REVIEW / Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements (PC)

 

Five years. That’s how long it took Himalaya Studios to develop and produce Mage’s Initiation: Reign of Elements. The game was a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013, doubling its initial goal pledge. Its main premise is a classic Sierra-style adventure and role-playing game combination, which is truly something we don’t see much anymore in this day and age. But a lot has happened since 2013 (like the launch of the most modern game consoles like PS4 and Xbox), so does can this game be relevant?

 

 

I would say it depends on how you see it. Mage’s Initiation really pays homage to the Quest for Glory and King’s Quest games in its core. The game’s art style is one of those you’d instantly recognize from classic adventure games. It allows you to pick from several interfaces that mimic the Sierra Entertainment icon bar and LucasArts verb coin. Most of the gameplay is a point-and-click adventure game where you must solve puzzles in order to advance the story.

Storywise, in Mage’s Initiation, you play as D’arc, a mage plucked from his family while he was a young boy to train with mages in seclusion for a decade of his life. As a sixteen-year-old, he now must venture out in the world to complete his initiation as a mage by completing three tasks: a lock of hair from a priestess, an eggshell from a griffon, and a horn from a tricorn. If he completes these tasks, he will become a legitimate mage; if he fails, however, “nobody shall remember his name.” Sounds like D’arc has a lot on his shoulders, huh?

 

 

Mage’s Initiation tries to cater to its “younger” players who may have not experienced a Sierra Entertainment or LucasArts adventure game by giving it a role-playing game component just like the Quest for Glory games. Initially, a few minutes into the game, D’arc is questioned by the four grand mages, in which his answers will give him the recommendation to follow one of the game’s elements: air, earth, water, and fire. That specific element will directly affect the spells D’arc will learn, how to solve some puzzles, and even a specific sidequest only available for that element.

Mage’s Initiation does away with grinding in order to obtain experience points necessary for leveling up. Advancing the story, such as solving puzzles, choosing certain talking points, and even picking up story-related items is what earns D’arc experience points. After earning a certain amount, D’arc levels up where he may learn a spell and is given points to improve four of his statistics. The game also allows D’arc to customize his statistics by equipping gems in two sockets. These gems can be bought in certain shops or is a random drop from enemies.

 

 

The battle system in Mage’s Initiation consists of D’arc using his learned spells to combat enemies. In the beginning, he has two main spells regardless of the element he chooses: one offensive projectile and a defensive wall-type spell. As a mage, D’arc doesn’t fight physically, but his enemies mostly do (unless it’s another mage or a monster with projectile abilities). Casting spells costs mana, but after a few seconds of not casting anything, it replenishes.

So basically, the battle system becomes a form of a run-and-gun type of game: shoot an enemy, hope it hits, if mana is depleted, run around so that enemies won’t hit you. Fortunately, most of the enemies are slow, but then again the whole game is slow (we’ll talk about that next), so D’arc can really be killed if he goes head-on straight near a physical enemy or just doesn’t move while an enemy projectile is launched towards him. I actually recommend you to use keyboard controls rather than mouse controls, since you can really control D’arc better with the WASD keys than pointing your mouse to move on a spot.

 

 

In keeping the pure gameplay point-and-click adventures of the past, Mage’s Initiation is a slow game. What I mean is, if D’arc is commanded to interact with an object or person that is far away, he will saunter slowly to get near it. When I mean saunter, it’s a slow walk. Fortunately, double-clicking on a spot makes D’arc run, so it’s 10 times better if you run near the object or person before interacting with it. That’s also because once you have commanded him to interact, there’s no way to cancel it. Good thing that you can click through dialogue to advance it quickly.

Which brings me to replayability value. While, yes, you can play Mage’s Initiation four times picking a different element each time, the novelty on each playthrough is not that much. You still will somewhat pick the same choices to advance the storyline, just skinned in a certain elemental ability. There is the certain sidequest for the element you pick, but it’s a small thing compared to the slow pace of the game you’ll have to endure again.

 

 

Overall, if you’re a fan of old Sierra and LucasArts adventure games, you’d find a lot of common ground to justify picking up Mage’s Initation. Unfortunately, for others who aren’t fans, this may be a game you may want to try a demo first before going full on. A demo can be found on the game’s Kickstarter page.

 

 

 

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

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REVIEW / Vane (PS4)

 

Vane is an exploratory adventure indie game set in an incredibly stark, minimalist environment. Developed by indie devs Friend & Foe Games, it has players traverse a vast, ruined desert, transforming between bird and child to solve puzzles and unravel mysteries. As puzzles are solved and more areas are discovered, the world changes dramatically, reacting to their passage through the story.

 

 

Vane is set mostly among ruins and desert, with few points of interest to explore that are purely there for progressing the story. Most of the time you fly around as a pretty iridescent black bird similar to a crow, but sometimes you toss yourself into a mysterious pile of gold sequin-like sparkles and tumble out as a small child. Jumping off edges as the child typically transforms you back into the bird, although the only quick way back to being a child is through the aforementioned piles of sparkly stuff.

Puzzles often revolve around swapping between the two entities, as they have different skills they can employ; for example, the child can push and pull things while the bird can call other birds to its aid to weigh down platforms. There are big metal, glowing balls which contain the shiny good stuff, which you sometimes have to puzzle your way around in order to crack them open and get access to your child powers.

 

 

Like many indie titles, Vane has zero words on screen or speech, barring bird song and the gibberish shouted by the child. This, combined with the barren landscape, leaves a lot up to interpretation – including what actually needs to happen to progress. The actual puzzles aren’t difficult at all, once you find them.

When you’re outside in the great wide world, particularly at the start, you really do have entirely too much space to fly around in. You have no idea where you’re supposed to go unless you happen to catch a little sparkle in the distance out of the corner of your eye and fly towards it. I am in no way a proponent of excessive hand-holding in games. I detest it. However, I feel there’s a fine line to draw in games like Journey and even Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian (and Vane is reminiscent of all three) where the path forward should be fairly obvious while drawing the line well before having a map with a waypoint and giant arrows everywhere.

 

 

Vane’s landscape that occasionally reacts to the progression of the story and your movement through the area is very cool. What isn’t cool is having to fight the controls at every goddamn second. When I first entered the game, I knew I’d want inversion turned off for the flight controls. As I was flying around in the first area, I found it so hard to control the bird that I thought maybe I had erred and needed the inversion on after all because I was used to it. After flipping it back I confirmed that it wasn’t the inversion, it was the game. Playing as the child doesn’t really have any major faults. Controlling the kid is a bit clunky and slow, but in that usual indie way that you can mostly ignore.

However, the bird has two modes when you input a direction:
1) Fly about as hard in that direction as you possibly can and more or less refuse to come back even when directed.
2) Barely consider the possibility of moving and stubbornly resist the requested movement with every fibre of your being.

To top it off, the camera, which loves to show off the admittedly very impressive scenery, has ADHD and sometimes likes to focus right in on the back or side of the bird and absolutely not move from there, or pan all the way out at the strangest times so that you can barely see what you’re controlling. It snaps in and out of these weird camera angles and makes controlling the bird even worse than it actually is

 

 

A large part of the bird’s puzzle-solving ability comes from landing on something that needs something to weigh it down, calling some nearby bird friends, and waiting for the weight puzzle to run its course. No matter how fast or how slow you come at your desired landing place, it’ll usually take a few tries to actually manage to land. This is so frustrating, but also baffling because I discovered that the game doesn’t really let you land on anything with the bird while in flight except for puzzle-related items. Despite trying to magnet to these and nothing else, intentionally landing is exceptionally difficult.

More than once, Vane decided that I was done playing and let me get stuck in a small indentation in the ground that I had previously run over a handful of times with no trouble. Getting stuck only happened two or three times, but I very quickly discovered that Vane does not autosave efficiently. I finished an entire room with three or four interconnected mini-puzzles and exited to a new area with a transition screen and fade to black and all. My fault for not noting if there was an autosave icon at any point there, but I needed to leave, so I packed up and went on my merry way.

 

 

When I returned, Vane had dropped me back at the start of the puzzle room! I actually checked online for what few reviews already existed and the one I did find complained that the game basically never autosaves, and when it does, it’s few and far between. “Annoying, but I guess I’ll just manually save”, I thought, quickly discovering that there is no option to manually save.

I tend to roll my eyes when gamers complain about having to manual save in new games on rare occasions when that’s a thing. To that I say, “Get over it, slaves to the autosave function!” However, even if your game is only a tiny indie title expected to run less than 10 hours, if you are going to offer autosave, it should do its thing after each completed puzzle or room. To have such infrequent autosaving with no option to manually save is criminal and penalizes people with only an hour here or there to spare. I actually do have the luxury of being able to regularly game for 3+ hours at a time, but many don’t. Those people don’t deserve to have their progress erased because of completely inept autosave practices that they have no control over.

 

 

My stopping point in Vane came after I seemingly failed a puzzle three times.

Attempt #1) I, along with some other children, pushed a large sphere into an open hole in a path, travelled across it, and then faded to black in a new area. I was dumped back to a reset point at the start of the puzzle with no explanation. The reset point did not match my original starting point in this area.

Attempt #2) Pushing the sphere along, we came to the same hole in the path. I used my scream ability to try to impact the surrounding area (note: no idea how this actually works because despite doing the same thing across multiple attempts, different things seemed to happen or not happen) and nothing happened, so I pushed the ball into the hole and it completely disappeared. Fade to black, sent to another different reset point.

Attempt #3) Somehow my scream ability filled out the path this time, and we all went trotting over into the new area from Attempt #1. I get disconnected from the sphere and the group because I’m stuck in place for some reason on perfectly flat ground. I scream and it impacts the sphere, but there’s no sound from anything, just crazy light effects.

Eventually, despite knowing the game probably only had 2-3 hours left, I gave up, knowing I couldn’t handle all of Vane‘s bugs a second longer.

 

 

If there’s one thing I can praise Vane for, it’s the visuals. They’re not out of this world stunning, but they are regularly beautiful and detailed, despite being so minimalist. The kid honestly looks pretty basic, but I believe there’s a story reason for that, despite not having finished the game. The bird is very pretty and the iridescent feathers and true-to-life bird behavior and movements (down to the cute little hop it does when walking on the ground) make flying around with terrible controls somewhat more bearable. The soundtrack is mostly ambient, with some occasional blaring synth. I didn’t give the sound track much of my time, mainly because it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and would sometimes just cut out, though that was more to do with the sound effects (see Attempt #3 above).

I’m really disappointed in Vane, because it clearly has some really good ideas, but it was executed so damn poorly. I’d love to see Vane executed with the same budget and skill as a game like Journey or Shadow of the Colossus, because I guarantee it’d appear on lists of soothing, beautiful, exploratory indie games without any shadow of a doubt. Instead, it, along with all its good ideas and intent, will probably end up buried under games with worse ideas but better execution.

 

 

 

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

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Astellia is planning on putting Play to Win first

 

Who is sick of Pay-2-Win games, then? All of you? Yeah, me too. I’m even more tired of hearing crap like, “Well, it’s just the way the industry has gone.” That’s like saying, “We’re doing something totally amoral and unscrupulous but so is everybody else so it’s fine.” It’s not fine! Giving players a product and calling it completely free to play then shoving a big paywall in the way of any fun is not fine; it’s wrong. This becomes worse when a game isn’t free and even after spending your hard earned cash you still have to fork more out to get anywhere. So, let’s turn things on their head a bit, shall we? Let’s take Pay-2-Win and make it Play-to-Win. What do we get? Well, if all goes smoothly we’ll be getting Astellia, which is due to hit our screens later this year.

Astellia, brain child of the folk over at Studio 8, is a brand new triple-A MMORPG which aired at PAX South last weekend and is looking to buck the trend set by pay-to-win gaming. In this new setting, you’ll find yourself collecting magical fighting companions called Astells. These are coming from a pool of dozens of characters which you can take on open world missions, into PVP arenas, solo, group dungeons and more. Your Astells can also be leveled and used to combo with your own character class’s skills and abilities.

Speaking of classes in Astellia, you will have five to choose from. These include: Warrior, Ranger and Scholar. Each of these classes obviously come with their own skills and facets of these can be upgraded to grant better cooldown times, more damage and other useful attributes.

The game itself will be giving you plenty to see and do. Dungeons scale with difficulty and allow for both single and group play, meaning you won’t need to be with a team if you’re looking for the best gear. You will also find the PVP and PVE content that appears in many MMORPG games. As with the dungeon runs that I’ve just mentioned, there’s both solo and group versions of arena combat for PVP fans and the game’s horde mode for PVE fanatics. Something that you don’t see in every MMORPG, however, is a dynamic, persistent faction system. You will become part of one of three of the game’s factions, and whether it be through PVP or PVE gaming, you’ll win points for your respective side.

In the run-up to Pax South, Westley Connor, Producer on Astellia at Barunson (the game’s published in the West), stated, “We’re beyond excited to show off Astellia at this year’s PAX South. We’re confident that we’re creating an MMORPG for fans of the genre, and one that they’ll be proud to call home later this year.” He went on to say, “We know the fear that so many MMOs wind up as Pay-2-Win in this genre, and we’re committed to making sure Astellia never veers in that direction. Instead, we’re all about Play-to-Win, and we can’t wait to explain how at PAX South.”

If you’re interested in finding out exactly what the term Play-to-Win means and didn’t make it to PAX South, we’ll find out soon enough, but there are definitely some really interesting connotations to this label. Astellia is looking for release later this year but there will be beta periods before the game goes completely live and that means plenty of chances for the curious to get involved. This seems to be one that is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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Inside peep at Outward

Love a realistic simulation RPG? Then you may have already gleaned your lobes and retinas toward Outward. More than just an open-world filled with bad-guys, perils, battles, scattered guidance, and scarce weaponry (although, all of that is still delicious). Outward pits its players against the odds too. Both external and internal dangers need to be faced and overcome in order to survive in the vast, deadly world of Aurai. As well as facing enemies, there are extreme environmental conditions and infectious diseases to overcome. The elements, reading a map, and the need to not underestimate the power of a good and sturdy backpack. All play a large part in how well you will survive and overcome in Aurai.

Developed by Nine Dots (Brand, GoD Factory) and published by Deep Silver (Saints Row, Metro, Dead Island). Outward blends fantasy style play within a realistic RPG setting. Players can work with rituals, at a cost, as well as various weapons.

The game uses an autosave system that forces players to live, or try to live, with their decisions. Which means that what you decide will definitely impact your gameplay, potential survival, and situations you will inevitably face. Me like-y, any game that allows the potential to have an alternative experience a few times over, it’s the goods.

 

Dev Diary

In the latest dev diary update, the team focuses on environment and game mechanics. The video outlines the true benefits of the “backpack”, why it is important to choose wisely, pack wisely, and carry with the mind-set of necessity vs quantity. Players will rely on their map, and their ability to use it. So, your compass will come in very handy for survival, with a more traditional map orientation style used within the game.

 

 

Outward offers players a chance to play solo or experience with friends in co-op. Split screen (yes, split screen), and online play is also there to dabble in. All-in-all, Outward looks to bring a lot of hardcore loot to the table.

 

 

Trailer

Set to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam, March 26th 2019.

Get live updates by following Outward on Facebook and Twitter.

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Free Post-Launch DLC Mode Coming to Resident Evil 2

 

Fans of the Capcom horror classic remake Resident Evil 2 got some pretty good news from the developer this morning.  Apparently Capcom announced that it will be releasing a new mode to Resident Evil 2 with the objective of adding replay-value to the game by adding missions that can be replayed as well as the addition of random elements.  Entitled the “Ghost Survivors” mode, it will be offered absolutely free for those who own the game and will be released into the world in multiple volumes.

 

 

This good news was first revealed in a post on the ResetEra video game forum after Capcom had made their announcement during their launch event stream.  Ghost Survivors will release in three separate volumes with the first volume consisting of a story based on the mayor’s daughter Katherine and a USS member named Robert Kendo as playable characters.  This mode will also include a least one new enemy type that isn’t seen already in the main campaign to face off against.  To keep your weapons and items in tip-top shape, an in-game shop will be available that will let players purchase upgrades based on good performance in the challenges.  In addition, in order to keep players on their toes while enjoying this fresh new content, random elements will be introduced to keep them guessing.

Once you finish the first run-through, you will indubitably want to go back and play it again so for those that do decide to jump back in, the remake will offer the bonus 4th Survivor and Tofu modes that were initially offered in the original game so that you have just a little more to do on any subsequent play-throughs.  If you played any of the original game, you will recall that 4th Survivor lets you play as special agent HUNK and that Tofu puts you into the shoes, so to speak, of a big block of soy “meat” as you explore the games huge zombie-infested city.

The only thing that wasn’t revealed by Capcom was when all of this cool Resident Evil 2 DLC will be released, but keep your browsers tuned to TVGB and we will update you as soon as we know anything.

 

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REVIEW / Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch)

 

Katamari Damacy was originally released on the Playstation 2 all the way back in 2004. It never came to PAL region, so I wasn’t ever lucky enough to play it back during its original lifespan. It was the first game in the Katamari series, which only ever hung out on Playstation platforms (and once or twice on mobile) until the remaster, Katamari Damacy Reroll was released for Nintendo Switch and PC back in early December of 2018. Katamari Damcy Reroll is, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the weirdest and most fun games I have ever played. With that out of the way…let’s roll.

 

 

The story is simple: your father, The King of All Cosmos, gets drunk one night and spins wildly around the solar system, knocking stars, constellations, and finally the moon out of the sky. Your not-so-loving father demands that you, the Prince (the little green guy), fix it up. You are instructed to use the katamari (literally ‘clump spirit’) provided to you, which is basically a weirdly-shaped ball, to roll up items around earth to send into the sky in a big, terrifying ball to recreate the destroyed elements of space.

Your katamari grows and grows in size, and so too do the items you can pick up as you grow large enough to bring them into the fold. You start off picking up erasers and thumbtacks and things eventually get so ridiculous that you’re rolling up entire volcanoes and clouds. Wikipedia calls Katamari Damacy an action puzzle game, and I honestly can’t top that because I have zero idea about what you’d call this game otherwise. It’s almost certainly made its own little genre.

 

 

In Katamari Damacy Reroll, there are nine main levels which are named “Make a Star 1, 2, 3…” and so on. There are also several challenge levels for making constellations, such as “Make Virgo”, which requires you to pick up as many maidens (i.e. statues of girls, dolls, actual girls and women etc.) as you can in your katamari before time runs out and “Make Taurus”, which requires you to dodge around small cow and bull-like things while growing your katamari so that you can grab the largest cow possible to make an impressive new Taurus. Finally, you create the moon, which is by far the most ridiculous level of them all and is on such a grand scale that it needs to be seen to be believed. I’ve actually introduced about three or four different friends to Katamari Damacy Reroll by showing them the ridiculous scale of the moon level.

After you’ve finished a level, you can always go back to it, whether to beat your high score, actually pass the level requirements, or just for fun.  If you don’t improve from your previous try, you can just turn the katamari you made into stardust, which won’t overwrite your previous star. At the end of each level, after the timer has run out, you will meet with your father in space and he will assess how long it took for you to make the katamari, what categories of items that you picked up were the most plentiful, and how large the katamari became.

 

 

Almost all levels have a time limit, which gets larger and larger as the demands of the level increase. ‘Make a Star’ levels usually just have a size requirement, which you can keep track of in the top left corner of the screen. Constellation levels may have no size requirement, but instead a tracker of how many of the required item (e.g. girls, twins, swans, crabs) you have in the ball. Typically there’s no indicator of how many will appease your father, just that you should get as many as possible.

The King of All Cosmos is, well, a snarky bastard. He’ll give you an almost scary tongue-lashing if you fail to meet the level requirements. He’ll also pop into the level to make comments from time to time, usually at your expense but sometimes just to be weird. For example, if you pick up bunches of bananas in a row, he’ll start spelling out “BA”, “NA”, “NA”. If you only just scrape under the level requirement, he’ll sometimes take pity on you, but still call you out. If you do an insanely good job, he’ll actually praise you – and that’s almost as disconcerting after a long time of being slagged off constantly no matter what you do.

 

 

Some of the levels and challenges are pretty hard and it’ll take quite a few tries to do enough to get praise from the King or simply get a better than average result. The Taurus level and another constellation level like it are brutal when trying to play as a handheld, as you simply can’t see when you’re about to roll over a really tiny cow statue or something like that. It’s even hard on the big screen, but I definitely recommend saving those levels for when you have more visual real estate to stare at.

In every level there is a ‘Royal Present’ which you can collect, which the King gives very, very vague hints about before he sends you into the level. These are represented by little present boxes which you can roll into the katamari. If you keep them in there until the end of the level, you will receive a wearable item for the Prince which carries over to the menu screens, level HUD, and in the “see you next time” screen when you quit the game. There are plenty to choose from, though the cute little scarf is my favorite.

 

 

The actual gameplay is very simple and the game provides a quick little tutorial into how to push the katamari around right at the start. You almost always use both analog sticks together to make any kind of movement. You can jump up high above the katamari to see what’s around you, or have a look around. You can also make mad dashes, quickly change sides, and rotate yourself around the katamari to change position. A few of the movements take a little getting used to, but once you’re into it, it’s very easy.

Sometimes when the katamari is very large or stuck, it can be hard to right yourself, though the game is usually pretty helpful in that regard. Often if you spend time stuck in one place, you’ll start hemorrhaging items until you’re small enough to get free. This can be annoying, but it’s better than being stuck completely. I played the game most often with a proper controller (not the “controller” with the joycons inserted). When the Switch is docked, I just find it much easier to play that way, though others may not have the same issue. This isn’t specific to Katamari either, I just prefer it for Switch games on the whole when playing docked.

 

 

Apart from being crisped up and brightened since its original release, not much has changed in a graphical sense since the PS2 version of Katamari Damacy. The environments are pleasantly and uniquely blocky, bright, and colorful, the noises of the creatures and people you pick up are bizarre and hilarious. The music – which I discovered well before I knew much at all about the game – has been left unchanged, which is a definite blessing.

The music of Katamari Damacy is an absolute delight. Many of the songs are unbelievably catchy and, like the rest of the game, uniquely and perfectly fitting for the rest of the insanity. I daresay the only audiovisual issues I had with the game in its entirety were the 30 second long siren at the end of each timed level that warns you about the time running out. Sssssh, maybe siren a little less, please.

 

 

The final thing to expect from Katamari Damacy Reroll is that, on top of being really weird, it’s also just really funny. It’s absolutely absurd, but the weirdness of the King and the way he speaks to you in such a flippant and rude manner while being so flamboyant is truly hilarious. The little jokes hidden in the levels and the way people scream and run away when you approach are so chuckle-worthy it makes me smile every time (that sounds a lot more sinister than intended, I assure you).  If you’re looking for a fun and funny game, look no further.

In addition to the standard gameplay there are things like a music box for listening to all of the songs, a collection where you can check in on your high scores and collected items, and a multiplayer section which I haven’t had the chance to experiment with because none of my friends have mad rolling skills like I do, so it simply wouldn’t be fair to challenge them.

 

 

Katamari Damacy is around $30AUD on the Switch store. I hear in some areas there was a physical release, but in Australia (or at least where I live) we had no such option. I imagine the price for the physical edition isn’t much different. Buy Katamari Damacy Reroll and prepare yourself for hours of addictive rolling of cats and buildings into a ball to make the moon. Need I say more?

 

Katamari Damacy Reroll is available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for PC now!

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Rangers of Oblivion to hit mobile

 

This one might be a bit of fun for the Monster Hunter fans amongst you. Not just the hit series but other games in a similar vein; there’s enough of them. If you happen to like hunting down toothy things that are much bigger than you so you can hack them up and turn them into weapons and armour, Rangers of Oblivion may just be your thing. What’s even better is that this is a mobile game so you can get your kill on anywhere. Good, eh?

So, Rangers of Oblivion is coming to us from the folks over at NetEase and being published by YOOZOO. This mobile MMORPG invites you into the ranks of the Rangers, an elite group of monster hunters dedicated to defending the land of Malheim. You will find yourself exploring a sprawling fantasy world either alone or with friends. Here you will hone your abilities across a range of quests and challenges that will test your tracking, combat and treasure hunting skills.

When you aren’t on the hunt, you will be invited to participate in a range of activities. These include catching wild horses, fishing, treasure hunting and more. Whether you’re looking for the kill or not, Malheim is an incredibly detailed 3D world boasting not only day and night cycles but also dynamic weather systems. The devs have obviously put an awful lot of work into making this way more than just another mobile game.

Rangers of Oblivion is attempting to offer a level of customisation rarely found on mobile platforms. This will begin at character creation. You aren’t just looking at your character’s clothes, hair colour or height, you can customise everything right down to the size of the nose on their face. In game, you’ll be getting a lot of choice, too. You will need to find the weapon that best fits your play style if you want to survive. Everything in your arsenal, from lances to bows to armoured gauntlets, comes with its own unique skill set and feel. As with other hunting games, you will need to upgrade both your weapons and armour with ingredients you get from your kills if you wish to survive against Malheim’s more ferocious foes.

As we know from every MMORPG that we’ve played, it’s not always the weapon that maketh the man, or woman, and character development is just as important. This title gives us a rune system which allows players to upgrade their character abilities, buy skills and generally become more lethal hunters.

If you like what you’re seeing and want to pre-register, you’re more than welcome to do so here. You can also find that game over on Google Play and of course for iOS. If you’re not too fussed about getting a head start on things, the full release of Rangers of Oblivion will be happening very soon. The game is due to be out in full by the end of January for those of you wanting to kill some beasties on the go.

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Razer launches first ever wireless keyboard and mouse designed for Xbox One

 

A few months ago, one of the largest suppliers of gaming accessories (Razer) announced that they were developing the world’s first keyboard and mouse designed for the Xbox One. With the announcement of mouse and keyboard support by Microsoft on their stage at E3, it makes perfect sense that they would have collaborated with a company such as Razer to develop the newest way to game on their console.

While pretty much any keyboard and mouse will be supported by the Xbox One, the Razer Turret sticks out from the rest. It is designed in such a way that allows you to game from your couch. The mouse pad included is conveniently hidden beneath the keyboard and can slide in or out depending on how you want to play.

With the full list of compatible games yet to come, the fully functional RGB on the latest and great from Razer is sure to make an impression on gamers looking for mouse and keyboard support on both their Xbox One consoles and PCs.

Razer has now launched the product this week at CES 2019 and it can be purchased on both the Razer website along with the Microsoft Store for $250.

Product Specs:

Razer Turret for Xbox One keyboard:

• Razer Mechanical Switches with 50 g actuation force
• 80-million keystrokes
• Xbox Dynamic Lighting
• Powered by Razer Chroma with 16.8 million customizable color options
• Compact layout
• Ergonomic wrist rest
• Mid height keycaps
• Razer Synapse enabled
• 10-key roll-over anti-ghosting
• Compatible with both PC and Xbox One
• Fully programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording (PC only)
• Gaming mode option (PC only)
• Approximate size: 194 mm / 7.64 in (Length) X 390 mm / 15.35 in (Width) X 36.93 mm / 1.45 in. (Height)
• Approximate size (with tray expanded): 194 mm / 7.64 in (Length) X 600 mm / 23.62 in (Width) X 36.93 mm / 1.45 in (Height)
• Approximate weight: 1860 g / 4.10 lbs.
• Cable length: 2 m / 6.56 ft.

Razer Turret for Xbox One mouse:

• Razer 5G Advanced Optical Sensor with true 16,000 DPI
• Up to 450 inches per second (IPS) / 50 G acceleration
• 7 independently programmable Hyperesponse buttons
• Razer Mechanical Mouse Switches with 50-million click life cycle
• Gaming-grade tactile scroll wheel
• Ergonomic right-handed design
• Xbox Dynamic Lighting
• Powered by Razer Chroma with 16.8 million customizable color options
• Hybrid On-Board Memory and Cloud Storage
• Razer Synapse enabled
• Compatible with both PC and Xbox One
• Approximate size: 125.70 mm / 4.95 in (Length) X 70 mm / 2.75 in (Width) X 43.20 mm / 1.70 in (Height)
• Approximate weight (excluding cable): 106 g / 0.21 lbs
• Charging cable: 0.15 m / 0.49 ft
• USB cable length: 2.10 m / 6.89 ft

Battery life (on a single charge):

• Razer Turret for Xbox One keyboard
  • Up to 11 hours with default lighting enabled
  • Up to 43 hours with lighting disabled

• Razer Turret for Xbox One mouse
  • Up to 30 hours with default lighting enabled
  • Up to 50 hours with lighting disabled

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Totodile Will Be Featured For Pokémon Go January Community Day

 

It’s a new year, trainers! Those of us who are still enjoying Pokémon Go are likely ready to get the Community Days started for 2019.

Niantic has announced that January’s Community Day in the Americas and Greenland will be from 1-4 PM Central Time on January 12. The Water-type Totodile is the featured Pokémon who will be appearing more frequently out in the wild for three hours. And if you evolve your Croconaw into Feraligatr during or up to one hour after the event, your Feraligatr will know the Water-type move Hydro Cannon.

Other bonuses include incubators being 4 times as effective and Lures lasting three hours for the duration of the event.

To get times for your region, visit https://pokemongolive.com/events/community-day/ to learn when you can participate in the Pokémon Go January Community Day.

 

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Breach set for full release later this year

Breach, from QC Games, is set for full release later this year.

Announced for early access late last year, the then trailer gave players a look into each class and their combat style. The latest trailers delve much deeper into the peep-pool providing a description of each class. Along with showcasing each classes battle style, and their individual special skills.

“Modern Earth and Mythical Earth collide in a new co-op action RPG experience” – PlayBreach.com

With the latest Elemental class shows that not all Breach classes rely on darkness or mythical magic. Elementals draw from the Earth using wind, water, fire and ice in their defences. The latest trailer shows other advantages to this class. Pulling from Earthly elements, quake cracks the foundations and sends your enemies flying. The sky opens up and sends down a massive meteorite to burn and obliterate foes. Elementals also have a defensive strategy that allows them to cast an ‘Aqueous globe’ protective field that blocks incoming attacks and aims to protect allies by reducing their damage while in the globe.

Here’s the latest Elementalist trailer:

Breach is so much more complex in gameplay than is portrayed in the trailers. There are over 16 different classes, all with varied levels of difficulty. Join a co-op, play solo or part of a team, or customise your own battle arena. Buy and upgrade in the shop, play with friends and battle it out together or against each other. Victory will have you rewarded with loot and gold to aid in your classes expansion and development.

There’s so much buzz and attention swirling the inter-webs, surrounding Breach. The anticipation for its release is growing and the game looks to offer players a co-op dungeon brawler to be shared with mates or savoured alone. Whatever your play, Breach has you covered.

Check out the trailers for Necromancer, Arcane Mender, and Gunslinger over at Play Breach.

Visit PlayBreach.com for exclusive orders, in-game content, and pre-packs.

Fans can expect to see Breach on Steam early access later this January 2019.

Free-to-play is set to launch later this year.

Keep track of all the Breach-dates on their Facebook or Twitter.

 

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Get Charged up with AfterCharge

 

Chainawesome Games’ multiplayer shooter AfterCharge is looking to put a unique spin on the team-based shooter genre.

In AfterCharge, players work in teams of three. Their goal is to either destroy the opposing team’s energy extractors, or defend their own. The energy extractors are scattered across the map. In AfterCharge there are five character classes to choose from per team, and they’re each equipped with their own unique abilities.

When playing as offense, the workonics, the defending team will be invincible. The player’s attacks wont kill, only push enemies aside. When playing as defense, the enforcers, players will be able to shoot and use abilities. Once the energy to attack has been fully depleted, they will have to recharge at either an extractor or a deployed charging station. Also, there is no automatic respawn. Instead reviving is an active practice. If a teammate falls it is up to the remaining players to revive them.

Aftercharge will be available January 10 for Windows PC and Xbox One for $19.99, with a Nintendo Switch release at a later date. There is no cross-platform play.

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