Today the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) announced Kate Edwards their new Executive Director. The position has been open since Gordon Bellamy, the previous title holder, stepped down in July to join Tencent, a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries include Epic Games and Riot Games.
Edwards brings more than 16 years’ of experience in the industry with her. She has worked on several game titles including Dragon Age, Fallout 3, Halo, Modern Warfare 3, and more. She has worked as a geopolitical strategist for Microsoft and as a consultant for her own company, Englobe, where she “pioneered the field of “culturalization” to identify geopolitical and cultural risks and opportunities in digital content.”
Said Dustin Clingman, Chairman of IGDA:
Kate’s knowledge of the global game industry and local cultures make her ideal to lead the IGDA. Her long service to our organization and commitment to the global development community will lay a foundation for ongoing international growth.
You can check out the IGDA’s full press release here.
Steampunk fans will have a reason to be excited about 2013 with the announcement of “Edge of Twilight” from JDJC and Fuzzyeyes Limited. Coming for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in the coming summer, the developers have a mighty task ahead as they promise a multi-platform, multi-genre series taking place in the same world.
The game is a product of a joint venture between JDJC & Fuzzyeyes Entertainment Limited which took over on the project in 2011. Thought to have been dead, “Edge of Twilight” is getting remarkably positive support from fans of the resurrected title. This support has not gone unnoticed as the they are releasing “Edge of Twilight- Horizons” for free in the Apple App Store. Players of “Horizons” will get exclusive access screenshots, trailers, and news about the upcoming console versions.
This series will not retain a set genre but change game by game focusing more on developing the settings and the characters, fleshing out the story and making it flow through each title, making for a very unique experience. The first game is set to come out late 2012 and bears the series name, simply titled “Edge of Twilight”. The games world has night and day as seperate realms, and the first game focuses on the story of protagonist Lex who possesses the ability to bridge these realms together. The game will be a action/adventure style title and focus more on the story while having puzzle aspects as well. More information can be found at the games official web site at www.edge-of-twilight.com.
Since the announcement of the upcoming animated feature film Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of Gods, Dragon Ball fans have been doing backflips in anticipation for it. Fortunately, these last few months have seen some of the greatest DBZ fan films to date, hitting Youtube and generating millions of views. Here’s a select 4 that every hardcore Dragon Ball fan needs to watched for those who may of missed them, this should help prepare you for Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of Gods!
4. Dragon Ball Absalon
From Youtuber mellavelli, Dragon Ball Absalon is a 3-episode animated saga loosely based upon the 1997 april fool’s joke Dragon Ball AF, and features the infamous Super Saiyan 5 transformation seen from said joke. The animated series takes place years after Dragon Ball GT and features much of the original cast at much older ages, with also new characters as well that compliment the art style of the original series. Furthermore, the voice cast contains various Youtubers that sound pretty damn close to the original voice cast so that’s also a major plus. Make sure to check out the channelfor more and follow it on Facebookas well! Watch Dragon Ball Absalon Episode 1 below:
3. Dragonzball PeePee
Are you real Super Sand? Released just last week,OneyNGreleased this hilarious follow up to his 2011 parody, Dragon Ball P. This skit is based upon the first encounter with Frieza, (or Frizbee as he is called here) and it’s straight up hilarious. You can follow the artist for more via his Youtube page or Facebook. Watch Dragonzball PeePee below:
2. The Runaways
For a more serious, realistic and emotional approach, The Runaways is a live action adaption of the original Dragon Ball manga. This one has a much more ‘Hollywood’ feel to it, without ruining everything we’ve ever loved like Dragon Ball Evolution did. Writer and director Ray Savaya has stated if the pilot gets enough views more will be made, so make sure you check it out andcheck out the channel here. Watch The Runaways below:
1. Dragon Ball Z – The Sayian Saga
At almost 6 minutes and on it’s way to 4 million views, chances are you may have seen Dragon Ball – The Saiyan Saga hit the web a few weeks ago! In case you’ve missed out, it’s a trailer from K8KProductions, featuring highlights of the Saiyan Saga with live action actors in authentic cosplay and impressive special effects and coerograhy. It’s a DBZ fan’s wet dream! This is only a pitch (kinda like Mortal Kombat: Rebirth), with an extended trailer coming soon, so hopefully we’ll see more in the future. Check out the K8K Productions Facebook page and their Youtube Channel here. Watch Dragon Ball Z – The Saiyan Saga below:
What’s that? That’s not enough for you? Well how about you watch Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock again? I mean, it just came out like a year ago you greedy bastards! Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods is set to be released on March 30, 2013. Until then, keep practising on becoming a Super Saiyan, you’ll get there someday!
Dreamatrix may have been a little off with the planned release of Legends of Dawn for Q3 2012, as the indie developer is still at work trying to finish it off, but they are hoping that they might be able to find some support from players interested in the open-world RPG. Joined by Aurofinity, they hope to find their support on two fronts, one being the Kickstarter where they are hoping to find the financing to complete the game and the other being Steam Greenlight where they are hoping to find a place on Steam to reach a bigger audience.
Looking to provide players with absolute freedom in a world where the only true goal is to survive, players can find their own paths into the world and even create their own spells through sacrifice and offerings to gods. Targeted for hardcore gamers of RPGs, Legends of Dawn casts aside the need for classes to ensure players get exactly what they want.
Players piqued by the game can check out the Kickstarter video embedded below and those interested in helping Legends of Dawn out with a donation can do so HERE and/or vote for it on Steam Greenlight HERE.
Cognition Episode 1: The Hangman Review Publisher: Reverb Publishing Developer: Phoenix Online Studios Platforms: PC (reviewed), Mac, iPad Release Date: October 30, 2012 (PC/Mac); Coming Soon – January 2013 (iPad) Price: Episode 1: $9.99; Season Pass: $29.99 – Here
Overview
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is a four episode murder mystery taking place in the not so average life of FBI agent Erica Reed. In the first installment of this point-and-click adventure, players are challenged by puzzles and spur of the moment decisions that can result in potential life and death. Does the overburdened FBI agent bring the immersion we desire to Episode 1: The Hangman? Let’s expose the evidence..
Story
As a Boston FBI agent, you could probably expect to be involved with some gruesome investigations. Erica Reed, however, seems to be directly linked to some nasty serial killers. Her beginning story has her involved with the “Cain Killer” who selectively chooses twin siblings and kidnaps the male. The audience is brought up to speed with knowledge that Erica has a twin brother and has become the next target. With limited time to spare, Erica and her partner rush to find the killer’s lair.
Emotions can change quite suddenly with the title making for an intense experience. With Cognition beginning with the kidnapping of Erica’s twin brother, players cannot help but to join in with the momentum of feelings building inside of Erica. Instilling such raw emotions makes the game hard to put down as new evidence presents itself with every look at the crime scene or dead body in the morgue.
Gameplay
I have reservations about point-and-click titles because I find them very easy to criticize for a number of reasons. First, I find it hard to immerse myself in a game that prevents me from moving forward. In previous titles that I have played, there would be a glitch that might prevent me from advancing further therefore corrupting my saved file. In this instance, you would need to start the entire game over or hopefully access a separate saved state. This is why games tell you to save often! I have not experienced such glitches in Cognition Episode 1 after completing the entire game. Still, follow the advice of saving often.
Another aspect of the genre that I find annoying is that there are ridiculous item combinations with obvious tools that could work better for the situation. Thankfully, Cognition approaches the use of items effectively and in a way that does not initiate migraines. A suspect that you bring in for questioning refuses to talk without getting something to eat. Stemming from there you will have to find a food source for the hungry suspect. If the source costs money, find some money – a simple but logical sequence of events that needs to be completed in order to advance.
Erica Reed possesses an ability that allows her to look into the past by touching objects or people. This creates additional gameplay and further involvement into the story by encompassing images from the past to enable actions in the present. For instance, Erica is able to use her powers at a crime scene by concentrating on an object therefore visualizing how it was affected in the past to reach its current state. So Erica could look at the murder victim and use her abilities to see how he died.
A silly aspect that plagues any game with an inventory is how much a player can hold at a single time. Honestly, I do not think Erica would be the type of lady to hide a dozen donuts in her uniform. But I have been wrong about women before! Offering more comedy than hurt, the amount/type of items that Erica carries should not distract from the gaming experience. Did she just pull a shovel out of her shirt?
Cognition is not a point-and-click title that will have you banging your head against a wall trying to figure it out. As Erica, you can access your smartphone at any time in the game to receive hints or tips from your father. I’ve come to realize that he is strangely familiar with every place and person that you bump into. If you ever get stuck, there will be an option to ask him about your current quest. For more of challenge try not asking your father for everything even though he likes hearing from you. Some agents are just spoiled… Having a hard time navigating each environment? Thankfully, the user interface has an option that shows which items are interactive in the environment. This can be access by clicking on the pointer icon with a question mark attached to it.
Visuals
The art direction is phenomenal as it captures emotions with hand drawn imagery while delivering the scenes as if they fit into comic books. This can be notably given credit to comic book artist Romano Molenaar who unleashed his talent during the cut-scenes of Cognition. Illustration quality greatly enhanced my time playing through the title as it helped keep me engaged to the story by becoming more visually connected to the characters.
Cosmetically the title has some minor faults that could be tweaked to present itself better in the coming episodes. In a scene where Erica is using the shovel to dig behind a mausoleum, the shovel – for a second – appears to be behind her when it is held in front of her body. Other instances in using items from your inventory prove to delay game speed. In other words, you may experience a slight stuttering by Erica’s movement when trying to use an item in the environment.
An irritation that is constant through the game is the loading symbol substituted in place for your mouse pointer. While the notification that the game is loading has its purpose, I felt that the loading symbol could be placed elsewhere on the screen. For instance, I would constantly take my pointer “off-screen” when a cinematic appeared. Perhaps I have control issues or appreciate no cinematic interruptions, but it was a minor issue that bugged me.
Audio
Cognition has its own soundtrack available for purchase. I would naturally assume a game does not sell a soundtrack separately from the title unless it is exceptional. After experiencing the music from playing the title, I definitely felt that the audio was well developed in trying to match the mood of the setting as well as characters. Personally, I would take advantage of the Season Pass to acquire all four episodes with prequel comic and soundtrack to get the best deal. Even though the soundtrack has some quality audio with “The Taking” by The Scarlet Furies, I would not choose to buy it separately.
You may experience some awkward stares from others in the room if they are listening in to the game’s sound effects. One instance in particular is when Erica has been injured in her quest to save her twin brother. While you may understand that she is in pain and groaning with each step as she goes down a stairwell, others might believe you have turned on a porno. Pain and inappropriate moaning might correlate well with each other, but that is a topic for another day. With the amount of swearing added in, earphones or a children-free environment would be best suited during these high intensity situations.
Overall
I have been amazingly stunned by the quality of this first installment to the Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller series. The art direction alone should bring many followers, and Phoenix Online Studios could not have picked a better art director for the job. A sweet blend of immersible storyline and gameplay made Episode 1: The Hangman one of my favorite point-and-click adventures to date.
The game does have its faults in a few areas. Minor cosmetics like the “shovel” mentioned above may be present. Also the stuttering movements after using an inventory item in the environment will provide a brief distraction. And don’t forget the loading icon that may annoy you when watching the hand drawn cut-scenes. But these are all insignificant areas of the game that can be altered/eliminated in future episodes.
I am excited to see where Cognition is going with Episode 2: The Wise Monkey. With the first installment impressing me as it did, I am positive Phoenix Online Studios will not disappoint. If I had a stamp, I would approve it immediately. Still need convincing? Head over to raindg.com to download the demo.
Humble Indie Bundle 7 added three new games to the bundle. These games are available to all those who have already beaten the average price and all future buyers who also beat the average. The three games are flash game bundle collection The Basement Collection, classic side scroller Cave Story +, and action puzzle platformer Offspring Fling. All three games also include their respective soundtracks in MP3 and FLAC format.
Humble Indie Bundle 7 is in support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non profit group that supports digital rights, and Child’s Play Charity, a charity organization that outfits play rooms in children’s hospitals around the world to improve the quality of life for sick children. Get the Humble Indie Bundle 7 here.
Today it was revealed that Retro City Rampage would finally be making its way to the Xbox 360. Originally released on October 9th for the PlayStation 3 and PC, the game will be available for download on the Xbox 360 starting on January 2nd, though currently no price has been revealed for this version of the title.
Brian Provinciano, the creator of the title, has mentioned that the extra month of development and polish has made the XBLA version of the game the exact same as the patched PC and PS3 versions so anyone who picks up the 360 version will immediately have the latest version of the game.
According to the Japanese website, Famitsu, the PlayStation 2 has stopped shipping in Japan today. The most successful game console so far has finally laid down to rest, let us all take our hats off to it and run to the store to buy a backup for spare repair parts.
The PlayStation 2 has the largest game library of any other console with over 10,000 games, and has sold 150 million console units world wide. Originally released in 2000 as the second console of the 6th generation of game platforms. It was the first game console to be able to play DVDs ,which gave it a step up from the only other 6th generation console out at the time the Sega DreamCast. By the time the other two consoles had come to the market, GameCube and Xbox, the Dreamcast was already dying and the PlayStation 2 was dominating sales.
The Ragnarok Online 2 open beta for English users was meant to launch yesterday on December 27th however it seems that Asiasoft Online didn’t quite anticipate the amount of people who were anxious to try out the title. Thanks to overwhelming player response the servers suffered “severe congestion” and this caused many players to not even be able to log-in while those who were able to suffered from a number of issues.
Because of this, Asiasoft has announced on their Facebook that the Ragnarok Online 2 open beta would be delayed until January 3rd and any characters already created would be wiped before January 3rd’s open beta begins again.
Sherman Tan, Chariman of Asiasoft Online also left a message for fans stating the following:
“We know that this decision will anger and upset many of our treasured players, and while we earnestly wish to cater to every single player’s wants and needs, our top priority remains in stabilising the game servers so that all Asgardians can enjoy it, and being as fair as possible to the majority of our players who were not at all able to access Open Beta on 27th December 2012. We seek your rational understanding of our very difficult decision and hope that you will accept our gravest apologies.”
The game’s official website can be viewed hereand players can still pre-download the game and register their account early.
Today the founder of Ouya, Julie Uhrman, revealed that around 1,200 Ouya developer consoles have been shipped out to those who purchased them. The whole package contains the Ouya itself, which is transparent, a welcome letter, transparent controllers, batteries, HDMI cable, micro-USB cable and a power adapter which are all contained inside of a black box that says “Thanks for Believing.”
To go along with this announcement, Uhrman released an unboxing video which can be seen below. As for the console itself, Uhrman urges that the system is still a “work in progress” and that the “d-pad and triggers on the controller still need work.” Apparently the dev consoles also show an “early early early” version of the final user interface which the image above “may” portray. That is a whole lot of ifs, but we’ll see when this thing launches in March.
