Many people were disappointed that Rayman Legends would not be a launch title on the Wii U and even more were disappointed that the game wouldn’t even be hitting in the console’s release window. In fact, until now Ubisoft had left fans with only a vague “Q1 2013” release window.
Well today the company chose to be a bit more specific with the game’s release date as Ubisoft announced today that the game will be released on February 26 in North America while gamers in the UK will be able to access it on March 1st. Ubisoft also revealed that a Rayman Legends demo will be available for download on the Wii U eShop on December 13.
If you thought that Bioshock Infinite’s release date was finally set in stone for February 26 then you are unfortunately very wrong. Today Irrational Games boss Ken Levine revealed to the media today that BioShock Infinite was delayed once again and will now be released on the PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on March 26 next year.
Levine went on to say that “The game has to be the best game it could possibly be,” and that the delay was to make sure that everything in the game was polished and bug fixed. While this delay is certainly disappointing for fans, these gamers would likely prefer the most polished experience possible rather than a buggy experience.
Hip Hop icons Big Boi and B.o.B. were originally tapped for the game’s theme song “Double or Nothing.” Now the two artists will be participating in an exclusive Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel pre order bonus at select retailers. The Hit Makers Kit will add a special T.W.O. contract mission that will star Charles “Chuy” Rendall voiced by Big Boi and Anthony “Baker” Barnes voiced by B.o.B. Each character sports weapons and masks designed by their voice actor. “Partnering with B.o.B on the Army of TWO The Devil’s Cartel theme song and inside the game has been a blast and I can’t wait to load it up, hear the song and see myself in the game,” said Big Boi.
Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is slated for release on March 28th, 2013 for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. Check out more about the game here.
EA Mobile has two great pieces of news about The Sims on mobile devices. First off, The Sims FreePlay is celebrating their first anniversary with a giant infographic with interesting statistics about the game. Additionally the Christmas content update has been released bringing the 12 Days of Christmas Quest line where players will get into the holiday spirit by helping Santa complete important tasks. Player’s efforts will be rewarded with a secret present on Christmas day. Additionally new activities like fishing and fashion design are now available for Sims to earn extra simoleons. Check out The Sims FreePlay on iOS here, the Google Play Store here, and the Amazon App Store here.
To celebrate the holidays, EA Mobile is knocking down the price of The Sims Medieval to free for a limited time. Grab your copy on the iTunes App Store here.
Big surprise, not really, Xbox 360 remains the top selling gaming console in the US with 1.26 million units sold in November. That’s Microsoft’s 23rd consecutive month as the highest selling console, according to Microsoft’s Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business Aaron Greenberg who took to twitter to announce the news:
#NPD reports Xbox 360 sells 1.26M consoles in Nov, nearly 2x all other consoles & >WiiU+Wii combined
Over the Black Friday weekend alone, more than 750,000 units were sold; a figure that was no doubt fueled by the recently release of two of biggest games of 2012, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4.
Those two games respectively, topped the highest selling games of the month in the US. Heck Black Ops 2 made more than $1 billion in returns just 15 daysafter its launch on November 13.
Queue Dr Evil…(but billion rather than million)
Microsoft is also reporting total retail spending on the Xbox 360, hardware, software and accessories included, reached $1.2 billion in November reached $1.2 billion.
Though overall, that figure was down by 13% year-on-year.
Siren Visual, an independent DVD and Movie retailer of the interwebs are having a massive 20% off everything sale. As stated the sale covers everything the online store sells, from animes to documentaries, everything you can possibly find in their store is currently on sale. One of the most well known distributors of anime in Australia, Siren Visual has existed selling music since 1987, bringing in video distribution in 1994.
To access this sale all you have to do is put in the code “DECEMBER2012” presumably on the checkout screen. This sale is for the entire month of December and looks set to take advantage of the many shoppers around leading up to Christmas. Products like “Perfect Blue”, “Un-Go” and “Number 6” are available on sale plus many, many more; so go over check out their website here.
Thermae Romae Studio:DLE Publisher:Siren Visual Format:DVD Release Date:October 25, 2012 Price:$34.95 – Available Here
Overview:
Thermae Romae is weird. There is no two ways about it. This is an anime series that bathes in it’s own oddity and takes pride in doing so. Because of it’s inherent bizarre nature, it makes for a very difficult series to recommend. You will either love it or hate it for all it’s quirks. There is really no middle ground. There is one thing for sure though, Thermae Romae is hilarious, not because it’s weird but in spite of it.
Story:
The plot of Thermae Romae is relatively simple but simultaneously completely preposterous. Revolving around Roman bathhouse architect Lucius as he tries to come up with new ideas for his creations, Thermae Romae turns a conventional story into an absolute absurd time-travel tale with humour abound.
It’s hard not to laugh at how ridiculous this anime is. It is weird but the humour doesn’t directly derive from that, instead opting for a more dead-pan style with the jokes rolling out from Lucius’ reaction to the bizarre modern day Japanese bathhouses. The concept doesn’t really give much leeway for too much of a story to tell and weighing in at a measly five episodes, that is incredibly obvious. By the time the fifth episodes credits roll it’s clear that they had stretched the concept thin very early on into the series run, with it’s high point coming in it’s first episode in fact, everything after feeling like the wheels spinning aimlessly.
That’s what Thermae Romae ultimately is though, despite how funny it may be, there is really not enough substance for it to be engaging beyond the first episode. The idea behind the series comes undone far too quickly revealing a severe deficiency of plot to support even the three episodes that actually aired on TV. How they managed to squeeze out those two bonus episodes is beyond me as there doesn’t seem to be any real momentum behind any of the situations, with all of them feeling like retreading ground from the episode before it.
Thermae Romae is an odd case as the series was seemingly a last minute replacement in the noitaminA block back in January this year. With only five episodes, the series is pushed to it’s creative limits and the humour very quickly becomes strung out and tiresome. The concept itself appeared to have more potential than it really did, which is a shame as it did seem promising as a quirky comedy series. Despite that though there is some enjoyment to be drawn from Thermae Romae, it’s not much but it’s something.
Visuals and Audio:
In terms of visuals, Thermae Romae seems very out of place in the anime landscape instead sporting a look that would be more at home among the adult swim comedy line-up. On top of that the animation is very weak. There is next to no fluid animation whatsoever and in its place is a lot of still frames of the exact same shot of a characters face that is repeated in nearly every scene. It’s cheaply made and that is resoundingly apparent. Thermae Romae is not a appealing series aesthetically but it is a funny one. Some of the shots are just hilarious because of how stupid they look. Take a look at the screenshots in this review for example. The expression you see on Lucius’ face never really seems to change too greatly outside of the standard three looks he has and the transition between those expressions is animated so poorly you’d think you were watching a still frame dating sim with wet naked Romans.
The soundtrack of Thermae Romae isn’t very memorable, featuring an OP and ED theme that do not suit the series at all. On top of that the incidental music is rather grating and becomes frustrating very easily due to its repetitive nature. There is not a lot of creativity in the soundtrack which is disappointing as a bizarre series like this could have pulled off something offbeat and out of the ordinary. It’s a shame that DLE opted for something more conventional and monotonous. There could of been some very creative and interesting things done musically for this series but DLE took the lazy route, a decision that was undoubtedly a mistake.
Extras:
One of my major gripes with this release is it’s minuscule amount of content. Now it does contain two unaired episodes which brings the episode count up to five, there does not appear to be any other special features on disc, contrary to what Siren Visual’s website states. I searched the DVD to find the alleged ‘TV Spots’ and ‘trailers’ but found nothing of the sort. This is rather disappointing considering this release only contains five episodes. Some bonus content no matter how insignificant would have been appreciated. But due to the bog-standard contents of this release it is very hard to recommend even to fans of Thermae Romae.
Overall:
It is strange that Thermae Romae even made it to air in Japan. It is an incredibly short series focused on an incredibly specific and oddball topic that really doesn’t develop into anything. If it hadn’t been for Black Rock Shooter being delayed it’s hard to say that Thermae Romae would have ever been made. Regardless of all that though, it is a fun series despite its numerous issues. This release contains the three aired episodes as well as two that didn’t air, but that is it. If you aren’t a hardcore fan of this series I can’t really recommend this release as the price is pretty steep for the amount of content on disc and the series itself is nothing to write home about. It’s weird, it’s badly animated and it’s sense of humour comes with a side of cheese, Thermae Romae is far from the quality that we are accustomed to with Siren Visual. But as they say, there is an audience for everything.
Welcome back for this week’s iOS Game Suggestions. If you missed or are new to the suggestions, click on the link below and check what cool games you should be picking up for your iOS along with the introduction and disclaimer on how the suggestions work. (suggestions 1 has the disclaimer and how it all works)
A FANTASTIC great week on iTunes, as always it started slow and but ended with a bang! As always there certainly is a few must buy games this week in all departments, FREE, 99c and over 99c. This week i’ve suggested a total of 21 great quality titles. Make sure you check them all especially TGrand Theft Auto Vice City, Modern Combat 4, Hollywood Monsters, Raiden Legacy, Sage Fusion, Tiny Legends: Heroes, Mutant Mudds, The Dark Fantasy, Smash Cops Heat just to name a few.
Break down below :
6 – FREE Games
8 – $0.99c Games
7 – Over $0.99c Games
As always for this week’s suggestions are all new titles that you should take a look at and consider spending your hard earned iTunes cash / time on. Well the Free games just below certainly should all be given a shot as they won’t cost you anything!
For The Cheapskates – FREE GAMES
The Dark Fantasy – Price : FREE – Publisher –Althi Inc (Help the kingdom that is almost destroyed by the dark invaders!The Dark Fantasy is a fantasy battle game to help the kingdom to revive by strengthening your military with dragons,beasts, knights and mages against enormous evil enemies! Build facilities and collect Gold to strengthen your military to a battle against your enemies! Improve your level by completing quests and/or beating enemies! Make an alliance with your friends and cooperate together to beat your enemies and beasts!) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Into the Dead – Price : FREE – Publisher –PikPok (In a world overrun with the Dead, you have survived… but for how long? Into the Dead throws you into the gruesome world of the zombie apocalypse where there are no second chances. Do what you have to in order to stay alive, keep moving as fast as you can, and protect yourself by any means necessary. When the Dead are rising, run!) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Smash Cops Heat – Price : FREE – Publisher –Hutch (The smash hit action game enjoyed by over five million players is back, supercharged with cool new features, bonus missions and extreme pursuit vehicles. Hit the streets and take on a city full of criminal mayhem!) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House – Price : FREE – Publisher –Last Day Of Work (Virtual Families 2 has all this and more. Adopt a little person and start a family. Make babies and pass the house on to the kids!Train your little people to behave as you wish by praising and scolding them. Your little people will send you messages, thanking, pleading, and praising you for caring for them. Runs in True Real Time. Your little people continue to live, eat, grow, and work when the app is switched off.) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Car Town Streets – Price : FREE – Publisher – Cie Games(Find, build, and race with all your favorite cars in Car Town Streets. Join Roxy in her quest to restore the town to its former glory when cars ruled the streets. Form teams and compete in head-to-head race battles for ultimate victory. Build your Car Town today!) on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution – Price : FREE – Publisher –BBC Worldwide (Millions have downloaded Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution. With incredible visuals, loads of outrageous cars, iconic world locations, endless and mostly ridiculous customizations and truly unbelievable stunts, it’s everything you’d expect from the Top Gear team. Want to balloon hop a motor home to clear the Grand Canyon? Use your sports car and escape Alcatraz by leaping as far as you can and landing on a barge? Speed through a roller-coaster on a New York skyscraper with a cow on your pickup? You can do all this and more in Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution.) runs on iPad & iPhone. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
For The Bargain Hunters – 99c Games
Tiny Legends: Heroes – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Triniti Interactive Limited (A sinister shadow stretches over the land of Kromdor. The dark lord Necralis has imprisoned the continent’s greatest champions and unleashed hordes of murderous monsters on a reign of terror. But into the darkness step brave new adventurers! Do you have the courage to lead them into a new age of heroes?) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Herd Herd Herd – Deluxe – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – 2K Play (It’s Ei-Ei-Uh-OH! at Farmer Jed’s Haywire Homestead – the animals are makin’ a break for it, so you better wrangle ‘em in quicker than a hiccup! Use all kinds a herdin’ skills to scoot cluckin’ chick’ns, springy sheep and balky bovines back to their pens while avoidin’ coyotes, foxes and chick’n poxes! Things aren’t exactly OK at this corral when the terrain gets tricky; bridges collapse and the fences give you a shock, so be careful herdin’ or yer livestock won’t be live very long!) runs on iPad & iPhone. BUY NOW
Man in a Maze – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Chillingo (Survive the maze and win big! Enter the deadly game show of Man in a Maze and make sure plucky young contestant Chuck leaves its massive maze with more than just his life. Get your five minutes of fame hiding from patrolling robots, avoiding deadly traps, collecting diamonds and tokens, and fighting back with nifty gadgets and weapons.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Mutant Mudds – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Renegade Kid (Love pixels? Fond of platformers? Is there a special place in your heart for the 8-bit and 16-bit era? Want to have fun? Yes!? Well, you’ve come to the right place, my friend. Mutant Mudds is a “12-bit” action platformer full of pixels and platforming fun! Our hero, Max, may be just a 2D sprite, but he can leap into the third dimension by jetting between the background and the foreground playfields with his trusty jetpack in this unique dimensionally-woven experience.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Nitro Chimp – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Chillingo (An endless racer with monkeys and stunts – what more could anyone want? Go bananas for Nitro Chimp, the world’s fastest stunt monkey on two wheels. Steer this stunt mad simian using intuitive tilt or touch controls to avoid the dangers of the open road. Collect power-ups that’ll have your gorilla nemesis eating your dust, and swipe the screen to perform amazing stunts.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Motorblast – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Mad Processor (Choose your racing style: Blow your enemies off the track or overtake them in a fair race – we mixed both styles together to form an insanely brilliant racing mix. From the developers of Uber Racer and Parcel Panic Jump into the seat of a race car and take the battle to the track – Motorblast takes the racing experience one giant step further! With the assistance of rockets, guns, mines, shields, rocket thrusters, an EMP device and lots of guts, you have everything it takes to dominate the field!) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Experiment – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Headup Games (Your help is needed in this extremely diverse Match 3 game! One day Sophie, the heroine of Experiment, awakes suddenly to find herself in an empty room. Her memory is totally blank and she cannot understand how she got there. Now it is up to you to guide amnesiac Sophie through this unique Match 3 game – She is depending on you and your help!) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Stickman Ski Racer – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Robert Szeleney (Take your skis and hammer down the most beautiful and most dangerous mountains in the world and experience the amazing feeling of Stickman Ski Racer. Perform insane jumps and stunts while rushing down the hills trying to avoid deadly avalanches, rusty weak bridges or profound abysses. Variety and entertainment guaranteed with flood lighted night slopes, snow cannons, deep powder snow, crazy slopes as well as customizable playable characters.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
For The Millionaires – All games over $0.99
MasterAbbott’s over 99c Pick Of The Week!
Grand Theft Auto – Vicy City– Price : $4.99 – Publisher – Rockstar Games (Welcome back to Vice City. Welcome back to the 1980s.From the decade of big hair, excess and pastel suits comes a story of one man’s rise to the top of the criminal pile. Vice City, a huge urban sprawl ranging from the beach to the swamps and the glitz to the ghetto, was one of the most varied, complete and alive digital cities ever created. Combining open-world gameplay with a character driven narrative, you arrive in a town brimming with delights and degradation and given the opportunity to take it over as you choose.) runs iPad & iPhone. BUY NOW
Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour – Price : $5.49 – Publisher – Gameloft (The #1 FPS is back on smartphone with a new chapter to push the boundaries of mobile gaming even further. In the wake of a nuclear disaster, the only chance to avoid global devastation is in the hands of the few elite soldiers who must track down and rescue the world’s leaders from a frighteningly familiar terrorist group.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Hollywood Monsters – Price : $5.49 – Publisher – Bulkypix (HOLLYWOOD MONSTERS (aka THE NEXT BIG THING) revisits with class and humor the fantastic cinema universe in a modern and funny adventure, packed with references to the genre’s popular movies and series. It offers a story full of comedy, shivers, mystery, romance, suspense, twists and turns, action, lies, monsters, fridges, teleportation cabins, stolen brains, half meter flies, Egyptian bombshells, Mexican werewolves, Australian crocodiles, and… What? You didn’t think I was going to reveal everything, did you?) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
RAIDEN LEGACY – Price : $5.49 – Publisher – DotEmu (RAIDEN LEGACY, a four-title compilation of the mega-popular RAIDEN arcade series, includes RAIDEN, RAIDEN FIGHTERS, RAIDEN FIGHTERS 2 & RAIDEN FIGHTERS JET. Originally developed by Seibu Kaihatsu, each of these classic scrolling shooters has not only been authentically recreated for mobile, but also enhanced with brand-new features!) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Sage Fusion– Price : $2.99 – Publisher – Kidalang (Sage Fusion is a hybrid between Role-Playing Game (RPG), adventure game, and visual novel, featuring turn-based battle system, more than 70 hand-drawn background and story illustrations, and an engaging space opera storyline that is told through the gameplay. Explore the futuristic city of Capistad, the capital of the Galactic Union.) runs on iPad. BUY NOW
Minigore 2: Zombies – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Mountain Sheep. (The furries are gone and a new threat is emerging from the dark corners of Hardland. You must help JOHN GORE fight his way through sunny lakes, graveyards and freezing plains into a stormy forest where the legendary METUSALEM has brought to life murderous chefs, giant lumberjacks, killer penguins, a single moose, three hundred rabbits and the entire undead army of the COSSACK GENERAL. Will you survive?) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Spellwood – Word Game Adventure – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – SEGA (Become a word wizard! Spellwood is a word game adventure that makes you better at word games. Wield words in battle, mix it up with magic, and feel your powers grow. Features : Solo adventure and multiplayer modes. For iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Retina ready. Supports iPhone 5, iPad, and the iPad mini screens. Play with friends with Gamecenter and Facebook) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
There you have it folks, these games should keep you busy for quite some time, well till next week at least. I’ll be back next week for another dose of iOS goodness, in the meantime if anyone would also like to suggest their own suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments section below or in the iOS forum section on the site here.
Good news for fans of the upcoming Scribblenauts Unlimited game; if you own a Nintendo Wii U and like Mario and/or Zelda you’re now officially in luck. In this version only, players can call forth dozens of items from both the Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises to add to their game. Things like the handy mushrooms off Mario or Link himself from Zelda, fully equipped with the Hyrule Shield and Master Sword.
Scribblenauts Unlimited is the biggest game in the franchise, with more hand-drawn artwork, puzzles and of course objects to help you through the 2D side-scrolling world. Players can create any object they imagine and now with the help of Mario and Legend of Zelda on the Wii U, they will be able to best even the toughest challenges put forth by the game. This content is exclusive to the Nintendo Wii U game system and is out now in North America and Australia, with Europe receiving the game and additional content on February 8th 2013.
North American Fire Emblem fans have reason to rejoice. Nintendo of America announced that they plan on releasing the upcoming 3DS title Fire Emblem: Awakening in February 2013.
The 3DS Strategy-RPG game will hit North American shelves on February 4th, 2013. This is great news for Fire Emblem fans after there was a deal of mystery as of when the game would see a release in the West with only vague confirmations of a release ‘one day’. Good news though is that it is officially coming, now if only Europe and Australia could get a confirmed release date for this game.
What do you think of Fire Emblem: Awakening’s North American release date? Let us know in the comments section below.
