So many free games so little time but this one is definitely worth a look as Phosphor Games and Zynga have launched a FREE version of the critically acclaimed mobile game Horn, featuring tonnes of new features and optimisation for new iPads and available now. Horn Free is not a mediocre version of the premium App, offering a whole new gameplay experience set in a visually amazing console like world. All this is navigated by an intuitive touch control system. The title allows players to explore the prologue to the Horn Story and also introduces the new Quest mode which will also be made available as a download for the premium app. With a huge amount of new weapons to upgrade and enemies to battle, Horn Free is a must for any serious mobile gamers library.
Horn Free is now available via the iTunes App Store.
Just yesterday french developer Ankama released an update to their popular strategy MMO Dofus as well as their brand new title Krosmaster Arena. On top of that Ankama has announced plans for an update for Wakfu on December 18th.
The update to Wakfu will implement a Kwismas Event, 4 New Dungeons and additional environmental quests.
Krosmaster Arena interestingly enough is an expansion pack that bridges the gap between Dofus and Wakfu. The game focuses on players fighting their Krosmaster figurines against one another.
What do you think of this Ankama news? Let us know in the comments section below.
A new trailer has been released for One Piece Film Z ahead of it’s December 15th release this week. The trailer features the two theme songs for the film performed by Avril Lavigne, both of which are cover songs.
The first cover is of Joan Jett’s classic rebellion song ‘Bad Reputation’ and the second is of Nickelback’s ‘How You Remind Me’ both of which can be heard in the trailer below.
One Piece Film Z premieres this Friday across Japan. Be sure to let us know what you think of the trailer and Avril Lavigne’s theme songs for the movie in the comments section.
In the spirit of Christmas, Ubisoft Australia has been auctioning off eight copies of a very limited edition Assassin’s Creed III box set (with only ten being produced anywhere in the world) in order to raise money for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation.
The auctions have now passed their halfway point, with five sets being sold and another three auctions yet to be completed. There has been very strong interest from Australia as well as from around with the world, with several overseas bidders trying to get in on the action.
Currently the Assassins’s Creed Limited Edition box sets have raised over $2500 for the Sydney Children’s Hospital and, with the items getting continually rarer as the auctions finish up, Ubisoft is hoping to raise even more for this worthy cause.
The 6th auction will run from December 11-13, the 7th from December 15-17, and the 8th and final action will go from the 15th to the 17th.
To bid on the 6th set, click here or simply visit www.ebay.com.au and search for CHARITY AUCTION – Assassin’s Creed III FreedomEdition
The winner of the first auction has received his edition and helpfully uploaded his own unboxing, to show everyone what you get in this edition. You can view his unboxing video below.
With only ten of these Limited Edition trunks being made, it’s no surprise that Ubisoft Australia has gone all out with putting together a fantastic set. Content details are listed below. These trunks are only going to be available for another few days, so be sure to take your chance if you’re interested before they’re gone forever!
LIMITED EDITION (10) TRUNK CONTAINING:
Assassin’s Creed III Backpack satchel
Assassin’s Creed III Tomahawk USB Key
Assassin’s Creed III Steel postcard
Assassin’s Creed III Notebook
Assassin’s Creed III Belt Buckle
Assassin’s Creed III Wristband
Assassin’s Creed III Iron-on patch
Assassin’s Creed III Steel Book
Assassin’s Creed III Lead Figurines
Assassin’s Creed III Tomahawk keychain
Assassin’s Creed III Liberation keychain
Sony PS3 ULC – Captain of the Aquila, Colonial Assassin, Red Coat Multiplayer Pack
Sony PSVita ULC – Mysteries of the Bayou
Assassin’s Creed III Liberation for PlayStation® Vita – Game
Assassin’s Creed III Freedom Edition – Game
ASSASSIN’S CREED III FREEDOM EDITION (Content Details)
This Freedom Edition includes:
A 24cm high quality figurine of Connor
A steelbook case with art drawn by awards-winning comic artist Alex Ross
George Washington’s notebook revealing all the truth & secrets about the Assassins and the Templars during the American Revolution.
One exclusive Lithograph
Bonus Single Player Mission: Lost Mayan Ruins (Connor’s mission leads him in an old Mayan pyramid, full of mysteries and revelations. Unlock Captain Kidd’s fabled cutlass, a deadly, brutal and beautiful piece of steel)
Bonus Single Player Mission: Ghost of War (The tide of the Revolution turns into the Templars favor. Defeat your enemies and unlock The Pontiac’s War Club, a powerful Native American weapon
Bonus Multiplayer Package: The Sharpshooter (Unleash the Sharpshooter fury in multiplayer with 1 new character, the Sharpshooter, 1 Relic, 1 Emblem, 1 special Picture and the Title of “The Jester”)
J-Pop band Flow have revealed that they will be performing the official theme song for the upcoming 2013 Dragon Ball Z film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Interestingly the theme they will be contributing is a cover of the original Dragon Ball Z anime theme song Cha-La Head Cha-La.
Flow has been credited with singing theme songs for a number of anime series and films. Naruto, Code Geass and Eureka Seven all feature a Flow track as a theme for example.
What do you think of Flow performing a cover of Cha-La Head Cha-La for the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods movie? Let us know in the comments section below.
The third highest grossing Chinese film of 2012, The Four, is coming to 3D Blu-Ray, DVD and On-Demand in Australia/New Zealand on February 13th, 2013, courtesy of Vendetta Films.
The Four is directed by what many familiar with Chinese cinema would call a dream collaboration between Gordon Chan and Janet Chun, and is a re-imagining of ‘The Four Great Detectives’ – the famous Wu-Xia series of novels. The film features traditional martial arts action, fantasy and drama, with beautiful costume design and cinematography.
There are four lead characters, as can be seen in the poster above, with Leng Lingqi – aka Coldblood – being our main protagonist. He is played by Deng Chao, and is blessed with the mythical power of lycanthropy – the ability to transform into a werewolf. Coldblood is ordered by his chief in the government department known as “Six Panels” to infiltrate a rival department and sabotage their investigation into counterfeit currency production. However, it’s soon discovered that his chief is corrupt and there are far more chilling/deceitful issues at hand.
For fans of Chinese cinema, this may be one to look out for.
The hit award winning mobile game Contre Jour has been just out of reach for users of Android phones, but luckily today that has all changed for them. Finally being released for the Android crowd, players that haven’t had a chance to can experience both the use of light and darkness as well as environment manipulation through a variety of levels as they try to guide the player creature through the game world.
Those with Android phones can now see what developer Mokus and publisher Chillingo have released and has been described as becoming “an iconic classic as it blurs the lines between interactive art and games.” Players interested in just checking Contre Jour out can watch the trailer embedded below and those wanting to finally get their chance at experiencing this for themselves can find it for Android for $1.99 from both Google Play HERE and the Amazon Appstore HERE.
At the EA Showcase here in Sydney, I had the opportunity to interview Mike Read, the producer of Crytek and EA’s Crysis 3 (hands-on impressions of it’s Hunter Mode can be found here). He, along with Fuse Creative Director, Brian Allgeier, and SimCity Producer, Jason Haber (whom I also interviewed), made the long trip to Australia for this event.
Before the interview, here’s a quick background on Mike Read and his working history:
“A native of Vancouver, Canada, Michael arrived at Crytek after five successful years with CCP Games, where he applied his diverse talents as a Live Streaming Producer, Game Master, Creative Services Production Manager and Conventions Director on titles including EVE Online, DUST 514, and World of Darkness. An avid fan of Team-Based Multiplayer FPS and Action RTS sports games, Michael worked in the music industry for five years before making the switch to videogames and has previously lived in New York City, Reykjavik and Atlanta en route to Frankfurt.”
Without further ado, enjoy the interview!
Am I correct in saying that you came onto the project mid-development? I remember reading that you came on in April of this year.
I did, yeah. I came on in April. So, it took some time to get my visa and contractual stuff organised for my move to Germany, I was living in the U.S. at the time. So it took some time before I was able to fully get over there. But I kinda got started a little before that, probably two months before that, starting to review all the information and troll through piles of documents that they had, and I was thinking “God, my head hurts!”. And I wanted to get over there, so I got over there with about a month before we had to begin to prepare for E3. So I had a month to basically pick up on everything that was going on with the game that had been talked about since. It was kind of a nerve-racking experience, but it taught me a lot about what was going on and helped me to learn very quickly.
Well, that was going to be my next question; how was that experience?, but we got a good idea of it right there! (Laughter)
Yeah, it was challenging…probably one of the most challenging things I’ve done. I like coming onto a project…I mean, I had played the Crysis games and had really liked them. I can’t say that I was a fanatic, but I really liked them, and coming in and meeting the team, and going through that interview process, I was like “wow, I really want to work here”. So, it was like being thrown into the fire; I had all eyes on me in the company because I was doing a lot of external stuff before I came in, but it came together well. The guys I work with on the team are awesome, I mean they are vets in the industry at this point as far as I’m concerned. Some of them have been working there since Far Cry and beyond.
Awesome. Would you be able to tell us how the CryEngine 3 has been altered or improved for it’s use in Crysis 3?
I can’t go too in-depth with that because the R & D and Tech guys will get very upset with my if I say something wrong. (Laughter) But, there’s been an enormous amount of work done on the engine itself. I mean, the amount that the technology has advanced even over the last two years, and the amount that consoles have changed in getting older over those years, has really been a lot. And also, in the two years since the launch of Crysis 2, the CryEngine itself has become a true powerhouse in the industry in terms of how much it’s been licensed. I mean, if you look at the games that have been licensed from CryEngine 1 to CryEngine 2 and up to CryEngine 3, there was a lot of positive things that came out of that and what we had to do ourselves to make Crysis work on consoles. And moving forward, we have over 50 licensees now in all facets of different things from film to architecture to games, so we’re able to build a support mechanism to do that. So we’ve learned a lot from that standpoint, and how to do those deals and what we’re learning from all those partners, but also internally as well. There’s a lot of stuff that’s not in the free SDK yet, that we have internally which we have to figure out how to use these tools to provide them publicly, such as the grass technology. Everybody’s like “oh, I gotta get my hands on that!”.
And that usually takes the most processing power…
It’s surprisingly low. It’s actually one of the lower things on that scale, and a lot of people have asked me a number of times “is this being done on consoles?”, and it’s like, “well fields wouldn’t be fields without grass, right?!” And in the way it looks, it may have to be toned down a little bit for budgets and things like that for consoles. But you saw the video with our tessellated toad tech and all that stuff; a lot of the stuff that’s in there…I mean, there’s a lot of little things that we couldn’t fit in that video, especially tools on the development side that just make it so much easier for our designers to work and have a better workflow. What we refer to it as is “what you see is what you game”, so you can get into the editor and you can build these worlds, build everything on there and then can jump right into it and immediately start playing your new level right through the editor, which is genius. And one of the biggest things is in terms of lighting; we can do real-time lighting on the fly in there and our lighting guy is INSANE! I love sitting there and watching this guy, and watch him work. And a lot of the tools on the lighting end are mainly due to him. Lighting just adds so much…getting that right, which is something that has not really been pushed hard in the industry until lately, along with particle effects, is huge.
If I may mention this, that was the thing that caught everyone’s eye on Battlefield 3 and in the Frostbite 2 engine back when it was released. If you light it all properly, it makes everything else look better. And with Crysis 3, I can say it is probably the first game I’ve seen that truly looks next-gen, especially on PC. It’s breaking that barrier.
Well we definitely are and we didn’t…I mean, consoles are sitting at the 8 year mark where’s it’s so behind the curve at this point. And we are able to squeeze some more out of them. I mean, there is a game that came out recently, that I’m not going to mention, that looks really good. I mean, I’m surprised at how good it looks on consoles.
I think I just reviewed the game in question actually. I’m sure I know which one you’re talking about. (Laughter)
(Laughter) So, it’s definitely interesting to be able to say “wow, this is running on hardware that’s 8 years old at this point!”, and to see what they’re able to pull out of that. I mean there’s a whole new set of challenges in dealing with consoles, but we learned a lot from Crysis 2. That was really…a lot of people doubted Crytek’s ability to be able to move into consoles and be able to effectively do all we can with the CryEngine, and we did that. There were certain things that some people were able to point out as flaws, or things that were lacking in Crysis 2, but we had such a barrier with the engine and breaking that down. And the technical barriers that we had were causing design barriers as well, so we weren’t able to push it as far as we wanted to. So with Crysis 3, we know how to develop for consoles now; we’ve analysed that situation and said “ok, so here’s what we need to do” and then eventually take the PC build to the side and say “ok, how hard can we push this?” We had a guy earlier in the year that interviewed Cevat [Crytek’s CEO] at GamesCom, where he said that it will make your PC melt. And then the Alpha came out, and all of the tech sites started doing these assessments to see if that was the case, and they were like “yep, that’s really the case”. (Laughter) It does push PCs hard, but even when you drop it down to medium settings, it still looks really good. But, when you add those extra things in and when you’re running it on the highest possible settings, it adds that much more for those who want to utilise it and have that hardware, or want to upgrade their PCs. The technology is there and beyond.
Well, I think I can run it. I always go Ultra and I upgraded not long ago so I should be good. (Laughter). Now, in regards to the story, of course we can’t speak on specific story details, but do you feel that the 20 year gap is a necessary storytelling device?
It is quite a gap, and it’s definitely a challenge to fill in that gap as to what’s happened during that time, so it wasn’t a throwaway decision. There is a couple of things that we’re working on that will help fill in some of those beats, not that I can talk about those yet, but they won’t be in the game itself. There’s certain things that will be referenced back to in Crysis 3 specifically that will reveal more of that. It is challenging, but it also opens some doors and some different avenues that we can take. So it’s definitely a blessing and a curse in some ways, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of making it work.
Well I look forward to playing it out and learning more hands-on. Ok, so our last question here will have to be on the 7 Wonders – what was the inspiration in implementing those different environments under the dome? Was it purely a choice in creating a visually diverse game because the previous games were kind of thematically restricted in terms of environmental design?
Well we came back to New York again, mainly for storyline reasons and we wanted to have distinguishable elements of New York but we also wanted to go back and bring in some of the vegetation and jungle environments we had in Crysis 1. So a lot of the early stuff I saw was like “hey, here’s a shot of New York City” and then guys would use photoshop and paint over it, going “yeah, this is it”; taking different areas and defining what they were. And that was defined at a pretty early time in the process and was iterated over time. Our Art Director can go into full explanations and not just visual explanations; he’ll sit you down with a picture and he will explain “yeah, it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s gross, it’s disgusting…think about the Vietnam war and how the soldiers felt” and that kind of thing. He’ll go into really descriptive details about how he feels about the image he’s created.
It’s like a real place.
Yeah, it totally is. He’s really taking that and breaking it down. It’s probably one of the hardest things we’ve done during development – creating these 7 distinct areas. Because if you look at Crysis 2 and Crysis 1, it was very…in terms of the design, it was really the same throughout the whole thing, but just placed a little bit differently. And New York is already pre-defined, but we’ve had to kind of re-imagine it and then take these different environments you’ll find like rainforests and jungles and some of these areas, and break them down to create these 7 distinct areas all the while tying them in with these man-made structures.
It’s an interesting idea just to vary up the atmosphere, mood and environment. And also the game will naturally feel new in each area.
Yeah it does, and the game will feel different and play slightly different through each of the different areas you play-through. If you take the environmental shots and put them all up side-by-side, people would ask “are they seven different games?!” So it was definitely a big challenge.
Awesome, well thank you very much for the interview. The release date is middle of February, is there a global release?
It’s slightly broken up. North American is first in February 19th, and I believe it’s February 21st for Europe and here in Australia as well.
Halo 4 received its first DLC with the Crimson Map Pack adding in 3 new maps and 8 new achievements for players to play on and achieve as well as the added bonus of 1 new gametype specifically for the new playlist of all new maps all the time. Priced at 800 MS Points ($10), but included in the War Games Map Pass and Limited Edition the question comes down to how do the maps look, feel, and play.
Shatter:
The first map up to test its worth is the crystalline mine based Shatter, that is designed with big teams in mind. The map is fairly circular and and provides plenty of cover as well in the form of large green crystals protruding from the ground. It’s probably because of these crystals then that the vehicle use on the map is limited to just Ghosts and a Mantis for each side in its current matchmaking incarnation. The building structures on the map are mirrored to give an equal starting field for both teams and also provide more levels for combat to take place on. Shatter is primarily strong with objectives with it’s layout and is in fact the only map that supports the new Extraction gametype of the three. Outlaying structures spawn and provide good sniping positions, so those wanting to do that can cover the center structures quite well to support their team. The look of the map itself is pretty unique, both the green hue on everything and the particles floating in the air, most likely from the mining of the crystals. The background also gives a lovely view of an erupting green volcano, though players should be sure to appreciate it when not being shot at.
Wreckage:
Looking like something right out of the campaign with the crashed ships and parts strewn about the level, the map provides interesting cover as well as man cannons to easily get around. For the most part flat in terms of combat space there is still a few changes in height to provide different vantages, but no where on the map that has multiple levels. This level is probably the hardest to get a grasp of where you are as at first the destroyed ship pieces look very much the same. If navigation proves difficult the best idea is to use the man cannons as orientation as each sides are visibly different by color. As the map is pretty level and mostly mirrored down the middle lengthwise, it feels better geared towards slayer matches and with the Warthogs and Ghosts provides pretty interesting vehicle combat. Visually the map has a more orange tint with the sun beating down on the dust, but other than that the coloring is fairly generic with the monotony broken up with huge sections of ship.
Harvest:
Technically a a medium sized map taking a page from the Halo fiction and taking place on the first planet where humans met the Covenant. While having more actual structures than Wreckage it has the same many dirt ground, but to make up for it at least there are some pretty nice rock ramps to give a bit of life into vehicle combat. The layout of the map itself makes it better for objective games as the outside provides an easy paths for vehicles to take, while the structures have their own paths for players to take on foot. The map is on the smaller side of medium however, so at the max number of players it can get a little congested, especially with 4 Warthogs and 4 Mongeese. The map may seem a little difficult to orient as well, but as one side has a wall and the other a beautiful vista it gets much easier to navigate.
Achievements:
As with most DLC the Crimson Map Pack adds achievements for Halo 4, though the achievements for it are only good for these three maps and if playing in matchmaking. The 8 achievements that they add focus on the brand new Mantis vehicle and the man cannons with a couple for other activities. For the most part the achievements are nice to see they are all fun and interesting things that can come up in a match or players to seek out if they want to get them right away, such as killing a Mantis or killing players on a Man Cannon or vice versa. There are a few that seem kind of problematic though in terms of gameplay and they somewhat conflict with other achievements for players to get.
Boarding a Mantis? Alright, that’s cool, something that can players can shoot for instead of just keeping their distance. Killing a Mantis? That’s fine, though making it an achievements puts each player in a race against all the other players looking to score the kill. Stomp 20 enemies in a Mantis? Problematic, as players are now gung ho for boarding/killing them. In theory the Mantis could try to stomp everyone trying to board it, but Plasma Pistols are so prevalent they hardly stand a chance. Worse there is only one map with the Mantis on it currently, so it’s also limited by map selection. While this is something that can be achieved over time, 20 still seems like a lot for them to aim for. Maybe if Shatter or other DLC maps appeared in Spartan Ops at some point, so players and fans of that mode could get in on these achievements it could also alleviate all the congestion of players dashing for the Mantis at the start of every match on Shatter, and maybe let players get to having actual fun.
Overall:
At 800 MS Points, the Crimson Map Pack provides 3 new multiplayer maps that are all well designed and provide a fairly varied experience from each other. While the maps play great and each provide a different look as well the achievements range from fun to frustrating with the Mantis stomping, which has teammates fighting over each other to try and get. Halo fans that try keep up with the map packs should find themselves a more varied War Games experience with these downloaded, but achievement hunters should settle in for a bit of a ride.
You may have seen that last week that a trademark had been filed by Namco Bandai for The Idolm@ster as well as The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa in Europe. Well today Siliconera, who discovered the original trademark filing, has also discovered that Namco Bandai has chosen to file a trademark for The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa and The Idolm@ster in the United States as well.
It is worth noting that Namco Bandai Games has never hinted at any plans for localizing the Idolm@ster games, but these trademarks are certainly interesting, especially when you consider the fact that The Idolm@ster series as a whole is six years old already, so suddenly trademarking the names is definitely strange.
It is also worth noting that unlike the standard Idolm@ster games which involve training idols and having them sing, Shiny Festa only features rhythm based gameplay with the Idolm@ster songs and characters. If you want to see how the game looks in action, check out an older trailer for the game below.
J-Pop band Flow have revealed that they will be performing the official theme song for the upcoming 2013 Dragon Ball Z film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Interestingly the theme they will be contributing is a cover of the original Dragon Ball Z anime theme song Cha-La Head Cha-La.
