With only a couple of days until it will be gracing players’ Xbox 360s, Activision have unveiled a new trailer for the Escalation map pack. The trailer is called ‘Taste of Escalation, fitting considering its diner setting, which is ‘now serving Escalation – 5 New Maps’.
The pack will include four all new maps to battle on, plus a new ‘Call of the Dead’ Black Ops Zombies map. As well as some live action diner footage, there’s gameplay footage to get your teeth into if you watch the trailer in the build up to the DLC’s release on 3rd May.
The Escalation DLC for Call of Duty Black Ops hits Xbox 360 on 3rd May, but as part of its timed-exclusivity, PC and PS3 owners will have to wait a month.
I can easily say after finishing Portal 2 that it is hands down one of the year’s best offerings and a sure fire contender for game of the year. If you have not picked up a copy yet, now is your chance though as Amazon have now slashed the game’s price by $25.00 for the Xbox 360 and $30 for the PC version, leaving both versions at just $34.99 & $29.99 (PS3 Was listed, but has since went back up to standard price).
After barely two weeks on the market, this deal is by far the best we have seen for the puzzler, but remember this is just a “Deal of the Day” so it will be over before you know it. You can check out our very own Chris Cerami’s detailed review of Portal 2 as well if your on the fence about taking a second trip through Aperture Science.
Click HERE to purchase from the Capsule Computer’s Amazon store or HERE to be taken to the direct page…so go get to clicking and enjoying…you monster.
With the limited quantities we seen for the two Ocarina of Time ports on the Gamecube this bit of news should not really come off a surprise, but it does certainly urge those to think ahead if they are planning on buying the heavily anticipated Ocarina of Time remake on the 3DS. A Japanese retail blog by the name of Sinobi has reported that Nintendo are planning a rather small first shipment of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, so it might be a good idea to go ahead and pre-order just to be safe in actually obtaining a copy.
Since this is just a retail blog, I would say this bit of news should be treated as a rumor, but it does make a bit of sense if you think about it. Both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks had quite a large first print, and all that seemed to do was eventually devalue the game over time as there is no problem right now of finding either for under $20.00. Nintendo really want to make this release special though and with that I can see this release easily to be treated much like past limited releases we have seen before such as the recently released Mario 25th Anniversary Collection. I will say I do not see less than a million being a starting number as this game will sell either way as it is still a Zelda game. All we can do now really is wait and see on just how readily available Ocarina 3D will end up being, but if you live near a place that can pre-order the title it would be a smart idea to throw down the minimum just in case.
Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs is an unexpected move for the Resident Evil series by Capcom, and as a spin off title for the franchise, it surprisingly works well. However the final product that the fans receive feels more like a prototype, BETA, demo or even an experiment rather than an actual finished game for purchase. Unlike the majority of games by Capcom and the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs looks and feels unfinished and unpolished, and seems like a showcase of what the game could be to show the games engine. There is plenty of room for improvement here, and there is quite a lot that holds it back from its true potential. Whats sad however is that this game could’ve, and should’ve been so much more, and had the potential to be quite an outstanding game, rather than a massive let down.
Gameplay
Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs is a online multiplayer third person shooter, placing 4 players in an arena and has them fight to the death. What shakes things up however is that the arena is infested with zombies*, so you will have to defend yourself from the zombies while hunting down other players. The game adapts the same engine and gameplay as the iphone adaptation of Resident Evil 4 so fans of that title will feel right at home here. While a bit clunky, the controls do work well in most cases, so the basic gameplay is rather good. Aiming and shooting is done well, and running around the arenas can be awkward at times, but this isn’t too much of an issue, as most of the time you’ll be standing still aiming and shooting. This becomes a problem though, as shoot outs begin to not involve strategy or accuracy, but rather who can shoot and reload first. The two of you will be standing still, facing each other shooting, hoping one will fall down before the other. Sure you can heal yourself, run away and switch weapons, but while doing that, chances are you’ll get shot and die. Switching weapons and healing must be done like most Resident Evil titles on a separate screen, but nothing stops or pauses so you’ll often be attacked while this happens making things awfully frustrating. Whats just as frustrating as well is while shooting a player, the zombies may attack you or come out of nowhere making it harder to kill your enemy. Sometimes its good because it can make things more of a challenge, but its usually more of a nuisance than anything else, and the bigger challenge really is trying to stay interested in the gameplay. At least when you fall to the floor you can kick away nearby enemies. There also is a single player mode called ‘coin shooter’ where you run around an empty arena finding and shooting hidden coins, and is fun for about five minuets, but in the end of the day its just target practise and it gets really old, really quickly. It’s also quite strange its only available for offline mode as well, since the game does focus mostly on online play.
*(Well, technically by Resident Evil 4 standards there ‘Los Ganados’ not zombies, but stuff that Im calling them zombies anyways!)
Presentation
For a game based focused on online play, it doesn’t really encourage players to play it. Up to four people can play a match, but there are only three characters to choose from: Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Albert Wesker, so you’ll always see a double of at least one character. Furthermore, there are only three stages to play on, which are all quite similar to each other, with only slight, subtle differences. There are only two modes in online play: team vs and free-for-all, thats it. Offline there’s one extra mode, Coin Shooter, and its a mystery as to why you can’t play it online. There is a single player mode that can be played offline, but its exactly the same as the online play just with bots. And thats it, for the whole game. No leveling up, no upgrading, no online leader boards, no community services, no replays, no perks or killstreaks, no awards and nothing to encourage further playing online, and offline play is basically just training for the online play. The game is literally the bare basics, and is a is simply just a weak effort. Capcom promises to introduce more stages and characters later on in updates, but I’ll be surprised if anyone actually is still playing by then, as the current game is quite an uneventful and unrewarding experience, presented poorly. At least there’s text saying things like ‘2 Combo!’ and ‘Weak point hit!’ but that simply just doesn’t cut it.
Online Play
If a game focuses on online multiplayer, one would expect the online multiplayer to be good. As mentioned before there is very little to encourage the player to keep playing with no leveling up, upgrading, online leader boards, community services, replays, perks or killstreaks, awards or anything similar, and no sense of community as you can’t chat to or meet anyone, so for all you know your just shooting a bot with a funny gamer tag. Whats worse is simply just TRYING to play the game. It will take forever just to find 3 other players, and once that happens, you gotta hope you don’t get disconnected or the host quits. The worst part is, since your on an iPhone, if you get a call or a text, your instantly disconnected as well. Whats the point in purchasing an online multiplayer game if it takes so long just to find someone to play with? At least the lag isn’t that bad, but it still does lag sometimes.
Graphics & Audio
Sadly, Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs sounds just as bad as it plays, and looks slightly better, but not by much. The soundtrack is upbeat and filled with what sounds like jazz or funk bass guitars, killing the mood of the game . Its hard to take the game seriously with a soundtrack that sounds so out of place. The graphics aren’t terrible, but they aren’t anything special to look at either. In fact, they look slightly worse than Resident Evil 4 on the iPhone, which came out quite some time before this title. It doesn’t appear to take advantage of the iPhone 4’s retina display either which is a massive shame.
Conclusion
The idea behind Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs is awesome, its just a shame the game didn’t turn out so good. Im 100% positive that if Capcom spent more time adding extra things such as levels, characters, modes and features to make the game more than ‘stick 4 guys in a square shaped arena, give them guns and throw in some zombies’ this could’ve been an epic must-have. Instead, we have what feels like an unfinished, basic game stripped down to its bare basics, with next to no highlights or anything to make it a memorable game. Its an online multiplayer game where its a challenge to even find sometime to play it with. At least Capcom has a good concept, and took a risk with it, that I can admire.
PROS
-It’s an online multiplayer third person shooter on the iPhone
-Good concept
-Capcom promises to update and add things
-Had potential to be a great game if only it was deeper
CONS
-Graphics appear to not take advtange of retina screen capabilities
-Connectivity Issues
-Disconnected from a game if you get a text or phone call
-No upgrade, leveling systems or anything to encourage an online community
-Music sounds out of place and doesn’t suit the gameplay
-Only 3 characters and 3 stages
-Changing weapons and healing can be troublesome
-Shootouts are usually standing still while shooting each other at close range
I love it when us gamers show the world we have heart and no more so when they play their butt’s off to raise money for a good cause. Bonus Stage Marathons is playing Final Fantasy games to help raise money for the Autism Research Institute. As of my time right now they have been playing for 28 hours and plan on finishing the stream on Sunday at 7PM EST.
They plan on playing as many of the games as possible as of 9:30PM they are finishing up Final Fantasy 6 and going on to 7 next. So you guys if you can afford to help you should donate a little for this cause all the money will go to charity. Keep on proving us gamers have a heart and lets do what we can to keep fighting this terrible illness. Click here to check out the stream and donate.
If you’re in a REALLY giving mood you could always help out and donate to our official charity “The Childrens Starlight Foundation” Living with illness or injury can cause enormous strain in the lives of children and their families. The pain, loneliness and isolation that sick children feel dominates their lives, and they often miss out on normal experiences that healthy children take for granted. Click here if you would like to donate. Anyone that does, send us over an email and we’ll credit your Capsule Computers Cube points account with 500 CUBE POINTS !! 🙂
Overview:
Once in a blue moon an interesting title will be created that melds together two different genres that you may never have thought could be joined together. Well Outland certainly is out there as far as that concept is concerned. Outland is a game that seems to blend together the action platforming genre with the bullet hell genre created so long ago. A number of titles have pioneered this melding of genres but none have tried to do what Outland is looking to perform. Will the unique look and gameplay of Outland turn out to be an unmissable title or has this combination turned sour?
Story:
Outland tells the story of a man, he isn’t anyone special at first, you don’t know his name nor are you able to name him. He learns of a story from an old man about two goddesses that created the world. These two goddesses used their powers of creation, Light and Dark to meld the world into what it is today, and then they tried to destroy it. Thousands of years ago a hero stepped forward and stopped the devastation that was about to happen and sealed the two goddesses away. Now the goddesses have awoken and it is up to this nondescript hero to stop them yet again.
The story is one that could only take place in a decaying world wrought with devastation and mystical energies. The story doesn’t provide much of an outline besides structuring your actions and providing an end goal. However Outland’s story is still extremely impressive mostly due to the fact that the environment is enough to tell the story as the game has some of the best graphical design I have seen in years. The way that the game is designed with all of the environmental imagery that is provided is more than enough to provide a feeling that you are in a devastated world that needs a hero, and you are such hero.
Graphics:
Now there are different measures of art. Some people may find one of the most realistic looking games a work of art and beautiful for how close to life it is. Now another work of art is something that takes a unique style and color scheme and creates such an artistic masterpiece that it can be enough to tell a story all on its own.
The unique style of Outland is certainly one of its greatest draws. The contrasting colors that it uses are extremely impressive and the neon coloration is some of the best you will find. Colors play a big part in the world of Outland mostly due to one of the gameplay elements that focuses solely on coloration. Besides the colors focused on gameplay, the color and design of the environment is top notch with dazzling lighting and level design.
Being of the platforming genre you will find numerous different routes that you can take and you will rarely find a dead end without some sort of reward at the end. It may not be the end of the level but it could be a collectible or something similar. The level design does sometimes causes a problem with doubling back however as it is somewhat easy to get lost very quickly. There is a map available but players may find themselves having to check the map far too often.
While your standard enemies are as impressive looking as the rest of the environment the bosses that you will be facing are in a league of their own. Originally you may not think that the bosses for a game like this would be too impressive but you will stand in amazement as you see these enemies rise up against you because of how amazing they actually look. I will refuse to spoil any appearance of these creatures because their design is one of the largest highlights of the game and should be experienced firsthand.
Audio:
The main character may not have a voice of his own but one thing he does have is a rather impressive narrator that helps tell the story anytime it begins to develop. Besides the narrator however the sounds of the world around you are very pleasing to the ears and suit the game just fine. There isn’t much to write home about but it does provide a suitable experience to go along with the amazing appearance of Outland.
Gameplay:
Earlier I mentioned that Outland was a combination of a platformer and a bullet hell game. This means that the controls for a game must be tight and responsive because one step off can end up causing your character to suffer damage or die. To avoid damage you can run, climb, slide, wall jump and more and all of these are easily controlled at the press of a button. The game handles running and jumping so fluidly you will find yourself thinking in tune with your character as you move fluidly across different platforms to wall jump up a narrow corridor, miss one and land in the spikes below and then be more than ready to start all over again.
Of course this is also an action platformer so this means you will be entering combat occasionally as you jump from platform to platform. You will do battle with a giant sword at first or even sliding into an enemy to send them flying into the air stunned. Combat is very satisfying but it does feel a bit cheap as basic attacks usually do not stun your enemy from their current attack, making some fights feel like a battle of attrition.
Now earlier I mentioned that colors play a large role in actual gameplay and this is extremely true. For the blood red color is the power of Darkness while the sky blue is the power of Light. The reason that these two colors play such a big part to the game is the fact that the player gains the ability to change their body into one of these colors. Now at first this may not appear to be a big deal until you see how well it blends into actual gameplay.
The coloration of your body equals what you will be immune to in the area you are traveling. The whole mechanic adds a layer of depth to the platforming by making things more complicated, but also very intriguing. You will spend your time often switching between Light and Dark as you navigate through orbs of energy being shot out of the ground or by enemies so you will not be hit by these orbs of energy. This works likewise when fighting enemies, a red enemy must be defeated while the player is blue or they will not be able to damage it. The concept may make platforming more difficult but it also provides a very rewarding experience.
That isn’t to say that Outland isn’t difficult. The game is actually quite hard and at times you will find yourself struggling to make it past a part in the game. Now the reason I classify Outland as a bullet hell game is that at times you will enter an area so full of energy orbs that you will wish it was just a normal platformer. At the same time however the difficulty doesn’t feel cheap. Sure you may spend a length of time in a certain area but you will feel justified when you manage to make it through the area instead of cursing the time that you wasted.
Now players also have the option to take the journey into the Outland with a friend online. You will be able to make your way through the entire game with a buddy if you so wish but it doesn’t change up the actual gameplay very much. At the same time you are also given specific areas that are made just for co-op play, called co-op challenges. These five challenges are interesting but also quite difficult as you must work together with your partner very closely or you both may die. This can cause a lot of problems due to the fact that if you aren’t playing with a very good friend you may find yourself never passing the first stage.
Overall:
In the end Outland is an amazingly well designed game with beautiful graphic design and a unique gameplay mechanic to set itself apart from the rest of the pack. Considering the fact that it is also only an Arcade game it is quite the experience to have. With the fluid controls and color changing mechanic any platformer will find themselves in love with this game regardless of its difficulty. Outland is a great example of what can be done with limited resources and just a few simple mechanics that are woven together so tightly that they create a title that will be hard to forget.
I just realized that the next SSX game will not be here until next year. That makes me very sad.
But, at least I have the new SSX developer diary to comfort me. This video focuses on characters used in the game, and how they have progressed over time. This generation of SSX is aiming to provide a more “real” experience and thus the character’s clothing is much more true to what an outdoors person would actually wear on a mountain. Nonetheless, that does not stop these guys from making a stylish game. Check it out.
A community building project will kick off the next update to come for Lego Universe. Running for the whole month, this project encourages players to donate bricks to the Nexus Tower construction project. Stop by the Nimbus Station to donate your bricks in-game and make “Nexus Tower a reality, to serve as a beacon of light and hope to mini figures across the LEGO Universe!” The more a player donates and helps build the project, the more chances each player will have to earn exclusive rewards!
The next feature to come in the update is a new racing game. Gamers will soon face a tough challenge, the challenge to beat the Maelstrom on a racetrack.
The Dragonmaw Chasm racetrack is just one of the new tracks, and it comes “complete with a slew of new missions and some super-hot rewards,” along with the new race cars: Fire Brawl and Mach Lava. 8 other race cars will also join in the fun, and these racers will be representative of the four factions available for play in Lego Universe.
Finally, the last new feature to come out this update is the by far the most exciting. A new area will allow players to build even bigger creations on their personal properties.
The ability to add a personal pet to an area is also being included. Zoo and Safari themed model sets will be on hand to help your inspiration process.
The fabled unicorn of the tech world is now available to buy. That’s right. It is the iPhone 4, but instead of being black, its white! It is available in the 16 or 32 gigabyte flavors. If you want a taste being the talk of the party for the next few weeks, check out this link to order the phone from an the Apple online store. If you would rather line up outside a store and not stick out like a black sheep, then check out this link to find an Apple store near you.
Whaddya say? Will you be indulging your desires to buy the newest iDevice?!
