Doublesix Digital Publishing has announced that All Zombies Must Die! is coming our way with separate console release dates. This twin stick shooter will be available on the PlayStation Network on December 27th for $9.99 and Xbox Live Arcade on December 28th for 800 Microsoft points.
In a world where the military cannot handle a zombie breakout, only four remain as the Earth’s last line of defense. A gamer, girl, alien, and scientist are all that stand between the zombies and the prized human grey matter. The town of Deadhill – appropriately named – is under constant swarm of zombies. Our heroes must complete quests throughout the town as they administer destruction to the undead.
While the gameplay surrounds the twin stick shooting format, RPG elements have been added to increase the fun factor. Characters are able to build new weapons from collecting items throughout the levels. As players progress through levels they will also gain experience to add points into attack, defense, health, and speed. How you administer these points will greatly change your experience of play.
With the holidays only days away, All Zombies Must Die! could be an unique gift for only $9.99 or 800 MSP. Check out the Christmas gameplay trailer below, and spread the holiday cheer!
Yesterday Sony officially announced the prices for the PlayStation Vita’s memory cards. While these cards actually turned out to be a bit cheaper than initially thought, they still are quite expensive considering they are mandatory to really enjoy any of the titles for the PlayStation Vita. For those who don’t remember, the 4GB memory card will run $19.99, 8GB at $29.99, 16GB at $59.99 and finally 32GB at $99.99.
So… now we know how much they will cost, but which one should you be picking up? Well, considering the Vita is currently out in Japan now, the download size for each of the launch titles has now been revealed. The full list of the games and their sizes can be seen below.
AR Combat DigiQ: Friend Tank Battalion – 220 MB
Army Corps of Hell – 598 MB
Asphalt Injection – 724 MB
BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend – 3180 MB
Extreme Escape Adventure: Good People Die – 121 MB
Dark Quest: Alliance – 1057 MB
Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention – 1619 MB
Dream Club Zero Portable – 2835 MB
Dynasty Warriors Next – 1485 MB
Everybody’s Golf 6 – 1100 MB
F1 2011 – 1435 MB
Little Deviants – 869 MB
Live Tweet – 6 MB
Lord of Apocalypse – 1427 MB
Mahjong Fight Club – 793 MB
Michael Jackson: The Experience HD – 1225 MB
Minna to Issho: Friend Network – 168 MB
Monster Radar – 1640 MB
Nico Nico – 14 MB
Power Smash 4 – 1241 MB
Ridge Racer – 561 MB
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen – 1057 MB
Touch My Katamari – 744 MB
True Night of the Kamaitachi: The 11th Visitor – 793 MB
Uke-torne – 16 MB
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – 1350 MB
Uncharted: Golden Abyss – 2777 MB
So, if you are looking to pick up any of these titles digitally in February when the Vita is released you can not guess at which memory card you should be looking to pick up as well.
Sports Interactive, the developers of the football managing simulation, and SEGA are giving fans of the game a couple extra reasons to smile this Christmas.
First, anyone who already owns the game can unlock a unique Steam achievement, which is being kept secret, by playing the game on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (UK time). Players are being encouraged to keep an eye on the Sports Interactive Twitter page for hints and clues about what needs to be accomplished to receive the mysterious achievement.
Also, for anyone who has already purchased a physical copy of the game, or is planning on purchasing one as a gift, there’s a special Football Manager 2012 Christmas sleeve available for download on the game’s official website (check out the downloads section). To use the words of the press release, whether the sleeve is for your own game or for someone’s gift, it’ll give the copy of the game “some Xmas sparkle”. And everyone loves sparkles.
Football Manager 2012 is available on PC, Mac, PSP, and iOS devices right now, and fans can also go check out the Football Manager 2012 Christmas podcast on iTunes.
Developer:Rockstar Games Publisher:Rockstar Games Platform: iPhone (reviewed)/iPad/iPod Touch/Android Release:15/12/11 Price:$4.99 – Available Here
Overview
Back in 2001, Rockstar Games first introduced players Liberty City and open world gaming in Grand Theft Auto III. Ten years have passed since then and Rockstar Game has re-released the classic for iOS and Andriod devices, allowing for players to once again explore and reacquaint themselves with the mayhem of Liberty City in Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition.
Story
For those of you who haven’t played Grand Theft Auto III or aren’t familiar with its story, it’s a basic premise for which the action (the bulk of the game) to take place in. After being betrayed by your girlfriend Catalina after a bank robbery, left for dead and captured by the police. The mute protagonist aka ‘the GTA 3 guy’/Claude escapes from police custody after a dramatic bomb blast in the game’s opening to climb the ranks of the criminal underworld in Liberty City.
It has its fair share of wacky characters, memorable moments and plot twists but overall Grand Theft Auto 3’s story isn’t exactly a stand out, but it’s still enjoyable and surprising that it holds up even after ten years.
Gameplay
The burning question for many gamers (myself included) is how exactly would you play control an open world game on a touch screen? The port over from consoles to mobile plays out quite well. Whilst at first you may be swamped by all the on-screen buttons, you’ll get used to their location and functionality. Their size and location can be adjusted to suit player preference if you really need to.
A few sacrifices had to be made in this port to fit the touch screen format, and a few issues do plague the game. For starters, you can’t aim or control the camera exactly at all in this game as there is no secondary analogy stick. Shooting is taken over by auto-aim which works just fine, provided that enemies are a fair distance away from you where you can pick them off one by one. In a crowded group situation, it is a completely different story as it’s quite difficult to select your target and the issue is exacerbated further closer up when you are completely surrounded by enemies.
Looking beyond this, the game is still Grand Theft Auto III and you are an entire city to explore in. The city itself is split into three islands which are unlocked as you progress through the story. Reaching that final island is quite an achievement and driving from one side of the city to the other is a genuine reward once you have unlocked them.
Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition also introduces an auto save feature and other significant changes to gameplay, whereby if you die or get arrested you will not lose all your weapons and after failing a mission there is the option to instantly replay it and try again. If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto III before, then you know how much of a welcome relief these new feature are.
They take the tediousness out of playing Grand Theft Auto and put you straight back into the action. As before, you would have to buy all your weapons back if you died or got arrested and you would have to drive all the way to the mission’s start point to retry it if you failed. These are all significant change to the game which allows for on the go portability, which the majority of gamers will be doing when the play this game on their mobiles.
Visuals
The game doesn’t look terrible keeping in mind that this is a ten year old game. This is a straight up port of the original game and no massive changes to the overall visuals have been done. That’s fine as the game retains its classic look and feel. However, you just can’t help notice the somewhat goofy and stiff looking character models in the cut scenes. There also is noticeable pop-in playing through the game. But again, for a game that is ten years old it’s still very solid. There is an entire city to explore, with each island take its own unique visual look and feel.
Audio
If there is one thing you need to know, the radio in this game is superb and as convincing and funny as it was ten years ago when I first played the game. Both the radio and soundtrack really does sell this game, and adds a layer of realism that you don’t usually in many games. Voice acting is top notch as well, although as I mentioned before cutscenes do look a bit goofy with the dated visuals. In game sound effects work and sound fine. As a ten year old game, it can be forgiven for having somewhat repetitive driving and firing sounds.
Overall
There is much to be enjoyed in this nostalgia filled epic, revisiting Liberty City and all its crazy shenanigans. It’s unfortunate that there are just some issues that distract players from the overall experience. And while you can look past these, as the fact of the matter is you’re playing Grand Theft Auto III, originally a PS2 game, in palm of your hands. And for that, I suppose the game can be forgiven for having a few issues.
EA have today released a new trailer online for the forthcoming Kingdom’s of Amalur: Reckoning, which takes an inside look at the vast depth of the games combat system through the form of an 8 minute trailer.
So grab some popcorn, cuddle up to your elven wenches, turn out all the lights and get comfy for 8 minutes of Reckoning. You can view the lengthy trailer below, which details hand-crafted animations, impressive combo chains, ability hierarchy and more, with commentary from the people behind the combat of the game.
What do you think of the 8 minute long Reckoning trailer? Be sure to let us know in the shoutbox and comments section below.
Fairy Tail: Part 2 Studios: A-1 Pictures, Satelight Publisher: FUNimation Release Date: December 27, 2011 Price: $54.98 – Available Here
Overview:
One of the common complaints that can be made about an anime is that the series was too short. This complaint usually is compounded by various smaller complaints about the way the story was developed or lack of character development. On the other hand, shōnen series are able to avoid this hazardous pitfall as a number of shōnen series break out of the airing limitations for other series and have the potential to run for over a hundred episodes without breaking a sweat.
One of the newest shōnen series to come out of Japan is Fairy Tail and FUNimation has been more than ready to bring this title to North America and localize it for our viewing pleasure. They just recently released Part 1 of Fairy Tail last month and you can find my review for that part here, but now we have Part 2 of the series. Does it take the same magic the first part of the series had and run with it? We will find out.
Story:
While some people may wish that magic is real, in the world of Fairy Tail not only is magic real but it is a part of everyday life. Magic is so engrained in the society that many wizarding guilds have appeared throughout the kingdom of Fiore. While there are many guilds populating the land, one of the most recognized and talked about guilds is the Fairy Tail guild.
In Part 1 we were introduced to the main cast of characters that would be followed throughout much of the story as well as a number of important side characters. Lucy, a celestial wizard capable of making contracts and summoning celestial creatures with Gate Keys to help her out in any way possible (though a few have some personality flaws) met up with the flame using wizard who lets his flaming fists usually do the talking, Natsu. These two were then joined by an ice using wizard named Gray who has a tendency to take his clothes off without a moment’s hesitation and a powerful S-Class wizard named Erza who is capable of using extremely advanced and powerful armor and weapons with her requip ability.
Now Part 1 of Fairy Tail ended with quite a terrible cliff hanger sitting right in the middle of the first major plot-driven quest of the series. The residents of Galuna Island all transform into demons whenever the moon rises, the quest quickly escalates however once Natsu, Gray and Lucy learn that a group of wizards is trying to reawaken Deliora, a demon so powerful it could not be defeated but simply sealed away. However that sealing didn’t come easily, in fact the leader of the enemy wizards’ leader is Lyon, a fellow student under the same wizard who taught Gray everything he knew. That same teacher who sacrificed her life to hold the devastating demon in ice forever.
This story arc helps show everything that Fairy Tail is capable of, as the cliffhanger from the Part 1 is resolved. Until this story arc, only a Lucy had seen any character development and the series benefits greatly as a whole by adding a bit more backstory and emotions to one of the main characters. The story progresses from there with some very small character development for Natsu and Happy as we learn how the two met.
Now while most people who pick up Part 2 will be doing so they can watch the finale of the Galuna Island story arc, Part 2 also contains the beginning of the Phantom Lord story arc. While there are many guilds in the world of Fairy Tail they usually do not wage open combat against one another… that is until the wizards of Phantom Lord destroy the Fairy Tail guild’s headquarters. Why would this rival guild deal such a blatant attack and begin assaulting Fairy Tail wizards? As it stands the Fairy Tail guild refuses to stand by and take this and goes to open war with the Phantom Lord guild. However the guildmaster of Phantom Lord has ulterior motives for his attack on the well-known guild and with his unique magical abilities and the powerful wizards known as the Element 4 under his command, what will happen to the Fairy Tail guild?
Unfortunately, as with Part 1, Part 2 of Fairy Tail ends smack dab in the middle of the story arc so those who are interested in seeing how the arc will end must purchase Part 3 which is set to be released next month. As it stands however, the studio has done a perfect job building anticipation for this battle by raising the stakes higher than they ever have been before for the members of the Fairy Tail guild.
A multitude of characters see some minor development which is a major plus for this series, as characters you learn nothing about and simply watch defeat enemies grow boring quickly. It is a bit disappointing however that a number of the characters still feel like they could be expanded upon faster in these earlier episodes. Not to mention a glaring plot hole exists right in the middle of the two story arcs as a random gag episode was inserted immediately after the end of Galuna Island which had absolutely zero effect on the story and is subsequently ignored later on.
Visuals:
One of the biggest highlights in Fairy Tail is the art design as a whole. All of the characters have their own unique designs and look nothing like one another which is a plus considering the large amount of characters that the Fairy Tail series has to work with. The enemies introduced in Part 2 are all rather distinctive looking as well, this being especially true for the members of the Element 4.
Unfortunately the same consistent quality that I experienced in Part 1 didn’t stay true for Part 2. While most of the time the animation felt nice and smooth, there felt like a number of shortcuts were made in some of the action scenes, this being especially true outside of battles where the character designs are less detailed. Inside of battles it sometimes feels like there is a bit too much standing around and not enough actual fighting happening. Plus, each episode will have a rather cheaply animated Natsu warning children to watch the show in a well-lit room which probably would have been best removed.
Out of all of the various visual effects in Fairy Tail however, the most interesting are those having to deal with the magic cast by the characters. While Erza’s ability may be to change her clothes and weaponry each outfit has its own unique appearance often having to do with the outfit’s specialty. This stays true for the rest of the characters in the series as they cast their spells and use their abilities to deal out damage. It only makes sense that the visuals for Fairy Tail’s magic are the highlight and thankfully the series continues to impress in this regard.
Audio:
As one would expect, all of the voice actors who handled characters in Part 1 have retained their characters and the level of quality of each of these is still quite impressive. Whether it be Todd Haberkorn’s fiery performance of Natsu or Cherami Leigh handling the wide-ranging emotions of Lucy each of the characters’ are performed splendidly. Newly introduced characters are also voiced well, though I found the voice acting of the Element 4 characters to be rather average and unimpressive.
The background music in the series itself is unfortunately quite generic and nothing stood out even amongst the biggest fights in this part of the series. The opening song for all of the episodes in Part 2 is “S.O.W. Sense of Wonder” by Idoling!!! and the ending song is “Tsuioku Merry-go-round” by Onelifecrew. Sense of Wonder is accompanied by a well done animation sequence and the song itself is interesting enough but most viewers will likely end up skipping through it to get through to the actual show instead of sitting and listening to it. This is similar with “Tsuioku Merry-go-round,” although the ending animation for it is a bit unique, with chibi characters mixed with normal character designs throughout.
Extras:
Fairy Tail Part 2 comes with your standard inclusion of a clean creditless version of the opening song as well as for the ending song. There is also a set of trailers for past and upcoming FUNimation releases which is also standard. What isn’t standard however is that two of the episodes have been provided commentary. Each disc contains one episode with voice actor and director commentary.
Episode 15 has commentary provided by Tyler Walker, the ADR Director and Newton Pittman, the voice actor for Gray. The commentary is funny to listen to however it does suffer from having only two people providing commentary. Episode 19 benefits from having a lot more commentators, as it too has Tyler Walker as well as Tia Ballard, the voice of Happy, Monica Rial, the voice of Mirajane and Colleen Clinkenbeard, the voice of Erza. This commentary ends up being ultimately more enjoyable to listen to and more informative than the other simply due to having more cast members providing the commentary and provides a nice look at how the voice actors are outside of their roles.
Overall:
Fairy Tail continues to be a performance in excellence in a number of areas. Viewers will finally be able to view the conclusion to one story arc and will be thrown into the next full story arc shortly after. While it is unfortunate that the story is still left as a cliffhanger until Part 3 is released, viewers will walk away from Part 2 with a better understanding for a few of the main characters and be eager to come back for more. Though the animation quality does suffer through various shortcuts made by the studio, FUNimation’s excellent cast of voice actors has done a superb job bringing each scene to life and creating yet another amazing journey in the land of Fairy Tail.
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Studio: Snoot Entertainment/Warrior Poets Publisher: Madman Entertainment Format: DVD Release Date: December 14, 2011 Price: $34.95 – Available Here
Overview
With a cover like this, Morgan Spurlock, naked and literally branded with a range of different companies, there is a definite intrigue from the get go. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is based around the advertising industry, the ins and outs of pitches and how branding all works. Morgan Spurlock has a whole bunch of documentaries under his belt, with his most popular and controversial being Super Size Me, so does this film measure up to that doc-buster (documentary blockbuster)?
Story
At first, the movie sounds like the easiest film to make, after all don’t brands spend a lot of money trying to get product placement into film and TV shows? That was what Spurlock first thought too, but the journey of the film is a lot more than that. It starts off with Spurlock pitching his idea to advertising companies to try and get their brand contacts, and getting knocked back by every company except one, because the film just doesn’t seem marketable. I bet they feel silly now.
Then he starts to pitch to the brands by cold calling them and starts getting knocked back again and again, with over 650 cold calls. As someone who briefly worked in the cold call industry, I can attest to the fact that this is not fun. However, Spurlock sticks with it, doesn’t let all the ‘no’s get to him, and eventually he whittles it down to fifteen interested brands.
He invites the audience to sit in on the pitch meetings he has with the advertisers, including him pitching one of the three in-movie advertisements to Pom Wonderful. This scene in particular showed that, even though the company was portrayed pretty positively throughout, the company is the one to decide exactly what the advertisement will be, and the complete control that companies have in terms of how they are portrayed in either advertisements or product placement. In the end, Spurlock just seems to be the guy who shoots the ad.
Whether or not he is selling out is something that he also goes into in the movie. Putting the question to his viewers, random people on the street, and advertising experts. The question remains open in the end, allowing the viewer to decide what they think is true and to draw their own conclusions. The fact that it allows you to decide steers it away from the irony that a documentary that encourages you to think for yourself then makes your own thought path for you.
The film also goes into the transformation that São Paulo went after passing the ‘Clean City’ law that removed all outdoor advertisements. Before the law São Paulo was notorious for the amount of outdoor ads, and Spurlock explores the effect that the ban has had on the city. And it is, largely, positive. In fact, the only negative effect is that companies have to evolve their way of selling products. This is probably the most serious part of the documentary, with the least tongue in cheek, simply because there is no need for it, the message behind the documentary is right there.
At the heart of the movie is an investigation into the advertising industry, and the effect that advertising has on society as a whole. While the pitches and journey of making the movie via sponsors is a huge part of it, the reason that Spurlock doesn’t appear to be a sell out is in the way he presents himself. He treads the fine line of marketing a product and having that inner lining of irony. You are always quite aware that the reason he is pushing these brands is for the film itself, and the idea that this is all to make a bit of a joke of the advertising industry and the brands. However, this doesn’t mean that the brands included are made fun of per se, instead they are ‘in on the joke’ and it sort of makes their image be a bit more fun. Personally, it does change my view of the brands and I found myself craving some Pom Wonderful after finishing the movie.
Visuals
Graphically, Greatest Movie Ever Sold isn’t something to write home about. It is a step above other documentaries visually, and in one particular scene Spurlock utilises a series of simple graphics to prove a point and bring some humour into what could have been a dry conversation. Quite a few times Spurlock finds easy, subtle ways to make the audience laugh, which is something that you won’t often encounter in a documentary.
The three advertisements that he inserts in the movie all have a clearly well polished look that differentiates them from the rest of the movie and lets the audience know that this is one of the ads that he mentioned would be inserted into the movie earlier on.
Audio
Spurlock narrates the documentary and his voice is just about enough to bring the movie to life, especially given the fact that documentaries aren’t really that big of a music-centered media anyway. The only obvious part of music in the movie is the song written by Ok Go specifically for the movie that they called ‘The Greatest Song I Ever Heard’.
Overall
Pom Wonderful: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold has a fantastic pacing, with an intriguing concept behind it and a great director at the helm. Morgan Spurlock has the ability to hone down an already interesting concept, and present it in a funny, thoughtful way that can inspire discussion and a new outlook on a well-known topic.
Even if you aren’t the type who likes documentaries, chances are you’ll like this. It doesn’t feel like the typical definition of a documentary, thanks to Spurlock. This is a definite must see.
Australia has a bit of a bad deal when it comes to video games – to put it simply they cost a fortune! Happily, Harvey Norman have just launched a new website –Harvey Norman Direct Import – that sells console game for massively discounted, GST free prices. Currently the site sells PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and 3DS games, with PC games due to be added in the future.
Imported from the UK, all games will work perfectly on Australia bought consoles, and although online play may be affected slightly because of connecting to European servers, the huge price difference is more than enough to convince.
Where retailers like EB Games are selling new releases like Assassin’s Creed Revelations for $88, Harvey Norman has it for $55. $98 for Modern Warfare 3? How about $63 instead? Sadly the site won’t be selling games banned in Australia (so no Syndicate).
If November has left you cradling your broken bank account and mourning the loss of all your cash, make sure and check out the website!
Well Merry Christmas indeed. The Game of Thrones RPG has just had a full trailer released, and it actually has me crossing my fingers for this next adaptation of George R R Martin’s fantasy saga. After the less than stellar Game of Thrones Genesis, developers Cyanide Studios have turned their hand to this, a third person RPG that sees players take control of one of two characters in an all new story set at the beginning of the series.
The trailer is helped enormously by what will be a familiar theme to anyone who has watched HBO’s excellent TV adaptation – the inredibly distinctive opening theme works it’s way into the action, which shows us some familiar faces lifted straight from the show. There a are Wildlings aplenty, a red priest getting his flame on (Alester, one of the two characters playable), a quick flash of torture, and of course a larger look at the Kingdom of Westeros.
There’s no doubt that Game of Thrones: The Game still ha a big mountain to climb, but here’s hoping that a more appropriate genre (Genesis was an RTS) and the involvement of HBO will help create something that fans of the series can really sink their teeth into.
The game is released early next year on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, and if you’re a fan of the books or the show, make sure and check out the trailer below.
While we may already know how well the PlayStation Vita sold in Japan, we had yet to hear about how well each individual game wold. That is until today where game sales tracker Media-Create’s weekly top-20 sales report came out. The top 20 sales report actually extends up to the top-50 but only details how much each game sold is for those who are in the top 20.
Below you can find the Vita titles that were released at launch and their places on the top-50 list. Any titles not shown obviously did not sell well enough to make the top 50 list and obviously weren’t as popular. It is quite surprising to see that Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational actually was the most popular Vita title and is just as surprising that the more Western appealing title Uncharted: Golden Abyss was the second most popular. Find the full list below.
