Last week, here at Capsule Computers we delivered you a Donkey Kong Returns trailer which showed off a variety of the new feautures included in the game, some of the characters that would be involved, and a general insight into some of the level structures.
Now, upping it’s previous effort to wow us with its compilation of gameplay shorts, Nintendo have released a further two trailers for Donkey Kong Returns, both of which display even more gameplay and new features. There is even some suggestion as to some of the controls that will utililise the Wii controls. Also, if anyone was in any doubt as to whether the game would live up the previous Donkey Kong Country titles’ difficulty, the sheer speed of the gameplay should confirm these doubts. It goes along at a blistering pace. Combine this with enticing visuals and it looks like Nintendo have a winner on their hands.
Although the console wars have long since ended, that doesn’t mean there is still an undying rivalry between the big 3, or big 2 depending on how you look at it. In this case, what matters is the big 2, Microsoft vs Sony, 360 vs PS3. In the west, 360 has clearly been the fan favorite with the PS3 slowly gaining a healthy fanbase. It should be no surprise, however, that in Japan the PS3 reigns supreme. Microsoft has had an extremely hard time finding success, mainly due to the fact that the east doesn’t enjoy playing games where the main characters are muscle-bound rambos trying to compete with dragonball z for most unlikely things a human can do. These types of games thrive on the 360. Similarly, the west doesn’t enjoy playing games based around a cast of effeminate, adolescent boys and the occasional disproportionate, underage girl which explains why the PS3 has had a hard time selling over here.
But those are just the initial, fanboy reasons. There are a myriad of complex reasons and explanations as to why they currently vie for power in their own foreign lands, but today I’m not talking about mere regions anymore. I’m talking global, the final word in a fanboy’s console wars arsenal. If you can prove that your console of choice has more global sales then that automatically means you win, right? Well according to Japanese game developer, Tose, the PS3 has finally outdone the 360 by 1 million units. In a recent press event to celebrate the company’s 30 years of game development, Tose released some statistics (I see no way of being able to prove that these are accurate, so take this with a grain of salt) and in them it shows that the PS3 has sold 42 million as opposed to 360’s 41 million. What does this mean? Largely nothing. Both consoles are more or less equal, globally, as things should be. A Famitsu link (translated) for those that want to see more of the press event.
Lets not forget to mention that the Wii has single-handedly destroyed both of its competitors with a staggering 74 million, almost twice the amount of both PS3 and 360 combined. Proof that Nintendo is better? Or that there are simply more soccer moms and 5 year old girls out there, you decide.
Call Of Duty Black Ops PrecisionAim Xbox 360 Controller
Designed by : MadCatz
Designed for : Xbox 360
Price tag : $79.95 AUD
MasterAbbott runs you through the new Highly Anticipated MadCatz Call Of Duty Black Ops PrecisionAim Xbox 360 Controller. Picked up approx 2 hours before the launch of Black Ops here in Australia.
This controller is pefect for any first person shooter game currently out at the moment, the PrecisionAim allows for instant sensitivity adjustment for sniping and aiming in general. The Controller has two Combat buttons for on-the-fly custom remapping that will allow you to quickly reload, melee or anything else that the X, Y, A, B buttons allow within the game. (Full details on how this works is explained in the video review below)
Along with being super sleek, the PrecisionAim controller also has an amazing Ergonomic non-slip grip that will not fall out of hand no matter how sweaty your palms may be. It also has improved Vibration feedback technology. The Quick-fire triggers up the top are both very firm and comfortable making shooting a breeze. The controller also has an immersive backlit module on both the analog sticks which looks super cool when playing in the dark.
The Controller is wired to a 3m long braided ultra fast USB cable that will deliver a lagg free and super responsive experience. The Black Ops PrecisionAim controller is also compatible with the Xbox 360 Chatpad and Mirc. Now sit back and enjoy the full video review of this fantastic controller from MadCatz.
If you’re after quality, Precision and quick response times when playing FPS then look no further, MadCatz have designed possibly one of the best Xbox 360 controllers on the market. This is a must for any hardcore professional gamer. The only downside to this controller is its hefty price tag, if you can stomach the $79 then rush out and pick one up today at your local Gamestop / EB Games store.
In a just announced press release, fresh from the lips of Microsoft itself; expect Foxtel on your XBOX by the end of the week- if you want it, that is. For a monthly cost or simply pay per view, the new scheme may yet undercut piracy in Australia or will it only add to the growing amount of digitally distriubted media in Australia. Is Foxtel Australia’s answer to netflix and TIVO, with a preffered customer base- one thing is for sure: come next weekend the choice will be yours.
Microsoft will be showing off the new features this Wednesday 10th November stating “As announced during October, there will be a selection of packages and ways of viewing FOXTEL on Xbox 360. Xbox 360 owners will be able to choose from a selection of channel packages that will start from $19.50 for a month’s subscription, or if preferred, simply choose a pay as you go option, where they will be able to choose and pay for one-off viewings of their favourite TV shows and films”
This marks the start of the Foxbox partnership, or is it Xtel, maybe Foxtel 360? Most* XBOX Live members will have the service by the end of the week.
*Only available to Xbox 360 owners who live in Foxtel areas of Australia and who subscribe to both the Xbox Live service and the Foxtel on Xbox 360 service. Xbox Live subscription required for all live TV packages.
Game Name: Kinect Adventures Platforms: Xbox 360 Publisher(s): Microsoft Developer(s): Good Science Studio Price: Free with a purchase of Kinect
Story Kinect Adventures puts you into the shoes of adventurers who are searching for living statues. Statues that are actually alive! In order to acquire these statues, you have to do a series of minigames that are located in multiple areas. The game is basically a series of minigames with a tacked on story behind it, to give purpose for doing the minigames.
Gameplay Kinect Adventures is a group of 5 minigames. Each minigame shows off a different aspect of the motion control or a different way of implementing the motion control. The 5 minigames include: 20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rallyball, Reflex Ridge and Space Pop. 20,000 leaks requires you to plug up holes that are caused by fish while you stand in a box underwater. This particular game will have you acting like a mime as you put your hands, feet, and head onto all the holes in an imaginary wall in front of you or to the side of you. River Rush is all about collecting tokens as you rush down fast rapids in a floating raft. You have to step side to side in order to move the raft and jump up in order to cause the raft to jump. Rallyball, one of the more entertaining games, plays a lot like racket ball except without the racket. You have to propel the ball towards the wall and break the targets and other blocks located on the wall. As you hit the targets you may get multipliers and then as the ball or balls comes back at you, you stop them from getting past you. Reflex Ridge has you jumping, ducking, and weaving your way through a sort of rollercoaster obstacle course. Finally space pop places you into a no gravity zone and you must fly around by flapping your arms like wings and moving forward, backwards, or side to side in order to pop all the bubbles.
There are some multiplayer capabilities in the game as well. Multiplayer in Kinect Adventures lets friends jump in and out at any time. The Kinect will detect the second player and they will be able to control their own person. The only real problem, is that in most of the minigames a second player is more of a hindrance than an actual help. You have to be extremely well coordinated with the second player in order to get good scores on the minigames.
A few bonuses in the game include saving and sending pictures and recording and saving living statues. While you play the minigames, random pictures of you will be taken and given captions. These pictures can be saved and shared with friends. You can also record voice and movement for the living statues you unlock. These living statues can be uploaded to the web and shared on a specially designed site for the game.
Audio & Graphics The audio in the game is lacking, with just a few voices in order to accommodate the younger kids. The soundtrack also doesn’t change much. While the initial soundtrack has an adventure undertone that you would expect in any adventure setting. Since it doesn’t change much throughout the course of the game it quickly becomes worn out and less impressive. Two or three more audio tracks would have helped create a much deeper experience.
Just like the audio, the graphics don’t change much as well. Although there are multiple levels and “supposed” difficulties the scenery around you doesn’t alter all that much. Each minigame has a specific area, and each alteration of the same minigame looks exactly the same. In a sense, there is really only 5 different locations, one for each minigame: in a stadium, on a river, above a forest, underwater, and in outerspace. While it may sound like, a new map per minigame type is great, the lack of alterations between minigame variations cause them all to blur into each other and seem like a much smaller game.
Achievements
The achievements are easy, and don’t take much time at all. The biggest problem with them, is keeping yourself from becoming bored before you finish them all. They require you to pretty much play every aspect of the game. Sadly the game likes to repeat itself a lot, causing for a repetitive gameplay experience. There are some online achievements, as well as achievements for completing everything. It shouldn’t be that hard to complete every achievement, and may only get tedious near the end. There are also 10 avatar awards, which include a complete set of adventurers clothes for both the male and female gender. These clothes can be acquired by simply beating all of the minigames located within the main course of the game.
Overview Kinect Adventurers comes free with every purchase of Kinect and only has one goal: to show off the technology of Kinect. The five minigames located within the game do an extremely good job at showing off what is possible with Kinect, but sadly it stops there. There isn’t much keeping someone playing the game, and once the initial thrill of the minigames wear off they become quite repetitive. The scenery doesn’t change much, and actual goal of the game is pretty pointless. Luckily the game is free, and you don’t need to worry about whether or not to actually purchase it. There is a multiplayer feature and the ability to save and share pictures, but other than that the game is short, simple, and only provides initial fun. It’s like the game serves only to tell the purchaser “This is what Kinect can do, now go buy other games.” I give Kinect Adventures (as a game)
I give Kinect Adventures (as a free tech demo that shows what Kinect can do )
Kinect is Microsoft’s creation for the new generation of gaming. Microsoft has placed tons of funds into advertising Kinect, from their over the top reveal at E3 using Cirque du Soleil to the many commercials and promotions trying to bring in both casual as well as core gamers. Microsoft is the last console owner to release its version of a motion controller, and they decided to go all out by completely removing the controller and just leaving the motion.
Kinect comes with a bunch of features, such as three cameras and four microphones. I’m not exactly sure why there are four microphones but supposedly it has something to do with Kinect’s extremely good voice recognition. With the three cameras, Kinect is able to catch the motion of your body. You can wave your hands, move side to side, move forward or back, move your head, move your legs, jump up and down, and pretty much any other motion. If your avatar is currently tracking your body movement, then that avatar will copy what you do. The reaction is instant, and it’s like seeing an avatar version of yourself. The only complaint I had was that it can’t tell if you turn around, it gets all glitchy if you try it. What reason would you want to play backwards? I don’t know, but I’m sure you can find one. As for the voice recognition, it is superb. Even people with lisps or even a heavy accent can use Kinect’s voice recognition without any problem. Microsoft has gone through a lot of trouble to enable it for everyone that speaks english.
What can you do with total motion control and voice recognition? Many games are implementing both, and the Kinect Dashboard lets you go through and look at all your stuff using only your voice or your hands. You can also surf through videos and music in the improved Zune app on the Xbox dashboard. This makes it extremely easy to navigate the Xbox without ever having to pick up your controller. Of course, if you actually want to play a game that needs a controller, you are going to have to pick up the controller once the game loads.
One of the more subtle but awesome additions is Kinect’s Video chat. It basically works like a new and improved video chat using the Kinect software rather than a basic webcam. Since it uses the Kinect software it is able to track you movements. As you walk around the room talking to the person over the internet, Kinect will keep you in frame. If someone else joins you, Kinect will adjust to fit both people into frame. This video feature shows a lot of the capabilities that are within Kinect.
This brings me to the biggest problem that is found in Kinect: It requires a large empty room to be used successfully. If you live in a small apartment or plan to play this in a small room, you are probably going to run into problems when using it. Kinect requires a certain amount of space to be used correctly. All games require a different amount of space; however, the average is about 7 feet. You have to be able to stand 7 feet away from your the device, in order for it to work properly. Aside from this, you also need a big empty space to move around in, so say goodbye to that coffee table of yours. If you want to play with multiple people, you’ll need even more room. Most people don’t have this kind of space in their house, but it is required to use Kinect properly. As an example, in order to use Kinect in my small room, I had to get rid of my bed frame, move my dresser, slide my desktop closer to the wall, prop my mattress against the other wall, and then center my television. After all that, my back is still only about 6 inches away from the wall behind me.
Believe it or not, there are some complaints about the fact that the ever present eye of the Kinect is a little creepy. Since the Kinect is always on as long as your Xbox is on, it is as if it is always looking at you even when you aren’t really using it. Three Cameras can do a lot, especially when connected to the internet. Since it also has the ability to record video and snap pictures, not knowing what your Kinect is doing at any given moment can be kind of creepy. My friend actually has a towel on top of his unit whenever he isn’t using it. I on the other hand don’t really care. It’s all a preference thing.
While Kinect is an awesome technological feet, what is really going to make or break Kinect is the games being released on it. Currently all games that are coming out seem to be geared towards a younger, more casual audience. Kinectimals for instance, isn’t even a viable choice unless you have a younger sibling or little kids in the house. Like all motion controlled games, these aren’t intended to be used to unwind and relax. They require a lot of activity and can leave you out of breath a lot of the time (well, except Kinectimals…)
Any worries you may have had about Kinect can be wiped away. Aside from the need for a spacious playing area, Kinect works like a charm. All the kinks have been worked out and with the easy setup, anyone can plug it in and start playing. The price is exceptionally expensive at $150 (USD), but the slightly lower game prices ($50 USD) should help ease the tension on your wallet. With the current Selection of games, Kinect is perfect for the family or a younger sibling with a few scattered games for the older audience. Kinect is a lot of fun with a bunch of potential. Based on the future games, Kinect can really become the future of controller free gaming.
We are less than 24 hours from the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and already the title is making headlines, only this time due to a Gamestop being robbed where over 100 copies were stolen at gunpoint.
Based on the news story from the Baltimore Sun, the two men that were involved approached the Gamestop at Festival at Bel Air shopping center on Bel Air South Parkway when it was about to close on Saturday night with semi-automatic guns and stole four cases full of Black Ops. Two customers came into the store during the robbery and were forced into the storage area at gunpoint. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
” ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ isn’t out there ’til Tuesday, so anybody that has it today or tomorrow shouldn’t have it,” Worrell said Sunday, asking residents to call the sheriff’s office if they’re offered copies before the release date.
Sad to see that some people can be that desperate but it is good to know that everybody left the store safely after the robbery. Police are also keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity on Craigslist and other methods of resale in the area.
Can you feel it? That is the cold, hard edge of fear. Fear of fear; fear of death; fear of global disaster; fear of Templars. There is no escape in the present unless you go to the past. Yea, that is right. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is nearly here!!! And this is the final developer diary for the game. So make sure to savor it, just as you savor your first kill on November 16. Don’t fear the Assassin; fear the knife!
Bon Jovi Is back, with a bunch of new songs and some pro instrument enabled ones as well. There are also a few single tracks from Deftones, New Order, and Talking Heads; all of which are pro enabled.
Of course these release on Novemebr 9th, and I’m sure you’ll be busy playing another certain game.
Bon Jovi Greatest Hits: Rock Band Edition – 1600 Microsoft Points (160 Microsoft Points each)
Bon Jovi – “Bad Medicine”
Bon Jovi – “Blaze of Glory”
Bon Jovi – “Have a Nice Day”
Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You”
Bon Jovi – “It’s My Life”
Bon Jovi – “Lay Your Hands On Me”
Bon Jovi – “Livin’ on a Prayer (RB3 version)” *
Bon Jovi – “Runaway” *
Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive (RB3 version)” *
Bon Jovi – “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
Bon Jovi – “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”
Bon Jovi – “You Give Love a Bad Name (RB3 version)” *
Single Tracks – 160 Microsoft Points each.
Deftones – “My Own Summer (Shove It)” *
New Order – “Blue Monday” *
Talking Heads – “Burning Down the House” *
*80 Microsoft Points per track for a Pro Guitar/Pro Bass upgrade
For some lucky kid out there (or over 18 young at heart) their dream of actually starring in their very own video game cameo is about to come true. Basically, yall have until next Monday (November 15th) to dress up like the main characters of The Witcher PC video game and then spam the developers. The very lucky person with the best cos-play costume, will in fact get to appear as cameo in the next Witcher Game, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings!
Now while, you must be over 18, and some of the website has been translated from German, it can be viewed in English and best of all it would appear the the contest is available to everyone from most countries with only a photo separating the winners.*
In the game, “Dopplers” are characters who can assume the appearance or identity of another character, to blend in and assassinate targets. As such contestants are urged to use some creative control over how their character looks (ie. not identical to the ones in the game). CD Projekt Red have said in a statment: “Creativity and resourcefulness are more important than exact copies of the costumes.”
Grand Prize winners will appear in the game as well as receive their own copy for PC and Windows. Yes, winners plural with two people walking away with the lot! The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is one of the highly anticipated games for PC for 2011, and will be released early with XBOX and PS3 to follow; it features nudity and violence as you assume the role of master Witch Gealt of Riva.
