Lara Croft has some incredible new guerilla tactics in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It’s time to use mud like camouflage and get that CQC technique ready.
Yearly Archives: 2018
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker – Class Type Trailer
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker features a variety of ninja classes to put together your elite team: Attack, Ranged, Heal, and Defense classes await!
Valkyria Chronicles 4 Digital Preorders Now Available on All Platforms
Valkyria Chronicles 4 rolls out on September 25th on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam via PC. Digital pre-orders are available on all of these platforms, and also comes with a special bonus. This is the “A Captainless Squad” add-on mission. In this side mission, a group of Squad E soldiers find themselves on an impromptu reconnaissance operation after the squad’s beloved medic dog, Ragnarok goes missing. ance operation after the squad’s beloved medic dog, Ragnarok, goes missing. This mission will be available immediately for anyone who digitally pre-orders Valkyria Chronicles 4 when the full game launches on September 25 (after reaching Chapter 10 in the main story). ‘A Captainless Squad’ will also be available as a standalone add-on item for $4.99 in late October. The Playstation Store preorder will also land players an exclusive theme and avatar set.
The console versions of Valkyria Chronicles 4 also features a free demo for players to tackle. In the Valkyria Chronicles 4 Demo, available now as a free download on the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, and Nintendo Switch eShop, you’ll join Commander Claude Wallace and his comrades in Squad E as they begin the first steps of Operation Northern Cross. Play through the prologue and first two chapters of the game, as well as an exclusive bonus mission created for the demo. Demo save data, including items obtained, class levels, earned experience, and currency total will transfer over to the full game, so you can pick up right where you left off. Additionally, importing save data from the demo will net you an exclusive accessory for use in the full game.
Overcooked! 2 – Launch Trailer
It’s time to return to the kitchen for more multiplayer cooking chaos – Overcooked! 2 is live on Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Steam!
Retro Review: Shining Force (SEGA)
by Jason Parker (Ragachak)
I did not own a SEGA console as a child, and in fact, did not really have easy access to one until well into adulthood. That was when my roommate brought home the SEGA Dreamcast, which was a wonderful machine. The SEGA Genesis was a powerful machine in its own right, but I owned an NES, then SNES, then the Playstation, and each had incredible roleplaying games that I could not stop playing. But the SEGA had some pretty incredible RPGs that I missed out on for a very long time. In particular, the Shining series is one of the longest-running RPG series for the SEGA consoles that I can think of. In fact, we recently saw a remake of the latest Shining game, Shining Resonance. Shining Force was special; it was a turn-based strategy RPG, which we had not seen the likes of quite yet. In Japan it was less special, thanks to Fire Emblem being alive and well, on their second game in 1992, when Shining Force was released.
That in no way takes away from the impact Shining Force had though! It was able to compete with Fire Emblem and continue on to this day. In America, it was absolutely unique. We had a wealth of turn-based RPGs, and a few map-based games (but most of those were terrible. Godzilla 2? Rampart?) but nothing at all like Shining Force. The story was fairly simple: the evil Kane leads a force trying to open the Shining Path and awaken the Dark Dragon. Max, the hero of our story is a capable swordsman, but as his homeland is ravaged by the armies of Runefaust, he needs to set out and get justice and ultimately defeat Kane. He’ll group with an array of fantastic characters to do battle at his side. A great deal of the story is left out of the original English release, which is awful, but learning about it later makes up for it, I think. I personally chalk that up to the awful localization issues in the 90s. Most RPGs had disappointing/inaccurate localizations.
While the story lacks on the original release of the game, the actual gameplay does not in any way. In fact, one of the more incredible things about the game is how many different characters you can recruit along the way. Centaurs, a little alien, dwarves, elves, humans, you name it, you can probably recruit it. Each character class has their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s far more forgiving than its Fire Emblem counterpart. In Fire Emblem, a character who dies does not come back. They’re dead forever. In Final Fantasy Tactics, you have a period of time where you can save them. In Shining Force, if you should be bested in battle, you go back to the last town you visited (minus half of your gold) but you can resurrect them, a’la Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy. As I said, battles take place on a large map, with particular goals, typically beating up all of the villains.
Characters take it in turns, moving set amounts of distance, and performing actions such as attacking, casting spells, or using items on friends and foes. The level cap is 20, which is not all that unique in this time period (the average level cap seems to be 30 for many RPGs in this era), but at level 10 you have the opportunity to “Promote” a character to give them a new character class and bring new power to them. Now, some characters are just awful and useless, no matter how much grinding and equipment you give them, but thankfully in this information age, you can easily look up a guide on who you should be picking up. Back then, you just had to guess or figure it out through the process of elimination. That was half the challenge I imagine, and that’s certainly a good thing. You can’t just have all amazing badasses from all corners of the earth. Some people are just weak, though they desire to help, cannot do but so much.
Fear the Voice in the Dark: 4/5
However, Shining Force is technically not the first Shining game. Shining in the Darkness came out in 1991, and Shining Force is the prequel to Shining in the Darkness. It’s the first one I had the pleasure to play, so that’s where it all began for me. There was a remake of Shining Force also, but it had some contradictions to the original plot in its translation. But this was an RPG that had roughly 30 characters to recruit in a world where you had Final Fantasy 1 (4 characters), Dragon Warrior 1 (1 character), Dragon Warrior 2 (3 characters), and similar. You had unprecedented control over what your squad makeup was, but the balance was weak and like I said, there are some duds. But you don’t have to use them, and it does give some replay value in trying different main squads. Combat cutscenes were also lovely to see, seeing up-close shots of the two characters that were clashing. The gameplay is not super complex, but it is a solid tactics game with smooth gameplay and was a brilliant “start” to a long-standing franchise. It’s also gorgeous in both visual and audio quality, being a very bright, colorful game. Even to this day, it’s still worth a run and I would say it holds up with many of the greats of my youth. Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention is a wonderful title deserving of recognition. It’s also alive and well again! It’s featured in the latest SEGA Genesis collection, so I highly encourage getting it there if you don’t physically own a SEGA. It will give you Shining Force, Shining Force II, and Shining in the Darkness.
The Path of Motus
All his life, Motus, a goblin, has lived in the same village, at the foot of the Dark Forest. In The Path of Motus, you will control Motus on a journey through the Dark Forest, and through life. Along the way, you’ll discover answers to mysteries you didn’t know existed, and try to find out who Motus really is, and who he comes from
Features:
2D Platform Puzzler: Travel into and beyond the Dark Forest as Motus, as he grows from a six year old goblin into adulthood, by overcoming various puzzles. Will you become a bully, or will you take the high road?
Words Destroy: Words can destroy, but they can also counter. What path will you choose?
The Path of Motus – Launch Trailer
Trailer for the launch of Path of Motus from July of 2018, brought by indie developer MichaelArts.
MichaelArts
MichaelArts
Grimmwood Steam Key Giveaway
We’ve partnered with Headup Games to celebrate the launch of Grimmwood – They Come at Night!
You’re in a village in an ageless, mystical forest, together with up to 40 other strangers all of which are real, live players. Together you need to defend your village against the merciless monster hordes who unleash their wrath against your shelter every night. Use the daytime wisely to explore, gather resources, upgrade and repair. But to be able to do all that you have to eat, drink and rest, because every action in the game takes its toll on your stamina and sanity.
Play Grimmwood, now available on Steam.
We have a limited number of codes – 15 through our forum, and 5 through our official stream – to grant you the full copy of Grimmwood on Steam.
To enter, you have one of two options:
- Watch the MMOHutsLive stream this week! Stream times are around 10am-11am, Monday through Friday, and 4pm-6pm Pacific, Tuesday through Saturday. Keys will be given out by our streamers.
- Enter our official raffle thread, and tell us why you want to play Grimmwood! (A forum account is required in order to be eligible to win.) The forum raffle will be drawn on Friday, August 10 after 12pm Pacific.
The Bard’s Tale IV
inXile resurrects a classic franchise for PC, Mac and Linux with The Bard’s Tale IV. 30 years in the real world have passed, and 100 years in the land of Skara Brae, since The Bard’s Tale III. Now the land is in peril once more, and you must assemble a ragtag troupe of would-be heroes to save the world from its most dire adversary to date.
Features:
Build Your Team: Form a team of up to six adventurers and customize them to suit your style. Will you have a balanced party, or an offensive glass canon team? The choice is yours!
Deep Tactical Combat: Positioning, strategy, and attacking in coordinated efforts between your adventurers will be rewarded as you battle cultists, the undead, and goblin-kind.
Powerful Artifiacts: Finding these legendary weapons is only the first step to unlocking their full potential. Solve the riddles etched into them to wield their ultimate power.





