NIS America Announces One Week Delay for Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland

Details after the jump.

 
NIS America has announced that Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland will be shipped to retailers nationwide on May 29th. Initially, its release was scheduled for May 22nd, but due to a delay in the manufacturing process, we regretfully had to push back its release for the North American market. Atelier Meruru is the latest installment in the fan-favorite Atelier series. With Atelier Meruru, the Arland trilogy comes to a most enchanting conclusion. Atelier Meruru follows the story of spunky Princess Meruru, who finds herself entranced by alchemy and vows to become Totori Helmold’s apprentice. With new and updated game systems and returning characters from Atelier Rorona and Atelier Totori, Atelier Meruru will once again capture the hearts and minds of all the Atelier fans out there.

Game Features

• -New “Development” system: develop new areas and facilities in Arls to gain access to
  even more lands to explore!
• -Developing new areas and facilities will change the appearance of the in-game world!
  How you develop the kingdom will alter the outcome of the story.
• -Classic turn-based battles feature a Time Card turn system, making the battles even
  more strategic!
• -Master item synthesis with the help of the ever-popular Homs!
• -Fan-favorite characters from previous Atelier games return with more stories and
  mysteries to uncover!

About Atelier Meruru:

The tiny kingdom of Arls, located on the northeastern border of the Arland Republic,
is where Princess Meruru calls home. Ever since she was exposed to alchemy by
famed adventurer Totori Helmold, all she could think about was becoming an
alchemist. With Totori’s guidance, Meruru sets out to develop her home kingdom of
Arls using the power of alchemy. On her way, Meruru will encounter new adventures,
obstacles, mysteries, and friends, and discover what life is like outside the castle
walls. How you choose to guide her through the advancement of

Madden 13 wants you to feel like you are listening to a real NFL fame.

Details, plus a new video and some screenshots, after the jump.

Madden NFL 13 delivers a superb audio experience that faithfully replicates NFL Sundays with CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz and Phil Simms calling the action, QB cadences, authentic sound effects and actual on-field player chatter, all provided by NFL Films, and a fully-scored orchestral theme that conveys the emotion and excitement of professional football.

Check out the newest screen shots of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms from different stadiums around the league.

Madden 13 is set to hit the store shelves in late August, but you can pre-order your copy now.

Today, Ubisoft announced that the entire Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha short film is now available on YouTube.

Check out the video after the jump.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha is the 25-minute prequel film to the video game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and follows the Ghosts as they are dropped deep behind enemy lines in order to eliminate one of the world’s most sought-after war criminals.

Ghost Recon Alpha is deeply connected with the video game, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

•  Characters: The main four characters in the movie are the same four playable characters in the video game.

•  Storyline: The movie takes place immediately before a key turning point in the video game’s storyline, a vicious attack against a major European city.

•  Location: the location where the movie takes place will be one of the multiplayer maps available in the adversarial mode of the video game.

•  Exclusive unlock: a secret code is also hidden in the movie, enabling access via Ghost Recon Network to an exclusive weapon unlock playable in Ghost Recon Future Soldier.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha boasts a line-up of top Hollywood talent.  The film was directed by Academy Award winners Hervé de Crécy and François Alaux, who won an Oscar in 2010 for Logorama, and produced by Rhea Scott for Little Minx, a Ridley Scott & Associates company. Tim Sexton, 2010 Academy Award nominee for Children of Men, and Gregory Pruss wrote the gripping script. The film was shot by District 9 cinematographer Trent Opaloch; edited by Pietro Scalia, two time Academy Award winner for Black Hawk Down and JFK; with sound effects and sound effects editing by Per Hallberg, two time Academy Award winner for The Bourne Ultimatum and Braveheart as well as Michael Mann’s Heat; production design by Jan Roelfs (Gattaca, Alexander; and costume design by Sammy Sheldon (V for Vendetta, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, Black Hawk Down).  Military Weapons Specialist Harry Humphries, consultant on such notable action films such as Transformers, Thor, Iron Man and Armageddon, ensured that the futuristic weaponry in the film was entirely realistic.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be available May 22, 2012 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. It will be available on PC on June 12, 2012.

*Note: Ghost Recon Alpha is not rated by the ESRB.

Find out who’s stepping up to the plate after the jump.

This Week’s Challenge

New Padres 1st baseman, Yonder Alonso faces the Nationals ace, Strasburg. Yonder is hitting well and Strasburg has started the season hot. The goal is easy: get as many hits and points as possible. The mode is FREE all year long.

The creators of Warhawk bring us another third person shooter. Did Dylan Jobe and Lightbox Interactive create a successful sequel, or should this title be lost in space?

Read our review to find out.

Incognito software released Warhawk back in 2007 to decent reviews. While it was a multiplayer only game, it still went a long ways in creating a great overall experience. Developer Lightbox Interactive was born in 2009 with Dylan Jobe coming over as president from Incognito. SCEA Santa Monica Studio has partnered with them and have developed their latest release Starhawk.

The first thing you’ll notice with Starhawk is that it’s not multiplayer only. Instead of a couple of simple tutorial levels, you are given a full on campaign mode, as well as 5 co-op levels. While not all that lengthy, it’s still worth the 5-6 hours you’ll need to play through it.

The Starhawk universe is set in the distant future, out in the far reaches of space where factions battle over a rare and dangerous resource known as Rift Energy.  In this galaxy, colonies of humans, called Rifters, explore a scattering of planets, known as the Frontier, in attempt to mine this energy to make an honest living, but find their way of life threatened by the Outcast, a ruthless species of humans who have mutated into psychotic monsters due to exposure to this very same Rift Energy.

Caught in the middle is Emmett Graves, a hired gunslinger ostracized from society because of his own exposure to Rift Energy, leaving him partially mutated, but still able to retain his humanity.  Always around, and mostly always orbiting above you, is your ally in space Sidney Cutter. The story plays out almost like an old west style movie, with the exception of alien worlds and space travel.

The story is well written and easy to follow. It is told through cut scenes between levels with graphics that are comic bookish. It’s an art style that looks great and fits the overall feel of the game. The plot and characters are well thought out. Some of the best narrative comes from in-game chatter between Emmet and his buddy in space, Cutter. Cutter seems like an old cranky feller that fits the old west styling of the game. He acts as your tutor and over-seer. Before each level starts, Cutter will let you know where the Outcasts will be coming from, and in the order of their appearance. This gives the game almost a real time strategy feel to it. That’s not a bad thing, as strategy becomes paramount to survival, and requires more thought than just pointing and shooting.

Starhawk introduces the new-to-the-series Build and Battle system. As you play through each level, taking out bad guys will earn you rift energy. This energy fills up an incremental meter at the top of your screen, and each full piece of energy can then be spent for calling down objects from a drop ship. These objects range from a simple defensive wall, which multiples can be linked together, to landing pads which can spawn warhawks. Strategy becomes necessary if you want to get through later levels, as the difficulty increases as you progress along. Items are dropped and assembled at a speed that is incredibly fast and efficient.

Once you’ve made it through the campaign, and we strongly suggest you tackle that first, you may want to grab a friend and play some co-op. Co-op allows for up to 4 players, either through 2-player split screen between two systems, or with 3 other players from across the Globe. Co-op is basically a horde mode, where you’ll have to survive 6 rounds of incoming outcasts and keep your rift harvester from being destroyed. There is a repair tool on each level, so you may want to locate it before installing your harvester at the beginning of the level.

The rounds begin only after you install that harvester, so taking a look around at the map is probably in your best interest. there are also rift canisters scattered around each map, so finding them before beginning the round is a good idea as well. Each round gets progressively harder, and each round also adds different types of incoming troops. One other useful tip: enemy snipers can’t hurt your harvester, so leaving one off in the distance will keep your current round from ending, and gives you a chance to hit those rift canisters again.

The later rounds will have some airborne Outcasts coming in, so be sure to have plenty of anti-aircraft weapons lying around your harvester. Beam Turrets are very effective against enemy warhawks. If you create your own warhawk and leave it unattended, the Outcasts have no qualms with stealing it and using it against you, so always keep a close eye on those things. They aren’t called Outcasts for nothing. Grand Theft Warhawk should be punishable by death, and it’s up to you to make sure it is.

After testing the Build and Battle System in campaign and co-op modes, you should be ready to jump right in to the multiplayer portion of the game. This is where Starhawk truly shines. All of the basic MP modes are available to choose from. Zones, CTF, TDM and straight up DM are all awaiting you. The community features for the game take this to the next level with clan support, leaderboards, and the ability for users to create Player Hosted Tournaments.

Starhawk’s gameplay does an incredible job of mixing so many different aspects of war into one game. Whether you are wanting to dogfight in space, go toe-to-toe in hand to hand combat, or mix it altogether in one epic battle, the choice is yours. With up to 32 players in one match, battles can truly be on an epic scale. Customizing a map rotation for a group of your buddies is pretty simple and is probably the best way to enjoy the game.

Light Box Interactive and Santa Monica Studio have created an excellent title that should make all Warhawk fans want to move on to the in-spirit sequel Starhawk.

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