Today it was revealed that Capcom of Japan is planning on releasing a free pack of downloadable content for Dragon’s Dogma on December 4th and considering the Western versions of Capcom have promised that the DLC would be released sometime this year one would expect a worldwide release of this content on the same date.
The free DLC will unlock a special Hard Mode that is designed for anyone that has beaten Dragon’s Dogma and wants to face off against harder enemies while the Time Attack mode is self explanatory. It is worth noting that those who finish the game on Hard will receive a special Edmun Dragonsbane costume and those who manage to beat the Time Attack mode will receive Selene and Barnaby costumes.
BulkyPix, the publisher behind Evofish, and Pendulo Studios, the developer behind Yesterday, are excited to announce the next game that they will be releasing. Hollywood Monsters is an adventure game in the same vein as those funny adventures of the past. And what better subject matter than the golden age of Hollywood monsters?
In a world where those Hollywood monsters weren’t just special effects, but honest to goodness real monsters playing the roles, journalist Liz Allaire and macho Dan Murray have an adventure to go on putting the monsters back in their place. After the monsters got sick of having to put up with the less than desirable aspects of Hollywood living.
Featuring plenty of fun characters and Hollywood monster legends, tip-top quality visuals and audio, and languages for English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian Hollywood Monsters hopes to live up to being The Next Big Thing. Be sure to check out the screenshot gallery just below, and the teaser trailer embedded below that, and look for Hollywood Monsters on the iOS App Store for iPad and iPhone on December 6th, 2012.
As the confirmed news of a map editor for Far Cry 3 reached the masses months ago, players can now experience the customizable addition in a revealing video unleashed by Ubisoft. Boasting a large variety of tools, the developers have been hard at work to deliver thousands of items that can define your very own map. Aspiring level designers will have plenty to work with as they can alter entire landscapes, time of day, and even the weather!
Creating custom material doesn’t have to end there. Players can create their own map and then share it with the rest of the world to enjoy. Did I mention this is all for free?
Prepare for Far Cry 3’s release on November 29th in Europe and Australia by pre-ordering the title (HERE). United Kingdom will see the release on November 30th with the United States bringing up the rear on December 4th. Take advantage of the pre-order deals while they last! At the very least drop your gaze to the video below.
The original Sniper: Ghost Warrior was met with pretty cold reviews upon its release and let’s be pretty honest, it mostly deserved them. Featuring a plethora of glitches, terrible AI, poor shooting mechanics and enemies that could spot you hiding in a bush from a hundred metres away; most would agree that the game didn’t really deliver on its promise of a true sniper experience.
However, City Interactive means to take all those complaints to heart in their sequel, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 which runs on the new buttery smooth CryEngine 3 (also being used for Crysis 3 if you want to compare). They recently released a Gameplay Teaser to show off how they’ve spent their development time so far and to be fair, it is looking pretty cool.
The graphics have been completely overhauled for the new engine and some improved stealth mechanics look set to hopefully bring the game back on track with what City Interactive hoped to achieve with the original. Although there is an excessive amount of loud breathing going on whenever the player zooms in and a somewhat questionable scene where we see a companion butcher a guard for their own “butchering” (I’m really hoping your character doesn’t agree with it in the game); for the most part the game seems promising.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is set for release on January 15th in North America and January 18th in Europe, appearing on the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PS Vita and Nintendo Wii U.
The European release for Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires has been announced as February 22, 2013 just a few days after the North American release date of February 19th, 2013. An exclusive for the PlayStation 3, the newest Dynasty Warriors game continues adding to its already large repertoire of playable characters by introducing Xu Shu, an advisor of Liu Bei, which will bring the total number of playable character up to 66.
Focusing less on the big historical figures as they went around fighting each others’ armies, Empires shakes up the general Dynasty Warriors formula and focus on the player. Allowing players to do fit their own play styles and having their choices impact the position of the character. Earn up to become a Ruler, seize and invade to be a Strategist, or sell your power to be a Free Officer. Even better for socialites, characters can be shared online and incorporated into others world, play history and all making for simulated multiplayer.
Be sure to look for Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires when it comes out in Europe on February 22nd or North America on February 19th for the PlayStation 3.
In a fantastic week for Nintendo, the Wii U has reached 400,000 sales. Even more impressive is that its predecessor managed to rack up 300,000 units sold as well, exemplifying the Wii’s unique attraction to consumers at large.
This figure could have been even higher as well, with Nintendo unable to keep up with demand for the Wii U console. “Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock,” President of Nintendo America, Reggie Fils-Aime has said. This was a very similar case when the Wii first launched back in 2006, when most retailers’ stock couldn’t support walk-in purchases until a few years later.
With the Black Friday deals coming to a close, Reggie Fils-Aime has announced that the total sales for Nintendo hardware last week, according to its internal data, has exceeded 1.2 million units. Aside from the Wii and Wii U, the handheld devices have together sold over 500,000 units, with 250,000 and 275,000 sales for the 3DS and DS respectively.
Fils-Aime has suggested that the reasons behind the DS outselling the 3DS are the deals retailers put forth for the DS, making it a far more compelling buy.
Jetpack Joyride Developer: Halfbrick Studios Publisher: Beat Shapers, Halfbrick Platform : PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita (reviewed), PlayStation Portable Release Date: November 21, 2012 Price: $3.99
Overview
Have you played Jetpack Joyride? I have. I played it to death over a year ago on a little thing called an iPhone. Indeed Barry’s adventure with a jetpack is one of the most popular games to have hit the smart phone gaming market, and has without doubt been hugely successful. It is now available for free on both iOS and Android.
So here we have the Sony version of the game, compatible with the PSP, PS3 and the PS Vita. Classed as a ‘mini’, the game will set you back $3.99 – which in all fairness is a little steep for something over a year old you can get for nothing elsewhere.
Gameplay
JJ is a one button game. You control Barry, a bloke who for some reason has stolen a jetpack and is stuck in a neverending side scrolling laboratory packed full of hazardous laser beams, zappers, and an infinit supply of cruise missiles. Players control the altitude of the jetpack and must dodge obstacles and collect coins and power ups in a bid to keep going for as long as humanly possible.
What makes an already fun mechanic highly addictive is the added reward structures. Keep collecting coins and you can buy rafts of new goodies – jetpacks, power ups, new shoes, whatever – there is a host of stuff to spend your hard earned cash on. The clincher in the addictiveness stakes is the ranking system, which sets you star challenges that reward you with coins and higher levels for completion. These range from the easy – collect 100 coins – to the weird – high five a dozen scientists in one run. With three active challenges at all times there is always something achievable to direct the gameplay, to push you in to just that one more run.
Barry can also pick up spin coins for end of run gambling that can add bonuses to the next run, provide a coin reward or even kick his presumably lifeless corpse just that little bit further after crashing out. More entertaining than that is the inclusion of vehicles, which act not only as entertaining gamechangers but allow you to take a hit without dying. There’s a teleporter, motorcycle and a giant DragonBall Z-esque dragon to be found amongst others, and their inclusion of course expands the wealth of missions available.
There’s no denying the gameplay is excellent, polished and highly addictive.
Jetpack Joyride is a near perfect combination of what makes a casual game great, something that you find yourself playing for much much longer than intended. HOWEVER, the Vita version is exactly the same as other previously released and free editions of the game. The only differences are extremely minor – you start off with the machine gun jetpack for example. This $3.99 version is essentially a PSP mini, with no trophies and no integration of Vita specific controls. Tricks have certainly been missed, and it is questionable why anyone would prefer this version of the game – making the fairly safe assumption that the majority of the gaming population has access to iOS , Android or simply Facebook.
Audio & Visual
Jetpack is a colourful and slightly kooky cartoon delight. From Barry’s dodgy haircut to small background details it’s clear that a lot of love has gone into the design. Things never become cluttered, and the interface is simple and smooth to enhance the ‘neverending’ style of gameplay. The music fits nicely into place, although it’s not something that particularly stands out. What does jump out is that much like the gameplay nothing has changed from previous iterations of the game – so don’t go into this expecting any tweaks or changes.
Overall
Jetpack Joyride is a fantastic game, and one of the classics of the revitalised and now dominant casual handheld market. Addictive as hell and perfectly formulated, the cartoon style and endless gameplay make it a quick and easy entry into favourite time waster territory. Thing is, everyone’s played it, or can play it for free. With no trophies and no price justifying differences – what on earth’s the point? With a point knocked off for missing an oppurtunity to evolve, Jetpack Joyride nonetheless still scores high.
After being delayed back in September because of a lawsuit with Rimowa GmbH, Marvel has finally updated us all on the new, slightly more generic look for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Blu-ray box-set. Not only that, but the now April-bound box-set will come with a few additionally enticing features.
Pictures released by Marvel.com show a more plain briefcase design, except for the front face which is inspired by Tony Stark’s ‘Arc Reactor’ palladium core (Can be seen clearly in the image below). The mammoth set is planned to include all the previously announced bonus materials, but Marvel felt they needed to sweeten the deal to make up for the lengthy delay. And so, they have announced that the box-set will now come with previews of each film in Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two, which includes the Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2 films.
Depending on the film – and considering their varied release dates and production schedules – these previews may consist of “footage, concept art, and a few new surprises. Also, look for a nod to Iron Man 3 in the Tony Stark S.H.I.E.L.D. file in the box set”, says Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige . There’ll also be never before released deleted scenes and footage contained in the set, including an alternate ending to Thor. Feige toldEW, “We went back to the editor’s assembly of each film and discovered some rare moments that dropped out of the films early on and had not been released on prior discs. We spent an embarrassing amount of time compiling the ‘Shield Files’ included in the box set to be sure that each character’s file was full of great, movie-accurate props and Easter eggs, which help tie all of the Phase one [Marvel Comics Universe] films together.”
For anyone who pre-ordered the originally planned set, will these inclusions make up for the near 7 month delay? Let us know in the comments below!
The first look at Australian made Fallout: Lanius has appeared this morning on the movies’ youtube channel, and it is looking great. Wade Savage, creator of the film, has yet to release any footage from this small-budget so it is exciting to finally see how the film may end up looking. The project was announced earlier this year and has received over $11,000 of support to date, a full $1000 more than first sought after.
No word on when Fallout: Lanius will be released as of yet. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
Through a recent interaction with a fan on twitter, Ken Levine has revealed that there will be “no multi” in 2K’s highly anticipated title Bioshock: Infinite.
RT @tha_don_101: @IGLevine can you clear up whether or not Bioshock Infinite will have multiplayer modes? —Nope.
After Levine’s confusing first response to the question “can you clear up whether or not Bioshock Infinite will have multiplayer modes?” from user tha_don_101, a later tweet revealed the answer everyone was looking for.
RT @wolverine11111: @IGLevine Does that mean nope it won't or nope you can't clear that issue up? –No multi.
This may not come as a surprise to many fans of the series, as Bioshock 2’s multiplayer servers have been relatively quiet. This news hopefully means that the single player campaign is beefed up and consolidated as the series’ third instalment has been greatly hyped, while its release date has already been pushed back from October 16 of this year, it will now be shipping February 26, 2013.
