Over the past few months things have been bad for THQ, but it seems that there is at least a little bit of good news on the horizon. While the company initially expected terrible fourth quarter sales, which ended on March 31, 2012, it seems that they made at least a bit more than they expected.
Originally the company was expected to report only $130-$150 million in sales, but now they are expected to report net sales of $160 million to $170 million. THQ has pointed to the success of Saints Row: The Third and DLC for the title performing better than predicted. Can THQ stay alive? YES!
Nippon Ichi has been around for almost twenty years, in fact they will be turning twenty on July 12th. To commemorate this event the company will be holding a full years worth of celebrations all with the logo seen above branded on them. Also revealed was a new piece of artwork for a currently nameless title that will feature Noizi Ito’s artwork. The artwork can be seen below and fans of Nippon Ichi’s games can expect a number of original titles to be released over the course of the year, though no hints were given as to what gamers should expect.
Cave has revealed what the name of their next Dodonpachi game will be. Titled Dodonpachi Saidaioujou, the game will be released to Japanese arcades on April 20th with a possible console release later on. It is worth noting that Cave recently self-released Deathsmiles 2X onto Games on Demand for the Xbox 360, so the chance of a Western release is quite high. To coincide with this announcement they released the below trailer which shows off different features of this title.
One new addition to the Dodonpachi franchise is a “Dress System” which allows players to dress up the three female characters seen above with different outfits that affect their abilities. Anyone recognize the character design of these girls? Perhaps from a certain Ar Tonelico series?
Rather than be boring and announce the game through a simple press release, a Japanese publisher has chosen to take out a massive six page ad in the upcoming issue of Famitsu to tease their upcoming PlayStation Vita title called Soul Sacrifice. Two of the pages can be seen above with the other pages teasing four characters fighting against a large monster. The game will supposedly feature “evolved battle” concepts as well as “”real fantasy shown in high spec.”
No other information, not even who is developing or publishing the title was revealed in the teaser, though it is worth noting that a Tokyo event will be happening early next month for Sony which means we may see an official reveal then.
Everyone loves something for free and today PlayStation Vita owners can pick up a free painting app. The app itself is called Paint Park and anyone who uses it can draw by themselves or even draw with friends. The app itself is extremely basic, even more so than your basic Paint app on a computer but one unique feature is the ability to take pictures and draw on them.
You can even share your artwork with friends, though if you aren’t a budding artist perhaps most of your doodles are better kept to yourself. It is worth noting that two more apps will be coming in the Summer free of charge. These apps are Treasure Park which lets you share puzzles with friends and a Wake-up Club app that is basically an alarm clock.
If you were hoping to play Darksiders 2 on June 26th then you will be disappointed to learn that THQ has just revealed that the game has been officially delayed until sometime in August of this year. The additional development time is supposedly meant to “polish and to ensure that all aspects of Darksiders 2 meet the high-quality bar the team is targeting.”
Whether this is true or not is up in the air, but considering how troubled THQ is financially, perhaps this extra time is a good thing if it will make the title better received by the public. Also a little bit more time to market the game probably wouldn’t hurt either.
Today the team at Capsule Computers were lucky enough to attend the Sydney launch of the brand new remote control toy from Parrot. The AR.Drone 2.0 uses HD cameras to create an augmented reality play experience that can be controlled from your own personal smartphone. We had a chance to fly around the event, recording videos and taking photos, even doing back flips. Well, back flips with the AR.Drone 2.0 not actually us physically doing them.
We got the chance to discuss the upcoming release, asking questions about augmented reality in the future, the application of games and the ever important question of securing your AR.Drone’s connection so people don’t fly away with it. Check out the video below for our interview.
The Parrot A.R. Drone 2.0 is the second iteration of the A.R. Drone flying device by Parrot. The device itself is very reminiscent of a hovercraft, rather than a helicopter, which is probably the first thing you will think of when you hear the words ‘flying device’. At an undisclosed location in Sydney, us here at Capsule Computers were able to give the device a nice test-flight.
The original A.R. Drone was pretty much just a toy that you could fly around and have a bit of fun with. The second iteration of this machine more closely resembles a spy device, rather than a toy for fun. This new device has improvements in the User Interface, flying controls as well as a recording method which allows you to record that which the device is seeing through its cameras.
As well as these abilities, participants are also able to attach a USB to the internals of the machine to save videos to, rather than doing it on their handheld devices. I should probably mention that the machine is controlled through mobile (cellular) phones, predominantly the iPhone and the Android type devices. I can see this device becoming useful in making home movies, or for less honourable uses (like watching the cute girl next door getting changed), though I would really like to see this being used by Hollywood and the like for really getting in close to the action.
What I really enjoyed about the A.R. Drone was how customisable you could make your experience with the device. By editing various parameters within the handheld app, you’re able to make the flying experience customisable for your own level of comfort. So if you’re a parent and don’t want your kids to lose this piece of equipment, you can easily adjust these parameters on your phone and hand the device to your child to play with, knowing that it’s likely they wont lose it in a river.
Another thing I enjoyed more was the different modes of flight available. One method is a line-of-sight method between the device and the Drone, in-which the device will always read your point of reference as forward, rather than the way it’s nose is pointing. The other flight method is a more video-game like method where it’s forward is always dictated by the direction that the camera is facing, which will require you to keep focus on both the screen and the Drone itself to keep it out of trouble. I found the first control method to be the simpler of the two, but I found the second to be the more satisfying. You can easily change between these control types in the options menu, even when you’re still in flight.
One thing that bugged me a little about the device was that the carapace was too easily dislodged by collisions, I think that this could have been easily circumvented by adding little locks on the base of the device. But then again, the engineers behind the device will probably have thought of that and deemed it a risk to the vehicles safety. Like the force of a collision could force the locks to rip the shell or something. One thing that I’d really like to see though, is some kind of “Return Home” button, where the Drone can fly on a direct path back to the owners phone., because at the moment (and while nothing is final) you have to manually retrieve your device if you don’t fly it back yourself or if its batteries are running low.
But other than those little nit-picky things, I found the device to be an enjoyable experience and I would heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in flying machines. The device is also backwards compatible with the previous versions of Ar-Drone Free Flight, but the latest version will give you all the functionality that was described in this article.
The A.R. Drone 2.0 feels like it’s going to be an amazing piece of technology once it’s released. It has all the hallmarks of an adventurous toy, or even the potential for a spy gadget or actionshot camera. The greatest value of this device is that it completely operable from your own smartphone, meaning that there is no clutter or massively insane control mechanisms. This is definitely something that you will want to be picking up for a bit of fun or other kinds of film based activities (home movies, etc.). Be sure to look for these on Shelves this June.
Check out our video embedded below for more coverage.
WIN: Pandora’s Tower (Wii) / Pandora’s Tower The Art Book
Pandora’s Tower is the latest action-packed RPG to come from Nintendo and is available exclusively on Wii. With real-time combat, motion controls, multiple endings and a unique relationship system, Pandora’s Tower offers a unique experience and an epic story that will keep you engrossed for hours.
We have one copy of the game on Nintendo Wii AND one copy of the Art Book to give away! So two lucky people will be able to win!
So how do you win? It’s easy! Just follow these simple steps:
The competition ends on the 2nd of May! We’ll be picking 2 winners, so keep an eye on the Capsule Computers Facebook page as we’ll be announcing the lucky winners just after the the 2nd!
Don’t forget-you MUST Like both pages FIRST then post the code phrase on the Capsule Computers Facebook wall, in order for your entry to be considered. The phrase is:
InnoGames has released an official trailer for its free-to-play browser game Lagoonia, which is still currently in open beta. The trailer mimics the overall story of the game, from crashing on the island, to building a society, to building relationships between characters. Besides YouTube the trailer is also going to run internationally as a TV ad, with more languages to reach more countries.
Lagoonia lets players build as they like on the tropical island their character crash lands on. Starting from fire and shelter, to be able to create lighthouses and water slides, while working on the relationships between the other characters on the island too. Lagoonia runs straight from the browser, without need of a download, so check the trailer below and the game itself HERE.
