Electronic Arts and developer Maxis are developing a twin stick shooter with a hint of nanotech. And, if you look closely at the trailer, it will also remind you of that episode of Family Guy where Stewie first meets his arch-nemesis brother. Yes, it features sperm.
However, going back to the game, “what you can’t see can save you.”
“We wanted to take gamers to a place they have rarely visited before — the world inside the human body. The fluid dynamics of the world and the customization of the MicroBot come together to create a unique take on the arcade shooter genre”, said Jason Haber of Electronic Arts. “MicroBot is an energetic and addictive game that is perfect for anyone that plays games on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.”
And so, you play as a mini bot that has phasers that can destroy those bad virus and bacteria. But! Are you a good guy or an impostor? Find out next year.
Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs Publisher: Nintendo Developer: HAL Laboratory Platform: Nintendo DS (Reviewed) Release Date: October 4th 2010 Price: $29.99 US, £34.99 UK, $69.99 AUS
Overview:
Pokémon is perhaps the largest game franchise over the past decade. Every time that a new Pokémon game is made that focuses on capturing Pokémon and training them to take out the gym leaders it is a guaranteed best seller all over the world. The Pokémon series has been so successful that it has branched out to encompass different aspects of the Pokémon Universe. The Pokémon Ranger series has received another addition to its library in the form of Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs. While it may not be part of the main series, does the Ranger series still have what it takes to live up to the Pokémon pedigree?
Story:
Now the first thing to take notice of is the fact that you are going to be playing as a Pokémon Ranger. Rangers differ from trainers as instead of capturing and training Pokémon, a ranger only temporarily catches Pokémon so they can assist them through various obstacles and issues within the story that require that Pokémon’s abilities to help them out.
In Guardian Signs you take control of a rookie Ranger who is just arriving in the Oblivia region. The reason that you were assigned to this region is because a group of criminals known as The Pokémon Pinchers have been capturing Pokémon illegally and using them to further their criminal careers and committing crimes using these illegally captured Pokémon.
The Pokémon Pinchers have a much more devious secret behind their crimes however and it is up to you to put a stop to them. To do this you are given a Pokémon partner that will be along your side to put a stop to this evil plan, a Ukulele Pichu. This Pichu who carries a Ukulele around with it will be your partner nearly from the beginning of the game and puts a bit of a humanized twist on the Pokémon that you work with.
Unfortunately the storyline for Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs is very flimsy at best. Once the story does start to develop past the initial bad guy image it starts to move at a steady pace and develop nicely. However the build up to this point isn’t handled well and the overall narrative just feels tacked on to the gameplay to offer some structure to the experience.
Graphics:
One thing that Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs does excel at is showing off just how great the Pokémon themselves look. You will see over 300 different Pokémon completely animated for the first time as before we only witnessed them in 2D battle screens. This is evidenced by the fact that any Pokémon that you capture to aid you can be seen following behind your Ranger if choose to.
Besides the Pokémon the rest of the game looks very well done as well. Every environment you experience is very well drawn and nice to look at, especially the battles themselves. There are times within the battles that you can experience a drop in frame rate due to lots of attacks happening at the same time. However this is usually only the case when handling Legendary Pokémon, or more difficult boss battles.
Gameplay:
One of the most noticeable differences that players will experience right off the bat is the fact that Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs is more than a little different from your standard Pokémon titles. Instead of capturing Pokémon in the middle of battle with Pokéballs, you instead will use something called the Capture Styler.
The Capture Styler makes complete use of the DS’ stylus (straightforward name and all) and requires that the player draw circles around the Pokémon that they want to join them temporarily. Pokémon will be weakened for every circle that you complete, and when the player makes more than one circle in a row it does extra damage. If the Pokémon however were to hit the lines of the circle before it was completed then the circle would be broken after a period of time.
The stylus itself is treated as something of a Pokémon itself, as you capture Pokémon to help along your journey your Styler will level up as well by receiving Ranger Points. You can use these Ranger Points to customize your Styler’s abilities to your liking. There are a handful of different customizable options such as making the lines stronger which causes circles to raise the “friendship” meter faster to simply being able to make it have more HP. While this is a neither complicated nor in-depth feature it does give the option to customize your Styler to your gameplay style instead of having to deal with a structured level up system. There are other ways of obtaining Ranger Points up as well, such as finishing Guardian Signs plethora of side quests. These side quests, while not important to the gameplay, are interesting enough and can be used for a small grinding session in case you need more Ranger Points to customize your Styler.
The reason that I mentioned friendship before is the fact that all Pokémon within this game are only temporarily with you. These Pokémon do not become yours once you become friends with them. They will follow you around as long as you need them, but will leave immediately after they help you or their amounts of helping are used up. The Pokémon themselves are also able to help out in battle as they will deal certain amounts of damage to the Pokémon you are trying to befriend and make it easier to obtain. They do not disappear when they are used in battle in such a manner which is a nice touch, they still happen to vanish after use outside of battle.
One of the biggest parts of Guardian Signs and all Pokémon Ranger games is the fact that you have to use the abilities of the Pokémon following you to make your way through each dungeon or path. This is accomplished through having not only the Pokémon of the right type, but sometimes even the species as well. The puzzles themselves all wrap around this fact which can create tedious gameplay at times due to the fact that if you do not have the right Pokémon for the job, you must go get one and come back simply to advance.
Now we mentioned the fact that there are circles that should be drawn to become friends with all of the different Pokémon you can find and use them to make the world a better place. But the game is named Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs. The reasoning for this is the fact that the game includes something known as Ranger Signs. These Ranger Signs range from a variety of outcomes and designs that the player must draw on their screen with the stylus.
Some Ranger Signs are used for simple reasoning as to summon an older Pokémon to help you out on your journey. But they can also summon different Pokémon to help you out which is a useful feature if you happen to find yourself stuck with no Pokémon able to make their way through the problem. The interesting bit to summoning different Pokémon through the Ranger Sign is the fact that you can even summon a legendary Pokémon to help out with your quest which not only is a helpful feature, but also a nice surprise at the same time as you never know who may show up.
Overall:
Now fans of the classic Pokémon series may find themselves in a whole new world as far as Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs goes, but that does not make it a bad thing either. Fans of the Ranger series itself will find more or less of the same game that they love inside as well. The reason that it isn’t a bad thing to try the new series of Pokémon games is simply because it allows players to see the Pokémon world in a whole new light. Sure the story may not be worthy of praise and can easily be forgotten as you slog through a dungeon the gameplay is unique enough to keep the player wanting more.
Happy holidays! On my time off I decided I would do a little stream. I’ve recently gotten back into playing Sengoku Basara (I love me some good hack and slash games) and it’s fairly actiony so I figured why not. Later on if the stream is still going I might put up some Monster Hunter Portable 3rd if I can get my friend on or maybe even some Silent Hill: Shattered Memories if I’m in the mood. Come join me in the stream chat, those who stop by and hang around and participate in the chat will have a chance to get a free PC (Steam) game (I assure you, this is a good game, popular game. None of this $2 indie game stuff). Alright, enough typing, I’ma get to the streamin. Gimme 5-10 minutes to get it setup, so don’t worry if you see a black/blue screen for a bit.
Steam Holiday Sale is going on now, and we already saw a lot of great deals this last week on Steam. But don’t worry if you’ve missed anything, everyone have a new opportunity as they are running today a “Best Of” deals for their top selling games, check it out:
And remember, it’s not over yet, there’s still one week left for all-new daily deals to show up on Steam, so keep checking Steam’s website to see those!
An Awesome addition to the well anticipated series we all know and love will be among us all too soon. Diablo 3 is not only known by the fans that love the volumes that have hit the market over the years, but also by your average person. The highly awaited third addition to this series includes original characters aswell as a few new ones just for flavour.
The good old Barbarian is back for more action, as well as the Wizard taking the place of the Sorceress. For extra measure, blizzard has delightedly given the player some delicious new characters to fight the dark evil denizens of Sanctuary, which include the Witch Doctor, the Monk as well as the dark and foreboding Demon Hunter. Most classes can be customised for either male or female play except for the Demon Hunter class which is only female for now (Blizzard might add a male component in the future).
Many of the good old Beasties that you all know and love will be returning in this chapter of diablo for your hack and slashing pleasure. The Fallen Ones, the Unburied, the Scavenger and many more creepy crawlies will be roaming the country side, dank dungeons and dark sewer smelling alley ways. Be careful or you might find yourself in an early grave.
There are many areas to diablo 3, a lot of the old areas like Tristram will be available for play as well as many new areas never before seen such as the Borderlands and Caldeum. Dekard Cain is once again your light at the end of the tunnel that leads you along your journey.
There is a new Health system that blizzard has implemented into Diablo 3. The good old vials of potions, scrolls and skills are not what they used to be. Blizzard has given the player an alternative to the various means of healing in the game, they have given the player the ability to collect ‘Health Orbs’ from the creature that they dispose of. Depending on the level of the enemy that is killed the character will be able to pick up an orb of varied size, being from small to large.
Diablo 3 offers a new Crafting aspect very much upgraded from the previous games. You will meet and get friendly with a range of artisans that specialise in different types of crafting. The blacksmith can craft and modify weapons and armour adding sockets to items, allowing for those items to be enhanced. The Mystic can create and mould a wide variety of scrolls, potions, runes and many charms, with the option to break down undesirable runes for a shot at the right one you want for your gear. The Jeweller can remove and re-socket gems from any socket in your gear, allowing you to reuse gems over and over again, and can also combine gems to produce the higher quality gems you desire.
To top things off blizzard has introduced a beefed up version of online play for PvP. For those out there you can play against other players in an arena type area to battle and test your skills and ability to survive the wastelands of Sanctuary. Do you have what it takes to survive..?!
HO HO HO !!! Hello Boy n’ Girls – Christmas is nearly here, Santa and the elves are packing his sleigh full of toys and goodies, have you all been good ?? Well if you have we want to reward as many of you as possible by giving away some cool prizes !! All you need to do is leave comments on anything we post here on the site or over on FACEBOOK. What we’ll be doing is picking random winners daily & contact you via email (from the site) or via direct message (on FACEBOOK).
So get cracking let us know what you think about everything we share out and you could win some cool prizes along the way !!!
Competition starts now and will go all the way to Chrismas EVE !!
Merry Chrismas from the Capsule Computers CREW !!! HO HO HO !!!
Every once in while, a cool PSA will come in that isn’t just numbers and letters. The most recent PSA from NinjaBee is actually coming from Captain RatBeard from the game “A World of Keflings”.
You can read the full PSA at the bottom, but the jist of it is basically telling you how to use emotes within the game and that two unique emotes will be available on December 26th.
For those of you who have the game, jump online on December 26th and you might be lucky enough to get the 2 viral emotes by running into a NinjaBee. Since they are Viral, we are assuming that once someone has it, they can give it to someone else by using it near the other player; but it just isn’t as special unless you get it from the NinjaBees themselves.
So jump on December 26th, if you aren’t busy with all your other toys, and try snagging yourself those special emotes.
~FULL PSA FROM RATBEARD~
“Ahoy. Captain Ratbeard at yer scurvice, I mean, service.
I love to dance a merry jig while singing sea shanties. It be just the thing to lift me spirits before pillaging, I mean NEGOTIATING with another merchant ship. Argh! All you gotta do to jig up a storm is use your emotes in game. YARGH!
To do an emote, just use the D-pad. It be that little grey area on the controller that looks a little like an anchor. Alright, maybe it looks more like a ninja star, but ninjas be pansies, so pretend it looks like an anchor. YAR! If ya press the anchor, the emotes menu will come up. Just choose the first one up and press “A” – you’ll start bustin’ a move fit to call the kraken! Truth be told, that dance only calls Keflings to yer side, not krakens, but that be just as good.
There be other dances and special moves you can learn too but they be secret, like buried traysure, and the only way to find them is to build up yer kingdom to the fullest. There also be emotes you can only get with friends in local and live multiplayer, and there be emotes that are only unlocked by gettin’ achievements in other games! You can learn some pretty sweet moves from those land-lubbers in Band of Bugs, let me tell ya.
Also keep your eyes open for those sneaky NinjaBees. They’ll be teachin’ people two secret emotes that you can only learn from someone else that knows it. Aye. If ya be playin’ on December 26th around 7:00 p.m. PST (I think that stands fer Pilferin’ the Seadog’s Traysure…) ya may run into one. They’ll be playin’ their little hearts out, spreading their viral emotes like a bad case of scurvy.
I think you’ve heard enough from me, mates. I’m off to swab the poop deck… I mean CLEAN THE BATHROOM. Aye, merchant’s gotta keep his bathroom clean. See ya in game.
Red Dead Redemption has had a number of double XP weekends. And now they are offering a double XP WEEK! So get your zombie hunting cowboy clothes on and go kill some virtual people. For ten days, starting today and ending January 3rd, 2010, any online mode on the Xbox Live or Playstation Network will net you the double treasure. As a triple prize, why don’t you comment on this post and tell us why you like zombies. Or if Red Dead is the greatest game ever. Or maybe why you just love your dog. Anything really.
Since the reveal of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for 2011’s already impressive line-up from Namco, we haven’t really had to much to go on except for a small teaser for the game. Namco have now changed that with a brand new trailer which does a lot more than just tease us this time around as we now have some news about the new characters in the game. No, not a roster reveal. Instead the trailer shows off a younger version of the series mascot, Heihachi Mishima. Besides now sporting a full head of much darker hair, we get to see the young Heihachi put the beat down on some foes.
Another thing the trailer brought was a reveal for a brand new masked female luchadore who’s name is still in question….for now anyway. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 still doesn’t have a worldwide date yet but I would expect it to drop sometime in the 2nd or third quarter 2011 as it hits Japan next Summer. The trailer can be seen below in full and I do warn you, when you finish watching you will probably all be powering up your Playstation 2s to relive some of the greatness that was the original. For even more information, you can follow Katsuhiro Harada on his twitter page for daily updates from the man behind the madness.
A new trailer for Marvel vs Capcom 3 was released just in time for Christmas and this one is sure to get the fans even more eager to dust off those old fight-sticks and prepare for one the most anticipated games of 2011. Capcom’s new trailer for the title is actually quite impressive even though we really don’t learn anything new.
The trailer shows some introductions for a good portion of the announced characters in their brand new CG coat of paint (which looks spectacular). After introductions are over we get another look into the action with some nice in-game footage as well. The thing that is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seats though is the end of the trailer which plays a bit of the infamous Marvel vs Capcom 3 theme “take you for a ride” while announcing that even more character reveals are coming soon.
So while we burst with anticipation on that news, check out the new trailer below and as soon as we hear about the next reveals, we will be sure to let you know.
