EA Mobile have added two more games to their impressive arsenal, with The Sims Freeplay and Trenches 2. So for those of you who have not yet found the game you will be wasting away the holidays with, these two are prime candidates for the position.
First off, there is Sims Freeplay, for which an article has already been written up here on the impressions and a bit of information on the game. To refresh your minds (or if you simply don’t want to click), you can control up to 16 sims, each with their own unique personalities, there are over 1,200 ways to customize each home, or you can simply buy already furnished places, and – most importantly – it all takes place in real time. Take control of your town and make the town wealth go up! And all for free!
Sims Freeplay is available NOW on the iPhone, iTouch and iPad for FREE! Grab it HERE.
Trenches 2 is also available on the App store, in which you get to fight an epic campaign through an expanded world map, in even more realistic battlefields with all-new artillery and troops. You get to lead your troops through over 50 locations across Europe, can customize armies with over 20 different units, and play with some all new military units and weapons.
Trenches 2 is available NOW on the iPhone, iTouch and iPad for $2.59. Grab it HERE.
In what could be seen by many as a complete turn around regarding their views and stance on piracy, CD Projekt RED have sent out thousands of legal notices to alleged German pirates of the Witcher 2, asking for payment for the game and threatening court action for any non compliance. Not long ago, Marcin Iwinski, co-founder and CEO of the studio spoke out against the use of DRM as an anti-piracy measure, saying his company was focused rather on bringing more value to loyal paying customers. CD Projekt have since issued a statement to the press, stressing the point that its non-inclusion of DRM in its titles is definitely not to be seen as a “green light to pirates”.
According to Torrentfreak, the payments have been up over the $1000 mark, something which CD Projekts Michal Nowakowski denies, stating in a recent interview with PC Gamer, “In terms of the compensation, the amounts that were circling around the internet were higher than what is actually asked from people as a settlement.” The actual number requested is private as part of the settlement’s confidentiality, but Michal wanted to make clear that no one was getting rich from the pirates. This all begs the question of how exactly the studio is hunting down the alleged pirates and making sure they have got the right person for the crime.
While I’m sure we all trust the unnamed methods CD Projekt RED’s hired unnamed security company are using to find these alleged pirates, how are they possibly going to decipher between users within any household or living arrangement with multiple dwellers. Nowakowski is confident that their wont be the same backlash as previously seen in other cases where studios employ these Nazi like tactics to round up pirates. I live in an apartment building and get over 10 different WI-Fi connections. While they are all encrypted and I have an unlimited connection, it wouldnt take much effort to hack into these networks and download whatever I please. Perhaps someone with a bit more knowledge than myself on wireless networks and packets can explain if they can possibly identify me as the offending target. Personally Im pretty sure they cant but like most things in life I could be wrong as well.
It will be very interesting to see which way this goes, and while it doesnt seem like it will become an industry norm to hunt down pirates, it could provide many other studios with the incentive and legal means to behave in a similar manner. Unless the game has an inbuilt feature that can sense a pirate and activate their webcam, I cant see how they are doing anything different than tracking individual IP addresses. If so, I really cant see it holding up in court, unless of course you happen to live in Germany, where the laws are much more in their favour. Let us know what you think, is this going a bit too far or are CD Projekt justified in their actions. Whatever the outcome I cant see this as being pre-meditated in an effort to increase profits through any means possible, but its clear the only ones profiting from all these legal battles are the lawyers and their wallets. It all has a slightly deceitful feel to it, almost like a setup of sorts,but maybe thats just me being paranoid. Oh and also, what if someone who has subsequently purchased the game but also downloaded it recieves a letter; are they obliged to pay up, I don’t think so.
Welcome to Capsule Computers’ weekly anime segment, Anime Say! Each week I will be diving into some of the biggest anime related topic of the week and having my say on anything that matters in the anime world. To top it off each episode will conclude with a recommendation from your’s truly of an anime or manga that you should check out.
This week I discuss why I think that adaptation anime need more time to fully develop. You can check out this week’s Anime Say! below.
Got any questions for Anime Say? Send all your queries to [email protected] and I will do my best to answer anything you can throw at me.
What do you think of the fourth episode of Anime Say? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Everyone’s favourite little naughty boy-turned-knight-turned-every-other-mythical-creature has gotten a special Christmas update! Angry Mob Games has added two brand new levels called SantaVille that has Capture the Flag mode and Beanstalk that adds endless jumper mode, a new Yeti character that freezes enemies, and a new game mode called Emperor. Merry Christmas Muffin Knight fans!
As well as these Christmas add-ons, they’ve made a few updates to the general gameplay such as being able to unlock any level at any time, switching to any of the game modes at anytime, comparing scores to Game Center friends, Chinese localization, Bull and Panda character fixes, achievement fixes and heaps more!
So if you have Muffin Knight make sure to update it, or if you haven’t gotten it yet make sure to grab it on iOS or Android.
Muffin Knight is available on iPhone, iTouch and iPad for $0.99 – grab it HERE
Muffin Knight is also available on Android for $2.98 – grab it HERE
Are you living in Beijin China? Do you love Comic Books? Well then make sure you don’t miss out on ComicDive 6 that’s taking place tomorrow, 18th of December for one day only at the (National Agricultural Exhibition Center New Hall – 全国农业展览馆新馆). Now for anyone that isn’t familiar with what ComicDive is let me give you a brief run down. ComicDive is a Comic / Dojinshi convention that happens once a year in Beijing China and yes you guessed it has been running for its 6th year now. Comic Books / Dojinshi from all over China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan are on sale to the public and range from well known mainstream comics such as One Piece, Hetalia, Tiger & Bunny, Batman, Superman and Gundam etc along with popular Chinese video games such as GuJian (古剑奇谭), The Legend Of Sword and Fairy (仙剑奇侠传) to local and fan made ones. If you’re a fan of Comic books / Dojinshi this is certainly a convention you should attend.
Address : No# 16 E. 3rd Ring Road North Chaoyang, Beijing, China (link to google maps)
The convention Center this year is quite large (13000 meter squared) and will have approx 400 stalls with thousands and thousands of comic books/Doujinshi for sale. The Chinese really do love their comics and attend in full force for this event, so if you’re planning on making your way to the show tomorrow be prepared for the CROWDS! As this is Beijing’s biggest Comic Book convention all year, the amount of people attending go to the event will be huge. Unfortunately from what we’ve heard, 99.9% of comics on sale will be in Chinese so if plan on making your way down to the convention to pick up a comic book or two and can’t speak or read Chinese you might be dissapointed, still we recommend picking up a few just for the amazing artwork and drawings that go into them, especially some of the fan made ones.
Another great thing about ComicDive is the price of the Comics. Pretty much most of the comics on sale will only set you back approx 20-40RMB which is roughly $3-$6 AU/US each, so you can certainly stock up on Comics for the entire year if you really wanted to, this is why so many people will be there tomorrow. If you don’t live in Beijing or can’t be bothered trolling through the crowds and really want to get your hands on some comics, you can hire the services of certain people attending the event, all you need to do is provide them with a list of what you need and they’ll do the rest for you and pick up any comic you wish and for an extra 10% of the price payed will ship them straight over to you, now that’s what you call service and you don’t even have to leave your house.
ComicDive 6’s floor plan this year is broken down into two major sections. The top left section (休息区) is the entrance and rest area, the top right section (拍照区) is the photo section and everyone’s favorite where all the cool Cos-Play characters all congregate. YES they also have Cos-Play even in China, we’re not sure what to expect and what sort of characters will be in attendance tomorrow but don’t worry we’ll keep you posted with a special Cos-Play article tomorrow once we’ve check it out. The last section is business end of the event, the stalls and shops that sell all the comic books / Dojinshi. The stalls are broken down into 8 sectiond A through to G / EX. With each stall selling their own comics to the public, looks pretty straight forward and it is.
Now you might ask, “With all these comics how in world will you know what’s on sale and where to find it?” Great question, well let me answer that for you. If you purchase your ticket online, like I did, you receive an awesome 145 page guide / information booklet that provides you with everything you need to know about the event, and most importantly what each stall/shop is selling. Take for example a section from the booklet, section D Stalls D23-D32 (shown below) as you can see each stall has their own comics/Dojinshi on sale, so all you need to do is look through the sections find the specifc comic/Dojinshi series you are interested in, take note of where it’s located and on the day make your way through the crowds to the stall, reliquish your hard earn dollars in exchange for the comic book/Dojinshi you want, repeat till you run out of money then go home happy. The guide is very easy to follow and if you know or can recognise your favorite comic book artwork it will make your job even easier.
*note* Some stalls have a STAR next to their name – this means that some of the comics/Dojinshi they are selling are going on sale for the very first time.
Now with every great Comic Book Convetion there’s always specials guests, right? Well yes, but if you’re not a fan of Chinese Comic book / Dojinshi you might not have any idea who the guests in attendance are, but still guests are guests and here is a list of who they are :
Catfish – 猫鱼 (Creator of the most famous Dojinshi website in china – http://doujin.bgm.tv/)
钠欧 (Very famous writer in the Dojin circle)
Sherry (ComicDive VIP Orgaizer that also organized ComicDive 2&3 – also known as the ComicDive Queen)
香香 (Special Comic Book/Dojinshi store owner, Store name : 龙堂 Longtang – Dragon’s Hall – website www.i-tang.blogbus.com)
绝对无视 (Organizer of ComiDay, which is another comic book convention in Cheng Du, China)
El ifaus (Presenter of Comic Book group called 绘墨文坊 Hui mo wen fang)
For more information on Comic Dive 6 make sure you head on over to the official website : http://acg88.org/comicdive/ (take note that it’s all in chinese) The official website contains all the information provided in this article, floor plans, ticket pre-sales and also on online guide to to all the comics that will be on sale sale along with other useful information.
Anyone attending the event, let us know what you’re looking forward to doing, buying or getting up tomorrow. If you’re dessing up and Cos-Playing what will you be dressing up as. Let us know leave a comment below. We’ll have a special follow up article in the next few days to recap the event and also share with you the great Chinese Cos-Players which I’m personally excited about.
SummitX Snowboarding is the new release from Com2uS and Free Range Games, a super fun, super sexy looking, realistic snowboarding game. So come on guys, who is ready to shred some mountains? As someone who has never seen snow, I’m definitely up for some shredding, without the embarrassing learning how to balance thing, and also not ruining my romantic view of snow.
SummitX Snowboarding includes 36 multi-branching runs on six different mountains with some slick terrain, six customizable boards, and a licensed soundtrack with over 20 rock bands to pick from or – and this is my favourite feature – pick your own iTunes play list. With Airplay support, you can play on your big screen .
The controls use two-thumb sliding, as well as tilt controls and beautiful UI and art design, so this is definitely something to pick up!
Available on Android for FREE – grab it HERE
As well as on iPhone and iPad for $4.99 – grab it HERE
Toy Shot, Gamevil’s new physics-based puzzle game, has been officially released onto the App Store. Toy Shot has got a hugely reminiscent quality in terms of the graphics, and features over 100 levels of casual yet tricky puzzles, this one looks very innocent but don’t take it just as that, because you might find that you’ll be surprised.
You play as a knight equipped with boomerangs, crossbows and more, with the aim of breaking the walls of Undead Warriors guarding their block castles. You collect gems across each levels and your main aim is to rescue the princess (seriously, they need to beef up security on princesses, or teach them martial arts or Capoeira or something, they get kidnapped way too often).
There are also boss levels and defense levels, each which will provide some definite challenges, and give a good variety to the levels.
Toy Shot is available NOW for iPhone, iTouch and iPad for $0.99. Grab it HERE
Fishlabs Entertainment have been put in such a good mood after winning the ‘Best Studio 2011’ award at the German Game Developer Awards that they are going to spread the cheer around a little bit by knocking 50% off their award-winning sci-fi shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 until 10am Monday, December 19 (Central Eastern Time). So make sure to grab it quick while it’s still on sale and get your Galaxy on Fire on!
Galaxy on Fire 2 follows Keith T. Maxwell as he investigates an alien menace wreaking havoc on the warring races occupying a piece of space on the edge of the galaxy. At the same time he has to try and make his way home, and if that isn’t enough, he also brings the war to an end. Because Keith T. Maxwell is a bit of a badass.
With superior graphics and over 10 hours of gameplay, this is a hugely immersive game and something that will give you a lot more than most standard iOS apps.
Galaxy on Fire 2 is available for $4.99 for THIS WEEKEND ONLY on iPhone and iPad! Get in quick and grab it HERE
Popular young adult (or tween, as all the cool kids say) female game, School 26 has made the transfer over from the iOS market to the PC, as well as the Android. School 26 was the first release from the Silicon Sisters (the first Canadian female owned and operated video game studio – girl power!), and the popularity that School 26 gained on the smartphone, as well as all the queries for a PC version caused Silicon Sisters to branch out into the PC market.
School 26 follows a teen girl, Kate, as she joins a new school and uses her social and problem solving skills to help friends survive the daily drama of high school. Focusing on empathy, the storyline is filled with real-world scenarios that the target demographic comes up against regularly, meaning that the game is something they can really connect with.
The Android app is available NOW for $2.99. Get it HERE. Not convinced? Try out the free-to-play version HERE
Want to try out the PC version for FREE? Well, grab the one hour demo from HERE
Yup. That’s not a thing I would have ever imagined coming to fruition, but it’s happening and it actually looks pretty cool. This collaboration between Tecmo Koei and the Pokemon Company was recently revealed at the Jump Festa in Japan. For those who don’t A) live in Japan or B) have a love of Japanese culture, Nobunaga’s Ambition is a strategy role-playing franchise developed by Koei (now Tecmo Koei) that more or less stayed in Japan. We got one of the games on Virtual Console but that’s not saying much compared to the army of games Japan got. Nobunaga’s Ambition is one of the many games that revolves around Nobunaga Oda, iconic warlord of the Sengoku era in Japanese history (and all-time badass). If you still don’t know who I’m talking about but you’ve at least played one Dynasty Warriors game, he’s basically Cao Cao, only a little more evil (not historically, but the culture loves portraying him in that light and it just works).
Enough about Nobunaga, let’s get down to the most unexpected series crossover in recent history (of which there is very little detailed information, so bear with me). The game is truly a child of two worlds, in subject matter, development and gameplay. The game’s development is reportedly a joint operation between the two teams. It’s easily recognizable as a tactics game (think Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea), though with some obvious differences that set it apart. It appears that pokemon make up the bulk of the units, though in some screenshots you do see some of the Sengoku fighters on the field but it’s unknown if they are there as true units or are perhaps relegated to something else. It also appears that there is a bit of an overworld/battlefield structure, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, where the player will navigate their party along paths on a map to navigate the world and will do battle within contained battlegrounds at specific points along the way.
So here’s the breakdown of important people and which pokemon they use.
The main protagonist (who can be either male or female, depending on the players choice) starts out with Eevee (most likely due to it’s variety of elemental evolutions so as to not force the player down a set path),
Nobunaga’s signature pokemon is Zekrom (flagship pokemon of Pokemon White),
Kenshin Uesugi’s (famously dubbed the god of war during the Sengoku era) pokemon is Mewtwo,
Shingen Takeda (another very powerful warlord) gets Groundon,
and Hideyoshi Toyotomi gets Infernape (most likely due to Nobunaga’s nickname for Hideyoshi, Monkey, due to his facial features resembling that of a monkey’s).
There are two other characters that have so far been revealed, a girl who uses Jigglypuff and a samurai who uses Articuno, who I’m unable to identify though I’m sure they are prominent members of the Sengoku period (UPDATE: The girl is Oichi, Nobunaga’s sister, and the man is Mitsuhide Akechi, former general under Nobunaga). It hasn’t been stated how many pokemon or Sengoku warriors will be present in the game. I would say to expect all of them would be a little foolish though I really wouldn’t completely dismiss the possibility.
The game sports the same graphical style of Pokemon Black and White. An isometric viewpoint looks down onto the action, pokemon are rendered in basic 3D models while it appears the Sengoku warriors are displayed with sprites. It won’t win any graphical awards but it get’s the job done and the game looks like it runs pretty smooth. The gameplay appears to be turnbased, which is a safe assumption to make considering both Pokemon and Nobunaga’s Ambition are turn based.
All in all, this is looking to be a very niche title, which has its pros and its cons. Both Pokemon and games centered around the Sengoku period do incredibly well in Japan while only the former really makes an impact overseas. I, personally, love the Sengoku period and the games that it’s inspired but they unfortunately do terribly over here unlike the Dynasty Warriors franchise, which doesn’t do incredible but it does considerably better than its samurai counterparts, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up for this being localized. Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is slated for a Spring 2012 release in Japan, no word or mention of any possible localization yet, though do keep in mind this was just revealed so give it some time.
EA Mobile have added two more games to their impressive arsenal, with The Sims Freeplay and Trenches 2. So for those of you who have not yet found the game you will be wasting away the holidays with, these two are prime candidates for the position.
Trenches 2 is also available on the App store, in which you get to fight an epic campaign through an expanded world map, in even more realistic battlefields with all-new artillery and troops. You get to lead your troops through over 50 locations across Europe, can customize armies with over 20 different units, and play with some all new military units and weapons.
