Yearly Archives: 2018

RockShot

RockShot is a F2P online third-person shooter featuring asymmetrical multiplayer where players will defend or assault a military base. Gather your allies, customize your soldier, and charge into hectic battles! Available for Windows.

Features:

PTFO: Protect or attack a base at all costs! Only those able to prioritize the primary objective will win.

Tools of the Trade: Pick up a variety of weaponry and explosive ordinances to blow away the competition.

Staying Fresh: Check back often to jump into regularly rotating game modes.

Impulsion Will Test Players’ Minds and Reflexes with July Steam Launch

Playdius and Driving Force Games are proud to announce that their first-person platformer, Impulsion will hit Steam on July 19th, 2018. It’s almost time to explore station HMR-1, a station designed to calibrate robotic units, such as yourself. Your guide will be the sassy artificial intelligence, Archie, and players will have to navigate through an assortment of challenges to prove their worth.

Your weapon: time manipulation. Armed with two force field pistols, players can dual-wield their weapons, manipulating time, gravity, and speed to overcome obstacles and avoid traps in each environment. With sharp wits, fast reflexes, and imagination, players must show off their skills and find the right balance between bold moves and caution as they take on 25 levels of increasing difficulty.

Impulsion key features include:

  • Fast-paced platformer in first-person experience!
  • Challenging levels providing hours of gameplay
  • Story Mode with an intriguing science-fiction story filled with funny dialogues
  • Competitive Mode with Steam leaderboards to challenge the world… and your friends
  • Speed-run Mode with an in-game timer for players looking for the hardest of challenges!

Defy The Odds and Stop a Devastating War in JRPG Noahmund

Noahmund is a gorgeous JRPG coming to Steam soon from Span’s Estudio Abrego, and will soon be heading west. Inspired by Japanese classics Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics, Noahmund features node-based exploration, an atmospheric soundtrack and a chess-like challenge that blends real-time action with a tactical grid. In Noahmund, the land of Feros is at war, and Galina Angstroud is the only one willing to seek out Salaber’s most powerful weapon, which was deployed with deadly results. Feros burns and Galina begins a journey for truth and salvation, accompanied by a loyal guardian, Berani Valenti. The war between the North and South needs to end.

Borrowing from classic strategy RPGs, Noahmund’s exploration and battle systems feature highly detailed 3D characters and hand-drawn environments. A tactical grid system makes it straightforward for players to mount frontal attacks, execute flanking maneuvers, strike from a distance, and even set up traps! However, decisions must be made quickly: Combat takes place in real time, so one wrong move can easily turn the tide of battle.

Sky Noon: Streaming Highlights

Named one of the Best Indie Games at Pax East 2018, Sky Noon takes place in a Wild West amongst the clouds, where powerful cartels try to control the most precious resource of all: Water. Sky Noon will be launching into Early Access on Steam on June 14th for the suggested retail price of 14.99. There are no health meters, just air-powered weapons and a lot of grit.

Underworld Ascendant: E3 Trailer

Underworld Ascendant will be coming as the first major title from OtherSide Entertainment, founded by industry legends Paul Neurath (Ultima Underworld, Thief) and Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey). Today we have a sneak peek at the return to the Stygian Abyss, which is coming this September. It will also be playable at E3 for attendees who drop by the Alienware booth #647) from June 12-14th.

Nintendo Switch News -Week of 6/1/18

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Good morning, Internet! June is here, and the summer is well and truly upon us. We have a kind of light news load this morning, but we aren’t entirely without releases, so don’t worry about that. For example, next week (June 7th), a Retro Shoot ’em Up, ‘Iro Hero’ will be coming to the Switch, which merges the old pixel style of the arcade classics with more modern gameplay mechanics. Set in the year 2306, a century after humans learned to harness their energy to produce electricity. However, foul enterprises have turned humans into little more than batteries, ala The Matrix. Following the death of our hero’s mother, a teen named Iro learns that he may save all of mankind after all. It features 9 levels, 10 types of enemies, and 10 final bosses, much like the games of old with their insane boss rushes. It looks like it’s going to be incredibly fun! I love games like this.

Next week will also feature a game that nobody ever thought would happen – the Shaq Fu sequel, Shaq Fu – A Legend Reborn. The original fighter was critically panned for an absolute mountain of reasons, but Shaq Fu – A Legend Reborn looks like a wild, fun side-scrolling beat ’em up. Launching on June 5th, it promises to settle the score with the original game, with Shaq himself battling through the hordes of Hell and Hollywood alike, dropping sick combos, and battling outlandish celebrity bosses. He also wields cool weapons like katana, shuriken and baseball bats, as well as channeling Shaq’s alter egos: Big Daddy O and Big Diesel in unforgettable battles. I was leery, but I have to say that I’m onboard the hype train now. Let’s see what Shaq brings to the fight this time.

Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Special Edition (May 29th): The Harvest Moon franchise from Natsume is really a wonderful thing. It’s so strange to be so enthralled by a game where you’re basically doing chores and finding love, but here it is. I absolutely loathe outdoor work, especially in the hot sun, but in Harvest Moon, it just feels rewarding and worth it. Your goal is to come to this new town, help rebuild it, fix their lighthouse, and find friendship and love. Come on, that’s wonderful. The same stuff you remember is here, growing crops, tending livestock, gathering up materials for repairs, it’s all here. Help save this town in Harvest Moon! (39.99)

West of Loathing (May 31st): I. Absolutely. Love. West of Loathing. I reviewed it not too long ago and was a huge fan of Kingdom of Loathing on top of that. It’s a vast open wild western world, with ridiculous stick figures, crazy characters and classes, skills, clever wordplay and gags around literally every corner (I checked), and it’s a delightful take on the RPG franchise. Taking nothing seriously and pulling no punches, it’s amazing fun whether you’re a Snake Oiler, Beanmancer, or Cowpuncher. All of your choices (probably) matter, and it has an absolute wealth of replay value, from side quests, trying new things, making new decisions, and discovering dark bean magics. Plus it’s only 11 meat (or whatever currency you use. Why you wouldn’t use “Meat” I dunno). (11.00)

Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Edition (May 29th): Are you kidding me? Do I even have to say why this is incredible? I posted about it earlier in the week but it bears repeating: Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection has 12 arcade-perfect iterations of the best of the franchise. Plus, SF3: Third Strike, SF Alpha 3, Super SF II Turbo, and SF 2: Hyper Fighting all have online functionality. Do you have a favorite Street Fighter game from your youth? It’s here, exactly as you remember it from the arcade, plus the online compatible games also have training modes and other useful quality-of-life additions to help you get ready for the big fight feel you’ll experience online. If that’s not worth picking up, I frankly can’t imagine what would. (39.99)

 

 

Sky Noon Press Preview

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Reach for the sky, boy!

I’m not the best at Shooters or Brawlers, but somewhere, not so deep down, I enjoy them for those moments of adrenaline, and the brief but outstanding displays of skill (or luck, call it how you see it). One of the real downsides to many shooters is being one-shot, despite swearing you had a full health bar: There’s no way that bullshit AK-47 was able to drop you in one or two bullets, but it happened and there’s nothing you can do to change that. Maybe, maybe I’m just projecting here. Anyway, Sky Noon gets all of that stuff right in a spectacular, high-speed fashion with a secret weapon: Grappling Hooks.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to pretend I have some skills at Sky Noon (despite never playing it before) with a few members of their team: Shannon McPherson (PR Coordinator), Ted Lange (Executive Producer, who I’m so sick of being killed by), Ben Willemssen (Producer), Dan DeMattei (Marketing Director) and Brandon Wallace (Marketing Manager). After this play session, I have to say with all honesty that I love this game.

The premise behind Sky Noon is that the Law and the Outlaws are battling for dominance and supremacy over several match types. The catch is that there are no health bars. Instead you use your lasso and weapons to blow people off the map with air ammunition. Depending on your aim with the grappling hook and how strong of a weapon hit you, simply being knocked away may mean nothing. I’ve landed some incredible split-second grapples to hook me right back, swinging from the bottom of the map to the top, only to secure a kill (by that, I obviously mean “steal” a kill).

Sky Noon features several types of game modes in the Early Access, and I really think there’s something for everyone. There’s even a nice, complicated Payload Mode for fans of that. Gameplay is very simple though: You spawn in with a weapon, from a Machine Pistol, Revolver, Shotgun or something akin to a Rocket Launcher, and a special item. These range from Booster (Dash forward/down quickly), Rocket Boots (which fly you around), landmines, teleporters (teleports you to where it lands), dynamite, and more.

It’s important to note that Cart Mode will only use Bridge, Mesa, and Whirlwind maps. Team Elimination, however, uses Saloon, Towers, Homestead and High Town. Team Elimination (Team Deathmatch) is straightforward: the most kills at the end of the period wins. In Payload, you shoot the payload to move it and can change the railroad tracks to move it back towards your side. I just shoot the other team and let my teammates worry about that. Then you have Free-For-All, which speaks for itself. It’s whoever has the most kills at the end. If it ends in a tie, the match goes on till there’s a winner. I was surprised at King of the Hill because these maps are actually very small. They don’t feel small with all the highs and lows, but they definitely are compact. Each team needs to hold the “point”, and once it’s claimed it’ll randomly move, and it’s up to you to figure out where. First to five captures wins.

I felt like the Machine Pistol/Revolver were pretty weak, but when you pair them with stuff like Landmines/Dynamite, there’s still a lot of potential. Personally, my favorite weapon was the Shotgun, because it launches nice and far. You can also jump down at people and blast them in the air further away, so situational awareness is so very important. The maps all had lots of places to swing to, underneath, and around to make insane plays and guarantee that there is never a dull moment. If you run out of ammo, you can go find an ammo box (or come up with a new gun), or swap your special item out if what you had isn’t doing you any favors (in the blue crate, weapons are red crates).

I have not had this much fun in a shooter. . . ever, honestly. Most shooters are super-serious, grimdark affairs where you need to blast people into bits, with tons of guns, most of which aren’t useful at all. Everything in Sky Noon is useful in the right situation, and even when I was absolutely getting blasted (which was admittedly, most of the time), I still had fun! That’s what matters, and Sky Noon gets back to what matters in an online game: Fun. It could be competitive and have a real interesting ladder to it, but the standard online casual matches have been adrenaline rushes from start to end. It’s very easy to see what you can grapple onto/what you can shoot (the reticle turns green), which is an absolute blessing. There will be a leveling/customization system implemented, but not for the Early Access phase of the game. That will come in later. During the Early Access, you just have access to the cool cosmetic designs, which all neatly match the Wild West theme of the game.

Sky Noon is charming, it’s brightly colored, it doesn’t bother with character classes or complicated systems; it’s just fun, technical, high-octane FPS Brawling at its absolute finest. I cannot wait for more of this game. The only negative I ever had was how confusing Payload was. The rest of it is charming, exciting and if you’ll pardon the expression, a blast. With jetpacks, grappling hooks, bombs and guns, it has all I need to have a good time.