Proving that you can never have enough preview trailers for something, Persona 4: The Animation has now got it’s 12th trailer out on the web and boy is it a doosy. The trailer weighs in at 32 seconds long and shows more than we have seen from any previous trailer. We get to see clips of some nifty action sequences as well as several character designs.
So if you are at all interested in the upcoming anime series adaptation of Persona 4, aptly titled Persona 4: The Animation, then gives the video below a spin what is definitely some interesting 32 seconds of viewing for Persona fans. Leave a comment below letting us know what you think of it.
Darker Than Black is a series that is well, pretty dark, as you can tell from it’s title. Season 2 otherwise known as “Gemini of the Meteor” takes the series in a new direction, to some controversy from it’s fans.
Funimation recently acquired the second divisive season along with the OVA series that conncets season 1 and 2 together. They will be releasing both bundled together on the 11th of October, 2011.
In anticipation of Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor’s release, Funimation have begun streaming a trailer for the upcoming dub release. You can check it out below.
Yes I was tempted to put “ranga” in the title, but we all know that’s offensive, plus I love redheads. Looks like I’m not alone in this, after the uproar about the blonde being chosen, they had a revote. Now that the blatant marketing exercise of picking a default hair colour is over, the redhead was the clear winner. No doubt not many people will actually pick the default character, they’ll probably just go with their original character from the previous games.
This was probably a pointless hype exercise on facebook, who knew hair colour would make people fire up so much? Apparently it was sexist and subsequently everyone voiced their opinion (hatin’ on blondes), at the end of the day it’s a good thing for female gamers and gets people interested in picking a female lead, instead of the typical male lead. Having a redhead femshep is less offensive and more dynamic apparently, also sexier IMO and it sells! Let me know if you disagree. Fire up!
Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition Platform: XBLA Publisher: Capcom Developer: Iron Galaxy Studios, Capcom Genre: Fighter
Overview:
They say that the third strike is what counts. That rings very true with Street Fighter III, which is widely considered to be the most underappreciated Street Fighter game in the franchise. It is what you could call the black sheep of the franchise, it has a different vibe and feel, is missing many of the popular characters from Street Fighter II that preceded it and was originally released in what can be called awkward timing. However with current revival of Street Fighter III on the arcade, does the game fianlly recieve the justice is so long has deserved?
Gameplay:
Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition, plays the same as other Street Fighter games, with tight combat and emphasis on button combinations that have captivated fans since the first Street Fighter. The feeling of pulling off a difficult combination move is indeed a feeling of satisfaction. That is Third Strike succeeds. It leaves the player feeling satisfied.
Not only does it leave the player satisfied but it also provides a great deal of challenge. Now, Street Fighter games have never been easy, but even veterans may struggle at moments with this game. The game has been polished to the bone and is put simply, a perfect version of Street Fighter III.
With the addition of the Online mode, Street Fighter III succeeds at bringing the nostalgic old school Street Fighter style online with intense clashes between players world-wide. The online system works perfectly, however I was somewhat disappointed that I couldn’t bring my local player 2 online with me into a lobby. But that’s only a minor gripe.
I know I may cop some flack for this, but character-wise I believe Street Fighter III, has the most diverse and well rounded cast of any Street Fighter title (my personal favourite is Yang, who doesn’t appear outside of this game, but don’t call me biased). The cast just feels most complete here, even though it does miss out on some from Street Fighter II, I don’t believe their absence was distracting or disappointing as many said about the game when it was originally released.
Overall the gameplay is astounding and has rejuvinated the original Street Fighter III to the point that this could have been a full retail rerelease. The gameplay has been polished to perfection and the new online mode as well as challenges adds so much more playability to the title, in comparison to the original release.
Visuals:
The graphics appear to be a slight update on the original release, however largely retains the same quality, which is brilliant. It is a mixture of the old style with the new and it pulls it off effortlessly. The character models are much crisper this time and and fighting animation seems more smoother as well. Making fights much more visually impressive.
The menu’s are surprisingly visually pleasing as well. With the stream-lined design and smooth transitions, it looks as good as the fights and provides a nice visual experience whilst traversing possible gameplay modes and options. The graphics all in all are well done and provide a crisp, smooth design through-out.
Audio:
One of the first things you notice with Street Fighter III, is it’s instantly memorable theme song “Knock You Out” performed by Canadian rapper Infinite. The song embodies the concept of Street Fighter III and provides the quotable line “You know what they say, the third strike is what counts”. That line along makes that specific song resonate with the player and is sure to pump them up for some ass-kicking in the streets.
The entire soundtrack in general is so well done and sticks with the player long after they turn off their console. When a game can have you humming it’s tunes as your walking down the road or catching a train, or whatever else you do besides play it, you know that it had one hell of a soundtrack. That is the case with Street Fighter III. It simply has an amazing soundtrack.
Conclusion:
Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition, does a lot of things right. It does little wrong as a matter of fact. It is a game that has been completely polished to perfection and given new life on the Xbox Live Arcade. It plays just as well as it use to, if not better and is simply a testament to Capcom detesters claiming that all these updates of older games are unnecessary. I say, take a look a this game and tell me it shouldn’t have been made. The sheer amount of polish applied to this game is evident and puts the original to shame.
If you have yet to pick up Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition, do yourself a favour and do so. It is a brilliant game on all accounts and deserves to be played, en masse.
I give Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition:
Prepare for another potential legal battle as the hackers are at it again, this time assaulting the XBox360 and essentially jailbreaking it to read unsigned code. According to those responsible the exploit the have found is unpatchable by microsoft. Earlier model XBox consoles were also vunerable to the so called “jtag” hack but Microsoft have eliminated the ability to do this in all current models. Even so, the hacking scene behind the XBox360 seems relentless and have managed to appease the appetites of internet pirates worldwide through hardware modifications allowing them to play stolen titles.
How will Microsoft react to such news especially with the amount of time and effort they have put into the security measures on their new dashboards which rewrite modded DVD drives back to official status. There are a handful of legitimate users who will use the hack for their own homebrew and to fully utilise their systems while others will simply see it as another form of piracy. Microsoft can only try come up with some kind of security measure to stop it, I guess the saving grace is this isnt anything new to them, just another way to hack their already hacked console. Expect some kind of retaliation from Microsoft especially with the success Sony had in the GeoHot case.
Hugely popular Japanese rock band, The Pillows, known for their works on several anime soundtracks most notably for FLCL, have announced that they will be touring the United States next month. They have previously toured the United States in the past but not in such a grand capacity.
This tour will see The Pillows traversing the country with 5 shows, the first being held on the 5th of September and the last being on the 13th of September. Joining The Pillows on tour will be two other bands, however they have yet to be determined as of posting.
You can check out tour dates and purchase tickets here. Leave a comment below letting us know what you think of The Pillows U.S. Tour.
Madman Entertainment made their presence known at Manifest 2011, with the premiere of Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing, before it even hits Japanese screens. Not only this but Madman even gave fans a chance to record lines for the upcoming Last Exile series.
But wait, there is more! Madman even filmed some fans and interviewed them following the premiere screening of the first episode of Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing, some of which will actually make it to Japanese television during the Last Exile TV Special that will air a week before the series premiere in Japan.
This is simply huge for the Australian Anime industry and is once again a sign of Madman Entertainment making leaps and bounds in advancing the industry on Australian shores.
Now onto even more interesting news, the acquisitions! Madman revealed some really killer titles here, some that had long been speculated. Check out what was announced:
Fairy Tail – First collection to be released on the 18th of January, 2012.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing – To be simulcast from Japan in October and will have it’s retail release once a dub has been produced by Funimation in the U.S.
Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire Capu2 – To be released at some time during 2012.
Patlabor, Patlabor 2 OVAs and Mobile Police Patlabor – To be released as one collection with a date still to be confirmed.
These are all heavily requested titles and it’s great to see that Madman listens to their fans and delivers thusly. Leave a comment below with your thoughts on these monumental announcements.
Let’s Create! Pottery is now available to the Nindendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS systems. Originally an app for iOS and Android devices, to date it has been downloaded more than 2 million times! This clay spinning game shot to the charts and was a number one app in the entertainment category of App Store, topping in 50 countries including the US, UK, Japan and China!
In Let’s Create! Pottery you do just that, create pottery, without all the mess and money spent on materials and instruments. Have your own ‘Sam and Molly moment’ from the movie, Ghost, with your special someone in the comfort of your own sofa, sans the sludge, dirt and heavy clean-up! When you embrace your artistic side, you can craft items themed to your individual delights. Fancy a sleek modern piece of art? Or how about Ancient Egyptian pottery? Not far back enough? You can even add elements from the caveman era!
Let’s Create! Pottery is available through the Nintendo DSi Shop on the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL and the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS.
Genre: Short films Director: Martin Scorsese Running Time: 129 minutes Available for purchase at:Madman Online Store ($24.95)
Overview
In the past few generations, it would be hard to find someone who hadn’t heard of Martin Scorsese. Whether it be his work as a director for Taxi Driver or his Academy Award for The Departed, Scorsese is often seen as one of the great directors of our time.
With so many great works in the last two decades, it can sometimes be hard to remember directors had to start out somewhere…and this is where Martin Scorsese’s Short Films comes in. This collection of five of Scorsese’s earlier works provides a great insight into the influences and development of a fascinating director and – while some of the films may not be everyone’s cup of tea – is worth watching just to see a young Scorsese’s experimentation through the medium of film.
What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?
Algernon is a writer who leads a normal life until he purchases a photograph of a boat on a lake. While in the beginning the photograph is just another image on the wall, he soon becomes obsessed with it and finds himself unable to think of anything else. He meets a woman and gets married in the hopes of fixing his obsession, but his ultimate solution is one that is far more bizarre.
The narrative consists of Algernon’s voiceovers, with chimes from his ‘friends’ (which basically consist of them saying exactly the same thing he says). While it can be funny in the beginning, this structure soon gets tiresome. The short film is supposed to be a comedy – although I still maintain it belongs more in the “light-hearted and quirky” genre – but it’s not really as funny as it is experimental and unique.
Although the plot left a lot to be desired – although, fair enough, Scorsese was still at Tisch during the time of making this short film – what does make this short film shine is the way Scorsese depicts the story through images. The techniques Scorsese uses are far ahead of his time and truly demonstrate a unique way of constructing images: close ups, fast cuts, and interesting angles all play a part in the unique visual that is this short film. Throw this in with a powerful soundtrack that controls the emotions and narration of the entire ten minutes and you have an interesting (albeit odd and sometimes repetitive) combination. The only way this short film can really be summed up is by one word: experimental.
It’s not just you, Murray!
This short film follows Murray, a mobster who details his young and humble beginnings before he was wealthy and influential. He talks about how his friend Joe was a major influence in his success and gave him advice every step of the way; however, Murray is blind to Joe’s constant deceit, trickery, and the fact that Joe is obviously sleeping with his wife.
It’s not just you, Murray is another of Scorsese’s Tisch works, so evidently it isn’t the most incredible of his filmography; however the short film definitely shows a more unique style of experimentation than What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? Already, Scorsese’s gangster theme is evident through the style of narrative and subject matter – equally as evident is his trials with different filmic techniques.
Visually, the film breaks down the fourth wall (the barrier between spectator and screen) and plays further on Scorsese’s interest of challenging the conventions of shot types and continuity. Scorsese often uses unique and interesting images on screen that are reminiscent of Godard, and it’s great to see him playing with the camera from a young age. The music is, again, a wonderful feature and Scorsese’s ability to harmonise audio with visual is a delight to watch.
The Big Shave
Perhaps one of his better known shorts, The Big Shave depicts a man shaving in the bathroom. As he shaves, he cuts himself but instead of stopping, he continues. What ensues is a bloody scene that can become very painful to watch.
As the last Tisch short featured on the collection, this one is simple yet powerful in what it says. While there is obviously no conventional story, The Big Shave holds a deeper comment on the world – often dubbed Viet ’67, it is said the short alludes to the self-destructive nature of the United States during the Vietnam War. However, there is also a greater universality in what the plot is trying to say about mankind, and that’s what truly makes this short stand out from Scorsese’s other Tisch works.
Scorsese’s developing visual style is so clearly evident through this: the splatters of blood, the quick cuts and close ups on odd, banal objects all echo with his direction. It’s great to see the workings of his visual composition before he began making feature length films, and The Big Shave shows a filmmaker that is beginning to grow and mature. Soundtrack-wise, Scorsese is brilliant – the music is a perfect juxtaposition to what is happening on screen, demonstrating that even when man is on the edge of destruction he still presents a happy façade.
Italianamerican
Italianamerican is a 49 minute short where Scorsese speaks to his mother and father about their family history and moving to New York. The short is essentially a documentary where he sits down and interviews his parents; in the duration of the film the audience learns not only about his family but also universal issues like being a migrant and childhood memories.
The narrative is a simple one, and Scorsese truly allows it to develop its own path and take the spectators along on the journey. In documentaries, it’s difficult to ever plan anything entirely and much of the process is about the unfolding of a tale that the director may not have imagined; in this respect, Scorsese has done a wonderful job of presenting a well-structured look at his family and background while simultaneously adding a universality to the narrative that any viewer can relate to.
Style-wise, Italianamerican is made like a home movie. While home movies can often appear amateurish in films, Scorsese manages to harness this style to add to the intimacy of the short. There is a particular beauty to the way he controls the camera as he wanders through his parents’ house and speaks to them; it’s almost as though the viewer becomes Scorsese and is immersed in the tales these two people are telling. There is no soundtrack in the background, however, this adds to the rawness of the footage and really allows viewers to focus on the words that are being said.
American Boy: A profile of Steven Prince
The last short featured in the DVD collection is American Boy: A profile of Steven Prince. The 55-minute short is yet another documentary looking at Scorsese’s friend Steven Prince (which most will recognise for his role as a gun salesman in Taxi Driver) and his life. Prince was an ex-drug addict and speaks of experiences he’s gone through in his life, including attacking a man and working with Neil Diamond.
In comparison to Italianamerican, American Boy is far darker in subject matter and really looks more at some of the themes that arise in Scorsese’s later works. The documentary’s narrative is slightly scattered, but overall it isn’t difficult to follow the structure. What makes the story wonderful, though, is the flashbacks to Prince’s childhood and the interspersion of the past within the present.
Scorsese uses visual techniques sparingly in this one – as it is a documentary, he again sticks to the home video style – but the entire film has a very dark, heavy feel to it. The low-key lighting does a great job to establish the mood of Stephen Prince’s life, and instead of the handycam creating an intimate feel to the film, it conveys a strong feeling of instability and distress. There is, again, minimal soundtrack used at all and the eeriness of the film is only added to by the echoing silence that occurs when Prince speaks.
Final Comments
Any film fan would no doubt make a permanent place on their shelf for Martin Scorsese’s Short Films. These five shorts are interesting and experimental, but, most of all, they are pure Scorsese. There is nothing else to be said about this collection except that it is most definitely worth watching at least once.
Rugby World Cup 2011 Publisher: 505 Games Developer: HB Studios Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3 Release Date: August 25th 2011 Price: $98
After waiting four years for a new Rugby Union game, we finally have one. But how new is it? 505 Games and HB Studios accepted the challenge of releasing a World Cup based Rugby game to satisfy the relatively small gaming population desperately waiting to take control of their favourite players through the joy of gaming technology. Whilst the final product is still a reasonably fun game, it didn’t quite live up to the standard of sporting games we’ve become accustomed to.
I’ll start off with the positives. It is actually a fun game. Rugby fans would definitely enjoy this more so than your average gamer, but that being said, the control system is quite simple and basically anyone could pick it up and get used to it after a few matches. I rounded up a few of my friends (with their interest in the sport ranging from moderate to “How do I score a touchdown?”), and we played some matches together and it was great fun. The simplicity of the game is arguably it’s best feature, you almost forget about the outdated graphics when you’re playing. Of course there are a few bugs in the gameplay such as players getting sin-binned for penalties which you have little to no control over (we’re talking hands in the ruck sort of penalties).
Gamers get the choice of playing an “International Test” (quick match), a warm up tour, online matches, a place-kick shootout and of course the game’s selling point, the Rugby World Cup 2011 mode. Whilst the World Cup mode is really what you buy the game for, there is only a certain amount of times you can win it before it gets quite boring. They could have taken a page out of the FIFA World Cup 2010 game to see how to increase the lasting appeal of the game such as the Captain Your Country mode or at least the scenarios. You obviously can’t criticise them for not including a season mode as it is a world cup centered game but the modes definitely lack depth which really limits the amount of hours you are going to spend playing the game.
The stadiums are good enough although the crowd noise could be improved, that being said at least they included Swing Low Sweet Chariot chants for the English team. You get the choice of different commentators for different languages as well as a UK team or Australia/New Zealand combination. The commentary gets repetitive quickly and the commentators never really say anything interesting or meaningful, something you could probably attribute to the absence of player licensing.
Which brings me on to my first big issue with the game: lack of player licensing. Whilst a lot of you may not think of this as a big deal, it’s something myself and I’m sure many other sports fans enjoy about playing sports games. They do have the player licenses (player likeness is apparently not implicit with this) for some countries including the South African and English teams at least but it’s not just the lack player’s names that bothers me. It’s the fact that the player models don’t even seem to loosely reflect real-life players, unless you include the Lote Tuqiri look-a-like winger for the Wallabies. No Wallaby players, no All-Blacks, and no Haka…
Apart from that, the AI is quite poor and after a few games you will win easy enough on the hardest difficulty. Lineouts are pretty annoying and the kicking system (both spot-kick and punting for touch) needs some improvement. I also would’ve loved to see some momentum affecting features changing with the flow of the game and altering the turnovers and pressure just to add some excitement to the matches.
HB Studios developed the EA Rugby games back in the day for PS2 and Xbox, formidable games for their time. It’s this knowledge that really bothers be as they can’t use the “it’s my first time” excuse. What’s even more disconcerting is that HB Studios were co-developers on last year’s FIFA World Cup game for PS3 and 360. It feels like they have just thought hey, our old rugby games were decent, let’s just repackage the old games, slightly enhance the graphics and not really improve the game in any way. I understand budgetary issues come into play and I also acknowledge that the market this game is catering for is minuscule compared with sports such as soccer, NFL and basketball. However, our standards have sky rocketed since the last time HB Studios produced a Rugby game, and to be honest this game falls well short of game expectations.
Overall, with all the flaws aside, this isn’t a bad game, it’s just disappointing. You can still have a fair bit of fun with it, especially if you’re a Rugby fan caught up in the excitement of the upcoming World Cup, but it just isn’t a game you would keep in your 360 or PS3 for too long after the World Cup has come and gone.
