Namco Bandai have been holding footage of the upcoming One Piece: Kaizoku Musou close to the chest since it’s announcement, that is until now. Today they have released the first official trailer for the upcoming One Piece themed Dynasty Warriors game, which can be viewed below.
This news follows the One Piece: Kaizoku Musou news earlier today, that the game will follow the entire story of One Piece, from the East Blue saga all the way to the end of the Marineford arc.
The game indeed looks incredibly impressive and is sure to be an interesting new direction for the One Piece video-game series. What do you think of the trailer? Let us know in the shout box or comments section.
Following Blood-C’s lead earlier today, Blue Exorcist is now getting a movie follow-up as well, finally coming full circle in it’s Full Metal Alchemist similarities.
Blue Exorcist was previously adapted into an anime series and mid-way through drifted from it’s original manga content (much like Full Metal Alchemist). The anime series itself is set to conclude this coming Sunday, which is already going to be a big day for anime, what with One Piece going into the New World and Hunter x Hunter making it’s long awaited return in animated form. Needless to say, all eyes will be on anime on October 2nd, 2011.
No further details have been revealed regarding the Blue Exorcist film, not even a release date. So for now it’s entirely up to the speculation of the fans. Want to speculate as well? Let us know your thoughts in the shout box or comments section.
Ubisoft have uploaded two new trailers for the upcoming installment in the popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Revelations. One trailer details the results of the multiplayer beta and the other details the new Hook Blade item.
The results of the multiplayer beta are incredibly impressive with near 6 million multiplayer matches having been played, for the full details and even some killer gameplay footage of the multiplayer mode, check out the trailer below:
The second trailer shows off the awesome new weapon to be featured prominently in Assassin’s Creed Revelations. That weapon is the Hook Blade, a new weapon that not only assists in combat but also provides new unqiue ways to travel across the cityscape. You can check it out in action in the gameplay trailer below:
Ubisoft definitely has some truly impressive features on display here, what with the new Hook Blade and the monumental multiplayer beta numbers. I am sure that Assassin’s Creed fans will be chomping at the bit after watching these trailers as the await the impending release of the next chapter in the life of Ezio Auditore.
What do you think of these new trailers? Let us know in the shout box and comments section.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD Developer & Publisher: Capcom Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade (Reviewed), PlayStation Network Release Date: September 27, 2011 Price: $19.99 or 1600 MSP – Purchase Here!
Overview:
Many things can happen in ten years. A few more things can happen in eleven years. This can pertain to any number of things, whether it is on a global scale or even just in one industry. The video game industry has evolved much since the year 2000, so much in fact that no one could imagine the type of titles we are treated to today on a regular basis.
Eleven years can change a franchise as well. The Resident Evil franchise can be seen as perhaps one of the most evolved franchises as their formula evolution helped drive Capcom to release a title widely released to be one of the best in the entire series. However these changes all occurred after one last title sustaining the old guard, Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Now Capcom has released an HD remake of this eleven year old game, but does the whole experience simply hide behind nostalgia-blurred goggles?
Story:
Despite its age, perhaps some aren’t familiar with the game’s storyline. Resident Evil 2 co-protagonist Claire Redfield is still on the search for her brother after surviving the zombie outbreak at Raccoon City and has ended up being captured while she was raiding an Umbrella headquarters in an attempt to find out more information.
She has been whisked off to a strange prison on Rockfort Island but of course, things aren’t going to be so simple. Shortly after being thrown in a jail cell a T-Virus outbreak has occurred and bio-weapons released. She now must survive and escape from the contaminated island and also come across a few extremely strange characters along the way.
Resident Evil has never been a series with an amazing storyline and the characters which you come across are extremely cliché but in Code Veronica it is part of the charm. The storyline is still rather interesting and as you learn more about Rockfort Island and the very odd Ashford family.
While the story may be interesting the first time through, many gamers should already know the song and dance with the story and won’t be surprised by anything they are seeing. As such, there are really no branching paths or anything to encourage a second replay other than obtaining a better scored ending.
Graphics:
Now with any HD remake, you would expect a number of things to be changed and upgraded. However there is little actually upgraded here. The remastering of the title is rather appalling and to be honest is something that shouldn’t be encouraged. There are a few plusses to the HD upgrade, such as the menu’s being completely redone so they look great and the game being upscaled to HD.
On the other hand there has been little actual improvement to the game’s graphics. The textures are just shabby looking and the characters themselves look just a little crisper at best, with very stiff animations that make it look like they are all puppets on a stage. Something that is very badly done are the cutscenes using pre-rendered footage as they are just atrocious in appearance and let us not even begin on the way the doors look. You would think with the amount of opening doors or climbing stairs, which used to hide loading times in the old game, you have to spend they could have upgraded it a little. But they are just plain terrible and from a game that is supposed to be in HD are inexcusable.
Audio:
When you imagine an HD remake you would hope that the original audio has been upgraded a little bit but that isn’t the case here. Everything sounds the same as the original title on the Dreamcast, though if there was any enhancement it is so miniscule it is unnoticeable.
Despite this, the game’s soundtrack still holds up rather well and hearing the zombies moan is always something that will send a shiver up your spine as you remember yourself ten years earlier playing the title. Then again, the voice acting is just so laughably terrible you may find yourself laughing at dramatic moments simply due to the way the characters sound.
Gameplay:
Code Veronica came at a time before the Resident Evil franchise turned a bit more towards action and over the shoulder cameras. This means that those unfamiliar with the Resident Evil series before #4 will encounter one of the biggest issues with Code Veronica, the controls.
Now, albeit truthful to the original game, the player must control Claire Redfield in such a strange and stilted. She drives more like a tank to be honest, having to stop and turn left or right in place before walking forward or backwards. This is just lovely for fighting zombies, and this is only combined with the fact that the controls and movement are entirely different from the camera perspective.
As you make your way through the world you will quickly learn why camera angles are no longer fixed in most titles anymore. The camera angle is fixed in a certain position and will not change until you move to a certain area, this can make for a great experience when you are right at the edge of these camera angle shifts and are shooting a gun. Combine this with the movement being independent from the camera and you will often be pushing the wrong way to move forward and instead turn around or walk backwards making navigation something quite hard to grow accustomed to in today’s world. Still, you have to give the game a bit of credit for remaining true to its history and replicate the good ol’ experience.
Also, remember the above mentioned doors and staircases which used to mask loading times in an interesting way? Well they are still in the game and will be enjoyed by purists and are still good to see occasionally they are just completely archaic. There is no way to skip climbing a flight of stairs or opening a door, which is inexcusable considering it is impossible for the loading to take that long for a title as un-advanced graphically as RE:CV.
Still through all of this you will find an enjoyable game here and surviving against the zombies and bio weapons that you will come across is very exhilarating and also a bit scary as well. This comes through having a limited amount of inventory space for not only healing items, but also weapons and quest items to unlock doors and advance further in the game. This creates a steady stream of anxiety as you play through the game and is very enjoyable.
Also once you finish the game you will unlock Battle Mode which will give you five characters to choose from and allow the player to kill waves of enemies as fast as possible to advance to the next area. These modes are done in first person so it is a nice change of pace and gives the player an extra way to kill time and get some more life out of the title.
Unfortunately there is little else added to the title besides an Online leaderboard system which may be intriguing to some who are trying to outdo their friends in some way. But for others this will simply be a feature that is left alone or ignored entirely as they continue to play through the survival horror experience that is Resident Evil: Code Veronica HD.
Overall:
Resident Evil: Code Veronica is a lovely survival horror title and can be remembered as the last great game from the past of a franchise. It is a great representation of the old title and purists may have a great time, but others will find a different experience visiting the past. Code Veronica’s dated graphics will certainly hold down the enjoyment for many especially for a title touted as an HD release. Every game ages, and HDing up a title from eleven years ago with no changes may make gamers feel like the company is simply cashing in on nostalgia here.
In an odd bit of news, Turn 10 creative director Dan Greenawalt recently shed some light on the various inspirations for Forza Motorsport 4, in an interview with GodIsAGeek.
While this may seem like an obvious answer, it’s inspired by motorsport, that is not all that was influencing Turn 10 in the creative process. Surprisingly two incredibly unlikely games served as the point of reference for the team at Turn 10, those games being Pokemon and World of Warcraft.
You’d be forgiven for not seeing how these game’s tie in with Forza 4 in any way at all. So let Dan Greenawalt soothe your curious mind, “We take inspiration from Pokémon for our levelling systems and addictive layer rewards and variable schedule for rewards to get people addicted. World of Warcraft for our Auction House. Storefronts was from Yahoo Stores.”
But what about other racing games Dan? Well he’s got you covered, “I play all the other racing games but I take no inspiration from them because the goal is to actually push the genre forward, and we’re known for pushing so much more than most of the genre because of things with social and user-generated content.”
What do you think about this rather surprising Forza 4 news? Let us know in the shout box or comments section.
Name: The Sims Medieval
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Genre: Simulation
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: September 22 2011
Price: $4.99 – BUY NOW
Overview
I’ve already gone into how much I enjoy the Sims in my previous Sims Ambitions app review here, so I won’t repeat myself. Basically, I love the Sims, and I’m quite impressed with the standard of the mobile app conversion. The Sims Medieval not only lives up to that standard, but it exceeds it. However, the part that most surprised me is that it does so in quite a different way than I expected it to.
Gameplay
As per usual, you customise your character in the start of the game. Like other Sims apps, the customisation is nowhere near the PC version, but it still has a range there. The thing that tipped me off that Sims Medieval would be unlike other Sims instalments before it was that while the personality choices were many and quite varied, you could only pick one. That’s not to say that your character won’t develop a personality, but they will do so according to your actions. This is the first feature that emulates an RPG, but don’t worry there will be plenty to come.
I decided to make myself a charming musketeer-like guy called Frederic because when you’re playing in medieval times what else you gonna be? A big part of the Sims Medieval is making your own story. At various stages in the game you pick from four options, in the beginning it is simple-minded, gentleman, orphan and naughty. As the game goes on these evolve to have a clearer image of your character whether it be religious, wizard, evil character or warrior. I chose a gentlemanly scholar, because why make up a fake person if they aren’t going to be super awesome?
You are assigned a house to begin with, with all the necessities, and you can move, sell, or buy furniture but you can’t actually edit the house itself. You also can’t pick which house you live in, you simply upgrade when you get to a certain point in the story. You don’t get to choose if you want to upgrade or not, you just get the notice that you have been given a new house with all your old furniture sold at cost price.
The Sims Medieval is a lot less sandbox than previous Sims installments. There aren’t nearly as many needs to fulfil, your Sim only needs sleep, to eat, to socialize and have fun. Apparently in Medieval times people didn’t need to relieve themselves. The slimming down of the needs leaves a lot more time for you to concentrate on getting and finishing quests. To do quests you have to buy them with Focus Points. Focus Points were the most annoying thing in the game for me, because it takes forever to save them up and the way that you recharge them isn’t reliable. I often ended up just wandering around the town with nothing to do waiting for my FP to go back up. At one point I had nothing to do and found it impossible to get enough FP so I just ended up marrying a hot black vampire woman and wandered around a bit. Then I went back home and had some Woohoo, oh and what’s that? My FP went up by 5 points because my Sim was ‘sated’. Interesting…
One annoying thing was that my house was basically treated as a public forum (perhaps due to the fact that there were no NPC houses about), people wandered in from the street without knocking, slept in my bed and ate my food, to my cost much to my annoyance. At one point this evil, ugly woman stole my food and I ended up just fighting her. Homeowner’s rights to defend against intruders and all that.
As with most RPGs, there is a good/bad scale depending on your actions. I hovered around the middle of the scale, as I usually do when I make the choices I actually want to make. From what I could tell it didn’t make a huge effect on the story. In fact, in order to complete all the available quests you end up straddling both sides of the spectrum. As a bit of an achievement whore trying to finish off the 43 quests, I ended up stealing from the church as well as holding a bandit accountable for stealing a chicken.
As I mentioned before, your traits are gathered through you progressing through the story. You get a choice of four directions you can take your story, I chose to make Frederic into a warrior. This also gives you a main person to go to quests for and an interesting storyline to experience.
One of the big new things that Sims Medieval introduced was combat mode. It isn’t exactly the best combat mode out there, but it certainly is a good addition. It’s a fairly simple system with having a combat button that you press when you’ve recharged your attack. While you’re recharging you’re pretty much just defenceless. You compose your own guild by making friends with people and asking them to join, they provide a back up while you’re recharging your attack.
Visual/Audio
The visuals are excellent, as is to be expected from the Sims. There are small glitches, but nothing too terrible. The map is the same as other Sims app designs, with a wide view and small coloured avatars to represent people. The menu and controls are done in a medieval style and the whole thing has a great feel to it.
The audio is nothing to brag about, it’s basically just the usual Sims soundtrack and sound effects with a medieval twist.
Conclusion
The Sims Medieval is a great app, it may not be exactly what people are looking for in a Sims game, but the fact that they’ve evolved the game and made it more story-based is a great step forward. If anything it makes the player more involved, while still retaining the foundation of what makes the Sims so popular. For anyone who is looking for a well-developed and great-looking RPG app with sandbox elements this is the perfect game.
New independent studio from the UK, Mojo Bones, have kindly shared a teaser for their upcoming iOS title, Tongue Tied. The teaser acts as the introduction to the upcoming game, showing the origin of how the two troublesome canines Mick and Ralph became attached. Charmingly animated, its no wonder Mick and Ralph stare on, eagerly salivating in anticipation of the studios debut release. Make sure that you check out the teaser below for a taste of what is to come.
Tongue Tied is a physics based platformer that will require players to utilise the super elastic abilities of our new found canine companions along their haphazard journey. While no game play footage is available as of yet, Tongue Tied looks to be an incredibly entertaining and humourous, as well as visually stunning title for the iOS. Mojo Bones will be releasing more trailers, revealing more detail about their forthcoming title, so be sure to keep track of their progress in anticipation of more information.
For more information on the latest news from Mojo Bones and their forthcoming iOS title, Tongue Tied, head over to Mojo Bones website, www.mojobones.co.uk. Alternatively, you can like Mojo Bones at their official Facebook page www.facebook.com/mojobonesltd or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mojobonesltd.
THQ’s latest trailer for Saints Row The Third features our crazy friend Professor Genki and his “Super Ethical Reality Climax” extreme game show.
Step into Genki’s arena of death as you compete against other contestants for cash, prizes and your life. Described as the most popular survival game show in Steelport, who wouldn’t want to give this a go?
The much anticipated Man-A-Pault and Octopuss Gun are apparently exclusive to pre-orders, at least presumably in the beginning, although details are yet to be set in stone.
Check out the trailer down below and let us know which insane new thing you are looking forward to most about Saints Row The Third. The game will be out on 360, PS3, and PC on the 15th of November.
With RAGE’s release date less than a week away, it only makes sense that Bethesda and id Software release the final gameplay walkthrough video. You can catch the video below and see a mission in Jackal Canyon named Recover the Decrypter. There is plenty of gameplay that can be seen in the seven minute video, ranging from talking to the quest giver, driving to the area and of course fighting tons of enemies.
The enemies you can find in the video belong to one of the most violent tribe in the wasteland, the Jackal Clan. If this video piqued your interest perhaps you should keep a look out for RAGE when it is released next week on October 4th and October 7th in North America and Europe respectively.
Sentai Filmworks recently announced their acquisition of Persona 4: The Animation ahead of it’s premiere in Japan on October 6th, 2011. They also announced that they were planning to digitally distribute the series. Today they have revealed through what means that digital distribution shall be handled.
Sentai will partner up once again with The Anime Network to simulcast Persona 4: The Animation each Thursday beginning with October 6th, 2011. Each episode will go live on The Anime Network at 3pm EDT, Thursdays and will also make it’s way onto Hulu 24 hours later.
What do you think of this announcement? Will you be tuning in on the 6th of October to watch Persona 4: The Animation? Let us know in the shoutbox or comments section below.
