Introducing CC: Anime, Capsule Computers Monthly Anime Podcast! In our first ever episode, the CC: Anime crew discuss the latest anime and manga news, as well engaging in a debate about the quality of video-game adaptations.
We also announced a regular monthly competition called “Who’s that Anime Character?” Want a chance to win a copy of Dennou Coil – Part 1 from Siren Visual? Follow this link to find out how.
Cast: Luke Halliday, Travis Bruno, Matt Vella, Grace Mitchell and Josh Spudic
Com2Us, the prolific iOS game publisher, is getting into the Halloween spirit with some interesting updates to its games, and some good old fashioned sales as well.
The Halloween celebration sees Tiny Farm being updated with new animal storage, a Bell-making building, quest expansion, and Halloween items, which include everything from zombie horses to skele-pigs and jack-o-lanterns. World of Magic is getting a new pumpkin item, and Piggy Adventure’s update includes 12 new Halloween-themed maps (see our impressions of those here).
But most amusingly, Homerun Battle 3D allows your baseball players to don pumpkin heads while at the plate.
On top of the updates, both Homerun Battle 3D’s and Piggy Adveture’s price has been reduced to just 99 cents on the App Store for Halloween, down from $3.99 and $2.99, respectively.
While a lot of people see Halloween as a sham holiday, Com2Us have made it clear that they take it very, very seriously.
A Warehouse in Eureka was different than what one would expect from a television convention. I wouldn’t even really classify it as a ‘convention’, it was a lot more personal than that.
Held in a UNSW law lecture theatre, there were a small – but eager – number of attendees. I’d say it was even more personal than the hundred-people meet-and-greets, and that was the perfect environment for Eddie McClintock and Colin Ferguson. As you guys probably saw in our interview with the guys, they’re about the coolest, funniest, most laid back guys you could meet that lead two awesome shows.
The day itself started at around 10am, going all day, and was filled with playing episodes on the big screen, trivia and celebrity (the show characters) heads, and cool giveaways such as signed headshots and even some Café Diem napkins and pens. While this was happening the people who wanted photos and signatures were called out, the rest of us (though there were basically none left over) sat down to enjoy some old episodes of the shows.
Then Eddie came in for a Q&A session, which consisted of him running to each person with the microphone and then answering each question with hugely detailed, self-examining, and super funny answers. We got to hear about his close personal tie with Great Whites, his drawings, some stuff about the cast, his audition story, and why he got a personal trainer (someone commented on his ‘every man’s body’ and lack of exercise, which was untrue and hence inspired a trainer). Eddie was blatantly honest, and pretty personal with the group, he didn’t seem to mind showing off his inner geek as well as klutz. At one point he drenched himself in Diet Coke and turned it into a running joke.
After Eddie, and lunch, Colin came in for the Q&A. Colin’s was quite different from Eddie’s, in a good way, there were less questions and more rambling on his part. Not to talk down the rambling, it was all interesting and personally, I quite enjoyed it. He talked a lot more about the cast and crew, what it was like working on Eureka, and personal stories about some of the other cast members. He also called Neil Grayston (who plays Fargo and was meant to be in attendance) via Skype and we got some Neil time, he also tried to reach Erica Cerra (Jo Lupo) and Alison Scagliotti (Claudia on Warehouse 13) but unfortunately was not able to, although we did leave some interesting voice messages for both of them.
The best part of the day, I would have to say, was seeing Eddie and Colin interact. They both have quite strong comedy backgrounds, and it comes through when they’re on their own but putting them together pretty much ensures that they’ll just keep playing off each other until you’re in stitches from laughing.
And then there was the auctioning of shirts that they wore and drew on for charity. They both took off their current shirts, much to the hollering, whistling and whooping of the audience, donned the plain white shirts and proceeded to draw interesting and odd things on their shirts. Congratulations to the winners, who also got the shirts with personal messages and signed by each actor, it was a hard-won fight on both their parts.
Overall, I would say it was definitely worth it. The size of the audience was perfect for both actor’s attitudes, and the day was both casual and with a high level of excitement.
Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to film the Q&A session, but we did get a few choice pics for all of you that missed out on the event. Check them out in the gallery below!
It was great of Colin and Eddie to come down to Australia, sign our papers, take photos with us, and generally entertain us for hours. I hope that they enjoyed their time here as much as the audience to the event did.
Name: Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation Developer: Gameloft Publisher: Gameloft Genre: First Person Shooter Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad Release: 27 October 2011 Price: $6.99 – BUY NOW
Overview
The only FPS games I’ve ventured into on the iPhone is COD Zombies, cos, well zombies. But, looking at the trailer and screenshots for Modern Combat 3 (henceforth named MC3) I thought I would give it a shot.
Gameplay
MC3 has taken on the challenge of bringing an FPS game to iOS and from the get-go they’ve got a pretty strong handle of what they need to do to make it a success. They’ve got the plot of evil invading foreigners, the graphics and an aiming system that goes towards the enemy as if they’re a magnet. I know that a lot of people don’t like assisted aiming, but to be honest I think this is a good inclusion for the game, considering the inaccuracy of moving the aim by swiping on the screen. Besides, you can always turn it off if you want. Among this adjustable mode there is also gore, lefty mode, radar, hitmarker and hints.
The controls for MC3 are customisable with you either being able to move or aim on the left or right entire side of the screen, have just the move joystick on the bottom left sight, or have two ‘joysticks’ on the bottom left and right. You can shift the buttons around the screen and make them bigger or smaller, pretty much anything you want to do. Now, I like my physical controllers for shooters, I like having that tactile feel because I find it easier to be accurate. However, MC3 is obviously trying to make you as comfortable as possible with using the touch screen controls.
You can also jump over things in certain instances, although this doesn’t have the broadest application, since at one point I happened to get stuck behind a desk chair. Cos, y’know, battle hardened soldiers can’t make the step over office chairs. But that obviously has to do with level design and they didn’t want me to take that shortcut, so I understand why they’d want to do that.
The smoothness of when you move your view around is also something you have to get used to. It’s not the best, but it’s certainly far from the worst out there. One issue I was having was the fire button being in the realm of where I liked to swipe my thumb across to shift my view, so sometimes instead of moving around I ended up firing at a wall or something. This was easily fixed though (see: customisable buttons, above).
It’s less about using tactics and being smart and more about being presented with a bunch of enemies in front of you and taking cover, ducking out and shooting, taking cover, shifting your aim to the next person and trusting that when you stick your head up the auto-aim will help direct you that bit more towards their head.
The enemies are quite easy to kill, and you do get the pleasure of a kill cam, though it does feel a little cheap if you get this off auto-aim. In regards to your armour, there’s a shop where you upgrade armour, ammo, gear, and so forth. These aren’t in-app purchases (as you’d expect from a game costing $7), but credits that you earn in gameplay.
Dying in combat means that you get sent back to the previous checkpoints, which are fairly enough spread throughout combat. Although, dying just before you’re about to reach the next checkpoint is a bitch. As with most FPS games these days, you’ve got Wolverine’s health recovery, if you’re low just duck behind a wall and you’ll be right in a bit.
As well as single player campaign (in which there are 14 levels, although I didn’t really see too much definition between them, but that’s just a staple for the FPS genre), there is multiplayer. Multiplayer mode features six maps and seven different modes ranging from death matches to bomb diffusion challenges, with both online and local Wi-Fi support.
Visual
MC3 looks fantastic, in case you hadn’t realised that so far. It looks like some of its close namesakes has been compacted, sure it’s a little rougher, but like I said before it is way above what you’re expecting for an iOS game.
The bar isn’t set high on iOS games, there’s only a limited amount of things you can do with the platform and the processing power. However, in my play through I didn’t get any of the bugs you’d expect from such a good-looking game. There is a reason the game is 1 gb in space, after all.
Audio
The voice acting is the cliché ‘Hey, I’m a really big dude and I’m all manly and a hardass soldier and whatnot’ but it serves its purpose. It isn’t very patient though, at one point I hadn’t been paying enough attention so I had taken a minute to go and try and get my bomb all set up, and during that time he kept barking the same order to me over and over and over again. The sound effects to the gun sounds aren’t that bad, they aren’t fantastic, but they’re good enough. I usually used logic or the radar to see where people where shooting from though.
Conclusion
Overall, Modern Combat 3 is a really good game, it’s great looking, has a fair few hours of gameplay in it, a decent enough storyline, and good handling once you’re used to it. You’ve got your explosions, your baddies, your guns, and that all adds up to some good old fashioned FPS fun, however the game is anything but old fashioned. It’s pricey for an app, but certainly worth it.
Don’t you love holidays? Not only do we get to participate in the usual festivities, but it seems all kinds of iOS publishers enjoy treating us to sales. PopCap are the latest to get in on this, as Plants vs Zombies has now received a temporary price cut due to Halloween, making the title Half Off on the PC and iPhone/iPad.
This cut of course makes the PC version just $9.99, the iPhone version $.99, and the iPad tower defense hit just $2.99. As PopCap put it, “It’s like buying the plants and getting the zombies for free”. If you want to get in on this sale you may want to act fast though, as these herbs and undead creatures are only discounted until November 1st.
Ever thought you had an idea for the most kickass fighting move ever? Well you’re in luck! (Unless it’s not for Dead or Alive)
Team NINJA – the developers behind Dead or Alive – have announced a contest in which you guys get to submit your fighting move for Dead or Alive 5 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Team NINJA will be reviewing and choosing which unique fighting move will make the cut for the game. As well as being able to see your move in the game and getting the bragging rights, your name will be in the credits, forever immortalized as the dude who made that move that one time.
No, but seriously, this is a really awesome opportunity and you guys should get on it ASAP. The contest will be judged in relation to how creative your design is and an understanding of DOA fighting techniques.
The contest runs for three weeks (until November 18) and you are allowed to submit your entry as much as you want. Submissions can be written, drawn or acted out.
To submit an entry and follow DOA’s progress visit:
Game: 1,000 Tiny Claws Publisher/Developer: Mediatonic Price: £1.99/€ 2.49/ $3.49 Platform: PS3 and PSP (Reviewed)/span> Genre: Humorous top down action/adventure
Out of the hundreds of developers and the games that they have produced for the Minis section of the Playstation Store, there are a few that stand out from the rest. Mediatonic games especially shine. Whether it be fighting monsters that (probably) stole your princess, or explaining your side of the story to a Supreme Court of Super Heroes, Mediatonic games always have the charm and quality that make them seem like they should be more expensive than they really are (thank goodness they aren’t though! Us poor broke folk have to feed our gaming diet SOMEHOW.) 1,000 Tiny Claws is no different than the rest of the offerings from Mediatonic: it has quality, humor, charm and great gameplay.
At the beginning of the game your character is standing alongside her ship’s captain awaiting execution. Right before your death, however, the whole story of how you came to be standing there comes out. You see, there was this island and on the island was a stuck sword. However, being clumsy, you stumbled and wrenched the sword from where it was, causing a dreadful curse to fall across the land and releasing a horde of horrendous bugs that have now invaded. Although the Governor would still like to see you hanged, he has one mission for you: Return to the island and stop the curse. If you fail or try to run, the rest of your crew will be killed. There is only thing to do: Take your ship and Cap’n back to the scene of the crime and save the world. And that is where the game truly begins.
Thankfully, Mediatonic told the above in a cutscene that was much more entertaining than I can write. That opening cutscene was hilarious despite the grim circumstances that may have surrounded it. The animations used in it were also of very high high quality. The story in the game kept getting better and better throughout the game too.
Besides a rock solid story though, 1,000 Tiny Claws also has astounding gameplay. On your way to rescue everyone, you will face off against hundreds of the enemies that you released. Being the Sky Pirate that you are though, these measly little bugs don’t stand a chance, at least in the beginning. You can whack these nasty little creatures off the edges of the floating islands with a variety of moves. 3 strikes at them, as long as they are timed correctly, will unleash a devastating blow to a bug’s skull. If you run and strike, you can make the bugs fly even farther. And once you fill up a special meter, you hath the power to unleash the gates of hell with a horrifically stron super attack. In addition to your combat moves though, you can dodge and block. Trust me. You will need all those moves to defeat the evil curse and clear your name. The game goes from being so easy that my dog could play it to being so hard that the devil himself would weep. Nevertheless, the game never loses its addictiveness. If the main story is not enough for you though, there is also a challenge mode and a survival mode to play, in addition to a ton of amusing unlockables to strive after.
If there is one weak point in the game, it is the visuals and audio. I did not have the opportunity to play the game on the PSP so the graphics may look better on that system, but the graphics on the PS3 version of the game could use some severe polishing. The soundtrack to the game is nothing spectacular but it is not horrible either. Its jaunty pirate tunes keep the atmosphere going but overall I found it hard to get excited about. Another ding on the audio is that there is no dialogue during the cutscenes. Although I personally found that it enhanced the charm and ambiance of the game, some may find it annoying having to read what is going on.
The Minis section of the Playstation Store is full of cheap, rushed games that barely have a right to be called games. However, if you search hard enough there are gems. 1,000 Tiny Claws and other Mediatonic titles are diamonds in the rough. If you want a blisteringly hard game with an uproarious story, this game is for you. It has a ton of replay value and its quality warms the soul. Plus, it is only a few dollars. It does not disappoint.
At first glance, Worms: Crazy Golf is an odd concept. At second glance, it makes sense: the mechanics of traditional 2D Worms gameplay actually line up quite well with the mechanics of golf.
At third glance, it gets weird again.
There’s no denying that Crazy Golf is an interesting departure from the Worms series, which could reasonably be accused of milking the formula, judging by the sheer number of very similar Worms games that are being pumped out across every gaming platform known to mankind.
A change in the formula is a welcome addition, and Crazy Golf is in itself quite a unique game. It takes a while to hit its stride, and by then, it may have lost the attention of the less dedicated, but stick it out through the slow start, and you’ll be rewarded with a fun spin on both genres.
Gameplay
The Worms series has done spinoffs before, but none are as closely aligned with the mechanics of the normal games as Crazy Golf.
As you’d expect, gameplay is essentially golf: get your ball to the hole in as few shots as possible. But the Worms characters and mechanics spruce things up a bit, with recognizable obstacles lining each course. There’s a reliance on judging the angle, power and trajectory of your shot, and how the ball will react to the geometry of the level, so it seems to have more in common with mini golf.
The combo brings something new to each genre in the mashup: the Worms brand brings some much appreciated life and character to golf, but golf brings some linearity and structure to Worms. The result is a game with the look and feel of classic 2D Worms games, but with a more relaxed pace, a tighter level structure and a more specific challenge.
Play has you teeing off across four 18-hole courses, with intent to sink the ball on par or under, which unlocks the next hole. Using the Worms methods of aiming, powering up and releasing, your ball is launched into the course, bouncing off walls and other worms, avoiding water, and collecting coins and crates. The mouse can be used to apply spin to a ball while in the air, to dictate which direction it travels after landing, a vital function in later courses.
But of course it can’t be that easy. Between the tee-off and the green lie environments full of obstacles and characters. The nice thing is that these hurdles aren’t inherently good or bad, but vary in helpfulness depending on the situation. For example, land a ball on a molehill and the resident will yoink it, tunnel away and reposition it elsewhere; an advantage in some situations, a necessity in others, an absolute pain at other times. Sheep dot the landscape, and can conveniently give your ball some extra bounce, but will inconveniently eat it, if it lands near them.
Traversing these environments calls for a bit of outside help too, so players have access to a variety of utilities to move their ball around. Cheating, they call it in some circles. Before each shot, you can select one utility to equip for that shot, changing it only between swings. Triggered by the spacebar at any point during the ball’s travels, utilities can mean all the difference between a birdie and a bogey, and perhaps add the Wormiest twist on golf that the game has to offer.
The parachute will greatly low your ball’s descent, and applying spin while it drifts can let you move almost horizontally through the air, crossing a huge space. Heavy ball will cause your ball to plummet directly downwards on triggering, which can be very useful for landing on a specific spot or dropping straight onto the green if you’re more likely to sail over it.
Later in the game, when all or most of these utilities are unlocked, Crazy Golf is at its most enjoyable when you must decide which to use, how and when. But it takes ages to unlock the more useful utilities, and even longer for them to play an important role. Being fairly unique, the game understandably needs to take a little time to explain itself, but the first course, Britannia, acts as an extended tutorial, dragging along by the end. Later courses, like the Pirate Cavern, Graveyard and the recent DLC Carnival course, redeem this by applying more focus and usefulness to the utilities.
Each hole has supposed replay value by placing arbitrary collectables around, but they kind of go against the grain of the game. Golf is about getting to the end as quickly as possible. Collectable coins do not feature in either Worms or golf – rather, coins are an unwelcome video game cliché that disrupt the flow of the game.
It’s been said that a hole-in-one is possible on every hole in the game, and aiming for these is a more fitting method of adding replayability. There are often multiple paths to get to the green, depending on which utility you’d prefer to employ, and replaying holes to find the best way to the elusive one-shot sink can be very rewarding.
Customization is a staple of the Worms franchise, but in Crazy Golf this aspect is somewhat stripped back. You can unlock better clubs, balls adorned with different patterns, hats, and speechbanks, but overall, customizing your worm feels much less important, and less fun, than it usually is.
Visuals & Audio
Worms has a distinctive style, and that’s not lost on Crazy Golf. Each course has a great theme, and it’s apparent that a lot of thought has gone into personalizing the obstacles and surface types to fit each theme. Bunkers in Britannia are just sand pits, but in Pirate Cavern they become piles of gold. In the Graveyard the “Rough” patches are bones, and cannons, which launch your ball further, become zombie arms with blunderbusses, waving out of open coffins. It all looks fantastic.
Unfortunately, the worms themselves seem a little less expressive than they are in Reloaded and Ultimate Mayhem. It’s hard to say why exactly: they still dance when they sink the ball, or scowl at you if you go over par, but it feels less marked. Perhaps we’re just spoiled in the other Worms games though – here they still have much more personality than the latest hardened marine.
Soundwise, there’s not much to report. The music gets a little exhausted after 18 holes of the same tune, but it’s so low-key that you’ll barely notice it’s there. There’s even less variety in the speechbanks, but with fewer things that need saying in golf, there’s not much need for more speech sets, or more dialogue in each one.
Final Comments
Crazy Golf presents an interesting departure from regular Worms fare, but it does drag a bit, particularly during the crucial opening sections. Once you master the basics, unlock some of the quirkier tools and encounter some of the smarter level design, the game becomes pretty fun and provides a unique experience. It just requires a bit more of a commitment than many will allow.
Pros: Cons:
– Unique gameplay – Slow start, sometimes dull
– Interesting spin on both Worms and golf – Pointless coin collecting
-Great visual style – less customization than other Worms games
THQ have announced that they have formed a partnership with Tim & Eric, the creators of the American sketch TV series, “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”, to develop an online full-length episode, bringing the Professor Genki’s ridiculous Super Ethical Reality Climax game show.
Genki’s game show, which will be a part of Saints Row: The Third, pits contestants in a battle to the death as they attempt to win prizes and money and well, basically, just stay alive.
Tim and Eric’s episode will feature the crowd-pleasing Tall Cat Parade and Eat Yourself contests, in addition to giving some insight into the curious life of Professor Genki. The show will air online via select outlets on November 4th.
Don’t forget that if you pre-order today you receive Professor Genki’s Hyper Ordinary pack, featuring the Leisure Stunt Suit, Mollusk Launcher, and of course the highly appealing Super Ballistic Man-a-pult.
Check the trailer for Tim and Eric’s show down below and share your thoughts with us in the comment section.
Finally, the news One Piece fans had been waiting for has been brought to light. Funimation have announced that they have acquired the license for the fourth season of One Piece which covers the entire Water 7 arc, specifically episodes 206-263.
Now while there first licensing of up to 205 episodes was part of a huge deal with Toei Animation, it seems that Funimation haven’t licensed as many episodes this time as fans had predicted. But surely 57 episodes is enough to appease One Piece hungry fans of the Funimation English dub.
Funimation have set a release date of Summer 2012 for the first release of the fourth season. Not only that but in news that should satisfy widescreen and HD fans, all episodes from here on out will be in widescreen and a Blu-Ray release is imminent.
What do you think of this news One Piece fans? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
