With Sony’s pre-E3 conference less than 24 hours away, and the big event only two days away there are hopefully going to be quite a lot of games announced for the PlayStation Vita. Now, interestingly enough, some retailers may have spilled the beans on at least two of Sony’s big announcements.
PlayAsia has placed a listing on their website for a Metal Gear Solid title on the Vita, which is not the HD Collection meant to be released next week, while Play.com has placed a listing on their site for a game called Resident Evil Portable. Now obviously these are both simply rumors at the moment, as neither listing provides any information about these titles, but we will likely know for sure in about 16 hours, so stay tuned!
ETHER VAPOR Remaster is the upcoming 2.75D action shooter for PC from developer edelweiss and publisher Nyu Media. The game promises arcade action while providing leading graphics and effects that will carry the genre of arcade shooters forward.
ETHER VAPOR Remaster follows the war of two nations, Caldea and Lydia, with an unknown pilot who pilots an unknown fighter aircraft that is able to slice through each nations forces. The story is centered around this pilot and learning about his secret firepower and mysterious agenda, all the while he cuts through enemy forces and massive bosses.
ETHER VAPOR Remaster is set for a June 29th launch for this year and will be available on Steam, Gamersgate, Gamestop and Gametap, as well as the Official Website. The game will be retailing for $7.99US and be sure to check out the Gameplay Trailer, embedded below. I’d recommend checking out the demo for more info.
Trion has released their new E3 2012 trailer that promotes End of Nations. Plenty of in-game battles and features are detailed in the video, courtesy of 2 over the top commentators.
Australia and New Zealand, your wait is finally over. We know you have been waiting patiently, drooling over ASTRO A40s while you wait for the day you could order a pair for yourselves with out paying an arm and a leg on custom fees. ASTRO Gaming has announced their partnership with Bluemouth Interactive for distribution in Australian and New Zealand. Thanks to this partnership, ASTRO products will be making their way to shelves in Australia and New Zealand. ASTRO A40 Audio Systems, A30 Cross-Gaming Headsets and the Transport series of gaming gear bags will soon be available at your favourite Australian or New Zealander gaming retailer.
Need to prepare your shopping list? Check out ASTRO Gaming’s line of products here.
Ben 10: Alien Force – Fuel Duel Developer: Cartoon Network Publisher: Cartoon Network Price: FREE – Play Game Online Here
Overview
Ben 10 is a huge franchise, with a few different versions existing. Alien Force is one of them, set five years after the original series with an older Ben, a darker tone and more serious story line. The point of all of Fuel Duel? To save Kevin, who seems to have gotten himself trapped in a not so friendly facility with a tonne of bombs.
So, how does Fuel Duel rank as a Ben 10 game and does it represent the way that Alien Force departs from the original series?
Gameplay
Fuel Duel is a fairly simple platforming game. You are put in a map with six bombs to defuse, and six lives to do it with. Although, if you die the bombs are all reset and you are sent back to the beginning, so dying is more of an inconvenience than anything else, given the many lives you are given.
Gwen is also helping you out, with her awesome glowy pink powers. Whenever she comes into contact with a pink light she creates platforms that help you cross previously impossible gaps. You can transform to Echo, a cool little robot dude, and when you come into contact with green light he can shout, which stops the acid waterfall obstacles. The combination of these two make the map far easier to traverse than it seems at first. It’s just a matter of using a little problem solving skills to know when and how to use them successfully.
The countdown on the bombs is fairly generous, although the fact that there are quite a few, and they’re scattered means that they are a bit of a pain. The bombs lower to the ground also have less time for you to reach them, so if you miss one of the lower ones then you’ll generally end up running out of time and failing the mission. For this reason keeping an eye out in the beginning of the game when the camera pans over the location of each bomb is useful, and not something to impatiently ignore.
There are also ducts that shoot out bursts of air that apparently kills Ben. I guess they aren’t just your standard air-con ducts, which isn’t something that gets explained, so this was a bit of a frustrating lesson to learn, but they’re easy enough to dodge and avoid.
There are a couple of lag issues, which get frustrating since the game is time based. These usually correct themselves if you’re patient and just keep playing, but given that the game is preloaded and the gameplay doesn’t rely on the internet connection, it is worrying that lag is experienced.
I also managed to accidentally hack the game and save Kevin by doing nothing at all, by pressing a few keys on my keyboard. This was a little disorientating, and given that it was only three keys, more than a little weird. Which either means I have the genius touch, or there is something wrong with the game’s script. Then I had to reload the page, because it simply skipped right to my victory page every time I tried to restart the game.
Still, despite these issues with the game, it is fun and an interesting game that provides a bit more of a challenge than most flash games based on a cartoon series. There isn’t a lot of replay ability, but while it lasts it is enjoyable.
Visuals
Fuel Duel has fairly simple two-dimensional graphics, but they work well for the platforming style of the game. It isn’t anything too flash, but all the characters and art style matches that of the cartoon so it looks fairly good.
The layout of the different features of the game such as bombs left to defuse, lives, and your energy gauge are all well set out and easy to glance at quickly while you’re trying to beat the clock. While it doesn’t let you know the countdown of the clocks, this can either play in your favour in that you don’t get freaked out, or screw you over by meaning that you relax more than you should.
Audio
The soundtrack itself is pretty cool; it’s all dramatic action music that matches your struggle to make it to the top and save Kevin. This is complemented by sound effects for the various things around the map. However, the sound gets randomly buggy and you’ll find that some of the sound effects will start piling on top repeatedly and it’ll end up being one annoying mess.
Overall
Ben 10: Alien Force – Fuel Duel is a fairly easy game to learn, but one that will give you a decent enough challenge, however there isn’t much replay ability. There are also quite a few technical issues with the game, however if you are patient enough to last them out and turn off the sound, then it is enjoyable. It’s just a matter of getting to the point where you can ignore the issues and find ways around them.
If you missed Nintendo’s pre-E3 conference on the Wii U, you can check it out below in the embedded video. If you want the short version though, just keep reading.
On the WiiPad controller, rounded grips have been added, and the buttons and direction pad have been tweaked. They have been moved towards the screen “to maximize comfort even if you are playing for a long period of time,” Iwata stated during the show.
The Wii U will use NFC technology so that you can scan real-life items into your games.
Finally, there will be a TV button that enables you to turn the Wii U into an infared TV remote.
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.
