EA may have fallen down on the court when it comes to basketball, but their other sports games are skating along just fine. While hockey may not be the most popular sport to watch in the USA or Australia, it certainly is always fun to play. Of course, the best way to play hockey is while your sittin’ in a Lazy Boy. Today, Electronic Arts released two new videos for the upcoming game, NHL ’12.
The first video tells us how goalies have been improved, while the third video discusses balance control. The second video shows how the AI functions and it was released a little bit earlier this month. Watch them all (or not) and then comment and tell us which video you thought was the best.
Would you like to have a chance to have your persona immortalized in video game form? Namco Bandai is offering you that chance in Soul Calibur V. Draw your mouse and keyboard, fight your way to the following, link and enter your name and favorite weapon to be chosen as an enemy CPU that will be available to fight against when the game launches next year.
Soul Calibur V is set 17 years after the events in SOULCALIBUR IV, and it has new warriors and returning legends.
It tells the tale of “Patroklos Alexandra, son of Sophitia Alexandra,” as his “his family’s destiny intertwines with the Soul swords.”
Soul Calibur V includes several new features like: “revolutionary 8-way run, allowing for true 3D movement during matches, a refined battle system, and stunning graphics.”
You can’t keep a good man down, especially if he is a cowboy. Rockstar had recently teased that they would be releasing a new DLC package for Red Dead Redemption and today they have detailed what that package is and what it will be called. Titled the “Myths and Mavericks” package, it will cost players nothing to download as it will be entirely free to download.
The package will add in “fan favorite” character skins such as Landon Ricketts above and new battlegrounds to Deathmatch, Gang, Grab the Bag and “other popular online modes.” The package will be ready some time for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime in September, and I’m sure we’ll learn much more about who will be added with this content between now and then.
If you were hoping that the last Red Faction title would have been redeemed by a new, actually enjoyable title then you are sadly mistaken. THQ CEO Brian Farrell discussed the franchise during an investor call today and unfortunately, he sees that the franchise is not worth continuing in any form found Joystiq.
He exactly said that “Given that that title, now in two successive versions, has just found a niche, we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way.” This news is a little bit of a surprise due to the fact that the series even had a SyFy original movie named Red Faction: Origins. This news is certainly disheartening for fans, though after seeing the Red Faction series devolve from a unique series with a unique mechanic into a cookie-cutter third person shooter was already sad.
When presented with a pay what you want offer, a lot of people may just put in a $1 payment and call it enough. However that obviously isn’t the case considering the amount of sales and money made by the current Humble Indie Bundle. This third iteration of the package has broken the $500,000 mark in only seventeen hours since launch and this was only with 105,000 sales at that time.
Gamasutra was the first to notice this landmark in sales and it is very impressive. There is still two weeks left to buy the bundle and this early outpouring of support is certainly a sight to behold. At its current mark at time off writing, the average payment for the five game package is $4.77. You can buy the bundle yourself here if you haven’t already.
If you were worried that Deus Ex: Human Revolution may suffer another delay then you don’t have to worry any longer. With a little under a month left to go until the title is released in North America Deus Ex: Human Revolution has gone gold and is ready to be on your local store shelves on August 23rd.
This news comes from Square Enix themselves and the general manager of Eidos-Montreal, Stephane D’Astous had the following to say about the title’s gold status and being their first title. “We couldn’t be more excited that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has gone gold and will soon be in the hands of expectant gamers. As the first release for Eidos-Montreal, it’s impossible to express how extremely proud we are of the final product and all of the hard work that went into its creation.”
When it is released Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be available on the PlayStation 3, PC a the Xbox 360. With many different approaches to gameplay, amazing looking visuals and an impressive storyline following Adam Jensen, it seems Eidos-Montreal’s first title may just be a hit.
The Kinect has been getting a relatively small stream of games released for it over the past few months, though a number of these have been mini-game collections. What about a game that really puts you into the experience and allows you to beat up jerks on the street? Well a company known as Virtual Air Guitar has a game for you, or will soon as they have announced a beat’em up title named Kung Fu High Impact on the Xbox 360.
The game will use the Kinect sensor to put the players image into the game and then allow them to beat up the thugs on the screen through punches and kicks. Something PS3 owners may notice is that the title looks similar to Kung Fu Live, which it is. The only difference is the Kung Fu Live used the PlayStation Eye and didn’t work very well, while hopefully the Kinect will work better. No news w given as to whether or not this game will be arcade or retail as of yet.
Zombies are usually running towards the living to feast on their brains and flesh, but what would a zombie do if a zombie apocalypse failed and there was only one zombie left on earth, and angry humans were trying to kill it? Well Com2Us has an idea-LEG IT!!! The popular iPhone game Zombie Runaway, where players try to outrun humans through a gigantic cemetery in order to survive is coming to Google Apps on July 26th FOR FREE!
Yep, that’s right! As of July 26th you can enjoy the addictive game play of both normal and blitz mode, grab boosters, dodge obstacles and upgrade with special gear for free with leader-boards so you can take on your friend’s scores. We absolutely loved Zombie Runaway on the iPhone, check out our review for it here!
Feel like you don’t have enough Dead Island in your life? Well the game may be coming out on September 6th in North America but you will only have to wait two more days than that to pick up the Dead Island prequel novel which is releasing on September 8th.
The book will take place before the events of the game and is being written by British author Mark Morris who has written novels from Torchwood and Doctor Who in the past. Below is the summary for the novel which describes just exacly what readers should expect from the video game based book:
“For guests of the five-star Royal Palms Resort it was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream holiday; an escape to the stunning beaches of a tropical paradise unlike any other. But a mysterious zombie outbreak suddenly — and without warning — rips apart the pacific paradise island of Banoi, and four individuals with distinctive backgrounds and abilities seem to be unaffected by the zombie apocalypse.”
The Tekken franchise has been going strong since 1994 and has seen it’s ups and downs, but things couldn’t be better for franchise as of now. Tekken Hybrid is due to come out later this year, featuring a HD remake of the popular Tekken Tag, a demo for Tekken Tag 2, and also the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D. Blood Vengeance 3D is a remarkable film, featuring many of the people behind the games involved to achieve sucess. Fans will be pleased to hear that Namco and Digital Frontier have done their best to bring justice to the franchise and have avoiding creating yet another crappy cash-in video game movie. It’s been about 20 years since we first met the franchise, and Blood Vengeance 3D works as a good reminder as to why it is so successful.
Characters and Plot
The plot follows Ling Xiaoyu, as she is forced by Anna Williams and the G Corporation to transfer schools and spy on a mysterious student named Shin Kamiya in Kyoto. When Shin is kidnapped, Ling teams up with Alisa Bosconovitch as they attempt to rescue Shin, and uncover the dark secrets behind the the Mishima Zaibatsu along the way. Unlike many fighting-based video game films these days, Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D doesn’t try to squeeze too many characters into the film (Im looking at you Mortal Kombat: Annihilation!) which gives each character more screen time and character development. In fact, many characters just make particular cameos or just act as characters in the film who don’t even fight, so it never feels that they were just thrown in for the sake of it. Characters like Panda, Ganryu, Mokujin and Lee Chaolan play important roles in the film and don’t even engage in combat. The new character Shin Kamiya may annoy some fans because he steals the spotlight from other popular fighters such as Eddy Gordo, Paul Phoenix, Yoshimitsu or King who don’t appear in the movie at all, but he is entertaining enough that Im sure even the most hardcore Tekken-lover will show forgiveness, and eventually ask when Shin will be available to play as in a Tekken title. Fan favourites Heihachi Mishima, Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima don’t really make a strong appearance until the climax of the film, where the action mainly shifts to them from Ling and Alisa, but the entire movie is building up to the battle so it doesn’t feel too forced (Im looking at you Venom in Spider-Man 3!) and is still entertaining to watch.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance is easily one of the best films I have ever seen in terms of taking advantage of 3D technology. You can quote me on that! It does this in two opposite, yet equally effective ways. Firstly, it makes subtle textures in backgrounds and character models stand out, so instead of looking like a pop-up book, it enhances it’s graphics, forcing you to appreciate the attention to detail. Secondly, unlike most hollywood 3D films these days who use 3D as a cheap gimmick (Im looking at you Clash of the Titans and you too My Bloody Valentine 3D!), the fourth-wall is never broken with characters randomly popping out of the screen, but rather only vaguely popping out when the director wants a particular feature highlighted. For example, during combat fists and feet that are dodged may slightly pop out of the screen, and the action will slow down so you can take a few seconds to let it sink in. Every frame seems engineered and specifically shot with 3D in mind, not just lazily coded in. So therefore the 3D goes hand-in-hand with the graphics and direction, which look fantastic. One of the Tekken franchise’s most popular features has always been its action-packed FMV videos, and if anything seems familiar, it’s probably because it’s directed by Youichi Mouri, who also directed the opening movies to Tekken 5 and 6. The graphics look great, and because it’s all CGI everybody looks like they do in the original source material, so it’s impossible to disappoint the fans there! It should be noted the character models look at their best in extreme close-up shots. The fight scenes are amazingly choreographed and the impossible camera angles achieved only through CGI spit in the face of Kung Fu Panda and may even overtake Final Fantasy: Advent Children, if not its a close tie! There are some really awesome scenes in this flick and it’s filled with eye candy, really the only way to describe what you see is one word: cool!
Score and Voice Acting
With the Score behind Tekken: Blood Vengeance being composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the guy behind the music of Tekken 6, the sounds are very authentic to the source material. This is further supported by the fact that Namco has “tried as much as possible” to use the same voice actors from the games, and it shows. While some voices I feel still don’t suit all the characters, although they do most, it does create a level of satisfaction that the characters are represented accurately. There are some lip syncing issues however which I did find annoying, but considering it’s a dub you can’t really blame anyone. The dialogue is also pretty stiff in some parts, and is often very cheesy, but if you watch a lot of anime, your probably used to that kind of thing. The score is very fast-paced and action packed and works wonderfully and compliments the style of directing which is a major bonus though.
Conclusion
Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D is by far the greatest motion picture adaptation of Tekken to date. It K.Os the anime film and the live-action film doesn’t even compete for the first round. The 3D effects are some of the best implemented in motion pictures to date, and I’d personally put it up there with James Cameron’s Avatar. The graphics, art style, music and voice acting are as true as possible as they can to the games and should satisfy fans. For those who aren’t fans of the franchise, you’ve got epic 3D effects and superbly choreographed fight scenes to entertain. The plot is decent, but it’s executed with stiff, cheesy but tolerable dialogue and an ending that does wrap things up nicely, but still isn’t as full-filling as it could’ve been. Regardless, Tekken: Blood Vengeance isn’t perfect, but it’s still very good and definitely worth checking out. Tekken: Blood Vengeance will satisfy fans and engage anime and CGI lovers, and film makers can take two valuable lessons away with them from this film: 1-this is how 3D effects should be used in a motion picture, and 2-this is how to make a video game adaptation that doesn’t suck.
