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.
So far, the Senran Kagura series has seen two games released on the Nintendo 3DS with one coming out on the Vita in the next few months. Despite there being three titles in the series and even an anime set to air in the coming weeks, there has been no sign that these games would ever make it over to the West.
However Senran Kagura’s producer, Kenichiro Takaki, has mentioned that he hopes to bring the series West as a Nintendo eShop download at the very least and today he has made his first step towards doing that, by releasing Senran Kagura Burst on the Japanese eShop.
The downloadable version of the game will cost 5,980 yen and will be available on January 10th and will feature both the first game in the series, Portrait of Girls, as well as the sequel Burst. To leave things off this year, Takaki left a great English message for fans on Twittersaying, “I’ll wrap the world in happy boobs next year.” A man after my own heart.
2012 has been a huge year for anime, with a plethora of new series making a splash that won’t soon be forgotten. Over the course of the last 12 months the anime industry has witnessed some truly shocking, amazing and even hilarious news stories. How will we look back on this year in anime? Well here is what made us talk about anime in 2012:
Way back in January this year, we broke the news that Bandai had effectively closed up shop in North America leaving many of their releases to go unfinished and unreleased. This also meant many of their licenses would be up in the air. This rocked the anime industry to it’s core as one of the big players had stepped out. It was Bandai’s failure to adapt that ultimately was their undoing, but the industry has bounced back since Bandai’s end with several of their titles having been license rescued since.
Media Blasters are a company that have been in the anime industry for a long time to say the least, dating back to the 90s even. However 2012 has been a horrible year for them as they have fired 60% of their staff, cancelled and delayed a large number of their releases with no definite future for any of them or this once prosperous company. As of posting Media Blasters are still ‘operating’ but it is only a matter of time before they follow in Bandai’s footsteps.
In a bit of lighter news, we got news that a Sydney man who happened to be a huge fan of the anime and manga series Bleach was able to fight off a home invader with a replica sword from the series. It was a strange piece of news that had all of us here at Capsule in stitches.
Fans of the work of Shinichiro Watanabe had reason to be excited this year. After several years of hiatus he returned with an excellent slice of life series that much like his other works featured music as a large focal point. The series was Kids on the Slope, a great low-key series that aired on noitaminA in Japan to great praise, completely revitalizing Watanabe’s career after his lengthy hiatus and thank god for that.
To the shock of no one the Bleach anime had been in ratings hell for months leading up to it’s eventual demise earlier this year. The series had reached a major slump and simply could not recover which ultimately led to the anime series cancellation.
In some sadder news, Noboru Ishiguro, the man behind legendary anime series such as Space Battleship Yamato and the Macross franchise and the founder of Artland anime studio, passed away tragically earlier this year after roughly 50 years of service to the industry. His legacy still lives on through his work and the continual output of anime from his Artland studio.
This year also saw the inception of a brand new anime distributor in Australia, that being Hanabee. This new company was founded by former CEO of Siren Visual Eric Cherry and has since launching released excellent anime series such as Toradora! and Dream Eater Merry exciting and captivating the country’s anime fandom with series thought to never see the light of day on our shores. To commemorate the launch of Hanabee we interviewed CEO Eric Cherry about the new company which you can see here.
After years upon years of a Toonami-less world, the wildly popular anime block returned to TV in North America to incredible response from anime fans both within America and abroad. The fact that anime could still find a home on TV, especially the type of anime played on Toonami, was something to behold. It began with airing newly dubbed Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins and has since went on to gain new additions such as Tenchi Muyo GXP. There doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop this train now that it’s started rolling again.
Earlier this year Viz Media launched their long awaited streaming service on gaming consoles called Neon Alley. The service has been well received thus far except one tiny little detail, you can’t control the service in anyway. Instead Viz opted for the service to function more like a regular TV channel with a set programming schedule, this has obviously divided fans and has made some think twice about the service.
Dragon Ball much like its protagonist Goku, never truly dies. This much was proven when it was announced that the franchise would see yet another revival in 2013 with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, yet another film based upon the enduring series. This film however fits more smoothly in canon of the series than others with it taking place between the two final chapters time-skip after the defeat of Majin Buu. The announcement of the film has sparked renewed interest in Goku and friends and even the most minute details on the film have been a cause for discussion.
Goku isn’t the only anime hero of the 90s that will make a comeback next year, in some surprising news it was announced that a new Sailor Moon anime series has been green-lit for 2013. Although news has been sparse since that initial announcement it was enough to reignite the flame of passion among the Sailor Moon fanbase with all sorts of conversation stemming from the simple idea of a new take of the perennial magical girl series.
For many anime fans of today the name JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is something that might not ring a bell, that is until after 25 years without a proper anime adaptation the long-running manga series finally got the definitive anime adaptation it so badly deserved. The anime has since received widespread praise for it’s pacing, over the top nature and ‘anything can be awesome’ mentality.
Sword Art Online was first announced earlier this year to air in Summer of 2012, many were intrigued by it’s video-game world premise and it became one of the most watched premiere episodes of the entire year. Unfortunately after several episodes the series would prove to be divisive, with many finding plot-holes and flaws to be abundant while others managed to overlook those issues and enjoy the series for what it is, silly fun. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it there is no doubt in any anime fans mind that there was no other series more talked about this year than Sword Art Online.
This is without a doubt great news for manga fans as this marks a major stride forward for the industry. Viz Media’s digital manga service Shonen Jump Alpha will now feature simultaneous releases with Japan, with manga being released ont he same day as they are in Japan. This is the news manga fans have been waiting for since Alpha’s launch earlier this year.
Easily the most frightening anime news of 2012 is the Kuroko’s Basketball threat incident that as of posting is still an ongoing issue. It all began a few months back when death threats began appearing at locations connected with Tadatoshi Fujimaki the mangaka behind wildly popular manga and anime seires Kuroko’s Basketball. The threats continued to escalate and soon a lethal concoction of hydrogen sulfide begun to accompany the threat letters. The situation still remains unresolved and has resulted in the closure of multiple Kuroko’s Basketball related fan events. The anime series has been renewed for a second season despite the threats and the mangaka has vowed to not stop the series no matter what. This all made for what is the most shocking anime news of 2012.
That’s a wrap!
Well that wraps things up for the year of 2012 in anime. It’s been one hell of year with many highs and lows, but it is stories like these that are what defined this year. Here’s to another brilliant year of anime to look forward to in 2013. See you all on the other side of new year.
It looks like someone may be losing their job at a GameStop somewhere around the world. Today a user from Redditprovided a few images that reveal a large promotional poster that states that the first piece of DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be called “Revolution” and will be released on January 29th.
As you can see in the image above, the DLC will include five new areas which contain four competitive multiplayer maps as well as one zombie map. The four multiplayer maps are Mirage, Downhill, Hydro and Grind while the zombie map is called Die Rise. It is currently unknown how much the DLC will cost when it is released, though it is worth noting that all of Activision’s previous Call of Duty DLC has run for 1200 MSP ($15).
You may remember hearing about how Activision is currently working on a FPS title based off of The Walking Dead franchise and how that title is called The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. What you probably don’t know is how the game will actually play and that is because the only gameplay footage shown off so far have been five second clips shown during AMC’s TV show.
Well over the weekend it was discovered that some early gameplay footage from The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct has been leaked out onto YouTube and can now be seen below. It is unknown how early on in development this video is considering the game does not have a set release date as of yet, so hopefully the generic visuals and gameplay will be improved when the final product is eventually released.
The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition Developer: Edmumd McMillen, Florian Himsl Publisher: Merge Games Platform: PC (reviewed), Mac, Linux Release Date:October 12, 2012 Price: $14.99 (Buy Now)
Overview
The Binding of Isaac was first released back in October of 2011. Since then, this little Indie title has swept up high praises and high sales the like of which many AAA titles would turn green with envy over.
What does runaway success of a digital release always lead to?
No, it’s not the death of the physical game – in fact it’s quite the opposite. The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition is a boxed collector’s edition of the indie game. It comes packed with the game’s soundtrack, an art book, a poster, and some stickers. There’s also the rather large “Wrath of the Lamb” expansion that includes a hundred new items, bonus characters, and a couple dozen new enemies and bosses.
Creating a retail version of an indie title may seem a bit like a sell-out move, but there’s more than enough here to warrant your hard-earned cash.
If you like super-hardcore, spill-your-brains-on-the-keyboard in frustration video games that is.
Gameplay
Isaac’s mother likes the Christian programming on her television a tad too much. After years of compulsive watching she begins to hear God’s voice in her head, it tells her to separate her poor son, Isaac, from the evils of the world. No toys, no friends – a pretty miserable existence.
But it didn’t stop there.
When the voice eventually tells her that slaying her son is the only way to save him from the evils of the world, Isaac escapes to the basement.
Much like Alice heading down the rabbit hole, this is where the adventure begins (and where you, dear player, come in).
The Binding of Isaac is a two-dimensional action RPG wherein you’ll traverse randomly generated dungeons, come across enemies whose attack patterns vary almost as much as their visual designs, and items that are gross to watch when you activate, but effective in their execution.
It’s not every game that lets you pull out Mom’s Bra as a reusable item that allows you to petrify all the enemies in a room, or makes your character have an eye poked out, but as a result the eye now floats around and helps attack enemies.
You’ll need these items though, the game isn’t easy.
This might not be a barrier to entry, but the game’s biggest hurdle is the perma-death. When you die, that’s it. No items, different dungeons, and just a bit more experience to show for it once you start over.
What The Wrath of the Lamb expansion does, however, is alleviate some of those feelings of despair and shouts of “THIS WAS A FU**ING WASTE OF TIME!!!”. This is due to its most unholy addition of bonus characters.
Though it doesn’t really make sense in terms of it being Isaac’s story, once you’ve found a character while exploring a dungeon, you’ll have unlocked them forever. These characters not only have different stats, but also special abilities they can use.
Eve, for example, is faster than Isaac, but has less health. On the other hand, every time she takes damage a raven appears to peck the snot out of every enemy in the room. This was very handy in the game’s many, varied boss fights.
While the bonus characters by no means completely ease the pain with regards to the whole perma-death thing, they do manage to soften the blow – it’s not always a useless quest down the basement chute.
Audio & Visual
The art design of the Binding of Isaac is nothing short of fantastic, making the art book that comes with the Most Unholy edition worthy of your attention.
The game is full of the most vile, disgusting things you could imagine: severed heads shoot tears of blood at you, disfigured babies send swarms of flies to consume you, shop rooms are usually party to a dead child who has hung himself and, hell, Isaac’s basic attacks are based around him crying tears at enemies. It’s disturbing.
While at the same time… it’s all very cute. In short, it’s a hipster’s dream come true; irony, irony, and more irony. The art style resembles something befitting of My Little Pony Island Adventure, but the practical notion of what’s going on in game is more horrifying than anything that’s been in a video game before. Except, of course, the ending of Mass Effect 3. That literally made me barf.
The sound design and soundtrack, on the other hand, are nothing to write home about. Not that they’re bad, but they’re just not very memorable – except for one unforgettable sound effect: the little plop as you attack piles of poop that replace what would be barrels or crates in any other action RPG. That sound sticks with you.
Overall
The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition is an indie game that’s made it big. If you’re not a fan of games with a more challenging difficulty and a cruelly harsh punishment for death, then don’t feel like you have to buy this game on principle.
Though it might surprise you – I’m not usually a fan of either of those things, and I adored this game. Everything that comes with it in the Most Unholy edition is icing on an already very nice cake. So if you haven’t invested in Isaac already, and all that perma-death and nightmarish design stuff hasn’t put you off, then the Most Unholy Edition is the best Binding of Isaac experience out there.
Oh, and before you worry about this being a physical edition and thus always needing the CD – the package comes with a Steam code for the game. So there’s no need to ever even open your CD drive.
