Rev up your engines Formula 1 fans! That’s right the demo for F1 2012 will race into consoles this week and yes racing fans you should be excited. After all this will be the first chance F1 fans get to play the latest instalment in the enduring racing franchise.
The demo for the game is set to launch this week on XBLA and PSN a week ahead of the game’s release on September 20th. To mark this launch they have realeased a new trailer for title which can be seen below.
Be sure to check out the new trailer for F1 2012 and let us know what you think of this news in the comments section.
I think that this is actually a first for this website. We’ve gotten to review many different kinds of PC peripherals in the past, we’ve also reviewed things as strange as iPhone cases. However – I’m reasonably certain that this is the first review we’ve ever put out for a laptop. As such, this may seem a little messy as we don’t really have a preset method of writing for one of these things and if it does become a huge mess; I apologise in advance. Now that we’ve gotten that over and done with, it’s time to move into the review.
The M17x is the current mid-range laptop in the Mnumberx line of laptops from Alienware. This product line contains the following machines: the M13x, M17x and the M18x laptops. Each one of these varies in power, with the M13x being the weakest and the M18x being the strongest and most powerful. The M17x is the unit that we have received and as a mid-range gaming laptop, you -really- can’t ask for anything better.
The first things I want to talk about are the machines gimmicks. The gimmicks in this case would be the things that make the device unique in comparison to other laptops on the market. So obviously, these things might be superficial, but others are a little functional.
I’m going to talk about some of the more superficial features first. As you may already be aware, Alienware machines generally are not very plain computers. In fact, the M17x was actually a really pretty machine. For instance, it came in this really nice reddish carry bag that, when removed, revealed a more pretty maroon-ish laptop within. Upon opening this unique looking lid (with grooves and stuff), you are greeted by a pretty flashing looking keyboard and control panel.
Powering on the machine took a few moments for me to work out, as the Alien face power-button initially looks aesthetic only. However, it is not. Pressing this button lit up the entire control panel and keyboard, as well as the monitor. What was really cool about the powering on, was that it took an incredibly short period of time to go from POST to Windows. By default, the keyboard lights up with the default Alienware theme of blue, purple and some other colours, IIRC. However, you can easily modify this theme by pressing a button on the devices control panel whilst in Windows.
What was also really good about this particular machine is that it has an abundance of ports for your various devices. These were also located on both sides of the device, however I think the side with the Blu-Ray player had slightly less. Have three pairs of headphones? Why not plug them all in at the same time? The only detriment to this, I found, was that at night, it was incredibly difficult to see which jack did what.
The laptop is also running a graphics card and monitor that is 3D compatible. That is, it is running a 120Hz monitor with incredibly fast response times. And a graphics card that is strong enough to render two images together and keep up with the monitor. Gaming in 3D, watching Blu-Rays in 3D – it is all incredibly awesome. Like, really, really, awesome. However, the only negative to having 3D is that you have to wear these bulky-as glasses which sit on your head in an uncomfortable fashion. Why not do some magic like the 3DS does to make the 3D? The laptop should be sitting a similar distance away from your face anyway.
Okay, now moving on to the stuff that is most important to us gamers. How does it handle gaming? Well, I can tell you that I tested a bunch of hardware hitting games under a few different conditions to give you a fairly accurate description of how it is that the laptop performs.
The M17x is a brilliant gaming machine that is capable of playing the latest of games at Max – or near Max – settings. Or at least, it has this capability so long as it is plugged into a wall. Unfortunately, whilst it is unplugged, it does not handle gaming half as well as it does plugged in. As someone who is only mainly technically able, I assume this has to do with the graphics card not feeding enough power out of the battery without the power cord. However, with the cord in, it is a beautiful gaming machine capable of so much awesome.
If you’re the gamer that really can’t play without a power point nearby, you will find that gaming severely drains the laptops batteries. In my play session of a few different games of varying qualities, I only managed to pull out about an hour and a little bit of gameplay before I started noticing a bunch of graphics processing errors. When returning to Windows, it was evident that the laptop was about to run out of battery power. Cunningly, I was able to retreat to a power-socket and find some extra juice.
The laptop also has some pretty decent built-in speakers. These were particularly useful whilst I was partaking in an impromptu LAN-party at a mates place. Having quality speakers on a laptop makes all the difference whilst gaming. While having a pair of gaming headphones will obviously increase your gaming experience whilst playing by yourself, in a LAN situation where annoying the crap out of your mates and opponents is part of the fun, having a good pair of speakers is particularly useful.
In my honest opinion, this laptop is a great supplement to the average gamer that is often out of the home or frequents gaming events such as LANs. This is not just because of the great amounts of graphical performance whilst plugged into a wall, nor is it just because of the pretty cool audio set up. But it’s also because the laptop isn’t really all that heavy to carry. For something as powerful as it is, I was expecting it to weight a hell of a lot more than it does.
From memory (as we’ve since returned the device), the laptop we were given had a whooping 16GB of RAM, 2TB of HDD space, the latest in nVidia graphics technology and a fairly awesome 2.7GHz i7-something or other processor. When you’re purchasing from the Alienware website, you are actually able to add and remove from these components, so individual mileage may vary. It also has an amazingly good wifi device. I can’t remember it’s name off the back of my hand, but it could run in the N range and was able to connect at a much higher speed to my modem than the dongle I’m using for my PC.
Overall the Alienware M17x laptop is an amazing gaming device for the gamer with portability in mind. It handles all current games incredibly well and it has nearly no flaws. The only negative points about the device are quite minor and were probably only encountered because I was adamant about gaming under all conditions. Users will be thrilled to own such a magnificent machine.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in a real hockey arena then you know that they play plenty of songs whenever there is a break in the plays, before face-offs or even after a penalty occurs. Well EA Sports is looking to recreate that experience by licensing sixteen tracks from already established and upcoming artists from around the world.
The soundtrack has been selected to enhance the already improved aspects of the game’s appearance and gameplay aspects themselves. Those looking to pick up NHL 13 in Australia will have to wait until September 13th to play it while gamers in North America may already have a copy in their hands at this point.
King of Thorn Studio: Sunrise Publisher:FUNimation Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Release Date: September 18, 2012 Price: $24.98 –Available Here
Overview: The end of the world can come in many different forms, what with global warming becoming a more prominent issue in recent years, a meteor simply hitting the Earth and wiping out all life on the planet or even an unstoppable virus could spread throughout the land. End of the world style media has been around for quite some time, and while most versions of this genre focus on the undead rising up for flesh, there are many other flavors to be explored.
Enter the King of Thorn film which happens to be an adaptation of Yūji Iwahara’s manga of the same name. Originally created back in 2010, FUNimation has since brought this movie to English speaking shores. Does King of Thorn provide a gripping story throughout its length or does it falter in presentation?
Story: The year is 2012 and a strange disease has begun sweeping the globe. The disease is called the Medusa Virus and it is unlike anything the world has ever experienced before. With a 100% mortality rate, anyone infected with the disease will begin incubating the disease within them, infecting everyone near them, before suddenly turning into stone and crumbling away into dust.
Being that no one has ever seen this disease before or even knows where it comes from, the world has absolutely no way to treat the rapidly spreading virus. Entire families become infected and die, cities and social order begin to fall apart as even the President of the United States becomes petrified by the disease. With stone statues slowly beginning to outnumber living humans, it seems that the end of mankind is upon them.
However one company has a plan to try and save a hundred and sixty of these infected people by entering them into a special facility that will allow them to be put into cryogenic sleep, placing their bodies in a dormant state that will not allow the Medusa virus to advance, and only awakening them once they have found a cure for their disease or once a hundred years have passed.
With only a limited number of people accepted, the company has taken a selection of people from all around the world, with an interesting mix of children, teenagers, adults and even the elderly of all different races. Among these 160 people, a young girl named Kasumi has been selected to enter the cryo sleep; however her twin sister Shizuku was not selected. With only an AI system named ALICE monitoring those who have been put to sleep, these 160 lucky individuals go to sleep with the hopes of a cure.
However, once everyone wakes up suddenly, they find the facility overrun with strange thorny vines and dilapidated. As Kasumi and the rest try to figure out what happened to them, strange creatures appear and start killing a number of the survivors. With survivors dying left and right, Kasumi and a small group of survivors must try and make it out of the nightmare filled facility and try to understand what has actually happened to them.
With King of Thorn only being a movie and a little under two hours long, the plot moves ahead at a blistering pace, though it does feel a little bit formulaic with how certain survivors are easily singled out by the fact that they are the only characters who were given any semblance of attention before going into cryo sleep. Thankfully the fast paced survival theme of the movie lends itself well to these shallowly developed characters, as viewers are given just enough information to care about them, such as what they left behind and what they are striving for.
As it stands however, the high-speed developments and survival theme of the movie works well with the plot, which takes a number of unexpected twists and turns which can catch the viewer completely off-guard, though it does feel like there are more than a few things left unanswered by the time the credits roll.
Visuals: Interestingly enough, when Sunrise decided to create King of Thorn they chose to combine a rather appealing blend of CG animation and standard animation. While the majority of the show and the characters themselves are often portrayed in standard animation with usually satisfactory results, all of the creatures in the show and various vehicles are implemented with the use of CGI.
During some action scenes, the characters themselves are also presented in CGI usually with middling results that often stand out, but at least keep the same level of detail. Sunrise did a splendid job weaving together these two styles which often stand out far too much from one another and because of that viewers are given a pure treat for the eyes.
Audio: As one would expect from a FUNimation release, the film has been given both the original Japanese dub as well as the new English voice track. As such viewers can choose to view the anime however they feel like, though it seems that FUNimation paid extra care to the voice actors in King of Thorn as every character feels rather believable with their performance. Remember how earlier I mentioned how the survivors were taken from all over the globe? Many survivors have been given various accents to fit their region and these accents sound as real as one would experience in real life.
As far as background music goes it always feels appropriately used with the tracks matched excellently with the action. This level of quality is retained with the movie’s sound effects as well as all of the creatures and sounds of death, destruction and desperation combine to create a hectic and worrisome atmosphere that works wonders with the fast paced story.
Extras: As far as bonus features go for the King of Thorn movie, those expecting a slew of special features may be a bit disappointed as most of the special features are your standard fair. This includes things such as trailers for past and upcoming FUNimation releases, original Japanese trailers of the movie and a television spot.
To round out those small inclusions we have a talk event with the director and producer of the film as well as an interview with the director himself. These are slightly informative, especially the talk event where the audience is allowed to ask the questions. It is worth noting that these two specials are in Japanese however, so English subtitles are required.
Overall: King of Thorn may hold a few similarities with other apocalypse titles, it provides a fast paced survival story that holds as many twists and turns as the vines wrapping the facility in the movie. Viewers are taken on a roller coaster ride of adrenaline packed survival. Combine this with the fact that the movie is a treat for both the eyes and the ears and you have an excellent anime movie that should not be passed up.
Avengers Initiative is an episodic brawler in the style of the Infinity Blade series. The first episode stars our favourite raging mad green superhero The Hulk. Does Avengers Initiative have enough to be more than just an Infinity Blade clone?
Story
Avengers Initiative starts off its first episode with Hulk. The Pulse has broken up The Vault that held many super villains in prison and Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. has assigned Hulk to capture as many of the escapees as possible while Fury tracks down the rest of The Avengers. Eventually, the rest of The Avengers will be rounded up to solve the mystery of The Pulse and the breakout at The Vault. But for now, the first episode focuses on the Hulk beating down on villains such as Zzzax and the many nameless henchmen that put themselves between Hulk and his target.
The story is told through cut scenes and audio logs found scattered around the game. The audio logs can be accessed through signing up with the Marvel XP program. As a person not particularly familiar with the comic books, I felt a little lost on the plot. I strongly recommend at least watching The Avengers movie for some background before playing the game. The dossiers accessed through the Marvel XP program are rather extensive and provide an interesting read.
Gameplay
Avengers Initiative is a touch screen based brawler. Players have the ability to side step, block, or deflect attacks by either tapping the correct buttons on the UI or swiping in the correct directions to stop incoming damage. Once the enemy is stunned, players can slash the enemy to deal out damage. There is a combo system in place for players to dish out extra damage. As their rage meter builds, players can unleash a variety of special rage attacks to do extra damage. In between combat rounds players will travel from place to place by tapping on highlighted areas in the environment while seeking out hidden bonuses scattered throughout the area. Players can also play a mini game to acquire ISO-8 currency and equip-able augmentation shards.
The combat is well done. I found that learning the directions to sidestep and was rather challenging as you could not automatically sidestep into an attack to guarantee a dodge. Instead, I had to watch the attack and see where the attack did not strike so I could dodge into that safe area. I found the timing for deflecting was a little off to me. Personally I would assume seeing the enemy about to hit Hulk was the right time to swipe to deflect. Instead I discovered the correct time to swipe is the beginning of the attack animation. The combo is simple enough that players do not need to remember twenty or so different combos. Instead, they simply need to know a certain amount of swipes in the same direction followed by a certain amount of swipes in a different direction. This allows for a fewer amount of specific combinations to memorize yet still provide enough of a variety that players do not fall into using the same four combinations over and over. The rage attacks are varied; players must choose three rage attacks from a variety of purchasable skills to equip. These rage attacks can also be used at specific fights to cause environmental damage. These help bring more variety to the combat portion of the game.
Stats are player distributed as the characters level up. Players are also able to equip different augmentation shards and costumes for their character that modifies skill points. These can be purchased with the in-game ISO-8 currency and provides a great amount of flexibility for play style. In addition, bonuses are given to players for completing fights in a certain way. Additional bonuses are given for joining the Marvel XP program. This program seems to be strongly recommended as the in game audio logs can only be accessed through this program. This program also links players to the Marvel: Avengers Alliance Facebook game. This is advertised as linking multiple games that will span across an epic storyline, starting with the Avengers Alliance Facebook game. This is a strong sign that Hulk’s story is the first episode of many for the Avengers Initiative game.
Visuals
The visuals in Avengers Initiative are top notch. The visuals mix a realistic style with a touch of comic book looks. The game looked great on the new iPad’s Retina display with zero slowdowns or FPS drops. I found animations to be smooth and realistic for the most part. I found Hulk’s walking animation to feel a little awkward and unnatural, but that was made up for by excellent combat animations. The UI is a good size on the iPad, although I would have preferred to see customizable button sizes as I tend to prefer my dodge buttons to be on the larger side on the iPad.
Audio
Avengers Initiative is fully voice acted by an excellent cast. I do not think it is voiced by the original movie cast, but the acting is some of the best on the iOS platform. The music is moody and great the listen to and the sound effects are bone crunching. I strongly recommend playing this game with the sound on simply for the voice acting. Players do not have to use headphones, but it will improve the audio experience.
Overall
Avengers Initiative is a great game. Although currently a little short, there seems to be an extensive episodic content plan in place. Right now, $6.99 may be much for a game of its current length, but if the content drops continue as planned, it will make the $6.99 price look like a great deal. The game mixes strong audio and visual experience with a great combat system and an epic plotline that is supposed to span multiple games.
Coming to you September 14 is the latest platformer published by Nyu Media called Eyri’s Action. From the looks of the game, it is going to be quite the fun addition to any players library. The game was deverloped by Xtal Sword and was inspired by classics such as Super Mario Bros. and I Want To Be The Guy (I hope they aren’t referring to the game that was visually inspired by Megaman, not so much from a visual standpoint, but from a gameplay one).
The story itself seems like it’s going to be pretty humourous, considering that this is the story blurb that we were given –
One fine day, Eryi went to eat the melon that she had been SO looking forward to… but it was nowhere to be found! Then she noticed a note on the table. She picked it up and read: “Your melon looked delicious, so I took it. From Farta X”
Fuming with rage, Eryi set out from her house to get her melon back from Farta.
The games features are as follows –
Features
+ 12 action-packed stages & boss fights!
+ Adorably charming world & characters!
+ Fiendishly cunning traps!
+ It’s okay to fail! Autosave has your back!
+ FUN! You’ll die a lot, but you WILL go back for more!
+ 32 achievements (Steam version only)
Be sure to check out the title and the rest of the Nyu Media second wave here. Also, make sure you support the Nyu Media on the Steam Spotlight by approving their titles, starting with this one. The game launches on September 14th on PC, available here.
Sony Pictures and EA Games have recently revealed that they will be working together to fund a few war veteran organisations. The project that will be leading the cause of this 1 million dollar plus donation is the Zero Dark Thirty project. Sony Pictures will be releasing a film by this name and EA will be releasing a map pack for the upcoming Medal of Honor: Warfighter called the Zero Dark Thirty Map Pack.
On the collaboration, the films writer-producer had this to say –
“Working with Project HONOR is a meaningful way for us to continue our support for combat veterans throughout the armed services,” said Mark Boal, writer-producer of Zero Dark Thirty. “We are thrilled to be a part of this effort, and we’re humbled that EA is stepping up to the plate with such a significant contribution.”
The map pack will be releasing on December 17 for $15.90AUD on the Xbox 360 and PC. On the DLC, EA spoke thus –
“Medal of Honor Warfighter is inspired by real world events, real operations, and real warriors,” said Peter Moore, Chief Operating Officer at EA. “We’ve teamed up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to give back to the Special Operations community in honor of the sacrifices they and their families have made for their country and to connect people to the story of the greatest manhunt our world has seen.”
Zero Dark Thirty follows the tale of military officers as they track down the infamous Osama Bin Laden. The film is directed by Kathryn Bigelow and is written and produced by Mark Boal. The film launches on December 19.
Frozenbyte have released the Goblin Menace DLC for the ever so shiny Trine 2, with an opening discount of 15% available on Steam. The gorgeous platformer was first released last year, so now is certainly the time to catch up with the title if 2011’s massive run of mega titles caused you to miss out on a few of the smaller gems.
As for the exact content of the expansion, it will include six new skills, six new levels and (only one) completely new soundtrack. The six skills will all be compatible with the entire base game, opening up the already highly replayable title for just one more go. Fans will already be aware of how many different ways there are to solve the various environmental puzzles in Trine 2 and will no doubt be itching to try out the time slowing bubble, prison box and object magnetization – those should produce some interesting results in multiplayer!
Hotel Transylvania is set to hit theaters on September 28th, but the WayForward/Gamemill video game adaptation will be coming forth as soon as next week for the 3DS and DS. This romp features a good number of “locations, puzzles, and boss battles galore” for players to interact with, and seems to carry WayForward’s retro-esque level design that they do so well.
Today, a few new screenshots have emerged for you all to sink your teeth into for the 3DS & DS versions of the game, which you can now check out below for both versions. Hotel Transylvania may be licensed, but it does have some promise as it almost appears to be a SNES classic cart that was thrust into the present. You can pick up either version when Hotel Transylvania hits shelves on September 25th.
NBA Baller Beats has definitely been listed as the odd man out of big releases this year, but that really isn’t a bad thing. This is the first motion-based title for the Kinect that solely involves the sport of basketball, and requires the player to use a real ball to play along. Yes folks, the purpose of Baller Beats is to dribble to the beat, and Majesco are ready to get you hyped when it comes to their new and very intriguing title.
Here are a few quotes released today to give us a better idea of what players can expect to see in the game:
NBA Baller Beats is easy to play, but hard to master. Players of all skill levels – from rookie to pro – will dribble to the beat of 30 popular and chart-topping music tracks, across various genres including hip-hop, rock, and old school favorites from artists like Kanye West, Common, Queen, Skrillex, Wiz Khalifa, Interpol, Wale, Lady Gaga, and many more. NBA Baller Beats challenges players to time their dribble to the beat of each song and perform a variety of skill moves displayed on-screen to score points, earn achievements and unlock assets and additional gameplay.
“There has never been anything like NBA Baller Beats, which is a true game-changer for the industry,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco Entertainment. “The buzz for the game is growing each day and it already has 4 million video views and nearly 700,000 Twitter followers. We are really looking forward to all the fans playing the game when it is in stores tomorrow.”
“We’re excited to work with Majesco on this innovative sports title,” said Victoria Picca, Senior Vice President, Licensing & Business Affairs, National Basketball Association. “NBA Baller Beats is a high energy game that turns ball-handling drills into an amazingly fun, music-driven experience.”
Players train alongside their favorite NBA franchises, unlocking songs, difficulty levels, environment accessories and over 100 posters and Panini’s 2012 NBA Hoops trading cards that showcase the NBA players’ greatest moves. To maximize performance, players can also visit the extensive in-game tutorial where two-time NBA world champion and Emmy Award-winning TNT NBA analyst Kenny Smith dishes tips for success.
I know some may not have the space for Baller Beats, but it honestly sounds fun from what we have seen thus far, and NBA fans are sure to get a one of a kind experience that the video game world has never seen before as it blasts into stores tomorrow. For now, you can check out the opening cinematic down below.
