The Japanese branch of D3 Publisher have debuted a brand new promotional trailer for Earth Defense Force 2025, or as it is called in Japan, Earth Defense Force 4. The video is five minutes long and can be seen below. Why should you care you ask? Well it was revealed that D3 Publisher is planning on bringing the title to North America sometime in 2013 on the 360 and PS3, though an exact release date is currently unknown.
As for the trailer below, there will be a brand new unit called the Air Raider which can summon tanks and call in air strikes for support.
There has been quite a few rumblings concerning Imageepoch and Namco Bandai’s anime styled RPG Toki to Towa and it’s possible Western release. Not only has the CEO of the company, Ryoei Mikage, mentioned on Twitter that he would like to see the title in the West, he has even stated it will be released sometime in 2013.
Well, so far Namco Bandai has been very quiet about releasing Toki to Towa in the West, but this trademark listing may be a pre-cursor of things to come. Today it was discovered that Namco Bandai had filed a trademark for a game called, Time and Eternity, which is the English advertised name of Toki to Towa, in Europe. Fans of this series can not only rejoice in this good sign for the game’s overseas release, but they can also check out the trademark itself here.
Hacker Evolution Duality is on Indie Game Stand as a pay what you want purchase in support of the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation. 10% of the proceeds from the sale will go towards this charity that aims to improve civil society in this European nation. Buyers who pay more than $1.00 for the game will receive redeemable keys for Desura and Steam.
The game puts players into the role of hacker Brian Spencer who has created a brilliant AI. Now Spencer must destroy his creation and forcefully retake the company he started. This is the first time in the Hacker Evolution series that multiplayer has been introduced. Players can go head to head with other gamers in the open world mode. buy your copy here. Find out more about Hacker Evolution Duality here.
Runic Games wished everyone a happy new year along with the announcement that they had sold over 1 million units of their game, Torchlight 2, via this tweet.
Torchlight 2 is a dungeon crawler with many similarities the Diablo series. However that can be expected since Torchlight was worked on by the same man who worked on Diablo 1 and 2, Max Schaufer. A popular opinion, for those who enjoy the genre, is that Torchlight 2 is more like Diablo than Diablo 3. With Torchlight 2 you can also have peer to peer multiplayer and the ability to mod the game, unlike Diablo 3 that requires you to be connected to the Blizzard servers even when playing single player.
Shockingly despite banning all Kuroko’s Basketball doujinshi circles from the event, 3 death threat letters were discovered at the empty lot that was originally meant for Kuroko’s Basketball (the area can be seen in the image above) at Comiket 83.
In response to the discovery of the 3 letters Comiket decided to raise security for the final day, undergoing bag checks for all entrants. It is believed that the 3 threat letters may come from a copycat and not the same person that has sent the many other letters as the MO is completely different here and the message reportedly did not match previous letter’s sentiments.
These 3 threat letters make for up to 50 letters in total sent to locations connected with Kuroko’s Basketball mangaka Tadatoshi Fujimaki. What do you think of Comiket receiving threat letters despite banning Kuroko’s Basketball circles? Let us know in the comments section below.
Today it has been revealed that the next Dead or Alive 5 patch, which is called “Ver. 103” will be adding a new feature to the chesty fighting game. This update will allow for the direct upload of any of your match replays to certain services depending on your console of choice.
The PlayStation 3 version will allow for upload onto YouTube as well as Facebook while Xbox 360 gamers will only be able to upload videos to Facebook. The feature was revealed on Twitter and a number of other patch changes, such as the ability to search for matches via connection quality and throwdown ranked matches. A few other issues will also be addressed, however the full patch notes have not been revealed at this time.
Over the last couple of days the Xbox Live service has had a number of issues relating to the Cloud Save feature which made it so many people could not access their Cloud Storage. As such, Major Nelson has announced that they are going to try and make it up to fans by offering those affected with a free month of Xbox Live.
Microsoft will be automatically applying a free one-month Gold extension to any affected customers and they are saying that there will be no need to call or submit a report to Microsoft’s Support team as, according to Nelson’s report, the company already knows who was affected at this time.
The start of the Love Live! School Idol Project will begin in a little over a week on January 8th and anime fans in the West have plenty of reason to keep an eye on this series. Why you ask? Well last week it was revealedthat the anime will not only be streamed on Crunchyroll but it will also be released sometime in the future by NIS America.
As such, you can check out a new promo video for Sunrise’s newest series below. Love Live! School Idol Project follows the story of a nine female high school girls who decide to form a pop idol group in order to keep their school from shutting down by raising it’s popularity. In the trailer below we are shown each of the nine girls as they learn the fate of their school and begin formulating their plan.
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 Developer: FUN Labs Publisher: Activision Platform: Nintendo Wii U (Reviewed), Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC Release Date: December 4, 2012 Price: $39.99 – BUY NOW
Overview
Hunting fans now can get their fix on Nintendo’s new platform, as Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 is now out on the Wii U. Instead of being featured with a the gun peripheral, Activision have released this version solo, allowing the Gamepad to compensate for the loss. Now, I’m not much of a hunter, but Dangerous Hunts isn’t really about hunting. This title has players simply survive against the wild, bagging bucks and slaughtering bears in the process. Does the Wii U version live up to the past versions of the game, or does it run out of ammo before the first shot is fired? Let’s find out.
Story
Believe it or not, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 attempts to throw together a main narrative for it’s rather short campaign. The story starts off with two brothers and their father hunting. A grizzly bear kills the father – and the two brothers are torn apart by the event. Ten years later, we see these much older characters reunite for one big hunt, where a new adventure awaits in dangerous territories.
Now, for a hunting game – it’s kind of refreshing to see how much thought went into the script for Dangerous Hunts 2013, as you can easily tell how hard the writer worked to make the plot cohesive. Sadly, decent writing can’t save the game from the fact that everything about this mode is cliche – with boring, default drones taking the lead within a slightly interesting setting. Sure, it’s the age old tale of survival and family , but it feels more like a Hallmark movie starring Kevin Sorbo than the truly exciting adventure that it aims for – but never quite reaches.
Gameplay
I don’t think I need to explain the concept behind Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013, as the title says it all. You are thrown out into the wilderness with a decently sized arsenal, and must hunt and survive to progress forward. There is a wide array of predators you will come across, such as lions, wolves, and hyenas – just to name a few. For the main campaign, players follow a linear path, tackling animals as they appear and picking up any ammo or med kits you may come across. At first, I was a bit baffled at all of the supplies that were conveniently placed among these locations, but after awhile – you will learn that this game cares not about making sense – and instead just wants to create tense situations for the player to survive in.
I’ll admit, there are some great ideas behind this title. Enemy AI features realistic elements such as wolves hunting in packs, leopards using the terrain for an advantage, and other predators acting true to their real-life counterpart. Unfortunately, these glimmers of potential fade quickly, as the engine Dangerous Hunts runs on for the Wii U makes it hard to enjoy even the basics. When using the Gamepad to control your character, movement is easily performed with the left analog, and feels a bit like your standard FPS fare. That is the working part. What doesn’t work is shooting – or precisely aiming to be more specific.
When an animal is quickly approaching, the player can change their weapon to get the appropriate shot off. Your hunter is equipped with a variety of weapons and tools of the trade, but these really boil down to a sniper rifle for ranged shots, a shotgun for close combat, and a handgun for quick and more reliable fire. The handgun works well enough, but the other two leave a lot to be desired. Using the shotgun is a headache as it’s slow and inaccurate, but the sniper rifle takes the cake and comes off as the most frustratingly difficult weapon to utilize within the entire game. You see, to aim – you must use both analog sticks – holding your breath with the right shoulder button if needed. That alone is a problem as these inputs feel awkward when used together. If you run out of air, the zoom fails and you must re-aim towards whatever animal you are targeting. Making matters worse is the wobbly reticule, floating all over the screen to present a challenge as you try to target a vital organ in a predator.
I understand, we need a challenge as simply targeting and shooting would make the game boring. Maybe it was done like this to show the effects of wind, or maybe having the reticule go nuts would make the player feel their own character’s discontent as they take aim – but I personally felt as if the development team punched a hole in an otherwise solid product to create an illusion of a more in-depth, challenging product. The way the animals present themselves also causes a problem, as slow-motion has been implemented into several encounters to add yet another layer of tension. Imagine you are being attacked by a wolf and have a handgun readily equipped. The first wolf is biting your leg, and the others are stalking you from all sides. Your just about to aim, when out of nowhere, the alpha wolf leaps out and lunges at your face in slow motion. You are left helpless as this scene takes place, and even though it is over fast, the damage is usually already done. It may be realistic to a degree, but considering the aim is already poor, you will be lucky to get off a shot inside this sequence due to all of the chaos that is unfolding around you.
If the story mode is not your thing, there are other modes to at least give a go if you are up to a different pace. The first is your standard arcade mode, where prey can be hunted to rack up a high score. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, instead of using the nifty gun that is not bundled with the Wii U version, aiming comes down to using the Gamepad’s touchscreen. Again, this is yet another mechanic that was not implemented well, as landing a kill with the less than fluid aiming process feels as if it’s more about luck than actual skill. Man-eater mode allows for an extra friend to get in on the action, with one player using the Gamepad and the other using the television screen. This plays about the same as the main game, but with hordes of enemies approaching in wave and supply drops being offered during small intermissions. Even though the control difficulties were still present, I can say that this was my favorite mode within the game as the concept is at least on target.
Visuals and Audio
Dangerous Hunts 2013 does do it’s graphics right for the most part. Each animal, whether it be a grizzly bear or a charging rhino looks the part, and the environments are also well done with rich textures and detailed terrain. The humans in the game are a bit less detailed, and come off as generic as a result. The main focus is on the animals however, so most probably will care little about seeing the man behind the gun. I also noticed some framerate drops during chaotic situations, with a good amount of slowdown taking place as you try to pull away from danger. This is not a constant struggle, but it is an issue on top of the already broken aiming system in place, leading to more unneeded grief for the player.
As far as the audio, things are a bit of a mixed bag. Animals sound as they should as wolves will howl before making an appearance, bears will roar, and hyenas will chatter sadistically, setting the stage for the battle that will come ahead. Jacob and Luke (the two brothers), as well as all of the other character are fully voiced. Some of these efforts behind the cast are well done, while others are a bit drab and offer little emotion to a plot that needs all of the help it can get.
Overall
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 for the Wii U may be a port of the same game we seen released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 earlier this year, but without that gun peripheral to fall back on, the flaws overtake nearly all of the enjoyment. I give a lot of credit to the development team for thinking of some truly brilliant ideas to make this experience realistic, but everything comes together like a train wreck as each feature takes away from the next, or to put it in simpler terms – like a snake eating it’s own tail. Sure, there will be some who can swallow it up and overlook the issues, but those wanting an enjoyable hunting game would do best to stay far away from this sloppy port and wait to see what the famed brand has to offer next year.
EPX games has announced that their survival horror game, Night Whisper Lane, will be released for the Andriod this Tuesday. The game features point and click gameplay with a turn based battle system. It also boasts fully 3D rendered environments along with animated boss battles. From the gameplay trailer below, it seems like a fun game version of a B movie horror flick.
You can download the game for iOS right now from thislinkto the apple store or hereat the Amazon store. For more about EPX games you can visit their websitehere, follow them on twitter, or like them of facebook. We also have a review of the game and you can check it out here.
