Outland, the latest game from Ubisoft, has a new trailer for everyone to enjoy.
The colourful trailer shows off some dazzling gameplay and colourful, yet interesting, graphics. It also gives us a glimpse into the games story, which is basically that once every era these gods awaken and threaten the balance of world and that a hero must emerge to defeat the gods and bring balance back to the world.
The gameplay looks like it will be a platforming game (yay) in a similar vein to Megaman or Metroid. So far I cannot comment as to whether or not this will be a ‘Metroidvania’ type game with backtracking and revisiting past locales.
What’s interesting to note with this title is that it is unusually vibrant, which seems to be a new theme amongst Ubisoft titles. There have been a fair few titles recently by them that seem to follow the ultra-awesome colouring and lighting being published by them, like most recently Child of Eden. Outland looks like it’s going to be quite fun.
Outland is set to be released on the PSN and the X360 Live Arcade on the 27th of April.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the upcoming action RPG from EA, has a pretty solid pedigree behind it. The game is being developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games and is in the very capable hands of people like Ken Rolston, R.A. Salvatore, and Todd McFarlane. Rolston will head up the design of the game, following a prestigious career as lead designer of both Elder Scrolls III and IV. Salvatore, best known for penning Forgotten Realms and DemonWars, will write for the game. Most exciting for me personally, Todd McFarlane, creator of comic legend Spawn and more recently Haunt, will be handling the art for the game.
If ever a team could be assembled that is more than capable of creating a truly epic experience, it is these three men. That’s not what has me excited about Kingdoms of Amalur however. The newest trailer for the game, titled Visions, is what really gets my nerd juices flowing. As a fellow Capsule Computers editor put it, it looks like what Fable should have been. The action is fast paced and the designers have compared it to God of War for the more sophisticated gamer (my words, not theirs). Players will need to use strategy and roleplaying elements in order to survive in this kingdom.
EA has also released two new screenshots along with the trailer which show off the tone of the game. The first, shown above, shows the player as a mage doling out magical punishment. The second screenshot, below, depicts the protagonist next to a pile of corpses which he’s recently crawled out of after being resurrected, which is where his story begins. Seriously, is anyone surprised that Todd McFarlane is working on this? Why won’t that guy let anyone just stay dead in peace?
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition Developers: Dimps, Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platform: Nintendo 3DS (Reviewed) Release Date: March 27th 2011 Price:$39.99 US, £39.99 UK, $69.99 AUS
Overview:
Street Fighter is a franchise that has been around for over twenty years now. It had humble beginnings as an arcade game and flourished from there. No one thought that all these years later that the Street Fighter franchise would still be going strong and would have seen so many different games over the years. Street Fighter IV is no exception to this rule. The first Street Fighter IV was released in arcades in 2008 and saw a home console release in 2009. Now after receiving an upgraded Super version Street Fighter IV has received 3D to create Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. How does Street Fighter IV handle being placed on a handheld and most importantly, how are the 3D effects?
Story:
Street Fighter has never been known for its storyline and you will not find much of one in the 3D edition. The only actual story mode in the game is the Arcade Mode which will allow players to play as one of the thirty five different characters in the game. Each of these characters has their own individual storyline which can either be relative to the actual fights happening or will simply be something fun and enjoyable.
The story really doesn’t see a whole lot of development and although each fighter will eventually end up fighting their rival, the final battle will usually always result in a fight against Seth, with a special fight afterwards if the player managed to meet specific requirements. Each character’s story gets an anime-style cutscene ending and opening but that is unfortunately as far as it goes. Despite the fact that Street Fighter isn’t known for its story it is still a bit of a letdown to see nothing developed further in this day and age.
Graphics:
One of the most significant changes you will find in Street Fighter IV is obviously the graphical change. Being a title that was originally released on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 it is practically unfair to gauge the graphic difference but surprisingly enough the character models are very good looking. There are few differences to be seen between the two titles minus the crisp finish that console versions have. The flashy attacks and special moves are as stunning as you may remember them to be.
The one noticeable difference between this handheld version and the console version is that the background details have taken a significant hit. Most likely in an effort to preserve character appearance the backgrounds that usually had characters in the background that responded to the fight or at least followed specific actions are now completely static. This is something that really isn’t noticeable unless it is looked for as who has time to check out the scenery with a foot being placed in your stomach.
Audio:
The background music has not seen any loss in quality and is still contains plenty of memorable fighting music. The announcer is as great as one would expect with his upbeat voice announcing KO’s and more. Characters are voiced well enough with plenty of in-game voice clips that occur during a fight or before the fight starts. The opening and ending cutscene to every character’s story is completely voiced and is a nice touch to really reward the fighter. There is unfortunately no option to listen to the original Japanese voice dialogue which some may look for in a fighting game with such a long history but the English cast is suitable enough.
Gameplay:
Not much has changed about the structure of Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. You will play as your selected fighter against your opponent and whoever drops the other’s health bar completely wins. With enough attacks you will raise a bar that will allow you to execute your Super Combo, or if you receive enough damage you can unleash a devastating Ultra Combo to swing the fight in your favor.
The shift to a handheld device leaves the controls changed however. Super Street Fighter IV has six different attack buttons, three punch varieties and three kick varieties. This means that one punch and one kick button is placed on the shoulder buttons and the L and R button are unfortunately very inconvenient to use, especially when trying to chain together a combo attack that uses the face buttons along with these shoulder buttons.
This is remedied partially by the addition of two different customizable control schemes that make use of the touch screen on the 3DS. These two modes are Pro and Lite controls. First the Pro mode allows players to assign basic button or button combinations to quick and easy taps that give them the ease of playing without having to worry about the shoulder buttons if they don’t want to.
Lite mode on the other hand is certainly an enjoyable addition as it allows the player to place four different special moves of their choosing on the touch screen. Players are able to place Super Combo and Ex attacks onto these Lite buttons as well as special moves. The addition of Lite mode provides a new accessibility to Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition which has never been available in the franchise. Although some pro fighters may cry foul about this addition the ability to perform special attacks heightens the fun factor for those who never have picked up a Street Fighter game before. Each character has their own customizable control scheme so you will always be able to use what you want with each fighter you select as well.
Other than Arcade and Versus mode the Challenge and Training modes return to help pad out the player’s options on what they want to do. Of course also returning is the online play. SSFIV:3D has two separate lobbies for Online Multiplayer; Versus and 3D Versus. In these modes you can search for players you want to fight or fight with friends via the Friend Code system. I had zero difficulty connecting to random people around the world and experienced zero lag online, even in 3D versus matches which makes Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition an amazing handheld title for fans of fighting games and enjoy online matches.
An interesting addition to the title is the figurines that you are able to collect. As you play through the game you earn points to buy collectible figurines that take the form of characters from the game. These figurines serve more than one purpose however. While you can collect them all and look through them at your leisure you can also build a team of five figurines that will do battle with other people that own SSFIV:3D via the SpotPass system with winners receiving more points to buy more figurines. Of course this requires you to pass players who also have their 3DS in sleep mode and own SSFIV:3D which makes use of this system limited and perhaps nearly impossible without being planned ahead of time.
3D Effects:
First it is worth mentioning that activating the 3D does affect how smooth a battle will play out. The loss in frame rate will cause battles to either go slower than normal or will occasionally cause lag between actions compared to when you are playing in 2D mode.
Moving on from that however we have a mode that was implemented entirely with the 3D effect in mind. In an effort to not confuse anyone they simply called it 3D Versus. This mode places the camera slightly over the shoulder of one of the fighters and implements the 3D extremely well into gameplay. So much so that I found myself enjoying this mode much more than the original mode as it provided some spice to the standard 2D fighting.
Now the opening cutscene doesn’t have 3D effects and neither do any of the cutscenes that play out during the Arcade mode which leaves a lot of lost opportunity. I don’t believe I have yet to see anime in 3D but it can most certainly be done and should have been implemented in a title that was launched alongside the 3DS.
Overall:
Some people may think that having a title released for current generation consoles released on a handheld would cause a severe loss in quality. While those people may be right occasionally, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is in a different league from those games. Despite a minor loss in graphics the title is everything a Street Fighter fan would want and more. The inclusion of the Lite mode allows players to easily access the title like they never have before and with the 3D to show off, more people should certainly be picking up Capcom’s latest installment to the franchise.
Last week, we brought you five of the worst Sega Genesis boxarts period. Keeping with the nice Sega theme going on at the moment, it is now time to display the top five eyesores of the Genesis’ predecessor, The Sega Master System. The arts we seen released on the Master System really take the cake when it comes to “bad” and the laziness applied shines through with many titles, making this the hardest week to actually choose which were the absolute worst.
After some thorough thought and a lot of cringing, here are the top 5 Bad Boxarts for the Sega Master System.
Ghost House
It takes a lot of time to actually draw out a complex masterpiece to portray just what a player is in for when they purchase your game, but apparently Sega just were not feeling up to doing much of anything when it came to printing an art for 1986’s Ghost House. Taking a picture of a hand with the game card…..right. I can’t even imagine how a kid would go about describing this title back then. “The one where the guy is holding it…and BATS!”. Even on the label, no ghosts, no actual house, just four bats who I am sure are laughing at the actual hand that decided to pick this title up to start with.
Black Belt
I guess it can be said that at least they didn’t take a picture of a hand holding a cartridge for Black Belt, but a foot really isn’t much different. I guess it is a nice foot, though considering there is no body actually attached to it makes me a bit worried of just what this game could possibly be about. If Black Belt ever gets a sequel, I demand we see a shoe.
My Hero
Every just want to punch someone? My Hero takes out all of that rage on it’s European cover and fully delivers with a fist flying into a man wearing a striped wife-beater. Yep, all action with this one. Sadly, this lovely box-art had to be Americanized..
Now I see the fist’s point…
Secret Command
In the mid-80’s, there was no denying that Rambo was a huge property. This led Sega to take the popular run and gun title for the Master System by the name of Ashura and turn it into Rambo: First Blood Part II. Now since Rambo was an American thing at the time, Europe received the same game under the name of Secret Command. As you can see by the cover above, this release of the game certainly seemed like a rushed one when it came to whipping up a quick art. Armed with some sort of what appears to be an air gun, a yellow headband, and no mouth, there are literally no words I can say to truly describe just what is going on in this picture.
Tony Little never graced another video game after Secret Command and went on to find his true calling, selling exercise equipment.
Pro Wrestling
Just looking at this cover can make any fan of wrestling games cringe. I have no clue what Sega could have been thinking to release Pro Wrestling with this cover, honestly. What we see here is a man who has been decapitated and holding his severed head in his arms, and judging by the expression, this must be a pretty uncomfortable experience for everyone involved. Pro Wrestling in my book ranks as one of the worst BoxArts of all time for not only some lazy and downright creepy artwork, but for later becoming an unfair representation of what the Master System had to offer.
Now you can tell us in the comment section below which one of these covers you loved or hated the most, and post any Master System gold we may have missed.
Join us next week when we steer away from Sega to go back even further and take on the Intellivision.
A while ago, the team behind the much talked about upcoming title Portal 2 revealed limited information regarding the incorporation of Steam access in the PS3 version of the game. Via the official Playstation blog, Doug Lombardi, the VP of marketing for Valve, reveals some more information on this fantastic inclusion. Some in game functions Steam will control include cross-platform matchmaking, gameplay, friends, chat and achievements. An interesting inclusion is the ability for players to save co-op and single player games to the Steam cloud, allowing them to resume play saved from ANY PS3 in any location.
The Steam function is provided as an overlay within Portal 2 and allows players a quick route to their Friends, displaying in game stats and online status. There are also Steam achievements to unlock in conjunction with PSN trophies all accessible through the Steam overlay system.
Players will need to link their Steam and PSN accounts to activate the service and its functionality, something which can easily be done within the game itself. This also applies to new users who can create an account in the game and start to enjoy its features straight away something he believes will make the PS3 version of the game the most attractive across all consoles. Microsoft were apparently also offered the Steam technology but decided against its use within their version.
Portal will also be available on XBox 360 and PC and will be distributed by Electronic Arts.
Insomniac Games have released a new demo from their upcoming title Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, to a select group of US and EU journalists. While they also showed off some of the new arsenal available to the various characters, focus was given to the huge encompassing environments and an emphasis on co-op play. James Stevenson, the Senior Community Manager for Insomniac games explains that although players must help each other out it will be players individual scores that will allow them first choice of the plethora of new weapons available.
This is illustrated in a preview of a new level within the game set deep within the Terawatt Forest on Planet Magnus. In this environment all the plants and animals have been mutated by a strange alien meteor, and to make matters worse it’s also home to a mad scientist named Dr Croid who holds the key to the Creature Collector, built by Dr Nefarious and responsible for the current situation.
Stevenson goes on to explain that every weapon now has a co-op mode, so put simply the more characters that are using that weapon the more powerful its effects on enemies will be. Players are rewarded with extra bolts for co-op and specialised kills. Another exciting feature is special gadgets that are upgradeable and unique to each particular character. Imagine being able to create a clone of your character to trick the enemy while other players flank and bombard it, then also have it upgrade into a formidable turret gun. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a pretty cool feature and incentive to collect as many bonus bolts as possible.
Ratchet and Clank All 4 is due for a 2011 release and will be available in 3D for a truly immersive experience. Players will enjoy up to 4 player mayhem with a drop-in drop out system allowing players to leave and connect whenever they choose to.
Piranha Bytes and Deep Silver have today released the first cinematic trailer for the upcoming pirate-fantasy RPG “Risen 2: Dark Waters”. The game will be set several years after the events of the first game, 2009’s Risen, with humanity pushed to the brink of existence with their one and only safe haven, Caldera, under threat by monstrous sea monsters. And of cause, it’s up to players to undertake an epic journey to save the day. The trailer hints towards a few new gameplay elements, specifically the inclusion and use of firearms which were left absent in the original Risen. Risen 2: Dark Waters is looking to be a darker and grittier sequel.
Risen 2: Dark Waters is set to be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
I could have simply added this content as a little footnote to the past article I wrote on the premium edition that was revealed for those who happen to purchase the game at any other retailers but that wouldn’t do this super premium edition enough justice.
Usually NIS America offers some sort of bonus for pre-ordering their anime or games that are released directly from their online store but this time around they have offered a very large bonus of goodies to its fans. The package will contain all of the extra content in the basic premium edition but will also contain a soundtrack CD and nine different Disgaea 4 figurines.
The obvious attraction here are those nine figurines that will be given as a bonus. Not all of the figurines are pictured in the image with three others left for fans to guess until the information is revealed sometime in the future. No price has been announced for the Disgaea 4 Super Premium Edition but with this content it practically screams take my money. Disgaea 4 pre-orders will begin in the summer and the game itself will be released in September of this year.
Whenever you hear of a game or an anime being published by NIS America you can almost always count on them releasing a premium edition version of that game. Disgaea 4 is not an exception and if anything has some of the most interesting content you can find already. Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten will be getting the standard treatment previous NIS America games have gotten but with a new addition.
No price was announced for this premium edition, nor was it announced if it would be a separate edition from the standard edition. But I digress, the premium package of Disgaea 4 will contain a collectible game box and a soft cover art book full of character profiles, concept art and story information. The interesting addition to the premium package is the exclusive figurine of Fuka. The figurine hasn’t received any specific pictures of itself but below is a picture of the figurine that was released in the Japanese version of the game:
Update: NIS America has responded to our inquiry and it will not be the same figurine that was released in Japan and will actually be a completely unique figurine to what is seen above. On the other hand it will still be a Fuka figurine.
There may be a lot of bullet hell styled games out on the XBLA but not a whole lot of them draw upon the Japanese nature to include anime-stylings in most of their products. The most recent one that comes to memory is Deathsmiles from Aksys but that was released in full retail format over a year ago.
Now SNK Playmore had announced Trouble Witches Neo last year and had slated the title for a release at the end of 2010 but that time has come and gone. Little was said about the title until today when SNK announced that the side-scrolling shoot’em up would be getting a worldwide release on the XBLA on April 27th. The game will cost 800 MSP and you can watch the below trailer to catch every special feature that is available in the game, such as a fully voiced story mode and new characters.
