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Afrika rebranded and coming to the US?

Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Amir0x, they do attack you but you don't actually see the animal hit you. It turns black when he's close to you, then you wake up in your again.
 
M

Merino

Member
Seiken said:
Wait hold on, before I order this right now.

Hakuna Matata is fully in English? The text, the numbers, everything? Not a single thing on another language?
Click to expand...
Usually Chinese/English versions only have Chinese characters on the box and the instruction card in the box. The manual and game are in full english.
Wouldn't know about this specific one though. Was kinda holding off for the National Geographic version.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Seiken said:
Amir0x, they do attack you but you don't actually see the animal hit you. It turns black when he's close to you, then you wake up in your again.
Click to expand...

that's still a decent middle ground between showing the ferocity of an animal attack and having absolutely no real aggressive animal behaviour
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
I got the game in yesterday (yes, completely English, right down to the manual) and played it for an hour or so to get a bit of a feel from it. Well, it's a very simple game, but that's what I expected anyway. It actually feels almost the same as Aquanaut's Holiday, but in Africa obviously. Two things that stuck out in a negative way though were the lack of freedom and the technical side of things.

You can't drive yourself, it's basically on-rails, with the difference that you can stop the car at any point and get out and make pictures near the car, but I really miss being able to drive myself anywhere I want. I suppose it's to stop people from ramming the animals, but that can be easily taken care of by auto-breaking or whatever.

Also the game really isn't impressive to look at for the most part. They got the animals right thankfully, but the framerate is all over the place. Normally I'm not bothered at all by something like this, but in a relaxing game like this, it's pretty jarring. The controls are also pretty rudimentary. I don't need to be Lara Croft or anything, but It would be nice to be able to climb trees and stuff like that. The running is also amazingly slow and weird-looking.

There are still loads of tools for me to buy, so I'm quite looking forward to seeing what they are (I think I saw a little remote-controlled camera-car in some videos) and I did have a pretty nice time playing so far.

I've only been to two places on the map now, but I love how the animals react, some are curious, some scared, some pissed off if you get too close. If you stand still for a while animals will walk closer by and run away if you move. It's all stuff that you may have expected to be in the game, but this is the most important aspect of all in the game, so it's good to see they've seemed to been able to pull it off.

I really hope games like this do well and find a decent enough audience, because it would be awesome to see a big-budget game like this. For now this'll do nicely though.
 
R

reminder

Member
eXistor said:
You can't drive yourself, it's basically on-rails, with the difference that you can stop the car at any point and get out and make pictures near the car, but I really miss being able to drive myself anywhere I want. I suppose it's to stop people from ramming the animals, but that can be easily taken care of by auto-breaking or whatever.
Click to expand...

You can drive the car yourself soon. :)

Also the game really isn't impressive to look at for the most part. They got the animals right thankfully, but the framerate is all over the place. Normally I'm not bothered at all by something like this, but in a relaxing game like this, it's pretty jarring. The controls are also pretty rudimentary. I don't need to be Lara Crift or anything, but It would be nice to be able to climb trees and stuff like that. The running is also amazingly slow and weird-looking.
Click to expand...

I agree with the framerate, but it's nothing that destroys the fun for me. At least not in that game, where not much action is going on.

Oh, you can climb on some trees later on, but not on every tree.
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
eXistor, thanks for the impressions. That made me buy the game :)
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
reminder said:
You can drive the car yourself soon. :)



I agree with the framerate, but it's nothing that destroys the fun for me. At least not in that game, where not much action is going on.

Oh, you can climb on some trees later on, but not on every tree.
Click to expand...
Wicked, I was really wondering why the hell they didn't let me drive, thus destroying a lot of the fun. But this makes it all the more worthwhile.

/edit: yeah just unlocked the driving bit. The game just got 10x as much fun! The whole slow walking just takes a bit taking used to, it's not bothering me as much now (I'm used to Persona 4's fast running).
 
K

kassatsu

Banned
Stop bumping this thread. Make a new one for Hakuna Matata. I am sad everytime is it bumped without a release date.
 
K

Kyleripman

Member
The Japanese version is still called Afrika, you know.

No news of a US release since November (when they promised a release that month).
No trophies either, at least not in the Japanese version.
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
So yeah I bought it and to my surprise, almost everything in it is japanese. I don't know if Yesasia fucked me up or if info on the net fucked up, but I fucked up, that's for sure.

Still enjoying the soundtrack, can't understand shit though (except small, small parts of the game). How the fuck can they just straight up lie to you like that?
 
D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Seiken said:
So yeah I bought it and to my surprise, almost everything in it is japanese. I don't know if Yesasia fucked me up or if info on the net fucked up, but I fucked up, that's for sure.

Still enjoying the soundtrack, can't understand shit though (except small, small parts of the game). How the fuck can they just straight up lie to you like that?
Click to expand...
You sure they sent the right one? Hakuna Matata, Asian re-release?
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Wow, I guess I should've read the back of the cover before opening up the plastic... sigh.

Subtitles "Japanese".

I'm stuck on mission 2 now, LAWL. At least the graphics are good and the soundtrack amazing.
 
K

Kyleripman

Member
I'm working on using the partially completed guides + my own game to create a final, full Afrika guide. Of course I'll post it here once I'm done (assuming anyone is still playing it), but what I'm wondering is if anyone would be interested in photoshopping a logo? I was thinking of calling it AFRIKA Field Guide.

Something in this style:
http://i.pbase.com/g6/90/789790/2/82818093.ulilfBL4.jpg
is what I had in mind.
 
Goldrusher

Goldrusher

Member
Uh... why did National Geographic remove the game from its press release ?

Take a look at the original release list in the November 2008 press release:
http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2008/11/19-32

November 2008
• "National Geographic — Herod's Lost Tomb"
• Namco Bandai — "National Geographic: Panda"
• Sony — "National Geographic: Africa"

December 2008
• National Geographic — "Sudoku Traveler: China"

2009
National Geographic — "Rain Forests"
• National Geographic — "Greencity"
• National Geographic — "From the Bottom Up"
Click to expand...

Now look at what's on the National Geographic website today:
http://press.nationalgeographic.com...essReleases_detail&siteID=1&cid=1226941245344
November 2008
• "National Geographic — Herod's Lost Tomb"
• Namco Bandai — "National Geographic: Panda"

2009
• National Geographic — "Sudoku Traveler: China"
• National Geographic — "Rain Forests"
• National Geographic — "Greencity"
• National Geographic — "From the Bottom Up"
Click to expand...

Cancelled ? Delayed ? Different publisher ?
 
W

Willeth

Member
I was holding off on importing Hakuna Matata because of this NG stuff, but I think I'll just grab it now.

EDIT: Haha, not for £45 I won't.
 
S

Spoit

Member
So anyone know of any sites other than play-asia to import the chinese-english version from? They've been back ordered for almost a month
 
R

Ranger X

Member
E

EXGN

Member
Man, remember when Afrika was being touted as a 'AAA PS3 exclusive' =P?

Anyways, I'm hoping National Geographic brings this and Aquanauts over in one package. I wouldn't see myself just buying one of them(especially not at the import prices), but as a packaged budget game, I might.
 
J

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
EXGN said:
Man, remember when Afrika was being touted as a 'AAA PS3 exclusive' =P?

Anyways, I'm hoping National Geographic brings this and Aquanauts over in one package. I wouldn't see myself just buying one of them(especially not at the import prices), but as a packaged budget game, I might.
Click to expand...
you'll be hopin' for quite a while.
 
B

BoilersFan23

Member
Darkpen said:
why not sony just god damned get this game localized and published! I demand voice work!
Click to expand...
SCEA usually prefers to not publish games they think won't sell well in NA. That's just how they've been (reason they passed on Coded Soul, Siren 2, Ape Escape 2, almost passed on Folklore, etc.).
 
O

Owzers

Member
I gave in and imported it from play-asia for $49-ish, english/chinese version. I really wanted to play this game but wow it dropped off the map. More money than i typically spend on games too....Demon Souls better get a U.S. release, wtf is wrong with Sony publishing these games, but not releasing them in other territories? If it were published by a small 3rd party i'd understand it , but Sony? Idiotic imo.
 
B

BoilersFan23

Member
sillymonkey321 said:
I gave in and imported it from play-asia for $49-ish, english/chinese version. I really wanted to play this game but wow it dropped off the map. More money than i typically spend on games too....Demon Souls better get a U.S. release, wtf is wrong with Sony publishing these games, but not releasing them in other territories? If it were published by a small 3rd party i'd understand it , but Sony? Idiotic imo.
Click to expand...
SCEA only publishes games they think will sell. If they don't think it has a chance of selling in NA, they are passing it up (basically, they rather only release stuff that will make them a nice profit). They actually almost passed up on Folklore thinking it would not sell, but someone within SCEA convinced them to publish it stateside (from someone I heard within SCEA Santa Monica). They passed on many PS2 games and certain PSP games because they didn't think they'd sell. It's not like SCEJ/SCEE forces them to release stuff either.

SCEA does allow other publishers to release their games stateside (unlike Namco usually), so its quite possible a publisher will bring Demon Soul's stateside.

I know, kind of a repeat of what I said, but this is something SCEA has done for years.
 
R

Ranger X

Member
BoilersFan23 said:
SCEA only publishes games they think will sell. If they don't think it has a chance of selling in NA, they are passing it up (basically, they rather only release stuff that will make them a nice profit). They actually almost passed up on Folklore thinking it would not sell, but someone within SCEA convinced them to publish it stateside (from someone I heard within SCEA Santa Monica). They passed on many PS2 games and certain PSP games because they didn't think they'd sell. It's not like SCEJ/SCEE forces them to release stuff either.

SCEA does allow other publishers to release their games stateside (unlike Namco usually), so its quite possible a publisher will bring Demon Soul's stateside.

I know, kind of a repeat of what I said, but this is something SCEA has done for years.
Click to expand...

But they are stupid here since there's no localisation to be done. They could simply print ONE shipment of like 100 000 copies for the whole North America and everybody would be happy. Each one of the 3 of us here would be able to buy it.

I mean, why not make some money if you can do it without efforts????

.
 
C

Core407

Banned
If they're not going to have an actual retail release, they should at least put it up as a digital download in other territories.
 
A

A.R.K

Member
Core407 said:
If they're not going to have an actual retail release, they should at least put it up as a digital download in other territories.
Click to expand...

Look @ Wii casual market. Its fucking huge. People love these kinds of games and specially if you have kids and play together. Its just sad that Sony keeps on making stupid decisions! I would totally buy this game and the ocean one (forgot the name) to play with my kids. I know they would love it!

Please Sony release it as PSN only in US!!!!!!!
 
Goldrusher

Goldrusher

Member
Core407 said:
If they're not going to have an actual retail release, they should at least put it up as a digital download in other territories.
Click to expand...
Just import the game if you want it. PS3 is region-free for a reason.

The game has a "English-Chinese edition", which is 100% in English. Same with Aquanaut's Holiday. The latter even has trophies.
 
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