Biarat Company has confirmed today that their latest third person shooter project, Deep Black: Reloaded, will be released on digital download platforms this week for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
The game is a unique shooter featuring over 40 missions taking place on both land and water, the unique aspect are the missions that place underwater as you literally swim, shoot, and engage in a variety of actions while submerged under water. The water physics look to shake up the tried and tested third person shooting formula.
The game will be compatible with NVIDIA 3D VISION and can be controlled using the Razer Hydra controller. You can check out the latest trailer below.
Madman and SBS have just announced their March line up for 2012, with several new shows heading to your home as the highlights of the month.
Danger 5 (March 21)is a World War II comedy set in the 1960’s. You read that right. The show follows an elite squad of international Allied operatives as they pursue their one true goal: kill Adolf Hitler. There’s plenty of action and offbeat humor as the squad do their best to off the mustachioed one – taking in a perverted Antarctic death circus, a golden murder casino and a bit of exotic dancing for good measure. Influences cited for Danger 5 include legendary puppet show Thunderbirds, Japanese Monster movies and the less than politically correct crime capers of the 1960’s.
Coming along with a slightly different tone is Cinema Asia (March 21) a five part series packed with clips from some of the most important films produced by the burgeoning Asian film industries this year. Interviews with the film makers provide an added insight to a region that boasts the first and third most prolific film producing countries in the world, India and China respectively.
La Boheme (March 7) This high budget production of Puccini’s legendary opera is directed by Oscar nominated director Robert Dornhelm, and brings together two of opera’s biggest stars in the leading roles. The story follows the relationship of two lovers who are brought together and torn apart in the city of Paris, and is one of the most enduring tales of tragic love.
Piano Man (March 7) jumps back into the modern day, with atypical concert pianist James Rhodes not only playing the music of his favourite composers (Bach, Chopin, Beethoven) but explaining how they have had an impact on his life. After coming through childhood abuse, drug addiction and suicide attempts, James brings a unique approach to his performances that aims to bring classical music to everybody’s ears.
A seven film compilation, The Bible: A History (March 7 )explores the origins of the Bible, tracing how seven sections of the Scriptures came into being and their influence on today’s world.
Coast host Nicholas Crane returns with new series Town (March 7), which takes a close look at one of the more forgotten aspects of urban living. Crane explores four iconic British towns over the series, taking in the sights and sounds of Scarborough, Ludlow, Perth and Totnes. The geographer and adventurer delves into the character of each unique town, and looks at the secrets of their survival and success.
Now you may be wondering how any film, let alone the latest Sacha Baron Cohen effort, can be victorious at the Oscars without being released yet. Well the Dictator’s victory was of a different sort:
VICTORY IS OURS! Today the Mighty Nation of Wadiya triumphed over the Zionist snakes of Hollywood. Evil and all those who made Satan their protector were vanquished and driven into the Pacific Sea. What I am trying to say here is that the Academy have surrendered and sent over two tickets and a parking pass! TODAY OSCAR, TOMORROW OBAMA!
In case you missed it, the Academy Awards had apparently banned Sacha Baron Cohen from attending the ceremony because he was all set to attend in full The Dictator regalia. Despite the fact that he starred in a nominated film (animated flick Hugo, which went on to win several awards) and is a member of the Academy, his tickets were supposedly pulled and backing studio Paramount commented to Deadline: “Unless they’re assured that nothing entertaining is going to happen on the Red Carpet, the Academy is not admitting Sacha Baron Cohen to the show.”
So there you have it, the Academy Awards banned anything entertaining from happening at the Oscars. At least for a little while, because the instant media backlash quickly changed the Academy’s mind, and Cohen was soon re-invited. Now you should note the key words here: apparently, and supposedly. According to the Hollywood Reporter no invitations were revoked and no tickets pulled – they Academy simply didn’t like the idea.
Whatever the truth of the matter, it’s certainly paid off for Cohen and The Dictator – hundreds of millions tuned into the Oscars this year, with the show enjoying an upswing no doubt thanks to returning host Billy Crystal. Media outlets around the world churned out news of the supposed snub, and Baron Cohen can congratulate himself on another publicity stunt well done.
(and in case you didn’t catch the stunt, you can check it out for yourself below, Ryan Seacrest is the victim, I know that may persuade some…)
Were you playing Scrabble on your iOS or Android device during the award ceremonies last night? Did you happen to “steal” and use any of the words that were said during the show?
If you did, then EA knows exactly what happened. After all, they collected the best words that were said last night and even paired them up with an equivalent SCRABBLE score. Have a look at the list below:
· Inexplicably – Score: 28 (Meryl Streep, Best Actress, “The Iron Lady”)
· Virtuoso – Score: 9 (Colin Firth’s introduction speech for Best Actress)
If that got you in the mood to play Scrabble, then jump on over to your favorite App Store and download it. Its free. Check out EA’s official Scrabble site for more information.
What if the hardcore metal music is playing in the background while a woman wearing a gas mask kills zombies?
No?!
Ok, how about if the hardcore metal music is playing in the background while a woman wearing a gas mask violently kills zombies and stomps on their balls? Plus, a flamethrower is involved.
Seriously, still no?
Well, I guess you better not watch the Brutality trailer that is embedded below that shows off Resident Evil Raccoon City. Also, you have no soul if you answered “no” to any of the above questions.
Klei Entertainment, the indie developer behind the gory beat em up Shank 2 (XBLA, PC, PSN) have announced their next project. In a move that is quite a surprise Klei Entertainment announced that their next game will be a text based adventure game (Or is it?).
Their latest game will be titled Mark of the Ninja. Is it really a text based adventure game? Or are these ninjas disguising themselves? You can find out for yourself here.
What do you think of Mark of the Ninja? Let us know what you think of this ‘text based adventure’ game in the shoutbox and comment section.
Little Deviants Developer: Bigbig Studios Publisher: Sony Platform: PlayStation Vita Release Date: February 23, 2012 Price: $32.99 (available here)
Overview
Little Deviants is one of the PS Vita’s numerous launch titles, coming to the handheld alongside big names and big games like Wipeout and Uncharted. Whilst Little Deviants is a fantastic demonstration of all the Vita’s flashy new control schemes, it really is just a collection of mini games that only the high score obsessed will find any great joy with.
Story
Are you really expecting anything? The set up for Little Deviants is kept to a cutesy minimum. A space ship full of the titular Deviants is shot down by some nasty robots and crash lands on a cubist planet of cubist humans. The robots follow shortly after and decide for some random reason to raise the dead to help them crush the amorphous blobs that are the Deviants. Players must take control of the Deviants and guide them through a series of mini games to win back their space ship parts and escape the planet.
That’s it.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, Little Deviants is primarily a demonstration of all the new wizardry that is packed within Sony’s latest handheld. Think of it as the Wii Sports for the Vita, except it’s not free and it’s not half as friendly to non gaming relatives and Christmas parties. Every mini game is controlled using the gyroscope, touch screen, microphone or touch pad, and old school buttons only get involved in one type of mini game. Score enough points for a bronze medal and another game will be unlocked, with each success netting the Deviant’s a space ship part with which to rebuild their craft. Games are primarily touch screen and gyroscope based, with these motion controls used to roll Deviant’s around mazes, tilt them through caves and steer them through race courses. There’s a touch screen variant of whack-a-mole that utilises both touch screens, and even one game that requires a bit of singing.
Now everything is technically sound, and the game truly shows off just how accurate and sensitive the alternate control options on the Vita are. Unfortunately none of the games are particularly addictive or fun, and there are even a couple that are a complete turn off – using the back touch screen to generate a hill to roll around the Deviants is a nice twist of an idea, but in execution it feels clumsy and based on luck rather than skill. There’s nothing that leaps out of the collection and grabs you, nor anything particularly surprising or creative. The augmented reality game (move the Vita around to shoot down some robots that fly around your house) is good for some gimmicky fun, but will quickly bring some hurt to your world,either when your arms get tired of holding up the Vita or someone on the train whacks you for being an idiot.
Portability is a concern, and not only with the above example. The singing mini game (you can hum or whistle if you want) will induce even more wrath from members of the public, and unless you’ve got nice big man hands, it can be a bit difficult to get decent control over the whack-a-mole style game without assuming some strange yoga position to allow both hands access to the Vita. If the handheld is charging you can write off the augmented reality games, and things will become a lot more difficult on the tilt based sessions too.
There is some fun to be had with the games, but only in short and sweet sessions. Although there are thirty on offer there are an awful lot of reskinned repeats that simply dial the difficulty up a notch. Apart from unlocking more games, the bronze, silver and gold trophies serve little purpose, and leaderboards are tucked away in a separate menu rather than updated live at the end of every game. If you do take to a game enough to bash away at it repeatedly, then a silver medal earns you a gallery item, and a gold a bit of glory. Another completely bizarre feature has you collecting a ‘Mogger’ from every game – that’s a cat to you and me – that does nothing but sit in a house – is Little Deviant’s trying to turn us all into cat ladies? Perhaps there’s some sort of reward for collecting all the cats, but I honestly can’t bring myself to play through every game again in search of them.
Audio & Visual:
Much like the gameplay in Little Deviants the audio and visual properties of the game are good but not in any way unique. Everything has a vibrant coat of cartoon paint, and the Deviants themselves always have their mouths hanging open and bounce around like the insane googly eyed blobs that they are. They and the zombie style enemies have some amusing details, and the backgrounds are simplistic but bright. There’s nothing overly flash on offer here – the Vita can certainly do better – but everything is bright and bubbly enough to make Little Deviants a pleasant enough experience for the senses. Sound effects and music follow a similar pattern, with upbeat tunes and a light hearted, goofy feel.
Overall:
Little Deviants is difficult to recommend. The games within it are by no means bad, but there’s just not enough here to make the package stand out. It shows off the Vita’s control capabilities very well, but anyone who’s booted up the handheld will have had a similar experience with Welcome Park. If you’re a fan of mini game compilations or like chasing high scores purely for the sake of it then you may find more joy here than most. Ultimately there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to the Vita launch line up, and with Lumines and Super Star Dust Delta among them, this arcade compilation doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Didn’t the Playstation Network go down for maintenance just a few weeks ago? Regardless, Sony is once again shutting down the service to spruce it up, or whatever they do when they pull it down.
Starting March 1 at 11am ET, the PlayStation Store, account management and PlayStation Home will be unavailable. The service is scheduled to come back online at 2am ET the next day. The maintenance will affect the PC Playstation Store as well. For more details, check out the Playstation community blog post.
WB Games and CD Projekt Red have released a new trailer in preparation for the launch of the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2.
The video focuses on the game’s antagonist, the Kingslayer. But are all villains truly as they seem? While the trailer ploughs up a whole load of mystery, one thing is clear: whoever the Kingslayer is, you (as Geralt, the title Witcher) are standing in his way. And he doesn’t like that. Not at all.
Check out the trailer below! The Witcher 2 hits store shelves on April 17th.
Although Gearbox has already released a few pieces of media that detail Borderlands 2, sometimes its nice to see where something started. If you want to take a peek at some concept skteches that Gearbox made of the characters that will be making an appearance in the upcoming sequel, all you need to do is point your mouse at their Facebook page, or take a look at the gallery below. There you can gaze upon Maya, of the Siren Class. The Commando’s concept sketches were also revealed. As you can see in the concept pictures, Axton the Commando looks more like a punk than the soldier you see pictured above. Which character designs do you like best?
