Part of the Capsule Computers crew is in Los Angeles, California for the big E3 2012 event, myself included! Today we went to the convention center to pick up our badges which will allow us to see everything on the floor. Now last year Atlus shelled out plenty of cash to create fancy Catherine badge holders while Nintendo placed their Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword on the Lanyards.
This year these same two companies have secured these neat little advertisement spots. This time around Atlus is advertising the Persona 4 games, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 4 Arena (a fighting game) while Nintendo is advertising the 3DS and the Wii U logo on each side of the lanyard. As you can see above, these badges are rather nice looking, though I don’t think they can compare to the Catherine badges of last year. Stay tuned for all of our coverage from the show floor over the next few days!
In an interview with The Guardian, franchise development director Frank O’Connor revealed some very interesting information on Halo 4.
First up, the episodic new mode called Spartan Ops could be around for years, with each year having multiple seasons of content. Spartan Ops is an almost “entire campaign on top of the one that ships with the game.”
In addition, he danced around the question of whether these seasons would cost anything saying: “The first season is absolutely free if you buy either the special edition or the regular edition – that’s a really significant amount of content,” but not saying whether the episodes after the first season would be free. It sounds like this will Microsoft’s version of the Online Pass, or in-app purchase model.
Check out the entire interview on The Guardian here, where O’Connor talks a lot about the development of Halo 4, how they came up with the idea of Spartan Ops and much more.
In Nintendo’s E3 Pre-Show conference, they subtly revealed the fact that their will in fact be a Black coloured Wii U console and controller available. It is unknown if this Black version will be available alongside the White version at launch.
The reveal of the Black Wii U came during a comedy segment reveal of the Wii U’s Miiverse functions (which you can see below). During the comedy segment video, it is seen that the actor is playing a Black Wii U instead of a White one.
Be sure to check out the bizarre comedy sketch below and let us know what you think of a Black Wii U console in the comments section.
Yes, Big and Huge are synonyms of Epic, which makes this somewhat punny that Big Huge Games, the people behind Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning have had their company and staff saved by Epic Games (Gears of War).
As you may or may not know, recently 38 Studios and Big Huge Games went into the financial shithouse and closed up shop, leaving the future of the Kingdoms Of Amalur franchise in the balance and 400 people without employment. Well in comes Epic Games to save the day in a show of good faith, by employing the whole lot of them in a new branch of Epic Games called Epic Games Baltimore.
The President of Epic Games, Michael Capps had the following to say on the situation:
On Wednesday, the ex-BHG leadership team contacted us. They wanted to start a new company and keep together some of the key talent displaced by the layoff, and hoped that they could use an Epic IP as a starting point for a new game. We loved that they all wanted to keep working together, but it was pretty clear they’d have trouble building a demo and securing funding before their personal savings ran out.
This is a great silver lining for the promising Big Huge Games, now known as Epic Games Baltimore, whose life was cut short before we could really see what they could do on a bigger and huger scale. Thankfully though we will now get to see some more ‘epic’ games from the studio, thanks to Epic Games. Yes, this was a fun article to write.
So what do you think of the inception of Epic Games Baltimore? Let us know in the comments section below.
Nintendo’s self-imposed goal of getting players to connect in different ways was always going to be a key feature of the Wii U, but today they’ve revealed exactly how this will be implemented.
In a Pre-E3 Nintendo Direct video, Satoru Iwata described the Miiverse (an obvious amalgamation of “Mii” and “Universe”), which looks to be a deep and intuitive system for communication between players.
An expansion of the Mii Plaza already seen on the Wii and 3DS, the Miiverse acts as the initial system menu on booting up the Wii U console. Icons for games and apps float above a Plaza, where Miis are gathered around them, indicating how many people are currently playing each game. It can be brought up either on the TV screen or the GamePad, without ending your current game session.
Iwata explains that it will display Miis created on your console, so yours, your friends and family; Miis streamed across the Nintendo Network from your friends’ consoles; as well as a bunch of other Wii U users in your region.
The Miiverse features a forum-like chat setup, where the GamePad touch screen can be used to type or handwrite messages, like the 3DS’ Nintendo Letterbox. Iwata believes that “what you physically write or draw can naturally convey stronger feelings than what you simply type”, so it looks like both typed and written messages will co-exist.
If you can’t communicate enough with handwritten messages, Nintendo have given you an extra way to implement “smileys”: your Mii icon to the right of your message can be altered for each post, to display the appropriate facial expression.
Native support for all Wii U games will allow developers to implement the system however they see fit. While Nintendo are keeping their software news under wraps until their E3 conference, some interesting examples were given using the Mario prototype we were shown last year. Players are seen writing messages on specific levels or even parts within levels, which their friends can see when they reach that point.
It feels like those Facebook posts you get from people playing Words With Friends or something, detailing their high scores, good moves, etc. So while it is pretty cool, let’s hope they include the ability to turn it off, if players wish.
Iwata also stated that the Miiverse can be used for players to share screenshots and user-generated content, and that some time after launch, players will be able to access the Miiverse while away from their Wii U consoles, on their 3DS, PC or any web-enabled mobile device.
All up, it looks like Nintendo are achieving their goal of connecting people to each other, even if there’s no one else in the room. Of course, all this will only be as good as the Nintendo Network connection allows, but with such a huge improvement in online functionality over the original Wii, I think it’s safe to trust them.
We’ll have to wait until the official conference to get any news about the software, but I’m already genuinely excited for this. If they have a decent launch lineup of games (and having learnt a bitter lesson from the 3DS, I think they will), the Wii U will be a Day One purchase for me.
Iwata and the entire team over at Nintendo made it a point to focus on the Wii U’s controller last year at E3 during the upcoming console’s big reveal. One year later, the pre-E3 show from the major publisher has enlightened us quite a bit on how far they’ve come since then in terms of development, as there are quite a few updates as well as a new name for the peripheral.
The Wii U Gamepad will be the name of Nintendo’s fancy new touchscreen controller. As you can see, the same functions are still in tow, but Nintendo did toss out the slide-pad sticks and have replaced them with some much more appealing analog (as rumored). Of more interesting note, this gamepad will be able to sync with television sets, allowing users to go from game to T.V. without ever having to leave the couch.
For those who are not really a fan of the touch screen controller, Nintendo also have you covered for the more hardcore gaming experiences on the Wii U. The Wiimote, Balance Board, and Nunchuck will all have compatibility with the system. A new controller by the name of the Nintendo Wii U Pro Controller will also be launched alongside the Wii U’s release, allowing for a more familiar method of control. At the moment, this news is pretty great as a whole as it seems that no one will have to leave the comfort of their seat while playing and there will be options for everyone in terms of control. Stay tuned, as we will have even more coverage as E3 rolls along this week.
Well just in time for E3 2012, images have been leaked showing off The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim first game add-on Dawnguard have emerged. A post on neogaf’s forum shows images of the game taken from this month’s upcoming GameInformer Magazine.
Skyrim: Dawnguard sides players with either The Dawnguard or Vampire Lord Harkon. If players decide to side with Harkon, they themselves will be transformed into a Vampire Lord.
The game also adds on new perk trees for both Vampire Lords and werewolves. New enemies such as Gargoyles, death hounds, armoured trolls and legendary dragons will be included in this add-on. Players will be also revisiting the oblivion realm in some quests.
Of course we will know more details on Skyrim: Dawnguard at its official presentation at E3 2012.
Bohemia Interacive is bringing two games to E3 2012, with the alpha build of Arma 3 and the near complete Carrier Command: Gaea Mission. For the Arma 3 presentation, which there’s a sneak peek of below, there will be showcases of plenty of different aspects the more interesting of which being diving, helicopters, and night ops. In addition, there will be some of the campaign through the mission “Deterrence” and players eager to get hands on the game can get more information on the Community Alpha, which is planned.
As for Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, the main presentation will be the campaign and it’s story surrounding the struggle between the Asian Pacific Alliance and the United Earth Coalition on the planetoid of Taurus. The game, which will allow players to take control of any of the units at any time, is set for release on September 27th for both Windows PC and Xbox 360, but so far the only player intereaction has been through the strategy mode available through the beta.
Fore! Golf season is in full swing here in the northern hemisphere and to celebrate, EA Mobile has released Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 on the Google Play market for Android devices. Players will get a chance to create and customize their own golfers and play through famous PGA Tour courses, including Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, against eight real life pros, such as Tiger Woods and Paula Creamer. There are four game modes to play through including the PGA Tour mode and the Tiger Challenge, featuring 20 mini-games to sharpen your golfing skills. Multiplayer is supported via local WiFi or Bluetooth connections.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 is available on the Google Play store here.
The Precursors Developer: Deep Shadows Publisher: Russobit-M Platforms: PC Release Date: December 21st, 2010 Price: $19.95US (Gamersgate)
Overview
Imagine playing a game back in 2004, back when everything seemed like it was perfect. Anime was good, gaming was at it’s highest in quality in years and it was just before the release of the current generation of games. Now imagine, one of these games from the golden days appearing before you, but was built with today’s standards in FPS’ gameplay. How would you feel about that?
I imagine you would have felt utter disappointment at picking up such a title. This is simply because the standards in gaming have dropped dramatically since those glory days of old. Despite a few of today’s games trying to break the mold of mediocrity, much of the same trash has been in circulation for a while now and it is this trash that has widely impacted Precursors.
Story
One of the worse things about Precursors is it’s horribly told story. I mean throughout my playthrough, I had no idea what was going on with what, with the exceptions of what was being thrown at me in horribly directed cutscenes. I mean these are so horrible that it took me nearly an hour to realise that I was the unarmoured dude in the spaceship crash at the start of the game.
While playing the game, you will receive a ton of information on the top left of the HUD. usually they’ll throw this information at you in the middle of a firefight, causing this massive backlog of stuff to be present. Even worse is that it doesn’t beep or anything which means that you could be focused on running between points and just simply miss out on information.
The story was pretty unamazing, which I think is to be expected from a game that is based more around exploration, like this game is.
Gameplay
Precursors tries to pin modern day thinking to a classic Unreal formula that falls flat on its own face. part of the fun of the exploration in exploration based games is the exploring, on your own, with no outside help. But no, in Precursors, you’re told where something is, given this massive area to explore and then shown exactly where it is. It takes most of the fun out of the game, assuming you’re having fun playing this game.
One of the worst things about Precursors gameplay is that it borrows from the wrong set of games. Instead of pulling its gameplay from modern shooters and RPGs it should instead be looking to the past for it’s inspiration. Games like Unreal and even Turok should have been an inspiration here. But instead the developers took what could have been awesome and Call of Dutified it. The end result is much lost potential to try and cater to an audience that will not have enjoyed this game in the first place.
Combat in this game felt like an unfair and clunky exchange when it is forced upon you. Most of the time you can just run past a lot of the enemies and not really worry about them. But in some cases, you have to fight and these battles are on fairly unfair terms. These battles often left me feeling mad and aggravated me to the point of having to take a break. You know you’re making a game wrong when you’re presented with a battle that cannot be beaten without a plethora of luck and kiting.
There are also space-sections of the game which are a change of pace and offer some interest, but it feels like an un-needed layer of padding to a game that was already padded without brilliance. It feels like I’m being way too mean with this game, but really, these are just my thoughts…
If you like unfair games that take forever to get anywhere even when being led by a map to an exact location, then this is the game for you, gameplay wise at least. I wont judge you if you do buy this game.
Visuals
Remember earlier when I said that this game was like playing a game from 2004? Well, that’s because it looks like a game straight out of 2004. I am not lying here, it really does look like a game from the ’04 era and I feel that the games visual style has suffered severely because of this.
Have you seen James Cameron’s Avatar? Everyone has at least seen the ads for the film, and I’m fairly sure nearly everyone in the world has seen the movie, I mean there was a massive movement about it where people would dress up as giant blue cats and everything. Anyway, the visual style of the game is much like the planet Pandora’s aesthetics. You’ve got all this glowy stuff, rich vibrant colours and exotic wildlife all waiting to be brought to life which never actually happens. Now I understand that games have budgets, but I think that if they were going for a game as low quality visually like this, they should have released the game on a lower-spec system. The PC, a system synonymous with unforgiving graphic whores, probably wasn’t the best choice to launch this title on.
Without modern graphical techniques, the visuals just look plain, and even sometimes horrible. I think one of the appealing factors to this game was probably it’s world, but it’s just really fallen flat on itself and completely missed it’s mark.
Audio
Okay this is one of the aspects of the game I slightly enjoyed. I mean really, video game composers and musicians need to stop hanging out and producing music together just so that I have a soundtrack to really whinge about. Unfortunately, I think this is more of a case of the soundtrack being acceptable, rather than something brilliant so it’s not worth buying for the music alone.
Often I found the sound effects to be quite bland and uninteresting. This is especially the case with weapons and enemy noises. Heck, this can even be applied to the terrible voice acting within the game. Seriously if there was an award for lack of emotion, this game would get it.
Overall
Precursors is an experience that I would wish on nobody. I played this game because I had to, none of you have to, so please do not follow in my footsteps. Of course, you’re free to do what you like, and maybe you’ll even just want to pick up this game to see how bad it really is.
