As if making fantastic games wasn’t enough to cement a company’s reputation firmly in the green, PopCap are currently auctioning off original art works from their popular franchises on eBay, with all proceeds going to charity.
From this week until July 12th, there will be up to nine items on auction, rotating each week. They will include original concept sketches from Plants vs. Zombies, Bookworm and Peggle, personalised sketches, a blue neon Bejewelled diamond, game-themed ceramic sets, and the piéce de résistance: DJ Brainz, a six foot by six foot graffiti art canvas painting of a PvZ-style zombie DJ.
100% of the proceeds will go to charity; both SpecialEffect in the UK and the Starlight Children’s Foundation in the US.
Have a look at the video below for an idea of what’s up for auction this week, and start your bidding at PopCap’s eBay page.
Hey, you know that Qriocity service that we kept hearing about back when the PSN was down? No? You mean you didn’t know that Sony has a service that will allow you to access streaming music? Well don’t worry too much, not many people even acknowledged the existence of the service. In an effort to make Qriocity a more well known name, or at least known, Sony will be offering all PS3 owners older than 18 years old a 180 day membership to the service for free.
Announced on the PlayStation Blog today PS3 owners can select the Music Unlimited option in their Music menu and then you can access it entirely free for six months. Then again you could always forget that it ever existed in the first place like many people did in the first place. But hey… free is free for now.
Earth Defense Force 2017 was a game that many of us may have played many years ago when it was released, though many of us may have also simply forgotten that it existed. Well D3Publisher isn’t going to let us forget that the series exists because they have a brand new title coming out on July 5th in North America and July 7th everywhere else for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Titled Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, D3Publisher announced that the game has received the gold seal of approval and have also talked about what you can get if you pre-order the title from different retailers. If you pre-order the game from GameStop you will get the Pounds of Pain Battle Armor Weapon Pack package that will give you 15 new weapons while people who buy from Best Buy can get the Death From Above Jet Armor Pack. The game will run the cheaper than average price of $39.99 too so there is no excuse not to pick up this title, especially after watching the launch trailer below.
If you know comedy then you should know a man named Robin Williams. If not then go watch some TV and catch one of the comedies that he has been in in his long career. If you do know about Robin Williams, you may not know that his daughter is named Zelda and that he named his daughter after Princess Zelda in the game.
We see Zelda in both forms, his daughter and also Princess Zelda from the game as well as a quick shot of Robin Williams with a very huge looking beard and we also learn the background story about Zelda’s name and Robin Williams’ love of the series as a whole. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will be released within a week in North America and you too can share the joy of playing the title just like Robin Williams himself. Catch the video below.
Last year, we reviewed a little game by the name of Greg Hastings Paintball 2, which turned out to be a worthy entry into the series that over time has defined the sport on consoles. However, up until today, the only way you could play the game was on the Wii or 360 as the PS3 never seen a release. Majesco were dedicated on keeping the Sony paintball fans happy though and have now released Greg Hastings Paintball 2 (with newly added Move support) on the PSN.
This version includes all the same features as the 360 version, but with Tournament Speedball, Recball, and Tournament Woodsball added in as well as the many gun types with paint grenades and rocket launchers. Players can also lead their 10-player team to victory by leveling up their stats, performing trades, and issuing commands on the field. Multi-player is also available in this version, which 14 “ballers” can prove their worth in heated online paintball battles. You can now download Greg Hastings Paintball 2 on the Playstation Network for a nice low price of $19.99.
Back in the mid-90’s, while everyone was playing Streets of Rage, I was playing a clone by the name of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie. To this day I can still dust off the cartridge and enjoy that game all the same as I feel it’s age has held well over the years, which is why I am a bit curious for what Namco Bandai have up their sleeve with their upcoming Power Rangers game, Power Rangers Samurai.
At E3 this year, Namco Bandai released a brand new trailer for the Wii version of the game, which shows that Power Rangers Samurai is going to be a mix of beat-em up & hack-n-slash. The visuals are not exactly stunning, but honestly that doesn’t matter too much as the gameplay seems to do it’s job well. Another note worthy of mention is that if one company knows about how to create a Power Rangers game, it’s Bandai, who of course worked on the SNES/Sega Genesis versions of the game back in the 90’s. You can check out the new trailer below which includes all the Sentai greatness you would expect (along with the awesome remix of the original theme song) and if tell us in the comments if this new Power Rangers trailer brings out any nostalgia. Power Rangers Samurai officially launches on the Wii & DS September 1st.
Developer:Lionhead Studios Publisher:Microsoft Platform:PC (Xbox360 Review here) Genre:Role-Playing Price:$68.88 AUS (Buy Here)/ $36.47 US (Buy Here)
Opening
Fable III is a story of a Prince who must lead a revolution against his Tyrannical King brother and save the kingdom from an unknown darkness. The game is an amazing title that will amuse it’s player base for hours on end.
Story
The story of Fable III is actually really interesting as well as entertaining. It is also presented in a fun manner and can be approached by gamers of nearly any age.
The story itself isn’t your typical hero story, but still follows the heroes journey archetype of storytelling. The story told follows the journey of a Prince to a kingdom that is currently being ruled by a King who is oppression-istic but also believes that he is doing the right thing. Very early into the story the player character is shown just how poor a ruler the current king (his older brother) really is and takes it upon himself (or herself depending on the gender you choose) to embark on a quest to gain allies in a revolution to overthrow the king and save the kingdom from a decline in health as well as from a great and powerful evil.
This guy is that King.
The games story is pretty straightforward, though the player can choose between certain paths within the story like, say, promising to rebuild an academy and then not going through with it. But other than influencing the way certain events happen, you can’t ultimately make the story up as you go. The game doesn’t suffer for this at all though and is stronger for it. The story can be put on hold at almost any time though, and I’m sure that enterprising players would have worked out that it’s more beneficial to take your time and accumulate resources as early as possible, considering all the story elements that require them.
These elements? Well one of them is the Road to Rule. This road is a gated path along which the hero is prompted travel across after certain events within the story up until it reaches the doors of a castle, which signifies that you are now ruler of the land. The area is a separate playing area as the rest of the game and can be visited at any point after you have initially travelled to it. Scattered along this road are treasure chests, which are opened by Guild Seals which increase your stats and emotes. As a story mechanic, the hero character is led upon the path by Theresa (the little sister from the ‘first’ Fable game on the original Xbox) and she remarks upon the heroes progress as a kind of guide to the character. As a story telling device, the Road to Rule is excellent because it represents a way for the player to accurately gauge their progress within the story and it also stands as an interesting way to present progression for a characters abilities. But what I like about it the most, is that it allows you to choose how you want to upgrade your hero. Mine ended up maxed out in spells and ranged weaponry with no upgrades in melee at all.
Theresa, showing off the Road to Rule.
The other element comes into play once you’re actually king. I don’t really want to be spoiler-iffic so I’ll just leave it as ‘You’ll know what I mean when you get there’. I should point out that I was completely unprepared for this element of extreme hoarding and ended up leaving my pc on overnight, just so I could make the incredibly large amount of the element just so that I could beat the game without looking like a complete d-bag to my compatriots and my people.
The story is about more than a simple revolution, however. It is also a story of fighting a great evil. Unlike most games, where you’re aware of what it is that you’re fighting right at the start, you don’t find out about this great evil until towards the end of the primary storyline. I found this to be a really interesting way to handle things.
The one thing that I didn’t like about the story though, is that early on you’re given the choice of saving a small group of people or saving a close female companion. Should you choose the female companion (as I did) she does not show up again throughout the primary storyline at all. I mean, to me she was kind of important, because it was this same choice that prompts the primary character to undergo the quest to lead a revolution and rule the kingdom properly, a reunion in a primary questline should have been in order for this character, but she’s instead regulated off in a sidequest that most players won’t undertake or even realise was there considering how limited it is in availability.
Gameplay
For anybody who has played any of the previous Fable games, or even The Witcher 2, you will feel pretty comfortable with this game. For my play through, I used an X360 controller and the control scheme was very user friendly. However, I should point out, that I also messed with the keyboard and mouse controls.
The Mouse and keyboard input was very easy to pick up and play with, but it was a bit different in play-style to the Xbox controller. First, you had to switch between combat modes using the mouse wheel or toggle on the keyboard, and second, the way some combat modes played varied between the control types. For instance, with magic I found that once you get the required upgrade for two different types of spells, you could use both the left and right mouse buttons to fire the spells at enemies as opposed to both simultaneously while using the controller. This dramatically changes the tactile of combat and allows the player a greater level of flexibility when it comes to their combat options.
As an aside for combat, I’d really recommend taking it off easy mode, as it was largely unchallenging. But your own skills should ultimately decide how you want to experience the game.
Deal with it, yo.
Outside of combat, players are able to converse somewhat with the villagers and other NPCs of the game. This done differently to how it was done in previous Fable games, as you no-longer just emote within the vicinity of a group of NPCs to get their attention and build a massive heart above their heads. Now you do this more personally with each NPC and emotes are separated by types, rather than allowing you to choose from a list of ones that you have already unlocked. So say you want to be friendly with someone, the game will have a good emote planned out for you, like shake hands and after you do that, you will be able to do another pre-selected emote of that same type. While it’s not as personal as the previous Fable games (I would just used to run to a group of NPCs and let out a joke in front of a large crowd), it still works with this game, but I think that the old system was a bit better. And of course, building relationships with these NPCs is important if a player wants to start a family in the game. Though, to build between relationship levels, a player must complete some kind of quest as well as take their chosen NPC out on a date.
Again, players upgrade themselves in the usual Fable manner, eat lots of meat and you’ll get fat, use swords a lot and you’ll build strength and etc. However, unlike previous entries in the series, players will not be accumulating points in one of three areas, but are instead just accumulating Guild Seals to spend on the Road to Rule. The one thing that I really loved about upgrades in this game is that if you use tonnes of magic spells, you get this glow across all of your tattoos, it looks insanely awesome. Another thing that I really loved is that any weapon you obtain can be upgraded based on how you use it, you get some pretty awesome looking weapons because of this.
Visuals
Fable III carries the Fable aesthetic to new heights. This probably the most visually stunning entry in the series. I don’t mean it in a way that is to discount the first because it appeared in the sub-HD era, but there is this one part of this game that absolutely sold me on this idea. And that area is this big desert area. It also features my favourite monster in the game, these desert women that resemble a Tusken-Raider from Star Wars crossed over with the combat abilities of a Gerudo from The Legend of Zelda. It also helps that they are incredibly sexy beasts.
I mean, like, most of the usual Fable monsters are here and given a slight increase in visual fidelity, the Balverines are as scary as they always have been, the Hobbes are still fat-deformed people-like things and the Hollow-Men are still skeletons, so it’s still all very Fable-istic and each monster is easily recognisable to anyone who has played any of the previous games.
Overall, I’d say that graphics are greater than the Xbox360 version of the game from what I’ve seen of it, but it’s not an incredible improvement. Just a vast one. Speaking of graphics quality though, playing with the graphics settings in the game, the difference in quality between ultra high super-special-awesome detail and incredibly low detail isn’t that much at maximum resolution, but it is still a little noticeable. Like, you can tell something was changed, but you’re not too sure what it was. It’s obvious in an un-obvious way, it’s pretty sweet. Just make sure you turn V-Sync off, it doesn’t like cutscenes.
Overall, I love that they haven’t messed with the visual style that clearly makes a Fable game, a Fable game. It’s also really cool that so much effort has been put into making the game as visually as pleasing as possible between graphical settings.
Audio
Time to Windows Media Player should be a legitimate way of measuring how good a games audio is. Assuming it was a standardised measurement unit of audio quality for a game, this title will have scored well on the charts. Not once did I get bored of the soundtrack, it was just so good.
Audio makes the most visually stunning area even more awesome.
The music, effects and other noises in the game all fit their roles well and blended together amazingly. I always find it hard to comment on audio that is done well, because it’s a lot easier to complain about something bad than it is to work out why something is really good. Bad is obvious, good is subtle.
Conclusion
Fable III for PC is an amazing package. I would heartily recommend this game to anyone with a PC built in the last 3 years, or for some people; earlier. The game is an amazing blend of action, questing and story that you will find yourself drawn into the world and it’s characters with ease. Apart from a few minor issues I had with with the game, it’s an amazing package that everyone should enjoy.
In anticipation to the next game in the Dungeon Siege series Dungeon Siege III, Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment have released two new trailers for the game which is set to be released tomorrow, June 16th in Australia and New Zealand and in North American on June 21st. The first is a launch trailer, showcasing the four playable characters that players will be able to choose from. And the second is a tongue-in-cheek live action trailer. In Dungeon Siege III, players will be able to play local two player co-op or online with up to three friends from start to finish of the story campaign.
Dungeon Siege III will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC
Game – No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise
Console(s) – Playstation 3 (Reviewed), Xbox 360
Publisher/Developer – Konami/ Feelplus & AQ Interactive
Genre – Action Adventure/Hack ‘n’ Slash
Release date – August 16, 2011 (USA), April 15, 2011 (Japan), May 20, 2011 (EU)
Buy/Preorder here – Amazon (USA) or Play – Asia (Australia)
After the critically acclaimed but poor selling No More Heroes released for the Nintendo Wii a couple of years ago, Konami is at it again with a sequel in the form of No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise. Can this game fix the faults of its counterpart and rise to the occasion?
Story
Travis Touchdown (I swear that last name is real) is a typical dude. He likes video games, motorcycles and alcohol. He also spends way too much time chatting up the ladies. Oh, and he has a beam katana, which is a super powered stick of glowing death that can be swung about to cause massive damage. Not only that, but he is also a well known assassin. There are only a few problems with his life.
Problem 1 is that he is ranked as number 11 on the list of assassins by the people who rank such things (seriously, who has the time, interest and investment to give assassins a numbered score?)
To solve his first problem, Travis agrees to a tournament of sorts: Find and kill numbers 1-10 and be ranked NUMBER 1. Of course, after signing his tournament contract papers, Travis finds out he must pay a steep entry fee to get a chance at his prey. Which brings us to:
Problem #2- Travis Touchdown got no money.
To make up for this, Travis needs a job, but we’ll get into that later.
All in all, the story is so shallow and bizarre that it is a wonder that even the writers of the script were able to keep up with it. Every character and interaction just adds more weirdness. Other than your demented tourney organizer (who is, by the way, uber hot and may want to have sex) there is no real reason pay attention to the story. If your into really insane stories, then you’ll love this game. More serious minded people will be turned off, but at least the game does bring some new ideas to the storytelling arena.
Gameplay
Most of your time will be spent hacking, dashing, smacking and slicing the poorly programmed AI into bits. Standing perfectly still most of the time and only occasionally attacking, these enemies seem to want a quick death at the hands of your Japanese lightsaber. Unfortunately, battling these tepid protectors can be tedious, while at the same time a fun, affair. Playing with the Playstation Move controls, you’ll just need to press a button to wear down an enemies’ health. Once it gets down far enough, swipe your motion controller in a direction indicated on the screen, which will result in dismembered bad guy. If you swing the wrong way, then you will have to waggle the wand to defeat your enemy.
This is actually very fun for the first few hours, especially once you start pulling off super violent combos (which merely require one button press). It does eventually get a little tiresome, but it is much more interactive than a standard controller. Sadly, boss fights are torrid events that boil down to tapping the button as fast as possible while dodging occasionally. At least the character models for the bosses are very original and interesting.
While combat is a hit or miss affair (I’d say 60/40) the side missions are where the game shines. Most are wildy different events that will bring giggles and fun gameplay moments to your living room. These side missions are where you’ll earn your money to enter the tournaments and while some feature dull combat, most are funny and redeem the rest of the game. For example, in one of the side missions, you will need to attack coconut trees.
Graphics and Audio
One of the more unique and exciting parts of the game is the graphical style. Although styled with a more western edge, there are definitely huge Japanese influences as well. The best part about the graphics is that all the power-ups and collectibles in the game world are modeled after 8 bit games, thus mixing the bloody nature of the game with the charming sights of a bygone era.
Speaking of blood, you’ll be seeing plenty of it as this game features some of the most horrifying executions imaginable. On the bad side, most of the buildings and the rest of the world are very bland and look like a last generation game.
The soundtrack to the game is also pretty good. It too features 8 bit sounds, and it is one of the more redeeming features present in No More Heroes. Even the voice acting in the cutscenes is fairly tolerable and verges on being quality work. Enemy voice overs are another matter though. Poor quality at best, hearing a dying man say, “My SPLEEN!” is only humorous a few times and after the 10000th time, it just started to piss me off.
Conclusion
Somehow despite all its faults, No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise remains worthy of a recommendation to play it. The sheer personality and presentation factors make the game original and a delight to slog through. Even if the gameplay wears thin after a few hours, the rest of the game offers enough to keep anyone entertained. After all, when is the next time you’ll be able to wield a freakin’ beam katana in battle against a nefarious dude who has a curved sword the size of a whale, whilst collecting 8 bit power ups along the way, then drive a gigantic motorcycle across town to gather coconuts?! Your right. It just doesn’t happen. Its a shame that this game has so many special pieces to it, and yet, none of them can quite fit together. Nevertheless, what the game DOES fit together is enough to garner this game the score you see below.
Pros:
Bloody, violent combos
8 bit graphic cameos
Awesome boss character models
Side missions
Wow, when Neatherrelm Studios said they were going to heavily support DLC for Mortal Kombat, they wern’t joking! Today a new bio video for Skarlet has been released which you can see below courtesy of IGN, now that’s pretty cool right? Well on top of that we have a release date: June 21st! You want more? Well how about FREE alternate MK3 inspired skins for Cyrax and Sektor available for DLC on the same day? Check the renders below! Whats that you want more? Ok, how about this. Watch Skarlet’s bio video. Sure it says we’ve got Kenshi coming soon, which we already know, but also after much begging from the fans, Rain has been announced for DLC and he’s coming soon! Now that’s a rainy forecast you can be excited for! The silhouette of the fourth fighter is also shown, but not revealed. Personally, I think it’s Reiko or Fujin from MK4, but hey your guess is as good as mine!
At E3 MK creator Ed Boon said during a live stream interview, he described Skarlet’s character as “Easily the most gruesome character we’ve had”. He also begun to describe her fatality beginning with “It’s pretty disturbing…Im not sure if I can describe it on Tv.” But after some reassuring he stated that “…she stabs somebody in the side of their ear basically, and cuts their throat and does a pez dispenser thing and kinda bathes in their blood.” The stream also included some gruesome exclusive footage, so go check it out here! If the Skarlet bio and the Ed Boon interview isn’t enough for you Mortal Kombat freaks, check out some of the cyborg costumes leaked footage here. They look perfect, just like from the original MK3!
