Have you got Portal? What do you mean you haven’t?! It’s ok, relax. Valve has got your back! Until September 20 you can download the original Portal for FREE on Steam. That’s right PC and Mac users, you can own the critically acclaimed Portal for FREE!
For those who’ve been living under a rock for the past four years, Portal hit the Xbox 360, P.C. and Playstation 3 in 2007 and blew us all away! Since then the game has been re-released on XBLA in 2008, Mac last year, and now it’s hit Steam! A sequel recently was released and that too stunned us all, for the sceptical you can check out our review here.
Valve has launched a new website called Learn with Portals to promote their Steam service, where gamers can download Portal for free!
At this years Tokyo Game Show, Sega showcased a great deal of upcoming games for the Nintendo 3DS. I tried by very best to do the rounds and play as many 3DS titles as humanly possible, not just those presented by Sega. The very first Sega game I got my hands on was called Project Mirai, a cute little rhythm based game.
The game is rather basic to pick up, but a little harder to get the hang of, which I found out the hard way after losing a few times on the harder difficulties. Basically, the game plays an original soundtrack, presenting a circle on the screen. A hand will move around the circle like a clock, and point to buttons (the demo only A and B but I am not sure if more buttons will be involved). While you play a long there are cute little animations of the big-eyed blue-haired character dancing around.
The Nintendo 3DS wasn’t the only portable device Sega are flexing their rhythm-game muscles on. Over on the PSP, Sega showcased the title, Project Diva Extended. For all the cute little elements of Project Mirai, Project Diva Extended had them matched, only in not such a kid-like design. There are even similarities, with the Project Diva avatar looking like a more realistic version of the Project Mirai. The basic idea is the same, press buttons in time to music, but the game play is very different. Rather than having a set circle, button combinations appear across the screen at random points. Project Diva also includes the directional pad, rather than just the basic set of buttons, making the game much more difficult to master.
Overall both games were fun little games that could be played any time without too much involvement. Both have great graphical interfaces and some pretty addictive game play. Project Mirai will be out in early 2012, while PSP owners can get their hands on Project Diva Extended a little earlier, on the 10th of November this year.
Want your own COG armor? Well this one of a kind suit (minus the lancer, underclothes and boots) could be yours! What’s the hitch? Well to get an entry code you have to purchase one of Calibur11’s fully customised Gears of War 3 Vaults, released today in the UK and available on their website for 69.99 GBP. As previously reported, the Vault is specially designed for the Xbox 360 Slim model, and improves airflow and console stability. It comes complete with a controller cradle and is emblazoned with a Crimson Omen – it even glows red whenever the player is downed in Gears of War 3!
One lucky buyer will walk away with the COG suit, whilst 100 runners up will receive a ‘bleed out’ inspired hoodie. You do have to be over 18, and live in Europe or Asia-Pacific to enter, so if you were ever considering splashing out on a Gears of War Vault for your console, with the game less than a week away and this amazing suit up for grabs, now is the time to buy.
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi Director: Jonathan Liebesman Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Ramon Rodriguez, Will Rothhaar, Ne-Yo Running Time: 116 minutes Available for purchase at:Sony Pictures ($17.49USD Blu-ray/$19.95USD Combo Pack)
Overview
When Battle: Los Angeles was released in the cinemas, I’ll admit that I didn’t even bat an eyelid. I just skimmed over the synopsis, decided it wasn’t for me, and moved on with my life. However, it seems to film has found me yet again, so I decided to invest the time to give it a go – perhaps it would surprise me.
Unfortunately, it did no such thing. The film is exactly as I expected it would be: flat and predictable. With an exhausted and clichéd narrative and characters, Battle: Los Angeles was almost doomed from the start. The visual elements had the potential to redeem it, but here I also feel it fell short, overall making for a very forgettable experience.
Plot
The narrative is your typical alien meets army hero film. Sergeant Michael Nantz just got his retirement approved after a long and painful career with the Marines. He is on the brink of leaving, however when meteors begin to approach Earth at an alarming rate, Nantz is called back in to do his duty and protect the civilians. Upon arriving at the site of these ‘meteors’, the team of Marines is shocked to find groups of unidentified species shooting at large across the coast. The team are then dispatched to rescue a group of civilians trapped in a police station before the Air Force bombs the entire area in a bid to kill the aliens.
As far as a plot goes, this is about as textbook as it comes. Every single person has seen this story in at least one other film during their lifetime (basically any kind of action or sci-fi flick, really). Man fights between the guilt of his past, aliens come out of nowhere, and said man must rise to the status of hero again. The narrative seemed to take a backseat to the action – and while this is perfectly okay, I wonder why they even bothered to make a story. In fact, they should have just called it Marines vs. Aliens, because it would have summed up the narrative in three words and we could have all just watched the shooting instead.
What was also disappointing was that while Liebesman could have at least tried requesting a decent reason for why the aliens are on Earth, he settled instead for a mediocre one: they’re apparently trying to steal our water. What could have become very District 9-esque soon spiralled down into an obvious quick attempt to throw any possible justification for unidentified species to be on our planet.
Characters
The main character of the film is Nantz, played by Aaron Eckhart. While most of us will know him for his brilliant portrayal as Harvey Dent alongside Christian Bale and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Eckhart’s latest character is anything but – any character development is exchanged for a lump of clichés instead. Nantz is a man who has seen the struggles of combat, and must live with the guilt of having his entire crew die while under his leadership. He must rise to the occasion when his team needs him, and in doing so, he must come to terms with his own past.
The central flaw to Nantz’s character is that he just doesn’t click and develop a relationship with the audience. While Eckhart had the potential to play the role poignantly and give the audience something powerful, he instead seemed to settle for a pre-conceived role – it’s as if he’s just going through the motions of being regretful instead of actually feeling regret. It can be convincing for a few brief seconds and at moments, such as when Eckhart refuses to abandon the leader of this new mission, he almost had me; then the emotion stopped, and it just became acting again.
The other characters almost merge into one another: aside from 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Nantz’s boss on the alien mission), the other Marines do not stand out or contribute a great deal to the overall narrative. In fact, the only face I recognised was Corporal Kevin Harris (and that’s because he was played by Ne-Yo). Martinez floats between being likeable and unlikeable; it’s almost as though the writers had bipolar and couldn’t decide whether they wanted him to be spiteful at Nantz for his history or a powerful leader. This again could have been utilised as great character development, but instead it was confusing to the narrative.
Visual/Audio
The visuals were perhaps the best aspect of Battle: Los Angeles (although that’s not really saying much, given the rest of the areas). There were some unique shots that wouldn’t be typical of an action/sci-fi flick, and had me pleasantly surprised – handycam shots and close ups akin to those found in first person shooters gave this film an interesting touch. However, for every interesting or unique shot, there were a dozen others that were predictable. None of the scenery or backdrops had anything special about them either, and for the most part, the cinematography was average.
Of course, special effects play a massive role in this film. What did confuse me, though, is that while aliens are CGI, there is some conflict in their appearance. From far away, they look like robotic Terminators; up close they have fleshy insides. This animation threw me off, and it seems Liebesman just fell short again when it came to character creation – even with the unidentified species.
As far as audio elements go, Battle: Los Angeles is again just…well, average. The soundtrack features popular hits such as Tupac’s California Love. Other songs are there to make the audience feel the correct emotions at the correct times. Like I mentioned before, everything is done right in a technical sense; however, it feels as though it’s just going through the motions as opposed to actually striking a chord with the audience on a deeper level.
DVD Extras/Blu-ray edition
The DVD is jam-packed with extras, as all these films always are. The standard DVD comes with Behind the Battle, Aliens in LA, Preparing for Battle, and Creating L.A. in L.A. – basically, all the ‘making of’ extras you could hope for. However, the film also is available on Blu-ray and in a combo pack (DVD and Blu-ray). Purchasing the Blu-ray will not only allow you to gain more features (Directing the Battle, Boot Camp, The Freeway Battle and Command Control), but it’s probably worth the extra money to see the film the way it was meant to be seen.
Final Comments
Battle: Los Angeles is nothing special – in fact, it feels like a draft proposal for what the film was actually going to be. If you have a palette for poignant narratives and avant-garde films, then give this a miss. With that being said, if you’re looking to kill two hours with some mindless action and like aliens, then pick up Battle: Los Angeles because it is absolutely perfect for you.
Given the success of the first Dance Central, there’s no surprise that Dance Central 2 for the Xbox 360 Kinect will be launching in October this year. Microsoft held small demonstrations and provided the opportunity for people ask questions about their up coming title.
By now, I’m sure most people know about the ability for two players to play Dance Central 2 simultaneously. Microsoft went into a bit of detail about two player motion tracking, as well as show casing how it all works. Dancing players can step in and out of frame to take a break from playing and the screen will automatically begin to start tracking the player left within the frame. If the player jumps back in, they will be tracked too. Unlike Dance Central, the sequel allows for players to both play at the same time, rather than alternate in verses mode. Furthermore, Dance Central 2 is not limited to verses mode, players can play co-operatively. Microsoft also noted that players cannot play together online. While they can compete through high scores and leader boards, simultaneous playing is limited to players in the same space. After seeing two players dancing in front of the Kinect, I think I have to agree with this emphasis on the presence of players and the push to maintain Dance Central as a socially driven game.
Microsoft also made note of the voice control options in Dance Central 2. Players can seamlessly change songs, navigate menus and pause the game via voice control, rather than interrupt their game play by moving their hands, which are engaged in dancing. The break it down mode especially benefits from the integration of voice control.
It was also revealed that songs for Dance Central 2 will also eventually be region specific. The game will support 14 languages and fans are able to request region specific songs via the Dance Central website or Dance Central Facebook.
In Tokyo I got to sit down with one of my favourite online action RPG’s, Phantasy Star Online 2, I played the original on Dreamcast to death and knew the franchise had slowly gone downhill since then. As such, I was unaware that it would be showcased and found myself pretty excited to play it. Luckily I wasn’t let down, this time around the developers have actually made what looks like a true sequel, improving the graphics, combat system and overall feel of the game. It looks like that excitement from the early 2000’s is back with this follow up, it felt like I was 14 again.
Currently the NA/EU release isn’t set in stone and the only platform is Windows PC, but a ALPHA will be coming along and the release on other platforms is still up in air. I was fairly impressed with the game, so I ended up going back twice to try and find out as much as possible. Firstly, you can finally jump in the game! This was one frustrating element that I felt was missing from previous games. I was playing a Force, meanwhile my friend was on a ranger. Suprisingly rangers can now lock on and shoot third person style, which plays similar to something like Gear of Wars and it’s a nice addition. More additions like this have been added to other classes as well, even the map system seems to be better than before.
There’s only 3 classes planned for release, another one is on the way. I believe the three will be, Hunter, Force and Ranger, the third wasn’t revealed. PVP is a possible in the future and the combat system is abit quicker and has more combos, along with the ability to climb on bosses for bonus damage. The level I played was forest, which if you’re a PSO player you’ll know means the boss is a dragon, the difference here was the level design and player capacity. These areas allow up to 12 people, while the bosses allow only 4, how that works if you have 12 people who wish to join wasn’t revealed. The levels are also dynamic, which means the environment changes slightly on every instance. Quests will also be around for the sequel, which I imagine work rather similar to the previous games.
If you’ve played PSO before, you’ll know the single player campaigns aren’t exactly the greatest. PSO2 will have one of those, although it’s like the old games, where it’s exactly the same as the multi-player. Not much information was revealed on story and whether or not there’ll be seperate characters for online and offline. Speaking of character creation, I believe SEGA have revised the process and added more customisation, it’s not something I got hands on with but I saw some at the conference.
The most impressive thing was probably the graphics (instantly knew they were much better) and just the complete overhaul of the game, which is something it really needed to catch up with the ever expanding online multiplayer market. There was a lack of mags in the version I played, however I was told they’d be present, which will make any fan happy. In short, what I played has me hoping that this will be the best PSO yet since the original. Here’s hoping it gets localised sooner rather than later.
Namco Bandai have announced at Tokyo Game Show 2011, that Americans will be able to take to the skies in Ace Combat 3D on their Nintendo 3DS consoles, come November 15th, 2011.
The American version is set to be titled Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy instead of Ace Combat 3D and will make use of the Nintendo 3DS consoles, stereoscopic 3D display for immersive aircraft piloting and touch screen for targetting with said aircrafts.
You can check out the trailer for the upcoming 3D aerial combat title straight from the TGS 2011 kitchen below. Be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you think of Ace Combat 3D.
Just in case you weren’t already excited enough for FIFA 12 to come out, I’d like to drag you away from the demo for just a few minutes and show you EA Sports’ latest video addition. The flagship of FIFA seems to have gotten a whole lot better with some great improvements to player transfers.
Simon Humber, the Creative Director of FIFA 12, talks us through player transfers and in particular the deadline day. You now get 8 “hours” in which you can work through to either get some last desperate attempts at persuading a player to join your team or do your best to hang on to all your prized players.
“You may find yourself getting involved without meaning to get involved. You might have a great squad, you’re happy with it, but suddenly a bid comes in…it really can change your squad dramatically at the last minute” Said Humber.
So boys and girls, in exactly two weeks you will be able to get your hands on a copy, let us know what you’re most excited about and also what you’ve thought of the gameplay so far from the demo.
Daishi Odashima is Soulcalibur V’s director and if you were to follow his twitter feed at @Daishi_CALIBUR then you would be finding out that he is pretty vocal about the title he is working on. He has let a bit slip out in the past few hours, such as Creative Intelligence Arts working on the music for the game as well as John Kurlander creating fully-orchestrated music for the game. Plus that Ivy’s 2P outfit is revealing.
But he also happened to announce that Soulcalibur V is going to be released during the first quarter of 2012. To be more exact he said “People are asking a lot about the release date. I can tell everyone that it will be released in the 1st quarter of 2012 in the US and EU!” Now this does help narrow down the release window slightly, but not very much. Take a shot at when you think Soulcalibur V will be released?
Today at Tokyo Game Show the Tales series of games held a conference for the press and there they announced yet another new Tales game, this one is called Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave. This game is going to be a spinoff for the PlayStation Portable and is going to be an action focused title where players fight against mobs of enemies in pairs.
The game will contain fifteen different characters from the Tales series of games and each one will have their own storyline. Some characters which were shown were Yuri and Fren from Vesperia and Lloyd and Zelos from Symphonia. The game looks to play extremely similar to a Dynasty Warriors game, where players will roam around a battle field and defeat masses of enemies alongside their potentially AI partner. No other information was given about the game during the conference, so expect more news about the title in the future and maybe even potential localization.
