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Avengers Initiative Review

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Avengers Initiative
Developer: Wideload
Publisher:  Marvel / Disney Mobile
Platforms: iOS (Reviewed), Android
Release Date: September 6th, 2012
Price: $6.99 USD (Buy Here: iOS, Android)

Overview

Avengers Initiative is an episodic brawler in the style of the Infinity Blade series. The first episode stars our favourite raging mad green superhero The Hulk. Does Avengers Initiative have enough to be more than just an Infinity Blade clone?

Story

Avengers Initiative starts off its first episode with Hulk. The Pulse has broken up The Vault that held many super villains in prison and Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. has assigned Hulk to capture as many of the escapees as possible while Fury tracks down the rest of The Avengers. Eventually, the rest of The Avengers will be rounded up to solve the mystery of The Pulse and the breakout at The Vault. But for now, the first episode focuses on the Hulk beating down on villains such as Zzzax and the many nameless henchmen that put themselves between Hulk and his target.

The story is told through cut scenes and audio logs found scattered around the game. The audio logs can be accessed through signing up with the Marvel XP program. As a person not particularly familiar with the comic books, I felt a little lost on the plot. I strongly recommend at least watching The Avengers movie for some background before playing the game. The dossiers accessed through the Marvel XP program are rather extensive and provide an interesting read.

Gameplay

Avengers Initiative is a touch screen based brawler.  Players have the ability to side step, block, or deflect attacks by either tapping the correct buttons on the UI or swiping in the correct directions to stop incoming damage. Once the enemy is stunned, players can slash the enemy to deal out damage. There is a combo system in place for players to dish out extra damage. As their rage meter builds, players can unleash a variety of special rage attacks to do extra damage.  In between combat rounds players will travel from place to place by tapping on highlighted areas in the environment while seeking out hidden bonuses scattered throughout the area. Players can also play a mini game to acquire ISO-8 currency and equip-able augmentation shards.

The combat is well done. I found that learning the directions to sidestep and was rather challenging as you could not automatically sidestep into an attack to guarantee a dodge. Instead, I had to watch the attack and see where the attack did not strike so I could dodge into that safe area. I found the timing for deflecting was a little off to me. Personally I would assume seeing the enemy about to hit Hulk was the right time to swipe to deflect. Instead I discovered the correct time to swipe is the beginning of the attack animation. The combo is simple enough that players do not need to remember twenty or so different combos. Instead, they simply need to know a certain amount of swipes in the same direction followed by a certain amount of swipes in a different direction. This allows for a fewer amount of specific combinations to memorize yet still provide enough of a variety that players do not fall into using the same four combinations over and over. The rage attacks are varied; players must choose three rage attacks from a variety of purchasable skills to equip. These rage attacks can also be used at specific fights to cause environmental damage. These help bring more variety to the combat portion of the game.

Stats are player distributed as the characters level up. Players are also able to equip different augmentation shards and costumes for their character that modifies skill points. These can be purchased with the in-game ISO-8 currency and provides a great amount of flexibility for play style. In addition, bonuses are given to players for completing fights in a certain way. Additional bonuses are given for joining the Marvel XP program. This program seems to be strongly recommended as the in game audio logs can only be accessed through this program. This program also links players to the Marvel: Avengers Alliance Facebook game. This is advertised as linking multiple games that will span across an epic storyline, starting with the Avengers Alliance Facebook game. This is a strong sign that Hulk’s story is the first episode of many for the Avengers Initiative game.

Visuals

The visuals in Avengers Initiative are top notch. The visuals mix a realistic style with a touch of comic book looks. The game looked great on the new iPad’s Retina display with zero slowdowns or FPS drops. I found animations to be smooth and realistic for the most part. I found Hulk’s walking animation to feel a little awkward and unnatural, but that was made up for by excellent combat animations. The UI is a good size on the iPad, although I would have preferred to see customizable button sizes as I tend to prefer my dodge buttons to be on the larger side on the iPad.

Audio

Avengers Initiative is fully voice acted by an excellent cast. I do not think it is voiced by the original movie cast, but the acting is some of the best on the iOS platform. The music is moody and great the listen to and the sound effects are bone crunching. I strongly recommend playing this game with the sound on simply for the voice acting. Players do not have to use headphones, but it will improve the audio experience.

Overall

Avengers Initiative is a great game. Although currently a little short, there seems to be an extensive episodic content plan in place. Right now, $6.99 may be much for a game of its current length, but if the content drops continue as planned, it will make the $6.99 price look like a great deal. The game mixes strong audio and visual experience with a great combat system and an epic plotline that is supposed to span multiple games.

9-0-capsules-out-of-10

Eryi’s Action Launches This Friday

Benjamin Webb
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Coming to you September 14 is the latest platformer published by Nyu Media called Eyri’s Action. From the looks of the game, it is going to be quite the fun addition to any players library. The game was deverloped by Xtal Sword and was inspired by classics such as Super Mario Bros. and I Want To Be The Guy (I hope they aren’t referring to the game that was visually inspired by Megaman, not so much from a visual standpoint, but from a gameplay one).

The story itself seems like it’s going to be pretty humourous, considering that this is the story blurb that we were given –

One fine day, Eryi went to eat the melon that she had been SO looking forward to… but it was nowhere to be found! Then she noticed a note on the table. She picked it up and read: “Your melon looked delicious, so I took it. From Farta X”
Fuming with rage, Eryi set out from her house to get her melon back from Farta.

The games features are as follows –

Features
+ 12 action-packed stages & boss fights!
+ Adorably charming world & characters!
+ Fiendishly cunning traps!
+ It’s okay to fail! Autosave has your back!
+ FUN! You’ll die a lot, but you WILL go back for more!
+ 32 achievements (Steam version only)

Be sure to check out the title and the rest of the Nyu Media second wave here. Also, make sure you support the Nyu Media on the Steam Spotlight by approving their titles, starting with this one. The game launches on September 14th on PC, available here.

Veterans Benefit From EA And Sony Collaboration

Benjamin Webb
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Sony Pictures and EA Games have recently revealed that they will be working together to fund a few war veteran organisations. The project that will be leading the cause of this 1 million dollar plus donation is the Zero Dark Thirty project. Sony Pictures will be releasing a film by this name and EA will be releasing a map pack for the upcoming Medal of Honor: Warfighter called the  Zero Dark Thirty Map Pack.

On the collaboration, the films writer-producer had this to say –

“Working with Project HONOR is a meaningful way for us to continue our support for combat veterans throughout the armed services,” said Mark Boal, writer-producer of Zero Dark Thirty. “We are thrilled to be a part of this effort, and we’re humbled that EA is stepping up to the plate with such a significant contribution.”

The map pack will be releasing on December 17 for $15.90AUD on the Xbox 360 and PC. On the DLC, EA spoke thus –

“Medal of Honor Warfighter is inspired by real world events, real operations, and real warriors,” said Peter Moore, Chief Operating Officer at EA. “We’ve teamed up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to give back to the Special Operations community in honor of the sacrifices they and their families have made for their country and to connect people to the story of the greatest manhunt our world has seen.”

Zero Dark Thirty follows the tale of military officers as they track down the infamous Osama Bin Laden. The film is directed by Kathryn Bigelow and is written and produced by Mark Boal. The film launches on December 19.

New Trine 2 DLC Up for Grabs at 15% Off

Claire Phillips
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Frozenbyte have released the Goblin Menace DLC for the ever so shiny Trine 2, with an opening discount of 15% available on Steam. The gorgeous platformer was first released last year, so now is certainly the time to catch up with the title if 2011’s massive run of mega titles caused you to miss out on a few of the smaller gems.

As for the exact content of the expansion, it will include six new skills, six new levels and (only one) completely new soundtrack. The six skills will all be compatible with the entire base game, opening up the already highly replayable title for just one more go. Fans will already be aware of how many different ways there are to solve the various environmental puzzles in Trine 2 and will no doubt be itching to try out the time slowing bubble, prison box and object magnetization – those should produce some interesting results in multiplayer!

Hotel Transylvania Screenshots Emerge from the Darkness

Dustin Spencer
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Hotel Transylvania is set to hit theaters on September 28th, but the WayForward/Gamemill video game adaptation will be coming forth as soon as next week for the 3DS and DS. This romp features a good number of “locations, puzzles, and boss battles galore” for players to interact with, and seems to carry WayForward’s retro-esque level design that they do so well.

Today, a few new screenshots have emerged for you all to sink your teeth into for the 3DS & DS versions of the game, which you can now check out below for both versions. Hotel Transylvania may be licensed, but it does have some promise as it almost appears to be a SNES classic cart that was thrust into the present. You can pick up either version when Hotel Transylvania hits shelves on September 25th.

NBA Baller Beats Out Tomorrow; Opening Cinematic Released

Dustin Spencer
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NBA Baller Beats has definitely been listed as the odd man out of big releases this year, but that really isn’t a bad thing. This is the first motion-based title for the Kinect that solely involves the sport of basketball, and requires the player to use a real ball to play along. Yes folks, the purpose of Baller Beats is to dribble to the beat, and Majesco are ready to get you hyped when it comes to their new and very intriguing title.

Here are a few quotes released today to give us a better idea of what players can expect to see in the game:

NBA Baller Beats is easy to play, but hard to master. Players of all skill levels – from rookie to pro – will dribble to the beat of 30 popular and chart-topping music tracks, across various genres including hip-hop, rock, and old school favorites from artists like Kanye West, Common, Queen, Skrillex, Wiz Khalifa, Interpol, Wale, Lady Gaga, and many more. NBA Baller Beats challenges players to time their dribble to the beat of each song and perform a variety of skill moves displayed on-screen to score points, earn achievements and unlock assets and additional gameplay.

“There has never been anything like NBA Baller Beats, which is a true game-changer for the industry,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco Entertainment. “The buzz for the game is growing each day and it already has 4 million video views and nearly 700,000 Twitter followers. We are really looking forward to all the fans playing the game when it is in stores tomorrow.”

“We’re excited to work with Majesco on this innovative sports title,” said Victoria Picca, Senior Vice President, Licensing & Business Affairs, National Basketball Association. “NBA Baller Beats is a high energy game that turns ball-handling drills into an amazingly fun, music-driven experience.”

Players train alongside their favorite NBA franchises, unlocking songs, difficulty levels, environment accessories and over 100 posters and Panini’s 2012 NBA Hoops trading cards that showcase the NBA players’ greatest moves. To maximize performance, players can also visit the extensive in-game tutorial where two-time NBA world champion and Emmy Award-winning TNT NBA analyst Kenny Smith dishes tips for success.

I know some may not have the space for Baller Beats, but it honestly sounds fun from what we have seen thus far, and NBA fans are sure to get a one of a kind experience that the video game world has never seen before as it blasts into stores tomorrow. For now, you can check out the opening cinematic down below.

GoDaddy servers taken down, hacker tweets his exploits

Darren Resnekov
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Hackers have crippled the GoDaddy web hosting firm, taking them offline and essentially affecting potentially millions of websites which use the GoDaddy servers to run their websites from. According to SMH a member of the collective hacking group known as Anonymous has taken credit for the attack, but has not as of yet explained his reasoning. AnonymousOwn3r, the “security leader” for the organisation has spoken of the attacks through Twitter and taking responsibility for the servers outage time which is undetermined.”Hello http://godaddy.com/ now yes! all servers #tangodown by @AnonymousOwn3r,” was the message he tweeted and also let everyone know he was working alone not as the Anonymous group.

GoDaddy servers host a whole range of websites, over 5 million in fact which range from auction sites through to media watching sites, all of which are potentially affected by the hack. They have issued their own statements on Twitter explaining the situation to their customers and user base, apologising for the downtown and assuring people they were doing everything they could to get things back up and running. When asked about his motivation the hacker said he was testing their cyber security, and for other reasons he couldnt talk about.

 

Music Master Chopin: Classic & Rock Released

Jamie Laike Tsui
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BulkyPix announced two new games for the iOS devices today. Music Master Chopin comes in two flavours depending on your preferred instrument. Music Master Chopin: Classic allows players to get behind a piano and tickle the keys. For those who prefer a harder sound, Music Master Chopin: Rock lets players shred their way through Chopin’s works. The games features the familiar Guitar Hero/Rockband style game play with 26 unlockable tracks, four difficulty levels and 70 pieces of information about Chopin’s life and work that is rewarded after each successful level. The games costs $5.49 AUD each, so rock out to Chopin here. No word when the Classic version will hit the App store so stay tuned to Capsule computers for the latest info.

Interview with MumboJumbo Director of Game Design John Newcomer

Jamie Laike Tsui
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We sat down with John Newcomer the Director of Game Design at MumboJumbo to talk about their new game Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can.

What type of game is Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can? 

Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can is an adventure-crime drama with a gripping storyline involving murders in the past and present.  It features 3D elements seamlessly integrated in over 150 realistically rendered backgrounds, unique story-driven puzzles and a captivating main character you work with to catch the killer.

What inspired you to create Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can?

The resurgence of adventure games along with the popularity of paranormal crime-solving television shows.  We thought a realistic crime solving game with supernatural undertones would be fun.

Tell us about the Angelica Weaver character:

Angelica is an unconventional detective on Chicago’s special task force who is called in when forensics and traditional police work hit a roadblock. In addition to her superior observation and deductive skills, Angelica has the ability to experience a victim’s last sights, smells and feelings. She knows where a victim fell even at the coldest of crime scenes and still connects to their lingering spirits.  Her link with the dead allows her to jump back and forth between murder scenes on the streets of historic London and present day Chicago.

What was your process for writing the story?

The story and gameplay are completely intertwined. I did intense research to find historical murders to give our story credibility. I needed a depth of victims and suspects to support a full-length game, and environments that lended themselves to layering in puzzles that fit the storyline and action. London of 1888 works as an interesting contrast to present-day Chicago.

The story is a thinly veiled rendition of Jack the Ripper with unnecessary violence discarded to make Angelica Weaver a casual thriller. What intrigued me was using the suspects as characters and figuring out how their various occupations would provide entertaining settings for the clues, puzzles and overall adventure. Some actual Ripper locations are included, but we also needed locations at convenient distances for smooth gameplay.

How is Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can different from earlier MumboJumbo games?

While similar to our Midnight Mysteries series, which blend fantasy with historical fact, the Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can storyline incorporates paranormal crime solving in both modern day and historical settings.  To support the two time periods and the integration of 3D elements, the art style, gameplay and storytelling are more complex.

With our Samantha Swift series, we touched on making the title character a predominant feature, but with Angelica Weaver we’ve taken it a step further. She is animated in the HUD and steps out to interact with victims at crime scenes throughout the game.  She also relays clues and observations to the player through voice over.

We included several new game features that help pace the gameplay.  The tutorial system is more refined, and we streamlined the way the inventory is displayed.  We also separated character comments that help further the story from general commentary, which was put into “black bar text.”

Were there any notable ideas in the conceptual phase of Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can that were great on paper but cut later?

It took a lot of thought to develop ideas that would most appeal to our target audience for Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can. What I think may be fun to play does not always match what our customer thinks will be fun to play. If you don’t put on your customer hat, think of new ideas and play through the game from a customer’s perspective, you lose… game over.

Initially, the story had details on more victims and suspects, with more weight on historical accuracy. We determined that having too many names to keep track of added confusion and took away from the gameplay.

What were the biggest challenges the team faced in making Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can?

First, ensuring the more complex art style (merged 2D and 3D components) made the game more compelling and aided story telling.  Secondly, the quantity of puzzles required to sustain a full game and bonus chapter.  Creating puzzles that are fresh, fit the story, entertain the player, and are valid for a variety of skill levels, requires tremendous collaboration of the design, programming and art teams.

What feature in Angelica Weaver: Catch Me If You Can are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the overall entertainment value of the game.  If I were to break that into a feature it would be how the story and gameplay are married together.

Crunch in video game development is notoriously demanding. How does the MumboJumbo team cope?

In the end, it comes back to our love of games.  It’s fun to complete something you are proud to have associated with your name.  The core team has been together for over four years, making it easy to get into a rhythm that pushes us through the end.

What games do you play outside of the projects you are working on in the office? 

My favorite game is, was and ever will be chess.

What is your favorite part of creating games at MumboJumbo?

Seeing the game design storyboards come to life in the playable builds.

Angelical Weaver: Catch Me When You Can is out on PC and can be purchased from Big Fish Games here. A big thank you to the team at MumboJumbo for taking the time to answer our questions.

Valve’s Plans For Gaming Headset Revealed

Zac Elawar
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Since the announcement of Google’s Project Glass this past April, and the demonstration of the Oculus Rift at E3 in June, community interest in virtual reality headsets has reached an all time high. Now, Valve has thrown their hat into the VR ring.

In a special New York Times feature, an NVIS headset which was demonstrated by Gordon Stoll, engineer at Valve, is described as “a boxy set of goggles that looks like a 22nd-century version of a View Master.” Project leader Michael Abrash truly believes that, with their planned virtual reality glasses, in a mere three to five years “credible augmented reality games” will be available to us.


The Oculus Rift May Have Some Competition

Although Valve are very excited for the realisation of these plans, they may not actually create the hardware themselves as “it’s ultimate goal is to share its designs freely.”  Abrash states that “we don’t particularly want to be a company that makes hardware in large quantities. It’s not what we do.” To read more from the 3 page feature, visit The New York Times.

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