Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling @fourzerotwohas announced that Playstation 3 owners will be able to pick up new Modern Warfare 2 “Stimulus Pack” tomorrow on May 4th via the Playstation Network (PSN) Store. Along with the Stimulus Package being available Infinity Ward will be switching on Double XP on all playlists, for all players !!
So if you want to work on getting to those higher Prestige levels make sure you login and get cracking. Everything you do will be earning you twice as many XP points, kills, objectives noob toobing, care package stealing, you name it.
Thoughts:
The game is fun at first, but has 55 levels of increasing difficulty and by yourself it just becomes tedious. Bring in some friends for a little more fun, but after a while the party will just fall silent, and you get into the droll of beating each day. The achievements are pretty easy and just require a lot of patience to get through every day. The 7 days of hell achievement is the hardest one but even that isn’t that hard with patience. It just takes a long time.
Gameloft have sent through some exclusive Prince Of Persia screenshots on both iPhone & iPad. At the moment we don’t have much information, but by the looks of these screenshots this version of Prince of Persia is looking as good if not better than the PSP version.
Check them out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Due to some fluke of nature, I ended up with only 2 hours of sleep and with my trusty supply of mallow bites and tea I began playing the Halo: Reach beta once again. Today the beta releases and the Arena has finally been unlocked and can be played. While playing the arena (which is just a whole bunch of slayer variants and has a different ranking system) I ran into a group of kids who were discussing the legendary edition of Halo: Reach. They were psyched for the game to release and had already payed for the legendary edition in full.
Since I’m stuck waiting in the lobby listening to these kids discuss the legendary edition, they mention that they can’t wait to get the flaming armor. This instantly perked my attention and I asked how they were going to manage that, and they responded that the Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach comes with the flaming armor permutation. I immediately began to argue, unable to grasp the fact that Bungie would simply sell the coveted armor effect. In a note of self defense, I don’t look at limited edition bundles since I find them a waste of money. Just give me the game, and I’ll be happy.
Research into the matter brought me upon the picture to the left, and then the list of what is included in the legendary edition on Gamestop.com. In the list is “An exclusive in-game Spartan armor effect.” which simply restates what was in the picture. Judging by the picture alone, I would assume that it is the flaming armor, but would Bungie just give that away in the legendary bundle? If that is the case, then the flaming armor will become even more worthless then the recon armor, since you can buy the flaming armor while recon you had to do the vidmaster challenges which reserves the armor set to only those able to complete them. What is even worse, is the fact that the kids who were buying the legendary edition were only buying it for the flaming armor. $150 for virtual armor, that will be more worthless then recon after a week when everyone is using it?
I am leaning towards the armor effect being something different, and Bungie is using clever tactics in order to sell more legendary copies. I can’t find anywhere where it is confirmed to be the flaming armor, other then that picture which doesn’t prove anything. Also, if they were selling the armor effect why would they still use the job slogan “Get Hired, Get Fire” If they are just going to give it away? It isn’t much of an incentive if everyone has it.
It is true that Bungie has already given away 1 flaming armor to a person completely unrelated to the Bungie team, but in order to get it he had to have the fastest time in a sort of “Decathlon”. I tried for it myself, but I couldn’t even manage to find all of the grenades, let alone get them and cross the finish line in the shortest time. What are your thoughts on the matter? Should the flaming armor be sold? If it is, will Bungie get some new armor effect unique to them? How many weeks until everyone wearing the flaming armor is called a noob? Any ideas on what the armor effect could be if not flaming armor?
Ladies and Gentlemen the votes have been tallied, the Capsule Computers CREW have voted and this months Capsule Computers 8-Bit Warrior award goes to someone that’s contributed a great deal of input from the beginning of this month. This months winner has been an active member of the Capsule Computers Community and has shown a true passion to be part of the Capsule Computers Community. This months winner is :
Frankcastle66
Let’s all congratulate Frank on being the Capsule Computers 8-Bit Warrior for the month of April. As 8-Bit Warrior Frank now must work even harder to keep his coveted title !! There will be many challengers to his crown next month so everyone keep on doing what your doing, work hard and make sure you spread the word invite more people, become members, and fans of our facebook and twitter accounts, check out and participate in the forums. But most of HAVE FUN and enjoy all the news, reviews, interviews and cool stuff we share with you all each and every day.
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On another note. The staff at Capsule Computers have had a meeting to discuss the winners for the fortnightly competition. We would like to also announce the winners for the end of month. Winners are in no particular order :
Enzo3000
Andrenekoi
pjwification
poisonsix9
Congratulations to the 4 LUCKY WINNERS !! We will be in contact with you to advise you what prize you have won 🙂
Remember the rules : 1 to 5 WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN ON THE 15TH & END OF EVER MONTH ALONG WITH THE 8-BIT WARRIOR AWARD. THIS Will continue to be a PERMANENT COMPETITION !!!
On the 15th of every month 1 to 5 winners will be chosen using the same criteria we have use to pick our 8-bit Warrior.
At the end of the month 1 to 4 winners will be chosen once again along with the Grand Champion 8-Bit Warrior for the Month.
That’s all for this month guys 🙂 Keep up the great work. Continue to have fun, post, chat, twitter, Facebook and get involved in the forums. We’ll see you at the next Competition announcement on the 15th of MAY. Till then continue to enjoy all the great stuff we have to offer at Capsule Computers 🙂
It’s less than 1 month until UFC UNDISPUTED 2010 is released in Australia and THQ have now officially announced their EXHAUSTIVE roster featuring over 100 of the top MMA UFC fighters in the world.
For anyone with a Playstation 3, PS3 version of UFC UNDISPUTED 2010 features UFC Hall of Famers including the veteran Royce Gracie. Check out the list below provide courtesy of THQ.
The 100 roster trailer after this list !! Also make sure you download the exclusive DEMO, here are the instructions on what you need to do.
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Mustapha Al-Turk (NEW)
Andrei Arlovski
Pat Barry (NEW)
Shane Carwin (NEW)
Mirko Cro Cop
Junior Dos Santos (NEW)
Todd Duffee (NEW)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Antoni Hardonk
Heath Herring
Marcus Jones (PS3)
Cheick Kongo
Brock Lesnar
Justin McCully
James McSweeney (PS3)
Frank Mir
Roy Nelson (PS3)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Eddie Sanchez
Brendan Schaub (PS3)
Dan Severn (LEG)
Kimbo Slice (NEW)
Stefan Struve (NEW)
Cain Velasquez
Fabricio Werdum
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Mustapha Al-Turk (NEW)
Andrei Arlovski
Pat Barry (NEW)
Shane Carwin (NEW)
Mirko Cro Cop
Junior Dos Santos (NEW)
Todd Duffee (NEW)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Antoni Hardonk
Heath Herring
Marcus Jones (PS3)
Cheick Kongo
Brock Lesnar
Justin McCully
James McSweeney (PS3)
Frank Mir
Roy Nelson (PS3)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Eddie Sanchez
Brendan Schaub (PS3)
Dan Severn (LEG)
Kimbo Slice (NEW)
Stefan Struve (NEW)
Cain Velasquez
Fabricio Werdum
MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION
Yoshihiro Akiyama (NEW)
Ricardo Almeida
Alan Belcher (NEW)
Patrick Cote (NEW)
Kendall Grove
Dennis Kang (NEW)
Chris Leben
Demian Maia
Nate Marquardt
Drew McFedries
Dan Miller (NEW)
Yushin Okami
Nate Quarry (NEW)
Chael Sonnen (NEW)
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Ryan Bader
Stephan Bonnar
Jason Brilz (NEW)
Luiz Cane (NEW)
Steve Cantwell (NEW)
Rashad Evans
Forrest Griffin
Matt Hamill (NEW)
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
Keith Jardine
Jon Jones (NEW)
Chuck Liddell
Lyoto Machida
Tito Ortiz
Mauricio Rua
Thiago Silva
Krzysztof Soszynski (NEW)
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT & MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISIONS
Vitor Belfort (NEW)
Michael Bisping
Rich Franklin
Wilson Gouveia
Dan Henderson
Anderson Silva
HEAVYWEIGHT & LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISIONS
Mark Coleman
Brandon Vera
MIDDLEWEIGHT & WELTERWEIGHT DIVISIONS
Martin Kampmann
Mike Swick
WELTERWEIGHT & LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISIONS
BJ Penn
Diego Sanchez
Matt Serra
Sean Sherk
WELTERWEIGHT DIVISION
Thiago Alves
Carlos Condit (NEW)
Marcus Davis
Jon Fitch
Royce Gracie (LEG)
Dan Hardy (NEW)
Dustin Hazelett (NEW)
Matt Hughes
Anthony Johnson
Dong Hyun Kim (NEW)
Josh Koscheck
Chris Lytle
Karo Parisyan
Amir Sadollah
Georges St-Pierre
Paulo Thiago (NEW)
Frank Trigg (NEW)
James Wilks (NEW)
LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION
Nate Diaz
Frankie Edgar
Efrain Escudero
Terry Etim (NEW)
Spencer Fisher
Kenny Florian
Hermes Franca
Tyson Griffin
Clay Guida (NEW)
Joe Lauzon
Gray Maynard
Cole Miller (NEW)
Ross Pearson (NEW)
Kurt Pellegrino (NEW)
Jens Pulver (LEG)
Dennis Siver (NEW)
Joe Stevenson
Caol Uno (NEW)
Legend :: NEW= New Fighters. LEG= Legends, Playstation 3 Only Exclusive Fighters. PS3 = Promotional fighters only available when you preorder the game from Gamestop.
MasterAbbott recently sat down with the Yan Marchal, Managing Director of Sanuk Games, an official game developer with proven track record in creating fun and entertaining games on multiple platforms such as Playstation 3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, iPhone & Xbox 360. Yan runs us through the history of Sanuk Games and what it has planned for us moving forward.
Enjoy
Question 1 – Tell us a little bit about Sanuk Games Studios. How were they created, the origin behind the name Sanuk, when was it first established, and how many employees does it have today.
Sanuk Games is based in Bangkok since 2003 and we’re now a team of 25. I founded it after I had spent a number of years as a programmer at Ubisoft in Paris. I was willing to start a game development business on my own, but the high costs of operation in France make it very hard when you’re not carrying a high added value. Therefore I decided to relocate in Thailand, a country that offers a good combination of business-friendliness and quality of life. “Sanuk” means “entertaining” in Thai language.
Question 2 – Do Sanuk Games create games on all the major platforms, such as PC, XBOX, PS3, Nintendo, DS, iPhone ? Is development of Sanuk Games done in-house ? How many software developers are employed by Sanuk Games ?
We are indeed licensed on Nintendo DS, Wii, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360 and iPhone. In the past couple of years, our business focus was mostly on work-for-hire on Nintendo DS and Wii for 3rd party publishers. But in 2009, as the demand from publishers fell down, we had to broaden our scope to other platforms and to start publishing our own games. We did so on Playstation Minis, DSiWare, iPhone. Our games are developed in-house, although we sometimes use contractors for certain tasks.
Question 3 – What do you believe have been Sanuk’s greatest challenges designing games on all the platforms you currently cover ?
There are issues of various kinds. We create games for Western audiences from an Asian facility; therefore there is a cultural bridge to gap. We port games to multiple platforms with different characteristics and input mechanisms, therefore the functional design must be well thought-out. The biggest challenge, though, when you fund and publish games on your own, is to make the right decisions. You must get a proper vision of where the market is going and what is likely to work. You must assess where your best fit is given your set of skills and the market trends.
Question 4 – What has been Sanuk’s most popular game created to date. How long did it take to develop and if possible could you give us a little rundown on what it’s about and on what platform(s) it’s on.
I believe that Junior Brain Trainer, an edutainment game for elementary school kids published on Nintendo DS by Avanquest, is our best-seller to date. It has been in the top 20 DS budget games in UK during more than a year! It took something like 5 months to develop. Most of the credit for the success goes to Avanquest’s publishing team: they marketed it through the right channels, with the right PR, at the right price.
Question 5 – What engine / technology does Sanuk Games use to create and develop their games.
At this point we mostly use in-house technologies. Each team decides where they start from and what they use. This model works well for casual games with low functional complexity.
Question 6 – For new players not aware of Sanuk Games. What sort and style of games do you have available for consumers. Please explain in as much detail the broad range of titles available to consumers. Are most of the Games created by Sanuk only suitable for a specific age rating or can anyone enjoy playing Sanuk Games.
There’s a bit of everything. Edutainment games such as Junior Brain Trainer and Berlitz English, TV show spinoffs such as Ready Steady Cook and Countdown, crossword and Sudoku games with various brands (Telegraph, The Sun, The Times), one pet care game (Dolphin Trainer), one old-school action game (Barnyard Blast), one FMV horror game (Hysteria Project), etc. We are not restricted to any particular age rating.
Question 7 – What were the development teams inspirations behind creating games ? What other games have played a major role (past and present) in shaping and creating Sanuk Games.
The amount of creativity we inject really depends on the game. Some work-for-hire projects come with thorough specification that leaves no space for extra creativity, while some internally initiated projects have no holds barred! We have been doing so many different things that it would be hard to tell which specific games inspired us.
Question 8 – What is your favourite game out of all the Sanuk Games ever created ?
Barnyard Blast on Nintendo DS may be one of the cheesiest games we’ve ever released, but also one of the funniest. It has a unique identity and managed to get a (small) fan base on the internet. Unfortunately this enthusiasm failed to reach the general public and translate into a decent sales volume.
Spot The Differences on iPhone and PSP is a very simple game, but it is well executed and addictive. I find myself playing it quite often when I have a couple of minutes to kill on the go.
Question 9 – What can fans and consumer expect to see in the future in terms of new games made by Sanuk Games.
Hysteria Project on Playstation Minis is a port of an iPhone game originally developed by Bulkypix. I loved the game on iPhone and I thought it would be a good fit on Playstation Minis. We will certainly do more ports of games from other platforms if we find other good picks: I will tell more as soon as I can.
We are also working on a new project on PS3 with the Playstation Move: I will share details as soon as I can on this as well!
Question 10 – Finally.. What do you love most about working at Sanuk Games ?
Everything! I enjoy working in the game industry and providing entertainment value to consumers. I like working on smaller casual games, where we have more control than on big-budget productions, more diverse experiences and a quicker sense of achievement. I enjoy the quality of life in Thailand, I am pleased to work with skilled and dedicated professionals, and I like the challenge of running a business even when times are tough. One thing I have yet to achieve to a satisfactory level is financial success… but I’m working on it!
Special thanks once again to Yan for taking the time to answer these questions. We wish Sanuk Game the best of luck and we look forward to sharing with you all their latest creations in the future.
The reach beta is open to everyone with the invitation available through the Halo 3: ODST disc tomorrow. Due to the site update, this post had to be postponed to now, but with the beta being available to everyone tomorrow a preview is kind of pointless. Instead I have listed out what I enjoyed and what annoyed me about the beta. Hopefully the annoyances will be ironed out before the final release.
What I liked –
Gameplay is much more fast paced.
Every fight no longer ends with punching, due to the shield update.
Playing as an elite is a lot of fun with the new mechanics.
Jetpacks!
What Annoyed Me –
Pistols should not be that strong.
Focus Rifles are overpowered.
The voting system should not default to the first option in the list if no one votes, it’s almost always stockpile.
The blue team, while playing stockpile on powerhouse, has the upper-hand. The red team’s flags can be thrown into the basin and they take forever to get back, while the blue team’s flags can’t be put anywhere quickly and are much harder to remove.
In the heat of battle between elites it is hard to quickly tell the difference between friend and foe due to color similarities.
This Sunday Analytical was brought around due to the change to this site. It was intended to be posted the Sunday before the site update, but finals and the lack of a picture to go along with it postponed the completion of the post. It is here now, but the picture above isn’t very good (and that is being generous) so we’ll see if I decide to hold an art contest for a new logo. If you would take part in the contest, tell me so in the comment and it might speed up the development of such a contest.
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Change
Change is a normal part of life, all around you there is change. Humans are fickle creatures; however, and change scares many people. Fear brings on many reactions, and the specific reaction that is given is different among all people. The risks of changing something that people have grown accustomed to, is the reason control schemes in games have become universal. Once a control scheme has been pinpointed as the general favorite, it is rarely altered. A change can risk alienating a large chunk of your audience. Refer back to the “Game Originality” analytical to read more about originality in games. Below I will discuss in more depth the basic reaction to change: fear, and then layout the basic psychological defenses to fear that the human brain concocts. Most of the defenses lie in the subconscious but can be altered if knowledge of the defenses is present.
Fear is the basic response to change. When something is different or unknown, people fear it. The fear is a survival tactic that the human race has developed to protect themselves. The human race wasn’t always as sophisticated as it is now, and in order to survive you had to take everything as a threat. It was extremely risky to not fear, because everything tried to kill you back then. Fear is still present and it is present because it has been hardwired into our psyche in order to keep ourselves safe and alive. It is the root behind the irrational fear of the dark. Fear cannot always be experienced though and in order to avoid it the mind creates these defenses in order to stay socially acceptable. There is nothing wrong with being afraid and like stated earlier is an extremely wise defense against that which can harm you.
The first and most basic defense against fear is denial. Denial is a very strong defense mechanism that is used against many other things. Denial against fear is able to completely diminish any fear against an object. Denial enables the removal of what is the truth. Denial is unhealthy though and can bring a person to the verge of a psychotic breakdown if overused. Denial is able to remove a person from reality but if a weaker person is unable to hold onto reality it can create worse problems than those that were initially trying to be avoided.
The second defense against fear is anger. Getting angry is an extremely brutish response that not everyone can be privileged to. Anger is shown through violence or bouts of aggression. A majority of people who experience this defense don’t show it physically and instead bottle it. This is a terrible idea. If you get angry, it is best to release the anger in some manner. Do not release it onto someone else. There are many ways to release your anger and everyone manages it differently although not always wisely. A way to vent your frustration is dependent upon your preference, but physical violence towards someone else is never a good way to do it.
The third defense against fear is acceptance. This one may not seem like a defense but it is and is experienced by very few people by themselves. This is also known as facing your fear. Extremely straight forward, but a lot of the time it can either be very hard or very dangerous. Fear is there for a reason, and although some are illogical like the fear of long words (Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia), other seemingly illogical phobias such as the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth (Arachibutyrophobia) actually have logical roots. In the case of Arachibutyrophobia it has a deeper rooted fear of suffocation which is clearly hazardous to your health. On the other hand the odds of suffocating on peanut butter are very slim and the fear should still be faced. If you actually look at a list of phobias, many of them have extremely logical roots.
These three are just some elementary defenses and does not in any way outline every single defense mechanism. There are quite a few more including transference, reflection, and self inflicting defenses. All of these are much more technical and would take a whole bunch more explaining to do.
Great news for all you HARDCORE RPG fans that have a Playstation 3. Fishpond have Demon’s Sousl Black Phantom Edition available for pre-order. The Phantom Edition does come with a fair amount of extra stuff and for a FANTASTIC PRICE !!!
Grab it now click on the image or link :
Demon’s Soul – $69.99 (FREE DELIVERY if you live in AUSTRALIA)
* Also note PS3 disks are multi-region so they will play on any Playstation around the world *
The Demons Souls Black Phantom Edition will contain:
* Game disc
* Brand new hardback artbook filled with mesmerising concept and game art images
* New strategy guide
* Original soundtrack of the game on CD
Beautiful, compelling, and at times unforgiving, Demons Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PS3 owners have been waiting for since the platforms launch. Revolutionary online features define your adventure like never before, presenting seamless interconnectivity that serves in every instance to enhance the single-player game. Unprecedented in its depth and subtlety, peerless in its relentlessly challenging gameplay, Demons Souls is the ultimate action RPG.
Features:
* Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge-In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you will slice, smash, shoot, and cast magic against some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face up to the impossible and win?
* Ground-breaking online capabilities-Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade and wreak havoc in anothers game. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.
* Freeform and flexible-The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
![Demons Souls Black Phantom Edition [PS3]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODdhAQABAPAAAMPDwwAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)
