Bullet Time, the awesome looking action-adventure app by Kiloo Games, has released the official launch trailer as they gear up for their November 17 launch release date. And it is looking pretty damn sweet.
In Bullet Time you can play through campaigns, or play online in three player co-op modes against the evil mutated dudes with drills for heads. They seem to have nailed dystopia, with John Irish wandering through a perpetual junk yard with nothing much to do but dispose of the mutants. To each his own I suppose. To see more about the gameplay head HERE.
There’s also an amazing level of customization in the game, not only with John Irish, but with the weapons you send him out with. To get more info on that, head HERE.
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think about this new game and if you’re thinking of grabbing it when it comes out on November 17 on iPhone and iPad.
New screenshots have risen for the upcoming manga-making game/anime and manga adapation game, Bakuman: Way of the Manga Artist for the Nintendo DS. The screenshots detail the games characters and different game modes available.
Bakuman: Way of the Manga Artist is based upon the manga series about creating manga, Bakuman. The game sets out to play similar to a title such as Game Dev Story but with creating manga instead of video-games.
You can check out the new screenshots below budding manga-ka. Will you learn the way of the manga artist? Be sure to let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section.
Square Enix have released several new screenshots for their upcoming MMORPG for the Wii and Wii U, Dragon Quest X. The new screenshots show off more of the games environments, monsters, races and battles.
Dragon Quest X looks to be a radical step in another direction from the heavily socially engrained RPG series. This is the first Dragon Quest to ever take the leap into massively multiplayer online territory. It’s unknown whether the title will sink or swim, only time will tell.
You can check out the newly released screenshots of Dragon Quest X below. Be sure to peruse them and then let us know what you thought in the shoutbox and comments section.
Blurring the lines between videogame and interactive artwork, Contre Jour HD for the iPhone and iPad has morphed it’s price from $2.99 to a mere $0.99. The game has been praised by many and gained much respect as a mobile game, and is certainly worth you dollar. Hell, with the two extra dollars you save you could even purchase the game again and again, gifting it to friends, or even spend that money on some more iOS sales. With stunning graphics in high definition, you’d be crazy to miss a game of this caliber at such a low price.
Street Fighter fans, or at least those with an iPhone/iPod touch are in luck. Street Fighter IV Volt is currently a limited sale price of just $0.99. If you haven’t already, now would be a fantastic time to purchase the game. With 22 playable characters to choose from, there isn’t much point fighting. In the end, Street Fighter IV Volt is going to win.
Click here to purchase Street Fighter IV Volt for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Ghost toilet, huge blue crab, jetpack. What do these words have in common? Well, nothing at all except for that fact that I have typed each of these, and many more obscure combinations into the iOS game Scribblenauts Remix. The game is nothing short of spectacular and well worth the $5.50 that I paid for it. If you are one of the many who have purchased the game, you are sure to agree that it is something rather special. If you are not one of the many who have purchased it, then I implore you now to purchase Scribblenauts Remix now at its current price of $0.99!
Click here to purchase Scribblenauts Remix for both iPhone and iPad.
Michael Phelps: Push the Limit Developer: Blitz Games Studios Publisher: 505 Games Platform: Xbox 360 Kinect Release Date: 14th October Price: $49.99 – Available Here
Overview:
When hearing the words ‘Kinect swimming game’, the mind conjures up some pretty wild images. Someone lying facedown on the floor, reaching out with their arms and kicking with their legs as they struggle to ‘swim’ through the carpet. Clearly Blitz Games Studios didn’t feel that Kinect’s floor detection abilities were advanced enough, otherwise they would have almost certainly had you writhing on your rug, craning your neck to get a glimpse of the screen. Instead, they’ve opted for a standing up swimming game, which make use of just your upper body.
Gameplay:
There’s no doubt about it; someone doing breaststroke in mid-air is a strange sight to behold, but the team behind the game have made mostly sensible choices with its design. Tracking just your arms does mean it cuts out kicking, a vital part of swimming, but it’s tiring enough as it stands. Including leg work could run the risk of bumping the game up into some kind of military workout category, anyhow.
The four swimming styles featured – front crawl, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly – are a mixed bag really. Front crawl – probably the aspect everyone will come into contact with first and the main component of the game – handles well once you get the hang of it. Similarly, the Kinect responds well to butterfly, and for this stroke you can feel your off-screen actions affecting the onscreen standings. Breaststroke and backstroke, however, can be a little unreliable.
Firstly, breaststroke; while this too can become relatively consistent once you understand the exact arm movements needed for the game to agree with you, this all goes out the window once the race enters the final ‘Push the Limit’ sprint section, as, to much frustration, the game struggles to pick up the breaststroke motion when done at a faster rhythm.
Then there’s backstroke…where to begin with backstroke. Once of the great things about Michael Phelps: Push the Limit is that, because it only uses upper body, the space-deprived among us can breathe a sigh of relief. Finding the room for Kinect to see you from head to toe is challenging, so a game that only needs to see you from the waist up is significantly less of a furniture-moving strain. That is, until backstroke rears its ugly head.
The motion itself is a cross between backwards butterfly and front crawl, and you’ll be pleased to know the developers were sensible enough, despite it being a backwards race, not to get you with your back to the screen. The problem with backstroke comes from the starting dive. Up until this point, you may have been relishing only needing to be monitored from the waist up, meaning the problems Kinect has picking up the squat position that Kinect forces you to adopt for the backwards dive are all the more irritating.
Otherwise, the gameplay systems in place are fairly decent. The aforementioned diving mechanic is well handled for all other forward-facing strokes. You simply enter a crouch position and, upon hearing the starting pistol, straighten up and extend your arms. The game measures your response time and uses it to determine when you dive in relative to your opponents based on their response times.
Elsewhere, the game tries to turn swimming into a science. It’s as if you have an ear piece-come-user interface software installed in your swimming cap. You have a stamina gauge which decreases if you don’t match the stroke rhythm and a boost bar which grows if you do match the stroke rate. In order to boost, you shout ‘boost; to the Kinect’s inbuilt microphone (the Kinect microphone is also used to shout ‘skip’ on automated videos). There’s also a strange middle section to endurance races where you no longer paddle, but play a mini-game to gather energy by holding your icon over the correct markers. It’s presumably present to prevent long races tiring you out, but it’s similarly frantic, if not more so.
The career mode is a fairly standard affair, comprising three seasons of swimming. You must place third or above to qualify for the next stage, ultimately working your way to the annual games to compete for medals. It does well to give you some time with all the strokes, even if your first encounters with backstroke and butterfly don’t carry a satisfactory explanation. They are explained later on through a tutorial, but this comes after you’ve already struggled through events for them.
Audio:
Unfortunately, the person who comes over your ‘head piece’ (who weirdly doubles up as commentator for the others) comes across as a bit of an arsehole, as the last thing you want to hear after physically exerting yourself only to finish last, is him calling you just short of pathetic. His semi-robotic tones soon begin to grate on you. Also, aside from the rare voiceover of a menu screen, Michael Phelps does little more than lend his name and physical likeness.
Visuals:
The graphics are nothing special, although you barely notice as you are so focused on the various sections of your HUD and matching the stroke rate. If you do pay attention to detail, the water effects are a little naff and the character models all look similar, but in reality, it makes no difference. You will be far too preoccupied with the gameplay to care about the visuals.
Overall:
I’m not sure how much demand there was for a Kinect swimming game, but I’m glad to see Blitz Game Studios didn’t go down the route of a typical motion-controlled sports like baseball, dodge ball and the like. They’ve tried an alternative and, to a certain extent, it has paid off. Some of the techniques behind the swimming are a bit iffy, as is the overall vision they’ve had with the sport, such as with the odd endurance stages or the boost ability. It has got to be one of the most energy-sapping Kinect releases – Fruit Ninja Kinect aside – although, most importantly, the movements are all fairly natural. There isn’t that straining, unnatural feeling the leaves you sore the next day – more a feeling that you’ve had a bit of an upper body workout.
Today in AKB48 news, Yuko Oshima, one of the many (48 to be particular) girls that make up the hit japanese pop idol group AKB48, has designed two costume designs for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2.
The two costume designs, also include moogle clothing along side human character clothing, were designed by Yuko Oshima in conjunction with Square Enix. Both designs will be featured in the title and can be seen below.
What do you think of Yuko Oshima’s costume designs? Can a member of AKB48 really design costumes for a popular RPG series such as Final Fantasy? Let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section.
Everything Must Go Studio: Roadside Attractions Publisher: Madman Release Date: 5th October 2011 Price: $34.95 AUD Available here
Overview
It’s always interesting to see an actor play a role that is slightly out of their element, especially one who has continued to keep me in stitches through his various movie and television roles. It’s always a risk as well, as to how audiences will react to an actor they are so used to seeing playing a similar persona, when cast within a totally different media environment. While other actors in the film such as Laura Dern have played wide and varying roles across their careers, Will Ferrell has stuck mostly to the same genre, excelling in his roles as the penultimate man-child and delighting us with his borderline manic character portrayals. So the ultimate question is; Does Will Ferrell seem as out of place as Al Bundy in anything but Married with Children?
The answer thankfully is no, not ever during the entire duration of the film was there any hint that Ferrell’s natural comedic behaviour was going to unconsciously appear at random and put the whole tone of the film out of sync. Will Ferrell, for me, is not dissimilar to John Cleese in that even his comedies have a much deeper and darker underlying tone to them. From the manic and moody Jackie Moon, to the reclusive yet borderline genius Chazz Reinhold who picks up potential “one nighters” at funerals, as according to him “ it’s like fishing with dynamite”, there is always a sadness to Ferrell’s characters that seemed to allow him to make an easy transition to Nick Halsey and his mundane existence. Thankfully the story is also a whole lot deeper than what is on the back of the Blu-Ray case.
Story
Nick Halsey is not what you would describe as a complete screw up, just a very lost soul that has used up his last chance, seeing his career flushed down the toilet and his marriage in tatters. After an illustrious career with the bottle, Nick finds himself jobless and upon returning to the quiet suburbs where he lives, finds himself greeted by all his worldly possessions strewn across his front lawn, his locks freshly changed and his wife gone thanks to an alleged adultery incident. Having no one to turn to, nowhere else to go and no money, Nick sets up camp in his front garden, intent on staying put until something better comes along (and you get the feeling a lot of his life decisions have been left to this method of thought). Thus begins his journey into what in his mind is a quest to win back his wife, but is in reality a journey to win back his life and soul. Even from this early point in the movie we can see the destructiveness of alcohol on relationships, through an exceptionally sad scene where Nick is asked about his indiscretion while on a work function and had to quietly admit that he was so inebriated he couldn’t remember whether any adultery had even taken place.
Needing some good old fashioned booze to numb the pain, and turned down by the attractive new woman to move in across the street, Nick reluctantly puts his trust in Kenny Loftus, a neighbourhood street kid, to keep an eye on his stuff. Right from this point, where Nick loses his keys amongst the mess and has to ride Kenny’s bike to the store, Nick begins to show the incompetency’s that have landed him in his current position. While many movies focus on hardships that are way beyond someone’s control, Dan Rush has set the perfect atmosphere to show Nicks hardships to be almost completely of his own doing. Even his own sponsor, Frank (Michael Pena), despite being the local detective and keeping an eye on him, has a defeated tone when talking to Nick, knowing his self-destructive personality cannot be easily reasoned with.
Where others try and fail to alter Nicks behaviour it is only Kenny ( Christopher Jordan Wallace), who manages to chip holes in Nicks defences despite being initially made to feel as welcome as the local dog. Through his relationship with the sad, lonely and heavily pregnant Samantha (Rebecca Hall), we see how even in such a fragile state, the tables can be turned and someone who looks like they are in need of help can actually offer a great deal of insight and wisdom of their own. Apparently, and unfortunately for Nick, it is illegal in his neck of the woods to reside within his front yard, regardless of the fact that he owns the property. Fortunately, thanks to some weird and wacky law (as is common in various states across America so I’ve heard), Nick is allowed to run a yard sale for up to 5 consecutive days, biding him some valuable drinking time. Not wanting to actually sell any of his things and lose the only memories he has of better days gone by, it is Kenny, working for a measly few dollars that attempts to clear out the junk and hopefully Nicks mind in the process.
Without giving away too much more, I would like to place an emphasis on the exceptional feeling of frustration and sympathy the viewer feels for Nick. Additionally he has no concept of the sadness and hurt he is radiating upon the only people willing to stick by him. It is no more evident than seeing the sadness in Kenny’s eyes when Nick can’t stick to his end of the bargain and teach him how to play baseball. Similarly the embarrassment and sadness felt for him as he regresses into the past and looks up an old high school friend (Laura Dern). The relationship between these two although very brief was very important in showing Nicks state of mind and just how fragile he had become. Although it didn’t by any means pull him away from the mindset he was in, his characters demeanour and behaviour was changed by the encounter.
Visuals
Everything Must Go is not the kind of film that requires ridiculous special effects and explosions as well as city wide destruction to distract viewers from its weak storyline and get its point across. The quiet streets and modest houses set a perfect scene for Nicks current state of mind and truly convey the mundane existence he has created around himself. The acting is very strong throughout the film and had to be due to much of the camera work which has the actors much closer on screen and more exposed. What this also succeeds in doing is presenting a much more intimate connection between the characters and the viewer. In terms of the actual visual quality of the film, the attention shown to detail is superb, with every whisker on Ferrell’s unshaven face clearly evident.
Audio The background audio is very quiet and needs to be as such to place more of a focus on the dialogue which is paramount to the differing chemistry between the various characters. Truth be told, anything loud or abrupt would have detracted from the overall melancholy yet comedic feel of the film and detached the viewer from Nicks pitiful world. I have to admit that side from John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat, I have never heard of any of the artists that played on the soundtrack. Saying that, it was perfectly orchestrated, with each song being coupled and integrated within the changing mood of the film and Nicks destructive mind.
Extras
Although I’m always interested to hear Will Ferrell speak, there’s nothing overly of interest in the extras section. There is audio commentary with the director and Michael Pena who plays Will Ferrell’s character Nick’s AA sponsor which is interesting but nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from that, Ferrell speaks briefly about his hardships regarding making Nicks character believable, as well as the stock standard Behind the Scenes and deleted footage. Again nothing overly amazing but some interesting additions nonetheless to a fantastic film.
Overall
While the storyline is very strong in itself, it is the shining performances from Ferrell and Wallace that give true meaning to, and highlight the fragility of life no matter what your background. It is a tremendous relationship of learning and understanding between one character who has complete control over his decisions but chooses to self-destruct and another who has very little control but is resilient and accepting. There are some moments of true sadness, where the tone of the film changed from sympathy and sadness to reveal humans in their lowest form as Nick begs for alcohol from passers-by outside the Liquor store. It’s hard to watch this kind of a scene without being reminded of and forced to think about alcohols role in society as an accepted product. There is also a nice twist at the end of the film and it was welcoming and refreshing not to have the typical happy fairytale ending, but rather be left with a still somewhat desolate character whose journey is far from over.
Funimation have now made the entire “First Voyage” of their english dub of the incredibly popular anime series One Piece available for digital download.
You can now get a digital copy of the episode 1-26 from the Zune Marketplace (80 Microsoft Points an episode) and the Sony Video Network (99 cents an episode). So if you have yet to take the plunge into watching the critically acclaimed english version of One Piece, then you can now for an extremely low price.
Will you be setting sail for One Piece in digital format? Funimation sure hopes you will. Be sure to let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
