Incase took two of their most popular products for the iPad and fused them together to create the Canvas Maki Jacket. They took the easy foldability of the Maki sleeve and added the traditional Book Jacket design to attach the iPad to the case. The Canvas Maki Jacked is manufactured with a durable cotton canvas to give the case a great texture and look. The cover can be rolled up into a stand with three different angles, a hands free viewing angle and two different working angle that is typing friendly. The flap of the Canvas Maki Jacket is secured by an elastic band. The case is available in black/grey and moss green/grey and costs $39.95 from Incase’s website.
Prepare to get your face kicked in with awesome! Indie Face Kick Bundle is the latest addition to an amazing month for indie game fans looking for a good deal. The Indie Face Kick Bundle boasts five never seen in a bundle before games and the début of Tompi Jones. Indie Face Kick follows the usual pay what you want scheme set out by Humble Bundle. Buyers name their own price and take home Tompi Jones, an old school platformer in 3d; Arkhelom 3D, a 3d shoot em up game; and Alien Hallway, a top down shooter. In addition, buyers will receive three full music albums with their purchase. Pay more than the current minimum of five dollars and take home the jaw dropping FPS Depth Hunter and the fresh off the press sequel to Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded, Alien Shooter 2 Conscription. Pay more than $15 for the bundle and your name will be added to the credits for Tompi Jones. The top donor for the Indie Face Kick bundle will be able to name either a level or a boss in Tompi Jones and get 10 additional copies of the game to share with their friends.
Com2us released their latest game Phoenix Nest for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. In a twist on traditional defence games, Phoenix Nest will test players abilities to touch, draw, and tilt their way to succces. Mama Phoenix is one pissed off bird and will do anything to defend her nest against the 18 types of enemies featured in the game. Players will draw out a path of destruction for Mama Phoenix and use touch and tilt to adjust their strategy mid flight. The game boasts a story mode with 100 stages and five evil bosses and an endless mode. To help you conquer the increasingly difficult enemies is a small RPG element that allows players to help Mama Phoenix grow and expand her arsenal with devastating skill spirits and items.
DiRT Showdown boosted into stores across the UK today, alongside a hard-hitting launch trailer. The launch video showcases the maximum-impact racing, bone-rattling destruction game modes, freestyle Hoonigan events and multiplayer party games set to take centre stage on DiRT Showdown’s World tour of motorised mayhem. From Miami to LA and San Francisco to Yokohama, the trailer features drivers taking down their rivals, boosting to overtake, hitting jumps and performing stunts as they go for the win across DiRT Showdown’s range of game modes.
Despite hitting mainland Europe on 24th May, a day earlier than in the UK, the game has yet to collide with the rest of the world. Expect a release everywhere else on 12th June, after a rescheduling due to a busy release window towards the end of May.
IO Interactive released their new behind the scenes video, taking players into the studio for Hitman Sniper Challenge. Several developers star in the video to discuss the creation of the game. Lots of concept art and early footage of Hitman Sniper Challenge is shown off. The devs also get a chance to show off some of their favourite parts of the Hitman Sniper Challenge. Anyone curious about the development of a video game or Hitman fan will really appreciate this video.
Hitman Sniper Challenge is available as a pre-order bonus for Hitman: Absolution from Gamestop in the US. Check out our preview here.
Moonraker is an iconic film of the Bond franchise and Jaws is one of the best known villains in Bond films. Thanks to this popularity, Activision and Eurocom have announced Moonraker as the first movie based mission of 007 Legends. Players will stealthily infiltrate Hugo Drax’s space port and get a chance to go toe to toe with Jaws in the upcoming game 007 legends. 007 Legends is an original storyline featuring six classic Bond films to provide a wide range of scenarios and experiences for players. Armed with cutting edge spy gadgets, a dizzying array of weapons, and fast vehicles, players will get their chance to live out their secret agent fantasies.
007 Legends will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC on October 19, 2012.
Aria the Animation Studio:Hal Film Maker Publisher: Siren Visual Release Date: 19/04/2012 Price:$49.95Available Here
Overview:
Aria the Animation is a short and sweet series taking place in a distant future on planet called Aqua, with the main focus being on the lives of gondoliers who live in the city of Neo-Venezia. This three disc collection released by Siren Visual contains all 13 episodes of the first season spread across two discs, with the third disc containing a host of extras. The DVD release only contains the original Japanese voice dub with English subtitles, and like with most releases by Siren Visual, an English dub of Aria the Animation will arrive on a later date.
Story:
Aria tells the story about a young woman named Akari, who migrates from her home planet, Manhome, in order to live in Aqua and work in the city of Neo-Venezia. Now the interesting thing here is that Neo-Venezia is based on the city of Venice in Italy, and shares the same style of architecture, history, and culture. Taking place in a distance future, Neo-Venezia has fairly advanced technology, but even so the inhabitants still enjoy a simple and traditional lifestyle, as they still go about collecting firewood for winter, cooking meals the good old fashioned way, and appreciating the technology-free lifestyle of the generations before.
Aria arrives in this new planet in hopes to have a career as a gondolier, and joins the Aria Company, one of the major water-guide companies operating in the city. Much like the city of Venice that it’s based on, gondolas are a popular means of transportation and a big tourist attraction even in the presence of flying motorbikes. It’s a very unique and interesting setting, but for the most part you forget about the sci-fi futuristic element of the show as it’s very much a slice of life anime taking place in an alternate post-modern version of Venice.
Aria the Animation is just this very sweet and adorable series, full of positive vibes and uplifting themes. The anime is just filled with examples of pure human kindness and beauty, and as such will give you a welcome break from anime that explore darker themes…or even reality for that matter. It portrays a world where kindness is encouraged and acknowledged. As such, it’s a show that is quite suitable for children as the themes are very simplistic and sweet in nature, usually giving some lesson in kindness and good deeds.
On the note of it being suitable for children, the show can be a bit childish at times, in a way that you see characters that are well into their teenage and adult life, acting like absolute children. This one episode has a right-handed 14 year old girl pondering over the usefulness of her left hand, and the entire episode pretty much focuses on that plot, by the end of which she is able to realise that her left hand is in fact useful and important. This is the type of subject matter you would expect from a preschool television show.
That aside, it’s still a pleasant viewing experience. The characters are cute and humourous, and there is a fair bit of character development within the 13 episodes and each episode explores a unique theme. One of the more likeable characters in the show is an overweight cat named President Aria, who is actually quite smart and brings in much of the comic relief, the little bloke even takes the spotlight in some episodes, which are pretty fun to watch.
The short-length of the season is put to good use, and it all ends on a satisfying and reflective note, giving it appropriate closure. It’s fun for what it is, and what’s really nice is that it does not overdo the positive happy energy, as instead it does it in a very subtle and pleasant manner.
Visuals and Audio:
Aria the Animation is a nice looking show, the character designs are fairly generic but still pretty charming, and in particular President Aria has a very likeable and memorable design. The set pieces and backgrounds look pretty nice, but what’s really good about the visuals is the use of soft and bright colours to create a relaxing atmosphere.
The music is pretty much the icing on the cake, and really complements the general demeanor of the show. The soundtrack is characterised by soft and beautiful acoustic guitars, and does a very nice job of capturing the feel of being in Venice. The opening and ending theme songs feature some very soothing and beautiful vocals, and what’s cool about the opening is that it features new animation in every episode.
Extras:
Disc 3 of the DVD set comes with a nice collection of extras. It contains lengthy interviews with the Japanese voice cast of the show. Another cool extra is a short film highlighting the trip that the creators of the anime took to Venice, Italy, in order to research set pieces to be used in the anime. Finally, there are usual trailers and the clean opening/ending sequences.
Overall:
Aria the Animation is a very simple and charming show, it’s a very subtle and laidback viewing experience that takes place in a rather beautiful and inspiring recreation of one the most popular tourist destinations in the world today. An anime about gondoliers may not sound like something that could work very well, but Aria the Animation pulls it off nicely, that too in a futuristic sci-fi setting. That said, the actual execution isn’t too different from your typical slice of life anime, and the themes present can come across as a bit too childish and happy go lucky. At the end of the day, Aria the Animation is a solid show for what it is.
Bioware’s Mass Effect 3 is getting some more free downloadable content in the form of the new Rebellion DLC Pack. This pack adds new maps, new weapons and new playable characters for its multiplayer component, and best of all it’s completely free to download.
Joining the fight against the Reapers online is the new Quarian Engineer and Infiltrator, Vorcha Soldier and Sentinel, Ex-Cerberus Adept and Vanguard. The Rebellion DLC Pack also introduces new in-missions and gives players an extra gear slot.
Mass Effect 3 Rebellion DLC pack is set to be released on Playstation Network, Xbox Live and PC on May 29 in North America and May 30 on PSN in Europe.
Fans of the Command & Conquer series will be pleased to know that the latest game in the series, Tiberium Alliances, is now out on the PC. The game is built to run on web browsers and is free to play.
Fans of the series will be pleased to know that the two most iconic Command & Conquer armies will be playable in this title, with those armies being the GDI (Global Defence Initiative) and the NOD. The game is played as a massive battle for territory with players harvesting for tiberium, building armies and taking down enemy bases. This is really Command & Conquer on an MMO scale.
To quote the press release –
As the first free-to-play, cross-platform MMO strategy game, Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances is the only game to offer true, anytime, anywhere gameplay. In the coming months, the game will feature cloud-saved game data to make it accessible across web browsers and mobile devices. Players can play from their desktop at home, or on the go from their smartphone or tablet.
Be sure to check out the official website to start an account and take your place in the war.
Today, Benjamin Webb and I sat down with the cast of hit TV series Supernatural for an interview at the lovely Mercure Sydney. The cast have made their way down under for the All Hell Break’s Loose III Supernatural event, which is set to take place in Sydney tomorrow on the 26th of May, 2012 at the University of New South Wales, Kensington.
We discussed the series passionate fan base, what they think has kept the show going for so long and of course the question on every Supernatural fan’s mind, ‘What’s next for Bobby?’ Check out the interview with Jim Beaver, Richard Speight Jr., Traci Dinwiddie and Corin Nemec below to find out for yourself.
For more information on the All Hell Break’s Loose III Supernatural event check out the event’s official website here. Let us know what you think of the interview in the comments section below.
Hub Productions Event Details: “Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Traci Dinwiddie, Richard Speight Jr. and Corin Nemec were in town for The Hub Productions’ All Hell Breaks Loose III events. Missed out on the action? Head to www.thehubproductions.com for a full list of their upcoming pop culture events in 2012.”
