Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz Developer:SEGA Publisher:SEGA Platform:PlayStation Vita Release Date:October 23, 2012 Price: $29.99 – Available Here
Overview: There are game series which seek to deliver a powerful storyline developed throughout many releases and then there are simple and fun titles which are improved over time into creating an experience that many people will enjoy. Such is the case with the Super Monkey Ball franchise which appeared on the GameCube back in 2001.
With a simplistic goal and a unique look, it was unlike anything most of the world had experienced. Now over the last eleven years multiple titles have been released across a number of consoles and now Super Monkey Ball has made its way to the PlayStation Vita in the form of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz. Is it worth your time? Let’s find out.
Visuals & Audio: With the smaller screen and power of the Vita, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is a gorgeous game full of vibrant colors, well-crafted levels with each stage featuring a special theme, such as a special toy level, a dinosaur level and more, that sets it apart from others. Also the monkeys that are trapped in their little balls are animated well, in fact this Vita version may have the best looking versions of AiAi and the rest.
It is also worth noting that the title does not feature any voice work, though it does feature a number of neat little monkey noises. As you make your way through each stage you are presented with a rather simplistic but enjoyable set of background music that change between worlds. These songs usually match the theme of each stage well and help sell the theme as you roll through it.
Gameplay:
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is, at its very basic, as simple as many of you will remember. For those who haven’t played a Monkey Ball game before, all you have to do is roll a ball that contains a monkey through a stage to the exit. You can collect bananas in each stage and when you gather enough of them you gain an extra life. These stages range from very basic straightforward ones to complicated ones that require precision motions as you navigate a speeding monkey ball through half-pipes, sharp corners and various ledges in an effort to reach the exit in time.
Besides the time limit and the ability to try and set the best time possible, it is also possible to encounter a number of dangerous areas in the game which make up most of the difficult levels in the Banana Splitz. These dangers are things such as moving platforms that you have to carefully roll onto, sheer edges that have to be navigated and more. Tumbling off the edge of the stage will result in the loss of a life and the restarting of that level.
However as many may recall, the Monkey Ball series always contains a number of special routes that you can take on later levels, throwing yourself off a cliff in an attempt to reach the end of a stage faster, providing a risk vs reward section in some stages.
Outside of these standard levels players can also access a number of mini-games such as Monkey Rodeo, Monkey Target, Monkey Bowling and more. Interestingly enough, Monkey Bowling actually requires the player to play with their Vita held upright. Perhaps the most enjoyable of these is the mini-game called Love Test which assigns a monkey ball to each analog stick, making it so the player must reach the end of the stage with both of them. Unfortunately games such as Pixie Hunt and Monkey Rodeo are simple failures that provide little enjoyment either through boring concepts or impossible to handle controls.
Players can also choose to create a stage of their own by taking a picture of the world around them. This picture will then be transformed into a level that the player can play through. Obviously some creations in this mode fall flat, literally, but it is a nice distraction that can provide an endless number of stages to explore.
As for multiplayer options, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz features both online play as well as ad-hoc multiplayer. Interestingly enough there is also a mode that allows you to run through a stage, hand the Vita off to a friend and have them play through that same mini-game. That is right, unfortunately you cannot play through stages online with others, instead multiplayer focuses solely on the aforementioned mini-games, which is a severe limitation to what could have been a neat beat the time mode.
You may notice that I mentioned the analog sticks earlier and that is correct, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz can be played with the Vita’s analog sticks, but it also can be played using the system’s gyroscope. However it is highly recommended that you do not use these gyro controls as they make the game not only difficult to control but also nearly impossible to play unless you are sitting in one place with full concentration, a somewhat difficult task for a game that is meant to be portable.
As for the Vita’s touch controls, they are used to great effect in the aforementioned mini-games as well as for navigating the menu screens. Unfortunately the menus in the game are awkward and swiping at the screen makes for terrible navigation.
Overall: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz has plenty of things for fans of the series to love as it creates a gorgeous looking game on the Vita that has a number of nagging issues which unfortunately lie with the Vita’s own touch controls and gyroscope. It also is worth noting that the game often has some noticeably long loading times for even the simplest of stages. That being said, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is a nice return to form for the main Monkey Ball stages, while most of the mini-games fail at being enjoyable and more like wastes of time.
Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain Studio:Codeblack Entertainment/Hartbeat Productions Publisher:Beyond Home Entertainment Format: DVD Release Date: November 1, 2012 Price: $22.95 – Available Here
Overview
Kevin Hart’s third stand-up special, Laugh At My Pain received a theatrical release in the U.S, garnering an estimated $15 million (although curiously, reports online state it’s domestic gross as reaching approximately half of that). The comedian is one of the busiest in recent history, featuring in multiple films a year for the last half decade, and Laugh At My Pain is our first look at his childhood with it’s semi-documentary style. The film will have you laughing, but will this DVD keep the laughter rolling until it hurts? Read on to find out.
Story
The first 14 minutes of the feature film takes a look at Kevin Hart’s childhood neighbourhood in Philadelphia, and his origins as a stand-up comic. Kevin takes us through his days on the varsity basketball team at George Washington High School, introduces us to his family, shows us his favourite spot for world-famous Philly cheese steaks and gives us some insight on his first gigs as a comic and the advice he received. Among the speaking guests on this portion of the film are Kevin’s childhood friends, the Philadelphia Department of Recreation’s swim coach Jim Ellis (whom Terence Howard played in the film Pride, which was based on Kevin’s swim team) and comedy pals Keith Robinson, Tu Rae Gordon and manager Dave Becky. This is a nice little spotlight on where Kevin came from and his roots as a comedian, and I always love learning of the backgrounds of these larger-than-life personalities.
Things are on the up-and-up for Kevin Hart!
After that, the stand-up begins. Kevin’s set only runs for about 49 minutes, which is surprisingly short, especially for a feature film. However, the opening and closing sequences – which I’ll mention in a minute – do fill out the overall runtime. I still would have like some more time on the stage, as that really is the draw for the film. Nonetheless, his set is very funny and deals, more than ever, with Kevin’s real life family issues – notably, those with his formerly cocaine-addicted Father. After all, this is the inspiration for the title and the show; to laugh at his pain. The bits about his Father are also the best ones, with some very crude, but hilarious jokes made at his expense. As much as they are crude, they are also all based in reality; a slightly distorted retelling of stories that I did not believe upon my first viewing. But, as would later be confirmed by Kevin’s Father himself in an exclusive Larry King interview, they are in fact the real deal. Henry (the Father) busting into a spelling bee “making crack-head noises”, and yelling at Kevin to “spell the shit out these motherf**king words!”, a perfect example of this.
As the show ends and Kevin descends from the stage, the film transitions from his stand-up to a skit that is a take on the Quentin Tarantino classic, Reservoir Dogs, called “The Plastic Cup Boyz” (don’t ask why, I still don’t know the answer). it’s basically about an all-African American group of bank robbers, and it becomes quite apparent that they might just be the most incompetent bunch of robbers in history. The skit has it’s moments, but is definitely not a home run. It also seemed weird to go from his stand-up to this…a very strange format, and unfortunately may just come across as filler, when I’m sure that a lot of effort was in fact put into it. The skit also gets intercut with a real Larry King interview with Kevin Hart’s Father, of which he joins soon after. This leads into the film’s credits, during which we see some extra footage of the interview, Kevin interacting with his friends and kids and him cracking jokes with his old school’s staff.
Visual
Working the room so hard, he’s sweating bullets!
Now, I am not sure if the actual comedy special was originally shot in HD, but with this being a DVD, the transfer is obviously not. As far as I am aware, the Blu-Ray version of this release was cancelled, so this is as good as it gets too. The film is in a 16:9 widescreen format, but as just alluded to, the video quality can not be expected to be great. The first 15 minutes of the film is also shot in a documentary-style, using a relatively inexpensive video camera, so it is what it is. There are also these lines, or artifacts, at the very top and bottom of the picture. They reach about 40% across the screen and are fairly noticeable. All up, the video quality is a disappointment, but it is a comedy concert film, so thankfully it’s not a genre of film that lives and dies by it’s visual flair (like Transformers, for instance).
Audio
The audio is in 5.1 Dolby Digital, and sounds fine. Everything is clear and crisp, with the only takeaway being the actual audio capture of the stand-up event itself. The theatre that the stand-up was filmed in projects quite an echo. Of course, after a few minutes, your ears will get used to this fact, and there’s not much that could have been done about the acoustics, so there’s no point in dwelling on it. So, just to reiterate, this is not an issue with the DVD’s audio quality, but is something worth noting. Otherwise, no complaints on the audio front.
Extras
The Plastic Cup Boyz!
When I look to purchase a DVD, the special features are what hook me. I love seeing the behind-the-scenes footage, the deleted scenes, the blooper reel and listening to commentary. With a comedy concert, I don’t expect nearly as much content…but, this release is extremely bare. “The Plastic Cup Boyz” is essentially the same skit that plays at the tail end of the film as it is, the uncut “Larry King Interview” expands upon the snippets that were used in the film, but don’t add anything substantial to the proceedings, and the “sneak peak” – yes, peek is spelt wrong both on the box, and in the special features sub-menu – of the film “Think Like A Man”, with an introduction from Kevin Hart himself, is hardly a special feature. Actually, on my copy, there was a write error and the wrong trailer was put on the disc. Upon selecting the sneak peek, I was treated to a trailer for this very DVD. I contacted Beyond Home Entertainment and alerted them to this error, to which they quickly responded that “the product manager has reviewed the item and there does appear to be an error, this will now be corrected”.
Overall
The Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain DVD is a disappointing package overall, but for fans of his, the stand-up is what’ll justify it’s purchase. The full theatrical release is intact, which is what matters, but the special features are really bare-bones. Even being the only true extra on the DVD, the full Larry King interview does not add much value at all…half of it was played during the film anyway. Maybe I’m even being a little generous with my score, if only out of respect for the man who has been dubbed “the hardest working comedian today”. Too bad there couldn’t have been some harder work put into this DVD release.
Hideo Baba, the Tales series producer, has revealed in an interview with Playcommu that Namco Bandai was in fact working on the next installment in the Tales franchise. He was asked to respond a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a variety or questions, the most interesting of which was whether he had started working on the next Tales game, to which he responded with a ‘Yes’.
When asked about the work process for the Tales franchise he had this to say, “Within the basic flow of making sure we complete one game at a time, we are always thinking about the concept of the next title,” he continued on to mention the next installment of the franchise, “As a matter of fact, I’m thinking under the surface of various ideas for the [Tales] series 20th anniversary title.”
Tales of Xillia 2 was released in Japan today, with the first Tales of Xillia title set to see release in North America in 2013. What do you think of news that another Tales game is already in the works? Let us know in the comments section below.
Overview
Professor Layton has to be one of Nintendo’s biggest achievements this generation. Since launching back in 2008, this franchise has bloomed into full form, offering up unforgettable plots with rich storytelling, with a smooth blend of clever puzzles. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask marks the first title in the series to hit the 3DS, and well – not a lot has changed other than a few details. Does this 3D offering of the series deliver up to standards, or is Layton starting to grow some grey hairs under that famous top hat? Let’s find out.
Story
Even though it is technically a sequel to Last Spector, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is the first title to finally give us some background on who Professor Layton was before he was off solving puzzles and mysteries. With that said, this title is still all about telling it’s own story, but uses Layton’s own past to help solve a mystery involving a masked antagonist that has been causing chaos in a charming little city.
If you hadn’t guess already, this Layton title plays out about the same as previous installments, with Emmy, Luke, and the Professor himself slowly piecing together clues to solve one large mystery. The intertwining plots do a lot for the series as a whole though, as they show us a more human side of Layton, while still keeping his full – gentleman-like character intact. Of course this game is about more than the same ol’ puzzles and adventures.
Just like every game before it, this title’s atmosphere is painted by the absolutely endearing cast of characters that roam about as you progress throughout the main story. Most just offer a puzzle or a few clues, but they do it with such a sense of individuality and charm that it would be a crime to ignore even one of the random conversations that can be had. This time around, there is more interaction – which paints this tale vividly and makes the player feel as if they are right beside Luke and Emmy, roaming those crowded streets of mild chaos within Monte d’Or.
Gameplay
I won’t go into what kind of gameplay Layton has too much – as if you have played even one of the past entries, you know exactly what to expect. Players still can solve puzzles around every corner, which of course ties together the entire plot along the way. That same feeling of satisfaction still is as relevant as ever when a brain teaser is solved as well, so get ready to feel joy when you hear praise upon completion of even the easiest of riddles. As far as the puzzles go, expect well over 100, which are all completely varied and come ready to have you get out that memo pad to do a bit of math or logic work from time to time. As the game progresses, so does the challenge of these puzzles, but nothing ever becomes to overbearing and as I mentioned, the simple rewards of solving every puzzle is sure to hook even the most casual of players.
Being on the 3DS, Professor Layton had to make a few adjustments to the way the game is played. Yes, the same concept still remains unchanged, but the way you go about exploring the world is quite different this time around. Instead of seeing one still image and tapping all over with your stylus for input from the Professor, the world is now much more alive, featuring a new “3D” like perspective where everything appears in first person and the camera can be turned via the touch-screen to get a full scope of the environment. This of course makes the game feel bigger, while adding in more room for interaction and movement.
Miracle Mask also offers up a good batch of mini-games to break up the pace from time to time, with each still following the same robust, “use your brain” formula to fit in within the main gimmickry that this classic franchise has always offered. Now and then, the player will also need to participate in an action sequence of sorts, such as chasing down an enemy. As an example, early on in the game, the Masked Gentleman will make a dash, and Layton and company make chase on horseback. The player will needs to take control of the horse during this bout, moving the stylus to control their movement while dodging barrels and collecting boosts along the way. It may sound unorthodox for a series that is known for sticking to it’s formula, but trust me on this – these sequences are perfectly at home within the Layton world due to their utter simplicity and clever usage of the 3DS’ features.
After the main quest is a thing of the past, there is some replay value to be had. No, not in the main game unless you are an ultra completionist, but in the full year of downloadable puzzles that Nintendo will be offering. Every day a new riddle, puzzle, or logic problem can be downloaded, which offers plenty of reason to keep going back into the game. Yes, I do miss “Layton’s Life” from Last Specter, and it would be a shame if we didn’t see it expanded upon in future installments, but for now, these daily puzzles do a fine job at keeping those brain cells active.
Visuals and Audio
With Level-5’s beautiful past productions of the Layton games, it comes as no surprise that Miracle Mask has some of the most stunning and eye-pleasing visuals on the 3DS to date. Everything appears to look the same aside from the new “psuedo-3D” format, but interactions are almost always fully animated with 3D models now, adding in even more character to the colorful personalities in the game. It might not be a huge step up, but it’s enough to set Miracle Mask apart from it’s predecessors and set groundwork of what we should expect from future entries.
The soundtrack is also superb. From the joyous or eerie tunes blaring while traversing the city to the full form cutscenes, a lot of work went into making Miracle Mask a top shelf production – and as always, the quality is nearly flawless in that area. Minor sound effects such as wind, birds, and hooves stamping come together to make this city come alive, providing the most atmosphere that a Layton title has seen to date. Even some of the puzzles make use of these sounds, and that is certainly another worthy upgrade that will surely be improved upon even further in the future.
Overall
I honestly love the Professor Layton series. Every game is ready to strap the player in and not let go until all of the clues are put together and the mystery is solved yet again. Miracle Mask does all of this and more to not only match it’s predecessors, but take it one step further to keep the experience fresh. The fact that so much character, life and action have been packed into a what is advertised as a puzzle game proves that age is not a factor with Professor Layton, as this title’s form of reinvention comes in small, safe steps that cater to the “more” crowd, while staying true to the roots with all of the charm and puzzle variety that have kept the fanbase of the franchise coming back for more. This may be the Professor Layton’s 5th game, but for a new platform debut, you can’t do much better than than what’s behind this mask of mystery.
Assassin’s Creed 3 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, Wii U and PC Release Date: 31st October, 2012 Price:$59.99 – Available Here
Overview:
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has built a name for itself as one of the most premier series in the current gaming landscape. It is without a doubt one of the biggest franchises and as such whenever a new installment of Assassin’s Creed is released it is usually followed by a great deal of hype and anticipation. Assassin’s Creed 3 however was a different level of hype altogether. This game promised to be a revolution, a new direction for a franchise that many believed was in need of a shot in the arm, a different take, a fresh start – a change.
Assassin’s Creed 3 without a shadow of doubt accomplished these things. It is vastly different to previous installments. It’s got a new setting, different staff behind it and new gameplay mechanics to boot. But is it the revolution that it was promised to be?
Story:
As with all Assassin’s Creed games the story line plays a large part in the experience. The entire single player mode relies heavily upon how compelling the plot is. While the franchise reached story telling heights with the powerful and overall emotionally resonant story of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Assassin’s Creed 3 falls somewhat short of that benchmark.
Like previous Assassin’s Creed titles this game features 2 plots that play out parallel to one another, in this case the Desmond story and the Connor story. Fans of the series would know Desmond’s story by now, but Connor’s is something completely new. Set within the American Revolution, Connor is a young Native American boy born to a British man named Haytham (we will talk more about him in a moment) and a Native American woman whose name is incredibly long but prefers to go by Tio. Throughout the course of the game we see how Connor grows up and the man he becomes. Throughout the course of the game we see him as a child, a teen and ultimately a man. But before we get into that plot we see the story of Haytham, Connor’s father, when the cave influences a bleeding effect and the Animus somehow controls Desmond into having memories of the American Revolution, which in it self is fairly lazy writing to be quite frank.
The game begins with you playing as Haytham a stalwart Brit with a great deal of compassion for those who lack freedom. After venturing the America Haytham becomes embroiled in a struggle over the freedom of a tribe of Native Americans in which he ultimately saves them and falls for the Native American woman who will go on to bare his child. This is all well and good. Haytham is developed quite well and we come to know him in the few hours of which his portion of the game takes place in. Unfortunately it is the conclusion of Haytham’s introduction where in the game makes its first stumble plot wise. We see a bizarre plot twist occur regarding Haytham that completely goes against all his characterization leading up to that point and it only further stumbles as his characterization bounces around throughout the rest of the game by which point he becomes a walking plot device with sadly very few dimensions other than outright villainy. The saddest part of all is that by the time Connor’s story is resolved, Haytham is never redeemed as a character, there is no catharsis.
The same problem can be attributed to the other 2 main characters Connor and Desmond, both of whom receive relatively lackluster and confusing send-offs. Considering that the game is said to be the last to feature Desmond it is very disappointing how they chose to end his story. Fans of the series have followed this character for a very long time and for him to receive the ending in which he did was utterly disappointing. Things really needed to be brought full circle for Desmond. Instead it was all hastily tied up in the sloppiest manner possible. This really should have been a cathartic and powerful conclusion to a story that has spanned 5 games, instead it feels like an inconsequential footnote.
Both plot-lines are inherently interesting, but due to lack of substantial connective tissue between both plots it is difficult to escape the feeling that Desmond is just messing around in the Animus whilst waiting for the far more exciting and urgent feeling missions of the present day arise. This is of course no knock towards the rich and well-realised American Revolution setting. It just doesn’t really lend it self too well to the Assassin theme. At times Connor simply feels like a vengeful Native American more than he does an Assassin. This is problematic as it makes it difficult to connect the story of Connor with that of Desmond on anything other than a faint resemblance between the two characters and the fact they both suffer daddy issues. Although Connor’s plot does help Desmond in the end the large majority of his story feels besides the point and lacking the same intensity of the absolutely excellent Desmond missions. At times the Desmond missions are so good that they make you wonder why the entire game couldn’t have simply taken place in the present day.
Despite the rather inconsistent writing in this game, there are some truly great narrative moments. In particular Desmond’s return to Abstergo which provided a truly captivating finish to a long standing plot thread. The emotion was there and it truly felt as though Desmond has come a long way since his beginnings in the first game. This was the pinnacle of Desmond as a character, everything had built up to this and for that alone it was a good chapter in a game filled with highs and lows.
In terms of Connor’s plot the characterization was without a doubt the biggest issue, but the story itself was quite engaging. From Connor’s humble beginnings and his long road to vengeance, the is a great story arc told here which ultimately succeeds regardless of the bumps along the way.
Assassin’s Creed 3 is ultimately the series lowest point in terms of narrative. The characterization is spotty at best and makes it difficult to understand and empathize with these characters and their motivations. Despite the over abundance of plot twists that seemingly exist for the sake of shocking the player, the plot points that revolve around true and genuine human emotion such as Connor’s love of his family and desire for vengeance or even Desmond’s longing to be free of the Assassin’s life are what will be remembered from the game. Those honest and heartfelt moments allow this often murky tale to succeed despite it’s flaws.
Gameplay:
With Assassin’s Creed 3 Ubisoft have tried to improve upon the formula they have built over the course of the now 5 games in the series. Unfortunately the results are mixed, mostly due to the fact that the game feels relatively unfinished. But I will get into the game’s bugs later, let’s talk about the games mechanics.
First of all the most prominent aspect of the gameplay as with all Assassin’s Creed titles is the free-running which unlike previous games in the series is mapped entirely to one button in this game, the right trigger button. This is a good idea, in theory, but in practice it is even more flawed than the previous right trigger and A button method of free-running. The reason why is that there is now no option to simply run, there is only free-running. What this means is that you will find yourself accidentally climbing onto everything and anything you happen to mistakenly bump into. This is especially troublesome when you are partaking in chase missions which require a degree of accuracy otherwise your target will outrun you and be lost. It’s a very temperamental system as a whole and doesn’t exactly work as advertised, it is said that you cannot jump to your death unless you tap the A button, this is not in fact true as Connor will at times jump in bizarre and odd directs or jump onto an object that can barely be stood on and will slip and fall to his death. Although it sounds sloppy, which it is, tree-running is incredibly addictive and one could spend hours simply exploring the Frontier from the treetops. As a whole though, the idea of mapping all of it to one button did have potential to work wonders and expel many of the series prior issues, but not enough work went into polishing this mechanic and working out the kinks – an issue that plagues a lot of other facets of the gameplay.
The game’s combat mechanics are also altered to be more focused on countering. This adds a greater level of difficulty to combat but at the cost of slowing the pace of battles. At times combat can become very tedious due to the difficulty of countering when mobbed by enemies. You can still perform the one hit kills the series is famous for but there is a greater difficulty in doing so. While a increased challenge in terms of combat is a good thing, you feel as though you are taking far more damage then you really should be and fighting mobs is a tedious fare to say the very least. However in simple one on one conflicts the new fighting mechanics truly shine, its just the mob combat that needs some work. Having to counter in order to properly attack an enemy is both an improvement but also a step backwards. Assassin’s Creed is known for it’s fast paced action whereas the action seen in Assassin’s Creed 3 is notably slower paced than anything the franchise has produced to date. It only makes matters worse when guns present in the game take 10 seconds to reload, sure it is realistic, but is realism worth the cost of slowing down what by all rights should be intense fast paced action? I don’t think so.
The other form of combat present in the game is the much publicized naval warfare. This aspect of gameplay feels as though it was lifted from another game entirely. It is an interesting addition but largely out of place and is an odd shift gameplay wise, much like the den defense was for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. At least Revelations didn’t force you to partake in that aspect more than once. However Assassin’s Creed 3 requires the player to engage in multiple naval warfare battles. For some this will be very tiresome and for others it will be quite enjoyable. The entire naval warfare aspect is really a case of you love it or you hate it. There is no real middle ground due to the incredibly different experience it provides in comparison to the rest of the game. It looks and feels like it belongs in another game and because of this it heavily relies on the player’s particular taste.
While there is a large amount of new introductions in this game it also features a return of a gameplay aspect that hasn’t been in the series for a while now. That is the ability to ride a horse. In previous games that featured horses this means of travel felt like an afterthought and ultimately unnecessary due to lack of an open world big enough to necessitate riding a horse. Assassin’s Creed 3 on the other hand features a vast and luscious open world environment that is as large as it is beautiful. One could literally spend days exploring this environment just to see everything that it holds. Right from the get-go there is a necessity for horse travel (until you unlock fast-travel in later portions of the game). This works well enough when travelling in a city such as Boston, but take the horse into the Frontier and it becomes incredibly difficult to control the animal as it seemingly has a great disdain for small rocks and any kind of flora that may come anywhere near it. This results in the horse often glitching in bizarre ways and very frequently jumping right through a tree and becoming stuck within it. This is quite disappointing as the horses are really a necessity when travelling through the Frontier.
The Frontier it self is an incredible feat in and of itself, it’s a vast land filled with all sorts of terrain, animals and people alike. It is in the Frontier that players can engage in another highly publicized aspect of the game, that being hunting. There is a great amount of different types of animal to be found in the Frontier and if you spend enough time exploring you will discover that these animals have certain territories and locations in which that inhabit. This is a great amount of detail for a mechanic that is in the end just a throwaway addition that doesn’t effect the overall plot in any significant way. Hunting is just a fun little feature that for the most part goes off without a hitch, there is the occasional graphical glitch but hunting these animals feels very authentic and is a lot of fun to play.
Now it has to be said that despite a day one patch for the game there is still a large amount of glitches and bugs present in the game, some are easily overlooked but others can downright ruin the experience. There are a large variety of bugs present in the game the worst of which is the endless loading screen, a seemingly random game crashing bug that occurs sporadically. If you are interested in seeing any of the other bugs for yourself simply search ‘Assassin’s Creed 3 glitches’ on Youtube and you will be sure to find many hilarious and often confusing glitches in the game.
While the single-player gameplay is very much hit and miss and could do with a substantial amount of polish, the multi-player component is undoubtedly the greatest multi-player experience on offer this year. It’s odd that such a weak single-player experience is packaged right alongside what is an incredible and truly inspired multi-player that is worth the price of admission alone.
Ubisoft have taken the already excellent multi-player aspect of Revelations and polished it until it was golden. The Assassinate mode in particular is now well refined and free of the issues it suffered in the previous installment. All of the classic modes have returns such as the crowd-pleasing Wanted mode, but it is the new modes that truly shine here. The Domination mode in particular is a great play on the Headquarters mode seen in FPS titles multi-player in which you must maintain control of a location for as long as possible to earn points. It’s a great addition mostly due to the great deal of variety it contributes. Throw in the new Wolfpack mode to the mix, a take on the horde mode which requires players to kill a number of enemies to progress and you have one of the most inventive and varied multi-player experiences on the market today.
While the single-player is riddled with several nagging issues, almost none of them are present in the multi-player mode which stands as reason alone to own this game. The multi-player is sure to add an insurmountable number of hours of gameplay for players to entertain themselves with and gives an incredible amount of replay-ability to a title that’s single-player couldn’t be relied upon to provide that.
When it’s all said and done, Assassin’s Creed 3 is a fun game, that succeeds not because of it’s flaws but in spite of them. The single-player experience leaves a lot to be desired both story-wise and in terms of gameplay. The entire single-play mode in it self is the sloppiest the series has employed to date. Despite that though, there is just too much content in this game to ignore. There is so many little inclusions that don’t have any significant bearing on the game but are there for players to enthuse themselves with regardless, it truly feels like you could explore every inch of this world but still miss something. It is simply that detailed. It may be flawed but it is still an impressive feat and even if the single-player leaves players frustrated with it’s issues, there is always the picture perfect multi-player mode to escape into for a few hours.
Visuals and Audio:
From the outset the very fact that this game would tackle the American Revolution there was a large platform of possibility for beautiful aesthetics and I’m pleased to say that Ubisoft has really brought the New World to life. The world is vast and beautiful in it’s intricacy and variation. The Frontier is easily the most visually appealing aspect of the game and I don’t blame anyone for getting distracted with exploring this awe-inspiring landscape. It is both well-conceived and fully realised, something that Ubisoft ought to be proud of. The visual splendor and sheer grandeur of the world in this game feels very real, the illusion of reality only breaking when the occasional graphical glitch arises. The cities featured in the game are also fully realised however hang too heavily on the brown and grey for it’s colour palette. At times the brown and grey hues can be somewhat ugly and overbearing but the overall mass of each city has enough variety if you seek it out. While Assassin’s Creed 3 doesn’t feature the same architectural beauty as the Ezio trilogy, the Frontier alone is beauty of a different nature altogether.
Aurally the game implements a similar soundtrack to it’s previous installments with many orchestrated tracks that manage to fit any and every mood that the game tries to portray. It’s a very ethereal musical experience as a whole and continues the impressive standard that Ubisoft has set with the franchise. When it comes to the voice work of the cast, everyone hits the mark. The performances of each character were well done. As a whole there were no issues with the voice work.
Overall:
Assassin’s Creed 3 is a game that I really wanted to love. This should have been the definitive Assassin’s Creed game, the one that ends this era with a bang, revolutionizes the franchise and ushers in a new chapter in the Assassin’s Creed universe. But it wasn’t that game. It was inconsistent in quality from start to finish, featured the weakest story mode in the franchise to date and ended in a way that doesn’t even come close to doing this great franchise justice. If there is any reason to purchase this game it is without a doubt the excellent multi-player mode, the high point of an overall rushed package that really deserved better. Ubisoft have shown in the past they are capable of brilliance with this franchise, it’s a shame that one of the greatest stories in recent gaming history had to end on such a note. Don’t get me wrong though, Assassin’s Creed 3 is a fun game for the most part, it’s just held back by a number of flaws that quite simply can not be ignored. We wanted a revolution, but much like Connor’s search for freedom, we learnt that a revolution can only stem from one thing – Chaos.
Today Namco Bandai revealed a number of new screenshots for Tales of Xillia. We’ve seen a number of English screenshots released and the latest batch contains mostly all dialog sections as well as a few of the game’s beautiful looking animation sequences.
For those who may not be aware, Namco Bandai is currently in the process of bringing Tales of Xillia out to North America, Europe and Australia sometime in 2013. No information about a possible localization of the recently released in Japan sequel to the game, but it localization chances will likely depend on the sales of this title, so set some money aside for this one!
Rockstar has announced when they will be debuting the next trailer for Grand Theft Auto 5. After a small debacle where the release window was announced a little prematurely, hopefully the trailer will still have enough to wow fans of the series.
Rockstar is still keeping a lot of the information of the game under raps, so we can really only go on what they show in their trailers. Hopefully though with the next trailer there will be plenty of stuff to pore over for hints of whats to come. Scheduled for the worldwide audience on Thursday, November 15th, 2012, players interested in checking the trailer out when it goes live should be sure to check out the website HERE.
Tritton has released their Halo 4 branded line of headsets. These are officially licensed Xbox 360 headsets that support Xbox Live chat. The Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset comes with a bonus UNSC Logo Tshirt for your Xbox Avatar and features 40mm stereo drivers, separate voice and game volume, and connect via RCA cable. The Halo 4 Trigger headset costs $49.99 USD and can be bought here.
The flagship product of the Halo 4 headsets is the Warhead 7.1 headset. Branded with Halo 4 logos and a ice blue colour scheme, the Warhead 7.1 is a fully wireless Dolby surround sound headset that acts as a wireless Xbox 360 microphone without any extra cables or dongles that need to be attached to the controller. As an additional bonus, the Warhead 7.1 comes with a Forward Unto Dawn avatar prop. The Halo 4 Warhead 7.1 Headset can be purchased for $329.99 USD here.
Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee sat down with Ubisoft for an interview on the up coming Kinect and Wii U title Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. Stan Lee expressed his excitement for the motion sensing capabilities of the game.
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is an up coming brawler featuring 20 fan favourite Marvel super heroes and villains including Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor. Each character has four unique abilities to unleash on your opponents across six game modes including a single player campaign that spans the Secret Invasion storyline, multiplayer, and co-op modes. The visuals are presented in a traditional comic book style. The game is available now for Xbox 360 Kinect and will be released later this year for the Wii U.
Moving Player has developed a new freemium arcade title called Evofish, which is being released by BulkyPix on the App store, November 15th.
Help each of the four Evofish species to evolve through 12 levels as you work to survive amongst the predators of the sea, before ultimately becoming the most deadly one yourself in the natural order of the food chain. With simple and addictive gameplay, you will experience a changing deep-sea environment with new enemies and daily missions set for you to accomplish. Build your score multiplier, and use bombs and potions and other items to go from prey to predator. Each of the four species has their own unique characteristics to provide a good sense of variety to the gameplay experience.
To see some of the first images of the title, view the gallery below. Also, Bulkypix has altered the release date of their other upcoming title, Ninja Toss, which we previously announced. That article, with the updated release date, can be found here.
Working the room so hard, he’s sweating bullets!
The Plastic Cup Boyz!
