The Playstation Network will be going into lockdown for a 12 – 13 hour period starting at 11pm on Monday 16th April until 11am Tuesday 17th April AEST. For those who are in different time zones, here is a list:
United Kingdom – 2pm on Monday 16 April 2012 until 2am on Tuesday 17 April 2012.
US Eastern – 9am on Monday 16 April 2012 until 10pm on Monday 16 April 2012.
US Pacific – 6am on Monday 16 April 2012 until 7pm on Monday 16 April 2012
While the Playstation Network is down, all services that are integrated with the Playstation Network will be offline. This includes:
PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP and PS Vita.
PlayStation Network Account Management.
PlayStation Network Account Registration.
Online Multiplayer
PSN Enabled Services
If you still want to play online while the PSN is in maintenance mode, then sign in before the scheduled time of maintenance and play away. Of course, trophies can still be earned and will be synched once the Playstation Network is back online. While it is down, why not enjoy your single player games that are collecting dust? They deserve your attention once in a while.
Rift has finally launched its eighth major content update titled Infernal Dawn. The content update brings many new additions to the game, but most notably, a new 20man Raid-dungeon to challenge all the end-game players of the game.
In the latest raid Mount Carcera, players group together to take on the two dragon lords Maelforge and Laethys. Additionally, there will be some new implementations, such as a guild finder and some new trade-skills for players to level.
Full list of features included in RIFT: Infernal Dawn:
Infernal Dawn – Epic 20 person raid within Mt. Carcera on Ember Isle
New Tradeskills – Fishing and Survival come to Telara
Leaderboards – Ascended stat tracking comes to Rift
Instant Adventure – Join the adventure on Ember Isle
Be sure to download the game and trial the first 20 levels by visiting this site, here.
We haven’t even reached the midway point of 2012 yet but that hasn’t stopped publishers from announcing games for early 2013. In fact, Namco Bandai Europe revealed that they will be releasing Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in the first quarter of 2013 exclusively on the PlayStation 3. Obviously a more specific release date will be announced in the future, but for now the fact that it is being localized is good enough.
Better yet, the game is being given a full English dub as well as subtitles in several different languages so many people will have a chance to play it and understand what is going on. For those who don’t know Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch follows the journey of a young boy named Oliver who sets out on a journey in a parallel world where he is trying to become a magician in an effort to revive his mom from the dead.
A new colour for the Playstation 3 will be released in the United Kingdom. The colour will be Scarlet Red, which is sported on both the console and the Dualshock 3 controller. It will be the Slim 320GB model that will sport the colour. According to a listing on Amazon UK, the console will be available on April 27 and will retail at £249.99 (AU$382.83), which is more expensive than the retail price of regular Playstation 3 units. No games will be bundled with the console.
The United Kingdom is not the only possible area of release as EB Games Australia have a listing for the Scarlet Red console on their website. A point of difference with their listing is that the console will include two Dualshock 3 controllers rather than the one in the UK and a place holder date of May 31. The Australian price is set to be AU$458, a little higher than the AU$399 retail price tag. There has been no mention of the colour on the European Playstation Blog (or any official announcement) or a release date in the United States.
Aero Vacation
Developer: Black Pearl Games Publisher: Chillingo Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: April 12, 2012 Price: Free Get it Here
Overview
Chillingo adds a new entrant to the freemium arena with their latest game. Aero Vacation allows players to build their dream airship and fly it around the world. Players use gold coins to build amenities, energy to upgrade their amenities, and Aero Credits to speed through build and flying times. All these currencies can be purchased through an in app purchase ranging from $0.99 to $49.99.
Story
There isn’t much of a storyline at all in Aero Vacation, so once again you will have to create your own story for Aero Vacation. Maybe you’re attempting to run a family friendly cruise or maybe you are flying around the world’s richest clients in a world tour.
Gameplay
Aero Vacation is best described as a mash up of Tiny Tower and Mega Mall Story. Rooms your guests can use such as cafes, spas, casinos, and hot springs will bring in coin over time that needs to be collected after a certain period of time. These coins are spent to build more rooms or generate power that will upgrade your rooms to high levels, bringing in more money per minute and eventually allowing you to pay to transform them into more profitable services. By placing harmonizing services together, you can boost your revenue. Experience is gained over time, building new services, and traveling. As you level up, opens up new destinations to travel, therefore unlocking new services.
The level of depth in this game is a little deeper than your average freemium game, but not nearly as deep as Mega Mall Story. The depth comes from managing your time and positioning your services to trigger bonuses to make the greatest profit possible in a given set period of time. There is no customer satisfaction or needs to worry about. This makes it simple enough that even younger gamers will be able to enjoy Aero Vacation. Even in its simplicity, Aero Vacation is insanely addictive. I found myself timing my airship’s travels and designing my ship’s services around my schedule. Thankfully moving your ship’s services around to optimize revenue flow is free as long as you have spare space to move the services around.
The controls in Aero Vacation are flawless. Even on the smaller screen on the iPhone, buttons were responsive and pressing the wrong button was rare. There is a very generous level of zoom which is great for the small iPhone screen. The UI is well thought out for the most part. I only wish it was possible to find out how much experience and coins I was going to earn upon landing at my destination.
It is possible to play Aero Vacation across multiple iOS devices. The game requires an active internet connection to play which can be a bit of a pain for iPad and iPod Touch users. However, for those fortunate enough to own both an iPhone and an iPad, you can play on your iPhone while out of Wi-Fi range, come home and pick right up where you left off on your iPad.
Visuals
Aero Vacation uses a cute, family friendly westernized anime style that looks great. Each service has visitors that will use the amenities, bringing life to your airship. However, after staring at the game for hours on end, you’ll notice that each room plays the same set of guest visits on loop. You will never see guests travel from one room to another. Although the animations look great, the lack of traveling guests makes the airship feel a little disjointed and insular. The graphics do not appear to be optimized for the new iPad’s Retina screen. As a result the UI is noticeably pixelated. Overall, Aero Vacation sports visually pleasing graphics that could use a little bit of improvement.
Audio
The audio can be a little bare at times in Aero Vacation, but what is there is good. There are a small handful of sound effects for actions such as collecting money or power that are used repeatedly. These are good sound effects, but the total lack of variation can become tiring after a while. The music is an elevator muzak type music that fits perfectly with the theme of the game. It is cheery, bright, and pleasant to listen to for short periods of time when you check in on your airship. It too becomes a little repetitive after 20 minutes straight, but considering most of the time players will spend only a few minutes checking in on their airship, it’s not too bad.
Overall
Aero Vacation is a great game. I haven’t been this addicted to a freemium game since Tiny Tower. The internet requirement can be a bit of a pain when I take my iPad on the go, but the ability to play on my phone then switch seamlessly to my iPad makes up for it. However those who only own an iPad or iPod Touch need to be wary that they will not be able to play their game on the go. The graphics are fun and child friendly and the sound is fitting for the game. If you’re coming off your Tiny Tower high and looking for another freemium game to soak up your time, give Aero Vacation a try.
For anyone living in Beijing China, Jiong Jiong Comic Show & Cos Play 2012 (JJYS) held in the China National Convention Center was on yesterday, Sunday 15th April 2012, so it was another perfect excuse once again for the Capsule Computers Crew to attend and cover the event. The event was very well organized and planned with the fans enjoying a fantastic event. As always collecting our special media pass tickets we were able to get in and take a look at the event floor 2 hours before the massive crowds / fans and cos players were allowed it. THANK THE ANIME GODS for that! Once the clock stuck 9am, the flood gates opened and it was on for young and old!
Cos Play at Jiong Jiong was in full force as you can see with the pictures taken below (over 200 gallery images) a lot of effort and time has gone into some of these outfits which I must say were very interesting and amazingly well designed. Cos-Play here at Jiong Jiong was as good as the previous Bejing comic book conventions ( M.Y. Comic 3 and ComicDive 6) that happened last year and last month in Beijing. The great thing about attending these events is you also get to know the regulars and see what new costumes they have designed, which is always very exciting if you’re a cos-play fan.
As always the same crowds are alaways in attendance when it comes to comic shows and Jiong Jiong was no exception to the rule, so once again the geeks, nerds, cos-players, children, old people wanting to be cool, you name it, they were there! The show was held at the China National Convention Center which also located right next door to the world famous Beijing National Stadium: most people call it the Bird’s Nest which hosted the 2008 Olympic Games. The Convention center was absolutely huge, the show floor only too up a quarter of the center but it was jam packed with stalls stocked with amazing Comics and Dojinshi’s, toys, clothes and a variety of other cool stuff (see image gallery for more details) If you wanted your favorite book or comic, the plan is always the same: Make sure you know were it was by doing your research while in the queue waiting or by checking online days before and preparing your list and memorizing stall locations and high tailing it over to the stall to buy whatever you needed! As always if you blinked too many times or stopped to smell the roses by looking at all the stalls one at time to see what they had would certainly on many occasions leave you very disappointed when you finally made it to the stall where your favourite book or item would be, as it would of been sold out by then.
The event opened its doors at 9am and was still buzzing at 5pm with fans taking photos of cos-players and people still buying their last minute comics, toys etc before they were asked to vacate the show floor. As always with video games in mind, this was the perfect opportunity to bring along my trusty Nintendo 3DS hoping that I might pick a few more street passes, and boy I sure did. I ended up picking up over 50 + new Mii profiles, swapped puzzles in the new Puzzle Swap and also nearly finished a run through on StreetPass Quest 2, not a bad effort at all for a days work. I even picked up via spot pass the President if Nintendo Satoru Iwata. Who’s been busy playing Mario Kart 7! We shook hands and he joined my Wii Plaza, HAPPY DAYS!
Check out all the great photos from yesterday’s event below, let us know what you liked the most or which Cos-Play character you thought was the best dressed.
While we all know why Alex Mercer is Sgt. James Heller’s #1 target, not many clips have shown us why we should give a damn. Today, all that has changed with a new video released by Activision, which shows our new protagonist leaping off a roof at full speed, having flashbacks as he makes the fall of the mental torture he has went through since being robbed of his humanity.
Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” sets the tone for the entire clip, and for the first time, I really feel I understand why this sequel is wrapped around revenge, as these clips do the narrative a ton of justice. Prototype 2 is still over a week away from release, but while you wait, you can check out the brand new vid below and don’t forget that you can still pre-order the Prototype 2 Blackwatch Collector’s edition today through most retailers.
Siren Visual have officially confirmed two new license acquisitions after some pretty intense speculation from fans. They have now announced through their official website that they have acquired two noitaminA anime series, Shiki and Thermae Romae.
Shiki will be getting a full dual-language release on both DVD and Blu-Ray with an English dub along side of course the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. The series first aired on the noitaminA anime time slot in Japan back in July 2010. The first part of Siren’s release is scheduled for the 1st of August, 2012.
While Shiki will be a dual-language release, Thermae Romae is set to be subtitled only and a Region 4 exclusive. The series only wrapped up in Japan a few months ago and also aired in the noitaminA time slot. Thermae Romae will get a full release with a plethora of extras come July 2012.
What do you think of these title acquisitions? Let us know in the comments section below.
Over the weekend at the Supanova Melbourne convention, Madman Entertainment made several announcements during their panel at the event. The most predominant announcement was that of the new titles that they have acquired the license for. The following titles were announced for future distribution from Madman (the means of distribution for each title has yet to be revealed):
Aquarion Evol
Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Star Driver
Oreimo
Mayo Chiki
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Trilogy
Following these acquisition announcements Madman unfortunately revealed that their previously announced release of the Patlabor OVAs is now delayed indefinitely due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control. The release of the Patlabor OVAs was originally scheduled for June 2012. Madman apologised for any inconveniency and disappointment felt by fans. They will keep fans updated if the status of the Patlabor OVAs changes.
Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle Developer: WizarBox Publisher: Reef Entertainment Platforms: DS, PC (Reviewed), PS3, Wii Release Date: March 30, 2012 Price: £14.95 – Available Here
Overview: Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle is an old school point-and-click adventure game much in the same vein as the Monkey Island series. Captain Morgane is also a sequel/prequel to the So Blonde adventure game from 2008. On the PC it was fairly straight forward, though being heavily reliant on the mouse, so other versions are probably reliant on the DS stylus, Move, and Wii-Mote respectively.
Going back to Monkey Island, Captain Morgane features a lot of the same kind of humor. Though the protagonist is more of the straight woman, than the bumbling fool. With pop culture references galore, it’s almost its own mini-game to try and find them all across the 10 chapters and 5 islands.
Story:
The game begins with a solid introduction of the character as a small girl, with hopes of being a pirate captain like her father. This only lasts the first chapter, but it serves as a perfect way to adjust players to how the game works from collecting items, to using them, and combining them. Even effectively establishing several of the character relationships that become important later in the game. This works great for the game and works to develop an attachment to the characters.
The main story of the game takes place about 10 years after the first chapter. It focuses on the Golden Turtle and the quest to find it, as well as Morgane trying to prove herself a capable captain to her father. But, there are plenty of side stories that go on throughout the game that tie back to the initial chapter, bridging the gap. With a sizable story, the game covers a lot of stuff, though one of the downsides is that the game has a great conclusion to the main story, several of the side stories are kind of left to interpretation.
Visuals:
The visual style of Captain Morgane has three different forms. For the vast majority, characters are 3D models and backgrounds are very detailed, which of all the forms looks the best. Cutscenes in the game are done through simple 2D art that is much more simplistic. While not as detailed it still conveys the mood effectively and once you get used to it, the switch between them isn’t very daunting. The last form is in the mini-games, that are 2D art but characters are done in a chibi art style, which can be kind of distracting. These sections are generally pretty short though, so it isn’t too bad.
All the characters in the game look very good and there is never an issue telling them apart between forms. The 3D models are very detailed and outside of a few issues with animations that are more relevant to the gameplay there are no real problems. The backgrounds are also great to just look at and appreciate, plus with all the pop culture references stuck in they are nice to look for when waiting for characters to move around.
Audio:
The music of Captain Morgane has the standard Caribbean feel, but there is a certain hint of more modern flavor. It isn’t annoying and shouldn’t grate on nerves while playing for the most part. It feels the part for the game, which is more than can be said for some of the sound effects. Now, yes, the game is comedic, but some of the sound effects are a little more slap stick than seem appropriate for the game. Sometimes to the point where it kind of interrupts the mood.
Voice acting though is nearly perfect, as there are only a few problems and those are very far between. The game also gives lots of options in terms of voice acting, including German, Spanish, and more besides English. The subtitles don’t always match up, but that seems to be more of an issue of choosing the best sounding line and not necessarily the one specifically written. The only real issues are a few lines that seem to have the wrong voice, both of which being for Morgane, so they are easy to notice after listening to her the entire time.
Gameplay:
The vast majority of the time is spent in the point-and-click style of gameplay, but actions are more condensed than in others in the genre. Things tend to have only two actions, everything can be examined, but things with two actions the other will either be to use or talk depending on what it is. The game has also built in a “tip” system that indicates all the things that can actually be interacted with, which can be turned on and off. Though it is highly advisable to just leave it on for inexperienced players or it will become somewhat of a pixel hunt.
Difficulty is what can be described as “adventure game” hard because if there isn’t a solid clue what to do, all that can be done is use every single thing on every other thing or person until something works. To make up for this, most mini-games and some puzzles can simply be skipped by selecting the “cheat” option instead of “play”. These aren’t too bad in and of themselves, sometimes being a nice break.
The only big issue with gameplay is that when in conversation the audio and special animations aren’t specifically linked, so conversations will pause until the animation is complete then pick back up. This can really slow down the gameplay and make conversations drag out, giving plenty of time to look over the background. Similarly, walking animations seem to be slower than they should be, so moving from place to place can be kind of a pain.
Overall: Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle is an awesome game, that fans of point-and-click adventure games should be sure to check out. The story is solid, the characters are fun and interesting, and the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. It’s a decent length too, though length really depends on how quickly a player can figure out what they should be using together. While it’s currently only in Europe, it’s coming to Australia soon, and hopefully reaches the US.
