Sega, Capcom and Namco are hard at work creating a new Strategy RPG together called Project X Zone. So far there are not that many details about the game, but what we do know is that the title will be featuring popular characters from all three companies. It is also quite likely that these characters will be adventuring and battling with and maybe even against each other.
According to sources (dothackers.com and famitsu) the game is going to be appearing on the 3DS in Japan at a later date. Much like the Super Robot Wars series of games, it looks unlikely that the game will be released overseas due to licensing issues, but if the companies can work together in Japan, I don’t see why they can’t over here.
Even though Phantom Breaker has never had a concrete release date, 7sixty has been saying that it would be released sometime this month at least, however that won’t be happening anymore as the game has been pushed back to a tentative May 8th release date.
News of this delay comes from a series of emails between Siliconera and 7sixty where it was revealed that “During testing on the English version of the game we ran across a few issues with Xbox Live play which resulted in being unable to re-invite friends into matches, and also potential long stalls while joining a match if the other player disconnected. We passed those issues back to 5pb and they’ve done a great job patching up the minor things we’ve found.”
While this is disappointing news for those who want to get their hands on the anime styled shooter, it is great to see developers trying to make sure their title is 100% bug free when the game is launched instead of working on patches post-release.
European-based publisher Rising Star Games has announced that Aksys Games, a North American interactive entertainment software publisher, will exclusively distribute the company’s complete 2012 North American line-up.
The first game of the collaboration will be Akai Katana, a side-scrolling bullet hell adventure for the Xbox 360 that will be Rising Star Games’ first US title. Akai Katana will be releasing later this spring, and places players in a parallel world resembling Japan’s Taisho period. Utilizing the power behind the world’s Blood Swords for leverage, schmup (shoot ’em up) fans will fight alongside their rebel warrior kin as they seek to regain peace and order by taking on a fierce empire of tyranny.
In recent memory there are only a few games that have been universally panned by critics and the most recent of these was VectorCell’s Amy. Amy was seen as a bit of a mess and nearly unplayable by much of the gaming community but don’t worry, VectorCell is taking the harsh criticisms to heart.
They are releasing a patch that they say fixes the game’s save system which now allows for saving at every checkpoint rather than an immediate level restart. Also, health items and powers will not be removed after death. Gamers who purchased Amy may be able to play the game a bit more now, though just barely.
While demos are a great way to show fans that you love them and give them a chance to try out a game before they drop $60 of their hard earned money on it, it seems that Rockstar has no plans on releasing a Max Payne 3 demo before the game is released, or even afterwords for those who still can’t make up their minds.
In response to fans’ questions, Rockstar’s official Twitter stated “There are no plans for a demo of Max Payne 3.” Looks like fans will have to trust their gut instinct on this one and just buy it when it is released next month so they can get another taste of Max Payne’s bullet-time.
Fez Publisher:Polytron Developer:Polytron Platform(s): XBLA (Reviewed) Release Date: April 13, 2012 Price:800 Microsoft Points – Available Here
Overview
‘Gomez is a 2D creature living in a 2D world. Or is he? When the existence of a mysterious 3rd dimension is revealed to him, Gomez is sent out on a journey that will take him to the very end of time and space. Use your ability to navigate 3D structures from 4 distinct classic 2D perspectives. Explore a serene and beautiful open-ended world full of secrets, puzzles and hidden treasures. Unearth the mysteries of the past and discover the truth about reality and perception. Change your perspective and look at the world in a different way. ‘ (Xbox.com)
Fez has been highly visible in the media for the past two years. Many articles have been written about it, and it has already won many awards. Now, after many delays and pushed back release dates, Fez has finally made its way to the Xbox 360. Is it really deserving of all those awards? Should you play it? Keep reading to find out.
Story
Gomez lives in a house in a neighborhood full of nice people who consider him as their friend. One day, he gets a letter revealing that it is a special day, and he should go meet one of his friends to find out why. Once he meets his friend, he is warped into another dimension. After he gets back, he finds that he was gone for a long time. In addition, a new character has joined him in his world.
Dot is a being from another dimension. Dot says that Gomez is special, and that something went horribly wrong when he was transported. As a result, cubes of matter are scattered everywhere. Unless Gomez can find them, the world will rip itself apart. Dot then shows Gomez that he is actually living in 2 dimensions: 2D and 3D. He can traverse the 2D space as normal, but he can also rotate his world to see the other side. This is how he’ll be able to find the cubes that can save the world.
All in all, the story sounds simple enough. However, Polytron has managed to make the characters so compelling that I was emotionally attached to them. Although the dialogue is written in a very simplistic style, I found myself actually caring about the story, derivative as it might be.
Gameplay
As mentioned, Gomez has just discovered that he lives in a 3-dimensional world. Thus, the gameplay is based on looking at the world in a different way. You can run, jump and climb on the 2D plane, but you can also rotate the world so that the way objects are looked at changes. For example, if Gomez is climbing across a building on a window sill and then comes to a large gap, you can rotate the world so the large gap is hidden by ledge on the other side of the building. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the gap no longer exists, and Gomez is able to climb onto the other side of the building with no trouble.
Fez is unquestionably a great puzzle game. Although this perspective shifting type of gameplay has been explored in other games like Echochrome, Fez’s interpretation of it is so much better. You’ll be going in and out of multiple worlds, and using multiple ways to solve puzzles. Most of the time, you’ll enter a door, go into another world, enter another world and repeat the process, sometimes up 8 worlds deep. Each world has multiple cubes and secrets to be found, and traversing each one requires much thought, but each one is very unique and extremely fun to explore. The game is so mesmerizing, trippy and complex that it feels more like you are drawn into a beautiful painting of time and space. Polytron did an excellent job of setting the atmosphere, and the game will really make you rely on your complex thinking skills.
Although I found Fez to be extremely unique and wonderful, I did get lost for about an hour. I wish Polytron would have seen fit to add in a few more navigational aids. Although I understand that the lack of such aids is exaclty why Fez is able to maintain its atmosphere, it does get frustrating when you are traversing multiple dimensions but have no way of knowing that a particular door takes you to a different world than the one which you wanted to go. Nevertheless, I suppose that actually navigating different dimensions would be extremely confusing, and this game definitnely makes you feel like you are doing exactly that. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, even if it does mean that I will get lost occasionally while playing the game.
As stated above, you can go up to at least 8 worlds deep. However, once you are that deep and you want to go back to a ‘home world,’ it often requires a lot of backtracking. In addition to the risk of being lost while backtracking, you also have to solve the puzzles backwards. Although the game does have warp gates, you don’t know where they lead until you actually use them, and they only work one way. In the beginning especially, you may have to do a lot of backtracking depending on how you play the game. And the warp gates increase the probability of getting lost. Nevertheless, while you’re lost or attempting to go back, you’ll undoubtedly stumble across a secret or ANOTHER world and be glad you didn’t make it back. All in all, the fear of getting lost, and indeed the actual action of getting lost, lends to the atmosphere and makes the time and space elements even more relevant.
Audio and Visuals
Every world in the game has a unique soundtrack, and each one perfectly adds to the atmosphere which Polytron created. Although they are all fairly simple musical tracks, they never got boring, and they added so much to the game.
Each world is also completely different. Bright and vibrant colors make each world stand out, and each world also has different textures and themes. There is a good reason why Fez won a lot of awards for its graphical design. It is outstanding. I highly recommend downloading the demo, if just to check out the visuals. Words don’t do them justice. Fez truly exemplifies the saying, “A picture is worth a 1,000 words.”
Overall
In conclusion, Fez is probably the most original game since Portal. Even when it shows weaknesses, those turn into strengths because, while they detract from the experience, they also add to it. The only reason I give this game less than a 10 is for its minor flaws. Also, I was super angry after the first 45 minutes of being lost, but that was just my personal experience. However, you should definitely give it a try. You will not regret it. Although it is extremely complex, there is no death element, and you will enjoy experimenting with all the possibilities that this game offers.
Fans will buy just about anything when they love a game enough, and this fact is all the more prevalent in Japan where some gamers will be willing to spend $200+ on limited edition versions of games just to receive a few extra bonuses. This time however, gamers may need to break the bank to pick up the Resident Evil 6 premium edition in Japan.
The cost of the premium edition is ¥105,000, about $1,300 which makes it godawfully expensive. However those who purchase this expensive limited edition will receive a copy of the game, a set of four tablet case covers (one for Chris, Leon, Jake aka Wesker Jr., and a secret one), and Leon Kennedy’s leather jacket. No images have been released for the jacket so far but why not drop over a thousand dollars on a game?
There must be a small crisis happening at EA at the moment because they seem to have accidentally revealed Crysis 3 a bit earlier than they would have liked to. Information for the game as well as a listing for a limited edition version appeared on Origin earlier today and has subsequently been taken down, but not before NeoGAF users kept all the information themselves.
It seems that Crysis 3 was originally meant to be revealed in Game Reactor magazine, but obviously that big reveal has been blown. It also appears that Crysis 3 will still happen inside of New York or at least a city like it, as the box art for the game features our main hero with a fancy bow with a city building in the backdrop.
Immortality sounds like a great idea on paper, to live life without the fear of ever dying. However, nothing in life comes for free, and for something as grand as immortality a hefty price must be paid. In Princess Resurrection, Hiro Hiyorimi learns this lesson the hard way.
This Princess Resurrection collection contains all 24 episodes of the main anime series with two additional ‘Extra’ episodes included as a bonus. There isn’t really anything in the way of extras as all it really contains are clean opening and ending theme songs as is the case with most anime home releases. The anime was created by the highly respected Japanese animation studio, Madhouse, known for some great animations like Ninja Scrolls, Vampire Hunter D, and Death Note.
Princess Resurrection takes you on an interesting journey in a world where supernatural beings live seamlessly among the humans, and along the way you will go on this rather strange emotional rollercoaster but with some interesting character development.
Story:
Hiro Hiyorimi is an 8th grade high school student who moves into this quiet and mysterious town to live with his older sister, Sawawa Hiyorimi. Sawawa lands a job as a live-in maid of a mansion, and as such is able to accommodate her brother. However, as soon as Hiro arrives and explores the area on his own he meets a tragic twist of fate, as he finds himself crushed under construction beams in an attempt to save a mysterious woman dressed in rather regal and gothic attire. His selfless act of heroism leads to an untimely death, or so it seems.
The mysterious woman he saves actually turns out to be a princess of grand royalty known to everyone as ‘Hime’, the daughter of the King of Monsters. To award Hiro for his selfless heroism, she grants him the gift of ‘half-immortality’ with some rather useful instant healing powers, but it’s hardly an award as Hiro soon realises that he must now forever serve as an immortal soldier to Hime in order to stay alive. Hime needs to pretty much recharge Hiro’s life from time to time, thus creating a purely unplanned and circumstantial partnership that Hiro never really asked for.
Right from the get go, Hiro finds himself fighting alongside Princess Hime against a wide range of adversaries, which include werewolves, zombies, Egyptian mummies, vampires, and all sorts of sadistic creatures. He is constantly going out of his way to protect Princess Hime and finds himself getting killed several times in much similar vein to Kenny from South Park. Along the way he meets some peculiar supernatural friends and foes.
It’s a strange series in the sense that it at most times feels like a slice of life anime with a huge supernatural twist, with a hint of harem elements as Hiro is pretty much always surrounded by women, both human and supernatural. The tone of the episodes are mostly light hearted and humourous, but there is a main underlying plot surrounding a power struggle between Princess Hime and her siblings, as they fight to claim the throne and become the sole King of Monsters. That underlying plot creates some dark and serious undertones, and allows for some interesting character development and backstory.
The characters are an interesting and quirky bunch. Princess Hime appears to be a very cold, stern, and regal type of person who does a great job at maintaining her composure regardless of the situation. She’s pretty skilled in combat too when need be, demonstrating good use of weapons, especially the chainsaw. Then you have several support characters like a tomboyish half-human-half-werewolf and a miniature android maid who can only utter one word “Huga”. There is enough character variety, with each given enough focus and development.
The pace and progression of the show works out nicely as we get to see relationships between the characters develop, in particular the relationship between Hiro and Hime. There is plenty of comedy and a ton of action, with some rather crazy but hilarious horror elements thrown in.
Once it’s all done and dusted, there isn’t anything particularly memorable about Princess Resurrection, if anything there is too much inconsistency in the general tone and style of the show, it switches between random slice of life comedy and serious supernatural action. The main plot doesn’t really get resolved by the end of the series, ending just when things seem to be picking up. Instead what’s really developed and resolved by the end of the show is the relationship between Hime and Hiro, but unfortunately, like with most modern anime couples, their dynamic doesn’t really have a mature and compelling chemistry even if the circumstances of their relationship is amusing. All it really is a young boy with a crush on a much older woman, with some moments of emotional spark but nothing more.
Visuals and Audio:
The show has some pretty decent but generic character designs, with a few minor exceptions but nothing really memorable. It’s one of the more weaker looking shows by the veteran studio as the back drops and set pieces are a bit bland and lazy. The character animations and details are decent but nothing that will make you stop and appreciate what you’re watching.
The soundtrack of this series is the usual gothic style of music that characterises most supernatural themed anime. What’s really awkward are the opening and ending songs, which not only sound really annoying but they are awkwardly and creepily sexual in nature with the ending theme song titled as ‘Bow Down and Lick My Feet’ (Enough said). The English dub isn’t horrible but it sounds generically uninspired to say the least.
Overall:
Princess Resurrection has a nice premise with some fun characters that get decent development, but the underlying plot and theme is rather inconsistent which results in an unsatisfying finale. It has its moments, but the main plot remains unresolved and the character relationships are not very interesting. It’s a fun and nicely paced show, but nothing that leaves a lasting impact when it’s all said and done.
When developers release a 17 gigabyte, critically acclaimed game for PC, the general reaction isn’t usually to start working on another ten gigabytes of game content to be released for the sweet, sweet price of absolutely zero dollars.
But that’s exactly what CDProjekt, the developers of The Witcher 2, have done with their “Enhanced Edition” of the original game, and you can preload the massive update right now at The Witcher‘s official site. The update will then go live on April 17th, at the same time as the game’s official release on Xbox 360.
The Enhanced Edition will feature four hours of new game content, a plethora of new cinematics, and new endings that will add to the cliffhanging conclusion of the game’s original release. On top of that, all the game’s previous updates, such as the addition of a Dark Mode difficulty setting and an Arena, will be included in the Enhanced Edition.
