The Playstation Vita is going to feature Remote Play, just like its predecessor, the Playstation Portable, did. Remote Play is how the handhelds connect to the Playstation 3, thus the Playstation 3 is streamed through the portable handheld. This includes the streaming of selected Playstation 3 games (sounds familiar). For the Playstation Vita, it will be compatible with all Playstation 3 games through a future firmware update, according to Eurogamer.
The games will be at 480×272 resolution, that of the Playstation Portable. Of course, the games will be upscaled to fit the 5 in. OLED screen. Future Playstation 3 releases, however, will support a 480p mode specifically for the Vita, which would have to be added by the developers themselves. The Vita is capable of displaying a resolution of 960×544.
This is a great solution for those who share the television that the Playstation 3 is hooked up. If one has a show or a movie which is going to be on, the other can simply switch to their Vita, provided they actually have one. Watch the video below, from this year’s Tokyo Game Show, to see the Vita handling Killzone 3 via Remote Play.
Get Up And Dance Developer: Gusto Games Publisher: O Games Platform: Nintendo Wii (PS3 Move) Release Date: 8th November Available Here
Overview:
Promoted as a game that anyone could play, regardless of age, fitness, gender and the rest, Get Up And Dance aimed to relieve people of their inhibitions by getting them up and dancing, in the process probably making a fool of themselves and/or causing injury – as comes naturally to many Wii games. Arriving just before the holiday season where relatives young and old, male and female, will be down to visit, it’s right on time for everyone to crowd around the TV and get up and dance. The only problem is, there doesn’t seem to have been any extra-special effort from Get Up And Dance to facilitate this niche and justify the game’s ownership of its title over any of its other dancing game competitors.
Gameplay:
The routines can be pretty complicated if you want to master them or even execute the moves correctly, and the features to teach you the choreography leave a lot to be desired. Some dance games have a great way of breaking down and slowing down routines to allow you to learn the moves and perform them accurately. Get Up And Dance does now; no explanation of moves or sequences, no choreography guide to help, just a very basic ‘Rehearse’ mode in which you can select specific sections of songs to practise. While more in-depth teaching would be contradictory of the game’s title, you can’t help but feel the back-to-basics rehearse mode doesn’t have much to offer over just repeatedly replaying a song you’re finding difficult in a normal game mode…
A normal, instant-action game mode like ‘Get Up And Dance’ mode or ‘Get Up And Party’ mode, for example. These straight forward modes are always going to be the most played part of the game. With a group of people behind you waiting for the game to start, you’ll usually jump into the first available game mode. As well as dancing to receive a score in these modes, Get Up And Party is home to a couple of extra multiplayer variants like ‘Tug of War’ and ‘Last Man Standing’. Although ultimately they have the exact same routines, it mixes it up by injecting an added sense of competition to proceedings.
In addition, there’s Get Up And Dance Group which poses the interesting idea of a talent show to progress through. Your dancing must be good enough to avoid getting three ‘X’s from the judges and being booted from the contest. The entertainment industry seems to be obsessed with applying a competition format to everything – not only singing and dancing, but business, cooking, even hairdressing – so it’s a nice try by the developers to appeal to the mass market by acknowledging the public’s interest in talent competitions. The game’s routines can slightly alter for players when doing multiplayer, because some players inherit the role of backing dancers and have slightly different routines to follow that the lead, though still stick to the style of dance of the song.
However, it almost seems like none of this matters in the long run just because of the monotony of it all. Although not totally the game’s fault as the Wii is starting to show its age, the unresponsive controls make it hard to distinguish one routine form the next. None of the choreography is particularly memorable and it can be disheartening to go all out like you’re starring in a music video, only to look over your shoulder and find your Aunt Patty waving the remote in a circle yet yielding similar scores. Although you would only be cheating yourself if you chose to flick and shake the Wii remote at random instead of following the choreography, it’s still disappointing. At least this way everyone’s rewarded for their efforts, though.
Visuals & Audio:
The setlist is mainly made up of contemporary tracks – it’s in keeping with the times, with mostly recent stuff which did well in the charts, giving it an instant and current appeal but depriving it of any lasting qualities. Perhaps it’s easier for a song to appear in a game once it’s already been in a couple previously, as there are definitely some recurring tracks here, though it is a positive that familiar, slightly older dance hits like Reel 2 Real’s ‘I Like To Move It’ are included.
The graphics carry the same neon glow design of the Just Dance games. While conveniently skirting around the Wii’s weaker visuals, it’s a design choice that doesn’t bode well considering Get Up And Dance should be trying to distinguish itself, not trying to get itself confuses with Ubisoft’s dancing series in the hope of extra sales from misled gift-buyers.
Overall:
Get Up And Dance always ran the risk of being too similar to Just Dance – even the names carry the same sentiments. Unfortunately, it has emerged from its misguided development as a Just Dance clone without many of its rival’s finer points. It also manages to highlight many of the Wii’s motion control shortcomings. Given Just Dance is on its third iteration with numerous other spin-offs, Get Up And Dance was up against something with plenty of time and experience in its craft, time and experience which Get Up And Dance didn’t have.
Before the Playstation Vita is actually release in the West, there is a small territory known as Hong Kong that will be releasing it in the same month as the Japanese. Recently, retailers around Hong Kong have opened pre-orders for the handheld. What was the reception? Lines were long, eager buyers flowed like champagne and online stores had a sudden spike in visitors in their gaming sections. All in all, Hong Kong is very excited, if a report on Engadget China is to be believed.
This picture is a store in Hong Kong with a long line of people waiting to pre-order their Vita:
Unfortunately, this has also led to opportunities of the scalping kind. But, with the release date looming closer, one has to wonder whether the crowds would only be bigger on December 23. Two stores actually sold all of their pre-order stock, which was the only way the crowds dispersed. This is also the release date for Taiwan. This comes two days before a widely celebrated Western holiday and six days after the Japanese release date of December 17, which will be the first country to receive the Vita.
Sony have released the latest shipping figures on their motion control peripheral the Playstation Move. According to the Japanese electronics giant, they have shipped nine million Playstation Moves. This figure goes back to the release of the Playstation Move, which was September 2010. In addition to the total units shipped since launch, Sony also released a figure of one million units since April, which is in a time period of seven months.
This isn’t that great of a figure, having one million shipped in a seven month period, compared to eight million units shipped from launch to April, which would suggest that the Move is not selling to expectations. This could be down to a lack of software within that period of time. However, the Move has had a resurgence of software recently released, which should pick up sales to an extent. The Move is a great peripheral for the Playstation 3 with software for both the casual gamer and the more hardcore gamer.
Some time ago, I had brought the news that the first party launch lineup for the Playstation Vita has been finalised. So, what do these packshots look like? Well, here is a screenshot below of six games: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, WipEout 2048, Little Deviants, Modnation Racers: Road Trip, Everybody’s Golf and Reality Fighters.
In addition to those titles, Sony is releasing the following for launch day:
Escape Plan
Top Darts
Hustle Kings
Unit 13
MotorStorm RC
These games will be joined by third party games. Some, like Army Corps of Hell from Square Enix have been announced, however, other companies have yet to announce their own plans for the Playstation Vita launch. The Playstation Vita will be released on February 23 in Australia and New Zealand. The price of the Wi-Fi model will be at $349.95 and the price for the Wi-Fi/3G model will be $449.95.
Bleach and Naruto are without a doubt two of the most popular shonen anime and manga series of the past decade. However it’s a little known fact that both series are heavily indebted to Yoshihiro Togashi, the man behind Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter. It may come as a surprise to fans of both Bleach and Naruto that they each in fact feature many of the same elements seen in Togashi’s works.
First off I will start off by explaining why Bleach would not exist had Togashi not previously made Yu Yu Hakusho. Tite Kubo the creator of Bleach to this day refuses to confirm Yu Yu Hakusho as an influence but taking a look at it’s story is evidence enough;
A delinquent teenager meets a young girl who gives him powers in which he is required to fight demons for beings of the afterlife, he soon encounters a man with red hair and another man with black hair who kidnap the heroes love interest. The hero then sets off to save the love interest, eventually befriending the red haired man and eventually defeating the black haired man and thus freeing his love interest.
Soon after a powerful new enemy appears who was previously thought to be dead, with it turning out the enemy had faked his own death. The enemy then goes on the reveal that they are essentially undefeatable. With no other option but to enter in an arduous series of battles in order to grow strong enough to face this unbeatable enemy the hero as well as his friends battle and grow stronger as they fight. The hero then enters a cave with the challenge of overcoming something within themselves. After overcoming this ordeal the hero is stronger than ever and manages to defeat the supposedly unbeatable enemy. However after the characters defeats the main enemy one of them loses their powers.
Things seem to return to normal, until humans with mysterious powers begin to appear and eventually take the hero to a bizaare house which in turn ends up being a way to train the hero. Not long after it is revealed that the next main villain is also formerly an agent of the afterlife, now causing the hero to have to eseentially face “himself”.
That description fits both series in a nut shell. It is not to say Bleach is a bad series but it clearly owes a lot to Togashi’s manga. That isn’t all though, if Togashi had not made his second series Hunter x Hunter, it’s hard to say Naruto would have ever gotten off the ground.
Admittedly Naruto only begun it’s life following the foot steps of Hunter x Hunter and after Togashi’s hiatuses forced it to live on it’s own, Naruto did distance itself very much Hunter x Hunter. But if you take a look at the beginning of Naruto its clear Masashi Kishimoto was following Togashi’s work closely;
The hero is a 12 year old boy whose father is a legendary Ninja/Hunter. The hero is odd, yet pure, honest and kind of heart. He aims to become a Ninja/Hunter and after gaining friends along the way must undergo an examination in order to be granted the title of Ninja/Hunter. The exams are difficult and feature different phases, such as having to run through a dangerous forest in which the heroes are stalked by a creepy villain with a bloodlust and then a tournament phase in which characters are required to fight one another.
While the story similarities may end there, multiple other elements of Hunter x Hunter are present in the series such as a character who seeks revenge after his clan (famous for their unique eyes) is massacred, a group of criminals (which the previously mentioned creepy villain is a member of) and most of all similar abilities in characters.
Fortunately, unlike Tite Kubo, Masashi Kishimoto openly admits he was heavily influenced by Hunter x Hunter in creating Naruto. While both series are heavily influenced by Togashi’s work that is not to say they do not both feature enough uniqueness in their own rights to make their existence worth while. It is however without a shadow of a doubt because of Togashi that both series exist today.
Togashi laid the ground work for both series and ultimately influenced two of the most popular series of all time. So whether you are a fan of Naruto or a fan of Bleach, you should check out the works that made them possible.
These days, we don’t see a lot of original ideas come from Nintendo in the form of new IPs. Sure, we have received the likes of Rhythm Heaven, Glory of Heracles, and even the almighty Pikmin series in the past decade, but the main love has obviously been shown to the heavily developed characters such as Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby. With all that said, I have to wonder just what we might see in the coming years with these four heavy-hitters as we could potentially see new directions taken that give all four new life.
So how can Nintendo keep the fans happy and still create something new and fresh? Here are just a few ideas along with some of the best concept art crafted this generation by yours truly.
We have already seen a few iterations of Toon Link with the Legend of Zelda series in the past, but many have been quenching for another title like Link to the Past for quite some time. Recently, Iwata stated that the next title in the franchise would be structured like the classic title and feature a 2D design, tapping into the famed roots of the series. It was very exciting hearing that, but I think the series as a whole could use a nice reboot altogether.
With the mega-success of Skyrim, Nintendo might want to think about crafting a new Legend of Zelda that is in complete first-person. This idea may seem a bit far-fetched at first, but think about this for a second. Each Zelda game lets the player literally take the role of Link and play the game as themselves, re-incarnated in Hylian form. I’ve always thought that first-person titles enhance a players connection with the character they are playing as, and if a new Zelda title were use this perspective throughout, we would get to see Hyrule in a whole new light. New fighting mechanics could be added in, old weaponry such as the slingshot and bow would fit like a glove, and exploration could be taken even further as the entire environment would feel much more open to the player.
This idea really isn’t too much of a stretch at all to be honest. Just one simple change of perspective however could completely reboot the franchise as a whole and give us yet another way to play as our favorite pointy-eared friend.
KIRBY…Now With Sports!
The Kirby series has seen a ton of spin-offs that have put the little pink fluff in Pinball Machines, paintings, and even on the raceways. Each have been successful in their own right, but one thing that I have always been baffled by was Kirby’s sad absence from Mario sports titles. Kirby’s Return to Dreamland showed us that Waddle Dee, Meta-Knight, and Dedede could all carry themselves well as extra protagonists from the series, but what if we put all of those famous HAL creations on the field?
That’s right. A full on Kirby sports title. It honestly doesn’t matter if it’s Soccer, Baseball, or even Rugby. Kirby could utilize his ability copying techniques on the field and the developed cast of antagonists would execute their own abilities to try to stop the player from scoring. Imagine if you were playing baseball, and Whispy Woods blew the player away while they were trying to make a home-run. It’s a bit campy, but that charming nature of the Kirby series could make for a fantastic multiplayer experience on consoles and offer a nice change of pace from the usual Mario sports offerings.
A Metroid/Starfox Collaboration
Samus and Star Fox have definitely been dealt a bad hand in the past generation. I personally loved every minute of Other M but many other fans and critics didn’t seem to like the new voice Samus received, and the game’s sales suffered because of it. Star Fox has seen very little treatment this generation other than a remake and two unremarkable DS releases, so I would say it would be a fantastic idea to take these “out of this world” personas and put them together in one adventure.
Imagine playing as both Fox McCloud and Samus Aran in a third person adventure, much like Star Fox Adventures. A plot would be rather easy to tie together due to the backgrounds of each character and the gameplay would be a simple mixture as Samus’ arsenal really isn’t too far from the weaponry that Fox has been equipped with, aside from the morph ball. If successful, this collaboration could re-launch both series back into the mainstream and maybe..just maybe, Nintendo would have enough confidence to continue on with both classic franchises.
Of course these are just some ideas and are very unlikely to be taken seriously by most, but it’s interesting to think about all of the potential games Nintendo still hold under their belt. This is yet another reason that Ninty is far from dead and an even greater reason we should all look to the Wii-U and future 3DS releases with our heads up.
Now that you have seen my artistic visions and ideas, lets hear yours. What do you want to see done with these famous Nintendo mascots? Leave a comment down below and even a picture of your own, drawing out a stunning concept that can hopefully be held in the same museum as the masterpieces you see prominently posted above one day.
Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure Developer: n-Space Publisher: Majesco Platform: Xbox 360 Kinect (Reviewed) Release Date: November 8, 2011 Price: $49.99 – Available Here
Overview:
With the advent of motion gaming, exercise groups quickly believed they could get gamers or more fitness oriented people to try a completely new aspect that was before unheard of. That of course, is to create a video game that will make people get off of their couch and exercise in the comfort of their own home. We’ve seen multiple titles take advantage of this on the Wii, and even more recently on the Kinect from Microsoft.
Now despite various exercise titles being released since the Kinect’s launch, most of them always shared one thing in common. The player would always be exercising either in a gym or a simple setting with little actual visual flair. Now we have Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure, a title which focuses around exercise but will take players on an adventure through a jungle as well. With it of course is the relatively well known fitness instructor Jillian Michaels, but does her inclusion and unique environment make this exercise game worth your time?
Visuals:
One of the unique features about Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure is that rather than work out in a gym environment or something similar, your workout environment, or at least the in-game environment I should say is actually outdoors and usually jungle themed. Thankfully the backgrounds are at least decent looking, though they don’t go above and beyond just providing a backdrop which is a shame, though the Adventure mode traps and environmental interactions are at least passable.
The only other thing you will be seeing is of course, Jillian Michael herself. Jillian is wearing the same outfit on the cover of the game and there are no customization options, nor does her facial expression ever change. You will just see constantly repeated moves as you watch her demonstrate an exercise in front of you that you are supposed to mimic. This grows to be quite boring after a short time as you are always forced to see the same exact motion with the same exact presentation again and again and again ad nauseum.
Being that this is a Kinect title; the Kinect will “scan” the player and place their image in the game’s lower right hand corner. Rather than provide a simple outline the game provides a full colored image of the player which is a nice touch, though the only demonstration of whether or not you are doing the exercise moves correctly are faint outlines that appear after you have already finished it.
Audio:
As you turn on the title you are cheerfully greeted by Jillian Michaels’ voice without actually seeing her of course. You best grow used to hearing that voice, as she is the only character in the entire game and you are going to be hearing plenty from her and while there is some minor repetitive jungle themed music with way too many monkey noises in the background that grows old very quickly. Jillian Michaels provides commentary on practically everything you do, if you are doing something wrong she will scold you mercilessly, if you do something right she’ll give you a minor compliment.
In the end it feels like her compliments are bare minimum to what you would usually hear, as Jillian Michaels seems to want to squash any motivation you’d have to even exercise as she constantly chastises the player with comments about their failures, while truth be told it is mostly the failures of the game itself that should be chastised.
Gameplay:
The first time that you start up the title and make it past the initial player scan, the game will ask that you set up your fitness profile so it can calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index). This includes putting in your age, your height, your weight and your gender with the end result being a BMI of some sort. Now while this sounds unique at first, I found no differences in the workout routines of someone who was malnourished, average or morbidly obese according to the BMI ratings.
Now one of the most important parts to most Kinect games is that they have a relatively easy to navigate menu system. Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure’s menu is unfortunately a bit difficult to use due to poor detection of either lifting or lowering the right arm to move through the various options, most of the time moving far too fast to accurately select your choice the first time around.
Now on to the fitness, there are two separate modes you can choose to work out in with Jillian, Fitness Training and Fitness Adventure. The Fitness Training itself consists of two options which are either preset exercise circuits which Jillian herself has handpicked for the player to work out with which are named various things such as Fat Burner plus a number of circuits that allow you to create your own workout routine from the 49 exercises that are included in the game.
Besides that choice there is also the option to choose just a single exercise to work out whatever part of the body you feel like choosing to. All of the exercise moves are provided here so you can either choose your favorite or most challenging move depending on what you feel like doing. The player can then pick what difficulty level they want to select between, however the higher difficulty only increases the amount of reps that need to be performed.
Besides this mode there is also the whole Adventure aspect to the Fitness Adventure and that is the Fitness Adventure mode. There are 58 levels of this mode that the player will be able to go through and can choose to do them at any time they wish to. The player is placed out in the wilderness, usually in a jungle ruin of some sort and must perform a number of different exercise movements to make it across obstacles while walking and collecting coins.
While the Fitness Adventure should be where this game shines, it is unfortunately one of the more annoying aspects of the title. The player is unable to move at any speed they choose to, in fact a slow walk by the player will be the same as a fast jog, though the game has difficulty picking up anything other than very high leg lifts so best get to high stepping to move further.
To make matters worse the player is forced to move along an on-rails path where they can extend their hands to either the left, right or above to collect green coins to reduce their time or if they grab the bad red coins they will gain time. The whole Fitness Adventure is portrayed in first person, however no control is given to the player, all you are allowed to do is move where they want to and if you feel like looking around at the jungle environment then you are out of luck.
As you make it through the adventure you will run into a number of obstacles which can only be avoided by performing a certain exercise motion to get past them. This is obviously where the exercise portion of the adventure comes in but also is where it can bring most people to a screeching halt due to very poor recognition from the Kinect. The only way to clear any obstacle is to do a certain number of reps for the shown exercise which usually at least make sense with the obstacle in your path. However that is ultimately all there is to the Fitness Adventure, walking in place and picking up easy to grab gems and performing exercise with the only difference between levels being the exercises and paths that are performed.
Now no matter which mode you choose to play, you are given three options to choose roughly how you want to start that exercise. You can either preview the exercise which will have Jillian’s in-game avatar (you never see a real video of Jillian ever in this title) perform the exercise while you watch, a warm up mode that is the same as the preview mode but allows the player to supposedly warm up to the exercise though unfortunately there is no way to tell if you are performing it the right way as the game chooses not to tell you, then of course starting the exercise itself.
Now let me come out and say it here, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure will make you sweat and will give you a workout and a number of the exercises in this game are quite difficult to perform or at least taxing on the body. The title also requires much more room than an average Kinect title to work properly at all so it can pick up your various exercise motions, though it will often not even do that properly.
As you go through each exercise you will either perform them correctly or incorrectly, however there is absolutely no way to tell what you are doing wrong. The title does not inform you if a body part is out of place or anything else, simply all that is shown is a red outline and a verbal scolding from Jillian herself. There is no learning in this game and nothing is taught, you must either do them correct the first time or try to figure out what is going wrong yourself.
That is to say that the title itself isn’t what is going wrong however. The detection on the Kinect itself is just absolutely terrible, especially for floor exercises. While most exercise games have difficulty with floor exercises I have never experienced such inaccuracies as with Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure. To make matters worse, the player must often readjust their Kinect simply so it will even register the player on the floor, but this usually turns into an issue when immediately after you are on the floor you have to perform some standing exercise which requires another fitness breaking Kinect adjustment.
Besides the floor exercises, the title does a poor job recognizing most standing exercises as well. I mentioned earlier that this title requires more room than your average Kinect title and that is due to most of the actions you will have to perform to make it through a routine. The detection however is so dodgy here that proper motions following Jillian’s example perfectly may not even be picked up or marked wrong, while performing something not even close may be seen as correct.
Overall:
In the end Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure may provide a unique setting and a rather difficult workout for some, it also provides some of the most lackluster experiences you will find on the Kinect, exercise title or not. While Jillian Michaels fans may love this to death, her personality does not transfer well into a fitness video game. While some people may still enjoy exercising with the various flaws in the Kinect detection and just soldier through the workouts, the poor detection often makes Fitness Adventure and longer exercise circuits a frustrating and annoying chore with minimal reward.
Now that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been out for over two weeks, everyone has had some time to grow accustomed to the various races that are able to be created. Some races don’t vary too much from one another in appearance but the Elven races, the Argonians, the Khajiit, or even the human races of them have certain stat bonuses or special skills that may factor into your decision. Then again, it could just simply be because you would rather play as a cat or a lizard type character than a more human oriented one.
Personally, my class of choice is the Khajiit, though I was a bit taken by surprise by the skills that accompanied his creation. This includes the ability to use claws in hand to hand combat which deal surprisingly large amounts of damage. The skill provides an extra hint of character development which I never thought possible upon my initial start up for the game.
That being said, what Skyrim race do you play? Would you play a race after studying their bonuses and choosing the that best fits your playstyle? Or would you simply choose the one that looked the most unique? Let us know below.
Hey you know all those Skyrim books in-game that you wish had time to read? Well now you finally will have the opportunity to get through them all! Some peeeples over at capane.us took the in-game books and converted them to the Kindle and ePub formats (iPad and iPhone). Check out the website here to get your very own copies of the books. You can either drag them into iTunes or go to the website on your iDevice and click the ePub link to automatically download the goodness. Please keep in mind that you should probably own a copy of the copy so that everything is on the up and up. In addition, Capsule Computers does not condone piracy, and we can’t say that Bethesda has given permission for these books to be distributed freely on the internet. So, USE THAT NOGGIN and enjoy responsibly.
