Today it was revealed by Play XBLA that Title Update 8 for the XBLA version of Minecraft will add “The End” of Minecraft which involves fighting against the giant Ender Dragon. Now it is worth noting that Title Update 7 still hasn’t been released at this point so there is still a decent wait for the Ender Dragon.
As for Title Update 7, players can expect to see a large number of features from the PC version added into the game such as animal breeding, experience points, enchantment tables, mushroom biomes, a nether fortress and even some potion brewing. It is worth noting that 4J Studios has stated that players will only need to earn 30 experience points to level up and to gain XP you can mine, smelt or breed things.
Blue a little too depressing for you? Or maybe you want a keyboard that can display a rainbow of colours to match your Roccat Kone Pure or XTD mouse. Roccat has released a new version of their Roccat Isku keyboard, the Isku FX.
The keyboard features off-white UV coated keys, 16.8 million possible colours in backlighting, 6 adjustable brightness levels, and the new updated Roccat Talk FX. The Roccat Talk FX continues the harmonious marriage of the Roccat Isku keyboard and the Roccat Kone mouse but now syncs the LED lighting to actions such as incoming damage or the start of a new round. All the features from the original Roccat Isku is maintained including medium height keys, tons of macro keys, and the Easy Aim button when used with a Roccat Kone [+], Pure, or XTD mouse.
Check out the new Roccat Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard here. Check out our review of the original Roccat Isku here.
Astro’s highly portable Astro A30 Audio System has been released in Australia and New Zealand. The on-ear headset is smaller than the A40s allowing for comfortable portable wear on the go with your mobile device. The system comes with the 2013 version of the world famous Astro MixAmp Pro to provide 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound and support for voice chat through PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. A full set of cables are included to hook up the Astro A30 system to the PC, consoles, and mobile phones.
The A30 Audio System is now available at EB Games in Australia for $229.95 AUD and EB Games in New Zealand for $349.95 NZD. Check out pictures and videos of the A30 Audio System below and find out more at the Astro Gaming website here.
Far Cry 3 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Platforms: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3, PC Release Date: November 29, 2012 Price:$59.99 (Available Here)
Overview
Far Cry 3 takes us back to the jungle setting, only this time it’s to Rook Islands where an insane pirate named Vaas rules. Far Cry 3 adds a co-op mode – which is new to the franchise – to an already huge single-player and multiplayer experience. Taking advantage of a 2 month delay, the team at Ubisoft Montreal worked hard to provide as polished a game as they could. But, has Far Cry 3 improved upon it’s predecessors and delivered on it’s promise, or is it a far cry from perfect? Read on to find out.
Story
“In another moment, down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” Some of you may recognise this quote from Alice in Wonderland. It’s this quote, the first of many from Alice that feature, that starts off the campaign. It’s quite apt and communicates exactly what Jason Brody goes through on Rook Islands. You play Brody, who, along with some best friends and his two brothers, takes a trip to what he perceived as a party destination. Oh, how wrong he was…
A montage of the group having a blast (not a deadly one…not yet) plays, and as soon as it ends we find Jason and his brother Grant tied up in a bamboo cage, being antagonised by the villainous psychopath, Vaas. Naturally, they mount an escape attempt headed by the more brave and courageous older brother Grant. However, he soon pays for it with a bullet to the neck. Jason however, is allowed 30 seconds to run…ah, the hubris of evildoers.
Jason survives, barely, thanks to his rescuer – Dennis Rogers. Dennis introduces Jason to the clan/tribe known as the Rakyats and provides him with the resources to survive the island, at least for a little while. Jason’s first priority is locating his friends, but we soon see that the island has other plans for “Snow White” as he is later called. Along the way, Jason runs into some colourful characters, which is putting it lightly to say the least. Take Buck Hughes for instance. He was kicked out of the Australian army for some uncouth behaviour. After all, “his name is Buck, and he likes to…”
Without spoiling it, it’s easy to deduce that Jason becomes more attuned to the nature of the adopting Rakyat, and meeting their leader, Vaas’ sister Citra, makes everything much more complicated. We experience the development of Jason from a spoilt pretty boy, to a warrior and at the end of the game there is a fork in the road that has a potentially deadly end. It’s a great adventure, although sometimes it feels a bit too unbelievable. Brody is almost invincible (you’ll see what I mean). Also, I wanted more scenes with Vaas and Buck. Vaas is the poster boy, but he’s not as present as you would expect.
Gameplay
Far Cry 3 is packed with content. The single-player game is extensive, with potentially 30 hours + of gameplay to be had. The main missions are action-packed whilst providing great stealth sequences to vary it up. There are many mechanics at play here, and thankfully you’ve got a Handbook in your pause menu that features tutorial text/videos for many of them. Let’s go through some of the newer aspects to the franchise. What’s really cool this go around is that the island feels alive, thanks to its warring inhabitants (they come across each other on patrol, they will fight!), active and aggressive wildlife and useful local flora.
There’s a reason to hunt and skin animals, and a reason to harvest certain plants. Animal hides can be used to craft upgraded loot rucksacks, wallets, fuel slings, ammo pouches and the like. Requirements can range from one common goat ‘s hide, to one of a rare breed of an animal, like the white belly tapir. One of the first things in terms of crafting was improve my weapon holsters to be able to carry up to four weapons at any one time. Speaking of weapon slots, I don’t know why special equipment such as flare guns or repair tools take up one slot. They should have their own specials slot. I want to carry my grenade launcher too damn it!
The plants are harvestable for the purpose of creating different syringes that may enhance your perceptions/abilities or heal your wounds. Although there may be many types of plants, the ingredients taken from them are broken up by colour. Yellow leaves are taken from yellow flower plants, and so on and so forth. Syringes have their own hotkey slot that is attributed to the left button on the d-pad. The up button brings up the camera, whilst the right button can be pressed to throw rocks, which Jason seems to have an endless supply of in his pockets.
Something else that’s new to the series are zip-lines and radio towers. Zip-lines seem to be the new trend in traversal for games as it has been featured in Rage, here and the soon-to-be released Tomb Raider reboot. The island is pretty large, so it helps to get across short distances quite quickly, but there’s also fast travel, hang-gliders and a myriad of sea and land vehicles at your disposal too. Zip-lines also allow you to detach and execute “death from above” on an enemy, as well as shoot single-handed weapons while riding it down.
Ubisoft took a note from their other hit series Assassin’s Creed in implementing the radio towers. They work pretty much exactly the same as viewpoints; once you climb them, you disable a scrambler and the surrounding area and its points of interest will be revealed to you on your map. These are especially helpful in learning the roads around outposts so that you don’t blindly drive into one unprepared. Clearing these outposts allows the Rakyat to secure it as a safe-house, which holds an automated gun store. You can also fast travel between them. This capture will also result in a larger Rakyat influence and presence in the immediate area.
There are many collectibles and secrets on the island, such as relics and lost letters – which unveil the Japanese WWII history of Rook Island. There are many mini-games and side missions to undertake. The side missions, which include man and animal hunts, unlock on a bulletin board as you clear outposts. Completion of these unlock new skills in the skill trees early (although they can also be unlocked just by doing main missions).
The mini-games range from races, to knife-throwing, poker games and sharp-shooting, although they are superfluous and just in the game to allow a quick way to make money, which isn’t even necessary if you loot your enemies’ carcasses enough. The skill trees I briefly mentioned are broken up into three categories: The Heron – long range takedowns and mobility, The Shark – assault takedowns and healing and The Spider – stealth takedowns and survival. Every skill unlocked is represented through further ink work on your tatau – a tribal tattoo associated with the Rakyat people.
The co-op and multiplayer modes are a nice addition to the package, although I honestly did not spend too much time with either. The single-player story is where it’s at for me, however the co-op is intriguing because it’s local split-screen enabled (thank God!) and follows it’s own storyline and a new set of characters. Their names are Callum “the Scottish Thug”, Leonard “the Crooked Cop”, Mikhail “the Russian Hitman”, and Tisha “the Ex Soldier”. It is a 6-7 hour campaign on its own that focuses on the four “sinners” all venturing to redeem themselves after being cheated out of all their money by pirates, who leads them to Rook Islands, of course.
The multiplayer consists of 4 match types: Domination, Team Deathmatch, Firestorm and Transmission. The first two , as well as Transmission, are well-established shooter modes. Firestorm, however, is fresher as it has you set fire to two of your opponents nodes. Once accomplished, you must attempt to make it to a radar dish whilst fighting off the opposing team, but also the building flames if you take too long. Nothing special to be found here as it’s just an added bonus for me, and probably will be to you too. Not to say that it’s not well-executed enough…it’s just not the selling point of the franchise and this iteration. Although there is an included map editor which lets you create your own unique maps for multiplayer games, which may entice many to explore the mode after all.
In terms of negatives, something that became quite an annoyance was the fact that the hunting side-missions provide a required weapon as part of the contract, so you need to swap one of your current weapons to hold it. Then when it has been completed, if you come back to the point where you made the swap, your old (and probably more desirable weapon) will have disappeared. I want my magnum back! Also, successful radio tower climbs results in guns becoming free. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just unlock new ones instead…what’s the point in acquiring money in the first place then? Other than maps, that’s pretty much all you have to spend money on!
Visual
Far Cry 3 is stunning, plain and simple. Playing it on the Xbox 360, I was pleased to discover that there is little difference between it and the PC version, outside of lighting enhancements. Granted, lighting adds a huge deal to the overall visual quality, and depth of field effects may also not be as far reaching as on PCs. But in terms of textures, colour and general graphics display, the Xbox 360 version stands up in almost every way. The island is richly painted, with the sparkling blue waters of the ocean surrounds, and the lush greenery of the jungles within. Thanks to better graphics capabilities, looking back at Far Cry and now at Far Cry 3, I appreciate the more fully realized island setting this go around.
Fire propagation was one of the most impressive visual features introduced in Far Cry 2 and it returns here, looking just as good. Player guidance is represented in vertical traversal with the use of vines/ropes on ledges, indicating which ones you can climb. Grass sways in the wind and plant leaves move with contact. The mood/atmosphere changes greatly and effectively in different weather conditions/time of day. Now, there are a few visual glitches that occur. The most common is the flickering of character models and objects, which can be a little immersion breaking when it happens. Jason’s hands also grab onto thin air when climbing and in some places foliage magically floats in mid air. But with a game that looks this good, I can let these tiny criticisms slide.
Audio
The music/score behind Far Cry 3 is kind of confusing. There are moments of exploration where this upbeat, tension-filled track plays. It makes you feel like an enemy is about to pop up, but when you’re in the middle of this deserted cave looking for a certain plant, it just doesn’t fit. Far Cry 3 is guilty of doing this quite a bit. Thematically, the score works some of the time, but in others it just feels out of place.
There was a mission, however, called “Kick The Hornet’s Nest” that involved burning marijuana plants, during which Skrillex & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley – Make It Bun Dem plays, which was a hilarious moment. The sound effects are solid throughout, aiding in making each gun feel weighty and impactful (I know I talk about this in all shooter reviews, but it’s important to me!). The voice acting is a mixed bag, with the standout easily being Michael Mando’s work as Vaas Montenegro. But we all assumed that would be he case after all the promotional material.
There were a couple issues for me, one being the fact that there is very little in the way of audio settings. There’s a master volume slider, but no separate slider for dialogue which is a big no-no for me in the sound department. I found that sometimes when the music picks up, the dialogue can take a back seat and becomes hard to hear. Of course the music can be turned off all together…they left that switch in! Also, main mission debriefs (that involve phone calls) replay after most deaths, re-spawns or returns from side mission.
Overall
Far Cry 3 does many things better than Far Cry 2, and it’s obvious that the dedicated team at Ubisoft Montreal, along with all the other Ubi studios that contributed, really took the fans’ feedback to heart when developing Far Cry 3. It’s not perfect, but it didn’t cause me to rage-quit after being stopped at every bridge/main road by re-spawning guard posts. The gameplay in general has been refined, the game looks amazing on the Xbox 360 (really no difference between it and PC other than the lighting) and the story actually holds your attention with great, crazy and/or sadistic characters such as Buck, Dr. Earnhardt and Vaas Montenegro…although I wanted to see more of them.
Its flaws are mostly negligible and have very little impact on the gameplay experience. With multiplayer and co-op included, regardless of what it may lack, and considering most would pay their hard-earned cash just for the long single-player adventure, Far Cry 3 is definitely one of the better all-around packages of the year and is a great FPS. If you don’t buy the game, Vaas might have to tell you the definition of insanity…
If you are thinking about picking up a PlayStation Vita this holiday season then perhaps now is the time to do so because Amazon is offering a rather killer deal at the moment. If you choose to buy any of Amazon’s Vita bundles you will be able to receive a free physical copy of one of the best game’s on the system, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward.
The bundles available for purchase with this deal are the Assassin’s Creed III Liberation, Black Ops Declassified, and the 3G package with one year of PlayStation Plus. It is worth noting that the promotion will end on December 15th so you only have five days to capitalize on it.
Today Square Enix launched a new teaser site which appears to be for their Theatrhythm Final Fantasy title which was released worldwide this year as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive, which we have the review for here.
Now the site can be seen here and as you can see, it features four different musical note sections which move towards the activation section and below those lines we have been given a basic “Coming Soon” message. It is interesting to note that you can’t actually play anything or interact with the site in any way at the moment. Any guesses as to what this may mean for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy? Perhaps a sequel or an iOS/Android version?
SEGA have made a major announcement regarding the Warhammer 40,000k franchise. That announcement being that they have now become partners with Games Workshop and Creative Assembly which means that they now will be handling the Warhammer series.
The partnership means that we will see new Warhammer video-games in the future by SEGA and Creative Assembly. Jon Gillard, Head of Liscencing at Games Worshop had the following to say on the partnership: “We have enormous respect for SEGA and Creative Assembly and have felt for a long time that the combination of the enormously rich setting of the Warhammer world, and their stunning development talent is a match with huge potential, now that we’ve managed to bring these two giants of gaming together it is safe to say that some truly amazing products are going to be unleashed as a result. We are excited at the possibilities, and are enthusiastically working with the team at Creative Assembly already.”
What do you think of this monumental partnership? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Paramount Pictures have recently let us reveal the latest poster for their upcoming Witch Hunting film, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The movie follows the story of Hansel and Gretel, but with a new twist. They are now Witch Hunters that must hunt witches and the like. However, thanks to their past, they must now face a new and greater evil. Will they make it out alive? How far do the breadcrumbs go?
The film stars Jeremy Renner, of Hawkeye fame, and Gemma Arterton, from the Prince of Persia film. It will be releasing on the 7th of February, 2013. Be sure to check out the poster below (click the image to view fullsize). Also further down is a video preview of the film.
Naughty Dog’s latest for the PS3 is survival action title The Last of Us which is focused on character driven story, which players can learn a little more about today as they have released a story trailer. With the story trailer players can get to know the main characters Joel and Ellie a little bit as well as what’s left of the world that they happen to live in. Left with only the remaining resources survivors fight over everything from food, to weapons, to anything else that they think is worthwhile.
The trailer however is not the only thing that was announced about The Last of Us though as the game has been given an official release date. Coming out on May 7th, 2013 for all PAL regions exclusively for the PS3, players can check out the trailer embedded below.
Persona 4 Golden Developer:Atlus Publisher: Atlus Platform: PlayStation Vita Release Date:November 20, 2012 Price:$39.99 –Available Here
Overview: JRPGs are often considered a genre of their own RPG fans and out of these JRPGs there is one franchise which is often regarded as one of the best around. That franchise happens to be the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona and it has been many years since a title has been released under the Persona name, in fact it has been four years since the fourth title in the series was released on the PlayStation 2. Now Atlus has taken Persona 4, the game many have heralded as the best game in the series, and added a few new aspects within the title and provide us with an enhanced version in the form of Persona 4 Golden. Does this title shine brighter than ever?
Story: Players take the role of a teenage male (who can be named as player’s wish) as he is forced to live in a small town called Inaba out in the countryside for a year thanks to the fact that his parents have to work abroad. When the player arrives they begin to try to settle into life in this rather simple city as a new student. However that quickly changes when a mysterious murder occurs near the school and rumors of a mysterious television program called the Midnight Channel begin to circulate at the school.
The story quickly escalates as the young man discovers that not only does this Midnight Channel exist, but he has the power to actually travel inside of TV screens into a whole new world which serves a “shadow world” to our own. Inside of this world the dark side of humanity is collected in the form of dangerous creatures called shadows and when someone is trapped within the shadow world, they are killed within the normal world. With these strange occurrences and the threat of death for his newfound friends, the main character and his friends team up to investigate the Midnight Channel and try to save anyone trapped within the deadly place. However with all signs pointing to someone intentionally trying to kill people with the Midnight Channel, can this investigation group manage to put a stop to these murders?
Plenty of RPGs place a mild emphasis on story but nothing I’ve played before has come close to touching upon the amount of attention and time that is paid to creating a unique experience where players may have the constant threat of death from the Midnight Channel on their minds, but they will be spending more time worrying about their relationships with the various characters in the game instead. You see, while there is a decent murder mystery formed around the Midnight Channel, the various events that tie into the mystery create an intriguing psychological drama cleverly disguised as a teenage boy’s school life.
You see, Persona 4 Golden’s storyline is structured to feel like the year in the life of the main character. While there are trips inside of the television world and battles against strange and powerful shadows, the rest of the game focuses around the life of the main character and his friends as they live their high school lives. This means that between fighting enemies, players will be attending class, going on part-time jobs, hanging out in clubs and more.
In these activities players will form “Social Links” with other characters in the game, including side-characters, which not only help make their own Persona stronger, but also unlock various abilities for party members. Now while party members may have the most focus in Persona 4 Golden thanks to the fact that nearly all of their emotional issues are displayed thanks to the nature of the Shadow World, but side characters are also given plenty of attention. Each of these side characters contain side-stories which can be just as interesting as the main cast and it truly helps make the player feel like they are actually part of the in-game world instead of simply moving through it.
It is also worth noting that one of the improvements with Persona 4 Golden is the addition of a brand new character which has a large number of new Social Link’s to partake in which creates an additional storyline which is quite different from the others as well as a few new story events which place the main characters in new situations that were not found in the original version of the game.
These new additions are simply icing on the cake as far as Persona 4 Golden’s storyline is concerned. Even before these additions were created, the story found within this game is one the best that you will find in gaming today and thanks to the gifted writing staff, Persona 4 Golden’s emotionally charged story will stick with the player long after it has been completed.
Visuals: When Persona 4 was originally released on the PlayStation 2 back in 2008 the title was no slouch as far as graphics are concerned. Now while they may have looked great for their time, they have aged since then, but thankfully with this release of Persona 4 Golden the game has received a nice visual overhaul that brings the title into today’s generation of gaming. The character models and scenery have been updated and so have the character portraits which appear whenever one of characters is speaking.
It also helps that with the Vita’s current generation tech, the colors in Persona 4 Golden are gorgeous and really pop out at you as you play the game. It is also worth noting that there are numerous anime cutscenes scattered throughout the game which are stunning in quality and really help make certain moments within the game special.
Audio: Now while some people may complain about the fact that Persona 4 Golden does not feature an option to listen to the Japanese voice track, the English voice cast has performed an admirable job portraying their characters. P4G features a number of new voiced scenes which were not voiced in the original and it is worth noting that the English voice actress for Chie has been changed, but her new actress still handles the character well and fans of the original should find little to complain about regarding the change.
As far as background music is concerned, Persona 4 Golden is like candy for the ears. The songs that make up the game’s OST are wonderful in more ways than one and while certain tracks may play quite often, you won’t even care thanks to how great these background songs are. Interestingly enough, a large number of these songs also have singers accompanying the orchestra and each of these songs are a treat whenever they begin to play.
Gameplay: As far as gameplay goes, little has been outright changed from the original game and instead a number of improvements and new features have been made to make Persona 4 Golden the shining example of what an RPG should be like in today’s day and age. Now as mentioned in the story section of this review, a large part of Persona 4 Golden involves the social link system that involves the player interacting with other characters in the game and forming bonds with them.
As you form bonds with those around you, not only will your party members learn more skills that can be used in combat (such as extra attacks or helping you up from a fall) but you will also be able to create and summon stronger Personas to fight against the shadow. In fact, while players do have weapons, armor and accessories that can be equipped like any standard RPG, the summoning and fusing of Personas is where most of the focus in the game lies. It is worth noting that Fusing has been re-worked so that players can actually choose certain attacks they want to carry over to their fused Persona rather than hoping for a lucky fusion.
Now as the player enters the dungeons of the Shadow world to save those trapped inside, they will find a number of enhancements and additions to the combat system. Players can now find a few new Personas and this is made ever easier thanks to the fact that the post-battle Shuffle Time has been changed so players have an easier time selecting the cards they want and acquiring a “Full Sweep” which guarantees another Shuffle Time after the next battle as well as the option to select more cards to gain further power ups and experience.
Now while Persona 4 Golden does not have any multiplayer features, players will probably be interested in making sure they are able to connect to the internet while playing the game. The reason for this is the fact that two new features have been added in to the game in the form of a Vox Populi system which displays all of the different choices other players made during the same time-frame within the story as well as a special SOS feature which can be activated once between every battle. This SOS is sent out to other players who can provide assistance with a simple tap of the touch-screen and the next time you enter a battle, you may receive a small boost to your HP and SP levels which can be critical to surviving drawn out dungeons.
A number of side features have been added into Persona 4 Golden which provides the player more exploration options and the aforementioned new story Social Link content. The neighboring city of Okina can now be visited and explored and a number of new shops are now available which will allow you to pick up various costumes for the playable characters. These costumes are simply cosmetic changes that only appear whenever you are in a dungeon, but they provide a nice distraction. Among these additions players can now venture out at night occasionally and explore the (sometimes creepy) night-life of Inaba as well as use motor scooters to get around.
Overall: Atlus has done something great with Persona 4 Golden. They have added just enough to make it so that Persona 4 Golden feels like a more advanced version of the classic game by keeping everything that made the original game great and adding on to it with brand new features, stellar visual upgrades and gorgeous cutscenes which is wrapped around an engrossing story that takes place in a world so enthralling it will be hard to walk away from. Persona 4 Golden is easily the best game on the Vita right now and any Vita owner, nay anyone even remotely interested in RPGs, should not pass up Persona 4 Golden.
