The folks over at EA Australia have announced that they will be taking on a First Play Game Tour for their products in select shopping centres around Australia. The initiative is designed to get gamers to play upcoming games well ahead of their eventual release later this year.
The event will be held over four days at each location. These events will also have celebrity appearances, exclusive merchandise giveaways and some gaming tournaments. The First Play Game Tour looks like it’s going to have previews for games like: Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Need For Speed Most Wanted and Fifa 13.
On the tour, EA had this to say –
“EA has an incredibly strong line-up of games this year. The First Play Game Tour is a great opportunity to bring these games to our fans before their release,” says Simon Smith-Wright, Regional Marketing Director at EA. “This is the first time EA has had the chance to put on a public event of this magnitude in Australia. We’re excited to meet our players around the country and to give them the opportunity to be the first to play the best of EA.”
The tour will be at the following locations at the following dates and times, so make sure you plan out a day to check these out well ahead of time –
101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure Special Edition Studio: Disney Publisher: Disney Format: DVD Release Date: Available NOW Price: $24.95 – Available Here
Overview
101 Dalmatians was an absolutely brilliant animated film that was made back in 1961, so it was no real surprise that it was given a sequel, although the fact that the sequel came forty-two years later is something of a surprise. Coming from the same studio but from a different era, with different technology, a different crew, and just a different feel in general, how does this change the film? Does it feel like a genuine sequel to the first movie, or just a tack on that they realised they hadn’t made yet?
Story
101 Dalmatians 2 picks up right where the last one left off, which was a surprise given the amount of time between the two release dates. The Dalmatians are getting ready to move to a bigger house in the country where having 101 dogs is not as ridiculous (although yes, a little ridiculous still). Pongo and Perdita are loving parents as always, although Pongo is struggling a little with having ninety-nine children.
Instead of having the movie be about the parents, this time it’s about Patch, the tough guy puppy who loves Thunderbolt and has some cahones that are more young male posturing than anything else (at least at the beginning of the film). Patch is feeling a lot left out, having gained 98 siblings, and there’s a really strong vibe that reflects the ‘left out sibling’ that we’ve seen many times before, like in Home Alone and the Brady Bunch.
Patch is worried that he doesn’t have any individuality amongst his siblings, but hey kid don’t complain, I mean at least you’re one of the few who has a name. And then he gets left behind in the big family move (again, conjures up to mind Home Alone), which doesn’t really reassure him of his place in the family.
Then there’s Cruella De Vil, who’s got her full on crazy on and hasn’t seemed to have given up her obsession with spots yet. She’s a bit more of a caricature than in the previous film, when she was just plain hair-raisingly evil. There’s more humour to her instead of that evilness, and a couple of jokes at her expense, which will probably only be understood by the adults watching it. The kids might still see her as scary, but I guarantee that it will be less so than in the first movie.
The character of Thunderbolt, who plays a fairly large role in the movie, does throw something new into the mix of what could have otherwise been a fairly meh movie. Thunderbolt is a very strong presence in the film, with his character bringing a mix of melodrama and faux heroism, and he just happens to be American. He’s probably the character that most of the young ones will love, looking up to him the way that Patch does.
There are a couple of action scenes that require a pretty strong suspension of disbelief, but it’s all in good fun, and the movie is fairly enjoyable overall, although it must be noted that it doesn’t really live up to the first one and it feels a lot more immature (being from the perspective of a puppy instead of the parents).
Visuals
Despite being made over forty years after the first one, they have done their best to retain the same style of the same movie by trying to do the backgrounds in the same way instead of in the new way that Disney movies have discovered since then. While it doesn’t look exactly the same, obviously, it still looks similar enough to emulate memories of the first one.
Audio
All of the voice actors have been changed since the first film, for obvious reasons, which I’m fine with except that the style of the English accents have changed as well. Patch’s accent in particular is quite different from the original film and it is a bit annoying because it’s so clearly a modern English accent that departs far from the original films range of accents. While it’s nice that they’ve kept everything so plainly English, except for Thunderbolt and Lightning who are American characters, the accents might get annoying for those who aren’t children.
Special Features
The special features are directed towards the kids, including a behind the scenes featurette where a group of dogs take a tour of the Disney lot. There are also a few games that they can play on the DVD, that will probably entertain them. There isn’t much in the way of adult-aimed behind the scenes stuff like there was in the first Dalmatians movie, but that’s probably because they know that people who watched that movie as children are probably grown up by now.
Overall
101 Dalamatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure is certainly a 101 Dalmatians movie, but it feels a little bit askew when compared to the first one. It’s more aimed at kids, with less focus on family and more about that Disney goal to find your individuality and be a hero.
It’s a movie that your kids will probably enjoy, but one that the adults might want to give a miss while humming Cruella De Vil to themselves.
Fans of EA’s mobile titles such as Monopoly Hotels, Bejeweled Blitz, and more can look forward to getting some nice bonuses this week, as EA have announced some in-game gifts for their most popular mobile titles, as well as some sales for in-app purchases.
Here is a look at what players can expect to get:
MONOPOLY Hotels: 50 Gold AND 2-for-1 Gold and Monopoly Money on packages $29.99 and above
Not too shabby. If you are interested in any of these titles, you can download them from the iTunes store, and if your already a member, you can now start collecting your loot courtesy of EA’s mobile division.
Today is a great day for fans of that quirky and charismatic genie by the name of Shantae. It was recently revealed in the most recent Nintendo Power that the Game Boy Color gem would indeed be hitting the 3DS’ Virtual Console after a year of speculation.
As of now, there isn’t a date on this release, but that news should come forward soon enough. Shantae and was a critical success back in 2002, and this will make the first time that the classic will become easily accessible to all due to its severely limited run when Capcom first published the game. Stay tuned, as once a date or any new information comes forward, we will be sure to bring out an update.
During the past week, THQ went ahead and revealed their full roster for WWE 13, which includes a good amount of current and past Superstars. Of course we got some Mick Foley, Stone Cold, and The Rock, but it seems the present day is also well covered with the likes of John Cena, Brodus Clay, and the returning Brock Lesnar.
Check out the list for yourself:
Present day
The Bella Sisters
Eve
CM Punk
Lita
Kharma
Kelly Kelly
Rey Mysterio
The Rock
R-Truth
Santino
Sheamus
Sin Cara
Primo
Epico
Triple H
Undertaker (with mohawk)
Jinder Mahal
Wade Barrett
Zack Ryder
Alicia Fox
Beth Phoenix
Kevin Nash
Kofi Kingston
Mark Henry
The Miz
Randy Orton
John Cena
Great Khali
Heath Slater
Hunico
Jack Swagger
John Laurinaitis
Chris Jericho
Christian
Cody Rhodes
Daniel Bryan
David Otunga
Dolph Ziggler
Edge
Alberto Del Rio
Big Show
Booker T
Brock Lesnar
Brodus Clay
Doctor of Funk John Cena
JBL
Justin Gabriel
Attitude Era
Christian
Dude Love
Eddie Guerrero
Edge
Godfather
Hunter Hearst Hemsley
HHH
Kane
Ken Shamrock
Shawn Michaels
Undertaker
Vader
X-Pac
Lita
Stephanie McMahon
Trish Stratus
Mankind
Mark Henry
Mr. McMahon
Big Show Paul Wight
Road Dogg
The Rock
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Shane McMahon
Mike Tyson
Road Warriors
Big Boss Man
Billy Gunn
Acolytes
Bret Hart
British Bulldog
Cactus Jack
Y2J Chris Jericho
A.J. Lee is not listed here but has been announced as DLC, along with Damien Sandow. Aside from the lack of Too Cool and The Hardy Boyz, I would say this line-up is a job well done, and it will be interesting to see how well WWE 13 turns out when it hits stores on October 30th. Check out the stars below in the brand new trailer that displays everyone who made the cut.
So you might be asking what are Appcessories? What do they do? Are they Free? Will they make my life easier? Well Australian Dick Smith Electronics store has introduced a large range of Appcessories that are designed to work with Apps that you might already/currently have on your Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. To put it in easy to understand words, Appcessories can transform your Apple Device into almost anything. So you can interact with technology like never before.
These appcessories are currently available at Dick Smith Electronics stores all over Australia, for a full run down of products and accessories available now check out the link here and also check out the video below for a great explaination on what and how Appcessories work. With father’s day just around the corner Appcessories will be a great present for Dad or even for yourself.
Check out the video below for full details. “This is a sponsored post but opinions are my own.”
It was announced today that one of the Playstation Vita’s best-selling titles, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, will be ported onto the Playstation 3 for Japan. The PS3 version will go by name of Minna no Golf 6 in Japan. The PlayStation 3 version will be updated with Playstation Move support, and will support cross-play with the Vita version of the game. Also, it will include DLC from the Vita version. Sony has given no word yet on whether the game will later be released to the rest of the world but we can all keep our fingers crossed.
You can pick up the game on November 22, 2012, if you are located in Japan.
It was announced today that the classic board game, Warhammer Quest, will be making its way to an iPhone or iPod Touch near you. Brought by the United Kingdom indie studio Rodeo Games, Warhammer Quest is a top-down strategy board game puts players in the shoes of four Warhammer heroes “in search of immeasurable power and riches.”
The spokesperson for Rodeo Games said the following:
“By using our existing engine it means we can really focus on developing the parts of Warhammer Quest that made it such a great table-top game; truly unique hero characters and brutal enemies from across all the Warhammer races,” Rodeo Games co-founder Laurent Maguire said in a statement. “The opportunity to work with Games Workshop was such an exciting prospect; we are thrilled to have been entrusted with this facet of the Warhammer license.”
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rodeo Games, they are best known for Hunters & Hunters 2, a duo of highly rated sci-fi strategy RPGs with an emphasis on tactical strategy, like Final Fantasy Tactics and other grid-based RPGs. Warhammer Quest is being developed with the same proprietary “Taurus” engine used to create the Hunters franchise.
Warhammer Quest is not an original title but, it’s actually a digital port of the cult-classic board game of the same name.
If you would like to save a good $300 dollar since that’s what the actual board game is selling for today, then I recommend waiting for the digital port of the game when it releases sometime in the second quarter of 2013.
Players of the Counter-Strike series will have woken up today to notice that the latest game in the series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has just come out of Beta and is now a full retail game. The latest game in the series runs on the updated Source engine that was featured in the Portal 2 video game and also bolsters some redesigned maps and models.
The most interesting part about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is that it now takes inspiration from actual Counter Terrorism and Terrorism groups related to the countries represented in each map. However, from a gameplay standpoint, the game is still pretty much Counter-Strike, so players who didn’t like the first two may not be interested in this outing.
CS:GO is now $14.99 on Steam, be sure to check out the store page for more info.
Jessica Watson, the youngest person to sail solo around the world non-stop and unassisted, will have her story immortalized on film in True Spirit. Adapting the story of the young 16-year-old girl as she took on the perils of the sea, True Spirit will be produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment and the Australian Sunstar Entertainment, as well as the Australian Paramount team.
Paramount Australia and New Zealand’s vice president Mike Selwyn had this to say about the upcoming film:
“We are delighted to be working with BME and Sunstar to bring Jessica Watson’s story to the big screen where it belongs. This is a wonderful story of courage, perseverance and triumph that will appeal to all audiences.”
While Jessica Watson commented that:
“It’s an honour to have a feature film made about you – quite surreal and very exciting! It will be interesting to watch how a film is made. I’m looking forward to working closely with the production team and Paramount in my capacity as a consultant on the project.”
I wonder if she’ll have any consultant power in regards to the casting…
This is an Australian film about an Australian story, but hopefully True Spirit delivers us something different than the standard Australian film that Australian’s like to turn away from in embarrassment. But we’ll just see how it goes as it gets closer to the release date.
True Spirit is scheduled to start shooting in early 2013, with release slated for the end of 2013. For more information on True Spirit as it gets closer to the date keep tuned to Capsule Computers.
What do you guys think? Will this be an inspiring story about an impressive feat, or will it be yet another Australian film to not do well at the box office?
