Yearly Archives: 2018

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn Coming to Retail This Spring

Coming this spring to Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC/Steam, Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn. The unstoppable Shaquille O’Neal returns in this beat ’em up, as he pummels his way through the hordes of hell and Hollywood in equal measures. Incredulous celebrity bosses and a host of weapons, combos, and events occur, as you channel Shaq’s alter egos, “Big Daddy O” and “Big Diesel” in epic battles in the successor to what could be the worst game ever and work to restore Shaq’s legacy.

“We know diehard fans have been waiting eagerly to experience the hard-hitting action of this new take on Shaq Fu, and we’re excited to team up with Wired Productions to get the game physically into the hands of players this spring,” said Saber CEO Matt Karch.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Available on Steam in March

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Fatshark Games has announced that the upcoming Warhammer: Vermintide 2 officially will launch on PC on March 8th, 2018. It’s almost time for the five heroes of Ubersreik to return and wade through the blood and gore of the Skaven, as well as their allies. The announcement was made on a livestream by the Fatshark team earlier today, which went under the name “Date Night”. A link to the stream can be found here.

Being passionate fans of the Warhammer IP, we’ve always wanted to create a Warhammer sequel that both stayed true to the beautifully dark atmosphere of the world but also brought new ideas and experiences for players. It’s been years of work but onMarch 8th we look forward to joining forces with players everywhere to defend Helmgart from evil“. Said Martin Wahlund, CEO of Fatshark.”

Extinction Releases Features Trailer

Iron Galaxy and Modus Games recently published a new trailer to show off what Extinction will offer players when it launches on April 10, 2018. It is a world at war with itself, and when a giant portal opens in Dolorum, it is up to Avil, the trainee in an ancient order of the Sentinels, to preserve humankind. The Sentinels skills have degraded over the years, and he is a trainee, yet. He will have to deal with the monstrous Ravenii, and save everyone. Known for their work on fighting games, Iron Galaxy has applied their expertise to the action-adventure genre. Avil has a wide variety of skills and attacks he can execute on the horde of minions trailing in the wake of each Ravenii. Players can cancel into almost any attack they want at any time, switching seamlessly between single strikes, sweeping area of effect (AOE) attacks, knocking enemies into the sky for an aerial combo, and more.

Plus it features no Microtransactions!

BREAK ARTS II Review

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Break Arts II - Pose

I WANT TO SEE YOU MEN STRIKE A POSE! LIIIIIIKE THIIIIIIS!

“You are an artist. Imagine.” is the tagline before a race, and honestly, I love it. It says a lot about this game that has pretty much no story. BREAK ARTS II by MercuryStudio is such an interesting racing game because unlike F-Zero where you pilot a little ship at breakneck speeds, you pilot a mobile suit/mecha at even faster speeds! There’s no “story” mode, there are just races, and customization, which is absolutely fine. You can create absolutely intricate, gorgeous mecha with dozens of parts, weapons, attachments, nodes, each with their own stats. You have a “Data Load” which is essentially how many parts/attachments you can put on the Mech, and as the Artist, it’s up to you to design the most efficient machine for your needs, whether you want it to be a killing machine, slow but murderous, a swift, sleek bullet that effortlessly glides around the tracks to make you a fortune, or maybe something in the middle.

Break Arts II - The Race is On

Must proceed swiftly.

They are all basically humanoid in design, but there are twenty-one different “default” models to customize. I do wish I could figure out how to build from the ground up, but it’s considerably less stressful to simply adjust a default model, add/remove parts, and change how it functions for the better or worse. This is the best part of the game. You can add bits (hovering pieces that defend you), do crazy things with your weapons (you have two, left and right), and each part has its own stats and uses. Thank goodness you can have more than one mecha! You won’t always use the same one for every race unless you are truly gifted at racing (I am not). I still don’t recommend doing it at all. As you increase in “Grade” (think rank), you unlock more parts, but you don’t spend your winnings on them. Your money or “Capital” is what you use to level up or increase your Grade, so your capital is EXP. That’s a novel concept, honestly. I get so tired of playing racing games and racing to afford new parts, but not having new parts means you can’t win.

Break Arts II - Custom

The KTRO-1, friends.

I do want to talk about painting the mecha real quick though. I love that you have several color options (Main Color, Sub Color, Joint Color, Accent Color, Light Color), I’d really love the option to make the color fade or change from the top to the bottom of the suit. But the ability to paint/color the mecha is fantastic, and they just look gorgeous. There’s a downside though (because of course there is), and you can only ever see your mech, until the victory screen. You’ll see the top three machines, in their custom poses (you can also change your pose, which is beautiful) but during the race, they appear as tiny diamonds or gems that you’re racing against. Now, a part of me understands that machines of this intricacy could really slow down even the mightiest of PCs, but it’s really disappointing that I can’t see all those awesome mecha passing me by, as they invariably do. And they do because I am dreadful at this game. That leads me to gameplay and the controls.

Break Arts II - Battle

It’s very pretty. But it can feel hard to figure out what’s going on.

The keyboard controls are horrendous. I hate them so very much. Though a patch is coming to add keyboard re-binding, the game does recommend strongly that you use a controller. So, I took out the ol’ PS4 controller to do some racing! That was much better, personally. You’re always moving forward, so you don’t have an acceleration button, but you do have breaks, and the ability to turn around if you need to. You have two attack buttons, but I almost never see the actual lasers being fired. Either they blend in, or you just can’t see them. I’d accept either as fact. You have a Turbo Boost button, and an Overdrive Mode, that makes the screen look sort of like you’re hacking the machine because it’s a ridiculous, extreme amount of speed. You have a meter to guide you to when you can use it. While you can go fast pretty much all the time, the key to winning, the real secret, is breaking management. You have to know when to break. If you even get an inch off the track you slow down, as you hit a slowing barrier. If you run off the track, you “crash”, and get put back on, so now you’re slow and behind everyone else. You have an HP bar too, so if you run out of HP you’ll wreck/crash. You have to learn the tracks, learn the places to boost, but also learn the places where you need to break, and when you simply need to lean into the turns.

Break Arts - Slow Down

Slow down, you’re goin’ much too fast!

The maps are gorgeous, and the tracks can get pretty insane. The goal is to get to the end, and one thing I noticed is that anytime you are in first place, you’re going to be shot a lot. I wound up building mech that was as defensive as possible and trying to guess where their shots were going to go. It became very frustrating to always just get shot, so I would boost/Overdrive as far into the lead as I can. Once you have the lead, you pretty much keep it, unless they can out Overdrive you, so once I got a nice lead, I stopped being shot. You have a pretty decent learning curve for each race, so take the time to play them in “Quick Race”, which is labeled as a way to get easy currency. Then you have “Time Attack” which is to see who is the fastest in the world. The “main” mode is BREAKARTS GRAND PRIX, and it is a series of grueling, challenging races to see who is the greatest in the world. You don’t need to win 1st place every time. “Win, Place, or Show to clear this mode”. But then there’s the Online Mode. Here’s where I had the largest amount of disappointment. You cannot “search” for a match. You can join a match on the right side, but they almost always seem to be password protected. There’s no online “Quick Match”, you wind up having to create your own lobby and wait for people to join. But there just weren’t enough people online. I managed a few online races, but not enough to justify a full review, which sincerely disappointed me. The races were competitive, and they were intense, but the most I’ve seen online in the American region was 9. That was at peak online time, too.

Break Arts II - Win

This will be a winner, when more people are playing.

This game is wonderful and well designed. The mech designs are gorgeous, there are tons of options for them, and the color palette is solid. There are only a few real downers, like not seeing the other mech (which does admittedly make sense as I said), and if there were just more people playing, it would have received an easy 3.5/4 out of 5. It’s got a lot to offer, and if the devs continue to add content to the game I think it could be a real hit. It’s challenging to start, enough so that it could put off some people, but I don’t think that will be a real issue. It’s a game you get better at by simply playing more and more of it. There are plenty of offline modes to play through, but I just wish there were more people playing it online to get more work done with it. That is the one thing it needs: A broader playerbase.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Review

by Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)

 

Dynasty Warriors has a long, 20 year history.  Originally released as a fighting game in the Playstation Era, the franchise evolved with the release of the Playstation 2 into the hack-and-slash beat-’em-up many people grew to love.  The ninth installment of the game has just launched, this time for the PS4, XBox One, and PC, and has drastically changed the way people have previously seen the franchise: Dynasty Warriors has gone open world.  Gone are the small stages, replacing it with an even more grand one — all of ancient China.  How does it fare against its predecessors, though?  I was provided a copy of the title to try and tell you just that.  But first, a little bit of knowledge about the franchise!

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

A Brief Introduction to History

Ancient China has a storied history.  No, literally, there are several stories about ancient China, considered literary classics, no less.  Romance of Three Kingdoms is one of them, and it’s the novel that the entire Dynasty Warriors franchise is based off of.  Set in the fall of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), the novel by Luo Guanzhong is what most would be considered historical fiction.  Dynasty Warriors is a lot like stepping back into time, only with tons more hack-and-slash and a lot less political intrigue.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

90 Different Officers (On the Wall)

Dynasty Warriors 9 offers the greatest number of playable characters in the series to date: a whopping 90.  Yet for the sheer amount of characters available, you start surprisingly humble, with a mere three.  Arguably, these three characters are some of the most important in the history of the period, but it also gives you a good scope of how much time you’ll be spending on unlocking everyone.  These 90 characters are spread across five different kingdoms — Shu, Wei, Wu, Jin, and the ubiquitous Others.

Every character has their own weapon, and this is where a lot of the complaints will pour in:  the movesets for each weapon type are the same, discounting a few key moves.  Personally, this doesn’t bother me as much, given the grand scope of the game, but there are plenty of people out there where this decision is a deal breaker.  That being said, I do feel every character is represented well and has their own uniqueness to bring to bear.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

Learning By Doing

To be perfectly honest, Dynasty Warriors 9 does assume players to be relatively familiar with the franchise, but there is a tutorial in place when you first start a game that will teach you the basics.  Movement, attacking, and combos are some of the main features covered, as well as the aspects that differ from previous installments – namely the map features.  Unlike previous games, Dynasty Warriors 9 is not broken up into stages, but is an open world experience where you can freely roam ancient China.

Control-wise, the game feels nice.  There does seem to be a bit of unresponsiveness in certain actions (sheathing/unsheathing weapons and calling for your horse come to mind), but overall everything responds as it should.  If you’re on the PC, however, you may be in for a  bit of a challenge.  The keyboard controls just aren’t good for a game of this nature, and actually getting a controller to work for the title is an exercise in-and-of itself.  You will need an XBox One or PS4 compatible controller, and even then, some controls still seem to not be recognized by the game.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

5,000 is the new 1,000

Besides being an open world experience, Dynasty Warriors 9 changes one other mechanic quite significantly:  combat.  In previous titles, one button would be used for basic attacks, another for power attacks.  Power attacks changed depending where on the normal attack string you used them.  Well, that is now gone, replaced with what’s called Flow attacks.  Depending on what actions you take, your character’s attacks change to match.  For example, basic attacks differ on an opponent that’s standing, knocked down, or launched into the air.  Players facilitate the change of these attacks utilizing special attacks bound by default to the right bumper.  These attacks can all be chained into some impressive combinations, especially when used with the new power attack, which functions as a guard break (in most cases).

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

In addition to these attacks is a special attack, unique to every character.  These attacks are usually very powerful, and have the character’s element attached to it.  They need a recharge before using again – basically attacking without being hit by enemies and chaining will build it back in no time.  Also unique to every character is their musou attack, which provides huge damage at the cost of needing to build it back up from nothing every time.  Players can also use jumps and dodges, and everyone’s equipped with a bow, which can be useful for a variety of scenarios.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

This Part is Important, Too

Shocking no one, maps show you where to go.  Dynasty Warrior 9’s map does that function and much more.  Being an open world game, there is a ton to see.  Cities dot the landscape and campsites litter the wilderness.  Watchtowers pepper the land as well, giving you a detailed look around their area.  There are sights to see all over the place, mountains to climb, and plenty to discover.  You’ll be spending plenty of time on the map screen as you play.

In addition to showing the land, the map gives plenty of other information such as the spheres of influence for your allies and enemies.  The larger and brighter the area, the more control over that spot the forces have.  It’s handy to glance at to see what you might be rushing your character into at any given time.  The map also displays the location of nearby clusters of items and rare treasures.  I’ll touch on why that’s important to know later, but needless to say, it’s fun seeing the sheer amount of things on the map.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

Metal Shells in Silk Spells

Every character in Dynasty Warriors 9 can be outfitted with a variety of gear.  While you can equip any weapon to any character, each one has a preferred weapon, and their special attacks will only work with that weapon.  In addition, character weapons can be further enhanced with gems, which provide a variety of effects such as stat boosts and elements such as lightning, fire, ice, and more.  Gems are integral to making your characters more powerful, so it’s important to match the gem to the style you’re going for.  Four accessories are also available, which have a range of options from simply increasing attack to the more exotic such as drawing all dropped items to you.  After you progress in the story, you can purchase a different horse and equip that, too.  Horses level up as you use them, increasing their speed, endurance, and knockback ability.  Finally, you have four slots for consumable items, for emergency healing or musou recovery while out in the field.

In addition to equipment progression, as you play, your character levels up.  Each level gives you three stat points to distribute, which better allows you to develop each character to your liking.  Wanting a character that zooms across the battlefield with little need for a horse?  Build  their speed!  A god of war that mows down enemies and doesn’t flinch from their attacks?  Attack and defense are your friend!  You can go the balanced approach too, and develop all of the stats equally to make sure you’re prepared for anything.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

My Kingdom for a Scroll

One new feature to Dynasty Warriors 9 versus the previous games in the series is the addition of crafting.  The feature is simple enough to understand: have the materials, craft the item, right?  Well, DW9 first requires you to have a complete set of scrolls for the items first; some items require up to three of the same scroll before you can begin.  Thankfully, once you’ve gained all of said scrolls, you can craft with impunity.  Weapons, accessories, gems, and consumables can all be crafted, and crafting is the source for a lot of the items you’ll need.  Spread all throughout the world are the raw materials you’ll need for crafting: plants, wood, ore, and gemstones.  Worried about needing to grind severely?  Clusters of every item appear on the map somewhere, and have a generous respawn rate to allow you quickly gather up what you need.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

Of course, only some items can be crafted wherever you want.  Consumables generally can be made on the fly, but for things like gems or weapons, you’re going to need to find a settlement with a blacksmith.  Also keep in mind, some scrolls are purchased through alternate means such as collectibles or hunting trophies (more on the latter in a bit), so you’ll likely need to do a bit of searching to find everything.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

A Lesson in Nesting

Trying to explain the story progression system in Dynasty Warriors 9 can easily get mired in similar verbiage.  The main story progresses in chapters.  Each kingdom has several chapters of progression.  Each chapter can have one or more main quests to complete.  These quests can range from defeating a boss to fleeing for your life without you or your allies being defeated.  The main quests also tend to have the best rewards, of course; most commonly they grant either gems or full scrolls.  Each main quest can also have several side quests attached to them, the completion of which can help you complete the main questline by lowering its difficulty level.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

Of course, things get further muddied by the fact these side missions can also have side missions attached to them, which help lower the difficulty of said main side missions!  Capturing main bases across the map also lowers the difficulty of the side missions nearby.  You’re also free to just rush in and beat the main quest of the chapter at any time, though you lose out on the additional rewards.  Let’s also not forget there are additional, optional quests available at bases you control, that while not story important, do provide your character more experience, gold, and sometimes gathered items.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

Go Where You Want; A Bear is There

Let’s face it: ancient China’s a large place.  Thankfully, there’s plenty to see and do as you’re traveling across the lands looking for foes to smite.  There are tons of landmarks to see and discover, each with its own challenge to find.  For example, early on you’re tasked with climbing Mount Song, utilizing your grappling hook to rise.  There are a couple of cleverly hidden treasure chests along the way, too.  The view from the top of the peak is absolutely amazing, and definitely worth experiencing, in my opinion.

With such a large world, it’d be difficult to get back and forth across the map with any form of haste.  Fear not, however, as there is a robust fast travel system available.  It’s also not limited to major locations either.  You discover waymarks as you go along, and each of those can be returned to.  There are also watchtowers where you can get a nice view of the surroundings you can return to at will.  Small villages, large settlements, forts, and walled cities all await your discovery.  Or you can wander the wilderness collecting ingredients, and hunt a large number of animals such as deer, wolves, bears, and even tigers.  In fact, the more you hunt, the more points you accumulate, and you can spend those points on some pretty good items back in towns.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshot

True Decorator of the Three Kingdoms

Dynasty Warriors 9 also grants a large number of Hideaways to purchase.  These hideaways are akin to player housing, and if you purchase or create furniture, they can be customized to provide a variety of effects.  By default, you can use your bed to heal and pass time, a dresser to change into informal clothes (but only in the house, alas), and a stove to cook meals that boost your combat capabilities.

Hideaways also allow you to invite allied officers to strengthen your bonds.  You will receive gifts from the officers you invite, and they will start visiting on their own if you build their affinity higher.  This can be a great way to earn even more resources.  Any good general should maintain a rapport with their officers, right?

 

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Final Verdict:  Great (4/5); Fair (2/5) for PC

Wait, two scores?  What gives?  Well, first of all, I really enjoyed Dynasty Warriors 9.  It’s not perfect, of course.  The AI is laughable – watching your allies crowd around you while you do all the work can be amusing.  The English voice acting is campy on a good day.  There’s some odd glitches here and there, which can be expected for a game of this magnitude.  So why the low score for PC versus the console versions?  The controls.  The game just is not designed with mouse and keyboard players in mind, which would be fine if it weren’t for the controller issues I touched on earlier.  There is also some significant framerate issues I’ve noticed, even playing on lower settings.  These issues absolutely mar what would otherwise be a good PC port.

The console versions?  They’re just fine.  Just keep in mind this is a departure from previous Dynasty Warriors titles in several ways.  As our editor-in-chief puts it, “some of us wanted to feel more connected to the actual history, scope, and scale of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”  It definitely provides that experience in spades.  Fans of the older styles, who played the game for the intense mashing action may find themselves displeased by this decision (and many are).  If you’ve played previous installments, and enjoyed the Empires expansions more than the regular game, though?  Dynasty Warriors 9 is right up your alley.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9 Screenshots

Deathmatch-in-the-Dark Shooter ‘At Sundown’ Coming This Spring

At Sundown News - Image

Versus Evil, in partnership with Mild Beast Games announced their top-down shoot ’em up, At Sundown is coming this Spring. Arriving on Playstation 4, Xbox  and Nintendo Switch as well as PC/Mac, At Sundown is a stealth-based arena shooter where four players compete in both online/local deathmatch games. Action takes place under the cover of darkness where players can only be spotted when they shoot, dash, or move into a light source. Players eager to take on their friends in total darkness can try out the demo for free by downloading it from the official At Sundown Steam page. The demo gives players access to 4 out of the total of 11 launch weapons on a selection of map levels set in the Garden and Mansion. The demo can be played with keyboard or controller, also providing players with the opportunity to play online in local matches or against bots.

Winner of the coveted ‘One to Watch’ Award at the 2016 BAFTA’s, At Sundown also won Microsoft’s 2016 Imagine Games award with its innovative game design, using darkness and sporadic light source effects to create a tense yet highly competitive multiplayer game for up to four players.