Iceberg Interactive has announced that the latest game in the Last Half of the Darkness series from WRF Studios is now available to the English speaking territories in Europe, as well as for download worldwide through digital distribution portals.
The Last Half of Darkness series has been going on since 1989 and includes plenty of titles since then. The latest title is Society of the Serpent Moon, which tells the story of a man trying to save his fiancee after she goes missing, while investigating a string of murders. After a package arrives with some of her personal effects, he must go and rescue her, while trying to stop the evil that is turning the townsfolk into vampire-like killers.
The game features third-person point and click adventure style gameplay, high resolution graphics, cinematic cutscenes, and plenty of puzzles to solve. Players interested in checking this game out can head over to Iceberg Interactive’s online shop HERE.
Some major changes for Diablo III’s 1.1 PvP patch has been announced by Blizzard. Beside the addition of PvP, Legendary quality items will be getting a buff come 1.1. Slated for the 1.03 hotfix, jewelcrafting will become cheaper, along with blacksmithing training and crafting, and difficulty for melee classes in Inferno difficulty will be tweaked. The developers made it clear that Inferno difficulty is extremely difficult by design, however melee classes are experiencing a more difficult time in comparison to their ranged counterparts and that this will be addressed shortly.
The Diablo III team also released some interesting statistics since the release of Diablo III two weeks ago.
On average players have created 3 characters each
80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30
1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty
54% of Hardcore players chose a female character
The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal
The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class (not including Passive diversity)
The most used runes for each class at level 60 are Barbarian: Best Served Cold, Demon Hunter: Lingering Fog, Wizard: Mirror Skin, Monk: Peaceful Repose, Witch Doctor: Numbing Dart
Siren Visual have confirmed earlier today through their official facebook page that they will be releasing UN-GO on DVD this coming August throughout Australia. Their release will be Subtitled Only and will not feature an English Dub.
The series follows ‘Defeated Detective’ Shinjurou Yuuki as he solves various mysteries of a not so distant future Tokyo. It’s a classic mystery series with a unique and fresh spin on the long history of the genre. The series was previously simulcast by Siren Visual through ANN, last year when it aired in the Fall 2011 anime season.
Will you be picking up UN-GO this August when Siren Visual release the series? Let us know in the comments section below.
Bluemouth interactive have announced a release date for Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends complete with trailer outlining some of the main features we’ll see in the game. The game intends to focus on the storied Ferrari brand and boasts a campaign where you’ll work your way from 1947 to the present day racing 51 of Ferrari’s finest.
The addition of 39 tracks and online multiplayer only bolster what looks to be an exciting ride through Ferrari’s history. All you petrol heads and gas gals better keep your eye on this one because it’ll be making its first pit stop August 15 2012.
Madman Entertainment have confirmed their acquisition of the license for the second season of the popular music based slice of life anime series K-ON!. They plan on release their first volume of the series later this year in September.
The second season of K-ON! features double the amount of episodes and double the amount of K-ON! fun. Season two of K-ON! gets an extra exclaimation mark in the title making it K-ON!!. This second season continues the adventures of the Hokage Tea Time light music club band.
What do you think of the second season of K-ON!! being licensed by Madman Entertainment? Let us know in the comments section below.
Upcoming PlayStation Vita exclusive role playing game, Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4: The Golden, is a full fledged expansion of the original PlayStation 2 release and adds new characters, events, gameplay mechanics, costumes, story elements, and much more.
The opening animation sequence for the game was recently revealed, and its a pretty groovy intro with a strong 1960s trance disco vibe to it. The intro is like an acid trip, with a crazy mix of colours and patterns, crazy enough to potentially give you a seizure. The introduction shows off all the characters busting a move. The song is pretty upbeat and groovy too.
The Sydney Anime and Manga Show (SMASH!) has just confirmed two additional guests for the upcoming convention taking place on 14 July 2012. Both of these guests are very big names to say the least.
First off we have Sakura Tange, who is most remembered for her role as Sakura Kinomoto in the beloved Card Captor Sakura anime series. She has also done voice work for other anime series, and even video games such as the DS dating simulator, Loveplus. She has also done a fair bit of singing, contributing insert songs for not just Card Captor Sakura, and more recently The World God Only Knows.
Also joining Sakura Kinomoto is the famous Yuko Miyamura, known for her role as Asuka Langley Sohryu in the iconic Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, and has done work for several other iconic anime such as Detective Conan and Outlaw Star. Yuko Miyamura last appeared in SMASH back in 2010.
If you are someone pre-ordering the upcoming Hitman: Absolution game from Square-Enix and IO Interactive then you will be eligible to receive the Hitman Sniper Challenge bonus. This is only for participating stores.
In this video from the developers we receive a nice behind the scenes look at the games development process in regards to the Sniper Challenge add-on. I’m not entirely sure if this bonus will be available later as paid DLC or if this is your one opportunity to grab the experience, so make sure you pre-order for the game.
Remember earlier how we mentioned that Natsume had been teasing a game release over their Twitter account and would reveal the game first on their Twitter? Well just a few minutes ago they revealed that the game that they had been teasing is a brand new Harvest Moon title for the 3DS that goes by the name Harvest Moon: A New Beginning.
Earlier clues had pointed to either the previously named Harvest Moon: Land of Beginning or Rune Factory 4 as being the teased game and it seems that Land of Beginning, under its new name A New Beginning will be the first title to grace North American shores. Natsume has stated that they will be showing off the game for the first time at next week’s E3 convention so be sure to stay tuned.
Men in Black 3 Publisher: Gameloft Developer: Gameloft Platform(s): iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch, Android Release Date: May 17, 2012 Price: Free –Available Here
Overview
The Men in Black have been away for a long time. Nevertheless, these ‘nonexistent’ people are quite hard to forget. Of course, they aren’t just returning in movie form. Soda pops, t-shirts and many more items have been emblazoned with MIB monikers. And of course, ‘they’ also have their own video game. This review will focus on the iPhone version of the game, although there is also a Xbox and PS3 Men in Black 3 game that is different entirely.
Does this game have what it takes to live up to fan’s memories of past alien lore? Does it add to the MIB universe in a substantial way? Or is it merely another marketing agent, preying on the sentimentality of people’s emotions and the addictive desires of in-app purchases? Find out the following review.
Story
I have not yet seen the movie, but from what I can deduce, the game’s plot is inspired by the story of the movie, and they seem to follow each other fairly closely. Of course, there are numerous side missions and other little variations, but it seems like the main plot follows the film. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to personal opinion. If you enjoy the movie, you’ll rather like playing it out again, and if you don’t, the story doesn’t affect the gameplay too much and can be easily brushed over.
Gameplay
The culprit of most bad video game adaptions is that the developer was rushed. Thankfully, the iOS platform allows for speedier development and Men in Black 3 does not suffer at all from any of the standard ‘movie to video game’ flaws.
You don’t actually play as any of the main characters, but the game allows you choose your own identity as a new agent. You’ll be given missions to complete, and once you complete them, you’ll be rewarded. All over each locale, there are a ton of side quests and missions to complete. Completing missions can be very addictive, and they are, for the most part, simple. Tap here to investigate, tap there to question a person, tap over there to neuralyze a witness.
Combat is one mission that pops up a lot. Combat requires you to just tap on the enemy to fire. During battle, you can manage your resources and health from a menu system, or call in gadgets and resources to help you out.
MIB headquarters is your main base of operations, as is to be expected. Here, Men in Black 3 turns into a base building game. You can assign Agents to complete missions, create buildings that pump out resources, research new weapons and gadgets, etc. A lot of time can be spent here.
All in all, the gameplay can get a little repetitive by the end of the game, but it is also extremely addicting and can be quite fun for many hours. There is only small issue: the in-app purchase system is a little unbalanced. Literally everything, and I mean everything, requires energy capsules. When used up, you need to use TIME credits to purchase more, or let it recharge over time and by completing specific requirements. Or, you can use in-app purchases to buy TIME credits. Time credits also allow you to upgrade items faster and do many other cool actions. If you take out your phone every hour to play the game, then you’ll probably be fine. However, if you want to complete the game in a straight shot, be prepared to be patient or spend some money. While I don’t mind in-app purchases that are balanced, I feel like this game almost chokes the experience with in-app purchase options. In addition, sometimes it tries to disguise these in-app purchases. Nevertheless, depending on how you play, you may have a different experience, and those annoying pop-ups about in-app purchases don’t affect the fun too much.
Audio and Visuals
The game sounds great. The score is terrific and the sound effects are amazing. Everything sounds exactly like it was stripped out of the movie. I would have liked some voice acting to be present, but I don’t mind reading everything either.
This game is one of the best looking games on the iOS. Everything is smooth and renders beautifully. There are occasional instances of what looked like texture pop-in, but that hardly detracts from the experience too much. There are plenty of cool enemies, awesome gadgets and more to check out.
Overall
In conclusion, Men in Black 3 enhances the MIB universe quite a bit. If you are a fan of the franchise, this game will be right up your alley. Even if your not, I would recommend that you at least try it out, as it is free. The addicting and fun missions, plus the great graphics, make this a fun iOS game to play. The constant nagging to check into social networks or buy stuff does get old, but as long as you can get over that, Men in Black 3 is an awesome game.
