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Twinblades – Review

Justin Mienkiewicz
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Twin Blades
Developer: Sanuk Games
Publisher: Sanuk Games
Platform: PS3 (mini), PSP (mini), XBLA, mobile
Release Date: February 2nd, 2011
Price: 2.99 (EU)

Twin Blades is a simple, fun game that will help you whittle away your small tidbits of free time.  Those who have played Odin Sphere or Grim Grimoire will find that the heroine in this game is very reminiscent of the characters from those games, being highly anime inspired and utilizing what appears to be flash animation for animations.  It’s a somewhat unique style that looks pretty appealing.

The premise of the game is simple, if a bit out there.  You are a nun charged with protecting the land from the zombie invasion.  You have a decently sized selection of weaponry to choose from, ranging from a scythe for melee attacks and a plethora of guns for ranged attacks such as a pistol, machine gun, rocket launcher, flamethrower etc..  The gameplay is simple, choose a level and move left to right while killing zombies.  Sometimes you will need to double back to kill any zombies that may have been still underground as you passed over.  What sets this game apart is it’s energy mechanic.  All ranged weapons require energy to be fired.  Hitting zombies with your scythe will replenish your energy, providing a nice balance between melee and ranged.  Every zombie you kill drops a heart, heart in this game is synonymous with experience or money.  You use these hearts to buy new weapons and upgrade them along with your existing abilities such as scythe damage and health.

There are an adequate amount of things for you to spend your hearts on even accounting for the fact that this is a mini.  It will take hours to unlock and upgrade everything to max.  This is where the game loses a bit of it’s enjoyability.  Grinding, and lots of it.  There are only 9 levels (3 of those being bosses).  To account for this, the game makes you clear a set amount to unlock the next section.  Unlocking the next section will reset the previous levels and increase their difficulty, meaning you are going to be doing the first two levels MANY times before the game is over.

Bosses initially prove pretty tough.  Normally you just move left to right killing zombies before they get close enough to grab you, but bosses break that mechanic and act more like a boss from an arcade beat em up.  They have attacks that you’ll need to dodge (along with zombies that regularly pop up in an effort to provide you with energy).  As their health gets lower and lower their attack style changes and evolves and you will need to adjust.  Note that you can’t really take many hits before dying, two or three max.  Luckily, zombies have a small chance of dropping a health potion that restores around half your health so you are able scrape if you can manage to dodge the bosses attacks.

Aside from “story mode” there is also a survival mode that just pits you against wave after wave after wave.  The game keeps a scoreboard, both for story and survival, to see how long you can go without dying.  You keep your score between levels so for the true fanatics you will need to “beat the game” several times over for the ultra high scores.

Overall, for a mini, this game is pretty good.  Despite it being a mini (a medium clouded with shovelware) the game mechanics were thoughtfully developed and can provide some enjoyable moments though be warned, the zombies kill you pretty fast so make sure you don’t get careless.  While there are a decent amount of guns, they don’t actually count as guns but rather more like upgrades.  You only have one gun, your angelic pistol.  When you buy the flamethrower or machine gun power, it simply fires whatever it’s supposed to, but no visual change on the actual gun.  Upgrading the scythe proves to be initially problematic as well.  You would think an upgrade called “scythe damage” would just make you do more damage per hit, but instead it simply adds more attacks to your combo…thus making you spend more time standing in one spot while you perform that combo.  The combo is about the same speed of just spamming the regular attack, so it’s more or less a waste of an upgrade.

Twin Blades get…

7-0-capsules-out-of-10

Razer Naga Epic Review

Roger Ma
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Razer Naga Epic Review

Naga Epic
Developer:Razer
Release Date: Out Now
Price: AUD$199.95, US $129.99

Buy Now

Gaming mouses have come a long way since Razer stepped up the mark in creating gaming paraphernalia. Razer’s latest Naga Epic is no different, specifically designed for elite massively multiplayer online gaming with its unique, eye-catching 12 button thumb grid located on the mouse’s left hand side. But what makes the Naga Epic “Epic” is the mouse’s level of customisability to fit a player’s need. The Naga Epic is features both duel wired and wireless functionality as well as three interchangeable side panels.

The Naga Epic comes nicely packaged in a stylised box, which Razer fans have come to know and love. If this is your first time opening and ‘experiencing’ Razer then you’re in for a treat. Packaged with the gaming mouse is, a USB cable which can be plugged into both the mouse effectively turning your wireless mouse into a wired mouse, as well as into the wireless transmitter charger dock. Also included are two additional side panels, dubbed the ‘Claw grip’ and the ‘Classic grip’, the third ‘Palm grip’ is already attached to the gaming mouse by default.  All three grips are interchangeable, and are surprisingly very easy to swap in and out, you aren’t going to accidently slip and break your mouse by changing grips, these things are easy to pull out and change. The grips themselves fit very compact into the mouse’s side and again won’t fall out accidently either once they’re in place.

What grip you chose to use is dependent on another major feature of the Naga Epic, its unique 12 button thumb grid. As this is a gaming mouse, players will find necessary uses for the 12 button thumb grid in whatever game they choose to play. The ease , accessibility and size of 12 button located on the mouse’s side does provided gamers with entirely new ways to game whether that be MMO, RTS or FPS. Whilst the mouse is specifically targeted to MMO gamers the side buttons are fully compatible and customizable with any game. Much like the interchangeable grips, you won’t be accidently pressing the side buttons with your thumb as they are designed to be actually pressed for them to work, not accidentally “slipped on” to even in the most intense gaming sessions. However, some may find the additional side buttons on the mouse to be quite an annoyance as they don’t really serve a purpose when non-gaming. The Naga Epic’s relocated index finger buttons from just above the thumb grid as seen in the original Naga to now just under the mouse wheel. The buttons are still slightly awkward to press as you either have to ‘palm’ them with the lower part of your finger or quickly move your entire hand and back again to press them.

While testing the mouse out, I found that each grip greatly effects how your hand is placed on the mouse. Whilst each provides a comfortable and solid gaming experience, which grip you choose to game with depends on how you much will use the mouse’s side buttons. The Palm, Claw and Classic grips each gets ‘thinner’ respectively, to allow for more dynamic movement for a players thumb to reach and press the mouse’s side buttons. Depending on what game you choose to play I would suggest to MMO and RTS players use the classic grip as you require the most uses out of the thumb grid buttons and for FPS players, the palm grip as it provides the widest possible grip for your hand as well as access to the vital buttons on the thumb grid.  Regardless of what grip you choose to play with, playing with the thumb grid takes some time to get use to. That’s not a bad thing at all considering all the potential benefits, once you get the hang of it the Naga Epic is a breeze to use.

‘That’s all and good but how does it perform?’ you ask, well in short great. Coming from Razer you know that the mouse is going to be top notch. The Naga Epic is very responsive thanks to its  5600dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor which enables great movement speeds 7x  that of a standard 800dpi optical sensor. Combined that with the mouse’s 1000Hz Ultrapolling / 1ms response time, meaning that the Naga Epic has a response time of 1 millisecond, a vast improvement over other conventional gaming mice which have that of 125Hz / 8 millisecond. This all means that the Naga Epic provides the user the optimum gaming experience. The mouse itself is very light, ergonomically designed to fit player’s hands and as well as their expectations as great mouse from Razer. But that’s not all, not only does it perform great it looks fantastic as well sporting a 16 million color backlight illumination. Not only this, the Naga Epic’s battery life is amazing, wireless the mouse can be used 12 hours continuously and up to 72 hours in normal gaming sessions. Of cause if you do run out of power in an extremely long marathon gaming session no worries just plug the mouse in, and you’ve got yourself a wired mouse.

I’m not exactly sure how Razer got the Naga Epic right but they somehow did it. The Naga Epic is a mouse for any gamer not just the targeted MMO audience, but with that said MMO gamers will get the most kick out of the mouse. The three interchangeable side panes provide gamers with a level of choice and customisability to suit their specific style of gaming. This level of choice is also extended in the mouse’s ability for wired or wireless gaming and switching between the two is incredibly easy. The mouse itself is presented very nicely with a slick design and backlighting which can emit 16 million different colors. The Naga Epic is what you’ve have come to expect from Razer in its long line of gaming mice, the mouse is absolutely one of top quality and performs extremely well, hands down one of the best gaming mouses out there today.

I give Razer’s Naga Epic:

9-5-capsules-out-of-10

Take a look behind the scenes of Knights Contract

Travis Bruno
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Namco Bandai has given everyone a chance to take a look behind the scenes of Knights Contract. Of course it isn’t a major look considering it is mostly only the developers talking about the game and giving details about the storyline and where the game will be taking place, but that isn’t the most important part of the video.

Instead what is important is the fact that you can take a nice long look at plenty of gameplay sequences that are shown off which show bits of combat and finishing moves that the characters can perform when working together. Also we learn a little bit about the backstory of the game, but mostly we get to see the designers pretend sword fight with one another. Also, hope you like subtitles. Catch the video below.

Yakuza 4 comes with a bunch of DLC free

Travis Bruno
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Remember when we mentioned that when Yakuza 4 comes out in Europe and other PAL regions that it would be released with a special edition called the Kuro or Shiro Edition (black and white respectively)? Well there was also news that United States residents would not be able to pick up these special editions which game with a bunch of DLC and a steel game case.

Sega revealed today that, although there won’t be a steel case, those who buy the game new will also get a bunch of codes for the DLC which is available in the special edition; including survival mode, underground car racing, fighting arena, and even the extra outfits for the main characters. Now also if you are able to reserve the game at your local GameStop there will be a PS3 dynamic theme to show off the ten hostesses that will be in Yakuza 4. Yep, the hostess dating part of the game will be available in Western releases of the game as you can see in the trailer below. Fans of the series will remember that the Japanese version of Yakuza 3 included the hostess dating part of the game, while Western versions had this entire section removed.

Take a look at the classes you can pick in Dragon Age II

Travis Bruno
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Eager to see what character classes will be returning in Dragon Age II? Then you are in luck because the latest trailer released by EA and Bioware shows off the fighting skills and abilities of the three classes which you will be able to choose between in Dragon Age II when it hits shelves on March 8th.

The classes that return are the Warrior class which looks to use huge swords (of course) and his shield to his advantage, while the mage class definitely makes magic use look like it will kick major darkspawn butt this time around, even tearing an enemy apart with his mind. Though personally I am going to go for the rogue class, because I’ve always been a fan of using two weapons at the same time. What will your Hawke fight as?

Skyrim screenshots finally show some characters

Travis Bruno
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elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-picture-04

Hey guys we finally have managed to get a hold of a bunch of different screenshots that show some early footage of the game’s characters and monsters. These screenshots show off a bunch of different environments that players will be traversing, including what looks like a character about to get some venison for himself. Also we see a few monsters that players will most likely encounter and a barmaid that shows just how much better the character designs are going to look this time around.

You can check out all of the screenshots below and get yourself excited about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which comes out on 11/11/11. But don’t get too excited…. we wouldn’t want this to happen to you.

[nggallery id=197]

Xbox Live House Party gets fully dated and priced

Travis Bruno
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2

The Xbox Live Arcade House Party has been finally given a starting date, and they have also detailed all of the games that will be coming out during it. Releasing in one week intervals starting on February 16th Xbox Live will be pushing the Arcade games like they did last year. Each of the games has finally been given a price tag as well, with three games being placed in the 800 MSP category and two in the 1200 MSP.

As you can see below the HD remake of Beyond Good & Evil will be only a parsley 800 MSP considering the amount of fan base it has. Bejeweled Blitz and Full House Poker will also be going for 800 too. Torchlight will be costing 1200 MSP along with Hard Corps: Uprising. I’m just going to take a shot in the dark and say that Torchlight and Beyond Good & Evil are going to be the top sellers when all is said and done.

  • February 16 – Hard Corps: Uprising – 1200 Microsoft Points
  • February 23 – Bejeweled Blitz – 800 Microsoft Points
  • March 2 – Beyond Good & Evil HD – 800 Microsoft Points
  • March 9 – Torchlight – 1200 Microsoft Points
  • March 16 – Full House Poker – 800 Microsoft Points

Fox News Deems Bulletstorm as “The Worst Game in The World”…

Dustin Spencer
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5
Fox News Deems Bulletstorm as “The Worst Game in The World”…

Today everyone seems to be talking about a new article that recently went up on Fox News’ website, and for gamers out there, this is just another case of video games getting a bad rap from uneducated “journalists”. If you have not seen the article as of yet, it has some claims that a bit enraging to the community in general and yet another insulting piece on how “VIDEO GAMES ARE RUINING OUR CHILDREN!” If you have been keeping up in recent years, you know the drill by now.

Here are some of the excerpts from the write-up that stand out:

“Violent video games like Bulletstorm have the potential to send the message that violence and insults with sexual innuendos are the way to handle disputes and problems,” Weichman said.

Carol Lieberman, a psychologist and book author, told FoxNews.com that sexual situations and acts in video games — highlighted so well in Bulletstorm — have led to real-world sexual violence.

“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” she said.


I should now throw in the part where Carol Lieberman is known for writing books about sex, with classic titles such as “Bad Girls: Why Men Love Them & How Good Girls Can Learn Their Secrets”, so the pot is calling the kettle black here. I haven’t read her books, but I highly doubt she is out of the plastic surgeons office long enough to even have time for a round of UNO, little alone a game like Bulletstorm so her opinion is about as valuable as a copy of Madden 2002.

It is easy to tell what these “buy my new book!” “psychologists” are saying, but if you think about it, most sex scenes in video games are mainly PG-13ish if that, such as Mass Effect or Fable. I really don’t have to go on about how wrong these two quacks are about the subject, but it just angers me to see something misjudged by “experts” who are judging a field they clearly know nothing about, and in such an extreme matter at that. Fox News need to work on posting up something is out of their usual “fear mongering” to the uninformed, as with all this promotion, they have now told the gaming community that Bulletstorm is going to be a sight to see and probably caught the interest of gamers who were not even looking into it before. Don’t forget to pick up your violent and insult packed copy of Bulletstorm when it hits stores February 22nd.

Nintendo 3DS Sydney Launch Event

Philip Federico
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Nintendo 3DS Sydney Launch Event

This evening an exclusive event took place in Sydney for the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS.   The event was quite similar to Nintendo’s European Event that took place on the 20th of January.  Tonight’s event also explained to everyone in attendance the Nintendo 3DS features and functionality along with announcing an official release date of Thursday the 31st of March 2011 with a SRP of $349.95 (AU).  Of course everyone present was able to sample and play some of the release titles that will be making their way to the 3DS on launch day.

The even kicked off with a 20 min presentation with two guest speakers from Nintendo : Mr Yuji Bando Managing Director of Nintendo Australia and Greg Arthurton Nintendo Head of Marketing.  Greg Arthurton ran us through everything you need to know about the 3DS and along with announcing the official release date and price.  The presentation also announced the official launch titles that will be making their appearance on release day (listed below the presentation video)

The 3DS device is feature packed and utilises new networking technologies to create a new dimension in gaming. The new technologies vary from screensizes and 3D utilisation to new ways to Network your device and share data between hotspots. This technology is what separates the 3DS from it’s rivals and even from its own predecessor, the DS.

The presentation covered the following :

  • Slide Pad – The slide pad offers three-dimensional movement throughout games, similar to a gamepad analogue stick, only it’s a tablet that slides.
  • Top Screen – The screen on the top half of the device will be larger than the top-screen on the DsiXL.
  • Backwards Compatibility – The 3DS is fully backwards compatible with both DS and Dsi titles. Gameboy, Gameboy Advanced and Gameboy Colour games were previewed to be available from the 3DS E-Store. Purchases from the DSi E-Store may be fully transferrable.
  • Cameras – The 3DS has 3D cameras built onto the device. There was also something about a game where you can use pictures of faces to play some kind of space shooter.
  • 3D – NO Glasses needed.
  • Motion Sensing – The 3DS comes fully equipped with Gyroscopes and other methods to detect any movement the player may be making. It seems weird to have in a device that is designed to played in a specific location for the 3D to work. But, by removing the actual 3D and replacing it with movement, is that not a different third kind of dimension?
  • SpotPass – SpotPass is a new innovation by Nintendo where your 3DS leeches off wifi hotspots in order to update content. The LED power indicator illuminates while this happens. Works through sleep-mode.
  • StreetPass – A kind of LAN that automatically connects to nearby 3DS devices to share data or play some type of game, it works in sleep mode as well. In some cases a game may not even have to be inserted for this to occur.
  • Wifi Connection – Similar to the one the Wii and DS uses.
  • Adhoc LAN – Basic 3DS to 3DS Local Area Connection.
  • Configuration – Allows you to configure the 3DS’ features and connection sharing modes.
  • 3D Slider – The 3D depth slider allows you to control the level of 3D for maximum comfort or battery consumption.
  • Colours – At launch both a blue and a Black model are expected to be released.
  • Layout – The 3DS’ layout is similar to the DS with the exception of a slidepad at the top-left corner, the power button being located to the bottom right just outside the lower touch screen and ‘Start’, ‘Select’ and ‘Home’ buttons being against the lower touchscreen.
  • Mii’s – Using the Mii maker tool, you can either use a photo of yourself as a reference for the software and then edit your Mii, or make one from scratch.
  • 3DS augmented reality feature ( a very big hit with the people in attendance)

Over the course of the night there were many games being previewed and showcased. The list below is what you can expect on launch.

  • The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time 3D
  • Starfox 3DS
  • Dead or Alive Dimensions
  • PES 2011
  • Splinter Cell
  • Ghost Recon
  • Mario Kart
  • Rayman Raving Rabbids 3DS
  • Lego Starwars
  • Super Streetfighter IV 3DS
  • Asphalt Racing
  • Pilotwings 3DS
  • Steeldiver
  • Paper Mario 3DS
  • Metal Gear Solid
  • Animal Crossing
  • Kid Icarus
  • The Sims 3
  • Samurai Warriors
  • Resident Evil: Revelations
  • Resident Evil: Mercenaries
  • Nintendogs/Cats
  • and a few other great looking games.

It is expected that the launch window of the 3DS will have 25 titles appearing within it.  Keep an eye out for Resident Evil Revelations, Metal Gear Solid, Super Street Fighter IV 3DS, Splinter Cell, PES, Dead or Alive Dimensions, ohhh .. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ALL OF THEM !! They all look amazing !!!

 

The evening was a great success.  Nintendo did a fantastic job at making everyone feel right at home with great food, drinks, and most of all great games on the amazing creative and innovating 3DS !!  With only 50 days to go before the 3DS is unleashed upon Australian public, all I can say is start saving your hard earned cash because this is one handheld device have to own.  <—-   PERIOD !!!

Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll – Live Stream

Justin Mienkiewicz
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Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll – Live Stream

So I just got Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll and have been playing for about an hour (so you don’t have to sit through the boringness of RPG intros and tutorials).  I’m at a point where I feel it’s a good enough time to start streaming to show off the game.  For those who don’t know, T:SZO is a mix of hack and slash with adventure RPG.  You control one of 3 characters (the other 2 are AI controlled) while you quest through the labyrinthine maps that have become associated with dungeon crawlers.  Anyways, enough talk, off to the stream.  I’ll have the chat open so feel free to ask questions or what have you there, though I won’t be able to engage too much as I’ll be playing this.  Can’t be pausing every 5 seconds but yeah, feel free to join in the chat.

(Give me a minute to set it up.  I also suggest you download adblock plus for firefox so you don’t get interrupted by ads during the stream)

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