If you are a publisher about to put out a very expensive and expansive new title that has never had a sequel before there is always the chance that the game may not do well in stores. In fact, Capcom has very high hopes for the game, so much so that they hope it sells at least 1.5 million copies worldwide.
While this may be a very admirable goal for a new I.P. Capcom has probably just guaranteed that they will hit that mark. For you see, they have announced today that every retail copy of Dragon’s Dogma on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will come with a downloadable code for an early demo of Resident Evil 6. Xbox 360 owners will be able to redeem their code on July 3rd… a full two months before PlayStation 3 owners who will need to wait until September 4th.
Various retailers are also detailing pre-order bonuses as well. This includes GameStop offering the “Pawn Upgrade Pack” which provides additional Rift Crystals and lets you rent higher level pawns from the start. Best Buy is offering a higher level armor upgrade via the “Armor Upgrade Pack” and Amazon is providing higher level weaposn via the “Weapon Upgrade Pack.” Seems like the May 22nd release of Dragon’s Dogma just got a whole lot sweeter than it already was. Those still on the fence can check out the story trailer for the title which was released today.
Today EA has released a video that not only provides us with plenty of in-game footage of the characters but also behind-the-scenes footage of the characters voice actors recording lines and talking about the title. The video can be seen below and the full voice cast and what characters they are performing can also be seen below. Let me say that Seth Green looks quite different with a full beard now but it is great to see him retain his role as Joker.
Martin Sheen as The Elusive Man
Seth Green as Joker
Tricia Helfer as Normandy’s A.I EDI
Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda
Carrie-Anne Moss as Aria T’Loak
Ali Hills as Dr. Liara T’Soni
Keith David as Captain Anderson
Lance Henriksen as Admiral Steven Hackett
Freddy Prinze Jr. as James Vega
Jessica Chobot as Diana Allers
Mark Meer, Jennifer Hale as Sheppard, Male and Female
THQ has had a troubling last few weeks, among news of various layoffs from their company to the company dropping all aspects of working on licensed children games, it has now received a deslisting warning from the NASDAQ stock exchange says Develop. The reason for this is because the company’s stock has been traded for below the minimum of $1 for the past month.
The publisher has 180 total calendar days, or until July 23, 2012 to raise its stock up above the $1 mark for at least 10 consecutive business days, if not then the stock will be delisted and taken down from the market which would have a very negative impact on the company as a whole. Now various companies have come back from this and avoided delisting in the past, Majesco has done so twice in fact. Those who are curious about THQ’s stock price will know that today it was being traded at only $0.70 a stock.
You may remember that a week or so ago EA revealed that they would be releasing a four-player co-op demo for their take on the Syndicate video game later in the month. Well it seems that the demo is now available on both the Xbox 360 and a little bit later on the PlayStation 3.
The demo will allow players to take on the “Western Europe” level and feature players infiltrating Cayman Global to take out Colonel Enrico Gabron and steal his blueprints. EA released a trailer for the demo and even talk about a little history from the game itself. You can add the demo to your download queue for the 360 version here to see if you want to pick up the full game when it is released on February 21st.
Soulcalibur V Developer: Project Soul Publisher: Namco Bandai Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 Release Date: January 31, 2012 Price: $59.99 – Available Here
Overview:
Over the past few years the fighting genre has been flooded with a number of different fighting series making their mark on the genre. However all of these games have had one thing in common… they were all 2D fighters. This includes the ever popular Street Fighter series and its numerous iterations; BlazBlue’s multiple iterations, as well as Mortal Kombat and even the upcoming Street Fighter x Tekken.
What the fighting genre is lacking is a quality 3D fighting title, and Team Soul is looking to bring one to fighting fans everywhere with Soulcalibur V. A tale of souls and swords that transcends history and the world will be retold once again. Is this tale one worth participating in or left to fade into the same history it is meant to transcend?
Story:
The world of Soulcalibur has been rather quiet over the past seventeen years however a new war is brewing between good and evil and those who are to wield Soul Calibur and Soul Edge. Over the past seventeen years many new faces have appeared in the world and familiar ones have faded away, will the new generation of fighters be able to stop evil from consuming the world?
Now it is worth noting that unlike past titles, there is no individual story mode for any of the other characters in the game. The only story mode in Soulcalibur V is a structured path that is followed without change. This means that numerous characters are unfortunately left in the dark and barely see any screen time at all in the story, with some completely left out entirely with little to no explanation for why they are included in the title.
Soulcalibur V’s story mode follows the journey of Patroklos, the son of Sophitia Aelxandra as his family becomes deeply entwined in the fate of the two Soul swords. Patroklos believes himself a holy warrior who defeats any malfested, those tainted by the evil Soul Edge, while also searching for the malfested who has kidnapped his long lost sister. However little does he know that his own sister is too a malfested… Can this young man possibly reunite his family and defeat Nightmare to put an end to Soul Edge’s evil once again?
The story for Soulcalibur advances through chapter battles, with each chapter usually consisting of a battle against one or more characters. Before each battle the story will be presented through hand drawn still-images which is highly stylized but occasionally with cutscenes as well. Each of these images are then accompanied by a voice over from the characters as the story is advanced.
While the story mode unfortunately only clocks in at a measly three to four hours depending on player skill, there is a decent story told here with multiple twists that can catch the player off guard. But it is hard to overlook the structured nature of each chapter and the lack of gameplay length.
Visuals:
While the visuals in Soulcalibur IV were already of a high quality, the ones found in Soulcalibur V are clearly a step above and the care given to them by the developers is evident through the amount of detail found nearly everywhere on the screen. The characters themselves are full of detail and have seen various physical makeovers and improvements.
The same level of detail carries over to the Create a Fighter mode where players have the ability to create characters nearly as detailed as the main cast with just as impressive detail and overall quality. The arenas are also very detailed and full of animation in the background that makes the player feel like they are fighting in the middle of a battlefield in some cases.
Audio:
Each of the characters are given adequate voice work and the voice actor for Ezio Auditore sounds the same as the one for the Assassin’s Creed titles. The voice work is usually only exemplified during the Story Mode however as the player watches the various still art scenes and listen to the narration by the characters. One thing worth mentioning however is the great voice work provided by the Narrator who continues to excel in that field from past Soulcalibur titles.
The background music is suitable and players can select their own when they are choosing their match type. Most music provided is themed to a certain character so some themes may sound familiar to those who have played previous titles from the franchise.
Gameplay:
Soulcalibur V offers plenty of different modes depending on what you feel like playing at any given time. These modes range from various offline modes and online modes as well. The offline modes consist of Quickplay which allows the player to battle against pre-made custom fighters that were added into the game by the developers. Defeating opponents in Quickplay unlock various titles to use on the player’s license. Players will also receive experience points for any battle they fight in any gameplay mode which will contribute to their player level and unlock various Create a Fighter bonuses.
There is also the standard Arcade mode that allows the player to fight a series of six battles though no storyline is given in this mode, a training ground, the soul crushingly difficult Legendary Souls mode that players can unlock where they will face off against harder than hard fighters and see how many throws their controller can handle before breaking, a training mode, a VS. mode to face off against friends or the CPU cast and of course the aforementioned story mode.
At its core Soulcalibur has always been a title that allows for players to be able to jump in and have a good time even if they weren’t the most experienced player in the world. Of course an easy barrier of entry doesn’t meant that the title doesn’t contain plenty of complicated combos and extravagant fighting techniques to be learned by the more skilled players looking for a challenge.
Soulcalibur V’s fighting styles have always been a pleasure to try out and each fighter contains a unique set of moves that allow for players to quickly pick their favorite. There are different weapon types with various attack ranges and move sets that each character is a whole new experience that breaths fresh air into a fighting genre oft plagued with blatant copies with a minor re-skin (though there are more sword and shield characters than some may like.) In the character select screen each character is given a grid system showing how fast they can attack, their strength of attack as well as their ease of use so the more complicated fighters are already marked out for the inexperienced.
The new cast of characters is interesting at best and nearly all of the characters’ move sets have been adjusted in some way or another. This includes the removal of some techniques and additions of others for returning characters or characters mimicking past styles. There are a few worth mentioning however that bring unique abilities to the table, such as ZWEI a man capable of summoning a werewolf to assist in his combos and Viola who fights with a crystal ball that can be controlled all the way from the other side of the arena through various combo attacks. Also joining the fray is Ezio Auditore from the Assassin’s Creed series. He brings with him all of his various tricks and weapons and compared to past guest characters he actually fits the style of the game nearly perfectly.
As a whole the battles still feel slow compared to what other fighting series bring to the table. While this can be attributed to the fact that all the fighters use weaponry rather than their fists, the series does contain numerous combos that result in a very brief pause that can leave your fighter open for counterattack. The juggling system has also seen some adjustment as players will receive less damage from normal attacks the longer they are kept in the air and will fall to the ground after only a few hits thanks to Soulcalibur V’s acknowledgment of gravity.
Given that most characters will leave themselves open for a brief moment between attacks, the block button is likely to be the friend of most gamers in Soulcalibur V. While blocking will help you survive longer, the block break mechanic has been adjusted where players will have their blocks broken through and be left vulnerable if they have received too many blocked blows. This is indicated by their Health bar flashing yellow and then red as their block is about to be broken. Players can still break opponents clothing off as well, but this is not tied to the blocking mechanic anymore.
As the player battles against their opponent they will fill up a Critical Gauge in the corner of their Health Bar. When full the number will display a one, and be completely full at two. This gauge allows the player to perform a powerful combo attack called a Critical Edge that will deal a large amount of damage to your opponent and is unblockable if the first attack hits. Also making use of the Critical Gauge are Brave Edge attacks which help extend the length of certain combos and deal extra damage, though these only use half the amount of a Critical Edge attack.
Once you feel like you are ready to take on other fighters around the world you can face off against them in a few different ways. This includes your standard Ranked Battle where you will be given an opponent at random depending on your search parameters as well as Player Battles that let you create and search rooms to battle against your friends. In these Player Battles those waiting will be able to watch the fight happen as a spectator which alleviates the waiting time and provides hints at your opponent’s fighting style.
Closing out the online modes is the Global Colosseo mode that allows players to search for a large room that can fill with a large amount of players and they can join battles and tournaments there with much greater ease than in the Player Battle mode. Another new feature added is the Rival system that lets players register up to three Rivals. Rivals fighting stats are then tracked and compared to the player’s and help provide an easy comparing system.
As mentioned before, the Create a Fighter system has seen a major improvement as far as the level of quality goes. Players will be able to create nearly any type of character they see fit with a large amount of clothing and equipment provided at the start of the game with more to unlock by leveling up. Players can adjust everything about their character including their proportions, color their armor or even add patterns and tattoos and even the weapons themselves. As a whole the Create A Fighter system is the best we’ve seen so far and being able to take your created fighter online to fight against others is one of the biggest thrills the title can present.
Overall:
While Soulcalibur V may have taken a step back as far as a storyline goes, in fact it contains what some may find as a lesser story than ever before. However the amount of character creation abilities and the simple joy of the various fighting styles and mechanics outweigh the negativity of the lacking story. Boasting a lag free and easy to access multiplayer mode players will find countless hours of enjoyment as they create numerous fighters and battle against the AI, their friends and those online Soulcalibur V can stand proud as being one of the most enjoyable fighting games in recent memory.
Imagine this: you grab a bunch of video game programers, designers, developers and such, then lock them in a room together for 48 hours. Then, you split them up into teams and tell them they have 2 days to make a video game and it has to be based on a particular theme. Meanwhile in hundreds of locations around the world countless people are working on their own games with the same theme, competing with each other to make the best game possible within the same tiny time period. Sounds insane right? Well that’s the Global Game Jam, and it’s the ultimate way for an indie developer to test their game-making skills. This year the game jam was held between January 27 through to January 29, and marked the first time a game jam was ever held at the NSW Wollongong campus, and us here at Capsule Computers headed over to check it out.
What’s the 2012 Theme?
This year for GGJ (that’s Global Game Jam for short, try and keep up will ya?) shook things up by instead of making the theme a particular word, participants were provided with the following image:
See that badboy? That’s called the Ouroboros, an ancient Greek symbol of a snake eating itself, representing the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The best part is nobody was told what the image means, meaning some will get it and some won’t, providing endless possibilities and one of the biggest challenges yet in GGJ history!
So How’d It Go Down?
It’s a major struggle to put this experience into words. The Wollongong Game Jam campus while small with only about 30 participating developers, was filled with an incredibly large amount of frantic energy. Once the theme was announced on that Friday afternoon and the teams were formed, everybody rushed to their whiteboards armed with markers and inspiration.
These teams ranged from very experienced jammers to rookies, from people with lots of experience working together, to complete strangers. Some were well-rested and well-prepared, while others were on as little as only 3 hours sleep. Now that’s dedication! Awesome food ranging from chicken & lasagne, to pizza to even subway sandwiches were provided to keep participants motivated as they raced against the clock. At all times the intensity filled the air and yes…it did smell like nobody left their computers for 48 hours!
How Good Can A 48 Hour Game Be Anyways?
Pretty damn good I tell you! The competitive atmosphere was totally justified, as everybody was up against some damn good games. It’s really incredible what hard work and motivation can end up doing as every game turned out to be really impressive!
Contagionis a fine example of creativity. Josh Farquhar was an army of one, making him the smallest team on the campus, and to make matters worse he had very little art skills at hand. This however did not stop him from making a unique, well-made and addictive title. In Contagion players play either against AI or with up to four players as cells in a biological organism, trying to infect each other to gain total domination in this single-button game. With power ups, AI and solid gameplay, Contagion was surprisingly a strong highlight for the event – especially since it was made as a solo project!
After much debate, winner of Best Overall Game went to Growth, a game that stuck true to the theme well by basing it’s gameplay about the life and death of a tree you must take care of, and upon it’s death it can sprout life to a newer and more stronger tree. While gameplay appears simple, much technical depth is involved underneath as there are consequences for all your actions. Too much rain can cause a flood, too much wind can blow away your soil, and too much heat can set your tree on fire. The more you play the game the more you begin to care for the tree and want to nurture it. With some polish, Growth has the potential to become a really addictive iPhone title. What’s mind blowing is that this team of 4 consists of one artist and 3 computer science students who are just in their first year. Check out the game in action here!
The Life and Times of Pepper Jackfor me was the biggest surprise, scoring the title for Best Sound as well as getting notable mentions for Best Graphics & Best Game as well. Featuring enchanting character design and a unique dark-yet-cute concept, this game played in the likes of infinite runner titles such as Zombie Runaway or Temple Run. Players control Pepper Jack as he lives his life from cradle to the grave, while trying to avoid distractions that will simply waste his time. The goal of the game is to live a fulfilling life and get to the end (which is death) without living a boring life. Having too many distractions will kill Jack before his time, so avoiding these is crucial. Once you complete your life, your life is judged by the ‘life experience’ orbs you collect of three types – neutral, morally good and morally bad. Aside from it’s creative concept, interesting design and fun gameplay, The Life and Times of Pepper Jack wowed judges mostly with it’s interesting and unique choice sound – a ticking clock that sped up the closer you are to death. This choice proves both simple, creative and effective and fits the theme of the game perfectly. Check out the game in actionhere!
InOnion Head, players take control of Onion Head – a cute character with an Onion for a Head who loves flowers for some reason. Giant flowers are randomly generated and it’s your job to climb up their stalks to retrieve seed pods in order to plant more flowers in this fun platformer. Consisting of a team of two and an interesting take on the theme, Onion Head’s simple yet fun concept was a joy to play – with hilarious sound effects!
Not to be confused with the Metal Gear Solid title,Snake Eaterstood out as the clear winner for Best Graphics, and also scored a notable mention forBest Overall Game. This experienced team of 5 known as Black Wolf Games have entered in multiple competitions of this nature in the past and came in with the advantage of already knowing how to work efficiently together as a team. Snake Eater takes the classic mobile game Snake and gives it a twist – instead of eating food, your eating other snakes. To top it off it’s not grid-based either, making the experience completely fresh and new. Against up to 3 friends or AI, this fun, competitive title is filled with impressive creativity and polish. If the team consider giving this game a bit of extra work & content like online play in the future, Snake Eater could be a pretty fun Steam or XBLA title worthy of a proper release as it is smothered in potential. Check out the game in action here!
WhileToob Racerdidn’t win any awards, it still remained a strong competitor and stood as one of the crowd favourites. Featuring 3D graphics, Toob Racer contains F-Zero styled futuristic gameplay, with two players controlling spaceships racing each other in a tube. Players dodge obstacles and collect power ups as they infinitely race with no finish line. Instead of reaching the end, the winner is decided by who reaches terminal velocity first. Toob Racer successfully achieves the feeling of fast-paced gameplay and proved to be a really fun experience. Check out the game in action here!
This space-themed title you see above I can’t really say much about other than it’s developers appeared pretty disheartened at their presentation, and the official listing has this game named as ‘The Game‘. While I’m unaware of the details, I hear this team unfortunately had a few dilemmas throughout their creative journey. I can only hope these guys don’t give up and take the game jam as a learning experience to push on and improve their skills!
Snakes and Orbs is a prime example of all the drama a team can unfortunately come across whilst making a game in 48 hours. I really felt sorry for these guys as 24 hours into the event they changed game engines from Unity to Flash, so they had to start all over again from scratch! The final result while a little incomplete, did show the foundations of a quality game where you play as a Snake that can fly, trying to eat orbs to make it grow on a 2D plane in a platformer-styled fashion. Based on their result however, Im sure if they had the full 48 hours to work on their title in Flash, Im confident that Snakes and Orbs would’ve been a pretty fun title to play.
While Super Soul Smash wasn’t perfect in execution, it’s concept is both unique and intelligent and with a bit of work could result in a very quality browser-based game. Taking advantage of a retro 8-bit theme, this interesting Facebook game has you saving the souls of your friends and family from evil demons who want to suck them up. Note when I’m saying your friends and family, I really do mean YOURS! That’s right, this Facebook game is meant to take pictures from your friends list and puts them in the game. Pretty cool huh?
While GGJ may be a competition, more importantly it’s a valuable learning experience. As all participants would tell you, the things they learn during these 48 hours have helped gain them ‘level up’ as game developers, teaching them valuable skills through experience. If you’re a game developer, seriously look into participating in a Global Game Jam in the future and put your programming and designing skills to the test!
Bluemouth Interactive have revealed their Playstation Vita accessory line up ahead of the Playstation Vita launch on February 23, 2012. Four of the products have been released in more detail, however, nine products will be available. They include a Game Traveller Case, a Hard Case, a Screen Protector Set and the 8-in-1 Essential Pack. Here are the products in more detail, accompanied by a picture of the accessory in question.
PS Vita Game Traveller Case – RRP $19.95
Hold PS Vita console and 16 games
Carrying case converts to a convenient viewing stand.
Carabineer for secure attachment to accessory bags or clothing
Hard-shell construction for maximum protection
Loop carrying handle
PS Vita Hard Case – RRP $9.95
Hard shell case providing optimum protection for your PS Vita console.
Play your PS Vita without removing it.
folding foot transforms your shell case in to a stand for your PS Vita.
PS Vita Screen Protect Set – RRP $9.95
Protects the tactile screens of your PS Vita console.
Includes protective films for PS Vita rear touch panel and front screen, thin and flexible films that easily fit and an antistatic cleaning cloth.
PS Vita 8-in-1 Essential Pack – RRP $29.95
Includes:
EVA pouch for PS Vita.
Carry and protect your PS Vita, games and memory cards.
Compact and protective storage cases.
Console silicon glove
2 game and 2 memory cards each.
Screen protector kit.
High quality screen protector for the PS Vita screen + antistatic cleaning cloth.
Wrist & neck strap for PS Vita.
Stereo earphone that provide high quality sound for your PSVita.
Universal 3.5mm jack.
Splitter – Connect an additional set of earphones.
With these accessories and more coming out at launch, potential Vita owners are definitely spoiled for choice. However, considering that Australians have to pay premium for the console, memory card and game, accessories may be asking a little much. Then again, it’s not that much.
Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality are working on a shmup title to be released as a downloadable title on Xbox Live Arcade, called Sine Mora. Grasshopper Manufacture recently worked on the outrageous and brilliant Shadows of the Damned, and they are hoping that this title will reinvent the shmup genre and take it to the next level.
The game is being billed as a diesalpunk shooter that will mix vintage shooter conventions with modern visual presentation. The gameplay system will feature some new ideas, in particular the boss battles are going to be unlike anything seen in a shmup title, and are being designed and directed by Mahiro Maeda, known for his work on Blue Submarine, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Animatrix, and the animated sequence of Kill Bill Vol. 1, and has also done artwork for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The music of the game is being done by none other than Akira Yamora, who is well known for his musical work for the Silent Hill series and more recently shadows of the Damned.
Konami have released the first ever gameplay trailer for Fairy Tail: Zeref Awakens on the Playstation Portable.
The new trailer which can be seen below shows off various characters playable in the game as well as multiple features such as Guild creation, costume creation and team creation. There is an unprecedented level of customization in Fairy Tail: Zeref Awakens for a Fairy Tail game.
Check out the new trailer below and let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section. Fairy Tail: Zeref Awakens wakes up on the Playstation Portable on the 22nd of March.
Codemasters have already put three entries into the DiRT series thus far, and come this May, a 4th will be released under the name DiRT Showdown. Today, a new trailer has been delivered to the fans of the series, and there is quite a few new offerings to see this time around.
In the clip, DiRT Showdown’s 8 Ball event is in full display, showing off some of the destruction that we can expect to see with insane jumps, crossover points, and cannons now in the mix. Boosts can also be used to smash into opponents as well, making the gameplay much more intense and aggressive.
Yes, as you see, this DiRT is about much more than crossing a finish line. This spin-off of sorts is much more competitive and combative, with the racing engine that changed what we know about the genre put to use in not just races, but flat out demolition styled match-ups.
Codemasters recently detailed some of the other modes found in the game:
There are three broad categories to DiRT Showdown’s thrilling action-sports racing. Players will use nitrous to blast past rivals and negotiate courses filled with ramps, pinch points and obstacles in full-contact Racing events. Gaming’s most advanced damage engine is unleashed in Demolition Derby themed events where players smash and crash their way to victory in bone-jarring style. Finally, in Hoonigan events, gamers will send fans wild in huge stunt parks where accessible new controls offer every player the chance to become a freestyle driving hero.
From San Francisco to Miami and London to Tokyo, players will dominate their rivals and wow the crowds on their way to becoming a driving superstar. Pyrotechnics, lasers and thousands of fans give each venue a vibrant sports entertainment atmosphere, with the player taking centre stage. Over 50 different events across four championships will challenge gamers in a variety of conditions – sun, snow and rain – through the day and under the floodlights at night.
DiRT Showdown will feature an exciting new line up of off-road machines. Ken Block’s all new Gymkhana FOUR H.F.H.V. Ford Fiesta debuts alongside an eclectic mix of vehicles across a range of classes. From saloons and muscle cars to pick-up-trucks, hearses and vans, players have a wide selection of custom cars to trick, race and destroy.
DiRT Showdown will be Codemasters’ most connected game ever – split-screen multiplayer, eight-player online racing, on and off-line quick-fire party games and YouTube integration all come as standard. Players will also be able to issue ‘Showdown Challenges’ to compete with friends whether they are online or not.
I remember when I played the original DiRT a good time ago and was mainly blown away by the stunning visuals, as at the time, we had never seen another racing game like it. Codemasters have perfected DiRT to the max though this time around and have evolved the series into a franchise that can truly stand on it’s own due to all the uniqueness involved, so DiRT Showdown could very well be the shining point of the entire lot. Check out the trailer below, and get ready as in 3 months time, Dirt Showdown will be releasing for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
