First there was SingStar, the karaoke game that debuted on the Playstation 2 and had numerous releases since then, even some on the Playstation 3. Now, Sony has moved from the microphone to the Playstation Move as they are about to launch DanceStar Party, a dancing game exclusive to the Playstation 3. It will feature over forty titles and 160 moves to groove to.
To celebrate the launch, SCE Australia is hosting a dance-off competition on Thursday to determine who has the moves to impress the public. It will be hosted by So You Think You Can Dance US host Cat Deeley. A big time choreographer will also be there teaching you the moves to succeed in this competition. The winner will receive a trip for two to the United States to witness a taping of So You Think You Can Dance. Registration is completely free.
Make sure you are at First Fleet Park, which is in the Rocks, by 10:15 for a 10:30 start. Also, remember to wear some comfortable, loose fitting, exercise clothing. One wouldn’t want to be uncomfortable showing off those moves.
Game Name:Aliens: Infestation Platform(s): Nintendo DS Publisher(s): Sega, Developer(s): Wayforward Genre(s): Side-Scrolling Shooter/Adventure Release Date: October 11, 2011 (US) Price: $29.99 BUY NOW!
A 2D game giving off an eerie and intense atmosphere has been nearly unheard of for the genre since the days of Clock Tower and Metroid. Interestingly enough, WayForward have utilized both of these traits in the recently released Aliens: Infestation. Based on the hit film franchise, this 2D “Metroidvania” style game puts players in the role of one (of the many) colonial marines as they explore the dark and grizzly environments before them. The final result turned out quite well and it can easily be said that this release may be one of the most overlooked titles to come out this year. So what makes killing this batch of xenomorphs so satisfying? Here is my review for Aliens: Infestation.
Story:
Infestation starts out as fans would expect when a team of colonial marines get sent to investigate a ship in distress. This ship in question of course is the famous Sulaco from the film franchise, and those familiar will feel right at home in this fantastic recreation of the famous setting. Now our heroes of course soon run into a complete outbreak of xenomorphs and other dreadful beings and must work together to terminate the foreign life while trying to simply survive in the process.
Everything in the plot is told through text-based dialogue, which fits perfectly with Infestation’s 2D aesthetic. While I enjoyed the story told here, the most prominent sense of character throughout the game is not in the narrative, but instead through the many marines that you take control of. You see, throughout the game you can find many of your squad-mates scattered out aboard the ship that will join up with you instantly. Each one of these little soldiers are full of character and have their own distinct personality, which makes finding each one a huge reward as it is rather easy to get attached to several members of this quirky cast. Whenever a squad member dies at your control though, they stay dead until the end of the game. You might think this would be a bad thing, but it actually made myself try even harder to keep my treasured teammates alive which in turn made the whole experience feel more rewarding and complex overall. Since each marine has their own take on the situation at hand, this also encourages several playthroughs and rids the game from feeling repetitive over time.
Gameplay
Take one part Metroid, one part Contra, add in some aliens, and you have Aliens: Infestation as your result. After the player selects the marine of their choice, they then have to set out through the environment to solve various missions assigned to them. Exploration is the main ingredient of the game (like most titles from the genre), which means the player must trek through the expansive areas within to find their appropriate destination. A lot of the time most missions consist of simply trying to survive while trying to find a certain key card or object that will open a door. Other times you will have to seek out a boss to defeat to progress further. This formula really isn’t new by any means, but Infestation does a great job at making this ride an enjoyable one due to the feeling of impending doom that lies around every corner.
Part of this atmosphere I am speaking of is actually crafted by the way these marines control. Each marine can run by holding down one of the shoulder buttons, but a stamina meter keeps you from just breezing through the game to provide a more realistic feel. These marines are very slow on foot though and at first I was a little put off by how long it was taking to traverse through the game. However, after just a short time it became obvious that these crawl-like movements were actually included to make the player take in their surroundings and the effect that results allows for a much more immersive form of exploration. In reality, if you were to be in an unknown place with danger lurking everywhere, would you run through like a madman or cautiously approach new areas with extreme caution? It’s easy to see that a lot of thought went into making these mechanics blend with the gameplay, and WayForward should definitely be saluted in their efforts here.
With xenomorphs all over ready to pounce at a moments notice, you’re going to need a bit of an arsenal to get through. Luckily, each soldier comes fully equipped and ammo and extra weaponry can be found scattered about the Sulaco. These weapons include the likes of grenades, shotguns, pistols, and several other firearms and all come in use for fighting certain enemies in their own unique way. For instance, lighter enemies usually fall quickly in just a few shots, but others can stay alive and run rampant until several clips are unloaded. Ammo is not that easy to come by either, and it is very easy to be down to your pistol during a boss fight due to using your best equipment for a nasty facehugger so conservation mandatory for survival.
While the variety and limited supply of nearly everything (sans the pistol) is quite refreshing, my biggest problem with Aliens: Infestation was how battling these foes goes down. Each time an enemy makes even the slightest contact with the player, damage is automatically taken with no proper sound effect or animation displayed. These aliens are fully animated when they do attack, but even the slightest brush up against one can drain a health bar at an instant. This does assist in keeping the players on their toes even more, but since these aliens can jump out at you from nowhere, a few deaths feel flat out cheap at times. I will say that there is an effective dodge roll that can be executed to negate this effect, but when you are fighting a large boss it can sometimes feel nearly impossible to roll out of harm’s way in time. As the game progressed, I grew more accustomed to fighting at a distance and the gameplay was so enjoyable that I quickly forgot about those minor frustrations, so I would imagine that those willing to learn a few techniques of survival will not have much of a problem when it comes to making physical contact with foes.
As I mentioned, each character you play as must be treated with love as a death can be permanent within this game. This little feature isn’t just for the story though as it is actually used to determine how many lives a player has. You can have up to four members in your squad at one time, with the three inactive teammates located in a save room. When you are getting low on lives…or characters for that matter, you must then attempt to hunt down another marine to join up with your team. The player can choose to swap out their present character at any save point, but once they are killed in battle, the next squadmate must be chosen to take over right where the other left off. It’s rare when you see a life system defining a game like it did here, but this innovative mechanic felt refreshing and completely complimented every aspect of the world WayForward created. This isn’t one of those games you beat and leave alone for a while, as there is always that incentive to simply perform better and try to keep more marines alive on the next playthrough.
Graphics/Audio
Even though the aliens and even marines look as they should, this title isn’t exactly eye candy in terms of visuals. When I say that I am talking about the sprites for the marines to be more specific. Each personality can easily be noticed from the next based on looks alone, but the high level of detail used seems to have worked against the sprites used and makes them look a bit over-pixelated. Now, maybe this was intended to go along with the “retro” feel of the game, but I couldn’t help but feel that the models were simply too small to carry their heavy amount of detail. I can say that they were well animated however, as each sprite possesses several individual animations which are all very fluid and realistic. Environments, as well as the large bosses in the game also look utterly fantastic and help balance out Aliens’ other visual imperfections while giving each area has a very dark and isolated aura.
Even though there is very little soundtrack and no spoken dialogue, this title utilizes it’s sound in the best way possible. Most of the time, you just hear the footsteps of your marine, slowly clanking against a steel flooring. This element, as one would expect, makes each moment tense and cranks up the anxiety ten fold. When an enemy finally makes a sudden reveal, it can be a bit jarring due to this and the screeches and roars of enemies keep the battles exciting and oddly realistic.
Overall
If this title was released in 1994, there is no doubt in my mind that Aliens: Infestation would have gone down in history, right alongside Super Metroid, Castlevania, and the many other 2D greats from the past due to it’s top notch gameplay and atmospheric presentation. This is the year 2011 however, so those looking for groundbreaking innovation or stunning visuals may not find what they’re looking for here.
With that said, I consider myself a “retro gamer”, so playing through Aliens: Infestation was an absolute delight for myself as it was honestly refreshing to see a developer put new ideas to work with an age old concept. The characters, story, gameplay, and even the “permadeath” life system blended together perfectly to create one of the richest experiences we have seen on the DS to date and the challenge level is sure to give even the most seasoned vets of the genre a nice run for their money. Go ahead, stick that SNES back in the closet, as this xenomorph-filled adventure is one not to be missed by anyone that’s craving some pixelated greatness.
If you love your casual games, or even if you hate them, you’re sure to have heard of Bejeweled. Bejeweled Twist is the latest game from PopCap to grace the dual screens of the Nintendo DS. The premise of Bejeweled is simple enough, match jewels, and they will explode. Bejeweled Twist for the DS brings together four Bejeweled Twist game modes all on the one cartridge.
Gameplay
Classic mode brings the classic Bejeweled game to the Nintendo DS. But with a twist. Instead of turning one jewel at a time, you can use the DS stylus to twist four at a time. Sadly, I find that this game mechanic, while it takes longer to line up jewels, is far simpler than the classic Bejeweled I once knew. I can manage to move a green jewel all the way across the screen with relative ease: kind of destroying the puzzle based challenge.
I will admit the addition of troublesome jewels is a welcomed addition. Locked jewels, bombs, bonus jewels that can blow up near-indestructible rocks all add a little extra challenge to the game. But not much. The biggest disappointed here was that I managed to not destroy a bomb in time, only to be given a second chance. Fourteen levels into the game I was given another second chance, and again, until finally on my fourth failure to destroy a bomb I managed to secure a game over. Classic mode is the only level based version of Bejeweled Twist, with levels being passed when you fill up the little tube on the left.
Zen doesn’t differ too much from the classic mode of Bejeweled twist. Same mechanics, same graphics, same goal. But no levels. While you can obtain “levels” you don’t actually progress to a new level. There isn’t really all that much to say about Zen mode that hasn’t already been said about challenge mode, except that I highly doubt it will result in any form of enlightenment from extensive hours of playing as the name may suggest.
There are two modes that can be unlocked in Bejeweled Twist, Challenge mode and Blitz. Challenge mode is by far the most difficult, but most interesting version of the game. You still play it exactly the same way, but rather than getting a certain score there are thirteen unique challenges for you to complete. Usually they require you to break a certain number of same-coloured jewels in order to beat the challenge. This can be a difficult task at times, but is a nice little break (excuse the pun) from the regular score based goals of Bejeweled Twist.
Blitz is more akin to the original Bejeweled, you have five minutes in which to obtain the best score you can manage. It wouldn’t be “twist” without twisting, so the same mechanics apply to this game. You can earn more time by catching some good breaks during the game, but five minutes is probably enough.
If you feel like I am repeating myself, then you have managed to gain some insight into what it is like to play Bejeweled Twist. The problem with Bejeweled Twist being on a DS, is that it doesn’t really take advantage of the DS to create a unique gaming experience different from any form of downloadable Bejeweled. The dual screen is lost on this game, only providing additional information at the top when necessary, or in the case of classic providing some animations. Furthermore, while the touch screen is a nice feature, the game doesn’t make full use of the stylus and ability to make precise movements. The only benefit I can see is that there is the ability to have four game modes in the one place, where downloadable content may have to divide them up.
Graphics and Audio
The graphics in Bejeweled Twist are nothing spectacular by any means. But then again, they don’t have to, nor are they expected to be. As a casual game, Bejeweled Twist takes a minimalist approach to visual presentation, having essentially only different coloured jewels as the main source of graphics. With the exception of Classic Mode, which deviates from this by employing a transitional animation of a space ship flying between planets as you progress from levels. Similarly, the audio functions merely as a “filler” so that you don’t play the game in absolute silence.
Overall
Whether you love or hate Bejeweled, or sit somewhere in between, there is one major flaw with Bejeweled Twist for the DS. That is, that it is on the DS, and it is a game cartridge. Bejeweled has a long history of being a downloadable game, on smartphones and all that jazz, you know, the usual. Given that the there is a shop for the DSi and 3DS, it seems a little wasted to put this title in cartridge form. I’m sympathetic to the DS users who can’t access the shop, but it just seems to me like owning the physical game takes away from the extremely casual nature of the game. The game plays fine, but as I started before doesn’t really utilise the functions of the portable console as well as it could. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Bejeweled, the only problem is that this game doesn’t seem to be designed for sporadic play sessions, which is one of the best features of Bejeweled. It’s simple graphics, its idiot-proof game mechanics all scream to be played while waiting for a bus, or slotted in between some other everyday life activity. If you like Bejeweled, Twist may be worth your time, if not, then I’m sure this review has managed to affirm your stance on the game.
Gamevil, developers of mobile games, have announced that they have secured a partnership deal with Koeran developer KnetP. KnetP have released titles “Legend of Master” and “LAR”, both very popular titles in Korea. This deal will allow KnetP titles see an international release. Both “Legend of Master” and “LAR” will be published under this deal, alongside any other titles developed by KnetP.
Song Chung Ho, CEO of KNetP, was thrilled with the deal, quoting:
“Partnering with GAMEVIL gives us high hopes for our most popular ‘Legend of Master’ and our other new RPG titles to have even greater success in the worldwide market. This occasion will also strengthen our overall global aspirations.”
James Song, CEO of Gamevil, had this to say on the partnership:
“We are very excited to invest in KNetP whose titles are numerous and well-received and we’re committed to ensuring continued success and beneficial synergy between our two companies.”
Gamevil had already acquired intellectual property and publishing rights to BlueGNC’s line up of their “Cartoon Wars” series as well as publishing rights to COCOSOFT’s “Colosseum” series.
It’s attack of the Josh’s this week with both Josh Spudic and Josh Moris sitting in, we talk about Battlefield 3, Mass Effect Multiplayer, the insanity of Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 and get into our game mashups.
Cast: Alexis Ayala, Matt Vella, Joshua Moris and Joshua Spudic
With the shutting of so many Australian studios, is the entire industry within this country slowly disappearing despite booming numbers of gamers lining up for the next major game release. The past 10 years has been a trying time for Aussie developers with seven major studios closing their doors in the last 6 years, the most recent being Brisbane based KMM studios. Speaking to the ABC, the studios art director Jason Stark sees bleak times ahead and blames the high Australian dollar in addition to tax breaks for overseas developers and a decline in “middle ground” games as the main reasons. “We’ve all expected the industry to be shrinking – it’s been bad times. It’s gone from being a mild contraction to being pretty much obliterated.”
For those wondering why the Australian dollar has such an impact, the main reason as stated by Stark is that overseas publishers are finding it unprofitable to fund developers in Australia. He goes on to note that 10 years ago things were very different as the dollar was around 50c US, meaning Australian developers could make the same games as Us developers with half the budget. You can only imagine how publishers would have flocked to Australian shores in the same manner they are now migrating to Canada, of which the Government subsidises 35% of a studios payroll.
Looking into the future Stark notes that even if times become good again “we are not going to have enough experienced people here to start the companies. He uses a fellow colleague as an example, clearly a talented environment artist from a redundant company, he has had offers from Bioware and others but refusing to leave his family will be have to be content fixing PC’s . This is a massive loss of talent and experience and would be far from an isolated case.
While Stark believes the days of large Australian developers like Team Bondi are gone at least for the time being, he sees a glimpse of hope within the mobile gaming market. He even claims to have plans for a small mobile gaming studio of his own, not wanting to leave Australia.
So while all our studios are closing and our talent moving overseas, our enthusiasm for gaming and access to gaming consoles whether they be home based or mobile is increasing. We are flocking to gaming expos in unprecedented numbers and still our industry is suffering. Is it time for our government to step in and offer some assistance to our hard working and innovative Australian game companies or should we simply let them crumble, let us know what you think of the situation.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record has been released and for those of you who want an extra hand, there’s some great DLC on the way. There’s the Cyborg Skills Pack that sounds pretty awesome because it turns Frank West into a literal zombie-killing machine. Cyborg Frank can electrify enemies with every strike and has some sick indestructible body enhancements and inhuman brute force. This sounds like a totally kickass way to make your way through the zombie hordes, not to mention fun.
The Cyborg Skills Pack will be available on Xbox 360 and PC on October 25 and PS3 on October 26 in Europe, no release date has been announced for the US yet. The skills pack will cost 160 Microsoft Points or $2.
In a move towards combating internet piracy, many countries from around the globe including USA, Australia, NZ, Singapore, Canada and Japan have signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. While the European Union, Mexico and Switzerland declined to sign the deal at a ceremony in Japan they stated they were in full support of the agreement and would sign when they saw practical.
“As with many of the challenges we face in today’s global economy, no government can single-handedly eliminate the problem of global counterfeiting and piracy. Signing this agreement is therefore an act of shared leadership and determination in the international fight against intellectual property theft,” said Mariam Sapiro, deputy United States trade representative.
The deal has been more than 3 years in the making and forces upon agreeing nations an intellectual property enforcement regime resembling that already in place in the US. Rashmi Rangnath, a staff attorney with Public Knowledge in Washington believes the deal to be nothing more than an attempt from the US to force their laws on other countries. While this is true to form of the mighty US, in their defence the internet is a global phenomena and without the help of the rest of the world their efforts to combat piracy would be a waste of energy.
On a very interesting note, the agreement calls for all governments who have signed to make it illegal to market any devices that circumvent copyright protection such as DVD software that breaks encryption or almost anything marketed by Team Xecuter, Maximus or anyone marketing Xbox 360 flashing tools. A quick Google search for these products brings up a whole host of resellers from eBay through to small franchises probably selling out of their garages. What this new agreement means for the legality of what these sellers offer, well only time will tell.
It’s no surprise that the accord does not require Congressional approval or that it requires participating nations to enforce extensive seize and forfeiture laws for counterfeit goods. Countries must also provide affected parties with a system that provides monetary damages. Despite the fact that amendments have been made to remove parts of the agreement allowing ISP to disconnect repeat offenders, private deals between ISP and content providers have continued to take action against pirates utilising their bandwidth.
Whether this agreement will have any impact on piracy will only be seen after it has been in implementation for quite some time. Unless they have the agreement of almost every country I personally believe it leaves the gate wide open for any would be host of pirated material to simply move their domain and site to a country that has no laws to the contrary. Already as it stands the largest and most widely used torrent site of them all, the infamous Piratebay is protected under Swiss law, especially as they haven’t signed the agreement. There’s just no point arresting one downloader and not bothering with the source or any of the other million users.
Today Tzai Entertainment released Backflow, a new iOS puzzle/action game, which is about exactly what it sounds like. You are in control of the underground pipes as they funnel waste through a network of pipes to their proper destinations. And when I say ‘waste’ I mean waste. Because God knows you don’t want certain things to go to a recycling plant that is meant to go to the sewer.
Backflow was a finalist in the Independent Games Festival (2008) Mobile for Innovation in Mobile Game Design category and IGF Mobile Best Game. There are up to 25 levels of gameplay and, as we all love, a real environmental message behind it all.
Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Volume 7 Studio: Toei Animation Publisher: FUNimation Languages: Japanese, English Release Date: October 11, 2011 Price: $59.98 – Available Here
Overview:
There has always been one piece of merchandise which has alluded fans of Dragon Ball Z in North America. It has been heralded as something that no Dragon Ball Z fan should be without, and it has now finally made its way to North American shores courtesy of the hard work from people at FUNimation. What is this item you ask? Well it is the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box and with Dragon Box 7 the entire set has been released. How does Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box 7 look you ask? Let’s find out.
Story:
This DVD box set contains forty episodes spanning from episode 251 to the final 291. The story picks up where it left off from Dragon Box 6, in the middle of the Majin Boo saga. We join in with the series as Trunks and Son Goten have finally perfected the difficult fusion maneuver and joined together to become the extremely powerful fighter Gotenks, but perhaps one still too arrogant to take on the big pink Majin Boo.
But don’t think that Earth is without a savior yet. Mr. Satan has decided to try and bring Majin Boo to a stop himself, but through some strange twist of fate they end up living together and strangely enough striking up a touching friendship until a horrible twist of fate changes the Majin Boo forever, splitting him into a new form that is not only more powerful but far more evil than anyone could possibly imagine.
The newly powered up skinny Boo has tracked down the hiding Z Fighters before Son Goten and Trunks were ready to face him and they must do battle against this fearsome foe on their own for all they know is that they are the only ones that have any chance at defeating this horrible creature. While a great ways off, Son Gohan is still being powered up by Elderly Kaioshin and the still dead Son Goku can do nothing can do nothing but sit and watch as his friends and family are left to struggle on their own. Can Gotenks defeat this new Boo on their own? Or must they simply last long enough for a thought lost ally to show up and save the day?
Now the storyline of the Majin Boo saga doesn’t break any new ground in this DVD set as the events still unfold the same as we remember from our childhoods. The good thing about this is that there is no reason or anything to be changed and we can see the final saga of the most powerful fighters in the Dragon Ball world take on the ever changing Majin Boo in a desperate attempt to save the world and end this evil creature’s reign of terror. The ending of the series is still as final as we remember; though leaving the potential open for a possible sequel that unfortunately never truly came.
Artwork:
Something that many can remember, is the fact that the Dragon Ball Z series we saw as children never did seem quite as violent as we thought. The reason for this was due to relatively heavy censorship, but thankfully that is all over as every episode contained in Dragon Box 7 is completely uncensored and uncut, making for a full experience unlike some of us have ever had before.
The visuals still look the same as we remember, but being that they are on DVD format and a tad bit old, the series does not look very crisp. But Dragon Ball Z is still a pinnacle of artistic accomplishment even when most of these episodes originally aired in Japan over sixteen years ago.
Audio & Subtitles:
Now the interesting thing with this release of Dragon Ball Z, is that while the Dragon Box contains both the English and Japanese audio tracks, the Japanese audio is actually what is being highlighted here. The reason for this is that no matter what player you happen to place the DVD in, the first audio which will be playing is the Japanese track with English subtitles.
This is of course up to the choice of the viewer, but the Japanese dub is absolutely perfect. The English subtitles use the original names of all of the characters, meaning rather than seeing Krillin you will be seeing Kuririn, or instead of Hercule you’ll be reading Mr. Satan. This is obviously a highlight for purists, as those who prefer the English audio will instead be treated to the English versions of the names with no changes whatsoever.
Extras:
Now while the last forty episodes of the series spanning across six DVDs are of course what most people may be picking up Dragon Box 7 for, the actual highlight here is the hardcover book that is included in the case. Now before I get to that, it is worth mentioning that there are no DVD extras in any form, meaning there are no interviews with the cast nor special promo material of any kind which is a bit disappointing.
But beyond that, Dragon Box 7 comes in a hardcover collectible slip case with the two DVD cases that on the side show what appears to be the child version of Gohan’s arm and body which means if you line this up on your bookshelf alongside the rest of the Dragon Boxes you will finally have a completed picture. The DVDs each contain a main character’s face on them: including Gotenks, Evil Boo, Vegeto, Kid Boo, Goku and Oob.
Now on to that Dragonbook. The Dragonbook is hardcover with Super Saiyan Goku on the front and Kid Boo on the back. Now the interesting thing with the Dragonbook is that the book opens and reads from the right to the left which mimics the Japanese version perfectly as that is similar to how books are read in Japan. Now the content inside this book is fully colored, contains interesting information as well as artwork.
The bulk of the content in the Dragonbook are episode summaries which provide a brief look at each episode and provides a rough summary of it. There are also small bits of information included with each episode such as the original air date and the occasional Close Up! Which examines something specific from an episode. Besides these summaries there is also a design works collection to view some sketches of the characters shown in Dragon Box 7 as well as a profile of the Goku family, an ultimate character relationship chart, a couples championship which rates each Dragon Ball Z couple and a recollection of all of Son Goku’s power ups making the Dragonbook perhaps the biggest plus of picking up Dragon Book 7.
Overall:
Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box 7 is the ultimate finale to the ultimate collection for any Dragon Ball Z fan. The series concludes with this set and the battles we see in this collection of forty episodes are as impactful as any in the series. The inclusion of both English and Japanese audio provides an experience that not only will be great for purists and lovers of the series, but also newcomers who may not appreciate reading the subtitles.
There are a ton of episodes here with over a thousand minutes of Dragon Ball Z to watch and the price tag for this massive collection is quite cheap in comparison to the amount of content purchased. Now although there are no extra bonuses with this package on the DVDs themselves, the Dragonbook is perhaps the best accompaniment you can ask for.
