The Banzai Effect has released their latest edition and guess what they have included? A full page dedicated to the announcement of To Aru Majutso no Index’s second season. Not only that but they have announced that there will be the inclusion of a PSP game dedicated to the series being released at the same time the second season begins to air. No other details are known about the game itself but one can expect to be playing as Touma and his Imagine Breaker power.
After the time we covered a rumor a couple of weeks ago I have been waiting with anticipation for either an announcement of there being a second season, or the denial of one. Personally I hate to be left hanging on things like this and with the announcement of the second season we’re definitely in for plenty of action.
Sony have released their June Media Bulletin. This is a recap of what’s going on in this month (June) and what we can expect to see moving forward. There’s quite a bit of information so what we’ve done is make a link to the PDF file for you all to download and read for yourselves.
The Sony Computer Entertainment media bulletin for June 2010 highlights recent news and future events including the announcement of Sony’s 3D TV, PlayTV and World Cup 2010 and even the Playstation MOVE plus a whole lot more.
It also mentions release details of the upcoming games, Kill Zone 2, Sing Star, Little Big Planet and PSPgo games.
Story
“The number one animated franchise of all time is back with Shrek Forever After™ The Game. Team up with your friends in the ultimate Shrek® game, based on Dreamworks Animation’s final Shrek movie. Play as Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Puss In Boots to out-smart, out-fight, and out-play that crafty Rumpelstiltskin!” [ Via Xbox.com]
The Shrek Franchise has always been accessible to audiences of all ages. Cute critters for the kids and jokes that are funny for adults. While Shrek Forever After follows closely with the movie, the game’s demographic is for younger kids. I’d suggest watching the movie before even playing the game otherwise the game might ruin the movie for you. Ill refrain from giving any of the story away and focus more heavily on the gameplay aspect of the game.
Gameplay
Shrek Forever After is perfect for families with a whole bunch of little kids. Kids will love this game; every part of the game is catered towards them. While the game is enjoyable for older kids they won’t get as much fulfillment out of it as kids between the ages of 8 and 12.
There are a lot of puzzles in the game that are pretty easy but can challenge a few people. If the puzzles become too challenging you can pay the three blind mice to give you a hint. The hint system is perfectly executed in order to give a small loss for actually asking for help. By paying a small amount of gold, you can gain assistance in the puzzle; but if you solve the puzzle by yourself you can spend that gold you saved on other items in the store.
Between most levels there is a store you can buy upgrades from. These upgrades can be unlockable items that will be dropped by enemies or an improvement to the powerups you can pick up. The stuff you can buy is completely optional and the game is pretty easy to beat without upgrading anything, but you get tons of money in the game and there isn’t anything else to spend it on so you might as well buy upgrades.
As you progress through the game you will run into some puzzles that can’t be solved at that moment. Returning to these puzzles after you unlock the ability to successfully complete them will give a large reward in gold. Hidden items and treasure chests are scattered everywhere in the levels, some in plain view while others are tucked away in hidden spots. Collecting everything takes time but is possible and simply requires patience. The first time you play through the levels, you won’t even be able to collect everything. After beating the game though, you will have every ability unlocked and can then return to the places that were once inaccessible.
There are four characters that you can play as: Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots. The ability to jump into the game with a second controller at anytime is a lot of fun and helps to keep the players within the story. There is no need to go to the menu and do a whole bunch of stuff to get the second controller into the gameplay. With up to four people playing at one time, Shrek Forever After is a fun party game. Each character has their own abilities that you must use in order to progress through the levels. The need to switch between all four characters in order to solve the puzzles encourages out of the box thinking as well as communication between friends.
The combat in the game is an extremely simplified beat ‘em up style. One button press is all that is required. The game seems to try to spice things up by warning you when an enemy is about to attack but it fails horribly. Most of your attacks will stun the enemy or even kill them before the enemy has a chance to attack. Due to these problems, the combat in Shrek Forever After is repetitive and seems pointless; especially since every level ends with a combat phase. The constant requirement to kill everything draws the game thin on the combat aspect.
Achievements
There are 35 achievements in Shrek Forever After and every single one of them are extremely easy. This is a kids game, so you can’t expect a super hard challenge. It would have been nice to see one or two semi challenging achievements, but all the achievements below can be achieved with minimal effort. The hardest achievement is literally filling up your ogre power meter to 100% and even that only takes a few attempts. The rest just take time and you actually exploring the levels to find every single chest. Other than that they are all easy, and getting all 1000 gamerscore in this game shouldn’t be a problem; unless of course you are 5.
Overview
Shrek Forever After is a pretty fun game. Play as Shrek, Fiona, Donkey or Puss in Boots as you try to lift the curse. The game is easy but that is because the game is focused at a younger age group. This game is perfect for young kids between the ages of 8 and 12. The reason for this is because the challenges aren’t challenging at all, but I’m also not 12 anymore. The drop in anytime you want co-op makes it easy to bring friends into the game without any hassle. With multiple puzzle concepts and a beat ‘em up play style the game is awesome for younger parties. As for older kids, the game should take you less than 5 hours to complete and it won’t leave you very satisfied. If you are under 12 or know someone who is under 12 buy Shrek Forever After, they will enjoy it.
I give Shrek Forever After
There are 35 achievements in Shrek Forever After and every single one of them are extremely easy. This is a kids game, so you can’t expect a super hard challenge. It would have been nice to see one or two semi challenging achievements, but all the achievements below can be achieved with minimal effort. The hardest achievement is literally filling up your ogre power meter to 100% and even that only takes a few attempts. The rest just take time and you actually exploring the levels to find every single chest. Other than that they are all easy, and getting all 1000 gamerscore in this game shouldn’t be a problem; unless of course you are 5.
Shrek Goes Green 30 – Fill half of the Ogre Power meter (primary profile)
100% Green Ogre 50– Fill up the Ogre Power meter (primary profile)
Swamp Sweet Swamp 20 – Use the magic mirror (primary profile)
Ogres Rock! 20 – Win the training fight in the forest (primary profile)
Swamp Sweep 20 – Defeat the witches in the Swamp (primary profile)
Towers Are For Sissies 20 – Defeat the Fairy God Mother in Dragon’s Keep (primary profile)
Back to the Grave 20 – Beat the Skeleton battle in the Peasant Village (primary profile)
Ring Them Bells 20 – Find and return all three bells in Peasant Village (primary profile)
Paid the Piper 20 – Defeat the Pied Piper in the Catacombs (primary profile)
Sinking Ship 20 – Sink the pirate ship (primary profile)
The Royal Highness Is Heinous 50 – Rumpel Defeated (primary profile)
Swamp Complete 50 – Complete 100% of the Swamp (primary profile)
So the achievement list has recently been revealed for the upcoming “Deadliest Warrior” Game. It is a game that is inspired from the TV show by the same name where warriors from across the ages fight each other to see who comes out victorious.
Below is the achievement list, and below that is a small preview of the game that was included in the Season 2 preview. The achievement list itself seems like a lot of fun. With dismemberment and Monty Python and the holy grail references. Also, by the looks of it, the game will include co-op since only the “Primary” player gets the achievements. Currently it is all speculation, but the video preview looks kinda fun.
A Head of the Competition 20 – Decapitate 100 enemy warriors as the primary player.
That Was Sparta! 20 – Kill 300 Spartans as the primary player.
Tournament to Kill 20 – Win 10 online tournaments as the primary player.
Pin Cushion 10 – Stick 4 projectiles in a single opponent as the primary player.
Against All Odds 20 – Defeat 25 warriors in Survival Mode as the primary player.
Flesh Wound 10 – Perform a final strike on an opponent after your arm has been sliced off as the primary player.
On Death’s Door 20 – As the primary player, kill an opponent while at critical health, with your leg and arm injured.
Right on Time 10 – Perform only perfectly timed strikes to defeat an enemy as the primary player.
Black Knight 20 – Remove all four limbs from the Knight during a single match as the primary player.
Deadliest Arsenal 30 – Unlock every weapon and armor available for every warrior as the primary player.
Shishkabob 10 – Remove an enemy’s head with a projectile and stick it into a wall as the primary player.
Who’s Deadliest Now? 10 – Defeat Arcade mode on the Deadliest difficulty as the Ninja, the Viking, and the Knight.
So MasterAbbott and I were talking about how we are managing to release a lot of news and reviews way before the big boys on other sites. Since we all have huge egos over here we won’t listen to your futile arguments trying to prove us wrong. As we were discussing this fact, MasterAbbott felt that it was important to share it with the world, so he pulled out his Gears of War gun and I pulled out my katana and we had an all out battle.
The battle raged on for days, but I came out victorious and MasterAbbott lay dead at my feet. Luckily he had a fairy in a bottle and is now back in top fighting condition. The fairy cost 50 rupees however and now I am stuck paying him back. SOOO MUCH GRASS CUTTING! My katana should not be used like this! OOH a rock with 5 rupees inside! now I just need 45 more rupees.
Now on to other important matters.
Hey! are you reading this? good! that means you are smart. Those not reading and waiting for another site to release the review we already released are stupid people. You aren’t stupid, because you enjoyed the Alan Wake review that was out way before the other guys. You aren’t stupid at all, you get free stuff for commenting. but you don’t comment for some reason. COMMENT YOU PEOPLE!!! it is easy and simple and fun!! What is so hard about saying a sentence or two on every single post we put out? Not only do you have a chance to win something big twice a month, but you have a chance to be randomly selected at a random time and place to receive random prizes. FREE STUFF!!
Comment! Sure, your views alone are awesome! But MasterAbbott’s ego needs to be stroked and everyone here at capsule computers loves reading all your comments. So comment, free stuff is on the line! FREEEEEE!!!
Last week, none other than Aperture Science themself sent an official email stating that the Portal 2 event scheduled to take place during E3 had been cancelled, and would be replaced by a ‘surprise’. They even went on to clarify that the cancellation of the Portal 2 event was not the surprise (thanks for that).
Of course, speculation immediately began brewing that the surprise would be the long awaited Half Life 2: Episode Three. A suspicious screenshot also emerged from the interwebs.
Sorry to squash those hopes and dreams, because big Valve boss Gabe Newell has stated that the surprise is NOT Episode Three.
Replying to a user from the Halflife2.net fansite, Newell simply stated that the surprise “isn’t Ep 3”. In a later email he stated the aforementioned screenshot was “fake”.
I’m sure nearly every one of us has thought of what would happen in the case of a zombie outbreak. Would you fortify a school? Gather anything you can and hunker down? Or constantly stay on the move?
In Madhouse Studio’s Anime adaption of High school of the Dead there has been a mysterious lethal disease that has spread around the world and has caused billions of people to die simply from the disease. Humanity is still threatened now; not by the disease but by those who have died. These walking dead have begun to attack the living and are slowly decimating the rest of the human survivors.
Now in Japan several high school students and the school nurse have joined together to try and escape their Fujimi High School after it has been attacked by the zombies. As they attempt to stay alive they also are trying to discover what could have caused such a terrible plague and potentially even find a cure.
Now this one is one of the highest on my priorities to watch when it airs July 5th, and I would recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys a good zombie movie or game. It will contain excessive gore though so be warned if excessive gore may upset you
Hey, are you enjoying the Crackdown 2 Webcomic series? IF so, you are in luck! the third episode is available to you now.
I could use the rest of this post to explain what is going on, and what has happened, and my thoughts on the matter; but reading is so tedious when you could just watch it for yourself. SO WATCH IT! WATCH IT NOW!
We have shown you many live action trailers for F3AR, but now it is time for a more gameplay oriented trailer. The most recent trailer below shows gameplay from both players. Pointman and Fettel as they do their own thing. ‘never face FEAR alone’. Oh yeah, there is something about deception and vengeance as well but we won’t know what that means until later.
