Any month is not complete unless it has a dose of SBS DVD, and Madman’s July 2011 release lineup features some awesome new titles coming to DVD. Here’s our pick of the bunch!
The Protectors
In the tradition of breakthrough Danish dramas such as THE KILLING and THE EAGLE, THE PROTECTORS is the latest hit series to arrive from those Nordic masters of crime and suspense.
In today’s violent world, the lives of many politicians, industrialists, heads of state and other VIPs are often endangered. To counteract these threats, the Danish Intelligence Bureau created The Personal Protection Unit – a force of competent, quick-thinking and dedicated bodyguards. This award winning Danish crime series centres around the lives and missions of these specialists, the people they protect and their enemies.
The Yes Men Fix The World
Who knew fixing the world could be so much fun? Brüno meets Michael Moore in this gut-busting wake-up call that proves a little imagination can go a long way towards vanquishing the Cult of Greed.
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world’s most outrageous pranks. From New Orleans to India to New York City, armed with little more than cheap thrift-store suits, the Yes Men squeeze raucous comedy out of all the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet.
Stripped – Greg Friedler’s Naked Las Vegas
In August of 2007, director David Palmer set off on a journey with avant-garde photographer Greg Friedler to capture his shooting of the final book in his critically acclaimed “Naked” series in the only city in the world that is synonymous with the term “strip”: Las Vegas. Entering a single white room with a red curtain, the 173 participants of “Naked Las Vegas” open themselves up, baring not only their bodies, but also their souls.
PAX is rapidly approaching and if you haven’t yet snatched up a ticket to the festivities, then Halo Waypoint has recently announced some exciting news that will make you want a ticket even more. The third floor of the convention center will be turned into a an indescribable , amazing, crazy event appropriately called “Halo Fest” that will be “the largest and most expansive live Halo experience ever.” This celebration of the series 10th anniversary lets attendees enter tournaments, pickup giveaways and sit through panels. The best part? Entry is guaranteed as long as you have a PAX ticket. I’m scared that the next charge on my credit card will read “PAX Ticket” and/or “American Airlines- Seattle.”
Last month, the following domain registrations: Metro2033LastLight.com, MetroLastLight.com and LastLightGame.com lent credence to a rumor that THQ would be making a sequel to Metro 2033. Previously known as Metro 2034, the sequel is now confirmed and it will be called Metro: Last Light. Danny Bilson, the head of THQ, has said also that the new game will be subjected to a “first-class marketing campaign.”
Metro 2033 was hailed by many critics as an interesting, innovative experience that fell short in a few key areas. Hopefully, the new game will fix the faults present in the first game and be as awesome as possible.
Nintendo is slowly wheedling down the price of the Wii and on the 15 of May, you can expect to see it at Walmart for a measly $150. Plus, instead of packing in Wii Sports with every console, the Nintendo Racing Wheel and Mario Kart will be included. The Wii Motion Plus and Nunchuck controllers will also be included in every purchase. Both the black and white Wii consoles will be marked down.
“From the day it launched, Wii has let players of all ages and experience levels have fun with one another,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The new suggested retail pricing for both the hardware and select games will help create more of these magical moments for even greater numbers of people.”
Brink is releasing in Australia on May 12th and New Zealand on May 13th on Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and PC, and with that short of a time period left before the game releases, the Get SMART video series is nearly finished. This video is the fourth in the series and now there are only two more left.
This video focuses on HUD elements, like how the health bars, weapon cool downs and special elements work. Plus, it shows off a tiny bit of the class variations and the acrobatic abilities that will be present in the game.
New IP projects are always exciting for gamers, and this year, this game seems especially important.
A new trailer for Codemasters’ highly anticipated DiRT 3 has today been released. The trailer highlights a range of new content and gameplay features that will feature prominently in this latest addition to the Dirt series. New features include all new snow and night racing along with the standard Rally, Rallycross and Gymkhana game modes.
Also, players that pre-order DiRT 3 at JB HI-FI will receive the Superteams Pack as a bonus. The Superteam Pack includes four exclusive teams: Texaco Racing Team, Brembo Racing Team, Team Yokohama and Mobil 1 Performance Team and unlocks 14 cars for the player to take to the track immediately.
DiRT 3 will be available for Xbox 360, Playstaion 3 and PC on May 26th
Having trouble racking up those kill streaks in Halo: Reach or maybe the trouble is that the ability to Prestige is Call of Duty is just taking too darn long. Whatever the case, Kontrol Freek has got you covered with a few new options.
The Legendary pack is a standard FPS Freek add ons except that that it is decorated with an awesome Halo logo. The Prestige pack is also a standard FPS Freek accessory. But, you guessed it. This one has Call of Duty logos on it. Check out this link here to get a good look at the sick looking freeky sticks. If you have never heard of the Kontrol Freeks, then check out this link to get a feel for what this innovative product is.
Go ahead and buy your favorite Need for Speed game while there’s some time left for these deals, as new deals will be coming to take their place tomorrow.
Just like in the manga and the anime series you can’t keep a Z fighter down. If they die they just keep coming back thanks to the Dragon Balls. Such is the case with Namco Bandai’s Dragon Ball fighting series apparently. Japanese blog Tale Tale Source has been translated by Andriasang and it says that the next issue of Weekly Shonen Jump will include an announcement pertaining to a new game in the Dragon Ball series.
Tentatively called Dragon Ball Game Project Age 2011 is supposedly going to focus on 3D fighting action much like we’ve seen from every Dragon Ball fighting game in the past few years. Also said on the blog is a Fall 2011 release date on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in Japan, so perhaps we’ll be seeing some sort of news within the next week.
Order and Chaos Online Developer: Gameloft Publisher: Gameloft Genre: MMORPG Platform: iPhone(reviewed)/iPod Touch/iPad Release: 27/4/11 Price: AU$8.99/US$6.99 (Buy Now)
Overview
Time to pull out your iOS device and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Order and Chaos Online. Gameloft’s latest is the first true real-time, completely three-dimensional, MMOPRG for iOS. Order and Chaos Online allows you to complete a huge amount of quests, gain skills, socialise online, join parties and guilds, fight a massive amount of enemies and generally have some good old fashioned fun.
Gameplay
Order and Chaos Online is a fairly simple game to get used to. To move around you only need to put your finger on the left Hand side of the screen, and a button will appear to dictate movement. To look around, pan across the screen or choose character direction you need only to pinch or slide your finger along the screen. A feature that I only recently started to make the most out of is autorun. After moving in the same direction for a few seconds, an autorun button will appear on the screen. After pressing it, what a surprise, the character will run without having to hold on to the button. All you need to do is control the direction with the right side of the screen and watch out for nasty wolves, boars or goblins along the roads.
It’s slightly annoying that the game only works while connected to wi-fi. While I am sympathetic to the burden a game like this would be on my mobile Internet, I can’t help but want a bit more mobility in my mobile games. However, there is a plus side to the game being online. After picking your region from Europe, Asia or America, you are connected to a huge network of players all taking part in the game simultaneously in real-time. I must admit that to have such a huge gaming network in the palm of your hands is fairly impressive. All you will need is a Gameloft Live account, and of course your own version of Order and Chaos Online. It should also be noted that the game requires a subscription in order to play. At first I was a little put off by this, but the initial download of the game comes with a free trial subscription, and any extra subscription fees are pretty reasonable: ranging from AU$1.99 a month to AU$3.99 for six months.
One feature that I particularly do enjoy is just how customisable your character can be. Firstly, there are the basic options such as character gender and race. You can choose from elf, human, orc or the undead. After the basics, you are given options of skin colour, hair colour, a name and other details that tend to be the norm in avatar design. I must admit that after this portion of the game, I was not particularly blown away with my creative masterpiece. It wasn’t until I began to wander around the land, completing quests and roaming around, that I realised just how customisable the characters are. After completing a few quests, you are often given the option of choosing an item as a reward. These items can also be purchased from shops, but I prefer to earn mine for the first part of games like this. After selecting some new leather pants, a silk shirt and a long cloak, my elf ranger is by far the coolest cat (or elf, rather) in all the land.
Graphics and Audio
By making a three-dimensional MMORPG, it goes without saying that the graphics are bound to be impressive. Well, at least impressive by iOS standards. The attention to detail in creating the worlds is incredible, from swamp lands to forests to castles to old pubs, Gameloft have done a fantastic job creating such a massive world. It’s also interesting to note the types enemies who inhabit the different areas. While some of them might be completely fictitious, like goblin thieves, the characters and geographical design are married so well that it is perfectly reasonable to see a band of goblins on a roadside near mountains. This, coupled with the numerous amount of customisable features that make players avatars stand out, creates an amazing fantasy world.
At first glance, or listening rather, of Order and Chaos Online, there isn’t anything really remarkable about the audio. All the sound effects sync with in-game actions and make for some pretty cool battling. However, there is a little more going on in the game than I originally noticed. Over by the map icon there is a little music note, which I admit I pressed by accident. Here you have the option of playing your own music while roaming through different worlds. I thought this was a really cool feature and have since started to battle bears and wolves listening to whatever obscure soundtrack that inhabits my iPhone. When playing your own music the sound effects are not drowned out, which I must say is a plus.
Conclusion
With a game as ambitious as Order and Chaos Online it is a little hard to not be impressed. There is such a large number of things to do within the game it’s somewhat hard to get bored, unless you are being tediously relentless in your quest to complete certain missions that always end in you dying, something I’ll openly admit to. But once you get sick of coming back to life in a cemetery, something I’ll openly admit to, it’s easy to move on and enjoy the rest of the game. There are a few flaws in the game, which relate mostly to the size of the game. This is just minor glitches of character animation, slight lagging at times and the fact that as a mobile game it can’t be played absolutely anywhere. This is a game obviously made for fans of MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft, which I am not really a fan of. None the less, I have had a lot of fun playing Order and Chaos Online so I can only assume you can too.
Check out our video gameplay for Order and Chaos below :
