It looks like Ubisoft is getting ready to push South Park: The Stick of Truth as hard as they can as three new trailers have been released for the game, one of which was actually shown during the Super Bowl which turned out to be a one-sided stompfest.
Anyways, these three trailers give us a look at the various cutscenes in the game, including the return of everyone’s favorite Christmas Poo, Mr. Hankey. The trailers can be found below and the game itself is set to be released on March 4th.
South Park: The Stick of Truth TV Spot:
South Park: The Stick of Truth – The Return of Mr. and Mrs. Hankey:
South Park: The Stick of Truth – Ginger Kid Nazi Zombie Trailer:
Overview
JoyBits’ Doodle series has proven to be quite popular among mobile gaming fanatics. The passive gameplay does make for some simple time-passing, but it doesn’t ever truly feel fun. Such is the case with Doodle Kingdom, more of a brainless routine than an entertaining video-game. Doodle Kingdom may engage a few with its meandering, but not because it’s fun.
Gameplay
What Doodle Kingdom does appears on the surface to be quite a lot, but when you scratch at the surface a little you come to realize that there is really very little to do in this game. There are 3 main modes and each of them feel like a very hands-off experience. There isn’t much involvement on your part in doing anything of great significance but that passive style of gameplay makes for some decent casual gaming.
The modes featured in Doodle Kingdom are Genesis, Quests and My Hero. Each mode is different in their own way but similar in the fact that they give players very little involvement to whats happening on screen. For example, in the My Hero mode, by and large the game plays itself with your Hero running through an area and fighting, with you healing him with a button press and tapping on chests as you pass them by the get more gold.
The Genesis mode plays somewhat like a puzzle game, except there is not really any puzzle to it. You match random ‘elements’ in hope they will combine into something else. There is no real strategy or thought required for this mode and is ultimately just a game of selecting random combinations until you get something good.
It is this kind of brainless gameplay that makes Doodle Kingdom ultimately forgettable at best and plain boring at worst. The asking price for this game is nothing short of ridiculous especially when you take into consideration that the game already features a plethora of in-app purchases.
All of this comes together for what is in the end a very disappointing mobile game. It isn’t fun, it is not worth the price of admission and it is just plain half-assed. Unfortunately this is a missed opportunity on the part of JoyBits and is one game that should be avoided.
Visuals and Audio
As far as visuals go, Doodle Kingdom is not bad. The artwork is decent, albeit forgettable, providing the game with a certain style that does elevate the gameplay in terms of aesthetic appeal. It is cartoony and somewhat silly but it kind of works for Doodle Kingdom in some odd way.
As for the game’s soundtrack, there is not a lot worth writing home about here. Its simple and lacking any presence whatsoever. It is just another disappointing facet of a disappointing game.
Overall
Doodle Kingdom is sadly a very weak release from JoyBits. While the Doodle franchise has proven itself to be quite popular, Doodle Kingdom would leave anyone baffled as to why that is. This is quite simply not a very fun game. While it has a few different gameplay modes, each of them feel inconsequential, leaving very little for players to sink their teeth into.
At the asking price you would expect far more from Doodle Kingdom and the addition of in-app purchases doesn’t make matters any better for this game. Ultimately Doodle Kingdom is simply not a very good game and it is advised that gamers either avoid this game or at the very least approach this ‘kingdom’ with caution.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Heat Signature, a new stealth game set in space is being developed by Tom Francis, the man behind the intriguing puzzle stealth game Gunpoint, which plays very similarly to Mark Of The Ninja. This new title is focused on boarding randomly generated ships and accomplishing objectives through each level.
The game requires you to be stealthy while progressing through the levels. However, it’s not based on a line-of-sight basis like in Gunpoint, but actually it uses a “heat signature” system where the more you use your own spaceship’s thrusters, the more likely the enemy can detect you. Using your thrusters sparingly to drift across space to your target is a skill that will need to be developed. After docking onto the targeted ship, you must accomplish your objective to finish the level. Whether it’s killing a target or stealing a rare ship, the intention is to provide a myriad of choices for the players to go through.
The game is still in development, and lots of features have still not been implemented yet, so make sure to keep an eye out on any updates on this exciting stealth title. Francis actually set up a mailing list for interested people to sign up to. Whenever a huge update on the status of the game comes out, they’ll be the first to hear it, so make sure you sign up! Check out the footage down below.
HANDS ON IMPRESSIONS NAMCO BANDAI Games SF (US) New Year Showcase – 1/28
World War II shooter Enemy Front is an exciting upcoming title that is in development by CI Games. At the NAMCO BANDAI New Years Kick-Off event in San Francisco, I was able to test the waters and see what players could look forward to in terms of this new and unique FPS.
One of the main selling points for Enemy Front is that it features plenty of different ways for a player to progress through its stages. Players are given the choice in how to achieve their objectives. Whether you want to take a stealthy approach, slowly withering away the opposition, or if you want to go head-on and take out the enemies like Rambo, the game allows all of these methods to be viable. I ran around during my first try testing the game with a sub-machine gun in my hand and I figured the game couldn’t be that bad, so I charged into the enemy’s base without scouting their goons or looking for safe spots. Instantly, I was spotted, which is gauged by a bar on your mini-map that shows whether someone has detected you or not. On my mini-map, I noticed over 8 enemy NPCs converging on my position. “Easy” I thought, as I parked myself in a house and set up camp through a corridor. The enemy AI easily forced me out of my position, some moving behind another door and the rest funneling into the main entrance. I was able to take out a few, but soon I was overrun and I was taken out.
It’s easy to see that Enemy Front is nothing like our crop of FPS games that have been released more recently, like Call Of Duty: Ghosts or even Battlefield 4. Enemy Front boasts a lot of different features that will differentiate it from the more popular names in its genre. Another huge selling point for the game is that it will focus on the lesser-known resistance battles of World War II. One of the main missions I was able to take a look at was a defense mission. It was located at a field hospital in Warsaw, 5 years after Poland was invaded. The situation during that time was difficult. Conditions were bad, resources were very limited, and these influences ties in with how the mission plays out. CI Games modern interpretation of World War II provides a lot of re-playability in a setting that’s been used a lot of times over the years.
The games graphics were very impressive. On another level, I was hiding out behind some bushes, waiting for the guards to pass by me. I looked around and checked out the environment and you can tell a lot of detail was put into making sure everything looked and felt real. While lots of games can boast that sort of graphics, Enemy Front really ties it all together with the whole general atmosphere within the game.
The game was originally planned to be released during the Spring of 2014, but now it’s been pushed back even further to the summer of 2014 according to their official site. Enemy Front will be available on the PC, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.
Robot Entertainment has been around the block. They’ve had some smash successes with Orcs Must Die! and Hero Academy. Their newest action RPG, Echo Prime, takes the iOS game they had previously released and scales it up for the PC. How well does this Diablo-styled space game deliver?
Join editor Joe Morgan as he works his way through corridor after corridor on a doomed spaceship. Along the way, he’ll receive help from other-worldly echoes, beings in another dimension, that will lend him their abilities to help him escape certain doom.
We livestream gameplay footage on our Twitchpage. Our YouTubechannel is updated with content daily. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter, and Facebook. Leave a comment here or head on over to our YouTube page and leave a comment so we know what you think and how we can improve our Impact! feature.
While episodic content is a great way to give gamers an enjoyable story at a bite size price, it also can be frustrating for fans as they simply can’t wait to see what will happen next. As such, after the first episode of the second season of The Walking Dead was released back on December 18th, fans of the game have been dying to hear about the second episode.
As such, over on the Telltale Games‘ Twitter page, the developer tweeted out a picture of Clementine saying “Still. Not. Bitten.” and saying that the next installment in the series is “just around the corner.” The full tweet and the image can be found below and hopefully we won’t be waiting too much longer to see how Clementine’s story will progress.
Paramount Pictures is just about set to release their newest film, Labor Day, into theaters. Starring a solid cast of Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith and Tobey Maguire, Labor Day tells the story of the 13-year old Henry Wheeler trying to take care of his mother and home when Frank Chambers enters their lives.
Since Labor Day is set to release in just a few days, Paramount Pictures has released just one more featurette before it starts showing. Those wanting to check out the featurette for themselves can find it embedded just below to see what to expect from Labor Day.
You Should Stay Clip
The featurette isn’t the only new promotional material that Paramount has for today either as they have also released a clip titled “You Should Stay”. The clip is also available for those interested in the movie to check out embedded just below, but for even more information about what to expect from Labor Day, be sure to read our own Labor Day Review. Labor Day is set to release in theaters on February 6th, 2014.
Compile Heart has recently released a new trailer for their latest spin-off of the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise, Chou Megami Shinkou Noire Gekishin Black Heart, which is set to be released on the Vita in Japan on May 29th.
In this trailer players are introduced to some of the new characters that will be in the game, many of which are references to either game genres or entire franchises. You can check the trailer out below and try to guess who some of the characters are references of. Currently Noire Gekishin Black Heart has not been licensed for release in the West, though NIS America has brought numerous Neptunia games over in the past.
Sony have recently announced that it is releasing an official wireless headset accessory for the PlayStation 4. The new headset officially named The Wireless Stereo Headset 2.0 will feature 7.1 virtual surround sound as well as as a hidden noise cancelling microphone. The headset can be used at home using the USB wireless adaptor with your PS4, PS3, PC or Mac and has a rechargeable battery with up to 8 hours of battery life. The headset also sports a foldable design and comes with a standard 3.5mm stereo jack so you can use it as a normal pair of headphones with your PS Vita or other devices.
A free Headset Companion App is also coming soon to the PlayStation Store for both PS4 and PS3. The app will allow access to custom sound modes to enhance your gameplay, music and movie experience on the PS4 and PS3. The first sound mode that will be coming to the app is being developed by Sucker Punch for inFAMOUS Second Son, and will allow users to experience the best sound quality possible for the anticipated title.
With this announcement also came the news that firmware 1.60 will be releasing for the PS4 tomorrow, bringing support for the original wireless PULSE headsets including the GTAV limited edition headset. The Wireless Stereo Headset 2.0 will be available from the 10th of Februrary at £79.99 (around $160 AU).
Over the weekend Namco Bandai released a few character introduction videos for the soon to be released Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. While we’ve seen a few of these intros before, this time around the company has given us the English version of said trailers with the Japanese voice work that will be available in the game.
Currently Tales of Symphonia Chronicles is set to be released on February 25th in North America and February 28th in Europe. The three videos highlight Lloyd, Colette, and Kratos and can be found below.
