It appears that a single image of Alan Wake: Night Springs has been able to escape the nightmare and reveal a little bit of info for the digital download follow-up to last Alan Wake which was released back in 2009. The image was released by Game Informer and in it we see that Alan Wake has decided to abandon his comfortable looking jacket for something a bit more casual.
Well, more like a lot more casual. Standing in a checkered shirt and jeans he is carrying what appears to be a nailgun as well as a giant flashlight. In the background we see a sign for Night Springs, the location of Alan Wake’s in-game television show as well as a desert motel. It seems like we will be seeing a significant change of scenery in the next title. What do you think?
Nintendo has announced what is perhaps the best looking 3DS that we have seen so far. If you haven’t picked up a Nintendo 3DS yet and live in Europe then there is no better one to pick up unless you aren’t a fan of The Legend of Zelda. NintendoLife learned today that Nintendo will be releasing a limited edition The Legend of Zelda bundle for the Nintendo 3DS which comes with Ocarina of Time 3D and a fancy looking 3DS.
As you can see above the handheld is in the black coloring but features some nice gold designs and a nice looking logo with the triforce. Those looking to pick up this bundle will have to wait until November 25th and will cost €199.
Kinect Sports: Season Two Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Rare/ Big Park Platform(s): Xbox 360 – Kinect Required Release date: October 25, 2011 Price: $49.99 –Available here– Add the demo to your Xbox download queue here ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Overview Motion gaming and sports have been paired together for a few games now. The sports genre seems like a natural fit for video games, and adding the motion control experience to that is a no-brainer. Both the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 Kinect launched with sports games, Wii Sports and Kinect Sports. Those games both had motion controls and they were big hits. As a matter of fact, Wii Sports and its sequel, Wii Sports Resort, were some of the top selling games for the Nintendo Wii system. Kinect Sports was also a huge seller on the xbox 360. Now it is Microsoft’s turn to release a sequel for their sports game on the Kinect. Kinect Sports: Season Two features upgrades, better motion tracking and new sports. Does it compete?
Gameplay Each sport in the game has its pros and cons. Let’s go through and examine each ones respective strengths and weaknesses.
Football In the beginning, football is very fun. You actually feel like a quarterback as you crouch under center, snap the ball and try to make a play. Even audibling is included in the game. And once you throw the ball, you are turned into a wide receiver and you can make the touchdown, celebration included! You can even perform some Tebowing if you are up to it. However, after about one game, the magic starts to wear off. You realize that there are only about 6 plays you can actually call. There are 2 short, 2 medium and 2 long pass plays in your “playbook”. There is no rushing, and no defense. You can’t even call a field goal unless the game decides that you are in range. In addition, you can’t turn once you have caught the ball. That’s right. All you can do is run as fast as you can until inevitably you are tackled from behind. On top of that, you can’t even stiff arm a defender. Overall, the motion controls enhance the experience, but there was a lot cut from this sport.
Tennis When playing tennis you can serve, move around, do a backhand and control your shots pretty well. The Kinect controls do make it feel as if you are playing tennis, but overall its just boring. You and the AI just volley back and forth until someone misses. There is very little strategy or different kinds of shots to make. Unless your playing with someone else or going for achievements, there is very little reason to play tennis.
Golf Golf is the best game on the disc by far. Every piece of the golfing experience is accurately represented. For example, you can shade your eyes to see the hole better, and the game will give you a flyby of the what the the particular hole looks like and how to approach it. You can crouch down and divine your putts. Those are just two areas of how golf in this game uses motion control to actually enhance playing golf in a videogame. Nearly every other movement from golf is also included. In addition, the controls for swinging your club and positioning your avatar are very easy to use.
Darts Darts are probably the second best game in Kinect Sports: Season Two. Trying to aim and throw your darts with precision is tough, just like in real life, It was a very intense and pressure filled game as I fought to take down the AI. This is a very good alternative to setting up a dart board in your home. You don’t have to worry about putting holes in the wall, kids throwing the darts at each other or keeping score. All in all, the game of darts is one reason why some may consider buying this game, especially for the multiplayer.
Baseball Baseball is the least fun sport in Kinect Sports 2. Batting merely requires that you swing. It doesn’t really matter whether you look for strikes or balls, as most of the time you can get at least a hit by just swinging. As long as your not REALLY late or early, you will probably get a double, triple or even a home run. Pitching is a little more challenging and fun, as the catcher will give you clues as to what pitch to throw and what the batter dislikes in terms of pitches. However, you can only throw a few different pitches like a slow and fast straight ball or a slow and fast curve ball. As you can imagine, that gets old fast. Fielding merely requires that you hold your arm out. Overall, its a complete snoozefest.
Skiing Skiing is undoubtedly the simplest sport in the game. All you need to do is turn and try to steer through the flags on the course. Occasionally, you will need to hop to do a jump. It may be fun with others and for young kids, but mostly it felt like an unfinished game type.
There are some other features in Kinect Sports: Season Two that are worthy of mentioning. Each sport in the game has bonus mode that is very arcade in nature and usually focuses on getting the highest point score. These game modes are fairly entertaining and sometimes they are better than the actual game. Kinect Sports: Season Two also has a “Challenge Mode” where you can send out to challenges over XBL to your friends and taunt them with your high score. Of course, they can also do the same thing to you. If you beat their score, then you can shut them up.
Tutorials deserve a special mention in the game. Rare did a tremendous job easily explaining all you need to do in game. For example, I have never played a real game of darts in my life, and I had no idea what the goal of the game was. However, after two 45 second videos, I had a good idea of what I was supposed to do and why. After the game was completed I felt I had a strong understanding of some of the strategies involved in darts, although I am sure there is plenty more to be learned.
Audio and Visuals Kinect Sports does pretty good in the audio department. There are a lot of licensed tracks that play when you finish a game or when you do spectacular moves. In addition, there is voice-over that tells you what to do. Whoever recorded these has great voice, and they made the game that much better.
In addition to the voices of the game though, your voice also plays an extensive role in Kinect Sports: Season Two. Nearly every menu item or choice can be adjusted with just the dulcet tones of your charming voice. It is great to just speak to the game and have it do everything. No waving your arms, pointing your finger or yelling at your cousin to give you the stupid controller already. Voice control is also used extensively in many of the sports. For example, you can hike the ball with your voice and you can switch your golf clubs by merely stating what you want.
On the other hand, visuals are not so good. They may not be Wii Sports bad, but they could have been much better. Other than that they are in HD, and they have much more detail in the backgrounds than Wii Sports did, there is little to praise about them. They are functional and they look ok, but they were obviously not a focus point for the developers.
Overall In conclusion, Kinect Sports: Season Two is a great party game or family game night experience. The motion controls make you feel more connected to what you are playing. In addition, each game is easy to pick up although mastering it may take a few tries. However, Rare cut so much out of each sport that strategy and excitement was lost. There was no reason why could not have kept some of the more in-depth parts of each sport intact. And that is the biggest failing of this game: there are so many missed opportunities where Rare could have added elements that enhance the experience. For example, turning while running in football or being able to do tricks in the air while skiing. Its a crying shame that each time you play one of the sports, especially baseball or football, the experience tends to blend together, until eventually (about the 4th or 5th time) it feels like you are slogging through the same thing you did last time. Take football for instance. All you really need to do is throw long passes and run a bit. That is all it takes win. The other sports games have similar problems. For about 4 hours, this game is a blast as you learn everything and feel like you are ACTUALLY a part of each sport. However, unless you play with others, Kinect Sports: Season 2 begins to be a bore. All in all, a few of the sports are great anytime. Darts turns out differently every time and is basically like a real dart board. Golf is just superb fun. But every other sport has had so much cut from that it is sometimes a wonder they are still playable. Nevertheless, if you need a party game, you could do much worse, as there are plenty of Kinect games that don’t have the extensive voice control options, the variety of gameplay, or the accurate motion controls.
Modern Warfare 3 is a huge title, no one can doubt that and anyone who drove past a video game retailer last night can attest to the popularity of the game. However no one thought that it was going to be this high in demand, because according to Lazard Capital Markets’ Atul Bagga Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was pre-ordered three times more than Battlefield 3, which places the title at around 9 million pre-orders.
GameSpot reports that this estimate puts MW3 70% ahead of Modern Warfare 2 and 55% more than Call of Duty: Black Ops. The same analyst went on to say that he expects Modern Warfare 3 to push 20 million copies before the year is over. I believe we can say that Modern Warfare 3 is going to be quite successful no matter what stands in its way.
Ever since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced people were already complaining that the game would have plenty of bugs. I mean, you know how gamers are… wrong them once and they’ll be snarky forever. But those people can mutter their complaints a little quieter than before as Bethesda representatives told Wired that gamers should expect a day one patch that “fixes some minor stability and quest progression issues.”
Besides this day one patch, Bethesda creative lead Todd Howard also explained that the company will be focusing on “bigger and more substantial” downloadable content when the game is released. However the company will not “be doing a lot of it. Our high-level thinking is that there’ll be not as many.” He also went on to say that fans should not expect any DLC shortly after the game is released, as the company wants to see what consumers think of the title before moving forward.
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment will be unleashing their movie tie-in Happy Feet Two on us from 25th November. The game will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS.
In the game, new dangers are threatening the penguin nation, and it’s going to take everyone’s favourite penguins, Mumble and Ramon, working – and dancing – together to save it from extinction. Different adventuring components will make up the game which will have a musical flavour added in to adhere to the tippy-tappy nature of the film.
As well as 3D on the 3DS system, the game will also support 3D on Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game for those with televisions that support it.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have confirmed that the Games for Windows PC version of Batman: Arkham City will be available in the UK beginning 25th November, while North America will get it a few days earlier on November 22nd. As you know the Xbox 360 and PC version are already out. The PC version, however, took a little longer but you’ll be pleased to know it’ll be here before the month is out.
Published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by Rocksteady Studios, Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City – five times larger than the game world in Batman: Arkham Asylum – and the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new, all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.
BurgerTime World Tour Publisher: Konami Developer: Monkeypaw Games Platforms: XBLA (Reviewed), PSN, PC, WiiWare Release Date: November 2, 2011 Price: 800 MSP – Available Here
Overview: BurgerTime made its debut in 1982 as an arcade game. Finding a wide popularity, BurgerTime was ported to early consoles such as Intellivision, ColecoVision, Nintendo Entertainment System, and even the Atari 2600.
In the new wave of reconstructed classics, BurgerTime World Tour emerges with much anticipation. But will this reconstruction hold up to its predecessor?
Story: If you wake up in the morning and have to decide which one of your identical chef hats you want to wear, you might just be Peter Pepper. After getting ready Peter flags down a taxi for a ride to work. As the yellow cab comes near to the burger chef, the driver steps on the gas leaving Pepper in the dust. An evil sausage named Frank Furter was the cab driver and wants to prevent Peter from advancing as a burger chef.
Four world chefs challenge the Peter Pepper’s abilities as a burger chef. By mastering the art of each world’s burger varieties, Peter will be able to defeat his annoyingly persistent rivals.
Gameplay: With easy to use controls, this title can be fun for casual gamers. Utilizing the left analog for movement, the casual player does not need to worry about potentially confusing duel stick controls. Unlike the game’s predecessor, Peter Pepper can jump with (A). Using the jump along with directionals will help in avoiding enemies like Frank. While I am not against the jump implementation, BurgerTime diehards might be disappointed with this “controversial” move. However, I feel that it is necessary to fit well with the 3D rotating environment.
The clear objective of each level is to create burger(s) by dropping ingredients platform to platform. Once all of the ingredients have dropped onto the dining plate, the burger will be counted as complete. Now the only way cheese, lettuce, meat, or bread can drop from a platform is by having the player walk across the ENTIRE ingredient. Jumping dead center in a patch of lettuce will only make it droopy.
When mere avoidance isn’t enough, use the pepper shaker. Listed as (X), the pepper shaker will momentarily stun any enemy that is sprayed. When you cannot get passed the walking produce, pepper the hell out of them.
Additional to the pepper shaker, there are other items that are available for pick-up. Spatulas can be used with (B) as a whirlwind attack on any enemy. An important note about spatulas is that you do not need to stun enemies before using this ability. Wasting your shaker charges may prove deadly especially with aggressive opponents. Other power-ups include rockets, speed boost, and an ice shield. None of the power-ups last for a long time, and most prove to be more hectic to acquire.
Since the single player is timed, there are ways to complete levels faster. Enemy avoidance comes with a price – more time. Stunning the baddies with your pepper shaker and using (Y) to pick up and throw them can prove useful. If thrown on top of your ingredients, there will be extra weight distributed. Once dropped the ingredient – with baddies – will fall further. This can reduce the time of burger completion and add bonuses to your overall score.
So far I have only introduced one of the several annoying produce that will try their best to kill you. Frank is joined by Sonny, Ruthless Dill, Lim Burger, Chaz, and Habba De Niro. Each enemy has their own special ability and focus. For instance, Ruthless Dill will guard an area and mimic a player’s jump. Do not try and jump over this guy – you will lose. Habba De Niro hunts the player down but will cause an explosion if stunned, killed, or knocked back. This means you should probably run away.
Beyond the wacky looking killer food groups, the player must avoid certain death traps along the journey. Wooden platforms will break after a second of impact. Normally there are spike strips below these wooden steps, so be very careful. Other levels contain areas that will light ablaze momentarily after contact. Do not plan on standing on this platform unless you want a burnt arse.
Boss battles can be difficult. The objective for boss levels are the same as normal levels but with a twist. The boss’s life meter will decrease as you create burgers. However, you may experience tremors, deadly ketchup/mustard gases, and Pepper seeking rockets.
Once I had completed the single player mode, I decided to give the online multiplayer a try. Sadly, I was unable to find a game over the course of a few days. The player community may be scarce at the moment, but the game just released. As the community grows I can see the multiplayer becoming very popular. Remember smacking Frank with that spatula? Well, why not do it to a friend online?
After the online multiplayer was a bust, I decided to try out the local. The player is able to choose to either play a burger battle or a rocket race. The burger battle pits players against each other to see who can create the most burgers. Rocket race requires players to top off burgers while racing against opponents.
One aspect that I liked about BurgerTime World Tour is that the player could choose between being Peter Pepper or their own avatar. While Pepper may complete the story, playing as your own avatar is cool in its own right. Additionally, you can choose among the different rival chefs, Peter Pepper, your avatar, and Mr. Destructoid for multiplayer.
Graphics/Audio I truly enjoyed the presentation of this retro remake. Incorporating rotational 3D environments to a classic platformer kept the core game mechanics alive with brand new features. Some of the levels are truly complex where players must pay attention to survive. Yes, I am talking about those darn rocket levels where you need to avoid drills as well as spikes.
Being able to see the cause/effect relationship between objects made this game fun to see. If there was a wandering egg below an ingredient that just dropped, that egg would get smashed! If an enemy was hit with pepper, you could visually see them stunned. You jump next to a Ruthless Dill; they jump back. In these ways the graphics definitely help create the “Heck Yes!” and “Oh Crap!” moments.
Artistically mastered to mesh a retro feeling into a modern game, the audio produces a good lasting impression. This became most prevalent to me during the score screens in-between levels. As points were being tallied, I couldn’t help but perform a little jig as I heard the fast arcade beats. And no I cannot dance.
Overall A rotating 3D environment provides an unique game style that keeps your fingers ready. BurgerTime World Tour could be a fast paced game for casual players or a challenge an achievement perfectionist. The single player can guarantee gamers a few hours of gameplay with replayability on different difficulties.
The downfall lies in the lack of readily available online community. Players can easily become frustrated when waiting in queue, and this is no exception. The game modes, burger battle and rocket race, can be fun but still need a community to play consistently.
The migration and adaptation from classic to next generation was a success. While keeping the basic principles the same – except jumping, BurgerTime World Tour exemplifies a healthy transition of gaming in the past 30 years. While the game may be short and multiplayer lacks community, I am very pleased with this title.
BurgerTime World Tour hits Frank in the Furter for
-The following is not a representation of the views of Capsule Computers or it’s staff. This is also not about Modern Warfare 3 specifically although i have played it. This is a generalisation on the impact that the series has had on the market-
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is far from a stain on gaming, but quite the opposite, being the pinnacle in a competitive industry and saturated genre. The franchise is surely the benchmark for the genre, spawning massive online gaming communities. Hell, I’ve even seen on dedicated gaming sites special forum sections for Modern Warfare 2 alone, testament to its overwhelming popularity.
The fact that it has been the catalyst for so many knock-offs that have paled in comparison and sales figures, only shows how influential it has been since its initial launch. I’m not getting into the nitty gritty, as peoples experiences and perspective on different games is purely subjective. What keeps you glued to the screen could not be my cup of tea and vica versa. What we can all mostly agree upon is the fact that Call of Duty is a highly polished franchise that has stood the test of time so far. This new addition to the family is just as bold and in your face as any previous instalment.
I don’t think we can blame its success on the condition of many of its online rooms and the kinds of people who are in a lot of online communities, hell bent on creating havoc. There will always be that player who sits on a spawn spot or hides away with a sniper rifle, killing every noob that joins in. Most administrators, including those responsible for the Call of Duty rooms do a good job keeping them as fair as possible, with many Black Ops hackers playing with mods banned from the servers.
In all fairness, there are not too many directions you can go with this genre, not in the same manner you can with slower moving strategic adventure titles like Uncharted. While i do agree that the story lines could be slightly more engaging, I’m not looking for a love story when I buy Call of Duty, I’m looking to live out a fantasy of controlling weapons and vehicles in a virtual space with no consequences for my surroundings. In this I have found what I am looking for in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and relish in the fact. Call of Duty storylines have always been kept fresh with the addition of controlling multiple characters rather than the same soldier all the way through. I’ve got a crap memory so I’m not going to try and remember the story of each mission.
Lastly I do agree with a few things my colleague said in his article, mainly in relation to the auto-lock and the changing difficulty levels of the recent wave of games. The auto-lock system in Modern Warfare 3 makes the game too easy and unrealistic. Soldiers are not that accurate and it takes a lot of the strategic enjoyment from the experience. Saying that you can disable the feature but especially when playing online you don’t stand a chance of lasting long. My two personal candidates for GOTY are RAGE and Uncharted 3 and neither have auto-lock. It’s this very fact that makes the shooting parts of these games so enjoyable.
The game also plays no different from any of the others and probably would have been more successful as an add-on pack sold at half the price. Imagine those poor fools who paid hundreds for those legitimately purchased K-mart copies. It is a solid title from a solid franchise but don’t expect anything too innovative or memorable. Also it’s not overly long in duration, another example of developers focusing on the multiplayer portion instead of the campaign. I don’t care what anyone says, a game is nothing without a good single player mode and todays aren’t delivering the goods.
These views are that of the author and as such do not reflect those of the other staff or capsulecomputers.com.au as an entity.
That’s enough from me, you be the judge for yourself and let us know what you think, does Modern Warfare 3 stand up to the hype or does it fall short of the mark in your opinion?
Link to the original article which i was responding to here, please leave us your comments.
We have a full cast this week with Phil and Alexis going to the Uncharted 3 Launch Event at the Opera House, Sony shows off a revamped Home, Rockstar finally releases a video for GTA V and we talk about the future of gaming.
Cast: Alexis Ayala, Philip Federico, Dustin Spencer, Luke Halliday, Matt Vella and Ben Webb
