Pointed out by Kotaku earlier today, the video below shows a stark contrast between the Japanese and dubbed versions of the Pokémon anime. The biggest difference is the intensity of the battle scene shown. The English dub seems to carry a sense of mystery and adventure throughout the battle while the Japanese original is a very hard core rock rendition. Honestly I don’t know which I prefer. I’m leaning more toward the Japanese version but I also grew up on anime like VS Knights: Lamune and 40 Fire.
What do you think?
Obviously both versions have a very different feel. We know Ash as a calm and cool strategist. Seeing him yelling his commands instead like a new cast member of Dragon Ball Z preparing an Earth shattering special attack is quite different.
On August 30th, Fallout 4 fans will get to take on last summer vacation before we get into September. Bethesda Softworks’s last DLC entry in the post apocalyptic RPG adventure takes players to a theme park based on the Nuka Cola brand! Nuka-World seems to be a Disney parody sort of park with quite a lot to do. I mean, there’s even a Space Mountain like ride! Plus there’s Skee ball! Check out the trailer below for the latest on this new location being added to the game.
I have to give Bethesda credit. In a world where there are a ton of locations and side quests to explore, they do keep DLC coming that does encourage players to diverge off the beaten path for awhile and seek out something new.
While checking out No Man’s Sky on Steam about a week ago, the recommended section lead to me a title called Rodina. Released just over two years ago, it’s also a space adventure that lets you take control of a smaller Star Trek like vessel to explore the neighbouring asteroids and planets. Think of it as a more compact No Man’s Sky. Created by an employee who used to work with Bethesda Softworks on Oblivion and Fallout 3, you know this is going to be an interesting adventure.
The biggest thing Rodina has going for it, besides the space flight and such of course, is the story. Much of it is told through emails unlocked via data cubes you find at marked locations on planets and asteroids. One of the rooms just off your ships main bridge has a communications unit, allowing you to automatically decode and read this data.
Sure there is a lot similar here to No Man’s Sky, but Rodina is it’s own game. If nothing else, the size of your ship is quite cool. It’s nice having a small home to drive around the stars. On top of that, there are some more unique moments. I’ve had a fire on my ship that I had to scramble around and put out with fire extinguishers. There’s space combat which I’ve actually found to be quite well done. The only big difference really is that the planets have somewhat noticeable transitions. You still fly through them, but you are encouraged to actually use a flight path rather than barrel down towards the planet like an asteroid on a collision course. I could be wrong, maybe this isn’t the loading time of the game, but really, that’s just tech jargon. You don’t see a loading screen, so good on Rodina!
As you follow the games instructions and upgrade your ship further, you’ll find upgrades to your engines to be able to fly away from the asteroid belt you start in to some far off planets. Warp speed is kind of neat in Rodina since it shakes the living daylights out of your ship. It really adds to the sense of power behind your travel.
I’ve only poked at it a bit, but if you want to take it easy and explore a detailed story, maybe Rodina is more what you’re looking for right now. Sure, there is a lot to explore in No Man’s Sky, but for under $20 you can take a different tour through space with Rodina if you need a break. Or if you’re just a fan who’s returned home from vacation and don’t really have the cash to spend on NMS but still want to try landing on various planets. There is a demo available as well! Check it out on Steam today.
With titles like No Man’s Sky just being released this week, you’d figure it would be difficult to be anyone else. That’s not the case with Acttil Steam release of Ray Gigant which is still holding strong on the popular new releases list. Originally released for the PlayStation Vita, the game sees players tackling a visual novel story with dungeon crawling elements included. If that isn’t enough to grab your attention, the story feels like an interesting mix between Neon Genesis Evangelion (without the mecha) and almost a Percy Jackson vibe as you join with others who have powers given by a mysterious power known as Yorigami. Potentially you could even compare it to Pacific Rim with how the aliens just pop up and are classified. The characters are part of a school which seems to just be there to support these gifted individuals to fight back against these aliens who are called Gigants.
Combat in the game itself is turn based and the story itself plays out very well between the cast. At least the bit I’ve played so far doesn’t feel sluggish which I really appreciated for a more action based title. I’m really digging the feel of the story and clearly it’s piqued Steam users curiosity as well. That and the artwork is just beautiful! Both in battle and overall.
When you combine that with the fact that the game is 40% off until August 17th, it’s certainly a risk worth taking. The only complaint I’ve heard so far is so possibly some issues with the music not syncing up with the rhythm game section some battles have, but even that doesn’t seem to be a major issue. At $17.99 USD, it’s been a fun ride so far and I’ll be releasing a review in the coming future.
LEGO games have gone through many adventures. It’s a hit phenomenon that has even spun off a “toys to life” NFC game with LEGO Dimensions. The main franchise has kept a good track record of adding new content instead of just rehashing the tried and true gameplay. Sure, LEGO games feel familiar, but if you look back to the early days they really have come a long way.
In LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the franchise adds some new and interesting goodies to once again expand upon that experience. Obviously the main reason to pick up this latest release is to play through comical renditions of the movies memorable scenes. It may seem like there wouldn’t be much content just drawing from one film, but TT Fusion has added enough interesting content along the way to make it feel like you’re playing the adventure, rather than just watching one movie play out.
One of the biggest additions that has fans excited is missions that expand the story of The Force Awakens. The first unlockable sees Poe Dameron rescuing Admiral Ackbar from a Star Destroyer. Gold Bricks unlock this content and it makes replaying old levels worthwhile to get these new stories. It’s actually quite a nice reward instead of just getting one bonus level at the end of the game after gaining 100% or what not in previous titles. Most of all, it’s the new content that you’ll want to see so it makes it a draw to want to get those levels open.
As noted above, it’s the additions that really make this yet another LEGO title that’s worth picking up. For one, there are first person shooter scenes. That’s right! A LEGO game with FPS moments. They’re more like Gears of War really, but that shouldn’t scare any parents away from picking up the game. Naturally everything is still in a light hearted LEGO style. It just means characters take cover behind obstacles and can pop out into first person mode to blast away at some nearby storm troopers. Auto aim typically gets you right on target, but you can aim around as well to blast around the environment.
Using scout binoculars is a fun little addition as well which allows certain characters to go into first person to find weak points on enemies or hidden objects. The view finder beeps quicker and closes in two arrow icons to indicate when you’re on the right track. It’s a basic addition, but still something that adds variety to the gameplay. Other things like computer hacking which focuses on a couple matching games, or even language translation with C-3PO gives gamers different things to focus on.
The Force Awakens like many Star Wars movies focused on visiting many planets. Of course this makes including a free roam world something a bit more difficult. TT Fusion did find a way to include that experience as well though! Throughout your adventure there are free roam areas to explore in the different sections. One even sees you completing tasks around the Millennium Falcon. Like with many games, this gives a sense of home locations that feel calmer and familiar between all the battle scenes. There’s gold bricks to find in these places and new characters to recruit to use in free play, so they’re enjoyable to wander around.
Like with many LEGO games, Dimensions included, I always play them multiplayer with my wife. LEGO The Force Awakens usually has that spinning split screen that decides where you are in relation to the other player and splits the screen to give you both the largest view of your area. When you get close to each other, the view merges together again. I think in freeplay areas it’s split down the middle of the screen though since you can wander a lot further in those levels. It’s good to see that the co-op experience still remains strong.
There is vehicle combat in the game as well. So you’ll occasionally take to the skies and blast away at incoming fighters. Both sections where you’re constantly flying in one direction and all range battle arena style combat is included. These are typically quite fun and even allow the second player to take over rear facing guns on the Millennium Falcon. The only down side I found was that it was hard to shake some enemies that had flown into formation behind you. That’s probably just me though not being sure what to do.
As has become the norm with LEGO games as they progress through the years, boss battles are typically puzzle based. You’ll try to find objects to destroy or build around the area to deal some damage to the enemy. This is great since it adds more to what would otherwise be a quite basic beat ’em up section. It makes boss battles an event instead of just another enemy to fight.
One thing I did notice was that puzzles never really became too frustrating in this outing. The very rare time in previous LEGO games you could get pretty lost on what to do or even have a glitch leave a puzzle unsolvable. I think in all our time we had one puzzle that tripped us up a bit, but probably in single player we would have received a bigger hint from the computer controlled characters doing their part instead. As a co-op team, that focus fell on us and we had to work together to figure out what to do. So all in all not a bad thing, and certainly an improvement over those rare frustrations of the past.
We also found stud collection to not be that much of an issue this time. Sure, you do still need to break everything and collect as much as you see to get your True rating in a level, but it didn’t feel like we were going to not accomplish that. There was only about one level we didn’t get enough studs on before unlocking our x2 red brick multiplier. Even then, by the time we unlocked that red brick it only took running through one level to have the studs to purchase it. So for that strategy, the game is very well paced out.
Multi-builds are the other new gameplay feature which we both loved and hated at times. Basically they are piles of bricks that can be build into more than one object. That object can then be destroyed and rebuilt into one of the other forms. I admit, there were times that characters would indicate that you needed to build a different object first instead of what you did make, but at times it felt like a chore. We weren’t too sure what would do what. Also playing co-op limited the multi-build outlines we could see at times. I don’t think we ever couldn’t see one on screen, but it did lead to us just holding in one direction to see if we could build left, right or center. In general they are fun. But any time we weren’t sure if the object we made was what we wanted first, it kind of slowed us down. Multi-builds aren’t bad, and it’s a clever idea considering it is an actual LEGO feature for the real brick sets you can buy. We just wished that you could get more hints to speed things along or even build more of a story around the puzzle. Yes, I get that it would detract from it being a puzzle however. Perhaps even a small title under each multi-build could have helped so we could see things like, “Water tank”, “Pump”, “Power source”, and decide which was important to build first.
Overall the game is great! There’s lots going on, enjoyable moments with a wide variety of characters, and a good mix of gameplay that keeps each level entertaining. Some previous games could feel a bit exhausting in longer levels, but thanks to mixing things up with the first person shooter like sections and aerial combat, the levels kept us interested. There’s a lot of fun to be had here and the season pass adds even more interesting levels into that mix. LEGO TFA is a worthy addition to the Traveller’s Tales games and this one celebrates the return to the Star Wars universe.
Last Monday was nothing short of amazing! As part of a small group of media we were able to visit an exclusive event at The Rogers Center in downtown Toronto. That’s right, the exact field the Toronto Blue Jays play at became a fantastic spectacle to highlight Traveller’s Tales upcoming new LEGO Star Wars release. We entered to the familiar John Williams score, making our way up into the TD Comfort Clubhouse to enjoy an all star treatment while being some of the first in Canada to play the new game.Read More
With only one week until launch we now have a character spotlight focused on everyone’s favorite new Dark Side apprentice, Kylo Ren! He is still an apprentice, right? Anyway, you can check out the action below and be sure to tune in later for Darkain Arts Gamers coverage of the LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens event at Toronto’s Roger’s Centre last night!
Remember, LEGO The Force Awakens releases on June 28th! Next Tuesday you can learn more about the storyline around the new Star Wars movies!
Did you nab up a copy of Twilight Princess HD? Well Wolf Link’s amiibo is getting new life in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild! We’re not too sure on how it works if you don’t play the Cave of Shadows in Twilight Princess, but Wolf Link can join your new adventure! That’s right, two Link’s at the same time! Have Wolf Link join… well whoever this Link is! What do you think? Who is this new Link? An old friend, or a new lineage of the Hyrule legend?
For those of you who did break down and get an import stand alone amiibo, it looks like he may still be compatible without Cave of Shadows data. A stage show from E3 showed a Wolf Link amiibo being tapped in that only came up at three hearts. This may be the default if no other data is detected.
Check out the trailer below to see Wolf Link in action in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild!
Creating experiences in VR is a difficult task, and a unique one. Seeing what is happening on a TV screen and experiencing it through a pair of goggles are two separate worlds really. As discussed during the E3 2016 PC show even something like gun recoil needs to be rethought for VR. It needs to feel powerful just the same, but not take the user out of the experience. The game itself cannot control the players head. Instead developers need to find new ways to convey the sorts of motion and also direct the players attention toward the action as it unfolds. That’s what is being thought through for Killing Floor: Incursion.
From what we learned about Killing Floor: Incursion at the conference, it seems they are taking things like this into account. It’s a different experience and something that must be handled with VR in mind. I’ve personally worked with some VR video editing myself, and it is a completely different medium to work with. Seeing developers keeping this in mind is an important thing. We are just scratching the surface of a brand new entertainment platform and so far this is looking really awesome!
Check out the content below from Killing Floor: Incursion’s trailer.
Have you played the original State Of Decay? You should really get on that! I quite loved the original and besides some frustrating moments seeing my characters become too weak to continue the fight, it was a great title! Featuring an open world, new characters to take over as your current survivor eventually dies, and safe houses to develop into havens for those who have not yet turned, it’s a great game! Not to mention the expansions that even took the game into a pretty detailed city connected by highway sections to explore.
So we now know that there is even more of that great action to come!
Last year Rare had a first glance ready for us with the premiere of Sea Of Thieves. Today we were treated to some actual multiplayer gameplay with some selected players experiencing the game for the first time. It’s something else to see Rare’s take on something like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. This is certainly a game we’ll be following and a genre that has been a ton of fun in the past.
Skylanders has kept quite fresh over the sixth year we’re going into. This latest installment, Skylanders Imaginators, is no exception. Toys For Bob who brought gamers the original Skylanders release is behind the helm on this one. The big gimmick this time is an item called Creation Crystals. With one for each of the ten elements, and the base game including a fire element Creation Crystal, gamers will be be able to design their own in game Skylander for the first time.
From what we’ve seen in the trailer below there are a TON of parts to use to build your own creation. New Sensei Skylanders are also included now. No details have been released on them yet that we’ve noticed, but the base game does come with Master King Pen, a large penguin Skylander. Also surprisingly there will be villain figures this time! The base game itself includes the Golden Queen who was introduced in Trap Team.
Kotaku noted from an interview that customization is huge. “Body parts, costume pieces, colors, special effects, weapon types, catchphrases, voice type and pitch, abilities, special moves—it’s a ridiculously deep system,” Mike Fahey noted. He also mentioned that the reason behind this new gimmick is that Kaos has come into posession of Mind Magic, the tool originally used to create the Skylands by an ancient race. Naturally Kaos is using this power to create an army of aptly named Doomlanders to take on the world.
What will this mean for game play? The original game featured players fighting off against Kaos controlled dark Skylanders in boss battles. Does this mean the game will draw upon this rich creation system to randomize enemies gamers will be fighting as well? Those possibilities are especially intriguing.
The NFC figure market has been struggling lately. Skylander Superchargers unfortunately underperformed despite being unique in adding racing and different types of levels that went beyond the typical element inspired content. Size change content especially played an interesting role in Superchargers, so I’ll be curious to see if any of that returns. Many factors could have played into this slump however. Canada especially has been heavy hit this past Skylanders generation because of the falling Canadian dollar. Figures at times were much higher priced than the audience was accustomed to and with Superchargers being the fifth version, that may have deterred parents.
Regardless of all those details Toys For Bob is making a strong comeback. This is certainly a huge option for fans to explore in creating their own Skylanders. One thing the series needs more of is content to keep players busy through the waves of figures released in that games cycle. It will be interesting to see what the game has in store this time to hopefully add more interest to keep players involved.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a new trailer today for the upcoming June 28th release of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This character profile highlights BB-8 in a short but sweet video. While the game in general seems to be a retelling of thew hit movie, there has been mention of additional story content as well. It seems the game will bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens with some backstory to the new cast.
That aside, here is a look at the new BB-8 trailer:
Over the past few weeks we’ve heard lots of complaints about the new DOOM, of course based on multiplayer. Fans have felt let down that it didn’t seem like DOOM. News got worse when it turned out review copies wouldn’t be released until launch day. What we didn’t expect was the campaign to look like a huge SMASH HIT!
The recent launch trailer was a nice touch and gave rise to gamer curiosity. What were we missing here? There was suddenly all this story and much more content than had really been released. We’d seen some PR, but nothing that really indicated the full scope of what the new DOOM would be. That little trailer gave a look at such an intriguing new campaign.
I mean, good on Bethesda for keeping things under wraps to launch such a huge surprise like this! Even I wanted some of the monsters to more resemble their classic game counterparts but after seeing footage of the new release, I’m really feeling the new DOOM!
It’s scary news seeing a Toys to Life series like Disney Infinity come to an end. Especially after Skylanders fans have heard that Supercharger sales aren’t up to expectation. The franchise has a lot of life left in it and I only hope we will see the changes needed to keep it going. Following is my advice for what I’d like to see.
Skylanders is a series I’ve enjoyed for a long time now. In the beginning it was easy to even laugh at. We had characters with names like Eruptor and Whamshell that at the time sounded silly. As time went on though and you got into playing the games, you came to treasure these members of your team. Now, so many years later we’re about to move on into the sixth Skylanders game. Obviously the concept took off.
Even other companies began to produce their own toys to life games. Disney Infinity, amiibo, and LEGO Dimensions joined the ranks of NFC figure titles. The concept was popular and very lucrative. But how can that keep going? Read More
