Having abated slathering fans with two of the most revered maps in Battlefield history, Strike at Karkand and Wake Island, today the team has decided to take pity on us all and reveal new information and concept goodyness from the two remaining maps in the Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand limited edition, the Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula.
Head over to blogs.battlefield.ea.com to check it out. And try not to drool on your keyboard.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is coming out in under a month now and Nintendo isn’t going to let us forget about the new features they have added in. Sure there will be the 3D effects which should be great considering the title, but most fans are just delighted to have a portable version of one of the best Legend of Zelda games of all time.
In a video released today Nintendo showed off the various additions they have added into the game, such as boss challenge mode, touch screen item usage and of course the help system. Nintendo’s Super Guide for Ocarina of Time 3D will be called “visions” and players will be able to see ahead of time how to solve puzzles in a temple that they otherwise would have been stuck in. Catch the New Features video below.
Tokyo Game Show’s mascot won’t be much different than we remember her. The poster for TGS 2011 was released today and Andriasang managed to get a hold of it with some extra information. The artist of the mascot is still Ippei Gyoubu who is a talented marketing artist who has worked for companies like Adidas and Dr. Pepper in the past.
Despite his credentials however I’d still have to say that the mascot is a tad bit creepy. A mixture of human and electronics usually would fit well with the whole Japanese theme but something is just a bit off with her in my mind. In case you were wondering; the Japanese catchphrase there means: “Game – Dancing Your Heart.” You can see the poster below and make up your mind yourself about her creepiness level.
Sony wasn’t making empty promises when they said that they would offer identity theft protection to its users. Any PSN user can sign up for the identity theft protection service today. This service is currently only being offered to United States residents with the company trying to work out the details for international users. To begin signing up for your protection you can go to this website and place the email address attached to your PSN account in the box.
Afterwards you will receive an email with more information about how to activate your identity protection. Debix had this to say about the services they are offering PSN users:
“AllClear ID PLUS is a premium identity protection service that uses advanced technology to deliver alerts to help keep you safe. The service also provides identity theft insurance coverage and hands-on help from expert fraud investigators. Sony has arranged, at no charge to eligible PlayStation®Network and Qriocity account holders, for twelve months of this service to be provided by Debix to those who choose to enroll.”
Things obviously haven’t been going well for Sony the past few weeks. With the PlayStation Network being down and numerous attacks from hackers all across the board, Sony fans may begin to question just how well things are going internally on the NGP. Well apparently they are going just fine.
Sony said today that they are still preparing for the NGP to be released at the end of the year and to expect more information at E3, as well as aiming to have the PlayStation Network back in working order by the end of this month. The PSN itself may be up, but not quite 100% with the Store still offline. In the notes translated by Andriasang, even if there was a delay it would only be for a few days at max.
Remember when there wasn’t a huge lead up to a game’s trailer and the company would simply surprise us out of thin air with new information? Well that still happens nine times out of ten but this is one of those exceptions. Ubisoft has released a teaser trailer for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations which has Ezio providing the voice over. We see a number of different in game locations as well as a small bit of gameplay footage.
Of course this whole teaser was simply to get people excited for E3. The end of the teaser states that the full trailer will be shown on June 6th, the day before the beginning of E3. So tune in in under two weeks and you’ll be seeing a whole lot from Ezio in the final chapter of his story.
Sega has made it official, they will be bringing the Shinobi series to the 3DS. Announced today for a September 2011 release Sega has stated they will be relaunching the series on the 3DS with the first game being called Shinobi. Not very imaginative maybe but perhaps the proper thing to do since the series hasn’t seen a game in nine years.
Shinobi will be a 2D side scrolling game with 3D capabilities mixed into it. Released alongside this announcement was a gameplay trailer that shows off Shinobi’s lineage as a series as well as everything that they have added to it. Apparently there will be new magic and new skills to learn as well as impressively crafted 3D gameplay mixed in. Lets just hope it isn’t like a bad 3D movie where they simply make things fly at the screen for no reason other than to show off the 3D. Catch the trailer below.
Here are this Friday’s Nintendo downloads:
Unless you are looking to learn English (I can’t imagine you are if you have managed to read this far), then there are two releases to interest you this week out of the three. The first is FAST – Racing League, a F-Zero style high-speed racer for 1000 Wii Points. The next is Mighty Milky Way, an interesting-looking space adventure game from the developers of A Boy and His Blob which you may remember appearing on Wii.
Let us know if you decide to pick any of these up.
Frog Minutes
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Publisher: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Genre: Exploration, Relaxation, Education, Casual
Platform: iPhone/iPad (universal app)
Release: March 30
Price: $0.99 (all proceeds go to Japan Red Cross)
Overview:
Suda 51 and Grasshopper are known for a certain type of game. Namely, blood-soaked action packed “punk rock” affairs that typically express a commentary on the gaming industry as a whole. So I find it rather curious that their first iOS outing is hardly a game at all. Frog Minutes is designed as a charity release where all proceeds go to Japan Red Cross. I suppose when you think of it as a tool for charity, a guy charging up his power sword by mock masturbating probably isn’t the right image to convey.
Gameplay:
As I stated above, Frog Minutes isn’t a game in the typical sense. It’s actually designed to be more of a relaxation/educational tool. The game world consists of just one screen that you explore. You start off with one small location to prod at, making a frog or critter (frog food) come out. The more you play the more locations you find to check for frogs or their food. You catch frogs by fattening them up by feeding them things they like. Because they’re all classy and require you to buy them a meal first. You can catch grasshoppers, dragonflies, butterflies, flies or snails. When you decide on a frog to capture, you simply tap on it which will display a thought bubble of what it wants to eat. Just feed the frog what it wants until it’s full and it’s all yours for the taking.
For every new frog or critter you capture you’ll be rewarded with an entry in your field guide. The field guide is an encyclopaedia of everything you catch and provides you with some real world information on the subject. Every entry is narrated in addition to being written out. There are a total of 10 frogs for you to find and 5 critters. There’s also a list of in-game achievements which complete a picture the more you play the game. Game Center leaderboards and a single achievement are available for you to compare yourself to all the other frog hunters in the world. There isn’t much verity in the game play and you may grow tired of simply catching bugs and frogs, but I’d say this is perfectly suited for a small child. They’ll learn something about frogs and critters and get some interaction as they do so.
Presentation:
Frog Minutes is a very… zen like game. Everything is hand painted with water-colours and has a great look. The leaves and stream shimmer and move appropriately enough and all the frogs and critters animate, if a little rudimentary. The thing is, this game isn’t really about giving you super awesome graphics. Everything is very peaceful and deliberate. There’s no real music to speak of. There’s just the sounds of the environment. Every frog has a distinctive sound when found and the rustling of the grass and leaves along with the sounds of the stream and nature all certainly give you a calming sensation. It’s all very inviting. I feel Grasshopper certainly accomplished what they set out for with this.
Conclusion:
I have to say, this is a tough title to review. There really isn’t a lot of gameplay in the traditional sense of the word, but that wasn’t what Grasshopper was going for. You have to know what you’re getting into when making a purchase here. I’d recommend it for a small child, or if you want to just zen out with something that’s slightly interactive. I don’t want to compare Frog Minutes to other games as that’s not it’s intention, as it’s not really a game in the same sense. If you’re looking for a deep experience to entertain yourself with this may not be the right thing for you. However, if you’re fully aware of what Frog Minutes has to offer and that sounds like something you’d be into then I implore you, download away. Besides, your money will be going to a good cause.
