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Click here to watch embedded mediaPublisher: 505 GamesDeveloper: ArtPlayRelease: June 18, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PCWith today's launch of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, 505 Games released a new trailer showing off the game, along with some more details and hints on the game's DLC.
The trailer boasts robust crafting and character customization options and retro-styled challenges, along with 13 upcoming pieces of DLC, all of which will be free. Among these features are a classic mode, new game +, boss-rush mode, a roguelike dungeon, speedrun mode, three new characters, co-op, versus mode, online play, a "nightmare" difficulty, plus more.
The trailer goes on to show an uncomfortably beefed-up Shovel Knight mode in the game, using his signature shovel to metaphorically dig his enemies' graves.
Perhaps most intriguingly, however, a very familiar tune plays after the screen fades to black. The melody is unmistakably from Child of Light, but what exactly this means beyond a hinted crossover with the game is unclear.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with the Switch version launching next week on June 25. For more on the game, read about the game's full DLC plans, or look at our preview on one of its upcoming characters!
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Publisher: Blizzard EntertainmentDeveloper: Blizzard EntertainmentRelease: May 24, 2016Rating: TeenPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Overwatch players recently got a chance to learn more about Baptiste through a short story, and today the company has revealed that we'll be able to earn a host of in-game goodies for the combat medic through a limited-time Baptiste Reunion Challenge. From today through July 1, players can earn a player icon, epic Battle Medic Baptiste skin, and a slew of sprays by winning matches in quick play, competitive, or arcade.
In addition to the goods you can unlock by playing, you can earn more sprays by watching participating Twitch streamers in two-hour increments, topping off at six total hours.
Click here to watch embedded mediaIf you're not into Baptiste (or even if you are, really), today also marks the release of Overwatch's new Replays feature on all platforms. Here, you can watch previous matches from a variety of different perspectives. It's a great way to gloat or critique your own performance, depending on how well you fared in any given game.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
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Click here to watch embedded mediaPublisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Ubisoft MassiveRelease: March 15, 2019Rating: Not ratedPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
In today's update for Tom Clancy's The Division 2, players can gain access to the new "gunner" specialization, which comes with the new rapid-fire minigun, the "banshee" skill, and the riot-foam grenade.
The minigun gives players a temporary boost in defense when in use, while raining down bullets upon targets for a short period of time. The "banshee" signature skill causes confusion for enemies – even when under cover – and the riot-foam grenade temporarily immobilizes opponents, leaving them open to attacks.
The specialization is free, but those without the year one pass will need to complete five in-game challenges to unlock it. Those with the pass will have instant access to the specialization, but can still complete the challenges for additional cosmetic items.
The Division 2 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and is coming to Google Stadia. For more on the game's future, catch up on where it's headed next, or read our review!
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Publisher: 505 GamesDeveloper: Remedy EntertainmentRelease: August 27, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Thanks to our cover story on Control from earlier this year, we've already learned a lot (and shared it all with you) about Remedy's upcoming supernatural action adventure game. At E3, we had the chance to step into the bizarre world once again and play Control for nearly an hour.
Control's premise is enticingly weird. You play as Jesse Faden, a young woman who hopes to find answers about her mysterious supernatural powers by visiting the Oldest House, the home of a paranormal investigative branch called the Federal Bureau of Control. The demo sees Jesse investigating the maintenance sector of the Bureau, fighting off new types of the Hiss (the dangerous and ghostly entity that has possessed much of the staff), meeting new personalities, and binding to abilities such as Evade and Shield.
Combat feels smooth, dynamic, and similar to what we experienced during the cover story trip (if anything, it's more polished now). The big difference is that in this demo I had fewer abilities because it takes place earlier in the game. At first, I could only use melee, launch (it lets you push/pull objects or people in midair), and two forms of my Service Weapon (these included Grip, similar to a standard pistol, and Shatter, which triggers explosive blasts). Melee and gunplay work well to bring down a foe's health, whereas your abilities are great at destroying shields. Of course, you can mix it up however you like, and it's best to handle combat with a melange of both physical and supernatural attacks.
Using your abilities is what makes Control's combat so much fun. I loved launching desks, giant machines, chairs, and whatever I could find toward enemies to topple them off their feet. The particle effects are really detailed, too, so everything feels satisfyingly destructive.
I came across two new types of enemies: Hiss Charged, which looks like a contorted zombie that hovers over the ground and explodes when near death, and Hiss Trooper, a heavily armored foe that shoots grenades. Groups of Hiss Charged were particularly menacing; I had to be careful to run away in time after dealing the final blow. I was happy to see more enemy types in the demo, since I remember coming away from the cover story hoping for more variety in that department.
One of the memorable moments during the demo was a side mission to acquire the Evade ability. After following a strange red light in a storage room and "cleansing" an Object of Power (these are items that are tinged with supernatural qualities) that looked like a horse from a carousel (er, I can't explain that one), I was transported to the Astral Plane. This otherworldly zone is where you can learn new abilities as long as you pass a trial. To acquire Evade, I had to use the ability to quickly zoom through walls that closed in and then practice using it with enemies. These side missions are comprehensive tutorials, but I'm curious how Remedy brings the Astral Plane to life in other ways, particularly with story moments.
Speaking of the story, we learn a bit more about Jesse's motivations and about the remaining Bureau workers. For example, I met research assistant Emily Pope, who narrative designer Brooke Maggs says Jesse begins to trust and open up to later on, and a peculiar janitor named Ahti who's Finnish background isn't a coincidence (Remedy is located in Helsinki, Finland).
"There's this Finnish heritage that he has, and sometimes he uses weird expressions that are very familiar to us as Finns, but then he just translates them directly to English," gamer director Mikael Kasurinen says. "So it's a bit weird to talk with him. But he's a fun and sometimes unsettling character."
A conversation with Pope reveals that something happened to Jesse's brother Dylan when they were young, and that he's been missing ever since. This disappearance is partly what led Jesse to the Oldest House. After an unexplainable supernatural incident, they came across a "strange entity" and the Bureau stepped in.
"The bureau investigates these strange phenomena that happen around the world, and then study them contain them," Kasurinen says. "So they came and took her brother. [Jesse] managed to escape. Ever since then, she wanted to find out what happened to him."
I came away from this demo feeling all the more excited for Control and eager to discover more about Jesse and the strange environment and circumstances she finds herself in. With an intriguing story and solid combat, this is a title to keep on your radar.
Control releases on August 27 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (exclusively on the Epic Store). Click the banner below to learn more.
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Publisher: Rockstar GamesDeveloper: Rockstar GamesRelease: October 26, 2018Rating: MaturePlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
It's showdown time if you want to pick up Red Dead Online rank bonuses for ranks 10 and 20. Players have until June 24 to reach these milestones in order to pick up the requisite rank care packages that include everything from fire arrows to Jolly Jack's chewing tobacco and assorted big-game meat (see below).
Elsewhere in Red Dead online, Rockstar has set up new additions for the Wheeler, Rawson and Co. Catalogue (Lightfoot Pants, Austin Boots, Charro Jacket, and more), and a 30-percent XP and RDO$ boosts for playing an Elimination series playlist, with 60x high-velocity ammo for all the gun classes if you win a match.
Finally, the discounts continue with all tonics at 25 percent off this week.
Rank 10 Bonus Care Package
- 20x Small Game Arrows
- 20x Fire Arrows
- 20x Poison Arrows
- 5x Predator Bait
- 5x Herbivore Bait
Rank 20 Bonus Care Package
- 3x Minty Big Game Meat
- 3x Oregano Big Game Meat
- 3x Thyme Big Game Meat
- 10x Baked Beans
- 10x Corned Beef
- 10x Canned Salmon
- 5x Jolly Jack's
- 5x Cocaine Gum
- 5x Moonshine
- 5x Gin
- 5x Guarma Rum
- 5x Fine Brandy
[Source: Rockstar Games]
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Hello dragoon,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
dragoon joined on the 06/17/2019.
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Hello onepunman,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
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Publisher: The Pokemon Company, NintendoDeveloper: Game FreakRelease: November 15, 2019Platform: Switch
There's a lot to be excited about with Game Freak's next mainline Pokémon games. However, one new detail arose during Nintendo's Treehouse live presentation during E3 that's making some fans upset: Some of the Pokémon – and we don't know which ones – will not be transferable from the upcoming Pokémon Home service to Pokémon Sword and Shield.
The Pokémon Company has made a point of carrying your old Pokémon to new installments since 2002's Ruby and Sapphire. And with the 3DS virtual console versions of Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Silver being compatible with the Pokémon Bank service, it's possible – if a bit convoluted – to transfer a Pokémon from games that came out in 1998 to the most recent installments, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which launched in 2017.
If your Pokémon can be found within the Galar region, then you're still in luck, as you can transfer them from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon Home, and then into Sword and Shield. However, if your 'mon isn't catchable within the upcoming games, producer Junichi Masuda says this won't be possible, at least at launch.
Reasons Masuda cites for not bringing over the Pokémon include creating HD assets and animations for all of the creatures, currently sitting over 800 and potentially reaching a thousand with Sword and Shield. Another point of consideration is balancing for the competitive scene, which becomes tricky with over 800 combinations of Pokémon, moves, abilities, and so on.
We do not, as of yet, know which Pokémon have made it in, and which haven't made the cut. Masuda did however seem to suggest that all original 151 Pokémon would be available, and we've already seen a wide selection of 'mon from every generation in the games' trailers and gameplay segments. Furthermore, Masuda made no statement confirming or denying any potential patches for the future that may allow these Pokémon to be transferable in the future.
The Internet is not taking this well. In Nintendo's archive video where Masuda revealed this information, it has 18 thousand likes and 63 thousand dislikes.
Pokémon Sword and Shield launch for Nintendo Switch on November 15. For more on new Pokémon coming to the game, check out our impressions on Yamper and Impidimp.
[Source: Nintendo]
It's a shame that we may no longer be able to catch 'em all in Sword and Shield, even if the reasons stated seem reasonable. But it would be a lot better if Game Freak was more transparent with what exactly these details mean. There's a lot to be excited about with Sword and Shield, and we imagine the vast majority of players wouldn't even use this feature anyway. But for those who do, it's understandably scary for fans to not be able to transfer their beloved creatures. -
Hello Weewooweewoo,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Weewooweewoo joined on the 06/17/2019.
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Hello bite,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
bite joined on the 06/17/2019.
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Publisher: Paradox InteractiveDeveloper: Romero GamesRelease: Spring 2020Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac
Chicago. 1922. Prohibition is in full swing, but so is the mob. Al Capone has just come to town and he's bringing with him furious ambition and bloodlust to match. Empire of Sin, designed by Brenda Romero, casts you as one of 14 mob bosses (including Capone himself, if you so choose) all competing to take over the most districts in Chicago by any means necessary: diplomacy, bribery, and violence.
We recently had the chance to check out Romero Games' ambitious attempt to let players live out their 1920s mob fantasy. Here's why we came away impressed and ready to take Chicago over with an iron fist.
The Player-Driven Storytelling Is Deep
At first glance, Empire Of Sin might strike you as a combat-oriented tactics title. However, that's only a small slice of what the game actually is. Sure you can rough up and Tommy Gun some ruffians if it pleases you so, but there are so many more options to interact with your new playground, according to Romero Games.
Empire Of Sin doesn't have a traditional story-driven campaign. Instead, you select your boss from a roster comprised of seven historical figures and seven fictional characters and duke it out with the other bosses. The boss with the most control by the year 1930 wins the game. While this might sound like standard fare, Romero Games says the units in Empire Of Sin have an almost pen-and-paper RPG-level of character depth to them that can systematically create fascinating emergent stories unique to each playthrough.
Alongside your boss, you can recruit an underboss and soldiers to serve under you. As your dynasty grows, you'll notice just how every unit is presented as a character with traits, flaws, specialties, and even unique relationships with other units. For example, your underboss might be in love with a soldier in another family. One of several things might happen if these two units meet in battle: your underboss could surrender, their performance could be impacted by their love for the enemy, or the two units might even flee the fight, never to be seen again.
Traits grow and change according to your actions. If you make it a habit to execute foes in battle, your boss might gain a reputation for being bloodthirsty. That trait will make districts and even members in your own organization more impressed or repulsed by you, which will have consequences on your relationship with those factions and units.
The Combat Looks Bloody Good
Fighting in Empire Of Sin is presented as turn-based tactical battles that take deep inspiration from XCOM. Characters have allotted action points per turn. Certain units, like your boss, will have special moves. For example, Capone's is to rain fire on his foes with his Tommy Gun from left to right, essentially turning him into a turret.
It's nothing fans of the genre haven't seen before, but there's a bone-crushing level of impact to shots that makes lead exchanges more satisfying. Watching a man's body slam into a wall and slide down it thanks to Capone's shotgun makes the action rise above being a game of statistics.
Unique mechanics, such as the cops arriving to a battle if you take too long or the ability to execute downed foes, also make the mode stand out a little more among its peers.
Diplomacy Is Just As Interesting As War
Of course, you don't have to settle every fight with a bullet. District bosses can form alliances to take on mutual foes. You might have to earn their respect first, knocking over their distillery or bar, to get the chance to meet with them, but it'll often be in your best interest to try and make friendly with other bosses (at least temporarily).
Sit-downs with other bosses are presented as interactive conversations with branching choices. A boss might be willing to let a slight against them slide by if you take care of a problem for them. Rejecting their offer might, as it did in our demo, result in a bloody brawl in a back alley. You'll have to approach each opportunity with a keen mind, thinking of the long game, and how you can make alliances with even unsavory fellows work to your benefit.
Racketeering Is A Full Time Job
Beyond battles and courting alliances with other bosses, you'll need to actually carefully manage your assets. The racketeering options we saw in the demo were truly impressive. Whether you're upgrading the aesthetics of your recently-acquired bar to keep police raids down or poisoning alcohol in your own distillery to ship to your foes as a Trojan Horse-like weapon, it seems like there's no shortage of options for both savvy business management and mischief in Empire Of Sin.
Empire Of Sin releases in early 2020 on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC. For more on Romero Games, head here.
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Hello ja2019,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
ja2019 joined on the 06/16/2019.
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Hello WarriorBond,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
WarriorBond joined on the 06/16/2019.
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Publisher: Bandai NamcoDeveloper: CyberConnect2Release: 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
It’s been a good time to be a Dragon Ball fan recently. Dragon Ball Super rekindled many fans’ enthusiasm for the series, culminating in the film Dragon Ball Super: Broly making over $100,000,000 at the box office in the past year. On the video game side, the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games let fans dig deeper into the wider world of the series, while Dragon Ball FighterZ finally gave fans a deep, rewarding fighting game using its iconic characters.
With all these spinoffs and continuations, it’s easy to forget how long it’s been since we got a proper retelling of the storyline of Dragon Ball Z. That’s what Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot aims to do. “There are a lot of fans that have kind of jumped onto the ship [recently],” says Kakarot director Ryosuke Hara. “So I think this game will be a very good entry point for that new community, if you will, and they'll get to experience Goku's life and through this game.”
After playing a short demo of Kakarot, its storytelling is what stood out, both in how Bandai Namco and developer Cyberconnect2 are planning to stick by the established plotline and how they’re planning to deviate. The fighting that ties it all together, however, didn’t shine through.
Kakarot is an open-world action RPG, something fans have been craving for a while. I’ve always wanted to see more of Akira Toriyama’s world than Dragon Ball has shown; it’s a world ripe for exploration, even outside the confines of a shonen fighting series where plot takes a backseat to flashy, over-the-top fights. Kakarot of course stays within those confines, but wants to give us a little more world-building than the series has given us in the past.
My demo begins with a clear objective: Take on Radditz, the first baddie of DBZ’s Saiyan Saga. Although my map shows me I can immediately fly on over to take him on, I’ve got 30 minutes to explore the surrounding area, and it’s not the barren grassland you might remember from the anime: it’s much more crowded with tiny settlements, collectibles, and enemies, with various points of interest dotted on my map.
Kakarot is an attempt to further delve into the world of Dragon Ball Z through Goku’s eyes, which is partially the reason “Kakarot,” Goku’s other name (in the same way Kal-El is Clark Kent’s other name) is the subtitle. “We wanted to shine the spotlight of course not only on the battles, but what happens in between the battles, and what Goku’s day to day life is, so we needed a name that really was representative of this idea and concept of Goku,” says producer Masayuki Hirano.
The other reason is that the name is what Kakarot represents in the series itself. Radditz calling Goku this name, and revelation that comes with it (Goku being a Saiyan) is part of a shift in direction that Z begins to take that separates it from the early Dragon Ball series. “It really kind of cracks the narrative and the possibilities of the Dragon Ball universe wide open,” Hirano says. “So it's the genesis of Dragon Ball Z, the first time it really opened up that universe.”
I can see what they’re going for as I approach the first dot on my map. Here I find Nam, a character from the original Dragon Ball anime. After a short bit of catching up, he sends me on an escalating trade quest, in which I have to trade one item for another until I’m able to get him something of value for his village. Later in my demo I encounter another Dragon Ball character, Android 8, who again sends me on a similar quest after a short exchange.
Seeing these oft-forgotten characters is a fun surprise, but I leave my talks with them disappointed. The conversations themselves are pretty short and mostly perfunctory, and I wish there were more to them. I’m not asking for a Mass Effect-style dialogue tree or quest line, but I would have liked to see more interesting situations or sequences at play. For all its focus on fighting, FighterZ managed to wring some fun new scenes out of established characters, and I wish more of that showed up here.
For his part, Hirano is hopeful that they’ve been able to portray things other than the series’ bombastic fights, and that this aspect will set Kakarot apart from other Dragon Ball games. “I think Dragon Ball has a very unique sense of comedy,” he says, pointing to one of his favorite quiet moments early on in the series: The episode in which Goku, having died at Radditz’ hand, needs to make King Kai laugh in order to qualify for training in the afterlife. “A lot of those little moments in between the battles, I think, especially the comedic moments for me were really fun, and the fact that we were able to portray this in a game I believe hasn't really been done before.”
As I fly around on the Nimbus cloud (you can do barrel-rolls to collect floating items along the way) with Piccolo at my side, to complete these quests for Nam and Eighter, I’m ambushed by enemies resembling the Pirate Robot from the Red Ribbon saga of Dragon Ball. These encounters are what you’ve come to expect from action-oriented Dragon Ball games: From a behind-the-back perspective, I can fly around, shoot ki blasts, or run up and punch these robots, who don’t take a lot of effort to destroy. I can block attacks or have Piccolo help me out, but I don’t really have to engage with a lot of the systems against these enemies; I stick to just mashing the attack button I breeze through it.
I take on several of these encounters in my demo, and even by the end of my short time with Kakarot they lose their luster. These fights are hard to flee from, too, which made them more of a drag than anything else. Sprinkinling in random fights throughout the Dragon Ball Z sagas is what I’d expect from an RPG take on the series, but I wish the fights themselves were more engaging. Right now, they feel like a way to pad out my time in the demo before I take on Radditz.
Click here to watch embedded mediaMy fight against Radditz himself, however is more engaging than the several I had against pirate robots; he doesn’t seem too bothered by my attacks, but I have to think a bit more critically about how I approach him. As I lay into him, he starts glowing red, which is my sign to back away before he unleashes his own attack against me. It’s a spin move I have to dodge out of the way of, and dodging it again leaves him open to more damage. He also has a beam attack I need to duck and move around, and it provides a decent challenge.
These attacks get a little more difficult to dodge during his second phase, which is punctuated by a cutscene depicting a scene many fans already know well. As Piccolo charges up his Special Beam Cannon attack, Goku grabs hold of Radditz’s tail, paralyzing him. After Radditz fools the incredibly gullible Goku into letting him go by promising to turn a new leaf, I have to fight Radditz again in order to pin him down. His spin move now has two follow-up attacks, and his beams move more quickly, and have more blasts surrounding them, making them harder to dodge. It’s a good challenge, but that’s partially because Radditz has 12 health bars, which drag out the fight long after I’ve got his patterns down. Still, it’s a better implementation of combat than the random battles before it, and I hope future fights are like this as well.
My demo ends right after this fight, which raises some questions: With all the emphasis on depicting events we don’t typically see and Dragon Ball video games and sprinkling in some new ones, what’s the scope of Kakarot like? Will it chronicle all of Dragon Ball Z? Unfortunately, Hirano is keeping tight-lipped, and says he can’t reveal exactly where the cutoff will be. “But with that in mind, I think the fans will not be disappointed,” he tells me. “I will leave it at that.”
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is scheduled to release sometime next year on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
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Hello MoonArt,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
MoonArt joined on the 06/16/2019.
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Publisher: Rebellion DevelopementsDeveloper: RebellionRelease: 2020Platform: PC
So many games put you in the shoes of a brave hero attempting to infiltrate an maniacal mastermind's secret base. Evil Genius 2: World Domination turns the tables, putting you in control of your very own criminal overlord. In this role, you build a base, hire and train minions, and lay out traps in hopes to make your lair impenetrable en route to taking over the planet.
Before you can do that, you need to select from one of four evil geniuses to play as. Right now, Rebellion is only talking about two of them: Maximilian, the star of the first game, and Red Ivan, the explosive henchman from the series' debut. Maximilian is an all-around style of play, while Red Ivan goes by the motto of "might is right" and has an unhealthy love of explosives.
Once you choose the right genius for the job, and the island you want to base your operations out of, it's time to set up your lair. Each lair starts with a front – something to put on a friendly face and put in the minimal effort to try to look like a legitimate business. In my demo, the front is a resort-casino. Once you get that out of the way, it's time to get to work constructing the heart of your lair.
As you build your hallways and rooms, you can build training facilities for your minions, as well as various specialty rooms that can bolster your defenses. Want to make your minions stronger? Build a super serum room. Want to ensure that any potentially dangerous inspectors return an "all-clear" report to their superiors? Maybe a brainwashing station is the right call. You can even build video game stations and barracks to improve minion morale. Minions are split into three classes, which affect their attributes and effectiveness in certain situations: science, muscle, and deception.
In addition to minions, you also have stronger, named characters that serve as your henchmen. The first henchman we know about is Eli Barracuda Jr. These characters are better at facing off against super spies that infiltrate your base, and they're the only characters you can give direct orders to outside of your evil genius.
Before the Forces of Justice find out what you've been up to, it's a good idea to not only train your minions and henchmen, but also set up trap networks. While some traps are fine on their own, linking various traps together makes sure the nimble spies that enter your lair are in for a real challenge. In my demo, the trap network consists of a narrow hallway with a giant fan at the end. Once the spy enters it, the giant fan activates and a laser grid turns on. The agent is blown through the laser grid, stunning them as they reach the end of the hallway. They think that's all that's going to happen, when suddenly the floor opens up and they fall into a shark tank. Countermeasures like this network are crucial to maintaining your lair and preventing the Forces of Justice from foiling your evil plans.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
The Forces of Justice are just as diverse as your minions, however, consisting of soldiers, saboteurs, and super agents. While making sure your henchmen are around to deal with any pesky super agents is a good idea, it's an even better idea to diversify your traps to deal with any threats. Thankfully, Evil Genius 2 gives you plenty of trap options with which to find the best combination. From the aforementioned laser grid and shark tanks to a pinball device and a perfectly named Venus Spy Trap, you have plenty of ways to catch a secret agent.
While defending your base is important, the ultimate goal is the subtitle of the game: world domination. To accomplish this, you can participate in various objectives, with potentially hundreds to choose from. Some of these wacky objectives include destroying the Forces of Justice, selling the British royal family, kidnapping the governor of Maine, or literally baking Alaska.
However, if your evil genius dies, it's game over and your campaign run comes to a sad, anticlimactic end. Thankfully, with so many customization options and objectives to choose from, the next campaign attempt should be just as lively as the first. I love the oddball humor Evil Genius 2 looks to bring to the table, and the wacky customization options has my mind churning out potential trap networks and layouts of my lair long before the game even releases. Evil Genius 2: World Domination launches on PC sometime in 2020.
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Publisher: Frontier DevelopmentsDeveloper: Frontier DevelopmentsRelease: November 5, 2019Platform: PC
A good zoo isn't just about giving paying customers a fun afternoon with the family. Looking past the fancy animal displays, shiny souvenirs, and themed restaurants, every great zoo works toward a mission of conservation. To accomplish this goal, the zoo and its employees must get everything perfect, right down to the very last details. Frontier knows this, and the result looks to be the most detailed, customizable experience the genre has ever seen.
As I sit down to meet with Frontier, the developer opens up a zoo they've created and soars over a river of people walking along the paths. Sure, each person has expectations and desires when visiting a zoo, but this facility isn't just about catering to the visitors. According to Frontier, Planet Zoo is just as much about conservation and education as it is about building the perfect zoo for your customers. Every animal has wants and needs based on its species, and its up to you to design habitats for these beautiful creatures in ways that also attract patrons.
Planet Zoo understands how daunting the task at hand is, but it has provided players with an impressive customization suite to help them achieve it. The first step is assembling the walls however you want them. From there, you need to take into consideration the kind of animal that will live inside the habitat, then make sure the correct terrain is laid; alligators have different needs than giraffes.
If you need help, you can open up a tab to see what that animal needs; making sure your alligator has enough space to swim, as well as a nice plot of dry land to lay out in the sun is important. This menu shows the needs of animals across four welfare categories: nutrition, social, enrichment, and habitat. You can also assign research tasks to your staff to learn more about the animals – improving your zoo's knowledge of the animals even unlocks additional text on educational signs you can post around the park.
Once the animals are placed, they're nothing short of impressive. You can zoom in close enough to see individual hairs on lions, and those alligators basking in the sunlight have intricately designed scales. At one point in my demo, the developer zooms in on a chimpanzees eyes to show how captivating they are in Planet Zoo. Species like giraffes and zebras have unique patterns that are passed down based on the genetics of their parents; no two animals are ever the same.
The creatures in Planet Zoo behave dynamically, meaning you can expect unpredictable moments in line with how the species actually behave in real life. For example, in the chimpanzee habitat I'm shown, an unexpected rainstorm sent many of the apes scurrying for cover under a shelter in their habitat, while some stayed out in the rain to enjoy sloshing around. Also, in the first five minutes of my demo, nearly every habitat featured an animal that decided it was a good time to clear their bowels.
In line with that dynamic behavior, the animals in Planet Zoo breed, and you witness entire lives of animals from birth to death. Each time an animal is born, the zoo celebrates, and each time a creature dies, the zoo mourns its loss. Animals even have fertility traits that measure how capable they are to breed, and keeping animals from inbreeding is important to prevent sterility. Alphas emerge in herding species, and animals can develop herding behaviors that cause them to follow those dominant animals around.
In addition to catering to animals' individual needs, you can also match up certain species that co-exist in the wild. In the demo I watch, I see giraffes and springboks living in the same habitat, as well as zebras and black wildebeests. These kinds of pairings enrich the animals lives if done right. You do have to be mindful of these pairings, however. Matching a chimpanzee with a crocodile won't end well for the ape.
Other ways to improve animals' lives is to install enrichment items in the habitats. For big cats like lions, tigers, and cheetahs, this includes giant scratching posts, while you can add a device that makes chimps solve puzzles to get their food. If something isn't quite right in a habitat, you can easily fix it by placing a new item or painting the ground with grass, sand, or soil to match their needs.
One big way to cater to the chimps' needs is to build climbing frames for them to spend their energy. Just like the walls and paths in Planet Zoo, these frames are custom built to your specifications. Not only are the frames set up however you want, but the chimpanzees run across them seamlessly regardless of how you set them up.
Of course, a zoo doesn't run itself. You need to hire employees to run the park. During my demo, I was only shown the zookeeper employee type, but it was neat to watch them go about their business. Zookeepers clean habitats and feed animals, but base their operations out of keeper huts, a special building type you can create. Keeper huts must be placed near the habitats to allow keepers to be efficient, but they should be hidden from guests' views, as most guests don't want to see behind the scenes. To do this, you can designate employee-only paths.
As the keepers get to work, watching the animals react to them is awesome. In my demo, the zookeeper entered the dog habitat with a bucket of food. The instant the door creaked, announcing his presence, the dogs' ears perked up and they got excited for feeding time. Small touches like that defined just why I was so impressed by Planet Zoo.
While not everything is focused on the customer, they are your source of income. To make sure you're treating your patrons right, you can add restaurants, souvenir shops, bathrooms, and more in order to react to their needs. It's also important to make sure they have good views and plenty of educational signs around the exhibits. If you want to give them even better access, you can set up a 4x4 track so they can go on a mini safari through the animals' habitats; whether you choose to charge for the ride is up to you.
The zoo-sim genre has been largely dormant for several years, but Planet Zoo looks to revitalize it. With stunning attention to detail, dynamic ways to react to your animals' wants and needs, and all the simulation mechanics you've come to expect from games like these, I can't wait to play Planet Zoo when it launches on November 5.
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Publisher: Team 17Developer: Playtonic GamesRelease: 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Playtonic Games' stable of veteran developers made its debut two years ago with Yooka-Laylee, a faithful spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. Since Playtonic consists of many former Rare employees who created Banjo-Kazooie, the team effectively captured what many fans loved about that series. Now, that same team, which also features former members of the studio behind the original Donkey Kong Country games, is tackling the 2D platformer genre in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
Much like the platformer duo's debut adventure, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair sees the eponymous chameleon and bat combo working through 20 2D levels with the hope of getting enough help to defeat the ultimate challenge: Capital B's Impossible Lair, an extremely difficult level that's four times as long as any other stage in the game with no checkpoints. Yooka-Laylee can take just two hits – the first hit sends Laylee the bat flying off, and Yooka has to try and recover her before she vanishes (much like Yoshi in Super Mario World) – so I didn't last long in the early version I attempted. Thankfully, you're able to bolster the heroes by finding 40 bees scattered throughout the 20 levels.
You can actually go straight to the Impossible Lair at the start if you want, but you won't have much luck. Unless you're a masochist, you're going to want to collect as many bees from the various stages as possible. Each bee you find joins you in your Impossible Lair run, absorbing one hit for you. In the early version I tried (Playtonic tells me it may change by the time launch rolls around), the lair starts off with a difficult boss battle before dumping you into a moving-platform hell full of enemies, laser-focused flamethrowers, and other deadly obstacles. I didn't even make it out of the first room, even with the six bees that joined me.
Over the course of the 20 stages, you travel across diverse locales like forests, towns, and even a blimp in the sky, and encounter all sorts of obstacles and baddies. Thankfully, Yooka-Laylee attacks these challenges with a strong moveset inspired by the 2D platform superstars of yesteryear. Yooka the chameleon can jump, roll, and lash his tongue out to grab objects. Laylee the bat can do a twirl-jump, a ground-pound, and boost Yooka's roll. You always control the two in tandem though, as I mentioned before, Laylee will fly off if you take a hit, leaving Yooka without Laylee's special abilities if he can't catch her in time.
Between stages, you can explore the overworld. While normally just a hub to get you to your next level, in true Yooka-Laylee fashion, the overworld map, which changes the view to an isometric perspective, is dense and full of secrets. In one sequence I saw, Yooka blew up a wall with a bomb to open a new area. Though there is much to do in the overworld, Playtonic intends this area to be a chiller experience than the mainline 2D levels. Still, however, exploration is greatly rewarded.
In addition to finding quills, the main form of currency in Yooka-Laylee that can be used to buy items to bring into the 2D stages, you can also unlock special second states of the stages. These new versions of the stages fundamentally alter the level you've already beaten, and offer up a new bee to find within that course. One second-state version changes the orientation, so you're climbing vertically instead of going left to right, while another floods the forest so it becomes a water level. These add new twists to the game, and I'm excited to see what else Playtonic can dream up to mess with players hoping to collect all 40 bees.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Playtonic game without collectibles. The original Yooka-Laylee went a little overboard with its collectibles, and often frustrated players with how hard it could be to grab everything. Thankfully, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair tones down the overall number of collectibles, with quills and bees found in the stages serving as the most important ones. While old-school fans of Banjo-Kazooie may lament the death of the collectathon elements found in the first Yooka-Laylee, I greatly welcome this scaling back.
Playtonic, despite having its DNA rooted firmly in the original Donkey Kong Country, sees the game as inspired by modern games, directly mentioning Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze as inspiration. After playing through three levels and attempting the Impossible Lair, that's obvious; Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair plays tight and modern, with challenges that feel new and exciting, rather than ripped out of the '90s like the first Yooka-Laylee game sometimes did.
Click here to watch embedded mediaYooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is set to launch sometime this year on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
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Publisher: ImprobableDeveloper: Midwinter EntertainmentRelease: 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PC
When we first learned about Scavengers from the team at Midwinter Entertainment, it was hard to understand exactly what kind of game it was without getting my hands on it. Midwinter’s goals certainly sounded ambitious; the idea of creating mutual goals in a multiplayer match that would create more nuanced multiplayer scenarios (ones where players wouldn’t always immediately shoot at each other) sounded promising, as did the mix of PvP and PvE elements. After finally having a chance to play a match at E3 this year, however, I have a good idea of what Scavengers is and while its premise is interesting, some of its ideas don’t live up to their promise right now.
The easiest way to think of Scavengers is to use battle royale as a base. Four teams are dropped onto a single, giant map that takes place on an Earth that has become an eternal wasteland after a meteor crashed into the moon. Without supplies, you’re forced to scrounge up resources, weapons, and items in the early minutes of the game. One major difference between Scavengers and battle royale games, however, is that you’re not fighting to be the last person standing, and there’s no circle closing in on you. Instead, you’re collecting DNA samples for Mother, the A.I. which sends you into the eternal tundra in the first place.
It’s a mutual goal, too; every squad was working to gather a total of 60 samples in our match. Once those have all been collected, Mother sends down a dropship. Your goal is to board that dropship and get out before you’re overtaken by the cold. There’s also hunger and cold meters to contend with, which you have to fill by finding warm areas and feeding off wildlife. Storms also roll in from time to time, giving matches some natural urgency. These factors give you a constant motivation to move forward; hiding out in a settlement and waiting for the player count to drop isn’t going to do much for you here.
Although your three-person squad is made up of individual character classes with distinct roles and weapons, you still need resources to unlock your class’ true potential. I played as the melee-oriented Jae, who could use his character ability to disrupt groups of enemies from up close, but in order to unlock my signature weapon (a halberd-like blade) and reinforce my armor, I needed to collect a certain number of materials to craft them. I like that you’re working towards a static goal instead of praying you get a lucky drop; it reminded me of a MOBA in the way that you’re working your way through a character build each match.
Another aspect of Scavengers that might feel familiar to MOBA fans are encounters with A.I. opponents. Littered across the map are camps of enemy factions, who act as a way to build yourself up before you find and take on human opponents. These encounters are akin to killing creeps in MOBAs; they don’t pose much of a threat, but you need to mow them down if you want to stand a chance against human foes later on. You do have a more solid motivation for attack them, however; these camps usually host the samples you need to collect before Mother will let you back on the ship, so it’s a primary goal.
As a gameplay loop it works, since you slowly start to feel better equipped and ready to take on other players, but fights with A.I. opponents doesn’t reinforce the harsh, survivalist tone the game is going. Some enemies packed more of a punch than others, but I never felt threatened by these foes, who were completely oblivious to obvious flanks and simply stood there as I wailed on them. Enemies don’t seem to react to being shot and don’t put up much of a fight, either, which made working them over and raiding their encampments for supplies feel more like a ritual than a fight.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing; neutral enemies in MOBAs work the same way. These fodder enemies also introduce a bit more flair the looting aspect of a battle royale game. Considering there’s only a handful of squads on the field, they liven up matches, too. I just wish these encounters were more interesting; the gunplay is functional, but not all that exciting on its own.
Fights with human foes are different story. Our team didn’t have a real encounter with another squad up until the very end of our match, after we’d collected all the samples and Mother had sent down the dropship and a powerful storm began to roll in. They came at us as we were clearing out an A.I. hideout and the storm came in from the direction of the dropship. Pincered, we decided to stand our ground atop a hill a few feet away from the camp. The high ground didn’t give us the protection we might have wanted, however, and we wound up backed into a corner and wiped out.
Click here to watch embedded mediaWe could have made our way to the dropship instead, however, and I’m curious about how the match would have turned out had we made a run for it. But because our confrontation came at the end of our match, with a storm barreling down on us, the tension and stakes were high, so I didn’t get a good sense of how Scavengers might let you engage with other players beyond combat. It’s hard to know if things might have been different if we’d encountered another squad earlier on, but I still think it’ll be hard for most players to get over their shoot-on-sight instincts, and I never felt the motivation to do so.
Still, Scavengers offers enough deviations from what we’ve come to know about battle royale games that, despite some rough edges and some lingering questions about whether this setup can deliver on its promises to offer something new in the multiplayer arena I’m intrigued by what it has to offer. There are some fun ideas at work here, and with a playtest rolling out this year before the title properly releases in 2020, there’s plenty of time for Midwinter to iron out the kinks and mold the game into something unique.
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Publisher: Electronic ArtsDeveloper: Respawn EntertainmentRelease: November 15, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
One of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s early standout characters is one that never says a single line of dialogue throughout the course of Cal Kestis’ adventure. BD-1 is a small bipedal droid that assists Cal in his journey in a number of ways. He can hack into electronics and control them, scan elements of the environment and defeated enemies to build out an encyclopedia of knowledge, display holographic maps, and dispense health canisters when Cal needs them. We spoke with the art and sound team at Respawn about what it takes to add a new, unique droid to Star Wars’ canon and find out what it’s like to work with legendary sound designer, Ben Burtt.
In our cover story, we touched briefly on BD-1 and how his original inspiration came from Snoopy and Woodstock. His code name was even “Bird Dog” before he became “Buddy Droid,” but that was just the starting line. “Originally, we had the idea that Cal was a tinkerer, so maybe he kit-bashed this little droid together and originally the little droid was going to work like a backpack to hearken back to Yoda on the back of Luke,” lead concept artist Jordan Lamarre-Wan says. The idea of Cal building BD-1 was abandoned, but the element of him traveling on Cal’s back remained. “A lot of mechs and droids in Star Wars are a very simple silhouette. Very simple shape, but then there are a lot of details within the silhouette to make them very readable,” Lamarre-Wan says.
R2 is a cylinder with a dome, for example, so many of BD-1’s early designs followed those ideas. “Some of our original sketches were actually following those same recipes, so we actually landed on a place that was really close to BB8. And then we saw the trailer revealing BB8, so that was kind of a no-go,” Lamarre-Wan says. Other early ideas gave BD-1 boosters so he could fly around, but the team eventually landed on the bipedal design we see today because BD-1 is meant to help with exploration, both from a gameplay perspective, and within the fiction.
BD-1 is a droid meant to assist explorers and archaeologists, which was a result of the gameplay functions the team wanted for BD. “He didn’t start from a strictly visual, or narrative standpoint,” art director Chris Sutton says. The team knew how they wanted BD to assist Cal and they worked backwards from there. BD-1 has two big eyes, an atypical asset for a droid his size, because he needs to be able to scan things, and he needs to be able to make 3D projections for Cal, and he has legs because he needs to be able to crawl around and explore tight spaces. “BD-1’s not one of a kind – but he’s not common,” writer Megan Fausti says. The general idea behind BD is that the company that manufactured him went under, so you will never see new droids like him, but there are a few out there in the universe. Once the gameplay functions and fiction were in place, his character design began to take shape.
“We try to make BD-1 very human and very personable and like a best friend for Cal,” Fausti says. Along with gameplay and archaeological functions, Respawn also imagined that buddy droids, like BD-1, would be used by lonely explorers. “Part of the function of the [BD] droid is to help [explorers] not get lonely and not get sad, so he can be cheerful or encouraging and express a lot of emotion as a core function to help the person not lose their connection to society,” says narrative designer Aaron Contreras.
“Some of the inspirations visually… we were talking about the manufacturing process of like where the droids come from fictionally, and some of the lines you see on BD will evoke things like a snow speeder, like the way there are diagonal lines on the visor.” Lamarre-Wan says. “The graphic patterns, even the heat sinks on the back. It also evokes the binoculars that Luke uses.”
BD-1 is also very cute, which plays into all these ideas. “Cute wasn’t the pillar, but it helps,” Contreras says with a laugh. “I would say his defining trait would be bravery, but he is cute just by virtue of who he is and what he is to Cal and to the player,” Fausti says. He has a pair of antennas on his head which animator Laure Retif says she tries to use like dog ears. “He’s got a big head, like a bird, and two legs, like a bird, but the emotion of a dog.” Lamarre-Wan says. Retif has to lean on body movement in general since BD-1 is a droid and doesn’t have facial features that can be used to express familiar emotion. He may not be able to move his eyebrows or change the shape of his eyes to get across his personality, but he does have a voice, which is being created by Ben Burtt.
Burtt created just about every iconic Star Wars alien or robotic voice and sound effect that we take for granted, and he also provided the voice for Wall-E. Early in the process, Burtt gave Respawn about five different voices to choose from that ranged from R2-D2 and Wall-E, to voices that sounded close to human speech with layers and layers of processing on top of them. Respawn told Burtt what they liked, and he began the recording process.
Burtt recorded complete cutscenes, but he also recorded all kinds of “dialogue” for various moments outside of specific narrative moments. Early in the process, Burtt received actual dialogue to be translated into BD-1 speech, but over time, the team found more success in just making specific emotional requests of Burtt.
In terms of how it works, like whether or not Burtt is actually making bleeps and bloops into a microphone with his mouth and then tweaking those noises in post-production, Respawn’s sound designers admit they don’t actually know. “I can only really guess at that,” audio director Nick Laviers says. “Yeah, he doesn’t reveal his secrets,” audio director Rhonda Cox says. Laviers and Cox spent time with Burtt at Skywalker Sound touring his studio and even looking at his Star Wars props, like his original Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope script, and they connect with him regularly, but for the most part, they just let him work his magic. “I do think he likes to speak the part,” Laviers says regarding whether or not Burtt speaks actual lines of dialogue. “I think when there aren’t any, Ben kind of makes them up, because he likes to kind of get into the character. My theory is he will perform it in his words first, then he will take a synthesizer and try to kind of create the intonations… but that’s just a theory.”
EA commissioned a robotic puppet version of BD-1 to take to E3, and it’s easy to understand why it went through the marketing expense. “He’s not just a robot. In Star Wars, droids are characters,” Lamarre-Wan says. Respawn wants BD-1 to be just as much of a character as any human, Wookiee, or other alien in the game, and our time with the game shows he has a lot of promise, both from his gameplay applications and his personality.
For more on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, you can head here to read the full cover story, and click the banner below to check in on all of our exclusive coverage throughout the month.
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