“Attention! Attention all survivors! Proceed to Airfield B-13 for an emergency evacuation…”
Welcome to the world of Earn To Die, a game of survival where you take a decrepit vehicle to drive through the barren desert full of rotting zombies to reach safety! This popular Flash game has been played over 150 million times and now the teams that brought it to life, Toffee Gamesand Sydney-based Not Doppler, will soon be releasing it for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch through App Store. The game’s features include a new Story Mode with eight new levels, eight customisable vehicles, Championship Mode to challenge your friends and improved graphics.
We’ll keep you updated on the release date but it has been announced that the game will be available at $0.99USD for the iPhone and iPod Touch and $2.99 for the iPad.
Nordic Games has revealed the second batch of songs that will feature in their upcoming music video game, We Sing 80s. The game, which will be released in September 28 for the Nintendo Wii, will feature 30 hits from the 80s and Nordic Games has been gradually announcing songs from the tracklist every week through the Facebook Jukebox app. This week’s batch includes three US Billboard Hot 100 #1s; Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors, Tears For Fears’ Shout and former American Idol judge, Paula Abdul’s Straight Up. Joining them are Yazoo’s Only You, Lisa Stansfield’s All Around the World, Simple Minds’ Alive and Kicking, and Baltimora’s Tarzan Boy.
Tracks that were previously announced:
Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky
Spandau Ballet – True
Musical Youth – Pass the Dutchie
Yazz and the Plastic Population – The Only Way Is Up
DeBarge – Rhythm of the Night
Smokey Robinson – Being With You
Roxette – The Look
Head to the Facebook Jukebox app for your chance to win a copy of the game by correctly guessing one of the songs that will be revealed next week!
We all know about Halo 4’s beauty of a 360 hitting shelves later this year, but those of you who are looking for something a bit less extravagant on the hardware front to play Black Ops II on this season will be happy to know that Microsoft and Activision will be releasing a 250 GB Xbox 360 (black in color) with the latest Call of Duty for Australia.
Of course this system comes with all of the normal fixings to get players up and online to gain their ranks, and with the added new release of Black Ops II as a nice little bonus. On November 13th 2012, fans will be able to purchase the Call of Duty Black Ops II 250GB console bundle with controller for AU $499.00.
Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise released earlier this year in the states as Rhythm Heaven Fever, and gave yet another reason for Wii owners to get out that WiiMote and turn up their speakers. Recently, Nintendo of Australia announced that the sequel to the hit DS game would be hitting shelves in Australia and New Zealand on September 13th.
Here is a brief description of what you can expect if you have yet to see the awesomeness thus far:
For the first time on home consoles, the quirky rhythm-based action of Rhythm Heaven—which was first enjoyed on Nintendo DS, now comes to Wii with Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise. Featuring 50 brand new rhythm games, gather your friends and family round the TV to experience a colourful world of eccentric characters and funny situations that Rhythm Heaven fans have come to know and love.
From playing golf with mandrill to controlling a flowerpot-punching karate man, everything has to be done in time to the beat to win. Try not to let the craziness occurring on screen distract you from the music because it is keeping the rhythm that counts. If you do stop to look at whats going on then you wont be disappointed, as each of the 50 rhythm games has their own short story featuring the classic Rhythm Heaven humour. Fans will also be able to switch between the Japanese and English soundtracks covering many musical styles. Some games can be played in co-op mode, so why not invite a friend to play with you? The aim is to play together and master the different rhythms; the more compatible you are, the higher your score!
On another note, the very creative hit Freakyforms is getting both a full retail and digital release for the region, as “Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive!”. Yes folks, the same kind of insane creation applies, with quite a bit of extra content.
What kind of extras you say? Check the deets out for yourself.
Let your imagination run wild when Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! launches for Nintendo 3DS. Available as a boxed retail game and as a digital download on Nintendo eShop, bring your very own creatures to life, plucking each designed element from the depths of your mind to create something truly unique. Known as formees, your customised creatures are created on a drawing board featuring a large palette of shapes, body parts and colours that can be put together and tweaked to transform them into pretty much anything. The only limit is your imagination.
As the expanded version of the Nintendo 3DS Download Software title: Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive!, this eccentric game is packed full of user-generated content and contains a wide range of new features for you to enjoy. Once you’ve mastered the drawing board and brought a team of formees to life, it is time to explore the side-scrolling platform aspects of the game, exploring your personally customised planet and completing quests as you go.
For the first time, you can now also showcase your formees with other Nintendo 3DS users in multiplayer mode, in addition to sharing them over StreetPass or via QR Codes. It also comes with the option of utilising Download Play, so if you wish to play with a friend who doesn’t own the game then they will be able to join in with the creative fun.
Both of these titles launch in Australia and New Zealand on September 13th, so mark your calenders and get to planning your rhythmic and artistic bliss!
Ever since Kung Fu Strike’s debut in June for the PC, developer Qooc Soft alongside publisher 7sixty Games have been anxiously awaiting its Xbox Live Arcade arrival. Gamers will wait no longer as Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior’s Rise is now available for only 800 MSP.
The story surrounds General Loh who is determined to declare a temple as his first post against the incoming invasion. Ancient China begins to unravel more secrets that even bares close lineage to Loh’s bloodline. Betrayal does not set well with this general, and he becomes enraged as the enemy progressively is revealed.
Kung Fu Strike offers 28 campaign / co-campaign levels that will test your strength even on the easiest difficulty. Try to defeat the evil that lurks under your nose alone or with a friend to unlock diehard achievements. You can also enjoy unlockable abilities and equipment as you complete challenges throughout the story mode.
We are now just one week away from Billy and Jimmy’s grand revival in the form of Double Dragon Neon, and damn, does it look rad. Yes, this title is set to give Double Dragon fans a full blast of 80’s flavor, with epic music, neon lights, and a new art design that pulls everything together into one powerful reboot.
Today, a new trailer was released showing off the soundtrack, enemies, and the smooth gameplay in general, and as you can tell, we are very excited about what is coming our way. Check out the clip below for yourself as well as a handful of new screens, and we will keep the updates rolling out until our own review goes live for Double Dragon Neon, which hits the PSN and Xbox Live Arcade next week.
HyperDevBox released the final installment of the Spectral Souls series on Android. Blazing Souls Accelate was originally designed for the PSP by Tokyo Studio Idea Factory. HyperDevBox ported the game to the Android platform. “We are really proud to bring Blazing Souls Accelate to Android,” says HyperDevbox founder and CEO Carlo Perconti. “This is a new high-quality game, in keeping with our mission to deliver premium full games to Android users. With the release of Blazing Souls Accelate, we’re showing our customers that we listen carefully to their needs for full games without in-app purchases.” The game features 100s hours of tactical RPG gameply, an enhanced battle system with special chain skills, breaks, and overkills, freedom to roam, high resolution graphics, and support for both touch screen and keyboard. Blazing Souls Accelate costs around $15 US and is available on the Google Play store here.
Corpse Princess Shikabane Hime Studio: Gainax, Feel Publisher: Madman Format: DvD Release Date: July 4, 2012 Price: $59.95 (Buy Here)
Overview
What if you regretted something in your life so much that you just could not let it go, even after death? What if it was possible that these regrets were so strong that you could essentially come back to life in order to fulfill them? That is what, essentially, a Shikabane is. Someone with such a powerful regret that they have not been able to pass onto the next life.
Shikibane Hime are essentially undead women who must battle with Shikabane with the assistance of their Kougon Sect monk masters. Upon reaching 108 Shikabane kills, they are finally allowed to leave this world and get into heaven. However for Makina, this is only secondary to her primary objective – defeating those Shikabane responsible for the deaths of herself and her family.
Story
When people die with really strong regrets, there is a chance that their bodies will not leave this world. People that end up like this are known as Shikibane and they are powered by their strongest and most unresolved regrets. To battle these are a monk sect known as the Kougon Sect that work with undead warrior women known as Shikabane Hime.
What makes this story so interesting is that not only do each of the characters have their own motivations for hunting down Shikabane, or working within the Kougon Sect, but they all have such unique personalities. For example, the main characters older adoptive brother is a massive goofball with a serious side to him, whereas his Shikabane Hime is incredibly focused and dangerous.
The series initially feels like a monster of the week type of deal, which is something that I was pretty okay with because there did seem to be some kind of underlying story waiting to be told, but after a few episodes it seemed to have switched into a more arc-like story. Honestly speaking, I much prefer watching series that have a story arc over monster of the week types of deals. I feel that this series has benefited from switching the formula by the second disc.
What really makes this series great though, is the fact that some bad things happen and there are consequences on the characters for getting it wrong. In one episode we see this really clearly when the Shikibane Hime Makina loses her arm. There is also a much stronger example in the series, but I wont go into that here.
Visuals
Visually speaking, Corpse Princess has some pretty cool looking visuals. The art style is typically Gainax whilst also carrying some rather fine touches in visual quality and fluidity in animation.
In this series, each of the characters look fairly unique which makes identifying them much easier. For instance, no two Shikabane Hime look the same. However, there is an exception to this rule in relation to some of the lesser characters in the Kougon Sect. I’m pretty sure I saw the same bald-headed monk three times in one scene.
As an Anime series with a focus on action and monsters, these things must be represented visually within the series. And I must say that all of the action sequences are not only directed wonderfully, but are also incredibly fluid. There are also a bunch of pretty gross looking things happening in some of the sequences, like this one guy has captured a whole bunch of souls in a cube thing and uses parts of their bodies as shields, weapons and the like.
This is definitely a series where visual quality has been a large priority for the producers and it really shows. Fans of quality will definitely want to check this series out.
Audio
Beautiful Fighter is easily one of my now all time favourite anime openings. Having that opening theme for this series was brilliant and set the tone of each episode beautifully. Not only that, the first ending theme was incredibly awesome but was followed by one that didn’t quite sit right with me. Sadly this is the case with most anime ending themes and is not a case that I particularly enjoy.
I think I’ve mentioned this in previous reviews, but the dub track in this series had a kind of tinny-sound to it. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like there was this subtle grinding on the end of each word. It’s not a deal-breaker by any stretch, it’s just really weird having that there if you can notice it.
What was actually really impressive with both the dub track and sub track was that the characters sounded like an accurate representation of each character. Although, I will admit that even if the dub doesn’t quite match up with the subtitles at times, it is still an enjoyable experience.
Overall the audio quality in Corpse Princess is a fairly solid deal. It isn’t revolutionary or groundbreaking, but for the kind of story it is – it doesn’t need to be.
Extras
What’s really great about Corpse Princess Shikibane Hime Complete Collection is that it comes with some pretty solid Special Features. The special features include commentaries, trailer and textless endings and openings. Whilst this may seem standard to most anime fans, it feels as though most current releases have been neglecting things like these.
With the commentary, you can listen to various cast members give out some interesting and entertaining spiel surrounding the show and working on it. Commentary tracks are always a great addition to shows and the tracks on this anime exemplify that.
And that just leaves the opening and closing clean animations without all the text and trailers. Not really much to talk about with these, the animations are quite good and worth the watch. The songs are awesome too. And lastly, trailers! Trailers are trailers, I don’t know why but I always seem to watch through them.
Overall
Corpse Princess Shikabane Hime Complete Collection is an amazing package over an amazing series. Whilst it is not a work of art in any stretch, it is incredibly detailed and fluid that it doesn’t really matter. The show is also able to provide a fair amount of feels throughout the story which is always a plus for me. Anime fans will not find any regrets in purchasing this series.
Apple is to likely to unveil the new iPhone 5 at an official invite only event in San Francisco in exactly one week from now on September 12. The iPhone 5 is expected to be thinner, larger, and more powerful than its predecessor.
Apple has released the following teaser image showing the date 12 with a shadowy 5. The new iPhone 5 is expect to bring more than just the small cosmetic changes and hardware update seen in last year’s iPhone 4S announcement, and instead will be updated significantly.
On the rumour mill, iPhone 5 is “said” to have new redesigned two-tone unibody, a redesigned dock connector, 4G LTE, new NFC technology, a larger 4-inch display using Sharp’s IGZO technology along new redesigned earbuds.
Rome: Total War Anthology Developer: Creative Assembly Publisher: SEGA/Avanquest Software Platform: PC Release Date: Out Now Price: £19.99 – Available Here
Overview:
Welcome to Rome. Welcome to war. And now, welcome to 2004. Back then, playing Rome: Total War meant going to the past in the sense of recreating the great Roman campaigns rather than in the sense of revisiting an older game. But hasn’t it aged well? Avanquest Software has helpfully compiled a comprehensive edition of the game for pseudo-Caesars, featuring Rome: Total War and the Barbarian Invasion and Alexander expansion packs, all at a budget price of £20.
Story:
Both through a number of given historical battles and a free-flowing, long-winded but thoroughly enjoyable roaming campaign mode, you live out dreams of being a Roman general. Your orders sculpt every aspect of your campaign, from where to strike enemy forces in battle to where on the map to direct the expansion of your empire first.
Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion sees a shadow cast over Rome; the unified empire died with the last Emperor and it’s every man for himself. You stuck with Rome through the glory days and now the barbarians are here you must lead your people through the darker days. The second expansion pack, Rome: Total War Alexander, challenges you to better one of history’s legendary war generals as the map expands beyond the regions that acted as your playground in the first two iterations. Like Barbarian Invasion, the expansion pack introduces a number of new factions and troop-types, but now you take up a new East-bound heading to Macedonia and the Persian Empire.
Gameplay:
One of the reasons Rome: Total War has lasted so well and still stands its ground amongst other more modern titles is it was so ahead of its time and one of the leading strategy games on the market back then. It did the basics well but at the same time was an innovator, offering scale and depth to your warfare that hadn’t been done before. Even now it’s still impressive how it seems to have a system for everything, from sieges and soldier formations to advancing your civilisation and generating a profit. Yes, the graphics haven’t held up quite so well, but its past prowess has put it in good stead for the current day as over half a decade on it’s still as playable as ever.
In combat the game comes to life; battles can be lost with one bad move just as they can be won with one show of quick-thinking. Also, visually it comes alive. Cavalry, foot soldiers with all manner of weapons, and special units like war dogs and armoured elephants do battle to stunning effect, the overview of hundreds, almost thousands of troops in varied, natural (an in the case of a siege, man-made) surroundings enough to bring out the war general in all of us.
There’s a start phase where you get to organise all your soldiers involved into formation before you commence the battle. The fight then wages on in real-time, unless you utilise controls to fast-forward if it’s a little slow going or pause time if it’s getting too hectic. The battle is won when the enemy retreats (ruthless leaders can give chase and chop them down up to their red line of safety or, in the case of a siege where there is nowhere to run, when the last man falls to the ground and the settlement is claimed.
Newbies are eased into proceedings with a prologue mission in which the ins and outs of the battle controls are explained. Thereafter, optional advice is given for battle and the goings-on in the campaign map when the game feels you could use some pointers. A magnifying glass button takes you to the point of reference.
Open war is only one part of the game. A section of a world map plays host to a sort of living and breathing board game. You, your Roman allies and all other factions take it in turns to move you forces, although it doesn’t stop at just moving armies around the board. You are responsible for managing all the settlements you control; setting the tax rate, build schedule and soldiers to be trained or recruited.
Also, in this turn-based phase you’ll have agents like spies and diplomats under your control. Spies can be put to use to get a sneak preview of enemy units before you go charging off into battle with them, whereas diplomats can negotiate to find a peaceful solution, establish trade routes or widen your knowledge of the map in which unknown areas are dark and unlabelled. You also receive missions from the senate which, though aren’t a total necessity, carry a reward for successful completion.
As you can imagine, this campaign map part of the game is as tactical as the actual battles, if a little less action-packed, and has just as vast a scale as the set pieces in the way a war of attrition with one faction can wage on for ages until a victor finally emerges. It works so well that this aspect of gameplay doesn’t feel like a stop-gap between battles, the only inconsistency in quality coming in the form of naval warfare. While it shows just another string to its bow that you can take off in fleets of boats, transporting armies and engaging in naval warfare, the actual combat at sea hasn’t even been attempted. Instead, all boat-to-boat battles are simulated and done in a couple of seconds based on probability, the same as if you choose to sim a battle inland instead of fighting it.
Visuals & Audio:
Visuals and audio are two aspects of a game that deteriorate with time. Fortunately, it hasn’t reached a point where they seem so dated as to make the game unbearable. Instead, it’s just something you notice but are relatively unaffected by. The game allows you to zoom right in to battles to see the action unfold at ground level, and it’s only here you even realise shortcomings. In fact, the sound effects have held up well, the only problem is the in-game animations don’t always match them. Loading screens all carry a proverb or quote from that era too, which is a nice touch.
Overall:
Fro the amount of playtime on offer in this three-way bundle, it works out as very cheap entertainment. Even though it is getting on, it hasn’t yet reached its yield point and the gameplay’s as good as it ever was. Sometimes it’s worth delving into the back catalogue to unearth some truly brilliant games, and this comes with a strong recommendation for lovers of the Roman era of warfare and tacticians who may have missed it the first time round. What better time to pick it up than on the eve of the release of Rome: Total War 2 in preparation for the sequel.
