Episode 52 of the Capsule Computers Gaming Podcastis now live. 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 EPISODE 52 (download here from iTunes) for the weekly question and SPECIAL CODE, once you have it send us an email with the Special Code, your name and full address to[email protected]. 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.
This week, we’ll be giving away the awesome Razer Electra gaming headphones, thanks to our good friends at Razer. If you have yet to listen to Capsule Computers Gaming Podcast you can do so HERE.
This week’s Competition end on the 29nd JULY Good luck to all!
Welcome to this weeks claustrophobic episode of the Capsule Computers Official Gaming Podcast. This week we are joined by an incredibly large cast for reasons that are quite unknown, so be sure to join us for this weeks battle of major awesomesauce.
Cast: Luke Halliday, Dustin Spencer, Travis Bruno, Jaime Laike, Philip Federico and Myself.
Music for this podcast is from Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64.
Thanks for listening and let us know what you think!
Send all your video game or podcast questions, hints, suggestions and feedback to [email protected]
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
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.
Whatever happened to music rhythm games? With the “indefinite hiatus” of both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, music rhythm games have been few and far between in local video game stores.
However every now and then, a brand new music rhythm game pops its head up – and Sound Shapes is just that game.
Exclusive to Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita, Sound Shapes is a brand new video game and collaboration from Alternative rocker Beck and Pyramid Attack (Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem), developed by Queasy Games.
Beck himself has written three brand new songs for the game: Cities, Touch the People and Spiral Staircase. The song Cities features in the game’s trailer below.
The game itself is part side-scrolling platformer and part music rhythm, which fuses music and artwork into the game’s unique campaign. User-generated levels can also be created by keen eyed and keen eared players.
Sound Shapes is set to be released exclusively for Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita on August 7.
Total Drama Island: Food Fracas Publisher: Cartoon Network Platform: PC Price: FREE – Play Game Online Here
Overview: Total Drama Island is rife with stereotypical teenage archetypes and for a show about those teenagers being on a reality game show, that’s just about right. The show itself parodying reality game shows adds that bit of extra humor required to make for an interesting series. Making flash games for the show wouldn’t seem that difficult to pull off either as parodying reality game shows means that a game can simply be based off of almost any of the challenges featured in the series. Better yet as the cast of contestants numbers more than 20, featuring different the best fit wouldn’t be too hard either. Though it really comes down to how well the challenge can translate and how fun it actual is, as to whether this is a game to play or pass on.
Story: Total Drama Island: Food Fracas is most generally based on the episode “Brunch of Disgustingness”, where, like many reality game shows, the contestants had to eat a variety of disgusting food for a challenge. Being of course a parody, the foods served are far more foul than anything that would actually be served to real people. The game focuses on the character of Bridgette, though this is mainly so that she can simply react to how truly gross the foods appear, but the host Chris does pop in to start and end each round because otherwise what’s the point in having a host.
Unfortunately, that’s all the game really has in terms of story as the game itself is simply a card match, where players match the revolting foods on the cards. Which is really a shame, as a little more could have been done to bring it either closer to the episode or the mood of the show, if winning showed off Bridgette winning a prize for getting through it all. Something, anything more than just letting players submit a highscore.
Gameplay:
As stated before, the gameplay is pretty much entirely a match card game. The game starts with a field of 20 cards and players must click and flip them over to try and find the matches. Obviously not that big of a challenge, so to make it at least a little bit harder a timer bar dwindles away to try and keep players on their toes. Subsequent levels will also yield a faster timer though, making it even more difficult as players need to get matching quicker. Thankfully, making a match will reward a scant bit of time back onto the timer bar to aid in keeping players low on time a bit more afloat.
The field of cards isn’t always 20 cards however, going beyond just matching the 10 different putrid foods, the last two levels broaden the field to 30 cards and adds in cards with 5 of the better known contestant/characters on the show/series. Suddenly having 10 more cards and 5 more pictures to remember between does ramp up the difficulty a bit especially with the reduced timer bar to deal with. This turn a pretty easy objective into a somewhat more frantic challenge that should definitely challenge a young crowd, though if they aren’t able to get through it on the first try, they are able to restart the level again to try and learn from any mistakes and do better.
Audio & Visuals:
One would hope that with such an interesting cast of characters, it wouldn’t be too hard to pull off at least some dialogue for the game. Unfortunately though, neither of the two characters featured say a single word throughout the game, which is kind of disheartening especially with how easy it would have been to do at the very least dialogue for Chris bookending each level from clips from the show. Likewise with the subject matter, one would think that there would be plenty of voice clip material from the “Brunch of Disgustingness” episode of reactions to the different foods.
Music on the other hand, perhaps players should be glad that at least there are two songs in the game. One for the menu and one for the actual gameplay. The menu music is pretty close to fitting the idea of music that the teenagers from the show would listen to, but that doesn’t mean it won’t get on players nerves, luck though then players shouldn’t really be on the menu all that long anyway. The music for the gameplay does give off that realty game show vibe, though the loop is pretty short for having to hear it through the 5 different levels. With a lack of dialogue and only really sound effects and music, this is probably one for just setting to mute if not feeling the music.
The visuals of the game are pretty spot on with the show, but I suppose almost all of the assets would have been straight from the show itself, so that’s just a matter of grabbing them. Being a pretty simple game there isn’t much done with the visuals themselves, so at best it’s nice to see the 10 disgusting foods, though a nice touch that some actually have flies animated and going around the food on the cards.
Overall: Total Drama Island: Food Fracas is more or less a Total Drama Island branding of match card game. It does get to a fairly challenging point in terms of gameplay in the later levels, so those looking for that kind of a challenge would definitely find something here. Those fans of the show though might be best to pass, unless looking for a match card game or maybe wanting to check out the food from the challenge again, because how can one really say no to a hot dog made out of dolphins. I give Total Drama Island: Food Fracas
A number of years ago you may remember that a class-action lawsuit was levied against EA Sports due to their exclusive deal with the NFL football company, making it so that EA is the only company able to make a football title using the NFL properties, allowing them to create a Monopoly on football games and forcing consumers to only buy their product with zero competition. Well, Kotaku has reported that this lawsuit has been settled with EA setting aside $27 million to pay for the lawsuit.
This means that any consumer who bought a Madden game from EA anywhere between 2005 and today on the PS3, 360 or the Wii will be able to get $1.95 each, while any Madden game on the GameCube, PS2 or Xbox will give the consumer $6.79. Currently it is unknown how exactly consumers can claim this money unfortunately. It is worth noting that EA Sports has now been banned from renewing their exclusive license with the NCAA after it expires in 2014.
This is the end of the line for those looking to fill out their Steam library with games on the cheap, because the Steam Summer Sale ends today. On the other hand, most of you may be counting change at this point to try and grab the last few sales.
As you can see above the final sales probably aren’t the best in the world but still gamers have a chance to pick up some really great titles on the cheap. Games such as Bastion for only $3.74, a Double Fine bundle for only $7.49 and of course a number of other titles sure to attract gamers of all shapes and sizes. It is worth noting that Indie Bundle XI contains Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Orion: Dino Beatdown, Star Ruler, Waveform and World of Goo. Those interested in picking up any of these titles can do so over on Steam’s webpage here.
kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- Volume 3 Premium Edition Studio:Production I.G Publisher:NIS America Format:Blu-ray/DVD Combo Release Date:July 3, 2012 Price:$55.99 – Available Here
Overview: There are many different anime genres which pander to the male demographic or take romance and create generic situations which have been repeated ad nauseam. However, amongst these generic series there will occasionally shine a jewel of a series which will offer a more realistic take on romance with likable characters.
One such jewel is the kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- series which has now seen its third volume released in North America courtesy of NIS America. Those curious about Volume 1’s and Volume 2’s reviews can find them hereand here. With this third and, at least so far, final anime release for kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- are viewers finally going to be rewarded for their devotion?
Story: High school life can be tough for anyone, especially a girl who just so happens to look like a movie character known for scaring people to death. The poor girl with this unfortunate appearance happens to be the heroine of our little love story, Sawako Kuronuma. Unfortunately for her she looks remarkably similar to “Sadako” from the popular horror film “The Ring.” Because of her appearance she has had trouble making friends as everyone is always too afraid to go near her and all too willing to spread terrible rumors about her.
Her life changed however when she met a boy named Shota Kazehaya who began treating her like a normal person and started to help her come out of her shell. Over the course of the first two volumes of kimi ni todoke viewers watched these two overcome many hurdles together such as Sawako’s lack of social skills, terrible rumors spread by love rivals and more. However throughout these obstacles Sawako changed from a girl incapable of speaking to anyone in class to one who has two close friends and can open up and speak with others.
Unfortunately for Kazehaya and Sawako, kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- Volume 3 introduces a new, albeit generic, obstacle for them to overcome. At the start of their sophomore year Sawako finds herself pleasantly surprised to be in the same class as her two friends Ayane and Chizuru and her potential love interest Kazehaya. However with the start of a new year comes new students as well and one of these new classmates happens to be a man named Kento Miura who takes interest in Sawako, creating a major division between these two who are on the threshold of admitting their love for one another.
With the inclusion of Kento we see the beginning of a slightly unique love triangle. I see unique because although Kento actually appears to start developing interest in Sawako the other two in the triangle spend nearly their entire time caught up in misunderstandings and their own self-doubts to say anything to one another. Similar to past seasons, Sawako is still unable to overcome her various insecurities and belief she is a bother to Kazehaya while Kazehaya struggles to voice his own feelings. Over the course of the twelve episodes (and one prequel episode covering events from Volume 1 & 2) viewers will follow Kazehaya and Sawako as attempt to reach one another and overcome this final obstacle in their path.
kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- Volume 3 does continue the slow pace of the previous volumes and after watching these two go through as many obstacles as they already have and come so close to communicating their feelings with one another, this slow pace can truly feel like a drag at times. Now while the series does a great job focusing on the insecurities that teenagers feel, especially when it comes to love, there are also many frustrated moments where things could easily have been solved if either party involved was better at communicating with one another.
Visuals: It is worth noting that unlike Volume 1 and Volume 2 of kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- which were part of the same season in Japan, the third volume of the series actually was created a year later in 2011. Thankfully it seems that this time away from the series hasn’t caused Production I.G.’s animation quality to drop in the slightest. In fact volume 3 seems to contain more scenes featuring highly impressive artwork than past volumes.
Volume 3 also sees the use of the same soft color palette with pastel like colorations which is what fans of the series have grown used to. Ironically while volume 3 does contain plenty of moments of high level artwork, there has also been an increase in chibi-style animation as well, where characters are drawn in simpler or exaggerated forms due to an awkward or comedic situation. These chibi moments are usually quite enjoyable however and usually help make an event funnier than if the characters were drawn seriously.
Audio: Anyone who has picked up an NIS America anime release before will not be surprised to hear that Volume 3 of kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- contains only the original Japanese voice track with no English dub. This is ultimately fine however as Sawako’s voice actress continues to impress in volume 3 with her soft but expressive voice and the rest of the Japanese cast has reprised their roles and performed their characters well.
Extras: kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- Volume 3’s initial release comes with the same type of premium edition that NIS America been known for delivering. The release comes with two slimpak DVD cases containing both the DVD and Blu-ray discs and these slimpak cases come inside of an oversized slip-cover case made out of chipboard. On the front side of the case we are treated to a smiling and blushing Sawako and Kazehaya while the backside features most the main cast striking poses.
Included with this premium edition is a hardcover art book which continues the trend from past kimi ni todoke volumes with its name. Past art books were titled “My Memories” then “Our Memories” and now that viewers will see Sawako finally grow into as an individual with friends and a relationship this art book is simply titled “Their Memories.” Now the art books contents feature a number of scenery collections (artwork of backgrounds) while the rest of the book is stylized like a scrapbook featuring various quotes and screenshots from each episode. While it is a bit disappointing that there are no final words from the cast nor any additional information about the show itself or those behind the scenes, the art book’s style fits perfectly with the series and matches what one would expect from Sawako’s own scrapbook.
It is worth noting that there are also a few on disk extras as well, with a clean opening and ending as well as trailers for past and upcoming NIS America releases. Besides those standard bonuses there are also two short skits in the Mini Todo Theater. These shorts are basically variations of popular fairytail stories with the cast of kimi ni todoke.
Overall: All in all, kimi ni todoke -From Me to You- Volume 3 delivers the slow paced love story we’ve grown to appreciate from the series, although one that has now been populated with a few cliché moments and way too many misunderstandings and instances of miscommunication. Viewers may find themselves growing frustrated at parts but will be eager to see Sawako and Kazehaya finally reach their happy ending.
The Deadpool game was announced last weekend at the San Diego Comic Con, which is currently being developed by High Moon Studios, the same people who brought us Transformers: War for Cyberton and the upcoming Transformers: Fall of Cyberton. Fans of Deadpool will be happy to hear that the story is being written by long time Deadpool writer Daniel Way. Daniel Way has been with Marvel since 2002 and has been writing Deadpool since 2008.
Deadpool will also be voiced by Nolan North who has been voicing the merc with a mouth since 2009 in Hulk Vs. Wolverine animated film. So we can rest easy knowing that the game is in good hands. The game is available for pre-order at Amazon in the US, and will be available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2013.
Fractale Studios: A-1 Pictures & Ordet Publisher: FUNimation Release Date: July 17, 2012 Format: Bly-Ray & DVD Combo Pack Price: $69.98 – Available Here
Overview:
Dystopian futures aren’t really new when it comes to anime since everyone has a different idea of how society will come crumbling down around us. The future portrayed in Fractale however has a bit less crumbling of society and a bit more atrophying in a world where people are hooked into an augmented reality, while others try to free everyone from the system. While that idea may sound incredibly familiar to a lot of people, the adventure seen in Fractale is very special and unique. It all comes down to who will win, those for the system or against it.
Story: Fractale starts out just letting the viewer really get to know what the system is and how it works. The system, called Fractale, doesn’t really every human plugged into big huge machines as they utilize the people for energy, but instead sees every human fitted with a terminal, so that they can see the augmented reality around them. People can even get themselves a Doppel who can go and do things for the person allowing them to remain happily at home.
The main character, Clain, isn’t like everyone else though. He relishes the archaic technology of the past, but when people needed devices to take pictures, store music, etc. instead of it simply being ever present on the network waiting to be pulled up. He lives alone at home with his archaic devices and the doppels of his parents because, why on Earth would a family live all together? Clain is pretty much the ideal main character for this world, he allows the viewers someone to relate to existing within the system, but not engorging himself, not even having a doppel like so many others do. Pretty much the best middle ground the world of Fractale could hope to produce.
Clain’s life does get horribly turned upside down though, when he does pretty much the worst thing anyone can ever do in a world as selfish and caught up in itself as Fractale, when he saves a girl. The girl Phryne turns out to be a priestess in the religious order that runs the Fractale system who was being chased by members of the terrorist group Lost Millennium, who are trying to put a permanent end to Fractale itself. Phryne doesn’t stay long though, but does leave Clain a small token, which turns out to be a data module for an incredibly important doppel named Nessa.
It’s with Nessa that Clain’s real adventures begin where Clain goes out and discovers just now not black and white his world is, but completely filled with morally grey. Though as grand as that may sound there are a few issues that viewers may find questionable when the series starts getting into how the system was built in the first place and the ultimate goal of the religious order in charge. In the end though, between the Lost Millennium and the religious order heading up the Fractale system, it is up to Clain to figure out what the best course of action for his world is whether to save the Fractale system or to destroy it. Fractale paints a world where every viewer can find a different place to fit into, from working the land off of the system to living in the dream cities that Fractale creates.
Visuals:
The art paints several completely different landscapes throughout the series, from the picturesque beauty of Ireland’s natural form, to the more humble towns, to the extravagant mega-city of Xanadu. From the cliffs, to the hills, to the buildings it’s a truly marvelous world on par with the best anime so far. But, Xanadu is probably one of the best in terms of visuals in the entire series, with it’s unique architecture and displaying what the grandeur of the Fractale system had once been. It’s one of the highlights of the series, even if it does go by a bit quickly.
Character designs in the show are also much more unique with the addition of the doppels running around. The forms that some choose to run around in are very different than just carbon copies of the user who holds them. From appearing as what is best described as a walking bubbler, to excessively feminine versions of the female body, though much of the time is spent with actual humans, so the scattered doppels seen through the series provide a nice juxtaposition.
Audio:
The music of the series is pretty great and the balance of styles is very well handled too. One of the main themes throughout the series is one sung by both Phryne and Nessa, as well as it’s original version being played in a couple places, about wishing on the day star. This song is really closer to the kinds of songs listened to by people just before the Fractale system was created and provides a sense of archaicness and reminder throughout the series. The opening theme “Harinezumi” by Hitomi Azuma on the other hand is more of the kind of music that would be listened to in the current age of Fractale. The technically two closing themes “Down by the Salley Gardens” is sung by Hitomi Azuma in both Japanese and English in different episodes, with the Japanese lyrics written by Hitomi Azuma and the English written by William Butler Yeats back in 1889. “Down by the Salley Gardens” is really the complete opposite spectrum of “Harinezumi” and both gives the idea of what the Ireland in the series once was and is almost becoming again to those who no longer use the Fractale system and farm for themselves.
The voice work in Fractale is pretty well done and is interesting to see that they didn’t attempt to go with Irish accents with the different characters as this is the far future and accents had probably blended and faded into nothing with the ability to access so much all over. The English dub is alright, though there are a few issues with matching lips especially around the “Day Star” song, but when trying to dub the same song onto Japanese lip movements that’s bound to happen. Probably the best thing about the voices is Kana Hanazawa as Nessa, who has previously done Tsukimi Kurashita from Princess Jellyfish and Shiro from Deadman Wonderland, as she does amazing ridiculously cute girl voices.
Extras:
There is actually a bit of material in terms of extras for this series though there are still a lot of the similar textless opening and closings, promotional videos for both Fractale itself and other series from FUNimation, and commentary by the English voice actors as they talk about their feelings on how they would do in the world of Fractale. One of the more different extras is the art gallery of covers from the manga volumes and other artwork dealing with the series. There is also a video of the Shobi Wind Orchestra in Tokyo playing some of the orchestral music from the series, which is pretty different than the general selection of extras on anime releases that those really into the music could really enjoy seeing.
Overall: Fractale is a nice series that explores both the moral grey and what happens to people when so far removed from truly interacting person to person. Though a much shorter series than most, only 11 episodes, there is almost no filler throughout the entire series with meeting new important people and building towards the final confrontation. It also boasts some pretty great looking animation, but with the very odd culmination this might be more for fans of the more unique science fictions. I give Fractale
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was one of those titles that never came to America when it first came out, but lived on through ports dating back to the SNES (All Stars ring a bell?). Fans of that game can look forward to it getting another digital release in Japan, as it’s set to hit the 3DS eShop next week for 500 Yen.
I’m sure we will also see some love with this one in the west, but if it comes out before Super Mario Bros. 2 U.S., I would be relatively surprised as you have to remember – The Lost Levels was the official sequel to SMB in Japan and our Doki Doki clone was just here due to the hard difficuly of The Lost Levels. Either way, it’s good to see more NES/Famicom ports rising up, and with the inclusion of save states, this could be one fantastic title to see make an appearance yet again.
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