Page 5509 – Capsule Computers

RobotGladi8or Review

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March 6, 2012

Ro8otGladi8or

Developer: Speedbump Studios
Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iPod Touch (4th Gen), iPad
Release Date: February 16th, 2012
Price: $2.99 (BUY NOW)

Overview

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 Review

Joshua Spudic

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March 5, 2012

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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.

Halo 4 screenshots leaked

Jack Joly

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March 5, 2012

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First screens of Halo 4 have made their way onto the internet ahead of schedule. They were planned to be released tomorrow but are now doing the rounds on the internet, showing off the graphics which, according to Halo 4 principal engine programmer Corrinne Yu, will be the ‘best looking’ on Xbox 360.

“It’s the best looking game on Xbox and any other consoles we ever made and we’re all from AAA studios,” she said. “So proud of team.”

The screens were also confirmed to be legitimate by 343 Industries’ assistant director of photography Paul Featherstone, who confirmed they were taken by him with a “debug cam with in-engine depth-of-field”.

A new vehicle for Prototype 2 revealed

Jahanzeb Khan

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March 5, 2012

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Prototype 2 will be getting a release on 24 April 2012, in the meantime some information has been revealed regarding the vehicles that will be featured in the game, these vehicles can be hijacked and used to further add destruction. This time some information has been shared about the Tank vehicles.

Tanks are heavily armored and they have removable Gatling guns. The tank will allow players to easily bulldoze through environments and cause some impressive real time damage. Players will also be able use the Tendril Finisher move to remove the tank’s turret.

Prototype 2 will be released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC on 24 April 2012.

Leaked screens are apparently for Doom 4

Jahanzeb Khan

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March 5, 2012

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There was this rather interesting ‘leak’ recently which some sources are claiming to be the very first screens of Doom 4.

These screens basically show off a gritty city environment that has been hit by several wars and natural disasters. Some of these screens show a real time tornado, wrecked up buildings and streets with abandoned war machines and vehicles, and lots of blood stains.

It looks nothing like a traditional Doom title, which is why most people are sceptical about it. You can check them out in the gallery below, take it however you like.

Fairy Tail: Part 4 Review

Travis Bruno

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March 5, 2012

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Fairy Tail: Part 4
Studios: A-1 Pictures, Satelight
Publisher: FUNimation
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Release Date: March 20, 2012
Price: $54.98 – Available Here

Overview:
Over the past few months FUNimation has brought us nearly a monthly release of Fairy Tail’s first season. After a minor delay they have now brought us the final part of Fairy Tail’s first season. We’ve seen quite a lot over the past thirty six episodes from all three parts, of which Part 1’s review can be found here, with Part 2’s here and Part 3’s here. In a world full of shōnen series Fairy Tail stands out as one of the freshest of the pack by far, however does this freshness stay for Fairy Tail: Part 4?

Story:
As per standard with Fairy Tail’s past releases, minus Part 1 of course, we jump into Fairy Tail: Part 4 in the middle of a story arc. Those who have seen Part 3 should remember that the story had taken a turn for the darker side as Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Juvia race to try and help Erza out in her battle in the Tower of Heaven against someone she once held dear, Jellal.

However things were not going very swimmingly for the Fairy Tail crew when we last saw them, Erza had been captured and imprisoned in a playing card by Sho, Natsu was on the brink of defeat from Fukuro and Lucy was forced to face off against a possessed Juvia. However nothing can keep a Fairy Tail member from helping out their comrades. The battles against each of Jellal’s mercenaries are your standard fair with nothing too exceptional to speak of, most ending a bit too quickly. With Jellal’s plan of using Erza as a human sacrifice to resurrect a deadly and powerful wizard from the past nearly coming to fruition, the Fairy Tail members must fight harder than ever to put an end to his evil plans while not dying in the process.

After the grandiose conclusion to the arc Part 3 cliffhangared on, we are given the final arc for season one, one that will present perhaps the largest challenge for the Fairy Tail guild. You see… while fighting against your enemies, even those stronger than you, may be something that can be accomplished through sheer force of will… what will happen when Fairy battles against Fairy?

Angry with the current state of Fairy Tail, Laxus, grandson of the current guildmaster Makarov, has taken it upon himself to rid the guild of its so called “weaknesses.” To do this he and his team have taken the women of Fairy Tail hostage, including Lucy and Erza, by turning them into stone. With the threat of their deaths imminent and specific rules laid down by Laxus and his crew, friend must battle against friend in an effort to save their friends…

With Part 4 consisting of these two story arcs we see the culmination of Erza’s character development throughout the Tower of Heaven and confront her past to come to grips with who she is. Besides Erza, a number of other characters are given some additional development, with most of it surprisingly focusing on the secondary characters of the guild. If there is one thing that can be taken away from watching Fairy Tail, is that its robust cast of characters are never left in the dark for very long as we see nearly every named character in battle in some way as they fight against one another in stupendous battles.

While it should be no leap of the imagination to say that jumping in at Part 4 would be detrimental to viewers, obviously it is. Considering Fairy Tail: Part 4 literally starts in the middle of a well-developed story arc is already an issue for those who’ve yet to catch up on the last few seasons. While new viewers may be able to satisfy themselves with the final arc of this season, there will be a lot lost in translation at this point.

However this should not detour anyone who has already watched all three parts of Fairy Tail so far and personally I must recommend picking up the past arcs as Fairy Tail stands as one of the fastest rising anime in the West with little reason to slow down and plenty of more episodes that could potentially be on the way.

Visuals:
We see only a small amount of characters introduced during Part 4 however this is made up for with plenty of action to make up for the lack of character introduction. That being said, the characters that are introduced are designed well enough with plenty of visual flair and uniqueness, retaining the fact that no two characters will look alike.

As mentioned before there is plenty of action to be had as we see nearly every Fairy Tail member in action in some form during Part 4. This also means that viewers are treated to plenty of different kinds of magic being used against each other and plenty of special effects demonstrated because of this. While seeing a number of older characters use their attacks has always been visually appealing, seeing the secondary characters in action, including Mirajane’s well-designed Satan Soul form.

That being said, while most of the battles are given an adequate level of consistent animation, there are a number of times that the animation quality drops significantly. It is also unfortunate that most of these quality drops have been during the larger battles, including Natsu’s battle against Jellal and the later battles in Part 4. While these drops in quality shouldn’t hinder your viewing too much, they are noticeable enough.

Audio:
As per usual for a FUNimation release Fairy Tail: Part 4 contains both an English dub as well as the original Japanese one for those who enjoy listening to that version. All of the characters from the past three parts have retained their voice actors and we see plenty of other voice actors get a chance to say at least a few lines here and there as well. The newly introduced characters’ voicework is handled well enough though doesn’t stand out too much from the rest of the cast.

Fairy Tail’s background music is the same as ever; with alright background music during most of the battle scenes that help add to the mood a little bit, and plenty of reoccurring themes throughout the series. These songs should be more than familiar to viewers by now, though it is a tad unfortunate not much else is presented to the viewer.

As far as the opening and ending songs are concerned for Part 4, we are presented with “R.P.G. ~Rockin’ Playing Game” by SuG as the opening song and “Kimi Ga Iru Kara” by Mikuni Shimokawa as the ending tune. If these two songs and accompanying animations are familiar to you, it is due to them being included for the final episode of Part 3. It is unfortunate that the same opening and ending is re-used this time around but considering the songs were adequate enough they still are for Part 4.

Extras:
With Fairy Tail: Part 4 we see a number of standard inclusions from FUNimation which includes trailers for past and upcoming releases, a clean version of the opening song as well as a clean version of the ending song. Also included with this release are two episode commentaries, a commentary provided for Episode 39 “Give Our Prayers to the Sacred Light” and Episode 45 “Advent of Satan.”

For Episode 39 we see Tyler Walker, the ADR Director and Rob McCollum who voices Siegrain, Jellal and Mystogen for the series. The commentary for this episode is a little funny but interesting enough to listen to as we hear Rob explain how he had to work in subtle differences to each character to keep them unique.

Episode 45’s commentary is given by Tyler Walker again, John Burgmeier who provides the voice of Freed and head writer as well as Monica Rial who is lead writer for FUNimation and the voice of Mirajane. This commentary has little comedic value but is actually quite informative as we learn that a number of the writers have actually been able to read the manga of the show and have used it to keep their writing consistent throughout the series and better adapt the show for American audiences.

Overall:
With this release we see the end of Fairy Tail’s first season in North America as well as the currently licensed amount of episodes from FUNimation. This final part of Fairy Tail provides a satisfactory conclusion to the Tower of Heaven arc and more than enough action to keep the blood pumping with the final story arc. Fairy Tail: Part 4 still provides a very enjoyable ending to season one with plenty of action which for once doesn’t leave off in a cliffhanger. However there is no need for such a cliffhanger ending this time around as Fairy Tail’s first season will leave viewers begging for a second season once the final episode finishes.

Twelve new characters for the PlayStation Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken

Jahanzeb Khan

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March 5, 2012

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The whole console exclusive characters business is getting a little crazy now as as the PlayStation Vita will getting twelve extra characters. They are Blanka, Cody, Dudley, Elena, Guy, and Sakura from the Street Fighter universe, and Alisa, Bryan, Christy, Jack, Lars, and Lei from the Tekken universe.

These characters are going to be downloadable content and there have been reports suggesting that these characters may also appear on the Xbox 360 version. Speaking of which, Mega Man and Pac Man, who are at this stage exclusive to the PlayStation 3 version, may at some stage appear on the Xbox 360. This information regarding the Xbox 360 version has not been confirmed by Capcom as of yet.

Kyousogiga Anime Series Confirmed

Luke Halliday

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March 5, 2012

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Back in December 2011, Banpresto and Toei collaborated to create the one-shot OVA anime Kyousogiga. They had streamed it through multiple outlets (notably Youtube and Nico Nico Douga) to which it garnered a great deal of success and acclaim.

The little OVA that could has today been confirmed to having been green-lit for a full length anime series based upon it. The full length series will expand upon the world conveyed in the OVA and explore the characters and plot more than the 20 minute OVA could. This news came directly from voice actress Kazuki Yao during an event for Kyousogiga earlier today.

Kyousogiga tells the story of an alternate world in which the existence of Yokai has become public knowledge, to the point that Yokai live freely alongside humans.

The new Kyousogiga anime series is set to premiere at some point in the future. However no solid date has been attributed to the project as of yet.

Challenge Yourselves with A Dangerous Method

Jessica Barabas-Bui

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March 5, 2012

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Freud and Jung are arguably the most entertaining psychologists, as well as some of the most recognized names in the field of psychology. David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) directs A Dangerous Method, a movie about these two legendary men.

The film examines the real life event of Dr Jung and Freud meeting and how psychoanalysis emerged from this meeting and their relationship. It is based on the non-fiction book by Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method: the story of Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein. The movie features Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) as Sigmund Freud, Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) as Carl Jung and Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Carribean, A Dangerous Method) as Sabina Spielrein.

This movie is guaranteed to be as interesting as it is dramatic, and will be a must watch for those of you who enjoy their intriguing dramas, especially given that it is based on real life events.

Check out the trailer for the movie below. What do you guys think? Would you be keen to watch this movie?

A Dangerous Method is coming to Australian cinemas on March 20, 2012.

New information for Fable: The Journey Emerges on Xbox.com

Dustin Spencer

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March 5, 2012

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I think everyone remembers the whole “on rails” E3 fiasco that Fable: The Journey went through last year, and since then, we have heard very little about the game itself or any information about how this Kinect title will actually control. Luckily, Microsoft seem to be ready to share some tidbits and have went as far to create a home page for Fable: The Journey on Xbox.com.

On the page, we see 5 new screenshots (which you can view below), along with more details of how this experience will play out. As far as the screenshots go, things look slightly better from what we seen on display. Yeah, it still looks like it’s on rails as horse carriages and first person-views are still very present, but it does look like there is some type of movement as there are a couple other perspectives shown. Judging by the overview posted as well, this Fable will be more on the humorous side (much like Fable 3) and be more aimed towards fan who have enjoyed the past few entries.

I want to want this title so bad, but I still am not sold with this new information. Fable was a series about character development and lore and has taken a turn towards gimmickry and fart jokes as of recent. Hopefully this The Journey will be a smash hit for Molyneux and his team…but without shaking that dark cloud I just don’t see this one taking off like it should upon release.

Oh yeah, the release date…12/31/2799. They did tell us the Kinect was the technology of the future, after all.