Atlus is keeping their fans well stocked with plenty of Catherine media it seems because today Atlus released a handful of new English screenshots. Or at least screenshots with English subtitles which means that fans may be able to listen to the original Japanese voice actors if they so wish, but this has yet to be confirmed. Either way though these screenshots reveal some of the interaction we can expect between the different characters.
Also released were character bios for each of the three main characters; Catherine, Katherine and Vincent. You can read them below:
Catherine
Sex: Female
Age: 22
Occupation: ?
The seductive beauty who suddenly appears to Vincent.
This startling seductress steps into Vincent’s life from out of nowhere and immediately throws his relationship with Katherine in jeopardy. Her coquettish charm grabs a hold of Vincent’s heart, even as her free spirit and potent sexuality grab a hold of… other parts of his mind and body. Without warning, everything in Vincent’s life becomes twisted around Catherine.
Katherine is a loyal and steadfast girlfriend. She works for a clothing company. She and Vincent were classmates in high school, but they only started dating after they met again at their 10-year reunion. She has begun to think more and more about their relationship, and wants him to fully commit to her. His indecisiveness is beginning to annoy her more and more as time goes by.
Vincent
Sex: Male
Age: 32
Occupation: Systems Engineer
An indecisive bachelor who gets swept away by the actions of the two women in his life. Vincent is a lifelong bachelor trying to escape the pressures of adult life: his job, his love life, the prospect of marriage… His seeming goal is drift aimlessly through life. While his girlfriend Katherine wants him to settle down and marry her, he still wants the freedom of the single life.After meeting the enigmatic beauty, Catherine, his life is dragged into a waking and sleeping nightmare.
Interest in the game is certainly reaching high levels considering this is perhaps the first game of its kind to be localized recently if not at all. We’ll find out just how Catherine will be on July 26th when it releases in the United States on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Ridge Racer is famous for a lot of reasons. Fast cars, stunning graphics and tracks, and in the past the series has launched with many consoles making it a staple in the gaming world. Ridge Racer: Unbounded seems to be on the right track so to speak of delivering what fans of the series love while creating a whole new destructive image for itself.
In a new trailer released today by Namco, we see two cars in what appears to be just a cutscene for the game speeding through a city before smashing through a brick wall in an alley. Now this doesn’t appear to be the actual gameplay footage, but either way this new teaser certainly sets the stage for the latest entry in the series and gives off a nice reckless, destructive vibe. Of course though that is what Unbounded is being promoted as, with the tag-line “Drive, Destroy, Dominate” being used to sell the game. Check out the new trailer below for yourself and you should expect to see this new high velocity Ridge Racer in stores sometime in 2012 for the 360, PS3, & PC.
Ever since last week if you wanted to play games online or even purchase new ones with PSN you are out of luck. There is even more bad news on this whole hacking situation as Sony has stated on their Playstation Blog that personal information could have been compromised. In the post Sony states that “We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network.”
Sony go on to mention what information they think may have been taken “we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID.” Sony mentioned in the post that there was no information as to whether or not credit/debit card information was taken but to keep in mind that it could have been obtained by these hackers. According to the post PSN should be back up within a week.
I have already noticed on my own twitter account and various places online people claiming that they may have already been a victim and have had their cards accessed. Hopefully this all gets situated soon but it seems that not playing Mortal Kombat on PSN is the least of our worries.
For anyone out there that still hasn’t tried out Contra/Gryzor here’s your chance to do so. Konami are practically giving the game away for free; and have announced today that Contra is 50% off on XBLA for only 200 MS Points until May 2nd! Hurry and pick this up while its on sale.
Where did you first play this side scrolling classic? For me it was at the local take away shop and I remember throwing in 20cent pieces into the machine like it was going out of fashion.
If you had any questions about how exactly Brink will be played then you should watch the video that Bethesda just released below. In this video we are given an entire walkthrough of each characters abilities and how to use said abilities. The video goes very in-depth by providing not only a great look into what everything on the HUD means but even going into detail about the game modes.
Of course some of these things are things that nearly anyone who has played a shooter will know already but it is always good to see a developer, in this case Splash Damage, looking out for the players who are eagerly waiting for their title to be released. Which it will on May 10th in the US and May 13th everywhere else for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Yesterday we reported that Nintendo released their end of fiscal year report where they also stated that two of their 3DS games had sold more than a million titles and therefore were platinum sellers. Now they have released a supplementary packet that shows some more information about actual title sales and it seems that they may have overestimated a bit or are only showing the one title.
Nintendogs + Cats has sold 1.7 million units worldwide with 460,000 in Japan and 1.25 million elsewhere. Of course these sales totals are the accumulation of all the different versions of the game though it would be a bit interesting to see what version was preferred by purchasers. The full list of game sales records can be found here if you want to read all of the other technical information and see how Pokemon White and Black managed to sell 11.51 million units which is a huge amount for only being out worldwide a couple of months.
Some time next month Nintendo will release an update for the Nintendo 3DS that will update the system’s firmware and also add a couple of new features. One of these new features is the 3DS eShop service where players can download games and trailers. Now for those of us in the United States, we were treated to a music video for free that was going to be deleted in the next update.
It seems however that another treat may just be on the way. It appears that Nintendo will be providing 3D Excitebike for free when the update applies to the handheld console. At the moment the information was only revealed from the briefing notes of Nintendo’s financial meeting so it could be possible that the free 3D Excitebike may only be for 3DS owners in Japan.
Nobody says you can’t catch a break once in awhile when the zombies are trying to eat your flesh. Sure you may be a bit more worried about becoming one of the undead but hey, hat least you saved a couple of bucks. That is the case with this weeks Xbox Live Marketplace deals as both Arcade games of Dead Rising 2 are on sale for 50% off and two skill packs are also on sale for half off.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero places the player before the events of Dead Rising 2 in a prequel and Dead Rising 2: Case West brings Frank West back to the party with co-op action in events that take place immediately after the end of Dead Rising 2. Both of these games are stand alone products which means that you do not need the original Dead Rising 2 disc if you want to play them. The Psycho and Soldier skill pack however, require Dead Rising 2.
Mortal Kombat
Developer: NetherRealm Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Genre: Fighting
Platform: Xbox 360 (PS3)
Released: 21 April (Europe), 19 April (US)
The long-awaited homecoming of Mortal Kombat is upon us, marked by the return of the Fatality and more new modes than you can shake a stick at. It’s a rebound to bloody origins after the more tame Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, with the developers NetherRealm Studios and kingpin Ed Boon promising a pleasing game for the fans in the run up to release.
The story behind the game is a retelling of the original storylines of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, melding together to give a more complete overlook of the plot of Mortal Kombat with some alterations thrown in. While fighting games aren’t renowned for their narrative, this time round Mortal Kombat takes a surprising new focus on the story behind the fights, with smooth transitions from cut scenes to fights and fights to cut scenes. Likewise, the Arcade mode flows nicely from character to character as you assume control of a new combatant for the next chapter as part of the story.
The story opens to the scene of an absolute massacre, leaving only Raiden and Shao Kahn standing. Fearing for the future of the Earthrealm, Raiden uses his last ounce of strength to send a message using his amulet to his past self warning of the bleak future if something isn’t done. From here, you revert to the current day, and the story unfolds with the guiding hand of Raiden who, with the help of some of the other contestants, tries to avoid this fate. Seeing as it starts from the beginning, the plot is just as accessible for newcomers as it is nostalgic for veterans. Each character’s back-story is gradually introduced and explained, detailing how they came to be involved with the deadly tournament, from Johnny Cage, an actor who doesn’t quite realise what he’s gotten himself into, Raiden, a thunder god trying to save the Earthrealm, to Scorpion who’s looking to exact vengeance on arch nemesis Sub Zero.
As well as Arcade mode (which includes the option of co-op play), there’s a wealth of other modes, most of which come to the franchise for the first time. Challenge Tower is one of the big additions, which presents you with a list of challenges to work your way through, each with its own different completion conditions, earning in-game ‘Kurrency’ in the process. The challenges are varied, with some relating directly to the gameplay, whereas others go off on a tangent, offering mini-games instead of the traditional gameplay. Kurrency accumulated can be spent on unlocking content and secrets in the ‘Krypt’ in the extras menu. Also in the extras menu is ‘Nekropolis’, a place to view character bios to further expand your knowledge of the characters. Even the presentation of these goes a step further, with interactive areas to explore the content offered by these extras, showing how well-furnished the game is.
In addition to the challenge mode mini-games, there are 4 other mini-games, all able to be accessed from the main menu, rather than searching them out in Challenge Tower. These are: ‘Test Your Might’, ‘Test Your Sight’, ‘Test Your Strike’ and ‘Test Your Luck’. Test Your Might and Test Your Strike see you pressing buttons rapidly or in combinations to smash blocks. Test Your Sight involves watching a cup and ball trick and selecting the cup you think the ball is under, only the cups and ball are replaced with decapitated heads and an eyeball. Test Your Luck is probably the most interesting of the lot, providing a completely randomised match based on the outcome of the spin of some fruit machine-like roulettes. With plenty of different combinations of options like an infinite timer, flaming floor, blocking disabled and more, the possibilities are endless.
The other large new feature is King of the Hill mode, in which the developers have attempted to recreate the feeling of competition in an arcade. It’s an online mode where up to 8 players can all sit in on the same match as spectators until it is their turn to fight and challenge the current King of the Hill to become the leader themselves. In layman’s terms, it’s winner stays on. Whilst sitting in the theatre-like zone viewing the battle, players can also make use their own Xbox Live Avatar that is representing them by giving the fight a rating, throwing tomatoes, or cheering and booing the current competitors.
The series has always been known for its ghastly practices, and this game is no different with the shocking level of gore taken up a notch by well-polished visuals. It almost goes without saying; this game is not for the squeamish, and the revival of the fatality means that this game isn’t going the win the game any new fans on that front. However, for those of us with slightly psychopathic tendencies, Mortal Kombat in its gory entirety bodes well. The fatalities have always been about rubbing your victory in your opponent’s big fat face, upping the humiliation to new levels. When the words ‘Finish Him!’ are uttered, you’ve already won, but provided you can pull off the necessary combo, you can win in style. New players mustn’t fret though, because the developers were keen to make the game playable for newcomers on top of being satisfying for hardcore supporters, with enough depth to perform extended combos, but simple enough for less skilled players to pick up and handful of combos, still keeping fights interesting. As such, there’s a tutorial mode both to learn the basics of the game, and a separate fatality tutorial to learn the button combinations behind these brutal finisher moves.
Overall, the game is simply very well polished with plenty of examples cropping up as you play. For example, depending on the stage you are on, finisher moves can vary relative the your surrounding environment, like on The Pit, where defeating you opponent can lead to them being hurled, and consequently impaled, on the spikes below. Stages also feature detailed touches all round, not only on the textures but events happening in the background, such as other fights going on in the background or other detailed scenes happening simultaneously. The carefully crafted animations pre-fight and post-fight further reiterate this point. Gameplay-wise, new developments come in the form of X-ray special moves and the option of tag-team battles. Much like fatalities, X-ray special moves provide a similar type of experience by allowing you to see the extent of the damage on your opponent’s organs and bones in X-ray slow-mo/fast-mo sequences. On the other hand, the tag-team battles are a first for Mortal Kombat, and add a new element of depth to fighting by having you try to put out a balanced pairing, and also breaking down or extending combos – depending on whether you are receiving or delivering the damage – by switching out.
In conclusion, I could have done a review swapping all the ‘c’s with ‘k’s, but it’s not klever, it is just klichéd. Instead, I’ve spoken about a game which has clearly had a lot of work put into it, with intricate smaller details and a deep fighting system at its core. It’s the game the fans were hoping for, with the return of the bloody fatalities, the brand new X-ray attacks, plenty of new modes, and a roster of over 25 of your favourite characters with a couple more on the way via DLC. Somehow Mortal Kombat manages to claim the title of goriest game on the Xbox 360 – no small feat considering that the likes of Gears of War and Dead Space also reside on the console – and if your stomach can handle it, you’re in for an entertaining, well-polished fighter.
Pros
Fan-pleasing story with cut scenes and voice-acting
Incredibly well-polished
Lots of new features
Gallons of blood if you’re into that kind of thing
Cons
Excessive amounts of gore could be repelling for some
Minor niggles such as the introduction of an online pass, prolonged loading times, and occasionally finickity user interface
Electronics giant Sony has announced their move into the tablet market unveiling 2 devices to eager journalists and technology specialists. The tablets, codenamed S1 and S2 will both be Playstation certified so they can play PSOne games as well as any other applications or titles approved by Sony for use. Both the devices will use the Android Honeycomb 3.0 platform and feature dual core Tegra processors, the differences coming in the design and screen size.
The S1 features a 9.5″ screen and is shaped more like a traditional tablet with what seems to be a folded stand on the back, whilst the S2 features dual 5.5″ screen designed more like a Nintendo DS. Sony says that the dual screens can be used to display a single page or for multiple functions.
To add to this, Sony has said that their Qriocity and Reader Store will be available through both tablets. The S1 can apparently also control Sonys Bravia Tv range.
