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WWE No Way Out 2012 Review

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June 19, 2012

WWE No Way Out 2012
Company: World Wrestling Entertainment
Location: East Rutherford, New Jersey
Arena: Izod Center
Date: 17/06/2012
Price: $54.95 Order Here

*All photographs featured in this article are a property of World Wrestling Entertainment and can be found on their official site.

This year marked the revival of a very important series of pay-per-views, No Way Out. It was originally discontinued and replaced by the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, but it has been brought back and placed in a different month. No Way Out has featured some of wrestling’s most unforgettable and historic moments, who could ever forget the emotional moment back in 2004 when Eddie Guerrero pinned Brock Lesnar to win his first ever WWE Championship, the brutal Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Cactus Jack, the WWE debut of WCW’s New World Order faction, or the five star classic between Kurt Angle and The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight title. It’s pretty clear that No Way Out was an important event, and so bringing it back was a smart move on part of WWE.

This year’s No Way Out took place in June, instead of the usual February slot. The main event featured a steel cage match between John Cena and the Big Show, with the other major main event being the highly layered rivalry between Kane, CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan. The pre-show featured a match between Brodus Clay and David Otunga which ended in a count out. There were some bonus filler matches thrown in, the usual Ryback squash match, another pointless botch-filled match between Hunico and Sin Cara, and a surprisingly decent Fatal-Four-Way tag team match to crown the number one contender for the tag team titles. The surprise tag team match in particular gave a lot of mid-card stars like Tyson Kid and the Uso brothers a chance to shine, not to mention a very excellent high risk spot which made the crowd chant “Holy Shit!”

Another major moment was the appearance of Triple H, to address the situation regarding Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman, and that segment would confirm the main event of Summerslam 2012, a match between Brock Lesnar and Triple H.

Thankfully, unlike the title of this pay-per-view, there is actually a Way Out of this Overview section. On with the review!

World Heavyweight Championship – Sheamus (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler

As far as opening matches go, you cannot do better than this opener to No Way Out 2012. Dolph Ziggler was in a way a fill-in for the injured Alberto Del Rio, who was originally meant to be in the match. That said, both Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler had some really good matches earlier this year and had a bit of history going into this World Title bout. The match was great, a very fast paced contest with Dolph Ziggler putting on his absolute best. He certainly wrestled much differently in this match, with some really cool spike DDTs and constant use of the sleeper hold. Sheamus did a fantastic job too, and had some good chemistry with Dolph Ziggler and pulled off a really cool finish to retain the title. Overall, the match was a fantastic opener.

Overall: 4.5/5

United States Championship Tuxedo Match – Santino Marella vs. Ricardo Rodriguez

On the night where the Intercontinental Championship received such a major boost in prestige and value, it’s very ironic the United States Championship would get downright insulted and buried the very same night. The US title has such a rich history from the WCW era, and even the WWE variant was held by wrestlers like John Cena, Big Show, John Bradshaw Layfield, and of course the late great Eddie Guerrero. To have the title treated with such disrespect in this embarrassing and awful Tuxedo Match, was painful to witness. This match should never have happened, an absolute travesty.

Overall: 0/5

Intercontinental Championship Match- Christian (c) vs. Cody Rhodes

Following the appalling US title match was this Intercontinental Championship match, which was easily the highlight of the pay-per-view and an instant classic. Christian and Cody Rhodes legitimised the Intercontinental Championship again by putting on a truly dramatic and superb match. This match got better as it went along, with plenty of near falls, counter after counter, and unpredictable pacing. The best part was the closing moments of the match, which featured an intense exchange and reversal of finisher moves, with Christian hitting a picture perfect spear out of nowhere to retain the championship. The Intercontinental title has not looked this good in years.

Overall: 5/5

Divas Championship Match – Layla (c) vs. Beth Phoenix

As much as I admire both these wrestlers and the matches they put on together, you can only recycle this match so many times. We’ve seen Layla and Beth wrestle one match too many, and that’s not really their fault as the women’s division is sorely lacking decent wrestlers. With that said, this contest was decent, and both Layla and Beth tried to shake things up a bit to make it interesting, but in the end it was still exactly what we’ve come to expect from this match-up. Layla hit a pretty unexpected neck-breaker to retain the Divas title.

Overall: 3/5

WWE Championship Match Triple Threat- CM Punk (c) vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane

This match had an amazing build up, and the storyline is perhaps the most layered we’ve seen from WWE in recent memory. AJ’s presence alone is perhaps the reason why things have been so interesting, and all three participants of the WWE title match brought something special to the feud. The actual match itself however, was a bit underwhelming, not that it was bad or anything, but because none of the participants brought in the quality of performance that has made each of them so endearing. Kane, CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan, could have done so much more with this match, and it seemed that they were holding back a bit. The way the match ended in an interesting turn of events, makes it clear that the feud is far from over and perhaps the next encounter will be the classic that everyone wants to see.

Overall: 3/5

Steel Cage ‘You’re Fired’ Match- John Cena vs. Big Show

Old school is perhaps the best word for this match, as it really harked back to the classic cage matches from the 1980s. John Cena and Big Show have never put on the best matches in previous years, but this steel cage match was entertaining. It had plenty of big moves, great display of strength, some cool high risk spots, and unpredictable pacing. It featured some solid storytelling, and the chemistry was good. The way the match ended was quite surprising and interesting with Brodus Clay playing a major role in helping Cena win the match. Overall, a well-executed match that was a lot better than expected.

Overall: 3.5/5

Overall:

No Way Out 2012 is far from being one of the best No Way Outs, or among the best events we have seen this year, but it was solid. The main event was a lot better than what everyone was expecting, and the Intercontinental Championship match and World Heavyweight Championship match were simply superb. The WWE title match could have been worked better but at least the ending was interesting. The card could have been stronger, but overall it was a good pay-per-view.

GAME Australia To Shut All Remaining Stores

News

Joshua Spudic

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June 19, 2012

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In what seems to be the final nail in the coffin for GAME Australia, administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have announced that all remaining stores of the gaming retail chain will close. Sixteen of those stores will be close with immediate effect while the rest will eventually close in the next few weeks. This follows the shutting down of 60 stores not long ago.

The closures were confirmed in a statement made by administrator Kate Warwick to Gamespot:

“In the interests of creditors, the 31 remaining Game stores are to be closed over the coming weeks and a final closing down sale has commenced with discounts of up to 60 percent available in-store and online.”
“This is a difficult time for employees and closing the stores was not a decision we made easily. Despite exploring available opportunities for continued trading, the ongoing trading performance and absence of viable offers for the purchase of the business has resulted in these closures.”

Rumours were circulating that GAME Australia could not find a buyer last week and it seems they are true if the closures of all of the remaining stores is anything to go by. Online purchases are still available at the moment, with up to 60% off regular prices on most stock. With these closures, there is no denying that the possibility of liquidation is in fact a reality. PwC will actually present this option in a meeting with creditors today. It was only in May when GAME entered voluntary administration.

The real losers in this closure are the general public. People in those stores (as well as the ones that have already closed) have lost their job, a way to earn an income. Gamers themselves lave lost a competitor, another choice to shop. This brings me to the following question: What are your thoughts on GAME’s demise? You can share them in the comments section below.

Source: Gamespot

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Vita Review

Travis Bruno

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June 19, 2012

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Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Price: $39.99 – Available Here

Overview:
Classic video game series hold a special place in most of our hearts and in recent years many publishers have chosen to bring fan favorite series back to life once again by providing HD upgrades to older games. Amongst the companies bringing these HD Collections to the public, no one has done quite as many as Konami, especially when it comes to the Metal Gear Solid series.

Over the last half a year we’ve already seen a re-release of Metal Gear Solid 3 on the Nintendo 3DS, the review of which can be seen here, as well as an HD Collection bundle featuring MGS2, MGS3 and Peace Walker for the consoles which can be found here. Now a Vita version of the HD Collection has been released containing a portable version of both MGS2 and MGS3 in their new HD glory. Does this Vita version offer enough of a new enough experience to step into Snake’s boots once again?

Story:
As one would probably expect, the storylines of both Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater have been given faithfully transferred over to the PlayStation Vita with no modifications to the way the story is told nor the story itself. This means however that the storyline is also just as convoluted and obtuse as always, with plenty of terms that may fly right over the player’s head if they are new to the series and haven’t done their research. That being said, the complex storyline told throughout both games in the collection tell a stunning storyline for those who want to unravel it.

When players begin the game they will be given an option to choose which title to play, with Metal Gear Solid 3 being the first option, given how the events of that game’s storyline actually predate the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 by decades. For those of you who have never touched a Metal Gear game before, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater follows the mission of Naked Snake. He has been sent on a mission to rescue a defecting Soviet Scientist right in the middle of when the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States was at its hottest. As for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, fans will remember the controversial switch of main characters with Raiden stepping up as the new main character shortly after the game began as they try to save the President as well as stop Metal Gear Ray from being unleashed on the world.

Considering the fact that nothing has been changed, players who have already made their way through either of these games, either when they were first released almost a decade ago or a few months back when the original HD Collection was released, will be seeing plenty of sequences and long cut-scenes that they have already seen. Thankfully these sequences can be skipped if the player wishes, though considering the impressive visuals that the Vita version displays; it would be quite a shame to do so.

Visuals:
While the HD upgrade of both MGS2 and MGS3 on the console version of the HD Collection was stunning to see, it seems that the true home for the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is on the PlayStation Vita because both titles have seen a significant improvement to their graphics and the small but visually pleasing screen of the PlayStation Vita renders everything perfectly.

This is especially true with Metal Gear Solid 3, as the game’s release later-on in the PlayStation 2’s life-cycle allowed for the developers to make a more visually pleasing game back in 2004, which means the HD upgrade of this title is much more impressive than MGS2 which has a number of bland textures and repeated areas.

Audio:
As any fan of Metal Gear Solid will remember, the series has always contained stunning voice work and amazing background music. Because of this, it pleases me to say that this Vita release retains that same high level of quality. Each of the voice actor’s crisp dialogue is well presented and this means that the game’s long cutscenes and constant codec conversations are pleasent to watch and listen to due to the outstanding presentation. As for the title’s background music, it also has gone untouched and provides a great backdrop to the events occurring at any given time.

Gameplay:
Both Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 were praised heavily during their time for providing a stealth oriented adventure that allowed players to face off against some of the strangest bosses of all time. Many of you will either be glad or curse the fact that both titles retain their classic control scheme and, though this also means that the controls themselves are still a bit dated, such as Snake’s inability to crouch walk and slightly clunky movement overall.

On the other hand, the move to the PlayStation Vita has added a number of brand new touch screen control options, one of which is easily recognizable as a change for the better. Now while players can zoom into various segments of cutscenes with a tap of the finger, or stab people by using the rear touch pad or peak around corners by swiping the screen, the true touch-screen addition for these titles is the new inventory system.

In the Metal Gear Solid series, fans would always need to hold a shoulder button, scroll through a list of items and then select what they want to have equipped at any given time and sometimes it would not only be annoying but tedious as well. With the new touch screen inventory management, players are able to easily un-equip or re-equip their items with a simple tap of their icon. Players are also able to leave their finger on the touch screen to scroll through the inventory list which has been slightly refined and categorized.

These touch screen additions only help to make what were originally great games even better. Add this to the fact that players will now be able to easily use the handheld’s two joysticks and gamers will now be able to carry these two classic titles everywhere they go. Plus, for those who owned the PlayStation 3 version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, they can “transfer” their save data back and forth between this version, allowing for rather seamless cross-play capabilities.

Overall:
Perhaps one of the biggest arguments potential buyers can make to justify not picking up the Vita version of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Is the fact that it doesn’t include Peace Walker as well. While this is a detriment to the release as a whole, the two games that are still included in this release will provide some of the most outstanding experiences you can have on your PlayStation Vita, and the best part of it all is the fact you can now have these experiences anywhere you choose to.

Viz ‘Speeds Up’ Bleach Manga

Luke Halliday

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June 19, 2012

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Viz Media have confirmed that they will be ‘speeding up’ their releases of the Bleach manga series, in an attempt to catch up with the Japanese release of the series.

They have revealed that they plan to release volumes 40 to 53 by the end of 2012, with a release schedule of 2 volumes per month, beginning this month. Viz Media have done release ‘speed ups’ like this in the past with other popular manga series such as One Piece and Naruto. The 55th volume of Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga will be released by Shueisha in Japan this month.

What do you think of a ‘speed up’ of the Bleach manga? Let us know in the comments section below.

Reel Anime Hits In September

Benjamin Webb

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June 19, 2012

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Coming in September this year is Madmans Reel Anime showings where upcoming anime movies are shown in select cinemas for the public to view. This year follows on the successes of the previous iterations in 2008 and 2010. Past movies have included greats such as, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars.

This year will be feature to some fairly interesting looking movies such as –

From Up On Poppy Hill, which about a young romance in a pre-olympics Japan that is still recuperating from the second world war. Is directed by Goro Miyazaki.
Wolf Children, a movie about a few children that are also wolves. After their father passes away, they are forced to move form the city into a country town. Directed by the guy who did Summer Wars, Mamoru Hosoda.
Berserk – The Egg Of The King, this movie follows the adventure of Guts, who is a long time mercenary that is reknown for his ferocity in combat. This is the first of three films. Animated by studio 4˚C.
The Children Who Chase Lost Voices, this is a film about a girl who’s father has just died and she listens to this crystal radio to pass time. One day she explores some mountains and is attacked by a monster and is taken to a new world. Directed by the guy who did Voices of a Distant Star, Makoto Shinkai.

Reel Anime is a great opportunity for fans of the Anime medium to come together and explore new and exciting cinematic experiences together. Everyone should keep an eye on the Madman website for more details.

Resonance Review

Simon Wolfe

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June 19, 2012

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Resonance
Developer: xii games
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Platform: PC
Release Date: June 19, 2012
Price: $9.99 – Available Here

Overview:
Resonance is a game that has been 5 years in the making, which for an indie game means quite a lot. The effort put into the game is very apparent from the music, to the story, to the voice acting. The developer really seems to know how to put together a great adventure game. But, that is really just the barest bones to really understand what makes this game so well done, keep reading for the details below.

Story:
Resonance is the story of 4 characters whose lives intersect around an incident which leaves a scientist dead, and the 4 trying to find the scientists vault. Broken up into 3 acts, the first focuses on each character’s separate and individual lives as they start to see each other around. It really starts out with getting to know the characters before anything has really gone wrong. Act 2 is where things really kick it up, with all 4 characters at the players disposal and plenty of things to get done, players aren’t just thinking about one thing to complete one after the other, they can break it up however they want, and should they get stuck there’s still plenty to do for when the player has a better idea of how to do it. Act 3 gives a great conclusion, no matter what the player decides to do, none of the endings seem forced or contrived, though it is important that the player sits through the credits as that’s where the actual concluding takes place.

In terms of characters, Resonance has a few cliches, but it doesn’t get in the way of the enjoyment. Each character actually has a good amount of depth though some of it is up for the player to arrive at. It’s really great storytelling when players can good searching for the character depth in meaningful ways through gameplay, than just having it handed to them. The 4 characters are also a good range of smart to layman, so it doesn’t shy away from either getting into scientific talk or explaining that for anyone that has it go over their head. The story is very well put together though, to the point where players will probably want to replay it to re-contextualize after the first playthrough, though it doesn’t hurt that there are several different ways of going about different tasks as well.

Gameplay:
For the most part Resonance plays just like a standard point-and-click adventure, but there are some improvements to the system. Every object in the game is both used or looked-at, with click and right-click respectively. This is incredibly straight forward and doesn’t slow down gameplay with having to select whether the player wants to look, grab, or talk to whatever object.

A unique feature with the game however is the long-term and short-term memory systems. Long-term are the main memories of the characters that fill themselves in throughout the story, which can be clicked on to let the player relive them to get a clue or just a refresher on what’s gone down. Short-term, however, is filled in by the player themselves, by dragging objects into the memory bank. Which players can use to easy access different objects to bring up with other characters in conversation. These conversations have more than just the dialogue choices, but also a slot where an item or memory can be used to find out what they know about something or if they need to use it. This presents a better way than just the standard storage system most adventure games use, so it’s more about the characters than use this with that.

Lastly, throughout different parts of the game more than one character is available, which can be selected and changed on the fly as long as it’s available. This means that they can split up and act independently from one another, so they could work on different tasks or cause a distraction to help with one task. As stated before, this means that being stuck somewhere doesn’t mean simply trying to figure out what to do, but solving something else then getting back to the first. Players can then play more of the game instead of sitting trying to figure out what to do next. Additionally, as a related feature characters can ask others to follow them, so if several have to go to the same place it doesn’t have to be done for each of them.

Audio:
Adventure games recently don’t generally have voice acting, since it not only adds to the cost of production, but space as well. Resonance does go the extra length though and have every character actually speak, even the news report that starts the game out. The voice acting is very good, all the characters fit and are believable in the role. There are even accents to the characters, which don’t come off as cheesy or stereotypical. The effort put into getting the right voice is really worthwhile for the finished product.

The game boasts an amazing soundtrack that is one of the best I’ve heard in a while. Very unique, but still fitting the tone perfectly. It’s no wonder it is actually offered in the Collector’s Box Edition of the game. The music actual culminates to the credits where the song actually has lyrics, which is probably the best song in the entire game and another incentive to sit through them besides story.

Visuals:
Resonance is presented in 16-bit style graphics, which works well as they are all still incredibly detailed. Different places will actually have far more detail, such as the news report that has been brought up before, but they all still mesh together without making them seem out of place or separate from one another. The special effects for resonance as well is visually stunning, especially in the art style, where some games would cut corners it’s actually well animated. This is a game that utilizes its art well, and looks amazing for it.

The character models are all very well designed, so that they all look good in the different resolutions, whether the box art, the gameplay, or the even lower resolution save screens. Better yet the characters even have a solid amount of depth to the designs as well, so that they aren’t simple recolored variations of each other. Each of the characters’ shapes is unique showing off the time that was actually put into them.

Overall:
Resonance is the type of adventure game that sets the bar for other adventure games. After 5 years, the game looks like it was time well spent and a must play for fans of the genre. In some places the game can be difficult, but isn’t so much that it upset either the player or gameplay by requiring to use everything with every other thing to get by. Instead actually taking real thought, which is often missing in some adventure games. Every aspect is incredibly close to perfection in terms of story, scene, and sound, which is why Resonance gets

Beyond and Magna Merger Confirmed

Luke Halliday

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June 19, 2012

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It’s been speculated for quite some time now, but it has officially been confirmed by the source itself, that Beyond Home Entertainment and Magna Pacific Entertainment are merging into one entity.

The merger will see both companies combining into one under the title of Beyond Home Entertainment (completely dropping the Magna Pacific brand entirely). With the new merger Beyond Home Entertainment have solidified themselves as one of the forerunners for Kids, Television, Documentaries and Comedy Content in Australia and New Zealand.

All staff will be retained under the new company and all licenses of Magna Pacific will be absorbed into Beyond Home Entertainment. Business operations will also continue from Brisbane, Australia as per usual.

The Smash Bros. Sequel Looks a long ways off

Dustin Spencer

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June 19, 2012

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One of the biggest announcements of E3 2011 was that the next Super Smash game would be headed to both the Wii U, and the 3DS. Masahiro Sakurai had stated before that he was waiting on Kid Icarus to be complete before starting development on the game, and according to the most recent Nintendo Power, the highly anticipated powerhouse is still a long way from release.

“We’ve just taken what you could call the first step of the process. This is the first time I’ve ever had my next project announced before it’s even entered development, and because of that, I fear that players will be forced to wait even longer than they expect to. Please be patient.”

Yeah, this news is expected, but a bit warming in my eyes. On one hand, it’s going to be a long time before the next Super Smash Bros. game even sees the Wii U or 3DS, but on the other hand, it seems like this title will be built from the ground up and Sakurai intends on polishing it well before showing it off to the masses. There are still a good number of games coming out for both platforms right now though, so those will have to do until the almighty brawler makes it’s triumphant return.

Persona 4 Arena box art revealed alongside Arcade Mode screens

Travis Bruno

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June 19, 2012

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Sometimes a video game’s box art can be very basic or contain just a simple style, other times a game’s box art looks like it is something you will want to have sitting outward on your shelf because of how great it looks. In the case of Persona 4’s box art, it is the latter as today Atlus USA released the final box art of the game which can be seen to the right.

Also released today were some screenshots of the game’s arcade mode which can be seen below. As for the game itself, Persona 4 Arena is set to be released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 7th and anyone who happens to pre-order the title will receive a bonus Arranged Soundtrack CD.

Campaign the Game Released for iOS

Jamie Laike Tsui

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June 19, 2012

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Think TV commercials suck? Have millions of ideas on how to make a REALLY good ad? Want to be a Mad Men without the fancy suits and the drama? Insolita Studios and Thomas Egas released their latest game Campaign the Game. Dubbed as an advertising agency sillymulator, players will run their own advertising agency and will be tasked to create ad campaigns, meet clients, hire teams, and attempt to destroy their opponents at the Cammes Festival. Players have from the 1980’s to the 2000’s to woo clients from sensitive pirates to famous pop stars.

Campaign the Game is available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch for $1.99 here.