The intense strategy game Orcs Must Die, from Robot Entertainment, is now available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace, with the Windows version of the game coming on October 12, 2011.
As the press release says, no matter how you get it done – by slicing, burning, skewering or launching them, ORCS MUST DIE, preferably in a horrible fashion. You can use lava, ice, arrows, traps and a whole bunch of other awesome stuff to defeat your enemies.
In addition to Orcs, Ogres and Hellbats will also be enemies in the game. The game will include a campaign story mode with a Nightmare mode difficulty available, in addition other difficulties. Look for our review of the game soon.
The transition to 3D with the PS1 and N64 showed us new ways to play, but killed off some of the old ways in the process. The Worms series, to name just one, had some trouble with the transition, but the resilient little invertebrates nonetheless survived the harsh new climate.
Team 17’s new game Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is essentially a remake of both Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem, but how far does it go towards fixing the issues raised in these titles, and in making Worms gameplay as much fun in 3D as it was in the classic 2D games?
Story
Narrative in Worms games is usually relegated to providing simple context and themes for each level, and that’s all that’s required. It may give you a bit of a spiel about how you’re infiltrating enemy territory to make off with their secret plans, but it all boils down to another “get the crate, destroy enemy worms” mission, with the theme dictating the environment and the enemies’ clothing, names and voices.
Only the missions pulled from Worms 4 have continuity across them, and it’s fairly loose. Not that the game is weaker for it; it’s simply a broad frame that allows the developers to use all their environment assets and character accessories.
Gameplay
The important part is the gameplay, and specifically, how Ultimate Mayhem improves on the issues that plagued earlier 3D Worms titles.
Traditional Worms gameplay involves teams of the little dirteaters battling it out in turns across randomly generated terrain, using all manner of zany weaponry. The games ooze personality from every pore, bringing some much-needed character to a medium obsessed with too-serious dudebro marines. Strategy, precision and sheer luck are key to victory, and with mates swapping the hot seat, matches have a frantic, exciting pace.
Both 2D and 3D entries in the series play mostly according to the above formula, but the third dimension dramatically changes the gameplay dynamic.
It’s difficult enough to master the required tactics in two dimensions – adding a third really complicates the gameplay at its core. Culminating with Armageddon and World Party, the 2D games were increasingly fantastic. But in 3D it was difficult to judge the important tactical stuff like distances, angles, power, etc, exacerbated by the need to wrestle with a disobedient 3D camera. Worms 4: Mayhem went a fair way towards fixing these problems, but niggles persisted.
Ultimate Mayhem further deals with these issues, and to a degree it succeeds, but some are too fundamental to fix by simply hiding them under a shiny new coat of paint.
Problems with the camera were lessened with each 3D game, and in Ultimate Mayhem it functions better than ever. It’s far less schizophrenic than it was, but still exhibits some strange tendencies. Raising the camera for a clearer view of your surroundings is more arduous than it should be, and the ability to move your worm while viewing from the overhead camera would have been welcomed. When pushed into a corner it will zoom right in and obscure your view; had players been given the ability to zoom in and out at will while they moved about or lined up their shots, things would have felt much more intuitive.
Some aspects do help though. If your worm slithers behind part of the scenery, its silhouette will show you where it is and what it’s doing – provided the camera has enough room behind the obstruction to not zoom in.
Previously players had to decide whether they retreated, or watched the results of their shot. Move an inch and the camera would shoot back to your worm as it shuffles away, meaning you missed the satisfaction of your shot. Probably the handiest new feature for Ultimate Mayhem is the Picture-In-Picture function, which shows the aftermath of your attack in a smaller window, while the main screen keeps focus on your worm as you move it to relative safety. Although the angle it chooses for the smaller window often obscures the action behind scenery or simply doesn’t show everything you need to see, the PIP succeeds in alleviating one of the main issues with previous 3D games.
Less successfully dealt with are the combat mechanics. Whether it’s a product of the camera or just that pesky third dimension, it’s often difficult to judge where your shot will go, and how hard it should be. Your attacks will often crash into the ground much closer than expected, or go sailing over your intended target and plonk into the sea, miles offshore. In a game that relies on precise aiming, this is a serious problem. It does get easier with experience, but the learning curve is much steeper than in 2D Worms. If you and your friends, or people online, are evenly matched, the game becomes quite fun. Just don’t expect your noob friends to pick it up so quickly.
Inconsistent AI only exacerbates the problem; they can pull off really accurate shots, with basic weaponry, with ridiculous frequency. If you’re within bazooka range – or even sometimes when you don’t think you are – expect an uncanny bullseye to fling you waterwards.
Other times, they’ll derp around for a while and finally just skip their turn. If you aren’t in their direct line of sight, you’re pretty much out of mind. Sure, they’ll occasionally call in an airstrike, but often they’ll stand on the spot, scan through some weapons, then whip out the skipping rope. It’s apparently not in their powerful strategist minds to use utilities like the ninja rope, or even just move a few feet to line up a better shot.
It’s 50/50 whether they’ll grab a weapons crate within a few steps of them, and once sudden death mode kicks in and the water level starts rising, human players will be scrambling for higher ground, while the AI will do nothing to prevent their imminent drowning.
Almost as compensation, the game provides a very generous amount of content. Included in the package are all the single player missions from both games, totalling around 60, plus challenges which task you with using a particular weapon or utility to collect crates or destroy targets, meaning they double as handy training tools. Perfectionists can also aim to beat each mission and challenge within the specified time limit to earn you in-game credits, which can be spent on new game modes, levels, hats, speech banks, and accessories for your worms.
When you get sick of facing the idiot-savant AI, grab your friends for some hot-seat multiplayer, and the game’s entertainment value skyrockets. Playing against opponents who actually strategize is much more fun, and adds potentially endless replayability.
Deep customization allows you to tweak pretty much every aspect of the game. You will spend way too much time dressing your worms up in various costumes and giving them voices to match (or not match, whatever). Players create their own characters, making it easier to differentiate friends from foes on the battlefield – which itself can be customized to an obscene degree.
Want to play a match where the water rises right from the start? How about having no weapons at all, using only what you pick up in crates? Double damage? Mines everywhere? Really windy? Any combination of these? Done.
Tweaking every aspect of the game mode allows for some very interesting matches, and throw in randomly generated landscapes and you have literally thousands of possibilities.
Visuals/Audio
The cartoony feel of the series has always been a strong point, and it’s now prettier than ever. The worms have undergone a facelift, but have retained their quirky personality, putting the latest characterless marine douchebag to shame. They are brilliantly animated and lively, even in their idle state: walk past an enemy and he’ll taunt you. Look down your sights at him and he’ll hide his face or try to move your focus to a nearby worm. And the way they flail their arms while flying through the air after a particularly good shot makes attacking them much more satisfying.
But the most interesting aspect of their behaviour is the way they watch you as you walk past. They’ll face you the whole time, turning their heads or their whole bodies. Your own worm will look at the camera, no matter where it is, and give a thumbs up or facepalm, depending on how well a shot went. It all implies some kind of unspoken dynamic system is in use – a small but noticeable, and appreciated, touch.
While the textures have clearly received much love, models are still rather low-poly. The cartoonish style hides a lot of this, but occasionally it’s noticeable, particularly in first-person view when you see the weapons close up.
The music is not particularly noteworthy, with mostly ambience during matches. Once sudden death kicks in, the sense of panic and impending doom is brought to the forefront through some tense music, but the rest is rather forgettable.
Perhaps the music is subdued so it doesn’t obscure the sound effects, which really add character to the worms and the game itself. I love the grumbling of the Old Woman as she shuffles towards a helpless enemy, but obviously the stars are the worms themselves. Four teams with different speechbanks of different stereotypes make a match audibly chaotic, in a good way. They’ll brag about a great shot, trash talk each other for missing a shot or injuring teammates, and scream as they fly through the air. It really brings the characters to life in a way not seen in many other games, and brings great satisfaction in wiping out your enemies.
Final Comments
It may not be as accessible for newbies as the 2D games in the series, but if you have friends around the same skill level, the multiplayer can be endless fun.
Despite some frustrations with gameplay, none of them are game-breaking. So if you’re already a fan of Worms in 3D, 2D, or are patient enough to give it a go for the first time, Ultimate Mayhem is the pinnacle of 3D Worms gameplay.
That pinnacle isn’t quite as high as that of the 2D series, but considering the expansive single-player content, exciting multiplayer made better by heaps of game mode possibilities and ridiculous amounts of customization, it’s well worth the price of admission.
Pros: Cons:
– Heaps of single player content – Difficult to judge distance, angle, etc in 3D
– A great multiplayer experience – Some camera issues still persist
Mama has been busy as of late camping, crafting, and babysitting, but now she is ready to make her return to the kitchen in Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic. Today Majesco revealed the shiny new boxart you see above as well as a good amount of screens for fans to gawk at while they wait for Mama’s 3DS debut.
As you can see in the screenshots below, this title will have players participate in mini-games that are filled with new elements to make this kitchen adventure a fresh one. You may also notice the enhanced visuals this time around, as the 3DS has apparently done wonders to make the famous art style from the game more crisp and cheery than ever. So check out those screenshots and strap on your apron, as Cooking Mama 4 launches November 22nd.
Today EA announced the release of NBA Jam: On Fire edition on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. This is a full-product download and features some great improvements in the form of amazing AIs that actually learn your methods and adapt, all new online modes, and the legendary commentary of Tim Kitzrow.
As is to be expected, there’s some great moves that you can show off on the court, the On Fire edition bringing some new sweet ones for you to play around with. Plus, you can also swap players and perform consecutive cooperative plays, and totally outshine your opponent.
A must download for any NBA fan, NBA Jam: On Fire is $23.95 on PSN and 1200 Microsoft points on XBLA. So what are you waiting for? Go play some ball!
Ubisoft have just released a fantastic new story trailer for Assassin’s Creed Revelations.
Ezio, worn grey and grizzled by his time as an assassin, sets out his plan to uncover the truth hidden by his predecessor from millennia past. Scenes from the whole series flash by, chronicling both Ezio and Altair’s journey with the Assassins – and of course there are some brand new set pieces from Revelations itself.
This is definitely turning into an epic conclusion for the Assassin’s Creed series (although I’m sure it won’t be the last we hear from it), and the trailer honestly feels incredibly cinematic, so much so that it actually had me thinking of an Assassin’s Creed movie (gasp).
The game’s release date is only 36 short days away – and yes, after this trailer, I am definitely counting.
Name: Puffle Launch
Developer: Disney
Publisher: Disney
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: 15 September 2011
Price: $0.99 – BUY NOW
Overview
Puffle Launch is a game spawned from the ever-popular Club Penguin. As a Club Penguin virgin, I don’t really get why this little puffle guy has anything to do with Club Penguin other than being drawn in the same style, or why he wants to launch himself around the sky to get rings but hey, not here to judge.
Gameplay
So the point of Puffle Launch is to launch the Puffle into the sky and gather as many rings as possible. He moves around the sky by being launched through cannons while wearing a cute helmet. There are a variety of cannons that have different features. The most common ones are the fixed ones, which are usually in an insane set of a run that makes the Puffle move too fast for your eyes to follow properly.
Other than that cannon there are many others which include cannons which aim in different directions, changing direction every few seconds, those which continuously move in a 360 spin, the ones which move horizontally or vertically and the ones you can control with your finger. In the twenty-four levels of Puffle Launch there are a surprising amount of introductions of these features. It seems that every few levels a new thing is introduced, it’s basically a constant learning curve. Three levels in any pretence of easiness and beginner stages was dropped and the game got – forgive the pun – shooting forward.
Given the fact that it was developed by Disney and originates from a cartoon penguin, I figured the game would be fairly simple or at least have a whole bunch of fluff levels before getting to the meat of it. Instead, I discovered a compact game that had no problem with making me feel like I was inadequate as quickly as possible.
There are two stages with twelve levels to each stage. The first stage – Blue Sky – is set above the ocean so when you plummet to your death you actually just fall into the ocean with a smile on your Puffle’s face. The second is above the clouds, so your Puffle just smiles as he falls through the bottom cloud layer. I guess that is the strongest sign that this is a Disney game.
The controls are very simple, you tap the screen to shoot the cannon, touch the left to make him swerve to the left while in the air and vice versa. The purpose of this is to follow the trail of rings in the sky or reach the next cannon, but you can also use it to recover if you’ve missed a cannon. You don’t need to follow the path set out by the rings, your goal is to get as many rings as possible, however the only thing you need to achieve to finish the level and unlock the next one is scoring the big, finishing ring. Its easy to miss an entire section of the rings, so much so that if you get a whole bunch in a row the game congratulates you saying you’ve done ‘great’.
This is one of those games where if you fall down you start at the beginning, which usually frustrates me to no end. However, there is a checkpoint cannon that you can get where you will restart the level at that point. Getting to the checkpoint cannon is another matter entirely. Falling near the end of a stage where you’ve accidentally bypassed the checkpoint cannon is an absolute pain, but that’s the price you pay for playing a game like this. The good thing is that it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve retried a level, it will retain the rings you’ve already captured. That’s probably their version of dumbing it down. There are no lives, you get as many shots as you like, which means that you’ll finish the game even quicker given the small amount of levels.
Visual
As can be expected from a Club Penguin spin-off, Puffle is cute and cartoony. The clouds are puffy, the balloons are shiny, and everything is dandy.
Audio
The soundtrack is like the missing track from Top Gun. There’s some hectic guitar, mission impossible-like melody progressions, and it feels like your Puffle’s mission to collect all the rings will result in saving the world from some guy with a curly mustache. It does get repetitive after a while, but for that first few minutes it’s fun.
Conclusion
Puffle is a funny little game, it certainly gets you involved and the learning curve keeps you interested. It’s pretty much bite-sized and can be finished quite quickly, but there will be a sense of achievement at the end of it (even if it is bite-sized achievement). Perhaps not suitable for what you’d think its intended audience would be, it is a great little app, good for some family-friendly fun.
Guys, this one is for you. Electronic Arts has showcased a small section of Need For Speed: The Run, but it sure to make things big. They have recently annonced that they will be utilising models from famed magazine, Swinsuit Illustrated, within this game.
They have also released a trailer and a couple of screenshots to illustrate this phenomenae. These can be observed below.
The models are Irinia Skeyk and Chrissy Teigen.
Are these ladies 100% accurate to their real-life counterparts? See the trailer below and be sure to let us know what you think!
Last night Ubisoft held their annual Ubinights event in Sydney, and a few of us here at Capsule Computers went along for the party. Held at the swanky Ivy venue in the heart of the city, the rooms were packed out with displays for all of Ubisoft’s major up and coming titles, as well as a few already released.
The DJ had to compete with a room full of dancing games, and there was a nice little corner with a huge stack of Zoo magazines, how thoughtful! Playing any of the games got you a primary school style gold star from the Ubi reps, with four or more giving you the chance to win a copy of every game on show – congrats to the lucky winner.
Some of the CC crew in attendance – Jared Hilliers, Claire Phillips, MasterAbbot and Michael Marr.
Free food and drink were in plentiful supply, and on a personal note I have to thank whoever invited Ben & Jerry’s to sponsor this – free chocolate fudge brownie, mmmm…..
As for the games on show there was a big emphasis on Kinect/Wii titles, which accounted for 6 out of the 11 playable games. The sufficiently confident/well fuelled attendees could throw some questionable shapes with ABBA: You Can Dance, the Black Eyed Peas Experienceand Just Dance 3 , whilst PowerUp Heroesprovided a bit of kung fu action. We did have a couple of dancing queens amongst us, I’ll let you figure out who…
Raving Rabbids Alive & Kicking had one fairly tame mini game on offer, a whack a mole style game that had two players attempting to out stomp each other in an area packed full of interfering people. Another break from all the dancing came in the shape of Motion Sports Adrenaline, which was showing off a wingsuiting game.
The action for the controller based crowd was also dominated by multiplayer, and racing fans were well catered for with Driver San Francisco and Trackmania 2 Canyon – the only games present already released, make sure and check out the reviews!
Assassin’s Creed Revelationswas a multiplayer only affair. Come on Ubisoft! We’ve had enough of that, where’s the actual game? Despite the disappointing lack of Ezio action the set up made for a fun chance to see your opponent’s reactions to a last minute knifing – it was all going so well until the last thirty seconds!
The Adventures of Tintin : The Secret of the Unicornoffered up some co-op platforming action, but Rayman Originsstole the crown with some surprisingly challenging gameplay. Fans of the original will be pleased to hear that Origins is a bit of a nostalgia fest, with one of the levels on offer a near on copy of the first game’s opening level. The green skinned bad guys, photo booth checkpoint and pistol polishing pirate all make a welcome return. The other levels weren’t lacking in originality, with some truly bizarre landscapes in the mix.
As an added treat, there was also the oppurtunity to get your mug greenscreened onto Ezio’s body and have the moment immortalized with a free photo – these will not be making an appearance on the internet, but you can catch a glimpse of a couple in the top photo!
Thanks to Ubisoft for a great night, and also to the Ivy staff for putting up with all us gamers! Don’t forget to check out the gallery below for an inside look at the event, and let us know what you thought if you were there.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has passed away at the age of 56, mere weeks after his resignation as Apple CEO. The company co-founder had a much publicised battle with pancreatic cancer, with poor health all but forcing his retirement from an active company role.
Tributes are already pouring in for the industry icon, with the front page of Apple’s site dedicated to the man who revitalised the company and revolutionised the way we interact with the world.
A special e-mail account has been set up for those wishing to “share [their] thoughts, memories and condolences”, and Apple have released the following statement confirming Job’s death,
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today, Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”
“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”
It’s a statement with which I’m sure we all agree – there probably isn’t a person reading this who doesn’t have at least one Apple device in their pocket. Rest in peace Steve Jobs, and thank you for all you’ve done.
The recent Apple conference had everyone’s attention, everyone was sure that this would be the announcement of the iPhone 5. Even Wikipedia had the prediction up, and everyone knows that Wiki is the centre of everything. Like others, I was keen for it. Apple is famous for their innovation and technological leaps, even if I didn’t update my ancient 3G it would be interesting to see where Apple went.
This was the first Steve Job-less announcement for Apple, and they had to make it good.
Their announcement of the iPhone 4S instead of the predicted 5 is something of much debate. Personally I’m not horribly disappointed, I think that they should take more time to release the iPhone 5 so that the hardware and software will really be an improvement.
So how does the iPhone 4S measure up? Well in comparison with the iPhone 4 it looks exactly the same (only 3 grams heavier funnily enough). However, the hardware on the inside has been given a pretty swift kick up the rear.
The chip has been upgraded to a 1Ghz dual core A5 chip which does great things for the processing speed in comparison to the iPhone 4. The camera is 8 megapixels, has face detection, and records at 1080p HD, so expect a distinct rise in the incidence of family vacations being shown in HD. Other added features include Bluetooth 4.0, iOS 5 and iCloud, and more talk time but less stand by time. I guess the iPhone 4s is for people on the go.
These hardware upgrades basically mean that that the iPhone has caught up to the rest of the smart phone market, equaling most of the features of the highest performing phones while keeping its slim design. Also, one of the big draws is if you are an Apple person, because iCloud means that you can share media over wireless networks with no fuss. As an Apple person myself, I think this will be one of the most used features for me.
And for people who don’t care about hardware capability, there’s Siri. Siri is Apple’s big innovation for this year, although I am extremely tentative about it. What is Siri? Siri is a voice-command assistant that you can use to ask questions and do things with your iPhone, such as arrange appointments, read out messages, and so on. Obviously there are limitations, and I’m sure that once it comes out people will find and expose many of them. It’s just how it works with interactive stuff like this. I had the same reaction when the Kinect was announced, these are the things which are great concepts but don’t translate over seamlessly. Siri will probably need a whole bunch of upgrades for it to work well, and even then I think I will prefer to do things myself.
The iPhone 4S will be available in most countries on October 14. At the moment it seems the biggest plus for American consumers is that it is relatively cheap with it being $199 for a 16 gb, $299 for a 32 gb and $399 for 64 gb. Unfortunately for Aussies, over here it starts from $799 and shoots up from there.
What do you guys reckon? Were you disappointed by Apple’s effort or interested in the iPhone 4S and what Siri can do for us? Or maybe this is all one giant conspiracy so that Apple can take over the world…
