What’s that you say? You’d like some more cheap iOS games? Well that’s a bit greedy of you, given the amount of sales on at the moment, but I guess if you insist. Lucky, Taito has you covered by putting their little dinosaur buddy on sale for $2.99, which is 40% off the regular price.
These are some awesome old school games, I’ll have to admit they’re some of my favourites to chill out with. So go grab yourselves some cute dino puzzle and arcade action!
Microsoft Australia has announced that Australians will now be able to use their voice to command the Kinect. This is something that’s been in the works since it became obvious that Australian accents just weren’t going to cut it, since obviously Australian English is a different language from American English.
This can be used in Kinect Sports Season Two for things such as ‘say as you see’ voice commands such as asking your caddy to change your club in a round of golf.
Voice command on Xbox LIVE will be available for Australians in mid-December, just in time to tell your Kinect what to do during Christmas.
As well as the Kinect upgrade, there is the Zune Music pass that will be released on November 16. The subscription will give Australians unlimited access to more than 11 million songs and thousands of music videos on their Windows Phone, PC and Xbox 360. The subscription will be $11.99 per month or $119.90 a year to access the library.
What do you guys think about the Kinect finally recognising our ‘difficult’ accent and the Zune Music subscription?
If Halloween makes iOS game companies this generous, I really can’t wait for Christmas. Yet another publisher has announced a Halloween sale, this time it’s EA iPad apps. The sale goes until midnight on the 31st of October, so get in quick for some real savings with prices from 99c to $2.99.
A few days ago we found out that Konami was planning on releasing their 3DS dungeon RPG created by tri-Ace sometime in January. It appears Konami didn’t feel like being vague for very long however as they have announced today that Beyond the Labyrinth would be released on January 19th in Japan. Let’s hope for a localization announcement sometime in the future shall we?
To commemorate the final release date, Konami opened up the game’s official website where you can find out a little more about the title. Though considering it is in Japanese, it isn’t the easiest to understand. The highlights are that the player meet’s a mysterious girl in a dungeon who quickly becomes your companion. She will fight alongside you in battle, and grow stronger as you advance through the game. Which is good since at the beginning all she can do is throw rocks. Check out the box art and some more images from the game below.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have released a new Batman: Arkham City trailer showcasing content from the upcoming Nightwing Bundle Pack, which will be available beginning November 2 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Network.
Featuring the intense melee skills of Nightwing, a.k.a Dick Grayson, the trailer showcases the character’s punishing arsenal of fighting moves that can be used against Arkham City’s hardened thugs. Nightwing comes complete with his own unique gadgets and special moves, and is playable in all challenge maps in the game, as well as two additional challenge maps that are included with the pack: Wayne Manor and Main Hall. The pack also contains a bonus Animated Series Nightwing character skin.
The Nightwing Bundle Pack will be available November 2 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 560 Microsoft Points and PlayStation Network for $11.45. The Robin Bundle Pack will also become available on November 23 to all owners of the game for the same price.
Gameloft has released Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation when Battlefield and Call of Duty fever has hit it’s highest level. It’s one of the best FPS smartphone, with a 13-mission campaign with areas from Los Angeles to Pakistan. Check out the trailer below, showing some of the intense and fantastic game play and graphics. Gameloft have really made a slam dunk with this one, I for one can’t wait to give it a shot.
This is a must have for FPS players who want a mobile platform to practice their skills on. Given the quality of the game itself, it definitely looks like a worthy purchase.
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is available now on iTunes for $7.49 – BUY NOW
It will also be available on Android in a few weeks time
Good evening, Capsule Computer readers. Joshua Spudic here with fellow Sydney editor Kyle Moore at the first day of GAME, a new festival of gaming hosted by Macquarie University. The first day will tackle various issues in video game classification and culture in Australia. The event starts at 6:30pm. Want a recap? Read here.
Today’s panel includes Terry Flew (Australian Law Reform Commission), David Emery (Classification Branch), Zahid Glameldien (Classification Board), Paul Hunt (MLCS Management & Former Deputy Director of the OFLC), Associate Professor Jeffery Brand (Bond University), Dr John Martino (Victoria University), Dr Peter Chen (University of Sydney) and Dr Rowan Tulloch (Macquarie University and my tutor for my video game unit).
To make this more interesting, follow me on Twitter @JS_CC, where I will keep track. Also, head over to our Facebook and ask any question you might have about the event.
For fresh updates, hit the refresh button or head on over to my Twitter.
6:26 – The theatre is filling up as we near the starting time of 6:30pm. Should be an interesting debate.
6:30 – We have started, ladies and gentlemen. Head of MMCS introducing the debate.
6:30 – Some encouragement as we are told to make this a debate.
6:34 – We are hearing a speech on the important of games from a man who will open the Interactive Media Institute. Now he is tackling Theorycraft, which will be held tomorrow.
6:36 – IMI will be in collaboration with MMCS department and help academia and emerging technologies collide.
6.37: IMI is now officially open, as well as the debate and Theorycraft.
6:38 – Panel being introduced. The members are listed above.
6:39 – Terry Flew introduces himself, explains ALRC (est 1975), who will play a very important role in the R18+ rating for video games.
6:42 – 2,452 for a classification review, only 80 were about games but exploded through social media.
6:45 – R18+ the popular topic for those game submissions for the ARLC.
6:49 – Does RC reflect the current content? 33% of submissions said no. Only 2% said yes.
6:50 – David Emery of the Classification Branch answers the question on how the R18+ rating will function.
6:53 – R18+ not that important, according to Emery. Changes will also need to pass government.
6:53 – RC games MUST be re-submitted if an R18+ rating is introduced.
6:54 – Breaking News: Don’t expect an R18+ game in the next year or so as the first one won’t be around in a couple of years.
6:56 – Jeffery Brand talks about individual submissions, admits that the some submissions related to adults playing games.
6:58 – 88% of Australians do support an R18+ rating video game.
7:00 – Brand: More robust classification system. He is right as media, including video games, evolves substantially.
7:00 – Oz Christian Lobby might have been here. Would have been interesting.
7:01 – Emery is asked whether games that have been RC’d will be re-classified with an R18+ rating. He pretty much says that games that have been RC’d will need to be re-submitted.
7:03 – New draft guidelines might take 2 years to implement, tightening of MA15+, RC games may fit into R18+ rating, according to Zahid Glameldien. He represents the OFLC/ACB.
7:05 – Board proposal: Only games MA15+ or higher should go through the ACB/OFLC. Below might be industry regulated or not classified at all. Online content (DLC, user generated content) will NOT be classified. App store content is classified, though.
7:07 – App Store criticism on their own classification scheme. Differences between US and Oz culture one reason of this criticism.
Question: Can Oz have its own regulated system of classification for video games? Answer below or on our Facebook.
7:15 – Interactivity “may” equal higher impact, but does not mean automatically higher impact.
7:16 – Brand: Early classification did weigh interactivity highly and was the reason of classification.
7:18 – Chen: groundwork is changing since early years, mass media model changing and broadened, becomes over-exposed. Looks at FPS and US militarisation of the youth.
7:20 – Hunt: RC is necessary, only meets RC because it exceeds the MA15+ logo, RC guidelines should be reflective of offense to everyone. In fact, the RC guidelines do reflect that. Hunt talks about ACMA’s blacklist, which does have a room of its own. Hunt also wants guidelines to be across the board.
7:22 – Rowan: R18+ debate distracting other issues which should be discussed, such as violence and sexual content in video games.
7:24: Glameldien: That’s how RC actually works.
7:26 – Hunt talks about the gender roles and influences that may be thought about when a game is classified.
7:27 – The board actually as a more female influence. Interesting.
7:29 – “Society” seems to be making the choices. “Society” equates to those who conform to mainstream ideals.
7:30 – SCAG has been mentioned. SCAG is the meeting of all of the state attorney generals who decide whether to introduce an R18+ rating.
7:32 – Chen: Classification normalises society, which seems to be the middle class educated man.
7:34 – Here’s an interesting question: How good of a gamer does one need to be to classify a game?
7:36 – Now we are getting a detailed method of how games are classified. Apparantely they have a very big screen to play their games on.
7:38 – Norway shooting this year is now on Hunt’s agenda. He talks about how the shooter proudly proclaimed his use of Call of Duty.
7:40 – Questions raised on industry regulation, could be seen as corporate interests.
7:41 – Brand: Not FPS, but family games are more popular.
7:42 – Martino: Military FPS are more simulators than games.
7:43 – Rowan talks about a group of students on a CS mod based on the uni quadrangle. It changes a person’s sense of space.
7:45 – How will indie games be classified under the new model?
7:48 – Martino goes back into the militarisation of video games. Ho does talk about it quite a bit. There is also mention of glorification of violence and as a means of solving a problem. Also anti-feminism.
7:52 – Another question: Is there confidence within the games industry to self-regulate classification?
7:54 – Censorship a big fear in games industry, according to Flew. He calls for co-regulation, so a mix of government and industry regulation. It happens to television. Does it work? Meh.
7:56 – Emery explains that the current system is well-established and the market is there to accept what comes to them.
7:58 – Chen: TV model is the wrong way to go. Financial risk, channels are brands, TV focuses on central deomgraphics. Games are nothing like that. Chen shows his witty side to debunk the TV model. Good show.
8:00 – We have a 52 year old lebisan, feminist pacifist who plays WoW in the audience. We are a diverse bunch.
8:02 – It seems we are running short in time, meaning this may be wrapped up soon.
8:05 – A Ubisoft rep is here. He expresses that games are a form of entertainment and consumers will determine success of a game.
8:08 – Hunt: People don’t care about half of this stuff.
8:10 – Brand: Plenty of pressure to keep the bastards honest. His words, ladies and gentlemen.
8:11 – Flew has the final words: Media is less collectively consumed. Asks Chen to submit a piece of paper as to why co-regulation won’t work.
8:13 – Digital citizenship through social media, there is a heavy engagement with the classification scheme, according to Flew.
8:15 – Mark, head of MMCS, ends the debate. Yes, that is it. The CC Live Blog will be updated in a little while. Good night from Josh and Kyle.
With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s release date growing closer and closer, there are still a few things which have yet been unanswered about what fans could expect this time around. Mainly, one of those things is the way that enemies will end up scaling to the way that the player levels up. In past Elder Scrolls titles, enemies scaled in level to the character, often meaning a weak rat could still pose a threat.
However Todd Howard, director of Skyrim, let slip to PC Gamer that enemies in Skyrim will be ” a lot more like Fallout 3, where as you level up you are going to see harder things, but the easier things stay around as well” and if you happen to “run into the weaker stuff you’ll just decimate it.”
He also revealed that conversations with NPCs will focus more on the way they were in Fallout 3, with players able to have specific conversations with specific people rather than completely random such as before.
Attention Sydney gamers! Do you want to get a cheeky play of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations before its release date? YES of cause you do! Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will be fully playable across six screens at Sydney’s coolest new night out – INSERT COIN(S): LEVEL 2! at Oxford Art Factory on Thursday November 10.
Insert Coin(S) is a new event that brings together games, music and art along with geek culture and fashion all in to one venue – complete with retro arcade gaming machines and 80s-style milk bar. This will be Insert Coin(S)’ second incarnation with its first arcade night successfully hitting it off back in September earlier this year.
Tickets to INSERT COIN(S): LEVEL 2! are only $10. For more information check out their Facebook page
With all the fighting and hype that’s generated between Apple and Samsung over their smartphones one would be wise not to forget Nokia. Speaking at Nokia world in London, the CEO of the company unveiled two new major developments in their smart phone range, as well as a multitude of services and accessories, sure to keep the most avid early adopter pleased.
A welcome addition to the Nokia family will be the companies first Windows based smartphones in the Lumia family range. Both will feature Nokia Drive, a personal navigation device as well as Nokia music with built in gigfinder, a global music streaming app with a live music finder for on the go use. Nokia have also teamed up with Monster who have co-designed and co-developed the on/in ear purity earpieces accompanying the smartphones.
There has also been more of an emphasis placed on navigation and location based tools with the introduction of Nokia Pulse and Nokia Live view, which can add locations to conversations and act as a reality augmenting tool respectively.
Nokia Lumia 800 and 710.
Both will feature a 3.7” screen perfect for watching movies, viewing pictures, emails and anything you require on the go. In terms of the processor, anyone considering the 710 will be pleased to hear Nokia has used the same 1.4GHz processor as the 800 model. While the 800 is packed with 16Gb of internal memory the 700 doesn’t come in far behind boasting 8Gb for music and entertainment. Both phones feature the Windows mango OS while the 800 series will feature an 8MP instant share camera and the 700 a 5MP camera both based on top end Carl Zeiss optics.
Asha family
With the Asha family of smartphones, Nokia aims to bring to market high quality devices that focus on todays fast paced society, providing easy access to social networks, internet and information. Asha, which is derived from the Hindi word for hope, signifies Nokias commitment to providing positive user experiences, helping them aspire towards their dreams. With the Asha family, the goal is to bring to users a perfect blend of smartphone and feature phone or the best of two worlds.
Nokia will release four versions to begin within the Asha family, with the 200 series being a perfect starter phone for younger users. The 303 and 301 models, although both featuring a 1GHz processor, differ in keyboard layout (the 303 offers a QWERTY style), memory and camera quality, and while the 303 has a slightly larger screen the cheaper 300 actually has a better 5MP camera and slightly more internal memory (although insignificant).
Aimed at a younger audience the 200 and 201 are almost identical, with the only difference being the 200 has dual-sim function with a hot swap feature whilst the other model is a single sim. Despite being simplistic in design, which is perfect for young users, the phones are jam packed with features, such as high speed internet ability, a high powered speaker for those bass packed tunes and most impressively a battery that can handle 52 hours of music playback.
All models are expected to be released at the end of the year, with expansion moving into other markets in 2012 aside from Europe. Pricing is not set in stone but will be approximately
Nokia Lumia 800 – 420 EUR
Nokia Lumia 710 – 270 EUR
Nokia Asha 310 – 115 EUR
Nokia Asha 300 – 85 EUR
Nokia Asha 210 and 200 – 60 EUR
Keep posted to capsulecomputers for more Nokia news and for any more information regarding these products please visit Nokia.com and read more.
