Yes that’s right… there seems to be secret some Lab work happening in the research facilities over at Microsoft Game Studios. Just today we received this mysterious link with not too much information. But we all have a very big hunch that it smells like a NATAL Project of some sort.
I like the part at the bottom half of the enrollment form that asks for 10 things that describe your personality !!
MasterAbbott had 100 but had to settle for the 10 best ones he could muster up 😉 .. (one of them was CUTE… )
Well if you live in Australia then click on the image below and fill this out ASAP !! if you wanna be a part of this secret lab experiment which will have you jumping around swinging your hands like a crazy person and having the best time in the world all in the name of research then don’t delay … MICROSOFT NEEDS YOU TODAY !!!
This is MasterAbbott’s Application .. He hopes he makes it in !! 😉
Everything within the video games market is based on schedule. Games must be developed within a certain time window. They then put it up for a scheduled sale which falls on a day that makes sure their sales will be maxed. All announcements are also scheduled way in advance and fall into place on schedule.
The only problem with everything being scheduled is when the schedule changes it is extremely hard to make sure the news doesn’t get out. This is what happened with the dashboard leak of Gears of War 3. When Cliff Bleszinski got bumped on Jimmy Fallon for that pop singer kid that sounds like a girl (You know who I’m talking about). Cliff planned to announce the Gears of War 3 news on that show, and the Xbox Dashboard would follow suit. Plans change and the Xbox Dashboard kept following the schedule. The news was quickly removed and will most likely be put back when the actual announcement takes place.
Overview:
Here we have the original Final Fantasy. The finale of all fantasy games as we know it… until they made twelve more over the next 23 years. This is the game that started it all, from FFI to FFXIII many have been quite stellar in every aspect, while a small few remain famous from the Final Fantasy namesake alone. Which category does Final Fantasy I stand in? We shall see my light warriors.
Story:
FF1 is set in a world with three large continents. Over the years the world has grown harsher; the lands are dieing, the oceans are turning savage. The world is governed by four mystic orbs, each one representing a specific element of either fire, water, wind, or earth. Yet these four orbs have grown dark and lost their mystic power causing an imbalance in the world. Four brave Light Warriors, each holding one of the darkened orbs have appeared and must journey to correct what damage has been wrought upon the world.
The story itself is quite basic, however it is hardly fair to declare this a detriment to the game due to the fact that this was one of the first RPGs made for consoles and pretty much defined this type of storyline. The storyline itself is driven through speaking to certain NPCs in towns and then gathering information about where you must go to defeat the evil in the area. However most of the time the NPCs that you speak to will only repeat the exact same thing the last NPC said, but with slightly different wording. There are large amounts of dungeons to traverse to defeat said enemies, however there are only a few side-quests but thanks to the addition of five new dungeons, there are many side dungeons that were not available when the game was first released.
Gameplay:
Final Fantasy I was the epitome of turn based combat in RPGs. Your party members stare dead into the eyes of the monsters that have attacked them. There is the standard affair of surprise attacks on both sides. Occasionally you will be ambushed by monsters and will be assaulted. Then randomly your party will gain initiative from an ambush and the tables will be turned. However more often than not there will be your standard battle and there will be many, many, many battles.
There are an extremely large amounts of random battles to say the least. You may be able to walk ten steps at a time and then encounter enemies, while other times you may begin fighting within four steps. Though this was the standard for RPGs in the past and any retro gamer will know what to expect when they purchase the game. However if you are new to Final Fantasy then be prepared for many battles which have grown only more slow paced due to the iPhone/iTouch user interface.
During battle all actions are controlled via the attack, magic, defend, item, equipment, escape buttons on the bottom of the screen next to your characters’ names. After selecting an action such as Attack, you have to also double tap the exact enemy that you wish to attack. This is all fine and good for longer battles and battles of your current level. However when you face enemies that are far below your level and are quite weak, it is faster to just run away then to waste your time tapping attack, tapping which enemy to attack, and then repeating four times at once.
The touch screen controls themselves however are very responsive. When traversing any map the directional pad which appears in the bottom left corner of the screen works the same as any real life d-pad would. However there is a small problem when it comes to talking to npcs, as the action button sometimes requires multiple presses to activate, as well as access the main menu.
The NPCs also pose a small problem due to the fact that some cities have one square paths that sometimes an NPC will wander into this tight corridor and force you to wait until they have moved away. The worst case scenario was once two different NPCs were able to block my character in and force me to wait for three minutes for one to move just far enough out of the way to leave. This could have been easily resolved however if they allowed certain NPCs to be passable.
Graphics:
Out of everything that has been said about the game the strongest aspect is Final Fantasy I’s revamped graphics. Though the graphics are a direct copy from the PSP version of the game released back in 2007, it shares some extremely well drawn characters and monsters.
Character motion is fluid and each dungeon’s atmosphere is superb. Every inch of Final Fantasy I’s original graphics have been rebuilt from the ground up. Though the characters have had extreme face-lifts in terms of drawing, they are both easily recognizable and better than they were before. During battle is where the graphics truly shine as a full graphic presentation of each character and monster is visible. Magic spells of both White and Black magic have been completely redesigned and match their namesakes; lightning summoning devastating lightning bolts and protect forming a glowing barrier around whichever ally received said buff.
However outside of battle the world map itself contains aged visuals and in some situations brings the question as to what year the game itself was released. Not only this but some village design is unfortunately extremely poor. An unlucky player may find him/herself completely blocked into a city walkway by two NPCs that have wandered into the walkway. Ordinarily this would not be an issue, however in many cities there exists a few paths which contain only one walkable tile. With the NPC standing on this tile, there is unfortunately no way to move past them.
This could easily be remedied however in a patch that allows the pushing of various NPCs if they are walked into for a long enough period of time. Or the incorporation of a system wherein if the NPC is pressed for a long enough period of time the character itself will walk through said NPC and freedom.
Overall:
Final Fantasy I is a great example of how RPGs used to be established in the years past. However there is a reason for restructuring and adjusted gameplay. But this title stands as one of the best retro RPG games available on the market today. Final Fantasy I for the iPhone/iTouch is a repackaging of the PSP remake, they have included a few extra dungeons, five to be exact. The Soul of Chaos pack and The Labyrinth of Time are the dungeons that have been added, which greatly extends the length of play. FFI does have some issues such as an extremely thin storyline and the ability to do quick battling would be a major improvement considering all the random battles which you will have happen to you.
EA and Crytek GmbH today announced that Richard Morgan, award-winning author of the science-fiction bestsellers ‘Altered Carbon’ and ‘Broken Angels’, is writing the story for this holiday’s blockbuster action game, Crysis 2. Morgan is working with Crytek to bring his trademark visceral writing style to the project, which is his first entry into the video game medium. In Crysis 2, New York is under the attack of a unique and frightening alien species that combines deadly weaponry, exceptional sensory abilities and intelligent collaboration to present players with the most challenging opponents ever seen in a first person shooter. Surrounded by devastation, players must assess the situations they encounter, adapt to this urban jungle and use the weapons and powers given solely to them to save New York. Morgan enters this distressed world and brings it to life with gritty characters, a rich back-story and plot twists rarely found in video games.
Ignition Entertainment / Zombie Studios are onto something really big here .. Check out the details below for their up and coming multiplayer focused first person shooter title Blacklight : Tango Down that will be released exclusively through Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Store and also PC distribution channels.
Taking a look at the video trailer Blacklight looks fantastic as a XBLA, PSN title. Check it out for yourself click on the image below. To find out more click in the link further down to read all about the game in the PRESS release information.
MasterAbbott is back for another of his Video Game Video Reviews.
This time I’ve sat down Wii mote and Nunchuk in hand and given EA / Viceral Games new SCI-FI Horror on rails Shooter for the Nintendo Wii : DEAD SPACE EXTACTIONa good run through
As always .. ill keep it short n sweet .. so lets cut to the chase DEAD SPACE EXTRACTION, has action, shooting, a great storyline, shooting, scary monsters, shooting, cool features and did I also mention that it’s got shooting ?? Well it IS a shooter. Most people call these style of games shooters on rails. You don’t and cant control where your going. The game takes you down a path and all you have to do is shoot, pick up things and solve little puzzles along the way.
You have brief moments of quick exploration which are really nice but they end to quickly and you’re then pulled back onto the rollercoaster.
The gameplay is excellent. At certain parts in the game, players are given a option to choose specific paths to explore. (ie take the stairs down or go through the door), players can also select specific weapons that they pick up along the way (provided that they are quick enough to grab them). Dead Space Extraction’s biggest selling point for myself and most players is the FANTASTIC story which you get to enjoy along the way. Nothing is rushed, at certain parts in the game you get to sit back at times and really take in the story and what’s going on. It’s not just point at the screen with your Wii mote and SHOOT SHOOT and SHOOT some more mindless type of game as a lot of people think it might be.
Also in certain sections in the game you get to hack into security panels and with the aid of the wii mote you have to guide the cursor through a maze to unlock doors ect. You also have the power to move things around with the simple press of the A button which acts are your grab telepahic hand, the grab is also used to pick up things along the way explained before like weapon powerups, text logs and a really cool new one called a audio log (very smiliar to Bioshock) once you pick it up the internal speaker on the Wii mote starts to transmit the audio book directly through to you. ITS VERY COOL and something i’ve never seen or heard before on a Wii title.
You can also enjoy all the mayhem, horror and action with a friend as two player mode, this really makes the game even more enjoyable.
As Dead Space is a SC-Fi Horror type game with a age rating of 18+ I would recommend playing this late at night .. turn off the all the lights .. make sure its really really dark. Put the sound up really loud.. (make sure the kids are in bed) and strap yourself in for a rollercoaster ride that you’ve never experience before !!
We give DEAD SPACE EXTRACTION a cool 8 capsules out of 10 recommended it to anyone with a love for the Dead Space series, Shooters with a twist. Grab your copy now at your local game store near you.
Now some of you out there might not know what Halo Waypoint is all about ..
Well you’ve come to the right place… MasterAbbott is back with another one of his reviews .. this time its a run down on what Halo Waypoint for Xbox 360 is all about.
Its pretty cool, watch the video below and all shall be releaved …
Have any questions or comments, please let us know. Also dont forget to check out Capsule Computers Forumto discuss all your issues relating to Halo or anything else there.
Splinter Cell: Conviction’s Collector’s Edition which is going to be released in America was originally priced at $80. However today Ubisoft has announced that the collector edition’s price will be dropping $10 to a slightly more affordable price of $70.
While fortunate to buyers, the price drop comes from an unfortunate reason indeed. For the Conviction Collector’s Edition will come in a steel case and includes an art book, comic book, decals, USB drive, and an in-game outfit and weapon. However one item included in this collector’s edition is defective and may contain nothing that is advertised. That item itself is the USB drive.
The USB drive was intended to carry large amounts of development information and small goodies for the computer that is inserted into. However Ubisoft performed a “random sampling” of their collector’s edition and as it turns out, the USB drives are completely blank in most cases. Not every one of them was defective so chances are if you receive a USB drive with the information on it, you have just gotten quite lucky.
Though not all is lost for those who have either pre-ordered the collector’s edition or those who are going to purchase it, because on April 15th Ubisoft is going to release information on how to obtain the missing material on the game’s official website.
This information only involves those who of us in America, as the special editions in other countries are meant to vary slightly. The game itself is due for release in the US on April 13th
I’m glad they at least were able to come out an admit that there was an issue with their product as opposed to releasing it with full knowledge of a problem. Not only that but they have also reduced the pricing of said product making it much the better. Ubisoft has pulled a great PR move here in my opinion. Because now they have not only admitted their mistake they are going to make up for it with a price drop in the special edition as well as providing the missing content at a later date. Who’s looking to pick up Splinter Cell itself? Anyone who pre-ordered worried about whether or not their USB drive will contain any data at all?
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is officially coming to XBLA. There is no release date for the XBLA yet, but the Steam version is currently set to release on April 28. If the same thing happens to the second game as it did to the first, you won’t have to expect the game popping up on XBLA until about a month later. The game includes a new deathmatch mode along with co-op, capture the flag and survival modes. Finally, a mode where I don’t actually have to go to the arenas to fight endless hordes. Survival mode, here I come!
If you plan on getting the PC version, Steam is currently offering pre-orders on the game for $2.00 off the price of $20.00. Pre-orders will also get an extra multiplayer and co-op character: Ugh-zan, the boss of The First Encounter. But as I recall it that beast was huge, so we’ll probably get a shrunken version.
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