Well, if you were a huge fan of Split/Second or Pure then you will find this news very upsetting, because the company behind those titles, Black Rock Studio, is going to be closed down soon. Eurogamer received a statement from Disney that confirmed that things were not going well for the Mickey Mouse owned developer.
The statement says that Disney has not given any greenlights to the projects being worked at by Black Rock Studio and has told the employees of the company of an impending “consultation process” which is the 90-day UK law phrase of closure. The studio was struck with layoffs earlier this year which showed signs of trouble for the company but no one was expecting the studio to be shut down entirely. Let us wish those that still had jobs at Black Rock Studio the best of luck in their future.
While most countries around the world have their own Independence Days, July 4th is the United States Independence Day and what better way for an American company like EA to celebrate it than have a huge sale on many of their own titles. EA detailed today a very large sale that will be occurring on July 4th only. Some of these sales are for PC or iOS but there are also games that are going to be on sale across the consoles as well. Find the entire list below and see how much money you will be spending on games instead of fireworks this 4th of July.
Perfect World Entertainment has announced that it will showcase its latest game, Rusty Hearts, at Anime Expo, which starts tomorrow! The multiplayer online, hack n’ slash fighting game, which debuted at this year’s E3, will get its spot in the limelight at the largest anime and manga convention in the U.S. held annually at Los Angeles Convention Center.
Attendees of Anime Expo will be treated to exclusive interviews, new information on game details and game demos in a live streaming event thanks to Perfect World Entertainment’s partnership with Crunchyroll, an online website dedicated to East Asian media. They can also participate in fun activities to win great prizes! Won’t be at the convention but don’t wanna miss out? Fans can watch the event online and will even be able to submit questions they’d like to ask!
“We strongly believe in giving gamers a truly free-to-play, online experience through a high quality game like Rusty Hearts and we can’t wait to showcase all that it has to offer to anime and manga enthusiasts,” said Mark Hill, Game Producer for Rusty Hearts. “Our fans have blown us away with their continuous support and we are excited to give them an opportunity to follow us at Anime Expo through Crunchyroll’s live streaming event.”
Rusty Hearts will start Closed Beta Testing on July 27th, 2011. With Perfect World Entertainment having published successful titles such as Perfect World International, Forsaken World and Ether Saga Odyssey, we can expect that Rusty Hearts will be another blockbuster mmo that can capture the hearts of online gamers.
Today is July 1st in the states, and if you are a Club Nintendo member, this of course means it is now time to redeem a Gold or Platinum reward, depending on the number of points earned throughout the year. Last year, Platinum members were treated to a statue featuring the cast of Mario that honestly looked quite stunning while the Gold members got their usual Nintendo calender.
This year Gold members still will receive a calender, but those who achieved over 600 points are to be rewarded with a Mario & Friends Pin Set. When I first heard the term “pin set”, I was expecting to see the limited Mario pins we seen last year. However, this set is made up of 25 small pins, each bearing 8-bit characters,enemies, and power-ups from the Mario universe. The set is broken up into 5 “puzzle like” boxes that make up quite a display piece when put together (as you see in the picture above).
If you are not yet a member of Club Nintendo, you can get registered over at club.nintendo.com. To earn points, all you need to do is simply enter in codes from your First Party Nintendo products (including systems), then simply do surveys for each item in which points automatically apply to your account. With those points, users can purchase Nintendo swag in the shop. Gold status is rewarded at 300 Nintendo points while Platinum is rewarded at 600. Every year on June 30th, if either status is reached, users can redeem their yearly reward. Since this is a new year, any codes entered as of today will apply to next year’s rewards.
That about sums it up. Now get to redeeming and enjoying free stuff!
Not too long ago, Namco revealed they would be releasing the 3DS version of Tales of the Abyss worldwide. Today, a release date was given to the highly anticipated title…at least for Australia anyway. On November 10th of this year, Tales of the Abyss will see a release down under and fans will finally get to experience the cult-favorite RPG in beautiful 3D with dual-screen support.
Now that we know that Tales of the Abyss will be releasing this year on the 3DS in Australia, the only question that remains is an official date for North America. Hopefully Namco will enlighten us on that news soon enough and if I had to guess now, I would say late October, early November might be a close assumption for that date. For now though, Aussies can breathe easy as Tales of the Abyss is now just 5 months away from touching down on the 3DS.
Over the past few years, Gamevil’s Zenonia series has set a bar for other Action-RPGs that enter the mobile market due to it’s simple yet in depth battle system to the epic tales told within the games. Today is a big day for Gamevil though as Zenonia 3 has been released on the Android Marketplace at absolutely no cost. which is quite a bold move to make for such an established series.
Zenonia 3 will have players guide Chael as he looks for answers to his family’s history across over 200 maps across Midgard and with 100 quests that can be executed during his expansive journey. As well as having four “distinct” melee and ranged character classes to choose from (with each holding 13 active skills as well as 9 passive), a new “Fairy helper-system” has been added to add a new layer of strategy to the process of leveling up your character. A new Execution Room Mode is another first for the series, letting players loot alone or with a friend in co-op play. The online PvP arena will also be making it’s return in this sequel.
“ZENONIA 3 is packed to the brim with an expansive story, exciting combat and RPG action, extended online play,” said Kyu Lee, Head of GAMEVIL USA. “We’re very proud to share this next chapter of our flagship RPG series with Android fans, and welcome everyone as we offer it for free
All of these features combined certainly makes for a huge game and yet another ambitious release from Gamevil, and at the price of free, it would be criminal not to at least give the latest entry into the Zenonia series a download. You can find Zenonia 3 in the android market or simply at http://market.android.com/. Check out the new screens released today for yourself below and get to downloading!
In an Australian exclusive The Darkness II will be available to play at Mana Bar Melbourne, coinciding with the cocktail bar and video game lounge’s opening weekend on July 16th and 17th. If you’re lucky enough to be there, you will be able to get a firsthand look and a hands-on preview on one of the more unique games to come out this year.
The Darkness II continues the chronicles of Jackie Estacado, Mafia hitman turned Mafia boss, who possesses a dark and powerful demonic force knows as ‘The Darkness’. At this year’s E3, The Darkness II showed off some impressive new gameplay features “quad wilding”, along with an eye catching comic book style art direction that impressed many gamers and fans alike. If you’re in Melbourne definitely go cheek it out, but get in quick because it’s only going to be there for two days – July 16th and 17th!
For more information on Mana Bar visit their Facebook andwebsite. The Darkness II is set to be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on October 9th in Australia.
Okay, as anybody who frequents this site knows, I am a huge fan of the online shooter QuakeLive. I have put a tonne of time and effort into the game whilst mainly playing for fun. Yes, this has made kind of good at the game, and yes, this means that my ranking and tier will naturally increase. But, with the increased tier comes a downside. While I will be generally facing tougher opponents (thus increasing my fun), I’ll also generally be looking at a screen that looks a lot like this.
Hey look an active match! Oh it’s a private game (not that I wouldn’t be able to join, I prefer not to join private duels unless invited).
While it says that the view has been customised, it’s just set to filter only to Australian severs. So while I could play against US players with a 250+ ping, that wouldn’t be very fun. I’ve tried finding a match for a game for a few days now and I have been welcomed by a screen similar to this each time. Now, I could sit in a server and hope that someone comes along, which I have done, but it is rare that anyone actually does. I can also try and join a game that’s lower than my own skill (also known as slumming) but the game is built against that. Observe what happens when I try to join a game against a friend that is only one tier lower than myself.
This is a guy that routinely kicks my backside too.
Now, if I was a non-paying member of this game, I’d probably not really care as much. However, it turns out that I actually pay to play this game (because I like it tonnes) and not being able to play is really hurting my investment. While I understand that it’s not id’s fault that not many players meet my skill (or that there is a large portion that do but only have enough players to fully fill a few servers exaclty) thereby reducing my chances of finding a game, I would still actually like to be able to play this game at some point this week. Even if it’s to get owned by actual players with actual tier 4 skills so I can get dropped back down to tier 3.
You’re probably wondering what the point of this post is, and well, it doesn’t have a point. I’m just venting my frustration of not being able to find a game in a creative manner, rather than a destructive one. Take from this what you will.
Left to right – CTF (Tier 3), CA (Tier 4), Duel (Tier 3), FFA (Tier 4), Freezetag (Tier 2), TDM (Tier 3)
Note: While duels are common, I rarely see an active one whilst I am looking for matches.
I recommend this game to anyone, be sure to try it!
And be sure to add me (LinkageAX) to your friends list 😀
The complete list of Madman and Siren Visual releases for the month of July 2011 is out. We got one hell of a month coming our way with great releases from both companies such as K-On! from Madman and Clannad After Story from Siren Visual. Check below for the complete list of releases.
And that’s it for this month, anime and manga. We have some keepers here, so get buying everybody! You don’t wanna miss out on some of these. Bank on it!
So on a Monday night the 27th of this month, a few of our game-loving family ventured into the Sydney CBD for a chance to play the newest and yet to be released titles from Gameloft. For those who have not heard of them before, Gameloft is an absolute powerhouse company in the IOS gaming market, developing a very wide range of games for use on Apple Macs, IPods, Iphones and Ipads as Apps. However, they have also ventured into the realm of console gaming, with releases such as ‘Asphalt 3D’ on the 3DS, and a large catalogue of downloadable games available on networks such as Steam and the PSN. MasterAbbot, Alexis and I were fortunate enough to meet some of the Australian based team members of Gameloft in person for a few drinks, some snacks and a HEAVY dosage of playing the newest release titles they have on offer.
While Alexis had the chance to get stuck into a majority of the IOS titles on display, I got stuck mostly into the console and Macbook games. There were four console based titles on display: Modern Combat: Domination, Dungeon Hunter, Blokus and Asphalt 3D. Having already reviewed Asphalt in the past, I got stuck into the remaining three, all of which were displayed on PS3. I was informed that all three of the games that I trialled were only available as downloadable items from the PSN network, so don’t expect to see these little numbers pop up as physical media.
Additionally, I also had the chance to play a few of the iPod touch based titles. Now I will admit, I’m not exactly an expert on IOS based gaming, but what I did get to play through seemed like a pretty thorough attempt to appeal to the hardcore gaming market, as opposed to the casual market often associated with IOS titles. In particular, I had the chance to play through BackStab and the new HD Avatar game.
Modern Combat: Domination
This game was displayed on both the Macbook and the Playstation 3. Available as a downloadable title, Modern Combat: Domination is essentially a multiplayer oriented FPS title. The game itself features an objective based style of gameplay, similar in calibre to that of the Counter-Strike series. I liked to think of it as a CS for the modern day. Because let’s face it, CS is sort of redundant nowadays. The game itself flowed exceptionally well on the Macbook port, but required a little control adjustment on the console port. However, the unique thing revealed about this game, is that gameplay-wise it is, in fact, multi-platformed. In other words, when playing online, a PS3 player can connect and play a multiplayer match with someone using a Macbook. This is a very cool little feature that is likely to win over many followers who own both Macs and PS3’s.
The gameplay itself is pretty stock standard for an FPS title. Similar to the Call of Duty or Medal of Honour series, the gameplay follows a simple run-aim-shoot flow. The game does also feature AI bots to make up additional players for when one can’t make up an entire party. It also allows for decently scaled single player gameplay.
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
This is the one game at the night I spent the most time on. For fans of games such as Diablo, Sacred or Gauntlet, this series will seem like familiar territory. This game is a third-person action-RPG that takes place in a pretty standard Fantasy style setting. The players will take on the role of the formerly deceased King, brought back to life by some mysterious magical force. The players soon discover that the kingdom that once belonged to the player has been usurped and chaos now reigns far and wide. It is up to the player to adventure through this torn kingdom and restore the lost order.
\From the get go, players are given a choice of 1 of 3 character archetypes to use: the warrior, the rogue and the mage. Just as with other fantasy games, the warrior is the standard weapon master, the rogue, bows and knives, and magic for the mage. Along the journey, players will meet a variety of characters to add to their party, so no character niche is left unfulfilled. However, the best defining feature of this game is undoubtedly the multiplayer aspect. The game supports multiplayer functionality so that multiple players on the same console, or on separate consoles can adventure together. This game is relatively simple in terms of art style and gameplay, but is bolstered more by the premise of multiplayer possibilities. Due to the limited skill sets of each character type, and the large variety of situations players are likely to encounter, the game very much promotes co-operative play so that other player characters may fulfil the roles that are missing from the party. It should also be noted that a player character seems to be a far more capable ally than the AI partners. If you like adventure-RPG type games, similar to Gauntlet and Diablo, then this one is worth a purchase.
Blokus
Blokus was the third and last game that was displayed on the PS3. This particular title is a competitive puzzle game. The premise behind this game is to place down as many blocks as possible on the game board. The player who places the most blocks down at the end of the game wins. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. As I discovered for myself, this game is a VERY tricky one. Blocks can only be placed down if corners of the blocks are touching, which highly limits the options for areas that players can make a play. Additionally, each time you play through, you will be facing 3 computer controlled AI’s who have a rather merciless nature in terms of competition. The purpose of the game is to place down as many blocks as possible, but at the same time, use your blocks to “block off” the movement of other players. It’s a rather tricky little number that requires both puzzle solving ability and a degree of strategy. For those looking for an intellectual, try this one out.
BackStab
Do you like pirates? Of course you do. Why else do you think we all sat through 4 Pirates of the Caribbean movies? But what if the pirates were also ninjas? The universe would implode, right? All kidding aside, BackStab is probably the closest I’ve ever seen to the two arch nemesis factions being mixed. The game is essentially about pirates, but features a VERY heavy emphasis on parkour-like elements. The best comparison to make would be to say: “Assassins Creed, but with Pirates.” The demo I had the chance to play through featured a pirate protagonist that was battling against what I assumed was the royal navy from the colonial era. The game featured some pretty fluid combat and environment scaling mechanics. If you’re a fan of the Assassins Creed series, this one is worth looking out for.
James Cameron’s Avatar HD
The final title that I had the chance to have a go at was James Cameron’s Avatar HD. This IOS title attempts to construct the world of Pandora in greater detail by showing off more of the environments and creatures that we may not have necessarily seen in the movies. The game does not STRICTLY follow the movie flow of events, but it does so enough to the extent that players will be already familiar with what to expect from their player character, and the world around them. The game combines 3D adventure platforming and 2D side scroller sections of gameplay. For fans of the Avatar universe, you might want to consider giving this title a close look.
