You know it is going to be a good day when one of the first things you see are a batch of new screenshots from one of the most anticipated games of the year. To be more precise, Bethesda has released a fresh batch of screenshots for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which you can see below.
These screenshots show off a handful of things we have yet to see much of yet from the game. This includes magic, alchemy, and a bit of combat. Also there is a dragon breathing fire on an archer which is just awesome, as well as a few more sights that can be seen as you explore the new land of Skyrim. With just a little more than a month until Skyrim is released, you can expect that a lot of people are going to be saying goodbye to their social lives as they enter the world of Skyrim.
SEGA Bass Fishing
Developer: SEGA
Publisher: SEGA
Platforms: XBLA (reviewed), PSN
Release Date: October 5, 2011
Price: 800 MSP – (HERE)
Overview
Originally released as an arcade game in 1997, SEGA Bass Fishing has come a long way to finally make it to the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. In 1999 the game was made for the SEGA Dreamcast and was compatible with the SEGA fishing controller for more immersed play. And here I am today expressing the joys of a game that has had a long journey. Let’s catch some bass!
Gameplay
So I have the mentality to just jump into games without looking over the controls. This was my first mistake playing SEGA Bass Fishing. Understanding the basics is key in order to perform well with different lures and ultimately reel your fish into the boat. Casting placement is done by moving your left analog and casting with the (A) button. Once the lure is in the water, you must create movement in order to attract bass.
The unique aspect about reeling is there four different ways to reel in. A slow reel can be accomplished with the right bumper while the left bumper offers a quick jerk to line. Using the right trigger provides a consistent pull and lands average bass without much effort. However, the ultimate fun factor is utilizing the right analog as the reel. By rotating the right analog in a circular fashion, you can reel a fish in at your own pace. I prefer this method whenever I take on a size-able bass over 10 lbs. There may be a sore spot in the middle of my palm, but that catch was worth it dang-nab-bit!
Looking through the modes, I felt that Practice Mode was most suitable for a fishing novice like myself. You are given an unlimited amount of time to catch as much fish as you can handle. This mode allows you to test your bass catching abilities with each lure without crunching down with a time limit. Keep in mind that time is a very, very important factor for the rest of the game.
Once I caught my first ten or so fish, I felt I could handle the Arcade version. Well, I soon realized how very wrong that notion was. This version is very fast paced and requires consistent casting and catching bass – preferably larger ones. The player starts with only one minute and thirty seconds to complete the 1st stage. Only by acquiring 11 pounds worth bass may the player advance to the next round. If the time limit expires, a continue selection is available. After playing through 3 stages with or without continues, the Arcade version is completed. Sadly, the overall time is not tabulated into the online leaderboards which would have been a unique statistic.
Upon further investigation of SEGA Bass Fishing, I found there was an Original mode that plays through as a sequence of tournaments (Amateur -> Challenge -> Professional -> Masters). Initially I thought that this tournament style was really tough. Being a novice I did not know the best lures for certain fishing spots. Also I was still getting use to the controls not knowing you could reel in most fish with out worrying about the line breaking. The Amateur Tournament allows the player to catch an unlimited amount of fish – this was my first mistake. I continually tried to catch the bigger fish while avoiding the smaller ones. The small bass add up quickly especially if you can reel them in fast. Both Professional and Masters have catching limits and only count the highest weights. This is when you avoid catching smaller bass because the overall weight is limited and ounces could push you up in rank.
Being on Xbox Live, leaderboards are a must to drive competition between players. Players may strive to have the best score in the following: Total Fish, Arcade Record Bass, Original Record Bass, and Practice Record Bass. I would have changed the leaderboards by taking the best tournament weights or taking the best arcade finishing times. I noticed that a lot of people have a similar score for record bass which is not very competitive.
I can only muster up a couple negatives for this spectacular fishing game. First off, you cannot drive your fishing boat! Moving the boat to the left and right does not count nor realistic. When I am on a boat I want it to move while I play Lonely Island’s “I’m On A Boat”. I also felt that only the bigger fish offer competitive fishing because you can just hold down on the right trigger for most other bass. However, this works towards the player’s advantage in all game types.
Visual/Audio
Discussing the graphics we must state that this is a Dreamcast title ported to the Xbox 360. Now the graphics are not great by today’s standards, but games today won’t look as polished in 10 years. Zoning myself into the SEGA Bass Fishing world was not hard to do when the gameplay was intense and addicting. Not only that but I began to feel the burn on my palm when I was reeling the big suckers in. Whether you are casting into a waterfall or the ruins of a palace, you are always looking around the environment to find the big one.
The in-game audio becomes important when dealing with lures that require you to make a sound. The popper for instance requires a certain movement that makes a “pop” noise to attract fish. Without the sound effect, you may feel discourage when you see that fish are just not interested.
The voice overs help out the player by discerning big bass. When you manage to snag a bass, a voice may tell you: “It’s a big one”. This hint lets you know that you will have to be careful when reeling in because your tension may break the line.
Overall
Offering addictive gameplay in all modes, SEGA Bass Fishing exploits the fun factor in fishing. Normally gamers would pass up the opportunity to play a fishing game, but they should NOT here. Simply one of the best fishing games I have ever played, SEGA Bass Fishing will keep you and your friends entertained for hours.
Despite the Wii being extremely late in its life and Nintendo seemingly ignoring any major game release support for the console, they are still planning on pushing out special bundles of the console with new game releases. To be more specific, Nintendo announced that they will be releasing a special blue Wii bundle in Europe this November for the release of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Eurogamer reports.
The bundle will include the game, the Wii remote plus and Nunchuk all of the same color. Also, of course, it will contain the Wii itself, but you may notice that this is a smaller Wii. The reason for this is that it is one of the new models that does not include GameCube support in any shape or form. At the time there has been no price released for this bundle, anyone want to take a guess?
While I may have reviewed RAGE on the Xbox 360 and found it a beautiful, if not a bit standard experience. PC gamers weren’t even treated to the beautiful part as many users have complained about serious grapical issues throughout the entire game. While this could usually be ignored as a few people, the problem was prominent in nearly every PC version of the game.
To help fix matters, RAGE recieved a patch this weekend which is meant to fix a number of issues as well as the graphical issues. Players can now tweak video settings, though the reason for why this wasn’t included in the original release was due to “limitations and/or driver bugs” which caused them not to work properly. The full contents of the patch can be seen below.
Implemented workaround for AMD driver crash right after intro cinematic
on Win 7 32-bit systems.
Disabled UBOs because they are causing animation issues with AMD drivers.
Don’t allow swap-tear to be enabled on AMD while the extension is not
exposed because it may crash.
Support for new video settings: “texture cache”, “vsync” and
“anisotropic filter”
Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores.
Improved performance for SLI cards when GPU transcode is enabled.
Fix for GPU Transcoding option being disabled after exiting gameplay.
Added safe mode to restore video settings to default values.
Allow g_fov to be changed from the RAGE launch options in Steam.
Server now forwards text chat from clients to all other clients while
in-game.
While Silent Hill: Downpour was originally meant to be released on November 4th of this year, we started to see online retailers and other services pushing that date back until 2012. Today Konami made it official by confirming to BeefJack that Silent Hill: Downpour will now be released in Q2 2012 which could be anywhere from March to June.
In the end this is probably for the best, as there has been very little press for the game lately and even less marketing. Still, this delay is going to be upsetting for some who can’t wait to get their hands on the next iteration of the Silent Hill franchise. Though perhaps a really good Silent Hill title would be for the best.
I love you. GET YOUR S*&% TOGETHER THOUGH! One minute, your raising prices. The next minute your switching your plans to divide your DVD and streaming offerings and make your customers manage two queues. Plus, you decided to add video games. Then, you backtrack, stating that you’ll keep the Netflix moniker for everything and scrap dividing your DVD and streaming. Plus, you say now that video games may or not be offered now. Can’t you please just stick to one thing at a time and get your life in order? For goodness sake! We are sick of the DRAMA!
Love,
Jed and the Capsule Computers Crew
PS: What does everyone in the community think of Netflix now that they are dissolving Qwikster and keeping things the way they are?
Following the conclusion of the controversial Blue Exorcist anime series, Namco Bandai has announced an RPG game for the Playstation Portable based of the series.
The game tentatively titled Blue Exorcist PSP will be similar to Mass Effect in the way that your choices effect your story progression and outcome.
You will play as both of the Okumura brothers; Rin and Yukio, in an original story seperate from that of both the anime and manga it is based off of.
Little else is currently known about the title, but it is definitely exciting news for Blue Exorcist fans.
What do you think of this announcement? Let us know in the shoutbox or comments section.
In a listing by a popular gaming press compendium, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is being listed as 3DS. This site is a very credible place to obtain gaming information, so it can be trusted.
Does this mean that Skyward Sword will be coming to the 3DS? It is unlikely, it could just be an error on the websites part. But, considering the credibility of the source, I think that it may be a hint at the titles future; and that future could be on the 3DS.
What does everyone in the community think? Skyward Sword on 3DS? Is it possible?
Andorelea Games, makers of fine 2D RPG’s are running a promotional sale on their LAXIUS FORCE games. The games are on sale until the 15th of October. So be quick.
In order to access these specials, customers will be required to enter a promotional code while purchasing the titles. The code is “LAX10”; so be sure to enter it when purchasing.
Laxius Force I and II are both huge, epic and original games full of characters, quests, items. 7 games have been released in the saga since 2001, with a game’s length in average well over 50 hours. Since the release of the first episode in 2008, the Laxius Force games have been included in the catalogs of famous gaming portals such as GamersGate and GameStop.
That’s right JRPG fans, The Last Story will be released in full English through-out Australia. Following Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora’s Tower before it, The Last Story is the latest in a sleu of hugely popular Japanese RPG titles that usually would never make it out in English anywhere, that is actually being released in Australia.
The game itself recieved wide-spread critical acclaim, so far as recieving a 38/40 from highly regarded Famitsu magazine. No release date has been set for the title, however the Australian Classification Board provides some details regarding the title here.
Sad news for US and European gamers is that there does not appear to be any release of The Last Story heading there way any time soon.
It look’s like Australian fans are finally getting some good news amidst the depressing news of game bannings and censoring. What do you think of this huge announcement? Let us know in the shoutbox or comments section.
