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.
This is it folks. The day has come and Nintendo’s first ever paid DLC is now out. New Super Mario Bros. 2 of course is the game that is getting the love, with new downloadable add-on level packs that fans of Coin Rush are sure to enjoy.
Here are some new details:
“Nintendo fans have really enjoyed the fun and competition of Coin Rush Mode, recently surpassing more than 100 billion total coins collected worldwide,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “These new packs offer completely new levels that fit into the New Super Mario Bros. 2 world, but offer new challenges that will keep players coming back for more.”
The packs being released on Oct. 4 include:
Gold Rush Pack: Fun new courses that give novice players the best chance to collect lots of gold, and veterans the chance to set even higher Coin Rush records.
Coin Challenge Pack A: The New Super Mario Bros. 2 website will track the rankings based on the scores for this pack, enabling players to measure their scores against other tallies from around the world in these more open courses.
Nerve-Wrack Pack: Intense new courses designed for veteran players looking for new challenges.
These packs can be purchased with the following procedures: Players who are connected to a wireless Internet connection must first activate SpotPass in the game and receive a notification from New Super Mario Bros. 2.* After receiving the notification, the next time the player enters Coin Rush Mode**, a Shop icon will appear in the game. Players who have accessed the shop can then read information about the packs, including descriptions, difficulty ratings and the required storage space. As long as players have enough funds in their Nintendo eShop balance, they can then tap and purchase the packs they want all within the game.
Sounds easy enough, and this DLC is rather cheap too, with each pack costing only $2.50. The floodgates have been cracked open, so lets hope to getting more of this kind of DLC in the future, and also pray that Nintendo don’t take lessons from some of the other guys.
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have released the second episode their “Final Hours” series of Tomb Raider videos. In case you may have forgotten about the last one, you can find it here. As for this video, it is called “Origins of a Story” and the host Zachary Levi (Chuck from Chuck) takes viewers for a behind the scenes look at how the character development and the narrative for the game are being handled.
Those who watch the video will also be able to see the lead writer Rhianna Pratchett, narrative designer John Stafford and creative director Noah Hughes talk about the game as well as catch some never before seen footage of the game itself.
EA has released a new video for Dead Space 3 that would probably be best classified as an actual walkthrough of a level considering the video is fifteen minutes long. You can take a look at the rather terrifying game in action below, where you will hopefully find the footage to be much scarier than you may have originally thought.
As you watch the walk through you can also listen to the game’s Creative Director and Senior Audio Artist give their insight into the game. If you can’t wait to play Dead Space 3 then unfortunately you still have quite some time to wait, as the game won’t be hitting store shelves until February 5th next year.
In what is becoming such a common occurrence that it almost isn’t news at this point, another game is getting a season pass for DLC right when it is released and it should come as no surprise that Assassin’s Creed 3 is the game getting it.
This week’s PlayStation Store Update revealed that a season pass will be purchasable when the game is released on October 30th for $30 and it is worth noting that the “Assassin’s Creed 3 Gold Edition” downloadable on the PSN will include the season-pass with purchase. With Ubisoft’s history of AC DLC, perhaps only big fans of multiplayer will find the pass worthwhile, but who knows at this point.
Today Telltale Games released a nice little teaser trailer for Episode 4 of The Walking Dead game and boy is it a great one. The video can be seen below but it is worth noting that it contains a few hints about what has happened in past episodes, so if you haven’t finished Episodes 1-3 then you may not want to take a look at it yet.
As for when Episode 4 will be released, Telltale Games has stated that they are aiming for an October release, though exactly when hasn’t been specified. As for you who have managed to avoid buying the episodes individually so far, you will be happy to hear that Telltale is planning on releasing a collection of all five episodes on a disc on December 4th.
The 2012 Australian International Motor Show will be held at Sydney this year but there is something new and different this time around. Once underway, the event plans on launching the upcoming Forza Horizon video game compatible with Xbox Kinect.
Beginning on October 19th, visitors to the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour will be able to play test the newest addition to the Forza Motorsport racing franchise before its release date on October 23rd. The show director, Russ Tyrie, had the following to say:
It really is fantastic timing that Xbox was due to launch its newest automotive game, Forza Horizon around the same time at the 2012 Australian International Motor Show. For all those gamers who have ever wanted to see the supercars they race virtually in the flesh and for all those automotive fans whove wanted to get behind the wheel of some of these supercars – make sure you come to the 2012 Australian International Motor Show!
The Australian International Motor Show will be taking place from October 19th to October 28th opening at 10:00 AM daily. To find out more information on tickets and daily schedules, take a look at their website (here).
So, we at Capsule have already shown you a bit of just how crazy Japan is about their games in our article about Capcom Bar, and here is another one to show just how deep their love of video games runs. Tucked away in Akihabara, on the third to fifth floor of a building where the entrance is simple an open door smooshed between two other shop fronts, is a wonderful store called Super Potato.
Super Potato is the kind of store that will make anyone that has a history with gaming think that they have found heaven on Earth. Starting with the top level, in a room that feels a little like an Internet Café (with all the snacks and drinks available for purchase too), there is a whole collection of arcade games. From those that only some will recognize, to the more popular and well-known games, this level is the sort that you can spend ages on, hopping from game to game.
The other two levels are a different kind of play ground, and absolutely perfect for all those who think that gaming has gotten too easy and are craving some of those old school games. Because, yes, it is full of old games and consoles.
There is a huge range, from the old Game and Watch consoles, to the more recent Playstation 2. Not only are there hundreds of games, but you can also buy consoles and controllers (in case yours have given up). These are all tested, checked, cleaned, and repackaged in a way that makes them look basically new. They aren’t some grimy broken cases piled up in a dump bin, they’re great looking games presented in an ordered fashion, with so many of them that a lot of them are spined for easy reading.
Amongst all the games there’s also some merch available for purchase, but this is by no means the main attraction of the store, and it still retains its roots very well. In fact, if you aren’t a fan of old school games then this might not be the best place for you to be, and if you are then it’s like all your Christmases and birthdays have come at once.
The prices are also quite cheap, unless you happen across something popular, rare and in great condition. Even then, the expensive side of the games are around $20-$30. The one downside being that the games are in Japanese. So, if it’s a game that requires a lot of reading and you aren’t able to read Japanese, then it might not work out too well. But there are sure to be quite a few that don’t need in-depth reading for you to know how to work them, or you remember anything that is required.
Check out the gallery below for more pictures from Super Potato, or head on over to our Facebook page to look at them there. And remember to LIKE our Facebook page for the latest in gaming news and reviews!
