Ahh, Thanksgiving. We might not celebrate the season over here in the great land of Oz, but we can definitely take advantage of the sales that are being sent our way.
Anuman have got their range of apps on sale now, with a bunch of them on sale for only 99 cents (including Universal Music DJ, which is usually $11.99, so it amounts to a fantastic saving). Anuman not only have put their game apps on sale, but they’ve also put some of their other apps on sale so if you want more than just something to pass the time then this sale will be great for you.
– Jules Verne’s Journey to the center of the moon – Part 1 (iPhone only) Available here
EA Mobile have been awarded the 2011 winner of Mobile Entertainment magazine’s ‘Best Mobile Games Publisher’, making it the fifth year in a row that EA has gotten this award. To celebrate this win and thank everyone for all the support they’ve received over the years EA is kicking off a series of holiday sales.
The EA Thanksgiving sale has some of the most popular iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android sales for as low as 99 cents, which considering some of fantastic titles that EA have released, means that you can pick up a whole swag of stuff for far cheaper than you’d expect. For more details on the sale, go here.
EA Mobile have also released a special video commemorating their win and going through some of the games and reasons why they’ve won again for the fifth time in a row. Check out the video below.
What are some of your favourite EA Mobile games? Do you think they deserved the award for the lineup they’ve sent out this year? Let us know in the comment section below!
EA Mobile have officially announced their Thanksgiving sale, and it is pretty kick ass! Thanks to their fifth Mobile Entertainment award EA Mobile have decided to really get generous with their sale stuff, slashing prices on all their big ticket items.
If you don’t have some of these apps yet, then make sure to get on that because these sale prices are not going to last.
What does the Mission Impossible franchise need? How about a little Simon Pegg?
The bloke from the UK will make an appearance as the Mission’s IT guy, cracking codes, hacking security, and making use of a whole host of fake appendages. We’ve got the Simon Pegg featurette here, with Mr Pegg going into just what it takes to join the Mission Impossible franchise as the funny, wise-cracking tech specialist to Tom Cruise’s veteran spy.
Check out the featurette below, Simon Pegg might be the kick in the pants that the franchise needs to get really going. Speaking as someone who has only seen the first two, this is definitely enough to get me interested in seeing the new movie.
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol is coming to cinemas December 15.
Aksys Games has just announced that BlazBlue Revolution, the largest 3v3 BlazBlue tournament in the world, will take place in Japan in March 2012. And great news to US players, Aksys Games will award the winning team of the BlazBlue Revolution US Finals airfares to Japan and hotel accommodations to represent the US in the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals! And it gets even better! If the US team wins the Japanese finals, on top of the winner’s prize, the US team will receive an extra bonus prize! The BlazBlue Revolution US
finals will be held in February 25, 2012. With only around three months to go, start training with two of your friends for your chance to achieve BlazBlue glory!
More information on rules and event details will be announced in December 12, at www.blazbluerevolution.com
Until then, for more info on the BlazBlue game series visit www.aksysgames.com
BlazBlue Revolution US Event
Details:
Finals Date: 2/25/2012
Location: Southern California, venue TBA
Format: 3v3 Double Elimination, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
EXTEND console version
Prize: Winning team will win full hotel and airfare to Japan and a spot in the
Japan Finals
Restriction: Winners MUST have their US passport or equivalent document by
2/25. NO EXCEPTIONS.
BlazBlue Revolution Japan Event
Details:
Final Date: 3/24/2012
Location: Japan, venue TBA
Format: 3v3 Format Final Rules TBA, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
(V1.05) Arcade Version
Prize: TBA + Special US Team Prize
EA Sports have announced that they have signed former Pro Evolution Soccer cover star Lionel Messi to a multi-year contract. This means Messi will now be the face of the FIFA franchise, starting out with the release of FIFA Street in the first half of 2012.
“I want to be part of the team behind the best sports football game in the world and be associated with the great EA SPORTS name,” said Messi. “EA SPORTS is a brand that shares my values of creativity, excellence and social responsibility.”
Eyebrows were raised earlier this year when it was announced that Cristiano Ronaldo would take Lionel Messi’s place on the cover for PES, so it should come as no surprise that the two time Ballon d’Or winner would be snapped up by EA Sports.
“Our FIFA franchise is the number one selling sports videogame franchise in the world, and Lionel Messi is the number one player in the world, so this agreement is a true partnership of superstars,” said Matt Bilbey, Vice President and GM of Football, EA SPORTS.
“With Messi on our team we have the world’s best and most exciting player to help EA SPORTS maintain its global leadership in the years ahead.”
The FIFA franchise is now in it’s 19th year, smashing sports games sales records with the release of FIFA 12 and still holding its place at the top end of the charts after 2 months.
Check out the FIFA Street video below to accompany the signing of Messi!
Saints Row: The Third Developer: Volition Publisher: THQ Platform: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3, PC Release Date: November 15, 2011 Price: $59.99 – Available Here
Overview
There are very few games that could pull off such ridiculous ideas as well as the Saints Row series has done. 5 years on from the original, Saints Row: The Third has really solidified the position of the series in the world of gaming. It has seemingly moved out of the shadow of GTA and other sandbox titles, offering a truly unique and fun experience in addition to becoming a much more polished, complete game. But how well does the story and depth of the game compete with the countless chart topping titles available at the moment? Well you’re going to have to read the review to find out.
Story
Following suit from the previous two games in the series, Saints Row: The Third is essentially about you and the 3rd Street Saints regaining control of the city. Since Saints Row 2, the gang had established a media empire in addition to controlling Stillwater and becoming international icons. However following an unexpected turn of events when attempting to rob a bank, the Saints leaders find themselves in jail and their control of the city threatened.
The Boss (who you control and customise to your hearts crazy desires), Shaundi and Gat get released from prison as a result of a bribe from International crime organisation The Syndicate, only to be taken to the leader of Phillipe Loren. An offer is made to the Saints, with the expectation that they will give up two-thirds of Stilwater’s revenue. You reject this offer and in true Saints style set off a gun fight as you make your escape from Loren’s private jet.
Without giving too much more away, you eventually set foot in Stillwater again, finding most of the control has been taken by The Syndicate, and it’s now of course your job to lead the Saints back to supremacy. The Syndicate is composed of three new rival gangs, The Luchadores, Morningstar and The Deckers.
Sounds pretty similar to the previous two games, right? Unfortunately it’s true, they haven’t strayed too much from the structure of the first two games, however that being said, by result of the three rival gangs combining to form The Syndicate, the story develops with greater fluidity and overall turns out to be pretty engaging. Instead of driving around and picking a gang to target, thereby muddling up storylines with each other, you get a far smoother story.
Gameplay
Freedom is something that Saints Row: The Third really thrives on. You can play the missions at your own pace and wreak havoc whenever and however you please. Access to vehicle and weapons is generally pretty easy, with most special vehicles you use in missions being added to your crib garages for unlimited use.
If you’ve played the previous two games, you won’t find it all too different in terms of controls. There have been a few button switches as well as the inclusion of some more character abilities and pretty cool combat moves (not to mention the parachute that you can make appear whenever you fall or jump from high places).
The missions on a whole are pretty similarly structured to Saints Row 2 but there is still a fair bit of variety to make it very enjoyable. The missions account for about 14 hours of the game, which may seem short but given all the activities and city-wrecking you can do, as well as the novelty Whored mode, you won’t find yourself getting bored too quickly.
One of my favourite additions to this game is the upgrades. Your cash is now a lot more useful than previously, with the option to improve a whole variety of things including physical abilities and weapon upgrades. You now get an hourly income from the city (not real time), which you can improve through purchasing stores and buildings as well as by completing missions.
Disappointingly, AI hasn’t really improved much. Although things get pretty crazy when you’re surrounded by enemies with various explosives flying around the place, they don’t really make much attempt to stop you from taking them out. That being said, the inclusion of “specialists” helps a bit as they tend to be slightly more difficult to take out.
“Brutes” are also a new addition. They are Syndicate clones of Oleg, an eastern European genetic beast of a person who becomes your “homie” pretty soon into the story. The Brutes take a fair amount of ammo to kill, and will sometimes come equipped with flamethrowers or mini-guns (both of which you can pick up after you’ve killed them to use as a temporary heavy weapon). Taking out a brute is rough, taking out multiple all the while the enemy gangsters are firing away at you is not such a cakewalk.
Visuals
To be honest, this is probably the weakest area of Saints Row: The Third. The visuals aren’t bad by any means, but they just aren’t up to the same standard that we’re growing accustomed to.
The character models look quite good and the cut scenes are animated very nicely in most cases. However, as in the previous versions, there is a real lack of continuity and detail in the environment. Cars still fade into obscurity once off the screen, as do the people walking the streets. It’s not a major problem but it’s that sort of detail that would elevate this to an excellent game rather than just a great one.
The customisation options really help spice up the visuals, with a vast array of clothing choices, not to mention skin colours. Having a nude metallic green, bearded transvestite with a zombie voice really supports the whole craziness angle this game is going for, and that’s before he/she is wielding a oversized, fatal dildo.
Audio
As always the game boasts a great variety of music on the soundtrack for the radio stations, including Kanye, Deadmau5, Benny Bennassi, The Bloody Beetroots and of course some funny ads, news reports and spoofs for good measure.
The voice acting in the game is another great component, featuring Daniel Dae Kim, Sasha Grey, Danielle Nicolette and of course Hulk Hogan. Your character as well has the choice of 7 voices (3 male, 3 female and 1 fun-loving zombie), allowing for some differentiation in character personalities and fitting into the scripting really well.
Overall
Assuming you’re not a sex-fearing square and you like a bit of humour thrown in with your games, then you’ll love Saints Row: The Third. It’s daring, it’s violent, it’s oh so silly but most importantly it’s fun. You can no longer write it off as an attempt at copying the GTA series as it has really come into its own with this release, and has firmly positioned itself in the game market. The story is engaging enough and the activities will keep you playing for hours, and when paired with the Co-op and Whored mode it really does offer good value for money. Of course the visuals are still somewhat lacking and there seem to be a few kinks that will need to be resolved with a patch, but overall it’s a well-polished, well executed and hell of a fun game to add to any gamer’s collection.
Bullet Time HD Developer: Kiloo Games Publisher: Kiloo Games Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iPad Release Date: 19 November 2011 Price: FREE – Available Here
Overview
Post-apocalyptic worlds, comic-book style cut scene, great stylized graphics, free… What doesn’t Bullet Time have? Well I’ll be taking a closer look at what makes up Bullet Time and if it lives up to its initial impression.
Gameplay
Bullet time is a dual-stick controller, with your left thumb on the directional control which you drag in the direction you want to go and your right controlling where you shoot. At first I missed the tutorial and that left me having absolutely no idea how to shoot, because to shoot you also have to move it in the direction you want to go, which is different from most iOS.
This aim control is pretty difficult to get a hold of, and being accurate with it takes even longer to manage. Even once you’ve gotten a good hold of it, the lack of accuracy can still pop up and be a pain. I usually just ended up trying to take people on at close range, or lure them into walking towards me and then do a quick backwards walk while shooting at them. Either way, once you’ve got your technique down the aiming thing won’t be as big a deal and you’ll forget it ever caused you so such a big headache in the first place.
However, the controls apart from firing your gun are quite simple and easy to take a hold of. To open gates you need to stand next to the controls for a specified period of time, though nothing beyond that. You can still fire your weapon to defend against the mutants that try to take you on, so you are not defenseless.
Bullet Time definitely has the whole post-apocalyptic world thing down, the levels are basically constructed in an homage to the junk yard. The level design itself is quite interesting and has more to it than you’d expect from the standard action-adventure app. It isn’t just a forward moving level, there are a variation of levels and some of the quests require thorough investigation of the corners of the levels.
You pick up quests to do throughout the game, some are simple, and some are quite difficult. However, in the case of dying you get sent back to the start of the quest area. And if you’re right at the end, as it tends to be when you get swarmed, then the chance of dying is even larger.
There are two campaigns at the moment, with more to come, but this doesn’t mean that the game is short by any means. You can also play in multiplayer, teaming up over Wifi or 3G to complete the campaigns together.
You get a daily silver award for logging in to the game. They give silver away like Tic Tacs, so to buy anything truly interesting or useful you need to spend upwards of 500 silver. It also makes you feel sort of silly for going out of your way for collecting some dropped silver if it’s only two pieces (if you’re on normal in the initial stages of the game, playing on harder difficulties will get you more silver for dropping an enemy).
There’s a great amount of gear customization as you move through the game, again more than you’d expect, as well as a tonne of boosts you can buy and use. You either buy them using silver or crystals, which can also be gotten with an in-app purchase.
At one point I received a text message during the game when I was being swarmed, it lagged, and I died. However, to its credit it didn’t completely have a mental breakdown, and if it had been in any other part of the game I would have been fine.
Visuals
At the beginning of the game there is an awesome little comic-book cut scene that really sets the tone for the whole game, and the rest of the graphics for the game match it. The mutants are all grotesque and whatnot and the hero is suitably scruffed up.
There were random advertisements popping up every so often, which were more jarring than anything because they were usually for cute apps that were such a contrast from the game itself that it was odd. But, given the fact that it’s free, the ads weren’t a surprise.
Audio
The soundtrack is unobtrusive, rather it is just an accent to the rest of the game. It’s sort of an odd twist on a Western theme. The sound effects are from the same family and I found myself actually reaching for the volume to turn it up instead of turning it off.
Overall
Bullet Time plays as well as it looks, you will definitely not find yourself getting bored or finishing it up quickly. Considering the fact that it is free, it’s great that it still feels like a far fuller game than some of the ones you pay for.
If you’re in America, you’re probably stuffing your face with turkey today, and you most definitely know that tomorrow, Black Friday, id the biggest shopping day of the year for the United States. If, however, you’re in Australia such facts might just pass you by, and you won’t be logging in to Steam to check out if there are any specials.
Well change your plans! Steam’s annual fall sale is here and with it hundreds of games’ prices are being slashed big time! Want Portal 2 for 15 dollars, or Fallout: New Vegas for 10?!? Even some newer games are getting rather drastic cuts, so consider this a public service announcement: Go to Steam, find that game you wanted but didn’t want to pay for, and smile with glee when you see how low the price is. And be sure to check if there are any bundles of games you love, because you can often by five games together for a great price.
Well, this news piece made me sound like a used car salesman…
Anyway, the sale ends Sunday the 27th, United States time, so go! Now! Why are you reading this article?!?!
I was considering cramming all 26 of the included song titles into this article, but I think the title is enough ABBA punning for one day! As you have no doubt gathered, ABBA: You Can Dance has just been released for the Nintendo Wii, and has a catchy new launch trailer to embed those Swedish pop songs even further into your head. The dance routines have all been professionally choreographed and are inspired by the original perormances of the group, and up to four players can take up the challenge, with two more slots available for the songbirds out there.
