Sunday 31 March 2013

Weekly Jump Rantings Round-up 31/03/2013

Hello all, welcome to a new weekly post where I give a summary of the past week's news regarding games, manga and anime that I've handpicked. Without further ado...

GAMES

  • Battlefield 4 was officially unveiled by DICE at last week's Game Developers Conference, with a 17-minute long gameplay video
  • The game will be powered by EA's new graphics engine Frostbite 3, and will be released for PC, PS3 and 360 this autumn with a PS4 and 720 release believed to be on the cards
  • Strangely, the game won't be released for Wii U. Here's the reason the executive producer of Battlefield 4, Patrick Bach, gave:
    • “The biggest problem we have right now is we don’t want to back down from what we see as our low spec machines. We right now don’t have support for the Wii U in the Frostbite engine. The reason for that is it takes development time. What should we focus on to create the best possible Battlefield experience? We are now focused on PC and the current-gen platforms, and then there might be other platforms in the future that we can’t talk about…”

    • The Frostbite 3 engine won't be coming to the Wii U, giving reason to suggest that EA's future games which are powered by the engine, including Dragon Age 3 and the next Mass Effect won't be making an appearance on the Wii U either. My guess is that EA are still butthurt...

  • Sony has revealed new details regarding the PlayStation 4 controller:
    • There is a 2-point capacitative front touch-pad on which you can pinch, flick and twist
    • It is equipped with digital face buttons, a headphone jack, accelerometer and gyroscope
    • There will be an LED used to differentiate players, a share button to stream live gameplay to friends' consoles and a 3D camera for position-tracking
  • Mark Rein at this year's GDC laughed at the question of Unreal Engine 4 being supported on Wii U, despite him last year saying the engine was scaleable, and that they'd be able to bring it to mobile platforms, which are weaker than consoles
    • He later clarified his comments, stating that the engine COULD actually run on the Wii U, if developers chose to use it. He stated that Epic themselves had no intention of using it on the console
    • He then apologised if he offended anybody with his comments
  • The Wii U's UK sales have risen by 125%, according to MCV magazine. This is likely due to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's release and Lego City: Undercover also coming, in addition to a price drop
  • Sengoku Basura 4 has been announced for a 2014 release on PS3

MANGA
  • Mangaka Mizuki Kawashita, known for creating series such as Strawberry 100% and Hatsukoi Limited, will be starting a new manga series in the June issue of Jump Sq
    • Naruto's Masashi Kishimoto will contribute a new one-shot
    • As will The Prince of Tennis' Takeshi Konomi

ANIME
  • High School DxD Season 2 has been announced for a July airdate
    • The main cast and staff will be reprising their roles
    • Risa Taneda will play Zenobia
    • Maaya Uchida will play Irina Shido
    • Haruka Yamazaki will play Aika Kiriyu
  • The One Piece-Dragonball Z-Toriko crossover entitled "Dream 9 Cho Collaboration Special!!" will air next Sunday, April 7th in Japan