The fine folks over at Lucasarts have released a new trailer for the upcoming Star Wars 1313 game. The trailer is titled Descent to the Underworld and gives us a nice look at the games unique settings.
The name 1313 represents this area beneath Coruscant where the underground criminal element is most active and as a result this game looks like it’s going to be a much darker take on the Star Wars universe than most people have seen in the past.
The game looks like it’s set somewhere near the contemporary Star Wars universe and it’ll be really interesting to see where this is going in the future. Be sure to check out the trailer below for more info.
Since Ive been playing a lot of retro 8-bit and 16-bit games lately just to remind myself of the days before hyped up cinema scenes and Hollywood sized budgets took over, I was intrigued at 2KGames and Gearbox 16-bit rendition of the well known shooter Borderlands. Named The Border Lands, it gives a unique lo-fi glimpse into many elements that are still visible in the current installment. While boasting that the whole thing can fit on 5 floppy discs, its probably easier for most of the general population just to visit here and start playing away. Gearbox and 2KGames teamed up with BAFTA winning creative agency Ralph for the project.
The Border Lands has been created with most inspiration being drawn from 1980’s styled titles, and to coincide with the launch a retro styled review can be seen here. In other Borderlands news, available internationally come September is the much anticipated Borderlands 2 featuring all new characters, skills, imaginative and immerse environments coupled with unique missions, enemies and destructively fun weapons. All pre-orders of Borderlands 2 from participating retailer will gain access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club. This allows players to download the Gearbox gunpack, Golden Key and Vault Hunters Relic.
We haven’t heard too much about Pokemon: Typing Adventure since it was first announced to be coming to Europe, but a new trailer has released as of recent to show players what to expect. As you would guess, this romp has players take control of a keyboard and type their way to success by simply inputting the correct names of the Pokemon they come across.
It’s rather simplistic, but still an interesting idea with a lot of heart. You can check out the clip below, and those in the region can expect this bundle to be out September 21st. Still no word on a North American release, but with Nintendo’s track record of localization, I would say there still is a possibility as this would make a fine Christmas item for the DS to fill up some shelves.
This weekend Grasshopper Manufacture showed off the first trailer for Killer is Dead during the Lollipop Chainsaw Summer Gratitude Festival. While the trailer has not been released yet to the public, Japanese website Game Watch happened to attend the festival and was able to write down many details about the game.
According to Kadokawa Games CEO Yoshimi Yasuda, the video was meant to be a special gift to the press who could make it to the event and the video featured a man in combat with a sword in his right arm while his left arm was entirely robotic. The man appeared to be the main character and he was alongside a female executioner. From what was shown, the video contains the same Suda feel as past games, with “high-contrast shading.”
Famitsu happened to report that the title will feature a shading style similar to what was used No More Heroes combined with the colorful and stylish feeling that Lollipop Chainsaw contained. Nothing more was revealed about the game at the moment, besides Suda saying he wanted the game to have a large amount of beautiful women. To close out the event the group revealed that Lollipop Chainsaw is the highest shipped game ever in Grasshopper Manufacture’s history with over 700,000 units shipped worldwide. We shall update you if the video of Killer is Dead happens to make its way online.
If you were hoping that Square Enix would be announcing a sequel to The World Ends With You when their countdown ended, then you will probably be a little disappointed to learn that, now that the countdown is indeed over, they have instead revealed that the game is going to be released on the iPhone and the iPad. Exciting.
The game will now be called The World Ends With You: Solo Remix and allow players to control two characters, though they will now be on the same screen. The iOS version of the game will feature 60 songs, a brand new fusion system and HD artwork. To go along with this announcement the company also released a new trailer for the title which can be seen below.
Those interested in picking up the title will be interested in learning that it will be released tomorrow on August 27th in both English and Japanese and will cost $18 on the iPhone and $20 on the iPad.
Welcome to the Second episode of The Gaming Connection with me as your host, Benjamin “LinkageAX” Webb. In this weeks extra-long second episode of the series, we take a look at the recently released and super-special awesome: Guild Wars 2. Most of this episodes gags are in the first 5 minutes, so feel free to skip ahead to the meat past that.
Also for the first time in the series, we have actual gameplay! And yes, the opening sequence is sped up just a little.
The Episode is titled The Gaming Connection with LinkageAX – Guild Wars 2. Hope you enjoy it!
Middle
– Why Guild Wars 2?
– What I’m liking
– Launch day issues
– Things I’m disliking
– Anything Else I might think of on the fly
Ending
-Closing Statements
-Connecting with you: What is your opinion on GW2 so far? #GamingConnection
-Send answers via Twitter, Comments Section below or my email [email protected]
-Check out my twitter @LinkageAX
-Check out our official website https://www.capsulecomputers.com.au
-See everyone off
-Adios.
Just remember guys, you can contact me on Twitter with any feedback and responses for the show @LinkageAX. You can also reach me privately at my email address [email protected].
The opinions shared in this series are my own and not reflect the views of Capsule Computers as a whole. Check out the video embedded below for this weeks Gaming Connection goodness.
It was revealed today that Nippon Ichi Software and Idea Factory have formed a new company which they are currently calling Preapp. The company will be based in Yokohama and was actually created back in July with only five employees.
The companies chose today to reveal the company because it began operating today with former NIS America president Haru Akenaga leading the company. The purpose of Preapp is to focus on overseas business consulting and licensing. Akenaga himself actually owns 75% of Preapp while Idea Factory and Nippon Ichi only hold 10% of the company which means it was likely Akenaga’s idea originally. Those interested in checking out Preapp’s site can view it here (in Japanese.)
A new trailer for Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn has been released this past week. As you can see in the trailer, it goes deep into detail on how the main characters of the web series feel about being at the academy and how they all feel about the “threat” they think they are up against. You learn some background info on the characters through their narration while the whole trailer is playing.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn will be releasing on October 5, 2012, on Machinima Prime and each episode will be about fifteen minutes in length. The game itself, Halo 4, will be releasing on November 6, 2012, on the Xbox 360.
Check out the trailer embedded below for more info.
The Australian division of 2kGames have released a new trailer for the upcoming tactical strategy game, XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This trailer is titled Casualties of War and takes a look at the importance of keeping your agents alive in the field of combat.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a reboot of the classic X-COM franchise from the early nineties and follows the invasion of Earth from alien foes. What made this series standout compared to other games at the time was a focus on tactical decisions from not only a combat perspective, but from a business/ military perspective also.
The concept of ‘Perma-death’ is also a concept that was largely involved in the series where players would be able to have their field operative get killed at any moment and they would be unable to resurrect them. This gave players a kind of connection to their units and having them lost is something most players did not like. This rebuild also carries this perma-death feature and this is what the trailer showcases.
Be sure to check out the trailer embedded below for more info.
Developer: Phosphor Games Studio Publisher: Zynga Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: August 16th, 2012 Price: $6.99 USD/$7.49 AUD Get It Here
Overview
Zynga partnered with game developers Phosphor Game Studio to publish Zynga’s first console quality core game. Phosphor Games Studio is already experienced with both casual games in the form of Kinect Adventures and the core game market through hit iOS action-adventure game Dark Meadows making it a perfect partnership for Zynga. Horn is an action-adventure game in the spirit of Legend of Zelda and Infinity Blade, can it draw the best of both worlds?
Story
Horn is loosely based on the stories of King Horn, a Middle English tale from the thirteenth century. Players take on the role of Horn, a young blacksmith’s apprentice who wakes up one day to find his village in ruins and all the living beings turned into giant magical creatures called Pygon. Horn manages to narrowly defeat one and takes the loud mouthed, abrasive, and foul tempered head with him on his journey to lift the Pygon curse from the land.
I found the story to be interesting and well written even though the story follows the traditional young man who is the only hero who can save the world archetype. The plot is moved forward through cut scenes that look like they came right out of a child’s storybook and in conversations between Horn and his contemptuous sidekick. Those conversations are witty and extremely funny; however I only wish there were more. It seems like these conversations are only triggered in at specific times in the levels. It would have been nice to hear more banter between Horn and his side kick to fill some of the quieter moments in the game.
Gameplay
Horn takes combat elements from Infinity Blade and adds adventuring mechanics from Legend of Zelda. Those looking for a wide open world to explore will be disappointed, as Horn is actually a very linear game. Players who are willing to explore not far off the beaten path will be rewarded with small areas full of bonus Pygite and Cores. Puzzles are just challenging enough to be interesting without being head banging annoying.
The combat is a slightly modified version of Infinity Blade’s slashing mechanics. There are buttons for dodging left, right, and up, drinking health potions, and a special bomb potion that will momentarily stun the enemy. Each enemy type has a core that can be attacked to inflict extra damage and specific attack patterns that need to be dodged. Each fight is judged out of five stars and the monetary reward is given out accordingly. Sometimes the five star rating feels a little arbitrary as there has been times I downed a monster in what I thought was record time, destroying the armour that hides the weak point and mercilessly beating down my opponent without taking any damage yet only being rewarded four stars for the fight. It would be very nice to see a minimum score required for a full five star rating so I could compare my performance against the expected five star performance.
There are plenty of weapons and items to craft and use in Horn. Alongside the two types of potions and Horn’s arm mounted crossbow, there are four subtypes of weapons to craft, swords, axes, war hammers, and long stick based weapons. Initially, only three of each type of weapons is available for crafting. Additional blue prints will need to be found, scattered across the world or purchased from the in game app store. Extra costumes, Pygite, and Cores can also be purchased through the in game app store for real life currency, although the game paces itself perfectly that it is completely unnecessary to purchase anything from the store to enjoy the game.
The controls are well implemented in Horn. Tapping moves Horn from place to place to place. The game is extremely responsive to tap commands. I only wish that there was an option to increase the size of certain UI buttons. Playing on an iPad can cause the dodge buttons to be too small to use comfortably at times.
I did encounter a few bugs in Horn including falling through the world, getting stuck in places and unable to move, and the game completely freezing. Thankfully these problems are few and far between. Levels are short enough that restarting the game is not too painful. Additionally, replaying the bugged area did not cause repeat errors.
Visuals
Horn is a beautiful game. The graphics take full advantage of the new iPad’s Retina display and runs without any slowdowns. Unfortunately there are clustered areas of the game can become a little visually repetitive. Although each zone is visually distinct, playing through each zone involves seeing what looks like the same dungeon over and over for six missions. The animations are well crafted and realistic. Horn is able to smoothly transition from running to climbing and back again.
The art style used for Horn is extremely traditional and reminiscent of a slightly more muted Fable. Earthy tones are heavily favoured in the colour palette. The cut scenes are animated like the storybook portions of the Shrek franchise with lots of 2d paper effects.
Audio
Horn is a fully voice acted game with a wonderful score and great sound effects. The voice acting is top notch with believable voices and strong acting performances. The score is worthy of a big budget console title. It provides the right amount of tension and helps create the whole Middle English fantasy theme. The sound effects are also well done. There are lots of ambient sounds to help immerse the player in the environment. Sound effects are varied and combat sounds extremely deadly with crushing blows and singing sword slashes.
Overall
Although plagued with a few technical bugs and small wish list of minor features that would make the game better, Horn manages to be an excellent effort from Phosphor Game Studio. Although not a perfect grand slam for publisher Zynga as their first foray into the core gaming market, Phosphor Games Studio delivers a solid home run by mixing the tried and true Infinity Blade combat formula with console style character driven adventure games. Priced at the same premium $6.99 price point as Infinity Blade II, Horn is worth the purchase thanks to a tight audio/visual package, strong gameplay, and entertaining story.
Since Ive been playing a lot of retro 8-bit and 16-bit games lately just to remind myself of the days before hyped up cinema scenes and Hollywood sized budgets took over, I was intrigued at 2KGames and Gearbox 16-bit rendition of the well known shooter Borderlands. Named The Border Lands, it gives a unique lo-fi glimpse into many elements that are still visible in the current installment. While boasting that the whole thing can fit on 5 floppy discs, its probably easier for most of the general population just to visit 
