Death Crown to awaken on consoles in November

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Death Crown to awaken on consoles in November

I have a very love/hate relationship with the RTS genre. Classic RTS games are brilliant and I honed my gaming skills on many titles. I fell in love with games such as Command and Conquer, Starcraft II, and Dungeon Keeper and loved every moment I spent with these titles. This was a time when nobody knew what a micro-transaction was and if you had a mobile phone at all the cleverest thing you could play on it was Snake.

The RTS genre that we now know has been used as a cash-cow by greedy developers and publishers far too often and it’s just soured the whole experience. It’s genuinely sad but now when I learn that a game has building mechanics I instantly skip past it. It doesn’t matter what medium the title is being released on. This is a crying shame and we really need some games to buck the trend and bring the genre back to where it belongs. Death Crown, the game we’ll be discussing today, may well be part of that solution.

Death Crown is due to hit your consoles later this year with a custom control system and it’s two DLC packs, Era of Human and Demonic Menace, included. PS4, XB1 and Switch owning RTS fans are going to be getting something a touch different when launch comes. Enthusiasts will be used to the very deliberate pace many RTS titles set. Speed is the name of the game here and that might just come as a shock to some.

Take all you know about RTS mechanics and squash that down into a match that will be settled in a matter of minutes. In Death Crown, your resource gathering, troop building, defense strengthening antics will be happening at a blistering pace so you’ll absolutely need to be on your toes.

The rules are simple. All you need to do is destroy the enemy fortress. To do this you’ll need to gather resources by building mines or mills and use these to create the troops you’ll be using to throw at your opponent. You’ll need to be defensively minded if you’re to fend off enemy attacks so building towers will be a key part of your strategy as well. These structures will not only defend your conquered positions but also allow you to take new areas of the map.

In many RTS titles, if you’re smart, you’ll be playing the long game. In Death Crown events can occur in seconds that can change the outcome of the entire match. This being said it’s not just about being fast and smart, being inventive with your play-style might just be key to victory.

Death Crown will offer three campaigns, allowing you to take the three factions in the game, namely the humans, undead, and demons into battle. You’ll also be staging said warfare across a whopping 90 maps against an utterly psychotic AI who isn’t going to give you room to sweat let alone think. Interestingly for a game of this style you’ll also have 12 unique bosses to pit your wits against. This isn’t just good for adding flavor, difficulty and lore but it’ll make your mental gymnastics even more rewarding.

If all of this doesn’t sound painful enough Death Crown has a Domination Mode. Here you will face off against 30 hellish missions in a bid to climb the player rankings. You’ll need to be a master to complete these levels successfully. They aren’t only going to be hard as nails but you’ll only be getting three lives for the entire run. Sound like fun? You’re more of a masochist than I am if the answer is yes. If you don’t want to do any of what I’ve just mentioned and just have some fun with a mate, multiplayer is of course supported too.

The last thing to mention is the art style. If you think 8-bit is retro you haven’t seen anything yet. Death Crown is taking the 1-bit approach. Paying homage to the Apple II creations of the 1980s, and inspired by medieval engravings this pixel art is as beautiful as it is timeless.

See what I meant when I said we might have an addition to our RTS libraries that’s doing something notable? Death Crown sounds absolutely brilliant. If you like a pretty hefty challenge this may well be destined for your digital libraries come November.

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Psychological horror Martha is Dead coming to Xbox Series X and PC in 2021

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Psychological horror Martha is Dead coming to Xbox Series X and PC in 2021

Visceral and entirely disturbing, the announcement trailer for Martha is Dead is everything a horror junkie needs in their life right now. Marketed as a psychological thriller, this haunting, multi-layered narrative is sure to get horror fanatics excited for the coming year.

Releasing on the Xbox Series X as well as PC, Martha is Dead will combine real-world locations with historical events, folklore, superstition, and no small amount of psychological distress. Just watching the trailer is enough to get viewers looking over their shoulders throughout the day. Not much is revealed in the trailer, but enough is shown to prove this project will raise the stakes of what it means to be a horror videogame. If all goes well, it looks like horror games are going to be more realistic than gamers could have imagined–not to mention the cheap jump-scare phase of gaming will be left in the dust.

Gamers are looking forward to the next-gen consoles and so far it doesn’t seem disappointment will ensue. Made in Unreal Engine 4, Martha is Dead delivers outstanding visuals that border reality and push the boundaries of videogame graphics.

The story takes place during Italy’s harsh time of war where the country is torn between two major powers fighting, as you can imagine, to bring about a better future. Martha’s murder mirrors the events occurring around her, shocking players to the core. Misery is the name of the game here and only those truly prepared to enter this dark world will be able to make it through the entire story.

As with their previous game, The Town of Light, developers LKA focus on truth, how to find it, and what it means not only to the characters but to the players. Martha is Dead will push players to consider issues that are most often held in the dark but must be brought to light in order to understand human nature.

Daring gamers can add Martha is Dead to their Steam wishlist here. The game is set to launch in 2021 on the Xbox Series X and PC– a bit of a wait but it will be worth it.

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Test post 2

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Test post 2

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The Dreamcatcher is ready to manifest

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The Dreamcatcher is ready to manifest

If used properly dreams can be a really cool basis for a videogame. The problem with dreams, however, is they tend to be a little on the strange side. One minute you’re naked at school, the next you’re running frantically from a giant murderous whoopie cushion … or something. My point is if this subject goes a bit haywire, your game goes from slightly excentric fun to complete bonkers in no time flat. Thankfully, this doesn’t look like it’s going to be the case with The Dreamcatcher, a new adventure coming to our screens this Friday.

 

 

Due for release August 21st, The Dreamcatcher is a story-driven first-person adventure game that’s making its way onto the Steam store. This title takes the theory “what you think during the day, you dream at night,” and skews it a bit. Here, the visions from your night-time adventures affect your waking hours.

You’ll be taking the role of a young man who has recently left college and is beginning his working life. This all sounds fairly banal, right? Well, after having a strange dream you realize your waking world has changed. Now your dreams and reality have become somehow intertwined. The only way you’ll be able to get back to some semblance of normalcy will be to travel into your dreams and put things right.

The Dreamcatcher focuses on narrative and environmental storytelling. Through this medium, this title attempts to explore the topics of dream and reality, the human subconscious, and also love and relationships. According to Sigmund Freud, the dream is the fulfillment of the dreamer’s wish. Following on from this, the question is asked as to what the main character’s wish truly is.

The Dreamcatcher is not a violent game. This is a game of exploration in which you will experience many distinct dream worlds. The solutions to the obstacles you face in those dreams can be found in the real world and your character’s own personal story will progress as you solve these puzzles. The Dreamcatcher also has multiple endings which is also great for those amongst you that, like me, see the importance of replayability.

This actually looks really interesting. The Dreamcatcher is more of an internal adventure. This game isn’t focusing so much on the dreams themselves but how they affect the main character and their own personal progress. Those of you that are looking for a good narrative and want to step away from more action-heavy titles for a little bit might well be right at home here.

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Double Kick Heroes tracklist revealed!

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Double Kick Heroes tracklist revealed!

There’s nothing quite like the sound of Metal to go with chaotic destruction.

Double Kick Heroes is about to launch onto PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch on August 13th. Set across 26 levels of madness, you’ll thrash and destroy all manner of creatures including zombies.

This quirky little game has a retro 80s vibe with 8bit styling, side-scrolling action, and a stunning Metal soundtrack.

The trailer got everyone excited for this, and now we’ve seen the list of tracks that are going to be in the game.

Lots of songs to kill zombies to…

We’re sure you’re going love it, and to get you in the mood, check out the trailer below.

 

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Inscryption announced, from the creator of Pony Island

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Inscryption announced, from the creator of Pony Island

Daniel Mullins has made a name for himself by producing unique games with dark atmospheres, which end up being far more than they seem at first. There’s quite a fan base around the legendary Pony Island, one of my personal favorite indie games of all time. His follow-up, The Hex, begins as an exploration of video game genres, but becomes so much more. Now, Mullins has announced his next project, Inscryption.

 

The Steam page for the game, coming out in 2021, describes it this way: “Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards…” Knowing the creator’s history, I’m sure there’s even more to it than that. If you want to get a taste of what to expect, a trailer launched today:

Inscryption arrives on Steam in 2021. And if you still haven’t played Pony Island, I implore you to correct that mistake.

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This Is The Zodiac Speaking Announced for PC and Current Gen Consoles

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This Is The Zodiac Speaking Announced for PC and Current Gen Consoles

Punch Punk Games and Klabater has just announced their upcoming psychological thriller puzzle game, This is the Zodiac Speaking for PC and current generation consoles. As alluded to with its title, the game is based around the infamous never-caught serial killer, the Zodiac killer, who was active in Northern California during the 1970s.

The game sees players take control of Robert Hartnell, a San Francisco journalist that receives a harrowing call from the Zodiac Killer himself who utters the infamous words, ‘This is the Zodiac speaking’. For the unfamiliar, the Zodiac Killer became known for goading law enforcement and the media with complex cyphers that provide clues to the identity of the killer, which remain unsolved to this day. These cyphers play a key role in the game’s plot as Robert will need to unravel the mysteries surrounding the Zodiac Killer’s murders in order to piece together evidence to reveal the truth about the notorious serial killer.

The game features two different gameplay modes, one that focuses on stealth and action along with storytelling and a so-called ‘Detective Mode’ that places an emphasis on storytelling, to fully immerse the player in the Zodiac investigation. Throughout the investigation players will visit notable California landmarks, as well as the scenes of the murders themselves. With three alternative endings, players will be able to make decisions on how they want to carry out their investigation and witness how those decisions impact the narrative.

It goes without saying then that This is the Zodiac Speaking features a mature story, which has been co-authored by award-winning Polish horror author Lukasz Oribitowski and head of Punch Punk Games, Krzysztof Grudziski. The game also uses a unique art style in its portrayal of 1970s California, which at first glance looks to play towards the sinister psychological story at its core. The game also features a unique and atmospheric soundtrack by acclaimed Polish electronic music artist, A_GIM, that promises to further the immersion and tension throughout.

This is the Zodiac Killer is set to launch on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on September 24^th. The game can be added to steam libraries in anticipation here, with other digital storefronts soon to follow.

More information on This is the Zodiac Speaking and Punch Punk Games can be found here.

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REVIEW / Wintermoor Tactics Club (PC)

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REVIEW / Wintermoor Tactics Club (PC)

 

The strategy genre is a funny one. I feel that out of all the genres this is one of the most love/hate. The tactics sub-genre definitely doesn’t get as much love as it deserves and this is where we’re going to be today. The game is Wintermoor Tactics Club and I have to say that I’m having a heap of fun with it.

 

 

In my honest opinion, there are a few key reasons why tactics games don’t always get the attention that they rightfully deserve and all of those reasons are fair. Some games are fun but not particularly story heavy. This gives the title more of a board game feel and that’s going to be polarizing from the get-go. In other cases, they’re made far too complicated.

My rule of thumb with fun strategy games is the “easy to learn hard to master,” approach. You don’t need a library of rules and a million menus to navigate just to have a good time. Lastly and this is probably one of my personal bug-bears is that this is a genre that’s very easy to copy and paste. The mobile market is flooded with tactics games and they’re all virtually the same with a few minor tweaks to ward off Copywrite infringement. All this being said I can happily say Wintermoor Tactics Club is a breath a fresh air.

 

Meet Alicia. You’ll be following her story and will be getting to know each other well.

 

Let’s address the points I’ve just made as we go. Now I feel I’ve given myself something to prove. First off, let’s look at the story, shall we? So Wintermoor Tactics Club is set in Wintermoor Academy; a private school. As with many schools, feeling included is all-important and that makes school clubs a must. You and your friends form the tactics club. Three role-playing geeks who meet up to play Curses and Catacombs, your favorite game.

The school principal decides in true school spirit that there will be a competition between all the other clubs in Wintermoor to find out who is the best. There’s a catch, though; the winning club is going to be the only club because all of the others are getting disbanded. You don’t want that to be you, obviously, so you use all of your tactical knowledge to beat off your opponents in snowball fights of all things. Without going into too much detail Principle Enfield is up to something a bit more nefarious than bumming out teenagers. Your task is, therefore, to survive the competition, survive school, and work out what’s going on.

 

Curses & Catacombs, a fantasy proving ground for some very real-world problems.

 

Wintermoor Tactics Club is story-driven in the most beautiful way. There is a visual novel expanding as you play along and you really fall in love, with (or hate) the different characters you come across. In addition to the tournament, you also have to remember that you’re at school so helping the other kids with various tasks is a good way to earn brownie points and more tangible stuff like items and upgrades for your party. You also have to remember that in many cases your rivals are also your friends and you don’t really want to see them go down either. The juxtaposition of helping your enemies because you’re all doing something you don’t want to comes over nicely.

The other clubs really need mentioning. They aren’t the most obvious you’d think of. You’ll be facing, The Psychic Detectives, The Equestrian Club, the mysterious student council, and many more. Each of these have their own trials and individual links to the story. Literally, nothing feels boring or copy/paste and this is really lovely to see.

 

Wintermoor Tactics Club has a beautiful virtual novel at it’s heart.

 

Moving to my next point. Wintermoor Tactics Club definitely has a board game feel in the tactical elements of the title. The difference between this and other games I’ve played, though, is that it’s supposed to have that feel. We’re talking about a group of characters that play tactics games, so having the characters as miniatures moving on a board makes sense.

The core gameplay fits the setting as opposed to being something that’s just been chucked in because it works. This helps immensely with the flow of the plot. You never feel like you’re dropping the narrative to go and do a fighty bit, it’s all part and parcel and this is something I really like. I also like the fact that parts of the game are set in the fantasy realm of the tabletop and others follow the same idea but in real life during the snowball fights. All very cleverly done.

 

The opposing clubs are varied and interesting.

 

So is the game intuitive? In a word, yes. The controls are fluid and easy to pick up. When outside the world of C&C and the real-world action events, (snowball fights,) everything else is point and click so no problems there. Something else I love is that character isn’t at the forefront; the story is. What this means is that you aren’t spending all your time tooling about with classes and equipment. As I mentioned earlier completing side-quests gives you gear and abilities. The number of things you have to juggle is deliberately limited so you can just enjoy the fun.

You can play C&C whenever you feel like you want to do something a bit different. The characters learn how to tackle real-world problems in this fantasy realm as part of the main story. You are also given more difficult challenges to try to conquer as an aside and this is another good way to unlock goodies.

 

Apart from being a killjoy, Principle Enfield is up to something.

 

Your thinking, “Alex this is a review. Stop gushing and say something negative,” right? Well only if I have to. To be honest there aren’t a lot of holes to pick with Wintermoor Tactics Club and the ones I’m seeing are pretty subjective. I suppose my only real irk, (and it’s nothing major,) is the toing and froing you have to do to complete a lot of the side quests. This is only a matter of clicking from scene to scene but it might be a case of “talk to kid A in the library then go to kid B in the quad and back to kid A.” This is fine if there are lots of steps involved but when there are only one or two it can get a bit monotonous.

The only other negative I can see that might put people off is that obviously there’s a lot of reading involved. Tactics fans that just want to get into the action without all the background might well get frustrated. It needs to be said, though, that this is only a tactics game in practice, it’s story-based in essence. Because the plot comes first it should be something that’s understood from the outset.

 

It’s so nice not to get swamped with micro-managing menus.

 

It’s hard to tell you more about the actual game without ruining everything for you but Wintermoor Tactics Club is a really fun and immersive ride. It’s so nice to have a breath of fresh air come into a genre that is getting a little stale through no fault of its own. I love everything about this game. For fans of the strategy genre, it’s a really nice change from the norm and I strongly recommend giving it a go. I never thought I’d catch myself saying this but fans of a good virtual novel might really enjoy this title too. I would say that often these to genres are poles apart but in this case, I think a lot of common ground can be found.

 

 

 

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

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Five movies somebody should turn into a videogame

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Five movies somebody should turn into a videogame

The golden age of movie tie-in videogames has long passed. Thriving primarily during the PS2 era and dying out during the previous generation, there are only sparse movie tie-in games released anymore. And the one’s that are being released now, like Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard, are generally so offensively bad it seems little has been lost for the industry in their absence.

But the lack of these games has left a gap in the industry that is made all the worse by this console generation’s seeming disregard for the “double-A” level of games. Existing somewhere in between smash indie hits that are cheaply priced around $20 and often developed by only a handful of people, and the big triple-A $60 releases that dominate every digital storefront, modern double-A releases such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and The Outer Wilds illustrate the power that can come from smaller scale, more focused gameplay experiences.

This gap in the industry has the potential to be filled perfectly by movie tie-in games that are developed by passionate teams familiar with the source material that are given the freedom to make the games they want to. For example, one needs to look no further than previous standout movie tie-in games like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and even the classic Goldeneye. So, in no particular order, here are five of the top movies that are begging for someone to make a videogame based off them.

Dune

With a unique mix of mysticism, science fiction, political tension, and an engaging world, Dune would lend itself excellently to a single-player action-adventure game a la Uncharted. Taking control of Paul Atreides, players would experience the fall of House Atreides on the planet of Arrakis, a desolate desert world where water is the most priceless resource, after which they would leave the palace and venture out into the desert as a refuge. Once free of the political upheaval, the player will grapple with persuading the local population, the Fremen, learning about their religion and beliefs, and eventually rising to become their messiah and lead them in a revengeful coup de tat of the family that killed Paul’s own.

Upgrade

Upgrade lends itself perfectly for a single-player focused first-person shooter campaign. Following Grey, a mechanic in the near future that gets an AI implanted in his head that helps him set out on a warpath to avenge the assassination of his wife that also crippled him. The AI takes control of his body and uses its incredibly fast processing to puppeteer him through the fight. The movie has everything necessary to make a memorable FPS campaign set in a fascinating science-fiction world with limitless potential for skill trees, unique gimmicks, and enough of a barebones plot for the developers to add to the story and make it their own.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

While it may be more of a videogame adaptation of a book than a movie, there is loads of potential in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The property would act as a great stepping stone for an anthology horror game that could offer a collection of short, distinct titles to play through. Offering multiple shorter experiences would ensure there would be enough variety to have at least one story strike a scary cord with each player. The shorter length would help avoid the pitfall many horror games fall into of being too long for their own good, while also leaving plenty of room open for the developers to be creative and be experimental with the experiences.

Sicario

Another prime candidate for an intense single-player FPS campaign, Sicario follows a team of United States operatives who use shady tactics to combat the ever-spreading power of the Mexican cartel. Intense, suspenseful, and dark, Sicario would offer an excellent setting to tell a dark, morally challenging story that could be delivered through tense, high stakes combat. Cinematic touchstone moments would add to the weight of the narrative and complicated characters.

Annihilation

Begging to be adapted into a science fiction roguelike, Annihilation deals with a strange alien dome that has arrived on Earth and causes the genetic composition of anything within it to combine and mutate. Lending itself to countless creative designs for locales and enemies, Annihilation would make a great setting to place players in the shoes of agents sent into “the shimmer” in attempts to piece together just what is going on inside. With an everchanging loadout to increase your chances of survival and a legacy-fueled morphing shimmer to explore and survive, Annihilation would stand to be one of the most diverse, creative, and engaging roguelikes in recent memory.

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