That’s right, the hotly anticipated Battlefield 3, is now available throughout Australia and New Zealand. So it’s time to pick up your pre-orders or just pick it up off the shelf Battlefield fans.
Not only is it bound to sell loads of copies, it already has, with over 3 million pre-sales already made for Battlefield 3. That makes it EA’s biggest shooter title launch in the company’s long history, surpassing all of it’s predecessors.
Have you got your pre-order out? Are you picking it up from the shelves today? Will you be marching onto the battlefield? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has released the first of four new videos discussing the cultural phenomenon of The Lord of the Rings, as well as how The Lord of the Rings: War in the North fits within this world. The trilogy of films were epics, and Peter Jackson and his team put New Zealand on the map, as the country made the perfect backdrop for the locations.
This video features commentary from well-known faces from the entertainment industry discussing their personal affinity for The Lord of the Rings.
Film stars Dominic Monahan and Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings) discuss exploring this world in their childhoods; actors Brian Posehn (The Sara Silverman Show) and Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) speak to its dominance within the fantasy genre, and gaming experts Alison Haislip (G4) and Miri Jedeikin affirm The War in the North’s authenticity, as well as noted Tolkien scholar, Corey Olson.
Konami Digital has recently unveiled a few updates to their latest Frogger comeback title, Decades. Based on user comments and feedback, they’ve improved the accuracy of Jump and Tongue actions, as well as introducing new characters Finnius, Berry, and a third secret character.
With added iCade support, players can now play the new Forever Mode to play through the entire game non-stop, from the birthday party invitation to the birthday party in one go. Those already playing this title will be happy to know Konami is listening to them, and have been working to make their product the most enjoyable it can be.
Available now in the AppStore for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Mad Catz Interactive, the makers of of FightStick controllers, announced today that they have entered into a partnership with Namco Bandai to produce the Soulcalibur V Arcade FightStick Soul Edition, a tournament edition fighting game controller to be used in conjunction with the game.
The President and CEO of Mad Catz Interactive said:
The FightStick product category continues to perform well for us globally and the addition of the popular SOULCALIBUR franchise leverages both our brand and market leadership.
The Soulcalibur V Arcade FightStick will launch worldwide in January 2012. Who here is going to get one ?
It’s been a while since we heard anything from EA about Grand Slam Tennis 2, but alas we have for you a trailer revealing the stars which will be playable in the game. The roster features a surprising amount of classic tennis players, which will certainly please some more than others, but still a pretty formidable roster overall. The following 23 players were revealed in the trailer:
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Andy Murray
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Serena Williams
Maria Sharapova
Björn Borg
John McEnroe
Novak Djokovic
Michael Stich
Andy Roddick
Boris Becker
Lindsay Davenport
Lleyton Hewitt
Justine Henin
Pat Cash
Venus Williams
Chris Evert
Kei Nishikori
Stefan Edberg
Pete Sampras
Ana Ivanovic
Martina Navratilova
Check out the video below to see a little bit of game footage for some of the stars. Grand Slam Tennis 2 will be out in 2012.
What do you think of the roster? Did your favourite player miss out? Let us know below.
There is something inherently sexy about Razer products. I’m not sure what it is exactly, is it the cool logo embossed in an off-kilter way? Is it the matte black finish that screams stylish and quality? Is it the superior hardware? Is it the knowledge that I am sharing a product with numerous intense gamers who get money to beat other people at games? Maybe it’s all that, maybe it’s even more.
Razer love their innovative names, I bet there’s a whole division of Razer devoted to looking up the next Razer product’s name. This particular sexy Razer product is called Chimaera, which relates back to ancient Greek mythology about a fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. Or, just any mythical animal with parts taken from other animals. (Thank you Google)
I’m not 100% sure why Razer decided that a mutli-specied mythical beast was the best description for the headset, but I’m not complaining. After all, it is a kick ass name and it definitely raised my interest enough for a Google search (I also learned that it is pronounced with a ‘k’ not a ‘ch’, just for anyone else who was curious about that).
The Razer Chimaera 5.1 is a beast of a headset device, equipped with 5.1 Dolby Surround sound, it uses the 5.8 GHz frequency for protection against almost all wireless interference, and it can be connected to create a lag-free, crystal clear channel for dedicated team conversations. But enough about the techy stuff, I’ll get back to that later, how does it measure up in practice?
Like most Razer products, the packaging is beautiful. It’s got the black, green and clear thing going, the specs are written all over it, bragging about the incredible sound and oh my God, it is just so damn pretty. I mean, the headset looks like an art piece. The way each layer of packaging slots together is ingenious, you don’t need scissors to open it and yet it’s so damn secure. The package comes with the headset, charging dock, rechargeable batteries, several connecting wires for all your combination needs, power cable with three different region adapters, a few manuals, some stickers, and a letter of congratulations. Thank you Razer guy, thank you.
My first little issue comes with the charging dock adapter plug, it’s one of those nightmare ones that aren’t usable on power boards. I like the adapters that keep to themselves, only take up the room they’re meant to, and leave it at that. The Razer Chimaera adapter does not believe in the same ideals. It’s as if the adapter thinks it’s the top dog and no one should be around it because those plugs might taint it. My advice, don’t put it on the power board.
The detachable panel for the batteries was also a bit of a pain, it’s one of those panels where you feel like you must be doing it wrong because it feels like it’s just about to break. I actually had to get someone else to do it, because I couldn’t bear the thought of damaging my precious, precious headphones. But hey, once the batteries were in and the panel clicked back into place it looked fantastic again, unless you were told about the panel you wouldn’t be aware of it.
Connecting the dock to your sound source is a fairly easy task as the box will contain a bunch (though not all) of required cords. Plus, there is a quick setup guide that will take you the various methods you can use, and believe me there are a few. If you have any further issues (though I doubt you will, because even I could figure it out) then the FAQs on the Razer website will probably help you out.
First thing you have to do before playing with them is charge the headset on top of the green glowing charging dock. I have a love-hate relationship with this charging dock. I think it’s totally gorgeous and a great-looking way to store your headset. However, I had really huge issues with charging it, it’s very particular on how to do place the headset on the charger, and a few times it would turn from the charging ‘red’ to ‘green’, but still wouldn’t be charged. I figured out this was an issue with the batteries, so I swapped them around, gave them a bit of breathing room, and then everything was peachy again. I don’t know if this was simply a faulty pair or if this is a common occurrence, we shall see if hordes of angry gamers take to the internet.
With Christmas coming right around the corner, many developers have been dropping titles to impress the younger gamers in the family as of late. GameMill are of course experts with the little ones, and as of today, parents can now add Moxie Girlz to the Christmas shopping lists. I am sure many of you have heard of the popular Moxie Girlz series, and this Nintendo DS romp will let players interact with the “girlz” in a whole new way.
So what all is in this jam-packed title? Here is a list of features for Moxie Girlz:
Moxie Girlz for Nintendo DS provides hours of fun with thousands of art options and creations awaiting your personal touch! Customize your Moxie Girlz character and express your creativity in Fashion Play mode with dozens of hair styles, accessories and more. Share your deepest secrets and get lost in Journal and Diary Modes, or have fun with friends as you take the Moxie Girlz quizzes to find out which of the Moxie Girlz you and your friends resemble the most. Whether playing alone or with others, Moxie Girlz provides an interactive and encouraging environment where young girls can be whatever they want to be.
Additional Moxie Girlz video game features:
Customization: Pick which Moxie Girlz character you want to be or upload pictures of yourself.
Variety of Modes: Art Play, Fashion Play, Games and more!
Personality Quizzes: Discover the Moxie Girlz character that resembles you!
Picture Fun: Use DSi functionality for picture taking and puzzle games – mix and match!
Positive Message: All modes and gameplay focus on the positive Moxie Girlz message– Be true! Be you!
You can check out the new screenshots below and alert the young ladies in your family that Moxie Girlz is now out wherever video games are sold for just $19.99.
Overview:
The iOS has become a proving ground for so many genres. Many genres flopped about like a fish out of water, clinging desperately to life, but ultimately dying, leaving behind nothing but a cold grave in arguably the biggest video game shouting contest in the mediums history, the iTunes app store.
There are some genres that work on the mobile platform and then there are those that don’t. The role-playing-game genre, is one of those in between genres, where it either works, or doesn’t. ADVENA is one of the role-playing-games that should work, but ultimately, falls short due to some preventable mistakes.
Gameplay: ADVENA is an action RPG, however it plays more like a side-scrolling beat-em-up with RPG elements slapped on. Gamevil do however have a track record of great RPGs, what with the Zenonia franchise. I had hoped that would translate well into ADVENA, but while the battling is fun, addictive and most of all inventive. It does suffer from a large range of problems.
The most evident of which is a game-crashing glitch. This is something a lot of iOS games are afflicted with, a lot of which is due to the game over-exerting the system, or just not being able to handle what it is trying to do. Which is the case with ADVENA.
ADVENA often crashes, particularly during or after an intense fight. This is devastating for the player, because more often then not, the game has not auto saved. This causes the player to have to re-do something that was very time consuming. It can be a huge deterrent for those who enjoy sitting down and plowing through an RPG like this.
As for other portions of the gameplay, it’s pretty good all around, with fast paced action as well as a plethora of character customization. Though battling can get repetitive at times. There is very little variation between enemy attacks and it does not take long to get tired of fighting against enemies with very little difference in attack pattern. But despite that it’s very inventive, for this type of game.
The game controls well enough, although the control for moving your character can be a little irritating at times when you can’t allign yourself perfectly with an enemy, but it’s just a minor gripe. As a whole the controls work well.
Story-wise, it’s pretty run of the mill. There is little here that you haven’t seen from an RPG game before, what with the evil brother, vengeance story-line, characters bound together by fate, etc. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but the way it’s told make’s it feel at the very least some what fresh.
Visuals and Audio: ADVENA has quite a unique visual style, with a lot of purple hues that promise a hint of magic behind the game, with just a dash of darkness thrown in. Sadly these visuals, whilst being impressive to look at, don’t have a lot of depth behind them. I know visuals are a surface thing, but adding a little meaning to the style, is warranted.
The character designs are very japanese-inspired, much like ADVENA’s predecessor, Zenonia. ADVENA focuses much more on chibi character’s than Zenonia. This is a good style for ADVENA and makes it stand apart from Zenonia, while still oweing a lot to it’s preverbial “big brother”.
The soundtrack of ADVENA is what you’d expect from an RPG for the iOS. It’s generic, yet still manages to effectively do the job it’s required to do. You could literally place most of these tracks onto any other RPG for the iOS and it would work effectively enough to be the backing for a game. That isn’t a good thing. It shows that it’s generic and is something that was clearly designed just to “work” not to “excel”.
All-in-all, the visusla and audio of ADVENA work well enough, but lack the heart of other Gamevil titles, namely Zenonia.
Overall:
The biggest problem with ADVENA is that it doesn’t know what wants to be, nor was it given the love and care during it’s debugging phase that could’ve eliminated some of the glitches that afflicted the game. Also unlike Zenonia, it doesn’t ever break through into classic status. It never reaches greatness, preferring to sit comfortably in mediocrity. Which is a true shame, as this could’ve been a big step forward for Gamevil in terms of creating a new IP. If only a little more care was placed into the game it could be so much more than just “good”.
It seems that Namco Bandai’s Tekken’s first title on the Nintendo 3DS won’t make it in time for Valentine’s Day in Japan, as this week’s Famitsu announced that the title will be released on February 16th. Not to be confused with Tekken Hybrid on the PlayStation 3, Tekken team is also working on this 3DS title which is known as Tekken 3D Prime Edition.
Currently however, there is no announcement for a North American release date, so don’t expect it to arrive in time for your loved ones in the West either. Fun fact: Did you know that in Japan girls often give men chocolate on Valentine’s Day which is the complete opposite of how it is in the West? Interesting.
It appears that Konami and tri-Ace’s newest title for the Nintendo 3DS may have some life in it after all. Despite there being only a few details about Beyond the Labyrinth, this week’s copy of Famitsu has listed that Beyond the Labyrinth will be released in Japan on January 19th. Of course this doesn’t say anything about a North American release, but we can always hope.
As far as we know so far, the game will involve the players following around a white-haired girl who is the main character’s companion and the end goal of the game is to escape from the Labyrinth where you will face off against enemies that will try to stop your advance. Hopefully as time goes on, more information will be revealed in the future.
