You may recall that Compile Heart is working on yet another Hyperdimension Neptunia game. Of course this is great news, and the title of the game has already been revealed as Netpunia V. At the moment not much is known about the game besides the fact that it will be set in the 1980s and will feature the original game goddesses that were in the first title.
Compile Heart has opened up a teaser website for Neptunia V which can be seen here, however not much is even being teased at the moment, though those who really are eager to learn more can keep checking the site daily and pester NIS America to prepare their localization funds.
Some may remember that an intelligent modder implemented Kinect support onto the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim only a few months after the game was released, and it seems Bethesda just loved that idea. So much so in fact that they are planning on bringing official Kinect support to the Xbox 360 version of the game for free.
This means that you can now use your voice to activate dragon shouts, fiddle with your inventory, your map and more. Now it is worth noting that the Kinect support seems to only feature voice commands, but now we can finally shout FUS RO DAH at our televisions and actually have it happen. Check out some Kinect voice commands in action in the below trailer.
It seems that the announcement for a PC version of Dark Souls couldn’t have come at a better time, as the game’s predecessor, Demon’s Souls, will soon have it’s online servers shut down. The server shut down has been pushed back multiple times but it seems that the time has come for even the servers to die, as Game Informer reports that Atlus will shut them down on May 31st.
Before the servers shut down entirely, Atlus will be holding two World Tendency events, with the first one occurring from May 1-15th and the second from May 16-31st. Might as well go out with a bit of a bang.
While anyone could have guessed that this was coming, Namco Bandai has officially made the announcement that they will be bringing One Piece: Pirate Warriors over to North America later this year. The game will retain its PlayStation 3 exclusiveness and is set to be released sometime in November of this year; however a more specific release date was not revealed at this time.
No details have been announced for the localization of the game yet, such as whether the game will be presented with English voice actors. Though if they do include the English voices of the characters, fans would likely appreciate it if they retain the same ones as the anime localization. Expect more information over the next few weeks.
Whenever EA may have wanted to announce Crysis 3, their plans just took a significant jump forward after their own Origin service happened to leak the information of the release by listing the game for $50.
EA has since revealed that “The best kept secret in shooters just can’t be contained, stay tuned for more information on April 16.” Well… that and the fact that EA’s special Origin service happened to leak the information before anyone wanted it to of course. Rumors are also circulating that fans can expect Crysis 3 to be released in the Spring of 2013, but obviously this should be taken with a grain of salt.
You saw the teaser last week, now view the full thing which puts the teaser trailer in its place as the taster it was. Featuring brief shots of the gameplay and the chilling thought that a girl on a park bench could assume her secret, deadly identity in the game, the trailer is a well-shot piece of cinematography to excite those awaiting the game.
Available in stores on May 4th, Mortal Kombat for PlayStation Vita system provides an on-the-go fighting game experience with brand new gameplay features and new content developed with the handheld system in mind. Mortal Kombat delivers an all-new Challenge Tower mode with 150 missions, Touchscreen Fatalities, X-ray moves and more.
Deep Silver and 49Games today released a demo for Summer Stars 2012, a sports game for the Xbox 360 (compatible with Kinect), PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move support, and Nintendo Wii.
The Olympics is set to be a big sporting event this year, as always, so this certainly won’t be the first athletics game to release alongside the Games. Do you think this one will be worth a try?
The trial version shows off the disciplines of 200m Sprint, Archery and Mountain biking of Summer Stars. The demo is available now and can be played with up to four players, supporting Kinect and PlayStation Move.
Teepee games, a specialist in discoverability titles for social, smartphone, MMO and flash formats have unveiled a brand new loyalty and rewards program alongside a freshly revamped teepeegames.com website and Facebook application. In particular, the loyalty program brings the whole network together and adds a gaming element to both the website and facebook page where players are rewarded for participating in various activities across the network. Individuals will start their journey as a Villager in the tribe and need to obtain various trophies in order to rise through the 6 ranks to achieve the grand master title of Wise One. Trophies are given for various achievements such as opening up games, testing various features and being as social as possible and sharing with friends and the community.
Additonally a new one click system has been implemented to login to Facebook connect, which makes games discovery and hence trophy achievements easier and more convenient. The Geronimo recommendation engine has also had a tweak and users will now have access to instant personalised game suggestions as soon as they login also adding to the convenience. Tony Pearce, CEO and co-founder of TeePee Games, comments; “We’ve gone from strength to strength since launch and it would not have been possible without the help of our dedicated users. The loyalty program allows us to show these users that we recognise how valuable their support is and reward them for it”. He adds, “Our aim for the next three months is to drive double digit percentage growth and, with the new loyalty program in place, I’m confident that we can achieve this.”
The upgraded TeePee games features
– over 3000 games including Facebook, MMO, Online Flash and Android titles
– Loyalty and reward program with over 72 trophies and 6 status levels to achieve
– 6 ways to discover games across the network
TeePee games are always on the lookout for new developers and publishers. Anyone intersted in having their game feature on the TeePee games discovery platform should contact Darren Newnham
Developer: Microïds Publisher: Anuman Interactive Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: March 15, 2012 Price: $3.99 USD/$4.49 AUD Buy it Here
Overview
Microïds is famous for their adventure games, releasing such classics such as Syberia and Still Life series. Recently, Microïds has been focusing on the iOS platform, developing new games and updating their older games. Louvre: The Messenger HD is the result of one of their updates, originally titled The Messenger in English and Louvre: L’ Ultime Malédiction in French, the game was released in 2001. How well does this game translate to iOS?
Story
Louvre The Messenger HD follows Secret Service agent Morgane tasked by a ghost to recover four artifacts named Satan’s Keys. A cult called the Black Templars looks to bring together these four artifacts and bring Armageddon upon the world in vengeance for the destruction of the Knights Templar. Morgane is able to collect the first artifact in modern time, but is sent back to the Louvre during the Medieval, Renaissance, and the French Revolution to retrieve to save the last three keys.
The story is mostly told through short cut scenes with full English voice acting. I found the story to be a little thin and at times convoluted. There are some hilarious moments in the game, most of them involving a sexual situation or the fact Morgane is a woman. This is definitely not a game to share with the young ones. Although the story is passable, I expected something stronger and more interesting from an adventure game.
Gameplay
Louvre The Messenger HD is a touch screen port of the original game. The game is spread over multiple scenes that players traverse by pressing golden arrows to move about the game. In each scene, players are able to move the camera in a full sphere around them. Objects that can be interacted with have a little golden gear to mark their position and objects that can be picked up have a golden hand print. The controls are solid for the exception of a few small hiccups and annoyances. There are moments where the control scheme can be irritating. For example, closing text boxes requires tapping the text box itself. I would have liked to see either a button with an X on it to close these text boxes or having the text box closed when tapping anywhere on the screen. Some smaller buttons did not translate onto iOS well either, as fingers are simply not as accurate as a mouse pointer. I dread to think how one puzzle would have fared on the iPhone or the iPod Touch considering I had enough grief with it on the larger iPad.
The puzzles are the most interesting part of Louvre: The Messenger HD. They are creative and at times rather devious. They range from simple find key and open the door puzzles to complicated puzzles requiring the retrieval of hints and the use of logic to solve. A few puzzles are limited by time, which I found was hindered by the slightly unwieldy controls and the rare glitch. Thankfully the checkpoints are extremely generous and will simply put you at the beginning of the puzzle to try again. Puzzle fanatics will not be disappointed by the Louvre.
Visuals
The visuals were not updated in Louvre: The Messenger HD and its age definitely shows. On Retina screens, the graphics are rather blurry and of rather low resolution. The cut scenes are plenty, to a fault at times. The cut scenes are noticeably even lower in resolution and are disappointing on the new iPad. Considering half the doors have their own cut scenes to show they are being opened, the skip cut scene button will become a fast friend to players. Unfortunately HD in the game title seems to be a bit of a misnomer. Compared to adventure games released for the iPad today, the graphics are a bit of a disappointment. However, if you consider the fact this game was released in 2001, it looks pretty good.
Audio
Louvre: The Messenger HD provides a solid audio experience. The sound effects are of good quality and are not repetitive at all. Ambient noises mixed with time period appropriate music provides fills the background of your adventures. There is plenty of voice acting that is surprisingly well done. Although I find it curious that none of the voice acting was done with a French accent considering the whole game takes place in France, I am extremely happy that they didn’t butcher a French accent either. I personally believe accents are a do it right or don’t do it at all sort of deal.
I did find the volume of the voices was low compared to the rest of the game even at maximum volume, requiring me to crank up the volume during cut scenes. To worsen the situation there are no options for subtitles in the game. I have a habit to keep subtitles on for games I play to make up for my less than stellar hearing. I would imagine those with more difficulties with hearing than me would have a worse time with the audio of the game considering the whole storyline is told through the audio in cut scenes.
Overall
For those die hards looking for a throwback to old school adventure games or love puzzles, I strongly recommend picking up Louvre: The Messenger HD. But for the less hard core fan, I struggle to recommend the game at $3.99 as its storyline struggles, its graphics are showing its age, and slightly irritating control schemes. Instead, I suggest picking up the game when on sale. Louvre: The Messenger isn’t a shining example of the adventure genre, but will satisfy a craving in a pinch.
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