Yearly Archives: 2017

Blast Out: Early Access Impressions

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Blast Out is an interesting creature. It’s an arena brawler that features a 2-on-2 system where you also have to contend with the primal forces of nature and magic! As the matches proceed, a plethora of environmental hazards appear, but there’s thankfully a timer in the top middle of the screen that offers a warning when something is about to happen. It doesn’t say what, but as the match loads, it does offer a minor warning, whether it’s the giant glowing runes, or parts of the map being engulfed in lava. Being aware and constantly on the move is paramount. Instead of playing specific legendary heroes, champions, or notable figures, you play as a character in one of three races (at least in the current build). You equip them in gear that alters their stats, and select their abilities out of an open pool of abilities, configured to your specifications. From there you go into battle, and the first to win three rounds (so best of five) wins the day and collects the spoils of war!

Blast Out - Equipment Stats

Stats Matter, but “Epic” doesn’t mean “Better”. Pick what you need, not based on color.

The three character races are Mapache (Red Panda, known as Catbears by some of the other races, cunning tricksters), Chinpanji (Ape, peaceful monks and practitioner of Apashite Kung Fu), and Bjorn (Bears, down-to-earth Northerners, fond of ale and fancy beards). Each character has its own stats, from Cooldown Percent, Move Speed, Health, et cetera, but you can adjust these stats as you purchase gear/unlock it in the Chests. This gear can only be bought with Coins, which you acquire from Chests and through gameplay. I received chests that contained Coins even in a loss. Winning gives a better Chest, which can give you powerful weapons to equip. More on that in a bit. Each character has its own particular armor that it can equip, which changes their look, and their stats. The rarity of them is the standard Green, Blue, Purple, Orange from lowest to rarest. The thing that I like about this gear is that not a single piece in the entire game has “only” bonuses/buffs. For every positive stat like +2 Shield Regen, it will have something like -100 health to balance it out or -7.5% to your damage, but lowers cooldown by 14% The stats seem to match each other, so you can balance the style with what stats you feel are appropriate.

Blast Out - Fire Time

Sometimes you have to know when to run or when to pop powers.

You start with one weapon, which you use with your mouse. It has a basic attack which you can use instead of your selected skills. As you win matches, you get a special chest that can unlock legendary, more powerful weapons. These cannot be bought, they are only earned through victory. So far I have a few of them, and they have targeted powers like shooting a fireball or launching a bolt of lightning across the screen. As you activate a weapon or skill, a line, circle, or other shot marker will become available, but I do appreciate that it has Smart Cast and Quick Cast. Smart Cast casts the ability when you let go of the key, and Quick Cast is when you hit the key. I’m also very glad you can adjust where you cast abilities, which is common but appreciated. For this game, I think it’s a little awkward to use WASD to move and QWERF to use powers.

Blast Out - Abilities

Pick who you want, then worry about abilities.

As someone who uses a Razer Naga, I started to use my powers with my Naga’s number pad. That just works better for me. Speaking of abilities, you have a pool of 28 different abilities, in the following categories: Weapon (What your Weapons do), Offensive (Attack Skills), Defensive (Protective), Control (Crowd Control), and Positioning (Charging, Dodging, Teleporting). The great thing is you can use whichever you want. Want to just be a CC/Position machine for your friend who stacks Offensive/Positioning powers? Then, by all means, do it! As you use these powers, they level up, but this is where I started to get worried. I had no idea what the purpose of the ‘level’ was at first and feared the abilities would get stronger. Leveling skills give you coins and an alternate version of the ability. Not a “better” one, just a “different” one for you to try out. So the ability to customize, change and build a loadout for any situation is great. You have 100 seconds to plan it before the match starts, so use it wisely. I would very much like to get Loadouts for this game though, so I can make loadouts for certain teammates or maps to just be prepared for any situation. It’s not a necessity, given how much time they give you, but it would cut some of that wait and get us ready to jump right into battle.

Blast Out - Runic Nightmare

Each one of those glowy spots is DOOM.

Blast Out is a game that is heavily reliant on skill though. No skill set is going to save you from a loss if you don’t know what the map does, or what your opponents can do. And with the Knockback system, knowing how and when you can knock someone back will definitely give you the edge. Why is that? Remember all those horrific elements of the map? There are times when most of the map is covered in doom, from fire or runes of magic, et cetera. When they’re right about to show up, or are appearing, if you can knock an enemy deep into the lava, they might not have the cooldowns to get out! Or you can just root them deep into the lava like I do. It’s a game that requires not only personal skill but teamwork. So being able to duo-queue and chat on Discord/Skype/etc will definitely be better than typing in the chat box. Sure, it’s useful and I’m glad it’s there, but being able to play with friends and coordinate will put you heads and tails above anyone else.

Speaking of teamwork, let’s talk about the maps for a bit. There are three maps right now, “Sands of Fate”, “Haunted Temple”, and “The Searing Shrine”. Each has its own hazards:

  • Sands of Fate: Hazardous Environment (Surrounding storm inflicts damage), The Storm Approaches (Safe area gets smaller), Destructible Walls (Use this to get the upper hand in a pinch)
  • Haunted Temple: Vengeful Spirits (They randomly haunt tiles on the map), Thoughtful Spirits (These light up before they strike you), Spirits Everywhere (More spirits every time they return).
  • The Searing Shrine: Lethal Lava Land (Don’t stand in the lava), Mind the gap (Arena splits evenly in two, divided by lava), Lava flood (Lava covers parts of the map periodically)

 

Blast Out - Weapon

They’ve Got a Lot on the Ball:

This is a pretty simple game from the outset, but there’s so much really going down. Sure, it’s two-on-two with only a few maps, but there is so much customization, and you have plenty to worry about. Just because you play the same map twice, it will not be the same experience twice, and that’s what’s so damn wonderful about it. I’m hoping more characters and maps will be on the way, and I definitely can tell it’s inspired by the Warcraft III “Warlock” mod. It’s something I read in a press release, and as someone who spent a lot of time on WC3 modes as a younger man, I can feel it. The maps constantly change over the course of the map so a strategy that works in the first match might not work in the second match. It boils down to personal skill, a bit of luck, and a lot of being able to react to whatever is going on around it. It’s fast-paced, non-stop action. Use the passive trait your character has mobility powers, and the skillset you chose to your advantage on each map. That’s one of the many things I love about it. It’s crazy, adrenaline-inducing fun.

Blast out - Learn you some Blast Out

And it has LOTS of tutorials and guides on what to know.

I do kind of feel like three matches to a win is a bit much though. I’d prefer being able to set that if I want sudden death, or two out of three, et cetera. You can’t enter Custom Mode yet, so maybe those options will there. Or at least, I wasn’t able to enter it at the time of writing. I stand by wanting controller support though. I think it might make the game a little harder, but I think arcade brawlers like this can be improved with having it as an option or at least test it during Early Access to see how it’s received. It’s not pay-to-win in that every piece of gear has a downside with an upside, you can build your character any way you want so you don’t have to stress your opponent having some OP kit that you don’t have access to. And if you see someone doing something incredible, you can try it out for yourself. Blast Out is crazy fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing some insane maps come to this. Some ideas I thought of were an underwater map where everything is slowed down, maybe throw in some giant sea creatures, or something up in the sky where you can plummet to your doom. Could be a great sudden death map, or something for casual fun. Dunking people and defeating them in combat has not felt this satisfying in a very long time.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

NIOH is coming to PC This November in Nioh: Complete Edition

Koei Tecmo is proud to announce that their dark fantasy title Nioh is bringing its incredible challenge to PC in November with “Nioh: Complete Edition” via Steam! This version of Nioh will contain all three DLC expansions: Dragon of the North, Defiant Honour, and Bloodshed’s End!This digital-only release will have two high-res graphics modes: Action Mode (stable 60fps), or Movie Mode (cinematic option that expands the display resolution to 4k)!

Calling PC gamers to “#DefyDeath”, Director Fumihiko Yasuda comments: “Team NINJA is well aware of the fact that many gamers have been passionately asking for a PC version of “Nioh”. I am thrilled to announce that this massocore game will finally be available for our die-hard PC fans in Nioh: Complete Edition! I hope you all enjoy the unforgettable drama and deeply challenging Yokai battles this action-packed experience has to offer.”

To celebrate the release of Nioh: Complete Edition on Steam, Team NINJA is offering players a brand-new item, the Dharmachakra Kabuto helmet. The Wheel of Dharma kabuto is a form of “kawari-kabuto”—a family of helmets featuring fantastical designs. This helmet features a red-lacquered front crest of an ancient Buddhist symbol depicting the eightfold path to nirvana. This holy image represents spiritual enlightenment attained by casting off one’s worldly desires, and also holds the power to banish evil. However, some claim this is not a Wheel of Dharma at all, merely a replica that looks as though it belongs on a device to regulate steam… Some have gone so far as to suggest renaming it to “Valve Kabuto,” but why anyone would make a helmet featuring a valve is unclear…

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Review

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

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There are lots of games that go to Kickstarter that, when they launch are utter failures/disappointments (Mighty No. 9). Divinity: Original Sin 2 is not one. In fact, it may be the best single player/multi-player RPG to hit the market in years. It’s been so long since I’ve had an open RPG that didn’t make me clam up and enter decision paralysis. There are so many choices and ways to play this game that I just can’t put it into words sufficiently. DOS2 takes place centuries after the last Original Sin title, and this world is in dire need of something. Your end-game goal is to become the new Deity. You’re going to be a God! So how does that work in multiplayer? Because yes, you can play this online with your friends. I’ll avoid spoilers, because while I haven’t gotten to the end quite yet, a friend did explain to me what happens in multiplayer end-game. You won’t want to miss it, I promise. Bishop Alexander has declared all Sourcerers (that’s probably you, by the by) to be heretics/criminals, so you start your experience on a slave ship on the way to a Port City on an island.

DOS2 - Character Creation

You can even be an Undead Lizard.

One of the truly interesting things (I feel like I’m going to say that a lot) is that you can play as one of the lore characters in this world, or you can opt to make your own character. From Dwarves, Lizard Nobles, to Undead (which tacks on an extra level of difficulty; Undead aren’t exactly welcome in society) and Elven slaves, you really run the gambit of characters. You can play any race/class combination you please, There are perks, traits, et cetera. I think one of my favorite perks is talking to animals. You can actually talk to Pets. And it’s useful! It’s actually useful. It’s great to get a feel for situations you might not understand, or know what’s going on because you weren’t paying attention. Everything in this game is useful for something or another. And I mean everything. You can bring three of the lore characters with you if you please, or you can hoof it alone and see what fate has in store for you. And wow, is this game challenging. For a real time RPG, combat is turn-based, and you can harm your friends inadvertently. As you journey through this world, you’ll be given a variety of options when you talk to people. Depending on your character/stats/perks you might be able to choose new dialogue options, and these might lead to a fight, new information, or you’ll get nowhere. It’s bound to happen! There wasn’t a single character I came across that I didn’t enjoy speaking to, even if nothing useful came of it.

DOS2 - Early Battle

She jumped out at me. I swear.

But these characters think and feel for themselves, and may not always agree with your decisions and choices. You can leave them to stand in a position far away if you’re about to do something they don’t agree with. Because if your parties goals clash with one another, you can, “break” some of the main story quests. EG: If you bring the Lizardman noble with you, and the Elven slave, she is not fond of a Lizardman Dreamer that’s on the outskirts of town. If you bring her to him, she’ll try to convince you to let her kill the Lizard. This will infuriate the party member of yours because he needs that Dreamer to push the story for himself forward. And you won’t be able to save someone’s life because of this. Everything is tied together in a way that I am not smart enough to comprehend. So you can have her wait off in the distance, if you go in knowing this, and do your task with your party, then send her in to kill. But even if you don’t know that, fear not. This game is so intricate, that even if you break a quest, there are like four other ways to proceed. For example, I accidentally killed the Dreamer, so I went and found the Gloves of Teleportation and followed that path off the Island.

DOS2 - Items

You’ll probably need a lot of these..

But when you get into fights, and you will, It’s based on initiative, an AP pool, and a variety of powers and items. It becomes a turn-based strategy game, and location, height, and even the junk around you can be useful. I spent most of the early battles getting my party killed though, because of fire primarily. The terrain is useful and downright necessary to understand to really succeed in battle. Freezing water, throwing barrels of water into a fire to pass through it, hurling fire at barrels of lamp oil to set guards on fire. Undead can be cured with poison, and the lore character comes with poison jars he throws, which he can heal himself with, harm others (and accidentally harm allies. Ahem.) It’s very “Sun Tzu’s Art of War” with how much tactical control you have, if you know yourself and your surroundings. There are lots of battles that I got into simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or trying to pickpocket the very first NPC in the game (which was probably an important one, but she had to die! I can’t have people knowing I’m a thief!). These fights weren’t impossible but they were pretty damn challenging. If you decide a route isn’t for you, just go explore more and check under every nook and cranny. There’s always another way.

A Diamond in the Rough: 5/5

DOS2 - Crime

You can even be a criminal! But it doesn’t pay. Maybe.

However I did find some annoying, frustrating bugs that almost made me start over. The biggest one was quests that were broken/impossible to complete staying on my screen as quests I could complete. It was infuriating and I spent a lot of time wandering the island like a doofus, trying desperately to figure out what was wrong, when I was in the right spot. This was frustrating, but once I figured things out I was happy again. Every character is interesting, well written, and many cases, hilarious. Not to mention that everything and everyone can be killed or destroyed it seems, and if the single/multiplayer game isn’t enough for you, you can create actual campaigns in the “DM Mode”. Want to create a story for your friends to journey through? Well you have the tools right at your fingertips, and it’s pretty detailed. I’m sure more will come in the future, but it’s a full, complete game at launch. I feel like many studios have forgotten how to do that. Want to just battle your friends? Head to the Arena Mode! It allows for mods as well! It’s an actual complete, full game at launch. The music is wonderful, the characters are fully fleshed out (even the Undead ones, hue hue) and Larian Studios delivered on all of their promises on this one. It has something for everyone. It has the classic experience (Classic), something a bit harder, where tactics are a must (Tactical Mode), something easy where you can just enjoy the story and explore (Explorer Mode), and the Hardcore, one-death mode (Honour) where if your party wipes, the file is deleted! Before DOS2, my last Divinity experience was on the Xbox 360 and I did not have quite as much fun there. I have to admit, I love this game.

 

Elysian War

Elysian War is a F2P browser-based fantasy strategy game where you’ll take on the responsibility of leading an army into fierce battles across all kinds of environments and weather conditions. Think tactically, win engagements, become victorious, available for Windows.

Features:

Jan Ken Pon!: Take advantage of your opponent’s weaknesses while being wary of your own.

5 Star: Reward your generals with upgrades, enhancements, and even promotions.

Strategum: Command your units to travel across their preferred terrain to attack, use an ability, or tactically retreat.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a free-to-play 3D shooter developed by CI GAMES S.A for iOS and Android on mobile stores. There is also a purchasable version of the game on PC on Steam. In Sniper: Ghost Warrior players can undertake a variety of missions, whether that means freeing hostages, protecting your allies or trying to get a rival sniper within your sights. Think you’ve got what it takes to complete every single mission available? Choose your playstyle in authentic, tense special forces gameplay and show the world why you’re a force to be reckoned with once you get behind the trigger!

Features:

More Than Sniping: As much fun as sniping is as the game’s core mechanic, that won’t be all you’ll be doing. Utilize dozens of weapons including rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and more to take down your enemies in the most efficient manner possible.

Weapon Customization: Upgrade and modify your weapons to fit your preferred gameplay style. Surely using a stock weapon isn’t as fun as loading out your favorite rifle with new attachments!

Mission Focused: Missions can be approached in many different ways depending on what gear you’re using. With over 200 missions in total and 15 hours of action to experience across 6 unique locations you’ll have to be ready for anything and everything.

The Alchemist Code

The Alchemist Code is an upcoming free-to-play Japanese strategy RPG developed by Fuji&gumi Games for iOS and Android. In The Alchemist Code players can experience classically tactical gameplay in intense missions with gloriously animated 3D battles. Little is known about The Alchemist Code at the moment, but with stunning anime-styled cut scenes and epic audio in terms of both music and voice acting it is sure to impress with its production quality! Will you prevail and bring change to the world?

Features:

Seven Deadly Sins: The seven deadly sins are running rampant and wreaking havoc on the world. Stopping them is of the utmost importance!

Strategic Teams: Customize your own team of characters and deploy them on the battlefield. Figure out what characters work well together to better your chances of success.

Multi-dimensional Battlefields: Having different elevations and orientations to manage during battles means every little move counts and could leave your team secured or completely exposed. Use your gut and your mind to outsmart your opponents.

Prime Arena

Prime Arena is an upcoming free-to-play survival MOBA game inspired by PUBG and developed by Nival for PC that can be downloaded on Steam. In Prime Arena players are entirely on their own and must fend for themselves, eliminating the forced socialization found in many other MOBAs. Victory is fully dependent on your own personal skill and reaction speed, meaning there is nobody to blame for a loss but yourself! The only person that matters in the end is you, so keep your interests at the forefront in Prime Arena!

Features:

Alliance/No Alliance: You decide whether you can trust someone else with your back. You never know who might betray you, so keep a wary eye and don’t be afraid to lone wolf it!

Shrinking Maps: As the game progresses the map will shrink, forcing players closer together to encourage action. Be ready to run into anyone at a moment’s notice!

No Waiting Around: Hate games where you have to wait for the match to finish to play again? Not in Prime Arena! If you’re eliminated then you can dive right into a new game and get back to what is most important – actually playing the game!

Arrow Heads Review

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Arrow Heads Too Much Time Here

Too much of my time was spent here…

Originally, there was going to be a thorough, detailed review of Arrow Heads. But that had to change to another game for an unfortunate reason. But let me say first, I love this game, aesthetically and mechanically. It’s a terrific game but I could not find a match online. I live kind of far away from most of my friends, so having couch co-op sessions are hard enough. But no matter what time of day I tried (and I’ve been trying since before it went officially live) I absolutely could not find a match online for the Arena or the Survival Modes. Which sucks, because the game is a lot of fun when I played the Survival Mode alone. I wanted to bring some attention to it anyway because it is fun and well designed. The reviews on Steam are mostly positive, and I can see why. For those fortunate enough to get a match online, I’m happy for you! I’d like more people to be playing this online.

Arrow Heads - Customization

I would have preferred to be a Green Penguin. But I digress.

Arrow Heads is a couch co-op/online Arena Battle game where you play as a Chicken. Or a Turkey. Or a Penguin. You can unlock a variety of birbs to play as (Yes, birbs. Stay with me). They do battle against horrific, evil, mean, vile bears, and the weapon of choice is a Bow and Arrow. As you play you can unlock some crazy fun bows and arrows, and can even make your bow invisible! Not your arrows, thankfully. Ever want to fire rockets at Bears in a fun, safe environment where you won’t get mauled? That’s what you can do in Arrow Heads? It has a variety of cool maps, four-player couch co-op/online play, and two very solid game modes. The mode I got to play was Survival, where you survive wave after wave of increasingly powerful Bears. Some of them have armor and shields, and you have to fire over or get behind them to be efficient. Time is definitely of the essence in this mode. But you have more than just the arrows, so to speak. It’s a twin-stick game and controllers are definitely recommended. One stick walks, the other turns you to fire, and the longer you hold the direction, the longer/higher the arc is, within a certain amount.

Arrow Heads Last Life

Surviiiiiive~!

I actually had better control over my shots with my mouse, but the controller’s way more comfortable for me. You can also run, jump, and deflect shots! If you are standing still, your jump button doubles as the Deflect, but if you’re moving, you just jump. This is the one design flaw I found; I would have liked to see a separate run/deflect button. I can see why it’s like this though. Being able to run, then jump+deflect would probably be frustrating.  But all the co-op gameplay I saw looked very fun. The Survival Mode is for working together as a team.  As you defeat Bears, you gain coins that build a meter at the bottom of the screen. Hit a button when it is at full and gain a temporary power. It can do a variety of things, and the meter ticks down on its own. My personal favorite? The rockets. You fire barrages of rockets at Bears to defeat them and hold off the increasing waves of furious ursine.

Arrow Heads - Pirate Ship

Mm. Rockets.~

But there’s also the Arena Mode, where friendships go to die. So you tear your friendship apart in the Arena, and then you mend it in the Survival Mode. You can unlock cool costumes like I said, and new weapon skins. They don’t make your weapons stronger, but it does look cool! Like I said, I love this game. I wish I could have had more of an online experience with it though. I tried up until yesterday to find online matches so I could adjust this piece, but it did not happen. Regardless, I do recommend it, and think the developers at OddBird did a fantastic job with marketing it and creating it. Visually it’s amazing, and the controls are tight. But.. I did not find a single online match that didn’t immediately crash. It’s my hope that if more people get it and get online, these matches will be much easier to find!