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.
Hackers have crippled the GoDaddy web hosting firm, taking them offline and essentially affecting potentially millions of websites which use the GoDaddy servers to run their websites from. According to SMH a member of the collective hacking group known as Anonymous has taken credit for the attack, but has not as of yet explained his reasoning. AnonymousOwn3r, the “security leader” for the organisation has spoken of the attacks through Twitter and taking responsibility for the servers outage time which is undetermined.”Hello http://godaddy.com/ now yes! all servers #tangodown by @AnonymousOwn3r,” was the message he tweeted and also let everyone know he was working alone not as the Anonymous group.
GoDaddy servers host a whole range of websites, over 5 million in fact which range from auction sites through to media watching sites, all of which are potentially affected by the hack. They have issued their own statements on Twitter explaining the situation to their customers and user base, apologising for the downtown and assuring people they were doing everything they could to get things back up and running. When asked about his motivation the hacker said he was testing their cyber security, and for other reasons he couldnt talk about.
BulkyPix announced two new games for the iOS devices today. Music Master Chopin comes in two flavours depending on your preferred instrument. Music Master Chopin: Classic allows players to get behind a piano and tickle the keys. For those who prefer a harder sound, Music Master Chopin: Rock lets players shred their way through Chopin’s works. The games features the familiar Guitar Hero/Rockband style game play with 26 unlockable tracks, four difficulty levels and 70 pieces of information about Chopin’s life and work that is rewarded after each successful level. The games costs $5.49 AUD each, so rock out to Chopin here. No word when the Classic version will hit the App store so stay tuned to Capsule computers for the latest info.
We sat down with John Newcomer the Director of Game Design at MumboJumbo to talk about their new game Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can.
What type of game is Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can?
Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can is an adventure-crime drama with a gripping storyline involving murders in the past and present. It features 3D elements seamlessly integrated in over 150 realistically rendered backgrounds, unique story-driven puzzles and a captivating main character you work with to catch the killer.
What inspired you to create Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can?
The resurgence of adventure games along with the popularity of paranormal crime-solving television shows. We thought a realistic crime solving game with supernatural undertones would be fun.
Tell us about the Angelica Weaver character:
Angelica is an unconventional detective on Chicago’s special task force who is called in when forensics and traditional police work hit a roadblock. In addition to her superior observation and deductive skills, Angelica has the ability to experience a victim’s last sights, smells and feelings. She knows where a victim fell even at the coldest of crime scenes and still connects to their lingering spirits. Her link with the dead allows her to jump back and forth between murder scenes on the streets of historic London and present day Chicago.
What was your process for writing the story?
The story and gameplay are completely intertwined. I did intense research to find historical murders to give our story credibility. I needed a depth of victims and suspects to support a full-length game, and environments that lended themselves to layering in puzzles that fit the storyline and action. London of 1888 works as an interesting contrast to present-day Chicago.
The story is a thinly veiled rendition of Jack the Ripper with unnecessary violence discarded to make Angelica Weaver a casual thriller. What intrigued me was using the suspects as characters and figuring out how their various occupations would provide entertaining settings for the clues, puzzles and overall adventure. Some actual Ripper locations are included, but we also needed locations at convenient distances for smooth gameplay.
How is Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can different from earlier MumboJumbo games?
While similar to our Midnight Mysteries series, which blend fantasy with historical fact, the Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can storyline incorporates paranormal crime solving in both modern day and historical settings. To support the two time periods and the integration of 3D elements, the art style, gameplay and storytelling are more complex.
With our Samantha Swift series, we touched on making the title character a predominant feature, but with Angelica Weaver we’ve taken it a step further. She is animated in the HUD and steps out to interact with victims at crime scenes throughout the game. She also relays clues and observations to the player through voice over.
We included several new game features that help pace the gameplay. The tutorial system is more refined, and we streamlined the way the inventory is displayed. We also separated character comments that help further the story from general commentary, which was put into “black bar text.”
Were there any notable ideas in the conceptual phase of Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can that were great on paper but cut later?
It took a lot of thought to develop ideas that would most appeal to our target audience for Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can. What I think may be fun to play does not always match what our customer thinks will be fun to play. If you don’t put on your customer hat, think of new ideas and play through the game from a customer’s perspective, you lose… game over.
Initially, the story had details on more victims and suspects, with more weight on historical accuracy. We determined that having too many names to keep track of added confusion and took away from the gameplay.
What were the biggest challenges the team faced in making Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can?
First, ensuring the more complex art style (merged 2D and 3D components) made the game more compelling and aided story telling. Secondly, the quantity of puzzles required to sustain a full game and bonus chapter. Creating puzzles that are fresh, fit the story, entertain the player, and are valid for a variety of skill levels, requires tremendous collaboration of the design, programming and art teams.
What feature in Angelica Weaver: Catch Me If You Can are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the overall entertainment value of the game. If I were to break that into a feature it would be how the story and gameplay are married together.
Crunch in video game development is notoriously demanding. How does the MumboJumbo team cope?
In the end, it comes back to our love of games. It’s fun to complete something you are proud to have associated with your name. The core team has been together for over four years, making it easy to get into a rhythm that pushes us through the end.
What games do you play outside of the projects you are working on in the office?
My favorite game is, was and ever will be chess.
What is your favorite part of creating games at MumboJumbo?
Seeing the game design storyboards come to life in the playable builds.
Angelical Weaver: Catch Me When You Can is out on PC and can be purchased from Big Fish Games here. A big thank you to the team at MumboJumbo for taking the time to answer our questions.
Since the announcement of Google’s Project Glass this past April, and the demonstration of the Oculus Rift at E3 in June, community interest in virtual reality headsets has reached an all time high. Now, Valve has thrown their hat into the VR ring.
In a special New York Times feature, an NVIS headset which was demonstrated by Gordon Stoll, engineer at Valve, is described as “a boxy set of goggles that looks like a 22nd-century version of a View Master.” Project leader Michael Abrash truly believes that, with their planned virtual reality glasses, in a mere three to five years “credible augmented reality games” will be available to us.
The Oculus Rift May Have Some Competition
Although Valve are very excited for the realisation of these plans, they may not actually create the hardware themselves as “it’s ultimate goal is to share its designs freely.” Abrash states that “we don’t particularly want to be a company that makes hardware in large quantities. It’s not what we do.” To read more from the 3 page feature, visit The New York Times.
It looks like a representative from High Voltage Studios, the developers of The Conduit, has teased some info regarding the Wii shooter series. While answer questions on GamerFAQ’s, the representative said the following:
“We haven’t forgotten about Conduit over here, either. I would expect some new Conduit-related news before the year is out.”
This isn’t the only franchise the guys over at High Voltage are working on. They are currently working on Zone of the Enders: HD Collection (which was originally developed by Kojima Productions). While no one knows what the news is, we can only hope that it will do better than The Conduit 2 did.
Since Dead or Alive 5 was announced only one new character has officially been revealed for the game besides two crossover characters from Virtua Fighter 5. While the new male character Rig may be a bit of a crowd pleaser, it has been revealed that a new female character will be included in the game as well.
Her name is Mila and she is a mixed martial-arts fighter who apparently is a huge fan of Bass Armstrong as she petition’s Tina for a few pointers in her fighting style. The video revealing Mila can be seen below, though it is worth noting that it may be removed at some point thanks to the fact that it was leaked ahad of Tecmo Koei’s official unveiling. Will this feisty redhead be given a swimsuit to match the rest of the female cast’s? Probably, but we shall see.
When Nintendo launches Pokemon Black and White Version 2 in North America there will be a special treat for those who pick it up early. Anyone who happens to play these games between October 12th, the release date, and November 12th will be able to gain access to a “Mythical” Pokemon which is called Genesect.
Players will be able to obtain Genesect through the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection in the US. As for Genesect itself, the bug/steel type Pokemon can be seen to the right, with it looking like a cross between a tank and a strange purple bug. Then again, most recent Pokemon already have strange appearances so this one will fit right in with the rest.
When Nintendo launches Pokemon Black and White Version 2 in North America there will be a special treat for those who pick it up early. Anyone who happens to play these games between October 12th, the release date, and November 12th will be able to gain access to a “Mythical” Pokemon which is called Genesect.