Namco Bandai has released Tales of the Abyss for Nintendo 3DS to North American Markets today. Tales of the Abyss is the latest iteration of the Tales franchise and continues the tradition with their real time battle and crafting systems. New to the series is the touch screen controls for battles and stereoscopic 3D graphics.
Tales of the Abyss follows the story of Luke fon Fabre as he suddenly finds himself in the role of hero. Sheltered and naive, Luke struggles to learn about the greater world and himself while trying to save the world from destruction. Tales of the Abyss is available for the Nintendo 3DS at retailers in North America.
While there has recently been tons of doom and gloom coming from THQ, they still have a number of great looking games on the way. The main game that fans are keeping an eye out for is none other than Darksiders 2. However we have yet to see a release date announced from the company, despite the gaming being announced for quite some time.
That is until today when the official Darksiders Twitter account recently revealed Darksiders 2’s release date will be June 26th in North America and June 29th everywhere else. No other information was given at the time, though this is good news for those who want to play as Death and try and keep THQ afloat for a few more months.
European RPG fans who happen to own a Wii will soon be very happy while also being able to rub North American gamers’ noses in the fact that they will soon be able to play Pandora’s Tower. Nintendo of Europe revealed today that Europe will be receiving the game on April 13th.
To commemorate this announcement, and also go with Valentine’s Day, Nintendo released a handful of gross Pandora’s Tower themed e-cards. The cards can be seen below and you can always download or print them out and send them to that special gamer in your life. Now all we need is Pandora’s Tower in North America and all will be right in the world…
Developer: Liv Games Platforms: iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone (reviewed) iOS 3.1.3+ Release Date: December 1st, 2011 Price: $0.99 (BUY NOW)
Overview
Legendary Wars is toted as an action RPG side-scrolling tactical RTS title, and features unique units, boss battles, upgrades and special moves. You’ll be defeating monsters and skeletons, gargoyles and grim reapers while levelling up your units and meeting new ones along your warpath.
Story
The story largely consists of text-only conversations amongst characters in between battles. These are played out as a few dialogue boxes with the speaking characters popping up above them. The dialogue does communicate some semblance of story, which is pretty basic and sparse; but most of it consists of some witty banter between characters, featuring some justification for any minor changes in gameplay in the level you’re about to play.
From what I can gather, you’re leading an army (and of course picking up new friends along the way) in an effort to gather all the sunstones which have been scattered across the world to ready yourself to face Magma, the evil demon entombed in a huge volcano in the centre of the map.
So the story is there… but only just. And not much of it actually influences the gameplay all that much. Speaking of which…
Gameplay
The basic idea is you have a castle on the left, the bad guys come at you from the right, and you have to defend yourself. You do this by sending out units, which you pay for by mining “stuff”, and controlling them individually or as a group. Each unit type also has it’s own special move which can come in handy in the more taxing levels.
Each battlefield is split into 3 “lanes”, making it a little easier (but not a whole lot) to see what’s going on when there’s a ton of good guys and bad guys. The problem is that units don’t automatically change lanes to fight an oncoming enemy… that is until the game turns on that feature for you. It’s a little weird that this is a “feature”, really – I would have expected it to be on all the time, but as it stands, the units will only react to other-lane monsters if you tell them to move either left or right. This, coupled with the group commands make the game quite straightforward to play… Once you get your head around how things work, that is.
The controls are made up of a handful of buttons along the top to control your units, and some thumbnails along the bottom to produce them. If you need to select a particular unit in your army you simply need to tap on them. When in the middle of a battle, however, when you’ve built up your army, and you’re clashing with the bad guys, it can be pretty darn tricky to grab the unit you wanted to. Luckily though, you can usually get by on just using the group controls for the most part.
In the downtime between battles, you can upgrade your units’ stats and even the castle itself, making it easier to take on the ever increasing hordes of enemies and the new enemy types that are introduced during the game. You can also make in-app purchases to buy more gems and moonstones to spend on stats and upgrades respectively.
New characters/units are introduced throughout the game through dialogue, and are usually accompanied by a solo mission, where you control just the new dude, running along an assault course of baddies and obstacles. This lets you try out the attacks and special moves to see how they would work in a real battle.
Apart from these sections, though, the game stays pretty much the same for it’s 50 levels. After a while, you find your groove and stick to it for every battle; there’s not much in the way of tactics to this game… as the game goes on harder baddies are introduced, and that’s pretty much all that changes through the game.
Audio & Visual
The graphics in this game are really, really nice. Everything’s in wonderful vector art, with the cartoony style and bold colours that go along with it. The animations are also smooth and well done. The armor and weapons upgrades make your characters cooler and cooler, reflecting their improved stats well, and the visual style compliments the rest of the game’s humorous style perfectly.
The music used in different menus as well as the 5 areas of the world is pleasant to listen to and nicely produced. The sound effects, too, are well done.
Overall
Legendary Wars is a good game. It’s fun to play for a time, even if you lose interest along the way. I’d say it’s more of a casual game with elements of strategy than a full-on strategy game, though. If you get this game thinking it’ll be a fun strategy to stretch the little grey cells, you’ll be disappointed. On the other hand, if you just want a little light strategy to waste away your spare time, then you’ll have fun with it. Between it’s humorous dialogue and colourful characters, the journey you are taken on is an enjoyable one, even if it doesn’t fully scratch that strategy itch.
While this may be a bit of a surprise to some, Metal Gear Solid 4 has actually had an online multiplayer component for the past few years. However I wouldn’t grow too attached to the game’s online mode now, because Konami has revealed today that they will be shutting down the online mode of the game this summer.
This will begin with the Metal Gear Online shop disappearing on March 21st, with April bringing an end to new character creation and the online mode will finally shut down on June 21st. While this is certainly disappointing news to anyone still playing Metal Gear Solid 4 online, there are still plenty of months left to try and get a few more headshots before it closes down.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Mouse Manufacturer: Razer Device: Mouse Price: $229.95 AUD Purchase:Razerstore
If you’re into PC gaming, chances are you’ve heard of Razer: a PC peripheral company known for its outstanding quality products for the hardcore gaming enthusiasts. And if you’re into MMOs, chances are you’ve heard of Star Wars: The Old Republic: EA and Bioware’s recently released and critically acclaimed foray into the world of massive multiplayer online games.
What do you get when you mix up both of those things? Why, it’s Razer’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Mouse!
This Old Republic themed mouse was created specifically with an MMO player in mind, and the accessibility and ease of use that it provides, on top of Razer’s usual feature customization and high-end technology, make this an appealing add-on to fans of any MMO, but particularly anyone who has seen their waking hours swept away by The Old Republic.
The mouse’s design is sleek and comfortable. With a grand total of seventeen buttons optimized for use in MMOs, it looked like a daunting tool when unboxed, but its curve fits suitably in the palm of the hand, with the thumb resting on the twelve-buttoned left side panel. The mouse itself is grey in colour, with lines and creases in it designed to give you the feel that it’s a piece of Star Wars space technology. On the right side of it, a light-up emblem of either the Republic or the Empire can easily be slid in and out of the mouse’s body, so if you feel like being a role-playing extraordinaire , you can switch between the emblems when you switch characters and alignments. The mouse-wheel also features a backlight, and it can be customized within the Razer Synapse interface to display different colours in a pleasant fluorescent hue.
The right-side of the mouse also features a removable side-panel in which the battery is placed for when you want to go to wireless mode. The battery’s life can extend over twelve hours of continuous play, but it can last for up to 72 hours if you use it in shorter bursts. The wireless receiver, which doubles as an aesthetically pleasing stand and battery charger for the mouse, that comes in the package is a handy tool, as you can elect to use it in order to untangle the mess of wires usually involved with PC gaming.
But sometimes, it’s nice to have the wire there, particularly if you’re travelling or are just old-fashioned like me, so the USB cord that powers the charger/receiver can also be plugged directly into the mouse. Then you flip a switch on the bottom of the mouse and voila! All set for wired gaming.
With 5600 dpi Razer precision technology and a one millisecond response time, there’s no denying that Razer has put its normal amount of high-end quality into the product, but what surprised me was how accessible it all was in practice. Let’s face it, a mouse with seventeen buttons is probably not the most enticing thing to see, and the twelve side panel buttons were definitely quite a psychological hurdle.
However, Razer provides handy bumper stickers for the uninitiated. Using the guide provided, you can place these bumpers on specific buttons on the side panel’s keypad in a way that enhances your muscle memory while you play. Where I fumbled a bit within the first few hours of play, these essentially served as training wheels, and I soon began getting a feel for the mouse and its many buttons. It was an addition I did not expect and it was surprisingly effective in quickly acclimatising my hand to the new control scheme.
So I took the mouse for a whirlwind tour of several games: MMOs, first person shooters, RPGs, and (what PC gaming session is complete without it?) League of Legends. Needless to say, where the mouse really shines is with games that involve quickslots and skill bars. It became ridiculously simple to use hotkey commands that on keyboard controls involved a lot of finger stretching. Indeed, while playing MMOs in the past, I usually always gave up on hotkeys altogether and just clicked individual skills as I wanted to use them. No more!
Once you’re accustomed to the twelve buttons on the side of the mouse (by default they replace the 1 to = keys on your keyboard), you’ll find yourself easily pulling off even the skills on the pesky skill bars that require you to hold Shift or Control at the same time as pressing a number. It really helped my MMO experience as a whole, as I stopped paying attention to clicking skill buttons during combat and could actually enjoy the actual animations on screen. The controls are equally effective for RPGs that use skill bars, and being able to use active inventory items in League of Legends with hardly any effort because of those twelve wonderful buttons has definitely positively impacted my play.
The bonuses of the mouse are definitely less apparent when playing first-person shooters, or any game that has a simple control scheme. When all a game requires of you is shoot, aim, reload, and grenade, the seventeen buttons provided on the SWTOR mouse are a bit excessive. If your PC gaming is limited to shooters and point-and-click adventures, then this mouse really isn’t for you. But then, why are you interested in a Star Wars: The Old Republic mouse if you spend your days playing Call of Duty? The simple fact is that this mouse is a tool of extreme and simple convenience for any MMO player.
For the more dedicated PC player, the mouse does feature Razer’s Synapse 2.0, which allows you to customize your mouse’s settings and save those into the Cloud, so they’ll be remembered wherever your bring the mouse. The customization options allow you to truly make the mouse your own, and macros on a twelve-buttoned mouse would definitely help in competitive real-time strategy games.
The SWTOR mouse also comes with two faction-based stickers for the Old Republic and two Razer stickers. I immediately wanted to slap one of the latter on my Xbox 360 for irony’s sake, but then realised that I didn’t want to waste the sticker like that. Knowing myself, those stickers will probably just gather dust; they’re something I’ll happily keep as a collector’s item, but never actually use.
All in all, the Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming mouse is a remarkable piece of PC gaming gear. Though first impressions may be daunting, Razer really took care to provide a way to ease players into the world of 17-button possibilities. The fact that these seventeen buttons can then be customized further via Synapse is simply icing on the cake. If you’re an avid PC gamer and you love The Old Republic, there’s no better gaming mouse for you.
Star Wars The Old Republic Gaming Mousepad by Razer Manufacturer: Razer Device: Mouse Pad Price: AU$49.99 Purchase:Razerstore
Gamers of the world, I have a question for you. How do YOU augment your video game experience in reality? Some of you may choose to take your latest FPS skills online, and test your mettle against the global collective. Some of you may form communities or guilds based on your common game interests. Some of you could choose to attend any number of conventions. But chances are, MOST of you will engorge yourself with bits and pieces of gaming memorabilia to decorate your room, your study, your game-room, command centre or Bat-cave.
Now, if you’re anything like me, odds are that you too have several limited edition gaming items strewn about your place of play. The statue of Skyrim’s Alduin sitting proudly atop your bookcase. Halo’s Noble Team guarding your comic book stash, and your surplus controllers sitting comfortably in your Uncharted 3 satchel bag. Some of them exist purely for decorative reasons. Then there are the others you choose to augment your game experience.
As many gamers who frequent any number of local games shops should be aware of by now, 3rd party hardware and peripheral developer Razer has seen quite a degree of success in the modern gaming market. This is courtesy of their extensive range of gaming products that serve the afore mentioned purpose of augmenting the gamer experience. Even if you do not own a Razer product, you have probably heard of them or at very least seen them in a shop window. Most will know of them from their distinctive dark black and fluoro green logo and box art, reputation for quality and the sleek, gamer appealed design of their controllers, mice and keyboards.
Recently, Razer has thrown its brand behind in support of the launch and growth of one of the most hotly anticipated and received MMORPG’s of all time. With the takeoff of Star Wars: The Old Republic a relatively large success, despite some international localisation and server difficulties, fans such as myself have been more than a little eager to see a range of SWTOR based merchandise released.
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the SWTOR pieces that Razer has released in their latest line of gamer merchandise. The Razer SWTOR mouse-pad.
Before mentioning anything else, I should point out that the appeal of peripherals such as these are liable to vary.
As the mouse pad is most certainly an aesthetic piece, the most important thing to immediately review is its physical design. Breaking away from their traditional colour scheme, Razer has dropped the usual black-green colour product colour scheme in favour of a more contextually appropriate White-Gold-Black. The choice in colour scheme I feel is highly appropriate given the sci-fi nature of the universe. The design is simple and straightforward, just as many of us assume that futuristic or space age tech should be. This mouse pad also offers a customisation option. It is possible to alter the faceplate of the mouse pad. The white face-plate is actually 2 sided and provides players the option to flip the plate around to display your in-game allegiance. The plates display the symbol insignia’s that represent the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Alliance and Horde? Eat your heart out.
Both the plates and the frame carry a considerable deal of weight. As a result, players shouldn’t expect to experience any of that frustrating mouse pad movement that comes packaged with many generic brand mouse pads. The solid surface also provides a satisfying sound and feel to mouse actions. Consider it like driving a car. Sure, driving on a rocky unstable surface is do-able, but doesn’t it feel so much better to drive on a nice solid asphalt road? This comes courtesy of the non-slip anti-reflective coating on the surfaces of the mouse pad tiles. The abrasion resistant coating is also as much an indication of durability as it is functional. So users should expect to get plenty of use out of thier purchase.
The mouse pad is also sizably larger than many of your standard mouse pads, which, combined with the afore mentioned coating features, supports rapid mouse movement for those instances in which battles in SWTOR become hairier than Chewbacca. As an additional result, players will find that extra range of mouse motion will affect keeping gameplay focused and precise, regardless of one’s preference in sensitivity.
As one might expect, functionally, the mouse pad will not influence your game directly, like a mouse or headset might. However, this is not to say that it doesn’t make a difference to the game’s overall feel and tone. The mouse pad allows mice of any make or design to flow about smoothly. (Even old roller ball mice). This honestly surprised me.
When first tasked with the job of reviewing a simple mouse pad, I thought to myself “how will it REALLY make a difference to MY game?” After all, playing through an MMO as expansive as The Old Republic is all about how the player perceives THIER story and THEIR adventure. It is an individual undertaking just as much as it is a social one. Being able to truly immerse oneself in the game is what provides that lasting feeling of connection to the universe. As such, a strong sense of satisfaction and pride in our achievements is also developed.
The difference the mouse pad made to my game was subtle. Sitting at my desk in my room is an environment I’ve become all too familiar with. Sitting in that lone chair I have recently saved the Planet Sera from destruction, adventured through the northern reaches of Skyrim, relived the life of Sonic the Hedgehog and survived the zombie apocalypse. However, when I now take a seat at my PC, I find my eyes immediately drawn to the features at my desk, of which the new mouse pad dominates in contrast. Each time I envision that THIS is how people use computers in the Star Wars Galaxy. The mouse pad provides a feel that it has come directly out of the universe of its subject matter. The result for the player is an increased level of immersion, and a greater feeling of connection to the world. And for both a game and peripheral based on open choice and player centred, creating this sense of belonging is what will keep your players stuck to the game. Ultimately it achieves what a simple aesthetic like this is meant to. A better immersion experience for the player.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the newest adventure in the seemingly never ending series which is Final Fantasy. It continues on from Final Fantasy XIII, following the adventures of Serah, the sister of the main character in the previous instalment. All Final Fantasy games are known for their taste in unusually long storylines, and accompanying side quests, thus official guides are more often than not required to achieve that Platinum trophy.
The guide is broken down into sections of; Primer(absolute basics), Walkthrough, Completion Timeline, Tour guide, Strategy & Analysis, Inventory, Bestiary and Extras.
This guide gives the amount of detail depending on what your focus is. For example, if you only want to complete the storyline you can just follow the walkthrough section and all the need-to-know information is there to assist you in anyway possible. Though if your goal is to attain that platinum trophy then you can move into the ‘Tour Guide’ section which will give you each side quest and available mission indepth so that you have it all.
The walkthrough is very basic. It gives the basic information on what you have to do to progress through the storyline, and what key items to obtain. It includes several in-games screenshots to add the guide along and help you sense the section you are up to. It is broken into each chapter of the story, and from there broken down into steps to complete each storyline event. My only disappointment with this section is the lack of advice for bosses. The advice given is on average a short paragraph, with no analysis of weaknesses, information on stats, and no advice on paradigm combinations to use.
The tour guide is a completely different story. This has everything. Advanced maps showing locations of everything you would possibly need, the monsters in each area, the fragments available and how to obtain them and even ‘objects of interest’. This section definitely makes up for the walk through section as it even includes such paradigm combinations to use against stronger enemies and tactics to be employed to help bring them down. This guide is broken down into each level available within the game and bookmarked on the edge of the guide accordingly. Adjacent this guide is the ‘completion timeline’ which tells you when you can reach the additional levels, which can only be reached by doing additional side quests, along with the fragments that can be obtained within these levels. All the information is very comprehensive, and does not miss anything.
As stated previously the walkthrough is split into two different walkthroughs, a story and a 100% completion guide. This at times causes the guide to be hard to manoeuvre through. The walkthrough only gives information on storyline events, and gives basic maps. Most players, including myself want more than that, e.g. where to find items, miss-able events etc. The guide counters this by referring you to the tour guide section and the exact page. This does the job, but it causes you to move constantly back and forth through the book. It also causes the guide to have the same map twice, though with one having very little information and the other with sufficient information, which makes you realise why the guide is 300 pages. In my opinion the integration of these two sections would have been a much better choice to create a better flow to the guide.
There is no doubt that this guide has it all. The section titled ‘Strategy & Analysis has such an in-depth explanation of the complicated battle system that anyone could understand it, and thus master it. It explains the mathematics of the staggering system along with the best ways to manipulate the system to be used for your advantage. This also includes how to optimise your characters, which monsters to tame, how each of them develop and a list of the fragment abilities. This is no doubt a very well written section with such in-depth strategy that no other guide could challenge it, not to mention would make you unbeatable in-game.
The inventory and bestiary sections go hand in hand with being just as in-depth as the Strategy & Analysis section. The inventory section informs you when and where you can receive each weapon, accessory, key item, item, speciality item, component, monster material, adornment and shop. That list alone illustrates the amount of tables within this guide which makes no item unobtainable. The bestiary section is just as well done, giving detailed break downs of monsters, explaining their weaknesses, status resistances, what class they are tameable to, and even an additional note. The bosses of Final Fantasy XIII-2 are also here, allowing you to plan your strategy on their weaknesses easily.
Overall this guide has everything a gamer could want. Although some of the information seemed repeated and lacked flow, it is a very comprehensive guide that covers anything and everything. No one who owns this guide should have any problem obtaining the platinum trophy, or have any problems with the soon to be, additional downloadable bosses.
As a special Valentines Day present for fighting fans in North America, Aksys Games and Arc System Works have released the English localisation of latest installment in the BlazBlue series, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. The game is now available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and will be a launch title for the PlayStation Vita.
Also releasing alongside the standard edition of the game, is the Limited Edtion for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, this limited edition includes a 2012 calendar, a 40 page art book, and a 17 track official soundtrack CD.
You can check out my full review of the game here.
The World Is In Play, the slogan for the European and PAL advertising campaign for Sony’s latest handheld, the Playstation Vita. The new handheld will launch on the 22nd of February in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Middle East and the 23rd of February for Australia and New Zealand. To start of the ad campaign that will engulf the territories mentioned, Sony Europe has released their first ad which will appear on television screens in the next coming days.
The ad features various people transported into several games, including Uncharted, FIFA and Call of Duty, albeit in real life. They allude to several features such as Near, which features gift sharing, as well as the fact that it is a portable, which means it can be played everywhere. The ad ends with the Playstation Vita at the forefront of a blue backdrop and the slogan ‘The World Is In Play.’ The Vita are in a few shots, but the most prominent showing is at the end. SCEA (North America) will show off their ad tomorrow.
The ad can been seen below. So, what do you think? It is a good ad or does it confuse you? Why not comment below.
[UPDATE]: The first TV ad for the American campaign is now available for viewing with the slogan ‘Never Stop Playing.’ You can see it on the Official US Playstation Blog.
