Monthly Archives: December 2017

Funcom Announces Conan Exiles Release Date for PC, Xbox and Playstation 4

Conan Exiles, Funcom’s Open-world survival title set in the savage lands of Conan the Barbarian will leave Early Access and launch into digital/retail stores in 2018. May 8th 2018 is the big date, and it will also see the premiere of Conan Exiles on the Playstation 4. The prices for Conan Exiles were also revealed for all platforms. The PC version will launch at $39.99 while Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will launch at $49.99. Conan Exiles is currently available on PC at the $29.99 Early Access price point, while Xbox One is available in Game Preview at $49.99. The PlayStation 4 version will not be available to play before full launch on May 8th, 2018. Purchases on PC/Xbox One prior to launch will reward them with the “Conan’s Royal Armor” in-game item once full launch happens, and Digital Pre-orders for Playstation 4 will also include this (pre-order to be available later).

The physical retail version will also contain a printed map of the Exiled Lands, along with the iconic Atlantean Sword in-game item which is only available in this version of the game. There will also be a limited collector’s edition that contains the following:

  • FIGURINE: 15 cm / 6 inch Conan the Barbarian polyresin figurine, modeled after Conan from the Conan Exiles cinematic trailer
  • CUSTOM COMIC BOOK: Full-color print comic book created in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics specifically for this game. The comic book tells the story of Conan on one of his adventures in the Exiled Lands.
  • SOUNDTRACKS: Three soundtracks featuring the music from Conan Exiles as well as the music from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer.
  • ARTBOOK: Go behind the scenes and discover some of the incredible production artworks developers used to guide their vision for the game in this full-color, print artbook.
  • WORLD MAP: Full-color printed map of the world of Conan Exiles.
  • DIGITAL COMIC BOOKS: Code to unlock six full-color digital comic books from Dark Horse Comics, featuring the entire “A Witch Shall Be Born” story arc.
  • DIGITAL RPG BOOK: Code to unlock the 368 full-color digital rule book created by Modiphius for their Conan pen and paper role-playing game. Everything you need to play!

“Early Access and Game Preview has been an absolutely invaluable tool for us in developing Conan Exiles,” says Creative Director Joel Bylos. “Being able to get direct feedback from players has allowed us to focus our work on improvements, bug fixes, and new content. We still have a few months to go and are by no means done squashing bugs and making improvements. We’re working hard on new content and gameplay mechanics – including the new jungle and volcano biomes!”

More information can be found at this link.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game to be Adapted for PC

Asmodee Digital and Fantasy Flight Interactive are going to be partnering to bring the Lord of the Rings card game onto PC, as a digitally optimized adaptation of the Living Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games. As a card game that has a fixed distribution of cards to prevent randomness from their purchase model also brought players deep into the Tolkien Lore with a focus on a deep narrative-driven experience. As a single player experience, this card game tasks players with leading a team of three heroes across a series of campaigns through Middle-earth, facing off against Sauron and his forces, controlled by the computer. Players will forge their own fellowships and build decks comprised of ally, event, and equipment cards to face challenges that test their willpower, knowledge, tactics and leadership. In the future, The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game will be expanded to support co-op play, allowing two players to bring their fellowships together and fight through quests side-by-side!

The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game takes what fans love about the physical card game—adventure, lore, and a chance to play using powerful characters and artifacts—and adapts it for an entirely unique interactive experience on the PC,” said Tim Gerritsen, Head of Fantasy Flight Interactive. “For those unfamiliar with the card game, the digital adaptation invites players to become a part of the fantastical world J.R.R. Tolkien created and embark on new adventures.”

Laser League’s Second Online Field Test Begins This Week

Laser League Press Preview - GG EZ

505Games and Roll7 are proud to announce that Laser League, their arcade-style top-down futuristic sports title will have a second closed beta test this week. It will begin on Friday, Dec. 15th and run through Sunday, Dec. 17th. A true test of reflexes and teamwork, Laser League is unlike any other game you’ve played. Dominate the field and take control of laser nodes, and use class-based abilities to defeat the other team and be the last ones standing in the arena to claim victory. The servers will be on from 10 am (PST) on Friday until 9:30 am (PST) on Sunday. The recommended peak time is 4-5pm (PST) on Friday. Players can still sign up at this link.

Capcom Celebrates Street Fighter’s Legacy with ’30th Anniversary Collection’

Hot on the heels of this weekend’s Capcom Cup (congrats to MenaRD on his amazing win!), we also received word of a new collection of Street Fighter games coming in May 2018. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection will contain 12 iconic titles from the series, playable on PS4, XBox One, Steam, and Nintendo Switch. These will have Arcade Perfect balance, and the following games will be playable: Street Fighter, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact and Street Fighter III: Third Strike. And if that weren’t enough to whet peoples’ appetites, four of these will be playable online in Ranked/Casual matches: Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

The only major question now is which netcode will be used (please do not use USFII’s netcode!) and players will be able to do battle against the CPU while waiting on an online opponent. Fans can take a walk down memory lane in the Museum and view stunning pieces of concept art, scroll through character bios and uncover little known facts behind each game release with an interactive timeline. Audiophiles can also sit back and relax while listening to the most memorable Street Fighter tunes in the Music Player.

Golem Gates First Look

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Golem Gates - Waiting

Too much waiting …

I’m not the best at RTS games, so I don’t really play them competitively. It’s mostly all the APM stuff that slows me down, despite having a pretty fast WPM in regular typing. But Golem Gates really caught my interest anyway. Because while I’m not as big on RTS titles, I love a good deck-builder, and that’s what Golem Gates is: Part Deck Builder, Part Real-Time Strategy. It’s very dark, and as the Harbinger, you spawn creatures from beyond the Golem Gates, and use them to do battle against the other Harbingers (players). But unlike your average RTS, you can spawn your creatures anywhere you have creatures already! That really caught my eye without a doubt. Your Harbinger is essentially your “base”, and the goal is to kill the other Harbinger, or yours is killed by the enemy. Your available units are a series of cards (called Glyphs) that you put together in a deck, which will contain spells, creatures, and buffs/debuffs, which can only be cast when you have enough energy (which fills pretty slowly unless you have several of the choke points that exist in the world).

Golem Gates - Tutorial

Pew Pew, fight in the darkness!

But at least you can play them wherever you happen to have units already, which is a definite bonus. I definitely like not having to only build units at my base, but anywhere I happen to already have someone. Going back to the summoning though, there’s a wait time, in addition to waiting to have enough energy, which all told, really slows this game down. I would tell you how the PVP is, but unfortunately, after over a week of playing, I have yet to have a single online match. Waiting 10-15 minutes with no matches, in a variety of time slots, that adds up to a whole lot of wasted time for me. Which is unfortunate, because this game is really interesting! I like the concept a lot, and would probably like it more if it didn’t feel so much like swimming through molasses. The card variety is nice, from drawing extra cards, stealing enemy units, a whole host of units from large to small. You have traps, defensive turrets, all kinds of things to defend your Harbinger, which is fantastic because you have no idea where the enemy could come from in some of the stages (like Survival).

Golem Gates - Survival

Just look at all that darkness.

The fog of war is serious, and it’s persistent. If you do not have a unit in a spot and do not control a choke point, you cannot see what’s going on, which is both a positive and a negative. If you do not know where the enemy is coming from, you have no idea where to set up your defensive structures, and the stages don’t really seem to have much in the way of natural defensives, which can really create a serious sense of paranoia and loneliness. This game really does a fantastic job of making the setting feel authentic because the stages are pretty dark, pretty empty. I’m personally not really a fan of fog-of-war not going away, because I’d like to have some kind of idea of what’s coming from where, but if you’re smart/safe about how you use your energy, you can summon stuff while you’re patrolling, leaving traps behind to stop enemies from taking your energy sources. But let’s talk about cards a bit more, speaking of these units. You only have so many cards in your deck, and when you run out, you have to reshuffle used cards back into the deck.

Golem Gates - Shuffle Under Attack

This definitely was a frustrating idea.

That sounds like it’s not a big deal, but a “Shuffling. . .” sign overlaps your screen, and you can’t really see what’s going on while it’s happening. The screen darkens, but you can still see units shuffling around anyway. This is definitely a bad design choice in my opinion because while it would definitely slow the game down to pause/shuffle, especially for PVP, if your enemy sees you aren’t doing anything, or they are already attacking, you can’t stop the shuffle. You can’t cancel/pause it, you’re stuck until it’s over, which I can see it causing you to lose in a very pitched moment. With that in mind, be wary of how you use cards and when; don’t just cast willy-nilly, but don’t let your energy bar just sit full all the time, because then you aren’t casting new stuff and letting it refill. It really becomes a dangerous balancing act. It would be awful if you were out of cards for the whole match, but I feel like the game shouldn’t stop you from acting while you were shuffling. You usually still have cards to play in your hand, after all.

Golem Gates Preview - Main Menu

Bummed I couldn’t play the Campaign.

There’s a deep Campaign in place, or so I believe, but I have not played past the Tutorial yet. It’s locked until 2018, which is fine. I was really hoping to get into the Campaign though because that’s the part that interests me the most. I’m hoping it will be a better way to get cards unlocked as well. It seems to be pretty slow to acquire them only playing against the AI, which is the only option I’ve had so far. There’s also a Co-Op Mode that I also had to solo, where you go into a Survival Map. You have a set amount of time to either dominate all of the other NPCs hidden on the map or simply hold out. I was unsuccessful every time I tried this, but I got pretty close alone. At best, I controlled two of the energy points, almost three, before having to retreat due to being swarmed under. Then there are Versus Matches (AI). They can feature up to four teams, and you can adjust all manner of settings, which I love. You can make it as easy or as hard as you’d like. There are four difficulties (changeable per AI opponent): Easy/Normal/Hard/Insane, and Three Gameplay Styles (and Random): Balanced/Rush/Turtle. Balanced is a fine line between aggressive/defensive gameplay, and Rush of course is a Zerg-Rush style aggressive mode and Turtle is uber-defensive. You can also change the Energy Regen Rate, Energy Growth Rate, Glyph Spawning Rate, Game Speed, and Starting Energy. Then you have the maps to choose from:

Daedalus (2-4 Players): Chokepoints and corridors in the center hide a Super Destroyer that can pave the way to the enemy. You definitely want to control the center, which is terribly hard with everyone vying for the same spots.
Chasm (2 Players): Take the side paths or use vision to leapfrog over the chasm and take the enemy by surprise. Unlike Daedalus which is cross-shaped, this is a big circular map with a player on each side (left and right). Each player has access to an energy charger.
Icarus (2 Players): A chokepoint leads to two identical lanes in which to fight for supremacy. This felt more like a MOBA style map, which is absolutely fine. Each player has access to an energy point, and each of those two lanes has one halfway down the middle, so it’s all about how you manage both of those lanes, whether you think you can dominate both, or simply hold one and put defenses in the other.

Bottom Line: It’s A Good Start

Golem Gates - Deck

I will say the deck is pretty thick. Grateful it’s not just 10-15 cards!

I love the idea for this game a lot if I can be honest. But I’ve had such a limited experience, despite having the game for well over a week. If I could have played with other players, I’d have a better idea of exactly how it goes, not to mention the Campaign. If it’s not completed yet, that’s fine, but as far as I know, it’s simply locked. The Tutorial, however, is very solid and teaches you exactly how to play the game, which I appreciated. There are about 100 cards in the game as of this writing, and I have a feeling more are on the way. At first, I had a very hard time telling cards apart and did not seem to be able to highlight them and get their stats in the game (but I believe that was fixed/patched for Early Access). It’s a very cool idea, and the gameplay’s pretty fun. The units and art design is fantastic and sharp, and I’m looking forward to more of it. But as of right now, I simply have not had enough of the actual game to say one way or another how I feel/how it plays when dealing with other players, and unraveling its story.  I enjoy the concept immensely, once it begins to open up a bit more, I’d love to revisit it and take another look.

Note: A code was given for review purposes.

Better Off Tread

Better Off Tread is a hectic 6v6 multiplayer arena game featuring deadly, yet goofy armored vehicles engaging in combat across various trap infested maps. Pick and customize your own tank and storm into battle! Available for Windows and Mac.

Features:

Operating in Style: Discover the right combination of armor and speed for your particular preference.

Take a Trip: Go to war in exotic locations such as the spooky Temple of Boom or hazardous Battletown.

You Don’t Get Off That Easy: Save your neck in a pinch or pick up that extra bit of firepower from powerups scattered across the levels.

Post Human W.A.R

Post Human W.A.R is a turn-based strategy game set in a ridiculous post-apocalyptic future where mankind is extinct and the poor souls left behind have gone to war with each other. Muster up your army, choose a champion, and utilize all manner of bluffs, tricks, and mental tactics to fool your enemy and destroy their secret unit. Available for Windows.

Features:

Going H.A.M: Experiment with the 3 distinct universes featuring the household appliances, mutated animals, and tracksuit monkey factions as well as their altogether 36 unique units.

Undercover Uncoverer: Ensure the survival of your champion by hiding them somewhere within your battle formation, while at the same time, attempting to find your foe’s.

Even Scale: Fight on a fair battlefield where no randomness or play-time induced imblances affect the solo campaign, local, or online multiplayer matches.

Orbs

Orbs is a sci-fi MMORPG where you will explore a futuristic open-world as a mystifying spherical space craft on a quest to find, take control of, and rule over mysterious zones littered across the expansive open-world. Get a couple friends together on the same operating system or strike it alone and teleport into an entirely unique universe on a journey of discovery and wonder. Available for Windows.

Features:

Journey into the Unknown: Explore dangerous areas with the help of advanced weaponry and tactical avoidance.

Architect from the Future: Find rare and powerful artifacts hidden amidst the environment.

Electric Bonfire: Take a break from the permanent competition with other players and NPCs by heading to a safe home zone where you can freely chat and manage inventory.