Yearly Archives: 2018

Sky Noon Closed Beta Starts This Week

Sky Noon CBT

Lunar Rooster announced today that starting this Thursday (April 19th) at 12 pm PDT, Sky Noon will be starting its Closed Beta phase of testing. For a chance at the CBT, players should join the Sky Noon Discord and authorize the key bot in the channel. In Sky Noon, players use various super-power compressed air weapons to send them flying out of their boot spurs! Grappling hooks and lassos must constantly be used to prevent players from falling off into the great blue sky. Combined with other items like steam-powered jetpacks, jump pads, and teleporters, cowboys need to be quick on the draw and light on their boots to succeed.

Shenmue I & II Are Coming Back to PS4/XB1/PC

SEGA is proud to announce that their most requested re-release of all time is finally coming to life: Shenmue I and Shenmue II on PS4/XBox One/PC in 2018! Though Shenmue III is still on the way, these masterpieces are coming back, to bring the story of retribution and danger to life again, as Ryo Hazuki sets out to avenge his father’s death and unravel the secrets behind the mysterious “Dragon Mirror”.

Shenmue I & II comes complete with the original feature set that defined modern gaming, including enthralling jujitsu combat, investigative sleuthing, and RPG elements in addition to memorable mini-games. Shenmue I & II is set within engrossing real-time open worlds that feel truly alive thanks to day-to-night cycles and weather changes, with a population of civilians who follow their own schedules. It will stay true to the original game, but with modernized features and fully scalable screen resolution, modern/classic control schemes, PC graphics options, an updated UI, and the Japanese and English voiceovers.

Feudal Alloy Alpha Impressions

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Feudal Alloy Demo

This image tells you everything you need to know.

Metroidvanias are easily my favorite platformer, and always will be. A Metroidvania is a style of platformer (usually 2D side-scrolling) where you play a character that explores a vast area and grows in power by leveling up from killing enemies and finding power-ups/money to purchase power-ups along the way. In some games (SOTN), those purchasable items are not the end-game content, some games they’re a little more important. But I love these games so very much, and when I was pitched the description of Feudal Alloy, I was onboard immediately. Feudal Alloy is a 2D Metroidvania that looks hand-painted. But what’s best of all, you play a robot piloted by a fish! Yes, a goldfish-powered robot, that swings a sword to explore this vast, beautiful world. I cannot stress enough how much fun this was for me.

Feudal Alloy - Explore

Not pictured: Several creepy robots, now deceased.

If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what possibly will. This Alpha was fairly short, up to about the first boss, but there’s a lot to learn in that hour or so timeframe. Less, if you’ve already completed a playthrough and know the secrets/skills. Feudal Alloy is different from practically every other Metroidvania I’ve ever played, and that’s certainly a good thing. I always say you shouldn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but the changes/strategy employed in Feudal Alloy made sense and were challenging without being frustrating. For the most part, anyway. Your health bar is associated with oil (you’re a robot), and your attacks fill up a heat gauge, which lowers over time though you can use some coolant to expedite that. Coolant is pretty plentiful, but in this phase of testing, oil definitely is not. I only found a few health drops, which I wound up needing to use sooner rather than later. But you can go back to the start and purchase oil, as well as bombs and armor upgrades.

Feudal Alloy - Overheat

You can very easily overheat -be careful.

With this in mind, you have to really pay attention to what you’re swinging at, because enemies hit hard, and you don’t want to just stand in range of being hit, swinging away. If you overheat (and you will), you can’t attack until the meter empties. As you kill enemies, you’ll level up (and thankfully it grants a full health restore) and can unlock new skills in one of three trees. For now, only one tree is open, all the way to the fourth skill (which is an awesome explosion move). I cannot stress enough how powerful that explosion is, and how useful it is for grinding. It uses most of your heat gauge, and you access it by crouching and hitting block. These aren’t screens filled with enemies, at least not yet, but with careful movement and planning, you can use it to even hit enemies in the air, because this move is accessible on ladders.

Feudal Alloy - Shop

Money was pretty hard to come by.

This has all the staples of a Metroidvania: Infuriating enemy patterns, lots of damage, mazes, backtracking, buying/finding items, and secret areas! It’s pretty easy to see the hidden areas for if you’re paying attention anyway. There are spots on the ceilings and walls that are boarded up, which you can break with a few sword swings. I don’t think they’re “too easy” to see, but they fit in nicely with the overall aesthetic. However, there is something I think this game needs more of and that’s Saving. I redid about 10-15 minutes of this demo a good ten times because I either wasn’t strong enough/accidentally took almost a full health bar of damage before the boss/couldn’t figure out how to get around the spike traps. Because spike traps, like in the old days, meant instant death. There’s a section before the boss where spike traps pop up in a certain rhythm or pattern. I still am not 100% sure how I got through it but died there oh so many times trying to.

Feudal Alloy - End

It wasn’t long, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Despite a lack of save spots (there are some, but this zone could probably use one more), I loved playing this. I’m going to keep a close eye on its development as well. A lot of the things that I’ve enjoyed about the genre are here. I’ve never cared about having to backtrack or loop around an area simply to progress because that’s a great way to level, farm, and find secrets. Plus, you aren’t playing as a Vampire Hunter, or a Bounty Hunter. You’re a fish. A fish that’s piloting a suit of mechanical armor. You can upgrade it, gain powers, hurl grenades, and explore an absolutely gorgeous world. It’s already shown itself to be challenging, and from what I read on Steam, other areas will use other color palettes/themes and should be exciting. I love this art style, so I’m excited to see what’s done with it. Sometimes it’s hard to see what items that drop are exp, and what’s just scrap though. When you kill an enemy, they explode into parts that you can walk over to acquire unless they’re usable items, then you have to hit down to get them. That’s fine, but sometimes I was could miss exp items because they blend in, or explode and bounce away. It’s got a ways to go yet, but Feudal Alloy has definitely captured my attention with smooth gameplay, delightful visuals, and a great gimmick.

A code was provided for this review.

 

Ash of Gods

Ash of Gods is a turn-based strategy RPG featuring a rogue-like visual novel narrative forcing you to make difficult decisions and accept the deaths that comes from them. Manage battles, resources, and relationships to come out alive in a game where everyone, including your main character, can die. Available for Windows, MAC, & Linux, and soon to IOS, Android, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, & Switch.

Features:

Ready to Duel: Experience the brilliant combination of classic role-playing tactics and collectible-card game elements.

Unenviable Leader: Your choices will save lives and end others.

Non-Existent Complacency: The battles are forever fresh and dynamically challenging with adapting A.I. in addition to the competitive multiplayer.

Funcom Reveals Conan Exiles’ Final Form for its Full Launch

“Live. Love. Burn with life. Slay and survive.” These are the wise words of the greatest barbarian, Conan, as he journeys to the open Exiled Lands. Conan Exiles‘ full launch will arrive on May 8th, and players on Xbox One, PLaystation4 and PC will all get to journey back to Hyborea. Conan Exiles has been in Early Access since January 31st, 2017, and is an open-world survival game set in the brutal, unforgiving lands of Conan the Barbarian. Starting with nothing, you must build a kingdom, dominate your enemies, and survive this savage world and somehow thrive.

“We wanted to make sure leaving Early Access is something more than just removing the Early Access label and saying we’re done,” says Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “Besides being the first time it’s available on PlayStation 4, the launch of Conan Exiles brings with it a massive expansion of the game world, game-changing new features such as monster invasions known as the purge and an entirely new action-oriented combat system, as well as many other major additions that truly makes this the ultimate vision of Conan Exiles. If you were ever on the fence, or you are just discovering it for the first time, May 8th is the time to join the adventure.”

Underworld Ascendant Teaser

The next project from Warren Spector (Ultima Underworld, Deus Ex) and Paul Neurath (Ultima Underworld, Thief) has a brand new teaser, as well as a dev diary to show some behind the scenes of Underworld Ascendant. Players will be returning to the fantasy realm of The Stygian Abyss, a realm rife with danger and intrigue in this Action RPG.

Nintendo Switch News – 4/9/18 – 4/13/18

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Quad Fighter K

Ah yes, it’s Friday the 13th, and I’m here with some Nintendo Switch news! Before I get into the stuff that actually came out, I did hear about a few fun games that are coming to this Switch before too long. First, we have a 4-player arcade shooter (done in a retro style) coming out this summer on the Switch. Aksys Games ‘Quad Fighter K” and players join the EDC (Earth Defense Corps) to launch a counter-attack, and with the help of Dr. Akemi, they plan to destroy the heart of the alien stronghold, and I think a game like this with co-op, it will work well with the Switch, being able to take it on the road with you and play with your friends. Now if it only had online co-op. . .It hearkens back to the days of my youth, with the art style and multi-player insane space shooter gameplay. I’m very excited for this one.

Death Road to Canada

Next is Death Road to Canada! The randomly generated, zombie-filled road trip is coming to the Playstation 4, Xbox One, but most importantly, the Nintendo Switch later this month! Slated for an April 25th release, players will journey from Florida to Ontario, enjoying the pixel art as they tackle an undead apocalypse. It’s over the top, hyper-violent and ridiculous, and can be played solo or two player local co-op, it will be live on the Switch with a 20% launch discount for the first two weeks (and I highly, highly recommend it). I could believe that Canada would be the only place free from the zombie apocalypse, but it’s a long and winding road from Florida. Ya’ll Mart, Muscle! Bomb!! Gym!!! are just two of the locales visited on the way, picking up weirdos along the way. Death Road to Canada seems like it would be right up my alley. You can count on some kind of coverage.

Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe (4/12/18): Streets of Red is a permadeath multiplayer horror beat ’em up, and that’s one hell of a mouthful. It has unique, interesting characters that may or may not feel awfully familiar to gamers of all ages. Easy to learn but hard to master, you have to balance using cash or saving it to come back to life; if you run out of cash, your save file gets deleted and you have to start all over. It’s action-packed, filled with ridiculous gore and clever creatures, and even features Jim Sterling as one of the bosses! It’s incredibly difficult but incredibly fun. I’m actually working on a playthrough for the PS4 version. However, our very own Colton reviewed it for the Switch, which you can see below (7.19):

Don’t Starve: Nintendo Switch Edition (4/12/18): I haven’t really played Don’t Starve, but pretty much everyone I know has, and seem to enjoy it quite a lot. I do have to say, I adore the art style for it, and it’s pretty fitting for a Friday the 13th news piece. Wilson the Gentleman Scientist is the character you play as, who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious world. You have to learn to exploit this environment to find your way back home. There’s also the new challenge, Reign of Giants, which expands the world with new characters, seasons, creatures and more. There’s also “Shipwrecked” which will offer a tropical archipelago to explore. Do whatever you must, but most importantly, Don’t Starve. (19.99)

Masters of Anima (4/10/18): The magical world of Spark awaits in Masters of Anima, where you learn to summon an army of magical Guardians, each offering their own powers, abilities, and features that make them useful in certain situations. Learning to master these Guardians, acquiring new powers and using them well will make you a Master of Anima. Up to 100 Guardians can be controlled, and you play as Otto, who is but an apprentice. He aims to be a Master, so he can finally get married to his betrothed, Ana (who was captured by Zahr and his Golems). Since you’re already out to save your girl, you may as well save the world while you’re at it. Masters of Anima has a beautiful art style and tactical gameplay that should fit nicely on the Nintendo Switch. (19.99)