UHQBot
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Hello Raistlin,
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.
Raistlin joined on the 05/11/2019.
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Publisher: CygamesDeveloper: Arc System WorksRelease: 2019Platform: PlayStation 4
Granblue Fantasy Versus, the newest fighting game from Arc System Works, has been steadily adding new characters since the game's announcement. Now Cygames and ArcSys have announced the newest character, the out-of-left field wrestler Ladiva joins the roster.
The newest trailer for Granblue Fantasy Versus shows off all the introduced characters so far and ends with Ladiva showing off her wrestling moves. Check out the trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaGranblue Fantasy Versus is scheduled to release in 2019 on PlayStation 4.
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Hello chphat11,
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.
chphat11 joined on the 05/11/2019.
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Hello yztom,
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.
yztom joined on the 05/11/2019.
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Hello Logos,
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.
Logos joined on the 05/11/2019.
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Publisher: NyamyamDeveloper: NyamyamRelease: May 9, 2019Rating: Not ratedReviewed on: PCAlso on: iOS
The doctors of Elizabethan England had treatments that seem ridiculous and terrifying by modern standards, incorporating leeches, herbal remedies, and general superstition. In that era, imagine how dubious and outlandish a doctor’s methods would need to be in order to be ostracized and branded a fraud. In Astrologaster, you live on this medical fringe as Simon Forman, looking to the stars (and your own self-interest) to determine how to advise your patients. The idea is fun, but like the bizarre remedies of Forman’s time, Astrologaster doesn’t quite work.
The story attempts to weave strands of history and fiction together via vignettes of Forman’s consultations. You have a variety of regular patients with funny dialogue, including a struggling actor, a nosy neighbor, and a woman whose husbands keep dying. The presentation of these visits is the highlight of Astrologaster, with a neat paper-cut-out aesthetic and amusing songs that herald the arrival of each character. After they explain their medical issue or life crisis, you turn to astrology to diagnose and guide them – but that’s when things start getting hazy.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThe star-gazing initially seems to have a deductive or puzzle-solving element; one of the first readings has you drawing parallels between the signs in the sky and the name of a vessel in order to recommend a ship to invest in. However, that falls by the wayside quickly, and you rarely need to decipher anything. The celestial elements influencing your choices (like “Uranus represents a change in fortune”) are technically present, but they feel extraneous since each option you’re presented with has a pretty clear interpretation summarized at the top of the screen. All you need to do is read them and decide which one to select, so the astrology becomes more of an aesthetic trapping than a mechanic you actively engage with.
This means the core of Astrologaster is mainly selecting dialogue options, but it falls short in making that impactful. I appreciate how often the choices make you weigh telling the patient the “correct” thing instead of what they want to hear, but the consequences are rarely satisfying either way. If you tell a woman she has evil digestion when she is actually pregnant, the number quantifying your relationship with her takes a hit, but she doesn’t stop coming to see you. If you give an explorer bad coordinates, he still comes back later looking for advice after a mild verbal reprimand. In my second playthrough, I resolved to keep a relationship together that I had sabotaged my first time around, only to discover that it falls apart no matter what Forman says. While rare encounters can have more significant outcomes, most of your selections just change a few lines of dialogue, which conveys the sense that you have no influence on the events.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
Some of these situations are set in stone because of developer Nyamyam’s desire to achieve a degree of historical accuracy. Outside of Forman’s interactions with real people, the studio says that even the star positions are correct for the dates of his consultations. While that kind of faithfulness requires a lot of ambition and research, it doesn’t necessarily translate to fun. The details surrounding an event may be technically correct, but that isn’t much comfort when your choices as a player feel insignificant.
Astrologaster has a unique premise, clever presentation, and funny writing. Those elements all work in its favor, but the longer it goes on, the duller it gets. The story fails to make most characters interesting, and the illusion of choice (but without meaningful consequences) creates a sense of futility. It is worth checking out if you want to learn more about Elizabethan history and medicine, but those looking to increase their dosage of compelling narrative experiences should seek treatment elsewhere.
Score: 6
Summary: Astrologaster is worth checking out if you want to learn more about Elizabethan history and medicine, but it doesn't provide a compelling story.
Concept: Assume the role of a “doctor” who employs astrology and questionable remedies to treat his patients
Graphics: Visuals have a cool pop-up-book flair, which compensates for the sparse details and animation
Sound: Voice performances are well done, but skipping text often results in characters talking over each other
Playability: A simple interface makes it easy to select your responses and advance the story
Entertainment: Despite a fun concept at its core, the characters and story don’t pull players in as events unfold
Replay: Moderately Low
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Publisher: 1C EntertainmentDeveloper: 6 Eyes StudioRelease: April 30, 2019Rating: TeenReviewed on: PCAlso on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Today's gaming world has no shortage of tactical RPG experiences from XCOM to Fire Emblem, but Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark goes all-in on adhering to the nostalgic inspirations of one of the genre greats, Final Fantasy Tactics. As an unabashed tribute to the legendary title, Fell Seal hits all the right buttons in terms of combat and customization, but is held back by repetition and an uninteresting story.
Click here to watch embedded mediaCharacter customization is at the core of everything great in Fell Seal, with tons of classes to unlock and explore. Combining different abilities and movesets is a joy, stacking powerful passives with active abilities. You create gun-toting assassins, hybrid mages that blast and heal, and debilitating debuff masters. In addition, you have a wealth of powerful crafted gear and consumables to seek out, further adding to your arsenal. If you feel like really diving in and doing many extra battles and hunting down secret badges, you unlock special secret classes and monsters to add to your retinue. Character abilities, item usage, and combat all feel religiously true to Final Fantasy tactics, and fans will love every fight as they constantly progress and open up new avenues of advancement. Finding new shops, new items, and new classes stays exciting and fulfilling the whole game through.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
Watching your off-the-battlefield decisions play out in combat is great, setting up big plays to kill enemies for bonus resources with special abilities, preparing massive area-of-effect spells to punish weaknesses, and getting the edge by taking advantageous positions. Despite mixing and matching moves to your heart's content and experimenting with class compositions, combat can get tiring. You are often chopping up the same bandits repeatedly to level up your characters in order to change classes and create the perfect combo of skills. The game is deft at attempting to challenge the repetition by offering special random enemies that show up as you engage in these “patrol” missions that are essentially farm grinds, but you still feel the repetitive crunch if you are adequately preparing yourself on the standard difficulty or above.
The story is straightforward and forgettable, but is used as a vehicle to add even more class diversity to the game. As the story progresses, your core cast of characters unlocks special unique classes based on what’s happening in the world and their plotlines, giving you exceptionally powerful abilities that fit in with the lore, like one of your characters unlocking a hidden well of demonic rage or the main character tapping into the ancient powers of the chosen one. Some aspects of the graphics are neat, like setting your character outfits to fit the class, but something just doesn’t sit right about them; the visuals are like a Gobots-to-Transformers comparison, with amateurish sprite-based art and animations.
While Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark might lack graphical style and an enthralling story, the combat loop is the stuff dreams are made of for fantasy tactics devotees. If you’re a fan of strategy battles and a plethora of interesting unlocks, this is the game to take you back 20 years, when you met Ramza and Delita for the first time.
Score: 8
Summary: Create the perfect team of adventurers for this strategic journey.
Concept: Form a collection of adventurers to take into a ton of tactical fantasy battles
Graphics: The art and animations don't do justice to the action on the field, and even majestic spells play out as unimpressive poofs of pixels
Sound: Simple sound effects convey an adequate sense of the world around you with a solid (if limited) soundtrack
Playability: A variety of difficulty modes allow you to tailor the experience to your level of familiarity with the tactical RPG genre, so anyone can dive right in
Entertainment: Adheres to the tradition of Final Fantasy Tactics admirably, but repetitive encounters and lack of an interesting story drag the experience down
Replay: Moderate
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Hello synthsequence,
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.
synthsequence joined on the 05/11/2019.
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Publisher: Vblank EntertainmentDeveloper: Vblank EntertainmentRelease: 2017Rating: Rating PendingReviewed on: PlayStation 4Also on: Switch, PlayStation Vita, 3DS, PC
Your empire is crumbling. These darn kids aren’t renting videotapes anymore. Brick and mortar? More like brick and mortared, now that online shopping with free shipping has reduced a thriving retail presence to rubble. And who wants to wait around for a taxi like a chump, when an app will summon a driver at a moment’s notice? Things aren’t looking great for Shakedown: Hawaii’s aging CEO, but he’s not ready to throw in the beach towel. Over the course of his hilarious journey, you reclaim his position on the big island and thrive while sticking it to his rivals in the process.
Shakedown: Hawaii takes the essence of classic top-down GTA and arcade shooters and infuses it with a wry comic sensibility that hits its mark with the same degree of accuracy as its arcade-precise weapons. You primarily step into the flip-flops of the CEO, but you also take to Hawaii’s streets as his idiotic son (and wannabe DJ) Scooter and business associate Al. Their goal is simple: Build up an open-world business empire as quickly as possible while also catering to the outlandish whims of these darn kids and their newfangled ways.
Getting back on your feet isn’t easy at first. You’re free to explore the pixelated world, but your company is feeling the squeeze from unhappy shareholders and a business rival. Early missions quickly highlight the arsenal of weapons, which are just another tool for this cutthroat businessman. There are run-of-the-mill pistols and machine guns, as well as less orthodox tools of destruction, such as scissors, hair driers, and Contra-like spread guns. The island is teeming with life and detail, and even if you miss a shot, it’s likely to result in a satisfying amount of destruction. Indulging in open-world chaos is reliably fun, but sooner or later you’re going to need to get to business, in more ways than one.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThe titular shakedowns are a low-hanging source of income when you’re first getting back on your feet, and they’re also home to some of the silliest moments. Before you can get your cut of profits from businesses, you need to intimidate the workers to show them how serious you are about forming a new “partnership.” Sometimes that means punching a mannequin until the owner agrees to your terms. Or you might have to flush some paper towels down the office commode until the pipes burst. That barber has a nice head of hair – it sure would be a shame if someone cut it all off. I quickly settled into a rhythm of scouring every block for these opportunities and was pleasantly surprised at how many different ways there were to show these civilians who’s boss. You have dozens of these shakedowns to discover, and even though scenarios repeat, they’re quick and fun enough to prevent them from feeling like a chore.
You can spend your cash on cosmetics, weapons, and a handful of character upgrades, but that’s short-term thinking. The real money is in real estate, which is also where the game shines during its first few hours. You can purchase a variety of different properties on the island, from homes and businesses to larger things like malls and an airport. Most of those acquisitions generate cash, too, which in turn allows you to buy even more. Eventually you can purchase upgrades for each property, which further multiply the amount of revenue your corporation earns from each location. The interface isn’t quite up to the task, however. I loved watching the numbers climb, but multipliers have to be purchased individually – a significant detail, considering there are more than 400 different locations you can potentially invest in. It’s tedious, and it starts to feel like, well, work.
Most of these multipliers are tied to story missions, in which your aging CEO encounters a contemporary frustration like in-store credit cards or multilevel marketing. Told through animated vignettes, these moments tackle modern life with a scathing wit, whether they’re setting their sights on artisanal foods, medical quackery, or – in one particularly great sequence – the video game industry. Even though the CEO does some cartoonishly awful things in the game, his “get off my lawn” attitude is endearing and made me look forward to every beat of the lengthy story.
Unfortunately, the game’s stingy economy quickly gives way to an overabundance of cash. It feels like a weird complaint, but in the last third of the game my company’s value had ballooned to the point where money didn’t have any meaning. Once you’re satisfied with the way your CEO’s sprite looks and have maxed out each of the easily affordable character upgrades, you have nothing else to look forward to in the economic layer. When my scheming opened up new buying opportunities in the campaign, I was able to buy buildings immediately and max out each upgrade chain without even bothering to look at the price tags. It fits into the riches-to-more-riches story, but the lack of aspirational purchases flattens out an otherwise fun system by the end.
Burying your nose in your portfolio isn’t all you can do. The island has loads of challenges to partake in, where you’re free to indulge in some of the game’s crazier elements. Each weapon in your respectable arsenal has an accompanying activity to try out. Getting gold rankings in these are an easy way to blow off some steam, and leaderboards let you show everyone how good you are at rocket jumping or tossing Molotov cocktails. It’s violent but not gratuitous; enemies die in a bloodless flash, accompanied with a hilarious lo-fi scream – even when you run them over with a steam roller.
Shakedown: Hawaii does a great job overall of recognizing what it does well and regularly delivering those moments. Taking out a plantation of goons or clearing out gang strongholds can be challenging, but it never feels punishing. True to its arcade-style inspirations, enemies drop new weapons at a steady clip, and I never felt outgunned no matter how crazy the action swelled.
The economy might be a little wonky, but Shakedown: Hawaii delivers a nice blast of classic arcade action and some solid laughs. A wealth of entertaining missions and a generous overall structure show that while the game’s CEO might be out of touch, developer VBlank most definitely isn’t.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
Score: 8
Summary: Shakedown: Hawaii delivers a nice blast of classic arcade action and some solid laughs.
Concept: Rebuild your "legitimate" business through intimidation, fraud, and old-school GTA-style beatdowns
Graphics: Whether you’re exploring the open world or watching one of the many animated cutscenes, the visual style is a pixelated wonder
Sound: The synthwave soundtrack is a perfect accompaniment to the onscreen carnage, and it has enough variety to keep you from pressing mute right away
Playability: The story might be amusing, but the controls are no joke. The action is quick and precise, with few moments of frustration
Entertainment: Bite-sized missions and an engaging empire-building layer make Shakedown: Hawaii a great destination – whether you have minutes or hours to spare
Replay: High
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Publisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentDeveloper: Breaking WallsRelease: 2020Platform: PlayStation 4
Another new announcement at today's State of Play livestream, Away: The Survival Series puts you in the shoes (so to speak) of a sugar glider making their way in the animal kingdom. While sugar gliders are adorable, those adorability isn't going to save you from other animals, so interacting with the rest of the world in a way where you do not die is paramount.
Check out the trailer for the game below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThe game is set in the distant future and is intended to feel like the player is stepping into a wildlife documentary rather than just playing a game set in nature. On the PlayStation blog, director Laurent Bernier explained how much detail they are really going into in order to create the best possible natural world.
"In order to feel truly immersed in nature, we set out to create a visually stunning world filled with colorful, vibrant environments. Given the Sugar Glider’s small size, we made sure every plant, leaf, and blade of grass was accounted for, and this attention to detail pays off when you navigate the wide variety of landscapes in Away."
Away was not given a release date, but one would presume it isn't coming until 2020. The game has only been announced for the PlayStation 4.
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Publisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentDeveloper: IllFonicRelease: 2020Platform: PlayStation 4
During today's State of Play show, Sony revealed a new game from Worldwide Studios, the PlayStation's publishing arm. Those who have been hoping for a game that lets them live out their fantasies of becoming the Predator, the universe's apex hunter, might finally be in luck with Predator: Hunting Grounds, coming from developer illfonic.
You can see the first teaser trailer for the game below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThe short trailer just shows a group of soldiers pacing around a jungle when an invisible creature, obviously a Predator, standing on a tree above them. During the State of Play itself, the narration afterward explained that the title is an asymmetric multiplayer shooter, implying something similar to Evolve or Dead by Daylight where one player takes control of the stronger unit while every other player is a weaker but more numerous unit, like the soldier.
On the PlayStation Blog, illFonic gave a few more details beyond what was in the video, confirming that idea.
"One group of players will control members of an elite Fireteam who pack state-of-the-art conventional firepower, from shotguns and SMGs to sniper rifles and more," the blog reads. "Meanwhile, one player will control the Predator: a stealthy, acrobatic killing machine bristling with exotic alien technology such as the infamous Plasmacaster. As the Fireteam attempt to carry out paramilitary missions – annihilating bad guys and recovering important items – the Predator will be closing in, using its advanced vision mode to track and ambush its prey."
Predatory: Hunting Grounds will release on PlayStation 4 in 2020.
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Publisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentDeveloper: Other Ocean InteractiveRelease: October 25, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4
Back when Sony last held the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, California, the company decided to ease back on the announcement-packed conference and go for something a little more subdued. They still did end up announcing a new game, though, in the form of a remake of the 1998 action game MediEvil. Since then, Sony has been fairly quiet about the title, though we got our reintroduction to it with a story trailer today, as well as a release date for October 25.
You can see the first story trailer, which sets up the concept of the game and shows gameplay, below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaIt definitely still retains all the things that people remember about the PlayStation classic. While I never got into the series myself, I know a lot of people who swear by Sir Daniel Fortesque as one of their favorite characters from the classic PlayStation era.
You can see why for yourself when MediEvil releases on PlayStation 4 on October 25, just in time for Halloween.
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Hello Samki1000,
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.
Samki1000 joined on the 05/09/2019.
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Publisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Ubisoft ParisRelease: October 4, 2019Rating: MaturePlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Launched two years ago, Ghost Recon Wildlands catapulted the longtime Tom Clancy series in a new trajectory armed with an expansive (some might say excessive) open-world, untethered cooperative play for up to four players, an evolving experience that is still being updated to this day. The same development team that shipped Wildlands and delivered 19 title updates in the last two years has ballooned to more than 1,000 developers, and the team has some ambitious and surprising plans for their follow-up. Here is everything you need to know about Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Click here to watch embedded mediaGoodbye Real Settings, Hello Fantasy Island
Ghost Recon has always been set in real-world locations during fictitious geopolitical skirmishes. Over the last 17 years, we’ve fought through Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, and even along the United States border. Now, the special operatives are going off the grid to an island that doesn’t really exist.
Auroa is a sprawling, make-believe island in the Pacific Ocean. This giant, geographically diverse open world’s closest comparison is probably New Zealand, with snowy mountain peaks, sandy beaches, jungles, and volcanos. This picturesque location is home to Skell Technology, a corporation that develops advanced A.I. and drones. Nomad’s team of Ghosts are sent in after the world mysteriously loses communication with the island.
“Creating a fictional setting gives us in measurable license to expand on the world,” says Breakpoint writer Emil Daubon. “We can create a variety of terrain with a variety of physical and social landscapes that you have to navigate, and we can expand on it as we choose. That's a really exciting aspect.”
You’re Stuck Behind Enemy Lines
When Nomad and company approach the island on helicopters, they encounter an unexpected resistance to their presence and the choppers are shot down. From here, the Ghosts are completely cut off from communication with the outside world. With no overwatch, active intelligence, or capabilities to call in reinforcements or supply drops, it’s up to the Ghosts to map their approach to finding out what’s going on. As you gather intelligence and analyze the situation, you begin to unravel what happened at this remote location.
Your Enemy Is Your Friend
The Operation Oracle content update for Ghost Recon Wildlands introduced us to Cole D. Walker, a fellow Ghost operative played by Jon Bernthal (The Punisher, The Walking Dead). In the years that have passed since Wildlands, Walker has radicalized his beliefs and teamed up with another black ops veteran named Stone. The duo has formed a deadly team of former spec ops soldiers called the Wolves. This motley crew of badasses have the same training and capabilities as the Ghosts – think the radicalized American version of Ghost Recon Future Soldier’s Bodark units.
The Wolves infiltrated the island and took over the many R&D divisions to start producing an alarming number of militarized drones and robotic sentries. Taking back control of the island won’t be easy when swarms of drones constantly descend on your location, but with near-future technology taking center stage expect a lot more diversity in Breakpoint’s combat encounters than we experienced in Wildlands. As you pick away at the Wolves by liberating regions and getting the enslaved engineers and scientists to join your cause, you will gain a better understanding of why Walker went rogue.
“Walker believes in his causes and conditions, and he believes he's on the cause of righteousness however jaded or misguided anyone else might view it,” Daubon says. “He believes in what he believes fiercely.”
Responding To Community Feedback, Breakpoint Increases Realism
Adopting a fictitious setting doesn't mean Ghost Recon Breakpoint is all fantasy. A dedicated subsection of Ghost Recon fans constantly bangs the drum for adding more realism to the tactical experience. For many, regenerating health in Wildlands felt like a bridge too far for a series that once made its heroes glass cannons. Ubisoft has been listening to these calls for a more hardcore military experience. Recalling his own 14-year career as a special forces medical sergeant, Daubon says “hunger, dehydration, injuries, ambiguity, lack of intel, and no supplies can kill you as sure as any bullet.” Ghost Recon Breakpoint doesn’t fully swing in a MilSim roguelike direction with its tactical play, but it wants to surface many of these secondary threats in meaningful ways.
In Breakpoint, you can no longer sprint down sloped terrain with wild abandon. Like real-world operatives, you must move deliberately or risk injuring yourself in a fall. The new persistent injury system can leave you and your compatriots maimed in battle, affecting things like your mobility or accuracy depending on the injury. You must also keep hydrated and fed.
The combat tactics also feel more realistic thanks to a few new tools you can exploit during battle. The torch gadget allows you to breach fences, eliminating the need to survey an entire complex to find an advantageous chink in its outer defenses. If you’re out in the open you can go prone and blend with your environment like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator at the press of a button, caking yourself with mud. Even if a teammate blows cover and draws attention, a well-camouflaged Ghost won’t be immediately detected. Stealth players will also appreciate the ability to pick up and move bodies of downed enemies to avoid detection. You can even carry fallen teammates behind cover to perform triage from a safe location.
Other fan-requested improvements include “greatly improved” vehicle handling, a wider variety of heavily armored or armed military vehicles, and a bloody new collection of gruesome, stabby close-quarters takedowns.
“This is the game the community asked for, and this is the game that they are getting,” says Breakpoint UX & realization director Matthew Tomkinson.
Making Camp Is Critically Important
With no base to call home, the Ghosts have to rough it on Auroa and find shelter on the fly. Whenever you see a smoldering firepit in the open world, you can pitch camp via the new bivouac feature. These locations provide a safe space to plan and prepare your next move.
Players have several choices at bivouacs. Maimed soldiers can rid themselves of persistent injuries at these camps. A new crafting system allows you to use the items you gathered from around the environment to create useful items like healing syringes, bandages, and rations that can be shared with teammates. If you’re heading into a hairy location, it’s a smart idea to procure a temporary buff by either eating, drinking, or tweaking your gear/weaponry. "Some tasks you perform in the bivouac can only be performed once per bivouac, so players will need to be strategic in their choices," says creative director Eric Couzian.
Bivouacs also allow you to swap between the four character classes in Breakpoint – the run-and-gun assault class, the ranged specialist sharpshooter, the stealth-oriented panther, and a heavy-hitting class that allows you to use rocket launchers. Similar to the specializations in The Division 2, each class has a persistent skill tree with unique tools. For instance, when the panther class is equipped you can use a smoke bomb to provide cover when moving through open spaces, and the sharpshooter can add three special bullets to their magazine that add extra damage, as well as hold their breath longer than other classes for lining up precision shots.
Once you’ve rested and prepped for the next battle, you choose when to break camp and under what conditions. Infiltrating a heavily guarded base? Maybe it makes more sense to move in under the cover of a rainy night.
Solo Players Say Goodbye To Squad Support
Wildlands elicited a lot of different opinions, from heavy praise to criticism, but one point nearly everyone agreed on was how annoying your A.I. squad members were. These low I.Q. instruments of war sometimes struggled to get into position for sync shots, rarely seemed to do much damage in a firefight, and filled long drives through the open world with groan-worthy chatter.
Rather than fix the squad A.I., write better dialogue, and give players more control over their teammates (wouldn’t it be great to man the turret on a drive to the next objective or command split-team operations?) instead Ubisoft chose to go another direction by removing your comrades entirely.
“The mission statement that we received was we want to create a fantasy that replicates being alone trapped behind enemy lines,” Daubon says. “Ultimately, if you choose to play a solo, you have the option to immerse yourself deeply in that aspect of the fantasy. The A.I. teammates would have taken away from that.”
This means no one will be riding shotgun and returning fire when you draw the attention of enemies on the road, which is a bummer. This is even more disappointing considering Ubi said Breakpoint has 30 vehicles this time around, many of which are heavily armored or armed.
However, you aren’t completely devoid of fire support. Nomad can use drones to perform sync shots and thin the enemy ranks.
If the idea of going solo annoys you, you always have the option of playing with up to three other players cooperatively.
Click here to watch embedded mediaStorytelling Includes Dialogue Choices
Breakpoint puts a great emphasis on storytelling, using cutscenes and flashbacks to flesh out its story. Some of those cutscenes even have dialogue choices. In the mission we watched, Nomad’s team move on a research building believed to be housing Paula Madiera, an engineer working against her will on weaponizing Skell Technology. When the Ghosts neutralize the threats and reach her, she implores them to blow up the building to prevent the Wolves from further weaponizing the machines. The player is presented with a choice – sabotage the factory at the risk of drawing more hostiles to your position, or say it's too risky and get the hell out of there. However, don't expect the game to catalog your decisions and tally them to change the direction of the narrative. "Dialogue choices will give players the opportunity to enhance their role-playing experience by choosing the answers most fitting to their mood, impacting the cutscene in which they make the choice," Couzian says.
PvP Is included Out of the Gate
Wildlands didn’t receive a competitive multiplayer mode until six months after launch, but Ubisoft has spent the last year and a half fleshing out the PvP suite. Over that time, the developers added new maps, classes, game modes, and a prestige system with in-game rewards. All that work has laid the foundation for Ghost Recon Breakpoint to ship with PvP from day one. We’ll have more details on how Ghost War is changing in the future.
Progression Tracks Across All Modes
Just like in Wildlands, you create a personalized Nomad by selecting gender, hairstyle, and attire before you start the game in the enhanced CharacterSmith. From here, your character will be used in both the campaign and competitive multiplayer modes, and your progression tracks across both places as well. That means if you find a gun or unlock a skill during the campaign, it can be used in competitive multiplayer and vice versa.
Post-Launch Support Includes Raids
Ubisoft no longer ships a game and moves on to the next project. Each of its titles receives expanded content well past its release date, and Breakpoint will be no different. Ubisoft has some promising plans to support Breakpoint, including the addition of more story content, seasonal events, new classes, and even endgame cooperative raids. Ubisoft has the ability to tweak the terrain post-launch as well, so it can add new points of interest as it sees fit. The examples I saw included huge research centers, volcanic bases, and oil rigs off the coast.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 4. To read more about why Ubisoft chose to set the game in a fictional place, head here.
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Publisher: ActivisionDeveloper: BeenoxRelease: June 21, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
It was only just a few months ago that Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled was announced at The Game Awards in December, but we're already staring down the barrel of the game's release next month. The various trailers for the game have shown a lot of surprising new things about what was originally just a remake of the PS1 classic, such as skins, podium animations, and customization now.
You can check out the vehicle customization trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaIn addition to skins for your ride, there will also be podium animations and other ways to customize your cosmetic experiences. While they don't say these things will be purchasable online in the trailer, I would not be completely shocked if that were the case. At the moment, though, it's probably prudent to just assume all of it is unlockable with the game.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on June 21.
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Publisher: SNKDeveloper: SNKRelease: June 27, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Samurai Shodown, the newest entry in the venerated weapon-based combat series from SNK, looks like it's shaping up to be quite the revival. While we've gotten a look at one of the game's new characters already, there are also a host of returning favorites, including everyone's favorite French fighting fencer, Charlotte.
The blonde veteran returns with most of her moveset seemingly intact, but with a lot of cool extra flourishes to an already pretty fancy repertoire. You can check out her introduction trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaCharlotte was always one of my favorites in previous games, though I suspect a lot of that was also not knowing how fighting games worked but realizing I could just keep people away and they would get extremely mad about it. She looks decidedly more fluid and fast, like a fantasy version of a fencer, so I am eager to try the character out in the new game.
Samurai Shodown is releasing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this June.
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Publisher: Oculus StudiosDeveloper: ILMxLABRelease: May 21, 2019Rating: Not ratedReviewed on: QuestAlso on: Rift
Star Wars fans will soon get the chance to travel to the Galaxy’s Edge theme park to live out a fantasy of being a Jedi, smuggler, or more likely a collector of expensive toys and plastic cups. If you don’t have the funds for a pricey Disney vacation, Vader Immortal is another way to achieve an intimate Star Wars experience. In this first episode of a three-part series, you spend time on a starship, get your own lightsaber, and learn just how bad of shots the stormtroopers really are. You also come face-to-face with Darth Vader.
Being in the presence of Vader is a fascinating moment, as it reinforces what an imposing figure he is. I took a step back when he entered the room and crowded my location. This series, penned by David S. Goyer (one of the writers behind The Dark Knight trilogy of films), gives the player a voyeuristic look inside of Vader’s world. When the episode begins, you are on your ship, the Windfall, enjoying a quiet moment with your co-pilot, a droid named ZOE3. This new character is voiced by actress Maya Rudolph who is bubbling with personality and wit, making her a great addition in the Star Wars universe.
In this tranquil moment of play, you can walk around your ship (either using the analog stick for fluid movement or a warp system) and interact with various objects in your living quarters. You can hold up and examine an interesting relic from Jedha, check your travel log to see what planets you’ve been to, and also throw on a helmet, which appears visually around your head. As you conduct diagnostic work on your ship, you are pulled out of hyperspace and down to the planet Mustafar. The Empire wants you for something. Your vessel flies along the planet’s molten surface and eventually come to rest inside of Vader’s fortress. The amount of visual detail provided in this opening sequence is impressive. If you look up when standing in your cockpit, you see a massive star destroyer moving into position overhead. As you dock in Vader’s lair, stormtroopers are everywhere, many raising their guns to greet you. The first few minutes of play deliver the feeling that you are a part of a legitimate Star Wars adventure.
Click here to watch embedded mediaI don’t want to give away too much, as the little moments and interactions are the true joys that come from this experience, but I will say I wasn’t fond of my character being a silent protagonist. I understand ILMxLAB’s desire to make players feel like they are present for this journey, but it’s a choice that makes the adventure feel more like a Disney World ride than a legitimate Star Wars story. Even if your character doesn’t end up having a voice, being able to communicate in some way with your hands would have helped create a connection to the world and story.
Big revelations about Vader and his power-hungry crusade are made as this short 40-minute tale unfolds, and I adore where it ends up. It goes places I didn’t expect, and dives deep into Mustafar’s history along the way. This planet has plenty of secrets to tell, and some are delivered in this first episode; others are teased for future episodes. You learn that your character is also important to both the planet and Lord Vader. As far as story setups goes, this one is dripping with intrigue in great ways.
Igniting a lightsaber is as cool as you would hope it to be in VR. Seeing the blade extend is mighty satisfying, as is hearing it hum as you wave it around. The saber will also leave scorch marks on the floor. Again, the little touches are great. Just don't expect much from the lightsaber when combat ensues. You are mostly asked to use this powerful weapon for countering techniques. You need to time your saber movements to knock back laser blasts and block saber strikes from robots. Though you can’t die, some skill is involved in blocking two to three strikes in a row, which exposes an enemy and allows you to strike them down. Moving the saber quickly into position is fun, but you don't really feel like you are a threat at this point; which could be a story beat ILMxLAB is building up to. As bare-bones as this combat is, battling eight-foot droids that are right in your face is exhilarating.
Some of the better moments in this episode are when you don’t have to use a lightsaber at all, and instead are asked to figure out ways to open doors. I know that sounds boring, but these little puzzles use your hands in clever ways, and make you feel like you are actually interacting with the environment. You are also asked to climb a few ladders and shimmy along pipes. These are the only two interactions that didn’t go off without a hitch; my hand grabs sometimes weren’t recognized, and I sometimes had problems dropping from a ladder to the floor.
Outside of an odd tutorial sequence that completely derails the experience for a few minutes, the action and story flow nicely from moment to moment, creating a fun ride into the inner workings of the Dark Side. The lack of involvement you may have as a character is a minor quibble in an otherwise fascinating Star Wars story that puts its iconic villain in the spotlight more than I expected. I can’t wait to see where this series goes next, as the tease at the end implies the Force will be explored in big ways.
Score: 7.75
Summary: Standing face-to-face with Darth Vader is a powerful moment in this fun story driven adventure.
Concept: A satisfying introduction to a three-part series that brings you into the heart of Darth Vader’s world
Graphics: Standing next to Vader is an awesome moment. Being blinded by the lightsaber in your hand is equally satisfying. High levels of detail are presented in both the characters and environments
Sound: The voice work is excellent, with the highlight being Maya Rudolph as ZOE3. She helps set up the narrative in a fun way
Playability: As fun as it is to swing the lightsaber around, it’s mostly used for defensive techniques and doesn’t deliver on the fantasy fans are likely hoping for. General movement and environmental interactions are handled well
Entertainment: Combat is a weak spot, but the story is engaging to the point that I didn’t want this episode to end
Replay: Moderate
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Hello shuggee,
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shuggee joined on the 05/09/2019.
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Last month, Atlus revealed the first details and trailer for Persona 5 The Royal, their revised version of their hit RPG with some new content. The new version follows in the same footsteps as games like Persona 3 Fes and Persona 4 Golden by taking the base game and putting out more content and tweaks, of which we finally get some details for with Persona 5.
The news comes from an interview with director Daiki Itoh, who directed Persona 4 Golden, and producer Kazuhisa Wada in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. In the issue, Itoh states that he expects fans of Golden to have their expectations surpassed in terms of new content, though they weren't quite ready to fully detail all that content yet.
To begin with, following feedback about the experience pacing of Persona 5, The Royal will include tweaks to how experienced is gained throughout the campaign. Since the game now includes a third semester, that might be part of the tweak, but hopefully it is just slightly more experience across the board to minimize any kind of grinding time in an already very long game.
The new character Kasumi will be integrated into the story and will put the main characters in a new light. Of course, as a party member, she also has a confidant story line to go along with it. Another new confidant named Maruki is also here, but only described as "an extremely nice adult character," which, you know, that never works out awkwardly in Persona 5.
There will be 20 new music tracks added to the game from Persona 5's base version. While the game will probably recognize your Persona 5 save data for bonuses, you can't actually just pick up from the old save file for the new game. Finally, the developers coyly mention that the "handsome man" from the trailer, who is presumed to be a human form of Morgana, also sleeps in Joker's bed.
Persona 5 The Royal has been announced to come west in 2020 exclusively on PlayStation 4.
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Hello ishotbambi,
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ishotbambi joined on the 05/08/2019.
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Hello karzon225,
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karzon225 joined on the 05/08/2019.
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Publisher: Bandai NamcoDeveloper: Bandai NamcoRelease: September 28, 2018Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
It is always hard to figure out what to call a genre when it is still in its early days. There was a time where every first-person shooter was derisively dismissed as a Doom-clone, even years after its namesake. It is in that same vein that we still struggle to figure out what to call games that seemingly derive inspiration from From Software’s Souls titles and have simply settled on Souls-likes. This increasingly proves to be an inaccurate comparison as these Souls-likes diversify and find their own identities, which is exactly what Code Vein, a new action title from the God Eater team, is trying to do.
Code Vein takes place in a vampiric world, where the lords of the night control, oppress, and farm humanity. This is becoming a progressively difficult problem of scale, as more blood is needed but not enough humans are surviving to be siphoned. Enter your protagonist, a captive of the vampires that has an inexplicable ability to create trees that produce human blood. It’s definitely macabre, but well within the God Eater team’s common theme of creation through consumption that permeates all their games.
While I did say it was reductive to simply boil Code Vein to being a Souls-like, it might also be the easiest way to get at the heart of how the game feels. The team does not shy away from comparisons to Dark Souls and in fact seems to be honored to be mentioned in the same breath as one of the progenitors of the genre. The inspiration is definitely felt in the action – when facing bigger enemies who don’t quite stun the way you would want, you tend to slash twice and then roll away, like you have a thousand times before. You back off to heal, you hang around a giant enemy’s backside, you don’t get greedy with damage unless you want to pay for it.
Where Code Vein looks to differentiate itself, however, is in other key aspects rarely touched by the Souls games. The first and most major, according to the developers, is a larger emphasis on story. Indeed, the game begins with several cutscenes showing how your character met the female survivor that he or she cares for, how they got captured together, and establishing the various NPCs situated around you at any given time. It is a bit too early to say whether the story is one worth paying attention to, but the developers believe it is one of the things they do best.
The non-playable characters are also another distinction between Code Vein and its influences. While you occasionally go it alone, you are often paired with a partner to help make the goings on a little easier. By and large, your AI partners are not particularly aggressive and enemies are not especially interested in them, so they do not exist to take gameplay away from you. The other characters, often hunters or warriors of some sort or another, do factor into cutscenes with some regularity, often serving as the silent protagonist’s mouthpiece when things need to be said. They are also very, very chatty.
Bandai Namco’s newest foray into the Souls genre recently saw a delay from its original hard date in September last year to sometime in 2019. While the developers explain that this was mostly for polish, the game is still lacking a little bit in that regard. Characters pop into animations in visible ways that do everything they can to remind you that you are playing a video game. If I had to guess, this is a solution to another problem and thus not that easily polished over, it is still something bothersome to see.
There’s a lot that is interesting about Code Vein, especially for those that like the idea of the Souls games but have felt them lacking in some different areas; maybe their aesthetic did not quite fit your tastes, maybe their isolation was too cold and unforgiving, maybe it was something else that you cannot quite define. Whatever the case, for those people with their noses pressed against the glass of the genre, Code Vein might be worth checking out when it releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC later this year.
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Multiplatformer joined on the 05/07/2019.
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Publisher: Bandai NamcoDeveloper: Supermassive GamesRelease: 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
For our latest, just-launched issue, we got exclusive access to a new demo for Man of Medan, the first game in Supermassive’s Dark Pictures anthology. This is the studio’s first big project since its cult hit Until Dawn, and it’s going all-in by telling standalone stories in five games, each exploring different subgenres of horror. Man of Medan is up first, and it tackles the home invasion and the ghost ship tropes. A group dive to explore a historic World War II site is supposed to be a vacation to remember, but it ends up being that for all the wrong reasons. Here are some brief takeaways from our discussions with the team and hands-on time. You can learn even more new details by reading our 6-page feature in our June issue, which is now live digitally.
The Branching Paths Are Ambitious
While Man of Medan may be half the length of Until Dawn, it isn’t lacking in content or replayability. The team upped the ante in the amount and variation of the branching paths. I did a few playthroughs of my demo and experienced different relationship states, information, dialogue, and events based on my choices. In one playthrough, I had a happy newly engaged couple; in another the proposal was denied, which was a total mood-killer for the trip and made things awkward. In one playthrough, I even got one of the main characters killed. One simple choice about going peacefully or struggling with kidnappers ended up determining if I knew the whereabouts of a certain character.
Supermassive fully committed to this much variation and created its own in-house tool to keep track of it all. “It is very ambitious in terms of the branching,” says game director Tom Heaton. “We worked really hard to make sure we had a blend of long-term, short-term, medium-term branches and consequences. In this game, the whole chapter and scenes may or may not play out depending on what you do at various parts of the game and within those scenes they can play out dramatically differently. We have to keep track of everything the player has done, every decision they’ve made, everything they’ve said. Sometimes those are quite inconsequential things, but you know, an hour down the line we can pull back on that and remind the player what they said earlier, and that’s really satisfying to the player. It says to the player, you’re being listened to and what you do matters.”
A Bigger Focus On Relationships
Supermassive quickly realized that the relationships between the various characters were one of the most popular parts of Until Dawn, making the team put even more effort into giving them more depth and reward here. If you invest the time and min/max certain relationships, you unlock bonus scenes. You also can have unique relationship states depending on how you foster your characters, opening up different dialogue and scenes. “One of the things that’s really important is the relationships between the different characters and [maintaining them] under extreme tension and duress,” Heaton says.
Exploration Is Rewarding
In my demo, I was not disappointed in taking the extra time to search and revisit every nook and cranny, in fact I was rewarded in an array of different ways. Sometimes this meant having an extra item that came in handy for a sticky situation later on. Other times, it meant finding out more back story and how the characters came to be in this precarious situation. Man of Medan is based off a famous legend about the ship Ourang Medan, where its entire crew perished under suspicious circumstances in the 1940s, so it’s interesting to see how Supermassive incorporates it into its fiction. You can find out more by finding “secrets,” mysterious objects that provide insight into the past and the characters’ certain situation. “You can’t really work out much from just one of them,” Heaton explains. “You make connections and start to piece them together for the backstory. It will unlock scenes where characters will talk about what they know and it can help you as a player. If you find enough, you get hints allowing you to make better decisions for the rest of the game.” Additionally, if you were a fan of Until Dawn’s totems, you can discover so-called “premonitions,” which show how a character could potentially die, acting as a heads up so you can take caution with that scene as you play it.
The Split-Second Decisions Are Intense
If you thought Until Dawn had some difficult choices and interesting consequences, you are going to feel right at home here. The decisions often come fast and have unpredictable consequences, making you wonder when it’s worth taking a risk or playing it safe constantly. After all, any of the main characters have the potential to die at certain points in the game based on your choices. “We find it’s quite easy to come up with an easy decision, something that’s an obvious good and an obvious bad,” Heaton says, “That’s no good to us at all because people can navigate that very quickly. We want pros and cons for [all our choices]. You have to take a risk; you have to jump into the unknown.”
The most tense scene I experienced was where a kidnapper armed with a gun wanted me to call the coast guard to find out more about the current storm and its duration. He firmly warns you there will be consequences if you try anything. You have the opportunity to say something immediately or play along. Later the coast guard asks if everything is okay and says reach out if there is an issue. It’s almost like the game is daring you to take the risk. I didn’t, though. Instead, I chose to stay silent as he said one last time to let him know if something is wrong. I figured silence might indicate that something is awry, but I won’t know the larger ramifications of that choice until I play the game in its entirety. I still think about this moment and where it may lead.
Expect The Unexpected
If we learned anything from Until Dawn and its big twist, it’s that Supermassive loves to take you by surprise. The team uses tropes and stereotypes to build out the world and its characters, but then it turns them on their head for some intriguing and shocking outcomes. Man of Medan looks to be following suit, but just because the team is using the home invasion and ghost ship subsets of horror doesn’t mean they’re going to be used in a way you’d expect. For example, while Supermassive plays on the home invasion aspect, it’s not the typical strange men breaking into your home. After all, the group is on a boat far out in the South Pacific. How Supermassive brings the invaders into the ghost ship and along for the bigger mystery is even more clever. I’m still wondering how it will all come together due to the various elements at play.
Man of Medan launches this summer on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more information, you can read our previous preview here and be sure to check out this issue of the magazine.
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