UHQBot
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Earlier today, Sony outlined the exclusive content coming to Red Dead Redemption II when it releases later this month. As previously announced, the content is only exclusive for the first 30 days, at which point it will release for Xbox One, but these are the first details of what exactly it will be.
For the game's story mode and Red Dead Redemption online, you get access to the Grizzlie's Outlaw Outfit. You can start using this outfit from the game's launch date. When Red Dead Redemption Online launches soon after the game's release, you get access to some other items and accessories and a horse.
The PS4 content for Red Dead Redemption Online includes a Chestnut Arabian Horse, the Alligator Skin Ranch Cutter Saddle, and the quick-shooting High Roller Double-Action Revolver. These items are only for the online mode and will come to the Xbox One a month after they launch on PS4.
Red Dead Redemption II releases on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 26.
[Source: PSBlog]
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KOEI Tecmo today showed off a new trailer for Dead or Alive 6, their upcoming fighting game title. The trailer shows off returning characters Tina, Bass, and Mila, two long-time DOA veterans and the latter introduced in Dead or Alive 5. Check out the new trailer below.
Tina and her father Bass have set up a tag team with each other called Muscle Team, which seemingly gives superfan and MMA fighter Mila a shot at fighting her wrestling idols. The trailer also shows off the wrestling ring stage, which has some variation in every modern game in the series.
Dead or Alive 6 releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15.
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Hello nop,
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.
nop joined on the 10/05/2018.
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Hello adampski,
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.
adampski joined on the 10/04/2018.
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While Yu-Gi-Oh's Yugi Moto was revealed a few weeks ago for the upcoming manga fighter Jump Force, we haven't really seen him in action yet. Thankfully, Bandai Namco has provided a new trailer for the game showing exactly how the card-slinger fights.
While it's been sometime since I have familiarized myself with the card-battling story of Yu-Gi-Oh, my understanding is that Duel Monsters' eponymous monsters were holograms created by the weird thing they wore on their arms, which is clearly not the case here. Yugi fights using corporeal versions of Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl and finishes enemies with a certain legendary monster.
It's unclear if Yugi will have different monsters to play with, but for now his bread and butter seems to be the two Dark Magicians in his deck.
Jump Force releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in February.
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Hello truben2018,
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.
truben2018 joined on the 10/04/2018.
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Hello Darkskull1987,
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.
Darkskull1987 joined on the 10/04/2018.
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Bandai Namco has revealed that Inferno is joining the Soulcalibur VI roster. As a new trailer shows, it looks like fighting him is going to continue to be a massive pain in the rear.
Inferno's gimmick is centered on his ability to mimic other combatants, and also the fact that, well, he's on fire.
Soulcalibur VI is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19.
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Hello Storm934,
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.
Storm934 joined on the 10/03/2018.
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Hello Klaus,
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.
Klaus joined on the 10/03/2018.
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Darksiders III hits on November 27 (PS4, Xbox One, PC), and the latest trailer for the game shows the evolution of Horseman of the Apocalypse, Fury. Her unlockable/switchable Hollow forms give her the might to defeat the Seven Deadly Sins through an array of abilities.
Fury's giant hammer, Scorn, is not only a powerful weapon, but a way for Fury to draw in energy to scale walls.
For more on the game, be sure to check out our hands-on impressions of the demo as well as the Gamescom trailer.
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The Mario Party franchise has always been about the convergence of board games and minigames with Nintendo characters thrown into the mix. Recent entries deviated from the tried and true formula to unpopular results, but Super Mario Party returns the series to its roots. While the return to the standard board-game format is a welcome adjustment, Super Mario Party supplements the flagship approach with fun peripheral modes to create a mostly enjoyable party game anyone can pick up and play.
The mainstay board-game mode delivers the classic Mario Party experience of four players moving independently through different boards to collect the most stars before you reach the turn limit. While I’m glad this mode has returned, I’m disappointed by the board options. You can only play on four boards, and they all feel small, uninspired, and cramped. Progress through them is mostly linear, with only a few branching paths that eventually converge. While the linearity is alleviated in the free-roam Partner Party mode, the boards are largely forgettable.
One of the more frustrating elements of the Mario Party franchise persists with random dice rolls and arbitrary chance elements still ultimately determining the victor. This remains evident in how you collect stars, which are bought from Toadette if you encounter her on the board. After each star, Toadette relocates randomly across the board, further drilling in the luck element; if you get a star, there’s a small chance that Toadette will relocate just a few spaces down, essentially gifting you another star on your next turn.
As with all Mario Party games, the minigames that break up the board-game action are the real centerpieces. Competing in bite-sized competitions to earn coins is often exciting, and the stable of 80 new minigames features more hits than misses. My favorite minigames, like slapping your opponents at the right time for it to be captured on camera, create hilarious situations that stick with me after I turn the game off. Others, like blasting rivals away with high-powered water guns, deliver good action with simple-yet-solid gameplay. The highlights shine bright enough that when the occasional dud pops up, I don’t mind.
With such a strong stable of minigames, Super Mario Party also includes ways to enjoy them without moving across a board. River Survival puts all four players in a raft as they paddle down a treacherous river by moving the Joy-Cons like oars. Rowing down the river as one while steering clear of rocks and enemies makes for plenty of amusing moments, and I like how you can aim for balloons along the way to pause the rafting action and play a cooperative minigame to earn extra time to reach the goal. But with only 10 distinct 4-player co-op minigames, you get repeats often. This small catalogue also limits the replay value of the mode, as you can only play them so many times before they become routine for your group.
Sound Stage amps up the motion controls as it sends the characters on stage to compete in rhythm-based games. The presentation of this mode is exciting; the crowd cheers along as you progress through a handful of competitions, and I love how the music accompanying the minigames is tied into one song with a remix of the original Super Mario Bros. Underworld theme serving as a bridge. However, this mode runs into the same problem with variety, with only has 10 rhythm-based games to pull from. Despite this, I love playing through the energetic mode as an intermission between other activities.
Toad’s Rec Room is the most unique new mode, giving you the ability to combine two Switch screens to make your own battlefields or add additional puzzles. However, it serves as little more than a diversion. The other modes deliver more substantial experiences centered on the solid library of minigames.
If you want to party by yourself, the new Challenge Road puts you through all 80 minigames organized in a hub world. While some challenges simply have you beating the A.I. rivals, many of them add an extra layer of difficulty, like collecting a certain number of coins or not hitting any obstacles. These extra layers add additional excitement to the games, though since Challenge Road is single-player only, it’s frustrating when you get teamed up with an incompetent A.I. character. Thankfully, those moments are few enough that Challenge Road is a worthwhile solo mode that highlights the best part of Super Mario Party and acts as a solid side to the multiplayer meat of the experience.
Despite lackluster board design and side modes that can become repetitive, Super Mario Party is a fun group game that showcases a diverse collection of minigames. With so many different modes, it’s easy for you and your friends to consume the entertaining minigames Super Mario Party delivers.
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Hello gagemasterlyle,
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.
gagemasterlyle joined on the 10/03/2018.
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Agent 47 may work on a different team than James Bond, but they both share an affinity for deadly gadgets. The latest Hitman 2 trailer shows off the array of wetwork weaponry you can take on the job this time around.
The teaser showcases remote exploding cell phones, proximity tasers, concussion grenades, remote audio distractions, and disposable scramblers. How you use them will determine if you successfully terminate the target.
Hitman 2 is scheduled to release on November 13 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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Today, Electronic Arts and DICE revealed the list of weapons, gadgets, and vehicles appearing in Battlefield V at launch. With 30 primary weapons, seven sidearms, and nine melee weapons, the initial arsenal sounds decent. You can read all about them here. Many should be intimately familiar to Battlefield 1 players considering roughly half of them appeared in that game as well. But when you start to dig into the details, there are some interesting omissions.
Two of the weapons most associated American forces during the war – the M1 Garand and BAR M1918 – are nowhere to be found. This shouldn't be too surprising since EA previously announced the game is launching with only the British and German factions. DICE plans to add more factions (and presumably weapons) as it rolls out new theaters of war in its Tides of War post-launch campaign.
Battlefield V releases on anywhere from November 9 to November 20 depending on what version you purchase for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC.
EA's plans to follow the historical trajectory of World War II over multiple theaters of war after the launch of Battlefield V sounds interesting, but it's created a nonstop series of announcements with problematic optics. People are going to gripe when you ship without critical factions, iconic weapons, and famous battles. Most surmise DICE plans to add most of this content after launch because frankly, you'd have to be insane not to release a remaster of the classic Wake Island map from Battlefield 1942. But the continuing cascade of "not at launch" omissions has left many (myself included) wondering if there will be anywhere close to the amount of content a regular Battlefield game has at launch. -
Hello PowerSuit,
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.
PowerSuit joined on the 10/02/2018.
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Dutch van der Linde’s gang is on the run. The notorious band of outlaws pressed their luck in Blackwater, and the resulting fallout from a failed boat heist has been devastating. A few dozen stragglers have retreated from the territory of West Elizabeth to the Grizzlies, and the situation is looking grim. Winter has laid claim to the mountainous region and ravaged the wounded. Morale is lower than ever. Through it all, Dutch has done his best to maintain control of a group that, even in good times, resists a guiding hand. Things are going to get worse before they get better – if they ever do.
Red Dead Redemption II is set in 1899, more than a decade before its predecessor, which leads to an obvious question: Don’t we already know how this all ends? Former gang member John Marston hunted down his old friends, including Dutch, before he met his own tragic fate. That still holds true, but after playing the game from the beginning for more than five hours, it’s clear that there’s still plenty of story to uncover – and it takes place in Rockstar’s most fully realized world yet.
On The Run
The wagon train inches up the mountain, while a blizzard shoves it back. There are rumors of an abandoned mining town, which is enough to keep the group limping their way ahead. When they finally reach the camp, they’re spent. One man, Davy, is dead. From what they can tell, the law has called off their pursuit. It would be suicide to attempt travel in this kind of weather. Once inside a dilapidated building that once passed for a lodge, Dutch displays the leadership that explains why anyone would bother to follow someone through this kind of frozen hell.
“We’re going to ride out and find some food,” he tells the group. “We’re safe now. Nobody is following us through a storm like this, and by the time they get here we’ll be long gone. I need you to turn this into a camp and make it easier for a few days. Everyone get warm, stay strong, stay with me. We ain’t done yet. C’mon Arthur.” And with that, Dutch and I head out into the unknown.
Before our wagons made it to camp, Dutch sent out a couple of scouts. We get onto our horses with the hope of finding them, and, God willing, supplies to keep our group alive a few more days. Visibility is next to nothing, and there isn’t a formal trail to guide us along. I take it on faith and follow Dutch, holding a button to match his pace. There’s a reason Dutch picked Arthur to accompany him on this critical part of the journey: He’s part of a core group who has run with the leader for the past few decades. By the time we ran into John Marston in the original game, he had broken old alliances for the sake of his family. At this point at least, Arthur is a true believer, even if he is just as confused about how the gang got here as I am.
“What really went down on that boat?” Arthur shouts over the wind.
“We missed you. That’s what happened,” comes the reply. If answers about Blackwater are coming, they aren’t coming anytime soon.
We press on for a bit, eventually coming across gang member Micah Bell. He says there’s a homestead not far from our location, and it sounds like they’re having a party. Sure enough, after a short ride, we find the cabin. A fiddle plays, and people are laughing and shouting inside. We hitch our horses, and Dutch tells Arthur and Micah to stay out of sight. “Let me handle this,” he says. “We don’t want to spook these fine people.”
The following exchange feels more like a standoff than an introduction, as the people inside warily regard Dutch. They aren’t falling for his weary traveler routine, even though he’s selling it with everything he’s got. Micah gets my attention, and it becomes clear that something’s amiss; a corpse is inside the wagon he’s been hiding behind. With that, we draw our weapons and prepare for the worst. The worst comes soon enough. One of the men appears to recognize Dutch, blurting out “It’s god damned—” before we cut the conversation short with our triggers. The gunplay is familiar, and snapping between targets in and out of the cabin is simple. Arthur is at the peak of his powers, too; he doesn’t need to drink a miracle tonic before he can tap into his time-slowing Dead Eye ability, which ends the encounter with a pair of deadly accurate shots.
Inside the cabin, we forage for provisions. I find a horse in the barn, but am attacked by a man before I can calm the animal. After a quick beating, we learn the men were members of Colm O’Driscoll’s gang, who are in the region to rob a train. Dutch and O’Driscoll have history, and it isn’t good. Dutch tells me to do what I want with the man, but to bring the horse when I’m done. I let him go. Arthur may be an unrepentant outlaw, but he’s not a straight-up murderer – at least not for now.
The Great Train Robbery
The next few days are eventful. The gang isn’t completely in the clear, but they seem to be settling into a new routine. Javier Escuella and I head out to find John Marston, who has been missing since Dutch sent him to scout with Bell earlier. “I know if the situation were reversed, he’d look for me,” Escuella says, unaware of how prophetic his words are.
Marston’s role in Dutch’s gang is one of the most interesting aspects of Red Dead Redemption II. We knew of John as a loyal, dependable man with a dark past. Here, a dozen years before our introduction, he’s seen as a bit of a joke. At one point, Arthur calls Marston “as dumb as rocks and as dull as rusted iron.” We find John, and during the rescue learn how he got his distinctive facial scars.
There are a lot of people to get to know in Dutch’s gang, and unlike characters like Escuella, Bill Williamson, and Dutch himself, we don’t have the benefit of having known most of them from the first game. Rockstar does a remarkable job getting players up to speed through dialogue and interpersonal moments, most of which take place in-game as opposed to breaking them out in cutscenes. In the opening hours, Arthur goes on several excursions with a variety of different gang members. On those rides, they talk about Blackwater, share their thoughts on the current state of things, and even discuss the possibility of going straight someday. The conversations feel natural and don’t seem as though you’re listening to “Exposition Moment #4.”
Even though each gang member has their own criminal specialty, they share one common love: money. Dutch has been looking for another lucrative opportunity after the disaster in Blackwater, and it comes after the gang raids an O’Driscoll hideout. There, he finds more information about their planned train robbery, as well as the explosives to pull it off. Our gang also manages to take an O’Driscoll member alive, though the man downplays his involvement. Dutch tells his men to tie up this Kieran Duffy fellow, before giving a chilling speech: “I’ve got a saying, my friend: We shoot fellas that’s need shooting, save fellas that’s need saving, and feed ‘em that’s need feeding. We are going to find out what you need.”
Duffy isn’t saying much, but that’s fine; Dutch has what he needs for the time being. He calls a group of us together to head down the mountain to pull off what he hopes will be a big score. The steady descent from the Grizzlies is transformative. For hours of game time, Arthur has had to push his way through knee-high snow and had his view obscured by blizzards and blinding reflections of the sun on snowdrifts. As the wagon train rattles its way down, packed white trails give way to paths of dirt and mud, and green foliage peeks from between the pines. There’s an accompanying sense of relief, and I appreciate the fact that, for the first time since I pressed start, it looks like our gang might actually catch a break.
The job seems simple enough. We survey the tracks from a hill beside the train tunnel. Dutch sends Williamson out to plant the explosives, and I help by stringing the wire between the dynamite and the detonator. Of course, these things rarely go as planned. The detonator fails, and the gang scrambles to salvage the opportunity. Lenny Summers and I manage to dive atop the train as it passes by, and we work our way to the engine. Along the way, Lenny asks what I think we should do next. Pulling the left trigger, I bring up options, such as having him move ahead or stay back as I clear out the cars ahead.
Arthur is part of a seasoned gang of killers, and that’s reflected in the action. The A.I. doesn’t hang back and let me get all the glory. Instead, characters like Lenny do their damndest to cut down any enemies they see. There are plenty of times where I’m about to dial in a kill only to see my target cut down by a partner’s shot. It’s a different sensation from a lot of other games, where your teammates often feel as though they’re shooting blanks.
Even though the heist didn’t work out as planned, the results are the same. We blast open an armored car and end up with valuable bearer bonds – a great haul, for sure, but one that will require some effort to reap. Whether it’s the result of the spring air or the feeling of a successful score, one thing’s certain: It’s time for Dutch’s gang to get back to what it does best.
Planting Roots
Our gang heads down the Grizzlies, and the mood is completely different from our ascent. People are in good spirits, and the weather is beautiful. That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, however. Arthur rides with Hosea, and the old man is still nursing a grudge. Hosea reminds Arthur that the two of them had a lead in Blackwater that the gang could have pursued, and that they both knew that the boat job didn’t feel right. “It just isn’t like Dutch to lose his head like that,” Hosea says. Arthur tries to smooth things over, saying he figures they must have gotten more right than wrong over the years.
The gang sets up their new camp at a place called Horseshoe Overlook. “I’ve been through a couple of times,” Hosea says. “There’s a livestock town not too far from here called Valentine. Cowboys, outlaws, working girls, our kind of place.” Now that things are settled down, I get to see what the gang does on their own time. Members fan out into the world, each with their own schemes – with the understanding that they keep low profiles and kick a share back to the camp coffers. One of the first to go is a studious looking man named Leopold Strauss, an Austrian loan shark. Valentine is his kind of town, indeed.
Now, for the first time since I started, the world is truly open. The camp is bustling with activity, as characters go about their various routines. I talk to Dutch and then grab a bowl of stew from the camp kitchen. The camp has its own needs – ammunition, medicine, and food – and I can choose to help pitch in whenever I want or ignore it altogether and let someone else deal with those chores. Morale improves the more I help, however, which is just one of the incentives to do so. For now, I want to head to Valentine and see what it’s like. I run into our gang’s resident drunk, Uncle, taking a nap against the wagon. I ask what he’s doing, and he says he’s thinking. “So. While the rest of us are busy stealing, killing, lying, fighting to try to survive, you get to think all day?” Arthur asks. “Yeah, it’s a strange world we live in, Arthur Morgan,” he responds. Uncle wants to head into town, and so do Karen Jones, Tilly Jackson, and Mary-Beth Gaskill. The ladies sing a bawdy song on the wagon ride down the road, giggling and messing up the lyrics at times.
Halfway there, we come upon a man whose horse has bolted away. I get off the wagon and lasso the animal, leading it back to its grateful owner. Arthur tells the man he was only trying to impress the women. Heading down the road, Uncle is clearly not impressed, and says Arthur is turning into a regular fairy godmother.
Players have their honorable and dishonorable deeds tallied as they play, though Rockstar says it’s not as linear a system as it was in the first game. The effects of being a hero or scoundrel are both subtle and far-reaching. Players who go out of their way to help others are rewarded with higher bounty rewards and townsfolk that don’t flee on sight. On the other hand, if you prefer to become a highwayman and rob people who pass by on the trail, you’ll get better prices at illicit fence operations and respect from fellow outlaws. In addition, the musical score shifts to reflect your moral alignment, and your character’s posture and facial animations change. Even your killcams highlight different aspects of your moral character – heroic slow-motion for the good guys, and more brutal actions if you choose to black hat your way through life.
Valentine is a mid-sized town surrounded by hills. It looks like there’s a lot to do, and my passengers waste little time finding it. I stick with Uncle, and we go to the general store to pick up some supplies. You can choose to browse the shelves, similar to how Ammu-Nation works in Grand Theft Auto V, or flip through a catalog. The catalog is a little easier to navigate, and it’s filled with period language and illustrations. It includes a large section of clothing options, too, such as hats, vests, pants, coats, and more. If you like playing dress-up in games, the cosmetics appear to run far deeper than the handful of outfits offered in Red Dead Redemption.
In addition to the general store, there’s a gun shop, stable, and street vendor to lighten your wallet, as well as a few watering holes. People mill around, adding to the feeling that it’s a bustling town and not just an NPC dumping ground.
Dutch implored us to stay out of trouble, but sometimes trouble seeks you out. I see Charles and Javier in the saloon, where they’re trying their best to impress a couple of working girls. Arthur isn’t much of a charmer, opening their interaction by asking how much they cost. “Well, ain’t that a nice way to talk to a lady,” one responds. “Oh,” Arthur shoots back. “I didn’t know I was talking to a lady.” And with that, the trio drinks alone. It wouldn’t be a saloon without a fight, and soon enough our friend Bill Williamson gets into it with some locals. It’s a classic western fight, with broken tables, smashed chairs, and a piano player who scurries out at the first sign of trouble. I’m able to hold my own, but then a bruiser stomps down the stairs and throws me through the window. Hand-to-hand combat is more involved than in past Rockstar games, and it offers a fair bit of depth. After a few minutes of blocking and parrying his attacks and getting in a few solid counters, I knock him down to the muddy street – to the amusement (and horror) of the assembled crowd of onlookers that has dynamically drawn close to watch the show.
Rockstar says that if I’d gotten into trouble in Valentine before accepting the saloon mission, Charles and Javier would have come out to help – the characters are in the world, and not just spawned in for the sake of missions. In that instance, the saloon mission might not have been available afterward, thanks to whatever chaos we may have caused in the streets.
Arthur is caked with mud, so I take him to the hotel for a bath before checking out a quick movie. While I could have let it dry, there’s something undignified about catching a flick covered in mud. The film is a glorified slideshow, but it’s still an entertaining diversion.Black Belle, And A Bad Loser
In a bar down the street, I run into a man who’s trying to write a biography about a famed gunslinger, Jim Boy Calloway, known as the fastest left-handed draw who ever drew breath. Calloway has obviously seen better days, as he’s slumped onto the bar, blacked out. I agree to help the biographer out with his plan B, which involves tracking down some other gunslingers and getting their stories about Calloway.
I start by finding a woman named Black Belle. Her last-known location is in a swamp, and I set my waypoint on the map. It’s about a 10-minute ride, even at a steady gallop. The world is big and beautiful, but more importantly there are things to do. During the trip I watch a guy get kicked in the head by his horse (and lose honor points by looting his body), help a man stuck in a bear trap, and get my fortune told by a man called Old Blind Man Cassidy. “Just as evil begat evil your whole life long, so good may begat good,” he says.
While larger-scale missions are denoted with easy-to-see icons on the map, these diversions pop up around me without much to-do. I’m able to choose whether to engage with these vignette-like gameplay moments or keep riding along. Since the rewards can be lucrative – financially and morally – I’m more inclined to participate.
Red Dead Redemption’s campaign had a serious arc, but there were moments that leaned more toward the Weird West end of things. From my time with Red Dead Redemption II, things seem significantly more grounded. That’s not to say that it’s not funny, but that the humor is more about the funny things that the characters are saying than in leaning into weird characterizations such as body-defiling prospectors. If that kind of silly stuff is in the game, I didn’t see it.
I won’t spoil what happens with Black Belle, but she’s a great example of a character delivering humor without being a punchline. Suffice it to say, it’s a case where that biographer may have picked the wrong subject.
On the ride back to camp, I swing by a ranch to see what’s happening. There isn’t much activity, aside from a few cattle and sheep, and a friendly game of dominos is what passes for excitement. I pull up a chair and join in. One of the best things about Red Dead Redemption was the slow, almost meditative, pace exploration embodied. You’re traveling predominantly on foot or horseback, which has a significantly different feeling from whirling a car around corners at 90 miles an hour. In this kind of world, a relaxing game of dominos is just the ticket. At least until I lose.
I was about ready to walk away with a smile on my face, when the winner made a little gloating remark. I look at him, and then pull up an interaction menu. When you see an NPC, you can choose several different ways of engaging them, if you want. In addition to friendly greetings, you can rob them or try to intimidate them. I try to talk him into fighting, and he obliges. After a few punches, I knock him out and take on his friend for good measure. I riffle through his pockets for the $4 pot – not my biggest score, but it’ll have to do. I also take his hat for good measure.
Unfortunately, the remaining player sees it all go down and alerts the law. I get on my horse and hoof away from the crime scene, but soon get a notification that there’s now a bounty on my head. And, to add insult to injury, it’s $5.
Hunting Party
Back at camp, I meet up with Hosea. He says he’s been itching to go hunting, ever since learning about a legendary bear who stalks the woods nearby. Going after a beast that’s purportedly 1,000 pounds doesn’t exactly sound safe, but what do I have to lose at this point?
We head out, stopping by Valentine to sell a horse that Hosea has recently “acquired” during his travels. Since we don’t have the paperwork on it, I’m unable to get top dollar for the animal, but I do get enough in the transaction to buy the stable’s cheapest option. At first, I think the mare is covered in freckles, but I realize it’s just filthy. I dismount and clean her with my brush, making her look about as good as can be. “Interesting choice,” Hosea sniffs, though he says that if I spend enough time with her I could make something out of her. Indeed, the longer you spend on your horse, the tighter your bond grows, through four levels. Each level provides a new riding ability, like being able to rear up on command, perform dressage, and eventually pull off the equine version of drifting with a slide turn.
Overall, the horse riding is a marked improvement over Red Dead Redemption’s. The horse obeys commands but also acts with its own kind of intelligence; it doesn’t feel like you’re on the back of a four-legged robot. At one point I’m getting fancy with the camera, and don’t realize that I’m heading toward a rock. The horse bucks me off, and I flop onto the ground. Lesson learned. If you want to focus on the game’s breathtaking visuals, you can have the horse stick to the trail automatically while the camera cycles through a variety of different cinematic angles. It’s a great option for when you tire of looking at your horse’s rear. If you prefer, you can also use first-person mode.
Hosea and I ride down the trail for a while before we break camp for the night. I hunt down some rabbits for supper, which is easy to do thanks to an Eagle Eye vision mode. It’s similar to the alternate-view mode you see in a lot of games now, where colors momentarily desaturate and points of interest – animals in this case – are highlighted. Rockstar’s take is a little different, however. When you use the view, animals and their tracks are highlighted. If you look at their trail and press a button, it highlights the trail for a period of time when you return to normal vision. It’s a clever way to provide the benefit of an alternate vision without forcing you to see the game through a distorted lens for longer than you need to.
Rockstar has done a particularly great job in replicating the outdoors – no small detail, considering just how much time you spend there. Forests get appropriately dense, and wildlife is abundant, with more than 200 different types of birds, beasts, and fish. And while the game features a score that has more than 100 different pieces of music, the sounds of nature are a big component of the audio landscape. At several times during the demo, I was certain that a persistent fly was near my head, but it was just part of the game.
I take down the rabbit with a bow, and then skin our dinner. Unlike the last game, the camera doesn’t pull away during this action. Arthur holds the creature with one hand and pulls its hide off in one smooth motion with the other. Skinning deer is a more complicated process, with Arthur sliding his knife down the creature’s belly and methodically removing the hide. Hides can be sold or used to craft apparel, and meat can be eaten – such as the rabbit, which Arthur roasts on their campfire. After eating, we go to bed in our makeshift camp with full bellies. That’s an important new element to the game, since Arthur needs to eat and sleep. When he’s full, for instance, he can regenerate health more quickly. It didn’t seem like a fussy component to the game, but I dipped into my in-game satchel to eat a few oatcakes or other foods that I scavenged to keep Arthur full.
The next morning, we craft some bear bait with fish and berries, and try to track down the legendary beast. I’m able to track it using clues, such as a half-eaten fish, pile of scat, and broken branches. Hosea says we’re close, and I’m given the choice between splitting up or dropping the bait and staying together. Splitting up seems like a bad idea, so I drop the stinky bait and we hide behind some boulders. Less than a minute passes before Hosea starts fussing about the bait. Did I mix it correctly? Did I put it in the right spot? We move out, only to realize just how effective it was – just a few feet away, the bear appears, raising on its hind legs and roaring. I enter Dead Eye and paint its massive body with targets. It’s enough to scare the beast off.
Hosea is grateful for saving his life, and he gives me a book of maps in gratitude. “A man in a bar gave it to me,” he says, adding, “well, I stole it from him, but that’s another story.” He heads back to camp, giving me the option of going back with him or seeing if I can finish the bear off. I tell him I’m going to try my luck and see if I can’t finish what I started. And with that, Hosea rides out of sight.
Who Is Arthur Morgan?
The biggest takeaway from my time with Red Dead Redemption II – and Arthur – wasn’t centered around any kind of revelatory character moments. I’m sure those will come later. What struck me most is how rooted he was to the world around him. Rockstar has pioneered the open-world genre for decades, and with Red Dead Redemption II, they’ve outdone themselves. It’s a role-playing game in the truest sense of the word. You are inhabiting this role in ways that few, if any, other games have attempted.
You won’t end up with a Level 38 Arthur Morgan, or anything like that. Instead, there’s a feeling that you inhabit the world. A lot of open-world games fill the screen with icons representing things to do, and that’s fine. In this game, you’re given things to do between those activities, which are small but meaningful. The game isn’t attempting to be a simulation like Don’t Starve, but you need to eat and sleep. You can make your firearms more effective by maintaining them with gun oil. Even something as seemingly insignificant as being able to say hello to a passing traveler adds to the overall tone – even if they look at the gut-shotted deer carcass stowed on the back of your horse and sarcastically ask if it’s your first time hunting.
Arthur Morgan is still surrounded with mystery, which is why it was so interesting to step into his boots. We know what happened to Javier, Bill, Dutch, Abigail, and other members of the gang, but Arthur’s fate is unknown. Did he manage to get out and start a life away from Dutch’s crew? Was he killed in another failed heist? Arthur may be an outlaw, but hopefully he’s able to find his own kind of peace along the way.
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Hello senpaicreampai,
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When Mega Man jumped onto the scene in 1987, it was like nothing else. Players could determine the order in which they took down all of Dr. Wily’s evil robot masters and then steal their powers. After 30 years, that formula no longer feels novel, but Mega Man 11 proves that the classics are classic for a reason. Capcom has given the Blue Bomber a new coat of paint and a few new tricks, but Mega Man’s core gameplay remains challenging and rewarding.
Among the things that never change is Dr. Wily’s mad desire for power. Once again, he’s kidnapped eight of Dr. Light’s robots and reprogrammed them for evil. Robot masters are a highlight in any Mega Man game, and that remains true here; every boss has a unique gimmick that sets them apart stylistically, but their cute design is betrayed by their fearsome skills in battle. Every time I went toe-to-toe with one of these killer machines, it felt like an epic throw down. My heart raced as Block Man transformed into a two-story monstrosity who threw car-sized bricks, and my palms sweated as Acid Man sent waves of toxic sludge my way. Paying attention to your enemies’ tells and mastering their attack patterns is half the fun, and taking each robot master down for the first time is an absolute thrill.
The creative design of each robot carries through in their stages. Bounce Man’s level is my favorite, with bounce pads that send you ping-ponging around. I also loved falling across several screens before landing on a massive trampoline that shot me back into the sky. Other stages present memorable moments too, like outrunning a massive forest fire and bounding over icy platforms in the middle of a snowstorm. I never knew what to expect from each level, and their themes never overstayed their welcome.
The special weapons and abilities you earn are instrumental in overcoming each level’s challenges. For example, Acid Man’s acid barrier saved my skin more than once, and Impact Man’s pile driver is a dash attack that is invaluable during certain platforming sequences. You can swap between all of these abilities using the right analog stick, which is incredibly slick and minimizes the time you spend in menus. By the end of the game, I felt like a powerhouse as I quickly cycled through my abilities, overcoming every challenge.
Even with all of these new toys, Mega Man’s most powerful skill is available from the start. The gear system allows you to slow down time or amplify your gun for a short period. This is the biggest change to Mega Man’s core gameplay in over 30 years, but it’s a welcome addition. These new tools turned what could have been frustrating challenges into death-defying stunts. Nothing is more satisfying than using the slow-mo gear to bound through tricky obstacles, then sidling up to enemies to unload a few overpowered shots into their weak spots. Overusing the gear system makes Mega Man overheat, so balancing these powers takes skill – but that only ratchets up the tension as the action intensifies.
Mega Man’s new tricks are even more important because Capcom didn’t pull any punches in terms of difficulty, but old-school challenge feels like a fair fight thanks to precise controls. Four different difficulty modes allow everyone to find a comfortable playthrough, but I had the most fun on the normal setting. The shop system also lets you tune your experience. You get to keep all the bolts you earn when you die, and these are used to purchase extra lives, energy refills, and permanent upgrades like larger buster shots and better traction on ice. So even when I crashed and burned during a boss fight, I never felt like all was lost.
Mega Man 9 and 10 were both loving throwbacks to the franchise’s NES roots, but Mega Man 11 is the first entry in ages that offers something new without sacrificing everything fans love. The new gear system is a cool mechanic, and Capcom’s level design feels classic in all the right ways. Mega Man 11 taps into the series’ past, but also serves as a solid foundation for the Blue Bomber’s next 30 years.
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Originally published in the mid-‘80s, Fist of the North Star is a successful, post-apocalyptic manga that follows a martial artist named Kenshiro who has the power to make heads explode with a single punch. Lost Paradise tells a new story in the Fist of the North Star mythos but borrows known characters and story elements from the source material and structures the experience to play like the developer’s other game series, Yakuza. In some ways, this weird amalgamation of franchises works, but it’s not without shortcomings.
In a world ravaged by nuclear destruction, Kenshiro is a master of the Hokuto Shinken style of martial arts, which focuses on attacking pressure points on his opponents’ bodies. When done correctly, this causes them to explode in violent displays. This makes him a very powerful person in the apocalyptic world, but he has a heart of gold and cares only about finding his fiancée. He tries to avoid violence as best he can, but sometimes the only way to do that is to punch people so hard that their bodies burst like over-inflated balloons. In that strange paradox, Lost Paradise builds up an interesting, melodramatic, and sometimes humorous story. Kenshiro explores a large city full of quest-givers and minigames, beats up groups of thugs, and sometimes takes a car out into the nearby wasteland to find materials and explore other, smaller towns.
The narrative is built around soap-opera-style twists from severely serious characters who like to keep secrets. People you think are dead rarely are, and if they wear a mask, you better believe they’re hiding a revelation under there. The surprises drive engagement but are doled out at a snail’s pace. Walking from one story revelation to the next always involves getting sidetracked against your will, and a number of annoying missions force you to travel great distances to figure out what you need just so you can turn back around and get it.
Between (and during) the story and side missions, you drive around a large open wasteland and fight thousands of bad guys. The clumsy driving suffers from awkward physics, but as a way to diversify the mission structure, I appreciate its presence. You can upgrade your car with new materials, but they mostly offer underwhelmingly minor changes.
Creativity is not Kenshiro’s strong suit, and it shows in his fighting style. Plenty of unlockable combat upgrades are available, but few changed the way I approached combat. This makes health and power upgrades the most useful options. Though the upgrade system left me wanting more, I enjoyed the fighting despite the occasional difficulty spikes and repetition.
Fist of the North Star is an old property, and that age is reflected in how the world of Lost Paradise is rendered. The main female characters are underdressed, and the male characters are walking muscle towers who deliver one-liners like, “Villains don’t need graves.” Plus, the violence is glorified in a way that would make the original Mortal Kombat proud. Yes, this is faithful to the original manga, but that didn’t keep me from feeling embarrassed about playing it in front of others.
The melodrama of the main story is fun, but Lost Paradise shines brightest when it doesn’t take itself seriously. You can tackle minigames like one on a baseball field where thugs on motorcycles drive toward you and you knock them back with a giant piece of rebar. Another has you donning a lab coat and playing a rhythm game where you beat up bad guys trying to steal medicine from a clinic. These minigames and side missions (like one where you have to track down the “shoulder pad killer”) are a highlight, and it is always a treat to see the super serious Kenshiro participate in some bizarre frivolity.
The narrative moves slowly and side missions eagerly pull you away from the main story whether you want them to or not, but I was engaged throughout. I wanted to see what would happen next and was happy to beat up bad guys in order to do so. Shortcomings in the pacing and the lack of diversity in the combat pull down the experience, but I liked the time I spent with Kenshiro. The Fist of the North Star franchise feels dated in many ways, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better representation of its strange and violent world in a video game.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission Review – A New Experience In A Familiar Genre
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The platformer has been a video game staple for decades and for good reason. Understanding the genre’s mechanics are quick and easy, it affords the opportunity to create fascinating worlds worth exploring, and for some reason it is just super fun to make someone (or something) jump at your command. Astro Bot Rescue Mission takes these old traditions and makes them feel novel and fresh thanks to the way it combines mechanics and how it places the player in its world with the aid of virtual reality. The joyful experience is benefited by the necessity of a headset and is an excellent showcase for how virtual reality can improve and change a familiar experience.
In Rescue Mission, you are one of many Astro Bots, distinguished by a cape, who must rescue their brethren from an alien menace who threw all the other Astro Bots to nearby planets while breaking apart their mothership in the process. To do this, you must visit assorted planets that offer platforming challenges and eventually defeat each planet’s boss. You control your caped Astro Bot from the third-person perspective, following them through the stages turning your head or peaking around corners to make sure you’re keeping track. You are meant to be a character in the game and occasionally you must headbutt your way through an obstacle, or dodge a projectile, but the action and challenge is mostly relegated to the Astro Bot you control. You are acting as a spectator to the platforming, and it works exceptionally as a means of placing you in the world to absorb the atmosphere (and fantastic soundtrack) while you play an incredibly polished and charming action game.
Your interaction in the world is occasionally amplified by giving the controller (which appears in-world as a visible object) assorted powers. You may have to use a hose attachment to put out fires and water plants, or fire off a tethering rope to pull down obstacles and create tightropes for your Astro Bot to cross. These portions are a highlight as you genuinely feel like you are working in tandem with your Astro Bot to overcome challenges by interreacting directly with the world. It creates an enthralling sense of teamwork, even though you are in control of everything.
Along with jumping your way through the worlds, you must also rescue hidden Astro Bots. Finding them is a fun puzzle-solving exercise that also takes advantage of the virtual reality platform. Hearing the bots shout for help prompts you to stop, listen, and physically look around the environment to find them. For the most difficult bots, I would sometimes stand up to get a better view of my surroundings to pin them down. I especially liked the bots that hid themselves at the ends of long hallways perpendicular to the main path. These moments were strangely exhilarating as sending your bot so far away feels surprisingly dangerous. You’re a team, you and your caped Astro Bot, and to watch it travel so far away to save a friend made me feel proud. Pride was not something I expected to feel while controlling a cute little robot in a jumping adventure.
You can compare Rescue Mission to Mario titles like 3D World and 3D Land, and the correlation is more than a cursory way to say the three games are all platformers. Nintendo excels at using Mario to create unique experiences in the genre he helped establish, while also highlighting its hardware in interesting ways, and it is always done with an impressive level of polish. Rescue Bots ticks all those boxes, and also nails the difficult to quantify sensation of just being damn fun. Nearly every level introduces new mechanics, or uses the previously established mechanics in surprising ways, and nothing overstays its welcome. The moment you start to tire of something, you are off to an entirely different environment with a whole new set of fun challenges. All of that culminates in a final boss that uses everything you learned up to that point for a thrilling and exciting challenge.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission feels like it came out of nowhere to quietly prove that familiar genres can feel like new experiences with the aid of virtual reality. While the medium is capable of creating entirely new interactive experiences, Rescue Mission serves as a great reminder that the styles of games we already like can be translated to VR, and when it is done as well as it has been here, you get a chance to experience something that feels genuinely new and exciting.
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