Konami have revealed the release date for Pro Evoultion Soccer 2013 for its fans in North America. The release date is September 25. It will be a battle of two series as FIFA 13 will also be released on September 25. Just days earlier, Konami announced an Australian release date of September 20, seven days before the Australian FIFA 13 release date of September 27. These release dates are for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
As pre-order goodies, a UEFA Champions League steelbook edition will be available (see the Australian release date article for more info), as well as a Copa Libertadores steelbook edition. These steelbook editions are available at any GameStop (US) or EB Games (Canada).
PES 2013 will feature three major club competitions: the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the Copa Libertadores. PES 2013 will feature ‘PES Full Control’, allowing full control of aspects of the game, Pro Active AI, where AI will react as in a real football game and PlayerID, where the world’s greatest players are instantly recognizable by how they look, move and play. Release dates on other platforms will be announced soon.
Skylanders Giants is almost upon us and just to keep things interesting a new character from the upcoming sequel has been revealed alongside some new screenshots. The aptly named Crusher is a force to be reckoned with if the sneak peek trailers are anything to go on, as he more than capably destroys all in his path wielding a battle hammer as large as he stands. It also looks as if he has some kind of laser vision also more than capable of clearing all enemies that stand in its path. The Sky’s the limit really for this franchise, well that and parents wallets, as fans of the franchise scramble to collect their favourite characters and demand for the first installment continues to gain more of a fan base. Watch Crusher in action as he defends his precious rocks from the Arkeyan King and his band of maniacal robots.
Ahead of it’s Fall 2012 anime season premiere, a trailer has been released for the upcoming Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic anime adaptation of the manga of the same name.
The trailer which can be seen below shows off several key animation spots of the series cast of characters including the protagonist of Magi, Aladdin. The plot of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic revolves around an Arabian Nights themed world, focusing on the adventures of young Aladdin and his Djinn named Ugo.
Magi is set to begin airing in Japan this October. Be sure to check out the trailer and let us known what you think in the comments section below.
Welcome to the accelerated world! Fans of the popular anime series Accel World have surely heard by now that the series will be adapted into a video-game based upon the events of the series which focuses on the events from the start to the conclusion of the Nomi Seiji Arc.
In anticipation of the release of the game which is set to be titled Accel World: Awakening of the Silver Sky, Namco Bandai have released a new trailer showing off the game in all it’s accelerated and sexy glory.
The game is slated for a release on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable. It will hit stores across Japan tomorrow on September 13th and will include a special bonus OVA episode.
Be sure to check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
Wolf Children Studio:Â Madhouse, Studio Chizu Publisher:Â Madman Entertainment Format:Â Cinema Release Date:Â September 13, 2012
Overview:
Mamoru Hosoda of Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time fame has returned to directing with his latest effort Wolf Children. That is all I knew about this film going into it. As I began to play my screener copy of the soon to be released film, I watched with anticipation to see what Hosoda and his newly established Studio Chizu had in store for me.
In the past I have thoroughly enjoyed Hosoda’s works including the Digimon movies and the One Piece film he directed, but I have always felt that his films lack one thing or another, which ultimately impedes them from being more than just ‘great’. Wolf Children is a great film, with a moving story and meaningful message. But much like Hosoda’s other works, it is missing something.
Story:
Wolf Children tells the tale of a young woman and her struggles in raising her two children. The catch is, the father of these children was a wolf man which leads to the children being part wolf themselves. This premise is interesting enough as it is and much like Hosoda’s other works sets things up to be a film all about family – except it’s not.
This is a film about many things, perhaps too many things. It seems that with each act, the film changes focus dramatically, sometimes at a confusing rate. The first act, which is arguably the best one, is about love. It details the meeting of the mother and father and concludes with the event that sets the rest of the film into action. The love between these two honestly felt very real, things came naturally to them, almost out of nowhere they connected and their relationship felt truly genuine. But of course, all too soon that was taken away. This act concluded with the films best scene and I must say it was a heartbreakingly tragic one at that, that scene alone made this film great. It also made for a hard act to follow.
Once the film moves into the second act, things began to fizzle. The focus of the film becomes family and how we make sacrifices for one another. From here, time begins to move at a rapid pace in the film. The children grow older and characters begin to disappear (a particular Grandfather disappears without a trace, did he pass away I wonder?) as the film progresses through 12 years of time. At this point Wolf Children has changed focus once again to being a film about identity, with the titular children caught between the human and wolf worlds. Before this can be explored any further things are quickly wrapped up, but I felt no sense of satisfaction from the film’s conclusion. The themes of the movie don’t come full circle and the characterisation up until that point was almost completely abandoned.
There was so many great moments in this film, but in the end it is difficult to say what they amount to. I did not feel that everything came full circle. Instead I felt as though Wolf Children was missing something. It was missing a thread that tied it all together. Don’t get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It touched me with it’s honest emotional beats and provoked thought in me with it’s messages. Much like Hosoda’s other films all of the great parts of Wolf Children are not tied together, instead it feels almost as if each act exists as a film of it’s own, with a different message and story to tell. I’m not sure what his intention was with Wolf Children but there is a lot of different messages but no connective tissue to bring them all together.
Despite that though, this is still an great film with a touching story about love, life and of course family. There is enough to see here in this 2 hour long film, that it can be a lot to take in. Though I believe the overall message of Wolf Children is that happiness is something that you can not force, it is something that simply comes naturally.
Visuals and Audio:
As with other Hosoda works, Madhouse has implemented the same distinctive art style that is shared throughout his films. If you have ever watched any of them, you would know that the art style is simply gorgeous and the animation is incredibly fluid and life-like. This is not different with Wolf Children, which is perhaps his most beautiful looking movie to date. There are gorgeous landscape shots and breathtaking point of view scenes. The attention to detail here is absolutely remarkable, with insurmountable care taken to bring this film’s world and characters to life. This is about as good as you can get in terms of an aesthetic experience in an animated film.
Aurally Wolf Children hits all the right notes, the soundtrack is on point in every scene, although it isn’t incredibly distinctive. The track that played during the opening sequence was perhaps the best of the film, as it really set the tone for what followed. While that was a great mood setter, the most tragic scene in the film stole the entire show with a music track that was subtle yet completely on the mark. I felt as though the air was sucked out of me at the moment I heard it. It was truly chilling. This is definitely a great aural experience from top to bottom even though it only hits a few emotional beats that I haven’t heard before in some shape or form.
Overall:
What more can I say about Wolf Children other than it is a great film and easily Hosoda’s best one to date. While everything doesn’t tie together so neatly in the end, it is still an incredibly moving film about real emotion and what it means to be truly happy. Whether it is love, a lifestyle, your family or perhaps something else entirely, Wolf Children speaks of a happiness that comes naturally, a happiness that we all aspire to achieve, either consciously or subconsciously. We may not always get it in the way we imagine, but that kind of happiness is special no matter what shape or form it may take. Wolf Children is a film that embodies that motif wholeheartedly and regardless of whether or not it gets everything right it is still a brilliant movie that teaches us something: never forget the power of a smile.
Za Warudo! WRYYY!! Dio Brando and Jonathan Joestar are set to clash heads on October 6th when the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime is set to begin. That is right, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure the Animation finally has a release date of October 6th.
Tokyo MX has confirmed they will begin broadcasting the anime adaptation of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga on the 6th of October at 12:30am. It is unknown whether the series will be streamed in the West but one can assume with the amount of coverage they have given it, Crunchyroll may soon announce that they will stream the series.
You can check out the official website for the anime here. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Guild Wars 2 is the follow-up sequel to the original Guild Wars franchise. As a free-to-play MMORPG, you would expect the quality to be lower than your average subscription based MMORPG. However, this is not the case. In fact, the opposite is true. This game has a higher production value and quality than most subscription based MMORPGs on the market. Read on to see our full impressions of this marvelous game.
Story
The story in Guild Wars 2 is being touted as a story that is personal to your character. According to the developers there are 1000s of different combinations available, which means that players are supposed to be seeing fairly different stories. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen so far is that the stories are still pretty similar early on.
However, what’s cool about the story in Guild Wars 2 is that you can completely ignore it if you want to. This is because you actually have to zone in to some areas to access the story and by hitting a no prompt, you can just bypass it anyway. In fact, the only story elements that are forced on you from my experience are the storylines that you run through in dungeons. However dungeons have both a story and explorable mode, meaning you can go back and complete the dungeon without the story being present.
From what I’ve experienced of the player story so far, it is a pretty interesting affair that has some amazingly difficult moments if you’re soloing. However, what makes it more difficult is that you can’t over-level in this game as it pulls your level down to adjust to the mission. So make sure you over armour and over equip yourself for difficult quests.
Overall the story is pretty entertaining and provides some difficulty in some missions. Players can skip it if they choose. Mostly anyway.
Gameplay
The gameplay is easily Guild Wars 2’s strongest selling point. The team over at ArenaNet have really outdone the entire MMORPG genre with this title. I really can not sing enough praise for the developers of this game in regards to the gameplay. This section will probably devolve into me fallating ArenaNet’s nether-region, but I will try to avoid it as much as possible.
What’s incredibly great about the way the gameplay in Guild Wars 2 works is that all the elements of the game have integrated incredibly well. For instance, there are no static quests that feel like they were thrown on top of the existing world for players to do, but rather, questing has become integrated into the way the world works. You as a player feel like a part of an eco-system, rather than some epic predator at the top of the food chain who’s only motivation is XP and epic-loots.
What this essentially means is that instead of running up to some random guy, getting a wall of text that you skip and running to a point on the map to kill a bunch of things. Instead, you end up running along the map and then discovering that something needs to be done, and then you do it. There are a few examples of this, but most obviously are the heart shaped points which have you completing certain tasks to unlock a vendor with some nice items and the dynamic quests which add to the natural feel of the map.
With the dynamic quests, essentially a chain of events will occur that will affect the world in some way. For example, there is one series of dynamic quests where you must defeat centaurs and blow up a bridge. After the destruction of the bridge, you must then stop centaurs from trying to repair it. If you fail, the centaurs fix the bridge and you have to try and blow it up again, and if you succeed, then you must defend it again later from more repair centaurs. It’s things like this that make the world in Guild Wars 2 seem really alive.
At first glance, someone who has played Guild Wars 2 will probably not liken the combat to that found in any other MMORPG released. I was actually going to quickly praise the battle system in this game as unique and new, but after really thinking about it, I kind of feel that this is the battle system of Guild Wars 1 with a lot more freedom and dynamics. For example, you are still locked down to 8 skills and one of those is an auto-attack skill for most weapons. However, where this game differs is that you are only able to select 4 of these skills (assuming you’ve leveled sufficiently and unlocked these additional skills) and that your position on the battlefield is now much more important.
What I mean by this is that you can move whilst casting spells or using skills to quickly get out of dangerous areas or to kite enemies. You also have the ability to dodge oncoming attacks by hitting the dodge key or double-tapping a movement key in the direction you want to dodge. This makes things like line-of-sight and kiting much more important in this game.
What I really (and I mean -really-) liked about this game is that the dungeons (at least so far) have not been a cakewalk run like in other games in the genre. Players have to really be at the top of their game to even advance in these dungeons. This may just sound like the developers have thrown in a bunch of over-powered enemies, but that’s not true. For players who have yet to undertake a dungeon, they can expect a bunch of traps and other tricky elements that will probably defeat them if they are not careful.
Next thing I want to discuss is the PvP within the game. This most predominantly occurs in the World vs. World vs. World Eternal Battlegrounds which pits three servers against each other in a battle for supremacy. What you will find most awesome about this are the incredibly large scale skirmishes that take place around the strategic points on the map. What I’m really liking about the WvWvW Battlegrounds though is that leading the battle in these will give your server certain advantages over other servers in regards to both PvP and PvE.
Unfortunately I’ll end this section on a sad note. As of the time of writing there are no Guild Halls in the game. Which kind of sucks. I have also yet to encounter any kind of Guild vs. Guild PvP content which kind of takes the Guild and Wars concepts and throws them to the side. However, I’m hoping for these additions in the future. However there is Guild armour skins that show your emblem and stuff, so that’s pretty neat.
Visuals
I’m actually really liking the visuals in Guild Wars 2. I mean they’re not the uber-realistic fare that we’ve come to expect from games like Battlefield 3, but they really do not need to be. The developers have really worked within their limitations to create, what I believe is, the most beautiful gaming environment in an MMORPG.
Now you’re probably thinking something like: “But man, didn’t Final Fantasy XIV push out fifty-trillion polygons and have an incredibly high-res set of materials for the world?” – or something like: “But didn’t you say that about TERA?” – to that I answer, yes those are both correct. But. This was before Guild Wars 2.
What I really liked about the Guild Wars 2 world is that nothing looks particularly copy-paste. In fact, it’s almost as if the entire game-world was generated by hand and a bunch of unique looking assets were built to just to make this world feel that much more pretty and unique. in comparison to its competition.
I’m actually really liking the way the armour sets in the game have turned out. Each piece of armour looks both aesthetically pleasing while being mostly functional. I have to give massive props to the person who designed the medium armour skin for the Guild armour. It reminds me of Saber from Fate/Stay Night for some reason.
Visually speaking, Guild Wars 2 is an excellent game. Instead of being a slave to its own technical limitations, it has instead embraced them and made them work for it. As a result we have an incredibly beautiful and vibrant game that does nothing but excel.
Audio
The audio in Guild Wars 2 is of a superior quality. What I particularly liked about the audio found in this title was that everything had a really impacting kind of sound. For instance, an AoE attack would have a nice kind of resonating sound so that you knew that it was really pouring on the pain.
The soundtrack in the game, if I’m not mistaken, is a bunch of new tracks blended in with a bunch of the tracks from the first Guild Wars games. Regardless of what it is, it fits the games tone perfectly and as such it isn’t really that easy to critique it. Good job Guild Wars 2 team.
Overall
Guild Wars 2 is one of those games where all of the elements found within the game have worked incredibly well with each other to create an experience that is simply amazing. The title feels a lot more like an eco-system than it does a bunch of individual components working together or against each other. I really wanted to give this a perfect score, but I know that the developers will probably find a way to make me eat this score later by making it even better.
Ready to take to the field for some FIFA goodness, but FIFA 13 isn’t out yet and you are already tired of FIFA 12? Well don’t worry, EA have released the demo for FIFA 13 on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace, Playstation Network and Origin now.
That’s right you can go and download the FIFA 13 demo and get a taste of the full game now. All you need is an Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or PC with the associated online services in order to download and play it immediately right now.
FIFA 13 is set to be released on the 25th of September, 2012. Be sure to download and play the demo and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Those hoping that Nippon Ichi’s The Witch and the Hundred Knights wouldn’t be delayed again will be disappointed to hear that the Japanese version of the game, and therefore the English version as well, is being delayed once more.
Game Nyarth has reported that President Shingawa has stated to Dengeki that “In order to respond to expectations, more time is necessary so it’s being postponed. Kamipara, ZX, Project D will be released beforehand.”
Two make up for this delay, the company did reveal two new characters which have not been shown off visually yet. One character is a young girl named Theresa and a busty lady named Valentine. We will update you as clearer information from Dengeki becomes available.
Glu games, a leading publisher of mobile games across various platforms has announced the release of a second game called Dragon coming soon to accompany the release of Enchant U across various devices. Both titles will be available later on in the week from the App store and also through the Google Play servers. In what looks like Tamagotchi meets Pokemon, users will take on the role of Royal Dragon Keeper whose task is to amass a collection of Dragonias most alluring specimens. Dragons can learn new tricks and help those who dwell within the kingdoms walls participating in a host of challenges. With high end 3D graphics and Glus Gamespy Technology, players can interact with friends Dragons and share their own achievements.
Za Warudo! WRYYY!! Dio Brando and Jonathan Joestar are set to clash heads on October 6th when the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime is set to begin. That is right, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure the Animation finally has a release date of October 6th.
Those hoping that Nippon Ichi’s The Witch and the Hundred Knights wouldn’t be delayed again will be disappointed to hear that the Japanese version of the game, and therefore the English version as well, is being delayed once more.