Earlier today, the folks over at KontrolFreek revealed a brand new addition to their FPS Freek line-up! Centered around the release of the upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the FPS Freek Havoc features a matte black thumb surface made from a specially-formulated rubber and also the concave thumb rest sports an original laser-etched design depicting a skull and biohazard symbol.
The FPS Havoc is designed to give gamers complete command of the battlefield, making aiming and pop-shotting much easier during intense multiplayer battles. Havoc is perfect for your right or left thumbstick and is optimized for medium to long-range armaments using weapons like the MSMC and SVU-AS
Asish Mistry, the President and CEO of KontrolFreek had the following to say on the FPS Havoc:
“As a company that’s focused on elevating the personal gaming experience, we are energized by the upcoming release of Black Ops II. It’s undoubtedly one of the biggest and most-anticipated game titles of 2012,” said Ashish Mistry, President and CEO of KontrolFreek. We set out to create a KontrolFreek product that’s true to the spirit of CoD while delivering the game-changing performance and competitive advantage associated with KontrolFreek products.”
You can purchase the FPS Havoc right now over at KontrolFreek’s official website.
Ubisoft has released the final piece of the marketing puzzle for Assassin’s Creed III. The launch trailer is here and the game will soon be making its merry way to players at the end of the month; either on 30th October for the US or 31st October for the UK.
Although it doesn’t offer up a whole lot in the way of new gameplay footage, the trailer is well finished, managing to show most aspects of the game with only 1:32 on the clock. Perhaps at this late stage, it’s best they don’t reveal anything new anyway, to leave something for the players to uncover when they get their hands on it.
Ever thought that your iPad is just too clunky or safe from being smashed to pieces by an errant strand of hair? Well then Apple has something new that may be right up your alley. Today Apple has revealed that they are planning on releasing the iPad Mini on November 2nd with a 16GB version for $329 and 3G Versions going on sale two weeks later.
As for the iPad Mini itself, it will be 7.2mm thick and only weigh .68 pounds. According to Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller the iPad mini will be “as light as a pad of paper.” The screen itself will be 7.9″ diagonally while the current iPad’s screen is 9.7″ and it will also feature the same resolution of basic iPad 2 screens.
Do you remember that a Family Guy game was being developed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Well it is alright if you happened to forget considering the fact that the title hasn’t had a solid release date for quite some time and little publicity.
Well today Activision thought that, considering the game’s release date is apparently a month away, they may as well announce it. Through a basic Facebook announcement the company revealed that Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse will hit stores in North America on November 20th while gamers in Europe will be able to play it on November 23rd.
To go along with this announcement, the company also released a small batch of screenshots showing off the game’s competitive co-op gameplay modes which can be seen below.
Today it has been revealed that Square Enix will be the first company to enter into a licensing agreement with Epic Games for Unreal Engine 4. Today it was revealed by Epic Games that the company acquired the rights to use the engine in a “long-term” deal which will span multiple games.
Taka Kawasaki, Epic Games’ Japan Territory Manager has said that “Epic has a strong relationship with Square Enix, and it’s an honor to provide their creative and technical talent with the best game technology available for licensing. We look forward to supporting their developers with world-class tools for years to come.” It is highly likely that we will not see an Unreal Engine 4 game from Square Enix in at least a few years at this point, but it certainly opens the door to a lot of future possibilities.
If you happen to visit Dead Island: Riptide’s official website then you may notice that there has been a new update that reveals that shows a fifth playable character. Currently Deep Silver is keeping the character’s name and full appearance under wraps, but we do have the character outline which you can see above.
It is worth noting that Riptide is not a sequel to the original Dead Island, but more of a spin-off title that will introduce a few new gameplay aspects and a new story that the four original characters, and the yet to be introduced fifth character, will have to survive.
Forza Horizon Developer: Turn10 Studios Publisher: Microsoft Studios Platform: Xbox 360 Release Date: 23rd October, 2012 Price:$59.96 – Available Here
Overview:
The Forza Motorsport franchise made a name for itself for it’s realistic racing experience and accessible control scheme that allowed anyone to be able to pick up and play with ease. After four iterations of the Forza Motorsport series with only middling differences and advances between them Turn10 Studios were placed in a difficult position. Do they continue with the successful formula or do they roll the dice and try something new? Forza Horizon is the result of Turn10 choosing the latter option.
Forza Horizon itself marks a radical departure from formula and takes the Forza franchise to places never dreamed of. In the process of such a vast and full-frontal change, replacing menu after menu with an open world to explore, introducing creative race types and level design, Forza Horizon becomes a beast all of it’s own, redefining what we have come to know of the Forza franchise.
Gameplay:
What Turn10 Studios have done with Forza Horizon is nothing short of brilliant. They have taken the addictive gameplay of the Forza Motorsport series and mixed it with shades of Burnout and Outrun to great success. The result of which is a open-world racing game with an arcade racer feel with infectious gameplay to boot. I know that it might sound somewhat contradictory for it to feel like an arcade racer although it is set within an open-world but Turn10 have struck the perfect balance between exploration and enthralling racing fun.
The centerpiece of Forza Horizon is without a doubt it’s single player mode which of course places you within the games immense open-world. Set within Colorado, Forza Horizon’s Horizon Festival and the land upon which it takes place is without a doubt one of the best worlds conceived within a racing game. The world moves along, even without your paying attention, rival cars drive by heading to their own destinations, day turns to night, planes take flight and people live, laugh and cry. The world lives and breathes in Forza Horizon and that in and of itself is an impressive feat that I do not see being replicated anytime soon. It has it’s own distinctive personality and makes cruising around through this vast environment a pure delight with discoveries at every corner.
Single player mode plays fairly simply, placing you into the open-world and leading you from race to race, with more becoming available to you as you advance through races and become more renowned. In keeping with the living world of the Horizon Festival, the more popular you become the more enemies you make with many rival racers wanting to shut you down just when you are building up some steam. Some of the rivals offer to challenge you, even willing to put their car on the line. This is one of the many ways in which to unlock more cars. Seeing the cars themselves presented before you with the challenge of defeating them and the well developed personalities behind the wheel, there is indeed a big incentive to collect cars and develop as a racer. My favourite thing about rivals in the game however is the way in which Horizon goes the extra mile with developing characters that you genuinely want to defeat. Some of the rivals you encounter (main rivals as I prefer to call them) are fully voiced and will make radio appearances to slander you and ultimately challenge you, they each have their own distinct look and personality making it all the more fun to take them down.
Other than your rivals there is also a variety of other characters throughout the games story mode such as the lovely Alice who serves as your ‘assistant’ if you will as well as your love interest and number 1 supporter. She speaks to you through a large portion of the game as well as helps you out in general. Besides Alice you also have Dak the mechanic who does most of the work on your cars and the radio host that remarkably never seems to repeat himself. I was stunned by how deep and comprehensive the radio feature was in this game, you have 3 main stations covering several genres mainly rock, pop and dance. But that’s not the impressive part, what impressed me most is how real it feels. You have banter between the host and his plethora of guests as well as comments upon how the festival is progressing and even mention of highly specific details of your own personal advancement which left me wowed by the amount of detail that has been put into what most would consider an afterthought of a feature.
The core gameplay in Horizon is essentially no different than previous Forza games, you still can play the entire game with simply the triggers and analogue stick which makes it so incredibly accessible to casual gamers. This control scheme is a trend that Forza started and defined which now has been picked up by many of racing franchises. Forza really is the leader in the racing genre in terms of innovation no doubt about that.
Overall the single player is the real focal point of the game itself and a lot of emphasis is put on progression and development. It works incredibly well because Forza paces itself in such a way that you just don’t want to put it down. You finish one race and suddenly 3 more pop up for you to partake in, there is really no down time and that is only to Forza Horizon’s advantage. You just want to keep on racing, it’s truly infectious gameplay at it’s best.
In terms of multiplayer, Forza Horizon is great, but does suffer a few minor issues that may be patched in the future but at time of publishing were still found in the multiplayer portion of the game. First of all there is an issue with collision detection in the online multiplayer, when a large amount of vehicles collide I found the game do something perculiar which had me glitch through other vehicles and spin out of control. It was very odd and did halt the experience signifcantly. Fortunately though this problem was not at all common and the game experience overall is addictive and straight up enjoyable. I struggled to put the multiplayer down and head back into the single player simply because its just that fun. My only other gripe with the multiplayer is that split-screen multiplayer seems to be gone from the Forza franchise now which I find to be rather disappointing as Forza was always a great split-screen couch play experience. Unfortunately Turn10 decided against the feature for Horizon, which is disappointing to say the least.
All in all both single player and multiplayer modes both provide a great deal of content to explore and experience in what has to be one of the most comprehensive racing games ever made. There is just so very much to do here and there has been a lot of detail put into making things feel like they never stop moving. The Horizon Festival lives and breathes and that is what makes this game truly an experience unlike any other.
Visuals and Audio:
Forza Horizon has taken the slick and pure look of previous Forza titles and turned them on their head instead opting for more flamboyant and expressive aesthetics. The setting of Colorado is captured in all it’s majesty alongside the colourful pizzazz of the Horizon Festival itself. Visually it is just a pleasure to watch, let alone play. The incredible amount of detail is a sight to behold, with truly realistic car designs and environments.
If that’s not enough, the game features an epic soundtrack with a wealth of variety in terms of genre and musicians. Whether you are a fan of rock, pop or dance music, Forza Horizon has you covered and gives you the option to switch between the soundtracks with the radio feature. I particularly enjoyed the rock soundtrack personally which featured great songs from bands such as The Arctic Monkeys and You Me At Six. Besides the soundtrack, the game features a plethora of realistic sound effects that add a great deal to the overall experience and keep you heavily immersed in the games world.
Overall:
Horizon is a game that feels radically different to what we have come to know and expect from the Forza franchise. This however is not even close to a bad thing. The game marks a decidedly different route for the franchise and admittedly a route that needed to be taken to prevent Forza from becoming too stagnant. Horizon is a pleasure to play and is easily one of the best racing games to grace consoles this generation. Whether you are a Forza fan or just a racing fan in general Forza Horizon is a game that must be experienced. Turn10 Studios have truly done wonders here and all it took was a little broadening of horizons.
Worms Revolution has been released, and you can find Capsule Computer’s own review HERE, but that doesn’t mean that the game has to get stale. One way to make sure that the game keeps fresh and fun is to add more content for players to access and enjoy, which is exactly Team 17’s plan with the newest DLC coming out for the game on Wednesday.
Being released for Xbox 360 through XBLA, PS3 through PSN, and PC through Steam, the Funfair Pack DLC adds a new theme to the wacky Worms combat. With 5 new single-player puzzle missions, 4 new weapons to utilize against your foes, new customization options to match the Funfair theme, and the return of Matt Berry as Don Keystone, the narrator for the single-player puzzles.
Priced at 400 MS Points for Xbox 360, $4.99 (£3.19 / €3.99) for PS3, or $4.99 (£3.99 / €4.99) for PC, players can download the new Worms Revolution Funfair Pack DLC tomorrow, Wednesday October 24th. Be sure to also check out the screenshots of some of the new features in the gallery below to get a look at what’s coming.
Linebarrels Of Iron Complete Collection Studio: Gonzo Publisher: Madman Format:DVD Release Date: Out Now Price:$59.95 (Buy Here)
Overview
Linebarrels Of Iron is a Mecha Anime that follows the organisation JUDA in their war against the initially evil KATO organisation. However, the show is a horrible mess that you absolutely have to see to believe. I’m a hardcore Mecha Anime fan (so far of one that I call them Super Robot Anime) and even I couldn’t cope with this show. Read on to find out why.
Story
If only this was your typical Mecha Anime, then it might have actually had a decent storyline. What you will observe from this shows story is that it is anything but. I mean really, it is the most contrived, nonsensical and annoying story you will ever participate in watching.
Of course, you will only come to realise this if you happen to survive the the first disc of this series. I mean really, who in their right state of mind directs such an awful opening set of episodes to a new series? Who!? Who does that!? Really!? Most Anime fans have a three episode rule when picking up a new series and I think that those that do will drop this at the end of the first episode. Even though the series does pick up slightly after these first 5 horrible episodes of horribleness, the first few really will turn people off. I was tempted to write this review after watching only the first two episodes. Luckily I didn’t, but if you didn’t enjoy the first few episodes, do not bother watching this.
What’s interestingly bad about this series plotting is that it doesn’t really appear to have any. One minute it’s a highschool melodrama with mechs in it and then the next it’s an Evangelion clone. Even after that it suddenly changes the plot again and then there’s people changing sides all of a sudden and enemies are becoming allies and there are info dumps everywhere to make sure the viewer is keeping up. While I was able to keep up with the show and was able to follow it fully, it is just so completely stupid and cliched that it almost falls onto parody territory. In fact, I would have preferred it if this -was- a parody. It isn’t though.
Oh yeah, by the way, this is a harem Anime. No, this is THE harem Anime. I swear, the only way they could have made it more clear that every female wanted the main characters penis was if one of the main female cast explicitly stated that she did. The problem with this is that the main character himself exhibits no admirable male traits at all. At least Golgo looks manly, this character has absolutely nothing going for him, personality and vanity wise. I mean, it’s hard to believe any woman wants you when your only trait is being almost as horrible as Shinji.
Visuals
This show is plainer than plain with more plain on top. This show is like eating only salt visually. In fact, I’d go so far as to even say that shoving salt in ones own eyes would make for a much more pleasurable viewing experience.
Let’s take a look at the components of this show visually, shall we? First, we have the Mecha designs. Now to be fair, the Mechs (Machina) actually have a pretty cool design behind them. However, when they are displayed in the show, it is only as a primitive 3D model that look incredibly horrible. This is even worse when you combine it with the next point.
The next point is that even when displayed on a low res setup, the show is an incredibly blurry mess. This is especially true when the Mecha are in combat and are moving everywhere. I am incredibly glad the Anime industry is moving away from 3D models, but this is definitely a products of it’s time. I’m not entirely sure why this show was so blurry, even when playing at the native resolution for DvDs, it was just bad.
The character designs in this look like they were lifted from other more preferable characters from other shows. For instance, there is this one character that looks like Kato from Gantz. He even behaves like a simplified version of him at times. The only exception to this rule are the female characters, who look like every other female character from every other show. The villains are kind of cool, but they just seem to have taken stereotypes from around the world and stuck them in the same room. Ever wanted to see Dracula in the same room as a Cowboy? Watch this show.
Audio
The audio in Linebarrels Of Iron are its strongest point. Right from the get go you realise the superiority of the opening theme rendered by the incredibly beautiful ALI PROJECT group. The first ending theme is equally as awesome and having these two traits is usually enough to sell me on a series. The second ending was pretty average, but the first ending was ultimately beautiful.
What was really cool about the audio in this show was that they reused variations on these same themes which added a greater sense of beauty to overall soundtrack. Hearing the opening theme played entirely on orchestral instruments sounds amazing in some of the later scenes in the show.
However, that is about where the audios greatness ends. After you take into account the awesome themes and insert songs, all that you’re left to consider are the shows horrible dubs (both English and Japanese) and the equally horrible audio work. This is something that confused me as a viewer because somebody in the audio department had to have known what they were doing to have selected such incredible insert songs and themes. How did a lack of quality even manage to get in there at all, let alone stick for an entire series?
One last thing you’re going to hate about this series is the entire casts obsession with the phrase “Hero of Justice”. Seriously, I kept a counter going for whenever that phrase was uttered in the show and it eventually broke. So I’m assuming the counter ended somewhere at a count of around ~9001. This is especially prevalent in the earlier episodes, but it does linger throughout. I think the least amount of times it was spoken in an episode was around 10 times.
Extras
I think that whomever was responsible for packaging the DVD release had to have known that this show wasn’t worth the value solo. So they’ve filled this to the brim with Special Features. There’s a massive list here and some of them are actually pretty impressive to watch (in particular the music video, *drools*). The following is a list of all Special Features:
Commentary
Promotional Video
Japanese TV Spots
Music Video
Textless Opening and Closing
Magazine Illustration Art Gallery
Madman Trailers
There is also an additional OVA disc which contains a further two episodes. It’s an interesting watch.
Overall
Overall I’d have to say that this show is only worth watching in the same way that watching a house explode would. It’s an incredibly horrible mess that might end up hurting you somehow, but yet, it’s just so horrific that you can’t look away. You have to keep watching, keeping an eye on the horrible mess unfolding before your eyes. Watch with booze and buddies that love dubbing over a show.
The Walking Dead: Long Road Ahead Publisher:Telltale Games Developer: Telltale Games Platform: PC, Mac, PSN, XBLA (Reviewed) Release Date: August 29, 2012 Price:$4.99 – Available Here
Overview: Very few games can derive an emotional response from players and even fewer titles can make a gamer actually care about the characters in the game. Now while full retail titles may struggle with these concepts, one episodic series has managed to accomplish this with only two episodes so far. I’m talking of course about Telltale’s The Walking Dead. We’ve already covered the first and second episodes of Lee’s journey, the reviews of which can be found here and here, but how does this third episode turn out? Let’s find out.
Story: After surviving the events at the dairy farm, Lee and the rest of the survivors have been raiding Macon in an effort to scrounge up any supplies that they can. However Macon is nearly picked clean and every time someone ventures into the town more zombies seem to appear and the stakes grow higher. With Kenny’s RV fixed up and ready to go at any time, the survivors are at a breaking point over whether they should stay or whether they should go.
With the group practically fractured at this point, all it takes is one more push to send everything into a downward spiral. When their meager supplies start mysteriously disappearing, Lily sets Lee on a mission to find out who is taking their supplies and what they are doing with them. However before a true culprit can be discovered, the group is forced to leave the hotel in a spectacular fashion. With tensions high and only a long road ahead of them, what will happen to Lee and Clementine now?
As anyone who played the last episode will remember, the story focused around the outside elements surrounding the group and the darkness of human hearts. This time around the focus of the storyline is set directly on the group itself and their interactions with one another as their situation becomes increasingly desperate.
Of course, player choice still plays a role in Episode 3 and gamers will encounter a number of difficult decisions and making a choice has never felt more difficult. While players may try to play with the best intentions of the group in mind, a number of difficult decisions will leave players hesitating, unsure of what to do next.
A number of few new characters are introduced this time around, a train riding hobo and a couple of young adults. While Chuck the hobo provides some sound advice, little is known about this man and even less is known about the couple as players are only given a short time to acclimate to their presence.
If you thought that any of the previous episodes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead had, for lack of a better term, What The F*** moments, then you haven’t seen anything yet as a number of occurrences throughout Episode 3 will leave the player’s jaw on the floor. Outside of these dramatic moments, there are still a few touching scenes with Lee and Clementine as the two’s bond deepens in the hellish world and plenty of moments that will throw the player’s emotions into turmoil.
It is worth noting that, like before; Episode 3 does leave off on a rather unexpected cliff hanger, though this time around gamers are left with more of a mystery than dread and worry. However it does provide a decent stopping point for the story and players will be eager to see the continuation of the story in Episode 4.
Visuals & Audio: Episode 3 of The Walking Dead has retained the same sharp visuals as the past two episodes, with the environment and the characters drawn in a stylized way that appears to be similar to comic book art. The newly introduced characters and returning characters are still designed impressively while anything involving killing zombies is just as brutal as before.
That being said, I encountered a number of performance issues while playing through episode three. In the middle of the episode I experienced a number of technical issues such as entire character models becoming invisible, though they can still be talked to and interacted with, and a few exploration areas where Lee would begin to rubberband while walking through certain areas.
As far as the voice acting goes, the same level of quality is presented in episode three as in past episodes with the each of the cast voiced well enough, while new characters presented this time around are also given skilled voice actors. The same can be said about the background music and atmospheric noise noise creating a perfect setting for the events as they unfold.
Gameplay: This episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead focuses more on exploration and talking with your fellow survivors than solving puzzles, though there are still a few included for those eager to solve things. That being said, nearly all of the puzzles you encounter are rather easy to solve, but outside of a few standard puzzles, they do help push the player towards solving a mystery which not only moves the plot forward but reveals some of the darker sides of the group.
It is worth noting that this episode does feature a shooting section where players will need to aim down the scope of a gun and shoot various enemies. The shooting in this mode is awkward at best as Lee apparently still hasn’t gotten the hang of aiming a gun, though the game does lend the player a hand with most shots simply having to be near an enemy to kill them, not a direct hit.
Zombies do play a larger role in this episode than they did in Episode 2, though the focus of the story is still on the survivors and their emotions. It is worth noting though that a lot of people may be a bit upset when they learn how some of their choices in past episodes will end up once the credits begin to role in Episode 3.
Overall: We’ve come to the middle of Lee and Clementine’s journey in this zombie filled world and the stakes have never felt as high as when you make your way through Episode 3. Though there are a number of technical issues which can bog down the experience, Episode 3’s stunning story will make gamers question their past decisions and with each episode as exciting as the next, Episode 3 will leave gamers concerned about what else could possibly happen to the group once Episode 4 rolls around.
