One of the last ties that remained between Bungie and Halo will be severed on March 31. Bungie will finish transferring all live Halo data to 343 Industries and 343 will begin managing all that data. Already, most Halo data is available on halo.xbox.com. But starting on the date mentioned above, “Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service.”
In addition, “Any replacement functionality, and all future Halo support, will be provided by Microsoft and 343 Industries via Halo Waypoint.”
Luckily, “Bungie will preserve all existing historical Halo data on Bungie.net for as long as the Internet and Bungie’s data storage systems remain functional.”
Bungie finishes their message with thanks, as usual for this classy dev:
“Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined. You complete us. See you starside.”
One question that has yet to be answered is whether you’ll still be able to redeem your Vidmaster achievements for Recon armor on the new 343 site. Hopefully so, as there are still plenty of people fighting to get their flashy new duds unlocked.
However, Activision has recently revealed that PS3 players will be able to download Liberation and Piazza on February 28, if they are paid up members of Call of Duty Elite..
PC gamers and non-elitists might be able to snag the two new maps in another month, if they are lucky. Hooray.
Kuroko no Basuke (otherwise known as Kuroko’s Basketball) is a manga series by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, that focuses on a high school basketball team looking to making it to Nationals. It was announced last year that the manga would be receiving an anime adaptation in the Spring 2012 season.
We now have a solid premiere date for the Kuroko no Basuke anime thanks to details revealed in Weekly Jump magazine. Kuroko no Basuke will begin airing in Japan on the 7th of April, 2012.
So there you have it sports anime fans, mark your calenders, shoot some hoops or whatever it is you people do, because Kuroko no Basuke now has an official premiere date. Will you be slam dunking with Kuroko on April 7th? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Despite recent financial troubles at THQ, Metro Last Light will apparently still be releasing, but not until next year. The new release date for the game is in the first quarter of 2013, or THQ’s fiscal Q4. This updated release schedule was revealed when THQ unveiled their third-quarter financial earnings report.
Metro Last Light is a survivalist type shooter that is a sequel to Metro 2033. Metro 2033 was widely praised as a scary, atmospheric shooter that had a few rough edges. It was developed by the Ukrainian Studio, 4A Games.
Hopefully this game will be able to see the light of day.
Recently Namco Bandai made the decision to immortalise their weapon-based fighting game franchise, Soul Calibur V, through a mammoth mural in East London.
The mural features newcomers Ezio Auditore of Assassin’s Creed fame and Patroklos Alexander as they prepare to battle series veteran and fan favourite Nightmare. For those wishing to see the mural, Namco have released a time-lapse video of the mural’s creation for your viewing pleasure which can be seen below.
We recently reviewedSoul Calibur V, which recieved a great deal of praise from Capsule Computer’s Managing Editor, Travis Bruno. The game is now available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
All you fans of our fab little French hero Rayman can give a little smile as Ubisoft have unveiled a new trailer for Rayman 3 HD, coming this March for XBox 360 and Playstation 3. The sheer amount of adventures this little guy goes on, all without arms and legs is amazing, and his return in HD shuld get all fans of the franchise excited. Available soon through the XBox live arcade and PSN, rejoin the quirkiness and action packed adventures now in crystal clear HD. Enjoy the trailer and keep your eyes peeled for Raymans return when it hits the networks.
Muchdifferent have set a new official Guinness World Record with their game Man Vs Machine, as 999 players battled through lag-free on a single multi-player map, more than doubling Sony’s previous record. While the Men dominated play early on, the servers eventually crashed under the pressure of so many players but was quickly reset and play resumed with the Machines eventually taking over and winning the competition. MuchDifferent, who provided both the game and the server for the competition were clearly overwhelmed and underestimated player interest in the one off war. CEO Christian Lonnholm was very excited about the event, stating “It was amazing. We did not imagine the amount of interest that this game would generate, so the system went down shortly after we had reached the peak of 999 players. Within minutes we were able to adjust it, and the battle continued for about two hours more. Almost until the end we were averaging around 980 players at any given moment. It was a blast!”
The Record has been officially recognised by the powers to be, with Derek Wise the external auditor for the event confirming it had met all the necessary requirements. Apart from all the fun and games, more importantly, although having initial issues, the Pikkoserver used to host the tournament was clearly able to carry to load of 999 players simultaneously. “We believe this technology can be applied to just about any game engine used today. So, our goal now is to make this technology available to developers worldwide. Stay tuned!” (Christian Lönnholm, MuchDifferent CEO)
Dustforce, a fast-paced, skill-based platformer from Hitbox Team, was released January 17th on Steam, and has been well received by the gaming community. With it’s beautiful and unique art style and awesome original soundtrack, our review of the title, along with many others across the web, gave high praise for this superbly crafted game.
And, ‘cos we’re awesome, we sorted out a brief interview with the guys at Hitbox. Enjoy~
Capsule: This game has been steadily gaining hype ever since the internet became aware of it’s existence… How has the game done in the first 24 hours, say?
Lexie: It went really well. This is first game we have ever released, so we had no expectations in the way of sales or anything. The game has been received better then we could have hoped for, so we can continue making new games that push people’s abilities.
Capsule: There are many indie games out there that have elements of Dustforce… are there any particular titles that influenced you in making this game? If so, how did they affect the game?
Lexie: Dustforce was heavily inspired by a game called Nikujin – it’s a game that really demands perfection from the player in order to progress. There is no fluking or brute forcing your way through that game. The amount of satisfaction from mastering the controls in a game like this is much more rewarding then perfecting the controls in a game that demands any less.
Capsule: A big concept in the game is the idea of flowing through a level… Was it difficult to get the controls just right?
Lexie: Extremely hard! Dustman’s movement was recoded countless times. I didn’t want the characters to feel like a physics block getting pushed around, The characters personality is expressed through not only the animations, but also the movement code. In the end I think we achieved that, but i guess that’s up to the public.
Capsule: How did you come up with such a unique art style? Were there previous iterations that had a completely different style?
Woodley: It has stayed basically the same for the whole project. However, I did find that my skill improved a lot during the creation of the prototype and so I had to redo everything for the full version.
Capsule: Is there an ETA on the Level Editor coming online? And any hints as to it’s features and sharing capabilities?
Lexie: No ETA yet. The editor is pretty complex, its going to take me a while to make it user friendly. people will have access to just about everything our team had access to. It’s an in-game editor, so you can jump straight into testing your level. As for sharing, we are looking into a level server so users can rate and download levels through the game.
Capsule: Are there any plans for console versions in the future?
Lexie: We have everything we need to develop games for PC (a computer and the Internet). If we could get our hands on a dev kit then we would love to port Dustforce to console.
Capsule: And how about online multiplayer?
Lexie: All the code we use is made in-house or open source. Plugging free net code into a fighting game (requires near 0 lag to work, or predicting lag) is not the easiest task, its something we would love to do, but we have very limited manpower.
Capsule: Who’s the best Dustforce player of the team? Could we have some impressive stats?
Woodley: Probably me! Although Matt is really good. I have been the first to SS some of the really hard levels. But everyone is way better than me now on the leaderboards! So I have no impressive stats…
Capsule: Anything else you’d like to add?
Woodley: We’re so glad that everyone has recieved the game so positively! We hope to bring more games to people in the future, and thanks for the support.
Capsule: And we’ll look forward to receiving them! Thanks for the interview, guys.
Fly With Me, created by EA’s LA studio for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, is now available on the AppStore. With a simple tap-to-flap mechanic, you’ll be helping birds navigate through 45 levels in 3 unique settings. You’ll need to dodge hazards and trees, while gobbling up bugs to keep up your strength.
You can in-app purchase, or unlock the Robot Bird, which is immune to bad stuff you may run into in your flights. Or buy the Kid Mode to make everything easier for the little ones, giving you infinite stamina and 30 exclusive levels to play through.
Magpul Executive Field Case Developer: Magpul Compatible with: iPhone 4/4s Price: $9.95 – Available Here
You probably have not heard of the Magpul. However Magpul is not a new company. If you play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, or any other modern day shooter then you have most likely already seen one of their products in action. Magpul is a company specializing in firearms accessories and designing concept firearms aimed at the military market. So what on earth are they doing making iPhone cases? Making great iPhone cases at an affordable price point. So is it mission accomplished for Magpul? Absolutely!
The Magpul Executive Field Case for the iPhone 4/4s is available in black, flat dark earth, foliage green, OD green, orange and pink and is made in the USA. We have the flat dark earth and the OD green cases here to review. The case is made from a rubber like plastic that is stiff yet flexible. Magpul says the material used to make their iPhone cases is the same material they used to make their first product, the Magpul loop. These loops are slid on the bottom of rifle magazines to allow the user to quickly draw magazines from pouches during reloads. Magpul loops are still used by soldiers around the world to this day and you can probably spot many video game characters sporting these on their rifle magazines. The material used for the case has some serious real word testing behind it. So what makes it so perfect for iPhone cases? The material is rigid enough that it will not lose its shape over time. It has a slight tackiness like rubber that makes it easy to hold onto even with wet or greasy hands but not sticky enough that it is difficult to take out of a tight pocket. The case itself has ribs on the edges that further aid in gripping the phone. The Executive Field Case is just thick enough to protect your phone from drops but thin enough that it will not add too much bulk to the sleek iPhone.
The case survives drops really well. I personally have dropped my phone a few feet onto concrete and tile a few times by accident without damage. I expected the case to be scratched up or damaged in some way along with a cracked screen after a particularly bad fall onto gritty concrete that landed glass corner down. Usually these types of falls are death sentences for the iPhone screen. But after dusting the grit off the case, I was surprised to find no damage on both the case and the phone.
Installation is a snap with this case, literally. Simply pop in your phone and it will snap right in. The phone fits in nicely with a little bit of wiggle room to make it easy to remove the phone. You may be doing this a lot as the case adds enough thickness to make it incompatible with most iPhone docks. Even with the slight room in the case, it will not come off without conscious effort to remove it. There is a slight lip on the front of the case that will help protect the screen from being scratched when laid on a table screen down.
The cut out for the camera works will with no flash problems. Be aware of first generation cases that have a camera cut out that look like a key hole as those have been reported to interfere with the camera flash. The cut out for the silent switch is big enough to be compatible with both versions of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4s. The rocker switch for the volume buttons is large and chunky. This makes it very easy to reach into a pocket and adjust the volume of the phone even with winter gloves on.
The headset jack hole is not very large. It will be compatible with cables designed for the iPhone such as the stock iPhone ear buds but others will require a headphone jack extension cable or adapter. Alternatively the plug on the cable can be carefully slimmed down with a knife. The sleep button is textured like the volume rocker switch making it easy to operate when you cannot see your phone. There are holes are cut for the speaker, microphone, and the 30 pin dock connector. The slot is big enough to accommodate the stock cable that Apple provides with the iPhone, but larger third party or older cables may need to be filed down to fit the case.
Should you purchase this case? Absolutely. For 10 US dollars this case is an absolute steal. The Magpul Executive Field Case can easily go head to head with similar cases several times its price and still come out on top. It may not be the flashiest or prettiest case, but it is extremely durable yet thin enough to be out of the way. I would easily pay up to 40 dollars for it, yet Magpul offers the case for a mere 10 dollars. If you are looking to upgrade from your poorly made case you bought for a few dollars to something better without breaking the bank, look no further than the Magpul Executive Field Case.
