Steam has had huge sales on nearly all of the major Electronic Arts franchises this week. But this may be the best deal yet, as you can pick up both Mass Effect 1 and 2 for nearly 50%-75% off. Mass Effect 2 is only $9.99, while the digital deluxe edition is $19.99. The digital deluxe edition includes the soundtrack, full game and an art book. A comic and exclusive video are also included.
And the original game? Get it for only $5.00. So that is $35 for two games, or almost 50% off what one of those games would have been when it first released.
Date: Fifth of May, 2011 Time: 11:00am Location: Ubisoft Headquarters Mood: Long train rides suck…
We were seated in a gaming room inside the ominous Ubisoft headquarters in Sydney with the fabled director of the game Driver: San Francisco, Mister Martin Edmonson; founder of Reflections and creator of the Driver series. During our time with Martin we were given an overview of the game as well a decent amount of time playing the game ourselves. Overall, I have to say that we were all very impressed by the title and would definitely like to give it a proper go when it launches in September.
At the beginning of the session, the Martin told us about the inspiration behind the Driver series, which is that they wanted to recreate the 70s style car chase sequences from movies into a playable format on a gaming console, as well as a little about the new mechanic within the game. After a brief demonstration and discussion of the title, we were thrust into a hotseat session playing through the begining of the story, with each of us taking turns in doing objectives and the like.
The game has you playing as the protagonist of the first game in the Driver series, John Tanner, who has to chase down a recently released/escaped criminal, Charles Jericho, who seems to be quite the nasty sort. This is done in cinematic car chase style; with drifts, high-speed chases and as well as the classic high-speed jump down a hilly streets of San Francisco. I have to say that the team have brilliantly captured the feel of the chase and it can provide quite the pump, especially with a handful of people in the room all giggling uncontrollably and passing the controller along. [rant about how gaming is better with friends at your place]. Of course, a car chase without a reason could potentially be less sweet, so the gameplay is accompanied by the cliché, but also somewhat, unique story.
The game may sound like a rehash of Drivers previous, but it is not. The feel is simply amazing and with the title featuring a proprietary engine in order to attain maximum detail and an incredibly smooth frame-rate of 60 fps (even in the pre-release build that we were playing, that still had noticeably under construction parts included). Though, that is not all that the title features. It also contains over 120 fully licensed and real cars (each rendered beautifully within the game), a fully immersive open-world (with flowing traffic and pedestrians, all rendered real time, and all accountable from within any portion of the game), and lastly, an awesome new feature that will feel very familiar to those of us who have played the game Geist on the Gamecube. Though, it should be noted that, we may not have had hands-on time with all the features of the game in our limited time at the event.
Yes, in this version of Driver, players can (SPOILER WARNING!) instantly turn themselves into a corporeal entity and possess another Driver somewhere else in the game. Reading this back, it may seem a little silly, but actually playing it and realising its place within the story, it actually isn’t. And even if it may seem a little silly logically, it is incredibly fun to mess-about with, as well as finely tuned and intuitive to use. In fact, the whole game felt very polished (in the mechanics department, we were playing a pre-release build, so there was incomplete sections that we had a chance to witness) and everything worked the way you expect them to. From the controls to the minimap overlay, it was all very comfortable and intuitive, I don’t think this game will be getting many complaints about the controls.
Driving around and possessing other drivers isn’t the only thing to do in the game however. Scattered throughout the city are various missions for players to complete, with a large amount of them being replayable for some extra fun. Most of the missions are accessed via possession of a character with a relevant mission marker above their cars in the overlay. If you hover the cursor over the car you wish to capture, you can listen to a preview of what the npcs are saying to each other and if you select that mission, you’re treated to some witty banter between occupants. Most of this banter is related to the mission, but is also quite entertaining to listen to. What makes it even better though, is when the protagonist actually possess one of them, via the player accepting the mission, and then doing regular pro driving. The player character often makes hilarious remarks to the passengers of his inhabited vehicle which makes some of the missions even more hilarious than you would expect them to be.
I should probably note that players can possess any vehicle currently in the city, regardless of whether or not they are mission related. You can set up some crazy stunts by doing this as well as finding some alternate ways of completing a mission that would normally be a bit difficult without some crazy planning. Doing missions and crazy stunts will earn you Will Points which are the currency within the game.
Even though every car in the game is available in the city somewhere at some point in the game, there is no guarantee that a car you need at that particular moment will be available at the exact moment that you need it in. But, by spending your WP in any garage that you own, you can have a series of reserve vehicles that you can call upon as needed.
All up, Driver: San Francisco is looking like it’s going to be an amazing game; with its amazingly smooth controls, intuitive interfaces and surprisingly gripping story. We here at Capsule Computers (MasterABBOTT and LinkageAX) loved the title, and are definitely looking forward to the retail release. The title is set to be released in September 2011, on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. There is also a Wii Driver title coming out at the same time, but will feature a different story and possibly characters.
As you all know Capsule Computers is an official Starlight supporter and today is HAPPY STARLIGHT DAY! So all the CREW here at Capsule urge all you gamers out there to dig deeps and make a donation for all the seriously ill children and their families. A lot of the action is happening in Australia but that doesn’t mean our international readers cant help out. If you want to help out click on this link to make a donation Official details below from the Starlight Foundation.
Happy Starlight Day!
Across Australia all supporters, volunteers & businesses will be selling merchandise & taking donations to help seriously ill children & their families.
There will be plenty of action & attractions across Australia for Starlight Day including; side show alley, street performers, delicious food stalls & live lunch time entertainment, find out what’s happening near you by clicking here.
Call of Duty Black Ops Escalation DLC Publisher: Activision Developer: Treyarch Platforms: PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360 (Reviewed) Release Date: May 3rd 2011 (Xbox 360) Price:1,200 MSP ($15)
Overview: With every Call of Duty game released, you know that there will be a map pack released sometime in the near future. Or two or three but in this case we are talking about Call of Duty: Black Ops’ Escalation map pack. Being the second released map pack exclusively for the Xbox 360 at the moment, the whole package contains four new multiplayer maps and the zombie map named Call of the Dead.
Now as with the First Strike map pack, Activision created a special playlist for early purchasers of the content including Team Deathmatch, Mosh Pit and more. Each of the maps included has its own special features to make it unique and help set it apart from what we have seen previously and for a price tag of 1200 MSP ($15) the maps definitely need to impress for the hefty price tag. Of course one of the biggest draws for these content packs is extra zombie map, and how exactly does Call of the Dead play?
Call of the Dead: Now I will get to the four multiplayer maps in a minute but the highlight of this map pack is clearly the Call of the Dead zombie mode. As advertised by Activision and Treyarch over the past few weeks, players will step into the shoes of one of four famous actors playing as themselves. This includes Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund and Michael Rooker. This means you will be playing as the actors who acted in Machete, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Freddy Krueger and one of the survivors from The Walking Dead.
This star power is already a large draw because although the actors never reference their starring roles it is great to see such an all-star cast contributing to the title, and sounds much better than the same survivor voices we usually have been hearing lately. Besides these four actors you will also have to contend with George A. Romero himself, the creator of the Night of the Living Dead series. It seems that despite his knowledge of zombie movies he couldn’t avoid becoming one himself.
Romero is a constant threat in the level and is extremely tough to take down, with an Achievement ready to be unlocked if you are able to do so. Beyond his bouts of rage and electrified stage light however you will have to contend with the normal zombies. But rather than the usual method of zombies showing up through various boarded up windows and doors you will need to keep your eyes out all around you. Zombies may rise up from the water behind you ready to take your life, or even burst out of the ground or ceiling of a cave. They can climb up the sides of boats and of course through windows when they do appear. The Call of the Dead also has a very large map to play on which rivals anything players may have seen before making it the best zombie map you can find at the moment for any Call of Duty game.
Zoo: Now originally the Zoo seemed like an odd place to have a firefight. Even more of an odder place because the zoo itself has fallen into disrepair and has no animals inside of it. Meaning you may not see any animals lingering around the zoo as potential targets or threats but you still have your fellow players to watch out for. The Zoo is a rather compact map but is also the most interesting one you can find among the four released for the Escalation package.
Players can run through various broken down zoo exhibits, including climbing rocks for gorillas and a broken down monorail system that provides an excellent vantage point for taking out enemies at a distance or for defending a position. The monorail is surprisingly well covered considering the fact that one would expect it out in the open. Zoo’s uniqueness as well as its many areas to hide in and shoot from makes it a highlight of the package, especially for snipers though players who prefer to run and gun should find no trouble in this map.
Convoy: Now Convoy first and foremost is a sniper’s best friend. If you love to kill enemies with sniping then this is the map for you. The map itself features an overpass road straight down the middle that is until you come to a big hole in it that takes you down to the rubble below. On the sides of the street are a number of buildings that you can fight within. The footbridges along the road provide easy Sniper access but are relatively hard to defend meaning that camping Snipers may find it difficult to dig in for long. The map has a number of various hiding places but doesn’t stand out very well amongst the other offerings making it perhaps the weakest of the package.
Stockpile: Well that is until you play Stockpile. Stockpile is the classic “snow level” that was added in with the Escalation package and unfortunately feels extremely similar to every other snow map that you have played before, especially WMD. The map has a special area where you can close a door behind you to lock down a building but doesn’t really present much of an advantage. The level contains a decent amount of building types with plenty of open spaces so that you can always stay in the action but it really does feel like something that has been done before and it grows increasingly difficult to ignore the more you play on the level.
Hotel: Now Hotel presents itself quite well as a standout level. Being rather self-explanatory in the title, Hotel places players on an extremely large rooftop hotel with two large buildings on each side, with the area in between containing some small drained pools and a drained swimming bar allowing cover from both sides. You can also choose to sneak around the sides of the level through small walkways, or even sneakier across some decorative lattice work.
The bulk of the action however will take place in the actual hotel buildings and this is where the elevators come into play heavily. Each hotel building contains these little deathtraps. The reason I call them deathtraps is because if you find yourself calling down the elevator with an enemy inside, things will get ugly very quickly. There is a nagging issue about the elevators however as players can easily place a claymore right at the elevator doors, causing it to explode the instant they open up and kill whoever was inside. This strategy is good in theory but is annoying. You can also avoid the elevators altogether and take the stairs however, but where is the fun in that?
Overall: Black Ops’ Escalation Map pack doesn’t fail to deliver on the expectations one would have for both Treyarch or Activision (or 1200 MSP). Despite having one very similar map each of the other three multiplayer maps has a very unique feel that helps set it apart from previously included maps or from the First Strike map pack. On the other hand, Call of the Dead is in a league of its own regarding quality. The mode not only improves upon the standard zombie formula used by Treyarch but provides a great atmosphere and map to experience it on.
Rockstar’s upcoming L.A Noire release is so epic in size that they literally could not fit the game on one DVD. They couldn’t even fit it on two of them. Instead they had to use three discs for their upcoming release on the Xbox 360. The Blu-Ray version of the game will only take one disc however for the PS3. But that almost wasnt’ enough says ROckstar’s Jeronimo Barrera to Kotaku.
“To tell the story and make the game we wanted to make, we knew that it was going to take an entire single layer Blu-ray disc and three Xbox discs. Since the game is built around the concept of progressing through individual cases from desk to desk, players on Xbox will find disc-swapping is hassle-free.”
Swapping discs really isn’t a major problem though some people find disc swapping to be a thing of hatred. Maybe these gamers never played an old PC game that took eight different floppies to play that had to be swapped out regularly. Either way though if you don’t like to swap discs then you should buy the PS3 version, but if it doesn’t bother you then you can take your pick.
It appears that Nintendo will not be having the same “Select” titles for all of the different regions of the world. Not only does Europe see the discount at a later date, May 20th, but their Nintendo Select lineup will also be partially different from the ones that we will see in the United States.
The Nintendo Selects for Europe will instead be Wii Sports, Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City (same game with a different name from the US version), Mario Strikers Charged and finally WarioWare Smooth Moves. Though it would be a bit odd if Mario Super Sluggers was part of the deal for Europe because it was never released there. Despite the regional game differences however the Wii price drop will certainly bring any late adopters into the world of Nintendo’s motion gaming, or be an expensive door stop.
Ubisoft has stopped beating around the bush and finally made it official. Or at least they have made it official to Game Informer as June’s issue will contain information regarding Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. It seems that the game will temporarily place both Ezio and Altair together somehow and Ubisoft also says that this title will spell the end of Ezio’s storyline when it is released in November.
Revelations is set to answer a lot of questions about the game’s plotline and is spread out between three different playable characters including Ezio, Altair and Desmond from the modern day. The title is going to include the multiplayer aspect with plenty of new additions including a new climbing hook of some sort as you can see in the picture above. Expect more information soon from Ubisoft.
Atlus released a batch of eight different screenshots today showing a number of different characters from the title voicing their thoughts about relationships and cheating. We see Vincent, Catherine, Orlando and Johnny each putting in their two cents, as well as a sheep but he’s talking about something different.
Besides seeing some more of the other characters we also are treated to a gameplay shot showing the English interface that players will see as they climb up the towers to avoid death. With the main characters voiced by some recognizable talent Catherine is more than just a pretty face. And we’ll see much more than that when the title releases on July 26th for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in a normal package as well as a Love is Over Deluxe Edition.
What? No it isn’t what you are thinking. But I wouldn’t put it past the Duke. Moving on, Gearbox and 2KGames have released a new trailer for Duke Nukem Forever and this time around it shows how Duke can be affected by a piece of technology that the aliens brought with them that causes anything to step on it to shrink.
The video lets us see the pint-sized Duke doing battle against full size enemies as well as miniature enemies in a variety of locations. Also it doesn’t help that all the ladies are now finding the mini-Duke completely irresistible. But who couldn’t love a tiny Duke of their own huh? At least we will all have a chance to own Duke Nukem Forever next month when it releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Bethesda has released the final entry into their Get Smart series of videos aimed at teaching potential players the basics of everything in the game’s multiplayer. The final video gives us a walkthrough of the different areas we will encounter on a battlefield, including the command centers and turret emplacements.
The turrets in particular look interesting as it will help prevent spawn camping of enemies because they look quite deadly. Player placed turrets also look like they will be useful for a team to lay down. But of course this means you have to level up enough before you can even use these special skills. Then again if you have watched all of the videos so far then you should know that. With the final tutorial video released today we only have a few days left until Brink’s May 10th release date on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
