While anyone who picked up the Hardened Edition or Care Package of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been able to play Nuketown Zombies since the game was released, everyone else has unfortunately been unable to access this very popular map in the extremely popular zombie mode.
However that has changed today thanks to the fact that Treyarch and Activision have now made Nuketown Zombies available for download for anyone who is a Season Pass holder on the Xbox 360. Currently it is unknown whether Nuketown Zombies will be released for non-season pass holders for a fee nor when it will arrive on the PC and PlayStation 3, but you can check out the trailer below to see the map in action.
More information concerning Namco Bandai’s Project Versus J was revealed in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump this week. The key piece of information revealed is the fact that the title is being developed for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 (Import friendly systems) and the title will be a “team battle action” style game.
It is also worth noting that gamers will have a chance to vote on any three characters from the Shonen Jump lineup to join the game’s final roster. The magazine lists that any characters will be acceptable regardless of their position in the manga. However Western fans will not be able to submit their votes, considering the only way to let Namco Bandai hear your voice is to male in a vote via a postcard to an address listed in the magazine.
Interestingly enough, there are multiple screenshots of the game in action in this issue so expect some scans to be revealed in the next few hours showing the game in action.
Black Knight Sword already has a lot going for it, as it has the name Suda 51 attached. This twisted fairy tale is much more than that though, as it features that classic 16-bit sidescrolling gameplay that retro fanatics should love.
Here are some more details if you are unfamiliar:
Perfecting the blend of traditional side-scrolling action with a one-of-a-kind bizarre world, Black Knight Sword presents an unprecedented visual style. In this modern and interactive take on a classic fairy tale, Black Knight Sword is a throwback to the 16-bit era with simple, yet addictive gameplay within a stylized hand-drawn puppet theater world. As an intriguing “Interactive Kamishibia” (paper drama), Black Knight Sword unfolds similar to a virtual pop-up book filled with memorable creatures to encounter and addictive challenges to overcome.
Black Knight Sword is Suda 51’s twisted interpretation of the princess fairy tale where, rather than saving the charming princess, The Black Knight must free the world from a dark princess’ reign of terror. Players will solve puzzles and unleash the fury of The Black Knight’s sword, the Black Hellebore. Enchanted with powerful fairy spirits to assist in battle, the Black Hellebore will cause more than a scratch to the treacherous enemies set before The Black Knight.
SOLD! Yes, this may sound a bit niche for some, but Black Knight Sword looks damn impressive, and thankfully, is available today on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network for just 800 points ($9.99 PSN).
A previously unannounced iOS port of the 3DS music game Theatrhythm Final Fantasyappeared on New Zealand’s iOS App Store today, which usually suggests a worldwide release throughout the rest of the day.
The iOS release adds a “Quest Medley” mode, which puts you through a random pairing of “field” and “battle” levels, which are different every time you play through them. It also adds a composition mode in which to make your own levels, along with the ability to share these creations via Twitter.
Unlike the 3DS version, the iOS release is free to download. As reported by NeoGAF users, it comes with just two songs, with the rest purchased as in-app bundles. Even additional characters are sold through this system. However, user Goli notes that when the NZ release of the game is opened in a US account, the prices for in-app purchases show up in US denominations and add up to around $150.
Considering the teaser sitelaunched for Theatrhythm in Japan is still un-updated as of this writing, it begs the question of what the teaser site was for in the first place. In any case, Theatrhythm is most definitely worth a try if you have even the slightest appreciation for Final Fantasy music. The 3DS version currently retails for $30.
How do you promote an already great game? Well, Reverb Publishing recently made a nice little newspaper clipping for Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller to entice those to not only vote for it on Steam Greenlight, but also to pick it up online as the game is readily available.
Check out the nice little read below, with links fully inserted:
Boston Man Found Tortured to Death in Grisly Death Trap
Early reports state this the work of the Cain Killer
By Rosie Williams – October 29, 2008
BOSTON, Mass. – The latest victim in a string of brutal murders across the Boston area, Needham resident Scott Reed, 26, died as a result of injuries inflicted by the murderer-at-large known as the “Cain Killer.” This serial killer has been terrorizing the Boston area for the past three years, targeting male-female sibling pairs and using numerous torture devices that have left all victims dead. The Cain Killer kills his victims in traps involving large spikes and spears, and once left a man to suffocate in a sealed stone coffin. Disturbingly, the Cain Killer has an active following on social media that has caught police attention, although it seems this is unrelated to the murderer and the case.
Scott Reed was the son of well-known retired Boston Police Captain Brian Reed and brother of local FBI Agent Erica Reed. Boston FBI Director Samuel McAdams has confirmed that Agent Reed is being treated at Mass General Hospital for severe injuries received in the attempt to recover her brother, but is expected to make a full recovery. This makes Agent Reed the first potential victim to escape the Cain Killer. It is confirmed that Agent Reed was working on the Cain Killer case prior to her brother’s abduction and there is speculation that Scott Reed may have been targeted because of this.
Agent Reed has not made any official comments regarding her brother’s murder. Reporters and citizens have been following her still-public Facebook profile for potential information regarding the case. Police and FBI officials have requested that all citizens who have or are looking for more information regarding Reed or the Cain murders should contact the FBI media representative, or browse the public case simulation.
In case you didn’t catch the hint, VOTE FOR COGNITION TO GET GREENLIT ON STEAM! I enjoy seeing clever types of promotion bundled with already intriguing titles, and this mystery is one that should be solved by all.
Along with my interview with Mike Read, Producer of Crysis 3, I also had the opportunity to interview the Producer of SimCity, Jason Haber.
We will also have a hands-on of SimCity up shortly, so keep an eye out for that in the coming days.
Here’s a quick look at the background of Mr. Haber:
“Jason has over six years of experience at the Maxis Emeryville Studio, and has worked on a number of memorable titles across multiple platforms including: Spore Creature Creator, Spore Creatures, Spore Hero Arena, MicroBot and Darkspore. Prior to joining Maxis Emeryville, Haber worked as a Producer/Designer at LeapFrog, Web Development Lead at Grand Central, and Interface Engineering Manager at Snap.com. A graduate of Oberlin College, Haber holds degrees in both Computer Science and Psychology. He is a proud parent and travel enthusiast who also enjoys photography, interactive artwork, pinball, and of course, videogames— with a particular penchant for indie and classic games.”
Ok, let’s get on with the interview!
Let me just start off by saying, and I know I can speak for Jess too [fellow Capsule Computers editor present during the interview/huge fan], that SimCity is becoming one of our most anticipated titles of 2013. First of all, I’d like to talk about the Glassbox engine; it’s very impressive. Do you see it being used, moving forward, for The Sims as well as SimCity?
Well, what I can say about it is that the Glassbox engine initially started to get created right after Spore, under the vision of Ocean Quigley, our Creative Director [I really should have interjected here with a “hippy parents?” line…] and Andrew Willmott, who’s our Chief Architect. It’s sort of meant to be…we’re certainly using it for SimCity and it’s a great engine for SimCity, but it was built with the intent of being the next big engine for the Maxis studio. And we don’t have specific plans for how we’re going to use it after this, and SimCity is certainly one of the most difficult things we could have done with it, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t future endeavours with the Glassbox engine.
It’s a great engine and it’s been built in-house so I just thought it would fit perfectly with The Sims, giving some interesting data into their daily lives, in that same respect that it works in SimCity. But anyway, going off on a tangent here, but it was the first title we gravitated to here today. [Jess: It looks amazing!]
Great! How many times have you played it?
Jess: We only played it once, but I want to go back and play it again.
The fun thing about this demo is you can play it over and over again, and you can skip the tutorial to just get into it quick.
It’s funny, there was a point where one of the residents commented that “it’s obvious that we are generating more power than we need!”, so I shut down the power plant and then 10 seconds later everyone is complaining that there’s no power! (Laughter)
(Laughter) Yeah, we’ve done a lot of tuning since the creation of this demo!
But in a sense it works because it’s indicative of how we react to things. There’s the energy/power conscious and there are others who don’t understand/care about those things, they leave the lights on all the time, you know? (Laughter)
(Laughter) Yeah, in a way it’s more representative of the real world.
Ok, so we’ve heard about SimCity World. How exactly can multiple players affect each other’s cities?
So, within a region, cities can work together. And we call it multi-city play, but you can easily play it on your own as well as with other people. But there’s three main ways that cities can interact with each other. One is through the Sims, where they can move between cities in a region; so they may live in one city, and work in another city and spend money in yet another city. And in other ways they can share resources, so power and water can go and flow out of a city and go to other cities in a region, so you may have a city that doesn’t even need a power plant because it’s getting so much power from it’s neighbours. And then there’s things like services as well which you can share with other cities; if I build this big higher tier, higher level police station, I can share that police coverage with another city in a region. There can also be negative influences as well, so a lot of crime can spill over and affect other cities. Crime and pollution are actually the big ones that can affect the cities next to you. In addition, cities can collaborate together on great works, and those are sort-of regional projects that require tons of workers and resources, but they really benefit everyone that’s connected to them. So it’s this idea of like “let’s work together to do something big and great that we all can benefit from”.
I was pondering the possibility of disasters spilling over to neighbouring cities as well, but all up that is a lot of functionality between cities, and I never expected there to be that much so this is all very cool to hear.
Yeah and you know, I’m sure you saw the first strategy video that Stone [Lead Designer] did, and there’s going to be more coming out that shows how these cities can work together and how it works in the real world. And what we think is cool is that even hopping between cities is really easy. You just simply move to that city, click on it, and it loads up right away. So it really makes that multi-city play feel more contained, but let’s you play the whole region instead of just a single city.
Cool, I always keep up with dev diaries so I’ll keep an eye out for them. So what challenges did the team face in tackling full online play? If I’m not mistaken, it hasn’t been tackled in the franchise since SimCity 2000?
SimCity’s never done full online play before.
Really? My memory must be bad…(laughter)
Yeah, well that I know of, let me put it that way.
Maybe not full online play, but some sort of functionality. [I was semi-correct: SimCity 2000: Network Edition (or Gold Edition) did enable players to share in-game resources and to compete or cooperate with other cities.]
I mean, to answer your question, in doing any online game there are a lot of challenges – I mean there’s a whole server architecture that we have to deal with; we actually simulate the entire regions on our servers. So that’s been in development for a while, and there’s this whole slew of challenges that come with it. Luckily, at the Maxis studio, we did Darkspore and we learnt a lot from that about how to set up an online environment and all the challenges that arise from that. So there’s a lot of different aspects relating to that.
Of course. Well I was interested in asking, when it comes to single-player, what kind of goals will the player have? I know it’s a sandbox game and that word “goals” is subjective and broad when used within the genre…
(Laughter) I’m just laughing because yeah, it’s so hard to define what a goal is, but I think some of the things that motivate me as a player depends on how I’m playing. Sometimes it’s that I want to become a specific big business city, sometimes I just want to make a city with a big population or a lot of Simoleons and the leaderboards actually – part of that SimCity World feature – gives me a lot of guidance to what I’m doing. For instance, Kip Katsarelis – who’s the Lead Producer – and I, we were competing on the petroleum leaderboards a couple of weeks ago. It was like, we kept knocking each other off the top and we kept building bigger and bigger oil cities to try and take the other person off the top. And it was fun because it was just one way to be motivated and we were like “next time, I’m gonna go and play the electronics game and try to beat everyone at that”. So I think for those higher level goals, there’s a lot of different motivations you can have. And even moment to moment you’re going to have your own little goals of like “ok, the next thing I’m going to do in this city is figure out how my police coverage is gonna work; where I want my police station, how many police cars I want, etc.”. So they’re like mini-research projects that you do at points in the game.
Well, something I noticed in the demo are the speech bubbles that pop up, whereby the residents give you little tasks, or maybe more appropriately I should say hints as to what you should do in the city. Is that something that occurs early on, similar to a tip system/tutorial element or is that found throughout the game?
That’ll occur throughout the game. We’re still balancing how often that appears and what sorts of things appear, and we’re actually hoping to give the players the option to turn those off if they don’t want them. But it’s funny, everyone who plays it actually likes to leave them on, because they’re really easy to ignore; if you’re in the middle of doing something else it’s not like you’re forced to click on them, but it’s nice to have them there sometimes.
Yeah, I actually like that aspect. Ok, so for the final question, I know this is looking a bit too far down the line, but given the release strategy of The Sims with all the expansions, do you consider it a possible that SimCity will do the same? Because historically it hasn’t really ventured into that DLC/Expansion pack territory very often at all.
Well, right now we’re really just focused on finishing the core game. We’ll see what the future holds, but for the record SimCity 4 did have Rush Hour, so…
Yeah, that’s true. I just thought there’s a market for that extra support, but yeah that’s true…
I think SimCity 2, 2000, actually also had…one of them did because we have the box in the studio. It actually may have been the original SimCity…
Well I was born in 1990 so excuse me for not remembering…
Oh God, that’s so depressing! (laughter)
(Laughter) Well thank you for the interview, and SimCity is coming out on March 5th?
I believe it’s March 8th here, so there’s a couple days difference from the U.S.
I don’t think people will have any other choice, it looks fantastic so having to wait a few extra days is a price we’re willing to pay! (laughter) Thanks so much Jason.
If you weren’t convinced that the next SimCity game from Maxis, simply called SimCity, was going to be impressive from the last few videos the company has released, then perhaps this newest trailer will help you realize how this version of the game is going to be a crowning achievement for the franchise.
In the video below we can see Lead Designer Stone Librande show off his casino city by using something called “Multi-city” play. Currently SimCity is meant to be released sometime in 2013 and can currently be pre-ordered from Origin for $60, or if you are a huge fan of the game you can pick up a “Digital Deluxe” edition for $80.
Black Lagoon: Complete Set Studio: Madhouse Publisher: FUNimation Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Release Date: December 4, 2012 Price: $54.98 – Available Here
Overview: Black Lagoon is a series that many anime/manga fans may be familiar with thanks to the fact that it has had a rough time over the last few years. The manga which the anime is based off of has been in hiatus for the last three years and the original licensor of the anime series, Geneon, left the anime business years ago. However FUNimation saved a number of anime licenses from Geneon and one of these happened to be Black Lagoon. Now FUNimation has chosen to re-release the series for the first time on Blu-ray and have combined the two Black Lagoon seasons, Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage, into one release. Is this complete set worth your time? Let’s find out.
Story: Rokuro Okajima has lived his life as a standard Japanese office worker who has always rolled over for his boss and did everything that he could to please his superiors, even if this meant demeaning himself for their amusement. However when he is trusted with a special disc and sent on a business trip, his life takes a sudden turn when a group of pirates/mercenaries not only steal the disc but decide to kidnap Rokuro and ransom him off because they feel like they haven’t been paid enough for the job.
However when his company abandons him and tells him to go die, Rokuro adopts the new name or Rock and settles down as a member of the Lagoon Company which happens to contain an extremely violent woman who seems to kill with no remorse. Her name is Revy and she has been nicknamed “Two Hands” thanks to her style of using two guns at any time and thanks to Rock’s idealistic outlook on the world, he often finds himself on the bad side of this ruthless woman.
The other members of the crew are Dutch, an ex-Marine who leads Lagoon and a Jewish-American by the name of Benny who handles the group’s technological affairs. Lagoon bases themselves off of a torpedo boat and the story of Black Lagoon follows this group of mercenaries as they take various contracts from employers around the world, though the work never takes them to far away from the Indian Ocean or various locations in Asia and Japan.
It is worth noting that Black Lagoon is a series that isn’t afraid to move into dark territory and there are multiple story developments, usually involving backstory, which truly feel evil or horrifying and at times the morality of the Lagoon Company and its members can be called into question as the group operates in a gray area where their enemies are evil, however throughout the series the morals of Revy especially can be called into question just as much when it comes to her actions and love of bloodlust.
However throughout the two seasons that are combined in this release, we do see some decent character development with Rock as he grows more confident in his abilities and starts to become accustomed to the actions the group has to take, essentially changing from your standard Japanese businessman into a sharp-witted member of the group. As the series progresses, Revy’s complex past and terrifying nature are explored. As one would expect, with Rock and Revy butting heads so often initially, the violent tension between the two dies down as the series progresses while other tensions rise as their complex relationship progresses throughout the series.
Black Lagoon’s story works well with its focus on a small cast of characters, and even then most of the attention is paid towards only Revy and Rock as they tackle various contracts and learn from one another. It also helps that the story is laced with loads of black humor and thrilling gun battles that keep the show moving at a steady pace even as each story arc progresses.
Visuals: One thing that is instantly noticeable about Black Lagoon is the colorful color palette used for the show. Many action anime try to keep a mundane, gray and brown color variation but Black Lagoon manages to keep things fresh with a wide-range of colors even in many of the action scenes where blood and bullets are being sprayed all over the screen.
The bloody gun battles and action sequences have been given first-class animation making every blood bath a thrilling experience. As for the character designs, each cast member has a unique look to them and it is interesting to note that many races are represented in the show which is something of a rarity for anime. Also it is worth noting that the basic art work of the show actually improves over time and the visuals make a small jump in quality when episodes of Black Lagoon: Second Barrage roll around.
Audio: Despite being recorded back in 2007 and 2009 for the second half of the series, the voice work for Black Lagoon remains impressively violent and satisfactory. Though if the subtitles are anything to go by, the English cast seems to have worked in a lot more swear words than the series was originally meant to have. However this use of foul language manages to fit the images of the characters and the voices provided by the actors/actresses meaning that this shouldn’t be an issue unless the viewer happens to have issues with such language.
As far as background music goes, Black Lagoon does a decent job providing a few memorable tracks that play alongside some dramatic moments in the show but otherwise most of the background tracks are forgetful. The opening song throughout the entire series is actually an Engrish style song sung by Mell called “Red Fraction.” Despite not sounding as great as a native English singer, the song matches the style of the anime well and works a great intro for the series. The ending songs are more basic however as they all aim for dramatic impact with mostly instrumental songs such as “Don’t Look Behind” by Edison throughout most of the series and two special tracks played for episodes 15 and 24.
Extras: As far as bonus features go, Black Lagoon: Complete Set may appear like it actually has a lot going for it, however most of these bonus features are limited by the fact that they are almost entirely promotional material. We have a CD Commercial, three promo videos and trailers for other FUNimation shows all of which fall under that category. Outside of that there are two clean versions of the opening, one of which has a couple of “uncensored” parts which don’t really show much extra, as well as a clean textless version of each ending sequence, including the special endings featured in episodes 15 and 24.
Beyond that there is also a special “The Crew” bonus feature which takes viewers behind the scenes at the recording studio where the English voice cast worked on providing the dub. In this fifteen minute video we hear from a decent amount of the English cast and it is a nice look at how things were handled back when it was originally recorded while Geneon was still around.
Overall: This Black Lagoon: Complete Set hits the HD scene with a bang with plenty of fast paced action and beautiful animation which will keep viewers coming back for more as the Lagoon Company takes on increasingly violent and strange contracts which see them facing off against many of the underworlds worst members all while trying to earn enough money to eat.. even if it means leaving a pile of bullet-riddled bodies in their wake.
Invader Zim Complete Series Studio:Nickelodeon Publisher:Beyond Entertainment Format:DVD Release Date:December 3, 2012 Price:$34.95 – Available Here
Overview:
Invader Zim is a curious cartoon for a number of reasons. The fact that it aired on Nickelodeon being the most curious fact of all. This is a cartoon series that is almost too dark to be for children, yet it has a silly side that somehow manages to fall within that audience range. The problem though with Invader Zim though isn’t its darkness, it is that like it’s protagonist it is just far too alien for its own good. For some that isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s really a large factor to why this series never gained an audience during it’s TV run.
Story:
The premise of Invader Zim is rather simple and it’s execution is actually quite well done. Zim is a good for nothing Irken with an insatiable thirst for power and respect, both of which he never really gets. In an attempt to get rid of the annoyance of Zim forever the legendary Almighty Tallest the leaders of the Irken race of aliens send Zim off to an unknown planet which just so happens to be Earth with the mission to conquer it. Thus is the basic plot of Invader Zim.
Each episode generally revolves around 1 of 2 general plots, that being either Zim coming up with an idea for his scheme to take over the world or Zim’s human nemesis Dib coming up with a scheme to reveal Zim’s true alien nature. Both storylines work well enough and leave a fair amount of room for creativity.
At it’s best Invader Zim is an incredibly creative and engaging cartoon series with a fairly well defined mythology, at it’s worst it is downright disturbing and painful to watch. It’s these two great extremes that make Invader Zim a difficult series to recommend. On one side of the coin it has it’s fair share of great moments and on the very other side it is utterly repulsive.
As I mentioned beforehand this is not really a cartoon that is suitable for children. It’s just so grim and at times just downright miserable. All of the characters lack any real semblance of humanity, making them difficult to relate to and understand on any significant level. The most repulsive episode of the series is undoubtedly ‘Dark Harvest’. This episode revolves entirely around Zim literally stealing organs from a number of children and implanting them onto himself in order to appear more human. It ultimately results in one of the most disturbing half hours of children’s television I have ever seen. What’s worse is that in the end, Zim succeeds in his plan. It’s just not fun viewing at all. There is no message, it’s just misery.
Despite it’s fair share of bad episodes, there are some real highlights here. The pilot episode for one is a brilliant display of what the series is capable of. It sets the tone perfectly and shows what can be expected from the series in the future.
At the end of the day it is very easy to see why Invader Zim was cancelled. The series glorifies the disturbing and doesn’t particularly care to be fun. It appears that the series priority for the most part is to be as repulsive and miserable as possible. Don’t get me wrong there are some fun points throughout Invader Zim, but it is ultimately the series lack of basic humanity that makes it feel so alien. It’s hard to connect with something that you cannot relate to. Anyone that can relate to this series in any meaningful way most likely needs to see a psychiatrist because these characters and stories are just so severely lacking in even the most simplest forms of humanity.
Visuals and Audio:
There is something to be said about Invader Zim’s insistence of being unashamedly hideous. Rarely does a series come along that so passionately takes pride in looking ugly and downright disturbing, but that is what Invader Zim does. It isn’t your standard children’s cartoon aesthetics, instead it’s brutally disgusting at times and doesn’t care to be anything close to appealing. It fits with the subject matter of Invader Zim but works against it far more than it does for it.
The soundtrack of Invader Zim on the other hand is rather brilliant. It fits the series perfectly in tone and is well timed and composed. It is undoubtedly a great bright spot in a rather repulsive overall product.
Extras:
Beyond Entertainment have done a remarkable job with this JB-HIFI exclusive Complete Series release. The box-set comes in a slip cover box and features both Season 1 and Season 2 in their completion. This alone totals in at 46 full episodes of Invader Zim. It is undoubtedly the most comprehensive Invader Zim release to date and for that reason alone it is a must have for fans of this bizarre series. While there isn’t much in the way of special features the release itself is well produced and packs a whopping amount of content that it’s hard to find a fault in it despite the lack of extras.
Overall:
Invader Zim is a series that you either love or you hate. There is no middle ground here, it either repulses and disturbs you or it captivates you with all it’s gross weirdness. While it is far from being the classic that its cult-like fandom pronounce it to be, there is a fair amount of fun to be had with this series, bar a few truly revolting episodes. The price is right for this release and if you are a fan of this series this is undoubtedly the collection to own. I can’t really recommend it to the uninitiated, but if you can go in with a relatively open mind you may find that Invader Zim might surprise you or it might just horrify you. How did this make it on Nickelodeon again? Regardless of all that, Invader Zim is series that is often too weird for its own good and the way it bathes in misery isn’t exactly fun family viewing. Proceed with caution, this is one divisive alien encounter.
Airport Scanner just sounds too much like a real job for my liking despite having a fascination with those customs and baggage reality shows but a cool concept nonetheless and something I could quite happily sit for hours on end playing. Fans of the title will be interested to know that their has been a major update applied by Kedlin Company in conjunction with a partnership between them and Dr Stephen Mitroff. The update will allow Duke Universities Visual Cognition lab to be fed anonymous gameplay data to answer questions about real life scenarios that can be lab tested. Stephen Mitroff specialises in visual contact and with funding from the Transport Security Administration is working towards learning what makes one person a better visual spotter than someone else in an effort to help airports increase their security.
The New features include a progression system to replay any of the 21 challenging levels, a ratings system to push you towards perfection as well as a holding pen and the ability to fast track passengers.
BOSTON, Mass. – The latest victim in a string of brutal murders across the Boston area, Needham resident Scott Reed, 26, died as a result of injuries inflicted by the murderer-at-large known as the “
