Swag! YOLO! Money? That’s right Irrational Games are offering some new swag for Bioshock fans in anticipation of the upcoming Bioshock Infinite game. They have released some new Bioshock infinite merch to their online store here.
Among the new additions to Irrational Games’ online store is Bioshock Infinite t-shirts, framed lithographs and even concept artworks. Some of these products are very limited in stock so it’s advised that you get in quick. It has also been confirmed that they plan on releasing action figures in the future as well.
What do you think of these new swaggy swaggin’ additions to Irrational Games’ online store? Let us know in the comments section below.
Thrustmaster is getting into the gaming headset business with three new gaming headsets, the Y-250 series. The Y-250X is a white and green headset designed for Xbox 360, the Y-250P is a black and blue for Playstation 3, and the Y-250C is a black and red headset for PC. All three headsets boast two 50mm drivers with generous lengths of cabling, removable unidirectional microphones, and the ability to use the headphones with mobile devices to take calls. All three headsets are capable of independently managing voice and game volumes through the control unit.
The Y-250 series of headphones have a MSRP of £69.99 and are on sale now. Find out more here.
Adonit announced their newest Jot stylus, theJot Touch. The Touch a Bluetooth 4.0 stylus capable of detecting 2000 different levels of pressure and allows the user to rest their palm on their iPad while writing and drawing. The Jot continues to use the precision disc that allows for greater accuracy and has a dampening tip that avoids the constant tap tap tap noise that plagued the original Jot Classic. The body of the stylus has two shortcut buttons that can be assigned to things like undo or colour changes.The battery life is estimated to be at a month per charge with normal use and the Jot Touch recharges via USB.
The Jot Touch is available for pre order for $89.99 USD at Adonit’s website here.
The Gold Nunchuk has made a return! For those of Wii fans out there, you probably already know that this item is quite hard to come by only available for those that bought the limited edition bundle of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in November 2011.
For everyone else, and by that I mean everyone else who’s a Club Nintendo member and didn’t buy the limited edition bundle of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, good news as the exclusive accessory has made its way on Club Nintendo.
The Gold Nunchuk is available for 900 Coins at Club Nintendo – but be warned stocks are strictly limited, and sure to go very, very fast.
Are you an Xbox 360 owner with access to a Kinect? Are you a fan of the Dance Central games? Maybe you have children and would love to teach them some new things, but are unable to keep an eye on them because you’re a lousy parent? Then Microsoft has just the things in store for you.
First comes a bunch of new tracks and routines for Dance Central 3 for the Kinect. The following tracks have been added to the game:
Now available is Nicki Minaj’s “Whip It” from the 2012 album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded for download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace or the in-game “Dance Central 3” Music Store. Then on Jan. 16, Pitbull’s “International Love” – featuring vocals by Chris Brown – comes to “Dance Central 3.” Additionally, Pitbull’s “(Hey Baby) Drop It to The Floor” featuring T-Pain will also be available for download. Both tracks can be purchased individually, or as part of “Pitbull Pack 01.”
The following week, The Wanted’s massive hit “Glad You Came” will be available for download on Jan. 23.
Finally, on Jan. 30, Flo Rida’s “Let It Roll” will be available. The track originally appeared on Flo Rida’s fourth studio album, 2012’s Wild Ones.
All tracks will be available via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace or the in-game “Dance Central 3” Music Store for 240 Microsoft Points™ each. “Pitbull Pack 01” can be purchased for 400 Microsoft Points.
For all of you education nuts and horrible parents, Microsoft are also releasing Kinect Sesame Street and Kinect Nat Geo TV season 2 (of each) on the Xbox Live service. These 8 episode services are available for a nominal fee. Refer to the quote below for more info.
“Kinect Sesame Street TV” and “Kinect Nat Geo TV” 1 Season Two are now available for digital download exclusively on Xbox LIVE for $40.00 AUD/2400 MS points for the eight 30-minute episodes when you purchase a Season Pass on Xbox LIVE. Individual episodes can also be purchased for $6.75 AUD/400 MS points.
Even cooler is that Kinect Sesame Street TV has Smartglass integration, ensuring your children also destroy your tablets and smartphones.
Today Sentai Filmworks revealed that they picked up quite an adorable little anime in the form of Acchi Kocchi. The anime series aired during the Spring anime season last year and the company is going to be releasing it under a new name called “Place to Place” on subtitled DVD sometime later this year.
Acchi Kocchi is an anime adaptation of a 4koma manga series and it follows a tsundere girl named Tsumiki, who isn’t actually a cat-girl, and the object of her affection Io as well as their friends as they live out their high school lives. The series was, as mentioned earlier, adorable when it first aired and absolutely hilarious with its random comedy so this is quite a pick-up for Sentai.
Today Namco Bandai provided an official release date for their unique looking Naruto Powerful Shippuden, also known as Naruto SD: Powerful Shippuden. This super deformed looking game featuring Naruto and Rock Lee battling against chibi enemies will be released in North America on March 5th.
The game’s story mode will feature a story mode for both Naruto and Rock Lee and will take missions from the anime series, Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals which currently has not been licensed in the West. Along with this announcement the company also released a few new screenshots. Those of you who want to check out the game’s trailer as well as a number of other images, you can find the trailer herewhile the screenshots can be seen here.
Retro City Rampage Developer: Vblank Entertainment Publisher: D3 Publisher (XBLA), Vblank Entertainment (Windows/PS3/PS Vita) Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, PS Vita, Xbox Live Arcade (Reviewed) Release Date: January 3rd, 2013 Price: $14.99/ 800 MSP Get it Here
Overview
Retro City Rampage started out 11 years ago as a fan project. Brian Provinciano wanted to create an 8-bit version of Grand Theft Auto 3. In the 11 years since then, this project morphed into Retro City Rampage, a satirical tribute to pop culture and video games. Retro City Rampage leaves no pop culture reference untouched in instantly recognizable NES graphics.
Story
The plot in Retro City Rampage is pretty forgettable. The main character, conveniently named Player, is the classic GTA hero who is a low level thug with an ever so slight conscience. The player hops into a broken port-a-potty turned time machine to avoid the cops in a bank heist gone wrong. He meets Doc Choc who becomes convinced Player comes from the future and Player’s ridiculous adventure to fix the time machine begins.
The story line quickly takes a back seat to the game. Like a Family Guy episode, the actual plot is a rough and easily forgettable structure that keeps the game’s plot together, but the real gems are the plethora of pop culture and video game references generously spooned into the game. Playing Retro City Rampage is like walking down Hollywood and going star spotting. Players are guaranteed to bump into at least one reference they understand and a few more obscure references too.
Gameplay
It is extremely obvious that Retro City Rampage started its life as a port of Grand Theft Auto 3. It boasts a large open world that just begs to be explored. The stores are tongue in cheek parodies that would make Rockstar proud. As a Canadian, I even spotted a few subtly Canadian references. The city has taken several cues from developer Brian Provinciano’s base of operations in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The game itself is broken down into three modes. The free roam mode strips out all the missions and allows the player to roam around the city as either the protagonist or special characters unlocked during the course of the main game. Most of these characters are from iconic indie games like Minecraft and Super Meat Boy. The arcade challenge provides players an opportunity to compete on the leaderboards for high scores.
The main attraction of the game is the story mode. There are 62 missions to complete and several on the side distractions to optionally complete. There are a wide variety of weapons to wreak havoc with. The inventory system becomes a little irritating to handle as the right bumper is used to cycle through each weapon. After a while, the inventory becomes rather full. I found myself trying to jump around and dodging enemies while rapidly tapping the inventory button trying to find the weapon I needed for the situation.
The missions cover all the basics from car reappropriations, assassinations, and the dreaded tail missions to a few retro throw backs like the paper boy mission and Metal Gear Solid styled sneaking missions. Some of the missions can become a little tedious, as many boil down to drive from point A to B, kill a lot of people without dying, finish the missions or here is a special vehicle, go on a huge killing spree while trying to get the highest score possible. The checkpoints are placed at reasonable points and failure results in some good advice on completing the mission.
The controls are excellent as they are responsive and are well thought out. The game provides a good tutorial for controlling the game that is built into the story. Driving controls can be set to old school type controls or a simplified point in the direction and go type controls. Those who are too young to remember the NES era of gaming will not encounter too much of a struggle to transition to the top down and 2d perspectives of the game. The only time I ever struggled with the controls was aiming my stomps. I found the hit box could be a little small, especially when my target was moving around. However, the game provides a large bonus reward for the skill required to chain stomps together.
Visuals
Retro City Rampage is presented in classic 8-bit NES graphics. It stays true to form with all the classic styled screen effects. The only modern concession the game makes is the possibility to play the game in widescreen format instead of having borders on the window. There are several border styles that can be selected including the classic arcade cabinet look.
Audio
Three major chiptune artists where brought on board to provide the soundtrack to the game. Freaky DNA, virt, and Norrin Radd have put together a great soundtrack that blends in well with the 8-bit nature of the game. As an added bonus, a free demo mix tape is available for free download on the Retro City Rampage website alongside the full soundtrack in vinyl and MP3 formats. The sound effects do well, never getting annoying or repetitive but never manage to hit a wow this is amazing moment either. They simply work. Overall
Overall, Retro City Rampage is an excellent game that stumbles on its repetitiveness and its constant need to parody everything. It provides an excellent soundtrack, strong controls, and perfect replication of 8-bit graphics from the NES. However it struggles to come into its own as a video game and escape being an 8-bit Grand Theft Auto parody. For 800MSp/$14.99 USD, I can easily recommend the game for fans of the GTA style games and those looking for a solid retro throwback game, but for those not particularly interested in either Retro City Rampage may best saved for a sale price purchase.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
ATLUS and Old School Games have put together a pretty fun new contest to promote their new game God Mode, while letting players lend a hand athe final product s well. Since the game focuses on players starting out already deceased, to add a little bit more fun the game includes a Spirit Guide that mocks the player for how they died. How can players help with that? By coming up with fun, ironic, or otherwise unique deaths for the Spirit Guide to chide the player with.
The winners of the contest will have their submission recorded by the voice of the Spirit Guide for inclusion in the game and the author listed in the Special Thanks of the games credits. If you have what it takes to come up with worthy death, double check the official rules and submit it to the comments section of the news post HERE before January 11th 11:59 pm PT.
God Mode is a up to four player co-op shooter for PC, XBLA, and PSN set to release early this year, that is luckily rated M, so potential contest entrants don’t have to worry as much about the content of their submissions.
A new App for use in conjunction with Ubisoft’s latest free-roam insane shooter, Far Cry 3, has just been released. This App allows players to find in game encrypted codes in the multiplayer and co-operative modes of the game and decrypt them even when the app isn’t in direct use. By uncoding these special in-game collectibles players will unlock new attachments, gear and weapons for use in Far Cry 3’s online modes; nice initiative to think about the title even outside of game time.
You also may want to rope in any friends you have to boost your own experience. By inviting friends and linking up, items are decoded much faster and player trade can even occur between individual phones. Boost your own game or help out a buddy, it’s all up to you in this new way to play.
Far Cry 3 is out now and available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC; check out our review of the game here. Also feel free to watch the release trailer for the Outpost Decoding App down below, which itself is available now for all recent iOS and Android devices. Pick up for free from the iTunes Store here.
Swag! YOLO! Money? That’s right Irrational Games are offering some new swag for Bioshock fans in anticipation of the upcoming Bioshock Infinite game. They have released some new Bioshock infinite merch to their online store here.
