Many people are conversing with this twitter account and Sam Fisher has responded to a few, albeit vague and confusing responses. What mission is so secretive that you tweet about it? (I’m pretty sure there is some form of irony present here)
Follow him if you have a twitter account, and enjoy his ramblings about a mission. Hopefully his phone’s backlight doesn’t give away his position as he wait for the enemy to pass by.
Also, Splinter Cell: Conviction demo comes out tomorrow in North America, enjoy yourselves and join Sam Fisher in his mission.
Perfect Dark Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: Rare Platforms: Xbox 360 Release Date: March 17th, 2010
Story “Agent Joanna Dark hit the ground running in Perfect Dark, an epic tale of galactic conspiracies in 2023 America. Now this classic shooter comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, rendered in greater definition and detail and sporting a silkier framerate than ever before. Fire up your Farsight and prepare for assignment—the Dark returns…” [via Xbox.com]
The year is 2023, you play as agent Joanna Dark and must unveil the conspiracy that is surrounding the artifacts. Go through levels with guns blazing as you take out humans, aliens, and everything in between.
Joanna Dark is the perfect operative, hence the name Perfect Dark. With an arsenal of weapons and gadgets at your side it is up to you to save the world.
Gameplay This XBLA game is an exact port of the original Perfect Dark, so everything in the original is exactly the same in this port. There are a few extras, but the overall gameplay is exactly the same. Perfect Dark is a first person shooter that relies heavily on auto aim. Due to Perfect Dark originally being released on the N64 precision control wasn’t easily achieved and thus auto aim was mandatory. If you want you can turn off the auto aim, but the game becomes even harder if you do.
Every level has three different difficulties, but unlike a normal game you must play all the other previous levels at the harder difficulty in order to unlock that difficulty on later levels. Harder difficulties increase the speed at which an enemy reacts as well as the damage they do. Extra objectives are also added that gives you extra things to do. This makes the game even harder when the description of the objective is extremely vague. There is no radar or nav point to tell you where to go, so every objective must be completed by using your exploration skills as well as your skills of deduction.
Even the unlockable cheat codes have been ported over, all those codes that you played so hard to unlock in the original are available for you to unlock again in the XBLA version. 4J studios have added 31 new unlockable awards for you to work towards. These awards are like in game achievements, but are extremely difficult to get unless you look them up on the internet. The reason they are so difficult is because there isn’t much clue as to how to unlock them other than their name. Some examples are the “Magnum P.D.”, “Tick Tick…Boom”, and “Can’t touch this” awards. All you have is the name, and you must figure out what to do to get them.
There is also many multiplayer gametypes to play with your friends or the world. The Co-op enables you and a friend to go through the levels together. Counter-Op enables you to go through the level, while your friend plays as the enemies to try and stop you. Finally there is online multiplayer, where you can go against up to 8 people over Xbox Live. Sims are also available for local multiplayer, but unlike the original you no longer have to play only locally.
GamePlay Video Some Notes on the video Below:
I start off going through Carrington institute; everything has been ported including background info, cheats, and simulation training.
Due to time restraints I have to pretty much run through the first level on the easiest setting.
As you can see, I ran through all the other levels in order to get all the avatar awards. This did help show that in order to get the achievement for beating the game on every difficulty; you will have to beat each level 3 times. I got the achievement after beating the first level again on the easiest setting, since I did that level initially on the hardest.
As you can see, auto aim was enabled; you can turn it off in the options.
Each weapon has a secondary fire mode, the pistols secondary fire is a pistol whip.
On the easiest setting the game is quite easy, but the more difficult settings are quite hard since they add more objectives and harder enemies.
Graphics The game has been ported to the XBLA with everything from the original game intact, gameplay, secret areas, unlockable cheats; as well as a hand full of new Xbox live features. The game has gotten a graphical overhaul though. Everything visual has been redone. The original full game beautifully restored and back in full HD, 1080p at 60 frames per second!
Achievements – 20 achievements for 200 gamerscore.
The achievement list is almost completely comprised of random achievements. There are 4 achievements related to the missions but they are only worth 55 of the total 200 achievement points. The rest of the achievements will require you to do specific tasks that are not part of the story. Such as completing the challenges and getting all bronze at the shooting range. Then there are a few multiplayer achievements but they can all be done local with another controller. The hardest one is the new crown system which comprises of 31 miscellaneous in game achievements that have no other hint of how to complete it other than the name. The achievements list comprises of a whole bunch of random achievements that should keep you playing for a long time to get them all.
Perfect Dark also includes 2 avatar awards:
Perfect Aim – Kill any enemy with a headshot (This will happen by accident)[Perfect Dark Shirt]
Top Secret – Complete any Special Assignment on any difficulty. [Alien (Elvis) Doll Prop]
The Achievement List is:
How’s that for starters? – Complete dataDyne Central – Defection.
Both Barrels – Kill an enemy when dual-wielding.
Act your age, Joanna – Destroy Carrington’s wine collection.
Double 64 – Kill 128 enemies using secondary fire mode.
Camera Shy – Destroy 5 security cameras.
Deadly Laptop – Kill 50 enemies using the laptop in sentry gun mode.
Paci-Fist – Complete any Solo Mission on Special Agent or harder using only your fists.
Tools of the Trade – Get a Bronze rating or better with all 32 weapons in the Firing Range.
Versatile – Complete a Combat Simulator game using each of the six Scenarios.
Golden Days – Complete a Combat Simulator game on Felicity, Complex or Temple using Classic Weapons.
Prime Target – Complete every Challenge up to and including 29, the 10th Prime number.
A Friend Indeed – Complete any mission in Co-operative Mode.
…Who needs enemies? – Complete any mission in Counter-Operative Mode.
dataDyne Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the dataDyne weapons.
Carrington Institute Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the Carrington Institute weapons.
Maian Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the Maian weapons.
Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Agent.
Special Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Special Agent.
Perfect Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Perfect Agent.
Crowning Glory – Earn all the Leaderboard Crowns.
Overview
Perfect Dark on the XBLA is a blast from the past that any Perfect Dark fan will love. All the extra touches you came to love are still included within the game, such as the unlockable cheats. There is so much in this package and for the price of 800MSP it would be hard for anyone to pass up; 2 gamerpics, 2 avatar awards (3 if you count the different genders of shirt as 2), and a theme. I give Perfect Dark for the XBLA 9 capsules out of 10.
Pros
This Classic Port is very well done, and keeps all the stuff that was great about the original while making it HD.
2 gamerpics, 2 avatar awards, and a Perfect Dark theme to unlock; all within an 800MSP game.
Tons of Replayability, with 3 different difficulties, fun extras, side missions, and online multiplayer.
Cons
The AI acts extremely stupid.
The game is dark, really dark. I had to mess with my settings because I was unable to see where I was.
No sense of direction. Without a radar you can easily get lost within a level if you aren’t good at remembering landmarks within a level.
Optional
It is a port of a the classic Perfect Dark but in HD. Some people might like this, while others will not.
No checkpoints, you must beat a level completely without dying. (This could be a Pro for people who like a challenge, and a Con for those who don’t)
Even the Classic glitches were ported, for fans of the original this will bring back memories, but for newcomers it may seem like sloppy work.
Capcom’s 1942 : Joint Strike will be 50% off tomorrow (March 18th) on the Playstation 3 Network Store for only $5.50 !! THATS A SUPER BARGAIN !!
1942 has and will always be a classic, I remember playing this in the arcades back in the day. Nothing will come close to its originality and amazing gameplay for its time it was the king of the vertical shooters.
Another note : PSN store also has AGE OF BOOTY at half price as well. But this will end tomorrow. So make sure you grab it before it goes back to its normal price.
Stay tuned for the weekly Playstation Store update tomorrow for the rest of the cool deals, demos and movies 🙂
Hi everyone, DuraRoc here with a bit of a change of pace.
We needed something to keep the kids occupied as there was nothing on TV and it was raining. Checking out the Wii store, we decided to pick up Family and Friend Party for 1000 Wii points. It has been available since March 2009.
This game is full on multiplayer – don’t even bother trying to play single player, though you can, there really wouldn’t be much use in doing so. Up to 8 players can play, I think you need a minimum of 4 to have some fun.
There are 6 mini-games which you play to win coins. These coins are then used to buy the full mini-game or to play it once more during the rounds – they aren’t used to play one off mini games whenever you want.. Let’s go through a few.
Telepathy
In this mini-game you have to have the same answer as your partner. For example – Names a National newspaper. You then enter in whether you got it right or not.
Act
This is similar to Pictionary, where you have to guess the word what your partner is trying to act out.
Draw
This was a lot of fun, though it’s pretty hard to draw with the Wiimote – it was funny trying to figure out what a 4 year old is trying to draw! This is one of the games where you partner has to hide their eyes whilst the word comes up on screen.
Spell…
This one is a bit hard, especially for the younger people – the word comes up and in a time limit you have to spell the word backwards using the WiiMote. The first word we had was obscenity. Well I failed! Spelling with the Wiimote is not the easiest thing.
Act
This mini-game is similar to charades – again your partner has to hide their eyes whilst the word comes up.
Guess…
This is like hangman, except there is a time limit and you only get 5 wrong answers.
PSIMON
This was my personal favourite. You have to match the flashing lights in sequence.
As I said above, two of the games require the players to do the said actions and then click Yes or No as to whether it has been completed correctly. This makes me think – are we playing a computer game or a normal board game? I think the programmers should have developed games where the answers, whether correct or not, are left to the game itself to decide.
There is also a Duel Mode, which is quite cool. They happen during the game, either against the CPU or another team. There are 3 Duels.
Maths – where you have to pick the number to get the equation right.
Duck Shooting – shoot those little yellow ducks!
Paper,Scissors, Rock – the age old decider!
Audio in the game is next to nothing. Your host says Hi! and Hello! alot, and some yays! but that is about it. The music is catchy, but during the mini-games there is nothing. All the instructions for the mini-games are on screen.
Graphics are what you expect from a Wii game – the developers did hit on a winner with the easy menu navigation and ease of use (maybe this was for the those who have had one too many!)
What would have made this game the best value for money and alot more fun is Wii Play! This definitely is a game that could be played with people across the world – though who isn’t going to cheat and say Yes to some of the mini-games? 😀
Conclusion
I can see this coming out at parties after a few drinks have been had. The game is as fun as what the participants make it, so a noisy lot would most probably love it.
As you may have seen, I occasionally post some information about the latest things happening in the anime world, and though most of these are Japanese anime only. This one may appeal to everyone here. Viz Media has launched Viz Anime.
This website allows you to view streaming episodes that are already subbed even though the show has only just aired in Japan. Fans of the new Inuyasha or Naruto: Shippuden should greatly enjoy this new feature. The shows are shown via Hulu, so expect some commercials sporadically placed while watching anything.
You may or may not have noticed, but Dice and EA have been Mocking Modern Warfare 2 every step of the way. The video above demonstrates an example of the mockery.
You may remember the MW2 PSA that had to do with random grenade spamming. (which sadly was removed from the internet).
For those of you who have play BF:BC2 you have most likely noticed the mockery within the game as well. Although BF:BC2 lost the sales war, the developers have won all the internet fans with their humor, and isn’t that all that matters?
EA has finally narrowed down the release day for Skate 3.
On May 11, everyone in North America will be able to live out their dreams once again as a pro skater while not getting the fame or fortune.The game will be available May 14 everywhere else.
Skate 2 was widely excepted and loved, how many of you will be getting Skate 3?
White Knight Chronicles
Developed by : Level-5
Platform : Playstation 3
Category : RPG
Replease Date : 25th February 2010
Rating : PG
Price : $94.97 AUD from Fishpond
Story :
White Knight is an fantasy tale about two kingdoms in the midst of a longstanding war. The King of Balandor, wishing to put an end to the war, invites the duke of Faria to the castle to celebrate his daughter’s coming of age. But this celebration is sabotaged by the Maji, a rouge sect seeking to steal the the White Knight, an ancient weapon of war sealed beneath Balandor castle, in order to take over the world. During the ensuing chaos, a young man named Leonard accidentally unlocks the power of the White Knight as he attempts to save the princess.
With his power, Leonard manages to fend off the Magi attack, but not before they escape with the princess. With the Kingdoms in chaos, Leornard is entrusted with the mission to find the Magi and rescue the princess.
Review :
White Knight Chronicles starts off with a mandatory install as soon as you start up the game. Once completed the intro movie begins, which is a fine mix of in game engine and FMV which is quite impressive. Next you’re presented with creating a avatar. There is a total of eighteen base templates to choose from. You can spend a lot of time customizing your avatar just the way you like it. From facial features like, eye color, lip size and shape, to whacky hair styles to bald heads, you can even be over weight or tanked up and ripped with muscles from head to toe. The choice is all up to you. I was in there for a while creating the Legendary Monk that is MasterAbbott.
Once completed you’re treated another movie that introduces the players to the story of the royal family and their tragic past, with the death of their queen and their running war with Farians. Straight away the first thing you notice is the voice acting and lip syncing is a little second rate. As with most dubbed J-RPG games you always tend to lose some sort of quality and in this case, both the voice acting and lip syncing have payed the price.
With the introduction out of the way your provided with a quick but easy to understand tutorial that explains how to move, use the camera, speak to NPC and also use the Logic stones, which are used to save your game, heal your party, use and store your items and even change the appearance of your character once again. Communicating with the NPC is very simple as all you need to do is press up and down on the controller and it will cycle through the available NPC that are within talking distance. One disappointment was all NPC you speak to are not voiced. All dialog is presented to you via text. There are quite a lot of NPC within the castle and a fair amount of reading to be had if you want to speak to each and every one of them.
Other features you have available to you are the character emotions, presssing the select will bring up a menu allowing you to choose from a variety of different posses, none of which will get any sort of reaction from the NPC’s in the game. So there is no need to even bother trying them. They will come in handy once you’re introducted to the GeoNet Multiplayer features where your actually playing online with real human controlled characters, and then if you feel like bowing, waving, etc you might get a response if the other person on the other side of the world can be bothered performing an action.
Ok let’s get to the fighting. Your first introduced to the battle system when you reach Balastor Plain, your given a quick rundown with the tutorial pages that appear on the screen. Initially like most of us, you’ll have no clue what they mean or how it actually works, but time, practice and patience is the key. You only get to control one character at a time. You can switch between the party by going into the select menu. Enemies are visible on the minimap as red dots so you easily try to avoid them or go in for the kill. Some enemies won’t attack you unless you target them and throw the first punch, then all hell will break lose, if there are other monsters in close proximity they will join in on the action, so be careful not to get overwhelmed.
Battle is somewhat turn based but the player can run around the battlefield whilst pick and choosing his or her next attack. From a simple slash with the sword or casting a fireball the same amount of time is taken to charge up and perform the move. Once that move is completed a cooling off period is presented in the form of a circle on the screen and as the timer makes its way full circle your character is then allowed to attack once again with what ever move you have chosen next to perform. It’s not very complicated to get your head around and makes you feel like your actually doing something. Another cool feature is the battle results are listed on screen, so you’re able to see the amount of damage you just performed or the amount of damage you’ve received from the enemies along with successful blocks, avoids and parry’s. This is a nice feature and gives you a running tally of whats happened in battle.
Exploring the initial Balastor Plain could take you as little as 10 mins if you run straight for he goal location or as long as you like. The map is huge and there are many monsters to kill along the way. Once you take them out they will re-appear once again within a matter of minutes. This one one thing I’m particularly not too keen about. As always there’s an up side and a downside to this. If you love your level grinding this is perfect. Kill a set of monsters in an area, move forward a tad kill some more, then come back and kill the ones you just killed, repeat steps 1 and 2 over 3 billion times and after 100+ hours your fully maxed out. Honestly I personally would of liked if the enemies did not respawn but this is not the case in this situation. So the only thing you can do is simply run past and hopefully avoid them without taking too much damage along the way.
Moving onto the skills, these are learnt by spending skill points once you level up. You get four skill points every time a character levels up. One of the great things here is your character starts of with a clean slate, and its up to you to mould them however you see fit. There is a huge amount of skills to learn. Characters can specialise in one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, spear weapons, bow, two-handed axes, staff, elemental magic (offensive) and Holy Magic (heal spells etc). This is a very effect way of creating and building a character just the way you want. You also get to build your other characters in the exact same way as well, so you can have characters that specialize only in Holy Magic spells that will heal and remove curses and paralysis and other characters that will cause an amazing amount of damage with two handed weapons. It’s a very neat setup that works quite nicely.
You can spend a lot of time fine tuning your characters skills and abilities and then allocating them to the action bars that appear when you engage in battle with enemies. This style of menu system is implemented very well as it removes any on screen menu screens that most turn based rpg’s use. Another excellent feature is the ability to create combo specific attacks. As you progress you unlock more abilities, one such ability is the Master weapon skill, that will enable you to string together massive combo attacks one after the other. Unlocking for example the second Master Skill for one-handed sword will enable you to choose three attacks. Once you create a combo you allocate to a slot in your action bar and it used the same way as your other regular attacks, but in the case of the single attack you press the X button once you take a swing and then your turn ends. For the Combo attack you press the X button in quick succession and your character will pull off the moves you have chosen one after the other resulting in devastating and sometimes massive amounts of damage on enemies.
Once the early levels are out of the way the world really starts to open up and exploration increases, of course enemies become hard, bigger and certainly very impressive. This is where level grinding will be required as new areas that open up they will not be a simple walk in the park, but if your a fan of turn based RPG or even RPG’s in general a little bit of grinding will be second nature to you and you will find that you’ve already clocked up over 100 hours of gameplay in no time.
The multiplayer feature called GeoNet is something that Level-5 has implemented quite nicely. You can do a variety of great things, such as blog your adventures, share pictures, your stories and experiences with other White Knight Chronicle players around the world. You can also go on four player missions to gather riches beyond your wildest dreams and also show off your good looking character that you created. I have to admit that the system works extremely well and even though your going on missions that are not storyline specific to the game its still great fun and something a little different.
White Knight Chronicles is a fantastic RPG with a great single player storyline, unique character and battle system which works very nicely. It will take a little bit of time getting used to, but once you have your head around it, you’ll thoroughly enjoy it. Along with the ability to play online with others via GeoNet there is a lot of gameplay to enjoy. Level-5 have done a great job, fans of RPG’s should take a look at it as its something different.
Capsule Computers gives White Knight Chronicles a 7.5 Capsule Out Of 10
GREAT NEWS for all you Gears Of War fans. It seems that there are rumors going around the internet that Epic Games are planning on releasing Gears Of War 3 around April 2011. A trailer from the game is also rumored to be made public sometime next month. WHO’S EXCITED ABOUT THAT !! I IS 😉 !!
Also there have been talks that at this years E3 in June we’ll get to see lots more and hopefully a bit of action/gameplay. I think this is probably the best news I’ve heard all day. I might get my Lancer off the wall and walk around the room with it for a little bit making the chainsaw revving sounds.
In fall 2009 AIC anime studio produced Suu Minazuki’s manga into a hilarious harem type anime involving angels from another world coming to one unlucky boy’s home.
Though the character types alongside the main characters were vaguely similar to most other animes of this type. The breakout character for me was Ikaros the angel, also termed angelroid. The way that her character was written was extremely interesting and brought back memories of other classic animes such as Chobits.
Thankfully however in the latest copies of the manga are also including advertisements for a second season of this great show! Personally I was worried considering the anime ended quite solidly, however there is always room to expand as the manga is still being published in Shōnen Ace.
Anyone potentially interested in this anime can watch the opening video below, as the first season finished a few months ago. With the second season just announced now may be the time to take a peek.
