Today, Trionworlds has launched the new E-Card app based on their MMORPG Rift on the Facebook platform. The Application allows players to superimpose up to three images of faces, pets and/or other items into a series of pre-designed images based on the Rift universe. These themes include Dwarves, Elves, Bahmi and notable NPC’s such as Asha Catari and Cyril.
Feel free to try out the application at the Facebook page.
About RIFT
Adventure in the world of Telara as either a noble Guardian or technomagical Defiant and enter a dynamic fantasy where 8 primal forces battle for control in an ever-changing landscape. Build your own class using the Ascended Soul system, embark on epic conflicts that bring you into the story, battle others in exhilarating Player vs. Player combat, achieve new heights of power by tackling epic raids, and so much more. See www.RIFTgame.com for more information.
Bungie said that they would wait until Bungie Day, July 7th, to share details on Bungie Aerospace, but it turns out they were too excited. And they have reason to be too. Bungie Aerospace is Bungie’s way of helping make even more great games for the future, besides their own. They will give indie developers the “creative freedom and the resources they need, like access to the Bungie.net platform and an audience with the incredible Bungie community, to launch their entertainment experiences into orbit.”
The first lucky recipient of such help is Harebrained Schemes and their game, Crimson, will launch on iPhone and Android this year. Hopefully, more studios will support the other mobile and tablet devices soon.
“Bungie has always been passionate about making and playing great games, regardless of platform,” said Pete Parsons, Bungie COO. “Bungie Aerospace will allow us to explore game creation in multiple formats with some amazingly talented teams. Now that we’ve returned to our roots as an independent studio, we are in a position to launch Bungie Aerospace to support, foster, and elevate like-minded, independent developers.”
Bungie has said that they will continue to work on their own projects in-house, like their new game and its mobile support. They will also continue to work on Bungie.net and its mobile support in-house. Basically, Aerospace and Bungie will not be developing gaming experiences together, but they they will work together. If that sounds confusing, you should just check the spiffy PR linked here.
In news that might seem a little over the top for video game standards. Activision has announced ‘Call of Duty XP 2011‘, a two day long Call of Duty fan fest dedicated solely to the multimillion dollar video game franchise. The convention will take place in Los Angeles on September 2nd and 3rd across the Labor Day Weekend. Details of what will take place over these two days sounds pretty epic with a $1 million dollar Call of Duty tournament, a real-life recreation of “The Pit” map from Modern Warfare 2 as well as paintball competitions on real-life recreations of life size Call of Duty multiplayer’s maps (Nuketown anyone?).
To top it all off there will of cause be plenty of news on the highly anticipated ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘, with exclusive first looks on the game’s multiplayer. Tickets for the event will go on sale on July 19th for $150, with all proceeded going to Activision’s non-profit charity The Call of Duty Endowment. An organisation that seeks to helps war veterans to return back to normal civilian life. More information about Call of Duty XP 2011 is still to be announced, yet already is sound pretty damn epic.
All the action is set to kick off on September 2nd, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is set to be released on November 8th for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. For more information on Call of Duty XP visit www.callofduty.com/xp.
Picture if you will, a crowded public transport carriage. A ripe odour hangs in the air, the temperature is completely inappropriate to the weather outside and that strange man towards the back has been yelling for the past five minutes. To make matters worse, your only source of intellectual puzzle comes in the inconvenient form of a broadsheet newspaper. Well, not anymore. Hudson’s latest game for the Nintendo 3DS, Sudoku: The Puzzle Game Collection, features not only Sudoku but also three other puzzle games including Shikaku, Akari and Hashi, which is certainly enough to last you for the
Gameplay
Having played Sudoku on other mobile gaming devices; on both smart and less ‘intelligent’ phones, I can safely say that Sudoku Puzzle Game Collection has them beat. If you are unaware, Sudoku is a number based game, where you must place the numbers 1 through to 9 into three by three blocks on a nine by nine game board without using the same number twice in one block. Using the stylus on the touch screen, it’s ineradicably easy to pick the appropriate place for a number and then select the desired number. For the Sudoku puzzles, it is a little more difficult and time consuming to utilise the game buttons. Overall, the stylus adds an element to the game that hints back to the paper and pencil format of the original game, in that the stylus affords to be held like a pencil or pen. The other games in the package include Shikaku, where you must divide the game board into squares and rectangles to match the numbers that are included. Again, another game that cries out to be played with the stylus, it is very simple to just touch and drag. Hashi is a bridge game. Numbers area on “islands” and you must draw lines and bridges between the islands according to the numbers displayed. The last game, Akari, involves setting lights around numbers on the game board in order to light up every square on the board. The numbers in squares dictate how many lights should be placed around it. While I still push the use of the stylus there is no reason why you can’t play these puzzles using button-based controls. Each game has their own control system, but the basic overview of it is that A will place numbers or lines and B can erase.
Graphics and Audio
Being a game specifically for the Nintendo 3DS, you might be asking, why would Sudoku need to be in 3D? To be perfectly blunt, it doesn’t. I know that, you know that, and game developers Hudson know that. Because of this, Hudson have gone a bit further for their players can developed some three-dimensional graphical representations of your progress through the puzzles. Each puzzle has its own animation sequence that is designed as a graphic metaphor for your puzzle solving. Sudoku’s graphic representation is of wonders around the world, with numbers appearing on the screen once you have selected them appropriately or filled in a box. Shikaku has a ‘Tron’ like animation sequence, with cyberpunk motorcycles forming boxes with lights as they speed by. This one is pretty cool but does get a bit repetitive. Akari pushes the concept of lighting a screen into a museum. The graphics show a small boy playing trumpet walking through a museum as lights turn on to illuminate and uncover a thief trying to steal artworks. The last 3D graphics to mention involves a classic gaming character, Bomberman. Bomberman, or men, are stranded on islands and connecting numbers will form bridges to connect them all together. The best part here is that if you remove a bridge, it gets bombed. The problem here is that the animations don’t change as you progress through the levels. But really, they don’t need to, you don’t often look up from the puzzle board on the lower screen, it’s just nice to know that Hudson have pushed the boundaries of the puzzle games to try and give players a unique experience that only the Nintendo 3DS can offer.
As well as these graphical representations of puzzles, there is also the option to display the full game board, which will automatically turn the 3D slider off. Or if the game board in 3D is more your thing, “3D Visuals 1” (which can be selected in settings) will allow you to do so. This option also makes use of the 3DS’ tilt sensitive technology. If you tilt your device, the top screen will change to a countdown timer to show how close you are to getting one of three colour crowns, gold being the best and earning you a hint to use when you get stuck. The use of the 3D technology, and in fact the 3DS’ technology as a whole is rather limited. I don’t feel that it is completely necessary to try to use it with a title such as this, however given that it was released for 3DS and 3DS alone, there could be a little more of a push to develop a more unique puzzle experience. Not that the game doesn’t push the boundaries of a portable puzzle game, but a little bit more of a shove would be nice.
Because each puzzle can have it’s own graphics, each puzzle then gets a fitting audio track. There is also the ability to change the music track for each game in the settings, with the option of six different tracks per puzzle. This is a nice little design feature seeing as music can often become really annoying when attempting to concentrate. In some games, the sound effects can become a little annoying, especially considering you may be moving through a puzzle quickly, undoing and redoing moves rather fast. Particular proof of this is in Akari when the lights switch on and off depending on your move with an awful industrial clang. However this only happens when viewing the animated 3D graphics. For the most part, the audio is fine and suited to the puzzle genre.
Conclusion
The game obviously has a very limited audience. If you like Sudoku, then obviously this is a title for you. Fortunately for me, I am a casual Sudoku fan, taking time out of plane trips to fill in a few boxes before I realise it is too hard. Because of this, I had some fun playing this title. However, I can’t help but feel that the functionality of the 3DS was a little wasted on this title. Apart from the little nod to the graphical capability of the device and the ability to tilt the device to switch between views on the top screen, which as I mentioned, has its limits, Sudoku: The Puzzle Game Collection doesn’t feel like a title that is best suited to the 3DS. I admire the attempt to push the boundaries of a puzzle game, but still can’t but wonder if it is really necessary. That being said, if you like your pencil puzzles, this title will be right up your alley, the mechanics are easily the best of any Sudoku game I have played. Unfortunately, if you aren’t the biggest fan of such puzzles, you should probably steer clear of this one.
Australian fans of sidekicks rejoice, as JB Hi-Fi have announced exclusive rights to the Tim Drake Robin pack with any pre-order of the new epic title Batman- Arkham City. Warner Bros Australia and DC Entertainment have confirmed that Robin will be a fully fledged character standing on his own 2 feet, playable in all the new and vastly improved challenge modes within the game. The Tim Drake pack will be available to any Australian who pre-order the game on either PC, XBox360 or PS3 from JB Hi-fi.
Robin will be given the chance to stand out from the crowd with unique weapons and special abilities and will be playable throughout the challenge mode, as well as in the 2 extra challenge maps included in the pack; Black Mask Hideout and Freight Train escape. Robin also comes with his very own bonus Red skin.
Personally i cant wait for this one, it looks evil, malevolent and downright dark. With 5 times the space to commit crimes and cause mayhem and chaos, this highly anticipated sequel brings a new storyline to the table, complete with old foes, murderous villains and that classic gritty underground feel.
A little while ago Tecmo Koei tweeted that they had a surprise to reveal about Dynasty Warriors 7. That surprise has now been outed by Famitsu as the Xtreme Legends expansion for Dynasty Warriors 7. Diehard fans of the series are sure to be pleased with this release as it alleviates some of the concerns and desires that the vocal fans have had since the main game released back in March. Namely, the ability to play co-op in Story mode with any character the player has unlocked (as long as you have your DW7 save data) as well as the inclusion of three new generals to play as. One of the new characters is confirmed to be Guo Jia, who was chosen as the top general that players wanted to see in future installments of the game.
It is unknown who the other two generals will be though the Koei staff elaborated on why another fan favorite, Pang De, was omitted from DW7 due to story constraints so perhaps he will finally be making his appearance as one of the other two. Here is the full list for those who wish to speculate.
1. Guo Jia
2. Yue Jin
3. Pang De
4. Xun You
5. Lu Su
6. Chen Gong
7. Xu Shu
8. Lu Kang
9. Yu Jin
10. Zhang Chunhua
11. Ma Yunlu.
Along with the story co-op and new characters, Xtreme Legends will be coming with it’s usual additions of Legend mode and Challenge mode as well as new weapons.
Xtreme Legends is currently slated for release for PS3 on Septemeber 29th in Japan. There is no current release date for 360 or for the West, though it should be noted that Dynasty Warriors 7 only released on PS3 in Japan so fans who bought it for 360 in the west, don’t be dismayed. Stay tuned for news regarding the (hopefully) pending release of Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends in the West.
Not having heard of this title before, i have become intrigued by its graphic style and storyline. To be able to save comic books while playing a video game, well lets just say the idea appealed to me, and to have it on special, well thats just the icing on the cake.
Twisted Pixel studios have announced that their quirky award winning Comic Jumper will be heavily discounted as part of the XBOX Live deal of the week. Down from its original price of 1200MPS, to a mere 400MPS, Twisted Pixel say after the sale the price will be permanently dropped to 800MPS which is good news for all. Comic Jumper gives players the control of Captain and his brash “chestkick” Star as they attempt to keep their own comic book series from annihilation. Their quest has them jump in and out of different storylines to keep their heads above water, ranging from 70’s fantasy, Silver Age, Modern and Manga. Each comic represents the art style of the era and gameplay takes on the feel of core classic shooters from the 90’s.
Check out this pretty awesome clip of what Man vs Wild would be if it was an 8 bit, old school RPG. Whether you’re a fan of the series or only know about it from pop culture references, you should feel right at home with this highly accurate interpretation of Man vs Wild. It has all of the informative and engrossing aspects the real show has, eating bugs, obsession with urine, the untruthful notion that Bear truly survives without any aid from his crew (especially when it comes to building rafts). This animation literally has ALL of that and more. If you like this animation, check out creator Doctor Octoroc’s website where he has more awesome stuff like this.
Call of Duty Black Ops Annihilation DLC Publisher: Activision Developer: Treyarch Platform: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, PC Release Date: June 28th 2011 (Xbox 360) Price:1,200 MSP ($15)
Overview: Call of Duty: Black Ops has reached its third DLC map pack in the form of the Annihilation package. With two map packs already under the game’s belt, new maps are always welcome especially by those who play Black Ops online continuously despite other newer titles being released in the half a year since Black Ops’ release.
Previously we saw the Escalation map pack which took Black Ops’ zombie mode to an entirely new level with Call of the Dead. Does Annihilation’s Shangri-La do a decent enough job of following this masterpiece as a zombie mode and how do the four new multiplayer maps: Silo, Hazard, Hanger-18 and Drive in fair in this new package?
Shangri-La: Now I won’t beat around the bush, a lot of the people who will be buying this DLC will be looking for a new zombie experience after killing George A. Romero plenty of times and shooting frozen zombies in the Call of the Dead. Now, if you ever looked further into the achievements for Escalation you may notice that one of them was to send a team to Paradise…. well paradise certainly isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.
The reason I mentioned Call of the Dead is because you will be taking on the familiar rolls of Dempsey, Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen and it is obvious that the team has just arrived in their so called “paradise” thanks to the golden rod still existing in the player playing as Richtofen’s inventory. But enough about the characters and the set-up, how about the map itself?
Now while Call of the Dead was rather spacious and sprawling in the terms of its map size, Shangri-La is a bit more constricting but still just as large. There are a number of ways to get around the map, including a water slide, a mine cart and even a pressurized spout of water that will launch your character to the ground above.
Besides the undead there are plenty of traps to worry about that could easily down your character as well as a few hits from a zombie will. But these zombies aren’t your standard affair either, there are a number of female zombies that will attack you alongside male zombies, though these are mostly cosmetic.
What is new here is the napalm zombies which appear occasionally. They take much more damage than a normal zombie does which makes them harder to kill and they also explode when they die, causing damaging flames to be left on the ground and any players nearby the explosion hurting and on fire.
Shangri-La is home to plenty of new content, whether it be zombie monkeys running around, environmental traps ready to pierce through your character, new weaponry (including a shrinking gun called 31-79 JGb215), new zombies and plenty of Easter Egg and hidden content. The amount of secrets in Shangri-La certainly rival that of Call of the Dead, so many that you will be spending hours of time searching through the level, all the while fighting off the undead and trying to discover the way to find the focusing stone.
Hazard: One of the more interesting maps in this package is the Hazard map. The map itself is based around a golf course and therefore contains plenty of open spaces. The map itself is well done and is perhaps the prettiest looking map pack of all, with bright colors and the unique setting itself some may find Hazard to be their favorite map.
On the other hand, because of the wide open spaces the map is very much a sniper’s paradise. If you do not like to play as a sniper then this map may become one of your least favorite simply because lots of players simply sit and camp in sniping positions, though well rounded players should still be able to run and gun and pick off enemies. Hazard is perhaps the best map for any of the objective based battles simply because it forces players to actually do something besides hide and snipe.
Drive-In: Perhaps the most interesting map of the package, Drive-In, also known as the Galactic Drive-In is the best map of the entire package. There is a good mixture of close quarter combat areas as well as sniping areas that will let everyone get a taste of what they enjoy. There is plenty of cover to be hand and your trigger fingers will be twitching often as you see an enemy disappear around a corner.
Because of the close quarters design of Drive-In it is a very good map for Team Deathmatch and can provide lots of fast paced fun. As far as objective modes go, it is rather interesting at times with heavy fighting to complete the objective and lots and lots of kills all around. Just like Hazard, Drive-In is also a pleasure to play on simply because the map is designed very well and looks great. Not a lot of people will find themselves stopping to look around, but those that do will be treated to a great looking level, perhaps the best out of every map in Black Ops.
Hangar 18: There is a reason this level is called a Hangar, and the main area of this level is centered right around it. That being a SR-71 Blackbird that players can climb on and use to their advantage to shoot enemies below. The plane sits center in the level and is often where you will find a lot of combat occurring at times. Of course fighting atop of the plane has its own risks as well, because snipers can pick you off easily and others can try to sneak behind you. The level is rather good for Team Deathmatch and average for objective gameplay. It feels unique only for the fact that there is a Blackbird in the middle, but besides that you will find it’s gray overtones to be a bit too familiar.
Silo: The second largest map of the entire package is Silo. However this isn’t to its advantage, because Silo is too large for its own good and a lot of the combat often focuses around the edges of the battlefield, meaning a fight on Silo is usually going to be a very slow battle or ending with time running out. Unlike Hazard, the largest level of the package, Silo is more broken up with various buildings which breaks up combat and usually involves chasing enemies, or being chased yourself. The level has a nice touch of missiles shooting in the background which helps provide some good atmosphere but otherwise Silo is a rather unimpressive map that is going to feel very familiar to other maps already provided with Black Ops.
Overall: A lot can be said about how, three map packs in, Treyarch can still manage to provide at least a few unique maps to help heighten the online experience. While Silo and Hangar 18 may appear rather bland in appearance and similar to things we’ve seen before, Drive-In and Hazard will provide the much needed breath of fresh air to the multiplayer map choices. There is a good balance here between objective and team deathmatch styled maps and most maps, minus Hazard, allow any sort of playstyle to be enjoyed. Shangri-La is a fun experience with plenty of new things to see and do, but it is difficult not to compare the experience to the much more interesting and enjoyable Call of the Dead. In the end you will find yourself enjoying most of these maps and blowing up zombies with a bamboo spike claymore is always fun.
Fans of the acclaimed Street Fighter IV can now go head-to-head in Street Fighter IV: Volt, which is available now for iPad and iPhone devices! The game perfects the previous Street Fighter IV, but now includes WiFi support for V.S. mode, and 3 new characters- Balrog, Vega and Cody, as well as a special mystery character, bringing the roster to a total of 18 fighters. Furthermore, players can unlock special avatar bonuses by playing V.S. matches via WiFi and Bluetooth.
Street Fighter IV: Volt’s set price is $6.99, however as a special promotional price it is currently $1.99, and will increase in price by a dollar until it reaches it’s set price of $6.99 on July 6. So go get it while it’s cheap! Click here to see it in the apple app store!
Expect a Capsule Computers review by the end of the week!
