Anarchy Reigns: a 'superbly orchestrated' combat game

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Wacky characters, endless fist fodder and great music make this an online action gem

What you need to know: Online action combat video game Anarchy Reigns from Japanese games developer Platinum Games has been released in the UK. Platinum are best known for their ultra-violent combat game Madworld, as well as Bayonetta and Vanquish. Set in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by mutants and gangs, Anarchy Reigns allows players to control a variety of fighters, including Jack Cayman from Platinum's earlier Madworld game. Fighters use their outlandish hand-to-hand  or  weapons  skills  to
defeat their opponents in a series of melee-style battles. Anarchy Reigns includes both single player and multi-player modes. What the critics like: This inspired reinvention of multiplayer brawling offers plenty of cheap thrills, says Roger Hargreaves in the Metro. It offers a substantial single-player mode but it's the "superbly orchestrated multiplayer action", favouring fists over guns, that makes it "one of the best multiplayer games of the generation". Platinum Games delivers another "action gem" that's full of wacky characters and even wackier moves, says Jeffrey L. Wilson on PC Mag. Insanity and a "constant stream of fist fodder makes it one well worth your dollars". Anarchy Reigns is a bit like a 'greatest hits' from Platinum's previous game releases, says Chris Carter on Destructoid. But it also has enough of its own charm to make it unique. The 16-character cast offers something for everyone, and the soundtrack is "incredible". What they don't like: Platinum fails to deliver "a coherent or distinctive experience", says Phil Iwaniuk in Official Play Station magazine. The chaotic action will leave your poor neurons frazzled, and while Anarchy Reigns borrows characters from Madworld, it has "none of the gripping visuals". Source: The Week UK

Read More........→January 26, 2013

Microsoft blurs lines between screens and walls with Illumi-Room

Microsoft Research plans to blur the boundaries between on-screen content and a viewer's local environment using a Kinect unit and a projector. The concept system, called IllumiRoom, is designed for gaming applications and is the first confirmation that the company is developing a patent application that InAVate uncovered in September last year.

The system first uses a Kinect for Windows camera to map the geometry of the room and projected content extends visuals across a room to create a fully immersive experience. Whilst Microsoft has

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gaming applications in its sights, the developments could pave the way for cheaper, more flexible immersive video systems for projects with lower specifications. Microsoft Research intends to present a paper detailing more information on the system at the 2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, April 27 to May 2. Source: InAVate

Read More........→January 23, 2013

League of Legends the world's 'most played video game'

Video games come and go, but Riot Games considers League of Legends the current king of them all for now. New statistics from the creator of League of Legends indicate that the free multiplayer PC real-time strategy game had an average of 3 million concurrent online users in July, besting the entire combined total peak player count for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 (1.4 million) and people playing the top 100 games on Steam (650,000). Riot Games, developer of League, also noted in an infographic that the game usually sees an average of 12 million players a day, with about 32 million active players logging in every month. Just for reference, when World of Warcraft sat at the top, it had about 12 million subscribers total. League of Legends hit the scene nearly three years ago, and in some ways completely flew under the radar for most casual observers of the gaming industry. However, in that short time frame, League quickly acquired a huge following (70 million registrations) that stays addicted to the evolution of the game, which derives from predecessors Warcraft III and Defense of the Ancients. Further drum tapping occurs as Riot points out that League averages at least 1 billion average play hours a month with help from more than 145 countries, a figure held since the third quarter of last year. In comparison, the total cumulative hours pumped into Halo since 2004 sits at a little over 2 billion. In League, players can choose from more than 100 characters to control and can play alongside other people in head-to-head matches against another team. Each character wields four basic attacks and can choose from a variety of items and equipment to enhance the character's abilities. When the battle begins, each team works together to defeat the opposing side's turrets, minions, and players in an attempt to destroy the enemy base. League fans might enjoy Riot's admission that Teemo dies 6.5 million times a day, which figures out to about 75 deaths for the little guy every second. Source: SAM Daily Times

Read More........→October 14, 2012

Man or Machine?

Where do men end and machines begin? It’s a question that scientists and ethical philosophers are asking much more seriously at the moment. We all begin to wonder this when we’ve spent four hours online looking for holiday deals, or the best savings rates – technology has become so immersive, particularly in the field of computer games, that we are looking at the dawning of true virtual reality in the next few decades. But the ethics of man combined with machine, particularly in the field of neurotechnology is concerning some. So concerned are they that the highly esteemed Nuffield Council on Bioethics has launched a consultation to look into the issue. The concern centers around the use of mind controlled machines, which are in development at the moment. Neurotechnology: Scientists are already using Deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, OCD and stroke, with the use of electrodes passed into the brain and out to a battery pack attached to the body.  Source: The Coming Crisis

Read More........→July 11, 2012

Retake, Rewind, Rebound

By Michelle Oraa Ali: Mass Effect 3, the highly anticipated final outing of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect universe, has had to contend with controversy and criticism for very many reasons. The most appalling and, indeed, wide reaching of which is the  indignation  surrounding  the ending(s) of the game. Dedicated fans and newcomers alike were furious with the anti-climatic endings the game offered; claiming all their decisions in the build-up to the end were of no consequence. Fans who have dedicated hundreds of hours playing the Mass Effect series in anticipation of the final battle were angry to see their decisions reduced to a choice between three main endings. With the demand that Bioware supply them with an ending they deserve, fans all over the world have formed the ‘Retake Mass Effect’ movement. Bioware has announced plans for the ‘Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut’. The post explains that the DLC (which is looking at a summer release) will not provide any new endings to the game, only expanding and supplementing the currently existing ones via new cinematics and epilogue scenes.  Source: Deccan Chronicle

Read More........→June 16, 2012