It has been revealed today by The Doctor himself, Matt Smith, that he will continue to reprise his beloved role from the hit series Doctor Who. He explained when talking with The Sun that Stevan Moffat was the person who convinced him to stay on the show for the next season.
“When Steven was going to pitch the next season to me not long ago, he said, ‘Are you ready to cry?’”He explained, “His first episode sounds great. It hasn’t been written yet but the idea is as brilliant and as mental as you’d expect from Steven. So there’s a lot to look forward to.”
The show will be returning back to television later in the fall but they are already making plans for the upcoming 50th anniversary for the show. “We want to do 50 years — and everyone that’s been associated with the show — justice.” He went on to say.”Steven will do something brilliant. He’ll do something grand or maybe something very simple but he’ll come to it as a fan. He’ll go, ‘What would I want to see?’”
Smith also admitted that his continued role as The Doctor wasn’t something he saw coming and he felt rather overwhelmed by the role when he first took it over from David Tennant.“If you remember, when I took over, no one thought it would work. I was ‘too young’. David had come from a stellar era. I was unknown,” he said.”For a month or two when I started I was like, ‘This is impossible. I can’t’ — just the pressure of it. Everyone was sort of going, ‘Go on, and show us what you’ve got.’ I told myself, ‘If I can get through this I can get through anything’.”
The latest series of Doctor Who is expected to start airing later this August.
PlayStation Plus Members, if you were starting to feel left out from all the other players getting to join the DUST 514 closed beta, don’t worry because access is coming to you soon. Currently letting in players from EVE Online and purchasers of the Mercenary Pack, the closed beta will be opened up to the PlayStation Plus Members from August 21st until September 4th.
While the access to the closed beta wont last for the remainder of the beta, PlayStation Plus Members will be able to purchase the Mercenary Pack at a 50% discount to gain that remaining access, as well as in-game currency, skill boosts, and exclusive gear that will be unavailable to them as just Playstation Plus Members.
Combining with the universe of EVE Online, DUST 514 puts players into the first-person side of the conflict. The build that releases August 21st, when PlayStation Plus Members can join in, will add integration with EVE Online, Oribital Strikes, new environments, and the ability to use keyboard and mouse in-game with the PS3. The beta is set to be going into open beta sometime this year.
Were you a fan of Darksiders, but got bummed out when at the end of the game the only enemies left to fight were sparse spawns of low levels enemies round the map? Well, the developers of Darksiders II are working on making sure that doesn’t happen with the addition of “The Crucible”.
As explained in the video below, The Crucible is the arena mode for Darksiders II and pits Death against a total of 100 rounds of enemies to defeat once fully unlocked. After so many rounds Death is presented with the choice of taking a prize or risking it to earn a bigger one. Should Death fall in battle during The Crucible, he leaves with nothing but has the chance to try again, perhaps after getting better equipment to be more prepared for the challenge.
Darksiders II is saddling up to release this month for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
The newest iteration in the Paper Mario series, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, finally has a solid release date in North America, though given the amount of money people will be waving around this holiday season it should come as no surprise. Alongside multiple other release dates announced today by Nintendo, the release date of November 11th has been revealed for Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
Other games given a release date include Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on October 28th as well as a number of other more simple titles such as Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! and Crosswords Plus on October 1st. Those eager to learn more about Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask can also check out the newly released trailer for the game below.
If you were hoping to capture ghosts with the Super Mario Bros. famous second fiddle this holiday season then you will be sad to know that that will be impossible unless you choose to dust off your GameCube. Today Nintendo revealed that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS, which was originally slated for release this holiday season, has been delayed until the “first half of 2013.”
Currently it is unknown why the game has been delayed nor have they given a more specific release date for the game. There is a high chance however that the reason for the delay is either to help make the title better than before, or to give it a marketable chance with a release window that isn’t crammed full of the biggest games of the year.
A few months ago Sony revealed that PlayStation fans everywhere will be able to take their favorite characters and brawl with them on familiar battlefields on October 23rd. Well, it seems that the company has chosen to change it’s plans a little bit because today they revealed that PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale has been given a new release date of November 20th.
According to the statement by the company, the delay will let the dev team “spend more time polishing and tuning the game, and it will give us a chance to incorporate some of the great feedback we’re receiving from the current limited beta to ensure we are creating the best possible fighting game experience.” It is good to see the company taking criticism to heart and polishing up what will probably be their biggest selling game this holiday season.
While Namco Bandai has not made an official statement concerning localization efforts for the soon to be released Japanese RPG Toki to Towa, it seems the game’s producer can’t quite keep his excitement at bay.
When asked by Taiwanese website GGN, about a release in Taiwan, Toki to Towa’s producer Kay Hirono stated, according to a translation by Gematsu, “This time, I brought with me the newest info on the game for everyone who likes Vofan (the game’s artist). Besides the Japanese version, there are only plans to release an English version. So far, I am sorry, there are no plans to produce a Chinese version of the game.”
So while this isn’t quite official yet, there apparently will be an English version of this unique looking RPG that is attempting to appear like one giant animated cutscene, even in battles, so we should expect some sort of announcement concerning the game in the future.
People of Pandora, hansom Jack is here to give you a run down on the latest Borderlands 2 trailer entitled: Come and Get Me. Hansom Jack takes you on a little journey and provides you with a brief explanation of the new vault hunters that have turned up to cause mayhem and chaos in peaceful Pandora. We see the grizzled Commando who can control the battlefield with his turrets, then we have the rage filled Gunzerker who pretty much loves to kill and maim anything in his path with his beloved guns. We certainly cannot forget about the mystical Siren who can harness the power of all four elements to cause havoc and destruction, and lets not forget about the deadly Assassin, who you know, well likes to assassinate things then disappear and then kill more things with his deadly blades while he’s invisible.
That pretty much in a nutshell sums up the vault hunters, but make sure you check out the trailer below and see it all for yourselves, hansom Jack demands you to!
In this weeks episode of the amazing Capsule Computers podcast, we are all sitting around and taking a shave. What does our faces think of this? What do you all at home think of this? What’s better to shave with, soap or shaving cream? Maybe it’s better not to shave with anything at all?
Cast: Dustin Spencer, Luke Halliday, Philip Federico and your amazing host: Benjamin Webb.
Music for this podcast is from: Megaman X and Megaman X 3 Remix (found here).
Thanks for listening and let us know what you think!
Send all your video game or podcast questions, hints, suggestions, answers to questions and feedback to [email protected]
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Due to a miscommunication with Razer, we are not giving away Electra’s this week. However, next week will be doing new giveaways, so stay tuned.
Each week, thanks to Razer, we will be giving away a prize a week competition held through Capsule Computers Gaming Podcast.
To win, simply listen to the podcast for the weekly question and SPECIAL CODE, once you have it send us an email with your name and address to [email protected], make sure you include the secret code. At the end of the week, a winner will be randomly selected from the pool of entries. The winner will then be announced on the next podcast.
Thanks for listening. Copyright Capsule Computers Pty Ltd – All Rights Reserved.
All Other Samples Are Copyright And Property Of Their Official Copyright Holders.
Shangri-La Part 1 Studio: GONZO Publisher: Madman / FUNimation Format: DVD Release Date: August 21, 2012 – US, November 28, 2012 Price:$59.95 –Available Here
Overview: Everyone has issues in their life and the world has plenty of problems in and of itself. To help people escape from worrying about every day issues various media forms have thrived on offering viewers and users a chance to escape into a world unlike their own, usually with either fantastical elements that are impossible in our reality.
However every so often there comes a title that takes these real world issues and puts them to the forefront. One such anime is the sci-fi anime Shangri-La. Originally created as a light novel back in 2004, the books received an anime adaptation in 2009 courtesy of Gonzo. Fast forward three years and we have an intriguing anime unlike what fans are usually treated to in North America. Does Shangri-La offer an enjoyable and interesting viewing experience or should it be cast aside?
Story: Many years in the future the world is undergoing severe levels of global warming and an international committee has decided that the only way to reduce the CO2 emissions that the world is making is to shift to an economy that involves trading carbon instead of money. After the shift to carbon trading and carbon taxes have been levied against every country in the world, Japan suffers a terrible earthquake which manages to utterly destroy parts of the country.
With the carbon tax preventing them from rebuilding effectively, Tokyo is left to change into a jungle city that will help absorb some of the carbon dioxide from the world while the rest of Japan is made into one of the poorest countries in the entire world. However a project has been organized to rebuild Tokyo and create a new government in the fallen nation.
The members of the organization call their plan Project Atlas. While Project Atlas may be a saving grace for the Japanese public, there is one small issue with this plan… the fact that only three and a half million people can enter the revitalized city while the rest of the citizens must be left outside in the vicious jungles teeming with danger and hardship. This creates an immediate class separation between the elites living in Atlas and the refugees in the jungle, which happens to be a rather interesting plot point given the way that protests in North America have been occurring between the 99% and 1% over the past year.
Our story follows a teenage girl named Kuniko Hojo who has just been let loose from a girls detention center in Duomo where she was kept for the last two years. You see, Kuniko happens to be the granddaughter of the leader of Metal Age, an anti-government organization who is trying to take down the company running the Atlas project and open up the city to everyone. Shortly after her release she is told that she is going to become the new leader of Metal Age when her grandmother Nagiko Hojo hands down the reigns.
When the Atlas Security Corps suddenly attack Duomo while blaming them for an unknown incident, Kuniko jumps at the chance to fight against the Atlas forces once again. However when Kuniko uses her signature boomerang weapon to attack the leader of the forces, a man named Kunihito Kusanagi, he blocks her attack with a dagger. For an unknown reason, when their weapons hit each other strange black dots appear above Duomo and rain destruction upon everyone. With dark forces moving within Atlas and the mysterious resonations of Kunihito and Kuniko’s weapons, many questions are left to the viewer.
It is worth noting that the first half of Shangri-La often spends most of its time introducing characters from both factions and introducing a number of plot points. This does create a very complex storyline which requires the viewer to pay close attention to what is happening or else they will easily lose track of what is happening at any given time. Most of the attention in Part 1 is paid to Kuniko and her friends as they try to survive in the jungle that is now Tokyo.
Shangri-La Part 1 does leave off on a decent cliffhanger, though considering Part 2 was released alongside the first half of the series, those who are eager to continue watching the series won’t have to wait at all. While a few questions are answered in Part 1, most of the plot seems to be building up to large events in the second half of the series. It is already evident however that the story so far does tend to feel a bit heavy handed, like they are attempting to force too many plotlines together within a twenty four episode series.
Visuals: It is quite obvious from the get-go that a lot of attention has been paid to Shangri-La’s environment and backgrounds. With the story taking place in a dystopian future where Japan has been devastated by earthquakes and abandoned by most of the world, the stark contrasts between the revitalized city of Atlas and Duomo are a sight to behold.
Unfortunately the same cannot quite be said for the series’ action animation. While the characters themselves are detailed well enough and given great animation, whenever the series begins to bring heavy action into the picture the quality of the animation as a whole falls slightly, though not enough to ruin the sequences, they are often noticeable.
Audio: Shangri-La: Part 1, and therefore Part 2 which was released alongside this one, has been given a full English dub by FUNimation. For those who prefer the Japanese dub you will be comforted to know that this release does contain both audio tracks. The English voice work has been handled well for the most part, though not quite as well as viewers have come to expect from FUNimation’s releases. It is worth noting that kudos should be given to Kent Williams as his character Momoko is certainly one that isn’t encountered, let alone portrayed in English, in anime often.
The soundtrack of the first half of Shangri-La is a bit hit and miss with when it comes to the background music. While Shangri-La contains some rather impressive musical tracks it is also full of rather bland and expected music that simply doesn’t add much to the experience as a whole. As for the opening and closing songs, they are quite entertaining and suitable sounding for the series.
The opening song “Kimi Shinitamou Koto NaKare” by popular artist May’n is your standard fast J-Pop song set to get the viewer eager for the show while the main ending song “Hajimari no Asa ni Hikari Are” by Midori is calming and slow-paced. It is worth noting that the second ending theme for the series does appear in Part 1 and is also by Midori. “Tsuki ni Kakuseshi Chou no Yume” features the same slow pace and tone as Asa ni Hikari, though the difference between the lyrics of the songs is noticeable and appreciated for those who enjoy anime styled music.
Extras: With the release of Shangri-La Part 1, the package comes with an actual chipboard case that will allow the buyer to store both Part 1 and Part 2 together in one package, with the chipboard case featuring some impressive artwork. There are also plenty of bonus features besides your standard inclusions, which are trailers for past and upcoming FUNimation releases, a clean version of the opening song and both clean ending songs. One of these bonus features is a short mock promo video for a show called “Magical Gina the Akiba Fairy.” The video itself is still in Japanese but is still entertaining enough as a minor diversion from the main series.
Besides those inclusions there are also two commentaries included with this release for episodes 1 and 10. Both of these commentaries are packed full of people, with Tyler Walker, the ADR Director and Line Producer, running both commentaries. In episode 1 he is joined by Kent Williams, the voice of Momoko, Lindsay Seidel, the voice of Kuniko, and Austin Tindel who happens to be the voice of Kunihito. Episode 1’s commentary is entertaining enough, especially with the fact that Kent voiced the aforementioned transsexual character Momoko.
Episode 10’s commentary features Tyler Walker joined by Anastasia Munoz the voice of Sayoko, Apphia Yu who handles the voice of Mikuni, and Randy Perlman the voice of Miko. This commentary is not quite as entertaining as the first, though still mildly enjoyable, and it is worth noting that these commentaries should be watched after viewing the first half is over, as it can spoil parts of future episodes.
Overall: Shangri-La Part 1 introduces us to a world with plenty of issues hauntingly similar to what we’ve experienced in real life. Not only is the premise of global warming weighing on the world now, with the hottest summer in North America ever, but the war between Atlas and Metal Age bears a striking resemblance to recent protests in the US. To make things even more eerie, two years after the anime aired Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
As for the series itself, the complex storyline and various connections the plot has to real life events make for an enjoyable viewing experience. While only Part 1 has been released so far, it is fairly evident that the complex web of storylines spun in Shangri-La may quickly turn into a tangled storyline full of plot holes. Still, Shangri-La Part 1 offers engaging characters unlike what most anime viewers are accustomed to while also offering a compelling, albeit convoluted, story.
The newest iteration in the Paper Mario series, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, finally has a solid release date in North America, though given the amount of money people will be waving around this holiday season it should come as no surprise. Alongside multiple other release dates announced today by Nintendo, the release date of November 11th has been revealed for Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
