Are you a gamer that’s interested in Beta testing the Medal of Honor: Warfighter multiplayer portions of the game? Then maybe you’re someone who will want to check out this latest trailer from EA.
As you will find out, the Beta is only open to the Xbox 36o consoles user base and as such, is exclusive to it. This means that Playstation 3 and PC users miss out on this opportunity.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is powered by the Frostbite 2 engine which gives the game an advanced level of destructibility and realism in comparison to other games in the genre. Will it be better than Battlefield 3? Only you can decide.
Be sure to check out the trailer embedded below for more info.
Welcome one and all to Xbox Live News with Pipper. Crazy how the seasons pass us by, and it is already October! Starting to get a bit cold up in my neck of the woods, so I’ll be zipping up my sweatshirt before going to work – playing video games. Looks like we have a wallop of deals to go around, so let’s play some hot potato!
Deals of the Week
Name
Discount Dates
Price
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
Oct 2 to Oct 8
600
Dungeon Fighter LIVE
400
Street Fighter 3 Online Edition
600
Super Street Fighter 2 THD
600
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Oct 9 to Oct 15
600
Toy Soldiers: Cold War – Napalm
200
Toy Soldiers: Cold War – Evil Empire
200
Toy Soldiers
400
Toy Soldiers – Invasion!
200
Toy Soldiers – The Kaiser’s Battle
200
A World of Keflings
400
Renegade Ops
600
Splatters
400
New Releases
Sonic Adventures 2 should be quite the hit for this week on Xbox Live. Naughty Bear will prove to be quite naughty at times, and I see Ghost Recon Super Soldier has made it onto Games On Demand.
Name
Release Date
Microsoft Points
(Games)
NIGHTS into Dreams
5-Oct
800
Sonic Adventure 2
5-Oct
800
Worms Revolution
10-Oct
1200
Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise
10-Oct
1200
Pool Nation
12-Oct
800
(Games Add-Ons)
Ghost Recon Future Soldier: Khyber Strike
9-Oct
800
A World of Keflings: Sugar, Spice and Not So Nice
10-Oct
320
(Games on Demand)
Ghost Recon Future Soldier
2-Oct
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012
2-Oct
Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
2-Oct
NCAA Football 13
9-Oct
Ice Age: Continental Drift: Arctic Games
9-Oct
Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!
9-Oct
(Avatar)
Frankenweenie
2-Oct
NHL Update
2-Oct
NBA 2K 13
2-Oct
Resident Evil 6
2-Oct
In addition to the deals above, Activision is packing the heat this week with loads of price cuts. Modern Warfare 3 can be purchased for $44.99 (25% off), and Collection 1 and 2 packs are available for a mere 600 MSP each. If that wasn’t enough, Modern Warfare 2 has been sliced down to $19.99, and both Stimulus and Resurgence packs are at 600 MSP. Oh wait, I forgot there was more. Black Ops can be purchased for $39.99, and all four map packs can be bought for – you’ve guessed it – 600 MSP. Other titles like Transformers: WFC, Prototype, Prototype 2, Apache: Air Assault, Arkadian, and Carcassonna have all taken price cuts. You can find the rest of these amazing deals on your Xbox Dashboard, so be quick as these deals only last until October 8th!
Hopefully these deals will satisfy your hunger for a couple weeks. If not you can always express your complaints in the comments below, and we can direct the message. I would like to personally thank everyone for tuning in again for another chapter of Xbox Live News with Pipper. Remember to take an hour break from your MMORPG to give some love to your console games, and always remember to “Play Hard or Don’t Play At All!”
The latest screenshots to come out of Atlus for Persona 4 Golden follow the various choices that the player will be presented with while they make their way through the game. While some of these decisions could be quite serious, such as being concerned about Chie, there are also a number of humorous decisions as well such as poking Teddie or having your friends perform various things in a King’s Game.
The screens can be seen below and the game itself is currently set to be released on November 20th in North America exclusively on the PlayStation Vita and sometime in Spring for Europe, though it is worth noting NIS America is handling that release.
Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! Developer: Asobism Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo 3DS Release: 3/9/12 Price: $44.73 – Available Here
Overview
Originally a Nintendo eShop exclusive, Freakyforms now has its very own game. That’s right, a cartridge, box, the whole deal. Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! Is that very game. But why would you dish out all that extra cash when you can just download the game. Sure, the box is nice, but what else? Freakyforms Deluxe becomes its very own game, utilising 3DS features and a unique control system to make a surprisingly addictive game. Read on as the review starts to form.
Gameplay
Creating Formees comes with an extensive step-by-step tutorial, easing slowly into your new godly position looking down on your very own little world. New forms can be bought, earned, or just progressively added to your inventory allowing you to expand your creations however you see fit. Once your form is given life via a heart, it is free to explore the meadow with you in control. The control system is unique, at very best. While the 3DS boasts a range of buttons, you won’t engage with them often. Instead, Freakforms Deluxe asks you to use the stylus and touch screen, pulling the Formee down to jump or pushing the stylus in the direction you’d like it to move. It may take some time to get used to this, but after a few short moments it can be real fun springing your eight legged Formee around an ever expanding meadow. Unlocking chests, completing quests and engaging with friends and Formees is just some of the stuff you can do roaming around – not to mention eating food and pooping all over the place.
Creating Formees is easy enough. There are a range of shapes and parts to select from, more of which become available the more you explore the meadow and dungeons. Parts are just dropped and dragged with the style, connecting them together (or not, up to you) to form a living creature, of sorts. Eventually you can have any shapes, range of colours, and even a totally unique catch phrase for your Formee to shout.
A welcomed surprise was venturing into the dungeons. Dungeons appear in the meadow. Step back, what’s this meadow? The meadow is an area to explore with your creations. There are other options of game play, like creation challenges. Which is very close to creating your own Formee, but is restricted. The meadow you can roam around, eating, pooping, whatever you like. There are a few small, rather tedious quests to be completed after talking to ‘friends’ – stuff like ‘poop just once!’ or allowing the other creatures to ride you to some check point. You are rewarded, but the overall experience isn’t that fun. The dungeon however, is a door that appears in the meadow where you are sent to rescue a king. Along the way there will be bad guys who you will fight in an automated battle sequence. It’s no Pokemon, but still adds something extra to the game. The stats of the Formee you created are based no how you created them. For example, more legs means quicker creature, who in turn attacks first. Stats can be boosted via power-ups that litter the dungeon, but the base statistics will depend on how you constructed your Formee – emphasising meaningful creation, was well as purely aesthetic.
Visuals
Unfortunately, the art design of Freaky Forms Deluxe may deter some. The child like creations that roam across the cover are reminiscent of a child’s felt creations. The whole game in fact, has that ‘scrap book’ vibe to it. Perhaps a little odd to create a static, 2D based game for a 3D portable console, right? Well, sure, but I can only assume the designers looked past the gimmick-ness of the 3D capabilities. The felt-cut style really adds to that element of child-like creative freedom. There is also a great deal of customisation available to the player, where houses, grass, flowers, even the ground itself, can be changed in appearance. The visual style of the game perfectly reflects the games mechanics, in that in creates a world that just begs to be created by the player.
Audio
The audio is creepy as hell. Strange music echoes the menus, meadow and dungeons and it can really get on your nerves. It’s a portable game, so chances are you are playing this in public – so feel free to keep the sound off for this one. Problem with that is, each of your Formees are allocated a unique voice. Allocated by none other than yourself. Shy, happy, old, robotic – just some of the choices there are – all of which are used to express a range of gibberish. The pitch can be edited too, to give every single Formee a unique voice.
Overall
Given that the game is just an extended form of a downloaded game, the question still remains is it worth breaking out your wallet over this? Well, the game itself is great fun, but the what could easily be dismissed as child-like visuals may deter some. I’d urge you to cease all thoughts along those lines and give the game a chance for what it is, a unique and addictive create-your-own-whatever game. Freaky Forms Deluxe uses the 3DS networking features and allows you not only to create your own world, but to push that world beyond the game – sharing and creating with friends and strangers. Co-creating with friends really pushes the game beyond just a downloadable game and pushes the title to that level of ‘yeah, it should have it’s own box’. Who would’ve thought such odd features could form a game like this. Freaky, huh?
After it was leaked ahead of schedule that Assassin’s Creed 3 will feature a “Season Pass” Ubisoft has come out with their own little announcement and to help make it more relevant they also revealed the first piece of DLC that the game will be receiving.
Assassin’s Creed 3’s first DLC is “The Tyranny of King Washington” which will be released in three downloadable chunks over time. As the title suggests, this will be an alternate take on the American Revolution and obviously place George Washington as a major enemy. The Season Pass will include this content as well as various multiplayer DLC and will cost an expected $30.
There are plenty of different ways to help promote a video game, some of which include appealing to some people’s baser instincts. We’ve seen examples of this in the West with EA and their handling of Dante’s Inferno, but perhaps the biggest region for providing some half-naked promotional incentives is Japan.
Namco Bandai and Imageepoch has launched a new browser mini-game, playable here, called Shower Time with Toki. It is a rather simplistic game where all you have to do is click as fast as possible to clear the steam from the screen, resulting in some rather ecchi scenes such as the sample above. It is worth noting that the game is not beatable in one run, though players can continue by linking the game to their Twitter account and deleting subsequent automated tweets.
Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years Developer: Three Phase Interactive Publisher: Three Phase Interactive Platforms: iPhone (Reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad Release Date: October 4, 2012 Price: $4.19 NZD – Available Here
Overview
Freshly founded Australian indie developer Three Phase Interactive – comprised of three former Blue Tongue Entertainment employees – have created this nitrous-fueled stunt-driver game in Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years as their début title. With simple trial-and-error gameplay, Stunt Star attempts to hook you into living the life of a Hollywood stunt driver with no frills and ramp jumps of Grand Canyon proportions. Make sure to pack a parachute and find that eject lever…crashes are inevitable.
Gameplay
In the journey to nail each stunt in order to help create an action-packed box office smash hit, you as the player will control the stunt-man in the simplest of ways. Most of the time you will find yourself driving a vehicle on a 2D perspective off of cliffs and ramps, over helicopters and into loop-de-loops using two buttons – an acceleration pedal and a brake pedal. These buttons’ capabilities are two fold as once you are in the air, pressing the acceleration pedal will rotate your vehicle counter-clockwise, while pressing the brake pedal will rotate your vehicle clockwise. Ramps must be placed within a specified zone – highlighted in green – before a stunt can be attempted. Placing one is as easy as swiping end to end, and readjusting it’s placement is as simple as dragging either end of the ramp to its newly desired destination. These are the core mechanics, and they couldn’t be any easier to understand. Your immediate goal is to get to and stop within a set of flags on any given level within a set time period. Once you are stationary within this zone, you will get a text box that tabulates your points for a final score, which will determine whether you achieved a bronze, silver or gold trophy for that level. Points can be garnered from doing flips, endos/wheelies and finishing as quick as you can among other criteria. Many times there will be stipulations made for optimal scoring, such as using a specific vehicle or choosing only one upgrade for a stunt, as well as the collection of a strategically placed star which will grant you an extra 350 points.
Among a plethora of vehicles, which you will unlock as you complete various stunts, there are also many different “upgrades” to pick or purchase using credits earned in each stage. An upgrade, which is inexplicably displayed via text above your vehicle at the start of a stunt as an “addon”, is basically an enhancement. Options include things like a nitrous boost, suspension tweak, grip tires and a parachute. Some upgrades are automatically put into use as you drive, while others require the utilisation of an extra button. There are levels where specific upgrades are mandatory, though it is ultimately up to you how many you use. The parachute in particular adds a unique mechanic to the game, as once you deploy it you must steer your stunt-man left or right by pressing and holding down left and right arrows on the bottom corners of the screen. Wind direction also plays a factor in some of these instances, so there is an added element of strategy and placement when gliding down with your parachute in those conditions. Another element which comes into play very late into the 65+ levels is the land mine. Land mines, once crossed, give you a 4 second window to get out of it’s radius or be destroyed. They are mostly used to destroy wooden platforms blocking your goal, but the fact that these additional gameplay elements are consistently added throughout really increases the variety and fun to be had.
With the game promoting experimentation in your attempts and therefore relying on a trial-and-error system, crashing and failing is a guaranteed re-occurrence. Crashes will almost always result in an explosion, especially if they are at a high velocity or bad angle. Obstacles like hovering helicopters will be put in place, which will also cause an explosion if they are touched even in the slightest fashion. The physics in place are unique for each vehicle, and really lends to the strategy of choosing the right vehicle for the right situation. I did come across an issue in one specific level where I was using a bus to push another along when my front bumper got stuck to the other’s rear bumper. In one attempt, the conjoined buses abruptly jolted into the air and uncontrollably propelled forward at high speeds, exploding upon impact with the ground. This was a one-off situation however and could be avoided, as I subsequently did, by controlling your speed and approach to the other bus. The game can become frustrating, but only because of the increasing challenge that can always be overcome if you find the right angle to place your ramp and/or the right vehicle/upgrade combination to use. Considering the immediacy at which Stunts can easily be retried – without any extra loading time – any frustrations are quickly repressed.
Visuals
In continuing the movie stunt-man theme, there are three distinct settings for each of the three films being made. The setting of “CornBalls 2” is an outdoors farm environment, while “Tombstone 2000″‘s set is a desert/canyon locale and the “World Tour ’88” is set in a packed arena reminiscent of a Nitro Circus event. Each are vibrant and feature their own color palette helping to further distinguish themselves as separate events. It definitely appeals to the eye and most certainly to a pre-teen audience in particular. The overall visual style of Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years is a complementary mix of hand-drawn objects and more polished backdrops and settings. The fact that certain objects look rougher or more basic than others isn’t necessarily an issue of quality, but is more of a stylistic choice. The GUI (graphical user interface) in particular portrays this difference. The acceleration and brake pedals are crudely drawn and colored, as are the other buttons on screen. It retains a sort of charm and simplicity, but also reinforces the emphasis on gameplay, not visuals. The “director” pops up from time to time to make short quips or drop hints for the upcoming stunt. There were some spelling/grammar issues in a few instances of his text, which is a minute annoyance at worst.
Audio
While certain details were paid great attention, such as the fact that each of the vehicles appropriately have their own unique engine sounds, Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years’s sound, while effective, never felt like it enhanced the experience to any great extent. Of note, in the World Tour ’88 stages, crowd noise and reactions sound very small in comparison to how many fans are visualised in the background – what would seem to be upwards of 100,000 of them. The crash noises also don’t exactly represent the intensity of massive wrecks at high speeds with the same volume explosion and clanking metal sounds playing each time you destroy any vehicle. Sound designer and director of ‘the Sound Library’ Stephan Schutze created new audio for the game, however I couldn’t help but perceive the sfx mentioned, in particular, as sounding like stock cues. Having used ‘the Sound Library’ in the past myself, I recognise the quality of such cues, which is good but also recognisably basic and not as customized as I would expect. However, despite this, Stunt Star’s audio does serve it’s purpose on a whole.
Overall
Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years exhibits all the archetypal qualities of the successful casual title. It’s simple, charming, addictive and most importantly fun. This is what made the casual market such a success to begin with. Minor gripes with the grammar/spelling of what little text is even shown and it’s lucidity of the use of stock sound effects are pretty much inconsequential. Three Phase Interactive is a three-man team representing what the Australian video game industry does best at the moment and that’s creating enjoyable casual titles that focus on pure, raw gameplay. Do not hesitate to jump at this title.
Fans of the Disney film Wreck it Ralph can now continue the adventure at home and on the move as Activision bring to life the franchise exclusively on Nintendo’s Wii, DS and 3DS platforms. The game takes off where the films ends and players will team up with Ralph and Felix as they battle a new hoard of Cy-Bugs, hell bent on destroying Mr Litwaks arcade. In celebration of the up-coming title Activision have released some all new character art featuring some stunningly designed illustrations.
Wreck it Ralph will feature the ability to swap and change in real time between Ralph and Felix utilising their various skills all played out across 4 unique environments that fans of the film will easily recognise, all jam packed with Hero medals and Easter eggs to add to your prized trophy collection. Wreck it Ralph will be available come 5th December exclusively on Nintendo Wii, 3DS and DS consoles.
Shiki Part 1 Blu-Ray Studio: AIC Spirits Publisher: Siren Visual Format: Blu-ray Release Date:In stores now. Price:$59.95 AUD (Buy Here)
Overview
Shiki is an Anime series set in a small rural town where not much of anything happens and everybody knows everybody and their business. However, things change for the mysterious when some new residents move into a mysterious European styled castle nearby.
Is this a series that you will enjoy? Read on to find out if this is the series for you.
Story
Shiki takes place in a small rural town in the country of Japan that is neither densely populated or anything special. It is a town where everybody not only knows each other, but also knows everybody elses business. Whilst most people within the town have come to accept this fact as a part of their life, one girl does not like this at all. And when something interesting does happen, she feels that is necessary to investigate it.
In Shiki, a strange and rich group of people from out of town move into their recently build European styled mansion. This creates an alluring mystery to the general population as to who they are. Very early on, we get hints that they may in fact be vampires, or some other kind of mythological creature when townsfolk begin to develop bizarre symptoms with puncture marks similar to a vampires bite.
What’s really interesting with the story-telling in this series is that it doesn’t just dump a whole lot of information on the viewer at once. You kind of experience the story as the characters do, rather than having someone spend a whole lot of time explaining what is happening around you. For instance, when I learned of the family being vampires, it was after analysing a bunch of hints littered throughout the first few episodes. However, it wasn’t until I realised that the family were approaching people and asking for permission to enter their homes before my suspicions were proven correct. Someone well versed in vampire lore will probably have worked this out much more quickly than myself.
Unfortunately for the show, I just could not feel any interest for it. Maybe it was a lack of any relatable characters, maybe it was the pacing – – I’m not entirely sure. It was just completely uninteresting to me, maybe you’ll have a better impression from the story than what I did, but I had absolutely no will to get through this series other than I had to.
Visuals
This is where the series is actually at it’s strongest. I really liked the visuals in this show. They were just so much more interesting than the story could ever hope to be.
Let’s take a look at the character designs. Each character has a unique and interesting look and feel to them that easily reflects their personalities. For instance, there is one girl who is incredibly image obsessed and this is reflected through her look. She has bright pink hair, wears fashionable clothing and generally looks out of place in comparison to the rest of her town. This aesthetic is carried over across all of the characters in general. For instance the vampire family have this rich and well dressed look to them that is completely out of place anywhere but with the most highest of society.
There are also some really nice looking backdrops and set pieces within the series. These only further enhance the incredible visual quality behind this series. One such example of this is this one scene where a family is celebrating outside and the vampire family come to chat to them. Everything in that scene looks simply amazing. Not only the set-pieces, not only the backgrounds, but also the characters themselves. It was a really well done scene.
Overall the visuals in this series are simply amazing. Anyone with an appreciation for art will enjoy watching this show.
Audio
The audio in Shiki is neither impressive or unimpressive, it is just there. Sometimes there’ll be some dialogue that makes you laugh, but most of the time, it’s just as mundane as its setting. The only interesting character in the show initially is killed off really early and doesn’t return for what feels like a long while.
As I said in the story section, you aren’t really dumped with dialogue that throws the story at you. Rather, you begin to understand what’s going on by listening to what’s being hinted at. Some people may not be so open to subtlety, while others will think it’s clever.
I personally didn’t mind the language tracks included with the disc. Both the Japanese and English did a fine job at conveying what the characters were saying and doing. I think that only the most die-hard anime fans will complain about the subtle differences in dialogue between the two tracks.
Extras
What’s really strange about this series’ packaging is that it does not list any extras at all. Fortunately, by accessing the discs menu, you can see that this is not the case. There are in-fact extras included with this series, which is a good thing.
The first disc of this two disc set contains one extra, which is the commentary of the first episode of the series. This commentary is quite interesting to listen to as the cast and crew talk about various aspects of the show. I usually love watching things like these.
The second disc contains a much larger plethora of features, which include a bunch of preview features, clean openings and closings commentary for episode 12 and trailers. It looks like a fair amount of added time is here, so it definitely increases the value of the series exponentially.
Overall
Shiki Part 1 on Blu-Ray Disc is an excellent buy for people into the vampire genre. It’s a fairly good series that people who enjoy this kind of thing will enjoy. Just because my own enjoyment of this show was limited, I can see why other people will find much enjoyment in this and as such, I would heartily recommend Shiki to all vampire aficionados.
The now released Carrier Command remake, Carrier Command: Gaea Mission has had a launch trailer released for it. This is the Carrier Command: Gaea Mission launch trailer. The game is currently out on the PC platform and will be released on the Xbox 360 in 8 days time, on the 11th of October.
On the game, Bohemia’s CEO had this to say –
“Carrier Command: Gaea Mission delivers everything I loved about the original, and much more”, said Marek Španěl, CEO and founder of Bohemia Interactive. “The action-packed, strategic gameplay, combined with the open environments and stunning visuals, make this a melting pot unlike anything else. It is one of those games, I and many passionate gamers like me have been longing for.”
In this game players are tasked with capturing islands in an effort to take down an enemy commander of an opposing Command Carrier. We have already reviewed the game, so you can be sure to check that out here.
Be sure to check out the trailer, embedded below for more info.
After it was 
