The original Max Payne was a ground breaking third-person shooter released in 2001, sporting a stylish presentation and engaging story, making Mr Payne one of the action genre’s first multi-dimensional characters in video game history, as well as helping of popularizing the idea of ‘bullet-time’ along side The Matrix, and along the way gathered both a significant fan base and collection of awards. The gritty neo-noir action classic spawned a franchise that has sold over 7 million copies worldwide and even a hollywood movie.
Today Rockstar announced that this classic title will be ported to mobile devices later this fall, complete with a full HD treatment. Max Payne will include connectivity and support from the Rockstar Games Social Club and also contain the same features as the PC version, including HD graphics and high-resolution textures, complete with deep, customisable controls. Very little details have been revealed so far, but Rockstar have told us to stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.
Those who haven’t been able to attend any form of gaming convention in the past few months have probably heard plenty about seeing an Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim demo presentation. Unfortunately for them, the footage was never able to be shown outside of the events… until now. Bethesda has released three videos which total to a little over twenty minutes of Skyrim goodness.
You can catch all of the videos below and listen to the narration by Game Director/Executive Producer Todd Howard as he walks through a number of features and plenty of combat, even with a dragon. The demo footage is roughly the same exact footage shown off at E3 this year, but with November 11th seeming so far away still, every drop of Skyrim media is a great thing.
Rockstar Games have released a new title update for Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare in preparation for the upcoming free downloadable content Myths and Mavericks Park. Both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 players will be prompted to download the update when they next log in into Xbox LIVE and Playstation Network respectively. This new update fixes a few multiplayer issues and bugs:
Return of Undead Overrun to original rules (extended sudden death, no explosive spit)
Fixes for several multiplayer exploits, including invincibility, invisibility, flying, and rapid-fire
Fix for exploit which resulted in use of Undead weapons in Free Roam
The addition of an option to exit Undead Overrun without sacrificing XP
Fix for killing other players in Friendly Free Roam by cooking dynamite
Fix for a Poker exploit that resulted in rapid accumulation of money
Fix for occasionally being unable to move after crashing in a wagon
Fix for Nuevo Paraiso bounties being reset upon loading a save
Fix for System Link issue on Xbox 360
Red Dead Redemption’s free Myths and Mavericks DLC pack is available for download tommorow
Namco Bandai is at it again. This is the current Tales situation. Tales of Xillia was released on September 8, roughly four days ago in Japan. With that out of the way, Namco Bandai has already moved onto the next Tales project. Already, only after four days? The reveal of new information astonishes me, as the countdown at time of publish is currently at one day and seventeen hours. What makes it more astonishing is the fact the website states “New Tales of”. What does this mean? A new mothership title? A spin-off title? Well, we will find out at the Tokyo Game Show, as that seems the best opportunity to announce the game. Maybe it is part of the “new titles announcements” section of Namco Bandai’s showing.
What do you think the new Tales game might be? Will we see it in the West? Leave your comments below.
T.N.K III Developer: SNK Publisher: SNK Platform: Playstation 3/Playstation Portable (minis) Release Date: Out Now Price: $2.99
Man, there are quite a bit of arcade re-releases at the moment. Apparently that seems to be the business right about now. With that in mind, it’s time for another downloadable re-release review with tank battles the focus of this review. Get ready for a grand war as you, the player, cross through different terrain to battle ground troops, other tanks and homing missiles in T.N.K III. This 2D vertical scrolling tank game, developed by SNK, was released in arcades in the mid 1980’s and now appears as part of the Playstation minis range. It features classic tank gameplay, delectable 2D graphics and retains the 8-bit music. However, is it worth downloading?
Gameplay
T.N.K III is a standard 2D top down shooter, only this time you control a tank. Your objective is to get from one end of the map to the other. Plain and simple. However, there is a whole army of ground troops, tanks and other gun stations trying to stop you in your tracks. Trust me, they will try everything. The tank’s main weapons are the machine gun (press X) and a cannon, which fires a shell (press O). The controls are Ok but can be awkward due to the original control set up. The game used a rotary joystick when it was released in the arcades. Due to a lack of such, to turn the cannon, you have to press L1 and R1. This is a little awkward at first but you do get use to it. Of course, like every game in this genre, you will be able to collect power ups. They include better tank shells and extra energy. I do have to add, however, that it is a necessity to survive on the first tank because the power up will help you immensely in the later stages of the game. If you have played Ikari Warriors or Iron Tank (the sequel to this game), then you will be familiar with the style of gameplay.
Just like Alpha Mission and Vanguard II, another arcade re-release from SNK which I will review, the game offers you four difficulty modes: Easy, normal, Hard and Hardest. But no matter the difficulty you decide to choose, expect a tough road to victory. A common motif with these arcade games is the idea of having too much projectiles on the screen at the same time. Tank shells, bullets and homing missiles could be on the screen directed to you. Other than that, it is excellent gameplay. You can also run over the ground troops, which reward you with a little extra health. More often than not you will be squashing those men. Is it sadistic to say that I enjoyed it? Overall, the gameplay is excellent and fun.
Visuals
The visuals, since this is a direct port of the arcade game, it retains the classic 8-bit graphics. The colours are bright and variant. As the tank progresses, it will pass different terrains, like forests, lakes and even a statue. The enemies are small, so don’t expect any sort of facial details, but they do have different uniforms to distinguish themselves from their brethren. You will see a flow of men in green and grey (with red caps). The tanks are also coloured differently depending on their cannon fire. There are brown tanks, green tanks and even blue tanks. The level design is well though out, giving the player space to manoeuvre, which is very important in this game. Overall, the visuals are great for its time.
Music
The music sent me on a nostalgic trip. I love the old school 8-bit sound effects of the game. The explosions have that Atari feel, the machine gun fire is like an 8-bit train speeding on the tracks. The cannon fire is a massive thud when launched from the tank. Other familiar sounds include the launch of a missile from the lake, which is a warring sign of heavy damage and, for some odd reason, the death sound when a ground trooper dies reminds me of the death sound of Pacman. I could be pushing it, but it does remind me of that classic death noise. But what about the background music? Well, there isn’t any background music when you play, which is quite cool. There are so many sound effects, there is no point on having that background music. Overall, the 8-bit music is awesome due to the nostalgic effect it has one me (and others no doubt).
Overall
Yesterday, I recommended Alpha Mission for everyone who enjoys space shooters, retro games or both. Well, I can say the same thing about T.N.K III. I believe that this is a great game worth paying the $2.99 they ask for. The gameplay is absolutely fun, the visuals are outstanding for the time and the music will send you back in time… in your mind. If you love this sort of gameplay for just want to play it for the mistalgic factor, then go sign in to (or sign up for) the US Playstation Store and buy this game. It is a purchase you won’t regret.
In celebration for their upcoming update for Sreet Fighter IV Volt for iPhone/iPod/iPad, Capcom-Unity are hosting a Street Fighter give away on their website! This new update will contain 2 new fighters: one being Fei Long, the other yet to be revealed. Fans now have the chance to guess at the second character that will be in the update, on their page. Accepting one guess per person, and only accepting one name, participants better think hard! All entries that are correct will be thrown into the drawing to win an awesome Street Fighter prize pack that includes:
1. SFIV,SSFIV Official Complete guide/art book
2. SSFIV promo Playing card
3. SSFIV AE premium sound track
and the gift Capcom app bundle:
– RE4 mobile edition
– RE Mercenaries VS.
– Dead Rising Mobile
– DMC4 Refrain
– Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting
– Ghost and Goblins 1 and 2
In a recent interview with Game Informer, Nintendo’s very own director and producer of video games Eiji Aonuma revealed a few minor details for the future planned post Skyward Sword.
Aonuma revealed that the Wii U the Zelda footage shown at E3 is not necessarily how the first Zelda game for the Wii U would actually appear. He said:
“The demo that we showed at E3 was really just more of a rough idea of if all we were to do was to take a Zelda game and put it in HD, this is what it might look like. We’re much more interested in looking at the power of the Wii U system and seeing how we can take advantage of that power to do things that we haven’t been able to do in a Zelda game before…. One of our goals with [Skyward Sword] is to be the first step in illustrating for people how the Zelda series can change and evolve.”
Next he dropped a small yet exciting hint about an upcoming original Zelda game for the 3DS, following the critically acclaimed Ocarina of Time 3D remake. Aonuma stated that they expect to do something “very interesting” on the system and suggested that quite some work had already been done for it, perhaps with the visuals. “It will be a game in which having 3D will mean something” he said. Very interesting indeed!
With Skyward Sword getting closer and closer to it’s release, it’s awesome to hear that Aonuma and team at Nintendo have a whole bunch of other Zelda material coming in the future. This is surely an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan!
Crimson Alliance Developer: Certain Affinity Publisher: Xbox LIVE Arcade Platform: XBLA Release date: 7 September 2011 Price: 1200 MP (3 class pack), 800 MP (one class pack), Free Trial (here)
Overview:
Crimson Alliance has a tough act to follow. As a top down action-RPG it falls roughly into the same genre as the incredibly well received Bastion, released only a few months ago. Developed by multiplayer specialists Certain Affinity (who worked-for-hire on Halo 2 and Left 4 Dead), Crimson Alliance is their second full game for XBLA, following up pirate strategy game Age of Booty.
Players can choose from one of three classes to play through a series of dungeon crawling levels, with missions available in single player and both online and local multiplayer. The classes are the standard RPG triumvirate of wizard, warrior and rogue, although here the warrior is a mercenary and the rogue an assassin. After some brief customisation options that will leave RPG fans a little concerned (name and clothing colour only), the story kicks into gear.
Story:
There is a plot to Crimson Alliance, just. It has something to do with an evil half naked sorceress destroying a city and summoning the undead. The wizard thinks he has something to do with it but handily has amnesia. Thanks to the opening sequence players will know exactly what happened and sadly they won’t care. The plot is barely connected to the actual gameplay at all and screams of being an afterthought – it’s not good that after playing the game right through and repeating several levels and playing some co-op, I still couldn’t tell you the name of the city the plot centres around. There’s no sense of story progression and winning the few boss fights has absolutely zero impact when you have no idea what it is your supposed to be doing other than killing things.
It’s not that a huge story is expected from an XBLA title, it’s just that what there is lacks the detail to make you think about what you’re doing, instead of button mashing to achieve a goal, you’re just button mashing. The unlockable challenges in particular are completely void of any detail, with not even the briefest of text boxes to explain what they are. Enemies appear, you kill them.
The gameplay is solid and entertaining, so it’s a real shame that Crimson Alliance has nothing to back it up on the story front.
Gameplay:
The combat is easily the game’s strongest point. The controls are simple, with the face buttons providing ranged and melee attacks and dashes. The exact moveset depends on your class, and of course you can block too. The wizard freezes enemies whilst the assassin can stun them, and each class has a special ‘ultimate power’, which can only be unleashed by killing enough enemies to fill up an energy bar.
There are plenty of explosive barrels around, as well as one use items like throwing axes and deployable turrets. Some levels have booby traps, with giant saws slicing through anyone who gets in their way and flamethrowers that can trap both player and enemy. In later levels these all become essential, and timing their use can make or break bigger battles.
Crimson Alliance does take a couple of levels to get into its stride, but when it does the gameplay becomes a lot more interesting. Enemies get a little tougher and take more than stabbing to kill. There are ranged archers and shamen, shielded enemies and some oddly speedy zombies to name a few. Big battles throw multiple enemy types at you, and in single player especially a bit of strategic picking off of the biggest threats is required -this isn’t a game where you can just spam the attack button. Things do become repetitive though, and when you’ve figured out how to deal with new creatures large multi wave battles become a case of rinse and repeat button mashing. The traps, pick ups, and ultimate powers help to break this up, but the game would definitely benefit from having more variation in the missions.
There are secret areas that hide gold, new weapons and pick ups, but are often no more secret than walking left instead of right. Some are hidden by class specific doors, but given that they hide class specific treasures there’s not much to lose out on other than your end of level medal. These are awarded on the basis of secret areas found, time taken for completion, and the combat multiplier. The multiplier builds as you take down enemies, but drops a full rank if you take a hit. This is fair enough, but the weighting in the final scores is so heavily influenced by it that taking even a modest amount of damage can mess up your medal chances.
The gold you find can be used to purchase new weapons and armour from the merchants that unlock along the way. Unfortunately the best kit is often overpriced to the point that you have to replay old levels several times over to be able to afford them, and every shop comes complete with a chest encouraging you to hand over real world cash in return for some gold.
Equipping new kit is the only way to affect your character stats – there is no levelling up. However I found it to be a streamlined way to customise to my own style of play. My assassin was forever throwing daggers, so I chose a combination that favoured the dagger throw over the main blade. The simplicity may not be to everyone’s taste, and the ‘RPG’ tag that Crimson Alliance has been given is a bit of a stretch. The weapons and armour do look different when you equip them, and I was disappointed to find a replacement throwing dagger after spamming enemies with dozens of giant butcher’s knives! One thing that annoyed me however, is the inability to sell any of your old items, and I can’t see any reason for it.
Multiplayer is much the same as playing on your own, but comes with the added bonus of being able to chuck explosive barrels at each other (we spent more time doing this than actually killing monsters). Some secret areas are only accessible with two or more players, and the combat is generally easier. I genuinely would have loved to see a barrel throwing versus game as one of the challenges, and think the developers have missed a trick in keeping everything as a simple ‘kill the bad guys’ mission.
Audio & Visual:
Cutscenes are pans and zooms across comic book style illustrations, for the most part the same drawings of the characters over and over again. The wizard provides what little exposition there is and the other two just happen to be standing within earshot – their responses are bland and ultimately pointless, with some horrible voice acting not helping the case. The assassin in particular sounds about as likely to kill someone as Paris Hilton. The music is unremarkable and the creature sounds can be a little bit grinding, but overall there’s just not much of an impact in the sound department either way.
The in game world is thankfully a different story. The style has a strong fantasy feel to it, and the dungeons are richly coloured and have a lot of extra background detail. Enemies don’t just randomly spawn when you’re done with the first wave, a nice touch that sees skeletons scrambling up through hatches and zombies rising from their graves. They are integrated into the level surroundings too, seated at tables, sleeping around campfires and toiling away in mines. It feels like there is a proper world here, so it’s a shame that there’s no story to flesh it out.
Overall:
Crimson Alliance is a good game, but most of its strength lies in one place, and that’s the combat. If broken up into smaller chunks the repetitive element isn’t such a problem, but the lack of any decent connection to the game world makes it largely forgettable, and it’s definitely not an RPG. It’s a strong enough action adventure which I did enjoy playing, but it lacks a unique selling point or a strong sense of character to help it stand out from the crowd.
Mac gamers rejoice! Today Feral Interactive that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be released for the Mac in winter 2011/12. for game consoles and PC, its awesome to hear The prequel to the classic Deus Ex has already seen a very successful release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC earlier last month, developed by Eidos-Montreal and published by Square Enix. Check out our review here!
“Deus Ex: Human Revolution presents the player with truly meaningful decisions in a unique and captivating game world.” said David Stephen, Managing Director of Feral Interactive. “The degree of freedom it offers is extraordinary.”
“We are delighted to partner with Feral, a leading expert in development for the Mac platform, to bring the acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution to Mac players, ” said Stephane D’Astous, general manager of Eidos-Montreal. “The game presents a powerful vision of a dystopian future, and we’re excited that gamers will now be able to experience it on the Mac.”
Pricing, system requirements and specific release date will be announced later this year.
In exciting news, EA and Starbreeze studios have revealed an exciting project, remaking and restyling the classic retro title “Syndicate” for todays generation of consoles. Originally released as an isometric real time tactical game by the now closed down Bullfrog studios, Starbreeze and EA have worked to turn the franchise into an immersive and unique first person shooter. Set in 2069, the remake will be set in a dark and brutal world, void of any government control, where rogue syndicates battle for control.
“Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today’s gamers as well as fans of the original. I’m sure they will enjoy and recognize the legacy that made it such a classic,” says Jeff Gamon, EA Partners Executive Producer. “Fans of the franchise will recognize many weapons and environments in the game, but in a whole new way. The game also provides a separate and deep 4-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic, which adds another layer of depth to the overall experience.”
Starbreeze studios are no stranger to console game development, being responsible for such titles as The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness, so it isnt hard to see why EA would partner with them for such a title.
Syndicate will be available in the early part of 2012 and will feature on PS3, XBox360 and PC platforms
Keep your eyes posted on Capsulecomputers.com for more Syndicate information as it come outs.
