With the release of Yakuza 4 today, SEGA has released a launch trailer that shows off the better side of being a member of the Yakuza. That is of course until you have to get your hands dirty and throw a few punches, kicks and pieces of the environment at enemies. There are bits of the Hostess part of the game shown off and it is all voiced over by the same man who has done the other trailers.
Considering the sound of the man’s voice I sure hope he is going to be the main narrator for the actual game itself when the four main characters aren’t lounging around the screen or picking up their groceries at the local store. With the release of Yakuza 4 it is only a wonder if Yakuza: Of the End will be making its ways overseas, that is of course until it is released in Japan after its current delay.
If you were expecting some classical music then you are out of luck because we are talking about a different kind of class here. Character classes. In a trailer released today by Bethesda we are shown some of the game’s online multiplayer which is based off of class gameplay and see some of the more unique features of each class.
Of course some of these classes are more or less self explanatory, medic heals your teammates and revives them, engineer builds weapon stations and the soldier dishes out death which then the medic on the other team has to clean up. What is good to see is the large amount of gameplay that is shown off during the cutscene and a few of the environments you will be battling in. Catch the trailer below.
Yesterday we reported that Sony’s MotorStorm Apocalypse was going to be delayed to a To Be Announced release date after the earthquake and tsunami that have devastated the country. Originally the delay was only announced for Japan’s release on March 18th but it appears that the European release will also be getting delayed.
GAME retailer has canceled pre-orders for the title, although Gameplay.co.uk pre-orders may have already ended up being fulfilled according to a spokesperson of the company to Eurogamer. Apparently Gameplay will be attempting to retrieve these shipped copies of the game to avoid any issues. Currently there has been no announcement for a delay to the April 12th U.S. release of the game but one may guess that it too could receive a delay.
Batman couldn’t survive all of his battles against supervillains and psycho enemies for all these years without evolving his strategies and that is certainly what it looks like in the latest Batman: Arkham City trailer. Warner Brothers Interactive released this new video showing Batman’s newest abilities as well as show off everything that we’ve been expecting for months now.
The video gives us a look at Two-Face, Catwoman, Joker, Harley Quinn and plenty of random bad guys just asking for a beating. Perhaps most interesting however is the fact that Batman’s ability to glide around the city has been greatly improved with a diving mechanic to gain speed and allow further flight, and dare I say an even more fluid combat system. Catch the trailer below courtesy of IGN.
In an effort to help raise funds for earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan, Capcom has placed their iPhone version of Street Fighter IV for sale at only $0.99. This means that for only a dollar you will be able to not only pick up one of the best fighting games that you can find on the iPhone but will also be giving money to helping the citizens of Japan.
All sales for the next week will go directly to the relief effort and Capcom itself is donating ¥100 million ($1.23 million) to relief efforts already and has cut their electricity usage through various arcades and internal businesses to lighten the load on the electrical grid that suffered heavy damage during the earthquake. You can pick up the Street Fighter IV App here.
Just as a little heads up, Parasite Eve is now available on the PlayStation Network and can be picked up as simple as downloading any other PsOne Classic but the major news here is the fact that Square Enix is going to be bringing the second game of the series to the PSN although no actual release window was announced at the current time.
Parasite Eve II changes venues from the first game by placing Aya in Los Angeles and in the Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team, otherwise known as MIST. Kyle Madigan from The 3rd Birthday is introduced during this title and considering The 3rd Birthday itself is going to be released on March 29th in the U.S. we may be seeing the whole Parasite Eve franchise available for purchase again soon enough.
The Capsule Computers Crew had the complete pleasure of interviewing Atari Producer Michael Fahrny about a few of their up and coming digital releases and a bunch of other random things that us super geeks all enjoy. Sit back and enjoy.
1. What was the development process behind a title like Yars, did you have the original close by for reference?
We had an original 2600 setup with a copy of Yars handy whenever we needed it. Killspace spent countless hours and a lot of personal time putting a lot of love into Yar’s. It was a passion project for them.
2. From what I’ve seen of Yar’s Revenge, it plays like Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon, why do you think that not as many of these on-rails type shooters are released?
I have a new found respect for anyone who’s worked on a rail shooter. Because these genre if games are relatively simple on the gameplay side (i.e. being on a rail), the biggest challenge is to make sure you are doing enough the keep players engaged in the game. There are a lot of different ways to do this, and we used games like Rez, Sin & Punishment, and Panzer Dragoon as influences to help us along that path.
3. Considering Atari have frequently released Dungeons and Dragons video games, has there ever been a point where you have just started borrowing game ideas from campaigns that you have run privately?
A lot of our ideas come from working closely with the team at Wizards of the Coast and from sitting down and going through the table top game. We feel that we have taken the best of both worlds and put them into one cohesive video game.
4. Have you considered any other Tabletop franchises for adapting into a video game?
That’s a good idea 😉
5. Let’s say that Superman and Batman get into a fight, who would win and why?
This is a tough one for me. I love them both, but I think Batman is the more intelligent superhero and in the end (even without having true super powers), he would figure out a way to defeat Superman.
6. Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale – Does it use D&D mechanics? Will players of the tabletop game be able to recognise the game outside of the tag?
Of Course! Daggerdale uses the 4th Edition rule set, so anyone who is familiar with it will immediately recognize and understand what’s going on. That being said, not everything from the tabletop rules translate well into video games so we have worked closely with the Wizards of the Cost team to come to a happy medium.
7. Have you seen the film ‘Grandmas Boy‘? If so, how accurate is it to the life of the average game developer?
[in robot voice] “Please sit on my face.” 🙂
It varies day to day to be honest. Some days, I sit back and can’t believe I actually get paid to do this and some days it can be just like any other job. In the end though, it’s a very rewarding career.
8. What is the average day of a game developer entail over at Atari?
Lots of meetings and emails! I manage more than one project at a time so most of my time is spent evaluating the status of all my projects, making sure everything is running smoothly, and playing my games of course 🙂
9. Stargate SG1 or Stargate Atlantis? Or something even better !!
Wow, well that’s a hard one. I’ve seen them all, including the recently cancelled Stargate Universe. SG1 has to be the favourite though. The biggest new show I’m looking forward to is A Game of Thrones, The Song of Ice and Fire series is my all-time favourite book series.
10. If you could convert any D&D module into a PC game, which would it be?
Return to the Tomb of Horrors would be awesome to see as a video game.
11. Being video game publishers/developers, what are your favorite games and why?
Picking a favorite is tough, but, I am currently playing Civilization 5, Magika, and Dragon Age 2.
12. What do you love most about Working at Atari ?
The people.
–
There you have it ladies and gentlegeeks another amazing inteview over. The Crew here at Capsule Computers would like to thank Michael for taking the time from his busy schedule, we wish him and the team over at ATARI all the best with their up and coming digital releases.
Let us know what you thought of this interview, leave a comment below 🙂
With Activision calling time on the Guitar Hero franchise only a month ago, it seems Ubisoft have seen an opening in the market and are making their delve into the music game genre with a new IP called ‘Rocksmith’.
The game will supposedly use real guitars as opposed to plastic peripherals, with the ambitious aim of teaching you real guitar chords instead of fairly redundant button-pressing. Ubisoft’s senior VP of marketing Tony Key described it as “a music experience” rather than just a “party game”.
Ubisoft is said to be in talks with guitar manufacturer Gibson to produce guitar bundle that is reported to cost around 200 US dollars, although Rocksmith will comes with a standard input jack that can plug most electric guitars into a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, though not a Nintendo Wii.
Rocksmith will roll out around September, boasting of a set list of 45 songs from the likes of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Nirvana and the Animals.
Chapter 1: Random stuff that Phil (MasterAbbott) doesn’t like but I like to include anyway.
I packed my stuff, told Phil(MasterAbbott) I was leaving and then left. I headed for the bus, waited for like two minutes and then caught it. Because I’m awesome, I was listening to some Anime speed remixes by the label of ‘Exit Trance’. Man they’re so awesome. I also listened to some J-Rock, ‘JAM Project’; for all those interested. Anyways, the bus trip was short, uneventful and lacking in babes. I moved onto the train from the train-station and listened to some more ‘Exit Trance’. After what seemed like a longer than usual time, the train pulled into Central Station and I headed to the event.
Chapter 2: The Event.
I almost walked past the location that the event was being held at, I also got lost trying to find it… just a little. I actually had to start relying on The Force to find it.
Using my highly acute Jedi powers, I finally managed to find my way to the turn off into the street that the event was at. I peered down the street (it was actually more like a driveable alleyway) and saw a group of people congregating and what vaguely looked like Phil from a distance. So I approached, the worst that the group could have been is a nerdy gang… hardly a threat.
After a few minutes of waiting we were ‘greeted’ by a couple of Korean Soldiers who kind of looked like they meant business. Queue everybody getting pictures. So the dudes came out, and we got a photo of them. It was cool. Then it’s almost time for us to enter. After standing around and chatting for a few more minutes, Paul from THQ came out to let us know that it’s time to enter and explains to us that we each would be recieving the following items: A copy of the Book – ‘The Voice of Freedom’, A copy of the PC version (on Steam) of the game and a copy of either the Xbox360 or PS3 version of the game. Rockin’.
And so the dude re-enters the building, followed by the Koreans and then by everyone else towards the end. We are led in through this tunnely walk-way thing that was quite narrow, and also somewhat dark. Luckily it wasn’t very long, like max 1-1.5seconds long. We reach the light at the end of the tunnel and are welcomed by a room filled with televisions and connected Xbox units. After observing the room, we were told that we could grab beverages and find an unoccupied unit to game on. I grabbed me a coke and sat in the middle-right row, right in the middle.
Me being an awesome gamer by not holding the controller correctly, or facing the screen. Also, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH MY THUMB!?!?
MY ACTUAL THUMB, NOT PHIL’S CAMERA BEING WEIRD!
The gaming set-up, while not ideal, was quite easy to get used to… though, you couldn’t appreciate the games detail while your nose is right against the screen. Standing back, the game looked pretty good running on the Xbox 360, but with your nose right against it, everything was a pixelated mess. Made it easy to spot players though, once you could work out what they looked like. Of course, I found this one really good spot that was quasi-camping for easy kills in one of maps.
After a few hours of gaming, it was time to pack up and go. But before it could happen, Paul went around and handed out press-copies of the game, which was incredibly awesome of him. MasterAbbott tried to take an extra copy and the Korean Soldiers were all over him like flies on S$#$%
As you can tell from Phil getting owned by the Korean Super Soldiers. (ONE COPY NOT TWO !!)
Chapter 3: Closing
After receiving our press editions of the game, we had time for one more round and then it was time to leave. The event itself was quite enjoyable, especially when some of starting hurling smack towards each other (er… smack talk, not drugs…) and most especially that one time when I just absolutely owned everyone. I leave you all with one final message. DO NOT SIT SO CLOSE TO THE TELEVISION EVER, IT IS PROVEN TO DEGRADE YOUR EYESIGHT.
Gameplay also works.
Special thanks to the great dudes over at THQ for organizing the event, myself and Masterabbott had a great time !! Let’s do this again soon 🙂
Mastertronic have announced today that their upcoming hidden object game on Nintendo DS, Emily Archer & The Curse of Tutankhamun, will be available from 18th March.
The adventure is set against the backdrop of 1920’s Egypt. You play as Lady Archer who is invited to Egypt to see the priceless treasure of King Tutankhamun by her friend Lord Carnarvon. But, she arrives two months later to find her dear friend murdered and the mask of Tutankhamun stolen. You must use all your hidden object skills to get to the bottom of this mystery, solving the murder and retrieving the missing mask of Tutankahmun.
On your journey you will search 30 different scenes over locations including tombs, hotel rooms and excavation sites. As well as the hidden object aspect of the game, it will also include 30 mini-games to play through along the way.
