To top off all of their zombie themed Halloween announcements, Capcom has revealed a new trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. So far today we’ve seen news about a Raid Mode in Resident Evil: Revelations, as well as a new HD bundle that will be released on the PlayStation 3 with move capability.
But here is a bit of news for those who want to see something a bit different in their next Resident Evil game. Capcom has released a new trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and in it we are treated to our dear old friend the Nemesis from Resident Evil 2. Besides him we also see Claire and Leon working together to try and hold off the Umbrella forces. Too bad that the players are on the other side of the team this time around. Check out the video below.
In this segment of Capsule Theatre of Vision; we look closely at the streets of Sydney. The date was Saturday the 29th of October and Zombies had invaded the land. I had the priviledge of survivng this apocalyptic event; I even went so far as to film a small segment of footage so that the world could know of the peril that our great city was in.
The event was really organised by a group of young adults over Facebook and featured an incredibly large turn-out. Probably the most people I’ve ever seen marching. It’s amazing that so much effort was put into this and all the costumes were fantastic!
Everybody’s favourite charitable gaming distributor is back with a brand new Humble Bundle for you to purchase. This time around, the folks at Humble Bundle are bringing us a Humble Debut with the latest indie game, Voxatron. You can pay whatever you want for this voxel-based, old-school-gone-new platform shooter, and divide the price up between the developers, the folk at Humble Bundle and charities however you want. Take a look at the trailer below and follow the links to purchase your very own copy of Voxatron. Let’s face it; it doesn’t get much better than getting a fantastic indie game and helping out some children in need all while having some fun.
Konami and developer tri-Ace have been working on quite a unique 3DS RPG named Beyond the Labyrinth, and while there have only been a few details released so far, one new piece of information lends credence to the possibility of augmented reality being possible within the title. Most titles for the Nintendo 3DS do not take advantage of this feature, so this would be a big plus for the title.
While not announced for the game itself, a limited edition bundle has been announced for Japan and will feature an AR calendar that will let players view a girl in different costumes through the 3DS’ cameras. The girl, whom we can presume to be the white haired one that leads you through the labyrinth, will then rise from the paper above the marker.
Besides the Ar Calendar, the bundle will include the game of course, a soundtrack CD, a poster and a cleaning cloth that will run around 9,315 yen. The game itself has not been announced for localization at this time, but if it does, hopefully this bundle will arrive Stateside as well.
Earlier today Capcom held an event in San Francisco which they called Gamer’s Day. Considering it is Halloween, it is the best time to reveal some scary news as you have already seen. Alongside a few zombie announcements, Capcom also revealed that their upcoming title Resident Evil: Revelations would allow players to wipe their save data if they feel like it.
This news comes after Capcom prevented players from resetting their save data in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D which not only made quite a few consumers angry but also effectively killed off the used market on the title. Another snippet of news revealed is that Capcom does not plan to release any bundled package of Resident Evil: Revelations with the Circle Pad Pro in North America. At least this means that when the title releases on February 7, it won’t be a requirement to enjoy the horror.
11 months on and still going strong. Well, maybe strong isn’t the word for it, as I seem to be running low on games with do-able achievements lists and the 11 months have taken their toll, leaving me feeling a little fatigued.
But I managed it – another game succumbs to the might of my gaming ability. The order of the month this time was ‘Kinect Me’, another downloadable outing exclusively for the Kinect sensor. In all honesty it was more testing of my modelling qualities than my gaming prowess, but was good fun all the same. The game scans you as you are and makes an avatar to match, down to the very clothes on your back.
Here are the standings with this latest fully complete game’s achievements taken into account:
December 2010 Harm’s Way 200/200
January 2011 Faery: Legends of Avalon 200/200
February 2011 Spare Parts 200/200
March 2011 Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 1000/1000
April 2011 Doritos Crash Course 200/200
May 2011 Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime 200/200
June 2011 TRON: Evolution 1000/1000
July 2011 Lazy Raiders 200/200
August 2011 Googly Eyes 50/50
September 2011 Truth or Lies 1000/1000
October 2011 Kinect Me 50/50
As always, I’d love to hear your input on the standings so far in the comments, be it suggestions of other games to tackle or your own achievements with regard to achievements.
Keeping with the zombie themed news, Capcom has also released a new trailer for Resident Evil: Revelations. In this trailer we see that Resident Evil: Revelations will have a c-op gameplay mode known as “Raid Mode,” which allows players to team up and compete a set of objectives while they earn points by killing enemies and working together to upgrade their equipment.
Raid Mode also means that long-separated partners Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield will join forces again to work together, but a few more people can join the fun as well. Capcom also revealed that up to four players can play at one time, though not in Raid Mode. This means that Mercenaries will likely have at least one more multiplayer option. Check out the video below.
Today is Halloween and it seems like Capcom found it the best day to release some zombie related news for their hungry fans. Today Resident Evil producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi announced that they will be making a new Resident Evil title exclusively for the P layStation 3. Before you get too excited however, these titles are more like Resident Evil 4 HD than a Resident Evil 6.
The game that was announced is Resident Evil Chronicles HD Selection and it will bundle Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the PlayStation 3. These two titles will see an HD graphic upgrade and have upgraded their Wiimote support to PlayStation Move support. Currently there is no news of a Western release, but considering it is Resident Evil, I wouldn’t worry too much.
Tetris/Tetris Axis Developer: Hudson Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Puzzle Platform: Nintendo 3DS(reviewed) Release: 2/10/11
Overview
Throughout my gaming life, I’ve run into Tetris over and over again. Tetris on the GameBoy, Tetris Sphere on the Nintendo 64, click-wheel Tetris on my old iPod, hell even Tetris on an arcade machine in Japan. Needless to say, I, much like many people, am a fan of Tetris. I’m sure everyone knows the story with Tetris. That is, there is no story. It is one of one those games that’s a blank slate for stories, and can have anything applied to it. Tetris is almost all about game mechanics: the alignment and breaking of tetrimino. So, with no delay, let’s set the bricks in motion and hard-drop into the gameplay.
Gameplay
Tetrimino fall into the matrix, twisting and rotating as they drop, making their way down into lines and eventually exploding in a glorious accumulation of points. Tetris for the 3DS is still Tetris. At least to some extent. There are fifteen different game modes within Tetris 3DS, all of which hold the Tetris-essence fans of the game love.
Marathon is probably the first version of many Tetris you’ll encounter when powering up your 3DS. This mode doesn’t deviate from classic modes of Tetris, perhaps with the exception of a hold button and the completion of the game after 150 lines. Hudson has done a terrific job developing the controls for the 3DS however a few things strike me as odd. The delegation of the circle pad to rotate the camera seems a little odd and means that I’ve had to get used to the D-pad yet again. I can understand this choice, as Tetris has seen the use of the D-pad over its many console transitions. That being said, after very few plays of the game the controls delegated by Hudson to this version of Tetris become natural and racing through marathon is no trouble at all. I should note that there is also an augmented reality version of Marathon, and one of the party modes, Climber that use the 3DS AR cards to play Tetris in physical spaces. While it doesn’t add all that much more to the gameplay (except that you can move around the card to get different views) it is an amazing little function, even if just a novelty.
Fever is a little different to the Tetris people are accustomed too. For one, the matrix is much narrower, and there is a time limit of 60 seconds. Not only this, but the way of playing is completely different. Coins are earned within the game, and can be used to purchase items to use in game. More items can also be earned using SpotPass, which sadly I have yet to come across. Items include cascade: filling spaces between blocks, colour change: changing all the colours to the same colour and colour bonus: adding individual checkmarks to colours granting higher scores when cleared. Another feature in this version of Tetris is “colour attack” where all the tetrimino are the same colour, and you are given just a few seconds to clear the matrix for a rather hefty bonus score. While this at times isn’t as challenging as normal Tetris, it’s still an incredible appealing game mode.
Survival doesn’t deviate too far from the original Tetris mechanic, with the exception of rising lines and a narrow matrix. This version provides a perhaps little more of a challenge than Marathon, while staying nearer to the traditional form of Tetris than Fever. If a more traditional approach is up your ally, you can always test your Tetris skills battling the CPU, facing off against 10 different Bomberman style Tetris experts in Computer Battle.
If you thought that Tetris already had a lot of game modes, then you are yet to click on the Party Modes section. With nearly 10 different game modes, there isn’t much point describing them all. If you are a fan of Tetris, and I mean a really hardcore fan, these might come across a little silly, or even completely irrelevant wastes of time. But if you are a little more lenient, then some of these can be fun. I particularly enjoyed Tower Climber, which as you using tetrimino to build steps for a little character to climb. I also found Stage Racer Plus to be a rather interesting idea, which uses tetrimino to emulate a racing track and car. While they all seem to lack the general mechanics of Tetris, they use the restrictions of the game matrix and tetrimino to create some rather innovative new gaming modes, which cannot be overlooked by an owner of the game. Even just testing all these modes out will give you hours of play time, and are worth the time even if just to alter your perception of what can be considered Tetris.
Graphics and Audio
We all know what Tetris looks like, right? Tetrimino are bricks, and there are a variety of different shapes and sizes. Given that this is for the 3DS, there is obviously the option to view the game matrix in 3D. I however, tend not to as I feel like it takes away from the hypnotic zen-like playing of a heated Tetris marathon. While the game graphics have been updated dramatically from the original version of Tetris, this isn’t the only visually redeeming quality. During game play, the matrix board floats over some amazing visualisations that add a little something extra to the game. If that isn’t enough of a graphical boost for you, then check out the bottom screen to watch your Mii dancing around in some ultra (un)fashionable clothing. There is always the option to alter clothing, dancing style and even your Mii. I had a dancing Jesus in a white gown to accompany my Tetris playing. In terms of the audio, there is a re-recording of the original Tetris music floating around, as well as a few other tunes that tend to get on my nerves when playing. It is the typical puzzle or casual game music that accompanies repetitive modes of game play which I tend to always mentally block out, or in extreme cases, literally block out when playing.
Overall
All and all, Tetris for the 3DS is not just another brick in the wall. All the modes of play fall together in line, and TETRIS! Some of the newer game modes are a little lame, and don’t warrant repeat plays. However, I am willing to forgive Tetris due to the amazing quality of this 3DS remake. The controls work fantastically, and there has been a real push to integrate all the capabilities of the device into this game, especially in battle modes where some of the attacks require you to blow into the microphone or tilt the device. While the 3D doesn’t add much to the game, the graphical overhaul makes for a sleek playing experience, which is much needed for a game like Tetris. If you are a fan, this is an essential buy. If you haven’t had much luck finding love with Tetris perhaps this, with its plethora of different gaming options, will finally turn you.
Name: Snap Escape: The Epic Swing
Developer: GAMBIT Game Lab
Publisher: GAMBIT Game Lab
Genre: Casual
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: 28 October, 2011
Price: FREE – BUY NOW
Overview
So I don’t really get why, and there isn’t any real explanation, but for some reason a whole bunch of your caveman buddies (you see, you’re a caveman) are stuck and you have to save them by swinging. I don’t know, don’t ask, but let’s see if the game itself makes more sense than the plot!
Gameplay
Snap Escape: The Epic Swing (henceforth, Snap! With or without the exclamation mark, depending on how fun I’m feeling) has a very basic gameplay that you might be able to guess from the title alone. So, you basically swing by tilting your device.
There are two modes, campaign and survival. Each campaign stage has seven levels, which you won’t find terribly challenging, to move forward with each level you have to at least pass with one star (which can mean saving as many as 16 or 17 out of 20 cave people). Survival mode for each stage is unlocked when the stage is finished in campaign mode. You are given four lives in survival, losing one every time you miss a cave person. You can also link this to Facebook, either using it to brag about your score or connecting with other Facebook friends who have the app.
So Snap! is a scrolling screen game, which moves at a decent rate that doesn’t change for the whole game. To save a cave person you swing around on a rope attached to a friendly purple flying dinosaur. Here is where the reason behind the game kind of confuses me and it’s one of those situations where you just do it and don’t question it. There are a bunch of cave people chilling out on little ledges, screaming, crying and stamping their feet at their situation. First you swing past them, knocking them off the ledge which makes them realise they have a parachute and then they start drifting slowly down. But they don’t want to land on the ground, oh no, they want you to come swinging back across and tapping them. Then they teleport out. Cos… Yeah.
There are three campaign stages, going from caves to treetops to a volcano. There is the promise of more stages, although to be honest these won’t be too great unless more aspects are introduced to the game. As it stands there are ‘spirits’ and dinosaurs. There are three different spirits, the spirit of time, attraction and invincibility. The time spirit slows down time, attraction means that any parachuting cave people will automatically be drawn to you, even from below, and invincibility protects you from the T-Rex. In terms of dinosaurs there is the T-Rex that bites you and makes you lose some of your ‘saved people’, the triceratops has the ability to make all parachuting cave people blow away with his super loud call, brontosaurus makes rocks fall so you can’t see as well, and then there’s this black dinosaur that jumps on you and makes you lose control.
The screen is set up with a meter up the top telling you how far there is left to go on the level, as well as a count down warning that pops up and lets you know when you have two or three people left to go until your first, second or third star.
The thing is, I got through the three stages really quickly. Each stage took me extremely little time and I wasn’t ever really drawn into the game because it never supplied the challenge. It felt like the first three stages of a twenty-stage game that had a very gradual learning curve. Sure, the staggered introduction of dinosaurs was good, but the new dinosaurs didn’t really add to the challenge.
I think you’d have to really make your own challenges in this game, such as if you are an achievement whore and want to get all the stars. I didn’t do that, but I really don’t care about that. Like at all.
Visual
There’s not much to the game visually, there’s your cave people, your set identical background, your dinosaurs, and your rope. It certainly isn’t a bad looking game, it works well for what it is and has a certain style to it, but don’t expect to get blown away or overly impressed with anything
Audio
The backing soundtrack is sort of a weird mix of island xylophone with something meant to symbolise cave people. While you’re playing you can barely hear this though, over the sound of your dinosaur’s wing flapping, the effect of saving a cave person, or when you miss one and they give a cry out as they disappear off the bottom of the screen.
Conclusion
Snap Escape: The Epic Swing is perhaps a little bit of a goal rather than an achievement for the game. I mean, sure this guy is swinging around for ages and whatnot, but the game just sits on the same level for the entire time.
