Remember that leaked photo that apparently showed Assassin’s Creed Ezio Auditore as a playable character in Namco Bandi’s upcoming fighter Soulcalibur V? Well turns out it’s real, Namco Bandi today have announced that Ezio Auditore will be a fully playable guest character in the upcoming game. As expected, Ezio’s assassination weapons of choice – Roman Longsword, Stiletto, Crossbow, Hidden gun and his trademark Hidden blade will all be included in the game.
Ezio joins the ranks of crossover/guest character in the Soulcalibur series with the likes of comic book character Spawn, Link from The Legend of Zelda series and Darth Vader, Yoda and Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Along with this announcement, Namco have also revealed details of Soulcalibur V Collector’s Edition. The pack will include an art bok, original soundtrack CD, the making-of DVD, a DLC card for the Black Knight and Paladin armor sets, plus original artwork and letter on reproduction parchment paper signed by the team at Project Soul.
And on top of this, by pre-ordering the game at participating retailers players will receive Dampierre from Soulcailbur: Broken Destiny as a playable character on day one.
Soulcalibur V’s date has also been confirmed for February 2nd 2012 in Australia and New Zealand. So expect to be play game very soon on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
The latest in PopCap Games’ highly successful, and dare I say, highly addictive Bejeweled series ‘Bejeweled 3’ is now available for download on Xbox Live Arcade. The original casual puzzle game, Bejeweled launched in 2000 and has since become one of the top gaming franchises in history with over 50 million units sold across 17 different platforms. Bejeweled 3 features twices as many game modes of its predecessor, 8 game modes and of cause enhanced sound and graphics for an even better bejeweling experience.
Bejeweled 3 is now available for download right now on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points
Name: Squids Developer: The Game Bakers Publisher: The Game Bakers Genre: RPG/Turn-based Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad Release: 18 October 2011 Price: $0.99 – BUY HERE
Overview
Pollution is invading the ocean! So obviously the best way to combat this is get some sticky fingered Squids to eradicate the infected sea life and get to the bottom of it! As odd as this concept sounds, it actually makes for a very interesting game and one that was more challenging than I was anticipating.
Gameplay
To be honest, I was expecting more of a kids game given the style of the game and the fact that it’s set underwater, I think I just flashed back to Little Mermaid and thought it’d kind of be like that. Oh boy, was I wrong. The game feels a lot more mature than it might come off as in an initial impression. I mean, early on in the game one of the stage’s goals is to just survive for five turns while everyone runs away and then you lose that squid from your team. And you don’t lose him because he decides to run away with the circus.
While from afar this may look like just another iOS game with an easy enough goal and cute little creatures you use to get there, it really isn’t. This can go both was for you, dear reader, either you will get frustrated and move to easier games with even cuter creatures, or you will love the surprise and find yourself far more drawn into this game than any other.
For those first people, there are some levels that are bite-sized pieces of fun and won’t take you very long to conquer without too much hassle. But as you go on in the game you’ll find that it’ll demand more from you, more time, more effort, just generally more brainpower. If you want a game where you can be switched off for most of it and still manage your way through, this is not the right game for you.
Get used to this screen for some of the levels...
For the second lot of people, strap yourselves in because this game’s going to get interesting.
It is, by definition a RPG game. But not in the traditional sense that everyone jumps to thinking about when someone mentions those letters. You have a team of four squids, a shooter, trooper, scout and healer. They each have their own special abilities as dictated by their class and each get their own special helmet. When you put the helmet on them you have to also select ‘transfer power’ so that the abilities you get from the helmet are transferred to the squids’ stats.
The breakdown of each class is that shooters can shoot bubbles at enemies near them, troopers ‘stomp’ the ground and send close enemies flying, scouts dash their way ahead, and healers well… Heal. I found that the first two classes were the most useful since, ironically, my healer usually died first (what I would give for some self-heal ability) and when the scout made it to an area first he didn’t have the useful firepower to deal with enemies if they popped up. Of course if in ‘get to this point’ goals the scout became useful because he cut down the amount of turns used and hence ended up with a better end result.
Yes, turns as in turn-based. A game format quickly dying in mainstream gaming, although the use of it in this game is such a foundation to the gameplay that I can’t really imagine another way they’d carry it out well. It wouldn’t work at all as well if the developers had tried to make it like the other popular four-person-team-RPGs Dragon Age or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As an iOS game there are limitations, and pause and direct is not something you want to be doing on such a casual medium.
The turn-based gameplay means that you have to adapt your tactics to suit, and while there is a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, once you get the whole idea and way to play down you’ll find the frustration leaving and appreciate the challenge. Each turn you get a certain amount of stamina in the form of bubbles, this can amount to a travelling a fair way, or just hounding after one enemy, whichever you want.
You collect pearls as you go, either from clams or when you hit or kill an enemy. These can be used to purchase things in the shop, level up your squids, or unlock items or squids. You can also use the shop to make in-app purchase of more pearls, or other pearl related items. However, they have kept in-app purchases to a minimum and I respect that.
Visual
The graphics are pretty decent, there are some interesting backgrounds and the levels aren’t as repetitive as you might expect from an underwater setting. You’re allowed to zoom in, out and look around the map to plan your moves. You’ll have to take advantage of this because the levels that don’t just require you to fight off the infected horde will require a little bit of looking around to see where you’re heading.
Audio
The soundtrack gives me nostalgic flashbacks to old Nintendo games, I don’t know if that was intentional, but for once I didn’t really feel the need to turn it to silent.
Conclusion
Squids is a surprise, it’s a game with real depth to it despite its shiny, casual exterior. What isn’t a surprise is that it has come from a team of experienced industry developers. It’s a real pleasure to play, with just the right amount of challenge to draw you in but not scold you and make you feel useless. For 99c it’s a fantastic purchase and I would really recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an iOS game that will give you an actual challenge.
EA has released a new trailer focusing on the multiplayer side of the hotly anticipated, Battlefield 3. The latest trailer for Battlefield 3 not only features some new footage of the multiplayer but it also features a glimpse of the Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand expansion pack.
Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is set to be the first, post-launch expansion pack for the series. The pack features several classic Battlefield maps remodeled with the Frostbite 2. If you have pre-ordered the limited edition of Battlefield 3, you will be lucky enough to recieve Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand completely free of charge.
You can check out the trailer below. Let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section.
For those of you playing along at home, this is probably the 20 millionth time that you have heard that Akira, the classic sci-fi anime masterpiece, will be adapted by a bunch of hollywood big-wigs into a live-action blockbuster.
This time however, there may be more bite than bark behind this announcement. Warner Bros. have announced that they have officially green-lit the project, which will adapt the infamous manga of the same name that inspired the original film. However if Warner’s description of the film’s plot is anything to go by there may be some concern amongst fans of Akira:
“Set in New Manhattan, the cyberpunk sci-fi epic follows the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments.”
This is definitely going to rile up the fans, particularly the “New Manhattan” part. Not only that but currently the actor set to play Kaneda, the films protagonist, is the star of Tron: Legacy, Garret Hedlund. Make of that what you will Akira fans.
What do you think of this very American version of Akira? Let us know in the shout box and comments section.
Nintendo have been readily preparing for their release of Pokemon Rumble Blast! for the 3DS, and now have revealed a few more details of what the game will include. Most of you by now should know the general concept the game has, where players must use “Toy” Pokemon from the Black & White titles to battle the many inhabitants of Toyland while leveling up their main allies. It has now been revealed that the game will have a multi-player mode as well as a Streetpass function to allow full battling and interactivity between other owners of the cart.
Nintendo recently issued a statement to share their excitement about the upcoming release:
“There’s never been a better time to discover the boundless fun of Pokémon,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “As the first Pokémon game for Nintendo 3DS, Pokémon Rumble Blast invites newcomers and veterans to experience action-packed battles with Toy Pokémon in 3D, whether they’re playing solo or with a friend.”
Players have two ways to connect with each other in Pokémon Rumble Blast. Using a local wireless connection, they can play cooperatively in game areas that both players have already completed, which also makes it easier to collect rare Toy Pokémon. By using the Nintendo 3DS system’s built-in StreetPass feature, they can also challenge Toy Pokémon from the collections of other nearby players and view customized Mii™ characters within the game.
Pokemon trainers in angst for that next great Pokemon title can look no further as Pokemon Rumble Blast will be in stores everywhere as of October 24th, exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.
In 2006, Razer began a trend with PC peripherals where gamers’ headsets, mice, and keyboards all came with onboard memory, so that their custom macros, settings, and preferences were kept from one computer to another (they called it… Synapse).
But wait there’s more! Razer has just announced their new Synapse 2.0 where user preferences, macros, and setting are all stored digitally in the cloud. Meaning that when this rolls out, gamers who use Razer peripherals will no longer be bound by the on-board memory storage of their devices. They can simply use online connectivity to access their peripheral’s settings anwhere, anytime.
Robert Krakoff, the President of Razer had this to say:
Razer Synapse 2.0 gives gamers a convenient, single cloud-based platform to access, maintain, and store settings for all of their Razer devices. On-board memory, with its limited storage for user profiles, becomes obsolete when Razer Synapse 2.0 offers essentially unlimited space for all of your hardware settings.
Closed beta invitiations for the service will be sent out to owners of the Razer Naga who sign up here.
And if you want a more visual explanation of Synapse 2.0, the trailer is below.
As the market for online media streaming continues to grow, another online streaming service will grace Australian Playstation 3s later in 2011. It is known as Quickflix, an Australian rental movie company, based in Perth, Western Australia, considered the Australian Netflix. This follows the deal made in July to release the service for Sony internet-enabled products, specifically Sony Bravia internet televisions.
Quickflix Chief Executive Officer Chris Taylor spoke on the deal, expressing his delight at a new platform to expand his business:
“Having entered a streaming agreement for Sony Bravia in July we’re very excited to now extend the partnership to PlayStation via its game console platform. Over 1.3 million Australian consumers who own an internet connectable PlayStation 3 will have access to Quickflix’s on demand movie streaming service. This is a significant moment in the evolution of IPTV delivered entertainment in Australia and a major development for our company.”
On the other side of the deal, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia & New Zealand Managing Director Michael Ephraim revealed his delight on how Quickflix will further expand the Playstation brand in Australia:
“This exciting agreement with Quickflix will further enhance PS3’s already strong entertainment on demand credentials across TV, games, music and now, an even larger range of movie options. If you love games, and your family loves movies, quite simply there is no better choice of device for your home than PlayStation 3, which is also one of the most highly awarded Blu-Ray players.”
This is wonderful news for Playstation 3 owners. It expands the capabilities of the console as a media platform. Hopefully Quickflix will expand into other platforms.
Space Junk, for iOS systems, got its first update three days ago, and boy does it do a world of good for the game. If you read my original review, you’ll see that I concluded that despite its gameplay being solid, Space Junk was tremendously held back by a lack of replay value as there were no leaderboards on which to post your highscores as a junk-blasting space-janitor.
Well the update has resolved that issue, and more.
The guys over at Upside Down Games have outdone themselves. There’s a new level in the standard game, which is a tribute to the recently shut down shuttle program, a new survival mode (and those are always fun), and Games Center connectivity.
That last one is the kicker. As much as some people love them, I personally don’t like leaderboards because it’s very hard to feel like you’re making any progress on the tables when you’re playing AAA titles with millions of users, but this is different. Unlike those massive million-user titles, there’s a much smaller community playing Space Junk. From one playthrough to another you’ll actually see yourself move up the tables, get knocked down, and move up again. It actually makes me want to keep playing the game over and over until I can manage getting high up on the tables, a goal that’s not inconceivable.
On top of that, the Games Center connectivity comes with a bunch of fun achievements that are challenging, but completely possible, again giving more reason to go back and play through Space Junk again.
The extra mode is just icing on this very well-made cake.
In my original review I said that fans of old arcade titles should definitely go out and buy the game, and that verdict still stands. However, because of the Game Center addition, I can now definitely recommend the game to those who love to compete in single-player to achieve the best
score possible. With this Space Junk update, you’re no longer a lonely space-janitor, but one of many, all competing for the employee of the month award.
If Upside Down Games keep up their trend listening to community feedback and acting on it, I truly look forward to their next effort at a “Retrovex” game for iOS systems.
House of the Dead has decided to concentrate on their carnival for their new trailer for the House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut. The cheery voiceover announcer accompanying the trailer matches the same tone that most of the HoTD trailers have had, playing off the comedic contrast and irony. I’ve got to say, that’s what really draws me to the franchise. It pokes all sorts of fun at itself and lets you have some good old fashioned zombie gore while it’s at it.
Check out the trailer below advertising fun, rides, and zombies.
House of the Dead: OVERKILL Extended cut is exclusive to the PS3 (with Move compatibility) and is due for release on the 28th October 2011 in Australia/Europe and 25th October 2011 in the US.
