Yearly Archives: 2017

Dead Cells Receives Huge, Brutal Update on Steam

A huge autumn update to Dead Cells is coming from Motion Twin, tomorrow (Nov. 14th)! 25% more content awaits players, and a variety of changes are coming to get people back into the game! One of the bigger changes removes “Strength/Skills/Health” and this system has been replaced by “Brutality/Tactic/Survival”. Brutality (Red) includes all weapons (not counting shields), Tactic (purple) includes active skills, and Survival (green) includes your shields. You’ll notice some items are dual colored, which means they can rely on two different stats and use the higher value. Colorless items will use your best stat always. Between that, new biomes (Clock Tower and Slumbering Sanctuary) which feature new enemies/loot, the change of Cursed treasure now dropping Colorless items, 10 new items (weapons, shields and active skills) and four new enemy types, there’s a lot to go around! The full patch notes can be found here.

Nioh: Complete Edition Review: It feels Good, But Familiar

Nioh - Boss

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Ready for a Hot Take? Nioh … is like Dark Souls. Now, don’t go blowing up my mentions on Twitter or something dumb like that. In a few ways, it’s very much like Dark Souls, but in a complementary fashion, not “Oh no, it’s ripping off my sacred game”! Nioh: Complete Edition is a port of the PS4 title by Tecmo Koei to PC, with 4k Resolution and 60fps. And I have to say, this game is absolutely gorgeous on PC. I had very few hiccups when I was running it on 60fps, but that’s to do with my graphics card being inferior, less the actual game having issues. But let’s take a stab, no pun intended, at that “Dark Souls” comment. So here’s the rub. It has a similar UI, from the weapons/items and swapping them out. It’s similar in that the dodge mechanic is incredibly valuable, and you’re going to die. A lot, actually. I’m not really that great at these games and I died a fair amount. But it was never to something unfair, broken, or some glitch. It was always because I had something to learn yet.

Nioh - Tutorial

This poor guard …

You have two attack buttons, a weak/strong, and you combo them together, and it burns a Ki-related Stamina meter. There’s an item, of course, to refill that, or you can hang back and let it recharge on its own. There’s where the similarities tend to end though. When you finish the tutorial and head to Japan to “stop the ancient evil” or some nonsense, you pick a pair of weapons, a spirit companion, the important stuff. Each weapon has its own merits and downfalls, so pick what works for you. Personally, I went with the dual katana and the odachi as my backup weapon. You can also use arquebus (gun) and a bow to shoot stuff/people from a distance, and this is also a godsend. There are definitely times when you want to make someone’s face sprout an arrow from a distance instead of running in and doing battle with three or four enemies at once. But that’s not even the best part about this combat system. While attacking burns your meter, if you hit R1 at the right time, you can recharge it (at the end of an attack chain) and this is also used to banish evil Oni while doing battle with them.

Nioh - Revenant

The stance system suddenly became important.

The most intricate, hard-to-master part is stance system. This is set in Japan after all, despite the tutorial being set in the Tower of London. You wield Japanese weapons, and I feel like this belongs in the 1500s, thereabouts. You have a high-stance, medium-stance, and low-stance, each having their own uses. For example, the low-stance is more for fast, quick-hitting moves, and the high-stance is more for slow, power hits. You need to be able to dance between these styles in the harder battles. If you want to get anywhere, you must, must master this system. It has fewer long, winding dungeons to explore, and more gorgeous, scenic open areas to wander. And once you complete a stage and ready to move on, I’ve found it’s worth it to stick around for a while. It’s less to gain better stats and skills, but to get new equipment. Each dead soldier or peasant has a host of useful items on them, though you can always use more Souls to increase your strength. The skill system is pretty wide open, one set of skills per weapon. They all kind of feel the same, so one weapon isn’t more powerful (more useful, rather) than another. It really lets me play whatever the Hell I want and still feel like I can explore and kill things. Don’t forget that all the DLC comes with this, so even if the base game isn’t enough, there’s plenty of extra content for you to go against.

Wait … I can fight Musashi Miyamoto? 4/5

Nioh - Stat Screen

Yes, you can do battle against Musashi, the Sword Saint. Man, there’s so much going on in this game I wasn’t really sure where to start or end. I don’t really feel like this is a Souls/Bloodborne clone at all. There are definite similarities for players who love that style of gameplay to get their hands on, but there’s more than enough intricate challenging content to teach even those players something new. One of the things that bothers me about “difficulty” in games these days is when players act like only Dark Souls deserves to be that challenging, and if some other game uses that style of action-RPG that they deserve to be just … just dumped on. That’s unfair though. And without a doubt, Nioh is insanely challenging. Dueling with several supernatural Samurai at once, swapping between targets, changing stances on the fly, swapping from one weapon to the other just to keep up, it’s definitely worth investing time in. The only serious flaw for some PC users, is it doesn’t appear to have keyboard/mouse support. That’s not a big deal for me but I can see it being an issue.

You can bring the dead back to life in certain points (You’ll see a red, glowing sword) and it says how they died, what level they were, et cetera. These are far more challenging to me than regular encounters, but they are a fantastic way to test your skills and grow stronger. Even if I wasn’t gaining stats, I felt like simply by surviving encounters I was getting better, stronger. And sure, there are fights I tried five, six, seven times. But they taught me to not spam my attack, to know when to dodge, when new techniques were coming my way. Nioh: Complete Edition is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. The story is new and engaging, and every single battle is a fight for survival. I don’t play these games very often, but it’s good for me to challenge myself and explore for a bit. I have to take it in doses, but each dose is one worth taking in. Nioh is challenging offers difficulty but not without reward. Whether your reward is new stats, skills, or simply the notion that you are learning and getting better? Nioh’s got what you need.

Six-a-side

Six-a-side is a football based free-to-play browser management game with a unique 2D engine. In Six-a-side unknown creatures called Zuorghs have started to emerge. It is unclear as to where they came from. Some say that they came from outer space, whereas others wonder if they are tiny robots. No matter whatever they are it is clear that they are only interested in one thing: playing matches of football. You’re going to need to pull out every trick in your playbook if you want to become the very best. Manage your team and achieve greatness in Six-a-side!

Features:

Lead Your Team: Zuorghs love the game, but they don’t know how to play properly. They need somebody who can help them with their tactics, teach them new skills, and help them reach their full potential as football players. With your knowledge of the game and leadership skills you can help your team of Zourghs go from mediocre football players to some of the best the world has ever seen!

Competition: Practice is great, but where you’re really going to be able to put your team’s skills to the ultimate test is on the competitive front. Take part in matches with other players and their own teams of Zourghs from all across the world. Football is as universal of a game as it gets, and so is your competition.

Skill-based: With as little randomness as possible in every match and the inability to buy your way to success your skill as a manager is going to be what leads your team to victory, not chance. Every little decision you make can impact the flow of a game on a much greater scale so make sure you’re making the right choices for your team.

Hate Free Heroes

Hate Free Heroes is a buy-to-play RPG with an expanded online version called Hate Free Heroes Online, both of which can be purchased on Steam for PC or mobile. In Hate Free Heroes players are thrust into the role of an H.F.H agent and researcher dedicated to decreasing the rise of “Aggromites” in the city. Your main character is known as the “Professor”, a doctor and scientist rumored to have discovered the existence of an altered reality and the person who first noticed the rise of “Aggro” in the dream world. Without a course of action who knows what could happen? Do your part in helping the city by forming a team of able-bodied agents to investigate the “Aggro” growth and prevent it from getting out of control!

Features:

Assemble Your Team: You won’t be going on your journey alone, so don’t fret! As you complete missions you’ll assemble an entire team of loyal agents with the same goal as you. They even have their own histories and personalities unique to the team that you can get to know.

Skills: Every team member you acquire will have different skills and abilities that will come of great use to you on your adventures, but it is up to you to assemble them in a way that makes strategic sense.

Online Expansion: The online version of the game expands the Hate Free Heroes universe even further, allowing you even more choices and things to do. You can build your agency, upgrade your offices with equipment, hire agents to increase your resources, make medical advancements, research, complete missions, go out on the field and defeat aggromites, engage in cyber defense pvp, upgrade your character gear and even more!

MetaWorld

MetaWorld is a VR virtual world simulation game developed by HelloVR for PC with early access versions available for purchase on the game’s official website. In MetaWorld players can experience a 20,000 square mile, massively scaled open world with activities and adventures that can be experienced with others. Explore, create, make friends, run your virtual business, and make friends with your neighbors! Make your living space what you want it to be and craft a life for yourself like none other!

Features:

Activities: In MetaWorld you can go hunting, fishing, camping, snorkeling, sailing, go-karting and more! Realistic physics simulations ensure that you’re going to have a natural, fluid time doing tons of cool things with other players.

Simulation Creation: What makes MetaWorld even more of a lifelike experience is you can build and share your simulations. You can even monetize them in a marketplace system and sell them to other players!

Persistent World: The game world in MetaWorld is persistent in nature, truly adding to the feeling that the world is living and breathing. If you move an object or leave it somewhere else it will be there whether you’re logged in or not until either you or another person decides to move it again.