The demon of Square Enix has awaken from his slumber in Hell and has given us the launch pricing scheme to his potential Playstation Vita minions in Japan for his first adventure, Army Corps of Hell. For those who want to trek to a Japanese retail store, the demon will ask for 4,980 of your yen in order for him to depart a piece of his soul, manifestered into a video game. For those who prefer to face the Playstation Store on their dark pieces of technology, then you must hand over 3,990 electronic yen and it will be yours.
Jokes aside, below is what the boxart shall be. The demon on it looks kinda… angry. The game will be given a D rating by CERO, which is essentially a MA15+ rating in Australia. It is the rating before Z, which indicates a game that can only be played by adults (18+). If you buy the game at retail, then you will not require a Memory Card to save your progress. The game card will permit you to do that. If you download, however, expect to save up some more yen and start searching for a affordable memory stick. The game will be available at the Vita’s launch on December 17.
With the inclusion of 3G into their newest handheld, the Playstation Vita will be the first dedicated gaming handheld to sport such a feature. Fans everywhere lick their lips at the prospect of dowloading games everywhere they go. But hold it for one second, everyone. It might not happen when it is first released.
Sony Japan has confirmed that there will be a 20MB download limit for 3G users. For PSP and Vita games, this is impossible to do on 3G. However, with speeds of 128Kbps, downloading on 3G would be quite silly. It doesn’t mean that 20MB will be the final limit as Sony revealed that it may be increased later in the handheld’s life. ASCII, who conducted the interview, questioned the download and upload (64Kbps) speeds on the affect of online gaming. Sony reassured that support will be given to developers to ensure that titles won’t have a feeling of technical limitation. I hope that support will help create smooth online gameplay on the go.
NTT DoCoMo is taking care of the Vita’s 3G needs, with a 20 hour plan for ¥980 while 100 hours will set you back ¥4,980, all available on pre-paid cards. If you buy the 100 hour plan, then you get three bonus hours of 14Mbps/5.7Mbps speeds. Please note that this is only for Japan. The download limit for other regions will probably be announced closer to their launch.
Resident Evil 4 Developer & Publisher: Capcom Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade (reviewed) and PlayStation Network Release Date: 20/09/11 Price: $19.99 or 1600 MSP – Purchase Here!
Overview:
Many people speak of the upcoming titles, the breathtaking leaps that the gaming industry is taking in the realms of animation and gameplay and the exciting things that are coming up for the world of gaming. Yet, stepping back into the stories of some of our past favourites is just something that never gets old (no pun intended) and developers are beginning to notice. Rather than blowing the dust of some of our out-dated systems, more and more of our favourite classics are being re-released onto the current consoles available.
Capcom have noticed this trend and have followed with their own releases, including the re-release of Resident Evil 4. Taking a step back from the Nintendo roots for this particular title, it has managed to return to more suitable locations, rather than the more ‘family friendly’ Wii and GameCube. Although it was also released for PlayStation 2, but was met with critical reviews which favoured the Nintendo releases.
Will Resident Evil 4 HD have players wishing for the days of the Nintendo systems or will all the upscale digital mayhem haven them foaming from the mouth?
Story:
After the events and eventual destruction of Racoon City, Resident Evil 2 protagonist Leon S. Kennedy is recruited by the U.S Secret Service to act as the bodyguard to Ashley Graham, the daughter of the President. However just before he is assigned the role, Ashley is kidnapped and is tracked to a small rural village in Europe.
The game begins as Leon arrives at the village to rescue Ashley and investigate and eliminate those responsible. The villagers meet him with murderous hostility, outright trying to kill him and stop his advancement into the town. Leon finds the town taken over by a religious cult, who are using sinister means to control the minds and bodies of the people in the small rural village.
There are mixed feelings about the story of the Resident Evil games, but I have to say, the depth of the plot makes the mindless enemies more than just senseless violence. The more information that is given makes the experience more terrifying, not knowing enough encourages characters hope, where the abundance of knowledge stamps out their ability to reason a way to survive. That makes the protagonist succeeding in the game so much more enriching, because you know the odds that have been beaten.
Gameplay:
Resident Evil 4 was the beginning of a new style of gameplay compared to the titles of the past, moving from an almost birds eye 3rd person view to the over the shoulder camera that is stuck to the protagonists back. Since I had a horrible time trying to adjust to the old style (and in many cases ended up throwing the controller away in rage), it was exciting to have a crack at the newer views. It is a massive improvement, allowing for more precise aiming with use of laser targeting, allowing for most players to nail the illusive headshot.
The controls are not what you would call traditional, being in that the triggers only pull out you weapons, and doesn’t actually shoot them. However players should be able to adjust fairly easily to the newer control layout. The big negative about the controls of Resident Evil 4 is the fact that you can’t walk and shoot at the same time. It is extremely frustrating trying to shoot a large ogre looking man who can crush you under his feet, then having to drop your aim, run away and quickly turn around and aim again. By that time, he is almost on top of you again!
The inventory system in the game is very realistic and challenging, which is a refreshing change. Players have to be very careful on which guns, ammo and healing products they carry, because you are only give a certain amount of space to store everything. This also allows for the player to customize their pack to their own playing style, if they don’t use the shotgun very often (although who doesn’t love shooting with one and causing head explosions!) then they don’t have to carry one. Sell it and replace with maybe a rifle for long distance shooting. The pack size can be upgraded via the travelling merchant who appears periodically throughout the game to sell you weapons, weapon mods, healing items and will also improve your weapons for a price.
Resident Evil 4 was also the beginning of the quick response button presses, where your character must quickly push the buttons flashing on the screen to run, dodge or any action that needs to be done quickly. It is an excellent way to keep the player on edge; however in the HD release (although it may be the same for its predecessors) the buttons rarely changes. So if you know the player is going to sprint, you can automatically move your finger to the right button, before being asked to. It may have worth putting in some variation, just to keep things from becoming predictive.
Not much has been added to the re-release of the game, it includes the bonus gameplay which was in the original release. ‘Separate Ways’ and ‘Assignment Ada’ are bonus missions that shows the story of Ada Wong’s involvement in the game, as well as ‘The Mercenaries’ mini game, where you have limited time to kill as many enemies as possible with a variety of characters. The addition of a leader board system is only beneficial to those gamers who have to be the best at everything, rather than actually enjoying the game. It allows you to compete with your friends on how fast you complete the title, but only for normal or professional difficulty. The player also gets the added bonus of achievement systems on the XBLA title, although they don’t stretch very far out of the imagination of the main storyline.
Graphics/Audio:
Now with the HD title, there are some players that would expect big changes in the way the game is presented, that is not the case in Resident Evil 4. That is not to say the game looks bad, not at all. The animation is well done and consistent throughout the game, rather than having overdone cut scenes that leaves the player controlled animation a lot to be desired. Leon looks the same regardless if he is having a deep conversation with Ashley or if he is blowing the heads off the local populous.
The background music throughout the game represents the mood well, but I believe the developers missed out on creating the jump out of you seat scares, because the music always lets you know when enemies are approaching. When the music begins, you can start looking for the enemies, so there is no evil villager that suddenly sneaks up on you unless, he just walks up behind you while you are shooting someone else because you cant move while you shoot.
Overview:
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Resident Evil 4 HD, the improved controls and smooth animation inspired me to dive deeper into the Resident Evil series altogether. The game would only need minor tweaking to achieve perfection, in making it less repetitive. If trying to decide whether to upgrade from the previous releases, it would be hard to say. I prefer the XBLA version because of the achievements, but otherwise there is not much difference.
Here I am reminiscing again and thought I’d make a small list of a few games you might like to try if you are looking for a true challenge. It is PS1 onwards as there are just way too many older NES, SNES, Master System and Megadrive games to count such as Contra, Alienstorm, Zelda II to name but a very select few. Like any other list of this nature it is completely subjective. I haven’t played even a fraction of the games out there so please don’t comment with things like “What are you talking about; this game xxxxx was heaps harder than any that you listed”. Tell me which games they are rather and I shall try them for myself and make my own judgement on it.
Metroid Prime Series Nintendo Gamecube
November 2004
Nintendo
Metroid Prime is the only game where I needed to sit with a laptop and the walkthrough on permanently. This game has by far and away the most complicated and extensive mapping system of any I have ever encountered. Add to this the fact that Samus can roll into a ball and go through secret tunnels and small gaps and you almost need a university degree to read the maps. Presented in a 3D holographic style the map system is superbly crafted, it’s more the sheer vastness of the landscape coupled with the fact that specific doors require specific weaponry to open, resulting in huge pilgrimages to different environments. In the second GameCube instalment Metroid Prime Echoes all the above applies with the addition of the concept of Dark and Light worlds each with their own distinct characteristics. In my opinion the Metroid Prime series is probably the best rounded, most challenging series I have ever played.
Silent Hill PS1
January 31st 1999
Konami
The first instalment in the series was very different to the current Silent Hill games most of us horror fans are enjoying. While the feel of the game is the same, and they both ooze the same ambience of despair and fear, there was more of an emphasis on puzzle solving combined with combat, rather than a combat based game with small amounts of semi-predictable puzzles to solve. Despite the less appealing graphics Silent Hill on PS1 was just as scary and enjoyable as future instalments and required you to use your brain in a more practical and complex manner than most other adventure based titles. A particularly memorable puzzle i remember having the whole family in frustration was the Piano puzzle involving a cryptic poem and bird references.
Ghosts n goblins Arcade
September 19th 1985
Capcom
An old School game that had the capacity to send the player straight to the local Asylum through its sheer difficulty. Being a 2D side scroller, the premise was quite simple, move forward, up or down to reach your goal, avoiding all the little flying, walking and squirming undead enemies in your path. It isn’t surprising that this game is exceptionally hard considering it was designed as an Arcade machine to have you raiding your little sisters piggy bank for those valuable 20c coins. It truly took a master player to get through Ghosts n Goblins. The game was set over 7 levels and players had 5 different weapons to choose each varying greatly in their abilities. (Leave the torch alone). As is the norm, there is a princess that requires saving with you being her knight in shining armour. Play at your own peril.
Metal Gear Solid PS1
October 21st 1998
Konami
Is it just me or does anyone else think Solid Snake was based on Kurt Russell as Snake Bliskin from the Escape from L.A and NY movies. Either way, MGS provided players with a gaming experience like no other taking the concepts of stealth combat and realistic AI to spectacular new highs. Enemies react to Snakes every movement and while it was probably no more difficult than todays instalments, it required a totally different mode of thought to anything else seen before it.
Crash Bandicoot PS1 –
Naughty Dog/SCEA
August 31st 1996
Crash is one of my favourite platform games, offering the player a huge array of challenges, combining elements of 2D side scrollers as well as free roaming 3D style play. Completing each level earns you a clear gem, but the real challenge of this game is collecting the coloured gems. Unfortunately this usually requires you to redo a level, taking an alternate path that is more often than not going to drain at least 20 or so of your hard earned lives from you. Think jumping across single boxes randomly placed in mid air, some surrounded by TNT, others by NITRO, where one mistake results in a delicious char-grilled bandicoot. Seriously though, these levels are #@#$% hard and require precision timing and control to complete. I think after years of play we finally got 24/25 gems with 1 or 2 of them being unobtainable. Subsequent instalments while being just as enjoyable didn’t come close to this in difficulty in my opinion.
Have a go and please let me know if there are any games you remember as being ultra frustrating and worthy of a challenge, theres plenty out there just remeber the last time you hurled a controller and what game it was.
In extremely surprising news, a favorite fighting game from the past appears to be getting another release in the series! Hudson was completely purchased by Konami earlier this year and Konami has had the company working on creating social titles for Konami’s brands.
But it seems that Hudson has a few of their own titles that they are still going to be working on as today the Hudson Twitter tweeted that a new Bloody Roar game is currently in production. The title will be a bit of a series reboot and also a full retail title. The full cast will return but currently there are no platforms announced.
The tweet about the game is in English so hopefully this is a good sign for an English localization of the title. The full tweet reads: “New Bloody Roar sequel, is in production! we’ll post more soon! #BloodyRoarProject2012 #BloodyRoar5 #BloodyRoar Read and Retweet!” Expect to hear more details in the coming few weeks about Bloody Roar 5.
You thought I’d forgotten you, didn’t you? I admit, it has been a while since I posted out my progress for the month of August (slightly earlier than usual, on the 22nd of the month), but I’ve still very much been completely one game’s achievements to 100% each month, with September’s box receiving a glorious little tick in it.
September’s game was Truth or Lies, a game renowned for being easy enough to get the full 1000 gamerscore on. I suppose appearances can be deceiving, though. Not only is Truth or Lies one of the worst games I think I’ve had the misfortune to have played on Xbox 360, but it is home to some of the most elaborate achievements I’ve ever unlocked. The game does little more than guessing whether you are telling a truth or a lie, presumably figuring out that with a 50/50 chance it’s bound to get some right. But this makes it extremely frustrating when getting achievements like for doing X amount of lies in a row, as there is no consistency.
This is where the elaborate achievements come into play. Someone worked out that the game guesses whether you’re fibbing or not based on the pitch of your voice as you speak into the mic. Therefore, if you achieve a consistent tone, it would either be constantly lying or constantly truthful.
So there I was hauling a keyboard piano within reach of the microphone, playing a suggested note and trying to keep perfectly still to avoid any audio interference. It was ridiculous and would have been an odd sight for any neutral bystanders who didn’t know why I was doing it. The things I do for you…
Anyway, with this month’s 100% completed game taken into account, here’s how the overall month-on-month breakdown is looking:
December 2010 Harm’s Way 200/200
January 2011 Faery: Legends of Avalon 200/200
February 2011 Spare Parts 200/200
March 2011 Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 1000/1000
April 2011 Doritos Crash Course 200/200
May 2011 Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime 200/200
June 2011 TRON: Evolution 1000/1000
July 2011 Lazy Raiders 200/200
August 2011 Googly Eyes 50/50
September 2011 Truth or Lies 1000/1000
Let me know in the comments what you thought of September’s antics in keeping with this achievement challenge. It looks like I will be able to make it to the 12-month milestone, as it would be a little sad to pull out now. Any suggestions/advice/tips/donations are always welcome. I’ve not yet decided on a plan of action for October but X-Men on Xbox Live Arcade could be a possibilty, although I would need to round up players for some of the multiplayer achievements.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Consoles: Playstation 3 (PSN) Release Date: Out Now Price: US$15.00
Castlevania… Konami’s Gothic game series that seems to survive time itself. Of course, it is a classic series that started out on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in the mid 1980’s. Famed for its clunky controls and insane difficulty, Castlevania started off with a character named Simon Belmont who’s mission was to defeat the most famous vampire of all, Dracula. Blessing the Nintendo family for several generations (as well as other console families), Castlevania has made its way onto the Playstation 3 via the PSN with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Featuring both solo and co-op gameplay, Harmony of Despair retains the classic 2D gameplay in HD graphics and some awesome music. So, will you despair if you download this game?
Gameplay
The gameplay of Harmony of Despair emulates the series staple 2D platforming. You will run, jump and attack your way through a gigantic stage. The objective of each level, separated as chapters, is to navigate your way to the boss and defeat it. They are usually a monster of some sort, one is even a four armed puppeteer with a gigantic head. There will be obstacles in your way, both enemies and environmental, such as spikes. Instead of the bare basics of the old days, Harmony of Despair offers a statistical approach, with stats like strength and defense contributing to the effectiveness of your character. Each stage has a time limit of 30 minutes to complete the objective.
What about the characters available? Well, unlike all of the Castlevania games, you can call Harmony of Despair the Castlevania All Star game or Dissidia: Castlevania. Castlevania features characters from the other games rather than introducing another member of the Belmont family. Off the bat, players can choose Alucard, Soma Cruz, Jonathan Morris, Shanoa, Charlotte Aulin, Yoko Belnades and Julius Belmont. Most of the time I had control of Julius Belmont and for good reason. He is equipped with the whip, so a long range melee attack, but his whip goes in eight directions, a positive in any Castlevania game. What I like about the characters is that they have their own distinctive style of gameplay. Alucard, another character I used quite a bit, uses magic rather than throwable weapons like the others.
As you fight through the stage, you will encounter several treasure chests. They contain items that can power up your character. However, to equip them, it is not as simple as pressing select or going through the pause menu. You have to locate a grimoire, a book floating on a gold pedestal and opening that (with the R2 button) will allow you to access the status screens, as well as a compilation of monsters you have slain. Sometimes in these chests you may encounter gold, used to buy weapons, armour and useable items such as potions.
Going solo is all good if you play with your strengths in mind, but the focus of this game seems to be multiplayer. The game offers both local and online play. Local play supports up to four players, which is a bonus in a way because you could have four Juluis Belmonts at the same time. Each player can choose up to eight colours per character. The levels for solo play can be attempted but there is also a versus mode available. Online multiplayer supports up to six characters.
The gameplay went for a focus on multiplayer, which does leave single players more to desire. More often than not you have to avoid areas that rely on the multiplayer aspect of the game, which can be a pain. It would mean that every level will usually only have one path towards the boss that a solo player can take, eliminating the desire to explore, especially if they want to play the level more than once. Overall, if you enjoy this type of gameplay, then you will have a great time. I had fun, but I can only speak for myself.
Visuals
Well… there isn’t much to say about the visuals considering this is a 2D platformer. It doesn’t mean there is nothing to say. First off, I want to note the menus. I actually like the design of the menu. They set out the game as a book of various chapters, which are what the levels are named. It fits the Gothic style the Castlevania games are all about. The levels themselves are one gigantic maze. Each of the levels have certain contraptions to progress through. The levels are a great mix of bright and dark colours to fit the various design of a castle. Like the menu, this fits with the overall tone of the game.
I do have to point out the character art. I have fallen in love with the designs. Not the sprites that you control (they don’t have any facial features), but ones that you encounter at the main menu and character selection screen. They emulate hand drawn artworks and look stunning. I especially love Alucard’s design. Great work from the art designer.
Music
The music you encounter in this game will come from previous installments of the Castlevania series, only reworked, just like Dissidia Final Fantasy and other related all star games. Tracks such as Castle Dracula (which is Alucard’s Theme) from Symphony of the Night, After Confession from Dawn of Sorrow and Ruined Castle Corridor from Aria of Shadows are all featured. Harmony of Despair’s version of Ruined Castle Corridor happens to be my personal favourite. The guitar work reinforces the desire to explore this castle and defeat the creature that lurks within it. The drums enrage you, the beat defines your course of action. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the music for the first level of the game. What a way for the game to start with such an epic concoction to lead you to what lies ahead. No matter whether you grew up with the series or not, you will appreciate the soundtrack. Each song has its own charm to it, whether it involves organs or grand electric guitar solos.
Overall
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is an interesting one. Despite never experience the series before this, I had knew the basics of gameplay that has followed the series through. However, the game features a more adventurous route in the series, favouring multiplayer games, despite being playable for a solo journey. The solo half suffers as a result, although it does not make the game unplayable. The visual design of the game retains the Gothic theme of the series. The character artwork, however, is a highlight. The music revives past classics and turns them into an awesome collection of hard rock anthems to accompany the journey ahead. Despite the solo flaws, this is a game both Castlevania fans and platforming fans alike should download… if they have a spare $15 on their PSN account.
Delays are often worrysome, but in this case I would say Sega did the right thing. After receiving feedback from a recent alpha-test, Satoshi Sakai announced that Sega wanted to postpone PS02 until 2012 to make some much needed improvements.
Those who were in the first alpha test will however be happy to know that they will be invited back for a second testing in early 2012, along with new participants. I honestly don’t care how long it takes to produce an online MMO anymore, as no one wants to see another tragedy like Final Fantasy XIV released and Sega should be applauded for wanting to make this experience the best possible for their future paying consumers.
Name: Fifa Soccer 12
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Genre: Sports
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: September 29 2011
Price: $4.99 – BUY NOW
Overview
One of the biggest sports franchises in gaming is quite arguably Fifa. Its quite well deserved, not only is the game itself an internationally renowned game, but the game itself is a fantastic representation of both the players and the game. So the question is, does this transfer onto the iOS?
Gameplay
The feel of Fifa is excellent. While there were some lag and smoothness issues in gameplay, they were few and far between. The amount of programming and intelligence that has gone into this game, the AIs, and physics, is fantastic. It’s no wonder that this app will consume a gigabyte of memory.
There are a few different gameplay modes for Fifa, Quick match, Manager career, and Daily Challenge (which is an Origin feature). There are five different difficulty settings ranging from beginner to world class, the game starts off automatically with beginner. I realised this when I was a few minutes into a match and I was up four-nil. I may be good, but I don’t know about that good. As well as this, you can adjust tackle assist, injuries, offsides, bookings, switching, handballs and manual ground pass. All of these excluding manual ground pass are automatically on, however if you want to play the dirtiest game ever just for fun then you can do so to your heart’s content. That being said, bookings are less common than in the console version, I was only called up a few times and they were for sliding from behind and pretty much bowling the player over and probably injuring him quite seriously.
As per usual you adjust the amount of time each half will be, I went for three minutes and was quite happy with the timing of it. In one match (Manchester United vs Manchester City) I ended up tying with them by the end of the match and instead of being given a choice on how to proceed it immediately went to extra 15 minute (more like half a minute real time) halves. I was a bit stressed by that, especially since I scored a goal two seconds into the first half and then proceeded to have to hectically defend for the next minute, since it was a cup match.
The controls are innovative, simple and fantastic. And this coming from someone who a year ago hated the way team sport games had about a million random combinations to use (although it never bothered me for arcade fighters funnily enough). There is a directional ‘joystick’ which is quite responsive (although you do need to be pre-emptive when sprinting, because it naturally gets less accurate), and there are three buttons. When you’re in attack they are Sprint, Pass and Shoot, in defence they are Sprint Tackle, Slide and Switch (player). In order to make variations on these (i.e. Chip Shot) you slide your finger up. To do tricks to fend off defenders you simply tap the screen twice while running. Passing when you’re taking a corner or a penalty shot is incredibly easy, you just tap the player you want to pass too and there it goes. The simplicity is beautiful and works fantastically, everything is right there for you to manoeuvre your thumb into place quickly and simply.
That being said, the game itself does have some issues. Namely, defending is a pain. While your attackers sprint to their hearts content and outrun the defenders easily, your defenders can’t sprint. Sprint tackle just keeps you on the opposition’s tail, it doesn’t give you an faster running pace to come around them. Also, your team’s AIs seem to just stand around, they don’t defend at all if you aren’t controlling them. They’ll just stand near the attacking person as they enter the goal square, as if to say ‘I see you! Not gonna do anything about it, but I’m just letting you know I’m here!’ This is not a big surprise since it is an app version of the game and having intelligent AIs probably lost precedence over, say, realistic physics, but it was annoying knowing that once the opposition had the ball in your half you were pretty much on your own. The goalie is great though, and where my defence AIs failed, he shone.
I played in career mode as Man U (cos I can) and found it to be quite impressive. Manager mode is the main new development and draw of Fifa 12 on iOS, and I can certainly see why. You’re in charge of everything, training, contracts, renewal, organising your players, everything. And the fun of the Board. Oh the Board.
The bane of my existence in this game was not the lack of AI defence, it wasn’t the fact that the soundtrack is really odd, it was the Board. The Board basically controls your decisions, they have things that they want you to do (such as renew certain player’s contracts, win things, beat a rival team) and if you don’t do exactly what they say they get very cranky. At one point I had been winning a huge amount of games to receive only a tepid congratulations, and when I started renewing the contracts of players that were expiring at the end of the season they sent me a message telling me to stop wasting their time and money. The Board provides goals for you to aim towards which is good, but they also make you hate them terribly.
Visual
Overall, it is a fantastic looking game and one of the best on the iOS. While the graphics don’t rival the console versions, I’d say they’re about as good as earlier Fifa versions on console. Close ups on players show that they’re sort of representations of themselves but not super accurate ones, but the pitch and look of the stadiums are great.
Audio
During matches it’s the standard commentary that isn’t quite as unique and responsive as the console version, but again that’s to be expected and it does stand up really well anyway. However, the music behind the menu is unbelievably annoying and bad. Usually I like Fifa’s soundtrack but this one seemed to deviate completely from their usual selection and (not to insult the person in charge of music) was bad. It didn’t suit the game, the sort of mood you should be in when playing Fifa, and just detracted from an otherwise pretty menu screen.
Conclusion
Fifa 12 is a great looking game and on iOS it is definitely the best out there. There are faults to the game, but that’s more to do with the limitations on the system and personal preference, than a comment on the game itself. A definite must buy.
Being a massive fan of soccer (or football for fear of verbal retribution), I’m always excited to see a new addition to the sport on any platform. With the console version released in the US and coming soon to other markets, Konami digital have announced the release of it Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 app. for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. As we would expect from the PES series, the game features ultra-realistic AI, coupled with brand new game modes including the Super challenge mode which allows players to create a “world team, “ based on their favourite or highest ranked players.
Utilising the mobile nature of the game, players can download teams made by others from a cloud server and play against each other, all the while keeping tabs on their rank through facebook. Konami have also done a lot of tweaking to players movements, especially in relation to the goalkeepers who now enjoy much more freedom to close down attacks, react to finely placed shots and come off their line to close down angles. Players movements have also been upgraded to make well known icons more recognisable by their specific traits and actions.
In addition to all these goodies, the game will also exclusively feature the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League as well as the plethora of International and club teams always on offer. There’s also a game mode option for everyone, even those that are very limited with time, as players can opt to compete in full seasons, cup seasons or play online with friends via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Konami have also included a host of mini-games to enjoy such as Quick play matches and the ability to practice your shooting skills so you don’t choke in those big matches.
The Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 app. is available free from the Itunes App. store for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, with additional DLC available for $5.99 through the In-App purchase.
