The Simpsons: Tapped Out has experienced an overload on their servers since its launch on March 1st, causing EA to temporarily remove it from the App Store to try and fix connectivity and lag issues. Bad news for those of you who didn’t manage to grab it in the first few days after its release, but for those who have already gotten it you can continue to play, with EA working hard to fix the issues that the overwhelming demand have caused.
The app will be returned to the App Store once they have fixed up the overload on the servers, although they have yet to give a time frame for when this might be. Given the incredibly positive feedback upon its release, it’s no surprise that it got overloaded. Then again, almost anything with the Simpsons in the title is bound to be a hit if produced properly.
Keep tuned to Capsule Computers for more information about the app as it comes, and when it may be available again for download.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be getting its 1.2 update next month, and in order to get more people hooked on the proverbial crack that is an MMO, Bioware and EA have announced that as of March 6th players can invite friends who haven’t previously played the game to a seven-day free trial.
The trial would allow SWTOR visitors to play up until the fifteenth level of every class in the game, and they would then have to buy the game to unlock further play time and increase the level cap to the normal 50. The kicker is, they’ll get the game at a discounted price if they buy it digitally.
The 1.2 Update will include a new Operation and Warzone, as well as a new Flashpoint: Lost Island will continue the story from the Flashpoint in the Rise of the Rakghouls update as players keen on raiding will investigate a mysterious island which is the source of the Rakghoul virus virus outbreak. The patch will also bring forth the much vaunted Legacy system, which will allow players to connect their characters as family members, thus unlocking new race options and companion alignments.
So if you have a friend or two who have been on the fence about joining the Jedi or murdering with the Sith, now is the time to give them a taste of SWTOR. This is a limited time offer only, after all.
If you want more details on Patch 1.2, they’ve been busting them out faster than Han could shoot Greedo over at the SWTORTwitter page.
You know what is great? Free games. You know what is even greater? Free games for a system which was released not even two weeks ago. All North Americans who own the PlayStation Vita, will be able to download a free copy of MotorStorm RC on the PlayStation Vita. Why will the game be free you ask? Well this is because of Toyota holding a promotion with the game for their upcoming car, the Toyota Scion.
The game will be available for download on March 6th and will include a Toyota Scion iQ inside of the game for free. Sounds neat huh?
NIS America has announced today that they have licensed the Otome Yōkai Zakuro anime series which aired in Japan back in 2010. The thirteen episode series will be released in one package and be renamed simply Zakuro. There release will feature English subtitles and be given the same premium edition treatment that NIS America is known for.
The anime will be released on June 12th. For those who don’t know, the anime is based in historical Japan where humans and yōkai live together. The Japanese government has created a unique branch ofthe military called the Ministry of Yōkai and Humans to handle any incidents between the two races. As such, four human soldiers must live together with five half human, half yōkai girls in an effort to work together to end such issues and maybe even fall in love at the same time.
Update: NIS America has released the below image, giving us a sneak peak of what the Premium Edition of Zakuro will look like.
Even though we all knew that she would be included, today Tecmo Koei has released a new gameplay trailer for Dead or Alive 5 featuring Kasumi battling against Ayane. Although you may wish to see Kasumi in action, you will likely want to watch the video for another reason entirely. That reason is because Dead or Alive 5 will contain a playable guest character from the Virtua Fighter series, Akira Yuki.
You can see all three characters in action below. Yosuke Hayashi, studio head of Team NINJA described Akira Yuki as “an esteemed competitor” who is “driven by perfection and the desire to relentlessly master his techniques by taking on any challenger.” This marks the second time a guest character has appeared in the Dead or Alive series, with Virtua Fighter being a Sega franchise. The first guest character for the series was Nicole-458 in Dead or Alive 4, a female Spartan from the Halo series.
Those who have pre-ordered Darksiders II will be getting a little bit more than what they expected when they put their money down. THQ has revealed today that anyone who puts down pre-order money on the game will be able to receive a free upgrade to the Limited Edition version of the game. This Limited Edition version of the game will include the first piece of DLC, Argul’s Tomb free. That is pretty much it.
Also announced today, is a Collector’s Edition of the game which can be seen below. This Collector’s Edition will cost $99 and will contain a replica of Death’s Mask, a downloadable “Shadow of Death” armor and scythe set, a digital copy of the soundtrack and a hardcover art book.
Capcom has released a new trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, however this trailer may make you a bit angry if you aren’t a fan of launch day DLC. Today they have revealed that the Xbox 360 version of the title will receive exclusive DLC that will cost 320 MSP if you wish to pick it up.
The DLC is named Nemesis Mode, a mode where players will be able to take control of this giant monstrosity and use it to take out the competition. Have to admit, day one DLC can be seen in two lights, either anger for the fact it was not included on the disc or joy that gamers will be able to expand their experience as soon as possible. Which way do you see this piece of DLC?
Ubisoft has made it official. Today they have released the below debut trailer for Assassin’s Creed III. However there is even more important news than the debut trailer, and that is the fact that besides coming out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the game is also coming to the Wii U. This is the first time that a major game has been announced for the Wii U since it was revealed back at E3.
Also revealed by Ubisoft is the name of the new protagonist, Ratohnhaké:ton. Well… he also is being called Connor now thankfully because that name is going to be hell on everyone if it was used for everything. As we’ve previously reported the game does indeed take place during the American Revolution and takes place during the Revolutionary War where players will be taken from “the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.”
Any game whose title has numbers replacing letters and even syllables tends to ring warning bells in the ears of most gamers. The fact that Speedbump Studios is in fact just one guy, by the name of G. Norman Lippet, can also lead to disaster. In this particular case, though, there’s plenty of awesome to go around.
Story
You’re “Number 8”, some sort of captive who has been trapped in a space station with a load of angry robots, left to fight for the viewing pleasure of the fighting fans around the galaxy. A mysterious figure watches from a window – your “owner” so-to-speak – and when you start to rebel against his control, he doesn’t take kindly to it. Okay, so the the story isn’t all that compelling, but it gives a nice, simple platform to carry you along the game itself.
The story develops as brief cutscenes when you reach certain key areas, and fully voice-acted on the part of the mysterious bad-guy, but with no subtitle options available as far as I can see. The writing of some of these snippets of dialogue is a little hit-and-miss, but the voice-acting itself is really well done.
Gameplay
The gameplay is along the same lines as Infinity Blade; a slash-em-up against a variety of opponents, in this case, big-ass robots. But Speedbump has introduced a little more complexity to the genre.
Instead of the usual mad chaotic pawing a the screen, peppering in dodge and special moves from time to time, this game has you counter the robot’s moves until he craps out for a minute, allowing you to wail on him to deal a big chunk of damage. For the first couple of fights, on-screen instructions are displayed, letting you get the hang of what counters what, after-which you are given the option of turning off these hints if you’d like a bit more of a challenge.
After each fight, you’re shown some stats about how you did, as well as the “Viewer Rating”, which climbs as you progress, and falls when you die.
In between fights, you can free-roam around the environment, with the classic stick on the left for movement, and swiping to move the camera. The camera movement, however, is very slow, leaving you to swipe 5 or 6 times to turn a 180. There is an element of inertia to moving the camera which can make it a little easier to move, but all-in-all, it’s pretty painful to look around. There are also issues with invisible walls, leaving you to get stuck on a tiny ledge you can’t see, or, on the rare occasion, getting stuck in a wall. The virtual stick does move to wherever your finger starts, making it that little bit easier to use, but if it gets too near the edge of the screen, you’ll end up not being able to move in that direction.
All this adds up to making the free-roaming slow and frustrating. And while it is needed to pick up health and weapons along the way, as well as giving a sense that you are rebelling against your would-be controller, you’ll soon find yourself frustrated by the lack of control you have over your movements.
A little way through the game, you’ll be “given” the power to push certain boxes out of the way, by tapping on them. This feature is even utilized in some puzzles down the line, but again, the lack of control, plus a few bugs, make completing these puzzles a very perplexing experience.
Audio & Visual
The visuals of this game are very impressive, especially for a one-man studio. Now I know that a lot of this is down to the Unreal engine, but the actual art, models, and animation of the game, for the most part, are really well done. And some innovative HUD design and camera movement really makes the fights come alive.
The sound effects are spot on, and the music, too, is industrial and dark, giving a certain presence to the whole experience. And as I mentioned above, the voice-acting is just as well done, which in my opinion is the most impressive and most often messed-up parts of an indie-developed game.
Overall
Setting aside the minor bugs and design issues, this is a very well put together game; especially considering it’s from a small, indie game studio. It’s just unfortunate that some of those bugs leave the player bashing their head against a brick wall, as, if it wasn’t for those problems, this would be a great little title to pass an hour or so.
That said, I can’t wait for Speedbump Studios’ next release, when they’ve polished their skills and learned from their first foray into the games industry. I am truly looking forward what they make next!
Reality Fighters Developers: Novarama Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: Playstation Vita Release Date: 22/02/2012 (EU) Price: AU$38.00
Overview
Reality Fighters is one of the first party launch titles for the Playstation Vita. It is a fighting game where the player is the star. Players take photos of those around them and create fighters out of them. The fighters battle it out in real world environments using the Vita’s augmented reality technology or pre-captured environments. The game is playable and it offers a great deal of customisation, but will it be enough to take the championship belt from the other Vita fighting games?
Gameplay
Reality Fighters, as the title suggests, is a 2D fighting game using reality as its backdrop. The controls are fairly simple, use the directional pad to move the character around and the action buttons to pull off attacks. Combinations of the directional pad and action buttons will pull off special moves and final attacks. In order to do final attacks, a bar below the health bar of the fighters must be filled completely orange. The final attacks do not require a complex input, usually two half or full circles with an action button. For those who find the physical controls complicated, then there is a set of touch controls. The basic attacks are still attached to the action buttons; however, special and final attacks are performed with a swipe of the touch screen. Personally, the physical controls are not overly complicated to use, so they should suffice. The touch screen controls do get in the way of the action, so I do not recommend using them, unless this is you first fighting game.
There are a few modes for players to choose. The player can have a quick fight, which pits two fighters together. Then there is story mode, which adds a story to the game where a created character must fight the others fighters in succession, with Mr Miyagi acting as narrator. Survival mode is similar to story mode, however there is no story and the player will only have one health bar for the mode. Time attack is going through the gauntlet of fighters to achieve the best time possible. There are also multiplayer options, through adhoc and infrastructure. There is also a training mode, which is basically beating up a still CPU in order to get use to the simple execution of special attacks. This is very bare in terms of game modes and, seeing it is the core with minor additions, this gets boring very quickly.
Seeing as it is titled Reality Fighters, customisation is quite prevalent. I would go as far as saying that the customisation is the core of the game. In addition to the 15 fighters already in the game (which is a very small number), you can add yourself, your friends, your family and much more. Simply take a photo of a face and the game will digitize the face to the best of its ability. From there, you can change their physique, clothing and fighting style. There are 15 of them and they range to pure fighting, like boxing and wrestling, to really bizarre, like zombie and ballerina. However, the customisation doesn’t go beyond that. You can’t determine the fighter’s height or even change their hair colour. In fact, taking photos is the only way to create fighters. Also expect a lot of the clothing and fighting styles to be locked; only obtained via in game currency or beating the other fighters.
The main feature of the game, however, is the augmented reality. The fights take place in pre-captured backgrounds or a background created by the Vita’s rear camera. The markers included with the Vita system do work with the game, but the system also features marker less augmented reality, which means the fighters can fight wherever they want. The augmented reality works well most of the time; however, you will have to move the Vita around, even in the pre-captured backgrounds. This gets very annoying when the action does get intense. This is not a game for those who play in bed late at night, as you will get uncomfortable very quickly. The only time the Vita should be moving around is when the background is the camera. There is no reason to move the Vita around with the pre-captured backgrounds.
Visuals and Audio
I won’t comment on the fighting arenas because they are pictures or through the camera. However, the rest of the visuals in the game look decent, but not spectacular. Character models look fine but the animation looks stiff. They have no natural flow. The face capture technology is quite accurate, though. I was very impressed with the conversion. The costumes range from normal to bizarre. The menus were plain, with a dominant yellow theme. The illustrations in the story mode do create a funny moment here and there and look great. Audio is very average. Characters have win and face-off taunts. The music was cheesy and a turn-off. I suggest playing this with your own music. The only highlight was the voice actor for Mr. Miyagi. He replicates the voice quite well. I felt like I was his Karate Kid, even if he didn’t tell me to wax on and wax off.
Overall
Reality Fighters had so much potential, yet it is knocked out in key areas of game design. The gameplay is bare bones in terms of the fighting genre, with basic special attacks a six year old kid could pull off. This also came down to the game modes, with nothing trying to pull you back in. Customisation was the only reason I kept on playing, but even then it lacks key elements, including fine tuning your character. The visuals and audio are average, but I expected that. This game won’t win the heavyweight belt of Vita fighting games; it is not even a credible contender.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out has experienced an overload on their servers since its launch on March 1st, causing EA to temporarily remove it from the App Store to try and fix connectivity and lag issues. Bad news for those of you who didn’t manage to grab it in the first few days after its release, but for those who have already gotten it you can continue to play, with EA working hard to fix the issues that the overwhelming demand have caused.
