If you happened to update your PlayStation Vita today you may have noticed that the system’s web browser has been optimized to run faster. One thing you may not have noticed however is the fact that the web browser can now be used while you are in the middle of playing the game.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida revealed on Twitter today that the browser has become a “small app” which will be usable without quitting out of other programs making it easier to use and a great tool for those who may rely on walkthroughs to complete games. It is certainly great to see the browser on the Vita made more viable and with this update also adding in PlayStation Plus for the Vita, gamers will be very busy tomorrow once the first six free Vita games are made available for subscribers.
Online Passes have become something of an unfortunate reality in the gaming world as nearly every company has adopted them in some form, whether it be locking out multiplayer content or single-player quest-lines. In fact, Square Enix had previously planned on locking out players from Hitman: Absolution’s Contracts multiplayer mode if they didn’t have an online pass, but it turns out that the company has changed their mind.
IO Interactive revealed on their blog that they “actually planned to have this mode accessible via a code in the game’s box but we really want to make it available to anybody that plays the game — so we want to take a new approach.”
In fact, the company goes on to say that anyone who picks up the game in North America will automatically see the game mode available in the game’s main menu and those outside of North America will be able to download the Contracts Pass for free. This is certainly a great move by the company in the eyes of fans who have likely grown tired of the entire Online Pass system and will be able to avoid such issues and get back to assassinating people as Agent 47.
Or who knows, maybe you did ask for it? Well, either way, Sony has chosen that the next step for the Uncharted franchise is a card based game for the PlayStation Vita. Now don’t worry too heavily over this one, as it is not a full retail title. To be a bit more specific, Sony Bend revealed today that Uncharted: Fight for Fortune will be released as a digital download on December 4th for a price tag of only $4.99.
Fight for Fortune will feature card-based combat with various hero, villains, mercenaries and artifacts from the series taking the form of cards. If you are curious about how this could possibly work then you should check out the below trailer which will show off how some of the game is played. It is worth noting that anyone who has played Uncharted: Golden Abyss will be able to use any gold they have in that game to help them fight in the card game. So… with Sony pushing a card game out on the Vita, perhaps we should hold out some hope for Compile Heart’s Monster Monpiece?
If you happened to pay attention to Nintendo’s Black Friday bundle last year then you will probably notice that the bundle this year is remarkably similar to the previous one. Not only does it come with the same Flame Red 3DS color but also the same game, Super Mario 3D Land.
It is worth noting though that while last year’s release included a physical copy of Super Mario 3D Land, this time around the game will actually be pre-installed on the system. It is also worth noting that the system’s bundle has seen a $30 drop in price and will now sell at a suggested price of $170 instead of $200.
Some exciting Christmas announcements from 2K Play and Nickelodeon with the announcement of a Dora the Explorer extravaganza starting off with Team UmiZoomi and Doras Fantastic Flight and coming soon, Nickoledeon Dance 2. Join Dora exclusively on the Nintendo DS for an amazing adventure or bop to the beats as Nickelodeon Dance 2 delivers double the characters and beats then the original which we all know means double the fun. Featuring hits from Bubble Yuppies, Team UmiZoomi, Dora, The Fresh Beat Band and many more, Nickelodeon Dance 2 will be available across Australia and New Zealand come November 23rd.
We were gratified to discover that children, older siblings, parents, grandparents and school teachers all embraced the ‘get-up-and-move’ fun of Nickelodeon Dance. With Nickelodeon Dance 2, we expand that magic with new characters, songs and twists,” said Steve Lux, Vice President of Business Development for 2K Play. “On the portable front, games based on preschoolers’ favourite new Nickelodeon properties, such as Team Umizoomi, provide the perfect opportunity to play learning games on the go.”
“Nickelodeon is so excited to release another round of award-winning, breakthrough preschool games with 2K Play,” said Sherice Torres, Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment, DTO and Videogame Licensing, Nickelodeon Consumer Products. “There’s no better way to celebrate the holidays than with Nickelodeon video games.”
Doras Fantastic Flight sees the popular character team up with the maths gurus of the UmiZoomi as they practive their Maths and problem solving skills. Nickelodeon Dance 2will keep kids and adults of all ages on their toes especially with the introduction on the freeze mode, similar in nature to musical statues.
Nutty Fluffies Developer: Redlynx Publisher: Ubisoft Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: November 6th, 2012 Price: $0.99 Get it Here
Overview
Developed by Redlynx, the studio behind Trials Evolution, DrawRace 2 and MotoHeroz, Nutty Fluffies is a physics based action game featuring a motley crew of adorable stuffed animals riding the roller coasters of an amusement park that has been shuttered for the year. The simple one touch controls make it easy for anyone to pick up and play. The game features some adorable graphics and challenging levels.
Story
Nutty Fluffies does not have a story, it has a premise. A bunch of stuffed animals that are sold at the souvenir stand come to life after the amusement park closes for the season. They start riding the roller coaster to keep themselves occupied while the park is closed. I suppose it is a good enough reason than any to watch small stuffed animals careen down roller coasters.
Gameplay
The game is an extremely simple game to learn, swipe forward to get the engineer to lean forward and speed up the rollercoaster cars, swipe backwards to lean backwards and slow down. Tap the bottom left button to activate the special ability that runs on a short cooldown. The controls are responsive and the physics is extremely consistent.
There are currently four chapters with six to eight coasters each to master. Each of the four chapters has a distinct theme. I am a little disappointed there is only one chapter full of wooden rollercoasters, but unfortunately steel rollercoasters make for a more challenging game with their
Unlocking the next coaster requires coins so replaying previous levels are encouraged. The first run will have four rollercoaster carts to load up with stuffed animals with an extra cart added for each successful run up to a total of ten carts. There are three power ups that are available depending on the level, jump jets, rocket boosts, and magnets. There are five stuffed animals with a variety of bonuses to choose from. The basic stuffed animal is the mouse which costs nothing to load into the carts but has no special bonuses and provides only two extra hearts for bringing the mouse into the unloading zone. Each of the four stuffed animals that come after the mouse will cost a certain amount of coins to load into the cart but provides a larger completion bonus and special bonuses for things like navigating through loops and jumps. I found using these special animals was a poor idea unless I had completely mastered the track as making a hard landing or crashing out and failing to complete the track wasted my hard earned coins.
I will admit to a morbid satisfaction out of the gameplay. I was one of those obsessed with creating the perfect theme park in Rollercoaster Tycoon. I never spent massive amounts of time fussing over rollercoasters to create the ultimate death machine and I never really understood the appeal. After playing Nutty Fluffies, I have come to realize the game is just plain fun no matter if I guide my fluffies to the unloading zone or crash them in a horrible manner. Maybe the comical blood-free bouncing of stuffed animals in a terrible crash relieves me of the guilt I would feel watching people crash on Rollercoaster Tycoon, but no matter what, Nutty Fluffies is just darn fun.
Visuals
Nutty Fluffies is a colourful cartoony game. It is very child friendly with bright, eye catching colours and big eyed animals. The graphics never skipped a beat or suffered from any slow-downs. The camera zoomed out at the right times to provide a good view of the action. The game translates well to the smaller iPhone screen and is optimized for the iPhone 5 widescreen and the iPad Retina displays.
Audio
The soundtrack and sound effects are spot on, creating a wonderful amusement park atmosphere. There is a wide variety of sound effects to keep things interesting. Nutty Fluffies is definitely a game you can enjoy with the sound on. It isn’t necessary to plug in headphones to enjoy the game, the speakers will suffice.
Overall
It could be extremely easy to write off Nutty Fluffies for its silly and simple idea and presentation. But as they always say, don’t judge a book by its cover. Nutty Fluffies masterfully combines cartoony graphics, simple controls, a brilliant idea, and great sound into one excellent package. For $0.99, there are plenty of levels with tons of replayability built into the game. The nag screens to make an in app purchase of coins is relatively low, only showing up once every several rounds, however I would have preferred no nag screens at all. There are enough levels to take up hours of your time and Redlynx is promising more level packs in future updates. I highly recommend purchasing Nutty Fluffies for a family friendly game everyone can enjoy.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Marvel’s Avengers Initiative for mobile platforms as part of the Marvel XP universe has a new Lite version of the game released on the iOS platform. The Avengers Initiative is an episodic game series for mobile devices and features iconic Marvel characters taking on an invasion of enemies in the Marvel Universe.
What’s interesting about the XP universe is that players are able to connect their gaming experiences between the Facebook version of the game and the Mobile platforms. Players can check out the full version of the game here. For the new lite experience, check out the link here. You can also check out our review for the game here. Note: These are for the iOS versions only.
Ragnarok Tactics Developer:AppoloSoft Publisher:Aksys Games Platform: PSP (Available for download on PS Vita) Release Date:November 6, 2012 Price:$29.99 – Available Here
Overview: Many gamers have likely heard of the Ragnarok franchise thanks to the fact that it’s star title, Ragnarok Online, has been a relatively popular and long running MMO for over a decade. Since then a number of spin-off games have been created for various platforms, most recently Ragnarok Odyssey for the Vita. However while Odyssey may have been loosely based on the world of Ragnarok Online, Aksys Games has brought Ragnarok Tactics over on the PSP. Will the deeper ties to the Ragnarok Online game work well for this new SPRG title? Let’s find out.
Story: For those of you who may be concerned that you’re lack of knowledge about the Ragnarok Online storyline will prevent you from enjoying Ragnarok Tactics, you have no reason to worry because while Ragnarok Tactics takes place in the same universe as the MMO, no previous knowledge about the story is necessary, in fact there seemed to be zero mention of what may have occurred in the MMO at any point.
As for Ragnarok Tactics, players can create a character however they wish and then enter into the story mode. The player is a 17 year old member of the Toren Militia, a group of fighters who assist whoever needs help at any given time. The leader of the militia and yourself have been asked to slay some powerful monsters in the area and on the way to slay these creatures, you meet up with a Lord Knight of the Aura Republic and a High Wizard of the Branshaldo Empire. The four of you choose to help one another out in slaying these beasts and eventually part ways once the mission has been accomplished.
However the fragile peace in the nation is shattered when the king of the Brandshaldo Empire passes away, causing the Aura Republic to move on the weakened nation in an attempt to wipe them off the Grantria Peninsula and conquer the land for themselves. Being a member of the militia, the player is given the chance to choose between helping these two nations or simply sticking with the Toren Militia.
Ragnarok Tactics offers a stunning amount of replay value for a SRPG as players are often presented with multiple choices which will change their affiliations with different countries and even earn or lose you allies. There are three clearly defined routes that the player can take but actually five different endings to help spice things up and depending on who you side with, the storyline can differ greatly from what another player may experience.
However if you are concerned that you will be forced to play through the game five times to see all of the different endings then you will be interested to hear that Ragnarok Tactics features a special mechanic known as AIZ. Once you have finished the game once, the AIZ system will allow players to explore a different part of the game’s storyline by allowing them to venture backwards in the story to an already completed chapter and allow them to make different decisions.
One thing that makes AIZ even more interesting is the fact that their player stats, weapons and levels will be transferred as well, which may give you a temporary edge in combat depending on how far you’ve jumped back in the story. In fact, the AIZ system helps provide a more open experience than one would think, thanks to the fact that there are a number of sub-events that can be explored which, while not tied directly to the game’s storyline, are interesting to explore and a nice diversion from the main story paths.
Visuals & Audio: Ragnarok Tactics’ visual aesthetics vary greatly depending what you are looking at within the game. To be a bit more specific, each of the character’s related to the game’s storyline have been given beautifully hand drawn portraits with a variety of different expressions and poses that match the dialogue and the various backgrounds to these story segments and the battlefields have been given an extensive level of detail and are gorgeous.
However the same cannot be said for most of the combat character models. While it is nice that every enemy within the game and the appearance of the various classes within the title match those from Ragnarok Online, the models are often presented in low-quality and have jagged edges which really show the game’s age and PSP limitations.
It is worth noting that Aksys Games has provided a little bit of an English dub which will play during the intro sequence, but for the most part this game has been given zero voice work outside of a little bit of Japanese voice work in combat sequences and skill usage. As far as background music goes, Ragnarok Tactics has suitable enough music which fits the setting well and helps make some of the longer battles less tedious.
Gameplay: Nearly all of Ragnarok Tactics’ gameplay involves the combat sequences where players will have to face off against a number of enemies on a gridded field and usually have to defeat them all without letting their main character die or any number of storyline specific characters that are described in the Loss conditions. The game is rather standard in most regards as the player will have to wait till a party member’s turn to move them or attack with them, though interestingly enough the player can choose to have an ally attack an enemy, then move away from them after the attack.
That being said, the fights in Ragnarok Tactics can tend to drag on for a long period of time and this is mostly thanks to the fact that the enemy AI always plays on the defensive and reacts to your actions. While this may seem intelligent, it feels cheap at times as the enemies in this game will usually only move once you have moved within range of their attacks, nearly always allowing the enemy to gain a first strike.
This means that players will often need to inch forward along the battlefield to avoid being overtaken by more than one enemy at a time, because thanks to some rather hard hitting foes, being attacked by two enemies at the same time often means a death sentence for that character. However it is worth noting that there is no permanent death in this title, which means you can use some of your side-characters to draw an enemy in and then pile onto said enemy with the rest of your party.
There are a few things that help set Ragnarok Tactics apart from your everyday SRPG and these are the Burst Attack and Overdrive moves. The Burst Attack allows fighters to attack an opponent with other allies in range, allowing up to four of their allies to deal large amounts of damage to one opponent in a single turn. The other is Overdrive which allows one character to use up to four different skills in a row and if you happen to use specific skills in a certain order, you can unleash a devastating super move. These combinations can often be found by talking to townspeople or through experimentation.
Outside of combat there are a number of areas that players can customize their party and herein lie a number of references fans of Ragnarok Online will appreciate. Every class in Ragnarok Tactics (a few are locked during your first playthrough) is named after one in the MMO and features a number of the same skills (a few names have been changed however) that these classes would have in the MMO. Players can also equip a number of different weapons, armor and hats to improve their stats and even equip a number of Cards which will provide other bonuses such as higher stats, more damage with certain elements and more.
To pad out the game’s roster player will be able to hire mercenaries for a onetime fee and select whichever class they require at the time, which certainly helps the game’s difficulty out as a number of ranged classes will benefit when mixed in with pure melee fighters as they counteract the game’s reactionary AI.
That being said, Ragnarok Tactics is a game that feels like it simply assumes the player has a large amount of time on their hands. As mentioned before, the reactionary AI and slow-paced battle with unskippable attack and move sequences mean fights can take upwards of twenty minutes at times and if you happen to lose, you must start all over. It is also worth noting grinding levels can sometimes be a necessity simply to advance in the game as players must fight against opponents that show no mercy and deal large amounts of damage to those who are unprepared.
Overall: Ragnarok Tactics takes a well-known formula and provides a decent SRPG experience with a number of unique features to keep things fresh for fans of the genre and plenty of monsters, classes and skills that should be instantly recognizable for fans of Ragnarok Online. That being said, while the game’s interesting and branching storyline and well-implemented use of the AIZ system may help drive the player forward through the game’s numerous battles, they can become very tedious at times and almost boring with what may be the slowest battle sequences I’ve seen in the genre.
The statement seems obvious at first glance. Of course you don’t need violence to have a successful video game, what is this guy on about? Well the fact is in today’s industry it’s pretty damn hard to go without it.
The current audience for our form of interactive media focus on these video games the most. Games where you play the lone hero or the great commander are standards. Take a look at your local gaming selection and you’ll see this in effect, with a huge number of titles revolving around killing, injuring or maiming the enemy that you’re presented with. These titles exist because the genre is as popular as it has ever been, with developers and publishers flocking to them because that is where all the money goes. Shooting people in the face has become the new icon for a good video game and that is not what the medium is all about.
Most would argue that it is the adrenaline that so draws people to violence. That endorphin rush one experiences when they best a foe in an epic battle to the death. Knowing that you’re better than the other person because you were the one who came out on top. But this adrenaline can be found in other games too. Games where you don’t have to blow someone’s brain half up a wall and don’t merely focus on the blood and gore.
Violence has become the new crutch of lazy ideas. Developers seem to think that by adding in constant slow-mo breaches or obligatory meaningless turret sections they will instantly make the game better. Instead of focusing on bringing the whole package together and tying it all up nicely with great features, why not just add more killing? Because hey, if gamers like a little bit of it, why not add a whole lot and just forget about anything else.
One particular section in Medal of Honor: Warfighter comes to mind when considering such a perspective. You’re placed on a helicopters side-turret and ordered to basically mow down retreating Al-Qaeda soldiers as they run into the hills. As I started to do this I got a pretty uneasy feeling about whether or not this was right and whether I shouldn’t just leave them be. To which my pilot basically responded, “Woo! Yeah! Kill those sons of bitches! Go America!” It was like the game was telling me, you like killing people right? Well here you go! Defenceless enemy terrorists to slaughter! Do you like me yet?
Maybe I’ve been too spoilt by games like Spec Ops: The Line but in the ever evolving industry we have today do these things really seem that acceptable?
The latest SSX is one game that comes to mind when thinking of a well put-together, appealing and most importantly fun game that doesn’t reward a player for unnecessary violence. An incredibly designed snowboarding game that allows the player to pull off ridiculously impossible gravity-defying tricks in the air, SSX is a success because it brings everything together. It doesn’t just rely on one thing to get players through the entire experience. With an amazing soundtrack, various environments and ever changing gameplay; the title does far more than simply putting you through a shooting gallery. And that adrenaline rush gamers seem to crave these days from exploding cars, buildings falling down and baddies getting what they deserve is in here to. Try boarding downMount Everest at break-neck speeds, dodging trees and rocks in a quick dance of turns and twists or wing-suiting off some of the highest mountains in the world and tell me you don’t feel that rush.
Journey also features little to no violence in the entirety of the game. While there are these flying snakes that can pick you up and drop you again, it is because of the art design and music that this affects us. Not the simple act of the snake. By effectively combining touching musical scores, stunning art design and character development (partly seen in the scarf) this downloadable title demonstrates how a non-violent video game can still fuel player emotions. In contrast to SSX however, Journey plays less with our adrenaline and more with our base emotions, happiness, sadness, anger and regret. Powerful tools in the arsenal of any title and tools which current-gen developers ought to sit up and begin to make more use of.
Violence isn’t bad, it just doesn’t make a game like so many seem to think. Including excess violence is not an excuse for lazy design choices, no matter how many waves of enemies you throw at the player. I thoroughly enjoy violent video games; in fact just like what you’ll see in your local gaming section, the majority of games I own are violent. It’s just that this should not be relied upon to carry your game, nor should it be the game’s sole driving force.
The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of good games are ones in which you kill, steal and generally partake in acts that would be considered questionable in today’s society. Maybe this is because we as people cannot do them in real life. Maybe it is for that kick of adrenaline we gamers love so much. Or maybe it is merely because that is where all the profit can be made and so this is why we see so many “COD Clones”. Regardless, violence in video games existed shortly after its creation and I have no problem with it, no problem at all. Developers and publishers just need to realise however that violence does not automatically equal a good game. At the moment the consensus it that if we add in the ability to shoot someone in the head our game will probably sell well; however just doing this does not add up to the best player experience one can provide.
When we start to realise this, the medium will be able to more easily move forward and we can get back to what makes it so great, namely all the different ideas that make gaming so diverse!
Swipe The Deck Developer: Enders Fund Publisher:Chillingo Platforms: iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch Release Date: November 8, 2012 Price: Free for a limited time – Available Here
Overview
You know that feeling you get when walk into the gambling section of a pub and it smells like dead dreams? Well I do because I don’t gamble on the pokies, I despise them, but each to their own. So that’s one way you could describe the initial impression of Swipe The Deck, it’s a quick turn around sort of game, simple but fun and it will please Poker fans all around. I’m a fan of poker myself, so simply looking through a deck of cards for combinations is pretty neat, but ultimately quite limiting in it’s depth. As a result, you have a game that doesn’t try to do anything special, it throws in multi-player and a few power ups to spice things up. But essentially it’s a straightforward affair, you swipe combinations on a deck of cards, it is what it is.
Visuals and Audio
You can’t really expect much, right? The loading screens pretty cool though, the poker chips bounces across three cards as you wait, nice! I don’t particularly understand the icon of the game or the crazy king, since it doesn’t fit in with the generic theme, but whatever makes it more interesting I suppose. You got the standard colour scheme of poker, some nice bevels on the cards and funky animations across menu transitions. Other than that, it’s essentially a standard gambling game, you could walk into a pub and get the same thing there. But you’re not exactly playing a poker game for graphics, Swipe The Deck does a good job for what it is. Let’s not forget the games sound effects, which unsurprisingly are pretty average. It’s a similar affair, it sounds like a pokie machine room every time you get a combination. There’s an announcer everytime you score a hand, just imagine “PAIR!!”, “FLUSH!” then the sound of a slot machine. Can you see my issue with this? It can become fairly annoying, as such, I turned the sound off after awhile.
Gameplay
Swipe the deck, it literally explains itself, but I will do it for you dear reader (if there is any). So you swipe on the combination of cards (well it’s more like a drag), like a flush for example, which is five of the same suit for the poker newbs out there. I may have tunnel vision, but alot of the hands I swiped were flushes, I’d say almost half were. You have two minutes to get as many combinations as possible, try to get the highest score, the more difficult the hand the higher the score. Ground breaking stuff right? In all seriousness though, it’s simple time-wasting fun and power ups add a little extra to the mix. Race against the clock! It essentially comes down to being a frantic matching game, so it’s not strategy in the same way poker is, but it does play on your ability to observe quickly.
Power ups are things like adding an extra 15 seconds to the round, resetting the board of cards, revealing 3 high value hands, multipliers and swapping the location of cards. There’s also “wild cards” which are any card according to what it sits beside and also premium power ups, which you unlock in the store. Last time I checked, putting monetization into a game shouldn’t kill the balance or fairness in multiplayer, well this sort of does if you’re willing to pay. I don’t approve, and I don’t think most players would, but they’ve got to make money somehow right? As far as multi-player goes, you’ve got the standard facebook integration and random opponents incase you’re a virtual nigel (no offense)
Overall
Swipe the Deck, or as we’ve joked previously, replace the E in Deck with an I and the game sounds alot more entertaining/amusing. You basically have a game that doesn’t try to do anything special as I’ve mentioned before and you can’t really mess up a card-game. Poker or anything to do with poker is an old past-time and Swipe the deck is one of those games where you think “Why hasn’t someone done this before?”. It also throws in multi-player, but other than that I can’t really justify saying it’s anything great, it has a limited life to it. But if you like a decent spin-off game and enjoy poker, go for it.
Or who knows, maybe you did ask for it? Well, either way, Sony has chosen that the next step for the Uncharted franchise is a card based game for the PlayStation Vita. Now don’t worry too heavily over this one, as it is not a full retail title. To be a bit more specific, Sony Bend revealed today that Uncharted: Fight for Fortune will be released as a digital download on December 4th for a price tag of only $4.99.
