Fighting fans will be happy to hear that the Mortal Kombat story trailer for Liu Kang was released today and he is looking as brutal as ever! The trailer shows us a look into the fighter’s storyline, as well as demonstrating his fighting technique and showcasing his musical theme.
Interestingly enough, the character has undergone a few subtle changes. These include a new teleport move and most importantly, his signature bicycle kick now now longer defies gravity, but now looks much more realistic, more like a move used by Keanu Reeves in the first ‘The Matrix’ movie. The trailer also has cameos from characters such as Raiden and Kano, as well as two other noteworthy fighters. First of all, it appears Shang Stung’s appearance which changes in almost every game now is more like how he appeared in MK2 and at the end of MK Shoulin Monks, and takes the form of Reptile at one stage. The cameo that caught my attention most however is the inclusion of Bo’ Rai Cho from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Nothing is confirmed or announced if he will appear as a playable character in the game, but so far he seems to be the only new character from the MK universe related to this title from a game outside the original trilogy.
The trailer also includes the song “Liu Kang’s Theme” by DJ and producer Congorock. Liu Kang’s Theme will also appear the album “Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors” and will be released in April 2011, and the track is now currently downloadable on Amazon here and iTunes here. This is the second theme to be released, first of which was Mileena’s which you can read about here. The trailer also includes shots of goodies included in the kollector’s edition, which is also worth checking out.
Get as excited as you Kan! Mortal Kombat for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is shaping up to be a really Krazy looking game!
inFamous had your standard morality system which you played either good or bad Cole and depending on your choices, it made the citizens of the city hate you, change your appearance, and also provide a different ending. Some people may have found this black and white, evil and good, system relatively overused and the developers of inFamous Sucker Punch have decided to show the difference this time around.
In the latest videos released for inFamous 2 we see a few different ways that your choices in the game will effect the world and the missions. There is one video which shows off the good way to handle a mission which involves saving the police and helping them out with the cops’ help, or you could be doing the other method which involves blowing the entire enemy complex away with a street car full of explosives. These decisions may seem relatively similar to what you were presented with back in inFamous 1 but we shall see.
There sure are going to be a lot of different dungeons in Skyrim, especially after hearing that there are eight different dungeon designers working on the project. Today Bethesda released a handful of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim concept art which shows us a few different areas that are just begging to be explained and explored.
We see a mountain top temple with what appears to be wolves attacking two people, as well as the fact that a viking like warrior is about to take on a bear that is standing over the body of a dead woolly mammoth. Also we see what appears to be some sort of catacombs and a cool looking statue. Sure concept art always looks better and more detailed than the finished product, but if these areas even look half as good as they do on paper, I’m even more sold then I already am.
Gamers in Australia have a very difficult time whenever a game with lots of gore or questionable content is announced. They are of course very excited, but they have to worry that the game will either not be released in their country or they will get a chopped up and edited version of the game that removed all of the fun parts that were advertised for other countries.
But thankfully 2K Games’ Duke Nukem Forever received an MA 15+ rating which means that the game will be coming through the rating process unscathed. This is great news to fans of the series in Australia because it would have been horrible to play a Duke Nukem game with all of the good things that the series is known for taken out.
In addition to reducing productivity at work, retro game developer Q42 looks to change the quality of games we play with browsers using HTML5 and their site Sarien.net. Starting out as a simple retro chat environment then evolving into a full-scale Ipad game using HTML5 without the need for the App Store, surprisingly this little start up didn’t concern Apple as much as it did Activision. This was due to the fact that the games being ported into Browser Based experiences were Sierra games, which Activision owns the license to. The Co-Owner of Q42 Martin Kool had been developing the technology since 2003 and was only recently brought into the limelight due to the success of their Ipad friendly games; they effectively showed what the Ipad can do without the App Store. Martin recently agreed to do an interview with us on all of these topics and more, this is how it went!
1. Welcome Martin, thanks for talking to Capsule Computers; firstly I’d like to ask are you much of a current generation Gamer? Or do you prefer to keep it retro?
MK: To be honest, it’s not a specific era of gaming that I prefer. I’m just a sucker for gameplay value and originality. Some of my favourite titles are all over the map in terms of age and genre:
Beyond Good & Evil
Sensible Soccer
Day of the Tentacle
Tie Fighter D/Generation
Fallout (the original)
Fable (all three)
Red Dead Redemption
Quest for Glory 1 (the remake)
Diablo
Space Quest 3
Half-Life
Galaxy on Fire 2
2. Tell me a little bit about Sarien.net, what it does and why you created it.
MK:Sarien.Net is a website that offers the first series of Sierra adventure games such as King’s Quest and Police Quest, playable in a browser, and while you’re playing you can see other people playing and chat with them. It’s a mix between retro adventure gaming and a social experiment. The first adventure game truly designed for multi-player still hasn’t been invented yet (Sierra tried with TSN and failed). When my Sierra-inspired chat-environment Good Old Adventures made people request the original gameplay, I regarded it as a natural next step for me to build the actual game interpreter but keep the multiplayer aspect. So even though there’s no actual multiplayer gameplay, it’s been great to see so many people having fun out there. To me, the experiment was a huge success, and I think the “Sarien treatment” would work well for a whole lot of other games, old and new. The adventure game genre is back in the spotlight these days. That wasn’t the case when I started working on Sarien and I believed that these games deserved to be played again, only this time in a more contemporary format. That’s what Sarien offers and it turned out to be a technical showcase once iPadsupport was added
3. What was the first game you ported into Sarien.net and what sort of technical difficulties did you have to get it working?
MK: A year or two before I began building the interpreter I had already created a few stand-alone tools for extracting and converting in-game pictures and objects to images, HTML, CSS and Javascript. This test environment had an avatar walking behind and in front of objects and path-detection was somewhat in place. My next step was converting the original logic scripts (containing all the game triggers and making stuff happen) to something that was javascript-parseable. This was one of the challenging parts, because these games were written in a non-object-oriented language, and used GOTO statements to arbitrarily jump back and forth between the game logic. I de-compiled all nested statements to a flat-lined heap of calls, and surrounded it with javascript’s switch/case construction in an infinite loop. This allowed me to keep track of a virtual line number while code was being executed, and then loop back into the switch statement that would delegate the code to the next lines, wherever they may be.
It turned out to be a working replacement of GOTO’s without using a stack of function calls, thus giving me control over the engine (and with multi-player) which resulted in an interpreter stub that ran without errors. It did nothing at all, it just didn’t fail. So here I had an interpreter that was doing nothing at all except being an endless looping game cycle, and then I had my separate test environment with an avatar walking around. Now where to start? This was the second challenge, as I had to merge all these things together and build the actual interpreter logic as well as all AGI commands required. I took a scene from one of my favourite games, the elevatorscreen at the start of Space Quest 1, and focused on making that scene work. So I started implementing the logics that would draw a room when the code required it and draw the avatar when and how the original game developers chose to do it. Then I made the alarms flash, made some event-triggering code work so that the elevators would open and close once you got near it, etc. This approach had me implementing code and testing it by walking around. Each day, more stuff started working.
4. Gaming on browsers has been around for quite awhile, but more casual games than anything else, especially with the rise of Facebook gaming. The games you’ve done could be considered to cater for the hardcore minded or nostalgia induced gamers. What inspired you to bring full-blown retro gaming to a browser based format?
MK: I used to do a lot of back-end programming, but 11 years ago I fell in love the web. Q42 showed me their HTML editor that they made in javascript (it was wysiwyg, which was quite impressive in 2000) and I was hooked. We teamed up, and within a few months we released an online playground called Quek that offered a virtual avatar on top of an existing site and had you chatting with others. My love for web technology only went on from there, as did the format itself (web 2.0, ajax, HTML5). I think my passion for the web, technology and games was a sweet combination. Never did I set out to build a full blown game, but neither did I see any limitations that prevented anyone from doing so. Sure, the web offers a lot of constraints, but that’s what drives creativity. Twitter didn’t invent the @ sign, hashtag or retweets. People worked with constraints and the format adapted.
5. How does the multi-player work on Sarien.net ?
MK: It’s a very simple approach, and there are quite a few other ways I’d go about implementing it now in hindsight. It’s basically an asynchronous pulling mechanism, each player has an interval at which it sends recent changes to the server. These changes contain information such as “walked to x,y”, “said this or that”, etc. Each time the player sends this information; it receives the changes that were made by other players in the same room, and processes it on the client. This means that the game engine will make other players walk around, show speech balloons, and if there’s a discrepancy in where they should walk to and where the browser allows them to walk, I fall-back to fading a player out and in again. The server is also very simple. All it does is keep track of rooms, players, player actions and some bookkeeping with date/time stamps. All Sarien’s conversion tools are open source, including the browser-based game interpreter as well as Q42’s multiplayer engine.
6. How many games are currently running on Sarien.net? Could you list them all?
MK: Right now there’s Space Quest, Police Quest, King’s Quest and only the first episode of each series. Then there’s The Black Cauldron and Gold Rush. As I write this there is no Leisure Suit Larry as I just received my second Cease and Desist letter so I removed it, though chances are it’ll return with official authorization (similar to what Activision did)
7. You’ve mentioned that you were originally sceptical of the Ipad, until you started working with it. Would you consider doing anything for Android tablets as more come out this year?
MK: I don’t know. Sarien isn’t allowed to host iPads specific games anymore, and I’m not into Android tablets that much. Not from a fanboy perspective (I don’t consider myself one, even though I work on a Macbook Air and carry an iPad/iPhone) but Android phones/tablets just aren’t my thing. I got a plastic Android phone at Google IO one time and gave it away. Didn’t like it. Perhaps I’m an Apple fanboy after all? I am intrigued by Android honeycomb though, but that’s probably the geek in me that wants to take such a tablet out for a spin.
8. 2011 in the tech world is supposedly going to be the year of the Tablet, which means more and more apps/games will be coming out. Do you see browser based games becoming a bigger competitor, or a unique alternative to the App store?’
MK: I think that Apple’s recent move to cash in on subscription-based publishing apps will have developers seek other possibilities, and HTML5 is a viable option for such apps. Games on the other hand, that’s a different story. I think a masterpiece such as Braid would play well if ported to mobile safari because it could use a smart combination of canvas and sprited images. Technology-wise, browser-based 2D games on tablets are a possibility and could par with some native games. However, for browser-based games to succeed, we need more than just the technology to make it happen. Apple proved that a centralized store makes all the difference, and payments should be a simple and hassle-free process. Buying a game on the iPad requires a few taps and one password. You’d need to make things mainstream with development tools aswell.
Even though the web is moving forward I think that native technology is moving forward in a much faster pace (as it comes without the sluggish W3C/browser-vendor process of adapting new features). Although I love the open concept of the web for gaming, I don’t think it will ever surpass native gaming. And why should it? Native mobile technology and web technology are two separate worlds. Google is betting on both: on one hand they’ve got Android and its marketplace, on the other there’s Chrome OS, the Chrome browser (my personal favourite) and perhaps most important, the Chrome Web store includes easy payments with Google Checkout. In the end, I don’t think there will be one winner, just two alternatives.
9. Given the retro nature of the games you’ve successfully ported so far, just how complex can browser based games get right now? Are you limited or is something like 3D possible with HTML5?
MK: Theoretically speaking, if someone would port Grim Fandango to HTML5, javascript and canvas it should run fine on Chrome or Safari on a desktop machine. So a combination of 3D/2D, music and sound sure isn’t a thing of the future. I do however think that’s it not a matter of the technology being ready for it, but it’s the tools becoming mainstream. Current SDK’s, frameworks and IDE’s focus on what’s mainstream, and HTML5 isn’t that (for gaming). I’d love to see Unity compiled to HTML5 and canvas.
10. Do you think HTML5 will eventually overtake Flash? And if so, how long do you think it’ll take before that happens?
MK: Didn’t it already? I don’t know what statistics would mark this moment, but as far as I’m concerned, flash never lived. The only thing still holding it together are those shovelware flash games. Even for monolithic campaign websites you see people use HTML5 as the tools to do so are indeed emerging. I recently saw a few products that focus on interactive banner development using HTML5. Like I said earlier, you need both the technology and tools to be ready for it.
11. You’ve briefly mentioned on your site that there’s an exciting Q42 project, which involves newspaper publishers on the Ipad having the ability to cut out the middleman; any chance of giving us a hint of what that involves?
MK: *Smiles* No
12. Now that you’ve had some contact with a publisher (Activision), do you think you’ll develop any original IP’s in the future?
MK: Perhaps. But it’s not what I’m after. There are a few chapters I like to finish in terms of my involvement with Sierra games, and I would love to bring them natively to the iPad with a gameplay experience that I envision. If my pursuit succeeds, who knows what happens next? I’m not after doing any original IP development per se, its creativity and a unique proposition that I value. It helps that I’m perfectly happy with my life, both personal and professional, as I’m not after the big bucks. I look for opportunities, not business opportunities. This happens to clash in a healthy and often funny way with my awesome business partners from time to time.
What I like to do is build something special, something that I believe makes a difference, regardless if it’s a game, an app, a service or something carved out of wood. Sarien’s retro slash multi-player experience is just one such example. Also very special to me is Quplo, our tool for HTML prototyping that fills a gap in the development process right between design and development. I’m really glad it is already helpful to thousands of users, and we’ve been able to release quite some side products to the open source community along the way. For instance, Backfire – a tiny open source project that allows users to save changes made on a web-page with firebug – has recently been ported to Django. Those things mean a lot to me.
13. Who do you think is the coolest Sierra Character ever made and why?
MK: I’d have to say Larry. Actually he’s certainly not the coolest, but his character is portrayed very well, and his clumsy self-unawareness makes him a very charming guy. Al did a great job crafting him, and it’s a shame that the last two instalments (that were written and built without Al Lowe’s consent) screwed the franchise over. I mean, Leisure Suit Larry really nuked the fridge with Box Office Bust, naturally scoring as low as 20/100 on metacritic. If it were up to me, I’d build and release a native iPad version of the original Leisure Suit Larry, but include the GUI enhancements, unlockables and all the other stuff that I added to Sarien’s iPad version before it got a Cease and Desist letter… Twice.
14. Well Thanks for your time Martin and In-depth answers, hopefully the readers enjoyed it. One last question as I assume you’re a fan, what’s your favourite Sierra game?
MK: Quest for Glory 1, the remake
Martin Kool is a Stunt coordinator, co-owner of Q42 and Founder of Quplo. He Wrote Sarien.net and considers himself a Technologist, Geek and gamer.
2K Games have revealed a special edition treat for collectors regarding the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever. Arriving alongside the standard editions on May 3rd 2011, the Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel edition for the PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 and PC is a must-have for those who have been waiting all this time for the return of the King.
Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel edition contains a copy of the game with exclusive Balls of Steel cover art and the following extras:
Collectible bust of the greatest alien ass-kicker of all-time
Numbered, limited-edition certificate of authenticity
100-page hardcover book: The History, Legacy & Legend: Duke Nukem Forever Art from the Vault
Duke Nukem Forever postcard series
Duke Nukem Forever radioactive emblem sticker
Duke Nukem Forever collectable comic book
Duke Nukem Forever foldable paper craft
Duke Nukem Forever poker chips
Duke Nukem Forever mini-card deck
Duke Nukem Forever radioactive emblem dice
It’s looking like a cool package that really pays homage to the return of the King and offers a thank you for fans kept waiting all this time.
When: ~6PM until ~9PM February 10, 2011. Though I probably left at ~7PM.
Event: 3DS Preview thing.
Mood: Awesome.
The day began unlike most days as this would be the one day I have off TAFE (Technical College) due to awesome timetabling by the I.T staff at the campus I attend to become educated. I awoke at approximately 1PM, due to an alarm error on my phone, and proceeded to take a hot and steamy shower to make myself clean and to remove the trace-amounts of beard I may or may not have growing in strange patches on my face. Upon exiting the shower I did stuff that I don’t quite remember, though, I’m sure I had some kind of chicken for lunch (it may or may not have been alien). I left home at ~3:20PM to catch the bus to my local train station.
After waiting ~45 minutes for my bus to arrive (seriously, bus company that I’m not going to mention the name of, stick to your timetable! Buses are to come on the time that they are announced to arrive at, not way before or way after… on… freaking… time!) it finally does and I board it and it’s all good. The bus trip itself was largely uneventful, but my trusty MP4 player came in handy and I rocked out to Galneryus. I probably shouldn’t headbang on public transport though (not that anything bad or embarrassing happened this time, it’s just some kind of weird reflex that I have no control over). Anyways, after the ~20minute bus trip, I finally arrive at the train station.
I make a small detour to the local shopping center to grab some cash to spend on stuff and in-case of emergency, stop in at the 7/11 for some drinks/snacks then make my way to the train station. I sprint up the stairs, ninjaing two-steps at a time while maintaining a high speed (seriously those stairs go up about 10meters high, and come out about 7 meters, I can do them in about 3 seconds; faster going downwards) and as I make it to the top of the stairs I notice a train leaving. Luckily it was heading in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go, but at the time that I was there it meant that all the workers were coming off the train and home from work. I had to dodge a very large number of people down a narrow corridor to make it to the ticket vendors. Luckily for me; I lived and made it to the vendors. I promptly purchased a return ticket ($6 to get to Sydney for a student, the heck is up with that!? No wonder nobody uses the public transport system in this state, it’s consistently late and way over-priced.) and headed down to the platform to wait for the arrival of the incoming train, which arrived at ~5pm.
The train-trip was largely uneventful, I’m sure a couple of ladies were either checking me out or wondering what I was doing out of my parents basement (I don’t actually live in a basement…); but other than that, nothing really to report on. It was ~6PM when the train arrived at Town Hall station. It’s lucky that the Myer store was only “7minutes” away according to Google maps. It lied, who were they timing when they made that measurement? The Trip was much closer to 4 minutes.
So I’m now at the Myer and powering to the top of the escalator maze that would ultimately lead me to my destination, The Nintendo Connection, the sixth and (from what I could tell) final floor of the complex. I reach the sixth floor and take a quick look at my surroundings; firstly, to ensure that there were no boss monsters around; and secondly, to get a decent look at Nintendo’s best marketing campaign ever. For those of you who don’t know about Nintendo’s best marketing campaign ever, I shall quickly explain it hence:
Rediculously beautiful ladies with gaming devices attached to their belts.
Picture that Phil took of Nintendo lady rep because when I was talking to them I forgot to ask for one… (Note, from the Sydney Launch Event ).
That is all… well, there were some dudes with the traits that can be considered handsome, but I’m probably not the best judge on that.
Anyways, I see this massive queue and I immediately go to join it. I walk about 75% of it before noticing everyone has some kind of neckband thing with some kind of herding marker attached to it.
Nintendo, I really ♥you for this number!
I briefly ask myself how I could have missed it when a nice chap explained to me that some dude in black was handing them out back at the front. I head all the way back and engage in a conversation minigame with a female NPC. After a few minutes and a joke or two (high speechcraft, this will come in handy later in the story) I find out the location of the dude in black and get a cattle-tag off him. 150. That’s me, the same number Professor Oak claims that are number of Pokemon species, awesome! I take my tag, neck it and power to what appears to be the end of the queue.
Before me sat and stood a small conglomerate of other interested parties (nerds) and maybe a nerdy couple or two. I asked them if it was the end of the queue, maintaining a high level of language that would get me killed at any other locale, to which they responded positively. Joy! Shortly after, another dude who was by himself approached, I’m not quite sure if he was tagless and I prompted him to get a tag, or if he already had a tag and joined in on the queue. Anyways, we got along pretty well (though he didn’t seem to be too much of a nerd) and were talking and making jokes and observationalist comedy throughout the tedium of the queue. At certain points, during the time in which we were enqueued, one of the “Nintendo” reps would come around and let us know stuff and that. At around the 20 minute mark I tried to convince her that I was part of the Gaming Press and to let me and my compadre through. She went and asked somebody and came back with a no (Phil, I really need a business card. Make me some?).
We reached what seemed to be near the end of the line and our favorite rep gave us some free Fantales and Jelly-based lollies. MMmmmm. Also, a reasonably attractive male rep came along with a 3DS to whet the appetites of those in the line. He was going to start previewing it to the people just behind us, had I not interjected with a witty quip which made the other cute lady rep laugh and give us a look first. Go me! The unit that we watched through had a pre-recorded version of Resident Evil playing. The graphics on that game are stunning! They’re almost identical to the 360 version of Resident Evil 5, which quite impressive for a handheld that not only has to produce detailed graphics but must also do it two-three times to produce the three-dimensional effect of the game! And the 3D, the 3D! The depth is amazing, it takes about 10 seconds for your eyes to merge the images, but after that; it’s amazing! Seriously, it’s so hard to describe how amazing the tech is. Gameplay wise, it helps tremendously. Not only can you accurately gauge the distance of objects, enemies and walls; but it also fits the game perfectly. Resident Evil could be much more scary with enemies popping way out at you, I know it helped the atmosphere in the level that was shown. After passing the 3DS’ around between our small party, we were finally allowed to move in and trial some games.
I quickly scanned the area for games that would interest me, all the Super Street Fighter IV 3DS ladies were taken, I finally settled on Kid Icarus: Uprising. The rep set it to hard mode and I had eight minutes to learn and beat the level (that’s what all the demo’s were locked to, we had 10mins play time all up). In the level I got to play in I was on foot and had to make my way somewhere other than where I started, while killing enemies along the way. The slide-pad is used for movement where the touch screen was used for aiming and the L-button for shooting. I have no idea if there were multiple control schemes, I didn’t want to waste time checking. The slide-pad movement felt very natural despite it’s odd-looking placement. The game itself was quite pretty, though it didn’t appear to be as pretty as Resident Evil or Ocarina of Time, and was absolutely amazingly fun to play. The added depth from the 3D really makes a huge difference in dealing with enemy locations and the game benefitted immensely from it. What didn’t benefit the game was the rep demonstrating the 3D slider being turned off while I was in the middle of a fight, nearly got me killed (FPS’ reflexes and partially photographic memory really helped there). Everytime you adjust the 3D your eyes take roughly ten second to recover from the trauma. Shortly after I took a ride on some kind of zip-line through the sky the games timer ended and I moved on to Ocarina of Time.
Me and my Epic 3DS! Note the sweatband, it’s totally a Zelda themed one.
I really didn’t want to play this game as I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for when I would eventually get it on release. But man, I’m glad I did. Enhanced graphics! 3D! Depth! Controls similar to the Gamecube versions, touchscreen inventory and gyroscopic aiming (optional); this would be the second most definitive version of Ocarina of Time (first being the N64 version, I don’t care what any of you say, LALALALALALALALALALALA~ can’t hear you). Anyways, I picked up the unit and asked the dude how long the demo went for, he told me it was eight minutes long. I had two-minutes left, but I had completely forgotten about that fact. Finish the Deku-Tree in eight minutes? I’ve done it in less. I ask the guy if he wanted to see a Deku-Tree speed run, he announced to the crowd that I was going to attempt a world-first Deku-Tree speed run on the 3DS. I’m not sure if there was a cheer or not, but I knew I could do it. Slightly over a minute to go and I start the dungeon. Straight up the ladder, screw the dungeon map, who needs one of those!? Door, jump the thingy, slingshot get! Floor, aim straight up, hit the ladder, climb up, door. Backtrack to vines, kill the two spiders, climb up. Deku stick the Big spider, jump down, miss the web… GAH! Climb back up, ~45 seconds to go, hit the web, light the thingy, light the stick, burn the web, door, kill the deku scrub, ~10seconds to go, stop running you Deku! Times up. Damn…. Tried bargaining for more time, didn’t work.
I started to head out when I saw this really pretty “Nintendo” rep standing around all lonely, all the nerds ignoring her, so I struck up a conversation. I learned a few things. First, is that I might actually be slightly funny. Second is that they don’t actually work at Nintendo, they’re from talent agencies out-sourced as “crowd-control” and that third, she was really, really nice and seemed quite knowledgeable of the device and event. Where’d that guy go that I was in line with? I forgot to get his Facebook…
I promptly left for home, free 3DS neckband and cattle-label wrapped around my neck, and felt as though I had just, very briefly, been a part of the future of gaming.
Sidenote: Nintendo, more campaigns like this one please.
So all in all, the 3DS is an amazing technological marvel, it will be the future of handheld gaming and it is a universe of joy! I’m still feeling the glee two full days after playing.
Total War: Shogun 2 has received an all-new cinematic trailer, featuring an artistic opening folllowed by a fantastic samurai sword fight. What relevance the trailer has to the gameplay remains to be seen, but it’s a good watch with the well choreographed sword fight. The trailer is entiled ‘Warriors’ Honor’ and after watching the trailer, you will see why.
The Japanese Imperial War period is one yet to be fully explored in the RTS genre, so there’s high hopes for Total War: Shogun 2, the first tile to feature the change of ‘Total War’ being at the start of the game name.
Total War: Shogun 2 will be available exclusively on PC from 25th March.
If you recently bought the extremely limited Super Mario All Stars 25th Anniversary Edition when it hit the Wii late last year just for the collector’s value, then this might be bad news. Otherwise, if you were one of the people who grabbed a pitchfork and were ready to mob Nintendo as you missed your chance at getting a copy, then you should now rejoice as retailers such as Toys-R-Us & Gamestop have now began re-listing the Super Mario All Stars for pre-order on March 13.
Nintendo printed a very low supply of the compilation when it hit stores back in December, which left the fans who didn’t pre-order a copy mostly left out. Just recently, the title has been put back up on Gamestop & Toys-R-Us‘ websites available for pre-order. Gamestop have since removed the link though so I have a feeling Nintendo are getting ready to announce this reprint and as usual, these retailers might have jumped the gun on listing the game. The price is still planned to be $29.99 as well and it still includes all of the same content that the first run had. For all the people that hoarded copies to hold onto until later, sadly this also means your sealed diamond in the rough is now worth $29.99 at the moment as well. I do expect this print to be quite “limited” as well, but I am sure we will find out more when Nintendo officially announce this second print.
Square Enix’s latest PSP game will take you through the dark depths of the underworld to gather the powers of Arcana, but along the way you will be fighting for your life against gigantic monsters and the only way to destroy them is with your brutal attacks in a brutal way. Is it brutal enough for you? In the launch trailer for the game we see many instances of gameplay that show off impressive looking boss battles that feature quick time event finishes.
Though some may find Lord of Arcana as a grinding level up type game, it will definitely find a place in your game collection with its satisfying combat and unique monster designs. Lord of Arcana comes as a Slayer Edition which also includes a unique game case that they are calling Slayer Red, a 44 page artbook and a soundtrack CD.
