If you own a PlayStation Vita you can now download the Skype Video and Voice app from the PlayStation Store for free. This is the very first time that Skype has made a video calling app on a mobile gaming device. The calls will work over both WiFi and 3G and will use the front and rear Vita cameras if you choose to do a video call.
The app will allow you to pause a game, take a skype call and then resume playing the game. It is worth noting that calling anyone from Skype that is using a landline or cell phone will cost money, but any calls between Skype users will be free of charge.
Bullistic sticks very much to the style of the Angry Birds physics puzzler, but brings a tongue-in-cheek crassness that’s bound to put a smile on your face… at least, the first time you see it.
Story
Erm… I guess a group of bulls are hatin’ on a Mall of some kind? Maybe they weren’t allowed to return a china tea set that clearly had a defect before they accidentally broke it… /shrug/
Gameplay
As mentioned above, this is very much inspired by the Angry Birds catapulting disgruntled creatures at walls to cause the most amount of havoc possible. It does add it’s own spin on the genre, however, and brings a lot of interesting style to the table.
When you first get into a level, you see a bull is “sitting” atop a pole of some kind. It doesn’t look comfortable. Of course, to launch him, you need to drag him away from the pole and let go, a-la Angry Birds. But when you pull him away, you see he is attached to the pole by his scrotum. Two bull-sized balls remain firmly attached to the pole, allowing you to harness the elasticity of the male cow scrotum and launch him into the air.
The bull with then roll up into a ball, crashing through stalls, items, and people, doing as much damage as he can muster to the Mall and it’s customers. There are also special components, like bumpers and cannons that you can use to keep up the pinball-esque combo going. Unfortunately, everything seems a little out of your control; and if you manage to use the cannons correctly (tap on them to fire; they change their aim themselves), and are lucky enough to hit the bumpers, then you can be bouncing around the mall almost indefinitely.
With Angry Birds, it’s all about figuring out the right place to hit the structure; to find it’s weak point and bring the whole thing toppling down. But with Bullistic, there’s not really much finesse you can develop, or even use to better complete a level. So you simply end up launching and hoping it hits something, or that it reaches a component that prolongs it’s travel time to hit more things. This can result in very long, at minimally productive shots.
Each level is pretty bland. While the art style and detail is good, every level looks exactly the same; they’re just laid out differently. The level selection screen looks okay, but selecting the level you want to play is a little on the buggy side.
As you progress through the game, you’ll be introduced to new bulls with special abilities, again, just like Angry Birds. This time, however, you can choose which bulls you want to use for a level, and there’s quite a few to choose from. One, for example, nosedives to the ground when you tap the screen while he’s flying through the air. Unfortunately this particular one may end up flying through solid ground if he’s going too fast for the physics to keep up.
From time to time a bull will appear presenting you with some choices, or informing you of a particular feature of the game. To close them, you tap on the “X”, as with most popup interfaces; but they are situated in particular parts of the bull. His groin, for example; or maybe an eye. So when you close the popup, the bull reacts as one would it he was poked in those particular places. This adds well to the humour and style of the game.
Unfortunately this humour only works the first couple of times you see it, and so isn’t enough to carry the whole game. There are nice touches to the gameplay, reacting to a bull rolling over a person, people screaming and running away, or when a bull falls into a meat grinder. Each level requires a certain level of damage to pass it, and when you hit that mark, it makes sure you know it through sound effects and animations.
Audio & Visual
The sound effects are super high quality, and really accentuate the cartoony and over the top nature of the gameplay. There’s pretty much no music, apart from an awesome 10 second track announcing your completing a level.
This game looks great; there’s no two ways about it. The style is clearly defined, and has a good dollop of crass humour to keep things sweet. The bulls have a great character to them, as do the customers roaming the levels, and the animations to go along with the numerous forms of destruction that can happen.
Overall
Even though the quality of the assets in this game is amazingly high, especially for a physics-puzzler, the humour doesn’t really last that long, and the gameplay is buggy and unengaging. This game is annoyingly close to being awesome, but it’s flaws really keep it from reaching it’s true potential.
Busted! Is the upcoming high-speed future get-away game for the Android platform made by Mentalwarp games, which are based in Belgium. In Busted! players are tasked with speeding down futuristic tube like highways to get away from the police before they are caught.
It seems like the game is very reminiscent of high-speed futuristic racers like F-Zero and Wipeout and players that enjoyed the high-speed feel of those titles will definitely want to check out this game.
To quote the Youtube page –
New Android title fuelled by Mentalwarp Games.
Busted! is a 3D arcade game in which you drive your ship recklessly in futuristic tube-like highways and try to avoid being busted by the city police forces.
www.facebook.com/Busted.the.game
Be sure to check out the trailer, embedded below, for more info.
To help design and create the ultimate arcade fighting stick peripheral for gaming devices (unlikely to be the one pictured). The team are also competing for Team Razer in this years major competitions. As many fighting game aficionados will tell you, these two are very big names in the scene, having taken home many EVO and World Cyber Game Championships each.
Fuudo’s first notable appearance is his victory in the World Cyber Games 2005 Virtua Fighter 4 tournament and he had this to say on the new partnership –
“If you keep playing against strong players, you will naturally get stronger,” said Fuudo. “I value the knowledge and skills I can acquire from players outside of Japan, and being sponsored by Razer will provide us with the full support we need to travel to more tournaments and have more opportunities to learn from international players.”
Itazan has had much success in his fighting tournament career first taking home an EVO in 2004 and winning many more competitions since then. On the partnership, Razer had this to say –
“We’re seeing the fighting scene booming in the U.S., but Japan is really the heart and soul of fighting games,” said Robert “RazerGuy” Krakoff, President of Razer USA. “Fuudo and Itazan are both seasoned fighting game veterans. They’ve excelled at different titles for almost a decade, and have both won the two major fighting game championships, Super Battle Opera and EVO, both independently and as a team. The Razer Arcade Stick is still in the works, and what these two players can bring to its development is priceless.”
This new arcade stick is sure to bring out the best in fighting gamers everywhere. Be sure to check the Razersite for more info.
April 23rd, 1982 is a day that will forever live in the memory of a proud Englishman – it’s the day that the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was unleashed upon the world in direct competition with the Commodore 64 system.
Since its launch, the British-made system has had over 23,000 pieces of software created for it, many of them games that will bring an air of sudden nostalgia to anyone who’s played them before. A few days ago, Elite Systems released the 100 Greatest Hits of the system on iOS, and Wikipedia elected to celebrate April 23rd by plastering that fact in a big, bold banner at the top of the encyclopaedia entry on the ZX Spectrum.
Google also released a Google Doodle to honour both the 30th anniversary of the system and St. George’s day in a clever, 8-bit tinged crossover that should probably be made into a video game right now.
Ubisoft announced today that their popular strategy title, Anno 2070, will be getting an expansion add-on titled Anno 2070 Deep Ocean. This new expansion pack is set to launch for the PC in the Spring of 2012.
Anno 2070 Deep Ocean adds a completely new civilisation level, and adds a new population class that will grant access to brand new features such as new vehicles, technologies, and many more. The add-on will also bring in new content and challenges, these are listed below.
Players will be able to:
Acquire enemy territories without using military force through the “Hostile Takeover” feature
Resolve energy problems by building the new underwater geothermal power plant
Optimise energy supply through “Energy transfer” between islands
Face a new dangerous disaster: The Tsunami
Unlock new rewards for each faction’s career ladder
Bluemouth have been on a role for their 3DS gear as of late, and while Mario Kart 7 released back in December, a new accessory line for the popular title is on the way to spruce up your handheld. As you see in the picture above, this pack will come with a snazzy checkered flag cleaning cloth, a themed stylus, and a Snap & Play case that features Mario, Bowser, and Luigi up top, with a soft-coated material layered on the bottom for extra comfort.
The going price for the kit will be $24.99, and you can expect them to pop up in retailers this May, which is just a short time away.
Developer: Game Factory Interactive Publisher: Game Factory Interactive Platforms: iPad Release Date: April 13, 2012 Price: $3.99 USD/ $4.49 AUD Get It Here
Overview
Game Factory Interactive switches gears with Foreign Dreams, this time opting for a serious and moody hidden object game. Foreign Dreams puts players in the shoes of a young woman who can enter people’s dreams to ease their difficulties. Players will have to enter your friend Victor’s dreams to find clues for the source of Victor’s troubles. Along the way players will have to conquer some devious puzzles and hunt down hard to find objects hidden in Victor’s dream land. Hidden object games are one of the most popular sub-genres in casual games. Does Foreign Dreams have what it takes to stand out from the crowd and justify its $3.49 price tag?
Story
Foreign Dreams follows the tale of Victor who suffers from terrifying nightmares. His desperation brings him to his female friend who is able to enter dreams. With the help of a special amulet, she begins to sort through his nightmares to help Victor find the root of his troubles and free him from his dreams. I found the plot line started out strong, it was riveting and begged to be played. But once the game built to a crescendo, the plot wrapped up in record time with an ending that left me feeling let down and cheated. The ending feels forced and is a disappointing end to a great story.
Gameplay
Foreign Dreams is a hidden object game split up with puzzles. The hidden object portion of the game is pretty generic. Thankfully, the hidden objects are logically placed or as logically placed as a hidden object game gets. The puzzles that split up the hidden object levels are the most interesting part of the game. The puzzles range from jigsaw puzzles to number based brain teasers. Some of these were incredibly difficult, but satisfying to conquer. I only wish that there were more of these puzzles. For those who find some puzzles too difficult to complete, there is a skip puzzle feature that can be activated after a certain period of time elapses. At the end of each dream, players will have to go back across all levels in the dream to collect the parts of a dream catcher to escape the dream world. This added a slightly interesting twist to the hidden object gameplay to raise the difficulty.
There are two difficulty modes available, easy mode provides simpler mini-games with a short cool down timer for hints while difficult mode raises the difficulty on mini-games and lengthens the hint cool down timer. Even with these two modes, I found Foreign Dreams to be an extremely short game. Compounding the problem is the fact once you’re done the story, you’re done the game. Second play through will have you hunting down for the same items, the only change being the puzzles if you choose to change the difficulty. Overall, Foreign Dreams manages to deliver rather average gameplay experience. For the exception of the well-executed puzzle sections of the game, Foreign Dreams is a rather generic hidden object game that is hindered by its short length.
Visuals
Foreign Dreams is a beautiful game utilizing a cell shaded style. This art style makes it slightly easier to pick out the hidden objects in the game due to the slightly lower level of details in individual objects. However, I found this trade off to be worth it as the game looks fantastic. The levels are designed to be dream-like and at times down right creepy. I enjoyed the fact that the dream worlds feel alive; there is movement in the hidden object scenes, instead of being the traditional static affair. Foreign Dreams is a visual pleasure that no one should miss.
Audio
The sound effects for Foreign Dreams are solid. It suits the game and there’s enough variety to avoid becoming repetitive. Foreign Dreams has an amazing soundtrack. Too bad half the time the music did not play. The music is moody and adds to the surreal dream state. The music is an absolute pleasure to listen to. The problem is most of the time the music failed to play. Out of all the levels in the game, three levels managed to play music, one started playing music mid game, the other two managed to play music from the start, although one of those levels stopped playing music a few minutes into the game. Top marks for Foreign Dreams’ audio… when it works.
Overall
Foreign Dreams is a mixed bag, demonstrating some really strong point such as the visuals and a strong soundtrack, but is hindered by a disappointing ending, short game play, and a serious glitch preventing the music from playing. The hidden object gameplay is generic, though the puzzles breaking up the game play are a lot of fun and a few are incredibly challenging. For the money, Foreign Dreams is simply too short to justify a purchase. If the game was $0.99, then I would be more inclined to suggest purchasing Foreign Dreams. But unless you are a huge hidden object fan with money just begging to be spent, I would advise you to pick up one of Game Factory Interactive’s other hidden object titles instead of Foreign Dreams.
Max Payne Mobile Developer: Remedy, 3D Realms Publisher: Rockstar Games Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iTouch, iPad Release Date: April 12, 2012 Price: $2.99 – Available Here
Overview
Revivals of old school games through apps are nothing new to the mobile gaming world, so the release of a Max Payne app half a month before the much anticipated release of the third game in the series is no big surprise. Max Payne is a beloved character, with a great feel about the game, and it’s no surprise that he holds a dear place in third-player shooter hearts. I mean, he’s a total badass. So, how does the game translate over to the app?
Gameplay
The first thing that one notices when playing this app is that it is quite concentrated on cut scenes, something that is very uncommon in games of this type. You’ll spend a lot of your time waiting at load screens, sometimes for purely a cut scene. The cut scenes themselves are interesting enough to hold attention, and not grate too much on your nerves, but if you are the impatient sort who want to just get to the action then you’ll probably get quite frustrated.
The story line is strong, and results in something that probably doesn’t speak well of the app itself. I ended up enjoying the cut scenes more than the gameplay. The story line had me far more invested and I didn’t care much for my own participation, nor did I hunger to get my trigger finger going, instead I just wanted to sit back and watch it like a movie.
The controls are the standard that are afforded to shooters on the iOS, left hand corner is the move control stick while the right corner is the view control stick. The other controls, such as shoot, jump, and open, all appear on the right hand side of the screen. While the layout is something that I have griped about before, these are customizable and you can adjust it to whatever your preference is. My main issue lies in the way that it translates into the game. Max moves like the painkiller-addict that he becomes (spoiler alert? Does it count if it happened over a decade ago?). Navigating the worlds takes some adjusting before you stop staggering around, erasing any idea that you could be stealth or take any of the wayward NY gangsters by surprise.
Not that they pose much of a threat anyway. A few times I took shots at them that were a little off (yeah, drunken stagger-y Max is not a crack shot), and it still managed to kill them off thanks to auto-aim. So I tried to turn auto-aim off and then discovered that I could barely manage to hit one of those damn identical character models.
It didn’t help that Max seemed incapable of moving his gun quite in the direction I wanted it to. So I had to turn auto aim back on, which then made me feel like I was being handed a win when I didn’t deserve it. Like I’d hacked the game, but totally by accident, and now my victories tasted bitter in my mouth. Then I stopped being melodramatic and got over it, but after noticing that I did start taking a far more lax approach to shooting, which took a little away from my enjoyment. But that’s a lot better than rage quitting. At the end of the day, it was a fairly necessary feature for the app. Of course you also have Bullet Time, the signature move of Max Payne. Although this can make you launch into a wall or a piece of furniture, which is kind of awkward.
Visuals
In terms of frame rate, you run into issues if you don’t have the latest hardware. And the graphics aren’t really anything to brag about. While the cut scenes are the most entertaining and interesting part of the game, the graphics in them aren’t always superb, and during the gameplay the graphics degrade even further. However, it has been ported over from the original Xbox/PC game, so it can’t be held at fault completely for the lackluster graphics.
One thing I loved about the visual style was the included ‘comic book’ style cut scenes, which roots the game firmly into the noir genre. This is something Max Payne is well known for, and it would have been a huge omission. The animation of the comic book panels was minimal, but carried themselves well enough.
Audio
The voiceover is one of the things I love most about the game. Max’s raspy voice brings yet another aspect to the storytelling of the game, and it makes up for the underwhelming graphics of the game. The soundtrack is also another great aspect that connects the game with the popular franchise and I never thought it was too out of place or bumbling, it always seemed to sit nicely in the background and help create an environment.
Overall
Max Payne is a faithful recreation of the original game for the iOS, with the full campaign available in the app. Which makes the price fairly fair, but that is balanced of course with the lackluster graphics and the controls which can become quite frustrating over time. Still, if you love yourself some Max and would like to reminisce about the good old days, then you’d enjoy the flashback.
On May 15th, Max Payne will make his grizzly revival on consoles and the PC thanks to Rockstar. Much like all titles released from the highly acclaimed publisher, we have seen a ton of promotion while approaching that date for Max Payne 3, and fans now have even more to gawk at with a new trailer.
This clip slows down the action in true bullet-time form, showing off bits and pieces of the plot, along with some nicely paced gameplay footage. Oh yeah, it all looks pretty damn awesome as well. You can check out the clip below and stay tuned, as there is sure to be even more sneak peaks as this journey to release nears an end.
