Xbox Live is celebrating the release of yet another new multimedia app. This time it’s Sony Pictures Entertainment’s video entertainment network Crackle. The app is free to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace from today in Australia, the US, UK and Canada.
So what will Crackle give you? If you have an Xbox Live Gold Membership, Crackle will allow you to stream TV shows and full length movies for free: the trade off being that everything is ad supported. Some of the content on offer in Australia includes the movie Sniper, various anime including Blood Plus and Viper’s Creed, and a host of original programming designed to hit the apps target market – that’s right “18-34 year old males with internet enabled devices”, they’re looking at you.
The app also integrates some Kinect functionality, so you can command your Xbox 360 to play your Crackle content using only the power of your voice (and a few random movements of course). Users will also be able to search Xbox Live for content, which will be regularly refreshed with premiering movies and shows.
The Humble Indie Bundle has embraced Android with its hug of cheap but great game awesomeness. The latest special from the folks over at Humble is the most cross platform deal yet, offering titles that will run on Android mobile devices, Windows, Mac and Linux.
The games in the pick your price bundle are:
Anomaly: Warzone Earth Osmos EDGE
And as per usual, if you have a generous soul and give more than the average contribution, you’ll get your mitts on a bonus title – World of Goo. Everything is DRM free and can be redeemed via Steam, and a portion of the purchase price can be donated to charity.
Interested? Head over to humblebundle.com and grab some quality games for a great price.
Square Enix modern day producers of the Final Fantasy series are celebrating the franchise’s 25th birthday with a special release of merchandise.
They are releasing promo goods with art from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and also some classic chocobo and moogle artwork with the 25th anniversary editions.
The promotional goods include tumblers and sets of playing cards, using classical character and classic-style chibi characters. For the traditional Final Fantasy fans this is a must have, as they go back to the absolute first games, when the company Squaresoft was still producing the franchise.
Personally these collectables could not be shipped to my house fast enough.
The Darksiders universe is going in for a bit of rapid expansion. Appearing on the horizon shortly before the highly anticipated Darksiders II (currently scheduled for a July release) is a novel – Darksiders: The Abomination Vault.
The tale will take place millennia before the events of the first game, and see Death and his pal War attempt to keep the peace between the forces of heaven and hell. The world is threatened by a plan to resurrect some ancient weapons of devastating power, and the two horsemen must track down and defeat the mysterious group behind the plan before the entire universe is thrown into disarray.
The book has been written by Ari Marmell, a freelance RPG writer who has revealed a little of his experience writing the book on his intriguingly titled ‘Mouseferatu’ blog:
This book was an absolute blast to write. It’s easily the most cinematic/action-oriented of my books thus far, and I’ve tried to make sure it’s accessible even to people who aren’t familiar with the games. I really hope you guys have as much fun with this as I did.
In addition to the novel, Random House are also developing an ‘IP bible’ for the Darksiders universe, with more details on said compendium to follow. The Abomination Vault will be released in May.
If you want a bit of old school vector shooting, then Upsidedown Games have just the thing. Space Junk Lite is a taster for their full title Space Junk and comes complete with a neon geometric style, simple control system and retro-tastic title music and effects. Players take control of a trigger happy astronaut and must clear 26 stages worth of junk filled space.
The somewhat shorter than 26 stage ‘Lite’ version is of course available for free, and you can check out the trailer below for a sneak peek of the action. The full app is available for $1.99, and you can read the full review for this incredibly retro title here.
The first G.I. Joe will always hold a unique place in my heart because of one line, sublimely delivered by the usually stellar Christopher Eccleston in his best/worst Scottish accent – “You tossed the caber out of the park!” Other than that fantastically ridiculous line (which kept the Scottish cinema in hysterics for quite some time), the first G.I. Joe didn’t make that much of an impact. It did however, make money, so on that note…
Step up G.I. Joe Retaliation, hitting cinemas later in the year:
Cool music? Check, that’s a remix of The White Stripes Seven Nation Army. Cliff face ninja battles? Check. Dwayne Johnson doing what he does best, and Bruce Willis along for the ride? Colour me interested, and somewhat surprised. Stephen Sommers has stepped down from the directors chair, with his place taken by one John Chu (erm, the Justin Bieber movie, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D, but we can ignore that). The writing duo of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese come with far better street cred, having written the excellent Zombieland and now also working on the Deadpool movie.
As you can probably tell from the trailer, the plot sees the majority of the Joes wiped out thanks to a Cobra spy played by Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy). The remaining Joes must band together to strike back and, presumably, save the world. Just a little check list here, the cast list includes The Rock, The Mummy, Darth Maul (Ray Park) and John Maclean. Nice.
Could G.I. Joe Retaliation be the action flick of the year? We’ll have to wait until August to find out, but here’s hoping the full feature can hold up to the promise of this first trailer.
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!
