Ready to see some shaking? Majesco are getting really pumped about their release of Zumba Fitness 2, and today have released a nice sneak peak of the opening cinematic. This clip features the “stylings of Zumba creator Beto” along with celebrity Zumba instructors Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant. Those who are anticipating this follow-up to the highly successful Zumba Fitness will be hearing a lot of those names in the sequel as Beto, Beardsley and Grant will be guiding you through the exhilarating choreography that spans 20 different international dance styles.
Zumba 2 will also allow players to customize their own class with their favorite routines, and then let them track their improvement with an all new progress checker and see calories burned. Yes, it looks like Zumba Fitness 2 is ready to reclaim it’s fitness crown this year and players can expect to dance their way into a better body on November 15th. For now though, feast your eyes on the new opening cinematic below.
Yesterday we saw a very short teaser for what was called the Run for your life mission in IO Interactive’s Hitman: Absolution. Now today we see that that teaser was indeed quite short as the full video which you can see below lasts for nearly seventeen minutes, so it’d be best to make sure you are nice and comfortable if you want to see the whole thing.
In the video we see Agent 47 hide from police in an abandoned Chicago Library, stealthily taking out enemies where he can. But of course, stealth can only take you so far before the action heats up in the latter half of the video. We are treated to plenty of combat, stealth and take downs, but don’t take my word for it check it out yourself.
If you feel like playing as someone other than the big Batman when Batman: Arkham City is released next week then perhaps this bit of DLC news will park your interest. The recently revealed Nightwing is going to be made available in the form of a DLC package that will be released on November 1st. You can check out his character art below.
In this pack players will also obtain two new challenge maps, specifically Wayne Manor and Main Hall. Nightwing is going to have his own move-set and gadgets so he is thankfully not just a re-skin. Also announced was that the pre-order bonus Robin pack will be made available on November 22nd for those who didn’t obtain him. However these character packages aren’t going to be cheap as they will cost 560 MSP or $6.99 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively.
Namco Bandai has announced when we can expect to see Tales of the Abyss 3D on our lonely Nintendo 3DS handhelds. Unfortunately that release date is quite a ways off as the release date has been slated as February 14th of next year, right on Valentines Day for everyone in North America. Perhaps a classic JRPG for that special gamer in your life?
Besides the release date, we also have been given a handful of new screenshots which focus on Guy, Anise and Natalia which you can find below. These images focus mostly on the combat that we will be seeing as well as a couple of the character’s mystic art abilities.
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While Europe may be receiving a new color of the Wii which is a light blue version to go along with Mario & Sonic 2012 Olympic Games, North America is getting the same ol’ bundles we’ve always gotten. Except for one change, as Nintendo of America announced today that they will be releasing a new holiday bundle that includes a black Wii, black Wii Remote Plus and black Nunchuck as well as a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well as a special Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD.
This bundle which goes on sale on October 23rd will cost $150 and will not have any support for the Gamecube as you can see in the picture above, the Wii is a smaller horizontal unit. While this bundle is nice for those who need last minute gift ideas, the lack of any additional color option is quite detrimental.
Those who have been following Squid Girl 2, otherwise known as Shinryaku!? Ika Musume on Crunchyroll will be sad to hear that for some reason or another, the series is going to be on hiatus for two weeks.
This news comes from the show’s official Japanese website where they announced today that the anime’s episodes originally meant to be shown on October 24th and November 7th will not be shown. The reason given is simply stated as being issues with the stations that the show was meant to air on in Japan.
While it is good to know that Squid Girl 2 will still be returning, this doesn’t bode well for the way that the rest of the episodes will fall schedule wise. Most of the time when episodes are delayed, they usually end up being released on Blu-ray and never televised.
I’m not even fit to take care of a houseplant. Despite this, King and his plant-loving fairy named Meu think it would be a good idea for me to help them restore the kingdoms plant life to its former glory. Perhaps its my amazing drawing skills, or perhaps these aren’t actually real people and I’ve just happened to purchase an app for my iPad that involves me drawing to save plants. Regardless of whatever narrative you decide to believe, Taito’s latest game for iOS devices requires you to draw lines in order to help plants, and subsequently the kingdom, to flourish. Time to put on your gardening gloves and head out doors to play Drawin’ Growin’ (please note: Drawin’ Growin’ can also be played in doors, and without the aid of gardening gloves).
Gameplay
Drawin’ Grownin’ is a slightly misleading title. Sure there is growing, if you are half decent at the game of course, but there is a lot more going on then just drawin’. At first the game is very basic. Sunrays fall from the sky, and it’s up to you to draw a path for them to reach the plant. As the game progresses it becomes more complicated to raise happy and healthy plants. It also seems that not all plants will flourish in the sun, only those with brown pots will enjoy the sunlight, while those with blue pots prefer the rain. The further into the game you progress, you will come across plants that must be tapped in order to grow, or ones that luckily survive and grow by eating bugs, however you will have to feed them to the plant.
I’ll be honest, I had no idea gardening was such a difficult and dangerous business. Drawin’ Growin’ is littered with bugs. The further I progress, the more insect life there seems to be. Much like real bugs, they can be defeated with a swift tap. But when they come in hoards this size it gets a little difficult to exterminate them all. If the bugs weren’t enough, high winds, piles of sand and snow, falling icicles and lighting bolts also threaten my beautiful flourishing garden. These can be deflected by drawing a shield over the plants, but it soon becomes very difficult to manage attention when you have all of these hazards and three plants to tend to, all of which require different types of attention.
There are also a number of different level types to play through, all of which are grounded in the core mechanic of growing plants. Standard is exactly what it sounds like, you grow plants. Harvest, again, pretty self-explanatory. You grow plants that are then picked and then you grow more until you complete the goal. Defense requires you to protect already grown plants from the hazardous bugs and natural disasters such as lightening. Last, but certainly not least, there is the most difficult game mode, three steps, which is essentially playing three standard games in one time frame.
Graphics and Audio
It’s seems that we the players aren’t the only ones drawing. The team over at Taito Corp. have been busy with their pencils drawing away to create some stunning graphics for Drawin’ Growin’. Terrifically shaded characters come to life on their very own bits of paper, which are layered with a collage like effect through out the game. A variety of different plants have unique colours and designs, fitting to the type of attention they require. Plants will (hopefully) grow in amazing, yet simplistic environments that retain the same hand drawn quality as all the other game elements. What is particularly wonderful is the level select areas that flourish with plant life the more levels you complete. Sadly the audio doesn’t add all too much to the title, but does help remove some blandness to the game that is slightly noticeable when playing the title with the sound off.
Overall
Despite the amazingly hand drawn style in the graphics, the game lack is still a little lacking. The game is very easy to pick up and learn, but extremely difficult to master. While the mechanics stay the same, not leaving much room for variety, the levels gradually become a little too taxing. Differences between game modes are sometimes very minimal, and at times it just feels as if you are tapping and swiping the screen at random. While Drawin’ Growin’ starts off as a rather basic game, and progresses to an enjoyable casual game, it unfortunately keeps going and becomes a little too frantic to enjoy casually. If you are looking for a game that will progress into a challenge, with a unique artist approach, then Drawin’ Growin’ will be worth your time. If you are looking for a throw away title to play sporadically, perhaps give this one a miss.
Yesterday EA and DICE held a hands-on experience for members of the press in which a few of us at Capsule Computers got the chance to experience the game first hand. To kick things off, Creative Director of DICE, Lars Gustavsson addressed us all with an insightful presentation of which you can see below.
“We’re looking best in class, or at least close to it!” Gustavsson told us with pride, and nothing could be further from the truth but everybody already knew that. With Battlefield 3’s launch only weeks away and now with the BETA closed, we’ve all seen quite a bit of what Battlefield 3 has had to offer, but with so many features in one game it can be hard to take them all in. But Gustavsson broke it all down to the basics to remind us why we should all be excited for Battlefield 3:The Battlelog which focuses on the social elements like no other FPS has before and the Frostbite 2 engine which has made the Battlefield experience greater in 5 separate ways-animation, tactical destruction, scale, rendering and audio.
Gustavsson knows that technology isn’t everything though. “Too be honest you don’t really play an engine don’t you, you play a game.” he said, and assured us that by using Frostbite 2, DICE have been constantly pushing themselves to improve to make the greatest game possible. “We want to do more, we want to do better” he said, and it was clear that both himself and DICE were very passionate about their product. For more details, watch the presentation below!
Daniel Matros is not your typical company man who gets to go travelling around the world to peddle his product. Rocking the cons and tie look, he’s a casual friendly bloke who at one point helped us restart a PS3 and made sure to check up on is later on to see if we were enjoying the gameplay. Daniel Matros is the global Battlefield community manager over at DICE, and we were lucky enough to sit down with him and have a chat about Battlefield 3, the players and his thoughts on DICE’s efforts at keeping things fresh.
Daniel Matros’ job requires him to keep a finger on the pulse of the gaming community, and with a game as socially aware as Battlefield it’s a huge undertaking, especially with Battlelog, a social networking site/app/etc that will take the social side of gaming to a whole new level. But I’ll let him explain it for you guys in the interview below!
Today brought an amazing amount of news for the newly released title from Ubisoft, Just Dance 3. And this will be detailed below.
One lucky Australian will be able to win an opportunity to appear in the next music video from the artist Justice Crew. Not only will they be able to win a chance at appearing in the video, they will also be able to receive a free dancing lesson from the group.
Just Dance 3
launches in Australia on Tuesday October 11, 2011. To be in the running, fans simply purchase a copy of Just Dance 3 on Kinect™ for Xbox 360® or Wii™ from leading retailers and head to
Assuming the winner lives outside of the Sydney metropolitan area, they will also be recieving free airfare and travel to the location. On the competition, the Director of Ubisoft Australia had this to say.
“Justice Crew have a great synergy with Just Dance 3 which is why they are the perfect partners for the game’s launch. The Just Dance franchise is all about entertainment, fun, dance and music and has become a worldwide phenomenon with 15 million sales of the games to date. We are extremely excited to launch Just Dance 3 and can’t wait for people to start enjoying the game’s brand new tracks and features”, said Edward Fong, Managing Director, Ubisoft Australia
In more Just Dance 3 news, The IOS and soon to be Android App – Just Dance 3 AutoDance – has also been released. This application allows users to record footage and match it to one of three included songs in the App. The application is free, so ubisoft encourage as many people as possible to take in the action and have fun.
The idea behind Just Dance 3 Autodance is to allow people to create their own choreographies using the camera on their iPhone or Android smartphone. The application records four video sequences and then combines them to create a short choreography matching one of the three Just Dance 3 songs available in the application:
Duck Sauce – “Barbara Streisand”
The Sugarhill Gang – “Apache (Jump on it)”
Konshens – “Jamaïcan Dance”
Make sure to check out the websites quoted below to obtain the app and watch videos of people that already have gotten their hands on it.
Created videos can then be shared on the users’ Facebook pages and through a special Youtube channel that hosts all the Autodance choreographies:
In the last bit of news today, Ubisoft have announced a special edition of Just Dance 3 which will be available at launch. This pack is recognisable through its shinier packaging, and includes two tracks from Katy Perry; E.T and Teenage Dream. For fans of the series, or Katy Perry, do not miss your opportunity to obtain this limited edition.
