Another week, another dollar, another silly goose in the gaming industry. This week’s silly goose is none other than the director of Assassin’s Creed III who claims game journalists (such as myself) are racist. Odd, I don’t recall being racist… That’s not all though, this week bore plenty of other great news, such as the victory of Zelda over the horrid trash known as 50 Shades of Gray. Oh and what you had all been waiting for, the teaser trailer for Farming Simulator 2013 has finally been released! All this good stuff and more in the week that was 13th-19th of August, 2012.
Darksiders II Developer:Vigil Games Publisher: THQ Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, PC, Wii U (eventually) Release Date: August 14 (US), August 16 (Aus), August 21 (Europe) Price: $64.95 Available Here
Overview
Quick! Name me one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
You said Death, didn’t you? Knew it. Death is the Paul McCartney of the Four Horsemen, the one who’s broken free of the group and continued a successful solo career in mainstream culture. Being the most familiar face, it’s surprising that he wasn’t the star of the original Darksiders, but that oversight (or creative decision) has been rectified with the second game.
Yes, you finally get to play as Death, the physical incarnation of the ultimate fate of every living being. That’s a pretty lofty promise of power for players, but does it pan out?
Story
If you haven’t played the original, jumping into this one is easy enough. The short version of the story so far: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse await their signal to ride to Earth, to essentially act as mediators in the inevitable final battle between Heaven and Hell. The Horseman War is tricked into charging in early, and faces trial for prematurely triggering the Apocalypse.
Darksiders II takes place during War’s trial. Taking the role of Death, players must find a way to undo War’s supposed crimes by restoring humanity.
It sounds like an interesting story, a unique take on the well-trodden Apocalypse scenario. Unfortunately it plays out like the gothic-fantasy equivalent of contacting your phone provider, and being shunted around to different departments before someone helps with your query.
“You want the Well of Souls? Sorry, you’ll have to go enquire at the Eternal Throne. Ask for the Lord of Bones.”
“Sorry, the Lord of Bones is very busy. If you don’t have an appointment, you’ll have to defeat the hideous creature of the Gilded Arena.”
“Sorry, the hideous creature of the Gilded Arena isn’t in right now. You’ll have to collect the three Animus Stones to summon him.”
“You have the skull of the Gilded Arena creature? Ok, the Lord of Bones will see you now.”
“Yeah, I’ll help you. But I’m real busy: can you go summon my three Dead Lords to help with this paperwork?”
“Yep, I’m a Dead Lord. I’ll help you, but first, I have three Lost Souls awaiting judgement. Can you…”
Apparently being the literal Death incarnate isn’t enough to command respect from the bureaucracy of the undead, meaning much of the story is comprised of thin excuses for fetch quests. Thankfully, the action taking place around the quests is damn fun.
Gameplay
The mechanics of Darksiders II are generally polished and satisfying. It’s made up of very fluid climbing and platforming, mildly-challenging environmental puzzles, fast-paced combo-focused combat, and deeply detailed systems of equipment and skillset management. The whole thing is cobbled together into a cohesive – if not very original – package.
The parkour platforming is pretty Prince of Persia, with Assassin’s Creed influences. The combat is extremely reminiscent of God of War or Devil May Cry. The 3D Legend of Zelda games are an unsubtle inspiration for the environmental puzzles, as is Soul Reaver, which also feels responsible for the general atmosphere and character designs. Some of the bigger bosses even conjure memories of Shadow of the Colossus.
In fact, there’s very little of Darksiders II that we haven’t seen before. Does it matter? That depends how sick of this kind of game you are. Most of what the game does, it does well.
The character controls are slick and satisfying, which is an ideal place for platformers to start. If the most basic of movements are enjoyable, the character’s abilities can be expanded upon with confidence. As a result, the platforming and climbing mechanics are incredibly smooth, as Death effortlessly scales surfaces, leaps ledge to ledge, wall-runs, scampers up poles and skips merrily along wooden beams. It might not be what a lot of players come to the game for, but I soon found myself looking forward to these sections more so than the combat.
That’s not to undersell the combat. Traditionally, Death need only touch his victims to instantly kill them, but knowing that wouldn’t make for very entertaining fights, Vigil have taken some liberties with the character, making him proficient with scythes, axes, hammers and wrist blades. The result is a complex combat system, with a focus on stringing attacks into combos. X is your basic scythe attack, relatively fast with decent damage; Y attacks with your secondary weapon, usually either a slow heavy-hitter like an axe, or lighter, faster weapons like wrist blades. The left trigger locks onto a target, and the right bumper button dodges.
Stringing various combinations of X and Y attacks together forms the crux of combat, and there’s no shortage of combos to vanquish your foes. It sounds fine, but it quickly borders on ridiculous: according to the menu’s move list, there are no less than eighteen basic combos using only the X button. Press it once or twice for standard attacks. Three times performs a Double Slash (however that adds up), three times with a pause after the first will execute the Razor Wheel… yada yada yada.
Throw in at least that amount for the Y button, plus the multi-button combos, the evade attacks, and all the magical abilities, and you could study it all until the actual Apocalypse. Hardcore fans might insist that button-mashing isn’t a viable option, but in my experience, it’s not only an effective tactic, but the game almost actively encourages it. There’s no way you’re going to remember half of those moves in the heat of battle, so spamming X and Y usually gets you through.
I found I enjoyed it a lot more once I let go of trying to remember everything and focused on memorizing a few particularly effective attacks. I soon developed a preference for the heavy weapons, which have a nice damage-to-speed ratio, and mixing that with some swift scythe action, Death lived up to his name. Once you get used to the flow of battle, darting between targets and laying waste to hordes of enemies at once becomes extremely satisfying – especially once Reaper mode is unlocked, on reaching level six.
The inventory system is similarly convoluted. I was initially put off by the number-crunching involved, but the interface makes it easy to compare weapons and decide which to equip. You’ll pick up a lot of stuff you’ll never use, but they won’t go to waste; a handy recycling system allows you to sacrifice unwanted items to increase the power of special “Possessed” weapons. Or you can always sell them to vendors.
Visuals & Audio
New games this gen often manage to squeeze more power than expected from the aging hardware, and Darksiders II continues the trend. Beautiful, detailed landscapes are paraded past as Death journeys between icy worlds, lush green kingdoms, medieval-industrial castles, grim boneyards and dungeons galore. Although the dungeons become quite samey, the outdoor locations of each new world feel fresh, and are a pleasure to explore. It might not have as strong a sense of scale, or as much a focus on vistas, as something like God of War, but there are times when you’ll reach a high peak, and lose minutes letting your eye wander over the scenery.
We are taught early on that Death can interact with wooden beams, ledges, posts, etc. These are designed to stand out clearly from the rest of the environment, while still looking like they belong. Thankfully, you shouldn’t really hit that frustrating “where do I go now?” wall; with interact-able objects so conspicuous, the challenge is in the how, not the where.
Character designs follow a comic book style – appropriate, considering there’s talk of translating the Darksiders universe to the medium. Death, his allies and enemies are highly-detailed but stylized, exaggerated but not mere caricatures. Animations, particularly on the bosses, are smooth and believable.
To be honest, I found myself barely noticing the accompanying soundtrack. Battle loops serve their purpose, but either aren’t too plentiful or sound very similar – it feels like you hear the same tracks repeatedly. Mercifully, they aren’t imposing, so the action on-screen usually drowns out any conscious acknowledgement of the music. When I did notice them, I found them to be not what I’d expect: they were exciting, often upbeat tunes, fitting but not typical of battle music in gothic-fantasy games.
Overall
For better and worse, Darksiders II cherry-picks its elements from a lot of sources. A game that combines the crazy combo-centric combat of God of War, the exploration and environmental puzzles of Zelda, and the fluid platforming of Prince of Persia, could be an exciting proposition.
The problem is, if you’ve already donated much time to its obvious influences, you might just conclude that everything it does has been done to… well, Death.
Rugby Challenge Developer: Sidhe Publisher: Tru Blu Entertainment Platforms: Playstation Vita (reviewed), Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC Release Dates: 27/06/2012 (Vita) Price: AU$69.95 (Vita)
Overview
Rugby Challenge goes by many names (Wallabies Rugby Challenge, All Blacks Rugby Challenge, Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge) but it is the same game: rugby union. Last year, a console and PC version of the game was released as New Zealand celebrated the Rugby World Cup (they won it, by the way). Bring time forward to June 2012 and the game re-appears on the Playstation Vita, complete with what the console counterparts have to offer. Is it enough to warrant a purchase on Sony’s newest handheld or will the problems of the console version plague the handheld outing?
Gameplay
Rugby Challenge nails the rules of rugby union quite well. The game does flow well, no matter how long or what difficulty the game is played in. Each team has 15 players per side. Players pass, run and kick the ball in order to gain territory and breach the opposing line of defence in order to score a try, worth 5 points. A conversion kick can add another two points to the team’s score. The controls are well responsive and tight. The shoulder buttons are used to pass the ball down the line, as well as selecting players while defending. The action buttons are various kicks, which range to massive bombs to distance-drilling punts. The touch controls are also used. Flicking on the touch screen is reserved for the lineouts and conversion/penalty kicks. The rear touch pad is used for sprinting to give your player the extra edge.
While it should be easy to pass the ball, there are times where the AI will act dumb, especially on the wings. The ball will miss the winger entirely because the AI player doesn’t catch up. This will put the ball over the sideline, conceding an avoidable lineout. The Al also causes problems when it comes to offloading, which is passing while being tackled. At times, the ball will just miss your players completely, giving the opposition time to grab the ball. Speaking of offloading, the opposition AI will constantly offload the ball, thus not giving the player a chance to tackle the ball carrier. I have watched rugby union games and they do not offload as much as these virtual players.
There are a few modes for the player to try out. The single match is a quick match with all of the included teams, save a few locked customisable teams. Settings such as stadium, time of day, playing strip and difficulty are chosen here. Then there is Career Mode, where the player takes a club team, an international team or both through a ten year period. Career Mode is quite dull to say the least. All the player does is choose a squad for their team and play the competitions. Spring and Autumn test matches are not included if you choose an international team. The player is also stuck with the one club team for ten years instead of given an option to change competitions. Competition mode is practically the same as Career Mode. The only difference is that it is one competition. Players do have a choice to choose more than one human controlled team. With both modes, the player can only go through one Career and one competition, which is quite disappointing. Online matches are also available.
One of the most important aspects of any sports game are the teams included. Rugby Challenge offers a plethora of licensed teams for players to fiddle with. These include the two top international sides (all in a matter of opinion, of course), the Wallabies (Australia) and the All Blacks (New Zealand, current World Champions), gaining an edge over the other rugby game. The United States and Georgia are also licensed. This is where it does get a little disappointing. Those four international teams are the only international teams licensed for the game. Other top international sides, such as South Africa, England, Ireland and even Argentina, the new frontier of rugby union, are not licensed. With that said, it is possible to make a team through the fact that the top club competitions are licensed. The Aviva Premiership (England), the RaboDirect Pro 12 (Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy), Top 14 (France), the ITM Cup and Ranfurly Shield (New Zealand) and the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby teams are all licensed. With that said, some players will not be transferable due to licensing issues.
Customisation was big on the console versions and that is successfully brought over to the Vita. All of the options of the console version are present, bringing an extensive player, team and competition customisation. It is quite good, in fact. The options for creating a player range from detailed customisation of the face and body to attribute setting. Teams also have their own attributes as well, which can be applied to any team there, as well as home stadiums and stripes. Custom competitions are based on a template of one of the pre-existing competitions, but then it is free reign. The problem is that the teams must be pre-selected, unlike most sports games where the teams are chosen when the tournament is being created and played straight away, like FIFA. This means, for a separate set of teams, its back to the competition set up to change them, then starting from scratch. There is also an in-game rugby store and tutorials for those who don’t know the basic rules of rugby.
Visuals and Audio
The visuals are not bad, but they are not great either. The stadiums are awesome to stare at, the guys at Sidhe did a wonderful job, especially the Australian and New Zealand stadiums (which dominate the game). With that said, the character models could have been perfected. Faces on some notable Australian players, such as Giteau, that didn’t look right. The menus could have also been more touch friendly. The touch screen can navigate through the options, but the menu must be designed to accommodate it.
The audio is quite the mix bag. Menu music is bland and the commentary team of Grant Nisbett and Justin Marshall are quite poor, lacking any chemistry (and not because they are Kiwis). The team behind compiling the commentary also did a poor job in implementing it in the game, as it sounds broken. There were even times the commentary didn’t exist for some matches, leaving the player with an unenthusiastic crowd. There were no massive cheers when the home team scores a try. At least it is dead quiet when the away team scores. Other sound effects, such as the crunching of players as they tackle each other, are quite accurate.
Overall
Rugby Challenge is quite a good rugby game great for those who want to take the Wallabies or the All Blacks on the go. The game does not sacrifice any features from the console counterpart but doesn’t offer anything new either. A few of the Vita’s touch features are used and, at times they are used well, even if it has limited usage. With that said, the AI could have been tweaked instead of the constant offloads performed. The rosters for the licensed teams are also outdated by a couple of years. A great game for the hardcore rugby union fan, since it contains two of the most important international teams. However, it is a hard sell for others, as all sports games are… unless you are FIFA.
Well, it looks like Europe won’t be the only region of the world to get the ‘Cross Buy’ promotion that Sony had recently revealed at Gamescom. Sony Computer Entertainment, president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida made a post on Twitter to clarify that the PlayStation 3/Vita promo is also headed to the United States. Japan, however, isn’t so lucky, at least not yet. ” PS Vita-PS3 Cross Buy price promo is coming to both Europe and North America. My quote by Famitsu was meant as ‘not decided for Japan yet,'” Yoshida said. The official tweet reads:
“PS Vita-PS3 Cross Buy price promo is coming to both Europe and North America. My quote by Famitsu was meant as “not decided for Japan yet.”
The first game that will be used for the promotion will be Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royal and if you buy either version of the game, you get the other version for free. A variety of other upcoming first-party Sony games also support the promotion. This is just the first game to do this as many other first party Sony developers games will have have the cross buy promotion. You could compare Sony’s cross buy idea to Kojima’s transfarring system that they used for the previous re-releases of Metal Gear Solid one through three and also Peace Walker.
Game director, SWERY, has shed some light on the possibility of Deadly Premonition 2 being in the works. In a interview given to EuroGamer SWERY said his team is working on a new project that will be released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Access Games, the developer responsible for Deadly Premonition and Lord of Arcana.
SWERY said with regards to the new project: “We’re in talks with publishers at the moment, and we can’t tell you about the platforms. But by next summer, I think everyone will have a good idea of what it’s going to be.” When pressed if the new title was a sequel to cult favorite Deadly Premonition, SWERY responded, “Hmm. Maybe.”
Although SWERY never did say new game is Deadly Premonition 2, he went on to say:
“In Deadly Premonition I really tried to focus on lifestyle and the relationships between the characters and experiencing those things in the game, and there just happened to be a murder mystery going on as well. But what I really wanted people to experience was those day to day things. In the new game that’s going to be important as well. Plus some extra things I wasn’t able to do before, and new original elements like the coffee fortune telling.I meet once a month with the producer of Deadly Premonition and we talk about various things. There are things I’ve come up with the producer has said no to. I suggested Deadly Premonition 2 should be as though Deadly Premonition 1 had never existed. I wanted to do everything from scratch, but the producer said I couldn’t do that.So, for example, like with Spider-Man, you’ve got Spider-Man and the Amazing Spider-Man, so the same series but a different world. I wanted to do something like that but was told no. The producer said the fans love York, and so I have to carry on with him as the protagonist.”
SWERY also went onto talk about the idea of doing a Director’s Cut that he is currently about to start work on to celebrate the studio’s tenth anniversary:
‘We’re working on the Director’s Cut of Deadly Premonition, I am writing some new script and scenarios. Whether those will be used or not, and how they’ll be used, isn’t decided yet.”
No publisher has been chosen for the game yet but, they are currently in talks with a few options.
Director Tony Scott, who directed Top Gun, True Romance, and Man of Fire has committed suicide today at the age of sixty-eight.
It has been reported that Scott, jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge near San Pedro on Sunday afternoon. A witness to this horrible death said the director pulled over to the side of the bridge, scaled an 8-10′ fence and “jumped without any hesitation.” He is said to have left a suicide note in his car. Sonar equipment had to be used to locate Scott’s remains in the water and they were able to find and recover his body at approximately 4:30 a.m.
One of Hollywood’s most successful directors, the British-born Scott was the brother and producing partner of Ridley Scott. His feature film directing credits include Enemy of the State, The Last Boy Scout, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, and Beverly Hills Cop II just to name a few. He was also an executive producer on many TV shows and miniseries including The Good Wife, Coma, World Without End, The Andromeda Strain, and Call of Duty ELITE: Friday Night Fights. Tony Scott produced many movies with his brother Ridley, including the latter’s most recent release Prometheus. Scott had been developing Top Gun 2 with Tom Cruise at the time of his death.
Scott’s family has made no comment yet but, we can only begin to imagine how bad they feel. Tony Scott will always be known and remembered as one of the greatest action directors of all time.
We have gotten our first bit of details about Dragon Age 3 thanks to a reportedly leaked survey. The survey includes an overall plot for the game and this is a summarized version:
“A portal between the worlds unleashes hords of demons in the land, civil wars rip apart nations and the corruption is limitless. Someone is behind the shadows, drawing the threads which destroy the world. Time has come for the Inquisition.
Take the Inquisitor’s cloak and lead the only force able of bringing light into the darkness. Choose the direct method and gather your armies, send spies into the shadows or engage in a political war, make friends and use your connections indirectly: it is up to you how you lead the inquisition. But you’ll have to take lead of it from the beginning. Make your player a rogue, warrior or mage and set up your crew from up to ten (!) complex companions to lead them against those who attack you by systematically spying on, revealing and destroying them.”
They also went into from talking about if players would like to see an online/coop mode to a player controlled day and night modus.
Bioware has made no comment yet so we will have to wait and see if they will make a response to this supposed leak.
John Barrowman of Torchwood and Doctor Who fame has recently been found to have signed up on CW’s new series Arrow.
The new series, pegged as “action-drama”, is based upon DC Comic’s Green Arrow.Arrow would be the story of Oliver Queen, a rich carefree playboy by day, vigilante by night. If you’re reading this thinking that it is just Batman with bows and arrows, you might be mistaken. Within the comics universe and the DC Animated Universe, Green Arrow was known for his more grassroots connections and political/societal bend, often being sane man keeping the group grounded. It has yet to be seen whether CW’s Arrow would be the same way.
John Barrowman credentials on the Doctor Who and Torchwood sets have landed him a spot on the show with a recurring role as a “well-dressed, wealthy, and prominent figure of Starling City”, and “a good acquaintance” of the Queen family.
Arrow makes it’s debut on October 10 at 8 PM ET, having Canadian Actor Stephen Amell wielding the bow and arrow as Oliver Queen.
Shangri-La Part 2 Studio:GONZO Publisher:FUNimation Format: DVD Release Date: August 21, 2012 Price:$59.98 – Available Here
Overview: Only a few forms of media deal with real world issues and among these forms anime are probably the least recognized for their contributions. However with the release of Shangri-La by FUNimation at this point in time, not only does the publisher capitalize on a number of events that occurred since the series was first created back in 2009 but has so far seen interesting characters, with a so-far, muddled storyline. With Part 1 of Shangri-La already behind us, the review of which can be seen here, does Shangri-La Part 2 bring a satisfying end to this series?
Story: In the future, humanity has succeeded in bringing the world to the edge of destruction through heightened levels of global warming thanks to unrepentant business practices and humanity as a whole living carelessly. In an effort to try and put a cap on the deadly growth rate of global warming, the major countries in the world have established a CO2 emission economy. This means that every country has a certain carbon tax levied upon them, forcing them to restrict their growth in an effort to obey these taxes.
Shortly after the carbon tax is created, Japan is struck by a devastating earthquake which destroys most of the country and practically levels Tokyo. Due to the carbon tax however, the country is unable to recover and most of Tokyo is left to grow into a jungle wilderness. Only one organization has attempted to create a refuge for the people of Tokyo with their plan to create a new city for the public. This plan however, titled Project Atlas, only allows so many people within its walls while the rest of the people on the outside have been left to perish.
Immediately outside of the city of Atlas, a small community called Duomo has been established and in Duomo a group called the Metal Age has been trying to fight against Atlas and enter into the city which has been treating them like dirt and if they were non-existed. One young girl by the name of Kuniko stands amongst them, and when she is forced to take charge of the group she begins to discover secrets not only about herself but about the fortress city of Atlas as well. Will Kuniko be able to successfully create a place where everyone can live equally?
Thankfully, while the focus with Part 1 was a large amount of exposition and character development, Part 2 helps bring most of the story to a close by filling in almost every plot hole and even providing an interesting twist near the end. It is also worth noting that despite most of the story being resolved, it is also extremely complex and convoluted.
An easy comparison to a video game title would be something out of Metal Gear Solid’s entire series as a whole. As such, even with twenty four episodes to work with, there still isn’t enough time for most elements of the story to be absorbed the first time around, almost requiring at least one more viewing to be understood. This re-watching is helped slightly thanks to the colorful cast of characters that all seem to get their own share of the screen time, but not by much.
Visuals: While the animation quality for the first half of the series may have been a little hit and miss at times, Part 2 features some quality action-scenes and top notch animation as a whole. This is also quite obvious when the viewer pays attention to the characters themselves (especially when it comes to Momoko) as they are not only well detailed but their facial animations are absolutely wonderful to witness… especially Momoko.
One thing that has remained consistent throughout the series is the level of quality exuded from the series’ background segments. These environments are beautifully done and when combined with the title’s impressive character animation there are some very eye pleasing combinations.
Audio: Considering the title has been released by FUNimation, and obviously Part 1 was given both an English and Japanese dub, it is almost needless to repeat this information yet again, however Part 2 of Shangri-La has been given the full treatment with both tracks available for the viewer’s listening pleasure. As it stands the English voice work for the cast has been handled quite well throughout the series so far and Part 2 is no different.
As for the title’s soundtrack, the background music has seemingly improved from the first half of the series as it helps accentuate the scenes they are accompanying better. As for the second half’s opening and ending theme, they are still the same as they feature simply “Kimi Shinitamou Koto NaKare” by May’n as the opening and the two ending songs “Hajimari no Asa ni Hikari Are” and “Tsuki ni Kakuseshi Chou no Yume.” Both of these are performed by Midori, though now feature alternate visuals, and feature a slow pace and dramatic tone which works well as the series’ ending themes.
Extras: With the release of Shangri-La Part 2 we see some of your standard bonus features, which happen to be trailers for past and upcoming FUNimation releases, a clean version of the opening song and both clean ending songs, with their updated visuals. Along with these inclusions are two commentaries for episodes 15 and 23.
Both commentaries are hosted by Tyler Walker the ADR director of the show, while episode 15 features Patrick Sights, a lesser episode writer and Jay Michael Tatum who is a lead writer on the series. These three spend most of the time talking about their past experiences and how they enjoyed working on the series, with mildly comedic results. As for episode 23 listeners are treated to Jad Saxton the voice of Karin and Jennifer Semen who happens to voice Ryouko. This one is a bit funnier than the first and also more entertaining overall, especially for those who happen to enjoy Jennifer’s work.
Overall: Shangri-La Part 2 was left with quite a daunting task, to try and close up all of the plot holes left by the first half of the series and bring the story around to a satisfying conclusion. Thankfully the series has done a relatively good job with its overly complicated plot, though it still suffers from being unnecessarily obtuse. As it stands though, the series is enjoyable to watch, with the second half improving greatly over the first half of the series, not only with story progression but visually as well.
It is also worth noting that those who have been paying attention to recent events in the world such as the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the “Occupy Movement” which occurred around the world in recent years will appreciate the series even more.
Welcome to Capsule Computers’ weekly anime segment, Anime Say! This week, I dive into the latest news in the world of anime as well as discuss my favourite anime fights of all time. So sit back and relax and get ready for a extra long episode of Anime Say!
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Welcome to Capsule Computers’ weekly anime segment, Anime Say! This week, I dive into the latest news in the world of anime as well as discuss my favourite anime fights of all time. So sit back and relax and get ready for a extra long episode of Anime Say!