Guess what. It’s finally out. That’s right, the first big blockbuster release of 2012 has hit at least some of the worlds shelves. North American gamers can now get their hands on a copy of Mass Effect 3, with Australia and New Zealand following on March 8 and March 9 respectively. The final chapter in Commander Shepard’s journey is by no means limited to the retail game, with Bioware’s new Galaxy at War feature bringing several other ways to contribute to the final outcome of the main game, including the iOS app Mass Effect Infiltrator.
For the first time ever the series comes complete with up to four player co-op, which also contributes to the Galaxy at War readiness rating. Keen fans of the series will of course have got their hands on some of this portion of the game already, it having been released alongside the playable demo a few weeks ago. Expectations are certainly running high, so keep an eye on Capsule Computers to see just how well the game does to match them.
The Hunter Studio: Screen Australia, Porchlight Films, Jetty Distribution Publisher: Madman Format: DVD, Blu-ray (reviewed) Release Date: February 8, 2012 Price: $39.95 (available here)
Overview:
The Hunter is the first major feature film from Australian director Daniel Nettheim, starring Willem Dafoe (Antichrist, Spider-Man) , Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Frances O’ Connor. This Tasmanian set drama is based upon the novel of the same name by Julia Leigh, and sees Dafoe’s character Martin plunge into the wilderness in search of what is thought to be the very last Tasmanian Tiger. The ‘some mysteries should never be solved’ tagline hints at the pervasive atmosphere of unease and mystery that runs through the film, and The Hunter is certainly a tense and at times highly emotional journey. The story is a fairly simple one but well told, backed up by highly engaging characters and a couple of great performances.
Feature:
Martin David (Willem Dafoe) is hired by a military biotech company to track down what is believed to be the last remaining Tasmanian Tiger. The animal, believed to be extinct, holds in its DNA some useful secrets that the company will do anything to get their hands on. Martin is given strict orders – collect blood, hair, skin and organ samples, destroy the rest. That David takes on the job of hunting a species to extinction with no visible qualms establishes the dichotomy of his character. This is a man willing and able to kill efficiently, a loner who demands that he has no guide, yet he also befriends the family that he lodges with in the Tasmanian wilderness, and shows a good deal of heart in his dealings with them. The film too is a thing of two parts, with segments alternating between Martin tracking the elusive Tiger in the wilderness and spending time with Lucy (Frances O’Connor) and her two children. There’s a small subplot involving the logging of the local forest, but the greenies vs loggers battle is nowhere near as interesting as Martin’s own journey, reduced as it is to a conflict between bogan beer swilling loggers and fireball twirling hippies
When Martin arrives at the family’s home, it’s to find the two children running wild and the mother closeted away in bed. The kids are quick to ask if Martin is there to look for their father Jared, who they say has been up in the hills for a ‘long time’. Sam Neill plays against his usual Hollywood schtick as Jack, a rather creepy neighbor who reveals that Jared has in fact been missing for a year and is presumed dead – building on the sense of foreboding by making some pointed allusions about Jared’s similarities to Martin. This echoes the general feeling of unease that runs through the movie, which gradually unfolds to reveal an interesting if not unique story.
There are some big emotional kicks hiding in here too, with things becoming ever more complicated as David grows closer to the family, affecting his hunt for the Tiger. The affection and warmth he shows for the two children and their mother is in sharp contrast to the man who always hunts alone, setting vicious metal traps and gutting wildlife for his lures. Dafoe turns in a great performance as Martin, managing to balance the two sides of the character into one believable whole, steering well clear of any melodrama and making Martin a character who quietly steals his way into the audience’s affections. Frances O’Connor and Sam Neill also impress, but are outshone by the two young child actors – the girl in particular is fantastic, pulling off precocious without the usual added dose of irritability.
The last half hour of The Hunter turns what would have been a good film into a great one, and although it could veer too close to overly emotional for some, I was shocked by how much of an impact the final few scenes had on me. There is absolutely a pay off for all of the quiet tension building and subtle character work: if The Hunter manages to grab you in the beginning then the end will certainly become the tragic highlight of the film.
Audio & Visual:
The Hunter is a beautiful film , especially in pin sharp Blu-ray. The wild and rugged beauty of Tasmania is in full force here, with Martin’s journey lasting long enough to guide us through the harsh change of seasons. There are some fantastic shots of the strangely intimidating landscape, including some beautiful but danger filled moments in the snow and lashing rain – the Tasmanian Tourist Board couldn’t ask for more! The cinematography too, adds to the sense of unease that grows throughout the film, and is complimented by some fantastic choices in audio.
When Martin is in the wilderness the lack of dialogue and sparse sounds of modern life are drowned out by the wilderness, by birdsong, animal calls and the forest. What man made sounds there are come with all the greater impact, shattering the quiet yet tense atmosphere of the wilds. There are some very atmospheric pieces of original music within The Hunter that bring with them a subtle melancholy and sense of tragedy. These pieces are held to a counterpoint by the use of a couple of popular songs in key scenes with the family, with one Bruce Springsteen track in particular making for a memorable character scene.
Extras:
A half hour making of documentary explores the films roots in the novel of the same name, and also provides some welcome information about the Tasmanian Tiger for those not already in the know about one of ecology’s great tragedies. The animal has taken on almost a mythic status in Tasmania, and despite the fact that it is declared extinct, there are always fresh if unconfirmed reports from locals of sightings. It’s a reflection of the film’s success that watching this extra I was keen to agree with the locals interviewed by the film makers, who on the whole have faith that there are some Tigers still out there.
Three samples of music highlight the wonderful soundtrack for the film and are accompanied by galleries of stills taken from the main feature. There’s also an audio commentary with director Daniel Nettheim and producer Vincent Sheehan, which nicely extends to the handful of deleted scenes. The two are keen to dish out interesting details about the making of the film and are fairly easy to listen to.An ATOM study guide and Madman trailers also accompany the main feature.
It’s a good enough selection for the release, although the incredibly slight colour differences in the menu text makes it quite hard to see what you’re selecting.
Overall:
The Hunter can add itself to the ever growing collection of great Australian films. If you let it sweep you into it’s quiet yet dangerous world there’s a lot to be had here, and as a newcomer to Australia I’m glad to have watched it as an introduction to Tasmania and the Tiger. Dafoe anchors the film very well with a quiet but highly expressive performance which reflects the film as a whole – not brash or loud or flashy, The Hunter is a subtle, well written film packed with tension and plenty of moments that are both uncompromising and unpredictable.
Draw Something Developer: OMG POP, Inc. Publisher: OMG POP, Inc. Release Date: February 1, 2012 Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch, Android Price: $0.99 (HERE) or free with ads (HERE)
Overview
Draw Something is a game with two vastly different experiences, the one you’ll have with friends and the one you’ll have with random players. As you could probably guess, one of them is a spectacularly fun romp through the game’s Pictionary-based gameplay, while the other is a frustrating experience even the most patient of players will have trouble dealing with.
Gameplay
Draw Something is a multiplayer-only portable version of OMG POP’s Draw My Thing Facebook application. This in turn is based on the simple, yet hilarious fun of the game Pictionary (yes, a game that you play face-to-face with other people and not using some virtual device or other).
For those of you who may not have played any past iteration of Pictionary, it’s a game that involves one player being assigned a word and having to draw it out so that another player can guess what it is. In the case of Draw Something, it involves choosing one of three easy, medium, or hard words. The harder the word you select, the larger amount of coins you’ll receive if the other player guesses correctly. Rounds proceed only when both players have drawn a word, so depending on how dedicated the person you’re playing is, you could play one round of Draw Something every ten minutes or only once a day. After the drawing round, players will then go through a guessing round, where they’re provided with the number of letters in the word they’re supposed to be guessing and with a bank of letters from which they can drag the correct ones and put them in the right order to produce said word. Again, you’ll have to wait for the other player to finish up guessing before you can move on to the next round.
To the game’s credit, there’s a wide variety of words, including everything from basic, everyday items to celebrities such as Lady Gaga.
The aforementioned coins can be used to purchase new colours for drawing or to blow up some of the incorrect letters placed within the letter bank to aid with guessing. Aside from winning this in-game currency via playing the game, you can also lay down some real world cash to garner more coins through in-App purchases.
So that’s how Draw Something is supposed to play, and then there’s how it actually plays. When you start a game with a random player you’ll find the usual issues associated with Internet anonymity: stupid people and trolls. There are a lot of people who will simply write out the word so that you guess correctly and they can get the coins from hard words, and then there are the people who seem to not understand the most basic of drawings (I had the great pleasure of someone fail at guessing the word “ring”).
The flip side of this is that when you play with friends (there’s a great Facebook integration system included to help you connect) Draw Something can become a ton of fun. My most memorable guessing experience was when my fellow Capsule Computers Editor, Jonno Weiss, elected to draw Cartman’s ventriloquist hand-puppet “Jennifer Clopez” from South Park to illustrate the word J-Lo. Using inside jokes and things you know your friends will just get adds a tremendous amount to the experience, and speaks a lot to how the original concept of Pictionary became such a widespread game.
There are other issues with Draw Something beyond the aggravation of random players, though. If you’re in a game and want to stop drawing or guessing to move to another one… well, you can’t (short of rebooting your iDevice). This is completely off-putting and makes exiting a frustrating experience with a game-troll a bigger challenge than it really should be.
When you play Draw Something with a friend, it’s some of the most fun to be had on iOS platforms. When you’re playing with random people, the game’s flaws reveal themselves to you, and you’ll occasionally feel like chucking your device at a wall in frustration.
Audio & Visual
The game features a cutesy intro, but aside from that, audio plays almost no part in Draw Something. What does play a part is the slickly designed interface.
It’s easy to understand everything happening on screen, and being able to watch your opposite player’s guesses and drawing process is great fun and really makes you feel like you’re playing against another person. Watching their thought process is a lot more gratifying than simply getting “correct” or “incorrect” as replies to your turns.
Overall
Draw Something is a game that is equal parts frustrating and glorious fun. When played with friends it becomes possibly one of the best multiplayer experiences on the iOS platforms (minus a few polish issues), but when played against someone who you don’t know, it wins out for getting the worst out of its mechanics in almost every way. By all means check out the free version that comes with ads, and if you find you spend more time laughing with friends than struggling with randoms, then the full purchase is well worth it. If not, steer clear.
Incoboto Developer: Fluttermind Publisher: Fluttermind Platform: iPad Release Date: March 1, 2012 Price: $2.99 – Available Here
Overview
Incoboto is a one man video gaming project by Dane Carter, one of the co-founders of Big Blue Box Studios which created Fable for Xbox. Incoboto is described as an adventure-puzzler in the spirit of Portal and Ico. Does Incoboto stack up against the name dropping?
Story
Incoboto is incredibly depressing. A company named The Corporation causes all the suns to die out, killing almost everyone. A small boy named Inco seems to be the only one left. So he sets off with his friend Helios, a sun with speech difficulties, to go on the adventure of a lifetime to bring light to the skies once again. The story is told through narration and supported by notes left behind by the dead and creepy signs left by The Corporation. Themes of death and loneliness are pervasive. This is emotionally heavy stuff.
Even with the sun, Helios, as your constant traveling partner, Inco’s small size, and the sterile and vast landscape make it really easy to feel utterly alone. The Corporation’s signs are well written and incredibly funny in a dark Aperture Science like manner. This helps lighten up the mood of an otherwise depressing tale. Although rebirth is also an important theme in Incoboto, it is hard to not feel a little emotionally dragged down by the game. An engrossing and touching story like Incoboto does not come often on the iOS format and is a refreshing change.
Visuals
Incoboto is a gorgeous looking game. The visuals are sharp and well made. The visual style takes cues from Limbo, World of Goo, and Super Mario Galaxy. The camera is attached to the center of the planet Inco walks and pans from side to side as he moves. It is smooth and works well. There is a surprising amount of color in the game that is a sharp contrast to the heavy use of blacks.
The splashes of color helps bring a little cheer and hope in a depressing and lonely experience. It helps fuel the themes of rebirth in Incoboto, keeping the game from being so sad and bleak you need to put down the game. Inco’s character model is extremely small and may be a challenge for those who are hard of sight.
Audio
The audio experience in Incoboto is an absolute joy. The background music is subtle yet moody. The game would not be nearly as depressing and lonely feeling without the soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is available on Band Camp for 2 British Pounds and is absolutely worth a separate purchase. The games audio leans heavily on the synthesizer which fits perfectly with the sci-fi theme of Incoboto.
The sound effects are perky and cheery in sharp contrast of the music. The sound effects of using puzzle mechanics and traveling from planet to plant made me feel like I was doing something to bring light and life back to the universe. Definitely plug in some headphones when you play Incoboto or risk losing a huge part of the experience.
Gameplay
Incoboto can be utterly fiendish at times. The puzzles are well thought out and range from simple to mind bending. Some require thinking out of the box; others are a matter of timing or agility. Prepare to be stuck at certain points. However, figuring out a puzzle that has stumped you for the last three hours is an incredibly rewarding experience. Puzzle mechanics take a few cues from Portal but adds enough twists to not feel like a mobile 2d version of the game. If you can persevere through some frustrating moments from being stuck by some fiendish puzzles, you are in for an amazing puzzle gaming experience.
One mild annoyance with Incoboto I feel worth mentioning is the ever present tweet this button in The Corporation signs. Although The Corporation slogans are well written and extremely funny, the button feels utterly unnecessary and I personally found it to detract from the feel of the game. It is not really that intrusive but I would be happier if it was not there.
Incoboto has two control schemes, one utilizing the whole screen and the other feeling more like a controller. Most will want to use the default control setting as I found the controller type setting to be rather clumsy and inaccurate. There are several puzzles requiring accuracy and speed which makes the controller setting unusable at times. The default setting on the other hand is nearly perfect. It is responsive and incredibly accurate. However there is one thing I do not like about it.
Because it requires the use of the whole screens, sometimes I found my hand covering up a portion of the screen. It is not a huge deal, but it feels like a shame to be covering up a game as good looking as Incoboto. There is one minor control annoyance that may plague gamers with larger fingers. Because many things are extremely small in the game, clicking on the small items or buttons can be difficult at times. Even with my small fingers, I found myself accidently clicking the wrong object at times. Overall, Incoboto makes great use of the iPads generous touch screen space.
Overall
Incoboto is a fantastic game that has earned its place in my must play list. I don’t think I have felt this emotionally moved by a game since the ending of Lunar: Silver Star Story. The audio, graphics, and storytelling come together perfectly to give depth to a surprisingly challenging adventure-puzzle game. The incredible part about this is the fact one man did this all. Incoboto is worth the 2.99 price tag and is a must have for every single iPad game library.
It seems like Square Enix and IO Interactive have chosen to go the conservative route when it comes to Hitman Absolution’s box art. We have a stylish red background and Agent 47 with his pistols out looking to the side. Very simple, but sometimes that works the best. Though I doubt that rating there will stay as RP for very long and take a jump to M once the game is given a rating. Then maybe we’ll hear some news about a possible release date…
The full box art can be seen to the right, though those interested in seeing the box art in full resolution can do so by clicking the thumbnails below which feature the box arts for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version, although each is the exact same minus various logos of course.
Don’t want to take all the extra effort to train up a Pokémon to level 100 the old fashioned way? Well The Pokémon Company has decided they would take care of that for you. Starting on March 10th, Pokémon Black and White players in the United States will be able to grab a free Reshiram for White and a Zekrom for Black through the Wi-Fi system.
As you can see above, both of the Pokémon will come at level 100 with the above move set and they will also be holding onto a Dragon Gem, making them all the more powerful. At least once you download one of these guys you’ll be able to breeze through the rest of the game if you have somehow not yet finished it at this point in time.
While we’ve been teased before and given minor details about Medal of Honor Warfighter through various unofficial means, EA has made it official today by releasing the debut trailer for the game today. Not only that but this debut trailer has a release date attached to the end of it, stating that the game will be available on October 23 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
The debut trailer can be seen below and features a bit of stealthy action before plenty of people get shot, blown up and all around destroyed. Don’t be confused by the subtitles however, it is meant to be that way.
While the Nintendo 3DS may have had a slow start out of the gate when it was released last year, it has quite obviously had quite an upswing over the past few months. So much so in fact that numbers revealed today by Nintendo for the United States. You see, the one year anniversary for the handheld is approaching quickly in this territory and according to Nintendo’s report, the system has sold 4.5 million systems in the U.S. so far.
This number is twice the amount sold for the Nintendo DS when it’s first year only pulled in 2.3 million systems. This is quite a big success for Nintendo as this clearly shows the handhelds staying power. With the handheld in the hands of millions in North America alone and over 15 million sold worldwide, this is a good time for developers to try out the new handheld and give owners some new intriguing titles. You know though, this all had to do with the success of the Pink 3DS seen above…
While things have been a bit quiet about Resident Evil 6 ever since it was revealed weeks ago by Capcom. However it seems the final product will have at least one new feature that has never been included in a Resident Evil title before, and that is the ability to choose dialogue options.
Siliconera is reporting that this week’s Dengeki PlayStation magazine has leaked the information, allowing “seamless” conversations that can change depending on the situation. One of the developers spoke with Dengeki PlayStation and stated that they believed Capcom was going overboard with the new system. This could provide a whole new take on the way story is handled in Resident Evil, which by and far hasn’t been the series’ strong point as far as depth is concerned.
It is always a problem for a company whenever information is leaked out before they choose to reveal it. Usually this is a mistake from a retailer of some sort, but this time around it is a mistake from the Xbox Live Marketplace itself. For a very brief moment, the listing on the marketplace for Assassin’s Creed 3 listed “Online co-op 2 – 4” alongside the game’s standard “Online multiplayer 2 – 8.”
This listing for co-op has since been removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace but not before it was snagged by Videogamer. Now this information could actually be false, but it could also be true, being the first time a co-op campaign was added into the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
