Sonic is invading the world of PC gaming with three new digital downloads available from today. The first is a new DLC stage for Sonic Generations: Casino Night Pinball. The level sees modern and classic Sonic racing to defeat the Time Eater and save their friends, and will currently set gamers back $2.99 on Steam.
Secondly comes Sonic CD, bringing the 1993 MEGA CD classic up to date and for the first time making it available for digital download on PC. This enhanced version has already seen a release on the console digital services and iOS, scoring a highly respectable 8.5/10 here at Capsule Computers.
Rounding out the trio of new downloads is Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, a highly anticipated game taking it’s inspiration from the Sega Mega Drive Sonic games and following on directly from 1994 release Sonic and Knuckles. Episode II is due later this year.
In a bout of uncanny timing, Sonic Generations is currently enjoying a 50% discount on Steam, with the sale ending January 24. A host of other Sonic games are also enjoying a discount right now, including Sonic Spinball, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast. If you’ve always wanted to catch up with the gaming history of the blue one now is the time to get that download queue going!
While there probably would have been an announcement later tonight from Capcom, being that today is the 15th anniversary of Resident Evil and all, nothing says big news like it being leaked out early all over the internet. GameStop employees have received promo material and it seems a few of those stores have already placed it out in view of the public and caught by IGN.
As such the news has now been leaked that Resident Evil 6 is to be released on November 20th. Also, rumors are circulating that Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield will be playable characters when the game is released. Expect more details tonight when the official announcement is meant to take place. Check the full promo material below.
Yesterday Tequila Works revealed a project which seems to have been in development for quite some time, Deadlight. Currently not much is known about the title other than the fact that it will be a puzzle platformer and is meant to be released sometime this Summer.
Today Tequila Works revealed a teaser trailer for Deadlight, which shows a very dour looking man who describes that whenever you kill a person, everything changes. This is all while he is standing over a highway with what appears to be zombies moving around. Considering the story so far is that Randall Wayne is one of the last survivors of a pandemic that wiped out nearly everyone else, this could be a new twist on the zombie genre.
Kid Icarus: Uprising is quite the hotly anticipated title here in North America. As such it only makes sense that Nintendo of America give fans some sort of pre-order incentive right? Well today they have announced that those who pre-order the game will guarantee them a downloadable code when they pickup the title.
Unfortunately, although the announcement stated that the pre-order bonus would be available from select retailers, they did not say which ones specifically. Its a bit disappointing however that Nintendo of America has had to resort to letting fans receive the title free from pre-order, while other regions received the 3D classic Kid Icarus free with a couple of qualifying 3DS games.
Some people say that video games today are too easy, that FPS are too forgiving on the average gamer. Well if you happen to be one of those people then you will be happy to hear that Irrational Games is putting a gameplay mode into Bioshock Infinite just for you. The developer announced today that they will be including a “1999 Mode” in the final product.
1999 Mode will feature various difficulty tweaks that won’t be found in the main game mode, and also all of your choices will have a more permanent effect on the game so if you ended up making a choice that resulted in a harder game later on, you need to deal with that. Player health has been modified, difficulty gets an increase and any weapon you pick up or own will be “useless” unless you already have a specialization for that weapon.
Seems like this mode is only for the most die-hard FPS fan but it is good to see that those who want a difficult challenge will indeed be receiving it. Currently there has been no word as to whether or not 1999 Mode will be available at the start of the game or will be unlocked upon completion.
Nothing says brutal by actually being able to input a kill command with a few swipes of your finger. Now earlier this week Warner Bros. revealed that they would be bringing last year’s Mortal Kombat game to the PlayStation Vita sometime this spring. This includes all of the extra content that was included in the PlayStation 3 version of the game, but at the time the company did not elaborate on what new features, if any, were to be added.
Today NetherRealm Studios Creative Director, Ed Boon, has explained that the Vita version of Mortal Kombat will have an exclusive second Challenge Tower with 150 extra challenges, some of which will use the Vita’s touch screen and accelerometer. Touch controls have also been implemented into the combat in a small way, with players able to perform Fatalaties and X-Ray attacks with just a touch or few swipes of the screen.
The genre of physics puzzler has more or less dominated the mobile gaming market ever since Angry Birds hit the AppStore back in 2009. Since then, there have been many variations on the genre, and even what could be termed “Angry Birds Clones”.
Greedy Penguins is one such variation, and one that manages to make it’s gameplay decidedly distinct from the Angry Birds franchise.
Story
As with most puzzle games past and present, the story is thin at best. The basic idea is you need to feed each penguin their favourite (matching colour) fish, afterwhich they release a pink ice-cream cone, which you then tap to deliver to the walrus, pig, or other random animal lazing around somewhere.
I don’t know why you do this, or if it makes any sense whatsoever, but you don’t play this game to learn about penguins, the human condition, or grow as a person… you play this game to excercise your brain, pit your wits against the game’s creators, and to pass the time. And it definitely succeeds in that endeavour.
Gameplay
Each puzzle provides you with a number of different coloured fish, hanging individually in ropey-net-type-things, and dares you to deliver those fish to their corresponding colour penguins. You have to roll them around the level up and down ramps, hurl them across the screen using cannons, and avoid letting them roll into the ocean below.
The controls are nice and simple. For the most part, you’re tapping on fish to free them from their nets, letting them drop, slide or fly into the gaping mouths of the greedy penguins. As you progress through the stages more obstacles and gadgets are introduced (the classic fans with switches and cannons to name a few), calling on you to put more thought into the setup and ordering of your actions to best achieve your goal.
Once a penguin receives their fish, they dive into the water, letting you send along the next fish to reach other penguins. Send the wrong fish to the wrong penguin, however and it’ll… make him “ill”, and you’ll fail the level. More on that later.
The penguin will then let their pink ice-cream cone start float skyward, which you then need to tap to send it over to that particular stage’s mascot. These mascots mainly serve as an identifier to the stage, and basically just sit in the level pulling faces and the like until you send them some ice-cream.
Once all of the penguins have been fed, you’ve completed the level, and are scored based on time taken and how many cones you grabbed. You are then presented with a fish ranking between 1 and 3, which of course go towards unlocking the next stage.
Each stage consists of 12 levels which slowly ramp up in difficulty, but largely keep things straightforward, which is a welcome change from the usual steep learning curve in these kinds of games.
The gameplay is pleasant and stays mildly challenging until only they last few levels of the final stage. That said, it is very short. There’s a total of 72 levels, but due to the lack of difficulty, you’ll be able to blast through the game in a couple of hours, tops. This won’t be an issue if you’re playing it in 5 minute intervals when you’ve got a little time to waste, but if you’ve got a lot of time to waste, you may be disappointed by the game’s length.
The time you do spend playing this game, however, will be filled with fun, mildly challenging phsyics fun.
The game can change between landscape orientations, mute buttons for music and sound effects, along with GameCentre and Crystal integration.
Audio & Visual
The game’s visual style quirky but largely stays on the cartoony side of the line. Each colour penguin and each stage mascot can be poked at any time to see a unique animation, and even have a selection of humourous idle animations and sound effects that play intermittently.
When a penguin eats something he shouldn’t, he immediately barfs it up, in a pseudo-graphic, though decidedly comical way. When a mascot eats an ice-cream, he gives a satisfied groan afterwards.
These little animations are very well put together, and do a lot to keep your interest. You even unlock new animations for the mascots as you receive more fish at the end of the levels, again, keeping you engaged with the characters and amused in general the whole time you’re playing the game.
The music, too, stays playful and unobtrusive in the background, not particularly wowing the player, but keeping you in a trance of “aww”, “teehee” and “that’s so cute“.
Overall
This game is a joy to play from beginning to end. And although it doesn’t last very long, the time you spend on it is rewarding and humourous, and serves as a great pick-me-up in the coffee break of a long day, or as an alternative to the more hardcore physics puzzlers out there.
A new addition to the lineup of the much anticipated 2D beat-em-up Skullgirls has been announced in a new trailer!
Her name is Carol, but her foes know her by Painwheel. Kidnapped by Valentine, she was taken to the Anti-Skullgirls Lab Zero, where she was implanted with the Buer Drive, Gae Bolga parasites, and some experimental Skullgirl blood, creating the monster we see today.
Controlled by Zero Lab’s own psychic director Brain Drain, she’s a raging beast who draws on her pain and fury, while deep down the scared little girl strives to fight off the dark voices that would control her.
Her likes include gardening and walking on the beach at sunset, memories of times gone by, and the colour magenta. Her dislikes include Brain Drain, Lab Zero, and her monstrous and mutilated body.
Led by fighting game champion Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont, and artist Alex “0_8” ahad, Reverge Labs is set to release the title early 2012 on XBLA and PSN.
If you are one to run away from a zombie infestation, move out the way! The rest of us have some merciless killing to do. Ever since publisher Square Enix and developer Doublesix launched All Zombies Must Die!, gamers have been slaughtering zombies with cricket bats and automatic rifles.
But now players can purchase neat All Zombies Must Die! memorabilia for their avatars on Xbox Live. Perhaps you would be interested in having a miniature pet zombie or jumping into the SWAT Zombie outfit? Zombie heads can be bought individually as well, so you do not have to change your entire outfit. Some people just love their ugly holiday sweaters too much.
Watch the All Zombies Must Die! avatar trailer below, and purchase some neat zombie material (HERE).
Bioware have revealed the system requirements for PC versions of Mass Effect 3, via the Bioware Social Network; as well as shedding a few extra details on the upcoming demo for the game, to be released on February 14th.
Despite the great graphical improvements between the original Mass Effect and its sequel, gamers should recall that the requirements didn’t change all that much between them, and it’s much the same story here:
Minimum Requirements
OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
CPU – 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
RAM – 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
Disc Drive – 1x speed
Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
Video – 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)
Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX – DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)
Recommended Specs
OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
CPU – 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
RAM – 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
Disc Drive – 1x speed
Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
Video – AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater
Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible
The post also shed new light on the demo being released next month. Two multiplayer maps will be available to those who take part in the demo before March 5th (the multiplayer portion will then be taken down), the singleplayer portions allow full creation and customisation of Shepard (but these will not carry over into the main game, so don’t obsess over whether that facial scar matches the personality of your character), and players can try out the much-touted different game modes from Mass Effect 3: “Action”, “Roleplaying”, and “Story”.
Mass Effect 3 relays into your nearest games retailer on March 6.
