When is the best time to announce new information for Batman: Akrham City, a game that is based off of a comic book hero? Comic-Con of course! Today they revealed that the daughter of one of Batman’s enemies, Ra Al Ghul, will be appearing in Batman: Arkham City. This means that Talia al Ghul, occasional love interest to Batman will be showing up.
Talia will be voiced by actress Stana Katic who plays Detective Kate Beckett on Castle. There has been no information revealed yet as to how much of a part she will play in the game, or if she will simply appear in a few cutscenes but you can see the character model for her below.
When it was announced that Twisted Pixel’s Gunstringer would be released as a full retail game instead of a downloadable title some people grew worried about what they should expect. But it seems that they should have expected a good deal instead of worrying because if you purchase The Gunstringer you will be getting a plethora of extras to go with it.
Buying the game new will result in players receiving two codes which will allow them to download Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja Kinect for free as well as The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles DLC for Gunstringer. The DLC will place players against the son of the first boss in the game, Wavy Tube Man Jr. after he stole a time machine to take revenge against you. Also if you pre-order The Gunstringer you will be able to download two free Avatar props. For all of this you will only need to pay $39.99 when the game is released on September 13th in the US and £29.99 in the UK on September 16.
Mortal Kombat Legacy’s highly anticipated 9th episode was shown at Comic Con today and blew audiences away! The official release date has also been set:Sunday, July 24th at 6pm PST.
However some people just can’t wait, and the episode has already appeared on youtube, watch it below. The episode involves Shang Tsung, Kano and the Grandmaster as they turn Cyrax and Sektor into emotionless Cyborgs in preparation for the Mortal Kombat Tournament, and most likely takes place before the first episode. To test the cybernetic ninja’s abilities, they are sent into combat with a cyborg named Hydro! Who’s Hydro? Find out here!
We highly encourage you to check out Machinima’s Youtube Chanel for a much higher quality version of the video this Sunday, or alternatively buy the episode oniTunes here once it’s released, or grab it on Blu-Ray when it hits the shelf in fall this year. In the meantime, enjoy the episode below!
Ryota Niitsuma, producer at Capcom had a few things to say to Destructoid at Comic Con regarding Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the subsequent Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Niitsuma said that they would have loved to support the original Marvel vs Capcom 3 with DLC but apparently it was out of their control. He said,””After the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 there were plans to release DLC. But, as you know, less than a month after the game was released we had the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.”
Because of this this caused a development lapse and they decided that it would be best to release an entirely new disc with more modes than the original. The added characters are “half and half” between DLC and new characters for UMvC3 alone. He also went on to say that the leaked character list was “a shame” but that “fans of our fighting games, that’s where the real fun is — seeing those characters move and act.” So this means that despite the leak of every character we will see the slow slog of character announcements and trailers like we did with MvC3.
Mortal Kombat episode 9 was shown today during the Mortal Kombat Legacy panel at Comic Con, showing Cyrax and Sektor in combat, as well as an unidentified cyborg. A few photos were leaked, and fans have been arguing since over who it has been since. The issue has been is that the cyborg is a dark blueish-grey. From stills shown online, most fans assumed it was Smoke as he appeared in Mortal Kombat 3, others thought it was just Cyrax just looking another colour due to lighting or perhaps his model was unpainted and others figured it was just Cyber Sub-Zero. However, many of the hardcore fans argued it was Hydro, who many replied with “Who the hell is Hydro?!”
Hydro makes his debut official on-screen appearance at Comic Con in Mortal Kombat Legacy: Episode 9
Hydro Vs Sektor
If you haven’t heard of Hydro, I can’t blame you! He has only officially appeared in the extended universe outside the video games of the Mortal Kombat franchise. Hydro has only officially appeared in the Mortal Kombat comic series Mortal Kombat: Blood and Thunder published by Malibu Comics between 1993. Here he was close friend of Sub-Zero and a fellow Lin Kuei clan member with the ability to control water, some of which were strong waves that were so cold that they could actually freeze the opponent upon contact. Hydro was later killed by Scorpion in the comics as part of his promise to slaughter all of Sub-Zero’s friends and family before killing Sub-Zero himself. However in these adventures Hydro was not a Cyborg as depicted in Mortal Kombat Legacy, but rather a human ninja like Sub-Zero.
Hydro as he originally appeared in 1993’s Mortal Kombat: Blood and Thunder
Hydro became popular as a cyborg, through M.U.G.E.N games such as Mortal Kombat Project 4.1
However this isn’t to say Hydro has never been seen in a cybernetic form before, and this is where things start getting more interesting! Using a program known as M.U.G.E.N, many fan-made fighting games have been made based around Mortal Kombat, as well as characters and fighters as well. One of the most popular characters has been a cybernetic Hydro. This version of Hydro was most popularly seen in the fan made game Mortal Kombat Project 4.1, where he appeared simply just colour-palate swap of Cyrax, with new animations including a few elements taken from the character Glacius from the Super Nintendo adaptation of Killer Instinct. The end result was a blue Cyrax, with fighting elements borrowed from Sub-Zero and Glacius. You can download and play the game here, and check out the embedded video below of Hydro, or even watch it on youtube here!
Shane Warren Jones confirmed he acted as both Cyrax and Hydro for Mortal Kombat Legacy
However this was just all speculation. Nobody had confirmed it, until Mortal Kombat Online interviewed Shane Warren Jones, the actor playing Cyrax AND Hydro. Shane Warren Jones confirmed in the interview that the cyborg was in fact, Hydro!
[MKO]: There have been a lot of reports that you’re playing two characters — Cyrax and Hydro. Is that accurate?
[Shane Warren Jones]: Yes, that is correct. All I can say is that Hydro is also part of the Lin Kuei. [smiles]
[MKO]: What were some of the demands of playing two characters? How did you separate them?
[Shane Warren Jones]: Well, I was lucky in that there wasn’t a lot of info on Hydro, so it was pretty hard to mess him up. It all came down to what Kevin wanted out of me performance-wise. Some of the difficulties would be, what are essentially the different, distinct mannerisms of the individual characters themselves. I tried doing some research on [Hydro] and not very much came up other than, ‘He only appears in a few issues of the comic.’
Hydro has always been a subject of fan art, and has proved to be a popular character even though he’s never been been a part of an offical Mortal Kombat game!
It’s amazing the fact that they let Kevin Tanch direct the web series himself, as Mortal Kombat Legacy was originally just a fan flick made as a pitch to Warner Bros Entertainment. However now they’ve included a fan-favorite that has never appeared in anything as large as this before, and the series is even supported by the father of Mortal Kombat himself, Ed Boon. Mortal Kombat has always been famous for making characters based on odd events, such as glitches (Skarlet), fake rumours (Ermac) and even just making girl versions of popular characters (Sheeva and Frost), so a fan-made interpretation of an unofficial character from a comic book isn’t a huge stretch! It’s things like this that keeps the Mortal Kombat fan base so strong and dedicated, I doubt theres any franchise out there that is delivers this much fan service!
Hydro will make his full debut online appearance alongside Sektor and Cyrax this sunday on Machinima’s Youtube Chanel in Mortal Kombat Legacy: Episode 9!
There are a lot of videos that show up online. Some of these are credible and others are usually just lost in the wayside of millions of videos a day. But it appears that some bored, or inquisitive minds at 4Chan have tracked down a video that no one had known about yet.
It is hosted on Kiwi, a video sharing site, and the video features Ubisoft’s logo, is titled Assassins creed revelations Seizure and the uploader says the video is “an internal project we did here at Ubisoft Cinematics. I animated the character on the table. No mocap whatsoever.” The video itself shows an uncaring doctor performing strange and painful looking surgery on a living man who the doctor keeps insisting is dead. The machine he is hooked up to says it is for memory binding.
We’ve contacted Ubisoft for any clarification on this video, and because of its complete disconnection from anything announced so far there are rumors everywhere. This video could be part of a short film, a start of a separate game that isn’t announced yet, or even just someone who is really good at making fake videos. Find the video here.
This must be one of the most realistic video game trailers I’ve seen. Human Augmentation is not all that it’s cracked up to be, sure it might make you better at sports, stronger, faster and more intelligent, but is it really worth the trade off? Are you willing to take the drugs, the poison everyday of your life to ensure that your body doesn’t reject your new augmentation, failure to so could potentially kill you if you stop taking them. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, Sarif Industries have a far bigger plan for those who’ve adopted this augmentation, what could it be you ask. Well watch the trailer below and find out.
I looks like Deus Ex is building itself up to have quite an impressive story that certainly has grabbed my attention. I had to watch this trailer a few times just to pick up extra little things that I missed but also because it’s really cool.
Now I ask you – would you do it? Would you upgrade yourself? or stay pure.
The last news we heard for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 was from E3, when it was announced for the US. Nintendo have the title with them at Comic-Con this year in it’s full playable state, and also with a new release date. Instead of the previous August date, DQM:J2 will be release on September 19th this year. It isn’t too big of a delay, but one worthy of mention if you happen to be someone who was expecting it to drop in late August.
Also shown at Comic-Con was a brand new trailer for the game, and while it is short, it does do a fine job at introducing the series to newcomers. The main plot has the main character crashing into a mysterious island full of monsters that can be recruited and battled. Check out the clip below for yourself and get ready, as we are just under two months away from the release of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 on the Nintendo DS.
Le Tour de France 2011
Developer: Cyanide Studio
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Genre: Sports/Simulation
Platform: Xbox 360 (PS3)
Released: 24th June
This year’s Tour de France competition is already well underway and with it reaching its conclusion this Sunday 24 July, what better time to review the collaborative game from developer Cyanide Studio. The Tour de France race celebrates its 98th birthday with this year’s event, and this tie-in game covers all 21 stages of the most gruelling cycling event on the planet. Thankfully it doesn’t support Kinect…
As aforementioned, the game does include all 21 stages of the race but, with the total route distance sitting at a hefty 3430 kilometres, to avoid the physically testing nature of the tournament being reciprocated in the gameplay, the developers have selected the more interesting parts of stages for you to take control, leaving the more mundane sections to a race simulator. Your approach to the race when you are playing affects how the AI will continue the race in the simulator, basing its own efforts on your performance in the stage so far and the orders given to team-mates over the inter-communication system.
The voice communication system is operated using the LB button and then scrolling through the various options as you race, giving orders to your team-mates when the push forward in the race or protect you, or for consulting the squad car for an update on the status of the race. You notice that the race usually takes place in ‘pelotons’ (groups) of riders, showing how the team options and a tactical awareness are vital for succeeding. However, the mere fact that you are able to open up and control menu while you are racing goes to show the level of involvement present in the game.
You see, many will find Le Tour de France 2011 to be boring because it is clearly a simulation of the sport, meaning you’ll have trouble finding the thrill that you could get in a more arcade portrayal of the cycling. It’s focussed more on the tactical side of the sport, with the controls putting you in charge of increasing and decreasing effort input to avoid wearing your rider out too early, deciding when to go for a sprint to pull away from the other riders, and to a limited degree steering. I say limited steering as there’s a rather large aid from the AI in this area of the game, with auto-assist preventing you from going off-course and even doing all steering for you don’t choose to operate the control stick. There’s no racing ahead and creating a huge gap between you and other riders (unless you are tactically sound, of course); everything must be measured and riding ahead as the pacemaker will often only result in you tiring yourself out, with victory snatched away at the end by a more patient competitor.
Your HUD and the controls are all explained in a wordy albeit helpful tutorial mode, and if you can stand to read through the 17 screens, many housing multiple pages, then it will work out in the long run as you won’t need to spend as much time figuring out how the cycling works. It really does go in depth, even showing you your cyclists heart rate and the gradient and speed of the wind for you to take into account. Among your various energy meters is a danger meter. While most of the stuff on your HUD is relevant, this danger meter is not, for the sole reason that it is nigh on impossible for your athlete to fall off the bike, no matter how close to the edge of the road you are and how much you clatter with the others as the auto-assist/invisible walls stop you. In fact, occasionally you can even pass through them in some sort of visual glitch.
The two play modes are; Tour de France, which obviously lets you kick-start the season at the starting stage commencing in Vendée on your goal to obtain the coveted Yellow Jersey for coming first; and a one-off play mode for some slightly more instantaneous gameplay. The game features real-life teams and riders for anyone that follows the competition, although it’s not like it makes much difference as you’ll only be seeing the back of his head for the ensuing hours.
The soundtrack is generally singer-less French pop which carries from the menu screens over to the races. Some has clearly been geared more towards menu screen music whereas other parts feel edgy and cool enough to be playing as you ride. It’s all on a loop with a limited selection which has the potential to grow irritating, but it sounds good enough to see out at least one competition if you decide to play through it.
On the other hand, fairly long loading times come as a shock considering the graphics aren’t anything special. Some of the environments don’t get the most of the technology at hand, with a short distance meaning hedges will form only shortly before you come up to them, even if you don’t notice your surroundings quite as much while you are cycling past. The loading times are only justified by the sheer volume of participants on screen at once at any one time, particularly at the beginning before pelotons have started to break off and the riders are just one large group.
Surprisingly, the simulation sections take a fair amount of time, too. I would have thought it would be better to have the results of the rest of the race up automatically, rather than wasting 30 seconds/a minute needlessly watching a live line graph.
It’s not that Le Tour de France 2011 is a bad game – in fact, of the few cycling games around it must be one of the better ones – it’s just that as a game genre, cycling isn’t a very exciting one. For a start, you don’t get that same feeling of speed that you would in, for example, a driving game. It is a decent simulation of cycling, but uneventful, auto-assisted races mean watching the computer-generated, lycra-clad derrière of another man for hours on end doesn’t turn out to be very entertaining and it only holds value among dedicated fans of the race who are looking for a serious virtual version of the event.
With the successful release of Aralon: Sword and Shadow behind us, Crescent Moon Games are back to bring their quirky art style and charm into a whole new adventure with Pocket RPG. Pocket RPG is a “dual stick” hack and slash adventure, where the player picks a character class and traverses through varied dungeons, collecting loot along the way while leveling up in the process. While the formula has certainly been successful in the past, Pocket RPG applies some new elements to the genre to stand out on it’s own. Just how ambitious is this bite-sized adventure? Here is my review for Pocket RPG.
Story
In Pocket RPG, there really isn’t a story for our three main heroes. The main concept of the game is to simply perform quests with special tasks hidden within, and level-up your character enough to tackle a boss at the end of each area. This formula is rather simple, but in the cartoony universe of Pocket RPG, the plot is not really a necessary element as this is more of a pick-up-and-play title that you can easily jump in and get right to the action.
While the game may lack a plot, it makes up for it heavily with it’s personality. Players are treated to bits of stereotypical dialogue spurted out by NPCs as well as a quirky art style that truly brings this world to life. You see, Pocket RPG actually knows it’s an RPG, and while it brings laughs by breaking the fourth wall, it also keeps in substance that should satisfy any dungeon crawling appetite.
Gameplay
The first thing that you must do in Pocket RPG is select a character. Players can select between a Dark Ranger, who specializes in ranged attacks with a bow, the Blade Master who is best for close combat, and a Battle Mage that can perform various spells that can hit several targets at once. Each character possesses a distinct feel and require a different strategy to be successful. For instance, the Battle Mage can learn several magic attacks that consist of projectiles, so playing at a distance from the foe is crucial to the player’s survival. The Blade Master however is much more hands on and can quickly run in and chop up enemies with his twin weapons, but due to the close range combat he is left somewhat vulnerable to incoming attacks. This balance of gameplay styles works well and adds an extra incentive for multiple playthroughs.
Pocket RPG is a twin-stick hack and slash at heart, where the player must use the left stick to move while using the right stick to control abilities. Holding down the right stick can also allow for a more powerful charged attack to be unleashed that comes in handy for taking down multiple targets at once or dishing out extra damage on a larger foe. It can take a little while to get used to if you are unfamiliar with twin-stick titles, but the sticks provided are very responsive and easy enough to get the hang of in just a short time.
There are seven different quests to partake in within the game, broken up into a few sections for each. On your quests, you simply travel throughout each area while battling enemies that spawn along the way, collecting loot such as currency and items that drop as each foe meet their doom. Chests and barrels are also easy to spot, and with some power-ups and weapons being rarer than others, it is essential to explore and kill everything in sight to gain an upper edge before the final boss at the end of a quest. Merchants can also be found in every stage, selling equipment and new weaponry, which of course put all of that loot to good use. While the locations are varied and unique to their own, this same formula is used up until the end of the game, with the biggest change being the higher level of difficulty found later on.
One element that caught me by surprise in Pocket RPG was the inability to have levels and inventory transfer over after a quest. This isn’t quite a bad thing though as starting fresh on each quest allows you to keep with the pace and challenge of the game. Perks, experience, and other bonuses do carry over however, so all of that hard work still manages to be worth something in the end.
Graphics/Audio
One of the finest features of Pocket RPG is the art style, as I mentioned before. The somewhat blocky 3D characters and environments fit perfectly with the feel of the game, and each dungeon provides a new setting to explore, full of vivid color and detailed models. Animations are also well done and no matter how many enemies are on the screen at once, there are never any frame-rate problems or slowdown to be seen, at least from my experience anyway.
The music in the game is also fitting, with each track perfectly complimenting each area and fading into the background as you hack and slash your way through the many dungeons. While most of the sound effects came off fine, I did notice that certain enemies had no sound at all when actually attacking my hero. That might sound a bit minor, but when you have several enemies on the screen and suddenly have your life drained to zero without even a simple “whack” noise, it can lead to quite an unfulfilled death.
Overall
Pocket RPG is a simple yet fulfilling dungeon crawler that is sure to please both core and casual fans alike. The whole game never takes itself too seriously as witty humor and colorful characters are found throughout, yet still provides all of the looting and XP-gaining goodness that fans of the genre will cling to instantly. Starting nearly fresh on each quest was also an element I rather enjoyed seeing, as I never felt too over-powered and the challenge to the game rose because of that. If you are looking for a substantial RPG-like title for your iPad without all of the commitment, meet your new best friend.
