Us here at Capsule Computers love our Fridays, much like famous (or infamous) Pop artists Rebecca Black and Katy Perry. As it is presently Friday here in Australia, and close enough to the date everywhere else in the world, we wanted to share with you our current favorite song about Fridays! As you have probably guessed, the song in which I speak features both Katy Perry and Rebecca Black.
This song is Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) by Katy Perry and features Rebecca Black as a friend of hers. So sit back and enjoy the awfully catchy song (which is in the video box below)! I know I am! Make sure to look out for Ubisofts Just Dance 2 in the background.
Ubisoft has announced it will be releasing Just Dance 2: Extra Songs this August, a special limited edition of Just Dance 2 featuring new songs and routines. This new game will feature 21 tracks previously only available via download, plus two new exclusive tracks.
It will be accessible to Just Dance novices as it doesn’t require ownership of the previous Just Dance games, only a willingness to dance your heart out. It makes an ideal purchase for fans of the series who didn’t pick up Just Dance 2 or any of the DLC, or for newcomers to the series who want to get their jig on.
Just Dance 2: Extra Songs track list includes:
A Band of Bees – Chicken Payback
Blur – Song 2
Carl Douglas – Kung fu fighting ( Dave Ruffy / Mark Wallis remix)
Estelle feat Kanye West – American Boy
Katy Perry – Firework
M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up The Volume
Panic At The Disco – Nine in the afternoon
Rihanna – Pon De Replay
Steppenwolf – Born To Be Wild
The Supremes – You Can’t Hurry Love
V V Brown – Crying Blood
Countdown Dee’s Hit Explosion – Barbie Girl
Love Letter – Why oh why
Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen – Professor Pumplestickle
Studio Allstars – Maniac
Sweat Invaders – Skin-to-Skin
The Hit Crew – Here Comes The Hotstepper
The Lemon Cubes – Mambo NO. 5 (A Little Bit Of Monica)
The Lemon Cubes – Moving On Up
The Reverend Horatio Duncan & Amos Sweets – Down By The Riverside
The World Cup Girls – Futebol Crazy
Plus two exclusive tracks:
A R Rahman, Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger – Jai Ho! (You are my destiny)
What better way to celebrate a 20th Birthday than walking around with your head on fire. Not my idea of fun, but it seems that’s Bungie’s way of celebrating the occasion.
All you need do to nab one (plus a special name plate) is register on Bungie.net or through a recently released, totally free iOS app. A video from machinima group Rooster Teeth starring the Red vs Blue team should help explain the process in full.
We seem to be inundated with 20th Birthday’s in gaming this week. As you’ll know, the blue blur Sonic the Hedgehog celebrated his 20th. What happened 20 years ago that was so important for gaming? This giveaway from Bungie comes not long before Bungie Day on the 7th July, on which day Bungie have promised to make an announcement.
Kung Fu Panda 2 Published by: THQ Developed by: Griptonite Games Platforms: Xbox 360- Kinect Required (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Wii, DS Release Date: May 24, 2011 Price:$49.99
Overview: Who hasn’t left the movie theater after seeing a kung-fu movie and thought to themselves ‘I could totally do all of those moves in the movie now.’ We all have, mostly while we were younger and thought we could do anything. Now Kung Fu Panda 2 has been released not only in theaters but also on home consoles and what better way to play it than with the Xbox 360’s Kinect. Now your kids and yourself can pretend to fight against enemies as our favorite character Po. Does the Kinect hold up to the task and does the universe of the franchise stand up well? Read on to find out.
Story: Before you step into playing Kung Fu Panda 2 you should know that the game’s story does not follow the movie in the slightest. Instead Po’s village has come under attack by an evil group of animals. Of course these crocodiles and other lizards aren’t there for fun and games, instead they are there to terrorize the populace and Po isn’t going to let that happen. Po sets forth with the Furious Five to defeat these intruders as well as find the reason for the onslaught.
Now Kung Fu Panda 2’s videogame storyline is as enjoyable as the movie itself and is quite humeros at times whenever there is a cutscene. The charms of the movie translate themselves well to the game’s format. Unfortunately the story itself really is nothing outside of ordinary and it is also very short which means you will find yourself finishing the basic storyline in around five hours tops. The game never steps outside of the Kung Fu Panda universe however which means it could easily be seen as canon.
Graphics: One thing that Kung Fu Panda 2 does well in its video game format is its presentation. The colors in the game are very vibrant and all of the characters are well represented. The game does suffer some resolution problems during combat and the characters lip synching sometimes looks like a badly dubbed Chinese movie.
During combat itself Po will usually represent himself well with your movements, including blocking and performing the strikes that you performed. Your children will certainly enjoy the character design’s and the obvious DreamWorks aesthetic, while adults will most likely notice the unfortunate drop in quality at times but still find it a good representation of Kung Fu Panda as a whole.
Audio: Unfortunately Kung Fu Panda 2 the videogame does not retain the same quality voice actors that were available in the movie. This doesn’t mean the voices sound too much different however as the voice actors they hired to replace the star talent is still decent enough. The Jack Black sound-alike is very similar to the original and at times you may even believe he is actually Jack Black.
The other characters can be hit or miss, with some of the Furious Five members having rather terrible replacements that sound barely anything like the original and will leave children wondering what happened to their favorite characters. The audio quality is still pretty high as the background music is nice to listen to and is appropriate while combat sounds are rather generic. The title also suffers from repetitive one-lining that becomes grating after hearing the same phrase for the twentieth time.
Gameplay: Kung Fu Panda 2 for the Xbox 360 makes exclusive use of the Kinect which means if you do not have a Kinect the game is completely unplayable. Now making full use of the Kinect with Kung Fu Panda 2 means you will be performing plenty of different attack variants, blocking and also blocking incoming attacks in certain directions.
Thankfully during campaign mode you will be taught by Po the different motions you will have to perform in an easy to understand tutorial. This run down of techniques makes it easy to understand for children, though the Kinect itself fails to pick up some movements properly which is already a bad sign of things to come, as the precision required for the title sometimes falls short of what the Kinect sensor is currently capable of.
Most fights will consist of the player attacking an enemy and then defending when it is the enemy’s turn. This means that the combat is strictly turn based. Defending enemy attacks is rather easy to do though there were a number of instances that the Kinect simply failed to register the proper motion and I received damage instead of blocking an incoming attack. While you are attacking you can perform different punches, kicks and even jumps to deal damage to your enemy during your attacking round.
Once you lower an enemy’s health enough you can also finish them off with a special move, which are shown by three different pictures in a corner. When you put your arms in the correct position you will perform that specific finishing move on that enemy. Each enemy has a limited amount of health, but so does Po so you must be careful to defend just as much as you attack.
As I mentioned before the Kinect has a difficult time sensing blocking motions however, and some of the later enemies in the game are simply unbeatable without blocking most of their attacks. The problem here is that the Kinect fails to sense the proper block motion and you will lose health, and sometimes even die which will require you to perform the same battles over again simply due to a failure in the hardware itself.
When the hardware actually does work correctly though the game is very fun. Both adults and children will have a blast stringing together plenty of attacks and finishing moves to defeat any of Po’s enemies. Players can even yell the name of a Furious Five member to have them join the fight and perform a combo attack with Po.
Outside of the game’s rather short storyline there are a number of mini-games in the form of free play challenge mode. This mode provides access to many different challenges which will give you a score based on how well you do and even give you a medal if you do well. The mini-games themselves include your standard practice sessions and combat arena, but they also include rickshaw races and noodle serving.
Out of the different mini-games the best of which is the noodle serving game. The noodle serving game requires players to create the proper noodle combination that the customer ordered, cook it and then toss it onto their table. With every failure you receive you will lost points and also time. The worst of the mini-games is the rickshaw event which requires the player to steer their rickshaw by moving left and right to avoid obstacles and block objects thrown by other racers. The Kinect often fails to recognize the movements of the player and can cause many failures, again due to the hardware.
Overall: Kung Fu Panda 2 is an example of a great idea placed on a system that may just not have been ready for it yet. The game itself may not be very complicated, but children should still love playing as Po, even though they will grow frustrated with the Kinect’s inability to properly track their movements. The true failure in Kung Fu Panda 2 was the Kinect itself, as a number of enjoyable elements felt strained after multiple failures simply due to the sensors failures at optimal conditions. Your children may still love Kung Fu Panda 2 for the characters and kung fu movements, but may grow tired of the poor Kinect tracking.
The latest match-3 puzzle adventure title in the Jewel series is now available at all good retail outlets for the Nintendo DS, courtesy of publishers Rising Star Games. Jewel Legends: Tree of Life contains over 100 levels with around 32 trophies available for players to accrue.
A magical Tree of Life where time ceases to exist is home to mythical creatures known as the Hods. However, the incessant greed of a dark demon once damned the Hods to a life of secrecy. Now, a new hope is stirring: Rebuild the world of the Hods and help the Tree of Life attain its former glory using building materials, jewels and other valuables.
This forms the basis of gamplay, with the player switching out adjacent symbols to build rows of three or more of the same symbol. The valuables help you to build luxury structures for the Hods, such as Bath House Blubberpot, the Mushroom Farm and the Fountain of Wonder. Players can also check out bonus game modes and collect trophies.
It’s crazy to think that we are just a few weeks away from the final Harry Potter film being released. While I still feel more video games will be emerge later on, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 looks to finish up the videogame tie-in series to the movies with quite a bang. Today EA released a new trailer for the upcoming Potter game that shows all the young wizards preparing for the final battle at Hogwarts.
The CG clips look quite impressive as it stands as they capture the personalities behind the characters quite well, and from the looks of it this title will utilize the cover system that was introduced in Part 1, which may or may not be a bad thing. If you have ever played Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1, you might remember that this style of combat was a bit messy and unpolished overall, but I want to say that things seem to improved greatly as in the clip, Harry can be seen zapping spells from his wand with relative ease and the whole mechanic just seems to much more fluent this time around. I certainly hope the game controls as good as it looks, but that is still up in the air at the moment. All of our questions will be answered soon enough though as Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 releases July 12th on all platforms (except for the PSP & 3DS) . Check out the new trailer below and give us your thoughts in the comment section below.
As the title suggests, popular PC shooter released by Valve over their Steam delivery platform has recently become free-to-play. That means that players will no longer need to buy the game at $20AU in order to start playing.
Check out the games new quotations!
About the Game
“The most fun you can have online” – PC Gamer Is now FREE!
There’s no catch! Play as much as you want, as long as you like!
The world’s #1 war-themed hat simulator!
One of the most popular online action games of all time, Team Fortress 2 delivers constant free updates—new game modes, maps, equipment and, most importantly, hats. Nine distinct classes provide a broad range of tactical abilities and personalities, and lend themselves to a variety of player skills.
New to TF? Don’t sweat it!
No matter what your style and experience, we’ve got a character for you. Detailed training and offline practice modes will help you hone your skills before jumping into one of TF2’s many game modes, including Capture the Flag, Control Point, Payload, Arena, King of the Hill and more.
Make a character your own!
There are hundreds of weapons, hats and more to collect, craft, buy and trade. Tweak your favorite class to suit your gameplay style and personal taste. You don’t need to pay to win—virtually all of the items in the Mann Co. Store can also be found in-game.
It’s likely that the reason for the game now becoming Free-to-play is the opening of their in-game store, but apparently players can also earn the items found in the store in-game. This is great news for everyone!
I will be starting a new feature titled Anime Focus, where-in I focus on various anime related topics and hopefully provide some interesting food for thought. I will cover topics such as anime industry announcements, current and past anime series, upcoming anime seasons, etc. Please note that this is not a review, it is simply an analysis and should be treated as such. There will be no score out of 10 or rating, just simple analysis and opinion.
For the first edition of Anime Focus I will be discussing the recent Supanova Sydney 2011 announcements made by Madman Entertainment and Siren Visual. Both companies announced several acquired anime titles and for this Anime Analysis, I will go through them one by one and provide my thoughts on each and what it could mean for each company.
Dennou Coil This is a series that up until now I had never heard of. But after reading the synopsis I am willing to give it a try. The general gist of the plot is that its set in the future and augmented reality has become a large part of society.
From reading that synopsis it tell’s me that this series will tackle the questions of what is the meaning of reality, life, death and all that comes in between. But then again, I could be wrong. Time will tell I suppose.
From a business stand-point this will undoubtedly sell well for Siren’s hardcore otaku market. Whom probably are already very familar with this series. Overall it looks to be an interesting series, that I’ll definitely be giving a go.
Bunny Drop Also known as Usagi Drop, this is my personal most anticipated title Siren has acquired. Being a fan of the manga I can not wait to see the animated adaptation.
Bunny Drop tells the story of a man who ends up having to take care of a young girl. That is the simplest way to put it. But let me say that this is one series not to be missed and might very well be one of Siren’s biggest series since Durarara!!
For Siren this series is huge as it is both greatly anticipated by the anime community and the manga itself is critically acclaimed. Without a doubt I will be streaming this and purchasing the DVD whenever it is released.
Angel Beats For years fans have lauded over Angel Beats and damn near begged both Madman and Siren to release it. Finally one of them has and it surprisingly turned out to be Siren.
I am personally not a fan of this series so I will be most likely giving it a pass, but I have no doubt in my mind this series will do wonders for Siren as it is incredibly popular and has been requested so many times that I’m shocked it took this long for someone to license it.
The series is set in the after-life in an after-life school of some sort and follows a boy named Otonashi who has lost his memories after dying.
The premise doesn’t particularly interest me, but with so many people raving about it, it must be good.
Chaos;Head If this series is anything like Steins;Gate. I want to watch it. I will admit that I embarrassingly didn’t know that the creators of Steins;Gate had made anything before it, nor that they were both based off visual novels. But I must say I love Steins;Gate, so I’m definitely going to check out Chaos;Head.
Chaos;Head follows the story of a young man named Takumi who accidentally stumbles onto the scene of a murder and finds himself wound up in a tangled web of mystery as more murders begin to come to light. Soon enough he finds himself in the sights of the perpetrator.
I wasn’t expecting Madman to announce this series at all, that is for sure. But the fact that they did, does indeed make the Steins;Gate fan in me quite happy.
B Gata K Hei I’ll be frank here. I am not at all interested in this series. I don’t particularly care for these type of anime (harem). The only thing that seems like it isn’t an entire retread of past harem/fan service fests is that instead of having a perverted guy as the protagonist it has a perverted girl. But even that isn’t entirely new ground.
I’m not too sure why Madman has decided to license this over some other much more viable options, but as they say “fan-service sells”.
If the picture to the left doesn’t interest you, this series probably isn’t for you. If however you love fan-service and don’t particular care for plot or characters, by all means give this a go when it comes out. But otherwise, like me, steer clear.
Hetalia World Series + Paint it White (Movie) I never personally fell for the Hetalia craze that swept about recently, so I don’t have a lot of interest in the series or the movie. But for fans of the series, this is big news. I know a lot of fans out there love the series and Madman is doing a great job showing it the love it deserves. Although I do not personally find myself interested in it, I can understand why it is so popular.
For those who don’t know, Hetalia is a comedy series which features human personifications of real world countries. I know on the surface this can come across as a little deterrent, as it gives off the image of racial stereotype humour. But from what I have been told, that isn’t the case here, or atleast not entirely.
This is one that will undoubtedly sell well for Madman as they have already built an Australian fan base for the series, who will be sure to pick this up.
Tales of Vesperia (Movie) I’m a huge fan of the Tales series and this one looks great. I’m not sure whether I prefer the Tales games or the Tales anime series. Both are quite solid, my favourite of both being Symphonia. I will definitely check this out upon release and suggest fans do the same.
I’m unsure whether this will be a hit or not, I’m guessing it will fall down to marketing of the release. Regardless I will be picking it up as a Tales fan. Here’s hoping Madman brings us more Tales in the future.
Tales of Vesperia will be a prequel to the game of the same name. What is interesting to note is that this is the first film adaptation of the Tales series. So it will definitely be interesting to see how well this does, once released.
Nichijou – My Ordinary Life Nichijou is one of the new series straight from Japan that Madman announced. At this point it’s hard to tell whether we will get a sub-only release for the mean time until it is dubbed or they will simply be streaming it online at the Madman screening room. I’m leaning more towards the latter.
This series cries out Azumanga Daioh in appearance and feeling to me. I am not the biggest slice of life fan you’d find but I thoroughly enjoyed Azumanga Daioh and this really reminds me of it.
Nichijou – My Ordinary Life, is quite simply a slice of life series. What sets it apart you ask? Well it apparently features some bizarre characters and setting whilst the characters all act as though it is a part of ordinary life. Keep an eye on this one!
GOSICK This is another series straight from Japan that’s release format is up in the air right now. But let’s not worry too much about that for now. This series is super popular right now, only eclipsed by the last two titles on this list. Madman has picked this up at the perfect time to capitalise on its popularity.
The series follows Kazuya Kujo and Victorique as they solve mysteries in a 1924, french speaking country called Sauville. If you like mysteries, this series is definitely for you.
I personally will be checking this out upon release, not just because I am a mystery fan, but also to see what all the hype is about.
For now I’m going to guess we will see this on the Screening Room before we see a DVD release of it.
Steins;Gate Like Nichijou and Gosick this one is straight from Japan, in fact it is still airing right now. This series has become one of the most critically acclaimed of the current anime season, with it’s brilliantly conceived characters and storyline.
Steins;Gate is the latest work from the characters of Chaos;Head and like-wise it based on a video game. However it is probably best you don’t look up information about the game if you don’t want the series spoiled.
Steins;Gate follows Okabe Rintaro a self proclaimed Mad Scientist who manages to create a make-shift time machine out of a microwave. The implications of time travel play a large part in this series and to say anymore would ruin the adventure.
This will probably get a Screening Room release before DVD, but once it hits shelves around the country, it’s gonna hit hard. This is undoubtedly going to be one of the most successful series of all of the acquired titles by Madman at Supanova.
Deadman Wonderland Last but absolutely not least is the stand out fan-favourite announcement from Madman. This series is absolutely huge world-wide right now and for good reason. Put simply, it’s stunning.
This series has set the Madman forums and facebook page abuzz with Deadman fever, even though all they revealed was that they have licensed it.
For those who haven’t been hit be the Deadman hype train, the series is about a young boy named Ganta Igarashi who finds himself framed for massacre and imprisoned in the worlds most deadliest prison, Deadman Wonderland, where you are nothing but a pawn in a psychotic warden’s game of life and death (in most cases death).
If there was any single announcement that would rock the anime world, it was this. As with Steins;Gate it will most likely see a Screening Room release before DVD. But you never know until confirmation. Also like Steins;Gate this is without a shadow of a doubt going to be one of Madman’s most successful acquisitions.
And that is it, for the acquisitions of Madman and Siren Visual. Overall, Madman has stacked the deck against Siren Visual, but Siren has licensed some strong series themselves and shouldn’t be taken lightly. No matter whether you consider this a competition between the two companies or equal playing ground, the fans win regardless. We have so many great series announced that have not even been announced in the US. This is a great sign for the growing anime industry in Australia and a great outlook as we move towards the future of anime. So until next time, stay in focus!
Sonic is almost at drinking age, the blue blur turns 20 this year and Sega will be putting out a new game this year, Sonic Generations, to celebrate his 20th anniversary. At E3 we got a little time with the hedgehog and now you can to. For a short period of time on Xbox Live or PSN you can get the demo for Sonic Generations. In this new segment called Demoed we take a look at game demos and let you know if they are worth your time or hard drive space to download. Check out the video down below.
Hold your horses, PC gamers: L.A. Noire is coming to a computer near you. Rockstar has officially announced that L.A. Noire – currently an Xbox 360 and PS3 title – is coming to PC this fall.
The PC version of L.A. Noire was developed by Rockstar Leeds, and will feature keyboard remapping and gamepad functionality to migrate the experience from console to computer. For all you PC gamers who haven’t heard about L.A. Noire yet, let us give you a rundown: you play as Detective Cole Phelps, a WWII veteran who has returned to Los Angeles to right the wrongs of his past. You play through five desks, patrol, traffic, homicide, vice, and arson, and solve crimes by investigating crime scenes, examining evidence, and interrogating suspects.
I never personally fell for the Hetalia craze that swept about recently, so I don’t have a lot of interest in the series or the movie. But for fans of the series, this is big news. I know a lot of fans out there love the series and Madman is doing a great job showing it the love it deserves. Although I do not personally find myself interested in it, I can understand why it is so popular.
