Namco Bandai’s Armored Core V has already landed in North America but now it has touched down worldwide as the game is now available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Australia and New Zealand. Fans of the Armored Core series will be eager to see what type of upgrades this title will have.
FromSoftware’s Armored Core series has always offered intense multiplayer combat and this time around players can customize their mechs with over 500 different parts as they enter 10 player multiplayer battles. With the action focused heavily on tactics and the geography of the level, players will be spending plenty of time strategizing their attacks and taking advantage of the terrain.
Specs
Aluminium and Steel Construction
Rubber Grip
Magnetic Cling Colours: Blue, Silver, Gunmetal Compatible Devices: Compatible with all capacitive touch screens: iPads, iPhones, MacBook Trackpads, Magic Trackpads, HTC, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry Price: $29.99 USD (BUY NOW)
Tablets are great note taking devices. The ability to type, draw, record, take pictures, and keep all your notes in one place is indispensable. There are tons of great drawing apps such as Sketchbook and Penultimate that all benefit from a stylus. However, styli have ballooned from the little cheap plastic sticks from the Palm era to chunky black balled tipped stylus we find today. This is due to the fact modern high quality tablets and smart phones all use capacitive touch screen. This means a material that can conduct electricity needs to be used for the stylus tip. The down side of the chunky capacitive black ball tips is the fact it covers up a lot of screen space. It isn’t particularly accurate compared to a real pen or pencil. Drawing accurately in a small confined area is a hit or miss game of luck. Thankfully we have Adonit coming to the rescue with an innovative and incredibly brilliant why didn’t I think of that solution.
The Jot Pro is made out of aluminium and steel, giving it a weighty balanced feel in the hand. Picking up the Jot Pro screams high quality. The grip area is covered with rubber to provide a comfortable grip. Unique to the Jot Pro is the magnets embedded in the stylus. This allows the Jot Pro to be attached to Smart Covers or the iPad. You can also use the magnetic stylus as a quick way to put your iPad to sleep by sticking the Jot Pro to the magnets on the upper mid right hand side of the screen. The cap screws on smoothly, reflecting a finely machined tool.
Unscrewing the cap reveals the system that makes the Jot line of styli unique. By using a ball and socket joint to attach a clear plastic disk with a small metal insert inside the plastic disk, the Jot is able to mimic the feel of a ball point pen. The clear plastic disk allows you to see where the exact point of contact is, making your drawing accurate. Because fingers and most styli are not as accurate, Adonit had to create a special app SDK for iOS to allow apps to draw the line exactly where the Adonit Jot is pointing. Apple off sets where it draws lines by default. This is to accommodate the larger fingers and styli often used with iPads. Currently there are only four apps that support Adonit’s SDK, their own Jot Studio, procreate by Savage Interactive, Clibe by Visere, and Note Taker HD by Software Garden.
I tested the Jot Pro on multiple applications, including Notability, Sketchbook, Notes Plus, and Adonit’s own Jot Studio. The Jot Pro is extremely accurate, capable of drawing many fine lines with minimal space between them. Though it sounds easy, this is an impressive feat. The clear disk is extremely helpful when drawing tables or doing fine detail work while drawing. However, if you do hold your pen naturally at an extreme angle, the Jot may have difficulty being picked up. The angle that the Jot works is pretty forgiving, but once you pass the limits, it will cause the disk to either lift up off the screen or pop off. I found the best form when writing on touch screen applications in general is to keep your palm off the iPad similar to how you would use a white board marker. Not only does this stop the iPad from detecting your palm, it also ensures the Jot will always stay at a good angle.
There are a few downsides of using the plastic disk versus the traditional rubber ball tip stylus. First of all, the tip can be fragile. Although the first time or two popping the ball into the disk joint will be fine, do it too often and it will cause a small hair line crack in the socket, making it easier to pop off. Also, care must be taken while using the Jot, I’ve almost lost two disks already simply from accidently catching the disk on a sweater and sending it flying. Good luck trying to find a small clear plastic disk on the floor; it’s nearly an impossible task. And at $8 USD for a set of two replacement disks, it can be quickly become an expensive accident for a clumsy person like me. Also, due to the larger surface area touching the screen, it can be easy to scratch a screen or screen protector by trapping grit underneath the disk. I personally have notes from a math lecture permanently scratched into a screen protector when I learned this lesson the hard way. I strongly recommend giving the screen and the bottom of the disk a quick wipe before using it. The plastic itself should not be enough to scratch screens or screen protectors on its own.
The next issue is the fact the Jot is incompatible with the popular vinyl type screen protectors. As listed on the Jot website, certain Zagg, Ghost Armour, Bodyguardz, and Wrapsol type screen protectors are too sticky for the disk to glide properly. Harder, static cling type protectors and bare screen work perfectly with the with the Jot Pro stylus. Upon suggestion of a Jot owner on Kickstarter, I placed a layer of clear scotch tape on the bottom of the disk, and lo and behold, my Jot Pro works perfectly again. Though I only had a cloudy matte tape at home to use, I can still see clearly enough through it to not hinder my ability to see through the disk. My Jot Pro now slides effortlessly across my Bodyguardz screen protector. Strangely enough, the newer Jot Mini does not carry similar warnings in regards to incompatible screen protectors.
Overall the Jot Pro is a great stylus for serious writers and artists looking to upgrade their tablet experience. At $29.99 USD, the Jot Pro is not cheap, but the build quality reflects the price. The Jot Pro is made of weighty aluminum and steel, with incredibly strong magnets. Though there are some hiccups with the disk system that requires a certain level of care and possibly a bit of end user hacks to use, the precision disk is an absolute joy for writing and drawing. Between my Bluetooth keyboard and my Jot Pro, I have literally ditched paper for writing notes during lecture for my iPad. Unfortunately, the 30 dollar sticker price may be a bit too much to justify for some people. Those who are still interested but unwilling to pay that much may want to look into the regular Jot that forgoes the magnets and rubber grip for $19.99 or the smaller Jot Mini for $21.99. If you write or draw heavily on your tablet, I strongly recommend the Jot Pro.
While the release date for Aksys Games’ Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward may still be plenty of months away, it never hurts to take a look at what the game’s box art will look like correct? Also if you are feeling a bit free with your money at the moment you can go ahead and pre-order the game now through multiple online retailers.
Also it is worth noting that while the game is coming out on both the PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS, the Vita version is obviously the best one to highlight as the system has a very anemic line-up and Virtue’s Last Reward could be the best reason to pick up a Vita later this year.
As of late, Gamemill have been bringing popular toys into the video game universe quite frequently, and their latest conversion has hit the Nintendo DS today in the form of Gogo’s Crazy Bones. For those unfamiliar with the craze, Gogo’s Crazy Bones is…you guessed it, a popular toy series that involves collecting small figurines and learning at the same time. Yes, it’s for the younger crowd, but we all know how infectious this genre can be. This series has been around for a while, but having a DS title spawn from the toy line is sure to hit a few nostalgia “bones” for the older crowd as well.
The game itself will include a ton of content, with over 70 puzzles and 30 favorite Gogo’s to collect, each one with a unique name, design, personality and special ability, making for a unique experience for each player involved. You can check out the screenshots below, and find Gogo’s first digital experience in stores today!
2K Games have been as of late releasing a multitude of character trailers for their upcoming blockbuster third instalment in the Bioshock franchise, Bioshock Infinite. The latest trailer focuses on the Siren character.
You can check out the Bioshock Infinite Siren character trailer below. The Siren character is an enemy that the player will encounter in Bioshock Infinite. The Siren will play a major role in the game and is one of the major enemies featured in Bioshock Infinite.
Bioshock Infinite is set for release on the 19th of September, 2012 on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. What do you think of the Siren? Let us know in the comments section below.
While the ESRB may be good as a way to alert parents about a video game’s content, they can also be a bit of a hassle as well. One may remember that back when Deep Silver first revealed the box art for Dead Island, the box art had to be adjusted as it featured a person hanging from a palm tree which clashed with their guidelines.
Now it seems Deep Silver has encountered the same issue as the company revealed to Game Informer that they have had to change the color splash on the back of the skull to meet their guidelines. As seen above the color backdrop has had to be changed to blue instead of red because it could “could possibly be interpreted as blood.” Stay classy ESRB…
Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games has announced that they will be lifting closed Beta restrictions on its free to play RPG; temporarily opening it to public access this weekend: March 30 – April 1
The Path of Exile Beta servers will open for public access at 11am EDT on Saturday, March 31. Public access will end at 4:59pm EST Monday night, April 2. A full FAQ about the Public Weekend is available at http://www.pathofexile.com/publicweekend/.
The Path of Exile is a dark fantasy action RPG that places you in command of an exiled member of the Order of Oriath; who seemingly is a victim of conspiracy. He soon finds himself alone on the corrupted and deeply hostile continent of Wraeclast, a once thriving civilisation turned to ruin by an unknown cataclysm. Survival is your watchword.
“We’re really looking forward to getting feedback from the wider gaming community,” says Chris Wilson, Grinding Gear Games’ co-founder. “We’ve arranged a number of interesting events for the public weekend, and we’re looking forward to meeting you in game.”
All of Path of Exile’s current content may be played during the public stress test weekend, including the upcoming 0.9.8 Beta patch, which adds new skills, improved social features and numerous balance improvements.
Key features of ‘Path of Exile’:
· Completely free to download and play
· A persistent online world capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of players
· A dark and gritty game world rendered from a fixed 3D perspective
· Randomly generated levels and items for extreme replayability
· Online ranking and ladders for every game mode
· Visceral combat with dozens of combinable skills
· Battle in PVP tournaments for worldwide recognition
· Dynamic skill system
If you are sitting in your computer chair, browsing the internet in boredom, you may now stop the nothing that you are doing and head on over to Facebook. Why, you may ask? Because PopCap have just launched Solitaire Blitz!
Think of the classic game of solitaire, add in intense one minute rounds, a mermaid, a seven-armed octopus, and a seahorse named Gene, and you have the loot-snagging madness that is Solitaire Blitz. Yes, it may sound odd for a Facebook game based on that classic card-matching formula, but as usual, this free romp is just as addictive as all of PopCap’s other casual titles and is sure to help you in passing all of that spare time. Go get on over to the official page for the game and check it out now.
If you have a Kinect and happen to be a country music fan, then today is your day as Gamemill’s Country Dance 2 has now hit stores everywhere. Now, this is definitely a game for a certain niche of you out there, as music tastes for the average gamer usually don’t include country, but it’s certainly nice to see all bases covered in the dance title scene.
Featuring the likes of Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Jake Owen, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, and Sugarland, just to name a few, Country Dance 2 will track all your southern-styled movements as you dance to over 30 of country’s biggest hits. You can check out the launch trailer down below for a glimpse of the gameplay, and find Country Dance 2 on shelves today.
The ongoing saga of the slowly updating Namco Bandai teaser website has entered its next phase. This time around the teaser website is showing us some familiar controller logos for the “action adventure” game that is coming out.
Of course there are plenty of PlayStation platforms for this game to be released, though one would hope that the title is going to be for the brand new PlayStation Vita or at least the PlayStation 3, whatever that title may be of course. A Hunter x Hunter on the PlayStation Vita would certainly be a nice way to revitalize the handheld’s slumping sales in Japan.
