The Rabbids have officially initiated the second part of their invasion plan! Not only are they getting us to do stuff in our lounge room that’s going to make us look ridiculous to our neighbours, they’re going to make us do it in four-person groups!
Unlike previous Rabbids games it looks like this one’s going to require a team effort to pass some of the levels, hiding, guiding through an ice tunnel (what are we guiding? I don’t know. Why? I don’t know. Just do the damn thing!) creeping across the screen at the right pace, and contorting all of your bodies to make a shape.
Some of these games will probably have a little bit of leeway, especially considering there’s always that one guy who wants to wreck it for everyone else…
Check out the multiplayer trailer below. What do you guys reckon? Is this going to add to the fun or add to your want to kick someone in the ass when they stuff it up?
Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking is coming out for the Xbox 360 Kinect on November 1 for US and November 3 for Aussies.
It appears that the Online Pass system is being more than just a little inconvenient to new purchasers of games nowadays. First there were problems with Batman: Arkham City’s Catwoman passes not working or simply not being in the cases, and now there is a major issue with some codes from EA’s Battlefield 3. Namely, that they don’t work at all.
A large number of consumers have complained to EA that they have been unable to play Battlefield 3 on their Xbox 360 because the online pass doesn’t work right or isn’t accepted. CVG reports that this is also an issue with the PC version as Origin doesn’t recognize some purchases of the game, plus their online servers going down.
EA has issued this statement for those who have been affected by the problem, more or less passing the buck to someone else: “We are aware of the invalid code issue and we apologize for the inconvenience. Since certain retailers are affected by this issue, please check with the retailer where you purchased Battlefield 3 in order to receive a replacement code.”
Some new character artwork and in game screenshots for the upcoming fighting game, One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 New World, have made their way online from Bandai.
One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 New World, focuses on the Post-War saga and New World saga mostly but will feature things from previous story arcs as well, however they are not the main focus as they were with the previous Gigant Battle.
This is the biggest screenshot and artwork drop Bandai have thus far done for the game, with a whopping 20 images in all. You check them all out below.
One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 New World will make it’s japanese release on the 17th of November. Let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section.
Sega has decided that they will team up with Arkedo Studios, the company behind games such as Nervous Brickdown, Big Bang Mini and the Arkedo Series to create a game they are currently calling “Project Hell Yeah!” At the time Arkedo is running a development blog for this title and revealing a few tidbits of information.
This includes the fact that there will be what they are calling “MEGATONS” of monsters and that the game’s been in development for nine months. They say to stay tuned to the blog here for more information in the future, which with a name like Project Hell Yeah! it can only be good news.
You heard right, Ace Attorney fans! The first ever footage of the japanese live action Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney film has made it’s way online for your viewing pleasure.
The footage appears to come from a segment of a japanese variety show called Sōkai Jōhō Variety Sukkiri. There is plenty of footage to appease Ace Attorney fans, with several fan favourite characters making an appearance as well as the infamous “objection” scenes being seen.
You can check out the footage below. I’m sure none of you will object to that. What do you think of the upcoming Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney live action movie? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Developer: Other Ocean Publisher: Paramount Digital Entertainment Platform: Xbox Live Arcade (reviewed), Playstation Network Genre: Puzzle Platformer Release Date: October 26 Price: 800 Microsoft Points (HERE)
Overview
There’s not that needs to be said about the original War of the Worlds novel. If you don’t know H.G Wells wrote a spectacularly gritty and realistic novel about an alien invasion at a time when people hadn’t even yet thought of going into space, about a century ago.
Since then there have been many adaptations of his work, most of them not-so-good. So when I saw the first few gameplay videos from the game, I was super excited. The art style, music, production values, and the fact that good old Sir Patrick Stewart was the narrator made me giddy like a schoolboy. This was the adaptation I’d been waiting for.
As it turns out… it wasn’t.
Gameplay
War of the Worlds is a 2D platformer, and after an amazing opening sequence involving crawling out of the ruins of a train wreck and some pretty clever platforming tricks, the gameplay goes all downhill from there.
The player character plays atrociously. He accelerates into a run about as quickly as an old man (an unhealthy old man, at that) and easily stumbles over the smallest of objects in his path. He’s also fairly stupid, because unless your jump is pixel perfect, he won’t grab onto a ledge directly above him or a box that’s right in front of him.
All this might be forgivable if the game wasn’t brutally, soul-crushingly difficult. A lot of games get away with difficulty; the feeling of reward often outweighs the frustration, but not here. Nearly every level has several enemies or environmental hazards that lead to immediate and unforgivable death, which in itself isn’t a problem, because hey, you can just reload and experiment another way to get by, right?
Well, sure. After you re-run through all the hazards you had to get past in order to get to the location of your death. See, the chekpointing system is nothing short of broken. Sometimes it’s actually perfect, saving right before some impending doom so that you can learn from your mistake and just avoid it the next time, but most of the time, that’s not the case. You can run through most of a level, be brutally obliterated, and go back to where you were four minutes ago, towards the beginning of the sequence.
The fact of the matter is, I had to repeat a sequence where you must escape an alien heat ray about 25 times in the second level, because of the senseless lack of checkpoints. It’s like the developers didn’t take the time to hand the game to a few average players in order to get some feedback.
And in the end, that’s quite unfortunate because War of the Worlds had some great ideas. In fact, most of its puzzles are clever and the level variety is great, but it’s held back tremendously by the ridiculous lack of intelligent checkpointing and the controls which can be much less than cooperative. This in turn affects the platforming, because the game requires pinpoint accuracy in most situation and the character just won’t cooperate.
Oh yeah, and sometimes you can’t tell what actually part of the level or just in the foreground, and other times the foreground images just plain block the view of what you’re doing.
There’s a lot of brilliance and ingenuity in the gameplay of War of the Worlds, but for every situation where you’re enjoying yourself, there will be three where you just want to throw your controller through your television screen. Sadly, the bottom line is that the game is more frustrating than fun. Honestly, if you have high-blood pressure, don’t even consider watching someone play it.
Audio/Visual
This is really what makes you think the gameplay faults are a crying shame, because the game’s presentation is almost flawless.
The art design is wonderfully intricate, with a style reminiscent of the black and white War of the Worlds film adaptation the game is emulating. Colour is used well in the right places, but the blacks, whites, browns, and greys will take you right back, and you’ll feel like you’re in the 50’s, just barely surviving an alien invasion.
The set pieces are also fantastic, indeed they’re probably some of the best pieces of visual imagery I’ve ever seen in a downloadable title. From being chased by a tripod as it tears apart rooftops and houses, to the scene as you traverse a park and a battle is being waged in the background, the game nails it. You’re a lone survivor in a world of much bigger events, and you feel that way.
All this is accompanied by an excellent soundtrack which definitely feels like it could have featured in a 1950’s film, though it does get repetitive when you’ve run through the same sequence 20 times.
But the kicker is your character’s voice, as played by Sir Patrick Stewart. He’s the typical stoic hero who’s out to save his friends and family among a war-torn invasion landscape, and, of course, Patrick Stewart could do no wrong. His brilliant narration lends to the atmosphere the final piece of its puzzle, creating one of the most authentic alien invasion experiences I think I’ve ever played through.
Conclusion
What can I say about War of the Worlds other than it’s sorely disappointed me. I so badly wanted to love this game, and its atmosphere and presentation egged me on to say, “Alright, I’ll try just this once more.” But the fact is, if I didn’t have to review this game, I would not have finished it; so I can’t tell you that the game’s wonderful and authentic recreation of an alien invasion is enough for you to slog through hours of sloppy gameplay, because it’s not.
The game is a massive ball of wasted potential. You can occasionally see the brilliance shine through, but you can’t have both unresponsive controls and the requirement of pinpoint accuracy, and this game does. Combined with a checkpointing system that works about as well as a 1950’s era train engine, the game suffers and makes you suffer with it.
Disney Universe releases today for Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 and PC, courtesy of Disney Interactive. It brings together characters and worlds from Disney’s catalogue of live-action and animated films in an action-platformer.
Several select retailers are offering purchase incentive programs that will provide consumers with additional exclusive characters, such as Cinderella and Peter Pan, to download into their game. The game will also be expanding post-launch with new downloadable content, including worlds, costumes, and more available for download.
Available in November, the first downloadable content will be the “Disney Villains Costume Pack” with five new character costumes based on Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmations), Hades (Hercules), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), The Evil Queen (Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs) and Ursula (The Little Mermaid), adding to the selection on offer out of the box, which includes Sam Flynn, Quorra and Clu (TRON), Baloo (The Jungle Book), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Sulley (Monsters, Inc.), Nemo (Finding Nemo) and everyone’s favorite fairy, Tinker Bell (Peter Pan).
Those travelling through Akihabara this weekend may notice that the infamous Radio Kaikan building, has become the site of an elaborate visual recreation of a popular scene from the critically acclaimed Steins;Gate series.
The scene I speak of as you may have guessed from the title is that Satellite Crash scene. As part of a collaboration between Steins;Gate and Radio Kaikan, in anticipation of the newly released 8-bit version of Steins;Gate.
You can check out some images of the impressive satellite recreation below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the shoutbox and comments section.
And a good day to you good sir! With the release of The Sims 3 Pets on consoles, EA Games have released a new trailer with their very own Trevor Mountleg – that lovable British dog-man. Trevor walks us through what players can expect from this console spin-off and gives a complete run down of the latest features in the game.
You can custom pets with a range of unique traits, explore the town and its new mystery storylines to uncover hidden relics. Along with a quick look at the latest positive and negative Karma Powers.
The Sims 3 Pets is available now for PC and console. Check out what we thought of the game in our review
Hunter x Hunter Episode 4 – “Hopes x And x Ambitions”
There are so many things that Hunter x Hunter does right, that each episode that goes by garners wide-spread critical acclaim. This episode is no different. The exam continues with our hunter hopefuls pushing on through the tunnel, with many dropping out and others revealing their true ambitions.
This episode, stood out to me as the best episode thus far. Why? Because it pushed all the characters more than any episode thus far. It is a very rare thing to find an anime with this imaginative and well-concieved a cast and world, than Hunter x Hunter. This world, like the world of One Piece, begs to be explored. Not only that, but these characters, beg to be unravelled.
Although I personally have read the manga in which this was adapted from, I find myself wanted to learn about these character all over again. Just as I find myself wanting to explore the world of Hunter x Hunter with them all over again.
Above all that this episode did, I loved the way it strengthened already established friendships as well as introduce us to one. The way Leorio and Kurapika bond over their shared past sufferings, not only sheds extra light on who they are, but it also tells us where they are heading. Leorio’s revelatiobn of why he wants money, why both heart-breaking and moving. It’s just one of the many great moments we can expect to come from this series.
I also loved the way that Killua and Gon meet. It was just so perfect. What with the way Killua slides back on his skateboard and asks Gon his age. They instantly bond over being the two kids of the bunch. Their bonding is so natural and exactly how 12 year old children would behave (however dark their pasts may be). The scene where they both race to the finish line and shout out “goal” together was just so adorable. As a long-time Hunter x Hunter manga reader, I was filled with the same childish glee as Gon and Killua, just knowing where they will end up.
The greatest thing about Hunter x Hunter is it’s heart and message, even if they are not yet clear in this adaptation, it is not far. Their is only one other anime and manga out there that matches Hunter x Hunter when it comes to that and that is One Piece. The themes falling into place here are going to pay off big time in the future. These early episodes are laying in the foreshadowing and paving the way things to come.
This series really shines in it’s creativity. The only other series I can recall besides Hunter x Hunter and One Piece that is this varied and imaginative is Reborn! There is so much innovation with Hunter x Hunter, that after 4 episodes they ahve managed to construct a world more complex and deeper than most series achieve in their entire run.
That is the true testament to this series. There is so much greatness to come and it has been made very clear after 4 episodes that this series is going to huge.
