Raptr, the leading community of 15 million gamers has just released a research report that many game developers and publishers will find exceptionally interesting and informative. While we would expect players to be more drawn towards titles that provide more DLC and add-ons, the research highlights the importance a building trusted interactive relationships with every player in their community. Getting a customer to purchase your game is one thing but getting them to stay interested and keep replaying it is something that can be aided by more frequent communications and community programs. Raptr’s research shows a huge gap between customer uptake and retention, with a lack of focus on retaining the customer over a long time period rather than just an initial purchase.
“The games as a service era is here and it would be a big mistake to think that simply means ongoing game updates and metrics-based iterations,” said Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr. “Most publishers and developers tend to think of a robust community program as goodwill initiatives, but this data shows that it’s not just nice to have – it impacts the success of the game directly. Developers and publishers need to consider being player-first by design.”
By looking at gamers actual playing habits, a deeper understanding of their motives can be gauged and how community events can create a more dedicated base that plays more games (not sure if this is a good thing but anyway). Publishers and Developers who created more activities, mod tools (explains the popularity of COD hacking) and events such as eSports were much more successful at acquiring new players as well as bringing lost souls back to the fold.
Some key findings include
– Valves official mod tools for Portal 2 in conjunction with user generated content brought in 23 times the number of new users and 11 times the number of returning users.
– The popular DayZ mod for ArmA II brought in 14 times the number of new users and doubled reengagement figures with Bohemia Interactive reporting 40 times the sale figures
– Riot Games, League of Legends enjoys a 10% increase in new users after an eSports event
– OGPlanets use of the Raptr reward program increased Lost Saga play time by 185% and quadrupled daily activity.
– Perfect World’s use of Raptr for Blacklight: Retribution also quadrupled its activity.
Previously I had gotten a chance to interview Producer at Sumo Digital, the developers of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Steve Lycett in which we discussed the game and various other topics. It wasn’t until earlier today at the EB Expo did I get a chance to finally get my hands behind the wheel on this game.
SEGA had a very humble booth set up with a multitude of consoles set up each playing their respective version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. I took the time to try out all of the versions available to me, including the Wii U version and found myself actually coming back for more.
This is truly a title that surprised me. Now while it at first appears to simply be Mario Kart with SEGA characters, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is an incredibly unique take on the racing genre that has become somewhat stagnant in recent times with Mario Kart holding a monopoly over the non-realistic racing games and F-Zero falling off the face of the planet.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is distinctive for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is the transforming gameplay and environments, that indeed adds more layers of difficulty than I thought possible in a game of this type. During the third lap of the level that had on display, suddenly and abruptly the ground falls away and sinks into the sea below. Fortunately for you though, you have a transforming vehicle which becomes a hover-craft upon water (it can also become a plane within the air). It’s a really interesting concept that works very well, with each vehicle type feeling very distinctive from one another and featuring their own challenges to the player.
The game itself features a large variety of characters, both the extensive cast of Sonic and SEGA’s huge backlog of other series’ characters are represented here. If you ever wanted to race against Sonic as Crazy Taxi, well now is your chance, because Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed can make it happen.
The Wii U version of the game is perhaps the most interesting due to the fact that it utilises the Gamepad in a few different interesting ways. The first of all is the standard map for you to look at every now and then, but SEGA goes one step further and includes a rear view mirror which is honestly a nice touch. Also there is an option to move the game entirely to the Gamepad. This option wasn’t available on our demo of due to the fact we were running on a Wii U dev-kit.
All in all, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a wildly infectious racing game that focuses greatly on speed and excitement instead of tactics and strategy. This is not a bad thing, because it takes away a lot of the thinking and leaves plenty of room for tense and addictive fun.
Last year Rayman Origins changed the face of the platforming genre by giving it a much needed shot in the arm both creatively and aesthetically. So how does one follow up such a critically acclaimed title as Rayman Origins? What does one improve upon in a game that was damn near flawless? Well the answer is quite simple, you don’t improve upon it, you expand upon it.
Rayman Legends takes everything Origins did and turns it up to eleven. We had the origin of a Rayman, his ‘rebirthing’ if you will. Now we have him solidifying his legend as a deadset platforming hero.
So what’s new with Rayman Legends? Well it marks first Rayman’s legendary and exclusive adventure on the Wii U and introduces a lot of new gameplay elements that push the boundaries of what we know as platforming gaming as a whole. I mentioned that instead of improving upon Origins, Legends chooses to expand upon it. Now this expansion of the Rayman universe and gameplay honestly could not be possible without the ingenuity of the Wii U console itself.
The Wii U Gamepad plays a large part in co-op gameplay in Rayman Legends, with players using the gamepad taking control of the fairy-like character named Murfy. You may think that this role is not as important as the role’s of those playing as Rayman and his trusty companion Globox, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In Rayman Legends, Murfy is of great use in co-operative play due to his ability to effect the environment in which Rayman and Globox are traversing. For example, with a simple swipe on the Gamepad’s touch pad Henry can cut a rope, which will drop a platform for Rayman and Globox to jump upon, thus allowing them to move from one area to the next. Murfy is also important in the combat against swarms of enemies, of which he can provide assistance and protection to Rayman and Globox.
It’s easy to think that playing as Murfy would not be as enjoyable as platforming as Rayman himself, but this couldn’t be further from the truth, there is just something so pure and primal about providing aid to your friends co-operatively in this way and it never once stops being fun. It was really a shock to me personally because in the past similar gameplay elements in other games end up falling flat and leaving one player feeling left out. However in Rayman Legends the player controlling Murfy feels just as involved as those platforming through the level itself.
Besides the Gamepad gameplay, there is of course the tight, challenging and addictive platforming gameplay that captured our imaginations last year in Rayman Origins, returning once again here in full force. A particularly epic moment of the demo we played was a part in which you were required to time you jumps and actions with the music playing. It was a great moment to end an overall great experience on.
Aesthetically not much has changed but the visual presentation overall feels much more refined and defined than Origins and there does not seem to be a single ounce of creative flair lost in this sequel.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Rayman Legends was one of the best Wii U titles I got my hands on today and I can not wait to get my eager hands on the full game. I can sum up my entire experience with Rayman Legends quite simply, it was legend-wait for it…-dary!
Deadman Wonderland: The Complete Series Studio:Manglobe Publisher:FUNimation Format:DVD Release Date:October 9, 2012 Price:$64.98 – Available Here
Overview: For quite some time now, watching an anime on television without purchasing any special channel or the complete series has been something of a dream. In fact, many anime fans would be hard pressed to find any show created within the last seven years on television. However that all changed when Toonami came back on the air in North America and one show debuted as its hit program. That show happened to be Deadman Wonderland.
Originally created back in 2007 as a manga, the series was given its first anime adaptation in the middle of 2011. Now that this rather gruesome show has finished airing on television however, FUNimation has seen fit to release the complete series in all its uncensored glory with a slew of extras. However, is Deadman Wonderland worth visiting?
Story: Ten years after a massive earthquake occurred in Tokyo, we follow a normal middle school boy called Ganta Igarashi as he goes to class with his friends like any other day. However his happy life is interrupted when a strange person in strange armor and a crimson cape appears outside of his classroom window. This “Red Man” as it is called suddenly bursts into the room and slaughters the entire class, brutally ripping apart every one of Ganta’s friends and classmates.
However rather than killing Ganta, the Red Man plants a red crystal in his chest, forcing the youth to pass out. In the days following the massacre, Ganta is blamed for the mass murder of his classmates and he is quickly sentenced to death row after a mysteriously unfair trial. Unfortunately for Ganta, a special prison has been created in Tokyo to hold every criminal possible. A prison called Deadman Wonderland.
Deadman Wonderland is far more than a standard prison though, it was created as both an attraction for tourists as well as a place to hold prisoners. Normal people can visit the prison and ride various theme park rides, interact with cartoonish characters, and watch events performed by the people in Deadman Wonderland. However everyone within the walls of Deadman Wonderland is a prisoner and these events are far more than meets the eye as brutal death awaits anyone who steps out of line.
After being thrown into this hellish prison, Ganta must not only survive a place where the worst criminals in the nation have been placed, but also the horrible plans of the powers that run the prison which have quickly taken an interest in the young man. While Ganta quickly finds a strange and childish friend who is as mysterious as she is skilled, he is quickly thrown into a realm of avarice and murder. With a mysterious power dwelling rising within him, death around every corner and mysterious machinations in the works, can Ganta stay alive long enough to confront the Red Man? Or are more sinister things in store for this young man once he discovers the truth of Deadman Wonderland?
Deadman Wonderland forgoes long build-ups to events and quickly throws the viewer right into the thick of things by immediately presenting a brutal scenario and escalating it further as each episode progresses. Rather than focus on building up characters, Deadman Wonderland provides a story driven plot with Ganta and the side characters mostly reacting to the events occurring around them.
Unfortunately, this only works partially thanks to the fact that the main characters themselves are rather lackluster or given little explanation or backstory. Outside of Ganta and his slow growth from a whining boy to one that will stop at nothing to try and protect his friends, the rest of the cast is given barely any character development in the slightest. Instead, the few side-characters that do receive focus are given a few flashbacks here and there to their past lives and what landed them in Deadman Wonderland.
While some growth is hinted at, most side-characters play only a small part the story as a whole, often vanishing for a number episodes inexplicably. It is worth noting that Deadman Wonderland does redeem itself by providing plenty of mystery with its storyline and offering a slow build up to each truth that is revealed.
It is worth noting that Deadman Wonderland was adapted from an ongoing manga, so there are still plenty of unanswered questions left for the viewer by the time the last episode finishes. This does leave the ending open for another adaptation but also will leave the viewer feeling dissatisfied with the amount of mysteries still unanswered.
Visuals: While this release of Deadman Wonderland is the fully uncensored version of the show, there are still a few segments of gore that are blacked out simply due to the grotesque nature of the wounds, limb tearing, decapitations and more that sometimes occur within Deadman Wonderland. The series itself is horrifically bloody and most of the death is uncensored, including people being sliced into pieces, electrified to death and more.
Outside of that, the series implements some nice visual effects throughout most of the combat sequences, especially when you consider the fact that nearly all battles in Deadman Wonderland are fought with the most unorthodox weapon imaginable. That being said, there are a few drops in animation quality here and there, though these instances are rare amidst the rather impressive character designs that Deadman Wonderland sports.
Audio: Considering this is the DVD release of the show, viewers can expect the standard Japanese voice track and the English voice track available for Deadman Wonderland. The English cast handles their rolls amazingly well for a series as brutal and violent as this one is. In fact, the high level of swearing and terrible imagery works best with the English cast taking the lead. As such, Minatsuki’s voice actress Leah Clark deserves a special mention for making the character sound truly psychotic while Monica Rial’s Shiro captures her childish nature perfectly.
As far as background music goes, Deadman Wonderland does a great job by offering a wide range of tracks that range from simple to heavy metal depending on the scene. As far as the opening and ending songs are concerned, it is interesting to note that the opening “One Reason” by DWB is actually completely in English and set to a heavy metal beat. The fact that the song is in English is certainly a nice treat, while the ending song “Shiny Shiny” by Nirgilis is in Japanese and very soft in tone, which manages to match the ending sequence perfectly.
Extras: With Deadman Wonderland’s release on DVD we have been given a disc full of extra features as well as a few bonus commentaries on the episodes themselves. On the bonus disc viewers will find a clean version of the ending song as well as two clean versions of the opening song, one shown on TV and another the “Director’s Version” which features some nudity compared to the original. Also on this disc are the original commercials and promo videos, as well as something I’ve never seen before in a FUNimation release.
While there are two basic audio commentaries which I shall address momentarily, there is also an actual video commentary by the English cast where viewers are able to watch all of the voice actors as they record the commentary, with the episode itself shown in the bottom corner. This video commentary is for Episode 7 and is hosted by Joann Donald and he is joined by Greg Ayres the voice of Ganta, Monica Rial the voice of Shiro and Leah Clark the voice of Minatsuki.
This video commentary is something completely different from any standard extra and I would love to see something similar done in future releases as it is quite a treat. Especially when you consider most people probably have no idea what these voice actors look like. They discuss various things about the show such as their favorite worst lines in the show, their surprises with the show and they also discuss various spoilers about the show and the characters themselves.
Outside of the video commentary there are also the two standard commentaries for Episode 6 and 8. Episode 6’s commentary sees the return of Leah Clark and this time around Aaron Dismuke, the voice of Yoh, joins her. They discuss how gruesome the show is, their roles in the show and provide some hilarious narration of the show as they discuss what is happening on screen. There also happens to be a commentary for Episode 12, the final episode, featuring Monica Rial and Greg Ayres providing commentary while discussing their characters and some of their past works.
Overall: Deadman Wonderland is a series that is almost tailor made for a Western audience as it not only features high levels of violence and action, but also the English cast has done an excellent job voicing the characters and putting emotion into them and the special video commentary is an unexpected treat. While the story does leave something to be desired, Deadman Wonderland is a gory action packed series with plenty of mystery that takes the viewer for quite a ride.
Today at the EB Games Expo we visited Konami’s booth within the main showroom of the convention hall. At this booth there were many games set up for players to take a look at. Most of these titles are still unreleased and in development. The one that I’ve taken a look at today was a title that I’m personally excited for, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance players take on the role of Raiden the Cyborg Ninja dude thing from Metal Gear Solid. As Raiden, players are given some rather incredible skills as a close-range fighter. The most deadly of these, of course, are his deadly skills with a sword. Players will find themselves effortlessly dicing various objects within the game with incredible ease. Very incredible ease. have you seen those Ninja anime clips where a ninja will cut up a cherry blossom petal into a billion shards? Imagine doing that but to something like an enemy cyborg.
In our demonstration, I’m pretty sure we were put into the same level that was shown at E3 earlier this year, but for those of you who don’t know about the level, I’ll go into in more detail. The level that we were on was a VR simulation within the game (So VR within a VR? Inception!) where Raiden had to go through increasingly difficult challenges that served as a tutorial for the player. This means that players had to figure out how to use the various techniques within Raiden’s arsenal before they could move on.
I actually really liked this aspect of the tutorial. Most tutorial levels would have the game force you to do something exactly how they wanted it done before you could move on. In this, you had a select number of targets, but you didn’t have to slice them in a particular fashion, you just had to do it quickly and cleanly to get a better score.
After this segment, you were taken to an area where you had to fight multiple drones to advance and then after that you had to run to this bit where you kill some more drones to obtain a keycard that opens a briefcase to take you to the next segment.
The best part about this level though, was that we got to fight this awesome Helicopter boss that was both cinematic and awesome. At one part of of the boss fight I found myself swording the Helicopter to the face, then a few seconds later I’m running around like a crazy robot ninja dodging incoming rockets. After that I’m firing missiles at the helicopter in order to bring it down. This entire fight ended when I RAN UP A STREAM OF MISSILES BEING FIRED AT ME AND SWORDED THE HELICOPTER TO DEATH! This game is a frenetic visual feast! You will absolutely love it!
Overall I IMMENSELY enjoyed my time with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and would definitely advise for everyone attending the EB Games Expo to try it out at the Konami Booth. Definitely a day one purchase for any gamer that loves to have FUN!
Wadjet Eye games are purveyors of rather excellent adventure games – see Resonance and The Blackwell Deception for evidence of that. Their latest title – created primarily by Wormwood Studios but with some aid from Wadjet Eye – is Primordia. As you can see from the screenshot above the game has a wonderfully bleak steampunk style, with hand drawn art coming to life in the trailer embedded below.
The plot centres around the robot Horatio, who lives in a world that has long since forgotten the presence of humans. When his precious power source is stolen the usually solitary Horatio must venture out into the wider world and face the myriad perils that await him. The gameplay aims to provide a traditional point and click challenge whilst keeping to an efficient control scheme and player friendly set up.
Primordia is on track for a release in December this year – stay tuned for more updates as they come.
Punching people very hard in the face is an art-form when you’re Kenshiro. So how does Ken’s chosen form of artistic expression translate into video-game in his second raging outing? Well to put it simply, if you like to punch things very fast and very hard, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 is probably the game for you.
Earlier today I got a chance to sit down with the TGS 2012 build of Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 at EB Expo 2012. Not having played the first Ken’s Rage, I went in with unsure of what exactly I might find from a Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken game.
Being a fan of the manga and anime of the same name which inspired the game, I was very curious to see how they translated the atmosphere of the series into a video-game format and I can thankfully say, they did so flawlessly. Fans of the franchise would know that Fist of the North Star is essentially Mad Max the anime with lots of manly badassery and martial arts battles. Kenshiro is a straight up badass and this game does well to highlight that.
The game itself is almost an homage of sorts to both the Fist of the North Star series and various classic beat-em-up games that preceded it such as Dynasty Warriors and Genji. If you love beat-em-up action game’s such as that, you’ll find a lot of fun to be had in Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 even if you are not a fan of the franchise itself.
All in all it’s a pretty simple game, you are Ken, the biggest badass in the whole freaking post-apocalyptic world and you must punch many many people in the face until they explode from your sheer manliness. At it’s core it is a brawler that while repetitive is inexplicably addictive. Once you start punching in bandit skulls, you just won’t want to stop, you will be pulling off combos and special moves and taking down bosses like yesterday’s news.
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 is set to launch on a multitude of platforms including Xbox 360 and Wii U. The build I played was the Playstation 3 version and I must say the controls were excellent. They were both simple and easy to grasp as well as detailed and complex, a tough balance to achieve, but one that Ken’s Rage 2 does admirably.
Ultimately if you just want to punch people fast and hard in the face and feel like an absolute beast of a man for a period of time or if you are simply a fan of Fist of the North Star, then Ken’s Rage 2 deserves a place on your video-game radar.
At the EB Games Expo today we were given a chance to play the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us video game from developer Netherrealm Studios and Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon. For those of you that have not yet heard of this title, it is essentially a fighting game that features a plethora of DC Comics characters that have to fight each other.
From what we saw of the game, it is pretty good graphically. This is not just from a texturing and details perspective, but also from an aesthetic one. What I really liked about the character aesthetics was that they were clearly identifiably that particular character at a glance, but when you pay closer attention, you can see that they’re a lot more functional and stylish to fit in better with the games mythos. The best example of this is with The Flash, where he normally be wearing this kind of red spandex material, he now wears this kind of armoured material. He is still, without a doubt, The Flash from a visual standpoint, but he’s The Flash of this games universe.
From what we could tell, there were two primary types of fighting characters in the game, Power characters and Gadget characters. The names of these types are pretty self explanatory. So, like, Superman would be a power character, whilst Nightwing would be a gadget character. This is pretty much for differences in fighting style, so Power characters are all about big powerful moves, whilst gadget characters use items and weapons to their advantage.
Fighting in this game is a reasonably fun affair. What makes the combat in this game entertaining is that, not only do you get to have DC heroes beat on each other on iconic levels, but there are also a tonne of variables in each battle. For instance, in a fight in the batcave, players are able to hit a button to get the batmobile to fire rockets at a target player. What’s even better is that there are multiple levels to some arenas, meaning that players can knock their opponents off the side and battle in a completely different area to the one that they were on. And on levels like the batcave, it’s fully possible to return back to the start of the level.
There are other cool things players can do, like if you’re a power character, you can lift cars into the air and hurl them at your enemies. If you’re a gadget character, you can use your character to dodge and bounce off that same vehicle whilst it’s still floating. It’s intracacies like this in the combat system that make it fun. There are also items that appear on the level after certain conditions are met, that really give a massive advantage to whichever player controls them.
From what we’ve played of Injustice: Gods Among Us we were incredibly pleased. It is looking like it will be an incredibly entertaining experience and we expect that everyone should check this out in the near future when it is released.
Many gamers converged on Nintendo’s immense booth at EB Games Expo 2012 today and got to get their hands on a variety of news titles coming our way thanks to the Big N.
While most were most excited to check out Nintendo’s new console the Wii U, I was personally interested in checking out some of their upcoming offerings for their handheld device the Nintendo 3DS. One title in particular however captured my attention unlike any other on show for the handheld – Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
Now this is a franchise that I have had an enduring love for, despite recent ‘super’ missteps on the Wii that shall not be named. It is a love that developed from the very beginning of Mario’s tenure as a paper-thin hero with the inaugural Paper Mario 64 and continued on with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Both of which were exceedingly phenomenal role-playing games. It brings me great pleasure to say that Nintendo have brought the RPG back to Paper Mario with their latest effort Sticker Star.
The biggest problem I had with the Paper Mario on the Wii that shall not be named is that the RPG elements I had come to love from Paper Mario that differentiated it from your standard Mario game was almost entirely lost. Thankfully those RPG elements are back in full-force with Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
The first thing you will notice with Sticker Star is that not only does it provide very classic styled RPG gameplay, it has it’s own spin on the genre and includes an incredibly addictive collectable element. That addictive element being of course the collectable Stickers. Theses stickers probably sound silly to someone who has not had their hands on the game themselves but collecting these things is as much a necessity in this game as it is infectious.
You see one sticker upon a wall and you have to peel it off. The stickers themselves are in fact very useful and are used in combat. For example if you find a sticker of a hammer, in battle you simply touch this sticker in your sticker album located on the bottom touch screen and Mario will use a hammer attack. It’s all relatively simple, but it works tremendously and provides a great incentive to collect them. If you don’t collect them you are not going to be able to survive in a fight, it’s logical and ultimately a great deal of fun.
During the demo I played I collected a great deal of stickers and found the very action of doing so to be irresistible If I saw a sticker, I just couldn’t leave it. The game really gets you in that head space of an obsessive compulsive sticker collector. Of course that’s not all there is to it, there is also the standard RPG elements such as travelling to different locations, levelling up, turn-based battling and the occasional epic boss battle.
If you are looking for a true Mario RPG experience, look no further. Paper Mario: Sticker Star has revitalised the series after it took a relatively steep fall with the Wii title that shall not be named. It is fresh, addictive and above all else it is fun. Here is your next must-buy title for the 3DS.
Barbra Streisand is back on the silver screen for a roadtrip comedy unlike other roadtrip comedies! Guilt Trip is about a Jewish son who has decided to take pity on his lonely mother and bring her along on a cross-country trip with him. It’s sure to be rife with Jewish jokes, and given how overbearing Jewish mothers are known to be, I’m sure Barbra’s character will be perfectly obsessive about inane things.
Check out the trailer for Guilt Trip below, showing that this road-trip movie will be just as full of shenanigans and hijinks as other road trip movies, but with a Barbra twist. While this movie will probably follow the usual road trip formula, it’d probably be worth watching just to see Barbra back as a main character in a movie.
Guilt Trip will be released to cinemas on the 24th of January 2013. For more information on the film as it comes out keep tuned to Capsule Computers!
