It seems that everyone in Tokyo was at one place this weekend, and that place happened to be Tokyo Game Show. Today the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association announced that this year’s TGS drew in a record number of attendees with 223,753 people attending the show over the weekend, including two of our staff members who spent quite some time roving the grounds. You can see some images of their time during the event hereand here.
This shows a period of continued growth for the event over the last three years, whereas 2011’s attendance made it to 222,668 while 2010 had 207,647 in attendance. To go along with this announcement the company also revealed that Tokyo Game Show in 2013 will be held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan from September 19 to the 22nd.
While there hasn’t been any news about Project X Zone making its way out of Japan, many gamers thought that it would simply be impossible thanks to the fact that the game contains characters from not just one, but three different publishers spanning across multiple franchises. In fact there are so many characters that listing out the franchises alone would create a massively long list and to top that off, there are still characters being revealed as late as last week!
Now with the game set to be released on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on October 11th, it seems that at least one man high-up on the publishing ladder is doing his best to make sure Project X Zone makes it to the West. Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, has revealed on Twitter that he has been pushing to localize the game.
He stated that “I proposed localization of Project X Zone.” and went on to say that the company has “Not decided yet, but It will be realized if I continue proposing.” This would certainly be a monumental effort if the game does get localized, and it will be interesting to see if Sega and Capcom will help promote the game if a localization does come to pass.
Resident Evil 6 is the dramatic and horrific fear inducing blockbuster entertainment experience of 2012, delivered by The Godfather of Survival Horror. Take a look at the most recent Live Action TV Trailer entitled “Cries For Help” As the commercial progresses you can certainly feel the goosebumps on your arms and neck starting to tingle!
Some of the Key Features of Resident Evil 6 below:
• 4 closely interwoven scenarios each with their own protagonists and challenges, come together in Resident Evil to reveal the truth about a global bio terrorist attack
• Experience the horror of Resident Evil 6 from three different perspectives. Feel the intense fear as Leon investigates the President’s murder; the horrific action as Chris fights in China and the tension as Jake escapes from Eastern Europe.
• Team up and share the horror of Resident Evil 6 with online co-op action for up to 4 players
• Face unpredictable enemies in Resident Evil 6. Zombies that run, jump and wield weapons plus the deadly J’avo that, when hit mutate into any number of hideous forms.
• Check online stats, progression and compare to friends on the free residentevil.net service
Keep up to date with the latest info here at Capsule but also on the Official Resident Evil Facebook and Twitter Pages.
If you happen to be a fan of the Phi Brain: Puzzle of God anime then we have some good news for you. The Anime World + blog of NHK has revealed that the anime will be getting a third season sometime in 2013. Currently the second season of the anime just wrapped up today and has been streaming free on Crunchyroll.
It is worth noting that Sentai Filmworks already owns the license for both the first and second season of the show, so it would be quite a surprise if they didn’t pick up this third season once it becomes available. Any Phi Brain fans surprised to see a third season of this show or is this something that many viewers probably should have expected?
Now I’m sure by now most of you have seen Luke Hallidays impressions of the first day of Animania on our site. Now I want to say that today was really an echo of yesterdays event, only with some minor changes and a whole lot less people. In fact, there were so few attendees that one would not be called out for calling the event a ghost town.
What was really confusing for myself, and probably many attendees, was a lack of a detailed map anywhere on the premises. I mean, sure they handed out dungeon maps with every showbag, but I still had no idea where any of the panel rooms were even after examining the map. They certainly weren’t near the show-floor like a person would expect. This then makes me wonder how many people present at the convention actually sat in on the panels. Most of the people I spoke to had no idea they were even running any. This thought actually reminded me of yesterday when Luke and I first entered and how one of the volounteers actually had to enter the show floor to entice people to come along to a panel. Not good.
I’ve attended Animania as a paying customer for the two years prior to this and I have to say that the lack of training in the volounteers was less (meaning the volounteers were slightly more trained) back then than it was at this years. However, the volounteers that I spoke to were really friendly and I did meet this one cute Elite Four member that totally owned me in a Pokemon battle.
You see, present at the event was a challenge set up for Pokemon trainers to complete called the Elite Four challenge. This is where players would battle against Animania volounteers in a battle that resembles the Elite Four challenge at the end of a Pokemon game. The winners of these challenges would get bragging rights and their name plastered onto a Pokeball in pen for everyone else at the convention to admire. I had no chance. My Pokemon: the second evolution of that fire-pig, that grass monkey and that other one just could not compete.
I really wanted to check out the Karaoke free-singing today (and by check out, I mean participate in) but was sidetracked by taking photos of cosplayers. What was really weird was that even though the Karaoke was scheduled to still be running (according to the green block that covered all the way ’til 3PM), at around 2:30pm the room was nowhere to be found. Ah well, maybe next year.
The two cosplay events I attended were incredibly fun affairs. These were the Cosplay Show and the Cosplay Catwalk. The Cosplay Show had entrants perform a sketch for the audience to enjoy, whilst the Cosplay Catwalk was purely for posing. Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was amazing. I want his drill to pierce the heavens! GIGGAAAA DRILLLL BREAKKAAAAA!
Apart from those things, I really didn’t see all that much on the day. I gleaned into some of the panels being held on the Chibi Stage, but there wasn’t anything particularly interesting with regard to my tastes. What made it worse for the people running these panels was that the stage was pushed into some obscure corner of the show floor, rather than in a centralised location. To make matters even worse, there were no signs on for the stage until you were standing in front of is door, which there’s no way you’d notice unless you actually saw someone else heading there first. Heck even the movement guidelines on the floor moved away from the chibi stage. Not towards it, away. This really needed to be more centralised and the door placed in an obviously assuming position. Also it needs to be more clearly marked. A piece of paper covered in plastic placed on the door itself does not help the stage in one bit.
Overall it feels like Animania is in dire need of a change in leadership. It feels like the team have gotten used to doing everything the same and not changing anything, which is really hurting the convention in the long run. I had a peek at the Animania Facebook page and there are a lot of people saying that they will not be attending again in the future. However, I’m more of the hopeful type and I really do hope that Animania can get their acts together and turn this once legendary convention into the countries top convention. Also, lower the door price. Increasing prices does nothing but draw people away from you.
As a hopeful attendee, I really do hope you guys find a way to make Animania fun again. I really, really do. I do not want to see an Anime convention close; but it really feels like this one is going to be heading that way very soon.
I have to say that given how empty our day at Animania was in regards to persons per inch, we still managed to take at least double the photographs in comparison to yesterdays run. These great costumes echoed yesterdays sentiment of this event having a high standard in costumes on display.
My most favourite cosplay of the day would have to have been Adult Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann with his drill that will pierce the heavens. I bumped into him briefly before the cosplay catwalk, but unfortunately he was on the phone so I decided to leave him alone. Even more unfortunate was that I could not find him again that day; even after the catwalk. This made me a bit sad.
Todays event consisted of a Cosplay Show which involved cosplayers getting together in groups to perform in front of the audience. While these weren’t as epic as the WCS sketches, they were equally enjoyable and there were more of them. I don’t think anyone in the audience was displeased with any of the acts on stage. I know that I, myself, was quite amused.
A few hours after the Cosplay Show was the Cosplay Catwalk. This event had an amazing turnout in regards to both audience size and the amount of participating entrants. I’m reasonably certain that everyone in attendance at the convention on that day was watching this show. Of course, I can’t be in two places at once to verify this, so you’ll have to apply your own experiences to this statement. Each of the entrants in this show had an amazing costume and posed beautifully for the audience to admire them. Photo’s were also welcome. Unfortunately for me, a team of soldiers flashlight hit my camera, disorientating it slightly, so I may have missed one or two cosplayers in the shoot.
Overall the cosplayers in attendance had some amazing outfits. They were all brilliant to look at and all the cosplayers I spoke to were really pleasant people to be in the company of. I look forward to working with so much talent in the future!
Be sure to check out the gallery below to see all of our photos from the event. These also include a plethora of shots from the WCS. You can also check out the gallery on our Facebook(Day 2 starts with the picture of the tree, where it starts in this gallery) page.
As always this year’s COS PLAY line up at Tokyo Game Show was absolutely amazing! This year’s Cos Play Characters came out in force and were dresed to impress like never before! Feast your eyes on over 500+ pictures of the Cos Play characters from Video Games such as Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Assassin’s Creed and an amazing array of Anime and Manga characters as well. Some outfits would taken months to create but were well worth the effort as this years crowds were absolutely loving every Cos Play character in attendance. For some of the more popular Cos Players you had to line up just to take photos.
Check out all the pics below and let us know which one was your favorite. Leave a comment well give away a random video game prize to one of you out there.
You can also check out our full gallery of this years Cos Play at TGS 2012 over on our official FACEBOOK page, make sure to like us as well!
The Playstation Portable version of Final Fantasy III will be heading to the West after all after it was confirmed on the Playstation Blog that the game will be released in North America this week on the 25th of September. However, it will only be released on the Playstation Network as a digital copy, with no mention of a physical release. This should come as no surprise since the PSP market is virtually non-existent in the West. With that said, despite the fact it is for the PSP, the game should work on the Playstation Vita.
With the release of Final Fantasy III in the West, the number of main Final Fantasy games have reached nine, at least in North America. Even though there has been no announcement on an European PSN release, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it did reach the European and PAL territories. While it isn’t for the Vita, the game will boast new features such as graphics optimized for the 16:9 screen, an image gallery, an option to switch to the original BGM and an auto-battle system that doubles the speed of combat.
All around the world on PlayStation 3s, Xbox 360s and PCs gamers are exploring the world of Pandora. It is a strange world full of dangerous creatures, some of which are quite badass in nature, bandits and of course vault hunters looking for answers, riches and more guns than you can possibly ever imagine.
If you aren’t one of these vault hunters exploring the world of Pandora right now then what is holding you back? Because Borderlands 2 has now been released worldwide! Though I must warn you, that Maya is certainly one of the best character choices out there… too bad she is reserved as this editor’s class as of this moment! See you and your fellow gamers on Pandora soldier!
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Developer:Namco Bandai Publisher: Namco Bandai Platforms:PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed) Release Date:September 11, 2012 Price:$59.99 – Available Here
Overview: There have been many Tekken games released ever since the series first debuted back in the mid ‘90s, however all these games, including multiple ones released after it, are overshadowed by a certain title released in 1999. That title is Tekken Tag Tournament, a game which most fans of the series will still claim is their favorite title in the franchise. Now, more than a decade after the release of the first game, Namco Bandai has released Tekken Tag Tournament 2. With a rather large shadow to overcome, does Tekken Tag Tournament 2 surpass its predecessor?
Story: Fans of the first Tekken Tag Tournament may recall that the game was absolutely devoid of a story mode, with even the most simple arcade fights being nothing but a series of unstructured fights. Well… that has been partially retained in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, but rather than having barely any storyline, every character in the massive roster actually has an ending cutscene in the arcade mode, usually involving something completely nonsensical or comedic.
Plus, Tag Tournament 2 features a new mode titled Fight Lab, which will be discussed momentarily as far as gameplay goes. This Fight Lab sees players taking control of a personal Combot who is being created and trained by the eccentric Violet. As players make their way through various chapters in the Fight Lab there are a few little snippets of a story here, though it mostly revolves around the oddball Violet harassing his secretary. Ultimately this means that there aren’t large overarching storylines here, but what is provided is rather hilarious and enjoyable for what it is.
Visuals: If you thought that Tekken 6 was visually impressive than you will be quite surprised to learn that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 does a rather nice job improving on what was already seen as outstanding visuals. Most stages that the player chooses to fight on are varied well enough (some being quite outlandish) and are visually pleasing. To top that off, a number of them feature a few breakaway areas where the fight will continue in a separate area from where it began.
As far as the characters go, Namco Bandai’s team has outdone themselves this time by increasing the level of detail on most of the complicated characters. Considering how many characters are packed into this release and the amount of customization which will be discussed shortly, the design of each fighter is rather impressive.
Audio: The minor voice acting for the cast of fighters is standard in quality and they all sound the same as fans will remember, though Violet’s voice actor really helps sell his eccentric character. Now as far as the fighting music is concerned, there is your standard collection of fast paced techno music which is absolutely wonderful to fight to. Players can even customize the songs that will play during each stage via the Tekken Tunes menu, allowing them to choose the best music to pump them up for the fight.
Gameplay: Those who have played Tekken 6 already will be familiar with a number of aspects which are worked into Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s main fighting style, such as the Rage system which allows for a fighter to receive a boost in strength once they have lost a certain amount of health, the air juggling, blocking and everything else that made the series great. What is interesting with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is that not only has the rage system been modified to work with two characters, but the whole game has been revamped to combine the aspects of tag team fighting.
Interestingly enough, Rage in Tekken Tag 2 still activates at random times, however it will occasionally activate sooner or later depending on whether your selected tag team actually likes their partner. While this does put a bit of a damper on players putting together two of their favorite characters who happen to hate each other, this is a rather interesting re-working of the system based on past character relations.
As mentioned before, there are a number of new abilities players can use a number of special attacks that are only possible with their tag partner, such as tag throws, tag crashes and tag assaults which allow players to perform lengthy combo attacks while safely switching between fighters, in fact tag assaults can even allow both of a player’s fighters to attack at the same time.
If this sounds a little bit confusing, don’t worry too much if you happen to be a newcomer to the Tekken franchise. As mentioned earlier, Namco Bandai has created the Fight Lab mode as an extended tutorial which goes over a number of the game’s more complicated systems in an easy to understand way, though it is entirely possible to hit a wall during practice which will halt your learning entirely which will be frustrating for newcomers eager to learn more, but stuck on one move they simply cannot manage to pull off.
Outside of the Fight Lab mode and the aforementioned Arcade mode, there are a few of your standard inclusions such as a Versus mode to take on computer opponents or a friend on the couch, team battles, survival, time attack and your standard training exercises. One thing that is quite interesting is the fact that players can also play a mode called “Pair Play” which allows four people to play at one time, each one taking the role of one fighter and tagging in and out with their partner as needed. This mode is an absolute blast to play with friends and helps get more people into the game at one time. Unfortunately most of the offline offerings are bare-bones outside of Fight Lab and the moderately enjoyable Arcade mode.
It is worth noting that despite the fact that there are an outrageous amount of characters to choose from in Tekken Tag 2 (literally every character ever in the franchise minus a certain little yellow dinosaur), the game seems balanced well enough if you know what you are doing. It does seem however that some tag assaults can be quite brutal as the amount of juggling that can be pulled off can make a fight almost one sided.
Speaking of balance, there is also a way for players to fight against a tag team as a solo fighter. The way this is balanced out is that the solo fighter will initially be placed into rage mode, giving them a bit of an edge over any standard solo fighter and placing the fight on equal ground.
When a player takes his skills online he will find a rather slim selection of modes to choose from, with your standard ranked and unranked matches being the only thing to choose from. This is quite strange and a bit of a letdown considering the fact that netcode for Tekken Tag 2 works very well as nearly every fight went smoothly. It is worth noting however that to enter into any online fights, the player will need to input an online pass first, so heads-up on that regard.
While there are a huge amount of characters to choose from, there are also plenty of ways to customize every one of these characters as well. Players will be able to deck out their favorite fighters with everything from standard outfits to completely off the wall outfits. There are even a couple of items which can be used as a weapon in the fight itself which makes customization not only a side-project but a way to spice up your fight.
Overall: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 takes what was laid out by its predecessors and improves upon it by offering not only one of the favorite modes that gamers have missed, but by doing it so well. While nothing too new outside of the Fight Lab has been added, Tekken Tag 2 feels like the culmination of everything the Tekken series has been, minus a story and fleshed out online options of course. Ultimately this does feel like a bit of a loss however, as while there are a number of enjoyable single player options, online mode is pretty much the only option for you to find extended play. As it stands, with the entire Tekken roster to choose from and customize, tight combat mechanics and a smooth online mode Tekken Tag Tournament 2 provides a rather satisfactory experience, though one lacking in offline options.
