Have you ever dreamt of your family living in aristocracy in medieval past? Have you ever imagined coming from a long line of conquerors striking fear in the hearts of people across Europe? Have you ever envisioned your name being immortalised in gaming history? Paradox Interactive is giving you the opportunity to have just that, or at least something similar! Through a contest for their upcoming strategy game, Crusader Kings II, to be released on PC early 2012, you will get a chance for your name to be included as one of the dynasties in the game!
The contest:
Tell us the story of your family name – true or false – it’s up to you! What needs to be included are the following: Your family name, its origin and the story behind it!
Submit your entry by October 31th to be in with a chance of immortality in Crusader Kings II.Â
A new trailer for Bullet Time has emerged, revealing the gear customization abilities of the action-adventure iOS game. Bullet Time is an impressive looking game, given that the customization options are better than some of the retail games out there. Basically everything is customizable, the amount of detail that the game developers must have gone into with the design is truly impressive.
Check out the gear customization video below. For the trailer and screenshots you can see them HERE.
Bullet Time is due for release in November and it’ll definitely be worth grabbing a copy. Keep an eye on the site for more information as it gets closer to the date.
Angry Mob Games, have released a new update for their brilliant iOS title, Muffin Knight (which we previously reviewed here).
The update introduces a new Online Multiplayer mode which ties in with Game Center. You can now versus people across the world in matches to see who can get the most muffins. This online feature works through a quick online matchmaking system through which players tick a box in single player mode and it will automatically search for other players online for you to versus.
Not only that but a free version of Muffin Knight is now available here and of course the full version is still available here.
SKET Dance Episode 27 –Â “Together with Onee-san and Bad Scientist”
It has been 27 weeks since SKET Dance began, so why now of all places is this a good time to jump on board with SKET Dance if you have yet to do so? Well, this is an episode of SKET Dance that really drives home what this anime is all about. Not only that but there is a new character introduction as well as a great showing from those characters that are already established.
There was so many thing’s I loved about this episode, all of which are reasons I love SKET Dance and actually prefer it over it’s inescapable comparison series Gintama. The way they introduced the new character, Onee-san, was classic SKET Dance. We open the episode with the SKET-Dan in their home-room. Their science teacher (the one who somehow defies the laws of science itself with most of his experiements) informs them that they have a new teacher for home-room. In comes hyper-energetic former children’s programme presenter, Onee-san! The room falls deadly silent.
The episode goes on to give Onee-san the SKET Dance introduction we have grown use to. By the time the episode ends she has developed from simply a former children’s programme presenter to a person with dreams of teaching and overcoming her clumsy nature.
Over the course of the episode the SKET-Dan help Onee-san try to handle her clutz-like behaviour as well as let her assist them in taking on an odd job for Yabasawa, with a hilarious show-case of Switch’s box of misfit inventions in between.
On the topic of the inventions, things like this is why I love Switch. While I absolutely adored his origin story, “Switch Off” a few weeks ago, I needed to see his comedic side again. Now these inventions of his were comedy gold for SKET Dance. We have the bizaare “heads” that serve little to no purpose besides being creepy. The repeated gag of the moe head asking if Bossun’s ramen was cold, really got a haughty laugh out of me.
When the inventions all tied together in the end to solve Yabasawa’s case, I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of it. But it was a great shot seeing Bossun, jetting off with; hover-shoes on, a baboon head backpack on with a bazooka propelling him through the air. The thing that topped it all off was Bossun using the zoom-glasses as his usual concentration mode glasses, it was a perfect touch from the writers on their comedic peak. Little moments like that is where SKET Dance shines through most brightly.
The animation is SKET Dance is usually pretty tame, but they really let put their budget to use with the final scene with Bossun taking off. That scene just looked amazing. As usual the art style is fun and homely, watching this series just makes you feel like you are hanging out with some friends and that is really the experience you look for in comedies like this.
This episode also marks the debut of a new opening and ending theme for the series. Both of which aren’t bad, but I had really grown attached to the previous opening and this one really just doesn’t feel as good in comparison. The ending theme featured a lot of imagery that will excite fans of the series female cast, if you know what I mean. Both were good in general.
Episode 27 of SKET Dance is both a great episode of this series in general and is also a good point for those late to the party to jump on board. It’s episodes like this that remind me why I watch this anime each and every week and will continue to do so.
Those in Mexico will be receiving a separate cover for WWE 12 this year. THQ recently announced on their official Facebook page that Sin Cara (one of the Sin Cara anyway) will be featured on the cover for the region, replacing Randy Orton. As you can see above, the luchadore certainly makes a nice cover star and it may be a little surprising to some that Sin Cara was chosen over the veteran Rey Mysterio.
THQ also announced that they would provide a high res printout on their official website soon to allow for those outside the region to swap from the default WWE 12 cover they are given.
So what do you think? Will you be using the Sin Cara cover, or settling for Orton?
Piggy Adventure is named very misleadingly. MoboTap’s creation is not the adventure of a pig. It is the adventure of a pig, a cow, and a chicken, traversing several islands through puzzles and platforms to find the missing colours stolen by an evil force from their home. The way the three characters interact and work together to overcome obstacles is, by far, the game’s greatest strength. The game’s visual style and simple story present something which looks appealing to a five-year-old, but in reality, their mind-bending quest is something almost anyone can enjoy.
Gameplay:
If there is one gripe about the gameplay in Piggy Adventure, it’s that it holds your hand for far too long. You’ll easily blaze through the first twenty-or-so levels before reaching any kind of cerebral challenge. The sudden difficulty spike from the early stages to the latter is surprising at first, but, in the end, thoroughly welcome, as the game truly shines when its many parts must work together to reach the next level.
The premise is simple. Your objective is to get all three characters from the left side of the screen, to the right side of the screen. On the way to the other side switches will have to be thrown, levers pulled, buttons pushed, and chasms jumped. It’s all standard fare for a portable puzzle platformer. But it’s the way the characters are implemented that set the game apart.
The aforementioned pig, chicken, and cow all have different abilities which help and hinder their traversal of the map. The pig is an all-rounder. Of medium size, he can run the fastest and jump the highest. The chicken is tiny, and can fit into places otherwise unreachable to his travel companions. And the cow is slow and lumbering, but can push heavy objects. And all of these characters can jump on top of each other to give themselves a boost.
Yes. The cow can use the tiny chicken as a springboard.
It’s because of their different traversal methods that the game becomes a unique experience. As a basic example, the pig may have to jump from on top of the cow to a lever placed high up. This will open a passage which allows the chicken to hit a button, which in turn creates a platform from which the cow can cross a chasm.
As the game progresses through its 42 levels, the order of character movement and use of their unique abilities becomes more and more important, and towards the end there are some thoroughly mind-bending puzzles which include anti-gravity fields, swings, and the ever-dangerous moving platforms over bottomless pits.
If you do find yourself stuck there is a helpful hints button. Unfortunately the “hints” would better have been termed “the answer key” because they show you exactly what to do. Thankfully, they’re on a timer so it’s not a limitless pool of solutions (however, if you like having answers given to you, you can unlock unlimited hints for another 99 cents).
Each level also includes three drops of coloured paint the characters can pick up, and while they aren’t necessary to unlock new levels, they do add to your score, which you can share on Game Center.
Visuals:
The game’s graphic style is nothing you haven’t already seen on a platforming app. Cute characters in a cartoony world is nothing original, but the game does do it very well.
Little touches, from the pig dancing when it reaches the end of a stage, to the chicken wincing as the cow precariously balances on its head, add to the cute aesthetic the game is going for.
The environments are varied and detailed, with the adventure taking the three heroes to jungles, deserts, and pleasant green hills, making sure the game’s presentation never feels repetitive.
Audio:
This is not where the game shines. Not that the audio is particularly bad, but you won’t be feeling like you earbuds have been treated either.
A playful tune plays when you begin and finish each level and characters will have audio cues based on what’s going on around them, but if you play Piggy Adventure, you will most certainly not remember it for its sound design.
Conclusion:
Piggy Adventure would have been a good, but average puzzle game had it not implemented the mechanic of multiple characters. But the way these characters’ abilities are used so effectively in platforming and problem solving sets the game above other games in the genre. The cute art style and thoughtful level variants completely enhance the experience, making this a solid entry into the app market. I hope to see more from MoboTap in the future.
EA has released some more Sims 3 Pets screenshot to appeal to the rabid Sims fans (of which I am a part). In the last round of screenshots the focus was on horses and dogs, however this time around the focus is on the feline persuasion.
These two shots show a cat man (in the place of a cat lady), and a cat looking up at a ghost with some but not a whole lot of terror in its eyes. Knowing cats it’d probably end up rubbing up against the ghost if the ghost offered it some catnip or something.
As time gets closer to the release date, we can come to expect more of these little sneak previews. Make sure to keep tuned to Capsule Computers to keep up to date on them!
The Sims 3 Pets will be coming out on Mac/PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS on October 20.
Bandai have released a new promo for the upcoming Nintendo DS title, One Piece Gigant Battle 2: New World.
The new promotional trailer details each member of the Straw Hat Pirates in game appearance as well as showing flashes of their origin story, all set to the new opening theme for the series titled “We Go!”.
One Piece Gigant Battle 2: New World is set for a release in Japan on the 17th of November, 2011. You can check out the new trailer below for all your daily dose of One Piece goodness. Also be sure to let us know what you think in the shoutbox or comments section.
Game: Orcs Must Die! Price: 1200 Microsoft Points/ $15 Platform: XBLA – October 5th/Steam – October 11 Genre: Strategy/Tower Defense Developer: Robot Entertainment Buy it or try it here.
Orcs Must Die! is a game about Orcs. Yup, that was a tough one, I know. All right, so Orcs Must Die! is actually about you getting to kill a whole ton of Orcs with lots of cool different items. At its core, Orcs Must Die! is a tower defense/strategy game, except instead of an overhead view of the battleground, you control a single character from the 3rd person perspective.
Orcs Must Die! was developed by Robot Entertainment, which is comprised of many of the former people who worked on Halo Wars and Age of Empires III. Suffice it to say, these guys know what they are doing when it comes to strategy games. Or do they? Read on to find out!
Story
At the beginning of the game an old War Mage is narrating his own death. As he lays at the base of some steps, bleeding out of his head, he reflects on his life and the many battles he has fought to keep the Orcs at bay. The Orcs live in a wretched, dead world and they want to go to other planets. To get to other planets, the Orcs (as well some Ogres, Demon Rats and Hellbats) must pass through what are called Rifts, which are similar to teleporters. However, The Order —a band of soldiers who use traps, weapons and magic— have sworn to protect the human race from these invaders. The War Mage is part of the The Order and he has an apprentice. As he dies, he tells us that now that he is gone, the human race is doomed because his apprentice, the main character, is taking over and that his apprentice is more or less a fool. And then the scene fades out and you find out that you are controlling the “fool.” But you are no fool, are you? That’s what I thought.
All in all, the story is ok. Although there are some serious plot holes, the story generally makes sense as long as you don’t take it too seriously. Honestly, the developers didn’t mean for the story to be held up to a magnifying glass in the first place, and it is only there to provide a framework for the gameplay. Nevertheless, the story did leave me hanging in a few places and I would have appreciated a little more detail about what was going on. But I suppose I can’t have everything.
Gameplay
At the beginning the game thrusts you into the thick of it with nary a tutorial to be seen. Although you can go hunting through menus and the like, it is pretty easy to learn how to set up traps and use your automatic crossbow and/or sword.
Starting off, your goal is merely to protect one portal with a couple of traps and your weapons. Later on however, there may be multiple portals and a variety of pathways for the Orcs to get through. Making your task even more difficult however, is that your weapons will be of little use to you unless they are used strictly for mop up. Yes, this game wants you to use traps at all times. And that is great. There are many traps of different sorts (although unlocking them all is a tedious process) and when they are set up just right, it is a wonderful sight as you watch a plethora of Orcs, Ogres and other baddies meet their untimely, gory doom.
Nevertheless, as I kept going through the game, I couldn’t help feeling a tad disappointed. I hated how I could not save load outs and had to choose 6 or 7 traps and weapons before every level. Plus, there are hardly any other weapons to play with and although you can upgrade the traps, it is a time consuming and expensive process that often does little to change up the gameplay. Many times I felt like I was mindlessly mowing down enemies with no real strategy. Furthermore, although you do get a slight extra reward for headshotting an enemy, there is not much else to be earned in the way of bonuses. Even combo kills and kill streaks are hardly given any attention. It would have been great if there was some depth in these systems. Nevertheless, once you unlock a new trap at the end of a level and then see it in action in the next level, the game redeems itself.
However, there is one more area in which this game could have been better. One omission from the is unforgivable. The lack of any sort of coop in this game is a sin of the most maximum kind. Although Robot Entertainment has said they are looking into the possibility of adding it in, the lack of it is astonishing and makes me feel like perhaps the game was rushed out of the door before it was ready.
Sound and Graphics
The soundtrack in the game is absouluty fantastic. I couldn’t say better things about if you payed me too. There are a variety of mixes in the game, and it was evident that whoever who directed the music in this game had a creative streak in them. My speakers were jamming with the mix of rock, rap, folk and other beats. To make it even better, these different genres were often mixed together to create a brilliant compilation of awesomeness. Complementing the soundtrack was some solid voice acting. Although there was not a whole lot of dialog in the game, what little there was sounded great. In addition, nearly every statement was funny. At the beginning of every level the Apprentice would crack a joke or make fun of his now dead master. In addition, the Orcs would often say hilarious things as they died, like, “Today was my last day before I retired.”
Unlike the great sound in this game though, the graphics were unremarkable. That’s not to say that everything looked terrible, but many parts of the environment did look rushed. For example, acid pits looked like boring ponds of green water and many of the enemy character models could have had a lot more detail. In addition, although the large maps were nice to play in, they were devoid of any real details. There may have a burning cauldron here and a statue over there, but mostly I just felt like I was running around in a dank, brick building that was rearranged a bit in every level.
In conclusion, Orcs Must Die! is a solid game. The gameplay is fast, frantic, strategic and addictive. However, many times while playing through the game I felt that this game could have been a lot better if it would have had a longer development period. The lack of coop is criminal, and the graphics could have used some work. Whats more, although the story was adequate, it could have been expanded upon. In addition, combat variety could have been spiced up considerably. All in all though, this is a game that should definitely be tried, and if you have the money, consider buying it. If this game ever goes on sale, then pounce on it fast.
Firemint and EA Mobile are set to release an update of Massive Real Racing 2 after the announcement of the iOS 5. Along with upgrading the graphics and fully utilising the hardware that comes with the iPhone 4S, there will be a new Party Play mode.
Party Play mode looks like an awesome addition, allowing two to four players play split screen multiplayer on HD TV using AirPlay. An iPhone 4S or iPad 2 can act as a host, with other iOS devices. This is a great step forward for iOS multiplayer, and paired with the visual upgrades, it looks like the next major upgrade will definitely be one to catch if you’re into iOS racing.
