Last month Forza Motorsport 4 recieved a DLC pack called the January Jalopnik Pack, which featured several new downloadable vehicles for racing fans to hop behind the wheel of. The pack included a multitude of brand new cars for players to take for a spin. The cars included are as follows:
2012 Pagani Huayra
2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe
2011 Lamborghini #08 West Yokohama Gallardo LP560-4
2011 Honda #33 Level 5 Motorsports Lola
2011 Audi RS5
2000 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
1986 Dodge Shelby Omni GLHS
1973 Ford Pinto
1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal
The DLC pack features what is without a doubt a showcase of modern greats and oldschool classics. I was lucky enough to get to test drive the cars of the DLC pack myself and being a huge Impala fan I was instantly smitten with the quirks of the 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS.
Besides my affection towards the Impala SS, I found myself enjoying every vehicle in the pack and plan on using many of them regularly in the future when playing Forza Motorsport 4.
Whether you are an Impala fan such as myself or something else entirely, there is a lot to like in the January Jalopnik Pack for Forza Motorsport 4 with plenty of different vehicles to cater to different types of drivers.
You can check out some screenshots of the cars of the January Jalopnik Pack in action below. You can pick up the DLC pack now on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 560 Microsoft points or for free if you have already purchased the Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass.
The latest trailer from EA Sports emphasises the new direction that FIFA Street will be taking, expanding on the huge progress which FIFA 12 made.
Aside from utilising the match engine from FIFA 12, Street also boasts the new “Street Ball Control”, in which producer Gary Paterson explains is all about drawing the defender in and then accelerating and or changing direction to get past him with a trick. Gamers will be able to use the left stick to move around the ball once holding down the left trigger, giving ultimate control to the player.
So check out the trailer down below to see Street Ball Control in action. Don’t forget to pre-order now to unlock the exclusive Adidas All-Star team as well as the Leo Messi inspired Placa de Catalunya venue.
Sharpen your swords and get yourself ready for some more EPIC battles, as Sega of Europe and America have announced a release date of 23rd March for the much anticipated Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai. The stand alone expansion pack to the exceptionally popular Total War: Shogun 2, will add new strategies and finely tuned environments to the battlefield. Fall of the Samurai is the fastest pre-ordered Total War title in the franchise with thousands of fans already getting in early to take advantage of receiving a free faction of their choice.
“We’re delighted that the fans have resonated so positively and quickly towards the latest excellent instalment from Creative Assembly. Shogun 2 has built an incredible audience over the last 12 months and now Fall of the Samurai will continue to build the enjoyment”, said John Clark, Director of Digital Distribution. Total War: Shogun 2 features massive naval and land battles, and since its release in March 2011 has brought out the warlord in many of us with its detailed campaign and engrossing multiplayer experiences.
Overview
Borrowing heavily from roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons and board games in the Dungeon Crawler genre, Dungeon Crawlers promises a humorous and exciting turn-based tactical romp through a plethora of dungeons, hazards, and classic enemy types.
Story
Though based on the roleplaying genre of games, this game skips through the story quickly and gets on with the belly laughs and swashbuckling. Our three heroes have been hired to clean out a dungeon which seems to have accrued, along with a layer of dust, various ghosts and ghoulies. That’s kind of it. Once you begin playing the game, however, you’re instantly sucked in by simple controls and the game’s humorous tone.
Gameplay
This game puts the focus squarely on sword and sorcery, peppering levels with just enough cutscene and plot to keep you going. In between battles, you’ll be wandering around the haunted hallways and all-too-quiet open spaces, tapping around the screen (and again for confirmation) to move, search bookshelves, and open up treasure chests.
Once you find some bad guys, you’ll be thrust into an “Encounter”, a combat mode that will end only when you’ve taken down all the enemies you’re aware of. Again, you tap to choose where to move, attack, or take some other action. If you need to move to carry out that action, you’ll be shown the route the selected hero will take to get there, allowing you move more deliberately if you so wish. Once you’re happy with what the hero is set to do, tap again on the target tile to carry it out.
The three heroes, warrior, mage, and healer, compliment each other wonderfully. The mage can hang back, taking down enemies with ranged “Magic Missles” and the like; the warrior can move greater distances, and get knee deep in Goblin; and the healer can skirt around the bigger skirmishes, staying just near enough to heal when necessary.
As the game goes on and your heroes level up, they are given extra actions they can take; stronger attacks, featuring different area attack patterns, ranges, and effects like poisoning and setting people on fire. A couple of stages in, you find a 4th party member, a drunk but experiences Dungeon Crawler. He can detect and disarm traps, adding a nice extra layer to the gameplay.
You can move the camera around by simply dragging the view around, which works well most of the time, but react a little strangely at times. You can also zoom, tilt, and rotate the camera using two-finger gestures.
Overall, the combat is very fun to play, with a good mix of cartoony style and challenging tactical decision-making. There is, however, so much awesome crammed into this game that something had to give. There are a lot of bugs in this title. A lot of bugs. In fact it could be said that it is “buggy”. Now, the game itself is great, and fun, and really nicely done. It more than compensates for any bugs you may experience while playing. But they are there, and unfortunately they are quite noticeable.
Some of the interfaces, too, are a bit fiddly to navigate and use properly. Some of the text is just too small and fancy to be easily readable, especially on a less detailed screen in pre-4 iOS devices. Some features down-right don’t even work. This is kind of a shame, but as I said before, the rest of the game’s super-happy-fun-time still shines on despite these.
Audio & Visual
Apart from the aforementioned bugs here and there, the graphics are pretty sweet. The painted textures in the environment contrasts well with the cartoony, bold renderings of the character models and attack graphical effects. Everything’s so colourful and vibrant, whilst keeping with the dark dungeony feel of the whole thing.
The user interface mid-combat is great, making it easy to see how far the selected hero can move or where they can use an action. Some, but not all, states (eg. dazed) have graphical representations on the characters themselves, again, making it easy and straightforward to see what’s going on the field.
The music is decent enough, and the sound effects do their job well. There are options to change the volume of the two layers of sound, though changing these don’t seem to do much, and it feels a bit too quiet no matter what you try.
The lack of voice over for cutscenes leaves them feeling very quiet, leaving you to basically read a series of text bubbles of dialogue. Also, while well animated, any closeups of the characters shows their lack of detail, something that isn’t a problem during regular gameplay, but alas, didn’t look very good up close.
But again, while there are minor gripes with certain aspects of the audio and visual aspects of this game, the game remains very fun to play; something I can see myself sinking many hours into in the future.
Overall
If you’re a fan of the Dungeon Crawler genre in any of it’s forms, or have been known to enjoy a tactical board game or two, you should definitely get this game! If you like a mix of swords and sorcery with humorous overtones, you should consider getting this game. If you’re a fan of casual physics puzzlers on an iOS device of some kind, and want a change of pace, you should find a gameplay video, decide you’ll give it a go, and GET THIS GAME!
There are two ways to play a fighting game, and most hardcore fans of the genre will know that the best way to play some of these titles is with a fancy joystick that would provide the extra arcade feel that they love. Now while joystick are great on their own, themed ones are even better.
7sixty has announced today that they will be holding a contest that will be giving two lucky winners a custom Fusion Sapphire joystick courtesy of eightarc. As you can see in the picture above, the joystick will feature a custom Phantom Breaker top on the Fusion Sapphire body. Given that these joysticks are high in demand and the average cost runs at $199.99 this will be a priceless addition to anyone’s collection or may just make your skills even better when Phantom Breaker is released sometime early this year. Those interested in entering the contest can do so in two ways. They can enter through the Phantom Breaker website here, or through the Phantom Breaker Facebook here. The contest is currently set to end on February 14th.
Also revealed today by 7sixty was some gameplay footage from Phantom Breaker which can be seen below. This video features a one round battle between Infinity and Fin, albeit a very one sided one.
Fans of the 3D fighting genre have had to sit out in the cold for the last few years as the fighting genre focuses largely on 2D fighters, but a new title has come to save the day and provide a unique style of combat that cannot be found anywhere else. Namco Bandai’s Soulcalibur V has been released today in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The game takes place 17 years after the events of Soulcalibur IV and players must follow the story of Patroklos and Pyrrha Alexandra as their family’s destiny becomes entangled with that of the two Soul Swords. With a highly expanded character creation mode and a number of new features this may be Soulcalibur’s best entry in the series yet. Those looking to pick up the title can pick up a normal version for $60 or the Collector’s Edition for $80. The Collector’s Edition will include a faux leather-bound book, a music CD, making-of video content, hardcover art book and the Dark Knight and White Knight downloadable armor sets
Only those living under a rock don’t know that Final Fantasy XIII-2 is being released today to stores everywhere in North America, and while the title may offer a very large amount of gameplay time on its own, Square Enix is looking to extend your playtime even further. Though those simply interested in seeing what the main game has to offer can check out the launch trailer below.
Today Square Enix has revealed that the first piece of DLC for FFXIII-2 will be released the same time as in Japan, on February 7yth. The DLC will add Lightning and Master Sergeant Amador to the Coliseum battle gameplay mode and players will be able to use them in their party once they have been defeated. Further DLC will be released in the future, this includes various costumes for characters and more episodes to expand the narrative of FFXIII-2 though these pieces of DLC will be detailed more at a later time.
Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell finally has a more cement release window for their crazy shooter Hybrid. The release of Hybrid was delayed indefinitely in the past and now is currently set for a Summer 2012 launch window.
Thanks to the delay time, 5th Cell is promising a large amount of updates to the title, including a 60FPS framerate, a better looking game and a new twist on the in-air movement and combat. The trailer for the game can be seen below and features a large amount of gameplay. No price has currently been set for the title though one can assume it will be either 800-1200 MSP.
You may recall a few days ago when it was revealed that, unsurprisingly, the EA published SSX would contain an online pass. As such there was a bit of a hullabaloo but nothing too unexpected happened. At least not until today when EA has told Game Informer that the online pass for SSX does not actually lock out the online mode for the title.
Rather than lock them out of the game’s multiplayer functions it will lock out any credits players are awarded for competing in the online modes “Explore and “Global Events”. These credits are stored and will be available if the player chooses to pay the $10 for the online pass. EA went on to say that “Economy balance makes it possible to unlock all available content and allows you to participate in all event drops across both Explore and Global Events, with credits earned solely in Explore.”
Some people may think that being immortal is easy. However the life Bryce Boltzmann lives isn’t an easy one at all… in fact it is full of tragic suffering as he sees his beloved wife murdered in front of his eyes by the Demon King Astaroth and then cursed to forever live with that image in his mind.
His immortal life is empty and without aspiration as he simply battles against modern day demonic forces alongside his partner Arcadia for the National Anti-Demon Agency. While Bryce may not be the happiest fellow around, he can use his immortality to take on tasks no other mortal possibly could, including ripping off his own head and tossing it through the air or regenerating body parts like they are nothing at all. NeverDead is available today on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and players can try to possibly bring Bryce’s immortal life some closure as he faces off against the demons terrorizing the world.
