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Sakura Tange Interview – SMASH! 2012

July 25, 2012

After having attended Sakura Tange’s SMASH! 2012 Panel, I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with the star of Cardcaptor Sakura for an interview. We discussed her lengthy voice acting career as well as what she thinks of voice acting and the industry in general. Not only that but she also reveals what her favourite anime series of all time is, you may or may not be surprised too see what it is. Read of to see what she had to say when I sat down with her at SMASH! 2012:

Q. A few years ago you made your return to voice acting after a long break, What factors contributed to your decision to return to voice acting?

A. It was through the role in Love Plus that I got back into voice acting.

Q. Your most famous role is that of Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura. What is it like having voiced such an iconic anime character?

A. Cardcaptor Sakura aired ten years ago in Japan, and I heard it was quite popular when it was aired here in Australia. I’m very happy that this series has been loved for such a long time, crossing country borders.

Q. You have had many voice roles in both anime and video games. How different is the experience between voicing a character in an anime compared to in a video game?

A. Voice acting in video games is just the same as anime. However in games, you often do recordings by yourself, whereas in Anime you collaborate with other voice actors.

Q. You have been involved in a lot of anime and video games, so I am wondering are you an anime and video game fan? If so, what is your favourite anime and what is your favourite video game?

A. I read the original manga for Cardcaptor Sakura and was a fan of it.

Q. What do you love most about voice acting?

A. The most fantastic thing about voice acting is that whilst traditional actors go on the screen and can only play the parts that are physically similar to them, for voice actors you can play the roles of anyone. Not only humans but animals as well.

Q. What got you into the industry to begin with?

A. My voice was very characteristic from when I was very young in primary school, so I wanted to go with a profession that utilized my voice.

Q. Is there anything you’d like to say to all your fans?

A. I’ve just got back from an amazing stage where the audience really interacted with me. Despite the language barrier they reacted to my voice and some were even responding with the word “Moe” which means cute in Japanese. It’s great too see that the Japanese culture is so popular in Australia.

Be sure to check out the official SMASH! website and our SMASH! 2012 section here on Capsule.

Konami Reveals PlayerID For PES 2013

Joshua Spudic

July 25, 2012

In the latest video of the “Introducing PES 2013” series, Konami has shown off the latest gameplay feature for the upcoming entry to the Pro Evolution Soccer series, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. The game is set for a Fall 2012 release and will be coming to the Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Playstation 2, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360 and PC. In this video, Konami details the individual brilliance of certain players through the use of PlayerID.

PlayerID brings the skills and tricks world-class players possess right into the game space. For example, if you choose to utilise Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid), he will move as he would in the real game. He will also utilise his own signature moves to beat the defenders. Players such as Lionel Messi (Argentina, FC Barcelona), Frank Ribery (France, Bayern Munchen) and Zlaten Ibrahimovic (Sweden, now at Paris Saint-Germaine) will have PlayerID functionality. Check out the video below.

A Fresh Angle on WW2 Games from Uprising44

Claire Phillips

July 25, 2012

A Fresh Angle on WW2 Games from Uprising44

Uprising44 is named after one of the lesser popularised events of World War 2. The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 saw the Polish resistance take on occupying Nazi forces in an attempt to free their capital city. Unlike other major events of WW2 that have received some serious pixellated attention, this story is something of a fresh one, and developers DMD Enterprises hope to capture the attention of gamers who have perhaps given up on WW2 games as old news.

DMD are a small independent studio based in Poland, and Uprising44: The Silent Shadows is their first major release as a team. The game is a blend of third person perspective and real time strategy – thankfully no more FPS!

Subtitled The Silent Shadows after a fictional military unit, Uprising44 will be released on August 28 across PC, Mac and iOS. A console release on Xbox 360 was on the cards in previous press releases, but the new developer diary shows no sign of this happening – for the moment at least. As well as the video attached below which discusses story and sound, a handful of screenshots have also been released to give gamers a better idea of the in game world.

Party Wave Review

Jamie Laike Tsui

July 25, 2012

Party Wave
Developer: Mistwalker
Publisher: Mistwalker
Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch
Release Date: July 20th, 2012
Price: $1.99 Get It Here

Overview

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s latest project is a surf game called Party Wave. Drawing inspiration from one of Mistwalker Studio’s headquarter location, Mistwalker takes the classic Hawaiian past time of surfing and gives it a cartoony twist for the iOS platform. Will Sakaguchi’s first foray into the iTunes App Store establish a beach head for future iOS releases?

Story

Party Wave stars a bunch of easily recognizable and unique characters. However, there is no story in Party Wave. Simply help your surfers have a great day surfing at the beach.

Gameplay

Party Wave is a casual action surfing game that plays like a cross between Flight Control and a frantic game of keep the ball up. The simple description of Party Wave’s game mechanics is incredibly deceptive. Hidden beneath the premise is an impressively deep game that takes great care with the small details.

The game is divided into levels. Each level has a set amount of surfers that will participate. The level itself is split into two phases. The first phase will require players to guide the surfers into the oncoming wave as a group. Players will have to race against the clock to get their surfers in position. The surfers will appear from the corners of the screen at different positions and players will have to maneuver them around obstacles such as rocks and dolphins by drawing a path for them to follow. Once all the surfers are either knocked off their boards or in position, the game will transition to the second phase, riding the waves. The surfers will bob up and down as players tap the surfers when they fall towards the bottom of the wave. Tapping a surfer will send them up to ride the wave. The closer to the bottom of the screen the surfer was when tapped, the higher the surfer will go and more points will be awarded. However, touch the bottom of the screen and the surfer will wipe out. Have three surfers wipe out and fail the level.

Although the game begins at a very low difficulty level, the game quickly becomes a frantic micro-management sprint. Small details have not been ignored by the developers. Each surfer is affected by their physical size. The smaller the surfer, the faster they will move. Players will need to keep this in mind to properly time their interactions with the surfer to avoid a fall. There are plenty of hazards in both phases of the game that will require players to be extremely alert and agile. For even more challenge, there are special items and creatures that can be interacted with for a variety of effects. This surprising amount of depth for such a simple premise is a great example of the amount of loving care Mistwalker seems to have taken in developing Party Wave.

Visuals

Party Wave features colourful cartoon style graphics that is reminiscent of late 90’s and early 2000s North American cartoons with a slight Japanese twist. The classic spiky haired male lead character is even present in Party Wave. The surfers are unique and immediately distinguishable from each other. The animations are varied and the supporting cast of characters are memorable. The levels manage to look different by changing the colour palettes ever few levels. The user interface is extremely simple and uncluttered, leaving plenty of room for enjoying the visuals. Overall, Party Wave delivers an impressive visual experience that fuses North American cartoons with Japanese style.

Audio

If players are expecting Beach Boys style rock and roll in Party Wave, they are going to be incredibly let down. Instead, Mistwalker chooses to take a more relaxed route with music that would be more at home on a Jack Johnson album. The soundtrack is filled with chill Hawaiian styled tracks that rely heavily on the ukulele and acoustic guitar. Party Wave provides a musical atmosphere that fits perfectly with the cartoon graphics. This is exactly the sort of game players will want to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon playing in bed or outside lounging in the sun.

The English phrases are top notch. They are well spoken and easily understandable. The sounds of the oceans are varied and extremely accurate. Those with weaker bladders may feel the sounds of the oceans may be a little too accurate. The menu sound effects are classic Japanese and remind me of a modern take of the Final Fantasy menu sounds. Party Wave is a perfect example of the impressive audio experience that has made the Final Fantasy series memorable, beautiful music and great sound effects that perfectly compliment the visuals.

Overall

Party Wave is an impressive first game on the iOS platform for Mistwalker. I highly recommend playing this game on an iPad over the smaller iPhones and iPod Touches. Although this game looks spectacular on the small screen, I feel the extra room for maneuvering and the bigger screen space gives iPad users a slight advantage over their smaller screened cousins. My only concern for Party Wave is the $1.99 price tag. Party Wave is extremely polished and it is obvious a lot of love and care has been taken to create the game. However, the iTunes App Store is full of similar style games that populate the $0.99 price point. For those who cannot justify Party Wave at the full $1.99 have no excuse to not purchase this game on sale. However, the depth of Party Wave’s gameplay, the perfect synergy of the visual and audio experience, and the level of polish is worth taking a chance and buying a smaller cup of coffee for a day.

First Rugby League Live 2 Tralier Available

Joshua Spudic

July 25, 2012

Tru Blu Entertainment have released the first trailer for their next rugby league game, Rugby League Live 2. The trailer shows off the new features of the upcoming rugby title, including improved gameplay features to capture the authenticity of the game, with Strategic Defense, a Dynamic Tackling System and even a Massive 10-Year Career Mode just to name a few. you can check out the trailer below. The game will be released for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Rugby League Live 2 will feature over 100 licensed teams, both at club and international levels. These teams will include the top teams of the NRL, Toyota Cup and the NSW & QLD Cups (Australian competition) and the Super League and the Cooperative Championships (English competition). Representative competitions such as the State of Origin and international teams will also be included. Commentary will be delivered by Andrew Voss and Phil ‘Gus’ Gould, both who are current commentators for rugby league.

Darksiders II Event Impressions

Benjamin Webb

July 25, 2012

Earlier this week, us here at Capsule Computers were given the opportunity to take some hand-on time with the upcoming Darksiders II video game from THQ. The build that we were given was a similar build to the one on display at E3, so anyone who has seen that version of the build being played will likely encounter similar content to the content presented here.

Firstly, I want to point out that we have previously covered a different portion of the game earlier in the year and that this build of the game did eventually lead us to the portions of the game from that build. So if you want to check that out, you can here.

Okay so in this build of the game we start in this icy realm with our trusty horse that has a few of it’s own abilities like being able to run like a horse and this cool charging like ability where it moves faster for a short period. However, whilst the main character Death is on it’s back, he is also able to swing his scythes around and damage opponents. I feel that these mechanics will be of greater use later in the game.

After a short ride on a straightforward path, we end up facing some icy enemies before having to enter an icy dungeon. Combat in Darksiders II is very action orientated and has Death equipped with short scythes as a fast weapon and, should you choose to equip something, he also has larger weapons as a stronger hitter. By ultilising each weapon for different purposes, players are able to maximise their efficiency in combat and enhance their survival.

Unlike War in the first Darksiders, Death is a more agile fighter and is able to dodge attacks as opposed to shielding and skating around in circles. I feel that Deaths dynamics are much more fluid than War’s and this should be more appealing to be players that didn;t quite enjoy that aspect of the protagonist in the first game.

Anyway, our adventure continued into this icy dungeon where we were tasked with killing icy grunts, smashing down icy holding cells for enemies and collecting all kinds of loot. What we took away from this dungeon was that game felt like it was a cross between Devil May Cry and Prince of Persia in mechanics, which is a pretty good mix in our opinion.

Of course, the game is much more RPG like this time around with players being able to loot many enemies that fall by their hands and as a result, Death is an amazingly customisable character. During our play through we were able to mix and match armour, weapons and much more. However, I’m a Min-Max style player, so I went with the gear that would yield the highest attack power. This, I found was probably a good thing when it came time to face against the areas boss.

Dodging is an incredibly important skill to utilise within the game and I quickly learned this whilst facing some of the larger enemies, like bosses. Iwhen getting bounced around by them, it becomes increasingly hard to remain living. Therefore, holding your finger over that dodge button is a must and hitting it at the right time is even more mustly. When you’ve got your ryhtm down, you can very easily take out a boss monster if you know what you’re doing.

Overall this build of the game was much less buggy than the previous build of the game and it is shaping up to be an incredibly impressive looking title. As someone who didn’t like the first Darksiders, I have to admit that I am slightly curious as to how this one will turn out and after my few playthroughs of the game, I might be willing to check it out.

Company Of Heroes 2 Event Impressions

Benjamin Webb

July 25, 2012

Earlier this week at an event held by THQ in a secret location, us here at Capsule Computers were given a glance and/or playthrough of some of their upcoming games. One of these games was the upcoming Company Of Heroes 2 strategy game from Relic Entertainment. Unfortunately, we were unable to actually go hands-on with the title as the game is still in Pre-Alpha and has yet to leave the workshop. However, we were shown a pretty decent developer commentary and some gameplay footage of some new features present in the series. I have to emphasise that what we were shown was a pre-alpha version of the game and everything that we’ve reported on will be subject to change based on the developers whim.

Company of Heroes 2 is set in Europe, over near Russia and features historically inspired battles and missions from the battles around the 30s/40s World War 2 era. Because of this setting, there is probably not going to be any continuity between this and previous games and as such should be appealing to both newcomers and veterans alike.

The primary element that was on display was the new snow-based gameplay elements which is based around the actual combat elements from the games historical setting. Basically in Company Of Heroes 2, players soldiers will be subject to the harsh conditions of perpetual snowfall and occasional snow storms. This means that players will now have a new element to manage on the battlefield aside from the usual tactics of battle. For instance, individual soldiers will need to keep warm by taking cover or by having a field engineer construct fire to build heat. If a unit fails to keep warm, he will succumb to the snow and die.

There are also other snow-based elements, such as the element where units will prefer to move across footpaths over deep snow. In the deep snow, units temperatures drop significantly and their movement and effectiveness are cut. Having this kind of element adds a certain tactical depth to the field that could be manipulated by the right player.

During the playthrough, we were shown a lake made of ice. What made this interesting is that your normal infantry units could mostly cross the lake safely, heavier units like tanks would deal damage to the ice and could eventually sink in. It was also shown that the heavier tanks would be more likely to fall into the ice than the lighter tanks.

Of course, the game wouldn’t be a sequel to the original hit without having similar gameplay elements to the ones presented in the original game. As someone who actually played the first game (albeit a long while ago), I can tell you that is incredibly similar to this latest offering. For instance, both have cover, both have squads, capturing points on a map in certain game-modes and etc. However there is a new addition to these that make this new game stick out and that addition is the new vaulting feature. Players squads will be able to vault over walls to quickly gain ground or to get to cover.

At the moment of writing, the game that we were shown wasn’t as visually impressive as the first game was when it was unveiled back in 2006. However I would like to note that this is still the Pre-Alpha version of the game and assets and the like have probably been borrowed for development purposes. I’m hoping that the game will look much better when it’s completed.

Overall Company Of Heroes 2 is shaping up to be an excellent looking title that strategy fans everywhere will enjoy. There are enough new changes to make fans of the classic want to return for more and because of it’s unique setting of Russia vs. Germany, new players won’t feel left out of the story.

Darksiders II Interview With Jeremy Greiner

Benjamin Webb

July 25, 2012

Darksiders II Interview With Jeremy Greiner

At an exclusive event held earlier this week us here at Capsule Computers were given the opportunity to get some hand-on time with the upcoming Darksiders II from THQ. As part of this event, the Creative Director for the game, Jeremy Greiner, was flown down from Florida. It was because of this that we were able to obtain an interview with him about the game.

During our interview, we touch on some interesting topics about the game and we believe that we have obtained some valuable information from our chat.

Be sure to check out the interview embedded below for more info.

Company Of Heroes 2 Cold-Tech Engine Detailed

Benjamin Webb

July 25, 2012

Company Of Heroes 2 Cold-Tech Engine Detailed

Company Of Heroes 2 is the latest and upcoming strategy game from developer Relic Entertainment and is also a sequel to the highly regarded Company of Heroes that was released in 2006. The game recreates the second World War from the east-European war front.

So basically the new Cold-Tech engine is a way of simulating the effects of the cold on various units in the game. For instance, infantry units can now feel the cold and some tanks can fall through ice. I have reproduced the relevant sections of the press release detailing the most important aspects of the engine below. –

ColdTech includes an ‘extreme cold’ mechanic which accurately encapsulates the Soviet winter which reached extremes of -40 degrees F in 1941. At those temperatures human skin will freeze in a matter of minutes, something that is portrayed in the game. On winter maps, Infantry units exposed to the bitter cold will gradually freeze to death unless the player keeps them warm by building fires and garrisoning them in buildings. Dynamic blizzards will increase the effects of extreme cold making it even more hazardous to leave infantry in the open.

The new ColdTech system also allows the Essence Engine to dynamically paint on and remove snow, meaning that not only does it accumulate on buildings and vehicles, but it can also be melted or removed from objects by the player. Snow also has realistic depth which actually impacts troop movement and will retain persistent infantry and vehicle tracks throughout the match unless covered by fresh snow fall.

On top of the innovations in snow technology the engine allows ice to become a weapon in a smart commander’s arsenal. Not only does it have a unique texture, affecting vehicle and troop movement, but it can collapse or be destroyed from underneath troops and vehicles, plunging them into the hypothermic Russian waters. Over time destroyed ice will re-form due to the winter conditions in the game.

On the advancements in technology, Relic had the following to say –

Quinn Duffy, Game Director at Relic Entertainment commented, “Company of Heroes 2 is all about authenticity and no game based on the Eastern Front would be complete without extreme weather conditions. Thanks to the enhanced technology offered by the new Essence Engine we are able to accurately portray the bitter Soviet winter which crippled the German army.”

Company Of Heroes fans and newcomers alike are likely to be receptive of these improvements as they add a new dynamic element to the war game genre, a genre that isn’t exactly known for innovation. Be sure to check out the Official Site for more info.

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