Jon Chey, co-founder of Irrational games, has broken his ties with the company and ventured out on his own, forming a new small company in Australias Capital called Blue Manchu. For those scratching their heads asking themselves if they should know or care about Jon Chey, his credentials include such franchises as Bioshock and chances are you already own one of his creations. While still in very early development, Jon is the only full time staff member and has to fund all projects with his own money despite getting some help from some of the more experienced developers he used to work beside at Irrationals studios.
Blue Manchu currently only have 1 project in development, a turn based strategy game called Card Hunter, that looks pretty cool albeit a long way from Bioshock or the likes which is just fine with Chey. Reading through his interview i found some very interesting comments he made as he talks about his career and the path of PC vs console developement. He starts by explaining how beneficial 2K were in boosting funding for Bioshock and the company in general providing much needed marketing and hype. He goes on to explain how a lot of PC developers were literally pushed out of the market and forced into Console games to stay afloat. According to Chey “The big budget PC market, I doubt its ever going to come back to life other than ports from the console side”. It nothing else it gave the console gaming scene a boost and showed them a side of gaming that hadnt been previously represented.
Chey is back at doing what he loves best, making the kind of games he loves playing and staying clear of the pressures of developing multi million dollar hit titles. With no formal office or staffing structure its a very open environment that could be the catalyst for bold and unique genre specific titles.
Rumour’s have been flying of a new Hunter x Hunter anime series after a sales sheet from Shueisha supposedly made it’s way onto the web, accidentally. As previously stated this is still considered speculation as none of this is yet to be confirmed.
For those who can not read Japanese the little excerpt from the sales sheet, announces a new Hunter x Hunter anime, as well as the already confirmed 29th volume and return to Weekly Shonen Jump.
Whether this will be a coninuation of the previous anime series is unknown. But with the anime being as old as it is, I personally think a reboot of the series is much more likely.
The rumour itself may actually be quite likely, considering the mass revival of the series that is taking place in the coming months. What do you guys think? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
This is the image that made it’s way onto the web:
Amazing news everyone, it seems that the pre-orders for Star Wars: The Old Republic are now up for everyone to view and order. Currently there are three packages listed, which are: The Collectors Edition, the Deluxe Edition and the Standard Edition.
Each of these editions have different bonuses, which are listed below.
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Collector’s Edition
Pre-Order Exclusive:
Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)
30 Days Game Time included
Limited Collector’s Edition Includes:
Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Game disks collectible metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan
The Old Republic galaxy map
Custom Security Authentication Key
Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High-quality Collector’s Edition box
Includes 7 Additional Digital Items:
Flare Gun
Training Droid
HoloDancer
HoloCam
STAP
Exclusive Mouse Droid
Exclusive Collector’s Edition Store
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Digital Deluxe Edition
Pre-Order Exclusive:
Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)
30 Days Game Time included
Includes 5 Additional Digital Items:
Flare Gun
Training Droid
HoloDancer
HoloCam
STAP
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Standard Edition
Pre-Order Exclusive:
Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)
30 Days Game Time included
The Collectors Edition looks like a must have item for any player serious about their Star Wars. Especially if they’re a massive fan of KotOR like myself.
Unfortunately, when I went to pre-order the game for myself, I didn’t see any Australian Retailers listed as carrying the game yet. Hopefully this changes soon. The Collectors is currently retailing for 129.99 Pounds and $149.99 US.
Visit the Webpage for more information and to preorder.
The title had been having rough times and things weren’t looking good for it when they had a delay back in May for Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype to improve the quality of the product, with an unknown release date planned, leaving fans wondering when they would get the chance to jump back into the Legends universe.
Now Megaman Legends 3 Project is over all together after Capcom pulled the plug on not just the full version but also the prototype, Capcom didn’t feel the game was meeting up with the criteria. Along with closing down Mega Man Legends Developer Room, through the North American Developer will remain open indefinitely along with its forums.
This is now the second Mega Man game to be cancelled this year, which is causing a bad feeling for the Blue Bombers fans. Capcom say that Mega Man is an important franchise to them and they will continue to pursue new titles. For now we will just have to wait longer for the Blue Bombers next outing.
Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team Publisher: THQ Developer: THQ Warrington Platform: XBLA (Reviewed), PSN Release: July 15th, 2011
Overview:
The Warhammer franchise has spent the majority of it’s tenure on PC’s and table-tops, however with Kill Team, the franchise comes to the Xbox with Kill Team and soon with the game’s tie-in, full retail game, Space Marine. What we have with Kill Team is essentially what you’d call a side adventure within the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It looks like the usual Warhammer game, but it plays far differently. Kill Team harkens back to shoot-em-up’s of old, whilst spinning a nice fresh take on the genre.
Story:
Admittedly, I am not a huge Warhammer fan. I consider myself to be a fan, just not a huge one. Thus, I do not know the ins and outs of the series expansive mythology. I am sure their is a far deeper storyline at hand in Kill Team than I percieve, so consider this the view of someone not well-versed in Wahammer mythos.
Kill Team tells the tale of a small squad of space marines who stage a seige of an Ork starship. You play either alone or with a friend and blast your way through different levels of the ship in an attempt to bring it down.
Now this is all you need to know to understand the game, which is one of the thing’s I loved most. I am not one who particularly enjoys being force-fed a bible-long mythos, to be able to understand a storyline and thankfully this was far from the case with Kill Team. The game simply places you into an easy to understand world and gives you a motivation. It is perfect for this style of game and anything more would be too heavy handed. This is a shoot-em-up styled game after-all, you don’t come for the story, you come to shoot stuff up.
So all-in-all this type of no hands held story-telling works perfectly for Kill Team.
Gameplay:
This is the part of this game that makes it great. Put simply the gameplay is so cohesive and well structured. You can feel the echoes of past shoot-em-up games, and it may certainly bring back some memories to those who hold the genre dearly. |
Thankfully the game never falls into the trap of feeling stale. There are 2 game modes, both of which can be played co-operatively – Campaign and Survival. Both modes are wonderfully crafted and do not feel weak in any way.
I personally found myself sitting down with this game, along side a partner and looking up at the clock realising hours had slipped away from us. The gameplay did a great job of keeping itself fresh and fun, from start to finish and still holds a great deal of replayability through it’s Survival mode, which pits you against a horde of orcs in an attempt to earn a high kill count which is also ranked in online leaderboards.
Single player unfortunately wasn’t as fun as the co-operative play was, as the game feels as though it was sculpted as a co-op game. Heck, the word Team is even in the title. Although this may be the case, singe player is still fun in it’s own right, but in these types of games, playing together is always to better option.
Overall the gameplay is very simple and just plain fun to play and really isn’t that what games like this should be?
Visuals:
The graphics of the game aren’t anything worth writing home about, however they do they job. For an arcade game these graphics look great, but obviously they will not match up to that of a full retail game. By the time the new Warhammer game, Space Marine, comes around, Kill Team may look shoddier in comparison. But you couldn’t ask for anything more.
The artstyle is very much a perfect fit for the Warhammer universe and the level design looks great. Unfortunately at times some character models look a little choppy, but it’s nothing too horrible. As you would imagine the appearance of the game, is gritty and dark, with little to no bright colours, but that is h0w a Warhammer game should be.
The graphics and art-direction in general are pretty good for an arcade title, just nothing too special.
Audio:
Probably the weakest part of Kill Team, was the audio. It is not that it was inherently bad in anyway, it’s just that it wasn’t anything worth remembering. Right now after having just played the game just under an hour ago, I am struggling to remember anything noteworthy. It’s all very stock standard, which is a shame. A Warhammer game should feature epic music to match the epic battles that are taking place, however Kill Team’s soundtrack falls short.
It provides nothing in the way of surprises and is simply just something pulled out of any old Space Shooter game. Which is as I said before a shame. I would have like to see them do so much more with the soundtrack, but unfortunately it was just average.
However, the sound effects and character noises are great. I love the orcs grunts and squeals, it just makes killing them all the more fun. Also the weaponry sound effects are well done and are definitely on par. Which is something good about the audio, thankfully.
Conclusion:
Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team is a game, that won’t make many waves. But it is good at what it does. It doesn’t go for broke, it goes for good and it achieves that with ease. In 5 years time not many people will most likely remember this title as anything more than a way to unlock thing’s for Space Marine. Which is sad really, but it’s what is probably going to happen. However this is a damn good game, that deserves to stand up on it’s own. It doesn’t revolutionise the genre, it doesn’t stand out and it doesn’t do anything entirely new/ But it is a damn good game that is more entertaining and worth playing then a lot of full retail titles out there.
With much rumour surrounding its release and ratings, Sega have finally made an official announcement that Aliens: Infestation will be released early September for the Nintendo DS. The game is developed by Wayforward studios in conjunction with Gearbox software who will be working on it parallel with Aliens: Colonial Marines being released for PC, PS3 and XBox 360. According to the official Sega release statement, players will be able to take control over 19 unique characters. Iconic environments from the ALIENS film series will be revisited including the Sulaco, Derelict ship and LV-426 bringing back old memories for fans of the franchise. Described as an action-heavy side scrolling exploration game players will be pitted against the familar Xenomorph and be able to utilise a vast array of weapons and items seen and used within the movies. Popular comic book artist Chris Bachalo has lent his skills to the project, aiding in character design and with a full arsenal of upgrades and collectibles this looks very creative and unique.
“In contrast to our other alien titles in the works at the moment, Alien Infestations delivers a game that focuses more on exploration of the expanded universe says Gary West, Senior VP Marketing Sega West. He goes on te praise Wayforward for their passion in delivering a pocket size version of Aliens to market.
Bleach: Soul Resurrección will be arriving in just under a month, namely on August 2nd and if you buy the game early then you will be able to download three digital episodes from the anime Bleach from the PlayStation Network. As was rumored back in June when listings for the game started to appear, Bleach fans will be able to download episodes 190, 191 and 192 from the store. This is only for the PlayStation 3 as Bleach: Soul Resurrección is a PS3 exclusive.
Besides this early purchase promotion, NIS America had good news for fans of the original Japanese voices of the characters from Bleach. They too will be available in the game alongside the English language track meaning that fans will have the choice as to who they will be listening to while they play through the game.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Developer: EA Bright Light
Publisher: EA
Platform: Xbox 360 (PS3, PC, Nintendo Wii, DS)
Genre: Action/Adventure/Third-person Shooter
Released: 15th July
Although the Harry Potter films have been getting progressively better as the cast matured and the special effects improved over the years, the same can not be said for the games which have almost done the opposite. Bar a couple of exceptions, the standard of the games has been slowly deteriorating before reaching the low point of last year’s tie-in for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – The Videogame. While this doesn’t quite best last year’s effort to claim the title of worst Harry Potter game released, this eighth iteration comes close, only marginally improving on the first part of the finale which released in November last year.
On the upside, the tragic standards set by EA Bright Light’s previous effort make Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – The Videogame look like a step in the right direction. Back in 2010 it of course marked a change of direction for the series; as Harry and friends set out to destroy Lord Voldemort’s ‘horcruxes’ – still mourning the recent death of Dumbledore – the game took a much more sinister turn. Gone was the safety of Hogwarts. In its place was an darker adventure that took place through familiar locations from the fantasy world, underlining a foray into the genre of third-person shooter.
With the change of genre came the introduction of a flimsy Gears of War-inspired cover mechanic. This remains in place, but has at least been improved on since last time, feeling slightly more responsive. The controls are essentially Gears of War too: the A button to cling to cover or held down to sprint, the left trigger to aim, the right trigger to fire spells, and the face buttons to alter the spell you are using.
Throughout the game you are encouraged to use a mixture of spells to take down enemies, for example, as enemies put up shields you must first break their protection with ‘Expelliarmus’ before you can unleash some other fire power. You gradually learn spells as you progress through the single-player campaign, but the consequence of EA Bright Light treating wands like rifles is that your finger can become rather tired flexing again and again on the trigger in combat. Unlike sub-machine guns, most spells don’t have automated fire, meaning you have to repeatedly pull the trigger in order to create a volley of firepower worthy and knocking out an enemy, simultaneously giving you a repetitive strain injury on the index finger on your right hand.
Like your foes, you too have a ‘Protego’ spell to generate a protective force field around you, deflecting the impact of any oncoming spells back at the sender. When you do take damage, a rather fancy health system lets you know how close to failing you are by becoming increasing shrouded in black smoke, like that of the Death Eaters. This then heals over time when you aren’t getting hit, removing the need for any health packs and generally keeping the heads-up display free from clutter.
Obviously the story follows that of the attached movie, giving its slightly speedier retelling of events and skipping out any scenes lacking action. It almost assumes players will have either read the book or watched the film by the time they play the game (which, to be fair, will be the case for most other than those who pick up and play the game before they get around to doing either) in the fragmented attempt at storytelling. This isn’t helped by some poor voice acting which ranges from being snippets of dialogue from the films, to dull phrases from sound-alike actors who have stepped in to play the role of many of the characters.
Playing through the story sees you take on the role of a total of 8 characters, so you aren’t just limited to the controlling of Harry. However, this doesn’t aid the one-dimensional mission structure which is typically walking a straight path, fighting waves of limited character models until they stop coming and you are allowed to move on, waiting for your AI team-mates to/protecting someone while they open a door, and then repeating the process all over again.
For some strange reason, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has gone for a slightly alternative cel-shaded art style, more so even than the last one which hinted at a new direction for the graphics. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, more a matter of personal preference. It looks fairly well presented even if some characters don’t look much like their cinema screen counterparts.
Conversely, of all the game’s attributes, the most striking one is its length or lack thereof. The 12 short chapters equate to completion time of around 4 hours, showing it only marginally outlasts the movie itself, something that comes as a bit of a disappointment considering the movie is supposed to be finished in one sitting, not the game. While this would stand as a lengthy single sitting, to all intents and purposes a full-price retail game having 4 hour lifespan doesn’t give you value for your money.
There are extras, but these serve only as additional bonuses to squeeze every last drop of so-called ‘entertainment’ out of the game. A challenge mode giving you time-based re-runs of sections of the campaign adds nothing new and very little to the experience; the same is true for the extras section which isn’t much more than a character-viewer. There is an ‘expert’ level of difficulty, complementing the two easier difficulties present, but sadly both your team-mates and the opposition remain just as incompetent as usual, just with the latter dealing and being able to endure more damage. To top it off, expert mode, along with all the extras are locked from the start and can only be opened up by gathering an assortment of collectibles.
In conclusion, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – The Videogame may have one of the longer titles in the videogame world, but a short story mode and bland extras ensure this isn’t the case for the gameplay. The evolution from action-adventure game to third-person shooter and the combined visual changes will appeal to some, but most will see past its Polyjuice Potion disguise to realise that this isn’t the wonderful Harry Potter movie/book, but an average shooter which doesn’t nearly do the license justice.
Today Capcom announced that they will be bringing yet another old Street Fighter title to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. This time they will be bringing Street Fighter III: Third Strike to the two services on August 23rd. The download will cost you 1200 Microsoft Points or $14.99 when it is released.
A few of the new feature added include online play and a few extra features such as Trials, Challenges, extra viewing modes and a slew of new features. Street Fighter III: Third Strike has been argued to be one of the best of the old series, which means that fans are most likely quite happy to hear this news. Along with this announcement came a trailer for the updated version of the game which you can see below.
Looks like Capcom can’t keep their secrets hidden for very long, or even a couple hours at best. They may have been planning a long dramatic release for the full list of new characters added to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 like they did with the original game. That isn’t the case however because Capcom’s official site had all their pictures available with only a little snooping.
You can see the pictures of every new character added below, but for the Capcom side we are getting Strider, Firebrand, Vergil, Frank West, Phoenix Wright and Nemesis. The Marvel side will be receiving Ghost Rider, Dr Strange, Nova, Rocket Raccoon (who?), Hawkeye and Iron Fist. Check out the artwork below and rage about Capcom’s lack of Megaman in every shape and form.
