New gameplay video released for Battle Princess Madelyn

 

Today, indie developer Casual Bit Games has revealed the exciting first level of their upcoming game Battle Princess Madelyn, which you can view below!

Battle Princess Madelyn follows the adventure of Madelyn, a young knight in training, and her ghostly pet dog, Fritzy. They set out together on a journey to save her kingdom and her family from the clutches of an evil wizard.

The game is a mix of fast-paced classic arcade action with the adventure elements of classic console games, bringing to life the best features of the golden age of console gaming. The hand-drawn pixel art has been brought to life by the magical lighting of the Unity Engine, meaning that it should be absolutely gorgeous.

Play quickly as an arcade game or through the full experience – how you play Battle Princess Madelyn is up to you! With 10 levels, each with 5 stages and 1-2 branching hidden stages, there’s plenty to enjoy no matter how you play.

Battle Princess Madelyn is currently in development.

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REVIEW / Tokaido (PC)

 

Tokaido was originally released as a physical boardgame designed by Antoine Bauza and published by Funforge. The game is a worldwide success, having sold more than 350,000 copies and has been translated into 16 languages. I have personally played Tokaido, the original board game version, on many occasions and was very interested to see how it would work in digital form.

 

 

In Tokaido, you are a traveler in the heart of ancient Japan, walking the legendary East Sea road from Kyoto to Edo. While the game is competitive, the core theme is making the trek as fulfilling as possible. Throughout the game, you discover and paint magnificent panoramic landscapes, indulge in the finest Japanese cuisine, acquire rare and precious souvenirs, visit temples, meet other travelers, and bathe in hot springs. Tokaido is a rite of passage for the heart, walking in serenity and contemplation…while contemplating the swift and brutal downfall of your fellow players.

A game of Tokaido is comprised of three stages. Each stage is made up of a section of the East Sea road, punctuated by intermediate inns and capped off with one final inn at the end. Along each section of the road, there are shops, hot springs, painting spots and more, as outlined earlier. From your starting position, you can move to any spot on the road, so long as it isn’t already occupied (the intermediate inns don’t count, as everyone must reach the inn in order to proceed to the next section). Stopping points on the road have one or two spaces, meaning that only one or two players can stop there during that turn. These space limitations form a core part of your strategy, as you are able to plan ahead and choose places which benefit your character, block your opponents from progressing in their objectives, or both.

 

 

In single player mode, Tokaido gives you the option of any of the eight characters. Each character has their own unique design and perks which will shape your strategy. For example, Hiroshige gains the player’s choice of a piece of one of the panorama paintings every time he reaches an intermediate inn. Knowing this, a player controlling Hiroshige could feasibly pass over one of the limited painting spots on the road in order to block their opponents from bathing in hot springs.

There are many ways to earn victory points in Tokaido, based on where you stop on the road. Most actions will net a few victory points by default, while others will have combo bonuses or game end bonuses for engaging in certain actions the most or a certain number of times.

Shops: Buy souvenirs in different categories to make sets.
Temples: Donate 1-3 coins to the gods to receive an equal number of victory points.
Encounters: Meet another traveller NPC on the road and receive a random benefit (i.e. a painting piece, a souvenir)
Hot Springs: Gain 2 victory points, or 3 if monkeys randomly appear.
Farms: Gain 3 coins (can be spent on souvenirs in shops, food at inns, and as temple donations)
Panorama Spots: Gain a piece of a panorama painting to make a full set (mountain, rice paddy, or sea)
Inns: When you reach each intermediate inn, you are given several meals to choose from, each with different prices. By eating a new dish at each inn, you automatically obtain 6 victory points. At the final inn, your scores are tallied and bonuses are applied.

 

 

Turn order is important. If you decide to strike out ahead on the map ahead of everyone else, you will be the last to move on the next turn. Likewise, if you’re the last to reach an inn or move the least and are at the back of the group, you will get to move first on the next turn. If you are the last to reach an inn, you will only get to choose whatever food is left over, which may result in you only having previously-eaten options, or options that you simply can’t afford. It’s very important to balance where you need to visit on the road and whether you think you’ll be able to get in before the other players.

With the summary of how the game works out of the way, let’s move on to the digital adaptation. While I was a bit wary of how the game would work as a videogame, I was pleasantly surprised. A large part of Tokaido’s appeal is its crisp, traditional aesthetic and large amounts of white space, splashed all over with bright color. The digital adaptation didn’t disappoint, as the signature white space and bright colors were there, just as crisp and juicy as ever. The 3D rendering of the characters and locations along the road remained true to the original board game and were very easy to identify.

 

 

 

In terms of the animation, I only encountered one instance of one of the character models glitching out, but this was only for a brief moment and didn’t impact the gameplay. The settings also have a “Fast AI” mode. I didn’t employ it because the game is pretty relaxing, but it’s good to know that you can speed things up if you don’t feel like waiting for each character to make their trek along the road.

I can’t fault any of the animation and graphic design in the menus or in the actual gameplay – it all looks beautiful and is a loyal adaptation of the original board game’s aesthetic.  Tokaido‘s soundtrack was specifically composed for the game, and while I wouldn’t expect it to win any awards, it perfectly captures that old Japanese ambience and atmosphere. The sound effects are fun and bright and are well suited to the gameplay.

 

 

After a few games in single player mode, I invited my boyfriend over to try the multiplayer hotseat option. Just like the single player mode, you can choose how many AI characters you want in your game. You can also choose up to six player slots (the maximum number of players in a game, I believe). Hotseat operates more or less identically to single player mode, which is definitely a point in its favor, as I was unable to really fault any part of the gameplay in single player mode.

However, there is one key difference which was unique, but rubbed me the wrong way a little: Each player only gets a choice of two characters, selected at random. You can view the special perks for each character and then choose one. The next player is given two new characters to choose from in the same fashion. I think this is an interesting idea which would force players to try new characters from time to time, but ultimately I would have preferred to have the option of choosing from the full cast.

 

 

There are two nice new features in the digital adaptation that would have been things to remember yourself in the original board game version. The first is the ability to bring up your character screen and view your character-specific perk and your belongings. You can also access another menu which outlines the current allocation of victory points and which players have earned how many points in each area of the game (i.e. souvenir collecting, shrine donations).

In multiplayer hotseat mode, when my boyfriend tried to check out his character’s personal stats screen, it came up with my character’s screen instead. No amount of exiting and re-entering the menu gave him his character’s information. This may be a bug that requires fixing, although the game is simple enough that you typically wouldn’t need to use this menu anyway.

 

 

While I didn’t try the online multiplayer, it appears that you have to sign up for a free account, after which you can play with others from around the world. Having thoroughly enjoyed both the board game version and the digital adaptation, I would be willing to pay the reasonable $10 USD for another copy of Tokaido so that my friends in other countries (or even just in other houses) could play along with me.

Tokaido definitely gets my recommendation – both the original board game and the digital version. While the original Tokaido began to wear a little after many, many games over a short period of time, that was predominantly due to the fact that we kept selecting the same characters and utilizing the same strategies. I think that, while I didn’t like it so much, the implementation of the randomized character selection for multiplayer may help to combat that. Tokaido is heaps of fun and pretty to look at – why not take it out on a date and get to know it yourself?

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Immortal: Unchained prepares for launch

 

It’s always nice to see a new third person shooter hit the market because each time the hope that comes with it is that we’ll see something interesting and clever happening. There’s something about this genre that can so easily come across as copy and paste or even a bit lazy. The reason for this is that regardless of the story, you are still effectively picking up weapon “x” and shooting creature “y” with it. The games that truly stand out from the crowd are the ones that do something a bit different or have absolutely stunning stories. The better the plot is, the more engrossing the game becomes. One company hoping to give us a new reason to lose a lot of time and thoroughly enjoy doing it is Toadman Interactive with their new title Immortal: Unchained.

Immortal: Unchained, which is being published by Sold Out, is due for release on Steam, PS4 and the Xbox One family on September 7th. In this action-RPG shooter, you will take the role of an ultimate weapon. Released from your prison, you will be tasked in saving the cosmos from a cataclysmic event. In your quest you will go toe to toe with legendary bosses and engage in brutal, tactical combat. Your journey to salvation will see you battling across dark, sci-fi, interconnected worlds, where you will need to test your skill and succeed or die trying.

“With its focus on brutal ranged combat, we hope that Immortal: Unchained will stand out among this emerging, unforgiving genre and prove a challenge to even the most hardened players,” said Sarah Hoeksma, Marketing Director at Sold Out.

So there you have it. A new shooter is emerging that may well bring a breath of fresh air to a genre that certainly has a few pit-falls. The RPG element that is being brought in is interesting in itself. We don’t necessarily need another Destiny, so hopefully we’ll see something new coming into play here. Only time will tell. We’ll endeavor to bring you more news closer to launch but here is a trailer to give you an idea of what you might being aiming for.

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West of Loathing moseys onto Nintendo Switch

 

If you’re a Switch owner with a fondness for six-shooters, slapstick or stick figures, you’re in luck: Asymmetric’s hit West of Loathing will be arriving on the console on May 31^st. Described as “a single-player slapstick comedy adventure role-playing game,” it’s Wild West wackiness with lovingly hand-drawn black and white visuals and our review of the Steam version can attest to its hilarity.

While the plot kicks off with leaving home to find your fame and fortune, it quickly gives way to hijinks and weirdness. Take the three playable classes, for instance—you’ve got the smooth-talking Snake Oiler, the mystic Beanslinger, and the rough-and-tumble Cow Puncher. Never before have stick figures held such awesome, silly power.

Every self-respecting town needs a Sherf

The rest of West of Loathing promises to be equally wild, with dozens of memorable (and rowdy) NPCs, nearly one hundred unique locations, and over fifty exquisitely-drawn hats to equip at your discretion. Plus, there are sentient skeletons, gritty(ish) saloons, demonic cows and a drunken horse. I think every future game should be contractually obligated to have at least one drunk animal in it, but that might just be me.

Cow hats should also be a staple of RPGs

While the game first released in August of last year for Steam, there’s a bit more to it. West of Loathing is a pseudo-spinoff from Asymmetric’s hit browser MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, sharing the same general universe, sense of humor, and breathtaking art style. In short, if you’re a fan of not-so-serious RPGs, you’ll feel right at home. It’s kind of like the meeting point between Fallout: New Vegas, Paper Mario, and The Three Stooges, and yes, I realize how wild that sounds.

Now featuring the color red!

Since launching in August, West of Loathing has garnered acclaim like PC Gamer’s “Best Comedy Game,” was called “one of 2017’s best games” by Rolling Stone, and was a finalist at IGF. For all the details you can mosey on over to the game’s official website and Nintendo’s own page. And hey, be sure to check for any snakes in your boot.

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Everspace releases today on PS4

Today marked the launch of developer ROCKFISH’s Everspace on the PS4 and PS4 Pro. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because I reviewed the PC version of the game a while back. Everspace is a first person space combat game that also mixes in roguelike elements. As I mentioned in my review, it is a lot easier to play than its more complex contemporaries like Eve Valkyrie or Elite Dangerous. As such, it’s a welcome release for fans of the genre who don’t want to have to buy a special controller just to have enough buttons to play properly. The roguelike elements and story give the game a unique edge as well; the story explains the perma-death associated with roguelikes, and it’s compelling enough to keep you playing. If you want to see my full review, check it out here. Note that I was evaluating it as a VR game, and unfortunately, the PS4 release of Everspace will not support Playstation VR.

You can download Everspace from the Playstation Store right now, for $29.99. The expansion pack called Encounters is also available for $9.99, adding some new locations and a new ship. The game and expansion are also available on Windows and Xbox One.

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REVIEW / MachiaVillain (PC)

 

One thing I genuinely love about videogames is that every now and then you get the chance to be the bad guy. Included in the list of my favorite games of all time are Dungeon Keeper (both of them, not the knock-offs) and Evil Genius. There is something really good about being really bad, being able to build your own fiendish lair and have a good old scheme. This concept can, and definitely has been a recipe for hours of fun. When I learned about MachiaVillain I got that nice warm fuzzy feeling that a new way to explore my nasty side was had appeared on Steam. I jumped at the chance to see what this game was all about and in all honesty liked some of it.

 

 

In MachiaVillain you take on the role of a former minion turned big nasty threat and go about building your mansion of horrors. You then have to lure victims into your abode and do despicable, highly entertaining things to them. Like the premise so far? Yes, so did I. Unfortunately this is something of a case of a brilliant idea with relatively poor execution. Why we can’t just have a great idea and have it go hand in hand with great gameplay I don’t know. This seems to be something I’m complaining about a lot lately and I’m starting to get sick of the sound of my own voice.

You recruit from a pool of minions including zombies, skeletons and psychopaths and then use these to man your ever evolving mansion. All good so far. The first notable, (and slightly game breaking) issue is a lack of building units. If you take a game like Dungeon Keeper for instance you have imps that will do all of the gathering a building for you. This means that your other units can be assigned to rooms and have quite specific roles to play. If you take this out of the equation you have your basic units doing absolutely everything.

 

 

This instantly means that instead of planning your mansion and figuring out what rooms are going where and how best to locate things you’re spending all of your time micromanaging units and trying to make sure they are all doing as they are told. When you have three starting minions and you have to have them building, cutting wood or stone, collecting resources and manning rooms it’s asking a little bit much.

This is a relatively small thing but it impacts everything in the game. You are set a series of tasks including building specific rooms and luring and killing set numbers of victims and all of this is happens in real time. So lets take an example. Your recruits need to eat. If food is left out it spoils so you need to store it. Building food storage should really be at the top of your to do list. Thing is, you have to lure victims and to do this you need an office from where you can send out letters. Seriously junk mail in this game is beyond killer. You concentrate on that and your minions start going hungry. Your victims arrive but see a pile of brains, (you haven’t stored them,) get scared and run off. Rinse and repeat and amongst all of this your still cutting down trees.

 

 

Making something that’s far too complicated to begin with even more frustrating is a job board. You decide which minions are performing what jobs (usually up to three of four each) and then in what order these jobs are important. This would be fine if you had a lot more minions. When you have very few and they are having to do everything, any concept of ordered reasoning goes down the toilet and everything just descends into utter chaos. To add insult to this your minions are also about as smart as little blocks of concrete and even when you’re telling them what to do have a tendency of doing their own thing anyway.

I restarted the game four times and this isn’t uncommon with any kind of building management title. Each time your do a restart in most games you learn something and get a bit further. In MachiaVillain I just got to the same point and saw my minions starving and unable to kill anything because my would be prey kept running away terrified before they got to them. Speaking of people getting away, I haven’t mentioned that you have a suspicion level. If too many victims get away and this meter rises too high the entire town is coming out with pitch forks. That happens and it’s game over. This is just another thing that seems to be working against you. It should be a threat of something that happens if you play badly, but as it feels so hard to play well it’s just another way to die.

 

 

What I’m basically trying to say here is it’s all way too much, way too quickly. Start out by giving me a manageable task and then slowly add more until I’m used to juggling a bunch of things and I’m not noticing the game getting harder. This is called a difficulty curve and it’s perfectly normal. Please don’t drop everything on me all at once and expect me to manage because you’ve given me the basic controls and told me what you want me to do. This is asking for me to get really frustrated and turn the game off because I can’t get anywhere.

This, sadly is basically what happened. I don’t have an issue going back and starting again. I’m a roguelike fan, it’s in our DNA. I do have an issue with wasting my time, though. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. I’m not insane and there’s only so many times I’m going to go from scratch without seeing a difference before I give up. Lets remember, this isn’t a quick five minute run and re-start, it’s two hours of my life I’m losing every time I do it.

 

 

So after that lengthy but not entirely unjustified rant what’s good about MachiaVillain? The basic idea is sound. I really like the notion of building my creepy mansion and becoming more notorious by completing a series of ever more nefarious tasks. I loved the story behind the game and really liked the artwork. You see a Don’t Starve-esque graphical style being used and this is coupled with some really lovely cartoon cutscenes.

There is also some very well written (if a bit obvious) humor here. It’s like they’ve gotten together a group of PHD artists, sound engineers and writers and then given the UI to a sadistic preschooler. If you have the patience to get past the first stages of the game it’s probably quite good, it certainly looks it. Sadly I’m not that patient and although I don’t want instant gratification I want to feel rewarded as I’m going or it’s just a huge turn off.

 

 

This game doesn’t annoy me because it’s bad. If you’re a master at multi-tasking you’d probably have a lot of fun with it. This game annoys me because it feels like they’ve deliberately made everything far more complicated than it needs to be. It should never feel like a game is fighting against you or that it doesn’t seem to want you to win. This is the feeling I’m getting here and it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. If you’re curious or have the patience of a saint give this title a play. If not or you want to play a similar style of game and actually maybe get somewhere with it go and find Evil Genius. Seriously, it’s good.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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REVIEW / Garage (PC)

 

Let’s talk about Garage. It’s a top-down shooter from US indie game developer TinyBuild. It’s light on the pixels, and heavy on the gore. And finally, it’s just launched on the Nintendo Switch; while I’ve been treated to a glimpse of a PC preview build, I can confirm that it’s not the sort of game that would require any major graphical compromises to run well on the hybrid console.

 

Pretty demanding stuff.

 

Inspired by what the press release describes as the “VHS era B-movies,” Garage follows the journey of a drug dealer named Butch. He bursts from the trunk of a car to find himself in an abandoned multistory car park. For reasons as of yet unfathomable, the dead walk the Earth, accompanied by an assortment of horrifying mutant creatures intent on ripping our virtuous protagonist to shreds.

 

It’s Night of the Living Dead Zombies from Outer Space 2: When Mutant Canines Attack! And it’s about as cheesy.

 

Aside from the occasional cutscene interjection, the camera is fixed in the top-down position. As a result, the gameplay in Garage tends to revolve around pointing, shooting, and dodging until you’re no longer crowded by enemies on all sides. It’s the kind of endless rotation that is best suited to a twin-joystick configuration rather than mouse and keyboard, and so I reckon the Switch will immediately prove a more comfortable environment for the game – I often found myself struggling to multitask with the WASD set-up as I ran circles around the few boss baddies I faced.

 

 

The player character – that’s Butch to you – has a few tricks up his sleeve, and independent controls for arms and feet allow for some surprisingly epic moments. Kick through a door, fire axe in hand, as the living dead burst from the shadows and lurch toward you. Smash a crate, and find some ammo (or a skulking rat). Put your foot through a vending machine, and grab a chunk of health in Snack or Beverage form.

 

 

Med kits are gold dust in Garage, as they can be saved for later consumption. Weapons, on the other hand, are abundant, though your trusty fire axe will end the life of a zombie in one charged-up swing. It’s pretty simple stuff, but it’s all based on tried and tested methods of keeping the player from relaxing too much.

After all, you don’t want to axe your way through a chained door with no health, only to find this on the other side:

 

Yup, those are human arms. And human torsos. In a chain of human centipedery.

 

Garage is a bit of a cliché-fest, but there were a couple of things that caught my attention. The first, you see in the above image: gruesome, contorted bosses that are reminiscent of some of the more disturbing cinematic endeavors of the past century or so. The second came in the form of an unmarked drug, immediately and brashly ingested by Butch; in an instant, the world was set ablaze with pulsating technicolor, and meandering pathways that glittered with prismatic light began to form in front of my character’s dilated eyes. Our drug dealing dude had digested some of his own product, and it produced a shift in tone and aesthetic that I was sad to see fade away.

 

As a kite.

 

It is not hard to see why Garage has been compared to a VHS era B-movie. Unfortunately for the player, the plot is about as coherent as any two-bit zombie flick. Fortunately, though, it doesn’t matter a jot, as you’ll be too busy hacking away at the zombified populace to care about the ravings of a evil scientist or a business mogul named Richard Smith. To their credit, TinyBuild litters the world with gameplay items designed to render the narrative in something resembling 3D: discarded papers reveal anxious employees, and the occasional spooky cut-away advertises a drug with dubious side-effects.

 

 

Sadly, my time was cut short before the real plot began, and though I have no doubt it’s as contrived as the opening sequences I did enjoy the creepy cutscenes. From what I gathered, the business mogul with a bland name has hired the evil scientist to produce an army of invincible soldiers, but the evil scientist has gone off-piste and produced what he would describe as the best thing since sliced bread/intestines: two-headed hounds, undead monstrosities, and the Board of Directors stitched together like a Human Centipede. Perhaps Mr Smith lacks the business acumen with which we originally credited him?

 

Tell me that isn’t the most bat-shit crazy thing you’ve seen today.

 

Garage is rendered in the 16-bit style that I usually associate with much more cheerful subject matters. Since playing this (and The Long Reach, which by the way is well worth a visit) I’ve come to the conclusion that indie game design teams and graphic artists prefer the pixelated palette for a number of reasons, but I can’t for the life of me work out why it has been appropriated by the creators of horror games. Garage‘s art style lends itself best to those psychedelic moments I mentioned earlier; pixel art is meant to be vibrant, and the neon undulation of that rainbow-tinted world could not have been better rendered if it were produced by a triple-A developer.

 

 

I suppose the 16-bit graphics are conservative, easy on the eye and on the TinyBuild wallet. But then again, the Garage main menu looks like this:

 

 

So perhaps it’s a question of lowering the requirements for player immersion. Better to keep things 16-pixel simple than to overextend with a graphics engine that might not actually deliver. In any case, Garage looks as grim as it plays. right down to the mounds of eviscerated flesh and rotten corpses that pile up once the rounds start flying. Though I do wonder what might have been, if that concept art hadn’t stayed a concept.

 

 

Garage is definitely a mixed bag. The corny narrative and simple mechanics are not major drawbacks, but the overall effect is not exactly one of staggering grandeur. If Garage were a movie, I’m sure in a decade or two it would be hailed as a cult classic by a specific subset of 30-something year old men; unfortunately, VHS era B-movies have only become more underwhelming with time, and so to tap into that realm of hammy acting and godawful special effects was always risky business. Fortunately for Garage, the ever-pleasing pixel-art saves the day, as does the undeniable intensity of the top-down twin stick shooter. It’s derivative, it’s shallow, but it’s a good bit of harmless fun.

 

 

 

This preview is based on an early PC press build provided by the publisher.

 

 

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REVIEW / Tooth and Tail (PC)

 

It’s hard to get a real-time strategy game to work well with a controller, but even harder when you realize those who love the genre have preferred only mouse and keyboard basically since the genre’s inception. Throw that together with plucky 2D sprites in a setting filled with animal critters, and Pocketwatch Games’ Tooth and Tail should be an instant pass, or at best a niche oddity. However, it not only competently mashes the complexity of RTS controls into a smaller frame, but actually manages to make it feel dynamic and enjoyable with a joystick in hand.

 

 

At a glance, Tooth and Tail has all the features of a standard RTS, like resource generation and base management. Instead of frantically scrolling a cursor across the screen, you issue orders from one unit you control, akin to popular MOBAs like League of Legends. You can still control individual “types” of units by hot-swapping with the shoulder buttons, but there’s no need for micromanaging here.

 

 

That’s not to say the game is boring at all. In fact, stripped down to the essentials, every match and story mission feels fast and dynamic. Your commanding unit is the only one who can both scout and build, so you have to toe the fine line between searching for grist mills to expand your territory or creating new critters to defend your bases or help protect you while scouting. The camera remains fixed on you at all times, so there’s even less incentive to constantly manage every action.

 

 

Another major part of what keeps the game fresh is the randomized maps, which keep players from memorizing exact build patterns and using the same strategies repeatedly. Resources are finite, also, so sitting idle while your food supplies dwindle is a recipe for defeat (and a recurring theme throughout the story, no less).  With four players, the map erupts into chaotic, frantic battles where the last man standing survived with just enough resources to squeak by.

 

 

You can certainly enjoy dozens of hours in the ridiculous campaign, although the game’s story doesn’t deliver on its promise of a mature, grounded Orwellian narrative. Though the setting is sobering – landing somewhere between the likes of Brian Jacques’ Redwall, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Eastern Europe during World War I – the story isn’t nearly so bleak. The themes expressed are used to emphasize the dark humor of the atmosphere, which is fine since you will be distracted by trying to keep these cute little animal bastards alive during the campaign’s set of brutal final missions.

 

 

While the single-player campaign is meaty enough to sink your claws into, Tooth and Tail truly shines in multiplayer, which is its biggest flaw. You’ll never really get to touch on the its wonderfully simple-yet-complex systems until you’re up against another human opponent desperately fighting for scraps. The game won’t draw away hardcore RTS fans for too long, but Tooth and Tail certainly deserves a big nod for creating a controller-based RTS that’s silky smooth on the sticks and a blast to play.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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The Banner Saga unfurls on Nintendo Switch

 

Nintendo Switch owners will be happy to know that the first game in the lauded Banner Saga series is now available for purchase. Often compared to Nintendo’s own Fire Emblem series, The Banner Saga is a strategy RPG with all the grid-based battles and tough choices you can sink your teeth into.

The series draws heavily from Norse mythology, with giants, dead gods, prophecies, eternal winters and abominations walking the earth. Think “Fire Emblem set just before Ragnarok” and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the Banner Saga is like, with the emphasis on moral dilemmas and their consequences really helping it stand out. With the fate of an entire civilization on the line, the risks are high and the margin for error is pretty darn small.

The Banner Saga’s first installment initially launched way back in 2014 following a successful Kickstarter campaign and has since garnered critical acclaim and over thirty awards and nominations, including three BAFTA award nominations and winning the 2014 Game Developer’s Choice: “Best Debut” award. Since then, it’s been ported to several different consoles, and now it’s finally available for Switch fans eager for tactics and Viking violence.

Better start playing soon, too—Versus Evil, the game’s publisher, has already confirmed that the final game in the series, The Banner Saga 3, will be launching concurrently on the Switch and other major consoles July 24^th of this year and will conclude the story of this multi-part epic. They’ve also stated they have plans to release The Banner Saga 2 on Switch, hopefully before the third installment rolls out, though no dates have been provided as of yet.

Be sure to check out Nintendo’s website for all the details about the first game’s Switch debut, and the series’ own website for all the latest news and updates.

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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Day One Ultimate Edition is flying off shelves on Nintendo Switch

 

Are you a fan of Shantae’s ponytail attack and awesome dance moves? You’re not alone. Publisher XSEED has announced that WayForward’s all-inclusive version of Shantae’s latest adventure, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Day One Ultimate Edition, is selling out at a record rate on Nintendo Switch.

How someone can choose not to buy this game after looking at this screenshot is beyond me

But if you’re thinking of purchasing the game, you’d better act fast! Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Day One Ultimate Edition is a limited supply, physical edition version of the base game with all DLC included, as well as an art book and soundtrack. As such, once stock runs out at various retailers, there will be no way to purchase the Day One Ultimate Edition (unless you buy it secondhand on eBay for exorbitant prices). Luckily, the game will be replaced with a new variant, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition, which is the same package as the Day One model, minus the art and music.

Gaze upon its glory before it disappears forever

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President at XSEED Games, was clearly ecstatic about the news, proclaiming:

We’re blown away at how eager XSEED, WayForward, and Shantae fans were to get their hands on this limited edition for the Switch. WayForward have been great to partner with, and have produced a truly fantastic game! We’re all humbled and excited by the reception and sales for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, and are working hard to make sure we meet fan demand so that Shantae enthusiasts can have a physical version of the game to display in their collection.

Sharing in the feelings of utter joy, Matt Bozon, Shantae Director at WayForward, shouted from the rooftops:

This has been a long, wild, exciting ride from launching the Kickstarter through to this latest release. Our fans have been incredible throughout this experience, and we couldn’t be happier with how everything has turned out for Shantae and our partnership with XSEED Games on the North American retail release. They came up with an amazing limited edition that really does justice to all the hard work our team put into Shantae’s latest adventure, and it has clearly been popular with all of our dedicated fans!

Fans will always back you when you have a giant mermaid boss shooting head lasers at the main character

XSEED and WayForward certainly made the right choice in Kickstarting Half-Genie Hero. Shantae has always had a cult following, and fans were eager to give money towards a new game after the excellent Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (which is also available on Switch as a digital-only download). With Nintendo’s Switch selling like hotcakes, due in no small part to its wonderful portability, it’s not surprising that the Day One Ultimate Edition is disappearing so quickly.

The standalone Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition will soon be available at select retailers throughout North America at a suggested retail price of $39.99. As a reminder, this edition includes the base game, fancy outfits in the Costume Pack, the downloadable expansions Pirate Queen’s Quest and Friends to the End, all on a single cart the size of your thumb.

Once again, my procrastination has paid off, because I can now play as my fave Rootytops from the get go

For more information on Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, visit the game’s website. And if you’re worried you might not nab the Day One Ultimate Edition in time, hopefully there’s a lamp nearby that you can rub!

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NITE Team 4 demo hits Steam

 

I’m not sure how much attention you lot pay to my senseless babbling but I recently had a lot of nice things to say about a brilliant little hacking game called NITE Team 4. I was recently very lucky to be invited into this title’s closed beta and was more than impressed by what I saw there. I’m actually still being very impressed because I’m still playing and loving every moment of it. Now I know what you’re thinking; I haven’t just come back for a gloat. I’ve learned that a playable demo of this title has just been released on Steam so all of you nice people can have a crack at it as well and see what I’ve been ranting on about.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about how this game plays or even what it’s about. This isn’t because I don’t want you to know, rather that I’m terminally lazy and I’d just be repeating myself when you can get all the detailed information you need here. As a brief overview I will tell you that this is one of the best hacking sims I’ve ever played. You take on the role of a mercenary hacker and are then tasked with completing a series of cryptic missions. Something else that is nice is that this game feels real and that it’s distinctively story-driven. This is something that I can say from experience a lot of other hacking games I’ve played aren’t. Oh, it’s set in the Black Watchmen universe as well, so if you happen to have played Alice & Smith’s other game, this one may be right up your alley.

NITE Team 4 is set for release this summer. Believe me, you might want to take the chance to get an idea of what you’ll need to do if you’re going to succeed in tackling this really challenging game. I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one who reflects this sentiment judging, by the following words:

“We’re asking a lot of our players,” said Andrea Doyon, puppet master and co-founder of Alice & Smith. “The tools and techniques used in NITE Team 4 are easy to learn but difficult to master. What other game asks you to learn how to hack networks and delve into private company files? This demo should help prepare you for when you start day one at the NITE Team 4 Academy this summer.”

So there you have it. If you want to get an idea of what you’re letting yourself in for, why not pop over to Steam and have a look? I genuinely believe if you like this sort of game or love a good puzzle NITE Team 4 might be well worth a go.

 

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Take to the battlefield with The Queen & The Crone DLC May 31st

 

Get ready to jump back into the world of Creative Assembly’s Total War: Warhammer II with brand new DLC! SEGA has just announced that The Queen & The Crone is slated for release on May 31st, 2018, making up the first Legendary Lords pack for Total War: Warhammer II. Introducing new elite units, quest chains and magic items, this DLC will be playable within both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns.

Players can take to the stage as either Alarielle the Radiant, the Everqueen of Avelorn, or the jealous Hag-Queen and leader of the Har Ganeth forces, Crone Hellebron. Utilizing unique regiments, units and skill trees, The Queen & The Crone will introduce brand news ways to play, centered around these two powerful, competing factions. Deciding whether nature will beat back the encroaching darkness, or if Chaos will reign supreme, is entirely up to how you play the game.

SEGA has also announced that a new content update will happen alongside this release, adding the Norsca race to Mortal Empires, and more to be revealed at a later date. While The Queen & The Crone is not available to play just yet, for those of you itching to get to the front of the line, you can pre-order it right now at a 10% discount. Just head on over to Steam to pre-purchase, and take advantage of this early bird deal while you can.

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 — Definitive Edition demo coming to Xbox One on May 16th

 

If you’re like me, you think Larian’s Divinity: Original Sin series is an absolute triumph of classic RPG design and execution. If you are like me, you’ll also be pretty jazzed about this news: Bandai Namco is bringing D:OS2 – DE to Xbox One early! As of the 16th of May, players can access the first three hours of the game for free through Xbox Game Preview. Additionally, if you know you’re going to be buying the game anyway, you can preorder it and get access to Act 1 of the game immediately.

Now, I was a huge fan of the game when I first played it while it was in early access on Steam. As such, I am absolutely thrilled that the game is continuing to be supported, especially on consoles. Larian’s founder Swen Vincke claims the change log to the Definitive Edition is 45 pages long, which is staggering and just entrenches Larian in my high regard. Remember, this is on top of an already incredibly long and deep experience.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition  will be available for Xbox One and Playstation 4 in August of this year. If I’m reading this correctly, current owners of D:OS2 will get the Definitive Edition for free, just like Enhanced Edition for the first game. I’m very excited, and I hope you are too.

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Pokemon Go Fest returning to Chicago this summer

 

Pokemon Go Fest, last year’s premier real-world event for Pokemon Go, is coming back this July. Like last year, players of the hit mobile game will converge upon Chicago, but there are going to be some major changes from last year. That’s probably just as well, as last year’s event didn’t exactly go according to plan. Still, as we wrote at the time, we were ultimately very happy with how developer Niantic responded to the troubles, and it does seem like the changes will help.

For one, this year’s event will take place over two days, July 14th and July 15th. Participants were able to choose which day they wanted to attend. Instead of a single park downtown, the event will be held along a 1.8-mile stretch in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. There have also been safety measures put into place to stop resellers from scooping up all of the tickets. You now need to tie an in-game account to your ticket, and can only buy 6 tickets at a time. Even with these precautions in place, the tickets sold out in under half an hour. As it’s illegal to resell these tickets under Illinois law, it remains to be seen what will happen when second-hand purchasers try to enter the event; no doubt there will be a fair few.

So far Niantic hasn’t released too many details about the event, but we do at least have some idea of what to expect. They’ve hinted that the otherwise India-exclusive Pokemon Torkoal will be found, much like Heracross was last year, and Unown will make a return. There will be special research missions and Pokemon “habitats” which will likely help players get their hands on rare Pokemon, as well as currently undefined challenges that will no doubt be tied to a big reveal like last year. Also like last year, Niantic has announced that players worldwide will be able to participate in some way. Given how quickly tickets sold out, and how many trainers just can’t make it to Chicago for the event, I’m sure this will be welcome news.

We’ll keep sharing new information that comes up from the event as it comes. As an avid player of Pokemon Go ever since it launched, I’m as excited as anyone to see what’s in store. In the meantime, feel free to check out my and Joel’s coverage of last year’s festivities. Oh, and go Team Valor!

 

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REVIEW / Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (PC)

 

Computer RPGs were once thought of as a fading genre. With computer graphic technology increasing at what seemed like an exponential rate, it was hard to think that we’d ever go back to games like Baldur’s Gate with hand-drawn levels. As the recently released Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire proves, we were wrong.

 

 

Before we dive into Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire I wanted to share an anecdote from my yesteryear. Stay tuned for the anecdote or scroll past to get to the review.

When I worked at Electronics Boutique back in the early 2000s, we had boxes of PC games that riddled the back wall of the store. My computer at the time was not very good and could only run games at low specs. I mainly played Everquest and The Sims on the PC and didn’t really experiment outside of those games unless a friend had an install disc. I was too into PlayStation 2 and Gamecube to bother to test out anything else. I will always remember walking by those shelves and stocking Icewind Dale. The box art was beautiful and always caught my eye.

On slow nights, I would tidy up the PC game area and pull down some boxes to read and admire. Co-workers always commented on how great the Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate games were, but I never tried them. My teenage brain didn’t want to think about managing multiple characters on screen, each with their own unique sets of abilities, in real-time. Give me Final Fantasy X or EQ over these games anyday, I childishly thought, these games are from a bygone era and won’t return. Why start playing them now?

10+ years later, here I am playing the remaster/enhanced edition of Baldur’s Gate and loving it, kicking myself for not playing it before. After that I jumped immediately onto Pillars of Eternity and loved it. Now we are greeted with the sequel to PoE that we’ve all been anxiously waiting for. Does it carry the torch of the total CRPG experience?

 

What is dead may never die

CRPGs are known for their story. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is no exception. Picking up where its predecessor left off, the Watcher is charged with another task to save the very souls of the people who inhabit the world of Eora. I don’t want to spoil this game for you at all, because it’s too rich and should be enjoyed by the player. What I can say is that it is very, very good.

Okay I have to spoil it and PoE I a smidge. Caed Nua is destroyed by the revival of Eothas, the god responsible for all the misfortunes of the first game. He takes on a giant form that not only destroys Caed Nua, but you, too. You’ll traverse the ethereal plane to pick up your story where your soul has been left off, but don’t count on being able to import your save game files from PoE I. You will answer a couple of questions to figure out how you played the last game and will then re-roll your Watcher. After spending many hours in the PoE I, it was all too easy to resurrect my character from the character creation screen, but I did appreciate the new details Deadfire offered.

 

 

With that out of the way, you start your journey back to the land of the living. You are hot on Eothas’ trail but your ship runs into some trouble with the storms. Thus begins your journey to save the people of the Deadfire Archipelago from not only the destruction by Eothas, but also from themselves. You’ll reunite with some familiar faces and meet some new ones, which I can appreciate in a sequel. Mixing old and new is safe, but how you decide to use these characters can still open up to the unexpected with regards to the story and player development.

Also, Obsidian is invested in their stories with this being one of the few sequels to one of their own games. I’ve seen some mixed feelings on the re-use of party members, but in no way does it detract from the story. It also offers some familiarity to returning players while they navigate the other new features of the game.

 

Pillars gameplay with a good mix of old and new

If you’ve played PoE before, there isn’t much that’s changed here in terms of how the game plays. You have one less party member to manage, which I was totally cool with when I previewed the game back in early 2018. AI has improved for the party, so you can be a little less hand-holdey in battle, which is also cool. Combat still functions the same as in PoE I but can be streamlined more with the improved character AI and less party to manage. There is still plenty of strategy, but it’s now more forgiving to forget about a party member’s actions for a short bit of time. The inventory management looks exactly the same, but the character skill tree has some subtle differences. Multiclass is also a new addition to Deadfire that I was too timid to try. Not only can your created character multiclass, but your party members can, too. Again, there is already a ton to learn for each character’s skill tree and progression, so I’d recommend this for more experienced players (which the game also advises). I’ve detailed a lot of this in my preview and nothing has really changed since, so let’s move on.

Dialogue has some new interesting twists due to your ability to reference past events based on your character’s background from PoE I. It’s fun to explore these branches of dialogue when speaking with NPCs. You’ll also have the skill-based dialogue selections like in the previous installment. However, it felt like there were more dialogue options in my review playthrough than I remember experiencing in PoE I. This may have something to do with the immediate gain of party members with certain sets of skills, although I have no way of testing this. The flip-side is that my character and party members were still low level, so having multi-dialogue arches this early left me wishing I had one party member who dumped all of their skill points into only one or two components in order to unlock these.

 

 

Choices still matter and situations can be handled diplomatically as well as by force. The writing is still very strong, but can be extremely dense at times. Playing PoE I really helped ground myself in the story and all the players involved, but I can imagine someone picking this up for the first time would have difficulty keeping track of past events and the gods responsible for them. Obsidian does allow you to hover your mouse over names and terms that you may not be familiar with and defines them for you, which beats writing everything down. The voice-over work was being finalized in the review copies of the game, so I won’t touch that in this review. I do know that there will be an additional voice pack featuring the cast of Critical Role, which should be an awesome addition.

Navigation is a huge improvement, partially due to the new ship element. Moving around the map is so much better in Deadfire! Wandering around the islands, looking for points of interest or hidden areas adds a whole new layer of fun. I know this will be adding to the hours that I will be dumping into the game. The areas you discover may only be a quick “looks like you found some item while searching” to a strategic encounter with NPCs or enemies. These play out initially like reading a storybook (similar to ship navigation – we’ll explain later) where you “choose your own adventure” on how you want to approach these areas or interact with characters. These encounters add a nice mix to the gameplay and gives these islands more character instead of simply navigating from city to village to quest locations. However, only having one location to discover on a decent sized island can be kind of lame. You’ll waste time looking around on foot, so it’s helpful to sail around the island to chart it out before spending a day’s worth of resources to find only one village.

 

Sailing the high seas

Core Pillars gameplay aside, let’s dive into the biggest addition here – ship combat and management. Sailing the high seas will open you up to meet up with some unpleasant pirates looking to plunder your ship. Instead of handling this like Sid Meier’s Pirates with real-time combat, you’ll be taking ships on through the choose your own adventure style gameplay that I referenced earlier. You’ll be charging, maneuvering, and firing your cannons in turns, which you are able to perform one action per turn. Your first encounter may seem daunting because there is really no way to learn what to do other than to get into a fight. There are tutorials, but they are only so helpful, so save early and often. I ended up taking down some low level ships with relative ease, but I know that there are bigger fish out there waiting for me.

In order to do any of those actions, you’ll need crew members to help. As you float around the Deadfire Archipelago, you’ll run into NPCs who you can recruit to help man your ship. You can also hire members by speaking to local tavernkeeps. There are a variety of positions aboard the ship, including helmsmen, navigators, and deckhands. You’ll also need to service the needs of your crew with cooks and surgeons. Moving around the map uses up food and drink, along with wages. Managing your crew and resources adds another layer to the game kind of like Caed Nua did in PoE I. Personally, I like getting in the weeds with stuff like this, so I was constantly keeping tabs on my ship and crew.

 

 

Ship battles and management are another welcome addition to the game, but I can see the storyboard style of fighting becoming tedious if battles are drawn out. Real-time display of your selections would be helpful, but from what I understand, this is a limitation of the engine, not of Obsidian’s imagination. We’ll just have to see how it goes after another 15-20 hours!

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I’m likely going to keep coming back to this game as future DLC hits over the next coming months. Obsidian has crafted another excellent tale and taken it to an epic. The mix of story, combat, and management all play together nicely in the hand drawn world of Eora. If you are in the mood for a rich and rewarding RPG experience, then you don’t want to miss out on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

 

 

 

This review is based on a beta-release copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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REVIEW / God of War (PS4)

 

As someone who had never played a God of War game before, I felt like I had a good idea of what to expect from what I had seen of God of War in the past. I came in expecting a lot of gory kills and over the top action and not much else. What I ended up getting was that great action and kill sequences, but Santa Monica Studios also threw in a side of an interesting story and characters, and the feels. Kratos has jumped from the Greek mythologies he was born in and has made a new, very promising future in Norse mythology going forward.

 

 

The game begins with Kratos gathering wood to burn the body of his recently deceased wife Faye, with help from their son Atreus. Here at the beginning of the game the story nails down the loss both characters are carrying. Atreus is more vocal and acts a lot like you would expect a child to, while Kratos holds it in, but you can tell from his face the pain he is facing. Facial expressions are one of the things I think the devs nailed down the best in this game. Every time something happens the characters do not have to tell me what they are feeling. It seems like this is something that in 2018 you would see all the time, but I think that still too often we see blank expressions from our characters and it makes their feelings harder for us to relate with. Whether it is anger, sadness, or any other emotion, the character’s face in God of War tells you the whole story upfront.

Faye’s final wish was for her ashes to be spread from the tallest point in the nine realms by her husband and son. In the beginning, you can tell that Atreus had spent much more time with his mother this far into his life. Kratos would leave a lot and never take his son with, being a very shut off father who has never told his son of their god lineage or his past in Greece. This adventure being Kratos and Atreus’ first true time together, you see them start bonding. From Kratos being hesitant to show any emotion or support to Atreus at the beginning, to the two being a true father-son duo to be reckoned with at the end, this game focuses on the transformation of two truly interesting character arcs going off at the same time.

 

 

As a father myself, I was able to put myself in Kratos’ position of not being sure what was the best parenting move, but as a son, I also felt with Atreus just trying to grow up and make his father proud of him. The evolving relationship between the two is the real heart and soul of the game. What helps with the emotion is the camera work. In gameplay, the camera is always behind Kratos, but during cutscenes, it expertly zooms in on the things you need to see. A characters emotion-filled face, something happening in the environment, or some other things. Combine that with a chorus that pitches in with the right tune at the perfect time, and this is a great cinematic experience on top of an excellent gameplay experience.

While waiting for Faye’s ashes to be ready for travel, Kratos decides it is time for some father-son hunting. During this tutorial, we get our first experience with my favorite weapon of the game, the Leviathon Axe. Think of Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir from the Marvel movies, but in axe form. Kratos can throw the axe and no matter where it is thrown, a simple press of the button brings it flying back to him. The very first time I did this I was in awe of just how good it felt. The sound of the axe flying through the air and the slight rumble the controller gives made it believable that I was the one that threw the axe. The way it perfectly comes back to his hand and is ready to continue your fighting combo is one of the best experiences in gaming this year so far.

 

 

Speaking of fighting, Kratos has some new moves he can pull off when he is holding his axe. These come in the form of runic attacks, which need to be attached to the weapon and can be upgraded by spending XP. There is a limit of two that can be attached at a time, one heavy, and one light runic attack. These come in handy for disrupting enemy attacks or hitting multiple enemies at once. I mostly stuck with my favorites, but there is a large enough variety that I believe everyone can find something for them.

Throughout the game, new armors and enchantments can be bought and sometimes found to upgrade Kratos’ stats. In the beginning, I felt pretty even with my enemies, but towards the end of the game, after you have been upgrading for a while, there were some enemies I felt were just nuisances. That’s not to say that I think the game gets easy, I am just saying as you build Kratos and Atreus and get used to using your abilities, the game gets quite a bit more manageable as you would imagine.

 

 

Atreus, while not as customizable as Kratos, can be a great help in combat. He uses his bow and arrow to stun and damage enemies, but can also summon animals to do a lot of damage, or jump on a foe leaving them open for attack from Kratos. At the beginning of the game, he seems to have very niche assistance, but as he trains and upgrades, he truly becomes a reliable source. His upgrades largely revolve around his bow, but he can also get armor that lets him assist in other ways. I stuck with using armor that allowed him to pick up health stones for me in combat when I got low, much like Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite which I loved then too.

There are quite a few enemies in God of War. You are first introduced to the zombies of the world who are pretty simple slow enemies that are never too hard to handle. As you battle your way through the game, you face dark elves, trolls, and not as many bosses as I had expected. Besides facing a certain god multiple times, you only get into an altercation with a god-like force one other time. The rest of the bosses are mythical creatures that stand in your way. Of course, this makes sense because Kratos is not on his path of vengeance anymore, but I expected to be fighting many Norse gods throughout my journey.

 

 

What you do see of the other characters in God of War is very well done. Every character in this game has a personality to them and the voice acting associated with that character helps you feel for them and makes them relatable. Two brothers that are opposites of each other so they don’t get along? Been there. A man who just wants to feel anything? I could empathize with that. Every character in the game is believable and has a real-world element to them that if they were human and walked down the street, I could believe they were a real person.

If you have watched or listened to mine and Joel Campos’ “Pixel Street Podcast” (Facebook page HERE), you will have heard me say that I think this is the most beautiful game I have ever played. I already went over the character detail, but the environment in this game is second to none. The mix of shadows and bright colors in every setting of the game is truly expertly done. I am just playing on a slim PS4, so I can only imagine just how divine the game looks on a Pro.

 

 

In the end, God of War is a truly special video game. You get that brutality that the series is famous for, but there is so much more to this game that makes it stand out. The story is the best example of a father-son adventure that I have ever seen in the medium with great side characters that provide everything you could want from a side character. The story never feels like it gets too long, and the end will leave you wanting so much more.

 

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