Pitfall Harry is back! The 1982 classic has been re-imagined and rebooted for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The Players will need to guide Pitfall Harry through jungles, caves and native villages. Guarding the path are flames, falling artifacts, and dangerous creatures like snakes. Yes, it had to be snakes! Players will need to run, jump, slide, swing, and wield Pitfall Harry’s whip. Players will be able to trade in collected treasures for helpful power ups and costume items as they level up. Pitfall! is controlled by simple swipe and tilt mechanics that are easy to learn. Pitfall! is available on the iTunes App Store herefor $0.99.
What better way to celebrate the Olympics than to hold a massive sale? Well that is exactly what EA Mobile is doing. Games including EA Mobiles biggest hits like FIFA 12 and Dead Space are up to 80 percent off. No word when this sale ends, to be sure to scoop up your favourite games as soon as possible. New deals will be launching every day so to keep up to date with the latest EA Mobile Daily Deals, visit www.eamobile.com/dailydeals
Games on Sale
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (iPad or iPhone)Battleship HD (iPad)
Still shooting it up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? Well you may be interested to know that the 3rd Modern Warfare 3 Collection pack is now available on Xbox Live. The newly released pack is titled ‘Collection #3: Chaos Pack’ and is set to provide players with a lot of new content to sink their teeth into.
The Chaos Pack introduces 4 new Spec Ops Missions, 3 new Face-Off maps and an all new way to play Call of Duty in the first time ever Spec Ops Chaos Mode, which is essentially like Spec Ops mode but obviously much more chaotic!
You can download the Chaos Pack now only on the Xbox 360 (other platforms will receive it at a later date) for the somewhat hefty price of 1,200 Microsoft points. Let us know what you think of the Chaos Pack in the comments section below.
ToDay’Z lesson: safety is an illusion. No danger in sight only means that danger is hiding. Sometimes it’s in really obvious places: the world is crawling with flesh-eating zombies, after all. Other times it’s less conspicuous: I once broke my legs by opening a door too fast. But just don’t believe for a second that you’re ever really safe.
My brothers and I got a little too cocky during one session, assuming that the old safety in numbers adage would hold true. And for a while, it did. But it seems fate was merely toying with us.
The three of us, Jason, Jack and myself, journey north from Cherno, hitting a few barns and creeping through towns, scavenging what we could find. We were sticking close together, until somewhere south of Topolka Dam, Jason vanishes. Mildly worried, we call out for him, and the forest responds with gunshots.
They’re such a common sound in games, but in DayZ the sound of gunfire carries a terrifying weight, a very real sense of threat. One surprise shot can swiftly end a successful survival spree. Jack and I freeze, desperately calling again, until Jason replies nonchalantly.
“Damn zombies.”
Relieved, we scold his carelessness. Gunshots attract more zombies, and often, other players. We let him know we’re in a field by a small pond, waiting for him to catch up. Two seconds later he fires again, and Jack reiterates, perhaps more clearly.
“Shut the hell up!”
A string of freaked-out half-words tells us those gunshots weren’t Jason’s. Jack and I drop to the ground, and whip out binoculars to scan the surrounding hills for movement. A tense few minutes crawl by, as we wait to see Jason emerge from the tree line. Finally he appears, and no more gunshots were heard.
As we cautiously continue northward, we ponder their story. Who they were, what they were shooting at, where they were heading, whether they survived the encounter. Perhaps they were as afraid of our gunfire as we were of theirs.
Our journey soon takes us to the small town of Msta. We pick through the buildings quietly, methodically, but it doesn’t yield much reward. A barn just east of town proves to be quite profitable though, and we spend a fair while sorting through it. It’s not long before we have enough food and water to last weeks, a couple of high-powered weapons, and the mistaken belief that we’re ready for anything.
Being the two with the guns, Jason and Jack venture outside first. Barely a step out the door, a single gunshot rings out. Jack begins another round of yelling at Jason for reckless shooting, until he notices Jason crumpled on the floor. Before he can react, a second shot sends him sprawling as well.
The silence that followed was unnerving. I was hidden from the shooter by the wooden wall of the barn, but if he’d been watching, he knew I was in there. I cowered in the corner, clutching my axe as my only defense.
Jack’s rifle and Jason’s shotgun were only a few metres in front of me, and I desperately needed an upgrade. The gunman was surely on his way to collect his trophies, and my axe-wielding maniac facade would be no match for his cold accuracy and firepower. All I had was – maybe – an element of surprise. I crawled closer, behind a crate, ready to “axe him a question”, should the shooter show himself.
Courage slowly returning, I peek my head out – and another shot ricochets off the floor nearby. Yep, he knows I’m here.
With my last sliver of advantage gone, I instinctively drop to my belly. My final mistake. The shooter now regards me as minor a threat as the two recently deceased, and charges in. He was pretty damn accurate at long-range, and when the rifle is basically touching my head as I struggle to my feet, I don’t expect – or receive – mercy.
Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising Studio:Hasbro Publisher: Madman Format: DvD Release Date: June 20, 2012 Price: $19.99 (Buy Here)
Overview
When the Autobot Cliffjumper is attacked by Decepticons after finding a patch of the crystalised energy source, Energon, a huge plot is set into motion involving some epic battles between giant robots, zombies and even some involvement with some humans. Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots are primed to protect humanity, even if it means destroying their only way to get home.
Story
Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising follows the story of the Autobots protecting the Earth from a particular Decepticon threat. In this particular story, the Decepticons have acquired a new kind of weapon called Anti-Energon (or something) which has the ability to raise the dead as mindless zombies.
I quite enjoyed the way the story progressed in this movie, even if at some points the plot moved into some unbelievable territory with some of the characters. What I mean by this is that one of the main characters is a nerdy child who is capable of some rather difficult tasks whilst on a computer. I think at one point even one of the other characters brought attention to this. “You know how to hack? But you’re like 2”. If you’re already suspending your audiences disbelief with giant robots and kids with IQ’s that surpass most regular computer hackers, please do not bring more attention to that fact. Regular belief kicks back in and you yell at the TV.
I actually didn’t the human characters in this film as much as I thought I would. In most previous Transformers series, I’ve absolutely hated the human protagonists and have stop watching because of how little I cared for them. But in this film, while I didn’t feel connected to them (I’m too old), I did understand them… with the exception of the 12 year old hacker, really HASBRO? Really? The one major flaw with the eldest male lead character, I found, was that he seemed to have a relationship that was a little *too* friendly with his rather attractive mother. I can’t be the only one who got this vibe.
What worked really well with this film was the way it handled the exposition and combat elements of the story. Everything fit together nicely and it didn’t really seem like it was trying to make an excuse to have big transforming robots hit each other with stuff, which is something that is pretty important from a story-telling perspective.
I have to admit that when I saw the 1hour and 46minute run time, I was a little bit daunted. This is a full-length feature who’s target audience will probably not be bale to sit settled for that long. Fortunately, it the film didn’t come off as being aimed at children at all, but rather it seems that it was aimed at the Transformers fanbase itself and as such, feels much more worthy of the Tranformers legacy.
Video
Please do not be turned off by opening battle scene in this film. I mean, really, please don’t. It is only one badly crafted scene in a film that only gets better and better as it goes. It was a horrible scene and I almost turned the movie off after I saw that horrible slo-mo shot. And man, I’m glad I didn’t.
One of this films greatest strengths are it’s animated battles. The battles are not quite Beast Wars awesome, but they’re really freaking close. I have to say that seeing Optimus Prime with daggers coming out of his arm and massacring a horde of Zombie Transformers is one of the best things to happen in CGI, ever.
I have to admit that when I looked at the cover and saw the current designs of the Transformers that I was kind of worried. I’m too used to having the massive bulky Super-robot type designs from the past animated series’ and not the current sleeker look that Hasbro has been peddling with the Live-Action stuff. Fortunately, once you see the redesigns in action, they work really well. My only gripe is that Arcee wasn’t sexy enough, but she’s a robot so I don’t think it’d work between us anyway.
One of my biggest gripes in this movie visually is that the human characters look too archetypical. For instance, you have the geeky 12 year old who looks exactly how you would imagine a geeky stereotype to look, you have the female hipster looking Asian girl from Japan who looks exactly how you’re imagining her to look right now and you’ve got the pretty average male teenager who you would imagine to look pretty average. His mother is pretty cute though.
I can only really praise this film for it’s visuals, it’d be pretty cool if we got a Beast Wars reboot from the team animating this series. Also, please give Arcee a redesign, please.
Audio
Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising has a fairly average audio soundtrack. I don’t really recall having a particular sound clip or audio track particularly resonating with me. However, that isn’t to say that’s bad, it’s just that nothing really adds or detracts to the experience. It just is.
I’m also reasonably certain that they’ve changed something with the signature transformation noise that a Transformer makes. It sounds like it’s had it’s pitch altered or has been sped up or something since the last series I watched. Nothing major, but it didn’t feel right for some reason.
Overall the Audio isn’t anything bad, it’s just not something that particularly grabs you. I will say that Optimus Prime sounds amazing in this iteration of the franchise and fans of his will enjoy his tone.
Extras
The film doesn’t really have any extras to speak of. The only real thing that could be considered extra is the fact that it comes with a small handful of Transformers related trailers. I wouldn;t say that a lack of extras is a detriment to the film, but it doesn’t really add anything by not having anything significant there either.
Overall
Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising is an incredibly fun Transformers film that should leave fans feeling satisfied. Despite it beginning quite poorly, it shapes up to be an incredible experience that even a non-Transformers fan can appreciate.
If you’re a gamer – and I know you are, because why the hell else would you be reading this? – you owe it to yourself to check out the Sundance award-winning documentary, Indie Game: The Movie.
Due to sell-out sessions in June, the film is again being screened in Melbourne and Sydney in the coming weeks. Sydney-siders, your only chance is Friday 17th August, at Dendy Cinemas, Newtown. Get in quick, because it didn’t take long to sell out last time.
Melbournians, we have a bit more freedom: ACMI at Federation Square is showing the film regularly in a short-term run, with no less than twelve sessions between 23rd August and 2nd September.
Indie Game: The Movie documents the people and the process behind the creation of three definitive indie games: Fez, Braid and Super Meat Boy. I saw it at the last Melbourne screening, and if you’ve played any or all of these games, it really makes you think about them in another light. Putting faces to them makes the games feel more personal. Check out the trailer below, for a taste.
Grab your tickets to the Melbourne or Sydney screenings, or if you aren’t the leave-the-house type, the film is also available on Steam.
Death Rally Publisher: Remedy Entertainment Developer: Cornfox & Brothers, Mountain Sheep Platforms: PC (reviewed), iPad, iPhone Release Date: August 3, 2012 Price: $9.99 – Steam Version
Save an additional 15% by purchasing the title before August 17th!
Overview
Revamped in March 2011, Death Rally has already made a tremendous impact on mobile device platforms. Remedy Entertainment even can boast Road Rally for being the #1 universal app for iPhone in 46 countries as well as for iPad in 90 countries. Now this explosive vehicle has been ported to the Steam environment and has expanded for success on the PC driven market.
Story
Apparently the main character has been speeding and involved in some reckless driving adding up to countless felonies. A brigade of police are hot on his tail as the player is thrown directly in the mix. Thinking that there is some way out, I drove away in my red Shrieker only to be shot down by the cavalry. Even shooting the your way out won’t get you out of this mess. Emerging from the pile of metal that was a nice Shrieker, the renegade is taken into custody. Now the police chief, Tex Harris, is talking about forcing him into Death Rally to bring out “The Adversary”. Jail time or Death Rally…
The story is fairly simple and continues with the officer getting upset that you haven’t brought in “The Adversary” yet. Only a few races are designed specifically for the story while regular matches will be completed to gain enough fame for the next story piece. Races will take over the forefront while the story resonates behind the scenes.
Gameplay
Unlike other games where you enjoy easy courses and build up your morale, Death Rally really socks it to you from the get go. You are forced to learn driving mechanics and understand that you might have to lose some races to get better. However, getting second or third place can be very enjoyable if you are able to destroy your opponents in the process.
Controls can be confusing at times depending on the view you want to be accustomed to. There are two perspectives – a following camera versus a top-down view. While using the following camera, the arrow directional keys make sense as left and right movements are sensibly correct. However, in the top-down mode you are not following behind your vehicle, so making quick turns might make you second guess what directional to press. On the other hand, the following camera shifts the view quite a bit as you are moving with the camera creating a potential dizziness effect. Testing both views out will garner which mode will fit your playing style the best as both views have advantages and disadvantages. I would personally choose to take the regular top-down view as you can see more of the map and anticipate crates to run into.
As the directional keys control movement, there are keys that cause some mischief for other players. Keys (Z) and (X) are default commands for mines and weapons. Mines cannot be used right away because you will need to collect item blueprints during racing matches in order to build the item – this is also true for new vehicles and weapons. One the blueprints for mines have been collect you will be able to drop three mines during any match as long as they are selected in your main inventory.
Weapons can be attached to any of your vehicles while in the selection menu. You first begin with only a shotgun attachment that allows minimal shots during a race but can be reloaded by ammo pick-ups from miscellaneous crates and dead enemies. In order to use the weapon during the race, simply aim by driving your vehicle near an opponent and hit (X) to fire. The shotgun had a bullet spray that can hit additional opponents while a weapon like the sniper rifle will hit only one for more damage. Weapons can additionally be upgrades by points gained during a match.
Each vehicle has its own stats known as badges and can be upgraded to a limited degree. The badges are separated into five contributing areas: vehicle condition, speed, handling, armor, and weapon upgrade. The most important area to always maintain on each race is vehicle condition. During a race or battle, your car may experience some wear and sometimes even explode. You will need to spend points on your vehicle’s condition badge in order to repair that damage dealt to you in previous matches. Thus, being killed during a match can become quite costly as well as deterring you from spending points on vehicle upgrades.
Speed, handling, and armor help define what matters more to you as the player. Speed will definitely help you win some races, but being fast isn’t always a saving grace. Armor comes in handy when you have close encounters that deliver crushing blows by flamethrower or even missiles. Not enough armor means “Bye, Bye, Chump!” Handling is the oddball out of the group and overlooked quite often. When discussing vehicle speed and NOS boosts during races, handling becomes important to make quick turns to edge off opponents. The customization of each vehicle stats ends when they are fully upgraded and considered a “GOLD” vehicle. Nothing too special other than just being upgraded to the max.
On to the races! On the bottom of the race selection screen, you can switch between story and match mode. The storyline will become updated once you hit milestones through your races. For instance if you attained enough fame, the adversary may become interested in your forthcoming as a death dealer of racing. As the story develops you will have to beat certain races in order to advance to the next step. Eventually, the adversary himself would like to challenge you.
The regular match selection screen will compromise of several stages that will randomly be customized by racing type. Most matches will be normal races where the first to cross the finish line wins. However, other races will be customized by the following: dollar race, single lap, specific weapon, and death matches. All of the customized races still require a single player to finish but adds limiting rules to enhance the fun. A match with “Gatling Guns” only attaches this weapon to each vehicle in the race while removing your previously attached weapon. This could be a good way to test out a new weapon you have not acquired blueprints for.
Beyond the type and location of the race is the difficulty. While playing offline, each match is labeled beginner, easy, medium, hard, or extreme. I find this difficulty setting quite useful when trying out new vehicles and weapons. For instance, you would not simply jump into an extreme difficulty race with a vehicle that you have just unlocked. Well, maybe you would but prepare to only acquire a point bonus of 600 for merely participating. Working your way up from beginner again will prove useful for any newly unlocked vehicle. If you can purely win on instincts and mines, try a new weapon on harder difficulties because the bonuses will be greater and level the weapon up faster.
A shadowman may speak with you before races begin to prompt you with an advantage for the upcoming race. This shadowman will offer a chance to try a “Gold” vehicle or weapon for half of your earnings during a race or even sabotage a random person in your race for a minimal fee. Additionally, the shadowman may offer to double your reward if you are able to kill a boss during a race. Therefore, killing and not necessarily winning can have its own advantages.
Every race has a boss that can prove to be a tough foe to beat. These bosses normally have a faster vehicle and have better luck maneuvering around mines. Beating bosses during the match will provide an additional point bonus and if destroyed unlock an achievement. In order to defeat these hardened foes, you will have to combine speed boosts with consistent attacks to slow them down.
Initially, all of the races begin offline. By going into the multiplayer menu, you can switch to battle online opponents and even create your own private channel for friends to join. Upon switching all of the difficulty settings will be erased and all matches will search for online opponents. The only problem here is that the community of players is lacking. When trying to play online at varying times of the day, often I would experience “no players found” or “please quit and try again”. I did manage to play the same opponent three times in a row during one session which was quite enjoyable. After players get skilled enough in the story mode and offline races, they will have no problems taking on online opponents. As more people become involved in the online races, the experience will become more enjoyable for those that have reached 99% completion – like me. How else will I be able to unlock the 100 online wins achievement?
Visual / Audio
Vehicle customization has been given a lot of thought as you can tell already by individual stats. Well, to make the game more visually appealing the developers instilled different vehicle skins like the Sentinel’s unicorn design for players to choose from right away. Sadly, this is where the customization ends with the paint job. More unlockables by achievements or for fame completions would make take customization to the next level and provide a deeper experience for players. Even decals earned by destroying specific opponents could interesting.
A combination of sound effects and graphics provides an enjoyable gameplay experience when decimating foes. Being able to see the destruction as it unleashes is the key importance. Whether you are launching rockets or locking on by aiming with your sniper rifle, you can sense the heat of the moment.
User interface has a clean design and is easy to maneuver around. As soon as you enter your profile, you are able to quickly change the design of your car or jump into a race. Additional menu options are visible at the bottom of the screen adding to the clean feel.
Overall
What you will experience in the end is a classy racing shoot ’em up game. Death Rally creates an addictive atmosphere that you will be choosing your best fit vehicle, weapons, and races to cremate your foes. Like me, you will be excited to see your fame meter climb after each race reaching closer to that “God” title – or perhaps further.
Death Rally is lacking in an extensive multiplayer experience concerning its community. At this time the community is simply not there for intense online interaction. However, partnering up with players on a private channel could prove interesting and quite deadly.
Even though the story mode is incorporated alongside racing matches, the game can be completed within a single sitting – energy drink and hot pockets on standby. Death Rally delivers a hardcore vehicle blasting experience that doesn’t take gamers likely from the beginning. If you cannot stand losing at the beginning, I guess you are not cut out for death dealing.
Perhaps you have heard about Sega’s unique looking platformer featuring a skeleton rabbit already? Well if not then you should check out the below trailer because the amount of craziness it contains will surely help pull some money out of your wallet to pick up Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit once it is released.
Today, alongside the below trailer, Sega revealed that the game will be coming to the PlayStation Network on September 25, Xbox LIVE Arcade on September 26 and the PC on October 3. The title will cost $14.99 for those on PC and PS3 while 360 owners will need to lay out 1200 MSP to help Ash, the rabbit prince of hell take down everything in his path.
As most of you are probably aware, the Xbox 360 release of Persona 4 Arena has had some issues with its netcode. The problem was first noticed when 360 gamers in Japan experienced unusually high levels of latency compared to their PS3 counterparts. The North American version of the game released earlier this week also experienced the same issues.
However thanks to the development team working hard to fix the issue, a patch has already been released to both Japanese and North American versions of the game. From my experience with the title it seems to have fixed the issue as online matches now flow smoothly compared to how they were working just a few hours ago.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, BBC has announced in a press release that it will be making the origin of the TV series into a TV movie.
It’s been known for a long time that the series creators Sydney Newman, Cecil Edwin Webber, and Donald Wilson were considered “upstarts” in the BBC studios, having set out to create Doctor Who in response to a gap in the programming schedule on Saturday Mornings in between the kids show Juke Box Jury and the sports program Grandstand. Sydney Newman, Head of Drama, realised that the program would have to appeal to children due to Juke Box Jury, as well as appeal to the adult and teenage audience that watched Grandstand. He realised that a science fiction show would be perfect, and ran to the writing department with the idea, and as they say, the rest is history.
Mark Gatiss, long time Doctor Who writer and actor, will be writing the TV special, with Doctor Who current show runners Stephen Moffat and Caroline Skinner executive producing. It is currently unknown who will be placed in the shoes of the creators and who will be playing the actor of the First Doctor, William Hartnell, then pigeon holed into hardman roles.
“The story of Doctor Who is the story of television – so it’s fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the TARDIS was launched.” says Stephen Moffat.
The 90 minute tv special is entitled An Adventure in Space and Time and while no air date has been set, it is speculated that it will air on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who‘s first broadcast, November 23, 2013.
