Having a demo copy of your game available for play at a game convention is a standard for publishers. Now having people unlock hidden content and share it to the rest of the world on video… probably not part of the plan. At Wondercon there were playable demos of Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D and one of the people waiting in line to play it happened to have a video recorder handy to catch a previously unannounced character being unlocked and played.
Rebecca Chambers who made her first appearance in Resident Evil 1, or Resident Evil 0 I suppose…, will be a playable character in the upcoming Mercenaries game from Capcom. The video shows plenty of first hand gameplay footage with the standard over the shoulder shooting we’ve grown accustomed too in RE4 and Re5. The man who uploaded the video said the person before him completed a level with an S ranking, possibly unlocking Rebecca ahead of Capcom’s reveal.
Despite the fact that it was released alongside the Kinect back in November, not everyone has had a chance to interact with their very own little wild animal cub. Of course the game probably won’t be for everyone but if you have a little brother or sister, or children of your own then this is definitely a game worth taking a second look at.
The demo will require the Kinect to play and is currently available only to Gold members of Xbox Live. Also better make sure you have a lot of space since the demo takes up 1.52GB of space. This doesn’t mean however that you can’t play the demo if you a bit older, its hard to avoid giving the game a try. You can read our review of the title here and add the demo to your download queue here.
Nice field huh? A couple of days ago we mentioned that Capcom had opened up a teaser website that contained nothing but a countdown and half of an outline that had dragon wings. Now the website capcom.co.jp/DD has received a bit of an update. Now the outline is completely formed and is quite obviously a dragon but the interesting thing is that this dragon has a red beating heart inside of it.
To further create speculation of what the countdown may be about, Andriasang has gathered various images discovered by Capcom fans in the website’s source code. These images feature an impressive looking field with some ruins near them. Unfortunately nothing definitive about what the title will be has been found yet. Though Dragon’s Dogma continues to sound promising. From the looks of things it won’t be another Breath of Fire game, unless they really updated their approach, but most likely will be an entirely new franchise.
Game: Red Faction: Battlegrounds Publisher/Developer: THQ / Volition via Juice Games Consoles: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3 Price: 800 Microsoft Points/ $10.00 Genre: Car Combat
There is nothing quite as endearing as destructible mayhem caused by none other than yourself. And when that game is set on a distant planet, with carnivorous machines as your wrecking instruments, its tough not to get engaged with your inner bad ass.
Fortunately, Red Faction: Battlegrounds aims to give you that experience, and it is a offered at a budget price. Does it actually succeed though? Is it possible that huge explosions could be overshadowed by anything? Does everyone really have an inner bad ass?!
The first item of note in the game is the graphics. Brimming with details, there are absolutely fantastic. There are no jagged edges and no pop out. Plus, the frame rate seems to run smoothly as well. Every environment that is available for play through is full of variety, although not necessarily originality. For example, one map is a standard ice map, with icy peaks scattered among the mining machinery. There is also a map that has been infected with a strange bacteria, and it is stained blood red. In addition, there is a map with the colorings of a the Martian planet, and it is most likely the only one that has not been in countless other games. Most every map has had its day in another game. Come on, every game has a “winter level.” Nevertheless, each map is still drawn well and they are interesting to play in. Its just too bad a more unique art direction was not chosen.
Of course, the Red Faction franchise is not especially known for their upstanding graphics, but rather for what happens when these graphics fall apart. Yup, destructible environments are a definite part of Battlegrounds, and they can be crucial to your success in the gameplay area. Literally every building, structure or man made creation can be blown apart. This part of the game could have been really fun, if it wasn’t hampered by the other parts of the game.
Red Faction: Battlegrounds is a car combat game: get your vehicle, whether it be a tank, buggy, jeep or walker, and blow to bits anything attacking you. The game is set in a top down view, with you looking down on the action and having to control your car while looking at its roof. The maps are basically different track designs, with some buildings and berms scattered around. Your mission is to drive around the track over and over while avoiding missiles and dealing out some pain of your own. The worst part about the maps though is that they are all the same basic size. There may a hill here and a track there, and then the next map will have the hill over there and the track cutting through it, but every map design is still more or less the same size, so it feels very similar every time you play it, no matter how much different the art is in each map. This means that strategic options are extremely limited and it is basically just ends up being a random driving and shooting type of game. And those destructible environments talked about earlier? Every time one of them falls, it causes a massive explosion, and since the environment is so tiny, your more often than not going to be caught up in this very explosion. But avoiding shooting these buildings is also super difficult. The only advantage is that you can take some of the enemy with you. Plus, explosions are just so darned pretty.
Nonetheless, when the game is not trying to kill you, it can actually be enjoyable. There are quite a few pickups that you can use in addition to your regular guns that come standard on your vehicle. One of my favorite to use was the black hole. It is like a mine that you can set down, but when you press the detonate button, it sucks up any enemy vehicles in its path and then it also goes nova, taking even more of the AI attacking you. Its just too bad that the game modes don’t match the awesomeness of this weapon.
When I first started up the game, I immediately went to the training mode, thinking I should get a handle on things before I started doing my thing in campaign mode. After an hour though, I figured I was ready. I exited back to the main menu and then I found out why this tutorial seemed to be taking forever. The training mode was actually my campaign. That was a let down, especially when I realized that I was about a ⅓ done with the training missions and it appeared that the next ⅔ would be repeats of the missions I had already completed, except that this time the AI would be tougher, and I would only be using the same weapons I had gotten to used too. The missions consisted of either trying to survive as long as possible against waves of enemies, or trying to shoot all the waves coming at you. Yep, not too much variety, eh? Oh yea, I guess there was that one mode where you could collect flags and run them to bases, but it was basically a glorified time trial. I also unlocked all of the weapons in this first ⅓ and it was not until the very last mission that I was “taught” about the final item I could use in my quest to rid the Martian planet of oppression.
In summary, once you get over the initial “cool factor” of, “OMG, I have a tank/buggy/walker with guns and I just shot up the environment with a black hole powerup and then laid down mines to take care of the rest of these people,” the game is actually pretty tepid, hard as that may be to believe. Luckily, that “cool factor” will last fairly long, but not long enough to realize that your not having fun anymore.
I was really hoping that the multiplayer side of things would enliven the game. But, I was only able to get into one match, and then my stint was over because nobody was playing online. However, while playing the multiplayer, I do have to say that it is pretty wild, especially if you like so much chaos that you cannot see any order. The ludicrously small maps strike once again, and with 4 people all trying to grab limited power ups and shoot continuously, it can be ridiculous. It might provide some enjoyment to some, but I couldn’t’ find any due to the constant gunfire that wiped me out as soon I spawned in.
If all that was not enough, then lets talk about the camera and controls. The camera would constantly swing to where I did not want it to go, and the overhead view did not help matters. Aerial views just don’t seem to work for intricately controlled games like this, and trying to control teeny cars was a nightmare. Thankfully, when you did go under bridges and the like, there was an X-ray like shadow that showed up to let you know where your going, but that is the only positive feature of the camera. Otherwise, the camera and controls was awful, although not impossible to use. Note that it is possible, just annoying.
The final warning about the game is that the achievements/trophies could be troublesome. There are a few that will require a lot of grinding and the online ones may be hard to come by depending on how many people stay online. Check them out before you buy and make sure your up to the challenge.
In conclusion, there is very little to like about this game, and I can’t believe that a game based on around using a walking tank to destroy everything could be so tedious and frustrating. The gameplay has its moments. The soundtrack is acceptable and the sound effects do their job well. Graphics keep up with the best of the pack. But it is just nothing to get super excited about. I was grateful that the training mission only lasted 3 hours, because I was getting tired of the repetitive gameplay. However, when I tried to test multiplayer, I was shot down again. Its a shame that this game could have been something new, like having you perform ACTUAL missions. However, it is not anything new and even what it does do, it doesn’t do well. Because of that, you should save your money for a game that will test the limits. Since the game is only 10 dollars, it may be worth a try, but Red Faction: Guerrilla is probably also 10 dollars by now, and that game will probably provide much more bang for your buck than this one.
The (really popular) popular culture expo SUPANOVA, in partnership with video game retailing giant GAME, brings us a nice surprise. This Surprise? the GAME fit-out, which involves dancing, cosplay and gameplay.
The biggest hit in this fit-out though was the inclusion of a playable build of Duke Nukem Forever for fans to enjoy. This GAME event was held in conjunction with 2k Games and Ubisoft and also featured games like Just Dance 2. Along with this event, GAME is also hosting their regular booth/store which will have for sale various pieces of video game merchandise, video games and other items.
The recent Brisbane SUPANOVA event had over 27,000 attendees and over 2000 of those had entered the GAME fit-out to trial these games. Both GAME and SUPANOVA plan on bringing this event to future conventions in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. So make sure you come along and get your game on!
Yes you read that right. NIS America has announced the news that Disgaea fans have been waiting for. Disgaea 4 has received a release window that has been narrowed down to September of this year. The full title of the game will be Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. Those who live in Europe and other PAL regions will be getting the title sometime in the Fall.
There hasn’t been much more information given but fans of strategy RPGs can get a chance to name a few things in the game themselves. In a contest being held called the “Dis-name-a” contest you will be able to submit your entry for the name of a sword, a skill that a sword user will use, and also a catgirl character. Make sure you keep your submissions unique and within twenty characters and you could see your name as one of the characters’. You can also check out the English Website which was launched for the game earlier today. Currently there is no English trailer for Disgaea 4 but you can catch this Japanese trailer that was aired at Tokyo Game Show last year:
It’s nearly that time of the year when the 2011 Logies is upon us, and Madman TV’s Offspring has been nominated for an overwhelming number of Logies.
Offspring is nominated for eight categories, including the Gold Logie, and is a story about food, music, sex, babies, and love. Safe to say, with that mix it’s no wonder this TV series is doing so well. Also nominated were SBS DVD releases Wilfred, Who Do You Think You Are? and Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. Check out all of these DVDs on the official Madman website here, and tune in to the Logies on May 1 on Channel Nine.
Wow, L.A. Noire…you really are establishing yourself as one of the most anticipated games of this year. Rockstar Games have revealed yet another juicy piece of information from the upcoming game, L.A. Noire.
In the Vice desk mission “The Set-Up”, boxer Albert Hammond wins a fight he was meant to lose, which ends up drastically costing his manager and illegal bookies. When Hammond disappears, galpal Candy Edwards is the go-to person for information, and she seems to know more than she’s letting on.
Sounds exciting, right? This new character dossier shows just how extensive L.A. Noire is going to be as a game, and the more we here at Capsule Computers, the more excited we get for this game (and we were pretty excited to begin with!). You can take a look at Candy’s POI (for those of you not familiar with cop lingo, that’s “Person of Interest”) dossier on the L.A. Noire website here.
It’s been one year since Gameloft announced their first HD game for Android phones, and what better to celebrate their anniversary with than giving out free things?
Gameloft is having a special promotion where 1 out of every 10 games purchased on their store is free. That’s right, you can now get titles like Dungeon Hunter 2, Real Football 2011, and Asphalt 5 all in HD, and you might even score your game for free! If you’re looking for a reason to buy a few new games for your Android phone, then now is the best time to do it.
Genre: Drama Produced by: Boo Productions Director: Giorgos Lanthimos (Yorgos Lanthimos to some) Starring: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, Hristos Passalis, Anna Kalaitzidou Running Time: 94 minutes Language: Greek with English Subtitles Available for purchase at: Madman Online Store ($29.95), Amazon US ($20.49), Amazon UK (£9.31)
Overview
Like a car along a highway, some films can stretch across a long expanse before reaching a destination. Sometimes, the destination is not what we thought it would be, but like the proverbial moth to the flame, we are drawn to the new direction in which a film has taken us. Some will love the new destination, and some will hate it, but you can’t deny that it is – if nothing else – new.
Dogtooth is a destination which is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. There’s incest, nudity, blood, and it deals with some of the most shocking yet intriguing issues that plague the human experience. If you can sit through this all, though, I can most certainly say you will be enriched by the experience and walk away feeling just that little bit more thoughtful – after all, the film wasn’t nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award for nothing.
Plot
The film does, believe it or not, include a dogtooth into the storyline. However, most of Dogtooth’s plot is more abstract than concrete, more metaphorical than literal, and more perplexing than straightforward.
A husband and his wife have three teenagers, who they have confined to their country estate in a bid to protect them from the outside world. The kids spend their days working out, playing pretend games, or learning facts and figures that their parents have made up: in their world, a zombie is a small yellow flower and the sea is an armchair, and children aren’t allowed to leave the estate until their dogtooth falls out. They are fed lies that a mythical older brother was banished from the family home for disobedience and lives on the other side of the fence, and their parents keep them as sheltered as possible except for Christina whom they bring to satisfy their son’s sexual needs. Frustrated with her position in this family dynamic, Christina begins introducing sexual bribery to the shielded children, and what ensues can be described as no more than a completely strange, yet incredibly profound tale.
The storyline of Dogtooth is possibly one of the most intriguing that I have ever come across. Every part which drives the story is so deeply embedded in construction and constructing meaning that it becomes hard to distinguish the real from the false. The father and mother have created a cult-like atmosphere in his home, brainwashing their children into believing a different reality to that of the world around us. The script is wonderfully written: it is simple and funny, but still allows for the complexities of the issues shine through. The writers constructed it in such a way that there were awkward and monotonous moments between the family members to show the detached life they all lead.
What is so striking is that upon watching the story unfold, I was reminded so much of how everything we know is only true because that’s what we were taught to believe. Dogtooth makes you question, wonder, and rethink everything that you know in your life, but also it stands on a higher moral ground of parenthood. How much is enough to protect our children from the outside world? When are children allowed to fend for themselves? And how much control do parents really have over who and what their children become?
Characters
None of the characters identities are actually revealed – instead, they are known as Father (Christos Stergioglou), Mother (Michele Valley), the Eldest Daughter (Aggeliki Papoulia), the Youngest Daughter (Mary Tsoni), and the Son (Hristos Passalis). The only person with any name in this film is Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou), which really does establish her straight from the beginning as someone who doesn’t quite fit and disrupts the balance.
Most of the characters in here have flat personalities, childish tendencies, and are brilliantly portrayed by all the actors. The characters don’t act as a family; it seems a little more like an awkward tea party with friends you just don’t get along with that well. The kids – although technically teenagers – still have the knowledge and curiosity of a newborn puppy, and are naïve and quick to believe what their parents tell them as they have no other way of obtaining knowledge. By far, the most irritating one was the Son, who I felt served no purpose but to up the sexuality of the film. While sex is all well and good, there wasn’t enough ideological reason behind his actions to justify his existence. The Eldest and Youngest Daughters are both likeable enough, but the Eldest has a rebellious spirit which may bode well with a lot of people.
The Father is the controlling, dominating one in this film which could cause a lot of people to see him as a bad person (certain words like ‘crazy’, ‘lunatic’, and ‘on crack’ spring to mind). However, while his actions were crazy, to me he seemed like a genuine father who was too overcome by the threat of the outside world and took drastic measures to protect his children. In all honesty, while it’s easy to relate to the children and their plea to get out of their oppressed life, I found it was easier and more interesting to understand and see the love he had for his children. By all means, none of these characters are two-dimensional but the Father was – at least to me – the most intriguing of the bunch. The Mother helped enforce this brainwashing in the household, but she was really a sub-character in a film where the Father’s drive to control his family is truly the leading story.
Visual and Audio
Like the storyline, the visual can be difficult to get accustomed to and is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Dogtooth takes a break from the classic film shots that make up the majority of blockbusters and low-budget films and uses more of an arthouse style of cinematography, which can be a confusing and interesting experience stylistically.
Many shots actually end up having character’s heads cropped out of the frame, and I’ll be absolutely honest again: I’m not sure if this was the right choice from the director Giorgos Lanthimos. I do understand the shocking nature of the content should be accompanied by equally jolting visuals, but it just made the momentum of the film slow down a bit and it really didn’t do Dogtooth any favours. With that being said, there are beautiful shots of the characters and their country estate which provide plenty of eye candy.
The soundtrack features mainly Greek music (it is made by Greeks, after all), but the music really does suit the tone of the film. There’s a lot of guitar with Greek vocals, which almost soften up the edgy content that the film presents. There are plenty of beautiful scores, but the biggest audio narrator in this film was silence. More often than not, the silence is more poignant than any soundtrack could ever be. The film doesn’t make use of too many SFX, and instead relies on the score and the characters to bring together the actions in the film.
DVD Extras
The DVD only comes with deleted scenes, the Dogtooth trailer, as well as the standard Madman trailers. The trailer isn’t really worth watching after you’ve seen the film because it makes the film out to be far more climatic than it really is. The deleted scenes…well, I have to say they were a bit of a disappointment. Most of the scenes involved characters dancing for minutes, and I suppose it really justified why it was deleted. It’s always worth a watch though, but you might end up just fastforwarding through like I did.
Final Comments
Dogtooth is truly a unique film that requires an equally unique attitude to appreciate it. While it’s most definitely not for everyone and it has its minor flaws, overall the film is a powerful and poignant tale that is more about making its audience think, rather than simply telling a story. Dogtooth may not be the funniest film and it certainly won’t “inception” you, but it does hold its own new destination that truly makes it remarkable in its own right.
Of course, the Red Faction franchise is not especially known for their upstanding graphics, but rather for what happens when these graphics fall apart. Yup, destructible environments are a definite part of Battlegrounds, and they can be crucial to your success in the gameplay area. Literally every building, structure or man made creation can be blown apart. This part of the game could have been really fun, if it wasn’t hampered by the other parts of the game.
