson responded with the following:
“The strategic marketing group here has for quite a while been pushing for our fighting franchises to have more and better single player content, of which full fledged story modes are one component.
How and when those requirements manifest in our future roadmap, I’m not prepared to speak about at this time.”
It is worth noting that at the moment Capcom has not announced the development of any new fighting games or even another “enhanced” port of Street Fighter IV, so it may be some time before we see whether or not a legitimate story mode will play into future Capcom fighters.
Today it was discovered that Sega Japan has launched a brand new teaser website. It is currently unknown exactly what game will be announced however it is very clear that the game will be something related to Hatsune Miku as not only does the URL for the website contain the word “Miku” but the article even features Miku’s picture as a shortcut icon.
The teaser website is set to launch on April 18th but the official Hatsune Miku Twitter has notedthat the announcement will first be made in this week’s issue of Famitsu which usually ends up leaking on Tuesday night, so expect more information about this mysterious Hatsune Miku game within the next 24 hours.
We’ve seen some of the enemiesthat will be appearingin Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen from various branches of Capcom but over the weekend Capcom-Unity actually decided to release a video providing some English narration and new footage of these enemies.
The video can be seen below and in it you’ll see not only the Pyre Saurians, and the Eliminator but also Death who has the ability to not only put you and your pawns to sleep, but can deal out high levels of damage and cause permanent death to Pawns in your party. However it may be possible to kill even death if you are crafty enough. Check out the video below and keep an eye out for Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen when it is released next week on April 3rd for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Today Sega has announced that they will be bringing a classic platformer many of us may remember fondly from the Sega Genesis to the modern era. To be a bit more exact, the company is making an HD remake of the Mickey Mouse platformer Castle of Illusion and it is currently set to be released sometime this summer.
To go along with this announcement the company also released a number of screenshots as well as some cinematic footage which you can check out below. Castle of Illusion has currently been announced for the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.
Today EA Sports announced that hockey fans can expect the next NHL game to be dropping in September this year. To be a little more specific, North American gamers can pick up the title on September 10th while those in Europe have to wait until September 13.
Interestingly enough, at the time of announcement the company has only announced NHL 14 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which is interesting considering the Wii U has already been released and other Next-Gen consoles will likely be dropping later this year.
Anyways, to go along with the release date announcement EA Sports also released the below gameplay trailer which shows off some of the enhanced features this version of the game will have, including a new “NHL Collision Physics” engine and an “Enforcer Engine” which are based off of the Player Impact Engine from FIFA and fighting system used in the Fight Night games respectively.
Infinite Stratos Studio: 8-Bit Publisher: Madman Entertainment Format: DVD (Reviewed), Blu Ray Release Date:March 20, 2013 Price: $59.95 – Available Here
Overview Infinite Stratos began as a light novel series written by Izuru Yumizuru, with illustrations provided by Okiura, though the mantle of illustrator has since been taken up by CHOCO. The series itself is a harem romantic comedy…that also happens to include mechs. Somewhat of a shift from other mech anime, focusing on romance more than robotic combat but hey, why not?
Story Infinite Stratos is centred in a world where weaponised mechanical exoskeletons, named Infinite Stratos (IS), exist. Due to the threat of the Stratos, the governments of the world penned the Alaska Treaty, prohibiting their use for military roles and requiring equal distribution of the technology throughout all countries. Eventually an international fighting tournament, the Mondo Grosso was created, for countries to show their skill and machinery to the rest of the world. However, due to the IS only being able to be piloted by women, the world underwent a shift into a female dominated society.
10 years later…Cue Ichika Orimura, our protagonist and the only male ever capable of piloting an IS. Ichika is thrust into a prestigious IS Academy where the worlds best gather to learn the ways of piloting in the hopes of contending in the Mondo Grosso…and hooking up with Ichika. Seriously, the minute he steps into the academy literally every single girl wants him, with the exception of his older sister who also happens to be his teacher (though her interest in him is disputed by some of the love struck students). Despite being one of the most oblivious, and apparently charismatic, protagonists of all time, Ichika is not very skilled with an IS, though over the course of the series his abilities do improve and sway more than a couple of girls over to his side. As the series progresses Ichika gains a harem of girls all vying for his affections and not subtly either. The school may as well be called Fanservice Academy.
Oh yeah, there’s mechs to. For a series set in a world of robotic invention there aren’t as many fight scenes as you’d expect. The ones that exist are done well but they are few and far between, even then most sum up to a battle vying for Ichika’s affections. Hell, one pilot even blasts through a concrete wall when yet another girl enters the romantic fray.
Whilst there is some insight into the characters themselves it’s done with very broad strokes. There’s generally a flashback narrated by a character explaining their past and motivations then, nope that’s it. You do understand the characters more for the experience but it seems a tad shallow, a majority of their personality comes from their unwavering devotion to this one guy they met a few days ago and their hatred of competition. In their IS combat, the sole reason they attend the academy? No, that would be crazy. In their attempts to quite literally force themselves onto a guy? Now you’re getting it.
Admittedly there is something going on regarding the Stratos themselves, but that plot is pushed into the background. Two fights are based upon the concept of the IS system being used for literal combat, but that’s it. That could have been investigated a lot more thoroughly in the series, it just felt like a wasted opportunity for some much needed Stratos action, but hey, I mean all you need is love right?
Visuals The animation in Infinite Stratos was done well. The characters moved quite fluidly, even in the non-action romantic scenes, emphasising their personalities well. The bulk of the compliments go to the fight scenes. Using a combination of CGI for the Stratos themselves and traditional animation cells for the pilots, the series does a great job of conveying the speed and less restricted movement style the Stratos have compared to traditional mechs. The CGI was done exceedingly well, most of the time you don’t even notice it, trust me it’s a compliment. There are a few occasions where it’s obvious that CGI is used for both Stratos and characters, though this is generally for wide angle shots where the characters aren’t actually fighting. The environment itself was also rather picturesque, featuring sunny beaches, artistic architecture and a few Japanese inspired areas, even the Academy dorm rooms were designed to look like fancy hotel rooms.
Audio I watched the English dub of Infinite Stratos and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The voice actors did a great job of playing their characters and expressed genuine emotion, something that doesn’t always happen in anime dubs. They sounded angry, nervous, happy or just plain insane. Something I was also particularly interested in was the accents. Yep. I haven’t actually seen too many series where a character has an accent from their country of origin. It definitely adds character to the mass of love struck females when amongst them is English, French and German accents. It’s a credit to an anime when you can close your eyes and still know who’s talking. The music was good too, it matched well with the overall upbeat theme of the anime. The J-Pop opening and ending themes were used a few times throughout the show itself and they just kinda fit with the whole relationship side. There were some instrumental pieces used, most notably was the theme used in the climactic battle, full of trumpets and orchestral vocals, it really set the mood for a fast paced final battle.
Extras The DVD features a few extras, mostly commentary from the Japanese voice actors on a few of the episodes. Also featured were two live action pieces: a filmed airing of Infinite Stratos Radio (two of the Japanese voice actors doing a radio show) and a behind the scenes where another of the voice actors interviews series director Yasuhito Kikuchi, before the series was released. The main extra would have to be the included OVA (it isn’t featured in the extras menu, but rather plays straight after the final episode) which is set after the series. Also included, of course, is textless versions of the opening and ending themes.
Overall Look, as much as I talked about the imbalance of romance to combat, and boy is there one, Infinite Stratos really isn’t a bad series. The fight scenes are done well and the Stratos themselves are awesome armour mech suits that are different from a majority of series out there. Even though some of the dialogue was pretty corny it was voice acted well enough that it was still interesting to watch. The main problem is that the series seems somewhat shallow and full of missed opportunities that could have made it great. Granted it is still a series for those who prefer romance and comedy (and a large quantity of fanservice), there’s still a little bit of action thrown in. Basically, you should definitely watch this series if you want to see a bunch of anime girls fawn over a guy, with varying degrees of intent and severity. But hey, even if that’s not your thing the series itself isn’t too bad.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
